Thank you all for your condolences. It means so much to me that you all care.

Nancy, you look so pretty in your new pic.What a difference a year makes...indeed!!!! What kind of dancing shoes did you get? Congrats on the 2 lbs gone forever!!

Heather, I can't even imagine sitting in one of those tiny seats for that long of a trip but, you don't have to worry about that any more!!

TooFat, how's hubby doing?

Battle, thank you and how did the talent show go? I'm sure you did great!!

Story, I'm comin' to your house!!! YUM!!

MsCrockett, I'm with you on learning portion control. I think it's the hardest part of all. I have to measure everything because it seems to keep creeping back up to bigger portions when I just try to eyeball it.

Sandy, so glad to hear you've been released by the doc and all your parts are where they should be. Let the new year be healthy and happy for all of us!

Hi Annie, thank you. I'm sure things will be fine. Just alot to handle at one time. I plan on getting involved in volunteer work and finding a part time job to keep me occupied. I'm sure not going to swrivel up and blow away in the wind....um...well maybe but only if I lose enough weight.
I've got something I'm going to PM you...let me know what you think. Congrats on the 3.5lbs gone. You are doing wonderfully well. 200 lbs gone soon, that is just amazing...simply amazing.

Val, so glad to see you here! We've missed you. Glad that you are going to get more time in with Gabe. Give the boy love and hugs from me.

We finally finished our Christmas shopping. We just have to get stuff for the dinner. We are having ham, roasted veggies, and yams. My Mom is in charge of dessert. Compared to all the previous years, this is a pretty lo cal dinner. The yams I will make with splenda. Usually I make a bunch of goodies for my hubby to take to work, but I dont think I will make as many, but will do a few. It seems since we started taking trays of goodies to work, some of the other guys are having their wives bake up goodies too so they get a good variety of stuff. It's all guys on the night shift so they need that special attention so they don't feel left out of the events that go on during the day at work.
I can't wait to get back to being OP again. I'm really looking forward to getting back to it and things settle down and back to normal. I plan on being Op as soon as Christmas is over. I'm not going to wait til the first of the year like I normally do. I'm just maintaining, not gaining or losing so I feel like I've accomplished something.
Well, gonna run
Debbie

Vallie: so happy to see you. Congrats on the -1 and also on giving blood. I have thought of it often but right now is not a good time until I am back to normal.

Debbie: Thanks and thanks for the cute elf thing. I loved it. Fun.

Blessings all. Had another meeting today with pizza and cookies. I didn't touch a thing except my home packed lunch of cheese, wheat thins and a protein bar! Yeah me. lol.

Blessings all,
Annie

Morning all..sorry I have been MIA! UGH holidays are just not going well lol. Now I wonder how on earth my grandma use to get things done?????

My exercising has gone to the dogs..lol...Hubby and I use to walk everynight. Then it got cold here..well as cold as it gets in Arizona...and stopped walking. Guess that was my excuse..I need to get back into it!

I was going to start my jouranling and well I did one day and nothing else..why is that?

I am thinking this is why I am obese. I want to start and I get all excited about it and then...nothing! I cant stick to anything.

I went about bought a new shirt the other day..I am still at a 4x..the 3x don't even fit anymore. I don't know why I would think the weight is just goingt o disappear. I guess I need to really focus and get with it..but how?


We are going to visit my sister in law in Alabama this summer in June. I wanted to be under 300 lbs. I don't know how that is going to happen if I don't get to loosing. Is 30 lbs by June realistic??? I don't think it is at this rate.

Hubby thought we should join the YMCa..since we have kids..and they are teens..and we are raising my cousin also..would give them something to do. Also it is not like a gym memebership so if we ended up not going. UGH!

I am also trying to get Christmas shopping done. Again for the first time in my life..not in the mood!

Thanks for listening to my pitty party..lol..sometimes you just gotta do it. I will keep reading the posts here and find inspiration to hopefully get my butt into gear!

