Okay, last week was the first week that I posted with you guys. I started off my postings with a whine about how I am not losing weight, so I figured I should update my progress.

Last week was probably 80% good. Let's see - I ate on plan 5 days (I am a calorie counter, and my plan last week was to eat between 1,350-1,550 per day). I exercised a total of 615 minutes - most of those minutes was walking kinda slow, so that is not as impressive as it sounds, but I did get three Jillian circuit training workouts in there too. I think that I walked a total of 20 miles. I lost 1.5 lbs last week, weighed in Saturday.

I would say that last week was an excellent week except for one out and out binge and one mini binge.

One of the mini binges happened early in the week, and it wasn't all that bad. In other words, my calorie count for the day was less than 2,000, although not a lot less than that. But Saturday - oops!

I had the best of intentions that day. I knew that I was taking my sister out to a steakhouse for her birthday (her second birthday dinner that week. The first one, I was really good). And I had intended to get salmon and one glass of white wine. And stay on plan the rest of that day.

Well, what happened was this - I ate ice cream for lunch. I was out with my parents, and my dad insisted on going to get ice cream, which I didn't want. But got a junior scoop of Rocky Road and decided to skip lunch to make up for it. Which was okay, because I had a greek yogurt with strawberries around 4 PM to prepare myself for that night, so that I wouldn't be hungry.

So far, so (relatively) good. At the steakhouse, it was really expensive and I am on a limited budget, so the only thing affordable for me was the chicken quesadilla, so I got that. Unfortunately, I busted my budget, monetarily and calorie-wise, by ordering 3 glasses of wine. I shared my sister's wedge salad (creamy dressing, bacon bits, blue cheese), and mopped up the salad dressing with bread. Also had half the loaf of bread with butter. Well, the dessert tray comes around and I'm like "what the ****, I am already rolling, might as well" - and ordered the cannoli filled with chocolate grenache. Delicious! Oh, well, it could have been worse - I could have ordered the triple chocolate cake that looked absolutely divine.

Get back to my parent's house (I am staying with them while I am in town) - and there are Krispy Kreme donuts. I decided to keep the binge going until midnight - and had two of those suckers. And a few vanilla cream wafers. And some leftover chicken. And basically whatever I could get my hands on. I gave myself a midnight cutoff, because the binge was only going to be limited to that day and that day only.

Sunday, I woke up and felt pretty much like **** and got right back onto plan.

This week - I will stay on plan 100% of the time. I will walk 20 miles and do 4 circuit trainings.

Hey Angela, glad to hear from you! hope you're feeling better. missed you too babes!!

Hi Hydra! nice to hear from you too

Hi Jillianfan, nice for you to give us an update!

well done on keeping your calories in check and 615 minutes is VERY IMPRESSIVE

well done on your 1.5lb loss ! thats fantastic

oh i hear ya on the binge! i had a major binge attack yesterday aswell! ate 1000 calories OVER my daily calorie and it was just junk food! hot chocolate and doritos.500 calories just from doritos!! i dont know why i did it. i know why, cause i love doritos. anyways not buying anymore and not having them in the house. i just cant control myself. all week, i weighed out little portions of 100 calories or so. but nope cant have them in the house.

so then i had to workout for 2 hours just to burn it off so i wouldnt have thrown all my hard work i did all week out of the window. i did a combo of jogging on the spot and step whilst watching the biggest loser.

thankfully didnt affect my scale this morning.. and i lost 2.2lbs since last monday so i'm a happy bunny about that

oh boy i love krispy kreme donuts, they are my kpytonite!

i know how you felt, cause during my workout i felt sick!!!! not a good feeling. i sooooooo get it now, how eating the right foods is fuel for the body when working out. and when you eat crap and junk food you do feel sick and not at your best whilst working out.

i have learnt my lesson!!

Hope you're all well! a shout out to Emily and Sunni aswell as everyone else that is a part of this group!

Echo, it sounds like you and I have the same taste in binge foods - 'cause I love, love, love Doritos. Both nacho cheese and cool ranch flavored. I can't get started with either those or any kind of potato chip, especially kettle chips, because I will demolish the entire bag. No matter how big the bag is!

Doritos are especially bad because they have those damned trans fats in them. I didn't know about trans fats until I started listening to Jillian's podcasts obsessively, and she thinks that trans fats are the work of the devil. Now I look at the ingredient list for foods and look for the word "hydrogenated" and if a food contains that, I automatically put it back on the shelf.

I am quite sure that Krispy Kreme donuts are also loaded with trans fats. But there is nothing I love more than a raspberry jelly-filled Krispy Kreme.

Why does everything that is so bad for you have to taste so good?

hehe i think we do! and like you i listen to jillian EVERYDAY ! LOVE LOVE her podcasts i have learnt so much! sometimes i go to the grocery store listening to her podcast and sometimes helps me to make better choices!!

i love the old fashioned donuts of krispy kreme hehe.

i know i hear ya , why does everything that taste so darn good is bad for us! wish we lived in a parallel universe where everything that was tasty was good for you and didnt make you gain weight!

oh yah i know she really has it in for trans fat and for good reason i also have started to be careful with that.

nice to have a fellow jillian fan on this thread!

its a brand new week! we can kick it into high gear this week

im saying NO to doritos lol and NO to potato chips this week.

oh yah i love kettle chips too haha

i cant be trusted with potato chips if they are in the house i WILL eat them, so i wont buy them this week!
i will stay away from the chips aisle when i go to the grocery store tommorow.

i have made my vow and i gotta stick to it now!!

Echo, I feel you on the potato chips! My husband bought a bag last week and they've been torturing me. Thankfully, I've only had two chips (one two different times he was snacking), but every time I open the pantry, they're there to haunt me.

I had a really good weekend. It was my husband's birthday and although I didn't eat on plan, I did make smarter choices while we were out (kept the drinking to two light beers, had half of the individual pizza at the restaurant instead of the whole thing, and pawned half my piece of birthday cake on one of my husband's friends - and it was carrot cake, my favorite, so that's saying something!)

I also did a lot of working out this weekend. We hiked Stone Mountain on Saturday, and I made it to the top, something I wasn't sure I could do! I took the tram thing down to save my knees, but I'm still pretty proud of myself for making it. On Sunday, I did a regular work out in the gym and walked around the park with a friend in the afternoon.

I was down to 267 on Friday and managed to maintain that over the weekend, so I'm hoping to still see that number tomorrow for my official weigh-in, as that would put me at over 20 pounds lost!

lol Emily! i know i love potato chips i could huge bags of them if left to my own devises!

well done on making smarter choices! glad you had a good weekend!

wow alot of hiking there! impressive

wow 20lbs loss ! thatis fantastic ! good luck with your official weigh in tommorow!!!

Echo, you sound just like me with listening to the Jillian thing. I was soooo sad when she went off the air.

But I have every single one of her podcasts on my Ipod, dating back to September 2006, and every day when I take my 4-5 mile walk, I listen to her. For some reason, she never gets old to me. And I kind of think that, by listening to her so much, all her advice is slowly sinking in. I even called her one time to ask a question about my bodybugg, and I talked to her and told her that she is my idol.

I know, I am a dork.

omg thats so awesome that you got the chance to talk to her!! haha i would have said something very similar!! that is so great! she's such an amazing person and TOTALLY changed my life!!! i would love to write to her one day. i have her book and with it i think maybe a short term subscription to her site, so i might join so i can pm her

i also have every single podcast! and im going to be so sad when i have listened to them all. i'm nearly done. currently listening to the one when bob harper comes to the studio. so funny!!!

i agree with you, when i've listened to them all, i'm going to re-listen to them again!

and eventually all her advice will sink in! i love how down to earth she is and talks about how she struggled with it too.

wow 4-5 mile hike thats really impressive! i need to go to the grocery store tommorow , i'm tempted to go by walking instead of my bike. but my mom always puts me off saying its too far. but i really want to do it , i think 4 miles is doable by golly i'm gonna do it!

Te he, Echo, your mom sounds like mine! She is always discouraging me, saying that I walk too far. I had my dogs here with me (they are in San Diego right now with my bf, where I will be returning in early December), and one of my dogs is kinda chunky, so I walked him and his sister about 4 miles every night and she lectured me about that, too. Said that it was too far for the dogs, but they absolutely love it! And Toby lost his pudge, so it was great. I walk them about that far in San Diego, too, because we have a park about a half mile from the house and I walk them there and walk around the park, listening to Jillian the whole way.

I too loved the podcast with Bob. For some reason, I couldn't stop listening to that particular podcast, so I played it about 10X in a row. I have it memorized by now, and, after listening to it, I wished that he would be in the studio every day, because he is so positive and good-natured.

So, get out there and walk those 4 miles and listen to Jillian on your Ipod while you do it. I have found that this is the only exercise that I can do consistently, because I get bored of everything else, but I never get bored of Jillian!

Thanks Jillianfan!

you're so right! i'm gonna do it. you've just inspired me and motivated me. first thing tommorow morning, i'm gonna do it

i was going to work out today , but im so tired. jillian is so right about needing 2 days off , if you're working out intensely 5 days. i thought i could power through. but my body has other ideas! so taking today as a rest day and then going to work out for the rest of the week and then take another rest day probably on saturday. i have my two best friends coming over to spend the day. so will be busy entertaining them!

aw thats so cute you listened to that podcast 10 times. haha i love the bit when he says that he thought his shoes were too heavy during the aerobics exercise. that made me laugh!!

i also wished he came in more often, they make such an awesome team. and i love how jillian adores him its so cute!

i'm gonna strap in my ipod and get walking and listen to her podcast. i love listening to her. the time just flys by!

thanks again for your motivation!

thats so cool you walk so much!

Aw, thanks Echo! Thanks for your encouragement, too! We encourage and motivate each other, which is what this forum is all about!

Yeah, you are right that time flies by for me when I walk with Jillian on the Ipod. It really doesn't even feel like work, which is great. It feels more like entertainment, and I kinda get lost in what she is saying and don't even notice how many miles I do. Then I log into my Bodybugg and find out that I burned 600 calories or whatever, and it makes it all worthwhile!

I know what you mean about needing time off. I was doing Jillian's "Making the Cut" for about two weeks straight, and wasn't losing weight, even though that program is TOUGH. I even did her circuits twice. Then I realized that all that exercising might have made retain water, because it is so strenuous, so I took a few days off of it and just walked. Tomorrow, I start again, and I should have some good workouts because I rested a bit.

But I do find, like I said, that even when I don't feel like doing anything else, I can motivate myself to walk by telling myself it is my chance to spend a few hours with Jillian!

So, go Echo, go!

Hehe thanks JillianFan! you're so sweet !!

wow 600 calories is very impressive!

you must tell me which date you featured on her show, so i can hear out for you!

how long does it take for you to walk 4 miles?

the 30 day shred is killer workout ! so is trouble zone

that is so cool you have the bodybug

i'm getting my polar f7f heart rate monitor this week , and i cannot wait!!! it will be great to actually figure how many calories i actually burn

Oh, yeah, the Bodybugg is indispensable to me. Good for you, getting a hrm. Jillian thinks that those are more accurate than the Bodybugg!

The great thing about the bugg, and probably HRMs is that you have proof of what you did. You can see the progress with your own eyes. I know that, on days I don't work out, I only burn like 1,700 calories. So, obviously that isn't enough for weight loss if I am eating 1,300-1,400. Well, it is, but I guess the rate would be, what, a half pound per week? But on days that I walk, or do the elliptical full-blast, or whatever, I burn a minimum of 2,100, usually it is more like 2,300. So, yeah, it is totally motivating. Good luck with your HRM - I hope that it motivates you too! You will have to let me know how it works for you!

When I walk, I walk really slow, so I am always surprised that I burn as many calories as I do. Like when I walk to and from the gym (about 5.5. miles round trip), it takes me like 2 hours. But I always read that most people burn about 100 calories per mile, whether they walk it or run it. It's just that, of course, if you run it, you get done faster. And I guess, according to Jillian, you get more afterburn out of it too. But I have pretty weak ankles, and they kill me when I run, so I just walk and take my time and have fun with it.

Yeah, 30 day shred is killer! Right now, I am doing her "Making the Cut," which probably has similar circuits. They are BRUTAL. I was doing them twice through, and it took me like 90 minutes. I decided to calm that down, because I think that I am retaining water from too much too soon. So my plan is to do the circuits once, and either walk to and from the gym or do about an hour elliptical and see if that busts my plateau.

Thanks for all your encouragement! I will have to find the podcast where I called in so I can give you the date to listen for it. I will warn you, though, I was a total star-struck dork when I called, and sounded like it! But it was still a real thrill to actually talk to her!

that's really cool that the bodybugg is helping you. i love the name of it. hehehe

thanks i cant wait for it to come, will let you know how i get on!

wow making the cut sounds brutal. is that a dvd ? i've not seen it. is it one of those 5 dvd sets?
aww but those are the BEST type of callers, I LOVE those callers. they always put a big smile on my face. i really like it when callers are like that. its sooo cute!! and i guess i like it cause thats how I would feel, so i live vircariously through them.