The weekend is going well so far. Went to a car-show lastnight and did a fair bit of walking. Today there's a children's festival being held downtown so again, lots of walking. :) Food has been good. Nothing bad has touched my lips in.... hmmm.... a week! Yay for that! Tomorrow is WI and I'm definitely hoping to see some sort of difference in my numbers. It's great to have my fav. pants fit (which puts me down one size from when I started), but I guess I put too much emphasis on how much I actually weigh as opposed to what size I am. :?: Oh well. I figure if I keep eating right and exercising, the scale will eventually show some sign of shrinkage.

Kristi... As always you're a busy-bee! Glad to hear that the reno's are coming along nicely! I'd love to see "before and after" pics of your house once all is complete! :) Indeed, I'm a little nuts to do WI immediately following the weekend, but since that's when my TOPS chapter meets, I really have no choice. And I figure it this way, it gives me an incentive to stay OP on the weekend. :) Hope you have a great week!

Sunny... I'm sorry to hear about the situation surrounding the roofers. That's horrible that Mel died at such a young age! :( My thoughts are with you all! :)

Cathy... Congrats on today's exercise! I often wonder, just where do you find that energy of yours?! ;)

To everyone else... I hope you all have a happy and healthy week! Type you all later! Take care, ladies!

~mel

Good morning gals, I wish I could say MY eating has been good, but the truth is I've been awful for 3 days in a row. Just plain lazy is the problem. I have plenty of yummy fruits and veggies in the house, but have been ignoring the veggies completely!! I keep saying tomorrow I'll dice and chop etc..... well ladies, tomorrow I am going to........Cathy, Off to Sun School? Do you teach or attend an adult class? I've taught 7th and 8th grades for 5 yrs running. Before that it was 6th. I'm backing down to 5th and 6th this yr. In all honesty last yrs 8th grade class did me in. 2 yrs of them was all I could take and I could really feel the burn out coming. My DD will be in the 5th grade this yr and I've never taught any of my own children. It should be interesting. I know what I want it to be like, but reality.......... any way great job on getting your exercise in. Our church is 5 miles from home so I packed my bike in the back of the van and road home from church. My family likes it when I do this. It doesn't seem like I leave them to exercise that way, I just get home a few min later than they do!!!............Mel, The way I've been eating this weekend I'm thinking of putting my WI on Mon as well. Yesterday I started the book Operah and her traier Bob Greene put out some yrs back. He actually says to make Mon WI day just for the reason you pointed out. Much more insentive to stay OP through the weekend. In the book Operah says to lose the weight and keep it off you have to learn to treat yourself as good as you do the other people in your life. That's making me think. Today for lunch I had just pasta. It was delicious, but I had nothing else. I would never have company and serve them just a main dish. I would've made a beautiful salad and served fresh fruit with yummy whole grain bread. Why didn't I treat myself as well hmmmm something to think about girls. Have a great weekend.

5 bike today
totals ? / I'll have to look that all up tomorrow

Kristi

update
walked 32
biked 23
strength 4

not too bad

Kristi, I'm sorry to hear that the last few days have been a little tough, food-wise! I hope tomorrow will be better for you! I know it's hard sometimes to grab something nutritional when you're on the run so much... but like you said, fruits and veggies are great convenience foods as well. :) I find myself snacking on watermelon almost constantly... it's so refreshing and sweet! I get my sugar fix on something healthy... what a concept! :lol: I'm glad you picked up Oprah's book and have had some great realizations come from reading it! And I agree that you should treat yourself the way you would others. Bit of a digression here but... I once read somewhere "You wouldn't tell your bestfriend that she was fat... or stupid... or ugly, so why tell yourself that?" and it dawned on me that I put myself last on the list. Oy. Anyway... good for you for getting yourself back OP... and for joining me on Monday WI's! :D


Today was a bit of a victory for me... fit into my size 12 shorts! And could even pull them off without undoing the button or zipper! Yay for that! I'm happy to finally see some sort of change in numbers... where I was a size 15 when I started (beginning of July), I'm now a size 12! Fricken amazing! :D My birthday is in a few weeks and I'm hoping to be down to a size 9/10. That would be the best birthday present I could ever give myself!

