Hey girls-

Mygrits- OMG, I AM LOVIN THE WEATHER. It couldnt be more perfect. Furthermore, I turned off my air and it feels great to just air out my house. Hmmm...as far as the Lean Cuisines, I just cant do it. I dont really like the taste of them, I did the weight watcher ones for a while and that was ok, but not much better, they are pretty much all the same.

Simple---girl, dont worry abou the gain, we all fluctuate. Um, yeah...I weighed myself this morning and was 168, thats 3 pounds since Sunday, Im willing to bet water weight but who knows **shrugs shoulders**. Anyway, good job at the pot luck. Thats certainly a down fall for me, other peoples cooking. I always feel like I NEED to try another persons cooking because its not like I always get to eat it, ya know.

Neesy - so what are your thoughts on the 30DS? Do you feel you are able to stick with it? Its funny, because I always thought I had a good amount of will power but when it came to 30DS, I just threw in the towel.

Popcorn- Im so glad we dont have a Jack In The Box here. I have friends on the Westcoast and they always talk about their food. In fact, they advertise JIB here in Florida and they have none here, lol...go figure. Anyway, kudos for imprevising. You may be being redundent, but what do you do for exercise? Or is it just diet at this point?

AJ- I didnt realize your calorie level was so low. Hmmmm....you know you have to get "the lecture". Going too low will put your body in starvation mode and you'll just gain it back...blah...blah...blah. Im happy to hear you have the willpower to do it, just be careful honey. :) **BIG HUG**

Simple- I go home almost everyday for lunch too, its my lifeline to a successful diet, although...I am a sucker for sushi once or twice a week, but it is budgeted into my caloric intake.

What is everyone doing for exercise today? I did my 2 miles this morning. Gabriella has soccer tonight, so I wont be able to get my run in but I have Bodyworks tomorrow and plan on going in 30 minutes prior for 30 minutes of deather before me on the Evil Stairclimber Toya (named after my ex-mother in law, hee-hee) I doubt Ill be able to check in anymore tonight, so have a good night ladies...and remember to eat "skinny". :)

AJ- sorry, just missed your post. :) Glad to hear you rback at 1500, that sounds more reasonable. :)

I have a tip for those of you that forget who posts what. I have our thread open in one window or tab and open another window or tab for the reply and reply to each post as I read. That way you know exactly who said what.

AJ-I could do tea and honey. I love honey.

Luv-I was all confused about calories too, Dance knows a lot about it. I was eating 1200 and have since upped to 1600. Still thinking about getting the Biggest Loser for Wii. Need some more options for the cold winter.

Maddiesmom-I am stay far away from the boys for a while until they are healthy again. I have already been sick, dont want it again. Hope Maddie is feeling better.

Popcorn-if I give into something that isnt totally healthy, I try to only eat half and sometimes the doggies get some too. Good job getting rid of the cookies.

Dance-I will admit, I was lazy last night and didnt get my dvd in, I am disappointed in myself. Today is a new day though. Bummer about your knee, I have no advice on PT for you.

Neesy-I feel the same way about all of you. I know I need you now. I ran out of lean cuisines, will have to get some tomorrow. I tried on I had never had the other day, but I think it was a healthy choice. It was lemon pepper fish, NASTY!!!! Great job losing 3 lbs, I am gonna mirror you.

Mygrits-what kind of workout are you gonna do today? Enjoy your day off.

Lindy-let us know about your moms diet. I had steamed veggies and chicken for lunch. Now gotta figure out something for dinner.

Simple-you have lost so much already. Potlucks are always hard. I try to stay away from them but you cant all the time.

Ok, I jumped on the bandwagon with some of you and got out the door to walk 4 miles. It is a cold day out today. I took the dogs with me(of course) We made it 3 miles. Bandit was shivering so bad. He has short fur and was freezing so it made me feel bad so we turned around. I am happy with 3 miles though. I think it snowed a little since I have been home. It was sunny before. Gonna get a walk in tomorrow too.

May I join? I think I need a support group...

Lindy- LOL! Thanks for the love though =) I will be back at 1500 tomorrow and yesterday obviously with my wing I was over. Have fun @ soccer and you eat skinny as well!!

Burgundy- I love honey! I could eat it plain. WoooHooo on the exercise. I am not going to participate today but I am so happy you are in it with us!!!

AND BRI!- Welcome. We have a few new members so feel free to just jump right in. We can move fast but we care very much about each other.

bri- Absolutely. Join right in. Welcome!

Lindy- I definitely can't keep up with it. I'll do it when I can.. It is pretty intense. I'm definitely not doing it every day. I do tae bo.. but even that kicks my butt too. I need to start just running again. I miss doing it plus i want to be able to exercise with my husband. He runs like 5 miles now like it is nothing. I'm so jealous.

Rayne-I stay away from the healthy choice. I never found any I really liked. I pretty much enjoy all of the lean cuisines I have had. I have favorites. I'm someone that can eat the same thing every single day and be happy. I'm just weird like that. But it's crazy that I'm eating pizza and ice cream (lean cuisine/ WW) and am losing. It's great!

Hello Ladies,

Neesy I am with you on the Lean Cuisines, I have many favorites. The flavors are just delicous and I too lost alot of weight on them. I never like Healthy Choice, WW, or others as they taste like crap. For some reason, Lean Cuisines just taste good. I now also enjoy some of Amys and Cedarlake, as they are organic.

Ok, I got my 2 miles jog/walk in, which felt great, and I vacuumed out the car, plus walked Hondo a couple of times today. I hope with that activity I burned extra calories. My food has been good and still have 200 extra calories for my 8pm snack ;-)

Oh, Alina came home today for the night. She is moving her stuff to Kings Bay tomorrow with her brother and Bubba. I have to work. She looks fantastic and is doing good.

AJ, I remember doing the calorie fluctuations when I lost a bunch of weight. There were days I stayed around 8 - 900 and then others when I upped it to 1400. Lindy is right, just be careful so you don't gain the weight back, plus don't allow yourself to be too hungry as you don't want to burn muscle. I did that.

Dance, Staccie, Tiff how's is going? Did you get your workouts in today?

Just tried the YUMMIEST thing and had to share immediately! I'm having people over for dinner tomorrow and made a healthy/spicy black bean dip and wanted to bake some flour tortilla chips to go with but wasn't sure they would turn out so just did a test drive. Since I was only doing one small flour tortilla's worth as a test, I did mine in the toaster oven so the cooking time was shorter. Here's what you do:
-Flour tortilla (can be whole wheat, low carb, spinach, whatever, just not those super thick homemade style ones or they'll never crisp up)
- Spray both sides of tortilla with cooking spray (like PAM) or brush lightly with canola.
- Sprinkle with spiced salt (salt with a bit of cayenne pepper - if you like spicy - and cumin mixed in in a little dish)
- Bake at 350 for 5 minutes in toaster oven, possibly 10 in normal oven but set the timer low and check to make sure they're not burning.

They should be crispy and golden/toasted looking around the edges when they're done. Just polished off mine with salsa and ff sour cream - delish. Not great if you're doing low carb but I have a such a major weakness for salty/crunchy and when you combine that with feel-the-burn heat from the cayenne, I'm in heaven.

Which is nice, as I was kind of grumpy just before my snack - knee is pretty uncomfortable and I've been running up and down the stairs getting stuff done all day so I'm going to call that my exercise for the day. Will give it another shot tomorrow. And will also come back and get caught up properly but didn't want you to miss another second without homemade baked tortilla chips. Seriously - try them and see if they don't rock your world too! Some of the variations on the recipe included dusting them with cinnamon sugar or adding lime juice to the oil for that 'hint of lime' taste.

Dance- That sounds fantastic!! I am going to try it. I make a really good homemade salsa filled with all kinds of veggies and usually just eat it on eggs and salad but now I know how to make yummy chips =)

Neesy- The only LC that I like is the pizza. I don't really like frozen anything like that. EW! If I need pizza that is what I allow myself. Tae bo kicks my butt into the ground. I did it once and my husband laughed the whole time. Way too intense. Like I said... when it comes to coordination I am like a dog on slick ice. How is your time off??

Sandy- What a good idea planning an 8pm snack. Maybe that will help me. Also, my dogs said they want to come live with you because they never get out that much!!

So I walked in on drama in my hall today. Boy hitting girl. So I called the police. Thats a whole other story... Now to the yummy officer that came to my door. OMG. My husband would hate me if he heard me all googly eyed over him but OMG! 6'6" maybe taller. An ex marine so he is so fit and so smooth shaven. Plus I think Marines are sexy anyways. But he was a stud. We talked for a bit after the whole thing about deployment and my brothers and when he left I almost burst out a squeel!! Oh he was so hotttttttt!

On to other news. My plan got changed because I am too active for the one they had me on and I got cheese back. I LOVE CHEESE! and I get an extra starch a day. I can do this. Easy Peasy!

I am proud of all of you for working out. I "ran" to call the police...

<3

AJ - hooray for cheese! :) Sorry about the scary stuff next door - so glad you did what you did.

Just a quick check in...

AJ: glad to here you get to incorporate more foods in your diet...I know when I get too low I get sluggish and tired all the time and life is just plain no fun. Way to be a model citizen calling the police and all that. What happened with the couple? Sorry...I'm a social worker so I have to wonder about these things.

Dance: I've made the tortilla chips before but never the black bean dip...it sound scrumptious though so I'm going to have to give it a try!

Yeah for everyone who did 4 miles today!!!

Hello Ladies,

Unfortunately getting ready for work, but wanted to check in.

AJ, hilarious about the 'hot' police officer/marine......lol. He sounds scrumptous ;-) Sorry you had a scare, but hey, but it sounds like it ended on a good note! You also sound like you are just zooming along with healthy eating and weightloss. Awesome!

Dance, the tortilla sounds yummy. I am a huge tortilla and mexican food lover. I can't get enough sometimes........aka my downfall. Anyway, thanks for the recipe, I will try it.

Well, I was down another pound today........YES. That is 3 for this week and my goal is one more. I know its alot, but it may be water weight too, since I am just starting off......although I did start working again after 2 months, so maybe not. I don't know, but I'll take it.

I will check in tonight when I get home.

LMAO AJ!!! You are so funny! Im soooo jealous, no...not of weight loss, that you had a scrumptious police officer at your door. I am such a sucker for a guy in a uniform. Oh, and hoo-rah for some cheese, you and I would be lethal together, because I too am a huge cheese person, love it.

Burgundy-yay for you joinging us in the exercise. Do you ever sit there and think..a year ago I would have never been able to swing a 4 mile walk/run? I do. I would be dying after a mile. Poor puppy on the cold front. My Lola Bear is like that (god help her if we lived up north, lol) and I bought her a pink petticoat, she looks so darn cute in it.

Bri- of course, hop right on the bandwagon. This is a pretty active forum,be prepared to be held accountable, lol.

Mygirts- is Alina's move going to make her closer or further to you? You'll have to post some pics of her soon. Wow, the weight is just melting off of you. Im convinced that it really is good to go off the diet routine sometimes, just for a week or two, I think it kicks your metabolism into high gear, but then again---Im not an expert, lol.

Dance- OMG, that sounds sooooo yummy. I think Im going to try the cinnamon version because that would be a good counter balance for something sweet. Ill let you girls know how the sweet version goes, yum.yum. Thanks Dance! Hows the weather? Snowing? Did you get to do the eliptical with the knee issues?

Ok, I got 2 miles in yesterday morning but not yesterday evening because of soccer. Today, I did Bodyworks and my 2 miles in the morning, once again--soccer game tonight, so no run. The trainer guy is calling me a slacker bc everyday he wants to meet up, I have something planned, but I really am busy. Gab will be done with soccer in 3 weeks, thank god. On that note, Im going to vent. Gabriella is not a good soccer player, I will admit this but the kids on her team are so darn mean to her, she goes to practice and games and gets put down by them the whole time, to the point where she doesnt even want to go anymore. Now, I dont want her to give up bc shes going to have to deal with mean people all her life but man, I just want to push those kids down, lol...sorry, mean mommy moment. And the parents...their not much better. They all drive their Mercedes and Porsches (no offense if anyone here does) and has their high and mighty attitude and it just irks the heck out of me. Anyway, I told Gab that prove to her team that shes better than them and not a quitter. They are being mean to get to her and if she shows shes upset, that just makes them push harder. There is no point to my story and no need for comment, lol...I just had to get that out. Food wise, I am KILLING IT. I am doing awesome. Soooo proud of myself. Im back on my old diet, which is more balanced and Im happy. NOW, I have noticed extra bloat and my skirt feels tighter but I dont care, Im not gaining (according to the scale) and I dont feel hungry all the time, so Ill take it. Also, I wanted to tell you. Emerald Nuts makes this DELICIOUS Cocoa Roast Almond thing, its in this green container. The almonds are super filling and the cocoa helps curb my sweet tooth. You should look into it.

Good morning everyone.

I finally feel energized for the first morning this week. But I am nervous about weighing tomorrow morning.

How often and when do you weigh in?

I weigh in once a week on Saturday mornings. The theory when I started this 9 years ago was that it kept me better on Fridays when a lot of the weekend partying starts (like food in the office, etc.) and hopefully it gives me motivation to continue my efforts on Saturday and Sunday.

Lindy - Walking is my exercise of choice. Especially when I am getting restarted on exercising again. It clears my head. I like to walk outside mostly but with it getting dark earlier now it is definitely harder.

Burgundy - Great idea on doing double windows for posting. I started it as soon as I read your post.

Bri - Welcome. I just joined too and this is an amazing group.

Grits - great job on the calories and exercise, it sounds like you were active all day yesterday. My 8:00 snack the last two nights was a piece of dark chocolate.

Dancer - thanks for the recipe. I will try it when I am less vulnerable to falling off the diet wagon. BTW I had tea again last night at bedtime - I love your idea. How is the knee today?

AJ - glad you got your cheese back and had the tantalizing eye candy too! ;)

mygrits - holy cow! you go, girl! That's amazing progress in one week - way to go! I'm keeping my fingers crossed about your schedule next week - hope it all works out.