2 week challenge

I've had a so-so week. Food was good Monday - Wednesday, but I drank a little much Wednesday night. So I ate crap yesterday. Had lunch and dinner out and could tell by the sodium bloat this morning. Not terribly over calories. I just felt blah yesterday. Pretty much came home, planted myself on the couch and didn't move all night.

My Wednesday morning weigh in showed a half pound loss though, which considering my AZ trip was the week before, I was super happy!

I've only gotten my yoga class, a short run, and walking through the zoo as exercise this week. I'll run Saturday and lift Sunday and be one lift short of my goal.

During March and April I will be committing one per week minimum to a work lunch workout. That with my yoga class, day off workout and weekend workouts, I can get my 5 in. Once the weather warms, I can get back to double workouts on day off. Run in the morning and lift during nap time. I can't wait. It's warmed up some here and I have spring fever already. Temps are supposed to be back in the teens next week. :noway:

Have a great weekend ladies!

hmm, not sure why that is sideways, but oh well, I was pretty happy with my first swimsuit day in Costa Rica and wanted to share:) all my tough days were worth it, I think.

we had a great time, I would recommend it. For the value it was as nice as Dominican Republic and nicer than resorts in the same price range for the week. We pay about $1500pp per week, flight and all-inclusive resort. It was hot and never rained. We saw lots of iguanas and monkeys. We did an excursion with horseback riding, hot springs, water slide, ziplines and a tarzan swing, it was so scary:sad: that's me, screaming, not crying

The beach was a volcanic beach so it wasn't white sand, and the water was pacific, so maybe a little colder.

My plan now is work out 5 times per week, average 1400 cals per day, three cheats per week. I think I will still keep breakfasts at 300 cals and lunch at 400 cals, so most days I will be good, but have a little room for days where I want a drink, or popcorn, or dessert.

We already had bought Girl Scout cookies! but I know now I have to keep an eye on things. I think 1400 is good for a slow loss and maybe get a better handle on maintenance.

RisOnTheRun

Hi ladies! I've been terrible about posting but I just spent the last hour or so catching up. Can't sleep :ohwell: I'm going to jump in the star challenge; I need some motivation. My goal for the week is 14,210 net. As high as it is I've had a hard time sticking to it., or even logging some days. I've developed an insane sweet tooth and I can't seem to stop snacking at work. I'm still holding steady at about 5 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight (thanks to breastfeeding and carrying around an 18 pound baby everywhere), but I'm not making healthy choices. I'm okay holding onto the last few pounds while I'm still breastfeeding but it's going to be really hard to lose them down the road if I don't get my discipline back.

Amy--your trip sounds amazing! And you look fabulous!

Ashley--great job on the .5 pound loss!

Kelly--glad you're feeling good! Just keep making good choices and the scale will follow!

Abi--what is Mudderella? Is it like a tough Mudder type of thing?

That's all I can see, it I hope you all had wonderful weekends!

Hey ladies! Good to hear from you Ris! Sounds like you are doing great. That 5 pounds is nothing! How old is your little guy now?

Amy, sounds like a great trip! And you look great! Your plan sounds like about what I am aiming for right now. My "goal" is 3 cheat meals, but sometimes it may be a little more. I really am just trying to focus on around 1400 calories a day with 5 workouts and it seems to even out. My macros have been okay. I could eat less carbs, but I like them.

Hi to everyone else! Hope you had great weekends!

I feel good today. I love when I wake up not feeling bloated and gross on Monday. I ate okay over the weekend, but countered some junk with a great calorie burn Saturday (4 mile run + around 3 miles of walking throughout the day) and a good lift yesterday in addition to some ball work (with my Coregous ball) and ended with a little yoga. I was having a hard time lifting Daphne in and out of shopping carts after! My calories ended up total 10,708 with a net of 9,284 so I get my star! I did pretty good with drinking too. Only drank 3 days, and one of those days was very moderate. So I am geared up and motivated to continue with good habits for the next couple months and hopefully lose some of my winter fluff.

I better get to work. Let's have a great week ladies!

abigail1977

Amy - nice pic, you look fabulous! Glad you had a good time, sounds like a wonderful trip

Ris - glad to see you back. The Mudderella is the girlie version of the Tough Mudder. It's half the distance at 5-7 miles & the obstacles look easier. As my sister says it's all the fun without the sadism.

