here's a new challenge community anewyou

come one, come all! let's have fun with this!!

The New 2004 Holiday's Weight Loss Challenge will start Monday, Nov. 8, 2004 (So get rid of that Halloween Candy now!) & it will run until Dec. 31, 2004. Membership closes Nov 7th at midnight so sign up now!! This is also a great place to find Exercise & Weight Loss Tips, Low-fat Holiday Recipes, Get Advice & Encouragement, Post Your Goals and Achievements.

anyone know if doing the slim-fast diet while nursing is OK?

I am happy to report that I have finally shed the last of my baby pounds! My goal was to do so by the time my daughter turned three months old, and it took me that time plus a week, but I finally did it. I gained 50 with her as you may recall.

I was overweight going into my pregnancy so I am still dieting, hoping to find a slimmer me hiding somewhere in there.

As I move onto the next phase of my weight loss, I am going to bow out of this community and head over to some of the other dieting/weight loss groups.

I just wanted to wish you all the best of luck and remember, learning to love who you have become can be a far healthier thing that loving who you were. :)

i dont know how it happened. thru out my pregnancy i was so poor that i often went up to a week without eating anything. and somehow during pregnancy and early postpartum i managed to go from a size 14 to a size 24. i dont understand it.

i eat a mostly vegan/raw diet. i walk daily. i am constantly moving around with my baby, and yet i went up to 260 pounds. how the fuck did this happen?

i had a full blood chemistry screen done and nothing really points to why i gained so much weight. i have celiac disease which causes deficiency in my thymus, liver, immune system, digestion and heart and also causes my bipolar disorder. but nothing points to why i got so goddamned fat.

Anyone have terrible stretch marks? I got them so bad all over my stomach, despite using cocoa butter and vitamin E. I was wondering if there's really any way to get rid of them besides surgery. Does Mederma work?

I know one of - if not my biggest weight loss set back is my need for peacefulness.

Over the years I have put my favourite TV shows with my favourite snack. At one point, my favourite snack was an entire bag of microwave popcorn and a large coke slurpee with chocolate chip mint icecream. BAD. REALLY REALLY BAD.

I finally kicked that habit and with just that alone, I got down to 130 before I got pregnant with Lilyanne. That was pretty darned good. It was low enough people actually felt okay asking if I had lost weight.

Then, because I was pregnant, I gained weight. Not much really, but enough that after I had her I only got down to 147 when I got pregnant with Zachary. Really, for the amount of months between them, that wasn't too bad. But, I had the same problem after Lilyanne and Zach as I did after Olivia. I still equated peacefulness with my favourite TV show and a snack.

I'm sure this was ingrained in me early in my life. Sunday tradition was always to watch Walt Disney with a big bowl of popcorn and fresh home-made fudge. When I was young it didn't matter that I ate like that. I never went above 100 pounds until I was pregnant with Jasmine. When I got to old for Disney movies, we played a lot of cards or board games on Sunday's and ALWAYS had cookies, or fudge, or divinity, or popcorn, or whatever. Hence, my feeling that I should be snacking on something when I sit down to play games with my kids.

Why a good TV show and a sugary snack is peaceful is beyond me - but it is. I like to have the house all clean, freshly vacuumed, the kids either in bed or settled in watching a movie in the other room and then I get my snack, sit down on the couch and just veg. I love reality TV.

But what is the cost of this habit. Too much weight. Difficulty losing weight. A constant craving for sweets.

So, I have to kick this habit. It's actually been about 6 days or so since I porked out on sweets. I have been doing really well. I've decided that I need to replace the bad habit with a good habit. That is what I did with smoking only it was replacing a bad habit (smoking while watching TV) with a bad habit (eating while watching TV).

So this is my plan - and I've already implemented some of it.

I will have a bottle of Crystal lite that I have partially frozen - because then it is slushy and more like a slurpee.

I will paint my toe nails and finger nails. I won't do this every day because I don't watch TV everyday.

On the days I decide not to paint my toe nails or fingernails I will work out during commercials.

I've been doing really well getting in a lot of exercise. I got up at 7 this morning and went out and weeded the garden for an hour and a half. That was good exercise because these were no ordinary weeds. Since I was pregnant for part of the summer and then was busy with a newborn - the weeds got to be - well - my height. No joke. I had to soak the garden for two days (remember we live on an acre and a half) so I could pull the big buggers. The soil was still quite wet today so by the time I was done, the bottoms of my sandals had an inch thick of mud. It was really hard to walk in them. But, I got the tall weeds out of my strawberry patch, so when it dries up a bit more I will get in there and fine tune the patch. Then it will be on to my raspberry bushes and then my service berry bushes and then just general weeding.

I didn't get as much work out in as I wanted to yesterday - I did 30 minutes of strenuous exercise. Weights. I will do that again today.

I'm proud of myself. The scale said 160 today - a week ago is said 170. I get depressed when I see 160 because I feel like I should be losing way faster than that - but I KNOW that isn't logical. And when I think that a week ago I was 170 - well - that's ten pounds - so I am losing - and quite fast I guess.

So, it's motivating because I can see success. Still can't get into my pre-pregnancy pants though.

Hmmm... I gained .5 lb this week. I am surprised it was not more! I had a horrible craving for burgers and sweets!

Last Weigh-in: 221.5
Current Weight: 222.0
This week: +.5
Total: -3.0
Goal Weight: 150

well, I didn't work out the way I had planned. I got too involved downloading software and finding cracks. But, I did make sure I did a solid 30 minutes of difficult exercising.

- did 3 sets 30 outer leg lifts
- 3 sets 40 inner leg lifts
- 3 sets 20 butt lifts
- 15 pushups
- 3 sets 20 reverse crunches
- 40 reps bicycle (ab work not a bike)
- 2 sets Bent Elbow Plank for 20 seconds each

I did skip for 2 minutes today. I'm starting to think skipping isn't worth the energy. At least right now. It hurts me. It hurts my knees and it hardly burns any calories. I might give it up and start again when I weigh a little less. I don't know though.

Tomorrow I will do another 45 - 60 minutes of lawn mowing and a half hour upper body work out.

I think it may be easier to fit 1/3 hour at a time rather than 10 minutes at various times throughout the day - or, maybe it will just depend on the day.

But - my legs are jello and I stink and I need a shower.

If any of you who are trying to lose weight haven't yet checked out Fit Day you might want to check it out as a tool. You can keep track of your daily food intake and your daily activity and it charts it and anyway - it's pretty cool.

Things I Did Right Yesterday

- had a whopper and no fries or pop
- craved chocolate and ate one small piece
- had a whole lot of veggies for supper, skipped the perogies and had a cup of chicken with white and wild rice soup
- had about a 1/2 cup of cheerios mixed snack lightly dressed
- walked around the icecream section and candy section at walmart but talked myself out of buying anything

Things I Did Wrong

- I didn't exercise. The opportunity would not present itself as I was gone all day and had company in the evening and was then too tired.
- ate about 1/2 cup of peanuts. That was VERY bad. VERY VERY bad. Peanuts are good for you - but very very high in calories. I told Dave not to buy any anymore.
- broke and had a cup of hot chocolate while reading in bed.

What I have done Right so Far today

- mowed the lawn for 45 minutes
- entered weight into Weight Commander
- planned my meals and exercise for the rest of the day

What I have Done Wrong

- broke and had toast with cinnamon and sugar

What I am Going To Do To Combat My Evening Cravings

- have a cup of postum instead

What I'm Going to Do Right Now

- go have a shower because I'm dirty and sweaty from mowing
- work out for 10 minutes, jump rope for 1 min.
- clean livingroom
- change wash
- vacuum house

My Ten Minute Workout for the day: (6 ten minute sessions throughout the day)

- 3 sets 30 reps crunches
- 3 sets 6 reps squats
- 3 sets 20 reps (maybe) pushups
- 3 sets 40 reps butt lifts
- 3 sets 6 reps lunges (maybe, if it doesn't kill my knees)

So maybe I will go over ten minuts each time but that is okay. I just want to make sure I get 60 minutes in somehow today to burn off the sugar and margarine on my toast and the crap I ate yesterday.

Still - my Fit Day Charts say I am eating less calories than I am burning - but the scale hasn't budged. It makes me frustrated.

I keep reminding myself that I'm not even two months post partum and I need to be patient with myself but it is still difficult. I would love to wear something other than maternity shorts.

what I ate today

- entirely too much Reese Peanut Butter puffs. (why oh why do I have to be addicted to cold cereal?) Tomorrow I'm going to make Red River instead. (like about 4 cups)

- big salad with 2 T Catalina dressing

- 4 slices of cucumber

- 1.5 cups tuna helper

- 4 oz. turkey loaf

- about 1 cup of vanilla pudding (or less, just a guess)

That's about 1700 calories from what Fit Day calculates.