Jayjay - I know what you mean... if it weren't for my upcoming beach trip, I would have already fallen off the wagon 10 times over - I've never been this motivated in my life - getting fit is hard work, and frankly not much fun! Yeah, some of it can be fun, but for the most part, not really! Hang in there. I'm with you on the 5lb muffin top! That's what I need to hit more than anything! Everything else is looking nice then I have this big tire o' fat around my waist! And I don't know what to do about it. I'm thinking the more cardio I can do, the better. Let me know what seems to work best for you!

Today for me was pretty good - ate pretty well and finished week 2 of c25k and did a little over a half hour of additional work outs this evening. I usually take Friday's off (date night), but I took yesterday off so I need to make sure to get a work out in tomorrow no matter what. I should really do it while DD is napping instead of napping myself!

I got a new Oxygen magazine yesterday but never got at it until today. I should find a mag that will come every week ... I find it soooo motivating!

I'm going to look after my grandbaby this weekend. Since I have to make her what she eats, I can make me what I want :D
We'll go for walks ... DD has some exercise equipment ... should be a good weekend (for a change)

hi featherweights!

jumping in here, if you all don't mind... been lurking around for a while.

I've been a really good girl lately and exercising every day (running, weight training, and recently started running HIIT) and eating a diet of mostly vegetables, lean meats, protein, etc. It's not hard to do because I'm back home (Japan) with my family and home cooked meals are the best! I just pick what I want out of the meal, and eat slowly, and move away from the dinner table before dessert hits. Been home for a month, probably will be here through the holidays. Normally I live in San francisco with my boyfriend, dog, and two cats (the one pictured is Ollie). :)

Anyway, I'm on a plateau. 132 is a wonderful place to be, and I feel good, fit, healthy, but there's no doubt I have more fat to give away! (don't you wish you could just give away your fat to someone who wants it?? magically, of course)

BUT being patient and seeing the same number every morning is hard...

Wanna join in here and hang out with you guys so I can keep swimming along. Thanks!

Amy - best wishes for the interview! Did it go well? Hope the good night's sleep helped your legs! Re the fat burning - consider some high-speed interval training. I have Dr. Al Sears' PACE book, and he strongly advises against too much cardio. His program only takes 20 minutes a day, which is all that I'm willing to devote to it. It's intense, though! I don't believe a nap is ever wasted time ... naps rule!

jiggles - sorry you're not feeling well. The cold I had last week did the same thing to me - nothing that was even remotely healthy sounded edible. Vegetables were totally out of the question! Heal yourself and jump back in. :)

jayjay - thank you, it's been a long slow crawl and I wouldn't want to forget a single minute of it. :) The magic bullet has been 3FC and the constant encouragement. I can relate to the muffin top - I'm wondering which pound I have to lose to make that go away! It wasn't the one this morning, cuz I have no clue where that one came from!

SusanB - have fun with the grandbaby! That time really is fleeting and she's lucky to have a grandma who can keep up with her!

chicken - welcome on board, I'm new to this thread too. It's taken me all year to drop 25, so yes, I can empathize with the same number hanging around too long. I'll be curious to hear if the HIIT does the trick for you!

I'm expecting a good weekend. DS10 and I will be swimming tonight. I have a party to go to tomorrow ... those are still a challenge for me because I'm a social foodaholic. I know all the right strategies but it's going to be a while yet before I can trust myself to do the right things.

My Dear Friends,

My father in law passed away and so we are back in India for one month. I am staying somewhere where the 24 hr internet without connection failures remains a dream!!! I couldn't contact you all for some time now. I only wish I could stay in touch with all of you soon.

I am doing a lot of exercises and less junk food at the moment. I don't know when I can send a message again.

I will be here when I come back to Germany again. Miss you!!

Well done to all the losers! Sorry to hear about your FIL lekshmiprasanth!

I have been struggling to run this week as I fell out with my mum and she normally watches my little girl for me while I go running. I think I have managed to arrange things for next week so I can train as I need to, but I have only managed one out of my four planned runs this week!

I lost 0.6 lb so all is not bad. I know it's not much but it's better than nothing.

:hug:lekshmiprasanth

Morning everyone! Joelle and I are having a wonderful time! Lots of walking outside!

sorry to hear that, lekshmiprasanth.

last night I indulged in a nice dinner + dessert for the first time in weeks, we all shared 3 different types of delicious cake. There was an entire half of a slice of chocolate cake left, and I decided, I'd had my fill, better to stop now while I'm still feeling good than stuff myself just because it's there. But I felt sad leaving it behind!

Anyway, I step on the scale this morning expecting to see the consequences and lo and behold, I've lost a whole pound!! After seeing the same number (or higher) for a long time, I was more than surprised.

Our bodies are the strangest things... maybe it's the HIIT workouts?

Hope everyone is having a great day!

lekshmiprasanth -- :hug: we'll be here when you get back....

chickennugget126 -- Love your avatar, we have a cat that looks very very similar to that...Here's his pic...

Also, just wanted to add that I've had a very good food and exercise day :yes: a good start to the week...

thanks everyone for all the support! i'm really enjoying 3fc so far. i can't wait till i can have one of those signatures with the weight goals...love those.
so i'm finally healthy and finished all the thanksgiving/birthday stuff.
tomorrow (along with school midterms) i start the diet and the exercising.
i bought a digital scale. i think it'll be better for me than my old analog; being able to see fractions of pounds lost and such. i'm also starting the fat smash diet and i have a bunch of exercise videos. i'm excited but nervous. the last time i tried a diet i ended up only losing a pound after two weeks and was totally grouchy and lost my patience all the time with my boyfriend. so i gave up. i'm hoping that being on 3fc and having people to talk to and get/give support will be a big help this time round.
wish me luck!!!

Ilene - oh my goodness, it appears we have the same cat! yours is adorable. :)

I've been struggling with some stomach issues for a couple of days, and tried to do my usual run today, got halfway through it, but walked the way back and decided to listen to my body. Gonna rest up and hopefully feel better by tomorrow.

Good Morning!!

I had a loss over the weekend girls! I'm pretty happy (despite the cold I caught) I can even change that little goal thing over there <<< in my profile!

lekshmiprasanth - I'm sorry for your loss. Travel safe.

Robsia - Sorry you're having difficulties with your mum. But congrats on already working out arrangements for the week!

chickennugget - I'm with you - I hate to see perfectly good cake go to waste! But congrats on holding strong!

My eating this weekend wasn't bad but exercise was not so hot - just one C25K, W3D1 run and that was it... We had company over on Saturday so I spend the morning cleaning, doing laundry - stuff that I had been putting off and really really needed to do -especially with company coming over! then Sunday I was just down right tired, my back was hurting from TOM and I just needed to rest so I went to bed early. I'm hoping for a better, more productive week. I know there's no way I can safely get down to 125 by my vacation on Nov 4th, so I'm slightly altering my goals for 125 to be my Thanksgiving weight, and hoping for 129.9 (under 130!) by November 4th. I also will need your help not falling off the wagon once I come back from vacation since it's been my #1 motivator.

Susan - a post-weekend loss is pretty much the hardest thing for me. so CONGRATS! That should make staying OP on weekdays easy as pie for you. It's the lack of routine that throws me off.

Amy - I think cleaning and laundry and such is totally a workout. You're moving so much more than you think... so don't discredit that! I'm like, sweating after a good vacuum session... lol.

jiggles - that's great that you are starting your new healthy lifestyle! We are all here to support you.

Finally, I seem to be moving slowly past this plateau I've been on for like, a month! It's so weird to see a different number on the scale. Like I didn't think it was possible...

Had a good weight-lifting workout yesterday, and my body is sore in that good way. Not sure what I'll do today, kind of feel like resting but after seeing my scale loss this morning, I'm motivated to go for a run!

I also got a new pair of earphones, by the brand Sennheiser. I've gone through SO MANY crappy earphones for running, it's disheartening. My ridiculous sweating during my run causes most earphones to short out after a while, or the earphones slip out every 2 seconds, or they hurt my ears after a while. I'm sure you guys have experienced similar things if you like to listen to your iPod while you run. GRRRR!! What a waste of money.

Have a great day, chickies.

Yeah, aren't they cute!!

Susan -- A loss over the weekend :hug: lucky, lucky you!!

Jiggles -- were here for ya, you can do this...

I had a good day food was calorie wise ok, but not healthy good choices... I went to the gym tonight too... The last time I ran was on Saturday, so I must get out tomorrow. I think I'm off tomorrow afternoon so I'll go then :yes: ...

Just wanted to test out my new ticker... :)

ohhh, pretty ;)

Today I think I was way too low on my calories... not on purpose, but I got sidetracked and ate an apple and split a banana with my daughter not realizing it was noon so I wasn't hungry for lunch... so that WAS my lunch. I would be lucky if I got 1000 cals in today. I probably also had too much sodium in my dinner but I've drank TONS of water (with crystal light packets) all day so hopefully that will flush all the sodium out!

Exercises - I took DD for a walk and our neighborhood is VERY hilly so pushing her in her stroller about broke me on a couple hills! But she enjoyed the time outside and I enjoyed being out with her showing her squirrels and stuff, huffing and puffing away - plus it was a BEAUTIFUL day. THen I went and did my W3D2 of C25K which was for some reason harder than W3D1... I think I may have started off a bit too fast. Then this evening I did an upper body/arm/ab workout so I pulled off 100 minutes today!

Amy ... I pushed a stroller all weekend and I really think that is my secret (Ilene).

I'm still doing good at only 0.7 lbs above a healthy BMI!

Chickennugget ... Nelie experimented with some earphones. Maybe PM her and see what she ended up with?

Agghhh. Today I tried to sprint and realized that both my quad muscles are injured - pulled, I'm assuming - and now I'm sitting here with my feet up, ice bags on my quads.
It's not bad, I can jog. But I'm gonna take it easy for the next couple days, and see how it goes.

I think I've been overtraining, and not allowing my body to fully recover from my hard workouts. I need to work on that. I tend to go pretty hard, and "challenge" myself each time, which can result in fatigue and in this case, injuries :(

Dog walks shall be my exercise for a while. :)

Good morning!

I was under calories yesterday and hunted high and low for the perfect evening snack. Somebody needs to buy some groceries! I ended up nibbling a few walnuts. Plus 30 minutes on the elliptical ... not a bad day. Not bad at all.

I think my prize for normal BMI (hopefully by Friday) will be new yoga pants. My sweats are looking pretty awful!

Susan, what a great prize!! Congrats you're doing so well...

CNugget, :hug: ... sorry to hear of your injury :( ...

I'm doing ok, but just ok, staying above the water so to speak :lol: ...

Ilene, I'm doing the same - head barely above water. My eating has been OK, but I haven't gotten to work out in 2 days because of other engagements so I've GOT to get back in there and work out!

CNugget - I hope you heal quickly!

Susan - New Yoga Pants sound like a great reward!

Living with my mother (temporarily) can be so frustrating sometimes!!! There can only be one queen of the house, naturally. And she likes to control things unless I take a firm stance. Then she'll say I'm being harsh. I can't believe I was able to keep my cool for 18 years...

She's an amazing, loving, caring mother, but she's also tirelessly critical, controlling, judgmental of things/people and downright mean to my father sometimes :( (telling him he's too fat, making fun of him, etc, all in "good fun" - yeah right!)

I think part of the reason is that we're SO close. Like, we'll react to things by saying the same thing. Or just "get" each other, no explanation needed. When it's good, it's great, and we're like best friends (omg does that mean I've also inherited her mean traits?? Maybe...) But you can imagine what it was like growing up a chubby child under her eagle eye... *shudder*

Sorry, totally OT and maybe TMI but had to get it out.

Mothers!

Not OT at all! Our environment has a huge bearing on our healthy endeavours.

Good morning! I'm there! A healthy BMI! And I will be getting those yoga pants this morning!

While I do feel slightly sheepish because this is not the first time I've done this, I am happy. Regain is soooo common and my reasons/excuses no better/worse than anyone else's.
I pop all over this board telling people to keep on trying, you've not failed until you stop trying ... I'd better make myself a sturdier source of encouragement!

SusanB - Congratulations on returning to "healthy"! May your stay be permanent!

I need to read back and catch up - please forgive the short post. My post-goal week was a little too relaxed, so I've reset slightly lower to get well into the 140's. I figure it might take the rest of the year - that's fine - but I can't go into the holidays with a maintenance mindset. I don't have the good habits down well enough yet!

ChickenN- sorry to hear things aren't going great with mom! Don't let the stress throw you off plan!

Susan - way to go on hitting "healthy"!

ICU - great plan - if you know you can't handle maintenance yet, this is the smartest thing you could have done!

