Oops

Okay, so yesterday I said that I earned a total of 36 points for the week. What I really meant was that I earned a total of 66 points for the week. That's what happens when I post when I am tired. Thanks Denise!

Glad this week is over

It's been a rough week and I did not do as well as I would have liked. I only got 48 points this week. They were doing lay offs at my husband's job, and I had my first kid birthday party. My oldest turned 5, and we had a friend party. Needless to say in order to seem overly confident for my husband I pushed all my stress and anxiety over to party preparations, and eating cake and ice cream. He finally found out today that he still has a job. Surprisingly, I did lose one pound (I tend only to eat bad stuff when I am stressed, and not much other food). I am back on track today, and hopefully I can keep it that way all week.

Points for this week=34+1+1 for a total of 36. Total so far = 206. I did really good at everything but exercising. I am really struggling with this one. Just not motivated for this. I am too tired in the morning, my kids won't let me in the day, and I just want to be lazy at night. I still lost 1 lb though so at least it's progress.

Jen P

My points total for this week =64 for a total of 194 (I think) I have been eating and moving!! My weigh in was good 224.4 so 2.2 loss. I have been eating a vegetarian/vegan diet and avoiding my danger foods ( sweet stuff ) I feel great and have tried new veggie recipes. plus stuck to raw foods as much as possible.

Week 3 points

I did well this week with 65 points (63 +1 +1). So why in the world did I gain three pounds? I'm going to attribute that one to little baby Austin, because I definitely feel and look more pregnant than I did two weeks ago. However, I will continue to try to workout, because I notice that the more I feel pregnant the harder it is to exercise. I exercised only three days, and I felt much better on those days knowing I accomplished something -- even if it wasn't as rigorous as my normal exercise. I also had treats two days, but I made sure to keep that in check. Even if I lose the point I figure I should keep the calories down. My friend checked out some pregnancy DVDs from the library for me, and that's giving me a kick to do some exercising while making fun of the women on the tapes. I've got a few more to make fun of while exercising, so hopefully that'll help me get a few more points this week. We've had two stress reliefs in the past few days, too (insurance and refinance), so hopefully that'll curb a few more of my treat urges ....

week 3!

Wow I did much better this week! 65 points! I excersized a lot more and ate better. We even had a birthday party and I had no cake! It is amazing how strong I feel when I can say no to sugar. I am having definate trouble at night. I want to snack and get hungry before bed, any sugestions? I have now lost 5 pounds and feeling better in my jeans! Woho.

I am so pathetic. I got on the scales and only had a loss of 4/10th of a lb. So I exercised and got on again and this time it was a 1 lb loss. I wasn't going to end the week seeing only 4/10th so now I can count a whole lb. I am at the point where the treats don't really bother me, it is the chewing addiction I really need to overcome. I love to chew, gum, carrots and popcorn are filling in the gaps right now however, I really need to recognize that weakness and address it. Since I already took a multi and calcium each day and I don't drink carbonation I am planning on introducing a more challenging point for those each day. One is going to address emotions behind the eating. What are the circumstances that lie behind the need to eat or fulfill a craving at that moment and the other is going to be personal scripture time, I find that I am only getting by with the minimum and not putting forth an effort to improve my spiritual self. My running totals are Wk 1 73 pts + wk 2 67 pts + wk 3 65 pts + 205. Starting weight was 217.6 today 210.6 7 lb total loss. My affirmation for the week is : Food is but a memory, a sample introduces a want for more and Satan leads us by a flaxen cord or a licorice rope. :) I admit I have had a clearer mind and felt stronger these past few weeks than I have felt in a long time. Have a wonderful and prosperous week ladies!
Brandi

Monday Update

Jan 25 (Elliot is 4 today!): 61 + 2 last week's bonus = 63 Combined total: 202
Not my best week, but I shouldn't complain considering my son got sick so I couldn't take him to the childcare at the Y and hence I didn't swim as much as I'd planned. Oh, and then there was the night we went out for his birthday (and I overate) and then stayed up late decorating his cake and snitching the frosting (after 8 of course) and forgot my vitamin--so at least it was all pretty much on one bad day. And I really can't complain because I lost three pounds despite it. So, life is good. I'm very happy with this challenge and can't figure out how come it took this to motivate me and I've been unsuccessfully trying to remotivate for 2 years now. Oh well, I suppose I shouldn't ask too many questions, just be happy with what is working. I'm already starting to feel the weight loss in my clothes. If you count the initial water-weight I lost (which makes me feel better of course), I'm down a total of 12 pounds to 276!!! Yay! I hope you do another challenge after this, because regardless, I'll have a lot left to lose come April.

Jen

I did really good this week. I got 68 points, plus 1 for weight loss, and 5 for the money, for a total of 74. I have no problem drinking the 64 ozs of water but I am constantly in the bathroom. Please tell me this will get better because I can't stand it much longer.

jen p

66 points... i didn't do so well this week but i did pay my $ so I got the 5 bonus points!!! I lost 1.2 lbs so I'm at 226.4... my weak spots were treats and exercise. I didn't journal for 2 of my 7 days because I binged on 2 days and I don't like to write that down because then I have to keep looking at the bad food I ate. I feel good and feel confident that I am walking in the right direction. Jen P

Doing better

Last week I thought I did pretty good, and then I saw how many points everyone else got. I have to tell you I got a little down, but then I got energized. I really like to win things, so I kicked it up a few notches this week, and I got 61 points. With last week and my bonus for money I am at 122 points. I actually added some veggies, and I exercised 4 days this week. My big thing was that I only had a treat 3 days. Surprisingly, if I am constantly trying to drink water and eat carrot sticks every time I walk into the kitchen I do not have much of a chance to much on sweets. I also put a lid on my chocolate covered almonds, and stuck them in the back of my food closet so that they are more difficult to get into. This way have have to really work for them. I was supper proud of my self this morning, I did a mile and a half in 28.14min. My goal is to get back to doing 2 miles in 30 min, but it will take me a little while to get back up to that. I did not lose a pound this week, but I feel good, and I am motivated to keep it up.

Not the best week

Ok I got 48 points this week. The water and excersie are the hardest for me. The weekends are also crappy! With all the girls home there is just no time for me! It's hard to eat right excersie or even drink the right amount of water cause my mind is so full of them and there needs. So Not the best week and no weight lose. But hey I do get 5 bonus points for turning in my money and a point for writing this. So 54 still crappy! Oh well. It's a new week Gym here I come.

Week 2 points

I had a much better week this week! I ended the same as Jen -- 66+1+1+5 = 73 points. I also lost one pound this week. I'm thinking that'll be my last "easy" pound to lose and that I'll have to up the intensity of my exercise a little bit to lose any more this week. I felt I did really well in exercising five days this week. That's huge for me!

One day I popped in a cookie without even thinking about it. Then half-way through I realized I just lost a point. How dumb with the non-thinking eating! (Of course, then I had to have a second to make the point worth it.) Then on Thursday I went to the store and they had Dreyers Girl Scout Samoas ice-cream on sale for $2. Seriously?!? That yummy ice-cream for that low price? I bought three. But the good news is that I've only had one small bowl one day since then, and I made sure to eat it before 8 p.m. (Not only good for this challenge, but better for my blood sugar.) I figure if I can have the willpower to not eat that every day, then I am maybe stronger than I thought. :)

Last night for dinner we tried Jen's suggestion for green beans. They were delicious. Thanks, Jen. I've never been a green beans fan, but I've always had canned. These were SO MUCH better! And I was surprised to find fresh green beans still at the supermarket. (I probably paid more with it being the middle of winter, but how would I know since I've never bought them before? :)

Anyway, I better get off and exercise to get my point today. Good luck to you all this week!

Week two comes to a close. Each January my DH and I set a goal to go the month without treats. This means sugar mostly because we really don't drink carbonation or eat fast food a lot. The first week was really hard esp after all the holiday cravings, however this week was easier. My weakness right now is salt. I fulfill my cravings with popcorn. It is basically fat free and I spray on the zero cal I can't believe it's not butter, however I really like the salt on it. It needs to be my next cut out. I am liking the exercise when I do it, but I really don't like the build up to do it. Like now, I have been dressed to exercise for over an hour and I have done laundry, cleaned a room and now playing on the net. Oh Brandi, just do it. I ended the week with losing 6lbs. I will take that. Points for the week were 67. That includes Monday blog and weight loss. I missed a few exercise days, went to the movie, ate popcorn, serious calories so I counted that as a treat and had a day of not eating all my fruits and veggies. My goal was not to lose more than 5 points a week, so far Ok. Hope all had a good and successful week. Brandi

Wall of Shame

As promised, and just so you all can feel better about yourselves--here are a couple of pictures my mother-in-law took this summer (thanks much Merilee). I could have sworn I deleted these. If this isn't motivating I don't know what is. It'll be nice to have these on this blog where I can refer to them when I need to.

First, here is a lovely picture of my backside (Elliot's in this one too, per your request Denise).



And here is me at the lake in my swimsuit. It's nice to know this is what I look like when in my water-aerobics class. (Ethan and Elliot are both in this one Denise--Ethan's wearing the snorkel, Elliot's on the raft).




And here's two years ago when I was down nearly 30 pounds--not great, but much better than today--it'd be nice to be close to this again when this contest is over. ARRGGG!!! How much does it suck to loose the same weight multiple times?


That's really all for me--but that's more than enough, really.

Weekly Update - Jen H.

Week 2 Points: 66 (+1 wk 1 posting + 1 wk 1 weight loss + 5 for $$) = 73 wk 2 (running total 66 wk1 + 73 wk2 = 139)

This week was a good week. I made it to the pool 4 times--the two cross-training water aerobics classes were fairly intense, but now I'm noticing my lap sessions aren't pushing me as hard as they used to, so I need to up my pace and duration a bit I think. I also need to fill in the other days with my Bellydance & Bollywood dance tapes, but I just haven't been in the mood. I've decided to try and only weigh myself on Mondays as frequent weigh-ins just cause me stress and affect the way I eat and exercise. I resisted until the weekend and weighed in and found I'd only lost a half pound and started ranting and raving about how my husband can decide to exercise twice in a week, continue eating candy and cookies all evening every evening and lose 10 pounds in two weeks, while I work my butt off, eat no treats, eat nothing after 8pm and I eek out a mere half a pound! This morning I weighed in 2 pounds down, so I shouldn't complain too much I suppose. I'M BELOW 280!!!! At 279.5, I'm having myself a mini-celebration. It's been a few months I've been in the 80s and not very happy about it. That's progress!

Okay, so on the food front. We've gone back to the dining hall and I've done pretty good. I still take and eat too much, but I'm getting better at not taking seconds. I need to make smaller salads and avoid even firsts of some of the things they offer. I'm notorious for overeating good foods. Like I said, I don't eat a lot of junk, I just eat a lot. In that awesome book I recommended (Intuitive Eating--let me know if you're interested and I'll post a link or the author, you can get it on Amazon pretty cheap), in order to help you get back in touch with your bodies signals, they recommend having you rate your hunger on a scale of one to ten (zero being passed out from hunger, 10 being so full you're vomitting and 5 being just right). So when I was working with a dietician, in my food journal, for each meal or snack, I would write in a number to rate my hunger before and after a meal. I just note something like 3 - 6 next to each entry. You want to keep your hunger levels in the mid-range so you don't get so ravenous you end up binging and you don't eat so much you're sick and can't recognize any other signals. You want to eat when you're at a 3 or 4 and stop when you're at a 5 or 6. I've just started rating my food log again so that I can start to better respond to my body's cues (and quit overeating for Pete's sake!)

I'm thinking of tailoring my points to better challenge me and work on my particular weaknesses. So, since I just don't drink soda pop, I'm thinking that, for me, I'll add a requirement to that point. If I want that point, I need to not only not drink soda pop during the day, but I need to not make myself over-full. I think I'll start by saying if I ever rate my satiety level above a 7, I lose that point for the day (or if I happen to drink pop). I know, too much information, just do it already Jen. But I've been thinking about doing this myself, but if I try and do it and don't post it here, then I can cop out and no one will know. This way, I'm committed.

That's all from me.

EAT YOUR VEGGIES!!!

Since I keep hearing everyone lament about veggies, I'm going to volunteer some veggie tips. No, it won't magically make y'all love veggies, but might give you some ideas and some ways to make your veggies more palatable while you're readjusting your tastebuds . . .

1) Dip--everything's better with dip right? So, take some plain yogurt, mix it with cottage cheese and add a packet of ranch dressing mix (just the powder that you normally mix with some ridiculous amount of mayo or sour cream). Dip in! Yum--lowfat, protein, and veggies.

2) Toss the canned vegetables. They are not only packed with salt, they are also mushy and flavorless. Invest instead in high quality frozen vegetables. I buy the enormous bag of broccoli florets and whole green beans at Costco. The broccoli is great because it's just the florets instead of the pieces/parts that my kids won't eat. They are very fresh-frozen and inside the big bag are smaller sealed bags for continued freshness. The beans are fantastic. My kids are green bean snobs--they won't eat canned or even frozen cut beans. They like the whole, long ones--just like they come from the garden. And the Costco ones are also very freshly frozen, so it's like they are fresh picked. My kids like to dip them in soy sauce or ranch like french fries (or the veggie dip above.)

3) To cook fresh or frozen veggies, the most important thing to remember is DO NOT OVERCOOK. I truly believe the reason why so many of our generation don't like vegetables is because we grew up in a generation of mothers that cooked our vegetables to a lifeless pulp. DON'T pass soggy vegetable hatred on to your children! Teach them to love veggies because you do! Okay, take the fresh or frozen veggies, put them in a pan or microwave safe dish (for frozen--steaming fresh vegetables in the microwave is trickier). Put a small amount of water in the bottom of a pan (better yet, use a steam basket if you have one). Dash a little salt over the veggies and a splash of olive oil, cover and heat. Microwaving frozen veggies takes 2-4 minutes depending on how many you do (stop and stir every couple of minutes to be sure not to overcook), fresh take longer. They are done when they are Bright Green and still crisp. Remove immediately from heat and drain the water. The salt and oil flavor cook into the veggies this way and you need much less of them to bring out the flavor--you shouldn't even need to put salt or butter on your table.

4) Special options. My kids favorite green beans--chop some garlic, toss in a frying pan with a little olive oil. When they are just barely starting to brown, toss in a bunch of whole green beans (fresh or frozen), stir the beans a little bit to fry just a bit. Add a very small amount of water, turn down heat and cover with a lid, let the beans steam for a couple of minutes until they are bright green. Turn off the heat and splash with soy sauce (I like using medium sweet soy sauce available at Asian food stores--it's like a slightly thick soy syrup, go easy on it, but it's a nice touch--good for kid's bean dipping too). Serve hot.

5) Veggies like beans and broccoli that are hard to digest or tough to eat raw can be steamed as in #3 above, then plunged in cold water to stop the cooking and chill, then kept on hand to dip in ranch dip (#1 above). Chop a bunch of dipping veggies early in the week, keep them in a big ziploc and you have veggies available all week. Try sweet bell peppers, cucumber slices, pea pods, blanched beans, raw or blanched broccoli and of course carrots and celery.

6) Salad. Toss the iceberg. Buy a good romaine, red or green leaf, or even baby spinach--or better yet, all of the above. Or try a bag of mixed greens. Now, try this--indulge me and try it, even if you think it sounds awful. Take the greens (washed and dried of course) and toss with a little olive oil and sprinkled with some salt--nothing else. Toss it well, so that the leaves all get a bit of oil and salt (don't put too much in, just mix well). Now try it--and notice how lettuce actually has a flavor--a nice one at that. Notice how each type of lettuce tastes differently--not just the texture, but the flavor. Next time, try oil, salt and a squeeze of lemon and do the same thing. Only after you've begun to notice and appreciate the flavors of lettuce, try oil an da basalmic vinagar (it's a bit strong and tends to overpower the lettuce if you're not careful). Hopefully this experiment will give you a new appreciation of salad. Then of course you can go back to the good ol' american way of putting everying but the kitchen sink on your salad (like I still do at the salad bar) but you'll hopefully find much less need for a lot of dressing and you'll begin to appreciate the individual vegetable flavors more.

That's it for now, as I think of more veggie tips, I'll post again. That is, if y'all find this helpful. If it's just annoying and you'll never like veggies regardless, tell me and I'll keep my trap shut (unlikely, but I'll try).

Last chance for 5 bonus points ...

Your money has to get in by the end of this week to get the 5 bonus points. As long as it is postmarked by Sunday it will count. So far I have money from:

- Brandi
- Jen H.
- Jennifer P.
- Jennifer B.
- Barb

Let me know if you have any questions. Keep up the healthiness! :)

Hi

Ok I think I finnally figured out how to do this! My name is Melissa Laing and I know Brandi and Denise from Church. I decided to do this because I need to get healthy again and feel better about myself. I am a total junk food junkie. I don't think I ate anything healthy in high school or college and I don't like cooking. I am hoping this will get my cooking more regular meals for my family and to get me off the sugar train. My starting weight is 170 and I am hoping to get that down so I can wear all the awsome clothes in boxes in my shed. I had a really rough first week trying to keep up with everything and detox and just set a better scedual for my life. I lost two pounds that first week but they came right back. I haven't been excersizing and am going to start that this week hoping it will help. Today the 2 pounds are back off. My serious weekness is bread and I just need to cut down. I am trying to figure out the point thing too so bear with me. I am trying to figure out how to keep track of everything. I think I got 56 points for the first week.

Hi, I am Marilee. Denise and I have been friends for over 8 years. I just hope to lose about 30-40lbs. I'm tired of not liking what I see in the mirror and having no energy so I decided it's time to take some action and try to change what I don't like. I earned 66 points for this week. I did really good up until yesterday when my sister in law came over with treats late at night. I gave in and ate way more sugar then I should have. Also, I lost one pound this week. Woohoo only 39 to go!

missed

Opps, I missed 7 points some how, over looked my X's for water or vegies dont know whith.. so 64 points this week!!!!!

Jen P

Hey ladies... well i weighed in at 227.6 lbs today and ended with 57pts. My beautiful friend just asked me to be her maid of honor at her wedding April 23rd 2010.. talk about motivational. My daughter just decided she wants to be vegetarian and so I will support her in that by committing to 30 days of vegetarianism!! 30 days is not long. I missed exercise points and I had a few treats so I missed some points there. My strong spots have been, vitamins, journal, no pop and stress reduction (I love to read)!!!

Week 1 points

So I didn't do as well as hoped, but it's soooo good for me to think about exercising and such again. I ended the week with 59 points. I had a tough time exercising -- probably because I haven't even tried for about 6 weeks now. I was doing really well walking with Gwen up until November when it got cold. When I popped in a tape to do last week I felt good and probably overdid it -- when I stood up after doing crunches I totally cramped up. Not good for a woman who just started her 3rd trimester! So, I'm going to try some of the pregnancy workouts from the library. (Anyone got any favorites?) I gave in to treats a couple of times, and of course one was after 8 p.m. so I got to give up two points for it. Good thing it was worth it! :) And I so wish I loved veggies like Jen! I love fruit (which, yes, is a carb), and with my gestational diabetes I can't eat any before lunch time. So, I had a couple of days of not getting four servings of fruits and veggies. Sigh. But it will motivate me to try to get in more, especially so those kids of mine eat more themselves.

