Hi everyone:

Well, I am surviving up here with all the snow & food. Had my office lunch Mon & brought a nice point friendly salad for my contribution & loaded up my plate with that & had a few meat things to go with it & last night I had grilled atlantic salmom & veggies which was fabulous & skipped dessert. Tonight is office dinner and probably will order steak (that is house speciality) and have tomorrow off - so hopefully eat light.

I was up 1# at w/i last week and hoping to be OK this week. Basically only excercise I have been getting is shovelling & shopping.

Sounds like everyone is doing great - so keep it up!

Talk soon, bye for now.

Bandit,
You're my hero! Wow, you're making fabulous choices at work and at the gatherings for Christmas. My goodness. Of course shoveling snow is a wonderful exercise and something you need to do to get out of the house, so I'm sending you for doing it! Glad you were only up 1#. It looks like you're doing great.

Mousie, I hope your brand new laptop arrived in good time and you were able to continue to make good use of your "waiting" time. Keep on keepin' on and I think YOu'll be thrilled with your end of the year WI.

I had a sad WI this morning, but without being able to exercise because of my foot and because I kept my mouth actively engaged with the wrong kinds of foods, I was up another 1.2# this week. For the last two weeks I'm up a total of 2#. Yuck! Well, breaking 200# by Christmas just flew out the window, but if I'm careful and if I use good common sense, I won't gain any more this week. Also my toe is pretty good and I plan on exercising this week and I know that helps tremendously. Sooooooo, I still have my goal active on breaking 200# by New Year's and I know I can do it. Just have to keep on keepin' on.
and : to us all and our lovely lurkers. Merry Christmas,
Happy Holidays, and a lovely thinner New Year to us all!
Love,
Judy

Turtles, I DID IT! I made my Christmas goal! 275.0 on the scale this morning, baby!

So I've lost 19 pounds in 21 weeks, and I've made goal #2 (was also "Christmas goal"). YAY ME! WOOT WOOT!

I'm so excited about this, Turtles. I feel like I can really keep living/eating this way. I know that it's slow loss, but really, who cares? I'm losing, and I'm not suffering unduly for it!

WOOT!!

Bandit, I'm sure that 1 pound will come off soon. Right now you need to stay warm and snuggly! I don't think I would have the strength to live in such a climate, I admire you.

Judy, good idea to back your goal up just a wee bit. In the scheme of things, the direction we are moving is what matters--the speed at which we travel does not.

Merry Christmas to all Turtles and all lurkers if I don't find time to check in before then, and have a wonderful joyful time with your family and friends!

:
Well Mousie, you get the idea! I remember your posting when you came back to 3fatchicks and you sounded so down. Now look at you! I don't think you've had a slow loss, you've been triumphant! Weigh to go. I am thrilled that you made your goal and your goal!!!!! You must be so proud of yourself and I'm so proud of you. What exciting news at the best time of the year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours.

Bandit, here's toasting you for sticking with our little group here. I find you inspiring and helpful as Mousie, you and I go through the days together. Best of everything for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

To all the lurkers, post once in awhile and let us know what you're thinking.
I've got my family here, so I don't know if I can post tomorrow. Just know I'm thinking of doing the right thing as far as food. It's the people, not the food. (ONe year I'll be able to make that work for me. Too bad I'm such a good cook! LOL) In any case, I'm down two of the top heavy pounds I put on, and if I'm careful I can still break 200# by New Year's Eve/

Love and good wishes and glad tidings and good cheer to us all.
Judy Itry
234.6/203/thinner into onederland

Good morning, Turtles! I had some cookies on Christmas Eve and an unplanned fast food meal on Christmas Day (we were driving to L.A. and back) but beyond that I made it through the holidays intact! How did everyone else do?

We've still got one holiday left, of course, but I've never found New Year's a challenge. Since I'm not a drinker and I'm not a night owl, I very rarely over indulge.

Judy, fingers crossed for you making your New Year's goal! You're so close--4 more days and you'll know.

On the "such a good cook" thing: I asked for low cholesterol cookbooks for Christmas, and my parents gave me two printed by the American Heart Association. The recipes look GOOD! Yumyumyum. Do you know if these recipes would be considered Core? How do you decide if a recipe is Core? They include things like...chicken breast and low-fat ricotta cheese and goat cheese and spices and no-salt-added tomato sauce (that's one I got the ingredients to make this week). Low-fat dairy is Core, right? But then, do I have to count the goat cheese? 1 ounce of that is 70 calories/no fiber/6 grams of fat, and the recipe calls for 2 ounces spread over 4 breasts. So one point each?

'tanyrate, I'm all excited about this year to come! I've got all sorts of plans and all sorts of lofty goals, but I'll wait until we have a new thread and officially close this holiday season to tackle the next challenges. Friday will be my final "end of holidays" weigh-in, and I can assess where I am.

Check in when you get a chance, Turtles!

Hi Guys,
I was just going to start a new thread and I realized that waiting until Sunday makes a lot more sense.
Mousie, you have done overwhelmingly well over the holidays! Good for you.
I am thrilled for you and the fact that you've met your goals. I can't wait to see your new goals for 2006, so that will be a very active thread, I'm sure.

My holidays have gone nicely people-wise, but food wise they've been a disaster. I've been tired and feeling not quite right physically and I've certainly let my guard down. I'm up so much that I skipped my Wed. WI and am actually up another pound today. I need to get on my treadmill and I need to clean out all the holiday "goodies" that turn into baddies. Well, I need to get back on track. Today has been good so far, but even if we get take-out food tonight, I need to eat Core. Enough is far more than enough.
My girls are still here and it's lovely, but the food is out of control. They've been here a full week with the baby and it's a little much. I love 'em to pieces but I'm too tired and that's not great. Hey, no complaints and move on. Right? I'm thinking of Bandit's great advice: Just do it! So I will. I'll start the new thread on Sunday and we'll all welcome in the New Year doing the best that we can.
Mousie, as far as Core: FF cheeses and dairy are OP. And yes, you count the points of the other products that make up recipes. Lots of times I'll leave out or substitue ingredients. Also, WW's has a Core cookbook, but the heart foundation should have recipes that are close. Primarilly, you leave out things like breadcrumbs and concentrate on veggies, lean protein. As far as soy powder, I'm checking my book and for soy it includes soy milk, soy cheese, and soy yogurt. What does soy powder list as its ingredients? I'll try and update you on Core every so often. Gotta run. You take care and Bandit, hope all goes well with you.
Love,
Judy Itry
234.6/?/thinner into onederland

Hey Judy. Hang in there! As much as you love your daughters and their families, I can understand needing to get back to your own routine. It's really hard to focus on yourself--even if that's something you KNOW you need to do--when there are lots and lots of other things pulling at your attention. Try to make good choices food-wise, get back on your treadmill, and above all take care of yourself! Forgive yourself for any slips, learn from them and move on. Right?

you may well be feeling "tired and not quite right" because of your food choices and your exercise schedule being off. It's a chicken-and-egg question. Which comes first, feeling off or bad food choices? I'd bet that once you get back to making good choices, you'll feel 100% again.

Thank you for helping with Core. As yu saw in my thread, I just don't seem to "get" it. Natural peanut butter (peanuts and salt) isn't Core because it's a trigger for some people? But it's not for me...um.... And sf/ff pudding is Core but my protein powder isn't...that makes no sense at all. To answer your question, one of my powders (unflavored) says, "Ingredients: 90% soy protein isolate. Contains no sugar, salt, starch, yeast, wheat, gluten, corn, milk, egg, or preservatives." The other powder is Spiru-tein (YUM!!!!). The ingredients are "soy isolated protein, fructose, calcium, fiber, beet juice, flavor, guar gum, psyllium..." and a bunch of vitamins.

Thanks for the help, this is confusing!

As for me I'm a bit bloated, so I'm probably looking at a small gain tomorrow. But that's okay, because I've still lost for the holidays. I went back to my class this morning, and did 37 minutes of walking beforehand. I'm hoping I'm over the whole "flu season" thing, and I can be consistently healthy again!

Check in when you can, Bandit, and let us know how you're doing.

Dear Turtles,
Hi! Mousie, thanks for the uplift!! I could sure use it. And of course you're right and I never thought about it, but the poorer eating choices and high carbs are absolutely robbing me of energy. Duh for me! So easy to be blind to the truth or in denial. I can't exercise right now because I headed to a podiatrist and although my toe isn't broken (from my fall two weeks ago) the ligaments were hurt and its still swelling. So, no treadmill, but yes to any yoga I can do wearing sneakers. That would be some classy exercise, right?
I will give it a try, though.
As far as Core, keep with it because a lot of it won't make sense. The oils we use on Core are Canola, olive,safflower, sunflower, or flaxseed oil and the needed amount is 2 teaspoons a day. Of course you can have more, but then you take the points from your 35 points allowed per week. The first protein powder you mentioned in your post sounds A-OK to me and I would use it and not think twice about it since you've been losing weight these last months using it. The second powder has fructose and you might want to point that one out. Look, this is all personal and a lot of girls on the Core site are tweaking the program with foods that still allow them to lose and you know so much about nutrition through your studies that you'll be able to do the same. Some of the girls over at Core post daily menus that could give you some good ideas. I swear by starting the day with oatmeal cooked in ffmilk and with an added fruit. The points are astoundingly high, but on Core you don't think about that. And I find that this dish is so filling that I don't hunt for food until later in the day. Lunch is still tricky for me. In the summer I made myself hamburgers, but somehow now they're not appealing to me. In any case, keep asking and doing and let's see where this goes. You've been very successful so far and you, Bandit and I are victorious here on the Turtle Thread! Happy New Year All.
Judy Itry
234.6/?/thinner into onederland

Ouch, Judy! You're taking ibuprofen or some other anti-inflammatory, right? Don't make me worry about you more . An interesting thing about the inflammation response in the body (I learned this in one of my classes, when I was finishing my B.S., and it was fascinating to me. I've always remembered it): the body can't really control the response. You hurt yourself, it sends all these chemicals and fluids and things to the site to try to help itself get better. And a little bit of those chemicals will help, but the body floods the site with them. And then because there's too much fluid/too many chemicals at the site of injury, it causes more inflammation, which causes more chemical release, which causes more inflammation...you get the picture. That's why we benefit from taking anti-inflammatories. We get some of the chemicals we need at the site, and then we cut it off and let them go to work.

I was always fascinated by that. But then, just about anything about the human body is fascinating to me.

My last weigh-in for the holiday season was this morning, and I've lost 0.5 pounds. I'm at 274.5, baby! I was sure I was a bit bloated and wasn't going to see a loss this week, and I am definitely sore after taking my class again yesterday, but I guess it all worked out. So, downward we go! I've lost 8 pounds since the friday before Halloween. More importantly, I think, I've lost 6.5 of those pounds since I changed my eating and started making low-cholesterol, low-sodium, low-sugar choices. Seems like a key idea to me, and I'm going to pursue it.

On that note, are we all thinking about how we're going to approach the New Year? I am loathe to call it "resolution making" because that always feels false to me. After all, I've been working on this and testing things for months now, it's not like I'm just starting as of sunday. But at the same time, the renewed energy and dedication of the new year is something to soak in and take advantage of. I'm very eagerly planning what I will say on sunday, and I look forward to hearing everyone else's ideas!

Be well, Turtles!

Mousie,
Thanks for the info. about the inflammation. Makes perfect sense, and yes I am taking an anti-inflammatory med.
I'm making "resolutions" but I really look at them as simple life style changes that I work on all the time. Today has been a much better day. How funny that the high carbs and refined sugars actually made me feel exhausted.
Mousie==you've got the right idea about the foods to choose that work so well for you.

Here's a for losing even more weight. You go girl!@
Judy Itry
234.6/206.5/thinner into onederland