The A2K (virtual) Weight Loss Club !!

Dag - we'll see......

yeah. we can always go for a long walk/hike. even when it drizzles it's not too cold. we'll see indeeeeeed.

dag--

Great mediation tool: Shape up or we'll all go biking in the nice nor'easter.

I havnt been to the gym for 2 weeks!!!!!!!
Im evil and must be punished.

Been working my butt off at the gym. Still taking stairs up and down at work. Food intake has been good except for Saturday night when we had friends over... good wine = too many empty calories for me.

Still even on the scale.

oh the 2 mile morning run was tough today, must be tired. however, bernard never fails, only he keeps waking me earlier and earlier to take him on a run and i have to tell him 6 times no until he leaves me alone for another 30 minutes-then back to sticking his wet nose in my face. thanks for all the congrats on the 7lbs but i must confess, my wieght jumps anywhere from 2-4 lbs a day (weird) so the loss is probably more like 3-5 lbs, but i love to say 7!!! scale hasn't budged though since the 173. Remember to measure yourselves around the waist, bust, hip, thigh, and bicep. you may not lose weight at first because it may convert to muscle (which weighs more that fat-that isn't a fallacy) but the measurements will change making a difference. you should start to feel better in your clothes. i started this attempt to lose weight over 8 weeks ago and didn't see the scale budge for the first 5 of them.

jpin, how many stairs did you say at work? i remember it being quite a lot, way to go!

Oh to be a size 8 again...

170.5 -- moving ever so slowly closer to that '6 in the middle'.

jpin - good to see you checking in. Doing well will show up on the scale eventually. You're right about the good wine = empty calories above and beyond those you get from the wine.

Dragon - being dragged out of bed at the crack of dawn doesn't sound fun at all. Being a sport and getting out there at that time of day deserves double kudos.

MG - It ain't about punishment dahlin', it's about learning to love yourself so that you become the vision of who you want to be. Positive self-talk is a hard thing to learn sometimes but it makes a world of difference. Tell yourself how good you are and how much you deserve to be healthy and fit. Say it every time you catch yourself in negative self-talk. Here's a motivational tip for when you first wake up. Sit on the edge of your bed. Close your eyes. Breathe deeply for a minute or so. Clear your mind of any thoughts. Then, picture yourself at the wedding. Picture the svelte you, the you you are striving to become. Keep that thought in your mind as you continue to breathe. Feel the joy of achieving that goal. Say to yourself, "That's who I am inside and that's who I will become." Keep breathing and relax. Carry that image around with you for the rest of the day. Stand up taller, walk with a smile on your face and in your step. You can do it. Don't punish yourself - have faith in yourself.

TIP OF THE DAY: Go ahead, ruin your dinner. Most of us were raised to stop snacking a few hours before dinner and then to clear our plates even though we were full. If you eat lunch at mid-day and then plan on eating dinner some time after six in the evening, chance are you'll either attack the candy machine at work or the snack cupboard at home sometime around 4:30 or 5:00. If you do manage to wait until dinner, you'll be so hungry that the concept of portion control is a farce and you'll eat everything in site. Pay attention to your hunger. I've learned over the years that I'm truly hungry in the afternoon so when my kids get home from school and are ready for a mid-afternoon snack I have one too. I keep a supply of frozen convenience dinners in the freezers and will have my second 'lunch' around 3:30 or 4:00. A MilkyWay bar has approx 250 cals and minimal nutritional value. A Lean Cuisine or Smart Choice frozen dinner has 220 - 270 cals and a balance of protein, carbs, and fat. The MilkyWay will send your blood sugar spiraling, causing you to overeat at dinner, the frozen dinner will stabilize your blood sugar allowing you to eat a single regular portion of dinner and be satisfied for the rest of the night. So go ahead, ruin your dinner. Eat a second lunch in the middle of the afternoon and you might find yourself leaving food on your plate at night.

dragon--

Lingering in bed in the morning is a sign of an efficient metabolism trying to compensate for a calorie deficit.

Material girl--

I'll cheer you on, but you'll have to be your own wicked stepmother.

J_B--

Portion control! So simple....so difficult. I've been serving most of my snacks and minor meals on the plastic snap-on lid of a coffee can. Half sandwiches look a lot larger on a small plate.

I'll be going out to lunch tomorrow. Depending on what I order, I'll divide the meal into two or three portions before I start to chow down.

Nine more ounces and you'll be down in the sweet sixties.

jp--

The wages of sin are pounds and ounces.

