New years resolutions anyone?

Ok here's me! Hubby took my pics last night and I forgot to tell him to take full body pics lol...I said oh well they'll work for now, it's not like my calves are going to change much anyway. I took pics of him but I was quickly informed that I'm not allowed to post them online lol...I will keep y'all updated on his weight loss though. BTW these are the poses that P90X recommends. I thought I looked really silly lol. Anyways, today was our first day of workouts. He's doing the P90X "classic" set and I'm doing "lean". I almost threw up once, got a little dizzy and nauseous a few minutes later, and had to tell myself "slow down, it's not a race, and don't try to do as many as they're doing on the video" and Hubby sat in the living room and helped me when I needed it (and paused the video when I would give out lol). By the end of the workout at stretch/cool down I was feeling awesome, and I feel 100% better now (an hour after workout) than I did before I started. It's a very great feeling. So far today we have each eaten a bowl of cereal and a tuna salad sandwich (wheat bread and light mayo), and hubby had a fruit cup (we bought some that have ZERO SUGAR). I'll probably have a fruit cup or Kashi bar later, and then we're doing grilled chicken or lean cuisine for dinner.

27 years old (28 in 3 weeks)
Height - 5' 9.5"
Weight - 162
Chest (at boobs) - 37.5"
Waist (narrowest part) - 29.25"
Hips - 40.5"
L Thigh - 24"
R Thigh - 24.5"
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[quote="critterkeeper"] but after battling RA in my legs (feet, ankles, knees) for decades, I have resigned to not being able to do much in the way of "exercise" now that it has moved into my hips and spine[/quote]

This got me thiniking- I've had sore painful; knees and feet for over a month and I went and checked out the symptoms of RA and I have loads of them :( Back to the docs next week then, she is going to start thinking I'm a hypochondriac.

I sure hope you don't Dogrose, keep us posted.

Rusti you also have a great figure to work with, I love your hour glass shape, esspecially from the back.

I found another cool site with exercize tips for different body types.

http://www.fitnessattitudes.com/bodytyp…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks! After he took the pics and I looked at the one of my back I was amazed at how good it looks. I'm sure that's thanks to all those 50 lb feed sacks I carry every day. Hubby and I downloaded an app for our iPhones called Lose It. Based on all our info (age, sex, weight, height, etc.) it gives you a calorie limit for the day, and then you add in all your foods as you eat, and your exercises for the day. I looked up some info on P90X and 600 per hour seems to be the average, so that's what we're using. So for today we are both in the negative! It allows me 1200 cal/day and Hubby 2040 cal/day. Guess we'll be having a little extra baked chicken for dinner and another bowl of Special K for dessert.

I think I'll follow along with you all. I am needing to lose serious fat weight, but would like to not gain any muscle weight. I am unfortunately graced with the body type of my weight-lifting uncles (broad shoulders, narrow hips, big big bone, way more muscle than I have ever had need of...except that time I had to pick up a pony). So my workout routines are almost exclusively aerobics because I pack on muscle just by looking at barbells.

Awesome! glad you are going to join us MP. I also have always carried a lot of muscle naturally, my dad was a feather weight boxer and I'm built just like him but I'm a girl. I used to think I didn't want to weight train but I learned that training with light weights and high reps gave me a great very toned look all over and more importantly kept my muscle. Your muscle is your friend it keeps you lean as is the only part of your body that burns fat constantly.

Rusti, make sure you don't go any lower on calories or your body will go into starvation mode and your matabolism will drop.
I honestly have never have counted calories ever, but I'm not suggesting you don't count them if that makes it easier for you.
I'm going on my old tried and true no processed food diet, works every time. If it's sweet it's ok as long as it grows on a tree. I give myself about 3 servings of protein a day and 12 grains, 2 fruit and unlimited veggies. I also always use Branch Chain Amino Acids and L-glutamine. Taking amino's will assure you get enough protein so you don't loose precious muscle while you train. I also always use a protein powder to make protein shakes. I don't even do artificial sweeteners they are like really bad for you unless they are something natural like stevia.
I order all my suppliments from nutrition express they have the best prices and a big selection.
http://www.nutritionexpress.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm going to have to aim purely for weight loss, any sort of excercise hurts too much at the moment. I'm sure it will help with the sore feet and knees, all that sugar I had over Christmas can't have helped. I find the easiest way for me is meal replacement drinks, much easier than trying to balance everything and I'm allowed to drink at work but not eat.
If you don't all mind I won't be posting any bikini pics :D

