Weekly Workout Thread 5th March till 11th March.

[KimberlyH]

merrijoy: Isn''t that funny! My desk sat across from the kitchen facing into to and she had to pass me from her office to go in there (we housed a ton of crappy snack foods) and she would look at the picture, come look at me and then just go back to her office.

Thanks so much, Rod! You''re so sweet. I wanna see your before and after''s, I bet they are as fabulous!

Mara: Post them all! It''s great to celebrate accomplishments, the more pictures the better.

Thank you, elaila. That''s our bedroom fireplace, it''s really neat. We use it all of the time instead of turning on the heater.

 

[TravelingGal]

Aw Lorelei...a hurt toe is the last thing you needed....hope you feel better.

And Kimberly! Wow, you look great! Very motivating indeed!!!

I got a later start this morning so had an early lunch. Chicken caesar salad. Pilates this afternoon, and if I am feeling energetic, I may go to the gym afterwards to do some cardio.

Goal this week is to burn 2000 cals. Food goal is to average 1500. I think I gotta step it up...is it better to decrease average cal a day to 1400, or put in another workout? Hmmm...

 

[Ellen]

Kimberly, you should be SO proud of yourself!! You look great girl, really.

And don''t beat yourself up for getting to where you did, it''s really moot now. Just pat yourself on the back, spring for some new clothes, and know that you won''t be down that road again.

 

[Mara]

okay here's my collage. it's just pictures i had on ofoto so it's not like the greatest representation, aka i never really did a before and after...but in these you can see my face differences big time! the first one on the left was taken in houston when alj and i were together in May 2006. then the middle one is at my cousin's wedding in Sept 2006. already you can see a difference in the definition in my neck bones vs May and my face is thinner...then the last one on the right doesn't show any upper body changes really but it does show my face is even thinner. And that was taken in Jan 2007. weight wise in May I was 150; in Sept I was (guesstimation since I can't recall exactly but i know i was losing) about 143/144ish...and then in Jan to now I am 134/133 so my body looks even more diff than the Sept picture. i had the same kind of changes in my lower body too, it has thinned out a ton. my lower body aka legs and butt and my upper body aka neck and arms and face is where you probably visually see my changes the most. anyway i will see if i have anything else that shows whole body or maybe have greg take something...but for now this works i think!! LOL also random note but sometimes when i see older pictures i miss my boobs, since they did shrink. hehe.

so went to TJ's at lunch..whee...heaven. i got some more 0% fage, blueberry fiber cakes/muffins, some hummus to pair with carrot sticks for a low GI lunch (did anyone read what i wrote bout the high GI foods vs low in the other thread? burns more fat!!), more of the fat-free lunch burritos, and i found something interesting! cinammon covered almonds. they are 1/4c for 140 cals. which is so interesting because regular roasted unsalted almonds were like 160 for 1/4c! random? and a lot of the other almonds were more than 140 and they surely didnt have yummy stuff on it like cinnamon. so now i just have to measure out the whole 1/4c thing because i am sure it's way easy to overeate them, they look TASTY.

lunch is TJ hummus and carrot sticks, snack is going to be a blueberry fiber cake or 100 cal hostess cakes, and yummy fresh grapes..i had an apple earlier between lunch and breakfast.

oh note to you TJ lovers. their regular hummus is 70-80 cals for 2tblspoons, whereas their roasted garlic one and spicy one is only 50 for 2 tblspoons. considering i love the garlic and the spicy one i was jazzed to see that but kinda interesting? anyway figured i'd note it.

oh TG i would add another workout in honestly. i don't like dipping too low in cals because then i want more and tend to crave more. for me i can do like 1400-1550 per day but my average due to weekends is more like 1600-1700ish. so don't be TOO strict or else you might binge. it's easier for me to work out one more day at 400-500 cals or something than cut back too much on food. what do you think is mentally best for you?

 

[KimberlyH]

Thanks Ellen and TG!

So cute Miss Mara, and there''s definitely a difference. Thanks for sharing!

 

[TravelingGal]

Mara, what cute pics. I definitely see a difference in the last to the first. The area around your cheeks has slimmed down. You look great girl!

