Over 200 Club New Year New Me Part 11

I finally made it back from Tulsa! Drove back this morning now I'm fnially at work! I missed lots! Time for me to go back and catch up. Hope everybody is having a great Monday!

So this time I am giving myself permission to feel good at a higher weight in order to call it my goal and stay there for awhile!

Does that make sense?

It makes amazing sense.
I see people on MFP constantly getting frustrated with how they're "so close" and it's "so frustrating" because they've come "so far" already -- wake up and realize just how far you've come in the moment. I could so easily get irritated since my weight loss has slowed down so much, but why?! I've lost 60 freaking pounds! That's *awesome*. :laugh: Seriously, what can I really be irritated about here? Not a darn thing. Yet some people get discouraged and think "screw it" and gain all 60 pounds back and then some. (I mean -- I know especially because I've been there before) And what a shame that is.
Because yes, it's happening slowly, but it's happening. And if I keep running and working out and eating healthy food I'm not going to be this size forever. Think about it - it's not really even possible unless I have a medical condition intervening. It just takes time.

Thanks jess and lildeb! I love to see progress!


Tandriahall - Welcome to our thread! if you'd like to join in the crazyness, all you have to do is sit around and chat. But in all seriousness, there is a rhyme to our reason...We check in every day with stating whether we were over or under our water and calorie goals, then we say if we exercised or not and for how long on what. Then we list what we were proud of doing that day! Heres a check in for yesterday:

Calories: Over
Water: Over
Exercise: 30 minutes of walking
Proud: That I put the fork down after I was full instead of forcing down the rest of my food at dinner.

Every friday we weigh in for the week and calculate our percentage lost that week, and whoever looses the most gets to pick a challenge for everyone on the thread for the next week! It seems like a lot, but its not that hard. and it's an amazing help when you need support on your journey. :flowerforyou:

Heather - I your mare! What a fun combination! The mare we're getting is also grey/white and she drives which could be fun! She's going to be bred this spring to a Fieresian (sp?) and after the foal is born next spring we'll have the option to buy her if we like her. She's older but that could be nice

Mari- GREAT job on the clothes! Doesn't it feel AWESOME to get rid of the big stuff? One of the things I'm doing this time is tossing (to a friend or thrift) each item as it gets too big so I CAN NOT go back! Even now I only have a few pairs of work pants that fit so I HAVE to lose weight so I can fit into some size 12s and small 14s I've picked up at thrift stores!

LittleSpy - Great job on avoiding the food. I found a piece of baklava on my desk last week - I took a bite then gave the other half to a friend LOL! :laugh: She was like "there's a BITE out of this piece" and I said "yeah well it's baklava and if you don't want it..." she ate it :laugh: I've also had a few bites (savored them) of sabotage food found at my desk like mint chocolate chip ice cream - then dumped the rest right into the trash! I'd rather waste it in the trash than waste it on my hips!

I have finally learned to take just a bite or two of a favorite food - truly focus and enjoy it and be done with it. Probably the biggest challenge for me has been hot wings - but I realized I get "diminished returns" after the first wing and I just keep thinking how each wing is almost a meals worth of calories and just one is plenty to enjoy! I eat it super slowly too

I have my internal interview for the IT security role on Wednesday! I had an awkward time asking the HR recruiter about the salary range for the new position. She didn't want to tell me but I knew I was allowed to ask. It turns out it's a grade up from mine. Now I have to decide to use the male part of my brain to do what a guy would do and (if I get an offer for the spot of course) ask for more money. I don't know why that seems so hard to do! I know I'm a really good value, I'm below market for my current job and the opportunity I have outside of my organization is significantly more money (and a longer commute). I also got a phone call today about an opportunity close to home which is a step backward but it would be nice to only drive 10 minutes to work every day! It seems the economy is starting to move again :drinker:

New-comers! I hope you stick around! Tandriahall - this is a great place to come to get motivation. Some of us *coughMEcough* tend to stalk this thread a little and others only post on Fridays - most of the rest are somewhere in between!

Mstahl - Good luck on the job interview!!

Welcome all newbies !!!!!!

Check in -

Cals - Right on target - 1560
Water - 48 oz to day ( not perfect but working on it)
Exercise - a little over a mile walk, and 30 min on the wii fit today.
Proud - I am proud that I am re-committed to this...and I am going to do it...I am proud that I am eating right hitting my calories, and today I am under my sodium ...

Steph and LilDebbie - GREAT job filling in your weekend food log! Whoot!

I found Sutts over on the old thread so here is her post:

Well...I don't even know what pilates is. I don't think we have those things up here in the north. LOL I am going to google it and find out. These challenge seem to work great for all of you so I am game to try it.
Cals under by 100
water = trying to drink more
exercise - nothing oops
Proud - ate at a nice restaurant and chose healthy meal - salmon - yum

Sutts -great job on the salmon YUM!

I still have the flu bug but as you might guess my appetite never takes a break so I've been hungry all day! I had a hard boiled egg at lunch which stayed down (barely!) but nothing else until dinner tonight. Even with two pieces of Frittata I'm still well under calories (and thus sipping some wine now!) I did have good food - just Greek yogurt and eggs for protein but lots of veggies and I made the eggplant Frittata with goat cheese YUM! (oh - that has protein too of course!)

Checking in:
Calories - well under
Water - YEP!
Exercise - 5K101 week 2 day 1 plus 25 minutes on an exercise bike

Proud - I did the exercise even though I felt yucky. I'm also proud that I got up, roasted the egg plant and made a healthy dinner rather than letting the DH come up with some kind of bad yet delish food for us to share!:huh:

Our housemate Beth brought a half gallon of 1% organic milk home so we could make more Greek yogurt. She (Math Grad student) and my DH (retired physicist) decided it's GEEK Yogurt :laugh:

I'm determined to go to the rec center tomorrow AM even if I'm too sick to go to work!

EDITED to add - I think 5K101 might start out harder than the C25K program - LittleSpy checked it out for me when I was going to start it back in January. A friend did it and wanted me to do it too! I decided to wait to 20 lbs off and to get in shape on the elliptical machine before I started it. I'm glad I waited because I think spending the couple months on the elliptical has helped prep me for jogging

For anyone who missed the challenge & Newbies, here is the original.......

CHALLENGE FOR THIS WEEK

In case you missed it, Cris passed on the honors to me as she was the biggest loser for the past 2 weeks in a row - go Cris :drinker:

So the challenge is to do some Pilates this week.
It can be a class or a DVD or a TV show or something you find on youtube, doesn't matter.
My sister gave me a pilates DVD and I've decided to try it this week and all my friends who do pilates regularly have killer bodies.
It could be really good for all of you who have knee issues as I think lots of the moves are done while lying down.

Best of luck
Meokk

So I did the pilates DVD this evening and as I suspected, it was all done lying down. Bluenote - you could totally do this in bed.
The DVD that I followed didn't include anything that would aggravate a knee problem.....but......it was not easy.
This is the first time I have tried Pilates and for all of you who are scratching your heads, it it something like yoga but all focused on your core, lots of stretching, everything I did was either lying on my back, side or stomach.
There are tons of videos on you tube and the DVD I followed was by Mari Windsor.

Momma - yes she was annoying going on about the powerhouse the whole time :laugh:

Checking in for today:
Calories 1188 so I'll find a little snack to get over 1200
Water - 100oz
Exercise - 40 mins of Pilates (approx 190 calories burned)
Proud that I could do 40 mins

I have a handy tool to share:
http://www.self.com/calculatorsprograms/calculators/
Look in the bottom left of the page under "burn calories" They have a calculator for loads of exercises and day to day activities. Once you chose the exercise, it prompts you to enter your weight and level and duration and spits out how many calories you burn...... very handy.
e.g. 35 minutes of moderate "playing with kids" for me, would burn 218 calories

Cris - sorry your baby is sick, it will end eventually.....:sick: :sad:
Mstahl - I think it's time that you started a mail order yogurt company!!!:laugh:
I'll be going into business with Bluenote and opening the first ever bed-based Pilates & Yoga studio :laugh: :laugh:
Little JLB Spy - so happy for you and the small clothes!!!!! way to go you sexy mama.:flowerforyou:

See you all tomorrow!

Still need to try to find a pilates dvd.

I decided to change my ticker to put smaller goal..so I have dropped it down to 50 lbs loss...which means I am 1/2 way there Makes me feel better to look at that...

or You Tube Lil Deb, there are loads of pilates videos on there
OR the library, mine has exercise DVDs