Weekly Workout Thread 29th Jan till 4th Feb

[larussel03]

Date: 1/31/2007 11:55:54 AM
Author: lovelylulu
hello.

kudos to the group. everyone seems to be making really great progress!!! and for me, progress is my greatest motivator. my eating has been stellar, for whatever reason, i've managed to mostly avoid all the indulgences i'm normally unable to resist. I think i needed a break from the holidays. now that february is nearly here...we'll have to wait and see. i'm wondering how my acholol abstention in january will affect my behavior in the future. like everything else, i think i'll be more conscious of it from here on out.

so 1 more pound has melted off and now i'm a mere 4 lbs to my goal weight. Hurray. and just in time to sport a bathing suit this weekend.

sweatpea: i heart the circle routine, however, the advanced workout with those jackknife moves is quite challenging!!

Yeah, I still haven't been able to master that move. I usually do either the advanced circle routine or the 20 mins abs, although my attention span is not longer than 30-40 mins for a video, so I don't do the hour long ones.

Do you have the circle they sent, or did you buy a new one? I'm thinking I may buy a real one b/c the "free" circle is pretty flimsy and cheapy, and I wonder if I'm getting as good benefit from it.

That workout does kill the tri's also...

 

[crown1]

hi everyone!

i have a question maybe someone can answer. i am going to be cutting up some fruits for a fresh fruit salad. normally i would boil some water and add a little sugar and a tad of spearmint. i was planning on subing stevia since i often use it in sauces and it works fine. the question is does anyone have a better idea for a sauce, dressing or whatever?

question two: i frequently cut red, orange and yellow peppers into strips and have it for lunch or a snack. i have been using a store creamy ranch veggie dip that is good but about 120 calories for 2 tablespoons. keeping in mind i don''t care for vinegar does anybody have a better prepared or homemade dip?

thanks!

 

[merrijoy]

Date: 1/31/2007 12:30:11 PM
Author: crown1
hi everyone!

i have a question maybe someone can answer. i am going to be cutting up some fruits for a fresh fruit salad. normally i would boil some water and add a little sugar and a tad of spearmint. i was planning on subing stevia since i often use it in sauces and it works fine. the question is does anyone have a better idea for a sauce, dressing or whatever?

question two: i frequently cut red, orange and yellow peppers into strips and have it for lunch or a snack. i have been using a store creamy ranch veggie dip that is good but about 120 calories for 2 tablespoons. keeping in mind i don''t care for vinegar does anybody have a better prepared or homemade dip?

thanks!

Hummus, Hummus and more Hummus...

 

[lovelylulu]

sweatpea: right now i only have the "free" circle. do you think there would be more resistence with the "real" one? is it pricey? i love pilates, though i''m also going to start taking a class that''s being offered in my gym. i''d prefer to go to a studio, but it''s quite pricey and time is always an issue...

 

[Mara]

okay so measurements for today's weigh in, i don't have last weeks but i dont think they changed at all really except for my weight. funny how weight can change but not much else. i figure those 2-3 sneaky little lbs will be gone in a few weeks now that i am working out again.

weight: 136-137 (boo hoo...)
arm: 9.75"
thigh: 20"
waist: 27.25"
lower waist: 33.5" (not bad for TTOTM!)
hips: 37"
bust...same as last week? 35ish i think. though i think my bust looks a bit bigger which is not a bad thing. hehe.
size: 6

crown...on the fruit salad, my old boss would just mix the fruits together and use nothing for sauce and it was so good. really fresh. you could add a dash of balsamic which will act against sweetness of the fruit and be yummy. or balsamic and some sugar. i wouldn't use stevia in something like that because i don't like the taste unless it's baked (i tried in coffee once and almost puked) and honestly a teaspoon of regular sugar in a big salad never hurt anyone.

on the dip thing...hummus is awesome, or what about the tzatiki greek yogurts, love those things as a dip or a spread on pita. or you can try to find a fat free or low-fat dressing which will be lower in calories OR make your own ranch using one of those packets and non-fat or low-fat buttermilk and non-fat or low-fat sour cream.

kudos lulu on your loss and being so close to your goal.

amber...re: the working out vs eating right or both...i did notice that when i was not working out, sparkpeople only modified my caloric intake by like 100-200 points. nothing big at all. i thought okay i am working to burn 2400 cals a week and eating like 1500-1700ish a day to maintain basically and if i cut out workouts entirely i can still eat 1300-1600ish?? so sometimes i do wonder what the workouts REALLY get me...except maybe letting me splurge a bit more on weekends than if i was not working out at all and eating. so for us foodies i think it is smart to continue to workout as we can and that way we have a bit more 'leeway' even when we reach our goals.

 

[larussel03]

Eating fruit makes me want a mcdonalds cheeseburger...this kind of thing happen to anyone else???

I''m eating cantelope and want a cheeseburger to go with.

 

[turtledazzle]

Date: 1/31/2007 11:37:12 AM
Author: AmberGretchen

I was actually talking to several of the doctors who work in my lab (they have a range of specialties, but they are all good about keeping up on the latest medical articles, etc...), and they confirmed what it seems that many here have discovered, that losing weight seems to be about 90% diet and only about 10% exercise, if even that much. They said you would have to basically be training intensively for a marathon/triathlon type event to see significant weight loss from exercise alone, although they did confirm that building muscle with strength training can help by lowering your body fat percentage and raising your basal metabolic rate. But apparently even that (building muscle) takes at least 6-8 weeks, even if you are on a really good program (i.e. lifting to the point of exhaustion and soreness, etc...).

First off, hi everyone! Sounds like you all are doing great. I haven''t been posting much lately (been in a weird mood and busy), but I have been doing my exercise thing. I haven''t been as good with food as normal (been super hungry lately for some reason), but still maintaining so I''m OK with that.

AmberGretchen ~ I actually read about conflicting studies just this week on CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/01/26/diet.exercise.reut/index.html

The highlights of the article are:
• Eating less, exercising more equally good at helping take off pounds
• Research adds to evidence that adding muscle mass does not boost metabolism
• Dieting alone also did not appear to cause loss of muscle mass along with fat

So, who knows what to believe. I think exercise is definitely necessary for a healthy body (and mind, for me ~ exercise is my de-stressing activity) and for me, personally, I absolutely attribute exercise as my means of weight loss. I inherently have pretty healthy eating habits, so true dieting would have been really hard for me.

When I first started working out (a number of years ago), I did count calories for a little while ... mostly just to see what I was eating and to see if there were things I needed to correct. I found out that my normal calorie intake was consistently about where it should be, and after I while I stopped counting on a regular basis. I still look at the nutritional info for anything I eat and I have "mental idea" of what I''ve eaten each day, but I don''t count the actual calories any more. I try to choose healthy snacks ~ fruits, protein bars, etc. Breakfast and lunch are almost always healthy as well (yogurt, soups). Dinner is where I sometimes falter ~ but only a couple of times per week. I also only go out to eat at a restaurant maybe 2-3 times per month (and when we do go out I usually bring home half of my dinner). I think one of the reasons I put on my weight (other than inactivity) was because I was eating out too much. Another thing that I try to do now is never eat to the point that I feel overly full, and I also eat quite slowly. When I am done with a meal, I feel satisfied, but not stuffed. I find the "stuffed feeling" very unpleasant now.

My weaknesses are cheese, wine, and bread (just like my kindred spirit Kimberly

). In the very early days of working out, I did limit my wine intake a bit ... but didn''t cut it out completely. Back then I probably had 3-4 glasses a week. Now it is not uncommon for me to have 1 (sometimes 2) glasses almost every night. I just enjoy my wine! I also still eat cheese and bread, though I have been downsizing our bread portions sometimes.

All that being said, my weight loss was very gradual and slow as I have talked about before. My experience was much like Mara''s, but on a longer time frame. For faster results, I guess you probably have to alter both diet and exercise. I exercised for months without dropping more than a couple of pounds, but I did go from a size 8 to a size 6 (with little weight loss ~ I was doing the losing fat and gaining muscle balancing act I guess). So, nejarb ~ don''t be discouraged! Over the past ~3 years with my regular exercise schedule I ended up losing a total of ~20 pounds and am now a size 2/4.

 

[AmberGretchen]

Hey turtledazzle - I checked out that article and I have to say that the study they are referencing is not at all convincing. Far too small a sample size, which is probably why it was published in a pretty crappy journal. When I was talking to the Dr''s in my lab, they had really done a lot of in-depth reading of the literature (more than I have done). But the really good data comes from the big (many thousands of people) long term studies, of which there aren''t that many, and the results tend to be published in much higher-profile journals, such as New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA.

I agree with Mara that the exercise probably just buys that little bit of extra leeway for foodies who want to indulge. In fact I think that''s a great way to think of it, because that way you don''t use exercising as a license to eat whatever you want or splurge too much. That said, exercise does have lots of other well-documented benefits aside from weight loss. Cardio certainl improves the health of your heart and lungs, which is important especially if you are prone to heart disease (which many people are) or to asthma like me - my doctor says one of the reasons I don''t have really severe asthma may be because I''ve kept my lungs strong with lots of exercise. Also, exercise has great benefits for your mental health, having been shown in some studies to be as effective as antidepressants for some people.

 

[Mara]

oh i totally agree re workout benefits overall not just weight related. i get sick less in the winters when i am working out consistently, doesn''t have to be 6x a week but just even 3x a week of doing something. my body feels better, i get less strains in my neck or back or whatever. it feels like everything typically just WORKS better. my head feels clearer, i have more of a sense of purpose and i feel pride in taking care of my body. also i managed to drop my body fat ... i didn''t have it measured originally but i would imagine it was probably like high 20''s originally and then when i tested it, it was 22 and then 20 a month and a half later. so i was definitely carrying less fat which is great. even if weight hadn''t moved much i would have felt good about that. but losing weight and body fat and seeing clothing sizes drop for me was hugely motivational and it just did take time.

one thing that was good about this forced 2-3 week downtime i just experienced was that it showed me that i could manage to drop workouts to a minimum, and not ballooon out and gain back my 20 lbs in that time period..which i think WAS a mental fear of mine and it took like a week and a half to get over it and calm myself down. i did gain 2-3lbs back. but we had a lot of eating out due to a visitor and also it was a struggle for me to drop eating habits back down a bit too. also my measurements didn''t really change much so that also showed me, okay i can gain back a few lbs and still LOOK the same and my clothes still fit. it was mentally reassuring.

 

[TravelingGal]

Hello all!

I don''t know what happened last night, but I passed out at 8 pm! I must have been really pooped. So no workout yesterday, but I usually allow myself one weekday off so I guess yesterday will have been it!

Mara, did the pizza again last night. As I suspected, the missing ingredient WAS the garlic powder. The pizza was perfectly balanced with it! Next time I may try fresh garlic too.

Having yogurt this morning with splenda and threw some frozen blueberries in. Not bad. Purty color anyway.

Here''s this week''s weigh in numbers. Lost almost another pound!! Weighing in has been awesome...keep me very motivated.

Last week:
Weight: 141.3
Bust: 36.5
Waist: 33
Hips: 39.75
Thigh: 22.20
Arm: 10

This week:
Weight: 140.4
Bust: 36.5
Waist: 33
Hips: 39.5
Thigh: 22
Arm: 10

Total % weightloss for the week = .62%
Total % weightloss since Jan 4 = 3.64%

I have lost 5.3 pounds since we started weighing in!!!

 

[NYCsparkle]

Ok here are some new measurements

arms: 9 1/2
bust: 33
natural waist: 26 1/2
lower waist: 30
hips: 34
thighs: 18.5
weight: 119.2
now i need to tone up some...i''m really bad at working out, but i''m trying to---little by little.

 

[turtledazzle]

Date: 1/31/2007 1:30:31 PM
Author: AmberGretchen
Hey turtledazzle - I checked out that article and I have to say that the study they are referencing is not at all convincing. Far too small a sample size, which is probably why it was published in a pretty crappy journal. When I was talking to the Dr''s in my lab, they had really done a lot of in-depth reading of the literature (more than I have done). But the really good data comes from the big (many thousands of people) long term studies, of which there aren''t that many, and the results tend to be published in much higher-profile journals, such as New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA.

I agree with Mara that the exercise probably just buys that little bit of extra leeway for foodies who want to indulge. In fact I think that''s a great way to think of it, because that way you don''t use exercising as a license to eat whatever you want or splurge too much. That said, exercise does have lots of other well-documented benefits aside from weight loss. Cardio certainl improves the health of your heart and lungs, which is important especially if you are prone to heart disease (which many people are) or to asthma like me - my doctor says one of the reasons I don''t have really severe asthma may be because I''ve kept my lungs strong with lots of exercise. Also, exercise has great benefits for your mental health, having been shown in some studies to be as effective as antidepressants for some people.

I totally agree that this particular study is not the best (their test population is very small). I actually don''t really agree with their findings (i.e. I think that increasing muscle mass does increase one''s metabolic rate -- at least that is how I feel from personal experience). My point was just that there is a lot of conflicting information, so it is difficult to say what is necessarily the best thing to do. I think there needs to both exercise and a healthy diet.

Exercise has helped my health a lot as well. I have back pain and other joint pain that is definitely worse when I go through periods of inactivity. My heart is also a lot healthier, as my resting heart rate went down a lot as I got more fit. My heart rate also recovers much faster now after exercise. This is important to me since my father and grandfather died in their 40''s from heart attacks. I just wish the rest of my family would "learn" and stop smoking, start exercising, and eat better ~ instead, they tell me I''m too skinny! Ugh!

 

[nejarb]

crown1, i like fruit salad w/ no dressing, and depending on the fruit, a sprinkle of cinamon is good. but i've seen people put a little oj on it, and a squeeze of lemon, and this also preserves the fruit a bit. for dipping veggies, i recently saw a friend mix lowfat sour cream w/ a packet of good seasonings italian salad dressing mix. it was really good.

Amber, i think i'll take another look at sparkpeople. i went there once just to see what my cal range should be, but i haven't used it for tracking or for looking up nutritional info. i think the reason just exercise alone isn't enough if you're trying to loose weight and ALREADY have a healthy diet is that people probably compensate to some extent by eating a little more when they are very physically active. but if you count calories this is harder to do. i've just never done it before, but okay. i'm ready. i used to run marathons, and i never worried about what i was eating, and alot of times i would say "well, i CAN have a 2nd piece of cake, b/c i just ran 15 miles this morning." and i still lost weight, but it was only about 15 lb over the course of 2 years. also, around this time, there were a few times when i was so upset over this dumb guy i dated in college, that i wouldn't eat very much for a few days, and i dropped weight so fast that i could go from 140 to 135 within a matter of days. once i got down to 131 and everyone who saw me told me i was way too thin and looked gross and they were worried about me.

i guess the point of all that is that i've never lost weight by eating 1500 cal/day and exercising moderately. i've done it by either running 35 miles a week OR eating way under 1000 cal/day. neither is in my near future, so i just have to count calories. it's not even hard, i know. it's just different and it's a new habit that i need to form.

weight & measurements all the same. only change is that my body fat went down 1% according to my scale. this is from a few weeks ago--i hadn't checked it for a while until today.


ETA: sweatpea, i always want something sweet and something savory at every meal. or alternatively, i go back and forth, like sweet bfast, savory lunch, sweet snack, savory dinner.

 

[TravelingGal]

nejarb, I never lost weight while marathon training. Something about running 15 miles really does make you say "I deserve a big a** breakfast!!!" I usually gained a pound or two by the end of it, due to all that carbo loading. When I cousin trained with me for the second marathon, I told her not to think she was going to lose weight (she''s only 98 pounds anyway) and she was like, "really?" Of course I was right...not a pound lost.

 

[ellaila]

Kimberly, I''m making your polenta and sausage & mushrooms recipe tonight and just spent 25 minutes wandering the supermarket looking for instant polenta -- where is it?! (Granted this was a small market near work, so maybe they just don''t carry it, but I didn''t even know where to look!) Near pasta usually?

Thanks! Oh, and also plan on making that chicken vesuvio later this week, too. PS has become my new Food Network -- I watch PS for recipes now!

 

[Mara]

isn't it crazy too how just a few lbs can make such a difference visually?? so the scale says i am 136-137 now. my measurements are basically the same. but my body looks a bit more full and womanly than it did 2-3 weeks ago when i was more 'lean' and working out more. i don't dislike this new body, i kind of like it. i'm still lean and smaller and fit into a 6 easily, but i'm not as BONY looking if that makes sense, like my shoulders don't stick out as much and my hips (my two largest 'bone' areas). i don't want to make it sound like i was a skeleton before, i wasn't at all...i mean i only gained 2-3 lbs. but i think i might actually look overall a bit better now. and does 2 lbs really cause that? so is this my 'ideal' weight for my body structure? it's kind of crazy how such small changes can make a big difference.

 

[KimberlyH]

Date: 1/31/2007 2:39:38 PM
Author: ellaila
Kimberly, I''m making your polenta and sausage & mushrooms recipe tonight and just spent 25 minutes wandering the supermarket looking for instant polenta -- where is it?! (Granted this was a small market near work, so maybe they just don''t carry it, but I didn''t even know where to look!) Near pasta usually?

Thanks! Oh, and also plan on making that chicken vesuvio later this week, too. PS has become my new Food Network -- I watch PS for recipes now!

Ellaila: It should be next to the pasta, orzo and cous cous that comes in a box. I''ve found it at most major grocers as well as specialty smaller stores (TJs, Henry''s). We buy it from an Italian specialty market that imports, so it''s just kind of on the end of an aisle by itself (the market is a small mish-mash sorta place) where I shop.

The vesuvio was really good. Hubby is a fan of breaded chicken, so he was missing that in this recipe, but he said as long as he took bites of potato w/ chicken it was delicious (sorta silly, but whatever works for him!).

 

[KimberlyH]

Date: 1/31/2007 2:13:18 PM
Author: TravelingGal
nejarb, I never lost weight while marathon training. Something about running 15 miles really does make you say ''I deserve a big a** breakfast!!!'' I usually gained a pound or two by the end of it, due to all that carbo loading. When I cousin trained with me for the second marathon, I told her not to think she was going to lose weight (she''s only 98 pounds anyway) and she was like, ''really?'' Of course I was right...not a pound lost.

I trained for a 3Day and actually gained weight. We trained hard (at least 1, if not 2 15-mile walks per weekend plus miles logged during the week) the last two months and my body clung to anything I ate because of all the walking I was doing. I''m walking again this year and it will be interesting to see how my body responds. I hovered at 140 lbs. all through intense training and dropped back down immediately after training ended. I think my body was trying to pad itself. I didn''t eat much more during that time period than I do know, which was the strangest part (but my legs were rock solid!).

It''s amazing how our bodies change through working out/eating right, etc. Based on my weight loss history,I actually tend to get thinner faster when I''m not exercising but limiting calories to about 1200 a day, but I look guant not fit. Now that I''ve combined the two I look fit and trim, but not at all thin.

 

[katebar]

Date: 1/30/2007 11:01:21 PM
Author: Mara


also i know i have said this before but i literally did not see the scale move AT ALL (do you guys get that? AT ALL) for almost a month and a half after i started ratcheting things up and counting. if i really thought about it, i could be sad about it. but my body was busy. it was converting fat to muscle. THEN when the fat was starting to become more depleted, it started burning FAT. i cannot tell you how discouraged i was one day about a month after i started doing this whole thing to go to my mom''s house after a workout and get on the scale after not weighing myself for over a month thinking oh i have to at least have lost a few lbs. NOPE. NOTHING. i''m like oh my gosh why am i doing this. but i was doing it for myself...to feel better, to be healthy...losing weight wasn''t the only reason. so i kept at it. in any case, stay with it! and don''t be discouraged. i said the same thing you did...which was...GOSH could it just give me one or two measly pounds to keep me interested (the scale). nope! and then when it started...it started in chunks. 2 lbs. 3 lbs, 3 lbs, 2 lbs etc. so anyway, stick with it!!! keep doing whats right for your body. and maybe cut back on cals a bit. my cals look a lot like kimberlys.

Mara thank you for sharing this experience because this is what I think is happening to me. I know my body is changing but I need not to be ''locked'' into that magic number on the scales. I am eating between 1300 1600 caloroies per day and burning well over 1500 per week in exercise. Plus I am geneticly programmed to be thin as my entire family are low average in weight. I am a great believer in an individual''s set point for weight as this give an indication of if you can sustain a certain weight over time. So I know that once I get this 10 lb off I should be able to maintain fairly easily.
Travelinggal I did''nt even think about Febuary being a short month but now you mentioned it this is the month to pick. It is just hard because we love our wine and it one of my husband''s passions. All our friends are wine drinkers and it really hard to resist. But i will be strong

 

[Aurelia]

I just spent 20 minutes looking for polenta mix!! Asked 2 store managers... they both ended up stumped and aimlessly wandering the supermarket with me : )

But we found it! So Kimberly's incredible-sounding sausage/mushroom polenta is going to be dinner! Yippee! Persistence conquers : )

Aurelia

edited to delete wrong quote!

 

[ellaila]

Date: 1/31/2007 4:10:40 PM
Author: Aurelia

I just spent 20 minutes looking for polenta mix!! Asked 2 store managers... they both ended up stumped and aimlessly wandering the supermarket with me : )

But we found it! So Kimberly''s incredible-sounding sausage/mushroom polenta is going to be dinner! Yippee! Persistence conquers : )

Aurelia

Ha ha! Same for me. I asked one guy who said, "Uhhh. Uhhhh. Try the deli." (umm, NO!) and then another guy who literally just followed me up and down aisles going "Maybe it''s near flour? Maybe it''s near cake mix? Maybe it''s near pasta ... " until I was ready to tell him another place I was thinking of where it might be (hint: it''s a place the sun don''t shine)!

Thanks for the info on where it actually MIGHT be, Kimberly!

But polenta-finding frustration aside, I''m excited to make this -- it sounds delish!

 

[Aurelia]

We found it in the "ethnic food" section in Shaws, in the ITALIAN section : ) near packaged gnocci and pasta shell sheets...

it was made by PASTENE which is a brand that does EVERYTHING in yellow packaging : )

Hope this helps!

Aurelia

 

[TravelingGal]

*gasp pant gasp*

Just came back from an hour run/walk. Note to self, running in the middle of the day when the sun is out is not fun!!

Ah well...at least my workout is done for the day (minus some strength training I am going to do after lunch...)

I''m interested in everyone''s results for dinner! We are having fish and butternut squash prepared in some way. Tomorrow I may try to make Jade''s butternut squash soup.

 

[Mara]

WHEE so i just went to TJ's for my weekly visit, i swear visiting that place is like going to Hermes or something but I can actually afford to shop at TJ's. kid in a candy store. haha.

came back with a hodgepodge of items...our pizza for tonite, rosemary chicken and rice for dinner tomorrow, some fresh carrots. they have more fruit this time...yay so i got some pineapple chunks and also new fiber muffins (one thing that bugs me is that a lot of their bakery stuff is not fresh...aka it's 1/31 today and the 'buy' date is 2/2. so it means i have to immediately put these things in the freezer or else they start growing mold, and i have to pick it off or toss them...and this is not unusual), i got more tortilla chowder and a new one, roasted tomato and garlic soup in the same jar. i also got carribbean frozen ice bars, has anyone tried these? look yummy. passionfruit sorbet. 2 more fage's and some honey to keep at work (by the way they do have 2% fage small containers WITH honey, but they also have regular non honey ones), the frozen steel cut oatmeal (someone mentioned they tried that?) and i think that's mostly it. whew. fun trip!

i just found out that tomorrow we are having a dim sum lunch with another team...yummy but YIKES on the health part. ugh! i love dim sum too. guess i'm having cereal tomorrow night, hahaa.

so i have decided that i NEED to stop snacking so much especially in the afternoons. i had the willpower at some point so i CAN get it back. so between breakfast and lunch even though i was hungry at 10am, i held out and ate nothing til 12. so then i had a chicken marsala LC with leftover carrots from last nite and i am not going to eat anything else til 2:30pm when i can have 1-2 snacks that equal about 150-200 cals. then i am NOT going to eat again til dinner when we are having our pizzas and salads. then i can have a 100 cal dessert like biscotti or choco pudding cup etc. i need to get back on my disciplined track. most of it is mental. i feel hungry so i want to eat. but i know what i just techincally consumed and i shouldn't be hungry yet kinda thing. so i need to retrain my body a bit...and get it away from snacking so much. i used to eat a healthy breakfast, small lunch, one snack then dinner and i was fine with it, but adding more snacks in has trained my body to want to eat more often and it bugs me because i feel like i am a slave to urges and snacks. haaa.

 

[bee*]

I weighed myself today and didnt lose anything this week

. Oh well-I''ve lost 9 lbs since jan 8th so I knew it had to slow down at some stage. I went and did my workout also today and I did half an hour on the cross trainer and then I ran on the indoor track for a while and did some weights. I havent noticed any difference in my body at all yet though so I cant wait until I see a visible difference.
Having bought my tape measure, I can finally post some stats.

Height 5ft 4 1/2"
Weight 191 lbs
Arm 13 1/2 "
Bust 37"
Waist 33 "
Thigh 26"
Lower waist 39"
Hips 45"

Yuk-I cant wait until those measurements go down a bit.

I hope that everyone else had a good weigh in and a good day!

 

[nejarb]

so far so good. i''ve had 700 cal today so far, but i''m going to have probably close to 1000 at dinner b/c we''re trying a new french place (also taking stepmom out for her birthday). i can get something light and then share some cheese or a desert. i think i''m shooting for 1600-1700 cal/day anyways, at least at first. so i shouldn''t go too far over. i''m actually not hungry. weird. i guess if it was a normal day i could have a 600 cal dinner and a glass of wine and i would be under 1500 for the day. this isn''t so bad!

TG: your travel quote of the week has long expired! get your act together! oh, about the weight loss while training for marathons, this coincided with a change in eating habits. i.e. when i was in high school i lived w/ my dad and we ate out alot (but he always ordered salads/grilled chicken just b/c it was what he liked not b/c he knew what was healthy or whatever), and i would eat stuff like fettucini alredo and cokes and sort of knew but didn''t really care that it wasn''t great for me. then in college i lost a little weight freshman year b/c of the terrible dorm food, and everyone was telling me how great i looked and i figured i would try to look even better so i started exercising and later i got into running and learned more about nutrition.

 

[TravelingGal]

Well, I''ve never been to Hermes, but I think I know how ya feel. I love TJs and Costco...

The roasted tomato and garlic soup is pretty strong Mara. Don''t eat it if you are going to be talking to anyone important afterwards! I love it though...it''s my fav TJs soup so far, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE garlic.

BTW, I had another pizza today (on a pizza kick). I added fresh garlic, but think garlic powder is still better, so that is the way I am going.

I have some ice bars in the fridge right now...don''t know if they are the kind you are talking about. The ones I have are lime and 60 cal each.

 

[merrijoy]

Question again:

I bought a small container of chopped fruit today at Publix. It contains cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, strawberries, pineapple and grapes. It is small, there are about 20 pieces of cut fruit in there - maybe a little less. The label states it weighs a pound. I have maybe eaten 1/4 so far. I tried looking calorie count for this online but I can not find anything. How would you count this calorie wise?

Similarly, I had some hummus on low carb pita bread this afternoon. I just used a knife to spread it on. How would you all measure this calorie wise...

Also, do you all use food scales for measuring foods?

Thanks,

Meredith

 

[larussel03]

Ug I just broke down and ate most of a spicy chicken sandwich from Wendys (Dog go the last quarter of it). Skipped the fries though, which is a good thing!

I got out of work, ran to the grocery store then was STARVING, and irritated with work, so I went to Wendys. Although could be worse, it''s 480 cals for the whole sandwitch (so I ate around 400 cals worth of it) and I''d only consumed about 600 when I left work (which is wierd that I wasn''t hungrier actually, but then again I''m very sedentary at work, so that''s likely why). So I still have a few cal''s to spare for a snack if I get hungry.

 

[royalasscherlover]

everyone seems to be doing great! count me in with the group that believes that weight loss requires both exercise and calorie control. i used to think that i could eat whatever i wanted as long as it was healthy, but i've found that i really do need to keep the calories within a certain range to lose weight, especially when you only have a few pounds to lose. i've tried playing with my sparkpeople account, and it gives me the same calorie range regardless of whether i am buring 1000 or 2000 calories per week, so i think i'm just stuck with eating less!

i also have to report that i stopped at the grocery store last night and got some of the sugar-free jello cups. so when my stress-induced munchies hit, i had a couple of those. i felt like i ate alot, but they are only 10 calories each. i know dark chocolate is healthy, it was the triscuits that were my downfall...

thanks again for all your well wishes about my horse. we spent most of the day up at the veterinary hospital running various tests. they did find some ulcers in his stomach when he was scoped, so we are going to put him on a more aggressive (and expensive

) treatment for those and make a couple other management changes. hopefully that will clear him up. if he keeps having trouble, he'll need some biopsies, but we've opted not to do the invasive surgical tests until after we've got the ulcer situation under control. (and in keeping with the spirit of this thread, his weekly weigh-in was 1,019 lbs!)

tomorrow is another long day as i have to go to chicago for a meeting. i am being picked up at 5:30am to head to the airport - yikes! i am not a morning person. i think i am going to do a pilates video at home tonight and then head to bed early.