I feel quite proud of myself! I came in at 1405 calories yesterday! And I'm on plan for that or less today! I didn't exercise this morning, but perhaps this afternoon!

I've got to go to work for an hour or so this morning, then come home and wait for the TV guys to come and pick up our broken tv. We've been without our big screen for 9 weeks now. They fixed it last week ($800!) and now it isn't working again. It only worked while the tech was here! Aargh!

I seemed to have a fridge full of one of these and a bit of that ... so I'm taking a page out of Ilene's book and stirrin' up a pot of soup for supper. It smells awsome! Fitday will be a nightmare!

Still snowing and blowing here but I think I saw a school bus this morning.

I'm afraid of big TV's, maybe I just hear the bad stuff.

Forgive me Artmaker Susan but I forget where you live.

The soup does look delicious.

I realize that my biggest problem is I am the human noo noo (anyone with toddlers...its the big vaccuum cleaner on teletubbies who vacuums up all the tubby custard). The past few days I have been throwing away so much food that my kids don't eat. Its scary, no wonder I put on so much weight.

I am almost less than starting out. I really don't consider myself starting out until I am back at my "normal" weight of 160. Kind of like going back in time.

Then I can go back to my old normal weight of 150.

And then I think I could still loose at least 5.

Congrats Allison on the calories. I am at 1500 and it feels very comfortable. My goal right now is a pound or two a week for at least 3 months... Hmm that would be at least 12 lbs. If I can do 15 and that would bring me to 155.

That would be excellent. Then I can really truly be a featherweight and start plucking away the last 10. Well I suppose the best laid plans.

I think I can do it though. Why not?

Tried those squats and all I have to say is ouch. I think I wil have to inch myself lower week by week. I just don't have the muscles for it even squating halfway is tough.

I wish I had a gym nearby but I have a great wooded backyard to hike around in and a big log that I use as a step and I can bench press my daughter. She is about 30 lbs.

I also have 5lb and 10lbs weights for excercises that don't work with a small child. I am a weakling so these are just fine for now.


I love the carrot.

Thanks everyone for making me feel so welcome here.

Way to go Allison on keeping the calories down.

You guys are making me hungry with your soup!

Hickerchick, I have a small daughter too, she just turned three. How old is yours and where do you find time to exercise! I just joined the gym and I am going to have to go at 6 am. My only option.

Well, I stuck to my goal yesterday with water and managed not to eat after 6pm. So far, so good today, but it's still early.

Where is this infamous soup recipe!

My daughter is 2.

Its easy to find 5-10 minutes periodically to do weights.

For cardio I do a really silly thing. My daughter was given a video about numbers with some seriouly retro 80s music. We put this on and I excercise to it.

Told you it was silly.

Her stoller has a flat and I take her out in is for 30 minutes a day when it doesn't rain. It is extraordinarily heavy to push her uphill.

I am just getting back into a routine. It is hard with kids because they are so exhausting mentally that you have no energy to do anything physical.

When my son was little I took him to a baseball field and we would play pretend baseball.

I try to remember that a little activity is better than none. I wish I could do more but all in time. In a few years we will have much more time to ourselves. It goes so fast.

You should see how bad my form gets!
Noo noo's and fuddy duddy's ... hmmm ... we're getting to be an interesting crowd.

I agree with the squats being bad form--you do bounce a lot. That's what many years of skiing did to my knees. Imagine bouncing like that all day as you ski down the mogul run! Slow and steady squats look much less menacing and much easier on the knees.

I do consider myself a good cook. I love to cook. I wish I had more time to do it. When the kids were small, it was a struggle as you have to devote so much time to them and not to the food, so I didn't cook as much then. Now that they are older and actually appreciate a good meal, it is starting to get fun again. I printed a couple dozen new recipes from Cooking Light and can't wait to try some of them.

Thanks for the pats on the back!!!

I am so pi$$ed off at myself! I'm not keeping my calories under control. At about 1700, I still want something. I'm half hearted about exercise (to say the least) for over a week now. I've got on a tank and jammies and there's this roll hanging out the middle. I even convinced poor DH to say it didn't matter to him.
I'm such a crappy example. The gal I'm helping at work is losing weight!

I don't even know why I'm telling you guys (you poor things). Don't tell me I'm ok ... tell me I know better. Tell me that if I want to be an example of how good a late 40's can be ... I'd better get at it! Tell me that tomorrow I have to buy a bath tub full of greens and eat them! Tuna is on sale!

Grrrr ... there you are ... just in case any of you thought I was a nice person ... I ain't. I'm a slouch ... who knows better ....

Susan! I'm not very good at being not nice but you asked for it... Pick up that roll, grab a fork in the bathtub and buy some cheap tuna! No more excuses, your worth more then that! And you know it. Seriously, you guys inspire me, you've gotta stay on track so I have someone to look up too. No to mention 40 isn't that far away and I would love to have something to look forward to.

Hikerchick- Doesn't sound strange, that's the only way I get exercise around my daughter, I crank up the tunes and we dance for an hour, you take it where you can get it. The stroller worked well for me too, but know she wants to walk everywhere and 3 year olds walk slower then snails. I have done Yoga with her, but she is only good for the first 5 minutes then she trys to jump on my back for the rest of the time.

I did well today, I'm proud, 1300 calories and 6 glasses of water, 2 more days till my first gym workout. I am slightly intimidated, it's a unisex gym and a lot of hardcore people work out there. Hopefully I won't look too stupid.

Found the soup recipe, don't know how I missed it. Next shopping trip.

Dana

SusanB -- Here ya go -- you can count on me to be honest

Dana -- Don't be intimidated by the gym... We all had to start somewhere...People ARE really nice and helpful for the most part... even the big guys who grunt are real teddy bears... Good luck!

Hickerchick -- Definitely some exercise is better than none and keep having fun with your DD... If you think toddlers are exhausting, try teenagers you'll have sleepless nights for other reasons ... Enjoy them now, I know I'd heard this a million times when the kids were young, and didn't listen to the advise very well, now I wish I were back there... I'd also be younger so that would be nice

Whittlin -- Do I consider myself a good cook? Not bad actually, but not a fancy one... I don't do deserts anymore though because I eat them so I haven't made regular deserts like cookies or muffins in about 5-6 years .... But I do love to experiement with soups, BBQ recipes for salmon, vegetables and chicken... But it's gotta be easy, low fat and have ingredients that I will use regularly...

No exercise today no special reason just lazy and I worked all day, I'm not used to that ... food was, calorie wise, good but not that clean ...

I'm tired and I'm going to bed

I'm recovering today - no exercise, but I should go for a gentle walk to get some of this lactic acid out of my muscles. I'm really sore from the gym last night, I used bigger weights than usual. I've lost a few more centimetres, and the scale has gone down again which is great!

I consider myself a good cook, and people tell me they love eating my food. My hubby is an awesome cook too (we used to fight about who got to do the cooking when we first got married). I really love cooking.

I need to update my ticker for exercise minutes. I find the tickers really inspirational, and knowing that I should be updating mine often really keeps me in check - is anyone else the same?

I consider myself to be a good cook in training I had such a nice time in Calgary...I miss my friends and family so much, but it made my birthday that much more special. You have all been busy (chatting and exercising and cooking and planning...) while I've been away, good on you! I ate terribly all weekend. Really, it was wretched...But you only turn 18 once. It wasn't the portions that killed me, it was the type of food...meals out...cake etc. Oh well. I have a good day today. And I got Cardio Pilates DVDs for my birthday! Woot woot!

SUSAN! YOU WANT MUSCLE? YOU'LL HAVE TO HUSTLE!

SUSANB - get off your lazy behind and do some WALKING! Get out your dumbbells, run some stairs with a pack! I'm watching you

Right I'm going to do assisted dips and assisted pull-ups today at the gym and then whatever's left out of my hour doing HIIT on the treadmill. What are YOU going to do? And moaning doesn't count as cardio

For brekky I had a protein shake with wwtoast with organic honey, for a snack I've got protein pancakes, lunch is turkey on one slice of bread, snack is ff greek yoghurt with oats, cranberries and pecans. Dinner is yet to be decided. What's your plan?

Yesterday was good for me - I got all my super-heavy squats in, 10 sets of 3 and my legs were nicely shaking at the end. I also did calf raises and some dreadmill work (6mins! ) There's a chart at the gym where you cross off squares for calorie burn. I started yesterday and logged the calories from Monday and yesterday and already I'm pretty much in near the front of the pack! I guess that's what kickboxing does for a person!

Hey everyone,
Not had much of a chance to come on here recently, been very busy at work! I'm sticking to this at the moment, averaging about 1300 calories a day I think (hard to get it exact and don't have time to calculate everything).

My normal daily food intake would be 1 'serving' (45g with 100ml of skimmed milk) of shredded wheat bitesize with a sprinkling of dried apricot) for breakfast. 90g (when uncooked) wholemeal pasta with half a tin of tuna, chopped spring onions/peppers/cucumber and a tspn of extra light mayo. Then dinner would be some kind of meat or fish, with 2 portions of veg. I do all my cooking (including lunches which i take to work) so can control what goes into it - which helps. I also take 3 or 4 pieces of fruit to work, a ryvita goodness bar (these are great!! only 62 cals, no added sugar, 5g of fibre per bar), and a muller light yoghurt, to snack on during the day. I also have a tub of The food doctors original seed mix on my desk which I snack on if I get hungry, as they're yummy! (I tend to snack more if I'm having a particularily boring day)

Which brings me to Whittlin's point - I think I am a fairly good cook! I used to be rubbish, but now I cook every night and am really getting the hang of it, I'm very adventurous with what I cook.

As for my weight at the moment, as of this morning I was 147.2lb! I still hope to be at 145 by Valentines day, but I won't hold my breath. I've lost 7lb in a week and a half, which seems pretty excessive but I think a lot of it was just my body getting rid of all the unhealthy food I'd previously stuffed into it.