PolkaDot88 Member

My boyfriend and I have a $200 a month budget for groceries. Our basic strategy is NO prepared foods - no frozen lasagnas, no cookies, no canned soups, no baked goods other than a loaf of bread each week (we make our own tortillas), that sort of thing. We go grocery shopping together to stop each other from splurging on…

If you have a food scale you could weigh the cooked and patted down slices and see how many calories are in that many grams of bacon, according to the nutritional information. It might not be totally accurate because the grease might have a different number of calories than the actual meat (I'm really not sure) but it's…

I'm on level 3 and I burn about 250, though it goes down a bit each time as I get more in shape. My first day with level 1 I burned 315.

Wow, you look awesome!!! Congratulations and keep it up :)

Very late to this party, but... Skim milk Cottage Cheese (1 or 2%, the name-brand whipped 4% if it's on sale) Spinach Brita filter pitcher of water :) Eggs Also my non-refrigerated product would be bananas - I eat 1-2 a day.

I discovered this the other day (well, I borrowed the idea off an MFP topic) and it is AMAZING - been eating it every day since until I ran out of cottage cheese yesterday! Wash some spinach and tear it up into fairly small pieces. Mix it with an equal or slightly less amount of cottage cheese, add salt and pepper (lots of…

In the one nehushtan posted, make sure you change the "Exercise Level" drop down to Basal Metabolic Rate. I calculated using both formulas and they were about 60 calories away from each other - close enough to be accurate for my purposes.

I did my first ever first-thing-in-the-morning workout this week and I LOVED it! I set my alarm the night before and told my boyfriend to actually push me out of bed if I didn't get up. But when it went off I was super jazzed about actually getting up to workout because I'd never done it before! I've done it every other…

I usually only eat back about half of my exercise calories, but when I am having difficulty reaching that I grab a handful of nuts or trail mix. It's also a good energy boost as a mid-morning snack. If we are out of nuts I have been known to eat a spoonful of peanut butter, or apple wedges dipped in peanut butter. :)

I'm 5'9" and started my weightloss journey at 180 pounds. I'm currently 155 - I was down at 150 before Christmas but got off-track with the holidays. I'm back at it now and not going to quit this time! I'd like to eventually see 135. I have a small frame so I think I'll look good at that weight but I'll pause at 140 and…

I like to cook a chicken breast or two every week, cut it into strips, and bring a portion of it every day on top of a different salad. Spinach is my favourite, and you can find a whole bunch of recipes online for homemade salad dressings that can really change it up. Make sure you bring the dressing in a separate dish so…

Only add it if you listed "Sedentary" as your lifestyle - if you listed moderately active or whatever the next one up is, it's probably already counting those calories in your daily allotment. However, like pcarp said, I would use the "cleaning" activity :)

I really like the 4-mile Superchallenge. It takes about an hour but according to my HRM I burn about 700 calories with it. It's awesome!

I've been going through something similar. I'm also a student and I have lots of term papers and exams coming up, I'm finding it nearly impossible to keep up with all of that AND continue to track calories and focus on my health. I havent' worked out in days - I started walking further to get some exercise in, but I just…

It's not a real thing. The guy who made it up did it all based on anecdotes and patient self-reporting, and didn't do any actual real scientific studies. There's no evidence that people with different blood types digest food differently. If you look into it, no matter what your blood type the "diet plan" dreamed up by…

There are calories in celery, however your body burns more calories digesting it than it gives you in return. So, the net value is a negative calorie value, but you didn't EAT zero or negative calories.

30 Day Shred is a great one to start with. My plan is to finish up the Shred, then do Slim in 6, then maybe do Insanity if I feel ready..... Insanity is a big burn but you really should be at some kind of good fitness level to do it.

My mom and sister are fad diet experts - they yo-yo from one to another with cycles of gaining and losing weight. They're doing the South Beach diet right now and it seems like the most reasonable of the ones they've been on, AND it was recommended by my mom's doctor. So, it's better than most diets, but like Aeriel said,…

I did that at first too. I think it's because as I weight and measure myself I look more closely at my body - when I was at my highest weight I tried as hard as I could to ignore my weight because I was embarrassed about it. I didn't look at all the rolls and lumps. When I started paying more attention to how I used my…

I am just finishing up the first level of the 30 Day Shred and I really love it! You likely won't lose 20 pounds in 30 days (wouldn't want to anyways - healthy weight loss is 1 per week), but you'll definitely feel more toned. I like seeing the progress as you do the same exercises 10 days in a row. It's excellent! Today I…

Drinking to relieve stress is never a good idea - you wake up the next morning and everything is worse, in my opinion. I went through a 2-month period where I quit drinking altogether to see if I could do it, and it really wasn't hard at all - the hardest part was the habit of sitting down in a bar and saying "diet coke"…

Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos! I cut the recipe down to serve 4, and each burrito is 500 calories. You could probably cut that down even more (less oil, low-cal tortillas, etc). I usually can't even finish one burrito and it keeps me full for a long time. They taste great too!!…

When you get home have a small snack (some yogurt or fruit or something like that) before you work out. Do a light workout and make dinner as usual. Don't overeat - eat as much as you are hungry for. If you feel like having a snack after dinner, absolutely do it, but don't try to force yourself to eat if you're not hungry.…

I think this is great advice. I'm Canadian so I already had Thanksgiving, but this is what I did - I didn't take seconds because I knew I was full, but the first time around I took a little of every dish I wanted. I made sure to take bigger portions of the healthier ones and smaller portions of the not-so-healthy ones, but…

Me too! My ring almost went flying off the other day, I've taken it off and am getting it resized this weekend! Love it :)

*bump* thanks! Like the looks of this

I'm in my last semester, and due to switching majors twice I'm in my 5th frigging year of university. I'm so burnt out on school and it makes me lazy in every part of my life, including working out. I live with my boyfriend and I don't like working out when he's home - he never works out and while he doesn't eat ~terribly~…

Bump - I'll watch as soon as I get home. Congratulations Tami!!!

I'm still 20 pounds OVER mine - here they just eyeball you and estimate themselves. Must have been looking skinny 5 years ago when I got mine, lol.

I weight myself once a week on Fridays and measure inches twice a month, 1st and 15th. I find it gives me a good picture without making me obsess over the scale!