WOOHOOO!!! Good for you! 159 pounds???!!!! THAT'S FABULOUS!!!



Okay, I have to brag a bit. Yesterday was my dad's 73rd birthday and he and mom wanted us to join them at Chili's for dinner.

My oldest daughter is trying to shed 30 pounds (she's 13, 5 foot 6 and weighs 170) My husband is trying to shed another 30, and I've got the grand total of 120 I want to lose. I was worried. I got on their website and downloaded nutrition info for their menu and shared it with dh and dd and we all pretty much decided what we wanted to eat before we even walked in the door.

I had the grilled salmon with veggies and rice and I was only at 1242 calories total for the day yesterday (Fitday says I can have up to 2200, but I've been trying to keep it in the 1300-1700 range). As hard as it was, I didn't even have one of their dessert shots (they're about 240 calories each).

I did it! I resisted the temptation to blow it! :) YAY ME!

I almost can't wait to get on the scale tomorrow morning to see how much more I've lost. I measured Tuesday and my biceps, forearms and thighs are a bit bigger, but I measured right after I did some weight training, so I wonder if that had something to do with it. But I've lost 1.5 inches on my bust, 1.25 on my waist, 1.5 on my hips and .25 on my calves.

Sorry, this turned into a book...:o I just can't help it. I'm seeing progress!

SkinnyErinn - I can't believe you've lost 159 pounds - that is awesome! Great motivation for the rest of us here.

Montana - Good for you for not blowing it at Chili's. It's really awesome that your whole family is leaning on each other for support and helping each other out. Meanwhile, you are teaching your DD about healthy eating early in life. Way to go!

After only about a week of eating healthier and tracking on Fitday, I feel much better. I think I'll weigh in every Wednesday for hopefully a nice boost and motivation for myself mid-week. I can't wait to see if a week has made a difference on the scale. I'm a die-hard Biggest Loser fan, and I only wish that I could be like all of them and lose 10+ pounds in the first week of a diet/lifestyle change. But I also don't have 6 hours a day to work out or Bob and Jillian kicking my butt! So I'll be happy with 2 pounds!

Hey, I picked up Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred the other day on sale for $8 at WM. It's 3 20-min workouts, the first one is a very basic, "Jr. High Gym class" sort of workout, but it got the burn going for me. This morning my 8 year old DD did it before school. So okay you might not be at the ranch, but you can have Jillian in your living room kicking your butt for a very reasonable price.

Getting a little misty eyed here, sooo proud of you. I bet the limbs getting bigger is a muscle thing, my biceps and forearms have done the same thing, so you're not alone there. That 1.25" in your waist is just huge, mine doesn't seem to move much anymore. In the very beginning it went down dramatically, but anymore it's sort of fluctuates 1/2" up or down, but hasn't moved down significantly in 2 months. My bust measurement has gone down too, so I had to buy some new bras. I thought I would need a smaller diameter and a smaller cup, nope, the cup hasn't changed, just the diameter around was 2 sizes smaller. Which sort of bummed me out because I really was looking forward to eventually being a 36C again, but it's looking less and less likely.

Is it just me, or is this a HUGE accomplishment? Wow that's soooo amazing. You must have people complimenting you all the time, gotta love that. So, where are your progress photos? Uh?

good morning all you beauties :) TGIF - hope you all have fun stuff for the weekend planned.
Well shoot - we're having 3 nights of hard freezes now. Its just a fluke weather pattern but all of us gardeners were scrambling late last night as the temperature unexpectedly plummeted into the 20's. I'm so glad dh watched the weather since I was curled up with a detective murder mystery book happy as a clam. Murderous evil winds whistling their destructive intent in the trees...kill the tender veggie plants, kill them...okay I'm melodramatic this morning. Seriously, it was a shock to see snow outside this morning though. For weeks, bundles of perennial herbs have been drying in the house since the weather has been so warm everything has been growing & blooming like crazy. So okay enough moaning & groaning.

SkinnyErinn-I've been thinking about you & wondering how you're doing. It's so funny that we've never actually met, but I feel so close to all of you. I'm glad you popped in & that you're still doing awesome! Wow 159-You rock!

Patti-I agree with almeeker - your recipes are really good. Even though the panko is wheat (evil grain) I used some mixed with walnut flour - used egg whites only to dip it with a very, very light crust & cajun seasoning and vavavoom - or Bam! rather - it was excellent. I had been steaming the fish atop of frozen veggies with lemon slices but am so burned out on it. The super low calories plus 0 fat grams kept me coming back for more until yesterday when the thought of fish was too much to bear LOL. Tonight is seared Ahi Tuna, rare, on a bed of romaine. Yum-even though it adds 150 cals, just that little bit of oil really changes the flavor. Right now it's the only fish I like. I'm so over salmon, think I've eaten it every way possible & just can't eat another bite of it for a while. At first I loved the Pacific wild caught, loved all the Omega oils & low cals but over did it. You're so right about that skin, I only left it on when it was grilled to hold the meat together - my dogs ate the crunchy skin like it was doggie caviar.

Almeeker - thanks you so much for all of your suggestions & advice. I've been keeping my eye out for sales on the bundled Wii Fit Plus online but I thought all of the games listed were separate disks since most of them are also sold separately. It's so good to know more about it before I buy it. No one I've asked has one for me to try. From reading all about it from you guys I'm not sure I can wait until Christmas. :)
That was too funny about wanting to expose the short's size tag - ROTF. Who cares if they're stretchy, girl wear that size tag like a proud flag of a job (still being) well done!

speedyfair-thanks for the info on Wii Fit yoga. I'm glad that you're adding the lunch walk with your coworker. It makes the time go by much faster when there's someone to talk to.

egmdobbs-welcome to the club. I hope Fitday helps you achieve your goals.

I actually have Jillian's 30-day shred and a ton of other BL workout DVDs and I really like them. My problem is that I only have time to exercise when my 15-month-old is sleeping in the morning or at night, but any exercise I do, whether it is a DVD in my living room or the treadmill in the basement, wakes him up immediately because he knows I'm awake. That is why exercise is just not part of the equation right now unless we are going on a family hike or I am able to get up in the morning and sneak outside (if the weather is nice) for a walk on our private lane. I know it sounds like an excuse - but at this point, a well-rested kid is more important to my overall sanity! :)

Congrats on the great work
 

You've all done so well, it's such an encouragement, to hear of your success and advice. So far I've still just been dieting and haven't gotten on the treadmill or excercised. That will be my next step and I have good intentions but no follow thru with it.

Still can't resist getting on the scales everyday. Ugh! That is encouraging when I'm dropping weight but such a downer when I'm not:(


start 302
current 274
birthday goal 240

I so understand where you're coming from. I've struggle for years to find "my time" for exercise. I have two kids and a spouse. One of the kids is a teen, one is a preteen, so there are after school things, then there's dinner (and I feel strongly about us all eating together most nights), there's the fact that I'm bushed from working all day, and of course the fact that I can't sleep well if I exercise too closely to bed time. I have to be done with it before 6 p.m.

So fast forward to April 12th, when I finally decided that mornings were really the only time I don't have an excuse (other than it being morning). I'm a morning person by nature, and I've seen someone else (almeeker?) refer to "not being awake enough to have an excuse". It works for me. I've come to the conclusion that every person just needs to be able to find the time that really works for them and be willing to stick with it.

Good luck to you!

I'm having a really rough night. My calories are fine, and I got my workout in, but it seems like everything else is a disaster. I really want a chocolate bar (or a dozen) and a couple of drinks. I'm resisting, but it's a near thing. My mom called to say that my grandma is in the hospital again, which is a real worry, she's 89 and broke her hip a few weeks ago. My brother and his wife are separating tomorrow, and I don't even know what to think about that. Until recently I didn't know there were any problems in that house. My cousin is also getting married tomorrow, which is a good thing, but it's going to make for a really long day, since the church is like 3 hours from our house, and I'm feeling somewhat unsure about the gift I bought them. My girls all have soccer games, and soccer pictures tomorrow before we leave for the wedding. And just tonight I found out that work is going to be really nutty again next week, just when I was looking forward to things getting back to normal. Argh! To top it off I don't feel well, my sinuses are backed up and I was not the nicest mom earlier this evening. I feel bad about yelling at them and being mean, but sometimes a mom's gotta do, what a mom's gotta do. Sorry to unload.

I would totally LOVE to put up progress photos! How do you do that? Lol... I was thinking of putting an album up on my FaceBook... but if I can attach them to my profile here, that would rock (since you fine ladies and my doctor's are the only ones who know how much I weigh, lol). I'll be playing with this project this weekend!! :cool: Thanks for the encouragement... I don't get comments as much as I did when I first started... it's kindof old news to a lot of folks, lol. I just recently had a woman at my church comment that she can tell I've lost alot... that feels SO great. The comments are now pretty few and far between.

Keep up the great work you guys... seriously, when I came her 7 weeks ago I was STUCK. Just got back from the doctor at 307 pounds... I was so heart broken. Now I am 36 pounds down... not too shabby. Just believe in yourselves and decide if you (or that dessert) is stronger!

This is so true. I wake up early and get about 30 mins of good cardio with stretching in. In the evening, I am doing all my calistenics (I won't scare you with what my trainer has me doing, she is evil and must be force fed cheesecake). When I first started to exercise, I did it in the morning. It was a great way to start my day - and kept the more dangeorus food out of my mouth since I didn't want to have "wasted an entire workout." Try getting up just 30 minutes earlier, making some coffee (if that's your thing) and walking at a moderate pace with headphones? If you walk for just 15 minutes, that's still a great start and will motivate you to try to add a little bit more. Exercise is like a savings account - whatever you put in will help.

First, I miss you all like CRAZY! My trainer has me doing about 90 minutes of exercise a day... every single day! :eek: So by the time I get home from work and begin my evening routine, then dinner, goodnight kisses to kids and dishes... there isn't time for anything else. The past few days I have definitey stared longingly at both my TV (GLEE!!!) and my computer... but I am just too wiped out. As it is, I am typing this sitting in my bed, droopy eyed, getting ready to collapse. I just wanted to log my food, activities and to see how all you AMAZING women are doing. I seriously can't have come this leg of the journey without you all. I'll try to pop in more often, I feel so badly that there are new ladies here that I don't know!! Gotta give the support. Good night all, have a tremendous weekend - AND NO CHEATING! BAHAHAHAH. :p

Skinny Erin, you are hilarious. That's just what I needed this morning. Now I can face that workout - maybe.

wishes- healthy weekend for all
 

it's so inspiring to hear from everyone- you all make me so happy to hear that dispite the trouble and challenges that our lives bring- everyone has stress and situations that arise to tempt us, everyone seems to be determined not to give in. great job all!

almeeker- sorry you seemed to be having a bad day- have some fun today and don't look back - look forward

montanacricket- great job - keep up the good work

cc1158 so glad to hear from you- I weigh everyday too can't seem to help it, but don't stress out on the number as long as it doesn't go up by more than a 1.5 lbs- stress, water gain, and other factors can effect the scale but it gives me some idea daily of what is working.

desertmountain - sorry about the weather hope you crops will be ok - the only thing I can seem to grow is on farmville.com lol

New to the lifestyle change and forum
 

I am new to the forum and to a new start on a total lifestyle change. I started my journey at 256 lbs attempting to do the "6 week body make over." I was miserable, but was losing. I got down to 246. Now I have taken the lessons I learned from the other program and made it my own. I am still eating 6 times a day and walking daily, but I am having dairy. I am still limiting my bread intake, but enjoying options again. I am now using the Fitday tools to track my calories and activity and feel I am well on my way to a new me. At 5'4", I have 100.4 lbs to lose to reach my ideal weight. :eek: but I am going to take it off and keep it off!!:)

Jennwilliams - I am also new to the board - welcome!

