Chew Extra = Meet Bob? LOL

Worth a shot:

One pack could change it all. Enter the code from inside any specially marked Extra® Slim Pack™ and you could instantly win a V.I.P getaway to Los Angeles. Trip includes airfare and hotel accommodations to train with Bob Harper, trainer to the hottest celebs and star of NBC’s The Biggest Loser.

Play every day for your chance to instantly win!

(I know it's a gimmick to sell gum....but if you're buying it anway....lol)

And here's a fun little 3pm snack craving Calorie Counter on their site. Informative. ;)

Kelly & Peggy - WTG!!!

Ya'll are "steppin' it up" with your walking! Ohhh, bad pun. So sorry. LOL

But just wanted to cyber-high-five ya'll! Keep it up!

You guys both feeling alright with these walks? Is it making you feel better? Ya'll are both way on track for your goals!!!

Lance Armstrong

http://www.livestrong.com/

This website has a lot of information. I just started checking it out at work today, but thought I'd pass it along.

WOO HOO to Leslie and Sonya!

Leslie - You're really stomping those miles out! WTG!
Sonya - Yay! Every pound is a victory!!

As for the rest of us.....let's keep walking and eating right!

I went up a couple pounds over the weekend and then back down one today. That's my body's M.O. I'll lose, say, 3 pounds. Go up one, stay a day or two, lose 2 back to the orginal 3. And then do it again with the next step. I'm trying to stay upbeat. Tuesday-Friday will probably be the days I really see some progress because I'm moving A LOT for 5 hours at work, not sitting down but 5 minutes here or there to eat. And because I'm not imbibing at all Monday-Friday. (Until Friday night, ;) I'm also going to try to replace my Tues-Fri Monster drink with a couple of cups of hot green tea. I haven't worked out the amounts of caffeine in each yet. But I know the green tea is a better choice a billion times over, health-wise. I've become a Monster-a-holic on work days. Just one. But it's a big one. Cross your fingers for me. LOL

Let's go, Girls!!! Don't let the moss start to grow under ya.

Fiber Anyone?

Kathy's email brought up a great topic. Fiber. I did a quick google and came up with site with a decent fiber chart. I've seen the range of "daily needed fiber" go anywhere from 19-40...and that most people fall way short of that.

How do you get your fiber? How much do you think you get a day?

Some of the big sources are:

bran cereal, ww pasta, dry brown rice, rolled oats, soybeans, lima beans, kidney beans, lentils, black beans, avocado, cooked carrots, sweet potato, sweet corn, grapefruit, blueberries & raspberries.

Check it out for more details.

And PLEASE post any good fiber facts or websites in a comment to this post.

THANKS!

"Body for Life"

Body for Life. I'm a big fan! Anything Body for Life you can get your hands on will do wonders for your nutritional and fitness knowledge base. Yes, this sponsored by EAS but you don't have to use their supplements to attain the goals. ((But in the last few years, when I do protein RTD's (ready to drinks) or bars, they have been EAS.))

I found a few pages in their website that have great basic information. Please check them out and let me know what you think:

10 Nutritional Guidelines

Nutrition for optimal performance.Just because you may exercise regularly doesn’t mean you can eat whatever you want. By following these 10 basic guidelines, you’ll not only get great muscle-building and fat-burning results from your training, but you’ll enjoy a higher level of energy throughout the day.

Your Body-for-Life Shopping List

Here’s your shopping list to go with your week’s worth of Body-for-LIFE meals. I suggest taking this list with you to the store on a Sunday, and do all your shopping for the week. Of course, you may not need all of the items listed. You may need additional items depending on your meal choices.

How to create a Body-for-Life meal

Body-for-Life Food List

First Week Meal Plan

To make it easy, we’ve planned your first week of eating on Body-for-LIFE. Having a plan like this made it so much easier for me to eat the right foods, every few hours. Plus, you’ll find these recipes and food suggestions are healthy and tasty!

Check out some great motivational Before & Afters
And Google has some good ones, too (Don't miss the image of that woman on Oprah, OMG!)

YAY!

Ok I figured it out. That's all. :)

Cleanse Anyone???

I've never done a "cleanse" before. But I got to go to lunch with my best friend yesterday. She's done so great cleaning up her diet lately and shedding those last pesky pounds. She swears by this Dual Action cleanse she did recently.

She felt so passionately about it that she drove me across the street to Drug Emporium to buy it for me! LOL She knows we are so very tight right now. She just felt that strongly about it. If I wanted to, that is. Well, hell, why not? See what you think. And guess how much it cost? $40. 40 is my new lucky number. I hope. If I don't crap all over myself. LOL I told her about this blog so........Hello Cherilyn!!! ;) I'll start today at lunch and dinner. And I'll see you tomorrow night. (If I'm in the bathroom a lot, you'll cover for me, right? LOL)

Anyway, anyone else "cleansed" lately? =)

found a cool site.

So I started using that fit day planner that Shannon sent out to log both my activities and my food intake and noticed something I thought was good even with adding breakfast I'm only eating 1100-1200 calories. Then I got to thinking about it and remembered something the Dr. told me when I found out I had hashimotos hypothyroidism about not eating ENOUGH calories to lose weight. So I started searching this morning and found this cool article about how many calories a person needs to eat to lose weight, it has a formula that helps you figure out how many calories you should be eating. So I thought I would share since it could be that thing that helps tip someone into successfully losing their age. :)
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/dietweightloss/a/eatingenough.htm

::: WANTED :::

EASY, LOW-FAT Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe. Keywords: EASY & LOW-FAT. ;)

Bro's home sick today. Nothing bad. Just crud. And I'm craving chicken noodle soup anyway. I've never made it myself before. I printed one off Allrecipes.com but I'm sure someone has something better. If I don't get it in time for today, I'll use it soon.

THANKS!

yeah!

I figured out how to do this!! After really going off my routine over the holidays and now vacation i am back on track. Both yesterday and today, I walked on my treadmill for 35 minutes and am eating sensibly. Havent' checked the scale yet. Am afraid to after eating all vacation!

Okay - I'm here... made it. :) Thanks again Shannon for setting this up.

My goal: Excercise consistently and lower my cholesterol along with my weight.
(my cholesterol is high due to genetics... thanks Dad @@)

So far, I've been walking 4 days a week, 46 minutes & 2.25 miles each time. (that's how long most of my iPod TV shows last lol) on my treadmill. I haven't noticed much weight loss yet - maybe 3 pounds-ish - but I'm pretty proud of myself for keeping this up for two weeks. I need to keep going... most times I'll do really good for about a month and then I slack off because I'm "too busy". I need to remember that I can't be "too busy" to do something about my health. Right?

And how do all of you do with a Food Diary? I've tried to keep one, but after a few days I just kinda forget about it. What tricks do you have to remember to write everything down?

NutritionData Widget

The NutritionData website (widget over on the left) is a FABULOUS nutritional info site. You can search for any food, narrow down their selections to the one you are looking for, and you get a plethora of great info and a thorough breakdown. You'll get your nutritional data box, nutritional factor, fullness factor, caloric ratio pyramid (carb, fat, protein %), nutrient balance, protein completeness and quality, estimated glycemic load, inflammation factor, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, fats and fatty acid breakdown, sterols and more......

For example:

1 oz tilapia

Dairy Queen Double Cheese Bacon Burger

Chik-fil-A Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich

Try it out. Let us know if you find something really good......or really bad. LOL

There are also tons of great articles on there. Here's some good ones:
Lose Weight Without Being Hungry ( About exploiting that fullness factor)
Foods Lowest in Total Fat
Best Choices for Weight Loss
Best Choices for Optimum Health

Go forth and look...... ;)

Shannon - Short Term Goal #1

Short Term Goal #1: By February 19th, NO MORE BAGGY AQUATIC SHIRTS!!!

I have gotten so fat that all I wear (and I do mean all, at least 98% of the time) is our old Aquatic sport shirts. They are oversized, long and dark navy. It's good that I can wear old stuff to work because we get dirty and don't want to mess up anything nice. But I wear these shirts (we have about 15 of them) really because they hide my rolls and junk in the trunk. I want to burn these shirts.

(Preview to a long term goal - Look good in jeans and a not baggy tank top. That's what I want to wear to work. No muffin-top and some nice shoulders and arms to show off again!

Exhausted

Last night was our youth rally. We were at the service until about 10:30, and then we went to the bowling alley until about 12:30. So I bowled for about an hour and a half. That was my exercise yesterday! I'm about to go workout at Curves today!

I'm confused...

Am I supposed to blog on this same blog or create a new one?

Write it down...FitDay.com is awesome!!

For me (and many, many others) one of the most important factors in getting control of my eating (and drinking) is keeping a food/drink journal. One of the very best online journals is http://www.fitday.com/. I used to use it a lot back "in the day." They've changed the format a little since I used it last but it looks even better.

It takes a little time to get your foods entered, but once they are in there, you can just click them really easy to add them. Mine are still there from 2 or more years ago. You'll get great charts and reports and whatnot. I just can't recommend it enough!

CHALLENGE: Whether you use Fitday.com or just write it down in a spiral, write down everything you eat or drink. I remember sometimes just knowing I had to write it down and put it with my numbers would keep me from blowing it and eating something crappy.

How are you going to journal???

Pedometers for Everyone!!

Here's what I picked up today at Walmart for just under $15:

I thought it would be interesting to see how many steps and/or miles I get through in a typical day and then how many I do when I'm trying extra hard to get moving.

They also had one for $5. I just got this one because it remembers 7 days and I know I'll forget to note it each night. Must be that 40 thing. LOL I thought if some of us wanted to get them, we could have some friendly competition. ;) Maybe a weekly "Ped Report."

Anyone?