I've been lurking through your neck of the woods for a couple days now and wanted to introduce myself. I'm Kara, nearly 30 year old mom to three younguns, and wife to Air Force husband Tom (hence our current stint in the eastern part of the world). I've been "doing" South Beach since the beginning of June, but have been struggling with gaining and losing the same three pounds for about a month now. I'll get down to 125 and then go back up to 128 and then back down to 125 again. It's frustrating. I don't know how much experience you all have had with South Beach, but there's not a lot of emphasis on portion control and I was taking advantage of that, I believe, and not watching how *much* good food I was tossing down the gullet. SO I've decided to watch my calories for a couple weeks and see where that gets me. I started last Friday to try for 1500 calories a day while still following the South Beach principles of getting lots of veggies, a few fruits, a good amount of protein, and a few good whole grains every day. It's been trying, but I've made it through to today sticking right around 1500 calories. I'm pretty active. I run at least 5 miles twice a week, and take a yoga class once a week. We don't have a car here in Korea, so I walk about four miles a day back and forth to base. Plus the kids always have me running all about.

In fact, I need to get in the shower now because I'm stinky from my run today, but I just wanted to say hey and let you know who this stranger was popping into your threads.

Kara

Welcome and good luck. Sounds like you have a good handle on the situation. You are actually right in the middle of your weight range for your height.

Yeah, I know. It's just that this poochy belly has me wanting to lose a little bit more. If I could just get rid of the bulge under my belly button and around my hips, I'd be a happy camper!

Kara

Kara, I had good success with 1500 cals for the last few pounds. It wasn't even particularly clean food but 1500 cals nonetheless
With your exercise plan, I think you'll do very well. Do you do any resistance exercise?

I don't really. My exercise time is limited to whenever Tom is not busy saving the world, so I like to get in the cardio first and usually that's all I get around to. I've also been trying to squeeze in some core exercises on the Swiss exercise ball. I was a gymnast for fourteen years, right on through college, so (as strange as it sounds), I've spent the last eight years trying to reduce my muscle mass so I could have a leaner physique instead of the bulky thighs and shoulders I had built up through my sports workouts.

AH! Kids are arguing...

Kara

I wonder if th Ladies Who Lift might have some valuable insights for you. I know I've read Mel lately talking about letting her arms slim out.

Thank you Susan for your advice. I'll go peek through their threads!

Tinky, thanks for the compliments on the kiddos. I think they're pretty adorable myself - good thing God makes them so cute because they sure do have their moments!

Kara