wow chrissy congrats on the loss that is just so awesome

katier great job on maintaining over the weekend...and like you when I have alcohol my food choices go right out the window. Like last night LOL too many glasses of wine then went on the prowl for munchies..and poof a bag of cheetos showed up in my hand. But I did not use all my flex points and I do have over 35 activity pts for the week

erinkman1 welcome aboard. Tracking your food is so important and there are tons of ways to do that. Also check out the ww recipes on this site there are some great one. I have tried dozens expecially when I first started ww and wanted to keep foods I always ate and making them a healthier way

Kaiter, I think you deserve a . I mean after Saturday night you could've convinced yourself the weekend was already blown so you might as well eat what you wanted on Sunday. But ya didn't. You might have fallen off the wagon seat but ya got back on.

erinkman1 - WELCOME!!! And I saw that you've lost 80lbs since you started down your weight loss journey. who-rah... that's great!!! And I'm not sure what edoetsch is but I'd like to befriend ya!!

Nancy, Nancy, Nancy... lol.... I like how you put that... "and poof a bag of cheetos showed up in my hand" .... I actually pictured in my mind a puff of smoke and a bag of cheetos showing up in your hand.... I think my "poof" food last night was the bowl of jello I consumed all by myself. Hey... did I tell you my mother's name is Nancy too? She's the one that put that bowl of jello in front of me last night... what I can't blame her for my eating the whole thing!? MAAANNNN!!! lol

Other than the whole jello thing, I had a pretty good night. Mom and my 2 newphews are in town visiting me so it was nice to have someone to cook for and sit with at the table. After we ate, Mom and I took the boys for a walk around my neighborhood. And you know what I discovered? I live in a really nice, walker friendly neighborhood. I've always driven to the park a few miles away from my house to walk on the path but now I think I'll just start walking around the school & park just 2 blocks from my house. Imagine what you notice when you try something new.

chrissy it sounds like you have just found another form of exercise! right in your own back yard so to speak. And to have family visit is the best, I bet you can try out some awesome ww recipes and use them for ginney pigs
LOL I try to do that to my brood at least once a week. have had some good ones and some real bombs

Well tonight I am going to use a different dvd to workout that focuses on tonning with weights...it will last about 75 min and do upper and lower body. I am sure I won't be able to sit tomorrow or raise my arms to eat...hey that might be a good thing?

Check in with all of you later

Nancy, I've actually been doing just that. The other night I made chicken enchilladas (sp) for them. They both really liked them. They are both overweight and are used to being about to sit around and eat whatever they want. So it's be interesting to see how they react to eating the way Aunt Chrissy eats instead of mom and dad. Almost everything I eat is fat free so almost everything they've had with me has been fat free. They haven't mentioned being able to tell something's different except for the ff hot dogs we had the other night. And they liked those. Said they were better than what they have at home. I didn't tell them they were fat free. Just said I had to have 'special' hot dogs because I couldn't eat the regular ones.

OK... I need ya'll's help. What can I count as exercise? I mean does it have to be a structured activity or it be walking around a museum for 4 hours? Yesterday, we took the boys to the ranching museum, the university museum (similar to a natural history museum) and to the air and war museum. Most of that time was walking slowly from exhibit to exhibit, AND about half the time we were outside in the hot 97degree West Texas sun. FYI... you should always check the daily forcast before going to an outdoor museum.

So what do you think? Can I count that as my 30 minutes of exercise for the day?

I would count that as exercise but I usually do not count exercise like that towards activity points. That's just me though. Your nephews are so lucky to have such a fun aunt!

I use this as my guidline when calculating my ap points

Level of Intensity RPE Physical Cues
Light Easy Does not induce sweating unless it's a hot, humid day. There is no noticeable change in breathing patterns.

Moderate Somewhat hard Will break a sweat after performing the activity for about 10 minutes. Breathing becomes deeper and more frequent. You can carry on a conversation but not sing.

High Hard Will break a sweat after 3-5 minutes. Breathing is deep and rapid. You can only talk in short phrases.

Light Activity Points = Weight X Minutes X .000232
Moderate Activity Points = Weight X Minutes X .000327
Heavy Activity Points = Weight X Minutes X .0008077

I hope this helps you

erinkman1 Glad to have another newbie to hang with. I am using the online journal to track daily - my forums are more like my version of "journaling."

Chrissy1175 - Sounds like fun exercise to me to take someone you enjoy being with to a museum. I would count the points - there is a level of walking for that in the online exercise tracker. I've used it when I went out all day mall shopping. It was workout after I did it long enough!

nancylmm - thanks for the exercise points info. That will come in handy if I do something not on the WW online list. And eventually I will, sometimes I find myself doing odd things!

Well, I am back on track after the 4th. I'd make this a confessional, but I planned to take the day off. Turned into all of the 4th and part of the 5th. Monday I showed a .8 pound gain, but it's already gone. I'm not worried, as things are moving the right way again, and the endulgences I had were worth it. I won't give a list here - it was so good it could cause others to become bingey! Just know it was worth it and I don't harbor an ounce of guilt.

Thanks for your thoughts on the walking thing. I appreciate it. I wasn't worried about using the AP points because I don't use them. I was worried about my not feeling like walking last night at the park or on my treadmill after walking all day. Totally a selfish reason, I know but I just couldn't get my bum off the chair last night.

Well chickies, another day down. You know I really have to start to change my perception...it should be tomorrow is going to be an awesome day. And plan my day

So.....tomorrow it is english muffin with egg beater and laughing cow cheese, snack radishes, lunch ww chicken stir fry (but I used shrimp), snack celery and ranch dressing, dinner--hmm up in the air right now...snack LOL wine?
activity 1.5 hour dvd upper and lower body the 'firm'

I never thought I would say this---I think I look forward to exercise now---crap--that means I will keep it up and not sabotoge my efforts

OMG Nancy... are you reading my mind? lol.... I was just talking to my friend about needing to change negative attitudes to positive. Today IS going to be an awesome day!!

My plan for the day: BF english muffin w/laughing cow cheese (love this stuff) & banana; no mid-morning snack; lunch - chicken salad w/lf wheat crackers; mid-afternoon snack - orange & almonds; dinner - french bread pizza w/salad & fresh mixed berry desert of some kind (any ideas?); evening snack - yogurt w/mixed berries; activity at least 30 minute walk.

Anyone else got a plan for this awesome day?

It is so funny there is all this dicussion about attitude because I just came on to say I am feeling awesome today! I have no clue if any of you live in New England but it has rained for most of the past three weeks, we've had nooo summer weather. Today the sun is shining and it's warm-ish (ok its 65, but that's fine) so I was able to go out and walk three miles! In addition, I did it in 43 minutes which is very good for me, so I feel awesome and actually feel thin today. I've been PERFECT with tracking this week (which never happens) so we'll see if it all pays off when I weigh in tomorrow! So I am sending my positive vibes to everyone, we are amazing, and the fact we check in on this forum shows we are super dedicated

Thanks for the positive vibes katier! everyone can always use them

Last night I did my 60min of cardio with the watp 5 mile burn it really did feel good.... Plans for today besides smile at all those I encounter?

BF english muffin with eggbeater&1 slice candian bacon, S radish with ff ranch, L leftover ww chicken stir fry, S celery? D thinking about some kind of stir fry (stuck on that this week for some reason maybe because I cut up all these veggies on Sunday? and need to use them up?) S not sure yet
exercise my upper and lower body dvd with weights

oh btw katier I don't live in your area I am exactly straigh across and this is the first summer we have had a summer in july...how strange!

Well I did my weight tonight, and for dinner it was a big salad and some corn on the cobb needed to get my veggies in I was lacking today due to poor planning for the afternoon dinner

tomorrow will be better bacause I am going to plan tonight whoo hoo...you know I kinda think it is fun to plan at least the three regular meals the day before or even a few days before. I have made it a habit to keep low point snack stuff at work so that takes care of one problem. But my breakfasts are always the same....any new ideas that are quick and portable?????

Well... ya know it's gonna be a long day when it's only 8:55am and you've already lost your plan. I woke up late this morning and left the house without grabbing anything to eat for BF. I'm proud of myself for not stopping at some fast food place to get something when I realized it. However, it's gonna be a long morning.

Wish me luck... that' vending machine down the hall is calling to me.... lol

Hope everyone has a good day!

Just make good choices and it'll work out Chrissy! Thankfully WW is flexible so when plans go awry we don't have to feel like failures.
I just posted my weight on the weigh in thread and I am down 3.2! I think the 100% honest journal really helped. I also had made a goal of drinking at least 80 ounces of water a day in July and I really think that affected my loss too. I am just so happy because when I began I expected to have that initial big loss and never got it, so I will enjoy it now. The next few weeks are going to be very difficult...I have a two night trip to NYC with a friend this week, then next weekend I leave for a ten day family vacation with no internet access for posting and calculating points. I am really hoping to get through the next two and a half weeks without blowing what I've accomplished!