Posts by pjlittlefr

Hey all, Sorry I dropped out of sight for a while.  Started school and I haven't even logged on to cc since Aug.  What with getting everything ready to start and then no going to the classes everyday.  I haven't even counted one calorie.  It is a long weekend and I had all my homework done so I have a little time for catch up.  I hope all of you are doing well.  I have lost a lot of that muscle tone I was just begining to build because I have had to drop the strength training.  I have still been going to the gym but I go between 600 am and 700am I can only swim 1/2 mile then get showered and back home to get my son to school.  I don't have to go to school most days until 9 or 10 but I go as soon as I drop off my son because he's school is right next to the college and parking and traffic is horrible.  I can't seem to get back to the gym and do anything without being late for class so I usually go and study or do homework during that time.  I haven't counted one calorie since Aug.  I haven't gained any weight but I feel like I have because all the toning I had been doing has just all loosened up!  UGH!  Some how I have to figure out a program/schedule to get this weight off.  I would like to be in good shape for my son's August wedding in 2009! 

Anyway, Hope all you girls are doing good! 

Hey all,

Tammy we will miss ya.  Hope all is well.  Take good care of yourself. 

Welcome wannaloseitall  - hope cc works out for you.  Actually, what you dh says is pretty much true and exactly what cc suggests.  The formula is easy the actually putting it into practice every day isn't.  If I would do it everyday then I could see the pounds come off.  But I keep losing days specially over weekends.  I don't log my food or exercise and I'm getting so depressed with it all!  So as you say if it were just that easy!

magdalenn - don't have any idea about coconut cherry bars!  But maybe you could get the recipe and put it in the new recipes and then you'll know maybe its not as bad as you think. 

Stilltryin - good to see ya back.  hope you enjoyed your vacation.  It's good that you are coming right back at it. 

clangworthy - don't worry, be happy!  We all have our little detours.  The other day I ate a whole box of cinnamon toast crunch cereal.  What was I thinking.  I'm telling you this is not a very nice month for me.  In July I failed to log my food at least 7 whole days and looking at my analysis for the month.  I didn't get a whole day in for at least another 6 days!  Ugh!  I need to do much much better in August. 

Any way I'm not off to such a great start.  It's now 8/5 and I've only logged one day -

I think that both the article and melkor are right. I have found that my 1-2 punch for losing is the weeks when I actually combine between 50-70 minutes of cardio with 3-4 times a week strength training or weights.

And by the way the link you posted doesn't bring you to the article

Try this http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1827342,00.html

If that doesn't work the title of the article is The myth of moderate exercise. 

Wow!  have I been neglecting my thread hosting duties!  Sorry about that ladies and I guess we have a few gents too!  But Anyways, I will try to do better!  So here you go I am welcoming all you newbies to the thread.  I have also added you all to my friends.  If I missed anyone just let me know.  It was not on purpose.  I will posting an updat on monday again but just a real quick update.  Since June I have lost 6 inches (mostly in my waist, hips, thighs and calves)  and yesterday morning I finally did it I broke the 200 lbs barrier!  Feels like a brick wall actually.  But I weighed in at 199.6  Whoo! HOOOO! 

So heres a how do you do to each of you newbies

Clangworthy - Welcome and Wow! 2 jobs and 6x week workouts!  Congrats that's awesome!  And grandchildren I am not there yet!  My son is getting ready though for the big step!  I expect to be hearing soon about an engagement!

ktjensen - Welcome and Yeah I love www.mapmy****. com I use mapmyfitness.com or mapmywalk.com for everything swimming, biking, walking, hiking, elliptic, weight training even aerobics and kickboxing, .  I love my little fitness calander.  I am weird, I know but I just love to see the icons show up on my calander when I log a workout.  Plus the reports I can run to calculate my distance for the week, or since I began, etc.  Awesome website!

lakemom - Welcome and Wow! 6 kids and such a spread in ages too!  Please take care that you are getting enough calories for nursing needs!  There is a pregnancy forum and lots of articles on this website.  Maybe you could hop on over there and see if there might be any info about how much you need and how much you burn for nursing!  Good luck. 

Healthy - Welcome to you too!  Seems we have similar workout goals.  Let's keep each other motivated! 

Sandyarmstrong - I agree with the others set smaller goals.  I only stay motivated when I have small achievable goals.  In fact I am looking at downsizing some of my work out goals because with my current schedule I am finding it hard to achieve some of them.  It soooo helps to see yourself hit the target.  The target is not the point but hitting it helps us to continue setting goals.  All journeys begin with the first step.  I wish I was in wheeling WV, I would so be there for you!  (I love WV - I have lots of relatives in WV - but they are all near BEckley Charleston etc)  Anyway, here's my suggestion - if you can't find someone to walk with set yourself up with your favorite music, get an mp3 player, cd player or am/fm radio what ever and some earphones and go for it.  For the longest time I did audio books.  I would get them for free from the local library and I'd go walking with them.  I would get so involved in the story that I'd forget I was walking never mind that I was walking alone!

Miss bea-  Welcome and I would look on line for a hiking group there are lots of them out there.  Glad to see you and hubby are doing it together that is so helpful!  I love hiking wish I could do it more but I always need such a long recovery time.  (I get blisters every time and they are so painful)  Maybe when I get down  under 175 I will be able to do more of it.  I still try to walk/hike 2-6 miles a week usually on the weekend.  But I get more benefit on my elliptic because I don't need 2-3 days for my feet to recover.   3hours is awesome for hiking.  You can really drop the pounds if you do that consistently!

Cinzia2008 - Welcome and I love your no excuses mentality!  Ummm!  Wish I was better at that!  I will use anything.  Even baby fat that's over 15 years old!  Hope you find some encouragement and buddies here to encourage you all!  Check back frequently!

So now that I welcomed all the newbies (I hope I didn't miss anyone) heres to some of you "thread veterans"

Momof2funykds - Congrats on all the working out.  Yeah you should really measure though because your increases could be because muscle weighs more than fat and you are doing weights now and working out.  You may be just be doing some remodelling so to speak.  Doing your measurements just gives you another calculation to go by!  I love that I've lost 6 inches.  It is so motivating.  Even though I've only lost like 2-3 lbs I saw the change in the inches first and then the weight started coming off.  So Yeah definitely measure and by the way 3 cookies - not so bad!  If you count it  - it isn't cheating.  I like to think about it this way before cc I might have eaten the whole lot 10-12 cookies!  I don't think we should be so restrictive that we can't enjoy life!  Know what I mean.  Hubby got them for you so eating one or three in  love is nothing to feel guilty over.  Besides guilt is the path to the dark side! LOL!

JKPPT - Congrats to walking 45 minutes.  Are you on vacation think I missed that? If you are don't worry about your scale difference just focus on loss/gain and making mostly healthy choices.  Oh yeah and don't forget to live a little and enjoy your time with your friend! 

Stilltrying - Oh how I love food pushers!  They never go away!  We just have to get smarter in dealing with them.  Since your not working (TEACHER!) bringing them to work is out but I agree with the others give the kids a couple when MIL first brings them in and if you feel you can handle it and count them have one yourself.  However, after she leaves the trash is the best option!  Unless, you know of a skinny neighbor that needs them!  Then you can graduate to being a food pusher in your own right!  LOL!  When/If  MIL  all you need to say is "Oh, yes thank you so much the kids enjoyed them so much!"  She doesn't need to know they didn't eat them all! 

MissyKris1 - I hope you have recovered from your experience with your friends.  Don't let them get to you!  Some people wouldn't notice a snake if it bit them on the nose.  Your scale is telling you the truth and you know you've lost.  It doesn't matter if people are not attuned to it your body loves you for it!  You are getting healthier with each choice you make.   So keep going and don't let peoples poor observation and lack of attention to detail get you you down! 

There! I think I've got everyone!  and set a world record for longest forum response! LOL! 

Sooo!  I guess I'm not the only one.  I didn't even log in all weekend.  Nor weigh in on Monday.  I did do some walking over the weekend.  What with parking over a mile away to avoid the traffic jam after the fireworks.  I live Massachusetts but went to the fireworks in my ds girlfriends town.  Bristol RI.  It is a beautiful town but it is kind of a small thin isthmus so there are only two main roads which run parallel to each other to get out of there.  Makes for some really bad traffic after the parade or the fireworks.  It is well worth it though as it is right on the water and beautiful sunsets.  They have concerts in the park nearly every weekend and oh! sooo much to do.  Love that town.  Anyway had fun with all the teens!  Took my youngest son and 3 of his friends and met my oldest and his girl and her friend.  We got there early and walked quite a bit.  Then the next day we took a walk in Newport at the cliff walk.  Also very scenic water views (Oh how I love the ocean!)  Well the young ones didn't want to turn back so when I got home I had blisters all over my feet.  It was fun until about the last 2 miles.  We ended up doing 7 miles took us about 3 1/2 hours (mostly cause we were stopping to look at the beautiful scenery.  So I took Sun and Mon to recover.  I had 5 blisters on my feet!  I didn't log my food or anything this week end.  Anyway back to the gym I went Tues and today but I'm trying to figure out the new schedule.  That's the bad thing about the YMCA the schedule is always changing every eight weeks or so.  There is alot of campers and such so the lap swimming is severely restriced and crowded.  I got up at 6am today to see if that was a better time but there was 4 lanes and 2 people in nearly every lane!  But I got in 37 minutes and 48 laps anyway.  I would have done my usual 72 (1 mile) in 60 min had I not had to get back and get my youngest son up for summer school! 

Anyway hope all is going well with everyone!

I know you've had a lot of good responses already.  But I just wanted to suggest a website

http://www.mapmywalk.com/edit_workout

It is pretty cool because after you register (for free) you can log all your training in walking, gym workouts, swimming, running, biking, etc.  But the best thing about it is it has mapping tool you can actually start from your street and click and point your route to see exact amounts.  Once you create a route you can save it to your training.  By adding more stats like how long it took, you can get your pace either 2.0 mile or 3.0 mile or whatever.  It has a virtual pedometer so you could add the steps if you want but it calculates your calories also.  I weigh 202 and when I put in 1hour and 30 minutes and 2.7 miles it said I would have burned 213 when I put in 5330 steps (based on a 26 in stride length) it says I only walked 2.19 and burned 177.  The pace for the 2.7 miles in an hour and half was 2.09 the pace for the steps was 2.57.  So you see it really matters about your pace.  Even on cc you get different values for each pace.  Your weight is a big factor in the calculations.  You have to understand all these calculations are just estimates.  So you really have to determine what you want to do.  Take the higher estimate or the lower. 

Anyway all that to say check out the website.  I truly trust this website more than anything else.  And my working philosophy is as long as am consistent in where I take my figures and I'm losing weight then I'm ok.  If I find I'm not losing then I either cut my calories or go with a lower activity estimate.  

Ok! So I've been trying desperately to be positive about my progress.  But I feel like my progress came to a screeching halt when my car did!  So last week I was not feeling well on Tuesday so I didn't work out.  Wednesday was my regular day of rest plus my hubby came back from his nieces wedding and I knew he'd be leaving quickly for four months so I took it off!  Thursday I was planning on doing a work out but Then got in a car accident.  I had to spend the whole day on the phone working things out so that I'd have a rental to bring my hubby to the airport on Fri!  O.K. so now I'm in pain - the adrenaline wore off from Thursday and now my neck, back, hip and shoulder are killing me!  

Ok. so as far as progress with working out I'd give my self a 10% out of 100%,

Now on top of all this stupid stuff!  What with the wedding (plane tickets, spending money, etc.) the combination of graduations, birthdays and hubby having to get ready to leave for 4 months we are a little light in the wallet.  It will take a few weeks to get his military pay and sooooo. . .  my food choices this week have been severely limited! 

So here I am sit I've gained 2 lbs.  And oh yeah the one thing I could possibly still do without hurting my back and shoulder (though even this is debatable) is swimming and they drained the pool at my gym for maintainance this week. 

Saturday I tried walking but my right hip and low back hurt soooo bad I was limping like a cripple.  Here I was at this beautiful park by the ocean for a friend's birthday party and I couldn't even really enjoy it.  I was in pain!

I hope that I will get back to "normal" soon.  Oh and how stupid can a doctor be.  I went to the walk in clinic to see a doctor on Sat and the he suggested that possibly I have Fibromyalgia because I hurt all over.  UMMM!  I just used some guy's SUV to stop my car when I was going like 30 miles an hour!  Doesn't it make sense that I might hurt a little!

Oh, and one last thing.  Think I'm starting menopause because I'm like waiting for my period but it's like 1 week late and no sign of it.  Could that be why I feel like a wild cat ready to jump one anyone in sight!  My emotions are just out of control.  But I'm trying not to be too uptight, not sure I'm succeeding.

I guess my hubby is lucky he's gonna be gone til Oct.  He won't have to be around for the mood swings, hot flashes, etc that they say are sometimes a part of this time of life. 

Ok.  There I'm done complaining.  I promise next week or at the very least the week after I will be back to my old positive self.  But I just had to vent.  I'm not even going to measure myself of run my workout numbers and stuff.  Hope you all are doing better this week!

Oh, Welcome, mageeg - of course you can join us.  I will definitely add you to my friends list.  I would love to see some of your travel logs.  Japan How fun!

Yeah, I'm kinda for both.  Moderation is definitely a good thing. Maybe not because if you don't you'll die.  But think about it we can't live 24/7 in a state of high activity and no one wants to "have a boring life" either.  I think food, drink and fun all fall in this same category.  I mean balance in everything just plain makes you feel better.  If I am so restrictive with my diet that I can't have a desert once in a while then can I really call that living!  It just doesn't make sense to me.  But the idea of eating what is natural is appealing and feels healthy.  Personally, there is nothing so satisfying as fresh fruit that is in season.  Sweet juicy pineapple - or ripe just picked strawberries.  That can make me happy.  How wants to live on a diet of artificial sweetener or yo-yo's!  It's just not appealing.  The same thing with just our daily lives.  We need to get out there and do things that make us feel alive.  Enjoy ourselves at least once in awhile.  But I wouldn't want to go skydiving everyday, ya know what I mean.  Those boring days help us to enjoy more the days we do something more invigorating! That's my philosophy anyway!  A little bit of everything and just trying to enjoy it all! 

So here I am again on Monday weigh in day

I am still 202.6 - Unbelievable I am maintaining.  I am a modern day miracle that defies science.  I have been maintaining an average calorie deficit of between a 500-1000 daily.  But have not lost weight.  Think I'm going to change my setting to sedentary and see if that works.  Some how I feel this is not natural but I am eating just to get my calories in.  I love to work out and don't want to decrease my workouts but I am only hungry, I mean really hungry, right after my workouts.  I wake up and I'm not hungry but I eat anyways because it's supposed to start your metabolism.  At night I find myself eating just because my number of calories eaten is too low for my burn meter.  I don't know but it doesn't seem natural.  So maybe my burn meter is to high cause I'm not really burning as much as I think in daily activities. By running all my stats through a spread sheet I thought I had found my "magic number" but I've been maintaining my 500-600 cal deficit for 7 days now and pretty much been maintaining the same morning weight.  I dropped at one point last week to 201.3 but next day up to 202.4 then the next 203.4 So here I sit at 202.6!

OK Enough of that I am going to focus on my goals now!  

So here how I'm doing on my goals:  Work out 5-6 times a week doing - YES!

More specific workout goals

30 minutes of elliptic = 300 cal  = Distance goal  - 200 miles

5 TIMES THIS WEEK = 10.88 MILES BURNING 1561 CALORIES  = TOTAL DISTANCE SO FAR 50.85 MILES

30-60 minutes of swimming = 300-500 cal = Goal - make the 50 mile club

5 TIMES THIS WEEK = 4.75 MILES BURNING 2072 CALORIES- TOTAL DISTANCE SO FAR = 16.64 MILES

and 2 times a week strength/weight training for 1 hour

ADJUST THIS GOAL TO BE: DO ONE COMPLETE CIRCUIT ON MACHINES 2 x A WEEK  - WHICH I DID.  NOW THAT I KNOW THE MACHINES IT TAKES ME ONLY 40-45 MINUTES TO DO THE SAME AMOUNT I WAS DOING IN AN HOUR.  WHEN OR IF I GET IT DOWN TO 30 MINUTES I WILL DO 2 CIRCUITS

I will walk 4-8 miles a week = goal - 50 miles

WALKED 1X THIS WEEK AT MY FAVORITE BEACH - 5.24 MILES BURNED 427 CALORIES = TOTAL SO FAR = 27.66 MILES

I will keep my calories between 500 - 1000 calories under my BMR each day!

YES!

I will lose 30 lbs by Oct 18 (if I lost 2lbs a week I could lose 40 lbs by then but I'm only going for 30 lbs because I know I won't have all perfect weeks)

NO REAL WEIGHT LOSS YET!

I will work on bring down my BMI to under 30%

36.53%

I will work on getting my hip to waist ration down to .80%.

86%

I will lose inches from my measurements.  Don't really know how many cause I don't know how to judge realism on measurements? 

First measurements  chest 45, waist 43, hips 50, thigh 29, calves 17, biceps 15, forarm 10, wrist 6.75

This weeks measurements chest 45, waist 42 hips 48.75 thigh 28.5, calves 17, biceps 14.5, forearm 10.5, wrist 6.5 =  2.0  (I think my forearm was actually 11 last time but in my log I put 10 by mistake which would then make it 2.25 inches lost)

So there it is. 

Personal Victory this week: It's been kind of a lonely week with hubby and oldest son gone for the wedding and my beautiful daughter still in TX for college.  Youngest son slept over friends Fri and Sat and I sat around (aside from working out) and watched t.v. - not my best weekend but at least I didn't pig out or go over my deficit.  I did buy a giant Hershey chocolate bar (I couldn't resist it was only $.99)but can you believe I only at 4 squares at Fri night and 4 squares on Sunday afternoon and I counted them!  There is still nearly 3/4 of that chocolate bar in the freezer.  Bless my soul I THINK THAT IS PROGRESS!   Long ago and far away I would have eaten the whole bar Fri night and then gone back to buy two more!  Even if I'm not showing it on the scale I am definitely changing inside.  MUCH MORE IMPORTANT Don't you think!

Obsessing about calories and counting calories is not the same thing.  If you take the time to make healthy choices, some would call that obsession, I don't.  I ask myself not only what's the caloric value but is it good for me.  If it's is unhealthy then I usually can't enjoy it without guilt so I try to remember that when I order.  If it is healthy then I'm able to relax and enjoy it.  As far as thinking about it all the time.  I think that is part of the being aware.  If we aren't thinking about it then we put things in our mouth that are not good for us or for our journey to weight loss.  I think the area of concern is probably more in your mind set about weigh loss.  I have been thinking of this as a way to get healthy.  I lost my Dad to diseases directly attributed to weight. Diabetes and Kidney failure, heart disease.  If he had lost the weight before his kidneys failed I think he would still be alive today.  I've been going down that same road.  I'm 45 now and it struck me that when my Dad found out about his diabetes he was 45 and he was over 200lbs.  When I looked at the my own scale tipping 210 lbs.  I said that's it.  I'm not going there.  I am doing this to be healthy.  I don't want to see how much cake or high fat foods I can eat without gaining a pound.  I want to make healthy choices for my life.  So I will be around to see my kid's get married and their kid's graduate and so on.  It puts a little more balance prospective on the whole thing.  I'm not losing to fit into that bikini by July 4th, etc.  I think it is a mind set that makes us obsess.

welcome rachelhurbert,

Hope you will get that last 10 lbs.  I know it can be hard but keep on working at it.  It will work.  Anyway welcome to the thread.

Another cool sight for figuring out you miles per hour etc. is  http://www.mapmywalk.com

I love this site and log all my workouts on it.  It does swimming, running, biking, etc.  And if you don't know the miles it uses a satellite mapping technology that will let you get to the street level and plot your course so you can figure it out.  Pretty cool  The tools for distance/time and calories burned are under my training.  But you will have to register to get started. 

Welcome Blooferry and morrighu,

Glad to have you all in the group.  But um. . since I first posted I measured myself.  I am actually 5.2.5.  I guess I shrunk or something!  I knew it wasn't acturate but there it is. 

Impatiences can be the enemy as well as unrealistic goals.  Insensitive family members and friends should think twice.  Lose the weight at a sensible rate and it will stay off.  It is unrealistic to think you should be at 12% body weight since anything 18% is considered underweight (as in unhealthy)  I suggest that you take a look around this site at some articles that will help you with your weight loss goals.  There is so much information here and it is the best possible way to do it.  I hope you will find a healthy focus that will stay with you forever even after you lose your weight.  Here is a website with some calculators and formulas that will help you.  They have Body Mass Index Charts and calculators to with advise about how to help yourself achieve your goals. Hope it helps http://www.bmi-calculator.net/

Hey, It's Monday weigh in day.  Here's mine:

Goal Weight: 131

Startng Weight: 210

Beginning Weight when joining CC: 207

Last weigh in:  202.5

This week:  202.5

Loss/Gain:  none

Non Weight Goals:  Working out 5X a week:

By October achieve (when my husband gets back from military training)

50 miles swimming:  11.89 miles so far!

200 miles on elliptic trainer:  41 miles so far!

and 50 miles walking or hiking, 22.42 miles so far!

and do "strength" training with weights 2 days a week:  1 hour twice this week!  abs machines and hip abductors and adduction machine 5 days

Eat healthier:  Ok progress - eating lots more veges and fruit, but still sometimes indulging in sweet treats which may be sabatoging my weight loss. 

Personal Victory this week I went to an all day graduation party this weekend and only had one piece of cake and a small little cup of ice cream. I avoided all the breads, pastas and high calorie foods I usually eat and ate lots of fruit, veges and probably 2oz of chicken. 

How about you all?  Any loss any victories?  What were your challenges