Melissa~Congrats on your 3lb loss! That is great!

Lilion~
No I don't mind at all explaining more about where I live. I also may post a few pics in the pic thread page if I can figure out how! lol I live in Barrow, Alaska.Its the northernmost city in the United States. Barrow is literally right by the Arctic Ocean. Yes it does get really really cold here in the winter. And the Arctic freezes over completly for months and months. The temps. in the winter range from 0 to -56/with windchill -100. Very scary cold weather! And the snow is piled up! Also it is 24/hour darkness in the winter and 24/7 sunlight in the summer months. Its a very extreme place. The town is about 4500 people. And is mostly Inuipiat people. (or what people would consider eskimos) Its a very interesting place. We have bowhead whales, polar bears, grizzly bears, lemmings,caribou etc. Its like the wild west out here still! lol Also, no I am not from here originally. I am from Louisiana. 4500 miles from home! We moved here for DH job.He works for the National weather service. We will proably be here for maybe another year. We don't know at this time.
I hope that explained some. If you are really interested..just go to google and type barrow,alaska! Oh and one perk for living in at the top of the world? NO SPIDERS! :D

Hope everyone is having a good day!

Michelle

Lilion~BTW I posted a couple of pictures of barrow. Just in case you would like a look. I posted them on the picture page.

And of course whoever else wants to check them out!

michelle

Jill~I have the phobia big time! I am so scared of spiders and snakes. But luckily there are neither here!

But then again we do have big bears here...but I will take a bear over a spider any day!

Why not? Or just recommit to going up your stairs every day and give yourself a minute or two each time you do? Exercise helps sooooo much! But I know where you're coming from -- I started tracking minutes because I don't like to do it!!

Michelle - When I first started 'exercising' all I could do was march gently to music. I would record some songs with a good beat, then just march away. After a while I would raise my legs more and add little aerobics movements like side steps and arm lifts. The progress was kinda gradual, but soon I was moving quite a bit for at least 30 mins each time. I even had to record new music as the first set was too slow. It certainly worked for me, and I didn't need to buy a thing. I already had enough music to choose from. At least that would give you some variety from your walking up and down the house, which, by the way, is a fine way to start exercising. We have a book here called "The Clothesline Diet" where the lady started by just walking around her clothesline. It isn't a problem at all to start small and work your way up from there.

Oh... and many of you wouldn't like living in Australia if you don't like spiders (or snakes). We have HEAPS of them. I don't particularly like them, but after seeing them almost daily, they don't bother me most of the time.

Have a wonderful day all. We have a sports carnival for the younger grades today, which should be fun. It is supposed to be a mostly fine day (showers later) at around 74F, which sounds just fine to me.

Take care,

Zelma

Michelle -- If you haven't already -- please join the exercise thread!

Zelma~That is so true..that is why I said I have to at least get my body moving!
And I know I will at least feel better. Especially because I am going from not really doing any working out to moving at least 10-30 minutes a day. I hope it will become a habit. And yes you guys down there have tons of snakes and spiders! I grew up in southern Louisiana so I was used to seeing snakes and spiders. It just must be something about those eight legs that freak me out!...LOL

Thanks for the suggestion Wyllenn. I joined it and hope to get in 30 min. a day. It will be a good way to keep focused and be accountable.

Well I hope you all have had a good day! Have a good day tommrow!

Michelle

Hi everybody!

Hey Michelle.. I know it's tough starting out and trying to find ways to exercise with your special weather considerations. There are a few different ways though. Besides packages, can you get regular letter mail very easily? or is it the same situation with that? There are online video rentals you can try through the mail that have lots of exercise DVD's. Consider that if it's not a big mail problem. You get to keep them as long as you want and pay a straight monthly fee. I find a lot of the "regular/skinny people " type exercise videos tough to do but I modify them as best I can until I can catch up. Recently I tried "Just my size yoga" which someone on here ( I think Nightkatt) suggested. I love that one.

Melissa - glad to hear your exercise modifications worked in your favor. Great news!! yeah!!

Kimpossible - hey girl, I looked at your pics that you posted the other day. You look a lot thinner than your weight number says you are. You carry it well. They are nice pics and you'll be glad you have them once you lose a bunch! Me I have a couple of pics but avoid the full length ones.. I need to get hubby to take some, gotta take the plunge. :dizzy:

I got a measuring tape the other day and wrote down all of my measurements finally. I know I've lost inches prior to this but hey that's okay. My clothes are a bit looser especially in the leg area (where I carry most of my weight) so I'll prob eventually see most of my changes there.. I hope!

I watched Dr. Phil the other day. It was on "extreme eating disorders". There was a girl there who originally was around my weight and lost it all, and was extremely upset about her sagging skin. It was admitedly pretty bad. Anyone know why some experience skin sagging more than others? Is it a genetic tendency thing, an age thing, or ??? Is there ANYTHING I can do at this point, while I'm still at the top of the scale, to minimize this sagging effect? PLEASE let me know. if it DOES happen to me - I will look into surgery. Luckily once the show was ending, Dr. Phil said he was going to pay for this woman to have it looked after. I was so happy for her, she looked so relieved!!

~ Angie