Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

[Aya]

Re: Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

Slimey oil residue...Trust me; I'll be taking your word for it! I've never had the nerve to taste mincemeat, either!

No, no, I mean the slimey residue that mincemeat leaves! Okay, I'd better give this subject up!

MONDAY CHECK-IN (10/29/07)
#1: I will not eat after dinner, and where possible, dinner should be before 7pm. (4/7)

#2: I will record ALL food eaten each day, keeping cals under 1500 and carbs under net35g per day (7/7)
#3: I will do cardio five to six times per week, 30 min sessions or more. (5/7)
- Pilates Bum and Legs workout once times per week. (Not Done)
- Billy Blanks Bootcamp (Don't laugh, it's fab!) twice per week. (Yes)
- Abs, hips and bum weights at gym three times per week. (Yes)

#4: I will not eat more than one serving of nuts per day; one serving of hard cheese per day; and one serving of soft cheese per day. (5/7)
#5: I will take measurements and weigh in on Mon and Fri but won't get despondent and ruin an entire day after a bad weigh-in. (Done.)

Extra credit: Exercise tried after starting this WOL:
Billy Blanks Bootcamp! To be honest a friend overseas recommended it and said it's all the rage where she is (Japan, can you believe it?!) so I ordered it. It comes with two DVDs and three workouts plus a few bonus workout, and what I love most is the bands that you use to do the workout. Really helps to tone and I always feel stiff the net day if I do it with vooma).
Actually, I'd love to try something new again so am looking forward to everyone's posts. Soccer sounds good!

Measurements: waist-27 hips 33.5; arm 10; Weight 126.6 (up 1lb BUT I feel really pleased because for me a 1 lb gain is small (I had weigh-ins where I was up 4lb or more and was just devastated). I wasn't very good on Thursday or Friday, mini-meltdown but didn't cheat. So I feel like this is good, after the bigger loss the week before.

[SunnySmile501]

Re: Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

I'm pouting! I did get stitches, staples and the last drains out today, but I have to wear the mummy wraps for 6 (six) yes, six more weeks! I can finally drive and lift up to 10 pounds (for the next 4 weeks), but I'm tired of not being able to bend my arms. I look real silly! And, they itch and hurt. Told you I was whiny and pouting! I am not cute when I pout! But I didn't even want to cheat. I bet they are still lying about when I can start exercise again.

Sunny! Okay, maybe not so sunny!

[Purple Rain]

Re: Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

MONDAY STATS CHECK

Hello everyone, sorry I've haven't posted. My computer was acting up again and I couldn't post. I think my DH has fixed it. I won't be earning my Journal stats award, because I didn't get to post twice last week, but I will continue posting at least twice a week. I also didn't get to use fitday either. I didn't realize how much I depend on my computer. I can't live without it. Well, here's how my week went.

My pledges will be:
1. I will only eat 3 oz of cheese a day. 7/7
2. I will use Fitday everyday. 2/7
3. I will finish the C25K challenge, running 3x/week. 1/3
4. I will start gradually adding decaf to my regular coffee until I'm only drinking decaf. 7/7

5 I will drink 100+ oz of water every day. 7/7
6 I will take a multi-vitamin and a calcium supplement every day. 2/7
7. I will not cheat and that includes sugar free candy. 7/7
8. I will post at least twice a week in Journal Stats and earn the Journal Stats Award at the end of December. 1/2


Signed: Purple Rain

10/29/07 - Extra Credit Assignment

If you have tried a new exercise while on Atkins (or better yet during this challenge), what was it and did you like it?

I started using the stability ball and I like it a lot. It's fun and you can do any kind of exercise you can think of, on it. I also started running in the C25K challenge and am trying to get back into it. I enjoy it when I actually get to the park to do it.

[bradybunch]

Re: Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

Reporting in that I am holding true to all five of my pledges.

[LooseShoes]

Re: Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

Sorry, Sunny! Doctors ARE the devil. Glad you got the staples and stitches out anyway. You're doing great to stay so strong through all of this. You inspire me by your efforts and attitude.

[TitianWasp]

Re: Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

MONDAY STATS CHECK 10/29

Hey all,

Way too much going on right now. Inlaws arrive tonight. Getting calls for potential new jobs (on pins and needles!!). Saddled with a fundraising requirement of 2800$ for the charity I work with. TOM is due any day now (so my moods are haywire), whole family has caught one cold after another and I get my take home midterm this week for class.

