lildebbieg

Good morning my fitday friends! I want to start us all off this week by reminding us all that weight loss is not a linear process. There will be weeks when you are on track with your plan, yet it may seem as though you aren't making progress. It's at these times where you need to dig in your heels and not give up to those pesky negative thoughts that tell us we can't reach our goals. Remember, even if you aren't seeing results on the scale, there are other ways to measure progress! For me, the scale has been stubborn for the past week or so. This is when I start to look at other means of tracking progress. The scale may have been up this morning, but my clothes are feeling looser....that's progress! My body fat is down....that is progress! I need to start taking progress pictures again....that's another great way to track progress! For those who have a nicer scale than me , congrats on your loss! For those who are struggling, find other ways to track your progress. As long as you stick with your plan, the results will come. If you give up...well, 'nuff said Let's make this a great week!

lildebbieg

I'm changing up my plan a bit this week. I will be travelling this weekend which means I won't have access to my gym...this means I need to get in my strength workouts earlier in the week...I can do cardio anywhere I go as long as I have my running shoes I'm also going to up my water and decrease my calories and see if that will get the scale moving. However, since I'll be travelling it will make it harder to accurately track food since I won't be weighing and measuring and I'll be eating at a restaurant a few times. I will keep my goals in mind when making restaurant selections and I'll just have to guesstimate in order to track

Weekly Goals and Accountability
80 oz. minimum water daily:
max. 1400 calories per day:
take vitamins daily:
full body workout (Tu, Th & Sa):
core workout (M, W & F):
cardio (M, Tu, W, F & Su):

quinnesec

Good morning, all!

I had a really good weekend. Stuck to my food plan and exercise goals Friday, Saturday and Sunday which is really tough when my husband is home and wants to eat out a lot.

After a two week plateau, my body is finally giving up the weight. I lost 2 lbs. over the weekend alone, which was a HUGE surprise! (I never lose weight on weekends.) So, as Debbie said, when the scale is "stuck", keep your chin up and carry on. If you calculated your calorie and fitness goals correctly, your weight will drop. The only thing I changed was my fluid intake. That always seems to help to get the scale moving in the right direction for me.

Since January 11th, I'm now down just under 9 lbs.! When I look in the mirror, I can really see it which is SO encouraging. My weight was mainly around my middle, and my clothes are definitely fitting much better. Since I'm making progress, I'm keeping my goals the same for another week...

Personal Accountability Goal Sheet, Week 5

1. Eat clean; eliminate the 5 "bad foods".
2. Limit diet Coke to one glass per day; ideally zero.
3. Drink 1 glass of tart cherry juice per day.
4. Drink two cups of antioxidant tea per day.
5. Take all vitamins and supplements.
6. 45 minutes of core building per day.
7. Walk 4 times this week; minimum of 45 minutes each day.
8. Stay within calorie limits.
9. Log everything.
10. Continue to very gradually add yoga and flexibility exercises to increase range of motion. (Spine)

AZLisaLou

Debbie, good words you started us off with this week. Thank you for that!

Quinn, proud of you for sticking to your plan this weekend...and you got rewarded for it!


I on the other hand did not stick to any plan whatsoever, and I couldn't understand why I was so non-stop hungry. that time came early and I wasn't expecting it...that explains a lot! I have been so discouraged, but I decided just this morning when I was up at 3:30 am that I'm not giving up. I'm going to refocus starting this morning and get myself back on track and join the rest of you again.

I started off this morning on the right foot by NOT having any chocolate chip cookies that my daughter baked last night. yea me!

I think I might have mentioned previously that a lot of my problem lately has not been overeating junk food so much as it's been large portions at dinner, having a meal at breakfast which I don't normally do and things like that. I read up on glucomannan and decided I'm going to give it a try. I know there's no such thing as the magic pill, but I'm going to try this to see if it helps. All it is is fiber that poofs up when you drink water, like metamucil or other fiber digestive aids. I don't get full be drinking water before a meal, but I'm hoping having this fiber bulk up in my stomach will help me keep my portions smaller while still feeling satisfied. I ordered a bottle of it off Amazon so it should be here within the next week. I'll give it a week or so after that and let you all know if it's working or not in helping with my portion sizes.

And then there's that evil thing called soda again. That demon keeps rearing it's ugly head for me. I've been indulging too much, especially over this past weekend. I started to reach for it this morning, but then stopped myself and went for the diet. I'm going to try very hard to make better choices today, and then tomorrow I will worry about tomorrow. And hopefully those tomorrows will add up to be a week of good ones, etc.

I appreciate you all very much!

quinnesec

Lisa,
I'm a very, very weak person. lol That being said, I can't have ANY of my trigger foods in the house. No junk food, no bakery, no sweets, nothing. I know that sounds extreme, and it's much easier to do now that we are empty nesters, but that's the only thing that works for me. If there are chocolate chip cookies on the counter, I can guarantee that they will be gone by morning. lol

When we had kids at home, I just gradually started cleaning up all of the food that entered the house, since I was primarily in charge of purchasing it. The kids slowly found new favorites and now that they are 22 and 32, they have continued to cook and eat a very healthy diet... probably more so than I do. In fact, my son has a four year old that has never eaten at a fast food restaurant, which I find amazing. When my kids were little and I had a long, tiring day, I leaned on the drive thru often, especially on days filled with sports and band practices, etc.

I did it so slowly that they rarely noticed. About the only "bad" thing in my entire house are wintergreen Life Savers, which I munch on when I crave something sweet. Also, 25 calorie hot chocolate has saved my butt plenty of times when the craving for chocolate hits.

Hang in there! I know you'll find a system that works long-term for you. =)

canary52

Debbie, you are right: there are many ways to monitor progress. And sticking with it rather than giving up IS progress. Good luck with your "away plan." Tell us how it goes.
Quinn, you do not seem weak to me. It takes willpower not to buy the things and bring them home in the first place. 9 lbs, fantastic!!!!
Lisa, you resisted homemade chocolate chip cookies. My hero! Yay you!
My friend came to visit and she was really good on her gluten free plan and it was if I was eating for the two of us.
I have not been eating well (ice cream, TWICE, really?) or feeling well so here I go....

1) clean eating:
2) plan meals
3) walk when I can
4) keep track of my water
5) don't beat myself up for needing rest

01gt4.6

Happy Lundi Gras people!! Once again, my scale is stupid. Friday it said I weighed 208.0. I ate way too much over the weekend, including (but not limited to) king cake and crawfish. I know I'm retaining water weight from the crawfish. I'm bloated and look/feel much fatter than Friday. I hop on the scale this morning only to have it lie to my face... 205.0.

I'm running out of windows to throw my scale out of. I can't keep building new house to keep creating new windows, so something has to give. I may have to switch back to an old school scale and get rid of this digital crap!

Food porn below...
I did make an awesome roast this weekend. I found the recipe on Facebook. It was by far the easiest roast I've ever cooked and it was awesome. This fat boy tore it up!! So tender and juicy and the flavor was out of this world! I did some ginger roasted carrots and some mashed potatoes to go with it. Only one thing could have made the meal better, if I would have finished it off with a warm slice of rum cake.

If anyone wants that recipe, just let me know!

So here I am, on the eve of Mardi Gras, working. I guess I've gotten to be too old when the thought of missing Mardi Gras doesn't bother me.

My goals will be simple this week:

1) Gallon of water a day
2) have my messed up scale read 204.0
3) check in daily
4) do something productive (make, build, or work on something)

episode2011

Good day, Fitday Friends! First things first (in other words, let me get this bit out of the way):

Strategy for last week, Feb 1 - 7:

• Average daily calories: 1350-1450 RESULT: 1224
• Average sodium: 1400-1500 (and at least 75% potassium to offset) RESULT: 1206 (potassium: 1639, 136% offset)
• Average daily fiber: at least 25g RESULT: 25g
• Average daily protein: at least 50g RESULT: 55g

Result for the week? A GAIN of 1/4 pound (grouse, grumble). I blame it on that blasted fried chicken from a few days ago. The sodium was ridiculous. Probably had high not-good fat content, too. I wish I could say it was worth it, but it was just ok. Not bad but not grrrreat!

Strategy for this week, Feb 8 - 14:

• Average daily calories: 1200-1300 <--- NEW
• Average sodium: 1400-1500 (and at least 75% potassium to offset)
• Average daily fiber: at least 25g
• Average daily protein: at least 50g

This week, I'm lowering the calorie budget, since I seem to have been averaging 1250ish since the beginning of the year. Other than that, I'm not making any drastic changes. As I said last week, I'm not finding it too terribly difficult to adhere to this strategy, so I suppose that's a good thing. I almost do it without thinking about it. That's my true goal -- to get away from front-of-mind micro-managing and have this simply be my "regular life".

I do wish this plan provided me with the Big Drop, but I'm probably going to have to accept that the Big Drop just isn't in my destiny. Years -- no, let's be honest -- decades of dieting experience has proven it. This body simply doesn't get it. Doesn't mean I won't continue to grouse and grumble about it, though .

You've been warned .

episode2011

Ok, now that I've gotten the stats done, time for the social! Yay!

Debbie: Debbie, oh Debbie, I should have read your opening post before posting stats! Haha you addressed everything I was thinking about! You're absolutely right (as usual). This is not a linear process. Thanks for the reminder and thanks for starting the thread with so much positive energy. You're a peach! Good luck with traveling and eating on the road. Do your best to make reasonable choices. I know you will.

Quinn: Congratulations on breaking through! You're a great example of how to staying the course pays off. 9 pounds since January 11 is phenomenal!!!

Lisa: Portion control is a big gotcha for me, too. I mean, seriously, who eats a "handful" of nuts? I'm really curious about the glucomannan; I hope you'll keep us updated with your progress. I'm like you -- the glass of water before meals doesn't work for me either. Two quick cautions: 1) bulking up on fiber suddenly, when your system isn't accustomed to it, can cause a bit of... shall we say, rumbling. 2) I'm not sure if it applies to the product you've ordered, but I've heard that one must be careful to fully swallow things that "bulk up". If it gets caught in the throat, it could cause problems. Of course, that's probably just an old wives' tales (I'm an old wife, so... yeah...) but it's still worth keeping in mind. Good luck! We're all rooting for you!

Hope: I hope you're feeling better soon. I know it comes and goes. Please do keep #5 on your list in mind. Make it #1 if you have to!

Mike: You crack me up ("running out of windows..."). I hear you on the digital scale, though. About 10 years ago, I purchased one of those big, old-fashioned doctors' scale. The old one, with the sliding counter-weights (newer doctors' scales are digital *sigh*). It feels solid to me. More importantly, I know it's accurate because every now and then, I place a 5-pound weight on it (see? I DO use my hand weights!!! ). Except when we moved (and it got jostled around), I've never had to re-calibrate it.

Ok, I hope I'm all caught up. Gotta run -- stay the course, y'all!

01gt4.6

A doctors scale is a good idea.