Ok, if you have a Jamba Juice near you, they now have a line of lighter smothies. And oh, man, are they good. Well, at least one is, I haven’t tried the others. The “Berry Fulfilling” is only 160 calories for the 16 ounce, and it’s quite filling. Not an everyday kind of thing, but if you want somethign that feels like cheating but won’t do any damage, it’s so worth the $3.25…

I typed out this post the other day and lost it. LOL So let’s try again.

I was just wondering which is better. Do you count calories, carbs, fat, points or what? I have been trying to keep track of my calories but then a few people have said that it’s the carbs you need to watch. I know you need to keep an eye on all of them but which is best to watch?

How do you all manage your portions? I do great for breakfast because I eat instant oatmeal usually or cereal and fruit. I’ve been doing good on lunch too because I’m usually eating a sandwich and those 100 calorie pack Cheese Nips or soup. But dinner kills me. I’m thinking about buying one of those Seal A Meal things and then warming them up during the week. What do you guys do?

The last thing I was wondering is how many of you are doing some kind of plan or group thing, such as Weight Watchers? Would you recommend getting involved in something like that or trying to manage on your own? I don’t know much about Weight Watchers but it seems kindof expensive. I looked into doing the online one because I can’t meet at the time my local one meets.

And as for me, well I’ve drank over 2 liters of water today and starting adding in exercise! I have tons of exercise tapes and a tredmill. Today I did a Walk Away the Pounds tape and enjoyed it. Do yall have any personal favorites?

Leanne’s Log (beginning weight from 12/27/05, when I started really logging everything again)
Begin P2G	Current P2G	Total (+/-) lbs/inches
46.5 lbs.	32.0 lbs.	-14.5 lbs.

32 Pounds2Go!!! (hey, I’m losing an average of .54 .46 lb. a day!)

*Note* I just updated my member page (it’s about time), read it & see before/after pics of me here!

My last progress update was on Day 19. In a little over a week I’ve lost one more pound, so it’s slowly but surely leaving my hips. YAY! I had more slip-ups this week than since I started, which means I have to spice things up for myself because I’m getting bored. I’ve learned a lot more though, I finally sat and read through my 6 Week Body Makeover book that explains my body type and how my metabolism works, what kinds of foods my metabolism doesn’t process well and what my body immediately stores as fat. I’ve had this thing since last summer and never even sat down to read it. That’s how serious I was, huh?

It continues to be a learning experience, to say the very least. I’m starting to feel like I should just take some night courses and get credit for what I’m learning. :slaphappy:

I did my first full circuit training session today at the gym and it took an hour to get through all of the equipment doing 12 reps on each piece. CalorieKing says that 50 minutes burned 552 calories! Leanne says “Ouch! My biceps! OUCH!”, and I know in the long run that building lean muscle will burn more calories when I’m sitting here on my butt in front of my computer desiging stuff. So, lean muscle it is!

I need to go do my abs though – I spoke with the trainer today and she said that I shouldn’t be doing the ab equipment at the gym because of my back. The 8 minute abs on the floor has never caused me lower back pain so she said to stick with that instead.

I was thrilled at the grocery store lastnight – everything I needed was on sale! I love when that happens. 4 oz. portions of salmon – $0.99 each, fast frozen. Low sodium ground turkey – buy one lb. at $1.38 get one free. Red ruby grapefruit – $0.62 each. Sliced deli turkey for salads, 6 oz. for $1. The eggbeaters were on sale, the pre-prepared salad mixes, and whole chickens. I’m a happy girl!!

Okay that’s it for my progress update, I’ll post again when I lose another pound – hoping for less than 8 days this time!

Today I went to the gymn with my friend, but she is having a flare-up so instead of the eliptical, we took 5 or 6 laps (walking) around the outdoor track, since it is easier on her knees.  I slipped twice this week, the first time while attending a bridal show with my engaged friend (I resisted most of the samples, but not all) and the other when we had a going-away party for a friend in the office.  She brought these fabulous Chinese cookies, like green tea cookies, and other exotic flavors, and I HAD to have a few.  But they were more like graham crackers – sweet, but not as bad as a typical American ‘cookie.’

The good news is that I have lost 3lbs this week!  I am very happy about this!  This means I am down 6lbs so far.  Yay!

So far the good ones seem to be offsetting the bad ones..

My bad habit: RATIONALIZATION. When counting calories, I often rationalize away Weight Watchers points like this:

–”That cookie was burnt so, it can’t have been worth all 3 points” (Does burning food reduce it’s caloric content? Maybe!)

–”I just had a bite of fries from the kids’ plate..so I don’t have to count those because they weren’t part of MY dinner.”

–”That tasted icky, so it couldn’t have been 4 points..”

Here’s my Good Habit: DDR

I follow the rule of thumb of: “Break a sweat almost every day”. Lately, I look like this:  :bananadance: I’ve been doing “Dance Dance Revolution” on PSP2. It’s embarassing to admit – but I’m thinking it’s giving me good results. Tomorrow is weigh-in at WW — and so I generally try and get on the scale at home on Thursday or Friday to give myself a “sneak peek” (my scale at home seems to be accurate w/ the WW one). If all goes well, I might have had a 4lb loss this week.  So, I’ll look fruity dancing at home to DDR – whatever! It’s working!

Good Morning Ladies;)  I hope all of you have some fun plans for the weekend and can stay on track.  Thats always the hardest time of the week I think. 

I weighed in at WW’s on Wednesday and my total official weight loss is 10 lbs.  in 3 weeks.  I dont think that is too bad.  I notice that a lot of us seem disappointed when it is only a pound or a 2 lbs. loss at weigh in but the heavier you are, the first week you will have a big loss usually.  Then it tapers off.  I onced voiced this disappointment at a meeting and the leader promptly passed around some 1 and 2 lbs. weights.  That put it all in better perspective and now I realize that any loss equals good and that we are not just losing weight, we are learning to enjoy our food, eat new and healthier things and learn to not only enjoy food but use it to actually do our body good. 

 I have to report something that I learned this week.  After weighing in on Wednesday, I thought cool, I have lost 10 lbs. and now I am going to go have me some good Mexican food with chips and salsa.  I can be “good” for the rest of the week and it will be okay. Well, after stuffing my face with a 2 item entree (cheese enchilada and a carnitas taco, complete with rice and beans, sourcream, chips and salsa, by the time I got home, I was in complete agony.  I felt more bloated than I have ever felt, my side, stomach and abdomen were hard and I felt like I was going to vomit and blow up from the gas and this was very, very painful.  I had to go to bed.  After 3 weeks of eating a healthy, low fat and a very well balanced diet, my body totally rebelled.  This was a wake up call for me.  My insides are still reeling from that.  It is better today but not completely.  If I ever feel like I want to “reward” myself with Mexican food again, I will definitely not have the complete meal.  It will be salad, and a i item entree.  Thats it. I do not want to go through this again.  I like the way I feel from eating food that is good for me w/o all the fat and overeating.  Next time I need a reward it will be something besides food.  Has anyone ever had anything like that happen? 

 Hang in there ladies, you are all doing so good and I am so proud of all of you.  I can totally relate to almost all of you and that is what makes this group so appealing to me.  How about we all post a picture of ourselves  and list what some of our interests are so we can all see who we are talking to.  Do any of you live in the Bay Area?  Have a great weekend everybody!  Now I’m off to read all of your posts for the last couple of days. 

I’ve been pretty blah here, too. I think it’s the THIRTY EIGHT days of solid rain we’ve had. The last time it was sunny and lovely out was back before Christmas Break.  I decided, really, the best way to beat the winter blah is to get moving so I did work out this morning. I’m finding it hard to work out on days I go in to work so I’m changing my plan to be more realisitc.

Also, I need to drink more water and less coffee. I am making low carb muffins today, too. I’ll let y’all know how those turn out.