Good Evening!

I am a little tired tonight but wanted to check in and read everyones posts.

Bunny: Thanks for the info on the financial thing. I am sure I can help too.

Terri: Ditto on the weekend thing. I am so good during the week and then along comes the weekend and my brain seep out of my head. I really need to evaluate like someone mentioned & see what is triggering this. I have a feeling it is because I think I have been sooo good during the week that I can justify a little cheating.

Lilac: I had to drag out my world atlas to see where Cornwall was. Sorry, geography is not my strong suit. I love the British [prime minister Tony Blair. I listened to a speech of his this morning. All I can say about your weight loss is :Cool...Cool...Cool

Jo-ann: I think the hardest part of this whole process is going back every week even if the scale is not cooperating. Hang in there Girl!! Your hiking boots sound fantastic. I have been checking out all the foot options.

Finally have to retire for the evening....

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ssdiane

Morning, folks!

Terri -- the hair loss thing is scary. I actually do try to get in all my points -- I understand how important it is. Its just daunting when I reach the end of the day and realize I still need to eat 8 points, ya know? Last night I made my dinner with full-fat Swiss cheese instead of no-fat, just for the extra calories. I hope I go back to being hungry again soon. Its easier somehow for me to choose low-fat options all day than it is to have to remember to pump some calories into my meals. LOL! Kinda funny when you consider it was (in part) those extra calories that got me here to begin with. I think what I'll do is try hard to remember that when I'm choosing an afternoon snack I should look at where I am so far points-wise and then consider what I've got planned for dinner so I can choose a higher or lower point snack as needed.

J-ann -- portion size can definitely be a killer. On the boots, ya know, I've always been afraid to order shoes online or through a catalog because fit seems so desperately important. Does Land's End make returns easy? Or do they have retail stores where you bought? Or, um, something else? I'm hoping that we'll end up getting me hiking boots this winter. Last winter the snow hiking was a bit much sometimes in sandals.

ssdiane -- you'll find this site addictive, I'm sure. Even when I can't post for a couple days, I tend to drop in and make sure I'm keeping up with everyone's progress, good times and bad. I find more inspiration here than I do locally I know.

Off to the (rat) races! Y'all have a great day!!

Went to WI tonight and am fighting being very discouraged, mad and frustrated. I've been stuck at the same point for a few weeks and haven't been able to get past this point is a year. I keep going up and down the same five pounds. I know all the things to do so why can't I get it together consistent enough to get past this point? I need to keep in mind the things I had already thought about. Its also kind of makes me wonder about WW staff when they see someone stuck in the same point and never say a word. Just weigh me, write it down, hand the stuff back without any kind of concern. That's why I have gotten so discouraged in the past and quit, many times. So I'm having a major pity party and will try hard not to take it out on food.

The other thing that makes me discouraged is that we're going to a big family reunion this weekend and it will be nothing but loads of country food. Starts Friday night with a fish fry and ends Sunday afternoon with some kind of lunch.

J-Ann - I understand too well about that rut. Good for you for stepping up your exercise. Apparently we can't let our guard down with either portions or exercise.

SSDiane - Hope you got some rest.

Bunny - That is weird about your body and not being hungry. Sounds like you're doing all the right things and as long as you're losing at a healthy pace and feeling good then I'd keep on doing what you're doing.

Well folks, seems like I should say something more but I'm exhausted from the week and my brain is overloaded. I'll be AWOL for a few days as we're leaving tomorrow afternoon and not back until late Sunday.

Have a great weekend and be strong!

Today was given over to work -- trying to make up the losses our business has suffered still. But on the plus (or minus, depending on your view) side, I had weigh-in today -- and I'm down another 1.5# for a total of 25.5# lost. I got a magnet! Very cool.

No time to chat more now -- back again soon.

Hey Girls!

Feeling much better tonight. Thought I was coming down with something. Just think it was allergies or something.

Last night I brought home a cooler full of salmon. A co-workers husband went ocean fishing and had extra. I am grilling one tonight & cut and wrapped the rest & froze them. I would of smoked one of them but did not have time. My husband and I try to get to the coast as much as possible. Not only is it beautiful the sea food is abundant. Yum Yum.

I am a little bit anxious lately because my grandson who is 3 is having his adnoids out and his third set of tubes put in his ears on Monday and I will be there with my daughter at the hospital. I know the surgery will go fine. But, because he has done this before, the crying starts as soon as he hits the hospital doors. It is just so heart wrenching. Sooooo I am dreading it.

Bunny: WOW WEEEE... 25.5 lbs gone. How very proud you must be.!!!!!! I can't wait til I get that magnet & I will invite everyone over to look upon its magnificence. I was reading an article in Prevention Magazine and saw an article about a walkers rally 2001 in Ashville NC. It is over now because it was from Sept 23-27 at the Grove Park Inn Resort. But, the scenery pictures were beautiful. CANT EVEN imagine how it would be to have to work at getting enough points in. Maybe you could bank yours for me. Do you think that would work? Hey what are diet buddies for anyway? ha ha

Terri: Your breaking my heart sister. I know what you mean about the no concern at the scales. I have been there in the past where all I got was" you will do it next week" and having them say the same thing week after week. Sometimes I think they should say "lets meet after class and go over some things that may help". I have a co-worker that was going to Jenny Craig and actually was gaining weight instead of losing. She said she was following the diet to the note. But, for some reason the scale would not move, or it would go up. Believe it or not they basically fired her. Told her she was not taking the weight loss effort seriously enough & told her not to come back. Whats up with that. Are your incentives gone? Are you happy with yourself just the way you are? Would bringing a friend help?

Well, my family wants me to get off the computer and come have dinner so will have to say goodnight.wave:

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Sherry

Morning, folks!

We slept in this morning -- mostly I think because my husband kept us both up all night with his allergies. He finally got to sleep around 6 am when the rains began and the pollen levels fell again for a bit... then it was up at 7 am and off to the flea market. We didn't really find anything terribly interesting -- but I've begun to collect Christmas and Winter themed coffee mugs because one of the gifts we'll be giving this year will be Mugs with the ingredients for "Snowman Soup".


Terri -- I know how frustrating this must be for you. Indeed, when I last left off my weight-loss journey, it was because I'd stalled for several months -- and I no longer seemed to remember why I was losing weight. I started again (down from where I first began, but up from where I'd left off) when I could again remember why I was losing the weight. Its not about designer jeans or cat-calls when walkin' downtown -- for me its about living longer, living better, hoping that I'll escape the weight-related illnesses that have plagued my family for generations. Remembering why you're working towards being a less-weighty you may help...

Sherry -- I haven't been to the Grove Park Inn -- but we have driven by in the past. Its beautiful. Actually, you can get a good look at the grounds of the Biltmore Estate when watching Hannibal -- as the estate in that feature was filmed here. I'm hoping my husband is well enough that we can hike some next week. I'll remember your grandbaby in my prayers. My daughter had her adenoids removed when she was 7. It was hard on us all -- mostly because my family has a history of bad reactions to anesthesia (rare, rare, rare!!). I'm sure all will be well -- but how heart-rending to listen to the cries of child who is afraid...

Now all we need it Geri...

Good health, good thoughts, and good fortune to you all this weekend!!

Hey Hey Everyone:

Good weekend to you all! I have company tonight. My niece stopped by with her new husband. What fun. Made some three bean soup in the crockpot, and homemade french bread in the breadmaker. We all sat down to a very delightful dinner & good conversation.

I made the soup very low cal and noone seem to notice. The bread only had 1 T. oil. Today I have made a big effort to keep on track with points. Even though my weight loss is only slightly over 5 lbs I am less tierd. Probably because I am not loading myself down with fat.

Bunny: Did your daughter benefit from the adnoid removal? We are concerned that it will make no difference & he went through all that trauma. We are also concerned about the anesthesia because the other two times he had a bad reaction afterward & got really sick.
I liked your mug idea. I am still trying to figure out how to print things out without getting the whole thread page. My husband and I also love flea markets. We do that and Antique stores as well as thrift stores. My mom and sisters maybe once every couple months go what we call thrifting. We all jump in the car and go to as many thrift stores as we can stopping only for lunch. Great girl time even if you come back with nothing.

Have to baby sit so will say good night.

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sherry

Just a quickie here --

Sherry -- to print only one thing, use your cursor to "highlight" the text and then hit the "Print" button within your browser. At least when I do this in my program, I get just the part I highlighted and nothing else. For my daughter, the adenoid removal made a world of difference. They were removed because they were blocking more than 85% of her breathing passage (!!!) -- the surgeon said he's never seen a set of adenoids to enlarged before. She was a different child afterwards, truly. I hope the surgery does equally good things for your grandbaby.

Good Sunday

Just a short check-in....Busy today... but try to make time.

Thanks for the info on the adnoids Bunny!!!. I also tried to print out that recipe by hilighting and selecting the print button. But no good. I was going to get 15 pages again . Also tried a few other things with no sucess. Will have to write it down or have my daughter look at it for another opinion. I have MSN. I am glad you try to post every day or else I would be reading the same message for a few days. Thanks!

I am listening to an inspirational tape that Oprah made with her trainer Bob Green called Making the Connection. Really not bad at all. Kept my attention so far. I purchased it for $1 at a used book store. Well worth the investment for me.

See ya...........................

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ssdiane

I read the book "Making the Connection" by Oprah and I found it to be informative. I like the idea of motivational tapes.

Sorry I've been away for awhile. My schedule has been a bit hectic. I don't have the time to catch up with everyone, but I have been reading. I hope everyone is doing well. I just wanted to say that this week I made it below 250 at weigh in and that was a high point for me. I am now down to 249.5#.

I hope to keep this momentum going. Have a good night all, I need my sleep.

Melissa

Good morning!

I'm back from our family reunion weekend. What a great weekend. We had the reunion at grandpa's old house (he died in 1981). It is the house where my mother was raised along with 9 other siblings. A three room house with no indoor toilet and no paint ever on the outside. Since Grandpa passed away, the house was kept in the family but had been falling into total disrepair. Over the last year, my uncles have stripped the inside and put up new walls and electrical and brought it back to life. We started with a fish fry on Friday night, some people camped at the farm, then a country breakfast of pancakes and sausage, and lunch of lots of good country casseroles. More food Saturday night, Sunday breakfast and lunch. This family does EAT. The men cooked sorghum from the cane grown. Others sat around and talked and the kids played and played on the hay bales. We had gorgeous fall weather. It felt so good to have the family together again like when we were so little. It seemed like grandma and grandpa should walk through the door at any time. So needless to say, there was no way I could count points. The only thing I can say for myself is that I took a small plate and did not go back for seconds. Plus I walked the dog around the farm each day.

Thanks Sherry & Bunny for the kind words over my pity party. I could think of all kinds of excuses and blame. My DH is not totally committed to losing weight and couldn't care less if I lost or stayed the same. He thinks saying he loves me no matter what size helps me feel better. And then wants to eat steak and fries three times a week. He doesn't want to eat a lot of things I would if I were still single and trying WW again. He doesn't hold a gun to my head and make me put the food to my mouth but it sure makes it easy for me to fall off program. The main problem is that I have been trying this for so long that my body has adjusted to my 80% healthy eating habits and the level of exercise and that is why it isn't budging. What's hard is getting back to 95% eating good and stepping up my level of exercise to challenge it more and make it burn more calories. Staying vigilant is so important and falls by the wayside so easily.

I'm ready to keep trying, thanks to friends like you. I better get the dog up and myself ready for work. I've got my mind set on the challenge this week. Have a great Monday!

Terri -- about your husband and steaks... wow! That reminds me utterly about my husband and his (evidently) conflicted views of my weight loss when I began this time (he was down right sabotaging me the last time I lost weight... LOL!). What happened here was that I finally "confronted" him about the issues I had with his eating habits and how they impacted on my psyche. We were on a road trip in Tennessee and eating at a Taco Bell. He'd just eated a Polish Sausage while we were out and shopping, and now was eating two double decker tacos. I'd ordered a Steak Taco. He knew that what he was eating had been something I dearly enjoyed ... but that now the points simply made it impossible for me to eat that way and still continue to lose weight. (Sorry to be so long setting the scene LOL!) Anyway -- while we were eating I said, "You know, I think what makes watching you eat so hard for me is knowing that I can't eat that way anymore -- ever. Its not just now, its a forever change in my habits." "Well," said he, "I'm not losing weight so you'll just have to get used to it..." "Yes," I agreed, "I will. Its not your problem at all. I'm just trying to help you see why it is that this is hard for me, why it is that I struggle more in reaching a goal that matter a lot to me..." He actually looked thoughtful at this but we didn't say much more on the topic. I made a point of eating my sugar-free Jello treats at rest stops while he munched on candy bars... and at dinner he ordered a single burger, a soda, and told me he'd try to be more considerate in his choices. He said he hadn't realized how had his eating habits made my choice to lose weight for me. He said he loved me just how I was -- but that helping me succeed mattered a great deal to him because it mattered to me. I think (yikes!) what I'm trying to say is that its always possible your family just doesn't understand yet how hard this is for you, how much it matters to you, and how much harder it can be when they make poor choices. This time as I lose weight, my family is traveling the same road to health with me. I try to make sure that my cooking includes healthy answers to unhealthy meals (we have burgers and baked fries regularly here, steak hits the table at least every couple weeks, etc.). I hope you have luck helping your husband help you, you know? Congrats on staying focused in a very high point environment this weekend. Now that's success even if it doesn't always show at the scales!

Melhoward -- WAY TO GO on making it below #250!!! That's my mini-goal right now.

Sherry -- if you have a word processing program, you might try just copy/pasting the part you want into a new document and then printing the document.

Hope you all have a great day today! And thank you again for all your friendship and support -- for me, this makes a big difference as I walk the walk.

Hi!

Gosh, we're missing a few people - Cindy, Brenda, Geri, Lilac - we miss you and hope you're doing well!!

I had a good food day. I journalled and was careful. I need more fruit and veggie in my plan. After dinner, I took the dog for his walk and added four city blocks. Then I did a few minutes on the airdyne followed by a few situps on the big blue ball. I had planned on doing some tae bo or step but had to go shopping for DH's birthday present. Instead of taking him out to a big meal, he's going to get big shrimp and baked potatoes to enjoy a quiet evening at home. Better for our budget too. For some reason I didn't go a good job of getting my water in.

Has anyone purchased a pedometer that counts your steps? I just got one and it counted 2202 steps during a dog walk. Since then I forget to put it on to count my steps in a day. Is it better now to count steps during the day instead of mileage?

Bunny - Yes, DH and I have had several conversations where I explain how important this is to me and that my reason is so that I am healthy and fit. I love feeling sort of athletic when I'm tromping through the woods or riding my bike. And he promises to help me and then forgets. He doesn't mean to sabotage but has his own problem with enjoying food too much.

Mel - Congratulations on your milestone. I too have the Oprah book and loved it. It certainly gives you things to think about. I could never get up early enough to do my exercise that early in the day as it suggests.

Sherry - I too have not been successful with printing only a portion of the thread. It took me a while to see the printable version option that didn't print all the pictures!! Hope you're doing well.

I should get moving. I'm really struggling with wanting to go to work. Last week I decided to take two weeks off over Thanksgiving so of course I want it NOW. Have a great OP day!!

I was enthralled with the overseas posts and then to find an Oregon poster, too. I live in Baltimore, MD, but I'm originally (a long time ago) from Oregon and I still love the place. I've always wanted to go to England and Scotland, but so far we've only made it to Germany.

I have a lot to lose and I desperately need help to stay on the program. I've been off and on it for a long time, but some major health problems dictate that I have to lose <whisper>close to 200 lbs. sooner rather than later. I, too, work four 10-hour days, with Weds. off so that I can have a mid-week break. Although I'm old enough for grandkids to chase on my day off, my two sons haven't accommodated me yet. Actually, one is getting married 11/17 and if I haven't lost at least something by then I'm going to refuse to be in any pictures!

Although I'd love to be able to walk the dog again (it's not possible right now), I settled for buying the tapes for "Chair Dancing." Now I just have to get well-motivated enough to do it on a regular basis.

I hope to keep up with this thread and not lose the motivation I've read in the reports so far. Oh, yes, my husband of 37 years (still my best friend) is laid off and home way too much. Unfortunately, he doesn't like to cook any more than I do. So, he eats a lot of frozen meals that he likes and sushi (yuck) and I tend to grab sandwiches (bad, bad!). I do take WW dinners to work for lunch and when I did journal two weeks ago I lost 10.2 lbs. , but I haven't been good ever since then.

Since my sons left, I adopted a corgi that is my 2nd best friend. I adore her and she gives me so much love back that I wish fervently that I could lose enough weight to walk her.

That's enough about me. Please keep up with the wonderful stories, especially the ones from Oregon.

Hey Hey Everyone!


Loved reading everyones posts!!. I was absent but you were not forgotten. My grandsons surgery went well & I was exhausted that day. He, again, was sick from the anesthetic(won't give any further description) at the hospital and in my car eeekkk
I stayed home with him today so my daughter could go to work. She has missed so many days of work she is a little worried about her job. I, on the other hand, have worked for the same medical practice for 19 years. I have more sick time. We are all praying that his health improves now.

I made the mistake of not eating before we left for the hospital & by 2pm when we left I was bouncing off the walls from coffee & famished. My daughter wanted to stop at Burger King for a shake for my grandson(which later ended up all over my back seat). Anyway, I had a cheese burger and fries, and of course I had to be good and have a diet coke. Let me tell you it was sucked up fast... I can't remember if I ate the wrapper.

When I read the posts about the husbands I wondered if my husband had been cloned. He is so dear, but has lousy eating habits. But, the past couple years it has been catching up to him & he is getting a little tummy. A couple days ago I told him his stomach was starting to look like my butt. He was a little shocked since I usually make no comments about anyones weight.

MELISSA: : Below 250... really cool. I can't even tell my sisters or best friend that it is my first goal. I can't even go shopping with my one sister because she still shows me size 16 to try on and says "this has to fit". Also, I have not finished Oprah tape but glad to know it's good.

TERRI : Ditto on the husband thing and the reunion sounded fun and yummy.

marridy: Welcome, have you been here before? I know the lose" by the wedding" syndrome. My daughter was married in August. We had photos and video tape. I wont comment on how I thought I looked . I live up by Mt Hood in a little town named
Sandy. We love it unless we get a rainy spell.

bunny: I'm back!.. and I am going to try your printer suggestion.

This is getting way too long even though I have more to say will sign off for now.

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ssdiane