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

I survived the freshman fifteen but lost out to the sophomore slump, so keep yourself on your toes.

Yay for our fun group =)

That leg exercise sounds great, hharris. Really funny too! I'll probably be trying it out tonight.

I had a lot of sodium this weekend, and definitely averaged at a higher calorie intake. But I didn't stop exercising! Haha it was great, I probably spent 5-6 hours every day walking at a pretty serious pace, and in hot, sweaty weather. It felt good to say the least.

I hope your prom went well =) Dancing is super fun, and you really get that last breath of high school. Verrrrry fun!

That's too bad about your ankle, Brenda. I'm sure you'll be back in action soon, just so long as your don't stress it. Best of luck!

Haha sophomore slump, I like that. It sounds appropriate!

Haha, not as fun as it sounds. Through the tail end of my second year I slowly gained about 20 pounds. When I got home I was 200 lbs and I realised that I really wasn't looking as good as I wanted. I've dropped down to 189 though, in about a months effort.

Everyone: Prom was amazing :) Thanks for asking. My dress fit perfectly and I look really slim in all the pictures, I danced like crazy for 5 hours with my date, who was absolutely a blast to be with, and I didn't go crazy on pizza and wings at the after party! Wooo. It was such a great night and I'm so happy about it :)

Now I just have to work on getting to 110 before my graduation pool party! Hehe that's my next mini goal. I'm so happy, I'm well on my way! :)

Good luck everyone. P.S. what do you guys usually do in terms of strength training? I've been doing a lot of planks because I can do them at home. I hear that crunches aren't really effective but I just want to lose my tummy fat! What do you guys usually do?

I do freeweights and calisthenics - I also do a few of the weighted machines at the gym. Its amazing what you can do with a set of 8lb freeweights though :) (yeah, I'm a weightlifting n00b. Cut me some slack ;D)

For the tummy, I know my facility has this one piece of eqipment I use... it has like a back and arms and you hold on to the arms of it and lift your legs up to your chest. Its a tall machine so you're off the floor... sort of like a pull-up but just your lower body. That really helps my tummy! :) Also, I do plank and a lot of crunches. Just depends on what gives you that burn :D

And I'm glad you had a blast at prom, Laf! You'll have to post a pic of your pretty dress if you took some :)

My sophomore slump was pretty similar! But it was because of the drinking. Party party party in residence, and then out of residence once I turned 19. Ah well, those days have passed, and I know that's why I'm feeling so much better now.

I would KILL to have a pool party to go to! Hehe that would be so much fun! Man, I can't wait until I have a chance to go swimming outdoors... it's by far my favourite form of summer exercise because it's refreshing. Sports are great, but the sun really wears you out!

And hharris, weightlifting n00bs unite! I'd rather be new to weightlifting than be the old me, who was teeeerrrrrified of picking up a weight. 8lb freeweights are the real deal, for all you doubters.

I sprained my ankle when I drunkenly missed a few steps at a party on Saturday. I landed on all fours and stayed on the floor laughing so hard because I fell in front of EVERYONE that mattered. You know its a good party when someone ends up on crutches, I suppose. JK!

...What are planks??

PS. This is waaaay hot.

http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1755972/

Haha, brenda that sounds like something I would do.  

I think I have a set of 8 pound weights at home that I bought yeaaars ago...I might have to dig those out.  

I did pretty well this weekend, except for Friday.  It was my friend's last night, so we hung out at the lake until about 3:30 a.m., then decided to go to Burger King where I got a sundae shake (oh, what sleep deprivation does to judgement...).  Then we went to the beach to watch the sun rise and went swimming!  The water was freeeeeezing!  It was worth it though...so fun, and a great send off for my friend!  Saturday I was really good all day and even did pretty well when we went out to eat Saturday night.  I was good all day yesterday too.

Okay, stupid question, but if I got an unsweetened tall iced tea at starbucks, that's 0 calories, right?

http://exercise.about.com/od/abs/ss/abexercis es_10.htm

That'll show you what planks look like! Variations include balancing from the side instead of on your forearms. Just lay on your side, then lift yourself up and hold with one arm. Either keep the arm straight, or balance on your forearm. Try keeping your other arm straight out.

That's a great way to improve your balance, and oh baby feel the burn.

Ahhhhh haha, those pictures were HILLARIOUS. I'm wondering why it was all guys though... girls too proud to send in their pictures?

Brenda - Lol! I've fallen down drinking a few times :P hehe, well, I'm sorry you got hurt, and I hope it gets better quick!

Jecca - 8lb weights rule! lol. I took a weight-training course like a year ago and learned all sorts of good exercises with them =) I do mostly arm and back stuff.

Carrie - Sounds like a good last night out with a friend. You've got to treat yourself occasionally, right? And if you went swimming you probably burned a lot of it off anyway :)

Haha, did I say swimming?  I meant about five minutes of walking/jumping around in the freezing cold water, trying to avoid being splashed, thinking why am I doing this, this is completely nuts, now I'm going to have to walk 20 minutes back to my dorm soaking wet, but this is freaking amazing!  And then my friend noticed that my arms were turning blue, so we got out, lol.

Carrie - Lol, well that's fun at any rate =D

Everyone almost ready for weigh-in tomorrow? :)

I've been hideous about my workout routine - got a bad blister at that music festival over the weekend and it was making it painful to walk. Seems better today, so I'm going to go try and run and all this evening :D

I'm making sure to drink lots of water today... scale, here I come!

I fell off the wagon recently! Yesterday I was up to 1100 calories and I was going to hang out with my boyfriend so I said to myself, "if he suggests we go out for ice cream I can get a small cone of fat free and be ok". So he did and he took me to this AMAZING ice cream parlor that makes belgian waffles with ice cream. He ordered and got a large waffle with 4 scoops of ice cream (all full fat), oreos, and hot fudge. OMG it was amazing. We didn't eat the whole thing, between us we ate about half but I swear it was 1000 calories.

Today I planned on eating really light, I didn't get to log all day and just ate when I was hungry I guess and I wound up at 1400 calories. Not that bad but I usually try to keep it closer to 1300 on days I don't work out.

I hope I'm ok for the weigh in, I'll be sure to drink lots of water!

Heh well I haven't really been going out of my way to drink lots of water today, but I usually drink water with every meal, so I should be okay.  I hate drinking my calories.  Also...it's TTOM...yay :/.  Oh well, I guess we'll see how it goes...:)

Update!

I'm now down to 187 pounds. I came home (from the previously mentioned sophomore slump) about 200 lbs, and started counting at 195. That means I've lost eight pounds and have seven left to reach my goal of 180.

So basically, I've lost more then I have left to lose. Good feeling.

Allright, well, my thing is to weigh myself first thing in the morning when I get up. (That way there's less variance from food and such).  I went to work out last night for about an hour and 40 mins :)

And the verdict is...

132.5lbs (note: TTOM)

Goal for next week: 131.0lbs or better ;)

*EDIT: Down 1.5lbs from 134.0lbs last Wednesday :)

Way to go, Matty! :D Finally hitting that 1/2way point was a HUGE relief for me too :) You're doing great! Keep it up :)