Tummy~Just had to stop and say WOW! Those profile (side) pics really show a dramatic difference! Nice! Isn't it nice to think that now we're just normal citizens walking around, not "big girls". I feel similarly in that area.

I had a great day and plan to repeat it tomorrow. DH gave me his sore throat, but I still plan to run in the early a.m. and go about my normal schedule. Hopefully I won't regret it! LOL

Good Morning Ladies

Just finished my cardio with Maya and feeling great. It is raining something fierce this morning. I think I'll quite enjoy watching the rain dance amongst the trees today. Yesterday was a great day, calorie burn wise and I plan on making everyday one...at least for the next two weeks. I have a gaming buddy of mine visiting a client in Nashville on the 25th, so, he and I plan to meet up at the mall, which I'm really looking forward to. Especially, since I'm no longer a sight for sore eyes. At any rate, just wanted to check in and say all is well and I hope you ladies have a great day.

Oh and Tummy...you're looking fabulous kiddo. Look at you all skinny and stuff. You do the damn thing girlie. You've worked so hard, so I'm so glad you are able to physically see it as well. It does help..eh? I'd give ya a big hug and a big congratulatory high five...erm..rather, I'd give ya some dap. You look marvelous, be proud my dear...be very proud.

Quiet on the thread today, huh? Well, today has started well for me. I'm back to ticker weight, and never going back to 150-anything!! Only 7 more hours 'til we close on our house...(who's counting though,right? LOL)! We are almost rid of it and can move on with our lives! Yay!
Hope everyone is having a great day. I'm off to clean, organize and make myself useful...so I'l catch all you fine ladies later!

Good morning chickies!!!

I had started posting a reply last night, but I was on hubby's faulty laptop and the cord came unplugged and *POOF* everything was gone so rather than try again, I decided to just wait until today.

Shasha~ hey girlie! How was your first Zumba class? It sounds like loads of fun, I'd love to try it out sometime! So sorry to hear about your friend's mom. That is such a tough thing to go through, the best thing you can do is to be there for her. Just be her shoulder to cry on or sounding board when she needs to vent--she'll appreciate it more than you know.

Tummy~ First of all--It's so nice to put a face to the name sweetie! Tell your hubby that I, for one, am so very glad you posted pics of your face!! Secondly-- LOOK at YOU!!! Oh my word how you have changed!! I love those side views--I mean, WOW!!!!! You look amazing hun!!! And I am so glad you take these pics and post them for us! It's sooooo inspiring!!! You HAWT mama you!!! My hubby said the same thing about the lasagna! "It's great, but it would have been even better if there was MEAT in it!" yeah, like that's gunna happen Thanks for your sweet words hun, I don't know if 'teeny' is an accurate word, but thanks for saying so! "grate cheese" haha! Not likely! If cheese got that close to my face, I'm sure I'd devour it! I lurve me some cheese!!!! I'll be keeping a close eye on you and your new running routine--you know me, I love to copy you! 2 Hours seems like a lot now, but I bet in a couple months you'll have it down pat!! Oooh! WTG on those size 12's girlie!!! (I'm reading as I type can ya tell?) 40" gone forever!! WOW! That's incredible! You are sooo rockin' it hun! And "hot"?!?! *snort* man alive, I don't know if I deserve that!!

SG~ Oh I am so glad I read your post yesterday! I made my own playlist and figured I'd stick to that from here on out since it's straight running times, but I was going to listen to Robert today for W7D1--so after reading about the spooky laughter, I decided that my music would be a better choice! So thanks! Sorry he had you all creeped out! Sheesh, doesn't he know there are scared women running in the dark or worse yet, the FOG keeping an eye out for critters and boogeymen?! Geez! I haven't caught up on today's thread yet so I'm hoping to see a post from you with an extra dancing fatty!! You're so close!! That's so freakin' awesome! And I agree with everyone else, your new avatar is adorable!!! And look at them cheekbones!!

Nella~ thanks hun. Your weekend sounds heavenly! I can't remember the last time I read a book that wasn't about child rearing or pregnancy! I used to read all the time and I sure miss it. Back to to school always messes with things doesn't it? Hopefully you get back on track and back into the groove of things soon!

Ruth~ hey girlie!! Hope you're feeling better and that TOM has either shown up or is almost out of town so that you can get back to your old self!!

April~ thanks girlie! I'm with ya, the cooler it is, the more I like running too! The Summer heat drove me straight to the basement and onto my treadmill. I am so glad that I'm running outside now!!

NSM~ aww hun, we miss you! And you'll never be a stranger girlie! Just hurry up and get this move over with so we can have you around more often! Hope you're doing well! Don't over do it hun!!!

Jessica~ aww, thanks so much!! on the panties hun! Look at you fitting into all those 'new' clothes!!! That's awesome!! And hey girlie, you just keep going on and on about those jeans--you deserve to shout it from the rooftops! You're doing an amazing job sweetie!!! Oh, and you MUST try that lasagna! Mmmmm! Here's the link to the recipe: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/re...age_id=1545957 the recipe for the marinara sauce is highlighted in there, just click and you'll see it. I'm having it tonight and I just can't wait!!!

MissP~ congrats on making to the 130's!!! You're so close to your goal, that's awesome!!! Keep up the fantastic work hun!

Delphi~ Thanks so much hun, I gotta tell you though--seeing you and all the other ladies here shrinking and changing your lives has kept me going! If it weren't for determined, strong, inspiring women like yourself--I'd have quit long ago! So thank YOU dear, you're an amazing woman yourself and you inspire me everyday! Enjoy the rain today--we've been very dry lately, I'm hoping some of your weather makes it our way soon!

Molly~ Thanks hun! Yeah, I'm guessing I'm either going to have to make smaller portions or go ahead and use the foil thingies. I guess I need to do some more research into how it's all done. I've never done the whole, 'make it ahead of time' thing until I made this lasagna and I'm praying it didn't get ruined by freezer burn! Good idea with the Ziplock bags--I'll totally do that if I end up with smaller portions! Hope your mom is feeling better soon! That's cool that you can use the school gym--that should be perfect when the cold weather hits! Just pop on over to the gym after class before heading home! Oh, you could even enroll in an aerobics class or something--kill two birds with one stone: weight loss and earning credits!

MsP~ hope your sore throat is gone today! How kind of your hubby to share! NOT! Somethings are better kept to one's self huh? Congrats on saying Adios to the 150's FOREVER!!!! And I'll be looking forward to the celebration post in about 7 hours!!! Have a wonderful day hun!


Alrighty girls, I have but one thing to say (yeah, right ):

TWENTY-NINE MINUTES!!!

That's how long I ran today! I didn't plan on it, but I woke up an hour late and didn't have time for messing around. Near the end of my run I realized that it was close to 7:00 and hubby would be needing to leave soon so I just kept running! I ended up having to ditch my cool down walk, but it's all good--I RAN FOR 29 MINUTES STRAIGHT!!!!

So now I think I'll just stick to that. I mean, now that I know I can do it, why not keep it up? Besides, with the 5K just a couple weeks away, I need to be used to running 3 miles right? What's a couple of minutes? So from here on out, I'm going for it! I'm going to run for the full 30 minutes on Thursday!! There, I said it so now I HAVE to do it!!

Well, other than that, nothing earth shattering to report. Scale was down a bit today (whew!) but still not at ticker weight yet. Who knew cheesecake could stick around for so long? Geez! Drinking water like a mad woman to try to flush out all the extra water and it's slow going.

Hey got a question for you calorie counting girls--what's your favorite website for figuring how many calories you should eat a day? I'm thinking I need to tweek my calories a bit.

Okay girls, I'm outta here! Still haven't showered (eew!) and I need to go to the store again today--can you believe that? Well, at least I'll be getting out of the house right? Right! Hope everyone has a wonderful day! Don't forget to...

Drink Your Water!!!!

and

Take Your Vitamins!!!

Sandye ~ on those 29 minutes. You are a brickhouse. I use MyfitnessPal. I like it because of the simplicity of it and the data base is huge as they allow users to input food as well. I've tried other sites, but there was just way to much complication to entering your food. So, ya know. At any rate, have yourself a great day to.

MSP ~ I'm so excited for you. I know it will be quite the load off of you when you finally close. So ahead of time.

Morning Ladies,

Miss Mallee - I just love all the planning that went into this, success is usually well thought out. And that's awesome about school having a gym you can use, and you won't have to worry about hurrying home to cook either!

MsP - Thanks so much, I'm glad I take those pictures because I didn't realize I was so big and I didn't realize I was that small either. And yes, it's so nice to blend in for a little while, before we stand out again Kudos on yesterday and I'm sure today will be just as good. the house is almost gone, awesome!!

Delphi - That sounds like a delightful day, sometimes I just love those too. Is this fella a buddy or a "buddy" I'm glad you get to go show off your bad self, you too deserve every minute of it. I'm thinking you are going to end up on the back of the MFC box as the before and after with Maya giving a big thumbs up. We should write to them... no worries, I'm on it. Right back at ya, thank you so much my dear.

Sandye - I will pass that on, he's all crazy about privacy with his job, we can't post pictures anywhere that have him in uniform ro refer to the rcmp in an capacity, and on and on. So he was all freaky and he's going to lose his marbels a bit but that's ok, he's got lots so he can spare some rolling away. on the cheese, my dd wanted to know what was so funny but I'm the same, if I smell cheese, I eat the cheese. Well join in and copy anytime, I figured that since I'm doing almost 50 minutes that doing an hour isn't bad (I'll let you know Friday when I do my first 60 minutes!) Yesterday, day 1 was only a 24 minute run so I went extra to make it worth my while, I don't get out of bed that early for anything under 30! Congrats on the run, that is fantastic, look who's a runner! (reading and typing, lol) I'm a sparker and it flags me when I burn 8000 cal in a week from exercise to EAT MORE! I just like the interface as well as the different tracking tools. I used to use fitday but I prefer my meals grouped together which is how sparkpeople does it.

Oh girls, I just feel so idle without my second workout today but I need to relax, in through the nose, out through the mouth. I'm at a loss as to what to do, dd is already bugging me to go downstairs to play, but that's where the elliptical is. We finally got the "big" clothes off to the courier yesterday, that's what happens when a dh has to do it, it took a week, lol, bless him but our timetables are a bit different. Anyway, it's nice to have them gone, and interestingly enough, they weighed in at 50lbs and dh had to bring them in b/c I couldn't lift it and that's what I was carrying around only a few months ago! Life is sure cute some days. Now, since i barely have any clothes left I'll be able to take subsequent boxes myself.

Down another 0.4lb, my favorite it seems, I do that or 0.6 a lot. Down to 168.8 and that was after an 1800 calorie day yesterday. I have some pretty serious food issues still, eating this high freaks me out, I had to work at eating enough carbs, b/c those freaked me out and now I'm mostly carbs and feel a thousand times better for it. So many issues so little time, lol, oh well, at least now that I'm not sprinting towards every kind of degerative disease I'll have time to figure them out.

Have a blesses ladies and I'll talk to you soon.

Hellooo Chickies! (Hellooo said like Mrs. Doubfire, fyi)

Well today I'm back up at 212.2.... go figure. I'll get there soon enough, I really want to be at 210 something by the end of this weekend so I guess I've got plenty of time. If I manage to get out of work at a decent time tonight I just might go for a bike ride when I get home. That way I can map out 3 miles and see just how far I've been running and look at if there is another route I can take which doesn't make me run out in the boonies with the boogeyman.

Tummy you look fantastic and amazing and you have an adorable face! I can't believe the transformation, especially from the side! Wowee! Thanks for the vote of confidence on my weight loss, I sure can use it! After last month's 8 lbs this month is kind of killing my zen....sometimes. It's hard to be too unhappy with all these endorphins!

MissMallee Good luck with school starting and way to go with planning and making those meals ahead of time. I'm sure it will make all the difference and enable you to stay OP!

Delphi I wish I could be there to see the look on your gaming buddy's face when he gets a look at you! I bet it will be prime time entertainment to watch his jaw hit the floor.

Miss P Bye bye house! Hellooo life!

idream I'm glad I could warn you off the laughter! It had me freaked out! I really wish I had the time to create my own list and insert a sound at halftime but I don't so I'll likely be running away from the boogeyman in the podcast again tomorrow. Holy crap on running 29 minutes! Way to go! You are surely gonna rock that 5k! I can't wait until I can run the full 30 minutes and then work on my speed. I'm still kinda slow but you know what they say... slow and steady wins the race... I'll get there eventually.

