Posts by raven21

greenpea88 - I don't know a lot about supplements but I did a little googling on straight drol dangers and found this link:

http://www.politablog.com/health/nutrition/su pplement-recall-notice/

sounds like there is a recall on this item. It also sounds like it isn't supposed to contain steriods and the fact that some have been found is why it's being recalled. The only supplements I have ever used (and this was when I was lifting more and generally just had it after my workout) was a whey protein shake. I would tell him to take a look at the NROL book (noticed you are a member of NROLFW form) and let him know it's more about diet than supplements. He could/should also start looking at macronutrients to make sure his diet is supporting his workout and vice versa. Just my 2 cents but hope it helps!

I'll join you!

currently as of 12/03/09  I believe I am around 175 - 180 (haven't weighed in awhile, was getting sort of obessed.

Short term goal of 10 lbs but need to lose 30-40lbs.

12/04/09----- 178, gosh I don't like that number.

12/11/09----- No change :( I haven't been as diligent as I'd like this week, I need a slap!

12/18/09-----

12/25/09-----

01/01/10-----

01/08/10-----

01/15/10-----

01/22/10-----

01/29/10-----

02/05/10-----

02/12/10-----

02/19/10-----

02/26/10-----

Total loss so far:------

 5' 6"  medium frame would like to be at the most 150

Hi Everyone,

So I'm going to start off with my holiday recipe and hopefully tomorrow or later today I can post more.

This year my husband and I grew our first vegetable garden. He is a big fan of brussels sprouts, I am not. However I think the issue is that I have never had them cooked properly so to that end here is my recipe:

Brussels Sprouts and Chestnuts

Welcome Vanexxaq!

Recipes look yummy and I hope to try some of them out.

Have a great week everyone!

Carrie

Happy Turkey Day to everyone in the US!

Sorry about being late on the check in this week, it's been an interesting week. Thank you Sara and Carry for the reminders!

So doing pretty well although Tuesday night I let it all go out the window when I went to the Stone Temple Pilots concert. I have to say I don't feel bad about it though. Work has been very stressful for about a year now and recently it's been effecting me a lot. Think I had my first anxiety attack 2 weeks ago. Anyway, in addition to that I think I mentioned that I was having headaches everytime I ran (about 1 hr after) and actually it happens with other exercising as well, if my heart rate goes up and stays there for awhile (30+ minutes). And these are no run of the mill headaches, my are demoblizing and actually have caused me to vomit. Anyway, I finally went to see a doctor about it and she has referred me to a cardiologist and a neurologist. I don't want to stop running or other forms of vigourous exercise because I really enjoy it but for now I think it's going to give me the "excuse" to focus on weights, yoga and walking. The doctor didn't say I couldn't run, but it's just not worth ruining the rest of my day, so that means training for the 1/2 marathon is put on hold (meg I'll have to live vicariously through you!).

So my question is : When lifting weights, how do you truely know if you lifting enough? AND when do you first start to notice changes? I am starting up the NROLFW again but I want to make sure I'm doing it effectively.

I will TRY and write more later. Have a great weekend everyone!

mns289 - I had thought of that but no, don't hold tension in my neck, shoulders etc. I USED to when I first started running but then made a conscious effort to not do that and have over the course of the last 4 months or so been able to stop that problem. Yoga is something definitely want to do, did it a bit here and there but nothing consistent. There are no places in my town that offer yoga so classes are out but I can research a few poses online and go from there. I also could buy a video I suppose.

behanna - I drink a lot of water period, so for me 1.5L isn't all that much, basically 2 of my reusable water bottles. I also have a 1 hour commute between work and home so it's pretty easy to drink 650ml or so during that drive. Pizza is a tricky one for me. I have gluten sensitivity so I try to avoid wheat as much as possible, however I agree that I'm thinking there is something missing in my diet.

I had another thought on what the cause might be. I was talking to a friend of mine who has some heart issues (btw, I also had an incident with my heart a couple years ago, tachycardia, in hospital for 11 days, nothing conclusive found and palpitations went away during this time and have not returned), however this friend says that exercise induced headaches sometimes are a sign of an underlying heart problem. Especially the areas where I am finding the most pain (sinuses, neck, temples). I'm not saying I for sure have some issue with my heart but could it be possible?

So I just got back from a 5K run and feeling great! Glad I went. I find the middle is the hardest part so if I can get past the first 2.5K I'm good to go. I also pick up the pace on the last .5mile or so. So tomorrow I might run again or I might cross train but I WILL get in 3 runs this week.

Thanks for the continued support everyone!

Sara - congrats on the success! I'll be interested to see whose plan is the most successful for you.

Happy Hump Day!

What a good assignment Sara, really getting everyone thinking. Also, it's nice to see that a lot of us face the same challenges and excuses when it comes to our weightloss goals.

So what are my top excuses.....

1. I'll just have a little taste of (chocolate, sweets etc), which then turns into more than a little bit most of the time, and then I say "Well I already screwed up, I'll start again tomorrow".

Positive - I know that individual packets don't work for me, it's not that hard to open a 2nd packet you see  So I just won't bring the sweets and chocolate into the house and then if I'm at a special occasion or something like that and there are sweets served I can choose to have a small taste (or not) and leave it at that. I don't have as much of an issue when there are other people around for some reason.

2. I'm too tired, sick or PMSy to work out, I'll do it tomorrow.

Positive - once I start exercising I'm no longer tired, it actually gives me a boost of energy. Am I really sick or am I just in need of some exercise to get my blood pumping? Haven't I learned yet that exercise actually HELPS pms?

3. Well he, she they are eating it, so I can to.

Positive - this one is particularly hard for me. I need to remember that everyone is different and I don't know what else they have eaten today or what their activity level is like etc. I used to think if my husband was eating it then I should be able to as well. As we all know, this isn't the case. He's BMR and metabolism is different then me. He works at the physical job and I don't etc.

As for my goals, I'm off on the running goals but doing pretty good on the fruits/veggies goal. I'm getting about 3 runs in a week, which is probably what I should have shot for instead of 4 but oh well.

I'm heading to NY city the week after next and I'm hoping the hotel I stay at will have a gym, if not maybe I can brave the city and go for a run outside???

Have a great week everyone and thanks for sharing!

Carrie

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for the late check in but I was away for work since Sunday evening and just got back yesterday evening. I find as the weather gets cooler I start wanting things like soups and stews so the recipes that have been posted already are great, yum lentils. I have found is recipe for Roasted Parsnip Soup and it sounds really yummy.

On a funny note, I found out why I was having issues posting links all this time. When I click on the icon to enter the link the window would pop up and then I would enter my link and would hit the "insert/edit" link at the top of the window. This as I'm sure many of your are aware is not the right thing to do. There is in fact an "Insert" button on the bottom left hand corner. This link was not visible unless your window is bigger, and mine was not until today when I, on a whim, expanded it. Sometimes it's so simple, feeling sort of duh at the moment.

I'll put in a better update on this week later on today or tomorrow since I have to catch up on things here after being away for work all week.

Thank you for all the thoughtful posts everyone and I will try and respond to everyone later.

Carrie

I would say it's because you don't need to lose weight and your body knows it. At 5'9 and 145lbs your BMI is 21.4 which is towards the lower end of the heathly range. Although losing 10 pounds won't put you in the underweight catergory, since you're already at a healthy weight it's going to be much harder to lose weight. My suggestion is upping your exercise and looking at the quality of the food you're eating (i.e. whole foods vs processed foods).

Good luck!

1/4 way checkin:

Well I'm not doing as well as I had hoped (I was hoping for 100%) but I'm standing at about 75% I would say. I am definitely making much more of an effort to eat more veggies and fruits and rarely miss the 5 mark goal. As for the running, I am only getting in 3 days a week tops. Part of this is because I decided to start NROLFW again which takes up 3 days of exercise a week. I find it too much to do NROLFW and then run or vice versa in the same session. I even found it a bit hard when I did the running in the morning before work and then weights just before suppertime. I am still going to strive for 4 days a week but I'm thinking it's going to be more like 3 days but I can be happy with that.

For next time, I think I need to consider all the other things going on in my life and really think about what my priorities are and how to find a good balance.

Sara asked me to put in my 2 cents on my time here in the past 15 months. As I mentioned in previous posts, I like where my head is but not so much where my body is. I haven't made any great strides and I'm 20 pounds heavier than when I wanted to lose 15 pounds. I don't know all the contributing factors (stress is probably part of it but I can't blame stress for all 20 pounds), however I do have some thoughts in place on steps to take to get the weight to start shifting.

 - weight training, everything I have read says building muscle helps to burn fat and also burns calories if you lift effectively (such as the NROLFW program).

 - HIIT training, also have read a lot on this and is the most effective way to burn calories/fat through cardio.

 - "counting calories", as I have mentioned before this is a big problem for me. I don't like to spend the time on it. Carol had some good advice for me on this. She suggested finding meals I like for breakfast, lunch and dinner which I already know the calorie content of and make a list and select one of each which will tally up to my calorie goal (along with 2 snack if needed). I have already started this, mostly with breakfast, lunch and snackes. Dinner is still a challenge for me, but I am becoming more successful with it and also with not snacking in the evenings or overdoing it on the weekends.

I also have found I have had this "I'll really start on this later" attitude. Well when is later? My Mom has had issues with her weight all her life and mentioned to me today that it's been 60 years (sort of an exageration since I'm sure she wasn't watching her weight when she was an infant), and what a waste of time. I tend to agree. I'm about 1/2 her age (a little less) and I don't want to be 60 thinking, what have I been doing all these years, putting on weight, taking it off, getting bigger, feeling miserable and self conscious all the time. I want to move food and weight from my central thoughts and now is the time to do it. So, on that note, I have gone through all my clothes this weekend and put everything that is too snug or won't fit at all into a bag which I will keep until my 30th birthday in May. My goal (which I intend to achieve) is to be able to wear everything in that bag on or before my birthday. If not I'm giving them away and am going to learn to be happy with who I am (physically) going forward, no more stressing.

Well this is a long post, but glad I got it off my chest and hope maybe something in it is helpful to someone else.

Thanks to everyone in the group for their help and support.

Carrie

Here's one that might be good:

http://www.post-gazette.com/food/19990805schr amm1e.asp

My husband and I are doing the turkey for Thanksgiving this weekend, Mom is doing the veggies and my Aunt is baking the pies. We don't do the scalloped potatoes however, but we do mashed. I don't think Mom adds much of anything to them so hoping dinner won't be too much of a obstacle to navigate :)

Happy Monday Everyone!

Well I'm away for work this week so I don't know if I'll be able to check in as often as I'd like to, schedule is pretty hectic with interviews.

I have been giving a lot of thought to my goals and this is what I have decided on (and Laura aka figurethefat thanks for postings your goals because I'm stealing one ). So here are my goals:

Maintenance - run 4 days a week minimum, increasing speed and distance over the course of the 12 weeks.

New: Eat 5 servings of fruit and/or vegetables daily.

I am not ready to commit the time to counting calories BUT since vegetables are generally not that calorie dense I figure if I consume more I should be eating fewer calories, PLUS they are very good for me and full of fibre which is something I've been trying to up my intake of.

Meg - congrats on starting to train for a 1/2 marathon! I am moving towards that goal as well. The 1/2 marathon here in my local community is in July of next year and I would LOVE to participate. Do you have a set training plan that you're following or are you just kind of making it up as you go? I would love to share experiences and cheer each other on if you're up for it. I generally run about 5k (or 3.1 miles) every time I go out, however I know I need to start increasing my distance and speed over the next 9 months in order to complete the 1/2 marathon and do it in a time I can be proud of.

Congrats everyone on your goals, looks like we're all setting up for a great session!

Have a great week everyone and I'll try to get on here again sometime soon!

Carrie

Congrats, that's awesome!

Original Post by merylwhite1:

I like the tartness of plain natural yoghurt - no honey, sugar or sweeteners for me.

 Ditto

Well here's the scoop on how the goals played out this time around:

Maintenance - 100%

New - maybe 50%, after things got particularly hectic at work I just stopped keeping track. I know that weekend eating and evening eating crept up again so I would say it could be lower than 50% for sure.

Good news - haven't notice any gain, Bad news - no loss either.

I'm thinking that I really need to just count calories and track my calories burned as well if I'm going to see any real progress, however unappealing that idea is. I really have no problem tracking breakfast, lunch and snacks, it's dinner that is the problem. Hubby and I eat together, I don't always plan out what we're going to have and then sometimes have to "guesstimate" how many calories, not the best way of going about things.

Meg - like you, exercise isn't much of a problem for me it's the eating, and it's sporadic, sometimes I'm awesome and other times it's like part of me just doesn't care. I have faith that this go round we'll both get it under control.

Carry - Congrats on 100%!

Meri - as far as how complicated your goal is I would say you need to make it something that is easy to track and easy to stick to. So I would ask yourself if keeping track of cals and ratios is something you can easily do? If so then it may not be too complicated for you. For me however I think it would

defrog - congrats on your baby girl! Friends of mine just had a baby girl last week and they named her Abigail Jean, calling her Abby though I believe.

Laura - Ah, another person with the weekend challenge. What do you find is the root of the weekend struggle? I find sometimes I'm bored and just end up eating. I also don't wake up at the same time, don't have the same kind of breakfast or lunch. Somtimes I end up eating breakfast at 11:00 so it sort of screws up the day. And what a true statement "Ultimately, Im the one who must make the changes no matter how many support groups I join."
I think Sara said something once about how Wagon Jumpers tend to be great planners etc, joining groups is the easy part, making the changes and making them stick, that's the hard part but it has a great reward.

Cawilder - looks like you're going to be really busy! Good luck with school, I wasn't disciplined enough to take on school while working and taking care of things at home. Ended up just wasting money on it. Next time I go back to school it's going to be full time, with maybe a less intensive part-time job. Good luck with your knee, hope the docs finally get it figured out for you. BTW, do you have any suggestions on a heart rate monitor? I want something not too complicated or expensive but would love to have not only heart rate count but also calorie count. Thought maybe you've had some experience with this being a runner.