Hey girls...just a quick check-in. My laptop has a virus and is in the hospital. So...I won't be online much until I get my laptop back. (I'm on my work computer right now...and looking over my shoulder for The Boss. )

Have a happy skinny healthy week!!!

Sting was outstanding! He brought the Royal Philharmonic with him. It was much bigger than any other show I've seen at Chastain which is a rather small venue.That man can sing! I think I did okay calorie wise but cannot really vouch for the alcohol calories- more than I should, not anything too crazy. The Italian dinner turned out to be delicious and relatively low in calories. Very little cheese although a fair amount of olive oil. My friend made chicken with herbs, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, onions and beans with a pasta with garlic and shrimp, a tomato slice with basil and mozzerella and field green salad with balsmic vinegar and walnuts. For dessert was home made chocolate ice cream with whipped cream and a rasberry. Everything was served in pretty dishes. My friend is an incredible cook and hostess.

ninepaw-you are doing great. Congrats on moving the ticker again. I feel your pain on the shopping. It is difficult to invest in clothing when the plans are to lose enough weight to wear a smaller size. I am wearing a lot of clothes I bought four years ago when I was in Weight Watchers and reached this size but I have also bought a few new items. Thank goodness for sales.

Hi Tornado-glad your computer is all better. Congrats on sticking to your plan. Have you tried the C25K running plan? The plan is devised to ease into 30 minutes of running. I used to love jogging but I have never been a natural runner and always felt it was pretty demanding. Now I only jog on occasions.

dancer-I just wear my usual gym stuff to Zumba. T shirt, shorts and running shoes. I see all different outfits though, special zumba clothes and shoes, yoga pants and tops and being I live in Atlanta-some of the ladies wear tennis skirts for exercise. You know Zumba, anything goes.

Oh no, Rochester! You'll be missed while you're *mostly* away! Sending you wishes fo speedy laptop recovery... How melodramatic am I!?

Terapet, that dinner sounds AMAZING. Seriously. Seeeeeriously. I'm having some envy issues from over here! LOL

I miss zumba.... *sigh* But Yoga ends when Zumba is supposed to start, so I haven't gotten to go in a while... And I'm bad at mornings, so I haven't gone on the weekends, either! I'm pretty lame. Someday I'll get back... Someday... After I finish Yoga in a little under three weeks...

244 again today. Actually up .8 pound(s?) from yesterday, not that I usually keep track of that part. Definitely deserved as much, since I wasn't as good as I should have been yesterday and indulged on what may or may not have been a 500 calorie drink from starbucks... Plus everything I actually, yaknow, ate yesterday. But that's okay. I'm gonna go run W4D1 of C25K in a minute here, so hopefully that'll give my body a little push and maybe, just maybe I can be down to 243 tomorrow! Wishfull thinking... But hey! Never know. I really don't think I had too many calories yesterday, it just wasn't quite the right things. Hoping some of that .8 pound is just retention.

Think skinny thoughts today, ladies! Believing we can do it is one of the first steps!

I am just getting ready to take off. Have a Happy 4th!

No such luck on getting to 243 this morning. SIGH. but that's alright. Still got to move the ticker down a pound. I'd rather do that than not move it at all! And I'd rather not move it at all than move it up a pound! I also got to change my second ticker to my next mini goal of 31 pounds lost... 9 pounds away! Woo!

I see lots of talking to myself in my future this weekend, what with everyone having their plans for the 4th. I do have plans that day, and on the 6th... But other than that, I have nothing goin' on as usual! Oh well! Have fun everybody!

Hi ninepaw,

I wasn't planning on taking my computer on vacation. I figured I needed to mix up my routine some. However, my daughter wanted me to take it so it turns out I can post after all. No scale though so I have no idea how I am doing. I am enjoying my car ride through middle America. We have been blessed with gorgeous weather, warm and sunny with lots of blue sky. I love wide open spaces and farmland. Everything is really lush and green this year from all the rain.

I tried to be good on the road yesterday. I had lunch at KFC which included the chicken breast with the skin and breading peeled off, mashed potatoes without gravy, and green beans. Supposedly the green beans are only 20 calories. Is that really possible? They're pretty good. For supper I had the grilled chicken caesar salad without the croutons at Applebees. I looked it up later on the Internet and calories are somewhere around 1000! That really does not seem right. It is only romaine lettuce, parmesan cheese, grilled chicken and salad dressing. It really was not that big. I am thinking tops 700 calories. Guess I better stick to KFC in the future!

Congrats on losing 20 pounds and setting the next goal. Your two 10 pound dudes look very nice in your signature.

Thanks Terapet! And nice work making efforts to stay on plan no matter where you end up! Definitely awesome.

I am not in a happy mood right now, guys. And it's really kind of stupid, because these things happen, and you just have to wait for things to do whatever... But aaaagh! Today is my 5th day at 244. I know 5 days really isn't *that* long, it really isn't. But it feels like it. And things like that make me frustrated, and feel like I'm not accomplishing anything, and that just makes me want to give up once in a while. Only I don't *really* want to give up, because I have goals, darnit! And I want to reach them... I really, really do. but I can't do that if I sit here at 244 forever. Yes - I have made a couple bad choices over the last couple of days, but never anything that I thought was overly outrageous or anything. But here I am.

I know I've lost 22 pounds, and that's really awesome. I know that 5 days at the same weight isn't really going to be that big of a deal in the long run. But right now it's discouraging and frustrating and I hate it. I guess the logical thing would be to take a few days off from the scale... But I'm not very good at that. You all know how I am. Compulsive weighing, every morning.

I'm sorry for my moping.

I brought my laptop home from the hospital today! She's all healed! Wow, that was a long 4 days...I seriously spend way too much time on the computer!

@Diana - My mantra is "Even if the progress seems slow, if you're eating right and exercising, you're healthier today than you were a week ago." That helps when the scale is not being cooperative!

@Terapet - I'm so jealous that you got to hear Sting in concert! About your salad...1000 calories?!? Seriously? What was IN it? Enjoy your vaca!

I did my monthly measurements today, and woa! I lost 12.5 inches! Now if only the scale was as generous!

My plans for 4TH mostly involve work. As a newspaper reporter, I have to photograph all 97 invents that are happening on Saturday and Sunday. But on Monday I'm attending the annual family holiday fest that includes ridiculous amounts of food and the Battle To The Death Kickball Tournament.

Rochesterrrrrrr! Yay for having your laptop back! Sorry you pretty much have to work all weekend... That's kind of a bummer!

More of the same today with the scale. Blah blah blah. I'm not surprised, though, since there was pizza involved in my dinner yesterday. But that's alright. Things happen.

Realizing right now that I'm going to have to find something resembling exercise to do today... It seems weird to me that I have nothing planned(No Yoga on Fridays, no C25K for today...), and I don't like the idea of sitting around the house all day. Maybe I'll hit the gym or something... Or bug the boyfriend to go on a walk with me later. Or both. Or something. Isn't it awesome how decisive I am!?

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

Morning everyone!

Getting my workout in when it is 90 plus degrees outside is quite a challenge! I dont HATE 5:30 AM, but unless all I am doing is sitting in the quiet and sipping a cup of tea, it is not my favorite. Yet...out I go, to listen to the birds waking up while I walk/jog my way to the skinny chick inside me.
Yesterday was a bad day for me. Not eating too much, but not eating nearly enough. It wasnt a planned thing at all, but I didnt break 900 calories. Was busy for several hours before during and after my usual lunch time, and by the time I got around to eating again, it was dinner time, and while I know I needed more calories, I couldnt bring myself to force in a few hundred extra calories that I really wasnt hungry for. I figure my body isnt going to have a fit over one short day every now and then.

Weighed in at 157.6 this morning. Hoping to see the big 150 by the 19th, but fear that wont happen. Maybe I'll have a real whoosh. Have TOM right now, so I might get lucky.
Have a good day, Ladies!

Still 244. Still not happy. Didn't exercise yesterday like I meant to.

I am so not a happy camper.

Go Diana, go go Diana! You can DO it! You're a LOSER!

And <ahem> I'm pointing at the quotes in your signature...

Bahahaha, you do have a point about my signature quotes, Rochester... It's just not always easy to think about it that way. You know how it goes!

It's been so quiet in here recently... I know it's a holiday weekend, but I miss all the chatter!

I agree. This thread seems to dwindle by the day. Oh well, fewer competitors means I have a greater chance of winning this challenge!


Diana, are you tracking inches lost? When you exercise, you lose fat but gain muscle. So you may not see the difference on the scale because you're replacing fat with muscle, but the muscle takes up less space so you'll see the change in inches.

A friend reminded me of something yesterday that I'd completely forgotten. A few years ago, when I'd lost quite a bit of weight, I signed up for a bootcamp program. When the trainer did my beginning evaluation, she had to check my weight and bmi like three times.

She refused to believe that I weighed 199 and said that on a sight guess she would have said I was about 160. And based on height and weight, according to charts, my bmi should have been in the low -30s, on the border between obese and overweight. Instead it was just below the mid-20s and comfortably in the normal category. The trainer said I have a very muscular and athletic body type. (I still don't believe her. )

I guess I need to be tracking inches and bmi more closely than pounds.


On another subject, I'm going to happily add some unneeded calories to my day at breakfast today. My niece stayed over last night after fireworks, and she is a trained chef and on a gluten-free diet. She just put cinnamon-cheese danishes in the oven and they smell outstanding!

Hi Guys,

Hope you dont mind me joining you lot, It's been a year since I last joined any challenges or anything at all tbh, and I took part in Mel and Eny's challenges last year and you guys were awsome, so here I am and (i will tag along not really enter you competition) here is some info about me.

So, My name is Bev and i'm 28 years old, i live in the north east of england and I started my journey the 1st of January 2009, i was 206lbs and quite disgusted by myself, it was on new years eve at a party i decided enough was enough, so new years day i found this website and joined in some challenges. By the end of January i'd lost 14lbs, and by the end of april id lost a total of 26lbs. I was sooooo happy, then I went away and life took over. Its now over a year later and im back upto 192. Still 14lbs lighter than day one but something needs to be done.

My plan is to do what i did before, Healthy eating, and exercise. I used the fitday website to log my calorie intake, i ranged from 1200-1500 per day, with 30mins of exercise 5 times a week. It worked well for me and I will do this again.

So my weight today was 192, i will weigh in every sunday morning, though I'd prefer to weigh less often, (my first challenge i wasnt allowed to weigh for 6 weeks which was such an exciting time when id lost so much. tbh i havent weighed myself since about october hehe.
My over all goal is to hit about 160-155, but Im going to aim at 7lb losses.

My Birthday is in September and to lose 7-10lbs would be awsome.

My over all aim is to have lost the weight by September 2011. Thats 37lbs over 14 months, thats 2lb a month, lol, doesnt seem alot when i look at it like that. Awsome

Anyway this is me, ready and willing

Koshi