Dorian, I hear that. Living with a man takes things to a different level when it comes to food. That's one more person to tempt you with their fatty snacks! Hang in there. It will get easier. But it already sounds like you're doing just fine!

scjp926, I think you're in the right place That's a great picture by the way (your avatar). You look great!

Balancedlife, it probably is just water. But I know how difficult it can be to see a number go up when you work so hard. I can't seem to go one way or another. I'm stuck at the same weight

I ran 31 miles last week, all on the flipping treadmill (too much snow on the ground to go outside, unfortunately), and threw in some stairs and weights as well. However, I seem to have such a difficult time with the food aspect. I either eat too much or too little. I know that 1200 is too low for me, because I would barely lose on that. I found for me the magic number was 1500, but that was when I was running fewer miles. I guess I don't know how much is too much or too little, but for now I'm going to stick to 1500 on long run days and maybe around 1300 for shorter/off days. We'll see how it works out. Anyone with similar stats to me want to share their calorie numbers, i.e. what works best for you?

Happy Tuesday!

NOt so happy on the diet front. I went over about 200 calories and about 40g of carbs more than I wanted (I got REALLY hungry in class today and had sun chips :/ Anyways, I am not fretting. I will do better tomorrow. I am going to tweak a few things in my diet since obviously I am not satisfied and full.

Dorian Boyyyyyyyy do I feel ya on the boyfriend comment. I dont live with my boyfriend technically but when I am in town, I am over his house every night. I was over there every day during break (3 weeks). It is SO hard to eat low calorie. Its a little frustrating too because they dont understand how weight loss works for women. They can just eat healthy. And as much as they want, and still lose. WIth us, even if we are eating healthy, we still might not lose if our calories dont create a deficit. My bf just doesnt seem to get that. He'll always make comments like, dont worry hun you ate SO healthy. Im like yes I ate healthy today but 2500 calories worth of healthy!!!! Oh wellllllllll lol

Philana GOod to see you on here again!! I love your posts, so post away

Balancelife Dont worry about the scale going up. It is true, when you are sick your body holds on to water! You will be back to normal in no time. As for exercise, its sort of been a slow start but I am running for about 15 minutes a day. I am going to add in these 12 minutes crossfit type workouts also. I hate to admit it but I am someone who doesnt really like to exercise unless its something fun like a sport or game. I never have and never will

SCJP Yes you are a featherweight and welcome!!!

Pinkrunner Your post was rather interesting to me because I have been debating about calories latley. About a year ago I was eating healthy and exercising (lasted only about 5 weeks - holidays came and I fell off the wagon. Doh!) but I was losing very fast. I was having about 1250 calories and running about 5x a week. I have always wondered if I could have more calories and still lose since I was losing so fast. But with more calories, there comes more carbs, and they say thats bad. OH who knows lol But when I was eating about 1250-1300 calories and running 2.5 miles 5x a week, I was losing about 2 pounds a week...

Hey girls,

I'm jumping back in here, after the holidays, having my wisdom teeth out and then breaking my foot and my tailbone I've been stuck at 136 for 2 months!!
I can't exercise for another couple of months and I'm locked in the house finishing my thesis until April anyways. My plan is to try an get to my goal by then by eating low-cal (1200) since I won't be burning much anyways and then up-ing to maintenance to start working out and lifting weights in the spring.

Nice to see some old (new to me) faces that I haven't seen before since I haven't been around long!!

Hi everyone. I am new to this forum. I'm very petite with a small frame. I've not really struggled with my weight before but, at 47, I've hit that middle-aged, perimenopausal stage and my metabolism has tanked overnight. Now I've got some excess pounds and unwanted love handles to work off. And I have to learn to eat less. I hope it's okay if I join you here.

I'd really like to know how you stay motivated to eat right. At my work, people bring in junk food and sweets all the time and leave them in the kitchen. Inevitably, they take me down. Today it was a giant bag of tortilla chips. I know beating myself up over eating them isn't going to help, but I don't seem to have the consistent willpower to stop.

PixieChix, I hear you about the food. That is my problem with weight loss-- I have the exercising down easily, but the food is a constant battle. My strategy has always been to work out as much as I can, because I know my willpower when it comes to sweets is seriously lacking. This has kept me from gaining anything, however, the loss is very difficult. Just keep plugging along and ask yourself if those chips are really worth it... Sometimes they are, other times you might be able to talk yourself down. This is still something I'm working on myself

And Lisa.... WHAT HAPPENED?! Your foot AND your tailbone? Ouch! I'm sorry But it sounds like you've got a good plan to combat not being able to work out much!

Exercise is easy for me. Food, not so much. Or, rather, once I get into the groove, I eat well 99% of the time. But, if I fall off the wagon.... Oy. It's ugly. So I have learned not to fall. Once I've white-knuckled it through a few bad days of cravings, I feel much better and eating right becomes pretty easy and very enjoyable. I love healthy food. I just know now that I have to stay in that mindset. I have to tell myself that it's OK to have a treat or a burger now and then, but one meal can't turn into one day and one day into one week and so on. That I cannot, and do not, allow to happen anymore.

Try white-knuckling it through your cravings for a few days. I swear it gets so much better.

As someone who has lifted weights and done cardio for 20 years, I can tell you that exercise alone won't do it. Exercise kept me from being overweight, but it did not enable me to reach my goal. Only changing my eating habits did that.

I'm alive! And have backslid - my weight is still in the low 130s but I'm a flabby mess who probably couldn't run for more than five minutes. Damn you day job!

So glad to see so many familiar faces - I'm at work now but I will update more later!

OY vey! I didnt stick to plan today again so I am journaling in now my SECOND day at maintenance. Mind you, this is only my 3rd day back to my healthy eating and I have already messed up two days. I kept the calories at maintenance (around 2000) but the carbs were outrageous!! Im talking around 250g of carbs. But the food choices werent so bad. It was just my binge at the end of the day today and yesterday that made my calories and carbs skyrocket!

Today was my first day of clinicals and it didnt go very well. THe job is great and the work I understand, but I just didnt click with the other girls and it made me feel really down today. I felt like an outcast and very left out. I think that may have had something to do with my binge tonight. But thats ok. I am jumping back on it tomorrow. I will not let two bad days ruin my plan. I WILL be at goal by March 25!!!!!!

How did everyone else's day go??

Hello my good friend!!! So, sooo happy to see you back ...

Well, today I had a good day... Food was good... But my favourite part of the day was the Group Power workout, I increased all my weights and it was a fabulous workout...To explain Group Power; it's a class that started in late November at my gym... LOVE IT!! I will never have to go into the weight area of the gym again... Here is a short You Tube clip, this is exactly what we do... Sooo much fun... And our instructor is as much fun as these guys in the vid clip...

Hey Ilene!

Although I have never taken a fitness class ... I think I'm going to try kettlebells! A coworker wants me to try. Another coworker wants me to try zumba and a running group in the spring! Oooooo what have I gotten myself into?

Good morning. Here's my status:

The Good: I didn't overeat at dinner! An accomplishment, considering how hard that is with two guys who eat a lot right in front of you....

The Bad: I didn't do so well during the day because...

The Ugly: Someone left a gigantic bag of tortilla chips in the office kitchen for others to eat, and I ate way too many.

But today is a new day!

Good morning feathers! I measured in this morning at 122.6lbs, but tomorrow is my official weigh-in day. Still, glad to finally see a drop on the scale. My clothes already fit better and I'm wearing my smaller shirts instead of baggy, muffin-top-hiding ones. Still keeping my Valentine's goal at 120lbs, I expect it to slow down after this initial 2 pound drop.

Hoping to get to goal by April 20th, the boyfriend and I are going to a nerdy convention and it would be GREAT to be right where I wanna be by then! I think 115lbs by then is a realistic goal.

---

PixieChix - Great work on keeping to a smart portion at dinner. At least you ate too many tortilla chips instead of too many greasy potato chips, right? Is there any way you can get a healthy snack to keep in your desk, so that when you're tempted by break-room fare, you can reach for that? I have granola bars, individually wrapped squares of dark chocolate, and 100 calorie bags of microwave popcorn hoarded in my desk for emergencies -- salty AND sweet fixes. Maybe that could help? Sounds like you're doing well!

Hiya Krampus!

LisaT, I've bruised my tailbone before and thought I was going to die, I can't believe you broke yours! I hope you're healing up, that's awful!

Keep it up, everyone!!

Hi ladies!

Just thought I'd pop in and say hello. A lot has changed with me since we last chatted.

I gained back several pounds on purpose because I was too thin, had frequent headaches and felt faint most of the time. I gave up running my butt off and exchanged it for weight training. I'm currently in stage four of the NROL4W and love it. Even though I'm heavier per se, I look just as lean as I did at a lower scale weight. I've gotten so much stronger in just a few months. When I started, I could barely pick up a five-pound dumbbell, I was that weak and had lost a lot of muscle mass from too much cardio. Everyone says I look the best I've ever looked and I feel physically feel so much better too.

Anyway, I just wanted to see how everyone is doing and it seems like 2012 is treating you right.