WELCOME ALL to the SePtEmBeR SpArKlErS formerly known as AuGuSt ArTiStS, formerly the JuLy BaBeS!

We are a group of ladies who enjoy walking and set our own exercise goals each month and then go for it. We offer each other support, conversation, inspiration, laughter, and encouragement.

Feel free to jump aboard ladies, the more the merrier.

Thought I would start us off for September, couldn't think of a good name so I hope this will suffice. I think I can change it if you guys don't care for it.

Tomorrow is a new day, a new month and a new beginning for us all ladies and I hope to see you all more this month, even if it is to just say Hi!

Okay, so I have been working out my goals, menus and such. I am going to make my walking goal for 30 miles this month. My plan is to do the 2-mile WATP video and a 20 minute bike ride on M-W-F and walk either outdoors (since it has cooled off finally) or on the treadmill 2-3 miles on T-Th-S, Sunday will be my free day from exercise not eating. I am going to try to incorporate some weight lifting in there somehow, somewhere, not sure about that yet I am definitely not going to try and kill myself this time. Also, I'm not going to count the video as walking, even thought I know it is equivalent to a 2 mile walk. So, if I were to count that it would actually be more but I am sticking with the 30 miles. Well, just thought I would get us started ladies. See ya tomorrow!

I'm here!!!!!!!!!!! AHHH!!! September is finally here! Only 2 more days till I can ship my kids off to school and get back on a schedule and back to my excercise program!

Hi and good morning to you Janine!

Jen, hope to see ya soon! We have missed you lady.

Kristi, Kristen, Jackie, Noelle, Jenifer Hi to you ladies also, and anyone I may have missed. Hope you ladies are doing fine and hoep to see ya soon.

I am up very early this morning for some reason so I thought I would get in here and post before I get busy. I would have done my workout but everyone is still in bed and I didn't want to wake anyone. I have been up since 4:30 am, couldn't sleep for some reason. Of course I know I will be getting sleepy later on. Today I am doing the WATP video but since dh is home and it is supposed to be nice and cool we may go to the park for a walk. I am so glad it has finally cooled off so I can get outdoors.

Well, I need to go get breakfast. DD and I are off to Wal-Mart this morning. I need to pick up a couple of grocery items but I thought it would be a good oportunity for her to drive. She is finally getting better but still has a ways to go before I will let her drive on her own. I hope EVERYONE has a great day today! TTFN

Hi ya ladies!

Just a quickie to say hi and post my miles for the day. Hope everyone is having a good one. Take care and TTFN.

September Goal~30 miles
9/2/03~2.5 miles
Total Miles~2.5
Miles to go~27.5

A very good morning to all!

Today is the 2-mile WATP video and a 20 minute bike ride for me so no miles to record. I have been OP for the last two days and have todays meals planned so that will be three days in a row.

Hope everyone is doing well. Take care ladies. TTFN

September Goal~30 miles
9/5/03~2 miles
Total Miles~4.5
Miles to go~25.5

OK, so I haven't started back to excercising but I have started to get back to my proper eating habits. My plan is to start back up full force on Monday. I am still trying to get the kids back into the school routine. Scott has had 2 full days of school and no homework for him yet but I have had some. I had papers and forms to fill out on Wed. evening then Thurs I had to go over the student handbook and cover 2 books. We have to sign the handbook then it has to go back in then will come back home after it is confirmed that it was signed. Scott says he will be bringing 3 more books home Friday to be covered. I find it easier to just do it myself than to try and show him how. Maybe next year I will show him how.
So far for the week I am down about 1½ lbs with diet alone and AF is even visiting! Imagine what I could be down to if I did excercise this week and not have a visitor!!!!!!!!!

Hi Ladies

WTG Janine! 1.5 pounds is a good loss for a week and even with your visitor, even better so good for you.

I had a good week also as I am down 3.5 pounds this week which really surprised the heck out of me. I stepped on the scales 3 or 4 times to make sure it was right, of course I still don't know that it is correct. I will see what the difference is when I go to the doctor.

Hope EVERYONE else is doing great also! Hope to see you ladies check in soon. Have a good weekend!

OK! Monday is the day I said I was going to get back on track and that is tomorrow! My plan is to get on the treadmill in the AM and not wait till the afternoon. I would like to do it right after Scott gets on the bus at about 8:35-8:40 and get in my 40 minutes. I am feeling pretty good right now and motivation is rather high since I went shopping for pants and was able to drop a size. I now fit into a 12!!! I am so proud of myself for what I have been able to do over the past year!
Can I brag a bit?
OK, it has been one year since I started my quest to loose weight. I started out at 209 lbs and wearing a tight size 18W stretch jean. I now weigh 144 (as of this AM) and fit into a 12 regular jean very comfortably. I have so much more stamina and know when I get back into my excercise routine I will have even more. My taste for things has even changed. I used to live on fatty fried foods and went to fast food places 5 times a week about. Now if I have something fried it sits in my stomach like a rock and I feel awful. I still go to fast food places but make completely different choices. It can be done! Grilled chicken sandwiches, dry. Side salads with low/no fat dressing instead of the fries and a diet drink or bottle of water. I also have the nerve now to ask for things to be served differently when we go into a restaurant like dressing on the side, hold the cheese, heavy on the steamed veggies and that type of thing. I have never had a problem getting things done how I want them. I am now less than 20 lbs from my final goal of 130 lbs and feel WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well Janine it looks like it is just you and I. Not sure what happened to everyone else. Oh well...

Janine, you can brag all you want! You have the right to brag because you have come a long way baby! WTG I know you will lose the last few pounds in no time. Just keep up the good work. You have done fanastic so far and I am so proud of you. You truly are an inspiration to me and part of what keeps me going so thanks for that.

I'm getting there slowly but surely. Not much to say just wanted to post a few days of walking.

Hope EVERYONE else is have a fantastic time also and you all are doing fine with your programs and life in general. Take care ladies wherever you are.

September Goal~30 miles
9/8/03~2 miles
9/9/03~3.5 miles
Total Miles~10
Miles to go~20

Cristi,
I thought it was just me that no one was here posting. I wonder where everyone went or they just so busy that they don't have the time to post.

Heys ladies! I would like to visit from time to time. I have my own thread to control and post at two others so I don't know if I can post all the time, but I always feel bad when threads drop off. I can always use walking tips!

Let me give you my "walking" details. I was over 400 lbs in January and walking was ALL I could manage. I started with 1/2 mile twice a day and that was really really tough for me. I did that 7 days a week but dh wanted me to scale back to 6. I kept building it up little by little until by May I was at 1 1/2 mile and did it all at once and power walked in the mall. In May the pool opened and I did water aerobics and laps for an hour a day. I decided to get an eliptical glider for bad weather situations come fall and someone gave me a brand new one. I am now doing 45 minutes a day (3-15 minute sessions with the resistance piston attached) and twice a week I walk 2-3 miles as the pool is closed for the year. I am "training" to do a 5K walk in October. I can't say I actually enjoy walking as at over 300 lbs I am not sure it CAN be enjoyable, but it IS enjoyable to know that I am exercising EVERY day and have been since January and that it is now part of my life.

As far as personally, I will be 50 in 2 weeks, have been married 31 years, have two grown children, a daughter, 26 who is married and a son, 30 who just got engaged (woohoo I see more dgch for me down the line!) and the most gorgeous impish grandson in the world. I can't say I am a SAHM because I have no one to mother, well let's say I am a SAHPM (stay at home pet mom! ) as I have two very needy pets a tabby named Butterscotch and a Yorkie named Fortune. I am trying to get back in the work force, but have had no success for months. Right now, I am not looking as my dh is taking me to Chicago for my birthday for 5 days. We are huge Cubs fans and have tickets to the last game of the season at Wrigley. Oh and I am from Memphis, TN transplanted. I am originally from South Bend, In but married a career sailor and moved around for 20 years until he retired in '89. This is probably WAYYYYY more than you want to know, but I am a blabbermouth!

I have a weight loss website: www.freewebs.com\trexnonny/ that helps keep me on the straight and narrow and I also keep a weight loss scrapbook and journal.

Hope to learn more about you ladies!

Faye

WTG Faye and welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are doing so great!!! Hope you can come around and post here now and then. Hope it more Now than Then!!

I just did 3.4 miles and cried coming home because I have never walked that far. For someone that has oh 20-40 lbs to lose, walking is not an issue for them. When I was at my highest, January of this year, my husband would drop me off at the front door of the department store because I couldn't walk from the parking lot without being totally out of breath, I could not walk around in the home store shopping for supplies for our condo for more than 5 minutes. In fact, what started me on the road to losing weight and getting healthy was Jack telling me to use one of Lowe's scooters since I got so tired. I realized I was to the point where I was going to be another fat statistic in a wheelchair unable to walk. What a wake up call! I cannot even explain what being able to do a workout in a pool for an hour, exercise on a glider or walk 3 miles is like. I still have 170 lbs to lose, but my quality of life has improved so much! As I said we are going to Chicago for my birthday and this trip has been planned since the beginning of the year. We decided to go to the big zoo there and knowing I would never be able to walk for the whole day around the zoo reserved a motorized scooter to use while there. I have now cancelled it knowing my two feet will be able to get me around.

Thanks for lettimg me come here and talk with you ladies. You are doing fabulous jobs!

Faye