So...had a bit of a back slide last night (true confessions here, ladies!). The contractor that came to do an estimate for our rec room didn't end up leaving until about 8:30pm, so DH and I ended up going out to eat. Had a chicken salad sandwich on wheat and some fries - not the best choice, but probably not the worst either. But - sh!t happens, so just gotta get up, dust myself off, and start over again.

Did my five mile walk this morning, had my turkey sausage, egg white and cheese on an English muffin and a cup of coffee for breakfast.

Pumpkin squash ravioli on deck for lunch with some dried apricots as a snack later this aternoon. Then, whole grain pasta with crushed tomatoes and spinach for dinner.

Have a great day today!!

^your meals always sound so good! makes me want to start cooking

ate well again last night but did feel a little hungry before bed. weather held out so went on a walk with the dog. did an ab workout this morning and am eating well so far - plus I downloaded the myfitnesspal app, so that'll be super helpful. commute this morning was super long - an hour and a half - so i feel a little "off" now.

my big accomplishment so far today was resisting "bagel (and sometimes donut) thursday" at work. tonight (and every other Thursday) I go to happy hour with some friends, so I'll have to try to be good there too.

need to buy a scale today so I can actually track my weight (and hopefully loss!).

Originally Posted by AJ1025

Hey, just noticed the upcoming nuptials- congratulations, that is awesome! I love a winter wedding!

thank you!!!

Originally Posted by eehlers

So...had a bit of a back slide last night (true confessions here, ladies!). The contractor that came to do an estimate for our rec room didn't end up leaving until about 8:30pm, so DH and I ended up going out to eat. Had a chicken salad sandwich on wheat and some fries - not the best choice, but probably not the worst either. But - sh!t happens, so just gotta get up, dust myself off, and start over again. Did my five mile walk this morning, had my turkey sausage, egg white and cheese on an English muffin and a cup of coffee for breakfast. Pumpkin squash ravioli on deck for lunch with some dried apricots as a snack later this aternoon. Then, whole grain pasta with crushed tomatoes and spinach for dinner. Have a great day today!!

Yum! Your meals do sound delish! Don't beat yourself up about the meal out- life happens and it sounds like you made a totally reasonable choice for your dinner. Have a good day too !

Welcome loveuga and izzy's mom!

Originally Posted by AJ1025

So glad you're in! I really struggle with being organized, but I'm getting better at it, I hope. Took my Paraty to the grocery store today to do lots of produce/essentials shopping. Didn't ogle the pastry counter too excitedly and managed to avoid temptation by spending an hour in the Berkeley Bowl's amazing produce section, which stretches out as far as the eye can see and has EVERY conceivable type of veggie and fruit you might want to eat. I love it there! It was a good first day back on track today and I feel so much better knowing we're all a team, with everyone working to improve their lives and healths! Whoo hooo!!

This is like heaven! And your Paraty!!!! Talk about eye candy!

Originally Posted by missmoz

Good morning ladies! I am off to subscribe to this thread now. Looks like I have missed a lot! So I am also trying to eat better and get more exercise because I would like to not only be healthier, but feel healthier. In a nutshell, I've been chubby all my life. Was never athletic like some of you ladies were. Not sure if anyone watches the real housewives of New Jersey (I really don't but I happened to catch some episodes last week when they were having reruns all day on bravo) where the daughter of Caroline is trying to lose weight and eat better but it is majorly hard on her because for her family, life seems to revolve around food. Her family gets together for Sunday dinners and they eat tons of carbs, etc. Its the same way for me... Sunday dinners at the parents house, tons of food, usually bad food I may add. Growing up I ate lots of fried foods, carbs, and red meat which is not unusual for my ethnic background. I also was always given large portions of food because my parents wanted to make sure we were well fed and not starving, I think because they did not have that when they were growing up. I also never got involved in sports or any activities like that because my mother thought it was "too dangerous", we would "get injured", and it was not what a nice girl should be doing. For the past several years I've been adjusting my eating habits and been trying to incorporate exercise into my life. It hasn't been too hard for me to eat better, of course I still get those cravings for fried, comfort foods, but the hardest part is the exercise because I just cannot find the time. Like eehlers, I have a long commute to work and get up very early. LA traffic is the pits and I can spend anytime between 2-4 hours on the road each day. At this time, my only exercise is doing power walks. I try to either do them during my lunch break or in the evenings with DH. I do not yet have a routine established, so I am lucky if I get in 2 walks a week. I know, I am bad! Thanks ladies for sharing your stories. It is really inspiring me to get out there and start exercising some more!

Hi, missmoz! Yes, I'm all for power walks too. Two a week is better than none.