Ok, that looks like everyone since my last post. I hope everyone is doing well and having a better time with their scale than I am. It's a love/hate relationship with me for sure!

Good morning (or afternoon for most of you)!

Ah, how I miss my chats with you all .

Tummy: The big move is on the 28th but we get possession next week so I'll be spending most of my time at the new place getting it all nice and clean (no clue how it's going to look like) and painted.
Oh girl, you look fantastic! you've shrunk and shrunk! So happy for you, all your hard work is paying off

Sandye: I miss you too. Come October I should be back to normal and back with you all. I know I am super late, but happy belated anniversary, you look gorgeous in that picture

Delphi: Thanks

Ms. P. Congrats! That house is out of your hands now

Ok, that's all the time I can spare for now. Gotta go get a sweat in and then more packing, so exciting.....NOT! At least I am getting better at keeping track of the food I eat. I figure that's the only thing under my control right now :P

shrinking girl- Wow congrats on the almost 15 lbs lost AND being able to run for over 25 minutes. Thats huge! I decided that I want to try this whole running thing and hopped on the treadmill the other day. I did about 6 min at 5.3 speed. I'm going to try and do like 30 min on the treadmill during my lunch break a few times a week and build up more and more endurance.

nella- Downtime is awesome! Me and the boyfriend had a lot of that this weekend and we sure do cherish weekends where we have nothing going on. I know what you mean about snacking/nibbling. I don't really get around to tracking on weekends, but I think I eat a few hundred calories more each day.

ruth135- I'm sure you will lose those 2lbs again in no time.

april- yay for running 3 miles. All you ladies are really motivating me to try and start running.

NSM- Hope packing goes well. For me, unpacking is the worst part.

jessicado- Omg congrats on the pants fitting. I am so happy for you. I hope your day was was stressfree and great! How did you like the zumba class? I had a lot of fun at mine. I felt like I was probably one of the youngest in the class. There were a lot of older ladies in there that already knew each other, but they seem really nice. The workout definatly had me sweating. There was a lot of booty shaking and swirling around. Lots of fun!!!

tummy- Thanks for sharing your pictures. That is some amazing progress and I can really tell a difference. And omigosh, esp between the last 2 pics. Aren't they only like a month apart, or maybe even less? I know you mentioned you lost a bunch of inches this month. Wowzers!

misspiggy- hey there. Haven't seen you in a bit, hope all is going well. Congrats on getting out of the 140's.

miss mallee- Sorry about the scale. Mine is doing the same thing, but its funny, I really feel a difference in my body. I have lost 8lbs but my pants are too big on me. I'm sure once you start walking to school, the weight will start falling off. Sometimes, we just have to jostle our schedules.

msP- Hope you feel better. But good for you, deciding to run anyways.

delphi- I wish we had rain. Actually never mind, people drive bad enough here, don't need the extra obstacles.

sandye- Wow 29 min!! Thats suuuper. So it looks like you are blowing through the C25k. You're only about halfway through right? I'm sure you will be down on the scale soon. Just keep drinking that water.

As for me, took my first zumba class last night. It was a lot of fun. Its like a combination of a bunch popular types of latin dances. I was sweating all through out, but having a blast. I hope that this will help me trim down the midsection esp since there was a lot of moves that I could tell worked the core. I can't wait for my next one. Yesterday was good food wise. I pre recorded everything into my daily plate online and didn't stray. Today I have to get my car serviced after work and I hope that its finished in enough time so that I can still get home and get ready in time for kickboxing. I also saw a small budge in the scale. I am down to 247.2, so thats -0.2 lbs since last week. I really need to kick it in high gear and start pounding out that 1.5-2lbs loss per week that I KNOW I have in me. Not that losing less than 1lb a week is bad, but it just frururates me because I should be able to lose a little more being that I am so far from goal still. I have a goal of getting to 225 by xmas. Wish me luck!!!

Tummy---WOWZERS! your progress pics are amazing! Especially your profile ones--W2freakinG!

Sandye--29 minutes, you officially rock! W2G! Can't wait to hear how Thursday goes for you!

SG--sorry your scale went up too. Isn't it amazing how one day the scale is your best friend and the next day you want to kill it? And I don't think there is anyway I can be fitting in smaller sizes than you--you are over 40 pounds lighter than me! And I know that sometimes people are just shaped differently and whatnot, but trust me, my ars is HUGE. Even when I am small, I sill have quite the rump. Perhaps those size 18s I tried on are just really big 18s or something, which is most likely the true story......

Miss Mallee-- Wow, you are going to be busy! Sounds like cooking your meals ahead of time is the way to go-way to sticking to it and planning ahead!

Miss Perception-- Lol, I can't tell anyone is counting down at all! Congrats!

MrsPiggy--W2G on finally reaching the 130s! You have been working on that forever! And glad to see you show up here too....was wondering where you were at!

Shasha--so sorry to hear about your friend's mom. That must be so hard. :hugs: Let us know how things go. And glad you at least got to go to your Zumba class and had fun! My roommate goes and is always saying how awesome it is, but with DD being so clingy, I am not sure if I will be able to get one in anytime soon....

Well my plans for getting this big ole workout at the gym were thwarted by a cute little midget. DD and I made an mid day trek to the Y to work out, but after 25 minutes the childwatch people came to get me and said DD was crying. So we left. Last night, I made another trek back, determined to get in 2 more hours as DD was going to go swimming with her grandparents. She went swimming with her grandma last week and LOVED it, so I figured it would be no problem. Well, after 20 minutes, her grandpa came to get me. She is still a bit leery of him, and I guess didn't want to swim when he got in the pool. So we had to leave, and I only got in those 20 minutes of eliptical. I was soooo bummed! Funny how I want to work out now, lol. I also didn't get to try out that Zumba class either..... . During the first session I at least got to just finish the first C25k, and I even ran without holding the rails for dear life! And it was so much easier than when I ran the first week a month ago. I was actually debating continuing when I got interrupted! And in my last session I was doing 20 minutes straight on the arctrainer, which 5 minutes used to kill me. I was planning on going even longer, but will have to try that next time. I am hoping she was just tired yesterday because it was close to her nap time. I am going to try going earlier today and hope she does just fine.

Scale was up 2 1/5 pounds today to 257.5. I knew an up day had to be coming, but was still a bummer to see! 255 was so pretty, lol.

Tummy ~ Uh, no, he is really just a gaming buddy. Actually, him and his wife work with explosives. Any major building you've seen destroyed in the past year, was done by his wife and the family company. Really quite cool seeing all the behind the scenes stuff he shows us. A lot of the demo work that was done in the Batman movie with heath ledger, was done by them. He took all this behind the scene stuff with his camera..it was awesome. So yeah, I'm really excited about meeting him face to face. Good times I tell ya. I think we are just gonna chill at the mall until it's time for his flight..but I'll take those two hours. No stressing over not getting that workout in. Your body will thank you for it, when you do start back to your strenuous routine again. Believe me. As for the MFC..you are exactly right. This is my industry. Gaming is what I do and love. So yeah, I wanted to keep 90% of my exercise, committed to just that. So yeah, all the big gaming magazines will receive before and afters and my story. Not only there, but I plan on writing a personal letter to ubisoft and Nintendo. Then there's always my blog on gamespot. Definitely want to put to rest that exercise via gaming is a huge waste of time...because it simply isn't true and I am living, breathing proof of that.

Shrinking ~ You're much too sweet. Thanks sweetie. That's a huge NSV..just simply "wanting" to workout. Be very proud of yourself darling.

Jess ~ You're doing great on the c25k..keep it up.

shasha ~ Good to hear you enjoyed the zumba. I might have to look into that myself.

NSM ~ Hi there hun..how goes it?

Hi Girls!
Tummy and Sandye Wow!! You girls are looking fantastic!!

TOM showed up today right on time. I hope the worst of it will be gone by the time we leave on Thursday, the first two days are usually the worst for me. At least a .4 was gone this morning.
It looks like it might be raining every single day we're gone, but I'm determined to make the best of it.
Have a great day everyone!

jessicado - Nope, no way. You fit into 18's... maybe this just means I need to go shopping and try some stuff on, eh? Maybe I'm smaller than I think I am!

WOW - idream and Tummy your pictures are awesome you both look fantastic.
Thanks for the congrats on my loss.

I hope everyone is having a great day. My computer is driving me crazy and not posting like it should so I won't go into great detail today and then I'll probably start fresh with post. So I just want to say congratulations to everyone on their losses and accomplishments.