Four Week Club - Starting Monday, April 14th? - WE ARE CLOSED! (Start at post 47!)

Original Post: 

What the hell, right?  Instead of a goal of losing a certain amount, I wanted to try supporting for time, not a number.  Try a short term goal based on shaping behavior, not necessarily specific results.  

(That being said, I'm aiming for a pound every three or four days.)

Me, today:  6 ft 1 / Currently: 203 Pounds / Goal Weight: 185 Pounds

Who wants to ride out a month together?

Weigh ins on Monday and Thursday mornings?  Starting Monday April 14th and ending on Monday, May 12th?

Okay!  We are good to go!  I'll start us off with the caveat that I'll edit my weigh in tomorrow morning when I get up.  It could be higher, courtesy of my little hot dog debacle earlier today.

Our group includes:

Marmel13 (me), Angelaraja, jbshakedown, hepburn5, bohdan, msallen, elairda, mortalmonkey, marekat, fairwishes27, zephyrdame, iddings, losetheweight32, burgessjk, tracy_rishor, immom, eileneg, dayummy, wordwife, akdawn, emschwab, dutch_girl, teanybeany, allabout91, bpcrue, meganeast, ness6377, knittingarch, jjlewis305, and stuhrjr06.

And now, my stuff:

     Day 1 Weigh-In:  Monday, April 14th

     Marmel13:  203.5 pounds  (I gained a half pound over night.  WTF?)

Game plan for today:

Not drink at work.  KIDDING!

Workout:   Up at 6:45 for today's weigh in. 

Then, off to the gym for half hour of 4.0 mile per hour treadmill, then half hour of basic health club workout with a trainer.  Estimate for that, I can add 450 calories to the burn total, which gives me 2800 calories to subtract from today.

Will aim for between 1600 and 1900 calories in.

Challanges for me, today:

Up early for work out and work, always adds the time and space for an extra meal.  Am writing in a room with other people, which means snacks everywhere.  Plus, then I go into an editing bay for four hours - with nothing but crackers and crap to eat.

Need to remember to drink water, not soda and not eat crap, just because I'm bored.

 

Monday April 14th weigh in:  155.2lbs.  Which means I lost 1 whole pound since last week.  I'm good with that.  Total of 5lbs. lost in about two and a half weeks so I'm happy.

Monday EXERCISE GOAL:  Meet up with some other Mom's at the park and do some brisk walking with the kiddos.  COMPLETED---45 MINUTES!  Very proud of myself for doing that in the early morning.

FOOD GOAL: Limit my sugar intake----NO MINI MARSHMALLOWS TRACY!! SERIOUSLY..NO!!  More fruits and veggies today.

Ok, I won't be able to weigh in until this evening, because I had to be at work too early. Soo I'll go to the gym after work and check then. I am noooot looking forward to this weigh-in though, because I spent the weekend in Hilton Head (with aforementioned super-metabolism boyfriend) and I ate the world. So. starting over I guess, but that's ok. I am so ready to do this.

see you this evening.

Monday: April 14

Weigh-in this morning: 130lbs.  :[  Which means inhaling candy at that sleepover 2 nights ago was a bad idea. :[ :[

 

Exercise Goal

My usual routine of

50 sit ups

15 side sit ups on each side

200 russian twists

30 secs of TV time

10 pushups

20 curls (like, a sit up, but you lie on your back!)

20 leg drops

50 leg sissors on each side

100 bicycles

use the treadmill for 10-15 mins OR

50 extend hydrants

50 side hydrants

50 lift hydrants

 

Food Goal

bowl of Kix for brekkie

Some of my mom's chicken leftovers for lunch.  ^^ (yum!)

Whatever my mom makes for dinner.

Apple if I need a snack!

AVOID SNACKING AT MY FRIEND'S HOUSE TODAY!! =O

So, I saw I wasn't on Marmel13's list, but I assume I was just forgotten (sigh, hee hee) since I did make the cut before Sunday evening.

Anyway, I had a crazy weekend with too much drinking (Damn you Gin!)

Which lead to bad eating and little to no exercise, plus it so ridiculously hot that I literally drank 2.5 gallons of water yesterday (to combat hot weather and a hangover.)

Somehow the scale managed to show a .8 weight loss.

178.2 lbs this morning (but I think I was just dehydrated.)

Here's to working out today!

