Need to Lose 100 LBS -Robins Thread !

@Susan - hooray on having reached your decision. Atlanta has my favorite airport in it of all the ones I've spent time in.

@Skinnyjeanz - what a windfall for you and your pals winning that liquor.

@getitamb - I'm with you, working on my macros.

Sunday Share - I've been reading a lot of stuff about EatMore2LoseWeight ... there i a group on MFP by that name and a few of the aritcles I read got me to thinking ... which is often not such a good idea where I am concerned. LOL ... However it got me really doing a lot of research into how our bodies work with foods and just how they work. I've been crazy hungry all week and was wondering if it was my bodies rebound of the weight I lost last the last 3 months. So ... I've decided to let myself eat at maintenance for the rest of the month while I continue with my exercise routine and see what happens. I figure eating at maintenance is better than cutting a lot of calories and then having this raging battle going on.

Niki

PS - @morgori ... love those quotes you post. I've started a collection of them.

Susan- Congratulations on your new job , I am thrilled that it worked out for you and that you can home to Atlanta. Congrats on your weight loss and you have a good plan to keep walking and eating clean. I am doing a Happy dance and sending you best wishes for the new job. I think I have a friend who works for Honey Baked Ham Company, he is based out of MD.

Hansea- Welcome back. It is good to see you again.

Skinny (Karen)- The gala sounds wonderful and good luck with the grading. I need to that myself tonight if I can find the energy. Congrats on winning the raffle that is a wonderful idea to use the liquor as gifts for the holidays.

MountMary- I love those biscuits from Red Lobster as well. Sounds like you made a good choice. I hope the snow is not too bad for you. It appears that winter is starting to early.

Robin- I do like swimming but I will never be fast during a race. Some of the guys completed the 50 free in 21 seconds today. It was impressive watching them swim. I find the water relaxing and enjoyable.

Well, the swim meet was a success for me. I was able to establish 5 different base times so now I can work on improving those during the next few meets. I figure I will learn how to turn correctly and do a dive start. The tough part will be getting over my fear of diving off the block. I have a horrible fear of heights when it comes to looking down since my perception also gets screwed up. The swim meet was fun and I did okay. I finished first in my age group luckily it was a small meet today. I swam the 200 Back in 4:36:08 seconds- that was hard event for my very first race. The sad part was the heat I was in was mixed ages and I was beat by people older than me. My fastest time was 47.06 during my leg of the 200 freestyle relay. I did manage to beat my make believe heat time in the 50 Breast with a time of 55.69 so that was a huge success. The best of today was that I did it and gave it my best. My arms are sore and I think that has something to do with climbing on Friday night. I will eventually learn not to climb and race in the same weekend. Climbing is my addiction and my passion.

@cblue315 @th407 @skinnyjeansbound Thanks for the encouragement! Yesterday went fine. For dinner, I had Oberweiss 97% fat free french vanilla in a dipped cone. It was delicious! I was still under. It was a good day. (I woke up hungry, though!

Yesterday, a friend whom I am subbing for on Friday told me that she just found out the Principal has planned an all school four block walk to the nearest park, twenty minute nature walk in said park, and, of course, the four block walk back. She was concerned about whether I could handle it. I went for a mile walk yesterday and today. It took half an hour. (Usually, though mfp only goes as slow as 2 miles per hour, I take it slowly and take about 45 minutes for a full mile). I'm thinking I need to walk a mile each day to make sure I'm able to do this. (Sorry, I know I sound pathetic and like a wuss...) Any advice? Should I do this every day, every other day, or every day but Thursday? I appreciate the input. I don't want to hurt myself before Friday (I can NOT flake out!), but I want to be as prepared as possible.

@loselift--welcome! jump right in to the challenge.

@helen—as long as you’re not pushing yourself too hard, I think it’s okay to walk every day and then take Thursday off as a rest day. However, if you feel any sort of pain other than mild soreness, I would back off and maybe take Tuesday off as well. Great job staying under yesterday!

