A new week...so more to deal with. I'm making an appointment to see if I can go to school. Now that I have said it I will do it or someone can beat me over the head and drag me up there themself. I'm going to ACTUALLY keep track with what I eat this week, exercise at least 3 times and hopefully be in a better mood. The weekend was fun, we went to dinner and saw Pirates 3 on Saturday night, then yesterday Tim went for a run with the kid I was tutoring Shaun. He stayed most of the day and they played video games, sometimes I was invited in, and we watched a movie...that stupid Casino Royale again. I had to see it when it came out in theaters and then rent it yesterday. Dinner was great though. I roasted a chicken and only ate half of one side of the breast, and made some corn and broccoli with cheese sauce. And of course stuffing, you can't have roasted poultry without stuffing.
Something weird happened last night...we were sitting on the couch and heard a loud bang so we went to see what it was. Shaun ran up with a neighbor where they saw smoke and I went to tell Tim because he was in the shower. Some kids blew up a side of a barn at a church on the corner. Shaun told them about the car we saw speeding away that went back by it again and sped out. Hopefully they caught them.

Well that's it for me...how are all you lovely ladies? Hope you have a great Monday!

I've never really gotten into the weekly discussions. But I'd like to become more active on the board so I thought I would join in.

Tracy - that is so exciting that you are looking into going back to school. I'm a school lifer here but I was just able to convince my sister to go back and she called me to say she made deans list. What are you thinking about going to school for?

As for me I am getting excited because I'm going to Daytona this weekend. I'm leaving Sunday for a few days of fun in the sun. There is no real purpose for the trip but to take a break from life. My plan is to get three days for running and one of swimming prior to leaving. It's optistic because I have a lot of homework to get down before I leave. I did look into the hotel I'm staying at and they have a fitness center (I don't know how good it is) but I figure I can go use it next week. Trying not to let myself get off plan because it is so hard to bounce back.

There's a bakind and pastry arts program they have there. If I can actually talk to someone I might be able to enroll and go. I called to make an appointment today and I got the most rude person possible with absolutely no information. I just wanted to make an appointment to sit down and talk to someone because I have tons of questions, the main one being CAN I EVEN FINISH, and Tim had been told that you need to make an appointment to talk to someone, but she claims you don't. So I'll drive the almost hour up to Harrisburg tomorrow and I WILL talk to someone if an appointment is needed or not, because I need to find out some things before I pay a non-refundable application fee for something I'll be moving in the middle of. Military life itself isn't hard, it's the other people that don't understand that do. It's simple math...I'll be here for 2 more years, so a certificate course taking more than 2 years doesn't add up...imagine that. Plus there are classes that have prerequisites not required for the course so I don't know if I'd have to try to take those too, so once all the classes needed are added up I might not have time. Plus the financial aid issue, residency issue that they make so unclear, blah blah blah...sorry I'm just frustrated. I've been out of the loop of "normal" people for so long I just can't handle it. I'm used to answers right away and a 1% chance of change once a decision is made. I just want a bakery in the future...why do they make it so hard?

Tracy you might want to make sure that the credits are transferable if you do need to move. Some private programs are not transferable (for instance in Michigan there is a tech. school that trails for medical transcriptionist, reciptionest, ect that is not transferrable so if you move or don't like it there you wasted the money). If you can't figure it out with that program you might want to see if the community college in your area has some classes you could take. You might be able to get some basics out of the way without much cost or you might be able to some bakery classes.

I doubt they are transferable which is why I want to know I can finish it. And there is no school in my area, Harrisburg or Gettysburg are the closest and they are the same school just Gettysburg has a campus of Harrisburg Area Community College...it's like the backwoods hick area of the north, pretty much what you would find in the south. Except people in the south are nicer and give more info even if they have to hunt it down I'm from the south, can you tell? I can't wait to get out of this place. I'm driving up to the school tomorrow to talk to someone, plus they have a military benefits office there and once I know stuff for sure I'll either enroll or just find some crappy deadend job to work for a couple years...

