Flex Talk #8
 

Here's a place where we can discuss Flex and WW, as well as issues of our everyday lives. New Flexers are always welcome, so please join in, to give and get support and encouragement on your weight loss journey.

Flexers that attend meetings, At-Home Flexers, and anyone just curious about Flex are all welcome here.

Just creating a new thread at the moment, I'll be replying in a bit! :)

Here's the link to #7 if anyone needs it: http://3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=140168

I'm glad you made a new thread Faerie! I couldn't keep up with the old one. I'll be trying harder with this one :) Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Hope – So glad to see you’re still around and that you’re back on track. Keep posting & sticking to plan! :hug:

Xonnel - :wel3fc: We’re all buddies here, telling eachother how we’re doing, keeping everyone accountable. There’s a weigh-in thread for each month so everyone knows what’s going on. Keep on posting!

Institches – Keep us updated with how Core works out for you! :goodluck:

Kim – That hiking sounds like quite a work-out! :D

Chey – Fat Friday? :rofl: Oh my gosh, each and every week having to deal with that would be crazy! Good idea to bring a veggie platter for at least a slightly healthier option.

Vday – Awesome job on the loss this week! Looks like you’ve broken through that plateau. Keep it up! :broc:

Lizzy – So sorry John is sick! :( Ick! I hope it’s not catching.

Heather – I’m hoping your boy gets back to you soon! How long has he been MIA? Good luck with the chiropractor. And… welcome to the club! I’m moving back in with the ‘rents at the end of the month. :p

Mod – Here are some sunshiny thoughts :goodvibes :sunny: I know… it can feel so “blah” and then when we step off plan we feel even more… “blah”.

Shannon – I hope the party went well!

Free & Suite – Yeah… there must’ve been something in the air! :dizzy: I didn’t do horribly last night with points (only used one FP), but I had a vicious sweet tooth! So, I ate more in sweets than I should’ve.

:wave: to everyone!

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This weekend was pretty busy.

Wedding Stuff:
So… I bought a wedding dress! I was caught between two… but this one really seems to suit me. (The other would’ve been better if I was having a larger/church wedding. It was… my gosh it was like a Queen Elizabeth dress. Thick, heavy, plunging neckline, lace & sparkle & GIANT bellsleeves… crazy-ultimate fairytale princess dress.) The one I decided on is simpler, A-line, ivory, with long sheer bell sleeves and just the lightest bit of sparkle. Better for the occasion, and better for me. :yes: Get this, it’s only the tiniest bit snug, and it’s a size 18!!!! I’m now a loose 20, so I think I’m seriously heading into size 18 territory. I won’t be getting it altered until September, but maybe by then it might even be the tiniest bit loose, too! Squee! Also, I decided on this small tiara piece for my hair. It has two ribbons attached that I’ll have weaved into my hair. It’s all together got a hint of Renaissance flair. Which is what I was looking for.

/end wedding stuff

My sister, mother & I got some pictures taken together for a Mother’s Day present. They came out really sweet.

Sunday I went down to my parents’ place & cleaned out the room that will be mine for 5 months. It’s all set for me to move now. *whew* One less thing to worry about. Normally I don’t count cleaning as exercise, but this took awhile, and there was a lot of junk and things.

So that’s that for me. I hope you’re all having great Mondays!

Kim - So how'd the horse stuff go this weekend? Do you have a new member of your family? :) I've never gone looking for mushrooms, it sounds like fun!

institches - It's definitely worth switching to core if you think it will help you. Almost every time I hear people saying they've switched, they lose weight in their first week. You're always welcome here though, no matter what you decide to do! Keep us posted!

ifindhope - THERE you are. I was wondering about you, missy. Glad to see you again! :hug:

Xonnel - welcome! I'm in the same boat as you, was on WW before, lost weight, gained it al back (and then some). Congrats on your success with Medifast. I've vaguely heard of P90x, good luck with your killer bod development :p

Chey - what the heck is FAT FRIDAY??? That sounds terrible! I bet if you brought a veggie platter this Friday you'd find you're not the only one to be grateful for it. I think we overestimate each other's desires for junk food sometimes. :/

vday - I said it in the WI thread but I'll say it again, I am SO HAPPY FOR YOU. I know you really worked your butt off this week to get those pounds off and it totally happened for you. Congrats, you definitely deserved it! :D :D So are you going to continue doing the same no sugar/no FPs thing, or are you going to add in a few FPs this week?

