Dixie - :hug: I understand completely! My divorce hearing is at 8:15 am on the 23rd. And even though I want this SO badly - and I've been separated for 3 1/2 years - it's still the stigma of being "DIVORCED" It scares me! WTG on the loss though - and welcome to our little family. :) Oh I I think Lumi and I are going to weigh in on Mondays - since that's what I'm doing w/ my little family Christmas Challenge (although that one's every 2 weeks) That way I can keep Lumi in line to lose her #.6 a week, and she can keep me pumped to lose my #1.2/week.

Jo - good job avoiding the temptation of Father's Day food! I did the same yesterday, except it was my sister's graduation party. Somehow I DID NOT eat all day long! I was impressed with myself! And I avoided the 20 dozen cookies, the lady finger pudding and the chocolate fondue fountain! I had one small piece of cake - and it was DELICIOUS! but I only had 1! I have to say I'm proud of myself! :D

MM- Late night munchies... that's when I jump on here and either just surf the net, or post a TON! Otherwise I'll pick up one of my several 1/2 finished projects (quilting, crocheting whatever) and work on it. If my hands are busy with something - then they can't be shoveling food into my mouth!

Ok girls - I have a TON of house work to do - and a Father's Day dinner to plan for BF. (he walked into a ready-made family and took on a 4 year old as his own - that's one Heck of a DAD!) Have a GREAT DAY!!!

:santa: 27 weeks 4 days :santa:

Weighed myself the last 3 mornings.
 

I need a little help....I am starting to weigh myself every morning. I know I shouldn't. I tend to get a little obsessive about things like this - either I don't weigh myself for 6 months and am shocked :yikes: to see that I have gained, or I start hopping on the scale every morning. What I want to do is have peace....I want to follow my eating plan, exercise, and feel good about progress.

So, in writing this, I am learning that not weighing myself every morning is an opportunity for growth.

I am still so new at all this....I should accept that being anxious / nervous / eager / confused is all part of it, right?

36 - WALK AWAY FROM THE SCALE!!! Becoming obessed with anything isn't a good thing. Put the scale away - hide it from yourself - have someone else hide it for you. Set a timer the day that you're *supposed* to weigh in and get it out of hiding. Generally out of site - out of mind.

Reward your self with trinkets, books, facials - SOMETHING OTHER THEN FOOD for overcoming the Scale-Slave obession!! YOU CAN DO THIS!!! and trust me - the daily variations will cause more havoc. when you're up #.4 one day - you'll either feel like giving up, or over work yourself into a frenzy (just to binge later) and when you're down #.4 a day - then you'll either workout frantically to "keep it up" or let your gaurd down because you "must've done something right". Either way it's not good. Slow and steady wins the race.. the faster off, the faster back on - and generally more then what you lost & around the abdomin increasing the chances of heart failure.

SO STAY OFF THE SCALE FOR AT LEAST 5-7 DAYS!!!! Let your body adjust to what you're doing.... then when you see the Number you can adjust if needed - or keep plugging along happy with the results.

36 - I weigh every day (it gives me focus every morning so I don't forget what my goals are), but if it makes you CRAZY, definitely back away from the scale!

Hi everybody... Am I too late to sign up for the commitment to Christmas?

If so thats ok. If not I will be back to enter all my info :)

Isabel :carrot:

I appreciate both perspectives, but I think Enygirl must have been reading my mind! OK Enygirl, I will not weigh again until Friday, when I am supposed to. You hit the nail on the head, and I am so grateful.

Isabel - I just joined last week. You are so polite - I didn't even ask if I could join in, I just jumped in! Welcome, and everyone here is so wonderful!

Isabel - it's NEVER to late!!! Even December 26th isn't too late because then you have NEXT Christmas :D So, WELCOME!

As for the whole weighing every day thing goes, it's not always a bad thing. I actually read somewhere that it was a GOOD idea to weigh every day for a month and keep track of it so you can see the natural swing of things and know that some days you're just naturally higher than others.

I'll catch up more later tonight ... I've got to go tickle-attack the little man and then work on getting him into the bathtub before bed!

Isabel, welcome, I agree with Karen. It's never too later and Welcome!!

I have been off course for the last couple weeks, my eating has been ok, but I've been having a beer a little too often and I have not been faithful to my AM exercise TV and crunch routine, so i am back to exercise in the AM and if I get some more at night that will be great too, but I need to do it in the morning. I started carpooling and it thru me off kilter. I am going to continue with the car pool, but I am going to go back to getting up at 5 to get my exercise out of the way.

36- I am going to join you in the no scale til Friday challenge. I am hoping to get back on track and show a little down ward tracking by then!

whoopsee - I just noticed that you and I have the same Christmas goal - to be "overweight" for Christmas! That means that I'm adopting you (against your will if necessary;)) to keep you and myself motivated!!! WE CAN DO IT!! There's 27 1/2 weeks left!

Isabel - :welcome: We're fun here - and Whoop is right - IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO JOIN!!! I tend to be the loud mouth one that posts too much. :) I just LOVE it here! oh - and I've never been one to hold back - so if you want an anser I'll voice my opinion... just take it with a grain of salt - I'm really harmless :lol:

Just had an AMAZING dinner, so now it's time for laundry until DD goes to bed then YOGA!! :yoga:

I'll post my WI in the Morning... give me some :goodscale: vibes girls! I want to see a #194.?! LOWER END OF THE #190's!!!

Oh Eny, please DO adopt me!!! One of my biggest problems has ALWAYS been giving up when things get a little tough and then taking too long to get back into the swing of things. I need someone to hunt me down if I disappear at some point!

Just got John to bed -- though from the sounds of the baby monitor it's going to be a bit longer before he decides to sleep. He's real good about climbing himself in and out of bed and knows when his body is ready to call it quits, though. I've only caught a couple of times when he's fallen asleep on the floor instead of in his bed!

I do have to work tonight so I'll probably be heading to bed myself as soon as I get the puppy to go outside and do her business. I'll probably post some during work since the hotel is dead dead dead right now. Not counting on much posting tomorrow since it's Tom's birthday and we'll probably head out to his folks at some point for that and a belated Father's Day.

Oh, and I keep meaning to ask -- what diet plan are you all following? I'm struggling with South Beach as you probably know, but I'm not really sure who all is doing what around here! Care to share?

I'm low carb, reasonable fat and tons of veggies!!

I'm intuitive eating - eating smart. We all know what we "should" eat - it's just a matter of not putting an excess of the things we shouldn't into our mouths.

I'm a vegan calorie counter. :)

Last week I read Glory 87's weight loss story (which is amazing, by the way!) and that got me curious about a book called Super Foods. There are 24 main Super Food categories, and I try and eat from 10 different categories every day. Focusing on what TO eat vs. focusing on what not to eat has been great! Combined with eating whole foods, I log what I eat every day and stay within 26-30 WW points. A veritable mish-mash of several plans. (o:

I have an excel spread sheet that I type everything into, and on the far right, I have all 24 super foods listed. The foods I eat from the list for that day are highlighted red that way I can easily scan and see which foods I want to include the next day. (o: The Whole Foods area is another place where I hang out. (o:

Oh, best wishes and warm thoughts your way. That's tough, and I've been there. I was a wreck the day of my hearing.

Congratulations on the weight loss! I missed the fact that it's geared toward Friday, so I'll be weighing on Monday, and again on Friday to become calibrated.

Please don't think that you have to weigh in on Fridays! It started out as just a kind of freak coincidence that most of us early in the thread all seemed to weigh-in on Friday (or, in my case, late Thursday night). I've actually been thinking of changing MY weigh-in to Monday night so I'll be less apt to feel "free" to cheat on the weekends. You know, the whole rationalization that I can be bad Friday and/or Saturday and make up for it Sunday through Thursday ...

And I'll be thinking good thoughts for an easy hearing that's as stress-free as possible! :hug:

Morning all!
DixieMae- thinking of you today.

36 Staying away from the scale this week. Need to focus on that.

I kept my focus this morning. Got up at 5 instead of 6 something, did my exercise already! 50 upper and 50 lower crunches and a 20 minute video from Exercise TV. Really need to get back to that, it was working well for me.

I will not get a lunch time walk in today, too much else to do, but maybe a walk tonight after dinner. If not, maybe it's time to dust off the dreadmill, haven't used that since the weather got warmer

Oh, I'm excited. I think I signed up a little over a week ago. (Not sure, exactly).

4.6 down, now at 320.4.

It's finally moving!

4.6 out of 26 for the Christmas goal.

This morning's WI didn't go as well as I'd like :( It may have something to do with sabotaging myself right before bed last night by eating potato wedges and a twix bar! Oh well - I'm just going to keep moving foward! - Going to pump the exercise back up this week (I slacked some last week) and going to watch more carefully of what and WHY things are going into my mouth!

IF HUNGER ISN'T THE PROBLEM THEN FOOD ISN'T THE ANSWER!!!

Morning gang! :)

I had my "official" 13 week weigh in this morning and I'm now down 43 pounds overall, and I lost 4 this past week. Yippee! Definitely feeling "in the groove" right now, and that feels so nice after so much struggle to get here!

This morning I did my scheduled 6 mile run at 5:30 am and I have a full day of chores and errands to do, if I can pull myself away from the computer any time soon! ;)

I will use Monday's as my weigh in day. It will help keep me on track over the weekend, since that is when I seem to fight the snack deoms the most.

I am down 3 pounds this week!!!

Great work everyone!!! I will check in/weigh in tomorrow even after a weekend that wasn't that great! MOVING ON not dwelling on the negative and not beating myself up!

I am back on track after only a 2 day slip. That is a major achievement!

Great idea! :) I want to lose 64 lbs by christmas. That is 2 lbs a week. That will bring me to 236 lbs. This is a very maintainable goal for me. I fall off track a lot so hopefully I will be able to hold true to my goal.

My plan to lose 64lbs is:

-Drink a gallon of water a day
-Walk everyday - with the exception of one day
-Lift weights a couple times a week
-Eat healthier (Don't eat out as much)
-Always be moving(limit computer time) :) This is hard for me!!!
-Post in my blog and post on 3fatchicks

Alrighty I think that's it! Good luck everyone!

So I realized that I started this Christmas challenge w/ my family - and the last time I did this it took me a little while to get into the groove of things. I'm thinking that it's part of it. I want to see the pace before I start the race. ;)

I'm Starting NOW! No longer ar ethey going to be winning! I'm going to lose my #1.2 EVERY WEEK and Win the $200!!! :D :cheer: :yay: Stick with me girls - and PUSH me!!!

I also went online to a place that has a list of all the up coming run & walk races. I'm definately thinking of doing some this summer. I had a lot of fun in the winter doing the 5 K. Plus OI don't care about winning - i care about improving! :) 45 mins a day right - that's the goal.

Ok ladies, I'm showing a gain today, back to 191.5. Part of the crazy fluctuations of 1-3 lbs a day I've been seeing the past week or so are due to my TOM, but part of it is also that I've been slacking off. So this morning I made myself some goals.

This week's goals:
*1600-1800 calories a day,
*exercise every morning,
*five miles of walking in total,
*120 oz of water a day,
*NOT weighing til Friday

I'm going to try and check in on my progress every evening or in the morning if I forget, and use the check in to avoid obsessively weighing in. The talk about that has been very timely for me, as I've been noticing myself start to get a bit CRAZY about checking daily and sometimes twice a day. Gah! I think I should aim for twice a week to keep on track without obsessing over the little things.

So here's how I did today:
*1600-1800 calories: about 1640 - there's a chunk of educated guessing in today's calories, but I tried to estimate high so I think I should be well within my range. Now to avoid late night snacking!
*Morning exercise: Did 15 minutes of Yourself Fitness but not my 8 Minute Moves. So good but not great.
*Walk 5 miles this week: No walking today, but made a plan for 1.5 miles tomorrow to finally check out my local gym.
*120 oz water: About 64 oz. :( I guess it's not bad since that's 8 8oz glasses, but I tend to aim for TWICE that. It's dumb too, because I'm feeling a bit hoarse from a really social weekend. It's funny how little things can trip you up; I think the main reason I did poorly at this today was that my usual water glass was in the dishwasher so I used a different one that I like less. Another time I'm gonna just hand wash the sucker!
*No scale til Friday: Well, I made this rule because I showed a gain when I stepped on this morning. I stayed off it since then though, despite being a bit tempted.

Hopefully this will keep me me on top of things. I've got my weekly social dinner plans tomorrow, so I hope I can keep up the good work and preferably improve.

Welcome to all the newbies to the thread, you're gonna love it here! And 36, I'm right there with you on that scale obsession (as you can see!). Let's stay away for a few days and focus on good habits and not numbers, ok? Together we can do this! :hug:

:wave: hi it's me Isabel J... I know I look different.. it must be the 4.5 pounds that I've lost this week :D just kidding... I couldn't get in with my other name so I tried to get a new password and it didnt work and I emailed admin twice and no respose, I didnt want to wait too long because I need the support so I thought I'd come in as sexynesscoming:cool: gotta love the new name :D now ifI can get there in real life.

Thanks everybody for letting me join the Commitment to Christmas, I can't wait. Here's my whopping statistics.

I'm 5'5
bw 184lbs cw 180 gw 135lbs
my life changing crutch Herbal Magic
started that June 11th/08
Goal date dec 1st/08 (they said that)
I live in Port Elgin Canada
oh ya the age part.... 37
mom of 2 age 10 and 8
married for 11 years this year
is it dec yet? :D

Well I think thats it..unless you want to get to know me better.

:cheer2:Keep your head up and remember your doing this for yourself!!:cheer3:

Isabel :carrot:

I did not go near the scale today!!! 45 minutes of soccer for me + some floor exercises. Had a great food day, too. I am really trying to get a lot of veggies into my diet. Tonight for dinner I chopped up and cooked rainbow chard and spinach. In another pan I sauteed onions, shallots, green onions and garlic. Drained the chard and then added it to the onions. I didn't have a lot of points left for dinner so I knew I had to get creative and cook something that I could have A LOT of. Sometimes I just need quantity! While I feel good because I exercised and ate well today, I feel REALLY good because I am taking care of myself. Something I haven't done for a long time. Sure, I'll get my hair done, or get a pedicure, but that's just for an hour. In the last week, I have spent time taking care of myself everyday. Packing my lunch, planning my meals, MAKING the time to exercise. That's all about me. Not used to this, and I am beginning to really like how it feels. (o: I know I matter to my family, but now I feel like I matter to ME. (O:

I am a happy happy girl right now! My first Monday night weigh in and I've lost 1.4 pounds since Thursday!!! That's half of what I had gained during my week of horribleness!!!!!!

:carrot:

I also took my measurements and in the month since I started SB I've gone down an inch in my waist, an inch in my hips, and half an inch in my thigh AND half an inch in my bicep!

I think I'm going to celebrate by ordering in at work tonight .... a nice big salad and a Coke Zero! Whoever woulda thunk that would be celebration food, huh? :T

This is a really great idea. I run an annual Turket Trot here in Detroit, and I need to make sure I can beat last years time. Good motivation.

*revs up engine!*

Wow, looks like we are all getting it!

Petite, welcome, stick around, we are getting a great group!

Sexiness/Isabel, glad you're back, what a great result for the week.

Whoopsie, I'm with ya, working to get rid of the horribleness! We are doing great!! Karre, great job getting your slip under control after only 2 days.

Josephine, you are running your butt off, quite literally, good for you!

OK all, I can't do personals all day, I have to go get my sweaty self showered, car pool gets here by 7:30, have a great day. I am going to!

Dixiemae- :hug:

Morning gang! And welcome to all the new folks!

Sexy -- Congrats on the 4.5 pounds this week, great job!

36 -- it does feel nice to REALLY "take care of yourself" doesn't it? Great job!

Whoopsie -- Congrats on the loss, whoo hoo, and what a nice way to celebrate!

Betsi -- Looks like you've got a great plan, you can do it!

Ok girls - I too need to walk away from the scale... I've weighed in 5 times in the last 7 days! So I'm done! I'm not weighing in again until Monday. The daily fluxs are killing me - so I'm joining the - STAY OFF THE SCALE group!

I didn't exercise last night. My body was TOO tired, and after 15 days straight - it needed the break. I actually think (after talking to a personal trainer) that I'm going to cut back to 6 days a week instead of 7.. she said that I could be doing more harm then good since my body isn't made like an athlete (yet:D)

I have a ton of work to do - so I'll do personals later! Have a great day!

Hey Everyone Congrats on your losses. I am going to really concentrate on my exercise this week. It paid off last week. I am totally shocked and surprised that I lost 2lbs this week. I am back to what my ticker originally said. 174.8. Keep up the good work

It is so great that you all are doing so incredibly well! :) Keep up the good work ladies! I did well yesterday actually, kind of suprised myself! :) Good luck all!

I just had fun pulling out skinny clothes and packing away fatter clothes, whoo hoo! Very motivating. It was like going shopping, I have tons of "new" stuff to wear! And I dug my very smallest stuff to keep trying on as motivation and to stay focused!

Just dropping in for a little "yay me" moment:

I'm wearing a pair of size 16W Capri pants I haven't been able to zip over my baby gut since my first trimester!!!!!!!

:woohoo::carrot::woohoo:

Hello everyone~Yesterday wasn't the best of days for me food wise. I could have done a lot worse, but I could have left the sugary carbs alone. Today I am back on the wagon. Food will not conquer or defeat me!!!!!!

To Everyone that lost weight this week C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S!!!!! Way to go.

It is easy to be obsessed with weighing in every day. We feel good if it says we lost, but if it says we gained a little, it is so easy to feel guilty or start to doubt what we are doing. Numbers can not define who we are. We are sooo much more than that. Keep up the good works and the scale will relent.

Thank you all for your support through this rough divorce. We will have one more court date, then it will be all over. Last night was a tough one for me. Today is better.

Talk to ya all later Pat

Hey everyone!! I need to head out in a few minutes for a nice low key evening with a friend instead of my usual busier Tuesday. Hopefully that'll make it easier to make good choices about dinner. I just wanted to check in before I go.

Congrats on all the good progress so many of you are making. Jo and Karen, love your back to back clothing victories, how fun! I must say my pants are pretty loose these days too. Funny, they are falling apart too - seems like a good omen because it means after I buy a new pair a size smaller I'll have to get rid of these.

Pat, so good to hear you're feeling better today and that your difficulties will soon be behind you. Thanks so much for the encouraging words, so nice to hear how many of us struggle with the scale, and you put it into words so well.

Well I gotta run, so here's a run down of how I'm doing with my plan for the week so far today.

*1600-1800 calories: Only about 520 so far, trying to really stay low so I can leave a margin of error for the rest of the evening. Social dining can be so tough to keep lean, and I'm a bit of an evening snacker, so this should give me a good buffer to finish up the day within my range.
*Morning exercise: Stayed up way late last night so I had a slow start to my morning, but I did it. Did a really great 15 minute Yourself Fitness session and rocked my core, but I kind of lamed my way through my 8 Minute Moves because I was so tired. So glad I gave it a try though, it feels so much better than just blowing it off.
*Walk 5 miles this week: Between a slow morning and a bit of a sore throat from being so sniffly from all the pollen, I decided to skip the 1.5 miles to check out the gym today. I want to look into it at the time of day I expect to be there. If I’m feeling better tomorrow I’ll check it out then. Gonna get in a mile after I sign off here though.
*120 oz water: A total of 112 oz so far, I'm sure it won't be too hard to meet or beat my goal by the end of the day.
*No scale til Friday: I’m really finding this hard to resist, especially in the mornings. I’m in the 5 lb Challenge, and it’s hard not to join everyone in their daily weigh ins. I just know I’ll drive myself batty though, especially since yesterday’s weight was up three pounds from the start of that challenge, making it 8 lbs to lose in a 5 lb challenge! I’ve gotta keep plugging away and making good choices and I should see a budge on Friday.

Thanks everybody for the warm welcoming and warm support.

With me being with Herbal Magic we get astarter kit with lists of foods and amounts of them of what we can eat and thats great, I still have problems planning my meals, I tried doing them daily and I was finding myself thats all I was doing at night and weighing my food, so I've decided to try and plan then weekly and I keep picking the same foods to eat and thats boring.I dont mean to pick the same ones but its hard making sure my 2 starches and 2 fruits are before 4pm. Seems like everything I pick is starch :(
oh well I'll keep going:dizzy:

On a better note I went in for my first weigh in on my 2nd week of this and I lost another pound :cheer2: tomorrow I go in for my first measuring since the day I started, kinda nervous.

:woohoo: to everybody that lost weight, lost inches, and stayed on track and that excercised.Way to go!!!!!! Keep it up!!!!

I need to excercise more, I walk but I need more hard core excercising..can't believe I'm saying that.

Well better go, I still have to post more and :comp: in my daily journal.

:df: Keep your head up high, and remember that there's always tomorrow to do better :df:

Isabel :carrot:

Isabel, sounds like you are focused on what you need to do, good for you and good luck with the measuring!

Josephine & Karen, I agree w Betsi, wtg to be able to go "shopping" in the closet, I love that and I get rid of the fat clothes as I go, don't want to make it comfortable to put the tonnage back on.

Karryn, that's exactly what I am aiming for right now, just back to my ticker weight....

Have a great day all, I am going for Day 3, completely OP