| Forum | Topic | Date | Replies |
| Weight Loss | A personal story about 10lbs | Aug 10 2007 14:17 (UTC) |
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Just wanted to update this since it's been so long. I've continued to pretty much eat around 1200 calories Monday through Thursday, try to stay around 1200 on Friday as well, then go up to 1600 or so on the weekends, and although something always seems to happen to push me a little high on weekends (like an unforseen 900 calorie sandwich last weekend at Steak and Shake -hello? it was TURKEY!!!) ...but I'm right on CC's benchmark as far as my weight goes. Down to 136.0 for the last 3 days. As long as I loose 1 more pound in the next week, I'll be down to my goal of 135 by 8/17! -That'll set me up to go to this big car event (the DSM Shootout) and not worry too much about eating all the Fazoli's I can handle as well as the $1 for a pound of ice cream special at the track :-) Then I'll come back and shoot for another 5lb loss to get me down to 130. After that, we'll see. I look quite nice at 125, but it's hard to get there with diet alone. I'd love to tone up, get more active... Still trying to get my husband to play tennis or something, but he's happier on the couch or working on our cars. Plans with Angelic fell through. I'm thinking about posting in the Fitness forum (or wherever it looks appropriate) to see if I could find someone to pick up a sport with: try playing tennis, or go mountain biking, roller blading, hiking... whatever. -I'm just sick of sitting on my butt all day at work, only to come home at night and sit on the couch, then sit in a movie theater on the weekends... It gets old. I loved being active in college -it was fun, and the added benefit of actually getting toned and not having to really worry about what I ate since I burned it off was awesome! Working out by myself just feels like work so I just eat less to loose weight instead. -It works, but that's not going to fix the cellulite or my energy and endurance issues... |
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| Weight Loss | binging on cookies vs bindging on fruit | Jul 27 2007 17:03 (UTC) |
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Yes, if the calories are the same, they would not effect your weight any differently. Generally, though, if you were to eat cookies until you were satisfied/full it'd happen a lot later (calorie-wise) than fruit because much of the fruit we eat contains a lot of water and fiber that'll help to fill you up quicker than the cookies will. But, if you're good about sticking to a portion size and you have the calories to spare, sure, have the cookies! |
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| Weight Loss | A personal story about 10lbs | Jul 27 2007 13:42 (UTC) |
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I think a common way that we sabatoge our own diets is unrealistic expectations. Expecting to see the scale go down every morning is a sure way to feeling like you've failed day after day. For the past 3 days, this is what I've been doing to myself. I'm so sick of seeing 137.2lbs! For 3-4 days now that's what I've been -right down to the decimal point, it hasn't budged one way or the other. But, this morning the little voice in my head said "PLATEAU!" and I thought about it... No. This site says that at my rate of eating I should be loosing about a pound a WEEK. Not a DAY. I need to stop expecting results so quickly (but it's hard!). Yesterday's eating was fine. I stayed within my calories without any temptations or other issues at all. Today should be the same as long as my husband continues to be cool with going to "safe" restaurants for dinner. I swear I should make him a list that he can choose off of... The biggest hurdle coming up is my Dad's birthday. Chinese food for dinner, cake, etc. -I'm thinking I need to make sure I'm not hungry when I sit down infront of all that oily, greasy (semi-yummy) food... I know that if I have something high in fiber or protein and low in sugar and carbs for breakfast/lunch, it'll stay with me longer and I'm more likely to not to go way off my diet. But, it's hard to find food like that on the run (it's over an hour's drive to my parents' house and we're always rushing to get over there on time). So, I'm not sure what I'll end up doing. But, even if I succeed in not eating much, my Italian Mom and Grandmother are likely to make a fuss about it and push more food at me. ...Not much I can do about them except tell them I'm not feeling well, so I may just have to fake a stomach ache to get out of eating a ton anyway. -I swear sometimes dieting would be easier if I was a hermit. ...To rant further about this, it seems like there's always some event, surrounded by food, that needs to be "managed" whether I'm dieting or maintaining... Monthly catered work birtday parties, friends having BBQ's, meals at my parents house (whether its a birthday or not, there's always dessert!), vacations, road trips, birthdays, holidays... GRR! Can't I declare all partying be put on hold until I'm back in the 130-135 range? Blah. |
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| Weight Loss | A personal story about 10lbs | Jul 26 2007 22:03 (UTC) |
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Okay, I'm not going to argue about this... It comes down to the fact that I'm here to loose weight, not to have my nutritional intake critiqued. Again, thanks for your concern, but I consider this matter closed (at least here in my thread). -Erica |
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| Weight Loss | water | Jul 26 2007 21:24 (UTC) |
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Press your thumb into an area of exposed skin on your leg or ankle. If you apply firm pressure for a couple seconds, then let off quickly and the skin stays indented, you have water retention. It should go away on its own w/in 48 hours, but you can try water pills to get rid of the retention more quickly. This could be caused by a variety of things, some of which could be serious, so you may want to see a doctor to have it checked out. I can find no resources whatsoever that say lime will help with water retention. If you show no signs of water retention, my advice would be to simply watch calories and only drink water + lime if you think it tastes better that way. |
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| Weight Loss | What does 160 lbs. look like? | Jul 26 2007 19:58 (UTC) |
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This is an interesting tool to see what different heights/weights look like: http://www.cockeyed.com/photos/bodies/heightw eight.shtml -Erica |
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| Weight Loss | water | Jul 26 2007 19:56 (UTC) |
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What makes you think you have excess water? |
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| Weight Loss | Do you think this is rude? | Jul 26 2007 18:37 (UTC) |
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Let me play the other side of the coin a bit here -please don't take offense... I think you have to take a look at the audience when you ask such a question as you have. All the people on this site are in the same boat as you and are, therefore, likely to side with you over your sister-in-law. ...Except me. ...'Cause sometimes I'm contrary like that. So, let me play devil's advocate here. -I think a manners site would likely tell you that if you are a guest in another's home, you should eat what they serve and not ask for special consideration. Now, to play devil's advocate to my devil's advocate, I think that because this isn't a coworker's house and is, instead, a family member's home, I don't think it's really rude for you to ask for special consideration under these circumstances. If, however, your sister-in-law takes offense and you know it (although she should have been more up-front with you), then I think in the future it's best to go along with what they serve for the sake of peacekeeping. Or... invite them to YOUR house! ;-) That's my 2ยข, -Erica |
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| Weight Loss | Do you think that we will eventually graduate from counting calories? | Jul 26 2007 18:25 (UTC) |
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I successfully maintained for about 5 years without having to log everything, but I did keep an idea of calories in the back of my head. For much of the time, I find that my eating follows a pattern. I have certain foods that come in 100 calorie chunks that I have for 4 snacks, and a list of foods I eat for lunch that are around 200cal. This all became 2nd nature for me. Dinners, too -I knew to stop after 2 pieces of pizza, and I had known safe dishes to order in my favorite restaurants. Most of the time, I was on auto-pilot, but yeah, calories were always on my mind. I also weighed myself daily and adjusted my intake when I got outside of a pre-determined range. It worked well for me for those 5 years, and I'm taking the same approach to loose the 5-10lbs I've allowed myself to gain by messing with that habitual diet. :-P |
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| Weight Loss | A personal story about 10lbs | Jul 26 2007 17:47 (UTC) |
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Thanks for the advice, buttonsxandxbows, but unfortunately eating to be healthy is some of what got me into this 10lb weight gain to begin with... After loosing the 20lbs and maintaining my weight for 5years, I was in a really good pattern of eating to maintain. I no longer had to keep a written journal, I kept track of my meals in my head, etc. I had a system that really worked for me. But, I fell into a "eating for nutrition" pattern after my Dad had a stroke a couple years ago. I decided that if I ate nutritionally rich foods instead of my normal snacks, etc during the day I'd be much healthier and the caloric difference wouldn't be that bad. Well, I can't blame all of my weight gain on that, but at least half of it came on as a result of eating tons of fruit and nuts designed to be a "heart healthy diet". I didn't know it at the time, but the "healthy" foods (that I actually liked) were pretty high in calories. Well, I knew the nuts were, but I was probably eating 2-3X what I should have been as far as calories go, but just as much as I was supposed to in order to get the heart benefits I was after... -It was a mess. In the end, I found out that the stuff I liked was not really the stuff that was best for you (the only veggies I actually like are peas although I can force myself to eat broccoli and green beans as long as they've been cooked to death instead of steamed, although they say steamed is the only way to get all the nutrients out of some veggies). So, in the end I was gaining weight and the nutritional benefits were far from clear (and never "felt"). Eating for nutrition is a mess for me. The diet I'm on now is the exact one I used to loose 20lbs in the first place, and I plan on maintaining in the same way that was successful for me for the 5 years until I went and decided to change it. So, I've learned that lesson -moderation is always the key! I should also point out that while I may not have talked in this thread about eating bananas, berrys, and/or yogurt I have. I don't have them daily, but I do have at least some of them weekly. I also order broccoli whenever possible (maybe every other week or so), so I'm not TOTALLY deprived of fruits and veggies, but I do understand that I'm coming no where close to the food pyramid either. ...Eating healthier is always an option, but I'm not radically changing my diet to include foods I simply don't enjoy (or don't have time for, since veggies are generally not available on fast-food menus and we're so busy we often choose to eat on the run to get everything done). ...I just don't see your approach as sustainable for me. And, as a side-note, one of the healthy changes that I have kept is keeping an eye on my blood pressure. I bought a at-home tester for $25 and test myself monthly (unless I see a doctor who tests it, then I ask for their results and make sure they're fairly close to what I get at home). Hiigh blood pressure is a silent but deadly condition that leads to heart attack, stroke, etc. I urge anyone who's interested in truely living a healthy lifestyle to make sure their monitoring their blood pressure! Heck, you can take a free test in Target or Walgreens where I'm at! Thanks again for your reply, though. I appreciate the concern and I'll take it as a further reminder to continue with the vitamins. I know that my intake does not always provide all of the nutritional needs of my body and it may not be an adequate solution, but at least vitamins along with a modest attempt on my part is something... -Erica |
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| Weight Loss | A personal story about 10lbs | Jul 26 2007 15:46 (UTC) |
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Thanks, merika! Yesterday was mostly boring. Same routine at work, then had hubby bring sandwiches home for dinner since I was so bad the day before with that pizza. But, along with my turkey sandwich, he got me a HUGE 5" cookie. -A sweet gesture... I learned my lesson yesterday, though, so I ate the sandwich, then added up my calories for the day, 950 at that point I think. Then I looked up the calorie count for the biggest, worst cookie I could find (Starbucks) and figured a quarter of the cooke to be about 100-150 calories. So, I cut the cooke in quarters, chose the smallest one and took it to the living room to enjoy my treat. It probably took me about 10 minutes to eat the quarter-cookie because when I allow myself a treat like this I eat it really slowly. The way most people eat, especially desserts, so fast -they don't even take the time to taste each bite. It's just a non-stop river of delight rushing from mouth to gut. But, that's how you take in 1000 calories so quickly. I figure, if I take the time to actually taste each bite, I'll have the same amount of enjoyment (measured in time) for a quarter of the calories... So, that's what I did. Tiny bites; I let it almost dissolve on my tongue, then let the taste go away after I swallow before taking the next bite. I got my enjoyment that way, anyway, and stayed within my calories as well. I re-checked my weight loss progression and tomorrow should be the day I see a drop. I'm still holding steady at 137.2, which means my exercise probably made up for the pizza. The trend seems to be major low-cal or high-cal days effect me 2 days later, so... |
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| Weight Loss | So tired of people offering me food.... | Jul 26 2007 15:34 (UTC) |
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I think offering food is just habit for some people. I grew up in a family that never really did that, but my husband since day one has always offered me food. ...well, "offer" isn't really the word for it. When I turn it down, he'll ask again 5 minutes later. Again I say "no thanks". He must think I mean "not yet"... -I gained about 20lbs in the first year we went out because he turned me back onto foods I had "banned" before I knew him. But, I turned it around about 5 years ago and realized that's just the way he is. It's a sweet gesture, but I'm the only one who can control what I eat. It's not his problem for offering, it's mine for caving and taking it. So, I keep saying no. Night after night, day after day. Or I just take a bite so he'll leave me alone. Last night I asked him to pick up sandwiches for dinner, he brought be back the turkey sandwich I asked for and a HUGE 5" cookie as well. I said "thanks", counted my calories, decided I could give in to a quarter of it, and the rest was probably his breakfast this morning LOL. My advice would be to just take the offer as kindness on their part, come up with a polite way to decline, and move on. I particularly liked (reply #6), jainasolo's suggestions on how to respond. |
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| Weight Loss | almost 5'3 | Jul 26 2007 15:18 (UTC) |
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Like others have said, it's a matter of personal taste/comfort. I'm "almost 5' 3"" (about 5' 2.5") as well, and I get to the point where I'm quite happy looking at myself in the mirror when I reach about 130. I still have kindof fat thighs at that weight -I'm far from skinny, but I'm happy around there. At 125 I feel comfortable in tight-fitting "club clothes", and I've never really gotten below 125. For the record: I exercise very infrequently and usually doing odd things like a 25 mile bike ride at midnight around downtown Chicago (an annual thing called the "LATE ride") without any prep beforehand. So, that's 130lbs of a mostly average "I sit at work all day" body type. Hope that helps, -Erica |
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| Weight Loss | Calories in and out | Jul 26 2007 15:11 (UTC) |
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Well, a pound is 3500 calories, so if your deficit is 1000 calories a day, that's a pound every three and a half days, or 2 pounds a week. When you work out, you'll have to determine how many calories you burn with the tools on this site, then subtract those from your intake for the day. (So, if you eat 1300 and burn 300, then your intake for the day would be reduced to 1000 and your deficit would be 1300.) Your deficit at rest is quite high, though. I personally wouldn't drop below a 1000 calorie a day deficit, so when you work out you may want to eat a bit more to keep your body from getting stressed and going into "starvation mode" where it resists further fat loss, but YMMV. |
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| Weight Loss | Can you please tell me your height'weight' and calorie intake per day? | Jul 25 2007 20:47 (UTC) |
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5' 3", 137lbs now, with a short-term goal of 135 by 8/17 and then getting down to and maintaining 130-133lbs after that. To maintain a weight of 135lbs at my height, you need 1600 calories a day. So, to loose weight, I've got a goal of around 1100 calories a day by the formula of maintenance weight - 500 calories (1600 - 500 = 1100). So, I'm SHORT not anorexic. The often spoken of 1200 calorie a day minimum simply doesn't work for those of us who are shorter than average! In reality, I eat an average of 1100-1200 on weekdays and about 1600 a day on weekends. This nets me a loss of about a pound a week with little to no exercise. (I only use exercise to make up for times when I go over my calories.) Hope this helps, -Erica |
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| Weight Loss | Just so confused | Jul 25 2007 20:39 (UTC) |
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Yeah, the grade is just about how much nutrition you get from those calories. I ignore it, but it's quite possible I'm in the minority here. -I understand the need to eat healthy foods, but if you're sick of fruits and veggies and you choose to eat nutritionally "bad" foods, but remain within your calories -it's better to do that then to blow your whole diet due to getting bored and frustrated with the foods that are available in the nutritionally perfect world. ...that's my opinion. Others, I'm sure, will disagree -but I think doing whatever works for you is the most important thing. This is a weight loss forum, afterall, not a nutrition forum -sometimes you have to choose one over the other and I don't feel bad at all for eating ice cream for dinner once in awhile and still loosing weight (because I stay w/in my calorie goals). It keeps my sprits up, and since it's maybe a once a month thing (not everyday), who cares? |
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| Fitness | In need of motivating music | Jul 25 2007 17:20 (UTC) |
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Hmm... Personal preferences play a big part here and you've given us Stevie Wonder, Missy Elliot, and Michael Jackson!?! Well, I pick whatever makes me wanna get up and dance when I hear it. For me, that's some of Blues Traveler's faster stuff, Jimmy Eat World, a lot of ska (MU330, No Doubt's older stuff, Reel Big Fish, Mighty, Mighty Bosstones, Sublime, etc)... For some reason I find Rush's Red Sector A to be good -"Are we the only ones left alive? Are we the only human beings to survive..." *blush*, okay... ...SmashMouth, SpinDoctors, newer big band stuff like Squirrel Nut Zippers or Cherry Poppin' Daddies, as well as some songs that just make me smile like some of the faster They Might Be Giants and Violent Femmes songs, and finally the White Stripes. Another one that I like the words to is Fooling Yourself by Styx "Get up, get back on your feet -you're the one they can't beat and you know it..." etc. Okay... So... I'm kinda all over the place too -mostly older stuff. The newer stuff I listen to is kinda folk-sy, which doesn't pair with exercise very well. But, I'm a music addict and I always play music while folding laundry. When a good song comes on and I find myself dancing to it, it goes in the exercise playlist and hopefully onto my new phone that I'll be using as an mp3 player too when I get it as well since my old mp3 player died about a year ago. :-( Dunno if this helped, but I think I've just outted myself as being a bit odd... Oh well. |
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| Weight Loss | What's the deal with caffeine? | Jul 25 2007 16:10 (UTC) |
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New studies show that caffiene does not dehydrate you and you can count your cup of coffee the same as any other liquid you intake. More info: http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.as p?articlekey=50654 As for the other questions about caffiene and weight loss... You can find studies that say it helps, and other studies that say it hurts. (Google "caffiene weight loss" -without the quotes, and you'll see arguments on both sides.) I personally don't worry about it day-to-day although if I'm going to work out I do try to get some caffiene in a bit before due to many studies that show that caffiene helps your body start burning fat quicker than it would otherwise do. Does it actually help? Who knows? -I certainly don't go out of my way to alter my diet in regards to caffiene. The only thing that's proven enough for me to focus on is calories, so that's what I focus on. The rest is just unproven, so I give it no more attention than is deserved. One last note -too much caffiene and/or not enough sleep can lead to high stress levels. There's also some new research about the stress/cortisol connection to retaining weight (triggering the body's resistance to weight loss just like going into "starvation mode"). The above makes me pay attention to my stress levels a lot more these days. If I'm stressed, relaxing helps me out mentally and reduces my over-eating due to stress -and if the cortisol stuff turns out to be correct too, well, then it helps that much more. So, if you find yourself so over-caffinated that you're jittery and getting stressed, yeah, I'd say you should cut back to a more comfortable level. Me; I only have a cup a day 'cause Starbucks is expensive and I haven't acquired a taste for drip coffee just yet ;-) |
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| Weight Loss | I've lost 100 lbs! | Jul 25 2007 15:17 (UTC) |
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That's quite an accomplishment! Congrats on your hard work and dedication. It couldn't have been easy, but you did it and you're now inpiring others. Keep up the good work whether continuing to loose or maintaining. -I'm super happy for you! |
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| Weight Loss | A personal story about 10lbs | Jul 25 2007 14:31 (UTC) |
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So, yesterday was a bit tough for me. I really had nothing to do at work, and when that happens the day just drags by. When I'm not occupied I yearn to occupy myself with food. Not even my every hour and a half snacks were good enough -I wasn't hungry, just wanted to munch endlessly on something... Another thing -I have RA. IT makes you really tired sometimes. Like way beyond tired, more like extreme fatigue. It seems to hit me when I skip my weekly MTX treatment (which I don't think I did...), but sometimes it just crops up anyway. So, that made it hard too. I wanted to run out and get Starbucks so bad! For the most part I resisted, although I gave into a 2nd cup of coffee before leaving work just so I could get home without crashing into random objects between here and there (I have an hour-long commute one-way, so...). So, I was 100 calories over when leaving work, not usually a big deal. I tried napping until my husband got home, but the caffiene wouldn't allow me to actually sleep. I did lie there as long as possible, though, just trying to reduce my stress level from a day full of little inconveniences that added up to a lot of frustration because of the fatigue. So, my husband gets home, and he had picked out a "take and bake pizza" to make for dinner. Sweet. Quick, easy, and we don't have to go anywhere! I put it in the oven and 15 minutes later dinner was on the table. My pattern with pizza is 2 slices = 600 calories. It works, most of the time. For a medium pizza. This one, however, was a bit bigger. Halfway through my 2nd piece I wondered how the size difference would play out. But, I finished the piece, and THEN looked. -It was 400+ for 1/9th of the pizza. I love how they always divide pizza's by odd numbers. Who'd cut it in 9 slices? Anyway, it turned out I ate 900+ calories for dinner when my goal was 600 (and even they I'd still be 100 over). So, I faced a 1600 calorie day -not a huge deal since that's the # I'd need to maintain my weight (so, I wouldn't GAIN), but the goal is weight LOSS and I had a bad weekend too. I was down to 136.x for a day last week, but have been sitting at 137.2 for the last 3 days. Bottom line, I was frustrated and tired and this just added to it. I've drilled the idea that excercise = stress relief into my head, so I decided that instead of complaining about it I could actually do something about it by hopping on the bike and burning some of those calories I over-ate. So, I grabbed the bike and let my husband know I was heading out. He declined (no suprise), so I left on my own. I rode for 28 minutes at an average speed of 11.8mph. (I was trying REALLY hard to stay above 12 the whole time, but I faded out pretty bad towards the end.) The reward for the biking session was unexpected: I'm a photographer, and I've been chasing this egret and a heron at a local retention pond whenever I see them there (about once a week). They are spooked off really easily, though, and even with my 500mm lens, I've yet to get a decent image of either one of them. But, on the trail I rode yesterday (a very high traffic, paved trail around a man-made lake), there was a tree that had to have had around 10 egrets in it + a heron sitting right in the middle of all of them. They were across the lake, but I think my 500mm will reach. I'm definitely going back tonight around the same time (sunset) to see if I can get some "perched" pics. If the sun isn't too intense I'll go earlier to see ifI can get them hunting as well. What a find! I'm glad that pizza was so bad for me ;-) |
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