Fending off The Freshman Fifteen...

For those in college, or those quickly approaching it, beware!!! The Freshman Fifteen - the bane of college calorie counters everywhere - is ready to take a new group of victims on campuses nationwide this fall!

For those who have felt the pain of the 15lbs of cafeteria food, hanging out in the dorm, not having your highschool extracurriculars, and just being too darned lazy to get out and about, join me in losing that weight! :) As an upcoming junior in college, i'm still waging war against the last 10lbs - who's with me?!?

*EDIT*

August 4th, 2008

To anyone just seeing this topic, please know that you're still welcome to join us! There are voluntary weigh-ins each Wednesday if you're interested. Whether you're headed to college, in it, or leaving it we're happy to have you! :D

Hey guys! Sorry I've been MIA a few days.

Carrie - Congrats on 146.6!! :D You're really close, then! I bet you'll be there by next week! I lost some during the whole moving process just because, even though it doesn't seem like it, its a HUGE workout moving all of your stuff! As far as the alcohol question went, I think it depends on the proof. I tried the screwdrivers last weekend :) 3 of them, and I only kept the water weight on a day or two.

Lea - Hooray! Are you all moved in now? :) How do you like it??

Meagan - Sam goes about the moving being a good workout :P Well, no worries about the eating out a lot, just try and get back into the swing of things when you get back :D And congrats on maintaining through all of that! That's definitely a challenge.

I wonder if Julie will be back? :)  

WEIGH IN:

 123.0lbs

Weight Goal for next week: Maintain between 120-125 (I think this'll be a decent range.)

Work-Out Goal for next week: Walk at least 1mile/day with backpack on campus + swim, rock climb, or run 3x! :)

Down 1.5bs from 124.5lbs last Wednesday

Work-Outs since last Wednesday: 1x doing 45-40-15 + 1x doing 30 mins on elliptical + 1x swimming + Walking allllll over campus

The additional weight loss hasn't exactly been intentional. I'm still eating my 1200cal/day, but its so that on weekends, I can have a few drinks or go out to eat on occasion. (Last week I went to Buffalo Wild Wings and had some ultimate nachos, and last night i went to Olive Garden and had 1 breadstick/salad/grilled salmon/broccoli.) I guess its just my body getting used to all of this walking everywhere! But that's good, I s'pose :) Its been harder to get to the gym as I've had SO much homework already, but tomorrow is supposed to be pretty and sunny, and I'm going to try and make it to the gym/pool if I can! Woo hoo! :D  

Heather, congrats on 123!!  At least now you're solidly between 120 and 125.  If you keep dropping though, you might want to think about increasing your calorie intake - I haven't heard of that many people maintaining on 1200 cal/day, especially if they're working out and stuff.

I just ran a half an hour in the rain :D.  It was a little harder than I expected...it was only 65 degrees and overcast, but I forgot about the humidity!!  Oh well, I got it done! :)  I think it was about 4.5 or 4.75 km.

Alright guys I weighed in this morning at 115.4 which is pretty much maintaining.I'm satisfied with that but I want to start losing again. Today I ate out for basically all meals and I don't feel good, but I think I made good choices.

 

My boyfriend wanted to have breakfast before I left so I got an "egg taco". It was egg whites, peppers, onions, and cheddar cheese in a whole wheat wrap. The thing was huge so I only ate half. My boyfriend got "cinnamon bun" french toast - SO delicious. I had way too many bites of that :-P

For lunch I packed a lunch but we stopped because my parents wanted to so I got a TCBY frozen yogurt - small is 110 cals and SO delicious. The lunch I packed was an applesauce, a yogurt, and a turkey and avocado sandwich. 

Dinner we went to this thai restauraunt and I got pineapple and tofu in a curry sauce. The sauce was not creamy so it couldn't have been too bad. There were also lots of veggies. Would have been a lot better except they fried my tofu! Grr I was mad.

Afterwards we took a long walk and I ended up getting a small frozen yogurt at yo-berry. (www.yo-berry.com - super yummy AND good for you!)

So I had 3 yogurt products today but I think considering I did pretty well, what do you think?

Hey guys!

So I'm still trying to catch up on everything that I've missed. I feel like I need to pull an all-nighter to see what's been happening! Haha that being said, I can see some REALLY positive comments from everyone and I want to say congrats to you all for staying motivated!

I was having a hard time keeping the balance between mindful nutrition and scary obsession. My boyfriend was a little worried about me and it's strange, my self-esteem seemed to plummet when I got it into my head that I needed to lose weight. I'm goal-oriented and just wanted to find a challenge, but it became more than healthy interest.

Anywho, I still eyeball my calories everyday and workout as often as I can. I weighed in today at 128 and I've been fluctuating between 126 and 129 for the past 3 weeks or so, so I'm feeling really good about that. Coming back onto CC was a reward I actually set up for myself haha... once I started feeling okay with the way I looked and not wanting to look like pictures that I *know* are air-brushed but still really want to emulate, you know? It's stupid but I think I have those feelings in check.

All that being said, summer has been great! I had a lot of fun going hiking and swimming with friends. I just moved back to university town so the past week has been SUPER hectic and busy... it's my first apartment, and I'm sharing it with my boyfriend, so we've had a lot of shopping and stuff to do. The great thing is I've been cooking INSANELY good meals and he is totally game for the health food. Like, I put ground flax seeds and wheat germ in his smoothies and he knows enough to say "mmmmm" =P

Oh I finally bought my own scale, and here's a funny story. I wanted one with a body fat tester thingy, and I saw this one that showed more than your weight and it was like $60, so I thought "that must be the one!". I buy it. Turns out it's a weight-loss tracker. You put in your goals and it keeps track of your progress for you, and tells you your BMI. I mean really, I can tell my bmi with a calculator! Yeesh.

Carrie - you're right. I made my calorie average for this week, which was 1400/day, and I'm going to try to keep it around that :) I'm at a good place right now and this is where I want to stay! :D If I end up doing a lot of extra exercise, I might up it to 1500/day average, but I will see how this regimen treats me :) Kudos on the run!! :)

Lea - Congrats on maintaining :) It sounds like you're still eating really healthily, which is great :D And mmm... wish there was a TCBY around here!!

Julie - Well I'm really glad to see that you're back and feeling better :) And  I'm glad your boyfriend is watching out for you. (Mine keeps an eye on me in the same way... Just keeps reality in perspective.) Way to go on the weight too! Sounds like you're doing pretty well without keeping track of every last calorie :) (Which is the way it ought to be! :D) The apartment sounds like fun! :) I'm back at mine, in school. Woo hoo! :P And that's great that the BF is good with the nutrition. As far as the scale goes, I went to walmart and got one by Taylor for $25 that does body fat %age and water %age and (of course) weight. The only downside is that it weighs by .5's, so I feel like its inaccurate sometimes, and it'll just skip down a bunch of numbers occasionally. Maybe you could return it and find a better one for your money?

julie- yeah try returning that. i just bought the weight watchers scale that reads bf, weight, bmi, bone mass and water density today for school. i move in tomorrow so im gonna wait to use it!!!

lea- congrats on maintaining and i wish you the best of luck on moving in!!!!

heather- just keep monitoring. i've noticed even with all my goodbye dinners, lunches, breakfasts i've just been makign healthy selections and my weights been fine. i hope all the walking around campus will do me good too when i move in!!!

as for me... im off to a concert. oh boy... drinking entails. we shall see how this goes. good luck everyone!!

Hey all!

  Sorry I've been gone. My boyfriend came out on saturday and since then I've taken a vacation from CC because since I'm home I want to eat what Mom serves and we've been going out a lot. So I've tried to make good decisions while not feeling restrained and it seems to be working out pretty well because I was 155 this morning so up 1 pound from a week ago. Anyways we're driving from Washington to Michigan this coming week with lots of camping snacks involved so I'm going to have fun and then get back on the plan when I get to school and control what I eat again.

Heather~ I actually wasn't trying to maintain at 154..I'm still trying to lose, but I think my plan for when I do hit my goal weight (145) will just be to up the calories to 1800-1900 a day but we'll have to see how that goes.

I love this group and I can't wait to start counting again (but still am enjoying my little vacation) :)

Michelle

I'm having a really easy time counting in college. There's SO many healthy options at the dining hall it's absurd. And it's like a "pay for what you get type thing" so if I wanted a cookie it's not free - I have to BUY it. That will make me think more about the deserts! There's always a tofu vegetarian option (and I've recently discovered my love for tofu). The other day it was sweet and sour tofu and then it was mediterranian tofu which was a tofu like...fillet topped with some kind of bruschetta. Both low enough in cals while still being delicious. Then there's an amazing salad bar. There's tofu (again), grilled salmon, hard boiled eggs - good protein things to put in a salad and the dressing options are really good.

I've decided to become a pescatarian. I already don't eat red meat so I thought it might kind of a nice like...challenge to see if I can cut out chicken too. Plus there are way more "bad" chicken options than anything else. I'm hoping this might shock my system into losing. The only scale around is at the gym...I kind of want to buy one but I'm on a very strict budget right now. I only have so much and I want to wait a couple weeks to see what I'm spending before I buy something expensive. But when I do get one, I want to get one of the body fat kinds.

I hope my weight's not changing (or if it is changing it's going down) but I can't really tell because I don't have a scale...I'll still try and weigh in on wednesdays. I have a gym in my building! It's going to be so great! Plus there's a HUGE campus with ridiculous amounts of walking and stairs - so I should definitely stay in shape. Plus, I'm having fun.

My first night I had a good time but actually kept the alcohol in my calorie limits. I had 1900 cals to play with yesterday, I ate 1500 of good nutritious food (no treats, just good stuff) and then I had like 3ish shots and a grapefruit juice chaser. I drank a ton of water and I'm not even bloated! YAY!

Hey guys! :)

Hope you had fun at the concert, Megan!

Michelle, everyone needs a break once in a while :).  Glad you're enjoying it!

Lea, your dining hall sounds awesome!  I'm jealous, lol.  And you have a gym in your building!  Double jealous.  I'm so glad you're having a good time!!

I went down to Denison University (that's in Columbus, OH) Saturday night with a friend, and that was fun.  It made me want to go back to school.  So Saturday I was really good all day, and then the drinking.  Of course, lol.  But it wasn't too bad, I just had some vodka and some franzia.  And the franzia was so gross that I didn't drink very much of it.  Then Sunday I was really good all day too, until we went over to my uncle's for a family birthday party.  Cake and ice cream...mmm :).  Overall I didn't do too terribly, though.  I'm not too torn up about it.  

Now I just got back from a run and I feel great!!  Shower time :).

Hi Kayla :).  First of all, at 5'2" and 107.8 pounds, you're definitely not fat!  My advice is forget about the scale and focus on being healthy.  Focus on eating healthy (and enough) foods.  Make exercise a priority; it does wonders for stress too.  Stress also releases hormones that makes your body store fat, so maybe that has something to do with it.  

I know it can be hard adjusting, but things will get better!!  If you can, join some kind of club or team.  That'll do wonders for the social life.  Oh, and those perfectly thin sorority girls running around eating pizza are probably throwing it up later ;).

Good luck with everything!! :) 

 

Hey everyone!
I'm Lizzy and I'm starting school up in Rhode Island at the end of this week. It's art school and I'm ready for intense studio hours (8-12, break, 1-5) but I'm not ready for my new eating schedule! I know I must go to the freshman cafeteria to make friends and everything but I'm not going to be eating any real food there.. well I'll be eating the fruits and veggies.
I'm thinking.. only eat raw foods from the cafeteria. And I can cook for myself the rest of the time.
I LOVE cooking.. it's awesome. I'm staying in a house with about 15 other people and it has a kitchen and is a little far away from the freshman dorm complex.. and on a hill.
So I'm really ready to fend off those freshman fifteen, don't you think? If anyone has ideas on planning out my meals according to the crazy college schedule, drop a comment.. I'll be so thankful!
Weigh in tomorrow.. whoo-whoo

And I'm vegetarian too forgot to add that. :)

Hi guys. I weighed in at 107 even this morning so hopefully thats a sign of things to come... Although today I've already eaten 1220 calories and its only 6 lol. I just feel like crap and I tend to snack more when I have a headache... I am headed to the gym though for a 20 20 20 class. It's 20mins cardio, 20mins weights, 20 mins abs, usually. I'll probably burn about 300 so I'm thinking about making my intake today 1500, which would bring me at about 1200.

Hoping the extra food won't make the scale jump up tommorow :)

Hey Lizzy!!  That is a crazy schedule!  The only thing I would say is to make sure you eat breakfast, and take some healthy snacks to your studio hours with you if you can, because that's a long time to go without food.  It would be for me at least, lol.

Kayla, congrats on 107! :)

So I weighed in at 146.8 today, up from 146.6 last week.  Now I know what everyone means about the last ten pounds being the hardest...it's like for every week my weight drops, it goes up for the next two, then down for one, up for two, etc.  I guess we'll see if the trend continues next week.  

Thanks for the advice!
Carrie- One way that seems to make sense to me to help get rid of the last 10 is fluctuating your calorie intake by day.. So say one day you have 1600 calories, the next day you could shock your system with 1200 calories and the next day go back to 1600, then the next day make sure to make up the calories you didn't eat the second day with 1800 calories and so forth. I'm not sure your daily caloric intake but I just used those numbers for example. The idea is to keep your body guessing.. It won't go into starvation mode after one day and you have that day to resume normal calories.
Keep trucking though! You can do it!

Weighed in at 130 today. Wee!

Lizzy that's interesting...actually I had just been wondering if after three months of dieting my body had adjusted to the amount of calories I'm eating, because it hasn't varied a whole lot over that period of time.  The only thing is I don't know if I can eat only 1200 calories a day.  I have a feeling that if I tried cycling, I would definitely eat 1800 cals on my high days, but I don't know if I'd do so well on the 1200 cal days.  Also, I tend to do better when I get into a routine.  So I think I might just stick with my 1500 cals a day, try and be a little stricter, and just accept that the last ten take longer than the first :/.

WEIGH IN:

124.0lbs

Weight Goal for next week: Maintain between 120-125

Work-Out Goal for next week: Walk at least 1mile/day with backpack on campus + swim, rock climb, or run 3x! :)

Up 1.0bs from 123.0lbs last Wednesday

Work-Outs since last Wednesday: 1x doing 45-40-15 + 1x doing 30 mins on elliptical + Walking at least 1mi per day 5x week w/ 30lb backpack

Well, I seem to be maintaining pretty well :) Just a lot of extra food at labor day! At least the walking seems to be balancing out my 1400cal/day now. Sorry I've not been around a lot this week. I'll be sure to get on later and write a bit more :) Welcome to all of the newcomers!

Guys I had a really good/bad night last night. I think I'm starting to develop a really unhealthy relationship with food because I am SO SCARED of the freshman fifteen. It's all like, relatives or family friends say to me (oh you're going to be a freshman, better watch the beer, don't want to gain weight, heh heh). I decided to be a pescatarian and not eat chicken (I already didn't eat red meat) just so I wouldn't have to worry about FRIED chicken. The food is really healthy here and I don't think I'm eating enough of it. Last night I did something really bad. I kept my food calories to 1000 (with work out) so I could go out and have as much alcohol as I wanted. And I did. 1 gigantic red cup of rum and diet coke (I didn't measure the rum but it was a lot), one red cup of vodka and diet coke (this one I was more aware of and it couldn't have been more than 2 shots worth), and a beer during kings - I was trashed. I didn't eat enough food, I drank WAY too much for my small frame - even if I did eat enough. I got back to the room and I felt like such crap. There was no food in the room because I rid the room of snacks to avoid snacking when I'm not hungry. I wanted to make my eating purposeful, like there is nonfat yogurt in the cafeteria, but if I want some, I want to have to walk there. I want to have to walk to have a bowl of cerael. But here I was, 2 am in my room, STARVING and drunk. It was not good, that's the last time I'll ever be doing that. I came in with a defecit, but it wasn't worth it. Next time I'll limit my alcohol, and I'll eat enough, and if I come in at maintenance - so be it. I've been to the gym EVERY day. I've made points to walk extra. I've eaten salads with tofu for almost every meal. The way my meal plan is is VERY conducive to this because it's not all you can eat cookies or ice cream - you have to PAY for everything you eat. The food is healthy and I'm happy about it. The other day there was stir fry on an oilless grill - so veggies and shrimp steamed in WATER with a little sauce - perfect! something I'd make for myself. I'm just not getting enough calories.

Anyway, rant over. I feel like crap. 

Lea - I'm really sorry about the bad night :( If its any consolation, everyone does that once. Look, try what I'm doing maybe. Keep a larger defecit during the week, (I assume you're still maintaining, right?), and then eat it (or drink it) back on the weekends/1 or 2 nights a week. Think about all of the extra walking you're doing! Just keep up the working out a few nights a week, and try not to worry.

Now, when it comes to the drinking itself:

Drinking on an empty stomach is BAD news. The best thing you can do is eat a couple pieces of wheat bread, so that you've got something filling in your stomach. 1 piece per 1 drink is generally a pretty good rule of thumb. You can have 3 pieces for 150cal, and its going to fill you up - try double fiber. Ok, if you're making your own drinks, try someting frozen but relatively low cal. A frozen screwdriver can be pretty good =) Just put some OJ in the freezer a few hours before the party (in a container that won't bust), and mix it in a blender with the alcochol when you're ready to drink. They last longer, and you won't be drinking as much. The goal is to MAINTAIN your buzz without overdoing it. Limit yourself to like 1 drink every 45 mins. A shot of vodka is ~100cal, and 8oz of OJ is ~100cal. So figure a solo cup size is probably around 350? Frozen, those take a while to drink. Just have 2 of them and stay awayyyyy from the beer! :) If you want to make a big batch with friends, try making them from frozen concentrate! When you've finished your 2 drinks, start drinking water. 1 bottle per drink. All a hangover is is severe dehydration (think about how much you have to pee when you've been drinking...) and if you keep water in your body, you won't have those effects. Also, the weight will come back off easier if you stay hydrated.

As for the munchies, keep a loaf of that bread in your room. It'll be good for you and with ~50cal per slice, you're not going to get into major trouble calorically. If you accidentally go over what you've saved up for the weekend, don't worry or beat yourself up! Just hit the gym an extra time the next week :)

Don't let food dominate your life. You started this to take charge of your health and your body. Now, its time to take charge of your mind and to stay HEALTHY! :) You've worked so hard, and you deserve this! /hug

 

Carrie - I had a instance like that back in June where my body caught up to me. I ended up having to cycle my calories - 1200 on weekdays, 1500 on weekends, so that my metabolism wouldn't crumble like that again. I'd definitely reccomend doing the cycling. It'll cause you to gain for about 2 weeks, but its very worth it to be able to lose again!!! :)