200+ Slimmin' Down in Spring!

noelle55165

I have just completed my first workout of my journey to 175. I don't remember the last time I exercised to exercise. Nothing fancy but I did burn a few cals and started building momentum.

Ok. So we ate at Perkins tonight. Oh my goodness! I think I am going to have to do research before I go out anywhere. I chose chicken piccata with spinach and asparagus with a side salad. When I got my plate the whole thing was drown in butter! And there were two sides of butter too! I skipped the roll and butter but WOW. And I couldn't find the Perkins version of chicken piccata but I chose another from the list as an approximation. I'm way over today. Live and learn. Tomorrow's a new day.

Have a great day ladies. I love reading your stories! Keep them coming because I love being inspired by real women.

You are awesome!

MrsMarvelous

checking in .. im at 189lb so i look at it this way .. im doing GREAT at maintaing my weight... lol

Babcakes

Hello Everyone,

If possible, I would like to join the Slimmin Down in Spring motivation group. I think having this motivational group is great. Thank you.

Purplebunnysarah

Hello new people!

Congrats to those who lost--you're doing great!

Today was a typical Monday crossed with month-end hell. I wound up staying about half an hour late to get a bit caught up. I also worked last Saturday. Had a good workout today but my husband is having a day from hell. His thesis advisor waited until today--the day before proposals are due--to hand back her critique of his thesis proposal, and she absolutely tore it apart. While I think he can still do what he wants--just needs to tighten things up--there's no way he can do it in 24 hours. So he's looking into his options--submitting on a later timeline, or switching to a course-based MA if it won't hurt his PhD applications when it comes time for that.

On top of that, he got told he was grading his papers too high and he had to drop the class average on the assignment by 7%. So he's grumpy and we're both in for some comfort food tonight. Fortunately, today's aforementioned good workout gave me a fair few excess calories so the slice of banana bread and the Cadbury Thin chocolate bar I'm planning to eat after supper shouldn't break the bank.

Laceylala

First day fully back on the wagon in check. A tad over on cals but I am cool with it. I worked out for 56 minutes and got in my planned 30 minutes of run/walk. Yeehaw!!! I'm not gonna lie and say that I'm not having a bit of a hard time not having a night time snack but I can do it!



I finally found a good book...it's called Tigers Curse. I think it's a YA book but the author is from Salem, just up the road and it good. I'm two thirds of the way through and i bought it on Friday.

kimmrdodge

kimmrdodge - thanks for the blood sugars info. When you talk about eating 80 carbs a day.. do you include carbs from vegetables, fruits & soy milk etc? i am REALLY proud of your weight loss progress:-)

No problem. I include ALL carbs in that. And thanks, I appreciate that. I also mostly stopped drinking artificial sweeteners, mostly my diet soda since it did say that it still spikes insulin and releases it. I have no tried the stevia yet, I think I will do that in my tea, even though I don't really like the taste of it, im sure ill get used to it though. They say that for some reason stevia does not cause an insulin release.

anvy0530

Lacey: I love me some YA books. I have actually been working hard to find non-YA books I want to read just so I can appear a little more "grown-up" in my reading choices (LOL). I also wanted to say that I am also floored by my child when he is out in public around other people's children. Now, he's almost 8 and he's really intelligent but his intelligence (and his KNOWING that he's smart) often causes arguments between the two of us at home but he's mostly a great kid. When we go out to some kind of group function - like when we were on the 4 hour Vatican Museum tour in January - I am reminded how remarkably great he is. There weren't a lot of short ones in the Vatican and none were on the guided tours and apparently the reason is because the under-12 set has a hard time not spazzing out. Gabe got soooo many compliments from our fellow tour-goers and our tour guide! It never occurred to me that he might be too young for the tour. I've been dragging him through museums since he was old enough to walk. (I recall one incident at the De Young Museum in San Francisco where his FATHER had a bit of a melt-down from too long of a day of walking but he did pretty ok - for a 4 year old) I have a BA in Humanities and the focus of my studies was on art history and comparative religion (and languages) so I FEEL you on your desired Master's program.

