Wow, you are tiny. I can understand how imperfections show more when you're smaller! But as your weight is ok, and you want to change your 'content', then my vote would be to eat at maintenance (1542 as per that spreadsheet calculator someone kindly made from the book), and up to 1762 on workout days. This will give you the fuel you need to do the lifting, make muscle, and keep your metabolism active. As you progress, I would expect your muscle content to increase, and your body fat decrease, with your weight not changing. With these changes you SHOULD see the measurement changes you are seeking as a lovely side effect.

That's the theory from the book anyway as I think i understand it, it's worked for me, but i've only been at it 6 weeks or so. And hey, if after a few weeks you gain a little fat, you can always tweak it by a few cals :drinker:

Wow, thank you for going through the trouble to calculate for me! I have the numbers written down in the book so I will double check. I guess since I never really made a go of eating the way I am supposed to, I have nothing else to lose. Hopefully it will be the change I need. Yes, I am pretty tiny and that's why I fret over the smallest change in weight gain or flab. A little shows a lot. The funny thing is that I used to weigh 15 pounds heavier yet I am more obsessed about my weight now than I used to be. It wasn't until I got married and joined a gym that I wised up to my eating habits. I lost the weight and have been pretty steady despite two pregnancies. I never had a flat stomach, so maybe I am trying to achieve an unattainable goal. But even though I might weight the same as pre-pregnancy, I definitely have more belly fat and circumference. I know birthing two children has a lot to do with it, but I would like to at least decrease my circumference by a couple of inches. I may never be happy with the way I look, but at least I am working hard.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

I had a body assessment at the gym on Sat and my body fat was measured with callipers.

I was a bit dismayed that it was 26.3 ... only 3% less than I was 20lbs ago!!

Obviously this is going to be a slow process but I am going to monitor it every 8-12 weeks I think, I don't know realistically how fast it can go down. I am hourglass shaped (although my top half is shrinking fast unfortunately!) and although I have a small waist, I carry a lot on my bum & thighs.

Had a huge curry on Saturday night at a friends house cooked by his Pakistani girlfriend so it was the real deal, had to drink plenty of wine to combat the chilli

Had a couple of days off the lifting but back on it tomorrow- am on Stage One 6A now:happy:

keira you are the exact same shape as me. I'm 5ft 11 and size 14 bottom, size 12 top. All I want to do is be a size 12 bottom also I'd be happy with that. But my top half is shrinking quicker :sad:

Sounds like I'm not the only one hitting the junk big time!! Glad I'm not alone. Three weeks a month I have virtually not trouble, then TOM arrives and I undo most of the good in no time

Not helped by the fact I'm sitting on my a*se all day again trying to get a college assignment written for my final exams in April. :grumble:

Sounds like I'm not the only one hitting the junk big time!! Glad I'm not alone. Three weeks a month I have virtually not trouble, then TOM arrives and I undo most of the good in no time

Not helped by the fact I'm sitting on my a*se all day again trying to get a college assignment written for my final exams in April. :grumble:

Yeah, this wasn't my best weekend either. The hag arrived on Friday and I was a sugar fiend all weekend. Back to my regular self now, thank God.

Denine, I have a hard time on the weekends too, even when I'm not on tom! It's like I reward myself for being good all week. I have to get out of that mindset though. It's ok to treat myself a little, but not ok to raid the pantry all weekend long!

My work-out sucked, too.

BOOOOOOOOOOO.

Anyway, I'm gonna have to stay late at work, tonight, to get some stuff done and I'm too busy tomorrow to do anything but work.

I will head to Hawaii with the intention of eating healthy for the larger percentage of meals and making sure I'm remaining *active* while away. I'll jump right back on the NROL4W when I get back - starting Stage 3 and it should be clear sailing until I'm through the whole program.

It's sooooooooo interesting to read that other people struggle with weekends. I actually don't. But, I struggle with inappropriate night-time snacking every day. (However, I have reduced that habit, significantly, since about November when I started focusing on it. I only Late-Night-Snacked 4 times in February and 3 of those were *planned* events.)

When are you leaving? I'm so jealous! I haven't had a tropical vacation since before we had children. I think the last place we went was the Dominican Republic back in 2003 or so. I am waiting for my kids to be a little older so my parents can watch them for a week while we fly somewhere warm and sandy.

I have issues with night time snacking too. Once I put the kids to bed I feel like I need something to reward myself for getting through the day, lol. I always leave calories over for this. I am definitely better than I used to be. I used to snack on pretzels or chips or have a bowl of ice cream. Now I will have cottage cheese, yogurt, an Atkins snack bar, nuts, or something equally healthy.

I have a question about calorie intake again. Should I increase to levels in new rules even though I am not following that workout anymore? Does it matter? I am going to ask the trainer this tomorrow.

It has been one long week since I first posted....and boy you girls are chatty!!!!! It is nice to read and draw on the knowledge of those further along in this journey and know that this takes time!!

I am almost done stage 3, but due to a few family issues as in my grandma being very ill, very suddenly, cousins needing help and of course, the hubby not making it any easier, I have had a few extra days off. I think that I will go into stage 4 directly.

Bringing me to my big issue....food. I am finally on track again after alot of emotional eating and very determined to stay on course. I will commit to March maintance cals......I wish that I would have bumped them up in the beginning instead of going for the cal deficiet method.


Beeps....have a wonderful and relaxing time!!!!!

I tried to (online) check us in this morning (24 hours in advance) and, after entering all the data, passport information, resort we are staying at, blah, blah, blah, they THEN flash a "sorry!" notice saying I have to check-in at the airport.

So, now I'm SUPER-BUMMED. And, frankly STRESSED because the plane is pretty full and our seats aren't looking that great (which is weird, because I feel like I paid for seat selection....but it was 4 months ago, so I don't rightly remember).

It is DUMB to stress about things that I cannot control....and it is what it is.

Add to that - I don't have time for a work-out, today...so, I am REALLY going to have to get my mental game ON so that I control my stress.

Ugh.

But, tomorrow, it is "Aloha" and I'm sure it will all turn out just fine.

How goes the *heavy-lifting*, gang??

Aww, Beeps, I'm sorry you're so stressed! I can't believe you went through all that trouble only for it to tell you that you can't check in online. I can imagine how frustrating that is. The day before vacation always stresses me out. There's so many things to do and remember to do. Don't sweat(no pun intended, lol) not getting in your workout. You don't need one more thing to stress about. I bid you happy, sunny filled thoughts! I hope everything goes smoothly tomorrow and you have an awesome vacation! Can't wait to hear all about it!

As for me, I had my session with the trainer this morning and I spoke to the gym owner about nutrition. We came up with a plan for me going forward. They are going to make up a workout plan for me, A/B style like New Rules. I will come into the gym once a month to check my progress, tweak the program if need be, and get measured. Since I can work out at home I don't see the need to pay to come in once a week. I am going this Saturday so we can run through the entire program and get familiar, after that I will only come once a month or so. They charge $50 an hour so I don't see myself going any more than that, in fact I told them that maybe we can stretch it to every 6 weeks. We'll see how it goes. As for nutrition, John says that he doesn't put much stock in tracking calories because everyone's needs are so different, based on body type, metabolism, etc etc. He says I should focus on eating well. He advocates a mostly paleo style diet, which I basically do except I do eat dairy but I am going to cut that out and see if it makes a difference, since I was told I have lactose intolerance, and it can be bloating me, skewing measurements. I felt that after eliminating wheat and other grains, there's nothing else to eat and I enjoy my yogurt and cottage cheese and other cheeses. But I can do it for a couple of weeks and see if I notice a difference. Anyway, his thought is that if you are eating well(healthy) and only eating to satiety then everything will fall into place. Your body will naturally eat what it needs to fuel itself. This is not new to me. I've been doing that for years anyway, it wasn't until I joined MFPO that I started tracking calories. So I am going to cut back or stop counting and see how that goes too.