kind of eerie today on this site! Hmmmm. Maybe everyone is working really hard!?

Just wanted to say that I did my 2 miles this afternoon. Wanted to do more but the body just wasn't willing! I've done a few loads of laundry since i got home, but not much more! Still feeling a bit under the weather! I'm hoping this blasted cold will go a way...and take Aunt Flo with it!!!

Gabrielle...I'm impressed with your miles! You are kicking some serious butt girl...and inspiring me! Way to go, chickie! You'll be getting a haircut and style real soon here!

Donna...aren't we funny with that darned scale??? It's like it owns us!! We have to start being the one in charge here, darn it!!! Drink your water...you know how wine and salty food (burrito) retains water, chickie! That's probably all it is! Happy H20 drinking!!!

Elisha...you sound so sure of yourself! I'm proud of you for that! I know that was not an easy decision for you...or at least I can imagine it wasn't! I hope that things fall into place for you. You've worked so hard! And yea on taking all of those clothes out of your closet! Isn't it a great feeling? I did it litttle by little so it wasn't so noticeable! I remember not too long ago you saying that you didn't think your clothes were getting big...at least you didn't notice! Well, I'm glad you finally noticed!!!! LOL!!! Keep up the great work, Elisha!

And to the rest of ya.....get your butts on this site and post an entry!!! We all want to hear how you are doing. We have to make our fearless leader (who is lounging by the seaside about now! )...proud!!! Let's kick butts chickies and make her proud!!!

Hey People!

Hmm a bit peeved that I STILL ache from doing exercise on Sat, maybe I shouldn't have done more on Sun. I pulled my leg a bit in my sleep last night too so I don't know when I'll be able to do exercise. I made my bf take the cereal bars away! He he. So at least I can't binge on them.

Gabwill- Wow yeah 6.5 miles is an immense accomplishment
Elisha- Yay throwing out clothes, it's fab. I enjoyed it when my mum kindly took in all my size 14 skirts
Donna- Sorry about the scale, hope it behaves itself next time
Lucy- he he I have had times when I've wanted to say that to people (well not quite I'm not sure my IQ is 196!)
Julia- Well done on the 1.5lb. Mmm your menu sounds great I could eat it right now and it's 9am!

Dill

Julie, you are such a sweet heart!!! Thanks for the encouragement! Good for you on your two miles. I have not done anything like that in over a week now. And the 1.5!!! Way cool!

Dill, I'm sorry you are in such pain. How frustrating. It's bad enough to finally get the motivation to get back into the swing of things then injury occurs and it makes things more discouraging. Hopefully some advil (if you can take it) and some taking it easy will help you out. As for the cereal bars, good for you too! That is the ticket.. out of sight out of mind!
Gabrielle, You are amazing with your exercise. Everytime I read it I let out a big {{sigh}} which you are really convicting me that I can do it too. Just got a DO IT! Thank you!
Lisa, where are you?
MsRD, How is your week so far?
Jaymi, I hope today is a good day for you too.
Miss Elisha, I wanted to thank you for your Inspirational quotes and questions of the day. You are so smart and insightful. I hope all goes well for you today.
Lucy, you were so sweet and a good friend to Jaymi on the feelings thread. Thank you for caring so much.
Drazen, haven't heard from you either.. WHERE ARE YOU?!?!
Jennifer, time to turn over girlfriend. Don't want to burn you know. LOL WE MISS YOU!
Turtle... Now what's up with you? You have a birthday then NOTHING!??!? Tomorrow is your weigh in, I wish you the best!!!

Ladies, I will go to my weigh in today with my head held high and my stomach pulled in tight. LOL : I will try and feel positive about this weigh. It doesn't really matter what that scale says anyway. I know what I've been doing. But.. you know that is good to say when you are expecting nothing! LOL

Have a great day and will check in again later.

Donna

Morning ladies!

Motivation level: 6

Today is a good day. But not for dieting.

(Note: I am using the bf's weirdo keyboard, so if there's a billion typos in this post, please excuse me. )

So last night's exercise didn't happen. Found stuff to do, then came to the bf's. Of course. That's why I need to exercise in the morning. I should know better than to plan exercise in the evening, when I am busy. Today we are going to my grandma's house, so there won't be much exercise. However, I finally remembered my pedometer after I got home from work yesterday (I forgot it all weekend--and I walked A LOT this weekend! AARRGGHH!!!), and there will be much playing with the puppy and running up and down stairs doing laundry. And the bf has things to do this evening, so perhaps I will actually get in a workout. Grandma is making us dinner, and she's going to help me make a zucchini casserole, which is my favorite food in the world. Hers is always so much better than mine, I need to learn her secret!
Ok, this post is completely random. Whatever.

Well, calories came in at 1634 yesterday, which is pretty good, considering where it's been for the past few weeks. I think the lowest I've had is about 1750 or so. Today though, who knows. I will get back into it eventually. Probably right before Thanksgiving, with my luck! Water was pretty good yesterday, I think. Today will be good there too... I always drink lots of water at Grandma's.

Ok, I need to get going. Oh, btw, I don't have access to my stockpile of quotes and questions today (and I'm not feeling particularly creative), so if anyone else would like to post one, I'd greatly appreciate it. And I'm sure the rest of the chicks would too.

Ok, really this time. Have a great day everyone!
~Elisha

My scale has gone totally flipping NUTS, but I'm happy!!

Somehow I'm down to 170 from 174 (result of not being able to work out for past 2 weeks!), so that's cool.

I plan on sleeping as much as possible, finishing my book, watching a couple of good movies or something on TV, and if I really get some energy, finishing the cleaning! Hope you chickies all have a rad day!

Weigh in did not go like I thought. I had weighed myself before my shower this morning (yes, naked ) and I weighed 2 pounds less than I weighed at the meeting later on. So, instead of losing 2.8 pounds I lost .8. I had all sorts of thoughts running in my mind. I'm looking back on my week. Yes, I thought I had a day of not so wise food choices but the rest of the week was fine. But my water... was almost non existent. Exercise was NONE also. I will do the following three things before I completely give up
1. I will not step on my scales at all before weigh in next week.
2. Drink my water every day (bought the WW big water jug with straw today)
3. Exercise daily.

Also wondering if I should go to the earlier in the day meeting. It may be that the later the day goes on the more I weigh. Just a thought.

Talk to you all later.

Donna

well today went well so far. I have walked 6 miles so far today and it is only 1:30. I say that I am doing good. I still want to do my taebo but am unsure if that will happen. We will se as the day goes on though. I don't want to wait too late but have lots of other things to do before the day is over.

Julie- I sure do hope it is but I snuck a peek at the scale this morning and it hasn't even bugded. Weigh in isn't until friday but still. I am hoping by then that it will move down atleast 1. 2 would be great but am not going to be too disappointed with 1.

lame- good job on the 4 lbs. If it is your scale that is going crazy that is alright. I would take it how it came.

Donna- It may be that it was later in the day since by then you have some food in your system and it hasn't completely been broken down. If you weigh yourself first thing in the morning your body has already completely digested everything from the night before. And remember, your clothes weigh too. Depends on what you wear to say how much but it does have a little bit of a difference nonetheless.

I feel totally gross. I ate breakfast, then I ate lunch about 2 hrs later, and then I slept for 2 hours. I feel icky.

All I want to do is work out. Someone PLEASE give me permission to do just 2 measly little miles, please?!

Also, I've been watching our local afternoon talk show, Northwest Afternoon (which is possibly across the nation, now?), and they're tlaking about the Fat Flush Diet. I'm sitting here, thinking, HEY!!! Losing 20 pounds in TWO WEEKS?! Sweet snot, that's exactly what I need! Then I learn that you have to drink a bunch of super nasty stuff to do it, including watered down cranberry juice (which does not mix well with acid reflux, my friends), and I've said nah, to **** with that idea. We should get our insurance cards in the next week or two, and then I'm going to make an appointment and head down to the doctor and plead my case for some dietary assistance to rid my body of the last 40 or 50 pounds necessary before I feel safe to have and raise my children.

In other news, I have a bunch of recipes for you guys. Also, ways to seriously cut costs so you can MAKE heart-healthy stuff for yourselves at home, without the massive costs at the stores! I've got a great recipe for roasted red peppers (which got for about $11 for a 3oz. jar here), and a healthy chicken pasta recipe!

Chicken Pasta (on whole wheat pasta if you wish!)

