Elisa, you are right about baggy clothes making you look bigger. The day I took my avatar, I was wearing sweats before I changed into the smaller pants. While I was setting up the camera I took a few practice shots to make sure I was in range, and when I saw those and compared them, I looked like someone who lost a lot of weight and was wearing baggy clothes, but I looked much thinner in real clothes that fit. I put away a second pair of pants this week, and the new ones I put on today probably need to go the same way, but I can't part with them yet bc they're more like yoga pants than sweats in the way they're cut, with a boot cut, and they're really SOFT and I can't replace them in a smaller size........

So many of my pants, even from a few months ago (and my weight hasn't really changed) are actually quite loose.
I couldn't have said it better Elisa - same here. I guess it's the beauty of weight lifting! I sometimes get frustrated at our dieting-only or cal-counting only sisters who are dropping weight by buckets, while we know we are doing good by building muscle, but we're the tortoises to their hares. But hopefully we'll look better in the end for our efforts!

You'll look better and be healthier! I can't begin to tell you how sad it is to meet thin older women (70's and up) who have massive bone loss and muscle wasting from years of dieting and that perfect exercise, walking. There are all sorts of other reasons that osteoporisis and muscle wasting can happen, but it's not going to be for lack of effort on our parts!

Yay for baggy pants! Good job to the baggy pants brigade this week. I suspect mine just need to go through the dryer, but I've had a good week too.

Hikerchick- I'm having fun trying to guess where you live. Are you ever going to tell us? My current guess is Oregon or Washington.

Lydia- I'm headed your way this weekend. Tell me which direction to wave when I'm standing on High Street near the Law School :wave:

Mel

Oh I am mysterious, I love it.

No its no secret. I live in rural California. If you drew a triangle with points on Sacramento, Lake Tahoe and Yosemite. I would be at the dot in the middle. About 2 hours from each of those points and smack dab in the middle of nowhere. The name of the town is Rail Road Flat...really.

If you stepped outside you might think you were in Oregon or Washington so you are not too far off. Only difference is the cost of real estate.

I took my 5lb weights outside and I was doing some shoulder and tricept exercises and my daughter says "no use baby weights". I had to log on and share that.

Unfortunately for some muscles 10lb is too much and 5 lb is too little so I fluctuate between the two. But the comments from the peanut gallery made me laugh out loud. But I can almost eek out some bicept work with the 20lb weight and I did 16 push ups today (I meant to do 3 sets of 8 but I'll get there). And for back work the 20s are too light but I have trouble coughing up the cash for just one exercise.

OK well I'm no Arnoldia Schwartzenegger but I have great aspirations. You might say my eyes are bigger than my deltoids.

Update: I just eeked out those exercises with the 10s. She made me feel like such a sissy. "No use baby weights" Indeed!

Turn yourself to the Northwest and give a big wave :wave:

Have a great visit with your DD. Is she graduating this quarter? If so, send her a big congratulations from me!

If you run out of wild and exciting things to do in our metropolis, just let me know. It's a little early for tractor pulling season but hey, :dunno: I'm sure I could find something for you all to do :lol3:

How cute. If you get any extra cash, look into versabelles. I found 8 lb dumbbells that are vinyl coated, so you could look for them as well.

Thanks for the encouragement, Mel. I like the "magic" of basically sitting around and losing weight. Lifting every third days keeps me burning the fat I guess, even without the cardio, which I hope to add back in SOON. I've lost the weight fast b4, and I know that as soon as you go back to eating or get above 1200 cals, you put it back on fast and then it's all FAT. So this is much better. I think what I've come to the sad realization of, is that I cannot participate in these weight loss challenges. Yes, it's fun, but it's not exactly motivating to me bc I'm grouped in with the dieters and pale by comparison, numbers-wise. So I tend to work better when I'm not in a "contest" environment where specific scale loss is the goal. I could trade in my air-bubble bottoms for about 10 lbs, but no one would be interested in logging that in! :)