40+ Club

ok so here's my next question.... Should I mainly stick with cardio to lose the fat and incorporate strength training later or does that really make much of a difference? I would like to get tone but I'm more interested in getting my stomach to a 33 or lower.
By the way... you all are great... So inspiring. :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

Like alf, I think the thing that gets to me the most with junk food temptation is the aspect of social eating. When I'm at home, all is well. When I spent the weekend with my sister a couple of weeks ago, it took every ounce of self-control (and, quite frankly, some of her telling me to control myself) to not dig into the brownies with the rest of the family. I'm just glad she (and my husband) didn't encourage me to eat but did the exact opposite. But if I had stayed there more than a couple of days, I have no doubt that I would have been digging into the ice cream with her one night. I don't understand that at all, and I was actually pretty surprised to have that reaction.

I'm going to face some of my bigger 'food fears' this week as I'm eating out in restaurants for the first time since January both tomorrow and Saturday. But I've done my research and really just have to remember I don't have to eat everything on my plate, no matter what my mother told me as a child.

But, honestly, I'm doing well and holding my own in this maintenance mode I'm in right now. I feel really in control of my diet right now, and while my cravings are really bad sometimes, I am less and less tempted to give in to them. I think, for me, the biggest thing is that about a week ago, I really turned a corner with my fitness. I had been feeling for a while that my cardio was getting easier, but I was doing a really hard bootcamp type of workout recently, and I realized that I was jumping higher than I had in years. In so many ways, I feel like I'm 25 again (of course, I'm the weight I was when I was that old, so that might have something to do with it). And I'm absolutely loving the feeling right now and don't want to lose it. That's been a great motivator for me. I'm so prone to injury, I don't know how long this will last. (I hate being so negative, but negative sometimes is just realistic!), but it sure feels good right now.

Hope this finds everybody doing well!

You are doing a great job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :drinker: :drinker: How was your meal at the restaurant today?? Maybe you have not eaten dinner yet. You will be fine. I have not really stopped going to restaurants at all. What I do is just select the healthiest meals on the menu, grilled chicken or fish, with veggies usually. If they serve bread I try one small piece and if it is not worth it I just don't eat anymore. I have to be careful with the bread or the chips if at a mexican restaurant!!! :noway: But like you I have been more in control when I go out to eat which is once or twice a week. :flowerforyou:

Thank you for all the advice. I guess I need to learn to be patient and quit looking for that "instant fix"... But if someone has it dont be afraid to throw it my way... Hahaha:laugh:

Singfree... 10% body fat? What is the normal range for a person your size? You seem to be in great shape.

Here's the one thing I am surprised about, is how many calories there actually are in the foods you eat. I never would have guessed that the salad I just ate could be 900+ calories!!!! No wonder why people gain so much weight...:noway: You think your eating some what healthy just because you order a salad but when I entered everything into my food journal, lets just say I was shocked....

Happy Happy Friday All! Check-in Day :drinker:

I'm 1/2 lb from my goal weight :drinker: :drinker: I really think taking last week off helped me with the slow down. Mainly because I'm a creature of habit and have a tendancy to eat the same things daily and I recently read that it can cause a slow down or plateau. I made it through this week with no after 7 eating and no alcohol despite a birthday dinner out on Monday and our first 60s sunny day of the year (I really was craving a Corona yesterday but didn't cave - I just put some lime in my water and pretended).

I'm going to focus this week on really eating healthy and getting my water. I'm scheduled for surgery Thursday morning and I know that going in healthy will make my recovery that much faster.

This will be my last week of Power 90 and I'm most impressed with my chest/back/arms. There really is more definition. As soon as the doctor clears me I plan to start Chalean Extreme. My goal for that program is more definition in my abs and legs. Both are looking alright now but I'd love to see more cut.

Keep up the good work! Swiss- glad to see you back and happy that you are finally able to return to some normalcy.

Good morning!!! I weighed in yesterday since I started Chalene Extreme, up one pound but no biggy. It is that time of the month anyways ...I know TMI but you all know, gals, that can increase your weight. Today is CX "rest" day but I ran on the treadmill. I am going to take one day off during the week, Wed. I like to workout on weekends, I have more time to do so plus I tend to eat more.

Aprilvet, welcome!! You are doing great, awesome!!!! You can feel confident you will be in great shape in the future. :drinker: :drinker:

Duffy, great job for reaching your goal!!!! :drinker: :drinker: Oh, and setting weekly goals and reaching them!! Way to go!!! :drinker:

Have a great day!!!! Off to work...:flowerforyou:

Hey thanks for all the welcomes! Encouragement really does help one to stay on track. Having said that, I missed the gym this morning, due to having to run some errands before work, etc...I hate missing the gym. Can't go tonight, because of a concert I'm going to. Looking forward to the concert, just hate having a day with no exercise. :sad:

What is this Chalene Extreme?

Since being on the boards, and tracking my food, I think I've probably not been eating enough. I think I eat the right things, but have been limiting my intake too much, so I'm going to try to eat my exercise calories as well and see if that helps with the weight loss.

My goal weight is still 12 lbs away. But I'm not giving up!

Morning everybody!

Thanks so much for the responses to my question about Mexican food. I asked my sister last night what kind of food the restaurant serves (I'm used to the standard Mexican food restaurant that serves only tacos, enchiladas, burritos and chimichangas!), and she said there is quite a bit of fish on the menu. So maybe I can find a truly healthy option. Thanks, duffy, for reminding me there is more to Mexican food than tacos!

Dinner went well last night. Boy, the portion was HUGE! I ate only about 1/3 of it, but it was tasty. I had the waitress bring me a take-home dish early in the meal because I could so see myself beginning to graze. I ended up ordering the chicken fried rice (which is my favorite chinese meal), and still feel like I made a relatively healthy choice despite the sodium content. And....it just felt nice to eat a normal meal in a restaurant again.

My weight is holding steady this week (which is what I want it to do) at 116.1 (and this AFTER Chinese food last night which I think is good). I'm feeling a bit physically tired right now because I have worked out every day for the past two weeks (didn't take last Saturday off as I planned). But I'll get through today (cardio) and tomorrow (strength) and then take Sunday off. I've been adding cardio to some of my strength days trying to up the calories burned to compensate for all these meals I've had out over the past few weeks, and I think that is making me a little more fatigued than I otherwise would be right now. Over the next three weeks, I'm going to focus on going back to doing either/or as opposed to both since I will be more in control over my diet these next few weeks.

duffy, congratulations on reaching your goal weight!

alf, I'm really interested in your feedback on ChaLean, so please talk about it here. One of the things I've heard about ChaLean is that it puts more emphasis on the lower body than P90X does (which doesn't have as much emphasis on the lower body as I prefer). Since I'm doing a pretty heavy upper body system right now for six months, I'm wondering if a 90-120 day program focusing more on lower body (while still working on the upper body of course) next wouldn't be a bad thing. I'd thought about going right into a P90X rotation after STS, but the more I think about it, I'm thinking ChaLean. Maybe it's the shorter workouts that are enticing me!! But I know I'll be doing another STS rotation later this year/earlier next year because Cathe Friedrich is now putting out a cardio system to compliment this STS weight system, so I'm wondering if P90X in between two STS rotations might not be a little too much. So any/all inputs on ChaLean are welcome by me!

tron, I think the best thing for burning fat is going to be cardio. But I think best thing for toning your body is going to be weights. I actually think a combination of the two through circuit training is one best thing for toning the core/ab region. I don't actually see much change in my body if I'm focusing on cardio alone. I need cardio to lose weight, but in order for my body to change shape, I really need to do some form of strength training. You might want to experiment around and see what your body responds to best.

Swissmiss!!! So good to see you back. I'm sorry to hear you are still having problems and hope you are feeling better today.

aprilvet, welcome!!

I hope everybody has a good weekend!

Thanks for all the "Welcomes"! I just love all the support on MFP, and this looks like a good place to be!

I can't speak to ChaLean Extreme, but P90X is certainly a great way to change your body! I look like I've lost much more than just 13 pounds!!!:bigsmile: :drinker:

Have a great day everyone!!!

stiringwendel...glad to hear when someone finds that they can go out to eat and still eat healthy. I have found that Chinese isn't too bad unless you are at one of their buffets.

ChristinaMCS...I was told that mine cholesterol was high about two years ago. Never said anything about trying to bring it down. I have lost some weight since so maybe it is down now.

aprilvet...a belated welcome. I have been away for awhile.

Want...Good for you...skipping the alcohol and dessert. I have the most trouble with not ordering a Long Island Iced Tea. But it has way too much alcohol and calories.

I don't know what I have planned this weekend yet. My husband's hours have been changed so he has every Sat and Sun off. We may go out. Opps...no Long Islands!!!

I am so excited. I have lost two more pounds this week. I have been sort of on the Abs Diet. but not sticking to it completely. I have lost four pounds over the past two weeks. I think I have found what I need.

Thank you Alf for explaining the ChaLean workout. I did look it up through Google, and read about it. Sounds like a great program, good luck with it.

Made it back to the gym today, feel so much better. I think I'm addicted to exercise now. (hope that's a good thing ) Funny how one day off my routine makes me grouchy. Heh.

So far so good on the calories this week of journaling them. Still always over on sugar, low on carbs, and high on protein. Not sure how to adjust this. May have to add some whole wheat bread to the mix, but I've been trying to not eat too much wheat.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!