Better - glad to see you are feeling good, I definitely feel gross & bloated this morning. I went a little overboard on the junk yesterday.

In fact, last week was a major fail on calories & I was WAY over, so no star for me this week. I am determined to avoid sugar at all costs going forward. I have to get a handle on these cravings! Thankfully I have been keeping up with my exercise program so if I can get my eating habits to match I should be good to go.

Amy - you look friggin' AWESOME! Seriously....you iz the shiz.

Welcome back, Ris....i don't miss the slow decline from pregnancy weight to....something else....

Hi Better! Hi Abigail!

My return trip from Mexico is tomorrow....booooooo.

I hear it is MINUS 30 today where i'm headed. Ugh.

Nice Beeps, enjoy your last day. We came home to a snow storm but it warmed up Sunday. Harsh...
And thanks, everyone, for your words of support.
looks like I have a week of something closer to maintenance. But I will work out!
Going to The Keg for dinner tonight and better get in a run so I can split a bottle of wine.
Ultimately I did not complete the 4th phase of the Drop 2 Sizes program, so I could finish that up, or try something else, I can't decide...

RisOnTheRun

Ashley--Glad to hear you had a good weekend! And Wiley is four months old. Time is flying by with him....

Abi--Mudderella sounds fun! I'll have to look into that.... I hear you on the sugar cravings. That's my weakness right now.

Beeps--Welcome back to the cold! That's going to be a tough transition from Mexico.... I hope your trip went well!

Amy--There's nothing wrong with maintenance!

Day one of my recommittment to logging went well. I avoided all desserts (except for granola bars--they are my compromise for now), and stayed under my calorie limit. So far so good today. I was tempted to go through all of today's snacks this morning, but checking in with you ladies has boosted my willpower and I think I can restrain myself and save the rest of my snacks for this afternoon. I'm going to skip the booze tonight and tomorrow, so that should help me stay within my calorie guidelines.

ramalem

Morning ladies!

Abi - Workout habits are the hardest, way to keep them up. I had one of those weeks a few back.

Beeps - Welcome back. Can't wait to hear about your trip!

Amy - You look great! Maintenance can be a great spot to be.

Ris - Wow, time is flying! Way to go on compromise. I really wish booze didn't add to so much

I had a pretty good week last week, I was really active which really helped to keep me at only 550 calories over my goal (yay!) I've been one week gluten free, and am feeling really good. I'm surprised at how (relatively) easy this is so far. It also blows my mind how much GF stuff there is out there. Most of it is not so good and not even worth eating, but I think I'm going to have to get my hands on some pizza sometime soon.

I'm headed to Vegas for a day, then Phoenix this weekend to visit some friends. Hoping we can get outside and be semi active, but I know there will be lots of boozing going on, so I'll need to do my best to keep my eating in check.

Have a great week everyone!

ChLoE1130

Ris- Stay strong with the sweets! Jackson will be 4 months tomorrow, but he is still a little peanut, I think he is just a little over 14lbs we go to the doc next week so I will know for sure then.

I'm so jealous of all the warm weather vacations! I don't think I have ever wanted summer to come so badly!

Well I think I have officially hit my plateau. This is where it gets tricky though because I am doing 1800 cals a day. Not counting any exercise or breastfeeding cals, just making sure I take in 1800 a day. And I probably shouldn't drop below that because it could hurt my milk supply. I am running 3 days a week, I just started week 5 of C25K and doing 2 days of strength. I am about 5 lbs above prepregnancy weight, which I have to say I am pretty proud of especially since I gained about 45 during pregnancy. I think I might just have to accept this weight until I am done breastfeeding.

My goals for the next couple weeks:

1) Clean up my diet. Cut out some protein bars and replace with hardboiled eggs and fruit.
2) Increase my workouts- try for 4 days on the treadmill and keep up the 2 strength days

Today was pretty good, and still allowed for plenty of treats. My breakfast lately has been a whole grain frozen waffle with peanut butter and nutella. With coffee (and my usual fiber drink) it's still under 300 cals, then I had a frozen lasagna for lunch, girl scout cookies for snacks, and a grilled turkey sandwich and chicken noodle soup for dinner!

RisOnTheRun

ramalem--Whole Foods makes a frozen gluten free pizza crust that is actually pretty good. It's in a little ball in the frozen pizza section. My husband has celiac, so I make it whenever he has a pizza craving. It's pretty much the only GF pizza he'll eat.

Chloe--Jackson is such a cutie! 14 pounds sounds about right. Wiley is massive, he's been in the 100th percentile in weight at every checkup. I need to start doing more baby weight exercises with him to take advantage of his size. And great job on losing the pregnancy weight so quickly!

Amy--Your breakfast sounds delicious; I love nutella. I can't keep it in the house though, I don't have the restraint to just use a little bit! But that's a great way to keep your treats in check.

I did well yesterday. I almost gave in and had some wine even though I wasn't planning on it (I had my glass out and everything), but then I decided that I'd be better off spending those calories on real food and reminded myself that I'll enjoy the wine more if I wait until Thursday. The scale was down about two pounds today, so that was a good reward. I think it's just a result of my body flushing out all that extra sugar.

For all of us with a sweet tooth, this article was good and scary about the evils of sugar: https://www.webmdhealth.com/nl/nlv.aspx?id=81B7FAD9E5248578&s=14148

nenshali

Hello Ladies

Until now, it was a good week. Yesterday, I ate in fact too because I didn't count the exercise enough. Well.. this won't happen again :laugh:
I'm going to a café in about an hour, I'm still unsure what to order. A Cappuchino or a Latte Macchiato (simple) would be smarter than something with caramell, but I'm craving it. I guess I'll give in, so I prevent any late-evening-binges :blushing:

My goal for this week is:

1) Yoga, every day!
2) Breakfast every day
3) Fruits and Veggies every day
4) Drinking 2l of Water/Tea every day
[5) Continue studying again, I focus quite a lot on food and fitness right now :laugh: ]

Back into the grind. Will get a work-out in, today, but am totally going to ease my way back into it....I do NOT want any DOMs. Typing is hard (due to the sea urchin stings I suffered on 4-of-5- right hand fingers/tips). Lifting will be super-hard, too.

I'm going back into a slight deficit. Going to try a 6:1, with the 1 being "maintenance" and NOT "binge".

Should I re-invigorate the *star* challenge as a March thing? I can do a solid 4 weeks throughout March.

I could do star challenge, will be good for me. I am upping to 1400 per day (9800 per week). Hard to log accurately when I eat out, though!
How did you enjoy Mexico? How did you get the urchin stings? looks ouchy!

I have a confession to make. I've never had Nutella! Probably for the best.

I was off today so ran three miles. I'm feeling it. Which sucks because I'm running a 10k with my bestie next Saturday. I have not run that far since my mini last April. I'll bust it out. And then take ibuprofen.

I'm down for the star challenge in March. I hope for March and April to be good weight loss months. I peeked at the scale this morning and it was the same as last week. I'll step on again tomorrow and see what it has to say and then log. Probably going to do another round of measurements and photos next week.

wassergottin

I'm down for the Star challenge in March! I am feeling much better about my health and have kicked my binging habit.

KellyBgetsfit

Hey Ladies! It has been a busy week! I had to do report cards and I had my formal observation yesterday (I think it went well)

Amy- You LOOK amazing!!!!! How much lifting do you do? I always see you post runs, but not as much lifting.

Beeps- Welcome back! Your poor hand, ouch. Hope your DOMS isn't too bad.

Ris- I LOVE sweets, too! You've lost most of your baby weight, right? Don't be too hard on yourself.

So I have seen a consistent GAIN since the holidays, yet my pants are starting to fit better. I know it's just the scale, but I NEED IT TO MOVE!!! For the next two weeks, I am going to try to step up the cardio, then cut back and focus on weights.

I LOVE the star challenge. I have been logging EVERYTHING. When I look at my diaries from last year, I know that I didn't log EVERYTHING (late night snacks, second slices of pizzas). I want to figure out what how many calories to lose or maintain. The only way I can truelly know this is to track my calories.

Happy Thursday!