If I had $100,000 laying around, I'd go up to Hyde Park in NY and go to the CIA, Culinary Institute of America...but I'm not rich...

Hey everyone...

Can't believe it's a new week already.

I'm on my 4th week already. Wow. I haven't endured this long in such a long time.

And I'm more motivated than ever to keep on going.

This week's goals:
-Don't step on the scale until my weekly weigh-in on Sunday. Hopefully it will give me good news for the week like it has the past 3 weeks. This should be a bit easier because I am staying somewhere until Thursday where there is no scale.
-Lose 5 lbs.
-Keep on wearing jeans and dressing up now that my confidence level is rising by the day...hopefully they'll be feeling looser soon.
-Join the fitness challenge this week and start adding working out to my healthy eating. I think I might start out today after my classes with a session of weightlifting after my classes today and a nice jog around the new neighborhood tonight once it cools down.
-Drink more water.
-Get more sleep.

Good luck to everyone else and their goals.
We can do this!

Kery- I feel the same way about my appetite being less with the heat. On really hot days I could go all day not eating a thing and my stomach wouldn't even rumble. But...I try making myself eat on regular intervals just to stay healthy. I figure if I get myself in healthy habits now then maybe I'll be less likely to want to snack during those long, dark winter months. But now is definetly a great to get started with the heat and all....

Man, I wish I was like that. Nothing gets in the way of my appetite. Heat, humidity, etc, don't even touch it. Have you all seen that commercial where the hand comes OUT of the guy's stomach and shoves a sandwich down his mouth? The tagline is "What Hunger Want, Hunger Get. That's what my appetite is like!

Hi guys!
It sounds like everyone is having a good, healthy, productive week so far!! I had a really fun weekend..I did the Muddy Buddy race in San Jose (google it, it's really cool!) on Sunday and it was a GREAT workout! I haven't really lost any weight, but I at least have had a couple of good days eating...not bingeing or eating too much. Baby steps, for sure. I'm going to Boston this weekend, and weekends away always make me nervous since you don't really have control over when/where you eat. I'm hoping though that I can get in some good walking/sightseeing to burn some calories!

Tracy – I would love to really learn how to cook. I admire you control I am afraid if I ever got into cooking as a career then I would gain back all of the weight. How did you meeting with the school go?

Glitter – Good job on the dressing better. I love the fact that I now have confidence with my clothing. How are the rest of your goals going?

Kery – how is the new gym going?

Lisa – have you tried drinking more water. I know during the summer I tend to up my water a little which makes me eat less between meals.

Michelle – Is there any reason on why you are going to Boston? Have you thought of any ideas on controlling your eating while you are there? I’m going to Daytona this weekend and worried about the same thing. One of my biggest fears is that because we will be eating out the entire time I will tend to overeat because I’m getting entrees and can’t take leftovers home. (I normally only eat half of my meal when I go out to eat). But I think I’m going to try and convince my sister to split meals with me that way I wont feel about not eating half of my meal, I wont be tempted to overeat, and I’ll save money.

I had a presentation in class today. I was nervous but a lot less nervous then I normally am. When I was walking home from school I was thinking about it and decided that it is probable because I have a renewed sense of self-confidence. I wore a baby doll tank (I was surprised I didn’t think twice about going sleeveless) and some brown jeans that fit me well. I think knowing that I looked nice helped me feel better about my presentation (being that I was worried because I hadn’t done a lot of research about it yet).

Oh I almost forgot. I'm excited I downloaded a yoga video yesterday. I'm going to try it out tonight! I've never done yoga and am fairly inflexible so we'll see how this goes.

