Cassi - Great remodel! Both you and the kitchen. How great do you look???

Good Morning Everybody!

I have been lurking the last couple days. Just reading posts, mostly. But, I'm still here, and still trying to be POP!!

Wendy V -

Nance - how was your italian dinner last night?

Katie - I hope your new remedies work for you. Acupuncture? to me, sounds painful. I'm not sure if I could have somebody poking at me! But, whatever works to relax you, go for it!!

Cassi - I can DEFINITELY see a change!!! You have done awesome, and look great!

As for me, well, my home scale is up (again). I will officially WI later one at the COD.

to all those who have WI today, and here's to a great POP day everybody!!

Wendy II.......I keep meaing to tell you how adorable I think you are, and then I forget........so today, before I say ANYTHING else......I am saying.......you are a doll, very pretty, and I love your avatar.

Ok, now..........as much as I have been trying to stay focused (like so many of us), I too am having some issues. I guess for me, the honeymoon is over.........and although I have only been on the program 3 months.......I somehow feel I am ok with little cheats and BLT's (bites, licks, and tastes for all you newbies. When I first started, I was like, hey, what's the obsession with blts???? I mean, they are good, but dang....). Anyway, looking back through my diary, I realized that for 8 weeks, I was losing at an average rate of over 3 pounds a week. At that rate, I would be sitting right next to Kristen with her amazing successes. Somehow, I kind of lost a month. I know the holiday "enjoyments" had a lot to do with it, but the biggest reason is because I stopped working the program the way it was designed. I stopped going to my COD, and blamed it on "not having enough time," and I stopped measuring and weighing everything, and I stopped spacing out my foods, so that I never felt hungry. I know that when I get hungry, I am a dangerous woman. I need to do what Dr. Oz says...........stay almost satisfied, all the time, to avoid binging. I know this about me.........and I stopped doing it. I am re-committing today.........to work this program and get the very most out of it that I can. I will go to my COD saturday morning (without the kids) and really let them help me. I am doing an "emergency TO" (love that, Dan) today and tomorrow to get my brain straight.......and I am going to do this.........one day at a time Thanks for listening to my plan everyone. I hope you all have a great day

Good morning. I don't know if/when I can ever catch up to what's been going on, but I will try to go back and browse a bit because I think I've missed some important things. (Hint: If anyone wants to PM me anything I should know, please feel free!)

I've been staying OP, even through the stress and craziness.

Thanks to all who were so sweet to comment on the new me and the new kitchen. I do love cooking in it so much. As for the new me, I can see a difference from the "before" picture, but I guess the others blend in to me. I know that my clothes from back then have been bagged up and given away, but I guess I want the "waddle" gone and to have a more defined jawline. I know that many people can weigh a lot more but still have this chiseled jawline. And now that I'm thinking about it, I think I still had the "double chin" thing when I wasn't overweight. I guess I just have a chubby face, huh? But thank you, everyone, who took time to look at my pics. I tried to post a new avatar, but it's too big. I will have to play with that when I have more time.

Cassi, Cassi, Cassi.....You look wonderful! I can totally see the changes especially in your face. You're just soooo cute! I'm also loving the new kitchen especially the island and the hanging pots. Loving!!

Keep it up girl!!

As for me, i'm actually struggling on getting out of the 130's! I want to get into the 120's so bad.....I keep playing around with the same pound or two. For instance, yesterday morning I weighed in at 132.5 and this morning back down to 130.5. WTF!!! I'm just telling myself to keep at it because I want to reach 123 by the time I leave for NYC!! Hope everyone else is having a POP day.

I really have to catch up on the posts. I only went back a page to see Cassi's new pictures..

Take Care everyone!

Evette - I love the new avatar! You look so beautiful. Don't worry about the 120s. I've seen your WL pattern and it will come. It just may take a little longer now that you're so little. Hang in there!

Thanks again for the words of encouragement Cassi. Hey, I noticed you're in the 190's...(at least that's what I read on the Slim Down Challange thread) Congratulations on that!

Thanks. Official COD scale yesterday was 200.2. Cripes! It's going to take an act of congress to get that scale in the 100s! LOL

Went to WI yesterday, and lost 1.4 pounds. Only .6 left until I hit 40 pounds!!! Cassi, I love your kitchen!!! My fiance and I are also doing some remodeling, but we have the whole house to do!! It's nice when you get a room done, you can breathe for a second. I think our kitchen will be the last room we tackle. So far we have the bathroom and one bedroom done. I picked up our engagement pictures yesterday. They are very cute! I will try to download a couple for you all to see! Getting very excited about the wedding in Jamaica. We have less than 3 months to go!!!

Cassi!!!! Love the new pics! I can definitely see changes in you, even in the more recent pics. Your face (dreaded jawline) HAS gotten more defined from Oct to now. So pretty.. thanks for updating us. The kitchen is great too - I love the color of the cabinets, I wish that had been a choice when we built. Looks like a true cooks kitchen now! (Don't you start classes soon?)

Nicole - you've been doing great - don't short yourself that compliment! It's very hard not to compare yourself to other people's losses, but you CANNOT DO THAT! Cannot! (can you tell that I chant that to myself every single day???LOL) Each person is different. If you had stayed POP the whole time you may have lost as much as others, but then again, maybe not.

BTW, Evette, I've been meaning to tell you - great picture!

crazy day today, plus I'm leaving early to bring dog to Mom's for the weekend, then a baby shower, then I have to pack , plus I should probably get to the COD..... ugh.

Bye all!

Thanks Kim, love your pic as well.

Oh, I forgot to mention - I made the cheeseburger and fries casserole too - used ground turkey instead of the beef, and used hash browns instead of fries (saved 70 cals per serving too, but that's not why I did it, I didn't have fries on hand)

It was way yummy! I broiled it at the end per Cassi's suggestion, and also because I used the hash browns. Will certainly make it again.

Morning ladies!

Evette- Don't you hate the bouncy scale? Oh well, you will get there, no doubt!

Nicole- I am not sure what to do about the black mold thing. They closed a school down for 2 weeks here recently to clean out the black mold. I should probably call the Health Department and ask them to come and test for it, but if I do, I may end up unemployed. As I understand, it is very expensive to clean it up. However, it does seem like an unsafe environment, doesn't it? Glad to see you feeling so motivated. It is a good thing to reevaluate every so often.

Wow Kim, sounds like a busy day for you, have fun!

Sherry- GL at WI!

To those of you who commented on the IUD thing, many thanks. Yes, I did just come off the pill, and this IUD is the plastic Mirena one that contains hormones that slow-release over the next 5 years. I don't have any discomfort, just annoyance at the nearly-constant bleeding. I'm supposed to go back to have it checked "after my next cycle"...hahaha, which cycle would that be, doc? Pick a week, any week! But thanks for the support, I'm glad I'm not alone in this!

Wow, Cassi, you look great! Thanks so much for the photos!!! I promise to do the same for me at some point...I know exactly which before photo to use...ugh, it's a blurry one from this past summer, and I was in shock when I saw it. *sad* NEVER again will I look like that!!!

Nicole, thanks for the re-affirmation of your resolve to do better. I need to do the exact same thing. I've found that I can stay POP ALL day, except for that hour or so right when I get home and before I eat dinner. WTF? WHY is it so hard for me to keep the munchies away when I know dinner is coming??? Gah. I will do better tonight! I WILL!

I think I'll try this out this weekend... Did you use packaged hash browns or did you shread the potatoes yourself? I have to imagine that the packaged fries and browns have quite a bit of sodium...

Kate - WAY TO GO!!!