Posts by linzylu411

I forgot to post my weight on Thursday but I DID weigh myself - I weigh 144 (down 2 pounds - but I'm sure this is just water weight because I didn't do any profound workouts or diet restriction this week)!

My splurge food is CHIPS. Anything salty. Tortilla chips, Baked Doritos... I can never stop at just one serving!  Also - Pizza.  I have to eat 3 slices (or more).  It's bad.

I'd love to start this challenge!  I love the idea of not having a goal weight, since so many other factors go into how quickly you lose weight.  I attempted to lose 10 pounds by July 4th (a 5 week program) and I completely overestimated how quickly I could lose weight.  I'm a "slow & steady wins the race" kinda gal, so this is right up my alley.

SW: 147 (June 1, 2009)

CW: 145

GW: 130

Thanks for the positive feedback!  I do try to make as much food as possible when I can, but sometimes I just forget to go to the grocery store and end up eating out (a lot).  It's challenging to eat healthy at fast food restaurants - but not impossible!  I'm hoping I don't get completely bashed for eating out as often as I do - I know I can't be the only one... I'm trying to move more towards making everything at home (definitely healthier & cheaper!), but I just haven't gotten the hang of it, yet.  I just don't take the time to plan everything out like I should.

Here's what I ate today:

Breakfast: Starbucks Venti Skinny Vanilla Latte (160)

Lunch: Quizno's Classic Cobb salad w/o the flatbread, w/o the ranch dressing - instead of ranch, I substituted the balsamic vinaigrette dressing (277)

Snack: Starbucks Venti Tazo Passionfruit Shaken Iced Tea Lemonade (190)

Dinner: Coconut-crusted Chicken with Cashew-Lime-Curry Sauce (376) + 1.5 cups of red grapes (93)

Snack: Orville Redenbacher Salt & Lime Popcorn - Minibag (190)

TOTAL: 1,285

Although I went to Starbucks TWICE today (shameful) and ate out for lunch (I was running around going to appointments), I did happen to go grocery shopping and I actually made dinner at home tonight.  And despite the name of the dish I made (it sounds like it would be crazy-bad for you), the recipe was from Cooking Light magazine and my husband even had seconds!!

I would love to take this challenge!  After getting married last August, I've gained 10 pounds and SERIOUSLY need some motivation to lose them!

Yes, I've had two dress fittings and my dress fits like a glove.  The bridal shop is storing my dress until right before the wedding, and if I need to have a third fitting, I can do that, too.  So I'm not worried about losing weight and having my dress not fit.

My fiance works from home and has time to hit the gym on his lunch hour.  Lucky!  He lifts weights and does very little cardio (he's got one of those dense, muscular bodies and a high metabolism... I'm jealous of the metabolism part).  I am a big home-workout person ~ I have DVDs and a nice elliptical ~ so I really don't have much of an excuse to skip workouts.  I just get busy going out to dinner with friends after work or feel too tired to work out... you know, the normal excuses.  :) 

My sister/MOH and I have been working out together occasionally (we do the Beach Body P90X workout DVDs), and I really do push myself harder when she's right there sweating her butt off with me.  So I'll have to recruit her for workouts more often.  It is more motivating to have a partner, that's for sure!  Thanks for your advice, amnlcrckr!

My sister and I just started doing the P90X workouts and I really enjoy doing them!  What's nice is that you can choose your goal (3 goals) and there is a specific workout designed to meet that goal.  My sister and I are doing the "Lean" routine, which focuses a little more on cardio than weights. 

The program is split into 3 phases sections and it outlines what workout to do each day (with one rest or stretch day built into the program).  Each phase is 3 weeks long, and then you have a "recovery" week before you start the next phase.  I can't really tell the difference between the normal workout weeks and the recovery week (the workout frequency seems the same and the workouts appear to be the same), but again, we just started doing the program and maybe we will figure that out once we get to the recovery week.

Tony Horton's instruction is great and he's amusing to listen to.  The people on the DVD are truly working out with him and sweating like crazy ~ you can tell they are pushing themselves, too, which is encouraging.  Tony shows you how to do each move once, and then turns you loose and tells you to do however many reps you can in "x" minutes.  So you really do go at your own pace.  You choose how heavy of weights to use (light weights = more reps, heavy weights = less reps) and choose how many reps to do.  There are a few moves where Tony says, "Everyone does 30 reps of this move," but the majority are "do however many you can" moves.

One nice thing about the program is that it comes with a manual that explains which "track" you should take (building muscle, getting lean, muscle endurance), what the schedule is for each "track" and what DVD's to do on which days of the week.  The manual even dissects each DVD (tells you the move and how long to do it) so you could essentially take the manual on a business trip or vacation with some exercise bands and still be able to keep up the workouts.

I hope this helps explain how the program works and what is required of you to complete the workout.  The one equipment I don't have at my house is the pull-up bar, and I plan on just doing other exercises to fill up the time Tony spends doing pull-ups.  You will need an array of dumbbells or exercise bands, a chair, a towel, and something to help you glide over carpet or hardwood floors (the move you need the plate/carpet square for requires you to be in a plank/push-up position, keep your feet still and use your arms to move your body across the room... your feet need to be on something that will help you glide over the floor; hence, the plate or carpet square).

Good luck everyone!

Sooji,

What I think you need to do is give yourself a "get out of jail free" card and start over.  Take one day to not log your food so that the following day you have a clean slate.  It will be okay to not log your food for one day.  I have a hard time giving myself a break and I'm super-hard on myself, so I understand how badly you want to "make things right".  But I think you would feel a LOT better if you acknlowedged that you had a bad day (the day you ate "tomorrow's calories"), try to realize what caused you to eat that much, tell yourself that everyone has a bad day every once in a while, and vow to learn from the experience.  Having a clean slate is very liberating because you can be even better than you were before!  Good luck!!!

Does anyone else have issues noticing when they are full after eating??  I have trouble feeling full when I eat ~ and I know the whole saying of eating slowly because it takes your body 'this long' to feel full (I forget what the actual time frame is); but I seriously think I don't feel full like most people do. 

Ever since I was little, I always felt like I could eat more than what was on my plate and I ate a LOT as a child.  I was never overweight, but I was never thin, either, due to my eating habits.  There are certain foods that I could eat and eat and eat without feeling full: bacon, pizza, baked Doritos (just to name a few).  And when I was little, I didn't know that I should have stopped after just a few pieces ~ I didn't know that I was supposed to restrict myself ~ I knew nothing about moderation and didn't want to stop eating until I felt full (which took me a while to reach that point).  In fact, I didn't think there was any problem with eating this way until my dad mentioned I shouldn't eat so much food when we went to eat at Burger King (I was about 10 years old and ordered a regular Whopper value meal; my dad suggested I order a kids meal instead because I shouldn't be eating that much at my age).  Definitely a scarring, pivotal moment in my life!

I don't know if other people feel this way, but I'm starting to think maybe this isn't normal.  I do restrict myself from eating like a bottomless pit NOW (I eat pretty normally, in my opinion ~ about 1300-1500 calories per day), but it's really hard for me.  Some people can stop eating when they are full, but I seriously have problems noticing when I'm full when there is still food to be eaten on my plate, if I'm at a buffet, at family dinners were seconds are encouraged...  It would be nice to know if other people felt this way or not... responses welcome!

Wow, I feel like I just had a therapy session and got some things off my chest!  Thanks for reading through it all!

Paula, your entry sounds like something I could have written ~ we are so much alike.  I am so good tracking my food during the week (when I don't really need it since there are only a few times during the day when I can eat), but so bad on the weekends (when I REALLY need it because in all reality I could be eating ALL DAY LONG).  But your idea about starting fresh Saturday morning is very intriguing!  I'm going to try that this coming weekend.  Thanks for the idea!

[EDIT] Seely, I completely agree with you: Having crappy junk food in the house is TOUGH.  My fiance can eat anything and he would be extremely annoyed if I just trashed all of the bad stuff and left only the good healthy stuff, so I have to keep it.  But if it's in the house, I am tempted to eat it (like it's taunting me from the pantry ~ "You can't eat me because I'm bad for you, but I know you want to!"). 

So aside from talking with your mom and telling her nicely that having the cake so accessible to you is sabotaging your diet efforts, maybe you could convince her to freeze some of the cake??  That way if you want a piece you have to thaw it first, and making that much of an effort might make you change your mind about wanting it.  I have NO IDEA how cake freezes or if this is even an option, but I'm just trying to be creative!

Because I consider Friday night to be part of the weekend, I'll provide a recap of my night last night.

I didn't do horribly, but I didn't do well, either. I had 3 Miller Chill's (beer; quite delicious!) throughout the night, which I believe to be the best drinking choice present at the get-together I attended. I also had a slice of pepperoni pizza, which could have been avoided altogether, but I had developed a slight buzz from the beer and felt like I "needed" food to counterbalance some of what I had drank. That's just a crazy rationalization I make when I've had a few drinks. Someone brought a platter of veggies & cheese & crackers, so I had 2 crackers with cheese and snacked on carrots the rest of the night. Overall, I consumed about 2500 calories yesterday, which is about 1000 more than normal.

In good news, I was playing Guitar Hero II all night (my fiance and I have played it before and I'm kinda good!), which burns more calories than sitting on a couch drinking beer. Definitely not burning 1000 of the extra calories I consumed, but it helped a little bit.

I'm not totally depressed about last night ~ there have been much worse overeating occasions ~ but I want to do better tonight for sure.

Good luck to everyone else!!!

I think I'm going to try the honey concept ~ I'll get a little squeeze jar and bring it to work.  I know I'm going to have trouble with using real sugar instead of the substitute, especially with coffee.  Where 1-2 packets of Splenda perfectly sweetens my coffee, I'd need 2+ tablespoons of real sugar to get the same effect.  But I'm just making excuses ~ I really want to believe Splenda is not bad for me!  :)  I'm in denial, I guess.

Thanks for the tips!

I'm trying to come up with a few tips to last me through this weekend (and if they work, I'll use them every weekend!):

1. Only eat out once per weekend (thanks lk1234).  This includes breakfasts, lunches & dinners ~ choose wisely!  This will be really hard; I'll have to go shopping and stock up on food.
2. When I do eat out, order something that sounds good to me (like leopardrayne) and not worry too much about the calories.  The catch: Get a to-go box right away so I am not tempted to eat the whole thing!
3. Start doing more things on the weekend!  I could be WAY busier if I just got off my butt and didn't read magazines & surf the internet during my free time.
4. Exercise on Saturday and/or Sunday (ideally both).  This will make me feel better if I do have a night out at a bar or eat a big meal.
5. Don't completely give up on dieting if I splurge one night ~ always remember I can get right back on track tomorrow.  I tend to get down on myself if I am not good on the weekend, which turns into a nasty downward spiral.
6. Be diligent about tracking calories on the weekend.  Normally I kind of "skip" the weekend, but to keep on track with my diet, this should be the time when I do the most tracking (since I could potentially be eating all day long if I don't pay attention to myself).  The concepts of portion sizes and feeling full evade me on weekends, so for me, this is a good option.

OK, that's enough for now.  :p  Have a good rest of the week, everyone!  Happy Valentine's Day (tomorrow)!