Congrats to everyone so far, I think we are all doing terrific (even with a few setbacks!)

April 14th weigh in: 225.8 lbs (just getting started so we'll see how I do for next week)

Goal:

1. take in 1300 to 1400 calorie
2. drink at least 8 glasses of water
3. eat my "healthy" snacks
4. smaller portions - smaller bites
5. eat slowly- (i always finish before everyone at the table)

Good Luck everyone!

 

OKay so  I just bought a working scale yesterday and when I weighed in yesterday I was 197 but as of today...........................

 

MONDAY APRIL 14.......5'7'' 194.2 lbs

TODAY'S MANTRA: "Today I will be as healthy and active as possible"

EXCERCISE: Fat burning pilates workout video, some jump rope  and major house cleaning.

EATING: as many fruit and veggies as possible. today's goal is to cut off eating at 9pm and to not linger in the kitchen between 6 and 9. I will drink water and eat gum after dinner!!!!!! :)

GO TEAM HEALTHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU GUYS ARE GREAT LOOKING FORWARD TO SKINNY US :)

I weighed myself just now on my neighbors scale. It measured a 6 pound drop from last Monday to today.

That means I went from about 231 to about 225.

I question the accuracy of that scale though, so I'll wait til tomorrow morning when I weigh myself on my scale at home.

 

Original Post by bpcrue:

Everyone should remember that your body will fluctuate weight daily.  Lots of different variables. That's why weighing should be done once a week at the same time of day under the same circumstances... Compare your weights between Monday to Monday and Thursday to Thursday to get an apples to apples comparison.

Hear, hear!  I actually plan to only weight myself on Mondays.  I'll still be here for support on Thursdays, but I find it makes me happier to see my week to week results instead of every few days.   

I try to be so healthy with my diet. Eating raw foods and lots of protein, but as soon as 8pm rolls around, there's no telling WHAT i will do.

Honestly, I feel like a monster: a vampire or a wolverine or some other ravenous creature that only comes out at night. In Buffy (my favorite TV show of all time) Oz (a wolverine) had to chain himself up during full moons. I honestly feel this way. Last night i ate a 1/2 quart of ice cream and about 1 dozen cookies. Of course then I couldn't sleep all night. Do I need to get locks for my cupboards that only activate when the sun goes down?

Other issue I have been facing lately: underestimating calories. It is my new resolution to be more generous with my guesses, but I still have a sneaking suspicion I am still fooling myself. Any good strategies you all have for not sabotaging yourself, one way or another?

Hello everyone!

April 14th weigh in: 221.6lbs

Goal for today:

• drink plenty of water
• eat smaller portions
• eat the snacks
• calorie intake 1300-1400

Check back with everyone on Thursday, if not sooner!

Original Post by elairda:

Last night i ate a 1/2 quart of ice cream and about 1 dozen cookies. Of course then I couldn't sleep all night. Do I need to get locks for my cupboards that only activate when the sun goes down?

Other issue I have been facing lately: underestimating calories.  

These are tough-ies.  First of all, I also LOVE Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Well, I loved it until the plot with Dawn, who I couldn't stand...  Anyway...

The first piece of advice I would give is GET RID OF IT.  If it's not on your approved foods list, don't keep it in the house.  Your family members should understand and it's worth the price for them to go to dairy queen without you instead of having ice cream in the house tempting you at night.  My second piece of advice is to try replacing some of the foods you crave with better alternatives.  Trader Joe's has a great chocolate flavored yogurt that I used to alleviate my sweet cravings.  Plus, if you have to open a new portion every time, you will be more likely to stop rather than eating out of a bottomless tub.  Fat free popcorn is another great late-night snack.  A whole bag of Pop Secret 94% fat free popcorn has 220 calories.  So- if you late night "binged" on that, you wouldn't be hurting yourself too much.

As for the underestimating calories, I think PLANNING is the key.  Go on CC and check the calorie count of everything before you eat it, make it, etc.  Pack and plan your meals around what is appropriate.  I always check out low calorie options online before going to ANY restaurant or fast food chain.  That helps me know ahead of time, which menu items are acceptable under my daily intake.

Thats all I've got!  Will power!  You can do it!

Sorry I'm late, just super busy today!

April 14th weigh in is 184.6.

My new goal is to snack on fruits and vegis and just not an assortment of crap!  See you thursday!

Monday, April 14th weigh in: 124 lbs. Still. I'm on a very long plateau, lol.

Exercise Goal: Finish weight workout routine. I've been sick with the flu, so I get tired easily.  I may just have to take it in small steps, but I want to get through it!

Food goal: Get in one more serving of fruits, which I did, yeah!!! So now I'm at 3 servings of fruit, and 5 servings of veggies (although technically I think some of them are fruit lol.)  I'm just not ready to give up the chocolate yet.

Great Job, everybody!!

 

 

Thanks, Hepburn.
All your suggestions make sense, but I really needed to hear them to make it work. Especially the part about getting the food out of the house. I also like the idea of individual portions. I used to buy individually wrapped skinny cow ice cream sandwiches, and I never wanted to eat them because I knew each one was 130 cal down the hatch. It is much tougher to cheat like that. So that is certainly something to get back into.
As for today
Weigh in: 141.2 (up from last week as expected, but I've been weighing at diff. times of day.. In fact, I will probably just weigh in on mon. and fri. from now on because those are the days i weigh in after work.
Exercise goals: 40+ minutes of cardio M-F!! And... adding strength training at least one day. (I'm a little afraid of the machines at my gym, so I haven't yet started doing this...)
Food goals: More veggies and nuts. Less chocolate. And lots and lots of H20 as usual. PLUS: new plan - spring clean out the gunk.

Okay, so here's today:

450 worth of "gym burn" - which means, according to our friend the Calorie coach, I had 2800 calories worth to burn.

 

That being said, it's 8:40 pm, I've taken in 1800 calories in, and I'm stuffed.

 Fat - 24.8% (50 grams)

 Protein - 44.2% (200 grams)

 Carbohydrates - 29.7% (134 grams)
 Alcohol - 0.0% 
 Other - 1.3%

That all worked out to an A-.

But best of all, I didn't have a ridiculously stupid calorie deficit.  I might have pushed it, but not by much.  

Tomorrow, no gym, so I'll probably err more on the side of 1600.

Not a bad first day tho.  Go team four weeks!

Don't be afraid of the machines at the gym.  Ask someone for help.  Most gyms have knowledgeable people working there that can help.  Strength/Weight training is vital to your overall workout.  Just doing a cardio workout isn't as effective.  You need to build muscle, so you keep it while losing weight.

If you are building muscle while dieting, then you will tend to lose more fat than muscle when bringing your overall weight down.  Also take in a good amount of protein a day.

If you have questions other questions, ask us all.  Many of us do weight training and could help, but someone at your gym may be of more help since they are right there for you in person.

My trainer guy tells me that he likes using the free weights more than the machines, mostly because it forces you to work on your core and your balance AS you weight train.

That being said, he also thinks the machines make a great way to work out when you're alone, regardless.

The machines are not the ones from Terminator.  They will not rise up and try to kill us all.  They are your friends!  Go for it!

I glutted out yesterday.  Being down 18 lbs since I started this mess, I made space to fit in my favorite pizza... I came away from the day with a deficit due to planning, but it wasn't the healthiest day :D

I somehow still got a b+ for the day...

 

Fat - 35.6% (82 grams)
Protein - 17.7% (92 grams)
Carbohydrates - 45.0% (233 grams)
Alcohol - 0.0%
Other - 1.7%

Daily Sodium Intake - 4,619 mg
Daily Sugar Intake - 51 grams
Daily Cholesterol Intake - 95 mg
Daily Saturated Fat Intake - 20 grams
Daily Fiber Intake - 35 grams

 

Date Calories Grams Fat Carbs Protein Grade 2008-04-14 2,071 1,097 82 233 92 B+

 

Walking + Swimming added up to 639 worth of burn; add that to my sedentary (2400) and I'm golden.

 

Here's hoping today's healthier :D

 

I do agree with your trainer.  Free weights are actually better than machines, but when alone machines are safer.

Steve, maybe you're the guy who can help me understand this Burn Meter thing.

 

I look at it every day, and I don't understand what that number means.  Is that the number of calories estimated that I burn every day? Which means I don't want my calorie number to be higher than my burn meter number, correct?

But there's also the number in smaller font above the Burn Meter? "Estimated Burn Meter"...I just have a tendency to ignore that box because I have no idea what it is supposed to do for me lol.

Thanks!