ok.

First things first, Nella!!!!! I am a low carber! Not true atkins anymore, but still low carbing it. And average of about 75 per day. give or take a few. I do love the way it makes me feel. You should try it.

So.......I just got home from the dietician and they have set me up with a website to track everything from calories in/out to my mood and back. (which, my mood sucks) I just don't want to do anything. Anyway, I am going to be on 1600 cals per day. Not bad. They determined my daily calorie expenditure and have chosen that number to facilitate a 2 pound per week loss. I can handle that part. The part that made me fall out of the chair was the number of grams of carbs they wanted me to eat. 141 grams per day. Are they crazy. I am not ready for that yet. So after my panic attack was over, we decided to start slowly and try to raise it a bit. So, we shall see. My goal for this weekend is90/day. any more than that and I feel it. I feel tired, I feel bloated. Then I want more and that is how I got to be 278 pounds in the first place. Plus, that means that I have to eat things like bread. There is after all, only so many servings of broccoli to be eaten in one day. and there is no carbs in chicken. so......we shall see how this works. I am not doubting, I am scared. By going low carb and hig protein, it was easy. I couldn't eat the bread, pasta or rice. I could work on control. Now, I have a little room.

The good news is that I can have a 6 inch sandwhich from subway at times. That will help and it should help to keep me away from the drive thru for chicken nuggest. So, that is where I am at this point. I need to have alittle mile now and then. I have protein shakes to drink.

As far as the trainer, the first few visits are complimentary because he is part of the therapy crew where I have been going for therapy. Then, I gotta fork out some cash. But I plan on seeing him 1 time per week to kick my butt all over the gym and then give me homework for the week. I will see how it goes. I also think I need to look at rearranging my work schedule to make things a bit easier for me. these 12 hour days are long. So, that is me in a nut shell.

I have hit a wall and am really struggling. I am hoping this new software and the trainer will help. I am tired of relosing the same 3 pounds over and over again. I need to move forward.

the software is similar to others that are out there. But the doctor can log on and see where I am at and help me make adjustments.

Have a great day ladies!!!

OH! Tummy.................HOT!!!!

Tummy~awesome pictures!You have worked hard and it shows! hanks for sharing them. Thank you for bringing up the vegan suggestion. My doctor did put me on a statin. B U T she wants me to come back in 2 months cuz she was pleased with the exercise and diet plan. So with that said I am on day 2 taking it. So far so good. This group has been the best thing thats happened in a long time. see below

start weight 170
goal weight 165 but weigh in
current 164.4!!!!!!!!!!

its amazing. Later Pat

Dixie - WAHOO!!! You surpassed your goal!!! We're glad to have you here!

Jello - Wow, sounds like you have big changes all around! I think you will do great on the new plan, and that software sounds neat. I think I will take your advice and try the lower carb thing. I've done it before, but I think I need to refocus and try something new to focus on. I'm pretty ADD (oooh look! A shiney!) what was I saying? Lol, so anyway I think changing it up for me is a good idea. Plus, I'm a carb queen. I could live on potatoes and bread and rice and be the happiest girl ever. I'm gonna swipe my mom's South Beach book this weekend and start there. A friend of mine has been doing SB for a few months and she has had great results.

Well Hellllloooooo ladies.

Let's get a few personals out of the way first..

Dixie ~ on surpassing your goal. You should be very proud of yourself dear.

Jellofer ~ Is that website open to the public or is it something your doctor uses for his office? Whatever the case it sounds like you are well on your way and with such a great plan in place, I'm sure you will do just fine.

ShrinkingGirl ~ Hey we all need a break from the hussle and bussle of life and I'm sure those little breaks are well deserved darling. You know, I wouldn't look into that little gain. I'm sure it's water or something. I definitely feel your frustration though. I more or less had to take a breather. I'd been at it so long and life seemed to be getting in the way of routine and such...well you gal's know. It was one thing, then another and another. I think emotionally I needed a break from everything, to kind of get my head straight. It's so hard to focus on our goals when your mind simply isn't working properly or is clouded by stress. Just remember to take some time for yourself, even if it isn't but a few minutes a day. You are so worth it and having your sanity..is indeed priceless. The frustration is difficult in this journey and we all deal with it differently, but I'm sure you can find a way to get through it.

