Any thoughts/comments on the show last night?

Oh I was soooo pulling for the black team...I was so surprised that Bob stacked his team like that too. Fun challenge though, it was great to see Bob and Jillian go head-to-head! And GO Brittany she was a trooper on the escalator! Love that she poured her heart out at the weigh-in and told Bob how she felt about his decision to not include herself and Bernie on his team...he should feel like crap (and I'm pretty sure he did!).

Well as for Jenn...I'm not surprised they voted her out. I thought it was nice of Kelly to confront the others too and said if it came down to her and Paul, to let Paul stay cuz he needs it more. Hmmm, what's gonna happen to them two next week, eh??? Previews looked like a little re-kindled romance, don't ya think? or ???

~ Cindy

Well the howling winds woke me up at 3am this morning and I never really got back to sleep. The 60-70 mph gusts were shaking the entire house! There was about 1.5" of ice on the driveway and street, good thing is the main roads were already salted and just wet. There were downed trees everywhere and here my crazy self is headed for the gym at 5:30 am. Well, no sooner did I get on the elliptical the power went out! Ok, no problem...workout in the dark...hey the machine still worked LOL. The girl kicked us out though...so needless to say I missed my morning workout today...boo! I won't have time to later either cuz the Mom's are sewing dancing costumes for my daughters class tonight and they need help. Oh, well...that's life right?

So, I'm due to get my monthly bill next week and I am eating EVERYTHING in sight! Seriously, I can't believe how hungry I am...I'm not making bad choices, just calorie count is up for me the past couple days...hopefully this will settle soon.

Hope you're warm and safe! Trying not to get blown away here!

~ Cindy

LOL thought my title was cute. Thought I would check in this morning before I got too busy at work. Things are going great, my new found freedom and energy is really working for me. Tonight is a day OFF from the gym (I try to go 5 days a week). Getting a little rest for the “Last Chance Workout” tomorrow. So tonight begins my family transformation for lack of any better terminology. With the free time I have since quitting designing I’m working on organizing my house and family. So here is how I am tackling this project.

 

1. My husband works 10 hour shifts, and he drives 2 ½ hours total for 12 ½ hour days and he works 6 days a week. His schedule varies sometimes working 6:30-4:30, 8-6 or 10-8. Because of this I’m pretty much the one that does the household chores and watches the kids, I do not ask or expect him to do too much as he is already working long days. Also because he is working this hard and I was spending so much time on the computer I think he has felt pushed aside or not happy with the house not being cleaned, etc. So I’ve asked him to compile a list of things he would like to see change. This means chores wise, children wise, things he would like to change, etc. Also what his goals are as a family and things he would like to do as a family.
2. I’ve also asked both of my boys (ages 10 and 7) to think about things that they would like to do as a family, things they like or dislike, things that bother them or things they don’t understand regarding some rules we have.
3. I’m going to sit each one of them down separately (hubby included) to get an idea of where everyone is at, what they want, what they dislike, what they want to do, what they don’t want to do.
4. My husband and I will sit down again after all of this and discuss some rules, chores, and allowances for the boys. We aren’t usually on the same page as I’m more lenient them him so when he is home they are continually getting into trouble because they are doing things I ALLOW them to do that their dad doesn’t so I’m trying to stop this and be more consistent for them. Set some boundaries and rules.

 

So this is my master plan on getting my family organized and trying to get a good happy rhythm going.

 

I’m exciting that my mother is going to come over and watch the kids Saturday night and my husband and I are actually going to go out. It has been a long time, this is another step in my happy family LOL. We are most likely going to do dinner and possibly a movie but I’m not sure. We are not able to go out until 7:30 because of his work schedule. I am saying right now though that I’m going to have a nice dinner. I’m going to try my best to choose on the healthier side but I’m also going to enjoy the dinner and not worry tremendously about every calorie I’m eating. (As I’ve said many times this is life right?)

 

Just talked to a co-worker and she is taking her son to the zoo this weekend. I think that sounds like a WONDERFUL idea, I may do the same thing. Ericka hasn’t been since she was 9 months and I think she would LOVE the animals.

LOL it is so hard sometimes to come up with a fun title. I’m just checking in, I still have to post my log from yesterday. I worked my legs and abs, only 15 mins on the elliptical. I was pooped!! Eating is going well still trying to figure out the balance I’ve added in more fat as the research I have done on low carb does say higher fat. I contemplated The Body for Life as you saw in the email between Cindy and I but I’m not quite ready to abandon my WOE yet. I’ve FINALLY got my calories up so we will see how that shows on the scale, inches, and fat percentage this week as I am now doing them weekly.

