Posts by sophcesca

Good morning (it's still morning, here, but not by much!)! Welcome to Axe (you know you *do* have to explain the name, don't you ;-)!

I'm down a lb this week, for my new low of 154 lbs. Yay. I'm hoping to be down another half lb by tomorrow morning--then I have exactly two weeks to lose 4 lbs to get me into the 140s. Wishing won't make it so, but I'm going to do my dang nabbest to get there!

Today was supposed to be "Fun Day" at my kids' school, but it got rained out   :( It's only about 65 degrees outside and all damp and rainy. Then it's supposed to be close to 90 tomorrow (and stay that way through Tuesday). What's up with that?

What do people have planned for the weekend? Tomorrow is the last soccer game of the season for my oldest daughter--I'm guessing we'll do something special afterward (special=pizza when you're 9 years old--I am *so* over pizza, it doesn't even tempt me anymore).  Then Sunday we're going down to Pawtucket, Rhode Island to see the the PawSox play (the Boston Red Sox Triple A team). It's so hard to get tickets to see the actual Red Sox play in Fenway Park, this was our best bet for a family baseball outing. Hope we don't melt in the heat! On the bright side, this summer I can wear shorts without feeling so darn self-conscious.

Enjoy your weekend!

soph

melt

I keep disappearing then coming back. Pathetic, huh? Glad to see you all are truckin' along, keeping each other on track! I'm just having the hardest time staying focused. I've gotten sooo complacent (and I don't have any right to be). I've been hanging out at the same weight for the past 2 months--not because I've plateaued, but because I've just gotten lazy. I'm surprised as all heck that I've been able to maintain (plus or minus a couple) eating and drinking pretty much anything I please. What's up with that?? But I still have about 10-15 lbs to go (and these aren't "vanity" pounds, ladies--if I lose another 15, I *might* be able to squeeze into a size 8, but probably will be mostly in 10's). But still, I finally cleaned out my drawers over the Memorial Day weekend and tried on a bunch of summer clothes that were too small last summer but fit perfectly now, I feel and look a lot better than I did this time last year--I've just got a lot of excuses for not keepin' on. But I can't be resting on my laurels yet, there's still work to do! Help me!

In other news: I think the 'pause may be upon me--no Aunt Flo this month and I've been getting rather warm a lot. Good times.

sophcesca

I think it's great that you want to help your boyfriend do something he says he wants to do. But what I don't understand is why it has to be your sole responsibility. He's asking *you* all the time about how many calories are in the things he eats, he asks *you* if you've logged his meals. You're the one who has to research healthy food options and come up with ways to "trick" him into eating what and how he should.  I understand the impulse to want to help and be supportive, but he needs to pony up here and do the work. If he spent half the time he spends asking you questions or nagging you about things he should be responsible for himsef on actually educating himself and taking a little ownership of his weight problem, you'd both probably feel a lot better. He's not a child--he can and has to do this for himself. Otherwise, if he fails (and if he doesn't take a more active role in learning about healthy eating habits, he probably will)--it's going to be "your fault" because you're running the show for him. We all do what we want to do--if he really wants to do this, he'll figure it out. You can help, certainly--point him in the direction of some resources to get him going (like this webite!), but he needs to show a little initiative here.

I'm returning from AWOL status! I had a bad, bad, bad 3 weeks--totally reverted to old eating habits, hardly did any exercise. I finally decided that undoing all my hard work was just stupid (self-sabotage much?), so I screwed up my courage and stepped on the scale for the first time in 3 weeks on Monday to see how bad the damage was.

I didn't gain a thing.

I totally couldn't believe it. I feel like I got a special dispensation from the Weight-Loss Fairy. I thought maybe my scale had broken or something. But the scale at the gym gave me a consistent reading yesterday. This morning I got on and I was down a pound for my new (this time around) low of 155.5. I'd be happier if I was down 3-5 lbs (like I probably would be if I hadn't gone off the rails for three weeks)--but I'll take it. And it's motivating me to get back on track. My birthday is next month and while I don't think I'll be at goal, I could be real close--definitely out of the 150s.

My new friend at the gym is the elliptical. I shied away from that thing because it looked too much like running and I'm lucky if I can run down to the end of the block without dying--but strangely enough, I can get a pretty good workout on it--better calorie burn than the stationary bike or the treadmill--and it's easy on my creaky knees. I just wish I wasn't the only one in the gym sweating like a pig.

SknSue, I'll have to think more about recipes--we've been keeping it really simple, just because the kids' activities keep us running around several evenings a week. Not to mention we haven't been eating all that right for almost a month, now. But when we're being good, we rely heavily on our grill--for chicken, fish, lean pork--throw a salad together and call it dinner.

Editing to add: Aly--aren't you at goal now?? (if not, you're really, really close!) Woo hoo!

canlose (I'm adopting alylou's name for you!)--do you have an mp3 player or any other personal music listening device? I do most of my walking on the treadmill, and I've found my iPod makes a whole world of difference. I've got a special "sophcesca's workout" playlist and it really gets me pumping and before I know it my workout is over. On the days I forget to bring it with me, it's torture.

Also, I've found that even setting the incline to a modest grade makes a big difference in the amount of calories burned. I usually have the incline set between 4% and 9%, and that isn't really hard to maintain (and gives my butt a better workout!).

Looks pretty good! I think you might try to boost your protein and lower your carbs just a bit. Your fiber is just a tad low (but man, I'm usually at 23 -24 grams per day, and I feel like all I do all day is eat high-fiber foods, so I can  understand if you're feeling like you're doing your best there!). Otherwise, I think you're definitely on the right track.

What are your stats? Is the 1472 cals you're eating on average around your BMR? What's your average calorie deficit per day? How long have you been doing this? Have you seen any results yet? Once you've given your plan some time to work, then you can see if you need to tweak it at all.

Hi, everyone! I got off track a little about a week and a half ago, but am now back to where I was, so the damage wasn't too bad! I've got a wedding on April 26th to go to, and I just ordered a sweet little black dress to wear to it--I want to look good in it! Talk about renewed motivation!

I think I need to stay away from the processed snacks--they keep me going back for more! My go-to snacks are dry roasted unsalted almonds, Fage 0% yogurt with some frozen berries and a drizzle of honey, hummus and raw veggies--I, too, like spicy, but haven't really found anything that seems "safe" to scratch that itch. Once I start with the spicy, I tend to keep going--my shutoff valve doesn't work right!

Original Post by santonacci:

Sedentary lifestyle combined with a wicked sweet tooth and complete disregard for realistic portion sizes.

Ditto! And with age, that stuff really creeps up on you and bites you hard! When I look back at the portions I used to eat, it's a wonder I didn't weigh twice as much as I did. Seriously. Gah.

Added mine--since I don't have any photos to share, this at least gave me something other than that question mark as my avatar!

Lots of excellent progress here--WTG!

A 1000-calorie deficit will give generally give you a weight loss rate of 2 lbs per week, which the accepted standard as the maximum amount that is safe to lose per week. I believe that is the magic number because more than that draws disproportionately from muscle mass--but I don't know the science behind that--perhaps someone with more knowledge could tackle that. I agree with pgeorgian, though, that more than that would probably not be sustainable over the long haul.

Mamafred--you and I started on the same day! I recognize some of those same feelings that morning after I got off the scale. And then I, too, found this site about a week later, and it really has helped me stay motivated and on track. I struggle with exercise, too--this past week has been awful--when work gets hectic, the exercise is the first thing to fall victim. My kids are still pretty young, so I feel like I'm sacrficing time with them if I exercise when work takes up more of my day than it should. What I need to do is take care of the exercise first thing in the morning, but I am sooo not a morning person! At least not as early a morning person as I'd have to be to get my exercise in! Anyway, glad to see this group is growing--welcome, and I hope we both start finding the motivation to get our bodies moving again.

Betsytuck--a two-year-old! More power to you! I'm also 47 and I thought I was having a hard time keeping up with my 6-year-old and 9-year-old. I'll tell you, dropping some weight has really made that easier--I'm confident it will be the same for you as you continue to lose.  I like your attitude--one lb at a time is the way to do it. Sometimes looking at the big picture all the time can just a bit overwhelming.

Yay! We've got a great group so far! I'm excited!

My typical day looks like this:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup rolled oats, cooked with water, splash of 1% milk, a drizzle  of sugar-free maple syrup and a handful of blueberries (~200 cals) or whole wheat english muffin with 1 tbsp peanut or almond butter (230 cals)

Snack: handful of almonds (100 cals)

Lunch: Big sald full of spring greens, baby spinach, cucumbers, red bell peppers, beets, garbanzo beans, grated carrot, and about 3-4 oz grilled chicken breast. Dressing is plain balsamic vinegar (350-450 cals)

Snack: Fage 0% yogurt with frozen berries (100 cals)

Dinner: 3-4 oz lean meat (chicken breast mostly, salmon, ground turkey) with 1/2 cup brown rice or small baked regular or sweet potato (or half of a big one), a cup of steamed veggies and a salad (spring greens, tomato, cucumber, carrots) with 1 tbsp reduced calorie dressing or a splash of balsamic vinegar (~550 cals)

I try not to "waste" any calories on beverages. I do have a 12 oz cup of black coffee in the mornings, but the calories in that are negligible. The rest of the day it's water, water, water.

I'm a big fan of Cooking Light recipes, which you can find at myrecipes.com, and Weight Watchers has some good recipes, too--I made their chicken Marsala last weekend for some company, and they loved it--you really couldn't tell it was a reduced-calorie meal. The recipes from both of these sources have the added advantage of being relatively simple and straightforward, not to mention quick. I would say that my cooking skills leave a bit to be desired, but I have great success with these recipes (and other people think they taste good, too!). Myrecipes.com is really a great site--you can browse/look up recipes, and then generate a shopping list from the ingredient list--really takes a lot of the work out of meal planning.

I try to stay away from processed foods--I do have them sometimes, when I'm in a time crunch or am feeling lazy (or am having a craving)--but I try to keep it to a minimum--I feel really satisfied eating more natural, whole foods--they taste better and make me feel like I actually ate something. That being said, I am a big fan of Boca Burger flamed-broiled "burgers" and Trader Joe's makes a yummy chicken chili-lime burger--I always like to have a package or two of those in the freezer.

I use mostly olive oil in my cooking, but try to keep the amounts to a minimum--I find that if something seems like it's going to scorch without more oil, adding in some chicken broth (for appropriate dishes, mind you!) or water to the pan allows for complete sauteeing.

I try to shop keeping in mind the dinners for the week--I stock up on fresh veggies, fruits, whole wheat bread, and lean meats--there's always some way to throw them together to make a tasty meal.  Can't wait until it's warm enough to start growing some herbs and veggies (I'm in New England, and the growing season doesn't really start until May!).

Anyway, hope some of this helps.

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I really feel like I'm accomplishing something here!

r6riderchick, to answer your question--I've always been 10-20 lbs overweight. After I had my 2nd child 7 years ago, the baby weight still wasn't coming off at 6 months postpartum, so I joined Weight Watchers (they have modifications to their program to accommodate nursing moms--so awesome!) and then the weight came off pretty easily. Six months later and I was down to about 15 lbs below pre-pregnancy weight and feeling great--but then I got really sedentary (took up knitting as a hobby--which I still love, but it's not great for exercise, you know??), started getting into some bad eating habits (really just exacerbating the bad habits I already had), and over the course of 6 years I packed on 40 lbs. I started feeling really poorly--lots of chronic aches and pains in my back and legs, not being able to run around with my kids, no energy--I finally said enough is enough and started my weight loss program in January. I'm more than halfway to my goal, and I already feel so much better! The aches are fewer, less intense and not so chronic, I have more energy, and hey, I'm looking better, too. I figured I needed to do it before the menopause sets in and totally screws up my metabolism!

Bumping...