Ok, here's the end result for today... I think I did too much, maybe. It wasn't on purpose.

Exercise of the evening was:
Biking (stationary): 45 minutes at about 13.3mph for 10 miles.
Upper Body Strength training:

• Chest Press: 12 reps, one set
• Overhead Raise: 12 reps, one set
• Elevated Push-ups: 12 reps, one set
• "Girl" Push-ups: 6 reps, two sets
• Bicep Curl: 12 reps, one set
• Rear Delt Row: 12 reps, two sets
• Lateral Raise: 13 reps each arm, one sets
• Reverse Fly: 12 reps each arm, one set

Total Calories burned = 553

Yea... I did way too much. I ate 1292 calories today but burned about 553? So... that would make a deficit of 1665 after basal/lifestyle calories accounted for. A little much for one day.. isn't it?

Oh well...

Just wanted to come in a thank you for dropping in on my journal. It makes me really happy that my ramblings and such have been helpful to someone. As for your question, I realized that for me I never really saw any of the big losses that other people had. My weight came off slowly and gradually. I think that the more weight you have to lose, the faster the weight comes off. But what I have noticed is that the smaller my body gets, the less quickly I find myself losing weight. I'm trying to drop down to 160 and right now I huver btw 174-178. But it's slow goings. I'm content with toning up the flab because weight training for me has gotten me better results than all of the cardio I had been doing. Hopefully this was helpful. Sorry for making it so long.

Hey you,
Great job on the exercise, Awesome!

Food intake sounds good too...
You will definately be able to reach your goals ..

always
natalie jo

Its a good feeling to go out and eat at a brew-pub that I absolutely love and exhibit 100% self control in not ordering what I'd really like to order... Beer battered fish & chips, with a nice pint of beer. Yum!

I've given up "Thai Friday", my one day each week that I get a bowl of red curry over the largest mound of jasmine rice I can find. (Probably around 2-3 cups of cooked rice. I could eat rice for days and not get sick of it!) Ahhh... and the Thai Iced Tea... that usually spells doom for any weight-watching individual.

The hardest part wasn't the food I was giving up, though. I think it was the routine. Friday is my volunteer day of the week where I devote myself to Art, Art History, and Art Education. So, after a day of research requests, helping people find resources for docent studies, museum publications, artist files, or just delving into the stacks of books well over 200 years old (and taking as many notes as I can), I really like to read and reflect on all the new things I learned... over my curry and Thai iced tea.

Instead of giving my body more fat and carbs than it could possibly consume in 24 hours, I went to Gordon Biersch with a friend and selected something very weight conscious for lunch.

Today's Food:

Breakfast:
1 Banana
4 Almonds
1 Triple Grande Iced Non-fat One-Pump-Vanilla Caramel Macchiato (easy on the caramel)

Total = 267 calories, 4 grams fat, 50 carbs, 10 protein

Lunch: From Gordon Biersch
1/2 Turkey Sandwich (declined the spicy mayo and asked for light on the cheese)

• 1 slice Sourdough
• 1 slice pepper jack cheese
• 2 tomato slices
• 1 cup mixed baby greens
• 5oz Sliced turkey

1 cup Clam Chowder (yum yum!)
16 oz water (I'm always forgetting to add my water intake into this)
3 French Fries (stolen from the friendly plate next to me)
2oz Marzen (beer - tasted from the friendly glass next to me)

Total = 596 calories, 19 grams fat, 45 carbs, 51 protein

Dinner: Leftovers!
2oz Linguine
1/2 Cup meat pasta sauce
1 Mug Jasmine Tea

Total = 337 calories, 6.6 grams fat, 55 carbs, 13.8 protein

Today's Total = 1196 calories, 30 grams fat, 151 carbs, 77 protein

I think I'll have an 8oz glass of chocolate soymilk to help keep the hunger at bay until morning.

Thanks for the info, funky. I think I need more strength training for sure. I did make sure that I selected a very challenging variable program on my bike last night. The difficulty goes from a scale of 1-10 (10 being similar to wading through semi-viscous jello or sludge) and I made sure I spent some time up at 10. The muscles in my legs were screaming with the effort, so I know I was really working them. I like to push myself to see how well I can do.

Walking or bike riding tonight? Not sure yet... my poor bum is bruised from last night's biking.

Thanks for stickin' with me so far Natalie. Its nice to know someone is keeping track of what I'm doing, so if I mess up or fall off the horse, I have to own up and I can't just be silently guilty.

After my mishap at the beginning of the week with burger and fries (and soda too!), I found myself at 189. I'm actually down 2lbs so far this week which comes to the 187 on my slide bar down below. I meant to fix that but forgot how! Hahah... oops. Well, its accurate now!


As a side note.... Whats with the negativity I see in some of the forums? Seems like there's rather strong happening from time to time. Its kind of a downer...

I started the day by getting myself in caloric trouble... I went to my favorite diner and ordered some delicious breakfast. The guys there know the "usual" order and they take extra care not to use tons of oil when cooking my food. So sweet of them! The downside to this delicious habit of mine is that the omelet I get comes over a bed of the best hash browns I've had almost anywhere. Yum Yum! I didn't eat them all... but I did a fair amount of damage to the pile.

Yesterday was Seattle's Beer Fest. I went along with a couple friends but did not join in on tasting 4oz of 6-10 different beers. I was really proud of myself for only taking the tiniest of sips to get the flavor and not much else.

Dinner was delicious Grilled Portabella sandwich and some home made oven fries. Yum. I know I was on the high end of my calorie allowance for the day.. :\

I did manage to walk about 7 miles yesterday. Not too bad, I guess.

Haha well done I would have been completely trollied afterwards if I'd gone to a beer fest!!

You seem to be doing really well

I agree with you about the negative feeling - lots of bickering about nothing - I don't know exactly what you're referring to, but I find some people take things very seriously. At the end of the day, we're here to lose weight, get fitter or maintain, so as long as we get the general principles, there is no point arguing about small things that are not relevant to the general population of the forum right?

If you did the omelet and hash browns and didn't eat it all then in my opinion you deserve a high 5!! That is a plate of heaven as far as I am concerned and impossible to eat just part of it. Even when i am full I will still keep eating! Topping it off with beer fest and not overindulging yourself makes you self-control queen in my book! We don't even want to discuss my lack of self control this weekend I would like to blame it all on my mom for cooking like she did but since I was the one eating it I know better! Now adding the 7 mile walk on top of it just proves you were the queen of the day!!

You done great only sipping each beer I would not have had enough sef control and just drunk the lot

Well Done

Today was the first day back at a gym in about 7 years. It felt good. I started off with 35mins on the treadmill (both walking and running) and then followed it up with some good lower-body strength training. After that, I got home and did a little gardening (weeding out some overgrown bushes and trimming back the black berries).

Then... I went back to the gym with the boyfriend and did 35 minutes on the recubant (sp?) bike follwed by a good 30-40 mins or so of upper body strength training. Needless to say... I'm tired. haha

Food today was about like last week. I ate a few extra calories to make sure I didn't completely kill myself over working out twice in a week. Total calories came to 1422. Not too bad. According to Fitday.com and the exercise equipment readouts, I burned about 784 calories alone on workouts. I don't know what gardening amounts to.

As a sorta-side note... I was so excited this morning when I thought I saw the scale say "186" but then it said "188" and finally rested at "187". Then I thought "damn... almost" and maybe tomorrow I'll see the difference of that 1lb. So much work for 1lb... hahaha

- Sunny

Thanks for the kudos on not beer-guzzling from all of you! It was amazingly hard. I didn't know I loved beer until I moved to the Northwest and discovered great microbrews. Who knew?!

I was also very proud of myself for remembering to put on spf50 sunblock 3 times while at the beer fest. I managed to only turn a little pink instead of a downright burn. <--- 4th of july... I'm gonna have one.

Mac & Jack African Amber... I can almost taste you already.

Congrats on getting to the gym again! I wish I had started hitting the gym sooner, you're doing the right thing. Great workout

Woo! 186! I finally broke my 187-189 flux range. I'm so happy!

Now all I have to do is hit 179 and I will have broken the 180 barrier that I haven't seen in a very long time. I was actually at 181 in Feb., but I had to travel back home to the south for two weeks and while I was down there, I managed to gain 10lbs (in two weeks... yea.) Mmmm the food was good! hahaha.

great!!!!!

Keep it up hun!
One way you might want to reward yourself is once a month, buy a shirt, instead of possibly rewarding yourself for food. Someone else said that on the forum and now I love the thought. If you aren't doing that than ignore me ...but just a suggestion via someone else on the forum.. I am going out this weekend on the eigth and I am going to invest in one shirt. lol

Keep up the good work hun .. You can run... "whoot whoot!"
I am doing sprints and just beginning to do some running, but I feel awkward when I run, so it will take time to reach the point where I could run outside ..plus I am running in my sprints on grass, more shock absorbant ..hey ..at least I am doing it ...

You rock although ... you run! I am so jealous! lmao

ttylater
always
natalie jo