Hello everyone. My name is Donna, i am 26, married, no kids and live in Indiana. I have tried many different plans, Weight watchers among other things, and I am just fed up with the whole thing. Would like to try it the old fashioned way. any suggestions for what I should have as my caloric intake would be appreciated. I try to get in the pool every other day for water aerobics, and I have a good video, and I also like to walk at least a mile 2-3 times a week. Any ideas would be appreciated! Thanks,
Donna

Hey everyone! Well I'm a couple days late on the daily post thing but I'll make up for that today. As of right now I'm down to 151 so 2 pounds gone! We went out to eat last night and I didn't do great but making some progress. I would really like to get back in to the 140's by the end of next week. Definitely doable.

Hey Milly! When I first started counting calories I measured EVERYTHING. And I know that that can be a pain. After a while though, I got used to seening the portion size and was able to eyeball it pretty well. I still measure every now and then just to keep myself in check. Ya know its amazing how that portion size can double when you are really hungry or you really like what you are getting ready to eat. Actually know I really dont count calories anymore, I just focus on making healthy choices like lots of fresh veggies and lean protien. I eat a lot of salads with tons of different vegetables. The only thing I still measure with that is the salad dressing so I dont go overboard with that. Its a slow process but if you stick with it you will see results.

Hey Donna, welcome to the group.

Hello to everyone else! I'll check in later today, but I've got to get to work right now.

Hi ALL,

Welcome to the Newbies!

Well after a two week stand still and being so sleepy I seem to have dropped 2 full pounds!! I was so happy to see 146.2 on that scale! I seem to have theses cycles where I am on it and working out hard and OP then while sticking to my eating plan will get burt out or (PMS) and I wll have a week or two like that with no loss and right when I think my work outs are slacking and I can barley get up to workout, I get my energy back and I see a 2 lb drop?? Then I get motovated again and am right back in there. Does anyone do the same thing? I was thinking I would have gained after taking 3 days off my work outs this last weekend and the 2 big cookouts last weekend??

Did every one have a nice Memorial day weekend. I did and it flew right by!

It is soooooo rainy here! all day, all night and now all morning.

Well after seeing the 2 lb loss I decided to measure and dug up my old chart with my starting measurements, I thought I would share........

June 20, 2003
chest- 50"
Hips- 52"
Upper ST. 46 1/4"
L arm- 15"
R leg- 24 3/4"
% body fat 46%
lbs to loose 87.8 lbs

June 01, 2005
chest- 40 3/4" (9 1/4" LOST)
Hips- 41 1/4" (10 3/4" LOST)
Upper ST. 35 3/4" (10 1/2" LOST)
L arm- 11 3/4" (3 1/4" LOST)
R leg- 21" (3 3/4" LOST)
% body fat 32% (14% lost and 8% left to be at 24% body fat!)
lbs lost 66.4lbs
lbs to loose 21.2 lbs
Goal is 125

Hello and Good Morning Everyone...I am in a good mood today! Last night after supper I still had 6 points left and my DD brought home Doritos....I had way to many and felt like sh** after eating them....but I drank alot of water and woke up with one pound gone! They were not worth feeling so bad about...

Today is another day of packing the offices... take care all!

Amie~ All I can say is WOW I am so impressed with your loss, you are doing great! Im sure you feel like your on CONGRATS

Hello to all newbies.... I hope you enjoy the group as much as I do! ALOT of good advice and inspiration in here

You all have a great day, and stay OP

Lori

hello ladies!! everyone is doing so well...amie, CONGRATS!!! those stats are amazing, you must be so proud, justifiably so!!!! I can see you at 125, you will be so hot!

Lori, YAY to us for putting up with WEEKS AND WEEKS of rain, clouds and cool weather, we also received that forecast of like 5 days of warmth and glorious sun!!!

hi Lisi!! I would love to ride down there, solo!!! would be nice go get away from "things" here for a visit.

aphil, you're right, I would love that costume congrats on the work order! and you will be highly deserving of a four-page post of your progress!!

hi jackie, always good to hear from you! Re-vitalize your goals here with us, we'll keep you on track

Hi Idealperson!! way cool on eating doritos and being down 1 the next day Shows that you're on the right track

hello to the newcomers!!

ladies, I've been trying to work out even harder...same workouts, but with more intensity...and I feel it, and I have kept it quiet, but I'm down a couple pounds! have waited a couple of weeks to see if it wasn't a fluke or fluctuation. I'ts shown as low as 143 in the past week, but I think a 145.5 is more like it. That's Okay

rode about100 miles today by myself, it was SO gorgeous here. Vermont is FINALLY almost totally green (the upper ridgeline of mountains still haven't leafed out yet, but everything else is) Blue skies, high puffy little clouds, WARM! alright!!!

Good evening everyone!

Just sitting down to a cup of hot tea and came to see how everyone was doing!

***Milly-there are a lot of things that I eat that I don't have to "measure out" per say-like a piece of fruit, or a cup of yogurt. They are already in a single serving size. Other things of course I have to measure. You just get used to it after a while. I have found some of the following tips helpful:

~Go to a health/fitness place and buy a drinking container that lists the ounces on the side. When you are having something like a cup of milk, or a cup of orange juice-then you only have to fill the drinking container to 8oz., and you have your 1 cup to drink. It is easier than using a measuring cup and THEN pouring it into a glass to drink it out of. It sort of gets rid of one step.

~Over time you will memorize staple foods in your diet-foods that you tend to eat often. For instance with me-most of the foods that I eat really often I have the calorie counts memorized for-1 cup of strawberries is 45 calories...a small banana is about 100 calories...a can of tuna in water is 150 calories (the kind I buy anyhow)...a container of Yoplait Light yogurt is 100 calories. As time goes on, there are certain things you no longer have to look up the calories for, and it saves a little time. It just takes time though. Be patient with yourself.

As far as the measuring vs. the "eyeballing" portions...I think it is important to measure when you are at home and can do so-your eye gets trained to seeing 1/2 cup of this, or 1 tablespoon of that on your plate-and it knows exactly what that amount looks like. This way, when you are at a buffet in 2 or 3 months-you can "eyeball" a portion of something-and be pretty close to the correct amount. Measure when you can, so that you can eyeball it correctly when measuring is not an option.

***Holly-congrats to you!!!! I am so happy to hear that your weight has come down a little more! I also know how you feel "keeping it under wraps for a while-to make sure it isn't a fluke!" Change that weight in your signature babe!!!!! Glad to hear that you have been upping the intensity of your workouts, doesn't it feel great???

***idealperson and amie-congrats to you as well!!!!

***Donna-welcome! We are pretty close in age...and I am from Indiana as well! I think that maybe you should try starting out at 1800 per day and see how you do. Try to space out the calories through the day and eat 3 meals and a couple snacks spaced apart so you aren't hungry all day. See how you do on that for a while.

***Hi Nan! Welcome!!

***Hi jacklyn, lisi, lori, and everyone else-hope everyone is doing well!!!

Great job with the scale losses this week all around! You are all so inspirational!!! We are going to have a bunch of gorgeous looking women around here this summer!

I have had a busy day-today was Jasmine's last day of school, then Jasmine and I ran to the grocery store after I picked her up. Raiden stayed here with Jason-because he was home today. He went in to work a little while ago, because he is working an off shift tonight for something that is going on at his plant. I had a nice dinner with the kids-I had an organic black bean and rice burrito, and a HUGE bowl of cut up fresh strawberries on the side. They were very ripe and sweet, and very good. The kids had strawberries for dessert as well.

I am getting ready to do a evening cardio workout, and then take a quick shower afterwards. I plan on spending the rest of the evening at the sewing table working on the troupe tops. They need to be finished by Wednesday evening for our dress rehearsal. After that I will be able to really bunker down and start working on the Elektra costume for the woman who requested my services.

I have been doing a little planning with my SIL for her wedding next June. Looks like I am going to be working on that all year as well...and we decided to be "fun" and wear decorated flip-flop sandals instead of high heels with our bridesmaid/matron of honor/bridal gowns! (It is an outdoor wedding.) Her colors are purple/lavendar/silver...and I believe we (matron and bridesmaids) are wearing lavendar...so we are going with white flip flop sandals with sequins and embroidery on the straps.

Keep it up ladies!

Aphil

hi everyone -

i'm new to the forums but excited to be here. i'm going to try to keep my diet simple and just do it the old fashioned way, but one problem im worried about is eating out. how do you guys estimate the calories you've consumed when you eat out or do you even bother? im going to try to eat out as little as possible but sometimes you just can't help it. im crossing my fingers that this time i can take a few pounds off...

on a side note, a friend recommended a website called www.myfitnesspal.com that basically is an online food diary. apparently they are still testing the site but you can get a free 6-month membership while they are testing so i thought id pass that along. seems pretty good so far but if anyone has any other suggestions for other sites theyd be appreciated. keeping a food diary has been kind of a pain for me in the past so im hoping an online website will help make it simple - otherwise i know myself and i'll just end up not doing it. donna - they even give you a diet profile so you can find out how many calories you should be eating daily if you want to lose a certain amount of weight per week.

hope thats helpful. thanks in advance for all the suggestions everyone!

Hi everyone!

When you eat out-there are certain things that you can do.

~order a water, tea, or diet soda-you know they are calorie free

~There is nutrition information online at almost every fast food resutaurant establishment, and some sit down restaurants. Look them up and see! (Plan before you go!)

~If you are in a restaurant where nutrition info is not available-make it simple. Order a shrimp cocktail (take a mental note on the shrimp count), a salad with light dressing, or a grilled chicken salad (you can look up the approximate amounts of lettuce/salad, and the chicken breast at home. Or maybe order a piece of grilled fish and a baked potato-if you need butter or sour cream for it-request it on the side and measure out a tablespoon YOURSELF. (They can easily slop on 2-3 tablespoons if you let them put it on for you.) This goes for salad dressing as well. This is where measuring at home comes in handy-when you eat out you can correctly estimate a tablespoon.
If you are at a buffet-search for vegetable soup, salad bar, cut up fruit in the dessert or salad section...steamed vegetables. Buffets are only bad if you are loading on the hot rolls, fried entrees, and desserts.

If you keep it simple-then you can estimate it when you return home.

thanks aphil, that's great advice! stick to foods that are prepared simply, that i know are low cal and good for me, and in quantities that are easily counted/measured (like shrimp) - got it! wish me luck!

I love salad dressing and one thing that keeps me sane is ordering the dressing on the side.

I stick my fork in the dressing, then into the salad. Saves a lot of calories and I don't notice the difference.

Sorry to just "jump in" but I sabotage myself on salad dressings....

Best of luck!!!

On another note, the 3FC themselves review online diets and such this month. Some of them have food journals included. I've used fitday on and off for years and have been very happy with it. besides, it's free.

aphil, I LOVE the flipflop idea for the wedding!! I have to go to a wedding in Las Vegas in August, have nothing to wear (guess i'll get out the sewing machine) and am not looking forward to stuffing my size 30 behind into an airplane seat for the trip from Nashville to Las Vegas. eyukkk.

(waving) hi, all the new folks!! This is a fabulous thread! I've only been here just a little while, and everyone here has made me feel welcome, as I know they have made you welcome.

Have a great weekend, all. I'm still getting my daily calories nailed down. I think the 1,500 to 1,800 range is about right. If any of you "veterans" have other ideas, I'd love to hear them...

Cheers!

Thanks everyone for the info, I really appreciate it. I'll let oyu know how it goes!