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Hey girls!! Just taking a break from my house work.

Valerie--Glad you had a great visit with your husband. You must be a very strong woman to handle being away from him for periods of time. It would kill me. I am sure it gives you a greater sense of appreciation of the time that you spend together. Sounds like you are having so much fun being able to ride.

Brenda--I have experienced the same thing that you went through trying to find something to wear...too big...too small...doesn't fit right....I hope you ended up having a great time.

Julee--I know that was a great feeling to fit into a regular size 18. AWESOME!!

Ammi--Love your new picture...you look so pretty and HAPPY!!!! I am sure that you will do great this week with your diet and exercise.

Amy--Don't worry about the scale....Sounds like as much as you are working out you are gaining muscle and that is a great thing!! I am sure the next time you weigh you will see a loss.

Well I hope you all have a great day...I am off to finishing laundry..........UGGGHH...my least favorite thing in the world.

Andrea

Woops my apologies, my last post on the other thread ended up being under the STOP posting post. So rather than me typing it all again just a little note to say please go back and read it if you are interested

Andrea - that's a blushing smiley, so just picture it with a smile not a look of shock lol. Thanks for the compliments on my photo, don't know about pretty, and no, I'm not fishing for compliments lol, but I definitely agree with happy!! Hard to believe the ex had already started stirring up trouble, but I was happy to be able to put it to the back of my mind.

I can sympathise on the laundry, I still have a pile of ironing to do, but I hurt my back so will have to rest it up before I attempt to do it.

Bye for now,

Hugs,

Ammi

Hi guys,

Just a quick post to say hello and let you know I am still around. I have been gone down south to get our things from Storage! What a trip. Notwithoutmyhorses, I have to say you must be one brave lady to hit weather like we did going over those couple of mountains in Oregon!! Yikes. It was scary. Like a blizzard. We just drove 35 miles per hour or slower and I put the 4 wheel drive on in my blazer. My hubby was behind me in the 26 foot U-Haul cruising it. Praise God we made it back to Northern Idaho and all of our things are in the house/garage. I do feel a bit calmer to see some things that look familiar.

Congrats to all the Loosers!! To the New People, Welcome. This is a wonderful site. To Ammi and anyone else going through (IT) so very sorry. YOu will be in my prayers. Well, just checking in. Hubby wants to put my desk together for me so I need to sign off for now.

Blessings all,
Dogpal

Hello everyone~~

How are you all doing? I'm okay. In fact, I'm better than okay. I just feel SO good right now. I'll let you all in on a little secret--I totally cheated on my low carb diet and ate pizza. I made it myself so it wasn't as greasy as a take out one and I have to tell you--I have been jonesin' for pizza so bad! It wasn't what I would have ordered, but it satisfied my craving. I made it with a pizza crust that I had to shape myself and I added chicken, garlic, diced tomatoes and tons of cheese. Yummy! And somehow this week I still managed to lose weight even though I've been a VERY, VERY bad girl who hasn't gone to the gym at all. Of course--we've been doing tons of work around the house so that's a work out in itself. I'm so happy.

It's nice to hear from you Dogpal--I'm glad that everything seems to be going okay with the move.

Andrea--I hate doing laundry too. it gets so irritating because it never seems to go away.

Ammi--I too love your avatar! You look so happy and just like the kind of person who I'd like to go out and have a drink with. Not that I drink a lot, but you know what I mean.

I so cannot wait until Catherine posts. How did your doctor's appointment go? Are we expecting a "little chick"? I hope so. I'm crossing my fingers for you!


I have to go. Dinner is almost ready. I'll try to check in later. Sorry that I can't comment on everything--but I'm thinking of you all and I'm so proud of all of us. Even when we don't lose weight we don't give up the fight. That means so much more, don't you think? Okay--talk to you later.

Vicki

Everyone can uncross their fingers, it was a false alarm. The doctor said it could have even been an early miscariage. At any rate, I'm fine, and we can try again in January. I'm both a little relieved and sad at the same time. We did set the date for the wedding, January 16th. I told him getting married in January in Canada will simply mean we will have an excuse to take anniversary trips some place warm every year. I'm going up the 10th. We have our last engagement class the 13th-15th, and get married the day after we finish. I'll get to stay a month, and then have to come back to Florida for 4-8 months while waiting for my immigration paperwork to come through. That will be hard. I signed up for an unlimited long distance plan. That's how I'll survive. I actually had to have my doctor sign a letter today saying that I was mentally and physically competent to marry. He thinks I have enough marbles. The whole office was thrilled for me. I was down 7 pounds, on his scales. I always weigh in the morning, practically naked. This was late afternoon, clothes, shoes, stuff in my pockets, etc. It was however, the first time in over 15 years that I was able to weigh on the scales in a doctor's office. I loved how ordinary it was. I loved that only the nurse noticed. The doctor and PA take it as a given now that my blood pressure will be fine, and that I will be down almost exactly 1.25 pounds per week for however many weeks it has been since I was last there. I'd love to be below 300 for my wedding. Wow that is only 70 days. I'm not sure that would be healthy. A better goal would be 325. That's doable. I've got a dress to make, Oh Lord.

Hi all. Funny thing, my scale hasn't budged one snick, up or down, in a week, inspite of TOM. The funny part is that the scale at Curves HAS been moving (in the right direction.) I just thought that was weird. Anyway, it's going to be a good month in the end - I'll let you know.

Thanks for the nice words about me being independant & whatever. You guys are sweet. I was single until I was 39 - just got married in 1999. Getting used to being married was easy with Bill, for the most part, but losing my indepedence was harder than holding the fort while he's gone. We talk several times a day, most days. It's kind of nice having being able to picture the places he's in and knowing many of the people he's talking to. We stay pretty connected even with him out on the road. Tonight I'd be feeling guilty that I'm going out to see a movie without him, except that TOMORROW I have to have dinner with (insert Jaws music) his MOTHER... and when I told him - he laughed at me (that "better you than me" laugh.) When she called I happen to have a loaf of bread in my hand, and B4 she hung up I'd scarfed 2 slices of toast - a forbidden trigger for me. Ah, well. At least it turns out my beloved niece is cooking tomorrow, and I let her in on the secret of my diet, so she'll cook something not too evil. MIL is diabetic and not supposed to eat sugar, but she'd bake a pan of brownies and use ME as an excuse so she could eat them. While I don't crave them right now, facing down a fresh warm pan of them would be torture - and considered rude to refuse, of course. My dear niece will save me by making everything diabetic friendly, and therefore not too bad for me.... I love that girl.

Better go or I'll babble til after the flick starts... but Ammi - I love that pic of you too.
Bye all!

Aieeeeeeee!

I just checked on CalorieKing and found out that a recommended dosage of Nyquil has 93 calories in it!!! From the alcohol and some sugar, I guess.

Okay. I'm recovered now. I've actually been taking Robitussin, not Nyquil, which is a smaller amount. I think the 2 tsp I take has 30 calories. I was figuring that into my totals for the day, added it in late yesterday and I think (hope) tonight is the last night I'll have to worry about taking medicine. But I definitely need to sleep through the night without waking up coughing nonstop, so one more night it is.

But sheesh. Nyquil. 93 calories!!!

And I got the test results back from my doctor today. Not entirely good, but not too bad. My hormonal levels are 'borderline' for PCOS, and I have some symptoms, but not all. She'll check insulin levels next time. I have an iron deficiency (I figured, I try to wean myself off supplements but I've had iron deficiency anemia in the past), too. And my LDH (good chloestorol) is too low, which is the most worrisome to me. She'll talk to me next time about getting it up, and monitor it.

Everything else she said was okay. Overall cholesterol was good, triglycerides, liver, all of that stuff. But it sounds like they forgot to test insulin, which I was hoping they'd do. Oh well, next time.

So now I'm up to a multivitamin, calcium, and iron supplement a day, and then possibly birth control again, AND maybe something for blood pressure/cholesterol, which could use some work. Ouch. That's a lot of medicine.

And now I'm off to see how many calories are in a multivitamin.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the encouragement...I'm still a little ticked about it. The good news is I didn't just give up, which would have been easy for me given my personality. I tend to be all or none, so I'm happy I stuck with my plan.

