[BUNDLEOFJOY]

I originally started this thread to keep myself accountable to lose the last 20 pounds. I really wanted to get my weight down so that I can stay as mobile and active as possible when I am blessed with my first pregnancy . Although I had a surgery planned for October and knew that I needed time to heal, I ignored that and tried to go all out anyway.

Well, I soon realized that my body needed time to recover and I needed to just take it easy, eat well, rest, and come back when I truly felt better.

Now, I'm back and ready to do this!

[emmy724]

Hi there! I am going to try and follow along with you. I would love to be in maintenance mode by the end of the year. I am 165 and 5'3. So I should be able to keep up with you I hope? Ha ha. Right now for exercise I am picking apples for about 8 hours a day on most days. I have no idea how many calories that burns, but I am sure it is more than just sitting around. I have not been keeping track of how many calories I am eating. How many are you eating a day? I looked up my BMR and it is 1450. One website said I should eat 2080 cal per day if exercising hard more than 20 hours a week. Does that seem high to you, because it does to me. Any suggestions would be helpful. Last year I lost 50 pounds by eating about 1200-1400 calories per day and working in retail. I was always standing and moving around. The weight came off pretty fast. This time however I am STUCK at 160-165 and its driving me nuts. I do know that I have gained quite a bit of muscle. I fit into clothes that I wore when I was 150 pounds. My goal weight is pretty much the same as yours (140). I know if I have lost 50 pounds another 25 should be no problem but its really hard.

[BUNDLEOFJOY]

Feels So good to come back and track my weightless! I have a few things coming up that I need to lose this weight for…

1) 1st Pregnancy - I've had some issues with my back in the past. I've never been pregnant before, but I know how rough pregnancy is on your body (especially your back) so I want to get in the best shape possible for carrying my baby. I pray that I will be able to stay active and work through my pregnancy.

2) I will be going on a nice vacation in June and I would like to actually be able to wear my bathing suit and feel good, especially since it may be my last vacation before pregnancy

When I originally started the thread last year, I was 165 pounds.
Took the time off to recover and get back on track.

Today: 160.8

So the plan is to get back to eating small meals throughout the day. I know that during pregnancy, it will probably be best to eat this way to keep the blood sugar constant, so I may as well try to start doing it now.

Lately I've been eating 2 meals a day and maybe a snack. Only 2 because my body seems to take a while to digest my meals. I haven't been stuffing myself or anything. Just eating intuitively but I would like to space my meals out a little better.

Plans I have enjoyed in the past (depending on my lifestyle at the time) to lose and/or maintain my weight - intuitive eating, intermittent fasting, calorie counting, and any of Dr. Ian Smith's plans.

I have a friend that is currently doing the SHRED plan and has lost 12 pounds in 3 weeks, so I am interested in reading that book. He says the meals are written out and you eat 4-6 times a day. Sounds like a good plan to jumpstart your weightless if you've fallen off track, and easy to also transition to maintenance.

Lately, I have been super busy, so the simplest meals work best for me. I have been trying to decide between creating my own pre-packaged meal type of plan or choose one of Dr. Ian's old plans just to get my body used to eating at least 4 times per day and then go from there. If I try to do my own frozen meal plan, I guess I would make my own breakfast and then do a frozen meal for lunch and dinner and pick 2 snacks. That sounds pretty simple, but I would need to find the healthiest frozen meals possible, paying close attention to sodium. Either way, this is just the start.

I think I will go ahead and start with one of Dr. Ian Smith's old plans first. I know I have most of the foods that are allowed on his plans. It will be cheaper plus I need a little time to find the healthiest frozen meals before I attempt to create my own pre-packaged food plan, but that definitely interests me.

By the time I get closer to goal, I (hopefully) will have a better handle on eating more than twice per day. I should also have more time to be able to really get back into the kitchen and get more creative with my meals.

Well.. that's the "plan." I like to keep things light and loose. No stress, no fuss. Just do what you got to do to get to your goal. If something is not working for you, don't stress, just make the necessary changes and keep going.

[BUNDLEOFJOY]

Got a very late start after staying up all night. Me and my baby just laid around all morning, just relaxing, and laying in the bed, surfing the web like we had no worries in the world. Nice. So anyway, I won't have as many meals as I would on a normal day.

1. decaf coffee
2. Boiled egg and Orange juice
3. Snap Peas and Hummus & a strawberry

Work out: 65 minutes of steady state cardio while watching my favorite pregnancy shows .. Sooo sore from doing weight training yesterday.

Just finish cooking for me and my baby. The smell of his chicken seemed to mess with my appetite! Ugh.. What happened? Sipping on 3 oz of red wine right now and have a heating pad on my back to relax my muscles. As soon as my appetite returns I will eat. The great thing is, I have food prepared for the next couple of days. Great!

4. We ended up watching a late night movie. Even though our meals were done, we both decided to just get something quick to eat instead of eating a full meal. I ate a few PB2 cookies (cookies with defatted powder peanut butter) and a pint of blueberries. Yum.

That's it for today. My meals should be more on point tomorrow. Its after midnight, so who knows what time I will get up tomorrow...

[BUNDLEOFJOY]

Wow. Stayed up literally all night on this forum reading through weightloss journeys. I would think that I would have fell asleep earlier but nope,.. Not until 5am this morning! Woke up around 9 and got back on again. Lol. I think reading about other's success fuels me even more. Anyway, laid around for a while and then got up because I was good and hungry!

1. Snap peas and hummus

2. Oatmeal with raisins and walnut

3. "Stir fry"

4. Snap peas and hummus (obviously addicted)

Supplements: Multivitamin, 500 mg folic acid
Exercise: 55 minutes incline walking in fat burning zone. I did not feel like doing this..especially with only a few hours sleep, but luckily I had a tv show I wanted to watch so that helped! Foam rolled afterward. What a great feeling!
Water: 60 oz and counting ...

[BUNDLEOFJOY]

1. Oatmeal with raisins and walnuts (2 packets). I should have only eaten 1 packet because I felt way too full afterward and my tummy felt full all day. I didn't like that feeling.
Fat free milk

2. Glutino pretzels and 1.5 tbsp hummus

3. Black beans and rice

4. Pineapple

I have to eventually try to get more veggies in. Still working on spacing the meals out. If I had eaten 1 pack of oatmeal for meal 1 and then waited for and hour or two and then had the other packet, I wouldn't have felt so stuffed all day... That type of eating is why I probably came to eating only 2 meals a day. I swear, I just think my body doesn't digest food as fast as others!

I'm definitely a work in progress!

Exercise: 45 minute jog
Supplements: iron and folic acid

I hope to see 157 tomorrow

[BUNDLEOFJOY]

Ok. Enough with this weight! C'mon! I know I can't get a big drop everyday but i am ready for 157...please and thank you .

1. 2 boiled eggs with hummus. 2 slices 45 calorie, low carb toast

2. Pineapple

3. 2 boiled eggs with hummus. 1 slice of toast

4. Strawberries/blueberries

5. Quest bar / gluten free pretzels

Today will be a rest day. No exercise. I had a craving for egg salad today. Used the hummus instead of mayo. Delicious

Last bite of food at 730. Really want to start cutting off my meals by 6 and bed by 10pm. Really need to work on getting more sleep and working out first thing in the morning. I'm pooped after work for sure!

[BUNDLEOFJOY]

So glad to NOT see 158. Yaaaay.

Got up super early this morning to get my exercise in. Took about 65 minutes to complete and off to work I went.

1. medium orange
2. oatmeal w/raisins and walnuts
3. tofu and veggies
4. strawberries
5. small Atkins protein bar
6. low fat GF pancakes for din din ;-) yummy

I cannot tell you how glad I am that I worked out this morning. I would cry if I came home today and workout. Ugh. Where does my energy go in the evening?

Unfortunately I may not be able to workout tomorrow morning though so I have to suck it up and plan to workout in the afternoon when I get off work.

[BUNDLEOFJOY]

1. Brown rice and black beans

2. Ham & turkey pastrami wrap

3. strawberries

4. 1.5 vegetarian chicken breast with small salad

Exercise: none

I plan to weigh again on Sunday. Hoping to see 156 soon !

[BUNDLEOFJOY]

Aright 157. I'm kind of surprised since I haven't exercised the last 2 days.

1. Quest bar

2. Brown rice, veggie, and tofu meal & a plum

This last meal was small, but for some reason I still feel too full. Indigestion. Hate that!

3. rice pretzels, PB2 cookies , Milk

4. Glass of red


Planning on seeing a drop tomorrow or Monday.

Exercise:

[BUNDLEOFJOY]

Had a great super sweaty workout this morning in my sweat suit. Weighed in afterward and saw 154.8. To keep things consistent, I'm using 156.8 as the official weighin. I am just happy to see the scale moving in the right direction. I have been doing a lot of reading on the whole calorie in/out deal because I got a new heart rate monitor and activity tracker. I'm really trying to understand the whole weightloss thing so I can get a real grip on exactly what I need to do to lose weight...and I'm praying that if I figure that out, I can also maintain / control my weight so much easier than in the past.

1. Turkey pastrami w/ egg and low fat white American cheese sandwich
***super delicious

2. Salad - (protein - egg, cheese)

3. half veggie burger + chips w/lite sour cream

4. pb2 cookies & milk


Exercise : Treadmill. 65 minutes (435 cals)

[BUNDLEOFJOY]

Let me sum up today fast. No weigh in

1. turkey pastrami, egg, cheese sandwich
2. " ---- "
3. chips & lite sour cream
4. salad
5. PB2 cookies and milk.. (no more left)

Exercise: 392
Food: 1245

[BUNDLEOFJOY]

1. FAGE - 2%
2. Lasagna (Amys) + salad
3. Egg white & pastrami wrap
4. Quest bar + milk

Total: 1345
Exercise: 350

[BUNDLEOFJOY]

Ok. So I am fluctuating between 156-157, so no drop yet. .. I am absolutely ready for the next drop!

So.. let's see. Last week's official low was 156, so this week I expect to claim anything between 154 - 155, since I am focusing on losing between 1 and 2 pounds a week. I know I am only half way thru the week, but I can't wait to for the next drop so that I can see if what I am doing is working the way I think it should.

I guess there is no point of charting my food every single day because my menu is pretty boring, but I will definitely post my exercise and calories for the day since that is what I am really zoning it on…. Cracking the Code to this weight loss madness!

I do also notice that my true weight shows on the days when I get a FULL night's rest. In the middle of the week, I tend to only get 4-5 hours of sleep and on those days, my weight is higher than on weekends when I get 6-8+ hours of rest. Just shows how important sleep is.

Last night I had a case of insomnia. I felt snacky and ended up eating a serving of pretzels. When I woke up I was kind of ticked about it because I didn't want to have to subtract 120 calories from my calories for today, especially since my day really hadn't even officially started yet. So I decided to do extra exercise this morning so that I could get those calories back! LOL.

So anyway, instead of the 300+ calls that I have been tracking, this morning I burned 525 cals. I am happy about that! I don't want to be doing anything to sabotage myself at this point. I want to see that scale move!

C'mon 155! I want to see you this week!

[BUNDLEOFJOY]

I am looking at my calendar and I see that it officially took me a week to lose 2 pounds. Hopefully, we'll see a pattern.

2/16 - 158.8

(7 days)

2/23 - 156.8

(7 days)

This weekend's weighing?