jdonato- Welcome! good to hear from you!

Took a 30min walk, weight has been the same for 3 days. So depressing, usually if I eat too much it only takes 2 days to see a loss, well this time it's not going anywhere. Don't get it, I've been in the 1400 calorie range for the past two days, that usually works. Today i had 1621 cause I had 1 serving of peanut butter. I threw the rest of the jar away( not much left in it) before it was too late. I've been so stressed over financial matters, that may have something to do with not being able to lose weight.
Hope we all have some good luck this week!!

Finally able to keep my calories happily under control today That, plus a good workout, things are looking up...including the scale. Hoping it's salt, but I'm up 2lb from a few days of over-eating. I only went past my range by a few hundred, so I keep telling myself it can't be "real" weight... can't wait for the week to be over so that number will get back down where it belongs! On the plus side, the health food store here had a "buy one, get one for 1p" sale so I have delicious new fruit tea to drink before bed tonight.

OhMyDogs-Awwwwwesome! You can do it!

Gave blood today but had for first time ever that I was almost turned away for having low hemiglobin (low iron),I guess this is a sign that I need to get myself more iron in my diet.

My weigh in is Friday so we will see if my body wants to let go of anything or not.
Good night ladies!

Today was my official weigh in day and I have almost made my challenge goal of being in the 240s before Easter - 250.1! Have been really good on plan lately after bouncing on and off all month last month. I'm also finding working out not such a chore lately - I am (almost) enjoying it! Actually, I find the dressing up in gym clothes and getting ready worse than the working out itself, I don't know why!

Fruitlady I can totally relate on the PB issues! I can seriously eat a ton of PB so I feel your pain.

Manders Hang in there! I read about your progress when I first joined and it really inspired me because we are the same height and had similar starting weights. You can do this!

Missjessica Good work staying on plan! Fruit tea is so yummy! I recently got some Peach tea by twinnings and I drink that before I go to bed too! Really keeps me from night eating, which is totally my weakness!

Thanks! Oh, I love that tea! Ginger Peach by Republic of Tea is really nice too. You're SO close to your goal, great job!!

Good morning Ladies ..

Missjessica ;; good job with the control ;; & trust me I understand, some days, you just overeat!! it probably is salt cause it doesn't seem like you'd gain 2lbs of fat through going over a few hundred for a couple days ;; Im sure you'll be right where you need to be by the end of the week

k15g15 ;; Ive always wanted to give blood but never could on account of my anemia .. good luck on friday's weigh in!!

pochamma10 ;; you're moving closer & closer towards your mini goal .. good for you, keep it up


;; as for me; im at work right now trying desperately to stay awake! I haven't been getting much sleep at all .. I went to visit my niece in NICU last night at 9 & didn't end up leaving until 10:45 ..I stopped to pick up a few things from the grocery & I didn't finally get into the bed after a shower until 1am ;; Im so exhausted right now but I'm trying to stay awake!

I'm doing pretty good for the week as far as my food choices. havent done much exercising besides walking briskly around the hospital .. I did wear my heartrate monitor & I ended up burning around 600 calories just doing that.. Oy, I need this busy season at work to go ahead & end so I can get back into the flow of exercising & getting proper sleep!

that's my rant; have a beautiful day chicas.

Hi Everyone! Have had limited internet access, so haven't been able to keep up very well.
So I ended up gaining weight during our stay in Italy. Too many chocolate hazelnut cookies, restaurant food, and periods of long driving. I did manage to lose it now that we are in Hungary. So just 1 pound net loss this past 2 weeks. Considering how badly I ate in Italy, I am happy with this. Probably won't make my Easter Challenge goal, but will still not give up the fight =)

Nice to read your posts when I can. Good luck everyone. Talk again soon!

Well I went waaaay off plan (far enough off plan that I didn't even count my calories). I tried some short interval running yesterday morning, which made it 2 mornings in a row that I did it. My arthritic knee threw a major hissy fit, and swelled up like a balloon (not to mention hurting!!) so my husband asked if I wanted him to bring something home for supper. I said PIZZA! And I snacked on pizza all night (as well as a little Reece's chocolate and peanut butter), and it was wonderful! I am back on plan today, except that I am taking the day off from my daily 3 mile walk, as my knee still feels stiff and swollen this morning, so I thought I'd not risk making things worse.

Oh, and to top it off, TOM made a surprise visit yesterday (I am used to a 5 or 6 week cycle, this month she showed up 'on time')

OH MY MY MY!!! We were all losing together and now we are all getting off task together. Well at least we are sticking together. Last night was a rough one. I got off track for dinner. I made burritos and one too many. I had some good results last week and I don't want to blow it. So lets start losing together again. I did my kettle bell workout this morning and will be going to the gym for lunch.

I am way WAY down this morning! 131.8lbs! I think it's because I am hungover.

Had a great day yesterday until the boyfriend surprised me with hockey game tickets, which meant gigantic beers in between each period. And a salted pretzel. And some peanuts in the shell.

Sheesh, get me back on TRACK! I won't get a scale reading until Saturday, tonight we're going out to an expensive steakhouse (Angus Barn, doesn't that sound like a burger joint? But it's very ritzy.) and so tomorrow morning I will be way back up.

HOW MUCH DO I WEIGH!? I keep getting way high (almost 135) or way low (131.8) -- I need to get consistent so I can figure out where I am!

Good Morning Ladies,

Yesterday I didn't do that well on my calories, however I didn't keep snacking after dinner and kept to my water. I weighed myself this morning and I lost 1lb! Small victory but I'll take it. Every pount is counting right now. Now that i'm keep track of what i'm eating I'm really starting to see how I put on the weight like I did, and I'm trying to figure out ways to cut back.

I'm starting to notice frozen meals are easier for me to keep track of calories as I'm starting up again, then I'll work up to substituting whole foods. the only problem is the sodium in most of the frozen meals, but it's better than me eating out. I'm getting off the pop and energy drinks, which I started cuz of my new job i was adjusting to the schedule again. One day at a time.

Thank you all for the warm welcome and it's great to see all you again, and for those who I haven't met, I'm excited to get to know you

I have alot of catching up to with with reading your posts and I will get back on here later to comment on them.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

WI day tomorrow, not feeling very optimistic about this week . I did do better on my calories yesterday. 1600 on the button...still at the top of my range, but no extra snacking this time at least. I did get my exercise in too, so I guess it could be worse. TOM has lasted FOREVER this time around. Should have been over yesterday, but still lingering today. UGH.

Hoping for a "no gain" this week at least. Assuming I'm that lucky, I will have 2 weeks left to meet my challenge goal (I will be out of town over Easter weekend, so my last WI will be the 22nd.) My last WI was 182.8, so if I shoot for 179.9, I still have 2.9 lbs to go. Not sure if this is going to happen...but I will keep trying!

So, a question...should I cycle my calories low today, since I went way overboard yesterday?

Typically I eat 1600-1800 calories, should I drop it today at all? If so, by how much?

Well this may be the most obvious thing in the world but I found out yesterday if you feel a binge coming on, going grocery shopping is not a good idea. I got home from my workout, had my post-work snack, had another one and then was still hungry so grabbed a granola bar on my way out the door. While driving to the first store (I'm a multiple store kinda gal), I was determined not to binge and popped in a stick of gum. Looked at all the bulk candy / nuts / snacks but managed to resist. Got to the car and decided I needed something so I grabbed a banana. But by store two, my willpower was pretty much gone. I grabbed a candy bar on the way out. Store three just kicked my butt. I proceed to buy ice cream sandwiches and take-and-bake cookies. Ate most of both last night along with several other snacks.

I'm just having such a hard time kicking these binges. I think I know why they started (I went home in November, ate a normal breakfast and lunch but big dinners and snacks) and gained 7 - 8 pounds. Came home and got rid of it pretty quickly. So I think I have this mindset of "No big deal if I gain, I can just take it off again." But that's really not the case. Because at some point in time, I'm going to gain before I lose. And 1 -2 pound gains will start adding up. I think it's also not helping that my weight had not really gone down prior to this binge-fest I've been on. Well hello you idiot, you've been lifting weights like crazy! You've probably put on muscle weight!

I do not want to gain back this weight I've spent all this time and energy taking off. Not for health reasons, not for vanity reasons. I mean, I've created a business around this. How would it look for me to balloon up??? I think I'm going to take the rest of the week off (at least today), think about what I need to do to refocus myself and get my arse in gear! I have to keep remembering that I've done this before, I can do it again.

For those of you that are stumbling as well, I can't be much of a cheerleader but I can tell you I know how frustrated you must feel. I wish everyone on this challenge the best of luck for the last half of our challenge. Maybe overcoming my demons will be the success I find at the end.

I'm so sorry we all are having such a rough week! We all need and
and we'll be alright...no time to do personals but I will say that yesterday I ate close to 2,000 calories; I ate my exercise calories and then some...

EEK! But I drank plenty of water and today I weighed in at 242.2, a .6 lb loss from yesterday, only 1.2 lbs away from my Easter Goal, but I would like to lose even more by the 24th (I thought Easter was the 21st? Am I a bad Catholic? i can answer that myself: Yes.) and go at least 2 lbs past my Easter goal, I still have 2 more weeks and 2 more official weigh-ins, so I think I can do it...

Off the stairs!!! Let's end this week with a bang ladies!