30 Day Challenge Part 2

"Spring into Fitness" sounds good to me. We can run it until April 25, if we want to stay with ending on a Monday weigh-in day. That's 6 weeks from the end of the current challenge, Mar 14.

Today's challenge - eating your calorie goal. I'm one that doesn't eat into all of the gained calories from exercise. I've got myself believing that if I eat those calories; what was the point of exercising? I could be wrong but I've got too much weight to lose to risk eating those gained calories and then not losing anything. But I definitely eat to my daily calorie intake plus a little extra.

How's everyone doing with their water?

I'm interested in staying with this group as well. Weekly challenges are a good idea; with everyone rotating thru making the suggestion.

I have one we can use now - hopefully we haven't discussed this - eating the right amount of protein and sharing with the group the different protein items everyone is eating (I'm struggling with protein variety).

Have a great Wednesday!

"Spring into Fitness" sounds good to me. We can run it until April 25, if we want to stay with ending on a Monday weigh-in day. That's 6 weeks from the end of the current challenge, Mar 14.

I second this idea. 6 weeks is good, and April 25th runs through my baby's first birthday, so that'll keep me in check and emotional/stress eating while family is here and lots of sweet goodies around the house!

Good afternoon ladies~
Todays challenge is a good one- Eating your calorie goal
I have to admit that I struggled with this for the first 2 weeks, always under my calorie goal but since I have been exercising more....my appetite is growing. Yesterday I had no problem eating all my calories. I think I increased by like 300 calories yesterday. I started Leslie Sansone's walk at home boot camp and that is really one heck of a work out. I have managed to do the one mile for the last 2 days but am going to do 2 miles today. It comes with 2 figure 8 stretchy bands which hasn't come into play yet but sure it will soon. At work, where I used to always sit all day, I find myself up and moving now as much as possible. I've been doing squats and other exercises when no one is around. Let's all try and hit our calorie goals today and good luck to everyone:)

Sounds great singer. I need to focus on upping my protein intake. I have so much more energy when I eat the proper amount. All those are great sources of protein.

Paige, it's very well possible you aren't eating enough calories. I see that you are doing the 30 day shred also so you are doing the work for sure! Also, when you get down closer to your goal weight like you are.....those last few pounds are harder to get off. When I had lost down to 142 about two yrs ago, I swear I could not get any smaller even though I was working out everyday and I was eating healthy. It could have been for me that I wasn't eating enough. You can do it. Try changing up your diet a bit. Eat smaller meals but include your snacks with lots of protein at each meal. You are most certainly building muscle. Good luck and keep us informed~

For the past two weeks, I've been concentrating on keeping my net calories at just barely under 1200 by eating all my exercise calories. I'm following a Primal Blueprint food plan, aiming for 100g carbs and 100g protein per day. Most of the carbs come from many fresh vegetables, a few fruits and nuts, and milk/yogurt. I'm getting protein from milk, yogurt, eggs, beef, shrimp, salmon, and chicken. I keep hard-cooked eggs in the refrig for adding to salads; also, frozen shrimp tossed in the salad bowl thaw nicely in time for dinner at work, while keeping my salad cool.

@ Singer - holy cow. If I'm calculating correctly, have you lost 14lbs in 3 weeks? That is amazing and so impressive! Keep up the awesome work!!

the eating all my calories challenge couldn't come at a better time. I've been a bit low the last few days (just haven't been hungry enough to eat those last few cals at night) and I'm feeling it today. This happened to me last time I was on a weightloss track, my cals will be low for a few days, then I'll be hungrier and eat more for a day or two, and then restart the cycle. Seems normal for me, as I lost weight this way before, but does it happen to anyone else? I'm thinking it's prob the body's natural defense against "starvation mode" and also serving to keep my metabolism from getting too sluggish since every 2nd or 3rd day I'm eating more. Thoughts?

@ olivia, you might be naturally zig-zagging daily calories while aiming for a weekly total, a technique some people follow, so your body never knows how much it's going to get every day. If it works for you, it works.

I'm with ya. I had to ride my bike today, because the car wouldn't start. Where's the ice cream? Light, of course.

Good evening ladies~
I'm a little late getting on here tonight. Seems most of us have been working on eating your calorie goals. With some it's a struggle to not eat over but we are all unique and different so you just have to find what works best for you. For me, I've been doing better with reaching mine and actually since working out harder, I am hungrier so I allow myself an extra snack if I need it. It's too bad that one formula doesn't work for all of us but it doesn't. If whatever you are doing, is allowing you to lose weight, stick with it. May have to tweak it here and there, throwing in different types of exercises or foods but we are all doing great and don't sweat it if you are say just a 100 calories down for the day. If you aren't hungry, then I'm sure that will be fine. Your body has a way of telling you when it's hungry,, I know mine does! For tomorrow it is more of a group topic than a challenge but would like to see everyone get involved with this.

********Thursdays Topic of discussion********
What is your guilty pleasure? Chocolate? Cake? Cookies? Bread? Pasta? Potatoes? Fried foods? I would like everyone to talk about what one food is the hardest to stay away from. Also how do you overcome it? Do you give in? Have a little? Enjoy and then exercise more? Have none at all?

I know everyone single one of us has our one weakness that is our biggest temptation. So be thinking about it and be sure to post tomorrow. I think it will be an interesting topic:)

I'm 11 calories under my goal today, which I will consider meeting my goal. I try to get close to this almost every day (I'm usually slightly further from the goal). If I exercise, sometimes I'm a few more calories under, but I do generally eat most of my calories. Planning my meals has really helped me stay healthy, and I think it's working. I'm not losing as quickly as a lot of other people, but I feel a lot better than I used to. Someone actually told me today (unprompted) that they could tell that I'd lost weight, which surprised me given that I've lost very little, but I'll definitely take it!

For some of you who were wondering how to get those last hundred or so calories in, one easy way to do it is a few nuts. An ounce of roasted, unsalted almonds is about 170 calories. It's a very small volume, and pretty healthy.

Since having my daughter I haven't been able to join my friends at the local pub for our weekly trivia night. I gave myself some freedom to enjoy tonite, but planned it, so that it didn't "break the bank". I had 2 beers and a piece of chocolate cream pie (birthday celebration pie). I recognize that all of those things are empty calories, but life is for living and there are times where you just need to let go and enjoy. I am celebrating the change in myself in that I didn't have 2 beers and pie on top of everything else, but I made room for the extra calories by eating a lighter dinner and working out before I went. And tomorrow I will make up for the 2nd 1/2 of today's challenge by doing both parts proper!

I, too, joined my friends for trivia night at a bar tonight. It's hard to be there without getting at least one drink, but that's all I had. I ate dinner right before I went, so I wasn't hungry and tempted to eat all the fried bar food, and I made sure I had enough calories to fit the drink within my goal.

I think that we all need to fit these "normal" activities into our lives even when we're trying to lose weight because that's what we're going to be doing after we're down to our goal weights. Also, my whole goal is to be happier and healthier, and if I don't get to enjoy time with my friends, I think it kind of defeats the purpose.

A few allowances here and there are almost necessary, and you can always make up for them before or after. It's more important to make sure that you're happy and still enjoying life while trying to make this lifestyle change. That's just my two cents.