Yes, everything else is the same...

hugs

WOW! You kicked some pounds there girl! Great job!

How is everyone doing? I am feeling better but still not up to par. Strep throat sure does kick my butt. Still on my antibiotics and making sure I finish them all. My grandmother had strep back in her early years and caused her to have enlarged heart and then we lost her early because of it. You better believe I am taking my meds. Some don't realize how strep can be so serious if not treated.

I weighed myself this morning against my own rules and it's at a stall. Laying on the couch and not moving like I should be might be the cause. Tomorrow will be better I am sure.

Does anyone have a date set for when they would like to reach their goal? Is it a bad thing to do that and then be disappointed or just let the cards land where they do and not worry about it? Is it setting up a disappointment when that date comes and we aren't there? I had a 2.2 loss last week and was ok with it but then I rethink where I want to be by Christmas and get disappointed that I may not reach it by then. Maybe I should just let it happen and quit thinking so much about it. Any thoughts?

Hi Iowa, strept throat really wipes you out, I'm afraid. Stalling sounds good to me, under the circumstances.

Have I picked a date? No. Didn't even think about because there seem to be too may variables. That may be sheer laziness, but I just can't guess how things will go.

I got to the halfway mark on my month walking goal 11 days, and I'm awfully glad I'm still able to walk and that the weather isn't too formidable (except one evening with 20 mph winds directly off the Russian steppes. I made it; pup didn't/ Talk about a stall.)

Oh my, Iowa, strep throat!.. I'm glad you're taking care of yourself... I'll be praying for your speedy recovery...

This last go-around, I was hoping to reach goal by Thanksgiving (US), but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen... maybe Christmas... I don't really have a particular weight in mind (even though I have one specified on my ticker), I'd just like to be in that general vicinity & be able to look at myself in the mirror & not see any rolls of fat... so, I guess my goal is mostly in the eye of the beholder & might change from day to day... in that respect, perhaps I'm not setting myself up for disappointment, but neither am I pushing myself as much as maybe I should...

:congrat:, Linden, on getting to an important milestone!.. you have such a wonderful place to do your walking... I had to laugh at your mention of the 20 mph winds... that's just a normal day around here!.. we're finally getting a break in the 2011 drought (worst drought in recorded history for this area)... it rained all night & about an hour ago (right after noon) I saw a few snowflakes falling... of course, there's the wind, so combining all those elements, plus the 37 degree temp, it's not a fit day for getting out & walking... I have a feeling this is just a minor blip in the usual dry & warmish fall weather, tomorrow the sun is supposed to come out & warm up to the upper 60s...

I have a small victory to report... I was in WallyWorld this morning & with the rainy cold weather I was very tempted to buy some comfort food... I even had a frozen sausage pizza in my buggie at one time, but after a few minutes I realized how dumb that was & put it back in its shelf... I came home with only on-protocol foods & feel a bit triumphant, if not comforted... :dance:

hugs :hug:

March 1st 2012! :) I'm rather goal oriented. :dizzy: I do think it helps to have goals, in fact, that is part of what I do with the young people I work with. I think if you don't know what your goal is you won't know when you have arrived and so you'll spend your time trying to find happiness that you haven't even defined. When it comes to weight goals, we need to be careful because is the goal really a number or is it a look or a feeling or something else?

You know, I agree with every word you've written. And, in fact, I am a very, very goal oriented person. So I'm wondering why I'm so laissez-faire about setting one this time around?

So my direct answer, Linden--because I think I can say this to you, is maybe your afraid of what happens after and you are kind of comfortable with this. ;) I'll bet if you stop and think about it though you probably have some short-term goals, even if they are just to stay on plan for the day. I'm helped by having two major events to fuel my goals, but those aren't always in our lives.

Hope you are sleeping well by now... I'm off to do some errands!

No, I'm actually looking forward to maintaining and I hope I can lose the 30 pounds in my tracker. And I guess you could say that walking 200,000 steps a month is a goal. But I'm realistic about the medicine I take, and age of course. Maybe what I'm wary of is setting the bar too high. We'll see. Cheers, and I sure hope you're recovering nicely.

Cheat Day
 

So is it ok or not ok to have a cheat day? My employee Christmas party is coming up and I would like to have some drinks with friends but I don't want to throw my whole diet off.. what does everyone think?

Absolutely, the walking is a goal! I think we just set goals differently. I know your meds have made this more challenging.

I'm trying to recover, but my mouth is really sore and I'm basically not going to be home for meals between now and Monday morning, so I'm not expecting a good week. My ankle isn't quite right after my fall which I don't like with my history and dance, but I'll cope. (It stinks to get old!)

I seem to remember having really good energy the last time around on this, but I am just not feeling that yet. I'm probably expecting too much too quickly.

Hi Goldiej, There are no Cheat Days. It's that simple. The majority of us on this thread lost weight by not cheating sometime ago and we ended up going off program for multiple reasons and that is why we are here restarting IP. I personally gained back 15 pounds even though I was only 6 pounds from goal, and now I want to finish what I started. I fell off program by cheating last Christmas and thought I could handle the gain of a few pounds and get it back off. Those couple of pounds soon turned into 15. It is so not worth cheating. Lots of factors why. I'll let someone else go into all the details, but the bottom line is there is no cheating if you want to lose weight and not waste your money or time. If you read through some of the posts, you will see how hard it is to get back on program. Lesson learned for me and many others on here. I wish you the best of luck and hope you stick to the program.

Rethinking how I am approaching this diet this go around. I think as for goals, I am going to set mini goals 5 pounds at a time. I've had a running pounds to goal list on my frig and geez it looks like I will never get there. So, I'm ripping that list off of my frig and putting up my 5 pounds and counting. So what if I have to do it close to 4 times. I think I will feel better about myself. Mini goals. Yep, that's what I'm doing.

Just came across this inspiring quote at Daily Motivation Quotes:
Got me thinking, what am I afraid of?..

hugs :hug:

I'm back.......AGAIN!!!
 

Love this quote Aunt Sheshie. Really applicable to many aspects in my life right now.

Anyway, here I am again and really unhappy with myself for falling off the IP wagon.......again. I can give a gazillion excuses, but what good would they do? So, as I have done in the past, I sat down all morning catching up on all the posts to get myself motivated and recommitted. It truly is inspiring to read about all of you who are committed and are doing so well. I just have to remind myself that I got to goal before and can do it again, if I want it as bad as I wanted it the first time. Even though I hate to cook, I even read Finn's recipes and was amazed with his energy, enthusiasm, creativity and commitment. I do think that I am bored with the same thing all the time and need to put a little more effort into working up new ways to keep me interested. Also, I let life pressures get to me.

Thanks for letting me vent, but now I need to refocus and do!

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: