Total water yesterday: 8 cups
Total sleep last night: 7 hours

Better on the sleeping thing, probably a combination of turning off the computer and working out for the first time. I was ready to go to bed before I even finished my homework so it was easy to get there when I was done.

Quick question: on the workouts, are you supposed to do the first collum and then go back and do the second? Or are you supposed to do one thing, rest and do that same thing again before going on to the exercise? Thanks for the clarification.

7:15 - Breakfast
- 1 small apple
- 3 links of turkey sausage de-greased with napkins
- Oatmeal with brown sugar
- Skim milk (some on oatmeal and drank the rest

10:00 - Snack 1
- 1 slice wheat toast
- peanut butter
- 1 banana (cut up on peanut butter toast... amazing, try it)

11:45 - Lunch
- 10 mini carrots
- French Dip sandwich
- cottage cheese and red jello

2:00 - Snack 2
- 1 small mountain trail mix (nuts, raisins, and M&Ms)

4:00 - Exercise
- 30 minutes on the elliptical
- attached table for strength training

5:15 - Dinner
- 10 pieces of celery with peanut butter

My goal is 1&1/4 Lbs. a week. Sooo, Posting on this blog is really helping me to stay on track with my "Meal Plan", because I do not want to eat unhealthy if I'm posting it to everyone. So Thank-You!! for helping me to stay accountable. I have no problem with motivation for my exercises. In January this year I started Dr Franks-Weight-Loss God's Way @ 177 Lbs.. Then I joined GHF @ the end of March. In total I have lost weight slooow, but never struggled with up & down with my weight. I have lost 20 & 1/2Lbs. so far with an increase of 1/2 inch in chest, & a loss of 4 inches off of my waist, 4 inches off my hips, & 4 inches off each thigh.

Well, I am a little slow after getting back from the hospital. BTW, Thank you so much for all your well-wishes!! Anyway, I have not started up again on program, but I finally figured out how to size my photo for the blog! YIPEE!

I will back later to begin - again!

Love and Light,

Last night I slept 5 1/2 hours. Yesterday I drank 5 cups of water.

Here is the problem I am having with sleep. My schedule makes room for me to get 8 hours of sleep minimum each night but when it comes time to go to bed I just don't feel tired. So I mess around online and read or whatever else. By the time I am tired and go to bed I get like 4,5,6 hours of sleep. Anybody got suggestions?

I am thinking it may be because I go non-stop from when I wake up to when I go to bed and I am having trouble going from 60mph to 0. I am very busy so I do not know if there is a cure to my schedul

Exercise: none

Breakfast: An entire package of Raman and some hot chocolate with marshmellos

Lunch: Chicken taraki with rice, celery with peanut butter, some cherry tomatoes and baby carrots with ranch, two dinner rolls, cottage cheese and canned peaches. I skipped desert because I did not eat my salad, even when grandpa was trying to tempt me with chocolate pie and ice cream.

Dinner: Almond fried chicken, egg noodles, corn, grean beans, fried chicken patty on wheat with cheese, lettuice, tomato, and catchup.

Sundays are always the hardest for me because our cafiteria goes all out for Sunday lunch.

Ok, so here we go. I am about to launch out and hope for the best. I have tried all the "free" stuff... and some of the diets that were not so free, but nothing has ever really kept the weight off. One summer I lost 50 pounds on Weight Watchers but I have since gained it all back. This time I am looking for long term results.

The short-term goal: My roommate's wedding (where I am Maid of Honor) on January 3rd
The long-term goal: To build a healthy lifestyle that will help me to be active into old age.

My greatest strenght is that I am an over-achiever. That is also my greatest weakness. Probably the hardest part for me will be to set reasonable goals. I have a tendancy to set goals too high and then not achieve them. Then I get discouraged and quit.