sonja - volunteering, eh? what sort of projects were you working on? and I'm right there with ya on the bad eating this weekend.... But I don't have rain to blame, or being homebound with a sick roommate....

heather - I think boys might just do that sometimes. Give him a little time :) I hope you get your weird pain stuff sorted out.

modkitten - HURRAY for disney! When are you going?

shannon - happy birthday to your grandfather :) Take a deep breath, slow down, you'll be okay! :)

free - aw, girl nights are so fun. good for you stopping when you were full though. I definitely didn't when I was in that situation yesterday :p

Faerie - Aw, I'm so happy you found a wedding dress. It sounds gorgeous. As does your headpiece. Are you wearing a veil? And woohoo on the sizing, you know dress sizes tend to run small so that's especially encouraging! My wedding dress was a 20 but I wear a 14 in pants. Go figure :/

As for me, we had the most gorgeous weather ever. It was so nice being out in the country on a nice sunny, breezy day. My downfall was that my friend with the terrible eating habits and tendency to shove junk towards me came with us... It was just going to be me and DH but I invited her at the last minute because she was getting kind of depressed and stir-crazy here... I don't know why I did really but I did. Anyway, she came with like 6 bags of chips, a pie, ice cream, and lots of beer. I'm not blaming anything on her specifically because I know I made the choice to consume a bunch of stuff alongside her, but these things wouldn't have made it up there with us if she hadn't come. Anyway, not placing blame, just acknowledging that it was a TERRIBLE weekend food-wise. I know I ate at least my weekly 35 already. :/

On the plus side, I've been doing some good exercising. I biked home from work Friday (which I am very proud of myself for doing), DH and I went for a long ride on Saturday, I went for a jog Sunday morning, then did some upper body stuff with free weights while watching TV in the evening. I have to say, I feel I'm getting way better at jogging than I used to. My legs get tired before I get desperately out of breath, so I guess my cardio health is improving! I brought my bike to work again today so another bike ride is in my future.... It's just so hard to resist being outside and active when the weather's so nice!

Okay, enough out of me. I have a project due Wednesday at work and I am SO behind it's not even funny. Have a good day everyone.

Faerie - Your dress sounds beautiful, and so does the tiara. I think I personally would have gone for the same dress as you did, the simpler one. That's such a nice idea for your mom for mother's day. Maybe when I get home in July I will arrange for me and my brother to do that with my mom too. I think my mom would love it, especially as my brother plans to move out of the house this summer, and with me already gone, mom has completely emptied her nest! :)

Suite - I wish I had stopped eating ahead of time. 20 or so points worth of junk - junk that wasn't even that great - makes me feel so gross. It sounds like your weekend in the country was really nice, even if your eating habits took a bit of a dive. I was good all week and then it gets to the weekend and it ends up being a total flop. I'm not even hungry today and skipped lunch entirely. At least you are exercising to balance it out... I haven't even stepped on my stepper since I got back from home over spring break! It's awful! I'm glad your weather is so nice that you can get outside and do active outdoor exercise - it is definitely the best type! It's really humid-warm here but still cloudy and so we haven't quite hit the nice spring sunshine for sure yet. I hope it comes soon!! Good luck on your project! It must be hard to be inside working on it when the weather is so nice!

Today is a holiday in the UK so I am alternating between watching a film and writing up my research essay. It's almost finished, and I'm slightly ahead of schedule with my four essays that are due by the end of the month, so I'm pretty happy about that. This one was a lot easier to write than I expected, so now I fear for the difficulty I'll be facing with the other three!

Here's to another great week of being on plan. I know I need it! Have a good Monday!

hi and i hope you had a nice weekend..
I was SOOO proud of myself for NOT eating one Piece of cake, Chips, pretzels, doritos or anything else last night. to be totally honest, i did not even feel like i wanted it. i was not really even tempted so i was proud to say that because that means i am going in the right direction and it shows me that i can do this weight loss thing.
If i would not be serious i would have eaten that WHOLE cake i swear!!
So not wanting it showed me that i do have will power and that i can do this, huge step for me..

Anyway sorry to ramble just very excited to weigh in on friday. I hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Take care all


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Mornin' Chickies :D

Sounds like everyone had quite the eventful weekend. I did too, but more on that later.

Faerie - your dress sounds beautiful! How exciting that you got everything picked out AND it's a smaller size! Woohoo!

Suite- I'm glad you had a good weekend albeit trying. I wouldn't deal well with all of that food around either. Too enticing.

Shannon- Good job with the willpower. It can be so difficult. Funny how our successful weigh-ins motivate us, isn't it?

Freedom- keep pluggin' away. You'll get there. ;)

Everyone else- :wave:

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Busy weekend here. We did go look at that horse. We didn't buy her. I have two, I don't need more, but we were going to help out my cousin if needed. We went out to eat after that. I had a salad with grilled chicken on it and two Captain and Diet Cokes. :p

Yesterday I went mushroom hunting in the morning (lots of playing in the woods :D) and went riding in the afternoon. I have no idea how many activity pts I earned. It's so hard to calculate because they weren't meant as specific exercise sessions, but I was in the woods for about an hour. I brushed and worked hard at grooming horses for about an hour before we rode then we rode for at least two hours. I simply could not make myself get out of bed to work out this morning! :o I was exhausted from yesterday.

All of my activity yesterday allowed me to stay OP and stay out of the kitchen cabinets. It was a wonderful feeling to not have to fight the junk food that normally would've been calling my name. I am planning on mushroom hunting/hiking after work today to make up for my lack of working out this morning.

One thing I need to note is that I sometimes feel limitied by WW's guidelines of only using 4 APs per day regardless of how many you earn. I earn 7 AP's every Thursday during dance class and I'm sure I earned at least that many yesterday. I was famished. I guess that's how we learn what our body really does/doesn't need though. I tend to be an extremely active person when the weather is cooperative. It's the days that I have to drag myself away from the house/computer that I really need those guidelines!:dizzy:

Faerie - CONGRATS on the small size!! :) and it sounds amazing. when is your wedding going to be?

Suite - ARGH! to friends and their bringing food you shouldn't eat. i'd have the same problem. i need it OUT of my face and not at all available to not eat it. next week's a new week!

Shannon - CONGRATS on not even wanting those foods!! you definitely are going in the right direction.

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as for me, let's see. i didn't do all that fantastic this weekend as we had a little birthday party for my memere (grandma). i felt BAD not eating cake.. honestly. for a few reason's.. it's my MEMERE, haha, there were VERY few of us there and my mom being so tight on money since my dad passed away bought the cake for us, it just seemed wrong for me.. and i know thats just my emotions. my mom bought low fat ice cream though! it was all good, i ended up doing ok i DID have the cake and a little ice cream, which i prepared for anyways. what i didn't prepare for was getting take out... i did the best i could, a chicken salad with dressing FROM my grandma's which i used very little. i estimated to have used the rest of my flex on all that.. and will just stay within my points til weigh-in. i'm anxious to see but won't be too upset. next week's a new week.

my problem here is feeling bad when people offer things/buy me things. like i went to a friend's little sister's horse show in the morning. ate breakfast at home and planned to be back before lunch. but then friend's mom has bought me a sandwich. what do i do? she specifically bought it for me.. i felt rude saying no thank you. so i took it.. (SALAMI and CHEESE?! UGH) haha. i picked out the cheese and half the bread to make it less points. but still i already planned to save most points for the cake. it's situations like this i feel stuck. but... that's why it's the FLEX plan right, things happen. i just wish i could kindly say no sometimes... i do all this planning and then something gets thrown at me.

but anyways, i'm off to celebrate cinco de mayo... haha not really. more like sit and keep my friend company/help her cram for exams while we sip ONE margarita that we each saved the points for.

oh yes, i dunno if any of you remember but this friend is back on ww with me. i dunno if this is a good or bad thing cause i try to convince her she can do it.. but she goes over points, doesnt plan, etc. DESPITE me saying... and then when she doesn't lose gets SUPER upset and even when things are pointed out NICELY what she did wrong/could change she doesn't see it/agree. sigh .. well what can ya do. just keep helping her the best i can, eventually it'll sink in haha usually when she thinks she came up with this super idea (not realizing she's been hearing it over and over) haha.

keep up the awesome work everyone :) talk soon.