Anyways girls, I'm off to the lake with DH and DD! But I'll be back tomorrow! Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend! :D

~mel

Thanks for the sympathy Mel, I took some much needed time with my journal last night and reaffirmed my commitment to ME. I'm pumped and ready to finish the month with a bang. If I walk 3 miles a day and strenght train 4 more times I can reach each of my goals for the month. The strength may not have been on Mon and Wed like planned, but at least I will have 8 times. I'm really happy for your success as well. At feels great to go down in sizes. I'm sure you'll get into a 9/10 soon...........I walked 2 miles last eve.


walked 34
biked 23
strength 4

Good morning Ladies! I hope you all had a great weekend.

Sunny - I'm so sorry to hear about Mel. Such a young age. My thoughts and prayers are with you and his family. I hope Joe starts feeling better soon. I'm glad your feeling better on your medication.

Kristi - I have found I feel better and I'm more focused when I journal. You are doing so good. I'm with you that I am doing this for ME and no one else.

Cathy - good job on walking 2 miles. Your doing good! Keep it up!

Well I went to a wedding this weekend. The groom was a fraternity brother of my husband's. It was a pretty wedding but kinda different. The preacher kept talking about if she comes home and is tired and so are you, rub her feet first. When she cooks dinner and you don't like it act like you do. Don't get me wrong, being taken care of is great! ;) I just thought it was weird to say at a wedding. She kept going on and on and several people were like "what is this, enough already"..HAHA. At the end after she prounced them man and wife, the music was the theme from Monday Night Football. (the bride is a HUGE football fan and the groom is the only man on earth who can't stand sports. He is a musician).The reception was at a burger joint, so most people were standing. There weren't a lot of tables. They played music from elvis to the muppets Rainbow connection. This place is considered the best hamburger Joint in Dallas. :hun: So I ate half the burger, had 3 french fries, gave rest to DH and this morning at WI I lost 4 lbs. I'm so excited. :cb: :cheer:

I'm concentrating more on exercise. That is my weakness right now. I'm going to try to step it up more this week. :tread:

Thanks for all the encouragement and kind words. You all are wonderful and I'm so glad your here with me through the journey.

I hope everyone has a good day! :goodvibes

And now I'm going to change my stats!!! HAHA!!

Wendy

First of all Ms. Wendy I just want to say you are :smoking:, you should be sooooo proud of yourself. You are doing an amazing job, keep it up!

Good morning to all, I had a really good weekend with my honey since he is on vacation. I drank a few too many glasses of wine this weekend (I still worked out) but I will be doing double duty on the treadmill this week. I ate really healthy, so that was good.

Well I have to go for now, and I hope everyone has a blessed day!

Hi Ladies~

I hope you don't mind a newbie jumping in here?? Actually, I am not really a newbie. I was a part of the original walkers with Kristi and Janine. Also, I am not actually going to start officially with the miles till August first but wanted to jump in and say Hi and hope you don't mind if I join.

Hope everyone is having a great day.

Good Morning Gang! :wave:

Wendy - congrats on the 4 lb loss! that's awesome!

Kristi - about sunday school. I teach the 12th grade girls and my hubby teaches the 12th grade guys. We go to a large church - over 1000 members - so we have a lot of teenagers (which is just great with us). We have been working with teenagers since we were teenagers. It is very challenging at times, but the blessings are always much greater than the challenges. Our youngest son will be graduating this year, so I am not sure what we will do after that - if we will continue working with the youth or move up to the college department, or what - we will just have to see where the Lord leads us. But anyway, we have had a few weeks off from teaching while the 12th grade graduates moved up the college department. Last years 11th graders will move up to our classes in 2 weeks, so we will be BUSY again. Not sure I will be able to get in walks on Sunday mornings, but will see how it goes.

Anyway, I feel bad. I did not exercise yesterday or today. I'm just not feeling up to par - guess it's TOM - but that usually is no excuse. I may try to get in a walk after supper tonight, but that is usually impossible. Will just see how it goes - but I have to get my rump in gear and get myself up tomorrow morning to exercise.