Finished my last night shift of my 2 week rotation, that's good. Felt some uncomfortable knee pain since my last lower body workout, that's bad. And the ugly I'll fix with a haircut this weekend. I'm rethinking my lower body workouts. I thought holding back on some cardio on those days would help out my beat up knees, but it's not working for me. I've been good with longer cardio's so I may need to keep that up and reduce the lower body strengthening. When I review my body and rate what parts I feel I need work, my legs are last on the list.
I had a good 30 minute cardio today focusing on intervals. I realized my knees were OK with this then later during the leg press and lunges that's when my knees, not my leg muscles were feeling the crunch. Regardless, the other weights worked out well. I'll eventually figure this out.

It took my 6 months to lose 10 lbs., but I did it & it's off for good. I was working-out so much, I knew if I didn't quit it would change. I changed from working-out 1 1/2 hrs 6 days to 45 min. work-out 3 days a week & 1 hr cardio 4 days a week. Also, I found I had to increase my calories by 200 a day. I wasn't getting enough before. Gosh, I stayed the same weight for 13 weeks. However with the 10 lbs. I lost 2 inches in my waist, hips and thigh!!! Today I have a busy schedule, so eatting only 4 meals alittle larger. Meal#1 1c. oatmeal w/protein freeze(cal.250) 3 lg. decaf coffee(cal.18

I have set my workout plans & goals for October in motion this morning & did 25 min. on my treadmill @ 10% incline w/ speed 3.0 & followed with my totalgym (all exercises @ 2 sets w/ 12 reps.)Incline Bicep Curl,Reverse Grip Seated Bicep Curls,Parallel Grip Lat Pull-Down,Prone Reverse Fly,Hip Adduction & Leg Thrust---Meal#1 rice cake w/ natural PB&J-(cal. 250)--Meal#2 Whole Grain Pancakes w/protein powder, I can't believe spray butter & SF syrup-(cal.250)--Meal#3 brown rice W/onion,garlic,chicken & peas-(cal.320)& 3 lg. decaf coffee-(cal.180)=1000 CALORIES so far, will finish this later.----Back again, Meal#4 Broiled Flounder w/lemon,salad w/ 1&1/2 TBS.

Hey all...Its been a while since I blogged here. I guess you can say I'm floundering. I've been feeling a bit down these past few weeks, so I haven't been planning my meals OR working out regularly. Its been a mixture of missing my husband (currently in Iraq), being unemployed and on a budget. Not to mention the stress, I guess that's the reason, is causing me to lose my hair.

But to my surprise, I haven't gained much weight in that process. I'm currently at 145lbs last time I checked, which was on the 25th. I know I could have done better these past weeks, so I need to pick myself back up and get things in order.

went on a 80min bike ride both on saturday and sunday. I might not do the km's but sure get my heart pumping, Norway is kinda hilly.
about the eating, I haven't got a personalised diet yet but do try to eat healthy, this week I will eat crakers instead of bread, but will have a slice of bread in the afternoon when I get off work.

20 min. on treadmill @ 10% incline & speed of 3.0--TotalGym did 5 exerc.@ incline 3, 2 sets of 15 reps.-Incline Chest Press-Decline Chest Fly-Incline Biceps Curl-Reverse Grip Preacher Curl-Reverse Grip Triceps Press Down--Meal#1 1/2c.Lite-N-Fit yogurt,banana,TBL wheat-germ,1/4c. All-Bran & 1/4c.Go-Lean Crunch(cal.300)-Meal#2 1/4 pancake w/ 2 TEASP. apple topping & 3 lg. decaf(cal.500)-Meal#3 lettuce w/ 1/2c. cottage cheese,fresh fruit & 1/2 apple muffin & 3 lg. decaf(cal.600)-Meal#4 salad,zucchini,tomato,onion,hard boiled egg,1 TBL soy nuts & balsamic vinegar w/ 1 slice cheese pizza(cal.250)-Meal#5 bowl mixed veggies & protein freeze(cal.200) TOTAL CALORIES=1850 This is usually the day I get carried away, soo I think this is pretty reasonable.

Hi Everyone!

I did not mean to drop off the face of the Blog panet. My daughter, who you might have read about previously is undergoing chemotherapy for kidney cancer, suffered a bowel obstruction as a result of the surgery she had this last May removing her tumor. We were ambulanced to a hopital 2 1/2 hours away from home and she received a bowel resection because part of her small intestine lost blood supply and was necrotic (basically dead tissue). She recovered ok, but just 2 days after getting home she began vomiting and we had to go back to the same hopsital. We are home now, and she is doing much better. We have been away from home for almost 3 weeks and are really glad to be back. I expect it will take a little while to get back on track because now I have a nasty cold or bronchitis. But it has to go up from here, and I can't wait to get back in the gym.

My exerc. I'm faithful with. I switched up this morning w/ Meal#1 first,Kashi Go Lean 1/2c w/ 1/2c. skim milk & 2 lg. decaf w/ FF 1/2 & 1/2(cal.230) waited 1&1/2 hrs. & did 25 min. on treadmill @ 10%incline @3.0 followed with my TotalGym 4 exerc. 2 sets @15 reps of Parallel Grip Lat Pull-Down(incline 6), Prone Reverse Fly(incline 3), Hip Adduction(incline 5), Leg Thrust(incline 5), THEN Meal#2 1/2c. oatmeal w/ protein freeze & 2 lg. decaf(cal. 370)--of course I am drinking m,y water & did flexibility inbetween exerc. also-- PLANNED AHEAD Meal #3 tuna sandw. w/ onion, tom.,celery,lite mayo & FF cheese on 7 grain diet bread(cal.275) Meal#4 Going out/meat & 2 veg.(cal.300)+2lg.

Finally, the scale started moving down! Everything still feels the same in terms of how my clothes fit but seeing the numbers go down a little did make me feel a little bit better. Still, I'm no where near where I wanted to be, or thought I would be under GHF, for my sister's wedding in three weeks.

This morning I did a 60 minute tape, alternating weights (8 to 20 lbs) with bursts of cardio; then I did about 30 minutes of thigh/butt work; and 10 minutes of abs. After work I'm taking a spin class.

For breakfast I had egg whites and a whey protein shake mixed with a banana and peanut butter.

1. 45 min. on treadmill & 30 min. strength training, followed by 1/3c. All Bran Buds w/ 1/3c skim milk w/ 1/2 scoop of protein powder. Have preplanned my lunchbox for today & off to work I go w/ calm determination!

1. Exercises- strength A. Joey Atlas Ab Crunches 2 sets of 15 each leg w/ cat stretch B.(ALL 2 sets of 15 reps) Arm Pull-Over C. Chest Press (All exercises followed by proper stretch exercises inbetween each one) D. Cable Abdominal Crunch E. Static Triceps Press Down F. Preacher Curl (Above done on TotalGym) 2. Cardio 40 minutes on treadmill @ 3.5 3. Meal Plan Meal#1 1/2c. Special K+ w/ 1/2c. skim milk(cal. 115) Meal#2 Egg White Omelette w/spinach, onion & FF cheese. Also, home fries cooked in olive oil(cal.300) Meal#3 Spinach leaves, 1/2c. cottage cheese & 1/2c. blk. beans(cal. 225) Decaf Coffees w/ FF 1/2 & 1/2(cal.

It's been a good weekend, even though Friday was not good for food - it wasn't terrible, terrible, but I know that I could have done a little better than I did (Does it help that I was travelling for hours?) Still learning I guess ...

But what was so thrilling for me was the fact that my 13 year old daughter was asked to perform at her district Cultural Festival competition (in front of 1600 people). I had made plans to travel the 2 hours to see her in the afternoon only to hear from my ex that the performance time had changed to be in the morning instead - we were dismayed because Jenna quit - she was scared and didn't want to make a fool of herself in front of her friends - she lost confidence because I wouldn't be there.

Sheesh! I've been slack with getting on here and recording what i've been doing, although I do record everything in my own personal diary. Have had an awesome weekend, a girlfriend of mine wanted to start getting back into gym etc so we worked out all weekend. Didnt really stick to any meal plan in particular, just used all my knowledge and made good choices. (well I think I did anyway).

SATURDAY

Meal 1: Cereal with Fruit

Meal 2: Homemade caramelized pears with teaspoon of light cream cheese.

WORKOUT: 20 min bike, 20 min treadmill, weights, abs, 10 min cross trainer, sauna and spa (nice reward)