Hi all, we have reached the "high anxiety" stage of the game here... LOL. Down to less then a week! Going to see the Moody Blues tonight and we have beautiful weather here, even a little cool but very sunny.

Hope all is well with everyone, I am just swamped here right now so I don't get on line much anymore.

Take care!

Princess, have a wonderful wedding for your dear daughter-in-law and son and when you can catch a breath, fill us all in on how it went.
Love, Judy

Thanks Judy, I lost that 2 years ago..I lost 50#s and have climbed right back up..that is why I am so upset with myself...I now need to get it off again. I have done this so darn many times, will I ever learn before I die....
OK thats it ..I got that out of my system....
My scale moved and i am so darn happy..Looks like 2 #s
Congrats to all who had a loss this week.....

Hi turtles:

Princess - good luck with all your wedding plans, very exciting time for you!

Kerri - congrats on your weight loss. That is really good!

Judy - how you doing?

Everyone else - hope you all had a great weekend & stayed OP

As for myself - had an outting with my ladies group & my dd came home yesterday, so nice to catch up with all her things.

Weather has been cooler, but sunny & is suppose to be dry all week, so looking forward to that.

I have planned to get in a walk tonight & took chicken out for supper along with sweet potatoe & green beans. Hopefully, planning ahead will help me not get sidetracked.

Have a great day!

If you can find a path with no obstacles,
it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.

Frank A. Clair

Hi, Everyone,

It's nice to have a morning where I can catch my breath and spend some time online catching up with all the folks I know who don't live anywhere near me. Being able to make friends around the world is one of the things I like best about the internet. Sorry, in advance, for posting a novel, but I've been AWOL, explanation below. Had a lot to say.

Hey, Ms. Meri. I hope your week is going OK. Thanks for the little quotes and bits of information and wisdom you add to our thread.

Kerri, and don't feel bad about gaining and having to take it off again. We've all been there. We're fighting our own bodies, with their natural tendencies to want to weigh more than is healthy for our overall size. It's a tough road and that's why we turtles don't try to race down it. It takes time to create habits that can help us be where we want to be. Hang in there. You'll do fine. And, reading down the thread--congrats on the 2#!!

Princess, I hope you had a great time at the Moody Blues concert. They're on the long list of musicians I'd like to see in concert. When that mythical ship comes in and I can afford it, I'm going to lots of concerts and do lots of travel.

I hope the wedding goes spectacularly, and has one memorable thing go wrong. The thing is, I don't remember much about my wedding except starting late because we had to make an emergency trip to the tux rental place because one of the guys was given the wrong tux and it ended early because a whole bunch of people had to leave to attend a friend's recital for her master's degree in piano. Paul and I should have gone with them. It would have been a fun start to our marriage. Anyway, that's the kind of thing you remember and I'm hoping for something memorable, but not horrible, for your family.

Cherry, Everyone I know who has a Wii loves it. I want one for Christmas. But, I also want a lot of other expensive things I can't afford. So, when the 30 days are up, are you going to do another one? Evil me--challenging you before you finish the first one.

Judy, good luck with the arm exercises. I have a friend (and my boss) who's a conductor. She does not have flabby arms. Someone should make a conduct music exercise plan for middle-aged women.

Bandit, planning ahead always helps. What I hate is when I plan ahead, but things change and I can't do my plan. Then I rely on that old Boy Scout leader training and go with plan B.

I've been working like mad last week and over the weekend. It was the first concert of the season and we did it twice, which is a first for the orchestra. We're doing that again in May. It was fabulous, but I am the box office. So, I had ticket orders up until a couple of hours before each concert. I didn't get off when I was supposed to and worked a ton of extra hours. That's not a complaint. It's an explanation for why I've seemed to disappear this week.

I suppose it's no surprise that I was challenged this past week. Paul baked potatoes in the grill and grilled a whole bunch of chicken early in the week and we ate pretty much that with veggies and fruit all week. That kept me on track, but I got bored with it. So, Sunday, we went to lunch at a really nice restaurant, took a much-needed break from the frantic work situation, and ate way too many points for one meal. BUT-it wasn't too many for fitting into the week.

I didn't let myself get sidetracked by unnecessary guilt over having a splurge. When those thoughts wormed themselves into my brain, I reminded myself that it's all OP and what matters is the whole picture. So, I stayed with the program the rest of the day, using weekly points for dinner. And back to my regular routine yesterday.

My boss gave me the rest of the week off from going downtown. I'm doing some work from home. So, I'm also going to cook some interesting meals, so I don't end up splurging again just because I'm bored with the food in the house. Tonight I'm cooking a meal for some church members who just had a baby. It's great to be on the newly-formed cooking team to cook for people who need a break due to illness, new babies, etc.

I don't know what will happen with the scale this week. I suspect that not taking the train downtown will have more of an effect than that one delicious splurge. So, I'm planning to take a walk or swim later and make sure I get exercise in the rest of the week, too. And I noticed my weight loss finally showed up on the ticker. I'm more than halfway to my first goal. And, from the highest recent weight, I've lost 19.5 pounds.

Keep on turtlin'!

Lin ~ Nice to hear people are still doing your newly-formed cooking team these days. Sounds wonderful and you will truly be blessed.

Bandit ~ Enjoy that Weather, we were 112 yesterday and with all the smoke from the fires all the kids @ school can't play outside. There was ash on our car the other day.

Judy ~ My arms are real flabby also. Just was given several dresses that are shorts & top all together (looks like a dress) new size, free from cousin yippie! anyway they are mostly sleeveless. Not sure if I will wear to work. I have been doing the Ultimate Arms workout on demand TV it is only 5 min. You can see it at sportskool.com. My measurements went up over the last 4 months in the bicep ares - does that mean it is working?

Yesterday we got a used Wii from a friend of our Son's. I have been wanting one since we started WW in January, my leader has one and we use it quite often on WI nights. I can't afford any fitness games just yet, going to borrow, that way I will figure out what I like better.

Still a lil down from what the Dr told us on Thursday. Not doing half the exercise I had been doing. Yesterday was the first day I tracked since then, and I had to force myself. Bet it is going to show on the scale tonight.

I am really disappointed in myself this week. Weigh in today and i am up to 237 which means i gained back all that i lost and more.
I am not sure what went so wrong this week. I know i am still eating to much but i am still exercising. Maybe not enough. I won't give up though. I have to do this some how.

Lin, your attitude is great and I can tell you're in this for the long haul.

MsMeri, love all your little sayings. So glad you got a Wii from a pal.

Kerri, these things happen. Get back to your good exercise, don't beat yourself up and keep on keepin' on.

Princess, I'm thinking about you and all the plans for the wedding. for being such a good mom and future mom-in-law!

Bandit, I bet TOPS is about to start very soon. : is in your very near future!

It looks like a lot of us are having a few problems right now. For the newbies, this happens often. Then we pick ourselves up, clear our heads, figure out what we have to do and then do the baby steps to get there! We're heading into a new season. For some of us, it's back to work and for others they're getting the kiddies back to school. All I want to do is to encourage all of us to keep on the list of things we need to do! We make lists all the time, but we've got to take care of ourselves and be on that list! Buy and prepare food, exercise, drink that water and be kind to ourselves.

By the way, I had another small loss this week. I'm still not under 200# at my WW WI, but I'm soooooooo close. I lost #.6 today and I now weigh #200.8. If I am very careful and exercise this week, I'll be under #200 at last at my next WI. Please all send me : Thanks!

Judy
234.6/200.8/199.8 and finally into onederland

WhaHoo! Great Job Judy. Cant wait for you to make it in to onederland. We are so proud of you.

Hi to Msmeri, bandit, Lin S, Princess, and Kerri.

went the WRONG direction on the scale last night
up 1.6
But I know where I went wrong
and have the knowledge to fix it

I think another excuse is..
I got comfortable in my size 18 jeans.
Have been in the 20's since High School

Need to strive for One-derland!


**REFOCUS**

Hi everyone:

Sounds like some of us are struggling & that is no fun at all.

