yay osuche for the pound loss, the abs feeling good, the person noticing and especially for the upcoming trip ... have a wonderful time with your man!

ending another day inside the calorie range ... :) g'night everyone.

It's Friday, and considering I only made it to the gym once this week plus the lunchtime walking one day, a three-pound loss is more than okay with me. :)

Last night, my sweetie and I went to eat Mexican for dinner. Normally, that thought terrifies me--Mexican food is not the most diet stuff in the world--but I'd planned it out, and I had more than enough flex points for the remainder of my week (yesterday), so I ate what I wanted to--and didn't give it a second thought. I'm sure that knowing I made good choices in what I ate helped, but I ate as much of my steak fajitas as was comfortable, and I even had a few chips and salsa. It was nice to be relaxed and know that, no matter how much I DID decide to eat, I was still going to be okay and working towards my goal again this morning.

I had a night like IAKGs, althought I have no flex points that I know of. :D We ate out at a Thai restaurant and I had whatever I wanted. I am sure the salt alone will make me bloated. :D But I worked almost a 1 2hour day, had no lunch, and LOTS of stress. So I took it out on food. Bad me. :(

However, I am much more proud of fzzy and IAKG, who alwyas stay on task. :)

I'm headed out this morning -- be back on Sunday. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Anybody notic FitDay's new look. I like it.

They've changed? I haven't been to the website in a while since I use the software. I'll have to check it out and see if there's an upgrade for the software. Thanks for the heads up!

Alright pixies, I've not been on the treadmill everyday and therefore not posting much here. Starting today, I'm renewing my committment - though I know it will only be short lived as I have a couple of trips in the next three weeks. But I need to get my act together beforehand! One of the trips does involve a hotel stay and I'm taking my sneaks and gym clothes and hoping I can get on the treadmill each day while there. The other trip does not involve a hotel but I'm going to do my best to find someway to get my ass moving during that trip.

So, this morning I got up, had my breakfast - opened every window in the house and got on the treadmill. I only did 30 minutes but had my heartbeat going fast the whole time.

I also packed away all my winter coats this morning into the back of the closet. What a tremendous feeling! I forgot how much I love spring. It is incredibly rejuvenating for me. Today is cleaning day at my house and let me tell you, I have got some major cleaning to do!

I've been sucking eggs again :p I'm in the hut and eating from the the major food groups, salt and chocolate. I know by next week I'll be back on track.

I just logged in and found my beloved site got a facelift! But the functionality is still the same. Looks good to me too, Lil.

After a 3 days weekend with 3 days between 2000-2500 calories, I Haven't been doing stellar. But I *have* been very active -- we walked for hours each day!

Also, my big accomplishment...We BIKED 22 miles (a good portion uphill) through Monterey to 17 Mile Drive and back. Was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life -- gorgeous seside scapes. And ME -- un unfit arthritic -- managed to bike that far! It was really cool (oh, and I estimate I burned 1200 calories from the bikeride alone).

Mr Osuche and I are thinking about buying bikes and doing that more often.

STrange thing....my butt hurts a little bit (the seat was like butt-floss) but otherwise I feel fine -- we even went on a 90 minute walk through Carmel today (a good portion of it uphill). Go Me! :D

Damn I love vacation

sounds like you did wonderfully osuche... great job!

I've been a bit high on my calories all weekend, but will get back on track tomorrow ... sometimes, I think you just have to allow a little more leeway ... as long as it's not a final slip and just a short one... well, I don't intend to keep slipping, tomorrow will be a much better day!

I managed to go down 1.5 lbs this week. I don't think I'll reach my goal by Friday (which seems to keep getting farther away even as I lose). I have an additional 1.5 lbs to get to my goal. I'm okay with missing it. I'll get there soon enough.

Half of this weekend was a disaster but I did everything I could to keep it from impacting my food choices. Luckily I had made some exceedingly good decisions before disaster struck.

This week is going to be a busy one for me and my biggest challenge between now and Friday is to make sure I get on the treadmill everyday.

I found maddy's 1.5 pounds. I'm up exactly that from my weigh-in on Friday. Now, mind you, I KNOW I haven't eaten an extra 5,000 calories or so, so I'm going to assume that I'm getting ready to go into the Hut a bit early. I'm trying not to be depressed by the scale, but you all know how it goes.

((((IAKG)))) -- water weight sucks

maddy -- look at the treadmill as a valuable stress-relieving tool. Sounds like you need that. :) And good luck getting through the week.

fzzy -- You've been so disciplined and I know this week will be no exception.

Lil -- continue to post and report what progress you do have...we're here to be supportive.


As for me...I ended yesterday under 1700 calories, partially balancing out the "bad" vacation days. I did avoid some of my common pitfalls though -- no dessert or appetizers while on vacation. While we did eat well, I kept myself kinda in check. And I think I mentioned that we were very active.

Today I head back to the gym for a more "traditional" work out

Awesome to hear you had a great bike ride!

I'll be posting to your bicycle thread in the near future. :)

I'm down 3 this week, still 5 to go to get back to where I was before my lapse in good judgement.

Maybe so Lil... but you will get there. And beyond.

Thanks! I'm trying to get my shit back together but it's hard.

how's the eliptical going Lil? It was incredibly motivating for me to hear of your progress. It's almost a guilt thing for me to read about how active everyone else is while I choose to sit my butt on the couch.

osuche and IAKG - I'm curious about your gym workouts - what are you doing at the gym? I'm considering joining one that would be highly convenient to me as a something different to be doing other than just the treadmill. Of course, I first need to develop a consistent pattern of using the treadmill first.

osuche - I'm glad you had a good vacation get-away. I miss biking! As a kid it was my only means of transportation and I went EVERYWHERE by bike. I also had huge calves thanks to my bike, but they were solid.

fzzy - your attitude never falters and that speaks to your success. Remember this is a life change and occassionally life happens we just need to remember how to stear ourselves back on path - and I'm confident you will do that this week.

As for me - well no complaints from me today. I'm just getting through some high stress events. I'm eating my dinner and will be hitting the treadmill shortly after I'm done.

I refuse to excercise in the hut.

fair enough... I thought you were holding out on the stamina increases ;)

yeah well I suck :(
























but I swallow too :D

LOL Lil! I don't refuse to exercise while in the hut so much as I just can't seem to motivate myself to it ... gratefully that's over for another 3 weeks or so again and I'm feeling more motivated and more in control again ... thank heavens!!! :)

Lil .. congrats on the loss ... great to hear (even when it's catch-up pounds) I've been doing catch up pounds for years now! :)

way to keep at it maddy!!

Lil...if you have cramps you might try exercise. They help mine...gentle stretching followed by some time on a recumbent bike or pilates works well for me. Just be sure to wear tampons :D Pads slip. :p

Maddy, I love the bike too (I had to rent one to remember why) and thanks for the advice on my thread.

fzzy -- you were feeling unmotivated last week while in the Hut? Seemed pretty motivated to me! Keep up the inspiration.

Aqua -- Progress report, please. :p :D

To answer maddy's question....
* I work out 4-5 days a week in the gym
* Cardio -- Done every time I visit, 30-40 minutes and I alternate between recumbent bike (level 7 -- 120 watts), elliptical (gluteal workout, level 8), and stairmaster (level 6, climbing mode)
* 5 minutes of stretching, including some ball exercises and some squats
* 200 situps (alternate between doing them on the balance ball and on the Abbench)
* 2 days a week I lift weights -- one day arms, and one day legs. On arms I do: shoulders, biceps, triceps, rows, and chess press (3 sets of 15 reps). On legs I do: inner and outer thigh, donkey calf lifts, squats, this "butt blaster" machine, leg extension, and leg curls.

I used to do weights more often, but I found that I was making my joints sore and irritated...so I have cut down the frequency.

My entire workout takes about 50 min on a non-weight day and about 1:15 on a weight day. :)

My order of operations is sit-ups, then stretching, then weights...followed by cardio. You must LAWAYS lift weights before the cardio, not after....burns more calories this way.

Hope this helps.

1600 calories today. Making up for a "bad" (but active!) weekend. I ate a late lunch and skipped dinner, save a glass of wine I had at a meeting this evening.

I even cooked dinner for Mr Osuche but didn't eat any myself -- realized I wasn't terribly hungry and I didn't need the extra calories. I'm now at a 7 day average calorie intake of 2000, and an average workout burn of 450 a day. :) Not too shabby, given three bad "vacation" days! (thank goodness for FitDay)

I went to the gym today -- 400 calories burned...elliptical, weights, sit-ups, and stretching.

Now I'm tired...night all!

I'm about to head for bed as well ... but reporting in ... ended up eating less than 1700 calories for the day, so I'm feeling good about that ... and also did my "gentle" workout for about 60 minutes this evening ... it's not aerobic and non impact, but one day, when my butt shrinks down, It's going to be a very tight one ... :D got to figure a way to do more arm and torso toning though. .... anyway, off to bed now! :)

osuche ... interesting to hear your schedule ... someday I'm going to work up to a much more active schedule, but for now, I'm slowly building more activity into my day to day stuff.

I was better yesterday calorie wise but I did drink a coke at the end of the work day. I really don't want to drink those. Hut days are winding down and the salt/chocolate cravings are subsiding.

fzzy, when I went to Curves over a year ago, I was having difficulty with my arms - I just don't seem to shrink in the flabby bat wings. They advised me of a few movements that I could do at anytime - some even while sitting. I'll try to describe a few of them here and hopefully I can convey them in words.

1. Press together - raise both arms to shoulder height - biceps should make a straight horizontal line across your shoulders. Extend forearms straight up in the air, elbows bent at 90 degrees. start with your arms out at your sides and then press them together in front of your nose - then back out to the sides. Concentrate on the biceps while doing this and make the movements very diliberate and steady.

2. Reach for the stars - one at a time raise your arm straight up and slightly across your head and reach as high as you can elongating your arm fully.

3. backwards extension - arms at your side, bend your elbows at 90 degrees bringing your forearms forward. then push your elbow back but don't raise your shoulders. pushing your upper arms back behind you. Hold your upper arm steady and curl your lower arms forward. This one is the hardest for me to describe!

Down another pound as of yesterday. I ate 2000 calories today and I didn't work out -- spent much of the day feeling sorry for myself and overwhelmed by the life/work/school balance. <sigh>

But tomorrow is another day -- and it coulda been worse (calorie-wise)...right?

you're doing great osuche .. on my "bad" calorie days, I always remind myself that even though it was a "bad" day, it still doesn't come close to the regular days I had before making these changes with the first of the year!

thanks maddy ... I'm going to add those in (gradually as with everything else) :)

Yay Lil ... you're wonderful - as always!

ending my day at just about 1700 calories ... so I'm feeling good about that. hope it's a good Wednesday for everyone!

yay fzzy! Another day following the plan.

As for me....woke up this morning and weighed myself as usual, and it appears I am down another pound. I'm going to try and make today another "low" calorie day (my 3rd of this week at @1600 calories) and then I may very well make Thursday my girl-gone-wild day. :) Maybe I can convince Mr. Osuche to take me out to a yummy dinner. :D

Hello Everyone :)

Wow!!! I have glanced thru this thread… and I am inspired by each of you…. What a wonderful thread and a fantastic way to be accountable.. Each of you are wonderful inspirations..

Here I am…. Late into the thread… and chiming in.... the 8th of this month will be 2 months on Weight Watchers... as of yesterday I have now officially lost 20.4 pounds :) :) And yeah, I am damn happy about it. :)

Tho... getting up at 5 am to be at Curves isn't easy... it is rewarding :) Imagine the weight I could lose if I were having SEX too!! LOL...

Hugs to all :)

Superb Jenna!!!!! I am very proud of you but more important I can see that you are proud of you!

Yay Jenna ... glad to have you join our thread ... sounds like you are doing wonderful and it is good to have another person to help inspire the rest of us!

Well, I'm ending my day at 5 calories over my maximum .... close enough for today for me! :) Hope you all have a great day tomorrow.

I think I am almost back to where I was before I wasn't there anymore :p

I confess, I'm a daily scale hopper. I don't try to put too much emphasis on it daily or to report it here. But I'm making this an exception, I'm down an additional pound since Monday and am now just a mere half pound from where I wanted to be when I get on a plane tomorrow.

My next goal will be sometime in July - just unsure if I'm going to try for the beginning of the month or the end yet. I'll make that decision in the next couple of weeks.

'Grats Lil, maddy, and jenna. :D

I scrapped the low calorie day and went for high day myself...2100 calories. Today I will have to be good. I was down a lb in the morning when I weighed myself at home, and up a pound and a half on the gym scale. So who knows? But I do know that I look better and feel better, so damn the damn scale. :p

Hello Everyone...

Hope everyone had a wonderful day :)

Almost bed time... and another successful day comes to a close... no moments of weakness (or atleast none I couldn't outwit).... and the only decision left for me to make is which kind of Weight Watchers Ice Cream bar do I want to have.. LOL..

Hugs to all..

1700 calories today and a 500 calorie workout. Go me! :)

Way to go osuche ... wonderful job, wonderful attitude!

jenna ... congrats on the day you had ... and on all of your success.

maddy ... woooooo hooooo! wonderful news on being right on the edge of that goal .. YAY!

Lil ... great progress ... you're doing great!

I did better today than yesterday, ending at under 1700 calories for the day and I managed to add activity into my day several times as well!

Wellllll...it's Friday, and for the first time since I started on 12/30, I am up for the week--1.5 lbs. That includes, of course, one pound since yesterday, a day in which I ate all of 1200 calories. Calendar-wise, the Hut is due to arrive tomorrow or shortly thereafter, and I HAVE to believe it's the reason behind the gain. I know I didn't eat that many "extra" calories.

Frustrating, though, isn't it? *sigh*