RachieLnnn

Hi everyone!

I'm down 2 pounds for this week, yay! Now i just have to KEEP GOING instead of giving up. I always give up right when I get started, it seems.

This week is going to be extremely hard to stay within my calories, too. We have our Holiday party for work (a little late, yes :)), and I'm going away this weekend to visit some friends. I know that our favorite mexican place will be on the agenda, which means queso and margaritas. Yikes!!! But what I need to realize is that there are ALWAYS going to be temptations in my life, not just during these weeks where I'm trying to lose weight, but always. So I need to focus on portion control, eating healthfully earlier in the day, limiting alcohol, and ordering food carefully. Oh and drinking water!!! Wish me luck... I know I can stay on track if I just keep going and don't give up.

Jess, that is great that you are going to try to cook more! I absolutely love cooking. Do you have a Crock Pot cookbook? Sometimes you can get inexpensive ones online, or they might have one at your library. Or you can look for recipes online at allrecipes.com or even the foodnetwork.com.

We got an email from our local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) yesterday. She wants to know if we are in for next year. I think we are going to do it again, but I'm just nervous... we kind of had a hard time using up all our vegetables last year, and last year we split a portion. It's over $800 for 31 weeks, and you do get a LOT of vegetables each week... After looking at the numbers though, I think I would rather just go to the farmer's market each week with the money in my pocket, and buy exactly what I want or what looks good. I think that would help me plan out my menus better too (if I can pick what I want to receive, instead of just getting what is ripe that week). I don't know, I'm torn. I really want to support the local farmers, but I think I can do that through the farmer's markets too.

Last night we made roast chicken and pumpkin risotto... the risotto was delicious!!! I kind of followed this recipe

http://www.bunkycooks.com/2010/09/pumpkin-risotto-with-sage-roasted-chicken/, however, I added carrots to the onions in the beginning, and a cup of pureed pumpkin at the end instead of butter & cheese. It was DIVINE! The key to risotto is just to stir stir stir and it takes awhile, so I like to do it on the weekends.

On my menu this week are 1. Leftovers (chicken pot pie with puff pastry topper, super easy, roast chicken and risotto) and 2. Lasagna. I bought some ricotta which isn't too bad, but I'm going to cut way back from usual on the amount of mozzarella I add. We have some ground turkey and I'll add lots of peppers and onions to the sauce. My sauce is a marinara made last summer! Need to clean that freezer out!

Brooke, I'm so sorry to hear about your dog "nephew." I could really understand how upsetting it would be to see that. I would have been devastated too. :( Good job on having only one donut and stopping there. All these little postive choices really add up.

Brooke, I will keep my fingers crossed that your friend's dad gets better and you don't have to cancel your cruise. I know how heartbroken I would be after all that planning. :(

I was looking at the Daily Plate Forums last night, and there are a lot of posts from people on there that said the estimated calorie count can be too low. They said most people should pick "lightly active" if they are at least getting out of bed and going to work, etc. Since I do walk everywhere but have a desk job I originally put the least active category. Well, I switched it, and now it is allowing me around 1350 calories a day, instead of 1150 which helps a lot with my eating plan. They also said not to go under 1200 calories a day, or your body can go into starvation mode... has anyone heard of this? I put in that I wanted to lose 2 pounds a week.. if I went to 1.5 pounds a week it would be even more generous, but I'd really like to lose 35 pounds by May. I also want my diet to be sustainable, though.

Some days when I exercise and burn 400 calories or so, I always eat those calories. :) And I am still tracking everything I eat, except if I forget to log on an apple or a clementine, or want a glass of 1% milk, I don't worry about it too much.

