Hi Gina! Nice to be back. I LOVED your driver's license picture story! That is awesome .... ahhhhhhhhhhh the little things that really do mean so much.

Judy .... loved your new picture. I read all about the Honor Flight, I'm so excited for you that you got to go. I imagine it was very emotional. I took my dad out to the Loveland airport this summer to see the old bombers when they were in town, and just talking to the veterans is always moving.

Regarding the lemon in the water ..... there are some things they say that I just never understood or buy into. Our center said it alters the chemistry of the water. Well, as soon as you take a drink of that water it goes to your stomach and mixes with everything else that's in there ... just not that important in my opinion. None of us gained weight by drinking too much water with a little lemon in it. And I just looked at a bottle of lemon juice I had in the fridge --- 0 calories, 0 carbs, 0 sugar. Like I said earlier, there were a few things, I just ignored. I am not in any way recommending ignoring what the plan is, however. I just needed the plan to fit my lifestyle and what I knew what little tweaks I would make that would not alter results but would make it a lot easier for me.

Originally Posted by ShineOn:
Judy – I woke up this morning thinking of you. It’s good to hear that your trip to DC went well. We missed you posting. I’m starting week 3 of stabilization on Saturday and I have really been struggling with hunger this week. Not sure if it’s the carbs or mental since I’m down to 2 HNS per day. I haven’t had any repeats from my new fruit or carb choices, so I can’t quite narrow down if it’s a trigger – ugh!

Gina, I found on stabilization/maintenance that I can't have the dairy AND the fruit AND the bread for breakfast - it's just too much sugar for my system & sets me up for cravings all day. What worked for me was to have less dairy & fruit - I'd eat my usual "green menu" breakfast & add a small fruit yogurt (the Dannon Light & Fit is what they recommended here). That kept the cravings at bay & gave me a little of the dairy & fruit without pushing me over the edge. (Or if I wanted grapefruit or melon I'd skip the dairy altogether.) Same at lunch - I'm not really a milk-drinker, unless it's on cereal, so I ate a lot of yogurt, but I do like those small (4 oz) containers of the Light & Fit & could buy them in variety packs of 12 containers.

Originally Posted by lv2ski2004:

Also my center said the sugar free syrups were not good. You can get flavored splenda packets at the store! Those are yummy.

Tina

I'm wondering what their reasoning is for that - I used the DaVinci syrups with no problems, I just kept in mind that it was part of my daily "sweetener" ration.

YAY SAM!!!!!!!! Congratulations on your wonderful little MJ. I'm glad you and the baby are well, so happy to hear from you. It's nice to see you back. Can't wait to see the pictures!

Dry Skin Supplement?
 

Wow...it took me a while to get caught up on posts...I've only been gone six days.

I'm back from my vacation. It was wonderful. I took some really great fitness classes. I LOVED the stretching classes and Pilates in the Pool and Water Yoga. It made me really thinking about my own fitness level and I came home setting new goals for exercise.

I had a couple of NSVs on the trip. I realized that I can almost cross my legs. It isn't super comfortable yet, but I can do it without my leg flopping to the ground. I also had more than enough room with the airplane seatbelt. I even had to tighten it.

It looks like everyone has had some great losses while I was gone. I am going to go to WI on Friday or Saturday. I always retain a lot of water when flying and no need to disappoint myself since I stayed pretty much completely OP during the entire trip.

Yeah, I think for now I'll just stick with the recipes from the recipes thread. I just tried the lasagna it was great. Plus it will last me FOREVER since I live alone! I'm ok eating the same thing for a while, but after 2-3 weeks i need a change. I'm going to try my best to stick to my guns at Melting Pot, but I'm not going to freak out about it. Stress makes me eat, so I'd better not stress about eating!

Originally Posted by dla:
Wow...it took me a while to get caught up on posts...I've only been gone six days.

I'm back from my vacation. It was wonderful. I took some really great fitness classes. I LOVED the stretching classes and Pilates in the Pool and Water Yoga. It made me really thinking about my own fitness level and I came home setting new goals for exercise.

