congrats danibelle! and bootser, that's a lot of exercise in one day. maybe i'll be that motivated soon. you guys are doing great!

i'm surprised how not upset i am a/b that frickin' picture. guess i'm building up the ol' self esteem.

Hey all,

it's super duper late--! O wait no it's not! lol! I'm just really tired but wanted to check in real quick. Today went good--I had to work which sucked--my first Saturday to work in like forever! I ate a very healthy breakfast, lunch and stuffed my face at dinner with chicken strips, bread, mashed potatos at a restaurant--o yes , I have learned my weakness--it's going out to eat! I'm sorry guys but I just can't pick to eat a salad and a piece of chicken when I eat out! It's just hard.. That's why I'm glad we never eat out! Lol, this weekend is special because my sister-n-law is here ---I do feel guilty--I know I shouldn't but I do--all I had was 1300 calories but guess what?  I bought a slice of cheesecake and it's just waiting to be ate! O'well, I guess one weekend won't hurt! Hope you all are having better luck!

Danibelle--I just wanted to say--That I did my first spin class 4 weeks ago! The first thing you need to remember is you don't have to keep up with everyone else--go at your own pace and work your way up. That's what I did! I still can't keep up with everyone else but you know what I work-out hard and it is worth it. I think you should give it another try--I fell in love with it! Let me know if you need to to know anything! Looks like everyone else is doing great!

hey bootser,  eating out is definitely hard.  i live alone and generally don't have many people to talk to at work (most are married with kids and have a "get in-get out-get home" mentality).  hence, the only time i get out is friday and saturday night and it's inevitably "dinner and a movie" type plans.  so, i know what you go through.  that being said, i try to plan my days around going out.  it might not sound healthy but i try to basically eat no more than 600 calories during the day -- but i choose filling, high fiber things like oatmeal at 160 cals or protein like egg beaters (1/4th of a cup are just 30 calories).  plus, i snack on fruits/veggies.  that way i still have plent of calories worth of food to eat at dinner.  it's obviously not ideal to eat such a huge amount of calories in one sitting but it's better than nothing! 

also, i'm totally with you on the salad.  when i go out, i expect it to be like a treat to myself.  but, i work aroun the non-salad choices. for instance, tonight, we did thai so i went to the stir fry bar, asked for the sauce to be on the side, filled up the bowl entirely with broccoli, chicken, mushrooms and a little bith of corn and then divided half the brown rice they gave me and set it aside.  in fact, i brought home half of the food itself then too.  before i started seeing a nutritionist, i would haver never thought to do half of that stuff but now it's second nature.  i'm sure there were still tons of calories in what i had but it was so so so tasty and not as damaging as it might otherwise have been. 

can't tell ya what to do about the cheesecake (yum!) but i will say that the weight watchers mini cakes -- chocolate frosting and carrot cake for instance! -- are delicious and 1 little one is 70 calories only. definitely good for sweet tooths as compared to 1000 calories in most cheesecake slices!!!!!  other things i eat to tide me over and keep me away from ordering dessert more than once every other week or so is to have chocolate fiber one bars (140 cals and high in fiber) or 100 calorie snack packs (either the fudge ones or even the chips ahoy chocolate chip cookie ones).  there's a psychological component to those packs too if you put in 1 at a time cuz then you've moved something sweet to your mouth a little over a dozen times and you feel satisfied :)

hope that helps! i worked all day yesterday and today (work finally got really busy!) so am feeling bad i haven't hit the gym since wednesday... lucky i had burned 1000+ calories 3 days in a row mon-wed but am still feeling bad cuz i have to work all day tomorrow again!!! :(

Hello everyone I know I haven't posted here in a while but I just wanted to update that I started back up with my exercise routine today! I am doing Power90 (cardio/circuit DVD) while it's still cold and snowy out.. then I'm going to start taking walks and lifting weights once it gets warmer out.

I must say I was so ready to give up even 5 minutes in to the DVD.. but I stuck with it and finished! It made me feel better to know I accomplished it so that's a good motivation boost Now I just hope I can keep this up!

Good morning everyone! Man....did that Intro to Spin class yesterday, after trying a spin class the day before and only lasting about 25 minutes. My butt hurts! I should have waited at least a day in between....whoops!

Oh well....I'll remember that for next time, and there will be a next time. Spinning is the best workout I've done. It is REALLY hard, but I'm going to do the Intro class on Saturdays for a few weeks and then try another "real" spin class. Ease myself into it! I feel so lucky because I still have one more to my weekend! I teach middle school and our school has "mid-winter break" tomorrow! So I get one more nice long day of no work! Although I will be planning and grading.....

Have a happy Sunday everyone! 

Hello everyone!!

My name is Nikki, I just turned 24 and I started my weight loss journey around 285 in December 2006.  I'm getting married this July so my ultimate goal was to become more healthy and fit so I looked great in my wedding dress! Today, I currently weigh 192, so I've almost hit the 100 lb mark!!! I'd like to weigh around 160 by the wedding, and eventually hit around 140. Breaking the 200 mark was such an awesome feeling, I dont think I've been this thin since I was a sophomore in high school! YAY!

I've accomplished this by consistently counting calories (started out around 1800 a day, now I stick to around 1400) and I exercise religiously!! I have an amazing personal trainer that I've used off and on over the past year to keep me motivated (and he's also become one of my very best friends, he's extremely supportive). It has been amazing journey so far and I'd love to be of help or advice to anyone that needs it! :)  Good luck to everyone at achieving their goals! 

I've only gotten a couple odd looks when asking for half the food to go into a box before they bring it out.  And I've never had anyone not do it.  It helps so much because you can't be tempted to eat what's not there!

Welcome pjdrive and niltzsch! And I second that congrats on the already successful weight loss you have had. That's amazing! So niltzsch - you have a personal trainer? Want to share any fantastic workouts? :)

hi all!

i was just reading the posts about the spinning classes. they sound awesome, but i can't do them because using any kind of bike severely hurts my lady places (tmi?). but, i did want to mention that this friday it was too icy to go to the gym, so i used one of the free exercise programs that comes with my cable service.

have any of you tried the biggest loser workout videos? this was an excerpt from that and i'm still hurting, 2 days later! i wanna say it's a good hurt, b/c i worked muscles i hadn't worked in who knows how long, but i'm really in pain. and then, like an idiot, i went to the gym yesterday and rocked it out for like an hour. i never exercise on the weekends but i did yesterday b/c i missed one of my weekdays b/c i went out. that didn't help at all. i hurt so much! i skipped the gym today, but i always skip sundays. i'm still debating exercising tomorrow. i want to b/c i don't want to get out of the habit, but i don't want to b/c i don't want to further injure myself. suggestions?

dalma--would either do a light work-out or just not work-out at all sot hat you don't hurt yourself anymore and can rest the body parts that need resting! Take care of yourself---we sadly have the rest of our lives to exercise!

I went and hiked 2 miles in the mountains--it was hard but I made it! I feel good, I"m really tried. I didn't have that great of a weekend food-wise but o'well, I will make better choices this week--I have 12 days until I weigh in (I only weigh in once a month) and I"m sure that 3 days won't ruin it all and that I still have time to lose a little! Have a great night ladies!

Good morning!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  I certainly had fun!  Went skydiving (which is my passion) for the first time since November...  It's been soooo cold in Toronto lately that I haven't been very motivated.  So yesterday when it was only -2 degrees, off I went, and I wasn't cold at all (I think the 4 pairs of pants and 6 shirts may have helped haha).  I had forgotten how good it feels, and how physically demanding it is!  One jump feels the same as an hour on the elliptical!  So I feel great today, very motivated.

Mikapu -- You will LOVE downtown Vancouver.  I used to live in the west end (English Bay), and you definitely need to see the neighborhood, it is STUNNING!

I don't know about you ladies, but I am ready to WORK at the gym this week!