Hummers, SUV's, BMWs... bah. Gimme a big 'ol honkin' Dodge Ram 4x4 Doolie with a horse trailer and I'm a happy gurl.

Raventoy - I second that

As long as Jim's doing the driving - not me I'm just as happy driving my little Jetta...cheap, reliable transportation to get me to Woodside/Portola Valley where the horses are!!!

PS...you should see the rig Dee Dee just bought - a COOL six-horse trainer that she attaches to her Chevy Hemi pickup...she took it to Reno for the Regionals a couple weeks ago - last weekend to the California Rodeo in Salinas...GOD I want to go next year and ride in the horse parade!!!

ATTENTION MEG !! (and everyone else too!!) I had SOME @#$% popcorn, but I swear two handfulls, and very small ones at that.... The voices ( musta been you guys)were SCREAMIN' in my head... so when the lights went out I had my CC and strawberries, and some water, and my son's popcorn didn't bother me at all after that... I feel really good about that.... So thanks to y'all for bein' here for me, ONCE AGAIN!!!!

Later!

Karen -- Your PM box is full... clean up time.... pretend it's a stall at the barn...

well I can't believe it but I got up at 5:45am this morning. I am an afternoon person so getting up at 7am is hard enough but this morning I had to do it so I could get loads of study done. (yeah yeah stop shaking your head morning people!) I have taken yesterday and today of work to study for my tax exam and so far I have done 30 case summaries with notes. OMG by the end of this I am going to be an income/tax genius! I thought that I would take a break and post before I go do my workout.

Karen: you are such a shocker with your PM box. By the way thanks for the Udo's explanation. It's abot the same price over here in Oz but I find it more effective than Flaxseed and you can't put a price on health in my book! As for the food thing - I gave up two things when I started BFL that I have never regretted - dried fruit and fruit juice.

Meg: I am a cardio freak with you...

Kanola: every time I see your name I think of the oil.... I saw that caramel yogurt as well and wanted to try it but I need to leave it for a freeday - the sugar! Speaking of free day I really need to get my language changed to reward or rest day. Freeday has developed an unhealthy habit for me that needs to moved on from.

Lana: I have a wind trainer for cardio it's handy but in the rain I just run in a fitted raincoat. It doesn't bother me much at all. As for the popcorn - well done for resisting the whole box! baby steps.

Jenn: You can NEVER look at too many transformations - they are very motivating and anything that keeps you going and consistant is good in my book.

Not sure if I told you guys but I had to write and essay about 6 weeks ago and I had a good complain to my lecturer about the way the question was written. Well it proved that I was write and heaps of people got the essay wrong. Because I had asked him and then dealt with the question correctly he gave me 10 out of 10. I had a go at him after I got it back and said that it wasn't fair on the rest of the class if it's the question that is wrong! He told me to stop complaining because I got the highest mark. I didn't think that was the point of what I was saying..... Some lecturers....

ok gotta go get friendly with exempt income now!

JC

Ok I went out to dinner tonite at Red Lobster. I was starving by the time I got there. It was sooo tempting to eat some shrimp scampi, stuffed flounder, or crab dipped in butter. BUT......I stuck to my guns!! I got a lunch sized portion of blackened tuna, with veggies. I even sent the salad back when it came swimming in dressing - I get mine on the side and fork stab it. My only "bad" was eating 2 of the biscuits, which was my carb, and a couple of bites of my mom's shrimp alfredo. Overall, a good dinner and I was proud of myself for making good choices!!

Robin

Good morning!

This is a very rushed post, as I'm getting ready to head out the door on a road trip with my daughter. Original plan was to go to FL to meet one of her online friends, but it's changed and we're heading North to Kentucky! A stop in Chattanooga, a stop in Nashville, and it should be a nice little jaunt.

Ilene - good for you on showing the restraint with the popcorn! I swear theaters are pits of temptation for me. You asked if I'd met my goal for 7/26 .. well, since I know tomorrow I won't be able to weigh in on my scale, I weighed today.

The good news/bad news is my goal was to be at 189 by tomorrow. I'm not, but .. I am at 190. That's close, and considering how badly the last couple months have gone between plateaus and gaining muscle and stress eating - it's considerably better than I thought it was going to be. I'd pretty much landed at a solid 194.5 last Friday, so being at 190 even seems nearly miraculous to me. I'm not going to worry TOO much about my food this weekend, but Monday I'm right back on it, and hopefully by next weigh-in, I'm down to at least 189, perhaps a little less. Being in the 180's means almost as much to me as dropping under 200 did. And it shows that this approach seems to be working for me .. for now anyway.

