'Morning team,

Thanks for the popcorn tip Reda - will have to try that.

A 3 pound showing is great Tonia. Try to remember that it's recommended that you strive for 1 to 2 pounds a week. I think the Biggest Loser TV show sets up unrealistic expectations with these 5, 10 and 30 pound losses between weigh in sessions. I mean don't get me wrong, I'd be doing the happy dance if I was down 5 pounds in a week, but more than likely that would be water and not fat.

"Getting on the beach" refers to the Beach Hopping exercise challenge going on in another thread. Chellez picks beaches around the country and each week we travel from one to the next. She calculates the miles between spots and that's how many minutes of exercise you need to do that week to "hit the beach". For example, last week we were headed to East Hampton, NY. You needed to log 455 minutes of exercise to cover the 455 miles we travelled from North Carolina to New York. Each week she picks a new goal on Sunday. There are instructions on the main Biggest Loser Thread.

Hope you are all having a fun but healthy Sunday. Happy Mother's Day to all you mums out there.

reda: atleast you lost, and you are doing everything you are supposed to be doing, so I'm sure next week will be better. Try not to let it get to you, you don't want to get discouraged just because you had a week that you aren't happy with. Hang in there!

Tonia: congrats on the 3 lbs! I agree with happy2bme, seeing the results on TBL raises expectations for the scale and can make it seem disappointing to have a 1 lb weightloss even though a healthy amount to lose is 1-2 lbs. I had the same feeling this week when I just lost 1.9 lbs...still a great number, but I want to hurry up and lose this weight! Patience, trooworld, patience.

Well, I didn't make it to the beach but I consistently did exercise and that makes me happy and proud. I don't know if I ever will be able to make it to one of the beaches, the mileage is quite high and I don't know if I can be that dedicated to exercise. I hate exercising and it's really hard to get myself to do it as much as I have. I admire all of you that can exercise like that.

Yesterday, we drove up to LA to see m-i-l. As predicted, yesterday was NOT a good eating day. We had a sandwich at Carl's Jr. on the way up there, then at about 3 my m-i-l made us lunch, then at about 9:30pm when we were on our way home, we got really hungry and stopped at Carl's Jr. again and had more fast food. I've been really good for weeks, so I am not too upset about it. What I am upset about is the 1+ lbs in water weight that I gained today from yesterday. But tomorrow will be better. I already officially weighed in, so hopefully it won't hurt me for next week. Today will be spent working on a paper for my English Fiction class that is due tomorrow. I've put it off as long as possible and now it is time to face the music finally. I hate papers, but it's the last one for that class (besides an all essay in-class test!).

Are there any Asians here?
I'm visiting Korea in 5 months and it's been over 4 years! Yeah it's been over 4 years since I've seen my country and my family...and I was HEAVY when they saw me last. So this is a GREAT GREAT motivation for me =) Anyways...well, Korean food is very high in sodium and I'm already worried on how to handle the diet while I'm there. My parents have some workout machine so I will be doing that a lot during the 2 wks I'm there.. (unless they got rid of it in past 4 years. lol) I'm just worried about the food because I AM a Korean, haven't had "true" Korean food for last 4 years and there are so many stuff I have been missing that I KNOW I'm going to get to. So I'm already in between and

Any ideas?

Troo--have you experimented with different forms of exercise to see if there is something you would like and not have to drag yourself into? Dancing is a fun workout, whether you pump up some music and sweat to your own moves to do any of the many, many dance DVDs out there. I tried forcing myself to do things in the beginning, then realized there were other things I actually love doing. I love hip hop now, and Ballet Strength with Jennifer Gallardi is my fav now...I would have never imagined myself doing either!

About stopping exercise--for me, it happens when things get busy and/or stressful. I tend to revert to old, comforting behaviors instead of working out, or when pressed for time I put it off and off until it never happens. I need to pay more attention when things pick up like that to stop myself from this mistake...it should be high priority no matter what is going on in the rest of my life. I just haven't found that balance yet.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas

Hi team,

I have to admit that I fell completely into a black hole of funkdom about midweek. Three things got me. One was a gain on the scale this week and as much as I can tell myself that it is hormonal, it still really sucked the wind out of my sails. The second would be days of rain and gloomy weather. The last was a disagreement with my boss at work. What bothers me most is that he's pretending like I don't exist. Maybe that doesn't bother me that much since its his choice to act like a baby, but more that I am totally burned out at work. I need time away and I need to be successful at work but we are so incredibly busy that it seems like neither is a possibility. Which was the root of my disagreement with my boss - he expects perfection and I don't as long as people are really putting in extra effort to get the job done. Which everyone has for months now. I just was totally mentally spent the latter part of the week.

I posted a small gain for the week and I did not make my exercise goal. That even bummed me because there really was no good reason for quitting exercise. I'm not sure how weigh-in will go this week since TOM is here. I may wait until later in the week.

But I am working on redeeming myself. I did finally make myself do a spinning workout at home. 60 minutes on the spinner yesterday. This morning I got up early and did 30 minutes on the other stationary bike and then 20 minutes of pilates.

I've got a couple of nasty days coming this week at work but I am not going to let that derail me. And then I'm going to see my mom for a couple of days. I was supposed to go yesterday but just was not mentally able to do it. Today we did Mother's Day with DH's mom and that was nice.

Okay, that became a big ramble. Sorry for the woes.

