7 Day Motivational Thread Starting 7-1-2013
 

I didn't see a new thread started for this week.

Hi, everyone,

For those of you who don't know me, I am not new to the group. I joined in 2011 and since March have been struggling to stay on track.

Long story short, as I professed I would never do, I had fallen to emotional eating and totally gave up on healthful eating and weight loss. I have regained almost all the weight I lost over the years. Mike reached out to me and found exactly the right words to encourage me to come back.

My goals this week are simple:

--take my daily supplements to help keep blood cholesterol normal

--1200-1600 calories per day

--6 servings fruits/veggies per day

Daily averages
--sat fat 12g
--dietary cholesterol 250mg
--protein 120g
--net carbs (total carbs less fiber) 25g
--dietary fiber 30g

1/2 hour exercise 5 days per week
64 oz. water per day

You are correct. Thanks for getting us going.:D

Hi Buddies! :)

hey quinniepoo! Where's your goals?:D

Good morning and thanks, Mike. :)
Hi, Quinn! :)

Headed for a healthful, late breakfast and then exercise before allowing myself to get back on the computer.

Welcome back Mern!!
Like Mern I have been MIA for a while too. I think it's because in the summertime I don't have Dr appointments so it's easier for me to become lax. I'm maintaining the same weight but I really need to get back to eating more fruits and veggies.
Exercise has consisted of yardwork and cleaning.

I have to go to my family Dr so he can check my A1C. Not looking forward to that.

Goals will be simple
1. Keep to carb limit
2. 4 servings fruits/veggies
3. 6 glasses of water
4. Exercise 30 min 3x

Jennifer

Hi, Jennifer,

I was going to go eat and exercise but then after editing my goals saw your post.

Welcome back to you, too! It is easy to become lax when we don't have doctor appointments staring us in the face. I always seem to get back on the wagon before my A1C in time to get my blood sugar back down to normal. :o Kinda juvenile, but I have to admit it.

Thanks for posting your goals. I am a veggie lover but haven't been eating enough veggies lately. I'll add that to my goals.

LOL.... Laying in bed going through emails, saw Tori's message from a few weeks ago and sent her a long PM. Have her fill you in. Goals for today are to take a loonnnnggggg nap! :D ...and walk 4 whole blocks! (Not quite my usual 4 miles!)

Be back soon for lots of motivation... I'm going to need it!

quinnipoo

Hi Mern! Tori can fill you in too... I'll be back to full strength soon! :)

Welcome back
 

Welcome back Mern, Quinn, Jennifer!!!

We missed you.

My goals, which will be especially hard for me this week, 4 of 6 of the usual:

• Calories Avg. < 1400 /day:
• Cholesterol < 200mg:
• Vegetables > 3 / day:
• Protein > 50 g / day:
• Sugar < 50 g / day:
• Workout > 150 min/wk:

Goals for the week
Calories under 1,100 a day:
Water 6 glasses a day:
Exercise 5K for the week:

I lost a pound last week so that makes it 4 pounds for June, not the 6 that I was planning on but I will do better in July. With out the wonderful people on this board encouraging me I wouldn't have made it this far. Thank you for your kind words.

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.

I just made a monster "custom food" where one "serving" contains far more calories than I can eat and go with that (at least yesterday, where I went to a Chinese al-you-can-eat buffet, as I was craving their peanut chicken). But today is back on the horse time. :p

Joanna: I hope you have a better week. Running five miles in one day is great; I would have to crawl the last three, if I tried that many right now. :p

Mel-MC: I saw you sneak in. Good luck this week!

Claire: I think it is great to swim so much. I wish I had access to a place to swim. Good luck this week!

I forgot to add my goals for the week.

Week's goals:

1. Stay under 1,200 calories daily
2. Log in everything I eat or drink
3. Behave and do not eat anything that goes against my vegan diet on July 4th; only drink water
4. Follow the goals above and do not mess up once this week on them
5. Lose 2 pounds or more

Quinn, I hope you get your nap and 4 blocks in and get back to full strenghth ASAP. I haven't even been lurking so had no idea you were down. I sent Tori a PM to get the scoop. Big cyberhug to ya!

Donna, thanks for the welcome back. Best wishes on your goals this week!

Libby, I'm a whole inch taller than you. Neener, neener, neener! :D Kudos on all the weight you lost since May! Best wishes on your diabetic meal planning.

RenewedSoul, wow, look at you! Way to go on the weight and inches lost!

Robin, hi! Popcorn salt surely does add the water weight. It'll come off as quickly as it went on. Congrats on being only 3 lbs. from goal otherwise. :) Wonderful that you're ready for the maintenance mode after being confident of your good habits.

Carolyn, hi! I'll be back later to read your post and that of the others I didn't get to yet. Have to stop to take care of grandkids.

Libby is that magazine a July issue? I'm always looking for new recipe ideas! I always seem to go back to my regular ones though.
I had a big salad for lunch so I'm back on track for veggies (for today).

Gotta go put my laundry away.
Nice to see we already have 3 pages for Monday :D

Jenn

I had to do some work for a while and when I peeked - I can't believe how chatty everybody has been!

Modest goals for this week:

- two extra, non-running workouts (I dismissed my last week's 10 minute ab workout, but had sore muscles for the next two days - abs and arms (why arms?!), so I guess it must have had some effect)
- overall 1,000 calorie deficit for the week
- walking challenge - 10 miles

The wine abstinence will have to wait until after July 4th. Ian - how about the week after that?

Happy Fourth to all!

Well I am back also...

The goals are simple this week

Log food
This seems to easy but my inner self thinks if you don't log it you didn't eat it.

Hit the rowing machine for 15 minutes a day.

Just starting slow.....

I have one of those! I call it 'Food.' Mine is one calorie and I do a SWAG of what the damage is. Haven't had to use it lately, but Been There, Done That!

- Donna

Goals for the week
Calories under 1,100 a day: M-877
Water 6 glasses a day: Yes,
Exercise 5K for the week: M-1.5k
I am going to try for two pounds this week.

I am the shortest person on the board Neener Neener.
The magazine should be on the shelf till August. As well as the recipes I was interested in the portion sizes. That was a real eye opener. I cook for three grown men and they eat a lot of food.

I guess I need to get around to making goals.

Sticking to the 3's but with easier goals.

1) 3 liters of water/day
2) Gym x 3
3) Bench Press 255# x 3

Libby, you know what they say: "The best things come in small packages." So you can crow about your height. I think I'm the oldest person in this group but that's not worth a neener, neener. LOL I was diagnosed in 2011 with pre-diabetes and reversed my blood sugar to normal through low carb diet alone with the help of my family physician. Meal planning is key to my staying on track, but I don't always manage to plan ahead. I cook low carb and my DH fixes any high carb stuff he likes. Do you cook special things for yourself apart from the men for whom you cook?

RenewedSoul, your goals are wonderful! Wishing you the best!

pcameronbrooks, welcome back. Logging is time consuming and I detest it. When I don't log I pay dearly for it. Wishing you willpower on that issue. Kudos on the rowing.

Jenn, great job on the veggies. I got all mine in, too.

Kocialapcia, modest goals in a holiday week are quite admirable. Enjoy the wine on the 4th. :)

Carolyn, summer is a little harder for me with grandkids here all day weekdays until 4:30PM and with all the family get-togethers. I can eat on plan if I try hard enough on tough days but I often cave. Ooh, iced coffee sounds great. Thanks for sharing your ideas.

Claire, kudos on your weight loss since 6/17. Don't sell yourself short on your accomplishments. Nice goals. Darling avatar. :) Chinese buffets are my fave food and where I do the worst with willpower. I don't eat rice, but cannot get out of there without two generous servings of sesame chicken and beef lo mein. And I pay with water retention in addition to all the carbs.

Yo! Joanna! Hi! :) Welcome back! Kudos on your run yesterday! I like your sensible goals.

Mel-Mc, move to the rear of the bus! LOL I like your goals, too.

Mike, best wishes with your goals. Oops--your post reminded me I'm behind on my water.

I pooped out on my exercise earlier today after a mile of aerobic walking-- but I truly gave it my all. I vow to finish the other mile this evening.

Wow, I feel like I'm jumping in mid week you've all been so chatty.

Kolcia - OK next week it is, I'll make sure to drink all mine this week so there is no temptation for the challenge.

Goals:

>500 calories worth of exercise each day
<2500 calories from alcohol for the week
>2500 calories difference for the week
<40g fat per day
3 or more fruit/veg per day

Walking challenge 10 miles - Weather forcast is rain, rain and a bit more rain this week so I don't think I'll make it, but I'll try

>500 calories worth of exercise each day
M-348
<2500 calories from alcohol for the week
M-0
>2500 calories difference for the week
M-1395
<40g fat per day
M-23.4
3 or more fruit/veg per day
M-4

Walking challenge - 0/10

ok time to bust some habits
 

So first things first, I need to reduce my dependence on fitday (imagine)-I use it way too frequently (since Dec). Need to get some independence.

Goal #1: Log once a day only (at night). M-N

Also, my scale went kiput today, it needs a new battery so I decided I will only replace it next weekend, in light of goal #2: Weigh myself only once per week. M-Y

#3: 3 workouts this week (exclude walking challenge), M-N

Personal goals:

1. Reduce computer time, M-Y
2. Start cleaning up the house, >1 bag per day. M-Y
3. Read more, M-Not yet

My house is really a disaster, I have been working way too much for too long and it's gotten out of control. Plus the health problems that I have had, husband's broken leg, etc. When I am home I'm on the computer. So once per day I will collect a bag of stuff to through out or give away. Should get quite a bit done by the end of the week:)

#4: Walking challenge (Ian it's calling for rain a lot again this week) 10 miles by Sunday. M-3m

the un-diet
 

I have been doing low carb for years and have found recenlty that I cannot make myself stick to it so today I am starting my own plan. It is called the Un-diet. Basically I will eat healthy and whatever I want. I will have a 1000 per day deficit of calories which will give 2 pounds per week of loss. My current goal is by October 24th to lose 34 pounds.
current weight 274
goal by 10/24/13 is 240lbs

Basically I will log all food for each day. I have been using a body bug so I know I burn 2500 calories per day average. so I will be eating 1500 calories per day. take vitamines, drink alot of water, half my body weight in water per day/137 oz of water. I will workout 5 or 6 days per week.

I am eating healthy with balanced meals. I do not plan on eating anything white if it is possible, potatoes,rice, etc. mostly veggies, protien, fruit and complex carbs. If i warok out heavier one day I will add some extra calories. I pray that this works otherwise I will have to go back to low carb. If i want desert I will plan for it and that way I can have whatever I want....

If you want to join me with your plan or if you want to try this plan. Mostly lets support each other and keep each other accountable.

donna

i posted this a few days ago. no response, i thought i would put this here since this is what everyone is talking about.

6/27/13 sw; 274
7/01/13 cw 272.4

Hi Mern: On my last doctors visit in May he was so impressed with my weight loss and improvement in blood sugarl, cholesterol and blood pressure that he gave me an A+. He said that if I was on meds for diabetes I didn't need them any more.
I want to make sure that when he sees me again in late August that he is equilly impressed. I hope that one day I won't have to take meds for blood pressure and cholesterol any more. Has any one been taken off these meds after a significant weight loss? I am very lucky that my guys aren't picky eaters. I modify my plate to roughly half the meat and starch that they eat
but about the same amount of vegetables.

Hi Donna, another Donna here. I've been on an Un-diet since Dec 2011, and it's really worked well for me. During that time I've logged everything I eat. I mean ev-er-y-thing. (ok, there are about 10 days that have an entry for 'food' with a calorie estimate, mainly on vacations.) I try to eat healthy and stay within a narrow band of calories averaged by week.
I work out a few days a week, half with a trainer. (The trainer helps when I've lost enthusiasm for working out.) Sometimes after I've worked out hard, I'm famished. I try to stick to protein in those instances. If I know I will have high cal episodes, I try to plan for them by reducing calories ~in advance~. For the unexpected binge I try cut back on cals for the next few days, but not by too much. If my cals drop too low, I tend to get lazy, hazy, or mean. (Grrr.)
I'm also addicted to sugar, but I never (ok, almost never) consume it in beverages. I've been know to drink straight whiskey, rather than consume any mixer. But I mainly prefer wine, red wine, tea, hot, iced, or tepid, or water, with lemon, (although not necessarily in that order.) I never touch artificial sweeteners.
I'm currently at the point in my un-diet where I'm no longer trying to lose weight. I'd just like to maintain my current weight, and my healthy, loggin', lifestyle. 'Cause this 'fit' feels too good on me to give up on it now, even if it is sometimes a real high-maintenance pain.

- D.

Welcome, Donna O! There are a lot of weight loss diets that work - the key is finding an eating plan that works for you - both in terms of it being easy to follow and in addressing any possible health issues. A lot of people go off their diets because they aren't happy eating that way. Glad you found something that works for you.

Libby - yeah, portion control is very important. There are lots of web sites that show what portions should look like. The one I remember is that a serving of meat is the size of a pack of playing cards. And, yes, people have been taken off cholesterol and blood pressure meds by reducing those levels through diet and weight loss.

Welcome! I often stop myself from eating because I don't want to log the food - either because I don't want to see the calories added, or because I'm too lazy to log it.

I bought myself a plate with sections to remind me to eat 1/4 meat 1/4 starch and 1/2 vegetables. It's from corning ware and it works great. Today was a good day.

Hi all! Feels great to come back here and see familiar faces - and not-so-familiar faces!
Starting simple because life is a bit stressy right now;
Exercize every day - Y
No junk food - Y
No soft drink - Y

I'll be better able to catch up with you all later, but great to see so many of you still going strong. :)