i think my biggest thing with any weight loss plan is the food. I used to love food....I know i loved it too much...but I enjoyed it....and now I hate eating. I hate all the planning and the loss of fun that goes with my food. So tonight to "celebrate" my 3.5 pound GAIN....my DH and I went to Cheeseburger in Paradise.....and once again...food was GOOD! It was fun and I'd already gained 3.5 pounds so I could eat and not worry that every bite was adding a bit of fat to me again. I'm not sure what I'm doing. Hopefullly I will wake in the am and re group and get back on plan......Thanks for all the words of encouragement.

haha Joni! to answer your question about starbucks sales in the heat..they only go higher and higher. it's frappuccino frenzy i tell ya! i just got off work and we did numbers like it was a friday, not wednesday! whew! i'm exhausted. thanks for being concerned about me. and yes, i miss my kids more than ever. less than a month til i go and visit again. i'll make it. :)

No! We're losing her...HEATHER come back to the land of the healthy....I

have been "missing" food lately too but when I really think about it food is not making me happy..it's the instant gratification that I miss. Today as I sat at worked and struggled to finish my home made salad with intalian and turkey meat on top, I literally could have lept over my desk and grabbed the taco bell burrito supreme right out from under my skinny co-worker's skinny little mouth...but I didn't....and guess what, I'm fine! The icing on the cake (pun intended) was when she later revealed to me that she's gained 5lbs this summer. I wanted to scream back at her, "maybe it's all the freakin fast food you guys bring in here everyday like it's a trophy!" but I didn't. I just smiled and told her it's so hard to stay away from those quick fixes!

Heather-look how much you have lost so far! I really hope when you wake-up-the new day brings back all of those reasons you wanted to lose this weight in the first place! We don't want to lose you. And Karen's right-what are you going to do instead? You had your night in Paradise...now back at it!

Jillian-hope you are doing ok! Sounds like you will be workin' hard this upcoming week so I hope it goes by fast for ya!


Goodnight everyone!

You know........the other thing about food...............yeah, it's a pain in the butt to have to plan your meals and take the time to prepare them EVERY STINKIN DAY.........but, in my weeks of not being OP......I found that I wasn't really enjoying eating at all........like I didn't really taste and enjoy and appreciate what I was consuming.......i was just eating to eat. So Amy is right, Heather.........this is just a bad day. Don't let it determine your future.......just this day. :)

check out our 30 lb watermelon :)
http://thumb5.webshots.net/t/64/464/...5rNaLBR_th.jpg
http://thumb5.webshots.net/t/55/455/...5ZNMgwi_th.jpg
Oh, and I couldn't leave out the keeper of the canteloupe :)
http://thumb5.webshots.net/t/62/462/...5gLLTew_th.jpghttp://thumb5.webshots.net/t/58/458/...5ptrmSi_th.jpg
and yeah, if you are wondering why I am posting pictures of my children and fruit..........they (the fruits) are from our garden, and the kids are sooooo proud. (we are pretty excited ourselves....who knew it would work out!!!!)

My goodness that thing is huge! Wow, in a couple more lbs I will have lost that watermellon?? YIKES!

Goodnight!

and a big a$$ watermelon at that!!! Good night :)

good morning everyone. i have the day off today, so i'm going to the COD to WI for the week. TOM is here, so any loss will be fine with me. :) ah, we'll see. we're still in an excessive heat warning and have been pretty much all week. the humidity is already @ 77% and with that it's about 90 out right now...going all the way to 105 today. ick.
be back later today.
have a good morning

Heather -- I think many of us share the same love of food that you do. In less flattering terms it is called an addiction...lol. I hope you can find whatever motivates you to lose weight. Sometimes we all lose sight. Have you got a copy of Deb's cookbook? There is no reason at all for food not to taste good. Maybe you can make up a bunch of her yummy recipes and freeze them for later. There are always carb cravers too. When you feel like you need something 'sinful' check through those to see what appeals to you.

Jillian -- Is it hard to resist the frappucinos yourself? When I was in highschool I worked in an ice cream shop, and I didn't eat ice cream for about 10 years after, I was so sick of looking at it. have a great day!

Nicole -- Love the fruit, and the sweet little guardian of it.

Amy -- Great point. Let's all post how much we've lost and ask Nicole to take a picture of produce from her garden that weighs as much. I bet I've lost two canteloupes and 5 cucumbers!

Good Morning!

Hope everyone is having a great day. Here in the mountains of NC we are supposed to be at 95 today which is HOT for us. Can't imagine the 105 Jillian. Stay cool!

Wow Nicole, you guys have some garden! That watermelon is huge - Amy I've lost 1 and 1/2 , almost three, of Nicole's watermelons:)

HEATHER! Calling Heather! COME BACK! We need and want you with us on the journey. Nicole is absolutely right, one day doesn't make your future or probably none of us would be here. You can do this! I remember telling my husband that I had to think about food so much more now than I did before and I think that is the point...you think about it, you don't just eat.

I better run get to work. Hope everyone has a great POP day!

LOL I love the fruit weight loss idea! Well I've been struggling with the same 4 lbs for a couple months now. Up and down. The odd thing is in the last 2 days I've had 4 random people walk up to me and say "Hey you're losing weight aren't you? How are you doing it?". I'm surprised people are noticing now that it's stalled and has been stalled for a while. Very strange. BUT I'LL TAKE IT!

Hope everyone had a great week. Nicole love the pics. How many watermelons have I lost....or am I still at canteloupes?:D

Good morning All,
On the subject of pounds lost versus fruit and other comparisons. Check out this site
http://www.naturalphysiques.com/howmanypounds/

See for yourself what you have already accomplished or what you can accomplish!!!!

By losing 40 lbs - I have lost the weight of an average 4 year old boy

Cutting 140,000 calories is the same as saying "no" to:
1,750 apples, or
1,400 bananas, or
8,235 cups of cabbage (whew!), or
966 baked potatoes, or
1,750 large eggs, or
1,167 cups of 2% milk, or
101 pounds of ground beef, or
1,609 glasses of wine, or
433 Snickers bars, or
583 Clif Bars ( 778 Luna Bars), or
1,007 cans of Coke, or
824 pints of Guinness beer, or
285 Big Macs, or
272 Quarter Pounders with Cheese, or
200 Whoppers, or
424 Subway 6" Oven Roasted Chicken Breast sandwiches, or
824 Taco Bell crunchy tacos, or
596 slices of pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut

Great site Lynn...thanks for sharing.

I thought this was quite interesting (found this at the same site Lynn recommended):

Is this heat making anybody else eat like a pig but me? I cannot get enough to eat today. Going to make for a long, thinking about food, day.

Hello All! Heres to a POP Thursday. Congrats on the Losses this week. Heres some "courage" for those of you who still have to face the scale this week.

Anybody have any ideas how I can drop 8 lbs pounds by Monday the 20th? I'm not going to do any more WL weeks with the COD. I will just go to fake stabalization and fudge on my chart. I can do TO the 16th & 17th, but I don't think that will get me 8 lbs.

Nice Garden Nicole. I have lost that very Watemelon in your picture. Cute Kiddies also.

I wish I could avoid the scale....but it's just become part of my routine. I saw a while back you all did a No Scale Challenge....I don't think I could handle it but I know it'd be good for all of us!

I'm going to try to w/i today before my meeting.

Have a fabulous day!