[Fat Melanie]

Personals in the order that they appeared:

Cottagebythesea, have fun with your cut & color and congrats on your GD going to college.

CyndiM, being a kept woman would be great if I were married to a doctor or lawyer or something. I'd lounge around the pool in my mansion and get my nails done... fun!

Loriann, sorry that you can't keep the pup! Hope you find someone who will take him, the poor thing. Heh, I never noticed you lived in NY but your location caught my eye. What part? I'm originally from Long Island.

Belle Mer, have fun at Ikea. Incidentally I have never been to one but I've heard they're great.

Ruthxxx, yum, the dehydrated fruits sound delicious. Hope the pears turn out well!

Lady Nessa, congrats on the family going back to school. I am strange, I find it incredibly hard to sleep when there is light. If I need a nap in the morning after I wake up to give the baby a bottle, I have to squeeze my eyes shut, cover my head with the blanket (well, I sleep like that anyway, it goes back to being a kid and being scared of the dark!) and sometimes I even have to literally put my hands over my eyes, and only then can I sleep with light. You're lucky!

Femmecreole, good thing that you found your lesson plans! I'm glad you did.

TwynnB, that salad sounds delicious, too bad I can't have such a salad since I'm on Phase 1. Will you share the recipe though?

AutumnRose, good luck dealing with the insomnia. I used to be an insomniac myself and I still have trouble falling asleep. I used to get stuff from a health food store to deal with it like kava kava and valerian.

Schmoodle, Monday sucks! Hope you have a good time at work anyway.

TomandKara, have fun working with the kids, and good luck peeing out the extra 4lbs (hopefully it's just water weight).

Weezle, have fun at work.

Phxsunflower, have fun at school.

Beachgal, I wish they had a cat event around here, since I'm a young crazy cat lady in the making, that would be right up my alley (cat). Ha. (I know, I know, that was corny and fully intended to be.) heh heh heh. The day you had sounds fun.

Zeffryn, your DH is in LAW school? Bad-@ss. How did he go about doing it? I've been considering doing that recently, not this year, but next year I was considering taking some community college courses, getting straight A's and then attempting to get into law school. But, I'm not sure how to go about it. Also you mentioned wanting to write, I am curious about how Jessie became a freelance writer as well, ever since I was a kid I've wanted to write the next great novel... or at least an entertaining piece of crap that makes it on the bestseller list. I love to write.

Barb, I hope Brian gets the more time he wants for his homework. (A kid motivated to actually DO his homework? That's wonderful! It sounds like you've got a very smart young man there.) I am sorry to hear about Brian's father and hope the surgery goes well. That dude is seriously a bit of a d*** but he still is the boy's father, so for his sake I hope he is okay.

Pacergal, have fun meeting the future SIL (?) Maybe he'll be an entirely different person than from what you've heard. People love to gossip but it's not always true. If everyone believed all of the slanderous things that my boyfriend's mother says about me around the county, I'd probably be burnt at the stake by now.

Kimstar, hi, have fun!

JessieW, I think you BOTH look wonderful. I love that dress. Yes, the fall is awesome, it is definitely my favorite season. But why, why whyyyy do you love NC?


Me: I finished the SBD book last night so, that's good. I've got so much cleaning to do, I need to go get on the Flylady website because it's ridiculous in here! But right now, I have absolutely no energy whatsoever.

Yesterday we were at my grandma's house and my DS whacked her in the nipple with a set of plastic measuring spoons. (She would give me measuring spoons to chew as a baby which she STILL has and gave them to me, all gnawed up and everything, so now she's got new ones to give to my son.) DS was flailing about all hyper energetic and it was clear to me that this child is taking after his father. We think that soon DS is going to start crawling. Grandma has a crib set up in the room, and she was trying to make me take it the last time we saw her. I told her I wasn't going to use a secondhand crib, I didn't know if it was safe, and I needed to measure the slats and stuff... she said I was being paranoid... well we set DS in the crib to take a nap, and then after awhile I went to check on him and he was turned sideways with his fat chunky leg stuck through one of the slats! He was fine. He was just laying there until I walked in the room and then started the wailing, (actually, it's more creature-screech than wailing, that boy sounds like a pteradactyl screaming)... anyway, I went and got Grandma to show her, and she was just horrified! I was mildly amused.

This girl I went to school with, she was in the grade below me, is moving in right next store (seriously, if I go out onto the porch, her front door is RIGHT THERE IN MY FACE practically). She is a friend of one of my best friends but I don't know her at all. My BF knows her. He used to call her Big Bird. Nice. My BF's friend was in a relationship with her for a couple of years and they've had two kids, but she left out of state to get away from him, and now she's back. Incidentally, her dad is our landlord, which is why he's renting the place to her. I like my privacy and she's taking it away! Biatche. Nah, it will probably be nice to have someone my age also with sons (although I only have one son) to be next door, although I imagine she'll be working most of the time. So yeah, that's what's going on in my boring life! Being a stay-at-home mom doesn't give you a lot of exciting stories to share, then again, I'll probably be changing my tune when my son starts crawling and getting into everything.

[zeffryn]

Mel - DH will start law school in the fall of 2009. He is finishing up his PhD in Math right now. He should be done writing his dissertation within a few weeks and then he has to focus on taking the LSAT (the test required -along with a bachelors degree- to get into law school) Deadlines for registration is March, so he should have plenty of time. Unfortunately, the law school that he wants to go to only admits 250 students per year. - 1200 apply. DH has held a 4.0 GPA throughout grad school and a 3.8 in his undergraduate years. He did really well on the GRE - I think he got into the high 90th percentile - so he doesn't think the LSAT should be that big of a hurdle.

As far as I know, to get into law school you only need a bachelors degree (I don't think the major matters) with a relatively high GPA and a decent LSAT score...and patience.

As far as your place goes....start by cleaning the kitchen. It seems like when my kitchen is messy, it hinders me from cleaning everything else. When my kitchen is sparkly, everything else seems like a breeze.

[Fat Melanie]

It sounds really hard to get into law school... good luck to your DH. Now I'm thinking I better come up with a new life plan. Your husband sounds incredibly smart!

You know, it's sad because I still haven't started with cleaning. I agree with how a dirty kitchen hinders everything else. When the kitchen is clean, I feel so much better, even if the living room is a mess.

[Kim_Star060404]

Hey everyone. Just got back from the GYN's office. I almost forgot that I had my annual today! Anywho, she was really proud of the weight I've lost so far and has decided that, as long as my blood work is at the same levels it was in Dec., she won't put me back on the Met. Hallelujah! We went back over my eating and exercise plan and she's very happy with it. She said to just be as consistent as possible and that she's happy with my progress and would be ecstatic if it stayed at the same rate. Phew. Glad that's over with.

[zeffryn]

Mel - I know it sounds really lame, but a friend of mine and I are cleaning partners We make our plan for the week and stay accountable to the other....it really helps. If you want, you could join. I usually make my schedule on Sunday afternoons and start Monday.

About DH being smart....yeah. It pisses me off sometimes. When we were in college, I studied my butt off and he would play video games....and STILL got better grades than I did. I stopped at a masters because of it. Oh well, we all have our talents.

Kim - Congrats!

[EofAZ]

Well I had a brush with hi glucose carbs this weekend. We decided to go visit my SIL and BIL on Saturday. Last time I was there was BIL’s b’day and I sidestepped the lasagna, tortellini & ravioli served for dinner by arriving just late enough to justify not feeling like eating. (They knew we would be late and everyone else had finished.)

Sooooo, I put it right out of my mind, until Saturday, when I walked in and found she had pulled out the extra lasagna out of the freezer because she felt so bad that I didn’t get to have any two weeks ago.

I spent the entire day explain to her about low and high GI and how great I was finally feeling since I started SBD and how nervous even the thoughts of carbs make me feel and I had not introduced any pasta back into my diet yet. Now just note she is a 4’10” 90 lbs Italian. She has a lot of trouble keeping her weight up to a healthy range and is clueless of how important this is to me. AND lasagna is her specialty, made from scratch.

Dinner time comes (now I came prepared with my own food as I always do so this does not surprise anyone) and she looks at me with “so, are you going to have some?” I said Sure, just make the piece small please. Then I sat down next to DH and start picking and low and behold that lasagna came apart so easy that before anyone else sat down it was on DH’s plate and I leaned over and said “I would eat your eggplant for you if you needed me to” He nodded his head and slid the noodles under his and no one was the wiser, then I went and got my veggies out, had a little of her sauce a cross them so she could see me go back for seconds. It really was good but I really am terrified that I eat something that will trigger a craving. I’m still at phase 1.5 and really taking my time to add things back in. I’ve already found out that sugar free pudding isn’t a good idea for me. I can’t leave it alone if it is in the refrig so I haven’t prepared anymore once I got DH to clean it up for me before I nibbled away two whole boxes. It wasn't that there were that many calories, I think it was only like 25 cal per serving BUT it was the lack of control and the fear where it would lead to.

I cannot tell you how I felt when I walked in and saw how happy she was that she thought to fix me such a special treat for dinner, they almost always just have meat and potatoes. The Italian foods are a once a year thing and I had successfully navigated that this year. I brought my veggies and snacks and figured I could have some grilled meat, whatever it was and pass on the potatoes and be social and still stay on plan. Yah right.

[zeffryn]

EofAZ - they have single serving pouches of sugar free pudding mix. Each little pouch makes 1/2 cup serving. Perfect!

Great job staying on plan.

[EofAZ]

Jessie -- you look as cute as can be. This is the very best time in your life so enjoy the WHOLE experience. You look healthy and happy and pregnant and that is a beautiful sight. Enjoy this moment because it goes by so quickly.

[EofAZ]

Thx Zeffryn but I really am scared to death of triggering a binge. I was really struggling just before I started SBD. I was doing great up until my granddaughter was born (down 30 lbs using Nutrisystem from April - Sept '07) and while I was in NY with my DD I got off track (just a little) and when I got back to AZ spent from September '07 until June of '08 trying to get myself to stop binging. I didn't stop using NS I just couldn't stop eating in the evenings. I felt horrible. Right up until I was about 3 days into Phase I, thank goodness I found something that helped. But now if there is something that I eat that leaves me unable to control it that sucker is out of my house. There is plenty I can eat that won't do that to me and nothing is worth the feeling you get when you loose control.

Ok, I'll get off my soap box now.

BTW, I'm not slamming NS because I did loose 30 lbs really easily but once I started craving carbs it wasn't possible to use their product effectively. Besides that I didn't realize how much I missed cooking.

I just love this program and I owe trying it to this site. I thought it was just a fad until I started following the posts here so I really owe you guys a lot.

[zeffryn]

As much as I've heard people having success with Nutrisystem, I think a major flaw in it is that it doesn't teach you how to eat after you've lost the weight. How is one supposed to maintain a weightloss if they've eaten prepared foods the entire time? One cannot live on nutrisystem meals forever me thinks.

[EofAZ]

I know, and I can appreciate that, but to give credit where credit is due they have an amazing customer base. So many people have been successful on the plan and converted NS foods to recipes they now cook at home and share with others. NS does not block that sharing in anyway. You can get hundreds of recipes that are shared to replace and improve the NS foods. The corporation could be really nasty about that but they aren't and that really surprised me.

That said, I still wish I had researched SBD years ago but better now then never.

[Fat Melanie]

Originally Posted by zeffryn

Mel - I know it sounds really lame, but a friend of mine and I are cleaning partners We make our plan for the week and stay accountable to the other....it really helps. If you want, you could join. I usually make my schedule on Sunday afternoons and start Monday.

About DH being smart....yeah. It pisses me off sometimes. When we were in college, I studied my butt off and he would play video games....and STILL got better grades than I did. I stopped at a masters because of it. Oh well, we all have our talents.

Kim - Congrats!

Zeffryn, anything that will help me stick to some sort of schedule and keep this place CLEAN... tell me more. I never got around to doing it, never visited the flylady site today, got sidetracked, BF came home, contributing to the mess (it only takes him a minute and mess starts piling up), and now I've got this mentality that it's too late to clean today (it is 6pm here) although honestly, I could get up right this second and clean, I just feel too overwhelmed to do so. Urgh, it's a s**thole in here.

I'm envious. I wish I had a master's. I could by now, but I stupidly quit college because I decided at the time that partying was a lot more fun (it ended up not so much when you're 22 with nothing to show for it!) So I say you've done very well.

EofAz, (for some reason everytime I see your name I am reminded of EasyE, some rapper my boyfriend likes.), doesn't the Nutrisytem focus on good carbs and whole grains and stuff?

It seems too expensive for my budget though, and I like to cook. But, I think it's great that you lost 30 lbs, but I'm glad you have joined everyone on the SBD.

[JellyBean32882]

Today has been ****, don't got much to say. All my fam keeps talking about now is my sister and her baby due in Feb.. and yet they put me down saying I'm not street smart and this and that.. I'm sick of my family, I certainly hope I do get the job I applied for cause I'm sick of being controlled and put down. That is why I'm always putting myself down and hate myself.

Hope everyone is doing well..

[KO]

Jelly, I'm sorry your family is putting you down. Remember you're life is defined by you and you're going places. Even a baby step is a step in the right direction.
Today has been long!
My BP was all flooey today and I was not prepped with snackage at all so I gave into the salt monster but luckily not sugar.
So I have enough PRotein and veggies for tomorrow to fuel a Ph 1 factory
and a single serve bag of pretzels just in case

I bought peanuts and bagged them and then looked at the ingredients Sugar and MSG so I'm bringing them but they're a super last resort if I'm woozy
ok off to beddy byes
Nite
K