5 Pounds A Month April 2010 Challenge

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  • bethinagain
    bethinagain Posts: 282 Member
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    Hello everyone!

    Sounds like we have many people close to their goals or even already hit it...........that's awesome!:drinker:

    This weekend was a challenge for me, a bridal shower, a 1st communion and a 30th birthday!:noway: I packed my own lunch/dinner for all the events. Many people were offended and many people looked up to me and my dedication.:bigsmile:

    I do it so I can log my food in correctly. I premeasure and/or weigh everything before I pack it! I'm losing weight so I really don't care what people think.:grumble: Does that sound selfish? If it does.....GOOD. I haven't done anything selfish since before I got married and had kids, so kudos to me!:smokin:

    For this (April) challenge:
    SW 169
    CW 165
    GW 164

    Ultimate Goal 140!:happy:
  • ainslieglen
    ainslieglen Posts: 110
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    :flowerforyou: OK if I join in? I became a member only today, and will follow along with you in the challenge. SW 195 GW 154 by Jan 1, 2011 I'm motivated and welcome support and suggestions. Thanks.
  • siobhannestor
    siobhannestor Posts: 177
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    Phylis, I am sure with the way you've been working out, your plateau will be short lived. I love the photo of all of your 3rd graders! You and they are very fortunate that the school emphasizes physical activity.

    Jess, big congrats on the 6 pounds already!

    Beth, I am blown away by your dedication. I don't know if I could be so brave. And woo hoo! to your weight loss progress.

    Ainslieglen, Brunettewife, welcome to the group

    RJ, one bad day does not a week make!

    Well, I am shocked! Shocked! Shocked! I had a terrible week last week because of too much work. Exercised only half as much as my original goal, most nights got less than 5 hours of sleep which not only slows weight loss but makes your appetite increase and mine went through the roof - despite best intentions, had 3 "bad" days. But when I weighed in, had lost another pound - go figure?!?!?!

    Anyway, have lot 3 pounds so far this month. And am determined to make this a better week. Yea to me :D
  • seventeenlucky77
    seventeenlucky77 Posts: 92 Member
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    SW: 240
    CW: 236
    GW: 235

    Still in the gym everyday I can be. Didn't make it on Saturday because I was a little sore from doing some strength training and didn't want to injure myself. Very happy with my success so far. I'm learning alot about portion control and good and bad fats, carbs and so on.
  • fivefatcats
    fivefatcats Posts: 368
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    April challenge
    SW April 2nd 180.2
    CW April 16th 177.8
    GW April 30 175.0

    I accept the 3500 calorie challenge, though have no idea how to find the time to get there. I suppose I should get up off the computer and get started, eh?

    Although I am reasonably disciplined during the week, my weekend eating is generally horrible. I am amazed it doesn't thwart my progress entirely.

    Welcome ainsliegen and Brunettewife!

    I am having an emotional morning. I am really frustrated with alot of things right now (details really irrelevant). I have already yelled at my two oldest girls badly enough that I immediately regretted it and started crying and hugging them. I just wish all four of them were on a farm in Iowa for a few hours so I could . . .what? What would I do? Eat cheetos and watch Law and Order? Sleep? Garden? Hit the treadmill?

    Eating cheetos hurts nobody but me. Sleep - a lovely thought but I would lay awake thinking of thing I should be doing. Garden - maybe. Treadmill - yep - that's it. Get it done, because that's something I do for me, for me, for me, for me and for me.

    Me. And it may be the only me time I get today. Twins down for a nap, toddlers self-entertaining - LET'S DO IT! 500 calories here I come!!!
  • Jennplus2
    Jennplus2 Posts: 984 Member
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    Hello everyone,
    I did really great Saturday not so great Sunday as far as eating goes. I got my kids the sugar filled crap cereal (fruit loops) I never buy because my daughter had an art project for homework she need colored cereal for. At the store the cereal was buy one get one free, of course. Why do they never have buy one get one free fruit or veggies? Or lean chicken? Anyway, I love that kind of cereal and ate a huge bowl late afternoon thinking I could just make a stir fry and have only some veggies for dinner. But once my man got home from work he wanted to go out to dinner, because he got a raise! I felt so mad at myself for eating that cereal that I said we should take our bikes to go to dinner to help work off some of the extra calories. I only burned 160 during the ride but I felt better eating my yummy burrito with the bike ride to log in.
    So today and all week I want to stay on track and eat healthy! I am back to full time hours at work so I am not sure how I will fit in my extra exercise for our 3500 challenge but I really want to make it again, it felt so great everyday that I did the extra work! For me all I needed to do was add an extra 30 mins onto the 30 mins I do everyday anyway and I was over the 3500! I can do that, lets see if I DO do that! :tongue:

    3500 numbers so far...

    Sunday:
    burned 392 hour walk (to the park and back pushing 93 lbs of stroller/kiddos)
    burned 160 family bike ride (to go out for dinner, short trip but burned more than driving would have)
    552
  • TCASMEY
    TCASMEY Posts: 1,405 Member
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    Weekends seem to be everyone's downfall. I believe for me it is because during 5 days of the week my routine is pretty much the same, and then weekends happen and we have 2 days that are totally different. It gets me out of my routine. Which messes up my eating and working out schedule. I need to work on not letting this upset my eating and working out so much.

    I really did not get in any formal exercise this weekend but got a pretty good work out moving 40lb bags of dirt for a garden bed. I get 25 strawberry plants and 25 asparagus plants put into the new bed. After I was done I was wishing I had put my HRM on because I would have had some exercise to log.

    For fun I did wear my HRM to the class I took on Saturday. I burned 1427 calories in the 8.5 hours of driving to the class, being in class and then driving home. In this class, because it was a class on exercise and brain development in young children, we never sat for more than 10 minutes without getting up and learning a new active song we could teach to our kids. It was one of the more fun and interesting class I have taken in a long time. I usually come home complaining to my husband about knowing more than the teachers, this time I came home telling him how great this class was.

    Keep working out and moving. Lets be the start of the trend to eliminate obesity in this country!

    Have a healthy day!

    Terri
  • fivefatcats
    fivefatcats Posts: 368
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    I hate to play devil's advocate here, but did you log in 1427 calories for the day? The only reason I ask is that with a basal metabolic rate of 1800 (we'll use my numbers as an example), in 8 hours I would have 'burned' 600 calories just by breathing.

    So I rather hope that MFP's calulcations and HRM calculations take into consideration calories burned over and above BMR.

    I did get my treadmill time in today, albeit with 4-5 kid interruptions, but what's a mom to do. HRM gave me 357 calories, but MFP gives me 482 for the same work. Still not sure how to track it or what is more accurate. Or how to EAT it!!!
  • rjadams
    rjadams Posts: 4,060 Member
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    Go with your HRM. MFP is just an estimate and doesn't know how hard your heart is working. Your HRM does.
  • Elokyn
    Elokyn Posts: 448 Member
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    Went moutain biking for an hour and a half yesterday and then rode around outside my house when we got home. Feeling pretty good about that today. Weigh in day is Wednesday!!!! I'm so flippin scared!!!

    2 more lbs and I'll have done it!
  • amesnc
    amesnc Posts: 32
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    I am still here! Just had a busy couple of weeks with company visiting from out of state. With my visitors my exercise and eating habits have not been the best. At least I haven't gained!

    SW 165
    CW 164

    While I am behind on my goal I am going to increase my workouts this week. Keep up the great work everyone!
  • phyljen
    phyljen Posts: 453 Member
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    HI PALS,
    I decided to take a break off today from exercise. I have not missed a day for a while and after the kick boxing yesterday, my knee was killing me. But those calories added up too quickly. I had invited all the kids that were in my class last year to come to my room during lunch and have a pizza party. I ordered Papa Johns cheese pizza. Boy those kids ate and ate and I was lucky to get one piece for myself. 14 kids, me, and 3 Family sized margarita pizzas. I decided that I'd just have something light like a salad for dinner because those 1200 calories add up when you don't do the exercise. So anyway I came home and my husband had cooked fish and stewed carrots and peas. so I had dinner with him and my son and then set out to correct homework. UGGGG! I about fell asleep so I decided to go to the school and swim. I found out the pool is open to public from 7:30 to 8:30 so I pulled on my suit and drove over to school and had a nice hour swim. LOVED it and now I am more energized and don't feel so guilty about eating the slice of pizza and the pop corn snacks that I logged up today.

    Wow I am so proud of everyone that is losing and exercising and just writing to tell how they are feeling. Makes this journey feel like I am not alone. It is amazing how close I feel to everyone and how I look forward to seeing what everyone is doing every day. My internet was wacky today for a while and I about wet nuts because I couldn't log into this site.

    So keep adding your comments. All of them make my day. Phyllis:smile:
  • tres1967
    tres1967 Posts: 177
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    Weekends seem to be everyone's downfall. Terri

    Funny thing, weekends are great for me since my husband is home for the weekend (he is based at Aberdeen Proving Ground about 2 hours from home) we are both into fitness and clean eating so we get our exercise, whether outside stuff or the gym and I try all my new recipes on him.
  • fivefatcats
    fivefatcats Posts: 368
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    Tres - that's awesome that you and your husband enjoy fitness together.