@kaye—It’s awesome that your scale is moving down. I’m in the same boat—seeing the scale go down, but not quite to a new lowest weight. Hoping to see that before Thanksgiving. Although I go out for cocktails with friends about once/week, I rarely drink at home and DH only drinks beer. At first I thought “What am I going to do with bottles of hard liquor and wine?” but then I thought of giving some of it away as gifts. Regardless, I’m sure our liquor cabinet (=under the kitchen sink with the cleaning supplies) will be stocked for years to come. We still have leftover bottles from a party we had in 2005 when I and a group of colleagues finished our Masters Program. LOL

@laurie—congrats on doing so well at your first swim meet! Have you decided what tri you will do next year?

@teresa—glad you enjoyed your day off and congrats on the smaller pants.

@niki—I’m a firm believer in eating as much as you can while still losing vs. starving yourself to death. The body is a machine that requires fuel. The downside with eating more calories is that if you miscalculate just a bit you stay “stuck” or start to gain instead. That’s why I’m also adamant about weighing myself every day. I know I will have normal fluctuations, but when those start to trend a bit upwards, I can nip it in the bud quickly by adjusting my calories down. Are you planning to eat at maintenance and then also eat back your exercise calories (true maintenance) or will you eat at maintenance and then exercise to put yourself back in a deficit?

@barbara—I saw that WI just to the north of us here in Northern IL is going to get walloped by some snow in the next few days. I’m not looking forward to snow, so I’m sorry for you if you’re in the storm's path.

AFM--got very little done while at starbucks today, but hoping to do a little bit more tonight. I'm just so tired from staying out past my bedtime last night. At least I don't have students for the next 2 days. Tomorrow is an institute day, so I won't have much time to do any grading, but tuesday will be a good day to go to the gym and then focus on getting caught up.

I made it to the gym yesterday and walked gunner today. I'm not including days when I just walk gunner in my november challenge.

November All-In:
Under calorie goal: 7/9 days (goal is 27/30 days)
Workout: 2/9 (goal is as much as possible)
8k on Thanksgiving Day

Grading Goals:
1. 6/66 AP journals
2. 3/60 Thoreau essays
3. 9/60 M1948 Vocab

Exercise Goals:
Sun--walk gunner DONE
Mon--walk gunner
Tues--walk gunner + gym
Wed--walk gunner
Thurs--rest day P/T conferences
Fri--walk gunner
Sat--walk gunner + gym

@skinnyeans ... My plan is to eat up to maintenance but not eat back any activity calories. In October I had a 700 calorie cut and didn't eat back either ... so I was way under eating most of the time ... and on the days I did overeat I was still under maintenance.

Just want my body to quit fighting me on intake as it has been the past week.

@cblue .... I'm still researching what EM2LW is all about. IF I do go on it, everyone will be kept up on how it's going. My goal is to lose a lot of weight over the next year or two.

@Susan~Congratulations on the new job and your move back to Atlanta. I’m so happy that this opportunity came along for you; I feel Atlanta is where you and Cyrus belong. I’m sure the next few weeks will be really stressful as you work through all the details—but it will be nice to be back to celebrate Christmas with friends and family.

@Laurie~Great job at your swim meet yesterday!

@Niki~I believe in eating more to lose weight, too. It’s a hard concept to follow, but we have to think of food as fuel for our bodies—it allows them to function optimally and also fuel our workouts, important for recovery too! Just remember to give yourself some time as you increase your calories, sometimes people gain weight initially until their body becomes acclimated to the changes—give yourself 6 weeks. I think Tanya does the EM2LW program, she might have some tips for you.

@Hansea~Great to see you back!

@Karen~Wow, on winning on that booze! Any whiskey I can take off your hands?

@Helen~Thanks for the birthday wishes! Don’t think of the birthday’s as completely “off” days if that scares you. Instead just plan for the pizza and/or cake. I go out for pizza fairly often with some friends and always work around it—I always plan for once slice (usually thin crust veggie) and a salad, honestly the calories aren’t that horrible. As a result, just adjust your breakfast and other meals—try and track everything before you go, if you plan for it you’ll do great! If you're concerned about cake and/or ice cream--have it, but a small serving (as hard as that seems). Have a slice of cake that is about 3 bites or one scoop of ice cream (one scoop amounts to about a 1/2 cup). You can do this!

@LoseLift~Welcome. You happened upon the most supportive group of people in MFP land! Check back often for help and encouragement.

AFM~Sorry I was MIA this weekend, didn’t feel well Saturday—I was down with my back bothering me (ascertained Pilates not good for my back--its been bothering me since I took the first class) and felt really tired, so slept late and rested/napped all afternoon/evening. My trainer worked out the spasm in my back yesterday, so felt better afterwards—then had lots to do after laying around on Saturday (although I think Zoe enjoyed the napping ). Hope I can get to the gym after my Achilles treatments today/Wed, for cardio.

November “ALL-IN” Challenge:

At or under calories: 7/30
Met Exercise Goals: 8/30

Exercise Goals 11/9-11/15:

Sunday~Trainer DONE!
Monday~Cardio or Rest Day (Chiro)
Tuesday~Trainer
Wednesday~Cardio or Rest Day (Chiro)
Thursday~Trainer
Friday~Yoga (or HH)
Saturday~Cardio or Swim

Good morning everyone.

@getitamb- We had Smoked Buffalo and pork meatloaf muffins on Bold cooking day and they were real good. I used buffalo instead of beef because that is what I had and like better than beef. I used pork sausage from a local butcher that we like also.


http://www.smoking-meat.com/october-2-2014-smoked-beef-and-pork-meatloaf-muffins





@RobinsEgg- I had to look up hirsute.

Happy World Orphans Day
This special day has been put in place in order to draw attention to the plight of the world’s orphans. Children all over the globe can become orphaned for many reasons: war, famine, displacement, disease or poverty. To make sure that they are not forgotten, once a year there is a special day dedicated just to them: World Orphans Day. This special day falls on the second Monday of each November. On this day people are encouraged to actively participate to help raise awareness, support and funding for worldwide orphans. This can be in the form of a donation or a group sponsorship event to raise money. People are also encouraged to sponsor an individual child in an orphanage or to invest in education programs that aim to give orphans a new start in life. There are many ways to help orphans and this annual day aims to bring those ideas to as wide an audience as possible.
“Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might as well put that passing time to the best possible use.” ~Earl Nightingale

Tom

I would love to join all of you. I have a LOT to lose.

@Marjorieallred839 by all means join in with this group. I am a relative newbie and can only say this is really a great bunch of very supportive people. I just sort of jumped in and they welcomed me graciously.
@cblue315 Lori, I hope the van is moving again and the clients settled down for you.
@kah68 I hope your back is feeling better.
AFM: Had a low blood sugar today (darned diabetes) and had to correct with apple juice. I guess I really need to monitor more closely right now with lower calories and higher activity. Still made my calorie goal today though. It helps when I plan and figure BEFORE I eat. Duh!
Barbara.
PS We lucked out and did not get any of that snow; at least for now. Yippee!

Just quick checking in. Anyone catch the Sunday night Packers v Bears game? Pretty em-bear-assing for Chicago.

November Challenge:
1. Check in with the thread daily. 2/22
2. Complete my food diary daily. 2/22
3. Exercise 3 days per week. 1/9

@ robin just met you and you arr awesome at this.
@skinnyjeanzbound you didv great all things considered at the gala.
@mountmary84 71is a great age to start never too late
@NK112- I eat my cals back but ig I eat a lot of fiber, like today, I'm not hungry . That's my struggle
-@hang in there girl
@Lauriek70 congrats!!!
Check in-
I struggled a bit personally. My two closest friends are gonna be married and I'm going to be the single one, its not a biggie though I'm just going to have to branch out and be willing to meet people in my own but sometimes I'm discouraged. Anyways, as for food I had a good weekend. My goal is to work out 5 days this week and stay in macros

@marsha--maintenance is whatever it would take to maintain your current weight. There's no way your 1350 is maintenance--I assume it's your deficit to lose 2 lbs/week. And if you have your activity level set low (sedentary to lightly active) you also need to eat back all of your exercise calories to meet the 1350 calorie allowance which is your "net" calorie allowance (meaning that should still allow you to lose 2 lbs/week). So if you exercise and burn 500 calories, you should eat a total of 1850 calories that day, but your net intake is still 1350.

You can find out your maintenance calories by going to the goals here on MFP and selecting "maintain my current weight" under the goals drop-down. If you have activity set at "sedentary," you would eat the maintenance amount PLUS all of your exercise calories to stay exactly the weight you are right now.

TDEE is similar, just a different way of calculating. It stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure and it is the total calories you need (including exercise calories) to maintain your current weight. I figured out my TDEE by looking at my calorie intake (under reports) for the past few months. I looked at my NET calorie intake (since I log exercise and eat back exercise calories) for the past 100 days, added it all up and divided by 100. Since I had been maintaining the same weight over that period, the average was my TDEE. You can then subtract a percentage--most folks eat somewhere between 10-20% less than TDEE to lose weight. -10% is roughly 1 lb/week loss; -20% is roughly 2 lbs/week.

If you want help figuring out if you're eating enough, I'd be happy to help. You can send me a private message with your stats (current weight, age, and activity level), and I can figure it out for you. There are also a lot of online calculators for TDEE if you just google it.

@susan - So happy for you!! Being closer to family and friends who love and support you will be awesome. And you kicked butt at Boot Camp. 27 lbs.....WOW.

Like you, I'm so far behind I don't even know where to start. Work is crazy. Add the looming holidays and my compulsive need to make them perfect (for everyone but me) and I've literally been running around like a crazy person. I'm attempting to get as much done in the weeks before Thanksgiving so perhaps I won't be as exhausted and grouchy as I typically am when we sit down for Thanksgiving dinner. I know I do it to myself, but there's just something that makes me convinced that it's up to me to ensure everyone has a great holiday season. One more issue I need to work on.

One question for folks who walk on pavement not treadmills. What brand of shoes do you buy? My Asics were worn smooth on the bottom so I went to get them checked. The salesperson performed the test where they see if the shoe is "done" and after folding one easily in half confirmed I needed new shoes. I wasn't upset by that until they looked up when I purchased them. July 25th. It seems that a pair of shoes that runs $120 bucks should last longer than 3 months! I walk about 25 miles a week on sidewalks/streets. If you have a recommendation for shoes that last longer, I'd love to hear it.

Have a great day and I'll try and get back for more personals later.

@grammy - Marsha -- SkinnyJeanz has given a very good definition of TDEE and I like how she calculated hers. I have done something very similar. Just remember, all the calculations you can do to determine your Resting Metabaloic Rate and your Total Daily Energy Expenditure are estimates. You have to adjust up or down based on your own personal situation. This does take looking at on a regular basis, that's why MFP always come back to suggest a refigurement of your calories every time your weight changes by about 10 pounds.

It can get rather complicated but for number's geeks like I am it's fun to do. Actually ... what my doctor had suggested comes pretty close to what I need to maintain my weight and he didn't do any calcs at all. He just said ... eat 1800 calories a day and exercise 3 days a week and walk up to 30 mintues each day and you'll do fine.

Tuesday Check in ...
For all the angst I've been dripping this past week because of my unusual hunger I finally had a day that I felt full and satisfied and didn't have any cravings ... and my calories came in at 1521 ... which is under my personalized maintenance by 14%.

Don't even want to talk about my attendance sheet today. I was a total washout on anything yesterday because I spent the entire day on my computer. (besides cooking and such)

Tuesday Goal -- get back to it.
Niki

Happy Veterans Day! Thanks to all who serve or have served!

@L2T--I wear Asics and Saucony and hadn't noticed them wearing out especially quick. However, every brand has different models that are better or worse for pavement walking/running. If you like the fit and support of your current brand, my advice is to go to their website and search for styles that are rated for outdoor use. I've read that regardless of sole-wear, you should replace shoes every 500 miles b/c that's about how long the support lasts.

Also, bending a shoe in half isn't necessarily a sign they are worn--it all depends on how rigid they were to begin with. There are brand new shoes that you can do that to if they are built for that flexibility. Less flexibility in the sole = less arch support. It's one of the tests the running store employees showed me to do when looking to purchase new shoes b/c I require a lot of arch support.

@marsha--yes, I absolutely agree with niki that all of the calculations are still just "numbers"--your actual gains or losses on the scale will ultimately determine how much you need to eat. Even the method I used of calculating based on my actual calorie intake only works if A) my food logging was perfect, and I continue to burn the same calories going forward.

@kaye--glad to hear your foster grand is going home. We are also in store for some chilly temps this week.