Some great ideas coming out of this discussion ladies! I have to admit, today being the first of a new month (can you believe it??) along with this points idea has already today kept me on the straight and narrow whereas I would have done otherwise if left to my own stubborness. And there was none of that I'm denying myself feeling either.

I like Jolly's idea of a separate thread to post food and activities. I was with her before on one and I have to admit, that really helped. And if you had a bad day (as we will from time to time) you can also post why you went off track which is helpful when you're trying to analyse why you aren't successful.

Raven, a couple of prayers sent your way that things work out well for Richard. I know it's a scary time.

As far as non money, non food awards go, how about after a certain amount of points (25?) you earn yourself an unabashed guilt free 2 hours with your horsie? No worrying about taking the time for yourself or other things you feel you should be doing.

Big congrats Jolly for the weight loss AND signing up for those personal trainer help sessions.

I'll be back later...

Hi ladies,
I was wondering if I could join your little group? I have been reading around some of the posts and I feel kind of as if I am eavsdropping. You all seem so awesome. I don't have a horse but my 14 year old daughter does. She also takes lessons and her goal is to get in a few shows. I love horses and she has told me to ride her (oops sorry) pony but I feel I am just a little to big for him but as soon as I am able to lose some weight my goal is to ride him.
Hi Tracy met you on another thread. How are you doing juggling everything around? Hope your doing good.
Thanks for making my day pleasurable by posting such great coversations.

luckycharm

Welcome Luckycharm! This place is great and so are the people!

Girls, I love the points idea!!! I have been on track all day. I was so mad at myself for screwing up but that was only going to lead to failure SOOOOOOOOOO, I'm back to positive me and ready to go.

Raven, hope all is well with your boyfriend....hugs and best wishes to you!

Jolly...2 pounds!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!! Makes me want to try even harder so I can report a loss!!

I think whatever reward we choose should be guilt free. Happy had a great idea about time with your horse. I will choose time for me. I feel guilty if I'm not always doing something for Gary or Jordan or both. I'll have to think about it.

Tracy, hope you are well.

Talk to all of you great girls later!

Hi there Lucky Charm

Always great to meet anonther horsie person! What style does your daughter ride? My daughter is 14, as well, and her horse is much taller than mine! I have a QH, and he's only 14.3 hands - my daughter's horse is a TB/QH cross and stands nearly 17 hands... I think she's 16.3. What kind of pony does your daughter have? I'm considering buying my son a horse too, but that will be down the road a bit. First I need to buy the truck and a trailer.

Welcome to our little group!

Hi there hippychick and RavenToy,
My daughter has a Arabian QH cross. He is just under 14.2 but he is well built and really doesn't look that small. She rides english and has a great riding instructor. Linda is teaching them jumping and dressage. Most of the girls already go to shows but Kristi just got her horse in June so we have been having him trained so they maybe can enter next year.
Are you and your daughter able to ride a few times a week?
Congratulations on your weight loss. That is just great. Do you have any tips on how you have been able to keep what you've lost off and still managing to lose more?
Thanks so much for the welcome.
Luckycharm

Hello Ladies!

Welcome Lucky! Sure you can join in here. We are in the middle of starting something I think will be great!

Wow, what did we start here? How is it that we are all at the same place at the same time? I think this is going to be good.

Here is my suggestion for the new thread name: Accountable Saboteurs. Did I get the bonus point, Jolly?

I am starting this today. I have my weigh in weight and Wednesdays work real well for me. My goal/point system (until further notice) will be as previously stated:

1 point for staying in my point range
1 point for journaling my food--on the new thread and own journal
1 point for drinking my water--I am shooting for 64 oz a day, but hope to hit 96

Please remember I am four hours behind East Coast time, so don't ding me in case my entry on the other thread shows a different day. I'll try to get in here at the same time each day, so at least it will consistent.

I liked the idea Raven had also about the cascading reward program. I think what I am going to do is this:

If I make my goals each day for the week, I will reward myself by purchasing one of my collector mini shoes. I haven't bought one in over two years because it's a sacrifice I made for my family. They are not that expensive, but something that I consider a luxury. If I can make it two weeks in a row, then I will reward myself with three shoes. At the end of one week, I can decide if I want to purchase the one, or take a gamble and bet on myself that I can earn all the points to get three. That way if I don't make it for some reason, I will have nothing, but that was my choice to risk it.

Jolly: Great job on the loss and also on setting up the personal trainer appointment. I think it will really help and I would do it if I joined a gym.

Raven: Girl, we are so alike. I am sending prayers Richard's way and your way for help with the stress and anxiety.

Happy: I love we are starting this. Good thing we all were sabotaged at the same time, huh?

Hippy: I like your reward idea. That is always good to have time for yourself.

I am soooooooooooooo excited to start this!!! Where is the thread going to go up? Once it's up, let's start recording each day, okay? I'll journal in my personal journal today and report it once we get the other thread going.

I AM MOTIVATED NOW THANKS TO YOU ALL!!

Chach

Oh this is so COOL! Just think, we started the week on a so so note and look at us now just a few days later. Shows you what great minds can come up with

I think Jolly should start the new thread (if she doesn't mind) because it was her idea to begin a challenge. Thanks Jolly for the opportunity for motivation I like Chachee's suggestion for the name - Accountable Saboteurs - kind of a reminder why we're doing this. I guess if we're starting today, we should count up on points on Tuesday ie. 29/29- 4 possible points a day x 7 days = max 28 points a week, plus the extra point if we have a loss for the week. Wednesdays start a new "week" for us?

As for rewards.. hmmm, the hubby is subtling bugging me to lose weight so if I make 28 points in a week, I think he owes me a full back and foot rub for an hour. If I don't get at least 20 points, I owe him the same. (not gonna happen girls ) I think too if I make at least 25 points, I'm going to put $10 in a jar each week so that by the time I start Christmas shopping in early December, I'll have guilt free money ($100) to spend on something I see that catches my eye. I will shoot for all 29 points a week but sometimes even if I'm good the scale does one of these to me so I'll take 28 and do a happy dance if I get 29!

Raven, hope everything checked out well with Richard.

Welcome Lucky Charm, you're just in time to join the challenge.

Big congrats Chachee and Hippy for staying on track today.

Jolly, hope you get some good advice from your trainer tomorrow.

PS. I made all my points today ONLY because of this challenge - thanks! On plan eating, water, exercise.

WOW! Everyone is so excited about this challenge!!! This is great! I love motivated people and people that aren't afraid to speak up when they lose motivation.

Okay, I'm switching eating plans so we will see what happens. I'm going from south beach to the diabetic eating plan so my goals will be to stay within the 1500 calories, exercise daily and no evening snacks.

Happy, a back rub......what a great reward!!!!

Chach....keep that motivation going girl!

Raven....how's Richard?

Good morning Jolly!!!

Have a great day girls!

Alrighty then. Sounds like we have a winner of a challenge here! I'm going to start as of tomorrow morning, because I always seem to do best when my weigh in or end-of-week is on a Friday. Today is already kind of .. well .. shot, sort of. Though I'm not taking it as a license to consume mass quantities for the rest of the day. My boss brought in a warm blueberry muffin from Dunkin Donuts for me this morning, and well ... I ate it. And last night, my kids and I consumed an entire quart of Moose Tracks ice cream. One can hope we have gotten this out of our system, yes?

On the Richard subject. The doc can find no "immediate" danger. The EKG was good, his blood pressure is good, and they took about 3 pints of blood (Richard's estimate, probably a slight exaggeration) for tests. Cholesteral is one of them, and I'm interested to see what his will be. The doc is a little concerned about the pressure in his chest, but is a little confused because it isn't in the middle, which is typical of heart issues, but more towards the upper left. I told Richard perhaps he needs to see a chiropractor, maybe he's aggravated a nerve. But that wouldn't explain the heaviness in his chest on exertion. *twitch* I guess we'll wait and see what the blood tests show. There is the possibility that his cholesteral is high and he has a partially blocked artery. For the moment, however, the doc is quite sure he's not going to keel over and die on us. It might be that Richard is just putting a couple symptoms together which are not medially related. Perhaps the chest feeling is simply because he hasn't exercised in the last 7 years. Or longer. And it may be just a coincidence that his left arm is feeling numb because he pinched a nerve or something. At any rate...

I'm going to the stables tonight. Finally. I need so badly to see my Arashi Rei. I know Nickie needs to see Shadow, and perhaps we can get Machine up on one of the horses to ride for a few minutes. I wonder if he missed me?

