Hi Everyone!
Just a quick one today.
My MIL passed away for real this time. ;)
I am proud of myself for not diving into food with all the family drama.
Hope you are all well and I hope to check in soon.

Ubee, so sorry to hear of your loss. We are here for you if you need some extra support! :hug:

Well, gosh darn it. I already wrote a post and got a message saying I wasn't signed in so I signed in for the 3rd time. So, instead of regaling you with witty repartee, I'll just let you know I'm out here in cyberville thinking of you all.

Ubee Sorry for your loss. Please let me know if I can offer any support through this difficult time. Always here for you, (((((HUGS)))))

Betsy Happened to me a couple weeks back too! Glad you at least said hello....Hope your day turned out better than trying to post here lol :)

Just a quick check in. DH and I finally decided last night we are going to skip our trip to VA this year. Part of me wonders if he'll change his mind before then but meh, we'll just roll with the punches lol...This will be the first time in at least 3 years that I will be home for Christmas. I decided I'm going to put up a tree since I'll be home and hopefully be able to get DH and I a few gifts for each other. Hopefully will be doing that sometime this weekend. I'll be home cleaning my carpets over the weekend so maybe I can work on it then too. I'll be back in my bed Monday night when the people I'm house sitting for comes home. I love their doggies, they are so sweet, but I'm ready for my life to be back in one piece. I've struggled with wanting to do much of anything lately because my routine has been interrupted. I'm trying to push myself to get my exercise in, even if it's not at the gym. So far so good this week. I'm pretty exhausted today but I'm pushing myself in my head as I type this to exercise even if I am tired.

Be well everyone! :)

Greetings from the incredibly wet, windy, and flooding Pacific Northwest. Fortunately for me I live at elevation so no flooding, the power stayed on at my house, and I evidently can sleep through anything as updates on Facebook would indicate that most people spent the night trying to get through the night.

Sam -- I totally understand what you mean about not wanting to do things when your routine is upset. While it's no excuse for my prolonged absence from trying to get healthy, all the house projects this year just got to be too much of a distraction. It one of the things that naturally thin people don't understand -- just getting through the day with staying on plan and trying to exercise and break all of our bad eating habits is exhausting. Screw around with our day-to-day routines, and it ends up messing up the incredible concentration and focus that losing weight requires. Glad for you that you're going to try to stay home for Christmas. Sometimes that makes for the best ones.

Ubee -- Sorry about your MIL's passing although I did have to chuckle about your passing for real this time comment. I have missed you and your wit.

I had decided that while I'll plan my meals that my focus would initially be on just getting myself to not snack or go off plan. Well, yesterday I totally went off plan. Seems like I just don't want to fix any supper -- actually just don't want to cook anything. Again, I need to get into a mindset of KNOWING that I can do this. Sigh.....

Off to the gym and then home to finish the cleaning and order a new battery for the alarm system. Gifts are slowly -- very slowly -- arriving at the door, and hopefully I'll be able to start wrapping next week. I wrap everything at once, so I hope that everything will have arrived by then.

Have a great day.

Hi Everyone,

I'm sorry I havent posted in awhile. I'll try to be back on a daily basis again. I'm still on the diet and exercise band wagon though so thats good. I'm looking forward to catching up with all of you.

Good morning! Woke up with some stomach problems so staying home today (at the request of my supervisor...I told her I would just be in late). I ended up cutting my morning workout down by half because of feeling sick. Bummed to not finish, but need to listen to my body!

Hi Terra! Looks like you're doing really well and I'm looking forward to catching up with you.

MaeCrochet -- Hope you feel better by the weekend (actually by the end of the day!). Smart supervisor to ask you to stay home especially with tummy stuff. I'm impressed that you even tried to do a workout when you're not feeling well.

Still raining and blowing and yucky here. Becky will be spending the night again so all the cleaning I've done this week will have to be redone. Ugh! Almost all of my Christmas presents have arrived so I can start with wrapping soon. We go up to the kids house on Christmas morning so no night before wrapping.

Off to figure out what I'm going to eat today -- ever have one of those days where nothing sounds appetizing!?

New here! Starting a VLCD on 12/14/15 under doctor supervision. It will be 100% liquid based as per my doctors suggestion. I'm currently 5'1", 356.6 lbs, goal weight of 130 lbs. I'm excited to be here.

Betsy I think during this time of year even if you are able to maintain your weight that is a huge accomplishment. I'm giving myself a little more leeway with exercising and such until I get back home. Sometimes life isn't an excuse to let it get in the way of your goals but depending on what it is it can be hard to push yourself over the edge to exercise after you have gotten up at the *** crack of dawn to walk dogs, go to work and deal with people, feed your stupid cats, run any errands that need to be done, come home, walk the dogs again if needed and somehow fit in a workout in there between dinner and bed. It's been hard. We both just need to keep telling ourselves we can do it.

Terra Hi! Glad to see you check in!

Mae Sorry you aren't feeling well. Kudos for even getting half way through a workout. When I don't feel well there's no way I'm working out lol...Don't beat yourself up, like you said you have to listen to your body.

Mommy_On_A_Mission Hi welcome to the thread!!! Tell us more about you when you feel comfortable...We'd love for you to stay awhile!

Took a day off from working out yesterday...usually it is a scheduled rest day anyway so I could go buy DH and BIL some christmas presents. I got a few things but most of the other stuff I'll have to get on my paycheck I get on the 23rd...Ugh I hate last minute shopping. Kinda makes me realize why I was glad we hadn't exchanged gifts in years lol...I've been doing a lot of online shopping and picking it up at the store so I don't have to go search for things and be in the huge crowds. If you guys do a lot of online shopping you need to check out ebates.com. Depending on the store you get a % of cash back on whatever you spend at any store that participates with them. So far I haven't gotten but a couple dollars but it's pretty cool. My boss has over $600 in hers, but she is a shopaholic. She is always buying stuff. Yesterday I ordered the girl I work with kids their christmas present, my best friend and her 2 year old son and her 1 week old daughter their presents. Most of it will be in by next week with Walmart. I got my nieces who live in Colorado stuff today so just need to get my niece that lives here something and I'll be done with all the kids. What do you get a 15 year old girl? She is so dang smart I don't know what she is really into. She is 15 and will be graduating high school next year you guys!!! I don't have a lot of money to spend but trying to think of ideas. She likes music, she plays violin and she likes to cook so maybe I could get a a cook book or something? Only other thing I could think of is clothes or makeup or something...Why is it so hard to buy for people? LOL

DH is making grilled flank steak tonight...It is smelling so good I can't wait to eat it. I'll be having mine with grilled onions and mushrooms and on a bed of lettuce. I'm not sure what the flavor is like, I think he said something kind of dominican or south american. We'll see....

Be well!

Good morning everyone. I feel like a beached whale who has filled up with gases. Isn't that a lovely description to start the day! ;)

Mommy-on-a-Mission -- Welcome to the group. If you don't mind sharing, please tell us a little about yourself and your diet plan. Is your liquid diet a commercial product or one that you create at home?

Ubee -- Where are you????? It's not your turn to go missing yet? I imagine that with your MIL's passing, you're busy dealing with all that can involve. Hope you're getting through things OK.

Sam -- I use ebates. I don't get much back because I tend to buy almost everything through Amazon and don't buy much in the way of clothes through them. But I do get a lot back using my Discover card or else my American Express -- both of which have rebate programs. It does add up over time. In terms of a present for your 15 year old -- you mentioned that she's into music? Does she have an ipod? If so, my guys love getting itunes cards. Amazon also sells music now. I also always get a Barnes & Noble Gift card so they can get books when they want them. They are hard to buy for at that age.

Back to the feeling like a whale. I have struggled all year with just eating half way decently. First it was the stress from the house/yard projects and then I let myself get caught up in taking care of Bill's dog -- she was here over 60 days this year. I have a bad habit of having these internal arguments with myself about doing things for people because "it won't kill me" and then resenting the infringement on my life while they go off and have a great time. It got to the point where I wasn't able to take a couple of trips this year because of dog sitting requests. So, I finally asked him to make other arrangements. He has done that starting last night with boarding her while he went to his girlfriend's house (he's 75, she's 77!). Normally, I would feel terribly guilty and bend over backwards to make amends for not putting myself at the end of the list. This time, it felt remarkably freeing. I don't want to turn into a selfish me-first person, but at the same time, I'm beginning to realize that I've spent way too much of my life using food to fill the gaps caused by doing for everyone else but me. We've all mentioned this before -- we put ourselves at the back of the pack and take care of everyone else first. Well, maybe I'm beginning to accept that if I want to get healthy and lose this weight, I'm going to have to learn to say no.

OK. Philosophical musings done. Time for breakfast, the gym, and then start on the Christmas cards. Hope everyone has a great day.

Hi my name is Samantha. I'm 24 years old and a mother of one. I've been overweight pretty much my entire life. The diet I am going on is under doctor supervision but is not a commercial diet. I will be using a good quality protein shake mix as well as other liquids approved on the list such as sugar free jello, sugar free pudding, broth, ect.

The plan consists of 800 calories a day which I will get primarily from protein shakes. I'm planning to do 4-5 shakes a day as well as plenty of water and make up the difference in calories with broth and jello.

I don't lead a very active lifestyle currently so my doctor is not worried about such a low calorie intake. I will up calories once weight is down and add in exercise to the plan. She wants to see me bi-weekly for blood work and weight check. I start officially on the 14th as I have to wait until payday to get supplies.

Hi there everyone. :)

I'm semi new around here. I was a regular(ish) here in the fall of 2013... but fell off the wagon a bit & gained a little weight back. (I had lost 82 and put on about 30, I'm just thankful I didn't fully gain it all back.)

Now trying again, but my financial situation is making it a bit tough at the moment. That, and my fiancee while supportive, is a junk food junkie. It just sucks sometimes feeling like... but why can other people eat junk and not gain weight / show any health problems!

My current long term goal is 150... but secretly I'd like to see what I'd look like at around 135ish just once. :P Thinking about needing to lose another 110+ pounds is overwhelming. I don't know if the person is still active but last time I was active around here there was someone who had a quote in their signature that said something along the lines of I may not be able to lose 100 pounds but I can lose 10 pounds 10 times. I like to think of my weight loss in those terms. :P

My lowest in my adult life was 248, so my current goal is just to get back to there. I've been fluctuating between 269 and 263 since around Thanksgiving. :x

Anyways... just wanted to say hello. I do better when I have a little group to chat with.

Hi everyone.

I wanted to check in because it has been several weeks since I have and I need to be here. At the same time I feel like I shouldn't be here if I'm not trying to lose weight, and I have not been trying very hard. I manage to be on plan for part of every day but it's been quite awhile since I've had a completely on plan day. Depending on the day I've gained between 10 and 15 lbs. back. :( I have been busy trying to get ready for Christmas. I do a lot of shopping online too and have almost everything wrapped. DH and I put up the tree and other decorations last weekend. I was planning to bake this weekend, the things I can do ahead of time and freeze anyway, but we are having company Sunday. I can still probably get some done tomorrow. Christmas Eve we will be having most of the crew here - DH's adult children, a lot of the grandkids and at least one of the great grandsons. It will be chaos but it's also something I really look forward to. :) This year I will be doing all the cooking and baking, and I will be packing goodie bags for people to take home.

I haven't found a new job yet. It still feels surreal that as of 12/31 I won't have my job anymore. Some days it hits me harder than others. This week has been mostly hard days. Everything seems to make me cry. I'm looking exclusively at the job postings at work for now. In January DH, his son and I are going to South Carolina and Florida for almost 2 weeks. This was planned months ago and we're still going to go. When we come back I will start looking elsewhere for a job. I have been looking forward to this trip and I hope it will be fun. I'm not thrilled that DH's son is coming with us, but he wants to see his brother in S. Carolina who moved there in July. We get along fine and are actually quite close, but I just wanted a vacation with DH. I know in Florida we will have some time on our own and I'm sure it will still be a fun time.

Betsy, I'm so glad to see you back and impressed that you didn't gain any weight while you were gone.

Sam, you are such an inspiration to me.

Hi to everyone else. I will try to catch up with you all soon. I hope you all have a good weekend.

Hi there Cindy.

I'm kinda feeling like I'm only half in it right now. I'm about half on plan, but I'm not exercising. I'm not sure if I'm just making excuses to myself or what.

What happened to your job if you don't mind me asking? I've been unemployed since August myself... and my unemployment benefits have been exhausted as of November. Financially it's really tough at the moment... and healthy food is expensive... and food banks don't always give out fresh fruits and veggies... but we take what we can get. I'd love to get back to the gym but again, I need to be back to work before that can happen.

I got back into eating semi back on plan because 1. People kept asking if I had lost weight.... I weighed myself and sure enough I somehow had lost about 7 pounds. I figured I may as well get back to it... and 2. I got an email from my insurance company offering to pay for this program called prevent. It's meant to help people who are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, etc. It's been a really awesome program so far but I feel like I can't fully commit due to the aforementioned financial hardships... but I'm trying to make the most of it. The goal for the program is to lose 7%, I've lost I think 21% of the 7% if that makes sense. :P I'm at week 5 of 16.

Anyways, I'm sorry you seem to be going through a rough patch as well. You seem pretty down in your post. I hope things look up for you very soon. :)

The goodie bags for Christmas are a great idea. We always do an annual cookie swap of sorts, basically everyone brings a batch and you all take what you want home. It's going to be SOOOO hard to resist. I love cookies. We go away for Christmas so the leftovers aren't an issue luckily for me.... it's just going to be the cookies that will be tough to say no thanks to.

That said, my fiancees birthday was on the 4th... and I owe her a batch of her favorite cookies still.... and our anniversary is this coming Monday... and then Christmas. So much temptation. I'm going to try mostly to stay in the range I'm at... I mean if I could be under 260 that would be great... but as long as I'm not back in the 270s I'll be happy. :P Then after Christmas HOPEFULLY be really committed as much as I can be... and maybe use any xmas money I get if any to join a gym?

I think just being self aware and posting here even though you don't really FEEL fully committed is in itself being committed. :)