Got some walking in today despite the cool and rainy weather.

1 cup FF milk
coffee with FF milk
water

diet coke
Wendy's grilled chicken sandwich
baked potato, plain

1 cup chicken and rice soup
salad with FF cheese and reduced fat ceasar

2 cups low fat vanilla yogurt with sliced peaches and sliced almonds, a drizzle of honey
water
coffee with FF milk

Thanks for the greetings, everyone. I think it's pretty, too, Sunni. It's funny, when I'm giving it to people on the phone and stuff, I always go "like the stone" and then there's always this pause like they have no idea what I'm talking about.

I was really surprised again today. Yesterday, for the first time I can remember, I ate more food than I think was physically possible for me. Like my stomach was crazy full. I wasn't paying much attention while I was eating and certainly wasn't expecting it. I didn't eat any more than I had been for dinner. But when I finished, I felt like I was going to explode.

Then, again tonight, I was sitting there eating and I had about a third of my plate left and I just kept staring at it. It took a minute, but I suddenly realized that my stomach as about to go on strike again. What makes it so strange, is I've never been one to overeat to the point of being full. I used to snack on some pretty unhealthy things, sure. But my biggest problem, at least in high school, was undercutting my daily caloric intake by a ridiculous amount. It wasn't intentional. I just had little self-confidence, few friends, and pretty much no desire to get up in the morning. Let alone motivation to eat. So to actually have my body refuse to eat any more food is a new experience for me.

I don't know if it's the fact that I've been trying to cut down on my portions a lot this last month to where they should actually be. Or the fact that I've started working out again and have done some high-intensity ab work off and on over the last few days. Then again, it could just be the fact that I've been drinking more water because I've been working out more?

Thanks for the recipe Sunni!!! sounds great! will have to try it one day ! hehehehe well done on making it last a whole week. we're all allowed treats now and then !


aww you're welcome Sunni! and believe me you're not the only one! i have gained 1.1 lb from last sunday ! gah!! and i know its cause of all the naughty snacks i've been eating this week!!! i looked over my food journal and see where its come from... so yah come tommorow i'm gonna reign in my calorie intake .

aww thanks so much , you're so sweet yeh i try not to interfere with anyones confessions, but wanted to help out as i heard jillian talk about how sometimes a plautea isnt a real plautea. thanks for being a trooper about it!
awesome me too!!


excellent!

awww i'm sorry to hear that. bless maybe you can spend time volunteering or something? i know my friend is a cat lover and has two cats and she was thinking of doing something like that.

aww believe me you're not the only one! i was thinking the same thing yesterday whilst scoffing myself with mince lamb curry and then a packet of crisps and kit kat. i think its a mental thing that we just have to overcome. and also whilst i was doing oblique crunches the other day, which are a freakin KILLER and i hate them lol. then yesterday i said to myself, instead of not doing any, will do just enough to feel it working and stop when its getting too much. no point killing myself. as any exercise is better than nothing.

so decided to just balance it , no rush, just lose the weight slowly, that way i can still have yummy snacks

we can do it !!! and i know you can do it! i think its the cold weather , for me as well when i feel cold i dont feel like working out. also on a biological standpoint, when you are cold, you do tend to eat more, as its a way for your body to heat up!
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well done Hydra on getting the walking done despite the cold!
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garnet - thats great that you realised you were full. sometimes when you slow down your eating and are really conscious of what you're feeling as in your stomach and taking the time to eat, you realise you are fuller and theres still food left on your plate. and its a mental thing to think to yourself, its okay to leave food on my plate and put it away and i can have it later if i get hungry again.

i know i have a tendency to eat fast when im feeling ravenous, but when i eat slowly, i do eat less. it takes 20 minutes for your brain to tell you that your stomach is full.

also another sign that you are getting full, is you will feel MORE THIRSTY then hungry. another sign is that you will draw a DEEP SIGH. watch out for that

garnetrising!! good for you on the exercise
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Angela, well done on the calories! and aww watching movies with your nephew, thats sounds like the perfect saturday ! bless.

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Thanks for the welcome, guys! I am so inspired and motivated by everything you have accomplished.

Yesterday's food:
B'fast: 1/2 eng muffin w/ 1T pb & j
1/2 cup soy milk
Lunch: 1 cup yogurt, 1/2 cup cereal, 1 T honey
Snack: 4 oz wine, 1 110-cal bagel, 1/2 T cream cheese
Dinner(1 meal/week uncounted): tiny portion chicken cordon bleu(hate it, but we were at a friend's for dinner, left ham on plate), green beans, corn, 1/2 cup brown rice, 1 slice bread w/ mozzarella and tomato, 6 oz wine, 1/2 donut, 1/2 cup light ice cream, 1/2 cup juice

Yesterday's workout: 35 min Elliptical, 1 hr body sculpting. Proud of myself
for doing both!

Today's plan: stick to 1200 calories, find 40 min to get to gym to do some cardio. Oh, and do better on water today - tougher for me in this weather, so I drink a lot of herbal tea. So glad my son'ssoccer game is canceled - it is cold and pouring rain here!

What a great workout, garnetrising! Did they do both step and lower body in one class? I LOVE step and am bummed my new gym doesn't offer it, but it's a 2 min drive from my house so it's perfect. The great thing with step is that you're so busy trying to follow along that you can forget you're working out. And don't worry about not getting all the step patterns - as long as you're moving, you're golden!

They did. There were lunges and squats and steps and more steps. And fast steps. Every time she asked whether or not we were ready to move on and more to it, you know it's rhetorical, but I still wanted to shake my head and wave my hand around and be like no, wait! What's funny, is one of the patterns, I just can't seem to get when starting with my right foot. But left foot gets it, no problem. Isn't that weird!

@Echo : Yeah. It was one of those things were I felt vaguely like a kid again, going I don't want it! Flash back to my mother going I made the dinner and you're going to eat what's on your plate. Which left me staring at my plate last night in disgust. The moment it registered why I was disgusted with the food still on my plate, I immediately got up and put it away.

Anyway. Today is a rest day workout wise. Part of me really doesn't want to rest. Worried that if I do, I won't workout tomorrow like I'm supposed to. But I haven't had an off day in three days now and it's about time I let my muscles build themselves back up.

What I do plan to do today is go and pick myself up some shiny dumbbells. Though they don't actually have to be shiny as in metal. Shiny as in prettiful. I'm so excited. ^^

Good for you, putting the food away!

Its very important to rest, i know what you mean though. but i've realised that my body sometimes tells me it needs a rest and i just listen to it. so enjoy the rest and then hit that workout hard tommorow!
today is my rest day too

thats awesome about the dumbells! i did the same early this week, i bought brand new bright red dumbells, they pretty but heavy! i used them yesterday , it felt good!

aww such a nice thing to say mars!! thank you

and way to go on the exercise !

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oh WOW that sounds sooooooooooo lovely!!!!

this morning i was listening to jillians podcast and she was saying you burn MORE calories going for a hike than you would on a treadmill, because of the uneven terrain. way to go on the 1 hour and 45 minutes! thats awesome
and nothing like beautiful scenary. that's awesome sounds so beautiful and lovely where you live. and thats great that you appreciate it. maybe you can take some pics and share it with us one day

Angela - really jealous! Here I was feeling good about looking at green trees (as opposed to bleary New Jersey, my mom told me it was raining like crazy there). And yup, you definitely burn helluva more calories hiking than just walking on a flat road. I always feel more sore and winded after a hike than after a walk of equivalent distance. I second the pics!

Echo - it must be something in the weather. I've been reaching for the snacks quite a bit too even though I resist and drink water or eat an apple/grapes or something. Ugh. We bought those Terra chips from Costco. The multicolored veggie-derived chips? Well, we both love them as opposed to the toasted pita chips which I would forget were even in the house. Today, the bag was open and I was watching something on Netflix and mindlessly crunching away until I just stopped and realized what I had been doing! Blah.

Garnet - you made me LOL with your step class story! I took Zumba a few months ago and man! That class was a killer... it always seemed so easy from the outside but doing all those steps I always broke a sweat so good for you!! Keep at it and it will come in time. I hate lunges by the way.

mars - good job with the food!

On to my confession:

Breffix - 1 cup skim milk + 1 tbsp cocoa powder (125 cals). 2 eggs (1 whole egg + 1 egg white, 87 cals) scrambled in a tortilla (80 cals), 1 tsp oil (40 cals). 332

Lunch - 1 bowl hot & sour soup (too hot!! 100 cals), 1/2 cup sheera (300 cals), chip handful (150 cals), 1/4 cake (it's done, woohoo!!, 100 cals) 650

Snack - chip attack 450

Snack - grapes 150

Dinner - 1 cup cooked white rice (200 cals), 1/2 cup chickpea curry (200 cals), 1/2 cup roasted bell peppers and potato (170 cals), 1/2 cup plain NF yogurt (50 cals) 620

Total for today: 2202. Danggit!! Those chips are gonna get me.

Exercise: WOOHOO!! I finally have something to put here. Went for a walk today (3.3 miles), jogged about 0.25 miles of it. *backpats for me* I wanted to do Jillian's 30DS as well, but decided I'd do it tomorrow morning because I didn't want to overdo it. Hee!!

Awesome on the exercise Sunni!! i also have jillians 30 day shred havent had a chance to check it out and been too scared to !! lol it looks TOUGH ! lol i saw a clip of it they were doing moving planks!! what the ! lol

lol at chip attack. i know tell me about it!! i have this big bag of small packets of chips, at 131 calories per bag. and it takes all the willpower to only allow myself 1 packet.

early this week. i ate like 4-5 packets in one sitting! gah!!

what is sheera?

and 100 calorie for a 1/4 cake isnt bad at all!

well done on your 3.3 mile! *hi-5*
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off topic chit chat.

i just finished fixing all the errors on my thesis from the list from my examiners. i'm a happy bunny right now...woohoo! you know i have to say my examiners are angels! they fixed my sentences for me! like adding words and crossing out other words, and other typos, and only 2 instances of telling me to "rewrite sentences" i'm truly blessed to have such amazing examiners, can never thank them enough. i will be forever grateful!

i cant wait till the moment when i hand in my final hard bound copy! and then i will be freeeeeeeeeee and can take that long break that i promised myself for years! also going to book myself a swedish massage as a reward when i hand it in. hehehe its expensive. but i think at such a big moment, its appropriate. hehe

you know its been REALLY nice having you girls to chat with during my mini breaks ! i love this site! kept me sane!!!
now i'm going to take the night off and reward myself and watch dvds. and then tommorow add new references and do final check to make sure its perfect. and other bits and bobs.

Yeah, lunges suck while you're doing them. But man if you don't look good afterward, right? Anyway. I was a little worried today. Given that I'm on a rest day, it's that many more calories I have to be wary of consuming. But I'm doing really, really well. Assuming I eat what I'm planning on eating for dinner, then I'll hit my daily caloric intake right on the button.

And I got my dumbbells. Woot! I was looking at them in the store and I was playing around with them, talking to myself. (I don't know why, but I always get the strangest looks when I'm shopping. I think it's because I'm shopping alone and holding complete conversations. XD) But I am soooo psyched to be able to start using them tomorrow. I know that was one of the things I was missing in a lot of my upper body exercises. I wasn't feeling it at all most of the time.

Been thinking about looking into the 30 Day Shred. Anyone done it? How's it work?