Next Round!

So who's thinking of coming back for another round? I am for sure!

Any ideas for making it more interesting next time? What about doing points for a couple other things along with weight loss, like maybe exercise time and resting heartrate decrease.

Also, when do we want to start the next round? Could we maybe wait till I get back from vacation? :)
Christine

***************
From MoM
I am IN for sure! I really love having all of your exuberant winning losing spirits to help me out. It's been great to lose 20lbs and get "Stwong" as Dad says, at the gym. I really enjoy the machines I work on there and it makes me feel great.After talking to Christine and then to Dad, Jeff and Jana, we've come up with a few more ideas to make the next round fun (and profitable) and it can involve non-losers too with some challenges that will be helpful for everyone. We will post our ideas presently. so we can be ready to plunge in soon.
March 23, 2008 7:37 PM

Yesssss.

I have had 3 different people tell me this week how great I'm looking! Wow!
Also, I'm more than halfway to my ultimate goal! I've lost 35 lbs, only 29 to go!


A couple quotes for everybody:

*Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.*
- Winston Churchill

*Never eat anything you can't lift.*
-Miss Piggy

Mix it up!

A lot of us are kinda stuck right now! Don't forget that it's totally normal for your weight loss to slow down after a while. The key is to not give up, and remember that just keeping the weight off is an accomplishment in itself.

My exercise tip of the day: Mix it up! The best way to keep your body in burning mode is to not continue doing the same exerise all the time. 3 weeks is the longest you want to keep doing the same thing. Doing slightly different things every day is a good idea too. Like, if you go for walks, go up a really steep hill one day, walk extra fast the next. Then after a couple weeks quit walking and start biking or something.

Also, make sure you're exercising at the optimum time of day. Different people have different opinions as to what time of day is best in general, but in my opinion the best time is the time that you can do the most. For me, for instance, even though I'm really tired from my day, I can get a much better workout in the evenings than the morning. Jason found that the best time for him was mid-morning, so he actually works his work schedule around that. So try out different times of day and see what works for you!

What's everyone doing for exercise right now anyway?

A Little Sabotage...

A Little Sabotage...

Think of this as the liquid version

of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

3 cups whole milk

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 (!) cup cocoa powder

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Mini marshmallows, or peanut butter cup to garnish.

In a blender, combine the milk, peanut butter, sugar and cocoa powder. Puree until very smooth, then transfer to a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Add chocolate chips and stir constantly until the chips have melted and the mixture is smooth, about 4 to 5 minutes. Ladle into mugs and garnish with marshmallows or peanut butter cup.

**********************

This came from the newspaper and the picture looks positively sumptuous. Someday I will try it. But, I don't know if I will use 1/2 cup cocoa because that is at least twice my normal amount. I think I would use 1/4 c to start and see how it is. So when Valentines Day rolls around YOU might just indulge! Of course, I would never.....

Jana here: Too bad mom is so evil. Here is a legal way to get that chocolatey peanut buttery goodness. Put a no-sugar-added fudgsicle in the microwave for 5 seconds, then scrape it off into a bowl. Add about a tablespoon of peanut butter and a tablespoon of lite cool whip. Stir it up and it's like chocolate peanut butter icecream! YUM! Hardly any sugar, only good fat, and protein!

Christine: As long as we're sharing recipes, I had a really yummy smoothie this morning. 1 c. milk (I'm a 1% girl) 4 frozen strawberries, 1/4 c. frozen blueberries, 1/4 c. orange juice concentrate, 1/2 scoop vanilla whey (protein) powder.

Beloved Mommy here again: DONT listen to them! I AM the Mom and I know YOU will love the peanutbutterychocolatey goodness of this hot chocolate concoction! Go for the gutso! Oops, I mean gusto! Give your sweet tounge what it really really wants. You will love it AND after all, it's almost Valentine's Day! YOU deserve it. REALLY. You do. Do you know that green makes you hungrier? It's true!
Mommy, you are so very wicked to temp us with such sumptuousness. That's looks so stinkin good! I was wicked the other day and let Cameron convince me to make brownies, but I only made a 1/4 batch. It was like...4 brownies. So that worked out well actually. We're postponing V-day again this year. With his b-day and then mine and now sophies, we're all partied out. PLUS, Cameron is going to St. Louis to supervise the movers who are moving his mom on the 14-16.

Current Standings

Here we are in order of who's winning!

Name -- current percentage of start weight

1.Kimi -- 89.1%
2.Bryce -- 91.74%
3.Cam -- 91.79
4.Jana -- 92%
5.Mom -- 93.7%
6.Dad -- 95.6%
7.Chris -- 95.9%
8.Eric -- 97.3%


Disclaimer-- I didn't double check these numbers, I don't promise they're right!


Annette Here: Reese told me that with the scale discrepancies, they decided that Bryce's starting weight should be about 4 pounds lighter, so we need to recalculate that.

Care for a Brag, anyone?

Time to share some successes!

I thought we could share some joys of our weight loss. Who wants to go first? me? Oh, ok, if you insist.

Jana:I bought size 9 jeans the other day...a size smaller than I have fit into for a long time!!! Also, I think I need a smaller bra, HOORAY! And today I was looking in the mirror and I thought, hmm, my arms look a little smaller! Those are my joys.

I don't want to be BRAGGER, but...

Annette's Joys: My size 8 jeans that I bought in december are looking a little roomie could it be possible that I could fit into a size 6?? I'm certainly going to try!

And Cameron's pants are practically falling off of him, I want to get him new ones, but I'm hoping that he'll keep doing well and get even smaller, so I'm holding off at least until he REALLY needs new ones.

Mer: All I really have to brag about is the fact that I found a REALLY awesome cinnamon rolls recipe. (Meredith! how could you ???)They're so yummy.... I really need to have this baby so I can kick these cravings in the butt.

Christine: I'm fitting into all the cute shirts that I've had hanging in my closet for inspriation! AND I need smaller garments! I'm 199 now, which means I'm lower than I've been in over 5 years, and that I've lost 30 pounds all together!

CHEERS!!! for everyone! Isn't this fabulous? We will all be so much healthier! I am also thrilled to have broken the 200 barrier! yea me! So I am down 10 lbs, but If I count the extra 5 I had lost by Christmas, It's actually 15. I have found some awesome exercise machines for me at my new gym and they are really helping. It feels so great to have more control over my eating, and to Want to eat less! Hey, I am so impressed with Cam! How are you doing it? Eating less? Exercising?

Accuracy

Okay now wait.

Annette and Kimi both said their weights aren't accurate. What about everyone else? We were all supposed to weigh ourselves at the same time of day, wearing the same thing, on the same scale. Did everyone do that?

Net Here: Since I'm not official, I'm not terribly worried about my inaccuracy, but I'll have Cameron change mine anyway, cause I believe my start weight should be about 2 lbs lighter. And I told Kimi to have Jorge weigh himself on her scale, then on his as soon as he got home to see if there was a big difference so we could see how accurate her weights were. But I don't know if she remembered. Kimi? Did you?

Jen: I would just like to say CONGRATS to all of you!!! Holy shamoly, you all lost...and some lost A LOT! Good job!!

Strategy

OK, so everybody did so awesome this week that I want to hear everybody's strategies. I'll start.

Jana: I'm on the South Beach Diet, and the first 2 weeks are very strict, meant to reverse insulin resistance (reteach your body to process sugars properly) and get rid of your sugar and carb cravings. And guess what, it's working! Last night I made spaghetti for Jeff and Emma, and I had chicken and veggies, and I wasn't jealous of their pasta at all.

Typical day:

Breakfast: Vegetable omelet (when I say veggies, keep in mind I don't eat potatoes or carrots b/c they are not acceptable as far as blood sugar goes..and sugar makes you fat.)

Snack: nuts
Lunch: Tuna salad and sugar-free jell-o
Snack: celery stuffed with laughing cow light cheese
Dinner: Balsamic chicken and cooked veggies (red peppers, onions, garlic, zucchini, mushrooms cooked w/olive oil, salt, and pepper)
Dessert: Ricotta creme (part-skim ricotta cheese w/cocoa, vanilla, and sugar substitute. Yummyish, kind of strange texture)
I have been doing 1/2 hour aerobic exercise every morning as well.
So that's me--I haven't had any sugar since New Years day--the most I've had is in light yogurt, which I realized I can't actually have until after my strict 2-week phase. Then I'll be able to have one or two fruits and one serving of whole-grain carbs a day. I do miss the fruit, and cereal. But I don't miss pasta, bread, rice, and potatoes like I thought I would, since that's what I lived on before. On Sunday I made cookies because I love to bake on Sundays, and it was hard to resist the cookie dough, but not so much the cookies themselves. We gave most of them away, and I'm not all that tempted by the ones left here.

What is everybody else doing?

Christine: My eating strategy is totally up in the air right now, because my weight loss has leveled out and I need to step it up again! So I'll be checking out everyone else's strategies to decide what to do, so everybody do this post!

For exercise I've been doing an hour on the treadmill, but now I'll be adding my new turbo jam videos! Did the first one last night, it's pretty sweet.

UPDATE!! I've decided to do south beach! I started on the 10th and I like it! Also I highly recommend turbo jam, it's tons of fun, lots of hard work but not too hard to follow. Plus there are lots of different work-outs so you don't get bored.

Net here - Ooh, I've seen commercials for the turbo jam videos, they seem pretty dang awesome. We no longer have snackies in the house. We can snack on fruit or yogurt, but mostly I just don't snack anymore, unless it's a little handfull of dark chocolate. I knew I couldn't give up chocolate, so only dark for me, and only a little bit. We're eating more veggies and less red meat and fat and smaller portions. We use our Wii to do dance dance revolution, put it on workout mode and set it for the number of calories we want to burn. We did 160 last time, but will probably do 200 next time. We bought body balls and sit and those if we watch tv at night. That's the gist of what I'm doin.

Mer here...

I have no strategy. I'm eating less, but still eating stuff that I probably shouldn't be (like freakin' Girl Scout cookies....they couldn't have come at a worse time!) But I expected to continue to gain until this baby is born. I mean, it's kind of inevitable. But I am shooting for just a half a pound a week gain, which is just enough.

Eric, I have noticed, is mainly eating less. I don't see him snacking nearly as much, and he has cut way back on the soda. Rugby will be starting soon, and that is when he really plans on kicking some butt.

We did get some pilates videos, but haven't had a chance to do them yet.

My Turn! It's MoM. I am using the Body For Life book. When I am being a good girl, I choose a protien and a carb and veggies from the chart in the book of acceptable foods and eat them in the right doses. I mean serving sizes. (and Lean Cuisine lunches at school) . And I try to eat what they call 6 meals a day but actually it just being sure to snack properly so you don't get really hungry. The excercises are Weight Training so right now I am just using 10 lb dumbells to get started and doing the excercises in the book. It's nice because there are pictures and descriptions of the lifts to do. I am learning so I have a ways to go to figure out how to do it right. I do that every other day and the other days I will go to curves or I might start at a real gym I will be touring tomorrow.

DaD is eating what I fix and eating salads at Buster's Restaraunt at many lunch times. Of course he is still running 3 - 4 times a week and will be starting the weights too this week.

We Can Only Hope

Mer here.....

I thought it would be fun to see what everyone hopes and wishes they could look like again.

For me:
Junior-In-High-School-Cheerleader-Meredith would be so awesome. But definitely not going to happen. Although I still have the uniform in case I do make it down that small. I would be on cloud nine if I could fit into that thing again.



Wedding-Day-Meredith is probably more do-able, and I'd be happy with that. One of my goals, actually, is to fit back into this dress so Eric and I can do "Trash The Dress" together.



So....what about you guys?

Jana Here!

This is what I think a lot of us want to look like:

Net here: Heck yeah, I want to look like me in this pic.

And here's my wedding-day-Jana, which is what I'd like as well. I think I may have actually lost weight after getting married and before getting pregnant, but I'll go for wedding day rather than pre-pregnancy--it's a little more doable.

I also want to report that I finally went to the doctor, because my cough got worse again when we got home, and he says I have a mild case of pneumonia. So I won't be exercising this week, unfortunately.

And while I'm posting, I wanted to share my frustration about my realization that I don't know what I should and shouldn't eat. I'm afraid of carbs, fat, and sugar, so what in the world am I supposed to eat? Everybody says different things, so all I know is that veggies are healthy, though certain kinds are better than others. It's all so confusing!

And, Mer, that trashing the dress website is pretty cool!

Christine now!

Here's me in college. I'd actually like to look a bit better than these pics, but I don't know how possible that is!

Hey Jana, your picture over on the side is awesome, but isn't it way old?? You're way thinner now!

Annette Here:
I want to fit this well into these jeans again:

And looking this good in my wedding dress would be nice.
And Mer, that picture of Eric is Awesome.

Mer again...

Eric's not home right now, but I found this picture and thought maybe he'd want to look like this. Or not. I just thought it would be funny to post! I could definitely stare at this picture all day long.....

Entry Fee

All entry fees of $20 must be mailed to Don Rowley by Friday, January 4. If not in the mail by this day, you will have to wait until the next Biggest Loser contest, which will be in April or May.
(Did that sound official?)

Also: This blog is now private. All authors have access, as well as the immediate Rowley family.

(this is christine adding on) Make sure you have a scale for the official first weigh-in on tuesday! And mom and kimi where are you?? I'm getting worried here, we need you!
Also, Jason was wondering if he could unofficially join us.