Mern

My Friday Achievements:

Calorie limit 1600, actual 1622
Carbs less fiber limit 25g, actual 13g (yeah, thirteen)
Protein goal 110g, actual 145g (that's why carbs were lower)

Water 64 oz., actual 64 oz.

Exercise: concentrating for now on walking in my neighborhood for stamina rather than for burning calories. Did .4 miles on first try without having to stop to rest my back. I probably could have gone a little further, but want to take baby steps to prevent acquiring too much lower back pain at a time. Pain level was about 8 on a scale of 10, with 10 meaning I'd have to stop for 1-2 minutes to alleviate the back pain.

Today I added more distance (as I plan to add per day for a while) and achieved .6 miles. Back pain level was lower--about 7 on a scale of 10. Tomorrow is my scheduled day off exercise, but I plan on going for a walk and adding .2 mile more.

Jennybeeb, I understand your question about exercise calories. I agree with Kumochi Mary. I think it's up to the individual as to how to handle it. Some may prefer to add the exercise calories burned to their calorie deficit to make it to their weight loss goal more quickly. Others may prefer to use the exercise calories burned to allow themselves more calories to eat, but remember how much exercise you have to do to burn off the extra calories you consume.

Stacey, I cook like that, but my husband doesn't mind at all. Like when I make chili, I set my portion aside, then add beans to the rest for John's. Tonight I'm making tuna casserole with Dreamfield's pasta which is lower in digestible carbs but tastes exactly like any other dried pasta. He gets peas in his half and topping of buttered crushed cracker crumbs; I get French cut green beans and either no topping or maybe a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. As long as he gets fed, he doesn't care.

Mambogirl! Wow, your Thursday and Friday achievements rock! "Exercise and really mean it" is both admirable and setting a great example for the rest of us. Having grandkids has been the best years of my life so far. How many kids do you have?

Jess, good for you. My heart was going out to you as I was reading your post about feeling down in the dumps the past few days. But then I saw you trying to make lemonade out of those lemons. Is that an old lady expression?--"when life hands you lemons, make lemonade." My grandkids will be rolling their eyes if I said that to them. LOL I saw you were looking on the bright side--payday, day off Monday, hairdo change. Hey, I'll bet you'll look awesome! All that punctuated with "I can do it!" shows maturity, grace, and style. Well done!

Mary, congrats on those 10 grandkids! I thought of grandkids' weddings, too. None of my seven grandkids are married or engaged, the oldest being 24 or 25--forgot which. But I haven't worn a dress in years because of my weight. I'm hoping I won't be the fattest lady in a dress at future weddings. Congrats on your wonderful achievements this week. And way to go on planning for next week while away from home, especially looking for another Y. Enjoy your dinner tonight!

I don't find it easy finding my last goal post, either. (Sounds like football. ) I
see Cassie told us how to find our recent posts: "Mary, if you click on your name in your most recent post, you can then select "find all posts by Kumochi;" click on that and then you should be able to find your most recent goal post.
A few other suggestions if you post a lot and have a long list of recent posts to skim through:
1. Copy them into your FitDay journal each Monday or whenever you first post them.
2. When you first post your weekly goals, write down the post number or the day and time of your post.
3. I keep mine short and just give a daily report on the previous day's achievements rather than keep a running tab as most members do.
4. Mhibdon keeps her goals in her signature rather than copying and pasting them daily. Very clever idea.

Cassie, despite your snack fest last night, you had some really admirable achievements in your Friday report. Way to go!

Mike, nice calorie deficits. Way to go on your cereal and scale goals. Gotta ask--was the scale nice to you yesterday?

Julia, thanks so much for your encouragement on my exercise achievements which don't even begin to compare with some of the exercise veterans here. Keeping it real is vital for those of us who hate exercise, have trouble finding/making the time, or have agility problems. I have learned to not compare myself with others, but to just try for my personal best in the long run. Enjoy your hike!

Mern

Cassie, thanks for telling us how to so easily find our recent posts. I did not know that!

Quinn, I'm rooting for your scale to show under 120 next week! 1300 calories on date night is AWESOME! I use skinless chicken as a low cal protein. Hard boiled eggs are good, too, if you can spare some fat calories. How about lite yogurt? Where do you walk indoors--at a gym or in your house? No excuses, eh? Great job on the dedication!

Bubbs21

My goals and results for this week are:

1. Use a water bottle at work and home yes 3 liters M/T/W /T/F
2. Upgrade my workout on the elliptical from manual to 'intervals' Yeh! 24 minutes at interval setting M/T/W/Th
3. Balance ball workout 5-7 times/week - Yes T/W/Th
4. Balanced pie chart 30/30/40 - Yes M/T/W/T/F
5. Make sure my DH knows he is appreciated and loved - actually I think he is the one who is appreciating me and treating me like a princess... Doing my best in this department

Doing great with my commitment and efforts. Bought a food scale to be more precise with the meat portions in my calorie intake.

Weight and scales....S***! actually went up 1.4lbs in last 6 days, despite an average 1000 cal daily deficit. God help me to stay the course.

01gt4.6

Thanks! No it wasn't but I figured that it wouldn't be. I ate boiled shrimp Thursday night and I knew with the sodium that I would retain water. Friday morning I weighed in at 172.6# and I weighed again this morning to get an accurate # and it was 171.0#

I've been beating myself up b/c I feel like I'm packing fat back on, but looked at my weight goal and since I started it on 1/5 I've yet to goal above my goal. So I can look at that as a success!

Kumochi

Thanks Cassie

Jennybeeb

Kumochi - thanks so much for the info on the exercise and calorie intake. That helps a lot! My main concern was consuming low calories and working out would make my body hold onto weight, but it sounds like it will actually be just fine!

Mern - Congrats on your walking goals! Sounds like it is coming along wonderfully, you'll have to let us know how it continues and if your back pain is alleviated as you get further into your walking program.

Mike - I am jealous! I wish my weight goal looked like that, hopefully, I can stick with this for good and eventually it will! You are definitely inspiring!

Bubbs - Looks like you are sticking right to your goals for the whole week - that is fantastic! Hopefully the food scale works well for you (I actually have 3 of my own - !?!?), and I hope that you see the regular scale go down this week...I think you can do it! Maybe next week my goals will be all green like yours...<crossing my fingers!>

Sorry if I missed anyone - I am still *new* to this, so I only looked at the last page or so of posts to see what people are up to for the end of the week here!

Here is my update...

Health/Fitness Goals:
1. Eat between 1200-1400 cals/Day No, No, No, YES!!!, Definitely not
2. Get at least 7 hrs of sleep/night Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes - more like 9
3. Consume 100oz. of Water/Day No - 80oz., Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes
4. Take Fish Oil & Rosehip Supplements Yes, No, No, Yes, No
5. Exercise with EA Active for Playstation 3x/Week (Tues, Thurs, and Sat) No, YES!!!, Yes for Friday too!
6. Limit myself to 1 Diet Coke/Day Yes, Yes, Yes (and my head is letting me know I am missing the caffeine!), NO, YES!

Other Life Goals:
1. Do 1 load of laundry per day & Freecycle clothes no longer needed/wanted No (it was Valentine's Day), Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes
2. Clean Bathroom & Clear out Bathroom Cabinet (Monday night) Did this on Tuesday
3. Clean Kitchen for 20 minutes (Tuesday Night) Fiance helped with doing this since I skipped my cleaning for Monday
4. Vacuum & Mop Dining Room & Kitchen, also take out trash Complete!
5. Send out Wedding Save The Dates (Thurs Night) No
6. Complete Budget for March 2011 (Friday Night) No, doing it today (Saturday)

I am already starting to think of my goals for next week, and know that I need to try to make realistic goals and stick with them...I can do this!

MunaAmin

hi all
I was at the swimming pool today. It was better than i though - it was pool AND gym so first i hit the machines and then i swam a bit, jacuzzi etc. I'm totally dying deficit around 800kcal, not bad

Jennybeeb

Oh, another thing I was going to ask this group...

How often do you all weigh yourselves? I guess this could be a personal thing, but I feel like some of the motivation would be from stepping on the scale and seeing that you lost, right?

Although I do know people in the past have said do not weigh yourself everyday...

Is once a week safe enough, or is there something else that seems to work better for anyone?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

01gt4.6

Jenny, I'm trying to weigh myself once a week now unless I know I get a false reading. I use to weigh myself every 32 seconds, but I started to feel that I was just a little obsessed about it.

When I first saw your avatar, I was like, who's this person? LOL It took me a minute to realize that you just uploaded it.

BREAKING NEWS!

I cleaned my car today. w00t!! Apparently it's been a while b/c I rarely wear a tie and I pulled out 9 ties from my trunk. I cleaned it inside and out, top to bottom. Cleaned my trunk, glove box, center console, you name it. Hell I even put a little shine on the tires. I must admit, it's not as fun as it was cleaning the mustang. Maybe that's why the mustang stayed spotless and my '09 Toyota was looking like a 1909.

Bubbs21

My goals and results for this week are:

1. Use a water bottle at work and home yes 3 liters M/T/W /T/F - Sat No
2. Upgrade my workout on the elliptical from manual to 'intervals' Yeh! 24 minutes at interval setting M/T/W/Th
3. Balance ball workout 5-7 times/week - Yes T/W/Th/Sat
4. Balanced pie chart 30/30/40 - Yes M/T/W/T/F/Sat
5. Make sure my DH knows he is appreciated and loved - actually I think he is the one who is appreciating me and treating me like a princess... Doing my best in this department

Doing ok with my commitment and efforts. Used the food scale last night. Amazingy I was not far off in my estimates of oz and calories. Had very lean roast beef...and able to have exactly the oz and cal I wanted as I sliced the roast. One great thing about eating proper portions, is the food bill and groceries go so much further