northern- A seafood buffet sounds so good, we don't have any in my area. I guess that's a good thing!

My legs are a bit sore from yesterday's activities, only rode the bike for 21min. Weight stayed the same, wish it would just naturally settle at 110lbs. Jeans are snug, bought them when I was 5lbs lighter, but I can live with it as long as I'm making all the right food choices and maintaining. I tried old fashioned oats for breakfast, put fresh blueberries in it. It was good, it filled me up the whole day, I wasn't hungry for lunch. I hope I can eat dinner. Calories are 1480, went 200 over again. Just can't stay within my range, there were only 2 days this month that my calories were on target. What's with me?

Hello everyone.
The beginning of this weekend didn't go very well.. I admit, since I've been losing at a lower weight, I've been slacking off a bit of the time because I haven't necessarily been in a rush. On Friday and Saturday I ate over my calorie budget(not enough to gain, but about maintenance calories for me) and didn't get my exercise in.

Well, on Sunday I was presented with a HUGE motivation to get my butt into gear.. and I mean huge, gigantic, astronomical motivation. I'm so pumped about it that I'm adjusting my calorie target for the remainder of this goal to no more than 1,299 calories and instead of making exercise something I hope to do 6 times a week, I'm now applying it to myself as 100% mandatory.

I'm hoping that with these changes, I'll get the remaining 3 lbs for my St. Patrick's Day Challenge goal in time.

I hope you're all doing well!

One pound down for the week....it sets me behind for my goal, but I have to be thankful for a loss....
Glad that so many people are having losses and great mind sets!
I'm off to the pool to try to get things less jiggly which I have been noticing more and more lately!

Keep up the good work everyone!

My loss has all but stopped, I'm to-ing and fro-ing between the same numbers a lot. I've been reading a couple of other threads and I'm thinking it's because I'm getting to a lower weight and may need to increase exercise/decrease calories....and I'm also thinking that the macro/micro nutrients thing could be a lot more important for me now (based on what another user said). I know I'm eating a lot of not so great food these days, so I'm making it my goal for the next couple of weeks to try eat healthier and cleaner and MORE VEGETABLES.
I don't know how I'm going to do that...but I'm going to try.

Fruit: I tried to stick to mostly crab legs, salad and fruit...but I caved and had dessert. It was good though!

Horo: so what's the big motivation? (Sorry if you mentioned it earlier and I missed it...but I'm curious. Sounds exciting!)

k15 and Rainbow: I feel your pain about fits and starts and slow losses. Of course in my case much of it is my own fault (cheating too much on weekends)...but even if I DO cheat, I seem to lose the same lousy lb/week that I lose even if I DON'T cheat. So I guess my "inner child" rationalizes, "well, might as well cheat!" I really need to get over that.

Anyway, it's Monday and I'm back to being "good." Right on target with calories today and 30 minutes of wii zumba. I was working up a sweat! Definitley not something I'd want to do in front of an audience though, lol.

My goal is to escape the 190s, and not eat take out or restaurant food till then. Also, I want to be able to jog 3 miles at faster than 20 mins a mile

So I'm already starting to plan ahead a bit this week. I know that we're going out for dinner on Thursday night to a Mexican restaurant. I have now decided that I will have no more than 3 corn chips with salsa at the beginning of the meal (they come free) and for my main I'm going to get chicken fajitas. I think it's the best option in terms of being able to guage what I'm actually eating...however I know I may not do that great at not eating it all...I just wish I could remember what the portion sizes were like!
I'm also worried about tonight, I have a Zumba class right after work, then no time to eat dinner - have to quickly shower before heading out to the movies....so my dinner will be..popcorn? I don't want to sit through the movie starving and I would only really have time to grab something fast foody right before...and movie won't finish til after 10pm...urgh...I haven't been in quite this situation before, so I'm not sure what to do.

Someone suggested protein bars to me as a way to stay on track while I was travelling for business last week, and they were a lifesaver for me on the actual travel days and another day when I didn't have time to get somewhere to get a healthy meal. I'd never had a protein bar before, and tried a few different kinds (Larabars, Cliff Bars, and ThinkThin bars) - I liked them all. Maybe those could be a solution for you on the days when there's no time for a decent meal... something you can eat quick that is nutritious with reasonable calories and fat.

