Hi everyone! Last week was one busy work week! I work at a church, and twice a year, we cancel services and head out into the community to repair homes and clean yards for people who otherwise would not be able to do it themselves, be it for financial or physical reasons.

I have spent the last several months organizing and the weekend was finally here! I will admit that I didn't do well water wise. I didn't even track my food. I DID get tons of exercise as we ran around the community spot checking, hauling materials, unloading trailers, and lending a hand at a few places. All in all it was a great weekend - we helped 22 homeowners, visited 50 nursing home patients, packed boxes for military personell, and sewed blankets for sick/hospitalized members. Best of all we had over 125 volunteers!

Anyway sorry to ramble. 'll see how the week effected my weight at WI tomorrow, but even if I have a slight gain I won't be upset!

Good morning, everyone! :wave:

Texscrapper, that's an AWESOME day! I can't image how you would gain anything with a day that busy, but as you said - so worth it!

Rosebud, 26 inches? That is absolutely amazing! Congratulations to you - talk about inspiration!!!!!

2thinme, I really liked the old WW system too. The only reason I changed was so I could use the iphone tracker app and scanner. Tracking on my phone makes it so easy and if I see something interesting at the grocery store I can scan it and decide if the points are worth the purchase.

My company has come and gone so things are back to semi-normal for me. Food choices were good, though the WW vs. CC thing is still blowing my mind some days. WW's formula "penalizes" you for carbs and fat so Saturday night's pizza was 24 points (I get 29 for a whole day!) yet it was only 548 calories. I'll continue to count both ways for a while but I'm leaning toward CC since it seems more "true" and I can also watch the carbs/fat/sodium % and I can't do that with WW.

We're finally getting some much needed rain here. It makes for a dreary, gray Monday, but we'll be sprouting green all over the place after a couple days of this :)

I hope everyone has a fantastic day!

All that said, still no movement on the scale. I have been at 207 for WEEKS now...

TEXSCRAPPER ~ don't worry about rambling; I think what you all did was simply marvellous -- what a blessing you are to your community. Gee, wish more places/churches would catch onto that charitable service; it's a great idea: so practical and helpful.

SUE~ yes, but that is a total over my whole body. I lost most off my upper arms (5"), my chest (6.5" -- boohoo), and my thighs (7" - interesting). Only 3" off my tummy, but I'll take it. Plus, 3.5" off my hips, and 1" off my calves. For the next time, I also measured my forearms & wrists becuz I have noticed they are much smaller too (watches are too loose, just like my rings).

I hadn't measured in a long, long time, that is why it is so much; think I'll measure about every 6-12 months next time. I still have a long way to go, but it is kinda nice to see such a big difference -- very encouraging. :D


Thursday -- fish & salad & sliced tomatoes
Friday -- salad & baked pizza (gave half my crust to our furry baby)
Saturday -- roast chicken, np & veggies
Sunday -- leftover chicken & veggies from Sat.

BF & Lunches -- eggwich, omelettes, .5 orange, bagel/pb; leftovers, sandwiches, soup, etc.

SNX -- chz, wg/sc, peaches, pears, UNsalted nuts, yogurt, carrots, and brd/pb on low cal days.


Have a great week everyone ... :flow1:

Hello everyone :) Salsa checking in here.

Well, work is still stressful; I was off sick for about a week and a half. Then Management and I sat down for a chat (well, I was crying too). Upshot is: whilst my workload is the same, it's different stuff now. I'm a teacher, for context. When I'm teaching I'm an extrovert, but I'm actually an introvert (INTJ represent), so I'm grateful I can do more behind-the-scenes stuff now. Doesn't make going to work any easier though...hmpf.

Sunday was such a horrible day, I got mad with people and started yelling. Not terribly proud of myself, although the situation was pretty dire. Oh well.

I've not been thinking about what I'm eating :( I get the impression I don't eat very often during the day, but when I do I tend to pig out. My head just seems so full to also think about what I'm putting in my mouth. Does that make any sense?

But re-reading people's replies to me after my last post has helped a little. I'm going to try and at least go for a short walk each day :)

Ok. That was my blablabla for today. Maybe I should go back into therapy :S

Hope you're all doing well today!

Good morning, everyone :wave:

Salsa, I hope things get better for you with the new work plan. I too am a natural introvert and a learned extrovert. "Being on" all day for work is exhausting...

Yesterday ended at 29 points and 1500 calories. (Went a little crazy when the artichoke and parm risotto turned out better than expected.) Still within my points and calories, though. I can't wait to see of this experiment works - I can't believe how much more I'm eating!

I hope everyone has a great day.

Yes, yes it does. I've been there myself all week.

I feel a bit like I'm crawling back in here with my tail between my legs, but for the past week I've been so stressed out and frustrated that I couldn't come up with the energy to post or even read. Sorry, guys! I'm glad to see that you're still hanging in there.

Sue, I have never done WW, mostly because I couldn't afford it, but it's interesting to see the differences in your WW vs. CC experience. I hope something shifts for you soon.

Rosebud, 26 inches! Go you! That's an amazing difference. There's a picture of me at my low weight if you click on my profile. I am trying to get back there again!

2thinme, welcome!

Texscrapper, that sounds like a really tough, but rewarding day.

As for myself, I am on day 8 (which should be the last day) of TOM. My weight's starting to creep back down, but I have been up six pounds from last week's low and it's been freaking me out. I stayed off the scale for three solid days, and you all know I'm a total scale addict, so that's unheard of for me.

I know logically that it's just water retention, because my diet hasn't been perfect, but it hasn't been that dire. But it still freaked me out to watch the scale go from 192 all the way back up to 198. I was at 195.8 this morning, so I still have a way to go to get back where I came from.

I just get so frustrated by how hard it is. I mean, I barely eat any carbs, and I'm five feet tall, so let's face it, I still have a lot of weight to lose. Depressing! But I'll get there. We all will. I am busting out the pompoms for myself today too.

I wish I could say something that would help cheer you up! So much of what you say rings true. I'd just like to give you some encouragement :) Keep on keepin' on, as they say.

Sorry to hear you had a rough week, but it's nice to have you back :) You've been so good propping the rest of us up when we've been down we'd like to be able to return the favor, sistah. :hug: You DO know TOM-related stuff is all temporary, so as much as the scale is freaking you out right now you just have to wait it out. You'll be good in a couple of days, promise. You're now a perma-resident in onderland and there's nooooo going back. Here's to :flow2: and :flow1: for you this week.

thistoo - Just want to give you a big :hug:! I love your screen name. Each time I see it I remember the proverb "This too shall pass". That is what I have to offer you today - TOM will pass and that water weight will fly off (or out :p) of you in no time. Hope your mood lifts :hug:

mahtha - sounds like you have a great plan! I'm sure everything will work perfectly!

salsa - hope that work is calming down for you :hug:

Justwant2bhealthy: Hope that you are havinga POP week!


I have been on WW for 8 weeks now and today I added exercise in. I am doing it for my 12 year old son, but I will take the benefits! He wants to try out for the Jr High football team. When I told him about conditioning and running, he decided that he should staryt now. I told him about the conservative Couch to 5K and we decided to do it together. SOOOOOO today was Day 1 and we made it through the first workout! I really am excited abpout this because I think it will be something that - if we stick with it - will give us something to relate to and bond over.

Anyway, I was down 1.4 at WI today so all in all a good week! Hope everyone has a POP week!

Thanks, Salsa. :) Like yourself, work stress has been adding to my funk, but I'm trying to drag myself out of it. I'm glad to hear you've found a little relief in that department.

Sue, you're right. I think getting so close to 200 again did freak me out a little (a lot!). I also had a really stressful week at work, and every time I even thought about checking in I just got tired. But I do need to check in here, because I know it keeps me on track. Thanks!

Texscrapper, that's exactly where I got my screen name! I should learn to take my own advice. It's awesome that you're doing C25K with your son! What a great way to support him and get in more exercise at the same time. I need to run more; I always find excuses not to do it because I hate it, but it's really the exercise that works best for me.

Today I hit the elliptical at lunch and then mowed the lawn when I got home. I guess that means tomorrow I run! I'll use you and your son as motivation to scrape myself out of bed at 5:00 and do it.

PS: Congrats on the 1.4! That's awesome. :D

I'm finally back to my ticker weight as of this morning, so hopefully I can drop another pound or two by the end of the month. I leave for my New York trip with my girlfriends in exactly two weeks, and I'm hoping to be in the 180s by then.

As the planner of our little group, I'm in charge of the itinerary, so I've got control of the restaurants we'll eat in and I know what the healthiest options are. I plan to relax my diet enough for wine and probably a couple desserts, but I'm not going to go crazy. When I get home again I have another round of Whole 30 planned to get me back on track.

That's the hardest part for me, and how I ended up gaining back all this weight in the first place. I went to Rhode Island a couple summers ago with my sister and ate a bunch of local favorites neither of us had had since we were kids growing up there (and the clamcakes were totally worth it) but when I got home I just never got back on track.

So that's my challenge for this trip, and I fully intend to stick to my plan. Today I'm wearing a belt that I bought last summer, I think? and at the time I could barely close it on the second hole. This morning I'm on the last hole and it's a little loose! I love this belt so I'm going to have to add some holes, but I'm pretty excited that I've gotten that much smaller in the waist. I can't tell by my clothes because my bottom half is still so big, so that was a nice surprise.

Enough out of me! I hope everyone's having a great on plan day.

:wave: THANKS, EVERYONE ~ we had a huge dumping of ***** the last two days; yikes, winter came back ... :rolleyes:

But besides that, I'm doing well with my eating; no stress eating -- thank GOD! Sent DH on errands this AM -- after pushing & blowing snow, that is. He's the type that needs to keep busy, busy, busy; and I can think of lots of things for him to do. ;)

I've just been doing stuff around here; the same old usual boring stuff -- laundry, light housechores, sorting, cleaning, dusting, cooking, dishes, etc. Plus, I come on the net and read my mail, lurk, do research, and chat. Then in the evenings, I curl up in my bed with my fleece throw and read romance novels (sometimes, I do puzzles too). What else can you do with this kind of weather?

Glad you ladies are working in the right direction; I see those numbers going down! Whoo! Just keep going -- you're doin' G-R-E-A-T!!! I come by to read, even if I don't always post each day; I try to post at least EOD though.

Hope you all have a POP day ... just do your best! :flow2:

Hi everyone! I've been off the radar for a couple of days. Work is extremely busy and I've just been buried in it. And, then, my just-turned-18 daughter had a crisis that kind of took all of us off track. She made a bad decision after her work on a Saturday night and went with two guys up a small mountain pass. (She had told me she had to work late, so she lied....) Anyway, they ended up getting stuck in the mud and there was no cell service. I didn't hear from her until the next day about 1:00 in the afternoon, and I was frantic. She finally made it home around 8:30 at night. So... she's grounded. She lost her job because she didn't make it to work on Sunday and they all knew what had happened. It's been a little crazy. She was totally freaked out by the incident (which is good), and it has taken all of us awhile to calm down. Now we're trying to move forward.

Then, my soon-to-be-16 son has a surgical procedure to be done tomorrow. It isn't a huge issue, but he's a little freaked out about it. I am ready for it to be done, too. It just seems that there is just too much stress right now.

But, it seems like a lot of us are struggling with life getting in the way of our goals. I've not done well with exercising, although I've kept up with watching calories.

Caroline - Hang in there! You have been so inspirational to us all. There will be times when you just don't feel the excitement anymore, but if you hang in there, you'll make it through! We support you!

Texscrapper - Great idea to work out with your son. Do it now while you still can! Now that my boy is in High School varsity football, we are on way different levels of workouts. It just doesn't work for us anymore!

Have a great day everyone.

Hey everyone :wave:

Busy day here but filled with good news. Our youngest is headed to college in the fall so we just got through the application/admissions waiting game. She got into her top choices both with academic scholarships but #2 offered more than #1. I called #1 admissions and they upped her scholarship by almost 50% to ensure they "won". I'm so happy I could just dance! The moral of the story is you don't get what you don't ask for! (I think they felt sorry for us with 3 kids in college :))

On the weight loss side: no news. Still at 207 +/- a sneeze. Yesterday was 1441 calories and 31 points.

Caroline- told ya so! Congrats on the belt hole victory, that's a really cool reminder that it's not always about the scale. (did I just say that out loud???) Have a fantastic time in NY. You'll do enough walking to offset those desserts so enjoy yourself.

Diane, I'm glad your D18 is home safely, I can't even imagine how worried you must have been. I hope S16's procedure is as uneventful as possible.

Texscrapper, C25K is a fantastic idea with your son! I hope you really enjoy the time together. Congrats on th loss this week - I know you were concerned.

Rosebud, I'm not sure what you're typing that 3FC edits, but it makes me laugh out loud every time you reference something snow-related and it shows up as *****. I see it as $%&#* blue streak snow!

Have a great day, everybody!

Sue, I just assumed she was typing little blue snowflakes! They're sort of festive, in a 'I'm glad we don't have any of that down here' way. Though I'm very much looking forward to being back among northerners for awhile, I can't complain about the weather in my current home!

Diane, sheesh, talk about a scare. I'm glad your daughter is home safely. Good luck tomorrow to you and your son. I'll keep you all in my thoughts.