Sorry I've been MIA for so long. Been really busy. I ordered a bed for my apartment (I've been sleeping on a mattress on the floor) and it took a few weeks putting the bed together. I'm back on track. We're having a "Biggest Loser" competition at work where coworkers all signed up and we get split up into two teams and the team that loses the most weight b/w Feb 1st- May 1st wins. Of course I signed up. I needed a push to get back on track.
Hope all of you gals are doing good and can't wait to catch up.
Samira
NUMBER5 1/22/06 3:56 P
I missed you girls also. I've been completely self absorbed this week! Bad me :-)
Yes, we did find a new apartment! It's a wonderful 2 bedroom duplex in Jersey City. We signed the lease last week and can start moving 2/15. Our lease in our current apt is not over until 3/15, so it will probably be a slow move, unless my current landlord finds a new tennet and needs out out sooner.
I'm completely back on track this week. I found some Pilates DVDs in the dollar bin at target, so of course I bought them. It's only a dollar if they suck, ya know! I bought a beginner, intermediate, and advanced DVD. I also bought a strength conditioning DVD that uses light weight dumbbells. Again, only a dollar, so I figured I'd try it. I cannot seem to get myself to do strength workouts at the gym, so maybe if I'm in the privacy of my own home, I'll be more inclined to do them. I also bought resistance bands that hook up to my balance ball and a DVD to go with that for $20. I know my program is seriously lacking in the strength training dept, so I'm really making an effort to at least do SOMETHING, ya know!
Emily, do you think you could possibly be eating TOO LITTLE with all that exercise you are doing? They often say if you work out as much as you do, your body will go into starvation mode and hld on to the weight if you are not giving it enough fuel for those killer workouts. Just a thought....
Here's to a GREAT week ladies!! Karol
DEMIFLEUR 1/22/06 1:59 P
So good to hear from you girls! I'm glad I didn't miss anything.
Yesterday and the day before were the first days I didn't stick to the plan in terms of eating...I went up to a little over 2000 calories each day. That stunk. I think I was frustrated because in all the weeks I've been doing this, I'm still where I started in terms of weight. I'm not sure how that is working considering I had been eating 1600 cal. a day, doing a cardio workout for an hour 6-7 times a week, and lifting hard 4 days a week. The only things I can think of are the time of the month and maybe I am putting on muscle. I guess I feel like my body is firmer, so that is encouraging, but the numbers of the scale aren't budging. Any ideas?
Kath - good to hear you could breath a bit better this week at school. We opperate on a block scheduling basis, so I am about to give final exams to my kids and start 3 new classes - thus, things have been crazy. Oh well.
Karol - did you guys find a place? Way to get back on the wagon.
Missed you two!
Emily
FRESH_AIR 1/22/06 10:03 A
Hey Ladies,
Good to hear from you! Karol, I know you can overcome those binges...you've been doing so well. You must have a packed schedule with looking for a new place.
I've actually been doing quite well. I've been watching what I eat. After I lost 4-5 lbs. after Christmas, I've haven't lost anything else for the last two weeks. Not a bad thing, but not excellent either. Went snowshoeing up in the mtns yesterday for a workout - WHOO!! Today I'm going to a wedding shower so I'm really going to have to watch what I eat there. My plan is to workout before hand because my gym is close in proximity to the location of the shower. Okay ladies, talk to you soon. Emily, for some reason, this week was a bit easier at school. Phew. How's it going for you?
Kath
NUMBER5 1/22/06 9:55 A
Emily, it looks like none of us posted anythign for a week. LAME.
I've been absent cuz I've been busy looking for a new apartment and dealing with realtors and such. I shouldn't make excuses, but I am. I've been back and forth with eating well. Had 2 binges early last week, but I've gotten myself back on track since.. so...
Hope everyone is doing better then me with this and sticking to it!
DEMIFLEUR 1/22/06 7:22 A
Hey ladies, I'm sorry I've been gone for so long. I'm not sure what's going on, but I haven't gotten any e-mails about posts and I didn't know how to get here without them, so I was just waiting. However, now that I'm here, I don't see any new posts and wonder if I'm still not in the right place. The last post I can see is the one from Kath from the 14th (wow - wierd that it has been a whole week since I've written anything!) Hope you all are doing well. I'll be back later on today.
Emily
FRESH_AIR 1/14/06 10:25 A
Hey ladies,
Emily, yes, it is a full on mack truck that hits us!!! Yesterday it hit me at 2:30 after a field trip to the skating rink. The field trip went great, I was just exhausted after a week of cramming lessons and activities in. January is, after all,prime learning time, don't you find?
I'm glad you girls are getting your workouts in... I've only worked out once this week. I have been so EXHUASTED everyday that I am just crawling at the end of the day! And I haven't tracked my calories...oops! A usual day finds me going to school (working out before then if I'm lucky), teaching, planning and having meetings, then meeting my BF for dinner and possible an hour or two together then I'm off for the commute home and then off to bed! But that's life. The good news is that despite all of this, I actually went down 3 lbs. since Christmas!! I weighed myself this morning before I had breakfast (that's not cheating is it?) When do you girls weigh yourselves?
I think the reason I've lost weight when I'm not tracking food is that I have to be so careful of what I eat cuz of my stomach issues. Ahh....let's hope this continues...and I hope to get regular on tracking my food.
Kay girls, hope you're having a good weekend, Kath
DEMIFLEUR 1/13/06 7:41 P
Hey girls,
Thanks for loging in despite the craziness. It's always good to hear from you all.
Karol and Kath, I'm sorry neither of you has been feeling well. I'm drawing near that time of month as well and know it is a rough one. Let me know how I can encourage you!
Crunch, nice to have you! I struggled with the afternoon eating too. Things have been such much better with the accountability.
All is going well. Sticking with exercising and drinking water, etc. I'm usually right at the top of my cal. range, but think that's ok for now. I did have some corn bread I couldn't count exactly today - a teacher brought it back from a field trip to a Spanish restaurant and it was so good. I hope I estimated ok, but I may have under-estimated. Oh well, I tried.
Anyway, I weigh myself tomorrow, so we'll see.
Wow, Kath, this teaching thing never ceases to make me feel like I've been hit by a mack truck by about 3:00 in the afternoon - sounds like you're feeling similarly! But the kids are so rewarding sometimes. do you find that?
Again, hope everyone is doing well. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Emily
FRESH_AIR 1/13/06 5:59 P
Hey Ladies
Welcome Crunchymtnmama! Phew...what a name! Karol, I've been SO the same way...PMSY, so irritable and exhausted. I haven't been logging in my food, but I haven't been too bad either. I've had really bad stomach problems lately so I'm REALLY watching what I eat otherwise I end up having a two hour long torture session of stomach cramps. So ya, not so bad, but I'm having problems finding time to log in my cals and log my exercise in. Emily, how are you doing?
Well ladies, I'm going to go for now, but I hope we all have the time to log in and chat on our thread. I know this week has been a bit crazy and we havent' logged as much. Bye for now ladies! Kath
CRUNCHYMTNMAMA 1/13/06 11:32 A
Hi ladies!
Sticking to the basics is what I am struggling with now. Would you mind if I joined you? I do well until late afternoon then I binge like mad.
NUMBER5 1/13/06 10:04 A
I've been in a terrible mood all week... I'm all PMSy and moody and exhausted and hungry at the same time! Argh. I'm frustrated.
Just stopping by for a quick hello to see how the rest of you are doing cuz I'm not doing so well....
Oh, and Kath, there's a girl who started a thread in the cafe called "Aliens" and it's about trying to diet while she's teaching in South Korea. She's from Canada too, so maybe you could give her a few ideas after your time over there :-)
FRESH_AIR 1/11/06 12:30 A
Hey Ladies!
It feels like a few days since I last checked in...but I've been in a whirlwind so I don't know how many days it has been exactly. Anyway, I've only been home to crash into bed and then wake up at 5am to go work out - hence the lack of logging in. So sorry. Glad to here that you ladies are all doign wonderfully. I hate to be so short, but I need to crash into bed. Hopefully I can log in and chat with you all soon! Karol, way to go on the weight loss, Emily, way to go on the exercise, and welcome MEgan!
Kath
Kath
NUMBER5 1/10/06 8:22 P
Emily - Ketchup, no I don't include that... and I probaly wouldn't include the bite of pasta. But I do include all my veggies cuz I also track my finber intake to make sure I'm getting at least 25g a day and those veggies post it for me!
I went over my range today. Had a sudden urge for chocolate (thank you PMS) so I had a No Pudge Ice Cream bar that sent me over. At least it had 3 grams of fiber in it to help me out! :-)
So exercise today either, but Tuesdays are my rest day. And I had to go grocery shopping. A&P has Lean Cuisine's on sale for 3 for $5, so I bought 9! LOL. My freezer is STUFFED.
Got all my water in and I journaled this morning. Hope everyone has had a great day! Karol
DEMIFLEUR 1/10/06 8:00 P
Hey, Megan - glad to have you! We'd love to know more about you. Way to join an accountability group. I think it is helping us a lot. At least, I know it is an encouragement to me.
Karol - way to lose weight this week! And I'm glad you and Brent found an apartment you really like. I sure hope you get it. Keep us updated.