I will say that my decision to retire from designing has been liberating and I feel much more centered and focused. I have taken the opportunity to not sit on the computer all night or during lunch and have been able to get some errands run. I’ve gone to the dermatologist (for a what seems to be wart on my arm) and she gave me some medicine and gel for my face. My skin is not terrible but something I would like to improve so I’m SUPER excited about that, another step in the right direction. I’m thinking of getting my nails done at lunch today but still not sure what I want to do. I told my husband for Valentine’s day he could get me this small spa package I saw advertised at the daycare. It is ½ hour massage, ½ facial, ½ manicure, 1 hour pedicure for $99.

For the first time this week I actually feel a difference in my body. I can feel my muscles more and notice them more and that is very exciting. I am FULL of energy and look forward to working out (for the most part) each day.

Hope everyone is going strong will check in again later

 ~Colleen

Better late than never...I think I may be losing weight in my brain! I just totally forgot to post yesterday, ugh!

Week FOUR 1/27:
Park in the last spot at work furthest from the entrance and hoof it.

Anything to add a few steps to our day
Let us know how you're doing!

~ Cindy

Well...it's Monday :) The start of a brand new week. The weekend went pretty good for me. I spent a lot of time at home, no big plans so staying on track wasn't that hard.

Saturday I had a great workout, I did the elliptical for 45 minutes and burned 600 calories. Sunday I rested. And today I did 35 minutes on the elliptical burning 400 calories. I also did some lower body weights this morning too.

Hope everyone is having a great day
~ Cindy

I bought a new scale at Wal Mart today I really wanted one that weighed in .2 lbs instead of .5. Turned out to be a waste of money.

Got home and my daughter weighed her self at 28.8 pounds...after dinner she weighed 28.0 and 15 secons later 28.2. I got on before dinner and it said 163.0 after dinner 163.6 (makes sense) 15 seconds later it said 163.0....TOO wishy washy for me, it is back in the bag to be taken back.

Believe it or not just getting in shape and being committed to this challenge has already made one MAJOR change in my life. Or at least I consider it a major change.

For two years now I have been a digital scrapbook designer on the side. It has brought in some extra money here and there and just recently I really started to make money that was more substantial. It paid for Christmas and my treadmill and it is something that I do enjoy doing, however it takes a LOT of computer time and hard work.

Well yesterday..........I retired from it. It was a very tough decision but I can't tell everyone how relieved I feel. Now how has this challenge in change in my life help me make this decision. Basically because I no longer want to sit on this computer every non working, or non sleeping our that I have (which is pretty much what I was doing). I have the urge to take the kids outside, go to the park, beach, pool, or roller blading. I want to be active and spend time with them and enjoy them. I want to spend more time with my husband instead of holed up on the computer. It is a very liberating decision for me I'm totally addicted to my computer LOL.

So I can say that no matter what I am making better choices and changes in my life. Changes to keep me active and healthy. I will definitely miss the store and team that I worked with. I can also design for the future if I want to get that creative side of me out, but for now this is what I need to do to continue on this new path.

So any scrapbookers out there LOL...I'm having a retirement sale, your welcome to stop by. http://www.gottapixel.net/store/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=10

Ok on to the rest of the day. I still have to finish filling in my fitday but I did great there stayed on track, even going out to lunch with my co-workers. I had a salad and tried to pick the less fattening and lower carbed dressing. I asked for chicken on it to get in my protein.

I went to the gym and worked out my shoulders. Here is my log:

I also got in 30 mins on the elliptical for 340 calories.

Today we have baseball tryouts since they were canceled Tuesday due to rain, I will be hitting the gym AFTER that and home to CLEAN. It is a little chilly outside here today, probably not to some but it is 57 right now which is chilly for South Florida.

~Colleen

Well it was a pretty good week for me...I lost 2.8 lbs.

Hip hop class last night was so much fun and I still made it to the gym this morning.
I was dragging a bit, but I went and did 30 minutes on the elliptical and burned 400 calories...
so I'm pretty energized now and ready to start my day!

I think that's a great idea about the measurements...I'm going to do that tonight!

Hope its a good one :) ~ Cindy

I thought it would be nice to start seeing the % of weight loss as well so here is what we have so far. Keep in mind Cindy and I both set our goals on what we weighed 1/2/08 however hour first official weigh in was 1/4/08, so our first weeks weight loss is really one week two days.

Colleen 
Week 1:  Start 171.5 Weigh In 164.5 total % lost 4.08%
Week 2:  Start 164.5 Weigh In 164.5 total % lost 0%
Week 3:  Start 164.5 Weigh In 163.5 total % lost 0.61%

Total Percentage So Far: 4.66%

Cindy 
Week1:  Start 220.0 Weigh in 212.5 total % lost 3.41%
Week2:  Start 212.0 Weigh in 211.0 total % lost .71%
Week2:  Start 211.0 Weigh in 208.2 total % lost 1.33%

Total Percentage So Far: 5.36%

Together
Week 1:  Start 391.5 Weigh in 377.0 total % lost 3.70%
Week 2:  Start 377.0 Weigh in 375.5 total % lost .40%
Week 3:  Start 375.5 Weigh in 375.5 total % lost 1.01%

Total Percentage So Far: 5.06%

A little bummed that I have only lost one 1lb. That is 1lb lost in the last two weeks SIGH! Amazingly though I'm still going strong. Right now I'm researching for myself what WOE I want go with. I'm trying to find something that keeps me on plan and gong strong.

I have been so busy the last couple days I have been unable to post. And this morning is no different I HAVE to get ready for work I've been late the past couple of days, and my lunch has been cut short which in turn gives me less time on the computer.

I was tired last night at the gym so my last chance workout didn't feel all that productive. I did do 50 mins on the elliptical burning 500 calories.

My weigh in today is 163.5 which is down one more pound. I will add my photo tonight and hopefully this weekend get to work a little on things. In the next couple of weeks I'm hoping to have a more confident eating plan, still waivering on what exactly I want to do. Being low carb since June it is kinda hard for me to think about changing that right now. But again through all of this minimual weight loss I'm excited that it has not caused me to pig out or even eat unhealthy choices.

That said I'm off to get ready for work and will check in later.

~Colleen

Man I'm so busy. Sorry didn't have time to post yesterday. Spent my lunch at Joann's Fabric, then spent the night making curtains and rearranging my sons bedroom so I could kinda separate them.

Doing good will post more later. Hugs

~Colleen

Colleen and I just recently had a conversation via e-mail regarding our WOE (Way of Eating). We both had some really good points and with her permission I'm adding this to our blog. With us not being in the same city (or even met in person) our encouragement of each other sometimes happens a little differently. Some of the opinions and points we have may be beneficial to someone out there with similar struggles, and I know that I would like to save this little talk for future reference.

COLLEEN:
CINDY:
COLLEEN:
I think we have the same mind set. I love the challenge because it is motivating and I LOVE watching the show, and I'm still all for it but I do think I'm going to not worry as much about the scale. I'm going to pull out my husbands BFL book again and go through it. I can't remember how much I lost when I did it before but I remember people commenting about my arms being toned. And one thing I'm DEFINITELY not changing is the weight training which I'm doing pretty good right now, so maybe that is the cause of me not losing weight. I think I'm frustrated eating the way I am which is ok I mean I'm not a huge protein eater so I don't ENJOY what I eat as much. But I think if I was eating more of the things I like and still not losing weight but losing inches I would feel better. I think each Friday I'm going to do the fat test thing at the gym as that is more what I'm looking for losing FAT in the end it will eventually show on the scale.
BTW One thing I do miss when doing low carb is milk. I think I will go get that book and skim through it at lunch today. Geez it is a pain working through all of this LOL!!

CINDY:
COLLEEN:
Yes please don't think AT ALL you would be letting me down. I'm really enjoying the accountabliity of this challenge. I do think back when I had the blahs and feel off that it would have been harder for me to get back on if I didn't have the site and you to come back too. So that really helps. I enjoy posting about it and adding comments on others blogs, etc.

The amazing thing since this challenge is my focus shifted to wanting to eat the RIGHT way, exercise, and change my life which is great. So like you said, our mind is in the same place, so if our losses slow down or whatever they do we are both ok with it, as we aren't trying to really win a weight loss race we are just getting healthier. Also my competition I joined at the gym isn't looking at weight loss at all they are looking at body composition, your essay, and photos which I think is great. So that is kinda what I'm leaning towards.

Alright...BL Talk from last night's show...thought's anyone?

