Hi Chickies, I hope everyone's Monday is going good instead of what Monday's are usually known for. I have the day off and that's my way of avoiding Monday Morning problems at work.

I weighed in the morning and I finally dropped a pound. I've been hanging out at 199.5 (so scared the 200 mark was coming up) for four weeks. Now I have a little more space between me and the dreaded number.

I remember when I was about 29, I lost 80 pounds and it wasn't easy, but it wasn't difficult either. The weight just sort of dropped off as long as I was good about my calories. Now that I'm in my 40's, it's a struggle for every pound. Just proves it needs to come off now instead of later. I'll just get harder.

I made banana bread in my bread machine today and that's what I had for lunch. I tried using half Splenda and half sugar, then half butter and half applesauce and it was difficult to tell that I made a reduction of 500 calories in the recipe. I think the change will be permanent.

Liza, I agree going off caffeine slowly would have been a better way to try it. I just am an impatient person and I didn't want the withdrawal symptoms to last longer. I am having a lot less caffeine than I was so I'll probably keep reducing it. Thanks for the suggestion.

CL, glad that miss myah is doing better and is eating. That must be a relief.

Well, I'll talk wiht you all later.
Marie

Hi all! Real life has been interfering with my time online. CL.. glad to hear your kitty is doing better!
This low carb diet is killing me. I was craving carbs soooo bad that I broke down and had a carb fest.
I have decided to just cut my calories, portion sizes... load up on veggies ( the GOOD for you veggies) drinks lots of water and get walking.
I also went low fat on alot of my foods and have drastically cut down on refined sugars.
I started taking a multi-vitamin and that helped ALOT! There for awhile I was eating all the time. It was like my body was craving something and the food wasnt satisfying it. But since I started my vitamin, those ungodly eating urges have stopped.
I weighed in at 170 this morning.
For breakfast this morning, I had one scrambled egg, 1 pc of dry wheat toast with 1 slice of low fat cheese, a cup of decaf and 8 oz of oj.
I had a yogurt about 10 am.
For lunch I did a HC lunch and an apple with a tablespoon of peanut butter.
My afternoon snack was 2 snackwell cookies.
Tonight I am grilling boneless chicken breasts and having spinach as a side dish.

Ok for some reason i keep waking up @ 3 am wanting a bowl of cereal??? i guess i am gonna have to tie myself into bed lol

I get those midnight cravings too. I keep Hershey Kisses in my nightstand drawer. No kidding.. I can wake up at 1 am and be craving something sweet and I pop 1 kiss and it satisfies me and I go right back to sleep. It doesnt happen very often though and my kitty usually eats them. LOL!

My 11 yr old had his crossover to boy scouts ceremony tonight. Talk about tears!!
They did a slideshow of the boys from the time they were tiger scouts til now. OMG! every mom in the place was teary!! Where did the time go!?!

I kept thinking how proud of Sam, Tom would have been to see him complete this phase of life. He was very excited to show off his arrow of light patch and his certificate to his big brother (age 13)

Eating a late dinner right now. Stayed on program all day!

Liza: Glad to hear your party went well! We were out all weekend too. Kids had soccer and softball and we bought pansies and planted.
Lisa

HHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPP PPP!!!!!!!!

I opened the flood gates and have not been able to close them!!!!

I started eating this weekend and haven’t been able to stop!!!! I am eating when I am not hungry because the food is there…shoot even eating “diet” food, because it is all that is in the house because I just want to eat!!!!!

Okay go that off my chest and tomorrow is another day…..Marie…you are so right…I lost 130 lbs in my mid twenties…..a lot of work, but I did it with constant watching what I ate and exercise……now the same plan just doesn’t do it and it is so hard to stick with it! I do great for weeks, then the wagon hits a big bump in the road and I get tossed off of it and it takes a while to get caught back up with it….sooooo….

…….Here’s the plan……..back to 1200-1600 calories a day…..exercise at least 5 times in the next week, challenge myself with a nonfood reward for getting through the day without eating something I shouldn’t. This week should be okay, but Thursday is an all day meeting and food will be there……I usually am good if I don’t bring a treat to share….I won’t eat anything someone else brings……so I ill not bring anything to share, so I won’t eat anything….and if I can get through that day I ill treat myself too….hmmmm…..I need to think of something special…since I am single and have no kids…..I treat myself all the time ….so a special something is hard to come up with…..maybe a new pair of shoes, there is a really cool pair of green Clark Sandals I saw at the mall this weekend…..I will ponder it for a day and see what I can come up with!

Thanks for letting me vent!!!
Lilybutt

Wow i'm down 3 more pounds since thursday.. hey maybe Ive discovered something with the orange/pickle diet lmao .. yeah that it makes u so sick u dont wanna eat anything else!

well that brightened up my day!

Lily just try to brain wash your self back to your mission.... everyone needs a lil break now and then just dont give up...
just say it was a lil vacation!

No change in weight this week and I am glad I didn't gain anything after this weekend.

I did get to the gym this morning, day one of four days this week I promised myself.

CL - what is up with the cereal? I don't wake up for anything. We had a baby over the weekend and apparently we didn't hear her either. What kind of cereal do you want???

LISA - I remember when my nephew crossed over, my sister was crying from tears of relief as then she had both sons in the same group and a lot less running around. Her kids really like the scouting and their dad is/was an Eagle Scout. I don't get the part where they go camping year round in New Hampshire. The pansies are sprouting up in the window boxes and pots on the front steps. I am a little chilly this mornign but it is feeling pretty good to me.

LILYBUTT - Maybe next time the hungry horrors hit, you need to walk away from the house, away from the food, away from the evil. There are some days that there just isn't enough time to eat everything you want. I was also able to lose 2 pounds a week every week the first time I lost weight, this second time around is just not working as well and I am not sure it is just that I am married with a child, some of it is that I make bad decisions, good for others, like baking or cooking their favorites and caving into joining them and bad because I am still not great about portion control. I am really trying to measure out all of my food. Did you try tracking what you ate this weekend, maybe if you made a deal with yourself to write it all down, the act of putting it into black and white would help you put on the brakes. Like do I really want those pretzels at 110 calories???

Off to work some more, my coworker is out today so I am it for the permits and question answering. I can't get project work done because of the interruptions but I like the variety of things to do.

I was over on the web site, seems like no one has really been around posting there since apirl 5th. I usually can't make the chat rooms, during the day I am work and in the evening we are heavy into homework and getting ready for bed. Is that the main way people are communicating.

Good afternoon Sugar Cube. I can't do the chats either and have no idea what's been going on over there. This place seems to be very slow lately but I'm hoping it will pick up. I counted about 23 members in the beginning but alot seem to be MIA. Anyways, I'll post tomorrow cuz I gotta run now, been pretty busy today and yesterday. I did my weigh-in yesterday and lost only a lb. I guess I shouldn't eat shrimp swimming in butter and drink beer the night before weigh-in

Hi to everyone else, hope things are going okay

I'm here! I stayed OP and did fine today...am thinking of something sweet right now so I may make a cup of tea and have a sugar free fudgescicle.
Like you Liza, I work during the day and then after school its homework, dinner, sports etc. then bed for the kids and usually prep work for my classroom kids.

Yep...my older son camps once a month through the year. I don't get the camping in the snow thing either!! They are insane...all of them! LOL!


Lilybutt: What happened during your pizza out night? I'll grab the ropes and slow up this wagon so you can jump back on!!! Make sure you are drinking a ton of water to fill yourself up. Get some sugarfree gum to chomp on too. You can do it we all support you!!

Lisa

Well I am back……Sunday night…pizza night…..I ate pizza, but quit when I was full…..did not over eat at all!!! Which was good for me! But all day Monday was hard for me to get back OP…but woke up this morning and luckily the wagon had made a pit stop right outside my house so I got back on and had a terrific day! 1311 cal according to fit day…so I have done well today! I was going to go for a walk….but my day was just all off kilter…..here is what happened…..

I was leaving for lunch and my phone rang…it was my boyfriend…he wanted me to come out to his work…they had trapped a tame cat and were going to put it to sleep if now on took it…..he is a softy….but then so am I so we took it to the vet to get it checked out….no FeLV or FIP or fleas, just mites and in good health……so got his vaccinations and going to get neutered tomorrow and he is all mine!!!! I am not sure how my little fur-girls will take to a “boy” fur baby.…but I am going to give it a try!!! I just can’t see putting an animal down for no reason!

Then after work I got home and had a mess!!! My water softener tank blew a hole in it an water was everywhere!!! So I got that turned off and called Culligan to come and fix it. The guy was nice and helped me clean up…they are coming back tomorrow to shopvac the basement!

And even with all of that I stayed OP, just didn’t get in the exercise…..but I am happy with my day!

Lilybutt

BAILEY 7 - Well, you can have the butter bathed shrimp and beer, if it is only one shrimp and only one ounce of beer and you hit the treadmill really a lot. LOL. BTW - congrats on the one pound. My accomplishment is that I am on the losing track again after houseguests for whom I had to show off, a big party with grilled jerk chicken, pasta salad, black beans and rice, two cakes one of which is Pina Colada cake, waffles for breakfast, and so on.

LISABEE - I found some new popsicles, made by Hood, which are tiny, just enough for a few bites, only 10 calories but will be useful I think for both portion control and limiting myself when I want something NOW.

We are really fair weather campers, the earliest we will go is in June, and we have camped in October just before Halloween which was cool but nice like New England, though that trip was tricky as we had my MIL with us and she is slowing down. We take a week long trip the last week of August just before the start of school, this year Vermont, haven't been since before we got married, so we are interested in that.

LILBUTT - Hate the water softener story but love the kitty story, you sound like my dad, he found a cat on the side of the road on the way home from work one night and she was ours. Since there were four kids we all got to name her so she was Tricky Terry Tracy and I forget the fourth one. It is an accomplishment to stay on track in the face of such adventures.

Started out at the gym this morning, one of those days you just don't want to go, but I hauled myself out there. The scale said exactly 188 so I want to hold onto that. I did have to scrap ice off my car windows, that was not nice at all.

I have packed my lunch, also did DH's, he got ham and cheese on whole wheat roll up, one cup of left over pasta salad, an orange and pudding. He hasn't even said anything about the whole wheat bread and pasta I have started using.

Meals are planned for the day and I am scheduling a walk during the day. The sun is out.

Good morning. Can I join in too?
My name is Kasee. I am 42 years old.
I have been wandering around this site for a week or so now. Trying to figure it out!
I live in the Toronto, Ontario area.
I am "Somersizing" and have been doing so for about a month.
Not too sure how I'm doing, I don't own a scale. (I'm afraid I would become obsessed with it.)
But, my jeans are getting looser. Thank god!
I really enjoy reading the posts and like the fact that we are not alone in this.
I try to walk everyday, 8 km, sometimes 10. (That is my form of exercise.)
I was diagnosed with MS years ago. (Yes, I am raising funds and doing the MS walk this weekend. This will be my fifth year walking it.)
I am single, although I do have a boyfriend.
Now that I am unable to work and had to quit my job, I have found weight slowly slipping on 1 or 2 lbs. at a time, before you know it, 60 lbs.
So, that's my goal. 60 lbs.
*Walking my way back into my beautiful summer wardrobe.*
K

KASEE - Welcome to the 40's. sounds like you are going slow and steady which is the way to do it, it will stay off that way. Walking is a great workout and you learn so much about your neighborhood.