Today was a POP day... well... almost... I had some tortilla chips in the afternoon, but only 5 chips (1/2 a serving). It didn't mess up my carb count (which is good).

I actually didn't meet my calorie goal- almost 150cals short. I just started a new three-day 1,300-1,500-1,700 calorie cycle, and its been tough trying to cycle when Im not planning my meals. Past three days all my calorie totals have been in the 1,500s.

Today was one of my cooking days, but I made only one main dish and one side for lunch AND dinner. So it looks like its going to be hard to have high and low days when you're eating the same thing every day!

On the exercise front, I stayed on plan. YAY! But... it was a rest day, so not too difficult to stay on plan on a rest day. LOL.

Glad to be reading good things from you ladies. Keep it up!

WOW, Jaminator!
YOU are giving up Your TEA with milk and sugar?? Well, i'm proud to say You are the boss of that! (But I am still YOUR boss, so dont forget!)

Nicki, that's so cool about your new routine.

BArb, I just can't get over your weight lose, its awesome!

Chinagirl, POP is perfert on plan! I know nicki told you in her post, but i wanted to feel useful. i'm so lazy about typing!

welcome all the new peeps. keep coming back!

Sweetshauna, you are really hitting it out of the park! way to stay POP. The 5 chips dont count ! Its really cool you stopped at five! big acheivement for anyone!

Hey everybody,

I know I said I'd do replies after skating, but I lied like a low-down dirty dawg! I spent 4 hrs at my sister's house today, did a ton of pruning, cut up a big branch that broke off one of her trees, then took down another tree that had died, sawed it up by hand and hauled all the big chunks out to the woods. Not a bad day's work, but when I left I forgot my lunch bag, which had my tylenol in it, and by the time I got to skating tonight, my neck and pretty much all the muscles above my shoulders were getting stiff and giving me a killer headache. Could be caffeine related, too, I'm not sure, just know my neck is about locked up right now. Bought some more tylenol on the way home from skating and have a date with some rubbing alcohol when I go to bed, which should fix it by morning. Skating was good, but I forgot it was adult skate after the regular session tonight. Ended up staying for part of that, saw some good friends I had not seen in a few months, so it was great fun, but after 3.5 hrs of skating my feet were toast, my legs were toast, and my headache/stiff neck were getting too painful to ignore, so I called it a night.

I did great today with the no tea/milk/sugar thing, surprisingly! The hardest part was just first thing this morning, just habit wanting to kick in, and once after the pruning job, when all I really wanted was a cup of tea and to sit down, but it wasn't bad at all. We had to eat our for dinner, since our schedule was too tight and not the right timing to eat at home. We did Subway, and I got a chicken sandwich, then just didn't eat the bread and had them add lots of veggies. I've got my crossfit class tomorrow morning, and I just hope it doesn't kill me. Supposed to be deadlifts, I think, which I , I just hope there aren't any evil push-ups tomorrow, though my everything hurts today, so whatever the workout is, I'm pretty sure it's going to suck, and I will survive, I'm sure. Okay, going to sleep now and hope I feel better in the morning! I'm staying strong, ladies, and I really, really appreciate the support and encouragement. I'm reading and cheering you all on as well.

Heya girls -

I broke my finger the other night doing some crazy-girl-at the-gym moves. My typing is awkward. I'll jive myself up on caffeine and aspirin soon and come talk! A finger splint is REALLY super awkward when lifting weights - FYI.

Dang, FB! Sorry to hear about the broken finger! I told you, juggling 45 lb plates is dangerous, but you wouldn't listen!

Just killin' a little time while the dogs are outside doing their thing. Thanks to the miracle of rubbing alcohol, my neck is loosened back up. I just thought I'd pop in and say "good morning" before I head out for my class. No headache this morning, so I'm guessing the headache last night was just from the pruning/tight neck muscles. Guess I wasn't getting enough caffeine to cause withdrawal problems, since I had already cut way back on the tea. Hopefully ditching the sugar will be enough of a shocker to get this weight moving along at a little zippier pace. I need to do up my calories and make a new meal plan. Yesterday, I just ate, all good food, but I have no idea what my cals were like. Hopefully I'll get some time to work on the meal plan today, but maybe not. My sister and neph invited my son and me to go see a museum exhibit in Seattle, and my son wants to go, so that might eat up a big chunk of the day. For now, though, I'd better bring dogs in and feed them, so I can hit the road.

Hi all

Uh Oh... I am up 2 lbs today. I hope it is just a glitch. I was enjoying the downward trend..

Fb- Sorry to hear about the finger.

Jams- I had a headache the first day I cut out soda but after that it was fine! Glad to hear you arent having too much trouble cutting caffiene!

Hattie- Its probably 2lbs of water. Our bodies are so weird!! :P

I had another awesome day!! I was OP with my food and I did my UPWO at the gym. I did the elliptical today and can I just say I hate it!!!
I got 10 mins done and my legs were like jelly?? Maybe I am just a baby?? So I went back to my fav, the bike!!

Hope everyone has a great Thursday eve!!

Congrats to all who stayed OP today.

Hattie, hopefully it is just a fluke and will go back down tomorrow.

FB - sorry to hear about the finger.

jamsk8r - I can't imagine going without tea/milk/sugar. Great job.

I had a good day. I did eat a brownie today but other than that stayed OP. I was still within my calorie range however I was a little low on the fat calories. Maybe I will eat just a few nuts before bed. I went to the gym today and walked on the treadmill for 25 min 15% incline speed 4.1. I also worked my arms and abs. The gym put up my before and after picture because I lost 98 lbs since joining the gym a year ago. I still have a long way to go since I am now 192 lbs but that is soo much better than the 290 I was a year ago. Not sure how I feel about having my picture up - especially the before one.

Hello all
Stayed completely op food wise today and started a new chapter in my exercise. I'm adding in jogging/running. As it stands I've been walking 3 miles so today I did intervals of jogging and walking and by my guestimate jogged 1/3 and walked the remaining 2/3. Saw another .5 come off of the scale today.

Thanks for the finger well wishes! It's surprising, how much a stupid finger matters! I still get to work (sigh) and workout (yay), so I'm making do.

Everyone is doing so well! You all keep me inspired to keep on trucking with my workouts! I love reading how well everyone is doing.

JJJ - No caffeine, huh? I so could not do that! Props, props! I'm going to scope out the Zone Diet, just so I can keep up with the new lingo you'll be talking. I thought it was just a balance game with macros? You can't do sugar or milk with it? Anyhow, I'll answer my own questions in a second with the handy dandy Google.

Extra calories recently helped me to shed those last few pounds, I hope it works for you. I don't do sugar either. Fake sugar though? Yes! I'm not a purist, for sure. I like technology and food technology.

On the creatine, it can and will play head games with you and the scale. Expect to go up some poundage with the water weight. I wasn't mentally ready for that the first time I tried it, so I never gave it a proper chance.

I KNEW you'd be the shining one in your class, KNEW IT! Cool on finishing first - you showed you! I admit, I spied in the weightlifting monthly chat section to scope out your workout, knowing you'd post all of the goods there.

I did NOT stay on plan with food today. I went to a meeting and there were cookies. Chips Ahoy chewy chocolate chip, and Pepperidge farm entertaining cookies. I yielded to temptation.

That seems to be my major problem. Being at places for a prolonged period where off-plan food is just spread in front of you. I won't buy it, I wont cook it, I won't take it when a friend offers it to me... but when its just laying out there in front of me, in a situation where its there for casual eating.... that seems to be my falldown.

How do you ladies deal with situations like that? What do you do when cookies and pizza just stares you in the face for like two hours and everyone else if happily and mindlessly eating?

I had another trainingsession last night. I was quite tiered after 350 cal, but since my goal here is to reach 30 workouts on 500 cal each before Easter, I kept going til i reached 500 burned last night as well.

9: Spinning, 500 cal

FB, glad you figured out to check the other board, cuz I didn't want to kill the innocents here with all the details! zzzzzzzzzzz......

I'm still learning about the Zone myself. From what I understand, the straight up Zone diet works with any food, just some foods are more desireable than others (like you're allowed a lot more broccoli than you are bread for a carb portion...so, veggies let you eat a lot more, same as calorie counting there). Crossfit, however, is a little more strict. They want you to just pick from lean meats, nuts/good fats, veggies, and my trainer says only to have fruit on workout days, right after my workout, but no other times. I'm going to take her advice, since that's part of my experiment.

I'm loving the crossfit class, learned a LOT about deadlifts today that I didn't know before. Came home and practiced lots, of course, so maybe I'll do better next time? I hope, anyway!

Glad you can still lift. Can you tell me again what the creatine does...is it just for energy, or does it do something else for the lifting? What's the brand/type you found that doesn't do the weird bloaty thing? Sorry, I'm up late again and the brain isn't thinking clearly, so I can't remember what creatine is for.

Shauna, that would be hard for me, as well. At home, I've had that problem with the boy just munching tempting foods in front of me. I'm the mom, though, so I can tell him to take it elsewhere. You can't do that, so you'll need a better plan. Can you take something along to put in your mouth, like some crunchy snack food, one or two sugar free or dark chocolate candies to appease a sweet tooth, or toothpicks or straws you can chew the bejeepers out of? Gum? Water works for some folks, just take a sip to distract yourself. Sorry, nothing really mind-blowing here.

It helps me to write myself notes. When I'm really in a good frame of mind, confident, and know something hard is coming up, like middle of the night fridge raid time or first thing in the morning, I leave myself a little sticky note, to remind myself why I'm doing this (like getting off the sugar). It sounds silly, but it really helps get me past the bad spots, helps me remember and get back to that strong belief in what I'm doing. I write down stuff about the goal I'm shooting for, why I don't need the crapfood, anything I think will help. Stay strong, baby! The further you get from actually eating that stuff, the less it will tempt you, but I know it's hard in the beginning, when your body still thinks that stuff tastes good. You might have to make up some way to think of that stuff as disgusting. Maybe pick apart the ingredients list, hate the sodium or the sugar or learn way more than you wanted to know about grody food factories, or picture those punk minimum wage workers who made that pizza and probably don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom..that's what keeps me away from most fast food places, lol...whatever works! (doesn't matter if it's universally true, as long as you can convince yourself of it and it's gross enough to make that food undesireable)

KKat and Amy, congrats are starting up the running! I love running, myself. Hope you enjoy it!

Everybody else that I missed, sorry, just too tired to keep on with this novel. It's just a busy week, and I've got another early morning tomorrow, going scootering with a friend of mine who lives an hour away. Like FB said, I'm really impressed with our challengers this round. I think this is the most challengers we've had at one time that actually stuck with it, and you all are blowing me away with your dedication and perseverence! That is exactly what it's about, not being perfect all the time, but just getting right back up and trying again, keep learning and making adjustments as needed...never give up!

Dang, I totally forgot to report my super cool NSV (non-scale victory) last night at skating! There are 2 younger ladies that I race with all the time at skating, and they've been whooping my butt for years, years! So, one of my goals last year when I started was to be able to keep up with them, rather than being half a rink lap behind them. Well, last night, I actually won the race, fair and square, everybody going all out, no lie! I couldn't believe it! Anyway, I can check that one off my goals list. Must be the extra fat calories I ate yesterday, lol.

Yay *does a little happy dance*

I lost my first 5 lbs and then some!!

After last week only losing eh .4 lbs I think I worked even harder this week. I upped my exercise which I think helped alot too. And this morning I was down 2.2 lbs.

I jumped on the scale 4 times because at first I just didn't believe it lmao!!

Plus this little success has me super motivated now I feel like that 10lbs mark is right within my grasp! It sounds silly but I am just so happy and proud of myself I am actually crying my eyes out lol.

And on top of the scale success I feel great and my blood sugar is doing perfect! I am finding more and more that I really love to exercise and I have so much more energy!

Today I am also gonna start adding some pilates into my routine. Question, I am planning on walking still today but not as much as I normally do. Should I walk first and then do pilates or start with the pilates and then walk? Or does it even matter? Thanks.

I hope everyone else had as great a week as I did *hugs*