Your post made my day too!

I also added hard-boiled egg whites in the morning for breakfast. I just need them.

We are on bedrock so we will need an above ground version. I think if we start on the small side--just a few plants of this and that--we should be ok. We're empty nesters so with just 2 adults, we won't need a very large garden. You sure have planted the seeds for hubby's next project!

WHOOOOHOOOOO Girl! Way to GO!!! I'm so proud of you. Keep up the great work.

I went swimming yesterday. Hubby and I wanted to finish cleaning out the pool--they are enlarging a road just outside our subdivision and the sand blows into the pool, making it almost impossible to keep clean. I came up with a nice little attachment to our pool vacuum and volunteered to get the sand out of the corners. I about froze to death. BUT-- the good news is that I was able to get into a bathing suit that I had bought years ago and was never able to wear. It doesn't look great, because I'm still so big, but at least I can wear the suit.

Happy MOnday everyone.

I worked last night and am feeling exhausted this morning but still got up and went to my cardio class and feel a little bit more revived. We are off for a walk when my youngest wakes up from his nap, finally the wind has settled and we are going to take advantage fo the nice weather.

I had a slip up and had some cheese and a cracker ont he weekend but have been back on track so here is hoping for a great WI this week.

Happy Monday to all!! Today is my official end of my first week on IP, it hasn't been the easiest but to look down on that scale it makes it all so worthwhile!! I go in tomorrow am for my first official weigh in and measurements and I'm so excited to see what just one week has done! Apparently the weekends are going to be the hardest for me with the other half home all day eating everything possible that I cannot have. I have to be understanding towards him that he has Type 1 diabetes and needs food but it's so darn hard to watch him enjoy all the goodies with no consequences.

Highlight of my weekend: Going to Whole Foods to do a little shopping and running into the "nutrition lady" that works there. She overheard the other half and me talking about finding new things I can eat and asked about my diet. I explained it to her and at some point mentioned it was meant to put your body into ketosis.....well, she just about lost it on me and began speaking REALLY REALLY loudly that I was going to kill myself and I needed to march over to her section if I wanted to learn to eat right for life(her words). I decided to amuse myself and stroll on over there and I was in for a shock, not a single food was a "real food" every item was either vegan processed into something else like sausage, cheese, chocolate, etc.. But I could find nothing that was even close to fat free, carb free or recognizable(except for the cupcakes from the bakery shop). At first I felt berated for her basically embarrassing me in front of people that my diet was BAD for me but then I got a chuckle of out her idea of a diet and simply said, thank you, but I'll stick to my diet where there are actually veggies and real meats. I like hearing other peoples' perspectives but apparently she can't do the same, so frustrating! Sorry for the rant...

You're gardening comment made me laugh, we both garden the same way!

Definitely sending prayers to all those people in Slave Lake, hopefully everyone will also be praying for many folks along the Mississippi River, mainly now in South LA as they open all the levees to relieve the pressure. I know too many people that will most likely be loosing their homes and their livelihoods. All of my family is down there.

Good morning everyone!!

I'm new to this site and this is my first post. I just wanted to introduce myself and hoping to meet alot of people who are in the same boat as myself.

This is week 3 for me. The big day is wednesday for my WI. I've done many diets before and I'm really hoping this is the last one. I had a great W1 and not too bad for W2. Found out a few things that I was doing and shouldn't have. But hey you learn as you go. This is why when I found out about these forums, I joined right away. The more information I can get, the better.

Hope everybody has a great week and great success.

Thanks,

Jo-Anne

W1: lost 9.6 lbs and 18.5 inches
W2: lost 2.2 lbs and 5 inches

WOW! The garden sounds fantastic and looks great. I just looked at your progress pics and you look amazing, congrats on the weight loss!! Seeing everyone here and reading the stories keeps me so motivated knowing that I can do this. Thank you!

I love this line- it is so important to be thankful whether it is for pounds lost or lessons learned- thank you for the reminder

Thank you. You will find lots of information and helpful people here on this site. Good luck to you in your journey!

So Juice if I pay for your airfare to Nebraska plus a hefty wage, will you plan me a garden JUST like that?! Wow! So impressed!!

I'm nodding along with those talking about taking better care of yourselves now that the scale is going down. I'm growing out my hair, getting my nails painted regularly, wearing heals again and enjoying clothes shopping for the first time in forever. It has been many years since I felt this good.

I had a tough weekend. I injured my toe badly Friday afternoon and was in bed hopped up on codeine all weekend. The codeine made me nauseated so all I ate were restricted bars for 3 days- no veggies, no other protein, no vitamins. I hopped on the scale this morning and I'm a pound down. Go figure. This week I want to work on my salad dressings. I have a love affair with blue cheese (less than a carb per serving) but it has 16 grams of fat per 2 tbsp. I dump this all over my salads and I need to be more honest with myself that this is probably causing a stall. I'm going to go browse the recipes and see if I can find some home made dressings that sound good.

Here's to a fabulous OP week to everyone!!!

Congratulations on being so very close to where you want to be- it's very inspiring! Just wondering how difficult it is to stay OP when at your campsite? We are going camping this weekend and we have a camper so I don't think it will be too bad- but do you have any tips?
Thanks!

Thank you. I could come out and build you the same garden. It would take a weekend. Are you close to Omaha, I have family that live in Omaha. LOL! Hefty wage huh?

I just finished my first week and lost 10.8 lbs and 6 1/2 inches. I am doing the happy dance. This diet has been harder than most (mentally), but also a bit easier than most because we are told what exactly to eat so we don't have to think about what we put in our mouths we just eat what we are told. I told my DH what I had lost and now he is thinking he might do this with me. That would also make life easier.

Juiceman- nice garden! Wow you have a lot of energy and probably a good back, right? I have a garden plot at a community garden and it has raised beds. I only have 10x13 feet to work with so I mostly just planted tomatoes. And some herbs, and some peas. I have one garden bed left which I need to fill in with more dirt and maybe I'll do cucumbers there? Or if I can get my mom to give me one of our wonderful black raspberry bushes, I'll plant that and rhubarb (in the fall) and maybe a gooseberry bush, also from my mom's farm. I'll go take a picture this week and post it here, and you can laugh at how small it is. But this is the first year (after waiting on a list for 2-3 years) that I got a plot, so I'm really happy about it. I was out there watering at 7:15am on Thursday morning and there were these beautiful little yellow birds with striped black/brown/white wings. I don't know what they are called, but they were singing beautifully and flying around together, and perching in this totally overgrown plot! It was a little slice of heaven.

My thoughts are with those in Alberta and Lousiana.

I am so tired from the weekend. But I just finished writing a proposal that my boss said was really good. I had a burst of creative inspiration for the executive summary. I'm usually so bad at writing those but this one came out great!

I'm having a phase 1 day today after starting phase 4 this weekend and celebrating my boyfriend and his sister's graduation yesterday. I only gained 1.2 pounds so I hope I can lose it in a day. Last time I did IP, I never did proper Phase 4 and "reward" days because I didn't feel like doing phase 1 later. But now it's no problem! I think it is a really important part of the program and I'm tweaking phase 4 to work for me (with less carbs, none at dinner specifically). I hope to maintain well this time! This whole weight loss/maintenance is a journey and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it!

All your victories sound wonderful! Keep up the great OP work everyone!