:carrot: BRENDA!!!!! I am overwhelmed with joy for you!!! What an accomplishment!! :dancer: :congrat: :congrat: :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: :trampo: :trampo: :trampo: Have a GLORIOUS DAY!! You deserve it!!

Nancy, that for the congrats on the 1/2 lb Hun! :hug: My prayers are with you for your step-mom. Sounds like the apartment may just be "the one"! I know when something stays in my mind that long....you just have to look into it further! It is probably meant to be. Good luck with that! :goodluck:

Linda, Keep up the good work and positive attitude! :carrot: :carrot:

Sharon, great job on the 4 lb loss! WAY TO GO!! :carrot: :carrot:

Hi All,

I went to the dentist today, this afternoon actually, and my mouth is still partly numb. When I smile I look so lop sided lol. You should have seen me in Starbucks trying to drink my skinny caramel machiatto, I had to hold a napkin/serviette under my lips as I sipped to catch the stuff that I dribbled out :o Oh the joys of having dental work done!

Patti - it felt so strange to have the driver pay attention to me, I mean he's sleazy and all, but the fact I warranted a second look was still flattering. Daren has nothing to worry about though, I love him to bits and no other bloke, especially not a sleazy one will ever be the object of my affection.

How did your WI go today? Are you in the 270s now?

Chimi - wow what a fabulous idea. Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to do a treasure hunt to that scale, both because of costs and the fact we dont have a car. But I could do a smaller version including perhaps Morriston which is the little town closest to us. I will definitely give it some thought, thank you so much for such a cool idea!

The IMAX cinema I went to actually had pretty decent sized seats, in fact I can't even remember the arms at all. It's a shame your cinema has seats with arms that dig in, it detracts from the enjoyment of the show that's for sure. Well not to worry, keep on losing those kgs and you will soon be in those seats and not even be touching the sides :yes:

Annie - I never realised you spoke to your mum on her birthday and that it was the day before she passed away. No wonder it was such a shock, but kind of lovely that you got to speak to her before it happened. I think in your post to me you meant for me to focus on the fact I got to speak to mum on her birthday and that she knew how much I loved her. I do focus on that, in fact a lot of the happiest memories I have are coming up a lot now and hopefully soon they will stop my images of her dying alone and if she really suffered no pain etc.

Catherine - forget about writing any other books, as great as I bet they would be we want the Incredible Shrinking Woman Part 1 :yes:

I think it's horrible that people looked at you in disgust when you were 600 lbs. Who are they to judge you or any overweight person. Shallow ignorant people like that really annoy me! Well you have the pleasure of knowing that you will and are losing the weight, but those shallow people will always be like that and I know what I would rather be that's for sure!

DJCJrun - Oh I hate it when I lose long posts, it's happened to me plenty of times! If I know I have a really long post to do now I always do it in Word and then copy and paste it here, it's much safer.

Congrats on the 5 lbs lost, it's wonderful when our diet and exercising efforts pay off isn't it!

Yes I guess turning heads is cool, though something I am definitely not used to. I wonder if I'll have to start worrying about passing builders on building sites now. I never warranted a wolf whistle before, but who knows what will happen in the months to come lol.

Lee Ann - so after seeing the schedule for the Tour de France are you still going to 'walk' it?

Brenda - :congrat: :woohoo: :cheer: :cheer2: :cb: :cp: :dance: :D :carrot: :welcome: to the 100 + lbs lost club, :woohoo: You did it. See now wasn't missing out on those lovely desserts more than worth it when you see a great loss!!! 103 lbs lost altogether, AMAZING!!!!

Lesley - aww doesn't that sound so sad, from one motherless daughter to another :( Big hugs right back at you :hug: Sadly we aren't the only girls here to have lost our mum's, so to all of us in the same boat, including having lost dad's and siblings, and loved ones :grouphug:

Good for you for trying your hand at playing tennis, now that's one energetic game whether you are good at it or not!! It's also nice to do something like that with your hubby. I started going to the gym recently with mine and it's so nice to do something healthy like that with him rather than just watch TV together etc.

Linda - hi and :wel3fc: Well done on making that decision to walk around the store instead of going on the motorised cart. You sounded so proud of yourself and rightly so :cp: Now you are so motivated and know you can do it I know you will walk whenever you can. I hope K will go with you for a walk at the mall, :goodluck: I am sure you'll manage it.

Donna - 15 lbs in 8 weeks is brilliant, well done :cheer: As for the exercise that some others do, even if it's more than you do right now, don't ever think you don't do enough. You are being as active as you can, it's obviously helping you lose the lbs, and you will be able to increase how much you do accordingly. You're doing great :cp:

Sharon - :cp: another 4 lbs down, boy oh boy you are shrinking away!! I am so happy that this diet is working for you. I hope Steve is thrilled for you!

Jennylee - :welcome: I see my nagging finally got you to come have a look see :D Great to have you here and I hope you find all the support you need from a great group of people here :yes:

Nancy - great news about the apartment, it all seems to be coming together. Even the stairs at both end making a move a bit more difficult are a good thing because just think of all those lbs you will be burning off!!

I am sorry about your step mother losing her father. I am glad that most of his family were with him when he passed away. That's one thing I get most upset about with my mum, that she died alone :( Anyway I am sure your step mother will really appreciate your support during this rough time for her, good on you for willingly offering it :hug:

Ok gotta run, I should be chatting with Sharon now - where has the time gone! Be back soon,

Hugs,

Ammi

:wave: Good morning chickies,

Brenda: Congrats to you on 103 pounds gone forever! :cb: :dance: :cloud9: :queen: :encore: :cheer: :congrat: :cheer2: :woohoo: :dancer: :hat: :cp: :bravo: :hug:

Lesley: Have fun this weekend.

Chimi: Yep, I've been on the bike daily even with my flu bug. I only update my exercise on Sundays so I am actually at 1020 minutes right now out of 1200! I should make my 1200 goal for March easily. Thanks for cheering me on!

Linda P : :wel3fc: Glad to hve you here. Way to go on the walking too. You gotta start somewhere!

Donna: Wohoo! Congrats on the -15 pounds! YOu are doing so well!

Sharon: Yipee! Congrats on -4 more! Keep it up darlin.

Jennylee: :welcome2: So glad to have you here!

Nancy: Oh, so sorry about your step Grandpa. My heart and prayers are with you! I will be keeping my fingers crossed for you about the apartment. Only take it if you love it! Hugs.

Ammi: Hope you are not in mouth pain after the dentist visit today. Hugs.

VAl, oh Val, where are you? I sure miss you girl.

Blessings to you all,
Annie

LOL Ammi: we must have been posting at the same time. Yes, I did mean to try to look at all the good times. Sorry if it came out wrong. How is your mouth doll? I hope it doesn't "wake up mad". Hugs to you,
Annie

Hey Everyone! I've been just SWAMPED and finally managed to skim, not read, the posts for the past couple days. So I'm afraid I'm not going to reply to hardly anyone! BUT:


and...

:welcome: to the newcomers! I hope you love it here as much as I do!

Got to run! Later ladies!

DJCJ-I always do mine on word, and cut and paste to avoid accidentally erasing myself. Next time that happens, try hitting the back button, sometimes that helps.

Lee Ann-I’ve always wondered how people could do stuff like marathons across the desert or tour de france. They just have to be from a different species than I am.

Brenda-I’ve often though that I have had enough dessert in the first half of my life to make up for doing without the second half, plus about half of my time in eternity.

Wyllenn-I’m bad about doing my exercise minutes. I will try harder.

Lesley-the Nantahala Outdoor Center sells a poster size map of the Appalachian Trail for $3.50. I bought a really cute map years ago there of the Chattooga River (where they filmed the movie Deliverance) and did a rowing thing with it even though you don’t have to do much rowing down a white water run. They have an online store. I won’t put the link, but just google them.

Chimmi-It’s a fancy French steak. Since the book was on French politicians in Alberta, and being published by the French college at the U of A, I guess they thought that was apt. I’ve never thought about myself as being a character. My father certainly was, and I followed him around learning everything I could. He once told me that the minute you start growing up, you start growing old. One of the first things I told my husband about myself is that I had a playful personality. We had a St. Patrick’s stew thing at church last Saturday, and I got bored, found a rubberband, and proceeded to start picking off the other choir members with paper wads. Middle aged women aren’t supposed to act that way, but with me you can never tell what I’m going to do next.

Linda-I remember the first time I did Walmart after 8 years in a wheelchair. You want to jump up and down when you get to the car, but you’re so beat all you want to do is slide behind the wheel and sit for a minute. I totally get it even if no one else around you will. You can reach things, no one has to detour around you and you can almost blend in with the normals. Welcome, I hope you find what you need here.

Donna-You are right. Any movement helps. In the beginning, all I could do was 2 minutes of scissor kicks lying in bed.

Sharon-I think you should get a set of pretty stones, put them on the mantle, and for each one you get rid of, go bury one in the garden.

Brenda-Way to GO! You have now lost a super model. Where was she hiding? I used to hide a pair of them under my skirts.

