ElizabethOakes2 Member

:D Glad I could make you laugh! Sorry I startled the cat, though.

In the past, I've leaped in head-first, but this time, I was heavier than I'd ever been, had serious chronic injuries that needed consideration, and I had a partner who had just been warned by our GP that he needed to make serious changes and was really irritable about having to change. I knew that if we leaped into…

Yeah, noticed that with my Garmin, too, but my Garmin measures arm movement, so if I'm not swinging it the beat, it doesn't count it as a step. I can be kicking my behind off, but my Garmin doesn't know it. I'm going to steal the HRM from my husband for a few days and see what calorie comparison I get.

I started lifting in my early 20s, because my fiance at the time was a competition builder, and we hung out a LOT at a gym that pretty much catered to him and his buddies. They might have been hard-core, but they taught me some really bad lifting habits (women lifters were pretty rare then. I think I was the only woman who…

My former boss used his quite often to get into one of the better restaurants in town, "Yes, this is Doctor 'x', from Stanford. I'd like a table for two tonight." And they ALWAYS gave him a table.

I can see some of what they're saying, but I think doing those things doesn't necessarily mean you have unhealthy behaviors or thought processes associated to them.

Brain aneurysms are like lightening. No one knows when and where they'll strike. :( 50 in 4.5 months? Sure, it can be done, but not safely by any means. My friend lost 50 pounds in three months while hospitalized with intestinal herniations following an auto accident that required multiple surgeries. She weighed 89 pounds…

TDEE is your Total Daily Expenditure - how many calories you burn total per day. and BMR is your Base Metabolic Rate - How many calories your body needs just to function if all you did was lie in bed all day like a Victorian era woman suffering from 'malaise'. http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/…

I love this one! "Men's expectations are forcing us to be thin!" ... Not a word about who has the expectation that it's okay to be unhealthy.

What's your height and weight? 1200 is the bare minimum you should eat, unless you're very small or on a physician supervised diet. If you're working out, eat back half of what MFP gives you for exercise calories. Use a BMR calculator to figure out how many base calories you burn each day, the use a TDEE calculator to…

I was 1200 calories for a couple months until I fell out of the 'obese' category, then upped my intake. A sample day for me: Breakfast: 1 cup oatmeal, 1/2 oz almonds, 1/4 oz dried fruit (usually cranberries or cherries), 2 cups coffee with International Delight creamer. Lunch: 2.5 oz white chicken meat or tuna dressed up…

Anything outside of your regular daily activities. For example, if I go out for a 20 minute power walk, I count that, but walking from my car to the grocery store, even if I park at the back of the lot, I don't count that. :)

I have my fitness gear in front of the TV. If I want to watch a show, I have to be working, either hula hooping, or weight training. It's gotten to the point where if I just curl up to watch a show, I feel like I need to get up and move.

WOO! GO YOU! It's those little steps- A few minutes more every time that will make all the difference. My husband is a hard-core elliptical freak- he started at 15 minutes a session and is up to 45 after 6 months. :)

I only go to the gym to swim and sometimes use the expensive fancy treadmill. My weight set is in my family room, along with my resistance bands, hula hoops and fitness balls. You won't see me lift at the gym for two reasons: I hate the gym with a passion that is above and beyond passionate (I was once married to a…

"The kids don't like anything but junk food. Maybe when they're grown up..." Umm... if you don't give your kids McDonalds, they won't eat McDonalds, will they? And just because they eat junk doesn't mean you have to, does it? Maybe I just don't get it because I don't have kids?

Seventeen pounds so far, just a drop in the bucket compared compared to what some have done, but it's all calories in/calories out and walking. I had spine surgery a few years ago, and I have poor knees, so walking was all I could do. I started walking 20 minute a day, then 30. Now, I alternate pressing for distance with…

I love these threads! They really help inspire me! Mine is a different kind of success for now and it paints a different kind of picture. Blood Pressure: July 17, 2015, 2:30 pm- 137/94 - Hypertensive Blood Pressure: February 17, 2016, 2:30 pm- 117/72 - Normal. Yeah, that's right. Normal. :)

I'm in! Thanks for the heads up!

Walking every day has made a huge difference to my blood pressure. I used to be consistently in the high pre-hypertension range, and am now seeing normal readings 2 out of 3 times. Check your sodium in your diet (lower is better) and make sure you're getting lots of high-potassium/high fiber foods, like yams, bananas, etc.…

White beans. The fiber and protein is satisfying, and to me, a far better texture than squash. Squash is, well, squashy.

As to "cheat" days, it depends on the person. My splurges happen every Saturday and I'm losing just fine- I 'bank' exercise calories to have my Saturday waffles. My husband can't do splurge days because he'll want to continue splurging the rest of the week and two waffles on Saturday will lead to cheeseburgers on Sunday…

I've had a doctor put me on 1000 calories before, and it was... dramatic and painful and it didn't work (because I had undiagnosed hypothyroid...) but that's beside the point. As long as your doctor is monitoring you carefully and is responsive to your issues (headaches, exhaustion, muscle fatigue), give it a try. Once…

Someone else spouting what worked for them without realizing that other people have different needs. Jane, you can and should lift weights while losing fat in order to maintain what muscle you have, but for many people, bulking is much harder to do when you're in a calorie deficit needed to lose fat. (The more muscle you…

Darn, I thought this was a thread about poker. My husband is prediabetic and had to cut down on carbs. We've found that beans can do almost everything that we used to do with pasta and potatoes. White beans with marinara sauce, black beans as side dishes with almost everything, garbanzo beans on salads instead of croutons.…

Walking- at least 3 times a week, up to 90 minutes a walk. And before anyone leaps in about how walking isn't exercise, uhm, yeah, it is. I'm up to 6 miles, headed for 6.5 on my distance days and just broke 15 minutes a mile on my 'short and fast' days (short is 4 miles). I'm starting to incorporate jogging, hoping to get…

I don't 'cheat', but I do have splurges, and I bank exercise calories to use for them. Some people can't have splurge days because they find it really hard to get back on track (like my husband). It's all down to what works for you personally. A funny thing has happened over the past six months though- I can't eat like I…

If you're losing 2 pounds a week, you might even be going at it a little too hard. You don't want to burn out or make yourself sick (And yes, eating below your calorie allowance can make you sick if you're regularly eating below your BMR amount.) Try logging your food for one week and making sure that you're getting a good…

If you want motivation and encouragement to keep going, check out the Successes forum! Every single story in there reminds me why I'm doing this, and why I keep going. You can do this! Also, figure out what works for you- what cbelc2 said about feeling deprived or punished is no way to live, and MFP is about living. :)

I relate. I have little tiny tellatubby legs. If the treadmill is goin' faster, then it's "Uh oh, Po!"