Featherweights plan and chat in April
 

No foolin'! It's a new month!

And it is lovely here. I'm encouraged by a bright shining morning :hug:

What's up for you in April, feathers?

My report for March is : Lost 2 lbs... Lost 1 inch off hips and a half inch everywhere else I'm pleased with that :D...

Now onward and downward to April :woohoo: it's gorgeous here too Susan ....

Congrats Ilene!!!

Oh I hear you ladies on the weather! Beautiful, here, too!

I took the day off, my husband and I went for a long, lovely walk at the arboretum.

Spring at last!

Well, I managed to actually gain weight in March somehow, so we're going to set a goal of LOSING this month! LOL I've gotten refocused on my food and I'm shooting for reaching 135 this month. I was there last month and then ate my way up to almost 139. I can't even blame anything. I just overate and snacked excessively. In other words, I lost my mind! Now, I have a very specific plan for the month and rewards for myself along the way for sticking with it! It's fool proof! ...I hope....

P.S. Exercise has been fantastic for a couple months, just gotta get the food in line!

I finally broke down and joined a gym. I'm trying to decide if I can budget for a few sessions with a personal trainer! I have a free session tomorrow at 6AM (they include it with the free trial of gym membership). I'm officially working out every day now, and so far, so good, except for the fact that I haven't lost any weight in a week and a half!!! I'm just assuming that eventually my loss will catch up since I've been 100% on plan. It's now countdown to 5K--just two more weeks to prepare! I'm also thinking I'm going to decrease my goal from 155 to 145, but I hope you ladies will still let me hang out even though that puts me at 22 lbs. to lose!

I hope everyone has an awesome month :)

Stella :hug: of course you can hang out with us ... A few pounds won't make any difference at all ...

I had a good day today... Picked up DD in Kingston she's done school for the year and is now doing a 3 week placement in Cornwall... Kingston is 2 hours away and we had some great chats on the way home...

Food wise was good, no exercise today but I do intend to go out tomorrow morning for a run...

Made it through day 3 on plan and I feel great about that. I'm shooting for a week straight on plan. That's been a REAL challenge for me. I can only seem to string together 3-4 days OP it seems, but I'm gonna make that week goal. This weekend has it's own challenges like going to my parents' for a couple days and then Easter meal at grandma's. What's a girl to do? I guess eat OP and exercise and enjoy the family time!

For April, I want to lose 8 pounds so that I look and feel great in Hawaii for vacation. I think that I can do it so long as I do not binge.......

I lost 3 pounds in March. I hope to reach goal this month. I took my measurements so I can see some improvement in those numbers.
I did hurt a muscle in my leg so I will have to slow down for awhile on walking.

Ms P--I know what you mean about 3-4 days....I do so well, and then seem to need the thrill of the cheat.....the one thing that keeps us going is seeing that scale go oh-so-slowly DOWN!

Good morning feathers!

Ms Perception - Holiday meals are always tough. I've got one of those families that does food love - if you aren't eating what someone made they are honestly hurt. I hope to get through the holiday making the best decisions I can and get back on "real" plan Monday.

stella - I'm in the same boat, I think I'm going to have to bring goal down to 135-140, but for the time being, I'm still going to plug along to my original goal. I need a victory before asking myself to do more!

Ilene - glad you got to spend some time with your daughter yesterday! How nice!

California - you can do it! I'm hoping I'll be able to lose six lbs in April, which is a real stretch goal since my losses have slowed down to a crawl.

Danni - sorry about the injury! Wishing you a quick recovery!

Joan - I'm with you, I love to see that scale move down!

This has been a very frustrating and disappointing week, weightwise. For the last five days I've gained .2 lbs a day, while exercising and eating on plan, which leaves me up a lb for weigh in today. I sincerely doubt the holiday weekend is going to help the matter. What can we do but one day, one decision at a time?

Personally, the week has been lovely. Beautiful weather and some quality time with hubby.

Happy Friday!

Happy April to all of you! Let's see what we can accomplish this month. I'll be looking here for inspiration!

Well, I signed up for my first ever weight loss challenge, which is a joke 'cause I can't control how much I lose... I was highly optimistic at 4 lbs.

I finally weighed in yesterday at 140.2. Which is not as good as the 139.5 that I saw on a friend's scale earlier in the month, but better than the 143.2 that was my last recorded weight (back in February). So I'm calling it a loss despite the disarray in my life.

So I'm going to be 136 by the end of April? :rofl: We'll see.

Things are on track diet-wise. Now to get back into exercising.

Good morning feathers!
Well, it's a bit rainy today, which won't make the walking too pleasant today. Sigh. Putting on my rain coat and pushing myself out the door.

"Bit rainy" is a huge understatement in my locale. Ugh. I had plans to go to the farmer's market this morning, but this storm has convinced me to be lazy instead. Good thing I have a treadmill :D

Sorry about the rain girls - this week we are in the 80's.
I just came in from planting some flowers around my tree.
I have enough yard work to last me all summer.

It seems by body is loving to hang around 127 and playing around with 1/2 lb. gains and losses just to tease me.

So I have decided that I will put on my :) face and love 127 also.

WOW! That is a big stress reliefer. :twirly:

I am going to set my goal at one pound a month. I am eating healthy and exercising a few times a week. I could really restrict my calories and drop some more pounds - but I don't really want to start eating less. I am eating to be healthy and love what I eat.

What I am going to do is draw a line in the sand.
128 will be my new red flag number.

When I reach 128 I must get serious and take action.

Now back out in the yard to enjoy Spring!

It is wicked windy here! It's supposed to be around 70 tomorrow with less wind so maybe I'll do some gardening then. Or this evening ... I guess the wind died down last evening.

Hey Feathers........I've been a little M.I.A. this week, because my kids and I accompanied my husband on a business trip to Chicago. Not good on the old diet plan! Yes, I had some Chicago deep dish. And too many other treats to name. I'm a little disappointed in myself. I lose weight, then I go somewhere and just blow it for a few days. I know the scale is up, but I haven't weighed myself yet. Then, there's Easter tomorrow. SIGH.

One reason I am feeling a little down is I had a really poor run in my Couch to 5K training. I was doing so well, but today I just utterly failed. I was supposed to run 25 minutes straight, but I found myself walking at about 12 minutes in. Then feeling like I was going to vomit (I'm sure it had something to do with all the crazy food choices this weekend). I just simply couldn't do it, and it made me sad. No matter how challenging, I've always managed to finish the run, but not today.

I want to wish all of you a very happy Easter if you celebrate it! I need to get on plan ASAP. My April goal will be to complete my 5k training and hit my goal weight (and stay there!).

kellost - hey girl. You are down on yourself - but guess what you did right - you came and talked to us about it. Because you so know that we have been there and done that. :hug:.

I had 4 beers with cheese and watched 2 movies last night. That's why I mentioned in the earlier post that I would work toward goal but not worry about it. My line in the sand number will be 128. I just know that summer will bring too many chances to slip up. I think I'm giving myself permission to do the best I can.

THe reason I feel OK with that is; I have lost weight before and than just forgot about it and the weight would slowly go back on. I have never considered this a life plan before. I was just doing without until the weight came off. But now that I have a real health food plan and love what I eat I can stick with it (most of the time).

Everyday is a new day - please enjoy it. :easter3:

Good Easter morning feathers!

I'm going to wear a dress to church today. My friend Bob will say "Oh my goodness Susan! You have legs!" :lol:
Do you suppose I'll run into anyone who wants to know that my dress is a size 2 :devil: Quite frankly, I'd like to wear the tag on the outside :devil:

Thanks, Danni, for the encouragement. I really appreciate it! The thing that's different for me this time is that I do keep on getting back on track. Before, I would just give up completely. But I am determined to stay in control of my weight this time. It's just, sometimes I throw caution to the wind and I'm up a few pounds. I need to figure out how to avoid that somehow. I'm feeling better today, although I've already been digging into the Easter candy.

Susan!!!!! A size 2 Easter dress??? You work it, girl! Go out there and show 'em your stuff. LOL. That's amazing! Congrats to you!

Susan size 2!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd wear the size tag on the outside too...

It's been a horrible 3 days of food...:tantrum:

Kellost :hug: let's all get back on the wagon starting this minute... We're all here for each other...

I went to my fiance's family for Easter. They are all naturally thin and don't have to watch what they eat, so there were tons of junk there (including cake). I was so tempted to eat it all. But then I thought, "You didn't spend an hour lifting weights yesterday and an hour running hard today to let that effort go to waste." So I had some salmon, bagel and strawberries. Proud that I was able to enjoy the family without indulging in food. April will be a good month.....

@Califiona: wow, good restraint! I unfortunately have not done so well; I've been eating easter chocolate allll day. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day...

hey ladies :)
ive had a stressful couple of weeks so i havent been around the internet much.
im down to 129 currently (for the past 2 days, so im hoping that its a permanent).
its the first time i can remember seeing a number in the 120's since the 6th grade!!!!
my current goal is 118, so im sooo close to getting there. and once i get there ill have to see if i want to keep going or not.
im still having a really stressful time, one of the good friendships in my life is falling to pieces and i have yet to find out why, so if you ladies could keep me in your thoughts and prayers that would be appreciated.
hope everyone is doing well, im going to try and start checking in more often.

:)

Good morning!

The weekend is over (it was grandbaby good) now on with the work-a-day world.

100percentME ... you and your friend are in my prayers.

Good morning ladies!

I haven't outlined my goals for April yet. Since my scale is being wacky (thanks to a new air popcorn popper--saltsaltsalt) I'm going to do something different with this month. I've taken my measurements, and if any of them go down I'll consider it a victory!

