Kendrab ~ Aw! Can you believe how fast the year has gone?

CourtneyDaisey ~ I love your enthusiasm! My mini goal is to lose 15 pounds by my daughter's first birthday! (7/30)

Well....my week has not started off so great. I'm still sick, and don't feel like doing anything. Last week I pushed through the sickness and kept on exercising, but this week I don't know if I should push through, or take a break and try to get better. I'm already not getting enough sleep, since I have to get up with my baby. I don't know.

I hope you guys are having a better day than me :)

Courtney- My mini goal is to show a loss (of any kind) each week in this challenge and to put forth more effort than I did in the last challenge. Number wise, I have 40 days until I go home and I would like to be under 300lbs again before that. Long term goal- Under 200 by May 2012.

Beth- Hope you feel better soon. Hang in there.

Hope everyone is having a great week. It's Wednesday here in SK! I went with a co-worker last night to see the new Pirates of Carribean. Ate a hot dog (gross) and still managed to pull in a low calorie day and show a loss on the scale this morning. How many of you weigh daily vs. weekly? I'm a daily weigher, but I'm not emotional about it. Like if I see a gain, I don't freak out and let it ruin my day. I just use it as a learning tool. If I'm showing any kind of strange gain then I look back at the food that I ate the day before and see what I should try adjusting. For me its all about learning about what my body needs/wants and how it reacts to different foods. Being in a foreign country I don't have access to a lot of stuff I think sometimes people take for granted in the states. I live on an island in the far south of South Korea. I'm so excited to spend my year living with my sister and working on getting healthy. It's time to focus!

Have to run. Students will be here soon. How's your week going?

I weigh daily instead of weekly, but I also don't really let gains get to me. I just sort of examine my food and it is really helping me determine the right calorie balance for losing. I have noticed on days that I eat too little I consistently show a slight gain. I do much, much better when I try to remember to put something in my mouth every two hours, no matter how small. It really helps me analyze my eating patterns when I use it with my food journals.

My Bod Pod assessment went very well today.
48% to 44.5% body fat- down 3.5%
gained 3 pounds of muscle (2 pounds was my goal)
and lost 13.5 pounds of fat. (10 pounds was my goal)
My lean body weight is 132 pounds

I highly suggest the testing, the scale makes a little more sense now. I was advised to work towards a goal weight around 180-190 pounds, based on my muscle mass. This is significantly above the BMI recommendation of a weight between 125-164. No wonder people are confused.

Bethbeth and Shan - Love the goals! :cheer: :cheer: You can do it! :hug: :hug: :hug:

Happy Wednesday morning to everyone! It feels like Tuesday to me though. Having a day off two weeks in a row is throwing my brain for a loop! LOL!

People from corporate are going to be puttering around the office today so I may not be able to get on here during my lunch break like I try to do every day. I may just head up to the gym here at work and walk on the treadmill for a bit. Of course, that's going to look silly seeing a girl in an ankle length skirt walking on a treadmill in black flats. LOL! Hopefully no one else will be up there! We'll see if I go up or not. I am aiming to go though!

Today is going to be a fruit day. I am having fruit for breakfast and for lunch. I didn't have enough time this morning to even make a sandwich so I just grabbed a bunch of fruit and stuck it in a bag. At least I know today's food choices will be healthy! I don't even have any oatmeat or granola bars left in my desk drawer. I do have a pack of reduced fat peanut butter crackers. I'll save that for this afternoon.

I wish you all a GREAT day!

GO TEAM RED!!!!!!! KICK BUTT-ER!!!!!!

beth- I know! She needs to stop growing up (as does my 5 year old son!!)!

Boatgirl- Just focus on the fact that you're not quitting! I couldn't even tell you how many mess ups I've had during my journey (unofficially started early August, officially in Jan). Just don't give up and that's all that matters!!

Erin- I'm a daily weigher myself. I'm the sae as you and don't sweat the small temporary gains. Weighing daily definitely helps me stay on track. Hubby recently hid my scale (was supposed to be for a week but I found it lol) and I wasn't a fan!

Its Wednesday! A day closer to the weigh in! :D

Hello ladies and gents (if any are around) It's wednesday and this is my first official day back at work. I took time off. My diet has sucked but I maintained at 155. Today I'm hitting up the gym after work! I'm excited to start this challenge! I think this is something I need to get myself motivated again to drop these dreaded last 15 pounds!

MiZTaCCen - Congrats on heading back to the gym! :cheer: You can kick those last 15 pounds to the curb! I have faith in you!!!!

Erin: I weigh daily as well. I'm a bit scale obsessive. ;)

Folks, I just got back from a 15 minute walk on the treadmill in the office gym upstairs. YAY! :cheer: It's my first time back on any sort of gym equipment in forever. This may sound strange, but it kind of felt good to get back on the wagon of exercise.

