Hello Ladies!! My computer at home has not been working, I finally got it fixed so I am here again, YEAH!!

I have missed you all! Sounds like everyone is doing great. I am going to weigh in on Wednesdays. I like it better in the middle of the week.I tend to get together with friends some weekends and have a few drinks, I know it is not the best thing for me, but I don't want that to discourage me either, thats' why I have decided to go with Weds.
So far I have not smoked since Febraury 23rd, on a regular basis. I do tend to have a few when drinking. Other than that I am pretty good. Last night we went out and I had one cigarette, and few captain, diets. I also ate onion rings, yummy!! But after eating them felt icky they totally were not worth the blooating that came later. I am starting to notice that fried foods, make me feel bloated after eating them, This is good though!!
I am starting the la weight loss take off tomorrow, and then following right into there program, I am really excited. I figured that it has worked in the past I have a case of bars, and bought the juice I might as well do it since I have the stuff. I am actually really excited. I am in need of that boost to get my weight off!! I will check back tomorrow, Caleb has baseball tonight and then I have to work late tonight.

Keep up the good work!!

Kity - great job on cutting back on smoking. That alone is a huge challenge, to do that WITH trying to lose weight, whew...my hats off to you. Good job girly! I endulged in Hibachi today and it was delicious. Now I am going to have to beef up my exerciuse routine to get the crap out of my system, lol. At least Im trying. I burned about 300 calories (maybe a little more at the gym) BUT I had some of my daughters Reece Piece cereal for breakfast so I just offset those calories for that meal. Oh well. I cant WAIT to weigh in on Saturday. Wednesday is a good weigh in day. For me, the best day is Saturday morning because on Sundays I REALLY indulge.

Neesy - you are just rockin and rolling now girl, I am so excited and so proud of you. I know, I say that a lot but gosh, it is so true. The fact that you got out there and exercised even on your work day shows that you are in this to win this.

I hope everyone is doing good today. I missed all the banter this weekend and now when I have time to catch up, not many people are as chatty. Maybe because its Monday and we all had to go back to work. Anyway, TIFF- I hope your holding up ok. Has anyone heard from Maddiesmom. Maybe I intimidated her with my challenge?! LOL. Just kidding - I hope your doing ok (if you are still reading the posts). I really dont think I lost much since our challenge but we will see on Saturday.

Take care everyone!

Hello Everyone,

Congratuations Neesy - wow, your kicking......ss!! I am so proud of you and your awesome husband exercising with you! Very impressive. I have tried for years to get my husband to walk, bike ride, or anything, but didn't happen. Keep going girl, you are close to onesies!

Lindy - So glad you had a weekend getaway - I know it felt great. I am also proud you and your husband are getting along. It very well could be the pressure is off, or reality is in....whatever the case, just go for happiness and peace.

Well, I missed one day on here and good grief, pages of stuff! I will try to catch up with everything, but for now wanted to say hello. I have been doing good, lost 3lbs and hopefully more. I have been setting daily goals for stuff that annoys me..LOL...so far I have rearranged the livingroom, moved stuff, got the gardening done out front, and cleaned out a room, oh and washed and waxed the car. Tomorrow is picking up garage and gardening out back. Hey whatever works right? LOL.........if I don't do it, who will??? LOL...

Take care

I went for a LONG walk today. My feet hurt a little, but its ok. I walked 10,035 steps just on my walk. I havent been weighing myself. I need start eating better again. I dont think I am eating enough calories and thats why I am not seeing any loss. We are talking my niece and nephew to a museum to see a snake and lizard exhibit Wed/Thurs.(they are homeschooled so Field Trip) so I can use the gym at the hotel. Maybe I can get an hour or two in. I really need to start doing more exercise. I want to do 30DS but with it being so nice out, I just want to be outside. Well, I have busy day helping my SIL with spring cleaning and have some errands to run, then I have to work tomorrow night, so I guess I should get to bed.. Sorry for the self centered post. I will tryo to catch up with everyone tomorrow or Wed.

Mygrits - 3 lbs, really?! That is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!! Did you mention that before and I was just blind, if so - Im sorry, because that really is fantastic news. I am so happy to see everyone doing so well. I know its hard but I really think not weighing everyday is a good thing. It gives you a less likely chance to cheat because your not sure where you stand and am afraid to mess up. Anyway, I had a rough weekend with eating and although I am extremely tempted to get on the scale, I am not going to. I can definately tell though that I might have gained a few pounds because a dress that was loose a couple of weeks ago is feelin a little snug. Oh well, heres hoping that when I weigh in this weekend, that it doesnt reflect a gain. I am being good this week adn doing well with exercising so...we'll see.

Burgundy - holy crapola! Lol. I cant believe you walked that many steps. I really should strap my pedometer to my waist and see how many steps I take daily. It might be interesting. Its funny, I told myself I was going to stop taking the elevator at work and start taking the stairs, especially since I have been hopping on the stair climber at the gym (you know - Toya, lol), it shouldnt be an issue - right? WRONG! I get to the top and need a couple of minutes to catch my breath so no one see's me coming out of the stairwell panting like I ran a marathon! Lol - so embarassing.

I indulged in my once a week sushi and did OK the rest of the day. I did split half a biscotti in the afternoon but thats it. I need to buy a big thing of gum again, when I had gum at my disposal I really did snack less at work. I think I just like the act of eating sometimes. I dont know, I know that sounds crazy. Well, Ill check in later.

YOU GUYS ARE DOING A FABULOUS JOB WITH YOUR WEIGHT LOSS. See - now that the forum is back up and jumping, look how successful everyone is. That should be proof that you NEED to log on everyday.

Love you chickadees!

Burgund - WOW, mucho steps! That is a walk around the world! Dang! You have to have lost weight doing that. I am truly impressed. I hope your trip to the museum is fun, except I would have to step WAY BACK with the snakes - big fear there! LOL

Hey Lindy - LOL, your story of climbing the stairs at work reminded me of when I worked for Travelers in dowtown Orlando and I tried to do that myself to lose weight. I worked on the 8th floor and liked to DIE climbing up. I gave up the idea after the first trip....LOL... I bet your dress loosins quickly, especially if your eating good and going to the gym - hey, you many even drop another pound or two! Here come the 80's!!!

Well, today should be productive - one would hope! I don't think I am exercising today, however I do need to move some boxes upstairs so I'll count that as a stair climber! LOL........ Need to get a bunch of calls in too - yuck, oh well, the beast of the business. Other than that, feeling great.

Hope everyone has a great day, stay focused - SUMMER IS NEAR! LOL TIFF WHERE ARE YOU????

Never fear...Tiff is here!!! lol that was cheesy. I have been reading and meaning to post, but never getting around to it since my novels take like half an hour to write. But since ya'll are askin about me, I guess I will make the time now. So last time I wrote, I went on a rant about my car being damaged and my stupid loan officer not communicating. Well, my car is still damaged and the dealership hasn't cooperated. I reported them to the BBB and haven't heard a thing. So, the initial anger has died down, but still I am upset about this.

My loan officer finally responded when I wrote her a really *****y e-mail (and later apologized for). She claimed she had an emergency and had e-mailed me earlier that week, but that e-mail never materialized. It looks like my closing will be pushed back, which is also aggravating because I want to get into my new house and start doing everything while work is slower.

This weekend, I ate everything in sight and really felt it yesterday. So, I have been back to it hardcore with my eating. Exercise is not really happening. We really don't want to go to the gym and stay there, we want to get outside and walk with the dogs or ride our bikes. However, there is a 20,000 brush fire in the Everglades which is like 20-30 miles from here and it has been super smoky for almost a week now and we can't do any of those outside activities. They think the fire will die down this week, but who knows. Also, on the topic of brush fires, there was a small fire 1 road from our new house yesterday!!! That would be just my luck that my first house would burn down before I even move there!

I have been fluctuating the same 2-3 lbs for the past couple weeks, but it seems like my fluctuations get a tiny bit lower each week, so I feel like I am losing even if it is only a tiny bit.

Last night I went to Kohls (and spent WAY too much money) and bought some clothes. I'm excited that the pants I bought were 24's and they fit PERFECT, and all of the shirts I bought were 2XL. So yay for progress there. I also went to old navy and bought like 6 XXL shirts, which most of them are still the slightest bit too tight..but hey, I went to a non-fat clothes store and bought shirts that do fit for the most part. I am nowhere near buying pants there though, since I am a 24 and the highest they go is 20. I was super excited about buying shirts there though! I am jsut slightly scared for my wallet when I can actually shop anywhere.

Nicole, I am sorry that I never responded to your posts about your impending separation. Luckily everyone else here was able to give you support during a difficult time. I can only agree with what others have said, go with your gut instinct and don't second guess yourself. I have done that way to many times (not trusted my instincts) and they almost always turn out to be right. The right thing to do may not be the easiest. But that does sound promising now that the pressure is off, that things are going well.

Sandy, awesome job losing 3 lbs! I'm jealous you get the stay around the house and do all of those things like gardening and just generally be active while I get to sit behind a desk all day. Both yours and Nicole's stair stories reminded me of two of my own. In my first year of college, I was on the 9th floor of the dorm. I would get in these weight loss kicks and decided I was going to take the stairs. OMG...9 flights was seriously hard. I was panting and so out of breath by the top it wasn't even funny. Crazy, that I weighed around 220 at that point, and now I am 300 and I did 26 (or 36 -can't remember) flights on the stairmaster last week. I'm not saying I could jog up those 9 flights now, but it sure would be easier. Then my second story is from about 6 months ago when I was at my absolute heaviest. I asked my professor something and he had me and about 4 other people go up to his office to schedule a meeting with him. His office was on the 3rd or 4th floor, and I couldn't take the elavator since the other 5 people were taking the stairs, so by the time we got to the top and walked to his office I was panting so loud it was embarrassing. I couldn't even talk to schedule a time with him and barely could catch my breath since I was trying so hard to pant quietly. Ugh, it was probably all in my head but it was still embarrassing and it feels good to know how far I have come from that.

Burgandy: that sounds like a heck of a walk! 10,000 steps is amazing and you should be proud.

Kity: I am glad you are back and posting regularly. I know for a fact that I lose more when I am posting (or only post when I am losing, not sure which...LOL)

Welcome Tara and Mimi! I hope you enjoy our endless chatter and will make yourselves at home!

Back2basics...glad to hear that you are still doing well. I am impressed that you are getting tons of that cardio in and jealous at the same time. I really need to get my butt in gear and do the same or I will NEVER get under 300.

Maddiesmom...where are you??? How has your husband's job search gone? I hope you are still reading and will post soon!

I almost forgot Denise (Neesy)!!! Girl you are doing amazing! 5 lbs gone like it was nothing! You are back on track and I am proud! I have a feeling that this renewed energy will last you til your goal!
Hope you have a great day everyone!

Hey Ladies!! Just checking in today. A rough start this morning, I was not able to start my la weight loss take off as planned tomorrow is my day to kick start things, and I am realy excited. I am still trying to keep my water intake up and lay off the pop. I had a granola bar for breakfast, I hate breakfast so this is better than nothing, I figured. Just 100 calories!! I think I will do salad for lunch. (Not much into salads, but it will work if I am hungry!!) My husband and I took the kids on a bike ride on Saturday it was reallly relaxing and I enjoyed myself. We did not go extremly far but at least it was fun for the family and some exercise. My husband is on this health kick, I am actually enjoying it, he wants to eat healthy, stop eating out, and do more things that involve exercise, and stop going out to the bar with friends. We usuallly would go out once a week or so with friends and we would rather, not do that enjoy more time with kids, and do more physical things. I think and reallly hope that along with this forum and his support I can do this. I am always interested in quick low fat meal ideas, if anyone has any!
We still eat those turkey burgers, my kids LOVE them!! Thanks again!

I;ll check back later!!

Just wondering if anyone is still doing the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, or if anyone had results from it. I bought it and would like to try it...again....I did for about a week in a half and felt great! Is anyone interested in trying somewhat together. I desperatly need the motivation.. LOL

Yay Tiff- glad to hear from you! Sorry to hear about your house. I know exactly what your saying about he fires. We have some out here and as far as they are from my house (maybe 20-30 miles), it is so smoky out! I walk every morning still and with my allergies, it can really get difficult at times. Its time to saddle up and get back on the horse with exercising. Even if your stressed (which it sounds like you should be with all you have going on), your bound to eat outside of a diet, but if you can burn off what you can consume that equals weight loss. Haha - thank you professor obvious (regarding me and my analogy). I also would like to mention that I love your stair story (along with Mygrits).

Kity - I completely forgot to tell you that I did make your turker burgers (a couple of times) and they were mmm...mmmm...mmmm....delicious. You a meal that is super healthy and I can eat all the time. Chicken Kabobs. I marinate the chicken in an italian dressing, throw them on a skewer with yellow pepper, red pepper, zucchini and cherry tomatoes - grill them - and they are out of this world!!! Oh, also - you are so lucky that you husband is joining you. I wish so bad that my hubby (prior to the separation) was more supportive or even willing to join me. He would even make me cook him a separate meal from my healthy meals! Anyway - so happy that all is going well.

So, I decided I am going to try and post throughout the day items that I am eating and you tell me (if you want) your thoughts on replacements. And please dont suggest the obvious, like..i.e. - I had a hershey bar (not really), and you suggest an apple. No crap Sherlock, lol! Maybe a good suggestion would be a Chocolate Fiber One Bar. Does this make sense? If no one else minds, I would like to see what they are eating too. This may even help in holding each other accountable, outside of our support system.

Anyway - here I go:

3 egg whites with 2 pieces of turkey bacon
1 Plum
1 Raspberry Nutrigrain Bar
1 snack bag of Lays potato chips
1/2 a turkey and provolone cheese sub on wheat bread with spicy brown mustard, lettuce, black olives, jalapenos, banana peppers and pickles
A LOT of Baked Lays, oh god, in portion size, easily 4 snack size bags worth. Yeah - I know it was bad.

Thats it for now. I am going to have the other half of my sub for dinner and maybe an apple around 3.

Ok, Nicole, I will go with what you are doing. Although, I don't know how much help I'll be since my eating is so hit or miss. Generally, when I do get the low-cal thing right...the quality of food sucks. Your food so far today looks pretty good to me other than the chips. But hey, sometimes we just need to munch on some chips (am I being too forgiving?) I know I sure do...lol. I went through a full size bag of baked lays in like two days a week or two ago, and haven't bought them since because they were a bad trigger. Maybe I could suggest that, since you ate more than you wanted to, finish the bag but don't make them available again. That is unless you would go to a worse option if they weren't there. Does that make sense? So, if you were gonna eat candy bars if the baked lays weren't around...then keep the baked lays. But if you are only munching on the chips cause they are there...then keep them away!

Food today so far:

2 100-calorie packs of these smores thingys (snaksters?)
A frozen broccoli, cheese and rice entree
2 diet sodas :-(
ballpark cheese frank with bun

will edit once I get the rest of my food in

Edit: I had a total of 850 calories today, but wasn't really hungry. I think I am just balancing out my total calorie overload from this weekend.

BTW: for those of you that have a hard time getting veggies in like I do, I found an amazing recipe for green beans that we have had two nights in a row. It seems to be pretty low-cal since the green beans have basically none.

Sorry if it seems a bit vague, but I eyeball it when I make it and don't remember the recipe. I just keep tasting and adding things until it tastes delish.

2 servings (2 cups?) fresh green beans
2-3 tbsp butter
2-3 tbsp brown sugar
2-3 tbsp soy sauce

Steam the green beans for 8-10 minutes, blanch them in a bowl of ice water, heat other ingredients in saute pan, toss dried green beans in, and heat them back up, and when they look done take em off and grind some sea salt over top to taste. Most of the sauce stays on the plate since the green beans don't soak them up or anything...but it is sooooo delicious. They taste like outback's green beans if you have ever had those. I think I will have them for dinner again tonight :-)

CRAP!!! I have to put it out there and do my walk of shame. I ate 3/4 of the bag of Baked Lays!!! Grrrr....not only is it carb central and junk food, its loaded with salt!!! crap...crap...crap, boy oh boy did I screw this one up! I know, I cant rewind and to move forward but this is by the far the worst "falling off the wagon" moment I have had. And to be honest, there was no due cause for this to happen. Grrrrrrr....ok, gotta go, I just HAD to get it out there.

Thanks.

OMG, there is so much to catch up on! I will have to read and comment on it all hopefully tomorrow.

I just had to get on here and confess.... I've had some cigarettes the past couple of days. I got cocky cause I didn't wear the patches this weekend and was fine. I went to break with my smokin buds at work Monday and was fine. Monday I had to deal w/my mom and someone at work complained about me arguing on the phone w/my mom...ggrrr-I know who it is and the have regular 'parties' at the desk next to me. So I played the game and complained bout them. So I had a few at the bar after work. Today, I went to see my mom w/my aunt and....GGGRRRR!!! I bought a pack, had a beer and ate at Texas Roadhouse. I am so upset w/myself cause I know I could have stopped and done right. But this is how I always handled things, so it will take a few times to get out of it. Tomorrow I put the patch back on and get back on track.

OK a couple of shout outs at what I saw when scanning through... Kity-great on the smoking! Sandy- you're a machine! wish I could let you loose on my place..haha! Yah on the 3lbs! Burgundy - 10,000+ steps, woo hoo! Neesy- 5lbs, damn, I gotta get in gear like that. Lindy-water, water, water! Tiff- the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire...sorry, i thought of that song when you cracked the joke bout the possibility of your first house burning-but seriously, I've got my fingers crossed that all is well and you get in there soon! and smaller shirts, sweet! Basics - awesome on the 2 slices Staccie - hope you are feeling better and hangover gone! Tara - 2 miles is your gain and his loss.

Will try to check back tomorrow night!

GRRRRR :angry:

I'm off the wagon and can't seem to get back on....

I feel HORRIBLE!

Hi everyone,

I am going to be completely selfish and explain how horrible I am feeling without saying how great everyone else is doing - although briefly looking through the posts I feel a bit more motivated.

So as I mentionned before, I had a weekend with lots of snacks, not a lot of water, ALOT of beer and wine. I was on the wagon this morning and then in a meeting that went all day they had cheese, crackers, banana bread and cookies and pop and I went nuts! I bet I ate 1/2 block of cheese and I never eat cheese! I am at my desk now, trying to finish up my work and looking at my gym bag and I feel so gross and disappointed! How do I get back on the wagon again?

I have found though that when I allow myself to cheat and eat things that tempt me and or encourage binging, it just leads to this - being off the wagon for a long time and gaining back everything I might have lost prior to the 'binge'. Unfortunately my social life over the next few weeks is pretty insane. I work in an industry and loves to drink and snack. Sitting there looking at it is cruel and makes me feel so self conscious. Before, I would just completely isolate myself but I can't do that forever.

Does anyone else have this problem? They have a bite and it turns into a binge? And then you cheat or binge once and then it gives you a pass to do it all day long and say - "Oh I will start over tomorrow?". I always do that, and then tomorrow ends up being a week later.

So I guess, until I can control myself, I can't allow myself to have those things that lead to binging. If I have one beer, I want popcorn, then chips, then chicken wings because that's how my body associates it.

Any words of wisdom or help is so appreciated. There is no way I am going to fit into that target outfit now