I've been super busy for the last few days, at work and then over the weekend I was house sitting for my folks + other obligations. I went to the symphony on Saturday night and had great seats - they had a piano soloist in the second half and I was really close and on the left, where I could watch the pianist's hands. It was great. Even better, I resisted symphony chocolates.

Watching the dog at my folks' house is always a tough job for me because my parents have loads of food that I don't keep in the house - including chocolate and chips and real ice cream. I made it through the weekend fairly well, in part I suppose by staying busy.

My 'regular' scale needs new batteries so am using the back-up scale, which is 2 lbs higher than the regular scale (and was even HIGHER when I moved it to its new position). I am thinking about switching out scales just because the 'regular' one eats batteries like the cookie monster eats cookies (although I think he no longer eats cookies? or also eats veg?) but I hate to have those couple of extra lbs disappear into the ether. Hahah. So I will likely keep feeding the old scale new batteries.

Devon - thank you for the compliments. I will say that up close - especially with the weight loss - I see more flaws in my skin, particularly when I smile. Sort of wish I had done this sooner, but there is such a big difference in my face that I am please (and try to remind myself that no one is ever as close to my face and looking at my cheeks as I am when I am putting on make-up and looking at myself, close-up, in the mirror. But! Hah - am envious a bit that you are getting this done when you are young.

And aww. I am so glad that your week took a better turn. But I think it was thanks to you most of all.

Rosebud - Thank you! I actually have the exact same face-nose shape as my: grandmother, great-uncle, father, and uncle, though I'm really the only one of my cousins to get the face. It's interesting how strongly it carried over three generations. I don't really know my great-uncle's children/grandchildren so I don't know if I have dopplegangers in that part of the family.

And it's neat that as I lose weight I can see that echo of my grandmother in me again. My mother always said that she never believed that babies actually looked like adults until the first time she saw me. And her first words were, "My god, she looks like Bert [my dad]." I have seen your progress pictures, too. They are pretty amazing. I might go post mine in the 100 lb club progress pic thread.

dgramie - so great that your husband is doing so well. you must be very proud of him! I have those weeks, too. I had a bunch of them in the springtime, I would do perfectly during the week, then at the end of the weekend everything I had lost the week before was back. Very frustrating! Maybe you should make it a goal just to maintain for a month, so you don't have that frustration adding to your stress, and add in exercise again? You are doing so great, though, I think that might be tough to do. Except weight loss would still be a bonus, not forbidden, so it would help you feel better about the work you ARE doing to maintain your loss?

cuter hah. No, I understand completely. I don't generally announce things. I don't think I mentioned losing weight to my mom until I had lost forty pounds. (And then I was like: uhm, that shirt you just bought me is 2 sizes to big. ) and I haven't discussed it with many people in my regular life. I find it easier that way.

Oh, and the binge discussion. Heh. I have a hard time resisting pizza in the house. I don't know that I've ever eaten a whole pizza at one sitting, but I would just go BACK to it and go BACK to it. Like, 2-3-4 pieces, and then another for a snack an hour later. Especially anything deep dish and/or Papa John's spinach alfredo. And I've gotten Taco Bell while driving home late at night, because I was bored, not because I was hungry. And so on.

I've always been overweight, though. I was overweight as a kid and would hide snacks. I remember going to some diet center when I was in junior high. I know I was doing weight watchers in eighth grade. Between my sophmore and junior year of high school I went to a weight loss camp (followed by four weeks of science camp) and lost a good deal of weight, which I kept mostly off for a couple of years before I started putting it back on. It was a source of constant conflict with my folks.

Twilight - I agree with Rosebud! The omelette was dinner. Maybe it had a few unhealthy things, but the grease was on the plate, not in your mouth. I made a ... quesadilla for lunch on Saturday with some pepper-jack from a local dairy. In my George Foreman grill so the cheese oozed out, as did the grease. But I knew how fatty the cheese was and used only a bit, so it all worked out.

And alcohol isn't the worst thing in the world. I try to make room for a beer or a couple of glasses of wine at least once a week. We went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays last week and I tried the spaghetti squash marinara (which is really low-calorie. But kind of bland. Still, I will get it next time, too.) and ordered a beer. Mind, I didn't like the beer I ordered. It was a nut-brown ale but tasted - quite odd, a sour overtaste without the chocolatey depth of a Guiness.

Oh! But: I wish I had read the drinks menu. They had 3 or 4 cocktails that were about 100 calories to 150 calories.

Oh, but as for the 20-somethings' trigger foods, maybe you could put them in ONE cabinet or - even better - some sort of plastic bin? So even if there isn't the physical absence to keep them off your mind, there is a physical/psychological barrier?

PS - I may have mentioned before that my dad was traveling to Ireland to play golf with his brothers. Well, he is there now. He said that they had a gorgeous day in Sligo for golf (even though ahead of time the forecast for Ireland was "rain" "periods of rain" "rainshowers" and more "rain" Hah. His round of 104 was the best score. He's never beaten his youngest brother before, so he was pleased.

Thanks to everyone that said not to be so hard on myself... i am my own worst critic.

mnemosyne- there really isnt room to divy up the cupboards or anything, and i dont always have a problem with junk food... my hormones are just so messed up cause of peri menopause, that the cravings will hit me with no warning...i really just need to get to the point where i can indulge once in a while but say no the rest of the time. there are going to be temptations wherever i am...sad to say lol.

i hope everyone is doing well today

MEM ~ yes, about the pizza binge -- I would do the same thing; have about 3-4 slices (half the pizza) for dinner, but keep going back later on, until by the time I went to bed, I had one slice left and thought, "oh well, may as well eat that one too!"

Glad your DAD is having a good time over in Ireland; I was praying for him that he would. Our family has lots of Irish in it too; my Dad's Dad's family, plus my Grand-Mother on our mother's side -- both straight from Ireland and her family had a castle and all. I think she was a descendant of Lady Susan O'Neil. They gave it up to some historical society becuz they didn't have the $$$ funds to restore or maintain it. That's the family history story we heard all throughout our childhood anyways. I should google that sometime. Never know what I could dig up on the net.

BTW, I look like my grandmother and great-grandmother on my Dad's mother's side too (they were from Wales, but of Italian/Hungarian descent). I was named after my great-grandmother and I look like her even more now that my face is slimmer too. I have her big green eyes with dark eyelashes that look like permanent mascara. How many times I have had to say, "No, I am not wearing any mascara!"


Had a great OP weekend; we had fish & chips (baked) and salad fo rme on Saturday night. Then I made a nice roast beef with loads of veggies on Sunday and we had the leftovers tonight. I also baked some apples for dessert, just like the recipe I put in this forum.

I had a nice long walk with hubby last night. We walked over 2.5miles and lots of hills. It was fun and it felt good but to be honest Im a bit sore this morning. I really need to focus on food when we get back from vacation. I want to be at least 60lbs less in may. I would love to be 80lbs less but I know 60 is doable if I set my mind to it.

Hi Ladies, dgrammie I am so glad you managed to get for a walk yesterday. I find that if I don't have a walk every day I get really grumpy. I think it is having a bit of space to call my own and spend time with my dogs.
Since my knees have been so bad I have stopped really powering around the country park listening to Madonna and tend to listen to the radio. Bizarrely it only adds about 6-7 minutes on to my time. Having said that my knees are very much better now, it seems to be episodic which is kinda wierd as they are both shot to bits with arthritis so reason dictates that they should ache all the time. It is only at night that they are really troublesome.
I had made it under 280lbs on Sunday so just to be sure that it wasn't a false low I weighed again this morning ( I normally weigh at the most weekly and try to make it to every 2 weeks if I can!) Well blow me down if I wasn't down a bit more.I am now 277 and 3/4 which makes 79lbs ( plus a quarter!) lost which is 1 and 3/4 lb until half way!!!!!!!
I was hoping to make the half way mark by my birthday on 5th Oct so I feel I may just do it!
I have you ladies and this website to thank for getting me this far. If I feel lost and tempted I head straight here and ask for help. SO THANKS.......Diolch yn fawr as we say in Wales.

Have heard more from my dad and his brothers. My uncle e-mailed this great picture of the three of them on the golf course - the scenery is gorgeous, naturally. Though today Dad said that they had winds approaching 45 KPH that would not only do wild things to your golf ball, but knock you off balance.

They are staying in Sligo and went up to Donegal yesterday. I pointed out to my Dad that they would drive by the cemetary where William Butler Yeats was buried on the way. He'd forgotten that. I doubt they stopped. My one uncle did not want to tour anyplace. He was just going for the golf and the pubs.

Twilightwing - that's a really good attitude to have. I am lucky that I live alone and can therefore control EVERYTHING in my house. Now I am much better at resisting, for example, when I go to my folks' house. Habits take time to both create and break and you have to create space for yourself to do just that.

Rosebud - hah! My family (via that grandmother, anyway) were peasants, I am sure. Though probably slightly more well-off peasants given that they survived the worst of the famine and left Ireland in the 1850s. I read a really harrowing history of the potato famine and you still see famine cottages, abandoned and crumbling, in some places.

IF you are interested in the family history, you might check Rootsweb. I am not really into geneaology, so much as I am into history and find that the whole geneaology thing is an interesting window into history. When my grandmother went to Ireland in the early 1990s, she went to Menlo, Galway, and visited the cemetary there. And wrote that she recognized so many names of the "Wood River" Irish (the small farm town she grew up in) from that cemetary. Because people emigrated like that - joining others they knew, or moving together to cushion the blow of finding a new place in the world.

Oh! But: Rootsweb has archives from loads of people's work on their family histories and if you were interested I bet you could find some stuff out. I discovered a set of old family pictures from my grandfather's family in some stuff we brought from my grandmother's house a few years ago. There were some unusual names (those wild, 19th century names) that helped me, and I found this super-extensive family tree on Rootsweb where some guy had researched all the descendents of this one dude who came to Bucks Co., PA in 1753. There were nearly 100,000 names in his database, which is just mind blowing. Including my weirdly named great-great-great-grandfather.

Your weekend meals sound great! I made a roasted cherry tomato spaghetti sauce this weekend but haven't used it yet. Also made a quinoa pilaf with a chickpea rosemary tomato sauce for dinner, and cooked turnip greens for the first time. They were tasty! I added vinegar and cumin to give them the depth of flavor you would normally get from fatback or a hamhock in more tradition recipes and I really liked them.

I will make again though I might buy the pre-washed kind. Hah. I HATE washing greens.

dgramie - that sounds like a lovely walk. Congrats on doing it! I know the feeling of being sore the next day, though. Maybe cut back on the route so you aren't as sore and work up to the full circuit?

You can totally do that, too, and when you get back will be a great time to focus on food again.

mountain walker - my dad also has bad arthritis in his knees. I am sure I will get it. Hopefully weight loss will give me a few extra years! But I think with arthritis it really does come and go. But I bet the episodes will improve as you keep losing weight! Congrats so much on your success!

I am a wee bit behind you, but not far. Weighed in at 279 lbs this morning, which means that [first thing in the morning on a particular scale at a certain place in the bathroom] I now weight less than my driver's license says I do. So! it is lying now, again, but in a much better way.

Cold and rainy here. Cool enough to wear tights! I was so excited. I have tights that fit and only bunch up a wee bit at the ankles. And black flats with HUGE SILVER BUCKLES. They looked so cute I had to revise my planned outfit to wear something shorter. I may have to drag out my sewing machine to make some shorter skirts to wear. I'm uncomfortable with short skirts and bare legs, but with tights! Well, now that I've lost some weight, I really like to wear shorter skirts. Not short, really, but at/just above the knee.

PS - I am attaching a couple of pictures. 1. My great-great-great-grandfather, of the weird name. He was actually a photographer and was so big! Clearly, I come by the roundedness naturally. And 2. a picture I took of WB Yeats' grave in 2007. (Well, have attached them in the OTHER direction, but you get the point.)

MEM ~ yes, I read one historical story about the poor peasants in Ireland too; it was deplorable, esp during one time they were ravaged by some type of fever (typhoid maybe?) Boy, no wonder so many immigrated to NA; things were not good for the ordinary people in that country. It is sad in one way, as the country itself was/is so very beautiful.

I am just reading another book that is about the time when England kept taking their independance away from them (1600's), and it says that the Irish had a mix of different ancestries including some Italian & French (surprise, surprise). Every time they were taken over, the ruling families (that weren't killed, that is) would run to France or Italy for refuge, hoping later to return to claim their land again some day. While they were there, they were mixing with the French & Italians too. So, what are our roots really?

My great-grandfather & grand-father were both blond, blue-eyed fellows, but some Irish are dark-haired and big. It's funny to see that my DAD has some resemblence to your great-great-great grandfather; we always felt it was the Italian in him though, becuz he had black hair. All the men in my Dad's family were very good-looking men (both the blondes & black-haired). My Dad has hazel-green eyes and had strawberry-blond hair when he was young too (just like me). I find the history part very interesting as well ...

Got another walk in yesterday with hubby. I am truly enjoying it! I didnt enjoy having to come home and cook dinner after we finished walking. LOL

I'm glad everyone else is doing so great...because I am not.

Monday was fine, definitely an on point day.

Tuesday was an off plan day, simply because work was having a taco pitch in (I love tacos)...so I didn't plan on being too bad, and really I wasn't in comparison of what I could usually do. But I'm still not happy with myself.

Today...had a cupcake, and so many chips I lost count.

I just need someone to remind me that I can still turn this week around before weigh in on Sunday. This is the part I hate. Where everything seems like a failure. I know I shouldn't feel that way, but easier said than done.

CAR ~ is all that food confronting you at work? 2 days in a row? If it is at home, time to clean the kitchen again ... Gee, if it is at work, I would be eating with my back to the junk pile, or I might be tempted to move it away from my sight, or eat at my desk, or go for a walk to a park, or anywhere else I can to get away from it. Remember though, that tomorrow is another day and 5 out of 7 isn't too bad either.

Gotta go make dinner ...

Hi all, once again.

Thanks for the welcome.

I was going to post last night and didn't get around to it. I was a bit down in the dumps. I had my second weigh-in and was down 1.2#. It brings everything to a 6# total in 2 weeks. I got a little star with a 5 on it to paste in my book.

I just felt so disappointed with it, let down. I was expecting a bit more to be honest.

I am trying hard not to feel so disheartened because logically it is a safe weight loss. I didn't starve myself or seriously deprive myself to get it. I worked the guidelines and it produced. I suppose if I had been able to do some exercise activities it likely would have been more. I can't walk distances (which has always been my old standby) due to the limitations of still recovering from the ankle surgery. I guess I am going to have to just
go do the pool for water walking and maybe the stationary bike.

I think starting all this has made me realize how out of touch I was with where I am at with my body. I am trying to look past the self loathing that has surfaced. There is the realization that this will not be as quick a weight loss as I have been able to do in the past. I am guessing being over 50 and in menopause is going to make this a bit harder this time round.

I just don't feel motivated in a positive way, I feel more negative but know I have no choice if I want to move forward. I am unhappy and uncomfortable being so heavy so I have to change.

I feel like I sound so whinny. I am sorry for that but I am hoping it will pass.

Does this sound familiar to anyone or am I just being goofy?

I am going to stick with this so please don't think I am making excuses for a way out of it.

Anyways, happy hump day.