Originally Posted by thedseer

Hi guys - I haven't been on the forum too much lately, but would love to join you. I was very active in high school, doing multiple sports, then in college I got out of shape and gained about 30 pounds. A couple of years out of college, I decided to make a change, found a running buddy, and started running again. When I started I could barely run a mile, and then we worked up to a marathon. We lived together for a few years, so it made it easy to stay on track - we could help motivate each other to run and eat healthy together, and we had a personal trainer come to our house 1 or 2 times a week to work on lifting and core exercises. I lost a good amount of weight and gained a lot of muscle. Then she got married and moved in with her husband, and I moved to DC. I kept up with my running for a while (loved running through the city and Rock Creek Park), but I started living with guys, and I find it harder to keep a healthy died while living with guys (and I also got lazy about cooking). In the past 2 years, I don't think I've gained a lot weight (maybe 10-15 pounds?), but I've lost a lot of muscle, and most of my weight gain has been in the past year - most of my clothes still fit, but recently I've noticed that some things are too small/getting tight. My big motivation now is that I'm getting married in November 2013, and I'd like to get back in shape before the wedding. I also in general just want to make a good lifestyle change. I'll be 28 next month, and I just know it's going to get harder to make the change as I get older. I've been running sporadically and also walking, but I think the key will be to have a regular routine going (even though it's so hot and humid outside). I mostly need to work on my diet. Living with 2 guys and with none of us loving to cook, it's often a lot easier to just buy/eat beer and pizza DF and I bought a house this month and have a grill, so I'm hoping that will help motivate me/us to cook more/grill up veggies. I've been a vegetarian (with periods of veganism) for 14 years but am more of a pescatarian (sp?) now, and would like to get in the habit of cooking and eating fish at home. I've read through everyone's posts and am going to subscribe to this thread - I think this will be a great way to keep me motivated!

Nice to see you here, thedseer! Another DMV-ite! Hope you and eehlers are keeping yourself well hydrated! Looks like it's a hot summer there!

Big congrats to you on your nuptials!!!!!

Originally Posted by eehlers

So...had a bit of a back slide last night (true confessions here, ladies!). The contractor that came to do an estimate for our rec room didn't end up leaving until about 8:30pm, so DH and I ended up going out to eat. Had a chicken salad sandwich on wheat and some fries - not the best choice, but probably not the worst either. But - sh!t happens, so just gotta get up, dust myself off, and start over again. Did my five mile walk this morning, had my turkey sausage, egg white and cheese on an English muffin and a cup of coffee for breakfast. Pumpkin squash ravioli on deck for lunch with some dried apricots as a snack later this aternoon. Then, whole grain pasta with crushed tomatoes and spinach for dinner. Have a great day today!!

Agreed! You have the yummiest sounding meals!

Pretty good day today, though I overate at lunch today (though with healthy food- even so, not a great feeling). I seriously am so tired I don't know how I'm going to make it through tomorrow, but my sister is coming to visit this weekend, so I need to clean the house and cook and do a bunch of stuff tomorrow night that I actually find relaxing and fun, so I'll be having a happy Friday night in to recuperate from the week! Hope everyone else is doing well today!

[QUOTE=Crazy4Handbags;22413885]Nice to see you here, thedseer! Another DMV-ite! Hope you and eehlers are keeping yourself well hydrated! Looks like it's a hot summer there!

Big congrats to you on your nuptials!!!!!

QUOTE]

Thank you!!!

Day 3 here for me. Looks like it's going to be stormy for the next week :( Hoping I can find some non-rainy periods to get some good walking or running in this weekend.

Originally Posted by thedseer

Oooh, that's great that they have it at Giant - I'll have to look tonight. When we lived in Fairfax County, it was mostly Safeways around and I was bummed that I couldn't find it, but the nearest grocery store to me now is Giant. The nearest Trader Joe's is in Reston, which isn't really convenient.

Do you have a membership to Costco? I buy the big package of organic Quinoa which lasts me a while. I live in Fairfax Co., so I frequent Wegmans and Trader Joe's quite often. I'm fortunate that TJ's is right up the street from me. I'm sure Whole foods carries Quinoa also.

Oh, Congrats on your upcoming nuptials!

Originally Posted by gators

Do you have a membership to Costco? I buy the big package of organic Quinoa which lasts me a while. I live in Fairfax Co., so I frequent Wegmans and Trader Joe's quite often. I'm fortunate that TJ's is right up the street from me. I'm sure Whole foods carries Quinoa also. Oh, Congrats on your upcoming nuptials!

Thank you!
Good idea on Costco - I don't have a membership, but there's one pretty close to where I live now, so I should look into joining now that it's convenient again. I don't live near a Whole Foods unfortunately, but there are a couple near my work (I live in Loudoun Co., work in Fairfax Co.), so I'll have to check that out too. I love the produce at WF, but I tend to stray from my grocery list and spend more money because I see so many things I like!

