I've got a nice work out planned for today mainly focusing in on cardio. I really wanna work at getting my heart rate up and keeping a steady pace. I want to try and go a bit further on the treadmill than I usually do. I'm looking at somewhere between 2.5 - 3 miles today. Besides hopping on the treadmill, I do 30 minutes of ellipitical, 30 minutes of the stair climb, and 15 minutes on the stationary bike. With tons of water drinking in between.

Lunch was good today; the grilled chicken cesar salad was delicious and was less than 200 calories. With the wrap, it came out to 240 calories, but I decided to bypass that and just eat is as a salad. So here's how it broke down.

Lunch
Grilled chicken cesaer salad - 140?? I'm estimating because with the wrap added, it was 240
Green tea with honey - 48. I had two eight ounce glasses so that came out to a total of 96
1 pear - 40


I'm not sure about dinner, but I think I'll just get creative with that one. Maybe I'll have an omlette with loads of vegetables and a bit of cheese.

I've gotta confess I o'd a bit in the exercise department. I was in the gym for almost 3 hours working out. I blame the television. Everytime I would turn the channel, I would run into a tv show that I really liked, and just when I'd tell myself, ok this is the last 5 minutes, a show would come on, and I'd be at the stair climb for another hour!!! I'm not going to do that tomorrow.

I've planned to exercise for 30 minutes and call it a day. My first official weigh in is tomorrow and I'm a bit nervous but I've told myself that no matter what the scale reads, I'm not going to let it discourage me. I had a good day today considering all of the temptation that was surrounding me. I was offered tons of chocolate by 3 different people. Then another person gave me bags of chocolate, oreos, candy, and chips ahoy. I quickly and efficiently dispensed it to my much thinner friends who are blessed with a fast metabolism.

As for food, I was reevaluating my food consumption and by looking at the numbers, it seems as though I may not be pulling in enough calories. I average somewhere around 1,200-1,300 calories a day. I don't feel hungry, but that doesn't mean that my body might not be thinking I'm going into starvation mode. When I weigh in tomorrow, I'll decide what I'm going to do about that particular situation. I have to say, I had the best tasting and most filling dinner tonight. It consisted of:

Stir fry shrimp - 102
vegetable lo mein - 180
hawaiian style teriyaki sauce (used to season the stir fry and lo mein) 90
chicken noodle soup with lots of veggies - 200
around 48 oz of water consumed

hey funky you're doing really great. i know how tht feels when you get on something and some good show starts. i have an elliptical home so i get on it when i know there is something good on tv so i drive even up to 45 minutes which is huge for me lol.
i'm sure that weigh in tomorrow is going to go just great Lena

So my very first weigh in was a bust . I hoped on the scale at the gym, and I couldn't read the darn thing. I wasn't sure how much I weighed, so I put the nob thing on 200. It read as too heavy, so then I put it on 150 and started moving the top nob thingy. I put it all the way to 50 extra pounds, and it read as too heavy. Then I tried moving it down incriments of 1 and nothing worked. It just wouldn't balance correctly. Now it's off to find someone on campus that has either a traditional scale, or a digital read out scale. That should be fun

I tried out that scale again, and it read as 198.5lbs!!! I was shocked and I'll admit it, really disappointed in what had popped up. Then, one of the gym workers came up to me and said that the scale I was on was indeed broken, and made everyone a lot heavier than what they actually were. You should have seen the grin on my face. I was so happy because I just couldn't understand how it was possible for me to have gained close to 10lbs in 3 weeks. I just hadn't been that out of control with my eating. I still haven't found anyone with a scale yet, so I guess I'm just going to have to suck it up and fork over some cash and buy myself one. Aside from the scale fiasco, here's how the rest of the day panned out for me.

Breakfast
oatmeal with 1% milk - 190 calories
2 honeydew slices with cottage cheese - 200 calories

Snack
Balance protein bar - 200 calories

Lunch
Special K w/ 1% milk - 190 calories
spinach and lettuce salad - don't know the calories there

Snack
4 yogurt pretzels- don't the calories there either

Dinner
Turkey primavera - 300 calories

Total for the day (not including the ones I don't know the calorie count to) - 1080

I feel really full, and I worked out a bunch today as well.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Yesterday was awesome, despite having a few rocky moments. I actually got 2 of my friends to come and work out with me at the gym and it was fun. They really motivated me and showed me so much encouragement. Even though they still tease me about my new found addiction to the gym, I know that they're behind my weight loss endeavor 100%. The day got even better when my other friend Jo told me how proud she was of me for sticking to my new weight loss methods.Telling me that my level of dedication was motivating her to change the way she was eating. I was so flattered. Sometimes, when you're so engrossed with the whole weight loss process and getting down on yourself because you haven't really seen results, it's nice to have your friends tell you that yes, what you're doing is awesome and that they notice. Then, it doesn't feel as though all of your hard work is in vain.

Breakfast
Special K w/ 1% milk - 190
Honeydew slice - 50
Cataloupe slice - 50
Cottage cheese - 100
2 cups green tea - 0 calories

i know what you mean...my friends are really amazing to me, especially my friend Tina who is slim and model type lol but who is encouriging me sooooo much

you really don't have luck with those scales do you? i honestly hope you'll be able to find a sclae that actually works hehe
have a great day! Lena

Yeah Lena,

I think I'm going to have to haul off and order one. I was so looking forward to not having to spend money, but a little bit of cash spent today will be a nice investment towards the new me. I'm about to head off to the gym to get in some cardio and weight training. This should be fun and I've made sure to pace myself and make sure that I'm only there for no more than 2 hours.

