I found a magazine that I think would be helpful for meal planning. I know that I am going to use it. It's Better Homes and Gardens, Diabetes meals by the plate. I do need some new meal ideas and recipes so this looks promising. I hope that I won't get the ban hammer for this.

Libby-Woohoo on the weight loss!

dmartz: Good luck this week!

Hello Quinn, Jennifer and Mern. :)

I lost 3 pounds last week, even though I was battling through weigh retention. I am on break right now at work and decided to go do body measurements in the bathroom. I used the body parts listed on this site: neck, bicep, forearm, chest, waist, hips, thigh, and calf. I was pleasantly surprised. I have lost a total of 31.75 inches, since I started my pathway to health 2 months ago. Yay! :D

Mern..........shock and disbelief.........here you are starting us off. Quinn and Jenn welcome back on the posting wagon.

Yesterday I was at 163, 3 pounds from goal. Last night, movie theatre popcorn and this am up 3 pounds! haha! That'll teach me. Seriously I think it is all water weight and today I am laying the water to me.

So I am starting off the walking challenge (strong this time)! Who is in? 10 miles by Sunday! Of course, I am all enthusiastic as I did 3 miles today, we'll see how the rest of the week goes.

I have no clue what to do about goals. I'm already entering maintenance mode (frame of mind) because I feel pretty good about the bad habits I have been changing all winter. And I have to do something different. I need to think about it.

Congratulations to those who are down! Libby and Renewed Soul you guys are doing great. Hugs to those who are working on a do over.

Mern & Jenn - great to see you both back.

Summer is easier for me because I don't feel like eating when it's hot. I could happily live on salads in the summer. Whereas winter -- I think I'm programmed to store up fat when it's cold.

Jenn - nothing wrong with housework & yardwork as exercise. I prefer yard work over housework, but with both, besides burning some calories, there's the bonus of seeing an immediate improvement in your environment.

It's been hot here. I did some yard work anyway yesterday, then came in and made myself a decaf coffee icee. Into the blender goes a handful of ice cubes, some milk (I never measure, probably 1/2 to 3/4 cup), a spoonful of instant coffee, and a half envelope of truvia. It was so smooth and cool. I like coffee yogurt, so I'm going to try using plain yogurt in place of the milk. As to the milk, I think the icee works best with at least 1% fat milk. Nonfat isn't quite as good. I think the cold fat molecules gives it a better mouth feel.

Kocia - even though you didn't meet your 10M walking goal, 6+ miles isn't a failure.

Edited to add: Robin - fantastic on getting 3 miles in today. I've been thinking about maintenance mode strategies for a while. As I'm losing so slowly, it seems like maintenance mode is pretty much what I'm doing now. One thing I'll do differently is weigh myself more frequently in maintenance mode - so I can catch any upward scale movement quickly. I don't want to let the pounds pile on again.

----
Goals:
1. Avg under 1400 calories a day
2. Avg at least 45 min extra movement a day
3. No sugar, refined flour foods
4. 3 cups green tea a day

Happy Canada Day!
 

This is for the Canadians among us (and anyone else who celebrates today:))

My daughter is 27 today. She always gets fireworks on her birthday!

Robin: Great job on the weight loss, and I bet it feels great to be so close to goal. I am sure the three pounds is just water weight from salty popcorn. :) It will probably be gone by morning. Lemon juice in warm water is supposed to be a natural diuretic. Good luck this week. :)

Carolynn: Good luck this week. I also do not have much of an appetite when the weather is hot. It helps me with denying temptations.

Hi all!

I fell a pound short in my weight loss goal from last week, mostly with being lax on like three days (I can usually get away with one).

Goals for this week.
1. Continue to log calories consumed/burned (though sometimes approximates are better for me, doesn't help to get obsessive). That being said...
2. Try not to obsess too much,
3. Swim 500 yards (10 laps, any stroke) at least once.
4. Swim at least an additional 250 yards at least twice.

Let's see how she does this week, folks!

Hey folks! Nice to see some of the old crew here again - I, too, was AWOL until last week. So I had a few tough days, but thankfully the scale didn't punish me too harshly. I ran 5 miles yesterday, so helped me get back on track. My goals are pretty much the same as last week.

1.) Be okay with number of calories I eat (and I'll be honest about it!)
2.) Drink 64 oz. water/day
3.) Exercise
M: Gym
T: Run 4 miles
W: Gym
Th: Run 3 miles
F: Gym
S: off
Su: Run 4 miles

(Sneaks in and takes a seat by the exit)

Goals:

1. log food every day
2. keep calories between 1400-1600
3. excercise on my lunch hour at least twice

Edited to add: Welcome, Mel. Good goals! (you did sneak in - while I was posting)

Gosh, a bunch of posts popped up while I was writing my earlier post, so I missed some of you.

Libby - congrats on your 4 lb loss. I know it's not as much as you hoped, but 4 lbs is great! I saw on last week's thread that you had been hoping to lose more in time for a wedding next month. The good thing about weddings is that all eyes are on the bride!

RS - awesome on your weight and measurements loss! 35 lbs gone!!! I've found that even when I'm losing slowly or stalled, that I often see improvements in body measurements.

Robin - our daughter's are close in age - mine turned 28 a couple of months ago. She's my youngest.

Claire - any loss is good! You're doing great with the swimming. I see where you're coming from about not getting too obsessive. I often approximate with a salad or homemade casserole type dish. I used to enter all the separate ingredients, now I just find a similar item and estimate on the high side to cover myself.

Joanna - I can't see how you could not lose weight with all that running.