Six Week Challenge?

I weighed in this morning and I’ve only gained one pound! It feels weird to get excited about a gain, but I was expecting so much worse than that! Now I'm at 179 and I’m 100% confident that I can lose that again by Friday and hopefully catch up to where I want to be by next week. I usually retain water like crazy when I fly for some reason, but I drank coffee to stay awake yesterday which I don’t normally do, so maybe that helped with my water retention?

chelsea756 - My everyday diet is fairly consistent. I eat eggs, veggies and toast for breakfast. Usually one whole egg (pastured, from a local farmer) and sometimes an additional egg white. I cook that with mushrooms and frozen spinach and put it on a slice of gluten-free flax toast. Sometimes I add a slice of Asiago cheese or smoked turkey breast. I find that I have to have adequate protein at breakfast or I crave carbs and sugar all day. For lunch I eat a big salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, lentils and tofu with Newman’s Own light Italian dressing. Dinner is usually more protein (often chicken) with a veggie and brown rice, quinoa, or a gluten-free bun. I snack on light organic string cheese, almonds, greek yogurt, fruit, peanut butter, and on the days that I lift weights, a protein shake or bar. I try to eat mostly organic, very little sugar, no artificial sweeteners, flavors, colors, preservatives, etc. I’m allergic to gluten and I don’t eat red meat.

Also, good job for adding in strength training! It really does make such a HUGE difference!

belldandy1 - I love Indian too, but cooking it well is really labor intensive. I live alone so I’m not a huge fan of cooking everyday either. I always cook breakfast, but for dinner I often cook a crockpot of chicken and keep it in the fridge to eat all week. I also cook a pot of grains at the beginning of the week and keep that in the fridge. Do you have a Tader Joe’s near you? They have a lot of pre-made, but still fairly healthy Indian sauces you can buy and add to chicken, rice, veggies, etc that really cut down on cooking time. Or I suppose you could make some yourself and freeze them in individual portions and add them to stuff you quickly cook up during the week. Just a thought!

I’ve always thought about trying krav maga, but I think I’m too much of a wuss. I used to do a little xing yi nei gong and ba gua (Chinese martial arts), but they were never really my thing.

everyday - I just noticed that you’re in AZ. What part? I did the Shred for two and a half weeks before going on vacation a couple months ago. It really works, but I’ve found that I HATE the cardio/strength interval thing. I know it’s really effective, but my take on it is that if I’m not actually doing it because I hate it then it won’t be effective for me! I really like weight lifting, walking and yoga-type stretching, so those are the things that I’m doing right now.

Also, I know how you feel about fries--they’re my weakness too! Almost any kind of potato is! I can do sweet potatoes without going crazy though, so I try to stick to those, although when I was in Vancouver this weekend EVERYPLACE has yam fries! (And I mean the fried ones, not the good oven kind!) So I’m a little afraid that my ability to resist overeating them might dissolve when I move there!

aariel22 - Congrats at getting back to 150! Hopefully I’ll be there soon! I’m sure getting married must be great motivation.

everyone else - Welcome! I hope you all had a great weekend!