Hi guys!  Hope you've all had a great Saturday!  I chose to make today my free day since I figured it'd be nice to go out for a yummy dinner after working all day.  I also thought that if I have to work most of my free day it'll keep me occupied and from shoving random food and sweets in my face.  I just packed a normal, healthy day's worth of food in my lunchbag up until dinner time.  Then, for dinner we went to a nice little German restaurant and I indulged in some Jaeger Wienerschnitzel, a bit of beer, and got some Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream for dessert.  At home tonight some saltwater taffy (from my recent San Francisco trip last week - where I found a bit of extra weight, lol), Raisinets, and a granola bar (or two) found their way into my mouth.  Could have been worse though.  I don't have any really good chocolate or much for nut butters in the house anymore... cause if I did, I'd eat them all.  lol  Well, I'm ready to get back on track tomorrow morning and ready for some HIIT!  :)

Redhot30 - You're welcome!  No, you're definitely not alone... I'm still hoping this is enough activity, but I really think it makes sense and should work w/a clean diet.  It's just hard to be patient and wait it out.  

Himmehill - So you're a chef?!  That's awesome!  I love food!!  I think if I was a chef I'd eat it all though.  lol  I LOVE sweets too!  I was in the bakery at the store tonight looking at the carrot cake slices and red velvet cake... *drool*.  Ended up going for the Ben & Jerry's though.  Gotta love that ice cream!  

Great job on the cardio this morning!   So you're working out on your free day too?  I didn't do a workout today since it's my free day and I worked all day anyway (that IS my workout, lol).  I plan to start back w/the HIIT tomorrow morning and get back into it.  So how was the cookout?  Did you indulge in anything decadent?  That's a bummer about the lack of money at the bakery, but I'm sure it saved you some calories.  ;)  

Hey guys!  Happy "free day" Sunday!!  

Hope you're all out enjoying something delicious!  :)

So I got up and did my 20 min HIIT (that I would have done yesterday) this morning on the elliptical.  I just alternated the resistance and tried to keep my heart pumping.  Made some yummy protein pancakes for breakfast too.  My tummy was a bit upset this morning after last night's treats, but it seems ok again now.  Maybe that's a good thing that it was upset... (to help discourage me from eating junk food again).  ;)  

Himmehill - I think it was you that was trying to post the pics from before, correct?  If so, if you want to post them in the thread here, you can do so by hitting the "Use rich formatting" option at the bottom of the text box when you're typing your message and it will give you more options to edit your text... there will be a button at the top of the text box that will say "insert picture image" if you hover over it, and you just select that and navigate to the pics on your computer.  :)

Hi guys,

Do any of you mind posting some meal suggestions for me, I'm not into the protein shakes, I just can't do them & am in need of some other meal options & just need some help for you all...Thanks!!!

Yeah!  Weighed in this morning (first time in a week!) and I'm down 4 lbs!  Had my free day today - nothing too wild, but worked out nicely since I was out on my motorcycle all day - REALLY had to eat 6 meals - CAN'T take stuff with, and food options at the stops are lousy!

But just got done packing up ALL my food for the week again - I bring it all on Monday and then don't have to lug stuff around every day!

Looking forward to my LBWO tomorrow - didn't get a really get one the first time (just learning and adjusting).

Congrats on everyone for making it thru week one!

Hi!  Hope you all had a good day.  Still on track and ready for Monday... got the LBWO all planned out for the afternoon.

AChicklet -   Hi!  Sure!  I'll post one of my days of eating and you can look at that and maybe it'll help give you some ideas.  :)  Here goes...

Meal 1: Water; Old fashioned oats mixed w/1 scoop chocolate GNC AMP Whey protein; Coffee

Meal 2:  Water; Two hard boiled egg whites; Lowfat cottage cheese w/apple chunks & cinnamon

Meal 3:  Water; Chicken burrito - Grilled chicken breast, La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Wheat Wrap, romaine, ff sour cream, salsa, avocado and ff shredded mozzarella

Meal 4:  Ate out at Panera Bread - Half Thai Chopped Chicken Salad and a cup of LF Chicken Noodle Soup; Unsweet tea

Meal 5:  Water; Pure Protein Smores bar

Meal 6:  Water; Greek yogurt w/fresh blueberries & 1tbsp Naturally More Peanut Butter

Sandy - Great job on the weight loss!  :)  

AChicklet - Here's another day of eating to give you some more ideas...

Meal1:  Water; Coffee; Egg Beaters w/Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedge; Slice of wheat bread w/1tbsp Naturally More Peanut Butter

Meal2:  Lowfat cottage cheese w/diced plum; Water

Meal3:  Salad - Romaine, spinach, grilled chicken breast, apple chunks, raw pepitas, red wine vinegar; Water

Meal4:  Protein shake; 2 hard boiled egg whites

Meal5:  Water; Garbanzo Bean Lean Turkey Bake (I made a batch & froze it); Edamame in pods

Meal6:  Greek yogurt/Fiber One Original cereal/fresh strawberries; Water

Karey_B,

Thank you for the food ideas! It helps me out alot! I appreciate it! Thanks!!!

AChicklet - You're welcome.  :)

Week2!!  Hope you're all having a great day!  LBWO went well and eating is good.  Feeling really great!

Hey all!  Great weekend!  Karey, thanks for the pic advise.  If I get time at work tomorrow, I'll post.  And thanks for the great meal suggestions.  Sandy, you ROCK!  and your preparation in advance is an inspiration to us all.

