Ugh, the work just never stops! It look slike one of the proposals I was oging to have to hurry to work on might get dropped, though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

As it is, I've been getting to the office before 7am and staying till about 5 and eating lunch at my desk so I can keep working. Then I take almost an hour to drive home, make dinner, eat, and spend another 2-3 hours doing more work from home.

We need a new Vonage adapter for our phone--it died, so we currently have no home phone service--but I just haven't had time to go to a store. Jeff has offered to take me out for dinner so I don't have to cook, but that really doesn't help because then we have to drive there and back, and it actually ends up taking MORE time than if I just cook at home.

I'm very tired. I spent yesterday and much of today in almost a daze just trying to keep my eyes open and stay focused on geting everything done.

Oh, but in Blue Team related news, it looks like I will be able to post a loss for this week after all. 293.5 this morning, so down a pound from last time I weight. Yup, that's 7 pounds gone in just a few days--hurray for deinking LOTS of water! I'll weigh again tomorrow morning because I saw 292.5 on the scale a couple days ago, so if I see that again tomorrow, then I'll post a -2. Otherwise, I'll post the -1. Either way, I am happy to have a loss and not have to use my second freebie consecutively :) The 280s are getting closer and closer...

Hi again! I am back from my appt. Can I just say, it is SO nice to have a doctor who actually sits and not only talks to you (rather than at you), but listens and makes sure all questions are answered before you leave?! I love that!!!! All b/w looks good. Dr. explained that the anxiety is because I am just not producing enough seratonin. We actually talked at great length about my anxiety, possible other causes, weight loss (very happy w/ that), etc. All in all, a good appt. Ok, I REALLY need to get some work done now, but wanted to pop in quick to let everyone know how it went.

Have a great day!

Kelly, I would suggest the LAWL forum. There's a lot of people there who have had to figure out the system bc their centers have closed. They could probably help.

Thanks for the thought, but I put a thread up there and have not gotten and single response all day. I just thought I would cover my bases by asking her and there. At least you all are responding here:)

congrat's jillybean! way to go in losing the 1+ this week

I haven't kept up with the chats this week - just this page
I also hope to post a loss this week

linda

I just sent them. Hopefully they all came through fine. They are a little crinkled from being in my gym bag, so the fax kinda sucked a few at a time and that messed up the order. I think they all scanned in though. Let me know if you have any questions or cannot read Josh's handwriting.

Sorry you're so busy right now. Everything is harder when you're tired. Congrats on the 7 pounds gone so quickly. You're doing great! What's the lowest you've gotten in the past while. My lowest a couple years ago with a half-*** attempt was 219 - so that's a little mini-goal in my head.

Nori -- have I mentioned that I love your glasses? So cute!

Jill -- Wow, way to get back into the groove, I bet it felt good to see that drop on the scale! Whoo hoo!

The lowest I've ever gotten after college (graduated in December 2003) was the mid 260s (264, I believe). That's why 263 is one of the mini-goals in my signature. It seemed any time I reached that mid-260s range, that was it. Part of my problem was sheer frustration--I went from 302 to 264 and never went down a pant size :mad: It took so much time and effort to get that far, and to feel like I had nothing to show for it really killed me.

Not this time, though--I just have to keep going. I've already lost about 30 pounds...what's 30 more? :p

Jill - I hear you about work I wake up about 6 ish, leave for work at 8, get there at 830, last night I was here at work until 8pm, tuesday was 7 pm, drive home about 30-45 minutes.
I ate dinner last night at 10 pm, tuesday was 945!

That's insane, Vix. As long as it's not consistently that way, I'd be OK for short periods as long as there was reimbursement for it!

Jill - love your attitude. That's how i feel this time around also. There is no alternative. No options. No way out except through.

Gardeners - one of my tomato plants has brownish spots on some of the bottom leaves. The plant only has flowers on it still, so isn't it too early for "blight"? HELP!!!!!

Thanks. I'm a bit of a collector.:o I should take pics with my other 3 pairs and let you pick your favs. These are my favs. At least today!

Hi Bluesers!

Just a quick note before going back into the yard. Had to spend the morning delegating a client in giving himself Forteo injections, take dh to doctor, grocery shop, take dd to ds for short visit, take dh to PTSD group, more grocery shopping (forgot the chicken on sale, jicama and ginger), home. Give me yard work any day!

Rhonda - congratulations on the 4-day-in-a-row success. 150 is my goal too. I'm sure I'll see you there. My goal date is one year from when I started eating better - tax day, April 15, 2008. So tax day 2009, I will be using that refund for a new wardrobe. Have you set some short and long-term goals? It seems to be helping me, even though I might run a little late on getting there, it's nice to cross them off and look to the next one. Anyway, good job!

Amy - It is so awesome you've "fallen in love" with your new equipment and exercise in general. That is so going to make losing the weight much faster. I do like you too, using 3D Architect to first create our floor plan, then to place my furniture in it. This is fun to me, go figure.

Jennifer - Glad your back and out of your funk, and with a new short hairdo! Looking forward to the new avi.

Amarie - where are you my gardening friend? I'm going to harvest garlic either today or tomorrow - I'll be thinking of you. Having fantastic salads too with the 3 lettuce types. Creating an area to wash the harvest before taking it inside, also got the herb garden de-weeded. Going to plant green manure this year there to fix the nitrogen, plant next year. Can't wait. You also encouraged me to plant soy beans next year. Been eating edamame and just love it for both taste and protein.

Jill- So glad those extra pounds peeled back off!!! Now to get some energy back. Hope you find the cause of your tiredness.

Josephine - How totally exciting!!! To be where you are, I'd be just as nutty, er, excited as you! No one needs to tell you to keep up the good work - you rock! And thanks for the encouragement on walking vs running. My heart does much better walking, plus I seem to get shin splints easily. I walked 4 miles in about 70 minutes, so I'm at about 18minute miles, long way for the 10 minute, but I'll work on it!

Anna - step away from the gun . . . the severely injured Camry will limp away and forever go slowly through your neighborhood from this day forward . . .Anna? Anna? No, not the Mercedes . . .

Nori - thank you so much for sending your routines. It'll take some time tonight when I get in from the yard to go over them, but I can see why your body's transforming! I'll pm you with questions later, but thanks again, truly!!!

Kelly - Not familiar with LAWL, but maybe you need to zig-zag a little. Here's an article (albeit for body builders - it works for us too). Hope it helps. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...g=artBody;col1

I was off plan for 2 cheat meals this week, but I'm pretty sure I'll still have at least 1 pound lost. Yay blue team and Josephie - we are the champions!!!

Dora

Nori - I had this too and found it is supposedly from watering either on top of the plant, or water splashing up on the plants called Septoria Leaf Spot. Check out this site I found on it, see if it's the same as you are having on your plants. Hope this helps. http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci...rop/pp659w.htm

BTW - I'm still in the office as it turns out I left my wallet in the shopping cart and some nice person turned it in. DH got the call and had to harass me about it. He called me on the phone in the office. First he asked me to get him my AmEx card number for something he wanted to buy. I told him I had a copy right here and I could tell him the numbers he needed. Then he said he needed my DL# and I had that too. I got the inkling something was up and asked him about it and he told me to go get my wallet out of the car. I knew then what was up because I saw a call come in on the home line just seconds before he called me. "What would you do? You're so calm about it!" I said I would thank the Lord extra for this and pray the person who turned it in would be blessed. "Well, I just can't believe you're so calm!" "What good would it do to be excited? It's been turned in, let's look at the bright side." It went on more, but I won't bore you with the details. I did tell him someday, he's going to make a mistake and I'm going to lord it over him like he does mine. Then the phrase "lord it over you" became an issue. Grrrrrr. We're going into town to get it when we pick up dd after her SO practice. A thrill of a ride to be sure. Uh, Anna?

Dora

Geez, I had a rotten eating day. Too much cheese! Two cookies. A handful of chips! Bad!!! I did run today; I have crunched. I was in the pool and playing with kids, but there will have to be a lot of work to take care of this clustercrap.

Quinoa recipe for Rhonda:

Cook the Q per direction in vegetable broth
Dice fresh veggies very small--cuke, tomato, peppers, broccoli, whatever
mix well, top with Newman's Own Lighten Up Balsamic Vinaigrette (not spell checking, though I know it is wrong). Mix well, serve chilled.

Dora - So glad your wallet didn't go missing....along with your money and credit cards!

Anna - Cookies and chips are crapola! You're working to hard for that stuff. Right back on track tomorrow, right?

I made it through day on-plan day 4. Although I didn't track my calories, I ate on-plan foods only and stayed on the same eating schedule and amounts as the previous 3 days. I'm confident that my calories were not out of line. I only had 16 ounces of water today. I really don't like drinking the stuff! But, my big news........*drum roll, please*.......I did day 1 of week 1 of my 13 week modified C25K program! I actually did more than the required 30 minutes of 30 second runs interspersed 4 1/2 minute walks. I decided to do 50 minutes with a 10 minute walking warm-up at the beginning. I'm sweaty and exhausted and exhilirated all at the same time!

Hope everyone has a great evening.

Hey gals - another drive-by from me! Hope you are all doing well. Let's go blue!
Cindy

well, i've been bad on my eating yesterday and today. I've been eating everything. I know it's cause TOM is coming. Uhg, i feel so bloated. Blah!!!!

Thanks, Dora. Yea, septoria looks like the problem. Although I have no fruit yet?

Rhonda - you really got your *** in gear! You go girl!

OK, I have been REALLY WHINING lately.

So, I actually managed to get all the weight I had gained last week back off and lose .6 lbs, so I can't complain too much, but I did my measurements this morning and have lost 1" off my bust, 1" off my waist, and .5" off my lower Abs (big problem area) since the start of this challenge. I thought that wasn't too bad, but then I checked out my totals.

I started this journey on the 15th of September 2007, since that time, I have lost a total of 52.75" over my body (bust, waist, hips, lower abs [which I have only been measuring since March], arm, and thigh. That is more inches than my DS is tall (not by much though:)).

That combined with actually squeezing into a size 12 pair of jeans (which could not be worn in public yet) made me VERY happy, but me being the greedy individual wants more.

We are going on a cruise in November, I want to be able to get into those 12s and them be lose. I want to be working on 10s. I will make it happen.

Thanks for listening to me whine and now brag. I have at least another 32 lbs to lose, and I will get there.

Kelly -- WHOO HOO! Yow hot mama, that is just some rockin' body improvement you've got going there! So inspirational, I know you are gonna just be loving that body on your cruise!!!!!!

:congrat:

Rhonda---fruit and tea fast after breakfast!

Kelly- Way to go!! :carrot: Keep up the good work.

Dora- Glad you have your wallet back safe and sound.


Ok Blue Team here are the new haircut pics! I don't really have a before because my avatar is old (pic after my last haircut which was a while ago). But needless to say my hair was really long and crummy so I feel so much better now that it was cut. Plus I was able to donate my hair to Locks of Love! :D

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...204b6a9d22.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...1264fc63d6.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...3c008dd824.jpg

So I have been OP for the past 3 days and I'm doing pretty good. I'm going to work on keeping it up over the weekend and hope to post a loss on Monday when I weigh again!

Jennifer - I LOVE THE HAIR! The fact that you donated what you cut off to Lock of Love I think just makes it more fabulous. You really look happy in your pics so I know that between being OP and the "New-Do" you are felling great.

You work that Sassy Style Girl!!

Jennifer, you're a cutie!

Okay, Bluesers! I need the strong voice of reason to perch on my shoulder and keep whispering in my ear this weekend. This is mine and Hubby's last weekend alone before we pick up the girls next week. Over this six week period, we have greatly enjoyed eating out. Going to dinner and then to the movies or the bookstore has always been our favorite date. My inner spoiled child is rearing her ugly head and screaming that I don't wanna stay on-plan! I want to relax and enjoy myself! Why couldn't I just wait to go back on-plan until after we pick up the girls and everything is back to the same ole' normal? I want to go to Texas Roadhouse and have....(food porn.) I want a margarita! or, two or three.

I'm not at the point yet where I feel strong enough to go to dinner and choose healthy options. I know what I need to do, but...honestly?...I'm not very happy about telling myself no.

Score! My scale was nice this morning :) I'm going to post my weight of 292.5 for this week, so -4 (though a freebie week last week, so -2 for each of the past 2 weeks).

That puts me down 22.5 pounds since my challenge starting weight. Amazing what one can accomplish when I actually STICK to something :dizzy:

Thanks Kelly and Rhonda! :D:D:D

Rhonda -DON'T DO IT!!! You have been doing well and if you think that you can't go to Texas Roadhouse and stay OP then I think you know what you have to do. :hug: *listen to the voice of reason-it will not be worth it* :hug:

Jill-YAY!!! :carrot: YOU ROCK!!!

Hey all,
My weight was up quite a bit this morning, so I think I'm going to take my freebie week. And get back on track :running:

Let me start off with, this is said with the utmost love for you.

Suck it up! You need to tell yourself no and right now, tell yourself no often. You are too close to the edge of your new way of eating to backslide.

Now, does this mean you can't have something a "little" off plan, NO, this means that you can't use any occassion to give in to having whatever you want (food porn included).

Rhonda, there is always going to be a special event, a special occassion, for example, the girls are coming home ... lets go out to dinner and celebrate ... there is always one of these, and you can't use the "this is a special night, I can just give my body the night off" excuse. If you really want something plan for it, but for just 1 thing. Maybe that Margarite if you really want it.

For example, I occassionally give myself an extra starch when we eat out. I never do it more than 1 time a week, and personally, I never drink it, because as much as I love a good Peach Frozen Margarita, I love food more:D

Right now, you need to stay strong, I know ... I have been there too.

hopeful-i love the hair and the pics. U look so cute. I once donated 12 inches of hair to Locks of Love. It feels so good to do something right for someone who doesn't have what I have.

Dora-Thanks for the letters. I got them. I will show them to Leo and see what he/we can do. It helps tremendously, trust me. You aren't overwhelming us at all............it's so much of a help. Thank you.

Wow! Thanks for that Kelly! It's that simple. I always, sometimes many time a day, have to ask myself if it's worth it. The honest answer is usually NO. It's a hard thing - denying myself! Worth it though. It makes us stronger.

I often think about Albert Einstein's definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.

Jen - love your happy pics! Your hair must have been real long! I did Locks of Love once and my hair was up to my ears!! They needed 12 inches!

:rofl: Mine is still in a zip-loc bag in my spare room!!! Sad thing is - its from a couple years ago! Eek! Guess I'm not that good on the follow-through ;)

I have awesome news to share with you guys - I had my body fat diagnostic this morning, and I'm down to 28%!!! I am so excited!!! That also means that virtually all the weight I've been losing the last couple months has been fatty-fat-fat and not muscle! Yay!!!:carrot:

Anyway - feeling energized and excited! Have a great day everyone!:carrot:

Did you recently start weight training? WTG!

Rhonda -- what Kelly said. You have to start learning that "relaxing and enjoying yourself" is completely doable ON PLAN, because your WHOLE LIFE is going to be ON PLAN. If you keep going off plan you're just convincing yourself that happiness exists through junky food and that you can't be on plan and happy! That's bad thinking and won't get you were you want to go!

Thank you Kelly and Josephine! You ladies are so right. I need to learn to stop looking for excuses to go off-plan and learn how to celebrate and enjoy life without using food as the focus. Using food brought me up to 264 pounds and has kept me in the 230's for a while now. It's time to suck it up and do what I need to for my health and my future.

Hello Ladies...another week over and the weekend's here. It always cheers me up :D

I've been eating OP and working out a lot this past week and it's part of my new plan. I want to make a habit of working out every day and get it through my head that it's a lifelong thing, no ifs or no buts. It's not easy, I stumble a lot and get discouraged sometimes but I sincerely thank you all in the team, 3FC and DH for all the support I am getting. You guys are amazing. I'm trying different things right now to see what I can continue to do forever as part of my workout routine. It might take a while till I figure out but as long as I'm exercising along the way that's what matters.

DH and I have also started playing tennis and joined a cardio tennis class to get into the routine. We went to play tennis last night too just the two of us and man! it was something! (if interested I wrote it in my blog how it went) :D We hope to make it part of our routine and our ever changing lifestyle, watching less TV and finding things to do together that are inexpensive and fun to do (besides you know ;))

Me_Amarie, super on the fat% loss. That's really good news.
Rhonda, you've been doing SO good past few days staying OP and exercising regularly. I agree with Kelly & Jo, there's always going to be some occassion or other. Instead, I'd suggest finding an alternate way to celebrate with DH ;) instead of food before you go pick up the girls. You know you'll feel upset and guilty after you eat out. Why go through that? It's not even worth it. We've all been there done that. I know it's hard but you need to stay strong right now. Think of what you've accomplished in past few days, feeling healthy, eating healthy and working out. It's amazing! Be strong girl! I know you can do it. We're here for you :hug:
Jill, great going :) perseverance!
Maria, we know you can do it :)
Tawnya, how are you doing?