Originally Posted by thedseer

Thank you! Good idea on Costco - I don't have a membership, but there's one pretty close to where I live now, so I should look into joining now that it's convenient again. I don't live near a Whole Foods unfortunately, but there are a couple near my work (I live in Loudoun Co., work in Fairfax Co.), so I'll have to check that out too. I love the produce at WF, but I tend to stray from my grocery list and spend more money because I see so many things I like!

Yeah, i tend to stray also when I go to whole foods. I try to limit my WF trips, I spend way too much. Hence the name whole paycheck! !

How's everyone doing today so far?

I'm having one of those days where I'm really craving crappy food and I kind of phoned in my workout this morning- I'm going to shake it off by taking the dogs for a hike later and I'm armed with some healthy snacks, but I'm really dragging right now . Oof, at least it's Friday!

^I'm starting to get really bored with my food choices, but I've been planning out my meals and only buying 3 days worth at a time, with the same things for b, l, d and snack those three days. Today is Day 3, so I'll plan out the next 3 days tonight and buy new food tomorrow and try to change it up a bit. Prevents me from having extra stuff around the house that I may be tempted by, plus I was curious about keeping track of how much I was spending per meal/day compared to normal.

I'm sure it'll get harder once DF gets back from his work trip, unless I can get him to join me in eating better, or when my roomie goes to the grocery store/does a beer run - DF, roomie and I usually buy groceries together and split the cost three ways, but I've been buying separate stuff this week and will probably stick to that.

I really need to workout-really hoping I can muster up the motivation this weekend.

Originally Posted by thedseer

^I'm starting to get really bored with my food choices, but I've been planning out my meals and only buying 3 days worth at a time, with the same things for b, l, d and snack those three days. Today is Day 3, so I'll plan out the next 3 days tonight and buy new food tomorrow and try to change it up a bit. Prevents me from having extra stuff around the house that I may be tempted by, plus I was curious about keeping track of how much I was spending per meal/day compared to normal. I'm sure it'll get harder once DF gets back from his work trip, unless I can get him to join me in eating better, or when my roomie goes to the grocery store/does a beer run - DF, roomie and I usually buy groceries together and split the cost three ways, but I've been buying separate stuff this week and will probably stick to that. I really need to workout-really hoping I can muster up the motivation this weekend.

I have a similar scorched-earth policy when it comes to tempting foods around the house- I know if there's junk in the house, I'll eat it, so I usually stock up once a week on produce and other healthy foods (well, I do this when I'm eating well- when I'm not, I eat out and just keep snacks around the house). One thing I really try to do, to avoid boredom, is make healthy staples that can get thrown into anything- like quinoa (which I know you like!), brown rice, wheat pasta and carmelized onions- this way, when I get home, I add a little bit of whatever staple grain I've made to lots of different types of meals.

Also, I'm totally NOT a morning person, but I've (mostly) trained myself to primarily work out in the morning (because I have zero time during the rest of the day) by remembering this one rule: the only hard part is getting there. Once you cross the hurdle of actually getting up, getting dressed and driving to the gym, the actual workout is rarely anything other than fun and edifying. Hope you have a good day and a good workout this weekend!

I'm typically a morning worker-outer as well - I find if I get it done right off the bat before the day gets away from me, I'm more likely to stick to the habit in the long term.

Today would be an exception. On Fridays, I usually work out in the evenings - mainly because I don't have to rush around after getting home from work to get things done before going to bed and getting up butt early the next day for work. Since I can sleep in on Saturdays, I like to do my exercise bike on Friday nights - read that week's issue of Entertainment Weekly or catch up on the umpteen kamillion books I've loaded onto my Kindle, but haven't had opportunity to read yet. It's not the most intense workout, but hey - calorie burn is calorie burn, right?

Since I'll be doing a big ol' veggie overloaded salad for dinner, which is pretty low on calories, along with an hour on the bike, I treated myself to going out to lunch today with a coworker. We went to a local Greek restaurant that I love and I got souvlaki and fries. Didn't eat many of the fries, but man...that souvlaki was AWESOME!

Tomorrow morning I'll be doing my baseline weigh-in to determine exactly how much weight I need to lose. I'm nervous since I haven't weighed myself in a while, so wish me luck! I'll check in tomorrow morning with my official target of pounds to lose.

Hope everyone has an awesome Friday night and a great kick-off to the weekend!

Did the official baseline weigh-in today. And...my goal is to lose 34 pounds. About what I expected...disappointed I let it get this far, but determined to get it off!