Nancy-My husband writes what could be the most boring things in the world. His degrees are in cultural geography, which is not what and where rivers and mountains are, but where and why political boundaries are. We always called that political science, but what do I know. He writes about politicians and elections. They are the kind of books that stay in the reference section. This one was on the history of French politicians in Alberta. The papers he writes are primarily on historical comet sightings like ones written up in Japanese literature from the 500’s, or on, God Help me, the feasibility of mining the moons of Mars or developing ancient lava tubes on the moon into space stations. Everyone needs a hobby, right. The reason he is disabled is because as a grad student he came up with a new way to look for meteorite deposits in Antarctica. He went down with a joint NASA/National Science Foundation team, and spent a couple of months about 170 kilometers from the pole finding over 700 moon meteorites. He cold burned the inside of his lungs and did nerve damage to his feet. When I describe him as the world’s biggest nerd, I’m not joking. When he went to Antarctica, he didn’t know how to ski or drive a snow mobile after growing up in Edmonton. He still doesn’t know how to drive a car. He’d never even been camping before and didn’t know how to set up the tents or cook over a camp stove. He first described himself to me as someone who spent all their time on intellectual pursuits and that everyday tasks eluded him. Man, he wasn’t kidding. When I moved in, I found over a thousand dollars in old checks for book sales that he had never bothered to cash.

Ammi-The funniest thing about moving to Canada, is that people here never saw me at my largest. They never saw me in the chair. A lot of my new friends know I used to be in the chair, but not that I’ve lost 200 lbs. So when I talk about losing weight, they look at me with a “what weight” stare. I carry a picture of myself in the chair in my wallet, and every now and then I pull it out and show it. People here just freak. I haven’t seen that many extremely large people here in wheelchairs or on scooters. I think it is because all the buildings have stairs. Between the stairs and the ice and snow, people just keep walking because they have to. I am convinced that if I couldn’t have kept sewing larger clothes for myself, and had wheelchair access every where I needed to go, I’d have been forced to lose weight sooner.

Annie-I finally had some good news this morning. My scale is once again talking to me. I no longer am getting the big Error message. It only took 2 ½ months to start losing again. It has got to be the exercise. I know it is the exercise, but I had gotten out of the habit, and starting again was a big hill to go over. I started back today after being sick this week, but only got 200 situps in. I didn’t want to get overheated and have my fever come back. I’m going for a walk today. It is actually nice out, and I’m venturing out with only one pair of socks or pants on. I’m also convinced that my scale heard me telling the story of how I dealt with bad scales in the past. My maniacal laugh scared it into acting right. Now I feel like I can really get started again. Not knowing what you weigh and if you are doing any good is just so hard on me.

I was just looking at the sliders and noticed that CATHERINE has lost over 200 LBS! That is just amazing! I'm happy to hear your scale is "on" again. That was a pretty funny story of running them over! Loved it!

Ammi i was hoping you would not notice about my WI ..no not quite there yet but i think if i weigh in tomorrow i will be... but i may wait til wednesday to weigh at my drs. keep your fingers crossed!

Hi All,

Well us poor folk in the UK only got to watch American Idol tonight, and I cannot believe that Sanjaya or whatever his name is has stayed in when yet another of the great singers have gone. It's just a good job that one of my faves haven't gone yet or I might just have to do a revolt and refuse to watch anymore!!! Oh and as of tonight my faves are Melinda, Jordin, Blake and Chris Sligh.

Annie - yes we did post around the same time, and I am glad I got to chat with you online :D

My mouth isn't too sore thank you for asking, it's just a bit tender where I had the injections. Shame I still have at least two more appts, ick.

Catherine - I think you are right that if you couldn't sew and if you lived where you are now you would have been pushed into losing weight earlier than when you did start. Amongst all the other reasons I started dieting this time around, one of them was that the biggest size clothes in the only shop that I could buy clothes to fit me, got too tight on me. They looked and felt awful. I knew if I outgrew those clothes I'd be in a right pickle!

Patti - I think it's a good idea to weigh on wednesday at the doctors, you will definitely be in the 270s by then :yes:

I am so disappointed because I just figured out that we are not going to be able to go to the gym twice next week. I missed it once this week, and now I know I will miss once next week and it's so frustrating. Next week I have a docs appt on Monday, on Tuesday we go to the gym anyway, on Wednesday I am going to an awards ceremony at Beth's school because she's won a trophy, Thursday when we would have gone to the gym we have to go grocery shopping and on Friday I have the dentist appt. Grrrr :( Oh well maybe the week after I'll be able to go twice :crossed:

Well I better go now, got an early start in the morning. Have a great weekend everybody and bye for now,

Hugs,

Ammi

Ammi yes i like to compare my scale to the dr. scales.. and the good thing is my appointment is in the morning lol!