Congrats all on week 2!!!  Let's make every day count.

Took all my salad greens to work, but the chef cooked and I ended up eating that.  Yes, being a chef makes it all the more difficult and being a "foodie" got me here is the first place.  I work full time in sales for a caterer and then "chef" on the weekends.  I am hoping to have some free time this summer when the kids are out of school to research healthy, easy alternatives to store bought things.  My first challenge will be homemade protein bars.

I am much more conscious of what I buy at the grocery now.  Thanks to a previous suggestion of Greek Yogurt, (I do like yogurt), I found it has 24 grams of protein!  The one I bought may have a little too much fat, but I am still learning.  I have not yet wrapped my head around the calories/fat/protein/carb ratios.  I've retried to do BFL life many times since I lost my weight, but never committed.  This time I committed, but haven't re-read the book.  Need to do that.

I am still working on my goals.  I found last time that that seemed to be the heart of my success.  I repeated my goals at least 5 times a day.  My first goal is "By August 6 (my bday) I am a sex goddess wearing a size six."

I'm starting as a size 10, so I'll keep you up to date on my progress.  (Last BFL,  I started as a size 16 and dropped to a size 6).  You can do this!  I know it seems like all the photos "have" to be touched up, ect, but I'll be here every step of the way with you and I've done it before and had success with it.  Follow the program to a T (and you must be totally convinced you will succeed) and these 12 weeks will be the beginning of a new life for you.  

Morning all!  Here are the pics.  Hope they turn out ok.  I had to scan them.  I started BFL on March 27 2004, weighing 178.  I had gained so much momentum by the end of the program that I did not write down my finishing info.  I think at that point I had dropped to around 145 and wore a size 8.  A couple of years ago (before stress and a desk job) I dropped to 135 and a size 6.  I am started last week at 154 and size 10.  Goal is to get back to 135 with a size 6.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Enjoy your day.

Here is pic 2.  Thanks Karey for the upoad info.  You made it easy.

It would appear in these pics that I lost an entire person.  I just shrunk.  What the photos don't show is the change in my person.  I went from being very introverted and blah, so being much more vibrant and excited about life.

Good Morning to you all-

Keep up the great work!! Happy Tuesday!!!

Great pics Himmell - and great job!  I'm sure you'll have no problem getting back where you want to be!

Did cardio this morning - all good.  Been eating right and enjoying the process.  I've had a few "cravings" that I didn't have last week - usually while I'm driving (!), which is good cuz there's nothing there to cheat with - LOL!

And I've just told myself to sort out what I'm missing MOST and I can have it on Sunday.  Didn't binge or splurge the 1st Free Day, and don't plan to in the future either, but knowing I can have a special treat IS helpful!

Keep up the good work everyone!

Hi!  Doing well so far today!  Great HIITS session of jump rope this am and food is good.  Right on target!  :)  

Himmehill - Great pics and thanks for sharing them w/us!  I can definitely tell that you lost weight.  :)  I'm sure if you did it once you can do it again.  Plus, second time around you'll probably have even better results.  I'm trying to get back to 135 too... that was my original goal weight and I maintained it for a few years, but I've been lacking discipline lately and vacation... that didn't help.  That put me at about 149.5 lbs... not sure how much of that was water weight though.  Checked my weight this am and I'm down to about 146, so about 3.5lbs down.  I just want to make sure that I'm eating ENOUGH though... don't want my calories to be too low and screw up my metabolism.  Do you know how many calories you were eating before in your first challenge?

By the way, I love your first goal!!  You can do it!!!  :)

Oh, I see you bought greek yogurt... love it!  What brand did you buy?  I usually try to get the Fage 0% or Oikos )%... actually ended up finding that they carry the Dannon Greek yogurt in large containers, so I bought one of the plain nonfat ones.  I love to mix it w/fruit, cereal, and pb.... almost anything.  It also makes great sour cream.  ;)  The Chobani nonfat yogurt is pretty good too... I like the single serving fruit at the bottom cups.  

If you come up w/a good recipe for some homemade protein bars, please let me know.  I used to make some no-bake ones, but don't think they'd be BFL friendly since they contain a lot of carbs from oats and nonfat cream cheese...

A Chicklet - Hello!  How's you're Tuesday going?

Sandy - What did you do for your cardio this am?  So what kind of things are you craving?  I sure could go for some more Ben & Jerry's!  lol  

Hello, all!  I am bummed about this lack of cardio... but I bought a cheap skip rope to play around with (although it's still in the package).  Still looking for an inexpensive stationary bike, but no luck so far.  Why is it that when you NEED something, they're nowhere to be found, and last year, I couldn't count the bikes I saw sitting on the curb to be picked up with the garbage!  

Good news is, I'm so out of shape that even lifting the silly dumbbells gets my heart rate up!  Hello, cardio.

Hubby's been a little cranky today... He isn't eating enough.  I'm trying to explain that he NEEDS to eat, but he really wants to lose this weight so he's being a little stubborn (hope it doesn't end with a binge).  I wonder if these little meals are actually revving up the old furnace?  He isn't really exercising (officially, anyway).  Is anyone else getting hungrier?

As for me, I had to remind myself to eat 4th meal today.  And I'm getting full a lot faster (or maybe I'm just paying attention?  Usually I'm a pig until it's gone and I'm miserable).

I'm scrolling up to the pic of Ben & Jerry's... is it bad that it feels like I'm looking at a Hustler or something (just kidding!!)??? No wonder they call it food porn!

Anyway, happy Wednesday, guys~

Amy