Congratulations to everyone this week ;)
Wow .. you guys are such an inspiration ...

I have a hiking trip this weekend .. and it's gonna be a great physical activity .. hope to lose at least a pound during the weekend ;) We're going to climb 8200ft and it's gonna be a real big incline yay .. im really looking forward to it.

Im still 154 .. but i had a week filled with food .. im even lucky that i haven't gained

Hope to do a better job next week. my scale is not digital even though it feels i might be a little less than 154 .. i can't be sure ... until i can visibly see it. Hopefully next week ;)

Any suggestions on how to break a plateau on a low-carb diet?

wooooooowwww ))

To be completely honest, i have no idea how much it costs, I only used it in the gym

And yes, I completely understand that you dont want to be out in the wet :)

Since, everyone suggested you should go indoors .. i'm just gonna add up and say that the best thing is to combine it.
I just read an article in Men's Health, saying how jogging or biking outdoors when it gets a bit chili helps the body workout more (apparently it needs more energy to heat itself up, and burns more calories on the way). And there were some more pros to it too. (i tried finding the article in the online version, but couldn't, sorry )

Anyway, if you are looking into indoor trainer, check out http://www.realryder.com/ I used it this summer and it's really amazing (idk if it's available in europe though) ...

I really want to invest in a pedometer to see how many steps a take a day because I feel like I walk A TON.

You might wanna try some free application for your phone (if you have a smart phone) ... I can't really recommend one right now, but you might do some research. It might not be as accurate as a pedometer, but it will give you a general idea.
My friends uses one for her sony ericsson phone and it's pretty nifty!

Indeed i did a little peeking myself too it's only because i'm having a short trip today to wednesday, and i might not be able to weigh-in tommorow. :)
mine says 154.3 ;)

Yeah .. it's the "Quote" section ( I needed a little time to understand what you are asking )

Yes, indeed Elizabeth, I am an emotional eater, I always find myself putting on weight when im stressed out or depressed. I did start to "sort of" break the code and telling myself "no, you dont need to eat that right now, because it would only make you feel overstuffed and unhappy" ... it works sometimes :)

I've been doing a good job with losing weight lately .. and im more powerful than ever to avoid and refuse the sweets and it makes me very happy and confident. If you asked me to lose 10 pounds a year ago, i would think you're crazy. Now it feels so easy :) so yes, i guess it depends on how you look at it a lot!

@Catherine: Thank you for your support, I really appreciate, it feels amazing to be part of such a supporting group. I am with you on the weight loss ... I will be happy to go 140-145 till Christmass .. so we'll see ... even though I've been losing a lot of weight lately .. and I think Im getting into a plateau now, but even if it goes really slowly, I'm not planning on stopping.

And concerning the subject of being hungry .. As it goes for me, I have tried so many diets .. and it just never works for me if i have to feel hungry. I would rather take out a whole group of foods (as I have done with carbs) and have it work better for me, than counting every calorie and keeping track of how many percent of what i just ate. My stomach needs to feel full, and even more my mind needs to feel full, cause I find myself having cravings sometimes, even though i just ate, and im totaly full. Having the "state of mind" I think is crucial for losing weight and keeping it off.

Wow! My name is on the list! I'm excited! Yay
At Elizabeth H: You mean the gelato?

Can't wait .. it's really funny, but i think they make the thing without milk, water only :)
( i dont think they will have it in december though) :D

Yes, true ... I think i can do a little better than 150 though .. we'll see ;)

I'm doing it together with a friend, and we're both doing a low-carb diet. But the thing is .. we're spending a weekend in Venice in 3 weeks .. and we both decided it would be a total crime to skip the pizza and pasta in Italy, right?

Anyway, even though, Im still looking forward to my weight loss till Christmas.

I've had a lot of those too but I think my biggest one was just this April .. I hadn't been keeping track of my weight for a couple of months .. and I was going on an eating spree for quite a while ... And then... I was at a friends house .. and she had this scale right next to the door, and i was thinking .. ok, let me just see how much i weight .. and i knew i wasnt gonna be happy about it .. but this was WAY BEYOND of what i was expecting .. It was showing 185!! and i was like SHIT!! is this really me .. I was 140 when i started college .. now it's 5 years later and Im 45 pounds more?!?!? Geez!!

It really made me start being serious about losing weight.
I've lost 30 since then (it's been 7 months) .. and I have another 20 to go! :D

Im in this with you guys!!
I could use a challenge ;)

I am not sure if I can do it .. it seems so hard and far away ... but that's why Im taking it as a challenge!

Consider me in on this one.
Im 156 now ... and i need to get to 140. yikes Looking forward to it ;)

It's 6 weeks and about 2.5 p/wk. Let's do it ;)
I will weigh in once a week (i usualy do it on monday or tuesday), and Im taking a photo of myself today too.

Good luck to all of you guys out there. You're all doing a wonderful job, and you have all been a great inspiration and motivation. Thank you ;)

Guys, I have a quick question.

I go and workout in the morning, at about 8:00AM. I do weight-lifting immediately followed by cardio.

My question is concerning my eating. I have talked to a friend, who's a body builder and he told me that i should never eat carbs after working out. And i try to listen to him. is this true?

What i do is, i go working out in the morning empty stomach, then when im finished i have about 8oz of protein shake with non-fat milk.

and then what? I try not to eat anything after that, but i would eat some chicken with rice, or a salad maybe 2 hours after the protein shake. Is this the right way to go?

How long after exercise am i not suppose to eat carbs?
Can i eat carbs before working out?
I have these energy bars that have about 170 calories (from Atkins) ... Can i eat those in the morning before i go to the gym? Can i eat something before i workout? I feel like i wanna have maybe a freshly squeezed fruit juice after working out. Am i alowed to do that?

what is the best way to fit the eating with the exercise?

thank you for your replies.

I dont like that when i hit "home" it takes me to the latest forums posts. I think it was a lot better when i could get into my "user" and profile when i hit home.

I know that it is a user community, and i go through the forums quite often ... but i also want some space where i can check my progress, add my foods, exercise, etc. It was better when it was on the home page.

Rachael ...
You might wanna try to lower your carbs a little bit. (this always works for me)

Sometimes when i hit a plateau in my diet .. I even go "ultra" low on the carbs. Try to not eat more than 30 grams of carbohydrates a day, for about a week, and keep the weight training stronger than your cardio workouts, so that you keep your muscle, and burn fat as energy.

This is a bit controversial, a lot of people debate about the low carbing, but i dunno, this DOES work for me. I've never done it for more than 2 weeks though. it does wonders for me.

That should work for you too.

is there anyway to only get the nutrition plan for slim in 6??

Would anyone like to share?

@Dan: Just adding a little bit of something to his point:

I am from Macedonia, a small country in South-Eastern Europe. We get all of our food from local farms. I get my tomatoes from my roommate whose parents own a tomato farm, I get my eggs from my colleague, whose parents own a chicken farm, and all the rest of the food I get from the local farm markets, and honestly it tastes REALLY good. It's basically most organic and cheap.

Then in June, I went to New York for a few months for the summer.

And people ... I gotta say, American food tastes like s**t. The eggs tasted terrible, all the veggies have this perfect looks and forms, but taste horrible, the meat... oh the meat I wont even bother to comment - it tastes like someone took a pound of real meat, injected it with bio-hazards and made it 5 pounds.
Besides this, no one ever bothers to cook at home. Everybody goes out to eat, get their pancakes, burgers, bacon ... Im sorry if I might be overreacting to this, but it was such a cultural shock for me

Now I understand why there's such a problem with obesity, I gotta argue that even if you try very hard to keep up a healthy diet (no matter which diet that is), the quality of food makes it pretty much impossible. Now, I don't wanna be a pessimist here, but finding really good food in a country such the US, where there are millions of people to feed, is darn hard.

I would suggest that everyone tries to put organic food into their nutrition (if they can actually afford it).

Hey Ciehann, no, this is not ALL American talk. Im from Macedonia, Europe. Im also 23, currently weigh about 75kg.

I during October - January 08/09 I was on a diet, managed to lose about 8 kgs, but then went on a bad eating rampage and now Im back at square one.

I just started out dieting again yesterday. My mini-goal is to lose 6kgs in the following month, and I eventually want to weigh 55-60kg.

I am not doing any exercising right now, since im very busy with school,(I did weight training and cardio before) but I want to start running at least 20-30 mins 3times/week, as soon as my school lets me.

Im up for the motivation! Good luck! ;)

No, the Paleolithic diet advocates that all legume kinds of food are pretty toxic to eat if they are raw. (Which is absolutely true) ... the man, in evolution realized that if you cook them, they would lose most of the toxins and be digestible. So that's why all those food groups are left out in the allowed food's list. Even simpler than my previous explanation on this diet: If you can eat it raw, you can eat it. (except for meat, that you obviously have to cook)... [it is nicely explained in the links I put before]

I'm not really pushing into this diet. I've read about a lot of success stories and solutions to health problems. This is not really a commercial diet, so most of the sites I came across offer free info and recipes suggestions.

I asked this question because I was hoping that someone at traineo is maybe practicing this diet.

I came across this diet through browsing www.crossfit.com. Its called Paleolithic diet ... Crossfit page says that the nutrition plan that goes according to their fitness plan is based on this Paleolithic diet. Long story short, its about eating all the foods that were common during paleo-times and nothing else:

Eat none of the following:
· Grains- including bread, pasta, noodles
· Beans- including string beans, kidney beans, lentils, peanuts, snow-peas and peas
· Potatoes
· Dairy products
· Sugar
· Salt

Eat the following:
· Meat, chicken and fish
· Eggs
· Fruit
· Vegetables (especially root vegetables, but definitely not including potatoes or sweet potatoes)
· Nuts, eg. walnuts, brazil nuts, macadamia, almond. Do not eat peanuts (a bean) or cashews (a family of their own)
· Berries- strawberries, blueberries, raspberries etc.
Try to increase your intake of:
· Root vegetables- carrots, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, Swedes
· Organ meats- liver and kidneys (I accept that many people find these unpalatable and won’t eat them)

I read some info on this:
http://paleodiet.com/ (its a website which sums up a lot of paleo diet pages)

What do you guys think about it??? I read this article, it is written by an Australian Family Physician, it has all the basics about the diet and it has a lot to say about genes and human evolution. The whole thing made sense to me, so I'm going to try it out for 2 weeks maybe and see how it goes. What do you guys think?

@Andrea:

fitday.com is also a great place to keep track of yout diet and workouts (I combine it together with traineo). And my friend uses this application "Perfect diet tracker", she really likes it. It comes as a demo version for 30 days i think.

Good luck!

There's also a sister site to this one .. it's called two hundred situps.

http://www.twohundredsitups.com/index.html

Welcome back Tara M! It's my 4th day on the JUDDDD ...
we are a few people just starting out on it ... we can make the group active again ...

@Carla ... I hear you ... the holidays were a killer ... :) we're getting back on track ;)

Wooowww!! 60 lbs! Good going! ;) good for you!!
so, i just wanted to ask ... how fast should i expect to be losing weight?? I have set a goal of 20 pounds in 4 months. Is that a realistic expectation?

Hello, guys ... Im in for the Judddd ... it really goes against all I know about fitness and fat loss .. but I've read so many positive feedbacks, so I think Im gonna give it a try for a month, maybe two and see how it goes ... It's very tempting that u get to eat "what you want" in up days .. I still plan to stick to a healthy diet on the up days ... i dont wanna jump onto the hamburgers, but try to put in more calories I'm also gonna do workouts ... up days only - it is how its recommended on the judddd website. And Im gonna go a little harder on the cardio ... And see what happens. I already started 2 days ago, so I had 2 ups and 1 down, so tomorrow is a down day ... :) I hope everything works out... this morning i had lost 4 pounds ... (in 3 days) ... but Im guessing its because of the weight fluctuations and i probably will be heavier tomorrow ... i decided to measure once a week ...
So greetings to everyone ... and best wishes.

Hey Dale K, I tried the calculator, it says "I could lose some stomach weight" hehe

Anyway, its says that minimum calorie intake for my BMI is 1800cals. So, when u say i should go down on the calories (but not more than 30%), u mean 30% of 1800? or 30% of what Im taking right now?



Because I guess what it says is that I shouldn't go below 1800 cals for right now.

Right?

oh yeah, forgot to mention that I've lost about 3 inches on the waist (I want that to go better too, but as I said I don't like cardio)



thanks for the reply suz ette, u are doing great too!

good luck to you too!

Hello people!!

I have come back to give u an update

I have lost 5kg (11lbs) in the last 2 months. YAY! Today is a big day for me as i hadn't measured my weight for the last few weeks, and today finally I feel really good about it.



My weight lifting is still going on ... I am very committed to it, although I got a bit lazy for cardio, I still try to do it every now and then ...but its really not something i like doing too much.



Anyway, about the food ... I have stayed on the protein diet that I mentioned before with lots of chicken and fish, vegies, brown rice, oatmeals ... etc. Always trying to have 5 meals a day, or at least 3 meals and 2 snacks ...



I didn't think this whole routine was working for me only because I was expecting it to work a lot faster, I wanted to be losing about 4 pounds per week, but after doing some more reading I realized that I should aim at 1 pound per week to healthy lose weight ... and since I've lost 11lbs in 8 weeks ... I can see that I'm doing exactly that.



I must admit that I've had a lot of cravings (most of them I didn't even resist), but honestly, doing the weight lifting and eating the right foods most of the time really boosted my metabolism and made it easier for my body to cope with the sweets and hamburgers and fries that I put in a few times. Oh yeah, and alcohol too!



Overall, I'm really happy that I've made this progress, I am not hungry at all, I'm feeling healthy and this is the first time I've ever commited to smth that is very important to me, and i feel good!



I wanna thank all of u guys here at traineo, u've all been a great motivation, i read a lot of posts, its always good to know Im not alone in here, its been a good experience, and Im looking forward to whats coming!

Hello, guys, I've read all the posts on this thread and I loved all your good experiences. I have been on a protein diet for 6 weeks now, eating veggies, oat meals, granola, chicken and salads, and unfortunately it hasn't done much good for me. I gained muscle mass from going to the gym 4 times a week and cardio once or twice a week, but I haven't lost any weight what so ever. I always keep thinking that there's something I'm doing wrong with the food. So I am gonna start this ABS diet, (found the book), but it's made pretty much for Americans, meaning we don't have some of the stuff mentioned in the recipes. ...

I have 2 questions:

Can someone please share the actual food they were eating, how big were the portions, how many meals, and all that ..

anddd, can I acctualy make it without the peanut butter?? see, thats not really a popular food here, no one eats it, I don't think Im gonna be able to find a good one for a deacent price.