Today went well - lifted 45min, 60min. cardio (I know, must seem like I don't have anything else to do with my time, but that's one of the reasons I get up so early), drank water (3 cups to go) and stayed within my calorie range...well, maybe pushed it a little bit (do you all put in everything? like ketchup and broccoli and the 3 pieces of pasta I ate to check to see if my husband's dinner was cooked?)
Hope you all are doing well!
Emily
NUMBER5 1/10/06 6:47 P
Hi Megan! Welcome aboard! One more person to help keep us in line. :-) Great job meeting all of your fats break goals today! I think it's great the way SP sets things up so you can work on small easy things first and build momentum from there.
Samira, you seem to have gone missing again! Do we need to send out a search party??
Kath & Emily - hoping you are having FABULOUS days!
MEGAN.K 1/10/06 6:42 P
Hi ladies. I was reading all of your posts and wondering if I could jump in. I realize I'm a bit behind. This is my 3rd day on SP. SO far I'm really liking it. My fast break goals are: journal, get 10min cardio, no soda, and then drink 8 glasses of water. I've met all of them so far. I'm also staying in my cal range. Tracking cals is a new thing for me. I'm still getting use to it. I like the idea of celebrating and concentrating on the little steps. I have a hard time getting motivated to do things. But being held responsible by reporting to someone each day would really help. If its OK I would lke to join your group.
Megan
PS Happy belated birthday Karol !
NUMBER5 1/10/06 1:28 P
We all must be very busy this week! :-)
I managed to stay in my calorie range yesterday 9despite being taken out to lunch by my boss for my birthday) but I didn't make it to the gym. Brent and I went out right after work to see another aprtment. We LOVE it and hope we get it... but it's gonna be tricky cuz we didn't think we'd fall in love with an apt so soon and our current lease isn't up til 3/15!! Were hoping to work somethign out with our landlord so we can leave early. *fingers crossed*
I got all my water in yesterday, which was good... but I think I'm gonna miss the gym again today cuz we have a mountain of laundry to do and NO food in the house. Looks like it's time to take care of these things. Maybe we'll try and get a quick run around town when the clothes ar ein the dryer at the laundromat.
I had my WI today... down 1.8 lbs!! :-) Yay! I had been looking at a 3 lb weightloss all week until my indulgent birthday dinner... but it's ok. As long as I'm losing!!
have a good one ladies! Karol
FRESH_AIR 1/9/06 9:36 A
Busy, Busy, Busy. Sometimes it feels like life is like this. I'm finding it hard to track cals when I'm gone all day from home and when I get home, I'm about to fall face first into my bed. Emily, I know what it's like to be involved in church all weekend too! I did that for a while and it's SO rewarding...but I needed to take a little burn-out break from running those things this year.
Karol, isn't amazing how we feel when we eat right and exercise? It's a wonder that we go overboard and eat too much. I mean really, although it tastes good going down, who likes to have a bloated stomach and feel awful? Nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels! I'm going to try to remember that going to school today. Bye for now ladies!
Kath
DEMIFLEUR 1/9/06 6:05 A
Thanks, Karol!
NUMBER5 1/8/06 8:34 P
Your last post made it! I've never had "disappearing posts" but I have stopped getting email updates occiasionaly. Wierd! I think SP is having a lot of technical difficulties with all the new memebers now that SP is free!
DEMIFLEUR 1/8/06 7:50 P
Hey, girls!
Sorry about not getting on here. Everything has been going well - just so busy!
Wow, Karol, I'm so glad your birthday has been so much fun! What a blast. I'm thrilled you feel special. Happy Birthday!
I am exhausted! We taught all week (well, three days, anyway), lead children's church this morning, and co-lead jr. high youth group at our church tonight. I'm rethinking this whole having a baby idea.... Hahaha, just kidding. But it's a crazy life.
I've been staying in my calorie range, exercising, and drinking water. Think I missed my water goal by 2 glasses last night, but doing well otherwise. I'm sticking to the new challenging lifting plan Matt made for me and am really noticing some differences. That has been encouraging.
Samira, are you ok?
Thanks for sticking with this, girls. It's going to be a good week.
Hey, I'm a little worried that maybe some of my posts don't actually make it up - could someone respond specifically to this one so I know it made it? Thanks so much!
Take care, ladies,
Emily
NUMBER5 1/8/06 3:59 P
Hi everyone! Sorry I've been MIA. Too busy celebrating, I guess!
My birthday dinner date in Manhattan was WONDERFUL. We went to a fancy french restaurant in the Ritz Carlton, the food was SO GOOD, and we shared a bottle of champagne and ate too many desserts. But it was all so worth it. Afterwards, we took a horse carriage ride around Central Park.. it was all so incredible and romantic.
So today I'm trying to make up for my bad diet behavior yesterday. I just got back from the gym... ran intervals for 40 minutes and burned a whopping 460 calories! I just tracked the food I've eaten so far today and it comes out to ~465 calories, so I'm just about breaking even so far! We have dinner plans with friends, so I'll be up into my cal range in no time. But I plan on a BIG salad with some lean protein for dinner and good old H2O! I've already drank all my waters for today, but I'm a little dehydrated do the alcohol last nite, so I've gotta drink extra.
Whew! I'm having a wonderful birthday today. I LOVE how good I feel when I have a good workout in. I wish there was some way to always remember this feeling, so I can use it to get me to the gym on days I'm feeling lazy!
Hope everyone is doing well! Take care! Karol
FRESH_AIR 1/8/06 1:20 P
Ladies....are you out there? Haven't heard from you two in a while. Karol, how was your birthday? Emily, how was your weekend? My weekend was not so hot with food, but I'm heading to go workout now. Hope you ladies are all relaxed and ready to go for another week!
Kath
FRESH_AIR 1/6/06 5:45 P
Karol, that's great to hear that it's nothing life-threatening. It's so scary when our parents and in-laws start getting sick. I know I can see my parents age rapidly...just in the last couple of years.
Ah Emily...the fatigue has caught up. Suprisingly, I'm doing REALLY well considering I worked out this morning. It's now almost 3:00pm in Vancouver (school was just let out) and I have lots of energy for prep work. Wow....of course, I am looking forward to an encounter with my bed later on tonight.
Kay ladies, I'm doing okay for food and exercise today. Have a good Friday night!
Kath
NUMBER5 1/6/06 4:42 P
Thanks for your prayers, ladies! They worked! I got a call from Brent this afternoon saying, while they still don't know the cause for my MILs chest pains, it is definately NOT anything life threatening. She has a few more tests this afternoon to try and determine a cause, but she'll be gonig home tonite! God is good!
DEMIFLEUR 1/6/06 4:02 P
Hey all,
Funny. I posted last night and it didn't work, I guess. I didn't see my post when I went and read your alls just now. Oh well.
Yesterday was a good day - stayed within calorie range, worked out, drank water, etc.
Kath, I totally feel for you with the fatigue issue. I can hardly keep my eyes open by the end of a school day. Today they felt so heavy they just ached. It's hard to do everything. And way to work out this morning!!!
Karol - I'm so sorry to hear about your MIL. I will be praying for her. Let us know when you hear something.
Okay, gotta lift this evening and drink water (I'm behind in that at this point). Worked out this morning.
Talk to you all later!
Emily
FRESH_AIR 1/6/06 3:33 P
Hey Ladies,
Karol, keep us up to date with you MIN. I pray that the doctors will be able to find out what is wrong and treat it ASAP.
Ladies, it sounds like we are all getting a little tuckered out at the end of this week! Who would have thought that a 4 day week would be so hard? Anyway, Emily, I was inspired by you and I went to work out at 5am this morning. So far I'm doing good in the fatigue-factor, but I still have to prep after school today, then do errands, and then go out with a friend!! It has been REALLY tough dealing with fatigue, fitting in workouts as well as fitting in everything else that goes on in life. Even though I messed up on a day, I've done better this week than the past few weeks. Keep on going. Emily, haven't heard from you in a while...how are you?
I'm posting this during our lunch hour so I've got to jet and mark those spelling tests!
Bye for now, Kath
NUMBER5 1/6/06 9:44 A
Whew! Sorry I didn't check in yesterday. I did well, but went over my calorie range slightly again. I ended the day at ~1,600 which isn't so bad... I didn't get a chance to check in last nite cuz we got a call and my MIL has been admitted to the hospital with chest pains. They aren't sure yet what it causing it... we should know more by this afternoon, but needless to say ti was a stressful nite. Please say a few extra prayers for my MIL today! Thanks :-)
I had 10 glasses of water yesterday and an hour of yoga. I did NO journaling though, so I didn't meet all my fast break goals. OH WELL. Today is a new day!
Only 2 more days til my birthday! :-)
FRESH_AIR 1/5/06 9:45 A
Hey Ladies,
Good to hear from you all. Emily, I support some of my friends who work for Campus Crusade here in Canada. It's a great organization! Cool to hear your experience with them in the past.
Well, I decided not to exercise yesterday because I was exausted. Went to bed at 9 and slept till 6. Emily, I can't believe you workout so early in the morning. Good for you! Today I'm going to exercise before I come home. My cals weren't that great....1900, but hey, better than it was before I started this. Still, I know I need work. A little down, but I'm not too far off track. I think I'm just adjusting to the work/exercise/eat/sleep routine after having Christmas off! Hope you all have a great day. Bye for now! Karol, good for you for keeping up with your fast break goals. Whooo!
