Weekends are tough. I just started calorie cycling and made sure my highest day is on Saturday so I can indulge legitimately. Several friends have suggested calorie cycling, so I'm giving it a try - I figure it can't hurt and as long as I'm getting the same number of calories over time, it should be good. Back to work tomorrow - and I've got my snacks, lunches and dinners all sorted out, packed and ready to go. Planning ahead is the only way to go for me, especially in the busiest time of my work year. Otherwise I eat out and I inevitably not nearly as well as I should!

Sunday: 1335 calories, 45 minutes on the elliptical(308 calories)

Cooked a great vegetable, barley, and bean soup yesterday. Today I'll make red lentils and rice. Already have salad and baked oatmeal with blueberries to get me through the week.

northern, I hope this is our week!

jules, can you post how you're cycling your calories? I'm doing it a bit as I'm using a range of 1200-1500, but it's not organized.

leslie, welcome!

rainbow, great job w/ the picnic. good luck with dinner!

megems, sounds like you had a great weekend!

Good morning and welcome to a new week!

Rainbow: good job staying OP at the BBQ, that's tough! I know it's frustrating when you don't know the exact count of things...sometimes you just have to give your best estimate and move on. Summertime is especially hard!

Leslie: welcome aboard!

Jules: I too give a little more leeway on weekends. Much easier to plan ahead be more meticulous with the calorie counting during the workweek. So far it's worked OK for me!

Nat: great job on the elliptical! I usually do 20 minutes on mine and then switch to something else (weights or yoga or something.) I should probably try to do at least 30 minutes (and I know I physically can), but I just start getting bored. Watching TV helps, though...my little strategy is to go at a steady pace during the show, then ramp it up a bit during commercials, lol.

Looking forward to an OP week! Let's do this!!

Welcome Leslie!

I had a good weekend and am feeling really motivated. This week I am starting at a new school, so I will have a new routine with a slightly later start time, so I am hoping to get in a workout before heading to school. I am really looking foward to it.

I'm in I would like to lose 20 pounds total.... I started at 289 and currently at 277.8

Mini Goal (Feb 14th) 269 (8.8 pounds to go)

Did an early weigh in today, hangin' in at 123.6..... stubborn!

Hoping for a wee little loss by the end of the week. I'll keep on trying!

Great job to all. :)

Yup, weight holding steady. Kind of glad the next two mornings are the ones I don't weigh in...getting sick of seeing the same number, so I hope that changes on Friday!

Natamars - I got a "plan" from freedieting.com - it's one I've seen recommended on these boards before. I rounded mine slightly so I'm not trying to get 2,027 calories on my high day, but it goes 2000, 1700, 1500, 1800, 1700, 1700, 1500. It works out the same over a week as doing 1700 per day, which is what the site recommends for "fat loss". Google "calorie cycling" and freedieting will probably come up as one of the top hits.

Northern - I try to stay on plan on the weekends, but it's a far greater challenge for sure. I think by having my higher cycle days on the weekend, it'll give me permission to indulge and I'll find it easier to resist temptation during the week. At least, that's the plan. :)

Lost 2 lbs of water weight from TOM, but really wanted peanut butter today, so I had 3.5 servings. Now my calories are up to 2305, they sure do add up fast when your eating p.b That's it for today, I hope!

Had a decent day Today~kids go back to school tomorrow Woooohoooo! Last week mostly snow them home! (Snow days ~LOL) Us momma's need our breaks. I have been maintaing well~staying within my range hoping when I get more active in Spring I will not lose anymore I am comfy where I am,Or seem to be ~Aint buying new pants/jeans/shorts/ ect. til I am sure where my weight is gonna be~so far size 2's In jeans,shorts,skirts,ect. & tops vary in size~depends on the look I am going for & my weight has been 134 to 136 Most days which is super..That is my average weight since maintaining~which is super(never in my dreams did I ever imagine!) ~Anyways I have dial up so it's hard to catch up totally~Just wanted to say~Hope everyone had a Super day & Has An even better tomorrow.~HUGS TO ALL~

Good morning! Hope everyone is doing ok. I weigh last night at tops and I weighed 257.0 Thats 1 lb lost. Our TOPS family had a NO Gain Meeting tonight. Back to the pool tomorrow for a good water arobics class and maybe a few swim laps. :swim: :tread: and :ebike:
Good Luck this week. Let's get it going. :wave:

Had a pretty good day yesterday. 1550 calories (would have been under 1500 if I didn't indulge in a piece of dark chocolate at work...60 caloires..oh well, lol.) Did my 2 mile WATP vid and 20 minutes of yoga. Tonight I think I will do elliptical/weights.

Getting cold around here since the last Alberta Clipper moved through. Supposed to be like -20 tonight....brrr! So glad we got a new furnace this year!

Weigh in was this morning, down another 2 lbs, for a total of 5.6 for the challenge. :D That gives me 4 weeks to lose 8.4 lbs. Really want to hit those 14 lbs lost for the challenge!

I am now working out in the morning before work every day (for appx. an hour), and then going to my local Y for more cardio/strength training at night. I am going dress shopping at the beginning of March, so I am hoping to be 20 total pounds down by that time!

It looks as if everyone else is doing great!!! We can do this ladies!

Got my hour in on the treadmill yesterday and ate within my calorie range. On track for today! Just popping in and will check back later today.

1245 calories yesterday, 25 minutes on the elliptical, 1 hr. body sculpting. Scale is down just .2 from when I first weighed in on 1/7. AUUGGHHH!!!!!

Hey everyone! I hope everyone is having a great day so far, getting our exercie in and staying on track with our calories! I am literally shocked how quickly I was able to get right back into the groove of things since coming on this site again. It really is a huge motivator for me. I start school again this Wednesday. Very excited to go back; I've been working wayyyyy too much. Need to break up the monotony. I've been doing well on this challenge; already down 5 lbs! Only 5 more and I'm at goal! If I reach goal early, I'm going to reassess and make another short goal. Well I just wanted to quickly stop in and say hello, gotta get going to work!

Ugh I feel like a huge failure, lol. I'm barely back down to my start weight for the challenge! I'm not sure I can pull off the 9lbs in 4 weeks but I'll try!

farn: I, too, find this site a lifesaver

lauree: i am right there with you. tracking my calories and exercise and feel like I should be down at least 2 lbs. Hoping for a whoosh soon. Let's stick together though! Better this than a gain!

wtg, jiggle!


megems, 5.6 is fantastic.

northern, sounds like a great day yesterday. i allow myself 1-2 pieces of dark chocolate every day. i just had one from trader joe's - a little wedge w/ caramel inside for 30 calories. yum...

bigmama, glad your meeting went so well.

lori, you're awesome.

hope everyone has a great day, and that the weather is better where you are than it is here in ny. snow/sleet/freezing rain - ugh!

Is it too late to join
 

Hi everone. Can I still join? My goal is to lose 5 lbs by Valentines Day. I'm currently counting calories.

Hang in there everyone! We're all doing great, keeping accountable is one of the main things right? Hope everyone is good :)

I'm sticking to calories but still having issues keeping to exercising. I'm about to go do some now, but not much haha. I'm also failing a bit at keeping my water intake up! I'm wondering if that is why my loss has slowed so much. Sometimes I feel like being so short disadvantages me...feel like maybe I should be eating fewer calories than I am.

Hi all!

Ate way too much, enough calories for about 4 days. How pathetic am I. There's no junk food left here so I'll do fine tomorrow. I made the mistake of eating in front of my husband, he always has something to say when I decide to eat a food that I don't normally eat. Today he came up in back of me, put his head over my shoulder and said " binge baby binge" I got so mad I put it away, it was peanut butter & light chocolate ice cream. I didn't even eat that much before he said it, I told him I'm never eating this stuff in front of him again. He said he meant it in a good way, like to enjoy it, enjoy the binge. I'm sorry but I had a binging problem for a long time, when he said that it really pi**ed me off. I'm still struggling with binging, he knows this. This wasn't a binge, I over ate the whole day, cause I was hungry for some stuff I didn't have in a while & I didn't stuff myself until I was sick. He said I take this food thing too seriously, men drive me nuts!

Natamars - right there with you with a no/slow moving scale. Damn thing. I'm just keeping at it figuring at some point something has to give (just hope it's not my pants!). Trader Joe's has dark chocolate with caramel inside it? Seriously? That sounds divine. :)

Lauree - last weekend I bet my husband he can't lose 3lbs in three weeks and he returned the challenge. Then I promptly gained nearly 2lbs overnight (amazingly sodium-loaded meals all day) and I have JUST today got those 2lbs off... and now have a week and a half to drop another 3lbs. I should really learn to keep my mouth shut. :)

Me - I'm working this calorie cycling thing and so far quite like it. I find it MUCH easier to stick to a 1,500 calorie day when I know on Saturday, it's a 2,000 calorie day and anything I can't fit in the meal plan on a low day can go on the high day. It's like permission to "save" those treats for once a week and suddenly I don't have insane cravings. We'll see what the scale reflects come Saturday morning. I've also just discovered the rowing machine at the gym - love it! Something new to play on.

