What's on the menu today, RNYers?

A belated welcome back, Dodgergirl! I was glad to hear you did so well while on your trip, as challenging as it was. Kudos to you for sticking to your program so well while traveling, I'm sure it's not easy.

I'm so with you on the leftovers, I end up throwing away so much food these days it's criminal. I've told my husband that if he were to have surgery one of the benefits would be our grocery bill dropping precipitously! With him still in full SMO mode, however, we're still spending a lot on food.

Yoga sounds like something I'd like to try, a little flexibility might be a good thing. Do you use a DVD or something to guide your practice, or have you taken classes to learn and simply follow your own?

Hi Pam!

I used to do a lot of yoga (years ago before I put all the weight on).  When I initially started, I would do DVD's (I liked the Rodney Lee (or maybe Yee, I can't remember now) one's from Giam) because I was way too embarresed to do Yoga in front of people.  Once I got comfortable with it, I started going to Bikram Yoga classes regularly and loved it!  Then I went to law school, quite exercising, gained a ton of weight, and now 10 years later I haven't done yoga in forever.  So, to get back into it, I've started doing the DVD's again.  What I find with yoga, is the instructor is key.  Because it requires so much patience, if you find the instructor annoying, you're going to hate the yoga.  So, I downloaded the Giam app for my Roku last night, and I'm thinking since Rodney worked for me all those years ago, I'd give him a chance again :) Lol.  I'm still so self conscious when it comes to working out and my body/size, so I find DVD's really help me ease back into exercise in a way, I don't feel self conscious when it's just me in my living room.

Great info, thank you. I've actually heard of Rodney Yee, so I may look up DVD's and whatnot with him.

Bikram yoga scares me. I never used to handle the heat well, and I keep picturing myself being like that woman in the commercial in the hot yoga class that falls over into a faint and the girl at the desk just says "She's fine," LOL!

haha...yeah, the heat is super intense.  What I liked about Bikram, was that it was very intense while I was in the class (I didn't love the heat and all that sweat), but as soon as the class was over, I felt better than I ever had before.  It was like I'd had a full body message x10.  So while the classes were tough, the end result was awesome (for me at least).

Good morning, Em! Grats you on winning the dip contest, but really, those people are going to not let you compete in these contests if you keep it up, LOL! And as far as the thread goes, if you'd like to take a break from it for a while that's ok, I'm sure other people (Anny, Sara (maybe), me) will take up the banner. I think this is a great place for people to come and read for inspiration and confirmation that they're on track, even if they don't post much. Look at how many views this thread normally gets!

I had a session with my trainer this morning, and we had a really frank discussion. I told her what my doctor had said (basically that losing 100 pounds over five months is going to make everything hurt for a while due to the physical changes in the body and everything being just plain different, joints and ligaments are being pulled differently and muscles that have barely been used for years are getting attention now, just take it slow) so we're going to modify my schedule a bit more and make sure that I'm not pushing too hard on the strength training. On the plus side, we did a retest and took measurements and calculated body fat %, and everything except one measurement went down over the past 5 weeks, yay! So there's progress happening, for sure. I just need to keep my eyes on the prize, so to speak.

Menu wise, I hear you on the rut. I feel like I eat the same dozen things over and over, but honestly I'm ok with that. I feel like since I'm working to de-emphasize the importance of food in my life, making it boring is actually a good thing. As I get to add more calories in I'm sure variety will start coming back little by little, but in the meanwhile I'm good with my cottage cheese, jerky, steak and green beans. I couldn't care less most of the time about what I'm eating, and to me that's a good thing. It's hard to think of enough things to eat to hit the 1000 calorie mark, though. I struggled with it today to be honest! I still have plenty of calorie room, so I may throw some popcorn or something at it later on tonight.

So for today: Exercise - 10 minutes of cardio and some strength training at the gym today, will do more cardio this afternoon/evening. Water - 70 ounces in so far. Supplements - I actually forgot all about those this morning, so working on it now. Trainer suggests adding glucosamine/chondroitin to my supplement routine, which I'd been considering anyway. Yay, more pills.  Foodstuffs - 

I hope you all are living the dream today!

Pam, you felt like your trainer was receptive to your conversation? I hope so! How many more pre-paid sessions do you have? 

I always used to be amazed when my 5 years post-op friend would be like "Well greek yogurt costs $X at this store, but is so much cheaper here." or whatever, I didn't know how she could possibly remember what all these groceries cost - then I discovered her secret - she had like 10 different things in the rotation and that was it! It made life easy, she always had them on hand and of course she knew the prices LOL. Now that's she's further out she's eats a much broader range, but for like the first 2 years it was the same 10 things.

Yes, my trainer was perfectly on board with my concerns and seemed to really take what we talked about to heart. I told her that I did NOT want to do anything that called for getting down on the floor, and she was fine with that, and even showed me a couple of modified ways to do some of the same exercises she'd shown me on the floor but in standing up versions. Good! I have one more session paid for and then have to decide what to do...I'm thinking I'll go about a month on my own and then get another package, but I have to decide soon because my trainer is just about at the point where she gets "master trainer" status, and then of course her prices go up a skoshie bit. But I can lock in her current price if I buy a package before she flies up, and then I have up to a year to use them, so it may be a good idea for me to do that.

That makes perfect sense about your friend. I'm also in the camp of "I have no idea what X foodstuff costs, I just buy what I need," but I'm finding that with buying so few things lately I'm becoming a little more aware of the prices. I even looked at my local grocery store's sales circular the other day, amazingly enough!

I am majorly bragging about my two wins!  Trust me :)  Ha ha

How are things with your MIL and her sister and her son?  

That's awesome that you could openly talk to your trainer, modify your routine, AND you lost inches and weight over the five week time period!  I mean, seriously awesome.

I am envious that you don't care what you eat.  I still enjoy food and plan every meal - on plan and within calories, but I do care :( Not like before, but in a caring (towards my body) way.

I didn't even think to look at views of this thread!  I was thinking about comments.  But yeah, maybe I just can't start it for the next few weeks all the time (between Toronto, Detroit, London and Paris!) so sometimes others can just go ahead and get it going!

Ok, off to eat my turkey meatballs and hope to not get food poisoning!!!  Enjoy your day and let us know how it's going with the out of town family!

You should brag, for someone who claims she's not much of a cook winning two contests like that sure shows otherwise!  

I'll shoot you an email about the family stuff, it's actually fascinating.

Oh Em! Please don't stop! This has been such a huge help for me! Seeing this post at lunch made me remover to take my vitamins! And all you ladies are so encouraging! I don't know what I would do without you guys

my eats for the day: 

breakfast: egg, bacon, avocado in a flour tortilla. Coffee 

lunch: a nice big salad with ham, turkey and some cheese

dinner: we are having salad bar night. Thanks eggface for this great idea! We are going to grill up so chicken for our protein

snacks: cottage cheese, protein shake, Greek yogurt

totals: cals: 1158 carbs: 75 protein: 94

w: 24oz down so far a 3rd of the way there!

v: just took first batch

e: don't want to go to my class but I will... I get a break from it tomorrow! The trainer who is doing the class tomorrow has a whistle......no thanks! I'm not a dog! 

Have a great days guys I am off to the wonderful world of Walmart......