Hi! Thanks for the invite BellaB (Dec board). I have signed up to BL8, but might have to withdraw. I am guessing it may be more helpful here from the POV that most of us are still BF as well???

Carbs are my issue as well, I eat very little fat in my diet. Oh, that's wrong actually, chocolate is a huge downfall for me.

Rashika - WOW to T being over 2 months already, congrats!

Well, I started well on BL7 with a 2kg loss in my first week, then gave up. So here are my stats:

Weight: 80kg
Target: 60kg by Xmas
Target for this challenge: 72kg

RE "diet" - I don't plan to reduce the amount I am eating. I generally eat really healthy meals, but I need to stop the snacking on unhealthy foods - at the moment it's easter eggs and ice-cream. I used to be heavily into the gym (and worked there a wee bit), and liked the theory behind the "body for life" diet. I found some simple rules of thumb really useful, and will modify that to suit what I am doing now. It worked for me when living in Oz as I lost 12 kg (3kg off my 60kg target, then I fell preggers ). Am happy to share if you want to know more.

I don't know if I will be able to post much as I am trying to cut down my computer time! I am spending far too much time on here and need to get out and exercise more!

Welcome, Nimbus! Great to have you with us!

Sorry, Tasha - for some reason my PM icon wasn't flashing so it looked like I didn't have any.

Tasha has offered to post our ticker URLs at the top of this BabyPhat thread so we can easily track our progress by just clicking on the first page of the thread. So if you all want to PM me the URLs to your tickers I will give her those in one PM and she'll do the posting (seeing as it's now too late for me to edit my original post).

Thanks!

How's everyone going today? I had a parenting course yesterday so no exercise, but really hoping to get onto the crosstrainer tonight. Eating's going pretty well so far.

oh, and Nimbus I LOVE your ticker!!!

I just realized I forgot to say earlier how useful I've found taking measurements to be - I took some midway through BL7 and I look forward to taking some midway through this challenge to see how they've changed. Sometimes, especially when you're adding exercise in to your life, your weight can seem to go down more slowly but your measurements will really reflect your hard work. So I encourage you to measure up now, so you will soon be able to admire the changes!

very true bellaB! Although i wont bother taking measurements but will be checking by seeing what clothes fit me again... I cant wait!

Nimbus, your ticker is very cool! Would love to hear more about the Body for Life tips when you get a chance

BellaB, I took some measurements this morning so am looking forward to seeing the numbers decrease again! Will PM my ticker to you.

I went for a run last night & did my sit-ups, so fulfilled my exercise quota for yesterday. Today I've walked to & from kindy with the dble buggy, & am planning to do my skipping & sit-ups tonight. Eating has been on track, really working on watching portion sizes & going easy on the carbs.

Hi everyone,

Rashika, you just reminded me that I should take my swiss ball out of the garage and put my Swiss ball excercise DVD on. Must do this later this afternoon.

Maggie and neemze, I can relate too, my tummy is the main area where I just don't seem to be able to loose the weight

Pigkey, good on you for walking so much. We live up a hill and I find it difficult getting out of the house without the car. I just cant manage to push both the toddler and the baby in the pram up and down the mill. As for milk supply I understand your concerns, porridge (I see you're having porridge for breakfast) helps my supply and I notice the difference when I don't have porridge for breakfast.

Tracy, you just reminded me on the good old babyphat times when you mentioned you had two squares of dark chocolate. I might start the same as I have quite a sweet tooth. Must controll myself over easter and not eat too much chocolate. I had 1 square of chocolate today and try to resist to leave it at that.

lunna, I'm the same, breastfeeding makes me really hungry and when I'm not watching portion sizes, I easily put half a kg on in a couple of days.

Hi Nimbus, welcome, I like your ticker

Today is going reasonably well, I seem to have my eating under control. I haven't done my 10 situps yesterday, how bad is it to admit that I forgot about it and by the time I went to bed I remembered and was too tired to do it. I must plan it into my daily routine. Once I finished this post I will do todays lot and do an extra 10 to make up for yesterday. That is if I can do 20 in a row without being exhausted

I promised DD to do some baking this afternoon and that I stay strong and won't eat too much of the baking for afternoon tea. My plan is to choose an apple over a piece of jummy baking. We'll be able to report back tomorrow.

I hope everyone's day is going well.

Tracey, I'll PM you my ticker URL shortly.

BBL

Hehe thanks, I googled to find a ticker that was a bit different for a change and found that place. Really easy to change too - you just change the weight figure that's in your signature instead of having to go to a site to update your ticker. They had a few good ones there. Will PM my ticker.

Good idea to do some measurements, will have to find a tape and do that.

Body for life - very basically, the "proper" version is 6 meals a day, with each meal having a fist sized portion of carbs, and a palm sized portion of protein. How I modify it is to have 5 meals a day (basically 3 meals, plus morning and afternoon tea), and decrease the protein (as it's meant for those trying to grow muscle - fine if you are doing weights). I don't have protein for breaky as I struggled with that when I was body building (used protein shakes) plus I don't need it. I also try to use low GI carbs throughout the day, and use "empty" carbs for dinner like veges and salad.

I am not going over board though as I want to know I will stick to it, plus not jeopardise my milk supply (which I have been trying to boost for a few weeks now).

So today:
Breakfast: porridge (with milk from our vat, and plenty of brown sugar hehe)
no morning snack - was walking (at toddler pace) instead
Lunch - ham salad wrap, dried fruit (dates, prunes, apricots, sultanas)
afternoon snack - if I have to might have a piece of toast, not much else in the pantry
dinner - meatballs, and veges (in cheese sauce but not very high in fat as it's a packet mix with milk)

Nimbus your ticker is really nice. I love the little tortoise with the rocket strapped to his back if only weight loss was that quick.

Ok so found the weight loss tickers but cant fit it in my sig, so I will PM the ticker anyway.

So today Started off really well...

Breakie: 2 eggs and 3 tiny leftover meatballs, couple glasses water
Morn Tea: 2 slices of cheese, more water
Lunch: just had, small apple, some kavli crackers with tomato and cheese, more water... small piece of choc cake (grrrrr)
Aft Tea: maybe some yoghurt?
Dinner: probably a pork stirfry I think, yet to find a recipe
Later: couple of pieces of dark choc
Hopefully lots more water

I did however bike into work and then to the vege shop and back home, about an hour cycling in strong wind. My SIL babysat which is great of her. The choc cake was from work, a birthday and i almost resisted but they made me take a piece home!

Still stayed away from bread for the last 2 days, no spuds as well, and no other sweets apart from a couple of pieces of dark choc. That is my daily treat as well.

Phew I'm knackered after that ride, was quite hard work into the wind, with this extra weight as well.

Hey Nimbus...

Its funny all the familiar names on here that I haven't seen for awhile. I guess I have been a bit busy with the Feb MTB and baby Toren to read much else!

I would like to keep having porridge: cos I like it and cos it is good for my supply as well, so maybe as a treat once or twice a week. Bit high in carbs but I do usually have the whole grain ones cos I like the chewyness, mixed with a bit of the fruit ones.

Well done everyone with the exercise !! - I found it so motivating that I managed to NOT stay seated on the couch and FINALLY got onto the crosstrainer for 22 mins (long enough to burn 100 calories - slow progress but it's a start!).

Eating went pretty well today, although like many of you I find I'm pretty hungry and it's hard to fill the gap! BF definitely increases my appetite, even if I'm not doing it 100%.

Keep up the good work - it's so inspiring, and great fun to be back with some of the original babyphatters! LOL

twas in town today, so no exercise and KFC twister for lunch (at 2pm b/c i was feeling crappy and needed food now) did have a couple of bran muffins at biblstudy but i was rushing about getting jobs done and i always forget/don't have time to make my lunch to take along with me. Oh well, another day tomorrow

ladies a good way to lose calories if you're up to it ... active cuddles

Hehehe PK, DH would like that option!

I drank over 5 litres today, and I am still thirsty! But if that doesn't increase my milk supply nothing will LOL! C seems to have been more satisfied today though which is great.

I have a confession - already - I ate 10 pieces of choc tonight. Our farm assistant is living with us at the mo, and came home with chocolate. I told her to take the rest in her room so I can't be tempted (normally I could eat the whole King Size block in 1 night).

My ticker can only be updated by changing one of the numbers in the link (ie not on the actual website) - and seeing as a post can't be edited each week I will have to sort another ticker for our ticker list.

Go BellaB on the crosstrainer!!

I actually did my 15 minutes of exercise today - just doing an abs workout to start off with.

Eating not so great here, as we had visitors yesterday and I have leftover baking Have frozen most of it but there's still a little left.....

Will get a ticker sorted ASAP

gotta go, bubs needs feeding

good morning everyone

Nimbus, your body for life program sounds great. I do something similar but don't follow any particular program just watch my portion sizes and watch how much carbs I eat.

Rashika yay for the biking.

Tracy well done on the exercise front. I wish we had a cross trainer at home, this would make life much easier. We simply don't have the space to have such a thing in our house.

Nimbus, good on you for drinking so much. I must try that again and increase my water intake maybe that also keeps my appetite under control.

Hey Maggie, I had a similar day. Good for getting some exercise in though.

My day was mixed. I started off really well on the food front and was too hungry in the evening. This meant I totally over did it with my dinner portion . I remembered to do my sit ups and even managed to catch up with the ones I did not do on Wednesday. Gosh it was hard to do 20 sit ups in one go. Shows how unfit I am really.

I'll write down what I am eating today to keep myself under control and try to have 5 meals a day including morning and afternoon tea. I'll aim to have 5 big glasses of water too. We'll see if I can keep to it.

Have a good day.

Hey everyone,

How's it going? I'm doing pretty well - halfway through the day here and my calories are down enough that I'm not freaking out about dinner! LOL Scale's down a bit this morning, too - long may it continue!!

sunflower - I just about expired on the treadmill yesterday! I am so unfit. I did a 10 km 'fun run' in April last year (at 12 weeks preggers) but you'd never know it from how I huff and puff going up steps now!

I've got most of the URLs for your tickers collected - still need a couple more and then I'll PM the list to Tasha for posting. Some of us are doing separate tickers for the minigoal so that we can track our progress during the challenge.

Well, ds#1 is begging for a snack, so I'd better rustle up a healthy one for both of us!

ttfn
-Tracy

oh, i'll PM you mine now ...

It is super windy here, so i'm not sure if we'll go walking
ARGH B is awake ... can that PM BB, will do it asap.

OK day here food wise, portion size a bit big for lunch but it's kept me full until now (just had some sultanas for a sweet fix). About to cook dinner - will do some sort of chicken and veg stirfry methinks. Have a photo "job" to do at 8:30 tonight so want something quick and easy so I can get the kids in bed early for a change!

we're having pancakes for dinner, or spagetti on toast, not hte most healthy but oh well, i hav been busy bottling - did pears for B, tomatoes soup/sauce and a chuteny which i kinda ruined.

Been pretty good, made shortbread for DH and i don't really like it, so at least i don't scoff that.

, I had a good day food wise, well I think so anyway. Might have to review my portion sizes though as the scales are slightly up this evening . I have managed to do my 10 sit ups for today and plan to have an early night.

Nimbus, are you a photographer? If yes, I might have a couple of questions for you

Have a great evening and I try to be back over the weekend.