Here's a little video for all you mommies.... http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/play...up/?cl=7769005

My husband knows me SO well. He and the kids went to Staples for my mother's day presents. I don't know what's gone haywire in my brain - but if anyone has ever had problems knowing what to buy me, I tell them that ANYTHING from Staples or Office Max would be perfect! I love anything to do with pens, paper, clips, tape, etc. So, my kids and hubby got me some really cute, decorative paper clips, highlighters and a new "at-a-glance" calendar. I couldn't have been happier! Don't get me jewelry... just a new, cool stapler and I am good to go!
The in-laws took us to Cheddars last night. I will admit that I did allow myself a "treat". After I did it, I regretted it.... but I can't go back and change it, I can only learn from it. But, I don't think it'll hurt me terribly for weigh-in. I tend to lose slow... because I am, at the same time, adding muscles! So my body fat % drops, but my weight stays the same or decreases in small amounts.

I'm weighing in tomorrow, quite frankly, because I forgot to weigh-in Friday.

I hope you all have had a wonderful day! I'll see you around here later!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies out there!!

I amazingly stayed OP this weekend, had hubby cook me breakfast at home instead of going out and totally blowing my diet on bacon and sausage. LOL
I'm actually down to 242 from 250 a week ago, took me 5 weeks to lose it though, my body went through a plateau after the first 3 lbs. Anyway, I'm happy to finally see some progress.

Hope you're all having an awesome weekend, I'll check back tomorrow to see what's new.

Hello everyone.. and Happy Mothers Day all the mothers!!
Today I had my third weigh in.. and for the third week I lost 2 pounds, feels pretty good, If it keeps going like this I'll reach my goal in 9 weeks, (dreaming )

Happy Day to all, Mothers and others alike.

Family functions are killer. Only down 0.6 lbs this week, which isn't too shabby for so many days off plan! And I'm on vacation starting 5/17. Kellybones (of the red team) and I will have to try to keep each other on track!

Purple: No, I haven't experimented that much, but some. I know I like to lift weights at the gym (although now we don't have a membership and can't afford one, so we have stuff here to use, I just haven't got into it yet), I really like to do stuff outdoors (besides jogging/running) and I am starting to like the stationary bike. I also just got a copy of one of the biggest loser dvds to try, I've never really gotten into the dvds but then again, I haven't given them a chance to know if I like them or not. I do like to dance, maybe I will do what you said and put some music on and boogie a little. I know it would give me a laugh, too, to think of other people looking in my windows and seeing me acting like a crazy woman! I am with you on the stopping exercise front. I told you guys that I wouldn't get any exercise in yesterday because we were going up to LA, but hubby and I decided to take the time and go for a long walk before we went and I'm glad we did, it felt good. Today was another story though, I was busy the whole day with schoolwork and grocery shopping...but there is an instance where I think I don't have any time but I probably could have found 30 minutes to do SOMETHING. If not 30 mins, then 10 minutes 3 times throughout the day. Tomorrow even though I have to finish this *!!&*$ paper, I am going to take some time to exercise. I owe it to myself and to you guys. And the funny thing is that we don't exercise when we are busy/stressed, but it relieves stress to exercise, so we should make it a priority to exercise especially when we are stressed!

Terri: It sounds like you have a good plan for getting back in the saddle. Sorry to hear about your boss problems.

Halichick: My god! You lost 8 pounds this week? Freakin awesome!!! Congrats!

It looks like we are having great numbers this week, yay team!

Not only are family functions killer, but family itself can be a killer!

I haven't had much time to post lately because my mom and brother (younger bro, a lazy college student) arrived and left my aparment this week like a giant tornado. I was busy having to drive my mom around with errands that I would normally walk to (she never gets them done fast or all at once). That wouldn't have been so bad by itself but having my brother here with her became a real time-sucker because we had to cater to his last-minute paper writing and spend time getting multiple estimates to get his banged-up car fixed. I missed the excercise badge challenge this week because I couldn't do my normal excercise routines with them around. Of course I ate heartily with my mom cooking for us, so that was a bonus! She says I ate like I was famished, LOL. I think she's partly right because I have become so strict with portion control living by myself, I let myself go just a little when she kept bringing out fresh and hot healthy dishes I don't make.

Back to the routine this week!

ortho, you can send your mom my way I am not a cook at all, would love to have someone do that for me. Family can be a hassle, but think what our lives would be like without them.

troo, I sometimes dance and pretend I'm on stage, going around the living room singing loud as I can. I do this while hubby is on the road and kids are in school, but I do wonder sometimes if someone were to walk by the house outside if they could hear me I don't let it stop me though. there are some really good dance DVDs as welll..your library might have some you can check out and try.

Halichick, 8 lb. is great. I hear ya about plateaus...that is a really great number to come out of it with though, shows you were doing well during those weeks.

Theresia, that is a good, consistent loss. Great job.

to everyone else. I know I am not getting everyone, but I am too tired to read anymore I will catch up more tomorrow. I'm not hitting every post these days, just more like skimming so really do not mean to leave anyone out.

So I feel like I have let everyone down as I managed to gain 2 pounds this week. Although, I have a feeling that it's muscle as I spent all last week riding my bike, preparing for and walking/jogging a 5K. My goal for next week is to lose the 2 plus at least 1 more.

Great job everyone on the losses, exercise and all NSV. Its monday and starting fresh after a horrible weekend spend with my family. Food and exercise was the only thing that was great this weekend. Stayed op thru all the stress.