Here's my 2 cents...I was really sad to see Betty Sue and Ali go. I really liked the pink team and really thought they worked well together. IMO twist after twist this is the first time I felt like this was truly a "game" and not just about hard work, life changes and weight loss. I am sooo mad at the orange team for sand-bagging the weigh in and blue too for that matter. Tim and I were talking this morning and he thought the yellow team should have only had the opportunity to get rid of teams whose percentage they beat...teams with a higher percentage were safe. I have to agree...it was really unfair that they got rid of the pink team. They are all reverting to playing the "game" and it's bugging me. It is especially apparent this season for some reason. I don't think that they should have been forced to pick another team to be voted off either right away unless producers are looking to stir up a hornet's nest (maybe that's the plan). Maybe, instead, the other team below the yellow line that survived elimination gets forced into the yellow team's situation instead of picking a team via a vote....that seems much more fair. Then, if they don't perform, they go, simple as that. Oh well...now the couples will be forced to play a singles game according to next week's preview...hmmm, not sure I agree. Sorry I'm ranting, this is just really bothersome to me this morning.

On a positive note...didn't Ali look awesome in her "after" interview! WOW what a difference...good for her!!! Betty Sue too, they both looked incredible.

~ Cindy (still a "Pink" fan!)

This morning already I did jump on the treadmill. I decided since I HATE running, I really do HATE running. I was going to just do a brisk walk. I think one reason I have been unmotivated to get on the treadmill in the morning is because I HATE running. So from now on I'm just going to go at a pace I enjoy and chalk it up to lewss calories burned but doing something I enjoy. So this morning I did 30 minutes and burned 200 calories.

That will probably be it for my workout today, may try to do some crunches tonight, maybe work on the 400 crunch challenge. OH WAIT Biggest Loser is on tonight, maybe I will do some during the commercials. My husband has off today so we won't have to wait for it to record to watch. The reason I will not be going to the gym is my son has baseball tryouts tonight. I'm excited about watching him, I love watching him play. I will work out on Wednesday working my shoulders and abs, then Thursday will be my last chance workout in which I will focus mostly on cardio. I kinda like this schedule.

Ok gotta get some work done this morning.

~Colleen

Jimmy has posted his first interview of about 10 with the winner of Season 4 of the Biggest Loser. Thought I would post if anyone was interested.

http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/interview-with-biggest-loser-bill-germanokos-part-1-episode-105/

Woo-hoo! I pretty much survived Kayla's big birthday weekend! She is officially 9 years old today Happy Birthday my Girl!

We had the bowling party yesterday and other than a small piece of chocolate cake and 1.5 beers I did pretty good. I didn't have any of the pizza or popcorn which is always sooo tempting! We went out to dinner and I had sea scallops that were grilled and served over a bed of grilled spinach, sweet potatoes and gnocchi. It was very good and didn't make me feel that guilty. I took my daughter over to the Cheesecake Factory for her piece of cheesecake and we decided to get it to-go so me or hubby wouldn't be tempted. Soooo, things went well...

I love your idea of the "last chance workout" on Thursday Colleen. I am extra psyched because I just signed up for an 8 week "Adult Hip Hop" class that my sister is teaching at my daughters dance studio. She did the class last year and it was so much fun, and a great cardio workout ~ it's more like Hip Hop Aerobics! She ends the class with a lot of ab work, so I'm sure I'll feel it Friday morning. But, the class is Thursday night from 9pm - 10pm so it is perfect timing, so this can be my last chance workout! Yay!

Have a GREAT Day everyone!

~ Cindy

I so hate the end of the weekend. I love my weekends. I love being home with my children, going to the gym when I want, cleaning my house, designing. I sit here 10:24pm Sunday night (just finished watching the Giants beat the Packers...I'm happy for my 7 year old is that was who he said was going to win...he has a winning record so far predicting games) and I need to get in bed because 5am is coming soon. I want to try to get up and get on that treadmill. (BTW I'm going to slap my husband soon if he doesn't get his OWN butt on the treadmill, I would have preferred to by an elliptical but I compromised with him on the treadmill ARGH!)

I had a good weekend. Overall I ate a little too much salt, but I have four days to tighten things up, bust my butt, do my last chance workout Thursday and see some weight loss.

For my eating you can always check out my fitday log (link is above my weight loss ticker.) You can also check out my exercise log there as well. But I do try to post those in a blog entry. So I did 34 minutes on the treadmill today burning 300 calories, then I spent about an hour at the gym working my back, biceps, and abs. Here is the log if you would like to look.


I have my own cheerleaders at home. My kids bugged me for an hour before I was ready to go to the gym. They even asked if we were going tomorrow. I guess I should be very happy they enjoy themselves and urge me to go. I wish I could stay home with them tomorrow since they have the day off but SIGH off to work I will go.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! BTW we have a new weekly challenge, check that out. I also posted a new video in honor of Abby's birthday challenge request.

~Colleen