Need a motivating buddy to lose 50 pounds with by April 2007

[cardenas5usa]

OOOOOOOMMMMMMMMGGGGGGGGG! No kidding, Eric, wholly crap, I wouldn't have even recognized him! And Poppi, I have been pulling for her, she looks amazing! Brian too, he looks like he could be a model now, wow! Marty too! I totally hear ya Jina, I have felt the same, like once a body gets this way, theres no going back , but I guess I am wrong. That is amazing inspiration!! I was so inspired after watching I did my cardio like never before! I was pumping it so hard even Efrain was like, "what has gotten in to you?"

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer 10 years ago. Time has flown by, she was afraid she would never see me graduate, get married, or have kids. Who knows, maybe that is why I chose the fast track on life and had already completed all of those things by the time I was 20.

Free lunch, lucky you J! That must make it fun to eat, so many things to chose from.

Extra fiber, so yes about a week ago I bought fiber caps and have been taking them, they really help to move things along, and make me not feel so sluggish. I started with 5 every meal, but now I take 2-3 each meal, works well.

Thanx for being so motivating both of you girls, it is awsome to be here with you! I think I find a lot of my motivation right here on this page, another chunk just from looking in the mirror and seeing things I havn't seen in a long time, another HUGE chunk from Efrain, and another piece from a lot of soul searching to find "myself", I don't want the self I find to be a fat girl!

Alright, busy day here too, a friends birthday, and have to still get some things ready! See ya girls tonight! Ashley

PS. I already got curves out of the way for today, yipee!

[cardenas5usa]

I posted a big long post addressing various things and now it isn't here! That sucks! Oh well, I have a busy day, I will repost tonight.

Got Curves out of the way already! Have a good day girls! Ashley

[cardenas5usa]

Doh , Ash

[Stelakate]

Good job Ash- you are the curves queen!
Lunch wasnt the best choice, I am on a calamari kick, but today was lightly breaded...and hot wings, didn't have many of them. After that, I hit a box of designer chocolates and had about 4 bites of 4 different ones, none of which was good-none of which was worth the blowing of my carb count.
Could literally puke now.
Did go out and ran three minutes again today and WILL DO PRECOR TONIGHT! Before getting the house in order, debating if I should or shouldnt work on Saturday......its just a couple hours.....have so much more I could be doing.
Cant believe Xmas is so near!!! I am sooo not ready!
Talk soon,

[cardenas5usa]

1 HUGE piece, probably enough to feed about 6 people, is siting on my counter! It is super moist and has apricot cream cheese filling. my mouth is watering, and I don't even like cake! I made my kids lunch and told them if they eat well they can have cake with seconds. I hope they eat it all cause man it looks good. If I hadn't just made myself lunch I would be in serious trouble! I just made LC Kung Pao Chicken, it was yummy! Just what I needed.

Jina, doesn't that suck when you eat some good looking chocolates and they don't taste like you were hoping. Man that peeves me.

Good job on the run outside! E. and I did a quicky one mile walk with weights this morning. We were planning on going outside this morning for our walk but they are forcasting the biggest storm here in the last decade(80mph winds and flooding), so it was too windy. Funny, I can still remember the last time we had one of these, 1996, my mom made a whole VHS tape of all the broadcasts cause it was so incredible, the land slides where crazy! We were without power for six days!! We were lucky to have a wood stove at the time with a flat surface, we lived on can soup and grilled cheese. I was in 10th grade, the buses couldn't even pick people up cause of all the down trees. We'll see how tonight progresses, there is a good chance we may lose power, and this is our first "real" storm in this house, we have about 6 large pine trees next to our house, so I hope they hold up!

I know, I can't believe it is the end of the year already, 2006 flew by! On Tuesday is Efrain's work party, I don't have to worry about food though since I know the chef And I always help him make the menus, we planned food this year to fit our needs, everbody else will be unknowingly eating LC too, hehehehehehehe

T. Hope your day is going well with your hubby! So how is the protein day going?

See ya girls soon, Ashley

[carbjunkie]

Hi girls..I'm checking in..was another busy day outside of the house all day so eating wasn't perfect but..

B - 2 eggwhites
L - turkey slices n cup fresh fruit
D - 3 tacos al carbon w/salsa el pollo loco
S - 2 molasses chips from Sees candie (yum)

[cardenas5usa]

Okay Girls, it is time for a last chance workout! Just like on biggest Loser! Tomarrow is weigh-in day/see how your cloths are fitting day . I just splurged a little with dinner, so now I feel like I gotta work it off for the weigh in tomarrow! I had "Spaghetti" and meatballs. OMG was it good! I replaced the spaghetti with sauteed cabbage. The splurge was that I had 7 meatballs (!!! I know), those good ones from Costco, and 3/4 cup sauce. I was really good the rest of the day so I figured I could handle the 1 carb/meat ball, and 6 in the sauce. It was so good. When I added up my cals/carbs for the day I was 1100 calories and 35 carbs, and that was before minusing out all my veggie carbs per Curves. I feel so satisfied today with my progress.

Oh, and that chocolate cake, I had 1 bite, a small one, and put the rest away!

Can't wait to see what number pops up, as long as it is three less than last week I am good, but I am really hoping for 4 or more!?!?

Ashley

[carbjunkie]

Good morning. Ok Ash..I weighed in..only 1 lb but the body fat on the scale is lower by 1%. I knew it wasn't going to be a successful week because I didn't exercise as much as I should have. I am carb sensitive and have to realize that. I notice when I eat (even the corn tortillas) it's not fattening but my body doesn't like it. How are you girls doing this morning? It's going to be a busy weekend for everyone so be extra careful in making choices I have a party tomorrow night..that will be challenging but I'm going to do my best.

[Stelakate]

Hey girls. My number is 254. How depressing is that?! I wont let it keep me down, Rebecca and I just took measurements so in a month I will recheck those.
Need to behave from here on out! It's the hardest thing in my life to control and being a control freak---means that drives me crazy.....but I will just keep my chin up (all three of them, haha! J/K) and keep it going.
Going to try better foods, having almonds (natural-no salt etc. added) and turkey breast. Ashley-you are the chicken queen so I will step up my chicken and fish intake next week, well, starting today....and see what that does for me!!

I am so excited to hear what happens w/ your weight, girl you are going to want to dump me and move to a more advanced buddy soon if I don't get my s**t together!!!
T-how are ya? Want to hear your weight too.

The measurements were so scary, but its hopeful!!! We also logged them into a system that tells you a lot of scary info. Check it out!
http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html
then go to the diet calculator and put your info in.
It says I am overweight by 88.2 pounds. How is that for encouraging?!?!?

[carbjunkie]

88 lbs is nothing J...it said I'm supposed to lose 129 lbs! YIKES. I'm naturally thick so I would never go below 150. How r you girls? Heres what I've eaten so far.

B - 2 eggwhites 1 kiwi
L - turkey burger w/grilled onions n mustard (so yummy) 1 very sm apple

[cardenas5usa]

Sorry I haven't checked in until now, storm and all, we are finally back to normal. Well, it looks like we had a rough week!

I weighed in, 200.8! I am up two full pounds! But the good news is that when I went to Curves, I measured my body fat% It is down a whole 2.5%!! That seems like a lot to me, but I even did it twice just to make sure and it came out the same both times. Last week it was 35.4%, this week I was at 32.9% So what do you make of that? I don't think it is even remotely possible that I added 2lbs of muscle. But at the same time I don't see 2#s of fat back on my body, and like I said earlier this week, my bicepts have totally popped. So all in all, I was disappointed to see the scale number, but the % thing brought my spirits up a notch or two.

Well, normally I would say that I will just work harder this week, but I think that is physically impossible for me. I am so sore and tired feeling. I might not work so hard this week and see how that goes. Also, my goal for this week will be to get at least 8 hours of sleep at night, I have only been getting about 6. Something that will be much easier this coming week, no school (for Maya)for the next 2 weeks!!!!!!!!! Yeah! I can sleep in, which is only about until 8am for me.

Let's just hope that next week we will all drop big numbers like on the Biggest Loser! I am feeling a bit like Wylie when he didn't lose anything that one week. First I was mad, then I started to feel really depressed, especially since my body is so achy everywhere, and I just feel like I could sleep for a huge part of the afternoon. I did even take a 1 hour nap, amazing for me, I never sleep in the day. So somethings up?

So goals for the next week for me: Curves 3 times, cardio everyday, pilates 3 times at least. Less than 45% of calories from fat. Lose 3 pounds. Stay motivated!

Let's keep all of our chinS up :-P Ashley

PS Jina, thanx for the link, I am going to check that out now
T. Great job on losing a pound, you are the biggest loser this week! :-)

[cardenas5usa]

So I went and plugged in all my info at the website. Here is what is said for me:
BMI:31.1
Body Fat%38.3 (oh boy!)
Overweight by: 39.8 lbs
That is kinda cool that it puts at 161 if I lose the suggested weight, being that my goal is 160.

I assume that their calc for body fat somehow doesn't take into account for more muscular/bone dense women, cause that is really high body fat percent. I have never measured more than 36.6% with the curves machine. Oh well, it is very interesting, it just makes me see that I have so much more to learn about diet.

Ashley

[cardenas5usa]

Exactly what we need today, a laugh and a dose of motivation to stay in this! Just think, by April, we will be bombshells!


Oh, and I keep forgetting to post that I might start weighing more frequently, maybe I can adjust my plan better that way.

I am so PMSing today! My kids are making me insane and I seem to be yelling at them for everything. Maybe I can blame my 2 pounds on water Ashley

[Stelakate]

Hi! FIRST OF ALL, Ash- I would bet my bottom dollar that your 2 lb is from water retension and if nothing else, you are definitely starting to build up muscle!!!!!! NO worries! You are great, and it will show next week after aunt Flo leaves!
T.- Excellent w/ the one pound down, after all that eggnog I would have gained at least 3, so that is good-better than a gain-right?!?!?

I on the other hand, not so happy w/ myself. Last night was Kate's fam. Xmas and the house looked great, food was wonderful, I passed on the wine, we stayed up chatting til after 11pm before I excused myself to go to bed ( I had to work this a.m.!)...it was a nice night. I ate bad, and even had real pop?? So unlike me. What a self-sabotager right?!??! I sat there all night with tummie rumbling and killing me. I was so uncomfortable I could have just puked.
Knowing all of this, why do I continue to eat these foods?!

So, goal for week is simple. MAINTAIN and dont dare gain another pound.
I have given up the notion that I can lose through December, I was kidding myself.
Goals:
pilates 5 times, precor 3 times, 1 hr. workouts 3 times.
T- I thought the tracker was a little unreasonable, I have a big frame and a lot of muscle as it is and weighing 170 isnt realistic, I am tall! Not saying it cant be done-but I just could never maintain that....or COULD I!?!?!?
Check in later, behave w/ the party tonight............
love to you girls! J

[Stelakate]

LOVE THE CARTOON, ASH! sooooo true.

[carbjunkie]

I was bad last night. I can so relate to you J in the fact that I was fooling myself to think I could lose 8 lbs during the month of Dec. Too many outings makes it hard to eat perfectly. Then when you don't feel like you've been eating perfect..you self sabotage..that's what I do too. What helped me lose the 38 lbs 2 yrs ago was stopping that. I told myself that if I messed up at one meal I would just go back to eating healthy the next..that's how I did it! I MUST apply this principle again. Self sabotaging is what has got me 100 lbs overweight. If I would have not done this to myself I would probably weigh a normal 160 lbs but since I've made my weight such an issue..I've made myself fat. Anyway, I was bad last night..ate korean bbq for dinner (brown rice n spicy chicken) and 4 little mrs. fields cookies. No need to eat them since I wasn't that hungry or craving sweets...just plain stupid. I will do my best to stay on track today..it will be hard but I have my daughter's piano recital tonight..lots of food and sweets but I will eat before we leave the house. J..keep your head up girl I'm here for you! Ash..don't stress the 2 lbs..don't self sabotage whatever you do. Stay off the scale for now and do what you've been doing..those workouts will pay off! Have a good SAT and let me know how you both are??

[cardenas5usa]

Well, I slept well last night and I feel so much more rested! Fhew!!! Yesterday I felt like a complete zombie. I weighed in again this morning and the scale said 199.2 So that is good. I was thinking also that the day before yesterday I made homemade Chinese, and it uses a lot of soy sauce. I have never noticed water weight before, probably cause I didn't care, but I think I will need to be more careful with the salt from now on.

Jina, it was one night of being with the people that matter most, and eating like everyone else, no biggie. And real pop, didn't it taste great! That is what I remember about my beer last week, I had never tasted beer so great. But now you just have to sweat those calories out! You can do it!

Your workout goals are great! If you do all of them as planned I have no doubt in my mind that you'll lose weight this week. You can do this, and you can lose weight this holiday season, I am here to be your cheereleader! Let me do you a little motivating dance for you, "you shake your booty over here , you shake your booty over there , you do the booty shake ,and you turn yourself around , and pretty soon your booty's gone! Yeah!" So now you gotta sing it in the way of Hokey Pokey.

You are an inch taller than I am, but I bet you could get to 175 and maintain. But yes, the thing I am most scared about is getting to 160 and having to maintain. I know it will be an everyday effort to eat correctly, to compensate and adjust for the day before or the fancy dinner out, that sort of thing. I am facinated by average weight people, many of them seem to have been born with this knowledge/skill. I guess I wasn't there the day they handed out that skill!

T. how are ya doing? I ate a healthy dose of chicken breast yesterday, and I managed to keep calories eaten from fat to 39% That being said I didn't eat nearly enough calories yesterday though. I could have, but what I really wanted was pizza, so instead I just didn't eat that much. I still ate 3 good sized meals and a snack or two, but my calories just don't add up the way I'd like em to. So today I am trying for having either salmon or chicken to go with breakfast.

So in your turkey burger, do you use 85/15, 93/7, or ground turkey breast. My favorite to use is the 93/7, it has enough fat to have good taste and to keep it from getting dry. I need to do a little more expirimentation with ground turkey breast by it's self, see if I can add grated zucchini to make it more moist.

We're off to the zoo this morning, getting in a little walking with the kids. I'll check in later, Ashley

[cardenas5usa]

I took so long writting my post you slid a post in before me, good to see you here this morning!

So you had a hard eating day too. MMmm..and Mrs.Fields cookies are yummy! And another function tonight with goodies, just make sure you sit/stand far away from them, they won't be able to whisper in your ear so easy !

How about we make Sunday, a cheat-free day this week? For all of us. 1 little day, see if we can do it. If we can do it for 1 day then we can do it for another. Let's stay on track.

Ashley

[Stelakate]

My usual M.O. for the day-fantastic alllllll day long until 5 pm when BIL made homemade shrimp scampi, toooo many carbs w/ that pasta, but DAMN it was amazing!
I am all about a cheat free Sunday. Will get it going, promise! At first I thought you wrote a cheat free week and I just knew I couldn't do that-I have 2 maybe 3 gatherings this coming week.
T- we are in the same boat weight wise, and I too have lose 30-40 on this woe only to gain it back, and then some. It's just what I do. I can honestly tell ya, I rarely recall NOT being on a diet, the last.....15 or so years, HOW SAD IS THAT?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!
BUT- I have had a baby, lost 50 pounds since July, have a new beautiful reason to do my best, not to mention a hotter wife, 120 pounds down....and a goal of running. It's going to happen, I am strong enough---I will do it.

The three of us are going to make it, I am just glad I have you two to catch me when I stumble and occasionally fall.....
Ash-great, I am so glad you are back in the 1's! Awesome!

Tomorrow is CHEAT FREE DAY W/ EXERCISE!! NO EXCUSES!
I adore you girls! Have a great night,
PS: T-where is a picture, I am dying to see what you look like!!!!!!!

[Stelakate]

I meant Shrimp alfredo---scampi would have been fine. Maybe that will be what I have next time, instead! I HEART SHRIMP!

[cardenas5usa]

Wowy Zowy! That I think that is my all time, very most, absolute FAVORITE Italian dish! Everytime I go to Olive Garden, I end up with that. It is like I just can't get enough. Oh man and when they have their "never ending pasta bowl" special, watch out, cause I go with baggy sweat pants on, something that will expand with my belly!! I mean I make it like an all evening event! I can only imagine what homemade Alfredo must be like and with shrimp no less! I admit, I am green with envy . It is one of those things that I am sure I could make at home, but I just can't bring myself to cook with all the cream, even though I have no problem shoehorning it down my throwt(how the heck do you spell that?) if someone else makes it! Alas, I wonder how much weight I will gain once I am at the maintain stage and I go eat at the Olive Garden for the "never ending pasta bowl" deal. That week I will have to compensate big time.

Can you tell I love Italian food? It is was the first kind of food I learned to cook. My mom grew up in an Italian neighborhood in Pennsylvania, so she grew up eating it too. Maybe that is whe she and I are both overweight, our obsession with noodles, and sauce, and sausage and meatballs, and lasagna.

Ok, why am I writting all this? I am not even hungry. I just ate 5 jalapeno poppers. I made them by cutting jalapenos in half, taking out the seeds and veins, and then stuffing them with a mix of tuna, ham, cream cheese, and a tiny bit of onion, and 1 egg. I topped with parmesan and baked for 20 minute, then broiled for 10. They were good for fake outs.

Cheat free Sunday coming up! Ashley

I skipped Curves today and let my body rest a bit more, I did go walking with the kids and did a cardio. So I don't feel too bad for skipping. Wish I could go tomarrow but they are closed, bummer!