Yay!! Glad to have some people on the 50-day journey with me!! I weighed in Saturday morning at 234 - that'll be my starting weight. My boyfriend will be taking pictures this week and every weekend from here on through our 50 days. We have a beach trip coming up in September, so that should be interesting!!

This week I've got my meals all planned out and cooked. Breakfast is coffee, water, 3 eggs, yogurt and puffed brown rice cereal (415 calories total); 1st snack is yogurt, protein powder, brown rice cereal (270 calories total); Lunch is an arugula-ricotta omelet, oatmeal and yogurt (388 calories total); 2nd snack is yogurt, protein powder, brown rice cereal (270 calories total); 3rd snack is almonds and string cheese (260 calories total); dinner is Asian Sesame Bulgur and Chicken, yogurt and brown rice cereal (603 calories total). I'll be going over my 2150 calories by 35 (total of 2185), 7 grams under carbs, 10 grams under protein, 20 over fat, 9 under fiber and 38 under sodium.

I eat a lot of yogurt and brown rice cereal. I love the cereal (Natural Nutrition Puffed Brown Rice, $1/bag, Walmart) because it's 70 calories for one cup, 14 carbs and the only ingredient is brown rice! I love the yogurt (Carb Master, 10/$4, Kroger) because it's 60 calories, has 8 grams of protein and is super yummy. I actually mix them together.

I'm starting my workout plan tomorrow. I will be doing a full-body strength training routine 3 times per week, with one of those times being in a circuit. Twice a week, after my lifting, I'll be doing 20 minutes of HIIT. This Wednesday I'll be out of town, so I'll be doing my 20 minutes HIIT Wednesday evening and eliminating it either Tuesday or Thursday.

I just canNOT wait for my clothes to start fitting better!!

Good luck to you ladies!! Can't wait to hear your updates!!

I'm new to EM2WL, but I'm up for your 50 day challenge! The scale and I are NOT friends right now, so I'm ready to ditch it! I'm at work, but I'll be back with my stats.

Great!! Welcome!

Hello! Well I had a really good day 1 - I hope you all did too! I have started a blog about my journey as I like to be able to get everything down even if it's not particularly good reading so please feel free to check up on me on there, although I will be hanging around here too

I got my DDP Yoga workout in this morning, and a swim this evening, plus I have eaten everything I planned (I actualy forgot to eat my apple, and may substitute it for 2 oreos in a minute... hehe... I am a firm believer in no restrictions)

With the 2 oreos I have ended up at:

2146 cals (Goal 2150)
42% carbs (Goal 40%)
30% protein (Goal 30%)
28% fat (Goal 30%)

So I would say fairly nailed today!!!

Hope all your Monday's have been great - I will check in again tomorrow

Oreos ... mmm!! :laugh: Great job on the first day! I'll definitely be checking out your blog. Sent you a friend request.

We have the same calorie goal! :drinker:

Think my day is going pretty well too except I need to drink more water (as usual!)
Budget is pretty tight this week so hitting my macros might be kinda hard. Get to start working out today finally after recovering from a concussion. I didn't weigh myself this weekend like I planned to or measure...was just too busy so going to allow myself to be surprised with results this weekend... at least I hope it will be a good surprise!

I understand the tight budget deal! The last few weeks I was stuck going out of town for several work-related and non-work-related trips, so my budget was tight and I lived on whatever was in my pantry and fridge, lol. Macros were pretty much out the window.

Good luck this weekend!! Hope your workout went well, too. :flowerforyou:

This is awesome. I'll be following and rooting for you all.

I'd join you but the next 2 weeks for me are nuts entertaining family and friends at my house night and day...whew. I will be thrilled to get my protein in! And that's my goal. Walk as much as I can and track my protein, veggies and fruit.

Great job! keep it going!!

Aww, thanks!!

I hear ya on the crazy weeks!! I am just coming off of two crazy weeks myself ... which is kinda what spawned this idea, haha. Life can be hectic sometimes, but we get through it!

thewang - nothin' like having a Mr. Fix-It in the family! Congrats on saving the money on your car. Glad you had a good day!!

Stephie - Yay for pushing through and eating well!!

Hope you both have a wonderful day today, too. :flowerforyou:

I *did* get my workout in last night ... and boy, what a workout it was!! I was worried I'd lost some strength with not working out the past few weeks. Fortunately, I hadn't! Unfortunately, there were tons of guys hogging the squat racks, so I had to use the hack squat machine instead. Jerks. Hoping to find a spot on Thursday to be able to deadlift.

I got through my hour-long strength training routine last night, really didn't think I'd have energy for the 20-min. HIIT ... but I SO did and it felt great!! I ended up with a burn of around 1100. :noway: I'd only estimated about 700. I ended up having 400 calories to eat just to net my BMR. If I keep this up every week, I am absolutely bumping my activity level (and calories!) up to moderate. I'm at light right now and not sure if this is accurate.

I was taking the night off from working out and doing my routine again tomorrow, but my boyfriend wants me to go to the gym with him tonight. It takes him a while to get motivated to get back in, but when he does ... he drops weight and gains muscle like nothing I've ever seen. Boys ... :grumble: :laugh: So, I'm planning on just doing 30 minutes of cardio. Don't think I can lift anything more than my pen today at work!

Here's to a great day, good (healthy) food and an even better tomorrow! :drinker:

Stephie - how are your muscles today? I was right there with you on soreness yesterday!! I have a feeling it'll be back tomorrow, too. Ouch! But, it's a good ouch! Good luck getting your hubby on board with you. My boyfriend is slowly - but surely - getting there. He's trying to cut out Mt. Dew right now, haha. When we first got together last year, he dropped 30+ pounds with just cutting out Mt. Dew, eating more salads and going to the gym a couple times a week! Then, he got a new job, started the Dew habit again, stopped going to the gym and he's back to the weight he was last year!

Well, I got my 30-minute cardio session in last night with the boyfriend, then I did my full-body strength training routine (again) tonight. I am so fatigued! My muscles are mad at me, and halfway through my routine I just wanted to quit. I was advised by the EM2WL Twitter person (Kiki? Lucia?) to do 3, full-body strength training days ... but I'm definitely not used to this. Before my 2-week break, I was doing one day upper body, one day lower body, one day circuit. I'm keeping the circuit, but not sure about keeping the same full-body routine twice per week. I'll try it again next week and see what happens. Maybe I should do two, different full-body routines? Just to mix it up? I dunno - we'll see!

I think if I keep this up I'll definitely have to up my calories to a moderate level. I was h-u-n-g-r-y this afternoon and ravenous this morning when I woke up!

In other news, my pants were tighter this morning than they have been. :grumble: Not really sure why, but I'm pushing forward!

Stephie - I hope all is well!! Thoughts and prayers with you and your family.

I've had an okay weekend food-wise, but my jeans and shirt were SO tight today. Shouldn't my inches be going down at least a little? This is very frustrating. Pushing on with high hopes!!

In other news, I've got a weird problem. For over a year, I've been having these episodes (very rarely) where I'll be sitting or laying down, doing nothing strenuous, relaxing, watching TV and all of a sudden, I'll breathe out and it is a struggle to breathe back in. I'll breathe normally for a bit, then it does it again. Only a couple times. Then my chest gets tighter, sometimes I get pains and I can hear and feel my heart beating. Then I feel like I need to cough. Until last night, I'd never had an episode around anyone. I was sitting with my boyfriend, watching TV, and it happened. I told him what I was feeling and noticed that as I was speaking, I had to stop every few words to take a breath. Then my head felt kind of fuzzy ... like I had a buzz, but hadn't had anything to drink. I've controlled the episodes by sitting still, concentrating on my breathing, making sure I'm completely relaxed. I did this last night and the episode went on for a good hour; up until now, the longest I've had an episode was half an hour. I've never had an issue when working out or doing anything other than sitting still or laying down. I've decided this has gone on too long, I don't think it's a panic attack and I'm not sure it's superficial. Going to schedule an appointment with our at-work nurse this week to see if she can refer me to someone or give advice.

Here's what I posted in the EM2WL forums (em2wl.com):

Just wanted to post an update and vent some frustrations. This is beginning week 3 for me of my consistency. I hit my calories every day last week except Saturday. I went on a 4-hour hike and ended up netting only 500+ calories. I could NOT eat any more! Ouch. I burned over 2700!! I lifted two days (heavy!) and did 40 minutes total of HIIT in two 20-minute sessions. I drank adequate water (always do!) and have been super regular thanks to probiotics (TMI - sorry.). BUT, this morning when I went to put on a pair of my usual black dress pants for work ... they were tighter than ever. Tighter than they were when I did the reset!! Tighter than they have been since I bought them.

I don't get it. I don't think I'm retaining *that* much water because I am getting up at least four times per night to go! I drink lots and lots and lots of water throughout the day. I am not going to falter from the process, but I hate that I am even bigger than I have been during EM2WL. I couldn't fit into the shirt I tried on first this morning and had to settle for another, bigger shirt. Sigh.

Any words of motivation? Or ... anything I am doing wrong?? Shouldn't SOMETHING be happening other than gaining? I'm supposed to eat around 2700 to maintain. I'm eating at 2400, plus exercising, not netting below my BMR (with the exception of hiking that one day), eating cleanER than usual (I've added lots of veggies), staying hydrated ... it's not paying off.