Sorry I have been MIA this week - working a lot. My middle is also horrendous, I need to do the 10 situp-leg-lift challenge and work on doing more than 1 pushup. I am in!

BlueT - I have same reasons to lose some pounds. It's not just vanity anymore.

Corinna - Have not been to store all week, need to hit a health food store today. I'll look at the protein options like soy milk while I'm there. A small fruit smoothee for dessert in the evenings will be a great idea as I am not having much fruit during the day.

Oceanside - I vote for muscle weighs more too. Also, I think sore muscle swells with fluid a bit, so that might be a culprit also. Just remember that muscle may be heavier, but it takes up less room. So you will feel the change in your clothes even if you are not seeing it on your scale.

Webwoman - This city is awful for trying to eat right and go out to eat! The food is too good. I just cannot go as often as I like and still lose weight. Good for you for trying to make it work.

My poor dogs need a walk but it has been raining every day this week. I will get out now in the neighborhood and give them (and me) a great walk. Thanks for the pep talks you guys! Feels like a nice supportive group!

Hi Kris! Glad you made it back. I was hoping that you were doing okay. Good to hear that it was only work keeping you away.

Yeah!! Another one up for the challenge. That's great. We can all tackle these mid-sections together. Makes it more fun that way.

Health food stores usually have the soy protein drink, but more and more regular grocers are carrying them now too. You may be surprised.

My diet is still going good. I think I may have it a plateau now. That's ok. Gives my body the chance to reconfigure before losing weight again.

Have fun walking those dogs.

I'm in. I want to lose 35 to 40 by the summer, or the latest, end of summer.

Rob

Hi weight2lose-Rob. Welcome to our group. We welcome your thoughts, comments, and experiences to the discussion. They will add a bit of variety to the group, since I think your are the first male to join it.

Sounds like you know what you goal is and when you want to achieve it. Do you have an diet plan and/or exercise plan to help you get there? I think it's great that you decided to do a blog too. I find that blogging makes me more accountable for my daily activity. It helps me, but it is not for everyone. I hope you will share your blog with others, so we can help motivate you to lose the weight and reach your summer goal.

I just joined this forum at the beginning of the year, but we do have Senior Members in the group too.

Good morning Losers :-)

I had a pretty good weekend this time. Saturday was very warm for our area and some friends and I went for a 6-mile walk in a beautiful, hilly area of town. This is where most of the old mansions are and it was fun to see how the other half lives (we also walked by the Wright Brothers house). Really wore me out but it was a good feeling. Had homemade Chinese but watched my portions. Sunday was busy driving my son back to school so I wasn't tempted to snack on things...dropped a couple of pounds for the week.

It's gotten cold again so I'll try to attend a weights class at the rec center tonight.

I read an article that for fastest weight loss cardio beats weight training. It may be true, but I still want to tone up my weak upper body.

Have a great day!

Andi

Thanks, Corinna T....
I achieved 63lbs loss about ten years ago, I was 41. I dropped down to 173lbs. I felt great, I felt confident. Over the ten years since, I slowly put the weight back on. I would exercise, diet, then something would happen. A back issue here, a shoulder issue there - always something. In 2011 I had surgery to correct that 'always something'. It was a burst disc in my neck, (c6-c7). I had the disc removed, and underwent spinal fusion. I've felt great since, but have picked up lots of bad habits along the way. I've decided that it was time to get back to being healthy. Besides, I was always embarassed to take my shirt off at the pool and tired of making excuses why. I'm going to try to do a blog, and I've taken my first group of photos to chronicle this journey (trust me, they ain't pretty!). I'll have to figure out how to link and all that and get the courage to actually let others see what I've been trying to hide for so many years.

So, I'm in the induction phase of Atkins, and my goal is to lose about 2 lbs a week or week and a half until I'm at goal.

Thanks for welcoming me to this group!

Rob

I also am on a quest to loose 25 pounds, although I used to weigh 40 pounds less than i do now. I started to go back to zumba class and I have gotten back on the stair climber machine twice in the last 2 weeks. I have stopped binge eating at night and I stopped getting all liquored up from friday night till sunday night. No more cookies because I don't eat them like a normal person, one is too many, 10 is not enough.
However, I feel flabby and unappealing but that is tied into the way my husband of 29 years treats me. He has been drinking on the weekends, when we usually have sex atleast once , but now the boose has made his ability to get an erection difficult so instead of cutting back on the scotch, he fights with me and calls me ugly. I need to lose weight for health reasons but I would like to be sexy for my husband.

Hi Webwoman Andi! Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend. Plenty of exercise, maintaining your portions, and great willpower. Congratulations to you on your dedication and your 2 POUNDS loss. Keep it up, you got us inspired too. I think having a good mix of cardio and weight training is good. Once you lose the weight, you have to tone up that stretched flabby skin. Your doing great sticking to your diet goals!!

Weight2Lose Rob-okay, now I know you can do it. You loss so much weight before, so you have the determination in you to do it again. Just bring it back in to the present, and your on your way. Taking pictures and then looking at them makes you see yourself just as others do. Sometimes it is hard to face the facts, but once they are there for you to see, it helps motivate you. I find it helps if you put the pictures somewhere that you see daily. Perhaps on the bathroom mirror, or on the refrigerator, or just somewhere private that you see daily so you can remind yourself that you are working on transforming that body of yours into something new and great! It will be so exciting when you see the after picture posted next to the before picture. You CAN do it. You WILL be a Winner! It will take time and dedication, but you will get there. We are all here cheering you on, and we will all be transforming with you along the way. Thanks for sharing with us. Are there any suggestions anyone else can give Rob about before/after pictures?

