vmelo,

Congratulations!!! Did you get the inspiration that you were hoping for? I have lost 11 pounds and am still doing great. I feel so much better now that I am getting somewhere.

vmelo - YAY! CONGRATULATIONS! What a wonderful surprise for you!!!! and to feel those size SIX fit you well, WOO-HOO!!!

Debbie, you are doing fantastic also! Keep up the great, great work!!

I am SO confused with my workouts now. I want to add the cardio-aerobic workouts to burn calories for fat loss. But I am worried about losing muscle mass by decreasing the number of strength workouts to fit in those aerobics. Do I have to go to doing BOTH a strength session and an aerobic session almost every day?! Dedicating at least 40 minutes a day to an exercise session is a big enough commitment to me as it is...I can't imagine trying to fit in 80 minutes a day :?:

Only two weeks left of my stressful winter job. Yay!

We had SUNSHINE today! but it was still chilly, didn't quite get to 50 degrees. But I got my gear on and took the bike out, was great! My new tire grips the road nicely, will grip even better when it's WARMER!

Have a good night, do your best, think of our goals!!

*wow, that font was HUGE! :D

Thanks, so much, you guys for the encouragement! Yes, Debbie, I am inspired. I just need to make sure I don't get too cocky & lose my edge (oh, wait--that already happened. I'm just tryin' to get it back!--lol).

Holly, why not try substituting aerobic weight training for some of your straight cardio? That way, you get in the aerobics & weights. Like you, I'd like to tone up & get some muscle & still burn off the layer of fat on top of it. To do that, I've been trying to commit to working out 6 days a week & do the following: 5 days of cardio, 1 day of full-body strength training, 1 day of just upper body, & one day of aerobic weight training. That doesn't add up to just 6, so here's how I try to schedule it & devote only an hour each day:

Mon. - Full-body strength workout (1 hour)
Tues. - 1 hour of cardio (step tape or walking or something)
Wed. - 1/2 hr. upper body strength + 1/2 hour of cardio
Thurs. - 1 hour of cardio
Friday - 1 hour aerobic weight training (e.g., the Firm Cardio Scupt, which really lasts only 45 minutes or so)
Saturday - 1 hour cardio

Of course, this is in the best of all possible worlds, and I haven't been able to work out all 6 days for the past 2 weeks (although I've come close). Also, because I want to gain upper body strength, I devote one session a week to that. Someone who wants to focus on lower body strength could do a lower body weight workout instead.

Anyway, I'm hoping to see some good results if I can follow this type of schedule. It's difficult, though, because I have to get up at 5:15 a.m. to do it & my husband can drop the occasional disparaging remark about my workouts, which can be discouraging.

I'm psyched about this weekend because it's supposed to hit 70 degrees on Saturday & 80 on Sunday. That will be so welcome after this rainy, cool week we've had. Holly, I hope you guys get some of this warm weather too; I know how much you've been wanting it.

Have a great weekend!

Ben & Jerry are evil!
 

Ok, so its my own fault for buying the stuff but but but... we had a coupon! :D
We got 2 pints of B&J today at the store. My husband's favorite and mine... cookie dough. I guess I should be proud that I stopped at one serving and didn't eat the whole thing :lol: but since I was already over on my calories for the day... ouch!
I am trying out DietPower software and so far I'm really liking it... its only been one day but it has everything I was looking for. I can input foods and it comes up with the calories and nutritional breakdown and such. I can input exercise and it calculates approximately how much I've burned. It tells me how many calories I should be consuming daily and changes that based on my weight and metabolism as time progresses. It charts my weight loss and predicts future loss based on the pattern of loss so far. I really haven't found it to be lacking anything yet. The ONLY problem I've found is that its $50!! :dizzy:
Oh, one thing I discovered that I like about it is that, instead of adding to your calories each time you eat something and input it, it subtracts it from your daily total. So, it shows how many calories you have left for the day which is a nice reminder to keep it under control. I'm not sure why this way seems much 'clearer' to me than the other but it does. I think it also 'banks' calories kind of like WW does with points which is nice.
Anyway, vmelo, that exercise schedule is just insane...to me anyway. I'd be lucky if I could get myself to do 20 minutes a day ;) Even when I was exercising 'regularly' during my last diet, it was 20-30 minutes of cardio 3 times per week and that was it! I'd like to eventually get cardio and strength into the mix and even throw in some yoga but I'm not sure I could do it without burning out. The only way to get enough of ALL of that in, is to double up on workouts some days or to do 40+ minute workouts. If anyone has the secret to motivating oneself to do nearly that much, please do share ;)

Anyway, I'm off to bed. I promise myself that I will do better with the calories tomorrow! I will get nowhere on this loss if I don't keep a calorie deficit!!

Hope everyone's having a great week.

:)
Christine
181/178/130

updating my goal
 

I have decided that although 130 may be more 'realistic' I really want my ultimate goal to be 125 pounds. So, for now, I'm changing it. When I get closer I can re-evaluate and decide if I think its realistic or not.

DietPower is telling me so far today that I have to have more protein. Yesterday's final consensus was that I needed to have less fat. So, somehow I need to figure out how to increase the protein in my diet without increasing the fat. There's a challenge for me ;) The breakdown yesterday had me at 22% protein, 31% carbs and 47% fat (ouch!!). I'd like to get my fat intake down below 30% at the most!

So, how's everyone else doing today? Any big plans for this weekend?

:)
Christine
181/178/125

Hi, all. I'm feeling good as I type this. I came home from work & cleaned my house, so the rest of the weekend is MINE!! Not that I'll do anything exciting, but it's nice to know that I can loaf & not feel guilty about it.

Christina, please don't think that I stick to that exercise schedule religiously. Much like my eating, I aim for perfection but rarely achieve it---LOL!! IMO, the best exercise schedule is something that you consistently do. So even 20 minutes, 3 times a week done consistently is better than going all out for a couple of months, burning out, & then doing nothing. For some reason, at this time in my life, I'm not really minding the exercise. That's not the way it used to be; I'm just hoping that I can continue w/ this mindset.

My eating hasn't been stellar today but not because of how much I ate (I'm even under my calorie count at this point); it's because of WHAT I ate (a pumpkin scone for lunch, some dark chocolate while driving home, pretzels & cheese). I usually try to follow the food pyramid, but today that went out the window.

Hope eveyone has a great weekend (I'll write that even though I'll probably post again!!).

Well that was fun... NOT! I typed half a post and then the window disappeared! Argh!

Ok, basically, what it said was.... I am restarting DietPower today because this weekend was so stressfull that I didn't even bother trying to eat well and the first few days on DP were not great either so I was off to a rocky start. Today is my official weekly weighin day so a good time to start fresh!

I had a ton of computer problems this weekend (a large chunk of my stress). It downloaded tons of stuff it shouldn't have (without my permission damnit!) and when my husband deleted it all and rebooted, windows wouldn't work. He spent all night Saturday trying to fix it without losing all my important stuff (most importantly my digital photos!!) and managed to do it! Then Sunday morning I get online and since we hadn't done all the windows updates or reinstalled our firewall, I get a virus! Argh!! I'm just glad it was all worked out without losing everything. Now I am in the process of reinstalling all my programs and trying to clean up my harddrive enough so we can back it up easily.

On a bit of a happier note, I weighed as little as 177.5 over the weekend. Of course today, on my official weekly weighin, I am 179.5 but just seeing that number briefly is a motivator! I will try my hardest to get back there for next Monday's weighin!!

How was everyone else's weekend?

:)
Christine
181/179.5/130

Hello everyone!

vmelo, thank u very much for the exercise suggestion. I will try to follow that! I TRIED to this afternoon...after only 10 minutes into my super-duper fat burning aerobic Kelly R. tape, the stupid power went out!! BUT I continued stepping, making up my own moves, in silence, for twenty more minutes! I'm patting myself on the back :D

mmm, pumpkins scone and dark chocolate and pretzels...sounds like the food trapezoid instead :devil: just joking with ya, vmelo, your calories were in line so you're fine!

Christine, so sorry to hear of all the 'puter problems!!!! What a pain. They enrich our lives, but are heck to deal with sometimes.

We had a freakishly warm day today!!! mid-70's! 'course, it could snow tomorrow, so I don't hold my breath :D Husband and I took an almost 200-mile ride yesterday, was great! and I rode to and from work today. Our Myrtle Beach trip is in 16 days!!! whoa!

Have a great night, everyone!

Hi, everybody!

Holly, we had a warm day here in NJ, too (85)! I was lovin' it. It won't be as warm the rest of the week, but I think the really cold weather is a thing of the past. I hope the weather in Vermont stays warm for you. BTW, I give you a lot of credit for sticking it out w/ that tape. I don't think I could have done it.

Do I need to even say it? I'm sounding like a broken record lately. I can't get w/ the program on my eating! What is WITH ME??? I start off the day w/ good intentions, but you know what they say about good intentions: the road to the plus size store is paved with them (or is it Twinkies?).

Okay, I'm signing off for the night. I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow!

A Texan in Norway
 

Hi all. I have never joined any group like this before, but as I was searching the web this afternoon for a recipe for 'low fat strawberry shortcake', I stumbled across this website!! I think it is great! Something about being part of a community really reached out and grabbed me. So, I live in Norway. Oslo. From Texas originally, but now married to a 6 foot 6 viking from Norway!! I am going to see if this posts before I write too much! Anyway, hope to become an active participant!

A Texan in Norway...cont...
 

Ok, so it worked. Always a bit amazed by stuff like that. So, I live in Norway now. Learning Norwegian. I go to language school 5 days a week for 4 hours a day. My head hurts most days! I just got married in January. The third. I lost about 20 pounds before my wedding. I have since gained about 10. I have never been really overweight. I am one of those people who doesn't look as much as she weighs. I was always very thin. Thin teenager. And then in my twenties, I just got lazy and slowly began gaining weight. I put on about 50 pounds over a 10 year period. So am I fat? No. But i am not happy with my body. I want to be healthy. I want to be the best me I can be! And I am tired of being lazy! Accountability works and I figure if I have people asking me if I exercised today, I will. Cause I hate to say 'no actually I didn't'! Does that make sense? I hate that whenever I tell people I want to lose weight they say 'why? you look great!' I just carry my weight well! I know that I am not supposed to weigh 155. I think I will feel my best at 130. So. here are my details...I am 5 foot 7. My all time high was about 185. I am currently around 155. I say around because I don't own a scale, but the last time we went to IKEA I got on a scale there and I was 63 kilos. And that is about 153. I have many handfuls of fat to grab hold of around my middle and would love to have a semi flat tummy and wear a little mid drift top!!! My clothes range from 6 to 10. I sometimes feel like I am at war with my body and I am on a road of reconcilliation with it. 5 years ago I was diagnosed with heart disease. Long QT syndrome. 4 years ago, my little sister, Courtney, died from a heart attack due to Long QT Syndrome. She was 24. She was an identical twin. My other sister is Kindel, she also has Long QT. I have had two heart operations in the last 3 years and I have a pace maker and a defibrallator. I can't believe I am saying all of this stuff!!! But I am ready to LIVE!!! and to be happy with my body!!! I may not be able to control life and what happens, but I can certainly be friends with this body I have been given and make it work for me! So, I guess that is all for now. Thanks for taking the time to read this! Until next time...from Oslo...oh yea, my name is Kathryn.

Hi Katherine
 

Welcome to the group Katherine. I hope it helps you as much as it has helped me. There are a bunch of nice ladies, everyone is so supportive. What is your plan? Are you counting calories? Trying to exercise more? (You may have stated this in your post. I did not get to finish reading it because I am at work and in a hurry and I haven't figured out yet how to go back to reading your post without deleting the one I am writing now :o ).

Hi to everyone else, (VermontMom, vmelo, silence, etc.)

I am still logging on and reading everyone's posts, it helps to remind me of what I am trying to do. I have been staying on track pretty good. The scales are stuck again so I am not going to be weighing myself for awhile. It has been beautiful here, (WV), for the last two days. I am going to walk for 1/2 hour tonight.

Deb

Welcome Kathryn!

Hello everyone!

Debbie, when you're writing a post, you can scroll down to find all the other messages. It comes in handy when you're already typing and forgot what you wanted to say! LOL

Well I did pretty good yesterday for my fresh start! I kept within my calories for the first time in days and that included a trip to Burger King for dinner. This time, instead of the 500+ calorie double cheeseburger I usually get, I got a 170 calorie order of chicken nuggets! I was satisfied and it made it so much easier not to go over on calories for the day!
DietPower gives you a 'grade' for the day on how your eating was. Yesterday I got an A... before my new start, I was getting mostly C's! And I banked a whole 3 calories :lol: But hey, its better than my negative bank I had before!! I feel like maybe something has clicked (*knock on wood*) so maybe this is the start of some real loss!

So, I'm off to start my day.
How is everyone else doing?

:)
Christine

20 things you can do instead of eating...
 

I was cleaning up my email this morning and found this....

1 Read a book -- or your favorite fitness magazine
2 Search the Web on a topic of interest to you that you haven't had time to pursue
3 Go for a walk
4 Call or email a friend
5 Write in a journal
6 Go window shopping
7 Play a game with your spouse, children or pets -- whether it's Frisbee or fetch, checkers or chess
8 Do an exercise video or hit the gym for aerobics, weightlifting or yoga
9 Tackle some household chores: dust, vacuum, balance the checkbook, etc.
10 Take a long bath or shower
11 Start your holiday gift list -- both gifts to give and gifts you'd like to receive
12 Alphabetize your books, CDs, videotapes, spice rack...
13 Do some outside chores: Work in the garden, mow the lawn, rake leaves, or shovel snow
14 Meditate or pray
15 Work on a craft project that will keep your hands busy: knitting, needlepoint, painting, woodworking, etc.
16 Crank up your stereo and dance around the living room
17 Try on old clothes -- clothes that are now too big as well as clothes that are now too small
18 Research healthy recipes to prepare for the coming week and make a shopping list
19 Brush your teeth, use a strong mouthwash, then pop in a piece of extra-minty gum
20 Start, or add to, a scrapbook of your weight loss journey. Include photos, motivational articles and your own thoughts and feelings