Nella ~ Have fun at the party. No worries, just relax and enjoy yourself. Good for you for only having one cookie. It's so hard to just have one of anything. I've found that there are just some things I can't just eat one of ..so I can't buy them anymore. But thankfully, I've found other things to eat more of and not feel so guilty about it. I kept the fudge though. The teacher handed it to me before we leave and I reluctantly had a piece and man was it yummy but it took all I had in me, not to get another. I come right over to this PC and started going through all my before and after photos and that sure put that fudge desire to rest. Anywho, I'm rambling..you have a great time tonight.

Tummy ~ Awe, that's too bad about all the colds and stuff. I've been lucky with the rest of the boys. Poor Canaan is the only one suffering this winter. And look at you almost at goal...I can't say it enough, but I'm so proud of you Tummy.

Sandye ~ Where ever you are..get your butt back here and say hi woman. Gonna get my frying pan icon out soon.

Now for my big news...well I did go be all soccermomish today at the boys school. Walked into my oldest sons class and the little boys were tripping out. I can't tell you how many times one of them asked if I was my son's SISTER. Talk about making an ol' gal feel good. Usually it's the kiddo's that make ya feel old, but not today. God bless them...

Eh...but other than that, it's been a slow day and since I did plan for that fudge, I can say it's another POP day. Even got an hour of walking in as well. I've been back wearing my band the past three days to, and I almost forgot how motivational it is, not to mention it keeping me on track. The only down side is, I had it off my arm for two months and ya know the ring around my arm didn't go away. Sheesh I'm afraid it's permanent and here I am wearing it again and probably gonna make it worse.

Then again, I think I can live with it, better than I could all that fat I was carrying around with me. I also was considering setting a goal but seeing as I need to get my routine set in stone again. I'm gonna concentrate on getting my eating, cleaner again and getting my exercise routine back to an actually routine again, then come the New Year, I can start the challenges again. For now, I'll just come in here and be accountable. I definitely need the support.

Alright that's enough for me. Guess I cuddle up on the couch and watch some Netflick...so you ladies have a great evening and/or weekend.

Hello chickies!
I have just a minute. DELPHI ~Sandye wanted me to let you know (I've been lurking, no time to post ) that she is crazybusy right now. She is a sewing/crafting/baking maniac right now, and her dad and stepmom arrive Monday for a week long stay. She misses everyone, but she literally is going non-stop.

Congrats on all of you who are maintaining and even losing this month. I am maintaining - sigh - could be worse I guess. Been way too busy to work out since I recovered from the bronchitis I had for three weeks.

TUMMY ~You look awesome, chickie!

SG ~Hang in there, you'll get back in the groove.

JELLO ~I have no doubt that you will knock that wall down as soon as the holidays are over. I'm with you on the carbs. They make me sleepy, and though I'm not on Adkins, I do try to limit them. Not tonight though! Spaghetti and bread, mmmmm. With that, I must go. Sorry I didn't get to more of you.

Thanks ladies for all of your input. It is only available with my doctor.

What I have learned so far though is this.......some carbs are ok. and I have not been eating enough. I got home from work tonight and had to force myself to eat. I had only had 1000 calories so far today. Not gonna work. So, I am keeping my fingers crossed and my nose to the grindstone. Like Reagan said, "tear down that wall"!!!!

well, im totally off track for my exercise and no cheat goals now lol but i will be back inJan and WILL STICK TO PLAN!!! I may actuallly meet the weight loss goal this month but only if im super good for the next 2 weeks. so I'm still aiming for that!

Good Morning Ladies.

LTTG ~ Oh sure I whop out my frying pan and Sandye sends mom to the rescue. Nah...but seriously, thanks for the update. Send my love her way. I just miss her. Soooo as I said, you should be proud to be maintaining. I mean, it's really a great accomplishment. For a lot of people losing the weight is much easier than maintaining it. Actually, I had a lot of anxiety about it. So and no worries, we will start the new year out right...now wont we?

katkitten ~ You can do it. Either way, good luck dear.

Jellofer ~ It's weird how different all our bodies are. I REQUIRE a very high carb diet. My Carbs and Protein are what keep me going. But you're right. There are good carbs and bad carbs. I take a pretty good multivitamin and a few of the nutrients disguise themselves specifically as carbs, so they can be absorbed into your system in the same manner a carb is. Carbs can be your friend, just be choosy.

Well I guess that's it. I have a busy day ahead, well not busy, but I want to get a session in with maya and get my house tidy first and then I can be all lazy and stuff. I'll check in this evening and see how you ladies are doing. Have a great day.

Morning!

Nella - Thanks, I used to hate my arms, I'm determined to not think that way anymore. Are your carbs coming from whole grain/unrefined sources? I find that it depends entirely on the carbs, with exercise you need some to burn while you're working out and the brain uses it as fuel too so my thoughts are it depends. I had success losing with low carb in years past but not maintaining with it.

SG - Thanks, my greatest hope was just to motivate myself in the beginning but I know how awesome it is to look at others pictures so if it helps just a little bit, that's why I'm here. Hang in there hun, with mom and stress and all that good stuff it's hard for the body to let go of weight and hard to regulate cravings and things. Are you sleeping enough? Stress hormones go bonkers when you don't get the rest you need. Take care, this too will pass.

Jellofer - I hear you loud and clear. I went into a bit of a shock when I started having to raise my carbs higher and higher being that the only other time I lost weight was low carb. But from having gone through that my suggestions are to add back whole food carbs first instead of processed stuff like bread, try buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth, brown rice, stuff like that. There are some great sprouted grain breads out there like Silver Hills Squirelly Bread and Food for Life has a line of Ezekiel 4:9 bread, english muffins and hamburger buns that have no flour taste really good and are only 15 or so carbs a piece. I would recommend staying away from pasta, epecially white stuff but even the whole wheat is highly processed. And the extra carbs will help you with energy for your new super workouts! And I eat around 275-350g of carbs a day and not a craving in sight, never tired, never bloated, it's all in the processed food I'm sure of it now but you can do it with some baby steps. Good luck! LOL and thanks.

Dixiemae - Glad things are going well. I've heard of folks being able to go off meds after two weeks of vegan eating so two months you're going to shock that doctor silly. Look at that weight come off of you! Also, if you need any book suggestions let me know. I'm just so happy for you.

Delphi - That's awesome about your son's class, and so true, 30 never looked so good. Hope you have a marvelous day, I got dh netflick for Christmas so I can't wait to try it out. Yuppers, I'm kicking butt and taking names this go round. I hit goal a couple weeks back and realized I had some room to go down further and since my calories are still up in the 1800-2000 range I know it's more than maintainable. Hence trying to move to 135 and we'll see from there, I've never met this girl before so she's taking some getting used to...lots of naked mirror time

LTTG - Please say hi to Sandye for us! Glad you're still checking in and maintaining, especially this time of year.

Katkitten - Aim high, goals are meant to be tough, right? You can do it.

Nothing much going on in my neck of the woods today, got some upper body stregth training to do, booked a 2 hour massage for tuesday, (that's what I call Christmas stress relief, lol) and almost finished wrapping last night. No cardio today so it's going to feel lazy but this old body needs some healing time.

After all that nasty food from our stay at our friends place I'm back down to my 136.6, only took 3 days and a lot of sweat, I swear if anyone brings boxed mashed potatoes within 100 feet of me ever again, I'm gonna freak the heck out.

Alrighty better get motivated, TTFN.

Tummy ~ Hey that's great about the Netflick. And if you guys have your playstation hooked up to the interwebs then you can watch all the streaming ones on your Tv through the playstation. Which is an excellent feature. I sure hope he enjoys it. And don't you just love those Christmas gifts that benefit the giftee and the gifter? You have a great day as well chicky!

Ohhhhh and since I had loads of time today, I just went through the ENTIRE November weightloss thread..and to **** with even trying to do personals from that one. But I just wanted to say WOW. Sandye, my word, you simply look ravishing darling. Wow, wow, wow! Then I FINALLY saw some MsP pictures and WOW again. Dear you are doing it, and doing it and DID it well. Look at you all looking hot and stuff. And Then there was Shrinking's photos...which were AMAZING as well. Such an inspiration all of you are.

I also wondered if anyone has heard from NSM, Jacque and/or Joci? Oh and FSA?!?!

Well Good Evening Ladies...although no one has posted, so I'm kinda talking to myself here. *ahem* But I'll blabber on anyways. Well I have convinced a few guys in my gaming union to hop on board the weightloss challenge wagon. So to correlate with the January challenge here I will have our twenty pounds lighter gamer challenge. It is so empowering to see them jump on. Our group of gamers hit around 300+ of gamers about 30+ years old and from all walks of life. Accountants, software designers, tech supervisors, teachers, factory workers, game developers, military officers...we even have two, count it again, two preachers amongst us and our oldest member tops out at 61 years young. Actually our union is full of middle aged kids, but man you can't find a better group of insanely articulate and fun guys. Funny how one common interest can bring people together from all walks of life. Kinda like here. Weve all become great friends over the years, so I'm almost in tears about these guys jumping on the bandwagon.

Anywho, my point, and yes I have one, or at least I think I have one, is that I'll have double the motivation between the two groups here and there. We are in talks about the prize, so I hope it's a good one, that will just be even more incentive for extra exercise. Man I'm so stoked right now it isn't even funny. I wish Jan. 1st, was tomorrow. So you ladies expect to be hearing loads of mumbo jumbo from me in the coming months. Although a lot of may appear incoherent, it does come from a big heart. I've totally rededicated myself to finish what I started. No man on this earth could prevent me from not doing this. Not even Yoda, god rest his soul, could hinder my drive and dedication right now.

Is this thing on? Geez I hope so.

Well that's it for me this evening, if anyone in the cyberworld is listening. I sit here with a smile on my face under the cloak of darkness, with nothing but the computer screen to illuminate such a show of happiness gleaming across my face, because today ladies, I feel renewed. So grab those water bottles ladies, we are in for one heart pumping month ahead of us. And on that note I bid you lovely ladies farewell and godspeed!

Thanks Tummy and Delphi. I know i can do this carb thing. It is just gonna take some time and planning. Which I am working on. I do like this software and It already shows me places where I can make some changes. We shall see. Maybe I can rock a challenge yet!!!

Good evening girls! Well, mom told me to get over here and post, so here I am!!

Delphi~ Good gravy woman is it FANFREAKINTASTIC to you see you back!!! You have been missed!!!! Now do me a favor k? Don't take off like that again! You know I'm never on FB so I can't keep tabs on you if you leave!! Plus, who's gunna motivate me to purge my junk and clean my fridge if you're not here? Huh?!?! So very glad to have you back!!! Hope Canaan is doing well, sorry to hear he was ill again. Poor little guy!

Tummy~ You look AMAZING hun!! Truly and inspiration.

Well, I hate to post only a couple personals, but I'm pretty worn out. I've been going non-stop for the past couple weeks and have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow with much cleaning, some gift wrapping and a Birthday party to go to. I've been firmly OFF the wagon all month. I tried, but I guess I didn't try hard enough. I'm not beating myself up over it though. I'm just going to try to stay busy and focus on getting my head back on straight for January. At the very least I need to get my butt moving again! I am totally feeling the lack of exercise! Also I need to quit staying up so late! I've been staying up way too late and then, when it's time to workout, I can't wake up!