So, I'm not really sure what to say on this. I just joined and my birthday was yesterday. I lost 15lbs in the last 3wks. Not healthy I know but I also know it's going to slow down as I still have 75lbs to go. Plus the weight loss was related to depression and just not having the will to eat. Sometimes I wish I could have had that from the beginning. My bf and I of 3yrs broke up a month ago and I haven't talked to him in a week now which helps a lot but at the same time curbs me wanting to go anywhere fun. Mostly I just exercise, work, and sleep aside from the basics, eating, cleaning, keeping clean. I feel accomplished and at the same time sad that I didn't even get a birthday cake this year. Everyone asked me what kind I wanted and I said "DON'T get me a CAKE!" and I got what I asked for. Plus it has been unseasonably warm so I haven't been really hungry lately with the temp in the 90's and humidity in the 60's and no ac. Right now I'm just asking for strength because a family friend is coming down from Duluth later this week with birthday fudge for me and it's the best fudge I've ever had in my life. A whole pound for me.....so I'm praying I can just eat a bite and put the rest in the freezer. The last time I dieted at the end of the week if I'd lost at least 2lbs I'd allow myself the serving size of something I loved and had been craving all week so I figure that should work with this and if not I'm sure my sister, mom, or friends will find it in my freezer and eat it before I can. Sorry if I'm a little long winded, I tend to ramble when tired. Good-Luck to all of you. P.S. Got back last week from the best place in the world (Boundary Waters Canoe Area) I go there every summer and I don't usually believe in this stuff but it's supposed to be one of the 7 or 10? spiritual centers of the world. I plan on doing a lot more camping and fishing this summer. Later -Nova

As well as they can go I suppose...lol.

-I found a scale here. Bad news. And...I stepped on it. But it's totally messed up because it's an old one so I guess it doesn't count, right? Because it didn't give me an accurate number at all.
-And I hope I'm well on my way to losing my 5 lbs for the week. I don't see why I wouldn't. I had a little slip up and stuffed myself with spaghetti at dinner yesterday but I'm going to take an extra walk today to make up for it.
-I'm still trying to keep on dressing nice. Yesterday after classes though I was like screw it this is uncomfortable and changed into sweats...but I made it through most of the day.
-Yestersday I talked myself out of the gym but I wasn't about to let myself get away that easy. I joined the challenge and this morning I woke up early to run. I could only go for about 15 minutes but I figured it was a start. I'll probably do some form of resistance training after classes today and finish up with a nice evening walk around the neighborhood for an hour.
-I've been drinking water like mad because of the heat so I definetly have not been having trouble with this goal.
-And I've been trying to get more sleep...I've actually been getting about 8 hours a night which is awesome for me.

Well thats about it for my goals so far this week...
Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the good work so that a nice number on the scale and looser jeans will be waiting there for me Sunday morning when I do my weekly weigh in.

RememberHowToSmile, I actually find that when I cook and bake myself, I want to take more time to enjoy the right amount. Plus with the baking, by seeing myself what goes in it to make it, I eat less of it because I know what I'm actually eating. It's like, when you pour in those 2 cups of sugar to cream with all that butter, you're thinking "it's a diabetes in a bowl! I think I'll have half a serving instead..." And as far as school, I haven't been I woke up with a sinus infection so I want to be better before I go. My luck I guess.

Nova! You're off to a great start. It's okay to ramble or get long winded, we've all been there. This chat is for whatever you want to say, you can talk about your day or how good or bad your eating habits are, or just tell us the latest thing your friend or pet did. I wish you the best of luck! Happy Birthday!

So, I took Shaun grocery shopping with me (the kid I was tutoring now just seem to have adopted) I swear to you, there was a little girl smaller than his leg that was better behaved. Every couple seconds it was "Shaun, put that down" "Shaun people are going to eat that" or "Shaun! Don't make me beat you when we get home!" He was hyper so it was extra bad. Once Tim got home he had calmed down though and they played a video game and we ate dinner. And for now, I'm off to watch some more tv until something interesting happens...or when it's time to for clothes to go in and out of the washer and dryer.