Poor Andrew! I'm sure you'll look after your Honey, KAYLEY. I'm sure he'll feel miserable for much of the weekend, but I hope he mends quickly!

JULIET, Getting back to riding is a strong motivator. I think your idea of adopting is wonderful. There are some great organizations that "recycle" horses. I'm on a Mustangs e-list that has horses that need re-homing all the time, some trained, some not.

I lunged my 4yo gelding tonight, and he's getting the hang of the whole deal pretty well. We even put a little weight on his back for the first time. When there was a human up above his head on the stool next to him his eyes got a little big, but she leaned on him a few times and he was fine with that so we quit. We'll do a little more tomorrow night. He's really good about new things, but I'm not in a big hurry (since I can't ride him myself yet), and I see no reason to push.

Thanks for the encouragement AMMI. As bad as I was, I'm not too upset about the gain. I just don't like that it hit the 280's again, but I'll kick this in the hinny starting at the next sunrise!! It's just a couple pounds, and really nothing in the big picture, but I want to knock it off before I have to push my ticker back up. YOU, my friend, have been doing just AWEsome lately and I am SO happy for you. I just need to LEARN from you, too!!

MISTI - I LOVE those dried veggies. I've found them in Connecticut and, um, Michigan I think - dried squash, carrots, taro, green beans and sweet potatoes usually. YUM!! Their fantastic, but the ones I've had did have a bit of dextrose (sugar) in them as well as sodium, but not enough to worry about. I'd love to find them locally!!

Can you believe that 2006 is more than half over already??!!? Wha happen? Well, those of us with Christmas or year-end goals had better get a move on it!

Melissa, Patti, both of the Karens, Dogpal, Zelma, Brenda, Crock, Lilion, Luan, Maria Lucia, Nancy, Wyllenn, Xena, Tracey, Sharon, Jilly, Julee & all our other new or missing chickies or just chickies that I've missed - Chirp up, keep your chins up, and have an OP day!!

Hi Valerie... I am surprised you found those chips there! They are made by a place called Janzen Farms in Oregon and yes they have sweet potato, taro, squash, carrot, green bean, non-hydro canola oil. dextrin and sea salt. However, I looked up dextrin, which according to all the sources I read is not sugar but "Dextrin occurs as an intermediate product of starch hydrolysis and is achieved by either enzymatic action or by cooking." Example, forms when bread or cereal are toasted. (I got this from anyvitamins.com page.)

In any case, I consider it "good stuff" and as you said, not enough to worry about. In fact I plan to call the company to see where else I can buy it as the place I get it is only a summer market.

I am glad to hear you are finding them other places as that means I probably can too. Aha! I googled and see that Janzen Farms is located in other areas also.

Hi Everyone!

Yup I'm still here! Seems like this thread moves along quickly.

Ammi I found your photos finally! You're looking really good, wow! Your face especially is where I can really see the difference.


Nightkatt you're doing awesome, I see you are -6, you're kickin butt!

Thanks everyone on the congrats for my arriving in the 2's. Today the scale put me back up to 299.5 so hopefully after this TOM week it will remove itself again.

Everyone else looks like they are just moving along too, which is awesome!

This week has been emotionally draining for me. My first 4 weeks were great on plan.. then TOM hit. I had the cramps, tiredness, and the last 2 days I've been super angry and depressed too. I'm just a week away from hubby coming back from his 8 week trip and I'm tired of waiting!! I'm sure most of this emotion is hormonal of course. I feel the cloud lifting a bit tonight FINALLY. I haven't been a bad girl though, food wise, but exercise was not as much as I'd planned for, due to the evil one in me coming out. After I post a few messages here though, I'm off to bust a move on my eliptical.

The weather here has cooled off a LOT so whew finally I can sleep without spraying myself with a water bottle and fan blowing on me.

~ Angie

Forgot to add congrats to Kayley on her promotion! Way to go!!!!
and I hope your guy is doing well post op!

Last night when I did the weigh in when my hunny got home I wasnt sure if I should be dancing still or bawling my eyes out lol ...

When I first got on our old scales it said 141kg last week .. then when my JC guider rang me to find out the weight I had lost 3kg (was very happy .. dancing and all lol) .. BUT apparently they werent correct .. arggggh .. soooo .... when Scoot bought home the new ones from Jenny Craig I was told to add 3kg to whatever the new scales said ... very depressing to go back over the 140kg lol ... cos apparently my original starting weight was just under 147kg (323lb) .. didnt know whether to laugh or bawl my eyes out .. but then Im feeling better ... soooo Im thinking that my new weight as of yesterday is really my starting weight ... does that make sense? But Im still happy with losing what I have lost ... have also got my BMI which is terrible lol .. and I have to get my water up ... which is interesting considering Im at my TOM and I thought I was supposed to have a higher one lol .. but then .. I have never really retained water .. my hunny calls me a camel cos I never seem thirsty or need to go alot .... not sure now if that is a good thing or a bad thing lol ...

Sooooo ... its been a weird week ... like the idea of dancing tho .... soooo Im gonna get a couple of discs out and set up my stereo this week and boogie for a bit ... Im also gonna step up my flyer times ... determined to get to below the 140 this week if I can