Good Evening! This week has been very busy. Finally finished my Christmas shopping, but had to do it in-between several big meetings at work. Somewhere in between my girls and I found the time to make a whole bunch of Christmas candies too… for some reason I find when I am not eating sugar (I haven't had any in about 5 months), I feel like making more sweets. I haven't figured that out, but my family doesn't argue.

Weigh in yesterday had me at 277.2 pounds. My first major goal is 275, I'm SO close. Also a nice NSV, wearing a pair of jeans out of my closet that I haven't been able to wear in a LONG time, so I am feeling pretty good about that too!

Today is my youngest daughter's eleventh birthday. I'm stuck at work, but we'll be celebrating on Christmas eve after our big Christmas dinner. She's very excited. I'm dreading the fact that I have to acknowledge that my BABY is ELEVEN.

Scotsgal - After reading all of your info about Macros and learning about your body, it makes me wonder if maybe I need to re-examine what I'm doing and maybe look at doing more of the low carb/no carb diet myself. I've tried them in the past, but I'm not sure how much of a chance I actually gave it. Maybe I'll try it again after the new year. More research is in order, for sure.

Phae - Doesn't surprise me that the doctor would say just cut calories, but I can say without a doubt that cutting calories alone doesn't work for me. I'm sure a lot of people here would say the same thing. You're right, he's probably never had a weight or hormone issue in his life. It is crazy how little they actually know sometimes.

Its Christmas Eve,Eve

So I have been forgetting to eat a little the last few days, yesterday I only had 1125 calories and today I got a call from my brother in Law asking me to look after my nephew. I then got up and had breakfast, ran around after a 1 year old as he through lego bricks everywhere, and tied the dog up in tinsel. I just didn't have breakfast, I had nothing to eat until 7pm tonight where I had to pick up a Chinese takeout and share it with mum. It was just one meal, so it was half of the usual takeout portion, so still most likely under calories today.

Living2Lose I go through stages of trial and error with my macros. I was originally aiming for high protein and low carbs for 1350 calories per day. But I would notice that come 3pm I would be really hungry after my high protein lunch. After 2 days of having more carbs than usual, I dropped weight for the first time in a few weeks because I could be low calorie that way. Do I aim for Low calorie or correct macros?? . So I think I need to work out more (starting the gym in Jan), so that I can up my carbs a little more, and in turn up my calories to maybe 1500. Its a complete guessing game, but I have to just keep trying to work it out for my body. The more I lose, the more I will need to keep changing it up I think. I am always reading up and learning about what I should be doing next. Is 150 your goal?

2 weeks on the slipper slope backwards saw a 3.3 pounds gain!
the mind boggles at how this can happen so fast
am hoping water retention for some as have not been drinking enough of late as well as eating crap


need to get back on track fast or this will not be pretty

on a positive side have managed 20,000 plus steps yesterday
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/images/smiles/angry.gif

must get out and about is after 9 am still not dressed have stuff to do today and want to go for a big walk too

Phae Yes I hit my 279.9!! But then Xmas happened and I am as of this morning 284.7 .
My sister used a lot of salt on xmas dinner, I have also eaten quite a bit of chocolate and cheese . Today I went for a nice long long walk which very much blew the cobwebs away. So I am not getting caught up on the gain, it will come back down eventually.

Karencat Well done on the 20,000 steps!! thats awesome!

Me Well its been a 4.8lb gain over xmas which is just Blurgh, but It will go quickly I can imagine as soon as I get back in gear. Toady was a good day up until dinner there, which resulted in a bbq burger, fries, soda and ice cream, but tomorrow will be better. I have a few dolla to get in some dinners until mum gets paid at the end of the week, so hopefully I am able to get in some good workouts and step burns.

Living2close: Yay! Happy birthday to your daughter. Its amazing how fast they grow up. My daughter is turning 2 in February and i have not idea where all the time went. I swear I was just pregnant with her lol

Karen: Congrats on your steps. Don't think about the negative just thing about the positive. At least that's what keeps me going.

Phae: Still haven't hit my goal. I bounced back up to 307...I blame all the cheese on Christmas. That's okay. I still have a few more days. Oh gosh your already planning your goals for next year. I really need to starting thinking about that. I want to make sure they are realistic so I don't get discouraged.

