Tummy...great job! WTG!

I finally hauled my butt into the gym today and I'm glad I did. I feel "accomplished". Food was OP as well today and I drank 8 cups of water! Woo hoo!

OMG, thank goodness I can finally log in!!!

Ms. P and Tummy - You girls look AMAZING!!!!!! I mean, WoW!!!! You all should be so proud of yourselves!!! And those muscles!!!! I am totally jealous and inspired!

LTTG - WAHOO!!!! I'm so glad the scale is moving again! All you needed was some time with Sandye to get you on your way again! Keep kicking those pounds to the curb!

Gekster - Counting Calories is a way of life for me now. There are some days I don't log it in to FitDay, but I can eyeball it and know when I've had too much. Keep up the good work!!!

SG - I think you are right, the people there are not measuing right or something. That doesn't make sense. 7.5 pound loss is great!!! Go you!!!

So quick check in for me. Had a busy weekend helping my dad with my parents business. My mom had knee surgery last week and she was out of commission to help. So I'm tired and off to bed here in a minute. TOM should be gone tomorrow (thank goodness!) and I'm hoping for maintaining, because last week was really tough emotionally and then the weather was bad and this site was down, so I was completely unmotivated to do much. Oh well, this week is a new week.

See ya tomorrow!

Good morning ladies!!!

Good gravy, I tried and tried to post a reply yesterday--even thought I had time to do some personals, but every time I tired to get on here either the site was having issues or something else needed my attention.

MsP & Tummy ~ Hubba hubba!!! You ladies look AMAZING!!! It still blows my mind how much you two have changed!!! Absolutely incredible how different your bodies are now--and MsP, I'm with Tummy, I envy you your skinny legs! I have 'sturdy' thighs ( tried to come up with a word that wasn't too negative ). You both are sportin' those guns too! Ain't nobody gunna mess with you girls!!!

Tummy, you'll have to wait a bit longer for progress pics--I didn't take any after Phase 1 and I'm not going to try a self portrait--it get too frustrated. I'll get on them though, I promise!

I'd love to do more personals, but well, you know me lately--tons to do!! I started working on the girls' quilts for real last night--I actually sewed a whole block! Might sound impressive, but it's not--it's a whole 9 squares sewed together--but, the main thing is, I STARTED!! We finished painting their room yesterday and it turned out nice! We bought a cute sign that says "Twinkle, twinkle little star, do you know how loved you are?" and hung it over their window between their beds--I love it! Now, after I finish the quilts I need to get busy decorating the rest of the room!

I'm down a little this morning--132.4 and I'm please to say that I made it through another weekend without going food crazy!

Some NSVs to share: Yesterday I decided to get the kids some doughnuts as a treat (it's been forever!)--I went to Dunkin and picked out a dozen, brought them home and didn't even want one! Of course he have left overs too and they are of no interest to me at all. Yay! Also, we were running around all afternoon and by the time we were finished it was dinner time so we decided to stop and get something rather than try to cook--so, hubby and the kids had fast food (blech!) and I came home and had left over chicken and made some veggies (there was only one piece of chicken otherwise everyone would have had some instead of the crappy fast food).

One of the reasons we opted not to cook was because we brought home a new baby last night! His name is Ham and he's an adorable 12 week old kitten. Everyone was all crazy and wired up about bringing him home so I wanted to limit the mayhem ya know?

So now we have a kitty! And I am now on a rampage to clean every room in the house--especially the playroom--so that he can't get into anything he shouldn't or, heaven forbid, get hurt or trapped in some massive toy pile!

Anyway, enough from me--I obviously need to get my butt in gear and get this house whipped into shape pronto!!! Who knew getting a kitty would mean having a cleaner house?

Have a great day ladies and I really, really hope to get back here later and do more personals! I miss you all and feel so bad for not getting to everyone!!! Big to you all! Now get out there and have a fantastic day and don't forget to...

Drink Your Water!!!

P.S. After thinking about it for some time, I decided to change my original start weight to reflect my high point the day I started my lifestyle change, I had felt like it was kind of 'cheating' to add those few pounds in there, but I figure that's where I started and I earned every pound lost, so I'm takin' 'em!!

goal for this challenge (page 2) - 169lbs by Dec. 1
start weight: 179
current weight: 170.5
lbs lost since challenge began - 8.5
lbs left to go until end of challenge -1.5

I'm so close to reaching the mini-goal for this challenge I lost 3 lbs this week! yAY!

