Hi Holly!!! I missed you being here!! I had like tons and tons of questions for ya!!! :lol: Like how did you make your bod look like that? Do you just count your calories? What exercises to you do? :lol: I know I sound a bit hyper, but I've been having these questions for a while! Thanks for the support about my dad.

Please don't take any offense to this, but I swear you're the best lookin' biker gal I've seen in MB!! :lol: Ok, I'm a big girl so some clothes are just not wearable...and I know you know where I'm getting at, but My hubby loves motorcycles. He doesnt have one, but he made me ride around MB Friday and Saturday evening. The women didnt have much clothes on....and I swear they were 200 lbs or so!! But they were looking tough though riding that bike!! I like the way it looks, but I'm sooo old fashioned everytime someone made that noise with their bike, I jumped! I'd never get on the back with my hubby, he can barely drive a car right!!! I guess I need to get with the program!

Well, Bye everyone, talk with ya later!

Hi Jayme! hey, thanks for missing me :D

I hear ya about some of the lady riders...they seem to be very NOT self-conscious, they say "this is who I am, take it or leave it (or "shove it", haha! :devil: ) I know that self-confidence comes from mastering something that is usually quite male-oriented. And isn't confidence attractive! oh, I never take offense at a compliment given to me! thank you very much!

And wow, were those bikes LOUD!!! I actually frightened some people because I was slowly crusing up behind them, and they didn't hear my quiet Honda engine, and they jumped outta their skin when I was close to them, lol!!

Yes, I have been counting calories, at first tried to stay under 1500 a day. Now that I'm on "maintenance" (or trying) I can have around 1800. but that's also with exercising 6X a week. I do videotapes; and I do a mix of aerobics for cardio strengthening and fat loss; and strength training using hand-held weights, also done to videos.

I buy videos from www.collagevideo.com. The exercise truly has shaped me. I never had shape before, not even when a teenager! That is what keeps me doing it. Also, I work on my feet all day (18 years as a pastry baker!) and now my knees never hurt, and my lower back only hurts when I'm expecting my period.

ttyl!

Well chickies I weigh tomorrow morning before I leave on my trip, getting back Sunday, I was thinking of not weighing but I knew I'd better tokeep me in check. I am hoping for some loss since I weighed sunday, even a half pound would be good.

Jaymi_Dol_78

I ordered the diet pills, but scared to take them now. I know I have them in reserve if I can't take what I'm doing, so for now will stick to the plan as is. I will use them probably when I quit smoking to help. I am hoping to meet my first goal of 140 pounds by the first of Aug and quit smoking, then over the next month lose 5 pounds more. We will see what we see there.

Vermont Mom

How tall are you? I was wondering because you do look so slim in that picture is your weight still 145?

I am trying to keep my calories at or under 1300 and I exercise everyday, just by walking 30 minutes for now and I am trying to get into the DDR, Dance Dance REvolvlations Playstation 2 DVD, but so far I look like some kind of good with 8 legs. Well I got to boogie. See you guys when I get back either late Sunday or early Monday,

Magmouth

Now I am confused, so splain yourself
 

VermontMom


I was reading what you posted and got very confused. You said you could eat 1800 calories to maintain your weight at 142, are you using a multipiler of 13? I thought 13 was for inactive, and moderatly active was 15 and very active was 17.

The reason this is cricial to me is this:

While reading a calories counting book, I stumbled on these numbers and took my original weight of 186 and multiplied it by 13 (since my fat butt was doing any kind of moving) to figure out how many calories I was eating to maintain that weight. and I came up with 2418 caloreis.

Then of course I took my goal of 140 and multiplied it by 15, because even when I reach goal I will work out 3 to 5 times a week for at least a minimum of 30 minutes and came up with 2,100 calories, and I was shocked that it was only a difference of 318 calories difference (well and some moderate exercise) between me feeling and being fat and overweight, and me feeling trim and good about myself.

Now of course, that is upon reaching goal. How are you figuring your numbers. Give a chickie some help here.

Well Holly, I've been thinking the same thing!! I definately dont look like you at 140!!! Maybe 125!!! and not even that good! Just to get in a size 6!! LOL I'm gonna go to that website and check them out.

