cherapple Member

Never say you won't see a size! Especially with weight lifting. I was floored the first time I went clothes shopping after getting into weight lifting. I wear smaller sizes than I ever have in my life, even when I weighed ten pounds less. Weight lifting can do some magical things to the body! I don't know if it has been…

Congratulations, Arewethereyet!!! :happy: :wink: :drinker: You make such a good point about the scale. Weight loss is far from the only indicator of success. If you commit to healthy ways of living, your body will only respond in a positive way over time. We all just have to stick with it! I'm loving my healthy life right…

Yes, bands are great! :flowerforyou: My favorite thing about bands -- they fit perfectly, and they weight next to nothing, in a travel bag or suitcase! Once you learn a few band moves, you can take your workout anywhere. :happy:

I highly recommend videos. That's how I got started. They will teach you lots of different moves, with proper form, and give you a well-rounded program so that you work all your muscle groups. I like Cathe.com (from experience) and the Beachbody workouts (from word-of-mouth), but they are not cheap. Try collagevideo.com,…

Hi, Ben! Of course, I agree completely! :bigsmile:

I think mustard is fine! And Pink Lady apples are my favorite -- so sweet and crunchy! Don't worry about doing everything right all at once. It can be overwhelming to change your diet overnight. Also, you may decide that there are certain clean eating principles that you want to deviate from, just because you like a…

I didn't have a great day yesterday. I never got in my workout, I lost track of my calories, and then I went overboard at dinner. :grumble: Grrr. I give myself an inch, and I take a mile. :laugh: The rest of my meals: 3) Salad with tuna and vinegar and oil dressing, homemade protein bar. Cals: 343. Protein: 30 And then I…

That's great, Jess! I love it when people acknowledge physical improvements! :happy: A friend of mine recently said she notices the difference in my features, too, since I started clean eating, so she's been asking me about it and working on incorporating more clean eating habits into her life. She's not as dedicated as I…

Other benefits: :flowerforyou: It's healthier to lose body fat while gaining muscle. Most diets make you lose muscle as well as fat, which sends the metabolism into a downward spiral that it can be hard to recover from. :flowerforyou: Muscle makes you feel thinner. You may not be as "fat" as you think you are -- you may…

I woke up too late to get to the gym this morning. Our electricity went off yesterday and my husband set my clock wrong, so my alarm didn't go off. :grumble: Oh well, I'll try to get to the gym tonight instead. It's a run day, but I'm not sure whether I'll feel up to running or not. We'll see. Food: 1) Oatmeal, apple,…

The rest of yesterday: 5) Salad, salad, salad, with vinegar and oil dressing, tuna on top, hot cocoa with egg whites 6) Hot air popcorn

I finally opened my STS and did some of the first and second videos this morning! I'm going to be doing a combination of BFFM and STS, but mostly use STS just for ideas of new moves to do for each muscle group. I'm really enjoying the BFFM program and don't want to change because it's more flexible for wherever I happen to…

I think I'm remembering everything I ate today! :tongue: Another busy day. 1) The usual oatmeal with apple, protein powder, flax 2) 1/2 peanut butter sandwich, banana, 7 triscuit thin crisps, a few peanuts, black tea 3) Dunkin Donuts Egg White Flatbread sandwich 4) Homemade protein bar, black tea 5) Flatbread with tuna 6)…

Ooh, lots to catch up with here! Hi to all the posters. Of course, it's almost 11 p.m., and I need sleep! :happy: Today's meals: 1) Oatmeal, apple, egg whites, milk, flax 2) 2 cups of coffee with cream (no sweetener) - I know, not really a meal :ohwell: . I made up for it with lunch: 3) Whole wheat pasta, sauce, turkey on…

A half marathon -- you go, Jess! :flowerforyou: I did 2 miles on the treadmill yesterday and now my hamstring and hips are hurting again! :grumble: I was doing so well and had run the same distance countless times over the past few weeks, without incident. I was starting to pick up my speed, though, but I had run at…

That's what I love about oatmeal. :heart: You get to eat a lot for a little bit of calories. Then I add a sliced apple and sometimes nuts, so it becomes a really big bowl of oatmeal! It just barely fits into the bowl. I eat it nearly every morning.

You ask a lot of good questions, WannaBe! I'll have to get back to most of them later. For now I'll just say that I'm not making any pronouncements about what anyone else needs. I only know that I personally feel better when I eat meat. When I first started eating it again, I was amazed at how satisfied I felt. It was not…

Meals 3) Half peanut butter sandwich 4) Homemade protein bar 5) Homemade turkey chili, brown rice with mushrooms, milk, egg whites, cocoa powder I have extra calories, so I may have a snack later. :smile:

You rock, FC! You're such an inspiration and a fount of knowledge and positivity for everyone on this site! It's always good to see you here! :heart: :flowerforyou:

A pound is nothing. The body naturally fluctuates a couple pounds in either direction all the time. Don't be a slave to the scale. It's a pretty dumb instrument. :laugh: It can't tell you whether you gained fat, muscle, or water. :grumble: The only thing that matters is what it says over the long term, and even that can be…

It's good to feel back on track. I didn't even do very much damage. The scale was up less than two pounds this morning, and my bodyfat percentage actually went down! I guess my body was busy using all those extra calories to put on more muscle while I was "resting" last week. :laugh: Exercise today: 20+ minutes on the…

I hope you didn't think I was worried that you were. :laugh: I know you eat plenty! :smile:

Yes, you've listed it several times. I just never noticed the calorie total before! Wow, never heard of anyone literally passing out from not eating enough, unless they were anorexic. No wonder you make sure to feed yourself well. I think the low carb idea is bad news, especially in the morning. Peanut butter and chocolate…

Meals 4) Flatbread, peanut butter, skim milk, cocoa powder, egg whites 5) Sweet potato and bean stew with chicken, corn muffin Homemade protein bars are in the oven! They are going to be huge and delicious (if the batter is any indication)! :bigsmile: Ate well, exercised, and tracked my meals today. That's an…

I've been doing Cathe at least that long, too! I bought her videos before she made DVDs, but I always did step and didn't start doing her strength workouts until almost two and a half years ago. I have my "comfortable range," too :bigsmile: which I couldn't seem to break out of with her concentration on endurance. I can…

Only by default. Like if I go somewhere and don't have access to my usual foods. Or if it's my TOM and I lose all self-control. :laugh: But usually, no. Any cheating spells disaster for me because I don't have a stop mechanism. I eat "junk" and I want to keep eating it until I'm sick. :sick: :huh:

Jess, I'm curious what you put in your oatmeal to make it 460 calories, and then you eat a banana on top of it. That's a big breakfast! As it should be -- "Eat breakfast like a king and dinner like a pauper." (I'm still working on that one. I want to eat dinner like a king, too. :happy: ) I got my weight lifting in today,…

Hey, I'm not *totally* alone with STS! :laugh: Let me know how it goes and what you think of it. Cathe does too many reps and sets for me, which always causes me to grab lighter weights. I was stuck in a plateau after over two years of doing her videos, and now I'm lifting heavier because I'm concentrating on just 3 sets…

How much protein are you getting per day? I shoot for one gram per pound of body weight, or 30% of my calories. (I don't always reach that.) Some people recommend half that, or somewhere in between the two. When people tell you that you need more protein, tell them exactly how much you're eating per day. Especially when…

Way to go! Yes, they are addicting! :laugh: