I hope everyone is feeling proud of themselves! I am amazed by all of the ideas, support, and motivation on this forum. Hopefully the motivation will rub off on me! There is a gym at the school I go to as well as one at the condo i live it, but I never seem to make it there. Good luck everyone!!!

Sweet___Talker: I love that you are so outgoing and friendly to everyone! You have given a lot of great advise! I tried a fruit and vegetable diet (it lasted two days and I just quit it today). The plan i was using said to eat as much fruit until you feel satisfied. I NEVER felt satisfied! Let me know how it works for you if you do it. I also have a bunch of aerobic dvds, but I am so clumsy I can't keep up with the trainer. Haha!

100PercentME: I don't have any objections to you joining the group! I also just joined. High school is a lot like college in terms of being on the go and having greasy cafeteria food. When I was in high school I ate pasta salad and french fries everyday!

Hey all, sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy (like everyone else!)

100PercentME -- of course you can join!! Anyone is welcome here. You don't have to be in College, I'm sure lots of people outside of College can relate to us in here!

Veronee nice job on the lifting! I so agree with you about having friends to go to the gym with (or any physical activity) it makes it so much more fun.

Spunker I'm so sorry that your month hasn't been the best. I usually find Januarys to leave something to be desired, same with November (strange, I know!) I know what you mean about being so interested in your weight that you don't go to class. Not to the same extent, but I definitely know where you're coming from: it's like if I only have time to care about one thing -- my weight, or school -- school's going on the back burner.

Caughlk, that's really sweet of you to say You can always get more bees with honey... If you know what I mean

Fruit and veggie diets are hard. I'm tempted to try them sometimes, but I know that they're not going to give me what I need. What sorts of DVDs do you have? One time I tried out a DVD of my friends and was blown away by how quick it was, I returned it to her and she said "well, you have to start at the beginner's level!" and apparently the one she lent me was advanced

Oh, and Caughlk, about healthy foods to satisfy -- what sorts of foods do like? Little tricks I've picked up here and there (lots of them from :3fc: are:
- when having something like a sandwich, pile it with veggies (I like lettuce, tomato, sprouts, cucumber) to fill you up
- cottage cheese, cottage cheese, cottage cheese...cheap, healthy protein
- getting enough fibre in your diet, choosing whole wheat over white to fill you up
- making sure you've consumed enough fat and protein (carbs aren't filling!)
- soups can be very filling and not many calories if you stick to ones with broth base (rather than cream)
- drink lots of water (always gotta add that!)
- instead of drinking juice (if you do) go for the fruit itself

my gosh...that last bit of suggestion really set me off

Hey guys,
Sorry I have like dropped off the face of the earth. I just started a TA position at a local elementary school and with classes at night and still working my other job on the weekends I have no time to do anything. How is everyone doing??

I'm doing pretty good, Sillyfluff. How are you doing? A TA position at a local elementary school? Soounds like it could be a little hectic but hey, I want to be a teacher!

Yea it is but its fun. I love the kids I'm with there. They all have their own special personality and can really be sweet when they want to. I'm going to school to be a teacher as well.

Sweet__Talker: Thank you so much for the tips! I'm going from drinking only diet coke to drinking more water. Now I notice I feel dehyrated if I drink too much soda! I really need to figure out which foods contain what nutrients, I have no idea!

I have a lot of videos! I have hip hop dance videos (which I CANNOT do!). I also have Yoga and pilates videos. I have a ball and pilated mat and set. I just need to get motivated.

My goal isn't really to lose weight; it's to get my body healthy. Up until Sunday I pretty much lived off of fast food, diet coke, and cigarettes. ICKY!!!

This is such a great forum! Good job ladies!!!

Sweet__Talker: haha, does the monkey lifting weights mean after you posted you went to the gym? I love it!

Hey there!! I wanted to introduce myself and tell you a little about me~!

I go to college on Tuesday and Thursdays and work a midnight job!

I live in a two bedroom apartment with SO and a RM. (RM also has a little baby!) We have two dogs and things are rough.

I also have PCOS and just started the meds for it to help me! Things seem to be going better, but I am still working to make me a better me!

Does anyone have any advice about taking a 'gym' type class.

I'm a little unsure of it, but then I would be forced to work out.

We are thinking about joining the "Student Access" at school to be able to use the gym. Just not sure about doing it.

Hope that everyone is okay!!

That's so cool that you want to be a teacher, SillyFluff, and that you're enjoying the kids

Caughlk, nooo...I wish it meant I went to the gym, but I think I probably went to bed after writing that post. I did do a Pilates Cardio DVD today, though. We seem to have a lot of exercise stuff in common. If you want, we can try and motivate each other to get more exercise as our options seem so similar

Fast food, diet coke and cigarettes, eh? That sounds like a lifestyle I know pretty well. I've never actually smoked though, I was just part of the Diet Coke And Cigarettes For Lunch Crew in high school. Not a healthy choice.

Hmmm...I have developed (for whatever reason) a great interest in understanding what foods contain what. I really have no idea why the interest was sparked, but I'll run with it. Is there anything in particular you want to know? Are you talking about vitamins and minerals, or the macronutrients (carbs, fats, protein)?

