Patti - oh no, what's up with your eye/s? I hope that whatever it is you will get some help from the doctor for it today. Please let us know how you get on.

Missy - I am keeping my that you will be able to stay on track in November, exercise as much as you want to and that more importantly those scales will start showing great losses for you

Sue - just sent you a PM, thank you again for your efforts

Jill - have you seen my photo on the photo page, the one of me and Sharon together? You may notice that my living room space is TINY. I really can recommend a Gazelle Rider as the one piece of equipment you can use in a tiny area. It folds up, (in the pic it's behind me and Sharon, against my shelf unit) and when I use it, I just put my table up on the sofa and I am good to go.

Going to go do some more shopping on eBay now

Hugs,

Ammi

ammi i just have to go get new glasses its been awhile since i went. love that ticker!enjoy your shopping. i was naughty last night and ordered christmas gifts from pennys .. aint online shopping great!

Oh, I am having just the hardest morning. It feels like nothing is going right and I am just SOOOO craving food. I have already eaten more than I "should," but can't worry about it. If I am over for the day, so be it.

I got as far as taking some candy from the basket on our secretary's desk, before I remembered it is my "Victory Basket" and I have not taken candy from there since July 05! Can't stop now...

OH! I just realized, it is probably time for TOM! I don't usually have huge cravings then, but that combined with the stress would really explain why I just crave.... just anything!

I have already taken a walk around the building to calm myself down. I got a coffee (though that may not be the best idea...).

Goodness, I hate days like this.

OKay, for those of you who DO have TOM cravings, does eating the food you are craving HELP? Or do you keep craving it????

ACK!!

Congratulations to all those losing!!

I've had a busy couple of days and a rough couple. My second cousin was killed in Iraq and I'm not going to be able to go home to Chicago for the funeral... it's just too far away and too costly. Amazingly the stress of it isn't too bad and hasn't pushed me to eat, though I did wish I had a bottle of wine in the house - Katt I would have been downing way more than you did the other night lol. It's really a good thing that I found this forum when I did, it's family stresses that set me off binging and getting off my program this summer and that continued for months. Now that I've finally started regaining the ground I've lost - or losing it to be more specific! - I don't want to backslide again. So I'm here reading and writing instead of mulling and munching by myself in the house.

We have had so much snow that I haven't gotten back out of the house to walk. They haven't plowed our streets out here yet and we don't have sidewalks in this area (rural area where I am) and I really don't want to try and walk through three feet of snow or try to walk on packed snow-ice tire treads. Oy. But I've been trying to be active around the house instead and I'm excited about the new month with my first exercise goal starting tomorrow.

Nancy - I totally don't believe any of my losses so far! Maybe that argues the good thing of taking before pictures, because when I look at myself I can't really see a loss. I can feel the difference in the things I can do and to a degree in my clothing but yeah... the other day I was replacing the batteries in my scale and had the fleeting thought that maybe as the batteries had been running down it hadn't been reporting my weight correctly and when I got on it next I'd see I'd never lost anything. The ways we torture ourselves!! You're soooo not alone.

Ammi - a lot of that may be water weight. Have you tried using the Google 15 weight tracker? I've recently started using it thanks to the suggestion of a friend - it calculates your weight based on a moving average so the bumps where weight goes up don't affect your falling average so much. The friend that cued me in on it said that while it says to enter your weight daily you can also enter it weekly (in the day marks) if you don't weigh daily.

Katt - I've ordered the Disco Sweat DVD from Amazon along with a walking one so we may be dancing to Richard together soon Amazing that you're doing the pilates, it looks so difficult to me!! I think you'll love the elliptical once you get it, they're wonderful.

wyllenn - I think that depends on what is being craved! If I think I'm craving chips (Doritos used to be my BIG TOM food) I find that something salty usually fixes it. I try to go for sunflower seeds in that instance as it has a bit of a crunch too. If it's something sweet I'm craving, I actually burn a wax tart! I have a bunch in different "bakery" type scents and you'd think that smelling something really good would make you crave it more but I find that if I burn a tart and sip a cup of tea (when I'm craving sweets I go for chocolate orange or toffee flavoured tea with splenda) it makes the craving go away. There's a particular site that I buy my tarts at that I think have the best ones of the places I've tried, but I'm not sure if I can put the link here - if anyone wants it please pm me


Well it's getting late for me, and about time for me to go to bed (ah yes us night shift vampires). I actually got to see the sun today before bed at least with the time changing. Pretty soon that won't happen for a while as it'll be coming up after I'm in bed and going down before I'm up. Let's hope I don't get too whiny and drive you all crazy then hehehe

HAPPY
HALLOWEEN
EVERYONE!

Not much to report today. Still working to stay OP. Buying only Starbursts and Pop Rocks to give to the kiddies is keeping me out of the Halloween candy! (I bought NO chocolate this year! DH making peanut butter balls has been bad enough!)

Heather: I'm a firm believer in giving in to cravings. By that I mean, if I have a serious craving, and I don't eat it, I'll end up eating everything else there is around trying to curb the craving. I just try to eat it in (a) a low-fat substitute or (b) in moderation. For example...if I really want ice-cream, I'll have a low-fat ice cream bar. We actually have those quite often, keeps me from getting the craving at all. Or, if I just HAVE to have a bratwurst at a bbq - I'll eat 1/2 and give 1/2 to DH or DS or the dog! If I want nuts, I have trail mix portioned out in the cupboard and I can get that. If I want chocolate, I get WW individual ones at the store. I usually don't have Jilly's problem of just wanting more.

Katy: My condolenses to you and your family on your loss! So many lives lost...it is so sad. You are doing very well, coming here instead of eating. Keep up the good work.

Hey- All you Non-American chicks - Is Halloween as big of a deal over there? (Where ever that may be?) I love to know how people celebrate various holidays in other countries.

Ammi: You've got a great attitude! I better move my big butt, or you'll get to 100 before me! Amazing to think of, isn't it? I've been stalled for so long! But I'm quite determined to NOT start 2007 without being 100 lbs down. (I'll simply make time stand still if I have to! )

Sorry I don't have time for more replies right now...but I'll keep trying to keep up!

Thanks for your feedback -- I didn't give in to the craving -- and I'm feeling better.

I agree with Lilion that when I really WANT something (like ice cream) I usually give into it. But those cravings often come on more slowly. But this was like a freight train, and I didn't know if eating something sweet would help. What reallyl helped was that I had to teach a class and could really focus on something else for a couple of hours. I came back and had my sandwich and feel more normal and awake for the first time all day.

Oh, and TOM actually started! So maybe it is a culprit too...

Thanks for your feedback -- I didn't give in to the craving -- and I'm feeling better.

I agree with Lilion that when I really WANT something (like ice cream) I usually give into it. But those cravings often come on more slowly. But this was like a freight train, and I didn't know if eating something sweet would help. What really helped was that I had to teach a class and could really focus on something else for a couple of hours. I came back and had my sandwich and feel more normal and awake for the first time all day.

Oh, and TOM actually started! So maybe it is a culprit too...

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN EVERYONE!!

Lilion - Here in Canada we celebrate Hallowe'en just like the US. I love the holiday!! But what isn't fun is John working all the "important" hours - from 1230 to 9pm, ick!

Well...bad news here ladies...my weigh-in said a top weight of 323!!!! NOOOO!! But I knew I had been *really* bad these last couple weeks...I knew the gain was coming. I think 1.5 or so of those pounds is not a real gain...so I'm changing my ticker to -16 in 7 weeks...and if ALL of these pounds are "real" then I got a challenge...nutten wrong with that! Have a great Hallowe'en everyone!
Melissa

P.S. I'm posting a VERY, VERY silly picture of me and my guy in these insane hats we got yesterday - and sadly...yes, we DID wear them out in public, haha!! I will also post pics of our "cotumes" (we use stuff we already own...) later on!

ok . . .someone had to do it