Hi all. No time to post now and I still have no challenge decided on. Soon, though, I'll try. The last thing I can deal with right now is a(nother) challenge! :(

The blahs are still firmly entrenched. NOT the blues, just the blahs. Next week is back to work, which should get me off my duff.

So far, still doing okay on water (Day 12, 2 pause days left). But today may be the third pause for exercise, at the rate I'm going, and I've only got one wine/choc pause left. :( It's not looking good for success on anything but the water, but hey, what ya' gonna do, right? Sure do wish I could find that darned mojo!!!

This week it has been wet and warm here. Freezing rain, then rain, now just big grey puddles. All my plans for skiing and skating gone. Another few degrees and I can just go swim in the damned puddles. Grrrr. At this rate, it'll be two years in a row with no proper winter sports. And yes, I know I could just go out and walk. But I don't want to. So there.

Time to go forage for fattening foods. ;)

Hey all...
Day 4 on exercise done. I almost took a pause day but forced myself to step since it's just too early in the challenge to pause....
I don't know if I'll even bother to try the no beer challenge again....ooo I can hear Red now...:coach: :nono: It's just that DH came home from the store with not one, not two, but THREE 6 packs:devil: But like I said, he's going to be away a bit this month so I WILL try again. Just not today....

Wondering...Derry? Are you still out there? Hope you are well!

day 15

1284 calories
15 min gazelle

Hey all. REal quick post. Did not make it to the gym today. Twice in one week - not good. But, have my bags all packed for the morning, so have no excuse whatsoever.

Challenge 1 - did not buy any junk food for work.

Challenge 2 - no caffeinated soda. Did get a decaf diet, but hope to not tomorrow.

Have a good day all.

Gahh! Officially using up my final pause day here on what should have been day 10 of my water challenge - that means I have to get through the entire second half of my challenge without a break - I can do it. I will do it.

I played hockey again tonight - I was really hurting from yesterday so I didn't play as hard and I only played one game - I got the beejeeburs knocked out of my thumb, though - it's going to be awesomely purple in the morning, I think.

OOh I discovered an excellently tasty evening snack - 1 c. 1% fat milk, 1/2 c. frozen strawberries, 3 tablespoons Rich Chocolate Ovaltine and a few ice cubes in the blender - it's like all the good parts of strawberry milk and a chocolate milkshake. YUM!

THE SCALE WILL NOT BUDGE! Yesterday it was at 229 and this morning it was back up to 230 - I know that weight fluctuates throughout the day and over the course of a few days, but I also know that I have been stalled at 230ish for the whole week! I fear I won't make it to my goal by sunday - I am at the dread miniplateau and I am also approaching the PMS bloat time...Hopefully in the morning or on saturday the magic "whoosh" weightloss will happen that usually comes after a brief plateau....I'll just have to wait and see.


Keep on Truckin!
Erin :carrot:

howdy all....
 

Red - back it up now! You really should be doing this every week or so you know. I didn't use to until I lost nearly everything when a virus attacked my old computer. I lost all my hundreds of photos - many of which were replaceable because they were old fashioned film, but the digital ones were gone forever except for the ones I had uploaded onto webshots. I spent a long time re-scanning and downloading. I hate to think how far over the limit of downloading megabytes I was at the end of it. Blah on the monitor. I have one here that you could have had if we were somewhat closer.

Carla - is that where you have disappeared to..... puddle jumping. Been missing you. One thing that does keep me on track is having to face the good folk on the threads after a bad day.

Sounds like we are all feeling somewhat down and out at the moment. In most cases it sounds like mid winter blues. In my case it is too much summer heat and humidity coupled with being a whirling dervish in the housework department. Still the worst is now over as far as sanding and cleaning goes. I will finish the cleanup tomorrow morning. From there on I can start the plastering and there will only be light sanding from then on. By next week I should be onto the painting. Can't wait for that.

Day 10 is done. Water challenge met. Food just on the good side of okay.

Shad, I don't know how!!! Tell me, please!

My back has been hurting awfully over the last few days. :( The day before I tried to get on the stationary bike and barely lasted 2 mins. Yesterday was a bit better, but only by another minute or two. Today I challenged myself to practice new-old things in the swimming pool - that doesn't hurt my back. And haven't been eating sweets either. But I guess Red will still pronounce my two challenges as lost... right?

Back up by saving the files to disc or CDRom depending on what you have installed. Orclick My Computer, click Help from the menu bar and seach for back up from your desktop just in case your system has a built in back up system for you to use.

hmmm...
 

Do you have a CD rom Drive?

Yes, in the computer and an external one, but I don't know if that one is hooked up right? When I put an empty CD in the regular drive it doesn't show up on my desktop. I have a Mac, btw.

What happens if you save a file to the cd drive?

I don't know. You see, with a MAC, if the CD doesn't come up on the desktop there's no way to save it to the drive. That's a problem with Macs. Shad, it's ok. I'll try to get a ZIP drive hooked up or something. But, heh, if you got any ideas, send me an email. I'll send you an email in case you don't have my address anymore. Thanks though!

***

Whoops. Guess that wasn't going to work. Mail came back. You must have changed your address. Here goes a PM.

A(1) Water Challenge- Day 12
B(2) SB1 Challenge- Day 12
C(3) The Firm Challenge- Day 12

Day #2 Exercise Challenge

13 mins. of interval training....(good thing I did it early, because when I came in from walking the dog at 730...there were 5 crisis messages on my machine!)

guys. I am sorry I've been very busy this week with no time to report. No weight loss this week as well, but for the most part I continued with my challenges. I will report later on tonight. Off to work, too much to do.
miss you all.

Oh sorry, I didn't explain it well - I did try to do the exercises that make up my other challenge, and managed about 1/3, the standing up part. Forget laying down on the floor and lifting my legs up or trying to do crunches. :( This sucks - I was going to go skating on Thursday, and another oportunity isn't going to come any time soon... No sweets was part of the first challenge, yes, the one that could not be split.
Anyhow, the swimming was good, I learned to dive and do flops and such stuff! :D And did some laps too. It seems to have helped my back, so I'll try doing the exercises and the bike today.

My third challenge - eating fruit each day - is going fine, I think I'm on Day 3.

A(1) Water Challenge- Day 13
B(2) SB1 Challenge- Day 12 *PAUSE*
C(3) The Firm Challenge- Day 13


It's my birthday and I'm having dessert tonight!

Red, if you're worried about losing your work, maybe you should email it to yourself as an attachment from time to time? And even if the monitor fails, why would that hurt your info on hard drive? (I know next to nothing about computers so should just keep my trap shut. But I'm convinced the email idea is a good one...)

Water challenge day 10 is in the bag. I did so well today - we had mexican food for lunch...that's usually my downfall, but I got a lightened version of my favorite dish...

my favorite is the "ramon special", which is 2 grilled chicken breasts with sauteed onions, cheese sauce, spanish rice, pico de gallo and french fries...and we usually split a basket of chips before hand.

What I ate TODAY was - ONE grilled chicken breast with sauteed onions, spanish rice, pico de gallo and salsa, with cheese sauce on the side so I could just dip my fork in and drizzle it on (I ate LESS than half of the cheese!!) and five small tortilla chips with salsa. - Oh...and I ate two bites of my boyfriend's refried beans (small bites).

It was soooo hard not to dive face first into that basket of chips and order extra sour cream and cheese sauce like I used to, but it felt SOOOO good to eat my lunch and enjoy it and not feel like a bloated wad of salt and grease when we left.

Okay so I have to admit that my mexican restaraunt triumph was offset by a bit of a...well... a mashed potatoes and gravy slip earlier in the day - I am very sore from playing hockey and needed to take some medicine - the lunch ladies had just put out the mashed potatoes and the gravy and I thought "I'll just have a few bites".... It was, I'll admit, more than a few bites...I very nearly did a bellyflop into the gravy pan...but even with that I managed to keep my calories under my max of 1800, so i don't feel like the day was a failure.

Keep on Truckin!
Erin :carrot:

yesterday was day 16 for me yesterday.. and it was a pause day.. i am sure my calories were ok but my dad had surgery.. so i stayed at the hos[ital all day and then stayed at my moms last night.. so no gazelle..

Attention!! Attention!! Attention!! Attention!!
 

Work out and Wash out!!
 

http://www.3fatchicks.com/weight-tra...8/150/207/.png

My daughter graduates from college in May and I want to be down 35 pounds before that date with an ultimate goal of 150. To kick off the weight loss my 21 day goal is to do some form of exercise once a day and drink 64+ ounces of water each day. Wish me luck!!

I did have to pause after all,and then yesterday was day 5. My Friday weigh in was a bust:kickcan: No gain at least, but I really need to find some motivation. I need to stop eating so much :eating2: and exercise even more. I can still lose 6 or so pounds by the Super Bowl (Feb 5) if I get serious. And that would put me in the 40's which would be awesome. So hopefully I'll get my act together. Have a nice week-end everyone!

Good Morning! How is everyone's weekend starting out. Mine is good, except I have a sick child. He's been sick for three days now. Not to sick, just a slight fever, and coughing. I'm pretty sure he's on the recovery track now. DH and I had a good time at dinner last night, I was still in bed by 8:30 pm though. I'm going out to a dueling piano bar with friends tonight. It should be fun.

Good morning, all. I am so disgusted with myself and about to get back on track. Expect the new thread any time now and I'll be on a new challenge soon after. I have been pigging on junk like I actually deserved it or something! :eek:

Morning all,

Day 11 is done for water, however there is yet another pause day for food. I went to the DS2's 30th birthday bash last night and suffice to say there was not a piece of fruit to be seen apart from on top of the pavlova and few of the salads had any green veg in them. Most were heavy on the mayo as well. I tried the best I could, but there is no denying it was not a good day for food. I mean three people brought him a birthday cake!
I have decided that as far as food goes, I need to get organised and prepare a list beforehand. Buy only the food on the list, prepare and freeze it to eat as required. Otherwise I just snack from the fridge. I.m going to have to be really strong if I want to even match last months tracker figures.

*sigh* - sometimes it seem all too hard. Despite regular exercise, despite all this water, despite being good most of the time, nothing is moving around here, apart from time. *sigh*

me & my Chai Boy!
 

me and my walking partner ... just incase u were curious to put a face to a name! and also good for scaring away mice! LMAO


Day 16---------->

Gazelle 30 min
calories 1176

A(0/1) Water Challenge- Day 13 *PAUSE*
B(0/2) SB1 Challenge- Day 12 *PAUSE*
C(2/3) The Firm Challenge- Day 13 *PAUSE*


The Seahawks won though so it's still a good day!

so it is early eve on a saturday night.
i am home alone and noone in sight...
no places to go, no people to see
nothing to do, nowhere to be

Finally after almost an entire week i am able to catch up. Thanking for missing me, I missed ooohhh soooo much this week. I missed the motivation.
Monday began by an exB meeting me at my doorstep and taking directly to dinner. Tuesday followed with an invite from another guy, but I was strong, I insisted on a workout prior, and then when he called I was still in the process. I suggested to reschedule, because I was not about to leave, and he agreed. I feel zero regret on that, I did want to see him, but for once I clearly felt "my life was more important to me" than seeing some guy. Instead when I got home we talked on the phone for a few hours, and I was super great as I ate no dinner. Actually this is sort of a new trend, I eat no dinner if I workout, often don't want to eat, sometimes too lazy to cook. Thur, and Fri were super tiring days at work with training and late conf. calls with India and Japan. I was tired but did not overeat, except last night. Went to see friends they cooked and it was late and was with too much oil, but I had two glassess of wine and was absolutely relaxed, so I had to eat... and that had killed my challenge. My russian forum also did a move over the weekend and a day earier than planned, so I lost every single personal message..I am still very mad....very mad ...very mad (felt like writing it multiple times)
my exB came today and took me to the same indian place, to celebrate a few things. BTW He was offered a job at webshots, they are in SF, and are planning to do a few cool things...*Shad you use them right?
I am beat, borred and lonely. It is cold, rainy, and dark. Tomorrow is a new day 1 for everything, and I am not worried, challenges help me stay on track, and even once completed, I will need to do them over - probably like 3 times...
I miss you guys. I am sorry for being so weak.

great pics. You do look so much as your avatar!

cbeta ty.. u might want to get some whey protein powder and mix it with skim milk or fruit juice after your exercise when u dont feel like putting a meal in your stomach.. when u eat more proten it creates more lean muscle on your body & makes u feel full plus is good for you

Weighed in at 135.5 lbs this morning! :cheer: :cheer: :cheer:
Really surprising, given how little exercise I got in this past week, but so cool! :)

Anyhow, my back has been better. I took the weekend easy as well - that is, no stationary bike, but I swam both days and went for a hike on Sunday. However, I did my 10 mins on the bike this morning. :)

Now I'm not sure whether to count the past few days into the 21-day challenge? I did exercise, but the exercises weren't what the challenge prescribed... so I'd say no? Red, shed some light here please. :)

Here's how my challenges stand:

1. No sweets & 10 mins stationary bike (level 3)
Completed Day 13 last Tuesday, January 10th, and then my back hurt Wednesday till Saturday, and I didn't do the bike. I had no sweets other than a tiny bite of a chocolate fudge (got it for my boyfriend, and he wouldn't eat it unless I shared at least a tiny bit with him!).
So not counting the swimming done over the last few days, I'm on Day 14 today, and no free days left.

2. Exercises for thighs and abs (level 2)
Completed Day 8 on Tue, January 10th. So same as above, not counting the swimming, it's Day 9 today, and I believe I still have one pause day left.

3. Fruit eating challenge (level 1, one pause day left)
Started this one on January 10th, today is Day 7.

And I think I'll start running again in the next few days. The reason why I haven't started yet is because I was worried I would not be able to do it every day, especially since now I can enjoy the outdoor swimming pool... In the end, I decided to take up skipping as a side exercise for days when I don't go running. I'll work out the details as soon as I have a better idea about my work schedule for the next few weeks.

ETA I put level 4 for challenge no 2! :lol:

Sushi -- You can't keep asking me to decide for you when you know you've done things differently from what you said or when you think you've gone outside the challenge rules. YOU know when you've not been true to the challenge rules. :nono: Just start over if you have to. That's what everyone does. Change the wording and start over. You have to learn what works for you and, in doing so, you will have to have a bit of trial and error. I think you just had the wrong wording for what would work for you and it sounds like you didn't really want to do what you initially said you would with GOOD reason. It probably was not suitable for you or your lifestyle. There's nothing bad about starting over. What makes the challenge work is keeping things simple and sticking to it. Rules are what make habits and sometimes too much choice, in other words, unclear rules, can set you up for failure. But, you also have to do things that are viable with your lifestyle. You'll notice I don't do a challenge that says 30 mins of sweat-producing exercise a day, because, though I would love to, I know my work and schedule won't always allow for that. But I could say, "some sort of exercise for 30 mins every day." But, for me, that wouldn't be a challenge because I do that anyhow. You have to decide. But, I do think you should stick to what you've made. But, look, just change the wording a bit. Don't make things so specific in the first place. There is nothing that says it has to be specific, just that it has to be [i]every day[/]. the challenge is not supposed to be everything that you are doing in your life as far as weight loss, exercise and nutrition goes. It's supposed to help put a bit of structure into your life in certain areas. The rest you can do on your own. The challenge part is just to keep you a bit focused, accountable and coming in here and talking to us! :yes: You're doing fine. Keep up the good work! :sunny:

Thanks Red :)
I know, being overly specific is something I struggle with a bit in life. :p:
Anyhow, thanks. :) :hug: I just wanted to make sure I wasn't bending the rules or anything...

Good Sushi! It's not so much that being specific is bad, I guess, as it is you have to learn to tailor things, which, yes, could mean in this case, that you will want to be a bit more encompassing with your wording. Sometimes, for example, you need to be real specific just to get back on track. Other times, and it can be much harder, you can change your wording of a new challenge to allow yourself more choice. I know when I've been pigging out on sugar, I usually go for an allout ban over a cutting-back kind of thing because I know I, in my weaker times, tend to be an all-or-nothing type of person. But then I will stick to it or try to at least! ;) You have a great attitude and remember, your challenge is for YOU. Tailor it to meet your needs and your personality. Just do it within the rules so you can be a part of everyone, who is also following certain rules to stay in the game. Don't lose sight of the woods for the trees with any challenge. If you are getting in exercise, that is the important thing. But, do change your wording just to maintain the challenge's structure.

I thought I had posted last night, but apparently not! So day 12 for water and day 11 for food.

I have a fair idea about what that next challenge is to be now. It's menu planning so I know what I can buy, how many cals I am consuming etc. etc. Besides which planning is good for the budget and there are some bills coming up and no money coming in. AAAH back to the poor house AGAIN.