Hey everyone! The girlfriend and I are going out tonight to celebrate one of our many anniversaries. I was trying on some really pretty/cute clothes that I haven't worn for years and... EEEEE!!! I have so many options! I had so much fun trying on my clothes and kept gawking at my much slimmer self in the mirror. It's just an out-of-body experience to see myself not only MUCH thinner than I was 5 months ago, but also the same size as my "skinny" girlfriend, who, by the way, is no longer annoyed at me for being the same size and is no longer calling herself FAT, though she is trying to make a few (BADLY NEEDED) healthier food choices.

Is anyone else completely shocked upon looking in the mirror?

Jessica, don't freak out, there is a good chance that you are retaining water. A large portion of "bad foods" are loaded with sodium, so that could be the culprit ;) :hug:

Pam - awww, I'm HOT? :o Wow. And thanks for thinking I was cute even at my HW :eek: I did get a slight bit of attention from a few attractive people even back then, but I wondered WHY and HOW and assumed they must be into fat chicks or something ;) YOU are pretty hot yourself (from what I've seen)!

Here is how to get your pics into your sig:
upload them somewhere like photobucket. Then, copy the link URL. In your sig, click the mountain button to add an image, then paste the URL and click ok. :)

Lily - I'm wow'ed at the fact that Carrie Underwood is a family friend of yours, too! Awesome. She seemed like a genuinely sweet girl and she has a great voice (I love that Before He Cheats song). I'm not too into American Idol, but I like her.

Allison - maybe you can look up a jumbo Fitday? Since the egg is HUUUUGE, you can take the jumbo egg and just enter "1.5" or something. I know it's a guesstimate, but it will most likely be reasonably accurate.

Jessica, if you figure this one out, let me know. Sometimes I think we'd all be a lot less neurotic if our scales rounded to the nearest 5 pounds and left it at that.

DD's teacher died from a massive stroke. She couldn't have been more than 35. I liked her a lot and feel just terrible for her family and friends. DD is too young to understand much right now, and is mercifully sort of oblivious--people do tend to come and go a lot in daycare. We will have to figure out what to tell her when/if she asks about her teacher.

Anne

Welcome Stephanie, Cynthia, and Tammy! I agree, this is great that there are so many maintainers here!

I went to the dr. yesterday for my foot, worried I had some sort of stress fracture in my foot. Instead the X-ray showed...some sort of straight pin, or needle, or skinny piece of metal inside my foot. Whaaaat???!!! :fr::yikes::dunno: I have NO recollection of stepping on anything, and didn't have any puncture wound in my foot that I can recall (I mean, I think I'd remember that). But it is definitely there, showing up on all 3 x-rays in the same place. I am having it surgically removed Nov. 29. The Dr. said it really won't be a big deal, the biggest recovery item should be recovering from anesthesia. She also said that I can do weightlifting & strength training minus anything putting extra pressure on the foot, the bicycle should be ok, and I can try 15 min. elliptical and if that doesn't stress it I can do small amounts of elliptical. She gave me some strong anti-inflammatories and antibiotics in the meantime. But how weird!!!

Pam, there are a lot worse things to snack on than Kashi bars, especially if that's your only dinner. Don't beat yourself up too much. Today is a new day. Sounds like you got in a great leg workout! :)

Hi Gary!

Lily, glad you are feeling so positive. I really like Carrie Underwood's music. Go Carrie!

Rabbit, sounds like going 'cold turkey' on extras for a few days will do you good. Your exercise sounds great! (And fun! I need to do more yoga.)

Kery, IMHO I think that it sounds very much like you are in a good maintenance mind set. You're right, it's important to make changes you can stick with even if it takes a little longer to get those last few lbs/kgs off. And maintenance definitely needs to be something you can live with long-term.

Pat, brrr, stay warm! :shocksn:

Allison, do you have a kitchen scale? Maybe you could weight the large egg versus the mammoth one, then count it as the right fraction (i.e. calories of lg egg x 1.7 or whatever).

Hi everyone else!

Jessica, my step-daughters are all from Checotah, OKlahoma. My oldest SD was a cheerleader and best friend with Carrie Underwood during high school. Carrie used to spend the night with us pretty often. So, we've all gotten to know her really well throughout the years. She is a really nice girl and has such amazing talent. I absolutely loved watching her on American Idol and voted multiple times for her each week. I am very happy for her success. On a sad note about Carrie, she was ostrcized horribly on the AI boards because of her weight (at the time she was 5'6, 130 lbs. and a size 6). I don't know how much she weighs now, but she is VERY thin the few times I have seen her lately. I pray that she doesn't feel pressured to lose so much wt. that she becomes unhealthy from it.

I had been weighing everyday and just couldn't handle seeing the daily fluctuations. Some days my wt. was down and I'd be happy. Other days it was up and I was depressed and felt like giving up. For now, my clothes fit perfect, I'm eating 100% on plan (with no treat meals) and I'm exercising everyday. I'm just using all this as my measure of success and am staying off the scale. I feel like I truly am giving it my very best effort right now, so I refuse to let the scale number dictate how I feel about myself. My next WI will be on Thanksgiving morning. Yesterday I wore my smallest size 4 jeans with a Danskin long sleeve form fitting shirt and I felt completely comfortable with my body cause my legs looked long and lean and my tummy was flat.

Lacy and Shelbey overslept this morning . They only had 15 min's to make it to school. It normally takes them 2 hrs. every morning to get ready, but they made it to the bus on time.

Whoa, Megan, a METAL OBJECT? :eek: No wonder you felt so injured ;) In a way, it's kind of a good thing that it isn't a fracture and that you're able to get it surgically removed, because I would imagine the healing time will be shorter and you won't have to worry about re-fracturing it again or anything. Good you found out! :)

Lily, I've noticed that Carrie Underwood HAS gotten awfully thin. The thing is, any time you are in the public eye, it is hard not to get VERY, very self conscious about your weight. The camera always adds 10 and sometimes even adds 20 pounds, and the American public is SO cruel towards NORMAL, HEALTHY, AVERAGE sized people! We're such a FAT nation, can't we give these poor people a daggone break?! I've had some experience in the public eye myself and while I didn't get TOO skinny, I made sure I often "forgot" to eat often so that I'd never get called fat. Of course, the American public will call anyone over a size 3 "FAT" these days... it's so, SO messed up :mad:

Wow it is going to take me forever to get to know everyone around here! I have "seen" many of you around and about so feel seem what familar but what an exciting new adventure for me! (Yes I am eaisly amused!)

For that reason I am going to avoid alot of personals for awhile but I wanted to say Shane I loved reading your story and seeing your pics! You have done an amazing job! Maybe someday soon I will post my story but it is pretty darn boring and run of the mill! Picture wise there doesn't seem to be alot of photos out there of me at my HW except one my DS has as the only pic of me in his dorm. I darn near fell over when I saw it helping him move in this year and I guess I need to get a copy of it, or better yet steal it and give him a new one of his hot mama not his fat one!

Have a great day!

Stephanie

Megan - OMG! Aren't you glad you went to the doc instead of waiting? :lol: That's pretty scary!

Lily - When Carrie Underwood was on AI, I thought she looked totally great and I was thinking, "I am so glad that there is this normal-sized, healthy-looking girl on here, but I hope she doesn't get forced to lose weight." Of course as soon as she won she lost a lot of weight (probably the record label told her to). :( I saw her on some tv show and her elbows looked really bony and I was just so sad that the media and the public would force someone to go from a perfectly healthy size to being so thin. I hope she is okay.

Anne - Wow, that's really scary about your DD's teacher. If she does start asking questions, I think there are some children's books about death (like "The Fall of Freddie the Leaf").

Stephanie - We sure have a growing population of Hoosiers on this board! :lol:

Megan, I'm glad you saw a Dr. about your foot. See you weren't being a hypochondriac like you thought. Hope it heels well and surgery goes well for you.

Shane and Jessica, I remember talking to Carrie about how upset she was that people were calling her Fat on the American Idol Chat boards. She was perfectly normal sized at that time. I really think it pressured her into losing weight. In person right now, she definitely looks a litte "too thin" and looks much skinnier than she does on TV. In one way I really feel sorry for Carrie cause she is very lonely being so far from her friends and family.

Hi everyone, Welcome newcomers!

I've totally lost track of this thread!

I don't know who Carrie Underwood is, but I fourth the notion that it's terrible the way that the media judges healthy-weighted public women. It's not nice.

Salman Rushdie came to my college last night and gave a talk. That was kind of exciting.

Happy Thursday!

Big warm welcome to all the newbies from a semi newb here...

Megan,
Oh my goodness, maybe someone implanted a microchip in you while you were sleeping. Holy shamoly what a mystery, maybe you were born part bionic..... so strange, it will be nice to have it removed and then the healing process will begin. Whew relief that it is nothing more serious, again sooo strange.... Surprised you made it through the metal detector at the airport...

Nite, happy date night, go get all glammed up, your choices are endless how cool is that?

Lily hope your sis is recovering and she is very lucky to have you as a role model for healthy habits. Cool on the carrie connection.

Anne- wow 35, how very sad. My girlfriend had a serious stroke at age 25, they claim it was from being on the pill, she did not die, but she has a serious brain injury, she quit her job as a teacher and now works with people with brain injuries... Life is so unpredictable, we all must enjoy ourselves everyday because nobody knows what tomorrow will bring..

I myself am holding my own still weightwise. Yesterday I ran into a friend I haven't seen in about 6 months and she told me OMG, you are soooooooo skinny and she cupped her hands and put them together and said goodness you are this big.... URGHHH>>>>I hate that word skinny, because I do not see myself that way at all. I was like, I truly think I am fit, not skinny..... so strange that people view me always as skinny, why can't they see the fit athlete in me ever? Seriously guys, It is not like I need to put rocks in my pockets so the wind doesn't blow me over, geeeeeeeesh people I can stand up to a strong wind storm probably a hurricane even, I still have some lead in my @ss and my legs and thighs and shoulders are supper strong these days too, so my chances are great that I'd still be standing, my hair would be a mess though..... tee hee Aye yi yi, it just makes me crabby I tell you being called skinny. I suppose I should be flattered and happy hearing it, but I am not!!!
~wendalyn

Wendalyn, you should really have a vain moment and post before/after pics in the goal section ;)

Skinny is better than FAT, now isn't it? :) Most people don't know what "fit" looks like and only think people are "fit" if they have huge, bulging muscles. They put people into categories of "skinny," "average," and "fat." That's it. So, with your itty bitty waist and tall height, you are ...SKINNY! Own it, everyone who calls you skinny probably wants to look like you.

Megan~wow. Good thing you went to the doctor! Hopefully you'll heal quickly.

Anne~so sorry about your DD's teacher. That's terrible. I think I wouldn't bring up the subject with your DD unless she asks first. They might, however, talk about it at school.

Silverbirch~we're expecting a Tesco's to be built in Indio this year. I didn't know they did one in Hemet. I may have to drive over for a preview. I think I read that it's a little different than your Tesco's, though.

As for my egg~I'm counting it as two large eggs because it had TWO YOLKS! I added a little egg white (otherwise it would have been too yolky) and ate it for breakfast. So I'm a little over my fat and calorie count for this morning. Oh, well.
Gary~you're practically in my back yard! Whatcha building in Hemet?

Good morning, everyone. Wow, Meagan. A foreign object?! That is incredible. And to think you were calling yourself a hypochrondriac. No wonder it hurt so much. I was thinking stress fracture too because my daughter had one a year ago and they can seem to occur when you don't even realize you have done anything to injure yourself. Too bad you have to wait until Nov 29 to have surgery to get it removed. At least you can do some activity, though. I'm sure you're relieved to know that it isn't some type of injury that is going to keep bothering you...

Anne, that's so sad about your DD's teacher. Strokes are so scary and seem to come out of nowhere...

Lily, I hear ya about the scale. I try to weigh everyday because it keeps from being in denial if I am overeating, in fact, not weighing is how I got so heavy in the first place, but the daily fluctuations drive me nuts too, and mess with my head. Up 1.2 pounds, down .4 pounds, up .9 pounds, Agh! It's not good because I can be doing all the right things and then feel bad about myself because I'm up a pound. How stupid is that? I'm considering going to a weekly weigh in (maybe Mondays) and see how that goes. But then if I happen to be up a bit on a Monday that I weigh, I may get discouraged because I won't see it go back down for another week. At least with daily weigh ins you can get a feel for what your average is... What to do, what to do.

Thanks for the info about how to post pics, Shane. I definitely put some in my signature soon. I found a picture of me that was taken at my high weight and it is so awful I just have to share it. Stay tuned...

Carrie Underwood looked beautiful in that yellow dress last night. I loved that it flowed out from her waist and was so princess-like.

Pam

Megan - I just had a thought about your metal object in your foot . . . is it possible that it got in there when you were a kid, and has been there without causing problems for years, but recently got shifted around or something and started hurting? Maybe that's why you don't remember it getting in there?

http://64.4.231.233/jpg/image.jpg

This is what we woke up to this morning! :eek: Good thing I had my snow tires put on yesterday, eh? :lol:

Megan - scary about your foot. DH just had a similar experience. He went to the podiatrist about what he thought was a corn or callus that he'd developed that wouldn't go away. Turns out he had a splinter in his foot and the opening - minute as it was - allowed a wart to develop. She dug around - shudder - and got the splinter out and says the wart will like go away without any treatment. He's just happy that it won't interfere with his ice skating (he thought that his skates had caused the original problem).

Well, I was complaining somewhere here that my home scale and my gym scale differed by about 10-12 lbs. Last night I did a WI at WW and it was just about in between the 2. Golly, I need to pick one scale and stick with it. Since I'm paying WW because I'm over goal, I guess I'll take that one. :)

Pat: don't worry, the snow will be gone soon. Just 6 more months, as I recall.. :)

I'm sore this morning. Sore, sore, sore. As in, so sore I had to grab onto the toilet paper roll holder on my way down to pee. Maybe if I'm going to keep doing weighted lunges, I should install handicap bars in my bathroom. I hear it's all the rage in bathroom design ... :D.

Well, off to coffee cup #2, then it's time to begin The Roust, which will be followed by The Delay-fish, The Dawdle, and, finally, The Sprint. Those of you with kids know 'zactly what I'm talking about.

Have a great morning, all!

Kim

Kery - I don't have kids, but I can picture that series of events. :lol: That made me chuckle.

Pat - wow, snow! Now that I'm a teacher, I have to say I kind of look forward to snow. I'll take a day off any time I can get it. We don't get THAT much snow around here, but we end up having a few days off due to ice and such.

Ugh, I had to eat my strawberry jam on white bread this morning (my husband's bread -- he refuses to switch to wheat) because I was out of my bread. Bad enough I'm eating all that HFCS, I suppose, but then I threw it on some processed white bread. :lol:

Had parent-teacher conferences last night, and most of the parents just wanted to talk about how much weight I've lost and how I did it. One mother actually said, "Gosh I was hoping I could just take a pill or something," when I told her I ate less and exercised a lot. We all know that's what people want, but it was refreshing when she actually just said it. :lol: Now I'm getting a lot of the "you shouldn't lose any more weight" comments, but those people have no idea what's going on under my clothes!

Scale said 161 this morning, which I'm pretty happy about. :carrot: If it says it again, I'll change my ticker. I've decided to do it that way now -- only change my ticker if I see it twice (since I don't have an "official" weigh-in day anymore).

I'll stop rambling. Hope everyone's day is good!

Kim- I remember being a part of that routine. My favorite move was this: My dad would wake me up. I'd go to use the bathroom...and close the door and laydown on the rug close to the heat and go back to sleep!! When I was younger, my parents said the phrase I used the most was "Hold on!"

I've hovered around 121 this week...I've decided I just want to focus on flattening my tummy and sculpting abs. If I lose a few more pounds, ok then!

Driving AGAIN this weekend...back to Athens for the big Georgia v.Auburn game. Of course gas prices are sky-rocketing when I'm driving every weekend! Luckily when I'm actually IN Athens, I don't drive much like I did last weekend in S.GA....I'm also seeing my ex-boyfriend for the first time since I broke up with him. I'm not sure what I'm feeling.

ok..off to get ready and finish packing up. Have a great Friday everyone!

Hey everyone!

My boss talked me into applying for a permanent position within the city (right now, I'm a temp). I'd be doing some of the things I'm currently doing, except I'd be using more brain power and getting a significantly bigger paycheck. He is going to put a very good word in for me, and since he has a position of authority, I have a better chance at this position than a person applying from the outside would.

So... prayers, thoughts, and positive vibes would be greatly appreciated! I REALLY want this job; I'd get a GREAT salary (hard to come by here), a GREAT benefits package, and a chance to finally work with people instead of just a computer.

Lisa - :lol: I don't know about you, but I HATE when people ask me how I did it because they don't REALLY want to know. Like you said, more often than not, they just want to pop a pill and suddenly become a magic success story! People are so, so freakin' LAZY.

DG - that's a good decision you made - just worrying about sculpting your abs. I'm doing the same thing, since I don't think my body will let me get down to or stay at my original "ultimate goal" of 125.
Gas prices these days ARE outlandish. And I'm sure the 'dawgs will beat Athens... if they beat the Gators, they can beat anyone ;)

Morning!

Yup, they get this disappointed look on their faces as if they wanted to borrow my magic wand or something.

My neighbourhood looked about like Pat's this week but it's already gone. I only had to scrape my car once.

Oops! I just realized I called Kim Kery -- I really do know the difference! I'm sorry! (I was half asleep when I posted, so I'm lucky if any of it makes sense...)

TGIF! It is getting downright chilly here, but not nearly as cold as where Pat is! Hang in there, Pat.

It's at least a relief that once this thing is out of my foot it should be a fast recovery, not a persistent problem. The extra-strong Aleve is helping a lot, so I'm not feeling much pain. And Jessica, I also wonder if it's been in there for years and just not been poking anything vital until now. I want to see what it is when the Dr. pulls it out, maybe that will give me a clue! I have to wait a few weeks though. In the meantime I did 15 minutes of elliptical yesterday and when I had to make myself stop I realized how much I really am addicted to working out. This is a good thing! (I think!)

Shane, ooh, big paychecks are nice, benefits are nice, jobs we like are nice. I'm sending good wishes you way. :crossed: When do you find out if you got it?

DGAdDawg, I agree, sounds like focusing on flattening & sculpting rather than the scale will be better for your mindset. I know, we're all feeling the gas prices! Right before Thanksgiving too.

LisaMarie, you don't know about the magic pills???

Just kidding. Yup, I get that too. "How did you do it?"..."I eat less and exercise more." "Ohhh...:("

Kim, you could start a trend in bathroom design!

Tomorrow night I'm going to a bachelorette party for a friend who's getting married over Thanksgiving. I expect nothing but craziness from these 11 women who are going. Good thing I'll have Monday off to recover. What are everyone else's plans? Have a great weekend everyone!

I get the "How'd you do it?" too! A woman I used to work with asked me and I just said "I stopped eating out as much and starting walking a lot(to and from campus, all around campus). SHe was like "Oh...I don't eat out much. But I don't walk". What? Its the cheapest and easiest exercise out there!

I think it's Meg who talks about when folks say ".... I don't eat much ..." Red lights go off for me too. I think they probaby eat waaay more than they think.
I know this from personal experience ;)

Walking is the easiest and cheapest exercise. That's how I started out! 4 miles 6 times a week. I wish I could keep doing it but a job got in the way!!!

I'm struggling with my weight but I have big plans. This weekend I'm going to do a lot of planning and will cut out breads and pastas for the next month to get back on track.

DD and I met her photographer yesterday and he unveiled her "composite." When we went for her senior shoot a few weeks ago, she brought her band uniforms and several instruments. He took the best of those shots and made a composite that will hang in his front window for the next few months! As soon as I get the photos, I'll scan it and post it. I'm quite proud! In the mean time, here is one of them:

http://www.markdavidsonphotography.com/Seniors.html

I know, there are a lot of kids on that page (and I know the majority of them!), but Dana's is on the second to last row, middle--the one with the bass guitar. Here is another from last year's jazz band:

http://www.markdavidsonphotography.com/Groups.html#7

Okay, enough bragging. Gotta get to work! HAve a great day everyone!

And me! I thought I didn't eat all that much (I wasn't stuffed to the gills *every* day, just *most* of the time ;)), but I really ate an average of 2,500 calories (frighteningly more if I ate out!:eek:) and rarely exercised. Oooooops.

Megan - I applied today. The deadline for applying is November 11th, then I have to take some tests on the 13th. I made my appointment - the tests will be very easy, as they are just tests on typing and Microsoft applications.
If they like my application, I will get booked for an interview in front of a panel of 12 judges. If the judges like me, then I'll probably get called back for a SECOND interview. If they like me more than my biggest competitors, then I will get the job. :faint: That's why I need all the positive vibes and prayers I can get!
Oh. It's getting very cold here, too. For the last few days, I've been able to see my breath in the morning!

The job sounds great Shane! Good luck with it! Permanent jobs with benefits are much nicer than temporary ones. :)

Pat, I don't envy your snow at all. It hardly ever snows here, which makes me happy. When I lived in the northeast, I found snow to be a giant pest. It's really pretty for about 20 minutes and then you have to shovel it and cars and pollution make it all turn brown and nasty. And plus, it's empirical proof that it's very cold. <shivers>

You know, people never ask me how I lost weight. When I did my big weight loss a couple of years ago, from 185 to 143, everyone was very complimentary and stuff, but no one interrogated me about my methods. Perhaps just because no one else I knew was overweight...

I just got back from having my body fat tested. I've dropped 4.1% since the last time, to 16.6%. Yay! I've had 3 tests now, each 12 weeks apart, and between the first and the second I only went from 22.2 to 20.5, and this time from 20.5 to 16.6. My plan to turn my body into a calorie burning furnace is evidently working. :)

:wave: Morning! It did warm up to the 40's yesterday, so a lot of snow melted, but then it was in the 20's overnight, so what's left is icy and crunchy. :shrug: I live in Alaska, what did I expect? But like Baff, I'd be ever so happy living where it doesn't snow. My DH, however, doesn't feel the same way! We talk about moving somewhere else when I retire (he already is) but we can't decide on a place, esp one that we can afford. We really like to travel though, and doing it from Alaska automatically adds the cost and time of a plane trip to Seattle to any trip.

Small NSVs here. Both the pants I had on yesterday and the jeans I'm wearing today are loose :D And I have my shirt tucked in..... Time to start looking in my closet store for the next size down. :lol: Also had a good hour in the gym last night, UBWO plus my PT knee exercises and about 20 minutes split between elliptical and treadmill. (I have to admit I moved to the treadmill as the TV hookup on the elliptical was cutting out, and I wanted to hear the news :o )


Good vibes coming your way Shane! I work for a city too, and while at some levels the pay is not as good as private jobs, the security and benefits more than make up for it.

Nice photos Allison. You have a lovely daughter.

Afternoon all! My hiney is dragging today! Long story short woke up this morning at 3 am to a "hot" smell in the house, after checking the house inside and out ourselves we were unable to find anything and called the Fire Department to come check for our peace of mind. After 45 minutes of checking wall, attic and floors with their thermal device the were unable to find any hot spots and left. Still feeling leary I stayed up and the smell got worse. I then noticed the furnace sounded funny. Woke my DH again and sure enough the side of the funace was black and very HOT.

We have had it checked today, its done. I thank my lucky stars that we were home at the time, had it been during the day it would have caught fire. Furnace guy also told us it was putting out carbon monoxide! Despite the financial strain this will cause I am happy we are safe, this could have been so much worse! I will buy a carbon monoxide dector today and urge everyone else to do so if you don't already have one!

Hope you all have a great day! May everyone have a guardian angel like mine on their shoulders today!

Good morning, everyone!

Shane, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you on the job prospect. I'm sure you have a great shot at it and will make a great impression in the interview. Can you tell us about the type of work you would be doing? That's so cool that your boss is championing for you!

People ask me all the time how I lost the weight and I'm always tongue-tied. There was no magic pill or formula. Just eat less, move more. I think the rules are pretty simple and most people know what they are but I'm constantly surprised to find when they don't have a clue.

Baff, that's GREAT about your body fat. What type of method was use to measure your body fat? I had a trainer use the calipers on me many months ago and I was something like 30 percent. Egads! My Tanita scale still says it's something like that. I would love to get it down but am not having much luck even though I'm doing lots of weight training and cardio.

Thanks for suggesting I try photobucket, shane. I have included a few before and after links in my signature. I wish I could just post one link to before and after photos like I have seen others here do, but I ran out of time to futz with it and am just going to go with this for now.

Have a good day! I'm eating on plan and desperate to get down to 135 but the scale won't budge from 138-140. Grrrr....

Oh, and Allison your daughter is beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing the photos. My Alison is a junior and plays the piano and string bass in the school orchestra. We have a lot in common. My son (he's 22 and just about to graduate from college with a CIS degree) plays the drums. We definitely have a musical household. DH plays the clarinet and listens to music ALL the time. I am not the slightest bit musical and love hearing everyone playing. I LOVE my iPod too...

Pam

Pam

Ooh Stephanie: scary!! I'm so glad you caught the problem before something terrible happened.

Pam, I get it done at the Y and she uses the 3 point caliper test. I figure these things are always estimates at a certain level, and the important thing (as with scales) is consistency. I'd be shocked if yours really was 30% though. at 5'7 and 139 lb with weight training, it must certainly be lower, no?

Oh my goodness Pam, my first thought when I saw your before and after picture is that you accidentally put a picture of your mom up for your before picture. I swear you dropped 20 years when you lost weight. You look great!

Pam, I love your before and after pictures. You're a pretty lady :) And I second Tammy's opinion - you look SO much younger without the weight!

As for what type of work I would be doing, the title I'm applying for is "senior staff assistant" - this means that I would be researching and responding to inquiries and complaints, preparing and monitoring the city budget, composing informational and promotional material, processing accounts payable, and the job description continues. I'm currently a temporary staff assistant, though the thing I do most here is technical writing and editing of the city's progression through training program (it's a program that offers job-specific classes to employees and offers them bonus incentives). The job I'm trying to get will have me doing some of the same things I'm already doing, except with more responsibilities (which I don't mind) and a MUCH better salary :D

Pacergal - EEEEK! Glad to hear everything is ok! That must have been quite creepy to KNOW there was something burning and have the fire department tell you otherwise. What really surprises me, though, is that they did not check the furnace! That is one of the first places I would look.

baffled, DAMN, 16% body fat? Now, um, a part of me is asking, "How did you DO IT?" Pam wants to know, too! Spil spill spill!

Allison - your daughter is beautiful with well-shaped eyebrows and pretty eyes. :)

Pat - ooh, out of curiousity, what do you do for your city? And yeah - city jobs are very secure. You'll never get rich working for a city, but you will get a great pension, have the option of retiring after 20 years, and amazing benefits all across the board.

As for snow, I used to live up in Virginia (near DC) where it snowed all the time. I don't miss the snow very much. It's pretty to look at, but a pain to deal with (ESPECIALLY when you're trying to get out for work! All that shoveling and bad driving conditions = EUGH!)
CONGRATS on your NSV, by the way. :)

Shane -- I'm crossing my fingers for you. That sounds like an awesome opportunity, I hope you'll get that job! :)

LisaMarie -- Okay, and I was wondering what you were talking about. :lol: I was almost afraid I had posted something weird without remembering it.