Just a thought.

I made myself an "emergency snack kit" for times just like that. It has dried fruit, portioned out almonds, peanut butter granola bars, etc. The peanut butter granola is not so "low-cal" but it's tasty and better than most things I'd pick up for myself in hurry. I'm just making sure I keep a variety things in there so I still feel like I have a choice.

And good idea w/the fajitas, I'm going out for Mexican next weekend and already worried. (How many calories in enchilada sauce?!)

Great thread, you guys are inspiring!

Monday: 1250 calories. 20 min elliptical, 1 hr. body sculpt class.

Pretty good day yesterday. Kept my caloies lower during the day so I had a cushion for when I got home, and was able to have a few oz. of turkey, veggies, and hummus on a FlatOut wrap(LOVE these, btw). Helped me through my workout.

We had health screenings at work yesterday. My numbers were pretty good - total cholesterol 196, HDL 71, LDL 93, glucose 79. My triglycerides were a little high @ 160. I've been letting more sugar creep in, even using some in my tea sometimes - just one more reason to cut it out.

rainbow, great ideas from scout and chickadee on the snacks. I like nuts and dried fruit(just have to watch potrtions) or granola bars because they're so portable.

saintxio, welcome! great goals!

northern, hi!!

k15, yay on the lb!! A lot of us wold LOVE to be down a lb. right now!!

horo, I want to know about your motivation too!!!

fruit, what's your range again?You sound like you're being so tough on yourself - I worry about you. How are you doing getting the salt and fat in?

Hope everyone has a great day!

Rainbow: I second the granola/protien bars. I don't know if you have these in NZ, but Fiber One bars are great. Very filling for 150 calories. I'm not much of a "breakfast" person, so I eat one of these (along with a piece of string cheese) shortly after I get to work in the mornings.

Welcome, saintxio!

Nat: hello to you too! Sounds like you did great yesterday

Well, it's March, which means we are a bit closer to spring! It will still be a while until the snow melts around here, but I am looking forward to spending more time outside. It has been a loooooong winter. Think I might do my wii zumba again tonight (the latin music kind of takes me away from northern MN), and probably some weights. I've been slacking on the strength training lately, need to get back into it.

I only lost -2.4 Lbs in February. I need to do better. I have a wedding to go to on the 19th of March. Good Luck, Everyone!

Thanks for all your wise words everyone! You guys keep me going lots of days.
I am thinking about food too much lately and I am really fearing that I am going to binge which I haven't done in 100 days....I just don't trust myself which really bothers me....
Again thanks for your words of wisdom about your own journeys.....

Horo - I want to hear about the motivation too!! Whatever it is, it sounds exciting.

saintxio - One of my goals for March is to be able to add some jogging (undoubtedly at a very slow pace) into my exercise routine. I'm totally impressed that you're able to do 3 miles!

natmars - I want to have a health screening done again! The last labs I had were at the beginning of January, and while nothing was wrong at that time... I'm hoping I made some improvements over the last 2 months!

k15 - You've made it so far in your journey - more than halfway to your goal! That's amazing (look at all those dancing carrots!), and I know it is the result of VERY hard work. I've never been a binge eater, and so don't know the right words to say... but don't let your mind sabotoge all the effort you've made at weight loss and staying binge-free. You can do this!



My official weigh-in this morning put me at 253.1 - which is a really big loss (5.9 lbs.) from last week. In fact, it's a loss of 1.9 lbs. since Sunday morning. I don't know whether to be scared by that, or pleased by it. Last week's weigh-in was during TOM and the morning following a tough session with the trainer... and so I'm kind of hoping that I was just holding on to some water weight last week. The only other thing I can figure is that increasing muscle by doing strength training 2x/week and doing ab exercises 5x/week (in addition to the cardio) is upping my metabolism, and that's the reason for the high loss. I'm sure next week I'll be down by only 0.1 lb. to pay for the loss I saw this week.

Hi everyone! Weigh in today. Lost 2.2 total for the week! But I had gained a pound last week, which puts me at only losing 1.2 for my goal by St. Patty's Day!

Last week was much better on plan, but didn't get in nearly enough exercise! I have my week planned out for that! So, hopefully see another good number next week!