Lillion-the main character are also aliens from some where else using Earth as a safe harbor. It would seem to me that a race capable of space travel would have bigger fire power than cross bows, but what the heck do I know. This guy ain’t no Tolkien. His characters are named Mr. Brown, Mr. Smith, and Rev. Right. Honest to God, I can only do a dozen or so pages at most at a time because I get physically ill reading it. On the other hand, he is a paranoid schizophrenic, and so heavily medicated that he does everything in slow motion. The fact that he could finish anything, is a guess amazing. I do find it interesting that the name he has chosen for the bad aliens is the name of the medication he is on. I think his shrink would find the whole thing interesting. There are a lot of references to evil spirits talking to people. I’m going to need drugs by the time I’m done with it.

I have seen shows like the one you saw on TLC. It reminds me of that woman in Florida that was over 400 lbs, and hadn’t moved from a couch in so long that her skin had fused to the fabric. They had to take the whole sofa out to take her to the hospital. She did die later. Someone had to feed her like a pet. She must have been getting a check of some kind. That stuff really pisses me off. If you get so big that you can’t feed yourself, then I guess you’d better lose weight and get up if you want to eat again. I agree with you, they are getting some kind of insurance in order to keep folks there who are gaining weight. Yes, if you let some leave to go home to die, what you do is free up a bed for someone who might actually want to get well. I thought the first line on their oath was to “Do no harm.” I hope that the insurance companies and contributors to this hospital saw this show and do something about it.

Ammi-Once you get insurance, it is just a lot easier to hang on to it. For the same amount of money that he’s going to pay for 2,000 worth, I have $36,000. If you are overweight or have any kind of health problems, forget about it.

Annie-Yeehaw. I absolutely know what you are talking about that you feel like just getting on the bike and riding all day after a great weigh in. It’s a great high. Revel in it. 30% is scary. I hope they are really watching you closely and taking your blood to test electrolytes while on the diet. Especially watch for lightheadedness.

Lisa-The biggest problem I had driving left-footed, was figuring out where to put my right leg to get it out of the way. I basically bent it at the knee, and my knee went by the shifter, and my foot kind of behind my left leg. I kind of made a “4” out of my legs. I was 5’10” at the time, and driving a small car, so getting my leg out of the way took some finagling. The hardest part was unlearning it after getting the cast off. I drove that way about a year afterwards. My right leg was weak for a long time after, and my left leg didn’t want to give up control.

I’m off to type more innerplanetary hoohaw.

Hi guys,

Just stopping in before I go for my walk with hubby. I bought a new pedometer and I will wear it. My goal is to walk for 20 minutes and hopefully at least a 1/2 mile. Okay. This is probably a fith grade question but does anyone know how many steps it takes to make a mile? I am supposed to do 1/2 mile daily for one week and one of my sisters and I made a deal that I would walk 20 minutes a day and she would do 45 a day. Too bad she is so far away in CA. or we could walk together.

Lisa: Big hugs to you. I'm glad you got your walking cast on. Thank you for all the encouragement. I am going to give it my all. Right now it feels like something I can do. Give me a bad week after only drinking my meals and I may feel different though. lol.

Patty: Come on Patty, there's enough weight just from me alone for you and I both to loose some. lol. You can do it. Hope your migranes are much better now.

Kayley: Owch. I hope your finger gets better soon. I am doing a liquids only diet supervised by a medical clinic that my Dr. just so happens to be the Dr. for. It has been hard to adjust to but this is week number 2 for me starting today.

Catherine: Thanks so much for the great advice on the electrolights. Yes, they are doing blood work and Thank you for the lightheadedness advice. I will watch for it.

Okay, hubby is behind me flapping his gums ready to go for our walk. Chat with you all later and hope you are all doing well.
Blessings,
annie

Annie – Congratulations on losing 13.5 pounds – that is incredible!!! I know when I got my pedometer you go through and set up how many of your strides make up a certain length and then it can tell how far you have walked.

Jill – That is great you got a Wii! My coworker actually has one for sale and I have considered buying it, but I want to wait until I know what kind of apartment I will be in. I don’t want to spend the money and then not be able to use it.

Kayley – You asked about my relationship, and actually it is over (mostly). We officially called it off at the end of February, but are still living together until we can find new apartments. That is my current drama.

Regarding Celebrity Fit Club, I watched that last night and was really disappointed at how none of them seemed particularly overweight to me. I think the largest woman was around 170 pounds. At least they have much more reasonable weight loss goals and they are going for overall health and fitness rather than aiming to lose 10 pounds a week through 5 hours of exercise a day. At the same time Dr Ian was mouthing out 1-7-2 pounds like it was the kiss of death. I know it is all about hype and ratings, but please.

I had some trouble with sugar over the weekend. I am PMS’ing and my ex bought dark chocolate m&m’s and had previously pushed a package of ginger cookies on me (he bought them because they were so “me” and told me he would hide them and then didn’t). I know I am ultimately responsible for what I eat, but it so hard when it is right there and you have a pusher! Do I need to find that apartment, or what!

The massage was great and afterwards we went out to the lake and relaxed. The ground was still too wet from the flooding to sit near the water, but we sat up high and watched the swans, geese and ducks.

I have been feeling very guilty about the amount of work time I spend here so I have banned myself during work hours. I have been stressing about getting a reprimand if they check the page hit logs and see how often I come here, so I need to stop. It is tough, but I felt a lot better today about my job. I have been trying to figure out where all of my energy has been going, and I think that is one of the drains.

Hi guys
I'm having a bad sugar night. I ate 2 pieces of fudge at work. I love chocolate fudge.

Its time for bed and just spent some time catching up but I have to just say

ANNIE~~~~~~ Oh MY Goodness!!! Congrats to you
Talk to you all tomorrow~
B

Annie-Everyone's pace/stride is different unless you have been in the military and trained it to a certain distance. Most pedometers have a way of setting them for your stride length. If yours doesn't, you can do it yourself. Measure out 10 feet and see how many steps you take to get there. Do it several times starting with both the left foot and the right alternately. That will give you a good average of how big your strides are. Take the average number of steps and multiply it by 264 (the number of feet in a half mile divided by the 10 feet you are averaging your stride over). That will tell you how many steps you need to take to walk 1/2 mile. Man I hope my math is right.

Hi Everyone. I got a new battery for my scale today, but I haven't put it in and tried it yet, I will in the morning though. I got in about 80 minutes of walking today, so that was good. John and I went to the grocery store and got some fruits and veggies today, I've been having ALOT of fruit now, I hope too much of a good thing isn't bad! Since I started counting calories again I've been having about 2 servings of fruit everyday. (Mainly grapes.) But it's so good! Today our fruit was strawberries, and we made a GREAT and VERY low-cal smoothie recipe! I will put it in this post, and hopefully someone will make it to try! So, it's been another OP day! And now it's reward time - healthy snack and a movie! Hope everyone is well!

Melissa's Tasty Strawberry Smoothie Recipe
Ingredigents:
- 1 cup of skim milk (90 calories)
- 1/3 cup of stirred plain yogurt (45 calories)
- 5 medium strawberries (25 calories!)
- 4 packets (or 2 tbsp) Splenda (0 calories!)
- 1 cup of crushed ice (0 calories)
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract (0 calories)
Instructions:
- Cut the 'stems' off the strawberries and cut them in 1/2
- Put all ingredients in a blender, all at once
- Blend until there are no big ice chunks left
Serving:
- This batch makes *TWO* servings!!
I've never had something so perfectly sweet, healthy, and yummy!!
Hopefully someone makes this and enjoys it as much as we did!
NUTRITION INFO:
All ingredients are 160 calories, so it's only 80 calories per serving!! Each serving is approx. 9oz

~M

Hello All,

Another wet, grey day in Wales, such a contrast to the beautiful weather we were having this time last week. Oh well I am sure our lawns need the water so I won't grumble too much.

YAY we are on track for going to the gym today as planned. To be fair it's rare that we miss our Tuesday gym, but come Thursday Daren seems to run out of steam. Sometimes we go on Friday instead, sometimes as you know we miss out altogether. So that we get our two visits in this week and who knows, if the weather is nice again on Friday we might just go to the Mumbles for a walk

Valerie - if your MIL offers for you to go up in the blimp with her would you do it? I can't wait to hear her reaction to finding out about the gift

good for you for spending that dollar you had on a raffle ticket before you had the chance to spend it on that delicous sounding food at the auction!

Missy - sounds to me like you dont have much luck with scales Well that when you put the new battery in your scales at least that will start working properly again.

I wish I liked strawberries because that smoothie recipe does sound delicious. Maybe I could try it with a fruit that I like, I wonder if that would work.

Brandnewme - I'm sorry to hear about your co-worker I was happier to hear about your weight loss though Ok so it might not have been as much as you would have liked, but a loss is a loss which is ALWAYS better than a gain

Annie - as you know but I'm happy to say again here, I am thrilled for you that you lost so much weight in your first week. To hear you sound so motivated to carry on is wonderful

The support group sounds like it's worth while too, I am glad you think you will learn something from it.