MYSIE ~ I think we all have felt that way at least once if not many times; and this too shall pass ... No really, it will pass. Hey, 6 lbs is a lot of weight, my dear; 2 more weeks and that adds up. I am thrilled to get 1 lb a week; right now I am losing about .75 lb a week or 2-3 lbs a month, but that's OK with me. I"m hoping to up that to 1 lb a week this winter, but we'll see how it goes. Be proud of you accomplishment!


Had a good eating day; on plan and even under right now (400 cals), so will have something small later to bring that up a bit. I got lots of walking in doing our shopping today. Picked up a bit xtra to fill the pantry for the winter. Hope you all have a great day tomorrow too ...

Mysie -- I think we've all felt that way. You're doing really well and every pound or half a pound or quarter of a pound is an accomplishment!! Don't give up. You're doing great.

Rosebud - Everything was at work. I try to keep those things out of the house for these reasons. Normally we don't have things like that at work and when we do I can almost always resist. I dunno what's up this week. I'll just have to try harder.

Devon - you can absolutely turn this week around. You get the chance to make new choices every day. One cupcake and some chips will not derail you; the only way you are going off the rails is if you keep making that choice. And you can decide right now to get back to the work you were doing. Even if you stay the same or gain a wee bit on Sunday, well - look at how far you've come, at your overall success. You don't want all the work, the walks you didn't enjoy, the exercise, the GOOD choices made to disappear down the rabbit hole, do you?

Oh, and I have a suggestion for tacos.

There is a mix that you can buy in the health food section of the grocery store - I know Kroger's carries it, but am not sure about Wal-Mart. Anyway, it is by Fantastic Foods and is a vegetarian taco filling mix. 1 box makes four servings at 100 calories a serving. It does NOT taste like meat, I will grant, but it is easy as pie to make (boil water, cook it up) and lets you spend your calories for the meal on the extras. And hard taco shells are not that high in calories - they are about 60 calories each. So if you have another taco pot-luck thingie (or just feel like you need TACOS, which I do sometimes, it is a good option. And easy for meals when you are zonked.

Also, it is hard to resist stuff at work. My neighbor brought me some candy back from Spain. So I took it to work. And cut off a tiny piece every time I went into the kitchen today. When I say I'm having a good week it is never a perfect week. Hah.

But I know that you are going to turn it around tomorrow. Fresh start! Look how far you've come - you can TOTALLY do this.

Mysie - I know exactly how you feel. You work so hard and you want to see more of a movement, particularly when you have a long way to go. But you can also remind yourself that - really? time passes pretty quickly when you aren't looking, and in a few months those losses will pile up, even ones that feel slow. And Many of the health benefits of weight loss come from the first 10% or so lost, so you are already on your way there!

What I find myself out of touch with when I'm not working on my eating is the TRUE calorie count of foods. I give in to the vague ideas that all salads are good for you, or that something with veg is necessarily healthy, which is not true. There are so many hidden (and not so hidden, when I am being honest with my self) calories in convenience foods and the like that I can imagine I am being 'fairly healthy' when I am not.

And I don't think you are whiny. This is a really hard thing to do and we are here to vent to each other!

dgramie - congrats on getting in another walk today! You must be feeling proud. I hope you are not as sore today as you were yesterday.

Rosebud - haha, that dude in the picture was actually my grandfather's great-grandfather, if I have the generations right. And I think he was of German extraction rather than Irish. But you're right - it is all mixed together, and my grandmother's Irish maiden name is supposedly derived either from a French dude who fought for James II against William of Orange in Ireland in 1690 and settled in Galway after James II's defeat at the Battle of the Boyne OR from an English dude who was granted lands in Ireland by Cromwell for service to the English Parlaiment during the English Civil War. I don't know either for a fact but the former is the more common story about the name's origin in Ireland. It's not an unusual name, just not a common Irish name.

We heard from my dad today again. They had better weather for golf. Still windy but no gale-force winds.