Hey some of us are challenging each other to eat better, drink our Water, and get in our exercise. This is somewhat like Ediets.com challenges with some variations. Below are the guidelines. NOT RULES!!! There is an added challenge to do a random act of kindness at least once a week but as many as you can get in would be awesome.

1. Log-in daily and give a brief update of your day--meals, water intake, helping others, feelings, etc. Anything you want to share.

2. This Challenge will run Monday through Monday.

3. Weigh in once a week ONLY! Typically on Mondays but only once a week.

The challenge will start tomorrow August 16th and run till the October Bash in Vegas.

Wanna have prizes?

1. Most weight lost

2. Stayed as close to eating properly

3. Most Exercise minutes

4. Most creative with exercise routines

5. Motivation Queen

If you guys think of others then chime in.

By the way, all this is just a suggestion. So, give us some input on the challenges.

YES, NO, YOU ARE NUTS!

Best of luck to all participants!

Lisa... I don't know if this will help... but when I look at the portions everyone is eating... I think... holy crap... I must need a fill! One TBS of ANY food would not be NEARLY enough???? I'm sorry... but that wouldn't feel healthy to me and would definitely lead to overeating somewhere down the line in my case. I'm not sure I would ever want to be that restricted and it makes me worry about my fill next week???? Example... I ate an entire lean cuisine salsbury steak with Mac and cheese for lunch yesterday and was pleasantly full but not stuffed... for dinner... I ate probably a cup and a half of chili... pleasantly stuffed... I could have eaten more within a couple of hours but made myself go to bed instead.

Lisa... you are under a lot of stress and I would guess just a tad more than depressed... something's gotta give and it sounds like the overeating is your temporary feel good fix. Are there things in your life that you can change to take some of the pressure off??? From the outside looking in it seems that you are carrying the full stress and worry load in your relationship... no wonder you seek the pleasure that can come from a handful of Doritos! Change is hard... but it really looks like something has got to change in your life... or perhaps counseling to help you deal with things the way that they are???? Sending (((hugs))) and if you ever need to make snow angels for stress relief... you are welcome to visit anytime!

Hi Marie, I already made today's big mistake. I totally forgot how bad coffee bothers my band. I'm already supposed to avoid caffeine since I have a lifelong history of anxiety disorder, but today I had a hitch-in-m'-getalong and had half a cup diluted with Water. I'm all shakey and grossed out, and my bandbelly hurts some. I'm gonna go do something to help my financial situation today. My credit has always been so important, that I think I'd feel better knowing I've got it under control.

I quit my job at the Avenue because sometimes I have to do dumb stuff to learn the hard way, and working there was a waste of valuable time. It would be a different story if they paid commission, but I'm going to look at alternate means of a 2nd income. I make purses and welding caps and used to bring in a couple hundred extra a month. I was selling left and right, so everyone pushed me to start marketing. My sister built a website, I had business cards and labels made up. But the day I started marketing them is the day they quit selling. Funny world, Murphy and all his laws.

I'm gonna go measure out a gallon of water and make sure to drink the whole thing today for starters.

Thanks for being so cute and being my friend : )

Snow angels are exactly what I need! No lie, that would do the trick, and stress is my exact problem. Stress/anxiety/worries always leads to this dumpy kinda eating. When I feel good, I eat good. Last night I was so disgusted that I came home and laid on the couch and even fell asleep. Chris kept complaining about having no coffee and even asked me to get dressed to go to the store with him. I refused. He asked me to clean up my kitchen mess. I refused. I told him "I'm learning to act like a man so we can get along better." He didn't like it. This man has been whining about not having coffee for over a week. I just don't get it. So yes, stress, stress, stress. That's why I called in sick. To de-stress and take care of me.

Little things help, like fixing my closets. I despise disorganization, so if I clear out closets, for some reason it's therapy.

The reason I waited till I was 37 to get married was because I told Chris that I never wanted to end up in a "Peg and Al Bundy" or "Edith and Archie Bunker" relationship. I never wanted to bitch about my man, or nag at him, or have him call me a nag. He said it would never happen, but that seems to be where we are these days. Last time I cleaned out my closet, he immediately saw all that new space and crammed it full of crap. He's gonna come home to a whole new ballgame. I'm gonna reorganize everything and stand in front of my clean closets with a shotgun!

There you go... that's exactly what I mean... change whatever you can and try to accept the things that you can't change or don't feel comfortable changing. It sounds like a second job that has a good rate of pay would be less stressful than the fear of financial ruin. You are a strong, lovable, caring and deserving woman Lisa... treat yourself as such. I'll save a spot in the yard for your snow angel after our first good snowfall!

Darcy

Lisa: I just sent you an email.

OK forgot to post my meals yesterday. LOL!!!!!

Breakfast: one scrambled egg, two slices of oranically grown tomatoes, cup of international cafe vienna coffee

Lunch: one cheeseburger (no bun, just ate the meet and cheese), three onion rings, 16 oz of root beer (I know I know the carbonations isn't good, but I wanted it) LOL

Dinner: two pieces of a chicken, cheese quesadilla (only ate the insides, no tortilla) with a dab of sour cream and guacomole, four french fries with ketchup, about an inch of my sweeties burger that had swiss cheese and a 1/4 inch of bacon on it, NO BUN, 16 oz of ice tea with Equal.

NO Snacks during the day.

I gave my pedicurist and manicurist a larger tip than usual yesterday. That is my good deed for the day cause they did not look at the tip just put it in their pockets. I gave them a $10 each. LOL!! Bet they were surprised.

WOW! Looking at everything I ate yesterday it seems like a whole lot. No wonder I am at a stalemate on losing.

I drank about 50 oz of Water yesterday. So I have to up the ante today.

Today's meal will be coming tonight before I go to bed.

My exercise yesterday was 30 min on treadmill and 30 min on my new nifty swifty recumbent bike (thanks Lisa). And I walked all over the place when I went shopping after my mani and pedi.

The best I can do for today considering my stress level was that my car really tried to drive through Del Taco, but I fought it off bravely and came home and made a Protein shake. That was only 1/2 the battle though since I slugged it down as if it were in a beer bong.

Now I'm leaving to hit the streets to look for a Plus Size Pimp. I need quick cash - anyone know where I can find a pimp that represents Big Beauties?

Lisa... any battle fought and won is worth being proud of! I spit my Water all over my keyboard and monitor with the beer bong comment... LOL.

Well... I guess I will have to resist the urge NOT to keep track of what I eat. I haven't been snacking... Had 3/4 cup of chili for Breakfast and a McDonalds cone and string cheese for lunch... LOLOL... what a funky daily diet. Anyhoo... imagine I will have chili for dinner cause I just love having MORE gas than usual!

Exercise... did free weights... 10 different arm exercises with 20 reps each... 20 lunges... 60 ab crunches and the stair-stepper for a whole 2 minutes...LOLOL... I guess having the resistance set to 11 make it difficult to do it very long! Live and learn... have had the darn thing sitting in the basement for almost a year and have never been on it! I'm still going to be keeping my eye out for a used home gym.

I am not keeping track of water intake... just know I am drinking tons of it all through the day.

Good Deed for the Day- I stayed home and kept my chili farts to myself.

Penni... thanks again for starting this... I really needed to be acountable as I was starting to slip back into old eating patterns.

Darcy

"Good Deed for the Day- I stayed home and kept my chili farts to myself."

Good thing I wasn't drinking when I read that one!

I did a good deed without even realizing it, so do I get to lose some weight now? I went to the clothing resale shop but only gave them my ironed stuff. Then I drove across town and gave the 2 stuffed lawn bags of un ironed stuff & shoes to Opportunity Village, but it's hard to consider it a good deed because I asked for a receipt for a tax write off.

This new girl started at my work and she's into numerology and astrology; she told me Mercury is in retrograde, and that's why I'm all screwballs. She said after September 2, things will smooth out. It's all I got to go by, so I'm hanging on for dear life!

B- coffee with cream and sugar.

L- Protein shake: 2% milk, 2 tblspn coconut, big squirt chocolate sauce, nectarine, 2 Fiber tabs, 1 tblspn Protein powder & 2 Vitamins.

No exercise... yet. Still debating if it's a good idea.

For some unknown reason I skipped breakfast altogether. BAD PENNI!!! LOL!!

Lunch: bbq pork (but only ate half and will have the other half for supper most likely), two bites of mashed potatoes, two bites of baked Beans (OOPS here come the farts), and ice tea. Oh also had a bowl of tomato Soup.

No real exercise today. I am thinking about getting in the pool in a few. Does that count?

Good Deed: Went with sweetie on a Guitar string mission. He has a gig this Friday and needed to change his strings and no one in the valley had his particular kind of strings. So we had to go looking for some. I went along for the ride cause he asked me to go. He loves it when I go with him. LOL!!

More later.

Quality time with lover boy doesn't count as a good deed, now go bring that guy with the "please help" sign the rest of your pork.

Umm quality time with sweetie does count if it is a task like that. I hate that sort of thing. It is boring to me and I thought yeah I will do this for him since he is such a great guy and I love him. LOL!!

I think it counts. Let's let the rest of the group determine if it counts or not.

So there.

(HEY, Over here, don't tell Lisa but if you agree with me I will pay for all your dinners at Vegas. LOL!!)

But I can't come, Penni! Any other incentives? Hmm....

Marie: SHHHH! I'll buy you a new outfit. SHHH!!!

Let's change your name from Penni to Dollar. You are right, I am wrong... do I get food and clothes now?

Day two report:

Beginning weight - 195 lbs.

Breakfast - scrambled egg, vegetable sausage patty

lunch - tuna salad

dinner - Weight Watcher Frozen Dinner (bbq chicken, mixed veg.),

low-fat ice cream bar

Exercise - 8 miles bicyling, horizontal boogey (or does that go under "good deed"?)

Good Deed - took food to stray dogs living at Jr. High

Did much better on Water intake today.

Yeah, no in-between Snacks or grazing for two whole days!