I think an extra workout would be the easiest, but boy...considering I am doing something 4-5 times a week, that''s hard! The issue is that I do pilates twice a week, and those are low cal workouts. But I love them because they really strengten me up. I will try today to go straight from the studio to the gym for an hour on the elliptical. That will give me an extra 500-600 just for being out and about and already dressed to go. But of our curiosity, do you all think 1200-1300 cal eating days is too low? I wonder at what level your body thinks it is starving...

I just love food too much, and weekends are pretty scary right now!!!

 

[Mara]

yeah its funny i think the area in my face is what shows a huge amount of what i have lost. i get total chipmunk cheeks when i gain weight. and it was kind of one of the last places to go...along with my hips, hehe.

TG..i hear ya on the workouts, i know what you mean about pilates but i am such a calorie consuming machine that i HAVE to burn it off as well. can you do pilates at home or take the class then do a workout on cardio? a lot of people do that at our gym...they do the pilates then do like 30 min cardio to burn the cals. you''d just have to budget more time for an extra workout but you could probably do it. just an idea! or add in more things outside of the gym, aka more walking..or taking the stairs or parking farther and walking, walking at lunch or whatever. i think anything you can add in counts.

maybe cut back to 1450 and add in a bit more workout. it doesn''t have to be all extreme at 1200 yanno!

 

[turtledazzle]

Kimberly ~ one word: hot! Wow, you look fantastic.

Mara ~ great pictures! You''re beautiful! You can definitely see the progression of slimming in your face. I was cleaning up the other day and came across a picture of me with a group of friends from many years ago. FI happened to come into the room and asked when was that? It was an awful picture of me sometime around when I was my heaviest (~135 pounds) -- my face was so much fuller than it is now (~114 pounds) ... and we won''t talk about how much smaller my a** is now

. It''s funny -- he says he never thought I had much weight to lose, but seeing that picture made both of us perhaps think otherwise!

Over the weekend I made the pumpkin bran muffins. Delish! And so filling! I made many substitutions and they came out quite good. I used unsweetened applesauce for the oil, a little more than half the recommended sugar, and had to "make" buttermilk (I don''t buy buttermilk, so I didn''t have any on hand -- searched the all-knowing internet and found that lemon juice+milk+5 minutes = buttermilk subsitution.) I don''t know how it changed the taste, but they got thumbs up from me, the FI, and my mother. I did have to bake them longer than suggested ~ I actually took them out and ended up putting them back in the oven because the center was not cooked (even though a toothpick came out clean). Towards the end, I put them in upside down to crisp up the bottoms as well.

I''m going to a circuit class tonight -- looking forward to it! Didn''t get in any real exercise over the weekend because I was so busy with wedding stuff, so tonight''s class is welcomed!

Happy Monday to all!

 

[mrssalvo]

Kimberly, wow you look incredible and mara i never thought you looked like you needed to lose weight in the pics I'd seen of you but I can tell a difference in the pics you posted. you're a hotty too...

So, today hubby started really calorie counting and keeping at his max. we'd tracked our diets for several days just making notes but not really doing anything different but today no more going over. so far it's been good other than I'm so hungry for dinner and it's not even 5:00 here yet. tonight is healthy taco's with black beans so we should easily keep where we need to for the day.

I'm sad to say that a few months ago I let our YMCA memberhip lapse b/c I just wasn't using it

. well, this weekend in the mail came a "we want you back" card that will waive the joining fee if we rejoin this month and we're going to do it

hubby even said he'd start going too so we should both see some good progress with gym workouts added in. Plus my girls love to swim and they have an indoor and outdoor pool.

DJ, enjoy that lobsterfest..

Rod, any news on the job front today?

 

[Mara]

yay mrs salvo for rejoining the gym!! and yay for watching what you guys eat too. it will be hard at first, so you might want to add some 'allowances' in...aka an extra piece of fruit when you get hungry or something like a 60 cal yogurt...because it does help fill the gap sometimes when you are starving, you don't want to overeat at dinner or be counting the minutes til dinner...but good luck!!

turtle...funny about the pictures...and what your FI said too. at first my husband wasn't sure he liked me losing weight but now he is more used to me and he is way more like 'i love your new figure'..but he was so sweet before and was always like 'i didn't think you needed to lose weight'...but now that i have he finds he likes it more...he's proud of me..and i am way more confident about it as well which is a nice perk.

thanks for the sweet comments everyone...i know it wasn't like i was 'overweight' before...at 150 and 5'7" i was basically still in the okay range, and my BMI was like 23, and i worked out so i was kinda 'fit'...but i just knew i could look BETTER. and i was tired of wishing i looked better when the means to achieve it was within my grasp the entire time. it's all up to US to do what we want with our bodies, it's our body, we can make it perform as we wish (most of the time). and a little self-control never hurt anyone right?! thats what i tell myself anyway. and the best part for me was that i managed to just ratchet up workouts and eat well during the week and then still do our splurgey eat-out thing on the weekends which was really important to me. i just love my good food on the weekends and giving that up would have not been a good thing long-term for me. so i am all about moderation when possible.

oh and DJ i can't fault you on the lobsterfest. i have seen the commercials recently on TV and gone HMM. so tempting! lol. but the last time i ate at RL i got sick so i never went back...hehee. so i guess that's a good thing for my waistline?

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 3/5/2007 5:14:55 PM
Author: Mara
yeah its funny i think the area in my face is what shows a huge amount of what i have lost. i get total chipmunk cheeks when i gain weight. and it was kind of one of the last places to go...along with my hips, hehe.

TG..i hear ya on the workouts, i know what you mean about pilates but i am such a calorie consuming machine that i HAVE to burn it off as well. can you do pilates at home or take the class then do a workout on cardio? a lot of people do that at our gym...they do the pilates then do like 30 min cardio to burn the cals. you''d just have to budget more time for an extra workout but you could probably do it. just an idea! or add in more things outside of the gym, aka more walking..or taking the stairs or parking farther and walking, walking at lunch or whatever. i think anything you can add in counts.

maybe cut back to 1450 and add in a bit more workout. it doesn''t have to be all extreme at 1200 yanno!

Yeah...the problem is that I am not EXACT on my cal counts, but I''ll see what little I can cut out from what I do regularly (like using even less milk in my cereal).

The pilates is at a pilates studio, so I''d be going to two different places if I wanted gym cardio. I take semi private lessons with 2 other gal pals.

And I work from home...which you''d think it''d be easy to get in 10 minutes of bopping around or something, but I don''t know why it''s so hard. Guess it''s because when I am not working, I''m reading and posting on PS!

 

[Mara]

aww come on girl, you could totally beef up those pilates days by adding a long walk on each day..!! 45 minutes for 300 cals? something? hehe.

i was perusing hungry-girl.com's latest stuff and i see that the 100 cal hostess cakes are apparently a huge hit over there...so funny that i saw them like the WEEK they came out apparently.

also seems like everyone is on the 100 cal snack wagon...two that I found REALLY interesting...esp in light of the recently turned-down Girl Scout cookies thin mints (that I am still thinking about)...

Supermarket shelves are OVERFLOWING with 100-cal options. Here are some MORE of the latest...

Entenmann's Little Bites 100 Calorie Packs - Choose from four 100 Calorie Packs varieties -- Blueberry Muffins, Brownie Squares, Chocolate Chip Squares and Strawberry Squares. They taste GREAT and are basically teeny tiny versions of the real thing. You only get 5 "bites" per pouch but they're perfect for attacking cravings (especially the brownies!)...

Keebler Right Bites - Oooooh... here's a good one. Those elves have outdone themselves this time. Their little bags of Grasshopper cookies taste EXACTLY like Thin Mints (you know, the famous Girl Scout cookies!). You get a whole SLEW (more than 10) of these babies for 100 calories! They've also got a Cinna Bites cinnamon graham version. Those are good, too.

Interesting huh?! Also seems like there are new 100 cal pack releases every week which she reviews as well. Definitely gotta stay up on it! Though...my fave little 'snack' now between meal and stuff is more like 60-75 cals...why don't thye come out with more of THOSE? LOL.

Oh and last week I put in my rave reviews for finding the 'dulce de leche' caramel and vanilla 60 cal jello puding cups in the store? I was like gosh my store must have been totally sold out of this cuz I have never seen it before. WELL it's NEW. I saw the ad for it in my US Weekly! So I was like AH HA...no wonder I never saw it. haha. So I picked up another pack of it yesterday at the store, cuz I just know that these are going to be sold out all the time. They are SO GOOD. If anyone is looking for a deviation from chocolate 60 cal jello pudding or something, try these, vanilla and caramel and whipped cream? YUM.

 

[basil]

Hey all -

Everyone looks great! It''s really motivating to see the changes in the pictures!

After a day off from exercising yesterday, I decided to change it up a bit today, so I did a Spinervals video that I had from the days that I was actually trying to compete. I remember them being hard, but this just kicked my butt! The MPH wasn''t very different than what I usually do, but this was intervals and hill sets and high cadence spinning. Phew! I think I''ll do one of these once a week or so from now on, just to keep myself on my toes.

Breakfast was frozen waffles. I had 2 lunches, sort of. A salad with lettuce, tomato, onions, salsa, and tiny bit (like 1 tablespoon each) of ground beef and sour cream. Then I had a turkey wrap with honey mustard and baby spinach. Dinner is going to be taco pizza with my new wraps - refried beans, cheese, salsa, Fage, and crumbled baked doritos. Salad on the side.

 

[Mara]

umm okay. trying these. very soon. chocolate fudge, pumpkin and peanut butter? 63 cals?! ALL OVER IT!

http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/chewdetails.php?isid=978

 

[Rod]

Date: 3/5/2007 3:42:18 PM
Author: KimberlyH
merrijoy: Isn''t that funny! My desk sat across from the kitchen facing into to and she had to pass me from her office to go in there (we housed a ton of crappy snack foods) and she would look at the picture, come look at me and then just go back to her office.

Thanks so much, Rod! You''re so sweet. I wanna see your before and after''s, I bet they are as fabulous!

Mara: Post them all! It''s great to celebrate accomplishments, the more pictures the better.

Thank you, elaila. That''s our bedroom fireplace, it''s really neat. We use it all of the time instead of turning on the heater.

I will post some pictures someday when we have our stuff with us again. I can find a picture of me in my fat days, but I don''t have any pictures of me in my current stage and the last thing I want is you to just see fat Rod.......LOL.

 

[Rod]

Date: 3/5/2007 5:50:59 PM
Author: mrssalvo
Kimberly, wow you look incredible and mara i never thought you looked like you needed to lose weight in the pics I''d seen of you but I can tell a difference in the pics you posted. you''re a hotty too...

So, today hubby started really calorie counting and keeping at his max. we''d tracked our diets for several days just making notes but not really doing anything different but today no more going over. so far it''s been good other than I''m so hungry for dinner and it''s not even 5:00 here yet. tonight is healthy taco''s with black beans so we should easily keep where we need to for the day.

I''m sad to say that a few months ago I let our YMCA memberhip lapse b/c I just wasn''t using it

. well, this weekend in the mail came a ''we want you back'' card that will waive the joining fee if we rejoin this month and we''re going to do it

hubby even said he''d start going too so we should both see some good progress with gym workouts added in. Plus my girls love to swim and they have an indoor and outdoor pool.

DJ, enjoy that lobsterfest..

Rod, any news on the job front today?

Mrssalvo, sorry no news yet. We''re still not sure what the future holds for us, but I guess time will tell. I just wish something would happen. Either my old company makes me an offer and we go back to Tampa, or our condo in Tampa sells and we buy the condo up here. We just need to stop living in such limbo, which is really taking a toll on us right now..........Thanks for asking!

 

[turtledazzle]

Rod ~ I hope everything works out for you guys. Being in "limbo" isn''t fun!

MrsS ~ Yay for rejoining the gym! It''s great that your husband will start going, too. My mom goes to some of the senior classes at the Green Hills Y -- it''s so nice! (well, minus the parking lot construction ...) I have a free gym membership where I work, but if I didn''t the Y would be my choice.

Yeah, Mara -- you definitely do not look like you needed to lose weight in the far left pic ... but the far right pic definitely shows a leaner, more toned version of yourself. Pretty much the same goes for me -- at my heaviest my BMI was ~23 and now it is 19.6. But at my heaviest I definitely needed to lose some weight for my frame. I tend to gain my weight in my hips/thighs/butt area -- hence, my a** is much smaller now!