Today was a really good day. Just got back from a gospel concert. It was uplifting even though I'm Muslim, the music and the message really spoke to me. Aside from that, I went to gym and got in a super nice work out. I really felt the burn. What's not so good, I realize that I'm not getting in enough calories. Isn't it ironic that in trying to lose weight, you gotta eat more. I'm eating as much as possible and feeling really full, but when I do the total calorie count, I'm averaging at the most 1100-1200 calories, I wanna get that up a bit more to around 1200-1400 calories. To do that, I've stocked up on fruits and vegetables and I'm off to GNC to go and pick up some protein bars and this stuff called "Muscle Milk". These are healthy alternatives for me, especially the protein bars because I can get my chocolate fix while still eating something good for me.

I was having a conversation with a friend today, and we got down to talking about weight. During this conversation, I came to realize that a lot of my weight gain came from staying in the dining hall too long therefore feeling compelled to eat because everyone else is, and eating some really crappy foods late at night. I've worked really hard at stopping these bad habits but the battle is still long. I've also decided to revamp my weight loss methods. In addition to upping my daily caloric intake, I'm going to add different exercise . I've got a date with a few friends to go swimming and another set of friends have invited me to come and take yoga, dance and pilates with them. This should be fun, and add some much needed variety to my work outs. Alright then, tomorrow is a new day and I've got to get some rest. It's been a hectic but fruitful day.

I totally understand what you are saying!!! A friend of mine has been losing weight for a year now, & he had mentioned going to the gym several times, but never signed up for one. I mentioned again the other day the level of dedication with eating right and exercising etc, and he marched his butt to the gym before going home and had his membership!

I felt really great that I was able to help motivate him to get on the ball and get it done. I also gave him my workout plan AND, he's actually going to try it!! YEAH!!!!

I love it when people get healthy by making healthier choices!

P.S. Good for you! We are motivation for others!!!

It is nice to be a motivation for others it just keeps me more inspired and determined not to fail at this. I'm also starting to discover that people are noticing some type of weight loss on my body. Even though I don't know my current weight yet, and I don't see a difference in the way my body looks, people at school notice and it's boosting up my self esteem. I've got some plans for today. I'm setting up some mini goals for the week.

Today
1. Drink 8 glasses of water
2. Increase caloric intake to 1,300
3. Do 1 new nude sketch drawing to keep myself from loafing around (goal is fill up my sketch pad with new drawings that I've done each day)

A goal that I would like to reach by March 12th, is to drop 10lbs. I'm trying to keep my weight loss goals within the relms of possibility. I don't want to set myself up for failure by putting up too high a number for me to lose. On the exercise front, I'm planning on swimming today for an hour, and before heading off to the pool, doing some weight training for 45 minutes.

Hey Funky its nice to see someone else who doesn't mind LIVING in the gym, lol.... I work out for 45 min in the morning and then 1 1/2 hours to 2 mid morning w/ my friend.

I've found a new nemesis, and it's name is the assisted pull up machine. I had seen a few people using it a while back and thought it looked easy. Boy was I wrong!!! That thing was tough and I felt so out of shape using it. I now know that I have no real upper body strength, hahaha well not enough to do a pull up. I did 2 and was spent . Oh well, knowing that I have this machine to conquer has me putting up a new goal. By April 2nd, I want to be able to do at least 5 full pull ups. If I can do that, then I'll know that I've reached a new level of fitness.

Today was good, I didn't get to go swimming today because I had so much work to do, and the weather got really crappy but I'm happy with the workout I got today. I acheived 2 out of my three goals, drinking 8 glasses of water and increasing my caloric intake to around 1,300. But I don't like the way I feel...almost like this overly stuffed feeling, but it could be attributed having ingested a bit too many carbs. I'm going to try and get in more protein from now. Man, weight loss is about finding that combination that works best for you and applying it I just hope I can crack the code in the next following weeks.

I'm revamping my diet folks. I've figured it out, and looking at what I have written out, losing these 45lbs should be a lot easier with my weight loss regimne. First things first, I need to increase my caloric intake. I want to be getting in as much as 1470 calories a day. Next, I'm increasing the number of meals I eat...from 3 to 5 small meals a day. Then, I'm getting serious with the water folks; it's going to be 8 glasses everyday not including the 8oz cups of tea I have. Lastly, I'm changing up the workout routine. I'm going down from working out 6 days a week to working out only 5 days a week; with rest days being designated as Wednesday and Sunday. This is what the next 6 weeks will look like for me.

7-7:45 - Work out: Weight training
8:30 - Breakfast
10:40 - midmorning snack
12:50 - Lunch
2:35 - midafteroon snack
3 - 4:00 - workout : 1 hour of cardio
5:30 - dinner

I still don't have a scale folks so I had a friend take pictures of me today and then once 6 weeks are up, she's going to take pictures of me again so I can see the transformation. If I like what I see, I may even post them up in the before and after section of the forum.

So there it is...what do you guys think of the new plan?

wow way to go