Hello everyone,

Judo~~~ Hey thanks for the advice,&any thing else let me know; will be trying that, The past3 days it has been acting up terrible, I cant stand up straight, lye down,set,, Nothing.!ya Know? schedule me an appt.. I am coming your way,, should only take 13 hours or so... lol

Nancy (aka) notthecheat~~ Hello, No I have not chose WW yet,, I am wanting to be on Sout Beach, BUT I NEED TO LEARN portion control. is it true that if I learn portion control I dont have to depend so much on "Hi dollar "diet" food?.. Im a HAVE and HAVE NOT kindadieter. just give me the list and I can do it. I just need to LEARN from the list!...Maybe learn for WW and eat from Southbeach??.Any input would be great...Thanks

Hello ANNIE. How in the world are you girl? been a long time.So happy to see you here.. and hugs and hi fives on yourweight loss.. you rock!

Nolifewithouthorses Valarie.. How have you been?

Debbie54~~Love the cats in your pic. I love animals.. I want a horse when I grow up..lol

Well,you wonderfull group. I will chat some more later.. I am on the hunt for tennis balls... woot woot

Kayley: Of coarse we remember you. Welcome back sweetie. Post when you can.

Cyn: Okay. I hope I don't make anyone mad here but, 30 pounds by June is totally realistic if: You need to commit to it and stick with it, drink more water, exercise at least 3 times a week, follow a sensible diet plan. That 5 pounds a month. You can do it Cyn. You have it in you. I know it. Come on Cyn, go, Cyn, go!

Crock: I'm feeling great! I am feeling so much better since I've lost a bunch of weight. I do have about 152 more to go though. I'm not supposed to look at that side. The wonderful news for me is that I am well over 1/2 way there and every week or two I am closer and closer to the goal I have for me. Did you do any hunting this year or was the leg too painful? My Dad and DH went out and both got a white tail each. Hugs to you and I truly am happy to see you back here.

Well, at work now and break is over so need to get going. I switched offices and am so much happier for it. My new office feels like MINE and not like I am taking over someone else's office. I have been decorating slowly but surely.

Blessings to you all and have a wonderful op exercise filled day,
annie

KAYLEY!!!

Ack! I was already supposed to be on the road to my parents' house for the weekend. I just wanted to check in before I left and thank everyone for your comments on my recent photos. The shirt is indeed swimming on me now.

I should be back in time, but just in case I'm not MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Kayley, welcome back hon! We missed ya!! The exercise thread needs you! It needs everyone!!

Cyn -- You can lose that weight by June, but you have to find a way to commit to what you do. I knew HOW to lose weight for years, but not HOW TO make what I needed to do a part of my life. I had to get desperate enough to make it a priority, and also not try to be perfect!!!

Keep posting here!

I think my cookie bender of the last couple days is over. It was pretty ugly. There were cookies sure, but also candy, and just extra of everything. I'm keeping quite busy today and I think that will help. The scale is up a couple of pounds, but hopefully at least some of that is temporary!

Woo-HOO! KAYLEY'S BACK!

Does anyone have a bit of time to do my shopping for me? Plenty of time left - like, 20 hours. But of course that includes wrapping and baking.

SUPER-YAHOOO! It's my favorite day of the year - Winter Soltice! It's all sunnier from here on in. Spring is on the way. Time to start thinking of what to plant in the garden this year, and planning on how to keep the varments out of it! HERE COMES THE SUN!!!!!!!!

I'm slowly but surely getting ready for our Christmas Eve party. He did the shopping for me. I sent a shopping list with the pictures cut out of the paper. He did a great job, but the turkey he got is almost too big for the oven. I have only seen turkeys that big on Christmas Carol movies at the end. We probably won't have any left overs, so I guess I can't fault him. I will put it on to cook Saturday night around midnight and slow roast it all night. That way it will be ready to go by noon. Hard to sleep with that thing cooking though. My mom always did it that way because she needed her oven for pies and yams, and needed the turkey out of the way. I can get it carved, and have the kitchen clean before the guests start showing up. That way, I don't have to get up again. When the crockpots on the table start getting low, he is capable of refilling them from the stove. I'm fanatical about keeping things at the proper temperature. My mom did catering, and she always said that if people get sick, there goes your business.

