I lost my first 20 pounds by walking about 2 miles everyday and keeping track of my calories. I'm only walking about 4 times a week now, and sometimes it is more or less than 2 miles, but I still think it is helping. The other days of the week are for strength training with weights. So, walking is an easy and good way to get in exercise. The longer (time-wise) you walk, the better. I usually try to get my speed up to 3 miles an hour.
Anyway, for you gals who are walking, I've found the pedometer on Google to be a great help. Here's the
link. Just type in the zipcode you're walking in at the top and find the area where you're at. Then hit the record button and place points along the map to indicate your route. It will keep track of how far on the left.
As for the discussion on daily calorie intake - I eat between 1500 and 1800 each day. Usually, it's right around 1700, but on pizza days, it does go up to 1800. ;-) I want to be able to lower my calories when I plateau without eating below 1200 a day. I have cereal, fruit, and yogurt in the mornings. Soup, sandwich, wheat rolls, veggies, or something similar for lunch. Dinner varies. Some of the things I have a lot are soup, (healthy) cheese pizza, veggie avocado/apple sandwiches, rice and veggies, gyoza (Chinese dumplings) with rice, Boca burgers, etc. I usually have a side salad with balsamic vinegrette with almost every dinner. If anyone wants to post specifics about what they eat each day, I'd love to read it. I'm always looking for new ideas to change up my menu each week. If I don't switch things up, then I get cravings for bad food I shouldn't be eating.
I just want to say that everyone is doing so well. Yay for us! I have confidence this will be a great year in which we will reach our goals or be so much closer to them. I don't care if I see my target weight this year, but I would love to be under 200 by my b-day.
Oh, and does anyone do any dance fitness videos? I was looking at some online yesterday, but I don't know which would be best. Dancing for exercise seems like so much fun.