I am going out to dinner with son and daughter-in-law.
This will be a test for me. I haven't a clue how I will do.:?:
But I shall report back tomorrow.

tyla - nice to get compliments -- but you know best about your body.

Danni

The Morning After!
I went to dinner with good intentions - but the 90 minute wait to be seated did me in - so 2 beers later and then some warm bread - oh well. We finally ate at 8:30 pm. I did bring half of my meal of salmon and broccili home.
But having your son take you out to dinner - priceless! :D

So I am back to 131 - but I have all the way to Friday ( that's my offical
day to write it down) - so I feel good - I feel in control.

In the real world I want to eat OP 95% of the time so that I can
enjoy family time. I also feel that being on plan for 2 months
now is beginning to change my outlook. One meal doesn't make
me go to the dark side and binge - in fact I look forward to getting
back to my way of eating.

It is not a diet!!! It is my life and I am in control! ;)

Congrats Danni! :) It's nice to see you having such a good view on things! Treats are what make life worth living anyway! It's all about moderation. A healthy lifestyle change is a million times better than being on a diet x

xgemziex -- With your issues with disordered eating, I think I would recommend that you stick with calorie counting for a while until at least 1200 calories seems like a normal amount of food. I'm not sure if you were actually considering not calorie counting or not, but I'm just afraid that if you do that before you're ready you'll actually end up not eating enough again, convincing yourself that you've eaten plenty and you're not hungry even though you might have only eaten 400 calories all day. This has happened to me before!

Good for you for hiding your scale by the way, I know how hard that can be. I hope you at least maintain so you don't get disheartened! Keep us posted
-Teff

Wow, I missed a lot in a few days. Thank you to everyone for the congrats, and I see a couple more people are close too.

Danni- That's hard not to show a gain under those circumstances: bread, beer and a late dinner. But the occasion was totally worth it and you get a :carrot: for choosing salmon and broccoli. We'll be celebrating the 120's for you soon.:D

Tyla- My dh just told me the other day that my legs were getting too skinny. He said he had married me with thick legs and he liked them, but I had gotten down to 125 early in our marriage and he had liked that too.
I just don't feel healthy. Right now I'm skinny fat. I'm not overweight, but I have no muscle tone or definition. I don't want to be a bodybuilder. I just want to be stronger and lose some fat deposits. I also want to be able to do a pull up, which explains my avatar (my dd drew it for me).

As far as eating I kind of follow Tosca Reno's clean eating plan with the six small meals a day all including protein. I don't shun the sugar, white bread products, and junk food as much as I should or eat nearly enough vegetables. Like Danni, I want my eating plan to be livable. I watch my portions, choose whole grains and lean meats, drink mostly water - a lot of it, and don't go on a binge because I "blew it".

As for exercise, I'd like to do strength training and cardio 2-3 times a week each, but the reality is strength training 2x a week for 1 1/2- 2 hours. I stretch, ride the bike for 10-20 minutes then work my whole body alternating between upper body, core, and lower body exercises then stretch some more. Cardio is usually 1x a week for 45 min to an hour. I stretch, walk 5 min, run/walk for the next 1/2 hour then do a mile walk for a cool down. I trying to build up to 3 miles. I started following the Couch to 5k plan, but I haven't been able to be consistent with it due to illness, unpredictable schedules and injuries. Speaking of which, I had gotten some new songs from my dd and thought I would get in an impromptu cardio session by dancing to them. Well I didn't stretch, and I aggravated a quad injury, :mad::stress: so my workouts are going to be seriously modified for only the next a few weeks if I'm lucky.:mad:

Teff - Thanks so much for the support, it means a lot :) I guess you're right! I feel like I eat LOADS now so if I wasn't counting I think you're right, I would eat less. Hope you're doing well!
I'd love to be able to get some more muscle tone too! I think the exercise has been working in my thighs, they feel like rocks ! haha. Oh what songs are you loving? I'm always looking for more for my workout playlist! Argh I hope your better as soon as possible, make sure you're getting enough rest and only gentle exercise x

Good Morning Feathers,
I am worth it - nice husband you have. Mine came home one day with a
special water pouch/bag for me too take to the gym. So nice to have support at home. I asked him for 2 months to go to the gym with me -but he just wasn't ready. He kept trying to get started eating less but would give up after 2 or 3 days. That is how long it took me to get serious also - start and stop for 2 months until Jan when I started for good and then in Feb. when I joined this forum. Now he finally has gotten started with eating better and walking at home.
One thing that keeps me going is that I hate the first week of starting - the journey ahead seems so long and you have to feel hungry and fight cravings and bad habits.
So I might take a day off or go on vacation and not be 100% everyday - but I do not ever want to start over again!!!!:nono:

I feel so much better since I starting eating healthy and exercising.
I :love: the improvements the last 2 months have made.

