Yo, Kaylets, I went ahead and joined WW online also until I get my at-home materials. I'm excited about this new plan and the food tracker seems to be working better than the last time I tried it. Does it seem that way to you?

Later. I need to eat now!

Oh, Punkin - how silly! If you're LIFETIME, you're LIFETIME. Sounds like someone didn't have much common sense. Even if he felt it had to be done a certain way, there are certainly better ways to express that than to say your loss doesn't count. Small minds!

On that subject (small minds), one of the things I've received is a supposedly condolence letter from a local minister in which he goes on saying all sorts of things I found offensive, not the Bible quotes so much as the fact that I feel he wasn't offering condolences as much as he was recruiting for his church/ I thought about it for a day and today wrote HIM a note telling him I thought it was an offensive intrusion on my privacy to use the loss of a loved one for his own purposes and inviting HIM to MY church. He also said if I came to his church he'd give me a big hug. Needless to say I didn't offer him the same. Ugh. DB said he also got that letter. He, other bro and DS all supported my writing to tell the guy it was a tacky move but they thought I'd be a little nastier than I was.

I'm a bit more teary today but managed to get in a walk, water and healthy food. Just a bit more healthy food (like maintenance level) than I would have preferred. But all in all, ok.

Empress-
Maybe the tracker is better- I thought I just got smarter with it!! heehee--
I'm not sure there is a new "way to calculate the points --I thought the values were the same but maybe I could be wrong-
Have no idea what the At Home plan offered but I would assume there has to be some kind of explanation of the Flex points.

anyway, I'm done eating for today- water only till I sleep!

Yo! Kaylets, I had a lot of trouble posting my food in the tracker the last time I had an account there ... one of the reasons I got tired of WW, but they seem to have fixed that. But, yes, the points are calculated the same way, I guess. Actually, I bought the deluxe (or whatever) home kit, which contains some kind of POINTS bracelet and a pedometer ... neither of which I need, but I'm just a sucker for this stuff!!! I'm going to give this new plan a try to push me into a faster weight loss.

Anagram, you did the right thing expressing your feelings to that minister. They come around here all the time from various churches ... if I'm outside I fix them with an Artemis-like stare and point at them and tell them I would prefer it if they stayed off my property and I did not want to talk to them. They look confused. I really am an evil witch, but I don't like to be prosleytized (sp?).

Avanti, guys!

Adieu.

Hello all!

Nice to be on time for a change-- Seems like most of August was spent about 15 minutes behind.

Empress- I've seen the WW pedometer at meetings and if I remember correctly, they were about $22.00. I also remember them as being pretty solid which in my opinion is a good thing becuase I had purchased less expensive ones but dropped, bumped into, walked on, etc the others and wound up replacing pedometers. What I finally figured out was I needed one to be pinned or permanently fixed on my waistband or they were sliding off my waistband all the time. Then, I lost interest ....
But as soon as I find the remaining pedometer I will start again.

Zadie- I'm late too- congrats and best of luck!


Punkin- Just this minute I am listening to last season's Parylight CD-- I just recently ordered this season's new one hoping I enjoy it as much-- Its not safe here to encourage candle use so I keep most for special occasions-- but I do know folks who are wild about all the scents ! Good luck.
********************
Today's thought is:

"Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success
that may come tomorrow. You have set yourself a difficult task, but you
will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming
obstacles."

Helen Keller
1880-1968, Blind and Deaf Educator

Question of the day:
"If you could go back and change one thing in your life, what would it be?"-- Table Topics

*****************

Take care all....

Ok-- You are my witnesses- I 'm still here messing around!

Look at this post I found

""Hi! I just wanted to pass this information on to you. I picked up a book today at the library called " Restaurant Confidential" by Michael F. Jacobson, pH, and Jayne G. Hurley. This book will blow your mind> it gives the lowdown, on many restaurants from fast food to the mall food. It has been featured on Dateline, and mentioned in several newspapers. The book covers the results of several studies of many different items on restaurant menus. It was suprising to me, that some of my favorite " safe" foods what very high in fat, cholesterol, and sodium. To give you an idea of how the information in the book is given, here is an exerpt" ( I hope I am not breaking any copyright laws here)
From: Chapter on Italian resurants:

Lasagna( 960 calories 53 grams of fat, 21 of them saturated) " An average 2 cup serving of America's favorite Italian dishes charges you an entire days worth of fat...The bottom Line: ( every item has a bottom line, which tells what you can do to lower the fat and caloric values, or substitute instead) " There's not much you can do to make this better, although skipping the melted cheese on top is a step in the right direction"

Most chapters also include a list of definitions unique to the type of food eaten ( Greek, Mexican, Chinese, etc) Several lists of popular items with Calories fat, saturated fat, cholestoral, and sodium listed.
No, I don't sell books, I just think that this is a " must=read" for any Weight Watcher! I found it to be very informative and interesting. You probably can read additonal exerpts at www. amazon.com"

*******
Just goes to show you that until it affects their pocketbook, ( just like smoking)
they will sell whatever without concern.
Of course, if you had a lot of Flex points or activity points to use, it wouldnt be so bad except
for so much saturated fat--
And I bet those aren't wheat noodles either!!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Has anyone noticed the Waist to Hip measurement w/the BMI tools?? I just made numbers up as I don't know what my exact measures are but was a little suprised at my results.
Need to measure and find out for sure but it did give me a different perspective-- sometimes we don't realize that we aren't as big as we think- --

Really got to go now!

Kaylets, once you read 'Restaurant Confidential' you'll never be the same. Better to know the truth.....and eat at home, I guess.

I had a revelation of my own recently. Garry and I would never dream of going into a fast-food place for a milkshake, but we'd waltz into a Starbuck's for a frappicino--which is just a milkshake, only more exotic. Finding out that the grande size [the medium-size] is between 600-800 calories has put a stop to that. Now I get an iced coffee w/ skim milk and caramel syrup to make it fun! Not as many bells and whistles as the frappicino, but no guilt either!

Eydie: Using my calorie counter book, I brought a grande frappucino in for 300 calories ... 290 for the drink itself (NO whipped cream) and 10 for a drizzle of caramel syrup. I wrote down exactly what I was going to order before I went in (I was interviewing someone, so wrote it on my notepad and read it off to them, repeating NO WHIPPED CREAM twice) and was very pleased with this. I didn't miss the cream. Also, a good way to enjoy Starbuck's, IMO, is to buy a bottle of the lf stuff ... approximately 200 calories, so I'm guessing maybe 4 points? Hmmm.

Kaylets, I have that trouble with pedometers, too, so likely won't use this one except maybe on walks ... I just seem to want to buy all WW new gadgets ... even though I always say I don't do WW! But I love Flexpoints. I think using this program for awhile will add some fun to my program. I'm tired of the Frenchdiet software I've been using, but will keep it for the future.

I like to do different things, so this is my new weight loss adventure!!! ONE-THIRTY-FIVE, HERE I COME!

Gotta go! to all, mentioned or unmentioned. [/color]

Good morning, regal ones.

I weighed in "officially" today. I'm at 210 lbs. For one BRIEF moment at the end of the last challenge, I weighed 207.8 so I consider that my lowest point. That being so, I'm up 2.2 lbs for this challenge so far. Considering all, I consider it a "VICTORY" that I don't weigh more.

Certainly won't make my goal of 205 by Monday but will meet my goal of being back on track.

Meeting with DSis today to finalize arrangements for shower on Saturday. Hope to yet make little cream cheese mint roses (that I dearly love). That will be a challenge for me (not to eat too many, that is). She'll understand if I don't do it but I had told her I would so I'll meet the challenge head on and try to be sane. Don't really fear overeating per se but will probably have small piece of cake and (maybe) a mint or two.

Now that I more or less have the knack of cooking for DH's medical needs, I've lost a lot of taste for some overly rich foods. Love lasagna but wow! that's a lot of fat. Food has become more just fuel for me - it was the eating out and on the run that was throwing me off but some of it I really enjoyed. Other stuff was just to keep me from passing out. Will be cooking home more again to try to tighten up his numbers for next bloodwork and just to keep us both more healthy.

Re what I'd change - I'm thinking, I'm thinking. Can't think of much of anything I'd do differently if circumstances were same and I was same old me. Maybe focus a bit more on self than on family but I always did have "me" stuff and I've enjoyed being a wife and mom. Possibly spend less time helping (the parts you might confuse w/enabling) birth family.

Let's make this a superhealthy day!

anagram- i hear you about the "brief moment" in weighing in less. I got down to 204 (after sweating to death out at Ozzfest) but the last time I weighed I was back at 210. I officially weigh in tommorow morning so we'll see. I am glad that I have finally met a challenge though. I wanted to be 210 and here I am.

So what's the next challenge going to be? The next think up that I see on the calendar is halloween. UNLESS you want to go all the way to Thanksgiving. That might be good.

Yikes! Fly-by postie, for sure. Yesterday was quite the day: trying to clear my desk of work before we leave on hiking trip today, had an extra assignment, discovered I had to take the car in for inspection, fix broken toilet, got a message that they'd like me to start my new job as soon as possible, so spent a good bit of time to-and-froing with contract and etc., got through conference call, went back to work after dinner. THEN, just starting to relax with my novel before going to sleep, DH came in and picked a fight. Upshot: I was too upset to go to sleep and worked until 12:30. Alarm went off at 5:30 anyway. Got up, back to work, took welcome call from editor. Trying to finish last few bits of work before we leave.

Intend to get assurance from DH before we go that we are going to attempt to relax this weekend and have a restorative time. Don't want to end up hitchhiking home from Fundy....

Have a great weekend, everyone! See you Sunday!

Hello,
Had a work meeting this morning so I am here later than usual. I have been having a very good week so far both with life in general and eating. Still do not have a scale at home, which I think has made me less neurotic about weighing myself. No way I am going to hit my goal for labor day, mostly due to bad habits durring bar study and the new scale blues, but I still feel very good right now.

My vote is for Halloween as the next challenge date. It is long enough for a good goal and yet not too long, if you know what I mean. Regardless, we need to keep this thing going

QOD: very hard question. becuase if i had done things differently in the past i would not be where i am now and i very much like where i am now. however, i know that there are some people i wish i had been nicer to, and i wish that i hadn't been so painfully shy when i was younger. i am still a shy person, but back in highschool i was disfunctionally shy.

I am intrigued by the new weight watchers stuff, but i know from past experience that i am not a weight watchers girl. calories in, calories out seems to be the thing that works for me. still, the gadgets sound fun.

at any rate, back to work n stuff

Guys, I think I'm hopelessly behind in responding to posts in this thread, so I won't try to catch up, but wanted everyone to know how much I appreciate you all. This is such an amazing group of open-minded and intelligent females (I think you're all females, but it'd be ok if that's not the case) who delve into all byways and highways of any subject, talk about anything at the drop of a hat and embrace all shades of opinion and ... well, anyway, you get the idea.

Wood Nymph, I sincerely hope you do not have to hitchhike home from Fundy, although I don't know where that is, but it's a neat name.

I would like to vote for a HALLOWEEN challenge (my favorite holiday) ... can't believe it's been a year since I thought about THE HAG IN THE DARK SCARY HUT! I sent her an email and she's on Weight Watchers now, but still scary!

Zadie, I totally agree with thee that it's calories in and calories out that matters ... and I'm not really a WW kind o' gal either ... I just like new games and I want that new points calculator!!! And the points bracelet, whatever that is ... I gotta have it!!

The points are being pretty kind to me, though. I REALLY love the Flexpoints ... am just humming along on this program at the moment. Yowza! One-thirty-five HERE I COME!!!

Re QOD: I just posted this quote on another thread: "You did what you knew to do. When you knew better, you did better." ~ Mayou Angela (sp?)

Amen, guess that's my answer.

Well, poop.

I have a big ol' postie spreadin' da luuuuv and it disappeared - apparently even copying it is only effective if you DON'T copy something else afterwards!

Just had a couple snipets o' wisdom:

First and foremost - happy Friday eve!

Anagram, I'm saddened by that minister's actions - people should be comforted by faith at a time like this - and he pulls THIS??? Well done you for calling him on it.
And yes, you mini-gain IS a victory!

AAAArg!!!! Must work and I don't waaaaannnnaaaa!

Be back tomorrow and will hide under the desk until I have a respectable post out!

Terri