Ubee & Donna ~ I'm so glad you two forgive me. I was so worried about everyone being mad at me for lying about my exercising and diet. Yeah I've exercising but not nearly as much as I know I should be and I havent been pigging out but I havent been trying as hard, You hit the nail right on the head when you asked me that.

TERRA: Everyone here understands what you're going through and I bet everyone has been where you are right now.. I know I have. Don't beat yourself up over this issue. You've recognized it and admitted it (which is a hard step!) and now it's time to get back on track. I know you can do it! We're all here cheering you on!

FI: Our house purchase wasn't quite so picture perfect as yours.. we had actually never noticed it before. :-) However, once we were shown the house, we knew it was the one God picked out for us and we were picking paint samples and packing boxes before we even heard back whether they had accepted our offer or not! Haha.. But I see us living here a good long time..

Everyone else.. I am sorry no more personals.. I hate typing on my phone.. lol.. Computer should be hooked up sooner rather than later.. cable guy came today and hooked us all up.. now I just need to unpack the computer and find a desk! Hahaha.. May you all continue on your weight loss journeys and have much success!! Love you all and hope your 2015 is an unforgettable one!

Donna I really couldn't tell you how I've managed to make it this far. This past year was tough for me but somehow I pushed through. I'm hoping this year will be better and even better on the weight loss front. You are so sweet to say I'm your hero...It puts a tear in my eye, really!! You are so lovely and I feel so honored to have great friends here to help me along my journey.

Betsy Yes I can!! Just barely and not all stores but it is a great feeling!! Unfortunately at my job they don't offer any benefits so this is something I will have to do on my own. I had my cable completely cut out 3 years ago so I could afford a car. I'm pretty much down to the bare bones when it comes to bills. I will have to seriously look at where all my money is going after bills and try and figure out what to do. Not even sure where to start with starting a plan and what is right for me. Life insurance is another expense I've been looking at.

Ubee I am in shock truly. I tried on a 1x shirt thinking it would fit and it was swimming on me I couldn't believe it. I have you and the girls here to thank for helping me push forward. How are things going with your eating lately? And I am so down to try and lose 10 by Valentines!

mnemosyne Welcome to the thread!! You will love it here!! Great job on getting yourself back out there in the dating scene. I'm shy too so I can totally feel you on that. You can do it!

shan 33lbs is outstanding!! You go girl!!

Samantha1776 Hi!!! I don't think I ever introduced myself and just wanted to say hello real quick!! Hope you'll stay awhile!

Fi I love it!!! Hope you and Bob are feeling better!!

Terra Nobody is mad at you sweetie!! Its a big step to just admit to yourself that you haven't been trying as hard. We are all here to help and I commend you for being so honest. Don't ever feel like you can't tell us anything ok?

I was back at work today only to be told by my boss that I have 3 vacation days that I still could have used. I'm just going to save them for sometime in the summer to have a long weekend out of town somewhere. It was a pretty good day overall. Back OP 100% and it feels great!!

I went to a free trial of a boot camp class tonight. I had a good time but it was cold and the cold air in my lungs and chest were too much for me that I'm not going to sign up right now. Its $60 for a month 3 days a week and I don't have those kinds of funds anyway. Maybe when its warmer I'll try again.

Not much else going on..I lost more than half the weight I gained while on vacation so I'm almost back to where I was. According to my scale it said I gained 10 lbs. I've lost 6 just in the past few days so I think I just retained a lot of water. I still haven't changed the battery in the scale but I'm sure its still pretty accurate. I'm going to lose the last 4 lbs this week..no excuses!!!

I love you all dearly and thank you so much for being here for me. New year,
New us! We can do it!!

Bllondy & Sam ~ Thanks for encouraging words, They help alot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Woke up at 4:00 a.m. this morning after going to bed at 7:30 last night. Its now 7:04 a.m. I have to start watching for my bus at 7:15 a.m. I have an appt. this morning. I hope everyone has a awesome Tuesday.

So it's back to school today and young man also starting stage school this evening. As he has problems with weight bearing exercise due to his feet and knee problems (thank heavens for swimming!) I am hoping that the stage school will boost his confidence. He puts on weight very easily and reminds me of myself at 10 so I want to do anything that will help encourage a healthy eating and exercising lifestyle......without setting him up for diet/binge cycle that has dominated my life. It's easier now that DH is on side as he wants to lose weight too. I managed to drag him on a dog walk this morning which was a small miracle in itself!

We are calorie counting for me and DH (but not for my son) as I have found that works best for me and just not having junk food in the house because it's easier for all of us.

186 days until I am Mother of the Bride! So I have a real incentive and I know this sounds a bit bonkers but I have always wanted to run(rather than walk) a 5k so that will be my goal after the wedding. Haven't mentioned THAT to DH as he will only start on about my arthritic knees and rubbish chest! Will just quietly increase my exercise levels as I decrease the size of my jelly-belly!
Sorry no personals today
Love to you all,
Donna

A frigid "Hello" from Wisconsin!
Donna are you looking for your outfit for the wedding yet? Not actual buying but getting ideas? This is a great time to push yourself. The pictures from that day are going to be around for generations.
Terra glad you are feeling more positive. You can do this. We all can.
Sam I am doing so good with my food these past few weeks! Now if you could just be my exercise coach I would be golden.
Bllondy is your smoothie maker unpacked?
Fi as I clicked on your baby collage my grandson was crying loudly in the other room. It made the collage a little too real. Hope you and Bob are on the mend.
Betsy if you think you can make that broom comment and just fly away for a few days and not get any jabs about it you are wrong.
Hi and well wishes to everyone else.
My diet is going well but I think I am catching a cold...
Have a peaceful day.

Good morning all. Ubee is freezing and we're flooding -- although I'm at elevation so no problems for me. My mental calendar resets for winter with the new year, so I feel as though we're off to a challenging start weather-wise. The reset is one of the many oddities that I tend to bring to the table.

Mnemosyne -- Good for you for putting yourself out there. Eventually one of the messages is going to look interesting and hopefully will result in a new friend.....or more.

Shan -- You are more living proof that actually staying on plan will result in weight loss. Good for you. So happy for you to be seeing the results and as Ubee said, sticking with it when you had a little gain shows some real stamina.

Sam -- Don't you love it when the boss tells you AFTERWARDS that you had more vacation time coming! Glad you're seeing such good results from getting back on plan and getting that vacation weight off. You're inspiring me to get myself in gear. Sam, it sounds like you're pretty careful with your budgeting, so finding more ways to save money might be a challenge. If there's no place to cut, you've mentioned that you do makeup for weddings. Any way to turn it into a more steady source of income? It's so hard to come up with the extra, but you are so right in beginning to save now for your retirement way down the road. Yet another thing about you that impresses me so much.

Terra -- I'm so glad you felt like you could come clean with us because a) it's very, very hard to do and b) it's very liberating. It is so hard to stick with this for days on end (and weeks and months and years), but hopefully we can both be a little more successful with a new year and a chance to do a reset. Just know that we all have been there and care about you so no one is judging you at all.

Ubee -- OK, I'll join in the Valentine's Challenge because I have got to break this cycle I'm in. Glad that school was just delayed for a couple of hours but I so remember being so cold that my back would hurt from shivering -- I swear I could feel my spine rattling. Good for you on getting back in the eating right routine. And thank you for implying that I have any wisdom to share.

Fi -- I am so glad you always include information about your collages because this one creeped me out a little -- I think it was the eyes. Loved your flying on a broom is a good thing. Now if I can just convince everyone else of that when I'm doing a fly by and knocking off the low hanging fruit. Hope you're beginning to feel much better.

Bllondy -- Oh, the joys of moving and trying to find everything that seems important but then we find we can actually live without it. The computer will appear at some point.

Donna -- How wonderful that the whole family is on board with eating healthy. The exercise will come and being able to do things as a family like taking the walks and swimming makes it seem so much less like exercise.

Think I'm caught up on personals. If I missed someone, I'm so sorry. I read everything and then took the car in for servicing so I may have missed a couple. I've got to get the garage finished up today as I intentionally left the area under the attic access for last. The contractor starts on Thursday and needs access to pull the wiring for some of the work I'm having done......that should get me moving!

Back on track with eating today. I know I'll feel a LOT better once about 20 pounds of the regain are gone again. My commitment for this year is to finally get down below 300 pounds. And I expect you all to hold me to it.

I'm still congested and coughing, but it's getting better, one day to the next. The kitties are having a growth spurt: we can almost see their legs and spines getting longer. They already, at nearly nine months, stroll around like they own the whole house, even the stuff we've squirreled away in drawers or up on high shelves. They look and move like little wild panthers, but tentatively admit they enjoy belly rubs. Such complex personalitites they have! We really do have two new people living with us.

I'm afraid that taste of the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, apple sauce & toast) got me turned on to eating carbohydrates, so the transition back into my modified Adkins routine is a rocky road. I keep craving BRAT, and am indulging in the occasional c-word. =sigh= I don't know how to draw a line in the sand and just quit the carbos cold turkey (except my nightly muesli, of course), but that's what I need to do if I'm going to get back to losing weight. If anything, I feel like I'm slowly gaining.

Maybe having made this confession will help me take the leap (mixed metaphors, you say? and why not?)... Maybe seeing my Qigong instructor on Thursday will help me break out of this phase... Maybe something serendipitous will come my way...

Wishing you all the best...

Samanatha - ahh, well. Not confident enough to start dating yet. Just confident enough to join a dating website. We will see where it goes.