The house won't be a clean as usual, but I guess that I have to make some consolations because of my leg. I only did the one foot Christmas tree instead of the big one, and stockings this year. We will make up for it with extra cheer. The local Christmas bureau found out that we do an open dinner for people who don't have anywhere else to go, I'm not sure how, but they sent us a gift card for the grocery store that paid for the food for the whole party except for $3. People with mental illnesses have trouble going to the large shelters like the Salvation Army for Christmas dinner because large crowds and lots of noise can aggravate their conditions. So I'm going to get to play frat house mom for the day.

Either my mom or my Godmother ended up being the last stop for La Posadas. That's the Mexican celebration for the 9 days before Christmas. Kind of like a progressive meal. Everyone would go to a different house to eat each day, with the biggest party for Christmas Eve. You actually go to several houses to get turned away before ending up at the right house. It’s supposed to represent Mary and Joseph getting turned away. I’m not doing a piñata. I’m not having people (some on serious medications) swing bats in this little condo, and no one would want to do it outside. The candy would all fall and bury itself in the snow. I’ll make Champurrado (a type of Mexican hot chocolate) right before midnight mass. The sugar and caffeine helps you get through the service without falling asleep. He’s actually just left to go to the Latin grocery store to get the supplies I need. He never complains about going there. The couple who run it are from El Salvador. Friday is when a bunch of little old ladies render fresh lard in the back, and if he times it right, he can get fresh chicharrones. That’s fresh pork rinds, but they don’t taste like the ones that come in a sack on the potato chip aisle. I’ll bet he comes home with twice as many things as were on his list, and a big smile on his face. At Christmas, he’s about 6 years old for the duration.

I had a long post and lost it. Ugh.

This week has been a mix of terrible eating days and not so bad days. Today is going better. It was not a good idea to prepare 3 batches of cookie dough and freeze them in logs earlier this week. The remainder of the logs went in the trash, and now I am searching for a last-minute idea for holiday gifts that doesn't involve high binge risk.

The Rotary talent show was a blast. My group was so bad, we were good. The audience appreciated our good-natured attempts at singing, remembering lines, and choreography. There were actual talented members performing, but none of them were in our group. . After the show, one woman came up to me with a "compliment" on my courage to get up in front of an audience.

I had an interesting experience dining with a friend last night that I posted about in the 100 lbs section. Ugh.

--------
Nancy, you look like a completely different person. You were attractive before, but now you are even prettier, and are glowing. What a difference!

Have a great time with your family.

Catherine: what else is on the menu for Christmas Eve? I'm laughing at the thought of cutting out pictures for your DH to take to the grocery store. How good of you to go through with the dinner, given your injuries.

Valerie: Great news on this being winter solstice. The early darkness is hard to deal with. Have fun shopping. I know you'll manage just fine.

Heather: we're coming out of the cookie fog together. I can't wait for this eating season to be over.

Annie: You're doing so well resisting all the office treats. This new job could have been the beginning of serious challenges to your new eating style, but you are being so resolute it's amazing. Congrats on the loss.

MsCrockett: Good luck on finding the right eating plan for you. It's often trial and error to find the best plan for the long term.

Cyn: You can do it. You can change your habits, beginning now.

Kayley: Welcome back.

Debbie: Yay, I'm glad you're maintaining. You've had a lot going on, and maintaining is a wonderful accomplishment.

Judo: welcome.

Cookie fog. That's exactly the right term for it.

Hi Everyone,

Things are going pretty well here, with most of the things organised for Christmas. We are heading down to Mum’s tomorrow and will pick up a few last minute things down there. Hopefully later today we will do a gift exchange with close friends, and then we just need to sort out what we will be taking with us.

I had my last day of Roving Carols around the city yesterday. I have had such a wonderful time!!! Neil came in with me every day and took photos, which everyone really appreciated. The ladies have kinda adopted him as our official photographer and they all seemed to love him as well. They are such a fantastic group of people. It felt SO wonderful to sing in front of people and I loved seeing the responses we got from everyone. Of course there were one or two teenagers who called out words to the songs, or tried to conduct us as they attempted to show off to their mates, but they didn’t phase me at all. I was just extremely happy with the positive responses from everyone else. I truly felt as though we made SO many people’s days brighter with a little song and a few smiles. A lot of people seemed to be dashing around the place either getting to/from work or trying to do their Christmas shopping. I think that a little break, to listen to a Carol or two, before heading off again, made a lovely break in the middle of their hectic lives. I may be putting too much importance on what we did, but that was the feeling I got from the responses we received. I can’t wait to do it again next year!

I have been reading a lot about how worried people are about getting through the Holiday season and I couldn’t work out why it would be so difficult for everyone. Well... after I actually thought about it, I realised that it is probably easier for those of us who celebrate Christmas, New Year etc. in the warmer weather. We are actually expecting 38C/100F for Christmas Day. That is going to be quite a stinker and I REALLY hope that Mum’s airconditioning works!!! But at least with the warmer weather it seems easier to stick with a healthier eating regime. I have figured that we will have cold chicken, turkey, ham and lots of salad. I won’t eat the ham (well, maybe a bit, but I actually prefer chicken and turkey) , but there will be plenty of other ‘healthy’ stuff for the main meal and I will have fresh fruit salad and ricotta cream (ricotta cream with Splenda and vanilla essence) for dessert. I have also planned what snacks I want to take down with me to Mum’s, so I am not worried at all about eating off plan. I DO know that I had a hard time at some moments through Winter though, as I wanted warm ‘comfort’ foods and I actually put on a few pounds that I am currently taking off. So I now know why many people may be a little concerned about the holiday eating that they may be tempted with. I hope that you all manage to eat as sensibly as possible and you don’t have a guilt trip afterwards if you do eat a little off plan. Neil and I are planning on walking every morning while we are away (we’ll be away until Friday, as we are helping Mum pack up ready to move back to our home town) and I know that will help a lot. We will have to get out pretty early to avoid the heat though. Luckily we are both morning people, so that won’t be a problem.

Catherine – You must have many grateful people visiting your place over Christmas. It must be SO reassuring to them to know that they have the ‘safety’ of your home to share in the festivities. I truly hope that you are moving more comfortably soon and can enjoy the holiday season a little more. Mind you, it sounds as though Himself is doing a great job getting things ready for you.

Crock – It is GREAT to see you back. It sounds as though you are determined about starting up again and you have a few things planned to keep you on track in the new year. Good luck with everything! Sorry to hear that your leg is still causing you pain. I wouldn’t imagine that that would encourage you to plan some exercise into your day. I hope you can find some kind of solution soon.

Kayley – Of COURSE we remember you! Are you still doing those beautiful walks with that lovely man of yours? I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and you are able to get ‘back on track’ soon.

Val – I am SO glad that you are able to get the horses boarded at a place you know and trust and that will free up your time for other things, particularly RIDING, which I know is something you absolutely love. It sounds as though you and Gabe have a good relationship now and he is obviously becoming very comfortable with you on his back.

Sharon – I am sorry to hear about the confidence issues you have been having recently. I know when I was at my biggest I didn’t want to go out in public except to go to work. I would have stayed at home totally if I could have, but I couldn’t avoid work. I only started going out again when Neil came over here and I wanted to show him around. It was great having him with me, as he helped my confidence a little. I know that you issues probably aren’t to do with the way you look, but I just wanted to let you know that I understand a little about how you feel and I wish I could help in some way.
It seems funny that Aiden is changing grades in the middle of your school year. How does that work? Over here, the kids can enrol in Kindergarten (our first year of schooling) at the beginning of the school year if they turn 4 before June of that year. If they turn 4 after June then they have to wait until the following school year. We go from Kindergarten to Pre-Primary, to Year 1, 2 etc, to Year 7 in Primary School, then they have 5 years of High School. It is compulsory to stay in some kind of schooling until they are 17, but this could be either High School or some other type of traineeship. I am always interested in how other education systems work.

