Thinner for Thanksgiving! 7 week challenge

Keisha604

Between running and Ripped in 30 my legs are so sore! But on the plus side...I did 15 regular push ups last night!

henney16

Between running and Ripped in 30 my legs are so sore! But on the plus side...I did 15 regular push ups last night!

I hear you Keisha! I tried level 2 of the 30DS yesterday and my muscles are feeling it today, but in a good way. Level one always gave me a good workout, but I never really felt it the day after. Going to try and sneak in a session today before work (if my daughter allows it) and plan on hitting the bike at the gym after work! Nice job on the pushups!

Dave

Balanced_Life

@Keisha -- good job on the workout and the push-ups!

I did 5 regular and 15 bent knee push-ups this morning, along with my usual workout (15 min of calisthenics and 45 min. on the Stairmaster).

momof2_0710

@keisha---wtg on the push ups. great job.

Did my pushups tonight and did the insanity workout. wow what an intense workout. I'm week 2 as right now and its getting better for me. I dont have to stop as much as before. Hope you all had a great day.

Mandalicious

Today I got 17 regular push-ups before switching to knees. A new PR! And, I am a lot less sore so I am crossing my fingers to crack all 20 in plank position on Friday! My mom is visiting us right now. The last time she was here was in March when I had started 30DS and could BARELY do 10 push-ups on my knees. So nice that she could see a huge change!

At the two Jennifers -- sorry I confused y'all! How embarrassing!

I am so excited about the progress that I see people making on a daily basis! The workouts, the daily victory of staying under the calorie goals, the efforts on the push-ups. That is what is going to help us rock these seven weeks, you guys! Love every bit!

kmvp08

I think some of you have me confused with the other Jennifer on here. lol I was like what interview are yall talking about. Then I realized there is another Jennifer on here. So not to confuse everyone I'll sign my name from now on as Jay. That is what my family calls me anyways. So today I went for a 30 min walk with the kids. I could only get 30 mins in due to it getting darker earlier. Came home and did Insanity and after did 30 DS Lvl 1. I've already completed the 30 DS but I decided I'll do another round of it. I also did my pushups even though I had to do them in the 30 day shred.

Dave - way to go doing level 2! I know exactly what you mean about it kicking your *kitten*. It was a big difference for me as well. Just wait til you get to level 3. Do you have an HRM that counts your calories? If so may I ask what kind you have? I've been looking into them but there are so many choices to chose from. I'll be getting one as soon as it can fit in my budget (hopefully soon).

Well hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Jay

Haha, sorry Jay, yes, I guess I meant the other Jennifer, sorry Jennifer, hope it went well. Nice job on getting the workouts in. The HRM I have is the Polar FT4F. I love it and it's easy to use.

Here's a link.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001U0OFD2

kmvp08

Between running and Ripped in 30 my legs are so sore! But on the plus side...I did 15 regular push ups last night!

Great job, I find they get harder as the week goes on!

kmvp08

Ugh, what a week this has been so far. My exercise everyday plan went out the window! I am completing the daily pushups. I noticed as the week goes one it's harder to do. Today I did 12 plank and 8 on my knees. In the back of my mind I'm always thinking, I have to do my pushups, I have to do my pushups. It helps having motivated people help you and being accountable. So, thank you!

I love how a lot of people plan; either their food/cooking or workouts. I guess if you don't plan it or commit to it, it's not going to happen. It helps in those situations where life comes at you like a bulldozer.

Maybe we can post quick/healthy recipes for the group. One that I really like is roasted vegetables. I make a huge batch on Sunday and it lasts almost until Thursday for 2 people.

I'll then use the veges for a frittata in the morning or add to my meat for lunch or dinner. If you puree the mixture you'll get a great sauce for meats or if you have kids you can "hide" the mixture in their foods! shhh :P

You can use any variety of veges. I really like the root vegetables - parsnips, beets, carrots, rutabega, squash. Also, brussels sprouts are good especially if you put a little nutmeg or cinnamon on them. Broccoli and cauliflower work well too. Aspargus is great, but it does not keep at all and is best eaten immediately. Watch the cooking times as they vary.

Here's one recipe. Experiment with different spices. Instead of Olive Oil sometimes I'll use Avocado oil which has a more delicate flavor.

You can switch out the rutabega for a dozen carrots, cut into 3 inch pieces/halved and subsitute the turnip for 3 large beets. The beets carmallize really well and when cooked with the carrots and parsnips their juice flows over and give everything a great flavor.

Also, I don't like raw onions, but roasted onions, especially when they roast in the beet juice are so good....

Oven Roasted Root Vegetables

INGREDIENTS (Serves 4):

1 Large Rutabega – peeled and chopped
1 Large Turnip – peeled and chopped
2 ea. Parsnips – peeled and chopped
2 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
6 ea cloves garlic – crushed
1-2 TBS dried Thyme
1 tsp. Fresh ground black pepper
1-2 TBS Italian flat leaf parsley – chopped

PROCEDURE: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine root vegetables in medium bowl and toss with olive oil, garlic, thyme and pepper until all are coated well. Spread mixture evenly on sheet pan and bake 30-40 minutes until done. Garnish with chopped parsley.

NUTRITION INFO: (Per Serving) Calories 141, Total Fat 7.4g, Sat. Fat 1g, Cholest. 0mg, Sodium 45.2mg, Carb. 18g, Fiber 5.1g, Sugars 8.2g, Protein 2.3g

henney16

I love how a lot of people plan; either their food/cooking or workouts. I guess if you don't plan it or commit to it, it's not going to happen. It helps in those situations where life comes at you like a bulldozer.

Something I read on here in the past has kind of stuck with me.

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

Now I don't always plan my days out the night before, but I have the luxury during the week to figure my day out after breakfast because I work the after noon shift (or night shift depending on how you look at it. 2-10pm during the week). So, after breakfast I figure out what I'm going to have fun lunch and whether or not I will be taking my dinner with me, or purchasing something (usually subway, jimmy johns, or a salad from somewhere). All in all, I eat a lot of the same things over and over again. I know a lot of people can't do that, but its work for me and I'll continue to do it. On the other hand, it is always nice to learn new recipes for healthy dishes so I can change things up. Thanks for sharing!

Dave

Keisha604

I keep hearing about planning meals and how it's the key to success...but I almost always fail at doing it. Note to self: plan your meals!!!

samwelli

Dave I am interested inndoig the pan Ohio ride as well, but it may be the same weekend as the ALS tri state ride from Boston to new York. How are you training for it? Is most of your training in the gym or outdoors?

henney16

Dave I am interested inndoig the pan Ohio ride as well, but it may be the same weekend as the ALS tri state ride from Boston to new York. How are you training for it? Is most of your training in the gym or outdoors?

Samwelli -

When I started my weight loss journey back in May of this year, I just started walking. Memorial Weekend I decided I needed to change things up and went out and bought an entry level mountain bike. From there I just started riding and have lost the majority of the 70 pounds I've taken off due to eating right, riding that bike, (and some 30 Day Shred). Right now I'm just riding the manual training bike they have at my gym due to the weather changing and it getting darker earlier. Before then I was doing about 100 or so miles a week, usually about 15-20 miles a ride depending on my time frame. I'm saving up for a road bike that I'll purchase this spring and will just get back out there and get moving once the weather is better. At that time I'll just go out and ride and see how far I can go, make it my goal to hit, and then gradually increase the miles until I can comfortablly ride like 50-60 miles a go. Haha, don't really have a formal training plan, but now that I'm starting a weight training routine I'm pretty much going to hit the bike for about 30-45 minutes (again, depending on my time constraints) at the gym before I lift to keep my legs conditioned. Hope this helps!

Dave

Mandalicious

About meal planning... On Sundays when my boys nap, I look through tons of recipes on eatingwell.com and I plan our meals for the week. I make a grocery list and go shopping that afternoon. We have meals with meat early in the week and switch to veggie dishes later in the week since I don't want to have to go to the store again! Every Wednesday we have a crock-pot dinner that I put together the night before, so when I get home from a long day of tutoring it's ready!

Yesterday we had eggplant and chickpea stew with quinoa. The eggplant and tomatoes came from our garden, too!
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/eggplant_chickpea_stew.html

I, too, LOVE roasted veggies! My favorite mix is yams, parsnips, carrots, delicata squash, beets, and Brussels sprouts. Toss them with a tiny bit of olive oil, salt, dried tarragon and red chile flakes. Perfection on a cool fall evening!

Balanced_Life

Today I did 7 regular + 13 bent knee push-ups -- got in 1 more regular push-up than yesterday! -- and my usual workout of ~15 min of other calisthenics and 45 min. on the Stairmaster. Increasing by 1 regular push-up each day is great! I think I'm going to keep doing that even after this week.

I plan all of my meals in advance. Like Dave, I don't mind eating the same things every day, so I just make up a different menu for each of my 5 meals, and then I just use that meal plan every day for a week. I follow that same basic meal plan every week,, but each week I swap in different fruits and veggies for variety.

I also cook up a huge batch of veggies on the weekend and eat it for the rest of the week. I usually make a stir fry of asparagus (3 lbs), cauliflower (3 lbs), red bell peppers (3 lbs), zucchini (3 lbs), white onions (2 lbs), and celery (1 lb). I just stir fry each veggie separately, and then mix it all together with ~1 1/8 cups of Kraft Light Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing. I also stir fry a big batch of broccoli (~3.5 lbs), and I mix it with oyster sauce (~5.5 tbsp) and Thai chili paste (3.5 tsp).

@ Mandy (Mandalicious) - that's great progress on the push-ups! I'm having a great time with this challenge too. This is the first one that I've done, and it really makes a big difference to be in a group like this. I feel more motivated now than I've felt all year! Your recipes sound yummy...I'm definitely going to try them. I'd heard about quinoa but never made it before, so I'm looking forward to trying it!

@ Kelly (kmvp08) -- I know how you feel...work gets really crazy for me sometimes too. That's why I always do my workout first thing in the morning, otherwise I'd end up not being able to do it half the time. Thanks for the recipe! The only root vegetables I've ever roasted are potatoes and yams, and I've never even cooked rutabega, turnip, or parsnips before. I'm going to try your recipe too!

mobskee

Wow I can't believe I can now do 20 bent knees push ups! How crazy that a week ago I've only done a few push ups in my whole life. It just goes to show that I can do anything I put my mind to. Love having that kind of power LOL

ratsyroo

As of today (10/7) I am down to 150.6! :happy: And I'm up to 8 regular pushups and 12 from my knees--which is quite an accomplishment since I've never been able to do 'real' pushups at all! Thanks for all the encouragment! I'm looking forward to seeing all of your successes from our first week of the Thanksgiving challenge.

ratsyroo

As of today (10/7) I am down to 150.6! :happy: And I'm up to 8 regular pushups and 12 from my knees--which is quite an accomplishment since I've never been able to do 'real' pushups at all! Thanks for all the encouragment! I'm looking forward to seeing all of your successes from our first week of the Thanksgiving challenge.

By the way, that's down from 153.0 as my starting weight this month! Yay!
And Congrats, mobskee--you are doing great with those pushups! We'll be hitting 20 regular ones in no time, right??

henney16

10/07 Weigh-in = 236.2. Down 2.6 pounds from last week and I could not be happier! Especially with all that damn chocolate cake in the house that I just had to have!!!

I've been doing the pushups everyday, it even got to the point last night that i was in bed for about 15 minutes before I realized I'd forgotten to do them. Jumped out of bed onto the floor and did my 20 pushups. I suggested to Mandy that we do like 50 jumping jacks or 50 crunches as our daily mini goal for this week. If we do change it up, I still plan on doing the 20 push ups to, as I think it is helping my overall goal of achieving a healhier me

Happy Friday Everyone!

Dave

henney16

As of today (10/7) I am down to 150.6! :happy: And I'm up to 8 regular pushups and 12 from my knees--which is quite an accomplishment since I've never been able to do 'real' pushups at all! Thanks for all the encouragment! I'm looking forward to seeing all of your successes from our first week of the Thanksgiving challenge.

Awesome job this week, on to week 2!!!!

Mandalicious

I LOVE seeing the results rolling in! Keep them coming, pals!

I was delighted to get on the scale this morning! I weighed 126.0, down from 128.5 last week! Took a peek yesterday with the same result, and I thought somehow it was a fluke. I do find, though, that my weight often plateaus temporarily and then drops. Woohoo! Also, I got 20 REGULAR push-ups in last night. TWENTY! I still can't believe it. Six months ago, I had never done them in my life (nor could I successfully).

I will get our spreadsheet updated later today and also set up another weekly mini-challenge. Any thoughts on that??

mobskee

As of today (10/7) I am down to 150.6! :happy: And I'm up to 8 regular pushups and 12 from my knees--which is quite an accomplishment since I've never been able to do 'real' pushups at all! Thanks for all the encouragment! I'm looking forward to seeing all of your successes from our first week of the Thanksgiving challenge.

By the way, that's down from 153.0 as my starting weight this month! Yay!
And Congrats, mobskee--you are doing great with those pushups! We'll be hitting 20 regular ones in no time, right??

Good job on the weight loss! Yeah my big plan is to continue doing the push ups every week and start with the regular ones.

mobskee

Weigh In: 208.8 4.2 lb loss :drinker: :bigsmile: :drinker:

mobskee

10/07 Weigh-in = 236.2. Down 2.6 pounds from last week and I could not be happier! Especially with all that damn chocolate cake in the house that I just had to have!!!

I've been doing the pushups everyday, it even got to the point last night that i was in bed for about 15 minutes before I realized I'd forgotten to do them. Jumped out of bed onto the floor and did my 20 pushups. I suggested to Mandy that we do like 50 jumping jacks or 50 crunches as our daily mini goal for this week. If we do change it up, I still plan on doing the 20 push ups to, as I think it is helping my overall goal of achieving a healhier me

Happy Friday Everyone!

Dave

WTG DAVE!!! How exciting!!

kmvp08

Wow I can't believe I can now do 20 bent knees push ups! How crazy that a week ago I've only done a few push ups in my whole life. It just goes to show that I can do anything I put my mind to. Love having that kind of power LOL

YAY!

kmvp08

Weigh In: 208.8 4.2 lb loss :drinker: :bigsmile: :drinker:

Awesome, great work!

kmvp08

I LOVE seeing the results rolling in! Keep them coming, pals!

I was delighted to get on the scale this morning! I weighed 126.0, down from 128.5 last week! Took a peek yesterday with the same result, and I thought somehow it was a fluke. I do find, though, that my weight often plateaus temporarily and then drops. Woohoo! Also, I got 20 REGULAR push-ups in last night. TWENTY! I still can't believe it. Six months ago, I had never done them in my life (nor could I successfully).

I will get our spreadsheet updated later today and also set up another weekly mini-challenge. Any thoughts on that??

Great job! Those push ups were a great challenge.

How about situps or ab work? We can work up to a 60 sec Plank or 90 seconds, not sure what a good number is for everyone, but it will work your core!

kmvp08

As of today (10/7) I am down to 150.6! :happy: And I'm up to 8 regular pushups and 12 from my knees--which is quite an accomplishment since I've never been able to do 'real' pushups at all! Thanks for all the encouragment! I'm looking forward to seeing all of your successes from our first week of the Thanksgiving challenge.

:happy: Yay! Great job on the push ups. You'll be doing a 100 regular push ups in no time.

kmvp08

10/07 Weigh-in = 236.2. Down 2.6 pounds from last week and I could not be happier! Especially with all that damn chocolate cake in the house that I just had to have!!!

I've been doing the pushups everyday, it even got to the point last night that i was in bed for about 15 minutes before I realized I'd forgotten to do them. Jumped out of bed onto the floor and did my 20 pushups. I suggested to Mandy that we do like 50 jumping jacks or 50 crunches as our daily mini goal for this week. If we do change it up, I still plan on doing the 20 push ups to, as I think it is helping my overall goal of achieving a healhier me

Happy Friday Everyone!

Dave

kmvp08

10/07 Weigh-in = 236.2. Down 2.6 pounds from last week and I could not be happier! Especially with all that damn chocolate cake in the house that I just had to have!!!

I've been doing the pushups everyday, it even got to the point last night that i was in bed for about 15 minutes before I realized I'd forgotten to do them. Jumped out of bed onto the floor and did my 20 pushups. I suggested to Mandy that we do like 50 jumping jacks or 50 crunches as our daily mini goal for this week. If we do change it up, I still plan on doing the 20 push ups to, as I think it is helping my overall goal of achieving a healhier me

Happy Friday Everyone!

Dave

Great job Dave. (yum, chocolate cake! ) I've done that too, where you forget to do your push ups and then "bam" you remember. I like the jumping jacks too. Or, how about jump rope? 200 singles or something?

kmvp08

About meal planning... On Sundays when my boys nap, I look through tons of recipes on eatingwell.com and I plan our meals for the week. I make a grocery list and go shopping that afternoon. We have meals with meat early in the week and switch to veggie dishes later in the week since I don't want to have to go to the store again! Every Wednesday we have a crock-pot dinner that I put together the night before, so when I get home from a long day of tutoring it's ready!

Yesterday we had eggplant and chickpea stew with quinoa. The eggplant and tomatoes came from our garden, too!
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/eggplant_chickpea_stew.html

I, too, LOVE roasted veggies! My favorite mix is yams, parsnips, carrots, delicata squash, beets, and Brussels sprouts. Toss them with a tiny bit of olive oil, salt, dried tarragon and red chile flakes. Perfection on a cool fall evening!

I love crockpot meals! I usually buy the eatingwell magazine but never bothered to check their website! DOH! Great idea...

On the roasted veggies - if you don't feel like making your own or you're crunched for time both Traders Joes and Costco sell frozen roasted veggies. Just watch the sauce and sodium levels if that's a concern.