October Ovations: 100+ Ladies Club
 

Figured I'd start this month's thread, as it is officially October! Colored leaves, a chill in the air, and maybe a sweatshirt here and there; and if you happen to be from a bit of a warmer climate, may your days be mild enough to make you cozy!

Why October Ovation? Because I have a great feeling that this is going to be a superb month...where everyone deserves an ovation here or there!

:)

Woohoo! Thanks for starting this month's thread. I like the title. :)

I like it too. I'd given a new title some thought and all I could come up with was "Orange you gonna lose weight in October?". Ovations in October is much much nicer.

I like OVATIONS too. I remember an episode of designing women where a guy designed a box that, everytime you opened it, there was applause -- so you could give yourself props all the time. Someone should really invent that!

(okay, someone did -- the THINGS you can find on the interwebs!!!

Box of Applause – Canned clapping - The Red Ferret Journal)

I think I'm losing it! I completely blanked that it is October now. Duh!!!:p

Can you hear my whooping and clapping??? That's my standing ovation to all of you!:D You rock! This week my rocking was more 70's easy listening with a half pound lost, but I did meet my work out targets and was genuinely sore a couple of days. I think it's paid off my upper arms are a 1/2 inch smaller this week. Not so bad for an amateur. Thank you ladies for helping me fight the good fight on the road to being healthier.

Hugs to everyone!

Harpeg

I'm losing it, too. I read that as "October Ovulations." LOL! :D I was wondering if you knew something about my cycle that I didn't....

Weighed in this morning at down 3lbs for the month. It's in the right direction, so yay! It's coming off slower now, but I weigh less, and I think that darn 4,000mg+ teriyaki bowl swelled me up like a water balloon. I might try weighing again next week and see if it drops.

Here's to a great October! :)

Great new title!
 

nru: great title for this month!
zootnarf: ROFLOL - You made me snort with your October Ovulations! :p

Bad couple of food days here starting with that Wok Box fiasco but digging my heals in and getting back on track. Not much walking done but have got all my spring bulbs in the ground. I have also started to do 100 bicep curls before bed each night. Might not be the best time but all I can do after is sleep anyways! LOL

Standing ovation to you all!
Carren

Just started today and I know I can use all the support I can get. I am so tried of losing the same 20lbs.

Current 221lbs
Short term 200lbs
Goal 125-130lbs

Honestly if I could reach 170lbs I would feel sooooo skinny!!!!!

I'm not gonna lie....I almost typed "Ovulations" when posting the title of the thread. :o

Yesterday was so-so. I've been trying to cut down my sodium intake, which I found is very hard in the US. I am proud of myself because I went out to an event where they served delicious food, and I did not imbibe in any of it (as I know they were calorie-packed)! But then I came home and had some ravioli. I don't regret it, it was delicious. And my calorie count was still pretty low; but the sodium count was not optimal.

Any ideas on how to lower sodium count during the day? Meal ideas, food ideas, how to flush it from your system besides drinking a gallon of water a day?

Greatly appreciative.

Hope all are well. :D

Welcome, dhburns! It's good to have you here, and we're excited to hear about your journey. You can do it!

Well, I will now smugly say that I was right. After weighing yesterday and only losing 3 pounds for the month, I had a feeling I was bloated from all the extra sodium I'd inadvertently eaten. I weighed again today, and I was down 2 more pounds for a total of 5 pounds in September!

I told my husband last night that I thought I only lost 3 pounds because I was all "bloaty." He gave me that look (you know that look our men give us when we're using our Girl 'Logic'?), and he said that one bad meal couldn't make that much of a difference.

Let me just state once again: I was RIGHT! :D

As far as sodium goes, I am continually astonished when I see how much sodium the restaurant and fast food industry cram into one meal. It often is more (or MUCH more) than I want to eat in a day. I think to lower sodium counts, you have to make the food yourself so you can control what goes into it. The more fresh fruits and veggies you can add into a dish, then the lower the sodium count will be. And read those food labels! A similar product can have a very different sodium count.

Here's to a low-sodium, no-bloaty October for all! :D

The diet here in our house tends to be very low sodium, but we don't eat a lot of things that come in cans or boxes. We grow a huge garden in the summer and I do a lot of canning/freezing/drying. So I would totally agree that doing all your own cooking and preserving (if it's feasible) is the most effective way of keeping your diet low-sodium. I know it's not possible for everyone to grow their own food, but it's something to think about.

Happy one year anniversary, almeeker! I just noticed in your sig that your weight loss journey began a year ago. What a great time to celebrate your amazing accomplishment. Congrats on all of your hard work, and cheers to a healthier you! Well done! :D

New here and need to lose 98 pounds
 

Thanks Zootnarf, I was sort of half hearted in the beginning, but I lost 16 pounds between October 1st and Thanksgiving. Then I went off plan between T-day and X-mas, and gained back 10 of it :eek:. Christmas Day the brand new Wii Fit Plus called me obese in front of my whole family and the next day I got down to business. It still tells me I'm overweight every morning, but that little bar is better than 1/2 way down the "overweight" portion of the dial. So I have some faith that eventually I'll get down into the "healthy weight" zone.

Welcome aboard slimcerely, very funny screen name by the way... And congratulations on the 52 lbs already gone!!!!

Welcome aboard dhburns, you can do this, you just have to find the will to keep at it after you lose that first 20 pounds. I think also one major key to success is to actually believe you can do it. Another key for me is to get right back on track after a fall.

Hi Sherry! I'm also a Sheri. :)

Congrats on your terrific weight loss so far. Well done! :D I've been using FitDay for many years, too, but just recently discovered the forums. I'm not sure how long they have been here, but I don't think it has been very long. This is a very helpful and supportive group. Welcome, and keep up the good work!

Last Friday the local weather forecast was predicting a hard frost for either Saturday or Sunday morning. For the first time ever we successfully grew sweet potatoes. I know they are easy to raise in other parts of the world, but here in the frozen north you have to cheat a bit to get a good crop (aka buy plants from the greenhouse). Anyway, since we've never raised them before we didn't know if they were frost hardy, so out came the shovels and the wheelbarrow. Holy wah! We literally dug up like 50-60 pounds of sweet potatoes, and they are HUGE!!! The biggest one looks like a ring baloney and weighs almost 5 pounds. Last night for dinner I baked just 1, and we split it between the 5 of us, and it was delicious. Maybe I should have dug them up sooner eh? Well live and learn.

Holy wow, almeeker, that is awesome! I love, love, love sweet potatoes. They are amazing. Great grilled.

We're having squash soup tomorrow. I am very excited about this. :-)

Last night I made dinner for the fam for what I believe is the first time ever. An altered version of New England Clam Chowder...not quite as creamy, but good nonetheless. I also made honey wheat bread. It was delicious! I think I'm going to make dinner once a week from now on. I think it's a good thing for me to do, especially since I love baking...why not make something healthy for a change? :-)

Oh, and I just made my first teeny tiny goal that was in my head....I'm under 350 now! :-D

Hope all is well with everyone.

Great way to start off the month with October Ovations! :) I almost forgot it was October too. Wow, it's true what our parents tell us... time really flies as you get older.

Welcome to our new 100+ group members! You couldn't have picked a better place to find support and encouragement.

Today, it's very sunny & brisk outside! It feels like Autumn and the delicious smells of wood burning are filling the air. I could inhale that all day.

I'm sitting here drinking my morning coffee and thinking, "Yay! Another pound destroyed according to the scale!" I even weighed with my clothes on today so it might be slightly more... but I'm too chilly to get nekkie! LOL

*noticing all the exclamation points in my sentences today, I must be excited!!! hehe*

Anyway, *group hug*, today IS a new day! Take some deep breaths, reconfirm how important you are to yourself, and make the best choices for your good health & well being that you can. We deserve that!

Best always,
Smoosh :D

Hi all. I don't have 100 pounds to lose, but this looks like a great and fun group to join, so I hope you don't mind jumping on. I'm 38 years old, 5'6", and currently weigh 201 pounds. My goal is to hit 140 by Christmas 2011. I used Fitday about 3 years ago and was able to lose 40 pounds, but then got off track and gained it all back. Now I don't have any choice but to lose the weight. I have Ankylosing Spondylitis, which is basically arthritis of the spine. The disease is getting worse, so I'll feel much better if I can get this excess weight off. If I make 140 (what I weighed when I got married 16 years ago) I'll be excited!

Been back on Fitday for 2 months now and have only dropped about 10 pounds. But, the inches are what is amazing. I've lost 3 inches on my waist and 1 inch on my hips and 1 1/2 inches on my thighs. I love how loose my pants are feeling even though the scale isn't showing much of a difference.

I can't excersize much due to my physical limitations, but I do try to keep moving as much as I can. I must admit that my house is the cleanest it has even been. I think I'm going to start washing walls soon since it is getting too cool to do much outside.

I love reading all the posts her in the forum, and I hope you don't mind me joining your group. Thanks!

Welcome heathe1marie! I too want to get to 140 by Dec. 2011! ;)

Been away visiting friends for a few days but still managed to pull a 4.5lb weight loss, despite a few poor food choices and almost total lack of exercise.
Don't you just love it when that happens?! :D

Hi I'm new here 30 yrs old need to lose bout 65 lbs plus more but as of now 65lbs is great..i need support.ive been trying eat healthy but exercising not sure where to begin..plz help support me..

BAM, love it weightlossboo I'm impressed that you lost weight while away, congrats!

Wecome newcomers I love that there seem to be a couple more new people everytime I come on here, that's awesome it's a great place for support!

Does anyone around here have an eating cheat day? I haven't been doing well on weekends, not really bad just not good and I'm thinking about just being easier on myself about food on weekends.

Almeeker after some blood work this week I'm going to do a follow up with my Dr. to see what's up with the weight loss meds. The only reason I would really consider them is because I am the most impatient person on the planet and I think it would be very motivating to see bigger numbers, I know it's not the smartest reason but if the side effects are horrendous I'm not willing to risk it so I'll keep everyone posted.

I would LOVE to LOVE it when that happens, but lately I can't seem to move that scale in the downward direction to save my life. Argh!!! I've been very very good today, so maybe this week I can break through.

Well, as far as exercise it's a little hard to say since I don't know where you're at. For me I worked on the little things first, like parking the car in the spot furthest from the door, running errands on foot. Then I started looking for more ways to work exercise into my routine. Now I the kids to school (weather permitting), take the kids to the pool at least once/week, sometimes twice. My morning routine now is that M-F I workout at home, usually for 60-75 min, some days it's all cardio, some times I do intervals with cardio and weightlifting and other days I goof off and use the Wii Fit Plus and play games til I hit 455 calories. Saturday I lift at the gym, and Sunday I'm something of a slacker and all I do is walk a mile to the grocery store, pick up the Sunday paper and walk back. Once a week I give myself the day off, it varies but usually I end up slacking on either Monday or Friday. I do other things in the afternoons, but it's more unpredictable, like Tuesdays I run with my DD up to soccer practice, and tonight we're going to go up to the pool. Sometimes we just turn the radio on and dance. You have to look for things that you enjoy and will add to your life rather than forcing yourself to do something that you HATE.

Congratulations on meeting your first goal!!! Feels pretty awesome doesn't it?

I LOVE LOVE LOVE sweet potatoes too. I've tried a couple of times to grow them, but the climate here is colder than optimal for sweet potatoes. This year I bought plants at the greenhouse, which were a lot farther along than the slips I've ordered in the past, and it worked!!!

How is it that you've just made dinner for the fam for the first time ever? I've been stuck in the kitchen for decades. Well before I got married and had kiddos of my own to feed I had to cook for my parents and brothers. My mother sent me to cooking classes when I was 9 and I've been cooking dinner almost nightly since. Where did I go wrong? I would really like to be able to slip out of the kitchen from time to time. What is your secret?

why thank you! I'm pretty stoked, and just ready to keep going. I'm finding this much easier than I imagined. I've been ignoring weight loss for years, and this is just so fulfilling.

I have a black thumb when it comes to gardening; I just can't seem to keep anything alive. I haven't tried in a few years, but maybe I will get back into it come the spring. Any awesome suggestions besides the sweet potatoes, and how to go about doing so?

I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty spoiled. I'm almost 24, I still live with my parents, and my mom has always cooked for us. I've done little things here and there, but never really planned and created a meal from scratch before. I've always had some guidance, but this I did from planning, buying, preparing, cooking, serving, eating. It really was so fulfilling, I can't wait to do it soon again!

i can not believe it is already october! I've been sick so i have not really been eating much i figured this was a good time to start since i have not had coffee in 4 days. sad to say i was quite the coffee drinker. with 2 scoops of sugar and lots of flavored vanilla creamer. i also usually had 6 large moche frappichino's from mcdonalds. i went to their site to see how bad they really were 650 calories for one!!! and more sugar than i care to say. no wonder why i wasn't losing weight and gaining it instead. so needless to say no coffee! i didn't do a whole lot of exercising since i'm sick but i work 12 hr shifts and walk most of it so i'm sure i burnt a few calories i bought those tone up shoes when i work and man i can really feel it but my weight never changed no doubt due to my coffee habit.
still sick today most likely will be soup again all day.

Oh man, do I know the caffeine addiction! I never really drank coffe because my mouth is too sensitive to hot drinks, and the idea of iced coffe never really turned me on. But I was addicted to sodas, especially mountain dew, and iced tea...just so I could trick myself into saying "okay, I won't fall asleep at my desk because I have a lot of caffeine here!" About a week ago, though, I decided to give that all up and just replace it with water. Now I'm drinking 4 bottles of water a day during work hours alone, plus whatever I have at night. I find myself never really thirsty, and I definitely do not feel the need for caffeine, soda, iced tea, what have you. Not only that, but I feel more energized than I have before! I think you will find that over time, if you completely give it up (cold turkey), you will feel much better. If that's what you decide to do, I wish you the best of luck.

And soup sounds like a marvelous idea. Any specific kind that you really love?

Feel better soon!

Too few calories?
 

Hi ladies,

I'm a bit concerned about something. I feel like I eat all day long, and I am never hungry by the end of the day, but recently I have been taking in fewer than 1,500 calories a day. I'm concerned about this, because I don't want my body to think that I am starving myself. Does anyone have any information regarding the proper intake of calories to lose weight for a female, 5'6", 349 pounds? I would greatly appreciate it.

Hope everyone is doing well! Ovations to all!

Hi auntmayo09! Welcome to our group!

When it comes to starting exercise you have to take it slow. I would suggest just to start walking - it is free and requires no equipment except a good pair of walking shoes.

I started out just doing .5 mile 3 days a week, the 1 mile 4 days a week and am now up to a little more than 2 miles 4-5 days a week.

If at 1500, you feel full/satisfied... and you are showing some weight loss, then its probably perfect for you. If after a couple weeks and you dont see inches or weight lost, then I might go up by 100 or 200 calories and see what happens. Eventually, you will need to lower them by 100 each plateau but to start, you generally need more than normal.
I wish I had known this when I started at 1200 a day.. I should have/could have started at 1800 but now I would gain weight by doing that.

I'm very proud of you for taking some initiative in the kitchen, who knows maybe you'll end up being the next television chef on the Food Network? I'm also jealous as all get out that you've lived 23+ years without being chained to the stove. I've been teaching my girls to cook and we also read labels together and talk about nutrition. My own mother has some grasp of nutrition, but she's primarily a "feeder", and given free reign can pack 2-3 pounds/daily on pretty much anyone. But I can't be too bitter towards her, since she's also the one that taught me everything I know about gardening.

On gardening I don't know where you live, so I'll give you a rundown of what works well in my neck of the woods. You may want to check with your local greenhouses for specific veggies that do well in your climate. For veggies that are easiest to grow I would suggest beets, radishes, zucchini, bush beans and carrots, I plant all of those from seed and usually get a decent crop. On the beans there are 2 different varieties, bush and pole, the bush beans grow upright and look like a short hedge, the pole beans are a vine and need something to grow up like a fence or a tee-pee. For carrots I like the variety "sweet treat", they take about 70 days from plant to plate, but they are soooo yummy it's worth the wait. Potatoes are also quite simple, any potato growing an eye can grow a pile of taters if you just plant it in the ground. I do some of my gardening with starter plants that I buy at a local greenhouse, the easiest ones are cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. Broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are all frost hardy, so you can plant them early or late (or both) and get nice produce. Tomatoes and peppers are tender (not frost tolerant), so you have to plant them after the last frost of the year. Herbs are also fun to grow, and some even grow quite well indoors, rosemary, thyme, basil and sage are great little house plants. Dill is easy to grow outside, but doesn't do well in a pot because it needs a long tap root and will get stunted in a pot. Sorry I got to running on and on here, but I could scribble about gardening for hours on end.

I think when you set up a "Weight Goal" on this site it will give you a run down of how many calories you need. The only thing I would worry about with too few calories is that you're meeting your body's nutritional needs. Check out the nutrition graph and make sure you are getting the RDA on your nutrients. The other thing you might want to be aware of is that at 1,499 calories your body will eventually even out and hit a plateau, and it will take either dropping your calories or adding in more exercise to get past it. So you need to ask yourself a question about weather or not you can comfortably drop below that or not. I've been struggling with that issue myself, when I started this journey I was typically at 1,350-1,550/day and now that I'm leaner and more muscular 1,500 is just not enough, but I've hit a plateau and will need to get down to 1,300ish again to continue moving the dial towards goal. So I'm really wishing that I had started out at 1,800 and could drop down to 1,600 now. Live and learn.

Thanks, Pam and Almeeker. I don't think I'm too concerned at this point at my calories, as I am fully by the end of the day and hovering between 1300-1500 on most days (sometimes more).

almeeker, I'm in the SE Pennsylvania region, so it's pretty moderate here climate-wise. I may start a few things come the early spring; I even have a little square patch in my backyard that would be optimal for my own garden space. Now I'm really excited! There really is something to say for growing your own food.

I'm in a pretty good mood today. Very excited about recording a piece of music that I wrote with my cousin tomorrow. Usually I wouldn't be able to do so after a long day at work, but I feel so much more energetic now that I feel I can do anything. That is, until I crash around 9:30. :p

Oh, and how about opinions on vitamin supplements? I started with Centrum Women's today to help supplement what I was not getting with certain vitamins where diet would not help me; I am desperately in need of Vitamin E on a daily basis, and sunflower seeds are just not my thing. And boiled greens squick me out. Why can't there be vitamin E laden fresh greens? I could eat fresh spinach all day long... *sigh*

thanks i think walking will do best for me right now i have the sketcher shape ups anyone seem to know if they actually work or not..i dont got the best place to walk as of now but i will surely find a place!!!thanks for the replies you guys are awesome

GRRRRR --- lost an entire post and I KNOW BETTER. ALways type in word, then cut and paste, right?

Oh well -- it is exercise time, so I'll just say "HI" been missing for a few days, but not off track and am down to 220.4!!!

BBL --

Welcome newer than me newbies!

Ang

OK I had said I would post again about me when I had something more positive to say since I was thrown for a loop and had to change some meds and stop others and the result was an 8 lb gain <sigh>, and I was so discouraged.

While I dont have a complete solution to the issues as of yet, we ( my doc and I ) have part of it figured out and so I was able to re-lose those 8 lbs. Hopefully I am back in the right direction again!

The one thing I am proud of is: other than one day ( last saturday :( ) in spite of the gains etc ( it was mostly water weight)... I stuck to my 'diet'. I did however blow it out of the water Saturday when my GF said .. "Lets go to Country Buffet!!" I am not a CB person. The food is not good and depending on what day you go, the choices are horrible. Such was the case on Saturday. My choices were 1) Fish ( I am deathly allergic to fish). 2) Hot Dog ( wheres my green smilie when i need it??) 3) dried out/ hours old stuff to make tacos with... no thanks! I didnt recognize any of the 'sides' except fries and mac n cheese that looked like it came out of a chef boyardee can. ewwwww. Sooooooooo, I looked at the deserts and while I typically do NOT like deserts, they DID have bread pudding! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it, but its rare to find it anywhere and a pain in the butt to make. So I had enough for <whispers> 4 ppl... :rolleyes: :o And since the damage was done.. I spent the rest of that day pigging out on anything I wanted.

Best news is, I got up on Sunday and got back on track and went for a long walk.

Anyway, I am back in the game!

WTG to all who have lost lbs a/o inches! Welcome to the newbies.

This was me on Sunday. I ended the day at 3,000 calories:eek:. The sad part is I was doing really well through breakfast and lunch, and then there was this bag of caramel corn that I bought for the kids.... And then it was gone. And then, to make matters worse our youngest woke me up at 2:00am, she wet the bed, so I had to change sheets and do laundry in the middle of the night, so getting up at 5:00am to workout, flat out wasn't possible. But I've behaved my face really well the last two days and put in 2 workouts today, so I should have a loss to post by Friday morning.

SE Pennsylvania should be fairly comparable to MI climate. We're farther north, but have the warming effects of the lakes, so those suggestions I made should work in your region, well at least to some extent, local soil conditions also play into the mix, here in MI we can grow some serious zucchini, but have less luck with sweet potatoes and lima beans. I'm chuckling over your "crash at 9:30", I always say that at 9:15pm, I'm feeling every minute of my 40+ years and I'M DONE!

I take One a Day for Women. The only reason is because I need the higher iron content it offers, and it closely matched the pre-natal vitamins I took for most of the 7-8 years I spent pregnant and/or nursing. My body was used to that formula and I didn't have any trouble switching over to the OAD after I decided we were definitely DONE having babies. Have you considered taking a vitamin E capsule? I take it in the winter to help with my dry skin.

I swam today....IN THE RAIN!! That should count for double the calories burned, right? :D

Though I'm tired when I get home from work, I'm always glad when I get out there and swim. It doesn't hurt to have the hot tub as a reward when I am done!

Now, I just need to keep it up! I get more grumpy about exercising as the week goes on, and I get more tired. Gotta get out there and do it!