Maggie- Wow seems like we are on the same bandwagon! I started again at 180, (at first I was 200, got down to 160 and back to 180) But anyways :dizzy: my goal is 140/145. But the weight I"m supposed to be is 130 or less. 130 would be the max for me...I think I stayed 127 for like 5 minutes last time!! :lol: Just taking it 20 lbs at a time. I want to be 145 by June, but I know that's a push. My goal for this month was to lose 10 lbs, and so far I'm 1 lb away. Weigh-in is Friday so i'm scared..but oh well I've been working my butt off so whatever happens happens. I'm still taking those pills, if you ordered them from the same place then I dont think you should be scared! I'm positive that I have the real thing, I have to reorder some next week. The few side affects I had are long gone. I still dont have an appetite, and they still make me think a bit more, but it helps keep me on track. I will taper off when I get myself together...but right now they are saving me from all the chocolate in the world!! I swear we went to Mcdonalds, and I almost always would have given in and ordered a burger, but I didnt even want to and I was starving! Ok, so if someone sat some donuts in front of me I might can only pass them about 10 times before stuffing them in....but I dont have the cravings and desperate need to go and buy them. I still think about sweets and hamburgers of course but I dont feel like I have to have them or i'll die anymore. Hey it may just be me...I dont know. I say give it a try for like a week, if you feel weird (except for the things I've told you about) then trash them.

Well good luck with weigh-in and Have fun on your trip! My calories suck as in way too low!!! Barely 1000 sometimes, but I do eat!! Just not a lot and a lot of low calorie foods. Well that's something I have to improve on! Well gotta go all!!

'splaining myself :D
 

Good morning ladies!!

I'm not too tall - barely 5'6". In my avatar pic, I was at my lowest weight, 142. I'm at 145 now; just those few pounds really make a difference in showing my abs. and the photo is not retouched, but it was "set up" in that my husband had me hold my 450 pound bike at an angle, to have me flexing and straining to hold it.

I got my "formula" from...I think it was a Woman's Day magazine. I tore out the page, and showed it to a friend, meaning that I hope I can still find it. You picked your body type, and activity level, whether male/female, and then it gave some numbers to crunch, and it seemed to be correct with what I do...that's how I came up with the 1800 calories for me to maintain. I hope I can find it, to share.

I think that my bod "allows" me to have alot of extra calories, though, that are taken care of by the consistent exercise, and since I don't "write what I bite", I think that I have alot of nibbles that I'm not admitting to. So I might be more at being "allowed" 2000 calories or so, without gaining. I hope I didn't mislead anyone - I'll be the first to admit that it's HARD to stick to counted calories! and I LOVE to eat just about anything, whether it's steak or cake :lol:

Speaking of cake - got to get ready for work, and decide what to make for the lunch and dinner desserts at the club. Rhubarb is in season here now, and lots of people have it in their gardens, but are willing to sell some. I just have to bring lots of bungies to strap it down on the bike, on the way to work :lol:

Have a great day! OH! And we all need to make a call for SPRITE to come back! Girl, you got us all together, starting this thread....we miss you!

Hey Holly!

Really enjoyed the pics. Looks like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing.

How's everybody doing? It's been a long week at work. So glad it's friday tomorrow.

Still getting the exercise in. Aunt Flows just about out of here. Down 2lbs. That's a net loss of 2lbs because I didn't gain any PMS weight this time. Woo hoo! :cp: That's a first.

It's still going a lot slower than I would like. I know a lot of people say when they increase exercise they don't see the loss they would like to see. But I definitely feel the difference. (some feel better and some feels worse..ouch!
:lol: ) But I like feeling that work out pain.

Not following any specific plan. Just cutting down and no food after dinner(most of the time)

I haven't been around in a couple of days so never got to wish Maggie a good trip. So Maggie, whatever day you get back and read this, hope it was a good one.

Holly, Jaymi and Maggie, you guys are so good with the calories. How can you stand all that looking up all the time. It's just like journalling. I find it time consuming and it preoccupies the mind with food thoughts all the time. But maybe I'd see more of a loss if I paid more attention and counted calories. Maybe you could jot down that formula for me. I think it's worth a shot.

Well, have a great friday.

PS: Holly, I still don't know how you can be around all that bakery food. It would kill me. Literally.

ttyl :D

Good morning ladies!

Jayme, I welcome the questions! I dug out my journal from 2002 - just a little notebook, that I wrote date, what exercise I did, and maybe some calorie notes.

Feb. 4 - starting weight 176, size 14-16. Tried to keep to 1500 calories a day, broken down this way -
Breakfast - 300
lunch - 400
snack - 100
dinner - 600
snack - 100

(and I told myself to only weigh-in ONCE a month - but couldn't stick to that
:lol)
Feb. 20 - 174
Feb. 27 - 172
Mar. 6 - 170
Mar. 13 - 168
Apr. 11 - 166
May 15 - 165
May 27 - 163
June 15 - 162
June 21 - 160
July 1 - 158
July 10 - 156
July 22 - 152
July 30 - 150
Aug. 6 - bought size 8 jeans :D
Aug. 12 - 145
Aug. 27 - still 145, but squeezed into a size 6 Riders' jeans :D
October (yeah) 14 - 143
Nov. 11 - 143-144
Dec. 29 - 144
Jan. 9 2003 - 145
and from this point, I kept to about 145, until summer/fall of last year, when I got a little loose with eating (but still kept up exercising) and got up to almost 149. scared myself! and it took ALL winter and this spring to try to get back to 145.

And yes, there were day where the scale showed gains of two or three pounds - but if I knew in my heart that I hadn't splurged or gone crazy, I tried my best to ignore that, and blame it on fluid retention.

Sorry before hand!
 

We've all had our down days.....
 

Hey Jaymi,

I hate to see you going thru such turmoil in your life. You don't need a butt kicking you just need to vent. This is the place for that. I wish when my boys were little, that I had access to internet and pc's. My youngest who has ADHD was such a handful, there were days I wanted to kill myself. Literally. It was the fact that I had other babies who needed me and my dh that kept me going. Sometimes my dh would come home and I'd be locked in the bedroom. It was really bad, but I got thru it. Of course I was growing up at the same time. By the time I had the 3rd, I was only 23 and had a 5yr old and a 15 month old. My friends were single and out partying and I was trying to run a household. Thinking back, I know I made a lot of mistakes, but I did a lot right too. I would have gone to a shrink if I had any money. But a board like this would have been great. So sound off my little chickadee. Whenever you need to. You have alot on your plate. And remember, nothing is forever. The things we want to be forever, unfortunately won't be, and the things we think will be forever, won't be either. Some get better some get worse, it's just life. You don't need us to give you a kick in the butt. Life will take care of that on occasion. But then you have the rewards to look at. Don't forget to do that. Look at your kids, a devoted husband(even if they are jerks at times)
and what I do to get myself out of the "woe is me" mode, is to look at the struggles of others. So there is the old Mama ramble for the day. Your a strong one and you'll be ok. It's just inevitable that you will have bad days(sometimes several in a row) Now for the 3lbs! WOO HOO!!!!! That's great!
Back to Mama hen again, I went to epharmacist's and the drug is not for long term use. So again, BE CAREFUL!!!!!!

Holly, Thanks for the calorie break down. I feel so lazy for not wanting to journal and pack and bring food. I guess I've been lazy for so long that to get up a 5:45 and exercise then iron clothes for the office, feed the cat, pack lunch and snacks and fill 4bottles of water and pack workout clothes for afterwork work out remember to take pills(I have to take 4pills before I leave the house and then 3more when I get to work) I'm running out the door lugging all this crap(I never remember or have time to test my blood sugar that I should do daily) I just cant imagine stopping to write down what I'm eating and looking up the cals and what I should be eating and when. I guess I'm just a complainer. I hate complainers. Which means I've got to cut the :censored: and just do it. Why are good habits so hard to make and bad habits so hard to break. Anyway, I need to drop the excuses. I went on the website for the videos but I'm not sure where to start. I guess if I want to work on the gut and back I need to get down on the floor. Yuck! When your my size, floor exercised are tough. And though my legs need alot of toning and weight loss, my biggest problem is the upper body, the classic apple shape. Abdomen, back and saddlebags. Some said, pilates. But I definitely need some beginner workouts. I don't want it to be so easy it's not a challenge but I don't want it to be so hard that I can't do anything. Maybe I should just try some crunches and leg lifts and work my up to videos. I don't know. I just know that since 4/11 I went from 286 to 274. and I have 100 to go to get to were the doc thinks I should be. I'm only 5'8" but very big frame.
I have a size 11 foot and when I got married and was thin, flat stomach and bikini, I weighed 155. My doc said, that was possible at 17 buy not at 44. So realistically, I have 100 to lose. Man, thats alot of weight. I need to get more drastic. I'm sorry to go on everyone.

Well, I'll guess I finish my :coffee: and get some stuff done around the house. I've got plenty to do. Thanks for listening. I love hearing about everyones successes. My goal is just so far in the distance, I feel like I'm crossing the Sahara without even a canteen. ttyl

Mama Hen
 

Hi Mama Hen!!! :lol:

I think I'd like to call you that....because you are so wise. You have already been through things I'm going through now. My son didnt have ADHD, but because I was a single mom, I had to do something, I just couldnt sit around, so my son stayed at the babysitter...a lot for me to go to school, then work, then go to school & work!! :lol: It was also a family friend not a daycare, so they pretty much raised him the way they wanted to. He was lactose intolerant, I would tell them... but they would still give him cheese, and milk and ice cream. Then he'd come home and have me up all night throwing up!! They either thought I was lying or that I just didnt want him to have those things!! They'd say he doesnt throw up over here!! DUH!!! He waits until 3 in the morning!!! I have never met any kid with ADHD, but I've met some pretty bad kids that would make you jump off a cliff and they dont even have it...so I couldnt imagine what you wre going through....especially that young with a toddler...just like me now!!! It's funny, the hardest thing for me right now, is trying to treat them equally and spend as much time with both of them...but I can't seem to do it. My son comes in here, and starts off being good, then next thing you know he's jumping off the couches and making her cry and taking her toys!! Then if he's sitting down being good, she comes over and slaps him in his head or jumps on his back!! :lol: So I end up sending my son out to go play in his room! GRRRR, but you had it 1 million times worse than me, so i should be happy!!

You know, that's been my motivation for the last couple of days, to think of people going through waaayyy more than me, but the pain in my heart that I feel, you know it feels real to me!! The tears that come out of my eyes, they are real!! I dont make them up. I'd go to the doctor too if we had money for it, because I know depression is a good possibility. Plus it runs in the family. I just pray to God and asks him to be my depression medicine. That's all I can do.

I think that you've got a busy day ahead of you, but I promise you taking time to write down what you eat isnt that hard. I keep my journal in the same place everyday, or if I go somewhere, I take it with me. (like for days) But it would also help with diabetes, so if you take your sugar and it says it's too high, you could look back and say what did I eat? You dont have to do the calories thing at first, you can just start with the foods!!! Give it a try! It's really not that hard! You could have a tablet that fits into your purse.

As far as exercises go, when I first started off I was 200 lbs, and it would hurt my back so bad to walk 10 minutes on the treadmill. I was out of shape bad!!! Yes, there were exercise tapes, that I couldnt do... But I tried them anyway, even if I ended up looking all crazy!! :lol: But after a while, I got better and better. Now I can walk on the treadmill for an hour, but some of Denise Austin workouts, I cant do all the exercises, or I can't do them long!! I just walk in place!! If you walk in place for the entire tape at first, you'll be burning calories!! Speaking of which, why don't you try Walking off the Lbs? I tried the one mile tape, and I swear it wasnt nothing like walking a regular mile!! But it was fun, and there was no dropping to the floor and lifting your legs behind your neck and all of that!! :lol:

Well just a suggestion. Thanks everyone for listening, sometimes the treads are kinda mean in a way. If you don't complain about your weight, then they dont want to hear your post, but I dont think that's fair! How motivating is it to have everyone complain about weight all the time?!? So I basically try to rant on the journal and keep it like that. Thanks for being so welcome with me!!

Thanks HOlly for answering my 1,000 questions! ;)

Have a great day everyone!

Hey Jaymi,
Well, it's been really quiet around here today. I'm actually getting dinner together. We do Italian on Sunday nights and watch the Soprano's.
I actually do Walk away the pounds. I'm up to the 3 mile tape. But the :tread: kicks my but more in 25 mins then that tape does in 45 mins.
I think I'd like to incorporate the :tread: in a couple more days a week.

I will try not to get on the scale tomorrow. I always eat too much on the weekend. Well not always, but this weekend wasn't the best choices. I'll get back on track tomorrow. Plus I will take a stab at the journal. You're right about the fact that I can look back and see what effects what I had to eat had on my blood sugar readings. I need a mother hen. My mom died when I was 21. We were so close. I found out I was pregnant with my second the day we laid her out. And you'd think with her example I'd take better care of myself. She was 49, mother of 3 and diabetic. I am such an :censored:
So I took my calorie book off the shelf and blew the dust off it and I will at least try to write down what I eat for the first few days and then figure out the calories at night and see what changes to make. A friend at work said she made a cheat sheet with most often eaten foods and that was easier than running to the book all the time. So thanks for the push, I needed it.
Gotta run, timer is going off. Keep up the good work, ttyl.

Hey Donna, I"m just the opposite!! Well that 1 mile WATP kicked my butt, of course I could have done more, but I was soaked with sweat. With the treadmill it is harder for me. I dont know if it's because I stay on for so long or what. I can only go 3.0 mph and that's just recently. I am sooo sorry to hear about your mommy, but dont feel that way. Just because your mom had it, doesnt mean you were a :censored:. LOL Let me tell ya like this, I've probably told you already, but my parents and grandparents both have diabetes. I dont know the difference in types but my parents have if because of obesity, and my grandparents because of old age. I had it when I was pregnant so the docter tells me I have a even higher risk. If I would have gotten it when I was 200 plus lbs, then so be it. I swear that It takes me years to lose weight, and it takes a couple of weeks to gain it all back!! Its almost unbelievable how fast it comes on me. I honestly did the best I could, I gained the weight during pregnany. I shouldnt have gained so much, but when I took my pregnancy test after 4 wks, I had gained 10 lbs already! But anyway...(stop babbling jaymi) even if I lose all my weight and maintain it for years and years, there is no guarantee that I still won't get it, and there's nothing I can do about it. The fact that your mother had it just means that you were almost predestined to have it.... and I bet you didnt know all of that then. I do the same as far as cheat sheets go, but when you get used to it, some of the things you will memorize.

Well I got some good news, so I hope it will motivate you. All together I have lost 27 lbs, now obviously my husband can see the difference, but still he says nothing. Today he decided to take us bowling, I had to find something to wear... I didnt have anything except my favorite jeans... They are a 15/16. They are so baggy they didnt even look all that good. Also, I couldnt figure out what the heck was wrong with my bras, but duh I figured that they were too big!! YAY! But now, I have to get my hubby to search out all of my too small clothes and see which ones I can where...anyway I always wear big clothes, and sweats. But you can see that the sweats are hanging all saggy. So I know he noticed today how much I've lost. I started to just let him know, but why bother?!?! I dont need his support or his approval. I can do it all by myself!

Well good luck with everything, if you need any help looking up calories, just tell me the foods and I'll do it for you because I know that you are very busy. Anything else you might need, I'm here. Well take care!

Where are ya Holly?!?! :lol:

good morning, I'm here :D

Jayme, I was SO sorry to hear of your turmoil the other day. That certainly was so unfair of those people to complain...I know you're strong enough to shoulder it, but I also know that sometimes life just seems to overwhelm us. At those times, we've just got to realize, as Donna said, that "and this too shall pass". From your post the following day, you sounded much better; I hope that you're feeling better!

And WOW, congrats on the weight you've lost so far!! It truly is something, isn't it, that your husband hasn't commented...but yes, if you wear really baggy clothes, you're hiding in there :D do you think he could be trying to be very careful, maybe afraid to comment because he's afraid of "saying the wrong thing" (have you lost weight? you look great!) (WHAT? are you saying I WAS fat?) My husband says that he knows I'm super-sensitive about how I think I look, so he's hesitant to say ANYTHING for fear of saying the wrong thing :lol:

Donna, about the calorie counting - well, it was a pain for the first few months, 'cause I didn't have much of a clue on counts for anything. I did have to consult a little calorie-counts book for everything, but eventually I did remember what some things were, such as the frequent foods/drinks. Good idea on the "cheat sheet" your friend mentioned.

One thing that helped me was chosing one specific thing for breakfast each day; I told myself "that was breakfast, it's done, don't need to think about anything else 'til lunch" (I told my stomach, not my brain :lol: ). During the winter, it was instant oatmeal with a cut-up apple, and some cinnamon and Nutrasweet. In warmer weather, I like a cup of light yogurt with a 1/2 cup of Kashi cereal, and a cut-up orange or apple. I know the calorie counts, and just go from there.

Also, when I had something for lunch like a tuna sandwich, I would figure the calories with the tuna, the light bread, and the 1 or 2 Tablespoons of light mayo and then I would know how much one of them suckers were, for future.

And getting to know serving sizes...wow, how hard was it to accept that a serving size of rice, potato, pasta, whatever is half a cup... :eek: that's not much, is it. Or it doesn't seem like much. I actually started using a smaller dinner plate, to make the servings seem bigger. And we always have the green salad, the bagged kind such as Dole, a big serving of green salad on the plate makes you think you have more to eat. And green beans! I joked on my other thread that I was the "Green Bean Queen" 'cause they are low in calories, and filling.

Well, I'm gonna vent now :mad: in that I decided that I would try to manage to work 6 days a week, to help with bills and such...my husband had a very good job, and we accumulated bills that we could easily deal with, at the time. Now he has a much lower-paying job, but of course we have the same $$$ obligations as before. I am feeling alot of resentment, that if I work 6 days a week, I should not have to do the brunt of the household work on my one day off. He has weekends off; I work weekends. So at least push the damned vacuum cleaner around, or do a little picking up. I am fuming right now, in that MY one day off consists of making things look the way I want them to look. okay, thanks for listening :dizzy:

Isn't it great that we can blow off steam here :devil:

I hope everyone has a less-mad-than-me day! :lol: