29 Day Weight-Loss Challenge!

[viscousmemories]

I'm going back to Ann Arbor next month and I'm determined to lose some weight before I go. I was seeing a fitness trainer a couple times a week for the past six weeks or so, but because I didn't get my eating in line and I didn't work out on off days, I didn't see any real progress. Moreover, I had to discontinue that because I couldn't afford it anymore. :spend:

So my plan is to "weigh in" :justice: here Monday, November 15th and then each subsequent Monday until December 13th. I'm going to do this regardless of whether anyone else signs on, but a little competition would help! Whether you're already on a weight-loss plan or just thinking of shedding 5-10 lbs. to make way for Christmas cookies, join in!

My strategy will be to make a reduced calorie menu and stick to it 6 days a week, eating whatever I want on the seventh day. :caek: I will also do at least 20 minutes of cardio exercise each day, with weight training interspersed. :biceps:

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Several of my friends swear by the Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred. I'm going to invest in that as soon as I can.

ed. Here's what E says; she dropped over 50 lbs:

Yes. My people. Welcome to The Shred lifestyle. Once you've finished The Shred, I suggest doing 30 Day Slim Down. You'll also need her Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism and No More Trouble Zones. Her Yoga Meltdown is also fantastic. There's a new work out, Ripped in 30 Days in the works, too. I'm not a Jillian Fan Girl...

Here's how to do the 30 Day Slim Down. It's how Jillian says to utilize her videos the best:


DAY 1 - 30 DAY SHRED: LEVEL 1
DAY 2 - 30 DAY SHRED: LEVEL 1
DAY 3 - NO MORE TROUBLE ZONES
DAY 4 - 30 DAY SHRED: LEVEL 1
DAY 5 - BANISH FAT, BOOST METABOLISM
DAY 6 - QUICK TROUBLE ZONES
DAY 7 - OFF!
DAY 8 - 30 DAY SHRED: LEVEL 1
DAY 9 - 30 DAY SHRED: LEVEL 2
DAY 10 - QUICK TROUBLE ZONES

DAY 11 - 30 DAY SHRED: LEVEL 2
DAY 12 - BANISH FAST, BOOST METABOLISM
DAY 13 - NO MORE TROUBLE ZONES
DAY 14 - OFF!
DAY 15 - 30 DAY SHRED: LEVEL 1 & QUICK TROUBLE ZONES
DAY 16 - 30 DAY SHRED: LEVEL 2
DAY 17 - NO MORE TROUBLE ZONES
DAY 18 - 30 DAY SHRED: LEVEL 1 & 2
DAY 19 - NO MORE TROUBLE ZONES
DAY 20 - BANISH FAT, BOOST METABOLISM

DAY 21 - OFF!
DAY 22 - 30 DAY SHRED: LEVEL 2 & 1
DAY 23 - QUICK TROUBLE ZONES
DAY 24 - BANISH FAT, BOOST METABOLISM
DAY 25 - QUICK TROUBLE ZONES & 30 DAY SHRED: LEVEL 2
DAY 26 - OFF!
DAY 27 - NO MORE TROUBLE ZONES & 30 DAY SHRED LEVEL 1
DAY 28 - BANISH FAT, BOOST METABOLISM & QUICK TROUBLE ZONES
DAY 29 - 30 DAY SHRED: LEVEL 2 AND THEN LEVEL 1
DAY 30 - NO MORE TROUBLE ZONES

[Dingfod]

I hope to weigh less by January 1 than I weigh today. That's as close to a goal as I'm going to get, given my lack of long-term success in, well, anything.

[SharonDee]

My friend's employer says she has to quit smoking by March 31st and lose 40 pounds--no idea on that time frame--or be charged $75 more per month on her health insurance.

So in solidarity with her I'm going to try to lose weight, too. Starting tomorrow.

First step: Be more diligent in recording my food and beverage intake using my Android app. Knowing what I'm eating makes it easier to know where to cut back.

Second step: Starting an exercise program of some kind. I'll worry about that later; I still have the exercise-is-boring thing to get past.

[viscousmemories]

That's as close to a goal as I'm going to get, given my lack of long-term success in, well, anything.
You and me both, hence the 29 day challenge. The thought of anything more than that overwhelms me.

[Janet]

I started working out about 14 months ago, just as a mind over body exercise. I also started just listening to my body and eating better with no firm diet in mind. I've lost over 75 pounds since, but I've been plateauing for months. I think part of it is because my body's used to this level of exercise, but also perimenopause is fucking with me.

I started with just 30 minutes a day on the treadmill every day. I found it too hard to not have the flexibility in my schedule of being able to skip a day. Now I do about 45 minutes a day, five days a week. I have two sets of DVDs I use. The Leslie Sansone walk at home program, three different ones with 3 mile walks, is for cardio. The Core Secrets with Gunnar Petersen balance ball with weights for core training, because I'm terrified of having tons of hanging skin on my abdomen. I highly recommend both of these, but the Core Secrets are out of print and you'll need to buy them used or try them out at your library. I checked them out from the library and liked them so much I had to own them. The Sansone ones my Mom lent me and then bought me because I liked it.

[viscousmemories]

Damn, not one taker for the 29-day Weight Loss Challenge? I thought I'd get at least one.

[Ensign Steve]

Oh, wait, what? Yeah, I'm always in, I just hadn't said anything because the start date hadn't started yet. I'll post my weigh-in tomorrow.

[viscousmemories]

Sweet! :pbjnana:

[roastelk]

29 day weight loss challenge? Trying to loose wight as fast as you can simply isn't healthy, slow and steady wins the race in this case. Any more than 5lbs a month and its too much. aim for 1-2 lbs a month, keep this up for couple years and you'll be fit as an athlete

When I start exercising after getting significantly out of shape (i've done this several times now) I always gain weight for the first few months (usualy 5-7) lbs before I start losing anything. the weight gain is most likely from increased muscle mass,


just a little side note, exercise combined with a low calorie diet is a very bad thing. This can cause you to use up your muscle glycogen stores (energy). glycogen holds water, and takes water to be used. a person can easily drop 7lbs of water in days by depleting there glycogen stores.. a lot people mistakenly think "woohoo i just lost 7 lbs"

this is bad because when your muscle glycogen stores are depleted, you start using more protein as an energy source ( ie muscle). so instead of burning carbohydrate or fat now your burning muscle. the more muscle you loose the more glycogen you loose, thus you loose even more weight. given time a person can loose over 30lbs like this.
as you continue to loose muscle, you make yourself weaker and decrease your metabolism, as a result it becomes harder to loose weight.

this is just really basic knowledge that seams to allude most people, some people are even hostile to it. My sister in law called me an asshole for telling to her eat more food to loose weight. She seems to think I'm trying sabotage her efforts or something. :rolleyes:

[SharonDee]

Wait, you wanted us to post our starting weight here? Ha! Not gonna happen.

But yeah, I'm in.

roastelk, I know all the conventional wisdom. It's the doing that is difficult. I see this exercise as a jump-start to really doing something about my state of affairs.

After all, my only "start" is keeping a food diary.

[Ensign Steve]

Keeping a food diary is a really great start, Sharon! :cheer: I know mine is my most important tool in this effort.

I have a Weight Watchers meeting this evening, so I'll post my weight after that.

[viscousmemories]

this is just really basic knowledge that seams to allude most people, some people are even hostile to it.
I'm a bit hostile to it, but mostly because (like much health/nutrition advice) it's grossly oversimplified, presumptuous and therefore probably wrong and/or irrelevant. If you actually read and responded to what I posted instead of using it as a launchpad for regurgitating your beliefs, you'd realize that a "reduced calorie diet" and "20 minutes of cardio exercise each day, with weight training interspersed" is perfectly consistent with what you're saying. For me, a "reduced calorie diet" means about 1800-2000 calories a day. The idea that an 1800-2000 calorie diet combined with 20 minutes of cardio and some dumbell exercises is going to start liquidating my muscle mass is ridiculous.

Like most people over 25 years old, I have researched (and experimented with) a thousand approaches to exercise and nutrition and I know the conventional wisdom too. If I were working on a book called "29-day weight loss challenge - the safest, most reliable and healthy diet and exercise program" then you'd have a good point. As it is, I know the pros and cons of what I'm doing and I am pretty confident that I will get the results I desire (~8-10 lbs of weight loss, more energy and better attitude) without incurring too much malnourishment and muscular atrophy.

[viscousmemories]

Ahem.

So anyway, I weighed in at 226.8 this morning; unfortunately I can get on and off my fancy digital scale three times and get three different weights several pounds apart, so I don't give it a lot of credence.

I did 20 minutes of cardio this morning, and my diet today (god willing) is:

bfast: egg Sammich - egg, whole grain english muffin, american cheese slice, morningstar sausage pattie

lunch: one of an assortment of frozen entrees I bought - probably a healthy choice steamer

dinner: chicken stirfry

I hope I don't starve to death; I'm used to eating quite a bit more (and chocolate bars, cake, donuts, etc. throughout the day).

[ceptimus]

I'll give it a try. I'll weigh myself later today. So far today I only ate some breakfast cereal - bran flakes with sultanas and skimmed milk. I've just got back from a half-hour walk, so I'll count that as today's gentle cardio.

Fancy digital scales (and any other type too) work best if you stand them on a solid flat floor (not carpet). Stand in the middle and try to keep still!

[Ensign Steve]

I'm a bit hostile to it, but mostly because (like much health/nutrition advice) it's grossly oversimplified, presumptuous and therefore probably wrong and/or irrelevant.

Word.

However, I got burned out on arguing diet and weight loss years ago. My current practice is to cheer and encourage, answer direct questions, and let the other adults work out for themselves what works best for their own bodies. I allow my results to speak for themselves. I'm down to 160 from 208 in January. My goal is about 140.

If anyone is interested, my current deal is this:
Diet: Weight Watchers (restricted calories, low-fat, high-fiber)
Exercise: 3-4 mile run 1-2 days per week, personal training (weight-lifting) 1 day per week, yoga 0-1 day per week.

I keep a pen-and-paper food log and a blog (http://down70in2010.blogspot.com/).

[SharonDee]

In case anyone doesn't want to keep a pen-and-paper log, I'm using myfitnesspal (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/). I chose this over others because it had the first Android app my search brought up.

CalorieKing (http://www.calorieking.com/) is another site with good diary tools but I didn't do a search for an app there.

And taking a page from ES's book: Go, y'all, go! :cheer:

[Dingfod]

Damn, not one taker for the 29-day Weight Loss Challenge? I thought I'd get at least one.What? I'm in. I guess I didn't make that plain enough.

[Dingfod]

So anyway, I weighed in at 226.8 this morning.Hell, you weigh right now what my ultimate goal is. My own weigh-in Sunday morning was abject FAIL, as it was over the range of my bathroom scales. I may have to seek out the truck scales over at the gravel pit.


Actually, at 323.6 pounds, I've lost about 6.4 pounds since Sunday. Take that, challengers.

My diet today:

1x8 ounce glass of milk
1x12 ounce New York strip steak, lightly salted, grilled on the GF grill.
2x10 ounce chicken breasts with Cajun spice.
2 Tbsp of peanut butter

Total = 1924 kcal

[viscousmemories]

Aye! Welcome aboard, mate. I only had about 1500 calories yesterday but closer to 2000 today; I nonetheless felt much hungrier throughout the day today for some reason.

[Ensign Steve]

I came in at 160.8 at Weight Watchers on Monday, so there's my starting weight. I downloaded P90X a couple days ago and tonight I tried the cardio disk. It was fun.

[ShottleBop]

I can :cheer: folks on. I've been pretty much holding steady at 180 for the past several months, on a very-low-carb-high-fat diet that keeps my blood sugar in check without meds.

(A little over 2 1/2 years ago, when I was first diagnosed as pre-diabetic, I weighed 220. Eating to control my blood sugar, my diet became increasingly low-carb. (No roots, no fruits, no grains, no milk.) I dropped 40 pounds in the next four months, and another 25 pounds over the five months after that. Since then, I've added back 25 pounds (from 155 to 180), but a lot of that is muscle; I'm still wearing pants that I bought at 155. Exercise: walking down to the street at lunchtime from the 24th floor and back up after lunch, and spending 25 minutes on a stationary bike in the evening. (I usually read while I ride; lately, I've been catching up on my Terry Pratchett.) On the weekend sometimes, I'll take a brisk walk down to Trader Joe's (approx. 25 minutes) for staples: avocados, minimally-processed garlic & herb chicken sausages, heavy whipping cream, broccoli slaw, mixed greens, unsweetened baking chocolate, tuna steaks. Now, if TJ's only sold pork rinds . . ..)

[Ensign Steve]

Have you tried this? One gram of carb (fiber) and they have a nice, light crisp to them. Of course they do taste an awful lot like seaweed. :giggles:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uRNPlwe-L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Also I discovered those chicken sausages by accident (read: bey picked them up) and they're only 3 points, which is about the same as a regular breakfast link, but of course these are the size of hot dogs. :meatcook:

We just had our TJ's open up in Athens last month and I'm like :hotmoves:

[Janet]

I weighed in at 231.4 on Sunday, my weigh-in day. That's .4 down from my previous lowest point, so I'm happy.

