Cat

a loaded chipotle burrito is the perfect bulking food.  1000 calories, 60+ grams of protein.

 

I've got it down to 600 or so.  And I walk there, which burns +/- 150 calories

 

I'm eating about 1600 calories per day.  The tricky part is getting enough protein to keep up in the gym.

 

 

Nice, I wish I had places to walk to for lunch. 

 

I normally take in between 1600-2200 calories a day. 

 

Right now I'm trying to keep it around 1200 and mostly protein.  

 

Protein bar for breakfast 200 (rolled oats, peanut butter and a banana)

Protein shake for lunch 200 cals

canned tuna for snack 90 cals (not great but it works)

dinner tbd

Past two vacations I took, I still went to the hotel gym. I found that it actually improved the overall quality of my vacation: getting up early to workout = longer days; eat a little more and it's slightly OK; snoozes on the beach are awesome; prevents me from getting too drunk that night bc I know the next morning comes another workout (and saves money). I'm def a proponent of vacation workouts; the ONLY time I will get up early to do a morning workout.

 

Last cruise I went on we worked out almost everyday. It was interesting doing my balance moves on a moving ship. 

 

My husband actually lost weight on the cruise because he ate less than he normally does. Every morning assorted fruits, lunch was fruit and a small sandwich or salad. Dinner was the fish option. No dessert. The way he sees it is, he's already having fun on vacation so he isn't looking for any fun in the food plus they have lots of yummy healthy options.  

As I've been eating less, I've been dropping something every week from my weekly chipotle trip. Today it is sour cream. Soon i'll just be eating chicken and beans.

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Beans, avocado, lettuce, tomato and a little bit of cheese. 

 

Can't remember the last time I had sour cream. Of course you are the one that had a hard time putting weight on right....lucky bastard

Vacation is coming up. Trying to hit it hard this week. Super strict on food and adding a little extra workout each day. Trying to decide if I should workout on vacation or not. Whenever I do I always love it and feel better about the vacation.  Going to Disney and Legoland, so I'm stuck eating amusement park food....blah

They're not Panthers fans if they say we're gonna suck.  Punch them in the nards.

 

 

I'm a fan and I often think we are going to suck.

 

Love my team though!

well my lunch got screwed. Picked up a wrap for myself at HT and sushi for the kid who's at work with me today, nowhere on the sushi did it say spicy or spicy mayo but it was!  kid loves sushi but not super spicy sushi so guess who got the wrap and who had to eat the sushi covered in mayo at least it was brown rice and I dabbed off some of the mayo. 

I do this on weekends... I get mad headache close to evening for some reason.

 

 

Drinking too much?

Woke up @ 4. Did laundry, cleaned house, did an Insanity workout and leg lifts. Morning workouts are great but I can't just wake up and do them I have to be up for a little while. 

 

 

Cool, I'm hoping for better results this week.

Btw, I took your advice and tried a new veggie. Credit to my wife for picking Eggplant and making some Eggplant Parm. That's admittedly not the healthiest dish to make but it was a good start.

Hit me with your ideas for quick healthy meals when you get a chance. Thanks!

 

Easy Eggplant recipe, it's in the oven a bit but  your time cooking is very short. 

 

Bake eggplant slices and zucchini cut long ways with a little cooking spray and salt and pepper for about 30-35 minutes at 400 degrees.

 

Place zucchini pieces on top of eggplant slices

Add a little of each ingredient to each eggplant slice:

 

 

marinara  sauce (one with little sugar, and processed ingredients (not ragu)

1/4 cup shredded mozzarella

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

cherry tomato per egg plant slice

 

Put back in oven at 400 degrees F.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until cheese is bubbly.

 

 

 

 

Well last week was frustrating to say the least but a 1.5 pound loss for the week wasn't horrible.

Changed up my workout and adding in some HIIT and we'll see how this week goes. Back at it....

 

 

I found a HIIT workout on my XBOX One fitness app. thinking about giving it a try. 

I finished Gamma the day before I left for the beach.  It coincided with the holiday perfectly.  I'm starting the set over again with Alpha, and I did the Cardio disc today, and I'll probably add variations to increase the intensity since it is the beginner part.  

 

Good luck with Gamma.  Speed 3.0 is a KILLER.  And I don't know how anyone can get through the pyramid push ups.

 

 

So I'm loving Gamma. I'm just loving T25 in general or as I call it T50. I'm finding myself wanting to toss my workout schedule and only do T25 workouts, they are fun. 

Shirts suck for me too. If I buy a medium it's a little tight in the arms and ends up a little too short. A large is way too long and looks like an oversized dress

 

 

Shirts are the same with me...  depends on the shirt, but usually arms are tight on Large and XL is like a dress.

 

Oh well, I guess I just have to keep wearing tight sleeves.

 

 

Don't know what your guys style is, he has found some shirts at American Eagle and Express i think they might be called fitted or something like that, anyways they seem to be wider up top but not as bulky in the waist. 

I wonder if girls have the same problem as guys?

Fitting into pants and underwear means: waist, thighs, and ass. Pick two because you won't find anything to fit all three

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Sometimes yeah. My waste is a size 0-2 my thighs are 2-4 depending on brand. Add in that I'm 5'9" and it gets difficult sometimes.

My husband has a hard time with shirts.

Yeah, I was sore yesterday after my squat-a-thon. It's ok though, cause you can seriously bounce a quarter off my ass.

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Jealous! that's what I'm working towards, my ass is the last place I lose weight. When I started working out my abs and core were ridiculous looking after a couple of weeks, 3 years later and my ass is still not where I want it to be errr! But it's getting better. 

Killed it today! Great workouts, ate really well except it is 8:00 and we haven't ate dinner yet. Summer time mayhem! 

Thanks Cat!!

Here's what I typically eat on an average day.

Breakfast used to be oatmeal, but there's too much refined sugar and I was also not getting enough calories so I switched to an English muffin with natural peanut butter and honey. I snack on either almonds, or peanut butter/oat/flaxseed balls. I do have 2 cups of coffee in the morning but no sugar and just a little creamer which yes I know has sugar.

Lunch is usually grilled chicken with salad or a turkey sandwich. I try to get vegetables most days but some days I have chips.

Dinner is either baked chicken or a salad, sometimes a lean cuisine meal or a bowl of cereal.

I don't snack at night, haven't had a soda since I started working out on May 6th. I'm now getting around 1400-1600 calories per day (was only getting 1100-1300 before I changed my breakfast).

I know I'll break through this plateau and keep heading towards my goal weight but it's a relief to talk about it. I purposely am not sharing this with people in my daily life/Facebook to avoid a false sense of accomplishment so being able to vent here is a huge help.

You guys rock!

 

 

Here is my advice feel free to ignore it

 

1400 calories is where I was thinking you should be in regards to your weight and goal. 

 

A few tips or things to double check regarding your food. 

 

-Make sure your peanut butter is 100% peanuts, Smuckers is a great brand for that or Trader Joes, don't be buying JIF or Peter Pan because they put a ton of other poo in there.

 

-From what I've read honey is sugar, once it goes into the body it really makes no difference- if you have to have it then go light. 

 

-From what I've read about Lean Cusine, I'd skip them and most cereals are terrible for you, lots of bad carbs. despite how healthy they brand themselves. If you're looking for a quick easy meal for dinner I'd find another option, there are a lot of them. I have suggestions if you are interested. 

 

-Make sure you are going easy on the salad dressing, that stuff is full of bad fats, sugar and calories

 

-beware that sugar has a million different names. And your body treats all of them pretty much the same. http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/whattoeat/a/sugars.htm

 

 

Healthy food ideas you could add to your diet:

Steel Cut Oats- filling and gives you a burst of energy in the mornings

Homemade granola bars- i have a recipe that's easy if you want it, it's just peanut butter, banana and muesli 

Beans

Quinoa

avocados- higher calories but very filling and healthy, i'd limit them to stay under your calorie count.

Veggies- you know the ones you see at the store that you never try, google a recipe and give it a shot. Eggplant, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, etc. 

Almond Milk instead of regular milk

Protein Shakes- 

Tuna from the can- i know it's from the can but it's a healthy meal when you need a quick bite. 

Egg white omelettes 

Salmon 

Shrimp 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news, my wife says she wants me to get "the cut" that I had when we first started dating (and I weighed about 140). 

 

by "the cut" she means the illiac furrow/ apollo's belt. I have a fairly pronounced one even at my current bodyfat.  I told her all I need to do is lose about 10 pounds.

 

So now I'm cutting calories for a few weeks.  This is the first time I've ever gone on a "diet"

 

 

I kind of have one of those, more so in my hip area, it doesn't go all the way down. It was the first thing that popped up when i working out and I hated it, I'm ok with it now. I don't think it's very girly looking.

 

btw, your i hope your wife is in amazing shape, seems like a lot to ask, but maybe you don't mind.

Well since I keep bitching let me provide some context.

I tipped the scale at 290 in early January. Since I had always been skinny before my son was born this was devastating. I ate better for a few weeks and lost about 5 pounds.

From late January to the end of April I did a little better with my diet and got down to 271, which was my weight when I started working out on May 6th.

My initial goal weight was 240, with an ultimate goal of 200. Once I get to 200 I will be more concerned with body composition than weight. Reasonable right?

Well, I gave myself 2 months to get to my first goal of 240. 15 pounds per month when you are obese is not too crazy. After the first month I had lost 14 pounds and felt like I could reach my first goal. Second month I lost 12 pounds and weighed 245. Soooo close.

Well, since July 4th I have just been stuck. I got as low as 242 this past weekend but after gaining both days this week I'm pushing 245 again.

I'm trying to figure out what works for my body and what doesn't so I feel like the daily weigh ins are needed at least until I develop a program that works. I have made many adjustments to my diet and feel like I'm eating well. I had baked chicken and friggin beets for dinner last night. I vary my workouts and get an hour in every day except weekends (although I did workout both days this past weekend).

My clothes are falling off me and I am wearing stuff that I haven't in years. I take solace in that but long term I don't want to weigh 240+

 

 

First I have to say bravo! That's awesome you've lost so much weight.  

 

What is your target calorie in take? make sure you aren't taking too few calories in. 

What kinds of foods are you eating? make sure you are not only eating few caloires but also limiting bad carbs and sugars?

What kind of workouts are you doing? if you lifting weights, your muscles are growing, if you doing intense cardio like jumping, push ups etc your muscles are growing and your weight will go up. This is a good thing though because muscle burns fat.  

 

 

Double check and make sure you really are eating as good as you think you are, make sure you are counting any little piece of candy, the bite of food from your kids plate, the beers you had with your buddies.  It's easy for all of us to think we are doing better than we actually are. 

 

 

Thats all the advice I have atm. Good luck!

Grrr gained again today. Pretty frustrating.

This is probably one of the rare times gaining muscle is the reason. Still sucks when you're working towards a goal weight.

 

 

Could you work to a size? Like a particular pants size? 

I am proud to report that I am now able to properly do 10 real push-ups in a row. Upper body is slowly catching up with my lower half...

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That's awesome!!! Getting strong!

You guys all seem happy with the time spent at the gym or working out. I have 2 gym memberships and have stepped foot in 1 of them in the last year. Since I've been home the last 4 years I've gained 10 lbs a year sitting behind a desk. Depressing.

/rant over

 

 

It's addictive. You can have that 40 lbs gone in no time.

So I just ate 1/2 a  buffalo chicken sandwich for lunch. I needed to give in on something. It was awesome, got it out of my system. 

Confused

Best weekend I've had since I started this. Ate right and even worked out both days, normally I take the weekends off. Yesterday my meals couldn't have been healthier but I get on the scale this morning and I had gained a pound.

No comprende

 

 

I'm guessing muscle or water weight. 

Going through this thread is pretty damn depressing :-/

 

Oh yeah..why so?

How did everyone do over the weekend? 

 

I'm worn out, between eating right, working out, yard work, cleaning the house and trying to be active with my kid, oh yeah and that thing called working for a living. I feel/want to sleep for two days straight, wake up and eat a bunch of chicken wings and ice cream.