I had an idea… So I missed posting here yesterday, even though I read y’alls stuff and got all inspired and thought of things I could say, I realized the day passed and I said nothing. Again, today, I almost went to bed without adding any insight until I had a thought. There are so many of us here, and it’s wonderful to have such a big group to watch reach their goals and cheer for you as well, it’s easy to get lost or forget who is who (ok, so I’m new and it’s probably easier for me than others.) But I thought, is it possible for us to pick one or two people, say the person above and below you on the log list, to double check that they’ve posted within the last day or so. If they haven’t, maybe send an encouraging email, “Hey! Hope you’re achieve [fill in their personal goal]. Don’t forget we’re here for you..” or whatever. I just thought that someone might slip through the cracks and stop updating and it’d be nice to have a little note from someone who is watching you reach your goals and wants to see you succeed.

Thoughts? I’m open!

WW.  Thanks for all the comments.  It’s going to be hard this time (the bazillionth time) because I really don’t like the group leader.  It’s WW at work so while I can find a different leader, it won’t be as convenient so I probably wouldn’t join.  Plus about 6 of my close friends joined also, so we are doing it together.

I am going to go to the food store in the morning and get food for work.  Just for the day though, I will do for Friday and next week after work tomorrow.

I hate shopping.

Here’s to healthy eating.

:rofl:

I skipped breakfast, had some Baked Lays chips instead of lunch (we were out, and the sandwich was too horrible to eat–I prefer my roast beef cooked, not mooing at me as I take a bite), came home and scarfed down some chicken & rice soup, then went on a nice walk–with a smoothie in hand. Yep. Healthy.

OTOH, I’ve only had about 600 calories today so far. AND the smoothie was an “instead of cake” kind of thing. I hear the call of the chocolate cake again, but then the word “smoothie” popped into my head so I figured someone up there wanted me to get some fruit.

Um. Yeah. God wanted me to have that smoothie.

I did buy myself a Step thingy today…you know, the plastic thingies to jump on and off while you sweat to music. And I found my gym bag, which has my heart rate monitor in it, and I AM going to start working out again.

The day after tomorrow.

I’d do it tomorrow morning, but I have this pesky abdominal ultrasound scheduled. No, don’t ask me why I can’t workout in the afternoon. Then I’d have to make something up, something that sounds really good, when the truth is I just know better. Unless there’s a pool or karate involved, I just won’t do it later.

I did a good job getting back to work on the program today.  I wrote everything down and as of right now, I have drank almost 60 oz of water plus my 2 cups of coffee.  The water that I am drinking right now is Propel Fitness water and I LOVE it.  It is the grape flavor.   Nummy!  My kids were bargaining with me when I got it from the fridge.  “If I get an A on my next test, can I have one of those?”  “If I clean this or that, can I have one?”  Can’t complain about them wanting WATER!  My kids are great about drinking regular water, too.  I am so glad that they don’t have my hang ups about water.

If anyone wants to meet me in the chat room at 9:00CST tonight, I will be in there.  Hope to see you then!

I HATE chicken. I think it’s one last holdover from my years of vegetarianism, I just can’t get behind the freaky chicken meat.

 Anyway, I made up a recipe today, and it smells pretty good, if you’re interested I’ll give you a blow by blow when we actually eat it.

 I call it Simon and Garfunkel Chicken. I took the whole chicken, and removed the guts (don’t heave, Jen, don’t do it!) and (it gets worse) put them in a bag in the fridge for the kids to look at later with Dad. It’s a tradition we have here, nasty but true.

After I washed it and patted it dry (why?) I rubbed it with a tiny bit of olive oil and put some sea salt, parsley, rosemary and thyme all over and inside it. I didn’t have any Sage, so I asked my daughter Sage if we could use some of her, but she declined. So, it has Parsley, (no)Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, get it? I slay myself.

Still eating on plan! Catch ya later!

A free day every week, or 3 free meal (verses 3 in one day)? I’ve done Body For Life, twice, which is an intensive cardio/weightlifting/eating program for 6 days every week, for 12 weeks. But one day a week, you eat ANYTHING you want. A whole apple pie for breakfast. Go for it. Pizza and wings for dinner. It’s yours. A pitcher of margaritas…fine. And no exercise that day. The theory is that you’re doing so well 6 days a week, that your psyche really benefits as you work and sacrifice, knowing that in just a few days, you can have all that fudge. Or whatever. It helps you stay on plan the other days, and do it longer. You don’t typically just explode one day and eat everything in sight. I’m not working out that hard, by any stretch this time, so this’ll go slower, but it seems like a good idea. Yall?

I was checking out these articles and thought they were worth sharing. You can view all the articles here:

http://www.myfooddiary.com/resources/

This is the one that was so interesting:

Track Body Fat – Not Body Weight Article by Sharon E. Griffin, Ph.D., LN MyFoodDiary.com Contributor

Most people will monitor their body weight when trying to lose weight – makes sense right? Well, not always. When you undertake a nutrition and exercise program to get in shape, what most people are really attempting to do is to “re-shape” their body. This often times is accompanied by an actual loss of body weight, but not always. Although body weight is a common means of tracking progress, it is not the best measurement. Ideally, you actually want to monitor body composition (i.e., the amount of body fat and muscle that you have), not body weight.

If you have been inactive in the past and are starting an exercise program, you may actually see an increase in body weight due to an increase in your muscle mass and body water. This is not a bad thing; this is a very good thing! The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate…translation, the higher your metabolic rate, the more calories your body burns. Contrary to popular belief, the key to long-term weight loss is not necessarily burning a lot of calories by exercising, but exercising to become more fit. Your body can then, in turn, burn more calories all day long and through the night. Fitter bodies utilize more calories than unfit bodies!

The reason why you see an increase in body weight as you gain muscle is that muscle is more dense than fat. Another way to interpret this is that pound for pound, muscle takes up less area or space than fat. For instance, if you replace five pounds of fat with five pounds of muscle, you will look leaner and will have lost inches in your circumference measurements, even though your body weight stays the same.

Even if you see an initial increase in body weight with the start of an exercise program, don’t worry. With proper diet and exercise, your body, with the aid of that increased muscle mass, will eventually burn up any excess fat stores that it harbors.

To track your body fat, there are advanced methods of body composition assessment that are available at hospitals, fitness centers and university exercise science labs. Common methods include skinfolds, underwater weighing, and bioelectrical impedance. But buyers beware – ALL methods have various errors associated with them, most require trained technicians and pre-test guidelines, and some give more accurate results than others. After all, these are indirect methods. The only direct means to assess your body fat with 100% accuracy would involve dissection if you get my drift. Whichever you choose, make sure you understand the limitations of the results that you are given – ask a lot of questions! Competent technicians will be able to guide you in properly interpreting your test results.

Even if you do obtain body composition measurements, few people can resist the urge to step on a scale periodically so it’s important to understand what the scale is actually telling you. The key to correctly interpreting body weight is to understand the limitations imposed by this method. Body weight can fluctuate drastically from day to day and any abrupt weight change is most likely due to changes in body water, either from water retention (pre-menstruation, high sodium intake, etc.) or dehydration (loss of water through perspiration following exercise, diuresis due to an atypical intake of caffeine or alcohol, etc.). Therefore these sudden weight changes are not due to body fat alterations and are no cause for panic or celebration!

Gradual changes in body weight, over weeks and months, are more likely to represent true changes in body composition and are due to actual changes in fat stores and muscle mass. If you do decide to use body weight, combine it with circumference measurements to better track your progress. Another good option is to totally forego the scale and track your progress by how your clothes fit.

Although I highly recommend obtaining baseline measurements and subsequently monitoring them for motivational purposes, they should only be used as a tool. Don’t become a slave to them! Remember, how much you weigh is not as important as what composes a given body weight, and this is not as important as some of the other benefits that you will reap. Tracking body weight and/or body composition is only an indirect means to identify progress in your program, and should not be the ultimate goal of your program.

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