    My husband is supportive but not participating (YET)! And he really needs to - he is about 50lbs overweight and had open heart surgery 2 years ago at age 36!!!
  • JABehler
    JABehler Posts: 82 Member
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    hi all,
    HRM....any suggestions on a good one to buy that isn't too expensive. There are some really expensive ones that I wonder if they are really worth all the money. I've been looking in Ebay. So, any suggestions? What features do I look for?
    Oh, I have an Omron pedometer but that's just for walking. It calculates aerobic steps, distance, time, and cal. burned.
    Jacque
  • Jennplus2
    Jennplus2 Posts: 984 Member
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    Hi everyone,

    I had a great day today! I eat well and even though I couldn't get in a little walk/jog after work I still went out for a walk after I picked up the kids. I asked them if they wanted to go to the park (of course they did!) and told them we really needed to hurry to get home before it got dark and cold. It is an hour walk so they only had about 10 mins at the park but to my delight they were understanding and fine when it was time to leave. We had a fast dinner but they both got to bed in time!

    My exercise for today...

    Curves-210 calories
    Volleyball-80 calories (I was the PE sub for one class today, love it when it works out that way)
    Walk-315 calories
    605 burned

    :bigsmile:
  • Jennplus2
    Jennplus2 Posts: 984 Member
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    hi all,
    HRM....any suggestions on a good one to buy that isn't too expensive. There are some really expensive ones that I wonder if they are really worth all the money. I've been looking in Ebay. So, any suggestions? What features do I look for?
    Oh, I have an Omron pedometer but that's just for walking. It calculates aerobic steps, distance, time, and cal. burned.
    Jacque

    I have a Polar 6 and love it! I looked on Amazon and read all the reviews it was less than $100 but I don't really remember how much.
  • siobhannestor
    siobhannestor Posts: 177
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    Miranda, woo hoo on your progress!

    FiveFatCats, I love the way that you view exercise - as a chance to give to yourself! I am going to borrow that one! Re: letting your eating go a little on the weekends, I've found that allowing myself a little leeway then actually helps me stay disciplined during the week because I don't have to feel like I'm continually depriving myself... My downfall is not getting enough sleep.

    Jennplus, you had me LOL on the two-for-one comment. Congratulations on your husband's raise!

    Terri, it sounds to me like moving 40 lb bags of dirt is a lot more strenuous than formal exercise might be! Is an HRM a heart rate monitor? How does it give you an indication of calories burned?

    Elokyn - when you say two more pounds - does that mean your final goal or your monthly goal? In either case, I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

    Amesnc - Not gaining when you have guests? Now that is a real triumph!

    Hi Phyllis - as always, you inspire! :D

    Tres1967 - how great that your partner is so supportive.

    All in all, I feel like I had a good day - started the day with a vinyasa yoga routine. Ended it with circuit training. Did well with food today, probably because I got enough sleep last night. I am hoping that I can sleep tonight, also. I need to do some work still, and it's already 9:24. Just hoping that I can get my work done quickly so that I don't reach my "second wind" before hitting the sack.

    Have a great day tomorrow, everyone!

    Shivaun
  • fivefatcats
    fivefatcats Posts: 368
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    Regarding HRMs - I am borrowing my sisters Polar F4 and it is really neat and easy to use, comfortable, and seems to work great. She has the Polar F4, a Bodybugg and a Garmin 305. She recommends the Garmin 305 for me - I just want distance/speed and calories burned. I am looking into getting one. Maybe for Mother's day!!!

    She is also doing HCG weight loss right now - down 8 pounds the first week. (She is WAY more disciplined than me, though and has not been successful of late just counting calories and working out.)
  • Jennplus2
    Jennplus2 Posts: 984 Member
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    Morning all,

    I am so pleased with myself today because last night I felt like I wanted a snack (I even had the snack cabinet door open) but then I realized that I didn't want a snack. I wanted to be healthy and in control of my eating. I wanted to be thin, active, and a good roll model. I DON'T want food to control my life anymore! So I started moving around the stuff in my cabinets and cleaning out junk I don't use. Well I ended up having a great idea! I moved my healthy food into one cabinet and the kids snacks and treats into the other. On the snack side I posted my measurements:blushing: and on the healthy side I posted a list of my goals! :bigsmile: Now when I go into that snack cabinet I will see my numbers up and that should help me stop and realize I am in the wrong cabinet. Plus I now have my own cabinet of healthy eats so I wont see any fruit loops when I go to grab a healthy snack.

    Everyone is doing amazing even with the set backs we are still learning about ourselves; and what we can do to push through! We are working towards that lifestyle change of choosing healthier foods and becoming more active.

    "The principle is competing against yourself. It's about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before."

    Happy day everyone!

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