A hare met a tortoise one day and made fun of him for the slow and clumsy way in which he walked.
The tortoise laughed and said, "I will run a race with you any time that you choose."
"Very well," replied the hare, "we will start at once."
The tortoise immediately set off in his slow and steady way without waiting a moment or looking back. The hare, on the other hand, treated the matter as a joke and decided to take a little nap before starting, for she thought that it would be an easy matter to overtake her rival.
The tortoise plodded on, and meanwhile the hare overslept herself, with the result that she arrived at the winning-post only to see that the tortoise had got in before her.
Moral: Slow and steady wins the race.
This comes from a book handed down from my grandmother to my mother to me. The book is so old it doesn't have a copyright date or an author/editor's credit.
That fable has been the motivation for us turtles for about two years. Someone on the ancient WW forum mentioned the fable and I discovered it was very motivational for me. I talked about it in posts and other people said that the tortoise philosophy worked for them, too. So, I started a thread for us turtle types.
We work toward accepting that our bodies have a natural speed of weight loss when we choose to live a healthy life, instead of "going on a diet". Many of us have experienced "the diets" as go on/lose weight-- go off/ gain the weight plus more back.
We choose to perservere with each choice we make throughout the day. We believe that choosing to be slow, steady turtles helps us to learn the skills we need to learn in order to not only lose the weight, but keep it off and become the healthiest people we can be.
So, welcome to all who realize that losing and maintaining a weight loss is a lifestyle change. And who want support as we all learn the skills we need to successfully make the changes that will allow us to reach our goals.
Hi, all. The last thread was getting long, so I started a new one.
The heat finally broke here -- glory hallelujah. It will be nice to be able to sit on the front porch again. (My favorite "room" in the house during every season but winter.)
How's everyone doing? I've been journaling, drinking the water, taking vitamins, and exercising. Just did a new Richard Simmons tape today ("Sweating to the Oldies #2") -- didn't realize it was 63 minutes long! The aerobic part was very easy (too easy), but the strength training part wasn't. I definitely like aerobics better than strength training, but I need to do both.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Richard's videos, at the end each participant dances forward, and you get to see their name and how much weight they've lost. He always has people who've lost no weight, a little weight, and a lot of weight. But this video took the cake. One guy lost a whopping 704 pounds!!!!! Incredible!
I'm doing something different right now, something that will set Lin's teeth on edge. I'm setting a weight-loss and time goal for me. I'm going to see if I find it motivating or debilitating. I've decided I want to get below 200 pounds for Christmas. That's about a pound a week. I've always hesitated to do this in the past, because I'm such a perfectionist -- if I don't make the entire goal, I feel like a failure. This time, I want to see if I can handle this differently. I want to see if this will motivate me, and if I will be pleased no matter what I lose by Christmas. (I'm doing this as part of a challenge over on the Lighten Up web site.)
DH's brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews (one nice, one not) arrive tonight for the weekend. Should be interesting.
Thanks, Lauren, for starting a new thread. I've been offline for a few days. We went to San Jose one day and we've needed to keep the phone line free because Paul was working with a recruiter about a job. And they hired him. They called him this afternoon. It's a good job. It will be challenging because it's a little different equipment than he's worked on before. And the pay is a tiny bit more than he was making. The best part is that our management hadn't rented our place yet, so we can keep the apartment.
A lot of yucky stuff went on this week with my mother that I have to figure out how to deal with. I suspect spending some time with paper and pen next week when I've got some time alone will be the best prescription for doing that. I also have to work out dealing with having both of my sons move out this year.
Chris is still going to live with his friend because he really is out of place at the local high school. He needs decent art and drama classes and he doesn't need a vocational class that is essentially a "how to use the computer" class. This Silicon Valley raised kid could probably teach that class! He also doesn't need to be required to pass a local standardized test for graduation that he wasn't prepared for because he didn't go to school here long enough. Anyway, they will both benefit by the way their lives are going and I'm grateful for that. I just need to deal with the emotions this has brought out in me.
In any case, within the space of 30 seconds, about the time it took to figure out that the guy called to offer my dh that job, all of the depression went away. Now I feel totally sure that I can deal with everything else in my life, one step at a time.
Kathy, as happy as we are about this local job, I know that I've always hoped to be able to move to wine country or the Northern CA coast (the Gualala area or Bodega Bay) someday. I still hope we can work that out eventually. If we do and you're still up there, we'll definitely get together.
Congratulations on that .4 down! Great job! Hope your trip to Reno was fun.
Lauren, I'm sorry to hear that you've been having such a difficult time with food. But I'm glad to hear your exercise is going so well. Do you think that you may be up a bit due to increased muscle tissue? BTW-you can increase the aerobic part of the RS tapes by altering the way you do the exercises. I also wonder if since you've increased your exercise level, maybe instead of lowering the points, you ought to eat some of the activity points. I'm wondering if perhaps you're not losing because you're not eating enough? Something to think about and maybe experiment with.
As far as the weight/time goal goes, my only objection to doing that is that you can't control the outcome. I think it's OK if you use the time as a guideline to shoot for, but adjust it if necessary. One of the main problems I've seen over the years I've been posting is that often I see people posting unrealistic goals, getting discouraged, then stopping all of their efforts. You don't approach things that way. You tend to be a lot more thoughtful in the choices you make, so keep us posted on how this type of goal-setting goes for you.
Kimmers, so good to hear from you whenever you can post. I love the idea of a turtle necklace. If I ever get to my weight loss goal and can scrape together the money, I want to design one and have it made from green jade. Doesn't that sound cool? It's a secret dream/wish of mine.
I'm sorry that you won't be able to attend meetings while you are pregnant. What I would do is to let my doctor monitor my weight, so I don't get crazy with the scale at home, and let the turtles and other healthy threads be my meeting.
Judy, congratulations on losing that 1.2# this week. Great job! Thank you for posting the meeting topics for us. They always give us (pardon the cliche) food for thought, and that kind doesn't make us fat!
Well, this is long enough. I'm still praying for Mousie's dh and his job situation. I hope everyone else is doing great.
Lin,
I am so relieved that your dh got a job. Our prayers have been answered. Thank goodness. This is such great news. You'll work out the business with your mother by using paper and pen, but for now it's great that you and your dh and boys have turned another corner in your lives together. I feel sorry for the separation you'll have with your boys , but it's well thought out and for their best. Here's a hug.....
Lauren,
I think it's great to set a realistic goal and work toward it. That was what I thought I had done as I was approaching 200 pounds. Somehow I got off track and now I'm back on again. So I am joining you in goal-setting. I am aiming to get under 200 pounds by November 1st. That's about ten pounds in about fifteen weeks. I can do that, especially if I beef up the exercise.
I am still doing the Wendie's Plan. I find the low point days difficult because I obsess over them and unconsciously think of food all day. So now I think I'll use my menu plans for those days and fill in with zero point foods if I need them. Tomorrow is my very high point day of the week and that's always fun. I am determined to get rid of this excess weight. I've dipped in the pool every day and done a little swimming in this brutal heat. The weather is changing overnight, so that will help.
Gotta run--just logged in late and saw Lin's great news, so I thought I'd write.
Judy
234/thinner
WOO WOO WOO WOO WOO! YAY FOR LIN'S HUSBAND! My goodness, Lin, I'm in your same situation, I know what it's like, I can't WAIT for that same phone call! It must be just magical when that weight finally lifts. YAY!!! (Send some good vibes my way!)
And I just LOVE the name Claire, so classic. Claire and Stella, like that one too. And Molly...okay, I'm wandering...
Mousie,
Good vibes and prayers for you and your dh. I hope a job comes to him soon.
Glad you like the name Claire. She's such a cutie!
Judy
234/thinner
Hooray!!! I'm so glad to hear your DH got a job at last, Lin. And for better money, too. Thank God. I can imagine that having an "empty nest" will be a major adjustment after so many years. I'll look forward to seeing how you triumph in this next phase of your life.
Mousie, sending good thoughts your way, too.
Judy, 10 pounds in 15 weeks sounds eminently do-able. This will be exciting! I'm finding I'm making better choices lately, thinking to myself "199 by Christmas, 199 by Christmas." I'm truly tired of staying this same weight, give or take five pounds. Time to GET IT OFF.
Lin, it's possible that I'm building muscle and that that's slowing down the scale, but my measurements haven't changed the way they did earlier this year when I was really building muscle. I haven't been doing much strength training since I hurt the arm, and that's where I really see results with the tape measure. I am indeed eating my exercise points, and I'm thinking now that maybe I'd better cut back. But the main reason I haven't lost much weight is that I'm still eating too much, especially too many sweets and refined carbs. I've been working on upping the protein lately.
Thanks for the suggestions for upping the aerobic impact of the Richard Simmons tapes. I tried another new one this morning -- "Dance Your Pants Off" -- and that one was more demanding. And fun, too! I really enjoyed it. Great tunes.
Thanks for all the good wishes. Here's sending them back to you and your dh, Mousie. I hope you get that great phone call soon, too.
Judy, maybe you could work the Wendie plan a little differently to help you deal with the lower point days. Maybe make the low point days a little higher, like one or two points, so they're still low, just not quite so super low. Take those one or two points from the high point day. You'd still be eating at various point levels every day, but maybe you'd not be quite as hungry and food obssessed on the low point days. Good luck!
Lauren, my dh is the best about the empty nest thing. He is encouraging me to explore the possibility of getting the funds and heading to NY to get a culinary degree even though it will most likely mean being apart while I'm attending classes. He knows how unhappy I will be if I can't find something productive to do with myself besides hanging out here in the apartment. His first choice is for him to find a job in NY and move with me, but he's willing to stay here and let me go, if he can't find one. The thing is that rents are about half what they are here, so he doesn't have to make as much money. The problem is that there are almost no companies with opportunites in his field in that area. But, we'll start looking if I can put together a financial aid package and get accepted into the program. So, that's half of the plan.
The other half is to help Chris get into and pay for art school. He may end up doing two years at a community college in San Jose that has a fantastic conputer graphic arts program, then transfer to San Francisco to finish up the BA. The problem is getting the funds to cover living expenses in San Francisco. There are a lot of scholarships that cover tuition, but finding money for books, lab fees, art supplies, and living expenses is what's tough. And we can't afford to move close enough for him to go to school in SF and live with us. (Or even just live with Paul while I'm in NY, if that works out.) It's all getting complicated, but I'd prefer working that stuff out to just sitting at home being bored or taking a low-paying, boring job to earn some extra money. I need to be able to earn enough to live on if the unthinkable happens and I'm alone.
I'm glad that you're working out what you need to do to reach your Christmas goal. It will be hard to let go of those sweets and refined flour products once the holiday season hits, so I applaud your efforts to do so. I was thinking about the RS tapes and the aerobic stuff. The main thing I would do is to doubletime the exercises. Do two for each beat instead of one. That way you can increase the workout without increasing the impact, as you would if you jumped instead of walked, for example.
My main goal right now is to focus more on exercise and getting in shape. I also want to get back to eating mini meals and those extra veggies I used to eat by adding soups, salads, and at least two veggies with (or in) my main course. I'm not focusing on losing pounds right now, just getting back to a healthy eating pattern and exercise. I can't do it all at once.
Aaah, bloat city today! PMS time, probably for the next WEEK. Ah, well. Nothing to do about it but ride it out.
Lin, that's great with slowly adding back different healthy steps. Very smart. That's admirable that you want to help Chris with his art school. My DH's folks left him completely on his own for all his advanced schooling. He managed to get a BS without big student loans, mostly by working while he went to school. But the medical school, on the other hand ... we'll be paying that off forever. He wasn't able to work while going to medical school (understandably!), so his loans had to cover his living expenses, too. He graduated with $130K in debt! Our loan payments are like mortgage payments.
I haven't given up sugar or refined flour completely. I'm just cutting back on it. You're right; that will be interesting during the holidays, not to mention during our vacation this fall.
Judy, you're right -- we are impressive, aren't we?
More layoff rumors milling around at my job. We've had seven layoffs so far this year, though the last one was small. We're due for a big one. They even cut back on bagel Tuesday; by the time I showed up, all the bagels were gone. I ended up with just fruit for breakfast today. (Probably not a bad thing.) Sure hope these economic times turn around soon.
Did the Donna-Mite workout today (with Donna Richardson). The choreography is a little difficult to figure out, and the camera keeps focusing on people's faces instead of feet, so it's taking me a long time to learn it. (This was probably my 7th or 8th time through, and I still haven't gotten it down.) But the music is great -- Motown! And it's a good intermediate workout, 53 minutes. I worked up a good sweat. I figure these days while I'm not on a project, I can roll into work later so I may as well do a longer workout in the mornings. Makes me feel so much better when I get in a good workout.
Ate light yesterday, which finally brought my points bank back to zero (I had been owing it almost 11 points at one point this week). I find at the end of the week, if I want to see a weight loss, I need to have banked some points that I don't use. Didn't happen this week, but I didn't get very serious until midway through the week.
Down 2# by my scales this morning, but my WW weigh-ins usually don't have any correlation to my morning weigh-in. So who knows what I'll see tonight. I'm encouraged, though, just because I'm eating better and exercising regularly.
Hi again. I was down 1.6# last night at weigh-in, so that's good. I really like our leader; I hope she sticks around. (She says she's just a temp until they get someone permanent.) Last night she recommended that we check out different web sites, including Dotti's (and I mentioned this one) to carry us through between meetings. She also said -- and I love this -- that she wishes WW wouldn't weigh us every week because the scale is such a lousy indicator of how well we're doing.
Anyway. Today I arrived at work, and there has been another layoff. There will be yet another within the next two weeks, and I should be in that one. At this point, I hope I am. Apparently my alternative would be to stay with this awful company but spend all week on the road. Not a chance.
Hi All,
I'm up at my son and daughter-in-law's house today to see baby Claire. I'm so lucky and she is so darling.
All goes well. I've had quite a few meals out this week. I feel the points are fine, but the salt's not. To get up here we left before WI, so I'll stretch it to next week. The challenge is to feel that I'm not off program. I'll switch the points around to have my heavy points now and the lower points later.
Lauren, my son is a doctor too. I guess we're all hoping for you to lose your job, but it sure feels weird. It's great that you are losing so well.
Lin,
I love your new plans. Are you thinking that apts. in NY will be half the cost of apts. in CA? NYC is running $1200-1500 for a studio. If you can live in Brooklyn or Queens, you can do a tiny bit better. Of course if you can have a roommate to split costs with, you can do much much better because you split the rent, etc. I am so happy that your dh has a better job than before. Good luck to you all.
Kimmers,
My daughter -in-law lost 30 pounds. She lost 15 pounds during the pregnancy and an additional 15 pounds once she had the baby (baby weight, etc). She is thrilled and continues to lose while she's nursing. So, I think if you eat well, exercise moderately you'll do just fine. We're all pulling for you.
Kathy,
Take care. Keep up the good work.
All goes well. This should be a nice visit. Take care everyone and keep on keepin' on.
Judy 234/thinner
Congratulations, Lauren, on that 1.6# loss. Way to go! I hope you get to keep your great leader or that your permanent leader is just as good.
I guess we get to congratulate you on losing your job. It sure feels weird. I hope your next job is a really great one!
Judy, you're doing great. Keep the momentum going and you should sail right through that extra week between WIs.
Re: your question about rents--the CIA isn't in NYC. It's in Hyde Park, NY. I checked the rental ads on the CIA web site. One-bedroom apts. seem to average around $600, which is half of what I'm paying now for a 2-BR. Your info on NYC apts makes me wonder if the landlords in NYC check out the Silicon Valley rents and then raise theirs in order to keep their reputation for having the most expensive real estate on the planet! Currently, a studio in Silicon Valley is running about $1000 per month.
Tomorrow we take Chris to SJ to register and move. I'm not taking it well, but I will be OK once I get used to it. It is going to take a while to get used to being by myself again and not having the kids show up at the end of the day.