I hope everyone has a GREAT (and safe!) weekend!!

Raven way to go on your goal, the way the scales and fluctuation goes, 1# away is perfect in my books! Keep up the hard work!

I realized yesterday that it was my 2 year anniversary of changing my life. I got off a plane from a vacation in England (think beer and potatoes) feeling horrible, afraid I was diabetic, and weighing an alltime high of 175 (I'm 5"3ish). I couldn't zip my size 16 jeans on the way home. The next day I started "SugarBusters", which I still think is a great plan as long as you are not lifting to failure, and resumed exercising big time. I'd always exercised, so that was no big deal. 40 pounds down, I started BFL, and have remained the same scale weight (135) for the last 18 months, plus or minus 4 pounds. During those 18 months, however, my pant-o-meter went from 8-10 to 4-6 with a BRIEF foray into 2's. My bf has been more or less steadily declining from 27% to about 18% now. I'd like to get to 15% and stay there.

I re-read Meg's anniversary thread the other day and everything I feel, she said so eloquently, so I won't repeat it. I just want to reiterate two points: 1) that this is a lifestyle not a diet: you have to learn to love it in order to live it; and 2) although the scale has fluctuated up and down a few pounds and I still don't look like Susie Curry or Monica Brandt, the last 18 months have not been wasted time. I love the gym, the friends I've made there and on the various boards where I'm active, I love the strength I've acheived and some of the humbling lessons I've learned, and being 48 and strong sure beats being 48 with a saggy butt and having to ask the checkout kid to carry the dog food! Ok, enough of Mel's sentimental philosophy for the morning

JC- I hope your head hasn't exploded with numbers and case studies flying out your ears! You sound like my daughter: she always finds the wording problem or the alternate solution on exams and argues til she gets her way. A great talent and admirable trait for a student or adult, but boy did it annoy me when she was little! I think she should go to law school when she graduates next year, but she's sick of school at this point, and has watched a few friends study for the bar and wants no part of it. Speaking of which:SUSANJE!!! are you out there??

Raven: Congrats on your mini-goal. As Ilene said, 1 pound is a fluctuation: hate to be gross, but for me it's just 1 flush

Jennifa: Next time you are PMS'ing, try the TOM pancake recipe I posted on the recipe thread. It's saved me many times. Good for stress, rewards, "gotta have some vitamin choc" attacks, and perfectly legal. My new favorite treat is to spread a tablespoon of natural peanut butter on it- not BFL legal, but a good fat on my plan. Think soft reese's cup without the sugar. It's all mental!

Robin- I have Schwinn recumbent bike with about 8 different electronic programs that I bought about 5 years ago. It wasn't cheap, and I'm sure you can find something like it used. I love it and have probably crossed the country several times on it. My latest fantasy that gets me through HIIT is pacing Lance Armstrong through the Pyrenees. But I haven't crashed

Ilene: I don't know how you only have a little popcorn. for me, if it's 1 taste, it's the whole bucket. Good for you! How was the movie? I hate to admit it, but I love Mr. Bean too, and ds wants to see it. We'll probably see Sea Biscuit and Mr. English next week before everyone heads to different parts of the country.

Time to walk the already pacing pooch-
mel

Mel -- I am outrageously busy and don't have time to post much today, but HAD to say happy anniversary to you. We both started our journeys in the summer of 1991 and here we are, two years later -- same age and same weight! A year from now, we're both going to be back here posting about another year of successful maintenance under our belts, right? (of course, we'll both be having melt-downs about our impending 50th birthdays!)

Meg

PS -- what do you think you'll be squatting in a year???

Happy Anniversary Mel and Meg, you girls, along with Karen, are an inspiration on this forum I must say...

Mel -- "a little popcorn" was EXCRUCIATINGLY (whoa long word!) difficult, but I talked myself into my CC and berries... after I ate that it was smooth sailing... actually maybe next time I will eat it just before going out the door, and maybe once I get to the theatre the popcorn won't interest me? OR eat half at home and half at the theatre? Johnny English was funny... He's just too STOOOPID for words!!

Meg -- have FUN, FUN, FUN on your mini-vacation!!

Illene I can't go to the movie b/c I will eat the whole snack bar down. Actually hubby would rather watch a movie at home instead. He likes to watch in his undies. I don't think the theater would like that to much.

I must say that all of you even the ones just begining the journey are what keep me going. All of your stories and hard times keep me going. I know that my situations is not a terrible one but I still need help getting to my goals. Sometimes I feel like the people in my life don't understand what I am dealing with. All of them say that I look fine just the way I am. Why do I need to worry with all of the things that I am doing. Main thing is they just don't understand.

Hey all!

Robin, GOOD JOB AT RED LOBSTER!!!! Restaurants are such a pain. It's so difficult. I had the same dilemma on Tuesday. I ordered the chicken and plain asparagus, washed it down with Perrier. The thing that helps me most is remembering that I'm there to spend time with my dinner companions, not to pig out on the yummy food..... probably helps my conversation skills, too!

Raven, CONGRATULATIONS on your goal. You are a superstar! It's ALL YOU that got you there - you have it in you!

Happy Anniversary Mel, thanks for the pancake idea. I'll have to head over to the recipe thread. I usually avoid things like that because I'm allergic to corn (so no popcorn for me!) and sensitive to wheat, so my starches are all rice, sweet potatoes, and oatmeal. (see how BFL fits easily with this?)

I am giving myself a star today. I went to the gym last night and hit 10s on my cardio. Also lifted a bit, increased all my weights and did a good job. V. pleased and proud of myself. I used to only be able to do the lowest setting, but I think 2 years of yoga have brought me up a few notches so I can start building. I love yoga. It is so awesome. One of the things that is keeping me going is the yoga principle of "non-judgment" - that is, realizing that my body is a work in progress and that there isn't an exact (re: victoria's secret model) body that once I look like that I'll be done. Non judgment is helping me accept and live that this is a way of life and a lifestyle. I want to meet with my elected officials and get yoga into the school systems for exactly this reason. Young women in our schools are being saturated with judgments on the way their bodies look. Case in point - my soccer coach would tell us that we all looked like we were 7 months pregnant. This is not a good thing to tell insecure teenage women. If anybody has any other ideas about this please let me know.

Meanwhile - have a super weekend!

FINALLY getting a spare moment to post!!!

Well - Jim has a last-minute gig tonight...so I'm planning on taking my nephew (and my 12-year-old niece if she wants to tag along) to see "Seabiscuit" this evening. Popcorn...snacks...well...not that I don't LOVE 'em - I do! - but they just charge so darn much - when Jim and I went to see "A Mighty Wind" 2 medium sized diet Cokes, a 'regular' size popcorn and a box of Milk Duds (Jim MUST have his Duds!) set us back nearly $15.00. That and the fact that I don't carry cash with me (the snack bar doesn't take debit cards) helps keep me from snackin'. I AM, however, planning on smuggling in either a can of Diet Coke or a bottle of water though. Along with my Kleenex! (I told you I am a blubberer at these kinds of films...I also burst into tears watching the film of Secretariat winning the Belmont Stakes in 1973...I can get emotional sometimes... )

The "M's" (Meg and Mel) sound like they are gonna have a BALL this weekend...woo hoo! Happy anniversary Mel! And Meg, rest assured I am quite jealous...I know Jim and I have our 'lil Yosemite trip coming up in Sept. for our 5th anniversary but I'm thinking of arranging an overnight for the two of us either in Santa Cruz, Carmel Valley or Monterey - we both need some time away - as long as my sister can watch the kitties of course She tends to overfeed them though - okay for Sparky since he just throws up if he overeats, but when we came back from Miami Megan had BALLOONED into a Garfield-cat (although she's a ways away from being like one of my sister's work cats - who weighed 26 pounds at one point). She is such a greedy girl - she gobbles up her food, then after The Sparkster (who takes two or three bites, then walks away) leaves his dish, she polishes off his leftovers...eeuucch...

Jennifa - you should've had MY P.E. coach - I don't know if you ever saw the film "Saving Silverman" but Coach Dooley was a lot like the demented "NO SISSIES" coach in that film (by the time I was in H.S., P.E. classes were pretty much co-ed around here). At least once a week, the entire class would be forced to run (hobble, limp) around the perimeter of the school property (and trust me, it was - and still is - a HUGE area - ACRES) while the good Coach followed us in a golf cart with a MEGAPHONE urging us to "keep up with everyone else or have to do 50 sit ups!!!" (Of course, since half the Junior Varsity track team was in MY class, I was one of the stragglers). Ah memories...no wonder I didn't go to any of my high school reunions!

Back to work aauughhh...

Kempyd:

Good grief I get the same darn thing!!! All the time!! It gets really annoying... Even my Mom: "When you gonna stop doing these these exercises you do ? What time do you get up again? What for? Aren't you tired? What time do you have to go to bed to get up that early??" Cripes!! Most of my friends shake their heads and say I'm crazy... But I must say I do look healthier than they do....:P