So, I went to the gym yesterday AND today. I'm actually pulling myself out of bed and going!! It's not bad at all!! Today, I actually did a whole hour of cardio...30min on treadmill (mostly an inclined fast walk) and then 30min on elliptical...usually, the ellipitical kicks my butt and i'm ready to die at 15min...HOWEVER....this type of elliptical that i found here is a specific kind (Precor EFX Elliptical Fitness Crosstrainer) & it's freakin awesome!! It uses what the manufacturer calls Cross Ramp technology...my heart is pumpin, but my body/mind is not telling me to quit!! I got on it today thinkin I'd do 15, but when i got there, i was like I CAN DO MORE! so i did 5 more and kept thinking the same thing til I hit 30min!! It was great!!! Here's some stuff from the Precor website:

"The patented Precor motion keeps your heels in contact with the pedals, reducing muscle and tendon stress. And because the EFX is low impact, helping you move fluidly, you'll have lower Relative Perceived Exertion (RPE). That means your workout is so smooth that you don't feel like you're working as hard as you are."

and...

"4.Promotes workout ease and comfort – Relative Perceived Exertion (RPE) is the difference between how hard your brain says you’re working and how hard your heart actually works. If you’re jogging, the perceived level of exertion drops when impact to your ankle, knee and other affected joints is reduced. Our patented elliptical technology absorbs much of the impact of each foot strike. So you experience a more comfortable workout that keeps you motivated and moving toward your fitness goals."

Ok, sorry, enough about that....so I finally kicked myself in the butt and started tracking my calories again today! I'm using the Lose It! app again on my iPod touch...I've decided to try my calories at 1600-1800 range to see if I can possibly lose a little faster than 1lb/week...the highest I've went was 1500...so i'm gonna try this for a month or so and see what happens...

Thanks again to all of you who post!! you're really helping me get back into the groove of things!!! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK EVERYONE!!!!

Yesterday was my first day at the new school, and when I had gone to observe there in Dec. I did not think about how big the school is, I am going to burn some extra cal.s just walking up and down the stairs and down the big halls, LOVE IT!!

I am up early enought to jump on the elyptical before school.

I hope everyone has a good day today.

1390 calories yesterday. no exercise.

Scale now shows I am up .4 from when I started weighing in on 1/7. Really trying not to let this get to me, but I've already eaten 440 calories this morning. I need to rein this in, and get to the gym tonight. Thinking of starting Fat Smash again this weekend - that helped me through a plateau before.

Morning ladies!

I read/heard somewhere, that if you increase your weekly total of cardio by only 30 minutes, you should see a change in weightloss ~ so maybe that will help those who are currently plateauing. I have always struggled to lose weight, meaning I can work out for an hour a day and watch what I eat, and lose .5 - 1 pound. It is aggrevating. So, I have really been kicking it and have lost at least 2 pounds each week now. Sometimes, our bodies just need the jolt of different ~ it becomes complacent!

Doing good so far this week ~ on week 3 of Bob's Inside Out Method, which means I do that in the morning M-S (getting up at 5:30 to do it before work), then still hitting the gym at night. Calories have been good so far this week.

My body is starting to get tired from all my exercise, but I have to remember that is a good thing. It's a good kind of tired, but unless I do what I do, I don't see the weight loss I want!

Good luck to everyone!!

Good morning!

1450 calories yesterday, plus 25 minutes elliptical and 10 minutes of weights. Though my calories were good yesterday, I'm stll eating a bigger % of "treats" than I should. Need to replace those nibbles of chocolate with fruit or something a little more nutritious. Still, a pretty good day nonetheless!

Northern ~ HUGE chocolate fan right here! Add peanut butter, and I am one happy chickie! :D

I find that the Kellogg's Chocolately Delight Special K cereal does wonders when I want that bit of chocolate in my day! It's good for breakfast or snack, too!

Have my Fat Smash book on reserve for me at the library. Starting it Saturday. Once it helped me thrugh a plateau, once it didn't, but at least I'll know I'm trying to change something. The food in the 9-day detox phase is very healthy and clean(fruit and veggies unlimited, brown rice, oatmeal, a little milk and yogurt, egg whites, and beans)and none of it will tempt me to overeat. Will be hard to give up the wine and chocolate treats, but hopefully it gets me past this plateau! Also going to increase my cardio whenever possible and do some more weight training rather than just the body sculpting classes.

1370 today, much better than the past two days. But gained 3.8 lbs so far, and probably more by tomorrow morning. I just have to get right back on plan & lose this weight!

Feeling really good today. Staying in my calorie range and working out like a champ. I want to see a good loss at the end of the month.

Just a quick check in for the day.

Megems - this - I have always struggled to lose weight, meaning I can work out for an hour a day and watch what I eat, and lose .5 - 1 pound. It is aggrevating. - that you posted IS me. It ticks me off to no end. But I like what you say about pushing harder - when I really focus, eat on plan, and work out with intensity and drive, the scale shifts. I guess it's a question of sustaining that effort - which is the hard part!

Natamars - that Fat Smash eating plan sounds like "clean" eating in a nutshell. I find when I eat clean I do a lot better, but sometimes - like right now with my insane workload - it's really challenging to eat totally clean (I'm relying on frozen meals a lot of the time simply to make sure I actually eat). In the summer when I have more time and can really put forth the effort, I find eating clean makes me feel really energized and healthy. Hopefully it'll give you the results you're looking for!

I had a bit of a rough day yesterday - ate lunch and dinner out. I had chicken fajitas for lunch (without the tortillas, cheese, or sour cream) but I know it was loaded with sodium. Dinner was a teriyaki chicken bowl with brown rice - tasty but again, sodium and probably a fair bit of oil. Sigh. The scale was up 1lb from yesterday which I know isn't "true" weight - I didn't overeat by 3,500 calories in 24 hours! So today I'm sucking down the water to counteract that salt intake. I really need to NOT eat out but it's hard when it's the client taking you out... But this is real life and I need to find ways to manage it, so I shall!

I'm in for this! :)
I'd like to lose 5 pounds by Feb 14th. That will bring me completely OUT of the 200's!!

I think this challenge was just not meant to be for me, ugh. I've been bouncing between 169 and 173.8 for the last twoish weeks despite eating well and exercising. Of course, I signed up at my low weight so technically all I've managed to do is gain nearly 5lbs :mad:

Argh! Only a pound and a half this week. But 8.5 pounds so far on the challenge.
Thanks to everyone who encourages others on this thread!

Good evening everyone! Did you move today? I did. 90 minutes of the pool. 15 minutes of stepping and 15 of water jogging and 60 minutes of water arobics. And now knees are hurting tonight. Day off from the pool tomorrow then if weather doesnt get too bad, maybe snow again here in east tx on friday. But if its not too bad I will go to the gym friday and saturday. This is the first saturday the pool will be open for a water arobic class. LoveLeeMeIsee your from texas. I'm in east texas and I go to a gym in Longview called Paula Martin Jones Recreation Center. That's where the fun is. Calories today came to 888 so i'm down guess i need to get a snack. I weigh 256 today so that is 1 lb less than monday. My goal this week is lose 3 lbs. so want to see 254 monday night at TOPS weigh in. Were going to do this ladys so lets keep the counting going and get to moving. I pray everyone will reach their goals. Good night and have a very good Thursday.:wave::dust:

Hey all, sorry I'm so slack on keeping up to date with you all :) I'm doing well with calories, exercise is ok, but best of all - I'm just feeling really good. I can see myself becoming smaller and I'm becoming happier in my body. I have a way to go yet, but I am proud of my progress!

Hello all,
Sry been out of it. School started up again, yesterday was a good long day of class...
I have been eating healthy, I really need to focus on not eating so much at night, cause at times it can get so vicious :-( but atleast it's not a binge...
Been aiming for the 3x a week workout and with school and tons of other commitments and appts, it does get challenging but such is life and we can do it :-)
My weight seems to have stabalized at 151.5 so maybe if I can get the night eating under control I will be able to lose a few and I def. don't want to gain...
Have a good night all'

Grrrr. Scale went the wrong way. 124.4.... :(

Gonna stay on plan and keep moving, though.....