That's ok Dogrose, I had to delete my pics because my husband didn't want them on the internet, he is really protective, but he is super hot so that's ok. I'll just go by my measurements and atleast post a after pic when we are done.
I would try to not just do the meal replacement shakes, it may work to begin with but when you go back to eating real food you will gain more weight and body fat then you originally had. You need to get enough protein to keep your muscle and if you your a veggie anyway your diet sounds good. Just cut out the sugar and try to keep lower on you oils for now. Maybe you can find a protein shake to supliment that is veggie friendly and drink that at work. If you have somthing every 2 hours it will speed up you matibolism. What most people don't understand it not how many calories you eat throughout the day as much as how many you eat and then use throughout the day. You need to eat as much as your useing at the time. If you don't eat breakfast within a reasonable short period after rising then you matabolism drops thougout the day to compensate. Then say you don't eat the whole day and your body has already dropped your matabolism then you go home and it one big meal for dinner, your body will only use what you need for that time and store the rest as fat. That's why small frequent meals will help you to loose weight, your only eating what your useing and your keeping your matabolism going.

I had a great workout today and wanted to share a great chicken romaine salad recipe that turned out good.
We ran 2 miles this morning fallowed by a 26 minute ab workout and a 22 minute pilates buns and thigh workout.
MP, pilates is also a great strengthening workout that won't give you bulky muscles :-BD
I'm still working on my diet, I need to get more grocerys(fruit) but this is what I ate today.
Balance bare protein bar with sugar free energy drink.
vanilla protein shake
approx 2 cups mixed greens w/herbs and I spray it with olive oil from my misto, sprinkle with lemon juice and grate fresh garlic and top with 1/4 cup shaved parmesan, it was good!
1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa plane.
and for dinner I seasoned a chicken breast with corriander, parsley, rosemary, sea salt and cayenne pepper, grilled it and put it on a bed of romaine lettuce and used 1 Tb of light ranch and just a few more slivers of parmesan, and that was really good!

To drink, I just drink plenty of water and unsweetened iced tea.

I hope this gives you some ideas, and please share if any you have any healthy recipes :D

Hmmm, I shall have to see what I can find for pilates. It is in the midteens around here with ice everywhere so no jogging outside. Though I did brave it to work the pony yesterday and today.

I'm really excited about my lunch today! I'll let you guys know when I finally eat it if it's worth trying. I amde some roasted beet spread (just roasted beets, red bell pepper, and onion tossed in the food processor until creamy) spread on collard leaves (the big HUGE whole ones) and topped with fresh baby greens, sliced tomato, cucumber, and all-natural roasted turkey breast slices. The whole thing is wrapped up like a burrito. Sounds delicious to me, but I only managed to eat a hardboiled egg for breakfast since I was running a little behind. I have my fingers crossed.

Last night I made teriyaki pork chops, grilled, and topped with blueberry-ginger relish. My fiance hates blueberries and he loved it. The recipe is as follows for anyone interested:

4 4 oz. pork chops (cut off all the fat bits)
marinaded in:
3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 cloves garlic - crushed
1 teaspoon brown sugar
and 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

combine all of that in a big plastic ziplock bag and put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours (overnight if you can)

About 20 minutes before you start to grill the pork make the relish:
1 cup chopped blueberries (I used a mini-prep since blueberries can be messy)
1 chopped shallot
1 seeded and chopped serrano chili
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon minced ginger
and 1/4 teaspoon salt

Grill the pork chops about 5 minutes on each side (possibly less if they're thin), let them rest a few minutes, top with the relish, and enjoy! It goes well with corn, but since the pork chops I had were kind of big we didn't need a side. This has about 230 calories and a bonus 67% of your daily recommended value of selenium! Yum!

Dinner tonight is grilled salmon on turnip puree with a side of fresh salad greens.

Wow those sound yummy, your a good cook ThP. Today I'm going to Costco to load up on some more healthy groceries. I got a crock pot for Chistmas so I'm going to try to make some Lemon herb chicken and maybe some lamb asparagus stew in there.

[quote="Monsterpony"]Hmmm, I shall have to see what I can find for pilates. It is in the midteens around here with ice everywhere so no jogging outside. Though I did brave it to work the pony yesterday and today.[/quote]

Another really great muscle toning exercize that feels great is Yoga, both Yoga and Pilates will help you tone and develop longer more feminine looking muscles, and they are both harder than they look but at the same time, because of the stretching involved are relaxing. I have one Yoga/pilates combo workout that I have had for a long time and I love it. I would still recommend doing cardio as well though.