Catherine - thanks for letting us know, I've been wondering. I'm so happy for you that you have a date now, something definite to look forward to. It reallys stinks that you will have to be apart for a while so soon after being married, I know it's going to be tough. Good thinking on the long distance plan. I'm sure you'll get through, and you have us!

Valerie - Stay strong for the dinner! Remember, you can do it!

Hi Girls!

Been a normal weekend around here - the kids were off on Friday and with them here for 3 days straight I just collapsed today! It will be great to get all this weight off so I can keep up with them - just slept off and on all day today. It seems like such a waste, but then again, I had to punch a time clock at a job most of my life and now that I don't it seems I've earned it! Started working at 15 years old and it seems that most of the jobs I've had did have a stupid timeclock! Anyway, I guess I'm trying to make myself feel better for wasting the day!

RABIDSTOAT: WOW! Thanks for letting us know about the Nyquil. That's my fave thing to take for colds, but I won't be taking it anymore! That's a ton of calories isn't it?

DOGPAL: Hey Girl!! That drive in the mountains would have had me petrified! I was born and raised here in the midwest and we obviously don't have those mountains to contend with! When we went to San Jose to get the boys, we drove in the mountains in northern Calif. OMIGOSH! They scared me to death and it was summer and no snow! One wrong move and you would be history!

ANDREA: I love Red Lobster too! Glad you enjoyed it! Also, I just discovered the Laughing Cow cheese wedges - the french onion are AWESOME on Wasa Rye crackers!

VALERIE: You make me really want to get around some horses! Can't wait until I get light enough to not do them damage - I love the country and animals and of course the dog thing - yes, they are awesome! My 3 babies are with me 24/7 unless I'm out of the house - but that isn't too often - I'm one of those homebodies!

BRENDA: This must have been a tough weekend for a lot of people for some reason. I had an emotional breakdown too - I cried at church - got talking about my mother-in-law who passed not long ago and I was extremely close to her. Then at home I tried TWO different cameras to put stuff on ebay and nothing was working for me - if we don't do ebay we don't have enough money - sigh - I must have cried off and on all day! Hope you are feeling better!

JULEE: Size 18!! WOW! Congrats!

4me: You will love it here!

AMMI: I hope the ex is behaving better - I can't imagine having to put up with that kind of behavior when life in general is stressful enough. Good luck on putting her away - or wherever! Can someone get her committed somewhere? Oh, and I love your picture!

ALISON: HI!!

AMY: HI!! Throw the broken scale out!!

JEN: HI!!!

LUAN: HI!!

CATHERINE: HI!!

SHARON: HI!!

MICHELE: HI!!

WYLLENN: HI!

Hi to everyone else and hope you all have a GREAT week!

HELLO EVERYONE, ITS GREAT TO SEE YOU AGAIN DOGPAL, i BET YOU WILL BE RELIEVED WHEN EVERYTHING IS SORTED AND YOU'RE SETTLED IN PROPERLY! sorry my son must have pressed 'caps lock'.
Well done you losers, Amy, those scales, a gain of 7lbs, there must be something wrong with them!!
What is this thing with 'regular' size 18, in the uk sizes vary with shops/brands but the sizes are the same, are the measurements different, according to whether they're regular or watever? Lori, I know what you mean about being shattered, and me with only two kids at home, I'm pooped most of the time and envy them their bedtime of 7.30!! We buy loads from ebay, but we must start selling, as if we move to New Zealand we would need a whole ship for our stuff!!
Valerie, we were married in '99, its nice to say we were married LAST CENTURY! (I was 34 then and about 30lbs less ).About fell ponies, they are natives to the uk, I don't know if there are any living wild anymore though, but its lovely to 'talk' about horsey stuff again, I am so jealous of you having even one horse, but you work hard for the money. I'm just a mum at home, roll on the day I can go back to earning my own money and having some to spare to save for my own horse, you really set me off with the morab(?) strain, I WANT ONE, NOW!

hope everyone is well, or getting there, in rabid stoat's case!!

bye for now, sharon

Just a couple of quick notes

Ammi, I LOVE your avatar too! I swear, there's a twinkle in your eye!! (hey, there should be a smiley for that!)

Catherine -- Sorry about the news. I'm sure it's difficult to transition from all the baby possibilities you were thinking about, but fortuneately you have a wedding and a LIFE to plan, which will hopefully occupy your time sufficiently. Good luck!

Brenda and Lori had emotional weekends -- Hope you are both doing better today. I can sympathize. There's a situation with my family (parents) right now and everytime I think about it I want to cry. But, for now there's nothing to be done but soldier on...

4me: I love to make chicken fajitas. Just grill em up (onions and peppers too) and cut em up for fajitas. we like to use a fajita seasoning, but have also put cajun spices on the chicken. YUM!!! you have to watch those tortillas though, they can be high calorie!

Hello All,

Well here I am again sitting on my bed typing away and hearing the rain pelting down outside. I wouldn't mind the winter so much if it didn't rain so often. It's so depressing. Yesterday I HAD to get up early because we were expecting a repair man, so I got a lot done in the house, including hurting my back because I did too much bending with the hoovering. So today I had planned an easier day. I still planned on at least mopping the kitchen floor but I woke up saw the weather and just snuggled back up in bed and stayed asleep until now when needing the loo woke me up

Catherine - I am so sorry that you aren't expecting, especially if they are right that you may have miscarried. I know you hadn't planned a pregnancy yet, and in a sense it's a relief for you, but I am sure you have been pretty upset too

Well now you can focus all your energies into carrying on losing weight, and planning for your wedding early next year. It's all so exciting. I hope you will show us pictures of the dress you are making, and of course wedding photos when you have them.

Valerie - I must have missed something, but I never realised that you spent a lot of time seperated from your husband. The longest I have spent away from my hubby is 3 lots of 3 weeks when I have been in hospital. Still he visitied me for hours a day when I was in, so it can't be half as bad as you being away from your hubby. Good luck with the dinner with your mum in law, and horray to your niece for making sure that she is going to do the cooking and keep things relatively good diet wise for you.

Dogpal - glad you made it safely to get your things and get them home again. I am gathering the mountains as well as the weather made the trip very hazardous. I remember when I lived in Australia one of our favourite places to visit was called Jenolan Caves. I loved it there, but HATED the trip to get there. A lot of the trip there was along roads going up mountains and they didn't have barriers along the sides, and there was one mighty big drop. Used to scare me to bits. What was worse was when a coach would be coming one way and you were going the other way and there was no space to pass!!! One or the other would have to reverse all the way back to one of the emergency break ramps. I actually used to cry when I was younger because although I wanted to go to the caves I was too afraid of the journey there. Funny the things you remember!!

Vicki - what a great idea to make your own pizza. Nutritionally that is much better than buying one, and not just because of being able to figure out the calories yourself. That way you know exactly what you are putting on the pizza, how much salt is in ingredients etc. My therapist is also a nutritionist and she always goes on about never buying pre made pizza!

Well done on still losing weight, you are right that all the running around you have been doing must have been good exercise seeing as you have still lost without having done proper exercise!

Thank you for the compliments on my photo, I am pleased you would want to socialise with me if we could. I know what you mean though, sometimes you see a picture of somebody, even somebody you have been talking to for a long time and you think OH NO, they look like complete psychos, or they look like they could be violent or whatever. I am glad I look like neither

Rabidstoat - glad to hear that you had all the tests back from the doctor and that although they weren't all perfect, the news was mostly good. I don't envy you having to take an iron pill daily. I don't know about you, but pre ostomy they used to turn my poo black and used to really constipate me!

As for the cold and cough medicine I will repeat what my old WW leader said to me when I asked her about points in cough sweets. She said the last thing you should worry about is the points in medication, just concentrate on getting better and then when you are better you can concentrate on weight loss again. Mind you, although on the whole that is good advice, if I can get a sugar free throat lozenge, or cough medicine I do choose that first

I hope you will be feeling much better soon and can do without the night time medicine.

Amy - you are right, you have done brilliantly to not just throw in the towel when you saw you had gained 7 lbs. I think the most disheartening thing is that it can take so long to lose that much, and it's unfair that you can gain it so easily!! I still think your scales are broken though!! Good on you for not letting the scales put you off and for carrying on losing!!

Lori - looks like you have had your fair share of terror on the mountains too, horrid isn't it! I am glad I don't have to go anywhere near roads like that now. Even our trip from Vegas to the Grand Canyon where you would expect mountainous roads wasn't dangerous at all. Funny, but I didn't mind standing close to the edge, but not too close of the canyon, but being in a car going on those cliff edge roads used to terrify me!

Sorry that you got a bit upset on the weekend, how are you getting on with the eBay stuff now. Hope you got your cameras sorted out.

Thanks for asking about the ex, oh I do wish we could get her put away lol. All's quiet for now, but I don't know if that's worse because I am constantly thinking about what she is planning. I keep expecting her to knock on the door, or to send another letter. Thankfully I don't think she can get our new number despite her threat to, so not too nervous about the phone ringing. I think the next time she will do something will be around our anniversary on the 23rd of this month. Anything to try and upset us!

Sharon (voodoo) - I loved your emoticon having a temper tantrum because you want a horse NOW too funny. Hope to catch you later for a chat. Going to go get some lunch now and then prepare the veg for tea so I should be on from 3 - 6 today.

I love to chat, so if anybody here wants to add me to their MSN or Yahoo my contact details are [email protected] and on yahoo it's ammi32

Ok off to get something to eat now. Take care all.

Hugs,

Ammi

Catherine, sorry for the bad news. Sometimes our emotions play tricks on our bodies. But, congratulations on setting the date! Wow! 70 days away is pretty quick - but it can be done. I planned my first wedding in about that much time. Make yourself the wedding dress you always wanted! You deserve it!

Hello, and a Terrific Tuesday to everyone! DOGPAL, I'm glad you got thru that snowy mess in safely! We've been lucky thru the years to avoid most of the worst weather - especially in the mountains. Twice, tho, we've had to stop and put chains on the tires to make it over a mountain top. Generally the feeling is, If you need chains, you don't need to be on the road! It's got to feel wonderful to have your stuff back, too! I packed everything 10 years ago when I started driving, and most of it is still untouched in the basement. When I do go thru things it's such a nostalgic feeling, but in this little house there isn't room for everything. I wish I could at least find my Christmas ornaments. I want to go thru things and have a yard sale, but other than that I'll have to wait till we buy a bigger house, hopefully in the next 2 years.

VICKI - You sound so upbeat! That sounds so good, too.

Catherine, I'm so sorry it was a false alarm. I know you were excited. All there is to do now is practice practice practice in January. I'm sure the wedding will be wonderful!!! Don't forget to send pictures! You're MAKING your own dress??? I wish I'd learned to sew- even to quilt. And what a totally cool visit to the doc's - that really did have to feel wonderful!!! Congrats on ANOTHER 7 pounds down!!

Rabistoat - It's great that you're getting that all checked out. At least you know what to do to take care of yourself. I hope the insulin comes out good when they do it.

Amy - Keep on keepin' on! If I can sing the MIL blues, then you can sure sing the Broken Scale Blues - we just have to refuse to chew to the beat.

Mom2five - Yeah, the percheron is the only one I don't feel like I'm going to snap in two. Even my big friesian shouldn't have to carry me like this - like I said, he's my inspiration. But just being around them is fun, and driving (a cart/carraige) is really a blast. But dogs still rule the world...

Sharon - YOU were married in '99 too? How 'bout that. Ours is June 12.... You about give me heart palpatations about the fells - you had them running WILD??? The friesians are from the Netherlands. I kind of thought the fells were, too. The UK has been the origin of ALL the coolest ponies. What did the US come up with? The American Shetland which they just call "shetland" anymore, but they're hackney/shetland crosses. For those of us who appreciate and love REAL Shetlands (and REAL hackneys), it's pointless. You hang in there til you can get your own 'ride'!

Had last night at the movies - ooo, all that salt. At least that will wash out with enuf H2O. I'm working on it - was up to 65-70 oz yesterday... remember when you were a kid & you smuggled it into the movie cuz it was so expensive at the theatre? How times have changed. Now I need to smuggle WATER into the movie. It was $3.75 for a bottle.

Well on with the homework! And don't forget to go vote today if you're here in the States.