**** Weight Watchers Sunday ****

[gidget1978]

Good Morning Everyone

How is everyone? Well, I feel better then I did last night! Phew...I ate alot of junk yesterday! By body isn't use to it so I kind felt ill towards the end of the evening. I also didn't get to workout yesterday so Im pretty sure that everything I ate, as settled somewhere on my body..hahaha
We are leaving to drive home soon but I am debating getting on the TM for 30 mins or waiting until I get home to go for a run. I will probably be lazy when I get home though but then if I get on the TM now I will have to listen to my mother telling me to hurry up.
I didn't do a whole lot of damage to the bank act yesterday}( I was looking for some jeans for DD b/c she takes a size 0 and I knew I would be able to get some marked down b/c she is so tiny. Anyway, I got 3 pairs of jeans for $55 that would have cost me $200.
DS did so much screaming yesterday...I think I am ready to give him away People were actually looking at me funny b/c he was yelling so much.

Robin, did you have fun shopping for clothes? I didn't have DD with me so it was more enjoyable. And its a funny thing b/c when I pick stuff out when we are together she doesn't like it, but when I go alone and bring it home and she tries it on...she does. It was alot cheaper leaving her home!

Laine, I thought the samething about BM2! When you do those premixes you don't know what your getting! LOL Seems like they are never going to end!

Cheryl, Im with you on the weightloss. Now that I am not bf'ing anymore I can kind of do whatever I want}( Its hard to eat clean in the summer monthes though.

Kali, how is school going? I was happy to read the other day that you weren't craving a drink and that you were doing really well.

Amelia, i can't remember what you wrote yesterday}( I did have something to say to you though. haha

Alright...sorry if i missed anyone but my child is screaming his head off again@! Gotta run

Lori

 

[Jazcam]

Good Morning Everyone

Wow great buy on those jeans Lori. You are like me. Fun shopping with my kids? Well I did not kill them. We compromised because everything was on sale at JC Penney's. Buy one get the next one (pants, shirts) for $1. Even the expensive South Pole (?) was 60% off.

Lainie thanks for the info on Karen Voight. I went on collagevideo.com and spent 1/2 hour there. I came across Body Bar Strength and Conditioning http://www.collagevideo.com/cart/default.aspx

Now if I finish shopping for the kids stuff, i think I deserve a (non edible) treat. LOL

Hi Amelia busy busy bee. Great w/o Cheryl and I'm with you on the weight lost. I hate only losing 2 pounds here and there. Belinda now that's a w/o cleaning the garage. I think you may need a day off. ;-)

Hi Kim, Nancy and everyone else. My w/o today will be Cathe bootcamp and stretch max.

chat after my w/o and school supplies shopping (w/o kids)

 

[jennifermaria]

Can I join back in?

*waves hello*

I know it's been a long time since I checked in--life has been crazy since we last spoke (crazy in a good way, though), and I've tried to keep up with the thread, but even that wasn't always possible!

Per the advice of so many on this thread, I started using Sparkpeople regularly to track my food, and apart from occasional forays back into the WW method, I've been pretty much using Sparkpeople and calorie-counting to track my weight. Unfortunately, I haven't had as much success with the latter as I did with WW in the first place, but I think that's because I'm still trying to figure out what the heck I'm doing LOL.

Which brings me to my question...

In WW, I get a base number of points assigned everyday, and I can either use some weekly flexies, or earn AP to add to my total. When Sparkpeople calculates your daily calorie range, it already assumes a certain activity level, correct? So you're not really earning "activity calories," but rather, eating the average number of calories your body needs to maintain that fitness level, is that right?

Well, I've struggled with that... I'm doing Team in Training again this summer, and we're into the hard core part of the program now, so for example, yesterday, I ran 10 miles. Sparkpeople has a daily calorie max for me of 1600 (after I put in my average activity level, making sure to account for the fact that I'm training), but I found that with my electrolyte drink (a sugar-free one, so it's the fewest calories available in such a drink), the food I needed to eat during running (needed to maintain your energy throughout the run), and the post-run food I had (needed to replenish glycogen stores), I'd already eaten 300-350 calories, which is the equivalent of a meal for me! Just out of curiosity, I also tracked things in terms of WW points, and even though I had hit my max of 1600 calories for the day, I still had about 7 points left, because I had earned 16 AP.

So my question is, how can I make sure I'm building in enough flexibility to eat more during the days when I'm working out particularly hard? For days in which I incorporate a "normal" 45-60 min workout, I'm fine with a 1600 calorie max, but for those days when we're doing our long runs, or we have a particularly tough workout, I feel as though I need the extra calories for the energy. I always make sure to eat "clean" for those extra calories, too--it's not as though I'm eating pizza and french fries for those extra calories, I'm eating things like whole grain bread, natural peanut butter, fruit, veggies, etc. But I do feel that if I adhere to that 1600 max very strictly, not only will I compromise my training, but I'll probably do bad things to my metabolism.

Am I going to slow down my weight loss if I eat 1600 calories for the other days, and more for the days I'm training? Didn't Sparkpeople already account for my higher activity level by giving me 1600, and therefore, that really is the number I should be shooting for? Any advice for me?

Bottom line is I feel that I'm still not quite eating the number of calories I should be, because I haven't really lost weight during the 6 or so months I've been doing Sparkpeople. I've maintained it throughout that time (with normal ups and downs, but on average, I've been around the same weight), and I'm supposedly on a weight loss level for calories. If in fact I'm maintaining on this number of calories, then it's really my maintenance level, and it could be that I'm supposed to be eating fewer than I'm already eating, in which case, yikes! I'm having enough trouble as it is sticking to 1600, I don't know how I'd go to 1400 or 1300 LOL!

Sorry for the long post, but would love to get some advice from everyone, especially the folks who use Sparkpeople .

Thanks!
Jennifer

 

[Utah Gal]

Jennifer, I love SparkPeople - and I seem to do best on 1200-1600 calories a day, regardless of activity level - so yes, I think they do have that factored in. If you're working out heavily, you can probably do better at the 1600 end of the range than at the 1200 on most days, I think. Hope that helps.

Lori, I'm really cleaning up my diet! I'm realizing that too much processed food (like Chinese) and too many trigger foods (like ice cream) have been my downfall. I'm eating more of a bodybuilder's diet for a while here - 5-6 small meals per day, very clean, only one small treat a week. I've lost 2.6 pounds this week, but I don't even want to admit what I'd gotten back up to over vacation, road trip, etc. But my midsection is showing definite improvement today.

I bought a dumbbell rack yesterday! 3 tier - love it - assembled it myself last night while DH was away. Adds a very nice component to my workout area. The sponge "pyramid" holders kept tipping over. For me, I like the tiered rack better than the Cathe style tower - and this will hold more sets. I adjusted the top shelf to hold my little rubber coated 3 lb'ers and I can drape my resistance bands over it.

My iron dumbbells fit snugly on the 2nd and 3rd shelves. I only have up to 25 right now (and barbell up to 60). I know the 4 day split says Cathe goes up to 30 lbs, but I think I'd better see it and try it before I'll know if the 30 lbs really means ME :+ :+ :+

Have a great day, everyone!

Cheryl

 

[jennifermaria]

LOL Cheryl, I don't think I'm ever on the low end of my range . If they give me up to 1600 calories a day, you can bet I'm going to eat all 1600 calories!!

 

[lainiefig]

Hi everyone.

Not a very successful workout today. I only got through the first combo of Step Blast. My head is just killing me (backache, too but not as bad as the head). I think it's just because it's my TOM. Stupid hormones mess up my whole body.

I guess I can adjust my week accordingly for this off day. It's been a weird Sunday for us anyway. We stayed up way too late and then slept in this morning (luckily the youngest slept in as well or we wouldn't be able to) until almost 9 am. Our church starts at 9:30 so we knew we wouldn't make it. Instead we had a very leisurely morning. Then we took a long walk (for at least an hour and a half) and I was surprised to see I only burned 200 calories for that. It was a nice walk anyway and not too hot.

Lori, do you ever want to tell off people who look at you funny when your DS is screaming. I get so cranky when he is loud while I'm shopping that I'm ready to bite off other people's heads if they look over. But I don't actually. I just think about it. I'm really annoyed when people say things like "ah, poor baby"--I think "poor baby? you should be saying "poor Mommy!"

Robin, did you order that Body Bar workout? If so, let me know how you like it. I have yet to get any of the Body Bar ones, but have thought about it. I have done a couple Kimberly Spreen kickboxing workouts where she incorporates a body bar, though.

Hi Jennifer, I'm Lainie--just joined the group last week or so. I don't know what to tell you about sparkpeople and calorie-counting. I have yet to try out sparkpeople. I'm currently doing WW, but the Core plan where you don't count--you just eat certain healthy foods. It works pretty well for me when I'm sticking to it. It sounds like you're really active, so that sounds good and it sounds like you're eating healthy foods. Maybe just make sure you get plenty of fiber (which you probably are if you're eating whole grains and veggies) and protein with the calories you eat.

Congrats on the new dumbbell rack, Cheryl. I would love to have one of those. Right now my weights are all in a big window seat near my back door. That's also where I keep my step, high step, barbell, etc. There are a few other items in there (like art stuff for my DS) but it's almost entirely taken over with workout stuff. We have a small house; sometimes I dream about the big house we could afford if we'd moved back to Houston--heck we still have a bigger house there we're renting out--but I do love New York. Anyway, I envy the women on the forum who have entire workout rooms--all I have is my workout window seat. I also keep all my workout DVDs in the entertainment armoire drawers in the living room (which is also where I've stuffed resistance bands and tubing, etc.

OK, head still hurts--going to go lie down before younger DS wakes up and needs me.



[font face="palatino linotype" font color=purple font size=+1]***Lainie***

http://web.mac.com/lainiefig/iWeb/Site/Exercise/Exercise.html

"The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself." -- Mark Twain[/font]