From the waist up I don''t think the actual weight difference shows as much except that my face is much leaner -- and my arms are super toned now (and thankfully the boobs didn''t go with the weight loss ~ I''d miss them, too!). FI definitely loves the leaner me -- but he loved the ''softer'' me as well

So I went to my cardio circuit class tonight, and the first 45 minutes were great and hard. Then for some reason I started feeling sick -- really nauseous. Still not feeling great right now, so I guess I''m going to have a lower calorie day than normal. Hope this passes and that I''m not getting sick or anything. I didn''t sleep much/well last night and I''m pretty stressed with work and wedding stuff right now, so I am going to blame it on that for now and hope I return to normal tomorrow.

 

[KimberlyH]

Thanks so much mrs. salvo and turtledazzle. It's amazing to think that was me, I don't even recognize myself in that woman. I'm so high energy, but when I was heavy I was totally lethargic. The couch was my best friend.

So my new commitment to myself is to move for 30 minutes every day. I'm going to continue with my goal of 2,000 calories burned each week, but I'm adding the 30 minutes a day thing too. There's no reason not to go out and take a walk or do something physical, even if it's low key, for that short amount of time.

John is making some Indian dish for dinner that smells delish, if it turns out to be so I'll post it on the WWT recipes thread.

ETA: That whole boob loss thing is beyond me. I'm so darn jealous!

Happy Monday night!

 

[Mara]

rod you posted a fabulous picture of you previously that was before and after... i will see if i can dig it up and repost it!

okay so i was thinking about those stupid fudgy PB brownies all afternoon (thanks hungry girl). on the way home i had to stop and get some ff milk and TP so i went to longs and they had a special 99cent deal on duncan hines fudgy brownie mix, so i said what the heck and picked it up. but i think i need pumpkin. anyhow, interestingly enough, the brownie mix has a low-fat/low-cal version on it as well which is basically just the mix, water, applesauce and one egg (i would only use egg white) which makes them 120 cals each for 20 brownies. i do think it's cool that these cake companies try to give you ways to make the stuff not quite so bad for you. the mix itself is 110 cals so the 'made' brownies at 120 are not bad at all. throw a little slow churned mocha almond fudge and fat free whipped on it and you have a low-cal dessert!!

however, i am not going to make them yet because i am sans pumpkin but also i have a ton of other yummy things i can be eating and i find when i overdose on yummy things in the household, my thoughts turn to always eating yummy sugary stuff rather than fruits and stuff as well, so it's better to 'ration' out my yummy items for times when i really need them. aka right now i have been eating those cinnamon rolls for breakkie which are a huge treat for me, and i have my new dulce de leche amazing pudding cups...and i still have the 30 cal truffles which i have been slowly eating...so really i don't need a fudgy brownie thing going on right now. maybe later this week or next week. we shall see! i do however need some new MUFFINS...and i was thinking of just making the fat free krusteaz blueberry mix that i made a month or so ago, they are super yummy and 120 cals so i could use them as daytime snacks...but not really much on the fiber or health front other than non-fat. i don't know how motivated i will feel tonite though. i should just make my fave applesauce oat bran ones and call it a day...but i'm feeling a little lazy, lol. also i have a lot of snacks right now like the hostess cakes (which have 5g fiber!), grapes, yogurt/fage, and granola bars to be eating up...so again i'm just trying not to OD on too many options. i end up getting stuff at the store, then being forced to eat the perishables so the things like fiber one bars, luna bars, or non perishables tend to languish sometimes for a week or so before i can get to them and sometimes i miss having them!

dinner WAS going to be the leftover pasta with new primavera sauce but i am just not feeling it tonite after having it last nite! so i am going to make these parmesan gnocchi that i picked up at the store with a tomato cream sauce...it's actually way less cals than the pasta from last nite...so funny because we LOVE gnocchi and i love that it's low cal compared to regular pasta. i would eat it all the time, i'm not a huge pasta pasta fan but i adore gnocchi. so we'll have the gnocchi with some multigrain bread toasted and small salads on the side. dessert will be dulce de leche with whipped cream, yummmmmm!! then we'll have the leftover pasta with fresh primavera sauce on like wednesday or something when it is more 'new' to us then, hehe.

no workout tonite, my much needed day off...but it's back to the gym tomorrow. hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the week so far!!

PS kimberly i love your goal of moving 30 minutes extra per day. i was thinking about that on the way home. now that weather here is getting nicer and also the DST is going into effect what, in a week? we'll have more daylight. so i am going to try to get P out for a walk on the days that i don't work out...i added in extra walks last summer while losing weight and found it very motivating to get out in the morning or something, not so much as a workout but just to get out and be active...i'd do my workout on top of it. i did that like 3x a week maybe. and i think it does help...esp if you are trying to meet a goal or similar.