Waist: 27"
Hips: 37.5"
Right thigh: 21.5"
Left thigh: 22" (bizarre, since I should be putting most of my weight on the right leg)
Right (upper) arm: 10.75"
Left arm: 10.5"
Neck: 12" (not sure why I'm including this, but all the body fat calculators ask for it)

I tried to get an idea of my body fat and lean mass %, but I don't have the proper tools and had to use online calculators which gave me a huge variation in numbers. The general consensus is that it's in the "acceptable" range, but of course I'd prefer "fit"!

TKM - Using the formula that the military uses for their height/weight/body fat standards you are 27% body fat. The girth tape method (neck, waist, hips and height for women) has been validated to plus or minus 1.5 percent, so your real body fat percentage is somewhere between 25.5 and 28.5%. Hope this helps.

Well, back from Easter gorging. Kinda surprised I'm 'only' back up to 161.5. Not too bad, considering how off-plan I was. So I'll take that as incentive to jump back on the horse.

I seem to post the same guilty confessions every Monday.....

susan: thank you incredibly much. we need all the prayers we can get :)

sooo im 128.4 this morning. im thrown back into my times of disbelief when i get on the scales 5 times in a row to make sure that im reading it right. hopefully it will keep going. only 10 pounds til goal!

joan: no worries, at least you confess and are aware of what is going on. a lot of people are in denial of their weekend splurges. just make the goal for next monday to have no confession to make :)

Good morning ladies!
I'm dragging this morning, so tired! Coffee, coffee and more coffee! That's all I've got for now, I'll check back in later.

Happy Monday!

Hi Feathers,
I just came in from the yard for some lunch. I am still planting my retirement flower garden. It will be 87 degrees here today - so I will have to finish later this afternoon.

I overdid it on Easter lunch and I know I didn't gain 2 pounds overnight but the dang old scale doesn't. :mad: So the journey continues. :rolleyes:

Oh, yesterday was baaad. I seem to have no restraint once I give myself permission to go a little bit "off plan." Garlic bread, chocolate, mashed potatoes, carrot cake.... <groan>

So I've set myself up for a "challenging" April: I am in a weight loss challenge (4 lbs - pretty much no chance of that happening, but ya never know), an exercise challenge (1 hr/day average, includes long walks) and a South Beach challenge, in which I decided to plan every meal every day and do the best I can when life intervenes - NOT like yesterday :)

I joined a gym again this weekend! Yay, yoga classes and a treadmill to start the 5K training again. I definitely will move to outside running but I want to start on a treadmill for building up first.

Let's get this Spring rolling! I'm ready to ramp up the activity level again!! I'm looking forward to hearing about your progress for inspiration!!

Danni those scales are just plain old stupid sometimes! I commend you for getting on yours, I knew after what I did yesterday it wouldn't tell me anything I'd want to hear, so I put it off until tomorrow (hoping to do some damage control today).

Emma you're not alone! Holidays are killer, but at least they don't come around that often. Smart putting in a handful of goals for the month.

I'm struggling today, just want to eat, eat, eat. I don't know what we're going to do for dinner, and when I fail to plan, I generally can plan to fail. I don't know what's gotten into me, but I just feel very blah. Need to get my motivation back up!

I hate to even say this with everyone who's avoiding weighing, but I hit a new low today! Down to 165 :). That gives me a 2.2 lb. loss on the week after my .2 lb. gain last week.

Katie, I've found that I'm super hungry on days after I overeat too--just hang in there today and tomorrow will be easier!

Hello Feathers... Count me in, in having a horrible food weekend...It was baaaad for 3 days... Today I am right back on track...

:( One day of overeating seems to be a trigger point. now 3 days of eating too much at night. I really hope to get this back in control today. I am going to have to figure out how to do better in the future. :listen:

126.2!

That came out of left field, especially since I had a heyday on Saturday with hamburgers, ice cream, the whole shebang. I didn't crack 2000 cal for the day, but I thought I'd have to be more patient than usual after that. I didn't feast on Sunday though. Coming from a Chinese family, Easter to me means I make a bunny-shaped pancake for breakfast and then go shopping to take advantage of the fact that everyone else is at home celebrating (super-short checkout lines, woot).

TKM, grats on the nice loss--that's awesome! You're so close :)

I'm back up a little today--I'm sure it's water weight (I think I was a little under on my water intake yesterday, and I'm really sore from working out). Still sucks to see that after my nice low yesterday!

I'm wondering if I'm hitting a sort of set point for my body? I'm still about 5 lbs. from the weight I've maintained for most of my adult life, but I imagine with all the exercise I'm doing I'm probably close to the same amount of body fat I used to have at the lower weight (if that makes sense). It just seems like I've been struggling more with my loss since I hit the 160s.

TKM -- :bravo: great work...

Stella -- My weight loss is sssllloooow too, ridiculously so, the closer I get to goal... I feel like I've been bobbing between 150 and 158 for years now... I'm hoping the Primal lifestyle will get me down below 150 once and for all... Maybe I can only hope :shrug: