Good morning folks! Scale is creeping up again and I'm not sure why because I ate clean yesterday..thinking I'm bloated for some reason....
Teach two zumba classes today and then Im "off" the rest of the weekend...thank goodness..I'm feeling so tired lately.......

Everyone have a great day!!! :)

I'm REALLY struggling this week. Two problems:

1) Work is EXTREMELY slow. I am so bored. I'm a financial analyst, so I'm pretty much at my desk all day, working on spreadsheets. When it's busy I don't mind it but I'm inventing things to do now that budget sdeason is done. I sit there and think about food. By the time I come home(I leave at 4:30), I've usually eaten 1000-1200 calories.

2) Night eating. Some nights I do OK - I have a small snack and then go to the gym and don't want to eat once I get home. But other nights - yikes! I always give myself Friday nights off from the gym. DH and our son and I hang out at home and watch movies or play games, or sometimes I take DS to family swim. I'm estimating I ate about 1000 calories last night. That's really not hard to do! A slice of pizza, a glass of wine, a cup of light ice cream, and some miscellaneous stuff - bam. I have got to get this under control.

Today is going well so far - went to spin, did my grocery shopping - got lots of great stuff. At 675 calories so far. Dinner will probably be salmon and veggies.

Zumba, glad you're getting a break. Weather is looking better here for tomorrow, and Monday will be rainy and in the high 50's - can't wait til all this dirty snow washes away!

Izza, you are doing so great moving toward your goal!

time, fantastic loss - wow!

Natamars, one slice of pizza is not the end of the world,,,the ice cream is probably what sent you over the edge. If that was your only splurge night for the week I wouldn't sweat it....in fact my favorite celebrity trainer Jackie Warner says when we get to out goal weight we should have a cheat day or a cheat meal just to feel sane. I am so not close to being able to do that though.

I had a pretty good day today......My husband made whole wheat pasta, it looked great but I refrained. had some leftover chicken and zucchini ribbons instead......

I'm getting kind of bored with the low carb options so I'll be looking up recipes and doing some food shopping tomorrow. Monday the kids are back in school and I am back to the GRIND!

natamars - :hug: I'm sorry you're struggling, and I feel your pain. I hope you're feeling better.

zumba - can you tell me about the zucchini ribbons? I too am becoming a little bored with low-carb, which has resulted in some cheats. :/

Bama - still starting the C25k this Tuesday? I'm getting excited...

The weekend is going much better. Stuck to 1395 calories and did an hour of Spin. And I ran my 5K on the treadmill today! It felt so good. I actually ran a little more, because I increased my speed to 4.7 for the last 10 minutes or so. Now I can focus on increasing my speed, and trying to start running outside now that most of the dirty snowbanks have melted! I've only had 555 calories so far today, so I should have no trouble staying in my range.

zumba, let me know what you come up with for lower-carb. I get bored with it easily too. I don't eat a lot of meat , so I'd be particularly interested in vegetarian options.

Can you believe we only have a little over 2 weeks left in this challenge? Yikes!

Natamars.....glad you are doing better.

Dcap: the zuchini ribbons are simply really thin thin slices of zuchini then fried or boiled....if you put some butter on them it tastes pretty well...my husband made them to put on pasta...obviously I couldn't have the pasta.
I'm going to look up some low carb sites and get ideas....I also have an atkins book (or two) laying around that have recipes in them.

In order to make low carb a lifestyle I simply have to get used to eating this way......bottom line. Nothing else works for me...and the more people I talk to in and OUT of the fitness industry the more the bottom line seems to be the same...EAT CLEAN...LESS CARBS. Low fat diets just don't do anything for me except leave me miserable and hungry.

Hi All

I’m really enjoying being part of this challenge and reading all your posts.

Zumba – I’m currently eating far less carbs than I ever have before on a regular basis, and I do find that I have got used to it. I went to a series of talks by a nutritionist with DH when he was diagnosed diabetic, and everyone was stunned by how small the portions of food (and especially carbs) that she was saying we should be eating; but after resolutely weighing everything for a couple of months, it has started to feel like normal!!!

I was finding it very difficult not to snack in the evenings (something to do with it being “me time” after DS has gone to bed, I think) – but I seem to have got over that now. I don’t even know what has changed! I do sympathise with all those struggling with this.

So, I weighed in this morning, not feeling very confident because I had two meals out this week (birthday season in my family – although I was careful about my choices); and I don’t really seem to have got going with the exercise yet, but:

2/14 - 156
2/21 - 154
2/28 - 152
3/7
3/14

So, I’m feeling really motivated for the next week.

Have a great week, everyone!

^ This. Until about a week ago, I thought I was crazy for feeling this exact way. But you're right- its the only thing that works for me.

Thanks for the "recipe" :)

Hey Chicks! Back to the grind today! How I am going to miss being able to sleep until 8am because the kids didn't have school..OH WELL....

I am up a lb and not sure why....I'm going over what I ate yesterday in my head....I guess it doesn't matter at this point, I'm really serious right now about meeting my goal for this challenge and then some....I have a trip planned in April and I will be in a bathing suit...so it is time to get this party started...



Clytemenstra: I kept up a low carb lifestyle for a few years once and I felt the best that I ever felt in my life. It is just a matter of getting used to it, the way that you have......losing cravings is important. I also had that late night snack mentality....but am getting over that. I still have the urge sometimes but I know it isn't because I'm really hungry, just bored/anxious....


Dcap: I think low carb has a bad rap..people think it is just about eating bacon , eggs and cheese until you need a coronary bypass. It is so NOT that. Atkins gets a bad rap because people don't do it correctly. I'm not here to preach the low carb lifestyle to people but I've been dieting for over 20 years and this is the only thing that works for me, that makes sense and there is medical research to prove the 'science" behind it. My mother is a diabetic that just doesn't "get it" and will probably die because she can't give up bread. It's sad.

There must be something in the water I too am up about a pound... Darn!!

I'm STILL up a lb...what the hay??!!! I've been eating so well....I will blame being bloated and keep trying but this is the kind of thing that makes me want to throw in the towel!

Have a sick son who won't be going to school today, have to teach and then a friend is coming over to teach me some zumba choreography that she made up...its going to be another wacky day.

Have a good one everybody!

Monday: 1250 calories. 20 min elliptical, 1 hr. body sculpt class.

Pretty good day yesterday. Kept my caloies lower during the day so I had a cushion for when I got home, and was able to have a few oz. of turkey, veggies, and hummus on a FlatOut wrap(LOVE these, btw). Helped me through my workout.

We had health screenings at work yesterday. My numbers were pretty good - total cholesterol 196, HDL 71, LDL 93, glucose 79. My triglycerides were a little high @ 160. I've been letting more sugar creep in, even using some in my tea sometimes - just one more reason to cut it out.

Zumba, I'm sure the lb. wil be gone soon, you've been doing great. I'm finding where it used to take me only a few days to flush out extra salt, my body is holding onto it for several days now. tiick with it! Hope your son feels better.

Izza, youres will be gone soon too. I'm still trying to get back where I was a week and a half ago!

Good Morning Ladies! My WW weigh in is tomorrow. Sticking to the plan with the food but had to cut the workouts by a couple of days this plan period. When I went to the Dr. last week my creatinine levels were up. I have always had a little higher levels because of muscle mass. But since Oct it jumped from 1.03 to 1.25. For the test (24hr urinalysis) no exercise and today the renal ultrasound. Some of the reading I have done attributes the jump to increase in strenuous physical activity. If that is the case there are no worries and I will continue with the plan.

My C25k will start on Thursday instead of today. I have my eye on a 5k on May 14 which will coincide with the 9wk program finish.

Hoping for a good weigh in tomorrow but will be happy with anything this week.

Have a wonderful day chickadees!

2/17- 279.4
3/1- 274

My scale is lying.... I'm not ghoing to believe it today. I've been working my but off on Turbo Fire, I've had to increase my calorie intake a bit as I'm going from sedentary to daily work out.... I am feeling bloated??

I'm gonna give it a day or so before I panic!!