Hi ladies! i have concluded that January just all around sucked this year. BLAH!!!! This week culminated in the worst flu I have ever seen my children get. My oldest was throwing up for 8 hours and crying b/c he just didn't understand why it wouldn't stop. It was AWFUL. Today we are finally on the mend, but i spent the ENTIRE day scrubbing every surface, disinfecting and washing sheets, blankets, etc. I am on landry load 7 right now. Sigh...these are the times when it is SO HARD to focus on maintaining, b/c I am just downright pooped. And my boobs are so sore, yet i'm not getting my period. Not preggers, either, LOL. But my hunger level is at pre-period, and I ate 2400 yesterday and was still famished. I'm only worked out twicew this week, which is dismal. BUT...I am determined to not let this get me down. Hopefully I can get to the gym this weekend or just go for a ride around the neighborhood. We have wood to split tomorrow, so i know that will be a workout!

I'm hanging tight around 126.0. I honestly don't weigh myself as much as I used to, but it is in the good range for me. I wanted to get to a maintenance point where I never saw 130s numbers, and so far, 129.0 is as high as I go at the end of the day.

S- I have a german shepherd and 2 japanese chin puppies. The baby girl we just got is doing much better with potty training already, thank goodness. I'll find a pic soon! Ditto about fitness goals! They really do mater more to me. I want to be lean and STRONG!

ChiChi - sounds like you're out of the worst of it now and things will start to get better. And you're safely in maintenance range still, so don't worry to much about everything until you're back to a more normal situation. Puppy?!?!? Yes, we need pics!!!

I'm just back from a 16km trek which was a good start to the morning, and i'm feeling all energised now. Ate too much rubbish and drank too much alcohol for the last 3 days. We're out at a restaurant with friends and then out to the theatre tonight too so i'm still not out of the woods as far as clean eating goes. And next week we have sales meetings and i'll be staying in hotels a couple of nights - more eating/drinking. I guess this is just life, and i have to figure out how much i can indulge and how much i have to go a different way to everyone else. Trouble is i've never counted calories so everythings a bit of a guessing game!

I must admit that doing the chair against a wall for 5 minutes really made me proud haha. On 45 students, we were... maybe 5 at the end of the 5 min? Not bad for someone that never exercised outside of school for more than 2 months.

Hoy flu season! My whole family was sick for an entire week. BLAH! I think I lost 2 pounds. LOL I'm sure it will come right back. Here is my tally for working out from Nov-Jan. It wasn't as much as I had hoped, but for being sick 3 times and holidays, not too shabby.
Exercise Goal: (workout 4-5x a week)
Progress: 53 of 60 workouts
Weight Goal: (130.5/125/125)
Health/Wellness goal: (firm up, lower body fat % to ~18)

Waist: (29.0/28.0)
Bust: (35.0/32.0)
Hips: (39.0/37.0)
Thighs: (22.0/21.5)
Arms: (10.5/Current)
Body Fat: 19.5%

here is a pic of the new pup:


She is pretty darn smart, if I do say so myself. We've had here for 2 weeks, and she already knows to go to the door for potty. We still have accidents if we aren't watching her or getting her out enough, but my other dog took months to potty train.

118 whattt??? I never thought I could weight this little, lol. I'm currently focusing on upping my strength training and firming up. I swear my abs are looking better, but I can't be sure if it's extra skin shrinking down or fat going away. To be honest I think it's more the extra skin since I notice I can't pinch as much of it any more.

My fiance is dead set on buying me chocolates for Valentine's Day. I told him to not get me chocolates because I still have 3/4 of a box of Godiva Chocolates from Christmas that I still have to get through! I probably won't even get to anything he gets me until the summer, haha. However he said he wants to get me chocolates AND flowers. I told him to save his money, but he says he wants to get me both.

Oh well, I warned him I'm not worried about being tempted, I know the chocolates will just sit there; I just need a piece every few days or so and I'm good for a while.

ChickieChicks - That dog is adorable!! It also sounds like you had some good workouts even though you were sick...I hope you're feeling better!

bumpity bump thread!

Holding steady at 118 so far. I'm thinking I need to start adding more calories if I'm adding running to what I'm already doing

I've been making protein shakes lately, and I really love them. I found it helpful to down one just before running. It gives me a nice boost!

I wanted to train up to running a 5k, but I wound up running 3.6 miles the first time I went running. I couldn't do as much today as I'm still REALLY sore and I had a tough spin class yesterday, but I still ran nearly 3 miles today. I'm proud of myself

I'm looking forward to running a 5k in the future once I speed it up a little bit. There's an instructor at the gym that is always trying to get all of us to run with her in 5ks or 10ks, so I'm going to ask her about signing up for one. One of my friends is going to help me too I can't wait!

Sontaikle- CONGRATS! If you are losing weight, but keeping up with exercise and energy, thatis AWESOME! I decided that was how I'd pick my final weight...whatever just "happened" after I hit 128. (As long as I don't go up! LOL) I hover between 125-127, sort of counting calories, but eating more dinners with my family, just downsizing portions, etc. It has been quite enjoyable, really!

January totally blew for working out. Lots of sickness all around, so I barely did 4x a week. I technically reached my goal of 3-4x a week, but it just didn't feel right. Dunno. February is looking pretty good. My hubby and I ran a 14K race this past Saturday and we finished in 1:28:18. I was so stoked!! I am not a runner, and I never thought I'd be able to run the whole thing, let alone get a 10 min/mile pace. So exciting. It was very fun running with my sweetie, and we kissed at every mile marker. LOL We are dorks. It was a Valetine's race, so we could justify being cheesy. Since I am NOT a runner, and didn't train, I could barely walk until today. Oops! But I've just been catching up on household chores, errands, etc, so that when my legs feel up to it, I can get back to the gym.

Our shirts that I made, Cheese-a-licious!

ChickieChick: That's rough with everyone being sick. Yuck! I've been there and done that with both my boys, 10 and 6. When they finally get better, it's like a vacation.

Not much to say except that I'm moving along nicely with the New Rules program for women. I'm in the middle of stage 5 and loving it. Hubby tells me that I look better now than on our wedding day. I'm looking forward to this weekend because it's a four-day one and the kids are off school which means no homework!!! Yay!!!

Back in action! LOL That run really threw my body for a loop. GUess that is why you are supposed to train...I paid for it! I couldn't run still yesterday, but I biked and then did Zumba today. It's starting to feel normal again. :-)

Fitmom- could you post your avatar picture bigger? It looks amazing!

Guh. I guess I'm not experiencing the metabolic slowdown that formerly obese people are supposed to have?

I've been eating in the range of 1600-2000 calories, sticking to the higher end most of the time and I'm down to 116. I hit 118 about two weeks ago, so this is at a rate of 1lb per week. So if I've done the math right that means I have a deficit of 500 calories a day.

I've put my stats in different calorie calculators. I figure I'm doing daily intense exercise now so I'm getting 2100-2500 depending on the calculator (which is exactly 500 calories above the range I was eating at).

I feel like I am CONSTANTLY eating...but it's all good stuff. That's why it's so hard to meet my count I guess. With all of this extra food though I have more energy so I've been exercising more...which leads me to need to eat more. It's a weird cycle, lol.

Gah. I've been lifting heavy and I'm actually looking to try adding some muscle mass. I'll never do it at this rate!

The freaking WII FIT is warning me about my weight and telling me I should weigh 124 for my height. I never thought that stupid thing would be telling me to gain weight! I still have my stats on it from when I was obese...my little Mii looked like a marshmallow.

Not that I'm going to listen to a Wii Fit, but considering where I came from it's certainly amusing.

Hi everyone,

I haven't posted on here in a while and haven't been active on 3FC in a while too, but I have been lurking a bit. I'm still in a rut at 124-126, which is a few pounds higher than I'm comfortable with. One off-meal sends me up to 127-128 which I am completely not okay with physically.

I have stopped all exercise for the past month. My right hip has been messed up for several years, and had gotten worse over the month of January. I think it was the introduction of weight lifting, which involves deep squats and other exaggerated hip motions. Doctors have told me I shouldn't do any exercise on it until I have surgery, advice I have completely ignored until last month.

I hate, hate, hate not exercising, but I really need to take better care of injuries. I'm aiming to walk for 45 minutes 3-5 times a week and that's it. No yoga, no running, no lifting, all three of which I love but which also involve a lot of hip motion (what exercise doesn't??). Even walking I have to do slowly- brisk walking requires longer strides, which is a wider range of motion of my hip than I'm comfortable with.

I have always suspected I've had slightly slow metabolism, so without exercise I'm really having to cut back on food intake. I was already IFing (eating from 2 PM- 9 PM) but I think I'm going to move towards just one meal a day. I am doing very little except my walk during the day and am not really getting hungry. I haven't been hungry in days!

I have gotten over the sadness of not being able to work out and the self-pity of really having to watch what I eat much closer than I ever have before (and as a calorie-counter that's saying a lot!). Time to just buck up and do what is needed to lose a few more pounds to get back into my comfort zone.

Thanks all for listening to my chatter

Long time! I'm currently recovering from my breast augmentation surgery. Super unpleasant, but worth it in the end. Fingers crossed. I added 2 pounds to my weight just in silicone. Insane. Very anxious about not working out for a month, and trying to find a calorie range for being so sedentary.

Well the last time I posted on this thread I killed it, so here's hoping for better results this time

chickie you look terrific- I am glad surgery went well!

I'm still firmly at 126, and have been between 124-126 for the past year! I get a bit bummed at times because I haven't managed to get down and stay down at 122 like I really want, but at least I haven't gained, which is a huge victory. I think this is the most stable my weight has been since high school.

I'm jumping back on the low(ish) carb wagon for a bit, trying to cut out almost all simple carbs, starch, etc. I did that for a long time successfully last year and I like the way I feel. It's also much healthier, allowing more room for protein, veggies, and healthy fats. Maybe reducing carbs can help drop just a couple more pounds to get me in my safe zone of 124-122.

Still not able to exercise really (see above post), which sucks. Even just walking sometimes irritates my hip. I do rebel and run at times when a fun 5K come up, but day-to-day I'm trying to just up my movement and not do yoga, lifting, and anything else which involves range of motion for the hip.

Anyone else around?

Back in action with going to the YMCA. I tried a few small workouts from home, but it was a little too much, too soon. I was cleared by my doctor on Wednesday, and since then I've done Zumba twice. The first time I could barely do any of the arm movements, but today I was about 95%. It makes me SO HAPPY to be back at the gym. I alays like working out and being able to eat more. LOL

I maintained pretty well during my 4 weeks of recovery. I did try to eat less than normal, since not only was I not working out, I was very sedentary recovering. I actually lost a little weight, putting me down to 124, but now I'm back at 125-126.

indiblue- Maybe 122 isn't worth it, you know? If your body has stayed the same weight for a year, and you've put SO MUCH into it, maybe it's trying to tell you something. ;-) I totally hear you on the hip junk. I have osteoarthritis in my right hip, so I try not to do much running or step cardio, but it actually doesn't feel as badly as it used to, and I'm assuming it is because I've lost the extra weight and stretch it more. But there are days when I can't work out, b/c of that dang hip. And it SUCKS. I'm sorry you are dealing with that!!

I'm here! Still bouncing between 130-132 or so. Upped cardio lately and am looking to start strength training (yeah I've been saying that FOREVER. maybe someday I will actually do it). Nice weather makes me feel more inspired to be active.

I did Zumba yesterday, walked 5 miles on Tuesday, ran about 4 miles on Monday. It'll be tough to get myself moving today, but I need it.