I'm doing OK here, got in my exercise today and ate reasonably well. Going to be going to a festival tomorrow so I'll be walking around a lot. I need to get back into my workout videos though because my body is requesting squats and lunges for some reason... I feel like I need to get back on that horse. I also take back anything negative I've ever said about running. I ran two rounds of W3D3 of C25K today for a total of 1hr including my walk to/from the park. Even though it just about killed me, I felt GREAT afterward. I may become a runner yet.

Oh, Susan - congrats on already surpassing your exercise goal!

Oh Amy, thanks!

I'm very surprised how easily exercise is coming to me lately. Persistence I guess. You're very close too!

congrats on reaching your healthy weight, susan; that's so amazing!
i'm killing myslef a little with the dieting and the exercise and midterms. i'm not doing anything too crazy but it's like if i'm not sedentary and eating tons my body doesn't know how to respond...i'm not weighing myself til tuesday and that'll be nine days since i started.hopefully the scale will have moved a little...

For some reason, I stumbled upon Tracy Anderson (Gwyneth Paltrow's personal trainer) and her ideas on fitness while I was randomly surfing around the internet and she says women should stay away from running because it creates unfeminine muscles, and spinning because it gives a woman a man's butt...

I know I may be a million years late on hating on this, but jeezy chreezy!

I'm gonna go hang out on Stumptuous.com to get my head right again.

chickennugget - just because they train famous people does not mean they know their head from a hole in the ground! lol. Running is seriously helping me lose fat so you can actually see that I have muscles! I was telling my DH today that of all the different exercise videos and crap that I do, since I started running, I've noticed much more change in my body and on the number on the scale! Adding running has made a huge difference for me!

amy-how long did it take you to get started with running? it seems like everyone i know who has had great fitness results have started running...i do exercise videos at home and they're great and get me moving but i've never seen too too much in the way of results...any running pointers?the last time i tried running i literally made it two mins before i had to give up from burning lungs...and this is when i was doing elliptical an hour a day! i couldn't believe it!

Hi everyone. I have been totally disastrous for the last few weeks - bit of a stress reaction to being told I might be made redundant. It's by no means definite but the financial climate here is desperate and I have a government funded job and the public sector is about to be radically reduced. Hey ho.

It's still a rubbish excuse though. I'd already got dressed and had two cups of tea this morning before I thought about the scales so I shall have to weigh another time. I reckon I'm back up to 158-160 ish and accordingly have moved my ticker to educated guess Can't see it getting much better either as long before the job axe threat I'd booked a 4 day city break which starts this Friday so that's not particularly encouraging either. I suppose it is what you make it. I want to shift 10lbs by Christmas.

Hi Doughnut! Sorry to hear that you're stressed. Remember that we are here for you.

I decided against rummaging through my too-small clothing for something to wear to church this morning. This is fine. I bought it all a few weeks ago and no longer need the 'special' panties under it so ...
I had a bit of a blip on the scale this morning. Between that and struggling to find proper foundation garments to fit into one of my suits would have been discouraging, I think. Setting myself up for sadness ???
So, I'm not doing it.

Hello Jiggles - I just recently started running. Back in August I walked/jogged (more walk than jog) pretty much every day for a month but wasn't seeing much so I fell off the wagon - then 3 weeks ago I started C25K and that has been the answer for me - it pushes me to run until it tells me to walk so I can't just wimp out and walk when I feel like it. You will find posts from me from just a week or so ago cursing running but somehow over the last week, I've started really enjoying it - probably has something to do with the results I'm seeing! I start Week 4 today and am a little nervous about the schedule. I find my head is much more leary about running than my body actually is... I have to fight to keep negative thoughts out of my head.

hi amy- thanks for the info! i had seen you post about c25k before and had no idea what you were talking about. i googled it and it looks awesome! in fact i think i might start tomorrow. (even though i'm not sure i can run for even a minute...) did you download any of the podcasts to run along to? if so, which ones?

jiggles - the podcasts I use are here: http://gonicoleyourself.blogspot.com/ - they are the best I've found because they are current music that I can stand listening to - for some weeks she even has 2 or 3 podcasts to choose from. I know that the ipod touch has a C25K app if you have one of those, but I don't so I don't know how good it is. THere's also a thread under Exercise - "C25K - how do I know if I'm ready to move on" dedicated to C25K and there's lots of good info there. Good luck!