 

[Kaleigh]

Kimberly you look terrific!!! Good for you. And Mara, you look amazing too!!

Rod just wanted to pop in and wish you well. I''m keeping my fingers crossed for you guys, Tampa was always your heart. I hope they compensate you well. Hubby is in Tampa right now on Business and said how beautiful it is.

 

[Rod]

Date: 3/5/2007 9:43:38 PM
Author: Mara
rod you posted a fabulous picture of you previously that was before and after... i will see if i can dig it up and repost it!

okay so i was thinking about those stupid fudgy PB brownies all afternoon (thanks hungry girl). on the way home i had to stop and get some ff milk and TP so i went to longs and they had a special 99cent deal on duncan hines fudgy brownie mix, so i said what the heck and picked it up. but i think i need pumpkin. anyhow, interestingly enough, the brownie mix has a low-fat/low-cal version on it as well which is basically just the mix, water, applesauce and one egg (i would only use egg white) which makes them 120 cals each for 20 brownies. i do think it''s cool that these cake companies try to give you ways to make the stuff not quite so bad for you. the mix itself is 110 cals so the ''made'' brownies at 120 are not bad at all. throw a little slow churned mocha almond fudge and fat free whipped on it and you have a low-cal dessert!!

however, i am not going to make them yet because i am sans pumpkin but also i have a ton of other yummy things i can be eating and i find when i overdose on yummy things in the household, my thoughts turn to always eating yummy sugary stuff rather than fruits and stuff as well, so it''s better to ''ration'' out my yummy items for times when i really need them. aka right now i have been eating those cinnamon rolls for breakkie which are a huge treat for me, and i have my new dulce de leche amazing pudding cups...and i still have the 30 cal truffles which i have been slowly eating...so really i don''t need a fudgy brownie thing going on right now. maybe later this week or next week. we shall see! i do however need some new MUFFINS...and i was thinking of just making the fat free krusteaz blueberry mix that i made a month or so ago, they are super yummy and 120 cals so i could use them as daytime snacks...but not really much on the fiber or health front other than non-fat. i don''t know how motivated i will feel tonite though. i should just make my fave applesauce oat bran ones and call it a day...but i''m feeling a little lazy, lol. also i have a lot of snacks right now like the hostess cakes (which have 5g fiber!), grapes, yogurt/fage, and granola bars to be eating up...so again i''m just trying not to OD on too many options. i end up getting stuff at the store, then being forced to eat the perishables so the things like fiber one bars, luna bars, or non perishables tend to languish sometimes for a week or so before i can get to them and sometimes i miss having them!

dinner WAS going to be the leftover pasta with new primavera sauce but i am just not feeling it tonite after having it last nite! so i am going to make these parmesan gnocchi that i picked up at the store with a tomato cream sauce...it''s actually way less cals than the pasta from last nite...so funny because we LOVE gnocchi and i love that it''s low cal compared to regular pasta. i would eat it all the time, i''m not a huge pasta pasta fan but i adore gnocchi. so we''ll have the gnocchi with some multigrain bread toasted and small salads on the side. dessert will be dulce de leche with whipped cream, yummmmmm!! then we''ll have the leftover pasta with fresh primavera sauce on like wednesday or something when it is more ''new'' to us then, hehe.

no workout tonite, my much needed day off...but it''s back to the gym tomorrow. hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the week so far!!

PS kimberly i love your goal of moving 30 minutes extra per day. i was thinking about that on the way home. now that weather here is getting nicer and also the DST is going into effect what, in a week? we''ll have more daylight. so i am going to try to get P out for a walk on the days that i don''t work out...i added in extra walks last summer while losing weight and found it very motivating to get out in the morning or something, not so much as a workout but just to get out and be active...i''d do my workout on top of it. i did that like 3x a week maybe. and i think it does help...esp if you are trying to meet a goal or similar.

Mara, that would be something if you could find it. I tried without any success. So, thanks if you can!!

 

[Mara]

here you go rod!!! so awesome..huge congrats again!

yay for sushi and workouts! hehe.

 

[Rod]

Thank you so much Mara.......How did you find it????? I can't even find it on my home PC, so thanks again for finding it. I've changed even more since that picture was taken. I need to take a more current picture and post it so you can see my progress! Anyway, thanks again!!

ps: you are right.....yay for sushi and workouts!!!!

 

[Mara]

definitely take another recent picture...!

i found it by searching ''rod poster''....after a few other keywords didn''t work...!! then i saw the workout thread and i knew it was in one of those..and whala!

 

[Rod]

Well, I was going through my posts one......by......one.......by........excruciating, to say the least. Man, I've written a lot of drivel in a year and two months.......LOL What on earth did I do before I discovered my PS family? And such changes in my life in that time too. I'll try to get a better picture soon and post it. The pictures you posted earlier are so cute. Not that your picture on the left looks like someone who needed to lose weight, but the picture on the right looks like someone who is most definitely healthier and more fit. There's just a tighter more fit look in your more recent face. Again, thanks for finding my little poster!!

 

[Sevenwires]

Okay, I’m back in the groove of things. I recently took a month long vacation to Asia I finally made up my mind to get with the program. I went on my trip and then came back hating myself! Let’s see … before I started dating my boyfriend, I was 5’3” and 108 pounds. Fast forward 3 years, I’m 125 pounds! I feel disgusted with myself! I’ve kinda been in and out of the whole pricescope WWT mainly due to laziness and procrastination. But since I’ve been on my trip it’s really made me realize that I really don’t like myself anymore. I realized that when the whole trip I found myself avoiding to take pictures. So I came back last Monday and I’m really ready to make some changes. I remember reading something Mara said a few posts back something about this whole getting fit business really depends on “how much you want it”. Okay, I guess I didn’t want it bad enough.. but now I think I do. Since I’ve been back last Monday I’ve been at the gym doing cardio every single day and I haven’t missed a day. And you know what (?), I feel great! I feel so much better about myself…. Could it be all just in my head? I started out with the uphill treadmill walking… doing about 1 hour 15 minutes, and burning about 520 calories. But for the past 2 workouts I’ve been doing the elliptical and burning 650+ calories in 55 minutes! ~ Oh wait, back up a bit, did I say I feel great with my workouts? Okay, that’s ONLY afterwards… while I’m doing it, half the time I feel like I’m about to die..and I just want to stop. Like the elliptical, right now I do it at Level 2, rpm 70.. and I’ll go for almost an hour or so. But during the first 20 minutes I feel out of breath, my butt hurts, my thighs are sore…. Then if I push and push and push.. maybe around 20 minutes or so… I’ll catch a wave or something and just ride it for a bit.. then before I know it (and maybe it’s cuz the beat of my music changes), I’ll feel like oh boy, I’m tired again… it kinda just goes back and forth like that for the entire workout. But during my last 5 minutes, I really just pump my legs really hard… and try to maintain that. Today, by the time I got off the machine, I was actually feeling a little nauseous. But I’m so so happy I’ve gotten myself into the groove of working out. It really took me since Nov. or so to just take this whole workout thing really seriously… and just stop making excuses.

So I figure who else better to model after than Mara since I see what progress she has made! I figure what the heck.. might as well give it a shot… so I aiming for workout 6 -7x a week… but minimum 6. AND I’ve picked up the whole calorie counting thing because I think out of all the diets out there… calorie counting makes the most sense to me…. It’s just how much energy you consume and how much you expend.

I’ve always used my iPod Nano for working out.. but for whoever doesn’t have music for workout yet, you MUST get one…. It does wonders.. and it makes working out so much more fun…. Makes daydreaming on the machines a little better too with the music.

Mara, you are my inspiration and motivation… you’re a real live example that I’ve been following the story on.. and it’s really helped me see that I just have to really get with it if I want to see some changes…. THANKS! And your pictures are awesome. I remember I saw some of your Christmas pics and there were some full bodied one.. and I was just amazed and how lean and slender you’ve become. I think it’s awesome you look so fit! Hopefully if I just follow most of the stuff you’re doing,…. Whatever happened for you will happened for me! YAY!!

OH, on another note.. I actually got a trainer at 24 Hour Fitness – not sure if most of you have this gym your state. But I did a body fat test and I’m at 28% body fat. HUH?!