Ubee - thanks! my successful journey has been over the past 2 and a half years. 1.5 actively losing and 1 sort of actively not-quite-maintaining. I suppose I lost a bit before that too, but in May 2012 I traveled to Peru and was 320 lbs, down from a high of obviously 370 a couple years before. Before Peru I was dieting and lost about 20 lbs I guess. Came back and just managed to make it work. Peru was really hard for me at that weight and maybe that helped motivate me? I'm not sure how I made it work, really.

Actually I traveled internationally again for the first time since Peru this summer, went to France. It was lovely. I had the best time, and as a bonus, the air travel was really comfortable for me. i.e. - I was no more uncomfortable than anyone else. It was brilliant.

SamIAm - thanks for the welcome back.

It's good to see everyone I remember like Betsy and MountainWalker too.

I am feeling good about the food, I am pleased with my new phone app - it makes tracking calories a bit like a game so that appeals to me I suppose - not the specific app, just the convenience of the tracking.

I am getting a cold, though.

Betsy I'm a pretty strong person so I'm sure I'll find a way to get my retirement fund started. I'm hoping this year I'll have more makeup jobs. I'm considering asking my friend who owns a salon if I could use a station on the weekends and try and lure her clients in to have a quick makeover done and charge only like $20 a face depending on how much they want done and give her a cut of what I make. I have quite a few hair stylist friends so maybe I can network with them and try and get more gigs. You know when you say I surprise you sometimes I just smile. I guess you feel how a lot of people have towards me my whole life when they would tell me I'm more mature for my age.

Ubee Eating is more than half the battle!! Glad to hear things are going well with your eating. I wish we lived closer so we could work out together!!

Donna Glad to hear the whole family is on board with their health. Mine is slowly but surely getting there. DH mentioned he wanted to get to where he stops drinking soda all together soon. So it sounds like he's one step closer to getting it together

Fi I'm glad you are slowly getting better. I know the carb cravings all too well...I know you know what you need to do to get back on track, just know I'm here for ya! =smile=

Well work was just like any other day. All of us went to the park for a walk to get some exercise. It was nice to walk and talk with them but I got nothing really out of the work out because they all walk so slow!! We did just shy of 2 miles and when we were done I wanted to exercise more so I picked up my bestie and work out partner and headed to the gym. We get there and there is not one space available to park!! I drove around the parking lot for 5 mins and couldnt get a spot!! All of the people on their new year's resolutiond were there I guess. My friend said it'll be like that for the next month or so then it'll die down. I sure hope so!! I hate being that crammed in the gym to where you can't even get on a machine. We ended up going to the park and walked but with her I could walk faster. Total for both walks I did 5.11 miles. It was on flat ground so I didn't burn as many calories as I do inclined on the treadmill but ot was still good. My legs are SUPER sore from that boot camp class last night so I am definitely going to take what I learned there and apply it in my own work out routine I am going to write up for myself and do on days I can't go to the gym for whatever reason or another. I have a feeling I'll be back to doing more home workouts for the next little while so that should be good.

Not sure if I mentioned this yesterday but next week will mark one year since I started my journey. I'm glad I've made it this far and it'll be super exciting for me on that day. I'll definitely be doing a happy dance that day.

Well lovelies I'll have to say...TTFN!! Ta Ta For Now!

After a very long internal conversation with my inner slob this morning, I actually made it to the gym this morning!! I really DIDN'T WANT TO GO when I wok up this morning....I hadn't slept well....it was grey and gloomy...there was a y in the day...you know the sort of thing. Added to that
I hadn't been since November when my chest got really bad. WHY do I do this to myself? I loved it! My knees were surprisingly good and I didn't cough once! Rather surprisingly it wasn't as busy as I had expected(Sorry Sam...I sympathise with you really I do!)

Ubee.....I actually bought my outfit for the wedding a few months ago.It fits me now (didn't then!). It is purple and dove grey and a floaty skirt and top. I also have a purple hat to match. It is Jacques Vert and is an obvious Mother of the Bride outfit which has been worn once and I got it for (drum roll please) £10 in the charity shop in our small town. It looks brand new! My theory is that if I lose weight I can have it altered as I paid so little for the outfit. The other side is that if I don't manage to lose the weight I want to, there is no pressure!
Mnemosyne: I know what you mean about Peru. I did a charity trek in Iceland in 2009 at about 300lbs and I really struggled. In fact I broke my leg....but that was an not related to my weight and makes fabulous story!

Fi...I am glad you are on the mend. I am sorry your carb cravings are biting you on the bum but you have kicked their a$s once so you will do it again!

Sam.....you will be surprised at how you can shave outgoings. I have had so little money for the last 4 or so years that I can't believe how much I used to waste. I love your idea about earning an extra few dollars. What about doing wedding make-up or makeover parties for 8 year old girls??

Betsy...hi...has the work started on your house? My boy started Stage School last night.....and LOVED it!!! They are starting to rehearse for Matilda which he knows really well. The teacher was really friendly and welcoming. It was such a success!!

Terra...how are you lovely?

Food choices have been on plan and now that I have started back at the gym my exercise level will pick up so with 185 days left til Mother of the Bride I am going in the right direction!!!
Big Big Welsh Hugs
Donna

Good Morning!
Donna it sounds as if you are really feeling motivated. Good for you! Ride that wave and don't stop for anything. Would love to see your outfit and hat. It sounds lovely. Enjoy this exciting time.
Sam what day next week is your anniversary? I like Donna's idea of charging to show young teens how to apply makeup. Some of us mature ladies could benefit from it also. Test the market.
mnemosyne do you mind if I call you muse for short? Thank you for sharing your story. Do you have any future travel plans? I find having an occasion in the future really helps me lose. It does help when we like and enjoy our on plan foods. Hope your cold is mild and short lived.
Fi I am so happy the kitties have blended with you and Bob to make such a loving family. Carbs ugh...
Betsy you can count on me. 10 pounds by Valentines and under 300 by 2016. Did you have a full day of staying on plan yesterday? How is your garage coming?

Another bitter day today. Waiting to get my house back to routine with school on time and my daughter off to college this Sunday. Food is good but as usual exercise is lacking.
Have a peaceful day!

Ubee ~ Yeah I'm glad I'm feeling more positive also

Betsy ~ Thanks for your kind words

Mnemosyne ~ What's your name?

Donna ~ I'm doing better, Thanks for asking

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up at 5:00 this morning, Its now 8:06 a.m. I just got done having breakfast. I'm gonna do my 40 min. Chair Exercises in an hour and then at 11:30 a.m. I'll do my 30 min. walking dvd and then at 7 tonight I'll do my 40 min. evening chair exercises. Scott and I have appt. at 1:30 until 3:30 p.m. today. Those are the only plans I have for today.

Good morning all. I'd give a weather report, but that would require being able to see the weather. It's a wee bit foggy out there this morning!

Fi -- I so sympathize with you and the carb cravings coming back. It is so hard and sounds like you're carb sensitive like I am. But keep mixing those metaphors and remember that you have to be strong and healthy to keep up with the kitties. Seriously, I totally understand!

Muse -- Hope that you're ok with Ubee's request to use Muse as I'm joining the Muse train. When I read your post, it dawned on me that I hadn't really checked your sig -- WOW! You've done wonderfully well and really stuck with it. Good for you. I don't think a trip to Peru is in my future, but knowing that getting the weight off makes travel so much easier is good to hear.

Sam -- Yep, you're definitely a very mature and got-it-together young woman -- much more so than a lot of people I know who are twice your age. Some really good ideas about earning some extra money. One other audience is at the opposite end of the spectrum -- those of us in the "mature" woman phase of life. It's hard to find products that work with multiple skin tones, and that's just on my face. Your willingness to go to the gym after having walked 2 miles at noon may be one of the factors in your success this past year.

Donna -- So glad you were able to go to the gym and not have a lot of pain. Work on the house starts tomorrow and I'm looking forward to getting it started and finished. Sounds like your young one is going to have a great time with the Stage School.

Ubee -- Hello my little popsicle. Just texted with a friend in central IL, and he was mentioning that perhaps I shouldn't be griping about the rain since it was -3 during the day there before wind chill was factored in. Stayed on plan yesterday and seem to be having a mini-whoosh this morning. Should make the trip into town interesting.

Terra -- Did you think that some of the struggles with the diet and exercise were tied to having to make the decision about Clyde? It's ok to cut yourself some slack when things like that happen. Don't know if that's the case -- I may be projecting my reaction onto you -- but sometimes it's just hard to deal with really emotional issues AND stay on plan.

I'm off to drop off a car full of stuff at Goodwill, hit the ATM, Costco, and the gas station, go for another doctor's appointment to get switched over to a Medicare approved provider for my bi-pap supplies, and then home to work on the seemingly never ending garage reclamation project. Every day I keep thinking it will be finished and I find a new pile of stuff that I have no idea why it's out there to begin with.

On the diet front, I love the results of Atkins, but just can't make the adjustment to being on such a restricted carb allowance. So, I'm going to follow the menu plan for a really old diet -- Sugar Busters. Same idea of limiting carbs and increasing proteins, but definitely more carbs allowed than on Atkins. I was on it once before about 15 years ago and lost 60 pounds on it. I do much better when there's a menu plan to follow that I can live with.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Betsy ~ Yeah I've been upset about Clyde but he wasnt the reason why I have been doing a lousy job with my diet and exercise but if he was the reason it would make sense.