Mary, that is awesome. I feel exactly the same way now. That was actually one of the reasons that I didn't want to start - because I felt like I'd wasted so much time before. And because I gained the weight that I'd lost (healthfully) before. Because after my first daughter was born, I lost about 10 pounds (down to 160) but then stopped my healthy lifestyle because of 1bad week at Valentine's Day (working at my mom's florist).

So many "becauses" so many excuses. I was wishing so much just to be at 170, or 180. Wish wish wish - it took a while to figure out that I couldn't wish it away. Or that just because I wanted to be thinner now (when I had been before and didn't realize how great I looked) I should be, that I deserved to be.

Now that I've started and brought so much awareness to myself and my body and my mind as it relates, I feel like I will never change. I've always had a terrible self-esteem, and I didn't even know that I did. Always in bad relationships (except my husband, who is amazing), never thought I was good enough. Always motivated myself with negativity - "You're fat and ugly, you need to lose weight." I even posted sticky notes saying that around my dorm room! Tried that again when I started this journey - know wonder I almost quit trying! I've changed my attitude - it's now "You can do it, you are doing it!" with lots of positive energy. I owe a lot to my HypnoBabies course - it had positive affirmations that you listened to each day, and helped me to turn what could have been a stressful twin pregnancy into one that was wonderful and positive and free from complications - I believe that my positive attitude allowed me to carry my twins until 37 weeks. So I started applying those positive affirmations of pregnancy and birth ("Your body is nourishing your healthy babies" and "Your body was made to give birth") to myself! It has been a huge transformation for me, and the best part is that my depression is so much better now.

Anyway, I'm rambling now but I just wanted to share - it makes me feel so good. Thanks!

Petra~ Great job on making your mini-goal! I can't wait to be under 150 (of course that's goal weight.) I love how seeing the scale go down really boosts the mood. Yay!

cjc~ I identify with what you wrote. I had to wait until I was ready to do this. I'm a really stubborn person when I want to be, and I just knew that if I wasn't ready that it wouldn't happen. I do sometimes wonder what took me so long though. But I'm motivated now and that's the important thing. I like how you are using positive affirmations in this process, I think (we) as women are too hard on ourselves a lot of the time.

I'm down two more pounds! I think the plateau is behind me.

We'll see how I do tomorrow. It's mine and DH's anniversary (two years) and I'm allowing myself a free day (within reason.) It'll be interesting to see how I do calorie wise. We are going to one of my favorite restaurants that serves Asian-fusion tapas.

THERESA... on your numbers without meds, great news!!! I've also had high cholesterol for many years, with the highest one year being 289. Last year, it was down to 214 and my new number from recent lab work is 179. That is even lower than when I was thinner after having my second daughter. It does make me happy also, because I have something else to show my hard work with.

Hi Lara Ann, and Lisa. Welcome!


Hey! Mary… do you do windows? Got lots of them need washing here

Sounds like you have been quite busy, cleaning. Moving furniture is a great workout too.
Yeah! Mary
down to 149.6! Sounds wonderful.

Carrie,
Way to go eating healthy when you went out.
I hope every one did as well as you. Keep up the hard work.


Zenor,
2 more pounds Gone!
I hope you DID BREAK THAT PLATEAU!!

You are all such an inspiration!
I hope I can keep up with all of you.


Michelle,
Keep up the good work with your numbers.
It is a real treat to show to my family.
They were excited as much as I was! I am sure yours are proud too.


Numbers for today.
Cal: 1352
Fat: 29%
Carbs: 50%
Fiber: 43
Protein: 22%
13 Glasses of water

Well, We worked outside in the yard for about 4 hrs. and I am so ready to hit the sack!
sleep well all

I did pretty much the same thing I always do last week and so I got the same results . . no loss and no gain . This is crazy! I'm not in this to maintain. This week I will not eat out as much and I WILL EXERCISE! I started this weekend with pretty good numbers calories and fat wise. I cleaned my house from top to bottom yesterday and I did lift weights and rode my exercise bike today . May is my month (Indianapolis 500). DH is a mechanic in the Indy Racing League and I am at the track quite a lot. I bet I walk 3-6 miles a day when I'm there (it's a big place) so I intend to make the most of it this year. I will drop some pounds this month!
__________________
Mini Goal Started Nov. 2006

Going to bed! Had a good weekend with my sister, my parents came up for the day. They didn't mention anything about me losing weight. Oh well, I'm still feeling so great. I noticed today that I can run up the stairs in my house like it's nothing. That feels so good.....a month ago just walking up made me winded. That definitely counts as a NSV!!!

So I was a little bit off plan, snacked when I normally wouldn't, allowed myself to have some things that are normally big no-nos......but I was in total control and didn't overeat. Another NSV, I suppose. I topped it all off with ice cream and a cookie......exactly 1/2 c. Splenda ice cream, and 1 Kashi cookie, 2 T light cool whip (230 calories, 10 g fat) so even that was not that bad.