I was also reading an interesting article about dairy fat, and how a lot of vitamins that are naturally present in dairy are fat-soluble, meaning your body cannot absorb them as well unless they are in their more natural state. It advised to eat regular, full-fat dairy when it comes to things like cheese, yogurt, etc. because those fats actually make you feel fuller longer, and you get the benefit of having fat present to absorb the vitamins. I have never heard of this before, and thought most nutritionists advised to eat everything skim if possible in order to save calories. The more I read how professional opinions change all the time about everything from eggs to butter vs. margarine vs. carbs, the more frustrated I get. Can't they make up their mind? It kind of makes sense, though, and I might start buying full-fat cheeses, etc. and just eating a lot less of them, and seeing if that helps. Also, I looked at the ingredients of my light sour cream last night, and it kind of weirded me out. I thought they just skimmed the fat off the milk and made it into sour cream, but no, there were a lot of additives. So now I'm going to stick with the real stuff and just buy it rarely (we only bought it maybe once every 2 months anyway).

Well, that was a long rambling post! Sorry about that. I have to say though, I really enjoy posting on here and reading your posts. It really seems to help me stay on track so thank you all for that! And I hope my posts aren't too long!

Everyone take care of yourself!

Jess, Happy Birthday! I hope that you have a great day. Enjoy that cake and don't feel guilty about having a treat on your birthday, it's only once a year after all.

I recorded the Biggest Loser last night but haven't watched yet. Tonight I have the house to myself so I'm planning on working out (hope the gym isn't terribly crowded, right after New Year's is always the worst). A healthy dinner, and then settling in to watch TBL while I do some nice stretches, etc.

Last night I made pumpkin chili, I know it kind of sounds weird, but pumpkin is really nutritious and I had a bunch of frozen puree from last Fall. Here was the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Turkey-Chili/Detail.aspx

The only changes I made were only using 1/2 pound of turkey, adding a can of red kidney beans, more bell pepper, and a bit of frozen corn. I also had to spice it up a bit... in the end, I probably added 2 full tablespoons of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of cumin, and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (we like things spicy).

I haven't figured out the calories per serving yet, but it's mostly whole, good foods (veggies, beans, lean meat), so I felt pretty good about making that. I did add a small bit of sour cream and a tablespoon of cheese.

So far I'm down 2 pounds since I started tracking. The hard part is that the Daily Plate is telling me to only eat 1150 calories a day if I want to lose 2 pounds per week... which is super hard for me. I feel like I have to go work out for 1/2 hour so that I can burn an additional 450 calories and up it to 1600, just so I can eat a little more rounder meals.

Although, I've told myself not to stress about tracking pure fruits, vegetables, and low-fat milk. These are not the things that added on pounds in the first place. :rolleyes:

P.S. forgot to mention, have a great time on your upcoming cruises Kim and Brooke!!! I'm super jealous!

Hi everyone,

Since I was away so long I'd really like to get back into posting here, hence why I am on again this morning. :) I hope that you all don't mind me jumping back in. I posted a bit in October and everyone was so supportive and friendly, that it really made me feel like I could do this. My goal is to lose 35 pounds. I weighed that in college and high school, where I was on 2 sports and while never "skinny," felt great & healthy at that weight. I think that my new goal should be being healthy instead of losing weight.

Now that the holidays are over, I'm going to work out on the elliptical for 30 minutes most days and do some light weight training and crunches, etc. on the other days. I'm trying to think of what regimens worked for me in the past... In college I would wake up and do 1/2 hour on the elliptical everyday, but I didn't have class until 10 or 11. Now that I have a full time job, it's a little harder but I think I could still fit it in. I also ate a small salad with every lunch and dinner, and cut out all soda. Instead, I would have one small glass of skim milk and sometimes a small glass of chocolate milk with my meals. Oh how I wish I had a salad bar at home!

I've been tracking my meals on the Daily Plate. I like it because I seriously think they have more foods on there than WW did, and it's free! I only wish they had an app for the Droid phone...

I'm also going to watch this season of the Biggest Loser and try to follow along on the journey with them instead of just watching the show... and try to really let it inspire me. I caught the last few episodes of last season, and they all look so great... ran a marathon, etc! Wow.

What are you guys doing to jump-start your New Year? Is anyone still logging your food? I found that pretty interesting... once I total up my calories, it's interesting to see what percentage comes from chocolates, etc. :eek:

Hi everyone!!!

I know it's been AGES since I last wrote. I'm so sorry about that. I didn't mean to just drop out of no where. :D Since I last wrote, I've been to France and back! We had a wonderful trip and I walked a TON everyday and climbed thousands of steps. Towards the end of our trip we climbed the Basilica of Sacre Coeur, which is over 300 steps, and I did it no problem! Yay. I only lost about 2 pounds over the entire trip, but at least it wasn't a gain (I did have a LOT of wine, too). :rolleyes:

Since then I have been super busy with preparing for the holidays. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We were busy celebrating with family over last weekend, and I was up a few pounds this morning. :mad: Hopefully some of that is water weight from all the salty and rich foods. Christmas weekend was pretty much non-stop eating. I only have to get through this next weekend and NYE, and then I am going to seriously start working out again and eating right. Just in time for a New Year's Resolution, right? There are just too many sweets during the holidays, and part of it is my own fault (I made at least 6 different types of Christmas cookies this year). But part of that is family tradition too... it's tough to balance.

Anyway, while I was at my in-laws we pretty much decided that we would rather go on a cruise next Christmas than do all the presents, etc. It's just too much work, and none of us really *need* anything anyway. So I have started looking into that... it would probably be a 3-4 night cruise (or an all-inclusive resort stay) next winter, but we need to work around the in-laws' schedules... my brother-in-law is a teacher so we'd have to go RIGHT around Christmas when school is out, and my father-in-law could only go from Thurs until Monday because he owns his own business... there are a few options but it still seems so far away!

However, if I keep this possible future cruise in mind I think it will help me get back into shape... and I need some fresh motivation.

Hope all is well and I will try to start being a lot better about checking in with you guys... My husband and I got smart phones for eachother for Christmas so I *might* join WW again... supposedly there is a great app for tracking points, and I think it would make it so much easier since it was difficult for me to log in all the time on the computer. Anyway, I'm thinking about it, maybe they will have a New Year's Resolution sign-up sale or something.

Talk to you all soon & take of yourselves ladies!

-Rachel

Hi everyone,

Well I finally got back to exercising last night, and it felt GOOD. When I get home from work, I usually go down one of two paths - either put on workout clothes and go downstairs to workout (we have a gym in our condo building, so I really have no excuse, I don't even have to go outside), OR I have a snack and get on the computer/tv. So, obviously I need to keep going with the working out option!!! That's my goal for the next few weeks. Let's see how many workouts I can get in.

Good news, my boots came and they fit my calves and I am soooo happy with them! I can't wait to start breaking them in!!

Did anyone watch the Biggest Loser premiere this week? There were so many sad stories on there! I really can emphatize with a lot of them - some of the stories were so sad, I just can't imagine going through that and still having to diet & exercise. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I can completely understand the downward spiral some of them went through, and I just wish them the best in their journey forward. Looking forward to this season, it always inspires me.

Hi everyone, I haven't posted in awhile, I kind of fell off the bandwagon for a week or two there. Things have just been crazy here! There was also an incident I had with some candy corn and chocolate-covered peanut butter pretzels. :rolleyes: But I realized that I have less than 2 months until my France trip!!! Yay! Time to get in shape, though. Working out tonight!

So, let's see, what has been new. Well, I'm still down about 5 pounds from when I first started/posted, but I want to lose at least 10 more before my trip. I don't know if that is possible. I leave November 6th!

My hubby and I went shopping for coats recently. He handed one to me that I thought was at least 1 size too small - a little leather jacket number w/lots of zippers. I was a little embarrased because that was the size that he thinks I am - well, the size I was when we were married and he doesn't really know/notice when I change. LOL. So I reluctantly tried it on, and it zipped up fine, but was just a little tight in the chest. So that was good news! I ended up buying something completely different though - a bright orange wool coat by Michael Kors from Marshalls, it was half off. I really wanted a CUTE coat since I know I will be wearing it all around France everyday, and whatever coat I have on will be in 99% of my pictures!

I also ordered a pair of gray boots from Zappos and a pair of gray Puma sneakers to wear walking around... I'm excited. I think they might arrive today. I have a little bit of trouble finding boots that fit. The wide-calf boots that I previously ordered were too big, but regular boots are too small to zip up. So I finally just started looking at measurements. Some of the slouch boots can work for me, I think. Fingers crossed they are cute and FIT!

(P.S. We had people over last week when the wide-calf boots arrived, and my skinny friend was like, "Open them! "Open them!" because she is a shoe/boot freak. Well, I was embarrased because I didn't know if it would say wide-calf on the box. It ended up ok, but I hate when stuff like that happens.)

My back has been hurting a lot recently - so I haven't been working out like I should. But I need to get back on track! Trip planning is in the final stages and I am getting really excited. I know it will come up quickly and be here before I know it - hence why I need to start getting serious about maybe losing 1-2 pounds a week.

Hope all is well with everyone else - I have been reading but not posting. Brooke, good luck with the guy, and news there? Glad to hear the blood test went well. Annette, I cannot believe how rude some people can be!! You are totally in the right there.

Hi everyone! Glad to hear everyone is doing well. Everyone sure is so busy! Including me. :) My older sister just had a baby boy so now I am an AUNT for the first time! Yay!

This last week has been really busy. I took a different commute to and from work which included 25 minutes of walking each way. BUT I ate not-so-great, so I was expecting a gain. But I actually lost a pound more than my low from a few weeks ago! Yay! It's so energizing to lose. I know I shouldn't make a huge deal out of it, becasue weight can vary so much, but it seriously energizes my whole day and motivates me to keep on going. Like if I had had a gain, I would not be as motivated to work out tonight. But now I definitely will, I want to keep going and see if I am able to break through to the next pound. The good thing is this motivation is like a giant snowball effect... except that when it's bad it can go the other way... which has definitely happened to me before too.

Brooke, I would have been seriously annoyed at the cheerleader too... saying that you didn't know how hard it was. Did you say anything back?

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to check in quickly, things have been crazy busy here. I had an out-of-town wedding this weekend, and also became a first-time aunt (yay!). I went grocery shopping yesterday and bought a lot of good healthy stuff. This week I'm going to focus on making good dinners and walking at least an hour everyday. Hopefully on Friday I will have a change to report!

Good luck everyone! I'll try to write more later.

Brooke, I know EXACTLY what you mean about work. I am really letting the stress get to me about something that is out of my hands. I gave my boss something to review awhile ago, which a client wants ASAP. I have to keep telling the client that we need more time, but they come to ME asking why there is a delay, when it is because my boss hasn't had a time to review it yet. It is really stressing me out. I hate disappointing people, especially when it is not my fault and there is nothing I can do. Grrr. Yet of course they call ME about it!

Well, I've stayed the same for like 2 weeks now. I really need to jump back into cardio. When I work out at night and then have a light dinner, the pounds seem to melt away in the morning. My evenings have been really busy lately so it's hard, but I did workout yesterday for 35 minutes on the elliptical, did 4 loads of laundry, and walked to the grocery store and carried back all of our groceries for the week (included were a gallon of milk, a sack of flour, etc. so they are were quite heavy).

I found a new breakfast which I love. I take 1/2 cup of granola (measured out since it is high in calories, about 180 for the half cup), and a half cup of organic yogurt (100 calories), and top with lots of fresh fruit. It is so good and very filling! I buy the larger size container of yogurt instead of individual cups, and it is a lot cheaper. I've also found "High fiber O's" from Trader Joe's, a grocery store here... and they have 9 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein per serving... and I actually like them!!! So that's good too.

I have an out-of-town wedding this weekend, so I am going to try to behave myself... or at least make better choices! Good luck everyone!

Annette, that is a funny story about JC. Kids say the funniest things, especially when they are so serious!

Personally, I would stick with the Sugar Free RedBull if you need something to perk you up in the mornings, unless you cut 200 calories elsewhere from your diet daily. I guess what I would do is have 1-2 Cherry Amps a week, when you really need one or need a treat, maybe on Monday mornings to get out of bed, and then the sugar-free Red Bulls every other day. :p That way you can have both.

I'm trying to think of other good pick-me-up alternatives rather than coffee... do you like Diet Cherry Pepsi? Or tea? I'm personally trying to stay away from "fake" sugar now, but that is kind of new for me and I can certainly understand the desire for it, since I drank diet often over the few past years.

On another note, I'm now down again today, to only 0.2 lbs over my low weight last week. So, while I started off this week with a really "bad" weekend, I'm slowly getting back to where I was. Hopefully this week I will be able to undo the damage from that and stay the same, or even have a small loss. Thanks everyone, for encouraging me to stick with it and not just give up!

P.S. Made stuffed green peppers this week... really good and automatically portioned! Just made rice, mixed with some lean grass-fed ground beef, vegetables, and tomato sauce... stuffed into peppers and baked for 30 minutes at 350 degrees... a little cheese on top, too.;) Super easy and we have leftovers too! Lots of options too... you could make them mexican themed with mexican rice and spices, or italian-themed, etc.

Annette, an Orangina is kind of an orange soda, but it has some orange juice mixed in too, I think. I know they have it a lot in Europe and sometimes see it at the store here now, too. Anyway, it kind of feels like a "treat" but cut with the club soda it is less calories.

I too LURVE Shirley Temple's, have ever since I was little! I would have to think about a low-cal sub for that though... maybe the maraschino cherry juice with club soda? They should have both those things out at a restaurant/bar. I'm not sure how that would taste though.

Jess, glad you found a new doctor you like, even though things went kind of slow... I hate that. Especially first thing in the morning, you would think that they wouldn't be that far behind yet!

Brooke, thanks for the encouragement... You're right, I do just need to keep going and not let a bad weekend get me down.

In fact, I weighed myself and I am down 1.4 pounds from yesterday, so I do think a bit of it was salt/water weight... although I am still up 2.2 from my low last Thursday. :mad: I also think my stomach has felt a bit blaoted and this may be TMI, but I think I ate too many beans this weekend. :o Sorry if that was TMI. Anyway, I'm hoping that a bit more will come off before my next weigh-in... I have been pushing myself with the workouts and eating really "clean."

In fact, I was thinking that it has been at least 5 weeks since I had my last diet soda... yay! I just made the decision that if I really wanted a coke or something, to just have a real one every week or so, instead of diet all the time.

My co-worker likes to mix fresh orange juice with club soda (I think club soda, whichever one is just fizzy water and no cals), and says it tastes like an Orangina and is very refreshing for her.

I have friends coming over tonight. My goal is to sneak in a workout with hand weights/etc. before they come over... and limit myself to 1 - 2 glasses of wine, and then water the rest of the night.

Hi ladies,

I had an AWFUL weekend too. :mad: Well, I had fun, but ate way too much and had margaritas, carrot cake, etc.... Just bad. I did weigh myself this morning, but I am back up to where I was a week ago... so it's like all my hard work this last week was for nothing. GRRR. I am hoping some if it was water weight. My in-laws had a mexican dinner for us. Chips, salsa, etc... I am glad that I faced the scale sooner rather than later, because now I have a lot of motivation to get back to where I was and down some by this Friday.

This week will be hard though, I have a co-worker that just rejoined us so lunch out today. Then I am seeing friends on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then a happy hour on Thursday to celebrate the co-worker coming back.

Well I have the extra motivation from weighing more this morning, so I am just going to have to start up and fight back one more time... or else I am not going to be near my goal by November! Time is going by FAST!

Hi everyone,

Well, I weighed in this morning and have lost somewhere between 2.6 and 1.0 pounds this week... yes... I think my scale is broken. It would say something different everytime I stepped on! Talk about frustrating!!

This week I tracked what I ate and even though it didn't really change my eating habits, it did help me to realize how many and what types of calories I am taking in. I definitely eat too many sweets, not enough protein, and a little bit too much wine. :o

So, any ideas of adding protein to a diet? I like the idea of adding beans to different dishes. I don't want to do any type of protein-shake. The idea is kind of gross to me. :p I'm thinking I should buy some cottage cheese for snacks, and maybe buy some tofu to add to stirfrys, too. I'm not sure. I know greek yogurt is high in protein. The only brand I like is Chobani with pineapple. I should try to pick up some of that, too, but I don't know if they have it at my grocery store. I know they sell it at Target, but in order to get to Target I have to take the subway for like 15 minutes to get there. :rolleyes: (We don't have a car since we live in a downtown area)

Anyway, any exciting weekend plans? We are going out to visit my husband's family because it was his mom's birthday. I guess I'm lucky in that I really like hanging out with my in-laws. I'm sure there will be lots of food, and we might even be going out to dinner, so I'll just have to be sure to make good choices.

Good luck everyone, and have a great weekend!

Annette, sorry to hear about the TMJ treatment, that is so frustrating on so many levels. :( I'm really sorry. On an unrelated note, at the end of your post, you mentioned getting chickens. That would be really awesome, especially with the recent recall in the news about egg safety. You would really know where your food was coming from! We could eggs through our CSA farmer, a dozen each week or every other week. I think we will definitely sign up for them next year. I like to hard boil a bunch to have with a quick breakfast or in salads for some protein.

Brooke, thank you for the welcoming words. How on earth did your Chiro pop your ear? I always have trouble with the changing air pressure on airplanes and have to keep chewing gum. I think tracking your food intake will help alot. I've been doing it for free on fitday.com, but I think I might switch to Sparkpeople because they seem to have more foods pre-entered and a nice calorie calculator for recipes. The only problem is, I think sparkpeople looks more suspicious when I have it up at work, with all the ads and stuff. :p Fitday is more "clean" looking so I can log on really quickly to input food without people noticing. :o However, I've been logging my food for almost a week now, and it is interesting to look back onto everything I ate and what I should try to cut back on. For me, it's sweets, chips at lunch, and wine! I can't believe how many calories I was typically getting from wine. It all really adds up. :cool:

Anyway, I weigh in on Fridays so I will post my weight tomorrow. I think it's been a good week so fingers crossed (after not losing anything last week). I always weigh in first thing in the morning, after going to the bathroom but right before I take a shower (no clothes on). It's the best way for me to make sure my clothes/etc. aren't skewing my results.

I originally came on here to post a small victory today... someone came over to my desk at work and wafted fresh croissants, muffins, and bagels under my nose, asking if I wanted one (they were leftover from a breakfast meeting). I successfully turned them down, saying I had fresh home-made much healthier blueberry oat muffins at home to eat up (which was true). The smell was quite tempting though! I usually would have been all over that (free food!)

But it's almost time to go home, I have to work out tonight before some friends come over. Yay!

Anyway, when I came on here I saw more posts from other people too. Jess I totally understand what you are feeling too... I think many of us have felt like that in the past. Hang in there!! Also, I am interested in chicken cakes, are they like crab cakes?

Brooke, I can't believe you are moving office again... is it making your back hurt? You mentioned the Chiro. Hope you feel better soon!

Kim #2, I totally understand... it's so hard when you are out all day and have to rely on food choices that may not be so great. I know everyone says to pack stuff, but we all know that doesn't always happen. You 2 pounds might just be from sodium from the chips, etc. It makes you hold onto water so hopefully it's not "real" weight. It may have been more food than normal, but it wasn't THAT much. Hang in there. Good for you for not throwing in the towel.

You know I was upset with myself on Sunday from my Saturday splurge. I went up 1.8 pounds from it. But I hung in there Sunday and yesterday, and now I am back down that plus an additional 0.8! (I know we are not supposed to weigh everyday, but I do to keep accountable. I usually just report the weekly number though).

Jess, wow! What a lot of great deals!!! That's awesome. The bike will be great once winter comes, too. The furniture sounds lovely. Did you find a farmer's market? We have one, but it's just on Saturdays.

RAR, I'm sorry I forgot your real name. I have a bad memory. :o Good job on the workouts. I can't believe it is school time already!

Have a great day ladies! I'm off to track what I ate last night for dinner. I made marinara with some farm fresh tomatoes. Not sure how to track it, so I might put it into a recipe builder on Spark people. I lam tracking on fitday, though. I like that it tells me all my nutrition and if I'm getting the vitamins I need, etc. So far I am getting most of my calories from carbs, with fat in second place. I really need to work on getting more protein.

Well, I had a major setback on Saturday. My husband's friend was in town, so we hung out with him all day. I didn't get my exercise in and I hate HORRIBLY. I had lots of wine and beer and a pulled chicken sandwich out at restaurant - WITH fries. :mad:

However, yesterday I woke up and didn't want to be too down on myself so I wrote down everything I ate the day before and worked out. I also went shopping for a new dress to wear to a wedding we are going to on Labor Day. It's cute but just slightly snug so my goal is to drop at least a few pounds by then so that I am more confident in it. I tried on at least 20-25 dresses at 3 different stores!

By the time I got home, worked out, and did some laundry it was like 9 p.m. and I was starving. I started making some potatoes so that I could make some mashed to have with some leftover pork... but then I was so hungry I just didn't want to wait for them to cook so I had a bowl of cereal. :o I make the mashed potatoes but just put them in the fridge to have for later this week.

Haha, my husband kind of gave me a weird look (like this :confused:) when I was chopping the carrot up, and I told him he wouldn't even notice it because it would be really small pieces. With all the extra salsa, etc. it was ok, plus I let it cook for awhile so it softened. Luckily he will eat whatever I make him. :p

Hi all,

Well, I weighed myself this morning, and I stayed exactly the same this week. Grrr. It's not a total surprise though. Although I've been really good on the exercise front, I did some random grazing this week of stuff that I shouldn't have. Just off the top of my head - I had a can of pop one day, an apple cider donut from a local apple picking place, 2 beers yesterday, some wine, a cupcake, a family-style lunch at an italian resturant for a bridal shower, etc. I think I need to start really keeping track and staying accountable, or else treats just somehow find their way into my mouth! :rolleyes:

I did make a tasty dinner last night and thought I would share. It was tacos but with lots of extra veggies snuck in. I cooked up some grass-fed ground beef, then took it out of the pan. In the little bit of fat left in the pan, I cooked some onion and green pepper and a carrot chopped up small (I had it leftover and wanted to use it up ;)). Then I added a can of rinsed black beans and let them cook for awhile, then smashed them up with a potato masher. Then I added half the meat back in, with taco seasoning, etc. I will save the other half of the meat to add to marinara sauce with lots more veggies or something. I like to cut out some of the meat and sneak veggies/beans in, totally filling with lots of protein and fiber too.

I also made fresh tomato salsa and added some sweet corn we got from the farmer. We added lots of that to our tacos... and a little bit of mashed up avocado with some lime juice, salt, garlic, and pepper in it instead of sour cream.

I found organic corn taco shells from Trader Joe's - they are only 160 calories (I think) for 2, and that was what I had. Oops but then the mexican beer with a lime probably ruined some of my healthiness, but it was really hot out and a long day at work, and I wanted something refreshing to sip... Could of been worse I guess, at least it wasn't a margarita.

I try to cook at home a lot, not just for calories but also to save money. For comparison if I had gone out to a mexican restaurant I definitely wouldn't have gotten the extra veggies, and there would have been chips and salsa (a weakness of mine) and lots of cheese to deal with. I also definitely would have ordered a high-cal margarita instead of a beer so... I guess that's a step in the right direction.

My goal for this week is to write down my calories, whether it is on spark people or fitday or just on a pad of paper. Will report back - hopefully it will help make a difference.

Have a great weekend all!!!

Just wanted to check back in again. Today is really hot outside. We are having a heat advisory because the heat index is over 100. Ugh. Good thing is, when it is so hot outside, sometimes I don't even want to eat. Anything hot, anyway. :) But I think I might go swimming after work to cool off. Or maybe just tread some water, etc. I'm not a very fast swimmer. :o

I have to get in 75 minutes of cardio this week, and so far all I've done is 35 minutes of an elliptical. I am going as fast as I can for one minute, then slow for one minute. My doctor told me this burns more fat. It's worth a try I guess. ;)

I have a bunch of tomatoes, jalepenos, and avocados, so I think I'm going to make salsa and some guacamole tonight. I know avacados can have a lot of calories, though, even though they are full of "healthy fat", so I'll have to watch it. We also have some grass-fed ground beef so I might make tacos tonight - maybe we can eat them as a salad instead of tacos to cut some calories.

Yesterday was a little bump - we stopped at an apple picking place and I shared an apple donut. SOO good. I can't wait until fall. Although I did buy a peck of tomatoes and some sweet cherries instead of an apple pie, etc. It was tempting though! I had a burger for dinner and only ate half. For my sides I had a salad and some baked cinnamon apples - I thought maybe that would cure my apple pie craving. :cool: Didn't get fries though! I guess it's the small changes!

Good luck everyone! Weekend coming up! :D

Hi ladies,

I have read a lot of your thread and just wanted to stop in and introduce myself. I'm Rachel (obviously by my screen name) :D and 29 years old. I'm currently trying to lose the 30 pounds (ish) I've gained since I was married almost 3 years ago. I lost those 30 pounds right before the wedding by doing WW and also this thing called Buff Brides (the book). The book tells you exactly what weight/resistance exercises to do which is very helpful for me since I didn't want to pay for a personal trainer. Also, I can do them at home in front of the TV. ;) It also has a cardio goal for the week (like 60 minutes cardio for the week, which increases over time, etc.) which was a good guideline for me. Anyway, I found that by doing the hand weights it really helped me build some lean muscle mass that burned my metabolism faster and lost 27 pounds (the ones which have since come back :rolleyes:). So check if you think it might help, you can always check it out from a library for free or something. You need hand weights and an exercise ball and that's pretty much it. But I have truly found that lifting light weights really helps, you burn calories later on without having to do a thing! :D Me likey!

Since starting this recent journey I am only down 1.4 pounds, so just wanted to thank you all for your inspirational posts. You have really come a long way - go back and read some old posts if you want, and it might help you to see how far you have really come! Very impressive and keep it up ladies.

As far as eating - I need to be a bit more strict with myself, but my main problem is social situations. It seems like I always have something going on - happy hour w/co-workers celebrating a birthday, bridal showers, weddings, etc. We have 6 weddings to attend this year! I know alcohol is useless calories but I really love wine. :o I'm trying to limit it to just a glass at a time and only a few times a week. It's fine if I am by myself, but the social situations thing... people split a bottle out a restaurant and it's really hard for me to say no. I live in the city and don't have a car, so I can't say that I am a designated driver or use that as an excuse.

My main problem is that I get really embarrassed telling people that I am trying to lose weight... so I just try to do it on the down-low, which can backfire. I need to get over that, as I have many people around me that would support me, but it's just my own little mental issue... like I don't like to admit that I messed up. So that is where you ladies are an inspiration, especially Brooke who started this whole thread - I appreciate that you really put yourself out there!

Anyway, that about sums me up. I do pretty good with the exercise. On Friday I went on a 2-hour bike ride which was over 100 Chicago city blocks. I wasn't too tired at the end, but my butt hurt from sitting on the bike seat! Haha. The nice thing about not having a car is that I have to walk everywhere - to go get groceries, etc. which can be HEAVY, also limits me as to what I can buy. We are also part of a local CSA (community supported agriculture) which provides a box of farm-grown fruit/veggies every week (whatever is in season) for 20 weeks (you pay up-front in spring). I love it. I also love cooking and baking and don't eat out a ton unless I "have" to for social situations. In fact I prefer to cook at home for people. So if I can think of any quick and healthy recipes/tips I will try to post them. :)

Anyway, just wanted to say hi, sorry this post is like a book! Just wanted to introduce myself and say keep on going ladies, I will try to check back in often.

P.S. No cruise booked, but we have a BIG trip planned to go to France in November and I want to be able to wear some cute clothes and maybe even go shopping in France (where at most stores, they barely even stock a size 14 at MOST, and usually very few). Also I want to look back at my pictures from the trip and feel really good about how I look. I look back at my honeymoon pictures and LOVE how I look, so I want to get back there.