Here is the thread for chatting in for Team Phoenix... To be edited later.

Hi Team!
Let's win this thing

Hello everyone... I thought I would stop in and introduce myself. My name is Stephanie (duh huh) and I am 27. I live in Wyoming with my husband Rick. He and I both own our own photography companies. Ardent Photography (mine) http://ardentphotographyinc.com specializes in weddings and portraiture. He is a sports photo guy lol.

I am a very long time poster on 3fc but kind of got away from it.... When I returned it was at the weight of 146 which is the highest it has ever been. Thanks to a fat free eating lifestyle and my new love for running I am now proud to say I am at 138 and going DOWN!

I'm looking forward to meeting everyone! Go team Phoenix...

Yay, I'm so excited to be on Team Phoenix--that's the mascot of my college! Hehe. I'm really looking forward to doing this challenge with all of you, as well. Just to generally introduce myself: my name is Meredith, I'm 19, and I'm a full-time college student. I started my weight loss over this past summer and have lost about 70-75 lbs so far--by that I mean that I had lost 75... But then the holidays came along and tripped me up a bit, LOL. I haven't weighed myself since Friday, and it's driving me nuts because I wanna see whether I've gotten rid of my holiday gains! I'm definitely expecting/hoping to pull a good number this week because I'm finally back at school, where I have exercise built into my day (um, yeah, my dorm is six blocks from campus! haha) and I'm not quite so surrounded by temptation. SO, hopefully I'll help out the team! Heh.

Hope more of our team members will stop by and introduce themselves soon! Haha.

Hi everyone! I'm a newbie, so I might need a little guidance on this challenge from the more experienced members of the team. My name is Dara and I'm 27 years old. I'm a full-time English grad student in Georgia and a single mom of two kids, a boy (2) and a girl (9 in one week, yay!). I hit my bottom recently when I weighed in at 190 lbs.--more than I weighed the day I gave birth to either of my children.

I am really excited about this challenge and the support we'll be giving each other. And how great is it that we are team Phoenix?? The newly-born bird who rises from it's own ashes? Wonderful metaphor!!

So, hello and good luck to everyone!!



~ Dara ~

So hi i'm 27--- a teacher at the college level--- composition--- my baby boy will be a year in feb--- so my initial goal was to lose the baby weight which i have and now i'm working on another 25 some lb loss===i want to be at about 125-130---- i was at 196 when i delivered and 155 when i found out i was pregnant---

um-- i've been married for 2 years and a teacher for 4 --- i have tons of workout dvds and an elliptical---so i do most of my workouts at home===

Hey ladies... Hope your week is going well. Thought I would start checking in here daily. Eating went well last night. Fat Free spaghetti. A little bit of background on my eating: My husband has hereditary high cholesterol. He had been off his medication for a while because it was having some weird side effects. Long story short about a month ago he went back to the doc and found out his cholesterol was 512! OMG right? So in support of his being healthy I have started a fat free diet. Its actually not half as bad as it sounds and I have been losing weight steadily.

Back to yesterdays recap... I made it to the gym. Ran about 2 miles. Was kind of interesting though. I am usually a treadmill runner. Being petite (5'2") I set my running speed to 5.0 mph and walk at 3.0 mph. Well last night due to it being "new years resolution time" all the machines were taken. So I ran around the indoor track. WOW so much harder, I covered less distance and found myself winded! I got home and I was still winded. Ate dinner waited 30 minutes... still winded. This morning my shins are already sore. If I knew it was that good of a workout I would have ditched the treadmill long ago!

Tonight I am headed back to the gym. Going to do some work on the eliptical and then swim with my husband.

star2b - Awesome we are on the same team! I have seen you around the weekly chat and always admired how dedicated you were. With a crazy schedule to boot! I am sure you'll be rid of that holiday weight in no time.

curvyenglishchick - Nice to meet you, haven't seen you around before. I did the last BL challenge and I have got to say being part of a group, checking in everyday really helps to motivate a girl. keeps you accountable. Here is to a great january with a big loss...

princess2323 - Is that your son in your avatar? He is adorable. My husband and I do not have children although that is one of the reasons I am getting in shape. We miscarried in Oct and the doc said our chances would be better if we were both in tip top shape... I love the eliptical I am opposite of you however I can't make myself work out at home to save my life. I'm a gym bunny...

So I was super confused as to what we were even supposed to do for this challenge. So I did some snooping and here is what I found.

This week: We are supposed to be tracking our free activities and post how many 30 minute intervals we end up having. We also need to nominate a team captain so we can get the charts we will be using for the following weeks. Anyone want to be captain or know someone who might make a good captain?

Star2B: I haven't weighed myself in a while either; I'm doing the Loving the Skin I'm In challenge too. It's hard to avoid that scale, but I find myself focusing more on the food I'm eating and less on seeing that number. That's the point, right?

princess2323: I'm jealous--you're doing what I want to do when I finish my MA!! I'd love to teach Comp for a few years before I go back to school, either for my PhD or a law degree. I am just so very tired of school. I need a break!

Stephanie: Thanks for the welcome! I am soooo looking forward to a big January loss!

I wish I could love the elliptical--but I can't even seem to do 5 minutes on it. I like spin classes; they kick my butt, but I'm motivated by everyone else's commitment. I'm at my mom's house until next Monday (for my winter break from school) so I don't have access to the gym, but she does have a treadmill.

I did 30 minutes on the treadmill last night after a good dinner of homemade chicken noodle soup and a salad. What other activities would you ladies suggest we can do for our "free" challenge this week?

Hmmm other activities, lifting, running, swimming, walking, yoga (LOVE yoga!), cuirby: does your moms treadmill let you increase the incline? If so I have a great incline workout, great for the booty!

As for me...

Last night I had chicken tacos, with FF cheese, FF sour cream etc... I didn't over eat and then headed to the gym. I got a half hour at a pretty hard pace in on the eliptical. Got home and had the worst indigestion.... The kind you get when you eat too many different KINDS of foods. Popped a rolaids then went to bed. Got up in the middle of the night to take another one... bleh.

Today will be pretty exciting... I have a meeting at lunch with another photographer. He really isn't into doing weddings so we are looking at a partnership between companies, essentially sending them to me. Then tonight my husband and I have a meeting with a wrestling association to discuss a tournament we're photographing later this month. This same association puts on a huge tournament in March we are trying to lock down. Both VERY exciting...

Meeting is at 7:30 tonight so traditional gym workout will be skipped. I'm going to try and supplement it with some at home ab workouts.

WHERE ARE ALL OUR MEMBERS????

Hello, I'm here. Sorry haven't been around a lot,, don't really understand everything here Starting to get it..
So far I've done 4 x 30 minutes workouts... Where shall I report it???....

Hello, this is an important message from the head honcho of this here challenge:

The Dragon team had a member leave and is in need of another member. Does anyone from this team want to move over to the Dragon team? Give me a PM. If I have too many people asking I will just let the first person who asked.

Um, not to be pushy or anything, but we need to choose a leader. Stephanie, are you up for nomination? You seem to post a lot, so I thought you might be a good choice.

Anyone want to volunteer?

Unfortunately, no, her treadmill isn't that sophisticated. But I would *love* your "great for the booty" workout for when I get back to the gym next week!

And yes, where ARE all our members? I'm getting worried...

Hello Team.. Just want to tell you that I voluntered for going over to the Dragon Team,, and I was the only one.. So I guess I'll leave you.. Hope it all goes well for you