rugelach...thats what I make ...and it is eeeevil, one teeny tiny cookie has ~120 calories and 7 whopping grams of fat. And who could eat just one. They are a rich butter pastry pinwheel with cinnamon, sugar, apricot jam and walnuts. to...die...for.

OK-- why is it that I KNOW I feel better if I eat this way and live this way and yet I fall into bad habits so easily. I mean, I just had a fabulous lunch. Salad (cucumber, red pepper, carrot) , Boca Burger (on an ezekiel bun ) with lowfat cheese, catsup, pickles, lettuce and tomato and one dove dark promise. A 100% satisfying and delicious lunch. I feel good.

So why do I eat badly when eating badly makes me feel ill and eating well makes me feel great.

I'm not eating drastically little food right now. If I hit my goal weight, but keep exercising (I like exercise usually) I am probably already eating my maintenance calories. Nursing is kind of my "diet". (Guess that means I better hit goal weight before he weans!) So this SHOULD be doable

Hi everyone my names is Sharon, I have been reading all your messages and would like to join your group. I am trying to lose weight on my own, as finances are tight and I really can't afford to much specialty food. Then I have another very big problem, I have a broken arm, that was operated on and a screw put in, it seems it has moved, so I have little strength in that arm and will probably have to have it operated on again and another kind of foreign object put in, then of course there is recovery time. The first operation was April 11th, so a little frustrated with that as far as trying to exercise. My second problem is osteoarthritis in my knee on the same side as the arm, which I am seeing a specialist in Jan. for. It is very painful and gives out a lot.

Anyhow I still try and do 20 to 25 minutes of floor exercises every day, don't always accomplish it, but do try hard. The diet has not gone well, today has been extremely bad, I must of had at least 8 oatmeal raisin cookies and nothing more. I usually do have oatmeal or Fibre 1 cereal for breakfast, but am very bad at getting my meals in, usually it is two at most, sometimes healthy, most times not. SO PLEASE HELP ME GET ON THE RIGHT TRACK!!!

I have very little will power as you can probably tell and need alot of motivation, I am hoping for your support and some feed back on getting started. I have been a yo-yo dieter all my life, two years ago I lost 80 lbs but it is all back on except for 13 lbs.

Help me please! Not used to the forum, hopefully will get better in time.
Thanks Sharon

Hi Sharon You are in the right place It sounds like you've had a rough year. I too have very little will power. What I find though, is that every day that I have a "good" day, the stronger I get. It's getting there, that is so difficult. I try really hard to stay out of the kitchen and keep myself pre-occupied. I also eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. I am the last one to be able to preach to anyone, but I can certainly support you.

I feel the same way, the nicest meals I have had have been when I have been eating good or clean as some people call it . So yes , why do we end up eating rubbish which leaves us feeling bloated and ickky.
Well I plan to tackle eat problem I come across one at a time.

how is everyone doing tonight?

Wow, okay so I have gotten REALLY far behind!
I won't reply to all messages, it looks like one of us has already done that for the most part.
I will say to kiwichic and Sharon:
I am also on a fairly low income. I don't eat anything special (no shakes, protein bars, supplements, etc). What I've done is I've replaced certain things that I already buy with Low Fat or Low Cal options. Most of the time the guys in my house don't cook (I do all the cooking), so for the most part they're clueless haha. I also had this really bad habit of buying pasta items, or processed foods because they were cheap. I cut my pasta down to once a week, and replaced different things with fruits and vegetables. Some nights I will even still cook the same thing for the guys, but just have a salad with some tuna in it for me. And if you are injured, walking is a great way to exercise. Ask Jasmine31. She walks everywhere, and a lot of her weight loss exercise has been successful by walking alone (go Jasmine go!).

I used to post my daily meals, maybe I'll start doing that again. Maybe you guys can get some ideas, or something
the only thing I recently purchased was Slim Fast shake mix for the mornings. I was finding if I eat oatmeal every morning, some days would be heavier than others (especially if I wasn't all that active first thing in the morning).

Good luck ladies, and happy to have you!

Well, today is still showing in the '60s, much to my relief. For some reason my weight is still fluctuating about a pound or so every day. I really need to stay away from the scale, but I just love seeing even the tiniest difference!

I baked. Alot. Today. I walked away with 2 days of baking (yesterday and today), and only ate 2 mini cupcakes, totally about 300 calories (150 for each). Hoorah! I left all the baking at my MIL's, it's safer there, trust me.

Not much to report. I made the final payment on DFs Christmas present (camcorder/digital camera in one) today, so that was a huge relief. Of course, I have next to no money left! Eep, but worth it. I think I already mentioned that the tree was already done. DF let me go wild on it, and it looks sooo pretty! It's all in wine and gold, I'm pretty sure it could pass as a storefront tree I'll try and take a picture and post it or something. I LOVE IT!

Finally got back on my chicken and rice days. I haven't been eating meat pretty much at all for the past week, but have been losing on the protein (and I can feel it in my energy), so went and purchased more chicken, and there we have it. I've been eating tuna instead of chicken. Gotta say I'm getting sick of it haha.

Can't think of much else to say. I've been pretty busy. I finally got around to putting my pictures up in the pic forum. Thanks Nikaia for the compliments! I like to think I'm badass. Well, I was back in the day lmao. I'm more of a domesticated mom to a bunch of grown boys now!

Have a good night all! I will come and post tomorrow's meal plan after it's all worked out tonight.

~Mande

B: 2 cups 1% Milk (cow's), 2 scoops Strawberry Optima Shake Powder
S: 100g Yoplait Source Yogurt (Low Calorie), 1 Lg Banana
L: 2 cups Campbells Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup
S: 8oz Baby Carrots (fresh), 2 Rice Cakes (Low Fat) w/ 2 tbsp Peanut Butter
D: 4oz Chicken Breast (Boneless/Skinless), 1 cup Romaine, 1 cup diced Mushrooms, 2 tbsp Low Calorie Cucumber Dressing
S: 1 bag SmartPop Mini Bag Popcorn

W: 1500mL

E: 3 miles, 4.5mph (DVD), Shoveling the walks! At least an hour *tear*

And there you have it!
Calories: 1534
Fat: 25%
Carbs: 51%
Protein: 24%

And happy to report that I've managed to get over 25g of Fiber in!

Martini - I will admit to weighing frequently, but I dont pay attention to the fluctuations - especially right now when it can be dependent on how much ds ate. I weigh whenever I happen to have a morning where I am in the bathroom without having eaten or drank anything, maybe 4-5 days a week (often I will grab my morning hydration to drink while nursing) but I only pay attention to new lows. I am following the plan, so no point in sweating fluctuation ( and its often up to 2 lbs) but I celebrate each and every new low - and with a digital with decimal point scale I sometimes get to celebrate 2-3 a week. Then other times I go quite awhile before it drops again.

Welcome sharon and kiwi!

Another good day. Got up and ran this morning...first interval training since baby...wow. and then after dd went to preschool went to the gym and got in full body weights.

Thank-you all for the welcome and Martiniforme for posting your meal plan to help get me started on mine, hopefully tomorrow, will be the start of something new and better. Unfortunately I just remembered we are invited out tomorrow and Saturday evening for dinner. Will have to be extra careful and hopefully I can do it. Please keep up the support, it certainly helps.

Ann is so right about doing better when you do better. It is mostly a self-sustaining process. Each victory makes you stronger and more likely to choose well the next time.

I had a good one this morning; I'd pulled an all-nighter last night, napped for 2 hours at 1 AM before getting back to work on my final papers for two classes that were due today. And after I finished them and turned them in, I was really tempted to stop by 7-11 to get some junk food for a "reward". But I stopped and reminded myself that that's not really a reward since it will make me feel worse and I'll have to work it back off. So I DIDN'T go to 7-11, and I am proud of myself for it.

Okay so I have a question. If I cant make it to the gym and its way too cold to do cardio outside, whats a good exercise I can do that will really help me burn calories. In the winter here its gets down to 15F and is really too cold to workout. We have alot of snowstorms so were not always able to go anywhere. So what could I do?

Canuk4: When I'm eating out, I like to use a salad plate rather than a dinner plate. It helps me keep on top of my portions. Good luck!

Nikaia: Good for you! That is one of the hardest strings to cut I feel. Realizing that food is not a reward is a HUGE deal, and that is really great for you!!

Leygh: It's really cold here (avg -40C (-35F)). I like to do walking DVDs. Something like WATP, or Walk On to Weight Loss. Yoga and Pilates are also both really good, and I love that I am more flexible after having done them Also, shoveling snow is a great way to burn calories!

--
Ugh, I'm so sleepy right now! I had such a bad sleep last night, and I know it's because I totally had a chocolate bar yesterday! Barf!