BL Summer Challenge 2009

[princessbride6205]

Welcome, Maz!
I'm envious of everyone who did well at yard sales this weekend. I haven't been to one in so many years, that I can't even think of what I might want to buy at one.

[RangerPooh]

My parents took my DDs for a walk on Saturday and hit 10 yardsales in our neighborhood. I asked they didn't pick up more useless junk and they agreed to it. However when they came home DD4 had a new bike and DD2 had a tool box. DD4 had outgrown her bike so the purchase was fine with me, and actually it looks almost brand new . As for the tool box it's a cute little John Deere "my 1st tool box" with play tools that's in great shape.

[pjlla]

Originally Posted by RangerPooh

I must say wow. I know that I have had a rough 24 hours food wise, but the scale said that I gained 3.4 pounds! I know that I need to watch what I eat more but ugh! It's a rough start to the day.

Forget the scales for a day or two, get back to healthy eating, push the water, and those pounds will be gone in no time. I have found that the shorter time they are here, the quicker they are gone.

Originally Posted by MelanieC

Awwe Thanks - I'll go check out that thread.

I'll bet I totally forgot to post a link to that thread. My brain is a sieve lately. I'll try to find it today. Sorry.

Originally Posted by maznorm

Hi,

Just wondering how I can join.

Can anyone help me?

Welcome, welcome! Yes you you can join and YES we can help you! You need to decide what healthy eating plan you want to go with (I don't like the "d" word). Weight Watchers, South Beach, or calorie counting with one of the on-line groups are all possibilities. Take the time to do some research and find a plan that you feel that you can live with... because that is exactly what you need to do.... live with a plan for the rest of your life if you want to be truly successful. Sure, we all have days/weeks when we totally fall off plan and go a little crazy, but KNOWING that there is a plan to jump back on when we need to is what keeps us going for the long haul.

Find some exercise that you can keep up with. Maybe you need to start slow with just some walking or maybe you are ready for something more. Whatever you decide, start doing it and KEEP MOVING! Cardio, weight training, resistance, whatever. Thirty minutes a day for AT LEAST three days a week would be about the MINIMUM I would recommend. Check out some of the other threads here on the WISH board where we do a LOT of talking about different exercise plans, exercise DVDs, etc.

Keep checking here whenever you can. THere are lots of fun, helpful, knowledgeable people ready to give you a hand.

Originally Posted by Eeyores Butterfly

So.... I told myself I was going to journal everything this week but not worry about counting points. Yeah, the journalling did not happen. My plan for this coming week has been to journal everything and start counting points for breakfast. I'm going to go ahead and do that (my WW week starts on Tuesday). At least the last couple of days I have gotten a short walk in with the puppies. Maybe once I get done packing I'll be able to do some longer walks with them.

I'm not overly confident about Tuesday's weigh in because not only did I not count points but I pretty much sucked at journalling.

What kind of journaling are you trying to do? Are you doing it online or in writing? Are you writing all of the foods, or just the points? Maybe you need to change it up.

I was keeping my food journal on my computer for about 4 months. But it got difficult to run to the computer every time I ate something, so I reverted back to the old fashioned method of pen and paper. I keep a cheap spiral bound notebook and pen on the kitchen counter. I try to write everything BEFORE I eat it. When I pack my lunch in the morning for work, I write it before I even leave for the day. If I am going away for a day or two, I grab the notebook and bring it along.

I also journal my daily exercise minutes (what I did and what time I did it), and my COW points. Plus if it was an unusual day for some reason I make note of it and I keep track of TOM in there. Then, if I have a particularly great (or particularly bad) week, I can really look back and see what might have made a difference.

Maybe you are trying to write too much. Try just making a tally mark for every point you eat to start with, and maybe a star at the top of the page for every healthy guideline you get in. It would be quicker than trying to write down all of the foods. Maybe tape a chart to the fridge or the cabinet door. Keep trying until you find something that really works for you and then STICK WITH IT! You can do this. I know you can.


