Thanks Everyone for the encouragement with the water. I made 2 quarts of Crystal light and drank the whole thing. I drank what I call a lemon toddy. I heat water in the micro and put a fresh slice of lemon in it and let it steep for 5 minutes. Then drink it, it is supposed to be very cleansing to the body.

My motivation to loose weight is my Arthritis in my neck, hips, and knees. The doctor told me for every pound of body weight I loose it takes 4 pounds of pressure off my knees. Some days it is hard to get around. I want to get the weight off so I can walk, play with the grandkids, and live a more normal life. I fell Christmas eve on the ice,been a little bit stiff in the hip joints ever since. Please excuse my excitement, but I am stoked. I found/discovered yoga that I can do. I have been doing a lot of yoga since Tuesday this week. I love yoga. I am going to do some stepping when the football games come on. I am strongly thinking of doing the workout posted for the TBL last Tuesday for the other ball game. I am bound and determined to loose some of this weight. I hurt the team by gaining a pound, now I mean to get it in the right direction for Mondays weigh in. Lets go RED team. Lets kick bootay!! Pat

Good Morning Everyone!

Sorry I haven't been that active on this thread, but with switching jobs and social engagements I haven't even had time to process my thoughts.
QOTD: My main motivations are to 1.) Feel confident and more like my true self. 2.) To be healthy and take care of this wonderful body I've been given and a tangible motivation 3.) is my brother's wedding which is the 30th of June...during which I will be seeing many relatives and such that I haven't seen in years... a few of which that haven't seen me since I was over 200lbs!

Popping in to say HELLO!!!

The boys are napping and I still need to work on our New Year's cards (instead of Christmas cards this year) so no time to catch up....

Barb

Hello ladies...I have been MIA for most of this week. We got a little puppy Wednesday evening and he has been keeping me very busy.

1. QOTD: We love soup at our house, especially this time of the year.

2. QOTD: #1 motivator is my 3 year old son, I want to be an example for him and I do not want him to grow up with unhealthy habits that he learned from me!!

Hi Red Team, glad to see all of the great people on here.

My name is Amanda and I'm 35. My sister is Tsap and we lucked out and ended up on the same team. I have been married for 16 1/2 years and have three girls ages 6,4 and 1. I have struggle with the same 50lbs now for about 13 years and have lost that and more over the years only to put it back on over and over again. I am trying very hard to change my eating habits, especially snacking. I really need to be a good example for my girls and teach them how to eat to fuel your body and not to eat emotionally.

Currently I am following Weight Watchers and have done the plan a few times before. I would love to finish a triathalon one day and my sister and I want to hike the Grand Canyon!

This first week has been extremely difficult because my DH and I have been sick with pneumonia and have been down and out the entire week. I don't know how we lucked out and got so sick but thank goodness all of my kids stayed healthy!

Well I'm looking forward to next week and hopefully getting back to the gym without coughing for two hours. Good luck to all.

Ladies, I have a major problem . No, I am not joking! I absolutely L O V E bing cherries and red grapes. A local store has cherries on sale for 1.99 a pound and red grapes for 1.88 a pound. Why is this such a problem for me? I can eat both by the pound, like candy. I can eat a 2 pound bag of grapes while watching a football game. With absolutely no ill effects. I took a 5 pound bag of green grapes to work and the bag was gone by the end of the day. I didn't eat any thing else, just snacked/grazed on the grapes. Cherries are much the same, I will snack/graze on them all day instead of eating. I realize there are much, much worse things to snack on, but is over indulgence a good thing? Buying a small amount and making due won't work either, I will go back and buy more. WARNING I am buying a red grape vine for the garden this year, so.............I need a plan! I don't want to make myself sick, but I could live on fresh fruit. I love fresh picked veggies too. I already am drooling over seed catalogs. I have the garden all planned out. I need a tiller and I am ready to go. Pat
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Grapes and cherries are good, healthy snacks. But, remember that they do contain calories. And a lot of natural sugar. Cherries have about 49 calories for 10. Grapes, about 36 for 10. So, compute your consumption by the number of calories and you will have a very good idea if grazing on an entire bag of grapes and/or cherries is such a good idea.

It is hard to stop, once you get going on something so lovely to your taste buds. I totally get that. And am still struggling with it.

I'm taking the easy way out when it comes to snacking. I'm eating about 300 calories for breakfast & lunch & about 400-600 calories for dinner. For in between meals I bought a bunch of different kinds of 100 calorie snack packs.

I've never kept a food journal before & now I'm only keeping track of calories & fat calories. Should I be paying closer attention to things like carbs & sugar?

Does anyone have any suggestions for low calorie dinner entrees?

Any help is ALWAYS appreciated!

Thanks, Melissa

D-M, what I do is portion control. Take that 5# bag and immediatley repackage into baggies or quart size bags - something smaller. I too am so guilty of grazing! My new 'trick' is gum chewing. I haven't chewed gum for years, but this new idea is working for me. We have an honor candy box at work and when the urge hits, I pop a piece of gum. I've also had a successful start to my new year. A silent resolution I had was to avoid fast food , and so fare I'm 99%. One night this week I fell off the wagon and got a medium DietCoke and medium fries.

Hello everyone! Just a quick flyby. Both of my kids have games today and tomorrow. I don't like Sunday games, but I didn't make the schedule. Oh well...

I weighed this morning and I have a small loss for our first week. Was kinda hoping it'd be a really good loss, but a loss is a loss, right? I missed my 30 minutes of exercise yesterday, but I've already got it done for today so I think I'll try and get extra in and make up for Friday.

Hope everyone's having a great OP weekend.

I will try the portion control idea. I will try putting them in smaller zip lock bags and only one bag per day. I didn't realize they were so chocked full of calories. In that 5 pound bag I almost had a days worth of calories. Geez!!! Thanks for the idea!! Pat

Well I gotta say, yesterday I was feeling like crap and didn't want to post or anything. TOM was playing mind games with me. I had been doing so well for days and then in the matter of 2 days, I was back up where I started. It has been so difficult the past few months and I haven't made any progress. So I was excited to be back under 200. Then TOM screwed up my happiness.

Today I am feeling better. I am down a little and my attitude is a ton better. I never give up, but I sure feel like it sometimes. I am just too stubborn to quit. This fat will not win. Got lots of stuff at the store today to try some new recipes, so it is full steam ahead.

QOTD- What motivates me? Well I'd be lying if I said it was all about being healthy. It's not. I have always been healthy, even when I was heavier. For me, it is about being smaller, not having things flopping around and clothes. I LOVE clothes now and have to contain myself. I have told myself, no new pants until I'm a size 14, currently 16. But tops- look out.

Day 12 onplan. Gotta drink some water and workout. I will make this work.

Hi Guys!

I finally got through everyones post! I so glad many of you are doing well.

I'm doing ok. The weather has me a little down, and I feel like I've been doing nothing but eating all day. I'm about to go out with some girlfriends for some karaoke, so hopefully that'll perk me up

I've been doing well with keep track of my eating the last couple of days. I'm mostly watching calories, but I'm also trying to be aware of carbs, protein, and fat. Ideally, I would like to keep carbs, protein, and fat pretty balanced, but I struggle because I LOVE my carbs.

I posted my weight which is down 2 lbs. I'm relieved because I didn't keep track of my calories at first.

I'm working on finishing a quilt for my son's bed this weekend. I started it three (yikes!) years ago and it's been hanging in my closet half finished ever since. I need to finish it before he's too old to like the cute cowboy fabric. If I can finish piecing it today, I can get it long-arm quilted at a 20% discount. So that's my motivation!

Keep strong over the weekend! Go RED!