maddiesmom - sounds like a good plan for the day!

burgundy - good for you for sticking to plan - WTG!

mygrits - I feel for you! Sometimes I feel really lucky that I live alone because I have complete and total control over the food that's in the house. Can you maybe plan ahead and cut up a big bowl of watermelon (Lindy's favorite!) or pop some lf popcorn so that you have at-hand snack food when evening tv watching rolls around?

Lindy - love the thigh goal - that's going to be a long term one for me - I'm nowhere close! : )

Off to treadmill between property visits...

Hey Dance - Yes I do have available fruit and stuff, but I think your right, I need to get some ready-to-go popcorn, and other snacks. I think by night time I have done the fruits, veggies and all and want something else. Thanks for the idea.

Lindy - Those are great incentives. I would love for my legs to not rub either. I remember when I got almost to my goal a couple of years ago, and my legs didn't rub and man when I crossed my legs they just flung over and hung - like a skinny person! No effort what so ever to cross my legs, it was awesome.......LOL. Anyway, yes Lindy that is what I was trying to workout was something under $10 or $20 dollars as a prize. It would be a workout outfit, which you can get even at Wal-Mart Danskins only run for shorts and tank around $15. A workout ball, video, weights or whatever. I know it motivated me 2 years ago to reach my monthly then long term goal and made it fun too. We could either do something small for monthly, or set a long term for 3 months for the $10 or $20 dollar prize. Now depending how many are game, heck if we each did $10 we could really get a nice prize. Another thought too is to take the total, split the prize between two people for those in the 100's and those in the 200's. The only reason I say this is sometimes weight loss comes easier when your not as close to your goal. I don't know I'm rambling. Let's get feedback and see if we can get this going by August 1st.

Hey - where'd everyone go?!?

Anyway, I know I'm posting like crazy today but I'm desperately trying to get back on track. Did my exercise as planned for 60 min total cardio and have kept the calories to 1245 so far and am pretty much ready to go to bed so I should be okay. Thanks, girls, for helping hold me accountable. It's just soo sooo easy to slip into bad habits again. I'm in for whatever you guys think sounds good as far as a challenge if a non-FL person is allowed to participate : )

Hi everyone! I am back from vacation...I ended up leaving a few days earlier (we've been given a timeline to use it all up by) and didn't have access to internet for two weeks...I tell you - that was WEIRD but also very good!!!!

I have a lot of catching up and reading to do. I will do that this weekend. I missed you all very much!

I am doing pretty good though- even being on vacation - I am around 218 I think

Will catch up soon!!!

S

Dance your doing fantastic and "bravo" for keeping your calories down! I also say "bravo" for not eating tonight and going to bed..........I wish I had!

I don't know where everyone is, but yes you are welcome to join. I think only 3 of us are from Florida, me, Lindy and Tiff. Burgund, Maddie, you and Neesy are elsewhere. Brown-eyes too, but I haven't see her on here lately, is she alright? Aha! I edited and came back on because Brown-eyes posted right before me! LOL......how funny is that! LOL...

Check in tomorrow.

Hey ladies,
Can a Chicagoan join the challenge?!? LOL Maybe we can do a Thanksgiving or Christmas challenge and instead of it being pounds lost, it can be percentage of weight loss? Just an idea, but I'll do what the group decides.

Did pretty well today, here we go:
Breakfast: lite yogurt with 1/4 cup granola and blueberries
Lunch: Healthy choice meal with small side salad and diet dr. pepper (my weakness)
Snack: Honey almond flax Kashi Bar
Dinner: Small roast beef sandwich (on the 100 cal Arnold bread thingys) and a salad, with water. I did eat some baked bbq lays, which are really good.

Workout? 45 minutes of cardio (burned 300+ calories) and then went home and ran with Madeline outside. All in all, a good day. I weigh in at WW tomorrow, the first since vacation, so we'll see.

Lindy: Would love for the thighs not to touch, don't remember the last time they didn't...will they miss each other?!? LOL I think short term goal will be for me to be in a size 16 by October. I'm not losing weight in one spot, it's kinda disappearing all over, so the size isn't going down as much. But I am in an 18/20 (depending on brand) for the first time in a long time.

Sandy: You can get yourself back on track! Just let us know what you need to hear? (Jillian, or a kinder voice?) The late night munchies are hard, but you need to be determined! I had a Milky Way bar (my fav) and it didn't taste right at the first bite, now usually, I would eat it anyway, it's chocolate for goodness sake! Instead, I decided eating crappy tasting chocolate wasn't worth the calories, so I spit it out. I think once you get the ball rolling slowly, you will pick up momentum. That's what's working for me anyways.

Have a great night!

Sandy-a challenge like that sounds awesome. I am just not good at picking something. What Lindy was saying sounds great. I am think you rubbed off on me, I was bored tonight and hungry. Didnt eat much today, super busy. So when I got the boys in bed, I had some chips and dip NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO, what was I thinking??? Just gotta move past it and be better tomorrow. I didnt weigh today, I will tomorrow. I am trying not to obsess over the number on the scale right now. I am probably still 222 or 221, TOM is over so I am hoping to see a drop sunday.

Lindy- I am not excited to weigh in Sunday. TOM is gone, but I still feel blah. I need to get up and move around more. Went shopping today with my sister in law, but that doesnt count.

Dance-sounds like you are still doing great even being away from home. I need some of you enthusiasm.

Staccie-glad to see you back. Hope you had a great vacation. You will have lots of reading to do.

Maddiesmom-LOL about the thighs missing each other. Good luck at WW tomorrow.

Be back tomorrow, have a good night everyone.

Staccie - welcome back! Looking forward to hearing all about your vacation.

Maddiesmom - sounds like a great day - hope you see the loss at WW!

mygrits - I want my legs to do that when they're crossed - I'm obsessed with looking at how people cross their legs lately and it's so cute looking when your legs are skinny. Can't wait until we can do that!

burgundy - What's your chipless and dipless plan for today? Salty crunchy things are my biggest weakness - I can totally relate to the temptation.

So here's my latest thought for the day - does it seem to you guys that it's a trade off between 'make me happy for less than a minute' when it comes to eating something we shouldn't vs. 'make me long-term happy' when it comes to sticking to plan and getting thinner? I'm going to try to be mindful of short-term vs long term happiness in my eating choices today - we'll see how it goes! I'm a zombie today - couldn't get to sleep until after 3am so may skip the workout. Am shooting for around 1400 cal.

Hope everyone has a good day!

Morning girls...wow, I dont check in at night and a lot goes down - I LOVE IT. Ok, so it sounds like everyone is pretty much on board. Lets establish the guidelines. I think percentage is good, how long should we do this and does everyone concur that $10.00 is doable?

Anyway, so I have some fun news to share...some girly, giggling like a school girl news. Lol. I went on a date last night! I know..its kinda soon, its was really impromptu, a guy I knew through a friend was in town and we had been talking while he was visiting and decided to hang out last night. It was so much fun, he was the sweetest, most gentlemenly guy I have ever met. We talked for HOURS (5 to be exact). I really enjoyed myself. The bad thing is that he lives in Melbourne which is a little over an hour away from here AND he's a police officer, so he works long days, 12 hour shifts, so its not like we would be able to stay in contact a lot. :sigh:, oh well, it was still having nice company.

Now...back to weight loss, lol.

Dance - killer job on staying within reason and sticking with your plan, big hug.

Stacie - welcome back! I hoep you enjoyed your vaca and got some much needed R&R. No internet for 2 weeks! Oh god, Id be running around like a chicken with my head cut off, lol.

Maddiesmom...LMAO, your too funny with your "will they miss each other" comment.

Ok...gotta go. Ill check in later.

p.s.-still smiling like a giddy school girl from last night, despite getting to bed at 2 a.m.!

Lindy - so glad you had fun last night!

Doing okay on food so far but too tired to work out : ( May try going for a walk as that doesn't sound too hard.

Dance your right with the long-term thinking and happiness. I use to stay focused on that, where I would think if eating that piece of food was worth one minute of pleasure vs. years of happiness, being energetic, self-esteem, energy, feeling sexy and being healthy. Why did I quit thinking that way? Hmmm, I really need to refocus! lol...

Dance that is funny how we look at people who cross their legs and how at ease that are with that movement. They don't even think about it, as it is so natural......I remember it, as if it were yesterday crossing my legs and thinking "Wow, It is like I thought it would be, so easy and comfortable." Now I am back to not crossing them, or forcing one leg over and straining to keep it there! LOL........

Maddie chasing Madeline is a major workout I'm sure! Gosh I remember when Bruce and Alina were young and it was all I could do to just get a few minutes to sit still and relax...........Busy, busy busy kids. You are welcome to join our contest and I am not familiar with doing percentages, but I am sure it isn't difficult. That's what they do on the Biggest Loser to make all weights fair - correct?

Burgund - I know. Last night got me again - Damn. I actually felt sick today from the food. I mean down right nauseas. I wasn't even hungry for breakfast until 1pm and it's all I could do just now to eat dinner - forget lunch....lol. I did go walking this morning and felt horrible. I felt fat, lethargic, and just sick to stomach from food. Heck, maybe that's what I needed to wake me up! We will see. My weight is 219 as of today......ugh!

Lindy - Woo Hoo! Good for you. I am so glad you had a nice evening with a nice guy. Police Officer huh? Good for you!

I like the idea of Thanksgiving or Christmas for the contest date - or around that time. Possibly right before Thanksgiving and the all the food temptations? LOL....... I guess we need to pick a date to begin and end. I also thought for the prize we could each pick what we would want off a list. Thereafter, elect someone to get the prize, or just mail the winning $ to the person and let them go pick the item up and take a winning picture with it for us to see.

Lindy $10 is doable and if we all constribute, whoever wins will be able to get something really nice, like a workout outfit, dumbbells, workout dvd, or a number of things. I like the idea of starting August 1st, but not sure how everyone feels about ending it. Possibly November 1st before the holidays, or New Years? I don't know???

11/1 sounds good to me - too much further out (like new years) and it'll seem a bit too far away for me short-term oriented mind : ) but if others feel strongly, I'm flexible. A possible idea to make things easy for prizes etc is to have us contribute $10 amazon electronic gift cards to the winner(s). They don't charge a handling fee or anything and they're very easy to send via email and can be used to purchase pretty much all of the kinds of things we've been talking about - workout dvds, workout gear, etc. Maybe those of you who have done this before have a better plan but I thought I'd throw it out there as an idea. Did okay at dinner tonight but it's still early so we'll see. I got some grapes as a healthy snack if I get the munchies later. Take care, all!

Hey Dance, I like it. I never thought about a gift card from each of us for the winner to use - excellent! I too like 11/1 only because I do better short-term, plus I know many of us may get into the 'holiday busy mode.' I figured to we could finish that contest and if interested we could set another one for the beginning of the New Year after the holidays.

Today was better, but not 'great.' I did snack a bit ago, but overall the day was better than they have been lately. So, hopefully tomorrow will be even better...........hopefully! lol

Jillian just kicked my butt. Yay, I thought of a few reasons not to do it(go to bed, get on computer, dont feel like it) But that is just self sabotage. Glad I did it, had to take a break or two, but I think I did well. The challenge sounds great. 11/1 is good with me. I really need to kick it up this month.