Just a quick victory for the day...DH had a friend over to work in the garage today and they wanted pizza and beer for dinner. I ordered only enough calzones for the two of them so there was no chance I would eat any. Instead, I am having a sort-of-guilty pleasure...steel cut oats with splenda brown sugar and skim milk. And I'm well within my calories for the day at only 1,300. Weekends are always hard for me, so I gotta celebrate the little things!

So glad to see I am not alone in this. I have done missed my thirty as I will be 31 on Monday, so my goal is 146 by my Master's Graduation: May 2011

I am amazed by your perserverance and success. I can't wait to see your progress pics. You are awesome and such an insperation. You should pat yourself on the back everyday for doing what you've done and continue to do. Thank you for sharing your story.

celebrated but didn't gain!
 

Last night I went out to celebrate my daughters 25th birthday. went light on lunch but splurged on dinner salad, rolls, and lasagna(shared my husband's dinner -his salad and lasagna-1/3 of his 3 pasta dinner) best that I could figure I was around 1800. but this morning only went up a couple of oz.

Dealing with stress without eating is a struggle for me but hoping the stress will ease up a bit as things appear to be getting better between my daughter and my parents.

Since I'm not a morning person, I guess it will have to be watching evening tv and getting on the treadmill, maybe this weekend.

Morning ladies!!! I'm so glad to see that everyone is having little successes in staying on track. It's so helpful to know that others are battling the bulge and although not always on track perfectly, not completely derailed either.

cc1158 I also celebrated yesterday, my cousin got married. The ceremony was beautiful, and the priest had a lovely tenor voice, the flowers were a dream come true and the dress and veil were to die for. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous the whole thing.

Then came the food at the reception, and all I have to say on that matter is that the bride is from the south, and the caterer followed suit. A study in contrasts I tell you, chocolate fountains (yes fountains with and "s"), next to fresh cut veggies, fried chicken with garden salad. I did manage to find a few things to eat, you should have seen the look on the caterers face when I told her to pile on the green beans, and then I ask her double the amount she'd put on my plate. The green beans of course were buttered, but that was a much better choice than the mashed potatoes with butter & sour cream, topped with roast beef gravy, or the cheesy potatoes or the buttered corn... Lots of hidden calories on that buffet, mountains and mountains of them. I also got a salad, but the only thing on the salad bar not loaded with calories was lettuce, so I ate a huge pile of it plain.

I had a funny moment when I realized that people were watching me eat, because I had a serious pile of food in front of me and I was starving (so there was nothing dainty about it). Then my nephew made a funny comment about how I must be working out really hard because obviously I wasn't starving myself to death LOL. Too funny!!! I've lost quite a bit since I saw some of them, so I think some thought there was a chance I had acquired an eating disorder or some such. Nope.

I wore a new dress, and some killer 3" silver high heals, which showed off the new me. And although I don't have anywhere near a perfect body, it's shockingly better than it was at Christmas. I got mouth dropped open comments from almost everyone, very funny, very nice. Even DH said some nice things, and well he's a keeper, but not much of a talker (and never one for empty flattery). He'd seen the dress on the hanger, but not on me. The funny part was we had to go directly from soccer to the wedding, so I had to shimmy into it in the front seat of the car. We swerved a little at one point...

Well I gotta go, Grandma is in the hospital and I want to visit her today.