Donna – I’m glad your John Edward experience was pretty good, even though he didn’t read any of you. At least now you know what it is all like first-hand and you can always decide at a later date if you want to try again for a reading.
Congratulations on your lower cholesterol count!! It is that sort of thing that makes me SO proud about losing weight. I am just thrilled that I am healthier and I love seeing numbers that prove that.
It didn’t sound as though you or Sammi hurt yourselves when you fell, so I hope you are OK. I can imagine it would have made quite a sight when you BOTH fell over one after the other. It would have been one of those moments where you couldn’t repeat it if you tried!
Sorry to hear about Scott’s (latest) accident. It does sound as though he may need to have a little more training... or something. Oh... and I am sorry, but you won’t be getting any bids from me! I certainly don’t have the patience to be a parent of a teenager. I think I would send HIM in to be rebuilt with the car... just to see what improvements could be made. LOL Just out of curiosity, when they do Driver’s Ed over there, do they teach them to reverse into parking bays? We have a Licensing station nearby and we see SO many people teaching others to drive and ALL of them seem to be teaching them to reverse into parking bays. I find this interesting because I never got taught to do this and I find it MUCH quicker to drive forward into a parking bay and then to reverse out than the other way around. I get so frustrated when I sit and wait for someone to take 4 or 5 tries to reverse into a parking bay. I always feel that it would not take anywhere that many tries to reverse OUT of the bay. I never understand why people do that.

BattleAx – I am sorry you have had a cold. I hope it is getting better and you are back you 100% for Christmas. I spent the last week of school with a cold, but I am fine now. Only problem was that I gave it to poor hubby and he isn’t feeling too great now. Hopefully he will be feeling better for Christmas too.
Sorry to hear about your friends moving away. I have always been a pretty solitary person. Not ‘unsociable’, but I enjoy my own company and I like being with just hubby most of the time. I can understand how important company is to some people though, so I hope you don’t have TOO many people move away from you. At least you will have LOTS of new places to visit!
I was also sorry to hear about the incident you had with your friend when you went out to dinner. I was wondering whether she is truly worried about you becoming smaller than she is and in some way this is making her feel guilty about what she is eating so she is telling herself that YOU are doing something to cause this guilt when you go out to eat. I hope that you can sit and have a heart-to-heart talk with her and settle this before it causes a huge rift between you.

Annie – It is great to see that the scales are continuing to reflect what a fantastic job you are doing with your new lifestyle. I truly wish that a colleague of mine could meet you and see how you can make WLS work. She had a lapband put in at the beginning of 2005 and have a feeling that she thought it would be a ‘magical cure’, so she perhaps didn’t put in the effort to change her lifestyle that she needed to. She lost a bit of weight at the beginning, but she hasn’t lost anything since then. She told me that she HATES vegetables, so she doesn’t eat them. She also said that she could eat anything she wanted at the beginning, as long as it could be pureed (sp?)... and she did. She now only eats fairly small portions (when I see her eating), but they are usually not very healthy and mostly carbs. I just see how much success you are having and I wish I could help her in some way, but I understand how ‘personal’ the process is for each and every one of us and I can only hope that she will have her ‘click’ moment some time, as many of us have had.
It is great that you have a new office now that you can personalise and feel a true ownership about. I love adding lots of personal touches to my desk area at school. It makes it feel more ‘homely’. I have photos and teddies and all sorts of bits and pieces.

Debbie – I am sorry to hear about your FIL. It is lovely that everyone managed to get together and see each other before he went though. That is one of the things that consoled me when Dad passed away earlier this year. I loved the fact that we got to spend some time with him while he was still able to communicate with us.
I hope Sadie is fine now. That would have been quite a scary thing to have happen. She is a clever dog, but perhaps you could do with her NOT being so clever huh?
Don’t you just HATE airplane seats!? When Neil and I went to the US a couple of years back we flew Business Class because I had so much trouble fitting into the seats before and the flights are SO long. I was actually smaller and would have been able to fit in the seats, but the Business seats were SOOOO much more comfortable and we could lay them right back to sleep. It was wonderful. We won’t be able to afford to do that when we go to Hawaii in November 08, but I don’t think the flights are as long, so hopefully we will be OK.

Heather – I was SO embarrassed when I flew at my largest weight and couldn’t get the tray table down. I ended up putting a cushion on my lap/belly and placing the tray on that. I was the same as you when I flew at a smaller size and the tray table could go down. I think I put it up and down just for the fun of it, to prove it could be done, not because I needed it down. People must have thought I was a little weird playing Yo-Yo with the tray table! And we won’t even MENTION the rest rooms on planes!!! They are ridiculously small!!!!!!

