Happy Sunday Everyone!

Mae:: Glad you're feeling better. Yoga sounds amazing right now maybe I should get some time in too!!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I always hate Sundays because I never want to go back to work lol. At least next week I only have 2 1/2 days. Annnndddd DH dropped a guilt bomb on me last night. I guess it wasn't necessarily him but his father. I guess he's still pretty upset and depressed since his mother died and begged us to come to VA even if it's only a day. It kinda made me upset because I had all of these nice plans for us to have a nice breakfast on Christmas and open gifts then pack our stuff for Charlotte so I can enjoy my birthday weekend. Plus I really don't have the money to do this since I've bought presents this year. So long story short I got swindled into leaving after work on Wednesday and we will leave on Christmas day in the afternoon. I have a feeling it won't be this way and we'll end up staying through the weekend and leaving Sunday and as always my birthday will just be like another day and won't mean anything. I know I sound petty but it just gets hard sometimes always having to do for everyone else and what I want gets thrown to the wayside. It's just not fair and for once I was excited to stay home. I sound like a bratty teenager and I hate that but it just hurts. Maybe one day I'll be first. I'm sorry you guys its my TOM so I'm being over emotional.


On a happier note I've made it to Onederland!!!! This morning I weighed 199.4! I haven't weighed under 200 lbs in over 10 years so this was a pretty big deal to me. DH kinda squashed that happy moment too today. But at least here I can share with you guys how happy I am and can feel how proud I am of myself.

Thank you guys for always being here.

Hi everyone.
Still not well and am extremely emotional.
Sam First I got angry because of your FIL sending you a on a guilt trip for your birthday and Christmas. Next I started crying when I read you got to onederland! Big/Hug to you SAM! Be so proud of yourself. You deserve a Super Hero Cape and a Crown.
Mae Glad you are better and posting!
Betsy give yourself credit for the 7 pounds. Wait until that moss comes off it will be even more of a loss.
Just got done looking in the mirror. I am so depressed at how large I am again. Whoops sorry. Debbie Downer. I promise with your help I will get through this.
Thanks for being here.

Ubee THANK YOU!!!! It was a big moment for me. Just sucks that there was so much drama going around for me to really enjoy it but it is what it is. I'm over it, going to just do what I have to do and try to enjoy my birthday.

Hope everyone else is well! I'm sure it will be quiet this week but hope everyone has a great holiday and will try to check in when I can!

Been a couple of days since I posted due to having Great Aunt duty with the boys. They spent the night here on Saturday so that their parents could attend a Christmas party. Sounds like everyone had a great time!

Mae -- Glad that you're beginning to feel better -- sounds like you got a really nasty bug. I'm very impressed that you even thought about working out let alone managed to get in some yoga. Good for you!

Sam -- I figured that sending you some hugs on getting your vacation either changed or voided was preferable to telling the men in your life to all grow a pair. Oh wait.......guess I worked it in anyway. We suffer from the woman's curse of doing for everyone and then feeling short changed. I'm convinced that 90% of our weight issues are from eating to assuage the hurt feelings from friends and family depending on us for everything. And, of course, we're our own worst enemies in refusing to learn how to say no. So let's commit to no more allowing people to impose their guilt trips on us. BUT......WOWIE KAZOWIE. You're in Onederland. I am just truly in awe, Sam, and don't let anyone rain on your parade. This is a huge, monumental accomplishment and you deserve to shout it from the roof tops. Ubee and I will do a cheer for you just to provide some comic relief to your day.

Ubee -- Feel better and it's okay to have a down day. This whole season is hard to get through for so many reasons. Still raining out here -- lots of moss growing.

I didn't watch things as closely as usual this weekend and gained a couple of pounds. From the size of my fingers, I imagine some of that will come off in the form of a whoosh. Back on track today. Not much going on. My big excitement for the day is I'm going to wash the baseboards. It's a thrill a minute!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Wow. It's really quiet here! Hope everyone is just busy with the holiday prep.

Sam -- I know the trip is not what you planned, but I do hope that you can enjoy Christmas. Maybe your FIL could kick in for some of the unplanned trip expenses. And I do hope that you get to come back in time to have at least some time in Charlotte. I've been thinking about you so much these last couple of days and especially your having reached Onederland. Such a range of emotions -- happiness, respect, awe, pride, and a little jealousy thrown in. You really are our role model for showing us that it can happen!

Ubee -- Hope you're doing better and get through the holidays with minimum temptations thrown your way.

Mae -- Hope that icky bug is totally gone for you.

I'm going to box up all the presents today for loading the car tomorrow. I'm also going to make the desserts that I'm taking today and will continue working on washing the baseboards. I don't know why I decided this would be a good time to do that, but I'm working on the annual baseboard wash down. Even though I dust them every time I clean, they just get dirt built up and need a good washing once a year.

Off to the gym. We had a dusting of snow last night and everything looks so pretty and clean outside.

Merry Christmas!
I slept through the night without a million coughing spells!
Now if I can get through the holidays without a 10+ pound weight gain.
Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas to all! Christmas morning reminds me of why I moved 3,000 miles when I retired -- 3 generations of family together to celebrate the day together.

Ubee -- Glad you're feeling better. The kids left a tummy bug with me -- just nausea, but I've lost 5 pounds from not eating.

Have a wonderful day.

Hi everyone.

Betsy I hope you are feeling better and that the 5 pounds stay off.

I saw a friend today who has lost a little weight. Just a little and she looked so much better. It was encouraging to realize that just a little can make such a big difference.

Stay healthy!

Good morning all. It's a foggy, rainy morning here and I have a desire to just crawl back into bed and veg for the day.

Ubee -- Yes, it seems that we notice weight loss in others and the difference it makes before we notice it in ourselves. My goal for this week is to lose one more pound so that I will at least be the same weight as at the beginning of the year. I remember saying sometime in early 2015 that I wanted to get down to 300 pounds and anyone could lose 50 pounds in a year. Evidently, I was wrong!

I was supposed to drive over the mountains to meet a friend for lunch today, but between the bad road conditions and my tummy still being cranky we ended up canceling. I'm going to start putting away the Christmas decorations and try to get some things done around the house.

Sam -- Hope you're back from your trip and that it did include getting to spend the weekend in Charlotte for your birthday.

Have a great day everyone.

Good Morning Guys and Gals,

How was everyone's Christmas? Mine was great. I weighed in this morning because I forgot to yesterday morning and I'm 290, Last Mon. I was 289 so I'm a little bummed but I'll get over it. Can you believe there is just 2 days left until Jan. 1st? Dec. went by really fast. I bet I can guess what everyone's new years resolution is!!!!!! LOL. Who is staying up to watch the ball drop on Thursday? I am, I am taking a long nap Thursday afternoon so I can stay up to watch the ball drop with Scott. Last year I went to bed before the ball dropped. I think Scott was disappointed so I dont want to make him disappointed again this New Years Eve. I hope everyone is having an awesome Tuesday.

Good morning everyone!

Terra -- It's good to see you posting today. I'm glad you had a good Christmas. Yes, I'll be "sort of" staying up to watch the ball drop. Since I live on the west coast, I watch it drop in New York at 9 PM out here and then usually poop out before it hits midnight out here. Is that cheating?!

I'm feeling much better and am successfully back on solid foods. I took my INR reading yesterday morning since I'm on warfarin for the a-fib, and discovered that it was in the "dangerously thin" range (5.1 -- supposed to be between 2.0 and 3.0). So, we're monitoring that closely and trying to get it back down. The doctor said that warfarin reacts to pretty much any change and being sick would definitely throw it for a loop. Just glad that I do home monitoring because I used to go into the doctor's once a month. Always something exciting at this age!

Random thoughts made me wonder about all the people who aren't posting with our little group any longer. I'm sure some of them have life events that just overwhelmed them. Some may have health issues to deal with. But I fear that a good number of them just gave up. For some reason I feel very hopeful for those of us still left. First, we have Sam as our example of it can be done -- THANK YOU SAM!!!! Second, we're still here. We may have had some set backs, but we're still in the game. Gives me hope that we will be successful this year in having more losing days ahead.

Time to let Toby out and get some breakfast before hitting the gym. I'm going to shampoo the carpeting on the stair going down to the basement today. Ugh! Have a great day.

Howdy, y'all! I'm back. Or at least I hope I am. I'm in a whole lot of pain today, so I won't write much. I just wanted to say that I read all the December posts, and am glad to see so many familiar faces: Ubee, Sam, Betsy, Terra, Melissa...

You were right, Sam, in what you said earlier in the month: I did fall off the planet. As some of you may recall, back in March the psych drugs I was taking for my bipolar disorder caused a massive screwup in my neurotransmitter metabolism, and I got something called serotonin toxicity. It causes rapidly repeating involuntary contractions of the muscles of the arms and legs—very painful, and in my case, very disabling. By the time I was off all the drugs that had screwed me up, I was in the situation of not being able to stand up, walk, drive, or climb stairs. Plus I went into a massive depression caused by withdrawing from those drugs.

I don't remember when I stopped posting here. I apologize for just disappearing and not explaining anything. Somewhere around early May I just lay down on the futon in our living room and became a totally horizontal lousy excuse for a human being, for four long months. I didn't see my doctors. I didn't do physical therapy. Worst of all, I stopped seeing Mike, my Qi ("chee") Gung instructor.

Finally, in mid-September, I pulled out of that deep funk. My muscles had wasted so much from those months of immobility, it was just ridiculous. Even my butt was noticeably flat!

Anyway, as I said, I'm in pain as I write these words, so that's all for now. My weight as posted is not accurate, because I lost so much muscle bulk, and thus lost some weight—the wrong way. As soon as I can manage it, I'll update my numbers and my ticker. I just wanted to say "Hi" to all of y'all. More news later...

I hope y'all have happy, healthy New Year's celebrations. =weak smile=

Good morning!

Fi - I'm so glad to see your post although it's sounds like you've been through the wringer and someone decided to just leave you stuck there. It sounds as though you've been through a terrible time, but it is such a relief to know that you're still out there. Hopefully, the pain will get under control soon. It takes incredible strength of character to cope with being in your condition. Hopefully you'll be able to post and keep us updated.

This will be my usual quiet New Year's Eve. I am going to get the bed changed today and do some outside chores while the weather will permit it. Hope everyone can say a fond farewell to 2015.

Betsy ~ I dont stay up until mid-night either, I just stay up until the ball drops in NYC on t.v. and then I go to bed but last year I didnt even stay up to watch the ball drop on t.v so I'm gonna make sure I do this time.

STOP! Please join us in the JANUARY 2016 thread.