northern- Wow, that was luck finding the girl that lost the dog. Bet she was happy!
KDM- great job resisting those donuts! I wanted a bodybugg for a long time, just worried I won't understand how to use it!
tinner- Yay! for choosing the blueberries!


Down 2 lbs. finally. Walked 32min, even though I'm sick, just walked slower. Calories are 1341, ate lots of fruit to boost my vitamin C. Right now I feel like I could fall asleep sitting up, going to bed soon!

Happy Friday everyone!

I’ve stayed OP this week, went walking and resisted diet coke. So I’m pretty happy about that :) However, I have a birthday celebration with my family this weekend at my favorite restaurant. I already know exactly what I’m getting (grilled chicken with pesto pasta – yum), so I went online and looked up the nutritional info and just about had a panic attack. 1600 calories for grilled chicken and pasta! Luckily it’s a huge portion, so I plan to eat ½ on Sunday and ½ on Monday and while 1600 cals freaks me out, I can totally fit two 800 cal meals into my plan. Yay!

My NSV: I stayed on plan on my birthday and didn’t use that as an excuse to completely stuff my face (which is what I would normally have done :o)

Fruit: Congrats on the weight loss and on walking even though you’re not feeling well! Hope you feel better soon!
Tinner: Good job on choosing the blueberries instead of the pizza!
KDM: Good for you for saying no to the doughnuts! I find that checking in here helps me resist things too.
Northern: I’m glad that you found the dog’s owner. It was so nice of you to take care of it and make sure it got back home safe!
Vitamin C: Everyone takes breaks from tracking calories sometimes, and you still lost weight this week, so that’s great!
Farn: Welcome back!

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

sparkle- thanks!

Calories are 1375 & no walk today, was busy and had no time. Plus I still feel like crap! Now my nose is so stuffed up that I can't taste anything I eat. Lost 1lb , hoping to be 114lbs by tomorrow. I averaged 1741 calories a day this week, I don't think I'll make it. Sunday is usually an eat anything day, if i can't taste, why eat??

Fruit: I am starting to feel under the weather as well. Hope we both feel better soon!

Sparkle: Very wise of you to enjoy your pasta dish twice and work it into two days' worth of calories rather than "blowing" one day :)

So as I've mentioned before, I'm falling short of my 5 days of exercise per week. I only seem to get 3-4. Need to work on that. Yesterday we did paint the trim on the garage (I say that counts as exercise!) but then we had some last minute help (DH's brothers). This was great too, but I didn't have much food in the house and felt obligated to feed them at lunch time, so we ended up ordering pizza. It was very tasty, but definitely outweighed any calories I burned painting, lol. At least we had a light dinner (sandwiches) to make up for it a bit. Oh well.

This week I start Zumba on Wed. Yay! The only bad thing about this week is I have to go on an overnight trip Thursday night for work. Road/conference food is always challenging. Also probably won't get any exercise in Thrusday night. Will have to WI either a day early or a day late this week as I will be gone Friday morning. Not sure which is worse for WI...soreness due to zumba Thursday morning or bloat from road/conference food Saturday morning? I guess I will just take either with a grain of salt and move on.

Small NSV from yesterday (sorry, I know I'm a couple days late)...went to buy a new workout outfit for Zumba and after comparing the large and extra large pants, I decided the extra large would probably be too big. Got home and tried on the large and I was right, they fit just fine! While I've finally accepted the fact that I'm no longer plus size (I no longer think people are "watching" me when I shop in the "regular" sizes now), I think I'm finally "getting" that I don't always need the biggest possible size in the "regular" sizes either. Wow, I'm almost "normal", lol!

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday!

Hi everyone!!

This week's been hectic, planning the trip I mentioned and getting everything prepped at work/ahead in school, so I haven't had any time to post, and I don't really have time at the moment. :(

I did well for my NSV, I stayed OP about 80% of the time. My NSV for Friday is to exercise 3 times this week.

I'm doing my weigh-in a day earlier, I'm down 2.4 pounds this week! Hurray!

Northern-What was your maintenance calories?

I have flubbed up for about half the week :( So I did not weigh in on Friday. I am ready to restart on Monday....those last three pounds are screaming at me everyday......I gotta kick them to the curb.

K15: I really didn't count calories when I was maintaining. I just ate "intuitively", kept active and weighed in every other week or so to make sure I was staying on track. I guess I've just been doing this so long, I have a pretty good idea as to how much food I can eat and not gain. If I had to guess, I'd say I maintain at somewehre around 2,200 cals at my current weight? That's just a guess though. According to my lose it app, I can eat almost 1,700 cals and expect to lose about a lb/week. I try to shoot for 1500-1600 though (mainly to make up for my sometimes sloppy math, lol.)
And yes! Kick those 3 lbs to the curb!!

Ekicna: welcome!

Lemon: congrats on the 2.4, that's fantastic!

As for me: well, got sabatoged out of my exercise again last night. My dryer decided to crap the bed and there I was with a load of wet clothes in the dryer, one in the washer and another dirty load. And of course there's no way you're going to find a dryer repairman on Sunday night in a small town! So we washed the last load, brought all the wet clothes to the laundromat and dryed them there. Have any of you been to a luandromat lately? Sheesh! $3.00 for 30 minutes of drying time. Cost us $10 to dry 3 loads. I don't know how people can afford that!

Anyhoo...no exercise aside, I did OK on calories yesterday, a little over but not much. But now it's a new week...let's all start strong!

Good Morning. I'm back to myself and ready to finish this challenge. I've been doing well, even though I've been battling TOM I actually weighed in on Saturday and lost 2lbs for the week!!! YAY!! This month my cycle has been full moonish and I've been psycho. What it taught me is I have to anticipate my cycle and not let it control my moods...not easy. It hasn't gone but I'm in better control of myself.

Looks like I've missed a lot and will catch up after I get my work done at my desk...my office hasn't been excluded from my psycho behavior. So I gotta get it all together at my desk so I can submit my reports.

Today's Nugget: Focus on the task at hand and don't let distractions consume you. The distraction will get you so far off course that you have to work harder than you are already working to get to where you are going. Let's do this!!

Hi all! Everyone seems to be doing great!!
KDM: Awesome NSV!!! Keep it up, and we're glad to be able to support and encourage! :carrot:
Ekicna: :welcome: to the challenge! There is a lot of nice support here!
tinneranne: I so know what you mean about the pizzas at Wemans! Awesome work resisting!! :carrot:
fruit: Great job on the loss! It does pay off to eat OP and exercise!!
jiggle: I really liked the nugget for today! I'm glad hubby and you are finally back to normal!! Have fun getting it all back together :T

I just got back from visiting my sister, her hubby and their kiddos. It was quite a fantastic visit! I also (even though it was bothering my mind to do this) took a much needed break from counting calories and honestly trying not to care. It was bothering me, which is good because I know how to eat healthy and I'm getting back on track today. But, I think I was stressing out a bit too much about loosing weight last week. I needed a breather.
But, I'm back!! I'm about to take a snooze and then have a healthy lunch. Then it'll be a bit of exercise. Last week I was playing with the net calories. If the tracker said I netted -1000 or less I ate 1400, if I netted -1200-1500 then I ate back some. But, I think I might not focus on that right now. I'm just going to focus on eating between 1400-1500 most days unless I feel insanely hungry (or need a break).
OH and I got my pedometer in! :carrot: I'll be setting that up after my nap too!!
later chickies!! :carrot:

Hey ladies! Sounds like everyone’s doing well :)

tdiprincess: Sounds like a great visit! I feel myself obsessing over my weight loss sometimes too, and it really is good to just step back and not worry for a few days :)
Phat: Glad you had a great weekend. Your lunch sounds yummy :)
Jiggle: Glad you’re feeling better – I hope everything settles down soon.
Northern: Laundromats are so expensive! I used to just hang dry all my clothes, so I only had to pay for the washer. The only problem was that hang dried socks are never as cozy as ones from the drier :(
Ekicna: Welcome!
K15: We all have bad weeks, but it’s great that you’re so close to your goal!
Lemon: Congrats on the 2.4 pounds! That’s awesome!

I had a good weekend. I went out to dinner last night and had my leftovers today, and went a bit over my calories both days but not by much. I also had diet coke both days. Oops. And since I haven’t had caffeine in so long (since I cut the pop, I only drink water) it’s made me a bit hyper :o. So I don’t think I’ll be drinking pop again for a while.

My eating & exercise went well this weekend. Was down to 114.7 yesterday, today it was 115.3. The gain was either the 2 small peanut butter truffle brownies I ate last night or it's the cold medicine i'm taking. After I made & ate the brownies, I figured out the calories for 1 brownie and it was 410! I was so busy yesterday, I didn't have time to calculate the recipe before I baked them. From now on, before I put any food in my mouth, I am making sure I know the calories!

Today had 1550 calories & exercised 98 min!

Fruitlady: The brownies sound delish!!! -Would love the recipe!! :D I think you have a great idea, and I try to do the same most days. It's important to pre-plan the calories, or at least know how much damage something is doing!!

Ekicna- Some days are like that, but at least you're getting a run in!! Keep up the great work!!

I just finished my exercise for the night. I did 15mins of strength (pusup program) and then 25mins of Zumba! I'm at 1100 calories. I need protein and fat and fiber (but I'm good on carbs..opps. A little too much refined carbs :T ). I'm trying to hold out for hubby, but I may do a salad to get most of the fiber and then eat more when he gets in.
Later chickies! :carrot: