Hi folks!

I've been in a bad pattern lately. OP all week, loosening up Friday night, falling into "way too much food" mode on Saturday, and reining it back in on Sunday. Not good. This week also has several challenges...I'm working M-W, then taking Thursday off to get married (it'd be a much bigger deal, I imagine, if I didn't DO the big shindig over a year ago...this is just making things official down at the courthouse since, you know, we can), driving to LA Friday, and taking a little mini-vacay the rest of the weekend. So I need to make sure M-W are PERFECT, as the rest of the week most likely won't be (though I hope to be moderate and get in plenty of exercise).

Planning for tomorrow:
B - English muffin w/ cheese, canadian bacon
S - Cantaloupe
L - Leftover Mediterranean Chicken Thighs from Friday's dinner, w/ Israeli couscous and chard
S - Popcorn
S - Protein shake w/ almond milk
D - Roasted vegetable pasta with extra lean ground beef, lots of veggies, tomato sauce

E - 55 min elliptical, 65 min strength

Hey busy bee!

I did pretty good again yesterday. I ended up eating a few too many freeze dried strawberries, but the calories were low, I just wasn't PLANNING on eating them!

Sunday

B - yogurt/sliced strawberries

L - turkey sandwich on whole wheat with honey mustard, one serving of goldfish crackers (140 calories)

S - orange

S - freeze dried strawberries (100 calories)

S - tall non fat sugar free latte (100 calories)

D - home made pizza on organic whole wheat crust, spicy pizza sauce, spinach, garlic, tomatoes, kalamata olives, a little bit of low fat feta (Trader Joe's was out of the fat free feta, so I just used a little less than usual)

Hi everyone,

Ok, I've moved, so I'm back in losing mode! My living room is still full of boxes, but I have located/unpacked the work out clothes, food, cooking utensils, and also work clothes. Add my toothbrush, shampoo, towels, and a bed with sheets and I've got the basics covered.

My life this week is work, gym, a few other appointments, unpacking as time allows, but probably much less hectic than last week so I'm confident I'm back in the fitness groove.

Eating was not OP this weekend, but I wasn't really shooting for it with the move. Both my old & new houses are up a flight of stairs and it was a bajillion degrees and muggy out, so my life Friday-Sunday was like a neverending stairmaster in a sauna holding really heavy stuff. I would call it an excellent workout.

Amanda, I hope you and Sarah can make it to the courthouse this time, lol. I have complete faith you'll be OP M-W and have a lovely wedding & minibreak.

Hi Glory!

Today's plan:
B - protein pancake, 1 T. apple butter, 1 c. sk milk, coffee
S - sm banana
L - whole wheat tortilla w/ 3 oz. sirloin steak, 1 c. carrots & 1 c. celery
S - 6 oz. yogurt, 1 oz. raw almonds, med. apple
gym - cardio & chest
post-gym snack - string cheese, protein muffin
theater stuff
later D - leftover Pasta Roll-Up w/ Turkey & spinach, green beans?

Hi guys,

Congrats on the "official: wedding, Amanda! Because you can is a great reason to do it.

Congrats on the on-planness, Glory.

Congrats on the move, Megan!

I've decided I want to drop another 5 or 10 pounds. I have been eating at maintenance, which is working well, but I am wondering what will happen if I buckle back down into losing mode.

Frankly I can't think about my food today to lock it into a plan. The plumber is coming. Our sinks clogged Saturday and I was at the hospital all day yesterday and my house is a PIT! Like, really really bad. As soon as I can use the sinks, washing machine, dishwasher, etc., I am cleaning like a crazy woman. I can't stand it.

I'm still fighting my cold. Exercise will be 1 hr weightlifting and I am supposed to run today but I might not. Especially if my house is not yet acceptable. I'm embarassed to have the plumber come in, quite frankly.

Congrats on your official wedding, Amanda!

My weekend was 100% off plan. A combination of it being my birthday Friday and having a weird schedule Sunday. I am up to 140 today (I was 138.4 Friday). I won't even bother trying to log my weekend food, we'll just say it involved ice cream cake, challah, and cookies. Luckily my exercise has been POP at least.

Time to get back on track! Hopefully I can find the time to actually calculate my cals too.

Monday's plan:
B - oatmeal, 1 T unpacked brown sugar, cinnamon, 1C milk
S - SF hot cocoa, one small apple
L - leftover lasagna (DH packed me the teeniest portion ever *cry*)
S - another apple, asian pear, yogurt, piece of challah
D - turkey chili, elbow macaroni
Exercise - 30 min wog with dog (c25k wk2d4) - done!, aqua aerobics

The day didn't start great due to a horrible night's sleep.

B~2 c white rice with a little soy sauce (I was starving and my tummy was nauseous and that's all that sounded good)
S~2 clemetines
L~leftover kunk pao chicken on rice
S~Activia yogurt
D~carnitas burritoes, spanish rice, refried beans
gym~45 minutes

Best of luck becoming "official" Amanda!

midwife~is it possible to lose 5-10 pounds when you're already at 14% bf? Good luck!

I'm in for a second week! Weekend was POP although my weight was up this morning... and I was like the devil child at work.. darn PMT coming to pay a visit

Today: programme at the gym (just over an hour) and
b: yoghurt
L: chicken salad
D: mushrooms and mini pitta breads

I'm not sure I've eaten enough as my estimations have me at around 800-850 cals... but there's always the fear... If I eat to get my calories up... I'm going to binge *sigh*

Congrats on the um... second wedding
Hope you get your water sorted midwife!
Alinell - that's one of my plans this week... to get a week of continuous 'good' sleep (so no going to bed at midnight etc ). Hope you sleep better tonight

You know you need to eat more - in my experience, I was always much more likely to binge if I ate too little for any length of time.

Do you have enough healthy fats for the day? I also don't see a lot of vegetables. What about veggies dipped into a nice hummus to try to bump up both requirements for the day.

As soon as I finished writing I realised that I was being silly. I've made myself eat a banana but seriously? I feel full.. it's always such a tricky balance getting the eating enough vs eating when hungry thing ... blah

There are lots of really healthy choices that are a big nutritional bang in a small package (perfect for the "not hungries"). Real salad dressing (made with healthy olive oil), slices of avocado, a portion of trail mix, almond butter on sliced apple. You can do it!

Monday

Trader Joe's was really pissing me off yesterday. First, they didn't have fat free feta cheese. Then, they didn't have my favorite fat free Greek yogurt with honey! (it was a very RockingRobin yogurt moment). So, I bought 1 large container of just plain fat free Greek yogurt and added a tiny drizzle of my own honey. Still - aggravating!

B - 1/2 yogurt (60 calories), tsp honey (25 calories), 4 oz sliced strawberries (50 calories)

L - big salad - tons of romaine, 1 spicy veggie burger (heated and crumbled - 100 calories), 1/4 container of cucumber dressing (80 calories), 6 kalamata olives (25 calories), entire chopped roma tomato (25 calories), red onion, broccoli slaw - i'm estimating 400 calories for the whole shebang

S - tangelo (huge, 100 calories)

S - cheese string (60 calories), tiny dill pickles (package says 0 calories)

S - tall non fat sugar free latte (100 calories)

D - I'm making veggie stir fry (mushrooms, bokchoy, red onion, chopped acorn squash), tofu (100 calories) over brown rice (200 calories). With all the sauce and stuff, I'm estimating 500 calories

Can I join this chat? I'm starting week two of maintenance, and working really hard at not being scared to death about eating a little more...

Congrats on the official ceremony, Amanda!
Moving makes me crazy, too, Meghan - glad you are done, even if you are still unpacking!
Glory - sounds like you had a great OP weekend! Are freeze dried strawberries yummy? I see them at Trader Joe's all the time but never buy them!
Midwife - hope you feel better... a cold makes it hard enough to want to exercise, plumbing problems on top of that must be miserable...
Paperclippy - hope you had a great birthday weekend!
alinnell - hope tonight is a better sleep night for you!
denial - I would think that 850 calories is way too low for anyone, I've been told not to go below 1200 or my body will freak out and think we have hit a famine, locking in all the calories I give it and not burning anything. With exercise too, you probably need more calories. Be careful and don't hurt yourself in an effort to get healthy. (boy that sounded pretentious coming from the person freaking out over water retention, didn't it... sorry, not meant like that at all meant with good intentions)

I was on plan with calories and exercise this weekend (had DSS, so had a lot of fast food, but have learned how to survive with entrees at most of the places he will eat at), have today planned out to be on plan if I don't do anything crazy...

Today:
B: smoothie (low fat yogurt, whey protein, skim milk, banana, strawberry, blueberry, cherry - same smoothie I have most every day)
S: coffee with 1/2 tsp raw sugar, 1 tsp amaretto creamer
L: grilled chicken sandwich (work in a restaurant, eat the same chicken sand pretty much every weekday for lunch)
S: slim fast high protein granola bar
D: pasta with trader joe's marinara sauce
S: chocolate milk (maybe with 1/2 scoop whey protein), nilla wafers

Exercise: 45 minutes on the elliptical this AM, targeting 20 min cardio yoga routine & 10 min ab video tonight while DH watches football!

It took me almost an hour to actually submit the last post after I started it, so I see that there were more posts about eating more from denial, now...

Ha, of course you can join!!!

The freeze dried strawberries are...interesting. They are a tiny bit sour and powdery for me, they are much better IN things (cold cereal, hot cereal). I really really like the freeze dried bananas and the freeze dried mangos for snacking (although they are higher calories).

Hey Shannon! Jump on in!

It's looking like I'll be moving in October...i'm sure THAT will be a challenge.

Glory - I hate that. Nothing drives me more crazy than not being able to get the products I rely on. I don't know if the food manufacturers know how IMPORTANT certain things are to me!