Thank you for the welcome!

Betsy ~ Yeah I did have a busy day with exercising yesterday

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I woke up at 5:00 a.m. today cause my back was hurting and then I went back to sleep at 7:00 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. and I've been up ever since 9:00 a.m. It is now 10:28 a.m. I'm gonna do my 40 min. chair exercises at 11:00 a.m. and then at 1:00 p.m. I'm gonna do my 30 min. 2 mile walking dvd and then tonight at 8:00 p.m. I'll do my 20 min,1 mile walking dvd and those are all of my exercise plans for today. Today at 2:00 p.m. Scott and I are gonna go pull out money for our part of the mortgage and then mom's gonna drop us off at Walmart so we can do some food and non food shopping and then my mom's gonna go to her bank and put the money we pulled out in her account since the mortgage comes out of her account and then she's gonna come back to walmart and pick us up. After we get home I'll gonna order some Chinese for dinner. I'm not sure what mom and Scott are gonna do for dinner. I hope everyone has a great day today.

Good morning everyone.

Thanks for the support.

Betsy and Ubee: I'm certain that my feelings are my own fears. My spouse dated me and married me at a heavy weight. I know that he prefers thinner, and younger, but I'm not certain how important it is to him. For some people it's their number one desire. Others may have personality as their number one desire. I certainly can't say that my spouse is physically excellent, but, it doesn't matter much to me.

Good Morning!
Wicked come on back and get chatting!
Sam did I mention how I love your new picture? I am so proud of you. How is the food going while you are away from the gym?
Tami what do you need to do to buckle down? I need to stop deserving a bite of this and that.
Fi your post really struck a cord with me today. It really is about learning to keep on this up and down journey day in and day out. Like a marriage vow in good times and in bad... I know that I need this support group. Our community is the main tool to keep me going for these last 822 days. (I looked it up online.) With out all of you I would never have gotten this far. Thank you.
Betsy as always you had me laughing about your carrot cake experience. Yes, portion control is huge. I am thinking of getting a tattoo on my hand to remind me that my stomach is only as big as my fist. Do not touch your non on plan leftovers. What day have you chosen to be your weigh in day? Mine is now on Thursday when our group gets together.
Terra I see you had your one year anniversary. Congrats.
tootsie thank you so much for realizing it as support. I was afraid I had come off too strong.

Another habit I have picked up is watching My 600 Pound Life. While I do not enjoy the sensationalism I find the psychology of everyone involved very insightful.
Have a peaceful day.

I'm interested in watching my 600 pound life as well. I'm not a big TV watcher so I don't have cable but I'm trying to find it online. I should check Netflix. I saw an advertisement somewhere for an episode about a girl named Amber.. I particularly wanted to follow up on her story but couldn't find all of the episode on youtube. I agree the sensationalism isn't great, but I do like to see the follow up episodes where they've made a change and they're enjoying life much more.

Good morning all. For some reason, I'm in one of my smiley/happy moods for no apparent reason other than I woke up this morning. Guess it beats me being in sourpuss mode!

Fi -- Thank you for your post and especially for sharing the reasons behind your weigh in schedule. When I read that you, too, have a tendency to reward yourself for a weight loss showing up after a couple of days, it brought back to the front of my mind that this is truly an addiction we're battling -- both physical and mental. I'm going to try starting out with just weighing in once a week, but eventually I'd like to get to the point where my body tells me when I've overdone it. And I am very glad that you share with us as I know that for most of us it's probably hard to share our feelings. I know that I easily share what I call my surface feelings -- the ones that everyone sees on my face every day, but sharing the inner feelings is much, much harder to do.

Tami -- Back to back goals always help me to stay on track better. Good luck!

Sam -- After reading your post I decided that I wouldn't be griping about anything today. Hope that by this time next week the disposal is finally fixed and the aches and pains have healed.

Terra -- What do you order from Chinese takeout? Depending on the restaurant, there are so many really healthy vegetable dishes. I have also started ordering raw spring rolls instead of having them fried (turning them into egg rolls). Chinese food is actually pretty easy to make at home and you can definitely control the thickeners that way. Enjoy!

Tootsie -- It's ok to love yourself and think of yourself in a positive light. I may be totally reading something into your comments, but it sounds as though you feel that you just can't understand why your husband would want you. Look at all the reasons why you two got together and accept and embrace that you have many qualities that he finds to be special. Not trying to overstep here and hope that it came across as reinforcing your obviously very special qualities.

Ubee -- I've never seen my 600 pound life and avoid Biggest Loser probably because I'm afraid I'll recognize myself. I caught a glimpse of myself sitting on the bed in the guest room the other day......the first thing that came to mind was that it reminded me of pictures of elephants sitting. It was not a pretty sight! I'll probably use Mondays as my weigh in day and hopefully will get to where I just weigh in on the 1st of the month.

After all this talk about weighing and staying on plan and the reasons behind what we do, I'm making a New York style cheesecake today. The recipe has 5 packages of cream cheese and 10 eggs in it. Fortunately, it's a graduation gift for the son of a friend of mine so I won't be able to have any of it -- including no licking the bowl! Today is going to be one of my 500 calorie days as I'm trying to actually get on 5:2 for a few weeks to jolt my body back into dieting mode. Actually, that's jolt my mind back into dieting mode but my head remains connected to my body so there's some semblance of logic there.

Off to the gym. The carrot cake lady just called wanting a ride home from the gym so I need to get it in gear. Hope everyone has a great day!

Happy Tuesday to all of you!

It's been a while since I've written but all is well. Last week I had 3 whole days with just one kid to watch.. and one of those days was a half day! What a wonderful time.. I really needed it. My husband and I hosted our first party ever in our new home (but first party ever since we've been married too!) on Sunday. We had people from church over for the super bowl. Now, I'm no fan of football, but we are a crazy crowd and the super bowl party is kind of a tradition at our church. I think we are the loudest, craziest bunch of people I've met, and all with no alcohol!! We had so much stinking food here!! But I didn't overeat, though I didn't only eat from the veggie tray. I had a few chips and some pretzely chippy things with buffalo chicken dip.. YUM! And I had half of a green chili burrito (SPICY!) and a few jalapeno poppers with bacon... so.. not the greatest. However, I am extremely proud of the fact that I had no pop at all. Even though we've had it in the house since late last week, I have had none of it. Every time I think I'm going to just be defiant and drink a can of coca cola or sprite, I immediately get grossed out by it.. not to the point of being sick, but it just loses all its appeal. YAY!!

Betsy I loved the carrot cake story.. I'm not much of a fan of carrot cake and I don't really like cream cheese frosting (but I sure do like to have a little bagel with my cream cheese.. ).. funny how our ideas of a portion size of our favorite food differ from others'.. I struggle with getting to the point where I don't "need" to be bloated and uncomfortable to know I'm full.. I always feel like I haven't had enough if my stomach isn't tight.. That's pretty gross.. Anyway, good job giving away your leftovers. That's a good step in the right direction.

Ubee, smoothie making has slowed down drastically.. I get into these funks where I just want something quick and easy, with little to no preparation and then I decide that it's just too much work to wash some produce and throw it in the blender.. Ugh.. Laziness.. that's it, pure and simple. How are you doing? How is your daughter? How is your son (or was it son-in-law?) and the house situation coming along?

Welcome!! to the newbies.. If I remember correctly it was wicked and fireball? Or maybe I'm losing it.. That's quite possible as well.

I'd better sign off for now.. Hope you all are doing well in your day-to-day battle for a better you! Keep up the fight.. Oh, speaking of which, I lost 2 more lbs! YAY!

Ubee ~ Thanks for commenting on my weight loss

I love A 600 Pound Life-not that it's a giant weight loss surgery commercial-but that these people are losing the emotional baggage and getting away from toxic people. The people who fail are the ones with enabling jerks in their lives. One that sticks out is the Australian guy that basically told his wife that he wouldn't love her anymore if she lost weight. She was dying for heaven's sake. His control over her meant more than her health. Thankfully, I think that she's succeeding in spite of him. Hopefully, he either changes his thinking, or she dumps him.

I think I watched that one the other day. Zsalynn was her name I think. It was really sad how he kept tempting her. In the one clip, it was like hours after her WLS and she called him to tell him she was out of surgery and awake (first of all, I'd be like why isn't my husband here?!) and the first thing he did was tell her about how him and a friend had just gotten a bunch of delicious tacos. I was just like... how could someone be so unsupportive of their spouse?! Just so sad. I felt bad for her.

Ubee, tootsie, and wicked I also am a fan of that show.. I haven't seen it in a couple weeks but the one that scared me half to death was the one where the lady was married to an enabling loser of a guy, they had 1 child (cute little boy) and she ate almost nothing but fried foods all day long. She was only able to lose weight before surgery because she was in the hospital for like, 1 or 2 months prior to surgery.. and then after surgery she didn't lose any weight because her husband was sneaking food in for her. Then she would cancel all her appointments (or just no-show) with her doctor for post-ops.. she refused to get out of bed at all and just sat and ate terrible foods. She never lost any weight at all but called the doctor a liar and said his scales were faulty because she knew she'd lost somewhere around 200 lbs or something like that...

I lie to myself on occasion. I've even borderline believed some of the lies I've told myself.. but to be so completely delusional like that woman and call everyone else a liar.. that freaked me out. Made me realize that I not only lie to myself about my weight and my struggles, but I've also gone down the guilt-trip road with friends and family when it comes to getting what I want for food... That makes me so sad but I was glad to see it in such a drastic way that I recognized it in myself and put a stop to it. Anyway, just wanted to share that little bit with you guys..

Hi Everybody! Hope all is well! I'm ok!

quick check in (I promise I will start making more personal messages after February 19th)...

I am doing very very well with giving up pop (don't even miss it!) but I failed with chocolate... and am approaching it in terms of allowing myself chocolate on occasion and just limiting it (buying a single bar instead of a bag of small bars or a bunch of bars).... and avoiding other sweets.

I leave for London with students in February 13, and am getting stressed with planning for that, coverage for my classes, and new admin throwing a small wrench into my department...

My mum's surgery went well, won't find out more specific details for another month or so but she is in good spirits and that makes me feel better.

My friend (and neighbour) had 3 apartment floods in a 4 day period..... one included raw sewage... felt so bad for her... and then a bit paranoid that it could happen in my place too, so this weekend is operation move all my stuff to the other side of the apartment (there is a single stair separating the bedrooms from the main apartment... her flood was ankle deep but didn't go over the stair).

I hope all of you are doing well and feeling great

Good morning everyone. Just checked the calendar and the rest of the week is wide open -- maybe I'll actually get some of my to do list items completed!

Bllondy -- Sounds like you had a great super bowl party. Mine was fine considering I was the youngest person here at 65! Great job on getting 2 pounds off this week.

Terra -- Just checked your ticker after seeing the comments about your weight loss -- good for you!!!!!

Wicked City, Bllondy, Ubee -- I take it that the basis of the show is a focus on people who have had weight loss surgery? Interesting (and sad) commentaries on the sabotaging efforts that some people go through. And, Bllondy, we've all told ourselves lies or more gently our mental image doesn't jive with our actual physical image. I mentioned yesterday about seeing myself sitting on a bed and immediately thought of an elephant. Well, in my mind, I'm still in my 20s and a hot chick.......with serious arthritis and gray hair!

Sue -- Glad to see your fly by.

Time4Me -- Glad your mom's surgery went well and hopefully the news at the end of the month is good. You sound busy as always, and I would hate to be worried about my apartment flooding. The trip to London sounds wonderful. Do you need another chaperone. I bet Ubee would come as well!

I made a New York style cheesecake yesterday for a friend's graduation present. Today I'm going to groom Toby and give him a bath. Of course, wer're supposed to have bad storms for the next few days, so giving him a bath is a waste of time. Foodwise things are in the so-so range. Not gaining, but not losing. Must work on portion control and consistency......as in stay on plan for more than 5 minutes at a time! Hope everyone has a great day!

Tootsieroll, I agree that your feeling are your own fears. Here's why. In a previous post you said that you were "living in sin" for a while and HE decided he wanted the marriage, so in spite of the fact that he might like to see thinner women, you said you were already heavy when you married.

I was thin when I married my husband. 135-140. He never gains any weight and always wanted me to eat like he did, pizza, fried foods, etc. I told him I couldn't eat like that but he didn't believe me. Now, he is still thin, but I have gained over the years. I know he likes thin women, but he shows no signs of straying. I believe he is with me because he loves me and I think your husband is the same.