Need to Lose 100 LBS -Robins Thread !

@bsracer Like Skinny, I would add veggies only I would stir fry a bit with a little sauce with soy (watch the sodium here), chicken broth and a little cornstarch to thicken. I like this over brown rice. Go heavy on the veggies, whatever is in the frig.

Thursday Truth ....
“The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. ..." Thanks Tom for posting that Napoleon Hill quote. It goes so well with my Special Word(s) to Live By in 2015 ... which is Follow-through. I need to do that much more often ... to carry through with something to it's completion, because I am such a procrastinator! My mom always said to me ... 'write it on your forehead' when I was growing up .... and so I had an inspiration and changed my profile picture to reflect and remember every day what it is I am striving towards.

My gosh, there are so many new posts on ... welcome to all who are new, returned, been here all along ... and Happy New Year to you all. (*)

To report ...
December Calorie Challenge ... 22/31.

I really blew my calorie cut far, far away the last week, what with having to feed my soul as well as my body. However, despite my gross lapse the last 7 days of the month, my average calories for the entire month were right at maintenance level for my weight ... so I won't know if I gained weight from my excesses or not because my weigh-in day is Monday.

December ALL-IN ... had been to have a company ready house by the holidays ... Ha, Ha, Ha ... that was a joke and a half! ....

For January ...
Set food journal back to MFP ... 1800 calories a day.
All-In ...new Exercise goals ... 3 times a week at the gym for walking, biking, swimming
Words to live by .... Follow-through

Niki

bsracer wrote: »

Ok I have some boneless skinless chicken thighs thawed out. I was going to make chicken and noodles but not thinking that is a good choice because of the sodium and carbs. any alternative ideas?

Do you like grape tomatoes? Do you like white beans (cannellini in the can or Great Northern White Beans)? Do you like a bit of garlic? ... if so then do this ...

Put a can of beans and a pint of grape tomatoes into a casserole dish. Crush a couple of garlic cloves and add them to the dish. Pat the chicken thighs dry with a paper towel and then lay them over the mixture in the pan, skin side up. In a small dish, mix together 1 tablespoon of oil, some green dried herbs ... like thyme, oregano ... or parsley if that's all you have on hand, 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes and some black pepper and salt to taste. Mix the spices with the oil and then brush the flavored oil over the tops of you chicken thighs. Bake in a 425 degree F oven until the chicken thighs are golden and cooked through, about 35 - 45 minutes.

To make this recipe more savory, you can add a half cup of white wine and use fresh spices instead of dried ... just a coupld of sprigs of each spice, right in the pan amongst the beans and tomatoes. You can also pierce each tomato so it's juices escape while cooking.

The recipe above is for 4 chicken thighs, you can double it easy.

happy eating.
Niki

Hi again!

I was really struggling with what word or phrase to use. Then, last night, I read a short article on one of the running sites I follow. It was about how to get yourself out the door when you don't feel like going for a run by telling yourself you have to run for just 15 minutes. If you still aren't feeling it at that point, you can turn around and come home. I love this b/c it's hard to argue with a 15 minute commitment; however, once I'm out the door or at the gym, I'm not going to work out for only 15 minutes. I also realized I can apply this to other tasks as well. I can grade or clean for "just 15 minutes." And even if I do stop at that point, at least I've gotten 15 minutes worth of work done, right?

For my All-in challenge, I'm going to run 7 miles/week. I know that doesn't sound like much, but I have so many meetings with bargaining that it will take serious planning to get to the gym more than once/week. The 7 miles is more than I can run in one gym visit, so it will force me to get there at least twice/week. Also, I can use my "just 15 minutes" to get out with gunner when it's not ridiculously cold.

2015 mantra = "Just 15 minutes"

January Challenge:
Under calorie goal: 1/1 days (goal is 28/31 days)
All-in: run 2 days/week
8k at end of month (not sure what day) in 56 minutes (Thanksgiving 8k = 56:49, NYE 8k = 57:47)

Cleaning Goals:
1. file paperwork/bills
2. drop off bag of clothes to GW
3. clean fish tank

Grading Goals:
1. 12/50 AP essays
2. x/13 Scarlet Letter essays

Exercise Goals:
Sun--walk gunner DONE + gym DONE
Mon--rest day
Tues--walk gunner NOT DONE
Wed--8k at gym DONE
Thurs--walk gunner DONE
Fri--walk gunner + gym
Sat--walk gunner

Skinny- Karen, Just 15 minutes sound perfect to me. It is so true you can do anything for 15 minutes then decide if you want to continue or stop. If you run for 15 minutes then you need to run back for 15 minutes which could mean 3 miles completed for an outside run. Good deal. I often find that once I get started then I feel like continuing unless I am not into it at all or distracted. Nice run today and it is great goal to do an 8k once a month. I am thinking about doing my own triathlon once a month as well.

Welcome to all the new people.

I did have a very nice walk today around the park. I met up with some friends who were ice skating. I wanted to skate but I have a fear of falling on the ice and the rink was crowded with lots of little kids. Little kids and slow adults who can't stop equal a problem waiting to happen. Maybe next time I will go skating.

Hope everyone had a great first day of January.


Exercise goals for this week
Sunday- gym- walk and row DONE
Monday- gym and swim DONE and DONE
Tuesday- Trainer workout DONE
Wednesday- GYM DONE
Thursday- walk around the neighborhood DONE- park about 2 miles
Friday- climbing
Saturday- Swimming

SassymAMA, SKINNY & ROBEN (ELLEN) tHANKS FOR WORD OF KINDNESS.

GAVE IN TO TEMPTATION TO EAT SOME CANDY GIVEN TO ME BY A FRIEND ??. BUT I TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR EATING IT. GLAD TOMORROW IS A NEW DAY

1/0

KATRENA

I needed to repost this for myself and thought it might be food for thought for some others as well:

This is from fitness blogger Vic Margay.

http://www.vicmagary.com/blog/fitness-motivation/

“Motivated, motivated, hell yeah I’m motivated. Ooo Ah, I wanna kill somebody. Killlllll!!!”

As part of the Army’s brainwashing process (better known as Basic Training), mantras like the one above shouted in unison by a platoon of young men with shaved heads often made Basic Training feel like some sort of twisted psycho cheerleading camp instead of preparation to become Infantry soldiers.

But we were motivated.



Or were we? If you include fear of punishment and peer pressure as motivation, then the environment at Ft. Benning was certainly motivating.

But were we self-motivated? No, most of us standing in heel-to-toe lines and referring to our new Army buddies by last name only at Ft. Benning, Georgia in the autumn of 1998 were not self- motivated. And it is acquiring and maintaining this self-motivation that I am often asked about in the realm of diet and fitness. But here’s the thing…


Lack of motivation to follow a healthy diet and commit to consistent exercise is a myth.

You are going to die. And neglecting your health and fitness is more likely to hasten your departure. Furthermore, the days you do have will be spent with less energy and more pain if you choose to eat crap and be sedentary. The motivation, the “why”, to exercise and eat nutritious foods in appropriate quantity is present and strong. The bigger mystery is why we choose to ignore the need for proper diet and exercise in the face of obvious requirement.

We do not need motivation. We need decision.




We need unwavering non-negotiable decision. And yes, I know that the pic above was not taken during Hurricane Sandy (although I thought it was when I posted it to my Facebook page). But it was taken during a torrential down pour at some point in recent history. It absolutely captures the fortitude and decision of those soldiers to stand by their post no matter what hardship may be encountered.

If those soldiers can decide to endure the elements, then we can decide to put down the damned pizza and beer.

Or forgo the free bagels at the office. Or wake up a half hour early to exercise. Or keep a food journal everyday. Or what ever else we know we need to do but keep failing to commit to because it is “hard”.

Enduring chemotherapy is hard.

Hitting a fast ball in the major leagues in hard.

Negotiating nuclear disarmament from a hostile nation is hard.

Saying goodbye to a loved one in the hospital or the veterinarian’s office for the last time is hard.

But putting down the cookies and picking up the spinach? That’s only as hard as the story we tell ourselves.

What is often called lack of motivation is actually lack of discipline and lack of habit. I’ve posted about discipline and habit before – those entries lack the sexy headlines such as “1 weird trick to lose belly fat” and often do not get more than the cursory glance. And that’s unfortunate because it is discipline and habit that hold the keys to not only losing weight or getting strong, but to anything that we want in life.

You already know what to do to lose weight and get in shape. The smaller details will vary but the big picture is always to eat real food in appropriate quantity and move in a manner that is continually challenging. The problem is not lack of knowledge or lack of motivation. The problem is lack of decision.

Decide. Now.

Share your thoughts on motivation, decision, and the mental/emotional hurdles we face when it comes to diet, fitness, and weight loss in the comments below.

Stay strong

Having read this, my trigger word for 2015 will be "DECIDE"!!!

Thursday truth....Since I came back from New Orleans I haven't tried much to stay on track and gained back 8lbs. Now today I started back at square one.
Mountmary- It is still cold here. The weather is due to all the damage we have done to planet earth. I am glad no one was hurt by your deer accident and there was not much damage to the car
Softblondechick- I need a cleaning schedule too
LaurieK- reading about your swimming keeps me considering a membership at the Y cuz I would like to try swimming. I agree with the ice skating…I use to love skating as a kid but I have only done it once as an adult.
Robbinsegg- What a great help you were to Kevin. I am sure he appreciated that you allowed him to vent his sadness
Karen- sounds like you had good day shopping. Congrats on your former student’s success
Kaihunter- I love the jar idea you came up with.It is hard at times to remember all the successes we have
MKKnits – That is the phrase that has been in my head all day
KJefferies- Congrats on the proposal

AFM- I brought in the new year playing trivia pursuit for the first time every and probably the last because I only answered one question out of the 3 hr game.
Jan goal for all in is exercise and the phrase is "Learn to love yourself" I really need to re-learn this in order to be the happiest and best me.

Thank you all so much for the help!!

Well, I’m back! (SIGH) I’ve been gone too long to catch up, so I started with yesterday’s comments. It’s fun seeing all the new faces and comforting to see all the “old” ones. HA!

I looked back and the last time I weighed myself was November 4th. I am up 0.8 pounds since then…not too bad for the holiday season and not a lot of formal exercise. Let’s see what my 2015 will bring.

My sister found out she was pregnant (the day before we went bridal gown shopping – a few tears were shed that day – but overall we are very excited to bring a brother in law to the family in May and a baby in August!). We will be cutting out the trainer workouts as the doctor feels they are a bit too strenuous for her. She did allow her to keep up with her weight training for now so we are going to switch things up a bit and do some more cardio. To make sure we started 2015 out right, I picked her up and we spent an hour on the treadmills and bikes. We have a date with the machines again tonight.

Thursday Truth…while I worked out yesterday and I logged my food, I did not plan on meeting my calorie goal yesterday. My husband is a big “snack food” all day on New Year’s Day so there was chips and dip and wings and soda. However, today is the day for my focusing on what I put in my mouth as well.

@MountMary…ugh – 2 deer!! Glad nobody was hurt – cars can get fixed.
@MaryPoppins…can you find a gym that has a daycare? It’s hard with little ones. I’m lucky that my 13 year old can babysit my 8 year old, but there are times he’s gone and I have a daycare that I can utilize at my gym. Or, you might have to swap times with your husband.
@Tom/Amy…love your Christmas card! Looks like some fun times this past year.
@Robin…boy, that delay really saved you some bucks! Maybe I’ll have the same luck with the keys next time I want to run out and get seeds and a pop. Your job as a cheerleader fits you perfectly. You make everyone feel welcome and are so supportive!
@Katrena…CONGRATULATIONS! Maybe with them all being foodies, they can get you on some great recipes that are low in calorie but full on flavor. Just keep the lines of communication open and things will work out.
@Karen…good job on your 8K…not too far off your goal. I’ve heard the just 15 minutes for cleaning before (FLYLADY if anyone is interested) but it works great for working out too.
@bsracer…I know I’m a day late but how about some good seasoning on the chicken…grill it. Then have a side of a veggie instead of a starch? I love a big bunch of steamed broccoli or asparagus. (Now I’ve read all the other options and mine seems pretty boring – however, I’m not a big love of all those other things so I stick with basic flavors most of the time )
@Niki…LOVE IT!!

I really like the idea of a word/phrase for 2015. Mine is going to be START AGAIN. It’s something I did pretty well when I started this but not really well lately. If I fall off the wagon, start again. Start again, right away. I don’t need to wait for a Monday or the first of the month or after the next big event in my life. So I screwed up…I’ll just START AGAIN.

The other things I'm working on is to declutter some of my home. My daughter and I spent 2.5 hours in her messy little room and found 84 clothing items for her to donate. We also now see every inch of her floor! I told her we could be done for the day but that we will be coming back for toys and craft projects. Then I had a goal of doing my sock drawer. I moved two items to their "correct" home, threw out 14 unmatched/unwanted socks. Now I have a lovely sock drawer that is nothing but matches and ones that I wear. Not sure what my "mini" goal is for today, but it will also include breaking down boxes from Christmas and getting them in the recycle bin.

Have a great day everyone!

@tlh0407‌ congrats on the new future niece or nephew. I can't wait for my siblings to have kids I am so excited to be an Aunt. My brother got married in November so I'm hoping they'll start a family soon (I know they want to just waiting to buy a house).

My workout goals for this coming week are to do slim in 6 at least 4 times and to purposefully move every other day!

Oh had my red grapefruit this morning and loved it, tried it plain first and liked it just fine that way so I didn't add anything (also had no idea what to add). It seems really acidic though so I only had half now to be sure I don't get bad heart burn from it.

Good morning. I have gained back all of the weight that I lost while I was sick, but I checked back and found that I am down 6# from last year at this time. By this time next year I will be down 15#. I am going to do it. To begin with, today I am going to detox my kitchen. The remainder of the treats will be given away or frozen for another time. I am not going to bake any cookies this month. I will buy Nilla wafers or something else that doesn't tempt me for the cookie jar. It really goes against my grain to put store bought cookies in a cookie jar at grandma's house, but oh, well. This grandma is going to get healthy. I'm also going to start keeping a container of water at hand so that I can be more aware of how much I am drinking.
Yesterday was also a party and junk food day at our house, so today starts my new goals. We did enjoy our black eyed peas and corn bread, too.
Love you all. Together we can do this. Onward and downward. Kaye

Great start for 2015

So, 221.4 today. I've had worse post-holiday weigh-ins, & it's too soon to tell really anyway, since I'm still guzzling water for all the sodium I doubtless inhaled over the past week.

To those (RobinsEgg, skinnyjeanz, etc) who asked about gym stuff: We unfortunately don't have money to buy weights for the home. We were looking at Planet Fitness because they have basic $10/month memberships, but no on-site day-care. They are very close, I could walk in good weather, it's maybe five minutes by car, so it's possible we could leave the kids with Grandma for an hour, but she's... NOT my favorite person to watch the kids. She's not mean, but she's kinda brainless and I wouldn't put it past her to feed cookies to the six month old, kwim? And realistically if I have to go by myself, I won't go.

Fitness Friday - One of my favorite body-weight exercise tricks is attaching squats to a common daily activity, like every time you stand up or sit down, do five squats. Time to reinstate that habit, I think.

RobinsEgg Thanks so much for the encouragement! Yesterday I went to the freezer -I'm sure everyone knows that it makes no difference if you freeze cookies and such, they're still edible in the frozen state-and I removed all of the Holiday sweets and dumped them in the bin. Having the temptation around me and "trying" not to eat it just does not work at this point-so bye bye. I know what works for me and that is a minimum of carbs and sugar so I that what I am doing now to get this going right. My son lost 85 pounds using MFP and recommended it to me. MFP keeps me on track and I find it easy to do if I keep it open on my computer each day and as I have a meal, I come back and enter the information. It's going to work this time!!
I also have a question....do any of you find that coffee intake affects your weight loss or changes your metabolism in any way? I am such a coffeeholic. I only add 2 T. of fat free half and half, no sugar, but I drink two to three cups a day. I am not wanting to give up my coffee, but I will if it helps to get my metabolism working and this weight off! Anyone have any insight?
Thanks!!!