Hi!

I came across DT by accident last night and have spent quite a few hours reading the amazing stories on the site. What a great community!

Nausicaa and Sunymiss have already given me fantastic advice and much appreciated encouragement; I hope I can contribute, and I know I have a lot to learn from everyone.

Relatively speaking, I don't have a lot of weight to lose, but it feels like trying to move mountains on some days. I've gained 10lbs over the last year and would like to get back to my usual weight as soon as possible. The main culprit is my desk job (which I started a year ago). I spend a minimum of 8-10 hours a day sitting, and tend to have lots of snacks when I get home, almost as a "reward" for getting through a stressful day. I've tried to eat more earlier in the day, but it makes no difference to what happens in the evening!

What I do know is that if I keep busy or stay out of the house, I eat less overall. But I can't be out of the house all of the time and am trying to figure out what I can do at home to stop snacking.

I'm still trying to set my goals, but hoping I can lose the 10 lbs by July 5. Is that too slow? fast? how do I know what's realistic and yet motivating enough?

Here's what I had today:

bkfst (3/4 cup of veggies, 1 english muffin, 2tbsp yoghurt, coffee, 3 dried figs): 420 kcal
veggie sub: 300
LF fruit bar: 410
fruit & yoghurt: 210
veggies: 100
dinner (chicken + wh w pasta): 300

Total: 1740

Dried figs and fruit bar were the killers - I have a terrible sweet tooth.

Exercise: 2hr slow walk/window shopping ~350 kcal

Water: 1.5 L + 0.5 L orange tea


Random thoughts for today:

1) Has anyone tried fasting for a few days? Would you recommend it?
2) Can you ask for a scale at hotels?? (I'm traveling for work for a week.)
3) Does fruit make you hungrier? I could live on fruit but I take it the sugar isn't so good, and it does seem like it encourages appetite. So does excessive caffeine, but I will *never* ever ever give up my morning cup of joe. ~o)

xoxo

Puma


PS The title isn't entirely accurate: I don't think there's a real danger of losing the guy in question over 10lbs, but I certainly realize he's noticed: it seems like I now have to fish for compliments, which was never the case until about 6 months ago. We've been together for a very looooong time. :)

Ok first things first don't worry about what the guy thinks
seriously lose weight only for yourself!
You be proud of you.
If he doesn't like it then well.....LOL

Next I am vegetarian so I eat fruit and lose weight so there you go.
Coffee actually makes me not eat as much so I don't know on that one.
Fast are ok if done with water, fruit and raw veggies but you HAVE to be careful.
YOU MUST get nutrients in your body or you'll kill over! lol
That's not pretty!

I like dried figs but I always buy the ones that don't have sugar added and
no preservatives in them either when buying any variety of dried fruits.

How much exercise you do will determine how many calories you burn in a day
or need to eat in a day based on your goals.

It takes 3500 calories to gain or lose a pound so if you wanted to lose a pound
a week then cut back 500 calories a day off your total now and you'll lose a pound a week add in some exercise and you might not have to cut any calories since you don't have much to lose.
Basically if you could burn 500 calories a day exercising you don't need to cut
any calories if you don't want to do that then go half burn 250 calories and
cut 250 thus losing a pound a week.

I am so glad you started a journal I really do think you will like it alot.
We look forward to seeing your success but do it just for you girl!!!

Your posts are poetry! :) Great to know you're doing so well AND eating fruit. As for the coffee, a little bit is fine for me, but on the rare days when I have three cups, I tend to fight the "caffeinated shaky hands syndrome" with bagels and cream cheese. The figs I ate don't have anything added to them, I'm a bit obsessive about reading labels and avoiding additives too! :-)

Cutting 500 kcal per day seems impossible at the moment, but I feel like as long as I turn the corner, I'll be fine. I don't mind waiting a year to lose the 10 if I have to, I just want to get off the upward trend.

Congrats on going on three hikes in one day, btw!!

Yay, you started a journal :D

Here's what I would do if I were you:

eat normally for a week (don't cut anything out), but write it all down. That way you figure out what you normally take in. Then you can work from there. At your weight (how tall are you?) you probably don't want to lose more than 1/2 lb per week at the most. That adds up to 3500 cals every two weeks that you'd have to cut out, or 250/day. If you did half of those in exercise and half in food, you'd be eating 125 cals less per day than you do right now (as in, a large pear). :)

Something that might help you feel better about fruit is, when you eat it, have some nonfat or lowfat yogurt at the same time. The protein can help you feel more full longer. Fruit is very good for you but it's very easy for the body to digest and it doesn't stay in your stomach long to keep you feeling full.

I am a big fan of coffee in the morning, nobody can convince me that it's bad for me. Too many good studies have shown that it protects against diabetes (although decaf coffee might also have the same effect) and I've never seen any study that says a reasonable amount (I usually have one or two 8 oz mugs per day) does any harm! Of course it is also a powerful appetite suppressant for me (and Suny!) but if it makes you want to eat MORE, then you have to watch out LOL.

Keep on reading those labels!!! By the way, I sometimes make a show of reading labels and comparing products when the department managers are around in the aisles. I let them see that I'm basing my choice on the nutrition info in the hopes that they bring in more healthy foods. I don't know if it works, but I know they at least are used to seeing a girl staring at labels for 2 hours every Wednesday :laugh:

Okay as for your questions: I have never tried fasting except to punish myself for being fat (eek) so ... I don't know... but I suspect it ought to be pretty low on your list of things to do. As long as we eat a healthy diet, our bodies are CLEAN and don't need to be detoxed. Let's just say my ridiculous roommate (21 y/o guy) does something called Colonix which is a colon cleansing program that involves basically living in the bathroom... and he is NOT HEALTHY and has all kinds of problems with his digestive system -- he thinks that Colonix is helping him and it's only making it worse. Let me just say it this way: he takes his laptop into the bathroom with him. LOL. Just eat right, and your body doesn't need to be "cleaned out." We are self-cleaning ovens ;)

I am quite the traveler, and I have never had the balls to ask for a scale. However, I did buy a cheap dial-scale (i.e., not digital) which I brought with me on my travels last year when I was the ultimate nomad (95 nights in various hotels in 9 months). I didn't care if it broke, and it didn't break (because it was just a dial scale). Yeah it weighed a few pounds, but it was worth it to stay on track.

As for if fruit makes you hungrier... maybe. Try the protein thing (eating it with yogurt or cottage cheese) and see if that helps at all.

You will see that this is a learning process!!! And I'm so proud of you for doing the right thing for your health and reversing a small weight gain before it turns into a bigger gain! Like I told you before, IF ONLY.... (in reference to myself but many others would probably agree!)

Hi purple :wave: & :welcome:

Love your attitude ! I don't mind waiting a year to lose the 10 if I have to, I just want to get off the upward trend. :up:

Since stopping eating in the evenings seems to be your "weak" spot - maybe try to chose your snacks more wisely.
You say you have a sweet tooth - have some fresh strawberries and ff low calorie cool whip ( just as good as the high fat, high calorie stuff ) and wow that takes care of my sweet cravings. There are many foods available now days that offer great flavor/taste without the sin of weight gain to pay ;)

You did not mention your water intake or exercise - both of these will help :)

PS: adding to what Nausicaa said - YES! It is not just 10 lbs to lose - for too many people 10 become 20 and 30 and so on, I too think it is wonderful you are nipping this now :D

Oh yes, I meant to mention we have a summer challenge going on here at DT right now that you are welcome to jump into - click on the link below my sig line for more information :)

Welcome Purple!

Looks like you already have some of the best go-to gals responding here:) These ladies know what they are talking about!

I find that fruit makes me hungrier, too. It's all the natural sugar. I have to plan when I eat it. I like to use fruit as a snack when I am hungry but lunch or dinner is just out of reach. At work, I eat breakfast at 7:30, and lunch at 1:30, so around noon or noon-thirty, I eat a snack so I don't go nuts with a huge lunch (or visit the candy bowl on the front desk). Fruit is perfect here for me.

I agree with Nausicaa, take this first week to write out the foods you normally eat so you can see your regular schedule. Write the times you eat as well. Then you can cut back calories or add in a bit of extra exercise or just space your meals differently so that you don't have big gaps between meals.
Cutting 500 calories can be tough, but I tend to think of it as a game. Calories are like money, and I want to get the best "deal" on foods! I don't want to spend half my calories on one thing, I want lots of smaller things and the occasional big item. So you can have something, then add veggies (which a lot are next to no calories), and really fill up for few calories. Like Butterfly said, use light or lower fat options, many taste the same as full fat or full calorie options. They are the "bargain" foods.

As far as workouts go, there are some Leslie Sansone walking dvds that I love. It's just walking in place with some kicks, knee lifts, side steps. It doesn't take that long, and it's not hard, but it's a great workout. I even walk in place during some tv shows, use that time that I usually sit on my tush to get some movement in.

Really, it's all a matter of finding what you like and what works for you. IT's awesome that you aren't looking for a quick fix, they usually turn into a bigger problem.

Good luck, and I can't wait to hear more!

Hey girl you asked about the scale most high end hotels have them in
the bathrooms but if they don't the hotel gym usually has one!
Or you can make that request and have it placed in your room before you even
arrive so there isn't any weirdness at the front desk.

Just my humble ramblings :)
Have a safe trip!

most high end hotels have them in the bathrooms but if they don't the hotel gym usually has one!:laugh: I guess we all know what kind of hotels Naus stays in :laugh: Yeah, that's right, the kind that doesn't even have a TV in the room, much less a gym! LOL.

Hi you guys/gals!

Sorry for disappearing!

Been crazy busy on this trip, but I did read your responses two nights ago, wrote a reply and then it disappeared (I must have accidentally pressed the back button before hitting "send").

I was *shocked* to see a scale in the bathroom of the hotel where I'm staying (it's not an expensive place at all, but it is a 'boutique', not part of any chain). sunymiss, that is a great idea about requesting a scale ahead of arrival - I'll definitely do that next time.


And, you're absolutely right, it's not at all about the guy. Can I edit the title of this thread? I wanted something lighthearted, but now I realize it was an idiotic idea to suggest that 10 lbs would make a difference in any relationship. For the record, I hope no one is taking the title seriously!

MelsaEstel and Suny, so good to hear you've managed to plan for fruit successfully. :) I've added a bit of yoghurt (2% mf kefir, actually) this week, per Naus' suggestion and it *has* helped. Thankfully, there's a produce market literally next to the hotel, so I've been skipping dinners with colleagues and filling up on fruits, veggies, yoghurt and multigrain bread. I hate being antisocial, but they went for Indian food last night, which I love: I'm definitely not at the point of self-control where I could just have a tiny piece of naan, with a few bites of a curry...

Other than avoiding food situations (is this sustainable??), I switched to decaf after my morning full-caffeinated coffee, and it does help me fend of the jitters (surprise, surprise), which I used to fight with carbs.

Naus and MelsaEstel, I haven't been eating normally this week, but I know that I eat about 2000-2200 calories when I don't watch things. I've been keeping track sporadically over the past two years, and you're right, as soon as I stop writing things down, I'm out of control!! I use a Google docs spreadsheet to write things in, I find it's great when traveling - accessible from anywhere.

That's hilarious about making a show of reading labels and comparing products, Naus. I have to try this one day (perhaps after a glass of wine so I can add an audible ramble on the horrors of food additives...)

Today convinced me that going hungry backfires quickly, so I'm going to stay very far away from fasting. I ate a small breakfast (250 kcal) and then nothing unitl 4pm. Guess where that led me? Straight to a starbucks fruit bar, followed by a Lindt hazelnut and chocolate bar, followed by a healthy sandwich. I'm sure I could have skipped the junk food had I had a sandwich and an apple at lunchtime. Ugh. I hate days with non-stop meetings.

Your roommate sounds hilarious, btw! Lots of material for a sitcom, if you ever feel like writing, I'm sure!

butterflylady, i love the idea for low calorie dip for strawberries. I'll have to look for one (must admit the cool whip list of ingredients is a bit intimidating). And yes, I will add more water - it's something I'm not very good at! Not sure if I'm up for the summer challenge yet, but I'll try as soon as I get back from the trip and have some time to look into it/sign up.

Thanks for the great suggestions about walking in place with kicks, knew lifts, etc, while watching TV... I have to get into the habit of "moving" even when I don't have to be moving - I think this would help enormously, but I'm still trying to figure out how this fits into day-to-day life.


I can't wait to spend more time reading your journals - hopefully this wekeend!

xoxox

Puma


Tuesday's Calories: 1400
Exercise: none
Water: who knows... 1.5L?

Yesterday's Calories: 1600
Exercise: 30 min walk
Water: ???

Today's Calories: 1570 so far (it's only 6pm, and I'm HUNGRY)
Exercise: 1 hr walk
Water: 1 L or less ?

Hey Puma :) I just noticed you're in DC, I used to live in DC :) it's a great city!

I don't always follow a lot of the recommendations out there (for example, I don't really eat breakfast, and I probably don't drink as much water as they say I should) but one thing I will say is that when I eat 5-6 times a day, I feel much better overall. Much more even, emotionally, physically, I don't get tired as much.

As for moving when you're not used to moving... today I was battling a ton of nervous energy while waiting for class to start, I got there early, and I just started pacing (walking in circles basically) and I know I must have looked really weird. But the fact that I looked weird just means that most people don't move unless they need to get from Point A to Point B. So I felt good about the pacing, because it was a good 15 minutes of physical activity I wouldn't have gotten otherwise, and it did relieve some of my nerves. And it goes to show that there are places we can get exercise in even without planning for it. If I hadn't been pacing, I would have been sitting someplace for sure.

This exam is totally getting to me. But it's 1:30am, so I'm going to call it a day! Good night :)

Send John ( the owner of DT ) and see if he can change your journal title. I am pretty sure he can. I know you can't though - nor can a MOD - sorry.

Apparently, I'm paying for pigging out yesterday. By the end of the day, I'd eaten 2220 calories (500 for dinner, 120 for a glass of wine, and 200 for a wine-induced snack at 11 p.m. - oops). Here is my (morning) weight for the week:

March 10: 119.0
March 11: 119.5
March 12: 118.5
March 13: 118.0
March 14: 119.5

Oh puma when I talked about a fast I meant eating during the entire day.
Just fasting from my regular food meals or certain items like sugar etc.
I have done a fast a couple of times when taking certain meds just to sort of
make my tummy feel better but I have a home juicing machine so I would juice
all kinds of fruits and veggies and drink them all day long & eat salads!
Basically it wasn't a fast I guess more of a cleanse to rid my tummy of the ickies.
No not eating only leads to binging sorry I didn't explain that very well to you! oops.

You are clearly focused and well on your way to reaching your goal.
Have a fantastic weekend.

Hi Poom-poom (do you mind if I call you that? :laugh:),

don't stress about the little fluctuations. SRSLY.

They are sooo normal, and if you check out my journal or Suny's you'll see we get them all the time too.

Here's my FAVORITE statistic of my personal life to quote at people: I sat down recently and looked at the last 364 weigh-ins that I did. Of those, my weight stayed the same from one day to the next 18 times; I lost weight from the day before 215 times; I gained weight from the day before 131 times.

If I can "gain weight" 131 times during the exact same period of time that I lost 98 lbs ... well ... you can see just how meaningless those fluctuations are.

But they're still useful to know about and to understand. Two very good tools: 1) weigh yourself every day, average the 7 weights for the week at the end of each week, and compare the averages over time (extremely GOOD and HEALTHY way to track your weight) and 2) use the igoogle tool called "The Google 15" which lets you enter your daily weight and it shows you your "moving average" on a graph -- this eliminates fluctuations and as long as your weigh-ins are under your moving average, you are losing weight. You can check it out here: http://www.red-bean.com/fitz/ig/google15/faq.html

:) Have a great day!!!

No complaints, naf-naf! :-) I find it rather cute.

Can I just say I love this little DT-assigned avatar, purple-pink hair and all!?

Ooooh, Google 15 is exciting! Very exciting! And thanks for putting things into perspective.

I may be scale-less for the next three days, I'm out of the hotel and staying with a bachelor friend who lives by himself and may not have one. He is very "metro" however, ;) so perhaps he does!?? We'll see...

Losing 1 lb a week may be unrealistic for me... I may have to shoot for 1/2 lb per week or 2 lbs every three weeks, UNLESS I really increase exercise... Will think about this on the weekend...

P.S. I've emailed the webmaster (through the Contact Us link) and asked to have the title changed to "10 lb Countdown". Thanks for the tip, Suny!


Take care of your lovely selves!!

Hi Puma!
Well, I for one missed this thread when you first posted and was totally attracted by the title! I loved the play on words. I thought maybe you were losing weight to lose the guy :laugh:

All the advice here is terrific - you've got the All Star team helping you that's for sure. I'd like to share something my doctor told me about caffeine years ago. Apparently besides being a stimulant, it is also an appetite suppressant (many are - that's why diet pills are usually just speed). It's also a natural diuretic. But what it does is delay appetite - so you go all day drinking coffee (I used to go through 6 or 8 cups), staving off your hunger pangs with it all day long. 5pm hits and you haven't eaten and you are ravenous, out of control and grabbing everything in sight!

Over the past few years I've been cutting back my intake, slowly - like giving up one cup a day every year or so. I'm proud to say it's now a 'special occasion' treat - I don't even miss it in the morning any more!

So don't follow in my footsteps - that's not why I'm posting, but just know that decaf is indeed much better for you, particularly if you can avoid a high carb snack as a result.

And definitely eat! Eat all day long - every 2 to 3 hours. Don't let yourself get hungry and you will stay in control and make healthy choices.

I'd wish you luck Puma, but I don't think you need it - you've got it all together. Can't wait to watch you hit that goal! :cheer:

Hugs
Mugs

First a nod to Naus for coming up with Poom-poom! too cute

Next I actually loved your journal's name that's what made me click on it
because of the relation of your journal to the movie title how to lose a guy in
10 days and then I thought yep you could lose one if you gained 10 pounds
in 10 days for certain, LOL.

Then of course I read your journal and I thought it was a cute title and
it also described your feeling at the moment nothing wrong with that.

Your going to do fine just keep a food journal and exercise a bit and you'll
be back down in no time.

Have a great Sunday.

Thanks Mugs (*love* your nick) and Suny! You're too sweet!! I don't have it all together, but your encouragement is incredibly motivating. It's so easy for me to give into thinking that 10 lbs isn't a big deal, and people tend to roll their eyes if I ever mention I'm trying to get rid of what I've put on in the last year, so I find it hard to stick to eating right, etc. But on my height and a very small frame, it makes a difference and I have less energy. So I truly appreciate the support - the community you've created here is positively awesome.

On Friday, I ended up with 2000 calories (oops) and a brisk 2hr walk.

Yesterday, I stuck to 1700 calories and three hours of pretty intense exercise - woohoo :mus:! Water remains an unknown (I should really keep better track of that).

No scale at my friend's apartment, that will have to wait until I'm home tomorrow night.

Total for last week was about 10500 kcal, not too bad, I think, considering that I was traveling. Theoretically, that's around 1,400 kcal less than what various calculators say I should eat to maintain current weight, so let's hope it results in 0.3 lbs gone for good...

Today, I'm hungry-ish, but not starving, so hoping the day will go well. I've already been for a 2hr walk, and hope to do another few hours of walking later this afternoon. I've eaten a big bagel with lots of cream cheese - 1/2 for breakfast and 1/2 for lunch, with a big cup of coffee and another one of decaf, plus an apple and an asian pear.

Sending some Sunday afternoon sunshine to your various corners of the globe,
puma


P.S. There's no internet where I'm staying for the weekend, but I'm able to access DT from my phone and a fabulous little coffee shop, which is great. I am looking forward to proper surfing and more time to read and learn from your journals!

Hey Puma, I used to be one of those people who would roll their eyes about someone "wanting to lose 10 lbs." Because at that time I wanted to lose 100, and it seemed like such a silly thing to get upset about -- just 10 lbs couldn't possibly matter. Part of that is because at my size then, 10 lbs DIDN'T matter in the sense that a change up or down by 10 lbs was invisible to me, my clothes, and everyone else; I didn't realize that on a small person, 10 lbs can be a lot. And also I was just jealous. Really really really jealous. LOL. Now I have 10 lbs to lose too, though, and I can totally understand why it IS an appreciable amount, it DOES take a lot of work (more than it took to lose my first ten pounds by like 1000 times over!!!) and it IS easy to feel a little like "I shouldn't talk about how I only have to lose 10 lbs, if someone else has to lose ten times that." Well I got over that and I think I was projecting my own insecurities onto other people.

So anyway what I'm trying to say is, don't worry if it's "only" 10 lbs, you are taken seriously all the same ;)

Way to go on the exercise, that is awesome!! I'm jealous! My exercise lately has been turning pages :(

Hey girl you know I have always said it is just as hard to lose
10 pounds as it is a 100 pounds because I have been on the end of each!
Don't worry about what other people say just eat what you want when your
around others and don't let them pressure you into eating something your
not comfortable with just because they are uncomfortable with your skinny self.

They are jealous or unhappy that they aren't skinny.
I have never told a friend who wanted to lose just a few pounds any words of
discouragement because I know how I felt carrying around that first extra
10 or 15 when I started to gain it makes a huge difference in how you feel.

So stay true to yourself and your goals and let all your other friends worry
about theirs because we can never please every single person around us
but we can at least work toward pleasing ourselves which is the most important
rule we can follow on this weight loss journey.

Have a great week!

Mugs, thanks for liking the previous title... I'd already asked to have it changed, and I must admit I find this one a bit boring, but c'est la vie - it's too late now! I'll just have to write more interesting things in the journal itself!

Naus, I just looked at your new picture, and you look AWESOME. I can't get over what you've accomplished, but I'll stop gushing and continue to admire in silence.

Suny, so true that we can't please everyone!

Brandy-filled chocolates and Puffins cereal (of all things) are working very hard against me this evening. I was on a plane for five hours without food, another 1.5 before I got home, and then of course I was so hungry I ate a huge meal. It started off ok: an apple, and orange, a lean piece of turkey breast with some zuchinni, carrots and red peppers, but then I did my late night snacking thing again and ended up with three cups of puffins and three brandy filled chocolates, none of which I needed *at all*

All in all:

Today's calories: 1960 :c(
Exercise: Only around 40 min walk around the airport, but I did have a heavy laptop bag with me...
Water: 2 L

Yesterday's calories: 1470
Exercise: 1 hr walk
Water: 2 L

The rest of my week is going to be busy with work, but I'm going to try and squeeze in lots of walking. I'm also going to look for a good pedometer. Mugs, thank you very much for the tips! If anyone else has used a pedometer, I'd love to hear the pros and cons of wearking one (do you find it motivating, has it been accurate, etc.?)

xoxox

Today's calories: 1960Yeah, me too, except my extraneous calories came from eating 4 soft-baked pepperidge farm oatmeal raisin cookies. They were good, but they were 130 calories each, that's what, 600 calories of cookies ??! I don't even like cookies!! *sigh*

I'm doing the big flight experience on Friday, wish me luck... I fly Boston to London, London to Athens, arrive Athens around 4am, and then my next flight (short 45 min hop) takes off about 3 hours later. So all in all, about 24 hours of airports, airplanes, and stress! But it's for a good cause because John is at the end of the rainbow, yay!

On the pedometer thing, well I used one for just about exactly one year, and I had a pretty cheap one, not the fancy Omron one that I think is pretty conspicuous. For me, it was very important not to be really visible. I found it remarkably accurate. I mean, I was blown away by how consistent that thing was. I found it EXTREMELY motivating. I stopped using it because the battery died around the time that I was getting most of my cardio on a rowing machine (which doesn't register on it), so it seemed a little irrelevant. But it taught me a lot about incorporating walking into my day. I still have a few of them and think about wearing one again. I am just so freaking vain anymore that the idea of something showing on my waistband turns me off.

That said, I would take one with me if I go hiking, no matter what, because the mileage is very useful for following hiking directions. Nothing except GPS can touch it!

I didn't have ANY negative experiences with my pedometer. If I ever felt it was conspicuous, I just popped it into my purse. The few times I left it over at John's house and forgot to take it with me, though, I was devastated! I got so attached to that little thing!

Okay I appear to be especially talkative tonight... thanks for the comment on my picture! I am enjoying the compliments now because I'm sure it will all be "OMG You're too thin!!!" as soon as John's mother sees me... ugh!!

Hey there!
I noticed about the pedometer...I wear an Omron one, except I put it into my pocket, the only time I wear it on my waistband is if I don't have pockets (which isn't often). So it doesn't show unless my pants are a bit snug. You can also carry it in your purse or bag, whatever works for you. I bought mine on Amazon.com, and it cost $20. I LOVE it. My battery did decide to die yesterday, but I have had it for quite a while, so I do feel a big naked without it on today. I will be buying a new battery today.
I had a cheap thing for a while, but it wasn't accurate at all. It would count steps when I wasn't walking, if I adjusted in my seat, whatever. So I think that the $20 was well worth it. Here's a link to the one I have, and they have another one for 30 that is able to link to your computer and you can upload the information.

Good luck the rest of the week, you'll do great!

Thanks for the pedometer advice, ladies!! You are so good at this, I'm actually getting excited about getting one. It'll probably have to wait until Friday after work, but better late then never!

Naus, those were my main worries, accuracy and how discrete it would be. Have a great trip over to Greece! I'm going to hop over to your journal and ask you a question there... (http://www.diettalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=767930&posted=1#post767930)

Melsa, thanks! I'll look for the Omron one. I know it's a great brand for medical devices. And I like the idea of uploading info.

I sort of wish these things were made by Apple or IKEA or another design-for-the-masses outfit, so that they were a bit more fun and sleek, as opposed to the practical-but-clunky look.

Ok, not sure how this happened, but, now that I finally have access to a scale again, my weight seems to be down by an entire pound!

Here is what yesterday looked like:
Weight: 118.5
Calories: 1760 -- man, I just can't seem to stay under 1600 on most days... also, I find I'm really hungry on the day that follows a "big calorie" day -- almost like I need two days to get back to "normal." I'm hopeful for today, though.
Water: 1.5 L -- maybe the lack of water is my problem?
Exercise: Just around 1.5 hrs of walking, 0.5 while commuting

This morning's weight: 118.5 (indicating stability? or a broken scale?)
The rest is still TBD, hoping for around 1500 kcal, and a few hours of walking

Oh, I also made a Google 15 graph! I'll post it once there's any discernible progress... At the moment, it's a flat line!

Whooo Hoo for being down a pound! That's so great. Just keep on eating healthy, exercising and get that pedometer & you'll be at goal asap. Have a great day.

Thanks, Suny, hope so... Unfortunately, today didn't go as planned, but I will get on track. I'll try looking for the pedometer tomorrow night.

Today:

Calories: 1860
Exercise: 1 hr walk
Water: 2L

It's been a looong day and tomorrow's a new one. I still know I haven't had a single out-of-control snacking session in over a week and I've only eaten when hungry, so I'm considering things a relative success - thanks to you guys!

Good Night!

I haven't had a single out-of-control snacking session in over a week and I've only eaten when hungry.

Pur that is a huge success be proud girl!
Hope today is a wonderful easy breezey day!

Hey Puma.......welcome to DT.....I know you'll love it here. Lots of good Friends to help you on your healthy eating and exercise journey. I've been here for like 6 yrs. and met some really good pals. I wish you much success and happiness on your journey. :cheers: Here's to Good Health and those 10 pounds being sent on their way.

Suny, you have a way on focusing on the positive. :up: It's awesome.

River, great to meet you, and you're right, I do love it here! It makes such a huge difference; and even more impressive than the serious expertise this place holds, it just has such a great vibe about it... I sat at work today thinking how much I look forward to logging on and seeing how everyone is doing!

Eating a lot yesterday must have registered with my body, because I wasn't that hungry today:

Brkfst: 1/3 cup oatmeal (with salt) and black coffee ~ 150 kcal
Lunch: big salad with spinach, 1/2 egg, 3 small cubes of feta, shredded carrots, corn, fresh mushrooms and balsamic vinegar ~ 250
Snack: apple, three small pieces of chocolate, coffee ~ 170
Dinner: Trader Joe's shrimp and veggie stirfry ~ 350
Snack: strawberry and lf yoghurt parfait ~ 200
Snack: a gigantic apple (seriously, 1/4 of the size of my head - I would like to see the branch on which this thing grew) ~ 180

Total: 1300 (yay!)
Exercise: 30 min walk (boo)
Water: 1 L

I did some research on pedometers, and it's between the Omron HJ-720ITC USB Pocket Pedometer (almost identical to what MelsaEstel recommended) and Yamax SW-200 Digiwalker Pedometer (http://walking.about.com/cs/prpedometer/gr/digiwalker200.htm), which only measures steps but is apparently small and very accurate.

What I haven't located is a store where I can get one, so I may have to order one from Amazon. I prefer to check things out in 3-D before buying them, so will pop into a few running stores on the way home from work and see if they carry either one...

Onwards and downwards! ;)

Hey Purple, you're doing well! A whole pound is terrific. I hope you find the pedometer soon - I love mine as clunky as it is. Keep on with the healthy snacks.

I have found that some things are just too tempting to keep around. I have actually thrown away chocolate! But I have some now and I'm learning to ration it.

Hang in there!
Hugs
Mugs

Thanks, Mugs :) And you've hit the nail on the head with the chocolate comment. In addition to the dried fruit, I'm unable to resist chocolate.

I don't think I can count on removing it from life -- it's everywhere! My boyfriend loves it, buys it and eats it regularly (he commutes by bike...), his mother sends copious amounts for every holiday, and I work in a place where someone ends up bringing coffee break catering leftovers to our common area (right by the printer/copier/water cooler) almost every day.

To top it off, my mother has passed on her weaknesses for chocolate and coffee (thankfully I can easily resist juice and alcohol).

Some days, I will have had lots of healthy food, and I'll be happily going about my day, totally satisfied. Then I'll see, say, a chocolate cake, and my brain will, in no uncertain terms, indicate not that I'm feeling just a little bit weak and nibly, but that I am in fact famished, and that my body is in major, existential, need of nothing other than chocolate cake.

These must sound like excuses to you guys, but I don't even know where to start with resisting these types of cravings. I've tried various substitutes, but I just end up having them before having chocolate.

Is it possible to go from this to looking at chocolate cake and feeling absolutely no desire to eat it? :-) (Without a lobotomy?)

I like to drink sugar free cocoa in my coffee. :) That's how I get my chocolate fix.

You're rocking it! Congrats!

Hey Pur-Pum I use to love brownies and then oneday my hubby brought a gourmet brownie home and said you have to try this it is heaven, I did and well I thought it was aweful! LOL Now I can't stand brownies. So miracles with chocolate do happen however I haven't had it happen with other chocolate demons yet! lol

Sugar & stress is satan that was my two biggest problems.

Hope you have a fantastic weekend and find your pedometer.

Hey Puma! thanks for visiting my journal and welcome to DT. I just read through your journal and wish you the best of luck.

You are doing great. Have you thought about trying this...Sticking to 1800 calories for two weeks and then cutting 100 calories out every two weeks until you are used to eating less? It just might help curb those cravings.

We all want instant results but since your goal is to lose 10 pounds (consider yourself one lucky lady), it might be best to take it slow and train your body to respond to food differently.

Just a thought!

Have a wonderful weekend :)

- Kuss

Yeah, the chocolate cake thing is hard - office food is one of my biggest problems. A couple of things have helped - one is that I only have so many calories to 'spend' and I just don't want to waste it on lower quality food - I try to get the very best, the gourmet, freshest, tastiest of whatever I eat.

Another thing I have done is really worked to remove processed foods from my eating plan - no convenience foods and even things like white flour, white sugar, and so on. I eat whole grain, organic where possible. I try to think in terms of refined and processed foods as some kind of poison or drug. I'm convinced that most of the food additives are actually drugs or drug like substances, because once you have some you actually crave more of them - one little taste and you're hooked! That's just good marketing after all, and I have a very low opinion of the ethics of that whole profession.

There is a detox approach that might help - you restrict yourself to only eating whole, organic foods for a couple of weeks. Brown rice, fruits, veggies, eggs, dairy, free range meats (the expensive ones) and nuts. Use only olive oil as your fat, and precious little of it, honey or other natural sweeteners, and hide the salt shakers. It's hell for a few days, but your body does adjust and your taste buds do too. After a couple of weeks you start to lose your taste for it and the cravings do go away.

I didn't go all the way, but I now live fairly close to this. I discovered that caffeine really affects me - I was cranky and impatient a lot, now I'm pretty relaxed and peaceful. I also discovered that sugar and starches make me sleepy and sweaty - I thought I was just having a lot of hot flashes, and maybe not getting enough sleep. I could only wear cotton or I would sweat like crazy. I would have trouble staying awake at my desk after lunch and would go get a coffee. I was even afraid I was becoming diabetic, but I did a test at home with my partner's glucose monitor and found I was OK.

So I've just basically decided that these foods are not good for me and that helps. Knowing that my body reacts that way is a good thing. I still have chocolate and I still want a piece of cake sometimes, but it's now sometimes. I can look at a tray of pastries at work and see nothing but white flour, cheap saturated fat and white sugar and it almost makes me gag! I'll admit to feeling morally superior sometimes, like "I'm above all that".

I do have a small stash of chocolate - the really dark nasty kind that's actually good for you - it's also organic and fair trade. It sits on the shelf above my computer at home and I indulge in a square or two a few days a week. If a craving hits at another time I'm working on saying "I'll wait until I get home and I can have the good stuff - I'm not going to waste calories on this cheap crap". It works a lot of the time, but I'm human and I fail sometimes too. Fortunately my body usually lets me know with sweat, sleepies or even the shakes if I over indulge, and that keeps me honest.

On the psychological front I figured it was my "inner child" that wanted these things - like a toddler having a temper tantrum. I had to remind myself that kids don't know what's good for them, and neither does my inner child. She wants sugar and candy and chocolate and french fries and all that. Well, if I was her mother I wouldn't let her have it every day would I? It wouldn't be good for her - she needs good nutritious food to grow up strong and healthy. And so do I. So when that little devil screams "I want a piece of cake" I mentally say "I know sweetie, but it's not good for you" and just ignore her and let her scream - that's what you do with a kid that's having a tantrum after all! It works - sometimes.

I don't know if any of this would work for you Puma - we all have to find our own way, but I'm making progress in a "two steps forward and one step back" kind of way!
Hugs
Mugs

Corinna, I love your name! Thanks for the tip – I'll try putting cocoa in different things... Coffee could be a possibility... never thought of that. Have you tried it in anything else? I'm considering adding it to yoghurt – another DTer suggested this. Chocolate + yoghurt is one of my fave combos (boyfriend thinks it's kooky).

Suny, hehehe, consider yourself lucky with that brownie experience! Oh, brownies... quick, must restrain thought.

Kussana, thanks for the advice and the warm welcome! I will try to find 100 kcal at a time here and there... I realize it's not much, and I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with it. Also, I realize I've cut out nuts, and I really miss them!! But they're so “expensive” in terms of calories!

Mugs, I occasionally think the same way you do about sugar and white flour, etc. I wonder what would happen if you went into a supermarket and magically extracted all the sugar from every single item in stock and put it in one pile in the parking lot. The pile would probably be huge! I've also cut out sugar before, and definitely noticed an increase in energy! I'm fine for a few days, and then I really crave something sweet, to the point of feeling unwell. (I guess I should really try to get over that hump, eh?) I'm sure it's my inner brat terrorizing my, ahem, responsible and restrained adult self. :-)

Yesterday:

Calories: 1963 (fruit, coffee, rice cakes, cheese, salad, yoghurt, cheerios, 3 egg whites + 1 yolk)
Exercise: 2.5 hour walk (Bringing net kcals to around 1500?)?
Water: 2 L

Weight: 119.0 lbs this morning, but on a brand new scale (accurate to 0.2 lbs)

On average, I've stayed within my theoretical daily calorie expenditure this week, so am not worried, but I hate to see the higher number. Google 15 also tells me today: “Danger! You're heading away from your goal.” Thank you, Captain Obvious. :D

The new scale came with a free pedometer! It seems like a cheap thing, but it's small, simple, and seems accurate - I tested it around the house. The scale didn't have a price on it, so the cashier at Target asked if $9.99 would be ok, which seemed fantastic! Have you seen the Ikea commercial when the wife gets out of the store with her purchase and starts yelling “Start the caaar! Start the caar!”??

I felt a bit like that after the $10 scale+pedometer find!

The same thing is being offered on Ebay (htp://cgi.ebay.com/Smart-Weigh-by-Taylor-Electronic-Scale-FREE-Pedometer_W0QQitemZ250226096115QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item250226096115).

The pedometer closely resembles this one (http://www.new-lifestyles.com/DIGIWALKER/FlashEnabled/sw200_more.html), but it's not branded – has absolutely no markings or indication where it was made.

A short walk today brought me to 3500 steps, so 10 000 seems more than doable, and we'll see if I can get to 20 000.

Whew, that was a long post! Thanks for reading, and hope you're out there having a fantastic weekend!

Have vision of you running away from the store screaming! lol Too funny.
I love that commerical.

Yes chocolate coffee is heaven! ahhhhh
Every one laughs at me because I sweeten my coffee with organic maple syrup or organic maple sugar. You can't taste the maple flavor at all and I don't use probably 1 teaspoon per cup and add a little organic vanilla silk soymilk. I have watched lots of shows were people do sweeten their coffee with organic maple syrup in California and Seattle but not alot here lol so I am considered weird! Weird is good actually. LOL

Sometimes I drop in a small organic dark chocolate and let in melt into my coffee add the maple syrup and it's heaven.

Suny, it does sound like heaven! I looked for dark chocolate chips at Trader Joe's today, but they were out... I'll walk over tomorrow to the one close to my work and see if I can get some. Hehehe, planning how to make my coffee more chocolatey doesn't instinctively seem like the best plan to lose 10 lbs, but if it helps fend off cravings, it'll definitely be worth it!

* * *

Feeling guilty... back up to 119 lbs this morning after eating the greasiest pizza *ever* for dinner last night (long story, didn't plan on it, but it ended up being the only option at the time, and I was hungry...).

But I did go for a great 2-hr hike along the Billy Goat Trail (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Goat_Trail) today, and I still have to clean the house before people show up for an easter dinner, so I'm hoping to make up for the extra 750 kcal or so from last night... ugh.

Of course, I came home starving and ended up at 1500 kcal by 3:30 pm, but at least I'm not hungry at all and will in I'm in my own house for dinner, so there are no excuses about what happens for the rest of today!

Pedometer steps today: 11 506 <-- disappointingly low, but definitely better than nothing!

Goals for this evening: drink min. 2L of water, and eat no more than 250 additional kcal

Happy Easter to those celebrating!

Her is a photo from my hike earlier today -- I thought the turtle was super cute, and sort of reminded me of trying to lose weight (feeling ...er... concave? and slow, crossing a pond of cold water, trying to make it to the other side...).

It inspired me to set my first goal: I'm going to work my way up to doing 50 pushups a day, no matter how (whether its two at a time, 100 times a day, or 25, twice a day). Hoping to reach this by April 10 - a randomly picked date. Apparently, lots of people do this (http://www.thatsfit.com/2007/11/21/daily-fit-tip-50-a-day-says-fitz/), so I have no excuse!

Happy Easter Purpum.
Remember from my journal Kussanna's statement about the scale moves
as slow as a turtle on xanax! LOL
I thought that was so funny.

I love hiking I did the push up thing too when I was losing before.
I heard that a person my age should be able to do between 45 and 50
rather fast so I tried it and past I was thrilled.
Now I would be lucky to make 25!!!

Great goal setting and good luck tomorrow finding healthy chocolate. :)

That turtle is really cute!! I have a soft spot for turtles, John gave me a stuffed one last year and I love him! I took him to the US for a few months last year, then brought him back and left him in Greece when I left (I took our penguin instead), now we are all reunited but when I leave again in a few days the stuffed octopus is coming home with me :) (They all wanted to see America.)

On behalf of my folks who named me.. Thank you! ;) When I said cocoa.. I kinda embellished. I put carnation hot chocolate. Still sugar free, but less healthy. ;)

Corinna

Kussanna's statement about the scale moves as slow as a turtle on xanax! LOL

LOL, I thought that was hilarious too, Suny! I almost forgot about it but it must have been what made me stop and take the photo!

Thanks for the encouragement, ladies! Work is super busy this week, but I'm doing fine, turtling along. I really feel like I've stopped with the gain, now it's on to actually starting to lose.

This morning's weight was both 118.5 and 119.0 -- perhaps $10 for a scale and pedometer should have been a sign... Calories were 1600 for yesterday, which is pretty good for now. I drank around 3L of water, and did 20 pushups.

Naus, good to see you're an equal opportunity caregiver. Too funny about all the animals wanting to see America!!

Corinna, coronation chocolate counts, as far as I'm concerned! :)

I also love Chocolate. COme on, we are women! haha!
There is a recipe here in the recipe forum for a chocolate torte. It's cocoa powder, flour, egg substitute, sugar (I used splenda), and a couple other things, so it's pretty darn low cal. Then instead of frosting, it calls for cool whip (I used the Free whip), and a packet of sugar free/fat free instant pudding mix. It's really good, especially heated up for a few seconds. It's a very dense cake, more brownie like than cake. But it sure hits the spot!

I also have a weakness for chocolate candies, like Andes mints, or mini hershey bars. I can't chew them, or they are gone too quick. So I suck on them, let them melt in my mouth, and they last a whole heck of a lot longer. I put the bag of candies somewhere, then just grab a couple pieces for when I am going to eat, that way once they are gone, they are away from me and I can't just reach in the bag and grab more.

Question...if your new scale is accurate to 0.2 lbs, how are you getting 118.5?
You should be proud of 11000 steps in a day! I am happy when I get 3000:) But my job is sitting behind a desk all day long, so it's tough for me to get a lot of walking in, unless I do nothing but walk when I get home!

Keep up the great work!

Hello Purplepuma just checking in to see how your week is going.
Hope work slows down for you or if your like me you like being busy at work.
I use to hate slow days when I worked.
Have a great hump day!

I wish I was allergic to chocolate.. but I would probably find something else to overindulge in.

Have fun scale shopping. :)

Hi!

Melsa, the chocolate torte sounds heavenly... I'll definitely look for the recipe. I still haven't found good chocolate chips, but I did buy a bar of 74% cocoa chocolate for experimenting with coffee. And good catch!! I wrote 118.5 and 119.0 because the scale said 118.4, 118.6 and 119.0 within a span of 10 minutes, and without my doing anything that could change the weight in those 10 minutes.

I think I'm PMS-ing! :help: I had an uncontrollable appetite yesterday and today; I'm still staying under 2000 kcal and trying to walk lots, but am a bit worried it'll throw me off. :( This is a time where I just have no self-control; on the positive, after the period is gone is the week where I usually have no appetite, so hopefully I can capitalize on that this time around!

Suny, work has been busy, and I do prefer it that way, but lately it's been too much. I know this is a crazy question, but do you ever miss work?

Corinna, is that banana riding a llama?? Just had to ask! :D

PMS causes that "bottomless pit" feeling, I get that EVERY month without fail! But interestingly, I almost always seem to lose weight when it's all over and done with. Even though I always eat more. Some people say that TOM burns calories, because the body does extra stuff, I don't know if that's true. I did read that donating blood counts as 600 calories of exercise though, for what that's worth.

Yes I miss work and I am looking into going back! I don't have kids so I am alone every day unless I go some where and most friends work and all of them have kids so I don't have anything in common with any of them at all.

I love to shop but they like shopping different places than me for clothes etc.
I love the health food stores and whole food markets and they like wal-mart I hate it there. lol So I miss the interaction of helping people. I know most people think I am crazy for wanting to go back to work most women would like my life but I am not them.

Hope the crazy work slows down a bit for you. Have a great thursday and may the pms leave you alone tomorrow as well.

Thanks, Naus, good to know!!

Suny, what did you use to do? I think I would miss work too!

OMG! The horribel banner ad Melsa (I think?) was talking about is right above this text form! It's for www.losesomedamnweight.com -- how offensive is that!!?? Don't visit the URL, I just wanted to record what it was for... Any chance we could get this off the community? Seeing "Hey Fatty" on my screen is not exactly inspiring...

I use to work in management and then a law firm, hated the firm! lol
Loved management I was really good at it and even still the people who worked for me will tell me your the best boss I've ever had and some were in their late 50's and 60's so they had worked with a lot of people. I had great employees and I miss them. Even the really young ones didn't want me to leave they were very sweet to me always. I managed a clothing store and then was hired away to manage an accounting office for a manufacturing company and oversee their chain of clothing stores in the states loved it. I dealt with YSL and other couture designer clothing dream job for sure.

What do you do?

Hope you have a happy skinny weekend!

Suny, you do sound like you would be the best boss ever!! I've had mostly good luck with managers (and enough bad experience to know how lucky I've been at other times!!). Great managers are like great teachers for the rest of our lives... Except, they don't tend to get nearly as much credit as they deserve. Your industry sounds like fun - I worked in a Banana Republic during college and found it interesting from an anthropological point of view: there were so many colourful characters, both working and shopping in the store, there was never a dull moment!

I work on telecom and internet regulation, mostly doing a lot of research and writing. I find it terribly exciting and fascinating, but I know it sounds incredibly boring to most people. :)

***

If I don't come back for a few days, it's because PMS has kidnapped me. (My period won't start, so I'm caught in this terrible limbo!) I'm not stepping onto the scale until this is over, I just can't take it!

In case anyone feels like reading a medical explanation, see: http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/12/6/1142.pdf

The bottom line is: I'm eating more to compensate for low serotonin levels, but my body isn't necessarily burning much more calories than it would normally... Seems particularly bad this month, so I'm expecting a gain. :( :( :( I'm considering looking for appetite supressants, though I'm really not into pills.

Hi sweetie feel better! Don't stay away just because your not losing it really does help to stay on and talk about the ickies than to not and just keep eating. Some times venting on here helps because we ALL have been there at one time or another. Hope you feel better tomorrow.

Your job in telecom and internet regulation does sound interesting. It's great that you enjoy what you do so many hate their jobs so that's wonderful. I love hearing what other people do and how they find it inspiring and interesting.

Get some rest and don't let that pms monster get ya!

Awh, how could I leave after that!? Thanks, Suny, you really lifted my spirits! :lily:

If I keep on gabbing, and away from snacking, can I stay off the scale for a few days anyway?

I'm having a good day today, thought I should be drinking more water. Off to make some apple tea... Have a lovely evening!

Just merely returning the uplifting favor! Your apple tea sounds good! Have a great day and I hope this finds you feeling much better and feeling much more in control. :D

Hello journal and world, and apologies for hiding. I'm almost back to normal: my appetite has settled down (I swear this was the worst PMS ever in terms of how hungry I was), but my weight is still UP at.... gasp.... 121.6. I'm pretty sure this is not fat, since much of it is in my chest, where I do not normally have anything worth mentioning. So I'm hoping that I'll be down to 120 by tomorrow and 119 the next day, as I lose all the water. But I don't think I've made any progress on my 10 lbs goal.

On the upside, I've been eating my regular stuff, but have been able to stay off the dried fruit for the most part and I fully credit you DT friends for that.

So, here's a look at what I eat and how much I move, for my own sake more than anything. Feel free to skip over this entry, it won't be the most interesting!

Usually, my breakfasts consist of some sort of whole wheat bread and cream cheese with black coffee; lunches are salads, soups or cheese- and sauce-free sandwiches (I'm a fan of Subway's veggie delite with honey mustard, which is under $3!); dinners are something cooked quickly, like a low fat stirfry or pasta, or more soup, or cassarole... I snack on fruit, veggies and chocolate. On bad days, I get into cereal and dried fruit and can't find my way out. :) And occasionally, I can't resist a glass or two of wine, which I find are *really* hard to make room for in my calorie goal total. On good days, I eat very light breakfast and lunch, walk or hike for hours, and have a nice dinner. I try to do pilates twice a week and walk for an hour at lunch every day, but all this has been very sporradic over the past three or four weeks. I have been wearing my pedometer, hitting 9000-10000 steps just by going to work and back with a short walk to the coffee shop in the afternoon, and I've been doing about 50 pushups every other day. (It was so much easier to work up to this than I thought! I do have a light upper body and figure that has something to do with it.) I've been averaging at 1800 calories.

I find it really difficult to get under 1600 - I'm too hungry to think properly at work, or too hungry to fall asleep at night. My hunch is that I wait too long to eat and then have too much, but I can't constantly snack either!! So, I feel like I'm sort of at square one, but I know the week starting on Sunday is going to be a good one, because "Tom" will be gone for good (or at least a month), and I will feel like I have a bit more control over my food intake.

Have a great weekend, everyone! (I'm off to New York City with the boy - very excited! :beam: Perhaps all the city walking will help!)

Have fun in the city! :D

Have fun in NYC! :)

Hope your having sooooooooo much fun in the city! Miss ya. :)

Thanks Suny and Corinna!!

Had a GREAT weekend in NYC with boyfriend and four other friends who live there. It was windy, but we walked up and down from Battery Park all the way to Upper West Side and across Central Park to the museums, and back down... for a whopping 27000 steps on Saturday and 18000 on Sunday, not including walking to go out for dinner and drinks!

net calories were:
Sunday: 2000 with at least 5 hours of walking, for a net value around 1200
Sunday: 2150 with at least 4 hours of walking, for a net value of around 1450
Monday: 1600 (actual)
Today: 1500 (actual)

I'm *really* hoping for a return to 118.5 this week; am back to 119.4 after TOM, which I actually consider a success given how ridiculous it was this month.

Still doing 30-50 pushups a day, but getting bored of them quickly. I'm going to walk for an hour at lunch and another hour after work tomorrow.

Yay, 119.0 this am!


I'm working on specific goals and will post those later tonight.

Yay congrats on 119 this morning! You said you get bored with the same workouts I don't do the same workouts ever. I do a different one every day with the exception of cardio days mostly I do walking on the treadmill but some times I do workout tapes for cardio days.

Try to mix it up and maybe that will help you too. Also a trainer told me that you need to work a different muscle group each day and never the same group two days in a row because our bodies need time to recover and actually build muscles so I know it works for me I don't know if my workout will help you or not. I relate to the getting bored so I thought I would share.

I do bfl so m-w-f are strength training and t-t-s is cardio days and sundays are rest days.

Have a great week and I know all that walking in the city is going to pay off with a loss again tomorrow!

Suny, thank you so much!! The support means a huge amount to me, not to mention the tips. I'll try alternating muscle groups... It just seems like it involves more planning than I do. I need a new spreadsheet. :)

I'm actually considering changing my contract to a consulting one so that I can have more control over the amount of time I have to spend in the office. I used to work from home about 50% of the time, and because I didn't have to commute, it left me with almost two hours a day, three times a week, to be active one way or another. I feel like I need to reclaim that!!

This week had been going great. I was even at 118.0 (!) yesterday morning, and my calories were under control all week... until last night, when I went to a wine tasting and my calorie goal went out the window -- I caved into the snacks, not the wine. I'm still sitting at potentially a loss of 1000 kcal this week if I manage to keep today and tomorrow under 1400, but I weighed 120 this morning, which freaked me out. Hoping some of it is sodium+water.

I do feel like I can get right back on the wagon as of this minute... But I really need to keep it together for two weeks in a row to see a difference!

Hi ya I am sure it is probably the sodium thing tomorrow you'll wake up all skinny again.
Hope you have a fab weekend.

Don't worry sweetie! You will get that extra water weight off as soon as your body gets adjusted to the healthy stuff again! :D (Not that you don't eat healthy, but you know what I mean lol SNACKS :D)

THANKS, Suny and Naus! You were right, and I'm ecstatic to see 118 this morning. That means it's taken me a month to drop 1.5 lbs, but it's been worth it! I'm shifting into second gear this week with more walking and being active and less snacking. I also have to dedicate more time to actually planning meals and exercise, and to setting real goals.

Congrats on being back down to 118! Fab! I know you can and will reach your goal just keep on focusing on your daily goals and the weight will be off in no time.
Have a great week.

Still sticking to ~118, hoping to dip at least once below 118 by the end of the week, but it'll be tough! I have more travel coming up - Thursday to Sunday, with a big business dinner on Thursday, so it'll be a challenge to plan for that day. But, I will do it!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous: sunny and not too hot or cold, with highs of 16-17 C, or in the 60s F.

Today: 1550 calories, 1hr walk, 118.2 lbs

Hoping to see that dip for ya as well! You can do it! Go 117!

Thank you, Suny! :)

Yesterday I weighed in at 117 and this morning at 116!!!

I'm traveling again and using a different scale, but I'm not giving up these numbers. :D

My total (net) calorie count for the week was about 9400, which is around 2000kcal less than what I figure I need per week to maintain my current weight, so I do feel like I've done well. The real test will come on Monday morning when I have to step onto my own scale again. I'm going to try to be very good tomorrow to make sure I get another 117.

I'm also planning to go on a hike with a friend I haven't seen in three years tomorrow. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous the past few days and should stay sunny and warm tomorrow too, so I'm excited.

Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend!

Oh I am so super proud for you to see 116 that's wonderful!
Hope it stays the same for tomorrow mornings weigh-in as well.
Your doing excellent now change those stats girl your dropping weight! lol
Have a great week.

AWESOME!!! 116, what a number, huh? LOL Never in my lifetime :laugh: Anyway your hard work is paying off and you are doing fantastic!!! Traveling again are you? You sound like a girl after my own heart :)

Suny, thanks -- I couldn't change my weight until I saw it on my own scale! It sort of concurs - 117.2!

Naus, seeing 116 was pretty great. And yes, I love to travel, and do get to do it for work quite a bit (next dates: May 3-5, May 19-23, June ~6-9) but am a total wimp when it comes to turbulence. Perhaps the stress burns calories, though? :D

I realized that I only ate when I was hungry all of last week, which is a major accomplishment. It was *very* difficult to decide not to eat when it was socially "unacceptable" to do so. For example, I was out with a friend on Friday, and we went for a walk, dinner, another little walk and then dessert. She wanted to order appetizers and dinner and have wine, I only wanted a small light dinner and some water. It made me feel uncomfortable to let her know I was watching calories because we hadn't seen each other in years -- during which many things happened in both her life and mine -- and it seemed like I would be spoiling the celebratory mood. And from prior experience, I knew that if I did order an appetizer *and* dinner *and* wine, I would end up having much more than a few bites and sips of each... So I ended up saying I didn't feel quite right and ordering a soup. For dessert, we both got teas and she ordered a home made tiramisu, which she kept offering to share. I had a few bites (it was excellent!), but I didn't actually want or need them... Anyway, I'm rambling but my point is that weight loss has a social dimension I never really thought about before in this much detail. :)

OOps, I better get to work! Have a great Monday, DT.

Congrats girl on sticking to the soup! Well done! I thought your response was great by weighing your options and working it out in your head ok what will she think of me. I don't think it spoils the celebratory mood at all to not give in if you don't want the extra calories that day after all it is about seeing each other not eating with each other. In the south we celebrate with food for every situation under the sun so I really related to your post. Great job keep it up.

Thanks, Suny! With southern cooking, I imagine the temptation is ever-present!

Did you find any good shoes yet??

Funny you mentioned southern food I don't like southern food! lol Don't tell the other southerners lol they will turn on me. Southern food doesn't really bother me but we do celebrate with food here alot even when someone dies there is tons of food, someone is sick food, marriage food, fourth of july food, oh wait it's thursday lol food!

I have tried on some shoes but I haven't purchased any yet my hubby says I am picky and I should have gone and tried them on long before I reached my goal of 10 pounds down, so funny he is. I guess I am a little picky I like trying on alot where most people in the stores we were in chose the shoes based only on how they looked on the wall, lol.

Hope your having a great day and can't wait to see your ticker go down some more your doing so wonderful!!!

Hey Poom-Poom! How's it going? Are you traveling again? :)

Pu Pu Ma! Hope all is ok with you this week. Have a great one! :)

Hi guys! Thanks for checking up on me. All is well, but I was fearing this would be a risky week -- my bf's parents are visiting (Wed to Wed) and they've taken over the kitchen!!! I can't access my low fat yoghurt, and my vine-ripened tomatoes have been replaced with the pasty/pinkish/tasteless variety. Otherwise they're perfectly nice people. :)

Thankfully, we've been out and about every evening and all day on Sat and Sunday, so I've been able to manage my foods that way - ordering salads and small portions and drinking lots of herbal tea. I did go out for a girls-only brunch at Le Pain Quotidien (http://www.lepainquotidien.com/) on Sunday as a break from the "in-laws" and managed to find decent stuff even there (egg-whites omelette with tomatos and avocado, with a side salad... and I gave into a tablespoon of this amazing hazelnut spread called Brunette). So, life is good!

I'm traveling again from Saturday night until Tuesday, and Sunday I'm going over to a friend's house for dinner. She's had her second kid since I last saw her, so I've offered to bring dinner - makes it easier for her but my real intention is CONTROL. ;) You understand, right? :-)

New low this morning - 116.6 - I'm thrilled. I've discovered Luna bars as a great snack, hope I don't get bored of them. I promise to post some of my menus when I get a bit more time to myself -- likely on Friday.

A neighbour left me a copy of the Spring 2008 Cook's Illustrated Light Recipes edition - it seems to have low cal recipes for all kinds of goodies, including guacamole (70 kcal per 1/4 cup), mac and cheese, lasagna, risotto, fried fish (!! haven't thoroughly checked this one - am skeptical), alfredo sauce, etc. It also has an article called "Leafy Salads 101" that promises "good salads every time." If you're interested in any of the above, let me know and I'll post the recipes/tips.

... off to work:beam:

Have a fabulous day!

:koala: Way to go on the new low!! Yay!! That restaurant looks fun, it looks like they have a lot of them but I've never heard of it. I hope you enjoy it, yummy fresh bread is such a delectable treat! (Sorry if I just made up a word... that is a word, right? Haha)

If Brunette is anything like Nutella, it's on my DO NOT BUY list. (Like the government's DO NOT CALL list -- I am NOT allowed to purchase Nutella and a few other things because I can't be trusted.) I actually regained 17 lbs at Christmas 06 mostly due to Nutella. That stuff is like crack. It is so delicious. It makes my knees weak just thinking about it :laugh:.

Low-calorie fried fish? Huh? That's a new one... I wonder how they achieve that. I grew up on fried fish and that stuff makes up a large part of my favorite summertime memories... hanging out on the beach in Greece eating fried red mullet (the fish, not the hairstyle) and fried calamari and fried sardines... yum!

Have a lovely day! Don't let the in-laws drive you crazy!

Thanks, Naus! Yes, Le Pain Quotidien is great, but they are new on this continent. It's originally a chain from Brussels. Brunette is exactly like Nutella but without the chocolate. It was hard to resist having more than a spoonfull -- I would never bring it home! The DO NOT BUY list is a great idea. In fact, I think the government should do something along these lines!

:D fried red mullet haircut! that's a lovely mental image. . . I will try to look into it more closely on Friday and report back if it seems like something worth trying.

I knew I would jynx things the minute I reported success in dining with the in-laws. We went to a mexican place tonight, and I had 10-15 tortilla chips with a few tablespoons of salsa, a chicken-tortilla soup (lots of chunky veggies) and a little pot of beans. Everything tasted terrible... and it didn't fill me up at all... So when I got home, I had 3/4 of a bowl of Puffins cereal and some chocolate chips... Altogether, ~600 kcals for dinner, ~200 for the cereal and chocolate... Making me around 500 kcals over my 1600 limit, and 800 over my goal of 1300 for the day.

Argh... but tomorrow is a new day.

What follows is an off-topic rant: Has anyone ever looked at the calorie counts for the Cheesecake Factory? Did you know that a single slice of carrot cake there packs 1600 kcals!??? That should be illegal. The lowest cal dessert is "classic cheesecake" for a mere 500 kcal. And the lowest dish is one of their weight management salads, each "under 600." I think there should be a policy that mandates each restaurant to have 1-3 reasonably sized meals that come under 400 kcals. It really should not be that difficult!

Suny, how's life in your neck of the woods?

Good morning! I am paying for the big dinner with 117.6 this morning. Oh well, it is a lovely, sunny day out there, full of possibilities (and ways to ignore them, which is my goal ;).

The in-laws are gone. :dn The place feels huge without them! It's been a week since I've done my morning push-ups, and I'm actually looking forward to doing them this morning. Must say I didn't believe DTers completely about exercise being addictive... but, as always, you were right.

Wow 116 don't worry you'll see 116 again tomorrow I promise!
You are doing so great!!! Yes I understand the control of taking food to a friends house, good job.

I cook fried fish in the oven you coat it and spray a cookie sheet with olive oil then lightly spray the fish cook it half the time needed to be done then flip it and cook the rest of the the time in the oven. I have cooked southern fish like that for everyone in my family and they love it. It gets just as crispy as fried. Hubby and I don't eat southern foods but we some times have to cook for family members I got sick last time when I cooked fish for others and swore I will not do it again. The fish even looks like it has been fried with the cornmeal batter on it. Oprah's old personal chef Rosie wrote a cookbook with a baked "fried" fish in it I think.

I love several on-line recipe sites like vegweb and fat free vegan.

Have a great week traveling.

Suny, that's exactly what the Cooks Illustrated recipe calls for! Thanks for the links -- both sites look really great!

I'm possessed by PMS again. :) Not even trying to fight it today... maybe tomorrow. :)

Your not possessed alone I am there with ya! LOL :D

Sorry to hear, Suny! We'll get through it, one way or another!! Do you find that drinking water helps? Any potential strategy would be most appreciated.

The scale is being kind to me today -- I ate way too much last night (and enjoyed it thoroughly :D), and am still at 117.6 this morning. That's not progress, but I was surprised not to have a gain after yesterday.

Hang in there chica!!! PMS sucks but you do get to eat more calories and you won't gain. Maybe about 200-300 extra per day. It will be over soon and you can be back to normal. I checked and PMS is stalking me. I should be "enjoying" it shortly. Yay.

Oh yea another member in our pms party!!! Welcome Naus :D

I don't have water gain very much or cravings except usually one day of I want chocolate or someones head. I do have moods though, lol!

Feel better sweetie I will tell you I soak in a bubble bath with epsom salts.
It relieves bloating. :)

Ohh, the epsom salts sound heavenly, Suny. What a great idea. Glad the PMS carb cravings don't pay you a visit too often!

Must run to the aiport, hope to write more once i land, or I'll try from my phone while I'm waiting. I'm staying at a discount hotel this time, and trying to figure out what to do about a scale. Thankfully, I'm only gone until Tuesday night, so no big deal either way. The real problem is that I'll be in meetings all of Monday (like 7:30 am to 8:00 pm) and most of Tuesday, until I get on the plane back, and that the meetings are catered - breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner, reception... I doubt any of it will be healthy either, but I"ll try to stick to my usual routine. I'm going to try to find a grocery store nearby tomorrow, and stock up on some yoghurt, whole wh. bread, etc. I find those two really help me. And I'm spending tomorrow visiting friends I haven't seen in a while who have babies and/or toddlers, so maybe those visits will include something mildly active, and not just sitting and eating.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

In my experience, catering usually includes fruit (melon, grapes, strawberries, and pineapple being the most common) and you can usually get some sort of vegetable. Also a lot of times stuff like sliced turkey is available. It is tough though, I sympathize. I've been in those kinds of situations many many times. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just have a supply of cereal bars in your purse, and do your best with what's available.

Don't stress about the scale... just promise me you won't jump onto it the moment you get home after eating and drinking and traveling all day!

Ok - I promise, Naus. :-) Flight was delayed, making my connection impossible to catch, so they rebooked me for tomorrow morning. Having read your post from my phone, I stopped by the store to get Luna bars (new addition) for emergencies on the way back from the airport. They were a good deal - $4.49 for 6, i.e. $0.75 ea. I really like the nuts&chocolate one - it tastes vaguely like a snickers (but better - not loaded with sugar) and it has 10g protein for 180 kcal. And you're right, I'm sure there will be *something* healthy among all the meeting food.

As a bonus, I got to spend a lovely "extra" evening with the bf -- he made dough and then we made pizzas (mine with veggies, chicken and tomato sauce, his with who knows what under a big pile of cheese... ugh).

Also had some Breyers All Natural Vanilla Fudge Twirl ice cream - it's pretty good and only 130 kcal for 1/2 cup; reasonable, considering that Haagen Dazs and the like get up to 300 kcal for 1/2 cup!

My PMS is apparently taking the weekend off... :D

Suny, cograts on such a great week! How do you find the BFL program? It seems *so* demanding.

Yay for an extra night with BF!! I made amazing pizza today for lunch! I think pizza is a perfect PMS food. That's great that your PMS is gone -- I hope mine is gone by tomorrow, it's driving me craaaaazy!!!

Hi Pum! Hope you have a safe and happy trip.

I actually find it easy I don't follow the eating just the workout. I strength train every other day and cardio every other day. Take Sundays off. I do most of the workouts with free weights. I don't use the machines I mean it is the same exercise just without the big equipment. I have leg weights I use too. I like doing a different workout each day so that keeps me from getting bored.

Try and have some fun even though I know your there working. :)

Suny, you make it sound easy, but I know it's a lot of hard work! If you're enjoying it, and it sounds like you are, that's fantastic. Are your leg weights the wraparound kind? I'm not a big fan of the weight machines either, they seem so odd...

Trip is going well; a little high on calories today. I'll try to be really good tomorrow. PMS is apparently taking an extended holiday this month; hope it stays away!

Greetings from the airport! I made it with the following results:

Sunday - 1600

Breakfast - 400
Lunch - 600
Dinner - 600
1 hr walk

Monday - 1800

Breakfast - 150 (fruit, 1/2 mini-bagel with cream cheese, coffee with cream)
Lunch - 500 (Veggie Roti)
Snack - 250 (two pieces of fruit - 160, 4 choc. pretzels - 90)
Dinner - 900 (Indian... so that's an estimate... I had two smallish and thoughtful helpings, included a samosa, a bit of curried chickpeas, yoghurt, some baked chicken, etc. etc.)

Tuesday - 1395

Breakfast - 180 (Luna Nutz over chocolate)
Coffees - 100
Veg WhWh Sandwich - 250
Donut - 250 (I know, I know)
Small apple - 50
Soy Burger - 200 (1/2 bun, patty is 70 kcal)
Ketchup 45
Fries - 250

Didn't get a chance to weigh myself; given how little I've been able to move, I'm expecting a small gain... But one that will hopefully go away by the end of the week.

TOM is almost here, I just know it. Thankfully, and miraculously, PMS is still at bay!

Yikes, I better get over to my gate... Hope everyone's having a nice and relaxing evening, ideally with a glass of wine or bubbly or hot chocolate or herbal tea, or other bevvy of your choice! :)

Glad you've had a nice trip so far. Sending wishes for a good flight home.

Yes my leg weights are the wrap around kind and you can add more or less to them.
They work just fine and I can do all the machine exercises with them.
I am not brave enough at this weight to go to the gym and workout yet.
Most of the gyms here have those guys who are all firm, fit and muscluar in them and I don't feel comfortable working out in front of them.

Hoping you won't see a gain upon your return home! :)

Suny, hi! What have you been up to?

I don't feel comfortable at the gym either -- it's guys *and* girls in very skimpy clothing, checking each other out more than working out... Sometimes I think the heavy breathing is not related to the exercising they're doing... ugh.

We have a gym at work which is great and full of people all ages and sizes, but I haven't been able to figure out the logistics of working out during work hours. Taking off 1.5 hours is just not an option, and cramming a suit into a locker rarely works well... I could start doing it in the summer when it becomes acceptable to wear polyester dresses to work (which I hate, but now realize why everyone in this city wears them).

What I do from time to time is go to the meat-market gym near my house and "hide" on an elliptical that's not in plain view of most areas. It's still not the most enjoyable experience, so I totally understand sticking with doing weights at home.

I'm back at 116.6 this morning and *thrilled* about that, especially since I'm about to start TOM in a few days. To be fair, I've had *no* water gain and no PMS this month. I know 3lbs in 2 months is not the most impressive record on DT, but I'm happy with it. I find this level of caloric intake keeps me happy and comfortable, and I can incorporate the walking, etc. into my life easily. I'm going to try for 2 lbs between now and June 1 by slightly increasing exercise and taking away another 70-80 kcal a day (500/week).

Your rate of weight loss is measured in % lost not in lbs lost and I'd say you are doing pretty darn awesome!

I was a member of two gyms last year, one in downtown Athens and one in a small town where John and I live. Both were women-only, but in the Athens gym there were those super-fit girls who work out in sports bras and the spandex shorts that literally don't cover your whole butt, you know the kind I mean? They are really intimidating and I never talked to them. One in particular, we called "gym princess" because she was SO perfect and fit but also kind of b**chy -- well one day I was next to her and I noticed (since she was practically naked anyway haha) that she had more stretch marks than I do -- and in places like her hips, thighs, and arms -- so not just stomach which could be explained by pregnancy. Now I have no way of knowing this, but it totally changed the way I looked at her -- suddenly I realized that she could have been fat like me, and worked really really hard to look like that, and maybe instead of feeling intimidated by her, I should feel inspired by her? But it's not easy, because of the sports bra and short shorts. I used to say to myself "some day I will be fit enough that I will be able to work out in my sports bra and not feel self-conscious" but I'm not sure that day will ever come.

At the gym in our little town, it was totally the opposite. There were a few super-fit girls but they were so sweet and humble and not at all b**chy -- they didn't make you feel like you were invading their territory if you were on a machine they wanted to use. I love the small-town feel. Everyone is so nice and supportive. The only wrinkle was when they hired a new trainer, who wasn't a real trainer, just a really really fit (insanely fit) girl who worked out all the time. At first some of us were kind of "who does she think she is??" but she grew on me. I used to call her "the butterfly" because of the way she flitted around but by the end of the summer we were going to the pool together.

My opinion of DC in summer is, as I have shared with you before, a total nightmare. The humidity is the only thing keeping you from spontaneously combusting. The heat is the only thing keeping you from drowning in the humidity. It's a win-win combination! I recommend linen and running through sprinklers (or fire hydrants -- it's the local sport).

Puma your losing great I agree with Naus! Given your starting weight and all it is harder for you to lose as fast as someone with a higher weight. Most people don't believe it but the fatter someone is according to the science & doctors they say the easier it is to lose so pat yourself on the back and say congrats girl I have done great!

Your going to reach that goal soon don't worry.

Have a blessed day tomorrow!
Oh I am down a bit more today I was thrilled too!

Thanks for the constant encouragement, ladies, what would I do without you??

Naus, Gym Princess describes the personality type so well! :) But you're right, we shouldn't stereotype. I actually have major stretch marks and cellulite even though I was never pregnant or very heavy -- no idea where they came from (theories include growing, caffeine, 10lb gain, genes....) There are so many worse things in the world, I don't really spend too much time thinking about it.

Suny, so great to hear you've been having more good days.

Well, PMS didn't really hit until last night, when it sat me down and explained I needed around 1200 kcal after a good, 500 kcal dinner. The snack mostly consisted of Puffins cereal (http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prmenbr=587770&prrfnbr=892330&pcgrfnbr=881894&shop=1) and Trader Joe's chocolate chips. TOM came promptly early this morning. I don't think I've retained any water this time around, but am still two whole lbs up, whether thanks to last night's insanity or something else, I'm not sure. I figure I should be back to having a normal appetite and weight by Sunday.

In the meantime, I may spend time mapping out sprinklers and fire hydrants to run through en route to work June-September!

Have a fun weekend there girl and great bod~a~tude attitude!

p.s. we all fret but I was watching the movie somethings gotta give and when that young girl hops up on the bed on top of jack nickelson I had to pause it to go to the little girls room anyways when I got back I was shocked when she is bent over him she had dimples on the back of her legs too! Hollywood is such a lie! LOL I love that you don't worry about little things like that I am trying to love me where I am and love me when I reach my goal too. I am sure you look wonderful but I love your attitude!
Don't let uncle tom get ya!

Hahaha, thanks for the mental image, Suny! If I ever see that movie again, I may have to pause it too! Hollywood is a total lie. The truth is in (a little bit of) chocolate. ;)

Ok, so I haven't had the best three days... Willpower went out the window, and I almost didn't stop in here tonight, relying on that age-old strategy of ignoring problems until they go away. I made a huge mistake in buying dried cranberries the other day at Trader Joe's -- ate way too many, and then proceeded to settle into evening snack land. The dried fruit, cereals and chocolate chips get me every time I go near them...

I don't think I ate enough to gain much back, but I have to get back on track before I do. At least I no longer have the TOM excuse - it's over!

(Naus, hope your monthly hormone rollercoaster has settled down too...?)

Life feels a bit messy at the moment - I'm trying to figure out how to transition out of my current job into another one (sometime between now and next march) and possibly apply for a PhD starting September 2009. There's also an issue with my tax return, so it seems that I have to re-do it, with an accountant. The car clutch is sticky, so must have that checked out, along with re-registering it over the next month... etc. A million little things, but they do add up.

Haven't had time this weekend to try the kale chips or any of the other yummy DT foods I've been meaning to try. I'm going to take a bit of time tomorrow at work to make a giant to-do list, prioritize and see if I can get life back in order.

Kale chips will happen, if nothing else does! :)

Was the entire continent as rainy as DC was this weekend? It certainly seemed like there was enough water to go around...

Rain rain go away! Yes I am afraid the south sent it your way. We had tornadoes terrible storms and huge rains. Trees blocked our roads out and homes destroyed we were blessed to not have any damage this time. I feel so badly for those who lost everything and one little town in Arkansas lost 11 people. So sad.

Did you hear about the earthquake killing 9,000 in china? Super scary as well and that hurricane that hit in asia I think it was that killed upwards they fear of 100,000. The weather is horrible right now. We are not use to this kind of storms here where I live. We have the severe thunderstorms ever so often but as a kid not many tornadoes really close to where we live but now every week we are having storms all around us and tornadoes. Scary.

Ok clearly didn't mean to be a bummer on the news and weather front it reads like a CNN ticker!

I am sure your dried fruit wasn't that bad and today is a new day. Have you ever tried freeze dried berries they are better for us than the dried ones that have added sugar or chemicals often times in them. Hope today is a better day for you and no rain.

Suny, your dropping by makes up for most of the rain-induced gloom. :)
The storms these days are scary. If the climate scientists are to be believed, we're in store for much worse storms/extreme weather in the coming decades. Other than perhaps for CNN, it's not good news for anyone!
I'm doing *much* better today (the extra 600 kcal I didn't need to eat yesterday are keeping me rather full today, apparently). My work cafeteria sometimes makes the WW 0 Pts soup, it's 90 kcal for 16oz and very yummy. On a day like today, when going for a walk or in pursuit of a healthy lunch (I often go for a whwh veggie sandwich @ subway) isn't very appealing, it's great to have a healthy option right here in the building! I also had a salad (spinach, tuna chunks, red beets, grilled carrots and grilled zuchinni), for a total of 300 kcal. Breakfast was a Luna bar (slept in and ran out of the house) and a coffee with lots of skim milk, for arond 250 kcal. Dinner was 900, for 1450 total...

Hi Puma,

Just think though, we can wow our grandchildren with stories like, "Back when there were seasons -- did you learn about seasons in history class? Well let me tell you, there used to be a time when anyone -- you, me, anyone! -- could approximately predict the weather based solely on the month of the year!! It was great. You didn't have to keep your parka and your tank top and shorts in the car all the time. You could wake up in the morning and know, since it was July, that you could go outside without snow boots. Well, anyway, back when there were seasons....."

Sigh.

Good going on the food! I had a taste of the traveling life this weekend and I'm paying for it now. I was up 3 lbs (or 5, depending on which scale reading to believe). Darn weekends in New York City. SUCH A DRAG. :laugh:

That is the scariest thought I've had in a long time - no seasons at all! Wow. Is that in the cards?

On food, I was ok, but now I realize I haven't been eating protein!! So today, I got home, had basically a 100% carb dinner, was hungry an hour later, had a carb snack... and on and on it went. I'm apparently a very slow learner .. Tomorrow is a *new* day.

Great job listening to your body and knowing you need more protein to balance the carbs. Your doing wonderful your not a slow learner. Have a happy day.

Suny, you are so sweet and always turn my mood into a positive one in so few words. Thank you! How are you doing -- what's new? Btw, I know you canceled your journal and don't mean to be nosy; but if feel like writing more every once in a while, my journal=your journal. ;)

Ok, so TOM weight is officially off and I'm back where I started before it came - 116.6

Sunday: 1850 kcal
Monday: 1550
Tuesday: 1680
Wednesday: 1900
Today (goal): 1600
Tomorrow (goal): 1500
Saturday (goal): 1350
Sunday (goal): 1400

On Friday, I'm in catered meetings again from 8 am unti 6 pm (I work in a place that loves long meetings and it drives me slightly crazy, especially on Fridays, especially when we're supposed to sit still for 12 hours without breaks - except 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon... we're even having a speaker at lunch, so can't go for a walk then either.)

From Monday - Friday next week, I'm traveling again, going to the same place as in march, where the hotel room had a scale and there was a grocery store with great
yoghurt and organic fruit right next door. The difference this time is that I'm traveling with a colleague, who will probably want to meet for breakfasts, lunches and dinners. I'll see what I can do to avoid some of these and mitigate the effects of hotel food... On the plus side, she's a walker (and a lovely person), so I may be able to squeeze in some good walks or jogs.

After that is Memorial Day weekend. YAY! We are going to spend it at a friend's house on the eastern shore - I've never been there and hear it's beautiful. The house is in a tiny town, so I'm expecting a truly relaxing weekend and am *really* excited about it. It's close to Cape Charles. If anyone has suggestions of places to go/things to see nearby, I'm all ears.

Have a lovely day!

Wow - 12 hours sitting? That's rough. That's worse than a trans-Atlantic flight. Can you sit in the back and stand up periodically? I think I'd go crazy sitting that long. I used to be able to but now my spine pokes the back of the chair and my tailbone pokes the seat and I am not so comfy anymore. I imagine you would feel the same. It would be funny if you had a treadmill in the conference room and you could be walking on it during the meeting. Loud and obnoxious, but still funny.

I'm doing a 2-week travel thing at the end of the month as well (May 27 - June 11) so I'll be struggling along with you! I'm going to be staying with friends who have lots of exercise equipment and are very health-minded so I'm hoping for the best -- maybe I'll even lose some weight! I've never been to the Eastern Shore -- I've heard it's beautiful, take photos so you can show us :D

That is a brilliant idea - sitting in the back and standing up periodically. I am going to have to sneak out at some point and go for a walk, even if it's just 15 minutes. I found out today that our afternoon break has been cancelled in order to squeeze in another session. Drives me crazy, especially because the title of the last session (from 5pm-6pm on a Friday) is "Thinking outside the Box: something something something... "

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX? while trapped in the same room with the same people, staring at the same (or similar) powerpoint slides for an entire day? Life was not meant to be this way. :)

Naus, that's great that your friends are health-minded -- it makes such a huge difference, eh?

Wow I use to have a job that required quite a bit of sitting and I hated it. I will share what I did. I would do things like raise my leg straight out in front of me under my desk one at a time and hold the position and clench my muscles for a few seconds, do the same with my tummy hold it in for a few seconds and release, same with my butt too. I also would sit in my chair and twist my waist back and forth. I also did calve raises under my desk while sitting. Funny I know but I got really tired of sitting so much. Oh and I also did thigh squeezes too. lol

Thanks sweetie for your lovely comment above about your journal I appreciate it greatly so nice of you.

Virginia is great for outdoor stuff like kayaking and hiking. I think there is a winery near Cape Charles. I have a friend that lives in Virginia but I haven't talked to her in quite a while because she and her hubby divorced and she stayed there and he moved back. She sort of doesn't have much to do with anyone around here now I don't know why maybe she thinks of him when talking to us or visiting. Who knows. Another one of my friends is getting a divorce as we speak. So sad. I know you'll have a great time on your trip just simply relaxing that's the best some times instead of over doing on a vacation.

Congrats on the scale! Have an excellent fit, fabulous and fun friday.

That is truly sad, Suny. I think divorce is my greatest fear in life (and part of why I really don't care to get married).

I'll definitely take photos of the area and share with you guys.

In the meantime, I'm off to my longday sitting adventure (thanks for the tips, Suny, I will try all of those)...

Have a fit, fabulous and fun Friday yourselves! :)

P.S. This sentence made me think of Participaction, a series of short videos shown in Canada in the 80s and 90s, encouraging people to stay active... they are widely loved for their cheesiness and the signoff "Keep Fit and Have Fun." Here's one related to sitting for long periods of time:

YouTube - Body Break - Airplane Exercises (1992)

:rofl: I LOVE IT!! Ahhh Canadians! That was so cute! I love how the guy is trying not to laugh while delivering his last lines. But actually that might be a good exercise to try. Looking at it makes me think it would be pretty hard as long as you're not just using your knees and really feeling it in your thighs.

Divorce scares the bejeezus out of me too -- thus our marathon engagement... John and I will not be getting married after less than 2.5 yrs engagement. And the longer he waits to ask, the longer we wait to get married.

Good luck with your sitting contest.

I just tried this while sitting - it's almost impossible to get your thighs off the chair, unless you lean on your hands (or I'm a weakling).

Friday was a nightmare. I arrived at 8:15 am and left at 6:10 pm (meeting was supposed to end at 6:00), and felt super guilty for leaving, but I was getting so upset with how ridiculously unproductive the day had been, I had to get out and vent. Four other people left before me, so I hope I didn't commit a huge faux pas. We literally had a single 15-minute break, with lunch served in the same room, and the official meeting going on at the same time. It would have been fine with me if we were negotiating an important treaty or something, but it was just a big, long, broad topic about how to work better, with at least 50% of the people only speaking because they like the sound of their voice. *shudder* Just thinking about it makes me want to scream. Sorry for the rant!!

The rest of the weekend was fantastic, although I did eat *a lot* and am already paying for it on the scale. But I'm absolutely determined to have a great week on my trip this time around - I feel pretty well prepared.

Have a great week - I will do my best to check in and catch up with everyone as much as I can!

Ugh that sounds terrible! I hate meetings like that. Thankfully I don't have that sort of thing often but I know what you mean about people who just like the sound of their own voice!

Have a super time on your trip!!! This is the hotel w/ the gym and the scale, right? Enjoy it!

Hi Naus, yes, this is the *good* hotel!

117 on the scale this morning, after 118.6 yesterday morning on the home scale.

I'll have to wait to get home to really believe the 117 number - pants are fitting pretty tightly.

But I *am* back on track - yesterday 1500kcal, and today should be relatively easy because I'll be super busy with access to salads throughout the day. ;)

Gotta run, miss you virtual people!

Great job getting right back on track! I am sure your going to be right back down on the scale. Your doing really well at managing all the travel and sitting you have to do.
Thanks for the funny above! Your too much. Have a great day oh wise skinny one!

OMG! The scale shows 116 this morning - lowest ever.

I think the hotel staff is on to me - they must have recalibrated it in hopes of a good tip (and that they will get!).

Thanks for the "skinny" comment, Suny! :-) I'm getting there... How are you doing? Calorie-cycling and working out and inspiring millions? ;)

ROTFL I don't think I am inspiring any one. But thanks sweetie. I am down 1.5 pounds this morning to reach 40 pounds gone. So shall we celebrate together today? Yes I think a big party is in order! I am so happy for you great job don't give the hotel staff credit girl you did it not them. lol Ok I will send out the invitations I am sure Naus can make it as she certainly deserves to party too dropping that 100+ pounds. Whoo hoooo for parties! Of course all the virtual food will be calorie and fat free! Great rockin music for dancing and I guess we could invite our favorite musicans and actors, yes we should invite Johhny Depp! ROTFL Ok us girls can dream while we are reaching our dreams. lol Have a great day sweetie!

Suny, are you kidding? You're a HUGE inspiration! I don't know about millions, but I would put my money on the number being in the hundreds.

40 lbs is AMAZING!!!!! :bravo:

A big party is certainly in order! Cheers! :cheers::party::wmellon::tom1::grapes::dn:

I'd like to suggest we extend the virtual, calorie-free party into Memorial Day weekend.

P.S. Johnny's invitation is in the mail.

So, the big trip is almost over - one more night at the hotel, before I head back for a long weekend at the quasi-cottage on the Eastern Shore. Woohoo!

I was pretty good with calories, stayed at 1600 most days and walked at least 1.5 hrs each day. I know that's not exactly strenuous exercise, but given the schedule, I think I did ok. We're bringing bikes with us this weekend and I hope to do a lot of walking, bike riding and salad-eating, with a semi-unrealistic goal of seeing 115.x by Tuesday.

On an entirely