The dear scale said 130 this morning - so I am peeking at the 120's again.
But my storm trooper chicken does not get to move until I'm sure it's here to stay.

Danni

Hi Everyone,

Had a great weekend! Went out to breakfast twice, but totally stayed within my calorie range. I was plenty busy, but I got a lot of walking in, too. I always feel better after I do any kind of exercise. I also went to 2 meetings last week, but didn't even touch the bread on my sandwich. I just didn't feel like eating it. Plus, while everyone else had dessert, I didn't. I was pretty proud of myself. They weren't that appealing anyway.

Iamworthit, I know what you mean about not being where I want to be. I was at least 5 lbs. thinner before the holidays, but am really having a tough time taking them off again. But I will get there. I have some cute clothes in the closet that don't look as good on me like before the holidays. My husband thinks I'm fine as I am, but I want to nip this now. It's too easy for pounds to continue to creep up.

Danni, that's great that you can almost see your 120's! There's such elation when the scale cooperates the way we want it to. I love the fact that you watch what you eat, rather than obsess over every calorie!

Both of you inspire me.

Let's continue to do well.
Tyla:dust:

I'm so proud of all of you doing so amazingly! :) Congrats on all your accomplishments, looks like these last few days have been good all round! How many calories are all of you girls having (if you count them)? I like to compare :) x

You inspire me. :D

I used to count calories now I just estimate. From experience, I can't function under 1100 calories, so I keep it between 1100-1500. On strength training days, it's higher- maybe 1700-1800.

Here is my playlist. It is long and varied and has a lot of Disney kids because they're just so darn positive!:D The slower songs I use for stretching. I actually have more but these are the main ones. The * are the ones I feel are “motivational.”

Black Eyed Peas- I Gotta A Feeling, Boom Boom Pow
Bon Jovi- *Its My Life
Boys Like Girls- Contagious, Love Drunk, *Go
Bryan Adams- Get Off My Back
Bryan Duncan- *Yes I Will
Christy Carlson Romano- Let's Bounce,*I'm Ready
The Click Five- Good Day, Catch Your Wave
Corbin Bleu- *Push It to the Limit, *Run It Back Again
Daughtry- *There and Back Again
David Crowder Band- *Turkish Delight
Eiffel 65- Move Your Body
Finger Eleven- Paralyzer
Gwen Stefani- Wind It Up
Hawk Nelson- too many to list
Jonas Brothers- Play My Music, Year 3000
Kat DeLuna- Calling You
Kris Allen- *Live Like we’re Dying
Kevin Rudolf- Let It Rock
Lady Gaga- Poker Face
Matthew West- *The Motions
Miley Cyrus- *The Climb
Natasha Bedingfield- *Unwritten
Pillar- Frontline
Paula Abdul- Here For the Music
Raven-Symoné- *This Is My Time
Rihanna- Disturbia
Selena Gomez- Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
Simple Plan-I’d Do Anything
Taylor Swift- *A Place In This World
Tiffany Giardina- Hurry Up and Save Me
Zac Efron- * Bet On It

Oh thankyou for the list! :D I think today I'm definately making a new CD! These songs are awesome!

Danni, thank you! Loved your list!

x, I eat between 1200-1400 cals. 1400 are usually for the weekends. That way I can go out to dinner. So far that number has worked for me. (It all depends on my mood, too.) I have more flexibility if I count my cals. and I don't feel guily if I eat something other than veggies, fruit and protein.

That's a good way to view things tbh! && I know this won't sound amazing but I completely ruined my progress last night in chocolate but I still managed a loss of 0.6 lbs this week so not too shabby :) x

x, congrats! Any loss is a great loss!

I know it's only Wed., but any of you have plans for the weekend yet? We're going out to Happy Hour with friends. That should be interesting! Wish me luck!

Tyla