Morning everyone
Almeeker..you had me chuckling at dressing in the front of the car..just like in the movies! Sounds like you had a great time and wow'd everyone!! Good for you...loving the 3 inch spiked heels...
Christine hoping the stress levels are lower this week. Sounds like you manuvered yourself quite well with the meal out last night. Sharing a meal is a good idea.
Welcome edmdobbs and jennwilliams...
Speedy I think coming here and posting about the stress ,,mishaps,,or frustrations etc helps in a big way with our journey! Sometimes just to vent or get feedback...its all good.
Erinn you are becoming the exercise queen!! would love to see some progress pics as well!!

Not much going on here today.its going to be a nice day, maybe get outside and just enjoy that sunshine will be on the plan.
have a great week everyone....drink your water and eat your veggies!

Ok, I normally don't think of myself as intellectually challenged - however, I can not for the life of me figure out how to out up more than 1 pic on here. :confused: Should I just post them on my Facebook and let you ladies take a gander? Even on here, my pics need to be 100x100... SO TINY. I resized, but again I can only do one... :mad:
That being said, I dug out my photos from my daughter's 1st birthday... the Mama in those pics was so sad. She was living in a flesh prison. I can't believe that's me... I was actually very emotional about it this morning. Last night, I had my S.O. take FULL body :eek: (with clothes on, lol) progress shots, so I can really SEE the difference. I am thinking of taking them weekly, the night before my bootcamps... which are KILLING ME!!! I was also considering a video blog... I have the groovy little camera, but I can't get it and my laptop to speak to eachother (must have been an awful breakup) so I will be trapped in the home office working on the desktop - blech. Anyways, I am off to bed - 5AM workout!! You guys are amazing, don't know what I would do without you.
Tip for tomorrow - drink your WATER! Put Crystal Light (or generic if you're poor like me) or whatever you need to do to get it down your throat... just drink it. Isn't it funny how so many other nasty things made their ways cheerfully down our gullets, but a glass of water can't? Huh. :rolleyes:

Egmdobbs!! SHUT UP! I AM TURNING 30 ON JULY 7TH! YOU AND ME HAVE SIMILAR GOALS.... girl, you gotta stick in here with me!!! Let's ring in our
30th's together!!! Such a small world. And BTW, way to go on the rolled oats and splenda, great choice when there are calzones in your face. Bravo sister!

Way to go!! My best friend is getting married on 7/31/10 and I am the Maid of Honor, which means I need to look great. I'm terrified I won't hit it, but reading your post made me look forward to giving that toast and people wondering who Sara's new Maid of Honor is and what happened to that sweet fatty she always used to hang out with!
Silver heels... sounds hot! Now, I would have laughed if those stayed on for the soccer game, though with my clumsy butt I would have sunken right into the terf and snapped off the heel. Eh... things to look forward to when there is a "1" in front of my weight. You're an inspiration!

Big big news this morning!!!!!
 

I've officially lost 70 pounds as of this morning I weigh 174.4 pounds, I started at 244.6. I'm sooooo pumped up I could take on the world right now!!! Keep up the good work, I'll be back later, right now I have to drive the mom cab to school.

Good Morning Ladies!! Sounds like everyone is doing great! I love the story of changing in the front seat! Hopefully there was lot of laughing!!

Weighed in this morning - 271.0!!!! 31 pounds gone!! Even with having a terrible cold and laying around all weekend - the pounds are coming off! I can't wait to see that scale hit below 270!!

I'm at work and probably should get to doing something! Keep up the great work everyone!!

Woohoo! That is beyond awesome! You started about where I am - that gives me inspiration that I can do it too. And 3" heels = Foxy Mama! :D

You have done AMAZING on your journey so far! The way I figure it, if we get fit and healthy by 30, we can spend the next 40-60 years enjoying it, right? I don't know about you, but I've spent the last 15 years (since middle school) being the "fat girl", and now it's time to be the MILF! :cool:

Oh - and I am on Facebook. E-mail is [email protected] if you want to add me.

So far I'm at an hour 4 days a week, except the days that I'm at 30 minutes and do 30 minutes on the BowFlex. And the iPod is a life saver!!! I'm getting up an hour and 15 minutes earlier than I normally do. So Wednesday is my mid week "day off" if I need some extra sleep so far. But today was the beginning of week 4 and we'll see if I can get that 5th day in for an hour's workout!

Thanks for that wonderful laugh so early in the morning! Great job withstanding temptation at the wedding!

Congratulations!!! You're doing so well!



As for me, I haven't lost any more, but I have a serious case of PMS happening and am retaining water to the point that I could barely get my rings on this morning. DH's birthday was yesterday and we splurged a bit for dinner (including a very thin piece of lemon pound cake :o) But I did okay otherwise. I normally have terrible sweet/salt cravings and only gave in once for some tortilla chips and salsa.

I suspect that when the PMS passes, I'll show a few more pounds off since I'm at the same weight right now as I was last time I weighed.

:DWOOOHOOO!!!! Rock it!!!! :D

Yes, the shoes were very sexy, until they crippled me. Argh, I had to wear shoes with a bit of heel yesterday just because my calves hurt standing flat footed. Oh, the things we ladies do for beauty.

egmdobbs, if I can do this, anyone can. I don't know too many people that enjoy eating more than I do. I still eat lots, but I'm getting to be a lot smarter about it. You'll be there soon, I have no doubt.

I considered wearing the dress, hose and dratted corset thing under the dress to the soccer games, but we have a 3 year old and she tends to smear dirt all over me all the time so I opted for my usual "mom-iform" (t-shirt and jeans) and changed in the car. You should have heard me swearing and grunting trying to get the corset thing on, meanwhile keeping all my goodies covered. I never saw so many semi-truck drivers looking out the window in my life. Figures I would learn the hard way that the only way to put one of those on is to stand up. Wearing those high heels to the soccer field never crossed my mind, I would certainly have broken a heel, or more likely, an ankle doing that.

That's so cool that you're going to be the Maid of Honor. Even if you only lose a pound between now and then, you'll look fantastic. The wedding we went to had some queen sized bridesmaids - wearing sleeveless dresses no less. But the cut was very flattering and they all looked beautiful.

The last time Aunt Flo visited, I hovered over the same 2 pounds for days on end, then I dropped like a stone for almost a week straight. I don't know if this works or not, but when I'm swollen up I try and double up on the water. It seems to help me, but it takes 24-48 hours to work.

Yeah, I'm boosting fluids in a major way today. Craved salty tortilla chips over the weekend and caved a bit, so I'm paying. I'm not even going to weigh til later this week at this point.

Thanks for the encouragement! ;)

Hilarious! I take it one step down - black yoga pants and t-shirts! I'm sure it makes DH go wild! (sarcasm, of course!)

So I couldn't help but weigh-in this morning, even though I said I'd wait until Wednesdays. But I'd had such a successful weekend that I was really curious. After 5 days, I lost 2.6 pounds! It doesn't sound like alot, but I'm hoping maybe 3 pounds by Wednesday when I've been on Fitday a whole week.

I love you saying and I have to remember that. I think I am thinking too much about the big picture of having to lose 110 and getting over whelmed

Tell us your secrets lol

I'm completely honest with my fitday log. I keep my calories between 1250-1650 (most days), I've been pushing my proteins sky high lately between 35-40% of my calories, but in the beginning I was more like 25-35% proteins. I do a one hour hard cardio 6-7 days a week and when I miss I do something else like take a long walk, or put on my headphones, turn the music up loud and clean the house. I wear a pedometer and log 10,000+ steps almost everyday, and lately 7,000-8,000 of those steps have been aerobic (although I'm happy with 2,000 aerobic as well). When I have a really bad craving I let myself have a bite and a big big glass of water. Another thing I do is log my activities and try to push the calories burned about 1,000 more than calories eaten. So that means if I've cheated I have to do another workout to even it out. I try and drink 64 oz of water everyday, but that's where I struggle. So far today I'm at 48 and will struggle to get the last 16 down before bed.

you rock it! You can take on the world!!!