Yesterday I had about 1/4 - 1/3 cup of pistachios and a satsuma for breakfast, another satsuma and a handful of pistachios for snack. Lunch was whole wheat pasta with two turkey meatballs and tomato sauce with sausage and a salad of field greens with low fat blue cheese, dried cherries and walnuts with low fat raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Dinner was a bit off track, ground turkey stuffed with low fat blue cheeses, sauteed with shallot and mushrooms in Campbell's low sodium cream of mushroom soup, served over fettuccine. Also had about 15 dried apricots while cooking for fiber and another satsuma for dessert.

Breakfast today was another 1/4 cup of pistachios - my standard when I don't have time to cook. Lunch is leftovers of the stuffed turkey patties and satsumas because I'm out of spring mix. Don't know what dinner is but I will have a salad once I've shopped.

I drink at least a gallon of water every day. I actually stop counting at a gallon and get there between 1 - 5pm depending on whether I work night or day shift. This morning I also had a couple cups of coffee but I only do that a few times a week.

I did a 3 mile walk at home DVD yesterday, a little over 45 minutes. Today I will be doing my balance ball and weights, also a 45 minute DVD.

[Dingfod]

I drove 7 miles to Chandler Park (http://sites.google.com/site/chandlerparktulsa/) this morning, went rock scrambling on Lost City Trail, which meanders between huge squared off boulders that look like buildings, then walked a couple miles around the perimeter of the developed part of the park. I came home to an empty house, fixed myself some bacon and eggs (423 kcal).

[Ensign Steve]

Wow, that sounds way fun.

[Dingfod]

It was.

[viscousmemories]

I had another successful day, which is to say I did 20-30 minutes of exercise in the morning and stayed to under 2000 calories for the day. Eggamuffin sammich for breakfast, Amy's rice bowl for lunch, peanut bar for early snack, hot dog in a piece of bread for pre-dinner snack, and tofu stir-fry for dinner. I'm hungry now but it's past my bedtime anyway!

[Ensign Steve]

Last night I did another P90X disk, the chest and shoulders one. That was a lot more difficult than the cardio disk. I don't think I've done that many pushups in a workout since I left the Air Force. Also earlier in the day I spent one of my breaks walking briskly around campus with my backpack on. A total of 2.5 miles in 35 minutes. Eating was great, I had sushi for lunch and Wendy's baked potato with chili for dinner.

Right now I'm working on my typical breakfast which I have nearly every day. It's an egg sandwich on whole wheat with light cream cheese, and a fat-free sugar free-latte from Starbucks. Yum! :hungry:

[Janet]

Made sun-dried tomato risotto with chicken for dinner, with a salad of field greens and yet another satsuma in sections with sesame dressing. Probably ate too many apricots because I didn't count how many I ate while I was cooking. Then I was bad and ate about 1/3 pound (with shells) of Turkish pistachios in front of the tv.

This morning was my usual shelled pistachios and water. Going Mexican for lunch, but I'll try to be good. No workout today because I work 12 hours.

[Ensign Steve]

If apricots and pistachios are your idea of being bad then I think you're doing pretty good. :thumbup:

[Dingfod]

I had another successful day, which is to say I did 20-30 minutes of exercise in the morning and stayed to under 2000 calories for the day...I did not stay under 2000 kcal, it was more like 2200, some of which was the breading on the chicken and fish I ate, which caused me some ankle swelling last night. Despite that, I weighed 319# this morning, 11 pounds down from Sunday.

[Dingfod]

I'm just finishing up a second bowl of stew, making a total of roughly 2100 kcal today.

I went to Swift Park* on the Arkansas River below Keystone Dam, walked about 1 mile long the old railroad grade, then scrambled up a ATV trail to Old Highway 51, going back on the less mudhole route.

*November 1st to March 31st the ATV park is closed to ATVs because it is a bald eagle nesting area. I didn't see any eagles today. Eagle Cam (http://www.newson6.com/Global/category.asp?C=163029&nav=menu682_10_2)

[roastelk]

I'm a bit hostile to it, but mostly because (like much health/nutrition advice) it's grossly oversimplified, presumptuous and therefore probably wrong and/or irrelevant.



yes it is over simplified, but simple works. at least for me anyways.

