Waaaah! I wanted this week to be "perfect" with exercise each morning! But I just didn't have it in me this morning to get up that early. Went to bed too late last night, took a shot of Jim Beam before bed so I could sleep with this annoying cough...and I just wasn't feeling much like waking up early this morning...I mean, I did wake up early, but went back to sleep after letting the puppies out! Bad me, I know! Oh...and TOM arrived this morning...a day EARLY! Yucko! That always puts me in a mood to not exercise, but I promise I will tomorrow. Hubby will be here in the morning til 6 (he usually leaves for work around 3:30am) and I am going to ask him to wake me up before he goes so I can get in an hour of something!

Speaking of coughing...this thing starts up around sundown and doesn't stop until I go to sleep (and sometimes, usually, keeps me awake!) so I bought some Robitussin DM today and got my RX filled for my inhaler! I just did the inhaler and already I can breathe easier! Guess I should have done that sooner! I have a lot of "issues" with sinus and all that crap, so usually a cold or chest congestion ends up with a stupid, annoying cough! I'm not one for going tot he doctor unless I have to and I know she would just tell me to use the inhaler. There's not much more I can do until this works it's way out of my system! I'm almost thinking it's allergy related! OK...yak, yak, yak!!! (love that smiley!) Sorry!

Food today was ok, but could have been better! I'm pretty sure I haven't eaten enough and may go have some when I am done here!
*16 oz. water before leaving the house this morning and 1 cup coffee w/ Fr. Vanilla Creamer.
*Breakfast Burrito w/ 3/4 cup egg beater, 1 oz. low fat cheese, 2T salsa, wrapped in 3/4 sundired tomato tortilla! Yum! I lost some of it on my white pants this morning! Way to start the day!
*Lunch: Garlic Chicken, rice & 2 crab rangoons from the Chinese place! It was delicious! I know the crab rangoons are a big "no-no" and I probably should not have eaten them, but I did...and I enjoyed them
*Supper (if you want to call it that) 1 Mozzarella cheese stick, 1 FF/SF choc. pudding, 1 slice very thin deli ham! Just wasn't hungry!

I am going to have to figure out my totals for today and go eat something because NOW I AM hungry! LOL!

Lucy...sounds like you are having a rough day! You are handling it well, chickie! I could NOT have brownies sitting on the counter all day! It would be torture for me!

Jennifer...hope all went well today with the financing! I'm proud of you for doing your exercise! Yea!

CAcritter...I use WATP (walk away the pounds) because it's the only one I have and I can do one, 1, 2, 3 or 4 miles with a warm up or cool down and it doesn't feel "hard" to me at all. There are some kicks and knee lifts which used to just kill me, but I'm past that now! Your daughter sounds like a little athlete! How many children do you have?

watersgirl...good luck with the situps! I hate doing them, but know I could never do even 50 at a time! Maybe 20! I wish there were "sit ups" for the butt!! LOLOL!!! Actually, I do an isometric for that (haven't in a while) and I saw results about a week after I started doing them! I need to get back to doing them! They really do help!

Jaymi...hope you get some "me" time soon! I'm sure your Dad appreciates all the help you are giving him. Who's going to care for him when you go home? Hope you are having fun with all of your family so close!

OK, well chickies...I"m gonna go take some ibuprofen and chill for the rest of the night! I have a back ache and cramps tonight! Waaaa!!!

Bleh! Today was an icky day! No exercise, food was bad, work was sucky. At least I drank a lot of water. I did good through lunch, as usual, then my brother picked me up from work and we went to Grandma's house to help her clean up outside (gutters and windows and such). Then she insisted on grilling us some steaks. They were yummy! But more than I needed. I don't know about you're grandma's, but mine is the type who always wants to feed us everything in her house every time we visit. Not exactly good for the diet. I ended up about 500 calories over my goal for the day. ACK! I guess I'll have to make it up over the next few days. Oh well, it's supposed to be nice, so hopefully I'll be able to get in some extra exercise as well as eating better.

On the plus side, eating too much makes me sick. I know, that doesn't really sound like a good thing, but it is because I realize it. I know that if I overeat I will be nauseaus. That's something that I didn't realize for a long time. Or maybe it was just that my stomach was a whole lot bigger and therefore it was harder to overeat. But now small meals make me full. Now I stop before I've eaten everything in sight. And that is a good thing.

Julie--What kind of butt isometrics do you do? I can use all the help I can get in that area!

All this talk of sit-ups and exercise--man, I need to get back into it! I started to get back into the exercise groove last month, then Grandpa died and threw everything off. Now I've got to find it again, and that's the hardest part. I know that once I do it for a few days it will be easy again, but it's so hard to start. And work is hectic right now, I'm working 9-10 hours every day, and I'm really starting to hate my crappy job, and it's driving me crazy.
I know it's no excuse. There are no excuses. Exercise would help me deal with stress better. But right now it just feels like one more source of stress. I'm worrying about not doing it. But it will help me in the long run, and that is the whole point, right?
Okay, so my goal for the week is to exercise both tomorrow and Saturday, with strength training at least one of those days. I can do that. It's only 2 days. And I'll be on track with eating, and then all will be well.

See you all tomorrow!
~Elisha

Well gang ya'll are sounding motivated and determined, I like that in a chick, me too, I'm determined to kick some serious butt on weight and exercise this month! Been hanging out at the mall with my niece who is visiting me for a week, and keep looking at those clothes in a size 9 and liking what I see and can't wait to get there!

I am also at a point where I need smaller jeans from the beginning of my diet, I went from could barely get into them, to dang this are too baggy and I am loving it! Got a friend who gained up because of her medications and went back to her old medication and now she has all these jeans that are too big for her but seem like they will work for me, hopefully she will bring them by today and I can start packing up my old to transfer to my sister in law!

Dh and I solved our little run in and we are back to love birds again. I'm glad, he really messed up and I had to take a tough love tactic on him and guess what it worked! For once he started the talking, now that is a big deal for us, cause in 8 years of marriage I've always been the one to throw in the towel and begin the process of getting us back to an emotional even level with each other. New body new confidence! scary huh!

Need to weigh in on Saturday at 160 for a success on my mini-goal, and I am eager to move to a new middle number, and start working on my next mini goal!

Lameducklucky, I have a yucky green dress, wanna borrow it? Dh loves it, but mostly the color, forest green, I love the color too but the style is pure yuck and more yuck! May have it remade after I hit goal, what the heck, then I will like it. We go to the Mardi Gras Balls for the INCA Society in Mobile, Al each year, and next year, I am planning on a strapless, form fitting, slit up the side, forest green dress, or deep purple and that baby is gonna show some body, even if I have to have one serious girdle on or see a surgeon on a tummy tuck!

Watergirl, like your idea about the scale and think it is good. I didn't weight for a while when I first started the diet, and I try and not weight more than once a week, unless one of my mini-goal dates falls inbetween "official" weigh dates. something I have noticed since I've been dieting over 3 months now is that it doesn't bother me as much as it did in the beginning, I think that is some the normal rate of progress and attitude changing. Also, I use slim-fast, but not everyday and not for my full diet, but I love it because, I use it as a replacement when a trigger food is nagging at me. For example, if I feel a chocolate or peanut butter craving knocking at my brain, I eat a meal bar and it really satisifies that urge. I count calories, so there caloreis are normally a small bit higher than what I would normally eat for breakfast or lunch, but it is worth it to get the craving scratched. I like to keep my higher end calories for dinner and night snacks, like Weight watchers fudgecicle (80 cal) which takes care of another craving, that darn ice cream fix.

CaCritter, dang I wish you lived near me and could get me hiking those distances, boy what that would do for weight loss!

Jennifer, I have to bow to your determination with exercise. I will get there, just trying for now to get back on the bandwagon with my treadmill, and then add it a DVD I bought two, both Kathy Smith, they look good. But, my big hope is that when I hit withing 5 pounds of my goal weight, that I can convince dh to join a gym with me, because I want to quit smoking and will need the extra exercise to combat any weight gain, plus need that as a de-stresser and may need patches and drugs too to get me through it!

Miss Elisa, welcome and hang in there you will make it, I can't believe how many times just talking to the chicks here has saved me from myself and the refrigerator.

Catch up with you guys later today or in the morning.

And I mean it! Got my 1+ mile in with the WATP this morning. Felt good, although (whine here) I am still feeling a bit crampy and bloated! Ick! Ate my Kashi Go Lean and milk. Drank 16 oz. water and will eat a cheese stick on the way to work. I never did eat anything last night...I just went to bed. I was soooo tired!

Hubby left this morning for two days! Can you spell VACATION????!! LOL! It's gonna be a busy 2 days for me though! Tonight I have to drive to Grand Rapids after I pick up DD from daycare (DH usually does that) for a graduation open house! These kids that are graduating have grown up waaaaay toooooo fast!!!! I'm pretty sure I'm getting old! Naaawwww! Then tomorrow, we are having our Yard Sale at work for a fund raiser! I will be exhausted when that is done with all the lifting and moving and hauling of stuff we will have to do! But I'm up for it! Have to get a sitter for DD for the day! Then will come home and take her to gether hair cut and we will probably work in the yard for a bit (ugh!) I still have about 20 feet of flower garden to dig up, replant flowers and put down mulch! I would like to get it done before DH gets home so he will quit bugging me about it!!! That, and it will look much nicer! We'll see how much I get done! On Sunday we have a party (pastor leaving ) after church and then I want to go to a festival in Grand Rapids which we do every year! We'll see if I can talk him into it! The festival is all about food... Oh...and the Arts! LOL!

OK, well...I got an invitation to my 25th class reunion (told you I was old!) which is going to be on July 17th! I haven't decided if I am going but if I do, I want to be down at least 10 more #'s by then! I want to be down 10 more #'s by then, anyway! But this is motivation at it's best! I will still be about 20# more than HS but ya know...they can take what they get!!!

Gotta stay focused! Yesterday was good! Today will be good too! Well, chickies...I need to get moving in the direction of the shower to get ready for work!

Hope all have a great weekend!

Julie

Elisha,
I lay on my tummy, face down in my crossed arms, legs out straight. Then bend one knee behind me and lift that upper leg off the ground, trying not to lift my other hip off the ground. You will find you squeeze your butt cheeks (both sides) while doing these. I used to do about 40 of them each side but I haven't done them in a while so I'm back to 20! I'm hoping to get back up to 40! Soon...real soon. Hope that explains it. Just try it and you will figure out what I mean! It really isolates the gluts if you keep that other hip from coming up off the floor! Have fun!

Julie

I'm there! My plan:
Eat right - just proteins - grilled, sushi, boiled....
Eat vegies - lots of raw ones
Drink water - lots of it......96 ounces at least
Do the gym at least 3 times a week
Walk every day for thirty minutes
Smile!

My goal:Continue to take off pounds, no matter what amount..a pound less is a pound less...................

Julie -- Be careful!! My mom has massively horrible bronchitis right now that stemmed from the icky bug that's going around. She's got narcotic cough syrup, a narcotic inhaler and some antibiotics, plus it spread to one of her eyes so she looks like she has a black eye all the time. Take care of yourself, chickie!! *hug* I had a better day yesterday, after all. Check lower!

CACritter - Yep, fafsa sucks. The original EFC I got was 25500 of a 32400 tuition for the whole two year degree -- WTF?! I had to enter my 2002 taxes for it, and back then I was a network admin and made over 48k a year, and the hubby was right up there, too. Then we both got laid off several thousands of times. (We live in WA, if that helps?) So now we both make less than 45k per year and whatnot, so it totallly didn't apply.

So anyway this FAFSA thing is a load of crap, honestly. The website told me to do the 2003-2004 one, so I DID. Then my admissions dude calls me and says no, the other one!! So I DO the other one, and my EFC comes out to 14600 from 32400 WHICH IS AWESOMENESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAY!!! So my night was totally made.

I'm still not gonna start until Spring, if possible, though. We need to get things in order, and transportation right now is a huge issue with only 1 car and me living around 45 miles from the college I'll have to go to every fricking day. The college is being a little pushy and they're just gonna have to dela with me sticking to my plan of not until Spring, because I CAN'T do it. *stomps feet* I'm staying with my own idea, dammit!! NO EXCUSES!!

I think we're gonna have a small BBQ tomorrow night with a few friends, mostly healthy stuff. I'm gonna do packets on the BBQ so it's easier to clean up and cook - veggies, shrimp, some chicken, all of it spicy! Plus I thought I'd grill some fruit for a funky side, because it's good and so easy to do! So that'll be easy.

Today is same ol' same ol'. I've been seeing massive results over the past few days, here, in my legs. My calves are shaping up, even though they're still giant mounds of annoying muscle. I love the fact that I can outwalk anybody, but I HATE the fact that I'll never be able to wear boots because I've got 18" calves and I'm 5'1", but none of the freaking calf is FAT. Agh!! At least I can be proud of the muscle. Other people are impressed by it.

Well, off to clean some more. Gonna do everything I can today so that the house can be fun all weekend without me needing to do anything else. Woot!!

Have an awesome Friday and wonderful weekend, chickies!!

Another sucky day here. I haven't exercised yet, but I'm only 100 calories over budget for the day, which is a vast improvement over yesterday, and I'll make up for it when I do exercise. Unfortunately right now I feel like doing nothing more than flopping onto my bed and sleeping. And the real kicker: I was going to go see Harry Potter tonight, but Mom wants me to go see it with her next weekend. *sigh* I guess I'll wait.
I'll check back in after I exercise.
~Elisha

Well since today was my "mini goal weigh in" I was nervous but jumped on that ugly thing, and much to surprise, I met goal, even though that wasn't the surprise, I was a half pound from it Sunday or MOnday, memory gone, but lost 2lbs more, yahooooooooo!

I'm back on the treadmill and even with the days off, I've not felt a big eek feeling about doing the time. I was nervous that I might have to slack off and build the time back up, but so far so good! Of course, I listen to Audio books and that really helps me get past some of the boredom of walking on a treadmill.

Cacritter, wow, I would have had a problem with the ice cream! One of my trigger foods!

Got tons to do today and have a project I want to get done before my sister in law shows up to pick up my niece so catch you guys later, and be careful with the weekend and see you guys as we get skinny bit by bit each day on my next visit.

Well, I didn't exercise yesterday. I had a really crappy day, and I really needed something happy, so I went to see Harry Potter with some friends from work. They kept passing popcorn and SweeTarts and Reeses Pieces (my favorite!) back and forth over me, but I resisted and sipped my $3.10 diet coke. I seriously doubt I am going to get any exercise in today, since I need to start getting ready for work now and I work until 10:00 tonight. Bleh. I hate retail. I hate my job more and more every day. But unfortunately, I need the paychecks, and no one else has offered me one yet, so I guess I'm stuck. For now. I might do some light weight lifting when I get home, and those butt isometrics Julie told us about.
Anyway, time to go eat my favorite breakfast ever--potatoes and cheese on toast. It's better drenched in real butter, but that's not very good for the diet, though I might add a scrambled egg for protein. Either way, tasty tasty! (I know, everyone thinks I'm weird, but it really is good!) So breakfast then work. Bleh. Oh, and I have a new source of dieting frustration to tell you all about later (even though you probably already know it), so don't let me forget! I'll write more after work.
Have a healthy day, everyone!
~Elisha

Hi all!
My goodness, I can't beleive it's after 5 on Saturday already! The graduation open house went well last night, but I ended up having some fruit (ok) and 2 mini chicken salad croissants (they were yummy, but know they are high in fat!) and a fudgesicle! Kaleigh (DD) and I ended up having to park a block away as there were so many cars/people there that there were no parking spaces left in the neighborhhod! That was ok! It was a beautiful night and it was nice to see a good group of people together and my old friend!

Today was the big garage sale at work! My oh my...what a lot of work! We ended up making around $200.00 but I'm not sure two days of hauling other people's junk was worth all of it! LOL!! No...really...it was good...lots of exercise both days and I am whipped today! Kaleigh had a sitter all day so I could actually get some work done at work and she is currently watching a movie and probably asleep! The sitter (our neighbor girl who's 13--they adore each other) and another little neighbor girl (who's 10 but acts more like 6) both left about the same time. Kaleigh stayed outside for a few minutes and then I think she realized that she was all alone again and came in the house whining, claiming her foot was hurting (she fell earlier and scraped it!). So I decided she needed a nap (so do I)!

Food today...can we NOT go there??? A cup of coffee and TWO donuts this morning did not start the day off on the right foot! I did have a nice chef's salad for lunch, however but then got home and did NOT resist the ice cream (Healthy Choice...does that help???) or the pizza leftover from the kids' lunch! OK...poor plannning to say the least!!! (Good thing for all that exercise, eh?) To top it all off I'm pretty sure I was dehydrated working in the sun all day and only drinking coffee and about20 oz. other fluids including some water! So I drank like a fish when I got home!

That's about it for me for the day. I'm gonna go crash for an hour or so and call it good! Tomorrow is a new day!

Hugs to all!
Julie

Today was better, calorically speaking, anyway. I didn't get any exercise in (again), not even lifting weights or anything. Long shifts at work, even though I don't really do much but stand around and talk to people and run a register, always leave me completely drained. I'm thinking of applying for the open position of Cosmetics Manager again if I don't get a real job by the end of the month. At least it will be more money, and a lot of free makeup. On the other hand, I'm really starting to dislike customer service--with a passion--and they did pass me over for the position once already. Besides that, I just want a real job, and some sort of regular schedule. I want a career.
*sigh*
If nothing comes up this month, I'll probably go for it. What can it possibly hurt?

Okay, sorry about that random tangent. Calories for today were low, I'm actually sitting here munching on blue tortilla chips and hummus to up my intake a bit (that, and I am a little hungry). I've been craving Snickers all day. I think I might go buy a bag of the little tiny ones and just have one bite when I'm really craving chocolate, they're can't be too many calories in those, and it really doesn't happen all that often. I think it might be ok. I'll check out the calorie content before I buy though. If nothing else, or if I find myself eating more than I should, I can always give them to my dad.
Anyway, I can't think of anything else to say right now, so I guess that's it for the night. Have a healthy, peaceful Sunday, everyone!
~Elisha