Yes I watch Supernatural, funnily enough Daren was the one that wanted to watch it when it first started, but I think I'm more hooked now than he is lol. As for Sam and Dean, nah, too pretty, give me their dad any day

Lisa - so glad to hear from you and to know that you are feeling much better. I hear you on how great it feels to have those cathetars out and the freedom you have, and I can just imagine how much better you feel now that you can put some weight on your new cast and not have to hop around. When I broke a toe a couple of years ago I had to use crutches because I could just not put any weight on my foot at all. I don't know what was worse, the pain if I did try to use my foot, or how HARD it was to use the crutches. I'd never used them before but everybody I've seen on them make it look so easy especially kids. I forgot that my poor arms would be trying to support my massive weight, so using crutches was the pits

Anyway back to you, I am glad that you did call on your family when you needed them, but more importantly I am so glad you are on the mend now

Enjoy your Sushi (though how anybody can enjoy raw fish I don't know lol) and your break from the liquid diet. I am sure you'll eat sensibly with the help of that nutritionist and by the time you are able to go on the liquid diet again you'll feel more than ready to do it.

Patti - don't you go fretting about the FFM, she'll visit you soon enough. First of all you have to get your health sorted out especially that motion sickness Time enough for good results on the scale after that

Kayley - ah there's the determination I remember. You are amazing trying to still work out at the gym despite having such a painful finger!! I am really sorry that you've hurt it so badly and I hope that if you do need to go to the hospital about it that it won't be too painful both physically and on the wallet

Catherine - have you checked any small print with your insurance to check that there isn't any clause in it about things that would change your right to be covered by that particular firm? I think mine should be OK but I think I will check to make sure. You know they'll try to get out of paying if they can!

Nancy - you can't get dark choc M&Ms over here. Thank goodness for that too because I am sure I would have to have at least one bag of them to try them out. Be careful of your ex and the treats he puts in your path, you know he could be trying to sabotage your weight loss in the hope that you won't have the confidence to find another boyfriend when the time comes!

Brenda - yum, choc fudge, another of my faves Hey at least you stopped at just 2 pieces, so you shouldn't feel bad about it. When the body needs sugar it needs sugar, end of story

Well it's time for me to go get on the scales, I'll be back later to let you know how it goes. Bye for now,

Hugs,

Ammi

Peggy--I would wish you luck for your Dr.'s appointment, but I'm pretty sure you don't need it

Ammi--it's going to be a gray day here today, too. It has been hot the past couple of days, but of course the air conditioning in my apartment building broke, so our apartment was well over 80 degrees (Fahrenheit). Now that it's going to cool off a bit and not be sunny, the a/c is fixed

Melissa--I LOVE grapes. Have you tried freezing them? YUM! I love smoothies, too, but I can't handle yogurt in mine. I tried it a few times, and it just seems overpowering even when I don't use much. I like mine with a banana, frozen strawberries, and skim milk (a splash of vanilla and some fat-free Cool Whip as well if I'm feeling adventurous ).

Brenda--ugh, fudge is a killer! My mother makes AMAZING fudge--luckily, it's only once a year (for Christmas).

Nancy--first of, love your new avatar (I hope it really is new, and I'm not just completely oblivious )! Funny you should mention having space for the Wii--Jeff and I were playing last night, and we had to move our coffee table out of the way, but I guess we didn't move it quite enough. I ended up knocking over a can of diet orange soda all over the place while doing the bowling game

Annie--AMAZING loss!!!!!

Lisa--you must feel so much more HUMAN to be able to get "unhooked" and walk around a bit (even if with a walker--beats not walking at all!). I hope things continue to progress well for you in your recovery

brandnewme--congrats on the loss! ANY loss is a great loss and i a million times better than a step back (lord knows I've had enough of those lately!). And having a loss with so much stress (funeral, being busy, entertaining, etc.) is definitely a big success.

Val--ha, as much as I would still love a pony (never fulfilled those wishes from when I was little), I don't think it would enjoy living on my 3rd floor cement balcony I am right there being whiney with you about exercise. I hate it, so I'm focusing on my eating right now, and exercise will come in time. Although, I do have a bit of a sore arm from playing Wii baseball last night

Luan--your camping trip sounded so fun! And ROCK ON with the hiking (and what a sweetie for telling you how confident he was that you'd make it to the top!).

Kayley--Hope your finger gets better and that's it just a sprain and not a break. Jeff and I haven't set a date yet--we're putting all the wedding planning on hold until after we move to our new home in the fall.

Lilion--the boxing is the only Wii sports game we didn't try last night, and only because we only have 1 nunchuck controller right now, so we couldn't play together. I may have to sneak in some time to try it alone before Jeff gets home from work, though

Catherine--that place in Mexico sounds soooo relaxing. Sure, you can sit around and read at home, but it's not the same. Sitting at home, there are always all these other stressful thoughts running around in your brain, whereas going someplace else allows you to let go and escape your day-to-day stressful surroundings, and isn't that really the point of a vacation--relaxation, not necessarily running around to 10 new sight-seeing attractions every day.

Vicki--I probably shouldn't even go into such detail here, but the reason I love Wendy's vs. McDonald's is that they have BACON on their burgers (and more mayo than McD's). How horrible is THAT?! Of course, I wouldn't actually turn down McD's in a crunch, either--they do have better fries

As for me, I had a much better food day yesterday, although we did stop for Dairy Queen last night while out shopping. Tonight, I have to go shopping again, but just to a party store and then some grocery shopping, so I should be buying plenty of healthy stuff--no need to stop for junk!

The Wii was very fun for the few games we played. I have a feeling we have found a new activity we can enjoy together

Peggy - glad you are going to take Valerie's advice, you go strut your stuff like she said and be proud of how great you are doing I'll get my ready for in case we need to pay that doc a visit

Jill - it's always the way isn't it, things don't work when you need them too and then they get fixed too late. Still at least you know there must be some more hot weather coming so it's good that the a/c is working again now. I hope today isn't too grey there. It's actually brightening up here, the rain's stopped and the sky is far less cloudy

Glad to hear you are having a much better time of it diet wise now. Come on Jill you can shift those lbs again

As for me I am glad to say that I have lost another 4 lbs and I'm now at the weight I was when I had my two week 'break' before and including Easter. It really has inspired me to keep on going DOWN now. NO more inclines for me, at least not until my birthday, well no earned ones anyway

Hugs,

Ammi

Good Morning Ladies!

I am battling such a this morning...hello pms!! I can also always tell when we are going to get rain...scheduled for tommorow.

Yesterday was crazy...our dog Brittney has been acting really strangely for about a week...was constantly yelping for no reason and very skittish...which is SO not like her!! She is a Lab/Pit(Pitadore?) mix and takes guarding her territory seriously! She is very much my husbands dog, and she wouldn't go near him...stuck to me like glue. She had such an unsettled night,I kept hearing her walking around,and she is usually such a great sleeper, I figured it was time to take her to the vet.(which she absolutely hates-shakes like a leaf!) Of course she gained 5 lbs...she weighs 94 now!! I guess I now know what type of exercize I am going to be doing! We always have the vet muzzle her when she is examined because I am not taking any chances, and it is so funny...she breathes so heavy with her tongue hanging out..all I can do is laugh!! Of course it is a perfect oppertunity for me to play with her tongue, even the vet tech guy was laughing. Anyway...he thinks she may have injured a vertabrae in her neck and took blood and gave her a shot and some meds. The difference by last night was amazing. She was even giving kisses to her buddy, our baby cat, Oreo! It's always something, isn't it!

Annie: Amazing job!!!

Ammi: You certainly are a tease aren't you! I really think we must be trading weather on and off! You can keep your rain...I don't want it! Good luck at your WI!

Catherine: I would litterally poke my eyes out if I had to keep reading that story!! I haven't told most of my family about my WW, so that's why I couldn't really bring anything with me to the shower. I like seeing them look at me with a confused expression on their faces!!! And also...is there anything that you have no knowledge about?? You are truly such an intellegent woman!!!

Nancy: I thought Celebrity Fit Club didn't start til next week ...I will have to catch it over the weekend. By the way, I love the new picture!

Melissa: That smoothie sounds awesome...My kids will love it too!

Sharon: I hope the boys are feeling better...noses are DEFINATELY better than bottoms!!!


OMG...DONNY OSMOND IS SINGING "PUPPY LOVE" ON TV {BIG sigh} He still looks and sounds SO awesome!!!!!!( I know, I know, I am really old!!)

Time to hang out more laundry and get ready for work...
Have a Great OP Day!

Just a quick post before I head to class....

went to the walk-in clinic today, and he told me that it doesn't seem broken. That I burst some blood vessels...if it's still painful in a couple of days, to go back for an xray...he knew I didn't have insurance, so he didn't want to try that right away.

Off to public speaking & English! Catch you all later!

Can anyone tell me how to post pictures?? I can only upload one and the others (from the same file) are too big and need to be reconfigured??? HELP!!

Well, it might not mind...but I suspect your neighbors on the two floors below might have some minor objections!

Just a pop-in! I managed the eliptical and walk again today and food was better yesterday. Hopefully this good start will continue!

I was going through some stuff. I came across some ballet slippers I had from when I was doing dance class for exercise a long time ago before my knees got messed up, and then I had moved to where I live now. Why I hung on to them I have no idea, because they didn't fit anymore...at least that is what I thought. So I thought I would try them on before putting them into the Goodwill bag just to be goofy....lo and behold, wouldn't you know they fit me now? I think my feet shrunk too!

And there's this little dance school down the street that just opened up that teach classes to all ages, but I am going to ask at the ortho appointment tomorrow if that kind of exercise would be good to strengthen my knee joints. I know it would be fun for exercise!