Lucky - Well that isn't really a PONY pony then! He's just about the same size as my QH! Or as my Quarter Pony, as I affectionately call him. What is his name? Actually we get out to see the horses nearly every day, which has kind of caused a problem with my darling boyfriend. I had to promise to spend more time at home or he was going to pitch a fit. Can't hardly blame him. Why bother being in a relationship if your partner is never around? He was beginning to feel like I loved that horse more than I loved him. I'll admit it's a close call. Some days.... We board the horses, and the lady who owns the stable also teaches, so we take lessons. A lot of our lessons are paid for in labor, we help out with her pony rides on the weekends, clean tack, muck stalls, whatever needs to be done. My Arashi will be going through lessons himself, because he was originally trained in western pleasure, and he needs to learn how to collect himself up a bit for english. I don't think he'll have trouble with it, he's very giving and intelligent, and doesn't have that brattiness which so often comes with Arabians and Thoroughbreds. *pokes Jolly* I love them all, no hate mail, please. If you don't mind my asking, how much do you weigh? I've put on a few recently (sigh) so I'm back into the 190's and I'm riding. I know it would help my horse a bit if I lost some tonnage, but we seem to manage right now. As for how I've lost the pounds so far, I'm a calorie counter. I don't do well eliminating anything, so I tell myself nothing is off limits, as long as I keep it around 1500 calories a day. When I'm really OP, I work out 6 times a week, incorporating running/walking, weight lifting, and pilates into the week. I had gotten to the point where I could run a mile and a half with no problem, but ... I suppose I'll have to start out slow again. Weights are going to be fun to start again, that always hurts. And the pilates is rough right now because I have no DVD player. I need to pick up a cheap one again. I try to make sure I keep my water intake up, and get enough protein and fat along with my fruits and veggies, but I can't drop the carbs too low or I get dizzy and puny. I use fitday.com to track things, have you tried that??

Chachee - I love the name. I'll wait for the thread to show up before I post my goals and rewards. I know what my goals are, I just want to make sure I don't let my enthusiasm overrun reality. I need to start sllloooooowwwwww. Then I'll add in things and gradually get back to where I was before all this Dad stuff hit. What the heck is a "mini shoe?" I have to know this.

Happy - I have really missed your posts. I know you're busy as all get out, but I'm so glad you're here. As for the backrub/footrub idea - dang. YGG! I hope hubby cooperates with that one! And I LOVE the setting aside money for Christmas idea!! That is so COOL! I may steal that one. Maybe I'll do a couple things.. like the money and the time, or something. I'm still not sure. I need to get that straight.

Sharla - We had kind of hit a low spot hadn't we? But like Happy said, it's so awesome that we all seemed to click into the same mindset at the same time. It's been kind of a rough summer for a lot of folks. Maybe with fall approaching and the weather cooling down, it's gotten us a little more refocused. I sure hope so for me, I don't want to just go back to living the way I was. I know I hated it, didn't like myself much, and felt yucky all the time. Eating right and exercising brought a level of energy and awareness to my life that I hadn't felt since I was in my 20s. This last slump has been hard, and I don't feel good physically. It's time to get moving again! Rah!

Ok Jolly... time to post that new thread!!

Good morning ladies,
And outside it looks like a beautiful day. Just might have to be a bike ride day.

Happy you must be my twin sister seperated at birth. It is like you can read my mind when you wrote about the denial and control and comfort. I thought it was only me. Thankyou. As soon as I think O.k I'm going to start something but the diet says I can't have something its like I have to almost binge on it the night before and then I feel so bad I just don't start whatever it was I was going to start.

Raven you have a great name for your horse. Kristi's horses name is Lucky. But the girls at the stable think that is not a good enough show name so they all thought about it and came up with Lucky Charm, and I am not original enough to come up with my own name so I took hers. He is a bratty and stubborn 6 year old so he had to go for training. He was broke to drive and I think western although he doesn't neck rein. He wasn't ridden very much. So he went in for training. He could only stay for 2 months because that was all we could afford but he learned quickly and now she rides him at lessons. She has been taking lessons for 4 years. Linda her instructor goes to Europe every year to buy Dutch Warmbloods. Then she trains them and sells them for big bucks. She does have a website you can get to on google search Meadow Rose Farms (located in Camrose, AB) and it shows the horses she has for sale. She just sold Siclay for $40,000.00 and he is already showing at Spruce Meadows and winning. She is in the process of trying to sell Superman $47,000.00 and he is also showing and winning at Spruce Meadows. Linda told Kristi that he was pony size and because Linda called him a pony, I have to call him a pony. Kids!!
Kristi had a big fall off Lucky last night. She was riding him back from a friends in the dark and they came across some combines running by a fence. He abruptly stopped, she did not. Both are ok though.
I weigh 235 lbs. My water consumption is zero. But I drink a pot of coffee a day. I'm on a see food diet, and my best comfort friend is cookies. So I can see I have a big challenge ahead of me. I get so discouraged because I really want the weight to come off quickly. Lots of it off tommorrow. I know it doesn't work like that. I had made it my reward that if I lost 30 lbs I would treat myself to a ride on the pony.
So my goals are to drink 8 glasses of water a day. If I can do that one I think I should be able to do all of them, Some sort of exercise for 30 - 40 minutes per day at least 5 times a week. My mother bought a real nice outfit and told me it was for me for a reward when I could fit it. It is actually only 1 size smaller a 16 so that is my other reward. My unrealistic goal is to lose 45 lbs by Christmas. My realistic maybe achievable goal is 20 lbs for Christmas.
Hope Richard is doing better. A chiropractor might just be the thing to help him out. That and get him on a horse also.

Hippy I see you live in Kentucky and I just have to say from the pictures I've seen of Kentucky it looks beautiful. That would be the first state I would love to visit in my tour of all the states.

Chachee, I am not familiar with mini shoes either so you will have to fill me in on what they are also. Good luck with being able to get 3 of them though.

Well I am off to start my goals for the day. A glass of water. maybe I'll try to get a few down at one time.

Thanks ladies and have a wonderful day.

Unoriginal Lucky

Jollygirl, where are you? Do we have to send out the search and rescue?

Ok, sometimes a visual helps keep things in perspective.

On the left is you. On the right is what Ms. Sabotage will do to you if you let her.

What do you say girls?

Hello everyone! I am sorry I have been absent. We had a state licenser at one of my group homes last night (late) and back again this morning (early). Needless to say, I am stressed and eating. I know, I know. Like this isgoing to help. But added to the feeling of being a horrible employee, and doing everything wrong, they just posted the upper management position I was interested in, and I feel like this visit from state will blow my chances. Sigh. I am overtired, pms-ing, and a mess.

I like the Accountable Sabatouers. Can we start Monday? I have off tomorrow, and won't be back on line until then. I really like the energy we all have about this.

I am sorry I don't have time to talk to all of you I will try to catch up on Monday. But welcome to Lucky. We are glad to have you.

Have a wonderful weekend all.

Evening

I am so sorry i have been absent

I have been so freaking buys

Forgive me...I promise in one month my life will be a wee bit calmer

But I do think of you...and miss you guys

am eating like a cow..sigh..i need to de-stress

HANG in there!!

Hello ladies!

Day Two: stayed in the WW points range, journaled food and got my water in. I'm 8/8 so far.

Happy: Loved the pictures. It's a good reminder! I like your reward system. Hope we can all get back on track togther.

Hippy: I didn't stay on SBD either. Just too restrictive. I am back on WW. Good luck with your new plan.

Raven: Glad to hear Richard is okay. I was a little worried about that. Did you make it to the stables? Guess what...we are leaking water in the basement again. Grrrr.....we are going to wait until Spring to complete the basement. I don't want to put all that money out to do the carpet and lino and have it be ripped up because of leaks. They got the rain gutters in yesterday and re-caulked the garage.

Lucky: Great goals! I used to drink all that coffee also, but have switched to tea about three years ago. I drink decaf coffee once in awhile, but enjoy the different flavors of the teas. If you get your water in, then you will lose a lot very quickly. I am currently 257, so I am right there with you.

Jolly: We can keep posting here until we get the next thread up. Calm down and relax. Work on your application and if it's meant to be it will!

Tracy: Girl, check in when it's not crazy!

Okay, let me explain about the mini shoes. They are called "Just the Right Shoe" and they are done by a sculpter. If you go to any craft or Hallmark store they are usually in a display case. They are soooo cool. All different funky and elegant shoes. They are about 4 inches long and about 3 inches tall, depending on the shoe. It's only the right shoe, hence the name of the brand. You can see what they look like if you go on Ebay and type in Just the Right Shoe. I'm a shoe fanatic.

Effective October 27th, I am back on day shift here at work. Lots of things went into my decision to go back on days, and my supervisor agrees with me. I hate the idea of putting my son in full time day care, but on the other hand, he needs to be in a more structured learning environment. Plus, our family will get more "family" time together. I'm happy about the change and so is my husband. Keep us in your thoughts as this all changes and for a smooth transition.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

Chach