Hi ladies,

Just checking in over breakfast -- ginger pear oatmeal. Yummy. About to go for a hike with some friends; the rain has finally broken here in maine and the weather is beautiful today. Psyched to go and enjoy it!

Gator - so sorry to hear about your accident but glad to hear you are OK.

Judy - welcome. I have no doubt that stress is a huge factor for my weight gain/retention. I just finished my first year of law school, which is just about the most stressful thing that I've done in a while and i packed on a solid 12 pounds this year. Thankfully, I'm 1/2 way to taking it right back off!

Blue - best wishes in Boston. I know Boston well having lived there for a bit and still going tons to visit. Have fun! If you can get your hands on a bicycle and like to ride, the Minuteman bike path out to Lexington and Concord is a great way to spend an afternoon.

Looking forward to weighing in tomorrow and am praying the scale is in the 160s. Today's hike should help. Have been a bit unfocused on both eating and exercise this week so we'll see. Looking forward to being a bit more organized this week and will start logging on fitday again, which I've given myself a break from for the past week or so.

Blue, your story with the ice cream makes total sense to me. Earlier this week I had a horribly off-plan day. I arrived at my summer job to see that all the women were pulling together a surprise bridal shower for one of their coworkers. So I ate breakfast #2. Then I went out to lunch with a friend...burger and fries. Then I had a piece of the cake from the shower. (Holy crap that cake was good...) But by the end of all that I honestly felt like I had consumed 20,000 calories. (Maybe I did...I didn't dare to count...) I thought I was going to die. I had plans that night to meet friends for a dinner meeting to coordinate for a canoe trip we're doing next weekend and I called ahead to say not to order me any pizza!!! But my point is, 2 months ago if I had eaten all of that I would have felt very full, but not necessarily so unhealthy.

I also had a small full-fat ice cream the other day and totally felt like it was too much both in terms of quanitity and richness.

Keep up the good work and see you all tomorrow for the weigh-in!

Welcome, Judy! It seems like you have a great game plan so I'm sure you'll see a lot of success!

Blueridge - Have a great trip!

Gatorgirl - Sorry to hear about what happened! I'm glad to hear that you're ok and I hope you enjoy your time in the keyes!

kpme - I'm with you about looking forward to getting more organized about my eating habits. This weekend, I moved into a new apartment, so skipped the gym both days and was sooo hungry from all the lifting and running around, that I ate 200 extra calories on thu, fri and sat. Luckily, they were healthy cals, but I'm still up 1 pound on the scale today (booo).

Lately, I've been feeling like I just need more food, which makes me feel like I should up my calorie range a little, but I'm not ready to start maintaining yet! I'm also not sure if I'm actually hungrier or I'm slipping back into old habits of just wanting to eat more. Even if I'm eating healthy food, I still want to have that control over food and not want to eat a pear, then an apple, then grapes, then peanut butter, etc...

What do you guys think? Would you just kick yourself in the butt and get right back on track with the normal calorie range or give yourself a "maintenance" week or something like that? This is so confusing!

Hope everyone had a good 4th!

Takingcharge - remind me - are you doing any calorie cycling right now? If not, you might be interested in trying it as it gives you a few days a week at a higher calorie point so that your system never quite gets used to your intake level. You are doing so great though - if you feel like a week at maintenance is what you need, I say take that break and enjoy it.

Dancer - I did recently start calorie cycling and saw a pretty good loss when I started. For the past few days though, I've basically just eaten at the high end of my range (1500) but today I'm feeling some renewed energy and am planning to have a low day (prob 1250 or so). To give you an idea of what I've been doing, here's the past 9 days of calories:

1348
1516
1333
1236
1388
1280
1495
1451
1337

As you can see, I haven't had too many days at the low end of my range (1200-1500) and the zig-zagging isn't all that extreme, so I'm not sure I'm doing it "right", but I just can't eat less than 1250, so I'm never gonna make it to 1700 because that would throw things off too much. I think I'm gonna try to get back into my routine and if I'm still feeling hungry and in need of a break in a few days, I'll take it. I'm sooo close to comfortably fitting into my new (smaller!) jeans that I just wanna be there now, but I know it's a "marathon not a sprint", haha. Thanks for listening!

Takingcharge - I'm sure you'll be in those jeans in no time!

I'm right on track for a change this week. Hope everyone else has good results to report!

June 8:190: 190
June 15:188: 189
June 22:188: 188
June 29:186: 187
July 6:184: 184
July 13:182
July 20:182
July 27:180
Aug 3:178
Aug 10:176
Aug 17:176
Aug 24:174
Aug 31:172

LABOR DAY Sept 7: 170

Well girls I don't know what happened. I stayed mostly OP this weekend. Up until this morning I was down to 182.0 then I get up and see 183.6 I don't get it. I didn't eat late yesterday I didn't drink anything late. Its not TOM so who knows.

SW:187
Goal by Labor Day: 165


June 29:183.6
July 6: 183.6 (should be 182.0 dang it)
July 13:
July 20:
July 27:
Aug 3:
Aug 10:
Aug 17:
Aug 24:
Aug 31:

LABOR DAY Sept 7:

Hello All!

I weighed in at 173.8 but Im just ending TOM, so that should go down a little more. Im heading back down to the keys, but Ill try to check in every so often.

Dancer- Way to go! That must feel great!

Wannabe - Through this process, I've learned that our bodies can be wacko sometimes. This week has brought some crazy ups and downs for me, but just roll with the punches and know you did everything right, so you'll be back down in no time!

Gator - Have fun and check in soon!

As for me, I started last monday at 138.8, then down to 137, back up to 138.4, and back down today...soooo weird. It's definitely frustrating, but I guess you just have to keep plugging away!

5/21/09(SW): 147.4
5/25/09: 145.8
5/31/09: 144.6
6/8/09: 143.6
6/15/09: 140.8
6/22/09: 140.4
6/29/09: 138.8
7/6/09: 137.4

Have a good day everyone!

Dancer- Way to go! That must feel great!

Wannabe - Through this process, I've learned that our bodies can be wacko sometimes. This week has brought some crazy ups and downs for me, but just roll with the punches and know you did everything right, so you'll be back down in no time!

Gator - Have fun and check in soon!

As for me, I started last monday at 138.8, then down to 137, back up to 138.4, and back down today...soooo weird. It's definitely frustrating, but I guess you just have to keep plugging away!

5/21/09(SW): 147.4
5/25/09: 145.8
5/31/09: 144.6
6/8/09: 143.6
6/15/09: 140.8
6/22/09: 140.4
6/29/09: 138.8
7/6/09: 137.4

Have a good day everyone!

Hi, ladies! I just joined the challenge, so my first weigh-in will be next Monday. I don't count calories, just trying to get back to logging my food and intentional workouts. This week should be easy to manage, except for a staff 'picnic' on Thursday--I'm bringing salmon salad and homemade popsicles. Next week I'll be at a conference in Palm Springs, so I need to make the most of the time that I can cook my own meals.

Have a great day, everyone.

judy

Judydc - welcome! I've been looking for some new ways to prepare salmon - do you happen to have a link to your salmon salad recipe anywhere?

Takingcharge - however strange the daily fluctuations are, you are on one mean losing streak when you look at the numbers overtime. Way to go! 10lbs since the beginning of this challenge, especially since your starting weight was already low, is amazing!!

Wannabe - Who knows why the scale moves around the way it does. There are so many other components of our bodies that are changing independently of our weight loss efforts and unfortunately we can't get the scale to only monitor fat loss which is really what most of us care about. Check the scale again tomorrow and come back and repost if you're retaining less water or whatever. Hang in there!

Gatorgirl - Have fun in the Keys - no accidents en route this time!

Sounds like everyone is doing good! No major weight gains is good in my book anyway! I know what you mean about fluctuations driving you crazy, when I eat gluten I have been known to gain and lose upwards of 9 pounds before. Let me tell you that until I figured out what was causing it I was going nuts, now its just the normal little fluctuations from salt, heat, stress, hormones ...

Keep up the good work and maybe you'll have an extra big loss next week. I had no loss but after a holiday I don't mind! I was camping and so food was not nearly as healthy and I couldn't count or weigh my food and then /blush I got caught up in the fun and ate a bit extra. Sigh, back to the grind!

SW: 185
GW: 170

May 18: 185
June 22: 192
June 29: 189
July 6: 189
July 13: goal 186
July 20: goal 184
July 27: goal 182
Aug 3: goal 180
Aug 10: goal 178
Aug 17: goal 176
Aug 24: goal 174
Aug 31: goal 172
Sept 7 LABOR DAY: goal 170

I decided to copy dancer and see what my weigh-in's have to be to keep on track, looks like I got my work cut out for me but still doable with some application of determination.

Edzard - here's to 170 by Labor Day! It's going to be tough but we can egg each other one! : )

May25-294
June22-282.2
July6-275.4

Wow, Tracy - you rock! Way to go!