What an ispiring bunch you guys are! I didn't get to visit the boards this weekend but I sure wish I had. I might not have struggled so much if I'd read your posts the past couple of days. I managed to do okay this weekend but it was hard. I had to force myself to make good choices all weekend. My son had spend the night company which meant there was more junk food than usual in the house.

Today should be my "official" weigh in but I've decided to put the scales away for a while. I don't like to admit it but I am driven by that number. I think one reason I've been getting complacent the past few months is because I watch that number go down and then justify more splurges than I should by telling myself that I have a little wiggle room. I figure if I don't get on the scale I have to assume the worst and be very careful of what I eat and exercise harder.

I'm starting to realize that losing weight for health reasons is much easier than for pure vanity. At 214 pounds looking bad was the least of my problems. The size 2 jeans I have hanging in my room are not nearly as motivating as the fear I had when my health was at stake.

It sounds like everyone is right on track. Keep up the good work ladies!

thank you all for your words, we are dealing as best we can.

GonnaLoseit -- :hug: and :angel: to you and your family, so senseless and tragic...

2F --- I'm so proud and happy for you... NOW send some of those losin' vibes MY way :yes:....

:goodvibes for Ilene ;)

Had a minor victory/slip-up however you want to look at it last night! My parents were in town, and so I met up with them for dinner, just on the spur of the moment. I blew off kickboxing and went out for dinner :o Never mind, because I just had salad :faint: but it came with nice bread and dressing so it was probably still a humungous amount of calories! :devil: It was lovely though, and I enjoyed it more than I would've enjoyed a pizza that would've left me feeling all bloated and in a carb coma!

Anyway, so after dinner I met up with DF who hadn't had dinner. We were looking at going somewhere else so I could have pudding and he could have dinner. Well all the places we looked were expensive and he wasn't too hungry anyway, so he bought a salad noodle thing from a corner shop and I got myself some chocolate. I ate about 3 pieces and went home satisfied. I didn't binge, I didn't think, "Well I've blown it" or "I NEED a dessert" and I didn't nibble mindlessly when I got home, which is what usually happens! I even resisted a bite of DF's fruit pie - there will always be fruit pies and I know they're full of trash ingredients so it wouldn't have tasted very nice anyway! :no:

So I got home, popped to the shop for vegetables and made a stir fry for our lunches today! :D It's strange, a salad can do all that to a person. Even if it's not a particularly healthy salad! :lol: I'm sure if I'd had a pizza it would've been a different story!

So I'm back on track today with healthy stir-fry, lots of oaty goodness things and a run at lunch and kickboxing tonight :D

2Frus, it's all a matter of perspective. You chose to take what could have been a negative and turned it into a positive. Kudos to you!

Gonnaloseit~~So sorry for you loss. {{{HUGS}}}

2frus~~YAY for you! What a powerful little salad. lol It's amazing how one choice affects many.

Originally Posted by lucky:
I'm starting to realize that losing weight for health reasons is much easier than for pure vanity

You got that right! I've been realizing that as well.

I had a bang on day yesterday. It was such a great feeling going to bed knowing that I stayed right on track. I've re-done my calories and am starting to calorie cycle, I'm also getting rid of my free day. I still have one day though where my calories are quite a bit higher than the rest of the week. Have a great day ladies!

Gaylyn

Way to go 2frus! I agree with Daisimae - it is all about perspective!

Gaylyn, I've been cycling calories for quite a while now and I love it. It isn't because of the high calorie days either. I just find that I have a lot more flexibility in my planning and eating. I mean, sometimes I feeling I'm forcing down that 1500th calorie and sometimes I feel like I could eat a horse. It has been much easier to stay within a reasonable plan being able to work around the various types of days and events that I have.

