Hi Everyone,

Just a quick message before heading off for a busy couple of days work. I have meetings after work both days and tomorrow I will have to go straight from the meeting to early chorus practice. I start the day with a before school rehearsal with the school choir, so that is going to be a LONG day.

I just wanted to let you know that I have updated my webpage (link is in my signature line below). I have written a lengthy update about how I am going, because many people have sent emails asking. (It seems as though my page has been put on StumbleUpon.) I also have a new pictures page and a document about excess skin, as that is a VERY common question I get asked.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and I truly hope to catch up with some personal replies soon. My feet should touch the ground SOME time.

Take care,

Zelma

Anne:

I am not a vegetarian..but I feel like I am sometimes. I am Jewish and I work in a synagogue where the policy is that we cannot bring in outside meat products. They serve hot lunch in the Day School that is meat some days but it's junk...so when I bring lunch to work it has to be vegetarian (or fish).

It's also easier sometimes....especially since I don't eat red meat, shellfish or pork. So I am very vegetarian inclined...but I still dig poultry and fish.

I made some truly fabulous veggies on Friday night...

I took about 4 cups of mixed broccoli and cauliflower (2 pre-cut bags from the store) and roasted them with a touch of olive oil, cinnamon, cumin and coriander for about 15-20 minutes.

Then I mixed up a sliced red onion with some balsamic vinegar and a little cayenne and then tossed it all together. I let it sit for a while and then right before dinner I just warmed it up a touch in the micro. The flavord were wonderful.

Someone at work asked me today if I was pregnant. Guess I won't be wearing this shirt ever again. Argh.

I need to get out of birthday mode. having so many sweets in 3 days is making me queasy.
I'm a big spice fan.

Hi everyone!

I wanted to pop in quick before I am off to the gym. I had a great weekend. I went out and celebrated the end of my detox with a girlfriend of mine. We had a blast. I received a lot of attention, which in the past has made me uncomfortable, but for some reason lately I am just enjoying it to the fullest.

Anyway, while out I ran in to my ex. We haven't seen each other in about 8 months, and while he knew I was changing my lifestyle I think that I was only about 25-30 lbs down the last time we talked. The point is when I said hello to him he actually did a double-take and his jaw dropped. He told me how much I had changed and that he almost didn't recognize me! I was very happy to hear this. I think I harbored a secret goal to show him what he was missing.:devil: I believe I succeeded. He ended up calling me the next day just to see "how I was?". Hee Hee.

Well, yesterday was beautiful. I ran errands all day and took a long walk all in a t-shirt and jeans. But by 11 p.m. there was 2 inches of snow and sleet on the ground. So I spent my early morning hour cleaning off my car and shoveling the drive and sidewalks. Traffic wasn't great, but I was still on a high from this weekend. I finally made it to work ONLY 5 minutes late, and this wouldn't normally be a problem, but I needed to open the doors this morning, so people were waiting outside in the cold. I felt a little guilty :( but it wasn't as if I didn't try to get in on time. Bad roads. What can you do? Once at work I had to shovel one city block of sidewalk because for some reason our plow guy didn't do the walks. What's up with that. All-in-all I shoveled for 45 minutes and burned over 500 calories!!

I am really going to get my workout in today! Besides the shoveling, I am starting a running regime today. I was hoping to run outside, but it looks like the treadmill is calling my name. I picked up an MP3 player yesterday for $85 and downloaded a bunch of great music so that should keep me focused and energized. Wish me luck. :D

Now that I have written a book I am running out of time for personal replies. I saw that a few of you were talking about the number of calories you take in in a day. I had heard that 1200 was the minimum, but what I was wondering was what your average caloric output is in a given day. Because I eat closer to 2000 calories a day :o. However I am really on a plan to lose the weight slower (about 1-2 lbs/week). I tend to burn about 3000-3400 calories a day, so eating more is important for me as well. I am not sure if I consumed 500 less calories that it would actually translate into another pound loss. Eventually my calories will continue to go down. (I started at 2500 calories a day).

I hope everyone has a better day than the last one! Keep up the good fight!

Hi everyone! I am new and I have been looking at pics and success stories! WOW! Everyone is doing awesome. I hope I will be able to share mine someday. Any suggestions on when to exercise and still keep the hubby, kids, job and home running smoothly?? Penny

Hi everyone! Penny--WELCOME! Ok, I had some major emotional food issues with my family this weekend. My parents way of eating is unhealthy, which has been the normal way of eating growing up. I was proud of myself by staying true to small portions, and even shared a cupcake with my Hubby instead of eating the whole thing. I think everyone here can relate to the emotional issues that are tied to weight and food. I'm trying a new cauliflower recipe for dinner tonight. I will post back with the recipe later if it turns out!