The main thing I need to do is find a job. I keep looking, but there's not much here, as I've said before. And to get started on locating college money. And to work on some of thost cooking contest recipes. If I can win some, they'd be a great source of funds I can use for school. Other than the empty nest thing, things are going fine. Paul likes his new job. David will be here next Wed. to pick up the rest of his stuff. And I'm sure Chris will be OK, once he gets settled.
Hope all you turtles are doing well. Happy turtlin'!
Hi Turtles!!! Kathy speaking!! I bet you thoguht I won a million dollars in Reno, and just forget all my fellow turtles!!! May it never happen..well I would have liked to win the money..but didn't and I wouldn't forget you!!! I did have a great time, esp watching my mom have such a good time...She is 83 and she just loved it..She stayed up until 12:30 gambling nickles and would have gone on longer if my sister hadn't pooped out..We slept till 9:00!!
Food wise I don't think I did so hot...with the Reno trip and the reunion..i gain .8 lbs...I was kinda upset..I should not have gained...I mean I should have watched it more, passed on the free drinks when you are gambling and just chose correctly. (the good thing about going to Boontown during the week, they really didn't have too many waitresses coming around so I didn't get too many free drinks...just 2 i think...But anyway, all in all..i derserved to gain the .8 lbs and that upsets me..what really upsets me is that I can't find the 3 weeks tickets for my weigh ins...It has it on a few pieces of paper that I paid for the 10 weeks but one of the ladies said I had to have that little piece of papers...I don't..I looked everywhere..I ended up paying last week, and the lady that weighed me said maybe we could work out something.. I hope so..the thought of losing thoes 3 weeks just about makes me sick..I never should have lost them.. I should have put them in my weight watcher black thing,..but nooooo..I put it in my purse..and now they are gone...
Oh well
Lin ..congradulations on the job for your dh. I am just so happy to hear it...I know you will be sad to move your son out..but remember there are telephones and there is email...you can talk to him lots...how far away are you from him again??? If you ever just come this way for a drive..we will meet ok???
Congradulations to you all...Lauren on your 1.6..weigh to go!!! Judy...keep up the good work!!!Mousie..good vibes for your dh andhis job...
Tomorrow I have a day off and plan on going to the gym early...and working out real hard...eating a big breakfast before I go so I can work out my 45 minutes which is really what I like to do...then I will do my legs..and then swim a lap or two..Guess what I did after my Reno trip??? I went and visited a friend...and we went horseback riding..it was so special for me..I just loved it..and boy am I sore...these are good horses too. they are older..around 18 and although they do like to run, I kept them in control until we got to let them trot/canter for a bit which scared the living you know what out of me, but to tell you the truth it was the most funnest thing I have done in a long time...the lady who owns the horses said I could go with her any time I want...and am going to..I want to learn how to lope/canter with out it feeling like i am going to fall out of the saddle..
Judy, glad you're enjoying your visit! That's remarkable about your daughter losing weight while pregnant. Given how much I want to eat before TOM, my hat's off to her.
Lin, don't congratulate me yet -- I'm still here at this awful job. I'm sure once I'm laid off (if I get laid off) I'll be a nervous wreck trying to find another job, but I still think it's my best option right now. Unless a great job suddenly appears on the horizon or something.
Kathy, sounds like you had a great trip. That tiny weight gain will come off in no time. Horseback riding! I'm impressed. The only time in my adult life that I tried to ride a horse, it tried to rub me off on some trees!
Yesterday I got some kind of bug, so I ended up eating very little. I was also below my points the day before. My weight and measurements are way down today, though I'm sure that's just temporary. It was fun to see, though.
Turtle Club #34
I'm setting a weight-loss and time goal for me. I'm going to see if I find it motivating or debilitating. I've decided I want to get below 200 pounds for Christmas. That's about a pound a week. I've always hesitated to do this in the past, because I'm such a perfectionist -- if I don't make the entire goal, I feel like a failure. This time, I want to see if I can handle this differently. I want to see if this will motivate me, and if I will be pleased no matter what I lose by Christmas. (I'm doing this as part of a challenge over on the Lighten Up web site.)
Currently, a studio in Silicon Valley is running about $1000 per month.