Here is the broccoli salad recipe for anyone who was interested.

1 bunch broccoli crowns

1 red onion

6 oz. grated cheddar cheese

1/2 lb. bacon

1/2 C chopped celery

1/2 C sugar

1 C mayo

2 Tb. vinegar


Cook the bacon until crisp. Drain and chop. Clean broccoli and chop into chunks. Chop the onion. Mix the last four ingredients together in a large bowl or Tupperware with a lid. Add in first four ingredients and toss well. Chill overnight. Store in fridge. **Broccoli is NOT cooked.

##Here is what I do to modify the calories.
I usually double the amount of broccoli because otherwise this is a very saucy recipe. I use low fat cheddar cheese, turkey bacon, Splenda instead of sugar or half Splenda/half sugar (I really don't care for the Splenda aftertaste quite frankly), light mayonnaise.

This is definitely better if it sits for at least 24 hours in the fridge.

Happy Memorial day to you all! Let's all take a moment to remember the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Let's remember what Memorial Day is about. There is supposed to be a national moment of silence today at 3pm. I'm going to try hard to keep an eye on my watch and spend that moment in prayer for our current troops fighting overseas.

Well, I'm off to make french toast that I won't even be eating. DD had a friend sleep-over so I need to make a nice breakfast. But I'm sticking with steamed veggies and egg whites myself....................P

[pjlla]

I didn't want this to get lost in my long post, so here it is..

Do you make separate meals for yourself and your family in order to stay on your "healthy" eating plan?
My answer is... I am trying to make healthier meals for EVERYONE, but sometimes that is hard. If I am making something much more fattening for the family (like last night's sirloin tips), I try to make extra vegetable so that I can fill up on that. So NO, I don't usually make separate meals, but I try to make some adjustments in the meals so that everyone is happy. (Plus DS has significant food allergies, so sometimes I can make something separate for him already anyhow.)

Last night I ate 3 oz of the meat (DD's friend was a little baffled when she saw me weigh my meat.... it is such a habit to me, it never occurred to me it might look odd to someone!), and a half-cup of the potatoes, but I also made a large batch of stir-fry so that is what I filled my plate with.. and I skipped the rolls altogether.

Since I intend to stick with this for LIFE, I know that I need to find ways to make it work in real life. Cooking multiple meals every night is NOT the way it is going to work for me, so I am trying eat modified versions of the real meals. .............P

[RangerPooh]

I'M pleased with myself today, I'm down over a pound! Now I just need to get the other 2 off

Do you make separate meals for yourself and your family in order to stay on your "healthy" eating plan?

I try to make the same meal for everyone, the excpetion would be for DH when I might make him fish instead of other meats. I realize the need to be concious of what we consume and to set healthy guidelines for our girls, so we've been trying to eat healthier. Does that mean that I eat as healthy as my kids, no. They're actually better about it than me But I'm trying. Now that summer is here it means more fresh fruits and veggies for all of us. Yum. Plus our garden has started to grow.

[TammyNC]

Originally Posted by Sleeping*Beauty

WOW! It looks like you made out a lot better than I did with my yard sale(ing).

I'm kind of releaved to hear that I wasn't the only one to have a bad weekend. Hopefully by the end of the week we will all have forgotten about our bad weekends. My allergies are starting to act up again. This afternoon my head felt like it was going to explode. Thank goodness fo Nyquil.

Hope the meds helped and the allergies calm down soon.

Originally Posted by Eeyores Butterfly

So.... I told myself I was going to journal everything this week but not worry about counting points. Yeah, the journalling did not happen. My plan for this coming week has been to journal everything and start counting points for breakfast. I'm going to go ahead and do that (my WW week starts on Tuesday). At least the last couple of days I have gotten a short walk in with the puppies. Maybe once I get done packing I'll be able to do some longer walks with them.

I'm not overly confident about Tuesday's weigh in because not only did I not count points but I pretty much sucked at journalling.

Hang in there, small changes are the way to go...liked the idea of keeping one of the small notebooks with you, it might help remind you to journal.

Originally Posted by RangerPooh

My parents took my DDs for a walk on Saturday and hit 10 yardsales in our neighborhood. I asked they didn't pick up more useless junk and they agreed to it. However when they came home DD4 had a new bike and DD2 had a tool box. DD4 had outgrown her bike so the purchase was fine with me, and actually it looks almost brand new . As for the tool box it's a cute little John Deere "my 1st tool box" with play tools that's in great shape.

Sounds like they hit a good one too...I do understand though about not bringing another thing in the house to add to the collections. I have a room that I'm really needing to clean out. It has become more of a junk room and I'm ready to make better use of it.

Originally Posted by pjlla

I didn't want this to get lost in my long post, so here it is..

Do you make separate meals for yourself and your family in order to stay on your "healthy" eating plan?

No separate meals here...never have been one to do that. My family is good about eating whatever I serve them so as I'm cooking I try to make it healthy for all of us. The only time I've done something different is when I was trying a shrimp dinner and dd is allergic to them so I fixed her a chicken breast.

Originally Posted by maznorm

Hi,

Just wondering how I can join.

Can anyone help me?

Glad to have you join us!!

[RangerPooh]

Originally Posted by TammyNC

Sounds like they hit a good one too...I do understand though about not bringing another thing in the house to add to the collections. I have a room that I'm really needing to clean out. It has become more of a junk room and I'm ready to make better use of it.

In our house it's called the basement Not only do we have things in boxes frm our move last summer but we have muliple rubbermade totes with toys just spilling out of them. And of course you can't get rid of anything.

[Worfiedoodles]

Hi Guys!

I'm coming back with my tail between my legs. It has not been a good weekend. To make the contrast worse, my dh did a Half marathon yesterday, mowed the lawn, weeded and poisoned, and took ds to see "Night at the Museum". I laid around and read books...

I know I need to just get back on track. Holiday weekends are not good for me. I look forward to them, but I just don't follow through with exercise or eating right. I guess I need to schedule a race so I will have to do what I need to.

Today I'm doing , general straightening and cleaning, and I'm going to walk 4 mi later. I had a vitamuffin and tea for breakfast, I'm going to have a salmon burger and corn on the cob for lunch.

For those of you who do WW -- I remember a few years ago you could "jump start" your weight loss by eating fewer points for a week -- does anyone know what the minimum is you should have? I'm supposed to get 25 pts per day -- I was thinking if I cut that back to 20 for a week, it would be ok? I'm open to suggestions. I usually work out for an hour most days, running or walking. I just need to do something drastic to get the scale moving down. I've been stuck losing and regaining the same 3 lbs for the past 3 weeks.

TIA!

For the QOTD: -- We have a different arrangement in that my dh does most of the cooking. It is not uncommon for us to have 3 different dinners. He always makes something healthy for me, and then something ds will eat -- and then he usually has a combo of my food and ds's for his dinner. It's not as much work as it sounds -- when we cook off the grill (which we do for most of the summer), I'll probably have a salmon or turkey burger with veggies, ds will have a hot dog or hamburger with chips, and dh will have a combination of most of the above.

Maria

[ibouncetoo]

QOTD: Nope, live alone so only have to cook for myself. The problem is....actually DOING it. Since starting WW I've been doing more home prep, but I've still got to kick it up a notch!

....off to the grocery store.....

.

[lulamc]

Do you make separate meals for yourself and your family in order to stay on your "healthy" eating plan?


Not really, DH and I are both good cooks (we think!) and everyone eats what we make. However, we are doing low carb and we don't want our skinny kids to lose weight so they get buns with their burgers, tortillas for soft tacos if we're eating taco salad, etc. They also usually get dessert and we don't (usually an ice cream sandwich or something, I don't usually make dessert.)

[estherhead]

QOTD: Uh-oh, I have a lot to say on this matter. I don't cook twice. It's just too much of a hassle. But I will make different things kind of. So if we're having hotdogs, I have Ballpark white smoked turkey hotdogs, and the kids have regular hotdogs. But even burgers anymore, everyone gets the same 93% lean mixed with turkey & onions mixture.

Last weekend I had 20 year old guys over (the worst eaters on earth, ya know?) and had tacos. I made the meat with turkey (they didn't notice.) The tortillas were actually whole wheat wraps from Aldi's (they loved them cause they were big and easy to fold) and homemade salsa and Baked Tostitoes (which were totally gone by the end of the night.) The two exceptions were I bought regular sour cream for them & dh and I used the fat free and I made a totally NOT low calorie dessert. That was my only concession as my dh REALLY wanted a certain dessert & I caved in to him (& then regretted it as I ended up eating some too.)

It's been my experience that if you take the time to truly learn to cook all over again, and yes, it is a HUGE hassle, you will be better off in the long run. If you want to lose weight once and just maintain, you need this to be your life. I started my ongoing journey 7 years ago and I'm so grateful that I took the time to re-learn to cook at that point.

And I'll tell you this, my kids aren't skinny (not fat either.) I'm just saying that I'm happy to feed them my way of veggies, fruits, lean meats, whole grains & no pop at home most of the time because it seems like every day there is other stuff for them to eat that is not great. In the last 7 days they've had cotton candy, movie theater popcorn, skittles, chips, pop, snow cones, cream cheese pretzels, etc. Most of that was at school! Would they be overweight if they didn't eat "lite" at home? I have to say probably. And we're active too.

America is just a dangerous place for your kid's waist lines to live. In my case, I feel like at least my own dinner table is controllable. Somewhat.

OK, I'm folding up my portable soap-box.

[sahbushka]

Hi Everyone! I have had a pretty good weekend. Saturday I went to a carnival with my mom, nephew and kids and had a good time. I had a pretzel (no salt) which I shared with my son. I also went for a walk down to the beach after the kids were in bed since my gym was already closed. On sunday I did some gardening and puttering around the house and then the whole family did a costco run...spent waayyyyy too much money but got a lot of healthy foods which I then took home and portioned out with my handy dandy scale. Food wise was fine. Yesterday we went to a friends for a dinner party. I ate very little points wise before the party because I knew she was making one of my favorite dips...she's a vegetarian, though, so everything was made with things I am not used to...even the cheese wasn't really cheese, so figuring points was hard. I did my best to guess and I did well with not taking too much food. However, I think I am catching a cold...my throat really hurts!

QOTD - picnic food - I normally just bring a watermelon...healthy and very "summery" food.

QOTD - Seperate foods - If a meal is actually prepared, usually everyone eats it, however because of our schedules (DH doesn't get home till 830pm most days and ds's bedtime is 8) we usually just eat seperately...I don't really "cook" often because of this. My ds's normal choice of food for dinner is a yogurt and an apple so I figure I don't have to worry too much if those are his foods of choice. HOwever, we went to my friend's house last night and he grabbed a bowl of chips and put the bowl on his belly as he lounged back in a chair in her back yard...he reminded me of those guys who watch saturday night football.

Anyway, I noticed when I went to grab my snack at work today that I am eating a lot more colorfully than I used to. I had a tupperware container with 1 cup of grapes and one serving of baby carrots. I have low point options today as we are going to my moms for a bbq tonight. We are bringing dessert and some turkey hot dogs and buns. The dessert is a cobbler with rhubarb and raspberries made as light as possible...instead of sugar we use splenda and instead of butter we use extra water. It calls for jello so we use sugar free. It works out to be about 4 points for an eighth of the pan so you get a decent size portion and it is packed with flavor!

Anyway, I need to work more on the exersize but am doing pretty well food wise and hoping everyone has a great holiday!

Sarah

[LuvBaloo]

Originally Posted by maznorm

Hi,

Just wondering how I can join.

Can anyone help me?

Do you make separate meals for yourself and your family in order to stay on your "healthy" eating plan?

Not really, DH is happy with my progress. He commented this weekend, that he's noticed we're eating less pasta, and stuff. I've always sometimes not bothered cooking a potato or rice dish for dinner, and just left it at meat, salad and cooked veggies, but I'm doing that more often now.

I've got the whole family into steamed edamame now! I like it so I bought it as a healthy munchy thing for me, and this weekend DH and DD's decided to try it and they all like it.

Originally Posted by Worfiedoodles

Hi Guys!

For those of you who do WW -- I remember a few years ago you could "jump start" your weight loss by eating fewer points for a week -- does anyone know what the minimum is you should have? I'm supposed to get 25 pts per day -- I was thinking if I cut that back to 20 for a week, it would be ok? I'm open to suggestions. I usually work out for an hour most days, running or walking. I just need to do something drastic to get the scale moving down. I've been stuck losing and regaining the same 3 lbs for the past 3 weeks.

If you haven't been sticking to a plan, even just going with your daily points should give you a jumpstart. I started in March, and realized that I'd been eating a lot more points that WW gave me, so just sticking to there daily points gave me a good loss the first week, after that weekly losses got a lot smaller, but the first good loss was motivating.

And I got a new niece last night, so I'm taking this afternoon off work, to do the 1.5 hr drive to go see the baby. I don't want to wait for the weekend, I want to see the baby in the first 24hours.

[maznorm]

Originally Posted by Worfiedoodles

Hi Guys!



For those of you who do WW -- I remember a few years ago you could "jump start" your weight loss by eating fewer points for a week -- does anyone know what the minimum is you should have? I'm supposed to get 25 pts per day -- I was thinking if I cut that back to 20 for a week, it would be ok? I'm open to suggestions. I usually work out for an hour most days, running or walking. I just need to do something drastic to get the scale moving down. I've been stuck losing and regaining the same 3 lbs for the past 3 weeks.


Maria

The absolute minimum is 14 points, but that should only be on occasion. If you are looking for something to give you a push that probably isn't the way to do it. For some reason, the main thing that seems to have helped the people at the meeting I go to is to make sure they eat all of their daily points allowance (bizarre, I know). Also, drinking 1.5 litres of water a day really helps me when I need a big weight loss one week.

Good luck. Hope you manage to stay on track.

Intro:- Ok, I haven't really introduced myself yet so here goes. I weigh 204 pounds (not 208 as previously posted) and am 5'4". I have battled with my weight on and off since I was a teen. When I met my husband, my big appetite combined with his to help me gain 56 pounds and 3 dress sizes. When we were planning our wedding I lost the weight but gained it again shortly after. After my first pregnancy, I voed to lose it all and joined Weight Watchers. I became pregnant 3 months after my DS was born. So, I had my DD and then half heartedly did unofficial Weight Watchers. That wasn't working, so I joined Weight Watchers online. That worked for a while but eventually I lost my motovation again. I have been feeling so unhealthy and I have become so unfit that I finally started going to WW meetings. I was doing well and lost 2 pounds a week for the first 2 weeks. Then, I gained a pound. I didn't give in and lost that pound the following week. Then, I was told at work that my job was going to India. The company have redeployed me within the business but with my DH currently out of work and the stuff with my job I just binged on chocolate (my drug of choice) and haven't really stopped since. I have steadily gained 1/2 pound every week since then. I am continuing to go to WW because I know if I stop going I will just get bigger and bigger. I just can't seem to motivate myself to get going again. I am hoping joining this group will give me that push I need so desperately. It really feels as though it is now or never.

I haven't exercise regularly in a long time but have a treadmill and have recently bought a Wii (and Wii Fit and Wii Active).

So that's me.

QOTD:- In our house everyone eats healthily. We have 2 young children (DS 2, DD 1) and my husband and I are both trying to live a healthier lifestyle.

[tink1963]

Do you make separate meals for yourself and your family in order to stay on your "healthy" eating plan?

No, it is just DH and I and we are both trying to lose.