Some of you may remember me lurking around last fall, losing some weight and calorie counting. Well I ended up with some digestion problems and had stopped everything while working 2 jobs and making excuses all over!

Well I am ready to try all over again, who wants to help support me!! I see no good challenges for me yet in the challenge thread so I thought I would post here to say hi and get myself accountable to posting again. Besides health reasons, which are many, I have several others for losing weight and doing so quickly!

1. I am going to be in a wedding in June for a friend as a bridesmaid (I know the groom) and his bride is from the Phillipines and tiny and so are two others and his sister is apparently "rail thin" hmm lets try and get there to be less of me for comparing, eh?

2. Last summer I was gung-ho about all of this and losing weight well! So by the end of the summer I had convinced my overweight mother in law to do what I was doing (she still doesn't exercise much though). She has now lost 40 pounds!!!!!!! WOW and everytime I see her she says its all thanks to me and everything I taught her, sigh someone hit me on the head with an anvil now please.

So I am going to calorie count - even when I fall off the wagon and it hurts to try and guess the numbers.

Eat as "purely" as I can to help my digestion, think whole foods not processed.

Limit my coffee intake. Drink more water.
Exercise, even on the days not in class (help with the lose fast part), I just signed up as a family for Kung-fu.

Avoid wheat and dairy as much as possible because I am pretty sure they are what is causing alot of my stomach problems (my belly keeps blowing up like I am pregnant after certain meals and pains me).

And above all keep a positive attitude through it all, poor self confidence can and will be remedied!!! As a friend of ours reminds me all the time, "Believe in the Rock Star, if you don't believe your a rock star then no one else will either and thus no Rock Star privileges."

Anyone else with me? Maybe a daily or every few days, depending on computer access, log of calories, exercise, water and how we are doing, ending with something positive?

Like: 3/4 2070 calories (bit more than I wanted but at least I kept track)

Drank over 50 ounces of water (good for me, building up)

Other than moving around with the kids at school, nada exercise

Today I did really good keeping track after many false starts in the last month or so. I am really commiting myself to doing this right this time and catching up with my MIL in weight loss, that way this summer I can be turning heads!!!

Let me know what you think and if your in on it! Echo

edzard - Welcome! Like you I am a do-over and a restarter I'll check in and post, I'm on the site pretty much daily blogging and catching up on the forums. I'll start for today:

3.4.08 1910 cals (way above my target, it's been a bad few days)
~ 3 liters of water

Although I completely overate today and made poor choices, I did manage to sneak in a brisk 20 minute walk with DS after work before it started pouring rain. Normally, I would have looked outside and said forget it! I also drank all my water which is sometimes a big challenge for me.

Should probably come up with a thread title so people can find it.

edzard~ It sucks when health problems get us off track, but you are getting back on track, which is a BIG part of the battle/journey (however you like to look at it.)

All of your goals sound good. Might I suggest something? Maybe you should look into taking probiotics for your tummy. I had some bad tummy troubles at one point and probiotics helped so much! I went through all sorts of testing and my doctor had me freaked out. Then it turned out to be something as simple as replenishing the good bacteria in my body.

You can do this girl!

Zenor - Funny you should say that....I have had lots of problems recently and went through one bottle of probiotics and was able to start eating wheat again. This second bottle (different brand) just may not be cutting it....hadn't really thought of that. Do you keep taking the probiotics all the time or did you just do it for a while?

I remember you from before when I was doing this Zenor, and your a fellow Washingtonian!

emiloots-If I we start a new thread what should it be called?

3/5 calories 1531 lol not being able to eat does that!
Drank as much water as I could, forgot water bottle but feel like I did descent.
Did our first "Modern Gung-Fu" class, it was a blast and hard! My arms are sore already! Can't wait to learn more and start practicing at home.

Kept my calories low and exercised-it felt good to actually build up a sweat-I just need to remember I can do this again and again for a healthier me!

I'd continue taking them. I believe brands make a big difference too. Some brands may not get enough probiotics through your stomach (the acid kills certain types I think.) I think given the modern lifestyle, probiotics should be an all the time supplement or at least until you've had several months of a well behaved tummy.

edzard, I am starting back up after a few bad weeks. Have you read Eat to Live? I just read it and it really stuck with me. I have had some digestive problems (along with anxiety and high cholesterol) and the book is about eating to get your body healthy. It made a lot of sense to me and might be something worth reading for you. Many people have worked with Dr. Fuhrman (the author) and fixed chronic problems by changing their eating habits. I just started today so I can say if it's helping me or not yet.

edzard ~ welcome back!
I have lost weight several times before, but this is my first time with 3FC. And this week (the 3rd week of cal counting) I already hit a plateau + .5 pounds compared to last Wednesday. But I try not to be too disappointed and I'm doing my best.
Keep working on that water! I try to drink a full glass whenever I drink water, even if I'm not that thirsty. And I also drink green tea - I try to make about 2 quarts at a time and seep throughout the day. If you like herbal, green or fruit tee (I loooove blueberry tea) maybe that would help reach your water goal.

Keep it up! We can all do it if we stick together.

hello everyone - I am also another do-over-er. If you are looking for a thread title, maybe do-over would be a good one.
I am back on the wagon again as of today. I am still planning out my strategy for this (final) time. I would appreciate a place where i could check in everyday - I have started keeping a calorie log - so far for today I am at 416 cal, and 40 oz H2O. I know that it's not enough calories - I need to eat more, but I am having a hard time. For me, if I am going to eat more, I am afraid I will eat WAY more - like opening the flood gates. I'm not really hungry, and so even though I need to eat more, I don't want to force it. Food is such a large part of my life - it's all consuming - which makes me be all-consuming. I don't want my body to go into starvation mode, but I don't want to eat when I'm not hungry... grr.
Anyone else get what I'm trying to say?

Hat Trick - funny you said that, I was going to suggest celiac, I have a good friend that took years of stomach problems to finally get a diagnosis. That on top of lactose intolerance which she already knew about.

Anyone have a creative name? We can start a new thread every week, maybe Mondays so they don't get too long.

Eating not that great today, went out for lunch and shared crab dip with two other people. Add a crock of french onion soup on top of that too, ugh.

Calories so far = 1220
Water = not enough, ~ 1 liter
Positive Note - Went for a brisk 45 min walk with DS in the jogging stroller. It was borderline cold and really windy but I got my sneaks on anyways.

Ok tomorrow I will start that new thread if no one else does.

I did see a dr. about celiacs but his idea was for me to eat wheat for several weeks then take a chunk out of my intestines and my "cure" would be to not eat wheat either way because if I am not celiacs then I am obviously very intolerant. Thanks but no thanks on that extra test, lol. Oh and that bloating stomach issue, hmm not sure could be anything with the upper intestine and that is very hard to diagnose, lets deal with it later if its still a problem. So I left with a *** you attitude.

Anyway got my probiotics gonna start those again with the same as last time and see if it helps.

Calories for the day=1575 good for me but then I am having juice only for lunches (naked juices mmm) with fruit snacks
Water- not sure exactly how much but I am pretty sure its around 64 oz by bed time, not including coffee and chai latte
Exercise, walked / ran-raced / proded some special needs kids around the school track 2 times (I work with them and it was PE)
Today it felt good have a sore body from exercising, I can feel the new me- tight like a tiger waiting to spring out-need to focus on getting me there.

I agree with you about running from that doctor as fast as you can!

Jay

Edzard - Unfortunately a diagnosis involves a biopsy. Just be aware of your body, it is an autoimmune disease so if you start having serious problems you should go back to the doc, maybe not that one though Hopefully the probiotics help!

Today another poor eating day...
Calories = 1660!
Water = 2+ liters
Positive Note - Took a long walk again, makes me feel better even though I ate poorly. Had my review at work, it was good