ASOIAF Weight Loss Challenge II

[cjfshaw]

I achieved my goal of going to sleep early and consequently getting to work early enough to have a proper breakfast (3 egg omelette w/ sausage and onions instead of a donut and a few pistachios). I did not however have pistachios as an after breakfast snack today, as my stomach's a bit out of whack from drinking last night. To completely follow my 'tweaks' I guess this means all I need to do now is a strength workout and I'll be following my plan. My lower back is in a bit of pain though, it's SI pain, which leads me to believe it may have been caused by my deadlifting. I'm taking a break from that to awhile to work on some other ab/core stuff that I've been neglecting.

[JungianQueen]

Ok, down 1.5 lb from last week, which is good. I ate really well--even last night when my HBO lineup was on. Still no exercise. Sitting down with husband today to get a "schedule" going so I can get my time in at the gym. Also going to buy some heavier hand weights (as the ones I have aren't challenging enough).

It's a new week! I have the food part down, now it's time for the physical part.

I ate a LOT more veggies and fruit. I made a whole bunch of veggie potstickers that I can steam and I made "smoothies" every day that included blueberries and strawberries.

*I make my smoothies with crystal light and a cup of mixed frozen fruit.

I only ate after 8pm once last night (bowl of cereal) but it was still within my WW points for the day.

New Recipe/Meal of the week:

3 oz heritage farm roast beef on 2 pieces of toasted sunflower bread, dipped in au jus. Yummy, low in calories, filling!

Tweak for this week: still need to get in exercise.

Adding another new meal/recipe that I need to find.

[Nichole]

I've had a hard time thinking of a tweak this week. I guess I'll go with at least liter and a half of water of day. Which is no problem this time of year. I may weigh myself later, but there has been some bloating, so I just don't know if I can face the scale.

Tweak for this week - eat some fruit every day. I'm going to try have an apple or whatever every afternoon.

I make a point of eating some fruit every day. I heart mangos! It is one of the highlights of my morning.

[JungianQueen]

Rough week. Despite my good behavior for most of the week, my bad on Thurs and Fri and Sat caused me to regain 5 lbs. So my tweak for the week: return to consistent good eating and activity.

I've had weeks like this. One thing I did notice that some of the "gain back" is definitely water weight and once you lower the sodium (and drink some fluid), I imagine some of that will melt right off again.

"This time around" (I seem to be yo'yoing forever here) I am better at failing, starting over and sticking to it. I let myself have a bad day or two here and there. If that bad day goes over three days, my husband is instructed to serve me an informal/mini-intervention. :)

[Tyria]

This week may be brutal to keep up with the exercising. Today, it's already 28C, but feels like 35C with humidity. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same, but Wednesday and Thursday are supposed to be 30C feeling like 40-41C. This is not typical weather for Atlantic Canada. The before humidity temps, yes, but 40C? love of fuck.

I love the hot weather, but the humidity has turned everything into a swamp. Wouldn't be so bad if we had air-conditioning at home, because it's usually quite a bit hotter in our flat than outside. I don't know one single person who has anything but fans. You just don't usually need anything more here.

So, I have decided that for this week, I will not walk the 40 minutes home from work, or do the elliptical. I'll pass out. If for some reason the forecast is wrong, I will work out. Instead, I'm going to try and head to the lake everyday after work for a swim (starting today, weee! I can't wait!). One thing I love about this province, is you are never far from a pristine beach or lake. 15 mins for me and I live practically right downtown.

eta: I have lost 3 pounds so far though! Feeling good.

[Phoenix]

Last week for me was 50/50. I was under the weather almost all week, achy, no energy. Including being really sick on Monday (missed work and everything, that never happens) So, I didn't do any biking at all, total failure, but then again, just walking around was giving me tunnel vision.

However, I ate really well, excellent success with portion control and making healthy snack choices. I did pig out on homemade pizza Saturday night and drank a lot of beer with the folks at the Denver BWB meet-up Friday night. But overall, my choices last week were pretty low-fat, reasonably sized and high in veggies.

I haven't weighed myself yet this week, however, because I am all bloated and hormonal and I know it'll just make me miserable. Getting back on the bike tonight and will weigh-in tomorrow.

My new tweak is breakfast everyday. No exceptions. Even if it's just toast.

I continue to be impressed with everyone's dedication to this Challenge. We are all going to succeed and look and feel fabulous. Personally, when it's done, I'm going shopping. For something with some slink. :)

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

I've never participated in one of these threads before, but 1 month ago I started to regulate my diet and exercise more. I took a picture or myself. This morning I took another picture and the results were dramatic. The scale tells me I have lost about 10 lbs, the pics tell me I've dropped more like 15 and gained 5 back in muscle. Very encouraging.

[Erik of Hazelfield]

Yesterday I made leek-and-potato soup. Think it's the first time I've ever made soup since I left home three years ago. I put in one leek, 6-7 small potatoes, one red and one yellow onion, some bacon, wild cabbage, broth, salt and pepper and water.

Thing is, it's great. Tastes good, is probably healthy, the ingredients don't cost much and it's easy to make enough to last for like 5-6 meals. I hope it will help me acheive my goal for this week.

I'm starting to feel better as well. The belly isn't quite as round as it used to be (although I have no proof of that). I'll weigh myself on Thursday again, then we'll see if it's true or not.

[Zoë Sumra]

Great to hear all the positives, and many hugs to those whose weeks aren't going so well.

Last Friday's skating trip turned into a four mile walk, because my leg was twinging and I figured if I had to stop early, I'd sooner stop free exercise than exercise I'd paid for. I went jogging this morning and it was much more successful than last time - still unpleasant and I was still tasting blood (really need to run with a face mask to keep my throat warm, I think), but I kept it up for two miles. Then on the way to my fiance's parents for lunch I wondered if I'd put on his trousers by mistake for mine because of how slack they were feeling (we're the same leg length; before now he has gone off to work in my jeans and spent all day wondering why they were a bit tight), so, yay. Post-lunch, not quite so tight. :P But the portion control and making myself exercise instead of staying horizontal with video games is apparently working, at least to that extent.

I did have a new tweak but it won't work this week so will have to come back later when I've thought of another one...

[Tobin]

I was really crampy over the weekend so I didn't get much done, but I tried to stick to some of those new Lean Cuisine steamer meals from the freezer section.

They're about 4-7 WW points each and are what I'd say are medium portions of pasta and meat type meals.

I made some chicken and prosciutto tortelini with marinara that carried over two meals and wasn't too bad (a little high on the sodium sadly). I have some wheat tortelini for later, but have to thaw out more leftover sauce.

For this week's tweak? ....I bought some cereal and organic milk, so I'm going to try to replace at least one meal with that if I can, even if it's just a snack.

I got Fiber One's honey clusters (or something like that) and a box of Total raisin bran.

I ts been a while since I braved the cereal aisle, I swear I saw a box that said 'Twigs!' on the cover, :blink:

[s'vrone]

This week's new tweak is vegetarianism. I was a vegetarian for about a year and a half, and then Germany broke my willpower (mmm wurst). I just sort of lost my enthusiasm and forgot my reasons for doing it. I've been reading Safran Foer's Eating Animals and Campbell's China Study lately, and I've come to realize that I should stop procrastinating on going back near-veggie because I still feel it's not healthy to eat a lot of meat, not to mention the environmental destruction and financing of cruelty bits that you get when you eat what I can afford (not much). I don't think I'll ever make it back completely since I don't want to alienate my family or friends.

Ran 4 miles and did do veggie today without sugary drinks or sweets. One day at a time. ALSO got myself reacquainted with my recipe for delicious chana masala. Love that stuff.

[Eyelesbarrow]

I miscalculated. I lost 10 pounds since late July. I'm now down to the last 3-5 pounds instead of 10 as what I previously thought.

I'm currently down with flu so I missed the barre 3 class today. I hope to attend one later this week.

Tweak this week is to just take it easy: drink plenty of fluids, eat a lot of fruits, and bed rest to get rid of this flu.

[Zoë Sumra]

Decided on a tweak.

At the moment I shallow-fry all my meat with olive oil except for roasts and stews (well, even stew meat gets shallow-fried first). Where possible, I'm going to start grilling it instead (within reason. "Stir-fry", for instance, wouldn't work. But when I can grill something, like steak, I will).

[BigFatCoward]

Decided on a tweak.

At the moment I shallow-fry all my meat with olive oil except for roasts and stews (well, even stew meat gets shallow-fried first). Where possible, I'm going to start grilling it instead (within reason. "Stir-fry", for instance, wouldn't work. But when I can grill something, like steak, I will).

olive oil is better than most, be happy with that.

buy a really really good non stick pan and you can use so much less oil.

so far i am down 9lb (my weight loss started 2 weeks before the challenge) i look even better though, my body shape is looking like i have dropped more than 4% of my body weight. i have been training very hard, i have upped my calorific burn at the gym to 1500 5 times a week (target) probably more like 4 times a week if i'm totally honest. i am down 2 notches on my belt. so i celebrated last night with a big blow out (why do i do that to myself?)

[cjfshaw]

i have upped my calorific burn at the gym to 1500 5 times a week (target) probably more like 4 times a week if i'm totally honest.

That's a shitload. Way more than I do, and way way more than most of the people I know.

[BigFatCoward]

That's a shitload. Way more than I do, and way way more than most of the people I know.

its 20 min each on cross trainer, bike and stairmaster and 30 mins on treadmill. i weigh 15 stone ish so the calories drop off fairly quickly. if i weighed myself after i reckon i'd have lost 8lb in sweat alone.

i know the machines in the gym are not 100% acurate but they give a good rough guideline and are good for targets if nothing else.

[Fleeing Finn]

its 20 min each on cross trainer, bike and stairmaster and 30 mins on treadmill. i weigh 15 stone ish so the calories drop off fairly quickly. if i weighed myself after i reckon i'd have lost 8lb in sweat alone.

i know the machines in the gym are not 100% acurate but they give a good rough guideline and are good for targets if nothing else.

I'm sorry but there is no way you're burning 1500 calories during training. Unless you're a professional athlete.

A very highly trained athlete can burn about 15 cal/min sustainably for 90 minutes. That comes down to 1350 calories which is still short. Moderately trained individuals are closer to 10 cal/min and begginers somewhere between 5-10 cal/min.

With that said, I'm not trying to be a prick about it. It's just very common among untrained people and people trying to lose weight to massively overestimate their calorie consumption during training. In the long run if you're serious about losing fat, it's better if you can estimate the impact of training on calorie consumption more realistically.

[Fez]

My newest tweak is going to be to start doing bodyweight squats each night.

I still don't think I'm losing any fat, which is really getting annoying to me considering I don't snack, stopped drinking sugary drinks, and a rough caloric estimate for my meals would be 1700-1800/day. Not much else I can do considering I'm already hunger almost all the time.

On the plus side I definitely starting to bulk up in muscle some, but only in my upper-body because its been all push-ups and pull-ups; hence why I'm going to start squats.

[Nichole]

I'm fucking frustrated. I feel like I work hard, have cut out things I love, and all for nothing. I know some of it is bloat, but I feel I'm stuck in cycle where I do fine for a few weeks then I get my period and I start all over again the next month. I just feel like my body is fighting me losing any weight. Like it wants me to be mediocre for the rest of my life. Gah.

[lady narcissa]

This is going to be a hard week for me in terms of getting in some physical activity. School is back in session so in addition to working full time during the day, I've now got lectures to give and prepare and that takes up most of the time I had available for exercise. But I shall try to find my balance and work it in as I can. Hopefully as the semester progresses I will get better at balancing everything. In the meantime I'll focus on keeping the eating and snaking under control.

The good news is I'm wearing a pair of pants I purchased at the beginning of the summer and I think this will have to be the last time I ever wear them as they are pretty much falling off me. The belt is the only thing keeping them up.