Sarah: What a crappy day! I can't believe your DH had his thesis critique returned to him without the time available to actually fix it. That sucks so bad I can't even properly articulate it.

Babcakes: Hi there! Welcome. Please tell us about yourself. We love new people!

Bethany: I seem to be maintaining my weight too. I guess it's better than a gain.

Noelle: What kind of exercise are you doing? Don't you just hate that about eating out?!?!?! I try not to eat out because I'm kind of a control freak and I need to know not just how many calories are in my food but where exactly my food comes from.

Suzie: I try not to think about core synergistics too!! Bummer about all your food allergies. That really makes it hard to figure out what you can eat!

Kimm: Agave nectar also doesn't impact the blood sugar. It isn't calorie free but I find the taste of it preferable to stevia.

Amber: Great job on your loss this week!

Today is a rest day for me. I'll do my XStretch video and get my dog walked but, other than that, I'm taking it off. I haven't had a rest day in a couple of weeks and my body is feeling it. I just have to make sure to keep my calories lower. Honestly, the reason I exercise is to that I can eat more Have a great day all!

noelle55165

Last night I did my first workout. Did you know that there are muscles all down your back, arms, bum, legs, and hips?
I swear I can feel my ears this morning!

I did a 5min warm up on my ancient exercise bike, stretching, leg lifts, and 10 min on our punching bag. Grand total of 30min.

I think I need to do something light today to warm up and then stretch out. . . . .everything! Rake anyone?

I feel accomplished though which always feels great.

pinbotchick

Great job on the workout Nicole!!!

As for me - pure laziness kicked in as I slept in until 7:30. I left by 8:30 for work and am trying to figure out how to get my run in, exercise with mom and watch BL tonight. To much to do and so little time. Maybe a client will cancel and I'll find some extra time (*dreams*)... welcome to March!!! At least it's sunny and 23 today. See you later - I'm off to my next client.

akasullengal

Hey ladies... I'll check in later with how my trip went and with our weekly chart. I just skimmed through peep's responses and these are the the weights that I'm missing for the week (though I might have just missed them). Please check in asap, as I'll post the chart when I get home this evening:

Kendal
Lacey
Debra
officernice
nowic
jamielr84
startingoverca
myatac428
peterscr7

KendalBeee

Kristina- I will weigh in next weekend. Trying to stay away from the scale and focus more on how I feel/look.

Laceylala

I'm not weighing either. The scale is messing with me, so I'm giving it two middle fingers up and ignoring it for a few weeks as well. Everyone says I am looking thinner and it is WAY up in numbers, so screw it.

Laceylala

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/4-circuits-to-a-gladiator-body.html?CJAID=10409403&CJPID=3792338


Scroll down and watch the video.
A. Nick Taraby does THAT kind of work out and he is one of the smaller dudes on the show?? Holy. *kitten*!
B. I think I dont push myself hard enough.

Laceylala

Last night I did my first workout. Did you know that there are muscles all down your back, arms, bum, legs, and hips?
I swear I can feel my ears this morning!

I did a 5min warm up on my ancient exercise bike, stretching, leg lifts, and 10 min on our punching bag. Grand total of 30min.

I think I need to do something light today to warm up and then stretch out. . . . .everything! Rake anyone?

I feel accomplished though which always feels great.

Good job Noelle! Do lots of stretching. I found that when I took five minutes to really stretch out after each work out, and then again later before I go to bed that I am not nearly as sore or stiff anymore. (Part of it is the fact that I need to increase my intensity but still..)

Isn't it amazing that all of a sudden you're like 'Oh my God, I had NO IDEA there was a muscle there!"

I'm going to do planks tonight...I might try to move weights back and forth like the Spartacus dude (ha, watch me fall! watch my fall!) in the hopes of finding more muscles.

anvy0530

Lacey: Watching "Ashur" do that workout kind of makes me hate him less (I hate his douchy character, not the actor - of course). WOW. I wonder what "Crixus" does to maintain his shape. Watching people workout like that makes me think I don't workout hard enough too. I hate thinking that though because it's just gonna make me work harder. (sigh)

Kendal: I'm sending you good vibes for your weigh in next week. It's gonna be good, I know it!

Noelle: Isn't it funny how you discover new muscles?? I've been doing P90X for 2 months now and I thought I was done finding new muscles (they're not new anymore they are just sore all the time). I was, of course, wrong. I went ice skating last Saturday and then went inline skating today and I have discovered about a billion little muscles around my ankles and shins that I never knew were there! Well, they're there and they ALL hurt!

akasullengal

So, I lost the original chart I was keeping everyone's name and weight. Excel unexpectedly shut down and I lost the info. ACK! But I think I was able to recreate mostly everything. If you see something off, let me know. So here's this week's numbers:

Name/Starting weight of challenge/last week's weight/this week's weight

Kristina / 182.4 / 180.6 / 180.6 (0)
Victoria / 192 / 191 / 190 (-1.0)
Kendal / 217.6 / 221 / PASS
Lacey / 206.6 / 205.6 / PASS
Kim / 196.5 / 194.5 / 193.0 (-1.5)
Amy / 211.2 / 209.4 / 209.2 (-0.2)
Karen / 255 / 254.5 / 254.5 (0)
Sarathes / 241 / 240 / 237.2 (-1.8)
blessedmommy2 / 231 / 227.6 / 221.0 (-6.6)
wichelle / 218 / 218 / 218.5 (+0.5)
jamielr84 / 247 / 242 / ?
ct1986 / 217 / 222.4 / 217.2 (-5.2)
suzieqdiva / 191 / 189.9 / 186.8 (-3.1)
Amber / ? / 240 / 239 (-1.0)
Noelle / na / 213 / 209 (-4.0)
startingoverca / 277 / 277 / ?
craft338 ?
Bethany / ? / 189 / 189 (0)

This week's winner? BLESSEDMOMMY2 :drinker: :drinker: With a MASSIVE 6.6 pound loss! *jaw drops*

But, I have to say, considering it's week 2 of a challenge, which usually means weight losses sometimes dip down a bit, we had several people lose 2+ pounds this past week, which is FANTASTIC! Everyone should be super proud of themselves! Go team!!

pinbotchick

So prayers can come true!!! A patient cancelled and by some miracle mom had the day off and was available to exercise early. I only had to shuffle 1 clients time around. Then a second miracle occurred - it was sunny and 42 degrees (super heat wave!!!) when I finished my clients at 4:30. I took a chance and ran outside... Blessed fresh air and I averaged 14:28 time over the 7 miles... That's great for me with the hills and traffic!!! Nice 1057 cal burn by the way MFP would have given me 937... Yeah for an extra 120 cal burned...

I'll probably be finding those new muscles tomorrow... I'm off to shower before BL. See you all tomorrow!!!

kimmrdodge

So prayers can come true!!! A patient cancelled and by some miracle mom had the day off and was available to exercise early. I only had to shuffle 1 clients time around. Then a second miracle occurred - it was sunny and 42 degrees (super heat wave!!!) when I finished my clients at 4:30. I took a chance and ran outside... Blessed fresh air and I averaged 14:28 time over the 7 miles... That's great for me with the hills and traffic!!! Nice 1057 cal burn by the way MFP would have given me 937... Yeah for an extra 120 cal burned...

I'll probably be finding those new muscles tomorrow... I'm off to shower before BL. See you all tomorrow!!!

Way to go! I can't wait until I can get outside, still quite a bit of snow here. Awsome time.

andreasoulcastle

Hey ladies what week are you currently on? Wondering if it isn't too late to join!

My name is Andrea, 24 years old from Massachusetts currently weighing in at 260 lbs and trying to get down to 200!!