JasonsLea - Every loss is an awesome loss !!!! great job!

Nella -I hope your mom is doing well! The site being down was a huge letdown for me too! So hard to keep myself accountable lol. Good luk this week

moon fairy - Great job going to the gyM!

sweet tooth - You'll be in the 160s soon!

Shrinking Girl - I know exactly what you mean about being on plan but not eating healthy food. I had the same problem last week. It's a mental challenge to not be preoccupied with everything. Best of luck to you! Don't feel discouraged!

Tummy Girl - You Look amazing and so fit! Awesome job!

Gekster - family/friend support is very important in this process. Good job saying NO to eating out.

Bigmid - 6.2 lbs sounds like a lot. Maybe it's water retention! Try to drink more water and see again. Good luck this week!

Good Morning

I hope you all had a great weekend.

Just a quick drop in this morning for me. Due to last weeks issues with the site I didn't get a chance to post my Friday weigh in ... sitting at 201.5 so only 1.5lbs away from my Nov goal,

Hopefully when I weigh in tomorrow i'll see another drop.

Have a happy and OP day

Good morning, all!

Sandye-Thanks! I do love my legs. They may be short, but they're nice! BTW, I think it's more accurate to put your highest weight. Since you've lost the weight...claim it all! I've wondered about changing mine to my high weight, too. I was at one point (not including pregnancy) up around 207 or so...YIKES! Not attractive on a 5'3" individual, but I didn't realize it until I lost some of it. I thought I looked pretty okay. Anyway... Congrats on the kitty!! I bet the kids are super excited. Best of luck on that, and your quilt, and maintaining, WHEW!

LaurenA-Yay! You're really close! Keep on doing what you're doing...it's obviously working for ya!

InControl2Day-WOW! You're very close to November goal too! Way to make it happen..and what a week! 3 pounds?! AWESOME!

Shari-Good job getting back to the gym! You're turning the ship back around and heading in the right direction!

Well, I overate at lunch yesterday. My tummy told me to stop and I ignored it since we were eating out and I really wanted it all RIGHT THEN (stupid, stupid, stupid!!). Well, I immediately came home and started downing water and ate a nice healthy supper, so the scale wasn't terrible...up 1 pound. Obviously I know it will be gone shortly, but it's just another lesson learned. I'd been very OP the last couple weeks and felt fantastic. I had prepared myself mentally to go to this one restaurant and DH changed his mind and we went somewhere else and I just clearly lost my mind. LOL So.....I'm still a work in progress!!

MsP & Tummy OMG!!! Talk about HOT Babes!! You both look amazing that so much for the great pics. When I see success stories like yours it really helps to keep me motivated.. You ladies are the best

I had a great weekend went out to do our normal shopping and we did it no junk food or going out to eat YEAH! DH bought me the Active game for the wii, thought it might be fun for a change of pace on the days I don't go to the gym. Hope it is good....

I have been very busy, I have started making my Christmas cards hoping I get them all done in time LOL, I have completed some of them and they are turning out really good I'll have to take some pictures of them and share with you ladies. Well gotta run, I am taking my son to school today. Have a great day everyone

Morning!

MsP - LOL, I know how ya feel, on Saturday, the 14th, I took my pics and stuff like I normally do then it was move onto other things, so by yesterday I was onto other things. I think my favorite part is to not be in such a hurry anymore. Since I'm healthy now, I seem to have a million times more patience for the scale and the tape measure than I did before, it will come in it's own time as long as we take good care of ourselves. Congrats on that 0.2 away as well, that's marvelous and brilliant and you just don't even look like the same person. LOL, work in progress, I hear ya, it's those moments when I realize that this is a life long work in progress and it takes a lot more work than I thought to be an obesity survivor.

Taurie - Thanks so much and yes you are stronger than cheese puffs, absolutley! LOL, that's awesome

SG - Glad you're back! The reason I marvel at those cheekbones is that I had to lose 75lbs to see mine, lol, I have a round face and have since the day I was born. This is the first time I've ever not been round and it's really been the last 10lbs or so that have defined my face a bit. hence my glee at your delightful gene pool there! And thanks, I'm feeling less fat so far and healthier everydat, but I don't know if I'll ever identify with the word skinny after a lifetime of obesity, I'm willing to try! I'm thinking you're looking awesome there yourself. I'm seeing some thigh and waist shrinkage this time, very nice! Glad the weekend is over and boohiss ppl who can't use tape measures, honestly!

Sweettooth - Thanks, it's coming along for sure, I'm losing my squirrel cheeks! Hopefully this week will be filled with healthy choices to move that scale in the right direction. You can do this!

Moonfairy - Thanks so much. And look at you rockin that lifestyle, good for you! I love the hauled part, that's so true some days.

Nella - Aww thanks. The muscles I'm actually super proud of, I didn't think I would be but losing weight is being proud of the absence of something so it's different, the muscles you can actually be proud of something you built, it just feels more tangible, kwim? I hope Monday finds you in better spirits and back making healthy choices for you! Let us know how it's going.

JasonLea - Howdy there, you may have achieved a miracle of losing while having a binge omgoodness, you must have done something right in there somewhere. You're worth making good choices for, so binge be gone!

Sandye - LMAO that was exactly the word I was looking for "sturdy" It's not a bad thing, thick sounded rude and I don't have cankles either but sturdy fits well. Alright as long as you're trying I'll let it pass, I want to see the gun show! I love it that there's a lot of chickies round here that aren't just shooting to be thin and dainty but healthy and strong and maybe a bit thin and danity WTG on the weekend, again, that's 2 in a row!!! You're doing it, you really are Congrats on those two NSV's btw that's awesome and I know how hard that can be, I mean a dozen donuts, that's brave! I get two so there's none available, lol. Have fun with your kitten, I bet the kids are over the moon!

InControl - Omgoodness you're almost at goal and it's only the 16th! That's fantastic. And thanks, it's nice to see the pics b/c it's really easy for me to forget too.

Lauren - Holy, that's fantastic you're almost at goal too and it's only half way and 199 here you come!

Mystical - You're very welcome, I love seeing people's progress too, it gives something tangible to those numbers we all throw around. Have a great day!

Goodness, time flys when you're reading all the news.

Great weekend, dh is off for 3 days so we'll be having our family time. Got a birthday party tonight for a wee friend of dd's, pizza, hotdogs and birthday cake, aka, I'm eating before I go. There will be a lot of ppl I haven't met before so that will be nice to socialize with some new faces.

Tomorrow I think we're doing a whole lot of nothing and then Wednesday, dh and I are dropping dd at a friends place and going to the big city by ourselves for the day. We haven't done that since we moved here so we're pretty excited. We're picking up my new exercise bike and it won't fit with the car seat but who cares, lol, we're kid free for the day! Much needed for sure and we might even finish up some Christmas shopping without a cranky toddler.

Alrighty, gotta run and finish up my STing and do some errands. Have a brillaint monday ladies!

No time for personals at the moment, but I read everything and WAHOO to those who are down on the scale or made good choices!!! You ladies are so inspiring! I'm back on track so far today and plan on staying there. Today is my early day at work, so no time for a walk before work, but I WILL do a JM's video later if it kills me!!!

Have a super awesome OP day!!!!!!!

Helloooooo Chickies!

I'll jump right into personals:

sweettooth Don't beat yourself up too much at your workout routine falling apart at the first sign of stress... it happens to all of us from time to time. Also... remember this is a journey and as a journey it's ok to commit to LEARN something along the way. Learning new ways to cope with stress is something I think a lot of us face. At least you recognize the problem!

Nella Yeah, I'm all grumbly about Curves right now, it irks me the heck off! I hope this week goes better for you than last week!

JasonsLea You know, sometimes I really love that sore muscle feeling and other times I just want it to be gone! Hope your thighs feel better soon!

Sandye OMG kitten!!! I adore kittens and you should have seen the look of shock on my face when you said you brought home a new baby! I was like "woah did I miss something???" And then I saw the kitten. Post a picture of the little cutie!!

InControl2Day WooHoo!! 3 lbs in one week is amazing!

LaurenA Hoo! So close to goal ANDDDDD onederland! You rock!

MsP You know, that same thing has happened to me before.. you plan and do the research for one restaurant and then when plans change it's almost like my mind went "woohoo! try to count THIS!" and then I ate until I couldn't eat anymore. Naturally I felt horrible afterwards. Nice job on the water.

mystical You make your own Christmas cards? Woah. It seems like everyone here is super talented!

Tummy You know, a lot of us keep saying how we're not sure we'll identify with being skinny but you know... I just got to thinking and I don't think many women ever really think of themselves as being skinny. Most of us always think we have some weight to lose... and if it isn't weight then we're upset about something else. You look fantastic and I would totally love to have your round face. See? The grass is always greener.


As for me, I saw 192.8 this morning. I had to hesitate to put the 193 into my ticker. I'm not sure I'm going to update that until Nov 30th. I'm unsure how much my 4 thanksgivings is going to influence my weight and I'd really hate to claim losing only to gain. I am sorta kinda maybe getting a bit hopeful I might pull off hitting 189 this month though. I mean... if I'm realllly super good I might see it and that might just be motivation enough.

I'm pretty proud of myself as well. I walked into the teacher's lounge during my planning period to make some copies and there sitting in front of me were tons of Panera Bread bagels in every flavor under the sun. After squealing with glee I went to look for my favorite, Asiago cheese... but they were all gone. There were gingerbread, but those seemed like something you'd want cream cheese with and I don't do cream cheese really... and so i started rooting around for one that sounded appealing and I realized I shouldn't be working this hard to find something I want to eat in a bag of treats. So I stopped. I didn't eat a bagel. I love bagels. I didn't eat one. I'm not even sorry.

SG-That's a huge bagel victory! Holy cow, way to think!! I love when I catch myself thinking BEFORE I put something in my mouth! Now, THAT is progress you can enjoy! Yay on the weight! Claim it! It's your loss and you surely deserve it. I bet you'll do better at Thanksgiving than you think. It's mostly in people's minds that the holidays cause a gain. People say the same thing about eating out, but it's all in your choices!

mystical-Thanks! You're so sweet. Sounds like you've got the ball rolling pretty good over there! That's wonderful! Have fun with those cards. I think I may do a Christmas letter to let people know what's going on in my family, but if time runs short, it'll just be store-bought cards. I'm not the creative type!

Tummy-"obesity survivor"...I like that! Oooh, that date night sounds perfect! Enjoy that and the next several days in general. I hear ya on becoming more patient. I think it's more in perspective for me now that I'm pretty darn close to where I want to be and this is a life long thing, so I'm taking the time to learn and figure things out (not always the right way! LOL) Soon, I'll be there and living maintenance. I hear it's not much different over there!

The day is going well and I spent some time online working out the last details of what my maitenance range will be. This is, of course, subject to change, but I researched and worked the numbers and so I'm super excited to reach 135 so I can update my ticker with my new and improved goal!! I really put some thought into where I wanted to be and STAY for life. I guess I'll know once I get there if I chose correctly. LOL Have a good one, girls!

Hiya ladies! I finally had a chance to actually get on here and do some real posting a few days ago and then the site was down. Argh! Of course as soon as life got busy again, the site seemed to work okay. Got on to post again this morning, and it was down again. What the heck? Of course now that I am running out the door it is working. I figured I'd at least check in while I had a chance though.
Anyways, finally in the 220s! Woohoo! Went shopping this weekend and I officially fit into XL. Not 1X or 2X....just normal XLs! My *** is still huge though, so I will require pus size clothing for awhile in the jean department, lol. I am a size 16/18 now. I went to Torrid and I bought all size 0 tops....it was so amazing. I used to need a size 4 sometimes, and could never fit into anything smaller than a 3. So now I am in their smallest size! And last to add to my post of bragging...I ran for 45 minutes the other night! I usually run for 30 minutes on the treadmill, but the other night I was at the old house with the ex and while he was hanging out with DD, I decided to go for a run since the house is right next to a bike trail. I'm not sure if it is because the air was nice and cool or what, but I ran the whole trail, ran back again, and then ran around the block to make it an even 45...I was winded, but I could have kept going. Wow. I could barely run a few minutes when I first started running. I have made a decision to run a marathon by the end of 2010 now. Posting it on here so you ladies can hold me accountable!

okay, well I really do have to run. Hope everyone is doing good. Miss you!