Good morning everyone!

With my imagery I thought I might be down like 30 pounds this week:lol: Unfortunately, even though I felt much lighter, I remained the same this week.

However, this will not stop me on my tankini hunt today!

I looked back on some of the things I have been eating and realized, while the portion looked small, the calories were outrageous. For instance I had 4 perogies and looked at the package afterwards and it said 4 perogies = 224 calories! That's over twice what I thought I was eating. Same with different types of bread 1 slice to the next can greatly vary in calories. I just need to be more careful reading everything before I put it in my mouth!

Latisia how was your weigh in?

Darmah how did you make out when you went out with your friend to eat? Did you stay under 1200? I like to get ice in my diet coke so I can munch on that as a last resort. 0 calories!

Holly I also walk with my dog for exercise he is so happy. I walk for about 45 min to 1 hour and am not really sure how far that is. How long does it take you to walk 2 miles?

Hope everyone else is doing great!
I am off on my girls weekend now. Free of kid and husband and responsibility! Yee ha!

Good afternoon all ... (or so it is in this part of the world)

I didn't do well yesterday, surprise surprise. So far today I've had a little slice of cake for breakfast and a diet root beer... Healthy, no? :dizzy:

My husband's car quit on him yesterday while he was on his way back from a field-job at work (he's a PC tech). His car spent the night in a parking lot and today he and his father are out trying to get it running long enough to bring it to Precision Tune (mind you we were there just last week and they charged us $400 to fix the car)... Hmm.. the car at least RAN before they got their hands on it.. :(

His dad is trying to convince him that we should just go buy or lease a new car. I tend to agree that this would probably be the best solution (as his car is over 11 years old now)... IF we had the extra $200-250/month to spend! The thing is, how much will it cost for us to keep fixing this one and is it worth it to keep if it will be costly.. that money goes down the drain at least putting money into a new car seems more worth it. Oh well, I leave it up to them to figure out as I sit here and wait. I told him to let his boss know he needs a raise because without a car he certainly cannot go out and do the field-tech work they want him to do (the guy who normally does that just quit cuz he got a recording deal in NYC).

Life, what a ride, no? If its not one problem, its another. I knew something costly would spring up because we got a decent amount of money back from taxes this year. And every time a goodly amount of money comes our way, boom.. car trouble! :(

Anyway, I'm off. I'll try to be good today but I make no promises. I am overwhelmed with stress still.. money sucks.. or lack thereof sucks :lol:

Christine
195/150/130

:) Hi again!

My second post today - I was looking for a pair of old jeans to wear for grubbing outside; dug in the closet, tried on some old Gitano size 12 average and they FIT!:D Not loosely, but not tight either. I am flyin' high on that!!!

Christine, that stinks about the car breaking down. And someone just worked on it last week? I hope you have some recourse in them doing more work for no additional $. Yeah, money (or lack of it) just changes one's attitude so much. Things are wonderful when you have enough; and so sucky when you worry 'cause there isn't enough. Does your husband get $ towards the use of his car from his work?

Hi Sprite - yes, my dog loves walking so much! Whenever I put on my shoes, she just about bowls me over with her enthusiasm (she's a big furry husky mix). It takes us 30-35 minutes for the 2 mile walk. I only know the exact mileage 'cause I drove it one day with the car, and used the odometer to measure.

I was trying to figure out what a good walking pace would be - using math, if it takes 15 minutes to walk one mile, that is a 4 mph pace. At first I was trying to go for a 12 minute mile, which is walking at 5 mph; but that was too fast and furious for me. Then I recalled Christine's advice that everyone's level of fitness determines at what point one gets out-of-breath and sweaty. And I try to test how I'm doing by singing "oh I wish I HAD an Oscar Meyer weiner" song to the dog, and seeing if that shows I'm doing alright :) (should be able to carry on a conversation with slight difficulty, but not sing)

My husband surprised me by making lunch for us, which was a kind of frittata - shredded potato, onion, peppers, and bound together with egg substitute, and some cheese on top - I have NO idea how many calories it had, but it tasted so good; that probably means more than I needed. So I'm going to have to cut out my afternoon granola bar/coffee snack, probably. oh well.

Talk to you later!

Holly

Wellllll... I now own a brand new 2002 Saturn SL1. Yikes!

They couldn't get the old car started today and instead of figuring out a way to get it over to precision tune, my father in law decided its for the best for us to buy a new car. So, Saturn o' so generously gave us a hundred bucks for the old one.. (and they get to go pick it up) LOL.. and we gave them a helluva lot more for a new one.. go figure ;) It is way kewl to have a new car but I am so stressed out right now! Since I'm such an open person I will share that we make a mere $27k/yr right now and pay nearly $700/month for rent.. add in this car payment and we now have just about enough money after that to pay utilities and food each month! Ouch! The thing is, since we didn't really have the option to order the exact car we wanted (and wait who knows how long to get it!), we had to pick from what was on the lot. It only fell short in one or two areas but we wound up paying for some extras I couldn't have cared less about. What a pain! When you pay almost 2/3 of your yearly salary for something, you kinda want it to be EXACTLY what you wanted! Oh well.. such is life, eh? At least we got 0% financing for the whole 5-yr loan! Let's dwell on the positives here.. lol

Sooo.. today's food consisted of: a piece of cake and diet soda for breakfast, a free cookie from the saturn dealership for lunch (ROFL), and a nacho supreme and a soft taco and a coke from taco bell for dinner. I estimate about 800 calories for dinner.. 200 for the cookie and um.. 300 for the cake.. So I technically haven't had too bad a day calorie-wise but what horrid food choices! :lol:

Anyway, I'm off to rest my aching head (stress headache) .. hope you all are having a great weekend!

Christine
195/150/130

weigh in
 

hello everyone, sorry to be in a rush, my weigh in is, I lost 3 pounds so far this week! I am so happy, and motivated, Had company earlier, so I have to go lift weights now.. Take care everyone, and keep it up!!

Latisia

Earthquakes? In new England? never heard that one before!! Anyway. Weekends suck. At least I haven't binged to the puking up stage but I'll getting there. I think the reason that my weekends are always so horrible is that I'm sooo stressed out with catching up on homework, working both jobs on each day, avoiding pizza-eating friends.... Atleast its the weekend so I have something to blame it on. I think I'm also gonna blame it on PMS. Or something like that. I'm very, very late with my period. And no, I'm not pregnant. It is now 3 weeks late and I don't know why. I'm getting kinda anxious about it. I'm nervous that one day, in the middle of class or work, it'll just squirt out. Sorry for the visual. But it's all girl talk in here anyway, right? hehehe. I won't tell you what exactly I ate humungous amounts of, but let me tell you. It wasn't too pretty. Maybe once school's over I'll have better control over my weekends. I'll have time to reflect and ponder on my feelings. :smug: Like on the weekdays, if I feel cheatey, I go online and write a long post to you guys or to a buddy of mine. But on weekends, I have no such access to support. I probably won't jump back on the wagon tomorrow. I'm weird that I have to re-start everthing on a Monday. Anyone else like that? Unless you feel uneven. When a month is over and I gotta turn the calendar I always wait until a Monday, even if its like 6 days later. Anyway. Thought I'd share my troubles while deterring you guys from such actions. Hope you have had a better saturday than I. I'm in grammatical correct mode, after I just wrote my 5 page history paper. Anyway. Have a good one all.

Hey!! Forgot to congratulate Latisia!! Waaa Hooo!! WEigh in #1 a success for t-girl! Hopefully and undoubtedly more to come as well!! Way to go, girl!

I love our Satur, LOL. Our other car wasn't that old, but still, we kept having to fix it. So we bout a 2001 Saturn. It's so nice and they fix it for you. You're lucky to have the 0% financing! Ours is 18% (6 years) so I'm trying to pay extra whenever I can!


I'm freaking out about food right now cause when I don't feel good, I eat too much of the wrong things (which is weird) and the only thing not making me sick is chocolate right now! Don't really know what to do. I don't want to work for 2 years to get baby fat off again. Oh well. As long as the baby is healthy, we're good I guess. I'll feel better soon. Emmett is sleeping better, thankfully. I think he's getting a 2 year molar, poor kid.
In Christ,
Pamela

Good morning all!

I totally agree about loving Saturns. Our last car was a Saturn.. a 1991 (first year they made em!) and it was very good to us up until real recently, even considering my husband had 2 pretty good bangups in it (over $4500 worth of damage combined between the two accidents.. ouch!). So, we never even really considered anything but a Saturn for our next car and it was very convenient of them to have 0% financing :D (the only way we got it was my FIL cosigning with us). Did they sing you their little 'sending off' song? ROFL For those of you who don't know, the folx at Saturn sing to you if you buy a new Saturn! The salesman announced to everyone that this was our second Saturn and they applauded.. too funny I tell you! :lol:

I finished off yesterday by adding another piece of cake to the lineup... one seriously unhealthy eating day. Oh well, the scale actually wasn't sure if I was 150 or 149 this morning so maybe the water retention is finally going. Today we visit the in-law's house for late lunch. They're serving burgers and fries and other unhealthy stuff. They always have a good fill of fruits and veggies though so I'll try to keep myself in some sort of control anyways.

Both my husband and I had the worst stress headaches last night. He says he hasn't felt this kind of stress in years (must be nice to avoid stress for so long). I think the whole money thing is hitting him (as it has been hitting me for months now). I am actually starting to feel better about it though. We were losing control of our finances and this will bring us back to being careful because if we don't, we won't be making the carpayments!

Darmah, although not quite to such calendar extremes, I too seem to 'restart' on Monday's. I think what we need to do is stop thinking of it as 'restarting' but rather continuing on after a bump in the road? Maybe it would help if you allowed yourself ONE of the weekend days as your 'free' day and let yourself have a little treat that day!? I think I may do this myself. Give myself Saturday OR Sunday as my free day and behave the rest of the week with the knowledge that when the weekend arrives I can enjoy some 'forbidden' foods ;)

Christine
195/150/130

Hi everyone!
Holly, thanks for letting me know about the new "good 4 you" stuff. I hate that light miracle whip and miss my tuna melts. Maybe I can enjoy them again. :)
I lost all 11 lbs I gained on vacation. I guess it was all water weight. I'm glad I didn't go into a tail spin and undo all my hard work. I got the pics back from Disney and guess what? For the 1st time in my life, I think I look good. It's funny how when you look at yourself in the mirror, you see one thing but in a picture you look very different. I am truely amazed at the progress I have made. I showed my family a pic from 2 yrs ago and the difference is absolutely amazing. Even my posture has changed a lot. I now stand proud and tall.
Christine, I know money/car problems suck! Just hang in there. As you know, things always work out somehow. Don't give up. All those extra treats you are having aren't going to make the problem go away and then you are going to feel even worse about the extras you have been having. I don't have a solution for you, I wish I did. It's great that you were able to get a new car so soon after your other one dying. Not everyone is that fortunate. I had to wait 6 months to buy a new (used) car after my new (new) one was stolen. My insurance only paid the value of the car and I had to pay the car company the other $3000.
:mad: That really sucked. So see, it could be worse. It always can be. I know it's hard to look at it that way, but you have to or you'll drive yourself insane :dizzy:
I live in RI and I didn't feel the earthquake. I was in a dead sleep so that doesn't mean much. I'll have to ask hubby. He's always up bright and early.
I hope the rest of you are doing great and congrats to Latisia on her awesome loss. Keep up the good work.

Melisa

Hey everyone just stopping in, I wanted to tell Christine, and Darmah, that the key to losing weight, is to not give up.. Start over on Monday, and try your best, stay motivated, These words actually came from my Mom, when I first starte this LF plan, and now it has stuck with me, and helped me alot, You all can do it!! I know you can, if I can!!!!

Thanks for the congrats, it does help alot too;)

Pamela, I agree with you about Saturns, they are good cars!!

Hey everyone, keep up the work, dont give up!!

Latisia

They didn't sing us a song, LOL. Silly Saturn people!

I really hate food right now. I don't ever want to have to eat again. It just stinks. LOL. Even the stuff that sounded ok and didn't make me sick yesterday, makes me sick today. *sigh* Anyhoo, at least dh let me sleep in today!!
In Christ,
Pamela

Hello all!! I have to admit that I feel like I am on a downward spiral. I haven't been posting recently because I'm doing so poorly. Not only have I maintained my 5 pound gain from vacation but I have gained 2 more. I go through these periods from to time to time and each time is scary for me. I keep thinking I don't want to have to start over again. All of this hard work and I seem to temporarily give up!

I am hoping that tomorrow can be a new start. I used to walk 5 miles a day, back in my most motivating times. I am going to start walking again tomorrow beginning with 3 miles. Hopefully I can get back to the 5 miles. It's hard work but it seems that when I am that active, everything else just falls into place. Another thing is that I am going to try to drink lots of water and again cut down on fat. Does all this sound familiar? I feel like a broken record!

Anyways just wanted to check in. Sounds like everyone is doing wonderful. Congrats to Latisia on the 3 pound loss!!! Hopefully I will be able to post the same at the end of the week. I am going to try not to weigh as often, as I was becoming a slave to the scale. I'll check in tom. to let you know of my progress.


183/152/135 first goal

Congratulations on your new car Christine!
Our budget is fairly tight with car payments, etc. and I have cut out junk food which can really help the food budget. Look at it as a blessing in disguise!

I had an absolutely great weekend it was so relaxing with no kid or husband. It was a mini retreat. We stayed at my girlfriend's mom's house who is away on a trip right now and her house is brand new custom built huge and gorgeous. It's backing onto forest and we went for a hike after dinner. I kept pretending it was my house. Didn't get much sleep though as the cat kept biting my toes, playing in the blinds, with the telephone cord, and our shopping bags!

Unfortunately I was unable to find myself a tankini that fit properly. Do any of you have a suggestion of a good place to buy them in larger sizes (14/16)?

We pigged out while watching a video but it was all low fat. Licorice, light popcorn with salt & vinegar seasoning, 0 fat butterscotch pudding, non-fat steamed caramel milk. Delicious!

Anyways I will be back on track tomorrow!

Congrats Latisia on the great loss , keep up the good work.
Jacklyn don't give up hope. Hi to everyone else!

Good evening all . . .

I didn't do so well at the in-law's house today but such is life. How about me, darmah and jacklyn can all start over tomorrow together? We can have a little challenge to see who can stay on track the longest!! :)

Melisa, congrats on getting that 11 pounds to go so quickly! I totally agree about not realizing how far I've come until I look at photos. Fortunately I got a digital camera at Christmas so I can take a photo any time to check my progress. UNfortunately, I haven't had much progress since Christmas!! :(

Latisia, I totally agree the key is not giving up.. the thing is.. I'm not.. I never give up.. I just cheat .. and cheat.. and cheat.. but I keep going. Eventually I'll get there even if its 2 lbs down 1 up .. 2 down.. 1 up.. and takes 2 years :lol:

Pamela, I can relate to the food thing. I lost almost all urge to eat when I was pregnant. I gained 0 lbs during the first 3 months and in the last couple months I actually lost a pound some weeks! I gained a total of 24 lbs during the whole pregnancy and 2 weeks after I weighed 34 lbs less! The amusing thing is, my skinny little sister is pregnant now and she is craving everything in site and eating like crazy and she put on almost 20 pounds in the first 3 months! Yikes! Of course the gain slowed and I think she's only up about 35 pounds now and she's 7 months. Knowing her tho, she'll be back to her skinny self within months after she has the baby!

Jacklyn, I'm with you on the new start tomorrow.. as I mentioned in the beginning of this post.. lets see who can behave the longest k? :D

Sprite, thank you! I was telling my husband we can no longer go out to eat (restaurants being one of my weaknesses) and we're going to have to be more careful when food shopping so you're exactly right.. this may actually have me eating better!! I am so envious of your girls weekend. I could soooo use a break like that! Glad to hear you enjoyed it! Oh, and no clue about where to find tankinis.. I am not daring enough for anything but a one-piece yet myself! I don't need to risk anyone getting a peek at this belly .. :lol:

Anyways.. tomorrow I'm good (yeah, I'm a broken record too!).. promise promise promise promise promise! If I show up tomorrow and tell everyone what a bad thing I did.. don't tell me its ok and to move on.. YELL at me!!! ROFL I need a good swift kick in the arse I tell you!!! Seriously! :p

Christine
195/150/130