SHARON~Thanks hun.

AMMI~I am so glad you have gotten all of your questions answered. Yeah usually skin cancer is not a big deal. But if its melanoma which starts in a dark mole or freckle it can be really deadly. And actually sometimes the sun has nothing to do with melanoma! A lot of people get it in spots that are not even touched by the sun. But the sun does play a big factor. We used to live in Louisiana all of our life. And boy was it always hot and sunny. DH has had so many sunburns! With regards to me and melanoma I have a rather big birthmark that I have been told to watch my whole life. So I have always had to "watch" it. When I thought I had melanoma the first time I did a lot of research on it. But yeah I for sure didn't get any sunburns in Barrow, Alaska! Just couldn't bring myself to go lay out in the sun when it was 10 degrees outside in the summer!

JILL~That is great you have found a ring you want! I hope you find it soon.

JULIE~Good to see you post!

NANCY-Thanks hun! I hope you have a good visit with your parents. And for sure show us a pic of your new glasses.

CATHERINE~I hear ya about the Y chromosome! That is so funny about living under a ozone layer. I know we never were really out in the sun there. Way to cold most days even in the summer. Although the sun did shine 24/7 for 5 months. Like I told Ammi above I think some of the scares with melanoma come from getting a lot of sunburns growing up in Louisiana. They say even a sunburn as a child can show up way later in life and turn in the melanoma. Sort of creepy! But I try not to obsess over it. Just watch and get stuff checked out for sure. I hope you guys continue to feel better.

BRANDNEWME~I am glad you are feeling better.

LISA~Good luck on your weigh in!

Ok well I am off to give the cats a bath. (God help me!) They HATE getting a bath. Allie the little one howls like she is being tortured! I have been cleaning like crazy to keep my mind off of Friday. I hope you all had a good rest of the day!

Hello All,

Well I spoke to my sister and she is very pleased that mum's ashes are going to be sent over here. I am surprised that she doesn't want mum to go along side her son, I guess she has her reasons. Plus she doesn't like the idea of scattering the ashes, so I guess we'll get a plot in a crematorium for her. I know mum had no preference, so I am happy going with what my sister wants. We'll just wait now to know for definite when mum's ashes will be sent and then we can start looking into things.

Heather - I am glad that hubby is getting better and that he didn't actually break anything. Still tendon or ligament damage is so painful, poor guy. I am glad he's been a good patient.

As for mum, I don't think we'll be having a big memorial, just a nice and simple send off before her ashes get put where ever they are going. My uncle might like to come and say a few words but as mum wasn't at all religous she wouldn't have wanted a big religious type 'do'. I hope my uncle will be OK with that as he is a preacher!

Patti - yes you are right, having some of my answers can now allow for a bit of healing, but I won't be 'right' until mum's ashes have been interned and everything is settled.

Jill - thank you for the welcome back and for your lovely words.

That's wonderful news that you have found a ring that you love, it does sound very unique and beautiful. I love Sapphires especially black ones. When I get an eternity ring it's going to be diamond and black sapphires. My engagement ring is just a solitaire diamond.

Julie - hello and a belated from me. My goodness there have been a lot of new people start while I have been taking a break. I am sorry you aren't feeling positive about how you did on your boards, but I always hear that if you think you haven't done well it probably means you have. I wonder if that's a myth or a truth. Either way I hope you get the results you want.

Brenda - I am really sorry to hear that you aren't feeling well at all, and it seems that even though you are sick you aren't going to take another sick day off. I hope you don't feel too awful when you go to work. Sounds like a bit of immodium might be called for.

Well one good thing is that as long as you don't over indulge when you feel better then by the time you weigh on Friday you will probably hit your 100 lbs lost mark!!!

Nancy - I am so pleased to hear that you are feeling so good about things now, do those things include your being OP and setting things straight in your personal life? I am guessing so.

That's a shame that your parents are having to move from your family home. I moved around a few times when I was small so I didn't form any particular attachement to any of my homes. I should imagine that if I had I would be sad not to be able to go there anymore, so I am hoping that you don't get too upset this weekend during your last visit to your parents there. Daren's sister bought the house that he was born and brought up in, so it's kind of cool for him that he can still go there after all these years.

Catherine - I know you are going to carry on losing your weight and you will be able to carry on writing that book. I still reckon you should do it in two parts so that the world can read part 1 now and learn all that you have to teach through your experiences. Part 2 will be a best seller too with everybody wanting to see you when you've reached your target weight.

Brandnewme - I don't know if I missed a post about what's been going on with you lately, but I am glad you are feeling a bit better and will try to post more.

Lisa - good luck at your WI tomorrow, I can't wait to hear how you have done. I am glad to hear that you are feeling slightly less hungry now, just think at the end of another two weeks you should be feeling a lot less hungry and the diet will become that much easier.

Michelle - it's scarey isn't it to realise that sunburns as a child or young adult can play a big part in getting skin cancer when you are older. I am very lucky that I have an olive complexion and very rarely got sunburned, and I used to do stupid stuff like put that coconut tanning oil on to get tanned, so I was lucky not to get roasted!!

Good luck bathing your cats, I hope you don't get as wet as them!

Well I guess it's time I was heading off to sleep now, I have a date with the gym tomorrow and want to be wide awake for that, can't fall asleep on the treadmill lol it might be fatal Take care all and bye for now,

Hugs,

Ammi

Jill-You can buy polar diamonds where you are locally. I wouldn’t buy online either. In New York, guys carry millions of dollars worth of diamonds around in their pocket. So it might be worth the trip up, just bring a baseball bat. The small ones little leaguers use are easiest to hide under your coat.

Lisa-I wasn’t on a liquid diet of any kind, but when I started out, I basically ate the same thing everyday. I didn’t have to think, and I was able to begin to see food as fuel, and not as a hobby. It kept me out of the kitchen most of the time, where I have trouble, and it ended up being quite comforting.

Michelle-I’ve got some of those moles that I have to watch carefully too. I’ve heard that it is all about the sunburns you get as a kid, and growing up in Oklahoma, light complected, and red to blond hair, I had plenty of those. I had my foster sons covered in sun screen every time they stepped out of bed practically.

Ammi-Maybe I should call the book, “the incredibly shrinking woman.”

I couldn’t get up the energy yet to do any exercise. I hate being sick. I’m watching Coronation Street on CBC. I haven’t watched a soap opera since college. The British ones are a wicked indulgence like Monty Python. I never got to see them before moving to Canada.

YEA!! I guess you can tell I passed my boards....

Ammi -thanks for the welcome and you were right about what you said, I think when you "think" you did bad it usually means you didn't, anyway now I can redo my resume and send them out saying licensed LPN instead of graduated LPN. I found out that the places I've sent resumes to didn't even look at them if you weren't licensed...would have been nice to know that then I wouldn't have wasted my time. They will be hearing from me again now though...lol.

Well I'm just really excited and had to tell everyone I know of course throught the day, after all the stress lifted off me I actually had a good day. It was a drizzly 50 degree day and I played outside with my Grandson quite a bit we got damp out there and he got his bath...of course he knows after a bath at g-mas it's ICE CREAM time, don't worry I don't let him follow my bad habits I at least have Sherbert and Edys Slow churned 1/2 the calories the kids like it so thats fine with me...I have a trampoline and he loves to jump thats what we did most of the day...I just watch him... I don't know what would happen if I got on it. Probably tinkle with ever jump....LOL.

I hope everyone has a good night

Happy First Day of Spring ... even had rain today; so, it feels like Spring here; and that's unusual for our area in March.

AMMI ~ Condolances on the loss of your mother; am glad things are getting straightened out. When mine passed, we were so far away and didn't even know she was sick; it was a shock to us all. It seemed like a whirlwind dream then, but with time, understanding comes. And, welcome back ~ all of these ladies are so very fond of you, and it's easy to see why ...

REBECCA ~ So glad you popped in again. I am very happy to hear that you are feeling better. A little encouragement goes a long way; and so does a gentle kick-in-the-butt from hen house mothers, like HEATHER. Maybe we could get her to adopt us ... hehe!!!

AND TO THE REST OF YOU LOVELY LADIES ~ Glad to hear you are all doing well, for the most part. There are so many of you; I even tried writing down all your names and came across over thirty, I think ...

Heather, Ammi, Annie, Catherine, Lisa, Nancy, Sandy, Jill, Mechelle, Brenda, Rebecca (BrandNewMe), Chimi, EmilyMay, Erica, Anne (cheeky), Tarra, Laverandel, Sharon, Lesley, Karen, Xena, VAl, Zelma, Luan, Jane, Julie, Donna, Lilion, Patti (2fat4u), Cassie, Kymberley, Carolyn, Peggy, and Litchick! If I forgot some, they haven't been around for awhile.

Hope you all have a great OP week ~ a fellow encourager ... Rosebud.

