Good morning, everyone and have a fantastic 4th! Be safe!

We are having rain, but we desperately need it. It rained alot before the fireworks last night, but not while they were going off. And I behaved at the picnic-scoped out the buffet line before I got in line to eat so I knew what I wanted to eat. Didn't go back for 2nd's. Ended up doing better than I thought for my walking, too.

Lost 1 more pound this week, so I am a happy girl!

The brother of one of the gals I work with got badly wounded 2 weeks ago when their HumVee hit and IED in Afghanistan. He is at Walter Reed now. We need to pray for them all.

Great to see you 36!

Kathy

MotherMavis~Thank you for he reminder!!! I put my hand over my mouth and giggled and giggled! I have talked and talked about a sexy, slinky black dress for over a year now. I can just picture myself in that dress. When I do my "phone book or tray" stepping I will think of that dress with my affirmation. It will help me get er done. I can step on the phone books or trays because they are soft and help cushion my knees and hip. Another Chick came up with the idea and shared it with me. I have done this stepping for the last 3 days. Soon We are going to add water bottles for some arm exercises. doesn't sound like much, but after an hour I am sweating. Thank you for looking up the 1.2 pounds a week weight loss. It doesn't sound so intimidating when I think of it that way. I will pray for the family and loved ones of your friend. Think slinky black dress giggles.

36~Good to hear from you. I missed you. Let us know how you are feeling, we are here for you. When I am depressed or stressed I tend to crawl into a shell and not come out for a while too, I can relate to the feelings too. You are not alone.

Everyone have a fun blessed day. Catch ya all later!! Pat

Thank you! I've missed everybody, too. Happy Fourth of July everyone.

36 - I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE BACK!!! I completely understand though. I stopped coming in here during my last big funk in march/april and gained back #16 of the #19 I had lost... now I'm working to get them BACK off!! NEVER AGAIN! You girls are stuck with me because I NEED YOU!!!

Pat - We are close to the same weight... now if only I had the extra 4" that you have! Let's work together and hit the #180's end of next week - what do you say? You in? I'm all for cooperative mini-challenges!

I'm still on plan - which is AWESOME! I didn't do any formal exercise yesterday - but I walked around outside for 2+ hours before fireworks last night... It counts in my book!

Right now I'm getting up the gumption to start cleaning the house for the cook out tomorrow. Joe said there's about 15 people coming! but I have to get to it!

#27 pounds to go in 25 weeks... I CAN DO IT!!!

I hope everyone had a great day today! Right now I'm praying that the fireworks going off don't end up waking up Johnny. I THINK I wore him out enough today that he'll be out like a light til morning, but there's always a chance that he'll wake -- especially since some of the folks right down the street from me seem to have bought fireworks to set off at home.

We live in a pretty decent sized city and one of the big bonuses for me is that downtown there's a wading pool/fountain set up that's almost always open & free for the kids to run around in. (And in the winter it's a free skating rink!) I've taken Johnny down there before, but he's always fallen asleep in the stroller by the time we've gotten there. He did the same thing today, too, but I was determined to have it be the highlight of his holiday so I woke him up. We were there running around for almost 2 hours!!! SO much fun!!!!! I tried attaching a picture here for you to see, but it doesn't seem to be working out for me but the blog post about the day is at whoopseedaisee.blogspot.com/2008/07/truly-fabulous-day.html

Karen, he is too cute! Thanks for sharing.

Hi Everyone~I had a good 4th celebration. Eating went well. I strayed just a little, but not bad. I went for a 50 min brisk walk about 9ish pm. I am happy with the day. I kept my sexy, slinky, black dress in mind when I was tempted to eat sugary carbs.

Enygirl~ I am up for a mini challenge. Just what I need to get to 180 something. MotherMavis reminded me about the slinky black dress, what is your goal?

Hope everyone had a fun, safe celebration. Pat

Hey gang, just wanted you to know I've turned into a bit of a lurker in this thread, but I'm still here, reading your inspiring posts and I'm still on-plan (Day 115 today!) and going strong! I crossed the -50 lb mark this morning, (-51.4 total, yippee!) and I'm feeling thrilled and happy and motivated! I'm still totally focused on where I can be come Christmas, I plan for it to be a doozy!

Keep up the good work everyone!

Hello Everyone,
I have been reading the post to catch up since it has been about 2 weeks and you all are doing great!!!! I wanted to join back in since I am now ready to get back to business. I hope you remember me. Last time I posted I was waiting to diet since I was 38 weeks pregnant... well not anymore!! I had my 4th beautiful daughter on June 27th at 1:19am. Isabel Lisa came screaming into this world weighin at 8lbs, 1oz and 20 in long. She is healthy and wonderful. I cannot begin to tell you how blessed I feel!!! I am doing great as well. My dh & other daughters dote on her and well.. life is good. Now back to reality.. I am now able to follow the ww plan and so far I am still super motivated since 1 week after the birth I am down 21lbs. I now have to keeo the mojo going on this weight loss trail. My dh is on board so that makes it so much simipler. I did great over the 4th and made only salads that i could count into my plan. The 3rd I did not do so good since we went to Chilli's and I had 1/2 of a big mout burger which was good, however I have no idea how many points that would be. I am now trying to add exercise back into my life to help the weight drop faster. I will try harder to post more and get to know all of you wonderful people better!!
Blessings,
Lori in the Hawkeye State

One Carrot for every 5lbs Lost !!!

Welcome back and congratulations Lori!! Best wishes to you and your family! Good job sticking with plan. One meal off at Chili's is still great. I have been trying to eat clean except for one meal a week. I give myself one meal off for when DH and I go out to dinner.

Pat, sounds like you did well too, it feels so good doesn't it? When I am having good days, I wonder how I ever can have off days,

Josephine, I been reading your blog, you really do inspire me. I am wanting to try & follow your OP dedication and have resumed C25K after reading your blog and seeing how wonderfully your running has worked for you. Thank You.

Everyone, have a great weekend!

Wow - that was a lot of catching up!

Lori - and welcome back! Remember not to push to hard at first - but I'm happy you're back!

Karen - John is SO freaking cute! Seriously!

Pat - Right now I'm pushing to be "overweight" at Christmas (#163.6) which means I too need to lose about #1.2 a week. Not too tough! My other inspiration is that my friend Shari in Texas (who I met on here) is going to come and visit me when I hit a size 8 She's one of those "long-lost-friends-destined-to-be-together-feel-like-I've-known-forever" people I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Josephine - WAY TO GO ON THE #50 loss! I'm hoping to be there on Monday's weigh in - I'm really freaking close! Also AWESOME 115 on plan! What keeps you so motivated???

Alright girls have to get ready for the cookout... I'll check in later!

Congratulations, Lori!!! Babies are so awesome. I happen to be a big fan

Today was an okay kinda day. Got in a nice little walk with Johnny. His aunt bought him a sprinkler for the backyard for his birthday but the squirrels attacked it (Tom left it out ... and the local squirrels are brutal and fearless), so I've been searching for a replacement. Unfortunately none of the places within walking distance seem to have summer stuff on the shelves anymore! It's all been cleared out to make way for back to school stuff... which kills me when school's only been out for a couple of weeks!

Ah well. At least I got a nice walk and he got a nice stroller-induced nap.

Tonight's the last night of my long weekend so I'm going to see how much more of my Biggest Loser Australia on YouTube I can plow through before Tom gets home from work. When I'm working I'm lucky if I can watch an entire episode on any given night and since the show airs something like 5 times a week over there I've got a LOT of episodes to watch!!!

Hope everyone's doing wonderfully well!

Morning all, staying spot on plan, checked the scale this am, not showing yet, but it will and I need to not fall back into the stepping on the scale every day trap. Weigh-in once a week only for me.

Josephine, WTG on the 50#, that is awesome. BTW, I made your overnight bean salad for cookout today, yummy!

Whoopsie, good luck finding the new sprinkler. It's scary how early they have the back to school stuff out, kind of like the Christmas before Halloween displays, drive me nuts!

Got to go, we are having a cookout for FIL today for his birthday. He is 86 and we are blessed to have him.

I have to get in the shower, get to 8am mass, go and pick up the cake and then get back in time to get everything ready. Need to stay focused on good choices today, will run tonight, after the sun goes down.

today is a rough day for me. I'm trying to eat clean, but struggling with it. I'm really tired after yesterday's festivities and staying up so late I'm still good calorie wise, just haven't made the best choices... oh well. Still technically on plan.

I'm going to do some after I put DD to bed. Just a take it easy kind of day....

Tomorrow is weigh in - I'm hoping to see a #18?.? - but anything down from last week would be awesome!

Enygirl~I have been op-it has been hard-but I have managed. I did my stepping workout today. I am sorry you are struggling today. Holidays are so hard to get through cleanly. That is why I decided to do this Christmas Challenge. Are you going to weigh in in the morning and post? I will weigh in in the morning and post. I want to weigh 18? something so badly I can taste it. I am so tired of weighing 190 I could scream. If you hear a scream in the morning you will know I didn't make it. I have really tried my best to stay clean eating and exercising every day. Here is to you!! (((HUGS))) Pat