Brandi - I hear you about the stress! The week before the challenge started we had our re-fi fall through, a car repair go from $500 to $1,500 and health insurance stresses -- this all just after buying a new dishwasher ... I gained 4 pounds that week alone, so this week of paying better attention to what I eat has been good -- I lost 1-2 pounds (my scale is old-fashioned, and the lines are too small for me to have noticed if I was 227 or 228 before, but now I'm 226).

I have money from Brandi thus far, but it sounds like Jen sent hers? (I'll e-mail you when I get it, Jen.) The rest of you can send it by the end of this week to get the 5 extra points. I also need to get in my own ...

And if anyone is discouraged that they didn't do as well, just remember that sometimes slow and steady wins the race. :) Last challenge there were two of us who started out really strong, and neither of us ended up winning. Just want to put that out there so nobody gets too discouraged right off. Keep up the good work -- I'm so glad that this has been a week of better awareness -- and some weight loss!

Week One Review

Overall, I was happy with how I did this week. I had a goal to get my water point everyday, and I missed 3. I will shoot for this goal again this week, and I am adding a goal of not having a treat 2 days this week, not just one (I need baby steps in this category). I think treats are more a habit, and I am having a hard time breaking the habit. I did good getting my exercise in 5 days, but I would like to try and do it 6 days. I lost 2lbs, putting me at 211lbs. My total points this week is 49.

I really like having to do this check in on Mondays. I think it will help me to get re-enthused for the coming week. Keep up the hard work everyone.

Intro

I guess I should have read the blog postings before I did mine I have never done any of this blog stuff or any thing like this before. I am Jennifer Brown's sister and she told me about this. I had a baby 6 months ago and have about 10 more pounds of baby weight to lose. I was a little over 300lbs when I had her and now am at 260 so I want to get down to about 15lbs during this challenge. I am 6'2'' and played volleyball in college and coach high school and club teams so it would be nice to be able to play a little with my girls at practices. I am also a massage therapist and I have noticed that the massages are a bit easier when I don't eat so much during the day. I love to drink cokes for energy so that is one thing that I am hopping this will help me with cause it is so bad for you. I only had three this week so that was good. Well good lick to everyone this week and keep up the good work.
Barb

Monday Post

I started off well at the beginning of the week and then the weekend hit and it was down hill. But I am ready to have another good start and continue through the weekend. I ended up getting 53 points.
Barb

Jen H - Week One

Point total - 66 Points
This has been a great thing for me. The accountability is sooo helpful. I feel great, I feel motivated. I've lost weight (actually, quite a good amount, since I started taking my bp medicine again--love the diuretics, but that evened out after the first day of non-stop peeing). I figure I lost about 5-6 pounds of water due to the diuretic, and 1.5-2.5 beyond that, for a total of 7.5 (that's this week only, I'll enjoy it this once, because it wont happen again--I'll probably lose 1-2 pounds if I keep this up). In the process, I've discovered a few things:

1) Although after seeing a nutritionist for several months a while back, I got pretty good at keeping a food journal, we focused mainly on keeping a good balance between my carbohydrates and proteins. And since I love vegetables (we counted fruits as carbohydrates) and I could essentially eat as many veggies as desired, I didn't focus on counting them. What I've realized this week in shooting for a minimum veggie/fruit requirement, is that I eat fewer than I thought. I mean, I generally get my four a day, sometimes more, I just really had to watch it--some days I barely squeaked in my four. The dining hall re-opens from winter break today, so despite it's drawbacks, the plus is that there is a salad bar at lunch and dinner and getting my veggies should be easier. I still need to work on the fruit thing. I just don't like fruit all that much. I really need to be in the mood. This week I've been forcing myself every now and again when I know I'm kinda short on my 4 a day to pick up an apple or orange. I'll keep working on that.

2) I'm a big water drinker--I rarely drink anything else, so again, I've always just assumed I get at least 8 glasses a day in--actually, I figured I get a lot more. This exercise has proven to me that I usually just barely get 8. Some days in the past I've probably gotten less, as there were a couple of days this week I really had to push to get the 8.

3) Since my days with my nutritionist (and after reading a fantastic book called Intuitive Eating--you should check it out), I've tried to teach myself to listen to my body cues--eat when I'm hungry, stop when I'm full--and avoid rules about time and treats and such. So, I was a bit concerned about the "No eating after 8" and the "No Treats" rule because I do believe that if we restrict ourselves and as such, feel deprived, this builds into an explosion and binge. So, I've tried to go into this challenge with no expectations of 100% points every day. If I'm really hungry after 8, I give myself permission to have a snack, and dock a point. Likewise for a treat. If I really want it, I give myself permission to have it, and dock a point. One point does not a contest lose. And you know what? This week I have had no "treats" and have not felt compelled to snack after 8. Through this I've realized that I'm really not usually hungry at night, I'm just tired and have a habit of eating. Even if I'm mildly hungry, I've found that going to bed mildly hungry I sleep better and wake up happier. Whereas if I eat before bed, I'm uncomfortable trying to go to sleep and I usually wake up starving and cranky. Likewise, I've always claimed to be able to pass up sweets--and this is usually true, unless there are large amounts of chocolate involved. But, just because I can pass it up, doesn't mean I do. I tend to eat it anyway because I believe I shouldn't make myself feel deprived. So, this contest has been great in that it gives me a good reason to pass it up--I'm reserving the right to eat a treat if it's really fantastic and worth that point, not on mindless junk that I would have eaten just because I could. And the best part--I don't feel deprived, at least not yet.

I also got to the pool twice this week--instead of my usual once. And I bought the extra class pass for the month, so to make it worthwhile, I have to do at least four classes--but I can do unlimited. So, I'm excited to have a good excuse to try out the weekday water aerobics. I'm planning on putting my youngest in their childcare and doing the Tue & Thurs am classes, in addition to my usual Wed and Saturday laps. And the other days will get to be filled in with Bollywood and Bellydance. I can't do canned aerobics tapes, but I've been getting into these two dance workouts. My three-year-old loves to do them with me. "Mommy, can we bellydance?" and they're just fun. I'm also sort of craigslisting for a stationary bike. I hate to buy equipment that takes up a lot of space and may go unused, but I'm looking for something I can do when I all I feel like doing is sitting around reading--at least I can pedal and read--and work toward that Triathalon! (some day, right?). Also, I'm hoping to take the kids sledding a couple of times this week. I tried playing in the snow with them once this week, but didn't feel good counting it as I was only out there barely 30 minutes and certainly didn't get my heartrate up for over about 15 of that. Maybe a good hour of sledding and hiking up that hill will count.

That's all for me--Sorry to be so long winded, but this helps me.

Denise did you get my $$, so I can add my bonus points?

Jen

It seems to me that we are all in the same boat. We all love food, really don't enjoy exercise and really hate being fat. I am sure I am not the only one that looks at skinny people and wonders what it feels like to be thin. I also wonder if they really know they are thin or do they think they are fat too? I don't know what thin feels like. I really think I was the only 12 year old that bought size 13 jeans and had to cut about 8 inches off in length to make them fit. You'd think if I hated being fat at 12 I wouldn't be fat at 41, but here I am, I weighed in on Monday morning at 218 lbs, I am 5' 5 That is a 15 lb weight gain since Sept of last year. I had a hard time with several things going on in my life and food became an even greater friend. My goal for this challenge is to get back to where I was in Sept. My ultimate goal is not to be super skinny, but to have energy and feel healthy and be happy, even more is to live a life that is conducive to the spirit. I find when I don't eat healthy, I can't focus clearly and everything suffers, especially my spirituality. I look forward to the relationships and sisterhood we will build through becoming stronger by overcoming our weaknesses. Best wishes to each of you.
Brandi

Jennifer B intro

My name is Jennifer B, and I am Denise’s sister-in-law. I weighed in yesterday at 213lbs, and I am 5’11”. I played basketball in high school, and was generally pretty active. When I left for college instead of gaining the freshman 15, I lost about 20 because I did not like the food they served in the cafeteria, and had no money to buy anything else. Starvation is not the healthiest way to lose weight. I also did not have a vehicle, so I walked all over the small town my university was in. At 19 I looked my absolute best and I was in great shape. I moved to Florida, and met my husband. He started taking me out to eat all the time and the pounds started sticking to me. I still looked pretty good when we got married, but it all went up in pounds from there. I gained 40lbs when I was pregnant with my first, and had only lost 20lbs before getting pregnant again and gaining another 40lbs. I gave birth to 4 children in four years, you do the math, and it comes out to a lot of pounds gained.

My ideal healthy weight is 180lbs, but I will be happy to get down to 190lbs, and just feel better. I want to be active and healthy. My fourth just turned a year old, and I need to get rid of all this baby weight. I am hoping that this challenge will help me stick to my goals, and keep me motivated. Hopefully I will use the prize money to buy some new skinny Capri’s (it is hot here, and I hardly ever wear jeans).

I have chosen to post this picture of myself because it shows the area where I need the most work. I tend to lose weight first in my face, then my waist, but never in my hips or butt.

So Happy!!!

I'm so happy to see all of you join the group. Reading your posts have inspired me today. Hate to admit it but I called and canceled on Denise for our workout this morning, then I read the recent posts by all of you and I am feeling a little bit guilty. It's funny how much alike we can all be. I hate the camera, I haven't even had a family photo for about seven years because I am waiting until I can look good (which = thinner for me). My poor little boy probably will look back someday and think he was adopted because of the lack of family photo's after he was born. I dislike the way I look, but even more I hate what being fat has done to my body. I was once an active go get it kind of girl. I never was what you might call thin but I was comfortable with myself. I hit around 220 in my early twenties then managed to take it off and I was around 165. Then I got married and had the kiddies. I never gained much weight while pregnant, but in between each pregnancy I packed it on. Three kids later I find my self fat as ever. I hit 255 last year. When we first started the blog and I was serious about taking off the weight I was able to lose 30 lbs. Then I stalled and even gained back five of those pounds. Isn't that the story of my life? Lose some gain some more back. Now is the time to stop that cycle. I'm glad to have your support and honesty in doing this. Being fat is the biggest obstacle I face because it has taken so much away from me. First of all it has taken away my ability to have more children. My youngest had to be conceived with fertility treatments, and when we were ready to have another child we tried them again but it didn't work because I had gained to much weight. So I went to a specialist and he suggested that I lose the weight before trying anything more drastic. Well that was over three years ago and I am still too fat to conceive. I think I have never gone any further in what I was willing to try to conceive because I felt that it was my fault for not being able to control my eating habits and not exercising. Plus I do have three wonderful children, shouldn't I be satisfied with that. Being fat makes me questions myself in so many ways. Mostly that I am not deserving of the things I want most and so I have stayed closed up in my house eating my way to even more guilt. Only recently have I broke out of that shell a little bit. I went back to school to pursue my degree in nursing. Even in this adventure I find myself questioning what I am doing. Whenever the issue of weight or nutrition is brought up in my classes( they are brought up a lot ) I feel a sense of shame. How could someone like me be a nurse, a person who is supposed to be a representative of health care? This might sound outrageous but I wonder sometimes if the professor is looking at my directly when these issues are brought up. Maybe my own insecurities with being fat. But I took the leap to go back to school and I have been wonderfully full filled with the experience, and very successful. So now I need to translate that over to my weight loss journey. And although I will probably always have those nagging insecurities, I just need to overcome them and no longer let them direct the path my life takes. Thanks so much for joining and being willing to lay it all out there and be honest. I truly think it is the first step on our journey. I am excited to have someone in my family join, we share the curse so many families do, a love of food. Hopefully with our success we can inspire more of our family members to join. Thanks for letting me ramble on, I tend to do that. Today I weigh 230 lbs. I will try to post a picture, I have loved seeing yours.
P.S. Jennifer P. I would be interested in your over eaters group, call me with the details.

Me Too, Me Too

You don't need to tell me twice to talk about myself! My name is Jen and I am fat. Scratch that, I am "a person of size" (that's what they call me in the airline regulations that require fat people to buy two seats). I am 36 years old, 5'9" and yesterday I weighed in at a whopping 288 pounds!!! (Do I win something for being the heaviest?!). Although, I think it's really more like 283 since I've been very bad at taking my high blood pressure medication that makes me pee a lot. (I know, overshare). I figure being under 200 is likely a pipe dream, but I'd like to be quite a bit farther away from 300. I did pass the 300 mark with both my pregnancies (pregnant at 275, delivered at 305) and it wasn't pretty.

I have been overweight since . . . hmm, well since forever. I crossed that 200 lb line when I was 14 years old ladies, and have not looked back since. My lowest adult weight was about 220 in college, I weighed 255 when I got married. I am active, I rarely drink pop and can usually pass up sweets. My downfall--basic overeating. I LOVE FOOD! I just plain eat too much of anything, healthy or otherwise. Oh, and I like fat too. Onion rings vs. dessert = onion rings hands down. And although I don't like being fat, I like myself and I love my life (most days). That combined with having no idea what it feels like to be thin means that I'm generally just not that motivated to do what I know I need to do. So, maybe y'all can help me because it's starting to catch up with my health in my blood pressure and knees.

Okay, so the rest of my life in a nutshell. I have two boys (3 and 6) and my husband is a camp director here in Michigan. We live on site and have acres and acres of trails and lakes and pasture and forest--you'd think I'd be all thin from romping around camp--but you've never visited the dining hall, where it's all you can eat every day. As food and housing is part of my husband's benefits package, I'm reluctant to stop going there--no shopping, cooking, cleaning or dishes is REALLY hard to pass up. So, I'm hoping that having some accountability here will help me stick wise dining hall choices--othewise I'm going to have to start shopping and cooking again. I saw a nutritionist once for a few months and lost 30 pounds, then I moved to camp and gained it back. I'm sure I can do this again. I digress, where was I? Oh, I work part time from home. I love to read, write, play the violin and swim (hard to convince myself to do when it's 7 degrees and snowing out, but I'm getting better). I have another blog where I like to write, so I'll stop blabbing on here--you can read my babbling there: http://www.image-jen.blogspot.com/ I avoid the camera as well and destroy all really bad shots, but if I find one, I'll post a pic too. Later.

Jennifer p

I'm Jennifer. 5'5", 231lbs, 33 yrs old. I have 2 children and I have a blog that I have never let anyone see, it has bad pics and is honest. I am a food addict and it really messes with me and how I want my life to be!! I will let you all into my dark world that is full of hope as far as the future goes. www.jenniferloosesit.blogspot.com. I share this with you so I can heal and move beyond the dark place I have inside me, for food. I joined yall because support groups and people I can be open with, really help me progress and reach my goals. I am very excited!!!

An intro to me ...

I loved that Christy put an introduction to herself. I know many of the people involved with this challenge, but I will put an intro anyway ...

I think Gwen (who started this blog) has known me the longest, and she can tell you that I've never been a skinny minny. In fact, I've never been thin. I was horrible about skipping lunch starting in middle school (is that where we met, Gwen?) so I could pocket the money for Teen Beat. I know, so worth it, right? :) Then I'd come home and eat whatever was handy (ie not healthy). This all added up to chunky teen years and beyond. I'd be the one on the Biggest Loser who tried to eat too little and ended up gaining. Sigh.

I am with Christy in not liking pics of myself. This is one reason I make sure I'm often the one with the camera. The funny thing is, though, that as I gain more weight I look back at old pictures and realize I didn't look THAT bad back then.

I'll post one here anyway -- I have make-up on so it's not as bad as others, but don't you just LOVE the rolls you can see? Without any chest to support that big stomach I constantly look pregnant. (Of course, now I am, but how can you tell since I look exactly the same?! :)


Good luck to us all in feeling better about ourselves by the end of this challenge. I am happy to have friends involved from so many aspects of my life (high school, mission, Seattle single days, Seattle married days, current Utah ward, and the only other woman in the world who can understand my MIL issues. :)

This post was an accident  I was posting to my doggie blog. However, now that I am here and cannot figure out the delete option maybe I'll make this an introduction instead. Hi! I am a friend of Denise. I am 37 years old and I have two children. I am 5.1 and weigh 180 pounds. I never had weight issues as a child but gained quite a bit after my second child was born. A lot of it had to do with depression. My mom bakes constantly and sweets are always on hand at her house. I'm mostly a stress and boredom eater though. When it gets frustrating around the house I grab a snack. I'm not a big meal eater and I don't eat pork or beef. I could cut down on calories in my meals but most of my excessive calories comes from sweets. I have a killer sweet tooth. I never was into soda but about a year ago I started with the soda. I am drinking diet coke right now but I don't think that is much better for us. Artificial sweetners I'm a little afraid of. I need to get out and exercise more. I do walk the dogs twice a day every day so I'm getting a bit of excercise. My walks are slow paced because my dogs have short little legs. So that is it. I'm glad to receive any advice and my feelings don't get hurt too easily (at least with weight issues).  Part of my motivation is not just weight but I want to take nice pictures. Presently I go into a panic if anyone whips out a camera. Vanity, vanity, I know. I'm tired of hiding behind the camera instead of getting in front of it.  My name is Christy btw. I know my  name pops up with my doggie blog title. Nice to meet you guys!

This picture really upset me. I'm completely down about how big I look here. Looking at this I can't be in denial any longer.

A few more details ...

So here's who I have signed up for the challenge to date:
- Denise
- Brandi
- Melissa
- Jennifer B.
- Jennifer P.
- Gwen
- Marilee
- Christy

Okay, here are a few more details about how this works:

- Scores are kept from Monday through Sunday. Every Monday (starting next week) you will report the number of points you have earned by doing a post on this blog. (You should have all received invites to be authors for the blog. Let me know if this isn't the case and we'll figure it out.)
- You get one extra point for posting on the blog every Monday.
- You get one extra point if you lost any weight (not a point per pound, but a point total for any weight loss.)
- These extra points should be added to the next week's score. (It doesn't really matter too much which week you add it to, as long as you only add it once. :)
- Treats are going to be personally defined. You all know what you consider treats.
- You're all on your honor -- it's the only way this challenge can work.
- Don't forget to send me your money in by the end of week 4 so you're eligible for the pot. (And if you get it in by the end of week 2 you get 5 bonus points.)
- You are responsible to keep track of your own points throughout the challenge. This is why posting on the blog is a good idea -- then at the end you can just go back to your posts and add up the total.
- Total points must be posted by March 31, 2010 so that the winner can be announced by April 1, 2010. (Keep in mind I'm due April 1, so if there is a slight delay it doesn't mean the money isn't going to the winner ... it just means it's still sitting in an envelope while I'm a little busy in the hospital or something. :)

GOOD LUCK!!! I'm happy to have you all aboard. I need the accountability to eat healthier and to exercise more. I better go get started. :)

Hi

HI I am here!