Hi everyone. sry i have been mia, after a long post on sat morning it went poof into cyber land and so did our phone and interent service. they came out a few hr\s ago and fixed a broken wire out by the garage where there was a frost heave and caused mayham. to say the least i had anxiety and puter with drawals,i did manage to watch the Downton Abby episode last nite and absoultely want to watch the other seasons in my last post steve and i went to the pool again on friday,i walked 27 laps in the pool,did some kicking hanging onto the pool edge for 10min and some upper body and arm exercises with the floaties. exercising in the pool feels so good and its easy, until you get out and as i walk up the ramp i feel heavier and heavier. ugh on the brite side an older man kept oggling my boobs lol i need to take in my tank top so im a bit more covered. kinda flattering in a weird way. also mr cranky asked me if i wanted my toe nails painted so id be all pretty for the pool,awwwwthat would be a YES. see he does have his moments we have also been having more episodes with steves mom. we have had to go and calm her down just about every day now. i wonder if its really a mental thing or shes figured out her boys come running when she acts like that, i do know she's very confused poor thing and they are good sons and help her all they can.Bobbie you are going to a fitness place thats awesome jess ive made 4 "therapy" dish rags this weekend and got some nylon net to make scrubbies too. keeps me from eating likea bored mad women.congrat to all who have managed to loose and to us all for keeping on our plans. for those on ww theres a web site called dottiesweightlosszone that has pts and recipes. have an awsome day chickies rosey

breakfast
coffee
greek yogurt

lunch
1/2 ham sand with lettuce
iced tea

snack
coffee mocha

dinner (subject to change)
moose meat loaf
brocolli with cheese
mashed potatoes(for steve)

Cajun, I have a fat stomach and thin-ish thighs which makes pants difficult. However, I just went and looked at my new ones which are maybe just a tiny bit tight around the waist, but ok elsewhere, and they are petite medium. I have another pair of size 12. I could probably wear a 10 if I did stomach tightening exercises.

My grown son had a family crisis this weekend, and I have been totally devoted to talking to him on the phone and did not enter all my food into FitDay like I promised. I also ate more weird, unhealthy food because I was upset. The only good thing is that I managed to not go full out and stuff myself. I portion controlled the junk. Sigh...Tomorrow is another day and I will try again.

I love my food plan and I am looking forward to having a day where I follow it and can post my menus. I calorie count and weigh and measure my food.

My dinner tonight: Lightly browned Brussels Sprouts and chicken sausage over rice. Spinach salad with dried plums, red onions, bacon bits and Taste of Home makeover spinach salad dressing. http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/M...Salad-Dressing. Iced well water.

Gail - I am built like you. Big belly and thin hips and thighs. It makes buying pants a real challenge, especially when relaxed fit was all you could find. LOL Now that they are putting some spandex into jeans it's a little bit better. I am currently wearing a 16 petite average. Don't have to do any hemming.

Good Morning...didn't get back yesterday to read all the post, just as well since I didn't have time anyway.

Carol Sue...Now I'm really confused, when I put in my fat grams, which ones do you use? In Fitday, they have fat grams, sat fat grams, poly fat grams, mono fat grams? I used used the top one, fat grams. Then about the fiber, since fruits and veggies are free, should I eliminate the fiber too?

I'm glad you posted your menu, it's always nice to see what others are eating. My mom made liver and onions when we were kids and I ate it because of the starving children across the ocean. After getting married, my DH wanted me to make it. Instead of frying it to death like my mom did, I fried bacon 1st, then LIGHTLY fried the liver in some of the bacon grease. YUM! I did the point calculator thing and came up with 26 points available. I'm not sure if I did the menu right, don't know about the fruit/veggies fiber count. Looks like yesterday's menu I used up 18 points. Will wait for your answer to see if I did it right.

MaryGee...my DH gives me the silent treatment rarely but when he does, I enjoy it. Don't have to look at him, don't have to talk to him. I have my computer for my amusement. I love playing scrabble on Facebook.

Donna...I liked Matthew the best! But he's so handsome, maybe these series gave him star power and he went on to bigger and better things? Nothing new on our house.

Carbie
Good job staying on track while camping, that was always my time to pig out. Especially frying bacon and eggs over the camp stove in the morning. Enjoy your nice weather, it's 45 degress below zero around her with the high wind chill.

Rosey...see...Mr. Cranky pants has his gentle side painting your toenails. I'm staying busy with sewing too, using all my leftover blue jean material making pot holders that I'll sell at rummage sale once we move into town. I'll check out that site, dotties weight zone when I finish here. I'm really not on wwatchers program but Carol Sue wanted to know how many points I was eating and it made me wonder too.

Gail...join the club, I have small hips and thighs too, but that dang belly fat just doesn't go away. I'm only a couple pounds from my goal weight AGAIN and the fat doesn't go away. I've worn mens jeans most of my life because they fit better in the legs and butt but bigger in the waist. You don't see many men with large thighs unless they are into weight lifting, etc. Check them out.

Time to get with the program, I made enough tuna casserole for two nights so I just have to put a batch of yogurt together and make some dessert for me. I'm thinking of making something with fat free cream cheese and oranges.
Later gators.

If I miss gabbing to any of you, sorry. I only go back a page or two and if you haven't chatted, then nothing comes to mind. I don't have a photogenic memory like my DH. He even remembers the serial numbers on all his guns.

I really like liver and onions cooked as Bobbi suggests. Our mothers were soul mates as far as cooking liver goes!

Slimn11, can I ever relate to the "relaxed fit" dilemma. What actually works well for me is to find pants that are intended to be "hip-huggers" for normally shaped people. I have a short rise, and the waist on the hip huggers falls at my natural waist, and is proportionately larger. I even found a denim skirt that was meant to be a mini-skirt/hip hugger outfit for a teeny bopper. On me, it is just the right length and the waist is big enough. The only problem I have had with the hip huggers is the short zipper.

Then there were the Mustang pants. They were supposed to have ease in the waist and fit more closely in the butt and thights. I ordered a pair. They were so tight in the waist I couldn't breathe, then there was a sort of bubble around the abdomen, and slim legs. Very weird look. LOL. It is much easier to find pants to fit a pear shape.

Good evening GG's,

Hope you all are doing well ~ I haven't been able to be here much ~ family stuff. This too shall pass......sigh.

Take care

Bobbi - My mother used to overcook the liver, too. It must have been their generation. And she used beef liver. I prefer calves liver. More tender. It has to be cooked on a low slow heat. I like it braised, but I haven't made it for years because DH won't eat it. Organ meat is really not good for you, but I like to have it once in a while. I used to love kidneys, too, but you can't even get them anymore. The guy in the grocery store said it's not cost effective for them to get them in because not many people buy them. I never knew how to cook them.

26 points is the lowest WW allows you to go, but you will never use all of them with the diet that you eat. I am not surprised that yours came out to 16. When you enter your food into Fitday, don't enter any fruits or veggies. They are 0 points, like a free food. Then use the grams of carbs, fat, fiber and protein to calculate the points. It is only total fat grams. Disregard the numbers for sat, mono, poly etc. You don't include anything from the veggies or fruits, but you would have fiber from other foods you eat, such as the Fiber One cereal. After you have calculated your points, you can enter the fruits and veggies in to get your total calories and have all your food for the day listed.

I don't like men's jeans because the back pockets end up down on my leg instead of on my butt. I guess I'm just not proportioned right for them. When I was young and skinny I didn't have a problem buying jeans. I do have a pair with elastic waist, but I really don't like them because they scream "old lady" and I refuse to consider myself an old lady yet. One time, my husband wore a pair of my jeans to work. It's a shame that my jeans are so big that he can wear them. LOL He wears tapered leg and mine were straight leg and he wondered why they were so baggy around the ankles. When I got home from work and realized what he had on I was afraid to tell him they were mine. LOL I doubt if anyone at work realized it because they would never have let him live it down.

Gayle---HUGS to you!!

Hello to everyone --- already it's too late to try to reply to everyone.... another day.

Hi everyone. it was a quiet day until we got a call from the assisted living that my mil had fallen out of bed. have not gotton all the details yet but she was transported to the er to be checked out. so far nothing wrong except scaring us to death,and she was released. I watched an interesting piece about dementia and memory loss on the cbs morning show. this Dr claims that what we eat causes some memory loss,esp meat,dairy,processed foods,cooking in cast iron pans and copper pipes in your plumbing. he said that vegitarians fair better becuz of there diet. gee im sure in trouble he recommend s a diet high in vegies, fruits and beans and nuts,sounds like the Paleo diet minus the meat. other than the mil we spent a quiet day. i made a new recipe i tweaked for orange chix tonight. it was a box mix and u add the chicken, i never follow them exactly. am glad i only used one of the dried hot chilli peppers as it was really spicey but good. steve opted for just reg chix with m soup gravy and stuffing. i wanted to see the dowton abby series and watched it last sunday and got hooked like every one else. i called blockbuster to see if they had the other seasons and they didnt and they were very expensive to buy, so i joined netflix free for a month so i could get the set. pretty smart of me i think im waiting for the day when i can wear a real pair of blue jeans. becuz of all the hanging skin they just dont fit right. i do have a pr with elastic waist but dont like them. i have not called to set up apts in anchorage till we get our finances in a row. if we are careful we will be ok. i plan to make an apt next week after POOF day. nothing else new and here i am rattling along. hope your day was great Rosey

breakfast
cinnamon coffee

lunch
breakfast,1 egg,small slice ham,1/2 cup hashbrowns
iced tea

snack
coffee mocha

dinner
1 c orange chix,1/2 c rice small amt chowmein noodles

snack
carmel apple sucker

I'll be back later to gab, just going to post my menu from yesterday. I spent time this morning googling questions about how many grams of fat, carb, protein and fiber I needed. These searches take you to zillions of site and that's where my time went.
Carol Sue...thanks, I just put in the data and I'm at 16, I did it right. I'm suppose to be at 26...I don't think WW would work for me. No way I can eat that much food and lose weight. But it did open my eyes to how many grams I'm eating and how many I should be eating.

Rosey, my MIL was in assisted living and had the same problems with falling, going to the ER etc. She is now in a rest home. At the time, I didn't know that you could hire a "caregiver" to come to the assisted living and check on her and do things for her. We could have kept her in the very nice assisted living place that she really liked, for a couple more years. She is 95 now, and really does need the complete care that the rest home gives. I know all this depends on your financial situation and your insurance.

Jess1, we have both lost about the same amount, and I, too, am having trouble staying on track. I keep yapping about logging in FitDay. Yesterday, I couldn't get on the site. Do you log your calories/points/whatever?

I have read all of Barbara Rolls Volumetrics books. I try to follow her principles. I believe that, for me, it boils down to calories in/calories out. However, psychologically, I like to see a big pile of food in front of me. I never got fat eating spinach, peaches, or veggies. I actually eat as much of these as I want. I also combine things into broth based soup. My problem is that I eat bread with butter type stuff when I get anxious or tired.

So, today, I will log my food and be sure that the bread and butter etc. are out of sight. I think if the bread and butter had not been sitting out on the counter last night, I would have left it alone.

Breakfast: Greek yogurt with blueberries, large pear, MorningStar Farms sausage patty.

Lunch: Soup [big] and Salad [big]

Dinner: Casserole made by DH - 1C

Later: Popcorn

Bobbi - I agree with you that you could not eat 26 points of food. They just don't recommend for anyone to go below because they feel that undereating is not healthy. But if I am to eat 26 points at 195 lb I can still lose weight. Why expect someone who weighs 129 lbs to be able to eat the same? If you eat the same as I do, aren't you going to weigh the same as I do? LOL I think WW is OK for someone who has a lot of weight to lose, but I would bet than the people who are close to reaching their goal go below their points allowance. I have said before, I think WW is a business and they are out to make money. I tend to not trust someone who is trying to fool me into thinking they are doing something to help me. The only benefit I see to it is for those people who need to be accountable to someone and go there each week to be weighed. I think that's an awful lot of money just to have someone weigh you. I did lose weight when I was following their plan, but I also lose weight if I stick to ANY plan, be it counting calories, carbs or just plain old will power to cut back.

You do not get much protein in. I wonder what the side effects are of not enough protein? I usually have egg beaters and a piece of meat every day so protein is never a problem for me, but when I see the pie chart, I usually have too many carbs and fat. I need to look closer and be sure that the carbs are coming from the veggies and see if the fat is sat or poly or mono. Sat is bad, poly is OK and mono is good. I don't know how much fiber I should have, but I do eat veggies, fiber crackers, beans and I don't have issues, so I think I'm ok. Now you have me curious and I'm going to research how many grams of everything I should have daily.

Gail - Bread is one of my biggest problems. In the past week or so that I have been cutting back on carbs I have had very little bread and am no longer craving it. I did eat a piece of a Subway sandwich my husband had yesterday and I ate some of the wheat roll and it was delicious! But I stopped at a small piece and I am proud of that accomplishment. As far as volume goes, I have started putting my dinner on a very small plate....the size you would use to serve a piece of cake for example. (bad example to use, I know. LOL) In the past when I did that, I often went back and had seconds, which defeated the purpose of using the small plate. Now I'm doing better at it. I wrap up any leftovers and put them in the refrigerator. I know they are there if I really need them. I no longer feel the need to overeat because I think the food is going to disappear. It has helped me. Sometimes I go back later and get some leftovers and sometimes it's just lunch for the next day. And there are times when I go back to the refrigerator a half hour after dinner and finish it off.

I think some of this comes from the fact that I grew up very poor. When my mother made dinner, that's all there was going to be. If you ate faster, you got to get seconds before the next person got them. And you ate til everything was gone because you weren't going to get anything to eat later on. There wasn't anything else there, except maybe bread, and there wasn't anything to put on it. No PB, no jelly. Guess that's where my bread issues came from.

I see from your ticker that you have lost a good bit. Keep going, girl! Hopefully I'm right behind you!

Thanks for the encouragement, Carol Sue. I have no excuses. Food scarcity? NO. Fat family? NO. Eating disorder? NO. Hormonal problems, NO. Metabolic, Thyroid, etc etc? NO. Somewhere along the line, I started using food as a tranquilizer. Since I am pretty small, it all adds up fairly quickly. Bread, especially cheap, white, bread, with butter, of course, is my drug of choice. At least I won't get arrested.

I use those "cake" plates, too. I actually prefer them because it makes the food look like it is bigger.