Lucindaarrowspark-welcome to the group! Thank you for your introduction and for sharing with us. I hope we can help you reach your goal. We value your input especially since we all have something in common. It's great that you are doing some Zumba and some stair climber machine workouts too. It sounds like you are active maybe once or twice a week. So I would like to up the odds for you a bit. I would like for you to take the Challenge. I call it the Oceanside Challenge, because that is who and how it started. To start off, just add a little bit more exercise into your routine. Try some pushups, situps, and leg holds each night. If your not use to doing them, then start off small, maybe 5 each a night. Then when they feel just a bit easy, move on up to ten. Find a number that makes you feel like you are working out some, but not over doing it. The point is to tone up your body, but not injure yourself. You want to be in good shape so you can continue to keep that body moving, and a moving body is definitely going to be a sexy one in time. So try them today, and then tomorrow, and then get back to us to let us know what you think and how it went for you. I look forward to talking with you again soon.

Oceanside-I have been keeping to the Challenge. How are you doing? Oh, and guess what? You are not alone. I went up 2lbs from yesterday.?!?!? So I don't know why is my first thought, but reasoning it out, it must be because my body is toning up, just like I mentioned to you.

Bluet-Are you up to the challenge? I don't think you have said yes or no yet.

Kris2008-I know you are a busy woman, but I hope you made those dogs happy and did give them a walk. I find it encouraging to see my dog smiling and happy when we go for walks. It sure beats walking by myself. What type of dogs do you have?

Good morning all! 2lbs gone this morning! Not much, but going in the right direction. Thanks for post, Corinna! I have a 'gold's gym' machine at my house and I've dusted it off. Resistance training will begin tonight. I think that I need a good mix of cardio and weight training. I set up a blog on wordpress last night and will post before/after photos there. It'll be a while, as I want to have some progress photos, not just starting photos. Yeah, they are motivational, as they are among the worst photos I've seen of myself.

Webwoman, I have a cold as well. Nothing worse for my diet right now than a head cold.

Lucinda, sounds like you've made a great choice. Good luck going forward!

Rob

Hello everyone. I also am looking to lose around 25-30 lbs. I had lost weight and due to many negative things in my life went back to eating to hide from them. Not only did that not work I now have the weight back on. Crazy cycle in my life. In reading your many posts it appears to be a supportive group. I would love to be part of this support system. Right now I am cutting back on calories and trying to get to the Y to water class at least three times a week. Look forward to checking back tomorrow with you all. Now I am off to work. Have a blessed day all.

Welcome aboard RedBlueLady!

Hello RedBlueLady! Yes, we would love to have you join our group. I am also a big emotional eater, so I can relate to what you are saying. That is why I am here now to combat that way of dealing with my emotions, and to turn my body back the way it should be, and then maintain both that good body and state of mind. Your off to a good start with your plan of action. I look forward to hearing how your water class went at the Y.

Congratulations Weight2lose-Rob!! Two pounds loss is a big deal!! That is really terrific. You are off to a great start....and you have a Golds Gym set too. Wow, you will be leaving us all behind in the dust before long. It won't be long before all those muscles will be bulging to the surface and the fat melted away. Keep it up and you will be ready for summer.

How is everyone else doing? Anyone have any helpful tips to share with others about dieting? Or any problems that you may have run into while dieting/exercising? I find if I eat early in the evening, and then walk afterwards, I feel better when I sleep at night. I try not to eat after 7PM too, just drink lots of water in the evenings instead. That works for me. What works for you?

Anyone else having issues with late night snacking? I'm somewhat of a night owl and looking for something light. I've been using celery sticks with a light amount of cream cheese and plenty of water. Any other ideas for snacking?

CorinnaT - your blog looks great. I started my blog last night, but was at a loss for what to say (I've never done one before). Your blog has given me some ideas on how to go forward.

As far as the Gold's gym is concerned, it's about 8 years old now but will do. I also found the poster with the various excercises, so that was a bonus. So having it dusted off gives me 2 incentives. The first is to exercise, the 2nd is to gather up all that laundry that's covered the machine and get rid of it! :)

How is everyone doing today?

-Rob

Hey Weight2lose Rob, I like your Avatar.

This was my first time doing a blog. I broke it down into categories that I like to see, so I can pull on a category and see just that information over time.

I think I need to add a bit of variety in my exercise routine. This one is edging on becoming a little boring. Maybe I can find a few other people to walk with me too in the evenings or upcoming weekend walks. A co-worker mentioned he stays in shape by jumping rope. I need to find mine somewhere and give it a try. It has been a couple of years since I last saw it.

Thanks, Corinna! I had an avatar of someone playing bass (I play bass) and wanted to use it, but it was 73k. I have to figure out how to resize an animated gif. In the meantime, I'll use the exercising little dude!

When I used a treadmill, and I had it set up in front of a tv and watch movies while I walked the treadmill. It made the time pass quickly.

I published my blog from wordpress. I belong to several boards, so having one location for my blog made sense. I'm not posting links, since I'd prefer not to be picked up by a search engine, but if anyone is interested, PM me (I have to wait 20 days for PM to work, so I'll have my 2nd set of progress pics up) and I'll send the link. There's only a few blog entries, and my day 1 photos. (uggh!). More to follow....

Yesterday was a good day. Eggs in the morning, lemon pepper chicken for lunch, and tuna salad for supper. Just some crystal light after that.

I hope that everone is doing well!

Rob