FRUS - CONGRATS on Student of the Year!!

Lucky - Happy Swimsuit Season - Keep up the good work!

Ilene- Congrats on your 10k Run!

Daisi and Susan - GREAT JOB keeping Frus from a SUGAR BREAKDOWN!!! :)


You girls have been doing so good and you have been sooooo busy!! It took me a while to catch up with the posts!! I am happy to report that I have shed 3 of the 4 pounds I put on during my vacation 2 weeks ago! Whew! So, I am back on track! Maybe putting on those few pounds will actually help me break past my 137 that was so hard to break for weeks! Keeping my fingers crossed.

I did read some of BFFM while I was waiting to kickbox, I read it with my yoghurt and melon slices :D It's very good. I like it a lot. I'm going to do the goal setting thing. I also read something last night that I never really realised. I've heard people refer to pop as "empty calories" because there's no nutrients or anything in it, but I was reading a book which clearly lables sugar as the enemy - and it showed the nutrient content of sugar. There's nothing in it but calories, no minerals, vitamins, nuttin! I don't think I'd ever really thought of it like that before. It made me stop and think a while. So from now on I am trying to reduce my sugar intake (not that I had much before) but I will be more aware that chocolate and "treats" really are just empty calories. In fact the author called sugar a negative nutrient, since it uses nutrients to digest, but gives you nothing back except a rise in insulin, the fat storing hormone. Interesting :chin:

As for my weight - I am up to 173 :mad: BUT I'm not as fat at 173 as I was last time I was at 173 :dizzy: I still feel quite slim and sexy, but I do SO want to get down to 161 for the wedding. That's 12lbs! :eek: I just need some good weekends under my belt and it will fly off. This next weekend WILL be a good one, since DF is away, so no being tempted to supermarket snacking or non-meals. I will eat healthily, batch bake and cook some mighty healthy food :D

I have a nice big punnet of strawberries that I am munching my way through this morning - that is if my stupid tooth that needs a root canal will let me! :tantrum:

It is amazing how much sugar is consumed without even thinking about it! I have a very good friend who lost about 20 pounds by just switching from regular cola to diet cola. No other changes, just a couple of sodas a day. I was shocked.

I am not a "sugar" person, thank God. But I do sympathize with those people who have a sweet tooth. It must be very hard.

BTW...I am happy to say that I am down below my pre-vacation weight. Even with a pretty pig-outty kind of weekend I managed to lose a pound. 134.2 and on my way to 129 soon I hope!

Have a great day girls.

I've finally made it back to 150. First time since March! Now on to new lows!!

daisi and kim~~Good for you both for shedding the vaction weight.

2frus~~Weekends are killer for me too. You'll get back down to 162, I'm sure of it.

susan~~Hope your computer gets back up and running. What is BFFM again?

lucky~~So glad to hear the scale is cooperating. It's amazing what happens when we stick to exercise and eating right. lol

Ilene~~10K's?? How do you do it??? I'm still in the building endurance phase.

Have a great day ladies! I'm off to do laundry. Fun, fun. :p

Gaylyn

Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. It's an ebook by a natural body builder. I am lovin' it!

Oh boy, am I tired. I just took the kids and dog on a walk of various trails along the Natchez Trace. It was very lesiurley but the HEAT. Good gracious, it was smothering! But, we had fun. Saw a fox, a turtle, dragonflies, and what might have possibly been an alligator in Cyprus Swamp. It was, well, swampy so it was hard to tell for sure and I wasn't about to get close enough to prove it to them. Hey, they are little and far as they are concerned they saw a real life alligator...and that is all that matters to me. We are all beat. But I am going to try and get to the gym tonight for some real cardio and I'd like to throw some weights in too. We'll see. I'm certainly not going to feel guilty if I don't make it.

We made homemade chocolate chip cookies. Usually, that would spell disaster. But I got smart this time and froze the dough by the tablespoon. Now when the kids want them I can bake just enough for them and not be tempted by and entire plate of warm, ooey, gooey, cookies.

Sounds like everyone is right on track these days. Doesn't it feel great?

I gained two pounds in May. Can we start a new month? Is there an emoticon for pouting?

Susan you wrote in your Fitday blog (yes I sometimes look at some peep's Fitdays: " ... at this lower weight it's probably better to carefully exchange fat for muscle rather than just 'lose weight'. Me thinks this is why you gained 2# in May... Don't be so down on yourself, it's probably nothing but water or muscle :yes:

Busted!

The kicker is I also said in Maintainer Do's and Don't's ... keep journals and reread them often. :o

Ha ha! Susan you are busted!

I am writing down my goals BFFM wise. I forgot to write them out this morning, but I can remember them and will think about them! I will write them out tonight.

I took the day off work yesterday with a clanging headache - it got better after taking some ibuprofen, but I stayed asleep all day anyway! I'm feeling pretty sparky today after all that rest! I think I must've needed it!

I've ordered some skin-fold callipers since my body fat scales are giving me :censored: readings. They reckon I'm a higher BF at night when I'm well hydrated (and weigh 5lbs more) than I am in the morning. I'm sure it doesn't properly read the BF at all, if just weighs you and guestimates what your BF is. It says my BF's gone up 3% with my extra 9lbs... I suppose it could be true, but my muscles are bigger at this weight and supposed BF% than they were last time, and my body is smaller, so I think those scales are all BS! I just have to learn how to pinch myself properly when they come and we'll see what the callipers say!

DF is away the weekend - I get to go to yoga tonight after a gruesome 2 hours in the gym! YAY! Then I kickbox tomorrow and do stuff with the bike after it's got new tyres.

Then on Sunday I am going to batch bake and plan meals for the next week. I will be a busy bee! I think I might even treat myself to the cinema on Saturday!

Frus, I'm not convinced of the accuracy of body fat scales either. The scale at my gym says my body fat has gone up a bit too and I find it hard to believe since my muscles are becoming more defined and my clothes are getting bigger. I suppose that many factors can give false readings. Good luck with the calipers...I'd be curious as to whether or not you feel they are worth buying.

Have a good weekend.

Where has the little quick reply box gone :?:

I am surfing for BfL recipes to make for next week. I am thoroughly bored with jacket potatoes and cottage cheese and turkey pitas! :lol:

I need more portable stuff - I went to the BfL website and it was all stuff you had to make on the stove... I'm out for more than 12 hours a day most days. I need at least 4 or 5 meals that I can take with me! I suppose 3 can be microwaveable! Maybe I should eat more savory things whilst I can at work, like a stir-fry for lunch and something else hot for afternoon snack. :dunno:

Anyways, looking forward to the gym this afternoon :hyper:

I suppose I missed it somewhere along the line, but what is BfL?

It's Body for Life. The website has a pretty good overview and there are folks doing it in the Lifting threads. I love the food lists.

Morning everyone!

Sounds like everyone is gearing up to have a successful new month! And, Susan, you know Ilene is right...those two pounds are muscle or water (and I'm guessing muscle).

Frus, I'll be curious about the calipers too. I've read that they are more accurate but only after lots of practice using them and making certain you measure in exactly the same places. My scale gives me a ballpark that I think is fairly close to accurate. Honestly, though, I don't really care what the number is as along as it is going down. Don't get me wrong, I want to have be in a healthy fat % range...but I can look in the mirror and see if I'm there.