1 large, ripe tomato (firm but not squishy)

1 cup of cooked white meat chicken (no fat, no bones, no skin)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/8 cup minced garlic (with juice!) (or 4 tbsp garlic powder)
3 tbsp garlic salt
pinch of oregano, pinch of basil
1/2 cup chopped roasted red peppers
1/8 cup chopped onion (fresh!!!)
1/2 cup assorted finely chopped veggies (whatever you like)

2 cups of uncooked pasta (whole wheat if you like)

Boil water & cook the pasta. Meanwhile, put all ingredients EXCEPT the tomato in a saucepan and simmer for until the pasta is cooked. Add other spices if you like. I add a little red wine vinegar or some chilled white wine for funkiness, plus a little dash of lime juice for kick. Slice the tomato into big, thick slices and put two slices on each plate. Place the sauce you made over the cooked, drained pasta and toss very, very well. Sprinkle with parm. cheese if you want. Serve over the tomato & enjoy. Super yummy, super easy, and the only bad ingredient is the olive oil, which is a GOOD oil. You can use oil infused with spices if you prefer, which makes it less trouble while cooking.

Roasted Red Peppers -- heat oven to 500 degrees (or as hot as it goes without being on broil). Wash, cut in half, and gut as many red bell peppers as will fit on your cookie sheet. Put them flat-side down (so the opening is facing down) and coat them pretty well with olive oil. Your hands will get messy -- this is good. Add garlic, lemon zest, salt, pepper, whatever you want them to have the tastes from. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until they're super squishy and totally cooked through. Put the whole mess (including olive oil) into a clean jar with a lid and store it in the fridge. If you're like me, and you use the peppers in little chunks, then chop 'em up before you put them in teh jar to save time & effort. Super good for you, spices up any dish, and way cheaper than the grocery store.

Alright chickies...I just finished supper...made a veggie concotion with cabbage, onions & carrots...added a white sauce and some parmesan & swiss cheese!...probably way more fattening than I would like to know, but it was my protein intake for the meal AND I got my veggies in...AND it tasted yummy!

Lunch was pathetic!! At work they had chicken pot pie...institutionalized! And pumpkin pie!! So I had a little of both...who am I kidding? I ate a whole piece of pumpkin pie (and I really don't like it) WITH whipped topping!!!!! OK, but I DID have a serving of green beans with lunch!

Breakfast was a turkey & cheese sandwich on ww/whole grain bread. Mmmmmm....but it filled me up!

No snacks at work today, although I could have easily had one this afternoon...just kept myself really busy!!!

Did I mention the icecream with home made hot fudge topping I had last night after supper????? OUCH!!! The scale is NOT going to be nice this week...I GOTTA get this sweets stuff under control!!! No more sweets this week or weekend!! Who's got the tazer???? Ya hear me????

Enough with the rant!

I walked a mile this morning before work. Would have walked more but I was FREEZING when I started and didn't bring the right clothing (ear wear and gloves) with me to work, so I only got in one mile! But hey...it's better than NOTHING!

Gabrielle....6 miles today...chickie...you rock!!!

Donna.... What's this????
I will do the following three things before I completely give up
1. I will not step on my scales at all before weigh in next week.
2. Drink my water every day (bought the WW big water jug with straw today)
3. Exercise daily.

Alright chickie...let's put things into perspective here!! You had a not so perfect week, you LOST .8 lbs (that's almost a pound in my book...more than a half a pound!) Quit beating yourself up, chickie!!! YOU LOST!!!!! The scale is still moving in the right direction...and remember...you are NOT a slave to that blasted piece of metal!! Kick it if you want and take the one out of your bathroom and throw it out the window!!! the only scale you need is the one you weigh on weekly at WW!!!! (Kinda bossy, aren't I?)
((((((((((((((((Donna))))))))))))))))))))))

Lucy...Yea you on the 4lbs. You know it's the NO EXERCISE, for sure chickie! Keep that foot rested, girl!

Elisha...Your random thoughts are great! I want that zuchinni casserole recipe!!! My sister makes one too and mine never comes out the way hers does! Yum! I really despise zuchinni otherwise (unless it's in chocolate cake...do you have THAT recipe?) Yea on the lower calories, chickie! You are doing great! Get some workout in, would ya??? LOL!

Dill...Sorry the leg is hurting a bit! Take care of it, rest it and exercise again when it's feeling better! Glad you got rid of those cereal bars!

Have a great night ladies...I'm gonna go rest my back a bit!

Hey chickie...we must have posted at the same time! Thanks for the great tip on the roasted red peppers. I suppose you could do the same with green peppers (cheaper at the store, but not at the market...go figure)! Oh...and don't you EVEN think about working out chickie!!!

Julie the drill sergeant!!! Next Monday is my officially allowed-to-work-out day. I can't WAIT! You could use any peppers, but red peppers are sweeter and mix really well with garlic and italian spices. I would recommend green peppers for raw veggies or stirfry, just 'cause they keep their crunchiness and zesty flavor, whereas red peppers get squishy if they get hot and are just super sweet.

Maybe I should be a cook instead...

Also, a handy hint for anybody out there looking for variety and something cheap in the veggie department this time of year! Get yourselves some squash!! Super high in vitamins, on sale 'cause in season, and AWESOME no matter how you cook them. Good in soups, pastas, sauces, stirfry, boiled, whatever. (I always forget them!)

Hello All
There is nothing like good news on weigh-in day to throw me into a self-destructive feeding frenzy. I have been up to my elbows in Halloween candy, and then there was the DGS birthday cake....and then today an old friend invited me to lunch at BURGER KING! I have come in here tonight to get re-focused.....or tazered.....whatever it takes! The good news is the water intake has been great.....and I have been exercising. If I could only get all 3 of those things in high gear for a week, I might accomplish something!

Dill......wow! do I hear you on the cereal bars! If you choose carefully, you can get some that are lower in fat and calories and still taste pretty good.......but then the trick is not to eat 6 at a time, either,,,,,lol!

Gabriell.....you astound me with your exercise regimen! I can see you accomplishing your short term goal by Oct 31......you go girl!

Lucy.....crazy scale or not, BELIEVE!

Elisha.....when you find Grandma's secret ingredient for the zucchini casserole, write it down and remember it would make Grandma proud if you shared.....

Dlzbth.....I was so addicted to the scale that I would weigh myself several times a day.....and watch my self-esteem bounce up and down with the reading on the scale! What torture! I have had to order myself away from the scale.....it is out of bounds, except for one brief moment Saturday AM. :

Ok.....off to get more water.....and finish the laundry! Hope you have a great evening!

Baby steps, Jaymi, that's the key. Take one little step at a time. You will do great!

MsRD, Thanks for the advice about the scales. I have been to obsessed with it and I did really good last night and this morning for just walking away from it. It was calling my name this morning too loud and clear but I just said NO! LOL It's that wonderful time of the year with all that candy available to us. I know what you mean and to your GS! How old is he?

Julie, THANKS for your encouragment too! You just don't know how disappointed I was yesterday when that was all I lost. Even my dh said "is that all" BUT guess what? This morning I discovered a monthly visitor arrived early. So, that MAY have had some reason for the numbers at that scale. Thank you again for being my I sure needed that!

Gabrielle, YOU ARE SO AWESOME with your exercise! Gosh, just imagine what I could get done if I did all that you are doing! Such an inspiration you are! Thank you also for your encouragement.

Lucy, the recipe sounds wonderful. I was getting hungry reading it. I have often thought about taking some culinary classes myself for I enjoy trying new things. My problem I really TRY them! LOL Thanks for the tip on the squash. It's that time of the year and also sweet potatoes is good too for you. (a tip that was brought up yesterday)

Dill, hope things are feeling some better today. One day at a time to healing!

Miss Elisha, The casserole sounds good. I have several recipies for zucchini but I don't know if it's as good as your Grandmother's. My mother made good zucchini casserole too and I have that recipie. Hope you had a good day.

Drazen, Lisa, Jennifer and Turtle... I guess you guys are REAL busy. I miss ya!

Well, need to go. My cramps are starting up and need to eat lunch as well. I am doing great with my new water jug almost finished with todays quota. exercise will be at 5:00.

Have a great OP day!!!

Donna

Just checkin in here! Did my 2 miles this morning before work! Yea me!

Ate good b-fast, good lunch (at my desk today)...

and had some snackin goin' on this afternoon! Did I not say get the tazer out???? Where were all you chickies when I was having a chocolate attack this afternoon??? I know...it's not your fault, but c'mon...it's just too easily accessible this time of year! Grrrrrr! So I had one snack size Mounds, Almond Joy (hey, at least I picked two that have some nutritional value?!) and 4 small Lorna Doones cookies! I really didn't need or want any of them...just was craving! Now, why couldn't I have just said NO?

So now I have to work extra hard to discount those little treats today!

Oh, for supper, I had leftover Enchilada Casserole! Yum! And water has been good...so far 50 oz. Will more than likely get in another 32 before bedtime! Yiikes!

That's about it for now! I'm just really trying to get to 166 or even 165 by next Tuesday so I have to get crackin' here! I think I'm going to go down and ride the bike for 20 or 30 minutes. That should help redeem myself from those little treats today!!!

Hugs to everyone!