Stephanie -- Now that was some luck. It's really a good thing you were home and managed to catch that one before it became really dangerous.

And yeah, so often people ask, but actually don't want to know. It's just so weird. They prefer starve themselves drinking nothing but shakes all day long, or silly things like that, but eating less, more healthily and moving more doesn't sound appealing. This is mind-boggling. (I once tasted some Slim Fast stuff. Boy, was that awful. I don't think anyone deserve to inflict THAT on their bodies!)

Thanks, Shane. and that sounds like a great job, one you would be good at. You seem so articulate and are a smart cookie. I can tell!

Lisa, thanks for the compliments. I defintely feel a lot younger. I have completely gutted my closet and love shopping for hipper styles, not too hip though. I have a 16yo dd and a 22yo son! :)

I don't know about the body fat, Baff. I feel like I still have quite a bit of chub around my belly and above my bra strap. I hate that stuff and wish I could get it to come off. I'll just keep on keeping on, I guess. I'll be working with a new trainer soon and I'll get another test with the calipers done. I know they can vary depending on who does the test but I figure this will be my new baseline starting point. Maybe I'm not training hard enough. I do 45-50 minutes of what I feel is pretty high intensity cardio a day, and about 20 minutes of weight training (one day upper body, the next day lower body, the third day core, rinse and repeat with one day of rest a week). Maybe I should do less cardio and spend more time on weights...

Pam

Only got a second and only skimmed a bit.

I get 2 kinds of people with the "how did you do it" The one type who know I run hope its just exercise and no diet. That if you just work out enough you can skip dieting. Then there are the other ones who see me around town eating out and marvel at the concept that anyone could still lose weight while eating pizza and icecream. Because the only weight loss they know is starve until you cant take it any more and then give up.

Made a slight mistake this morning. I went to the gym at 9 after dropping dd of at school and was planning on weights then cardio. Well about halfway through the weights they started feeling REALLY heavy. Oh yeah, I FORGOT to eat carbs this morning. I had my normal omelet, but forgot to make the carbs to go with it :lol3: ooops. By the time I got to cardio I was toast. Or in this case NO toast.

Pam your before and afters are amazing! Job Well Done!

Shane I agree about the fire department not checking the furnace, scary. Now that I have had time to digest it all it only makes sense since the smell was throughout the house and not in an isolated spot, but at 3 am there were some serious cobwebs in the brain. BTW good luck with the job, my fingers are crossed for you!

Shane, I am the library director here, and will soon also be managing the ice arena and the airport (well, managing the people who actually run said facilities). But, I'm old enough to be your grandmother! :eek: In any case, that job sounds great, and a place where you'd get to shine. :crossed:

Hi everyone, We are having a big cookout tomorrow for DH's birthday (that was last week while he was at work). Expecting 25 people. I am making him a cake and brownies, but I feel I'll be strong enough to resist it. I made sure I planned for plenty of healthy foods for me to eat. Since I'm doing strict SB induction now, my cravings are gone and I don't want to screw this up.

I did find recipes for SF pies at foodnetwork.com. So thanksgiving dessert will be SF.

We had fun at Karoke last night. I've really came out of my shyness, LOL.

Today was spent cleaning house and doing yardwork for upcoming cookout. Now, I'm gonna go hit my treadmill.

I get that a lot too. They say "Oh, well she runs all the time," as if that's the only thing that made me lose weight and if you're not a runner you can just forget it or something. :lol: What do they think I did in the beginning, when I couldn't run two feet without stopping?

I wore a new pair of size 10 jeans tonight and I just bought them the other day -- they were actually baggy, kind of falling off. So I'm wearing my other new jeans tomorrow - size 8. :) They were too small when I bought them.

Cross country state meet tomorrow -- woohoo!! I hope my boys do well!

Lily - I hope you do well with the temptation -- I ate two brownies tonight!