Morning, girls!
Just a quick post to say I'm still on track and that I hope all of you are doing well!
June 8:190: 190
June 15:188: 189
June 22:188: 188
June 29:186: 187
July 6:184: 184
July 13:182: 181
July 20:182: 179
July 27:180: 178
Aug 3:178: 178
Aug 10:176: 176
Aug 17:176
Aug 24:174
Aug 31:172

LABOR DAY Sept 7: 170

Hello friends,

So weighed in at 211 today - not bad, given by two pound mid-week 'blip.' So still continuing to maintain my 25 pound loss.

And I think I have successfully 're-entered' after my month away. Reconnected with people, caught up with the crazy pile of stuff on my desk, accumulated mail, etc. which means I can refocus my efforts on weight loss. No I will not lose 11 pounds in a month to be in onederland on Labor Day, but I think I can knock a few numbers off the scale by then!

My plan of action: to get myself to the gym!!! I don't know about where you all are, but here in Virginia it is hot and muggy and pretty awful. Definitely weather where a workout requires A/C. So I want to get to the gym at least 3 times this week for elliptical and weight-lifting. I totally got out of my strength routine in Boston - since toting my laptop around in a messenger bag doesn't count. Also want to re-establish my healthy habits of mid-morning snack, lots of water at my desk, no eating after dinner, and (after over-indulging in Boston)abstaining from alcohol which is really just empty calories.

So that is my plan of action. How about the rest of you all? How did the Monday weigh-in treat you? What are your mini-goals for the week?

Dancer - You're so perfectly on track, it's so great to see! Keep up the awesome work!

Blueridge - So nice to hear that you're starting to readjust to being back at home. It's always a tough adjustment! It seems like you have a really good plan of action and you know exactly what you need to do to get right back on track, so you're well on your way to onderland! Honestly, I think sometimes the mental victories are more important than the numbers on the scale, and you seem to be in a great mental place right now. It's like that mastercard commercial: priceless.

My goals for the week would be to run about 14 miles total (4 today, 6 wednesday, 4 saturday) and do spinning/yoga the other days, without getting too lazy or tired from the stress of school. I'd also like to limit my food intake after dinner and not eat back ALL the calories I burn from exercise!

Fatpants - How was your 8 mile run the other day? I hope it went well!

everyone is doing so well on this challenge! quite motivating actually...it's been an allright week for me...i'm up .6 of a pound. i didn't exercise all weekend due to me and the bf arguing all weekend and other reasons. no exscuse i know, but thats how it happened. a nsv though: i finally got up and tried out a morning exercise. it was nice to have it done for the day and my dd didn't wake up. so that was good. will try it again tomorrow morning.


sw: 180.4
gw: 160

June 15: 180.4
June 22: 179.8
June 29: 176.4
July 6: 175.4
July 13: 175.4
July 20: 177.6 bummer!!!!
July 27: 175.8....i can see it's time to step up my game
Aug 3: 173.8 yay!
Aug 10: 174.2
Aug 17:
Aug 24:
Aug 31:

LABOR DAY SEPT. 7:

TakingCharge - hehe I WISH I could do an 8-mile run... I think that's kpme that was attempting that one! I am up to 5 miles right now which is a 2 mile increase in the past two weeks. Slowly but surely I'm making my way up to a 10k! My first race is in just over a month (just the 5k) but I'm starting to get very excited!

I didn't lose much last week, but I guess it's something considering my parents were here for a few days and we ate out like four times..ugh.

SW: 185
CW:171
GW: 165

Not sure if I will make my Labor Day goal but it will be nice to be in the 160s soon. I'm increasing my overall exercise time this week plus increasing my daily calories by 100 per day. Yesterday I ran for 50 minutes...can't believe I'm only 10 minutes away from becoming a One Hour Runner!

TakingCharge - you are so right. I am in a great space mentally and really enjoying life and finding balance and joy. Sort of funny how we (or at least I) think that weight loss is a necessary condition for joy or happiness, and I find myself in a really sweet and joyful spot in my life, even though I'm a long way from my ultimate goal. It gives me good perspective that, yes, health is important, but the number on the scale or my jeans tag isn't the definer of my overall quality of life and general well-being.

Onestar - good luck with the morning exercise! Let us know how it goes!

Fatpants - a one hour runner! That is a huge accomplishment. Congrats!

Dancer - great job staying right on track. Looks like you've set reasonable goals and are consistently hitting them.

No progress on yesterday's weigh-in, but I'm okay with that. It was a challenging week, with company and much socializing. I need to mix up my workouts. It feels great to do the really hard strength training and 60 minutes of cardio at the gym a few times a week, but now I'm getting a little push-back from my feet and knees. I ordered a new HDMI cable for my DVD player, in hopes that it will do the trick and I can get back to doing my videos. It's been too hot to workout much outdoors.

judy

So, girls, I have a question for the runners on the board: I'm a super slow jogger (run for an hour 4-5x a week) at a 13-14 min/mile pace. (Ok, laugh if you need to!). Any suggestions for how to pick up my pace? Seems like I should do that before I work on increasing my distance or I'll be out there all day each time : ) I've heard of HIIT but haven't tried it. Curious to hear what you have to say...

so didn't exercise this morning to oversleeping; then this afternoon i got soooo sick and am about to knock out right now. hopefully i will be better tomorrow, i got an antibiotic shot.

Congrats on another good week ladies!

Fatpants - Glad to hear you're embracing your happy mental place!

Dancer - Wow, way to go on running an hour! That's really awesome, no matter what speed you're going. Right now, I'm mostly working on distance for my upcoming races but when I do work on speed, I basically will run a warm up mile at 10min/mil, then 2 at 9:30min/mil and then 1 cool down at 10min/mil. It's not much of a pace pick up but that's not what I'm really going for and I like to sustain a faster pace for a mile as opposed to shorter distances. But, HIIT goes something like this: warm up at your normal pace for 1/2 a mile to a mile, then choose a distance (maybe around 1/4 mile) as your interval, and do that at a 12min/mile pace, then back to normal pace for 1/4mile, then 11min/mil pace, then back to normal, and keep alternating and work your way up to faster paces for longer distance intervals. This explanation was by no means scientific and I basically pulled it out of this air, but I'm sure you can google it and get actual training plans if you want something really structured. I mostly experiment to see what works for me and what I enjoy the most. Just keep working at it and you'll be faster in no time. Go running!!

Hi girls,

Sorry for being so MIA - it's been a busy string of days! good news and bad news to report:

GN: I nailed the 8 mile run! And I wasn't even miserable while I did it! And I even managed to run it WELL, at about an 11:15 instead of my usual 12.

BN: I ate/drank SO much this wknd in NYC including SOOOO much salty foods that my Monday morning weigh in was like 172! I wouldn't expect you to remember this, but last week I was ecstatic that I weighed in at 165. Now, granted, I was at the housesitting house and I wasn't sure how accurate taht number was relative to my own scale, but STILL. So let this be a reminder to us....if you think you've had too much salt it REALLY can wreak havoc with your water weight. For days.

I am finally acknowledging this week's weigh in at 166.8. Still a gain, but it's crazy how much that number changes after a few days of trying to get back on track with healthy foods. I felt like **** from eating pizza, chips, etc.

Seriously -- how much of a bummer is it that I ran 8 miles AND have to register a gain??? I am quickly learning this summer that weekend trips are the death of me. Good to know, I suppose, so that I can treat myself with a little kindness as well as learn how to manage them better.

I head off to Wisconsin tomorrow for a week and doubt if I'll have email access so don't worry when I disappear for a while. Lake house vacation with friends from grad school -- it will be super fun!

As for running questions -- I don't know anything about the acronym method that you mentioned. My own advice on how to increase your speed is to do some shorter runs at faster paces, like TC mentioned. If you typically run 60 minutes, why not go for 30-40 but go at a faster pace. Running on a treadmill can help because it is easy to pick up the pace Also, have you considered running a 5K? "race pace" seems to come naturally; you'll find yourself running 30-45 seconds faster per minute then you usually do and then you'll know what it feels like for when you attempt to do it just in a normal running scenario.

Have a great week, girls! I'm hoping that when I log back in after my trip I'll be around 163 or so.

No laughing from me... I often vary between 11-12 min/mile pace (depending on how many hills I have to run, lol). I'm hoping as I continue to lose the weight, that I'll get speedier. I also agree with what TC and kpme have suggested.

I have done a few things with experimenting with speed work... one is just flat out run the first mile as fast as I can. It's fun, but the problem with this is that I tend to wear myself out and then can't continue running for the duration of my run...I often find myself needing to take walking breaks, whereas if I just run my race pace, then I can sustain running for the entire time.

The second thing that has worked better is some advice I saw on Runner's World... running faster at 30 second intervals. For instance, I will alternate my fast pace (6mph) with my normal race pace. This is much more sustainable in my opinion. And of course, I will also make up/increase speed when running downhill.

You might find this section pretty helpful: http://www.runnersworld.com/subtopic...-265-0,00.html

It's just chock full of advice for increasing speed!

As for me, I ran 3 miles yesterday... bad run, just bad! My legs were super tired. I think I'll do 30DS or something tonight and take a break from running.

Hi everyone -- I just got back home because I've been traveling since June 24. I was able to meet my class reunion goal, and was so happy I did. I thought I looked quite nice, and two of the guys from my class told me I was gorgeous and I believed them (at least for a nanosecond!)

After the reunion, I traveled again and just tried to make the best choices I could sooooo ... haven't lost any weight since the reunion. But haven't gained either, so here I am again back home and on track!

Black is goal, red is actual. I'm "skipping" the intermittent weigh-ins because I don't know what I weighed.

June 1:....260....260
June 8:....259....257
June 15:..257... 256
June 22:..255... 255
June 29:..254
July 6:....253
July 13:..251
July 20:..250 ... 250
July 27:..249 ... 247(class reunion July 31st goal)
Aug 3:....248
Aug 10:..246 ... 247
Aug 17:..245
Aug 24:..243
Aug 31:..241

LABOR DAY Sept 7:....239

Woo-hoo, CJ! You killed that reunion goal - good for you! And nicely done on the maintaining front - that's extra tricky when you have special events.

fatpants, takingcharge and kpme - thanks so much for the running advice! You would think that wanting to run faster, the answer would be as easy as just go faster! Of course, for me, it's not quite that simple. I'll experiment with your interval ideas on my run tomorrow and will make it a shorter one so I don't kill myself in the process. And this time I promise to get up early enough that it won't be baking outside - gotta love those heat headaches from exercising when it's too hot out!

So, lots of people talk about retaining water when they have high sodium intake. I've been a salt-oholic my whole life and have never noticed a pattern with water retention. Anyone know if this is something that varies by individual?

I'm with ya... I love salt. The average salt stuff... like salting my tomatoes, or salting a homemade soup, etc. don't make me retain water. Even salting my popcorn doesn't affect me too much. I notice though that if I eat french onion soup from Panera, I will be up a pound the next day even though it's a low cal soup. It must be pretty salty!