Starting Fat Smash 11/2- Any takers

[Equinata]

Good Afternoon ladies,

Jan I am sorry you are having such a hard morning. I hope you get some rest so that headache will subside. I have been keeping track of what I'm eating as it is a set menu on the EFS and it is little to no sugar at all. I have been working out 5 days a week with more resistance than cardio so I do believe I am putting on muscle which is another reason why I have not been killing you ladies with that scale not budging. I did not take measurements, however I am back in my 16 pants comfortable so I do notice inches moving downward. My belly has started to form what is really a stomach at this point and my side love handles have almost vanished. I'm going to continue with the same workouts until my boot camp and then after I will repeat the diet with just minimal cardio that is suggests. I want to be toned not flabby when I lose the weight.

[jan11661]

Good Evening Equinata,

See you answered your own question without really needing me to help. Lets see, you fit more comfortable in the pants that were once too snug, you are noticing more definition in your stomach and your love handles are no longer. First off I say "hoorah"! Second of all, you are doing great, that scale is not the only indication that your body is improving. You keep going girl!

I do see your point in wanting to be toned once you lose the weight instead of flabby. That is my concern since I don't work out much. In the end I am sure you will be in better shape then I will be.

Biggest Losers on.......gotta run! Have a good evening & I'll catch you tomorrow.

Jan

[life4evr]

Hey. Yall, the exercise thing did not happen this weekend. I spent most of my weekend on the couch, fighting a cold or something. But anyway I am glad to know everything is going okay with everyone. I am restarting on Thursday, 12-3. Simply because I have a trip planned to Outback tomorrow, a I survived the first semester of clinicals. So I allready know that wouldn't go well. Off to do some work and study.

[Equinata]

Good Morning Ladies,

I have been missing The biggest loser for the past two shows, so I am lost at this point. I'll catch up online I guess.

Jan, I figured out one more thing with the EFS that causes me to stall instead of dropping a pound on the scale and it's that darn brown rice. I have eliminated the brown rice from this weeks menu - so when it tells me to have brown rice as one of my items for the meal I just don't eat it. I have lost a full pound since the final budge of the scale of 205 so I am at 204 today. Eventhough, Sunday is my official weigh date - I'll take the 1 pound drop. I hope to be at wonderland by the 14th which is when my bootcamp starts and I am hoping to lose at least ten pounds by the end of boot camp hopefully putting me at the 189 mark then I can go for my next 30lb loss. I know I'm trying to put some action plans together for this thing. LOL I plan to go back home to NYC to visit family in the spring and I want them to be floored when they see me, but mostly I want me to be floored when I see myself naked. I told my husband hopefully I will be able to get my breast down to a DD cup so I can finally shop for lingerie like regular women. Eventhough, I may not be huge I have some gigantic breast. They have always been big no matter the frame, but I am in a 36HH now and I tell him don't even think about going in to Victoria's Secret because I have more secrets than she could ever have. LOL

Life4ever I know how you feel about colds. I am fighting one now with old faithfully Zicam... That stuff is good! Continue to make baby steps with the workouts and before you know it you might be addicted. I roll out the bed with no problem now. It's been four consecutive weeks with my firm program and I will not miss my morning work out for anything now.

[jan11661]

Hi Ladies,

Sorry I was not on earlier, woke up with a migraine again this morning. I had one yesterday and it went away after taking my prescription meds but returned overnight with a vengeance. Once I took some more medicine today I felt better but then my daughter talked me into getting on a ladder to put up the Christmas lights. In hindsight it was probably not a good idea after being off kilter most of the day. It turned out ok though...well I didn't fall off the ladder anyway but as usual had an issue with the lights!





Hi Equinata,

I have brown rice about 3 times a week and wonder how it's affecting me. I know it fills me up really quickly. Sounds good that you discovered that might be a culprit in your scale moving..or not. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you will continue to see a decent loss by actual weigh in day.

As for the gigantic breasts...wow, I didn't see that confession coming! LOL I'm sure as you lose more weight they will get a bit more "reasonable". That is a lot of extra "boobie weight" that you are carrying also. They probably add an extra 5-8 lbs each! I'm sure you have suffered back & shoulder strain over the years also.

I know as I gained weight I went up in size to a 38D but not near what you have! My Mom was always big breasted with her biggest being a 40DD. My older daughters don't have much to speak of and always say "Mom why didn't you pass those to us like Grandma did to you"? My oldest doesn't have much more then a bud...and she's almost 29. That's not going to change now, not until maybe she has a baby. My middle daughter is a bit better but certainly not well endowed. My little one who is 11 can't wait to get "boobs". Some of the girls in her class already have some but they are also bigger in general. Brooke is very slim and so she has not "grown" yet, just taller. She takes her shirt off every day and tries to jump up and down to see if she has any movement yet....bless her heart. At least if she doesn't get much in time she won't be too far from what her big sissies have! OK enough boobie talk!



Life4evr,

I hope you feel better soon. Just take this all one day at a time. Get your exercise in when you can and feel better. In the meantime, try to watch your food intake if you are still laid up. If you are not active you also don't want to be adding a lot of food to the mix. Last thing you want is to come out of feeling crappy and have gained weight too! Good vibes, wishes, and blessings coming your way!





We rented a movie and are going to sit down and all watch it together. Probably cry, it's MY Sister's Keeper, I hear it's a tearjerker.......any of you see it yet? Hope you all have a good evening.


Jan

[life4evr]

Thanks for the encouragement. I am feeling better but still not all that great. Yeah I am definitely trying to watch my food intake. I am just ready for this semester to be over with.

Jan,

I saw the movie. It was a little sad, but I liked the movie.

[Equinata]

Good Morning Ladies,

Jan tell Brooke to not rush it and big is not always better.... LOL I had my share of back pains but not as bad as people may think because I think I was built to hold these babies.

I finally put my lights and tree up as well and it was a headache like always now I can't wait to take them down. My daughter tries to help but just gets in the way all the time. Next year I'm thinking about letting her decorate all by herself.

I am glad to hear both of you ladies are doing better and hope it continues.

I have not seen that movie so I will put it on my rental list.

[jan11661]

Good Afternoon Ladies,

Another day, another migraine. Woke up with it being the worse of the last couple of days, I'm hoping this is the last. Already nauseous upon awaking, never a good thing. Managed to take my daughter to school but as soon as I got home I had to run right back into bed and curl up in a fetal position with a pillow so that I wouldn't throw up my expensive medicine I had already taken. A couple hours of that, an ice pack on my head, and I am feeling a bit better. Still not 100% but I'll take this in comparison to earlier.

My husband kept calling and was worried I had died or something. Wanted to make sure I got our daughter to school, but then again if I had not, she would have been calling him over and over again.

The movie was good, I've seen better and I've seen worse. The storyline was good. Thank you both for "weighing in" on whether or not you had seen it. I watch the show Medium and I thought the girl from that show that played the older sister in the movie did an excellent job. Enough said, Equinata has not seen it yet!

Equinata,

How old is your daughter again? I was always a control freak with all the kids and the holidays, the decoration, lights, tree, but I have "let go" in recent years. Started with the tree and me letting my little one decorate with the ornaments but when she went to sleep I would then rearrange them and "make them perfect". I have since given up on trying to be Ms. Perfect.

I now let her do whatever she wants with the tree after I get the initial lights on and was trying to let her do some of the outside lights yesterday. It was more of a teaching experience since she had not done the outside before and didn't want to be "taught" so we both became cranky! I am afraid to say that I have become more of a scrooge not caring if we do Christmas, lights, or a tree at all. If it wasn't for the nice smell the tree brings into the home I probably wouldn't care about that either.

Especially with me being out of work and trying to do the best for the kids all through the year it's just so senseless to put myself more in the poor house to have to do gifts all around and go through all of that. See, I am a scrooge! The older kids understand my logic and won't ask for anything but "because it's Christmas" I feel I have to get them gifts anyway as their mother. I want to, don't get me wrong, I love them so much and want to do all of this for them, it's just so tough financially I would prefer to just bury my head in the sand. It's hard to feel the joy. I want all my babies here together I just hate the obligation surrounding that togetherness, it's stressful. Wah, wah, wah, poor me, there are a lot people out there that have it much worse so I should just be grateful regardless. So now that I have expressed my royal scroogeness I'll shut up!

Life4evr,

I do hope that you feel better. You literally have a lot of things going on in your life that can wear you down. "Burning the candle at both ends" comes to mind. Just remember that whether it is school, your diet, or other challenges you are facing, you are doing this all to better yourself and should feel proud. You will be making yourself a better, stronger, more productive person for the future. Anything worth doing is never easy, bit it IS worth it! We are here to support you as much as we can with the dieting part!


I really need to get on with my day. I hope you all are doing well and staying on track as much as you can. Catch you later.


Jan

[spinsistah]

Hi ladies! I can't believe I've been off this site for over a week. Thanksgiving was really hectic and difficult, so I spent most of last week dealing with that. Although I did manage to get about 11 hours worth of shopping in on Friday with my sister -- I should look up how many calories we might have burned

Meals were fairly good, though I definitely didn't stick to the FS plan. I filled up with the tofurkey (which was waaaaay better than I anticipated), but still managed to put some stuffing and mashed potatoes. Plus I had half (but only half) of my auntie's cream cheese pumpkin muffins. Totally worth it though.

The rest of the weekend/early week has been spent catching up with school work. My classes were cancelled last week, so my professors gave us a boatload of work to turn in this week. Sheesh. I should've just gone to class.

But now I'm back and excited to catch up on all the happenings. Jan, I'm so sorry your health has been rough going. It makes me sad to know that you're in so much pain, yet still able to give all of us love and motivation to keep on pushing.

Ok, I should be working. Will check in later tonight.

Oh! And I forgot to mention that we had our 4th weigh in on Tuesday. We all managed to gain, but somehow I managed to gain the least (.4 lbs). It was a pretty bittersweet win, but now all three of us are back on track, so I expect big losses next weigh in.

Have a good day all!

[Equinata]

Welcome back Spinsistah. It's great to have everyone back and focused.
Jan I want to say thank you because despite your pain and discomfort your still push through to motivate us everyday. I hope that the medicine will bring you some relief like it is suppose to. Why don't things go the way we want them to!
I have been trying to talk a few of my friends into doing the EFS as well and man it's difficult trying to motivate...

Talk to you ladies later.

Oh yeah Jan my daughter is 8 going on 18 and knows everything. LOL

[Equinata]

Good Morning Ladies,

You guys are going to get so tired of me saying I'm down another pound, but I've been stuch for two weeks and I am excited about my drops.... Yay!

[jan11661]

Hi Ladies,

Spinsisah,

Great to see you. Thank you for the kudos regarding trying to be supportive through my darn pain! I try to stay positive but some days it's just so hard.

Glad to hear the tofurkey turned out well. I'll mention it to my daughter that you liked it! They didn't have one this year. I forgot that they were in Ohio visiting her husband's family for Thanksgiving. Although his family are of Indian decent (from Guyana), and don't usually celebrate the same holidays as we do, the Aunt (who is American) still had the full out Thanksgiving dinner along with the traditional Indian food. Of course my daughter does not eat regular turkey (no meats at all actually) but I'm sure her husband enjoyed a taste of real bird instead of the tofurkey this year!

Great that through the whole holiday you only gained a few ounces. Regroup and continue on!

Equinata,

Thank you also for telling me how you appreciate my support through my pain. I am happy to say that as rough as yesterday started out it ended ok. I woke up with some partial pain this morning but overall, not bad at all. I have often wondered what my quality of life would be without migraines. I am hoping to find out after menopause! I'd say that 40 years is enough of head splitting pain! Unfortunately, I don't see myself getting past that point for another 5-10 years.

It's great if you can get others on board with you to do the EFS. It keeps you and them accountable more so then by yourself. Support and motivation is what helps keep you on track, as long as you are all looking at the same common goal.

I however only have the support of the ladies here. My husband is proud of me but continues to bring bad things in the home and eat them in front of me. I was hungry last night when we were out and was waiting to come home to have a "decent" snack. I felt bad that I got the remark from both my husband and daughter that "we can't go to Burger King or McDonald's because you can't have it". I told them they were more than welcome to but despite being disrespectful to me, we also don't have the money right now to be making those fast food runs just for the heck of it. They didn't stop at either of those places, but my husband still stopped at the convenience store and let my daughter get "snacks". Pizza rolls and some other kind of junk. Ok, where was the monetary or nutritional value in that over the fast food run? My husband and I are never going to be on the same page regarding money. Ok, enough complaining about the family!

The thing with your daughter being "8 going on 18" sounds familiar. They always seem to want to add 10 years, mine is "11 going on 21". We actually have been having some behavioral problems with her and so started some counseling last week. It was just my husband and I basically telling the counselor about our history in order for her to determine how we have screwed her up! She is also having issues in school that she never had before, mostly in comprehension of math and reading...this was something she was a whip on early on so it does not make sense. The math was always a struggle but more so since they started algebra.

Anyway, my daughter goes by herself next week to the counselor. The counselor had asked if she was ever medically or developmentally tested. They tested her hearing and vision in school early on but never for anything else and not since. She has seen the regular Dr. for check ups but again not to be tested for anything specific. My husband was afraid they would automatically say she had ADD and would be given medication to make her a zombie. I told him the Dr.'s know best (most of the time) and if it is determined that's what she needs to feel like the other children, to be able to focus, comprehend, and learn without such a struggle, then we should try. Anyone here have experience with this where you could weigh in?


Well once again I have yakked way too much. My weigh in for the week is tomorrow so I'll report in on what the scale says. I'll try to check in later too.

Bye,

Jan

[Equinata]

Hey Jan,

I've noticed my daughter struggling with reading and have since got her a tutor so hopefully this will correct the problem. I do not know about the behavioral thing though as you have way more experience than I do with children. I do know that when I was 11 I was pretty hard to except I still did well in school to make up for the hard times I gave my mom. Hopefully, the therapy will help her and she is just in a phase right now.

[jan11661]

Good Morning Ladies,

Equinata,

Thanks for responding about the daughter issues. When my daughter was your daughters age she was an absolute whip on reading. She was part of a school challenge for amount of books read and everything. She has a good friend who we have over almost every weekend, she always brings a book and reads before bed every night. Grant it, it's usually Twilight or New Moon but she's still reading up a storm. My daughter has just lost interest as her comprehension has not been as easy to her.

I am hoping we will get to the bottom of it all through the therapy and possible testing. It's upsetting to see a little one of only 11 going through issues and acting out about things she may not even understand. We have also asked about tutoring (especially for math) but the school system is limited and only gives them help during FCAT testing. We would have to hire a private tutor (which is what you may have) but they are so expensive and right now we can't afford it. We'll start with where we are, see what is suggested and then go from there. We have to get her straightened out before she really heads into the teens....it's all downhill from there!



On a "lighter" note, today was my weigh in. : I was shocked, I was hoping for maybe 1-1/2 lbs but I had a 3 lb loss this week! I don't know how that happened but I'll take it!




OK, got to run, hubby is saying the pan is hot for my breakfast!



Have a nice day. I'll check in later or tomorrow.


Jan

[Equinata]

Good Morning Ladies
I'm feeling a little queasy this morning, think I ate some bad fish last night. I received my new scalr that shows body fat and water hydrstion and will be trying it out tomorrow for weigh in.

Jan you are right I am paying out of pocket for the tutor but I was fortunate to find one that will work with our budget.