I had another bad day yesterday. I'm feeling so much better today though. Junk food sounds gross today for some reason. I went to the gym for an hour this morning and did an advanced step aerobics class. So far to eat I've had Kashi oatmeal, an orange, and a blackberry fat free yogurt. I'm planning on making Salmon for supper tonight, which I've never made. I hope it turns out O.K. I'm sure my son will let me know if it's not. I made him chocolate chip pancakes this morning and he was in heaven. I resisted them, by the way, yeah!

Paige-Hope your allergies are better!

Kerry-Your cake sounded yummy! I'm glad you're loving the fitness routine.

Robin and Judy-Congrats on the 2 pounds!!!!!

Welcome Rebecca!!!!!

Lori-That bike workout sounds great. I've read that bicycling is one of the highest calorie burn workouts that you can do. My 45 minute spin class is supposed to burn between 400-800 calories.

Marie-WOW-4 pounds!!!! That's awesome!

Hope everyone has a great day!!!!

Lori- Have you read this article yet? It's a good one.


Why the Scale Lies

We’ve been told over an over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can’t resist peeking at that number every morning. If you just can’t bring yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that influence it’s readings. From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations are normal. They are not indicators of your success or failure. Once you understand how these mechanisms work, you can free yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom scale.

Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body’s water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don’t understand what’s happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hang onto it’s water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water.

Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it’s easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food doesn’t have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts, 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a high sodium content. That’s why, when it comes to eating, it’s wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners.

Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a minimum.

Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it’s packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it’s stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with it’s associated water. It’s normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss, although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic weigh-ins if you’re prone to obsessing over the number on the scale.

Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it’s wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It’s the actual weight of everything you’ve had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you’ve finished digesting it.

Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than your body is able to burn. In other words, to actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This is not likely, in fact it’s not humanly possible. So when the scale goes up 3 or 4 pounds overnight, rest easy, it’s likely to be water, glycogen, and the weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500 calorie rule works in reverse also. In order to lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in. Generally, it’s only possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop 10 pounds in 7 days, it’s physically impossible for all of that to be fat. What you’re really losing is water, glycogen, and muscle.

This brings us to the scale’s sneakiest attribute. It doesn’t just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water, internal organs and all. When you lose "weight," that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve lost fat. In fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you’ve lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns, even when you’re just sitting around. That’s one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat considerably more food than the dieter who is unwittingly destroying muscle tissue.

Robin Landis, author of "Body Fueling," compares fat and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The problem with the scale is that it doesn’t differentiate between the two. It can’t tell you how much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how much is fat. There are several other measuring techniques that can accomplish this, although they vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater) weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your lungs before being lowered into a tank of water, and bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which your body fat impedes a mild electrical current.

If the thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently zapped just doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry. The best measurement tool of all turns out to be your very own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements of success. If you are exercising and eating right, don’t be discouraged by a small gain on the scale. Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to happen and take them in stride. It’s a matter of mind over scale.

Great article Kim!!! I think that's your biggest post over here yet !!!

It's obvious I have increased endoruance, but my butt is more than a little sorry I pushed so hard on the bike! I think I may have to avoid that bad boy tonight!! At any rate, yes my muscles and body are SLOWLY transforming, I can see the muscles peaking out of my upper body, but that spare tire thing around my gut has got to go!! See what kills me is everybody says measure, measure, measure! But I lose inches in some really weird places, like my feet, hands, face, and yes what little bit of boobs I have! I didn't measure any of those things! So sometimes the tape measure dosen't tell the whole story either!

I'll write more later, I have to cook dinner now!

Boy do I feel like a dork! Ya know I just hate being wrong, after Kim's informative article, and my friend Rachel giving me an ear beating I think I'm getting a little too much sodium. And I thougt I was doing so good picking out low fat foods, well I guess I got carried away with being a busy full time working stiff. I have had at least one (usually 2) meals a day for the past 2 weeks that came from a can or a bag! Like tomato soup, tuna, and my favorite frozen chicken stir fry! OOpppsss, I think I better get back to dicing and slicing my own food and save the cans for when I'm really pressed for time! Can you say DORKARELLA!!! Yea, that would be me the one who never admits when she's wrong, so mark this one up on the calender!!! And to think, I was blaming it on the protien smoothies being too many calories! Well I'll behave the rest of the week and see where that gets me! If I'm still having a problem next week we may have to look at my new smoothie intake!!!

Good evening chickies!

Welcome Rebecca!

Lori - I didn't measure anything and wish I would have. I've used my clothing as an indication of inches lost. I too have lost so much in my boobs and face and other weird places only to have this donut still hanging out around my gut. Grrr... this has been my solid inspiration for working out regularly from now on. I sure hope we can do this. . . I'm starting to worry.

Kim - I hope you were able to get back on the wagon today. Try to start fresh and stay away from those high calorie carbs! Eat more fruit!

Paige - I'm glad the yoga is going well for you and it sounds like you're really enjoying it. Honestly I'm intimidated by all the fitness classes, but yoga would give me fits!

Marie! Way to go!!! That's quite a loss! Keep it up! You'll have those seven off in no time - I know you can do it to

Judy - that's great that you lost 2 while traveling. You're really staying on plan and doing so well! How did the potluck go?

Robin - A two pound loss is AWESOME!!! You're going to be below 190 in a matter of days!

It sounds like many of us are suffering from allergies. I thought my nose was the size of a baseball when I went to bed last night. I took so much decon and allergy meds if you could od on the stuff I would've. It's really put me down. I have managed to make it to the gym twice this week so far - Mon and today. I did mostly cardio tonight and I'm trying to push myself: 15 minutes on the elyptical, 10 minutes on the bike and 10 minutes working abs HARD. I laid off the weights today bc I'm suffering a bit and need to do some serious stretching. I'm really starting to feel it though in all kinds of places!

Good news - DH passed his portfolio review for specialization and is officially at Junior Interior Design level! I am so happy for him and relieved! He's almost done for the semester and I can't wait.

Well I'm off for now. I'll check back in tomorrow. Keep it up ladies - We're doing great!!!

I knew someone was missing - - - JOETTA!! Are you out there? I hope you're hanging in there hun and we see you soon.

Hi chickes. We’ve made it through Wednesday and are officially on the downward slide to weekend. I do love weekends. Being back on track food, water and exercise wise has made the weekends even better because I’m not wanting (or doing) to munch all weekend long. I’m so focused that I don’t even think much about food. That is a real accomplishment since usually when I diet I obsess about what my next meal will be. Now I’m finding that eating is sort of a pain in the neck since I don’t want to cook for myself. When DH comes home on Saturday, we’ll see if I stay as focused. I sure hope so.

Kim, you can get back on track and leave those cookies in the dust. We all have days that we lose it so you’re really not alone. Thanks on the congrats. That felt just as good as the losing weight did. I just truly love how supportive we are. And that article was great. I knew about the water and sodium, but I didn’t know about the glycogen. That was really interesting.

Lori, I finally figured out that I’m lucky. I gain weight all over and I lose weight all over. Proportionately, I fit the sizes on the labels. I definitely have realized with 3FC that I’m lucky. That would be hard to work your *** off only to lose it only in your chest and feet. I wish I could give you some of my proportions since I have big boobs that tend not to want to shrink a lot.

Kerry, I also have allergies and asthma. I take my meds year round but they can’t quite cover the symptoms in the spring. Living in the desert (where it’s currently downpouring) has helped, but they’re still there. I sure hope you feel better soon. Congrats to hubby on reaching that level. That’s just so cool for you. Oh, BTW, I bought a lotto ticket to take us all to Hawaii and I lost. I guess your luck didn’t rub off here. I think you’ve got to buy it.

Well, that’s about it for now. I’ll chat with you all tomorrow.
Marie

Another short post... I feel lousy and my allegra d hasn't kicked in yet!! Just wanted you all to know that I had been catching up on the day. The kids just went to bed and I think I am headed in that direction. Tomorrow is WI so wish me luck!! Hopefully it will be a good one and end this holding pattern I have been in all month. I'll check back in tomorrow. Hopefully the allegra will have kicked in and I will feel a little more chatty. Have a great evening ladies.

Paige - with the WI today!!!

BTW - I have cash in my purse and I'm going to buy some lottery tickets tonight - Promise!

Kerry, don't forget to cut us all in if you win the lottery, since it was our idea for you to buy tickets!

Paige, I hope you're feeling better! I took my long walk this morning, across the Memorial Bridge and along the Potomac River, and was quite sniffly afterwards. I've had a bit of a sinus headache off and on since Tuesday afternoon, but not enough to knock me out.

Marie, congratulations on the big loss

Rebecca, your food plan sounds great, not like a 'diet' at all, just using common sense. Good luck!

Kim, thanks for the article. I hate how we beat ourselves up over what registered on the scale, instead of looking at the size of our bodies, or valuing how we feel. I weigh myself every morning because it reminds me of my goal, and try to not to let the number determine what mood I'll be in for the rest of the day.

Lori--Dorkarella? I don't think so! I was really diggin' these new Savvy Faire frozen dinners, until I figured out what it is that I like so much about them (besides the hefty portion sizes and liberal use of healthy fats): a very high sodium content! I've stopped buying them, and I make sure to drink extra water on days I have Lean Cuisines or Progresso soup.

My potluck last night was cancelled, as the hostess was ill. So now I have a freezer full of seafood burgers and a lot of homemade tartar sauce! I'm heading to New York tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

judy

Okay ladies, in my opinion the month of April has sucked lemons, big time. I can't wait for May to be here. First I turned 40, got hives from head to toe, gained 4lbs due to TOM (which was also 3 weeks late), and if that wasn't enough I have only lost 10ounces in the month of April except for the 4lb gain that I lost. I stay on plan. I have been so good!!! And this just SUCKS!!! ok...vent is over.....

Kerry- Good luck with those lotto tickets!!!!

Judy- I have also really been trying to stay away from frozen entrees for lunch. You think your doing such a great job by eating them, but if you really look at the label...WOW...not such a good thing after all.

Allergies don't seem to be so bad today...but I'm not impressed with my allegra d. I'll check back later if hubby will let me back on.

Well, I did good with the exercise today. I did a very intense 45 minute step aerobics class today, then ran 1 mile, walked 1 mile, 15 minutes on the stairclimber, then some weights, whew! My food choices have been about the same. I swear sweet stuff is an addiction for me. Here is what I've decided to do.....totally abstain from anything sweet except for fruit and 1 fudgelite bar per day (sweetened with Splenda and 35 calories). You know how alcoholics have to abstain from alcohol. I'm pretty sure that's what I need to do with sweet stuff. I've got a real problem with it. I can't wait to start seeing the pounds come off. I've looked back through my Fitday and that's the reason I've not been losing. I'll let you guys know each day if I'm following through. I need ya'll to hold me accountable. The first 2 weeks will be hard, but I can do it. Well, this is my new goal. Wish me luck! I've got to get ready for work-we have the dreaded potluck tonight. Have a great night!

Judy, enjoy New York and your freezer full of seafood burgers. Nothing like having a ton of the same food to eat. At least seafood is a healthy choice for you.

Kim, you can do it on the sweets. Go cold turkey and you'll succeed. Good job on the exercise.

Paige, I hope you start to feel better. I found with allegra, it's best to take it year round. It works great for me that way.

Kerry, I have my lotto ticket too. If either of us wins, it's off to Hawaii for the full time working stiffs.

I've been good on my diet today, even with going out to lunch. Water intake is good, not great. Just not thirsty today, I guess.

\TTYL,
Marie

I LOVE FRIDAYS!!! They are just the best!

I've been slightly busy this week so I haven't had as much time to chat !

I have my workout clothes on and I'm going to jump in before I lose the mood, I really over worked my legs Tue. and I had to give them a 2 day break. They all better today so back to the squats!! My weight is really not looking much better on the DUMB scale, but that's ok I guess everybody hits a platue now and again! How many weeks were you stuck Kerry??

Marie, if I forgot, way to go on the weight loss!!!

Paige, I sometimes get allergy problems, but mine are in the fall when the leaves are falling (my favorite time of the year) and I'm living off nose spray and advil cold and sinus.

Kim, pass some of the energy my way ! YOU CAN DO IT!! (what was that movie) any way I'm sure you can get past your sugar-holic cravings!!!

Judy, have a great time in NY! Yea, those pre-made dinners can be a real problem if you eat tooo many!!!

Ok, I'm going to work out! I'll be back later!

Good Morning!! I hope everyone has fabulous plans for today!!! I had planned on taking the kids to the park but it is really windy and looks like it might rain. Maybe the outlook will get better as the day goes on. They were really looking forward to it.

I feel a little better, maybe the allegra d is starting to work. Glad today is the last day of April!! I'm looking forward to May so I can get out of this April rut.

I need to do a few errands today like going to the grocery store and DD needs a special pair of dance tights for her recital. They are taking pics on Wednesday so I need to find them today.

I still have alot of stuff in the freezer from what I cooked last weekend, but I might fix a few more things today just to add some more variety this week. Hopefully I can get some exercise in this weekend since I am feeling alittle better.

I will try to check in again sometime today. Enjoy the day ladies!!!