Yikes, Ang!! Feel better soon! At least you know the foods that trigger your GI distress, so that's good. Lots of people don't know which foods are the problem so they need to try everything out before they know. Oh, you poor thing, I feel so bad that you're going through all this. and more .

Echo - I feel ya on the weight stagnation thing. I think mine's happy with 155 - 156. I really want to get down to 145, but that means really, seriously buckling down and not taking any "off" days for my diet. I'm not ready for that yet. You know, I like Jillian's ideas. She sounds like she's advertising the median and not the extremes (starve yourself, eat only meat, etc). I like that.

Today's confession:

Breffix - 1 cup skim milk + 1 tbsp cocoa powder, instant oatmeal + raisins

Snack - 1/2 apple

Lunch - 2 quesadillas (each ques = 1 small tortilla) filled with beans, corn and onions. Had about 1/4 cup of homemade guacamole on the side (avocado, tomato, onion, salt, pepper)

Snack - sweet (fried dough sprinkled with sugar and ground cardamom) yum. My weight in raisins. :P

Dinner - hakka noodles (chinese-style noodles with stir-fried spring onions, carrots, mushrooms and a little reg onion) scrambled egg and soy sauce

Exercise: 75 mins walk covered 3.87 miles, 2 lunges haha will get to the rest later tonight...

Echo - way to stay on plan!

Chick - I hope your tests pinpoint the issues for you, so you can start healing and feeling better. I am really sorry you are going through this right now and you are in my good thoughts.

I did not get that walk in today like i thought I would but I did play with my granddaughter a bit and did some stretching exercises. Today I ate:
water
milk

diet dr. pepper
hamburger with all the fixings
1 cup applesauce

large salad with FF cheese and RF ranch
1 homemade cheese biscuit

I am sitting at about 900 calories and I will allow myself up to 300 more tonight, keeping me at 1200 for the day. My options for snacking are veggies with dip, apples, yogurt, gluten free bread or FF pretzels.

Angela, I'm sending good thoughts your way! I hope you are able to figure out what's wrong and get better soon!

My confessions for today:

B: 1/2 cup plain oatmeal, 1 banana

L: 1/2 whole wheat tortilla with 1/4 cup light shredded cheese, 1 apple, 100 calorie bag of popcorn

S: 5 almonds

D: 2/3 cup lime rice, 1/2 cup black beans, 1 cup corn

E: 10 minutes stationary bike, 30 minutes treadmill, and free weights

I did some incline training on the treadmill today and I can definitely feel it in my legs. I'm going hiking on Saturday for my husband's birthday, so I'm trying to get prepared (I wish he had decided what he wanted to do a week ago, so I could have actually trained!).

Right? Mine does this to me ALL the time! Fri night I tell him "we need to go grocery shopping tomorrow." The next day "hey it's a really nice day, let's go for a hike!" Um. Why did you not mention this YESTERDAY when we were talking about it??? GRR!!

chit chat time

Angela, hope you're okay. Sunni is right, its good that you're getting it all checked out and you know your trigger foods.

i also cant tolerate white breads, i have them occassionally but if i have them everyday, very bad for me ! besides i like granary breads now

Sunni - yeh Jillians weight loss philosophy is great!

yeh starving yourself is very bad for the metabolism. so i like her approach to weight loss. its all about the maths!

lol @ my weight in raisins

Sunni - wow way to go on the 3.87 miles!

Aww thanks so much Hydra! i really appreciate that

wow Hydra, you're a total rockstar with keepin on the 1200 calories!

Emily way to go on the healthy eating and exercise!
incline training is great for calorie burn! good for you! aww hike sounds great!!
-
lol Sunni.
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my plan for today:

Eat 1200 calories.
exercise - do 2 cardio workouts today

breakfast: - 436 calories

cardio workout 1: plyometrics p90x.

lunch - no more than 300 calories

cardio workout 2: biggest loser cardio max

dinner - no more than 464 calories.

i'm thinking about getting a heart rate monitor, but completely overwelmed by all the choices and the bad reviews. but it would be nice to see how many calories i actually burn during exercise. i will do some research on it today. dont you just hate it when you find something that everyone has given great reviews, and there is always that ONE PERSON - that one review that completely trashes it! ugh infuriates me! then i listen to that one bad review and ignore the other 100 positive ones!

Meh. I know, I know. I've been MIA. Sunday was the start of National Novel Writing Month so during times I would normally be posting, I've been sitting at my laptop tying away furiously on an entirely random novel.

That aside, I did lose 1.6 lbs last week. I'd been slacking on my water in take. Add the popcorn I had on Halloween to that and, well, yeah. I've been toying with my caloric intake this week. Doing some experimenting to find a nice balance. I don't plan on dropping them too low but I am aimming to have between 1550-1700 this week rather than 1600-1800. Gonna see what happens.

You know what I want, Echo? I want a GoWearFit. XD You're supposed to wear it all day and it's supposed to track all of the calories you've burned. During exercise, while relaxing. All of them. It would be very cool to know exactly how many calories I'm burning in a given day. It would certainly make finding that perfect balance of calories in vs calories out a lot simpler.

But it's also a good $200. That's a hefty chunk of change, you know? Sigh.

thats awesome garnet, i had a friend who wanted to do that. thats great that you're writing a novel! ooh can you tell us the genre of it?

awesome on losing 1.6lbs!

that gowearfit sounds good!! but yah too expensive for me!

plus i want to see what my actual heart rate is during exercise especially the times when im like "omg im gonna die i need a break"

i finally decided on which heart rate monitor to get and im so excited!! im getting the polar f7female. going to order it tommorow , cant wait!
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my confession for today:

Eat 1200 calories. yes! met the target, only went over by 20 calories
exercise - do 2 cardio workouts today - erm i only did 1 cardio workout today. i love how at the start of the day i have all these grande plans ! lol

breakfast: - 451 calories

cardio workout 1: plyometrics p90x. for the first time, i did most of the exercises on the ground and not on my rebounder, definately was harder! and i felt i didnt have as much energy during the second half of the workout. also i think i definately need a rest day tommorow, as i've been working out 6 days in a row. so reluctantly (!) (i know i cant even believe it myself, that i dont want to take a rest day - because i really want to hit through the 160s barrier this week, but if i continue to workout without rest days it will be counterproductive).

lunch - no more than 300 calories- i ate 555 calories, i had some lentil soup and 1 toast and 12g of cheese and then had 160 calories worth of doritos hehe so had to have a very light dinner to hit my 1200 calorie target for today.

cardio workout 2: biggest loser cardio max did not do! took a bubble bath instead hehe i was tired from the plyometrics workout.

dinner - no more than 464 calories. only had 209 calories left, so i had exactly 209 calories worth of lentil soup (ie yellow daal) and then a piece of gum , so in total my calories is 1205 calories

hope you girls had a good day ! see you tommorow

i'm gonna go and watch the new season of smallville now, i love lois! she so fiesty.

Echo, great job today!

B: 1 piece whole wheat toast with 1/2 tbsp ICBINBL, 1 banana

S: 1/4 cup cinnamon almonds

L: a salad box from Whole Foods: spinach salad with a vinegar and olive oil dressing, fresh broccoli with salsa fresca, approx. 1/2 cup tabbouli, and 3 strawberries

D: 2 pieces homemade basil pizza on whole wheat dough

No exercise today, aside from some light weights and crunches at home.

Um. Urban Fantasy. That's about all I know at the moment. XD I'm kinda winging it this year so I only know as much about the story as I've actually written and the characters have hinted at themselves, LOL. As of tonight, I'm about 4 days ahead of schedule on my word count.

So. I guess today went okay. XD

I got my workout it. Felt proud of myself. Still working on finishing my daily water requirement. Managing okay I think. My nose is starting to get stuffed up again. Between about 8pm and, like, 11am... it's ridiculous. My caloric intake was about 200 LESS then I was aiming for. To top it all off, TOM is here. It's the first time since I started that I've had a run in with it so I'm a little nervous about what to expect. Especially when my weight at 9pm is the same as it was weighed in a Tuesday morning. Normally, if I weigh myself at night, I'm up a few pounds from my morning weight... You'd think that'd make me happy, right? I guess I'm just worried about possibly losing a lot this week and then stalling next week? I don't know. What I do know is that I need to go to bed now. XD

Very little exercise yesterday, I am dealing with a mild case of the flu, yuck! I did see the doctor and have some medicine to help with the symptoms.

yesterday I ate:
water
diet dr. pepper

water
bf cooked for me: small portions of grilled steak, mashed potatoes and corn with 2 small biscuits

3 oz FF tuna salad with crackers
lots of celery with RF ranch for dip
water
diet dr. pepper

2 handfuls of peanuts

aww thanks Emily, you're so sweet!

ooh cinamon almonds, thats interesting! so you sprinkle some cinamon on almonds? i love cinamon

Garnet- urban fantasy, wow that sounds interesting
i hear ya on the water thing! i really struggle to get my water in aswell!

today is my REST day so i'm going to attempt to drink 2 litres of water.

my technique is, drink half a litre before breakfast, and then have breakfast 15 minutes later.

then another half litre , 2 hours after breakfast and then another one 15 minutes before lunch

then another half litre 15 minutes before dinner.

dont worry about gaining a little over your period, thats perfectly normal, and its all water weight and bloating! just take it easy and then once your period is over you will lose the excess water weight.

oh dear sorry to hear you're feeling unwell Hydra!

--

update from me. yesterday i was VERY grouchy when i went to bed cause i was hungry. i ate 1200 calories. but i dont think it was enough especially since i did plyometrics p90x for 1 hour. so i think my body was like saying "what the heck!" it took me ages to fall asleep and i wasnt in a good mood. so last night i decided i'm going to stick with eating my BMR calories which is 1500 calories. and then create a calorie deficient through exercise.

i know jillian says that the last 10-20 lbs is a different animal and you're meant to eat your BMR calories and then burn calories through exercise alone, cause your body needs fuel and its a differnt situation compared to when you have more than 20lbs to lose. and i believe she's right! i wanted to do 1200 calories so i could lose the weight faster , but i think its best to do it slowly so as to keep my metabolism working well aswell.

so from now on, going to eat 1500 calories and workout intensely for an hour each day , with 1 day of rest out of the week.

also i did notice that i was tired during my workout near the end and felt abit dizzy so i think my calorie intake should stay around 1500. which means i will have a slower loss and will take me more time, but at least my metabolism wont suffer, which in the long run is the main priority.

Also today i'm going to order my heart rate monitor, i'm so excited

Also today when i jumped on the scale it said 72kg (ie 158.7 lbs!). i'm so happy, BUT I hope i can sustain it for mondays weigh in! i've seen it only twice last month and the next day it would always shoot up. so hope this time with meticulous calorie counting i can hold it at this weight for monday!

--

plan for today:

no exercise. -rest day for me!

breakfast - no more than 500 calories -met!
I had pancake, with a little bit of butter and maple syrup, total 449 calories, then had a little bit of cheese to meet the 500 calories, cause i wanted to have a little bit of protein and sometimes i like to end a sweet meal with something savory.

lunch - no more than 500 calories: oopsy slightly went over. ate 544 calories. so less for dinner!

dinner - no more than 500 calories. did not meet. had 630 calories. but its okay, cause total calories eaten today is 1674 and my AMR is 1676. no calorie deficient, not no gain either. i ate exactly my calorie needs for today. i definately feel satisfied today and i even had a mini chocolate treat! (80 calories - crunchie chocolate mini bar, its honeycombed with thin layer of chocolate. whilst i was wating it, i was in heaven! i was like, i could marry you crunchie lol mmm so yum. so yah i'm definately happier when i eat around 1500-1600 calories

drink 2 litres of water: met ! drank 2 litres of water today.

i bought myself a heart rate monitor today! i decided its a gift /reward to myself for reaching the 150s! i've wanted one since september, but im really glad i waited and bought it now, cause now it will mean something and represent my mini goal
now i just hope i can sustain it for monday!

it was nice to rest and not do any exercise today. so now i'm ready to hit the workouts hard tommorow!

my plans for tommorow:

breakfast - fruit and fibre cereal - wait 45 minutes and then do jillian michaels no more trouble zone.

then have lunch - 500 calories.

then wait 1 hour and do : biggest loser cardio max workout.

planning on doing 2 workouts tommorow, cause i've rested today so should be all ready for it!

Hi everyone! I haven't been faithful in posting and it's mostly cause I'm focused on posting in the biggest loser challenge thread. This week's challenge for the red team is to make a certain exercise goal (mine's 416 minutes) and those who finish the challenge get a badge for their profile!! I'm so excited and I want a badge, hehe. So 416 minutes is just shy of 420, which is 60 mins everyday. I lengthened my walk by going into the cul-de-sacs along the route. That added another 0.5 miles to my total, making my walk a good 4.0 miles now. I'm happy with this workout. I feel like I can adjust accordingly. If I'm having a bad workout day, I can cut my walk to 2.0 miles and if I'm feeling energetic I can jog some of the 4.0 miles.

Echo - good job on the loss!! Tiny losses at this point make me happy too. I'm 10 lbs away from MY goal, but I'm only 5 lbs away from the high end of my normal weight. I guess that's why I'm slowing down too. I've upped the exercise and I'm trying to cut down on calories but I don't want to end up crabby. The hungrier I am, the b****ier I get. I like the 1500 cals plan - don't wreck your metabolism. We'll be slow but we'll get there eventually.

Good job to everyone who has stayed on plan!!

Yesterday I stuck to foods pretty well. I was feeling really snacky in the afternoon, but since there was nothing resembling a snack in this house I had to do without. Ok, there were apples and raisins but I really wanted chips. I'm almost at the point where looking at a raisin makes me mad, so I think I'll lay off them for now.

I made banana bread last night because hubby was hankering for it when he saw three bananas left. I guess I also wanted something sweet around the house. I ate 2 slices last night and um 2 this morning for breffix with milk.

This morning, I made 155.1!! My lowest in...um...6 years? Nope, 11. Holy cow. That makes me happy and sad. All this time I could've been this weight and maintained but instead I chose to indulge in fatty foods that didn't even taste good. Oh well, no point in regretting now.

My paper's under review right now. This journal said they give their reviewers 10 - 15 days to submit a review and it was sent to them on the 3rd so in another two weeks I should find out if it was accepted (YAY!) or rejected (again). I'm anxious and it's SO easy to buy a bag of chips and eat my troubles away...BUT I've made up my mind to deal with stress now and curb my eating tendencies.

Alright chickies, I'll check in later today! to all!

hi Sunni, great to hear from you!

aw i hope you get your badge! that sounds like a great idea, i just asked my team if we can get badges too! hehehe i want a badge! lol i'm such a kid hehe.

well done on accumulating 416 minutes, thats very impressive!!

aww thanks so much for your kind words! you're so right, we will get there, slowly but surely!!

mm banana bread, yummy! sounds delicious

wow 155.1 lbs!! well done! thats fabulous!!! you've lost 17lbs! way to go!!!! only 10lbs left to go! fantastic

hope your paper gets accepted!!! good luck with that!
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my confession today.

today i ate 1557 calories.
i WAS going to eat a small chocolate (80 calories) for dessert, but then my stupid computer kept playing up, and my internet connection stopped working and then i had to reboot time and time again. i think its okay now. but it stressed me out. and then i didnt want to eat the chocolate cause i was stressed. so i am saving it for tommorow instead.

besides if i dont eat it, then i get a nicer number of my "predicted lbs lost" for today
-0.32 hehe. as opposed to 0.29 lol.
yes i'm a total nerd haha.

today i did jillian michaels - no more trouble zone dvd, killer workout! i had beads of sweat coming off my forehead. its about 55 minutes, with no breaks!!
i had to pause the dvd sporadically throughout the workout and take a couple of minutes time out, just to recover.

i cant wait to get my heart rate monitor and see what my heart rate is, the times when i'm like, omg i'm gonna die. and also see how many calories i ACTUALLY burn. instead of just guessing from websites. i'm gonna be sad when its so much lower than what i've been using ! hahaha but at least it will be realistic.

also and i'm a nutcase, but i thought i should work out for 2 hours since i had the day off yesterday. so i started to do "the biggest loser cardio max dvd" which was fun, cause it was like training with bob! hehe

but then half an hour into the workout, my tummy growled and i was very hungry. so i thought no point carrying on when im hungry, as it will just be counterproductive. cause then my body will start to metabolism my lean muscle.

i made sure that i had cereal exactly 45 minutes before my workout. but i guess it only lasted 1 and half hours.

also jillian says not to workout for more than 2 hours in any one session, as it causes stress to the body and release of cortisol.

anyways i think i will just stick with working out for 1 hour a day. and not push it to 2 hours.

1 more day left till my official weigh in on monday!

have a good sunday !

Rested most of the day and did no exercise at all. I will be walking in the a.m. because bf and I have shopping to do and I want to squeeze in a good walk.

saturday I ate:

water
1 slice of homemade bread, plain

1 1/2 cups homemade crab and veggie pasta salad
water

water
2 small grilled porkchops
1 cup mashed potatoes
1 cup green beans

more water
coffee with light creamer

I will be meeting with my spiritual group on Sunday night and we are having a potluck, I plan to eat plenty of fruits and veggies in the day and stick to healthy stuff at my friend's house. Most of the time when we meet we have a potluck and general people bring healthy dishes but the occasional pizza or cheeseball will show up.