Mrs Jim and everyone,
Thank you for being so helpful to a newbie. I will try the shakes you gave me. I have printed them off and will tape them to the inside of my cupboard door. Why no skim milk? I thought it was fat free! I can't wait until the book comes into the library to check it out. Thanks again!
Virginia
P.S. Halloween is an evil holiday because of the treats. Bad treats!!!! Stay away from my mouth!
Sorry about not posting yesterday you guys - from 7:30 am to about 5:30 pm I was BUSY - not even time to go on a lunch break (luckily I had my meals in the fridge so I gulped 'em down at my desk). Everything for the meeting next week had to be ready and shipped out last night...and OF COURSE we got some new papers that required editing (basically re-writing). After work, I went trick-or-treating with my precious nephew. HE WAS SO CUTE! My sister Jen is really big on holidays (she's a floral designer - one of the best around IMO of course!!) and she likes the kids to be UNIQUE - so the little guy wasn't Spiderman this year like I thought he was going to be. She found this great costume for him - an Egyptian Pharoh with a scaaaarrry skeleton face - like an unwrapped mummy. I'm hoping to score a digital photo of him (Jim had a gig last night and couldn't come with the camera) and if I get one I'll post it at L&S's playspace.
Today promises to be a LITTLE less hectic. I am proud to say that I have been PERFECT this Halloween as far as candy goes. After I took the little guy around the block, my sister and her hubby took him to a party and I manned the Trick Or Treat caldron. FORTUNATELY Jen took my advice and only bought "yukky" (to me anyway) candy this year - Mounds, Almond Joys, and Charms Blow Pops (I can't STAND coconut). If there had been Snickers in there, I might have gotten weak!
Of course today is the DANGEROUS DAY at work, because everyone brings in their leftover Halloween candy 'to get rid of it' and leaves it in the kitchen! Fortunately I'm only planning on working 1/2 a day today. I want to spend Saturday at the stables so today I'm cleaning and waiting for the heater repair person to show up!
Whew. You all have been very talkative lately, and I LOVE your posts - very insightful! Let me take a moment to butt in.
Virginia...for milk, it's not the fat, it's the SUGAR. Check the label...most of the calories in milk come from carbs, and most of those carbs (yep, even in skim milk) are from lactose (sugar). Not to put down milk, but it's not exactly the big protein source that the dairy industry would want you to believe. I love milk - on free day. But as a carb choice, it's pretty lousy. Think of it this way - it's not going to fill you up and keep you satisfied for any amount of time. Yogurt, to me, is marginal at best as far as being a carb goes. The BEST carb choices, IMO, are the ones that will keep you full and satisfied until the next meal, and keep your furnace goin' - stuff like oatmeal, yams, taters, beans, and fruit (although I personally keep fruit down to once a day because of the sugar).
Chick - JC is totally right about the water weight. It's been called the "$33-billion gimmick" of the diet industry. We've ALL been on diets where you lose a HUGE amount of weight the first week or two...actually let me quote Dr. Wayne Callaway, MD (this comes from Michael Fumento's excellent book The Fat of the Land:
Quote:
Wayne Callaway, M.D., notes that marketing studies conducted by one weight-loss organization found that, when dieting, most women expect to lose between 2 and 3 pounds a week and most men expect between 3-5 pounds per week. If the expectation is unmet, dieters will discontinue the program by the 3rd week. Not for nothing do you hear slogans like Slim-Fast's "Give us a week and we'll take off the weight".
"To remain financially successful, commercial operations try to meet this expectation, even when they know that most of the early weight loss is from water and that a water retention cycle will eventually follow," says Callaway. "Virtually all the experts - from the Surgeon General to well-respected popular health and nutrition writers such as Jane Brody...agree that diets designed to meet these expectations always fail over the long term."
"Rapid weight loss is the $33-billion diet gimmick," says Callaway. "It looks good on your bathroom scale and it raises your hopes. But the initial water-weight loss is completely meaningless in terms of your ultimate goal. You are not losing fat; you are not getting leaner. It's only a trick, a gimmick, the temporary side effect of not eating enough carbohydrates to supply your brain..."
Remember that virtually any diet can cause you to lose weight; the real problem is keeping it off. With that in mind, choose a regimen that emphasizes not speed but permanency....
I don't have to tell you that there are many, many folks out there who religiously weigh themselves once a week - shoot, once a DAY - and guess what - they are still fat..still depressed...letting that little number rule their lives. That's why earlier this year, I decided to BAG the scale, TOSS the calipers and go strictly by 'look and feel' i.e. the Pants-o-meter. Ann at L&S had a great post on this the other day...
Quote:
Pants-O-Meter NEVER lies...
I have been in shape most of my adult life, and I have used a measuring device (my doctor's scale) maybe 12 times in the past 20 years.
Who needs it?
Or calipers?
Or even a tape measure?
Clothes never lie. You're either bursting the seams of a size 4, or it feels comfortably loose on you.
It's a daily reality check.
There is no fooling the Pants-O-Meter.
For years, my husband's weight yo-yoed up and down by as much as 50 lbs......and he faithfully weighed every step of the way.
It took BFL for him to learn that The Little Woman had it right all along.
For some reason I feel like quoting other folks A LOT this morning...one more quote from "Diary of a Fat Housewife" by Rosemary Green...showing once again that the scale can really derail your motivation and progress...
Quote:
Just prior to June 7, I lost 5 pounds, taking me from 262 pounds down to 257. Compared to 132 pounds, a measly 5-pound loss sounds almost too ridiculous to mention - if you've never been fat. But I call attention to it here because that five pounds can have a negative psychological impact on the extremely obese person. It's a five-pound leeway to eat! You see, you can easily have a candy bar or bake a batch of cookies "for the family" (who are we kidding?) because you are down five pounds. If you pick up a pound or two, you'll still be down a pound or two from where you were. And no one will notice.
Brother! Do you realize how pathetic that last sentence is? "No one will notice" is the all-important consideration. I mean, you can eat like a pig for days, be sick to your stomach constantly from eating too much garbage, be too big for your seat belt, be unable to tie your own shoes or play on the floor with your children, be out of breath after climbing one flight of stairs, be signing your own death warrant by abusing your poor little heart and clogging your skinny little arteries...but heaven forbid someone should 'notice' you've gained two pounds!
Ledom - a quick recommend on books - the Arnold Schwartzenegger Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding is an EXCELLENT reference. It's humongus - but has tons of exercises, with photos and diagrams. I got my copy (paperback but it still weighs about 10+ pounds!) from half.com for about $11.00 including shipping (the hardcover retails at $50!) Some gals would recommend "Supervixen" - there are some good exercises in there but a lot of terrible form and some old-fashioned (bad) advice. If you're able to separate the 'wheat from the chaff' then it can be a valuable reference. And if you want a free place to check exercises...look at the links in the "Basic BFL Info" sticky - ABC Bodybuilding is my current favorite.
Whew! Just checked the clock and I've gotta hit the shower! More later - I promise!!!
Well, I did it! Went to a used book store and asked if they had Body for Life, they did not, but as luck would have it, the sales clerks daughter works at GNC and she remembers seeing it there when she went to visit. Now I was just in there the other day and did not even notice it. Well, it was reg 39.50, but there was a $5 coupon off any itme in GNC over $25, minus my membership 20% and he did not charge me tax so the grand total was $27.60. I thought that was much better than 41.99 plus tax that Coles Book store wanted.
I have not even craked the cover yet, but I was very excited and am very ready to begin my journey. I will more than likely be asking tons of question, so in advance I hope I do not drive you all insane.
MrsJim thank you for the info on milk too, and alos the recipes for the protein drinks.
Virginia
I don't remeber who posted about not taking flax seed oil with any vitamins because it would inhibit the absorption of the vitamins, but here is a copy of information I found on Yahoo.
I don't know how to box it but it came from www.Daily-Vitamins.com/fat.html.
I honestly don't know if it the fat would restrict the vitamin absorption of any other vitamins, but I would like to know the source of that information if you have it.
Thank you
Fat soluble vitamins are found in meats, liver, dairy, egg yolks, vegetable seed oils, and leafy green vegetables. Some foods such as milk and margarine are artificially fortified with vitamins A and D. These vitamins are metabolized along with fat in the body and require fat for absorption in the gut. The fat-soluble vitamins may be stored in large amounts, and this gives them the potential to cause toxicity if consumed in high amounts. Deficiencies are rare in adults but may be seen in children. Megadosing of fat soluable vitamins, except where indicated by a medical professional, is potentially dangerous and should be avoided. Two of the fat-soluble vitamins, A and D, have hormone like actions, causing specific cells to increase or decrease the expression of certain genes.
PattyO ~ I've been doing 20 minutes on an efx machine, and I really like it. I have to limit myself. I would actually like to do more. I break it down into 5 min incraments and take a drink every 5. I also play my Paul Simon C.D. Graceland. Very fast beat, makes me move faster. Hope that helped.
I had a really good upperbody workout today. Also it was weigh in. I lost 4 lbs this week so I now weigh 221. 81 pounds to go. It may be many challenges down the road but I am up for the challenge!!!
Nyree
Sounds like all our new ladies are off to a great start!! Good for you all! It really does get easier as you go along. A note on free days: As you noticed (ledom, I think), scale-wise you can undo a full week's work in one day. If you have a lot of body fat to lose, I wouldn't worry about it, since most of it is just those carbs bloating you up, and after a few days of clean eating, it will be gone and then some. But if you are less than say, 25% body fat, I'd take a serious look at your free day and really just save if for what you can't live without. Make a list during the week, and as MrsJim has said, sometimes by the time freeday rolls around, you'll find you really don't want to eat it anyway. I don't take more than 1 small treat anymore, but have had some serious freeday binging problems in the past which stopped progress entirely despite eating super clean for 6 days. Just a few words of advice from someone who has learned the hard way!
I can't wait to get back to the gym! I'm getting creaky. Started planning my menus and will probably just pick up with my last workout split since I only did it for 2 weeks before my break.
Mel, Thank you for clarifying what I instinctively felt about free day. I'm about 22% bodyfat and free day is a BIG problem for me. Given the option, I could easily pack away 5000-6000 calories on a free day, considering that the McDonalds breakfast I had last free day was 1500 calories. (!) I'm going to limit myself to one free "meal" per free day.
I'm really proud of myself this morning. I'm a newlywed (1 month) and I was up until 3:00 am hashing out some stuff with my husband (typical first year of marriage challenges, I guess) and when I got up this morning the LAST thing I wanted to do was my 20MAS, because I don't like cardio anyway. But I thought that was one aspect of life that I could count on, and that I can control, so I went down to our workout room and did a HARD HARD 20MAS.
But I did it, and I'm feeling pretty good. It was a real mental block that I got over. And tomorrow is a no exercise day! I could really use the rest. Feeling sore from my UBWO last night.
Sorry have been busy the last couple days. As a quick confessional I did blow it on halloween. I ate 3 small trick or treat size candy bars. I know that I should have planned my meals better on that day and not been kinda hungary when we went out tt'ing with the kids. Oh well, I'm not gonna beat myself up about it any longer. Back on track the rest of the week though!
JEC: whoa!!! I can't imagine what it must be like to live with someone who can pack away twinkies all day and not be affected at all. Must be kinda tough. Makes me glad the dh and I both have to watch ourselves. I also have a theory that we (overweight) people are kinda lucky in that we -know- that we need to do something about our nutrition/health/weight. The naturally thin may eat terribly and not really realize that their diet is poor. I have a girl friend that is 5'5" and weighs about 105. She eats a really fatty, surgary, salty diet and doesn't get fatter (well heavier) at all!!! My example is have some effect on her: sometimes when we are out shopping (her excercise) she has copied me and purchased water instead of coke! Pretty cool actually. I am also impressed with the photos in L&S of people whose before pic looks pretty good to me. If I looked like those befores it would never occur to me to do anything about my physique or diet at all.
ledom: I kinda think the best way to do this is to be on your own in full control of you own kitchen. Luckily for me dh and I are on the same path. The children add some complexity to our lives. They do eat what we do mostly, but the extra expense of all four of us eating meat is getting a bit tough for us. Our monthly food bill has gone up by 25% Kinda makes ya want to buy illegal salmon.
Moxie, Peony, Nyree: Thanks for the cardio suggestions. I do have the stupid bike in the livingroom, but I don't watch TV, maybe I should watch a movie? Hmmm that might help. I do listen to music sometimes too. We have Graceland, I will put that one on for todays session and see if that helps. And Moxie, I will be waiting with interest to see how your next session works w/o cardio and with free day.
On FREEDAY: I know most of you oldies don't take one anymore. I am not in that headspace yet. I take full advantage and my progress is still progressing and yes, I feel like the next day too! Did you guys always not take free day? Or did you make a change when you felt you weren't getting good results? I'm really new at this and I like free day and don't want to give it up (yet anyway) I know some people feel it is a crutch and all, and part of me feels guilty for indulging, but what the heck I'm still getting results!
But not NEARLY as bad as my early ones. WOW, every Monday back then would be like the day after Thanksgiving.
USE your Free Day if you need to - that's what it's in the program for. If you eat clean the other six days, believe me, your system will become accustomed to eating clean - and you'll likely find your Free Days VOLUNTARILY becoming a lot less of a food freakout!
Here's what Pam says about Free Day:
Quote:
FREE DAY
I totally used my free day for the first 3 challenges! A lot of people make the mistake of not using it and end up "cheating" on their diet during the week. I recommend that people USE IT and don't have any guilt about it! In the first few weeks, I LIVED for my free days!! I ate nachos, cookies, ice cream, pizza, burritos, etc... but I did not cheat during the week. It works, it really works!!!
In my 4th challenge here’s what I did: The first 4 weeks I ate one “free meal” per week and stayed on the nutrition plan the rest of the time, the second 4 weeks I had one “free treat” per week (It was usually a McDonald’s ice cream cone for me!), the third 4 weeks I eliminated the “free treat” and stayed on the strict diet the entire time, knowing that after the bodybuilding competition I would have all of the “free treats” I wanted during my week off.
My Free Days now are just a relaxed day, if I am craving something badly enough, well, I'll have it. It's just nice having one day a week where I'm not worried about meal timing and portions and what have you.
Well! I leave tomorrow and do you think I've packed yet?!? Heck no!!! I'll do that in the morning. My flight doesn't leave until 6:20 pm so I have all day anyway. Of course, I spent the whole morning - up until about 1:00 - at the stables. Then Jim and I kicked it for awhile - watched some TV - and decided to go BACK to the stables around 4:45 pm. All the "Kramerettes" (Dee Dee and the girls who work with the horses - I dunno if I'm an 'official' Kramerette just yet) were gone and the horses were all having their dinner. If there is a sound more filled with contentment than the sound of many horses munching on pellets, I don't know what it would be (at least as far as I'm concerned). We brought some apple slices for each of the horses and spent some quiet time grooming Freight, Butch and Kotari (the lesson horses) until it got dark, then drove to Tower Records to browse through the CD's and magazines - we just got back.
I hate to say this but I am not especially looking forward to the London trip. I'm sure it'll be fine once I get there - but at this time of year, I prefer to cocoon at home with Jim! You can bet that if he was coming along, I'd be MUCH more enthusiastic.
Hottie - there's an interesting article at Supplement Watch regarding EFA's. http://www.supplementwatch.com/supat...pplementId=115 Personally I haven't used straight flaxoil in awhile - I either have salmon (plentiful and usually on sale around these parts) or I use EFAs. Didn't someone ask about Udo's Choice on this board? Udo's Choice is an EFA blend - it's pretty pricey for me, so I don't use it more than a few times a week - so I include salmon as a staple.
I want to spend a bit of time with hubby - so I'm signing off now. I MIGHT be able to access the Net while I'm gone - but I'll start a new thread tomorrow at any rate! Have a great evening everyone!
Patt: I took full free days for my first year. I only cut back to one free meal a few weeks ago because I am at about 24% bodyfat now and I am finding that it affects me. I did cut out deep fried food after about 3 months on BFL though and cut back on sugar after about six months. I tend to take high carb foods as free now - like pasta and white bread. They are the things I crave now although I still love chocolate.
I am starting the program tomorrow, but have not read all through the book yet. Can someone tell me something? Right now, when I go to the gym, I always start off with 20 minutes cardio, before I begin weight training. But looking at the setup of the program, is that necessary. Tomorrow should I begin right off training and not do any cardio until Tuesday, than go back and forth between days, or should I maybe do 5 minutes cardio just to get my heart pumpin!? I am so new to this and have lots of questions?
Virginia
Virginia congratulations on embarking on your new journey. If you're experience is anything like mine you are going to be filled with the satisfaction of knowing you are doing something marvelous for yourself. I had the very same question about warming up prior to strength workouts. I'm sure the more experienced gals will give you advice, the same they gave to me. No, go by the book. I find myself stretching some between exercises, but cardio on cardio days only.
Mrs. Jim, I hope your trip is safe, fun and enjoyable. I relate to seperation anxiety, but once you get going I hope you can get into the moment.
Sigh! All I can say is thanks for the discussion on freeday and the quote from Pam B. I think I might could wean myself away from it in a year. Now, it is a mantra all week, wait until freeday. If I didn't have that, I am sure I would not be able to eat clean the rest of the time, which I do by the way. Still, yesterday was worrisome, up until now free day has been nice meals out. One and sometimes two. Yesterday was my halloween make up day. Sugar, sugar, and more sugar. It was a relief to go to bed last night and a relief to wake up this morning and know that I would be eating good food. It's hard to explain, there are shifting sands in my mind set but I am definately not there yet!
My UBWO on Fri. left me really sore. I feel the need for the glutamine 3 days out from the workout. I finally have my new gym set up and was able to change up all my exercises from the first 4 1/2 weeks. Yowza, but it is a good sore.
Here is to a good week for all of us. I am starting my 6th week, almost 1/2 way through my first challenge. Mel is starting a new challenge. Virginia is starting her FIRST challenge . We're all rockin'!!!!
the next day too! Did you guys always not take free day? Or did you make a change when you felt you weren't getting good results? I'm really new at this and I like free day and don't want to give it up (yet anyway) I know some people feel it is a crutch and all, and part of me feels guilty for indulging, but what the heck I'm still getting results! 
. We're all rockin'!!!!
