1.  French Fries
Who among us hasn’t been lured in by French fries, or even more specifically, by McDonald’s French fries?  We seem to play ostrich and stick our heads in the sand though when it comes to the lack of any redeeming qualities about French fries.
These golden sticks are nothing more than starchy white potatoes cooked in hot fat and flavored with chemicals, salt, and sugar.  Yep, sugar.  On potatoes.  And don’t forget the chemicals.
In the case of McDonald’s, their French fries’ ingredients include: potatoes, vegetable oil (in the fries…in addition to what they are cooked in!), citric acid, dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and salt.  And don’t forget the dimethylpolysiloxane, which is added as an anti-foaming agent.  Yum!

2.  Donuts

Donuts are nothing more than sugary fried bread.
Yep, take some good, old, nutrition-free bleached white dough, add a crap load of sugar, and deep fry it.  And, if you want to get really inventive and up the stroke factor, squirt in a sugary, creamy or jelly filling and top with glaze or powdered sugar.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, add a sugary cream filling and a glaze of more sugar on top. 

3.  Chips (Potato or Corn)
These are really just a packaged version of French fries.  Maybe with fewer ingredients, depending on the brand you buy.
However, you can do damage control on this one by switching to baked blue corn chips, available in most health food stores or organic grocery stores.  While it’s still not real food, it beats the 7-Eleven version.  Just keep in mind that corn chips, and chees puffs are still  like potato chips, are still salty and starchy…not a great combo for your waistline or your health, so avoid!

4.  Soda
Whether we discuss the caffeine, the sugar, the high fructose corn syrup, the carbonation, the caramel coloring, or the addictive traits, there is absolutely nothing good coming out of these bottles and cans.
There’s absolutely no redeeming health value of any kind…just a whole lot of chemicals.
And, yes, this does include the diet kind.  All the same issues, but now throw in those harmful artificial sweeteners.  Plus, the rumor that diet soda can stall weight loss just might be true.

5.  Cupcakes and Snack Cakes
You won’t be “Little Debbie” for very long eating this crap.  Regardless of brand, you’re looking at a bit of flour, a ton of sugar, some chemicals, and maybe a flavoring or two.
As for that creamy filling?  You’ve gotta be kidding.  To say its fake whipped cream is an understatement.  Be a real Hostess and skip the trip down this aisle.

6.  Candy Bars
 About the only possible redeeming factor about some candy bars are the gram or two of protein from the nuts…and most don’t even offer this sad attempt at decency.
And, by the way, those “energy” or “protein” bars?  Candy bars with fancy labeling and a bit of enhancement.  Sure, they often have 1/3 fewer calories, quite a bit more protein, and a bit less fat, but don’t get it twisted.  They’re still a far cry from real food.

7.  Pork Rinds
Where do I start with this preferred and often-recommended snack of the low-carb crowd?  When you head to the label, the plain variety has just two ingredients: pork rinds and salt.  But what are pork rinds?
You know how the tough outer layer or peel of an orange or lemon is called the rind?  Ah, yea.  No difference.  Pork rinds are the tough, outer skin layer of pigs.
And, as if that weren’t awful enough, these rinds are coated with salt and put in a dehydrator for hours.  They are then cut into little pellets.
Not disgusted yet?  Keep reading.
These pellets are dropped into vats of cooking oil for about 60 seconds.  And voila!  You have puffy, Styrofoam-like snacks.
So, basically we’re talking about deep-fried pork skin.  Not a good thing!

8.  Fat-Free Cookies
Don’t be thrown off by the “fat-free” part.  Forget that most fat-free anything replaces the fat with sugar…these are still cookies!  They’re just sneaking around trying to pretend to be healthy.
Remember, fat-free doesn’t  equal calorie free, or sugar-free for that matter.  So “snack well” and just say no.

9.  Crackers
Let’s see…you have your enriched flour, salt, and trans-fats.  Lots and lots of trans-fats in fact.  Most top cracker brands are loaded with ‘em.
So be sure to read your labels carefully to find the few that aren’t.  You’ll want to look for things like hydrogenated oil or partially hydrogenated oil.
One way to avoid the trans-fat trap is to choose organic…and whole grain while you’re at it.

10.  Pretzels
Surprise, surprise.  Just because something doesn’t have fat doesn’t make it good.  This twisted mess of white flour, water, sugar, and salt is junk food in disguise.

Runner Up: Coffee Drinks

Creamy, carmelly, coconutty coffee mocha-latté-frappé drinks are taking over the universe…and our waistlines!  Yet we seem to think that the calories we drink don’t count.  They do…just ask your scale.
A Starbucks grande (16 ounce) basic vanilla Frappaccino has 410 calories, 16 grams of fat, 62 grams of sugar, and 95 milligrams of caffeine.

Great Start

We are off to a great start...we are starting the competition in 36th place. I think that is pretty awesome! And I am sure some of you have results but haven't logged your weight.
I am thinking of doing  some competitions during our short 3 month time frame. I am up for suggestions on ideas. Here are some things I was thinking:
1. Recipe challenge
2. Putting money into a pot, so even if we don't win the main challenge (which we will!!) we will still have some intentive to stay on track. Each of us put in $20 and the one with the most lost at the end, gets the pot. 8*20=$160 So that might be some good motivation too!
3. Prizes for most walks/run done, or most steps, or best work-out idea..etc. (I would supply the prizes)

Let me know what you think!!
I found a little tip of the week:

BE POSITIVE/OPTIMISTIC

Sometimes we stumble. So take a break, do the things that you enjoy: sing, exercise, shopping, watch comedy etc. After releasing the disappointment, do remember to lift yourself up. Treat failure as a motivation to push you towards your goal.

GOOD LUCK GIRLS...let's start helping each other!!!!

Get Motivated! Top 8 Sites for Fitness Inspiration - Shape Magazine

Get Motivated! Top 8 Sites for Fitness Inspiration - Shape Magazine

Check out this article from SHAPE magazine. It gives you some sites for Fitness Inspiration! Worth the look in your spare time.
Keep up the good work everyone..the final kick off date is on Monday, so stay focused..we are about to OFFICIALLY BEGIN!

Carina

You can do anything for 10 min right?

Hey ladies!

We have now weighed in and are all on our way to being skinner than we were before! I just want to share with  you something that I think might work for me.  I have to have a workout buddy or I don't follow through and am not consistent. But, my husband is a beast and I typically can't keep up with whatever crazy workout he decides to do.  And I HATE being watched or critiqued when I'm working out. So, last night we tried something new.  We set a timer for 10 min and while one person ran on the treadmill the other did a cycle of push ups, planks, mountain climber, ab twists, and dips. We went through the cycle twice which amounted to a pretty strenuous 40 min workout. It was HARD but the fact that I knew another person was suffering with me and it was only 10 min each time made the workout doable. You can do anything for 10 min right?