I had a couple of NSVs on the trip. I realized that I can almost cross my legs. It isn't super comfortable yet, but I can do it without my leg flopping to the ground. I also had more than enough room with the airplane seatbelt. I even had to tighten it.

It looks like everyone has had some great losses while I was gone. I am going to go to WI on Friday or Saturday. I always retain a lot of water when flying and no need to disappoint myself since I stayed pretty much completely OP during the entire trip.

I am so happy for your NSV's!!!! Those were/are both on my list of freedoms and made such an impact on me when I was able to do them. :hug:

Originally Posted by Hvnlymzic:
Hey ladies!
I am back...

Sam!!! So great to see you back, and wonderful to hear about "little" MJ! Can't wait to see pics!

Originally Posted by bfatnomore:
Does anyone have any recommendations for a supplement to take to help with dry skin? My face & lips are horrible (they were before MRC too but seem to have gotten a little worse).

I currently take B-12, B-6, a multi-vitamin & just recently started taking MSM (from WalMart, not MRC).

Any input is greatly appreciated!

I always have had dry skin since moving to Colorado.... I finally started using arbonne products and they made a huge impact. My skin is no longer dry, and it doesn't get oily either. The only issue with arbonne is that it's a member only distributor. I've also used pevonia and it worked really well too!

Originally Posted by dkmd27:

Regarding the lemon in the water ..... there are some things they say that I just never understood or buy into. Our center said it alters the chemistry of the water. Well, as soon as you take a drink of that water it goes to your stomach and mixes with everything else that's in there ... just not that important in my opinion. None of us gained weight by drinking too much water with a little lemon in it. And I just looked at a bottle of lemon juice I had in the fridge --- 0 calories, 0 carbs, 0 sugar. Like I said earlier, there were a few things, I just ignored. I am not in any way recommending ignoring what the plan is, however. I just needed the plan to fit my lifestyle and what I knew what little tweaks I would make that would not alter results but would make it a lot easier for me.

You know I agree with you on that one!

Originally Posted by Hvnlymzic:
Hey ladies!
I am back...and most of you will just see me as another newbie :) I've been off program since January. I found out I was pregnant in December and decided not to stress about food during pregnancy since it took us so long to get pregnant. I didn't want to add stress to something i was already stressed about. Well, I had a great pregnancy...no complications and I gained a TON of weight. Almost all that I lost on plan before getting pregnant. The good news...I have a beautiful baby boy. His name is MJ and he's 3 weeks old (born on the 9th). He was 10lbs 3oz and 20.5in long at birth. He did make me have a c-section though because his big old self wasn't gonna make it out any other way. I've recovered well and am working on psyching myself up for getting back on plan. Right now, Hubby and I are detoxing our house...getting the bad stuff back out. We are also going to only buy good choices when we shop. I will be going it alone for a little while (I put my plan on med. hold) to get back in the swing. I don't wanna use the few months that I have left on my contract to do that...I'd rather go back when I've lost some weight and need to get over a hump.
I'm going to be on the breastfeeding plan, which means I won't lose alot of weight because you really shouldn't while breastfeeding, but I will lose steadily if I eat well simply because I haven't for 10 months. I KNOW I can get this weight off because I did it before.
I'm glad to be back and I am SO proud of several of you for losing as much as you have :)
I'll post a picture of my baby boy soon...he's a doll! He is my inspiration now...I don't want to have bad eating habits when I'm teaching him to eat real food (he gets all the breastmilk/formula he wants for now). I want him to never have to do this weight loss thing.

Welcome back!!!! We've missed you so much, and CONGRATULATIONS on that little love! I'm so happy for you!:hug:

Originally Posted by ShineOn:
Had a NSV yesterday. I finally went to get my drivers license updated. The girl taking the picture said “wow, you’ve really lost a lot of weight”. She picked my brain about the program (she’s pretty thin though). And I got the best picture taken ever – especially considering it’s a driver’s license photo! She even let me keep the old photo for a before and after.

Heck yeah!!!! That's so great! Congratulations!:hug:

[QUOTE=Finz;2387509]

I love your pic!