Ive learned most my diet and nutritional knowledge from body building magazines. obviously they're going to promote diets that aid muscle growth. traditional low calorie dieting tends to be detrimental to building muscle. It makes the body become more efficient with the calories supplied to it

muscles are not efficient, more muscle you have the more calories per day you burn. and you cant build muscle unless your supplying the body with enough energy through good foods. a few years ago when got i back into shape I was eating over 3500 cals a day and still losing weight


btw...a funny thing happens when you keep eating close to 4 grand a day in calories and stop exercising. you pack on weight like a bear fattening up for hibernation. i went from 180lbs to 235lbs in 6 months, its taken me that long just to get back down to 210.

[Ensign Steve]

I met with my trainer yesterday evening and had a great lower-body workout. We did lunges and squats around the track, then a bunch of plyo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plyometrics), then I ran the stairs around the swim stadium, then I finished up with five minutes on the Jacob's Ladder (http://www.jacobsladderexercise.com/). I sucked so bad on the ladder that I can't decide whether I want to keep trying until I conquer it or run away from it forever.

I grazed on healthy snacks all day instead of having a regular lunch, and then had grilled chicken from KFC for dinner.

Not off to a great start today. I had a brownie from Starbucks for breakfast. :sheepish: I'm going to run and do yoga tonight after work, so hopefully that will make up for it.

[viscousmemories]

What are some healthy snacks that aren't chewy or crunchy? My braces don't like chewy or crunchy things.

Here's what yesterday looked like:

8:00 - eggamuffin sammich (300 cal)
10:30 - peanut snack bar (160 cal)
11:45 - frozen entree (500 cal)
1:30 - two crackers with low-fat cream cheese in the middle (100 cal)
3:00 - v8 (80 cal)
4:30 - hot dog in bread (225 cal)
6:30 - brown rice & chili (300 cal)
10:30 - chili (300 cal)

Total: 1965 cal

The problem is I felt hungry almost constantly, which is very discouraging.

[Ensign Steve]

What are some healthy snacks that aren't chewy or crunchy? My braces don't like chewy or crunchy things.


Ooh, hard to say. I do a lot of chewy and crunchy. I guess if I was going to name my healthy snacks that aren't, I'd say cheese, yogurt, eggs (hard-boiled if you're on the go), soybeans, cucumbers, hummus, that seaweed crap from further up in the thread, bananas ... that's all I got.

[Janet]

Mexican yesterday was pretty heavy, Arroz con pollo with beans and the guacamole that came with my sisters fajitas because she's crazy and doesn't like avocados. Also had some chips with salsa and white cheese dip. Then I had my usual salad at about 5:30 to get me through the 12 hour day. After work I had my apricots, a big bowl of edamame in the shell and a hunk of cheese. I resisted the temptation to get a cherry coke at the restaurant, so I'm proud of that. I'm not counting calories, but it was a fairly good day.

This morning I had my usual pistachios and I brought another helping of the stuffed ground turkey patties from the other night and a salad for lunch. I also brought a couple satsumas which I may end up not eating. Haven't planned dinner for tonight but I'll probably go with leftover risotto. 45 minute walk at home DVD after work is the plan tonight as well.

[Ensign Steve]

I did my 4-mile run and stretching yesterday, as promised, and today I did the P90X yoga tape, which is basically just 90 minutes of vinyasa yoga. Between training on Thursday and that, my legs are basically shot.

Because I am out of my mind, I have committed to staying dry of alcohol until we get back from our New Year's trip to Arizona. I have been drinking fairly rarely this year anyway, but with the holidays around the corner it was time to get extra vigilant. My friend in AZ is pregnant, so I am telling myself I'm doing this in solidarity for her. If she can dry up for her baby's health, I can do it for mine.

[ShottleBop]

:cheer: for all!

[ceptimus]

I was working away last week, staying in a hotel. This makes dieting difficult for me, but I was pretty good and ate mostly healthy stuff, reasonably low in calories.

I have to make a really early start tomorrow. I'll weigh in before I leave, and report progress for last week (or lack thereof) when I get back. :crossed:

[Dingfod]

317#, down 13 pounds in one week, despite that I've consumed an average of about 2000 kcal per day.

[Ensign Steve]

That's awesome, Dingfod! Congratulations. :hotmoves:

[Janet]

230.6 down .8. My biggest one week drop in months. I am definitely being more vigilant and less self-indulgent because I'm checking in here. Yesterday I danced for an hour and today did a 45 minute walk at home DVD. Didn't eat any of the chocolate in my fridge either, though I thought about it pretty hard.

[Dingfod]

I'll report back next Sunday. We'll see how the holiday treats me (pun intended).

[SharonDee]

Oh, I forgot to report and weigh in this morning.

I kept a record of my calorie intake for 4 out of 7 days. It's a real eye opener, letting me know just how much food I'm stuffing into my kisser. No wonder I have :censored: pounds to lose.

From last week to this, I have dropped 1.2 pounds.

How's that for slow and steady? :turtle:

[viscousmemories]

I weighed in down about 1.6 lbs. from last week.

I stuck to the diet but not the exercise. Partly because I've been sick so I cough a lot in the morning, but mostly because I'm lazy.

I didn't do so hot on the diet today. Well, breakfast, lunch and dinner were okay, but I probably could've done without the post-dinner box of Mac & Cheese. :shiftier:

Tomorrow is another day.

[ceptimus]

I lost 1.5 kg (about 3 lb) last week - no doubt some of that was just the fluid loss that normally occurs when one begins on a new reduced calorie diet.

Yesterday and today I've been eating cake, so this week probably won't be as good unless I can gather more will power from now on. :crossed:

[Ensign Steve]

I'd kill for a loss over 1 lb! My last loss was 0.8. I didn't go to WW last night on account of not feeling like doing anything after work, so I have nothing to report. Except to say :cheer: for everybody's losses this week.

[Dingfod]

With the exception of eating four tamales at Caz's Mexican Food Monday in downtown, Tulsa, I've been staying on the straight and narrow. 316, down 14 pounds.

[SharonDee]

I predict there'll be no loss for me next Monday. There's this holiday, see? And it's one of those where my family will try to kill me with food? So ... yeah.

[Janet]

I kept on track pretty well yesterday, despite eating out all day. I drank more non-water drinks than usual, though: coffee with lunch, a non-fat mocha in the afternoon and yummy Michigan cherry iced tea with dinner along with my gallon plus of water.

As of this morning, though, I can fasten my smaller bras one notch tighter. I'm happy for the milestone, but concerned it means I'll need to replace my larger ones soon. Losing weight is expensive.

The rest of this week is going to be a write-off, though. My mom gave me a piece of cherry pie from my sister's birthday dessert. I'm making chocolate mousse pie for Thanksgiving and my best friend's early birthday cake on Friday, which will be red velvet with white chocolate buttercream frosting and almonds. I want it to look like a Colonial Buttercream cake from Sanders. I would post a picture, but there doesn't seem to be one online.

[Ensign Steve]

I just finished doing a Jillian Michaels DVD and I feel a lot better. I've been bummed out the last couple days about food and Thanksgiving. I had been putting off all kinds of stuff like exercising and homework because I was going to get all caught up over Thanksgiving break. Here it is Wednesday and I feel like I haven't gotten much done. Oh, except for the fact that I worked Monday and Tuesday and I need to stop beating myself up.

So then we went to Kroger today and got all the stuff for turkey lasagna and Caesar salad tomorrow. I got a bunch of extra meat and bread and desserts for the people in the house who are normal human beings and don't go on a diet on Thanksgiving Day. It's tough having all this stuff in the house right now but doing that workout made me feel a lot more in control.

I am thankful that I have a family that supports me and is willing to go all non-traditional this holiday. I don't feel any pressure and I'm really looking forward to tomorrow and relaxing and watching football and cooking. I'm still committed to not drinking so I got some club soda and I'm going to make sugar-free sparkly cranberry drink with it.

Hope everybody has a good Thanksgiving tomorrow. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to copy and paste this horrifying display of candor into my blog.

[Ensign Steve]

Hello? Anybody still doing this?

I did great on Thanksgiving day, but I went over points on Friday due to delicious leftovers. I ran four-miles on Thursday morning and did another Jillian Michaels DVD on Saturday. I haven't worked out what I'm going to do today, but it will be something. Still not drinking, which is the biggest calorie-saver for me, especially over holidays and breaks and long weekends.

I have weight watchers tomorrow so I'll finally be able to post some progress (hopefully). They're also introducing some changes to the system. They do that every year around this time so they can promote the new-and-improved version around New Years time, and this year (like every year) is the biggest overhaul in, like, ever. So I'm really looking forward to finding out about that.

[viscousmemories]

I've had the calorie counting on hold since about Wednesday, but I've been reasonably good all things considered.

:shiftier:

[SharonDee]

I have been in pig-out mode since Thursday. (Thanks, Mom!)

Tomorrow I find out just how much weight I've put on over the past four days and then I buckle down again.

[Dingfod]

I did pretty well, all things considering. I didn't snack at all on the 9 hour trip down to Texas, but I did get chicken with breading on it and some sweet carrot casserole at the Furr's Cafeteria in Paris, TX, and then shared an order of french fries at a cafe in Zavalla, TX on the way down. No supper for me. Thanksgiving Day, I ate no breakfast at all, then at dinner, loaded up on turkey and ham, but only a small amount of sweet potato casserole and corn casserole, and only one bite of custard pie. At dinner, leftover turkey and sausage gumbo, with white rice (ugh!). Then Friday was fry day, fried fish with a baked potato and hush puppies for dinner. I did skip snacks at the movie theater and ate right the rest of the day. On the trip home and after I got home, you'd think I was carb-loading for a marathon. Result: 320.4, a gain of 4.4#, leaving me with a net 9.6# lost since we started this. I'm back on the straight and narrow today, extremely low carb (near zero, actually), and only about 1400 kcal. I expect most of the 4.4 pounds will be shed by the time I weigh in the morning.

[Janet]

I too ate too much over the holidays. My sisters homemade chocolates and my own chocolate mousse pie with candies in it were my downfall, aided and abetted by my traitorous hormones. I bounced up about three pounds, but I'm not worried.

When I stated before that menopause was fucking with me, that's what I meant. Two to three weeks of the month my weight bounces up and I'm lucky if I show a net loss on two weigh-ins. I completely freaked out when it started back in August, but I'm used to it now. Both the peaks and the troughs are lower each month so I try not to stress out about the details and just look at the net losses. I don't expect any loss next week either, but I hope to be down again in two weeks, fingers crossed.

[SharonDee]

By some miracle I only gained 1.0 pounds after my Turkey Day feasting. Back on track!

[viscousmemories]

I weighed in down 1.0 pound today.

[Dingfod]

318.4, knocked two of those holiday pounds off.

[Ensign Steve]

:qwoot: I was down 2 lbs. at my meeting. 158.8 I'm so happy to be back under 160 again. I hit it several weeks ago and then I've been gaining and losing the same pound ever since.

Also, I'm loving the new program. :frolic:

[Dingfod]

317.0, only one more pound to get back to 11/23.

[viscousmemories]

Also, I'm loving the new program.
I had some luck with the old program; what's the new one?

[Ensign Steve]

It's still points but they totally changed the formula (instead of calories, fat, and fiber, it's now carbs, protein, fat, and fiber) so all the points values of everything is totally different including your daily target. So basically the method of doing it is the same, but all the numbers have changed.

Lots more info on youtube, cnn (http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/29/weight-watchers-overhauls-point-system/), yahoo (http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/the-skinny-on-weight-watchers-new-points-plan-2415260/), and my blog (http://down70in2010.blogspot.com/2010/11/loving-new-system-and-bonus-great-weigh.html) if you're really bored.

[Dingfod]

315.4#, down 14.6# since the start of this challenge.

[Ensign Steve]

:cheer: Go, Dingfod, go!

I have my weigh-in this evening, and I'm expecting good news. I had a fun first week doing the new program.

[SharonDee]

This morning I weighed in at 2.8 pounds lighter than last Monday's post-Thanksgiving weigh in. Since I lost 1 pound the first week, gained it back the second week, that means the total weight loss to date is that 2.8 pounds.

Stupid Turkey Day ... that I :heart: :q!:

[Ensign Steve]

I weighed in at weight watchers last night at 157.4, so I'm down 3.4 for the challenge. Even better, I broke 50 lbs since I started. :woohoo:

Thanks for the challenge, vm! It was just what I needed to kick my butt into gear in time for the holidays. There's nothing like running my mouth about letting my results speak for themselves to motivate me to get some actual results.

[Janet]

I was down a pound yesterday from my peak last week, but still not below my low point. It's what I expected. Actually, it was better than I expected because I was bad last week. Entire Morley's chocolate peanut butter block (http://www.sanderscandy.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=32_33&products_id=307) before bed bad.

[Dingfod]

Yea, all vm's angels are on track.

[viscousmemories]

I'm glad y'all are getting something out of it. I've been so buried in work and school I haven't been very motivated to follow through on this, sad to say. Just got home from work in fact, and had KFC for dinner while I was there. :sigh:

However! I weighed in down .6 this week for a total of 3.2# loss from day one, so it's not nothing.

[Dingfod]

My diet the last two, three days:

http://www.airsoftology.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/derail04.jpg

[Ensign Steve]

I went to my department's holiday party last night, and I had a real hard time abstaining from alcohol. There were lots of interesting things to try, like Korean wine and spiced cider and other stuff, but I just didn't partake. It helped that they knew that I was on the wagon, so it's not like I could change my mind mid-party and lose face. :ohnoes:

On the food front, I did not do as well. Unless you count not going for seconds on lasagna.

[Janet]

Union meeting last night, so we got pizza, salad and wings. I was ordering so I got wheat crust on both pizzas and thin crust on the one I knew I'd eat. I tried to make it as healthy as I could, but I still overindulged a bit.

[Ensign Steve]

I feel like crap. I have been doing nothing but stressing out about finals (but not studying of course) and eating for the last two days. I'm sick to my stomach on Brunswick stew and Christmas chocolate. I skipped weight watchers today so I have no weigh-in to post.

Not much I can do about it at this point except to just stop. I have an appointment with my personal trainer first thing tomorrow morning, so that should be a good start for the day.

[viscousmemories]

I feel your pain. I've been in almost exactly the same boat this past week - weighed in +2.2 lbs. yesterday.

[Janet]

229.4 this morning. WOOHOO! I have finally broken 230 and hit the magic 80 pounds lost mark. This has been driving me crazy. It took me nine months to lose 75 pounds and another six to lose the next five. Thanks, menopause. :grrr:

My only problem now is that I'm sick and for some reason craving starch. I started randomly thinking about cheesy mashed potatoes last night and I don't even keep potatoes in the house anymore. Not sure if I'm going to stay strong or give the throat infection what it wants. We'll see how I feel when I go shopping today.

[Ensign Steve]

Janet, have you ever tried mashed cauliflower? It's not potatoes by any means, but it's a good substitute when you have a hankerin', and it only has 8 carbs per serving.

Rachael Ray's Cheesy "smashed" Cauliflower Recipe - Food.com - 216244 (http://www.food.com/recipe/rachael-rays-cheesy-smashed-cauliflower-216244)

[Ensign Steve]

Oh, yeah, also :cheer: on breaking that 80-lb barrier!

[Janet]

Can't stand cooked vegetables, except artichokes. I eat all my veggies raw and crunchy. I also don't like the smell of cooked cauliflower when my Mom makes it.

We have a local turkey farm with a restaurant that's a block from my dermatologist's office. I had a half order of a hot turkey sandwich before my appointment to handle the craving without having more potatoes on hand for future attacks.

[Ensign Steve]

Been on track for the last two days. I saw my trainer yesterday morning and did some power lifting stuff so now I am sore all over! :butthurt: Went bowling with friends and did not drink. :pleased: Tonight I was watching the Biggest Loser finale on the DVR and it was making me feel guilty for being a lump on the couch, so I paused it at the halfway mark and did a 25-minute Jillian Michaels video before resuming. Okay, Jillian?! Stop yelling at me!

[Dingfod]

313.6, down a total of 16.4# since this started. I've had my ups and downs, and some serious dietary derails, but generally, the trend still is downward in regard to my weight.

[Ensign Steve]

That's great progress, Ding!

[Dingfod]

Oh, and I'm walking at least two miles nearly every day.

[Janet]

Good for you. I find myself increasingly tempted to say "fuck it, I'll eat what I want," for the next two weeks but so far I'm staying on track. The thing is that I have really changed my ways enough that the idea of, say, getting a bag of chips at the grocery store doesn't even occur to me anymore. I haven't even had a french fry in over a year and don't miss them, but don't ask me about onion rings.

[viscousmemories]

Well the 29 days is over and I probably came out about even. At least I didn't get fatter.

Thanks to all who participated!

[ShottleBop]

:cheer: :cheer: :cheer: to all participants!!!

Janet: I have it on very good authority (diabetes discussion board) that jicama makes a very good, low-carb substitute for spuds in hash browns.

[Ensign Steve]

Thanks, vm. Have a great trip and enjoy your holidays with your family!

[Janet]

Thanks Shottlebop. I gave up making hash browns at home at least a year before I decided to get healthy. It was too much grease for me and was messing with my IBS. Since then I've only eaten them once at a restaurant and really don't miss them. I've been very lucky with giving things up and not missing them, don't know why.

Thanks for the inspiration, VM. I was getting a bit lazy on keeping to eating healthy but you've energized me to get back to it.