Sorry I have not posted much the last few days.

Please wish me luck on the job. I love, love what I am doing right now, but it's not quite the right direction, and with two kids in private school, I need to really focus on the financial future of any career path. This weekend was great, but I did not stay on course Atkins-wise. I am ok with it. Still no actual cheating, but ate things that really are in a grey area. Back to business today, and gotta get back to the gym.

Exercising 4 days: 100%
No coffee: 5/7 0%
Less than 1500 calories: 5/7 0%
No after dinner grazing: 7/7 100%

Extra Credit: New exercise?
Define new. I have begun doing all the things I used to do back when I was a workout fiend (just in very small, short amounts). Oh - wait, I have done something new!! You ladies might know that your feet tend to spread when you are pregnant, and if you are not careful, may never go back to what they were (waste of good shoes!!). Well, Friday, before I started my workout, I did a little ballet-type maneuver, raising to tiptoe in first position, about 20 times, to start to restrengthen the muscles in the ball and arch of my feet. I have great shoes, I love and miss them, and darnit I will cut off a pinkie toe before I admit that I can't ever wear them again. So, trying to strengthen my feet so that the muscles tighten up, the arches re-form, and I can wear my cute shoes again. Vanity, thy name is Manolo Blahnik.

Sunny, are you up to doing stats this week? Let me know. I am a little swamped, but can do it if you are not up to it.

[SunnySmile501]

Re: Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

Way too much going on right now. Inlaws arrive tonight. Getting calls for potential new jobs (on pins and needles!!). Saddled with a fundraising requirement of 2800$ for the charity I work with. TOM is due any day now (so my moods are haywire), whole family has caught one cold after another and I get my take home midterm this week for class.

Sorry I have not posted much the last few days.

Please wish me luck on the job. I love, love what I am doing right now, but it's not quite the right direction, and with two kids in private school, I need to really focus on the financial future of any career path.


Sunny, are you up to doing stats this week? Let me know. I am a little swamped, but can do it if you are not up to it.

I do wish you luck on the job. You seem very talented and knowledgeable. My children went to private school for several years and my grandson did until his Mom (my daughter) died when he was nine years old. I know how expensive it can get.

I think the best thing we can learn from making Atkins a lifestyle, instead of a diet, is to find ways to eat well around our hectic schedules. We all have them, just different time hogs. I've been learning and tweaking for over two years, and still, I get hit with unforeseen situations.

As to doing the stats: Yes, I can take over this week. I'm ready to take back as much of my life as I possible can.

I, too, am a fundraiser, and have missed several meetings concerning a benefit concert to raise money for the local food pantry. It's going to be our biggest event of the year, and I am in charge. I am also involved in other smaller endeavors and all of this runs through my mind in the still of the night. I am usually organized and efficient, but this surgery and other health problems is making chaos out of my life.

My sister is leaving on Thursday, and it will be easier to get back on track with my schedule. Since she doesn't come down often, there are lots of family visits and dinner invitations while she is here.

Sunny!

[SunnySmile501]

Re: Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

10/29/07 - Extra Credit Assignment Week 3

If you have tried a new exercise while on Atkins (or better yet during this challenge), what was it and did you like it?



I have been unable to exercise in any manner since the first week of March. While on Atkins, though, I have tried many new exercises. I have been very disabled for 10 years; have been wheelchair bound, used a walker, and two years ago, when I started Atkins, I had to use two quad-canes to walk. Since then, I have tossed the canes and walk(ed) as much as 30 minutes.



The new exercise I tried is not unique, but I hated to do it until this try at losing weight. I started to lift weights. I still hated it when I first started, but I learned to love it after a short while. It really improved my strength and endurance. I started with 2-pound weights and advanced all the way to 8-pound weights before the spine doc said I had to stop.



I am truly looking forward to resuming my exercise routine as soon after recovery from this surgery as is humanly possible.

Sunny!

[TitianWasp]

Inspiration?

Hey all,

I need a little refocus help. I just don't have my mind in the game today. Things are good - no complaints here, but I am having a hard time getting back into the Atkins mind-set. I had coffee, and it really didn't bother me the way it should. The idea of the coffee seemed much more appealing than the idea of size 4 jeans.

I am looking for that spot of inspiration to help me get my brain back where it should be, thinking about Atkins, health and weight loss. Any words of wisdom out there?

[SunnySmile501]

Re: Inspiration?

Hey all,

I need a little refocus help. I just don't have my mind in the game today. Things are good - no complaints here, but I am having a hard time getting back into the Atkins mind-set. I had coffee, and it really didn't bother me the way it should. The idea of the coffee seemed much more appealing than the idea of size 4 jeans.

I am looking for that spot of inspiration to help me get my brain back where it should be, thinking about Atkins, health and weight loss. Any words of wisdom out there?

Everyone has an off day once in a while. I hope that's all it is for you. Sometimes reading some of the DANDR book inspires me to re-focus. Looking at the before and after pictures helps. Look at YOUR old slim and trim pictures. I almost never look at my old fat pictures--I keep lots of pictures of my thin days around and imagine myself back at that size. If all else fails, I read uplifting quotes.

Sunny!

[SunnySmile501]

Re: Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

Here are a few of my favorite quotes.

"Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small
steps."
--Henry Ford

"Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible and
suddenly you are doing the impossible."
--Saint Francis of Assisi


Simply pushing harder within the old boundaries will not do.
--Karl Weick

Being defeated is only a temporary condition; giving up is what makes it permanent.


The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I
will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their
waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done,
or what they can't do.
--Dennis Waitley


“Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it. "

-The Dalai Lama

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."

-Dale Carnegie

"Sometimes things become possible if we want them enough."

~T.S. Eliot

"Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; While others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before." - Herodotus

When you choose the behavior, you choose the consequences.

~Dr. Phil

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
~~Calvin Coolidge


"You never finish doing something good for yourself and wish you had never done it".

~Nancy Lynn

[LooseShoes]

Re: Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

Hey, Titian--we've all had hard to focus days. Halloween is definitely NOT the day to have one, though. Way too many temptations around.

I've had trouble with this lately, too. I'm not sure I have anything that will help, but I'll try.

Sunny's right--looking at pictures can motivate again. Don't want to go back to looking like we did. Looking at skinny pictures to see where we want to be.

Sometimes I have to refocus a day at a time. Today--I will plan to eat right, exercise, drink water. Can't worry about tomorrow yet. Just get today in line.

It's easy to let one little slip slide into major cheats. Just be aware of your attitude and don't let it get away from you.

You have a lot on your mind with job, family, etc. but this is a way of life and it has to fit in.

You can do it! Just stick with us and decide you really want it to work. We're here for you and you know you don't want to let us down. You're here for us and we need you, too.

[Alexa]

Re: Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

Titianwasp - I hope you can refocus. These guys are right sometimes it just doesn't come together so well. It's when ineffective days string together that it's a problem - thinking about this stops me from multiple tiny mistakes sometimes.

Sunny - those are great quotes! Thanks for sharing.

This week update (including today as all food made already)
- No splenda (should be possible as just chucked it all) (3/7)
- No cocoa (ditto) (3/7)
- Continue with the veggie challenge goals (17g veg per day) (3/7)
- Limit the dairy to half cup yoghurt, 3 tbsps cream, 3oz cheese per day (2/7) had more cream than I should in breakfast smoothie today.

Thanks for this thread and keeping me accountable.

[hopejoy]

Re: Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

Drink 120 oz water/day
be strict with diet... no cheats keep doing what I'm doing...
workout 5 days/ week aerobically at least 30 mins per day (doing 1 hr now)
and wt train 3 days/week in addition to above (that's new... fear wt training will create temporary stall... oh well, gotta go through it sometime!)
take suppliments daily
push myself harder everyday! alternating with rest!
learn fit day!

Okay, doing good. Lost 1 of 2 lbs gained during vacation/fires...
but need to exerizemore, and drink more water. Getting back in the groove, exersize is still hard as I can't exerize outside due to the air quality. (Still!) Haven't been tempted with the halloween candy fortunately! So far so good!
liz

[hopejoy]

Re: Slow Losers Club Christmas Challenge

Hey, Sunny,
I need to change my goal from 162 to 168. I must've been on crack when I made that goal. There's no way I'll be able to do that. Especially right now. Things are kind of stressful around here with the fires etc... I feel like I'm starting over with the exersize thing!
liz