Wow, what a week!  Tami and I are both doing well, losing a little slower than we'd like, but feel that it will benefit us in the long run.  We're making positive changes, and exercising regularly.  I have been eating a variety of frozen diet lunches, from Lean Cuisine to Healthy Choice, at work, and really finding I like some of them!!! : )  They are pretty easy on the pocketbook, too, if you get them on sale.  I've also been eating the South Beach diet bars for breakfast when I don't have time to make eggs, and that seems to be a good balance for me, too.  Anyway, keepin it up!  That's the key, hope you are all doing great!

I think we are finally on track with our exercising.  Since Tami has joined the gym, she's working hard at making time to fit in her workouts.  I went Friday out to the fitness center at our nearby Naval base with my principal.  She's awesome!  She's very fit and helped me through an hour long workout of cardio and weights.  I did my 25 minutes at home today on my elliptical, spent some time on my ab lounger, and my arms are still feeling the effects of my workout today.  I can't wait to check my measurements Tuesday.  I figure even if the weight is coming off slower then I'd like, it's worth it if the inches are melting, right?  I feel good, I'm eating well, so I'm excited.  Did I mention I'm doing an individual contest at my school too, as well as this one with Tami, and it's for cash!  I may need that to buy some new clothes when I reach my goal right? : )  Anyway, hope everyone is doing well with everything.  Stay in touch!!

So, I'm sort of recovered from my Packers losing yesterday, in Lambeau field... the misery of it all!!  I know, there is more to life than football... now I can focus on my weight loss journey, right!?!?  Tami mentioned my Taco Soup recipe... and our wonderful supporters Laurie & Tammy asked about the recipe... well, my secret is not all mine!  It's straight from allrecipes.com.  LOVE that site.  At the site, just type in "slow cooker chicken taco soup" and it comes up.  It's easy and fabulous.  I use a can of chicken broth and a can of water instead of the beer... I've made it both ways and it's delicious, but my kids preferred the "broth" recipe better.  So glad my 17 yr. old didn't like the "taste" of beer in it, not sure how he knew the "taste" since I didn't tell him about it!! : )  Anyway, the "healthiness" of it depends on the add-ins you throw in when the soup is ready, suggestions are crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, shredded cheese, all good if you can get a few moderate pinches in of each.  Enjoy it if you try it, my family does.  The good news is I've been exercising... the bad news is that craving Tami told you about that I was having after my Packer loss last night to drown my sorrows, well, I won't say whether or not I gave in, lets just say I'm SOOO glad I got in that GREAT morning workout before the big game!  Not looking forward to weigh-in tomorrow... good luck to all of you!

Sooooo, it was a painful day watching Cheryl riding the rollercoaster of football. She LOVES the Packers. We tried to be good today with snacks: we had strawberry popcorn (popcorn, cheerios, peanuts, spray butter, and strawberry jello dry mix), mixed fruit, and 100 calorie cupcakes. Then Cheryl made some yummy taco soup. I probably shouldn't have had seconds on the soup but it was so good! This week I lost 2 lbs and Cheryl lost 1 lb. We are exercising more this week and hoping to have a better weigh in. When I left tonight Cheryl was threatening to have a Foster Freeze Twister with rocky road to drown her sorrows. Hopefully she found other ways to do that.... Anyone reading this, please send Cheryl your love and cheer her up. She needs it! Thanks and have a great week!

Tami and Cheryl

Can I get a WOOHOO for Tami and joining the gym.  I am very happy for her.  I have an eliptical, an ab-lounger, and a weight bench here at home so I have basically no excuse not to exercise.  I'm getting my consistency down!  Tami, however, as a single working mom is very busy and wanted to be able to "get away" to the gym to get her focused and motivated.  I'm glad for her, that it's working out.  I'm also thankful to have her supporting me, as well as all of you on-line.  What a great idea this challenge was to bring us all together for one HUGE goal!!  Keep on working out everyone.... and GO PACKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, after many days of car searching, I bought a car last night and now have no excuses to go to the gym. I felt like I was letting Cheryl down by not exercising but she has been soooo supportive! I couldn't ask for a better friend/partner. So in order to redeem myself I made it to the gym today. I worked out for 45 minutes and realized I had forgotten how good it feels. My goal is to workout 5 days a week. (Maybe there will be some single men there too?!)  I have been drinking my water faithfully and watching my food intake. Hopefully there will be positive results at our weigh-in tomorrow! We have really enjoyed reading everyone blogs and appreciate the support... Good luck this week!

 

So the strategy for Tami and I is not to kill ourselves in the beginning, get burned out and not stick with it.  We are shooting for permanent lifestyle changes, one day at a time.  She had a minor car accident, but the insurance totaled it and she's been out trying to find a new car... stressful as it is!  I've been running around doing kid things as usual... but I'm feeling good about my slowly changing eating habits and my "gaining momentum" workout plan.  I think the easier our plan is, the more likely we'll have long term success.  So, am I saying no to things and killing myself with temptation?  No, but I may only have 3 or 4 fries instead of a whole box, or I may just have one small slice of pizza instead of 3... those are the kinds of things I can live with and will hopefully still get me to my goal!  Water is the hard part... I hate drinking it.  I do allow myself a flavored Propel water while I'm working out.  (Lo-cal/carb)  They are very good if you've never tried them!  Anyway, I did about 30 minutes of exercise walking/running my dogs around this morning outside.  I'll get back on the eliptical tomorrow... It's been a tiring weekend and it's only Saturday.  Hope everyone else is doing great!

We have to pat ourselves on the back for the small steps right??  Here are a few of our latest ones... Going to the high school snack bar and walking away with nothing more than a little blow-pop sucker...  Driving my kids through McDonald's after the game and getting NOTHING, reminding myself I was not hungry because I ate a good dinner before we went out.  Do you know what I mean?  These decisions can be tough but so meaningful to our goals I believe.  Please share with us some of YOUR little "pats on the back" so we can celebrate those with you!!!  Keep on losin'...

Well, we weighed in this evening.... EVEN though it has only been 5 days since our initial weigh-in (we started late).  We each lost a pound... and while that is not enough to run out and go shopping for smaller pants, it is a start, and next time we will be weighing in the AM, just to help our cause (and our tickers).  We have been doing some daily activity, anywhere from 10 - 20 minute spurts, and we plan to continue to increase that.  Tami is still doing well with her water, me, not so much, but I'll get there!  We are now watching the BIGGEST LOSER show, and cheering on the teams.  Have a great, healthy rest of the week!

Hi!!  So, Tami and I met tonight and looked at some great calorie-menu planning ideas that she got from a website called www.hcf-nutrition.org.  There are some very easy to follow guidelines depending on how many calories a day you are wanting to consume.  We are planning to use this as our food guideline.  As for the exercise, it's coming!!  Tami started with a bit today and I'm going to shoot for 20 min. on my eliptical when we're done here.  She's done great with her water intake (at least that's why she tells me she keeps running to my bathroom)... I however have not, but will try and make up a little of that this evening with my exercise.  Tomorrow we are getting together for our next weigh-in and to watch the show.  Hopefully we'll get more motivation and ideas from it!  We are really enjoying this whole community of friends sharing ups and downs, ideas and personal successes.  We can't wait to see results as they happen, hopefully including our own! 
Keep in touch, and feel free to "add" us to your friends, we're here for you!

 

So, what do you do when your son is playing basketball.... you are spending hours in gyms with pizza and frito boats on the menu...  ?   And am I offending the family if I don't partake in a small piece of birthday cake??  How do we merge the "healthy" part of our routine with the "convenience" while you are carting around kids in sports, and working, etc, etc...

Ok, so Tami and I spent nearly 3 hours trying to figure out how to make ourselves a "cute" page that meets all the necessary criteria.  Again this morning I have been on the computer, looking with envy and excitement at some of the other contest participants websites.  What gives?  I have to say, I consider myself pretty "computer savvy", I work on a computer daily at my job, and why does this web-design thing have me stumped??  We have no friends, yet, we have no pictures, yet, but I know between the two of us we'll get it together!!  I can only hope that my biggest loser journey will not be nearly as complicated or frustrating as this web-site design thing has been!  My oldest son is 17 today... now I'm really feeling old.  Things have got to get better from here, right?

I'll start... I'm Cheryl.  I work as a Principal's Secretary for a high school campus, and I love what I do.  I am embarking on this journey with my good friend Tami as a way of not only keeping myself accountable for getting better control over my eating and fitness habits, but to help her, too.  She was in a motorcycle accident in June of 2006 and has had some difficulties with injuries since then.  We both have put on those "few too many" pounds and would like to shed them, making our shopping habit a bit more enjoyable!  I'm excited to get started and look forward to seeing positive results! 

I'm Tami!  I am a 5th grade teacher enjoy my students and my job very much.  When Cheryl asked me to take on this "biggest loser" journey with her, I was very excited.  It's time for me to get healthy and fit.  Being a single parent, I know that I would enjoy more confidence in myself in regards to both meeting new people and taking on new adventures down the road.  Since I was in the motorcycle accident, I sustained injuries that slowed down my physical activity for quite some time, causing me to add on weight.  I feel I have healed enough to where I can start some physical activity, some light weight training, and see how far I can push myself.  I can't wait to get started and see results that will have me feeling good about myself again and excited to tell the world! 

We think we should win this contest because we have worked hard preparing for this commitment, we've both had children and struggled with our weight for years, and we are going to work so hard we'll enjoy be rewarded at the end!