In other news, I did make a promise to myself to better schedule my time so I can spend more time working out :D


Three cheers!

OK ladies =] Sounds liek a few of us are dealing with TOM, but next week will be a new week! And for the couple of you that remained the same weight... that's great I think.. even though we want to lose weight fast sometimes it comes off slowly.. the most important thing is for that number not to go up. =]

Don't forget... stay stress free!!
Light a candle... listen to slow songs... take a drive in the country... have a warm cup of tea... take a nap... whatever helps you relax :)

OH and due to TOM until I'm finished... I'm definitley not changing my ticker back to 177.. and def not to 178!! lol

Hii
I am deff. ready for the weekend!! I guess I'll wait till next weigh in since i just started..then ill be caught up w/ everyone. Ive been good though so far, bike riding, dance class, and gym along w/ eating healthy! jillnicole i really liked ur article about soy vs. cow milk...have any of u girls tried rice milk?? Good Karma makes a absolutely delicious chocolate rice milk (tastes just like yoohoo) and they also make a line of rice ice cream~amazing! really satisfies the TOM cravings btw..it doesnt have all the protein that soy milk has but it is a good alt. and is great in shakes where u can add maybe hemp powder(which is what i do) to get the protein.
Anyways You all have a wonderful weekend!!:goodvibes

I havn't tried rice milk yet... but I want to :)

Rice milk, imo really has no flavor, although I'll drink the rice chocolate milk.

That's just me though :D

Weigh-in today is 160.5. :)

Thank you Kindy!

Just to remind everyone today is WEIGH IN :)

I forgot to post my weight. It's 213! So I did drop last weekend's pounds, but I'm just back where I started.

Also, I just had Vietnamese food that my husband brought home (I think I wrote Thai food in my last post). It was SO good. Lemongrass tofu and spring rolls. I used to eat this meal once a month (right around TOM) when I worked near the restaurant, but now only make it every 3 or 4 months, which is probably a good thing.

Anyway, I had my delicious meal, I walked 4 miles today and I have the weekend planned full of salads and vegan bbq (seitan satay).

I only use rice milk (I don't drink it straight-just use it for cooking). But I do think the chocolate rice milk is delicious and will sometimes buy it in the winter to warm up for hot cocoa.

Have a great night!

Alright ladies!!! I went to Spiral Diner last night...and had a GREAT meal.

I had the "ate" layer burrito...which was made with taco "meat", mexican quinoa, black beans, tomato, diced red onion, avocado, corn, black olives, sour cream, and chipotle mayo. It was grilled and sealed in a lovely tortilla. I had it with a side of potato salad :D

THEN for dessert, I had a Hot Cookie Sundae...A warm chocolate chip cookie, topped with "I-scream", chocolate syrup, and whipped cream!.

:drool:

I asked them what kind of sour cream they used (because honestly it's one of the dairy products I have been trying to semi-replicate) and they said Tofutti. It tasted so close to the real thing, I was tempted to buy it. But it'd be horrible for my diet...

As if what I ate last night WASN'T. :p

THE Heather-YUM! That sounds so good!

Tofutti is definitely something to be used in moderation.

So I found out that we may be meeting a friend for lunch today. I don't know where we'll be eating, but wherever it is, I will try to get something healthy, or just eat half of something.

Ok, what do you all eat for breakfast? I'm trying to find a healthy breakfast that I can stand to eat every morning. I don't like cereal, I get bored by oatmeal. What I really like is toast and earth balance, but I'm trying to get off my bread kick. Any ideas would be appreciated!

Have fun today! I'm wishing we could all be at the beach with Heather!

I had a multi grain pancake with peanut butter and a banana :D

I LOVE Sprouted Grain bread toast (so much better for you than regular bread!) with Splenda sweetened Jam. Dickinson's makes an amazing Apricot. Steel cut oats cooked with chopped up raisins, apples and cinnamon is also pretty durn good. :) There is Silk Soy yogurt too.

Hey all :)

Thought for today...

some vegans/vegetarians don't get enough vitamin D since it is found in: milk, fortified cereals, eggs, tuna, & fish liver oils so make sure you let your body be exposed to the sun rays, your body converts a cholesterol compound in the skin to vitamin D, so aim for three 15-minute sessions of sun exposure a week. :)

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Ok another week past =] A lot of us were dealing with TOM and didn't post weights this week sooo I didn't postour weigh in... This week we're not weighing in on Friday since Sept 30th falls on Tuesday, and that is our mini goal date. SO NEXT WEIGH IN IS: TUESDAY SEPT 30th
Good luck everyone!!

Our first week's happy goal: Listen to great music and dance or sway to the beat.

Second week happy goal: No stress!

