The flooded areas are south of Austin and I'm north - so we are soggy but not evacuating!

The pudding "drink" wasn't terrible - more like unexpected since I thought I was opening a drink mix.

We are good in TX too. Safe and sound.

Working this Memorial Day and was hoping to get my work done early and get home. Can hear the rain starting to roll in with the thunder. May be stuck here for awhile. Dopler is all red and scary. Yuck!

No WI today because of the holiday but will see my coach tomorrow. Been the same weight the last 3 mornings. Sure would love to see a bit of a drop tomorrow. Just famished today so hoping I might luck out with a bit of a woosh. :crossed:

Weather and busy weekend has made it a challenge to get all of my steps in the last several days. Like IP, I've got to figure a way to make excersize part of my lifestyle.

Texted my coach the photo I posted here in the white dress (thanks Avalon for fixing my sideways-ness!!). She sent me the sweetest text back this morning. I really hit the jackpot with my coach! I just love her.

Ah, the rain is pouring down now. Be careful out the TX peeps!!

Thanks for asking about us here in central Texas, I'm SW and we've really been slammed but it is hilly around me so we are in higher grounds and not in danger. We are really needing a break from the rain for a minute though, lots of people have been affected.

I haven't posted much lately but still keeping up. Glad everyone is doing well.

Wow, that was some rain yesterday!! :yikes: Holy smokes, I had to drive home from work in it. Worst rain I've ever been in. But we are all safe, house included. An employee of mine had 2-3 inches in her house last night, so not everyone is so lucky.

Down 0.7 this morning after 8 days and am at 154…a little disappointing. I think I over indulged in restricted veggies this week. Made a de-lish eggplant and red pepper dip for a Memorial Day party. It is fairly IP compliant within moderation but after driving home in some of the worst rain I’ve ever been in, I made a bee line for the leftovers when I got home. I was super hungry yesterday and justified that it was okay since it was just celery and dip. Ha!

Anyway, my coach still thinks I will hit 150 by Monday. She moved my WI from 7am to 2:45 because she said my BF% is more accurate later in the day. I will have eaten breakfast and lunch by that point so I don’t think her scale will say 150, but if I could see it on my aria I would be super happy. DH is planning to go to this WI with me. 6 more days!!

We also agreed that I will do P2 for 2 weeks primarily because she will be on vacation when I would typically start P3. I rather go through this with her than another coach at the clinic plus as nervous as I’ve been about phasing off, I think an additional week probably isn’t a bad idea. So the plan is to start P3 on 6/15 for 2 weeks.

We talked briefly about P3 breakfasts and I asked if I had to give up my breakfast shake. She said IP sells a meal replacement shake if I don’t want to go with the full blown breakfast. She even said she could give me some non-IP meal replacements that would save me some money. I’ve always been a coffee (now IP shake) person for breakfast so a big breakfast may not be my thing. At least during the work week when I am in a rush. Maybe I can tinker around with ideas on the weekends but it made me feel good that I wouldn’t necessarily be losing my easy breakfast.

That’s about it from me!

Yeah, I spoke too soon yesterday - we spent about 45 minutes in the bathroom in the afternoon due to tornado activity in our area. Nothing hit us thankfully, but there was a TON of rain and flooding - some people are still without power this morning.

CenTxChk - I can't believe you drove home in that!! :dizzy:

WI is tomorrow morning, home scale is giving me a couple pounds so we'll see. I need to talk to my coach about strategies for the next few weekends of baseball tournaments - long days outside, unpredictable schedules, eating out??

TX IPeeps -- glad everyone seems to be holding their own during the bad weather -- so sorry your holiday weekend was rainy -- I know you are all paying attention to any tornado or flood warnings. so glad the high winds and damaging tornados missed you Jen and so sorry you had that white knuckle drive home yesterday CenTxChk! Hopefully this weather pattern will pass on through and you will have bright sunny days soon.

Sue - so glad your hubby is recuperating from his surgery without further issues. After the stress of dealing with medical procedures, routine normal days are a great blessing. Avalon's posting about potential effects of stress on weight loss was very timely -- your WI might be another illustration of that.

On the other end of the spectrum - how cool for you to have new shorts to wear as our mid Atlantic weather turns summer warm. New duds you love are always an uplifting experience, especially when they are smaller sizes than usual! I hope you are savoring the joy in the simple act of wearing them for the first time!

I have several pair of size 12's - they fit, but most are not so modern looking -- pleats at the waist really balloon the legs of the shorts.... I think these date back to the mid 80's... shortly after I was married when I was living at Rehoboth Beach DE. So several are really past being ready for the donation pile.... but I have a couple pair that will get me through.

My thighs are so loose and flabby that I probably won't be wearing a lot of shorts this summer. I have many tiny little horizontal wrinkles, where gravity makes the skin kind of hang in little gathers..... I realize this is TMI, but --- if you are in your 50's or younger, please take note. A life of "lose and regain and add some pounds, lose those extras and then regain and add even more pounds, etc." will produce this kind of effect when you wait until your 60's or later to finally get really serious about losing. So add this TMI to your reasons for changing your post-IP eating habits while you are still younger. When you get to be my age or older, your skin simply won't have the resilience anymore, and there are no simple remedies. So I find that I am still covering up, as I did when I was 240 lbs.... just for a different reason.

I did not mean to go maudlin here -- I may be loose and wrinkled but I am sitting here wearing a size Petite Medium jeans with skinny legs, and my overall body profile is pretty good looking... even my legs rock when I wear pantyhose (we already had that conversation)! So I am not letting the skin thing bother me too much. I am much happier with what I see in the mirror than I was this time last year :cp::cp::cp:

I am saving some money so I can do some non invasive cosmetic treatments to smooth a few wrinkles and promote some collagen. That will be a good reward to myself for the hard work it has taken to get my weight down. I hope to pick up a few bucks in my Diet Bet -- the May weigh in will be month 5 of the 6 month game, and then at the end of June there will be a payout. I lost the 10% before the April weigh in (that was the game goal), so I know I am a winner. Hopefully, there will be little prize money coming my way. I wish I had done a 6 month Diet Bet for the first six months of my IP journey -- the pounds were melting away then, and it would have been so easy to win a few extra bucks.

Ah well -- I need to get my act together and pack up the cats to head for Hilton Head, SC, for some vacation time... I have taken the time off work, but it's tough to get DH and the 3 cats in order to travel 9 hours by car to get there. But if I can get it together we'll have a nice week to 10 days off. At best we won't leave until tomorrow or Thursday, and I'll be offline for the travel day, but I'll continue to connect while away.

Happy Tuesday, everyone! :D:D

CenTChk: You don't have to have a huge breakfast in P3 to get all your required macros in... I'm seriously not a breakfast person - I used Greek yogourt with berries in it and nut butter mixed in (like PB&J). That takes care of protein, carbs in the fruit & nut butter, and fat in the nut butter and yogourt. Simple, small & satisfying. Cheese on toast = protein, fat, and carbs. I like tuna with hot lime pickle (Indian) and mayo on toast for savoury at breakfast.
You don't have to do eggs, bacon, toast, fruit, etc. if it's not your style. Melon wrapped with prosciutto and a piece of toast. Cereal topping full fat Greek yogourt and fruit for a parfait breakfast. Or make your own smoothie with protein powder, some berries, spinach or kale, milk or almond milk, and a spoon of oil or nut butter.
Hope this helps...

Liana

Well, on the bright side, loose and wrinkly skin is much better than diabetes, a stroke, or heart attack. I would still call that a good trade. Kudos to you for dropping 80!

Thank you for reminding me of the healthy end of all this, Alexandra! Last Spring in 2014, I was pretty lucky to have a healthy heart, no diabetes, and to be on no medication (other than self medicating with sugary food). but I was feeling miserable - legs and ankles were retaining so much fluid, and my knees were beginning to feel the effects of carrying so much extra weight. I felt bad enough to go see the internist and cardiologist to get checked out, expecting I would be told I was pre-diabetic and heading for heart problems.

Lucky for me - the tests were all good and the advice to me was to lose weight so I could generally feel better and continue on a healthy path. I have done that now, and it's time to get my head together and get a good routine going to build strength.

I think I will be less aggravated by loose skin if there is some muscle tone under it.... right now it's pretty empty underneath, and what is there is soft and flabby. So that is my next challenge! Along with maintenance, of course (- the biggest challenge of all)!

And I really have nothing to complain about, in the bigger scheme of things.
:D

Now that's a great plan! One step at a time, right. It's easy to forget all the little things that were starting to go wrong when we were up 50 to 100 lbs. I suppose losing weight doesn't guarantee long term health, but it certainly increases our odds!

Oh Texas Peeps! Hang in there.... Glad all are well.

Down 1 this week...Kinda shocked in a good way LOL...that makes 4 weeks with no gains...Hummm either I am overdue or my body just needed to get under 200 to start letting go...

One ~ I have to laugh if you think I am wearing any shorts shorter then knee length! I have so much skin hang! I am a bermuda shorts gal! I did buy 3 skorts which I really like. The good thing about them is if I am planning not to work one day and something comes up and I have to, don't need to change! LOL... Safe travels and about those shorts of yours isn't whats old is new again?:o

Hubby is going back to work today. I wanted him to take one more day, but he is bored at home so he wanted to go back...keeps his mind off the results too, so that is a good thing. Next Thursday is a long way away...

JTX was it you with the baseball tourney and eating out this week?? sorry I have CRS (cant remember sh**)...anyway pack snacks for yourself and resturants are easy..ask for steak no butter and broccoli steamed no butter...tell them you have a dairy allergy....works every time. At Houlihans they brought my steak out to me once with the butter on it and I sent it back ...the manager came to the table and appoligized and we got the steak for free! :D

Sue - WTG on the loss and the size 14 shorts! :carrot: Girl, you will be in a 12 before you know it. The sizes started changing much faster once I got to Onderland. Also glad DH felt well enough to go back to work today. I know you wanted him to take another day...they never listen, do they? Keeping you both in my thoughts for positive news!!

One - you are talking to the saggy thigh queen. :queen: Unlike my stomach and breasts, this was an area I was unprepared for in the wrinkly skin dept. I had to (and still have to) work on self acceptance but I finally started wearing shorts. If I walk fast enough I figure people can't see the wrinkles that bad. ;) You are not thinking surgery but I am and thighs maybe have jumped to one of my top "to do's". I agree with Avalon, skinny wrinkly thighs are better than fat thighs any days of the week. Until then, clothes hide a multitude of sins.

Liana - Thanks for the breakfast tips! I need to start making a list of breakfast options for myself. Yours will be the first I add. I like the idea of yogurt and granola and a piece of fruit if that is an option. The whole macro thing just overwhelms me at this point.

My coach told me Trader Joes sells a bag of frozen cooked chicken breasts and the ingredients are chicken, salt and pepper. Going to check that out and get a bag or 2 for the freezer to grab and go for work.

My Aria popped up 0.5lbs yesterday (it ALWAYS does this on a WI day, I swear). Back down today but can't seem to get past 154.3. Been stuck at this weight for days... Need to fit in a good walk today. Time to head back to the gym.

Well, we got a bit of a break with the rain yesterday but heard it start back up sometime last night. Not torrential like Monday. Slow and steady but there is just no place for the water to go at this point. :rain:

Hope everyone has a great day!

:congrat:

Terrific accomplishment!

These milestones are so meaningful - and your graphics illuminate them in such a great way ! I love all your pictures and charts, and the way they bring us into your journey - I have been watching your tickers and knowing you were coming up on that 100 lb marker. And reaching the 3/4 milestone is just icing on the cake -- Way to go, Alexandra!

Sue - WTG!! super-stress and you still dropped a pound!! such a rockstar! :carrot:

Alexandra - congrats on your milestone! We celebrate them all, big and small!! :D

WI this morning and down another 3.8! Nice to see after last week's flatline. Also all my #'s are in the green except BMI, so my coach is starting to look at where I'm going to land weight-wise. Even though I'm having some fatigue, I know I'm not done - although she said I probably won't go the whole summer on Phase 1. We will see where I am in 10 more pounds.

We also talked about my apparent body dis-morphia, because she is definitely seeing something I'm not, and she thinks a lot of what I'm dealing with at this point is loose skin. Which leads me to....

Y'all cracked me up with the "jiggly thighs" topic!! I can SO relate! I bought a couple of pairs of denim shorts at Old Navy - they are long to just above the knee. And I've worn them in public! :cool: