I'm doing great on adding beans each day, but the 11 pm bedtime has been pushed to midnight the last few nights. Ugh. I'm dragging and feeling it.

1. Eat more clean and cook more
2. Do cardio on my non-lifting days
3. Get my ratios to where they should be
4. Loose weight and inches and tone up!

Bumping for now... need to think about what I want to accomplish.

Well so far I haven't lost any weight, but I am down .6% in body fat so something is moving in the right direction at least! I've been really good with my logging this week and I'm going to try really hard not to fall off track like I did last weekend.

Happy Friday!

I did pretty well on eating at my conference all week. I was no where near the 1800 that I wanted to be, but I got quite a bit of cardio in to offset that. When I weighed in this moring, I was the same as when I left, so pretty happy about that.

Looks like everyone is doing well so far.

Beeps - I really like the Omron hand held BF% monitor. I want to use it a bit more often than I do, but am afraid I'll get hooked on it like I do the scale. I use it about every 2 weeks.

Well, I haven't been doing so good. Adding cardio in with lifting leaves me exhausted. Stage 1 completed as of Wednesday. I rested yesterday and did a mixture of cardio today. It feels good. My bottom and legs are feeling the workout. I just realized I didn't stretch afterwards. :ohwell: gonna be sore tomorrow.

Also, I am trying to cut my calories. It seems on the days I lift, I am not as hungry . The non days I can eat what isn't nailed down and even then I gnaw around that.

Beeps - thanks for the info on the BF% tester. I may have to do that because it's all over the place. When I started lfing in March it was pretty consistently around 23.8%, then after Stage 1 it was down to 22.8 - 23% pretty consistently, then this morning it was 23.2 - 23.5%. I usually do it 3 times in a row just to see what the variance will be.

I need to cut the fat as well and am hoping I can stick with 1800 calories a day, lifting and non lifting days. I have a really hard time getting below that. I have not been doing well with the eating since being out of town and then my mom was in town this weekend and I'm traveling again Wed thru Friday. I can't wait to really get back on schedule!

I had not heard that about the BF monitor either, good to know. I was just planning on doing every Friday morning which is what I had done the last 2 weeks. I suppose either way if it is still down by the end of a month that would still be good. I'm also a bit of a scale addict so I would be concerned I would start obsessing over the BF% as well.

So as of this morning I am officially down 1 entire pound! Cutting back to two lifting sessions per week and adding in more cardio seems to be doing the trick. My calories are still pretty high, grossing 2000-2400 a day. I've been pretty good with my logging too, but I always seem to slack a bit on the weekends.

Jessica - I would try what Beeps suggested and test every day, even if just for a week. There are a lot of factors that can affect the numbers. Just remember this is your lifestyle now, not just a quick fix.

I've been doing pretty good on my goals. I went a bit over in calories this weekend with my mom in town, but not too overboard. I'm going out of town for work again this afternoon thru friday, so will try my best to keep things under control. Thankfully my weight is not moving much, but hoping I can stay off the scale now for the next couple weeks.

Jessica - that happened to me too, when I first joined the gym and did all cardio, all the time. I was planning to measure monthly, and I'd been feeling pretty confident that with a month of lifting with cardio only on non-lifting days, the body fat % would HAVE to go down, but I'll find out for sure next week.

I like the idea of the 30-day rolling average, but I don't want to buy one for fear I'll become obsessive about it too. It's bad enough I still weigh near daily. I can handle subtle fluctuations, but I think body fat % fluctuations might make me nutty.

I'm also re-evaluating whether my goal of losing 10 lb. in 10 weeks was reasonable or not. The scale has come to a (fluctuating) standstill at 190. It reads 189 occasionally, but most often reads bet. 190-193.

I do fit into size 14 jeans now though, both Lee & Levis. The Levis are still a little snug though, so I'd like those to be more comfortable by the end of 10 weeks.

And I'm OK with being patient with the scale if I really am building muscle and burning fat. I'm happy with the changes I see in the mirror, even if I'm not so happy with the pictures I (finally) had my husband take. But it's frustrating to not know HOW patient I need to be before I start seeing the scale move again.

I'm tempted to call my Dr., who advised losing weight to drop my cholesterol, and asking him whether my BMI or BF% is more important for that purpose...

Holding steady with my beans each afternoon. Bedtime is still a challenge. I've been averaging 11:30ish and even went to bed at 9:30 one night. A little better than last week.

Does that hurt much, the laser hair removal? I've seriously been considering it but I don't know anyone who has actually done it. And I would say we all need a glass of wine and tiramisu sometimes...

Mother's day is a lucky break for me. My mom is a vegan so if we do actually go anywhere to eat it will be to a place that you would really have to try to find something really unhealthy, but she doesn't like to go out to eat since so many places can't accommodate her diet so we probably won't anyways! She told me she wants to go get and plant a rose bush in honor of my grandma who passed away a year and half ago so we will probably have a bit of an active day. Should be nice. Oh, and I am not yet a mom so no worries there.