WIChelle

Way to go Blessedmommy!!!!

Hi Andrea!

Pinbotchick that is awesome!

Akasullengal thanks for keeping track!!!!



Well I am faltering a bit! TOM is due in a few days and my weight yesterday jumped up to 221.5! I baked for the teens last night and swiped a few cookies. not good for a fat diabetic doing a low carb diet! I'm really paying tummy wise for the gluten also. That paying is why the scale jumped down a bit this morning~ yuck.

I've been really bad about getting in here to check in. I'm going to make it my goal today to pop in here daily even if all I post is "I'm here". I get a bit overwhelmed by not being able to keep up on the personals but that is no excuse not to get in here!!!! If I can just see the last few posts to comment I wont feel mean I'll just get my butt posting !!!!!! Ok you all just heard me say that!

Today will be Chalean extreme burn 2. I really tried more weigh Mon and was very glad yesterday was a rest day!

I booked the hall for my sons grad party in June. Since I gained so much since my brothers death in Sept it would be really nice to be back in the low 190's or better yet less before that party! I saw many of these people that will be attending at the funeral and I would not like to see them almost 30 lbs heavier than Sept! I also have a fun event in July. I would love to feel comfy in short sleeves and shorts for both these events!

Have a great day everyone!

pinbotchick

Thanks Kristina!!! The chart looks good to me. Glad you made it home safely.

Welcome Andrea:flowerforyou: We are in week 2 of this challenge but have been around for over a year. We LOVE have new people join us... Feel free to post away with info on yourself, daily triumphs and failures, questions and whatever you want to talk about.

Another day begins. I burned 3116 cal yesterday!!! The 7 mile run really helped. Do you know how much food 2600 cal is??? I'll never eat that much healthy food... Throw in some junk food and I can do it. Oh well. My goal is to get back into the 180s... Mr. Scale and I are arguing about it. He's winning. !@#$!!@## MEN (*rolls eyes*)... Sighs... DH made frozen pizza for dinner last night since I was out running. Why couldn't he cook something healthy? I ate it anyways. There goes 800 cal. Enough on my life. Time to get up and make some juice - carrot, spinach, apple, grape... or kiwi, apple??? I'll see what calls to me when I get downstairs. Have a nice hump day!!!

WIChelle - don't worry about trying to respond to everyone... It's very hard to do. Just pop on and say hi and let us know what you're up to...

Kim - it wont be long until the sun is shinning everywhere... I can't wait. Spring hurry up and get here...

KendalBeee

I'm starting to get apprehensive about weighing in this week. Its the end of the first 4 weeks of P90X and I'm worried I won't see a difference in weight or measurements. What if me feeling skinnier is just all in my head?

anvy0530

Kendal: Make sure you are taking your measurements too. You are building muscle so you may not be as light as you wanna be on the scale but you will definitely be skinnier.

Victoria: Holy calorie burn - Batman! That's awesome. I gotta get me a Bodybugg. Isn't it funny how guys cook when left to their own devices? The Hubbs generally makes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or makes breakfast for dinner if he's put in charge of the meal (which is why is is rarely in charge of dinner). I swear, the man was nutritionally deficient before I came around and actually cooked food that required more than "just adding water". This is why I am starting Gabe out young with learning to cook. He can scramble eggs and make toast, he can make ravioli and spaghetti and meatballs and he is great at baking just about everything. He'll probably still end up living on mac 'n cheese though seeing as he's a guy.

WIChelle: Way to go on your Chalean workouts!!

Andrea: Hiya, welcome to the group. Jump on in and start posting, everyone around here is really supportive and super-fab!

Kristina: Thanks for doing the chart! Looks great to me.

I started my last month of P90X today with Chest & Back and Ab RipperX. It is basically an all pushups and pullups workout. I am proud to announce that I did EVERY push-up on my TOES and not my knees!!! (Even the super-hard diamond push-ups!!!) I was so psyched that I had to call The Hubbs at work to brag about myself (I am a dork - I realize this). I'm pretty sure I'll be feeling it tomorrow. I hope everyone has a lovely day.

WIChelle

Kendall~ I'm sure it is not in your head at all. I'm sure you will see a difference in the tape!

Anvy~ sounds like you are doing awesome! I'm struggling to do the knee pushups yet but I can do more than last week. I'd call and brag too!!!!

Pinbotchick~ wow 7 miles!!!!!!!!


I need to go figure out how to get the ticker in my siggy!

akasullengal

Victoria- yay for outdoor running! Isn't it great? I'm so proud of you and your burn! I can't wait to start upping my mileage again. I'm still in the 3.5ish range. *grumbles* What a calorie burn! I'm so VERY impressed with you.

Andrea- welcome! we're in our third week of a six-week challenge, but we also welcome newcomers! Just jump right on in with the convo, and we weigh in Fridays- Monday mornings every week

Wichelle- Motivation can be hard around TOM, because no matter what you're doing, the scale tends to creep up. I'm pretty regular about always being up around 3ish pounds. Try not to pay attention to the number and keep plowing ahead with the healthy eating and exercise, and you'll be even lower than you started once the TOM weight disappears. It'll be lower! Checking in daily, even if it's just to say hello is keeping you engaged in both the group AND making you think about your healthy habits, so I highly recommend. I've found over the past year, if I stray too much for too long from this group, I tend to flounder, so stick with us!

Kendal- if you're feeling skinnier, and especially if your clothes are feeling looser, don't stress about the number! If you're staying commited to the video program and eating well, you will notice a difference!

Amy- already the last month of p90x? You're just powering through!

So, I know it's been a few days since I've really checked in. I apologize! I didn't log my food over my trip either, but I didn't eat horrendous-- just not great. Back on the wagon since I've been back. Logging and walking up a storm. My trip to DC went well. It was super short, so I didn't really get to enjoy it. I'm hoping that when I go out again this summer for the kick-off meeting (this meeting was the pre-kick-off meeting), I'm going to tack a few extra days on, so I can see my brother in Baltimore and maybe explore the city a bit.

This week shouldn't be terribly bad. My boss it out of town for the rest of the week, which usually helps with the email load that I get. I really need to wade through the 500+ emails I have in my inbox and start filing them in the appropriate folders. I'm still waiting on my promotion/raise, which has taken forever (though, probably not as long as yours took, Kendal!). They're trying to work at it on both angles... me staying at the VA, or moving over to the University. So, this morning, I just applied for the job, that I technically already have on the HR website. A bit odd, but let's hope it's all resolved in the next few weeks. Kristina needs some money!

I'm also traveling to see some friends in a little over a month. I did colorguard and winterguard for about 10 years, and I really miss it. Several of my friends from back in NC are traveling to OH for the championships this year, which should be a blast. They haven't seen me since I started losing weight, so that'll be a nice change for them! It's also motivation to shed as much extra weight as possible over the next few weeks. It's been hard to get to the gym, when I've already done two long brisk walks a day, so I think I need to incorporate more runs still, like I set as a goal this challenge, but on days I don't run, I should do a DVD at home. I don't think I'm up for p90x, but perhaps down the line I'll do something like that. I always read about Insanity as well, which I think is more cardio based. Anyone know much about that? Something I thought about possibly investigating in. I need something that's going to work me out pretty good at home. Let me know if y'all have any suggestions.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

kmturtle3

Hi everyone... hoping its cool to join in on this - been reading through and it seems like you are a really great, supportive group of people.

My name is Kerry, I'm 27 (almost 28), 5'9 and currently about 226. When I started MFP in the end of January I was at 240.

I have been married for a litle over 2 years, and its just me an the hubby holding down the fort... no kids, no pets, no worries, which is what I probably have to blame for the 50 pounds that I gained since 2006... too much eating and drinking whatever I wanted. I have been working out 5-6 days a week, every morning at home. I started out just doing Yoga, and for the past 2 weeks have added 30 day shred to each morning as well.

I think my biggest challenge is weekends. Its not too hard to stay structured during the week, but as soon as Friday night hits, we head out to dinner with friends and that's when it gets difficult, and usually stays difficult through Saturday. So if you guys have awesome going out tips to control what you eat, I'd LOVE to hear them.

Glad to be a part of this... my goal weight is somewhere between 155-170, I think. To be honest though, I'd just love to see a 1?? on the scale. Weighing a-hundred something just sounds AMAZING.

anvy0530

Kerry: Welcome to the group! Way to go on your weight loss so far - you're doing really awesome! I also have problems keeping my eating structured on the weekends. What works for me is to log everything I eat all weekend. When I log my food, I am more aware of what I'm eating and will re-think bad food choices. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't eat anything tasty on the weekends, it just means that I am more aware of the calories I'm taking in and I make sure that my exercise is enough to burn off the extra intake.

Kristina: Insanity is a GREAT program. I did it this past spring before I joined you gals here. It is more cardio-based than P90X but it is really hard cardio. Lots of jumping and push ups and burpees and intervals. It's an excellent workout and I'd recommend it highly. The only thing is that there aren't quite as many videos in the series as there are in P90X so I kind of got sick of looking at the same Shaun T vids by the second month (it's a 60 day program though, not 90 - which is cool). I also heard that he's coming out with another iteration of Insanity sometime this year (might be out already, I don't honestly know) so maybe check out the new one (it's supposed to be more than insane).

WIChelle: When I started Month 1 I did ALL my pushups from my knees but I have gotten steadily stronger during the past 2 months and things that used to be a struggle aren't any more. It's awesome!

akasullengal

Kerry- Welcome and congrats on your weight loss so far! I agree with Amy that weekends can be incredibly challenging. It's hard when they aren't as structured as a regulary work day. I would also suggest that you make sure you're still logging your foods on the weekend, cause it's too easy to slack off otherwise. If you go over a little, it's understandable, but if you're logging, you're less likely to completely blow your calorie limit out of the water.

Amy- thanks for the advice on insanity. I liked the fact that it was only 60 days and that it was more cardio-based. I think I might go ahead and purchase it. I need all the extra push I can get, and it's nice that someone else in the group has tried it out. Perhaps I can then transition to p90x like you did down the line. Thanks!

andreasoulcastle

Great, I usually weigh in on Fridays so that is perfect!! It's actually been awhile since I have worked out but I have been logging for a little while now. I am transitioning from a move, from California to Mass and pretty much jumped into school right away so it has taken me awhile to transition. It's been a little overwhelming but I am adapting well!!

I finally set up the wii and started the 30 day challenge with wii active yesterday. I was surprised after the workout session when I checked my polar watch and saw how many calories I burned, I was sweating up a storm! I had fun doing it too, I woke up earlier than usual this morning to get my next session in today. My goal is to do all 30 days of the challenge, wish me luck. On top of that I finally pushed myself last weekend to go out and get a gym membership, I did it, check off my list...now all I need to do is frequent it....

Weekends are so challenging for me too, me and my bf are more tempted to go out to eat on weekdays.

Oh and I have a question, I have never measured myself. Where can I find that tape at in the first place, and how do I measure myself correctly?

So happy I found this group!!

anvy0530

OMG, I just got my juicer today and HAD to try it out. We just did a basic carrot-apple juice as I happen to have a bunch of those available. It was pretty good. Now I am raring to start experimenting with different ingredients. So, for those of you who juice, I have a couple of questions. 1) what's your favorite juice combo and 2) how do you enter the calories in your diary??

Andrea: I think you can get a tape measure in the sewing section of somewhere like Wal-Mart or Target. I think that's where I got mine. You just need a fabric/flexible tape measure. I know they make fancy tape measures specifically for measuring your body but I have never had a hard time with my trusty sewing tape measure.