Here's a website I find helpful, I like it because at the bottom it tells me the symptoms I might have if I'm deficient in it, and it tells me what foods I should eat to get it:
http://www.springboard4health.com/no..._vitamins.html

Also, maybe try investing in a multivitamin.

Sorry if that was too much chatter...Sometimes I go off on tangents

I wonder what's happened to all our other College Chicks...? Come baaaack.

Hi! Mind if I join you? I'm a regular over in 20-somethings, I had no idea this group existed before now!

I'm a student at UC Santa Cruz, studying linguistics, graduating this spring. Luckily I've lived in apartments all four years (on-campus the first three, off-campus this year) and so had a kitchen. However, I'm not exactly affluent, and so I'd gotten in the habit of buying ramen and pastaroni ($1-a-box meals) in bulk and living off of that. My diet was pure refined carbs, very little protein, plenty of sugar and sweets when I could afford the convenience store. I entered college weighing about 150 lbs, and over the gain-lose-gain-lose cycle, I ended up at almost 200 lbs at the beginning of this school year. It was a slap in the face. So I've been working since then - although I got MASSIVELY sidetracked during December, unsurprisingly - and I want to be down to my pre-college weight by my graduation in mid-June and at my goal weight by my birthday in early August.

I have no structured eating plan; I just eat mostly whole foods and tot up my calories in fitday once or twice a week to keep myself honest. For workouts, I've got some DVDs, but got majorly bored. So now, as of yesterday, I'm doing DDR as my workout! *grin*

So, that's me. I look forward to getting to know you ladies!

LookingforHope:
Oooh, a midnight job. What do you do? I used to work some strange hours too. I didn't know what PCOS was (forgive my uneducated self) so I looked it up -- I'm glad the meds are helping -- the symptom list was long and dismal. That's so great that things are turning around for you.

Hmmm, as for a gym class, great idea with taking one so that you'll have a reason to work out. It's tough on your own, heck, it's tough in class too, but at least it's organized.

I don't really know what to suggest as I'm not sure what your interests, skill level or time frame is...However, I have a few suggestions, things to ponder:
- pick something you like (this seems obvious, but from experience with trying desperately at things I don't enjoy, I implore you to do this)
- do you like to group things, or go by yourself? take that into consideration
- are you looking to achieve specific goals (i.e. flexibility, weight loss, muscle tone, endurance)
- do you need something low impact? (then running would definitely be out)

With all this said and done, I would recommend:
- kickboxing (cardio kickboxing is amazing for toning!)
- yoga
- pilates (also great for toning)
- dance (you can even go with your SO)
- lots of ladies love swimming, I'm not a swimmer, but it's a great workout
- exercise classes for your core (having a strong core is key to maintaining a healthy body)

Yep. Everytime I type another post I'm shocked by its length. Hope you gals don't mind.

Welcome, Nikaia! I think I recognize your name from the 20 somethings... You must be so excited to finish soon. Hope you join us in here often, maybe tell us how your DDR workout's going (sounds fun).

Actually, Sweet_Talker, you just posted a reply to my thread in the main Support forum.

DDR...Well, it's fun and frustrating all at the same time. I'm really enjoying it; I love being challenged, and while other workouts are challenging in a fitness sense, this is a challenge of skill and speed - attributes that I want to develop. The only problem - if problem it is - is that I get started, and I get working on a song, and then I get the "one more game" syndrome. "Just one more time through...okay, one more, I wanna hit that combo...one more time, wanna beat this score...well I messed that up, gotta try it again..." and so on. But, I guess it's better to extend your workout longer than you have time for than to cut it short out of boredom. I think I'm going to set my goal by number of songs per day/week/month from now on. Have to do some more research into how long songs average, plus my between-tracks time and stuff. But I'm actually looking forward to a form of physical activity, and that's INCREDIBLY rare for me.

Okay, enough rambling. I'm going to bed - it's nearly 1 AM here.

Sweet__Talker: I love your long posts; they are full of useful information and ideas! I think it would definitely be a good idea to motivate each other! So much money spent on workout dvds, so little actual working out being done haha

Lookingforhope: I've also considered taking a gym class. Kickboxing has always looked like a lot of fun to me. So have dance type classes -which is funny bc I have NO dancing skills! You have a baby that lives with you? I love babies. I worked with infants for three years while I was getting my bachelor's degree. They are wonderful! Maybe you and your friend can take the baby for walks and take turns pushing the stroller.

Nikaia: I can relate to the top ramen thing. I have actually been eating it uncooked recently....is that normal? haha. Something that I am going to work on is making a meal plan each week and then shopping only for the ingredients needed. Otherwise I go to the store and spend way too much on unhealthy junk food! I got a book called the Mayo Clinic cook book. I really don't know anything about the actual diet strategy of Mayo, but the foods in the cookbook look really good. Hopefully that helped a little!

I just joined yesterday and I absolutely love this forum! So many great ideas!!!

A little about me:
I'll be 26 next month
I'm back at WWU to work on a second degree
I'm not working right now (super lazy, no excuse for not exercising!)
I have three cats:Yogi, Stinky Boots, and Jack
I love to do crossword and variety puzzles!