I never imagined it to be that high. I always just imagined or wanted to think I’m at 22% or something. BLEH! Terrible. Soooo I’m going to start doing some weight training… and lots of cardio.. And hopefully in a couple of months I’ll start to see some pounds melt away.

By the way, Mara…… re: the HRM. Is yours pretty accurate and match the elliptical? I found that the HRM usually matches on the dot for the treadmill, whether I am jogging or uphill walking. However, when I am on the elliptical it is WAY off. By the time I’m done… the elliptical will saying something like 650, while my HRM will only be at 450. I was wondering if yours is like that too. So if I do 55 minutes of level 2, rpm 70… and I burn 650..does that sound right? Or is my HRM more accurate saying I burned only 450?

Aaaaand besides getting serious with working out.. I’m also getting down and dirty with my daily eating habits. Today for breakfast I had 1 cup of sliced organic apples from Trader Joe’s. That was kinda like a pre-workout snack. Then right after my workout I had 2 nutri-grain blueberry waffles with spray butter (oh I love this stuff, tho I probably spray like 7 times per waffle) and more apples. For lunch I had ½ a rosemary chicken and wild rice. I’ll probably eat the other half for dinner with a light salad or something. I’ll see what happens. For snack I had a peanut butter cookie Luna bar and a couple of clementine oranges.

Okay, that’s it..

Omg this post is long……

 

[mrssalvo]

wow Rod, I''d not seen that poster before. the difference is just amazing not only do you look thinner/healthier you look 10x younger. way to go

 

[akw94]

Hi everyone,
It''s been awhile for me on this thread. I''ve been doing ok in the interim, just maintaining and ready (once again) to get back on the track to lose this weight. I''m feeling very motivated today. I worked out the past 4 days, so that''s 2 of my days for this week done. Two more to go and maybe a 3rd if I''m really good! I went grocery shopping yesterday and got some new snack stuff and other things to try. I figured that I''d give myself this week to get on track. If I start slacking, I''m going to join some sort of program to keep me accountable. So we''ll see but right now my spirits are up. I''ve started tracking what I eat again also and although I just started today, I can already see the difference in my actions. I think about my choices and want to make smart ones so that the numbers are positive at the end of the day. I also got back on sparkpeople.net which I was using for a short time to track my eating/exercise/weight loss. One thing I like about that site is that it gives you addtl exercises to do on various days. I wouldn''t have thought to do anything other than my norm today but I saw those other strength training exercises on there and adjusted them a bit and then did those too. So it was a good day for me!

Lorelei, sorry to hear about your toe! Sounds painful!!

Kimberly, amazing pics! It really is motivational to hear others'' stories. Mara, you can see the difference in your pics and they look great!

Have a great week everyone!

 

[Rod]

Date: 3/5/2007 10:14:56 PM
Author: mrssalvo
wow Rod, I''d not seen that poster before. the difference is just amazing not only do you look thinner/healthier you look 10x younger. way to go

Oh thank you thank you. I absolutely feel younger and without question healthier. Its simply amazing what fitness can do for one''s health and well being! Thanks again!

 

[TravelingGal]

Love that poster Rod...I remember seeing it before. You look great!

OK, so I did find a way to get that extra workout in. I drove straight from the pilates studio to the gym, and it wasn''t that hard since I was already warmed up and feeling inspired. I powered out one hour on the elliptical for 670 cals. Pilates was awesome today as she introduced us to some advanced moves. I think we burned about 300 cal there, so a total of 970 cals burned today. Yay! If I can do this every monday, it will kick off the week great.

Mara, going out for a walk midday is tough unless I go exactly at lunch hour. I hate being away from the desk in case some fire needs to be put out. Lunch hour is the only time when it''s not strange that I am away. And it''s pretty easy for me to get absorbed in things and miss lunch. But I''ll make an effort to try to get it in. As noted, moving a bit extra each day does make a difference.

Dinner is a wee bit of leftover lasagna and half a TJ''s chicken artichoke pizza.

Sevenwires, a lot of people say the elliptical overestimates your calories, so I take it all in stride (no pun intended). There are more variables on the elliptical that can affect calorie burn, I think. It depends whether you are using your arms to hang on, not using them, or maybe using ones with the arm workout. I know how I feel when I burn 600 calories in an hour running, so it is kind of hard to believe I''d burn the same in an hour for the elliptical, when I don''t feel nearly as exhausted.