I highly recommend rock climbing as a way to (a) gain great upper body and core strength, but also (b) to stay motivated about exercise and weight management. I have major deficits in the discipline department and have all but given up at forcing myself to run/exercise regularly, but climbing is fun rather than a chore so I have no trouble doing it. Furthermore, having to haul all those extra pounds up the wall is plenty of motivation to slim up.

My goals for this year are to get back into decent cardio shape, kick my excessive salt habit, and to get good enough at crack climbing and gear placement to do my first trad climbing lead.

Does anyone else have a salt problem? I dump salt on everything. I don't think I oversalt food because of a salt craving, but rather because my tongue just doesn't taste things properly unless I pour it on. I have low blood pressure and I'm not worried about my health, I'm just really embarrassed to be constantly salting everything (even pizza and cheeseburgers... they are so much more delicious when salted). I have also on multiple occasions made myself sick by consuming soup which I considered appropriately salted.
To get over this, I'm trying to 'reset' what my tongue feels is appropriate. I'm avoiding condiments altogether for a month and for now am sticking to raw foods, which I find much more flavorful than their cooked counterparts (for better or for worse... my lunch salad of shaved carrots, daikon radish, orange, and turnips tasted pretty sharp and smelled... like raw turnips). Apparently beets and celery are naturally high in salt but I'll probably have to supplement my salt intake with pills so that I get it in my system without tasting it. We'll see how that goes.

On the climbing front, Santa brought me a set of cams to go with the nuts and hexes I got for my birthday, so now I need to become competent enough to use them. It's kinda embarrassing to be a reasonably competent climber in the gym in the sense that I can pull pretty hard on tiny face holds, but when I go outside to the 'real' world where you climb lines of cracks in the rock that can be protected, I completely lack the skills to get myself up even the most basic routes. Basically instead of pulling on handles, you shove your fingers/hands/feet in the crack until they get stuck and then move upwards. I spent the new year climbing at Joshua Tree NP where I was at least able to practice placing gear and getting a couple fist jams, and this morning I got schooled by the cracks at the climbing gym. Now the backs of my hands and knuckles are all mangled, but at least I'm trying!

Ahhhhhhhh I love Joshua tree nerd! I lived near there for awhile, I thought it was awesome, I rode my horses there :D . I miss how warm it was, it's freezing here right now. Anyhow yes I also am a non-taster and love salt, but I have this "eat right for your blood type" book that says iodized salt is actually good for type O's which I am, so I don't worrie about it to much. Nothing wrong with raw foods though, I met this raw food chef once at a salsa dance class. Her job was to cook for terminally ill cancer patients after they were told they were only had so much time left and they would actually recover from eating raw foods. She said when we cook our foods it kills the enzymes that are so good for us.
Rock climbing sounds totally intense, I'm sure it's a great work out.

I'm not sure I buy into all that raw foods stuff, but for me now it's a convenient way to avoid salt. There was an [url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010… article[/url] in the New Yorker sorta recently about fermented and raw foods movements. Very interesting read.

I wish it had been warm at JTree! Despite camping in balmy Indian Cove, we froze. There was hail in the main part of the park that lingered on the ground for days!
On a side note, we went to the Integratron on the way out. What a trip!!!

I LOVE rock climbing. I rarely get to go anymore, but I was recently reunited with a friend from high school and we spend the last few warm weeks over at the outdoor rock gym downtown. It's depressing how out of shape/practice I've gotten in. I was glad I still had my shoes, though!

I kicked the salt habit after I... ate salt once. I was really, really hungry and the only thing I had and was going to have for a long time was an empty bag of pretzels. I thought that eating the salt would help, but it only made me sick. Big surprise. I've been a little turned off to it since then (much like sugar) so I can count myself lucky.

I haven't read much about the raw food, but I'd probably do well. I prefer raw spinach, cabbage, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, etc over the cooked versions. I also will eat raw oats, but think that cooked oats taste like butt (or at least, what I'd imagine a butt would taste like.) I don't think I could get past the meat problem, although I like sushi with raw fish, and that weird thing where you "cook" fish via acid and not heat, and I certainly enjoy rare filet mignon.... I dunno, it sounds interesting, thought!

On another note: Mmmmmmmm raw turnips! My fiance pointed out that they taste like a cross between a potato and a radish. I called them dainty radishes. Either way, they are DELISH.

Right now I'm cooking dinner:

Baked salmon seasoned lightly with ground cumin, pepper, and salt
Turnip and cumin puree
stir-fried collards with fresh minced garlic
copious amount of Maker's Mark (okay, this isn't being cooked)

I had a great personal training session and inadvertently walked a couple miles trying to help my friend find earrings after work. I got to learn the dumbbell pushup and row today (tough) and just went through some other things (front squats, push press, barbell row, leg press, etc) I always feel 100% better after working out AND I get the added bonus of complaining with my trainer about the lack of light rail in Ohio.

