Hi there chicks! Happy Monday .

Well, I had planned to take my 3 yr old to the pediatrician, and then he woke up fever-free and in a good mood. So...didn't make an appointment. Then, after his nap, he woke up crying with a 102.7 fever! Needless to say, we are going to the doc. this afternoon! Poor guy!



Good news: I walked on the treadmill for 30 min., and then did some crunches and a few toning exercises. I am not going to overdo it..I need to work into this new routine. I really like this treadmill..I wasn't sure if I would or not..but I watched t.v., and the time flew by. Water is coming along slowly,,but it's o.k...and food is good.

Thanks to a terrific friend (love you Julie!), I have a better frame of mind about my eating. I've been so whiny about only getting 20 WW points! (Tsk Tsk Lisa...you are not 3 years old!) Anyway, Julie has given me a new focus. Yay! Why do I fight things so?? I just can't seem to ever make up my mind as to what my goal is...sometimes I say I just want to tone up and not be so concerned with pounds...I just don't know. I wonder if I am setting an unrealistic goal for myself at 140 lbs. Hmm..well thanks for listening...It will all work out . Basically, I need to be healthy! I want to feel good and have energy!

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Elisha-What kind of dog are you planning to get? I really like dogs. That will be fun to have one to walk with!!

Julie- I am impressed with your superb planning and prepping! You are set for success . WTG with resisting the Cheetos. I love them too!

Joy- Eating after 8 pm is the worst for me. Well, actually late afternoon is hard for me too...like from around 3-5 or so. Mornings I do o.k...even at lunch time. It just seems like I have certain trigger times. It is cool that you are officially in training!! You're gonna do great! And, 4 lbs. for the month is super..WTG!

TBJ- Got my fingers crossed for you that your knee feels better . I know how important your jujitsu is to you, and you need a strong knee to participate. I had to smile when I read how you were going to fit your pizza into your plan...all that figuring sounded so "Lisa-ish"!! LOL!

MsRD- I was impressed with your post. You have your goals alll lined out I see. Good for you! I find myself dealing with the same consistency issues you do..yes, it is frustrating.What is good is that you have identified your problem, and now you can work on solving it...this next challenge will be just the thing for you to put it all in practice. Go RD..you can do it!!

Jennifer - How are things, Chica?? I had to smile at your post..no, not funny..I know that roid drives you bonkers!! But, you were cracking me up . And.......wherever did you get the idea that I deal with chaos?? I thought I had hidden that aspect of my life...LOLOLOL!!!!!!!!! Just teasin ya!


Alright, off to work on laundry and tidy up a bit. Maybe I can fool DH into believing I cleaned like crazy today..........yeah, right!!

Blessings to you all! Let us all remember: We are important, intelligent, women that are each worth the effort of comitting to a healthy lifestyle. Together, we can work through obstacles and temptations. We are not alone...that is the BEST PART!!!

Hi everyone...

Yesterday went exactly as planned. It was a red day, and the Dark Lord lost two pennies. (Would that make sense to anybody outside our group? )

Today is going well. I have a low calorie limit to make up for yesterday, but I am doing well so far and have everything planned for the rest of today. Even have room for a cookie when I come home after jujitsu.

Since I have no good excuses for going off plan... and since I don't want to post any lame excuses here tomorrow... today should be green!

***

Joy -- After having two bad first weeks in January, I started over. So according to my spreadsheet, over the past ten days, I've had three red days and seven green days. Yesterday was planned, and I'm cutting down today to make up for it. The first week, I had five green days and I lost 1.5 lbs. This week, hopefully I'll have six green days. We'll see what the [hopefully] loss is. And, you can make your goal the next three days! Then you'll have done it 1/3 of the time this month. Getting better.

Julie -- Yeah, eating more fruits and veggies tends to help you cut down on overall calories. If you make sure that a big part of your meals is plant-based, then you won't slip into the habit of a rice side dish, and a grain side dish, and a potato, etc.

Elisha -- Only two more days to hold on to 214. You can do it.

Lisa -- Sorry to hear that your son is sick. Yeah, I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to planning. I've got a spreadsheet with weight goals for Elisha's wedding...

***

256 more days to go until Elisha's wedding. Weigh in on Friday. Jeans fitting better. Lots of motivation!

Have a great day, y'all.

Hi all

I'm afraid only 15 minutes today.... my walking partner for the afternoon was away... and of course (rolls eyes) couldn't go all by myself.

Food has been decent... managed somehow to skip breakfast (unusual for me) and had a beef bunwich (crusty bun with about 2 oz roast beef, some salad greens and blue cheese dressing - YUM) a large navel orange and a banana for lunch. I was starving when I got home so I had a piece of toast with . Dinner will be cabbage rolls and ribs.... I'll try to control my portions. DH bought cinamon buns, but I'll only have one.

Thanks for the inspirational thoughts, Lisa ... we need those... Hope DS is feeling better soon.

TBJ - I may need to get a "dark lord" myself. Maybe that will be motivation for consistency. I gotta figure out what my goal for the prize will be tho

Elisha, glad things are coming to a conclusion with the house. It's nice your you to see your new life before you .... You have some good reasons to take care of yourself. I have tried to stay focussed on walking this past few weeks and have not been "beating myself up" for not getting up early to exercise. It puts me in a great frame of mind.... and when I can pick up the pace I will ... and then I'll get my aerobic exercise. Walking is a great exercise .. you can do it by yourself, with a friend (or a pet) rain or shine .. you don't need any equipment except for a good pair of runners (and rainwear in Vancouver ). Hopefully, the end of the "house issues" will pick up your spirits and you'll get some good sleep in.

Well, that's it for now ... comments to the rest of you tomorrow.

That I never went to Yoga before?? Went last night, and absolutely loved it. What a terrific instructor. There was a lot of stretching, meditation, some laughter......just what this girl needed. Needless to say, I will be back! Although, I hear that every instructor there has a different style. I have avoided so much with the excuse of my bad back, but I really think that this class will help strengthen it! I got so tickled..getting into some of the poses...and when she said Warrior 1 pose..I swear I DID feel like a warrior-LOLOL!! Wow! I came home all psyched and happy.

Sadly, my sweet ds has the flu. Poor little one. His head just aches. He is pale as a sheet. I am to take him back to the doctor on Wed, and I am to closely monitor him. He's been sleeping with us, and needless to say, I am not quite as rested as I would like to be.

Today, I am going to get more water in, and I am going to walk on the treadmill for at least 20 min. I am going to be gentle and not overdo anything. Food ended up being good yesterday..although I am having trouble liking my healthy foods..my mind is torturing me!

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Joy- Hi there! It was good to read your post. I always smile when I read what you are eating at your house..it always sounds so much better than what I am cooking! LOL!

TBJ- Hi to you too! How is your knee? Hope you have a terrific day!

Well, I am gonna start some house work. Have a blessed day chicks!!

Sorry I've not been around. Been trying to pull myself out of an unfocused funk the last week or so.

My partner (and likely also my boss) is/are going to Hawaii on vacation for 2 weeks starting on Friday. It's not that I'm jealous so much as I'm going to be lonely. Don't get me wrong, I love everybody in my department, it's just that those two are the ones I interact with the most.

Oh, well. I'm just going to have to deal with it.

Calories are kinda higher than I'd like lately, but I may be overestimating some bread and soup that I don't have the actual stats for.

Exercise is still minimal, but I'm still getting 15 minutes per day for the most part.

Tomorrow is a new month. At least I'm not regressing!

Last day of the challenge...I am trying to maintain my focus...it's been a struggle and I always get stressed at the end of the month...so much to do at work and never seems to be enough time to do it! I had to bring home some work last night because my computer (yes...now I have one) at work didn't have the program for the newsletter. Then when I finally got the newsletter done at 11pm, it wouldn't print!!! Grrrrr! I left hubby a note to see if he could print it and he was able to print it without a problem this morning before he left for work! Thank goodness for my techie hubby! I tried it again this morning, thinking it was because I was tired or some other technical reason...and it STILL wouldn't print for me! Oh well...just another day in the life as a woman who doesn't know QUITE enough about computers, but just enough to be dangerous!!!!

OK...food yesterday was planned, but there was a major crash in my plan...they had leftover mac & cheese (big time comfort food for me!) at work and I had 2 servings...along with 2 huge servings of stewed tomatoes!!! Grrrr! Why do I do that to myself!!!!??? Stress...what is it about comfort food that plays with the mind so much? I mean, it really doesn't make me feel any better, I just think it will! The rest of the day went ok, except for a handful of honey roasted peanuts at bedtime last night! Water was good! I made fish and really yummy veggies (summer squash, asparagus & red onion, sauteed in olive oil and garlic!!!) to go with it...I got to eat all of it because hubby and DD just turned up their noses to it!

So...today is weigh in day! Drat! I'm dreading it, but hopefully there will not be another gain!!!! I just need to start moving in the negative direction so it will hopefully inspire me! I feel so FAT...because I AM!!! Nothing fits me, the pants that used to fit me nicely are all tight on me, but I'm wearing them anyway because I refuse to buy bigger!

Tonight I plan to get my a** on that bike if it's the last thing I do! I taped (DVR) the movie on Discovery (I think) about 911 and Flight 93(2, 4...?)...I think I will watch part of that while I ride tonight! I also have some good music finally on my MP3 player so I can listen to that if I don't want to watch the movie...I find when I am riding and watching tv, that I slow down when I am really engrossed in something! LOL!

You all have been kicking some butt this month! I am so proud of you all!

Lisa...Way to go on the Yoga class! How fun! Wish I could take one with you...that would be a blast!

Joy...at least you are getting your 15 minutes in each day! I'm proud of you for that! That is something!

TBJ...Love your logic and reason with your green/red days! You crack me up! (In a good way!) I am envious of your "focus" and wish I could focus more like you! Maybe the Jijitsu is helping with that???

Elisha...Yea! I remember when you were walking all the time (me too!) I wish I could get back at that but still having problems with my foot! Grr! Anyway...glad to see the house situation is progressing. Soon you will be moved in! Maybe then, life will not be so stressful for you! And a dog???? What kind???

MsRD...You gonna weigh in with me today? It's ok...it will give us an idea of where we are...then we don't have to weigh for a whole month again! We can do this! besides, you really have been doing well! I like your thoughts at the bottom of your post. Can I steal those and put them in my sig?

OK chickies...I need to pack it up and get going to work! UGH!

Hugs to all...I'll check in when I find out what my weight is!

Morning chicks!

Yesterday was ok. Calories came in around 1435 or so, water was 102 oz, but still no exercise. And today I am dead tired and I have a headache. Lots of water for me today, and early to bed!

However, I do have some good news. I did my taxes last night. Yay! I’ll mark a few more things off my To Do list tonight (changing sheets, putting away laundry, vacuuming my bedroom, and possibly even cleaning off my desk). I’m not planning to exercise tonight though. I’m going to focus on getting some things done. I feel so much better when things are clean and tidy, and right now they’re just not. Besides, if we’re going to be packing up everything in another week or so, it’ll be nice to already have stuff organized.

But I do intend to exercise tomorrow, back on track for the month of February, though I may go back to WATP. Right now Y!F just seems a little too high-impact for me. But I can do WATP and use my weight machine.

And as of this morning I have not only maintained the 3-pound loss, but I am down to 213.8! Yay! I wonder if I can get down to 213.4 by tomorrow to make an official 4-pound loss for the month. If I don’t, I won’t be too bummed out about it, as 3.6 pounds is just fine with me, but I like nice round whole numbers, you know?

Unfortunately, tonight will be dinner out, as I have to run some errands after work. I will either get Subway or a grilled chicken sandwich from Wendy’s. Or maybe a salad from somewhere. I dunno. Maybe I’ll just have a snack while I’m out and then go home and eat something healthy.

So yesterday I was talking to a good friend of mine about weight loss, and I said that I thought I would be happy if I could make it back down to around 197 for my wedding. That was the lowest weight I reached before the scale started climbing back up. It was also what I weighed when Steve met me. I was thinking that I felt pretty confident then, I felt pretty good about myself.

But the thing is, I still don’t think I was happy there. I felt good because I was losing, and at that point I believed I would continue to lose until I reached my goal. It’s not that I was happy with my body at that point, because I wasn’t. I was squeezing into a size 16, and I had hardly noticed a change in my body even after dropping 40 pounds. Also, I have some pictures from our vacation just a few weeks after that, and I don’t like the way I look in those pictures. I look at them and think that that was my skinniest ever, and I’m still fat. And it’s not just my mind telling me I’ll always be fat (though I somehow think it will, no matter what I weigh)—I actually WAS and AM still overweight by far. There is a lot of fat on my body.

So if I lose 3-4 pounds per month, that would put me at roughly 185 for my wedding. I don’t know that I will be happy with that. But I don’t know what else I can do about it. And I don’t know that I won’t be happy with it either. I may get there and think I look absolutely wonderful. Or I may lose more than that. But losing 30 pounds would make me feel a lot better about myself than I do now, so I guess that is all that really matters.

As long as I lose it, and keep working, and don’t give up.

Giving up is the one thing I have no intention of doing.

Have a good day, chicks.
~Elisha

Aloha all y'all --

Yesterday was a green day. Even more importantly, I managed to eat light in order to make up for the day before. Yay!

Jujitsu was hard, but fun.

***

Joy -- Sounds like you have all your food planned out. Good luck with the just-one-cinnamon-bun!

Lisa -- My knee is better. I didn't push it for four days, and now it seems to be a little stiff, but fine. From now on, I'll only work on that one particular fall in class. Ooo, yoga, fun! You must be a flexible lady.

Betani -- Take care! Your pals won't be gone forever.

Julie -- Heh heh, "enough to be dangerous." I can imagine you with some top-secret super spy internet site... Danger Woman! Good luck on your weigh-in. Yeah, I think jujitsu is helping with focus. It's such a challenge for me... I might not be able to do a handstand, but I still try. If I can keep trying to do something I can't do, I don't have any excuses for not doing something I can -- i.e. lose weight.

Elisha -- YAHOO for the weight loss! You're on track for the 3-4 lbs. per month.

***

Today I had a big-ish lunch, but I still have enough calories left for a decent, rather than a rabbit-food (as Hubby likes to call it) dinner. Only three more days until weigh-in... really only two and a half. I don't want to post lame excuses about how I messed up right before weigh in. So I just won't do anything lame.

255 days before Elisha's weigh in... I have to lose around 3 lbs. per month. I won't weigh until Friday; then I'll set my February goal for weight loss.

Happy day to youse all.

Hello All!

What a busy day! They were painting the offices today......gag....choke.....the fumes were horrible! I had to go out to lunch to get some fresh air! After work, it was stop at the store and then visit with Mom.....then stop at the bank to get paperwork started for car loan (my car turned 180,000 miles this week.....I am driving on borrowed time!)....then home and DH suggested the new Italian ristorante in town and off we went! Back home again, doing laundry, checking emails.....did you notice I did NOT binge (after Mom visit)!!! Just gotta keep moving! That's the answer!

TBJ.....Thanks "Sarge"....your orders were just the kick in the pants that I need! Next month is going to be so much better......guess I just had to realize the spiral i had gotten into!

Joy.....Training for the 10k will give you all the exercise you need! Down 4# for the month!......I am so proud of you!

Julie.....That snack on the way home will keep you from snacking as dinner cooks.....I promise! you are getting so organized! February is going to be great for us! Good luck on the weigh in!

Elisha.....Sorry to hear about the back spasms, but it sounds like you know how to take care of it! Walking will certainly strengthen your back....and having a dog to remind you to go walking will help too!

Lisa.....Aww, poor little munchkin! I hope the 3-year-old is doing better. Glad you had fun in the yoga class......just nice to get out and do something for yourself too!

Betani.....Good to see you post ....we were really missing you! This nice thing about vacations (for those of us left behind) is that they never last forever. Your team will be back together before you know it.....rested and invigorated, so brace your feet!

I am putting off weighing in until tomorrow AM......nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh? Instead of being disappointed in the January results, it will just be a starting place for February. (no, that doesn't make sense to me either!)

Hey chicks!

I posted our new challenge, the Keep It Up Challenge, this morning. You can find it at the link below!

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/show...46#post1111946