Sooo, no more of that! I'm heading to bed as soon as I finish this and so long as the girls don't have me up 20 times, I'm heading to the basement first thing tomorrow and working up a sweat!!!

TOM showed up today after missing his Dec. 7 appointment...mom says it's perimenopause...great...fun times ahead huh? Sheesh!

I've gotten all of my Christmas shopping done, about 80% of the wrapping done and all that's left is to bake/cook the family gifts and relax. Oh yeah, and host my dad & stepmom for a week too. It should be fun. I probably won't be around much until after they head home though so I won't be posting much.

Come January though--it's back to being POP and kickin' some serious tail! I'll be turning 38 next month and I wanna be looking HAWT!

Okay girls, I'm beat. Hope everyone is having a wonderful December and I can't wait to get back on track and chat with you ladies more! Being this busy is seriously cuttin' into my 3FC time and that's not good at all!!!

Sleep well ladies and I'll catch ya soon!

Hey all!

Delphi-I'm hearin' ya loud and clear! Thanks for the kind words, hon! You're too sweet. I LOVE seeing your motivation revived! That's SO cool that your gaming buds on gonna join you on the "journey". Just Fantastic!

Sandye-No worries, hon. You know what's gonna work for you. This is a busy time. I am not exactly gonna be the picture of how to handle Christmas perfectly, but we all do what we can and remember it's okay to enjoy ourselves. As I've said before, I think maintaining is a decent holiday goal!

I'm definitely looking forward to the gang being a little more "on board" next month. I know it's tough for me to get on here some days, but I want to check in and stay accountable. For those who just can't right now...no guilt. We just can't wait to re-convene in January when things settle down and we can invest more time in ourselves and our health.

Jellofer-I'm glad the program seems user-friendly. I wouldn't mind something like that! Oh well. MY big problem now is portion control. Today was the 3rd time this month I've eaten until STUFFED. What's up with that?!? Moving on....

Tummy-I've never liked boxed mashed potatoes, so I can understand your new aversion. At least you're back to where you were and feeling better now that you're back to your regular food. I always miss my "normal" food when I eat somewhere else.

katkitten-Just keep working your plan. You can make adjustments now and have some good habits in place by the new year. That would make it easier to get a routine established. I know I'm missing some workouts here at the end of the month, but no worries. I'm keeping the good habits in place and doing what I can and then once everyone gets back to school in January, I can get back 100% to my normal routine.

We had a fantastic family day, but I went overboard at the noon meal. I was too full for supper, but I've been drinking plenty of water since then. I'm quite sure the scale will not show me love tomorrow, but I feel fine since I've flushed my system pretty well all afternoon and evening!

Good Morning Ladies..

Sandye, Sandye, Sandye, I'm so sorry to hear you are so busy. If I had one complaint about the holidays, is that some times we are so busy, with all the stuff we have to do FOR the holidays, that we simply don't have time to actually enjoy them, as they were intended. While the governments spending all our money, we don't have, at the moment, they might as well tack on a holiday Cleaning/Cooking/Shopping crew for every mom. Stick that in your big stimulus package. But seriously it just warms my heart to hear from you again. I missed ya girly and definitely look forward to January with you darling.

MsP ~ You know I regret nothing in my life, but I sure wish I would have been around for you and tummy's big moment. Just broke my heart reading it and not being able to be there for it.

Which begs the question, what are you gals gonna do now. I think Joci was the other one that hit goal and we haven't heard from her in awhile. So what are you gals gonna do now that your at goal and maintaining? Gonna stick around and make maintence goals or what?

Well I gotta get my butt moving this morning. I have to get my butt in gear for this new month and this week, will be a very active one for me, which means loads of calories being burned. Well you ladies have a great day and I'll check in this evening.