Catherine: so very happy for you that the scale got scared of being demolished in a parking lot! Keep up the good work. Yes exercise must be the key ingredient. lol. Tomorrow is my weigh in at WW. It's a shame that a stupid little thing with numbers gets me sooooo nervous. lol. Hope I see another loss tomorrow. Dare I hope that two weeks in a row. I have been a perfect ww angel still. I am also still doing my bike 10 miles a day which takes me 40 minutes to do. I am still doing 200 situps and 10 pushups and my 30reps of 9 different weight lifting for my arms. Hopefully it will show on the scale. I have noticed a few of my pants are getting a bit looser. I always measure on the 1st day of the month too. I really am proud of you Catherine. I ned to incorporate walking into my routine at some point along. I keep telling myself as soon as I get to 399 I will add walking. It hurts my back soooo much to walk right now. I am going to walk in the pool if I ever make it back there. Oh well. There's always Monday. Pool is closed until then.

Ammi: Hugs to you. It was nice chatting with you on line. What a treat.

Well, I hope you are all being good op girls and moving your booties at some point today. I have been really missing Val (nolifewithoutmyhorses) I gave her a call today on the phone and got her answering machine. I hope she calls or pops in here to say hi and she is doing well. If I hear from her I'll let you all know.

Blessings,
Annie

Catherine and Ammi -- One of my big motivations was also clothing related. I was fitting into 28/30s and couldn't shop at any stores at the mall. Finding clothes that fit was hard, but finding ones I actually liked, nearly impossible.

Hi Everyone!

Well, I have been totally delinquent in responding to personals over the last few days, so here goes!

Ammi – I’m glad you and your sister came to an agreement you how to handle your mum’s ashes. I know that is a big burden lifted off your shoulders. The cab driver cracks me up! I know you think he’s a creep, but that’s still a compliment . . . you sexy thing! As for American Idol, I can’t believe that Sanjaya guy is still there either! I am in love with Melinda! She is adorable . . . so sweet and humble and an incredible singer. I hope the public makes the right decision.

Catherine – You’re right. The liquid diet makes things a lot easier in many respects because it takes all the decision making out of it. The only decisions I make is which packet of soup or shake to eat 4 times a day and I don’t stray from it. If I had the discretion to make choices, I’d probably be sitting here with a bag of chips on my lap right now. Thanks for the congrats on my 4.8 lbs lost. 38,500 calories? Hard to believe! Finally, I read the excerpt from you book. That was very insightful and was probably hard to write. You are a good writer and I would enjoy reading your stories.

Brenda – 103 lbs!!!!!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!! How did you do it? I’m losing on liquids but I can’t do that for the rest of my life. What was your method?

Chimi – Superdeeliciousfantastical?????? I have never heard my success being characterized as that. I LOVE IT!!!!! You made me smile. With a word like that, I really feel like I did something good! Thanks for the encouragement.

Linda P – Congrats on your Walmart walk. You had a goal and you made it. You go girl!

Donna – 15 lbs! Great news!!!

Sharon – 4 lbs this week means that (if I remember correctly) you have now lost 18 pounds in 3 weeks (8 in week 1, 6 in week 2, and 4 in week 3). THAT IS FABULOUS! I’m so happy for you. Do you feel better? Are you getting used to the liquid thing?

Nancy – Cabinets! Hooray!!! I’m glad you seem to have finally found a place to hang your hat. That must be a big load off your mind!

Annie – Is your WI tomorrow or today? Let me know how you do! I’m rooting for you!

As for me, I had a good day today. Went to work late and came home early – works for me!!!!!! Last night, my boss gave me two tickets to the Houston Rockets professional basketball game. They were VIP tickets in the Club Level. When we got there, we walked into a small suite where there was Mexican food, wine, beer, and all sorts of treats. As you guys know, I am on total liquids and I couldn’t have any of it. I knew it would be there before I accepted the tickets so I had prepared emotionally and I really wanted to see the game. So, my friend ate and I drank water and we watched the game. I didn’t eat anything (except I snagged a chip when no one was looking). I must tell you that, although I did good, it was torture. I’ve only been doing the liquid diet for two weeks, so it was really, really, really, really hard to be around all that food that I so enjoy. Anyway, I held onto my willpower and did good.

The weekend is here so I’m gonna try to keep busy. Will probably try to sleep some. I worked all last weekend and I’m bushed!

Well, I’ll pop back in tomorrow. Take care, everyone!

Lisa