Diane, dagmaraka, FreeDuck,Phoenix, Ay Sontespli--

Where are you? What are you not eating?

Hold your dominion.

Here I am, Noddy. I haven't weighed myself yet, but I have been very diligent about what I eat. It feels great to know that I won't go to bed and immediately get indigestion.

LOL Material Girl. Never mind being evil, just start now, unless you have someone in mind to do the punishing. In that case, it could be enjoyable and it just might have a positive effect anyway...

JP and Dragon, you are both fantastic. Exercise is my downfall. Dragon, sloppy wet kisses first thing in the morning sound pretty awful. I love my dog, but when she does that in the morning, I want to wring her furry little neck.

JB. what a great suggestion regarding having a Lean Cuisine in the afternoon. I never have thought of that simply because it is a "MEAL." For heaven's sake, if it has fewer calories than a candy bar and it is filling as well as healthful, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the benefits. Obviously, I'm not a rocket scientist....

Noddy, is that a good thing or a bad thing-lingering in bed/calorie deficit (does that mean I am burning up fat-or calorie depriving myself?)? And actually maybe I described it incorrectly...we usually get up at 6:30am and run. But since the sun is coming up a little earlier everyday, Bernard gets up a little earlier every day wanting to run. This morning it was 6am. I have to force him back in his bed just so I can sleep until the normal 6:30. I guess I better teach him to read the clock instead of listening to his internal clock! heehee.

Also for all those sweets lovers out there...I have found that the combination of angel food cake, strawberries and low fat whip cream (kind of a strawberry shortcake) is not only low in calories, but also "relatively" low in carbs and still satisfies my sweet tooth!

JB, I am with you trying to get that "6" in the middle...ugh!!!

dragon--

I can guess that you feel about your fat cells the way I feel about my fat cells: "Oh, that too, too solid flesh would melt...." Your body, however, is passionately attached to every single smidgeon of lard and rather than burn the lard will whisper, "Sleep, sleep, sleep--and when you wake, you shall have cake." After all, your reptile brain never knows when famine will strike and extra flesh will improve your chances for survival.

You must ignore the siren call of sloth and bounce out of bed to meet the calorie deficit by burning fat.

Confession time: I don't bounce--I crawl. I crawl cranky, but I do get up and active.

Hold your dominion.

As long as we are confessing, my hubby calls me his little demon spawn in the morning...that is how happy I am at 630. However, I think I prefer the run to the sloppy, wet kisses from the dog (Diane, I must agree on the disliking of waking to wet, sloppy kisses, especially since he has taken a liking recently to drinking out of the toilet-I have learned to sleep on my side so I am facing the middle of the bed now!)

2 weeks? - it's been hmmm, 1, 2, 3.....8 years since I've been to a gym.

So, zero excersize today.

I had half a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast (it was a brunch for a friend who just turned 60... ok,ok, I could have had fruit). And black coffee.

Lunch was a hummus vegie sandwich with a little feta, wrapped in a lavash (flat bread). And water.

Snack of apple tort (apple cream cheese (I'm weak!) thingie), slice of apple, more water.

Dinner was about a 1/3 cup (lightish) tuna salad with baked corn chips and a large portion of asparagus. And a beer.

So, how'd I do?

ummmm. cut out the beer and the apple tart and cream cheese and it'd be ok. limit sugar and fat and carbs. alcohol is big on calory intake, plus it helps fat to bind better.

i spent another two hours in the gym, had pea soup for lunch, portabella mushrooms with more peas for dinner. hoping that will be it for today. am very happy about my muscle mass again, keep poking my bicepses and quads all the time to make sure they're still there, just need a bit more of this fat to go. specially from belly and thighs. sigh.

Damn, I was just thinking of having another beer, too.

At least I have biceps pretty well handled. Perhaps too handled really.

I am doing OK with the weight, although I have not been able to exercise much for the last few days. My mother is in an assisted living facility, where she moved 6 weeks ago after living on her own. She has recently come back from the hospital when she had a bout of pneumonia.

I am under constant stress. Every day, another problem creeps up. But so far, I am sticking to my diet. This is an accomplishment, because I am usually a stress eater.

Phoenix, sorry about your mother - and about your high-stress.

yes, stress is the greatest enemy of a slim line. kudos to you, phoenix, i'd have hung my boxing gloves long ago and just take to chocolate and meat.

Add a handful of low-fat, but sweetened rice cakes. It may take a while for me to get the hang of this diet thing.

unsweetened apple sauce and raw almonds.
almonds are good.