Thanks so much peanut! I guess I should consider that more than a pretty good difference. I am so critical of myself that it is hard to praise my accomplishments to the fullest sometimes. I am feeling so much healthier right now... thats the best part of this entire journey! Than you for your sweet words on my pics!!!

southernbelle: Congratulations again on your amazing success so far!!! You look awesome (you are beautiful!) and the difference is inspiring!!!! Thanks for your advice on your plan vis-a-vis my mom. It was really helpful and gave me a better idea of what is reasonable to put down for my mom, so thanks bunches!!!!

Krizstyling: Your bootcamp seems awesome!!! I'm usually intimidated by organized group fitness regimes and bootcamps (in grad school joined a free bootcamp at my school for literally 5 minutes and then slunk out because I felt it was full of superfit off-season undergrad athletes) but yours actually seems really nice and supportive and great. I actually ended up reading all the testimonials and you all are amazing!!! I think it will definitely inspire more women to try it out; I would if I lived in your area. Well done!

KimL1214: I'm so sorry for everything going on with you recently! When it rains, it pours, no? But the sun will come out soon I'm sure. In the mean time :hug: and please look after yourself in spite of everything going on! Wishing you all the best and hoping things look up for you soon! :hug:

ferretgirl: I'm definitely intrigued by the Zumba for Wii. I think I'll wait and try out the Beto Zumba dvd and see how I like that and if that goes well, Wii Zumba here I come!!! I've checked out a few clips of Billy Blanks and I'm a bit intimidated, he seems a bit... drill sergent-y but maybe... I think I might try out the 10-minute solutions instead definitely! I think your idea about maintaining over Christmas/New Year sounds like a plan! Whilst it would be nice to lose, I'd settle for not gaining anything!

oOPeanutOo: Sorry about your back! That sucks! Please let us know how the chiropractor and acupuncture visits go! (I'm dying to get the 1st person skinny on the acupuncture)! I hope your back feels better soon!


Hey Team! So I made and surpassed my challenge goal, my Christmas goal and my 3rd Mini-goal! I'm totally afraid to believe it even though my regular scale and wii scale are giving the same number! I dread a bounce, but I'm going to try to enjoy this and hope it sticks! Very exciting! I hope everyone has a great weigh-in Sunday. Only one more week left! I can't believe it! Spent this morning putting up a christmas tree. It's incredibly laden with ornaments and lights and brightly gaudy but I think it's great! I hope everyone has a great day and an awesome week! Go Team Phoenix!!!

Kim, we all definitely understand!

Ugh, I am not doing well this challenge at all. Lately it's been my fault because I've been lazy. I've only recently allowed myself to realize that I'm not going to hit my goal for this challenge or the Jingle away the Jiggle challenge and I'm totally bummed, even if it is my own doing. I'm back on track now so I know my results will be better and I can end strong, but still. And I am determined to see 165.something next week! I am so sick of this tiptoeing down the 166 range for weeks!

Hi y'all! So, I worked out over 6 hours last week, but didn't help the scale, since I couldn't keep away from the cookies... At least its Monday- that always gives me a "fresh start"... did 25 min of zumba this morning, so if I eat RIGHT (filled the freezer with frozen veggies) and workout every day, I should get back to 120-ish in a couple days.. At least all the cookies are gone now. Be glad you don't live near my father-in-law, lol.. He cooks all this good food (homemade/homestyle country cooking and constantly bakes desserts) and its horrible for EVERYONE'S waistline (he's even admitted he can't eat the food he cooks when trying to loss, lol). Anyways!

Hope everyone had a good weekend... The BF bought me early Christmas.. a Nintendo DS XL (the red Mario one) and Cataclysm for World of Warcraft. He says he's the Santa of Gaming (I believe it!)... haha.. NOW what am I supposed to get him? Probably will go halves with his dad to get him a new PS3, since his is the very first version that came out.

Peanut: Along with us striving to be Unstoppable, I remembered another 3FC girl once posted that Determination, not Motivation will get us there.. important to remember that we need the Determination to reach our goals, because it will keep us going long after our Motivation is gone..

southernbelle: You can see such a difference in your close-up pics! Your face/skin/smile is beautiful from the beginning, but your face looks a lot more slender and your smile actually seems confident/accomplished in the new one. Love em and congrats!! :)

Kim: I'm sorry about your friend and hope she's OK. YOU are a TRUE friend to help out like that. I'm glad she has a friend like you :) Don't stress over the challenge- its a great help to us all, of course, but real-life is ALWAYS more important (as it SHOULD be). Just try to keep yourself on plan and we'll all congratulate ourselves together at the end :)

toastedsmoke: The zumba game is good so far. Not sure how well its picking up my movements, but if you watch the intructor and try to keep up, you'll get the workout. It looks like they start with two 20-min beginner, **edit** two or three 20-min intermediate, six 45-min intermediate, and a bunch of advanced workouts to choose from (there's more workouts to choose from than I first thought). They score you per workout and I guess they unlock more routines as we get better. Only tried it twice, so that's my feedback for now. I've tried Billy Blanks once and its similar to zumba in that it's extremely fast-paced cardio (just try to keep up as much as possible for the workout benefits). My mom keeps up with him better than me and she's over twice my age and weight, so go figure ;) CONGRATULATIONS on your goal!!! :cheer2:

Laureedee: Just want to wish you luck on our last week. I know its hard and can be frustrating. Just consider each day a fresh start and do the best you can to eat healthy and exercise. Eat right and try to burn off more than you eat. Good luck! Some will probably re-set goals after this challenge ends, so even if you don't meet goal this time, set a new goal and deadline that you think is possible to achieve next.

One more weigh-in, so let's make it a good one!! :D

toastedsmoke – Congrats on passing your 3rd Mini-goal!!! That’s excellent news!

Laureedee – The main thing is that you’re back on track. What’s done is done so just to keep going.

ferretgirl – Love the new Avatar! Very Cute and Christmassy! Did you manage to work out a Present for your BF??

Okay, so I’ve been missing the last few days from the boards and I don’t have an excuse for it at all. I haven’t been on plan and seem to have been in a bit of a slump lately. I wasn’t on plan today either but thought that I owed it to myself not to hide but to acknowledge that we all have good days and bad days.

Today was my first appointment with the Chiropractor and he’s ordered a full set of x-rays. There’s definitely something wrong so that’s a little bit concerning but at least I’m doing something about it now. I have another appointment on Friday so hopefully I’ll have some solid answers as to why I’ve been in so much pain.

I hope everyone else is doing okay!!

Peanut! Way to acknowledge it and get back in the swing of things! Just start today FRESH!

Toasted - CONGRATSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! You are rockin man!

I hope all of you other ladies are doing well! Let's keep on keepin on! I know I for one wanna lose as much as possible before Christmas hits as I know that people are said to gain 10-15 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I do NOT want to be a statistic!

It's official.. I totally suck! I didn't jump straight back on plan today and took the easy way out by eating whatever I wanted. No counting calories, no measuring or weighing out my food and definitely no planning. I know a lot of that has to do with the fact that I'm exhausted because I can't sleep as my back is causing me more pain than I'd like to admit. It's 2:40am and I'm online at this ridiculous hour to try and distract myself from 'eating away the pain'. I know that probably doesn't make much sense and that by now, I should well and truly know that the only thing food can fix is real hunger not emotional hunger.

peanut: Thank you on the avatar. Not sure on BF's Christmas yet.. thinking a PS3 or a pipe for smoking.. he'd settle for me being nice to him, but that's pretty hard ;) Sorry to hear about your fitness slump.. it happens to us all, just try to get back on track asap.. Hope they find out what's going on with your back and get you on a quick recovery. (We posted at the same time! Don't be too hard on yourself- give yourself some leeway; it'll be easier to jump back on track once your back stops hurting.. sorry girlie, hope it gets better soon).

Kriz: You're right and I'm in too!! We don't need to be part of this year's holiday weight gain statistic.

Day 2 at 120 lbs. I'll feel accomplished once I've stayed at this weight for a week, since my weight's so wishy-washy and changes day-to-day :)

Our last weigh-in is coming up... I'm glad I joined this challenge.. considering beginning and current weight, I've lost (edit) 6.5 lbs over our 8-week challenge, so thanks to all who started it and keep them going (TBL challenges).

Not too fond of the toning exercises, so probably only did 2-3 days of it last week. Zumba (even the game), I consider a workout because its fast-paced enough to make me sweat. Dance Central, while a great game and a workout similar-paced to power-walking, slows me up/is not as productive workout-wise because of the cut-scenes before and after every song (the pauses between songs are too long). I'm still kind of burned out on zumba (even having just bought the game), probably because I've been using the same 2 dvds since October. Today's plan is 30 min of "kickbox bootcamp" (toning) and 30 min of Dance Central- that way I'm getting in a "real" and "fun" workout ;)

Hope everyone's doing OK and staying on plan- good luck on our last week!! :D :cheer2:

Toasted smoke - CONGRATS on passing your challenge goal!!!!! That is awesome! Keep it up... you rock!

Peanut - I really hope you are able to get some relief with your back soon!! I have been struggling with a bulging disc and pinched sciatic nerve over the past year... NO fun! And you do NOT suck!!! Pain can do crazy things.. you are in need of some comfort right now. Good luck!

Kriz - I REFUSE to be a part of that statistic... we are all wining the battle one lb at a time!! :)

Ferret - Staying at 120 for 2 days is a huge accomplishment!

I am SO tired today! The holidays are so busy right now. I love all of the parties etc though!! Hope everyone has a great week!

Thanks for the support ferretgirl & southernbelle :)

I just returned home from a visit with my Chiropractor. The first words out of his mouth were “I can understand why you’re in pain” which didn’t sound overly promising. He spent 30 minutes explaining all the different things I had wrong. I have fused vertebrae in my lower back, a compression fracture in my thoracic vertebrae (middle of my back) and three separate issues relating to the curvature of my spine. I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around everything.

Such is life I guess...

peanut: I'm sorry to hear the news about your back.. That sounds like a lot.. hope they figure a good recovery/treatment plan to get everything working properly again..

We haven't done one of these in a long time and I just saw this question in another thread.... so, if anyone wants to join...

Friday, Saturday, Sunday Question: What did you say "no" to this week?

My answer... This week I said no to Bush's Chicken (tender/fries/gravy), Arby's (roast beef sandwich/curly fries) and Christmas goodies (cookies/reeses candy). I've been saying NO to fried chicken for about 2 months now, so its a lot easier now (the scale/daily weigh-ins keep me on track). I SO wanted the Arby's yesterday (yesterday one opened in our city) but I'm thinking of our weigh-in in 2 more days... Good luck ladies!!

ferretgirl - Thanks :) It was a lot to take in but at least I have a plan to try and tackle things now.

Today is the day that I'm getting back on plan. I know my weigh in for this week won't be great but I can't use my back as an excuse to throw away the progress I've made so far.

I FINALLY got a cute haircut this week as a reward for a mini goal... I have been so self conscious over the past year that I have not taken the time needed to care about my appearance and things like my hairstyle etc(which is NOT like me at all... I am a girly girl and love haircuts, makeup manis, pedis etc). I am loving finding my new self without all the excess fat... I have a lot more to go, but I am definitely feeling a lot more "normal" now...

Love the haircut southernbelle... Every time we see you that smile gets bigger and bigger!!