Howdy y'all! Comin atcha from Storm Central here

I'm going to Miami at the end of January for business and I gotta say I can really use some SUN and WARMTH right now...and so glad that the holidays are finally over (we don't really do anything for New Year's Eve so no problem there).

A big WELCOME to all the newbies and lurkers out there...

I've got a massive project to work on here (as usual!) but wanted to address Jennelle who was the last poster on the previous thread...I'm glad to see that you are gung ho on the program - but your portions are WAY too small. Cottage cheese (along with eggwhites) are one of the few foods that palm/fist doesn't work very well with - since they are pretty 'fluffy'. You need a LOT more protein and clean carbs than that - you're going to be doing some pretty intense workouts on BFL, ya know!

I personally recommend rather than counting calories counting grams of protein and carbs (if palm/fist doesn't work for you). I use 1 gram each of protein/carbs per pound of TOTAL bodyweight. According to your signature, you weigh 238 pounds - that would be 238 grams per day - or about 39-40 grams of protein and carbs per meal. 1/2 a cup of cottage cheese only has 13 grams of protein - you need at least a cup or more! (this might seem like a lot - but as you lose bodyfat and the scale weight goes down, you can adjust your portions). As far as the bread...well...in the book, Bill Phillips only RELUCTANTLY authorizes whole-grain bread (check your bread - a lot of the 'whole wheat' ones are actually white bread with some wheat flour and brown food coloring mixed in). Bread is pretty high-glycemic and I've found it doesn't stick to my ribs as well as other carbs - such as sweet potatoes, oatmeal, white potatoes, fruit, etc. Please don't think I'm trying to be critical - I want you to succeed. If you're hungry all the time, you won't be able to work out and make progress. You need to FEED those muscles! At Lean & Strong - Tall Jen (TJ) generally has a daily menu thread (I think she's on vacation this week with her fiancee so no thread - but you can post your menu and I'm sure you'll get some more advice). It's a great resource for folks who are new at this and trying to figure out what the heck to do for those six meals.

I like to puree my cottage cheese with some Splenda and vanilla extract with my hand blender (or you can use a regular blender). Add a portion of cold, cooked sweet potato and some cinnamon or pumpkin pie filling - VERY tasty indeed!

Hope that helps a bit! Back to work I go

I'm Back!!!!!

I had a great holiday and just wanted to pop in to say hi and that I am back to clean eating and working out. Yay!!!

I hope that everyone is doing well and that you all had a great Christmas. Happy New Year by the way since it's the 31st over here at the moment.

Thankfully my few weeks off only gave me a 4 lb increase which probably is mostly water. I am hoping that it will disappear over the next few weeks. Besides that Life is grand!!!! (Can you tell that I did cardio a few hours ago??)

So everyone CHECK IN and catch me up on how you are and what plans we have for the New Year?? I think this year is going to be THE year for me!

JC

Hi girls!!

I've missed you all so much.... I hope we're going to have a 12 week Challenge starting in January... I am starting the one for myself January 2nd unofficially, and Monday the 6th officially and as JEC said this is going to be THE year for me too.... I absolutely must get in shape....

I've just registered on-line for a night course in interior decorating, design and display, and I'm very excited about that....

I've been busy in the last month shopping, shopping, shopping, AND eating, eating, eating.... I took out the scale this morning just for fun... and I was shocked to see that I FORTUNATELY had not gained any weight since the last time I weighed in, which was ages ago, maybe in August? Or maybe I have gained and I don't know it because I had LOST some weight?? One way or the other I didn't feel so bad because of the ##'s .....

Just a small recap of what I've been doing.... (don't read this if you're not interested ) I've been off work since the end of November from the high school where I had been working for the last 3.5 years, , I loved it there, and I miss the girls very much.... BTW I'm a temp secretary and go from school to school and replace secretary when needed... I went to a really cute country school in December, 75 kids and 5-6 teachers, OMG it was so much fun... It was a bit out of town, I had to take the highway for 22 minutes to get there, but considering many of you live in big cities that would probably be nothing for most of you..... I've been going to the gym pretty regularly before the last 2 weeks of the holiday season started. I'm just not going because they have been opening at 8AM!!! Which in my book is way too late and the holiday crowds drive me crazy... I'm really spoiled to get the machines when I want to and to keep it as long as I please.... So Monday the 6th it's back at it full force.....

Food wise, well, that has not been good at all...... I've been eating what I pretty well please for the last couple of months, which is why I was suprised that I hadn't gained any weight....

Ledom -- I read a while back how well you were doing.... CONGRATS GIRL!!!!!.... I'm so happy for you....

Well girls, I sure hope you don't mind if I join you again, and we will ALL make it our OUR YEAR!!!

HAPPY NEW AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!!

Lana.........

Glad to see some familiar faces coming back. Hi JC, Lanaii. And hello newbies, too!
I had a horrendous, sleepless night last night which I'm blaming the 5 chocolate truffle for. I can deal with the headaches and bloating of eating off plan, but when it starts affecting SLEEP, then I'm back to squeaky clean. Other than that, eating has been going pretty well, totally clean about 5 days/week, then an "occaision" problem. Luckily, I haven't hosted anything this year, so no big piles of leftover goodies to stare at. Also, all the running (did 10 miles on Saturday) must be helping. Those long runs are really grueling. I cannot imagine doing a full marathon! The race is not quite 2 weeks away, hope I survive .

I don't know about whether I'm going to take some time off after the race.... I feel like I've been shortchanging the weights a bit while doing so much running, but I've a feeling I'm going to be really tired for a few days. Will have to play it by ear, I guess.

Gotta go-
mel

Happy New Year's Eve to you. I am home from my trip. I am SO ready to get back w/ the program in the morning. I don't even want to think about what I have been eating, I am just ready to move on and get back in the groove. I'll weigh in about a week, there will be no weighing-in at the beginning of challenge 2.

Hey Lanaii, good to see you back. As a matter of fact I thought of you this week when D and I watched Anne of Green Gables for the umpteenth time. Someday we are going to visit Prince Edward Island! Thanks for your kind words too.

Welcome Janelle (?), I am trusting a faulty memory to get your name right here. Anyway, it is great to have another teacher on board. I know just what you mean about taking advantage of sleeping in. I am looking forward to that myself now that the holidays and travel are behind me.

I was down on the coast so I was able to snag a swimsuit on sale while traveling. I bought one two sizes too small (cheap), that I thought I'd take before pics in for this next challenge. I should be fitting into that suit, if not by beginning, by the end of the summer. By the way, it is a $80 Ralph Lauren tankini that I got for $10. I LOVE a bargain.

Well, great to be back. I'll be checking in again tomorrow to report on day 1 of Challenge 2.

Hey to Mel, Karen, JC and the rest of the gang. Look forward to hearing from all of you!

Hey Mrs. Jim...Thank you so much for the advice! I did spend about ten minutes in the bread aisle yesterday making sure I got the "right" kind of bread, but I totally agree: a slice of bread is not nearly as filling as a fist-sized baked potato! I'm also glad to hear that my cottage cheese portions are too small! That 1/2 cup didn't last too long in my belly!

I am always open to advice, so keep it comin'!

Happy Old Year everyone!!!

Jennelle - no problem. The first BFL challenge IMO is always a learning experience, ya know? Learning the portions, the workouts, etc. Thank goodness for the Internet - otherwise where would we all go to learn stuff??

Well, it's almost noon here - the office is closing early today for New Year's Eve...I am feeling great today - I used my new Trainers Edge software to 'create' a six week menu - I'm on Day 2 right now. It feels great to eat 100% CLEAN - no sugar except for the occasional fruit and lots of H20 - my jeans are getting looser already!

Yesterday I took Meg (our new kitty) to the vet - who felt she was older than 2 years. She has gingivitis and the sniffles, so he put her on antibiotics...which I am supposed to give her with an eye-dropper. Yeah right...she would NOT take it. I just spoke to my boss (the kitty expert) and she suggested I wrap her in a towel, open her mouth and squirt it in very quickly. Last night I ended up squirting the medicine on her belly and she licked it off! As far as the Sparky-Meg relationship - well, it's getting better day by day. He still isn't comfortable sleeping on the bed with her yet, tho' last night he jumped onto the bed twice but jumped right back off!

Well, time to blow outta here...I have a whole turkey breast to cook up this afternoon - then babysitting for sister...hope everyone has a happy new year! It's great to see all the old familiar faces as well as the newbies!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

Here's wishing you a year of health, happiness, prosperity and clean eating. For me, the clean eating started 2 hours ago. It was getting pretty bad with way too many free meals.

Have a good day,
mel

I hope you all are getting your year off to a good start today.

I am back! C2D2W1. It was tough to get going again this a.m. as I did my first strength workout in almost 2 weeks. But I am ever so happy to have my structure back. Guess I am going to be sore tomorrow.

I am revved to make some real changes this year.

Hey everyone

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope that everyone is doing well.....well i must admit that body for life has been a tough challenge...but i am getting close to the end...i am on week 11...i can't wait..


one_sweetchick

HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Hi girls,

We had a fun time at a friends place last night for new year's eve...just a small group but it was fun. I didn't eat or drink too much so I am please with myself today... So far today I have eaten very clean.... Later we are going to my brother's for a turkey dinner.... I made brussel sprouts in an old cheddar cheese sauce, and turnip and carrots, plain with no butter so I can eat pleanty of that and not feel guilty....This is my first turkey dinner of the season so I will really appreciate it, I'm not sure if I will have dressing and all the trimmings yet, because my favorite is the turkey meat itself anyways.... For Christmas when I had my parents over for dinner I made prime-rib for a change so no one would O/D on turkey for the holidays, and that seemed to have gone over very well, it was delicious...

Karen ~ How old is Sparky to add this new cat with him?.... I've often thought of a second cat but I'm worried that our old one who is 5 years old, will start peeing on the furniture and stuff to mark her territory, so I've never gotten one... altho I think about it all the time...We babysit my mother's dog for a few weeks at a time and for the first couple of days it's pretty funny the cat kind of stalks around the house very slowly to avoid the crazy dog who dives for her every time she moves.... It's pretty cute and funny.... The cat put the dog in it's place, the first time the cat batted the dog on the snout the dog backed off pretty quickly and been careful ever since. One thing that has made them instant friends is locking them (by pure accident ) in the bathroom together for about 20 minutes, no one realised it for that long.... We all laughed about it and the pets were none the worse for wear....

one_sweetchick -- ledom -- jennelle -- and everyone else starting and keeping up clean eating during the holidays my hats off to you all for sticking with it.... I admire you tremendously.....

So far today I have eaten very clean, Pamcakes for a late breakfast and chicken and a veggie stir-fry for lunch....and 6 glasses of water, I'm really proud of that because I've been having such a difficult time with that lately....

Well I have to get going to get ready for the festivities....

Later all.....

OMG I forgot to mention "my baby" has become a "woman" today.... she's only 12.....and my son shaved for the first time on Christmas morning.... This Holiday season has been filled with Milestones.... Life and time is just passing us by it seems.....

Well now I will definitely say later all....

Hello All!

Glad to hear everyone is doing well. I had a nice holiday and NYE was nuthin big. Stayed at home w/ the Mr and watched The Others and Black Knight. Was supposed to help with a yearly fundraiser for an old boss/friend (he's a politician) but stayed at home instead. Feeling a little down due to some news I got regarding an MRI I had on my brain. Seems there is an "area of restriction" in the right front. So, I am kinda worried about it. This may seem strange, but I don't want to workout. I'm affraid. The doctor said it's not major (well, it's not his brain!) and that we have to do other tests, but still, I not am taking this very well. I was going to workout today, but I have spent the entire day reading posts here and at L&S trying to get caught up (read: not moving). Eating has been clean.

I am really upset at my 'former' doctor's office staff for failing to notify me of the results. I called and they couldn't find the chart. It was sitting on his assistant's desk for 3 MONTHS!!! The MRI was done on 10/2 and I got the results 12/30!! On 12/30 it was still on her desk, buried under all kinds of crap. She was going to call me with the results and schedule all the other tests the doc wanted to run -but forgot- cuz she couldn't see the file.

Well, sorry for the rant. I needed to tell someone and you guys are just the best. Haven't been around here for long, but I know you all already. Thanks for listening.

I am going to go write down my goals for the year and plan out my meals and workouts (seems silly since I just said I wasn't going to workout! ) But I will talk to the (new) doc tomorrow and see what the tests reveal.

Take care All!

Hey you guys!!! It's 2003!!!

It's going to take me all month to remember to write 03 instead of 02

Last night I babysat until just before midnight - Jim stuck around until 11:00 but pooped out and went home - it turns out that my sister and BIL's reservations were at 7:40 pm but the restaurant (the Bella Vista in Woodside - GREAT place) couldn't even seat them until 9:20 pm. Jeez! This is exactly why I don't go out on New Years'.

Had a great workout this morning - the gym opened at 8:00 and I got there 3 minutes after they opened. It was so nice and tranquil - there were maybe 15 people in the whole place. Of course that will all change tomorrow (since it's 3:30 pm now, it's probably crowded at this point). No rain today but FREEZING - a good day to just watch TV or go to the mall, right?

Lana - Sparky is just over 6 years old. We thought Meg was about 2 but my vet thinks she's a little older than that - and that she has carried a litter before (she was pregnant when she was brought into the pound and they terminiated that little and spayed her). He was actually amazed that PHS didn't euthanize her - he told me most pregant cats are euthanized, but she has such a sweet personality that they decided to save her She was so cute at the vet's - he was taking her temperature (rectally of course) and she was on her back purring and playing with him. Sparky and Meg are getting along better day by day - fortunately Sparky has never been a 'spraying' male cat. He's more of a face-rubbing tagger. We've gotten rid of the second litter box - they use the same one now - and miracle of miracles, Sparky no longer needs to be fed wet food with a baby spoon! And he hasn't thrown up since we got her either!!! I think it's peer pressure myself...

Speaking of the mall - I'm gonna do some window shopping...

of 2003, that is. Today is my BFL anniversary, too. So I guess I was a "resolutioner" last year.
Had a really ho-hum leg workout oday. My knee is bothering me from yesterday's run, and I had to work out at home, so all in all, it wasn't real special. But I did it, despite feeling like a slug. Amazing what 1 bad meal and 1 drink will do. My gym was open 7am til noon today. Why not noon til 7? I just couldn't get moving and kept putting off going until it was too late.
I am definitely going back to my no-alcohol rules. I can really feel and see the difference it makes, and that's just 1-2 glasses of wine a week.

Niffer- I sure hope further tests reveal it's a big nothing to worry about! I can understand how you feel- a couple of months ago I had a breast cancer scare and was paralyzed by fear at first. I workout out like a fiend- it was the only time I could stop thinking about it. But my eating really suffered. I took me about a week to work out that being self destructive was not going to help me, whichever way the tests turned out. I'd be furious with the doctor, too. Good luck and keep us posted. I'll be thinking of you.

Hope you all had a good day 1 of 2003, now back to real life

mel

Hi to all! And a Happy New Year!

I am a newbie!

I just started BFL on Monday (so, its not technically a New Year's Resolution!) Sadly, since yesterday was NYEve I had to use my free day on the very second day. But, I am trying to get back on track today.

I am sure I will have tons of questions for all those who have done this program. Right now my biggest question is: Am I supposed to be this sore??? I am in PAIN from my workouts Monday and Tuesday. Is this right? It feels like I am not getting as much out of my workouts b/c I am doing them in pain!

I will be back!