Thanks guys for the compliments. I can finally see the difference. In my before pic I had like 2 1/2 chins and now I only have maybe 1 1/2. I just wish the rest of my body would disappear as fast as the face fat.

Louie – I really have no idea what broke the plateau. I hate to say this but I did quite a bit of cheating the past 3 days. I would eat breakfast and lunch on plan but ended up going out for dinner Friday Saturday and Sunday. Friday was a BIG Cheat, Saturday and Sunday were small ones but they were still cheats. Maybe by body just needed a change.

MichelleRae – Glad to hear you are staying on plan, it feels good to know you are sticking to it doesn’t it.

Cheryl – Congrats on the pound that the Fairy Fat Mother whisked away. I can’t wait to see the finished quilt. I agree with you on your changing your goal and the changing of your ticker. You should definitely put your highest weight on there that way it reminds you of where you have been and where you are going.

Everyone Else – hope you are all having fun. I am stuck at work today when most people have today off. I don’t even know why I am here, only 3 of us showed up today and there are 20 that work in the office, and about 75 that work in the shop. Oh well, I will probably leave early.

Gonna go for now, I will check back later.

Howdy Chicks!! Made it to PA okay. took 18 hours instead of the usual 16 due to more stops and longer stops with the kids. The kids really did great though I was so proud of them. A few minor DVD issues but once figured out the problem everything was great. Wonderful visit so far. Not really doing anything major just picnics and visit. I plan to do more relaxing than anything else the rest of the week. One day at an amusement park probably thursday. so far the scale has been very tempermental, kind of up and down and never the same as the first weigh. Not to mention the first time I got on it said 115!!! I nearly passed out! Then I realized it had flipped over to KG instead of pounds. It was actually hanging around 255, although one time this morning was 253.9. I am not moving the ticker yet until i see a few consistent readings.

No time for personals right now but want to say a big yippeee for all of those who have lost! and hope everyone is enjoying all the celebrations going on these last few and next few days!!!!

Will probably check in later this week! Hope all is well and will talk to ya'll soon!

Hello everybody . . .

CHERYL . . . Hope the finger is starting to feel a little better. Congratulations on the F-F-M visit. Great idea that you changed your ticker and that you set a new interim goal. Looking at the 'big' picture gets very depressing sometimes.

MRAE . . . Congratulations on staying OP. Wonderful feeling to know you are doing the right stuff. Rest assured it will pay off.

ROBBIN . . . Congratulations on that wonderful loss and the new avatar picture you beautiful little thing. WOW. Too bad fat moves at its own pace and that it is never the way we want it to. Just hang in there, eventually it will all go.

LOUIE . . . Doesn't it always work that way? And now that you've stocked up, all the paper will run out at the same time again the next time. I've got to get some shopping done today and the stores will be crowded since they've been closed for two days (living in the only Province with no Sunday shopping is a real pain sometimes).

ERIN . . . Glad to hear the trip was pretty good and you are having a good time so far. Sent you a long PM just after you left, let me know if you didn't get it since I don't know how long a PM will wait around to get picked up.

MICHELLE . . . HI . . . hope your weather and weekend have been going well.

RYANMI . . . and HI for you too.

Hi for everybody else . . . Hope you are all having good times and good weather.

Well . . . I've got some bad news/good news . . . Our long-term weather forecast says we are in for some increased humidity again and knowing how my body hates it, I decided to break may cardinal rule and hop on the scale this morning and . . . YIPPEE . . . my ticker is right again . . . the www has gone. Who knows what will actually happen before my 'official' Wednesday Weigh-In. The way things are shaping up, I may not know how my weight is really doing until after Labour Day. Have decided to try to stay calm over the scale- 's idiocyncracies as he battles it out with the Fairy Fat Mother for control of my mood. I'll just keep on doing the good stuff as much as I possibly can and rest assured that the good results will eventually be forthcoming.

Well, Ladies, I'd best get a move on before it gets hotter out there. Keep it moving and shaking and heading in the great downward direction and I'll see you all again really soon.

Hey gang . . . just came across a really weird FFF . . . at least one I've never heard before

. . . Licking a postage stamp will provide anywhere from 2 to 8 calories, depending on how well you lick it . . .

My goodness . . . we're not safe anywhere. "Diet-Stamps" anybody?

Hi Ladies!

Linda so glad to hear that you are in a better mood I too try not to let the scale dictate my mood but as you know it is sometimes difficult not to. I never lick stamps or envelopes I have a moistener to do that since the taste makes me gag lol.

Erin, congrats on the scale moving down and glad your trip is off to a good stop

Robbin, your picture does look awesome! Way to go on getting rid of the extra chins I can't wait til mine are gone too.

Louie, I'm going to school to be a CPA I start my bachelors program in August, I'm excited but a bit nervous too.

So I had another OP day which was great and I did some water exercises in the pool for about 30 minutes so that was good as well. Nothing big planned for tomorrow just gonna work and then come home and do some fireworks with the family.

Well time for me to go, I'll be back tomorrow
Michelle

Hey girlies! It was a busy non-stop weekend for me. My parents, sister and her 3 kids came and they just left about 1 1/2 hrs. ago. We had fireworks friday night at midnight. Parade and festival on saturday. Yesterday and today my sister and I were out and about checking out the shopping. Sorry I didn't get a chance to check in and everytime I thought about it my niece was sitting here checking her email.

I dropped another pound! That makes 2lbs. for the week. I'm really happy to finally see some movement.

I'll be going to my mothers tomorrow for a night or so. Just want to spend some extra time with them before I go. I assume next week will be fairly busy getting ready to leave.

I hope to check back in the morning before I go.

Hope you all had a great weekend! congrats to all the losers!

~Tina

Good morning girls. Just wanted to check in before I start waking up the kids and getting everyone ready to go to my parents house.

Looks like we have slowed down a bit here for the holiday weekend, hope everyone is having a good time. I also wish for everyone to have a safe holiday.

Not gonna do personals right now but I did want to say, Linda - would you like a couple of cats. The two kittens I have are driving me nuts. They keep climbing on the shelf in my laundry room and knocking stuff down or racing through the house in the middle of the night just to jump up on my bed, usually right in the middle of my stomach. LOL

Have a good day ladies.

Hi everybody . . . I know I've been saying it all weekend but now it really is . . .HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY !!!

MRAE . . . Look at all the calories you've been saving by not licking those stamps. Wish every source of empty calories could be made to taste that obnoxious.

TINA . . . Have a great time visiting your family. We will miss you. Great new picture, girl . . . now I really see the resemblance to Sally Field.

ROBBIN . . . Hey, cats are nocturnal. They will calm down in a few months (years for some of the really bad ones). In the meantime, just remember how sweet they are when they curl up in your lap and purr. For kittens you have to baby-proof the high places as well as the low places.

RYANMI . . . Wow, what a generous Aunt you are. Yep, that WWW is no fun at all. I'm thinking of just staying away from the scale until, maybe, Thanksgiving (ours, in early October).

Not too much going on around here. The weather this morning was better than predicted but it is now getting very cloudy and heavy. Can hardly wait to see what I weigh tomorrow morning, oh joy.

Here are a few totally unrelated FFF's for today . . .

. . . not only is romaine lettuce named for the Romans, but Emperor Augustus praised it so highly he erected a statue to it . . . the expression "high on the hog" originated with the British Army; the officers got the tender cuts from the front of the pig; the lower ranks shared the rest . . . the British Navy fed lemons and limes to the sailors to combat scurvy; giving rise to the nick-name "Limies" . . . 100 hearty laughs burns as many calories as 10 minutes of rowing

Have fun moving and shaking (and laughing) your way to better health this evening, girls. See you soon.

Helllooooo and Happy 4th of July to my neighbors to the south !!!!

Well I survived my first day of work. I am sure by tomorrow it won't even feel like I have been away !!!

The weather here is still warm, although some cloud cover today so maybe that is a sign that it might cool off a bit. I have been drinking a ton of water and making lots of trips to the washroom.. good exercise LOL

Looks like everyone is keeping busy and enjoying their long weekend.

Tina ~ congrats on the visit from the FF Mother !

Meowee ~ good luck with the WI (although I doubt that you need any luck !)

Ryanmi ~ wanna take me shopping, I promise not to fill the cart Sounds like you had a great day with your neice

Robbin ~ sounds like you are having a heck of time with the cats. Hopefully they will cease using you as a spring board !!

MRae ~ sounds like you are really doing well on plan.. weigh (pun intended !!) to go !!! CPA = Certified Public Accountant ??? I think the names are different between the States and Canada, so just want to clarify.

Erin ~ glad to hear that you had a safe journey.

To all the other chicks ~ come out, come out where ever you are !!! Hope you are all doing well and taking care of yourselves !!

Hey ladies... I posted back on 6/24, when I had just picked up my stepkids for the week. I have been totally bad all week. now that they've gone back home, maybe I can get back into a semi-normal routine, and back on track. I know they were no good excuse for my behavior, but it just seems so chaotic with a house full of kids!! More-so than with just my normal two!!

I can feel my joints aching ~ I NEED to workout. I will hit the YMCA tomorrow after the kiddies go to bed, I guess.

I'm just not in a good mental place right now ~ in a funk. Upset that all that work is BLOWN and I'm back up to where I started. Dreading all the points counting (WW), meal planning, giving up sugary sweets, mental battles, etc... It's exhausting, really.

Sorry to bring the group down. I know once I start, I'll feel better and get back in the groove. It would be nice if I could just STAY in a groove once I got there! LOL

Anyhow ladies ~! Any encouragement will be appreciated! Enjoy the fireworks tonight (for those in the US)!

*hugs*

Just a few personals as well:

MichelleRae ~ I'm a CPA in Tx. I love my job, but I'm at a desk all day, thus some of this weight stuck on my hips! Let me know if you have any questions about being a CPA!

Tina ~ I checked out your ticker! You are doing so fabulous!! Keep up the good work!

Ryanmi ~ wow! You can pretend to be my aunt anytime!!! LOL ... lucky girl!

Hey ladies!!! Happy 4th!!!! We just got done letting off some fireworks and the kids had a blast We also found out that my sister is preggers! This is great news for me because I've been having baby cravings lol but hubby had a vasectomy about 2 years ago so I'll definitely get some baby time I can't wait!! So I'm still staying on Plan so I feel good about that for sure

Shyla how cool that you are a CPA! I just can't wait to get a job but first things first I've got to finish my education This has been a very fulfilling journey for me. Thanks for the offer of help...I'm sure I'll need it. I do bookkeeping now but as you know it's not the same.

Louie, yep, CPA = certified public accountant. I've wanted to be an accountant for as long as I can remember and I finally decided to go back to school to make it happen! Glad to hear you survived your first day of work!!

Linda I hear ya on making emplty calories taste nasty! Too bad eh? I wish there were a surgery that would mess up your tastebuds so all the junk foods tasted like crap so we wouldn't want to eat them anymore lol.

RyanMi, wow could you take me to Toys R us? I just love toys I'm sure I could fill a basket Yeah, I'm still a kid at heart lol. Glad you had fun!

Well guys, it's time for me to go to bed but I'll be back tomorrow of course Hope you are all doing well and have a safe and happy fourth of July!

Good Morning . . . it's very humid and very overcast . . . and (need I mention) the scale-demon beat the fairy-fat-mother again . . . but I'm only up 1.8 from my ticker since Monday, or down 1.8 from last week's up . . . so does that mean I've actually lost weight, if it wasn't being obscured by the WWW? I give up . . . I'm just not going to get excited about it. Until I can move my ticker down, I'm not moving it anywhere. This is the point at which I've totally folded my tent and wandered off into the dessert desert in the past, but I also refuse to give up this time, so I'll just keep putting one foot in front of the other and hopefully by Labour Day (or Canadian Thanksgiving in early October) I'll actually be able to tell what is going on.

LOUIE . . . Glad your first day back went OK. Thanks for your kind wishes, but obviously I needed a lot more luck than I managed to come up with.

SHAWN . . . Don't fret it, kiddo, you'll get your act back together in no time.

MRAE . . . Congratulations on staying OP and where did you find those cute smilies?

Well, that's it for me for now. Got to get busy and shorten a dress for a friend of mine. Keep moving and shaking and heading in that great downward direction, gang. Here's some to help us all stay on track, today. See you soon.

Ok I had a long post all typed up and got kicked, which just goes with my crappy mood this morning. I am right there with anyone haveing scale demon and WWW problems. I was not very good with food choices yesterday and the scales have jumped up 3 pounds. I am now where I started out last week. All that work to break my plateau was for nothing. I am so not in a good mood today. I also am not happy with work, but that is a whole other story and would bore you all to death.

I am gonna go for now before I become a real downer to everyone. Check back later.