Drank 5L HOH today, and working on my 6th. No exercise to speak of (besides running up the stairs ). Calories were higher than they've been, but about right for me. Protein was good. Even got to run out for 45 minutes at a dive with my husband and had 1 beer.

Total: 1934
Fat: 55 27%
Carbs: 247 46%
Fiber: 35
Protein: 102 22%
Alcohol: 13 92 5%

Goodnight everyone, hope Monday is great for you!

Like Zoe, I broke down and went out for pizza with my family. I limited myself to two slices and a side salad. I figure I walked 3 miles with the dogs, walked a ½ mile to and from the parade, and rode my horses that I would break even for the day. Not so nice on the scale this morning but I know its bloat as I normally don’t eat that much salt and I am trying to start TOM. Tomorrow will be a better gauge on any damage was done. I had two slices and a salad.

Littlered ~ I had DGS all weekend and we have him all next weekend. He is SOOOOO much work. Mini’s are little hamburgers and I will probably never order them again because of the calorie count. I didn’t think they would be that bad because you get next to nothing for meat on them but it has to be the bun and the fixings. In the future I will avoid all their burgers because the calories are so high. I really like having menus for places before I go but I didn’t look until after the fact. I stopped eating after 7 pm because of the book I am reading. They suggest that you stop eating two hours before bedtime and go on to explain why and it made so much sense that I started doing it. It is so hard and I slipped last night but its bound to happen.

Welcome LauraAnn!

Mary ~ I have been doing extra cleaning myself so that I don’t eat. I did my bedroom, bathroom and kitchen last week and the living room is a loss until DH finishes the walls. I am going to work on the spare bedroom each day this week in sections. You can’t even walk in it right now because everything is just tossed in there. It is really full on top of that with horse saddles, harnesses, tools, freezer, grandsons toys and hi chair, and all the stuff that wouldn’t fit in my daughters room. It used to be her room but she is being punished for the rest of the time she lives with us and has to stay in the small room near ours. Long story but its for her own good and our safety.

Carrie ~ Doing a happy dance for you. You are doing fantastic! Don’t let your parents not saying anything get you down because I bet they were chitter chattering on the way home on how nice you are looking.

Zenor ~ WTG! WHOHOO!

Abby ~ That sounds exciting being at the track but it really would be hard to eat healthy with all the yummies around.

Well I better get going for now and take exams over. I get some extra walking in this week because of final exams. I need to walk them over for grading and pick them up. I am going to try and not over do it because I want to get my pony out tonight and go for a little drive.

Talk at you all in a while.

This is the happy dance I am doing with all of you. HEHEHEH!

Calories for yesterday~ 1489
Fiber~ 40 grams

Laura Ann & Michelle

Well, I had my healthy breakfast and we are eating out for lunch and dinner. Like I said I'm treating this as a "free" day (within reason of course) since it's our anniversary. I'm still going to put it all into fitday though to see the damage. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Everyone have a good Monday!

My cals over the weekend were a wee bit high on my range:
1850, 1750, 1750

I think I'm getting a little too used to eating that amount, and still wanting to push the envelope. My goal this week is to get it back to the 1500-1600 range.

TOPS weigh-in is tonight. That always gets me motivated for the week.

This was a stressful out of town weekend that involved a lot of eating out. I tried to keep it healthy as possible and still tracked calories. I was even low range on Saturday, but I could tell how much sodium was in the food. I felt bloated on Sunday.

I kept things real clean foodwise today. I can definately feel the difference. I'll weigh tomorrow so I'll see if that made a difference.

Zenor - Congrats on the loss and Happy Anniversary.

GrammyL - I hope you get to take your pony out.

cjc92802 - Your water intake is impressive. How do you get it all in?

LauraAnn -

Littlered-Nope don't do windows, that is one thing I hate. I always get streaks. UGH!!

Lara-I have a room that is the exact same way. Full of junk that needs to just get taken out of there. LOL

Carrie-Sounds to me like we are alot alike. I have always had low self-esteem problems. But now that the weight is going away, it is startign to pick up.

Abbyin-Welcome!! Indy wow that has to be so much fun. I love the races. Not really into the IRL, but all races are good when you are there. I can imagine how big that place is. I go to races at MIS and my legs are always killing me from all the walking and the stairs to get to the souvenior booths (we stay infield). Hopefully this year I won't have that problem.

Everyone-Thanks on the congrats on the weight loss!! I appreciate it very much.

Well today calories were low and not very good food. DS got sent home from school and I had to bring to RediMed so I ended up leaving work at 11 and not really going back. So that screwed up my lunch and well let just say that I was too hungry to resist the oreos. Well I feel so bad about the oreos I didn't eat anything the rest of the day. And now when I actually have time to eat it is too late. I don't eat after 7. When I do I notice the weight is up higher in the morning. Just my own little thing!! LOL
So right now I am highlighting my hair. It's every changing thing for me, I go from Dark Brown to Red to Blonde. I am going lighter since it is summer time out. Plus I just dyed it a dark brown a couple of weeks ago and it didn't turn out how I wanted. Well I should go see what color it is right now.
Mary

Want to respond to other's posts, but right now I need sleep more.

Here are my totals for today: 2064
Fat: 55 26%
Carbs: 300 52%
Fiber: 49
Protein: 111 23%

BREAKFAST: oatmeal, wheat germ, 1 c. soymilk
SNACK: cottage cheese, cheddar bunnies
LUNCH: salad with turkey, chickpeas, 1/2 c. ice cream and 1 cookie
SNACK: chicken curry and brown rice (spicy!)
DINNER: salad with turkey, 1/2 c. ice cream and 1 cookie.

It was a very good day, save 2 cookies and 1 c. of ice cream. I had great exercise. Played at the park today with the girls (carrying both twins, about 30 pounds) and then went for a 1+ mile walk while carrying the 30 pounds of babies and pushing my toddler in the stroller. Then worked hard at Curves in the afternoon.

6.5L HOH consumed today. Feeling very hydrated and not bloated at all. Anything below 4L makes me retain water. I'm producing about 2L of milk a day, so I need that amount of water plus what my body needs (about 4L). I have a schedule for drinking that much - 1L by 9am, 1L by 12pm, 1L by 3pm, 1L by 6pm, 1L by 9pm. Drink 1L while working out. Having more before I go to bed. Drink at night too. I got used to eating and drinking at night while I was pregnant with the babies (protein shake at 2am!) so I just continue with the drinking now. It's a good thing that I love water (always have).

I'm going to change my ticker to reflect my weighings at home. Tuesdays are my weigh-in day, I've decided.

Have a good night all - it's the weekend for me! (My husband is off Tuesdays and Wednesdays).

Calories today~ 2505
Fiber~ 35 grams

I'm not going to sweat the high calories today; I needed a day off. We had a great anniversary and enjoyed ourselves. Now it's time to jump back on the wagon... I may try to squeeze in some more walking to compensate for the high cals.

I hope everyone had a great Monday!

Good Morning

Missed yesterdays post… Went shopping with Dd.
After all that time shopping, We got home and realized Magan had taken her EXTRA keys.
We had no keys to get into our house.

So we had to call my son.
He and his family were shopping also. So… we had to wait almost an hour for someone to let us in our house!

That made us late working out and eating dinner.

Went to curves yesterday and walked 30 min. Magan and I both weighed in for the monthly weigh-in.

She lost 6 pounds this month and I lost 6.5 pounds for the month.
I was the highest loser for the month, at Curves.

And I felt I wasn’t doing well!
I also Dropped 4.46 % body fat. So I am keeping up what I am doing.

CONGRATS TO ALL THE BIG WEIGHT LOSERS HERE TOO!!!


I talked to my Dr. yesterday.
I was told to take 1000 mg. of fish oil, 3 x’s a day.
I have 1200 mgs. (25 calories each) so I guess I will get enough.

I saw the calorie counts on them. I am not looking at that.
I feel Those are some of my MOST important Calories. I and am not willing to lose The Number of Food Calories I am eating.
So I get 75 calories from my fish oil. and 20 from the flax oil. And I ignore the calories!

Mondays numbers
Cal:1393
Fat: 32%
Carbs: 47%
Fiber: 39
Protein: 21%
To much fat again. I had a sweet tooth.
12 glasses of water.


Lara,
Wow! that is along time to keep the Dgs. I would be so tired.
Dgd doesn’t walk or crawl yet. So She is like having a big 4 month old.
She is getting where she can sit alone for about 15 min! And boy does she want to walk!
She does not use her walker the correct way yet. I do hope her Parents get her, the special walker soon! It has to support her pelvis. and Not let her sit.
Yes, I can’t wait to chase her all over the whole house. Things we take for granted!
I wish we had a pony. They say its good therapy for Children like Jessie. I need to move to the country. Then I could get a pony and some Chickens!

Zenor
Happy anniversary!!
What did you eat when you went out?
We have our 29th coming in August.
I will eat what I want one day a year and not worry about the fat, or the calories.


Mary,
Doesn’t most people have a junk room? We did, when My son left home.
But… Hubby took it over last summer. Has his own little domain. With tv and all the fun stuff. Gives him a little place to hide when us girls here get hormonal. (and Watch football when we don't want to)

Oh! You went blonde! I always wanted to do that. Just so chicken to do it. My family would freek out. To go from red to blonde. I am so pale already. Probably would look silly on me.

Ok. have to get off here and move my butt!
later.
hope you all have a sunny day