BanderaOutlaw

Just fantastic my friend, thank you so much for the advice you've shared - amazing progress. I am looking at losing another 50-75lbs, so we're on very similar tracks - your success is an inspiration. Thank you for sharing!

Black beans - very healthy way to boost those calories safely.

Welcome! You'll find plentiful fun, support, and fellowship here. Best of luck!

Hey there and welcome! You'll find nothing but great tools, great tips, and great folks in this community. It's made all the difference in my sticking to my diet and getting out on the bike as often as I can.

A little up, a little down, my friend. Ebb and flow. The important thing is you remain conscious about where you are and where you want to be. Failure is educational - see what life events and situations triggered you to fall off the wagon, and be prepared to see them come around again. When they do, recognize them, and…

As I understand it (I am by no means an expert), 1,200 calories in a day is kind of a minimum before your body starts to go into starvation mode and try harder to store fat (making it harder to lose, obviously). Net calories are how many calories you've ended up with for the day (what you've eaten less what exercise you've…

Zuzana is my favorite trainer on YouTube - she does a ton of videos showing great workouts with and without props, and also explains beginner versions of the exercises she does -> http://www.youtube.com/user/charliejames1975 I hurt my lower back in the same way several years ago, and it's just a slow process to rebuild…

One high-calorie day does not a diet ruin. Great idea to take a limited amount of cash, that way you only buy what you really, really want. But if you do blow your diet for the day, remember, it's just one day out of dozens, hundreds where you have been and will continue to eat healthy. Enjoy life. :-)

I follow the slow-carb diet and exercises Tim Ferriss writes about in Four Hour Body. They've done wonders for me, only diet I've ever stuck with, and the results come fast enough to keep me motivated. MFP tracking definitely helps to stay on top of my calories!

I follow a slow-carb diet, and my sleep habits usually don't allow me much time in the mornings for breakfast, so a protein shake is a great way to start my day with more than 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking - takes all of 30 seconds to make with a blender, tastes good (better than I thought), and gets me…

Down here in Texas, checking out a man's calves can be taken an entirely different way. Livestock is a good sign of wealth! ;)

Welcome Nicci! You're in the right place to get to your fitness goals. This site and community has been a wonder for me, helped me break years of consistent failure to "stick with it." It's enlightening to see how the composition of your meals affects your nutrition, very educational, and very useful of course. I found out…

Awesome advice, thank you. :-)

You and I have matching tastes! I'll admit, I do love to bike around town and in the park, but strength training is what I most enjoy. Ellipticals, treadmills and stationary bikes bore me to misery. Activities can be fun, though - disc golf, nature photography, whatever's available to you that gets you motivated and moving…

I'm an editor at the newspaper down here, and I can promise you, the day it rains more than an inch in this county, it will be front page news. :-)

Great numbers! Inches are what really counts - weight is so incredibly random, and influenced by so many outside factors. Especially if you do a bit of strength training with your diet, you'll want to look at those inches instead of weight. Lean mass is good mass, making stone-cold weight irrelevant. :-)

Lunchtime is where I'm most likely to eat the wrong things, mostly because of my coworkers, who are absolutely consistent in their daily takeout rituals. And if I eat a healthy lunch, I'll start getting a craving for something sweet or crunchy within 3-4 hours, so for me, having a second lunch handy is key. I tend toward…

Rain in Texas? I'll believe it when I see it down here in Bandera! :-)

Oh man, I used to suffer the same problem, and bowls (up to three in a sitting) of cereal were my outlet. Eating healthier, and eating more volume of healthier food, has helped a great deal. Having some replacement meals for cravings helps me - when I want ice cream, I'll grab yogurt or a Slim Fast shake, especially if I…

I work at a newspaper, so my office musical selections are usually geared more toward fending of stress than getting my groove on! But us journalists do get down on Monday nights when we're putting out the paper and the rest of the office has left. Mostly rap, hip hop, club music, good bootie-shaking bangers. :-)

Welcome! Truly, I don't think you could find a more successful and motivational group of folk than here on MFP. These first days can be seemingly brutal, in trying to make positive changes for your fitness, but you'll get through them. It only gets easier. What are some of your goals? :-)

Wonderful progress! Those 30 pounds lost were no doubt hard-fought and well-earned. What are your top three meal and exercise tips? :-)

Hey there! Seventy-five pounds is a great goal, and you can totally achieve it - so many others post of similar success here day after day. That you are here proves you are ready and in the midst of a turnaround in your fitness. :-) MFP is a wonderful tool, and the community is great. You'll find nothing but encouragement,…

Awesome! Just make sure you "eat those exercise calories," it does make a difference to keep your weight loss steady. :-) If you see any rain in Hawaii, please send it our way in Texas! :-)

Definitely, no reason you should ever go hungry at all. In fact, if you can eat enough healthy meals, you'll have more trouble eating enough calories than too many. It's a paradigm shift to start planning and preparing meals in advance, but once you get into the swing of it, you will be amazed at how easy it is to turn…

Welcome Celina! Congratulations on committing to your goals; this tool and community has helped me succeed where a dozen diets and exercise plans have failed before. You'll find great help and results here. Best of luck! We're all here for you. :-)

Great job committing to get that extra weight off! We're all here for you! Just my personal advice, keep in mind that a healthy diet will help you lose weight better than exercise - for myself, focusing more on exercise just led me to burn out fast. I've had much more success getting my diet wrangled, and then adding in…

What seems to be causing you to miss your goals Sindy? Hunger? Not having healthy meals handy? Social or coworker pressure? Quick tips: - 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking, by way of chicken, eggs, or protein powder - Eat two lunches, a first and second three to four hours later, to get through the…

To offer a male perspective, scars and stretch marks are literally inconsequential when it comes to how most of us perceive beauty. But how men see women and how women see themselves are often very different things - women, by far, are harder on themselves and more aware of and affected by their perceived imperfections…

I'll be honest, I had a date to every prom and homecoming and dance back in high school, and with 100% consistency, my date made the experience miserable. I concur completely with everyone else - find a dress you like and are most comfortable in (even if it's imperfect), go with friends, and just enjoy yourself. You don't…