GOOD morning everyone!!!

Well it was a scorchin' hot weekend here in the Bay Area...and promises to be another humid, sticky HOT day today (I took THREE showers and a bath yesterday...just to cool down!).

Back to the gym after a week hiatus...today was chest and tris...felt GOOD to be back...gonna be a great day I'm sure!

Gotta get in the shower now (first one of the day...) More later though!

Let's hear from y'all!

Good morning - where is the summer going?!? It is flying by for me.

I am happy to report that I am finally getting some happy results over the past 4 weeks. Two weeks left of my C3 BRx lifting. Today I hit the weight I was at when I STARTED BRx. Not at all to discourage BRxers, I gained substantial lbs. along w/ muscle when I ate the required diet and feel the diet is better for folks that are much closer to their goal weight than me. ANYWAY, it feels so lovely to be back in this weight losing mode. My measurements ARE much more pleasing than they were when I started even though I weigh the start weight. Right now I feel as though I am on the brink of great things. Tops on my wish list is the NEED to buy new clothes in a smaller size. I am in the smallest sizes now in my closet and that feels great, a few more lbs. and I think I'll be to that shopping for new clothes place!

Good morning girls

It was a quiet weekend, NOT 100% clean unfortunately, but I feel more on track, thanks to all the positive encouragement that I received here last week, than I have been in a very long time...

I had a great leg workout today, I could not bike to the gym, it was raining when I left, but now it's muggy and hot, hot, hot, and I love it!!!

Yesterday I biked 22K, in a very strong wind, and it was an awesome workout....

Back to the ole grind this week eh girls? And let's be careful (foodwise) outhere!!

Later all...

Good morning! It's getting crispy over here on the east coast too, Mrs. Jim. All three of us are totally toasty from being out in the baking sun all day Saturday at the horse show. I missed a few spots on my back with the sunscreen and consequently have a couple VERY sore spots. Nickie apparently decided not to use any sunscreen at all, and let me tell you, she's learned her lesson. Fortunately she was mostly covered, but her face and chest are very pink, and very hurty. Which of course meant that Sunday instead of going to the stables, we all pretty much just drank water till it was coming out our ears, did chores around the house, and recovered.

Ledom, I had that problem with BFL, too. I realize my measurements were going down, and honestly I gained a LOT in muscle mass, so I can't truly complain. But like you, I feel more comfortable maintaining the mass I have and watching the numbers on the scale go down for now.

This morning I feel a little more back in control of things, even if it is only for a few days. I did a decent shoulders workout, then ran for 2 miles. I didn't have time for more than that. Tomorrow I'll hit arms and run, then Wednesday do legs, then Thursday and Friday do chest and back and run. Friday... well that's when Nickie and I hit the road for Florida. Just us chicks. Going to head all the way down nearly to Miami to meet a friend of hers, then head back on Sunday.

Hey all -

Ledom - WOW!!!! You go girl!

Mrs. Jim - alas, I find myself eating my words. At least they don't have any calories!! Hope you had fun at the game. I am so jealous, you got to watch Andres Gallaraga play.... and a Grand Slam is a Grand Slam is a Grand Slam!!! Good job Castillo!!

As for me, I am embarking on Week 3. The end of Week 2 was a little floppy, but I ended up not going overboard on my free day to compensate for it. I had about 2 days when I went over 2000 calories. I figure that is probably not so bad. Also had a day when I just could not do the aerobics because my feet hurt so bad. I made up for it the next morning and then did weights the next evening, so technically I'm caught up, but I know I am not supposed to be doing that so early in the program!

Good news, I measured my thigh and I've lost an inch! WOO HOO!!!

I needed that incentive for the next 10 weeks! I have NOT been on my pink bike for way too long, so hopefully it will cool down this week so I can fix that.

hi all,

checkin in from the Motor City where it was not too hot, not too cold - perfect weekend for birthday party Friday night, DD's swim party Saturday afternoon and grillin with girlfriends on Sunday.

Good Job Ledom and Jennifa on your progress and success. Keep up the good, hard work.

My eating was not as clean as it needed to be, but nowhere near what i could have done damage wise if I had let myself go. When I came home last night, one of the crew had left a Reese's on my coffee table and I thought about eating it. However, I could hear all y'all in my head sayin "No Tika, eat one and then you will crave more" so I left it there and went to bed. Thanks much to all yall for hangin round my thoughts!

Oh well, back to the circus!

Hey ladies!

I had a bad eating weekend. Went to too many parties and had too much pasta. Oh well, just gotta pick myself up and get back to work.

Does anyone have any ideas on what food to take on a plane trip? I'm flying back east on Wednesday and I hate sitting on a plane for hours on end and then eating the junk they feed you. Or worse, getting off the plane and sitting in the airport bar trying not to think about getting back on that bus in the sky.

Goddess Jessica - try making ahead some pancakes, chicken breast, bring along a soft cooler, with veggies, and fruits....

Whew, I feel like I already did a whole week and it's only Monday DS is a camp this week, so I have about 10,000 things I planned to get done. Needless to say, I'll probably do about 30 of them. Since other people expect some of these to get done, tho, I can't completely blow it off. Did a good chest and tri workout this morning and the physiotherapist worked on my inflamed shoulder tendons. It feels so much better.

Eats were good except for a slip on Saturday.

Ledom and Raven, I had a similar, but opposite problem when I started BFL. I was already at what I thought my target weight should be. I'd lost about 40 lbs before I started the program. When I started BFL, I started gaining weight, although my bf% did go down by about 7% over the course of C1, I ended up 3 lbs heavier. Everyone told me this was a GOOD thing, but I still have a scale mentality and seeing a higher # didn't feel good at all. The pants sizes did go down, so I would line up the tags on my bathroom mirror to pick up my spirits after I got off the scale. (OK, Ilene, I can hear you from here!).

Clean eats today and yesterday, and tomorror, and tomorrow...

mel

It was 101 here today... I am SO glad I could spend most of it inside. I worked up a sweat just re-filling the bird bath!

Thanks for reminding me to measure. I am still discouraged & impatient with 1.8 pound weekly loss... maybe measuring will be another benefit that I can enjoy. I definitely enjoy having stronger ankles (my balance is better), and more endurance (can carry purse, computer AND briefcase up a flight of stairs without wanting to call for oxygen.

Today is the only day I need to manage.

Good morning, ladies! It’s only Tuesday and we’re a chatty bunch! (and I love it!) We had big storms come through last night and blow down trees and all, but it’s bringing in some cooler weather. Wish I could send some to you, Karen! I myself have no energy or ambition when it’s too hot — but no excuses for me today.

I watched a program on Discovery Health last night called Plastic Surgery: Before and After and the first story was about a woman who lost 180 pounds (with WLS) and had excess skin problems. She currently weighs 135# (like me) but had a lot more excess skin since she started off 55 pounds heavier. On the program, she had what they called an inner and outer thigh lift and breast lift. The outer thigh part looked a lot like what I had done in January — some docs call it a belt lipectomy, some call it lower body lift. Her results were amazing but I kept thinking about how much better she would look if she lifted weights. She didn’t look like she had any muscle tone under all that skin.

A doctor on the program talked about “skin memory” and said that your skin loses it's memory to snap back to its original size the longer one has been overweight. So for someone with a lifelong weight problem, like me, I guess skin problems were inevitable. But the more I research skin issues after weight loss, the more I realize how very fortunate I am. Even though I have excess skin problems, they are not nearly as severe as many folks have after “massive weight loss” and I attribute that to clean eating and weights. I lifted weights as heavy as possible from the first day that I was losing and think that made a huge difference in my end results. I read that exercising a specific area releases a hormone that helps to tighten the skin there, so even though we can’t “spot reduce” fat, exercise is extremely beneficial for our skin (among many other things!). And of course, having some muscle makes everyone look so much better, in my opinion! Clean eating helped to reduce my body fat down to the point that all my doctor had to deal with was skin. Typically he sees these sort of skin problems on WLS patients and they frequently have a great deal of body fat left along with the skin, so their surgeries are more difficult because they involve fat removal also. With me, it was simply re-draping and removing skin.

I am more than thrilled with the results of January’s plastic surgery (and never in my wildest dreams thought that these 57” hips could end up at 35”!) On August 1, I’m scheduled for one more surgery to finish with the skin removal.

Who else is ready to start up a chapter of Scale Addicts Anonymous? It’s a love/hate thing … Sounds like everyone is doing well and is on track. Let’s have a great week of clean eats all the way, like Mel said (and I’m terrified of Eagle-Eye Ilene reading my Fitday journal, so I’ll behave! )

How about if everyone has a clean food day today — the “just one day” thing — and then comes back tomorrow and posts about it?

Meg

G'morning folks.

Meg, I saw that show too. And I have to agree with you. She is a beautiful woman, and I can just imagine what she'd look like if she'd build some muscle. I look in the mirror and realize that, like you, I'm blessed. I still have a long way to go, but the only place my skin seems to have a real problem right now is my tummy. And I think that is more from being overweight at the same time I was pregnant (twice) with huge little calf babies. Though when I think about losing all this weight and still having that stupid apron, it depresses the heck out of me. A tummy tuck is not cheap, so it will be a matter of saving money for a while before I can afford it.

Painter - I see you posted in the "weight loss and fitness surprises" thread. Those are the tangible results of getting in shape that the scale can never reflect. One of the ladies on another thread in which I post just mentioned today that she can now run up the stairs with her dog, and she couldn't even think about doing that before she started getting fit. So many of us here have fought that scale demon. I think I'm getting better about weighing, but just recording it as one piece of data, not letting my while attitude rely on that number. My weight fluctuates during the week, and I may gain 2 pounds overnight for seemingly no reason, then by the end of the week, I'm down again. The old saying "you didn't put it on overnight, you're not going to take it off overnight" is enough to make me twitch, but it's very true. Patience, my dear. This is a lifelong journey you're on, not a diet.

Today is running and arms... I guess I'd better get busy and stop stalling, eh?

Mel -- My mom always told me I was a loud mouth!! So you can hear me?? Good girl!! Now you best listen!!

Meg!!! Eagle Eye!! Moi?! Jamais!! he,he,he,... and YES I did check yesterday's journal, and you did extremely well girl!!


Food wise I was clean but I was a little high in cals I found... 2241 cals.... but it was all clean eats.... I'll try to keep it at 1500 cals today. It will be a challenge because I am going shopping with the kids and my parents in Ottawa, and my parents always go to a restaurant, that's not the problem, but later before leaving the city they always like to treat the kids to some donut and something for the road... Also I have a difficult time with my water when we're on the road.... Oh well I know I'll manage because I feel really focused....

I did shoulders this morning, and it's raining so I broke down and did some cardio on the treadmill.... a whole fast and furious 10 minutes... does that count?? Oh gawd I dislike doing cardio inside... What will I do this winter????????

Well later all... have a good day!!!

Ilene - Take up cross country skiing?

I boobled around and wasted too much time this morning, but still got in a full arm workout (bi's, tri's, forearms) and did a fast 1.5 mile run. I really need to stay off the computer in the morning till AFTER I've done my workout.

I've been trying to be moderate with my workouts, and I go into them with the best intentions, but it's like something takes over when I'm in the middle and I turn into this maniac. I can't stop till I'm hardly able to move. Even though that little voice in the back of my head saying "Marian, slow it down, you're going to hurt yourself, or burn out!" keeps trying to be heard, it's almost like I do the mental equivalent of duct taping it's mouth shut and tossing it into a closet. Maybe as I get stronger and better at running, that won't be such a battle. One can hope!

I need to stick around here more. I had to dart out of wrok yesterday b/c we had a Duck's Unlimited committee meeting at my house last night and of course the place wasn't clean. Hubby was calling me telling me to drive faster we had lots to do. It went fine and actually got lots accomplished.

I had a GREAT back and tri workout yesterday. I am so proud of my weights that I dragged the journal out to show hubby how much I am lifting. My back is sore today and normally I can't make my back sore. I think my back is pretty strong so I need to go really heavy to make it hurt. I love it! I really think we are sick sometimes with our love of being sore. Lots of people don't understand that. There is nothing better to me, I know I have just done something good.

I wish I would have caught that show last night. I saw the previews all weekend but I couldn't leave the meeting to watch it. That would have been rude.

I think I might need to start recording in fitday again to make sure I am getting an accurate reading for my protein and stuff. For you guys that are doing BRx how do you cal. you carbs there. I know it takes into account fruit and veggies but BRx doesn't.

Also, is a subway sandwich ok in C1 of BRx?