Day 7 - Stayed in my Pts. No activity pts used

Hey Red, heard on the news last night about the big quake and was thinking about you. glad to hear that you're alright!

Thanks Red, I needed that!! Well I exercised for 30 minutes yesterday and it felt great, more than enough water, ate very well, and my weight is up to 200 this morning. I`m officially stuck in fluctuation around 198-200. I really thought I`d be at least 198 this morning with an actual workout lastnight and having such a good day. I know the scale is my enemy, but today IS my official weigh in so I`m just bummed I just want so badly to get maybe 4 or 5 pounds away so I dont keep fluctuating and see that number 2 at all anymore. I`m not changing my ticker, I held on to 198 for a few days I know theres just something going on and I just refuse to go back into the 2`s.

Yes, I completed one challenge. I worked out most days up to an hour and a half and loved it. And you`re right, I just have to do it and stop thinking so much about if I WANT to do it. Yesterday was my Day 1 . Challenge is to work out for a minimum of 30 minutes a day. I can do this. Today is Day 2 and I will keep doing it. I will never get the body I want sitting on my butt and watching what I eat. I would much rather be a toned and firmer 170 then a flabby 160. I`m probably lucky because I`m almost 5'8 and I have not just big bones, huge. At this weight I can wear my 14`s they just don`t look as good as they could, so it`s really coming down to exercise for me and turning the flab into muscle. And I think most importantly, exercise is going to be key in my maintaining. I have to get out of that all or nothing mind set, I was able to do it with food, now it`s exercise. I know I don`t NEED an hour and a half every day to lose weight, so I`m going to keep in mind after I get through this challenge I can do it 4 or 5 times a week for maybe 40 minutes. Maybe I did push too much the first month and I just got burnt on it?

I couldn`t fool Red with my iced coffee plan, LOL. I was just looking for an easy way out of the exercise and that just wont do. I love the coffee, and I drink a little over half which is maybe 12-14 ounces so ya know what, I`m keeping it! Thats not where I need improvement.
And, good point with my 2 days to relax. I think thats a good idea to use them as a planned relaxation rather than a "oops I`ll just take a free day". You motivated me, Red.

Okay thanks so much Red! Must be the Leo in you, you have a great way of pumping me up and making me feel so much better and telling it like it is! I love it! I was ready to cry after the scale and your post just squashed that, and I already know what you`d say about the scale going up... you`ve told me before!

Off to work on Day 2, and I`m even going to get it out of the way early. Will chat more later!

Red - Congrats on making through your 16 day of sugar freeness. Yea I consider an earth quake rise in heartbeat a workout! Scary Stuff!!! Sometime ranting helps us give over the wanting. I know in my case when I rant I'm think typing and before I know it the craving has lessened or I get ever more stubborn that I WON't GIVE IN!! So rant away. If it helps. Do you have many horses? I heard that riding is one of the best workouts because one uses all their muscles.

Well this week be my 1st full week of SBD-P1/WW. Planning meals are a pain. Other than that is it seems to be going well.
My daughter gave me a call lastnight my grandson crawled!!! Well he has his special way of doing it! He's on all 4's and hops his back knee forward like a bunny!! LMAO I can't wait to see it!!!!! I watched the Up Side Of Anger lastnight . I'm not sure what I think of it. I found parts funny but not sure about the rest.

Howdy Red, glad to see our fearless leader back. I think sometimes you use up so much energy being our cheerleader you have none left for yourself. But we're here to cheer you up, so you can't quit. Even manufacturing earthquakes won't get you out of your commitment.

As for me, the 3 glasses of wine were very, very, big. And I woke up with a splitting head in the morning. So I decided that it was a rest day - I started the celebration a little before midnight - and yesterday was my actual day 21. And ONEderland? Well, it was a fun visit, but I'm back in the terrible twos. Not changing the ticker, as I intend to be back down when I return from my trip. I'm not disappointed because I was pretty sure it wouldn't last.

While I'm away the kitties will have company: I was able to track down a woman who comes and stays in the house with them. They'll be alone overnight tonight, so I hope Lily survives Bigboys playing. Lily has developed a fun new game: she uses the bed as a crazy-cat playground in the mornings. It's extra fun when she gets to wake me up by playing mousie with my hand or my hair. Bigboy just sits on the dresser and stares at her performance. I guess I'll have to become an early riser, because this really doesn't work with my late to bed, late up system. Maybe this will help me sleep on the plane, which is a good thing. And there's a 2 hour time difference, so I can sleep in without sleeping in.

I won't be doing individual posts today - I still have cleaning and packing to do, as well as laundry, and I have two inarticulate electricians here replacing my bathrooms fans, installing my over-the-stove microwave, entertaining/terrifying the kitties, and making a total mess of my freshly cleaned bathrooms. Grrr.

Have a good week!

Just saying hello. I've basically kept up with the thread, but I haven't felt like posting. I'm not up for a challenge (I can do) right now. I've not been well. But I've been pleased to see you all doing so well and succeeding. I've been trying to maintain my work schedule without missing too many days and this requires me to take some turtle naps. I've been wrestling with depression a good bit, but coming out victorious thus far. Here's to beating depression

I may be back some day. You can never count a turtle down or out completely. I got the wind knocked out of my sails, but I'm still afloat so far. Thank you all for the warm wishes and concern. Sincerely yours Java Turtle

Hi, all. Wednesday morning here, my Day 17. Yesterday was fine with the challenge but I did eat a lot and exercise next to none. But, I moved some more boxes around in my room (thus kicking up dust and making it hard to breathe all night cause I get asthma) but that movement means I'm making a bit of headway. I have an exercise machine outside my door because there's no room to set it up inside. If I could just get that up I would force myself to use it. This is the plan. But, I am focusing on the challenge. I see how eating sugar puts the weight around my middle super fast and it's not there in such quantities now, which I attribute to the being off sugar. I'm thinking I may keep my next challenge a VERY low sugar one along with some other things. Gotta think of that, what to do.

happy -- Thanks for stopping in and asking about me! Yes, it was pretty scary because I was up on the 11th floor of a department store and it was swaying like a big ship at sea. And it went on and on. I took the stairs down fast because I just have this thing about not wanting to be flattened under piles of debris, not that this would help, but I hate the idea of being anywhere but ground level. It wasn't till I got home that I saw on the TV that what we felt here in Tokyo was a lot less than what they were feeling up in Sendai, which is 200 miles away from us. It's a miracle no one was killed. There are many types of shaking and this one, a big swaying movement, probably didn't cause much damage. Still, the roof over a crowded pool feel down, lots of stone wall and grave markers fell and a house nearer where I am totally collapsed with an old woman inside, but she was okay. The scary thing is they are saying this could just be a warning of a bigger one. They never say stuff like that so it leads me to believe that they know something we don't and just don't want people to panic. These are plates shifting, like in California, not volcanic. Damn. Scary stuff. And there have been so many of them recently. Well, thanks for asking!

Caro -- Thank you for all the kind words and I am so glad they helped you. I was planning my reply as I reading your post and, of course, I was going to chide you on watching the scale like a hawk, and then you said.."I already know what you're going to say" and I had to smile at that! But...you know...I'm going to say something anyhow! Leos may inspire but they also got to roar when they feel like it. There's no shutting them up! What I want to say is not so much, "don't check the scale" per se, it's about looking for some sort of reflection of your efforts in the scale and TOO SOON. You are like a farmer who sows the seeds in his field and the next day goes out and digs around in the dirt to see if anything's sprouting! And then when you don't see a loss you get bummed out. But thinking you should see a loss because of a workout and having a good day is where you logic is wrong! Things don't work that fast. They just don't. We get so hung up on fluctuating numbers. Why do we think the losses are any more real than the gains we see? A gain does NOT necessarily mean fat is not disappearing or getting ready to disappear. A loss (a decrease in the number on the scale), unfortunately, doesn't necessarily mean the fat HAS disappeared. You will feel it in your clothes when it's gone. But that takes a good deal of time because there too we forget what our clothes felt like. Anyhow, you know this I think. I DO know how you feel because I feel the same and I'm saying it to myself. What I'm NOT doing is being consistent. I put all this effort into things and then goof off for just as long if not more. When I can say I have stuck with something for, say, a good three weeks, and then see NO change, I will know something I am doing is just not the right thing....(after I throw a tantrum and wail the self-pity blues that is...)

Now, I want you, after you've had a really great day...to think of that foolish farmer out there in the field routing around looking for sprouts! Don't be like him!!

mez -- Hi there! Thanks for giving me permission to rant. I just have one horse and yes, it is exhausting work riding her. I do dressage and I have a teacher who is a perfectionist and the worst thing you could have if you need a little encouragement. You sure aren't going to get it from here. It really bothered me in the beginning but now I know that when she says,, "that was okay." it's like hearing the trumpets blaring and having showers of confetti fall around me! "Okay" is like a mega-compliment! No doubt part of the problem is I was raised in this kind of environment and I am still in this environment. Also in the gym, I am around champion bodybuilders who are top-rate at what they do. I guess I also seek these people out because I want to do things well. But there is a big difference between perfectionism and doing things well and aiming for a higher level. And few people can be both kind and encouraging AND aim higher. But I need too because it's the only way I'll get there because I have this tendency toward not seeing my efforts as "good enough." I mean, they're not "good enough" for a higher level but they ARE good enough for where I am and I have to acknowledge that. Okay, sorry for the little sidetrack there.

Your grandson sounds adorable. That picture of him there makes me think of you as looking like that! It's so funny. What is Up Side of Anger? It certainly doesn't sound like a comedy but is that what it is?

Good luck on your customized eating plan! The planning is tough but it is important! You can do it!

carla -- "Fearless leader?!?!?" Carla, I tremble in my boots often in danger of wetting my pants, my heart is often in my mouth doing flipflops like a dying fish. I whine and I whimper, and the tears often stream down my face like a 2-year-old, but...yeah, I usually end up doing whatever it was I had to do. I'm kind of like the lion on the Wizard of Oz before he gets his courage and after. And no, that earthquake wasn't manufactured. It was as real as they get!

Okay, big, big glasses. Now I understand. Do you have like pitcher-size wine glasses?! I never drink wine. Always gives me horrible hangovers. It is nice though, goes down easily. What honor you have to be doing another day of challenge because you started your celebration a bit early. Good for you! And oh yeah, consider your Onederland foray just that. You'll be back, in force!

"Crazy-cat playground!" Oh, yes, I know just how that is. My one cat, Nozomi, is like that, and has to bother the staid older one all the time. She must get a real kick out of teasing the old one, who has always been so dignified and indignant at any kind of horseplay. Staid one (Mu), her brother, Shachi, will just give Nozomi a good wack, but Mu whines and growls and tries to stalk away...with Nozomi in pursuit. Your Lily sounds like Nozomi. Speaking of playing mousie...I heard Shachi outside last night doing his weird yowling, which I know means he usually has a sparrow or mouse in his mouth. I, ever the little critter savior, hurry out to see him poised over a mouse on its back. I shushed Shachi away and it looked like the mouse wasn't bleeding so I figured it was petrified. Quick, put it in a box and it came to life a little bit and I let it out (with the cats inside and the cat door locked). This morning I didn't see any little mouse corpse outside (or in my bed) so I think it got away! Hurrah!

Well, good luck with your cleaning and packing..."inarticulate electricians"...hmmm...interesting..Hope to hear from you soon!!

Java -- Thanks for stopping by. I really miss you and sure wish you would do a challenge with us, even a super easy one like standing in front of the mirror three times a day (or even once a day) and saying, "You're going to pull through this, kiddo!"

You know, I have always been easily discouraged, easily down, (how can a sensitive thinking person NOT be?! ) but I also have a lot of fight in me and pride and I so much want to feel better because I know the high that gives you. All my life I have tried to learn to deal with how my brain and my body deal with life and try to find the best weapons for them, whether that be a philosophy or an eating style, a way of living....I guess it's called knowing yourself and then making things work for you. Turtle, you've got to fight. Things rarely just get better on their own. Feeling good is really only a fleeting feeling. More often then not we're pursuing it, and really being in pursuit is another kind of good feeling but it's not the kind that has you sitting there with a smile on your face in some fog of bliss. It can look like anger, like sorrow, like exhaustion, but you will be feeling. So much of depression is about NOT feeling. But, to feel "good" you've got to want it, even if all you can muster is a feeble movement at first, that is GOOD, that means you're moving in the right direction. Even if you're lying their on the ground you can wail and kick your feet and pound your fists (and that would be doing REAL well). Eventually you'll feel like taking the next step, which might just be to sit up instead of lying there. Come on, Turtle, I know there are scary things out there, death, disease, real **** happens kind of things. But you've got courage. I know you do. Get angry, get up and use your pride to put fire in your belly and say, in the worst-case scenario, "I may go down, but I'll go down fighting!"

Carla, congratulations! That has got to be SUCH a thrill. I remember being at 190 and swearing every which way that I would NEVER go over 200. Little did I know. You should be so proud of yourself, you're doing great. I have to agree with Mez about what you said about eating like a thin person. Hits very close to home, and it is SO true.

Caro, girl, get back on the wagon! You KNOW how important this is to you. You've got to stick with it, look how well you've done already! That exercise was making the weight just fall off of you so fast. You've already done it one day. Just go again tomorrow, no matter how much you don't want to. Getting away from 200 can be a major source of motivation for you. Make yourself work out and every single time you want to stop, remind yourself that with every second you work out, you're that much further from 200 pounds.

1ceagain, I'd be willing to start a new challenge with you on the 23rd. My current challenge will be over on the 19th, but I'd be willing to wait until the 23rd to start a new one (nah, I'm not stalling giving up soda at all. Especially not while I enjoy my diet pepsi right now as I type this. ) . So what do you think, are we on?

LB, I was wondering what happened to you. I'm glad you're back. Sorry you had to start over.

Sushi Penguin, are the ingredients listed on the weight loss tea? I'm just wondering what's in it that is supposed to help with weight loss. Sorry for being nosy. I like your strategy for getting through with things you don't want to do - very smart.

curlylocks, congrats on getting through day 12 of your THIRD challenge. You are on a roll.

mezmerize, congrats on getting through day 7. You're a third of the way through already!

red, well done! You're doing great on your challenge. I'd consider an earthquake to be exercise too. Yikes.

Java, I'm sorry you're going through a rough time. I've had more than my share of depressive episodes too, and it's tough. Getting through that is a big enough challenge. I'm glad to see you again though.

Day 18 went great and now I'm through day 19! Only TWO days left. Yesterday, again, was very close. We went to a burger joint here in town! But I got a small burger with no cheese, had none of their incredibly delicious potato wedges, and stayed under. Today was great, I can even have a snack later if I want to. I haven't gotten to the gym as much as I'd like, because my kids both caught a yucky cold and decided to share it with me, but my husband and I got in a good workout together this morning . Tomorrow is day 20 for me.

day 13 completed.......

Day 12 completed. Too tired to post anything else... zzzzZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzz.... zzzzzZZZZZZzzzzZZZZZzzzz....

Thanks gray eyed girl! A third of the way sounds much better than day7. Big smile I'm very happy to make it this far. Even more so since I flub on the 3rd day.

Day 8 - Stayed in my Pts. No activity pts used

Red- Upside To Anger is a comedy/drama/romance movie. A sharp-witted suburban wife, Terry Wolfmeyer, is left to raise her four headstrong daughters when her husband unexpectedly disappears. Things get even more hectic when she falls for her neighbor Denny, a once-great baseball star turned radio d.j. This leaves her daughters out on a limb. They are forced to juggle their mom's romantic dilemmas as well as their own.
It was funny in spots but I'm not so sure I got it. But then my son had friends over and the loudness kind of got out of hand a few times... missed parts.

I haven't ran away!! Just had a Busy & Extended weekend so I haven't been on much!

I've been on my gazelle and this is day:::::::::sheesh, what day is this? Let me figure this out............


6!

Not to shabby!!!

I'll try and get in here more!

Today is Day 10!! I messed up my count! I restarted on 8/8. I goofed and for once it worked out better. (by a day) I maked a word file for this and I was filling in my days and counted ...then recounted. Yup today is day 10 not 9!

I did wake with a headach today. I can't recall if someone said when you do SBD you can get a headach from lask of something ... Not sure what.

Hi everyone! Well I made it to Day 3, just havent got it done yet! yesterday I did my 30 minutes on the highest resistance (day2), which kicks my butt twice as hard as 50 on the lower setting! Felt great! I know I`ll do it today too. Weighed in without arguing with the scale at 198, which I was at Friday before the fluctuation began so maybe I`ll see 197 soon. I think maybe after no exercise for so long I might`ve lost a little muscle I had begun building, so if it doesn`t go down as fast as I expect I won`t get discouraged. I`m telling myself it`s the muscles waking up again!

Red, you are a true Leo!! The comment "When you get to know me you will know it's the quiet times that are the bad ones for me." OH yes... my ex is a Leo and he`d go from the life of the party and center of everything to totally shutting down. I have a magnetic attraction to Leo men, and spent lots of time learning about them, and even more time trying to change them in certain ways only to have it backfire! I think it`s the most powerful of all signs, without a doubt. I can pretty much tell a LEO man within minutes of meeting them, then I run,,,run fast! LOL Leo women, I`ve had 2 very good female friends (who were both red-heads too! so weird) and they were just the funnest and best girlfriends. My closest male friend is a Leo also. He keeps me on my toes thats for sure. I get along so well with Leo women, but the guys, I fall instantly for them and they`ve given the biggest heartbreaks of my life! But they are strong willed, when they want something they get it. And you have that in you, for sure. I know you have your tough times as we all do, but you are one who will not give up!

I am not going to be the foolish farmer. I am hung up on the numbers right now cause I just want to stop seeing that 2. I`ll get there soon, I know I will.

Hi Gray! I see 205!!! Thats so great! Thanks for the motivation, You are awesome. Thats what I did on the elliptical yesterday, kept thinking in 21 days I`ll be so far away from 200 and my 14`s will fit me. It kept me going and will get me going today. I had a mid weight loss break, I felt great at this weight for a little bit, but know it`s time to get back to my goal. I admit even more than physical I need the mental effects from the exercise, I`ve been so short tempered and feeling down. I wasnt like that when I worked out every day. It`s important for me, for the rest of my life. Maybe not everday all the time, but I can`t let 2 weeks go by like that again. If I can control what I eat 24 hours a day and havent went back to my ways in almost 2 months, I can surely control myself to exercise for 30 measly minutes!

Carla- look at it this way, we had to stop in and say goodbye before finally leaving to ONEderland for good. We`ve been there so long (in the 200`s), but it`s really time to go!
I drink lots of water the day after I drink, but that doesnt help the head when I first wake up... I usually dont drink half of what I should on the day I do the drinking, so thats something I have to work on, drink LOTS of water before having a few.

Turtle- I`ve been wondering where you were I love your fun posts, miss them I hope you feel better soon. I like what Red said, even if it`s small and takes a minute a day...tell yourself you are worth it and you will get through this, something. We`re here for ya, through the good and bad. Keep your head up, Turtle, I`ll be thinking of you and hoping to see you back real soon.

Day 3 to get through here. I`ll check in later, have a great day, girls!