I finally had a good week at the scale - was down 1.75# so was extremely happy with that. This summer has really been a challenge for me.
So nice to have a loss & that hopefully will keep me motivated over the next week. I am on holidays til next Wednesday, which will be nice to finish up the summer.

Hope you all get back on track & OP

Have a great one!

Hi, All,

Ms. Meri-yeah, the cooking team is truly a blessing. Our church also cooks for the family shelter 4 times a year and for the group of homeless men who are sheltered in our fellowship hall for a month every year. I've had to miss some of those opportunities due to other commitments, but I've cut back in some of my other commitments because those things are more important.

I'm sorry you were up this week. But I'm glad you're learning from it and are ready to fix it. This week will be better.

I had a learning experience, too. We took my son out to dinner last night to a favorite Italian restaurant. I swear the calzone was almost as big as the small (I think it was 12") pizza my son ordered. But it was mostly bread because it's stuffed. Then they pour marinara and cheese on the plate. I didn't know all of this ahead of time and I had a hard time figuring out how much to eat. I ended up eating half, and it was too much. They have variations on that calzone that would be fewer points and I'll order one of them next time I want roasted chicken and pesto.

My recent restaurant eating has taught me a few things and I thought I'd share in case any of you want to try my strategies. First, whenever we can agree on what we want, we order one of the item and an extra plate. The classier places split it for us without an extra charge.

If we can't agree, we'll take home the extras. I'm now giving the extras to Paul for lunch instead of eating them myself. He can handle the extra calories, but I can't. I do fine with the meal itself. But the leftovers added to those higher-point restaurant meals make it harder to stay on track.

The last lesson I learned is that I can't look at the whole plate and figure out what to eat while I'm eating it. I can't keep in my head how big the whole thing was once I've started eating it, so I don't know when I've reached a third or half or whatever amount I want. And I still don't have a good handle on "full". I'm working on that. In the meantime, I need to ask for a separate, small plate--a salad or appetizer plate. Then use the plate with the food as a serving platter. Take the amount I want and put it on the salad plate. Restaurant portions look like serving platters, not dinner plates, these days and that observation is what clicked for me in how to handle it.

Cherry, it's a balance between exercise and food that makes the difference. So, even if you exercise, if you eat more than you burn, you'll gain weight. It sounds like you might need to try to find some time to plan ahead, which may help you keep that balance. It's tough with young children, including a newborn. You might consider trying to maintain your current weight for a few months, until your baby is a bit older and you can focus a bit more on the program. Doing that isn't a failure. It's just coping with reality. Good luck!! Keep posting. We'll do whatever we can to support you.

YAY! Judy, that's fantastic! I know it's hard to be so close and having it come off so slowly. But it will and you'll be in onederland soon.

Keep on turtlin'! (Turtlin' is our own party. That's why I put the balloons, in case anyone was wonderig.)

Hi Turtles,
First of all, thanks for the kind comments. You Turtles are the best!

Second, Bandit, weigh to go! I you for not giving up and putting off good eating until your next TOPS meeting. Down #1.75 is terrific! :

MsMeri, gaining is not fun, but you seem to have a handle on what's happening. You have had an extraordinary weight loss so far and you've dropped weight quickly. I think a little "comfort" does sneak in once in a while. I'll be happy to hear the numbers from your next WI. :

Lin, yeah, when I grab a minute I'll post about my restaurant experiences too, but I like how you're thinking.

Okay, gotta run, but I'll be back soon.
Everybody have a good Labor Day weekend and enjoy this wrap up of the summer.
Judy
234.6/200.8/199.8 and into onederland

First, bandit--YAY!! I don't know how I missed your wonderful weighin results. Maybe you posted about the same time and it didn't show up on my screen because I hadn't refreshed it.

Second, my husband's company had layoffs, including him. It's so scary and I'm just trying to cope with the news right now. Anyway, this is going to be the biggest challenge because I've never been able to maintain, let alone lose, weight during a major life crisis. Especially one like this that could last a very long time. Anyway, I'm planning to keep on posting and do my best to stay OP because wrecking my health won't help our family bottom line.

Keep on turtlin'!