OUR NEW Third week happy goal: LOVING YOURSELF JUST THE WAY YOU ARE!! 12 things that are perfect about YOU:

1. Your checkered past. A little wild phase keeps you from having a checkered future.
2. The way you walk—it’s unique and it gets you where you’re going.
3. Your car singing voice.
4. Any funny physical quirk your sister has too. It's all part of the bond you share.
5. How your hair parts. Don't fight Mother Nature.
6. Your smile.
7. Your collarbone.
8. Your homegrown accent. Unless you're up for an Oscar, don't you dare change it.
9. Your silly sense of humor (now the only trick is finding someone else who shares it).
10. Your uncool favorite drink.
11. Your gut instincts.
12. Any body part that’s really strong —whether or not it jiggles a little.

jillnicole-I love your list! We (especially women) need to appreciate what they have instead of wasting energy on the things they don't. I just recently started appreciating my body more and the quirky things that make me ME! It only took 41 years!!

Anyway, this weekend was a bit rough as far as food/exercise goes. My neck has been bothering me for a while, and now the pain has moved down to my shoulders. I have had headaches for the last several days and I can barely move my head. So I was not able to exercise and we just ate too much food.

My mom is a massage therapist and I'm going over to her house later to see if she can help me.

I hope you all are doing better than me!! I should be back into it by tomorrow.

Have a great day, everyone!

I love the list too. The answers could be wildly different, and probably for lots of us most of them are not what might be considered ideal. But they are so perfectly imperfect. That kind of perfect would be boring. Great list, and great reminder.

In other news, I think I finally broke my little plateau! 158 on Saturday, 157, Sunday, and 156 today. I know that rate won't keep up ;) but I think I'm clearly past that 158-159 sticking point!

I just hope I'm not in for a 3 week plateau every month now!

Darby my necks been killing me to!! Actually I need to make a massage appt for this weekend!! That's great your moms a massage therapist. Hope you're feeling better soon!

Julie YAYYYYY breaking the plateau!! You go girl :) I'm so excited for you. I feel like I'm in one myself, but it's interesting how I don't feel quilty since I know I'm eating healthy and doing my best. So as long as I don't gain I'm ok for right now... it is always better for the lbs to fall off though ;) lol

I'm glad you guys like the list. I was reading GLAMOUR magazine this morning and read that... it made me feel good... and anything that makes me smile, I like to pass on to my team!

I only changed one!

It was frustrating, to be sure. But I was quite surprised that it felt kinda good. It felt *healthy.* Because I figured I was stalling out due to my body finally realizing that I was dieting and losing a lot. So the metabolism went down. It felt healthy to feed my body enough that it thought everything was cool again. My calories (on this diet) have always been a little lower than I felt great about, but I got used to it. Then with the change to vegetarian, they dropped more, unintentionally. Which worried me, but I didn't really have a quick fix. But now I'm eating more (good) fat and carbs and enjoying it, and feeling more full.

My FAVORITE 'healthy snack' is half of a wheat tortilla with 2 tbsp peanut butter and a lil squirt of honey (which could be subs. with agave nectar for vegans who don't eat honey)

Helps squish in some good calories, and soooo delicious!

I do that with tortillas, peanut butter, and honey, too! My little daughter came up with the idea of adding a banana to it -- it's good!

lol the "recipe" i found actually had bananas as the last food but I didn't have any!! how funny :)

My weight keeps dropping too, I'm pretty pleased. :)

One thing i don't like, I have been pretty sedentary for the last few months and when I exercise my heart beats like a rabbit with only a little exertion. I guess I am pretty deconditioned (out of shape!). Has anyone else had issues with a fast heart rate when they get back into exercise? Walking is fine (about 120) but going as slow as the elliptical will go has me over 160 in no time. :(

KIERR... Yeah you are doing great with your weight!! :cheer2:
Since moving to South Carolina (end of may) I definitlely fell off the exercise wagon! Then I started walking around our big block every other day trying to working up 2 or 3 times around, and added Turbo Jam.. which is fun but I was still on the Learners Video before I left to COlorado (2 weeks after getting TurboJam) so then being gone for 2 weeks did nothing. Since I've been back I've done 1 lap around the big block.. and I swear I feel like I'm 80. It's crazy lol

SO I TOTALLY FEEL YA!! But I have faith is all of us!! Week by week you should add a little more and soon we will be dancing all night long ;)

So how was everyones weekend? Hope you're all doing good!!!

It's nice to know I am not alone! I swear it is amazing how fast you can get out of shape! I feel 80 too, and it makes me paranoid! LOL It's nice to know I am not the only one. :)

Before I started exercising, losing weight and eating better, I was winded and had a high heart rate with very little activity, not even exercise. Made me feel 80 instead of 39, er .... 29 ;).

I LOVE being fit.

I hear those of you who have "fallen off the exercise wagon!" I also recently moved (the whole way across the country almost - from northeast to southwest!) and have been a total bum since I got here. In fact I gained about 5 lbs and let me tell you, I did NOT bring my fat clothes along, so I need to get rid of that pronto! If I keep going this direction, I won't have any clothes that fit.

jillnicole, I had to laugh about your "feeling like 80 years old," that's definitely me when I attempt to exercise right now! But even a walk around the block is good and I need to get on that as well!

I'm really bad about falling off the workout wagon. I'll do great for a few months and then get lazy, and it's SO hard to get back into it, because I huff and puff and feel just awful until I manage to work my way back up to a respectable level of fitness.

My neck and shoulder still hurt, (but the other side now--weird) so I might just go for a walk around the block later. I would love to get regular massages. I think it would really help.

Thanks for the breakfast ideas. I'm making a list for my next shopping trip. Can someone tell me why steel cut oats are better than other types?

They're less refined that instant. They're supposed to be MUCH tastier. I had some once that were really good. But recently I went through a container of steel cut oats and didn't love them. Seemed to mushy to me, even when not overcooked. I like some real chew to my food. I'm pretty OK with Old Fashioned Rolled Oats, but not the instant. The instant is also mush. Right now I'm using Silver Palate's Thick & Rough - I like it. It's rolled oats, but, well, thicker & rougher. But expensive considering that I have it 5 days a week. So I may go back to old fashioned.

I really like the steel cut ones better. If they are not over cooked then they are usually chewier and the smell when they are cooking is heavenly! Try to soak them overnight (according to directions) and then in the morning add some cut up apple, raisins, cinnamon and Splenda, cook for 10 minutes. It's wonderful! :)

Tonight my husband and I walked for about 45 minutes outside. it was so nice! I have little blisters now and a couple new bug bites but it made me feel healthy! :) It is just going to take time before I can use the elliptical with confidence I think. :) Rome wasn't built in a day!

Hey girls, sorry I've been m.i.a. for a few days. I got back into town Monday night and brought a cold with me. I'm just not feeling up to much of anything. I haven't worked out but haven't really eaten much either so hopefully it'll balance out!

So ladies I'm wondering if we should be the halloween veggie challengers.. or the 80 year olds LOL
Good morning everyone!


FATCHICKBGONE.... Welcome back :)

Because of my move, I don't have access to a scale on the weigh-in day, but I did step on today. I'm at 157.4, a loss of 1.1 lbs. Don't know if I can lose 1.6 lbs. by Sept. 30, but I'm happy that the scale is going down. I guess I could cut out that glass of wine I've been having every evening after a day of painting and unpacking. :)

Good job Sheila!!! :) You're doing great!

Sheila-good job on losing while you're moving! In 2001 I lost 20 lbs in 2 months and gained all of it back in a cross country move!

Iris-you'll get it off! Hang in there!

Heather-hope you're feeling better.

Well, I'm not sure where I'm at here. I haven't worked out this week because of my back problems, but I'm going to get out today and at least walk around the block! The days are getting shorter and cooler (there's snow forecast for the weekend in the mountains), so if I want to get out, now is the time to do it!

Alright, I'm going to hang out my laundry and go for a walk. I think I'm going to call to make a massage appointment on Saturday.

Have a great day, everyone!

Hii girls,

Just checkin in to say hello!So far so good w/ me staying on track..i just have to work on my in between picking...even if its healthy its extra calories i don't need!! I just started logging my food and exercise in "mydailyplate" @ livestrong~I find its really helpful to see the calories and to check my protein and fiber. It tells you how many calories to have in order to lose 1lb or 2lbs a week...very cool site! I'm going to my weekly dance class tonight..its soo much fun and the hour goes by sooo fast I dont realize I'm exercising! Have a great rest of the day!!:D

DARBY... Did you ever see anyone about your back?

CHICKPEA... Sounds like you're doing great!! Hope you have fun at dance class! =]

Hey Girls,

jillnicole-I haven't done anything about my back yet (except take lots of aspirin) but it feels a lot better this morning. I tried to get in with a massage therapist for Saturday, but she was booked up. I'll try to get in with her next week.

Chickpea-dance class sounds like fun!

Well, yesterday I went out to take a walk. I was only planning on walking around the block which is about 2 miles. I ended up walking 5 miles! The day was so nice, the fall colors are coming out and I found a trail I never knew existed. Unfortunately the trail just came to a dead-end after about 2 miles. I thought it might loop around or at least come out at a road, but no. It just ended in somebody's backyard. So I had to trespass across peoples yards to get to a road. It was crazy. But I enjoyed it so much I'm going to do it again tomorrow (but I'll bring water this time!). According to my pedometer I walked over 11,000 steps.

Food was on track yesterday too. Well, I'm still having issues with breakfast (toast and fake bacon), but once I go grocery shopping I'm going to buy some healthier alternatives. I made rice, veggies and Asian tofu last night. It was so good. I've never had luck with marinating and cooking tofu, but whatever I did last night turned out great.

Alright, I need to start getting ready for my day. Have a wonderful day, everyone!