Looks like we might be in for a long night. Its raining here and raining hard. Its been raining hard for hour, it started about 9am. I just went to the basement to lift weights and water is starting to seep in. We must have had 3 inches or so for it to come in . From what I hear we may end up with snow by tommorow. Its raining so hard and at this rate we will be cleaning out water all night.
I ate my 1500 calories today. I made sure I got enough in. I feel so full. I may need the extra energy to clean up the basement.
dmpls i think i had rather have snow than a wet basement.
have a wonderful night everyone

Penny Welcome!!!!! Jump right in with your story and tell us about you!

Debi yes I agree I guess snow at least wont flood your basement! I know I had DD clean out some leaves from our problem area near the sliding doors in the basement last summer we had a flood and DH replaced the carpet with wood flooring, would hate for another flood with that!!!

Well DD & I tried out her Hip Hop Abs DVD tonight.....first we did the "tips" portion it teaches you the moves which really helped me.....then we did the 5min workout I completed a little more than 1/2 of it.....the DD went on to do a 25 min routine and I joined in a few different times....I would say I did a total of 9 mins. It wasn't too bad as long as I got over the fact that any movement is better than none.....regardless of how I looked LOL I didn't get to walk after school today because I was suppose to meet with our Yearbook staff.....and the lady from the company didn't show up but, we didn't know she had sent an email prior (our system was down all day).....of course we were able to check after 30mins of waiting LOL so I just picked up DD and came home maybe I will do a mile in a few mins....I still want to do something......GOSH if someone would of told me I would be wanting to workout a month ago I would of told them they were crazy!!!

I made a new chicken dish tonight....too bad DH missed out! (he has class tonight so I packed his dinner) I will have to send him some for lunch tomorrow! I took 4 breasts of boneless/skinless chicken(frozen) a TBS of SF orange marmalade & one orange....sliced the orange real thin squeezed it over the chicken and spooned a TBS of marmalade over each breast......covered pan with tinfoil and baked for 50mins it was wonderful and tons of juice! I made cauliflower plain and drizzled the juices overtop of it. i will have to enter it into TDP and figure out the calories but, with the marmalade being only 10 calories it wont be too bad!

Hi Peeps - things are sure moving quickly here.

RK - so great to see you - been wondering how you are.

Well I went shopping in my closet over the weekend. It was a good news/bad news event. I found three pairs of nice dress pants that I never had been able to wear. Thats the bad news. The good news is they were all too big - I should have looked for them sooner. I'm going to launder them and see if I can shrink them up to get by for a little while. I had just been complaining that none of my clothes had been replaced yet - I need to keep in mind that I had two pair altered taking 6 inches out of each.

Today I not only had the case of the too long pants that used to be just fine but also of the too long sleeves. I hope to notice a difference when I get my spring clothes out.

Debbie - thanks for the info on Dance Factory - I think I will check it out soon.

Wenny - can you believe the weather - the snow skipped us but 78 yesterday and 18 tonight. At least it's March so spring has to be somewhere close - I could really feel it in the wind last night.

Catherine - how was the water today? I absolutely love the water sessions I'm getting now - gotta admit that after an hour hard at it in the water it's hard to go do an hour on land on Sundays but I will keep doing it. I've noticed such a difference in the exercise benefits since I've started the water sessions.

Zelma - Hi! Always so nice to see you and your beautiful smile.

Annie - I have to agree with Debbie - you are the incredible shrinking woman - you need to put a little ticker with your progress pics - you are changing so fast.

Big hugs to all. Tomorrow is WI day - it's been a great week - hope the scale agrees.

Carol

Hi everyone,

I've been struggling. I have had more bad days than good days, and the off days are really bad. Today I am trying my best to stay with it. It's always harder to get back on than to stay on. I bought a bunch of sugarless gum/candies, which I used to rely on a lot when I was first starting, to get me through the munchies.

Have a great day everyone.

Carol: It's an exhilarating feeling to shrink out of the clothes. Yay!

Hi everyone. Sorry I have been MIA again. I am really struggling with my personal identity. It feels like weight loss has taken over my life to such a point that it is the overshadowing everything else. That was ok for a period of time, but now that it has been over two years that I have been doing this I feel like it has come to define me as a person far more than I would like. I do not want my gravestone to read: “Here lies Nancy – she lost X# of pounds.” So I really needed a break from thinking about weight loss all the time. I have still been doing my routine – eating (mostly) on plan and going to my dance classes. So I have been doing it, but I just haven’t felt like talking about it. But my mini-vacation is done and now I plan to be back more again. I need to find a better balance in my life.

I hope everyone is doing well and I am going off to catch up on some other posts.

Hi again,
I meant to write my story to share but I have been trying to get 15 inches of water out of the basement. Dirt basement! No where to go so we have to submerge a pump and run a hose to drain it. I am tired. We woke up at 3:30 this morning as my husband had an early flight and he got half way through his shower and it turned cold. He was not happy. He asked me to check on the new water heater that we got last month. So I went to the basement without thinking we had a 50 degree weather day yesterday and alot of snow melted, and yeah, found water. So his flight was even postponed because of the ice storm we got last night. So for the last 4 hours I have been fighting with the pump and hose!!!! He is on the plane and just called to say he was half way there. Then asked if I had the basement done. He is worried about us being without hot water for a couple of days. I told him not too worry when the hot water heater dried out, I would have someone start it back up. I am hoping it is just a breaker to flip! Actually I am praying that it is nothing more serious. I am hoping to have all the water out tonight so it can dry some. That means boiling water for a bath as the Y is closed by now. Yes, we have a member ship, but I have trouble working it in my schedule. I will tell my story and ask for suggestions tomorrow fi I have time. I WILL TRY. Thanks for listening to me ramble while I am taking a small break, but now I need to go and check on it again.

Oh no Penny! I hope your house is okay and you get your water back soon. That is no fun!

I took a lovely power walk through the City today. Saw some shops along the way that sell all kinds of spices and incense (I walked through Curry Hill). I've been really being careful with my food, but I think I under-ate because I had horrible headaches by 6pm. Could also be sugar withdrawal....drinking tons of water though, so at least I'm hydrated!

Good evening all,

Today's Dr appointment seemed relatively uneventful. Which is good. But I still need to get my blood work and all back. BP was fine though. I am hoping I haven't wrecked my bodyby being so dog gone big.

I exercised for 20 minutes today. I could have done more...but I didn't. But at least I did some. And tomorrow I will do some more. I really would like to get to my mini-goal of 350 this month. There is no reason I shouldn't be able to. The only reason would be...me.

Nancy, good to see you back. I was hoping the land of dating didn't swallow you up. But it's good you are trying to geta better balance in life too. I have a hard time with working 10 to 12 hours, trying to exercise, spend time with DH, eat dinner....poof, no more day left. But we both agreed tonight that we can just as easily spend time working out together as we can watching bad TV. :)

That's it for me now.

Take care and be well,
Angie

Catherine, so glad you made it to the pool. That would be so weird though to look out and see snow falling while you're in a nicely heated pool. That's the life!!

Hiya Ratkity! How's things going out your way?

Zelma, I went to your website. What a transformation. It was full of good info. Thank you so much! You look fabulous and so happy.

Carol, have a great WI day!!

Nancy, glad to have you back and hope you find yourself. I've heard so many people say that this has happened to them after they lose their weight or the majority of it. It's sort of an obsession while we are losing, and then we get lost and don't know what to do with ourselves .

worthapenny, I hope you can get the basement dried up some to where you get your hot water back. Take care.


I've been really tired today for some reason, so I haven't done much. I did make a ravioli dish that was from lo fat recipes. It turned out pretty good but I think we got the wrong kind of wrappers.
Tomorrow I plan on doing some kind of exercise, even if it's just using my hand weights.
It sounds like we are all sick of this weather. Can't wait for sun and flowers and daylight savings time!!!
Debbie

Carol-the water was great. The instructor complimented me again. I guess I hadn't gotten as out of shape as I thought. At least my heart and lungs anyway.

Debbi-Yes, it is heavenly. Most people in the class head to the sauna or hot tub, but not me. They have handicap co-ed washrooms. I get a room all to myself with an elevated toilet, maple bench, sink, and a handicap walk in shower. I can turn the heat up to my comfort level, sit down in the shower, and just take my time. Taking showers at home after hurting my knee was hard. We have grab bars, but I had trouble lifting my leg in without help. I'm kink of pig-headed about not wanting help. Besides, when I had him help me, he kind of wanted to get in too, and I take showers seriously.

Nancy-I just wanted to say I definitely understand where you are at. We aren't in a short bit. We are in long haul mode. I had to stop dealing with it, and try to live my life too, or I would have cracked. I also want my life to be about something other than the weight loss. I think that is the main reason that I have drug my heels on finishing my book on losing weight. I have had no trouble working on the other one. In OA once a woman said she refused to take her food obsession and turn it into an obsession with the scale. I didn't get that then, but I do now.