I only post runs because I only count calorie burns from running. I was doing the Drop 2 sizes before vacation and it called for lifting 3 times per week. I think that is a pretty reasonable schedule. Usually 10 reps, 3 sets, various movements-squats and deadlifts for legs, pull ups, pushups and rows for upper body.
The trouble is, I sort of have to cycle between working out (when I am working out I have a harder time controlling my appetite) so then it's when I just focus on lowering cals for awhile that I think I look better, but really, it's the workout that's under that. I need to find a way to do both.
and like you, kc, I need to log to know. It's nice to be able to have a record, and it helps with planning, so I know a few quick "500 calorie dinner" or something like that.

Amy - Mexico was perfectly lovely! Perfect weather! Beautiful resort! Time alone with a great husband! I loved it.

Sea urchin stings were day 1. Not 10 minutes into the ocean-time.

I actually was at the dr. today and have to have 3 of them surgically removed....so, tomorrow it is! (they just freeze the pinky and start digging, I think....ugh....)

So, my lifting won't be tomorrow. Maybe Saturday. Will see how I feel. I'm nauseous just thinking about it....

Off to "surgery"....sucky, right??

To make myself feel better, I keep reminding myself WHY I went to Mexico in the first place, lol! So, here I am, in the beautiful warmth and sunshine, soaking up local culture/history (at the tulum ruins....):

Here's what I have for March *star* challenge....please let me know:

1. if you still want to be in (or out) of the challenge.
2. if your calorie alottment (by week) has changed.
3. take this weekend as "practice" - we go full-out starting MONDAY!

Beeps has a face!

Your arms look amazing. Like seriously arms I would see and covet. Good luck with surgery.

I'm going to try to reduce my goal by 50 calories a day which means I'll be trying for 9650. I've been really focused lately. I had a little slip up with the wine last night, but ate pretty light the rest of the day so ended up over by 300. I also had a pretty killer workout yesterday. No PRs, but I hit the high end of my load on bench (85), squat (130), and standing OHP (55). I'm ready to do this thing!!!

Have a great weekend ladies! I'm shooting for 5 miles Saturday to attempt to get me ready for my 10k next Saturday.

Nice pic, Beeps, and I guess we can see a face-but in shadow and with sunglasses!
Good luck with the surgery, that makes me a little queasy too.
I went over last night with beers and grilled cheese, it was from a food truck so I counted it like Sonic, I don't know really, though...

I am kinda starting a March plan. I decided to do the last phase of the Drop 2 sizes, I was 2 weeks into the last phase when I stopped.
So, average 1400 cals per day, follow the D2S and then we'll see where I am in a month.
The one thing I can't decide is if I should eat back workout calories, they are too hard to estimate with the D2S.
Also, not sure what I really mean by "cheat meals" I still want to account for them, and not go over on cheat days.
And alcohol, I would like to try and keep it to 7 drinks per week but that seems impossible for me, I am at 8 already and it's Friday!

And alcohol, I would like to try and keep it to 7 drinks per week but that seems impossible for me, I am at 8 already and it's Friday!

Ditto.....
I also have a hard time considering cheat meals because sometime they come in the form of liquid! :drinker:

Well, had my pinky "surgery" to remove sea urchin stingers.

It didn't go well.

:sad:

Much like the first cataract surgery I had last September, I ended up fainting and then I had a seizure (dr's word choice, not mine, so please don't skewer me if this isn't correct terminology).

:sad:
It was THE most disorienting thing I have ever had happen. When I "awoke", I thought I had died ~ there was just a very bright light and my husband's face over mine....I didn't know who I was, I didn't recognize my surroundings and I think my sight returned before my hearing so it was all very, very confusing and frankly, TERRIFYING.

My husband has now gone out-of-town for the weekend with middle son for a volleyball tournament. I've stayed behind to be with daughter at a hockey tournament. I am sitting at work (because I'm ALL ABOUT "distraction", just now...), but I'm feeling relatively, ummmmmmmm, hollow. I mean, I feel fine - the episode is over - but I don't feel good.

I have 2 stitches that will come out next week; pain is completely bearable. I just can't get that "I thought I died" feeling out of my head.....and, it feels like a REALLY SILLY feeling to have over a pinky-thing.

:sad: