a.vannice

@ samarie - congrats on your engagement!!!!

etlosenow

Angel: Welcome aboard! Congrats on your progress so far. Hopefully in June, I can record that many pounds gone as well.

A.vannice--I like how you have your mini goal listed. I should also set some mini goals down otherwise i'll fall into the "I'll make it up next week" mentality.

MischaKitty

My mini-goal right now is to get into the 172's. I've been hovering at 173.something for a week now. Was at 173.0 this morning.

It goes up some days and down the next... I'm happy I've incorporated exercise though, my mood is great, and my sleep is better than before so I consider that an accomplishment too.

I've never dieted before; in fact, I was skinny in high school but gained in university. So I'm not 100% sure I'm doing things correctly. I think I screw up my food still but I'm learning. I like to learn new recipes.

Because I haven't been seeing the 0.1 lbs loss per day, I am doubting if I can get to 22 lbs but I think it would be great if I could even take off something like 12-17 lbs or so.

a.vannice

The mini goals were something that i learned from other ppl in the forums. it's really helpful, too - instead of having a long time frame and a big number to lose, you can focus on your little goals. right now, i'm barely thinking about all the weight - i'm completely focused on 160!

i just want to throw this out there. i wasn't seeing results for MONTHS (worst thing ever when you're watching everything that you eat), and i had to reconsider my activity level. i had my daily caloric needs calculated to someone who was "slightly active." i thought that fit me, however, i have an office job, and when i get home on my feet for a few hours plus whatever exercise i do. i was eating 1700-1900cals/day, and working out 2-3x/week, and i was not losing anything.
then i started eating at my daily caloric needs for a sedantary activity level - 1200-1300cals/day. it know it seems like nothing; trust me, i used to think that girls that ate that little had problems, but a female can safely eat 1200, no less though. i eat 4-5 times a day and i'm never hungry because i make sure my nutrition is balanced.

anyway, i just wanted to throw that out there if anyone feels like they're stuck, maybe that will help

oh and it's the FRIDAY.. yay! 1st weigh-in in two days!! gotta make it count!

MischaKitty

I was really hoping to work my way down to the lower amounts as I lost. Right now I seem to hit 1800 pretty consistently (sometimes higher ) (I'm actually aiming for 1600 but as I said I'm having some trouble adjusting)(assuming my metabolism burns 2000 on it's own). Anyways I think I was able to create only a 250 deficit on my own with dieting so in about 50 days I lost 3.5 lbs but... that's a long time and I haven't seen any difference since then.

I think I might be stuck, but for now I'm trying to adjust one variable at a time. Right now it's making sure I get the protein to 30% on my nutritional pie (on top of keep trying with lowering the calories). I'll do this for another 2 weeks and see what happens.

It's also not the best time for me to be weighing myself as it's that time of the month. I'll do an official weigh-in on Monday to keep me motivated over the weekend like someone had suggested.

I don't know, I just really don't want to go down to 1300-1200 right away. I was reallyl enthusiastic and I did that in October when I started, but it was too much of an adjustment. I'd really prefer to work my way down.

Anyways we'll see in two weeks what I should do next.

etlosenow

Friday nights are usually my challenge. Each Friday, we have "family movie night" and make pop corn. We usually pop the kernels with an air popper which could be healthy except that we usually then put butter on it.Believe me, I have an olive oil sprayer and sometimes I'm good and use that, but like Julia Childs believes, there's nothing better than butter. I've tried a lot of other things, but on popcorn, nothing beats butter (IMO). Usually we have treats on Friday nights as well..be it leftover Halloween candy or something I've baked. Anyway, this week I ate a healthy dinner right before and stayed away from my usual culprits. I made a virgin pina colada using fresh pineapple and canned coconut cream as our treat. I think that was better than eating our usual treats without feeling "deprived". I'm hoping to have a decent weight on Monday's weigh-in.

Right now I am still eating lots of fruits and veggies. I start my days with 1/2 banana, 1/2 grape fruit and organic yogurt. Midmorning I usually will have a glass I chocolate milk. Lunch 1/2 an egg sandwich--(without the mayo) or a salad. I'm mostly vegetarian by and large but the other day I went looking for something with a large, lean protein count. I ended up with a small can of sardines. It also has high iron. I think it was psychological who know maybe biological because I was on my heavy day (Aunt Flo came to visit). Sometimes I think our bodies knows what we need because even though I only eat meat once or twice a year, last week, it was like a pregnancy craving for something like sadines--go figure.

Last week, when I was having my "chocolate" cravings--which usually hit around that time of the month, I made myself a glass of chocolate milk made with skim. That has actually helped me. I even have a six-pack of herseys that have been in our cabinet for a couple of months but I haven't touched them.

Over the last week, I've kept my caloric intake around the 1200. I think the next couple of weeks with the holidays will be challenging but I am really hoping to stay diciplined. This time I am bound and determined to succeed and have started off with the most commitment at least, that's how it feels right now.

Last year I turned 40 and even though I came in to the age with a really great attitude, not bummed at all. It turned out to be a tough one health wise. In Feb, I was diagnosed with a tiny pituitary tumor and had to begin some meds to shrink that. (Which is going well, btw.) I also had a couple of contact dermititis cases (bad-reaction to poison ivy) in the spring and a bad ankle sprain in the summer. You know sometimes it feels like it's all happening at once and you just have to laugh. Still, I think I'm actually looking forward to the new year because last one wasn't quite a jolly.

Maybe that's why I feel I have more determination to get myself in shape. I'm glad we have so many who are joining to support each other. I know I will have some setbacks during this journey but I'm hoping to get to my target weight, because as I said to my husband, "40 is too young to feel old."

Good luck everyone. Looking forward to hearing from you all.

MischaKitty

You sound like you have things under control.

If you don't mind, I think it would help me if you could share a typical meal plan or direct me to a website with recipes for meals in the 300-500 calorie range.

Right now I don't have a food scale so I do a lot of estimating using cups and tbsp as measurements. I'm thinking that I understand the theory behind weightloss but that I'm not putting it all into practice very well - including being inaccurate with my food log. Does anyone else use a food scale to do all their entires?

I think I'm the type of person who would rather eat more (1600-1500) and also workout more. I'm going to aim for a 500-700 deficit everyday if I can, but that will mean working out everyday, but I think I can do it.

My weigh in is tomorrow morning. I'm not all that excited because I think I could have done better this week, ha!

MischaKitty

OK, weighing-in this rather dark morning at 171.2 lbs.

Kind of surprised as I had cheated on Friday night and somewhat cheated on Saturday (ate a bad meal...but didn't eat as much later). Although, kind of not surprised either as I was pretty sick Saturday night (hence didn't feel like eating much) and Sunday (ate soup and bread). Didn't exercise on Friday, Saturday or Sunday the way I wanted to (because I felt sick) so I'm excited to get some done tonight after work.

Overall, despite these set-backs, I'm happy to see the scale going in the direction that I want it to.

I cancelled a course I was going to take from January-April at night. I'm going back to full-time studies in the summer anyway. I'm thinking, without needing to worry about course-work, I can put more of an effort into workouts that otherwise I might have chosen to neglect. Get as much done while I can! And then when summer rolls around, keep working at it, but with less workouts, so at a slower pace.

etlosenow

Hi Mischakitty,

I began a new thread for our Monday weigh-in.

I have a food scale but I don't use it. When I used to eat meat and used to work full time, I would take one day a month and cook food in large portions then freeze it into smaller portions. This would last me about a month. When I would come home from work, busy, hungry, tired and with only 40 minutes before we had to run out the door for some kids extra-curricular activities, it was too tempting to "pick something up"-usuall high calorie, low nutrition. I would by large (3 lbs) packs of lean ground beef, break it up into 3rds. 2/3, I would brown with garlic, onions, seasonings let cool, wrap with freezer paper. I would use this for burritos or spaghetti. Another 3rd, burger patties or meatballs to use with several recipes. I would buy pork and boil it for use with BBQ pork sandwiches, some just leave whole for chops. Skinless chicken breasts I would boil and shred some( tostadas, salads), make soup with other and sautee some with onion, garlic and seasonings(again for burritos, tacos). I make my beans like this, (large portions and freeze) and then begin with week by making brown rice. I found that if I had the food there, I could pull out what I needed in the morning as long as I had the "main" dish, it was easier to throw a side together. Since it was already in smaller portions, it helped us not over eat. I also liked that since I was already dirtying the pots fors cooking, instead of dirtying it for one meal, I was at least getting a few weeks out of it.

I fell out of this when we became vegetarians because most of this was based on pre-cooking the meat portion. I still start off the week by making a large pot of beans, and brown rice that we can use through-out the week.

I need to find better vegetarian recipes that I can cook ahead that aren't laden with pasta and cheese...