Story – Did you survive all of the Holiday baking? Or are you buried under it all somewhere? I just realised another benefit to not liking to bake. In 100F weather you really do NOT want the oven on for any longer than it has to be! I am sorry, but if my mother and boyfriend gave me requests for baking, when I was trying to avoid things like that, I would give them the address of the closes bakery/cookie shop/supermarket etc... They are lucky that you didn’t throw the recipes at them and tell them they could do them themselves. You are obviously a MUCH nicer person than I am.

Sandy – Sorry to hear that you have a cold. Fingers crossed that it is all better by Christmas Day. Well, perhaps a little earlier than that so you can get some organising done in comfort. I am glad that Abby is over her cold. It was a pity that she still wasn’t well enough to appreciate the snow day off from school. I know that this sounds ‘cold’, but is there any chance that your SD could be going to her mother’s for Christmas? I know that her dad may miss her, but I don’t think anyone else would. She sounds like her main aim in life is to make other people miserable. Is she OK to Abby, or does she hassle her as well? That would REALLY aggravate me, if she picked on younger kids.

Nancy –
I laughed at your NSV about running after the delivery man. I have noticed many times that I have actually done something and only thought about it afterwards and surprised myself that I actually DID it. I am pretty sure that if I actually gave myself time to think about it I would doubt myself and maybe wouldn’t do it. For example I was wondering for a while why I was so shaky putting my socks on and then I worked out that I was putting them on while I was standing up. I had spent SO many years sitting down to put on my clothes that I didn’t even realise that I had started doing it while I was standing up. If I had thought about it I would have worried about falling down and would probably just have kept sitting down to do it. There have been many such examples, but that is just one that I can think of. I hope you have MANY more moments like this in your life.
Congratulations on the scales reflecting the hard work you are putting in. You really are our resident “Dancing Queen” and I love hearing about your latest endeavours.
Your new pic is GORGEOUS! It is great that you had the photo taken in the same top, but it is good that it doesn’t show too much of the top, as I would imagine it is VERY floppy. You will have to look for a new “Christmas Photo” top.

Well... I have just realised that I have written another novel, but this could be my last chance to write before we head to Mum’s for Christmas and she doesn’t have an Internet connection (or a computer for that matter) so I won’t be back into the ‘civilised’ world until later Friday.

Sorry for those people I missed, but I will try to catch up on everyone else next post.

I want to wish you all a truly wonderful Christmas, surrounded by love and laughter. I look forward to getting on later in the week and reading about how you all spent the day.

Take care,

Zelma

Hello Everyone..

Annie,~~ Yes I did some hunting this year, My leg hurts when I am on it for a while, and I use a treestand.. but my lower back goes out every so often, which stops me for about 4 days then I am good to go for a while ,then it happens again, viscious cycle!(lol) I have some pics, let me know and I will see that you get them...I changed my pic,, The one you see now is at my Camp.

BattleAx~~Thanks, I do agree with trial and error.. when I am not thinking or planning is when I am at my best.. ha ha..

Zelma~~ I can excercise, just no sit ups and things that will stress the back, I have some excercises from therapy and I do them all the time, plus I am busy,,, as in walking,tinkerring out side, keeping wood stacked , and split on the good days,, It really isnt a matter of if I can, it is I have to.. ya know>?

Kayley~~Whats Up? How are things with you , and are you married yet?

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope all is a happy time.

The menu for the dinner is very simple. Turkey, Oklahoma chilli, hominy rice and some cranberry sauce. I'm not making a bunch of vegetables because the last two times, no one has touched them. They put chili on their turkey or on the rice. Some will come and not eat anything because they are afraid of being poisoned. I don't put out anything with sugar in it because the meds these guys are on cause diabetes, so half are already diabetic, or they are afraid of becoming so. Naturally everyone also shows up with desserts, but I can't be blamed for that. Some will just make a turkey sandwich and leave. We also get some single/widower types from church. We try to keep it as informal and relaxed as possible. We do paper plates and just watch movies. The amount of chili they go through is staggering. I buy crushed tomatoes in those big number 10 cans they use in restaurants. I have had to adjust my recipe a bit because I can't get regular chili powder here. What I can get is from Somalia, and it is 10 times hotter, so I have to remind myself to use less.