Okay well I am doing good this morning. The last two days I have only walked about 60 instead of my 90. As some of you remember turkey nite I did try my pilaties and my 8 minute abs. They were awesome! i was a little sore yesterday in the tummy area but sore like you know its working not like bad pain or anything. Today I am going to do both again!

As you all know I did get to 214 by sunday, then was bad and gained a pound back so was 215 by monday. Then lost .50 a pound by tuesday, then the day after turkey day I was back to 215. Not surprised after all the indulging. Wed we also had sphgetti and rolls with butter. I watched the cals but my hubby brought home sprite and diet coke! I seen it and went crazy and just had to have a can!! haha So one that day and one the next. But I am back on track again as of yesterday like I said.

Yesterdays menu:

apple
1 big cup of coffee
2.5 tbs of creamer
1 big whole wheat bagel
1 tbs of light cream cheese
1 slimfast low carb shake
1 yoplait low sugar yogurt
1/4 cup of cashews
1 cup of cooked white turkey
3 taco shells warmed
1 cup od spanish rice
1 tbs of light sour cream
4.25 cups of low fat popcorn
1 centrum vitamin

Calories 1714: fat 45 grams, 25%; carbs 220 grams, 48%; protein 112 grams, 27%

I usually do more fruit like 2-3 more but am running low and need to go to the store on monday to get more oranges and apples and grapefruit. I also need to get the broccoli and carrots back in there but I made the sp.rice before I left to get joe and it took like an hour just to make it! So we got home at 7:30 we were all hungry and I just warmed up the turkey and tortillas real quick and we ate!

I am actually very happy with the totals. Oh and the best thing is this. Guess who is down a pound this a.m.? Yep! Me! I got up to go potty early this a.m. and I looked in the mirror at my tummy and I noticed it looks like it is getting smaller! At 7:50 I had dh weigh me and it was 214!!! Hooray! I really think those pilaties and ab crunches really helped the other day and am going to do them again today. Anyhow, I need to run!

Hello everyone! I did the big shopping day yesterday! Came home last night and had 5 children dying to put up the Christmas tree and decorations. My livingroom is a mess right now I weighed myself today (a very difficult thing for me to do) and I did not gain any weight over Thanksgiving so I was happy. Bad news, still haven't lost any weight in two weeks.

This is very typical for me and why I have so hard sticking to a diet. Once I get past the first 5 pounds, it will go better. I'm doing well on calories, about 1200 per day, could definitely do better on exercise. I need to lose about 7 pounds just so my clothes will be comfortable again.

I'm not allowing myself to wear my stretchy clothes. Wearing tight jeans reminds me constantly that I need to lose weight.

Sugarbaby - You lost a pound AFTER Thanksgiving You are a saint...keep up the great work!

Melissa - You have your hands full! I was PTA president and I KNOW that stress Children and school on top of it. Wow!

Mande - Good luck with the packing! I hate packing

Jasmine - You are doing awesome! Sometimes I plateau and stay in the same place for three weeks and then one day drop 3 pounds! I don't get it. What is the chicken rice?

Jenabelle - I know all about portion control. I eat low fat food but I never stop I am trying to get my portions in control and concentrate on exercising. Good luck!

Miafluker - Your goal for no fast food is such a good challenge. Definitely my weakness.

Loveandlaughalways- I hope your foot heels soon. Did the doctor give you a time frame?

Losing4another - No weight gain after Thanksgiving? Awesome

Jasonslea - Nice to meet you!


Weight - 155/ no exercise yesterday but I shopped til I dropped!/ Big plan today finish decorating for Christmas and exercise a minimum of 45 minutes.
__________________

If any of us have any useful info or links please share them!

1. Womens Nutrition Health Guide Calculator

This link is awesome! It really helped me to understand how many cals my body needs to maintain and how many cals I need to cut to lose. It has been working like a charm and I have lost 10 pounds in October since starting to follow it!!

2. Fitday

Another great find. I am losing by counting calories and this thing is usually the first place I go to every day. I usually keep the window open and it helps me decide what to eat, what to eat less of or whether or not I can have a treat. VERY helpful in keeping track of calories!

3. The World's Healthiest Foods

That site is great for finding out exactly WHY fruit and veggies are so wonderful for you. It has helped to completely change my life around. Fruit helps keep you healthy by protecting your body from a wide range of diseases, heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, cholesterol, the list is endless!! It also helps you lose weight.

stopeating:

Thanx hun! I don't understand the weight dropping thing either. *sigh* The chicken rice. Basically if you are referring to when i say I need to do the chicken, rice veggie, 3 times a week. What I am saying is that I need to do the boneless, skinless chicken breast, whole wheat rice, and carrots and brocolli. Those are my lightest days and best fat days too. It seems that is how I usually lose. Ine day a week on sunday I do my roast or steak and mashed pootatoes and maybe a roll or two. One day a week i go out to lunch, it might be a nacho bellgrande or a burger and fries. 3 nites a week i try to do the chicken veggie rice, one nite a week i go crazy if I don't do tacos! But I do put chicken in them and don't usually fry them at all any more. 1-2 a month I will do lasagna or enchiladas and that is something I need to be more careful with cause I will always want two portions and there always seems to be leftovers! the next day! Usually once a month we do pizza. Once a week we do burritos.

Beans are actually really good for you its just when you throw cheese on you ned to watch it.

When I once tracked a 7 day period I seen my fat averages for the week were 30% a day. But it seems like for that to work I need to have the fat a few days in the low 20's and a few days a little higher in order for me to lose.

Last month I lost 9.5 pounds on a roughly 1800 cals a day. this month I havent done as well, but the month is NOT over yet! haha But it may have to do with needing to drink more water. I did really good on my water yesterday and am down a pound this a.m. I also increased my walking so I may have added muscle. What Are you doing for exercise again? I notice you said you are doing 1200 cals a day. Take a look at the womens health calculator to see what they recommend for maintenance for you. What i would do is take that number and slash it by 500. Then exercise 60 minutes a day. That would bring you to a weekly deficit of 7000 cals which = a pound. You need to remember too that sometimes you have to up your cals. (if your body thinks it is starving and not getting enough it will also hold onto fat) Now I am not recommending as high as mine, but maybe try doing 1300 cals for two weeks and exercise 5 days a week for 60 minutes and see what happend? Take pics and meausre yourself cause sometimes you may be losing fat and building muscle! So you might not see a difference on the scale but will be much trimmer. Also there is a very inspiring story in the goal forum. Glory87 I believe. She got down to 140(she is also 5'7) and thought she couldn't lose any more no matter how hard she tried, so she switched to maintenance and upped her cals and voila! After a few months she got down to 127!!!

Glory's Story

Oh I did want to add that my spanish rice is also healthy for me plus it taste great! The only thing I hate is it takes like 50 minutes to an hour to cook!

When I used to do it with white rice it was alot simpler.

1 pound of white rice
2 8oz cans of tomato sauce
2 8 oz cans of water
1 bell pepper chopped
1 onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 tbs of extra virgin olive oil

I coat the pan with the oil. I add the rice and bell pepper and onion and garlic, add the tomato sauce, put water in the cans, pour into the mixture. Stir it all together, add any other spices or a little salt if you wish. Put it on medium heat and voila! You have spanish rice in about 30 minutes. Now you do need to keep an eye on it and after 20 if there is hardly any fluid in it and still hard you may need to add 1-2 more cans of water.

But it is really yummy! I love it! But the brown rice takes like twice as long. Last nite I also wound up adding one extra can of tomato sauce and a few extra cans of water. It took like 50 minutes but it was sure yummy when I did! I also cooked a little bit more brown rice so I wouldn't have to make any more today! Leftovers hooray!! Anyhow it is a great recipe, you should try it.

Good Saturday everyone! Making another quickie check in, as soon as our game is over (go Griz!) we are heading out to pick out our christmas tree. I had to rearrange all the furniture in the living room to fit it in somewhere but it game me the chance to vaccuum and dust everything...good exercise!! But, my leg is screaming now....another signal that I need to stick to clean eating and exercise.

It sounds like you all are doing so GREAT!! And some losses after thanksgiving!! WOOHOO!! Those of us who didnt lose...just stick to it, any fluctuations in the scale will be gone before we know it!!

Okay I better run again, my kids are tracking in snow...why is it so hard for them to understand that I want boots taken off at the door before trapsing all over the place getting the carpet wet and leaving puddles on the tile! GRR! Ah well!

have a great weekend everyone!

~melissa

hi everyone quick hello im have been stuck with a stomach virus so i havent really been eating at all hopefully it will be gone by monday.
it looks like you guys are doing great thanks for the sites Jasmine, ill have to check back in later to catch up

i have found a bunch of info on www.freedieting.com and www.justmove.org and www.deliciousdecisions.org

Great sites with lots of info...

I don't know how I broke my foot; I was just walking around. I have broken both of my feet a couple of times. This last one was the worst and I did nothing to cause it. I'm gettting a bone density study done next week and my podiatrist is thinking about getting a Reumatoid doctor involved with my care. i think it is hereditary. Sometimes it feels better with certain types of exercise, but other times i'm in pain after walking for a couple of hours depending on what shoes I ware. Who knows I just do things if it feels okay and don't do things if it doesn't feel okay.

Good morning everyone!

Yesterday we decorated the house for Christmas and I have to say it is the best ever. We are seriously considering having a Christmas party! We've lived here 3 years and haven't had one yet. Normally it just gets to chaotic, but we will see. Today my family and I are going to decorate the town gazebo with Christmas lights. It is where my husband and I got married three years ago. (as the kids say, where WE got married) Anyway it's a gorgeous sight overlooking the lake and famous for weddings.

My oldest son is graduating high school this year and I have already started planning for the HUGE event. My son has cerebral palsey and has been in a wheelchair all of his life. He can walk some with the help of two crutches. He is also a national wheelchair basketball player . He has had a lot of hospital procedures over the years, but this summer was the biggest. He had ten surgeries (broke just about everything from the waist down) in another State and rehab all summer at the hospital. The result? My son just took 13 steps unassisted this week I can't stop talking about it!