Final note: the collard wrap is good, but it is gigantic, and if you use the roasted beet spread it will turn your entire lunch pink and also leak pink juice out all over the place and almost result in stained hands and a stained lab coat. BEWARE.

[quote="nerd"]I'm not sure I buy into all that raw foods stuff, but for me now it's a convenient way to avoid salt. There was an [url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010… article[/url] in the New Yorker sorta recently about fermented and raw foods movements. Very interesting read.

I wish it had been warm at JTree! Despite camping in balmy Indian Cove, we froze. There was hail in the main part of the park that lingered on the ground for days!
On a side note, we went to the Integratron on the way out. What a trip!!![/quote]

Well you won't catch me eating any road kill, that is gross, but I agree with ThP, I love sushi. I can get pretty chilly there in the high desert in the winter at night, but I do love the climate and the pastel colors of the desert. I think Joshua tree is the prettiest of all the surrounding desert towns there, Palm Springs, Palms Desert and 29 Palms.

[quote="Third Peppermint"]I LOVE rock climbing. I rarely get to go anymore, but I was recently reunited with a friend from high school and we spend the last few warm weeks over at the outdoor rock gym downtown. It's depressing how out of shape/practice I've gotten in. I was glad I still had my shoes, though!

I kicked the salt habit after I... ate salt once. I was really, really hungry and the only thing I had and was going to have for a long time was an empty bag of pretzels. I thought that eating the salt would help, but it only made me sick. Big surprise. I've been a little turned off to it since then (much like sugar) so I can count myself lucky.

I haven't read much about the raw food, but I'd probably do well. I prefer raw spinach, cabbage, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, etc over the cooked versions. I also will eat raw oats, but think that cooked oats taste like butt (or at least, what I'd imagine a butt would taste like.) I don't think I could get past the meat problem, although I like sushi with raw fish, and that weird thing where you "cook" fish via acid and not heat, and I certainly enjoy rare filet mignon.... I dunno, it sounds interesting, thought!

On another note: Mmmmmmmm raw turnips! My fiance pointed out that they taste like a cross between a potato and a radish. I called them dainty radishes. Either way, they are DELISH.

Right now I'm cooking dinner:

Baked salmon seasoned lightly with ground cumin, pepper, and salt
Turnip and cumin puree
stir-fried collards with fresh minced garlic
copious amount of Maker's Mark (okay, this isn't being cooked)

I had a great personal training session and inadvertently walked a couple miles trying to help my friend find earrings after work. I got to learn the dumbbell pushup and row today (tough) and just went through some other things (front squats, push press, barbell row, leg press, etc) I always feel 100% better after working out AND I get the added bonus of complaining with my trainer about the lack of light rail in Ohio.

Final note: the collard wrap is good, but it is gigantic, and if you use the roasted beet spread it will turn your entire lunch pink and also leak pink juice out all over the place and almost result in stained hands and a stained lab coat. BEWARE.[/quote]

The turnips sound good, I love radishes so maybe I should try them, thanks for posting all your eats so we can try them.

I did a 55 minute aerobic body shaping by the firm, It's been a long time omg, it was hard. I went shopping and got some more fruit and made the Lemon herb chicken in my new crock pot and rosemary potato's. I feel very satisfied right now and sleepy.

Ceviche!!! OMG that hadn't even crossed my mind. Thanks for the suggestion :-D

Oh now that does sound good, I have some shrimp in my freezer :D , you know I'm not sure where it came from but I suspect South America because my father is frome Chile, but we used to press out ground beef and marinate it in lemon and garlic and serve it on crackers it was actually quite good.

Just checking in! I'm on day 5 (legs, back, abs) and I'm about to start my workout. Our diet is going wonderful, hubby is staying committed and not complaining too much haha. He eats out every day but he has been religious about researching all the fast food and sit-down restaurants they frequent to find out the healthiest foods, and he's really doing good, I'm so proud of him. I just need to get him to eat breakfast without me reminding him.

I saw y'all mention salt earlier. Regarding that - we use sea salt and for the first 4 days of our diet we didn't have to add it to anything. But then last night I made steamed broccoli with our chicken & rice, and sprinkled just a bit on. There are some foods I can't eat without salt, broccoli is one of them lol. Oh and for the chicken I've been fixing, I bought boneless skinless breast tenderloins (basically a breast cut into 3 slices) and 3 different marinades - Hawaiian (tastes like sweet & sour + pineapple), garlic & herb, and lemon pepper. They are Lawry's brand and all 3 are very low cal/low fat. Sodium is not so bad either, and to marinade 6 tenderloins for 30 minutes I think I only used 1/4 cup of marinade, and after baking I probably poured out half of that. The rice I got this time was Uncle Ben's long grain + wild. It was sooo good! I mixed it in with my chicken so it got some of the garlic & herb flavor in it - delicious. I never realized I would be able to cook HEALTHY food and have it taste this amazing! Hubby is very pleased with me as well :)

Hi Rusti, I am doing really well also, I just finished my workout, I did 30 minute run on the treadmill fallowed by a 30 minute supercharged body sculpting and then a 12 minute stretch. Supercharged sculpting by the Firm is like step/arobics and weights all together and it always has ab work which I really need, so I like that. Yesterday I did a Yoga/pilates day because I was super sore from the day before so I felt I needed the stretch. I'm already thinking when I get my shoulder strength up I can go ahead and try P90x again :D. My diet is going well to, I still don't have everything on my shopping list, the store was out of my ezekial bread, so I'll have to check back for that. I bought some basmati brown rice and I'm going to try that tonight with some shrimp. We also use sea salt it tastes better that regular salt I think.
I feel so much better already and I just sneaked a peak at my waist and I lost 1 1/2 inches on my waist already!

My resolution is to get out of school and get a job.
It's not going well.

You'll get there Krickette ;-) .

It's kinda frustrating right now. I mean, I'm a girl, so that helps, but I have a delicate situation. I'm a biomedical engineer trying to get a job as an electrical engineer. Well a lot of real electrical engineers are having a heck of a time finding work, so that means I'm going to have an even tougher time. Yuck.

So I share a fridge. That fridge is currently filled with cheese. This is tempting me to break my resolution. Arg. Wish me luck.

Cheese is bad when you are trying to loose weight, to high in fat, I put a very little bit of parmesan on my salad but that's it. Just make sure there is somthing in the fridge that you can eat, that's what I do. I'm on no processed sugar very low fat and very low processed foods. My husband is working out with me but he doesn't watch his diet since he is a very tall athletic man and can pretty much eat what he wants if he works out, so every night he has been eating Christmas candy in front of me so I really have to put my will power into overdrive, but I can do that. I find it easier not to cheat on my diet if I work out because I want my workout to count for somthing besides a cheat snack, not worth it.

Ok I had the best sandwich today and I have to share. My husband & I went shopping today and we picked up some fitness magazines (mens health & muscle & fitness hers). They had some good recipe's so we tried one and it was delicious. The recipe called for a wheat kaiser roll but I used my ezekial bred instead (ezekial bread is a sprouted grain bread, no wheat) ok so the bread and then a chicken breast marinated in teriyaki and grilled, put a slice of swiss cheese on that at end of grilling and let that melt on then you put the chicken aside and get some fresh whole sliced pineapple ( and grill that until its kind caramelized and then serve all on the roll or bread (also grilled) with sliced purple onion and jalapeno's. My husband didn't have the onion a jalapeno's but I did and it was goooooood!

[quote="rodeoratdogs"]Ok I had the best sandwich today and I have to share. My husband & I went shopping today and we picked up some fitness magazines (mens health & muscle & fitness hers). They had some good recipe's so we tried one and it was delicious. The recipe called for a wheat kaiser roll but I used my ezekial bred instead (ezekial bread is a sprouted grain bread, no wheat) ok so the bread and then a chicken breast marinated in teriyaki and grilled, put a slice of swiss cheese on that at end of grilling and let that melt on then you put the chicken aside and get some fresh whole sliced pineapple ( and grill that until its kind caramelized and then serve all on the roll or bread (also grilled) with sliced purple onion and jalapeno's. My husband didn't have the onion a jalapeno's but I did and it was goooooood![/quote]

Ok. As I was reading this my stomach went "gurgle growl gurgle" LOL. Hubby picked up a new pack of chicken breast$ (it will let you say breast, but won't let me put the s on the end?! lol...) yesterday, I have wheat bread, now I need to pick up some pineapple (the onion and jalapenos aren't my cup of tea). I don't much care for teriyaki marinade, maybe I will use the Hawaiian marinade...*drooling*

Tomorrow is week 1 weigh-in! BTW - hubby got impatient and measured his chest yesterday (we are waiting for the end of week 2 to do measurements) and he's down TWO INCHES!!! He was so excited, and I'm very proud of him.