sorry i just realize when i type things, i seriously type one long RUN ON SENTENCE.. ahhhhhhhhhh. my apologies if anyone actually reads it :blush:

ifindhope: I know exactly what you mean about the friend who gets upset when she can't lose weight on the program, i feel so bad....but it's like you want to shake them and make them undestand, but the best we can do is be supportive and informative ,right?:hug:

faerie: the dress sounds so beautiful! You should definetly post pictures as soon as the big day rolls around!:carrot:

Faerie - That dress sounds beautiful! I have always been partial to more simple styling for myself as well. Probably from wearing too many bridesmaid dresses that were designed by the "Gone With the Wind" stylist! The last one I had to wear we had to use hoops! 225 lb woman dressed in blueberry blue with white lace around the neck and my girls bursting out the top! LOL.... I look at the pictures and grimace...

Suite - I know precisely what you went through this last weekend! I went through it as well! My son and his friend came up for the weekend from college and stopped at the store and brought chips, soda pop, chip dip, chocolate... and DORITOS! And of course when they left Sunday they didn't take any of it!

Paintfancy - Yum.. mushrooms! Hubby would love to go horseback riding.. however, my one and only time that I rode wasn't a good experience for me.. and boy was my behind sore!

ifindhope.... keep your chin up regarding your friend! We all know what would be best for her, but if she does what she has done in the past she just isn't ready.

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As for me, I hinted a bit at my weekend above. My son - love him to death, decided to visit over the weekend from college and brought a friend. He also brought chips, dip, beer, chocolate, and more - all the forbidden items that haven't been in my house for 2 weeks! (He is going to college to be a chef.. lol) I did manage to not sneak anything over the weekend... I am very proud of myself.. but it sure wasn't easy.

Tonight, I did. I ate 4 chips... and then threw the bag away (outside). I realize that I just can't have it around and not eat it. I am going to have to ask him to not do that again.. lol

I also had a follow up appointment with my doc regarding my kidney stone issue. Still had a trace of blood in my urine so now I get to have another CT scan with what they call contrast.. lol - the nurse brought be these 2 huge bottles of 'stuff' I have to drink... she said it tastes like berries so it shouldn't be so bad. I asked her if she has tasted it, she said no.. lol. OK - so I said then how does she know it tastes ok? So, I have to fast on Thursday and then drink these 2 huge bottles of supposedly berry tasting stuff (wonder how many points they are? There is no nutritional info on the bottle.. :rofl: )

Did I mention that is also the day our oldest son's wife is going in for her Cesserian? We are going to be grandparents! They are having a girl, but won't tell anyone what her name is going to be. So, after fasting, having tests, seeing our new granddaughter I am going to want to eat... <sigh> not sure if I will want any roughage... maybe soup.

Note on Fat Fridays.. what FF is about... staff bring in dishes and usually they are snack stuff and there is nothing healthy about it. We have that once a month. People sign up to bring stuff and list what they are bringing, so I do have plenty of warning.

CHEY,
sounds like you got alot going on,, Congrats on the new grandbaby... I bet you are so excited to see her. Again congrats on not eating a thing your son brought home this weekend.. Maybe you should get him to cook you some healthy meals since he is home..(HAHA)
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I have not been to faithful the past 2 days with walking on the treadmill so tonight after i went to the chiropractor i did end up walking a mile. I feel that it is better then nothing. Tomorrow i am going to get my butt in gear and get those walks in. Tried to get all my points in today was of by 2 so that is better then where i was comming in at. sorry to ramble,, Just wanted to chat!!



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Hey Flex Folk!

I survived the weekend :cool: I didn't have such a bad weekend. Sorry so many of you were struggling!

Faerie Thanks for the condolences for my friend. I hope I did him proud singing...I thought it went pretty well. He wrote a "personal" memorial flyer-handout thing for the funeral about a year ago, and the first line was "My dear friends, I am gone..." Oh, lordy, I just stuffed it in my purse for later, 'cause I knew if I kept reading I'd start crying and never be able to get it together in time to sing. Whew...

CONGRATS on the dress! It sounds lovely, and the size IS exciting, like Jaime said, the bridal stuff tends to run small so you might be in a regular dress 16 now! WHOO. Anyway, it is great that you found something you are happy with and will feel confident in, I am sure you will be a beautiful bride. All your inner beauty shows here on the message boards in your kind interactions with others and I am sure that comes thru in person as well :D

Suite Exercise sounds good! Good for you for doing some damage control, and what a generous friend you are for sharing your weekend!

