40+Club-Making it Work

I attribute my love for veggies to my husband. I have to give him credit for something. :laugh: :laugh: We do not eat a lot of veggies in Puerto Rico. Their idea of a salad is iceberg lettuce and tomatoes. :noway: And since most vegetables are imported from the states such as brocoli, etc, they are super expensive!!!! They don't sell a lot of frozen veggies either. We eat a lot of starchy veggies such yucca, plantains, etc. And of course tons of tropical fruits. My husband is also from Puerto Rico but when he joined the military he got used to eating veggies at the dining facility and "introduced" to them when we started dating. I love to eat veggies, not as much as I enjoy fruits. But luckily when I eat them I eat them raw or with some healthy dressing, not a lot, usually a Tbsp. In restaurants I dip the fork in the dressing and then get some veggies from the plate. I have a friend who will not even eat tomatoes. I always eat the veggies off her plate when we go out to eat. She does not eat a lot of fruits either. She eats like a man, meat and starchy veggies, potatoes :laugh: And you guessed it, she is overweight...:ohwell: I always preach to her, sometimes she gets upset. :laugh:

Swiss, don't despair. I have heard what Stiring said. 1.5 lbs is not a lot. Just hang in there.

I ran/walked 6.63miles this morning. It felt great!!! Funny story, when I am running outdoors I count the people who I see exercising along the way and there was a record breaking today, 30 people including myself!!! Wow!!! I burned 703 cals!! :drinker: :drinker: I am done with dinner and still have 603 cals left to consume. I wont eat them all but I think I will have a protein shake with a kiwi and strawberries later.

Have a great evening! :flowerforyou:

OK... I'm getting a little homesick for California hearing about all of your travels. My fix is coming up! We leave for a family wedding in the Central Valley Thursday. Not a touist trip but lots of fun and family coming our way. My favorite place will always be the beach since I grew up in So. California!

PICTURES!!! (Sing, String & Tron) I love them!! So fun to see your before and afters. I still plan to reward myself and all of you with my AFTER when i get to 15 lbs. lost. The picture that I have posted is part of what inspired me to begin! As I get to know you I am more embarassed but hey, what are friends for???

It does get harder to watch people over-eat as I do better myself. I am so excited to see my hubby eating better and LESS.. I think he sees that a change in diet truly does make a change!! Of course he will lose much faster than I ever could!:grumble: :grumble:

Mac & Cheese a veggie?? :laugh: :laugh: !! We have finally reached the point in admitting that corn and boiled potatoes don't qualify either.

With all the company and activity I could only get my two days walking in. Next week two gym days and a walk hopefully before our trip. The walkin' shoes will definately be part of my 50 lb. suitcase! Weigh in on Tuesday. Working toward a loss of one more pound over the past two weeks --- We will see!

Hope everyone has a great start to their week!

Hello all!!! I hope you're all feeling better than I am:sick: :sick:
I've been fighting my every two-three year nasty summer cold that forces you to cough so hard you head feels like it'll explode!!:grumble: :sick: Stayed home sick on Friday, and the weekend was just kind of a blur... I'm feeling somewhat better today, but not even close to 100% yet. Hopefully I'll feel good enough to hit Curves tomorrow - today's my first day since Thursday that I haven't been napping at this time of the day - this thing really kicked my butt over the weekend!! :grumble:

I'm sorry to hear you've been sick, mkwood. I hate summer colds. I hope you get to feeling better soon.

I learn something new everyday reading here. Mac and Cheese is a veggie? That's news to me. :laugh: I'm thinking I'll stick with the more 'original' veggies for my dinners though, like brocolli and such. I've always thought of corn as a vegetable, but I've also long believed it is pretty much a useless food except for the fact that it is pretty filling. I've never much liked corn, so I rarely eat it. I much prefer tastier veggies like peppers, carrots, cucumbers and such.

Did a tough shoulder/bicep/tricep workout today--70 minutes. I finished it a few hours ago, but I'm still having some difficultly getting my arms to work properly. I guess that's a sign it was a good workout! I continue to slowly increase my calories, looking for my proper maintenance calorie amount. After our trip, I continued to eat 1600 for a few days. Now I'm working up towards 1700, but I think I'll ease into that range a little more slowly. I think I'll settle in at about 1650 for a few days and then 1700 and probably hold that there for about two weeks to see if there is any change in my weight. I'm still guessing my maintenance calories are going to end up being anywhere between 1650 and 1800 based on what I'm burning during my workouts. I can live with that.

Hoosiermama, I agree that it is harder to watch people overeat now. But my biggest problem is similar to what you just mentioned, Swissmiss. I've done so much research into what is in foods that the way I look at many foods is entirely different that I used to look at them. For instance, when I see people eating chips like Doritos (I used to love Doritos btw), I want to tell them that they are just eating chemicals and not much more. I feel that way about soda as well. I have to remind myself that most people aren't aware and/or don't care, but I can't help but be in constant amazement at what passes for food these days....and how many people seem to turn to such foods for nutrition. What is scarier for me is that six months ago....I was doing the same thing!! How quickly that has all changed for me, and I'm glad that it has. I still have alot of cleaning up to do in terms of my diet, that's for sure. But I'm happy to say that most of the food I consider to be pure junk are a thing on the past for me.

Swissmiss, I was talking to my husband just yesterday about desserts. He's a tad concerned since I mentioned during our vacation that I didn't want to eat a full dessert because I thought it might make me feel sick. He thinks I'm going a tad overboard on things. But I finally had to explain to him that the nights we had chocolate (one night I had four squares of ghirarderlli chocolate and the next night I had three), I could feel the sugar in my body. The second night, since we didn't have it near dinner, was the worst. And that was 200 calories of chocolate. I can't imagine how my body would respond to a 700 calorie dessert served in a restaurant! It really is amazing how our bodies react to certain things once they aren't used to them. I enjoyed the chocolate, but didn't really care for the way I felt after eating it.

:flowerforyou: stiring, you might ask your husband where sugar and chocolate fit into the food pyramid. I have come to the conclusion that junk food isn't meant to be eaten at all. Not that I don't on occasion eat some but if a food isn't natural or something that our bodies need (not to be confused with "want") then why eat it.

Did someone here tell me about muscles holding water when we first begin to exercise? I can't remember where I read this and want to look up more information on it.

Good morning all. I hope that everyone's day is going well.

Hey all. Kind of turning into a busy week for me here, but need my daily MFP fix!

Swissmiss, I wish my husband's issue was the same as your desire to eat your candy in one shot. That I understand because I've done that at times. But, sadly, his ability and desire to eat a pint of ice cream isn't to just get rid of it....it is because that's what he sees as being a good serving size. In other words, it is his full intention to eat an entire tub of ice cream when he buys one. He only does it (well, since he's trying to lose weight, that should read 'did it') 1-2 times a week, but still.....that's alot of ice cream.

Anyhow, I'm going to link the entire blog for you where I got the info about retaining water with starting a new fitness regime. I found it interesting, and think others might as well. I think there are too often common misconceptions about lifting weights (especially among women, though I've not see it in this thread), and I think that is why Cathe Friedrich decided to do this blog. So here the link to Cathe's full explanation for temporary weight gain when starting a new exercise program:

http://cathe.com/weight-gain-myths

So I'm finishing up my first week of the third cycle of STS. This cycle comes with two options for legs--one using heavy weights and one using plyometrics. Cathe did this because lifting heavy enough weights for legs at home can be challenging without a spotter, so she wanted to give another option that would exhaust the legs (which plyometrics do). I've been working out my legs twice a week since starting STS because my body responds better to that, so I decided I would do both lower body workouts included in this cycle each week. On Saturday, I did the heavy weight workout. Today, I did the plyometrics. Yikes. That's really all I have to say about that. I might have to re-think this later on in the cycle depending on how my legs respond, but that's some tough stuff there.

Hope everybody is having a good day. :flowerforyou:

Hello All - It has been awhile since I have been on this site and took me a few minutes to find it. Hope all is well with you and I am looking forward to writing to you again. I did 45 minutes of swim class tonight followed by 16 minutes on an elliptical (I almost died!). But I blew it when I got home by having a disagreement with my 20 year old daughter followed by an ice cream drumstick! Aaaaa to both situations!

I am sorry to hear about your pet. I know what it is like to lose a pet and it is very hard - like losing a member of the family. It will take time, but eventually things do get better. TJ

I know it is so disappointing to be waiting to have a baby, but I want you to really consider if "time is running out". Things have changed, just like weight loss moving toward a goal and let the rest take care of itself. Your baby will come (I hope) or not but you will have done all you can within all areas of your life and that will work. I will be thinking (praying) for you.
L