Yup, 500 a day equals 3500 per week. That's what it takes for a pound.

Morning everyone!

Yesterday's deficit - 497. Hoping I'll find a way to get all this exercise in this week. Veggies a little better yesterday so we'll see if I can stick with it for more than a week.

Yesterdays deficit was 747...I went to the gym yesterday for the first time( a friend got me to join with her)..I loved it and can't wait to go back...I think we are going again today...

Ajsma - how do you make hummas? I know it's made with chickpeas right? but how do you make it and what all goes in it?

Donna - I got lazy and got some store bought hummus. The Native Tribe brand doesn't have very many added ickies. But, to make hummus (which my husband and I do often), you just grind up the chickpeas (drain off but keep the liquid to thin out the hummus if you need to) in a food processor with some tahini (seasame paste), salt, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and, to make it a bit a creamier, add a little sour cream or yogurt. There should be some recipies on the internet. I love hummus!!! I have to watch DH and the amount of garlic he puts in, however. He will have it so garlic spicy, you can't eat it!!! Good luck!

AJsMa - sounds tasty! I'll admit I am one of those who puts too much garlic in everything. I think I think it's required...my fiance had to actually warn me yesterday not to add it to the stir fry I was making.

Deficit of 793 today. Got called away to do something at work and ended up working overtime. Didn't have access to the fridge where my veggies were stored, then I was in such a hurry to get home I forgot to bring home my strawberries which were going to be dessert! Anyways, just worked out and am too tired to eat anything else so good, wholesome food and veggies will have to wait until tomorrow. hope everyones doing well!

Good morning, ladies (and gents -- are there any gents in this section?)!

Looks like we've got some nice deficits going here! Good job, folks!

Thanks, everyone, for the KitP (Kick in the Pants) regarding veggies. I've been slacking on them, because A) they really don't appeal to me and B) they always felt like way too much work for so little pleasure payoff. I'm going to try to kick it up a notch, though. Yesterday I eat nearly half of one of those bag salads. You're right, SusanB, that really boosts the veggie intake in one sitting.

Nice going, Donna, on the gym! Glad you liked it! Do you think having a workout buddy was what made it more enjoyable?

Miles, good for you for working out even after such a hectic day!

AJsMa, what's the difference between chickpeas and garbanzo beans? I've never been able to figure that one out. I've never had hummus, but anything including garlic gets a thumbs up from me!

I had a busier than usual day yesterday and didn't get a chance to post, so here we go. My deficit for Tuesday was 1,109. I'll get to yesterday's deficit in a sec.

Yesterday, I had to get (routine) bloodwork done, so was fasting until nearly noon. I couldn't decide whether to try to cram in the calories from noon on, or just to take it easy for the rest of the day, foodwise. I chose the latter.

In addition to having fewer than my typical caloric intake, I just went activity crazy for some reason. In addition to my usual strength training and 40 minutes cardio, I did an additional 20 minutes on the treadmill, took a 20 minute walk outside (it was 45 degrees and gloriously sunny), and played 3 sessions of ping pong with my son. We're both pretty good and we play quite aggressively (but friendly), so we really work out during a session. We ended up putting in about 1 hour 15 minutes.

With the increased activity and decreased caloric intake for the day, my decifit for yesterday was a whopping 1,760!!!

That should help scale-wise, I hope!

Have a Terrific Thursday, everyone!

My deficit was just over 500 cals and it was only that because I actually exercised yesterday.

Bagged salad is my friend!

Have you ever had those days where you look at your final goal and it just seems to far off. I'm feeling a bit depressed today because last night I found a picture on my computer of myself from a few years ago when I weighed a little less than 150. I looked so good and can't believe how much weight I let myself gain in these past years. I looked so horrible to myself in my current pictures. Besides depressing me beyond words, that picture has motivated me to get my butt in gear and turn it up a notch!!! LOL I am going to Walmart today to print off a copy to keep with me all day, so that when I feel like binging or not exercising, I can look at it and it will be my constant reminder of what I'm working towards.

On a brighter note, I had a deficit yesterday of 1783!!I just wasn't very hungry yesterday so I just had 2 slim fast shakes and then an egg/toast and a bowl of oatmeal for dinner. My deficit would have been more if I had exercised, but I cleaned my house instead...so I"m sure that counts for something.

How long does it usually take for your deficits to show up in the scale weight? I mean, if I had such a big dficit yesterday, does it take a few days to show up on the scale, or does it usually show up the next day?

Morning All .

I had a cracking start to the day. Went to the gym before work like always, did my workout (ran 2 miles then 20 mins on elliptical ), went to take shower. Got in cubicle started unpacking bag. Towels, check. Pants, check. Underwear check. Where the flipping heck is my shirt?????? Yup, I had forgotten to pack a clean shirt. Last night I had picked out a shirt but it had a spot on it, so I put it in the washer and forgot to pick out another one.

Luckily, I have my blue zip up fleece with me so I'm wearing just that! I just hope I don't get too warm! I'm having a half day too, going for a mani-pedi for my birthday dinner Friday. Not sure I want to sit in the beautician sweating my pants off so might have to go buy a t-shirt

Oh and to top it all, my hair has decided that today is the day it wants to reinvent itself as an afro.

Lets hope today improves!

Yesterday's deficit was 912, which I'm very happy with.

Lena and Angielynne - Great job on the deficits! 1700+ is awesome!

Have a great day all.

Angie ... I wish it was instant. Wouldn't that make staying on track easier? But ... we're women ... we have hormones, we have water, we have salt .... some of us is muscle, some is fat .....
Rest assured that having a consistant defict will lead to weight loss -over time-

Besides that Angie girl ... you've already lost 26 lbs!!!

Hello everyone! I wanted to drop in before starting my day and check to see how all is getting along!

Yesterday, I definitely went a bit overboard on calories. I was really hungry for some reason (I blame TOM again). But, I did exercise and I had a deficit of around 400 or so.

I woke up this morning super tired! As I'm sure everyone is aware, allergy season is here! Ughhh!! My right eye was plastered shut this morning. And, all I want to do is sleep. I hate have allergies!

But, the great news is the scale finally moved in the correct direction this morning. So, Angielynne, I have had deficits of varying quantities pretty consistently over the last few weeks. Today was the first day in a long while that I had a significant weight loss show. I don't know what the mechanism is but for me it seems like the weight loss shows up all at once. Which is why I feel like as long as I'm posting some kind of deficit, I'll eventually, at some point in time, show a loss. The hard part is to stay focused when no loss is showing and stay on target with exercise and calories.

Angielynne, I know what you mean about feeling a goal is so far off! I have pictures of myself now (or 10 pounds ago) to try and scare myself. It works pretty well.

LynneA - You crack me up with the afro day!! I'm in major need of a hair cut which I don't have scheduled until next Friday. My hair is looking like an ashy blond mop on my head these days!

Lena - garbanzo beans and chick peas are the same thing. If you do like them, a good bean salad is to mix garbanzo beans with some vinergerette, add some salt, pepper, sun dried tomatoes and feta (yum....feta). High protein. Not necessarily low fat. But, at least it is full of good fat if you use olive oil based vinergerette.

Blues - DH really turned me on to real good cooking (he is a good New Orleans Italian - dago - boy). DH grew up eating in all the top NO restaurants and is a fabulous cook (ergo, the weight problem!). Ex-husband was a coon-*** and didn't like exotic foods (they don't count squirrel and crawfish as exotic). If I had anything with garlic in it (greek food - - yum), he would freak out! LOL I love garlic in its many forms - - roasted, boiled in crawfish, in anything with a sauce.

Now to regal you with a cute boy story. I brought small boy shopping yesterday for some shorts b/c it is starting to warm up down here! He is a huge (can I say HUGE) Thomas the Tank Engine fan. He spotted an outfit with a Thomas shirt. He ran to the shirt, yanked it off the rack and begged me to take off the tag. Then, he proceeded to remove the shirt he had on so that he could wear the Thomas shirt. It's amazing how quickly they pick up on this stuff!! I guess it doesn't help that I give the stuff to him!

Have a good day!

Thanks everyone for the encouragement.

Susan..I know I've already lost 26lbs, but that is based on my high weight. I just had a baby about 3 1/2 mos ago and I weighed 212 when I got pregnant with her. I lost some of the weight throughout my pregnancy, and I've lost about another 11 from Calorie counting since the end of January. I know there's no "quick fix" but I just feel like it takes forever to get the weight off ya know? It seems to go on quicker than it comes off!!! :-)


Ajsma-- Congrats on the loss...isn't it a great feeling to get on the scale and see it move in the right direction! :-)

Well...I've gt a busy day today. Probably won't have time to exercise on the treadmill this afternoon. A friend of mine if moving and I'm going over to help her clean, sweep, and mop her house. I guess that will count as some exercise..then maybe if I have energy left, I will walk on the treddy for 30mins tonight while I watch Survivor!!!

I also just wanted to say thank you to all you guys for being so encouraging and supportive. You make this journey a lot easier for me!!!

Hi all. I haven't posted for awhile, But Ms. Susan told me that I should get back into it. I need to rant, and I need some support, please. I've been having an awful time of it for the past week or so. I had a migraine for 4 days that knocked me out completely - couldn't work at either of my jobs, missed a friend's engagement party, etc. When I ate during that time, I didn't eat well at all, and did absolutely no exercise. As a matter of fact, I barely left my bed. I've been so busy that I missed a kickboxing class and my yoga class. Also, I haven't been grocery shopping this week and I guess I'm an aboslute dunce when it comes to eating good food not planned in advance. Grrrrrr. According to the scale, I'm GAINING weight which makes no sense. I mean a lot of weight - 5 LBS in a week? I guess I could be gaining some muscle, but since I haven't measured myself I don't know. I'm really frustrated and discouraged, and my goal seems absolutely impossible. We're trying to get the house ready to sell, removing wallpapper, sanding walls, paintin . . . it's a mess! I'm completely stressed out by everything going on, and I feel like I have no control over anything

Phewww, glad I got that out. You all have been doing so well, help me, please

Angie ... I do think it goes on quicker than it comes of ... suddenly it's just poof! there!

JenBug ... step back my friend. Calmly now. Last week was a mess for you ... let's move on now. You do have some stuff on the go. That may make it all the more important that you plan plan plan. Slot everything in cleaning, work, painting, eating and stick to your plan.
Schedule time to go for groceries (finances permitting) and take the time when you get home to package things for easy accessibility. If the best you can do is all the extra work and eating cleanly ... so be it for now ... If you can fit in your exercise classes? KUDOS!
Life does get in the way. We just have to figure out how to get around it.

I'm sorry that kinda sounded preachy, didn't it?

Hi, I'm new to the site. I came across this thread and it seems pretty interesting! I just have a couple questions. How do you determine your deficit? I would love to jump in here, if you all don't mind

Amanda