Good morning...I didn't see a new chat thread so I'm starting one

I ate tremendous amounts of chili this weekend. I don't think I went over calories but I wasn't measuring out the chili either. My bf makes the most awesome chili ever. And he lightened it up for me by using half ground turkey instead of all beef.

I had my yearly physical this morning...first time in a long time (ever?) that I haven't dreaded stepping on the scale, and fully clothed at that (139). My bp is 106/62, the lowest it has ever been It was weird though hearing my doc talk about how I was going to be her inspiration to lose weight...I don't think I like hearing my doctor diet-talk. Please, you don't have to explain yourself to me, I know it's hard to get back in shape after you have a kid please don't let me make you feel guilty for not being as active as you'd like!

How was everyone's weekend?

Mmmmm chili would be sooo good today since my house is absolutely FREEZING!!!

I did my first day of C25K W1 yesterday and I liked it! It was easier than I thought it would be, and I had that feeling that I could go faster for longer (since I'm starting out at a slower walking/running pace). It was nice doing it to my own music, too.

I have a question for those of you that have done it though. Do you stay at the same walk/run speed throughout the program? I was thinking I would do week 1 at 3.5mph walking/4.0mph jogging then in week 2 or 3 increase to 4.0mph/4.5mph and every week or two weeks increase my pace. Is that not how I'm supposed to do it, should I stay at the same pace throughout?

Hi Ladies! The great news is this weekend was AWESOME!!!! I went to the mountains with my bro and his gf. We stayed with her best friend. We got a later start in the afternoon (more like 8:00 pm) due to my brother having to work later than expected. It was a 4 hour drive up in spotty rain, but over all it wasn't bad until we hit the WINDY, WINDY, WINDY mountain road going to Ally's house. Because of the rain a THICK fog had rolled in. I have never seen anything like it. You literally could not see 5 feet in front of you. Seanne (bro's gf) has to go reflector by reflector. I am SO glad I had no idea what those roads looked like until we came down the mountain Sunday. It's a 2 way road (one lane each way) that pretty much drives directly OFF the mountain if you don't stay on it. SCARY!!!

It was supposed to rain all day Saturday, but I woke up to SUNSHINE!!! The view from their house is breath taking. We went to Table Rock, NC and did a 1 mile hike up the side of the mountain and hung out on the peak for a while. I took about 150 pictures, I'll try to grab a few of the best and throw them up on here for you guys to see. I guess we paid the price Friday night for a gorgeous day on Saturday.

I ate like crap all weekend and drank. It was a nice vacation, but I should've planned better.

The scale was up 2.5 this morning. POOP!!!

We're going camping next weekend, but it's only for Saturday night so I *WILL* be planning accordingly.

My other fun news is that this week I will be purchasing my ticket for 311 Day 2010. I'm a HUGE 311 (band) fan and had been planning on going to their 311 day concert this coming year with 2 of my friends that have been before. For those of you that don't know New Orleans declared March 11th 311 Day and they play a 5-6 hour set every other year. It's basically 311 fan craziness with all of the bars playing 311 music for the days surrounding the event. This year they weren't able to do it in NOLA due to scheduling conflicts with the hotels. Someone booked a medical convention that same weekend so they moved it to VEGAS!!!! I have NEVER been to Vegas so I'm super stoked!!! I just hope I can get the time off of work and it won't conflict too badly with school. I'm hoping that since it's so far in advance I can tell my professors up front that I booked this trip a year out... **** I may say it's for business. LOL

Hope everyone is doing well.

Here's to a BETTER, ON PLAN week!!

Mary - I tried doing that with C2K, but then I couldn't do the 3 minute runs. I say try what works for you.

I'm going to re-start it this week. I'm going to try and run before work tomorrow, but I've given myself until Thursday to get back on my exercise wagon. The only "good" thing is that I walked around all weekend for work and for fun, and I've been moving crap for the past 2 weeks.

Stella - Thanks for the advice! And good luck with restarting the program. My other plan was to stay at the same walk/run pace throughout the program and when I "graduate" from it, restart it and up the walk/run speeds. Of course, I'm doing this program on my treadmill... my main goal is to do my 2 mile walk as a run (well, jog lol) through my neighborhood.

The good thing is that because I ran, the scale moved :3 I was guessing yesterday when I said my weight was 190.5, I'm actually 191.5 again. For the past week I was between 192-193 alllll week and I was sure that it was causing me to stress out AND I was spotting (thank you evil TOM for hanging around when I don't want you) so I assumed I was retaining 1-2lb water weight. Real TOM starts next wednesday so I'm not sure if I'll get to see 189 on the scale before the water weight washes it away :<

I joined SparkPeople today and I think I like it better than FitDay. It tells me I only need 30 minutes of exercise, when I like to do an hour, and it tells me I only need to burn 230 cals a day to get to my goal by next July (which was just me guestimating my current patterns in weight loss and how long it takes me to drop the pounds each month). What I like most about SparkPeople so far is its nutrition tracker, it actually has the food I'm looking for when I'm entering it, it has a fruits/veggies and daily water intake tracker, and it tells me the number range for a balanced diet (ie: Carbs [163-236], Fat [32-56], Protein [60-127]) which is about where my numbers have been for my nutrition so far :3 Yay, go me!

This weekend was OK for me... on Saturday I went out to eat with the girls from work and I was so proud for ordering grilled chicken and steamed veggies (300 calories!!) then I got home and my BF had pizza so I had TWO slices! It out me over my calories by almost 400 for the day. Yesterday was better since we spend alot of time walking and I went canoeing...I'd never been before and it was quite a workout.

forestroad- There is never a bad time for Chili. The turkey meat helps and the more veggies and of course less cheese you eat the 'better' for you it is.. just think of it as getting your veggies in. :-)

Mary - Since everyone recommended it so highly I downloaded the first podcast to C25K and I'll be doing it tonight. so I'm right behind you. I think I'll 'walk' at 3.5 and maybe try to jog at 4.5 (which I can do comfortably) but I guess if it doesn't work you can adjust for the second workouts

Feral- Good job on conquering the mountain! I wouldn't have been able to do it. I would have begged to go back down, LOL I'm not a heights person. I remember you said you did the C25K program, how long are each of the 'workouts?'

Hey ladies! Im jumping in this time because I always seem to miss the boat.

Chili sounds so good right about now, I intended on making it Friday night but didn't have any beans unless I wanted to soak them and wait all night. So I ended up making chicken and rice for a whole army (My sister and her family all came over) and I made brown rice for me and white for them and lets just say I forgot to watch mine and pretty much burnt the bottom of it. Anyone else hate cooking rice as much as I do?

On a good note I turned down cupcakes that my sister and niece made so I felt pretty good.

Good luck Mary & Stella restarting the C25K I REALLY REALLY REALLY need to restart mine I have been severely slacking, but I really want to wait till I can purchase an Enell sports bra to run in because having 36F breasts really sucks when it comes to jogging, even with 2 sports bras and a minimizer bra! UGH BOOBS!

Hi everyone! I thought I'd join in for the week chat for some encouragement and to get to know you all!

I like the idea of starting the c25k thing. I used to enjoy jogging a bit but I had a knee injury and so I've been saying that's what set me back a year in my weight loss, but I know better than that. Anyway, for real this time, I'm going to try it. I don't have a gym pass, but the weather is still slightly warm enough to go outside, so I'll just have to do estimates for speed and distance. Anyway, perhaps I'll kick it off this afternoon event!

I had a pretty good weekend. I stood out in the cold for about 3 hours yesterday watching guys shoot pumpkins with their rifles and shotguns. It was great. My friend made me try and I'm proud to say I had 100% accuracy. I exploded those pumpkins. I also turned down the cupcakes that one of the other girls brought! We ate out later and I ordered a veggie side with my grilled chicken, so I'm pretty proud of myself for that (though I'm still more proud of my marksmanship!).

Oh, and did I mention TOM is now 2 weeks late? My sister did an ultrasound on me on Saturday (she's in school for it so she has access to machines) and I have a follicular cyst on my ovary - she said this happens and its very normal, when the cyst bursts (so like 10-15 days after i should have gotten TOM) I'll get it and it will be heavy and painful. YAY. (sarcasm)

Good morning everyone!! I was reading all of your posts and being new here I had no idea what a c25k was so I googled it. It is a really cool idea that I am going to have to try out.

My weekend was pretty good. It was my boyfriend and my 3 year anniversary and we went out to our first date spot (chinese food) and I tried to behave and eat properly but the food is so yummy, it was really hard. But now its back to the work week filled with patients and getting up and down which is good for me.

Christine - C25K work outs are 30 minutes. 5 min warm up, 20 min walk/jog, 5 minute cool down. I have been bungee jumping and I plan on sky diving, but for some reason I have a problem with being on a roof and I was a little freaked out at the top of the mountain. Mainly because the footing was a little trickier. Unfortunately I have this thing in my head that plays out worst case scenarios and I didn't like the idea of seeing myself or anyone else fall off the side of the mountain.

I'm starting week one over again since I got thrown off this past week.

Mary - Thank you for explaining Spark People... I was so confused. I'd heard about it from Icon I think, but I had NO clue what it was. Sounds pretty cool!


Pammy - sounds like you had a good time with your family over! Congrats on overcoming the cupcakes!!!

Stella - I've heard cysts are NO fun. Good luck with that. I hope you feel better!

Everlasting and Heidi - welcome

The good part of this weekend = i ran 16 miles training for my marathon! I ran it really slow but that is the farthest I've ever run!

Bad - my eating was not good. I know this will be a gain weekend for me. I'm bummed because I was down to 139 on my unofficial weigh on fri. Im going to do well today and weigh tomorrow.

I think this might throw a wrench in my 137 by halloween plans.

Argh.

Girl's... my eating is OUT OF CONTROL. Help me, please someone help me. I need to snap back to reality. I'm back up to 232 lbs from 229 lbs

Stella- Sorry about your TOM (or lack thereof) issues. That sounds very not fun.

Christine- haha veggies that's funny. it was basically meat and bbq sauce, lol. But, I only had a tiny bit of cheese with it so I suppose that's a win Also, I love love LOVE canoeing. I used to go whitewater canoeing on the Potomac during summer camp. Sooo fun. Wish I still had the time/resources to do it.

everlasting- exploding pumpkins sounds like such a stress-reliever...cool!

readyfreddy- i am so impressed. I was training for half marathon, but didn't make it a high enough priority to get out on some longer runs. How long did it take you to run 16 miles and how did you stay motivated to keep going?

c25k chickies- It's really inspirational how people double, triple, quadruple, and up their distance on that program. I can't get my butt out the door to increase my distance by 30% which has been a goal of mine for the past couple of months. I was born slow and just have a limited attention span for running, so I don't get very far in an hour which is about all I can stomach.

Luvja- Don't sacrifice everything you are doing for your health re: quitting smoking by falling of the healthy eating wagon! You are such an inspiration around here; obviously you can do it, so do it!

Stella - sorry to hear about the cyst :<

Luvja - don't give up! Dust yourself off and hop back on the wagon, we're all here for you!!

Ugh. I just figured out I have another yeast infection. Why am I so prone to them!? >:[ Thankfully I keep my bathroom stocked with monostat. They're suck a bother. Now I'm not sure if I want to go for my walk today, and maybe take it a little easy and do some pilates or something. We'll see...