Hello my lovelies,

How are you doing today? I know you're probably all asleep right now because of the time differences! I emailed around at work today to try to figure out where to take DH for his birthday- one person said fishing which is great (its something we do together) and others said Mc Donalds lol! I told them that's where I took him last year lol. I'm thinking probably night fishing somewhere, and I'll pack us a little picnic and some beers and suprise him. But what if he's not in the fishing mood? I don't know, theres a good movie on at the IMAX theatre, oh too many options .

Everytime I eat something I want today (ie pie, egg salad sandwich etc) its followed by a huge dose of guiltiness, and plus I didn't gym it for a whole 7 days now. I'm going to try to enjoy myself till monday to get it completely out of my system like Ammi did a while back, and then - like this thread states - i'll be ready to try again. Have a great day everyone!

Catherine- WOW how cool you are already started the book. Cmon hook us up with an exerpt Sorry that's being quite cheeky of me. LOL please please write about the nun and priest practical jokes. I have a few I heard from my Hungarian grandad when they still got the cane and accidently cannon-balled a ball of ice cream straight into the monk's eye

Notthecheat- Thanks matey it IS fun!! Chris has a mini golf set which he uses on there sometimes. Its even funnier cause the balcony is TEENY Yes ask away any time! It would be my pleasure

Voodoo- !!! I blush! I blush! You are too kind. To be honest I really struggled with the putting the hard drive in, and then finding out how to connect it to the TV (its my first time!!) But with the internet anything is made possible Thank goodness for tutorials. LOL come to his work NEKKID? Are you CRAZY woman!! LOL It is a funny thought though... we'll see eh I may just do that this year

Ammi- Hey girl, how goes it today? Heheh thank you!! So many compliments!! I guess I just know him really well, and he's alot like me so I just give him stuff that I would want. About other parties, My grandparents 50th anniversary, I booked them a gazebo at observatory hill overlooking the harbour bridge, had classical music and I catered a huge spread of their favourite food. I invited anyone with a pulse (cause they don't live here hence no friends here) and it was a total suprise and a gorgeous day! I bought tressle tables from a large store and returned them after how naughty am I. But I'm poor so I figure that's fine About the 40th, let me give it a bit of thought and I will get back to you soon- what is the city you live in? I will find something perfect, don't you worry Take care hon!

_Chimi_

Good morning ladies
Just a quick post to say hi, i need to go to work
I am happy to report i lost 3 lbs, so i now weigh 211. i am so happy right now, i feel like cinderella, lol. i see 199 so close, i can taste it! have a wonderful day and i will be back later, thanks so much for all your support, you are all the best!!!!!

hey there~
Just stopping in and catching up while I eat my breakfast. I have to go out and pick up our groceries etc before I go to work.

I'm going to need lots of willpower tonight ladies. It is potluck night at work. I am bringing a green salad to share and will take some chicken or fish to go with it. It is all the desserts that are going to be sitting there. I told myself that I need to pick up some sf chocolates so at least I will have something sweet afterwards. Yeah, easy to say. Not so easy to pull off. My saviour will be the fact my big WI is in the morning Wish me luck!

Does anyone else eat Kashi Go Lean cereal? I absolutely love it and has become a staple since I started this plan!! If you have never tried it, I suggest you do! It is a lot yummier than it looks

k, off to do groceries. Chat when I get back!
Brenda

Brandnewme – I am glad you are feeling better! Nice new picture btw!

Michelle – Giving cats baths is the worst! I hope you come out of it without too many scratch marks.

Ammi – My personal life is still rather up in the air, but I realized that I needed to not let that distract me from what I COULD do. I had gotten so distracted by what I couldn’t do that I lost my focus. As I said before, it was hearing about how you had stayed focused through dealing with your mother that it really hit me about how I was looking at things the wrong way. With my parents’ house, it is rather larger than they need now since it is just the two of them, and they are moving to a quasi-retirement community (my dad is 63). They made the choice to do this now when they both have the energy, rather than later when it becomes more difficult. It is tough for me, but I realize it is the best thing for them.

Catherine – I really enjoyed the British soap operas when I lived in Canada too. I watched both Coronation Street and Emmerdale. They are so different from US soap operas as everyone isn’t rich and beautiful.

Julie – Congratulations on passing your boards!!! That is fantastic! On the ice cream thing, I just tried the Edy’s Slow churned Take the Cake. It was good – a little too good in fact. I am pretty bad with portion control on loose ice cream and find I mostly need to stick to the bars. But I did notice last time in the store that Edy’s now has a line of Slow churned ice cream bars, so that will be next on my list to try.

Chimi – You are bold using those tables and taking them back afterward. That is the kind of thing I am always too chicken to do. For an outing, fishing sounds good to me.

Peggy – This weather is getting got me too. It is supposed to be spring now, darn it! Hopefully it will warm up over the weekend.

Kymberly - Congrats on being down 3 pounds – that is fantastic! You are so close to onederland!

Brenda – I’m sending you some strength for the potluck tonight! I am also a Kashi lover. Both the regular GoLean and the GoLean Crunch are both great. Their waffles and oatmeal are also pretty good.

For those not familiar with Kashi, the big difference with theirs over other products is the amount of protein they contain. It is a cereal you can eat and not feel famished in 2 hours because you ate pure carbs.

I have been pretending the past few weeks that I had just been retaining a lot of water, but this is obviously not the case. I was up 3 pounds this morning and I am going to own it. I am not happy about it, but I am ok because I know that now I am back on track to doing what I need to do. I have exercised consistently, tracked consistently and been feeling very positive about things. I am sure I will be able to have these off in no time and go even further.

hey all! my trip to the gym the other day was awesome. since it's not really a gym but a physical therapy place its a lot quieter and a lot less intimidating. We had to schedule an appointment the first time so that the PT assistant could go over all the machines with us. (i had already done this before, but they wanted to go over it with me again since it's been so long) anyway, she was very nice and very helpful. she showed us things that weren't showed to me before. plus she showed us this workout plan that she devised which sounded great because i really need structure. i think thats why i never stuck with exercise before, it was always so overwhelming, i didn't know where to stop what to do etc.. but now i have a plan so im more apt to stick with it. we are going again today after she gets off work. im excited. hopefully i will see some drops in the coming weeks.

i wish everyone good health and willpower!

Hello All,

I was supposed to go to the gym today with Daren but this morning he wasn't feeling well so we didn't go. I can't believe how disappointed I was! I nearly said I'd leave him with a jug of juice, and go on my own lol. Nah, it only crossed my mind for a minute, but I would never leave him when he's poorly. So we both stayed home and spent the morning cuddled up in bed. Now that might not work off any calories, but I'll choose cuddles over the gym any day

Catherine - those polar diamonds sound gorgeous, are they more expensive than your average diamond of the same size and quality?

Yes I think that The Incredible Shrinking Woman would be a very catchy title for your book, the name alone would get people to pick it up and see what it's about. I tell you if I had the talent to write and had a more interesting weight loss story too I would love to write a story. So many people need to hear how others lose weight and need to see that it's not impossible. That's why I know your book will do really well!

I used to love watching Coronation Street, how old are the episodes you are watching? I don't watch it now, some of the story lines are so annoying!

Julie - on passing your boards, that's wonderful news. What are you going to do celebrate?

Rosebud - what a pretty avatar picture, it reminds me of my mum, she loved roses and her name is Rose. Thank you for your condolonces. I am sorry that you had such a terrible shock when you found out about your mum passing away. I was in the same boat, I live in the UK and she lived in Australia. I rang her in January on her birthday and she said she was fine, yet a month later and she had passed away. It was a shock for sure, and worse still was not finding out until 3 weeks afterwards

Thank you too for the welcome back and the sweet compliments, it's lovely to be back amongst such lovely friends.

Chimi - I love IMAX cinemas, and at least if you go with that option you know it won't matter what the weather decides to do. I wish we had one of those cinemas close to us!

Ooooh that's cool that you will give some thought to what I could do for Daren's 40th. We live in Swansea by the way. I love what you did for your grandparents 50th anniversary, especially taking the tressle tables back the next day lol. I'd do the same, naughty aren't we

Peggy - good on you for staying OP and still getting your exercise in despite it being such a busy time for you, now that's committment!!

Kymberly - oh my gosh, well done on another 3 lbs lost and being so close to getting into Onderland!! With the way you are going you will be there before you know it and away from Twotown forever

Brenda - every time you look at one of those desserts think of your ticker on here, think of how close you are to having lost 100 lbs, I bet those desserts won't be so tempting then

Nancy - sorry your personal life is up in the air still but I am so proud of you for focusing on being OP.

I love those retirement communities I think they are so much better than nursing homes. I think there is great peace of mind knowing that your parents are in a safer environment yet fully independent. I know your memories, but don't forget to take your camera when you go home this weekend so you can take lots of photos.

I am sorry that you had a gain, but good for you for owning it, and more importantly for knowing that now you are focused and committed again you will soon see that weight come off again.

Lee Ann - that gym sounds just perfect. Fortunately the one I go to is a pretty small one, so it's not intimidating, and so far I've only seen one muscle man, all the others are fatties like me, and most of them are much older, so I definitely don't feel out of place there. Anyway, glad you love your gym, and I know you'll enjoy working out and shifting those lbs.

Annie - I haven't heard from you recently, are you OK?

Valerie, Patti, Sharon and Lilion, where are you gals at??

I better scoot now, I need to go update my minutes on the exercise thread. Bye for now,

Hugs,

Ammi

Hello everyone

Let me ask you something...have anyone expirienced an enormous energy level once they strat dieting again?
It happens to me every time . And I annoy everyone cos Im so hiperactive lol. Its like I get stuck in this happy-energetic world and i even annoy myself hehe..people cant keep up with me, I even hardly keep up with my self . And usually it ends up with a day or two in bed..cos after that I just fall and it's like someone cuts the power off and then Im all...blaaaah. Its not such a nice experience at all, and it bothers me to be high one minute and down the next, it just goes to the extreme (I wish something would be normal for once lol...obviously I cant be average in any way ).
Im not sure if I explaind this so you can understand but I hope you know what Im talking about.

Have a lovely day ladies...I need to run

Lavandel~ I have been SO energetic this time around that even my husband has a hard time keeping up with me

Brenda

Julie-Yahoo!! Feel free to send those resumes up to Alberta. We can use all the nurses we can get.

Chimmi-Let’s see the best one that I pulled on my own without my father’s help was when I was a 14 year old Sacristan (one who puts stuff out for mass). Our priest hated small talk before mass, so he would come in at the last minute to gown and go. He actually had a stand that we put his alb(white, kind of like swim suit cover-up) and chasuble (colored poncho) on in one quick movement. It was kind of like a fireman putting on his pants and boots in one motion. Anyway, back then we still used those big blocks of pure starch to do the altar cloths and hangings, so I used an entire block to starch the back of his alb completely stiff. He came in slid his arms in and off he went. After the introductory prayers when he went to sit down, there was this very large crack noise. As he sat down it was like sitting on a piece of card board. Then his alb stayed bent at a 90 degree angle for the rest of mass. He gave me such an evil eye. It looked like he had a bustle under there. It actually tore his alb, and my mom had to make him a new one. I had to clean all three floors of the convent after that escapade. He didn’t want me cleaning the rectory, because he didn’t trust me to not pull something else in there. My father and I once snuck in and put koolaid in his shower head.

Since you asked nicely, I’ll give you a couple of paragraphs from my book.

“Whenever I did feel like giving up, something came around to help me. I had a week where I had worked really hard, but didn't lose any weight. I became despondent, but then I saw a show on TV that refocused me. I was watching a 3rd anniversary special about the World Trade Center attacks. They were interviewing survivors who had been the last ones out of the buildings. One man had been on a very high floor, and had started to walk down when a largely obese woman passed him going up. She convinced many of his co-workers to try for the roof instead. She was sure that they would be evacuated by helicopter. They didn't know that the doors to the roofs had been bolted because the city had long ago decided that roof top rescues were impractical and dangerous. My reaction to the story was if I had been presented with a 10 flight walk-up or a 90 floor walk down, I would have told myself anything to justify the shorter route.

That woman, and all the people she convinced to go up, died. I thought about myself. I would have died trying to make either escape. I also would have probably taken other people with me. I would have blocked the stairwell. I would have slowed everyone behind me down. It made me start to think about the people whose lives I had touched negatively. I visualized the paramedic loading me in an ambulance suffering a back injury. I imagined someone dying of a heart attack because an ambulance didn't get to him in time because it took two to transport me home. I don't know if either happened, but they could have. In an emergency situation, my size would not only probably get my killed, but might also get another innocent person killed. I couldn't stand the thought. I decided that having one week that I didn't lose weight wouldn't stop me from becoming the person I needed to be.”

Nancy-I never thought about it, but you’re right about British soap operas not having just the rich and beautiful. There are actually fat chicks on them. They kind of remind me of the neighborhood I grew up in.

I’m feeling much better, and am going to try to do a few things today, but not overdo it so I don’t relapse. What really ticks me is that I was too sick to go to hubby’s book launch last night, and they were asked to eat at Government House by the Premiere. I suppose I can live without having chateaubriand, but being toadied to would have been nice.