hey ladies! jumping right in.. this weekend has not been good. i felt the need to bake strawberry cupcakes, & then ate the majority of them myself! not to mention arby's curly fries yesterday..i'm not even weighing myself this morning. i'm going straight to the gym to try to do some damage control! hope everyone's doing well!

ciao - congrats on maintaining during Thanksgiving. Luckily (?) I don't celebrate Thanksgiving, even though my gran is from the US, I don't think I could take two big holidays so close together.

thesame7 - congrats on the NSV. I think taking a break would be good, if only for the fact that your regime makes me feel so inferior... lol

krampus - I have every faith that you can reach 122 - you just need to be really militant. Drink loads of water, that is my current cheat.

:woop: I saw 120.8 on the scale this morning. Finally. This is the week. I can feel it in my bones!

Wow, so much good stuff going on around here!

I can imagine you are ecstatic!

That sounds AWESOME. And it seems like back muscles respond the most quickly to resistance training so you will rock this dress.

I remember being so proud when I ran/walked a 5K in 42 minutes last year... that is so cool that you won a PRIZE.

I laughed when I saw that - this is EXACTLY why you SHOULD be posting here! I had those same numbers for something like 6 months earlier this year (Feb-Aug). Coming here and checking in kept me from giving up and helped me to completely revamp some things to get moving again... now I'm hovering again about 7 lbs lower. Time to RE-revamp.

This is something I have realized as well! When I read the Beck Diet Solution in August, this is something she requires - that you sit down and eat a proper meal when you eat. I struggle with this, but it really does make a difference.

I do South Beach and I love it because when I am really ON plan, I feel like I am making really good choices. If I manage to get the 4.5 cups of veggies/day, it's hard to really be hungry for much else... I do limit grain servings as well (from personal experience; no way can I lose weight with 3 servings per day) and I avoid artificial sweeteners. Plus I often add calorie-counting as well, mostly to see the macronutrient breakdowns and to ensure I am not being extreme in any direction.

I was reading through the WW section - seems like the changes are really good ones! One of the complaints had always been that you could manage to eat not that well even staying within your allotted points. Seems like the empty calories are being assigned more points now so that will be harder to do.

As for myself... well, that Elvis song is running through my head: "A little less conversation, a little more action." Yep, that about sums it up. I need to follow through on all my great plans and get going on my own version of boot camp. I want to end this year on a high note. Laaaaaaaa!

This is my first time posting here. Congratulations DoraUK I can't believe how close you are it just has to happen soon!

I personally am no where near my finally goal but I am hoping to have lost at least 10lbs for Christmas. I have a really hard time knowing how much I weight at any given time. I try to weigh myself in the morning before eating since I figure that would be when my weight is the most accurate. But I also tend to weigh myself before I work out (6pm) and sometimes at the end of the day before I go to bed (12am).

I am not sure if this is a good idea some days I am impressed when I have only gained 3lbs over the whole day and it allows me to decide which numbers are accurate and which are not. It can also be a bit frustrating because my weight can shift up to 5lbs in a day which I think is just crazy. I have had stomach issues in the past and bloat very easily so I think this may have something to do with it.

I have seen 150lbs on the scale in the morning for the last 3 days which makes me think that this is my current weight if so it mean I have 3 more pounds to lose before Christmas. On the other hand the highest number I have seen recently is 154 lbs which would mean I have 7 lbs to lose. 3 is obviously easier to achieve than 7 in 3 weeks but we will see what happens.

So when do you usually weigh yourself?

I only "count" my first-thing-in-the-morning-after-peeing weights but I like my "just ran" weights just fine too, depending.

DoraUK - SO CLOSE! You're practically there!

EmmaD - Thanks for the vote of confidence, hehe.

Update: Today was a good day. Under 1400 calories for the day. I ran about 4 miles and came home and did 105 pushups. Some of them were pretty weak but I still count them. Arms are sore and I keep thinking about the stupid dress. I'm hoping results will happen - and that in the week of my birthday/Christmas with my dessert-enabling boyfriend, muscle atrophy from a 20 hour air transit journey, käsespätzle (cheesy egg noodles) and delicious German beer precluding NYE, I don't undo them all.

DoraUK, I am eagerly awaiting your announcement of GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!

EmmaD, thank you thank you thank you for reminding me about Beck. It is sitting in my nightstand. I will begin rereading PRONTO because I am going in the wrong direction!

Welcome, diornotwar!

Veela, welcome! I only count my first-thing-in-the-morning weight. The rest of the day reflects the weight of you've eaten and drank. Think about it -- you could do nothing but drink water all day and your weight would go up. A half-pound of veggies weighs more than a quarter-pound of chocolate, but in the long run, which will make you weigh more?

It is soooooo cold here, and looks like it will be all week. Yesterday and today are mercilessly windy as well. This is when my NEAT (non-exercise activity) really decreases, because I will avoid going outside at all costs when it is like this. I will try to make up for it by attacking the giant pile of laundry in the basement (lots of trips up and down the stairs). I keep reminding myself, this is the last winter I ever have to live through this kind of cold. Southern California is so much more my temperature!

I'm in class right now so I can't do individual responses right at the moment, but I have been reading everyone's and we all seem to be doing GREAT!! You're all so inspirational. Sorry to sound so corny haha.

I weighed in at 126.4 this morning, my lowest ever! I'm sooo so excited. So excited that I almost cheated and went to Chipotle today, but thank goodness it doesn't open until next week, when I leave campus and go back home. I really need to get out of the mentality that weight loss = treat reward (in food form). I'm getting a little too relaxed because I'm so close to goal. How weird, you would think that would be a great motivator!

To those who read Beck, I haven't been keeping up with it--I really need to, especially with the holidays going on!

My gifts to myself this year will be: The Beck book (I keep checking it out of the library and dang it, they keep requesting it back), The New Rules of Lifting for Women (same problem), maybe Power Factor Training: A Scientific Approach to Building Lean Muscle Mass (my library doesn't have it) and an air-popper for popcorn. Oh and gourmet popcorn!

Not very glamorous or exciting... well, actually I am excited about these choices! Everything revolves around being fit. And happy

Anyone else focusing on healthy choices for the gift-giving season? I'm still deciding about what to get the others in my life.

EmmaD, I LOVE popcorn. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I've never heard of this company, but their site looks really good!

As for healthy gifts...I'm asking for jewelry, which is *technically* healthy, right?

Wow! There has been so much good happening in this thread! YAY for everyone!!!

I've lost 3lbs in 5 or so days. Being sick helped a lot because I didn't eat much. We will see what happens as I start feeling better.

You would think, but I'm in the same shoes as you and I think this happens to a lot of people. I haven't actually truly LOST in about a month, and I owe that 100% to good old fashioned lack of effort.

Today's weight is 126.2 lbs. I think maybe I can get a little lower tomorrow. I'll shoot for about 1300 calories and since I had ice cream yesterday, I'd like to hold off today.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!

(kinda)

I drank a lot last night so I was expecting the scale to show some dehydration but I was 119! Considering that the day before I was 120.8 that's a lot of difference. Regardless it was so nice to see it on the scale. I've drunk loads of water today to make sure tomorrow's reading is more accurate.

When I've managed to keep it around 120 for a week I'll post some goal photos. But I'm really pleased with the way I look. I always thought I'd want to go down a bit more. But definitely going to stay within 118-120 and NOTHING less.

Tomorrow will tell if I've reached the finish line or not...

That's awesome Dora! I am sure you will see a 'normal morning" 119 soon enough!


How long did it take you to reach your goal? Just wondering...Can't wait to see those pics, I am sure you look great!

YAY!!

Helloooo, ladies! I haven't been on the forum in a while, but I'm so excited to be back. I've had a lot of time to get my life back together, and I'm looking forward to jumping back into weight loss again. I've got 20 pounds to lose, but I'm already at a low enough weight that I feel like being back with the feathers is probably where I belong. Not too many people looking to bust out of the 130's.