Hope everybody has a blessed day!

hugs,
Cathy

Hi Ladies,

Just checking in to give an update. I have been very busy with family. I am still hanging in there. Walked this morning 2 miles and plan on strength training when I get home. Will post total miles walked later. I left my journal at home today.

Have a blessed day!

Lastnight's WI was good... down 2.75lbs! Woo hoo! :cb: So over 4lbs in 2 weeks! Steady progress, I figure. :D

After WI, we had a guest speaker visit our TOPS meeting. Each of us was asked to take in something we crave... I chose a coconut chocolate bar. She then taught us meridian (sp?) therapy to overcome our cravings for our particular food. And I was truly amazed that it worked! So now I'm armed with a defense against all the bad food I find myself craving. :) Feel better knowing how to resist temptation, that's for sure!

Managed to get my strength-training in yesterday a.m. as well as my evening walk after dinner. Food was good, same with water. :) Today should be just as good.

Next Monday's meeting is cancelled (B.C. holiday) so the following Monday I'm hoping to see even greater results at WI! I'm gonna bust it until then! :)

--------------------------------

Wendy... Glad to hear you had a nice time at the wedding! :) And that your WI showed such great results! Yay for you! :) I hope you have a good week!

Cristi.... Looking forward to getting to know you better! :)

Cathy... Sounds as though you've got your hands full with Sunday school! Good for you! :)

bburoughs... Good for you for getting your 2mi in this a.m! Keep up the good work!

I hope everyone has a happy and healthy day! Keep on truckin' ladies! :D

~mel

Good morning ladies :coffee: ,

I'm glad to see everyone had a good day on yesterday. I didn't walk but did 30 minutes of step aerobics. Hubby still on vacation so we went out to eat last night, and I had a Vegetarian pizza from Applebees and only ate a couple of pieces (w/water). Does anyone ever feel like just not working out but know you have to (it's like pulling teeth)? Will I ever get that burst of excitement and look forward to it everyday? :kickcan:

Good afternoon ladies!! :)

Well I got up this morning and did the WATP 1 mile for abs. I feel good but tired!! I hope to work myself up to 30 a day. :strong:

Cathy - that is wonderful how you work with teenagers. It really is important. They need guidance (even if they don't want it) and love and understanding. :angel:

Mel - thanks for the encouraging words. Your the best :cp:

Abirdee - Girl, I'm with you on the exercise. People keep telling me that it will kick in and that I will soon WANT to exercise instead of have too. I'm ready for it because after work I just sit my butt down and don't feel like it. BUT, I did make myself get up this morning and work out. Just for 15 mins. I did feel better. We can do it!! Just do it a few times and it will kick in. That is what I am telling myself. :tread: :cheer:

Have a great day everyone!

Wendy

Mel - I would love to hear about this meridian? therapy to overcome cravings.

Could you tell us about it? or tell us what your speaker said about it? or point me to somewhere on the internet where I could look it up? I'm just curious what it is and would like to hear about it.

thanks,
Cathy

Cathy, it was just a quick 1hr long session, and she covered only the basics but I'll do my best to explain the lesson.

First of all you need to be specific with your craving. Ie: Not just salty foods, but identify exactly what you're craving (redenbacher's popcorn, McDonald's french fries, etc). Put the food infront of you and on a piece of paper write down exactly why you crave that food (the saltiness, the sweetness, the chewiness, etc). And rate (from 1-10) how much you are craving the food.

Then make a fist and with your opposite hand tap with four fingers continuously on the fleshy part (between your pinky finger and your wrist) and say outloud "Even though I have this craving for _______ (remember to be specific here) I deeply and completely accept myself". Continue saying it.

Then tap under your eye (on your cheek bone) and continue saying the chant. The tap under your nose... then on your chin... then on your collar bone, all the while saying the chant.

Then repeat the tapping on meridian points saying "Even though I can not control this craving for _______ (again be specific), I deeply and completely accept myself".

Again, repeat tapping on meridian points saying "Even though I can not overcome this craving for ______, I deeply and completely accept myself".

Afterward, write down on your piece of paper how much you now crave the food infront of you. Continue steps until you no longer crave the junk food.

Don't use this method to skip meals, but only when you are craving something you know is unhealthy.

It really worked for me... and I hope you girls find the tool useful as well! :)

~mel