He's got a huge fan club of family and friends and he's getting the biggest celebration ever. Life is soooooo good!

Loveandlaughalways I hope they can find away to help your foot.

Jasmine thank for the great recipes...I am ready to give them a try

Stop~ What great news about your son. I bet hes really excited about his progress as well. Way to go on that Christmas goal
Jasmine~ thanks for the advice. I do love walking...getting out to do it is another story. I wish I had room for a tread mill. Hoping maybe i can fit an exercise bike though. Hinting around to get one for Christmas so we will see.
Loveand~ Ouch! broke your foot...my daughter broke her elbow the end of September. Had to have surgery as well. I couldn't even think of going through that again. Maybe they could give you some extra foot support so your less likely to brake it again just doing everyday things.
HUNEB~ I haven't even got a tree yet. I usually have everything up right after Thingsgiving. Haven't even started

I'm down half a pound this morning Was really surprised I though I might have over done dinner last night.

Jasmine ~ WOOOOT on the loss! You go girl! Thanks for the links. I did the calorie count one and remembered why I do WW. I am SOOO horrible at math and those calories, carbs, fat, etc was making my head hurt! LOL I really loved the whole foods link.

Ann ~ OMG you shopped Black Friday?! You are brave. I really wish that I could decorate but my mama's not into that and I have no money right now. And WHOOOHOOO for your son!

Melissa ~ It's snowing where you are? Man, I wish it would snow this Christmas down here.

Mia ~ Hope you get better soon!

LoveandLaugh ~ Sorry about the foot.

Lorra ~ WOOOT!

stopeating -that is so wonderful i bet you are proud
losing-congrats on you loss its melting off
jasonslea-thanks today seem to be going alittle better my baby is still sick though but at least she is active now, i want to go back to doing ww i was doing it on my own but i found myself making bad food choices as long as i didnt go over my points i guess i need to make myself do it right i have a great spreadsheet that really helps though calorie counting is really rough sometimes i just use calorie-count they have the points next to the food also

Hun.e.B:

I hope they win!

Good idea! We should set ours up today!

Definately!

Thanx! Yes everyone just keep at it!!

Oh great! Something I have to look forward to when we move to Montana!

miafluker:

Hope you feel better! Try to eat soup!

Sounds good!

loveandlaughalways:

Thanx for the links! I will try to look there tomorrow when everyone is back at work/school.

I am so sorry to hear about that! Make sure you get enough calcium and iron!

Good morning to you too!

I want to come!

Awww that sounds so romantic!!!

That is great sweetie! I am sorry to hear he faces so many challenges. That is great that he is striving to be the best he can be though!!! WTG!!!
That is great!!!

Your welcome!!

Losing4another:

I forget not everyone lives in sunny california! Okay I did see in the exercise forum they have something called walk away the pounds inside your house! WATP!!! Look it up!!

That is awesome!!!! WTG!!!

JasonsLea:

Glad you liked the link. Yes cal counting is NOT for everyone. For me I do have the extra time and am a bit obsessed with it. If you do whole foods and can eyeball portion sizes than great!

BRB

Well I am mad I somehow just lost my other post before I was even done! I will rewrite it later! Suffice it to say that I am down another .50 a pound this am! Hooray! So recap:

Last sunday i got down to 214. BUT I gained a pound back, then lost half a pound, then gained half a pound back! So i ended up at 215 by friday. I recommitted to the new challenge and being good now that turkey day is over and so since friday morning I am down 1.5 pounds! yeah! So Only .50 a pound since last sunday but it was turkey day and I did lose that pound plus half more so I am happy. I have also really been focusing on my water the past two days. So I think that has really helped to. Good luck everyone!!!

Good Morning lovelies!! Well I didnt eat as good as I should have yesterday but it was better and I feel better today, I gotta keep at it and get my energy back. Never did get out and find that tree yesterday and now th wind is blowing 100 mph so not sure we'll go today either. Might just have to wait till next weekend. In the meantime I've got loads of homework to keep me busy!

Jasmine...way to go on another loss!!! WoOHOO! Woman you keep this up and you are gonna be downright skinny by new years! LOL!! Such an inspiration you are!! And yes, we won! another playoff game next weekend! Do you know when you'll be moving up here? You couldnt pay me to live anywhere else now, I just LOVE it here..snow, wet carpet, puddles and all!

Mia...are you feeling better today? How's the baby doing?I hope everyone is healthy! WW is a great plan I have a friend who has had alot of success with it and she just loves it!

Lea...yep its snowing here, supposed to get more tomorrow night, hopefully this year we'll have a white christmas! We missed that last year!

Losing4....WOOOHOO!! Congrats on the loss!! Keep up the good work its all working!!! You are doing GREAT!!!

stopeating...how exciting for your family!!! What an amazing accomplishment for your son! You sound like you've got a very special family! You'll have to share pictures of your decorations, I'd love to see the gazebo!

loveandlaugh...I'm sorry to hear about your foot! Have you seen anyone for it? Thanks for sharing the links, looks like alot of great info I'm going to have to sift through.

Off to hit the books! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day! Be good to yourselves!!

~melissa