We are sinking into a routine now that the kids have settled down from their excitement about the first week of summer vacation. My summer clothes from last year are loosening up (they were a bit snug when I first tried them on a few weeks ago). I haven't been on the scale and, frankly, don't care what it has to say. I feel good, I like how my clothes fit, and I'm comfortable in my bathing suit. Can't ask for much more than that. I sort of have a feeling that I'm going to dip under 130 by the end of the summer without even trying too hard. And by that I mean that I am finding a balance between mindful eating/exercise and stressful worry over mindful eating/exercise. I really do think that I tend to overthink the whole process of losing weight at this point. I know what to do, I know how to do it, and I enjoy doing it...and I love the results. I think it is time to stop sweating over "goal" because I'm going to get there if I just relax, make good choices, and let my body do its thing. I feel as though I've finally made it out of mental limbo - that place that comes right after losing a lot of weight but just before maintainece. I've decided that I should be enjoying the ride from here on out. And that is exactly what I'm going to do!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Just a quick note from me. My ds has been sick again. I really hate this time of year. It seems to be one illness after another and this time I got it too.:(

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Gaylyn

Gaylyn, I'm sorry! We had a nasty kinda sinus-y bug fly through here last month. My allergy suffering Dh and Ds's were quite under the weather.

Lucky makes a good point. In BFFM, Venuto talks about measuring BF% ... it doesn't matter much how you measure as long as you are consistant in method, timing etc and it goes down!
Which reminds me it's measuring day!

Just wanted to pop in to say I'm 149!!!

I guess being sick is good for something. lol

Gaylyn

:hug: and :cp: for Gaylyn! :lol:

Lucky, I know what you mean about that limbo - I think I'm getting over that bit gradually too. I wanted to treat myself to something yummy this afternoon, but everything was too high in calories, or too "junky" I even considered buying some little fairy cakes, but then I realised that just thinking about them satisfied my strange little craving! :crazy:

My Accu-measure callipers have me at approx 20% BF which I think is more accurate, it's between "lean" and "normal" on their little chart thing, which I think makes sense, I can see my abs, and some arm muscles, but I am far from ripped, so that's pretty kool! However it was just a 1 site test, I will look at doing a 3 site test another time.

Had mucho bridesmaid stress today, but I didn't eat lots, more like I was quite busy to eat much at all, but it was all healthy! HOORAY!

:yawn: Time for me to cuddle up with Bill Phillips, or Tom Venuto or someone completely different!!!! :lol: I'm such a book whore! :rofl:

Gals, I'm gonna vent. On Friday morning DH left for a weekend retreat. A couple of hours later DS#1 wrecked DH's truck (nobody hurt). Insurance mess let me tell ya. I hovered fakely calm thru the weekend, supportive for DS doncha know but when DH came home I fell apart. He was very good.
I was under calories yesterday and while I have breakfast brewing, I feel almost nauseous. It's like I'm running in economy mode ... dull
I'm gonna try to focus on exercise and diet while waiting to hear what the insurance company has to say.
We could use some prayers and good vibes if you've got a minute.

:goodvibes: :hug: It's only money! It'll sort out ;) At least DS is ok (well at least before you got your hands on him eh?)

I had a GREAT NSV yesterday! I am doing those affirmation thingies that Ilene posted about from BFFM - I write them out twice a day in my little note book, and I'm sure they helped with my road-trip yesterday! We had fish and chips for lunch :faint: which I was expecting! But I was sooooo full I didn't eat again till 8.30pm! :D Sometimes fish and chips has me craving chocolate bars, and yes when we stopped at services I thought about it twice, but my way of thinking has changed and I didn't buy anything. Then I met up with DF in central London, we went to a design show and had dinner out :faint: on top of fish and chips! :lol: However, we got a veggie platter which had quorn sausages (something I'm living on at the moment, they are nice cold for snacks!) garlic bread, mozzarella sticks, fries, onion rings etc. I ate lots of quorn sausage, 1 piece of garlic bread, one mozzarella stick, one onion ring then sat back and let DF finish it! He was trying to get me to eat more since there was food left and he was full. I said to leave it - I think that is progress for both of us, he doesn't like to waste food, and I will eat food if it's in front of me.

Oh and I passed my green belt with a B, which is :cool: :D only one other person got a B, everyone else got Cs and some people didn't pass!

I need squash! I'm just about through my 2L bottle in less than half an hour - dehydrated? Moi? ;)

This morning we're off on our first excursion to see if we can put DS's life back together. Hopefully, I'll be back after lunch in a better mood.

Good Luck Susan. I hope everything works out OK.

Good Morning Ladies,

Just checking in with my Tuesday night weigh in numbers....

:dancer: Drumroll please......

I lost a whopping .2 lbs....yes, you read it right...a fifth of a pound!!!! :cheer: Aren't you all soooo proud of me? :rofl: Oh well, I guess it's better than gaining :joker:


Have a great day everyone!

Cheers for Daisimae! A loss is a loss my slenderizing friend. We almost there's need to appreciate how hard-fought a smidge of a pound is!

We still have no idea on the financial ding we're gonna take here but DS is all set to go to family tomorrow. All work and no (very little) play makes DS the son who cheerfully sends money home to his poor beleaguered Mamma.

I went to work like a good little money hungry employee last evening at 3 and things just picked up steam from there. I got home after 2:30 am! Can you say over-time? And I'll still be over-time when I go back at 3 today. Food stinks, exercise is nada but things are coming along!

Thanks so much for letting me blargh at ya :)

:hug:

My food is ok, my exercise is ok too, but the scales are UP! :tantrum: It's NOT FAIR! :tantrum: :cry:

Susan~~Sorry to hear about your ds and his accident.

daisi~~It's still a loss!!

We're starting to get back to normal around here. I hate it when my ds is sick. It's like the whole world has to stop until he feels better. Typical male.lol

Gaylyn

:wave:

Hello gals! I've got silly toothache! :tantrum: Ooooowie! :rollpin: dentists!

But apart from that, I'm faking it well! Yesterday I did everything I should, I even had air-popped popcorn instead of a creme egg!! :D I went to the gym and trashed my legs and chest, then I crashed out in front of a film and promptly fell asleep! I'm glad we decided to watch a DVD rather than go to the cinema - it would've been a waste of money if I'd fallen asleep! :lol:

My heart's not in it at the moment, but I'm doing ok. I think it was the scale blip that bummed me out, but I'm surviving! I'm even trying to reduce my calories a little bit today, and it just so happens that today has turned out into an uber-high protein day with only 1 slice of wholemeal bread (rather than bread + tortilla + bagel or something equally horrendous!) and everything else is nice and clean! :D So hopefully the scales will be friendly tomorrow.

I'm still hoping that this 7lbs I've found is water weight, but from the amount of time it's been hanging around, I'd say it was Mr F and his friends. Gah! I'm in denial that I actually have to re-lose this weight - I keep expecting to wake up tomorrow morning and BAM I'll be back at 162 or whatever I was. Ain't gonna happen frus! Reality check number 1! :kickbutt: Well, never mind, it has to be done - and I'm hoping that it isn't ALL fat that I gained, I'm hoping there's some muscle under there too :crossed: :lol:

DH and DS are off to the airport! That means that I am at home all day with no money, no credit card and DS#2 and I CAN share the old car (if we could afford to go anywhere:))
But I'm pretty content with that. I've got my good breakfast on the go and intend to eat well all day, two sets of cardio, a long overdue chest and triceps and a nap ;)
A rejuvenation day, so to speak!

I have nothing brilliant to say ... my poor brains are weary.

Susan, things are going to work out. Just try and hold yourself (and everyone else) together. Isn't that what we moms do best? LOL.

Well, ladies, I just went on my first interview in 4 years. Well, psuedo interview with a staffing firm. I'm not quite ready to make the plunge into all out, full time employment just yet. The interview went great. In fact she's already sending me to 3 companies to interview for their job openings. But, there is a rub. Now, I worked when my kids were born. Had a great job with great pay, and the kids went to daycare and I didn't have a problem with that...it was just how it was. I had a lot of flexibility in my work schedule because I'd been there so long, etc. I'd never been home with the kids but had plenty of time with them and just never gave child care a second thought. Now is different. I HAVE been home with the kids this time around...and I know what I'll miss if I end up having to put them in daycare again. I hate the thought of it. Not for them so much because they are all at ages that they enjoy being with groups of other kids and they will all be in school anyway so we are talking only a couple of hours in the afternoon. Me, though, that is a different story. It just kills me to think of working instead of being with them. I don't have to work financially but I am ready to get back to something that is all mine and now is the perfect time since they will be in school. I'm so torn about it all. Hopefully, I'll find something part-time or something with flexible hours so that I can have the best of both worlds. Cross your fingers that it all works out!

I've been on again, off again in terms of food and exercise. Nothing bad, and I do think I'm losing but I am not giving 100% all of the time like I was a week or so ago. I swear I'm considering whether or not this is just my "place". Maybe this weight range is the balance between effort and satisfaction. I'm going to have to put some more thought into it.

2frus, hope your tooth is feeling better!

:wave: Thanks lucky, it's pretty :cool: now, I think something just set it off yesterday!

I did box splits! I did box splits! :hyper: :dancer:

I feel SOOOOOOOOOO good after last night's kickboxing, it was GREAT! WOO HOO! :D :D :D :hyper: I have missed it - I think I must remember that next time I'm tempted to miss a class!

Food has been good, this morning I have treated myself to a 16oz punnet of strawberries! :T I ate them all :D

Susan, hope everything's sorting out for you, and lucky, hope you find something that suits. As for :queen: daisi - well, I'm flabbergasted, that's AMAZING 0.2lbs! You must be so thrilled! :hug: (I'm only slightly kidding ;) )

My scales are still being :censored: but never mind - 2 people have said that I look like I've lost weight recently, so WTF is up with that??? :rofl: I must've put on 10lbs of solid muscle is all I can think! :rofl: :rofl:

Me and my trophy :D http://uk.geocities.com/shentiekickboxing/grade.html I'm the one with hair! :lol:

I'm not sure what a punnet is but I ate waaaay to much rolo ice cream yesterday!
Things are not working out with DS. We're on to plan B.
I did fairly well with my little health plan yesterday but I should have made sure I ate more regularly throughout the day. By 7ish I was starving and just scarfing a few things I found!
Lucky, I worked part-time all the time I had small kids (still do) I and they think we did good. I was home most of the time with them and I made some money. We've never been rich but they feel that they had a good attentive upbringing.
JenFrus, I keep thinking about your body fat %. 20 is quite, quite good. I'm not sure how that thought pertains to your current feeling of struggle but ... it is good.
Today I'm going to have another shot at double cardio and weights ... legs I think.

Ah Jen! How cute are you, smilie!

Probably just a box that strawberries come in methinks - I haven't heard it describe anything else! :lol:

I think 20% is whack - I think it's more like 23, because I was squeezing too hard! I might get it done professionally once, just to see. But yes 20% isn't bad, but I know I feel flabby, so perhaps I'd like to be a little more cut and a little less flabby. I think it doesn't matter what the calipers or scales say, it comes down to how you feel, how easily you move, what the mirror and/or camera shows us. I think it's nice to have some figures so you can see progress, but I KNOW I'm not where I want to be, and I don't really need callipers or a scale to show me that! :)

Congratulations on your achievements Jen! You look amazing even if you are dissatisfied with your numbers. 20 or 23% body fat still kicks A$$ :kickbutt:

:D Thank you very much! I have a lot to be proud of, and I think that's part of what's stopping me going further! Oh complacency! Don't get me started! :lol:

Seriously though, I'm feeling quite good about myself - pretty positive that I can stay with the healthy eating over the weekend and to heck with the scales for the time being! I'm sure it'll sort out!

Well, my job hunt has gotten complicated. My husband works for the company that I was employeed by before I decided to stay at home. I was there for 11 years. I held a really high work ethic and left with a lot of respect from my employees and counterparts in other departments. I am still very proud of my accomplishments there. Anyway, a friend of my there ran into DH yesterday and she asked how I was doing. He mentioned in passing that I was planning on going back to work and had started interviewing. He told her that I wasn't looking to be on a career fast track again, just something adminstrative or support to get my feet wet again and have a little extra income. Well, she emailed me yesterday to say that she was thrilled I was looking for an administrative position because she is hiring and assitant right now and she wants me to take the job. On one hand, it is the exact opposite of the type of job I've planned to take. It is regular and full-time and I was looking for temporary and part-time. I liked the idea of being assigned temporary jobs that I could turn down if need be and working part-time hours so that I had plenty of time to focus on our family. However, this job does have a certain amount of flexibilty built in. Like I said, they know my work ethic and what I can do. With my experience there is no question that they will be getting more than they pay for and if I want to take off to volunteer in one of the kids' classrooms they know it isn't going to impact my work being done. The money will be much better than temping and they are trying to make allowences so that I can leave in time to beat the kids home. In fact, they want me bad enough that a couple of other people have volunteered to pick up the slack in the afternoons so that I could leave at 2. So, I wouldn't have to worry about after school care or our afternoon routines - none of that would change for me. Summer would be different though. I would have to enroll the kids in some sort of summer camp. Plus, if for some reason this didn't work out for me it would be harder for me to quit - another thing that appealed to me about working with a temporary firm. Anyway, I'm not necessarily looking advice just talking out loud to make a case in my mind. I suppose if I have to have a job related problem this is the kind to have. I could need work and not be able to find it.

And probably the biggest issue? Working full time is a big part of what got me fat to begin with. Continuing to eat whatever I wanted but losing the active lifestyle I had in college lead me to 215 pounds. I know I'd be accepting this job with armed with a lot more "health" experience but it is still a concern. Even when I don't work out now I'm still generally active and that helps quite a bit on the weight front. A desk job would make it much harder to maintain this weight much less lose more. Of course, it won't be impossible. I would just have to evaluate the situation and make adjustments accordingly. Right?

Susan, good luck with plan B. Just remember that to take care of everyone else you have to take care of yourself first. Continue to make your health a priority and this situation will be much easier to tackle.

2frus, you didn't have to tell us you were the one with hair. We would have known it was you by that great big GRIN! Congratulations!

Daisie, a loss is a loss especially at this stage of the game. Don't discount even an ounce as it all adds up! You are doing great. A real inspiration for the rest of us.

Thanks Lucky! I am eternally grateful that I have something else to think about lots of times!

I worked full-time for a couple of years in the middle of this battle :) (seven nights in a row every 3 weeks) and didn't make much useful headway. I was 119 lbs for a brief shining moment one day but now when I look at the pictures, I see unhealthy thin and tired.

On the other hand maybe this gives you a chance to make yourself a new routine.

I think you are right about a new routine. One thing I've noticed that holds me back lately is a lack of a routine. I mean, it is summer, the kids are out of school and when the alarm goes off it is easy to talk myself into staying in bed rather than hitting the gym. I'll think to myself, "We don't have anything to do today I'll go later." Then, of course, life happens and my head hits the pillow without my having officially worked out. If nothing else, having a job forces me to workout first thing in the morning because I know for sure that there won't be a chance to squeeze it in any other time during the day.

Another good thing about this job hunt is that I've become motivated (AGAIN!) to eat right and exercise. By golly, if I'm going to have to go an buy new work clothes I want to be able to walk into a store and feel really good about my choices. I'm okay with how things are right now but, if I take this job, I'll be meeting with people that I haven't seen in 4 years. And I want to DAZZLE them! The compliments have pretty much stopped from the people I see every day now. They are used to me being thinner. So, I have a chance to get a real ego boost the first time I visit the office and I intend to take advantage of it. Of course, I was 214 pounds the last time I saw them so even at this size they are going to be stunned. But I know I've been thinner and in better shape and I want to walk in knowing that I am at my peak. Man, when did I become so vain? LOL.