[Princess1122]

More about me... ok well it is not very exciting but here it goes.

I am 43 and have two boys, one in high school and the other in college, they are good kids and I really enjoy spending time with them. I have been married to my husband for almost two years now and he gets along well with the boys, they have a lot in common so that helps.
I am the Human Resource Manager for a software company here in Indianapolis and have worked here for about 4 years now. I moved to Indiana from the east coast about 11 years ago, I grew up in eastern PA about 50 miles north west of Philly. I love the midwest though and it would take a lot for me to move elsewhere.
I have three dogs which I loving refer to has my good kids, they never ask for money, the car keys and rarely talk back . I love animals and tend to consider them part of the family.
I have been over weight all of my life with the exception of a few brief moments when I have lost weight but it always seems to come back... I was on weight watchers a few years ago and was successful but with me it is a matter of continuing to exercise and watching what I eat and since I tend to let those two areas slide I manage to gain it back. But I am pretty determined this time so I have high hopes.
I love to read and spend time working on my home and I love to cook!

That is about all I can think of right now but will post more later on.

I tend to be on line a lot Monday thru Friday but not so much on the weekends.

Have a happy day!
Princess

[Ariana2000]

Of course, welcome princess! Most people who join WW have a lot to lose, so you're in good company, and this is a friendly bunch of ladies, I just joined a few weeks ago myself.

Well, ladies, I maintained this week, which was good in view of the fact that I went home last weekend and, as I said, slipped into my old habits. I tend to associate food with celebration and relaxation. I'm very close to my parents, and I have a good relationship with my sister, so going home is like a mini-vacation for me. I think that's why I tend to slip into the mentality that I can eat what I want. Also, there are many more temptations at my parent's house then there are in my house. In my apartment I have hershey's dark chocolate kisses hidden out of view (dark chocolate seems to satisfy and sate my chocolate hunger, while regular chocolate fuels it) and slim-a-bear and that's it. I just don't keep sweets or junk food around. I can't resist.

I think -- no, I *know* that I need to stop rewarding myself with food, associating it with celebration and having too much to eat on the weekends. I really want to get past this plateau. Yes, I've lost 31 pounds, and that is fantastic, but I'm not satisfied. I want to get down to goal, another 45 pounds.

Mousie, you probably know more about working out than I do. Would I get the same benefit (in terms of burning more calories) by
A) increasing my cardio duration
B) increasing my resistance level (I use an elliptical machine)

I already do weights 3x per week, and I am to do cardio 5x per week (but I have been so exhausted this week, on the days when I would normally do weights and cardio, I'm just doing weights.) I want to up my workout in terms of calories burned, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to do that. I'd love to hear your opinion.

Congrats on your weight loss, bandit! Good luck with your new program mousie!

Oh, and myself, briefly: I'm a 26 year-old software engineer. I just moved out of my family's house about 6 months ago, when I finally got a job in my field (I graduated college in December of 2002.) I gained about 60 pounds in college, between 1998 and 2002. Since 2003, I've lost about 31 pounds through the WW approach (I only count points periodically, but I use points to evaluate how "good" or "bad" each food is.) I hit a plateau after about 9 months, and unfortunately stuck there. Whenever I go back to counting points, I go back to losing weight, but I eventually get off track again. So I either have to stick to counting points or stay on better track. Ultimately, I am confident that I will reach my goal -- along with the other wonderful ladies here.

[mousie]

Hey Ariana! With your schedule, I'd be thrilled with maintaining too. Has it let up at all?

As for the exercise question, the very very best thing you can do is mix it up. This is what I mean:

3x a week (on non-consecutive days) do interval training. Warm up for 5-10 minutes, then work really, really hard (7-8/10 on the perceived exertion scale) for 30 seconds. Back off to about 4/10 for 90 seconds. Do that (the 30/90 split) 5 times. Then cool down for as long as it takes you to get your heartrate down again. Trust me, interval training SOUNDS easy but it'll kick your butt. You'll get lots and lots more results-wise doing interval training than you will just doing steady state work (no matter how hard that steady state is). The other 2x a week, do "long slow steady" work, ie 45-60 minutes on the elliptical at a reasonable pace.

Princess, I guess I shouldintroduce myself too, huh?

I turn 31 tomorrow. I live in Southern California with my hubby and my gift-to-this-earth cat Freeway. I have a Bachelor's degree in Kinesiology (the science of movement/exercise) and I'm about halfway through my certification as a physical therapy assistant. If it's about exercise, I either know it, have done it, have heard about it, or certainly can ask around and find out about it. The other part of fitness, food/nutrition/diet/callitwhatyouwill...well, that's a challenge.

I've got about 90 pounds more to lose (I've taken off about 24 so far) to get to my goal. I'm not small and never have been--I reached my full height of 5'9" when I was 13, and I was wearing size 10 women's shoes when I was 12 years old. So my goal is to be a size 12. I have been once before in my life, and that was right around 180 pounds. So that's my goal.

Right now I'm doing a lot of research/learning in the direction of sports nutrition, and I'm following a program geared toward working with athletes' bodies. Part of the program is pushing your metabolism up as high as it will go, and THEN cutting back to burn fat. The food choices (it's strict) and the macronutrient timing address body composition issues, while at the same time the number of calories addresses the energy needs that are individual to athletes. I've struggled with food for most of my life, and finally have figured out that it's not because of emotional issues (mostly--at least, the emotional issues didn't come first, they're a result of everything) but because I've been so active but haven't had the nutrition to sustain that. It's long and involved, I can explain it if you want to know but you probably don't.

Again, welcome to the group!

[Itryharder]

Hi Turtles,
We're burning up cyberspace with all our posts and it's time to start a new thread. I hate to break in here because all the recent posts deserve replies.
I'll mention this in the next thread.
Love,
Judy Itry