Taking some time to read through everyones post thoroughly.

Sandi~ just noticed the bit about your sign co. !!! Very cool!! When does your school go back? We go after Labour day.

Gray~ No plateaus in your part of the world!!! Keep going.

Annie~ LOL, I act about 38.... well maybe 28...... 18???? Just numbers. I have a childlike appreciation for our world!!
Let us know about the weigh in!! Glad WW is going well for you.

Debbie~ good going on the 3X's to the gym!!!!!!
We are are on a 2 lane country highway so there is a lot of traffic during the day but peaceful in the mornings and at night.
We have some large trees on the left side of our property but not on the right, in front of the new porch. I will be planting shrubery. I am thinking spruce. We face north west. Harsh in the winter.
Get in that kitchen and cook some balanced meals!!

Caro~ i buy treats for the kids and even tell myself they are for the kids and guess who eats them. I stop and ask myself now ,who is this REALLY for? it is not always bad stuff, like pita and hummus but I eat it at night and eat the whole container.

Susie~ HUGS!! You WILL do this!!!

Lilybutt~ I had a similar physical last year. I am monumnetally healthy just fat. It is like my last hurdle in life. Everything else is pretty wonderful.
5X's a week!!!!!! Yikes!!!!!! It would have to make a difference.

Welcome Jenny~ acknowledge where you are at and work to change it. Be careful of negative self talk. Learn form the past.

No more cake today but I did pick up frozen lasagne for supper. Too tired to cook.
I will do better tomorrow.

I know...... 60 minutes 5 times a week!!! and LOL

Well I know exercise really can be the key....I am 5'5" and 240 ish....wear a size XL or 18 and really, even with the weight, curvy....you know what I mean???? I have a figure.....i don't know it just is so hard to lose weight......I just feel like I am stuck at the 240-220 range. I have been here for years....so maybe upping the ante on the exercise will help....Can't promise I will make it, but I can promise I will try!

So today I made it to the Y again today.....yesterday walked 3 miles in an hour....today did 40 minutes on the bike and 20 minutes of weights. It is a start!

I will keep you posted !

Lilybutt

I'm down 3 more pounds!! woo hoo!! I know that I won't keep losing 3 pounds a week forever, so I'll enjoy it while it lasts!! I'm only 2 pounds from my first mini goal!! And I've lost 9 pounds in 3 weeks!! I am so amazed at myself!

Today I was tempted by Chocolate at work... I ate 1 serving of Hershey's Kisses But recorded them immediately and then had an extra serving of veggies at lunch to make up for it

Susie, do you have someone to hold you accountable for what you eat? That could help you a bit! I know that I have to tell my hubby everything I eat in a day, and I have issues telling him!! Perhaps if you don't feel comfortable telling someone in RL (or feeling like you'd cheat and tell them that you ate three servings of broccoli as code for "I ate 3 candy bars") then find a buddy on this site and tell them daily! I'm sure anyone would be more than happy to encourage you when you're having trouble!

Gray Eyed Girl, I loved your minute goal so much that I set myself a mile goal!! I am going to walk 600.47 miles, which is door to door from my house to my parents house! Setting miniature goals each month (i.e. I will walk 41.72 miles to the next town this month) And when I reach half way point I'm buying myself an iPod, and when I make the full 600 miles I am spending $300 on a shopping spree! Because after exercising 600 miles I'll probably look darn good!

Holly, Mmmm! Cake... I don't think I could even have the stuff in the house!! So I admire you for sticking to small amounts!! Good plan on having 5 weeks dedicated to yourself I'm sure you'll see a difference there!

Debbie, 3 times to Curves?! CONGRATS!! I always feel as though I've accomplished an amazing feet when I get home from working out! I so wish we had a Curves here...

Caro, I hope that exercise becomes a habit for me!! I'm forcing myself to exercise every day for the next 2 weeks, I think that's the only way I'll make myself keep doing it *sigh* But people keep telling me that before long I'll love doing it so much! I sure hope so!

Lily, Reading at the gym is rather complicated I have issues on the elliptical because I feel like I'm bouncing more when I'm concentrating on reading! 5 times a week for an Hour?!?! I'm telling you, get good at reading and using a machine (it does take some work) and those hours will fly by!!

Jenny, This site is a great place for support! Although I've only really been here for 2 weeks, I've found that reading the success stories helps keep me motivated!! And having someone to be accountable too doesn't hurt!

I think I got everyone, if there's someone I missed... I apologise!

Holly, I'm glad your party went so well. I hope you had a nice relaxing day!

Debbie, way to go for getting to Curves 3 times. We don't eat out much, but when we do one thing that helps for me is to ask the waiter to put half of my meal in a to-go box before serving it. That way even if you eat everything you're served, it's still only half of the meal. If you can make yourself eat only half of what you're served, then you're probably cutting the meal down to a fairly reasonable portion. Restaurant portions are just enormous. Thanks for the congrats!

Caro, good to "see" you again. The only foolproof way for me to keep things under control is to keep the stuff out of the house. Right now I have the munchies but we have nothing in the house to satisfy my chocolate craving, so I'll go without.

lilybutt, I'm glad that your doctor gave you a good bill of health. At least the extra weight isn't causing health problems, that's a good thing. 5 times a week for an hour IS a lot, but I think you'll start to get used to it. That's about what I do, and I've started wanting to do more than an hour at each gym session. You've done it 2 days already, you're doing great!

Welcome, Jenny. I hope that this group is helpful to you . Are you following a specific plan, or are you just eating less and moving more?

Congrats on those 3 pounds, Jaque! That's exciting. I'm impressed by your miles goal. Do you have a time frame planned out at all? Keep it up!

G.E.G. :: No set time for this goal... I'm setting town to town goals by the month...so I'd assume it will be 6 months or so...but we shall see Tomorrow morning I'll hit my first town!! (41 miles total!) Assuming I wake my lazy bum up for exercise before work like I'm h oping! If I don't, I'll only hit 40 miles with a walk with hubby in the evening.

Hello,
THANK YOU for all your advice and encourgment. I feel ready to go at this again.

I've purged my food pantry, I've bought a new notebook to start journaling again and I'm going to ask someone from my TOPS group to be available to me to call when I feel like I can't overcome a craving.
I'm going to start again with being acitve in this goal. That means coming to the board, posting, responding to posts and participating in this race, I've been sitting on the sidelines for too long

I'm not about to give up! I agree with you Debbie that I don't want to go into my "twighlight" years this large and if I'm going to do something about it, then it's truly up to me and I need to do it now.

I need to get busy at work, but I wanted to start the day out right by getting here. I hope to post to individuals later on in the day.

Thanks again.

Susie

Morning ladies!!
Today is the day!!!!
This is kinda like New Years again for me.
All my big commitments are done. There nothing on the calendar til the kids go back to school.
In the last year and a half I have completely stopped binging. My portion control is good. My food choices are mostly good. I HAVE lost 18 lbs.
I feel great. I have resolved the little issues that eat at me.
So…
Today I will eat consciously.
I will stop and ask myself, is eating this food for my highest good.
I will sit down at the table when I eat.
I will do yoga every other day and walk or ride on the opposite days.
This is my plan!!!!

I had a LOOONG sleep but still feel tuckered out from life in general.
Tidying and kitchen cleaning first thing. I want to move a wall unit in the livingroom today. I dont have the time or $$ to paint the room so I will try to make it more pleasing.
I seem to drop 5 lb and coast for a couple of months. It is time to drop the next 5. Looking at 220!!!

Have a great day chicks!!

Happy Monday Ladies!!

What a wonderfully, hot, humid day! Bleck! But thank God for the sunshine!

I had very nice weekend, stayed on track, no cheating, minimal exercise however. I did cut the grass on Sunday, in the heat, nearly melted. It is a push mower, not a rider, so that was an hour of exercise. Partly on a hill so used arm and leg muscles quite a bit. Worked all day at Kohls on Saturday, it was a mad house, busy, however time flew!!

Don't get to weigh in tonight at WW due to eye appt., however will WI tomorrow night. I feel very good about it, and believe it or not, can't wait to WI. Ole auntie Flo dropped in yesterday, so that will be behind me a bit when I do WI.

Gray-eyed...Slow but sure does win the race. Keep on doing what you are doing, and before you know it you will slim and trim.

Legally B...You are awesome. Congrats on the exercise, cals, and being down on weight! Whew Who.....you go girl!

Susie...get rid of all the sugar stuff. I find when I eat one thing bad, it just makes me crave it more. Then I find I am eating it everyday. If you can go a few days without it, you will stop craving it so much. Sounds like you are now re-dedicated!

Debbie - one hurdle at a time, you get the exercise under control, no shoot for the food hurdle. We can do this!

Jenny - welcome, great support, great times! Come on in as often as you like.

Holly - Your new porch sound absolutely blissful. Enjoy it with your babies... You too, sound re-dedicated to yourself and being on track. Way to go.

Hello to anyone I may have missed.

Have a great day all!

Annie

I'm not going to the gym today or tomorrow That'll be 3 days in a row without it!! But I am doing a 1/2 hour with my exercise video and a 3 mile walk with hubby and puppy... so I'm still doing SOMETHING! That's what counts I suppose!

I was bad again today, they brought donuts to work and I couldn't resist... but I only had 1 rather than the 3 I normally would have! And I entered it into fitday.com and will work the rest of my days calories around that!

Susie, it really sounds like you're on the right track!! It's great to have someone you can call when the cravings go nuts!!

Holly, I'm glad you're life is settling down a bit for a month or so! It's really nice to have the time to relax and rejuvinate! Helps you to stay on track, or so I'm guessing!

Annie, I love mowing the lawn! We have a pretty large lawn also, and so it really is a workout! Except in this 110* heat I just have hubby do it!

Hi,
I made it back. I felt that I must. I wanted to do personals since you all were so good to me when I made my confession.

I didn't make it to the Y tonight. I'm doing the program for my TOPS group this Thursday and I wanted to get it together. I'm doing it on an article I read in the Oprah mag this month (or rather the most recent issue). It's on Dr. Phil's article of 9 reasons people are successful in losing weight. It was a good article for me to do the program on. I really had to disect it since I'm presenting it to others and I'm going to bring up my confession here as well. I haven't been able to ask someone if I can be accountable to them for when I feel I'm about to get off track or that I did. I'll be doing that Thursday night. In the meantime, I know you ladies are here if I need you in that way..and believe you me, I'll use your help!

Holly: You are so on track lady. I'm do proud of you. Doesn't it feel nice to have a "new year" for yourself?

legally: Ok so you had the doughnut. You showed me how to get right back on track with logging it in Fitday and working around it. Thanks!
BTW I think you are doing ok with the exercise. Sometimes our normal routines get messed up, but then again..you have worked around it. You are making lifestyle changes.

Annie: You are right, I'm going to have to go through sugar withdrawl..I'm prepared..I know what to do if I feel like I'm going to give in. Get here, drink water and do something that I can't do while I'm eating. If I have to, I'll get in the bathtub and take a bath.

Ladies, I'm about to head to bed. I know it's important for me to get rest or when I get tired I feel like Iwant to eat to keep going.

Susie, I'll have to look for that article!! Perhaps I can read it tomorrow at the gym

My goal for tomorrow is to wake my bum up at 4:30 am and go to the gym before work at 7...wish me luck!

LB!! 4:30????? You are brave.

Thanks chicks for the supportive wishes.
DD went for a swim and sleepover yesterday but I got a call at 10pm because she couldn't get comfy and needed to come home.
I entered my Avon order. Biggest one yet. I have a few phone calls to make today and then I send it tonight by 11pm.
I moved furniture and pictures in the livingroom and I painted a shadow box shelf.The room has seemed too dark but I have lightened it up considerably with curtain etc. Just cant afford paint right now.
Food was much better yesterday but not great. I ate 2 chocolates that were gifts.
I did wander about mid aft looking for a snack and did not eat and took DS to the library and then bought him and DH icecream and none for me. 2 small victories!!
I hung my old quilts on the new rack. I smile every time I see them!!

Have a peaceful day!!

Good Morning, good morning!

I am so jazzed! I got through the eye doctor appt in time to go to WW. I am a BIG LOSER....down 5.4 pounds. I am so dang excited. The fire is burning and staying lit! Yeah!!

Susie...I am going to try and find that article, sounds interesting.

Holly...Sounds like your Avon business is growing by leaps and bounds. Good job on the ice cream!

Lilly B....Did you make it up at 4:30?

Everyone have a marvy day!

Hugs

Annie

Annie~ You BIG LOSER, you!!!!!!!!!! You rock sister!!!!!!!!!

I'm doing well this week. Apparently the fitness program {yourself fitness} that I got has been paying off, as it is TOM and I've still LOST 2 lbs! I'm very pleased, and am wondering how much I'll have lost next week when I get the water weight off.