Dianne! Happy Birthday at the end of the month! Oh to be 24!

Krampus I feel your pain about your teeny mother. My mother is 4'10' and until just recently she's maintained at 90-95 her entire life. It is so terrible to look back at happy times of the past and see me looking so chubby next to Mom. Photos are the devil no?

LLBold! 3 pounds! You can do it!

Lackadaisy I want workout clothes too! My specific interest lies in pants that wick away sweat. Because when I run, I get the dreaded ring around the *** sweat. It's tres embarassing. Also, wow, kudos to you for being proactive while still in college. What is your thesis topic if I may ask?

Kwinkle...congratulations on the skinny reception pictures! I think you can totally do 122 in a few weeks.

Wildflower Keep on plodding through it. There will be a payoff!

Indiblue I have such a difficult time keeping weight off when I'm in India because of those salwaar kameez sizings. Where in India are you located?


And now we're on to me. I want desperately to get down below 120 by the middle of April...and as close to 110 as is possible.

I just started weight training so hopefully building some muscle coupled with cardio will do the trick. Have a great day ladies.

Hey all! Happy Wednesday - almost to the weekend!!

Lackadaisy OH I can't wait to be at your weight!! I can't imagine seeing 121. My essential goal is 117. But honestly, I can't really set a goal; I just have to see how I look. Some days I think 117 wont be low enough, other days I think it's too low. Guess it just depends on the day and what my eyes pereceive me as

Krampus - Oh I so feel you girl. I am a total pear as well. Our measurements are actually very close. I am 32-25-37. WTF When will those *** and legs go down a bit. Actually you know what, I dont mind my bubble but, its the legs that get me. I think I measure them around 22 in. at the widest part. Have you ever measured your thighs? If so, what were they if you dont mind me asking?

Kwinkle - Congrats on losing 2 dress sizes. That is freaking awesome!! Man, that would be nice. I think that would put me at a 0! ohhhhhhhhh a girl can dream.

Indiblue Thanks for the bday wishes! NO big plans. Money and calorie budget are tight so I might just do a nice dinner and drinks with some friends I love when I have days like you did the other day. The scale is cooperating and you got your work done! Such a nice feeling.

justdoit Thanks for the early bday wishes!! Please let me know how the weight training goes. I have been having a never ending mental battle with whether or not to weight train..

Ok ladies so I am again rethinking my dieting strategy. This is due to a high stressed day yesterday. I have realized that I just cant go 24/7 eating on plan with work and school and so many other "restrictions". Trying not to drink or eat bad at all during the week just stresses me out and causes binges on the weekends. That being said, I think I will allow myself to eat in moderation on those stressful days. Some days I can eat on plan perfectly, run my 2.5 (10 minute) miles and not feel deprived at all. Other days, I feel very anxious and not fufilled. Also, I have decided on the days I will allow myself to have wine at night (and no not just one glass, im talking at least 3), I will keep my carbs under 100. I figure that will help to balance it out. Those days my calories will reach 1600 though. Not exactly what I planned but I hope the 1300 calorie days will help offset it!

Anywhoo, I'm rambling now. But my point is to ease up on myself. Yes, I will probably lose at a snails pace now but at least I will prevent binges and keep my sanity

Have a great day feathers! Ill be on here throughout the day

Dianne, I think indulging in moderation will cause you to lose faster -- because those binge calories still count, after all. So that's a great idea!

Do you log your calories? I think most trackers would say your 25 minutes of running + warmup is worth 300 or more calories, so there's no problem with eating 1500 a day. That would still put you at 1200 or so net calories, which is about the right level for a 1 lb a week loss.

Thanks! I hope it works. I always underestimate my exercise calories. I estimate them to be about 200 calories since it only takes me 25 minutse to run. With that being said, at 5 times a week that only is 1000 calorie deficit. I took a test not too long ago with a special health professional and they said at rest just to stay alive, my BMR is about 1600. He said I can eat around 2000-2100 a day to maintain! So I figure with all of that, it has to come off eventually. Just a lot sloowerrrrrr

Good morning feathers! I'm down 0.2 kg from yesterday despite sloppy maintenance eating and I feel awesome. I upped the core work just a little last night and did planks and crunches and pushups this morning before work. I'm really pleased with my new running sneakers I bought yesterday and made it to work in record time up the big hill today. My foot still feels weird. I think I may try to run tomorrow night and opt for a long hilly powerwalk tonight.

Dianne I can only DREAM of a 25 inch waist. Sadly I have no butt to speak of. I haven't measured my thighs nor do I feel like I really want to know the truth...but maybe I will just out of curiosity. I am also lying about my bust measurement...it's probably 31 not 32.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoot. Just backspaced and lost ALL of my personals AGAIN. Anyone know how to change a setting on my computer so it doesn't do that?

Try again:
justdoit Yes, it's the kurtas and tunics from FabIndia that keep me ignoring my true weight gain! They are so flowy and cover my butt, so I can look 10 lbs lighter in them. That's nice, but it masks the problem of weight gain. Do you visit India often for family, work, etc?

Dianne a nice dinner with friends sounds perfect. Good luck on your new diet approach. It's so important to have a diet that fits your own strengths/weaknesses!

krampus congrats on ANOTHER day of loss! Nice job. I'm glad you're able to run in spite of your recent food injury!

--

So in an effort to up my protein and diversify my diet, I made griddlecakes this morning. Wheat, bran, rolled oats, roasted pumpkin, egg, milk, and yogurt. I didn't follow a recipe, just borrowed tips from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. They turned out healthy (178 calories/3 g fat/31 carbs/9 g protein) and my boyfriend liked them (always a good indicator, since I'll eat anything and he's a picky eater). They aren't as high in protein as the smoothies I make but I'm really full and maybe next time I'll eat them with a side of a couple of egg whites.

Today is day 1 between finishing my consulting project and starting my permanent position. I think that means breaking out the books for GRE studying :-/

Greetings people! I had a great on plan day yesterday. I am having a tough time getting in all my water. This is rather curious because I tend to be a camel where water is concerned. Ordinarily that's the thing I need to pay the least amount of attention to. I'll do better today.

Did a hard cardio yesterday morning, even though I was supposed to take a slow day. Did intervals with weights then running then weights again. When I'm in the work out zone, I'm really in the zone! The mindful eating has fallen into place. I reinstalled a calorie counting app on my phone and have been faithfully logging in my food intake and my exercise! I have to be uber careful though, my mindful eating turns in to steeply cutting calories pretty quickly.

I am not going to step on the scale until the 19th morning, that's the day before we leave for Jamaica. Hope there's some loss by then.
Look at me rambling on and on! Have a great day Feathers!


Dianne: The weight training is going really well. I plunked down some money for the gym membership and so can't really justify adding the cost of a trainer to show me how to do free weights so am sticking to the machines for the chunk of my weight training. I know it's much better to use free weights but I really don't have proper form and fear straining muscles..so until I can do it correctly...machines it is.

I do my tricep, bicep weights with dumbells. Proper form on that is a no brainer for me.

Krampus: congrats! A loss is a loss! Is there any type of routine that you do?

indiblue: Oh how I LOVE Fab India. We usually hit up the huge one by the American Embassy in Mumbai. I've been in the States about 28 years but still love to wear those chicken cotton salwaar kameez to bed.

Lately the trips to India have become quite infrequent as the kids schools will not allow for more than 10 consequetive days off...and I don't think I can handle a summer visit there. But, we do manage at least one trip every two years...my entire extended family is still largely in Nagpur.

Not much to write home about. Today was a food success and it didn't occur to me at all to binge. I went to the supermarket and walked right past the Tim Tams and pounded rice cakes and bakery items.

All this powerwalking is sadly probably slowing the healing of my foot. I do think I might prefer it for the time being, but I feel like I'm doing less work if I walk than if I run. I never go faster than a quick jog when I do run and my walks are really long...oh well.

ju5tdoit Routine...well, I own exactly one exercise DVD and I wind up doing that maybe 4 times a week, which is a bit sad and not the kind of variety you're supposed to get. That's about it though. I have a regular 9-5 type job so usually I do things at regular times of day. Exercise almost always falls between 4:30-6:30 pm.

Apparently I ate 55g of fiber yesterday-- over twice what I normally do. And now I feel: 1) bloated, 2) UNABLE TO DO SUPPOSEDLY FIBER-MOTIVATING THINGS. Maybe this is why the scale remains stuck? I'm coining a new word to describe this phenomenon: poopwhoosh, or PW for short. Forget this "water retentions" problem other people have... all my whooshes are PWs.

It's nice to be on a normal sleep schedule again, though scary how little thesising I've done in the last three days. Really getting myself together today after C25K Week 5 Day 2.

Its Thursday!!!

Krampus I have a few questions. I too am now trying to change my "diet plan" to more of a lenient one. The stress and obsession is getting to me and just causes me to binge and fall off altogether. How many calories are you allowing yourself now? Did you notice a temporary "weight gain" when you changed your diet and upped your calories? Do you allow yourself one day to go all the way up to 2000 calories? HAs this approach been working?

Indiblue Awesome idea on protein! What are you going to grad school for??

Justdoit I think I just decided this morning to add in weight training. I just keep hearing how much it really helps your metabolism and I just need to suck it up and stop worrying about building the muscle under the fat. Lets hope it just burns off that layer

lackadaisy WOW! That is a lot of fiber. I cant imagine what your net carbs are at with that much fiber. You go girl!!

Ok so heres a quesiton for everyone that has tried the calorie cycling approach. I just decided two days ago that I am just going to eat healthy, continue running 5 days a week and allow myself to drink and enjoy yummy foods in moderation. It will still create a calorie deficit (maybe even enough for 1 pd a week). However, NOT to my surprise, the scale is showing a gain. I know its not possible for me to have gained but is it possible that I wont be able to lose on this plan? Ive always been taught that as a feather, you have to not only eat low cal, but quality calories in order to lose weight otherwise you wont. Is this true? Or does it really come down to calories? Is it possible that if I for the rest of my life stick with this plan that I have created, all the weight will eventually come off over time? Just to give you an idea, here is what I "plan" realistically doing for the rest of my life. I feel it is very satisfying and sustainable..

5 days a week at 1300 - 1700 calories (mostly clean foods) and 2 days between 1800-2000 calories. I also plan on continuing to run 2.5 miles 5 days /week. With all this being said, there would be a on average 3500 calorie deficit for the week. So it would have to come off right? Or is there other science to this that I am missing? Becuase the scale is moving up since the change, not down. But I am hoping its from the saltier foods, more calories and water weight...

Sorry for being so self absorbed in this post. Just really motivated and excited about this new plan

OH and PS, I am STILL counting calories. I am not just guestimatting. I log everything in Dailyplate still!

Oooooh those are three of the most evil letters when placed together! I took the GRE a couple of years ago before starting graduate school, so let me know if you have any questions! Also, will you be taking a subject test? I'm studying clinical psychology and took the Psych GRE as well.

Great job, krampus and justdoit! You girls are an inspiration for me to work out every day, even when I don't feel up to it.
indiblue, good luck on the GREs! I'll be taking them in a few months, too. Yuck.
Dianne, i'm not qualified to answer than question w.r.t what calories you're eating, but I know I feel better when my calories come from whole foods, as much as I'd rather just eat 12 cookies a day. Cycling is good but I think you might be allotting too many in your plan -- especially if you undercount by measuring off a little bit, as most of us do (and manufacturers tend to include more than listed weight because going underweight is more of a legal liability). So if you're eating processed, unmeasured food, you're probably also eating more than you thought. Anyway, 2000 is quite a bit for your high-calorie days. I'm holding steady at 1300 logged on on-plan days, with the assumption that off-days and miscounting will bump me up to 1350-1400 average. To cycle, you would probably want to do low days of 1200, moderate days of 1500, and high days of 1800.

Did C25k W5D2 in a fasted state before lunch this morning. I'm so impatient I started to run for short bursts during the "walks." I guess that's promising for Saturday when I finally tackle that 20 minute run. There was definitely a point during the second running segment when I wanted to stop, which took me completely by surprise - pushing through it (and feeling like I could go further when my run was over) felt amazing.

Back to thesising -- hopefully I'll have a healthy, on-plan day today. And by on-plan I mean... finishing chapter 4!! Please, self, finish Chapter 4 already.

krampus: Sometimes an ironclad routine is what's enough to get you to do that workout. Everymorning I drop the kids off at the bus stop and take my gym bag in the car. Right after the bus comes and goes, I go work out. It's wonderful! The worst part of exercising for me is the actually going. Once I'm in it, I push hard and long.

lackadaisy: I am totally befuddled with all this fiber talk. Enlighten me!

Dianne: Thursday indeed! Where has the week gone? I go crazy if I weigh myself everyday. So I keep the scale in my husband's bathroom. My next weigh in will be in two more weeks. I hope there's a loss!


I did weights (upper body and lower body and cardio today. And the cardio I pumped out with 3 pound weights in each arm, doing intervals of boxing/walking fast to running without the weights. Felt good to be totally drained after a work out.

Anywone have experience with the Bosu ball thingamajigs? Pointers would rock!

Later taters!

justdoit -- I was alluding obliquely (or not so obliquely) to being constipated. I got a shipment of specialty "diet food" yesterday (basically low-carb, high-fiber chocolate and some high-protein breakfast bars) and got a little too excited, so I ate them for all my snacks. Bad idea: 150 calories of chicken breast fills me up about four times more than its "diet food" equivalent. But in any case, my tracker says I ate 55g of most soluble fiber... and, yeah, it's all backed up for the third day running.

Dianne I aim for 1500 a day. I have never had a week where I didn't eat at least 2500 one day a week - I'm just not that disciplined and I'm sort of okay with that. I also guesstimate all my calories and don't track macro or micronutrients. I could do a lot better and really buckle down, but I get "obsessed" very easily and it leads to binging. Here's a secret: the longest I have ever stayed "on plan" consecutively was 4 days.