Tonight I am still planning on mowing my grass. It definitely needs it!

Hey everybody!

Erin - I have a step-son and daughter-in-law in Hawaii. (He's in the Army.) We are planning a trip over next Spring to celebrate my graduation. Very interesting that you see a slight gain when you eat less. I'll watch for that.

Kendrab - WOW! You've had some really great weight loss! If you don't mind sharing, what's the single most important thing you've learned?

lostangel - Congratulations on your new low weight!

CourtneyDaisey - Good job getting on the treadmill in your skirt! :)

Mini-Goals: I have a couple of mini-goals. I would like to lose two pounds in one week. I haven't done that in a LONG time, but it should be possible. (I hope it's still possible.) Also, I am abstaining from alcohol until 6/10 to jump-start my weight loss and find better coping mechanisms.

boatgirl - Great attitude! It's important to get right back up after a slip.

bethbeth - Hope you are feeling better today!

Shan - I'm a daily weigher, but I'm not as calm as ya'all seem to be! I definitely wig out a little bit. If I'm up one day and down the next - no big deal. But if I'm up two or three days in a row I freak out! After I logged my starting weight for this challenge I was up 3 pounds - three days in a row! It's taken me the entire "get to know your team" period to get it off - which tells me it wasn't just water. I feel I stay on track better with daily weight.

celrae - I'd never heard of the BOD POD until I read your post. Very cool!

MiZTaCCen - Nice to meet you! Good luck!

I overdid my workout three or four days in a row and ended up with a tush and hips so sore I was having trouble sleeping. I didn't exercise at all yesterday and was able to sleep in this morning. I'm feeling ready for a good workout!

I struggle with taking my weight "personally." I feel like I've been genetically cursed, or I'm a failure when my weight goes up. To try to compensate for that, I try to make my weight mathematical. It's about calories in and calories burned.

I've read several of the BL books and it seems their program focuses on eating calories equal to your BMR so your body doesn't go into starvation mode. Dieters need to burn 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound of fat. Two pounds of fat = 7,000 calories. That means Hannah and Olivia were burning off 14,000 calories per week to lose 4 pounds a week. OMG. They had to be working out nearly all day to do that.

I came into this challenge prepared to burn 1,000 calories per day. I've been unable to do that - but I've come close three or four times out of the last week. Has anybody in this challenge tried to do this? Or - does anybody else have another take on how the BL contestants are dropping so much weight so quickly?

Thank you Kendrab...I noticed your picture for your avatar...you look absolutely great! How long did it take you to lose the weight? What routine did you follow?
It gives me inspiration when I see such significant weight loss from people...I feel I may never get there but I know if I don't give up I will get there!!

Hope you all are having a good day!!

ggmugsy- It has been very helpful. In our area it is $95 for 5 assessments, money well spent. I am surprised that it is not in every doctors office.

Hey Red Team! :cheer:

I am finally feeling better after being sick way too long. I am kinda dissapointed to look at my exercise log and see NOTHING the last 3 days. But my body needed some rest to get better. I gotta get back on track today and work up some sweat!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's results for the first weigh-in! I just posted my weight for the week, with -3 pounds! Let's win this week, ok?

Beth- Good job on the -3 especially with being sick. Its good you took some rest. Only you know when you can push through and when your body needs a break.

I have a had a really good week so far. I started the 30 day shred video yesterday and my arms are sore today (I think it was the push ups). My eating hasn't been perfect but I have been getting better at saying no or choosing smaller portions. However my family went to Dairy Queen to get blizzards the other night so I got a small instead of a large but the small still had almost 700 calories! So next time I will choose a regular cone or something.

Hope everyone is having a good week

CourtneyDaisey
I always set mini goals. I have so much to lose that it can be overwhelming sometimes. Breaking it into smaller goals makes it so much easier. Right now I am working on getting below 199 lbs. If I don't make it there this week I hope I will next week. I need to decide what my goal will be for this challenge.

ggmugsy
I hear that on the BL ranch they exercise up to 6 hours a day. In addition to adjusting their diet that's how they were losing 4 lbs a week. Or did you mean once they went home? I've found when I do 2 a days, exercise in the morning and in the evening, that ups my weight loss. I'm not up for that every week though. My weight loss has been has low as .8 and as high 4.8 lbs on a weekly basis.

I am doing well. I just signed up for some water exercise classes for the summer in addition to my tried & true abs class. I also do personal training 2x/wk. I have two different trainers but one of them is sick so right now it's happening only once a week. I weigh in on Sundays so the weigh in schedule is perfect for me. Even if I don't lose any weight this week (I will) I will have a fantastic loss to report on Sunday.

Oh yes, I ordered my cooler. It's cute. It has pretty hibiscus flowers on it.