Good morning, ladies. I had a good week; down almost 3 pounds from last Friday, which came as a huge surprise! It seems a little fast, especially given my desire to lose just 1 pound a week, but I'll take it! Now to start working on hitting 164.8 for next Friday...

wow, great job newleaf!!! Funny how we don't have that much direct control over what the scale says even when it's a good/bigger change too!

still no scale movement for me, but stayed on plan again yesterday. And a NSV - the pants I've been trying on as a benchmark buttoned and zipped! Still too snug in the waist to wear for real, but definitely a major difference from when I first tried them on and couldn't get them anything close to buttoned. So I know I'm making progress, and the scale will show that at some point.

PeanutsMom, that's great about the pants benchmark!! You have come a long way, with your 22 pounds lost! I'm sure the scale will move for you soon... don't get discouraged...

At the end of last summer I bought a pair of shorts for approx. $3 at Kohls that were skin tight (but zip & button). I tried them on last night, and they are still no where near fitting, probably because I weigh the same now as I did when I bought them - LOL! But anyway, I've decided that I will wear them on the day we fly to Seattle in July; they will either fit or be too baggy, I'm sure of it! The funny thing is that there isn't even anything special or cute about them, in fact, they may even be ugly since they are a lemony yellow. But it doesn't matter; I'm going to wear them!

I don't know how to do the fancy computer stuff but I'm in as far as hoping to lose 5 lbs. That's a nice way to break down the weight loss goals into manageable steps!

Is anyone thinking of rewarding themselves with something after reaching the goal? I'm trying to bribe myself some, LOL. I figure I will buy a new top maybe or something nice like that when I reach the 5 lb. goal. Or maybe a book I'd like to read. Haven't decided yet. Anyway I'm in for the challenge! :)

P.S. Newleaf, you are doing great! You are my inspiration right now! :) You know, when I lose weight, I've noticed the scale bounces around a lot too. My body will hang on to the weight for weeks then all of a sudden there is a woosh and I'm 3 lbs. lighter.

Hi, HealthierLori and welcome!! Well, thank you so much for your compliment!! That was really sweet... Good luck with your 5 pounds, and feel free to ask a lot of questions and to post along the way!

As for the "fancy computer stuff" I'm guessing you mean the weightloss ticker? You actually need to have been a member for a few weeks and have made some minimum number of posts. Once you reach those milestones, you can add the tickers through your "User CP" (I'm not sure what CP stands for, but there's a link on the top of every page, up at the left, that says User CP, and it's under there. That's where you can update your current weight, also, that shows up under your name.

lmao at the yellow shorts!

and hello Lori!! I haven't planned a reward for 5 lbs, I think I have too many 5 lb losses to go to reward myself for all of them! lol! I am really looking forward to getting to 10% lost, so that is really my big motivation right now. I'm sure I'll want to treat myself to other things as a reward down the road, though.

Got in 30+ minutes on the Wii tonight, so I've got my 4 points again, yay! I know that isn't going to keep me motivated forever if the scale doesn't start moving again, but for now, it's working.

I would LOVE to lose 5 pounds this month but I don't know if I can. I have been right at 132 for several months now and can't seem to get any lower. I lost the first few pounds over the summer very easily, when I began watching my calories and running for exercise.

I'm running more than ever now, and I find it makes me VERY hungry! Does anyone find they run into this problem the more you exercise? It is apparently keeping me from losing the last 12 lbs. that I'd like to get rid of, because I just want to eat more! I decided to completely eliminate sugar, HFCS, and refined flour from my diet and see if that helps. I am going to try to rely more on fresh fruits and veggies for my carbs and less on breads and pasta. I don't consume all that much sugar and white flour, but maybe if I cut it out completely it will help? I can only hope!

Hi, Jasmine, that sounds like a good plan. It's what I'm trying to do too. Please be patient with your body. You are already at a very healthy weight, it looks like, and your body might be trying to hang on to what little fat it has for survival purposes. But cutting out the empty calories that aren't good for us, is never a bad idea I think.

PeanutsMom, good for you for exercising consistently! That's great! Boy I'd love to get a Wii system and try it out, it sounds like so much fun! Maybe for my birthday this summer. :)

I lost two pounds overnight. I have no idea why, I didn't starve myself yesterday or anything unusual. I really just think this first couple of weeks while I am starting my diet, I am losing a lot of water weight that my body was hanging on to. So far I've lost 8 pounds, so I'm happy with that so far. I know I won't continue to lose anywhere near this rate, but it's just the water weight coming off and that's normal for me. After this initial loss, I will probably lose 1/2 to 1 pound per week. And I'm very happy with that idea.

Hey Jasmine! How many calories are you consuming each day? I found out the hard way that I wasn't eating enough calories for my activity level and it puts me into "starvation mode" so that I can't lose weight. It's hard to get out of the mindset of exercising more and eating less! When I really worked at it though I did find I got hungrier as my metabolism picked up, and I started losing again. Unfortunately I haven't stuck to it and hit another plateau : )

Thank you so much for your help.

I haven't really been counting calories at all - I just try to keep my portion sizes under control and avoid "fake" foods. But here are what I've eaten the last couple of days (I drink water with all my meals):

Fri
Breakfast - 1 whole-wheat bagel with natural peanut butter; 1/2 grapefruit; black coffee
Lunch - Whole-wheat tortilla with tuna salad (made w/tuna, olive oil, chopped onion & celery) and a little cheddar cheese; 1/2 grapefruit
Snack - apple
Dinner - 1 fish filet drizzled with a little basil-cream sauce (homemade); a huge side of steamed broccoli

Sat
Breakfast - 1 whole-wheat bagel with cream cheese; 1 orange; black coffee
Lunch - very late lunch, we ate out at a family-style Italian restaurant. I had lemon chicken (no breading) with artichokes & pine nuts, and dark green salad with olive oil & bleu cheese crumbles. Skipped the bread. I was sooo hungry because (1) we ate late, and (2) I ran before we went to lunch, showered, drove to restaurant and waited for our food, so yeah, by the time we were served I was "starving". Ended up eating 2 servings of salad and 1 1/2 chicken breasts!
Dinner - since lunch was so late, I just had a handful of almonds and a glass of merlot. Besides, considering how much I ate at lunch, it was almost like two meals!

Okay, so my Friday post is very late!! Long week at work and a lot of family obligations yesterday.

Friday weight: 227.8

Now for the big challenge: Monday's weigh in. I don't have a hard time taking the weight off I have a problem keeping it off. Life very stressful right now (relationship) and I go to the food for comfort.

More on Monday.

Count me in. I'm only going for 2 lbs by the end of the month, though. The last couple weeks I've made some big diet and exercise changes, and I'd like those to sink in before I go for the gusto. Plus, I did a routine health screening for the G2010 "Loving the skin I'm in" challenge, and got some not-so-nice news. I'm still trying to get my head around the how to tackle it all.

1/17: SW 212
1/24: GW 211 Actual weight: 209 How'd that happen?
1/31: GW 210 Actual final weight: 208.2 Happy feet!

Losing80, I'm sorry that you got some bad news about your health. The good thing is that you are actively doing something about it!

One pound a week is my goal, too. Slow and steady, nothing too radical. I wish you the best of luck with this!

finally had the scale more this morning, but I had to create a new ticker for this challenge because it had been so long, I forgot the password for the one I had before! lol!


January 5 pound challenge
http://www.3fatchicks.net/img/bar-ch.../lb/0/5/2/.png