Biggest Loser 9 Spring Challenge -- thread closing -- see new thread Part 2!

[Worfiedoodles]

QOTD: Diet or Exercise more a challenge?

It depends on the week! Sometimes I'm just cranking on the exercise, and sometimes I'm really hungry...it's awful when I'm really challenged by both. In general, I'd say Diet is harder for me. I can usually convince myself I have to work out. It's harder for me to just say no to the chocolate chip cookies on my counter!

Maria

 

[Rose&Mike]

Wed. QoftheDay--definitely the diet is harder. I love to exercise. I think the main reason I put the weight back on this time is that I let stress get in the way of exercising. I hope I have learned that lesson--exercise helps with stress. When I'm stressed, it's the worst time to stop exercising.

The food is another story--I gave up diet soda, very rarely have chips anymore, no HFCS, no trans fats, and I'm really watching portions. But somedays I am sooooo hungry, and there's no rhyme or reason. The hard part is eating healthy on the days I just want to eat everything in sight. I mentioned earlier we are also doing too much take out. While I have no problem scheduling time for exercise, I need to start scheduling time to meal plan, shop and cook. We ate at home tonight, and I already have a plan for tomorrow. I just need to stick with it this time.

 

[Carys]

Woke up this morning, deja vous. Third day in a row of perfect eating and exercise - and another pound weight gain overnight.

So I would say diet is the harder of the two. For one, I enjoy exercise and do it whether or not I'm dieting, so it's not an issue. For two, I have great willpower when I'm seeing results, and I can even handle stalling.

But when I'm doing everything perfectly, and see the scale moving upward - especially several days in a row - it does tend to mess with my mind. In general in life, I agree with that maxim that wanting to see different results but to keep doing the same thing as before is a fundamentally flawed plan. So if I translated that to this situation, it would mean if I keep eating and exercising perfectly, the scale will keep moving up so what's the point.

I was reminded by a credit card charge today that I still have a WW online membership. Maybe it's a sign from the universe I need to change diet plan to WW. Gah!

 

[Rose&Mike]

Woke up this morning, deja vous. Third day in a row of perfect eating and exercise - and another pound weight gain overnight.

So I would say diet is the harder of the two. For one, I enjoy exercise and do it whether or not I'm dieting, so it's not an issue. For two, I have great willpower when I'm seeing results, and I can even handle stalling.

But when I'm doing everything perfectly, and see the scale moving upward - especially several days in a row - it does tend to mess with my mind. In general in life, I agree with that maxim that wanting to see different results but to keep doing the same thing as before is a fundamentally flawed plan. So if I translated that to this situation, it would mean if I keep eating and exercising perfectly, the scale will keep moving up so what's the point.

I was reminded by a credit card charge today that I still have a WW online membership. Maybe it's a sign from the universe I need to change diet plan to WW. Gah!

Not to get too personal--but could it be pms/tom? Sorry if that sounds out of line. But I track my weight, exercise, etc. on excel and from about 4 days before things start and for a couple of days after, I am happy to just maintain, then I'll drop between 2 and 4 pounds overnight. Hang in there.

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

Woke up this morning, deja vous. Third day in a row of perfect eating and exercise - and another pound weight gain overnight.

So I would say diet is the harder of the two. For one, I enjoy exercise and do it whether or not I'm dieting, so it's not an issue. For two, I have great willpower when I'm seeing results, and I can even handle stalling.

But when I'm doing everything perfectly, and see the scale moving upward - especially several days in a row - it does tend to mess with my mind. In general in life, I agree with that maxim that wanting to see different results but to keep doing the same thing as before is a fundamentally flawed plan. So if I translated that to this situation, it would mean if I keep eating and exercising perfectly, the scale will keep moving up so what's the point.

I was reminded by a credit card charge today that I still have a WW online membership. Maybe it's a sign from the universe I need to change diet plan to WW. Gah!

Do you think it could do with salt intake? I have had that happen to me if I ate something with to much salt. It also could be water retention of the muscles if you changed exercise? It is frustrating but keep up the hard work

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

QOTD: What is more of a challange diet or exercise?

I find both equally challanging. Now that I have an exercise I like (running) that is much less of a challange. I seem to have control of my diet right now since I switched to ww core. If I am off core I have a horrible sweet tooth that is out of control when I go off core. So both are hard but right now I am pumped and I hope that continues I have a ways to go.

 

[jenanderson]

Hello Everyone! I am here to admit that I have gotten sloppy with so many things...like posting here! As of yesterday, I started getting tough with myself again. I am recording every little thing that goes in my mouth (I was doing my meals but stopped recording water, vitamins, etc). I am recording all my exercise again. One other thing I have done is gotten sloppy about posting daily on this thread as well. That is about to stop as well. I think that when I am most successful, I post here at least once a day. The past week or so, I have been much more of a "skimmer" and have only posted little things. So, here I am again! To start things off, I am going to get back on track by answering the QOTD!

QOTD: What is more of a challange diet or exercise?

They are about the same for me. Exercise is a challenge and diet is a challenge.

The diet is a major challenge as I find that on some days (running days) I tend to be really hungry. I feel like I am "cheating" if I eat any extra points...even my flex or exercise exchange points. I need to learn to get over that. I also struggle with chocolate...big time. I need to get M&Ms back in the house so I can count out my little servings of 10 when I need a treat instead of the constant cravings!

I am loving the running and do a great job of it on all my scheduled run days. I am not loving the cross training and need to get myself back in gear. I had been doing the Wii, lifting light free weights and doing pilates. Now it seems all I do is run and I know that is not balanced. The problem is that I have made the running a real priority and do not deviate from the running plan but I don't have a true plan in place for other exercises. I need to change this and return to the wide variety of exercising.

Preparing to go out to eat...I have smart choices in mind! Have a great night everyone!
Jen

 

[tigger813]

Not good! Burned out again! I'm hoping it's just PMS! I have had chips this afternoon and M&Ms! I have no desire to workout. I just want to veg out all night. Even having another glass of Diet soda. I did have a WW for supper so hopefully this didn't totally kill it for me today! I really wanted my 45 clippie this week. Oh well, maybe I'll get it next week. I think I will be doing some Wii Fit plus tomorrow and Just Dance. Fun stuff will hopefully get me motivated again.

Going to be home again waiting for a phone call tomorrow. I will finish my cleaning that I started yesterday as well. DD2 also gets her first filling tomorrow afternoon. I think that's it for the day.

Going to go play a game with the girls before bed time. Then it's cuddle time on the couch with DH! We both need it!

 

[Carys]

Not to get too personal--but could it be pms/tom? Sorry if that sounds out of line. But I track my weight, exercise, etc. on excel and from about 4 days before things start and for a couple of days after, I am happy to just maintain, then I'll drop between 2 and 4 pounds overnight. Hang in there.

Not too personal at all! I wish it were because then that would be the easy explanation But no the timing's not right for that. Hanging in, thanks for the

Do you think it could do with salt intake? I have had that happen to me if I ate something with to much salt. It also could be water retention of the muscles if you changed exercise? It is frustrating but keep up the hard work

It might be something to do with salt intake, I hardly ever add salt to my cooking because my palatte seems to register it at low levels, so I don't need much to enjoy a salty taste, if that makes sense? But I definately added salt to a meal yesterday as part of the cooking process, so that could be a part of it. Will report in again tomorrow on the Phantom Pounds minisaga.

 

[NancyIL]

As much as I dislike exercise, I feel like I finally got on track with the February exercise challenge.

Diet is harder of me. I write down what I eat, and some days it's a LONG list! I don't count calories or follow a specific plan. I was successful losing 25 pounds in the past on a low carb diet, but I want to eat what I want to eat! I just need to eat less of it and stop eating after the dinner hour.

 

[jbm02]

QOTD: What is more of a challange diet or exercise?
Definitely the diet. I am not as disciplined as I would like and find myself reaching for a snack all too often. I am doing okay with giving up diet pepsi - a huge improvement for me but I'm not ready to go cold turkey yet. I have a great core group of people with whom I exercise and that makes the exercise part fun for me. Getting up at 4:30 AM is now routine, but sleeping in might be nice sometime...!
The running is more solitary and so that is something that I have to push myself to do - as opposed to my boot camp class, which I look forward to.

 

[Carys]

Okay.... here goes...... I am making a public committment to be at my goal weight by Easter weekend. That give me one month to lose almost 7 pounds.

You can absolutely do it, you're doing a great job and I'll look forward to dropping into your new journal to see how you're doing. I don't have a wish journal myself, but if enough BL members did maybe we could have a reference thread with links to all the journals?

We're eating organic now. I used to eat some organic, but now we're doing all organic.

It's easy eating organic veges/fruit/eggs because I have an organic produce store on the ground level of my apartment building, but I haven't found anywhere to source organic meat from. I'm sure it would be easy if I were back in NZ though - is it me, or is the taste of organic produce stronger somehow?

I also just had my handful of M&Ms for the day. THey were the "Specktacular ones" so they were bigger.

I'm not much of an M&M fan, but I hear rumours of a mystical coconut M&M. If I were ever to find such a golden fleece, I might turn into an M&M gollum somewhere in a cave hoarding coconut M&Ms and muttering "my precious" all the while.

Ok, another question for everyone (I know I'm full of questions, I can't help myself!) Yesterday in NZ, WW and McDonalds together announced they have paired up for WW McDonalds meals - meals you can purchase that have the points all calculated (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/healthy-living/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501238&objectid=10629561), which has caused a bit of a ruckus with nutritionists etc.

Is there anything like this in the US?

 

[cclovesdis]

Thanks for all the congratulations! As of now, I'm up for the week, but I think it's just pre-TOM. I hope that's the case. I've been good about my food intake and exercising. I got in a good 45+ min. workout today which included a run on the Wii Fit+. I'm hoping to make tomorrow a multiple workout day-before work and after dinner. I was hoping to do that today, but I couldn't seem to get out of bed this morning. I'd like to do the 2 10 min. BL Jumpstart DVD workouts (Cardio Levels 1 & 2) before work and some Wii Fit, including running, after dinner. I'm hoping that will help see the scale move in the right direction.

QOTD: I would have to say that both are a challenge for me. I have a big problem with chocolate and struggle to avoid it. I know drinking water helps me lose, but I struggle with that as well. I enjoy eating and sometimes binge eat. There are days when I just don't feel like exercising. I frequently plan to exercise in the morning and then don't sleep well and can't get up early enough to fit in a workout and make it to work on time. I get so many benefits from exercise, but I don't love it so it's really easy to make excuses for not exercising.

Have a great day tomorrow everyone!

 

[Carys]

cclovesdis, just realised I forgot to say congrats!! Great job!!

 

[jbm02]

cclovesdis, just realised I forgot to say congrats!! Great job!!

Me too. Congratulations!!!!

 

[redlight]

QOTD: Definitely the diet part. I love eating, and I'm also a stress eater. I've gotten better at curbing my nighttime gluttony. I couldn't be the weight I am with exercise alone.

 

[tigger813]

I'm not much of an M&M fan, but I hear rumours of a mystical coconut M&M. If I were ever to find such a golden fleece, I might turn into an M&M gollum somewhere in a cave hoarding coconut M&Ms and muttering "my precious" all the while.

Yes, I bought my husband a small bag last week. He thought they were different but wouldn't want to eat too many of them. I found them in the check out lane at the grocery store. These specktacular M&Ms I bought today were ridiculously yummy!

OK, enough talking about M&Ms or I will want to eat more of them! LOL!

I'm going to have another big bottle of water to keep from eating more junk!

Night all! Catching up on shows until 9! Then watching what's on until bed.

I will work harder I promise or NO DRINKING for me on FRIDAY! YIKES I better do better tomorrow!

 

[jennz]

wed qotd- We all know that diet and activity contribute to our success at weight loss. Do you find diet or exercise to be more of a challenge for you? What can you do to overcome these challenges?

I think at different times of my life, exercise is harder than diet, but lately, my struggle has been with emotional and mindless eating. I have been regularly exercising, and know that that has helped to lessen the gain from my bad eating. Being a part of this challenge and being accountable for my weight here and at ww has also helped me rein in my eating. I plan to continue taking it one day at a time, keep moving, and on the good days, really stick with the plan, start journalling my food again, and never give up.

Gosh I would say most of the time it's exercise...that's because I put it off while I do "important" stuff, like cleaning, etc, but I am getting better about saying that exercise is important.

I'm with you on the mindless eating. I got some Hershey's Kisses while DFIL is here...I did count today while I ate 460 calories worth!! I just didn't add up the total until the end. lol I also told DH NO MORE CHIPS! Unless he hides the bag from me. That's just how it goes.

We went to Red Robin tonight for dinner. I checked the nutrition guide before we went and got the blackened chicken sandwich and fries. Came home and we played some Quiddler (while I ate more Kisses, bringing my total to that ridiculous amount!) then DH and DFIL went to bowl and DD and I played some Walk It Out. At least I planned a low cal healthy breakfast and lunch, and between that and my exercise I'm at a 240 calorie deficit for the day.

Back to work tomorrow...and back to finding time to work out again. It's been nice having the past week off!

 

[pjlla]

You can absolutely do it, you're doing a great job and I'll look forward to dropping into your new journal to see how you're doing. I don't have a wish journal myself, but if enough BL members did maybe we could have a reference thread with links to all the journals?



I'm not much of an M&M fan, but I hear rumours of a mystical coconut M&M. If I were ever to find such a golden fleece, I might turn into an M&M gollum somewhere in a cave hoarding coconut M&Ms and muttering "my precious" all the while.

Ok, another question for everyone (I know I'm full of questions, I can't help myself!) Yesterday in NZ, WW and McDonalds together announced they have paired up for WW McDonalds meals - meals you can purchase that have the points all calculated (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/healthy-living/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501238&objectid=10629561), which has caused a bit of a ruckus with nutritionists etc.

Is there anything like this in the US?

First of all, thanks for the nice words. I am really going to push it to reach that goal by Easter.

Second....I too have seen the coconut M&Ms at the grocery store. I didn't buy them because I am the only one in the house who eats coconut.... but I might be tempted to try them next time I am going to splurge..... but my favorite is peanut butter M&Ms.

I haven't heard anything about a Weight Watchers/McDonalds match up... seems like an odd pairing, doesn't it?!!

Using the points slider and the McDonalds NI, I am able to figure out on my own what to eat (and what to avoid) at McD... and believe me, there isn't much I am willing to eat at McD... but I would be anxious to hear what WW would promote from there.

Well... difficult evening. Had to give DS some "tough love" about his constantly forgetting bits and pieces of homework and study stuff. He has been crying off and on for a few hours now because of it and he is SURE that DH and I both hate him... he wants to move away... etc, etc, etc. I gave him a break (he was told to sit in the kitchen until he wrote a 3 paragraph paper that he forgot his notes for) to take a shower. Hopefully DH will let it go when he returns and DS can just go to bed. He won't be happy, but at least the evening will be over. He only wrote about 5 sentences instead of 3 paragraphs, but I can't FORCE him to remember the stuff that was on the notes he forgot. But hopefully this "forgetting" will improve now (with continued reminders from Mom, of course!!)

It's tough because he just doesn't CARE about school work or homework. He is incredibly bright... he scores in the "proficient" and "proficient with distinction" on standardized tests for both reading and math. However, that doesn't translate to his school work. I think that sometimes he forgets on purpose to avoid work he doesn't want to do... and sometimes he just truly forgets and loses things... he is a disorganized mess in his desk and backpack.