This past winter my sister cleaned out her closet and gave me a lot of spring/summer clothes that were too big for her. I tried them on and, to my delight, they all fit. Then I packed them away. Well, last night I put away my cold weather clothes and pulled out all my spring and summer stuff. I'd forgotten about the things she'd given me. As soon as I saw them I was in a panic. I was scared they wouldn't fit now - but they did. Whew! But it did get me thinking about how much my attitude has changed over the past several months. When I first tried these clothes on I had just gotten into a size 8 and was well on my way to a 6. It was so much fun trying them all on. Last night was different though. I was glad they fit but it was more a relief that they did rather than excitement. That was a red flag for sure. The good news is that once I got everything in my closet I started to get that excited feeling back. I love spring and summer. I'm not going to blame the winter for my not being in a size 6 yet but spring and summer clothes are much more motivating than bulky sweaters. Not only did I hit the gym but the whole family went jogging when I got home. I've already been jogging this morning and I'll be heading to a step class in a couple of hours. Gosh, I love it when everything comes together and I feel this good. Now, if I could only find a way to bottle the feeling...

The cosmos must be aligned just right! I feel good and powerful today too!
I haven't tried on any summer clothing yet. I did dream about a bikini last night.

2Frus and Gaylyn: What exactly is cycling and how do you determine what you need? What system do you use to keep track?

Personally I use fitday and make sure my "weekly average" stays approximately 1800. But to achieve that I might have one day at 1500, then another at 2300, then 1800, then 1700... you get the picture? I've fairly much determined what I need by trial and error! I know 1600 is too low, I end up bingeing and I've tried to even things out over the week (my high days aren't as high as they used to be and my low days aren't as low...) which seems to have brought the overall average down. However, there's still a good 800kcals between high and low days!

I'm feeling good too (still!) I haven't been out for my lunch run - I was ringing bridal shops :rolleyes: I've found a really GOOD one that I think will suit me... It's very city chic! I'm going to try it on Friday - I will get them to take pictures! :crossed: Only problem is I might get a bit hot - it's 3/4 sleeves and looks like heavy material - oh and it's £1000 :faint: I might split the cost with mum, I really want to be able to pay for it myself though...

I usually have a good half hour/45 minutes to wait before kickboxing tonight, so I am going to go for a jog for a PROPER warm up - my back is a bit twingey so I think I need more than just a few jogs on the spot!

About the cosmos... As soon as the clocks changed I felt a click! I've got so much more energy now I'm waking up with the sun and it's still sunny as I ride home/to kickboxing :D :sunny: The weather here is quite good too - the definitely makes a difference!

I'm with you on the time change and nice weather, 2frus. It has made all the difference in the world for me!

daisimae~~Calorie cycling is eating a different amount of calories each day to keep the body guessing. To figure it out I took my weight 150 and multiplied it by 11 to get the amount of calories I need to maintain my weight. The more active you are the more you need to multiply your weight by. I like to be conservitive in my esitmates. So, 150 * 11 = 1650 cals a day to maintain. I then multiply 1650 * 7 to get 11550(the number of calories I need a week to maintain.) I then subtract 3500 cals to get 8050 which is the amount of calories I need to consume a week if I want to lose 1 lb a week. I then took the 8050 and broke it down into 7 days of varying calories. Hopefully this is the kick in the pants that my body needs to get rid of these last 10 lbs.

Anybody else feel free to kick in their version of calorie cycling because mine is a work in progress. ;)

I agree with the time change theory!!!! Feeling great!

Gaylyn

Thanks guys...I guess that what I am doing with my WW points is a form of cycling. I use a low limit of about 18 points a day but have a bunch of "flex points" that I use when I want to treat myself. I usually use most of them on the weekend, hence 2 high cal days.

I like the concept and I am going to take a closer look at the details though. It seems very interesting.

:chin: I'm UP 3lbs! :rofl: I'm dehydrated though, so I presume that's why! We are out of squash (kool-aid?) at home so I didn't drink anything when I got home after kickboxing. :doh:

My back is being a PITA - but I still ran for about 15-20 minutes yesterday, just before kickboxing, then did the class. It's not feeling too bad this morning but I'm sure I'll do something to wreck that! :lol:

Had a slightly high calorie day yesterday - 1995 :doh: I was aiming for 1600-1700, but when I got home I talked myself into having a BfL apple crumble! I thought it would satisfy me today - I'm always hungry the day after kickboxing! :lol: We shall see what happens!

2frus~~I'm sure those 3lbs are just water retention from lack of fluid. Hopefully today was a good day.

Today was the third day in a row that I've been right on track. :D It feels so good to be eating properly again. I had been allowing way too many treats.

I'm a sick frus :(

That BfL apple crumble did the trick - I didn't want to chew my arm off! But then I lost my appetite at about 2pm! :doh: I still came home and ate some chocolate though! :lol:

Scales are being more sensible now! We have squash in the kitchen, since we got our groceries delivered last night, we have 24L of squash to dilute! :D We won't be going thirsty any time soon! The fridge and freezer are bursting with good stuff to eat, although I forgot to buy spread and brown rice... I'm sure we'll cope!

Off back to bed. I'm sore. :cry:

Happy Day....I went to WW Meeting last night and was hoping to have lost a lb or 2. To my utter amazement I lost 3! That put me in the frame of mind to tackle the coming week. I know that 3 lbs is a lot for one week and don't expect to lose 3 lbs every week, but it was a great start!

I've been giving some more though to this cycling concept and am going to use it to tweak my WW program. Thanks Ladies for your input...I learned something new this week!

3 lbs is awesomely encouraging! Good work!
Poor jenfrus ... remember, ibuprophen is your friend :)
I just got a call that I'd won $300 certificate at a really nice butcher shop. $300 of free protein! Yes!
We aren't much for buying raffle tickets and so on but this is a big deal around here. There are earlybird prizes almost all year and then in July there's a dinner and dance and more prizes and you can win either a BIG tractor or a pick-up truck. Rural? yup!

WOOO! FREE MEAT! Great!

Still feeling pants - just fitdaying my gingerbread man and marmite on toast! :lol: Hope I'm better for wedding dresses tomorrow :rolleyes:

Well done daisimae on 3lbs! :cp:

Congrats Daisimae!! You got to love those weeks!

whoohoo Free meat!!! Yay Susan!

I'm feeling so good I even did an extra session on the stair climber last night. What's happening to me???? lol

That is so :cool: Susan, Congrats on your winning!

2F -- What is marmite? I hope it's healthy ;) ...

Today has been a good day food and exercise wise :dance: ....

Thanks everyone. I don't win things very often. We're in the process of negotiating what we're gonna get. I'm rootin' for chicken breasts :)

I've got my hipster yoga pants on gals. And this horrid flob of loose empty skin is hanging out. Ya know? ... I call it my birthday suit getting too big. I know it's a good sign but ewww!

:hug: Poor suze ;)

Marmite is extract of yeast - you can spread it on toast and it's lovely bitter/salty/meaty taste :T The aussies have Vegemite which isn't as strong.

Feeling slightly better, still have a temperature and horrid tummy pains, but I don't hurt as much - at least not yet! I have to get up and go out for a wedding dress fitting so I hope I don't fall over! I'm going to take some food and some Pepsi with me, to keep me upright!

Will post pictures later :D

2F -- Extract of yeast on toast :fr: ... :barf: is all I can say ...

I had a very good food and exercise day yesterday and it's showing up on the scale this morning... Not to worry though it's the same 2# I've lost and found a zillion times in the last year :( ... Time for a clean weekend :yes:

If marmite is anything like vegimite, I'll pass! I had that stuff in Australia and likened it to tar spread on toast. I suppose you must acquire a taste for it, but I still think I'll pass, thanks!

Good luck with the wedding dress 2Frus, I hope you are feeling better. Please get those pics up here as soon as possible. I'd love to see them.

Frus, where is that pic of your wedding dress? I can't seem to locate it :shrug: could you please direct me to it?

Congratulations to all of you who have had such wonderful weeks! I am still avoiding the scale but I have been on plan so I feel rather postive about things. I do need more exercise though. I should search all of my old posts because I've told people a million times that exercise is one of those things that you just do - whether you want to or not. Maybe I'd feel like such a hypocrite that it would guilt me into working out harder.

I have always been a calorie counter. I am a firm beliver that weight loss boils down to calories in vs. calories out. I've been thinking about switching gears though, just for the sake of doing something different. I'm not looking for a quick fix or a crazy crash diet, just a change of pace - something that would require more attention on my part than calorie counting does at this point. Someone suggested South Beach but I haven't looked into that yet. No matter what I decide I'll still be tracking calories, I just want another focus. Of course, this whole idea could be my way of avoiding the fact that a new exercise routine would require more attention and serve the same purpose. I really do LOVE to workout. What is wrong with me these days?!?

I'm taking advantage of this thread to blog a little. It helps so much when I'm ruminating on something, to have imput from others.

A couple of little incidents are sticking in my head lately. And of course, I'm sooo close that I'm hunting for 'the thing', 'the key' blah blah blah ...

I was reading the site of one of my favourite fitness competitors/models. She describes how she eats and says that before a competition she uses a thermogenic pill.
There's ever so many ads on TV for thermogenic this and thermgenic that.
I bike in the cold.
On LWL, we were teasing Ilene about swimming in cold water.
Whales, seals and other animals who live in cold water have a resistant layer of fat for insulation.
I live in a big old farm house that is not warm most days.
And the notion that a calorie is really a unit of heat

So agoogling I went.

thermogenic:Relating to heat, or to the production of heat; producing heat

caffeine and anything that makes your heart go faster can do this ... ephedra

there are claims that hot peppers etc can do this ... vitamin B complexes

there is a diet out there that claims if you eat all cold food, your body uses calories warming the food up to digest it

I though pft! so is it hot or cold that works? ... make up your mind quacks!

I also found lists of foods that use more calories to digest than are in 'em

As I googled deeper into fitness sites, I found some common sense.
Any food is thermogenic. You need energy to digest anything.
The more complex the food, the more your body has to work to digest it. For example meat is more thermogenic than fruit juice.
Exercise, activity is thermogenic duh! That'd be why they call it a 'warm up' and 'cool down'

Why is it our tendancy to want to complicate the principles of weight loss? I've done the same thing you have, Susan. Digging for the key WHEN I ALREADY HAVE IT! I don't know if I'll ever accept that it is as simple as eating less and moving more. I know that eating less and moving more WORKS but I still find myself searching for something that will make it work BETTER.

Lucky ... how funny is it that we're both thinking this way today!

I've been "thinking" quick fix lately too, must be the Spring time and Summer bathing suit season coming up... But I KNOW those quick fixes in the long run don't work. Do hotflashes count as thermogenic? :lol: I know that when I get a HF while exercising I feel like I'm going to pass out from heat exhaustion..:shrug:

:wave:

Wedding dress piccies are in UK chicks thread - one is called Blushing Bride - I think it might be on page 2 or 3 by now, that's some pictures of me in some random dresses from a department store a couple of weeks ago. There are some pictures in a thread called "More Dresses" that have just gone up tonight. The quality is pretty poor on most of them, I have re-done one so that you can see the detail!

Marmite - you either love it or hate it :D

I'll post more when I'm in a more "diet" mood. Wedding dresses gets me eatings :dunno: :rolleyes: Better tomorrow ;)

Don't eat, you won't fit in the dress :eek: ... I love the high collared one :yes:

frus, I think the high collared one looks great. My favorite, though, is the strapless on with the full skirt you have posted in the blushing bride thread. I also really, really like the straight dress that has the criss cross straps on the back with the little flowers on the front of the shoulders. You've got great shoulders and collar bones - any dress that accentuates them is going to look smashing!

Argh no! Not the STRAPLESS MERINGUE! :lol: I have that straight dress - I bought it on ebay for £20!!! I think I'll dye it and wear it a different time! It's ankle length though, so not quite wedding dress length. Maybe I should get my legs shortened! ;)

Oh and there wasn't a picture of this, but my back looks fairly ripped in the high collared one :D *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE* :lol:

I'm back on track with my eating today - high protein breakfast of bacon and egg after lifting on an empty stomach first thing! :crazy:

Oh, no, don't get those legs shortened! ;) I didn't notice the straight dress not being floor length when I looked at the picture - I just really liked the strappy back. My wedding dress was tea length (well, actually, it was a bridesmaid suit since I just couldn't get into all the frilly wedding dresses and I loved the detail on the jacket of the suit). I guess there really is no accounting for taste because I loved the STRAPLESS MERINGUE. :D So, do you think you are go with the high collared one? Your shoulders and collar bones really look great in that one and if you back looks ripped to...WOW.

I'm in a real funk today. I was feeling a little off yesterday. I went to bed at 9:00 and didn't get up until almost 11:00. I'm about to head to the gym and see if I can't work myself out of it. To be honest, though, what I really want to do is go back to bed. I don't think I'm sick, it is just one of those blah days that come around every once in a while. I did start the day (or should I say mid-morning) with a healthy bowl of oatmeal. That should count for something. Especially since what I really wanted to do was pour a big bowl of Lucky Charms.:o

Hey girls :) You're all doing great and are really inspiration for me. I appreciate being able to read all your many posts on this thread so I hope you don't mind me joining? I know I'm 27 pounds from my goal but 100 is my ultimate goal weight, right now I'm focused on 110 so I'm only 17 lbs away and sheesh, are these last pounds hard or what? I'd love to be able to support you girls on the rest of your journies and I'd really appreciate your support as well. Good luck today! :hug:

Lesel -- I hope that you are really short to be weighing in at only 100# as a goal weight? Otherwise I would find that a bit underweight for anyone over 5' tall...

Lucky -- Hope you had a good workout... What I do sometimes when I get really really tired is go to the gym and afterwards go back to bed...I've done that many a times...

Lucky - in the pics it isn't short, but the one I bought on ebay is that style, however it's been shortened and the train cut off. It's still nice though. I will go with the sparkly high-collared one, I just have one more fitting at a different shop on Tuesday just to see one more. If that's not as good, it will be the high-collared beauty!

I'm also in a bit of a funk too! I took a packed lunch out with me yesterday, but we still ended up going out for dinner :doh: and I blew it - again. :cry: It's now 2 slip-up days in a row. At least I tried for most of the day yesterday! It could've been a LOT worse!

I'm going to buy a rebounder today! I can't be bothered going outside to run, I thought just having something that I can use while I watch DVDs will be good! I might also tidy the house and do some baking today! Protein bakes of course! ;) I'm going to try the brownies and make some more flapjacks!

Oh and WELCOME lesel! :wave:

Welcome, lesel! We are glad to have you. I assume you are as "vertically challanged" as I am. I'm only 5 foot 2 and certainly wouldn't look sickly at 105-110 but I know I couldn't maintain a weight that low. Do you mind if I ask how tall you are? Also, what are you doing to lose weight? Are you following a specific plan or just counting calories?

Thanks, Ilene. I did have a good workout. I felt so much better afterwards too. Is there anything exercise can't do?

2frus, I think you've probably told us this before but I couldn't find it skimming through the threads. When is the big day? Also, I can't wait to hear how the rebounder works out for you. My gym membership will expire in February and I've been debating whether to renew it or start building up an at home gym. I've been looking at equipment but haven't figured out yet which pieces would best suit my purposes. I love going to the gym but, as my children get older and more involved in sports, etc. my time gets more and more crunched. It would be great to be able to get a full workout at home.

I had a great day yesterday. Especially considering how yucky it started out. This week should be an easy one. My in-laws will be visiting so I'll be able to hit all of my favorite aerobics classes since I'll have someone to watch the kids. Plus, the part for our oven finally came in so I'll be able to use it again tomorrow. That will make meal planning much easier. I'm working in the garden today, getting the beds ready to put in our vegetables. You just can't beat homegrown!

Hope everyone has a successful day!