Hi everyone, I am beat this morning and all muscles in my body ache. I better not be getting sick.

I had a great eating day yesterday And today I am getting on my stationary bike and working out like a mad woman!

Hi everyone!

jcatron243 - I surely hope you are feeling better soon, yet i see you are still managing to get on your bike - that's GREAT!

I made it through the weekend including a big, huge, gigantic foodfest of a party yesterday. There was every kind of food you could imagine there, sushi, chinese food, hot dogs, hamburger, onion rings,ribs, pasta and so on and so on and so on and so on. I ate some cucumber, onion and tomato salad and four pieces of cucumber sushi in which I removed a good portion of the rice (it's not pretty sitting next to me as I rework and pick at my food). That was just the buffet - then there was the main course - I didn't touch the salad cause there was dressing on it, next course was ravioli, it was soo pretty striped three color mushroom ravioli in a tomato sauce - I ate about 2/3 of one ravioli. Then came a plate with a thick slice of beef and a stuffed chicken breast, some veggies and mashed potatoes - I ate a small portion of the chicken and some veggies. Then there was this HUGE, HUGE, HUGE vienese table for dessert, that's when I grabbed my husband and high-tailed it out of there. A girl can only have so much control!

Got on the scale this morning and it says I lost a couple of pounds since last week, actually it says about 3 - 4 pounds, but I don't trust it, so I'll wait til next Monday's visit to the nutritionist to get an accurate #. Speaking of which does anybody have a good home scale that they trust and won't flucuate so much. I asked my nutritionist to recommend one to me and she says the only one she will recomend is a doctors scale and since I don't have a spare $150 hanging around or the space to put it - I was wondering if any of you have one that you like and trust. Thanks for listening. Let's all have a good and healthy week!

My scale at home is more accurate than my gyno's!! I am always 18 pounds less on his. But my aunts checked it and my scale is the same as theirs at home. Have you tried weighing weights and see what yours says? Also what you can do instead of wasting money is this. If you are 252 at docs office but 255 at home. Then just subtract the 3 pounds every time!

jcatron243: Ooogh, I had the same achey feelings all weekend... DH thinks it's maybe because I got my flu shot on Thursday, but I don't think any little side effects would have lasted THAT long. After taking it easy and getting some rest, I feel much better now. Maybe that's all you need, too! Take good care of yourself!

"fed"up: I am not sure of the make/model of my scale, but it seems to be pretty accurate... it always says the same thing that the fancy doctor's scale at the gym says. I will go home tonight and find out what I have. I know it was inexpensive because I don't have a lot of $$$. I've been kicking around the idea of getting one of those body fat reading scales - but I figure why should I make my weigh-in experience even MORE traumatic than it already is!! And congratulations on your awesome willpower with all the foody-stuff this weekend!!! I would NOT have had the strength you had; I'd have been all over that sushi!

Apart from doing some really great shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it was a very low-key weekend. I woke up on Saturday feeling kind of yucky and achey, but I started getting ready for the gym anyway, bright and early. DH said to me, "Oooh... stay here with me... you're not feeling well anyway... and it's so warm in bed..." and he was right, on all counts. So I did. He NEVER does that; I think he's been missing me lately because I've been busy in rehearsals/shows/gym/etc. I took it easy both Saturday and Sunday, and I wasn't feeling too hungry anyway so my eating was not out-of-control at all.

This morning, it was back to the gym - and it felt great. I realized today that I sweat more than anybody in there, which is kind of gross. I don't know if it's that I'm working harder than anyone else (I see folks in there working WAY harder), but I think my body's just programmed to sweat - A LOT - when I work out. Actually, I guess that's good; a good sweat is supposed to be very healthy.

Breakfast was a Slim-Fast (190 calories); lunch was a surprisingly large and satisfying Lean Cuisine with salmon, whole-grain pasta, veggies and dill sauce (240 calories). Snack will probably be my old standby, popcorn, and dinner will probably involve the two HUGE portobello mushrooms in my fridge. If anyone has ideas for those mushrooms, I welcome your suggestions, because I haven't the faintest idea what I'm going to do with them!

Criminy. I'm looking at the calendar... Thanksgiving will be here before we know it!! I have thirteen more pounds to lose to reach my goal! I wonder if I can even do that in that amount of time..?

Time to BUST MY BUTT!!!!!!!

Let's have another good week, beautiful friends!!!!

Believe me Jasmine31, I thought of weighing at the doc and then by me, but my scale is a digital and it can jump up (or down) 3, 4 or even 5 pounds every time you go on it, within minutes. And 18 pounds - whoah.

Okay Rowdybliss - I gotta ask you what kind of shows are you doing - it sounds so exciting. And those body fat things are way too scary for me. My nutritionist has one and every time she tries to use it on me it shows up ERROR and then she says to me "that doesn't make sense, it even works on my 400 pound patients" so yeah that makes me feel real good, not. And it's great that you sweat a lot at the gym - it's at the gym, hellooo - you're going to the gym!

Fedup great job at the buffet!!! I don't know If I would have that will power. As for a scale I just have a cheap basic one from Target or Fred meyer. It is 10 pounds off of the doctors scale, but I use it to judge how much I have lost. not the actual number. When I first got my scale (it is not digital) the directions said to get off and on until it said the same thing every time. I did it (I must have looked like a fool it took 15 minutes.)

Rowdybliss: I read somewhere that healthier people sweat more/more evenly when working out. (I don't know how true it is, but It sounds nice). I am becoming a fan of the Lean cuisene and healthy choice meals. I have been eating 1 for lunch 2-3 days a week. It is so easy. I just wish it had less sodium.

I made myself get on the treadmill at a slow pace for 20 minutes and I drank 8 oz of water (so far) my headache is going away but I still have some nasty sinus pressure. I usually get sinus infections at this time of the year.

We have exactly 1 month until Thanksgiving! I am going to make it my goal to get in 1400 minutes of intentional exercise from now until Thanksgiving. I am going to keep track of it in my Signature. (I reached my Walktober goal of 900 minutes today!) I am going to try to get in at least 400 more minutes this month!!

Hi everyone! its Tuesday and I feel much better today (except tired from lack of sleep). Yesterday I was determined to get myself refocused on my exercise, since I have been slacking so I did. I really worked out hard throughout the day: 145 minutes total for yesterday! I hope to get in about 80 today! Food wise I did great yesterday and I stuck to my guns so I hope I can keep it going for the next month. If I do really well I think I will reach my T-day goal!!!

Hi everyone,

It is so motivating to read everyone's updates!

"fed" up, I am sooo impressed that you showed such restraint at that buffet. Much more willpower than me. Good job!

jcatron, hope you continue to feel better and your sinuses don't interfere with your workout goal. So glad to see that you are on track for your goal!

RowdyBliss, when I was working out regularly at the gym, I sweat a lot too. It seemed gross to me, but then I started thinking of it as melting fat. Then of course I wanted to sweat even more. I have also been enjoying those Lean Cuisine Spa Cuisine meals without any preservatives and made with whole grains. You are right - for 200-300 calories, they are surprisingly satisfying. Not sure what you did with your portobello mushrooms, but we marinate them in a mixture of olive oil, veggie broth, soy sauce, garlic, and cilantro or parsley, then grill. Yum!

Regarding scales, I have a Tanita scale that also measures bodyfat. It was about $50 at Target last year. I would never spend that much $$ on a scale for myself, so I requested it as a Christmas gift. It is digital and I think the weight aspect is accurate. However, it does fluctuate as much as 4-5 pounds per day, which I believe is truly my own fluctuating weight (probably why experts advise weighing at the same time each day). I am not convinced the bodyfat portion is accurate, but I think it's useful to track trends. Considering what it says now, it better not be accurate!!

I've done OK with food, so-so with exercise. I managed to avoid the plastic pumpkin full of candy at work yesterday. Surprisingly, none of the stuff in there looked good to me. I have a theory, because my eating has recently been so out-of-control and I had been gorging on garbage, that I just don't want candy any more. I sure hope so, that would be a wonderful craving to lose! And I am craving healthy foods, not junk, so maybe things are looking up for me.

For exercise, I've done a bit of strength-training here and there, but not as regularly as I like. I have dumbbells at home, so really have no excuse ... We rode bikes over the weekend and are swimming tonight. Hopefully can get in a good, brisk walk this week too.

jcatron243: I must be the healthiest person on the planet. It really is THAT much sweat! Good to hear you're feeling better and on the up-and-up.

"fed"up: I am an actress in my spare time (what little spare time there is!). I've done a lot of community and some semi-professional theatre, and I'm currently involved in a production of the female version of The Odd Couple. It has been a LOT of fun; I'm working with a neat bunch of girls, and it is a welcome distraction from sitting in front of the t.v. every night!

sf40: That marinade sounds DELICIOUS. I think I will try it tonight! I ended up having to grab dinner on the fly last night, so dinner ended up being a salad with shiitake mushrooms in it. Yum! So the portabellos still sit in my fridge, and they shall be consumed tonight if all goes according to plan!

Hope everyone's having a good Tuesday and is being good to themselves today! I had my routine Slim Fast for breakfast and a Michelina's Lean Gourmet for lunch (not as good as Lean Cuisine, but far cheaper!). I'm going to attempt the portobello thing described above for dinner; we'll see if there's mutiny from DH! He likes mushrooms, so I have half a chance at him actually liking this... but usually my healthier dishes make him wrinkle his nose and go "eew!" like a little kid.

I'm also planning a nice, long, delicious workout tonight after work, and I'm truly looking forward to that. I may mix it up a little bit more today and actually work in some treadmill stuff (bye-bye, cankles!), and I definitely need to do weight training today because I ran out of time yesterday morning before work and didn't get to the weights.

Today's Moment of Inspiration:
I'm sitting here looking out of my office window... and the trees are all pretty and colorful and vibrant, and some are even starting to fall off. To think that the next time those trees have little green buds on them that I will be leaner and healthier makes me smile BIG.

We're doing the work, gang. We're being careful and going day-to-day, sometimes with little setbacks - but we ARE doing the work. And we WILL get there.

That's really awesome! And you know, the same thing is happening for me... I find that I don't want the junk anymore. I look at it two ways:

1) Why on EARTH do I want to undo all the good things I'm doing by succumbing to that tiny yet tempting Snickers bar? and

2) I liken it to purchasing fuel for my car. I don't want to fuel my car with gasoline that has all kinds of goofy additives in it because I don't want to lose performance by getting my engine all gunked up with stuff I don't need; so why would I want to do that to my BODY?

I think that once we get ourselves in the habit of making good food choices, our bodies sort of "re-awaken" themselves to these healthier foods we are eating and our bodies end up wanting the quality, healthy stuff versus the not-so-healthy, inferior stuff we were eating before. As we work out and get healthier and stronger, our bodies DEMAND quality fuel!

Just my two cents...

sherry: you are so lucky I love to swim!!! When I go to the pool I don't really swim, I am usually holding my boy bouncing up and down. My sister has a membership to the local Ymca and we may go in on friday on our own. Congrats on not taking any candy, I have trouble with that.

Hi everyone!

Been doing really, really well with the food and got in a 30 min workout with an exercise video today, better then nothing, I suppose.

Rowdybliss: That sounds like sooo much fun. I love the Odd Couple - it's one of my favorite movies/plays/tvshows.
And it just shows you how all different we really are - it doesn't matter what I'm doing, how darn hot it is - I just don't sweat - it's kinda weird - you would think I would at my size. And my poor 14 1/2 year old, 95 pounds soaking wet daughter - sweats like crazy. She has sweat marks the size of footballs under her arms no matter how cold, no matter how inactive she is- just all the time. She is so embarassed by it - I feel so bad for her.
Oh yeah and I loved your bit of inspiration - it made me smile - big.

jcatron: I am very glad you are feeling better! 145 mins of exercise - you are something else. You are definitely inspiring me.

sf40: Your portebello marinade sounds so yummy - I am definitely gonna get me some for the weekend.

I made spaghetti squash for the first time last night. I browned an onion (in Pam of course) then added like 4 tomatoes which I had broiled and some jarred marinara saude and some spices and mixed everything together. We all loved it - even the picky, picky 14 1/2 year old.

And you know about the buffet thing and me resisiting and all - I can't believe I'm saying this - but it wasn't that hard. Just 2 short months ago that NEVER would have happened. But you know this time around things are so different for me. It's like I made the deciscion to lose all the weight and that's that no matter what - buffet or no buffet. I know I've got a looong way to go, and therefore we shall see, but I really think it can happen this time. I don't mean to sound too cocky - allright what the heck - I know it's going to happen this time.

Well everybody have a great rest of the day and evening.

Good for you fed up. I know you can do it too! I know I need the help of everyone here at 3fc! If it wasn't for the board I wouldn't have the daily reminders that I can do it.

You are so right about 3fc!!!! It is amazing to see the amount of weight lost by so many different women. I really feel like we're all in this together and it's just incredibly helpful. The advice and input and feedback is just incredible.

YEAH, baby, blow your own horn!!! I think that's terrific!

I'm having a rough day, eating-wise... because I'm stressed out. DH and I had a tiff last night (nothing major, but I'm still a little salty about it... why do men have such a hard time apologizing???), and so my appetite is non-existent. Arguably, lack of appetite could be viewed as a good thing, but we all know that not getting enough calories is just as destructive to our bodies as getting too many calories. So I did my normal Slim-Fast breakfast and picked my way through my Lean Cuisine (almond chicken, not too bad) for lunch, but I know where I'm going to fall really short today is dinner. DH and I always eat dinner together, and tonight I know it's going to be a chore because I'm still residually angry from last night.

My workout yesterday felt great, but I am REALLY sore - especially my back, which I tend to have trouble with. I have my bag packed for another workout tonight... but at this point I'm not sure it's going to happen because I don't want to hurt myself. I worked out yesterday and Monday, and I would like to do Thursday and Friday morning and Saturday afternoon. I guess maybe I can afford a night off... but I'm craving the stress release.

So it's a rough day... but it's only one day, and we must live them one at a time.