Scotsgal: Are you setting up a google document for us? I think it would be a lot of fun for all of us to see our progress together. Especially because it seems like everyone is doing really well

I'm excited to have a day off from work. My husband and I are planning a dinner date..we haven't had one of those in a while and i'm really excited about it. Then back to work for New Years Eve. Its amazing how crazy people get during my shift (3rd shift at a hotel). Hopefully I have some fun stories to tell haha

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday. Mine was busy, but good. We had Christmas dinner on Christmas eve, as I had to work on Christmas Day (I work in a 24 hour alarm monitoring center) and wasn't able to spend the afternoon with my family. Since I had to work, we had to get up VERY early to open gifts with our three girls. They got everything that they were hoping to get and had a blast, so the day was a success.

We even threw in some fitness-type toys, like pogo sticks, new bicycles and roller-blades, to help our girls get a little more physical activity. My girls aren't overweight, but starting some good healthy habits while they're still young definitely can't hurt, right? Plus I figure that they can use them and I can go for a walk with them.

My weigh-in day was Yesterday and I was at 272.8, which put me under my first goal of 275, so I am happy about that. I have also been walking again on my lunch break at work. I have been trying to walk at least half a mile, but I do the last 5 minutes at a significant incline, since I only have time for .5 mile. It isn't much, but it is at least a start. I keep telling myself that I need to start going to the gym after work and lifting weights, but I don't get off work until 12:30AM and I'm so tired by then… after a 10.5 hour day, I have a lot of trouble convincing myself to do it. Maybe once we get our google document set up and I see our goals on paper, I will be better at challenging myself and forcing myself to do it.

Ruby - 2 is such a fun age! I miss my girls being so little, but there is something to be said about them being old enough to get their own bowl of cereal in the morning too! Lol.

Hello Everyone Tomorrow is what we Scots call Hogmany (Hog-Man-ay), which is basically New Years Eve but with a lot more alcohol , We also have a public holiday on the 1st and 2nd unlike the rest of the UK. Must be because they know we will have a 2 day hangover . Not for me this year though, I will be very good for the sake of my healthy eating, there are plenty more NYE parties to attend once I hit my goal weight.

I have also set up the new Challenge that many of you requested, It will be called "The Big Spring Slim Down" and will start on the 2nd of January, I will post it up and explain the rules about it all asap. I hope that we get to see a boost in motivation and some great pounds lost . I have also added up a part that will allow for inches to be taken if you fancy adding that in also . The challenge will end the last week of February which traditionally would of been the last week of "winter" but yano, global change and all that, apparently the first day of spring next year is the 20th .
But it will give us a nice point to make a new one for a Summer Challenge .

I will work on trying to make badges for winners, which will be given out based on % lost and not lbs lost overall, as it may be unfair due to those like me who are no longer a 300+ gal.

Hope all is well..... This morning I came down a little in weight after the xmas add on. I am 283.5 which makes me now only 3.6lbs up. I have been fairly good today and have hit 6,000 steps, tomorrow I will be aiming to hit the 10,000 as I need to do some shopping. I have bought food shopping and I am ready for the week ahead

I just wanted to pop in and say i hit my goal for the new years. I wanted to be under 300 for the new year and as of yesterday I am 299! Celebration! Now I have to finish my baking and head to work. I decided to make sugar cookie bars and buffalo chicken dip for my fellow 3rd shifters. I did sneak a bit but hey...its a celebration! Happy New Year everyone

Wow congrats on a job well done! keep it going!!

Thanks!

So for my Fun New Years Night on 3rd shift... We had a manager steal a bottle of liquor from our bar (which is silly because everyone got a free bottle of champagne)

One 3rd shifter got off work at 6am and proceeded to drink his whole bottle of champagne in the lobby in 20 minutes.

A repeat guest got into a domestic dispute with his wife...so his 15 year old son punched him. Huge gash on forehead.

Plus we had major computer issues so I couldnt switch the day over. Which means we were only taking cash payments until noon the next day. Eeek.

Other than that it was fun. Great dance music. Great co-workers. Not a bad way to end the year. I hope everyone enjoyed there night as well!

Morning everyone!

Ruby well done on that goal!

Phae Its a great chance to stay accountable if you aren't competitive. I don't really do it for the win to be fair I also use it to kind of help encourage others to stay on track if possible.

It would be great to see a nice boost in motivation, we have all had our ups and down over the last year, so lets hope for the only downs to be the scale .

Me Well It was my grans 75th birthday yesterday and I had cake, and a bit of steak pie (which was soooo amazing). I was way over my calories yesterday, but I am trying to be super good today to even it off. I am waiting on an email from the gym with a code so that I can buy a joint membership for me and my mum