Hi Everyone,

I'm back from a week vacation in Virginia Beach and so far have lost 2 of the 5 pounds I gained while away.

Rose, so good to hear from you!!!! It's so exciting that you are in England. I kow it's hard to find the things you are used to when you're in different places but I think you'll find your groove. The oatmeal sounded great. Wish I could have joined you for that breakfast!

Amy and Ann, you guys are off to such a great start. I have not been sleeping much lately so I will have to draaaaaaggggg myself to the gym or for a walk.

MunaAmin, you may have muscle memory but my muscles seem to have amnesia! Altho I did work out 3-4x while I was away.

Mike, good job on the weight loss.

Mary, as you say, planning does help. Sometimes I use Fitday and log food for the day before I eat just to figure it all out.

Quinn, I think I am playing with the same 3 or so pounds. And I was doing so well finally before vacay... You hear about people who say their family drives them to drink? Mine drives me to eat!!!!

OK my goals:
1) no more than 1600 calories per day
2) 64 oz water
3) get more sleep; I could pack to visit Rose in the UK with the bags under my eyes
4) more fruits and especially veg (I like Terri's idea; one with each meal, may try that)
5) write
6) meditate
7) gym or walk 4x this week

Congratulation on your weight loss.
I wish my scale doing trick too. But it didn't, It's just show exactly what I deserved to see.
Mai

Congrats on being down to the 160's Terri, bet it feels great!

I'm not going to post goals this week since I'm going to be crazy busy with packing and moving, but I'll still be logging everything and whatnot. I surpassed my goal of having a 5000 calorie deficit for the week last week by about 1100 calories, so no complaints there, but the weekend was kind of bad as far as eating cleanly. Oh well, these things happen.

Best of luck to everyone with this week!

Hello again, motivating folks!

Back from vacation; as predicted, I ate myself silly at the beach, so I have the big food hangover this morning. I'll likely not face the scale till next week, then we'll see what the real damage was.

Unfortunately the cold I was starting with the beginning of last week materialized into a full-blown head and chest cold. I made it through vacation holding it at bay fairly well, but yesterday my body just crashed. I'm really tired and I feel miserable, so I'm working my way slowly through unpacking and the mountain of laundry.

No exercise goals this week; who knows when I'll have the energy.

1. Calories 1300 or less (1200 would be best).
2. Sleep at leat 7 hours.
3. Fiber 25 g (at least).
4. Balance the pie chart.
5. Be patient with the nervous rising freshman.

Congrats to all of you who are off to a good start this week :). For those struggling, let's make this our week to hit our goals!

I've sent my grocery list off to have a shopper stock the house before we rent it next week. I decided the $30.00 they charge would be worth it if it saves me 3 hours on monday. Hopefully having lots of fresh fruit and veggies available as soon as I get there will help control what I eat. Of course beer and wine were on the list too. WiFi is available so I plan to log in. I may take my lunch to Disneyworld although I'm not doing lunches for 19! Mary

Muna, so sorry to hear...what's going on? :(.

Please take care of yourself and try to do what you need to do.

I think I am going to keep the same goals as last week...

Health/Fitness
1. log, Log, LOG!
2. 500 calorie deficit
3. 80oz water daily
4. only one diet soda daily

I feel bed that I am never able to log on to report and do my logging during the weekends. It is just our busy lifestyle though. I am going to be really strict with myself for the next two weeks. I would really love to be able to say that I lost 50 lbs in 6 months. But that 6 month mark is coming up on Aug 21st and I have 7-8 lbs to go. :eek: Also that weekend is a family picnic on the hubby's side. He says we aren't going but he always says that. :rolleyes:

Alright then....let's get on with having a GREAT week!!

Report card for Monday
 

Well it's almost 9pm here in the UK so I am checking in. I had a great first day of work at my new job and I had a nice walk to work. It's a little over a mile away from where I am living and it's all uphill! Of course coming home is that much easier. :)

GOALS FOR THIS WEEK:

1. Eat between 1200-1500 calories per day. YES 1499
2. Take my vitamins. YES
3. Drink 8-10 glasses of water per day. YES
4. Find and join a gym. NOT YET
5. Start running again. NOT YET
6. Exercise at least 4 times. NOT YET

Muna, I haven't seen any Argos in Bristol but I will look it up. Thanks so much for the tip! I noticed about the ready made meals. Wow! I went into Sainsbury's and while I didn't get any ready made meals, I did leap for joy when I saw all the packets of already chopped, washed, ready to cook veggies! Tonight I made some stir fry with chicken, vegetables and a baked sweet potato. It was so easy! And congrats to you on your new shape!

Mary, you're going to Disneyworld, how fun!! I am sure you will have a blast!

Amy, you rock. 60 min on the elliptical? Way to go!

Quinn, welcome back! Glad to hear that you have this week to focus on yourself. It's much deserved!

Ann, congrats on hitting your exercise goal!

Mike, congrats on your 2-pound loss and I hope you enjoyed your cheat day.

Terri, you are in the 160s!! WOOHOO!!!!! Awesome job!

Hope, I totally wish that you could have been here for breakfast too! My oatmeal was delicious! Thanks so much for your kind words. I sure hope that you get more sleep. I actually could have used those bags for packing, my one suitcase was too heavy and I had to take some stuff out and put it in my carry-on. But seriously, are you having trouble sleeping? By the way my family drives me to eat too!

Joanna, great job on the calorie deficit last week and good luck on the move!

Cassie, so sorry to hear that you have been hit with a cold! I hope you feel better really really fast!

I would like to share my "Lucy and Ethel" adventure. Tired as I am, I was in the mood to take a walk so when my friend Valmai called, we decided to meet and take her dog with us to the forest. We went on the longest loveliest walk I have been on in a while. I even met one of DD's babysitters who was leaving as we came; it was great to see her and chat for a few minutes. Valmai and I walked past a reservoir to a pond where we swam. At first, no one was there and it was so mellow and peaceful. A guy showed up with his dog but Valmai knew him and it was fine. I noticed he had a truck and actually thought about asking him for a lift back down as it was starting to rain. But Valmai and I reasoned Oh well we're wet anyway and the rain is cooling things off, etc etc. Then it started to thunder and lightening and to pour seriously. We couldn't find the dog and I thought great we're on top of a mountain in a lightening storm; now we have lost her dog. Luckily her dog came back pretty soon but our adventure was not over. The rain started to get painful and we realized it was hailing, pebble sized chunks. We made it to the car, adventure still not over. We had to go through a narrow tunnel where some young hikers we passed were trying to keep dry. So Valmai had to try not to hit any of them as we left; thankfully she's great driver. Had it been me driving, this could have been a tragic tale...

But you know what? It was fun. Cause that's how pathetic my life is. :) Seriously, it reminded me how fun and active my life used to be and how it still can be. And you all helped motivate me. That was my day (or part of it) And yours?

I finally got a chance to breathe
 

This will be week 3 of my 5 week challenge.
July 25- August 29
5 weeks:
Only 5 cheat days: 2/5
Walk/run 50 miles: 21.50/50
Weight no more than 169#'s: ? still have plenty of time
_____________________________________

I'll have to change some goals for this week.
I'm having another epidural on Wednesday, so I dropped my workout goal down to two. I won't post another picture of me until week 5 is done (I was feeling weird seeing myself like that everytime I posted). I'll do a side by side of the 5 weeks.

1) Eat clean 6 days (only 1 cheat day):
2) 3000 calories deficient for the week:
3) Weigh in on Monday and post a picture of the scale & my weight goal chart: yes http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...46/th_1718.jpg
4) Make my food log public: yes http://www.fitday.com/fitness/Public...?Owner=01gt4.6
5) walk 10 miles:
6) gallon of water a day:
7) work out 2 times:
9) daily:
vitamin
floss
10) no more than 2 servings of nuts per day (including peanut butter)
11) 5 servings of veggies a day (green veggies don't get logged)
12) no bread (of any kind) for 2 days