Hi Lynn, glad to see you joining us here.

I keep playing with a couple pounds of water I guess. One day it's gone, next day its back....it's the hump to get in the 180's again.

We just had to put our 13 yr old, Mainecoon cat down yesterday. I am broken hearted, he was such a wonderfual cat and big part of our lives. So here is to Simon, our Gentle Gaint....I will always miss him.

Have to do a stress test today so I will get some exercise in....lol

Phyllis

Check out my ticker ladies - another pound!! yayyyyy

Looks like this crazy calorie counting thing actually works - my calorie deficit as of today is 7,299 - which is supposed to equal 2 lbs. (a little over) And guess what, it did!!!!

I'm quite pleased with myself. I don't think I can drop 8 more by 2/14, but I'll just shoot for that next 3,500 calorie deficit.

down a bit more. 20lbs total so far...so happy

I'm so sorry about your cat, Florida.

Rusty... I'm so sorry to hear about "Simon" your gentle giant. We had to put our 5 year old English Setter down and it broke out hearts too. He was so sweet with us, but we couldn't trust him with our grand kids or anybody. He bit the mailman and just about got the meter reader.
We have a pitch Black long haired cat that lives out in our breezeway, she's about 15 years old and doesn't like to go outside anymore. I'm going to hate to see her go. We get so attached to them like family.

Bobbi

Thank you nineteen and Bobbi.....we will miss our cat for a long time to come.

We still have the Doberman, however he is also going on 13 yrs. old. So we will enjoy him while we can.

I am gratefull for 13 years with Simon, he was such a unique cat .... you just touch the top of his head and he would purr.

Ok, deficit was lower yesterday 970 but I am down 5 lbs. towards the goal.

Thanks again, Phyllis

Florida: So very sorry to hear about your cat. My 11 year old pit bull puca has to have a tumor removed next week; hoping it has not spread. She's been my baby for the past 10 years so I hope she'll be ok. I really sympathize with you, it is such a sad reality of life.

Smartbutt and ennay: yay! I'm also down a bit over 20 and am also really happy this is actually working like a charm.

Hi Bobbolink!

Yesterday was horrible for me calorie wise. I was doing fine until this lady under the dryer next to me at the salon tempted me with the smell of her spanish carribbean food from the restaurant next door - she went there with curlers in her hair mind you. From there on I had such a taste for that food. DH and I ended up splitting pernil (pork), chicharron de pollo (fried boneless chicken), arroz blanco (white rice LOL) and beans. Its so hard to estimate how many calories I had because I didnt measure before serving myself. Surprisingly fitday had all these spanish carribbean dishes on there (even the white rice listed as arroz blanco, rice but cooked with some fat. I tend to overestimate - I think - but it brought yesterday to 2500 calories. Today I will definitely be back OP. I kind of planned on eating more yesterday anyway because I like to eat high for a day or two then low for a few days and then average for a few days to keep my metabolism guessing (and allow me some food after 3 days of eating below 1700 and feeling very hungry).

Yet another pound gone! Holy crud. This has been quite the week for me. I didn't have dinner last night because 1. I had already eaten 1300 calories by the time I got home from work, and 2. I was reeeeally tired and just decided to go to bed very early.

So, it may be down another pound simply because dinner isn't floating around in my digestive tract, but I'll take it!

Man am I in a good mood.

Mami,

The food you ate (Puerto Rican or Dominican) isn't as bad as you think. I'm Dominican... I eat that stuff all the time (although I traded the white rice in for brown rice eons ago) and the problem with our food is the salt. Americans add butter to white rice, we add olive oil. So the caloric value will be the same. What did you in was the chicharron because it's fried (I don't eat that... never liked it... too greasy) but the pernil in and of itself is a lean cut of pork and all we do is season the heck out of it and broil it.

I had rice, beans, pernil for New Year's and my calories for that meal came to 699 and that's with gandules (pigeon peas) instead of the kidney beans. AND... that's allowing for eight ounces of pernil, one cup of rice, and 1/4 cup of gandules. (I ate the rice and gandules mixed [moro de gandules] so I estimate I got about 1/4 cup in there). Hope this eases your mind some.

Caribbean cuisine is really quite good for you if you watch the stinking salt (which I refuse to cook with) and go easy on the platanos (although you can eat a plate of mangu and you not be hungry for three days).

As for the curlers, I thought my people stopped doing that ages ago. Still a few stragglers, I guess....

As for my Valentine's Goal of losing ten pounds, I did it! But with more than three weeks to go, I believe I can get another three to four pounds off.

down another 0.8 today, but I know some of it is water from not getting to workout much this week, as soon as I start up again it will come back, but hopefully I can lose real weight at the same time like I did last time and just hold steady

Anabsolutediva, I didn't know you're a Dominicana The reason I'm worried about the food is because when I gained a lot of weight, I often ate abuelita's (DH's) food. Chullettas fried in oil, arroz not with olive oil but con crisco and other oils, my favorite chicken cutlets deep fried (yum) and yummy deep fried tortones. The arroz con gondules is her specialty and its probably fine, except the portion sizes I'm served, and which I have to eat or I'll hear it from abuela, are really huge. When I wasn't losing I had to limit going over there to eat and its helped. If you have any recipes please share!

*Claudia*

OMG girl,

You are cracking me up! Tostones will do you in, every time!

My father is from Barcelona and I lived there for quite a few years, so I took my mom's flair for seasonings and my father's flair for seafood and olive oil and made the best of both worlds.

Does abuelita cook in bacon fat??? LOL Dios mio! If we let them, they'll kill us.

I have really "adjusted" mami's cooking to eliminate salt and use olive oil whenever oil was needed. She fusses a bit when she eats (Nina... hechale sazon a eso) but papi thinks it's just fine!

My mom has never had a weight problem, and she and my dad run races and bicycle regularly.

And THEREIN lies the difference! ACTIVITY!

;-)

Good Morning Girls!
Yesterday's calorie intake was 1,160 & Fat 35%

Claudia and Diva, you're making me really, really hungry. I'm not of your nationality but my mom always made bacon and eggs for breakfast and she cooked our eggs in the bacon fat. (It was so tasty) She also browned all our meat in bacon fat. Sorry to see those days gone by!
Rusty... Congrats on the 5 pounds down for the challenge. You're half way there and we still have 24 days left.
Mami... I think everyone has issues with family and portion sizes. If you don't eat huge servings it's like you've insulted them. They spend all that time in the kitchen making it and we feel guilty if we don't show our gratitude in heaping up our plates. Good thing you limit your time over there!
SmartButt...

Quote:
Man am I in a good mood.

It put's me in a good mood just to see your ticker go down, congrats on the 3 lbs. and keep up the good work.
Diva... Congratulation to you, our 1st to make goal on our Valentine's challenge. I'm right behind you, I'm down 9 lbs. With 24 days left, I'm sure you'll probably lose a few more!
ennay... Glad to hear of your 0.8 pounds down, I know you have to be more careful with a nursing baby. By the way, how much weight has the baby put on? Sorry, I can't remember if it's a little girl or boy.
All you other challengers, Hi!

Bobbi

Bacon fat....that is all I cooked with for years. That is also the southern way to fry anything. We saved it in a container and used it over and over....I'm surprised we all lived!!!! lol I still have the little glass container sitting on my sink....nice memories.

Had ab 1800 cal. day with a 660 deficit. If I hadn't had those 2 drinks it wouldn't have been so bad....lol

Weight STS, so on to a new improved week!!!

Phyllis

bobbi - when I weighed him about a week ago he was over 13.5 lbs. He is so big compared to what my daughter was. I actually feel like I am losing weight a bit too fast, but I am just about done with the baby weight and gonna be getting into the hardcore struggled with for 20 years weight and I think this will slow down