Shell250

Jennifer, Kathie, Thanks so much for the support and always being here! I was feeling down on myself yesterday; but back at it today. This week WILL be better!

Kathie, I can see where I can improve. I was low on veggies/fruit this week. And my fat was a little higher than it has been too. Good point, simple eating is the way to go. Just pure, simple, real, food! I like boiled eggs too. Today I am going to prep some food for the week. To have a bunch of hard boiled eggs handy in the fridge, and cut up veggies, and maybe some homemade soup too. I like soup with cabbage. It is filling, satisfying and healthy. I also like lentils too, and they are so healthy.

And exercise, I need to make a plan today. I keep asking myself 'how bad do I want this?', 'what am I willing to do to get healthy?'. I say I am willing to do anything necessary; but am I? Working out is a key component. I need to incorporate more exercise into my day. It is time now. I have just been walking, but there is no reason why I can't do more!

Jessie, Glad you are joining the thread! Congrats on getting through a months without smoking; that is just awesome! Good loss too, and it sounds like you are very diligent with working out - that is something I really admire!

Hang in there everyone, have a great weekend!

kathietaylor

Despite my horribly disappointing morning yesterday, the day did improve when I got compliments from 3 different people...my husband said I looked great, my daughter said "Wow, Mom doe you ever look good, really slim" and a complete stranger said "you still got it going on girl"!! There is kind of a long story with the stranger, he was with a co-worker and somehow age came up, I am 49, and he said he didn't think I was that old!! So even if the scale is not reflecting the changes, they ARE there! I can almost touch my chin to my chest without that double chin getting in the way, so it is almost gone!! I have had to put a belt on several pairs of my pants to prevent them from falling down!! For the sake of my own sanity, I am going to say it must be from building muscle!!

Shell, it does help to do some planning ahead. I am not great at planning suppers, but I am learning to plan the day time food. I will base my dinner on what I have left for calories.

One other little trick I have learned is to buy a fully cooked chicken (or you could roast one yourself) and keep that in the fridge so you have chicken available all the times. Make sandwiches, or chicken salad, or add chicken to salad or sometimes I just grab a hunk of it and eat it plain....then I boil the carcass and use that as part of my soup base. For me it is all about convenience. If I don't have easy to "grab" healthy options available, I am doomed to failure!! It is a learning process, believe me. When you are used to grabbing cookies, or potato chips, or candy, or a pop....you need to find something else you can grab!! If there is a lot of prep work involved, I am not able to "grab" it and I will go for something BAD! So if I use one day a week to prep, it makes the week much easier.

Today is my cooking day, and as it is freezing cold outside it will be a nice thing to do. I hope you all make healthy choices this weekend, I am going to try to as well!! Oh, and I will try and hit that treadmill too!! Oh, and drink lots of water!! LOL!!

kathietaylor

Okay, I am having a quiet morning....so I decided to do a little research (for more motivation) and I found this article! You MUST READ IT!!! It is so eye opening! And it might give you the push you need to keep eating healthy!!

Sugar Lovers Beware

cjohnson728

Sounds like everyone is focusing on what they can do today and going forward...it is so inspiring and thank you for your posts. You all are doing really great! Love the way Shell is looking back to tweak for going forward (information is power, baby!) and Kathie took a downer and made it into a real positive. You have a great idea with the chicken...much better to grab a protein snack than crackers from the pantry!

Interesting article, Kathie. I was on board with most of it except the ADD part. The sugar link is absolutely not proven and I base that on the science and almost 20 years in clinical practice being a child psychologist. It's anecdotal at best. BUT, sugar has enough evils that it shouldn't be much of a part of anyone's diet anyway!

I am still committed to not weighing till Tuesday but I think maybe my jeans are a little looser (At least it's jeans and not sweatpants, right...and it's jeans right from the dryer instead of worn-three-times-already-and-really-stretched-out). I am a little stiff today; don't know why; I didn't change my exercise routine and yesterday I did 1/2 hour treadmill and Level 2 of the 30 Day Shred, both of which I have done before. I kept it light with Pilates this morning to stretch out and I'll see what I feel up to later this evening. What I really feel up to is a nice massage, but I don't really see that happening!

Hope everyone continues to be successful over the weekend. Jessie, I will keep in mind your perseverence when I feel like I don't want to keep going. Big congrats to you on the smoking and the other healthy things you are doing at the same time...tough!

Take care everyone!

basscat348

You know I post different things on different sites but this one is different than all of them.There is no bashing or cutting someone down on here its just really kind of refreshing to have a bunch of people that are friendly and want to help out in any way they can.Awesome.

need2losen2010

Basscat;
I too find this a very motivating & helpful forum. It's a great help along our journey to better health. We may be in different stages along the way but everyone is so helpful & willing to share what works & what doesn't. As you said Awesome!!

JenniferAld

Today has been a long day to say the least. I got on the scale this morning and had lost another .5 lbs. I didn't have time to work out this morning and went to work at 9:30. I ended up staying until 8 tonight and I was in the fitting room and I wanted to CRY. Customers were SO rude all day. I was nice to each one and never refused to smile but they were beyond rude.

----Side note: If you ever try on clothes PLEASE try to put them back on the hangers right... not inside out and backwords and on the wrong hangers! It gets hard to deal with when you have 30 pieces of clothing that all come back at the same time and you have to fix every one of them while trying to catch up on the other clothes as well. Just sayin... Haha... I'll get off my soap box (Again... been a long day at work).---

Anyway, I doubt I will drop any more weight by tomorrow but that is A-Okay with me. I am fitting better into pants that I have not fit into since October! I am stoked. AND I am 5.5 lbs away from my goal!

JenniferAld

Hey everyone! This Thread is slowing down again. Where is everyone?

I got on the scale this morning and I now weigh 204.6. Which is another .9 lb weight loss since yesterday. I have been consistently dropping weight every day for like a week now. I hope this keeps up for another 4.6 pounds. The thing is... I know that everyone hits a point where they stop losing for a time period and their body holds on to the weight.... No matter how good they do... and then after a little while BOOM it will start to come off again... BUT I wanna hit my goal first. Ya' know? If I stop losing for a while once I hit 200 then that is okay with me....

How is everyone doing?

cjohnson728

Hey Jennifer!

Sorry for your brutal day at work. Those can really take it out of you. Also leaves you with little energy to work out and/or plan dinner. (Yes, I put the clothes back on hangers and almost always take them back to the racks as well )

Sounds like you are making progress, so good on you!! Keep it up and you will break that 200 in the right direction.

I am taking a day off from exercise today...first one in weeks. I am not sure why my muscles are a little achy; I haven't done anything different this week. Feel kinda bad about slacking off, but if I don't listen to my body, I'll be sorry, I know.

Almost through the weekend, everyone! We can do it!

Shell250

Hello everyone,

Kathie, Good idea with the whole chicken. I have not made a whole chicken for quite awhile.. I mainly use organic boneless skinless chicken breasts - but I get tired of those after awhile. Time to change it up. Congrats on the compliments, that is a great feeling! Thanks for posting the article on sugar, very good reminder. I have been looking into this more myself since discovering an artificial sweetener sensitivity. It all leads back to natural is better - it is what our bodies are designed to do. I happen to think all the hormones that are pumped into meat account for alot of cancers, and other problems including contributing to obesity. But this is also controversial.

Jennifer, Way to go with the loss - I am so envious of how fast you have been losing weight; but know it is because of your focus and dedication. Bravo! Sorry about the bad day at work, people can be inconsiderate and annoying, that is for sure!!

cjohnson (Cassie, right?), You deserve a break! Way to go for being so diligent with the exercise. Information = power..so true!

I have been feeling down this weekend, and it reflects in my eating. A combination of things/stress/issues/weather....just building up. SIGH. For once and for all I need to just do this, and put everything else aside. I feel like I am making excuses for myself, and get sucked into this dark pit and end up losing it with my eating. So sick of it!! This is important to me, very important to me, so I need to do it. Being healthier will only help, it can affect just about everything from mood to energy to coping with stress and I know that!

I am venting...trying to hold myself accountable for my actions. Someone please kick me in the butt..!! On the positive side, I did log everything. I did prepare quite a bit of good food this weekend to get me started for the upcoming week. Doing some meal planning today, some cooking, AND some exercise planning. Going to get on the mill - yes I am!

I appreciate this particular forum too. Great support, great ideas and food for thought without being nasty. Jerks (and there are always a couple lurking around lol) are always braver behind a computer! lol

Have a great Sunday everyone!