Vday :encore: I'm so glad your plan paid off! Way to stick with it and see some reward!

Free hang in there, it's so hard to choose responsibility when it's a holiday, I bet you'll feel great when you're done with it all!

Ifindhope I like your new avatar picture, you look like you are having lot of fun:D On your friend, sounds like you are doing your best to encourage, but she won't stay seriously on plan until it is important to her...WW does work...all of us who've been successful are proof...sigh, oh well...what can ya do?

Paint You sound like me on "dogs" regarding the horse...sometimes enough is enough ;) Horsey stuff does really add up in calories burned! The mushroom hunting is really cool. It sounds like you are listening to your body regarding the AP's and eating ... and it seems like you've lost at a pretty good clip since I've been around in late January...it is up to you how fast you want things to happen with your body, some days I think we really do need a bit more food. I think you are right on that...the WW guidelines are a suggestion to keep things moving of course, but if things are already moving for you, it is good to figure out what level of modification to the plan works in your situation. In the online tools you re-take your points quiz if your daily activity level changes and etc...a very active person does get a few more points every day compared to a more sedentary person of the same height and weight. Just a thought.

Shannon1983 and JoDolce :wave:

Mod--glad you are going to Disney, have fun!

Chey What a lot of emotional stuff! Congrats on the new grandbaby, HOW exciting! And you are getting healthier...exciting too! Hope the test goes Ok. Take some WW friendly food to the hospital to share. Babies are the best! Enjoy every moment!

Well, I'm outta time...HI to ALL I've missed.

I am way OP today... lots of exercise and lots of controlled eating. And we DID buy a car on Saturday, finally. A used Subaru Outback with low miles and a SUNROOF...whoo! Our first. It feels really nice to have bright light.
When I feel the winter blahs I can go sit in the car! Ha.

Will try to check in tomorrow.

Take care! Hope everyone has a good week.

No time to reply to all, I do hope to do that tomorrow, so busy..too much to do, not enough hrs in the day :dizzy: I did get to squeeze in a walk yesterday and today, so beautiful, hate to let it go to waste. :D

Well on day 5 of core, I do miss my fiber one with my yogurt, but I'm sure it will be worth it. :crossed: will let you know on Thursday

Sounds like everyone had a great weekend. I will talk to you all tomorrow, have a great one.

Hey girls!

Institches - you can still have your yogurt w/fiber one, just count it towards your 5 pts you get for the day. Good luck with your results. Hopefully this will be the shake up your body needs.

Manick- good point on re-checking my pts. I so want to get to goal and it's going waaaaay tooooooo sloooooooowly for my taste! Congrats on the new car, it sounds like fun!

Shannon- good job on the walk. Keep going. Exercise is fun when you do what you like. ;)

Chey- That's crazy on the Fat Friday thing. We have "Cake night" at dance class the second Thursday of every month. It's similar to your Fat Friday. I haven't been bringing anything, so that tends to keep me out of everyone else's food. My mindset is that if I don't contribute, I can't eat. It doesn't always work. On the days that I really want to eat, I bring veggies. My hb use to be a chef years ago. He loves to cook. Now his challenge is how healthy he can make my food! :D

ifindhope- I allow myself to have a small taste of cake and ice cream when I go to these things, but I make sure to document the points. You bite, you write. I find it helps my mentality if I don't completely restrict myself from foods.

JoDolce- :wave:

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Well, I had another night filled with mushroom hunting, grooming horses and a short bareback ride. I was angry with DH, so I took my frustrations out on the horse's winter hair. The angrier I get, the better they look, LOL!

I've been OP all week, but I'm still worried that I'm going to miss that 30lb mark tomorrow. My body is struggling to lose right now. It likes it where it's at. I know that I probably need to push myself up a notch, but in all honesty with the amount of activity I already get, I'm afraid that I won't be able to maintain a lot lower. I know I need to keep going. I still have plenty of weight to go. I set my lifetime goal at the highest point on my weight bracket, but gosh. I guess you could say that I'm just riding it out right now. I'm not giving up, but I no longer expect the miracles I use to get on the scale 20lbs ago. I got lots of compliments this weekend from people I haven't seen in 6mos or so, but it's hard when you know in your head that you should try harder to go further and really knock everyone's socks off, you know?

Well now, I'm just the rambler this afternoon! :^: