General Diet Plans and Questions - Doin it the Old fashioned Way #8

Continued from #7 . . .

Just thought I'd start a new thread as we were on page 7 over there :)

For anyone new, this thread is basically for those counting calories, or fat grams or weight watchers points, or doing something like Richard Simmon's Deal-a-Meal... anything along those lines :-)

Feel free to join in or just lurk... the gals here can be very motivating!! :D

Christine
195/148/130

Hi. Hope you don't mind me joining in. I was wondering what this thread was all about and glad I found out. I just started eating healthy, I guess, (I'm scared to call it a diet and offend someone!!), today, doing Slim Fast Plan. I've done all right but would love motivation. Glad you guys are here!

Welcome Darmah!

I say feel free to call it a diet.. I don't think anyone on this thread would be offended. As much as people push the 'new lifestyle' idea.. i say, I'm dieting (or attempting to anyways) :lol: If folx don't like that, too bad ;)

I personally have been counting calories off and on for the last 14 months. I lost 46 pounds so far but I'm kinda in a rut! I find slimfast to be a good option for some of my meals so I keep a container in the cabinet. I don't think I'd have the willpower to stick with it for 2 meals a day but I think its a great way to kickstart the diet tho!

Again, welcome and I hope you find some motivation here.. I definitely have :)

Christine
195/148/130

Hi ya ladies,,,,,

Christine thank you for start a new thread.. we fill them up quickly dont we? Sorry you had a bummer day,, but its all behind you and with each minute you have a new opportunity to be one step closer to your goal..

Welcome Darmah, glad you could join us. I have done the Slim fast in the past and was quite sucessful with it. It is way to expensive up here in Canada though. Its 14.99 a six pack and I use to pay 4.50 a six pack for it back in Illinois.. That is more then double the exchange rate for sure..
Hope you will stay with us and post often.

So how is everyone else doing? Today is good for me..
I have been marinating boneless, skinless chicken breast in teriaki and fresh garlic since yesterday, I am getting ready to put them under the broiler in a few minutes. Also am having brown rice and steamed broccoli and carrots. And lots of water.

Went shopping to day and talked the hubby into trying on a new pair of levis... I am so proud of him...he now wears a 34 waist instead of a 36...He has lost 24 pounds.. Dont think he needs to lose too much more. He has stuck right beside me every step of the way since we started on 2/5. Never a complaint out of him.

I am not weighing till the 15th.. hopefully all signs of the :devil: TOM will be long gone and I can be down a few pounds..
Ugh,, what us women have to go through its a downright shame...dont ya think???

Ok well I am off to get dinner finished... have a great night all and remember to drink that water.....flushes all the yucky stuff away.....

Nancy
:wave:
207/193/150 1st goal
weigh in 4/15

Hi Everyone!! Wow, you get busy for a few days and there is much to catch up on!!

Welcome T-girl and Darmah! I have not been posting here very long, but trust me, this is one fired up and motivational group!

Tryn’hard – Wow!! Virginia!! My hubby worked there for 3 months after he had spent some time in Canada with me. I have not made it there, but I was secretly hoping we would get sent there for 3 months, I wouldn’t be working, but could handle becoming a ‘gym rat’ and p/t tourist! Ok, I had 2 months off work between leaving Canada for Australia…. And got terribly bored, maybe I wouldn’t cope so well. I hope you have a great time there!

Vermont Mom – I am trying to keep a variety to my routine, there are so many things out there. The deep water running class is great. You are in the ‘deep’ end of the pool with floaty waist belts so that you don’t have to work on swimming, we spent 45 minutes doing running movements and swimming movements. It helped loosen up the tight muscles from horse riding. I also find that the cardio equipment and weights are packed on the Monday evening and by Wednesday, everyone but the regulars disappears. I think I might stick to this class on Monday nights!

Melissa – how is the non-smoking going? Even if you cut down that is a huge step! I hope it is going well for you!

Nancy – you made me just laugh when you said the fridge was calling you! You are so funny!!

Jacklyn – tell him how much you lose. Men are funny, they have no idea about weight and numbers. Or better yet, do the size thing, they never remember anyway!! Otherwise we would all get perfectly fitting clothes for pressies! I had a t-shirt sent to me when I lived in Canada that I could barely get over my chest!!! I just asked him what he was thinking?? He wasn’t that was the problem!! Hehehehe They make me laugh.

Pamela – sounds like you are doing really well!! Already out there buying clothes! That is great!

Christine – I am sending you hugs!! You sounded so sad ! Thanks for starting another thread. I had a night like that…. Nothing planned for dinner, nervous about a fitness assessment… and the next thing I know I am eating a lamb soulvaki (like a donair) from the fish and chip shop. It is my new comfort food. I know that it could be worse, but lamb is a fatty meat but I felt so good afterwards. I don’t turn to chocolate anymore! Tonight I am refocused… I am marinating chicken breast in a yogurt, ginger and garlic sauce and will make that tonight with a salad and veggies. You can get refocused and back to the BFL workout. I am still deciding on buying the book or not, I have heard that there is good information in it… what are your thoughts?

Darmah – Hi! I replied to another one of your posts in a different thread! Great to see you here. I said before, I am finding slimfast a good starter and a better option than fast food. I am starting to ‘wean’ myself from it and I am in a weight rut but have lost inches and a couple of dress sizes with exercise so I am going to focus on that for now. I keep a can in the fridge at work and a bar in my purse as an option when I get really hungry!

My rant:
I had a fitness assessment done last night and did not do as well as I thought, even though I am walking and taking classes, I am not working hard enough! It is time to think my goals over again. I am starting a weight program too tomorrow (Friday is my night away from exercise) and see how that goes. I am thinking that I might get a heart rate monitor …. But I pay for the motorbike tomorrow and need to get the full gear first…. I am stoked about buying the jacket and pants a whole size smaller than I though I needed to! Now I need to get to goal size (not weight) to order a custom set of leathers!! OH YA!!! 8 more sleeps until my license course begins!! My friend is going to drive the bike for me next week so that I can have it at home right after the license course!! No pressure to pass or anything!! I am taking two days off around the last weekend of April to do some riding and de-stress myself from the job. I am not happy here and need to make a change… and I think another 4 day weekend will make that very clear to me and get me looking again.

Take care everyone, stay motivated and keep with it. We will get to our goals!! We Will!!!

Nola.

Nola, thanks for the hugs.. you are sweet... I think it has to be PMS.. I always get emotional .. I'm going to try to be strong tomorrow tho and even if I'm not feeling cheery, I'm going to try to eat healthy!! I can do it!! :)

As far as the BFL book.. I just borrowed it from the library myself because I didnt want to spend the money on it until I knew how I felt about it. I think that its a good read but unless you plan to do their plan exactly, you could probably find most of the same info online. They have a Body for Life thread on this board you can check out.. and then there is www.leanandstrong.com (that page is a community of folx, most on the BFL program and there is TONS of info shared there). It seems to me after hanging out there for a while that most folx are looking to achieve that 'cut muscular buff' look and I realized that is NOT what I'm after.. I want a nice toned look so I'm going to continue doing strength training workouts 3x a week but not so intensely. If I were you, the first thing I'd do is go check out that leanandstrong website for a while and see if it sounds tempting before you go and buy the book :)

:strong:

Hope that helps..

Christine
195/148/130

:wave: Hi everyone!

Christine - thanks for starting the new thread. I'm so sorry you had a rotten day.I really hope that it passes tonight and you feel better tomorrow!

And thank you for the walking advice. I should have figured out that everyone's pace will be different. I did try those numbered levels of intensity that you mentioned on my stepper today, and got through it. Thanks!:D

tryin'hard - thanks for your input too. I'll have to start some conversations with myself to see how I'm doing! I love our honesty with each other - I also snoop into people's yards, mostly to make my lazy self feel better ("okay, they haven't raked their yard yet either!").

I tried Kashi with yogurt this morning, and it was really good! Thanks!

Nancy - I'm so glad you resisted those evil voices!! I've also been marinating chicken breasts lately - after I bring them home from the store, I divide them into dinner-portions, put them into freezer baggies with different marinades (teriyaki, Italian, cajun) and freeze them. Then take them out the night before to defrost. Sure is easy then to make some rice or pasta and veggies to go with them.

Sounds like you have a HUGE road trip coming up! Sounds like fun! And say CONGRATS to your husband!!!! 24 pounds lost?! I'm happy for him - and jealous! Oh yeah - were your arms sore from your arm-work yesterday?

Hi t-girl! Hope you're having a good evening. Do you lift free weights, or have a station?

Jacklyn - no way could the five # be fat gained - remember, your eating habits were totally different for a week so you probably had more sodium, and maybe some alcohol, so that will cause water retention, I'm sure. Just go back to your healthy eating and drink lots of water, and continue exercising.

About your questioning to lose 35# more - I also wonder if you maybe should be thinking of a size, instead of weight? As we know, a fit person at 145# can look better (and definitely feel better) than an unfit person at 125#. Do you have a trusted health professional you could ask the advice of?

Pamela - hope you're not feeling too tired! Though with a little one to run after, that's probably difficult! Eat those strawberries, lots of vitamin C for you!

Sprite - check in with us when you can! We'll be thinking of you!

Melisa - how's the no-smokin' goin'? Or even if you can cut down, your lungs will be thanking you as you're bicycling soon. You deserve ALOT of credit for trying to quit smoking along with weight loss. We're proud of you!

Welcome Darmah - I hope you find this thread as helpful and inspiring and funny and great as I have.


H Kanola - who was it that gave you the review? I say it sounds like you're doing FANTASTIC! It's so hard to focus on the positive when someone says the negative, but keep going. You're going to feel so hot on your bike!!!! :cool:

Some of us mentioned Susan Powter, and how inspirational she was. I read her first book, then read the second, but she seemed to be off-track with the second. I remember something like she had a family member that told tabloid magazines that she never really was that overweight to begin with...something that she just couldn't forgive the person for saying, and was understandably bitter, but it really came through in the book. I hope she's doing well, wherever she is.

I checked my journal, and I will do my second measuring on the 24th. That will be one month (I haven't been on the scales since the weekly weighings were making me MAD).

HAVE A GREAT EVENING!

Holly

So how does this work? Do you start a new thread everyday or keep building on the old one until it gets too long? Well, today so far was okay. I had a meeting early this morning and goofed up a bit. They were serving breakfasty foods, and we all know how those can end up. A gorge fest of cinnamon rolls and fake orange juice. Anyway, I didn't gorge but did go way over my calorie limit, which means I'll be starving all day today. Oh well. wish me luck in not pigging out later on. Thanks for all the welcome, too. I really appreciate the support and knowing that I'm (we're) not alone in this. Anyway. Talk to you all later!

Good morning, all! I hope you're all having a great day!
Thanks, Christine, for starting the new thread! I'm glad you take care of us!
Darmah--welcome! You'll find lots of inspiration and motivation here! (and Nancy will make you laugh out loud!)
Nancy--congrats to your dh. I know my dh wants to loose the 10# he's put on the last few years. We're looking forward to when we can leave dd at home an walk together in the mornings. He's a healthy eater, but just doesn't get as much exercise as he should.
Nola--can't wait to get to Virginia! We leave after lunch today. It'll be so nice just to relax and do some good bicycle riding. I'm not ready for cc's yet!! You are going to have to post a picture of yourself when you get your leathers! You are going to be one hot chick!!
VT mom--I never thought to marinate the chicken before freezing. It makes a lot of sense!
Well, my friends, I am off to vacation. Have a great week and I'll be back next Friday.
God bless.

Nancy, give your hubby a great big pat on the back for me! I'm trying to talk my dh into going for a walk every night. He really needs to lose the weight especially with both his parents having diabetes.

Nola: You are doing great! Before you know it, you'll have those leather pants!


Emmett continues to get up in the night and isn't sleeping well with us. I'm going to try to cut out his nap but I'm so tired that I let him nap, which really isn't helping. I've also lost 2 pounds since last week which probably isn't an issue yet. Better than gaining another 5 I suppose!!
In Christ,
Pamela

:wave: Good Afternoon everyone!!

I am so psyched that is an absolutely beautiful day out. Blue sky, warm sun, breezy - fantastic! Of course, there are still piles of snow and the lake is still frozen - but it means so much for me to be able to get outside and do yard work, and say hello to all the plants that are reappearing (yes, I'm a "plant-o-phile")and see which ones need dividing, moving, etc. This is what I needed to stop thinking about food! (and going back to work next month:D )

Enough of me - how is everyone else today?

darmah - we will post on this thread until it gets too long, - say, 6 or 7 pages. Then we'll start a new one.

That must have been so difficult to have breakfasty yummy things put in front of you - so hard to say no. But that's what we gotta do. Don't feel like you "blew it" for the day, though - and don't starve yourself to "make up" for it. okay, enough of my preaching!:o

Pamela, now we're going to be worried if you lose weight! I hope your son starts sleeping better, for his sake and yours!

Maybe it's too late to say bon voyage to tryin' hard, but we'll be thinking of you!

Nancy, Christine, Jacklyn, Melisa, Kanola, Sprite and t-girl - hope you're all doing fine and smiling!!!

Talk to you tomorrow - Holly

Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you know my progress, I had lost 2 pounds in the past week. I did expect one more, but I was weak yesterday!! My DH and i went out, I ate some chicken that was not quite low fat!! In the end, it made me feel sick. I am trying once again though, won't give up. To day is my weights day. I am going to go for a walk, need to think and feel the fresh air. I just wanted to thank everyone in here, you all are alot of help. I know I need it. Have a nice day. I am still adjusting to him being gone, it will take a few days.

Latisia

( PS, about Susan Powter, she does tend to mention alot of her personat tidbits.. I try to go around them, Her recipe book is real good.)

HOWDY ALL !!!!!


T-girl~~~ WAY TO GO on the two pound loss, you must be feeling good about that!!! You are doing wonderful!

Holly~~~ I am so envious of your blue skies and sunshine today.:cool: I wish you could send some this way. Its raining and gray skies but it has washed all the nasty dirty snow away.

Pamela~~~ Hopefully Emmett will start sleeping through the night and you can get the proper rest you need. Just make sure to eat right and take your vitamins. Having a little one sure takes alot out of you. I think my grandson is close to the age of your son and he is just now starting to sleep all night long. My son and daughter in law were beginning to wonder if he ever would. But please be sure to take care of your self oke doke??:)

Tryin'hard~~~ I know you are long gone on your way to Virginia, but am hoping you have a great time and a safe trip also.

Darmah~~~ Hope you have a great evening. Remember the cinnamon rolls are in the past now. "Forget about em" :)

Christine~~~ How are you today? That PMS is a real kick in the pants dont ya think? ... here I am 46 years old and not only do I get the TOM for almost 6 days now. But low and behold I have a huge boulder on my forehead. I swear this thing is as big as Rhode Island. Now whats up with that???? I told my husband last night that I was going to throw myself on the floor in front of him and force him to take a kitchen knife and lance the sucker right off my forehead (of course he justs laughs and calls me a nut) :) I have never got pimples before.. why in the heck should I get them now???????
All I can say its a good thing I dont wear hats as I know they would not fit right now with my head the size of ET's :eek:
I am afraid to go out in public and see all the finger pointing and the whispers of people saying "Look at that 46 year old woman with the huge zit on her forehead , stay away from her , ewwwwww"
:lol::lol::lol:

Nola~~~ Hope you are having a good day and getting rid of that stress. I would love to try that swim type work out. We have a real nice facility here. But I am afraid that there will be too many men around and I would hate that. I have those type of arms that when you wave goodbye to someone , you are still waving after they have been gone a hour already. Its not pretty.....!!! I don’t think I can ever tone these arms up. You should have seen me last year when I got married. My dress was off the shoulder and little sleeves, I was on my guard constantly when we were dancing to make sure I did not get my arms going too fast and take the chance that I would knock my husband right into the wedding cake. Geesh that would have put a damper on the wedding !!!!!!!!!!!! If I can ever get an attachment on here, Ill post a pic of our wedding. And you can see what I mean :lol:

Do they make long sleeve swimsuits????????????????

Melisa & Jacklyn~~~ How are you both? Hope you are having a good day.

Sprite~~~ Hope you are back with us soon!!!!!!!!!!

Ok... I have lost one entire post, so before this gets any longer and take the chance of losing it again,,, Ill get off of here and go get dinner ready. I hope everyone has a great evening, keep smiling friends !!!!!!:)

Ciao for Now....
Nancy

Hello all :-)

I'm still battling my PMS here. I felt a lot better today but still was a pigg-o :ink: Hoping to have a good weekend food-wise... we'll see.

Nancy, I know exactly what you mean about the wedding dress thing. I actually bought an almost sleeveless dress for my wedding (October 2000) and brought it to a seamstress who sewed on some sheer sleeves for me cuz I didnt dare show my arms. I was so not happy with the dress. It is my dream to someday loose all this weight and go to the beach somewhere and renew my vows in a cute little spaghetti strap white sundress! :D My husband told me a couple years ago that when I reach my weight-loss goal he'd take me on a tropical vacation (I've never been anywhere tropical!).. so thats the plan.. IF i ever get there!! :dizzy:

I am just now beginning to dare wear tank tops but my arms are far from what I'm hoping for eventually. I'm hoping this strength training I've started will improve that area .. we'll see...

So.. hope everyone has a great weekend.. not sure what my plans are just yet but I'm going to try to behave on the diet-front!! I promise! :)

Christine
195/148/130

Nancy, your family is beautiful!!!!! Thanks for sharing those pics.

Emmett had slept through the night from the night he was born until about a month ago when he crawled out of his crib. I made him stay up all day today (he was really mad by 8, LOL). Hopefully this will help. He's just a little too squirmy to cosleep with right now (always has been actually). My sister and I took him to the park too to see if we could work off some energy. I'll let you know, LOL.

In Christ,
Pamela

Hello everyone,,,

Pamela, thank you for your compliments on the pictures. These arent the easiest things to attach on here, I still have one more with my daughter and I, that I am trying to make small enough to fit on here. Will work on that later though..

Did your little Emmett sleep through the night and you were able to get some rest your self?

How is everyone else doing today? I hope everyone is staying strong and focused. So many of you are so close to goal and this summer should be so much fun walking around in the new clothes and sporting the "New and Improved Slimmer YOU!"
You should be so proud of yourselves...!! With all the weight that everyone has lost on this thread, there would be enough combined losses to make another person,, imagine that.......:eek:

I am hoping for a loss come Monday, but dont feel much different. I have been drinking lots of water ,but have to admit have not been doing much walking. I need to get my butt in gear and speed up the walking. That helps so much.

I also have to admit , I am feeling a little less motivated. Dont really know why. Maybe its because of, not knowing tests results yet (hopefully next week). But feel like I am real close to the edge of an all out binge. Hopefully Ill make it through this weekend and things will be ok.

Here is to a good day for all. Keep smiling:)

See ya later,
Nancy :wave:

I really had to do some dusting, and then I found all kinds of chores. Keeping myself busy, I am feeling good today. Havent eaten much, plan to have a sensible dinner. Going back outside to enjoy this lovely Texas weather!! ( well it;s lovely today!!!)
Take care everyone!!! Keep up the GOOD WORK!!

Latisia

:wave: Hi everyone!

Happy Saturday!

Nancy, thanks for the pictures. You sure do have a beautiful family! And you're no slouch, yourself! I wish I had big beautiful eyes like you - mine are hidden behind my "blind if I don't wear them" glasses.

I hope your so-so feeling passes quickly without any MAJOR blowouts happening! Everyone's motivation wavers from time to time - but you have done SO well already. And you're so good at motivating us to remember summer's coming, along with the shorts and tank tops and swimsuits! :cool:

Well, we had our one nice day for the week yesterday, I guess - today is gray and drippy, but at least it's mild, and all the snow is gone from our yard and driveway. And we do need a soft slow rain.

I went to a rummage sale today, hoping maybe to find something in a smaller size that I could "work towards" - well, I did bring home a bikini sized 11/12 that I think only my husband will find enticing - but he finds ANYTHING enticing, dear man, which means he doesn't mind the bulging body emerging from the little bikini parts.

Hi Pamela - hope you're feeling well, and hope your little guy lets you sleep enough!

Hi t-girl - is your husband in the armed services? I think you mentioned that he won't be there for a while - that must be difficult for you both. You should feel free to chat with us if you feel lonely.

Hello also to Christine, Melisa, jacklyn, Kanola,
Sprite, and the vacationing tryin'hard!

Lucky me - my husband is making baked fish for supper, so I don't have to do anything until supper's ready (then just CLEAN UP:lol: )

Bye, everyone!

Holly

:o oops - neglected to say hey to darmah!!Sorry, darmah - hope you're doing great!!!

Holly

Yay, Emmett slept through the night!!!!! I got to go to a scrapbook crop today too and that was a lot of fun. Very tired right now (5 pm) as is Emmett but it's worth it to keep him up.

Nancy, I find that there are waves in the motivation. It goes up and down. If you can ride this non motivated time out without stopping excercising and eating right, you'll pick right up in no time.
In Christ,
Pamela

:) Hey everyone! Where are you?...

Hopefully everyone is enjoying their Sunday, and being too busy to talk..!

A thought struck me yesterday - that good habits can be built and followed just like bad habits. Since I've now been in the habit of doing some type of exercise each day, it is just a fact now that I do it. Also like getting out the measuring cup to measure the breakfast Kashi cereal, instead of just dumping some in a bowl...and now one serving of supper, not automatically getting up for seconds.

Well, not a very "eureka" type of thought, but gives me hope that I can sustain this for a long time.

Going to walk the dog now, and try for at least two miles. Have a great day, keep smiling and KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!:)

:wave: Holly

Im with Holly,, where the heck is everyone at?

I hope all is well.

Another gray Sunday here,,but...I feel good.....:dizzy:

Gonna have a great day.....

Hope to see everyone later....


Bye for Now...

Nancy

Just saying hello, checking in . It is pretty hot today, My husband is in the army, It can be tough, but I was in once too, so it helps alot. I am doing good today, no slip ups even went for a walk and did tae bo. I am feeling content about that!! I try to stay busy, since he will be gone for a month. Just saying hi.. Talk to you all later.;)

Latisia

Grrrr. Ugghhh. You guys, I need some serious help. I totally, completely, and utterly binged today. I felt soo sick I literally threw it up. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. i did, however run 2.5 miles to make up for it. But AGH!! I'm so angry with myself. I had been doing well all week, following slim fast and low-cal and all then WHAMO, I ruin it in one day. I must've had ATLEAST 2500 calories today. My god, the muffin alone was 500!! I think I"m gonna cry. Does this mean that I can't handle this way of living, and that I'm doomed to be fat and ugly my whole life? Will I never succeed and always mess up and slip? Will I never be happy with myself? I'm restarting slim fast tomorrow and hope to god that I stick to it. I'm seriously losing hope and ready to give up and stay overweight and unhealthy for the rest of my life, even if that means unhappiness. I realize that it's just one day and that I have to move on but it's scary. What if I do move on. Where would I move to? To yet another binge incident? Nooo. That would just be yet another dissapointment in life. Grrr. Thanks for letting me vent. I'm still pretty behooved. I don't even know what that means, but I'm incoherent right now with anger and self-doubt so i deserve some leniency, at least in vocabulary. Thanks again. Hope I didn't steer you all off with my mistakes!!
:p

Darmah - please don't be so hard on yourself! EVERYONE here certainly understands what you're feeling now; the anger, discouragement, wondering if it can possibly be done. But it can!

We just can't let a food indiscretion snowball into losing all hope. The thing is, this is about the rest of our lives - and we will ALL occasionally have treats or junk - but we ALLOW ourselves to have that treat, then continue on with the routine of exercising, drinking water and being in control of the next meal. Or even if you have TWO days of being out-of-control, just go back to "normal" the next day.

I hope what helps is that we're all pulling for you, and knowing what you're feeling...hang in there, girl! We care! :)

Sincerely, Holly

How was the weekend for everyone?


Yesterday had the Fil, SIL and BIL over for dinner. I ate healthy, but I ate more then I normally would. I even had a half of glass of wine. But that is it.

Just dont feel any different bodywise, so postponed weighing until the end of the week.

Darmah,, today is a new day for you. Stray strong and you will be successful. Like Holly said dont be so hard on yourself. Its over and done don't continue to beat your self up about it. Keep smiling. :)

So where is everyone at ?? Come on out you guys... we know you are there. We need you here..

Have a great day !!!!!!!

Nancy

I'm having a blah time still.. wish this damn PMS or whatever it is would be over with. My husband decided last night that he's going to make me a 'schedule' so i can work the same hours as he does and keep the house clean.. all cuz i told him I'm overwhelmed by the housework (and as a result I just ignore it.. BAD BAD me!) Why did I even expect him to understand!? He just doesn't seem to comprehend the frustration of cleaning only to see it be un-cleaned within hours (the benefits of living with a 3 year old). I always find something to get stressed or depressed about during this time of the month... blah :(

Anyway, it probably goes without saying, but I have not been good on the food front. I have barely even been trying. I'm also overwhelmed with the amount of food in my house and have decided its time to start de-cluttering the kitchen of the overabundance of food. If I only keep the basic kitchen stocks and food for one week in my pantry and fridge, I'll be much better off and make much better choices! Screw sales, its not worth it to save a couple bucks if I'm going to be tempted by the wrong foods or too much of it! Like, currently I must have at least 9 boxes of cereal in my pantry. The sane me says I only need 2 maybe 3 max, for variety, but alas, I somehow wind up with 9 boxes anyway! :?:

If you couldn't tell, I'm very frustrated with life at the moment. I'm trying my best to get through it without too much damage. I start off each day fresh and ready to go.. and by noon I'm burned out and pigging out!:ink: I need a vacation I tell you! :lol:

Anyway, thank you all for listening.. I hope not to drag you down with my troubles! I should be back to normal in a couple days (or so I hope)... :)

Christine
195/149/130 (yeah, my piggo self had to add a pound back)

Hi guys. So today was yet another worthless day. I think I'm hitting PMS or something because I can't seem to stop eating. Well, you can't blame everything on being a girl. So tomorrow will be the day that I jump back on. I don't know how many times I've said this but this time is soo true. I hate myself evertime I mess up. I feel myself gaining with every extra mouthful of food that I don't need. So! Tomorow is not an option to bail out. Do you guys do fitday.com? That's a savior. Without that, I would definitely not be here. I figured out my cals for today's binge and it was 1800 calories, give or take a few. Too much, just too much. No wonder I don't lose weight. I've been mean to my body. Teasing it. Tormenting it. Making it sick. I'm sorry for being such a pest. But I tend to do better when I focus on the negatives and try to move past them. Thanks for all the lovely suggestion, too.
Silence, you gotta throw those boxes out, girl. They would be too tempting during a stressful day or a frustrating time. Just hang in there! I hope everyone is doing wonderful and tomorrow is a brand new day!!

Trust me, the cereal isn't my weakness (tis why there are 9 boxes in there still LOL).. but today, I made brownies..and I'm not talking a mix in a box, I'm talking from scratch with cocoa. Talk about despiration!! I am so sad! I wish I'd just had a bowl of cocoa crispies instead.. one small bowl probably would've fulfilled my urge for chocolatey sweet dessert with much fewer calories and no temptation of a bunch of brownies sitting on my counter!

I wouldn't worry much about an 1800 calorie binge, most of mine are well over 2000 and possibly even nearing 3000 once or twice! Today I started out well but eventually I caved and baked those brownies (which I'm trying to pawn off on my hubbie now LOL) and then we had tax woes so while we were out trying to find an open post office (resending a form I sent in WITHOUT the check .. duh me) we stopped for Wendy's... now I could've made a wise choice and had a baked potato or a salad, but did I? Of course not, I had a burger (no cheese, does that count for something? LOL)... Again, I am so sad!

I feel just like you darmah, like I want to say 'tomorrow I am back on track.. no messing up!' but I am having a hard time believing myself! I don't understand it. Last year something clicked for me and suddenly I was working out out almost regularly and I was counting calories daily and stopping when I'd hit my limits. I was being so well behaved! As everyone can tell, it did a world of good and I lost a bunch of weight but then a little over 6 months ago, the click got lost somewhere. I need it back! There has to be something out there to re-motivate me. I keep searching but I've yet to find it :( I am not prepared to give up tho! NO NO NO.. I will NOT! I refuse!

Hope others are having a more positive time of things lately.. share your goodness if you will.. maybe it will motivate those of us who are having troubles at the moment!!

Christine
195/149/130

hey everyone, All I have to say, is no one is perfect. I have had a problem with eating ever since I was born. I put it this way, if i binge now( which I have done a few times) I have to keep the mentality of ok, that is done, it is in the past, yes I am angry, but I have to start again tomorrow, and try to do better.

Silence and Darmah, I hope that helps you all You really helped me the other night, when I was consumed by Doritos my DH had let, isnt that ironic..hmm. Well the bag is gone, I finished it. I also came back the next day, and said let's do this again, dont give up. Let it go.. It helped. Sometimes, I think our bodies, want that too. Well I hope this helps you all . Take care., and you can do it!!

Latisia

:) Hello everyone!

Christine and darmah, I'm so sorry that these are hard days for you.

First, Christine - as we all know, you have already accomplished SO MUCH - how much have you lost? - 46 or so pounds?- that is a huge accomplishment. Maybe that achievement doesn't seem as new to you know; maybe that's why your "spark" isn't burning as brightly as while you were in the throes of that huge task. You were inspired before; it must still be in you, but is being overshadowed maybe by life's frustrations (like why some people don't even seem to think about food). This struggle will only be temporary - keep focused on what you HAVE done! We others who still have alot to lose look at you with friendly envy!

darmah - you have a good head on your shoulders, and seem to understand that a day's blowout shouldn't keep you from continuing this difficult but rewarding change....in perspective, even though it might not seem so to you, 1800 cals. isn't THAT huge of a binge - we know you didn't want to do it, but it could have been worse. Even if we all have "blow it" days, we just have to accept what's done, try not to do it again, and get back on track.

I HOPE today is better for you guys! We're pulling for you! And we're here to help, so don't apologize for "bringing us down" - this support is how we are going to make it!

Rah-rah-rah! Holly, sounding like a cheerleader - now let's go win one for the Gipper!:D

:) Hi t-girl!

I was snooping at your thread "low fat eating is the way" and wanted to congratulate you first on your awesome weight loss so far; and for your sensible eating choices; and for your great encouragement to the other ladies there!!!

Holly:wave:

Hello everyone . . .

Thank you, Holly. Yes, I have lost 46 pounds so far (47 some days, 45 some days LOL). I am still very happy with myself for having achieved that and that's why its so frustrating to not be able to do it now. Because, I know I can do it, I've already proven that to myself! So I'm double-y sad for not doing something that I've already proved I can do! I can no longer use the 'I just can't do this' excuse! I can I can I can! :D

I'm in a pretty decent mood so far today, but as I've mentioned, mornings are always better for me. I started off on the wrong foot today by eating a brownie but it was a small one and I followed it up with a bowl of crispix with skim milk. Even with the brownie it was under 350 calories for breakfast (including my cup o' coffee). I am promising you guys that I will stop at 1400 calories today, no matter what. Apparently self-promises do not work so maybe if I promise everyone else, I'll actually do it. If I can just get through a couple days completely on-track, it usually jump starts me for quite a while. So, my first goal is to get through today without passing 1400 calories! I can do this! :) I will do this! :smug: I shall return tonight to tell you of my victory!! I am determined!

I wish a good day to all of you as well!

Christine
195/149/130

:mad: Okay ladies what has been going on here since I've been gone!:mad: It's time to buck up! Let's get back on track here!
The past is the past! Don't say tomorrow I will start again. Start now right now! As soon as you have finished that binge, it's time to dust yourself off and start right back over again!

:o Okay, after my lecture to you all I can admit that I have not been doing too well myself. I ate chips, pudding, cookies, you name it yesterday and figured I'd better make the time to keep posting here with you guys because I need your support. We all seem to have PMS at the same and go up and down together. Well we've all seemed to hit rock bottom so it's time for us to dig ourselves out and get back to losing!

Christine I feel exactly the same as you do. Why can't I get to that point again where everything clicked and I was losing continously? I guess we have to keep trying and one day it will just click for us!

Take care everyone!

From your starting over right now friend!

Gooooooooood Mornin' !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christine ~~~~ So glad to hear that you are feeling better today. Remember not to be so hard on your self and let yesterday stay in the past.
Heck I eat brownies. I just do like you did this morning and figure in the calories. Remember its not what we eat, it how much. And we can eat anything we want as long as it is in moderation. That is the key. I refuse to let my self think that Ill never be able to eat my favorite things again.
"You have come a long way Baby" and you dont have that far to go.. You can do this, Christine!!!!!!! We are behind you all the way! :strong:

Darmah~~~ How are you this morning?
I dont think the 1800 calories you had yesterday made it worthless. 1800 is still a good day. You may think that the choices you made for those calories werent the right ones, but that is ok. There are always going to be days like that.
Today is a new day , make it a good one and keep smiling :)

Holly~~~ How was your day yesterday? Hope today is a fantastic one for you also.

T-girl~~~ You are doing great with your low fat eating and congrats on your weightloss. Your hubby will see the difference when he comes home. I bet that will make you feel awesome!

Sprite~~~ Hello :wave: and welcome back!!!!!!!we missed you! You are so right about the PMS thing,,, we must just be passing it to each other. I think with all the support we give to each other all of us can stay on track.

Ok so where in the heck is everyone else?? Hope everyone is doing great and will post soon.

Today is a sunny day:cool:, I have already drank two litres of water and will strap the on old pedometer and go for a longgggggggg walk! I need to kick start my weightloss. I have been stuck for too long!!!!!!
I called the doctors office yesterday and they still dont have my results of my bloodwork yet. Some of the tests had to be sent to Vancouver. I hope to hear something by the end of the week.
Its a bummer that things take so long some times.

Well I am off to burn some calories. This may be the perfect day to spring clean my car. So will do that after I get back from my walk.
Have a great day everyone ,stay happy and keep smiling!!!

Ill see you later.
Nancy:wave:

Thanks holly, I do my best, and I have struggled since I was an infant with being put on diets!! i was looking at my chart my Mom had. I was seriously depresses when I left the army in October, well i was medically retired. I couldnt breath, all my clothes were tight, it was a struggle to lift my son, and play with him!!! I had did slimfast, i was starving, with headches, went into a week of binging, then I said how about pills, made my blood pressure go up, well let;s just cut out food in half, was too little calories.

Honestly ladies, I started to think, and pray, and think.. I started looking into low fat products, and gradually changed my eating pattern . Ran into a book by Susan Powter, and it hit home, Kept thinking, listenting to my body, took one day at a time. That is how it all came to be, Then I decided, I want to help others too by losing this weight, like set an example. so that is one reason why I opened that thread.

I will be glad to shock my husband, I want to motivate him too. He is a serious meat eater!! we will see. You were on point Snowey!!

I just want to thank everyone, for the support!! ( i will probably say this everyday) Really I was running on thin ice back in October. Have a wonderful day,

Latisia

Update:

3:30pm: I'm at 755 calories so far today (according to fitday.com). I'm having a turkey breast sandwich on fresh baked roll for dinner.. with some sort of veggie or fruit.. I'm estimating that meal to be about 450 calories.. which leaves me 200 calories for a snack this evening.. I think I can make it in under 1400 today! Woohoo.. :) I can do it! :D

8:16pm: I'm done eating for the day and ended at 1445. Is that close enough to count? I tried but started stressin out again mid-day and it has gotten even worse into the evening. The brownies were my anti-depressant. If not for the brownies, I'd probably be a good 200 calories lower today! :( Oh well, I consider myself having done pretty well reguardless!

Hope everyone else had a good day today!

Christine
195/149/130

Christine,,, you had a good day even with the brownies. Give your self a pat on the back. You can do the same tomorrow too!!!

I had a great day also. It was so pretty here. Temps close to 60 and bright sunny skies.

My car looks all shiny and new. I even put tire shine on the tires. Now I dont want to drive it as it will get dirty...:lol: :lol: :lol:

Had a day filled with exercise for sure.. can feel it in my lower back.

Had a great day calorie wise. I think when you are busy you just dont think about food. But the trick is to stay busy from morning to night...:lol:

The doctors office phoned today, I have a appt at 9 15 tomorrow to see how the blood tests went. Ill keep ya all posted on that.

Well hope everyone has had a fantastic day,, see ya all tomorrow...

Nancy:wave:

207/193/150 1st goal

Hi everyone. How are you all doing today? I had a marvelous day today. I kept my calorie goal and am happy about that. I feel that I'm happier when I've maintained my goal than when I'm eating that piece of cake or ice cream sundae. I even passed by a Dairy Queen without a care in the world. Snowey and vermontmom, you're right about those 1800 calories. That's not TOO bad. I think the reason that I felt so sick was that 1300 of those calories were eaten within 3 hours of eachother. Yep, that would do it!! Woo Hoo, Silence!! Awesome job in keeping up to your end of the bargain, now you're body will fulfull its obligation! Yeah, don't worry about those few extra calories. It's only a few. Take in a really deep breath, then BAM you've just burned those calories!! Don't worry about that brownie either. THat's the magic of our diets and way of eating. We can eat whatever we want as long as we watch how much we eat of it. So a tiny brownie is a good thing. Not only does it relieve your stress and makes you happy but it also lets you stay focused on the rest of your day. way to go!! T-girl, what's the title of this book you read? I'm thinking of going to get it. I need as much motivation as possible. A book would really help! Sprite, you'r completely right about how the past is the past. You gotta look beyond your faults and move on to a brand new day. I never realized that until yesterday when I decided to make something of myself and take control of my life, and not let my tummy do the talking. ;) Anyway, I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and get out there and enjoy the weather!

hello ladie, I hope you all had a good evening, and are pleased with yourselves, I am exhaused, but ok otherwise. Darmah, the book is Stop the Insanity by Susan Powter, Food, by her and i use cmon america let's eat for recipes.

Anyone a fan of popcorn cakes? I am because they are good, and some are sweet, and others are like chips, a good snack. \

well talk to you all later. goodnight

stay strong!

latisia:p

Hey everyone!! Wow… what a couple of days we have all had!! I will have to start doing the daily post again to keep up! Our computers at work have been going down a lot lately… sooooo frustrating!! And I: have been riding the motorbike up and down our drive in preparation for this weekend’s license course. Crazy? YEP!!

Ok… I must say to you all that you seem to have your binge’s in control. I can remember ones that I have had where an hour would exceed 1800 calories. I will give you an example…. This was from a time when I was single and VERY unhappy. It would usually be a Friday, after a not-so good week, not only a day. I would have a bad big muffin from the restaurant/cafeteria in the office building I worked at… then at 10:00 it would be toast and jam from there (during a ciggie break of course) and lunch would be at my fav Italian place… I usually had Canneloni …. Then a bag of chips, a chocolate bar and a Pepsi (not diet) for the 3:00 munchies… then I would be sad about working late, coming home to an empty apartment and sad that I had no plans that evening… my friends would have invited me, but I would have turned them down. I would order a large loaded pizza from Pizza 73 (I don’t think I could even look at the phone number now without gagging) and instead of the free extra pizza… I would get the crispy golden hot wings, all 18 of them and Ranch dip. Having stopped at the 7-11 for a 2 Litre of Pepsi, bag of Doritos, M&M’s and most likely another chocolate bar. ALL of that would be gone by midnight… and I mean each and every crispy golden battered hot wing… all the pizza and snacks. And then wonder why nothing fits in my closet. I was so dysfunctional.

And that was only Friday night! Monday I would be motivated.. but that would last until Wednesday and the cycle would repeat.

Lesson learned?? I have a Free day where no guilt is felt, I can have whatever I want, and find that I usually pick healthy on those days. I have weaknesses…. And bounce back much better than I used to. It is all in perspective.

Thanks for being so supportive of one another…. Just even typing out the above story makes me realise how far I have come from then… and how far I can go too!!

I hope that helps you guys a bit… I know the last few days’ posts have helped me heaps!

Nola.

Nola, your binge completly described mine!! Almost to the letter. I'd start with a candy bar, then a p.b.j sandwish, grilled cheese sandwich, and a bagel sandwich. Then move onto a huge bowl of sweet cereal, then toast and jam and butter, then a p'zone from pizza hut, stopping by dairy queen for a blizzard on the way back home. I always turn down invitations from my friends to go hang out with them because I'm too ashamed of how I am and how I look. I've lost a lot of friends that way. I used to have a lot of friends until I started to become secluded and self-concious. I have only one good friend left and she's starting to bother me now too. I don't know what to do. It's hard for me to make new friends because I always feel that their judging me and my weight and the way I look. I know it's crazy but oh well. I gotta work on myself before i work on impressing others, I guess. Now I know that I'm strong enough to resist temptation and to make healthy decisions. I even said NO to a Bear Claw donut! Never thought i could do that before! How is everyone tonight? I hope we're all doing great! The support in here is wonderful! Keep up the great work, everyone! We will all succeed together!

It is still evening here, while you are all probably snoozing!! Darmah... I can totally relate. But it can change!! And you have the power to make that change. A good friend of almost 10 years emailed me in October. Coincidentally the same week that I started this journey with seriousness. She had joined Weight Watchers and lost 44 pounds, her photos inspired me. She is going through a rough time, and I truly wish I could jump on that big ol' Qantas plane and come back to Canada to help her out, but she said something last week to me that really hit home for me. She had quit smoking 2 years ago, started a weight loss journey a year ago, went back to school to become a highshool teacher (from a loan lady at a bank) and her dad passed away in January. It was the strenght she had built doing all three huge changes in her life that is helping her through this. Now she is also having marriage problems and is using that strength for that too. She is not going to let the weight come back, she worked too hard to get it off. How remarkable!! I love positive friends.

Darmah... don't give up on your friends, they love you no matter what the weight you are, and will be great to have around to celebrate the loses (weight that is!!). Even small goals achieved will help get you out having fun again! I know that even that first 2 pounds changed my outlook!

Well everyone... I am off for some sleep now... I did the Pump class (light weights for an hour with an instructor yelling at you to LIFT!!) and my tri/bi ceps are KILLING! I also need to spend some time with the hubby... he is seeing a knee surgeon next month and then he will be joining me in the gym. He hurt it a month ago playing basketball in his boys who played 10 years ago league on Thursday nights. Hopefully it will be nothing too major and will be as good as new. He also played Inline hockey too... and went to the gym so he is becoming anxious to be on the mend and get into his sports again! Then we can fight over who does dishes again!!

*hugs* for everyone... keep up the good work and stick with the healthy lifestyle makeovers!! We will reach our goals!

Nola.

Hello all . . .

I'm glad to hear so many of you doing so well! I think it helps my motivation more when others are doing well.

I have to confess, I snuck in a little more food last night after I posted. But, I'm still not feeling too bad about it because I still had significantly less calories than I've been overindulging in lately!

I can relate to Kanola's 'cycle of motivation' but mine is daily, not weekly! I wake up in the morning raring to go full of motivation and willpower and sure I can make it through the day this time! Then by mid-afternoon the willpower starts downhill. At that point I'll make some not-so-great choices but I'll keep battling. By late evening I've lost all willpower and just start pigging out. It is so frustrating!

Ok, today's goal is to have LESS calories than yesterday. I figure if I keep that goal every day, eventually I'll be eating at the levels I'm meant to to lose this weight! If I move it down gradually over the course of this week instead of trying to jump down hundreds of calories from one day to the next (making me feel hungry and deprived!) maybe I can stick to it better. After my mini-binge last night I was a little over 1700 calories (oops? lol) so today I'm going to aim to keep it UNDER 1700. Tomorrow under 1600, Friday under 1500 and by this weekend maybe I'll be able to do the 1400 thing correctly!

By the way, if anyone is as nosey as I am, those extra calories last night came from a bologna sandwich (dang bologna has 90 calories a slice!!). My daughter was hungry at like 10 last night so she bugged me for a salad but because I'm lazy I offered her the bologna.. and then made one for me too.. (we shoulda had the salad eh?). I don't know how this child does it but she naturally craves healthy foods! She LOVES fruits and veggies. I'm warping her already though, and she's only 3. I have her telling me she's FAT and its not good to be fat.. oh my.. I need to fix my way of thinking and acting around her cuz I don't want her growing up with a warped perception of the truth. The girl is SKINNY but even if she wasn't I don't want her thinkin she's a bad person because of it! :( She'll actually look at a food and ask me how many calories it has! I don't think she completely understands at 3 but it still scares me to think she's beginning to care about these things! I'd like to just move our family to a better way of eating where I'm not constantly counting the calories in everything, just eating healthy choices. Then she won't be learning calorie-counting, just healthy eating! I'm working on it!

Ok, this is getting long so I only have one more thing to add before I'm off. If anyone is looking for a good book to read on eating, I'd recommend Volumetrics (I don't know the author off the top of my head but I could go look). Its basically about eating foods that are filling to the tummy but not calorie-dense. So basically, you can eat more food on fewer calories. I read it over a year ago myself and I think its time to pick it back up and re-read it. Just my two cents. I've read probably 20+ different diet and food books over the past 10 years but that one was one that just made a lot of sense :)

Ok, I'll shut up now . . . off to my <1700 calorie day :)

Christine
195/150/130 (eeek, another pound snuck up on me when I wasn't looking!! I'm going in the wrong direction here.. but considering its PMS time, I hope thats all this is!)

Hello everyone! I've taken somewhat of a vacation from posting lately. I've had so many different things going on and then I got the flu and have been sick as a dog for the past few days. I am so ready to get over this so I can get back to my walking!

Nancy, I wanted to let you know that while I was at home sick yesterday:( I was watching Oprah. I pretty sure that it was a re-run but interesting none the less. It was about menopause and its symptoms. A lot of the symptoms that you had mentioned earlier (heart palpitations, light headedness, inability to sleep) were considered characteristics of menopause. I hope that your test results come back okay and this is all that it is. A doctor on the show, cant remember the name, gave some dietary guidelines which were believed to decrease the symptoms were to cut down or eliminate all "white" foods which are considered high glycemic foods such as: potatoes, white bread, white rice, etc.
She also recommended using progesterone cream (2%) and that was believed to help with the symptoms. She also said that cutting out on the "white" foods may help to reduce weight gain many women experience during menopause. She said that most women will gain weight during this time because the body is some how trying to stabilize its amount of estrogen. Apparently fat tends to hold on to estrogen so the body fights to hold on to it, therefore it's harder to lose during this time. Encouraging huh? Now, I just repeated all of that info from memory so before you take it compeletely to heart, you may want to check the Oprah websight or something because it is quite possible that I may have misunderstood some of it, but I thought the info was interesting.

Anyways, enough of playing doctor, I just thought the info may help. I'm hoping the results come back okay. To the rest of you, hope things are well. I've got to go now, but I will post again soon.

Hello! I am Teresa and I am loser (of weight that is!). I am 27 year old domestic goddess. I started to loose at the beginning of the year then suffered a fall on the ice resulting ia knee injury and a set-back in my weight loss. I am tall so everyone guess me about 75 pounds under what I actually weight, sure it is nice to be able to hide my weight, but I still know it is there. I have lost 18 pounds thus far and have hit a stand-still. I have been doing aerovbics for a while now, but I have started walking with a friend this week and counting calories. Wow! Now I know where my stand still is! CALORIES!!! I am trying for 1500 cals, which is what my doc said was a good one for me. Can't wait to meet everyone in here! :lol:

Okay, its 4:30 and I'm just about at 730 calories for today and that includes the granola bar I just had and my cup o' coffee I'm currently nursing. So I'm pretty full at the moment. Going grocery shopping at 6 tonight and then dinner when we get home so hopefully I won't even have enough time to fill myself up with too many more calories ;-) We'll see... I'm still feeling pretty strong right now and its almost early evening so I hold hope for the rest of today!

Welcome Teresa! What a nice name (its my middle name.. you've even spelled it right LOL) ;) Sounds like you've done well so far. Walking really can make a difference. A couple years ago I started walking with my mil about 30 min 3x a week and I dropped 10 pounds without even changing my eating habits! 1500 calories sounds like safe level but my guess would be that you might be able to get away with even more. When I started my diet I weighed 195 pounds and I started on 1600 calories a day and lost the first 35-40 pounds that way before I decided it was time to lower the calories once again. I'm currently aiming for 1400 (but never quite stopping there :lol: )... although I'm sure if I did, I'd be dropping pounds again :) If you undereat, your body will hold on to the fat because it fears you're starving it so if you find the weight is not dropping at the 1500 level, I'd up it a tad.. just my two cents (I'm no doctor!).

Apparently I'm in a writing mood today ..I'm gonna shut up again :D

Hope everyone else is having a great day . . .

Christine
195/150/130

Hi everyone! I'm back from Disney. We had a great time. No waiting in lines. Can you believe it? Anyway, I was weak. I smoked before the day was out. I was nervous about the trip and the kids being afraid of the airplane. My daughter cried during take off (just small tears, but tears) My son looked petrified. They will both fly again. They said it's much faster than driving and worth the small discomfort of being scared. Guess how many pounds I gained?
nope higher
higher
higher
higher
higher
higher
higher
yup 11 lbs. What is up with that???????????? I walked at least 5 miles a day. Some days 9 miles. I did eat more than usual but not 11 lbs worth. I blame it on the alcohol. I have a strange feeling that I am allergic to beer. I read an article on food allergies in Woman's World a few weeks ago. It said that a food allegry can cause you to gain as much as 35 lbs. There aren't any other signs. The way to find out what you are allergic to is to start cutting out things that may be a culprit and see what happens. I know when I stopped drinking beer, weight loss became much easier. I drank a few beers each night over vacation and 11 lbs later I think I could just cry. I worked hard to lose those 11 lbs. I don't plan on giving up. I am just disgusted with myself for letting that happen. Well I have to finish reading the posts from the last week. I have 3 more days worth to go.
ttyl,
Melisa

:) Hi everyone!!!

Wow, I feel like I've fallen behind you all! I couldn't log on this morning when I wanted to, 'cause my husband "needed uninterrupted Internet access" (he's a website designer) so this is the first chance I've had (5:00 pm Wed.)

Christine, I'm feeling what you are. I'm absolutely fine with Kashi and yogurt for breakfast; a low-fat sandwich on light bread/carrots sticks/fruit for lunch; but after that, I'm just hungry and thinking about what I want!! And man, it's a LONG time from noon to bedtime. As Nancy aptly noted, for me also it's keeping non-stop busy from morning to night that will keep me on track. I've been outside doing yard work and that helps, but eventually I've got to go in the house...!

I've just done walks for my exercise for the past three days, as we (New England) have this incredible mass of warm air over us; it's actually over 80 degrees here (but there's still snow on the mountain, and the ice only melted from the lake 4 days ago! weird) So I've been feeling "too hot" to crack a video and do weights or aerobics.

So, have a good night Nancy, Christine, Sprite, Kanola, jacklyn, Latisia, darmah, and welcome Teresa! And hi to the vacationing tryin'hard; and is Melisa at Disneyworld now?

Holly:wave:

Welcome back Melisa. I hope your trip was a fun one, other than the flying and the weight gain! I am gonna bet that a large amount of that weight is water weight and it will come off a lot easier than it did the first time around. I've lost the same couple pounds twice before and its always easier the second time around, trust me! I'm glad to see that its not holding you back from continuing on your way to a healthier you. We all have our setbacks but I know you can make it through this one! We don't vacation every day so we may as well enjoy it while we can, right? ;)

Holly, I totally agree about the keeping busy to keep your mind off food... but who can keep busy 24/7? I used to actually FORGET to eat sometimes.. its beyond me now to even comprehend how I did that! :lol: but if anyone figures it out, let me know!

Will keep this one semi-short .. I have to go shower before my hubby gets home and wonders why I'm not ready to go grocery shopping (I have to rely on him cuz I don't drive :^: (yes, i'm a wuss))

Christine
195/150/130

Hi everyone! I'm glad everyone is having a great day! WE're all cheering for you, christine!! Rah Rah, Shish boom bah!! Just remember that the food you binge on doesn't make you happy at all!! It only makes you sadder. It tastes good but feels bad. I've had an okay day today. Slipped up a few times but made up for it calorie wise while I adjsted everything else. I had a couple bites of a bear claw donut and a hamburger. That just means no chicken breast and slim fast bar tonight. It's all good. Guess what? My water weight is finally letting off. After my catastrophe of a binge a couple days ago, which caused me to gain 10 pounds, I lost about 2 last night. It's getting there. :D I figured out a way to keep myself from eating too fast!! Instead of eating everything all at once, I take a bite then leave and do something for a couple minutes or seconds like filling up my water, then i come back and take another bite, then leave again. So far, its taking an hour to finish my burger!! Gotta pee really bad though. I had all eight oz of water in the last hour too! STill have the other half of my burger to go. I hate having left-overs. Anyway, have a wonderful day everyone and happy dieting!!

Hi Everyone!

Nancy I hope you have good news with your test results. Maybe you just need your thyroid medication changed?

Melissa welcome back from vacation. Put the past behind you and start again! We know you can do it!

Christine, Darmah & Holly, jacklyn, Teresa, hope you all have a good week. (Hope I didn't miss anybody)

I have done quite well the last couple of days. I am using imagery. This is where I picture myself thin, what I look like, feel like, etc. I'll let you know how it works.

Welcome Teresa, glad you could join us. We are a great group of ladies here. You will have fun and get much support. So do be sure to stay with us! We'll keep you motivated for sure...

Welcome back Melisa,, glad you had fun at Disney.Dont worry about those pounds,, it will be gone before you know it...and do not let it take away the glow of the good time you had with your family.

Jacklyn,,, I hope you are feeling better. I did see that Oprah show again yesterday. And it describes me to a "T" (Even though my hormne tests show in the normal range)

A big hello to everyone else also..:wave: went to the doc this morning,,,said all my tests were in the normal range except for the thyroid was low,, so he increased my dosage of that. So what is the explanation for my lightheadness and dizziness...hmmmm,, who knows!!!!! I still think it is perimepause, just like the doc on Oprah said...so I will get some of that natural progesterone cream and see how that helps. I also know that many times the blood tests wont reveal if you are going thru peri, post or full blown menopause.
The doc also said he thinks I may have general anxiety disorder... yeah why become I am woman????????????He wanted to give me medicine to see if it helps... Paxil,,,I said NO WAY..I have seen many women gain from that stuff....so told him that Ill try something , but not if Ill gain weight from it... So he gave me Zoloft... I am still undecided if I want to take it.... any one have any input on that??? He gave me 30 pills to try.. god Im confused......GRRRRRRRRR..doctors...sometimes they treat you like you are making crap up....
Also I had a hard time just looking at him today...he has such a bad toupee,, I wanted to rip it off his head and say yep I have anxiety,, its because of that silly rug you are wearing,,, it makes it hard for me to look at you with out laughing,,:lol:
but anyway,, would appreciate any input about the Zoloft if any one knows anything about it... oh yeah.. I go back in 4 months for more bloodwork.(thyroid).

For some good news today,, I got my letter from Immigration Canada and I go tomorrow for my interview and recieve my landed immigrant status. This had been a long process (since the end of July) We will be gone till Sunday. We have to go to Prince George(about 425 miles from here) So hubby and I are going to go to the movies and of course dinner and to Wal-mart OH HAPPY DAY!!!!!!!!! I have not been to Wal mart since I left the states...!!!!!
I hope and pray that Ill behave myself and not eat all the wrong things this weekend,,, oh please, oh please ,oh please....let me be strong!!!!!
I want so bad to be at least 10 pounds lighter before we go back to the states next month.....

Well I have to get packing, hope everyone stays positive and focused and full of happy thoughts and smiles and that the scales are kind to each and everyone of you!!!!. I am sure ill have a lot of reading on this thread when I get back. Ill be thinking of you all. See ya Sunday!
Take care everyone....
Nancy:wave:

Sprite,,,, we must have been posting at the same time... maybe it is the thyroid... with it being low again that could play a big part, also with the new dosage of medicine may help me move the numbers on the scale down.....keeping my fingers crossed that Ill feel better soon......

see ya Sunday,,,
Nancy

Nancy,
I was on Zoloft a few years ago for about a month or so. I lost weight on it (didn't keep it off, maybe if I'd changed my eating habits with it). Lost my appetite, lost my sex drive, lost my ability to emote or cry. But it was a break from the anxiety attacks and I was able to function.

Have fun at wally world and congratulations, LOL.

We're still struggling with Emmett's sleep. I'm to the point now where I just want to close his door and if he wants to stay up all night and bang on his door, so be it. I need my sleep or I'm nasty mom. Plus I have not been feeling good at all lately. My friend suggested sipping on ginger ale all day so hopefully that will help.

In Christ,
Pamela

G’day everyone! Welcome Teressa! You will love this group!!

Christine, hang in there, you are doing so well!! What to do you use to track your calories? I use fitday.com and find that it is fantastic, I don’t use the exercise part, it seems to be inaccurate and I don’t trust it. The food journal is great tho!

Nancy – Congrats on the status of your immigration. It is a great feeling when the paperwork gets processed!! I won’t give up my citizenship because it is very important to me to still be a Canadian, but it will be a happy day when I finally get my permanent residency here in Aus!! Good news about the doctor results. I can’t comment on Zoloft (sp?) but it will be worth it to do some research on your own. I nearly fell off my chair when you talked about the bad toupee … dang funny!! I would have been just busting trying not to laugh!! Hehehehe You are so lucky to be going to Wal-Mart…. The comparable here is ‘Big W’ which reminds me of a dirty Zellers…. I used to love shopping at Wal Mart so much…. Oh well… the sacrifices you make for love.

Melissa – Welcome back!! I have been to Disneyland… but want to go someday! Great to hear you had a good time!! Beer can be evil, but it can be soooooo good!! I am holding out for the Molson Canadian when I return at Christmas… oh ya!!!!

Holly – great to hear from you!! I am so happy that the weather is better now for walking!! I could just picture a nice sunny warm day with snow on the mountains!! Spring is such a magical time of the year!

Darmah – that is a great method for making food last!! I will have to try to do that!!

Sprite – imagery is great!! Every morning while I get ready for work I keep telling myself that I can do this…. And make sure I think of that before I go to bed. Still can’t get those images of the crispy golden hot wings out of my head…. Thank goodness I have not found a place that makes them here!! I would be in so much trouble! I am also having visions of Nancy’s doctor’s bad hair right now tho!! Hehehe

Pamela – I hope you get Emmet’s sleeping worked out!! And that you feel better soon!!

Well everyone… I hope that you all are doing great today, no evil binges or PMS water weight hanging around either!! I get the program from the trainer that gave me the results of the fitness test last week tonight. That should be interesting, I know there will be the ‘increase cardio fitness’ comment too. I guess I will have to make sure that I work in that target heart rate zone eh? Instead of just below it. 

2 more sleeps until the motorbike course and I can legally take the bad girl out on the road!! Yay!!

Bye everyone!!

10:10pm:

1395 calories. Wouldn't you know on the day I allow myself more calories, I stay under 1400! Go figure :dizzy: (Oh, and I use fitday.com also.. but yes, the whole 'calories burned' portion seems very inaccurate!)

Considering the time, I feel pretty confident saying thats the final count for the day too. So.. I did it! :D Now just to keep it up!

Have any of you ever looked at http://www.absolutepictures.com ? I went and found a picture of a famous skinny chick who is around my height and stuck it on my desktop as the wallpaper LOL I figured I may never look like that but hey, if it motivates me, why not? :lol:

I'm reading "The Pritikin Principle: the calorie density solution" which is similar in concept to the previously mentioned, Volumetrics. According to Pritikin there are certain foods that are less calorie dense and you can eat them to your hearts content without overdoing the calories.. I'll let everyone know what I think of the book when I get past the intro.. LOL



Christine
195/150/130

Hello everyone had a few words to put it. Nancy, as far as Zoloft goes, it is pretty good for controlling depression. The major side effects are, constipation, decreased appetitie, dry mouth, insomnia, and fatigue, It is good to drink bulks of water, because it can dry you out!! You wont have to worry about weight gain though.

I was pretty busy today, so I am on very late.. night owl.. I did not eat anything unplanned or unneeded, I am curious about my weight. I am going to wait out the 2 days though.. Does anyone here like turkey burgers? I nothiced you can buy them frozen, but the ones I saw were not too lean.. hmm.. I made my own for dinner and had a big salad with veggies. Not too bad.

Welcom Teresa!! SOunds like you are doing good, Congratulations on the 17 pound loss! Keep it up! That's great!!

We have new neighbors, and I saw a unwelcomed roach today, and if it werent for that, I would have been up here earlier, had to find him out.. ( my major fear is them nasty things... ) well take care everyone.. have a good night .

Latisia

Hey all! How is everyone!! Just got back from my 40 minute walk. Felt really good to get outside and breathe in the fresh air.

Christine: Woo Hoo!! Way to go at keeping under 1400 calories! Maybe it was like reverse psychology or something where you said you could eat more calories and ended up eating less. Either way, keep it up. How do you feel?

Pamela: how old is Emmett? I bet he's a handful of exercise for ya!!I hope you feel better, too! Do you think you might be catching something? Hope you get well!

Nancy: Congrats on the good test results! I've never known anyone that has tried Zoloft but if you feel like you really need them you should give them a shot. if you end up not liking them you can always try something else. Whatever makes you happy!You should think about getting a new doctor too. One that respects you and one that you respect in return. The doctor-patient relationship is really important. I knew a lady that had heart disease and the doctor thought she was just meno-pausing and dismissed her until she had a heart attack and almost died. Not a good thing. Have fun in Prince George, too. Where is that exactly? Never heard of it.

Sprite: let us know how your imagery works out. everytime I imagine myself I see myself as fat and gross and makes me sad :( . I should try thinking positively and maybe it'll help keep me motivated.

I'm so bad with names. Who did I miss? Kanola, Teresa, Holly, melissa, I hope your all having a great day (or night since it is 11:30 right now) But have a great day tomorrow and we'll all get through this together!!
Take care!

I forgot to ask...What do you all get at wal-mart? I'm not an avid wallie shopper but was wondering what the facination was? The place is so big I always get so lost in there!!

:wave: Hi everyone!

This is great, there are so many of us now! All working together, helping each other!

Welcome back, melisa! I hope you and your family had a great time. You must have wanted to throw the bathroom scales out the window; but it will prove to be mostly water weight. Good to know that you're not going to let it deter you!!!

Christine - congrats on keeping under the 1400 range!! Even though you had decided to allow yourself more. That is one good day completed; now for another one today! I'll be trying to send you STRONG thoughts this afternoon, while I am also battling the beckoning unnecessary food...

Thanks for the book suggestions. I will try to find Volumetics. I have a book suggestion for those who need extra help in staying away from fast food - "Fast Food Nation", by Eric Schlossberg (sp?) Not only the sad, brutal, inevitable slaughtering process of cattle described in detail, but the whole concept of fast-food becoming global, and contributing to the world's obesity, devaluing real foods, and their employment practices. It's in paperback now.

And I know the feeling of huge responsibility concerning our children, and trying to help shape their attitudes towards food and health. I am trying so hard to keep my 11-year-old son on healthy eating and more exercise, but he's like me - would rather sit and read a book than get outside and move around. So I've got to make it fun for him. I'm getting our bikes tuned up so we can go out together. I'm sure your daughter just has a healthy curiosity about calories, as she's observed you being careful of them.

Hi, Sprite! We missed you! I like the idea of positive imagery. I will try to practice it.

Nancy - congrats on your status! Hope you have a nice trip to Prince George. I will be holding you in my thoughts, sending powerful suggestions to make healthy choices; and you will feel so virtuous and good when you do!

I also fell off my chair laughing at your description of the doc's rug!! You are so funny. I don't know anything about Zoloft...I have a friend who was on some kind of antidepressent, and she said that she had decreased sexual drive, but that she almost had a numb feeling concerning her sexua body parts. She couldn't describe it any better...but didn't like it so she got off them. That wasn't very helpful, was it?.....:^:

Hi darmah - I'm glad you've had some strong days now. I agree, we feel so good when we are close to our calorie goals; we feel that WE have the control, not the food. That's a great suggestion for eating really slowly. I've been trying to chew each dinner mouthful 35X; because I tend to inhale my food as if I think someone's going to steal my plate. It does really help to eat slowly.

hi Latisia - how are you today? Have you lost all that weight since your husband left? He is going to be so surprised and proud of you!

I think turkey burgers can be a good choice, but as you already saw, some prepared ones have more fat than they should. I would think if you could buy the turkey ground, but check the fat content, and make your own, that should be good. I like rice cakes - are popcorn cakes the same? I have the cheddar cheese rice cakes sometimes as my afternoon snack, with a caffeine-free diet coke, and that's pretty good for me.

Yu've also been dieting since little? I remember my mom giving me carrot sticks in my lunch instead of cookies as my first introduction to weight control at being like 9 years old - - that was a good decision for her to do for me, but I sure felt out-of-place with the other skinny kids eating Hostess cupcakes and Twinkies and ice cream...but I was a plump (HATE that word!!) kid who wanted to read or watch TV instead of run or play on the monkey bars...and being teased (more like tormented) make me even more shy from doing anything athletic. :( bleh!!

Pamela - I sure hope you can get some uninterrupted sleep soon. There is nothing harder than being a mother to little ones!! The moms are always the ones who make the sacrifices of sleep, eating warm food, having "me" time...I sincerely hope you are feeling better soon. Yes, ginger ale is a good drink to help "settle" your stomach.

Kanola - hi ther! Oh, I'm happily jealous of you zipping around on your motorbike...did someone teach you how to operate one, or did you just kinda "pick it up" on your own? How many cc's is it?

Sems hard to believe that someone's going to suggest "more cardio" to you - seounds like you are already incredibly active...That's neat that your husband is active also. Hope his knee isn't in too bad shape.

jacklyn - sorry to hear you were sick with the flu! Has your "vacation water weight" begun to slip away?

hi Teresa - wow, you've lost 17 pounds? That's GREAT! Hope you can hang around with us; we like to meet new people, and the more to help each other, the better!

I peeked at your profile - what kind of gardening do you do? I do flowers, not veggies. Some of my most prized plants are ones I got from my grandmother's farm - I have columbines and lilacs from originals that date back over 50 years, and my most precious are peonies that are from a plant that originally grew over 100 years ago. when they bloom, they smell like the sweetest, most fragrant roses.

Well ladies, my next "official" measuring day is the 24th - tho' I did sneak in a peak at the scales on a day I was feeling SO hungry (and thought I must be like down 50 pounds - ha ha) but am glad that I can say I have FINALLY lost 10 pounds (and it's only taken over 2 MONTHS) - sheesh - but I guess I'll be known as "Slow and Steady Holly" :lol:

HAVE A GREAT, IN-CONTROL DAY, EVERYONE!

Holly

Hello everyone . . .

Just wanted to drop in to say I did NOT eat anything more last night :D And, I'm off to a pretty good start today. . . about 300 calories for breakfast and I'll be having lean ham on lite bread for lunch with some strawberries and plan on a salad for my mid-afternoon snack. No plans for dinner yet but I'll be good ;) And all this while battling some awful cramps.. yucko! Hopefully this slight gain I'm seeing here is all water weight and will drop off when this time o' the month is over with!

Holly, I just wanted to say... 10 pounds in 2 months isn't bad at all! Think of it this way, if you keep up that rate, after a year you'll have lost 60 pounds! That's a helluva lot lighter in only a year's time! And of course, there is always: 'the slower you lose it, the more likely it'll stay off' .. if that's true, I shouldn't have to worry about mine coming back any time soon :lol:

So, I'm off to try to have a productive day... PMS was keeping me lazy and my house is showing the effects! :o

I wish everyone a great day . . . Here's a quote I got in an email today: "Today's duties put off until tomorrow give us a double burden to bear; the best way is to do them in their proper time."
--Ida Scott Taylor

Christine
195/150/130

Hi there.. My husband has been gone a week today, I started eating low fat, around the middle of March. I am so glad I came to the realization to do it!! I was always kinda chubby,, my Mom said when I started walking it went down some, but I remember being heavy in 3rd grade, and from there on .

I am doing good today, elated about Saturday, ( weigh in) It will be a surprise, hopefully.

To everyone, have a great day, stay motivated, and determined..

Latisia:)

Hi everyone. Hope everyone is doing simply wonderful today. Since I've learned to control my portion sizes and all, I now find it difficult to reach 1200 calories. Any suggestions? I'm completely full and satisfied and feel that forcing myself to eat is not the right way to go. Hmmm. Interesting yet ironic!! :dizzy: Christine, that was a wonderful quote that you wrote! it's so true, too. Like when I binged, I'd say that I'd start over the next day but the next day it made it that much more difficult to get back on track. I started a new regimin to walk/run everynight and rolloerblade whenever time allows. I feel so much better knowing that I'm exercising. Even though I hated it so much before, I find myself enjoying the time for myself and reflecting on my goals and life. Anyway, have a great day everyone and I'll talk to you all later~

hello gals . . .

First, t-girl, I know this question was on another thread but I figured I'd just answer it here... I wouldn't do ab exercises EVERY day, I'd go with every other day because you need to give the muscles time to recover. I heard once that the abs were the only area that doesnt need this recovery time but, my sister used to work at a gym and claims that it was only those who gave their muscles the 'rest-period' who showed real improvement in that area!

Darmah, as far as the 1200 calories goes, my opinion would be, if its working for you don't worry about it. I wish I had such problem :lol: If you find the weight won't drop off after a while because of the low calorie levels, I would just stick a higher-fat meal in every so often, like once every few days or something. I know I've probably mentioned it a dozen times before, but when I was consistantly eating low-calorie I sometimes wouldn't see the weight drop until I ate a higher-fat and calorie meal! It was like my body said 'ahha! She's not starving us, we can let go of this fat now!' I've even heard of fitness trainers giving their clients that advice! Of course, I'm no expert, but this is what I've seen from experience :)

I'm a little higher on calories today at this time of day. At 4pm I'm sitting at around 860. That only leaves 540 if I'm to stay under 1400 today. I'll have to try hard to make that work. I know I'll want a snack tonight after dinner so I'll have to keep dinner calories around 400 I guess. We'll see how it all works out. I'll try my bestest! :D

Hope everyone else is having a good day!

Christine
195/150/130

Feeling a bit better today! Emmett is a workout, he's almost 20 months and keeps us hopping! He's a complete sweetheart. I had trouble buttoning my pants today! I'm only 6 weeks pregnant, not quite ready for this, but it's worth it for a munchkin!! Hope everyone is doing well.
In Christ,
Pamela

Well I finally caught up on all that I missed and I see I missed a lot.
Who had some pics posted? I missed them. :(
Welcome to all the new ladies.
Nancy, I'm so glad that your problem is most likely related to your thyroid medication. I'd hold off on the Zoloft until after you've been on the new dosage for a few weeks and see how you feel then. Having a weaker or too strong of a dose of thyroid meds can make you feel lightheaded and dizzy. Also, please remember that all side effects listed are not neccesarily going to happen to you. Each individual reacts differently to medication, but by law, they have to list ALL side effects that happened to evryone in the test group. I know you mentioned weight gain on Paxil, my girlfriend takes it and she didn't gain any weight. I work with pharmacists 8 hrs a day, so if you have any ?'s LMK. ;)
Pamela, :) That tired feeling will pass I'm sure as soon as your body gets used to it's new "condition" As someone else stated, make sure you are taking a good prenatal vitamin. It will really help with much needed energy.
I loved Disney World so much!!!! I can't wait to go back. I did lose 3.5 of the 11 I gained. It must be water weight. Thank goodness. It felt great to go to the gym tonight and get in a good work out. I sweat off a bucket off sweat at least.
That's all for now. Thanks so much for all your motivation and support.
Have a great night!
Melisa

Hi everyone. I'm glad to know that I can sneak in a decent meal everynow and then. I've designated Sunday, my leniency day. I know that for some its like a set-up for failure but after my sickening binge last week, I know that I won't repeat history ever again. It keeps me even more motivated, I think that if I do well until Sunday, I'll have something to look forward to. It's actually hard for me to keep my calories up at 1200, believe it or not. I feel like I'm stuffing myself to get to 1200 cals. It's 9:30 at night and I still have another 230 cals to go. I'll probably have a slim fast milkshake. Those are soo good. Tastes like the real thing. I've lost 5 of the ten pounds that I gained during my fiasco last weekend, thank goodness. My face isn't so puffy either Does that ever happen to you guys where after eating A LOT you just get all puffy and bloated? Maybe its just my imagination. Who knows. Anyway, good luck to everyone on a brand new day tomorrow and I hope everyone is doing well!

Today did not go as well as yesterday. According to fitday I'm at 1225 calories for the day... but that's only because I didn't add the cocoa-crispies treats I had this evening cuz they're homemade and I have no clue of the nutrient breakdown on them to add them into the site. I know they were an insane amount of calories tho.. I probably consumed 600 calories worth :^: Ooops? I cannot wait for this TOM to be over so I quit craving the sweets and carbs so much!! Its like PMS causes me to be sad and depressed and not care what I'm eating or how much and then TOM comes and I'm happier but the cravings are insane! So all together I have well over a week of bad eating. I must get control here!! 1825 isn't a diet-killer amount of calories but its still 400 over my goal! Bad, bad me!! :devil:

So far the Pritikin book is pretty good. The calorie-density theory is insteresting. He talks about the amount of calories in a pound of any given food. According to him, the calorie-density of popcorn is actually higher than that of cheesecake! Of course, both are bad but still.. I always thought popcorn was a good choice but apparently we 'chew' all the air out of the popcorn and compact it so much that its not very filling for the number of calories.. interesting, no? Of course, for the most part the foods he recommends are 'obvious' choices for healthy eating.. fruits and veggies.. natural grains.. a small amount of lean meats.. its similar to many other diets but at the same time, he gives you a new perspective on WHY you should eat these foods. I'm still only on the first chapter but I'll keep ya'll up to date on how I'm liking it as I get further into it. Btw, he tries to teach you to estimate the calorie density of your meals so you won't have to calorie-count forever.. that sounds nice.. plus he says he'll show you how to legally 'cheat' sometimes and still lose weight.. my kinda diet! LOL.. oh, and his main 'seller' of this way of eating is that you won't be hungry all the time.. I definitely find some days I can be starving while eating 1600 calories and other days I feel more than full on 1400 .. I just need to learn why.. what is it that I'm eating thats making me full on fewer calories.. this book will hopefully help me out there! :)

Ok, I'm done babbling for now..
G'nite everyone (or g'morning if you're on the other side o' the earth!)... :D

Christine
195/150/130

I'm sorry you've had such a hard week, Christine, but I'm sure it will get better. Just wait it out and hang in there! I did go over my calorie limit for today but only by a bit. I was doing good, went to sleep too early, ended up waking up and being hungry. I ate a big, huge apple. BUt no real biggie. SO I went over by 150 calories? I'll just deduct from tomorrow's tally. I normally have an apple a day, because let's face it, apples are yummy. I just won't have my apple for tomorrow and even everything out. I'm weird that way in that everything has to stay even unless madness will occur. That book, pritikin, sounds interesting. Is it like a diet book or just a motivational book? I'm looking for a good motivational diet book that doesn't tell you how to eat but why you shouldn't eat some foods and the better choices of food you should be eating. I'll just have to do some reserach I guess. Not like I have enough homework already.. :dizzy: I can feel myself getting stressed out. I hope this doesn't effect my eating later on.. Wish me luck. I'll hang in there. Sorry for babbling but it is now 3 in the am and I'm not tired. Do you think that standing and working and walking for 4 hours straight would be considered exercise? I'm always so tired after work that I can't find the energy to work out. I should really start to exercise before work from now on. I've learned my lesson. I'm gonna go rollerblading tomorrow with a friend. Did you know that rollerblading for an hour burns more calories than swimming for an hour? Weird, huh. Once I get closer to goal, I'll think about getting into a swimming suit, but until then, I'll spare the humiliation. No cannonballs for me anytime soon. Thanks for letting me ramble everyone. God bless you if you made it through my ever-so-long post in one piece. Have a good one everyone!
**Monkey's may fly on ones' bum, but only if you feed them beans**
(again, it's three in the morning... I apologize) :lol:

Hi ladies!

Boy this is an active thread. If I miss one or two days I'm pages behind!

The imagery is working great along with deep breathing every time I feel hungry when I've already eaten my allotment for the day. I imagine the air is filling me up it seems to be helping. The scale will tell tomorrow.

Nancy I would hold off on the Zoloft until you have tried your changed dosage for the thyroid. Thyroid problems can often mimic anxiety so see how you feel once you've been on the correct dosage for your thyroid. Of course I'm no M.D. this is just my personal opinion.

Tomorrow is my ladies shopping trip/sleepover (yes we are pretending we're 16 again ha ha:lol: ) So I will be trying on the tankinis and will let you know how it went.

Hope you all have a great weekend it's sunny here Yee ha!:cool:

Oh no. Things were going so well... To curses on my mother for preparing that hamburger for me!! It is now 6:32 pm and I only have 200 calories left for the day. I keep thinking, I guess its too late now, might as well cheat even more. But that's how the cycle always begins, right? So! Here I am, trying to keep myself occupied, away from the kitchen by rambling on about my problems to you guys. Thank you for enduring my misery. I KNOW that I'll stay under my 1200 cals for the day. I'm not giving myself a choice anymore. Saying that outloud makes it easier to convince myself that I'll make it. I'll just go to bed early. My friend also wants to go out to eat later tonight. I'll just have a water and a diet pop. :smug: I'll make it. Don't worry. WIsh me luck though. My urge to quit has subsided, thanks to you guys. Woo Hoo, Sprite!! Tankinis, huh? Sexy mama. I bought a bikini a few weeks ago and that's my goal. To look good in it. I'll have something to look forward to. I also took off the tags so I wouldn't be tempted to return it and munch on chips and chocolate. Anyway, I'll hang in there. Thanks for listening and I'll tell you of my progress tomorrow! :cool:

Hi everyone -

Hope we're all doing well tonight. Darmah, I have also gone to bed early sometimes as a last resort to keeping away from the kitchen! And once you're settled in bed, it's too comfy to get up just for a snack...I know we can't dive into bed anytime we're hungry, but it works at night :lol:

I was a bad lady tonight - we went to see "The Scorpion King" and husband and I shared a BIG sack of popcorn - my gosh, it tasted so good. So that will be my indulgence like for the WEEK, I think.

Melisa, the pics that were posted were from Nancy; an image of her son, d.i.l. and grandson; and one of her and her husband. Very nice.

Along with doing an exercise tape of some kind, I'm now making myself walk the dog for a two-mile walk each day; that seems far for me now, but I hope to lengthen it more soon.

I'm still doing fine during the day; it's the evening when I want a couple (of dozen) of graham crackers washed down with skim milk; sweet cereal; you know, stuff that isn't terrible but still over my calorie ration. I'm still feeling good though, because I pulled out an old journal from last year, and saw that I was even heavier at this time last year - around 184.

So I'm wishing a good, strong, in-control evening to everyone!

Holly
176/166/160 ist mini goal that I will probably reach in 2003 :D

Hi everybody,, I have had a busy day, chasing the ac man, and getting ready for my company tomorrow!! How is everyone doing?? Darmah, you will succeed, as I said earlier:)

I did go to bed early before to not want to go and pile on the food...It is a good thing to do sometimes. I am going to bed early today, because I know I am going to be busy tomorrow.11pm, is early to me!!LOL.. hmm .

Well, tomorrow is the BIG day for me, Weigh in, and I will let you all know how I have been doing, Havent messed up all week,,,( that is a first) I think it was because I had sat down and tried to figure out what causes me to crave the wrong thing,, it helped..Talk to you all later.. Goodnight

Latisia

:wave:Good Morning everyone! Happy Saturday!

First, anyone else in the New England area feel the mild earthquake this morning? I was still lazily in bed at 6:50 when it occurred; was just aware of a rattling sound; but my husband was up and said the house definitely trembled. I haven't heard of any damage occurring; hope that is true for everyone.

Hello to Sprite, Pamela, Nancy (back from trip?), Christine, Melisa, jacklyn, Latisia, darmah, Kanola, Teresa, and are you back tryin'hard?

I'm wishing everyone a great day! It's sunny and much cooler here today - I'm going to spend it digging outside!

Sincerely, Holly

oh yeah - Hellman's has a new lite mayo - "Just 2 Good" - stilll have to watch your portion amount, but it makes my tuna fish taste alot better than my non-fat Miracle Whip...

Good morning everyone!

With my imagery I thought I might be down like 30 pounds this week:lol: Unfortunately, even though I felt much lighter, I remained the same this week.

However, this will not stop me on my tankini hunt today!

I looked back on some of the things I have been eating and realized, while the portion looked small, the calories were outrageous. For instance I had 4 perogies and looked at the package afterwards and it said 4 perogies = 224 calories! That's over twice what I thought I was eating. Same with different types of bread 1 slice to the next can greatly vary in calories. I just need to be more careful reading everything before I put it in my mouth!

Latisia how was your weigh in?

Darmah how did you make out when you went out with your friend to eat? Did you stay under 1200? I like to get ice in my diet coke so I can munch on that as a last resort. 0 calories!

Holly I also walk with my dog for exercise he is so happy. I walk for about 45 min to 1 hour and am not really sure how far that is. How long does it take you to walk 2 miles?

Hope everyone else is doing great!
I am off on my girls weekend now. Free of kid and husband and responsibility! Yee ha!

Good afternoon all ... (or so it is in this part of the world)

I didn't do well yesterday, surprise surprise. So far today I've had a little slice of cake for breakfast and a diet root beer... Healthy, no? :dizzy:

My husband's car quit on him yesterday while he was on his way back from a field-job at work (he's a PC tech). His car spent the night in a parking lot and today he and his father are out trying to get it running long enough to bring it to Precision Tune (mind you we were there just last week and they charged us $400 to fix the car)... Hmm.. the car at least RAN before they got their hands on it.. :(

His dad is trying to convince him that we should just go buy or lease a new car. I tend to agree that this would probably be the best solution (as his car is over 11 years old now)... IF we had the extra $200-250/month to spend! The thing is, how much will it cost for us to keep fixing this one and is it worth it to keep if it will be costly.. that money goes down the drain at least putting money into a new car seems more worth it. Oh well, I leave it up to them to figure out as I sit here and wait. I told him to let his boss know he needs a raise because without a car he certainly cannot go out and do the field-tech work they want him to do (the guy who normally does that just quit cuz he got a recording deal in NYC).

Life, what a ride, no? If its not one problem, its another. I knew something costly would spring up because we got a decent amount of money back from taxes this year. And every time a goodly amount of money comes our way, boom.. car trouble! :(

Anyway, I'm off. I'll try to be good today but I make no promises. I am overwhelmed with stress still.. money sucks.. or lack thereof sucks :lol:

Christine
195/150/130

:) Hi again!

My second post today - I was looking for a pair of old jeans to wear for grubbing outside; dug in the closet, tried on some old Gitano size 12 average and they FIT!:D Not loosely, but not tight either. I am flyin' high on that!!!

Christine, that stinks about the car breaking down. And someone just worked on it last week? I hope you have some recourse in them doing more work for no additional $. Yeah, money (or lack of it) just changes one's attitude so much. Things are wonderful when you have enough; and so sucky when you worry 'cause there isn't enough. Does your husband get $ towards the use of his car from his work?

Hi Sprite - yes, my dog loves walking so much! Whenever I put on my shoes, she just about bowls me over with her enthusiasm (she's a big furry husky mix). It takes us 30-35 minutes for the 2 mile walk. I only know the exact mileage 'cause I drove it one day with the car, and used the odometer to measure.

I was trying to figure out what a good walking pace would be - using math, if it takes 15 minutes to walk one mile, that is a 4 mph pace. At first I was trying to go for a 12 minute mile, which is walking at 5 mph; but that was too fast and furious for me. Then I recalled Christine's advice that everyone's level of fitness determines at what point one gets out-of-breath and sweaty. And I try to test how I'm doing by singing "oh I wish I HAD an Oscar Meyer weiner" song to the dog, and seeing if that shows I'm doing alright :) (should be able to carry on a conversation with slight difficulty, but not sing)

My husband surprised me by making lunch for us, which was a kind of frittata - shredded potato, onion, peppers, and bound together with egg substitute, and some cheese on top - I have NO idea how many calories it had, but it tasted so good; that probably means more than I needed. So I'm going to have to cut out my afternoon granola bar/coffee snack, probably. oh well.

Talk to you later!

Holly

Wellllll... I now own a brand new 2002 Saturn SL1. Yikes!

They couldn't get the old car started today and instead of figuring out a way to get it over to precision tune, my father in law decided its for the best for us to buy a new car. So, Saturn o' so generously gave us a hundred bucks for the old one.. (and they get to go pick it up) LOL.. and we gave them a helluva lot more for a new one.. go figure ;) It is way kewl to have a new car but I am so stressed out right now! Since I'm such an open person I will share that we make a mere $27k/yr right now and pay nearly $700/month for rent.. add in this car payment and we now have just about enough money after that to pay utilities and food each month! Ouch! The thing is, since we didn't really have the option to order the exact car we wanted (and wait who knows how long to get it!), we had to pick from what was on the lot. It only fell short in one or two areas but we wound up paying for some extras I couldn't have cared less about. What a pain! When you pay almost 2/3 of your yearly salary for something, you kinda want it to be EXACTLY what you wanted! Oh well.. such is life, eh? At least we got 0% financing for the whole 5-yr loan! Let's dwell on the positives here.. lol

Sooo.. today's food consisted of: a piece of cake and diet soda for breakfast, a free cookie from the saturn dealership for lunch (ROFL), and a nacho supreme and a soft taco and a coke from taco bell for dinner. I estimate about 800 calories for dinner.. 200 for the cookie and um.. 300 for the cake.. So I technically haven't had too bad a day calorie-wise but what horrid food choices! :lol:

Anyway, I'm off to rest my aching head (stress headache) .. hope you all are having a great weekend!

Christine
195/150/130

hello everyone, sorry to be in a rush, my weigh in is, I lost 3 pounds so far this week! I am so happy, and motivated, Had company earlier, so I have to go lift weights now.. Take care everyone, and keep it up!!

Latisia

Earthquakes? In new England? never heard that one before!! Anyway. Weekends suck. At least I haven't binged to the puking up stage but I'll getting there. I think the reason that my weekends are always so horrible is that I'm sooo stressed out with catching up on homework, working both jobs on each day, avoiding pizza-eating friends.... Atleast its the weekend so I have something to blame it on. I think I'm also gonna blame it on PMS. Or something like that. I'm very, very late with my period. And no, I'm not pregnant. It is now 3 weeks late and I don't know why. I'm getting kinda anxious about it. I'm nervous that one day, in the middle of class or work, it'll just squirt out. Sorry for the visual. But it's all girl talk in here anyway, right? hehehe. I won't tell you what exactly I ate humungous amounts of, but let me tell you. It wasn't too pretty. Maybe once school's over I'll have better control over my weekends. I'll have time to reflect and ponder on my feelings. :smug: Like on the weekdays, if I feel cheatey, I go online and write a long post to you guys or to a buddy of mine. But on weekends, I have no such access to support. I probably won't jump back on the wagon tomorrow. I'm weird that I have to re-start everthing on a Monday. Anyone else like that? Unless you feel uneven. When a month is over and I gotta turn the calendar I always wait until a Monday, even if its like 6 days later. Anyway. Thought I'd share my troubles while deterring you guys from such actions. Hope you have had a better saturday than I. I'm in grammatical correct mode, after I just wrote my 5 page history paper. Anyway. Have a good one all.

Hey!! Forgot to congratulate Latisia!! Waaa Hooo!! WEigh in #1 a success for t-girl! Hopefully and undoubtedly more to come as well!! Way to go, girl!

I love our Satur, LOL. Our other car wasn't that old, but still, we kept having to fix it. So we bout a 2001 Saturn. It's so nice and they fix it for you. You're lucky to have the 0% financing! Ours is 18% (6 years) so I'm trying to pay extra whenever I can!


I'm freaking out about food right now cause when I don't feel good, I eat too much of the wrong things (which is weird) and the only thing not making me sick is chocolate right now! Don't really know what to do. I don't want to work for 2 years to get baby fat off again. Oh well. As long as the baby is healthy, we're good I guess. I'll feel better soon. Emmett is sleeping better, thankfully. I think he's getting a 2 year molar, poor kid.
In Christ,
Pamela

Good morning all!

I totally agree about loving Saturns. Our last car was a Saturn.. a 1991 (first year they made em!) and it was very good to us up until real recently, even considering my husband had 2 pretty good bangups in it (over $4500 worth of damage combined between the two accidents.. ouch!). So, we never even really considered anything but a Saturn for our next car and it was very convenient of them to have 0% financing :D (the only way we got it was my FIL cosigning with us). Did they sing you their little 'sending off' song? ROFL For those of you who don't know, the folx at Saturn sing to you if you buy a new Saturn! The salesman announced to everyone that this was our second Saturn and they applauded.. too funny I tell you! :lol:

I finished off yesterday by adding another piece of cake to the lineup... one seriously unhealthy eating day. Oh well, the scale actually wasn't sure if I was 150 or 149 this morning so maybe the water retention is finally going. Today we visit the in-law's house for late lunch. They're serving burgers and fries and other unhealthy stuff. They always have a good fill of fruits and veggies though so I'll try to keep myself in some sort of control anyways.

Both my husband and I had the worst stress headaches last night. He says he hasn't felt this kind of stress in years (must be nice to avoid stress for so long). I think the whole money thing is hitting him (as it has been hitting me for months now). I am actually starting to feel better about it though. We were losing control of our finances and this will bring us back to being careful because if we don't, we won't be making the carpayments!

Darmah, although not quite to such calendar extremes, I too seem to 'restart' on Monday's. I think what we need to do is stop thinking of it as 'restarting' but rather continuing on after a bump in the road? Maybe it would help if you allowed yourself ONE of the weekend days as your 'free' day and let yourself have a little treat that day!? I think I may do this myself. Give myself Saturday OR Sunday as my free day and behave the rest of the week with the knowledge that when the weekend arrives I can enjoy some 'forbidden' foods ;)

Christine
195/150/130

Hi everyone!
Holly, thanks for letting me know about the new "good 4 you" stuff. I hate that light miracle whip and miss my tuna melts. Maybe I can enjoy them again. :)
I lost all 11 lbs I gained on vacation. I guess it was all water weight. I'm glad I didn't go into a tail spin and undo all my hard work. I got the pics back from Disney and guess what? For the 1st time in my life, I think I look good. It's funny how when you look at yourself in the mirror, you see one thing but in a picture you look very different. I am truely amazed at the progress I have made. I showed my family a pic from 2 yrs ago and the difference is absolutely amazing. Even my posture has changed a lot. I now stand proud and tall.
Christine, I know money/car problems suck! Just hang in there. As you know, things always work out somehow. Don't give up. All those extra treats you are having aren't going to make the problem go away and then you are going to feel even worse about the extras you have been having. I don't have a solution for you, I wish I did. It's great that you were able to get a new car so soon after your other one dying. Not everyone is that fortunate. I had to wait 6 months to buy a new (used) car after my new (new) one was stolen. My insurance only paid the value of the car and I had to pay the car company the other $3000.
:mad: That really sucked. So see, it could be worse. It always can be. I know it's hard to look at it that way, but you have to or you'll drive yourself insane :dizzy:
I live in RI and I didn't feel the earthquake. I was in a dead sleep so that doesn't mean much. I'll have to ask hubby. He's always up bright and early.
I hope the rest of you are doing great and congrats to Latisia on her awesome loss. Keep up the good work.

Melisa

Hey everyone just stopping in, I wanted to tell Christine, and Darmah, that the key to losing weight, is to not give up.. Start over on Monday, and try your best, stay motivated, These words actually came from my Mom, when I first starte this LF plan, and now it has stuck with me, and helped me alot, You all can do it!! I know you can, if I can!!!!

Thanks for the congrats, it does help alot too;)

Pamela, I agree with you about Saturns, they are good cars!!

Hey everyone, keep up the work, dont give up!!

Latisia

They didn't sing us a song, LOL. Silly Saturn people!

I really hate food right now. I don't ever want to have to eat again. It just stinks. LOL. Even the stuff that sounded ok and didn't make me sick yesterday, makes me sick today. *sigh* Anyhoo, at least dh let me sleep in today!!
In Christ,
Pamela

Hello all!! I have to admit that I feel like I am on a downward spiral. I haven't been posting recently because I'm doing so poorly. Not only have I maintained my 5 pound gain from vacation but I have gained 2 more. I go through these periods from to time to time and each time is scary for me. I keep thinking I don't want to have to start over again. All of this hard work and I seem to temporarily give up!

I am hoping that tomorrow can be a new start. I used to walk 5 miles a day, back in my most motivating times. I am going to start walking again tomorrow beginning with 3 miles. Hopefully I can get back to the 5 miles. It's hard work but it seems that when I am that active, everything else just falls into place. Another thing is that I am going to try to drink lots of water and again cut down on fat. Does all this sound familiar? I feel like a broken record!

Anyways just wanted to check in. Sounds like everyone is doing wonderful. Congrats to Latisia on the 3 pound loss!!! Hopefully I will be able to post the same at the end of the week. I am going to try not to weigh as often, as I was becoming a slave to the scale. I'll check in tom. to let you know of my progress.


183/152/135 first goal

Congratulations on your new car Christine!
Our budget is fairly tight with car payments, etc. and I have cut out junk food which can really help the food budget. Look at it as a blessing in disguise!

I had an absolutely great weekend it was so relaxing with no kid or husband. It was a mini retreat. We stayed at my girlfriend's mom's house who is away on a trip right now and her house is brand new custom built huge and gorgeous. It's backing onto forest and we went for a hike after dinner. I kept pretending it was my house. Didn't get much sleep though as the cat kept biting my toes, playing in the blinds, with the telephone cord, and our shopping bags!

Unfortunately I was unable to find myself a tankini that fit properly. Do any of you have a suggestion of a good place to buy them in larger sizes (14/16)?

We pigged out while watching a video but it was all low fat. Licorice, light popcorn with salt & vinegar seasoning, 0 fat butterscotch pudding, non-fat steamed caramel milk. Delicious!

Anyways I will be back on track tomorrow!

Congrats Latisia on the great loss , keep up the good work.
Jacklyn don't give up hope. Hi to everyone else!

Good evening all . . .

I didn't do so well at the in-law's house today but such is life. How about me, darmah and jacklyn can all start over tomorrow together? We can have a little challenge to see who can stay on track the longest!! :)

Melisa, congrats on getting that 11 pounds to go so quickly! I totally agree about not realizing how far I've come until I look at photos. Fortunately I got a digital camera at Christmas so I can take a photo any time to check my progress. UNfortunately, I haven't had much progress since Christmas!! :(

Latisia, I totally agree the key is not giving up.. the thing is.. I'm not.. I never give up.. I just cheat .. and cheat.. and cheat.. but I keep going. Eventually I'll get there even if its 2 lbs down 1 up .. 2 down.. 1 up.. and takes 2 years :lol:

Pamela, I can relate to the food thing. I lost almost all urge to eat when I was pregnant. I gained 0 lbs during the first 3 months and in the last couple months I actually lost a pound some weeks! I gained a total of 24 lbs during the whole pregnancy and 2 weeks after I weighed 34 lbs less! The amusing thing is, my skinny little sister is pregnant now and she is craving everything in site and eating like crazy and she put on almost 20 pounds in the first 3 months! Yikes! Of course the gain slowed and I think she's only up about 35 pounds now and she's 7 months. Knowing her tho, she'll be back to her skinny self within months after she has the baby!

Jacklyn, I'm with you on the new start tomorrow.. as I mentioned in the beginning of this post.. lets see who can behave the longest k? :D

Sprite, thank you! I was telling my husband we can no longer go out to eat (restaurants being one of my weaknesses) and we're going to have to be more careful when food shopping so you're exactly right.. this may actually have me eating better!! I am so envious of your girls weekend. I could soooo use a break like that! Glad to hear you enjoyed it! Oh, and no clue about where to find tankinis.. I am not daring enough for anything but a one-piece yet myself! I don't need to risk anyone getting a peek at this belly .. :lol:

Anyways.. tomorrow I'm good (yeah, I'm a broken record too!).. promise promise promise promise promise! If I show up tomorrow and tell everyone what a bad thing I did.. don't tell me its ok and to move on.. YELL at me!!! ROFL I need a good swift kick in the arse I tell you!!! Seriously! :p

Christine
195/150/130

Hello Everyone,,,,,


Back home and am exhausted..(its 10:40 pm here) I will read all the posts in the morning and write one also.. I hope everyone is doing well and had a great weekend. I MISSED YOU GUYS!!!

Im going to bed,,, am sooooooooo tired..

See ya tomorrow....

Nancy :wave:

Hah! Good idea, Christine. We'll have a bet going on who stays on the longest. I'm fiercely competitive just to let you know! hehehehe. What's the bet? 5 bucks? I'll buy myself a Dairy queen with that. Kidding, kidding. Wouldn't want to lose the bet, now, would I? Today was just as bad as yesterday but I'll restart tomorrow anyway. Latisia, thanks for the words of encouragement. That really helps. I have to stay motivated, even if I see no loss and just know that the loss is coming. Have a wonderful day everyone. And I wish everyone the best!

:wave: Hi everyone!

Christine - big congrats on the brand new car! Such a great feeling of security, that it'll be dependable. The money commitment is scary, as always; but there's also a sense of control when you can acccount where every dollar goes!

And as for giving you a kick - we won't kick you - just nudge you FIRMLY if you ask us to!:D

Melisa - that is SO great that the 11# disappeared. And so cool that you can see that you look great. Self-love (well, that sounds goofy - I mean maybe self-acceptance? Self-liking?) is so important for us to accept ourselves. And you have pictures to have on your fridge to keep up the great work.

Sprite - your weekend sounded fun! And good for you all that your snacking was low in fat, and that you hiked. My single suggestion for a tankini might be Lands' End? They seem to have realistically sized stuff for women (not all sizes 4/6/8!)

jacklyn - keep going, girl! Getting back to the walking will help so much, as will drinking water and going low-fat when you can. Lean on us for support! I often come and just re-read posts when I'm feeling like I have to eat for no reason, and it does help.

t-girl - congrats on another loss! Are you down like 20# now? Your husband is going to say WOW! And good for you to be encouraging all the others on the other thread!!

Pamela - so sorry that you're feeling not-so-great. Does drinking stuff turn you off? Could you have something like a smoothie drink that has good stuff in it for you? Glad that your son is sleeping better, too.

darmah - it must be so hard both going to school and working. Yeah, you'd think that when you are standing and running around on your job that would count as exercise, but I don't think our bodies think of it that way. Do your legs hurt when you're done working? When my knees ached after a day of standing/running around, I realized I was too young to have aching knees (this was 10 years ago) so I started doing leg exercises with strap-on ankle weights,and that has helped SO much.

Nancy - welcome back! Tell us allabout your trip after you recover from it!

Hi Kanola - hope your doing great! Have you taken your biking test yet?

tryin'hard - are you back from vacation? Hope it's been great!

I went way WAY over calories yesterday - made a dessert for us and had ice cream with it - well, we all enjoyed it so much, especially that my guys are missing having any kind of snack food around (we have UNsalted saltines, and that's about it! No one wants to eat them) so the homemade dessert was especially appreciated. But back on track today!:D

After the 88 degree weather last week, we had snow flurries yesterday - yup - I guess this is why Vermont has such a low population; not many can stand the weather! :lol: It's gray and cold (40's) today - oh well, I won't be sweating like crazy when I exercise!

Have a great day, everyone!

Holly

Just a quick post to let ya'll know I've started thread #9.
We seem to fill these up pretty quickly, no? :-)

Christine

Hi all! I'm back from vacation and glad to be back in the routine! Williamsburg VA was wonderful!
Thanks for all your suggestions! We snacked on carrots and hummus in the car and have discovered the Quakes rice cakes--very good and only 70 cal for 9 of them!
We did a ton of walking! The first day I didn't do "my" walk and kept walking too fast for dh and dd so decided to do "my" walk before breakfast and that helped. I ate sensibly and hope the scale will be friendly!
I saw a friend I hadn't seen since last summer and wish I could bottle the enthusiasm she showed toward me! She kept saying, Oh my God, oh my God!!! It was great!!
One of the best parts of the trip was being comfortable with myself. We went to Busch Gardens and it was so nice to be able to go through turnstiles and sit on rides and not have to wonder what the weight limits are! It was a great feeling!
One word about bathing suits--I have read it in more than one place that sizing for bathing suits is DIFFERENT than regular clothes. You are SUPPOSED to order one size bigger than you normally wear. (You'd think they'd do it the opposite way!!) I have a Lands End tankini and the size 10 is a little snug around the waist, but it's covered by the top piece.
Well, as always, you all continue to keep my motivated! It was a lot of fun catching up on a week's worth of posts!
Make it a great day!

Welcome back tryin'hard! Glad you enjoyed your trip. I haven't been to Williamsburg since I was about 3 years old! Its on my list of vacation spots once I can afford trips again! :) Rice cakes (the flavored ones anyway) are very tasty. People seem to think so negatively of them but I find them to be a great snack. One of my favorite things to do is take an Apple Cinnamon rice cake or a Carmel Corn cake and spread a little natural applesauce on top... yummm! :)

That had to feel incredible, the reaction of your friend. Last time I saw most of my friends from back home in New York is at my wedding a year and a half ago, when I was at my top weight. I can't wait for the day I get to go visit them and see their reactions! Of course, I probably won't see them for a long while yet, so maybe by then I'll actually be at or near goal!

Anyways, I'll see everyone on the new thread . . . :)

Christine
195/150/130