Wow... Add me to the list of folks who have not posted lately and who have been feeling a loss of motivation.

I rejoined WW online a while back and decided I would "do it my own way" to see how it worked for me. My focus has been waist size and not weight. Well, in that regard I suppose you could say I've been successful because my weight hasn't really changed. I dropped two pounds but managed to reduce my belly measurement by two inches.

I realized, though, that I was giving myself "outs" and that I wasn't really changing anything.........not much anyway. I was doing "just enough". What a crock!

This past weekend, my wife and I totally re-committed to kickin' some ass and living in a way that makes us feel better about who we are and how we're taking care of ourselves. For us, that includes real exercise. Not excessive exercise but not merely stretching either.

I threw a foam exercise mat out on the back patio and now spend the morning out there doing my stretching and a good round of old-school calisthenics. After that a vigorous walk of anywhere from 2-6 miles...

I'm cutting out bread (which makes me sad), candy, and eating at any place that has a drive-thru. For now, my sweet tooth will be satisfied by eating frozen Greek yogurt w/berries.

I'm back to being completely anal about recording my food points and my activity points (even though I don't use them).

While we were in Vegas, we went to a show and took a picture with "Marilyn Monroe". At the end of the show, we looked at the picture to see if we wanted to purchase it. I think I laid my eyes on that picture for all of a nano-second and turned away. I did not like what I was seeing and vowed that THIS TIME I was going to do something about it. And I'm going to...

My dad bought me a weight bench yesterday, it was one I had been looking at. Simple and small but I wanted to up my exercise (and needed very small for my apt). Anyway, it has the leg lifty thingy and the arm curly thingy and I am soooo happy! It is time to start the upper body stuff.

228. I haven't been under the 230 mark since....well...I can't remember.

Thinker, a picture was one of my first motivators; my drivers license picture. It is horrid, (no really) I hide it. I also haven't changed it so I can remember why I do this everyday. After that picture, I quit taking pictures for a long time.

At 210, I will be at the 100 lbs lost mark. I'm getting a new dr lic pic. :-)

I lost weight while in Africa but only because I discovered that the chicken I was eating wasn't truly chicken, but rather a Ghanian delicacy known as grasscutter. :blink:

oh MY.

i once read a book about a woman who grew up in Africa as a Nomad in a large family, camel milk was the once a day meal. In the States, weight loss was something she was baffled about. She said if you wanna lose weight, spend a week in Africa.

We were in the Central Region, so no camels for us. They do have a ton of goats but only used them as meat sources. I asked our translator why they didn't milk them and he said they have no way to refridgerate the milk. I think it was more cultural than anything.

We ate a lot of rice, boiled root vegetables and plantains. STARCH CITY!!!

Where did you visit? I am hoping to explore the Great Rift in the next few years.

We were in Mankesim, Ghana, along the coast. I'm not sure where the Great Rift is but I do know they call Ghana the tourist's Africa since it is a good place for novice travelers to begin. :)

It's pretty incredible if you do go! Take lots of pictures!

anything is good to do if your trying to loose weight . one thing i do is walk down hill for about 2 miles on a nice day after work . the other thing i do is drink lots and i do mean lots of water . i probably drink 3 liters a day maybe more but just remember water is your friend . i also eat several small meals a day . i've noticed my weight isnt going up but right now staying the same which is a start in the right direction . anything helps . i have noticed my clothes getting looser so maybe im loosing some but i'd say one of the most important things is to feel good about what your doing and focus on what is working and feels good .

Since Thursday, I've abstained from potatoes, rice, pasta and bread.

No exercise (yet). I can already feel a bit of a difference in how my jeans are fitting. The first few days were rough, but it IS getting easier as the days have gone by.

I think I'll keep it up for awhile and add some exercise (btw, I've heard great things about Jillian Michaels' [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Jillian-Michaels-30-Day-Shred/dp/B00127RAJY"]Thirty Day Shred[/ame] video).

update
 

I'm now down 14 pounds in the last month. YAY! Thanks be to ME, of course, my dogs for wanting to walk all the time, a sweet someone who is always encouraging me along, and my awesome friend JAGG!

This brings my total weight loss for the last 9 months to about 40 pounds. :)

That is so awesome! Way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope I can get at least 8 out of my latest efforts.

WOOHOOOOOOOO Congratulations :) Keep up the great work my friend!

I see everyone is werkin hard!

I LOVE reading how much support and love we all share.

I LOVE you guys.

I started (again.. maybe I should just say refreshed lol) my journey on May 7th... Since then I've lost 13 pounds (as of this morning). But this time I'm doing it the way I did it the time I lost 100 pounds.. "real" food, exercise... no short cuts as it were. Lots of fruits and veggies, lots of small meals instead of hording calories so I can have a big meal later (that usually ended up consisting of something starchy and high in sodium). Plain ole - counting calories. It's what works for me.

On May 10th in 30 minutes I biked (Stationary) 7.1 miles on a course set to intensity 3 and my avg heart rate at the end was 142.

Last night - same course, same time - intensity increased to 5... I did 7.6 miles and my average heart rate was only 134.

Loving it right now! Hoping I can maintain the motivation when something plateaus - I know I can't keep improving everywhere - I just hope to continue to improve in at least one spot at all times - to keep the motivation going.

So proud of you! You rawk! Keep up the good work.

Can I just say, Sylvie...that the way you keep up the good fight, no matter what difficulties come your way, is truly admirable and inspiring....:clover:

MUST write a meal plan tonight! Putting off going to the grocery store is NOT good for my lifestyle change!!

I'm down one more jean size, which means one more, and I will reach my goal. Yay me!

Downloaded the app this morning!! So far, I'm diggin' it!

Pinkie, you hit the nail on the head with WW and me!!! I, too, started trying to figure out how I could work my points so that I could "sneak in" whatever I wanted.

I'm enjoying my new exercises, and I've gotten back out on the land doing some physical labor; those things are good for me--body and soul!

Here's to new efforts!!

Absolutely, yeah, you!

On another note, Pinkie, I have to agree with FP way- WW points just don't work well for me. In fact, I wish I had hung on to my original WW materials back when it first began. The main reason it was successful for me was about portion control and the weighing of foods helped embed images of what average portions look look like. I am a compulsive over water and I need this approach. Also, WW started out as a means to cool and prepare food, not what it has become- another packaged food plan in so many ways. Don't like all the sodium and additives in prepared meals.

Bit everyone is different, so I guess we all figure out what works. For me, recognizing years ago that my eating patterns were not "normal" as well as developing bulemia was the key to changing eating habits for life. OA and a WW based eating plan is my mainstay. And yes, I can fall off the wagon still sometimes.

Good Morning Healthies,

i promised Mr Mtn today i would stay put. (He means business)
i pulled a muscle on Thursday, well it started hurting Thursday night.
Overdid my work out, and pulled my bum muscle (yes, go ahead and laugh) lol.

It hurts like no other... i have pulled a back before, but this - ouch..
Could be not enough stretching for the work out i did, or just doing too much in a day..

Listen to your body, always! And always do self care after a vigorous workout..And if your body says rest, rest.. SO important!

When mine was a little sore, rather than listen to my body i went to the gym on Thursday and did every weight machine & then got on the treadmill...(4 mins jogging, 1 min walking) for 30 mins. knowing i was sore a little, i should have nursed that and just did an upper body weights workout, and stuck to walking only for cardio.. & stretched properly.. i get so eager to push myself harder (which is good) but not with a boo boo..SO, i really pulled it good after that, and here i am, home from work, unable to lay down any longer & can't even put on my own dang socks.

i know better.. i really do know better.. lesson learned, this i promise.

PS - MyFitnessPal rocks.. Give it a shot! If you cant get the app on your cell phone, you can get it and play with us online too, that's where i did it last night...
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/
It's so simple to use, and helps motivate keeping ourselves on track, and we can all add one another..

a few years back when I was in a healthy place, I bought a Garmin 305 heart monitor. A few days ago I dug it out again and I was reminded that when I download the session for the day - it breaks down how much time I spent in the different heart rate zones. I forgot how cool that is for a numbers / stats junkie like myself.

My eating averages for May:

Net calories - 1400 per day

Sodium - 2400 (working on pulling that down to 2k)

Sat Fats - 10% total calories... really want to pull that to under 9%, even though new studies are showing there are "healthy" and "unhealthy" saturated. fats.. so we'll see where that goes.

Trans Fats - .1 of a gram (YAY!!!)

those are my primary "look at" items as far as food... so I'm pretty pleased right now. I only have 1 frozen meal a day and that's lunch. That's where a good 600mg of my daily sodium is coming from. So I need to buckle down and fix stuff - but right now that's my guilty pleasure. And yes - I know I'd enjoy fresh food better - but yeah it is what it is.

So May was good and June's starting out fantastic...

i am deecajun on there... Will look for you!!!!!

One of the problems im haveing in my work outs is low back/leg fatigue,I do a lot of core and leg work,infact 75% of my work out.I listen to how it feels so some days its not to much and I do what im comfy with but use those muscles as much as I dare.I got down to 245 and have gained 15 back because I was haveing so much trouble with my sciatica I could barely do a work out at all.The doc said for me to to rehab but the stuff he had me doing was really not enough plus I still was haveing the same probs.SO one day I was in his office and ask if he had a chiro on staff or a masage therapist....noooo he said...so ow I have nedicare that covers a chiro,I was going to go to one.He was thappy to hear that but I went any way.Its been two weeks and im doing better than ever,I have little to no sciatica pain.What I do have is one spot about half a palm of you hand sise at my tail bone that is definatly still there.The pain in my neck ,arms no more pinchy headakes or tingling to my fingers.All this is a major plus,I have more energy now than ive had in a long while.Goddess bless the chiro.

I just downloaded the fitness app!!
canmarielan there, too

I'm doing Fitness Pal too....sent out a few add's this morning!

My mother-in-law is in town this weekend (yes, feel for me), so I haven't done any tracking. I haven't been great, but I haven't eaten a lot either (also, not great). The worst part for me is not doing my exercises.

It's just really challenging for me to stick with my routine when there are disruptions (disruption = mother-in-law).

I'm going to try and make today a better day and will look forward to my usual routine starting again tomorrow.

Big hugs all the way around...