I'd like to jump in here too cuz I need support and accountability!
So, today is Day #1 for me but I'll hang with you guys on this Labor Day Challenge, if that's OK.
My Goals will be:
Don't go over my required calories.
Don't binge eat.
Exercise 4 times per week. (I'd like to say I'll exercise every day but .... maybe the next challenge?)

Jigglefree - AWESOME!!! Happy Birthday!!! BRAVO!! :carrot::dancer:
I can't wait to get to onederland!

Lemon - sorry about your bad Friday. There is always a tomorrow to start fresh. Hope your paper work wasn't too frustrating!

FL - I walked 3 times today for a total of 69 minutes. (Took me 23 minutes to go around the block!) I hope someday I am maintaining too!

H82sweat - my goodness you're quite the exerciser! I wanna be you someday. Hope you had a good evening with the Michelob and treats.

Princess - I hear you with the mowing! When I do my lawn it takes about 1 1/2 hours to do the whole thing and sweep up etc. My arms vibrate! Soon, it'll be shoveling for me!

RealMe- I take 2 separate walks sometimes too. It's nice to take a walk later in the day when the weather is cooler. You will be a maintainer, i know you will!

Walked 36min. it was so hot and humid, the air was still. Did better on calories, 1360. Lost .5 lbs. overnight, really don't know how. Calories have been higher than my limit all week. Considering this is the weekend, I didn't eat like it was. Yippie!

Goood morning all! Hope you're all doing awesome, as per usual!

I keep slipping up and eating at or above maintenance- I had a high calorie breakfast yesterday, which I think is my problem. I didn't allot quite enough calories for dinner. Which, is okay, but some of you may know I am trying to "secretly" make a push for 115. I say secretly, because when I get there my maintenance range with be 115-120. I need to see that I've come this far and can keep going!

My niece's birthday party went well- I had a lot of calories allotted for it, haha. Several people remarked on how thin I was and that I was "wasting away" (heh, yeah, not really!). It put a smile on my face to know that they noticed just 10 pounds since April. I got more comments now than when I lost my initial 25 pounds! Weird, eh? Makes you wonder if they didn't think I could keep it up this whole time.

Got my coffee, going to grab some breakfast, and then do my tough workout today- excited!

Fruit- Major high fives!!!! And I see your point about maintenance calories. I don't know what I'm being so hesitant to transition. Days where I probably am eating at maintenance I don't track as strictly, because for some reason it's like I don't want to know. Annnd you've made me hungry with your meal ideas!!

RealMe- Welcome! We've got a great bunch of women here. I like your goals!

Lemon- I know, that's exactly it! Re: your bad day- you've picked yourself up and dusted yourself off, and that's the ultimate challenge! :carrot:

TDI- That sounds awesome. You'll be sculpted in no time! I've been working a lot on my arms, because though I've always been pretty muscular, I lack the definition- so I know what you mean about noticing the small changes- I love the subtle curves of the muscles finally peeking through! I hear you about taking exercise breaks- weekends are usually that for me, unless I can get the stamina to do it after my long shifts at work. Usually then it will just be light exercise, but most of the time I just take them as rest days.

H82sweat- Woohoo about your exercise! And I hope you enjoyed your night with DH and the fam!

Envelope- Congrats on reaching your challenge goals already! It IS amazing, eh?

Jiggle- Thousands of dancing carrots for you reaching ONEDERLAND!!! And on your birthday no less! Congrats and happy birthday! Must be the greatest gift!

Morning, ladies! I am way behind on personals since I've been offline for three days, but I hope you are all doing well. This weekend I indulged in a lot of things I didn't eat a lot of during my WL journey, but now I feel sluggish, so I'm back to staying away from sugar as much as I can and sticking within my calories.

This is a "good monring drive by" post because I have a fellow coming over to finalize one of my kiddo's plans for ROTC in college next year in an hour. Wow that sounds weird. After this school year I will only have 1 child still at home. Celebrate? Or cry? LOL

Dropped 2lbs last week and that is despite a weekend of eating OP, although still within calorie range but on the high end. Lots of sodium, carbs, and processed foods. Result is I feel like absolute crap today. Sluggish and slightly nauseous and crabby! I don't think I will do this again. It is no "reward" or "treat" to do this to my body.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great OP day!

Corrine - Thank-you for the encouragement. :) It's helped me a lot to see that other people sometimes have off days but they don't give up. I have that problem too with people, I lost a little since before I joined 3FC, I'm down 27.6 pounds as of this morning and people are just now starting to notice that I look a little different.

RealMe - Welcome and thank-you (my paperwork is always more boring than it is hard). I have the same problem with not exercising daily, I took a desk job and for some reason the lack of activity carried over to my home life.

So Friday didn't do as much damage as I thought it would, I'm still down 2 pounds this week. :)

I am going to update my goal for weight. I would be amazed if I got myself into the 150s by Labor day.

I promise I haven't abandoned you all!!! My daughter got strep throat :p and in her own dramatic fashion...required 24hr care. I have been on task but I spent my days as her in home care nurse. She is doing very well today and is back at the daycare. I'm back at work and I cranking out the work. It's amazing to me that when everyone is out I have to do their jobs but no one does mine when I'm out. Some call it job security I call it abuse. Nevertheless, thank God for my job!!!

Thank you for all the well wishes and congrats. I'm feeling mostly lots of wonderfulness. :carrot::carrot: I've been beaming since Saturday. Hoping I can shed about 10 more pounds by Labor Day. If not I will take what I can get.

Envelope - Go for the gusto!!! You can do it and if you miss it you got farther than you would have had you not gone for it.
LemonZest - That's pretty awesome...2 pounds!!! You are doing a fine job with yourself.
H82Sweat - Two for you as well. Last week was a good week for losses at least seems like it was.
Emme - It's okay to indulge every now and again. The good thing is because you don't do it often your body let you know how it really feels about it.
Corinne - You can keep going. I will be looking forward to seeing you get to 115 before Labor Day and maintaining your weight within your range!!
Fruitlady - Sometimes you may eat more than you want to and sometimes it's what your body needs...not regularly though.
Realme - WELCOME!!! We are having lots of fun so hop in and work your plan. You can get to ONEderland as long as you don't quit. So join in, come here often and share.

Today's Nugget: Don't sit back and let things happen to you. Get up and make things happen for you. You have everything on the inside of you to get where you want to be. If you want or need a new job, create one or do the business idea you have on the inside of you. You don't like your current living situation, start packing and looking for a new place. Looking at your body and don't like what you see, change how you see yourself. You are beautiful in your current state and will be more beautiful when you are happy with the you in the mirror TODAY!

jigglefree: Congrats!
Corinne: LOVE your avatar.
H82Sweat: Ugh, I did that too over the weekend. Went a little crazy with the mac 'n' cheese on Sunday, felt like absolute dreck on Monday.

As for me... Pretty good weekend. Had my first cheat day in about six weeks on Sunday, and it wasn't too bad - didn't go over on calories by more than a couple hundred, just ate crappy food. Delicious crappy food. :p Still sent the leftovers off to work with DH on Monday and am back on track eating good things now. Got some spaghetti squash with sausage tomato sauce and homemade bread for supper - can't wait! I'm down about two pounds this week, so I'm pretty excited about that. Not a shot in heck of making my first labor day goal, so I've revised it to 148lb, which I think is reasonable.

Hi all! It has been a few days. I'm still alive and doing pretty good! I'm taking it a little easy this week with exercise. I'm doing the regular programs and either cycling or trying to find some cardio for my exercise ball (other than jumping up and down on it, which is fun LOL). Otherwise, still no heavy circuit training until next week or so. I'm waiting until my ankle feels completely better.
Foodwise I'm doing good. I thought I was gaining weight, I felt bloated and heavy, but it looks like I may have lost a little bit since last week. I will know tomorrow at weigh-in.
Life is going good. I agree with the nugget for today! We have to make things happen. I think a good schedule is how that works the best! That is something I'm working on.

Realme: :welcome: You seem to have jumped right in and to be doing great!!
h82sweat: sounds like you had an allright weekend. I agree though, sometimes overeating isn't as fun as it seems!!
Corinne: Sometimes people are just oblivious! and other times, they don't want to notice changes!! Keep up the great week! I know what you mean about having a focus to stay on track and take care of yourself!
bigchiefhoho: You're doing really well! Keep up the great work!!
I'll see you chickies later! :carrot:

Thank you guys for the warm welcomes!! Makes me feel warm and fuzzy. :D

Day #3 and i did my calories properly and got in an hour walk today!

Tidi - thank you for the rainbowy welcome. Good luck with your weigh in; may all your hard work pay off!

BigChief - DH? If your first cheat bad day food was after 6 weeks then you're the bomb! I wonder what spaghetti squash tastes like....

Jiggle - my daughter had strep throat this summer too; isn't that odd? even the pediatrician was amazed at the strep going around this summer. My daughter is 14; seems older than yours. In our case we discovered she is allergic to penicillin! hope your little one is feeling back to normal.

CorinneIrene - must have felt good to hear good remarks about your weight loss. Though I can see where it might make you wonder what they're really thinking. Sounds like you took it all in stride!

Have a good night/Wednesday everyone!:)

Good morning fellow warriors!

So, I had a "bad" start to the morning...erm, I had two servings of gelato for breakfast. So, initially I was thinking that I was going to scrap counting for today, but I decided it's more imperative that I do count. I used it to motivate me to work really hard at my workout this morning (man, was I dripping sweat) and I've planned out my cals for the rest of the day. In the past, I would either say to myself that I couldn't eat for the rest of the day, or just to overindulge the rest of the day. So, I'm happy that I'm feeling good again and am going to rock the rest of the day with clean eating instead of punishing myself.

Realme- It did feel great! Especially being asked about how I did it- feels validating. You're having a great start!

TDI- Hope your ankle starts feeling better! Good to hear you're still keeping up with exercise! Sorry to hear about the bloat feeling- I hate that, makes me feel 10 pounds heavier even when I've lost. Hopefully that will go away to reflect the truth!

BigChief- Thanks! I love that movie. Glad to hear you enjoyed your high cal day! I think that it's healthy to have those breaks to recharge ourselves. Your dinner sounds so delicious. I've never had spaghetti squash- I really think I should look into it. How do you prepare it? Just bake it?

Jiggle- Sorry to hear about your daughter. I used to get strep all the time, ugh! Thankfully she's feeling better. And that sucks about your job. I hate when that happens. Don't think I'll make 115 before labor day, but I'll try! It's certainly possible, but I'm trying to get down there at a nice slow pace. We'll see though!

Envelope- :carrot: You can do it!

Lemon- :hug: You're welcome! I've certainly been having a lot of off days lately, but I'm feeling positive. Onwards and upwards I always say! It's funny how we start weight loss and it takes so much for people to notice- or perhaps get the courage to say something! I used to hate people commenting on weight loss, but it puts a pep in my step now.

H8- I know what you mean. I love eating clean, whole foods and when I don't, I just feel so gross and then wonder how I could do such a thing to my body. Every once in a while one item is fine and I compensate with water, but too much of anything is killer! Glad to hear you're still losing and doing well!

Emme- Hope you're doing well!

Hello everyone!!!
Today had been pretty awesome. I have been getting a lot of work done at my desk. I have been eating on plan and we took a family walk yesterday. So much fun. I'm have decided to get through the rest of this challenge with flying colors.

P H A T - How are you eating with the water??? It can be frustrating when you are doing all you can and your body is rebelling. Keep going and you will see a big ole whosh!!
Corinne - That is a great perspective and good that you are mindful of your behavior and keeping it in check...KUDOS!!!
RealMe - Sounds like you are off to a great start. Stay focused and the results will come.
Tdiprincess - I think your plan of waiting on your ankle to heal completely is a great idea. No need to create unnecessary problems that could be worse than the initial injury. Keep your eating clean because it is the bulk of the weight loss process.
BigCheif - That dinner sounds good. Well so you had a couple treats...at least you are back on plan.

Today's Nugget: Self talk is the most powerful conversation you will ever have. You are a self fulfilling prophecy of the words you have spoken. Speak greatness to yourself. Speak kindly to yourself and above NEVER engage in negative conversations about you with anyone, not even yourself. Joking about yourself is never okay because your subconscious doesn't know the difference.

PHAT- Dizzy is no good and pushing water if you're not getting enough overall calories plus electrolytes could be making you feel this way AND hang onto the weight. Please take care of yourself. The scale will move if you keep eating right and moving. I promise :)

Realme- Welcome aboard!! Exercise really is easy once you get into it. It's just those first few days (or weeks, depends) that you feel like death and wonder if you can do it... push through because you can and eventually you reach a point where you take such incredible joy in what your body can do!

BigChief- Congrats on the loss!

Jigglefre- You too!!

TDI- Healing vibes for your ankle. There are some great core workouts for stability balls that can be "amped" to achieve cardio results.

Corrine- way to stay OP despite the bitty stumble!!

I managed to cram maint level calories down my throat yesterday (on the advice of my diet coach) and today, 30 minute high intensity WITHOUT HANGING ON LIKE I'M GOING DOWN ON THE TITANIC! :lol: I was able to keep my arms up and pumping all the way through. Guess I just needed a little boost to push me through.

Hope everyone has a great OP day!

eta- I like today's nugget, although I mocked myself a little up above ;) I have a poignant but very effective motivating mind picture and dialog when I am feeling like I just can't do something. I remember my mother, who battled MS for 35 years and eventually died from metastatic breast cancer last December, struggling to walk to the bathroom in her final weeks. She would not give up. She made her legs move. She willed herself into being able to do things. Sheer determination. Guts. Courage. If a dying woman with partial leg paralysis can grab a walker and get herself to the bathroom, I can run that last 1/2 mile, lift that last rep, do that last pushup.... and she would be proud of me for doing what I am doing to get myself healthy and strong!