[IBelieveInMe2]

to the Ups & Downs Support Group! Here is our June 2014 thread! Everyone is welcome to join the group, as long as you are willing to give and receive support in your weight loss journey. We named the group Ups & Downs to reflect the many ups and downs in our weight loss journeys, in our life with depression and (for some) on meds, and in life in general. If you are a regular, please post to let us know you found the new thread. If you are new to the group, please tell us a little (or a lot) about yourself. This is OUR forum, so post away!!! Group hug!

[worththeeffort2]

Happy June, everyone! We finally have beautiful weather here. Winter was l-o-n-g and spring has been wet and cold but yesterday and today have brought warm weather and cloudless blue skies. It has improved my mood so much; I feel spectacular!

Today will be a busy day for me. After more than a year without contact from any old friends, two college friends are stopping by the house for lunch and to catch up this afternoon. I informed them I'm on a special diet program, so there won't be any carbs or sweets but I've got some beautiful vegetables and will be making a lovely tossed salad. I'll mix up some tuna salad with low-fat mayo and have cheeses and a variety of raw nuts for protein. The friend who has hens is even going to bring some fresh, home-grown hard boiled eggs. They are not going to recognize me. The friends, not the hens. Just thought I'd make that clear.

Weights and measures this morning and I hit my 2-pound weight loss goal for the week. I'm 19 pounds away from Onederland and am thinking about changing up my schedule so to hit the gym M/W/F and take T/TH for rest days. My final decision on that depends on what the doctor says on Thursday. If she decides it is time for me to transition back to a standard diet, then I definitely will need to make the adjustment.

Have an absolutely beautiful Sunday, everyone.

[FleurDeLis]

Yay, it's JUNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So to update everyone at once, I went to the store yesterday and fit into a pair of size 18 shorts! To add to it, they are a little baggy! I bought them anyway because I'll be in desperate need of them when it gets sweltering around here. I could fit into the 16's, but they were snug and would be pretty uncomfy to wear. I'm close though!!!

Sorry I've been MIA awhile, this week has been pretty busy. My government class is kicking my butt. It's both a boring and difficult class. :/ But I'm doing my best and I'm determined to get an A. I won't let this stupid class mess with my 4.0! If I got through math with an A I can get through this too!

Vermont- Awesome job on being so close to your goal!!!! Woot!

Ibelieveinme2- Your so very close to being in the 100's. I will include you in my prayers. God will see you through as he has so far on your journey! I worked with a trainer once for a free session at my gym. I didn't really like it. I'm a shy quiet person and honestly I don't feel like they understand me as a person and my workout routines. They push me in things that I know are terrible for my knees and leave me hardly able to walk the next day. I am really excited about our trip and yes it is to Nashville, IN. Really nice place I'm told. Another short week!!

lostbutstilltrying-I'm so very sorry for the rude remarks. It is a sad fact of our society. I wish more people knew the difficulty of losing weight. They think it is so easy to do but it is the hardest thing to accomplish.

worththeeffort- I love that quote! I'm going to write it down in my weight lifting journal that I take to the gym with me and look at it when I feel like I'm struggling. Awesome you'll be able to show off your hard work to your friends! I love seeing someone I haven't in a long time and getting the praise and encouragement that follows!

seabiscuit- Not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but I met my husband on an online dating site. It was a free one and I had to get through a lot of frogs, but when I found him, I can honestly say I knew I would marry him. That was almost 4 years ago. We began seeing each other around this time and officially called ourselves a coupe on June 8th I think. We will be celebrating 4 years together as a couple this weekend and two years together in marriage. I used to be embarrassed to say I met him online when we were dating, but now I couldn't be more proud!

I have been doing so well with my eating. I've stopped tracking calories and am really just trying to eat sensibly and watch my portion sizes. I've also learned not to go back for seconds and be satisfied with what I had. I treat myself so I don't go overboard too. I think it is working well. Right now my goal is to get into smaller clothes, I'm only using the scale to make sure I'm not going backwards. As I'm weight lifting, I know my body composition is going to be different than it was pre pregnancy. Thank you to whomever it was that mentioned it hasn't been very long since my pregnancy. This journey takes time and I've come to understand that! My husband is so very sweet and tells me constantly how beautiful I am, definitely a motivator and pick me up when I'm looking in the mirror and feel fat and ugly. It doesn't help I have terrible stretch marks, but he looks behind all of that and I know he loves me for me. He's also so very supportive in my eating and exercise. I love him so very much and can't wait to celebrate 4 years together and 2 years married this weekend.

Well, I'm off to make a few more posts and then probably do some homework... ugh and some other things around the house. I hope everyone is having a wonderful first day of June and a great Sunday!

[seabiscuit]

Hi there.

I just thought I'd pop over and check in. I'm feeling a bit fatigued from the head cold but it seems to be lessening in severity, I think the new antibiotic is helping.

Fleurdelis- thanks for your post. I think that this one guy seems very nice, I have my doubts about a few others.

I have to do more packing and I feel so drained from this cold...

Take care!

Amy

[Lisa_C]

Hi ladies,


I have been working on math, getting ready for a math test on Wednesday. Just a a lot on my plate right now. I flunked my Unit 2 math review last Wednesday so I studied really hard for it and just now passed it today. (Sunday) Now I have to pass the Unit 2 test on Wed. I have 3 chances to pass but still I want to pass it with 1 or maybe 2.

I am getting over a really bad cold. I was so full of crap. I was taking DM pills to break it up so I could breath and I was taking cold pills so I would stop sneezing. I was miserable and I also missed some work.

My weight has gone up a bit but I am still happy. Life just has so much to give me and I am so lucky. When I am ready, I will shed some weight.

I got my left ear pierced a while back. It looks pretty cool. It's called an industrial piercing. I have it in both ears now. I love the look but I need another piercing to go with it. Google Industrial piercing and it'll show you what it looks like.


I hope you all are well and you are in my thoughts.

[Fiona W]

Wow, it sounds like everyone would be doing real well if it weren't for those nasty spring viruses. Hang in there, folks: the summer will dry those suckers into non-existence.

Ohio— Hey, I like the look of those industrial piercings! Anything with the word "industrial" in it sounds awesome to me anyway, because I used to be really into industrial rock music. Good luck in all your math efforts! =smile=

Amy— I'm glad you got the antibiotic, but don't forget that it will add to how drained you feel, for a while, until the virus is gone. Gook luck with your packing!

Fleur— Size 18 shorts—how fabulous! Especially because they're comfortably loose! I haven't worn a pair of shorts in so many years...but I'll get there, one day at a time. Here's wishing you great weather to wear your shorts in!

Worthy— 19 pounds away from Onederland—how exciting! No wonder you want to hit the gym more often... you go girl!

Kathleen— What's goin' on in your life? How's your eating been lately? Do tell...I'm ready to listen. =smile=

Here's just a little photo of the kittens: the solid-color adult you see is their mom, Cherry Bomb, and the striped adult is her mother, Penny. Apparently Grandma's been hanging out with the litter, who are now 6 weeks old. They've just been weaned onto solid food, and are doing well. I think that's my Oscar whom you see lolling around on the leopard-print blanket. 'Still don't know which female will be mine: the breeder will be picking one of the 3 females for her breeding program, but she won't know which one until they're about 8 wks old.

[seabiscuit]

Hi there!

Ohio- good luck with math! I struggled with math for years, then I had my teacher and a fellow student tutor me which made all the difference. Keep at it!!!

Fi- thanks, I am on the new antibiotic for the second day, I feel better and less fatigued, so that's awesome! Your kitties are cute!

I would write more but I'm exhausted, gonna hit the hay!

Take care, good night!

Amy

[VermontMom]

Hello! thank you Kathleen for starting the June thread in such a timely fashion

I am SO impressed with you ladies who are in school..I am too lazy to do such a thing and I admire you having the courage to do so.

thanks for the cute kitten pic, Fi!

I hope Ohio is getting over her awful cold, and I hope you feel better too Amy, especially that you have to attack the moving/packing deal. Congrats on your kewl piercing, Ohio!

Fleur, congrats on fitting into a smaller size, and having them BAGGY to boot!!! baggy feels so good in the butt doesn't it

I worked hard on Saturday to prepare to have off yesterday, because it was forecast to be absolutely gorgeous, and it was. Spent all day on our motorcycles, over 200 miles, my husband has the 'raccoon' look with the sunburn, my face is still pale because i put so much suncreen/product, I don't want any more wrinkles than necessary.

I might not be as close to my goal as I was a few days ago, have been eating too much, gotta get back to the straight and narrow!

Hi to everyone else

[Melarie]

I'm new to the group, so I'll explain a little bit why I'm here. I've dealt with depression since around age 13 (I'm turning 19 this summer) and it is especially bad in the summer. I do not enjoy the heat, picnics and parties make me anxious and most importantly, I don't normally do anything since I'm not in school. However, with this being my second summer out of school and my first summer having a job, I'm really thinking that this year will be different since I won't be bored and feeling lazy every day.

I'm an emotional eater for sure, in both ways. I eat a lot when I'm really happy, and when I'm feeling depressed. And my weight has gone up and down and up again from 220-205 so much over the last year and nine months (I started when I met my boyfriend) so this group feels like a perfect match for me.

Fiona- Adorable kitties! I've always wanted an orange one. I have 8 cats and aside from one brown one they're all mixtures of black, white and grey. I'll have to share a picture of my babies some day.

Fleur Congrats on a size 18! I'm trying to get out of that size myself and down into a 16 for the first time since starting high school. Good luck!

I'm feeling good today. Yesterday was a rough day of work as I was on the floor - I should mention I work at JCPenney - instead of the register and was the only one doing actual work to boot. So I was running all over trying to do everything. It was great exercise! Today though I only have a 5 hour day, so it'll be much lighter than my typical day. I'll have to make up for the shorter shift somehow.

[seabiscuit]

Hi there.

I'm starting to panic because my landlord wanted to show my apartment today but I think he's going to show it Wednesday. I'm frantically trying to clean. Does anyone know how to clean marble countertops?! There's some water that splashed back and there's a rusty residue, ugh. I can't wait to move but dealing with this landlord in the mean time is a bit stressful.

Thanks for listening.

Amy

[MonteCristo]

Hi all!

Had a busy weekend again. Finally got my lousy tenant evicted, but she was dragging her feet getting the last of her stuff out. Fortunately I've already rented it to a new tenant, but they are on a governement program that requires certain things done to the house, like screens on all windows, double vented h/w heater, etc. So I spent most of Saturday over there working on the punch list while the old tenant got her stuff out. Didn't get done until 8pm and I was SO sore and hot (the a/c was out). I kept having to stick my head in the freezer. Then the old tenant "accidently" locked herself out of the house after she had gotten out everything she wanted to keep, but all the junk was still there. So I had to go over Sunday afternoon and finish cleaning out all the trash. Thankfully Dad is supposed to fix the A/C today and the tenant will start moving in tomorrow and the hopefully the drama will cease!

I've been letting my house go to pieces lately, so I went in full out attack mode last night. Scrubbed the bathroom from top to bottom, washed all the curtains, rugs, & throw pillows, dusted, vacuumed, mopped and scrubbed the kitchen and living room. I didn't get to bed until midnight, but I know if I start the week with a messy house, it will stay messy the whole week. I still have the bedrooms and my workout room, but I'll get to those tonight. Hopefully once workout room is inviting again I'll use it! lol

So, that's what's been up with me. Exciting as all get out, istn't it?

[lilturtle]

I posted in the wrong thread.

My eating was very good over the weekend. Under 1000 calories both days. I'm really feeling motivated. Today I go to the grocery store. I go once a month. While I didn't get any junk food, the temptation is going to be there to binge on some of the healthier snacks I got. If I do that just means no snacks for the rest of the month as I won't be going back to the grocery store.

[IBelieveInMe2]

Melarie: to the group! Glad you posted! Best wishes to you in your weight loss journey. I hope you will find the group to be supportive of your goals.

[Lisa_C]

Hi Melarie, Welcome to the group. Sounds to me like you are going to fit right in here.

Hi lilturtle, man, it sounds like you are right on track and focused. That is fantastic.

MonteCristo, it also sounds like are focused. that is wonderful.

Amy, it sounds like you under some stress with your residence. I hope that in time, it will resolve itself. Now about my math, I may need a tutor too. This stuff isn't for the weary of heart.

Holly, it's so good to see you sweetie. I hope you are well. Hope you are riding your motorcycle as much as you want to. My cold is finally breaking up and I am back to work. This last cold was a wicked one, I'm still trying to get rid of the gross crap.

I have to take my Unit 2 Math Test on Wednesday. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers, ladies. I need all the special thoughts when it comes to math, that I can get. You wouldn't think percentages would be that hard but there are so many formulas to learn. *sweating* The Unit test is over 3 whole chapters and there is a ton of info to memorize.

[Fiona W]

Nice to meet you, Melarie! I think you'll find that if you post here often, daily if possible, it will really help you stay motivated. Amy, I'm sorry to hear your landlord is making your packing so stressful. Lisa, I'll have you in my prayers: good luck with that math! Kathleen, I miss hearing about what's going on in your life. Everyone else: I'm thinking about you!

Well, I had a nice day off from everything. I had to stop myself several times from doing things for the BERP (Big Entropy Reduction Project), that's how much it's become my life. I wrote one postcard, but other than that I didn't do anything for anyone else. I mostly worked on decorating the front and back covers of my art journal. I want to be ready to show it to my great-niece Grace on Saturday, when she's supposed to have her own art journal decorated, too. I have a few more things to add to it, but the bulk of the work is done. My collage studio is filling up with piles of books that I've moved up from downstairs, so I gotta get those squared away before Saturday, too.

I did have a significant mood slump in the afternoon: depression pain, pretty bad. Maybe my brain is feeling all the stress from the BERP, and it needed to take a dive for a few hours. But tonight I'm good, and I got my leg exercises done without too much strain. I've been slacking off on those for a while, so I needed to get back with the program. I plan to make an early night of it, and attack the BERP with a vengeance in the morning.