It's not like he is failing classes... he tends to either make the honor roll or almost make the honor roll. His most recent progress report had a few 90's, a few high-80's and one 78 in reading (which definitely is NOT acceptable). But I am trying to make him understand how important it is that he complete his homework... he is heading toward his late middle school years and things are just going to be getting tougher and teachers will be less forgiving about the "I forgot" excuse. He needs to develop better habits NOW! I'm just worried about him. Sorry to rant.

I did an additional 25 minutes on the TM tonight, so I amm pleased with myself. I stayed OP as far as food is concerned. I don't expect a spectacular week on the scale, but a small drop of .5 or so would be terrific.

TTY tomorrow................P

 

[jenanderson]

I really wanted my 45 clippie this week. Oh well, maybe I'll get it next week. I think I will be doing some Wii Fit plus tomorrow and Just Dance. Fun stuff will hopefully get me motivated again.

You can do it! If not this week...then next week! I am always so impressed with all your exercising and reading your posts always motivates me to get off my bottom and get moving!

As much as I dislike exercise, I feel like I finally got on track with the February exercise challenge.

That is great to hear that the exercise challenge is helping! I might need to look into that for March.

The running is more solitary and so that is something that I have to push myself to do - as opposed to my boot camp class, which I look forward to.

I wish that I lived out there so we could run together....although you would be pulling me behind you when you start reaching those longer distances.

I'm not much of an M&M fan, but I hear rumours of a mystical coconut M&M. If I were ever to find such a golden fleece, I might turn into an M&M gollum somewhere in a cave hoarding coconut M&Ms and muttering "my precious" all the while.

Ok, another question for everyone (I know I'm full of questions, I can't help myself!) Yesterday in NZ, WW and McDonalds together announced they have paired up for WW McDonalds meals - meals you can purchase that have the points all calculated (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/healthy-living/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501238&objectid=10629561), which has caused a bit of a ruckus with nutritionists etc.

Is there anything like this in the US?

I am always muttering "my precious" about M&Ms!

I have not heard of McDonald's offering WW points all calculated - I am not sure I would want to know! It has been a bit over 2 months since I have been to McDonalds and I am not going back any time soon...well, I will go back to have one Shamrock shake...those are my all time favorites. I have one each year and that is totally enough.

Thanks for all the congratulations!

I frequently plan to exercise in the morning and then don't sleep well and can't get up early enough to fit in a workout and make it to work on time.

Yeah! Here is another one....congratulations on being our biggest loser! Way to go!

I hear you about planning to exercise in the morning. Just last night I finally came to the realization that it is not a good plan for me and set my alarm for later. I am not even going to try to do it any more because it just made me feel like a failure! I am now planning afternoon/evening workouts only (except for the weekends).

I'm going to have another big bottle of water to keep from eating more junk!

This is what I need to do right now so that I don't have a bed time snack this late at night!

I got some Hershey's Kisses while DFIL is here...I did count today while I ate 460 calories worth!! I just didn't add up the total until the end. lol

At least I planned a low cal healthy breakfast and lunch, and between that and my exercise I'm at a 240 calorie deficit for the day.

Isn't it scary how quickly it can add up? I am glad that you were able to still have the calorie deficit though!

Well... difficult evening. Had to give DS some "tough love" about his constantly forgetting bits and pieces of homework and study stuff. He has been crying off and on for a few hours now because of it and he is SURE that DH and I both hate him... he wants to move away... etc, etc, etc.

It is so hard to watch our kids struggle and make mistakes once and a while. DH and I are both teachers and at times are really hard on our kids when they are not taking full advantage of their education. I always have to remind myself that they are kids and part of being a kid is making these mistakes or not always doing exactly what they should. I know that it is so hard to find the right mixture of being their to support them and being their to push them to what we know is right. Good luck with it all!