Hi Gang
Just time for a "quicky". I've had a good weekend. Still struggling to get my butt moving in the morning and motivated to work out. I seem to be really run down until late morning....ach-y even. By that time, my exercise "window" has passed and I am full-swing into my day. I'm thinking I may still be adjusting to the change in diet and my body is reacting (or retaliating!) Late this afternoon, I went for an hour walk and was happy to go and it felt very good. Sooooo, my goal this week is to really work on getting my workout done early.

**Dena...thanks for the info in the stretching tape...I will definitely check it out. I think something like that would help "loosen" me up in the morning so I can move on into a work out.

**Bonnie...yes, my mother had knee replacement two years ago and it was over a year before she was "painfree", although she still complains sometimes that it "bothers" her. She is 72. Still, it is not as bothersome as the pain she had BEFORE the replacement. And I do know several of her friends who have an knees, hips, shoulders replaced and have no complaints.

**Flora...what a good idea..."mind over matter", so to speak. Can you share with us some of your mantras??

**Kandice....no, I am south of Columbus. But we now are having terrible flooding....in JANUARY!!!! School busses can't run and roads...heck, major highways, are closed everywhere. I think EVERY place in the USA is experiencing UNUSUAL January weather.

** Dollar?? Cole??? You still there?

Hi all, hmmmm...flooding, doesn't sound like fun. Seen it, but never experienced it. But we do have a ton of snow, which is great, it feels like winter. But it's also bitterly cold which sucks (-30's, celcius). I guess I could say that it makes it feel like winter as well.
Okay, a gallon of fluid a day WOW. A few questions about that, are you on the can all day, how about at night. Do you make sure you drink all your fluids before a certain time so that you're not peeing all night? How about weigh day. How do you make sure that your'e not up 2 pounds because you jsut drank a liter of milk? Just wondering. I think (or rather, know) that I often eat when I'm actually thirsty, maybe I should try what you do.
Okay Kandice, in that picture, you were in the white sweater? Okay the girl in the pic looks fantastic and doesn't need to lose any weight??? I'm a little confused
Tomorrow is my weigh day, I exercised well and ate like a pig. I think it will show up. I've kept up with my exercise though, and I feel good about that.
Well, goodnight all

okay, just finished biking. That's 9 days in a row of 1 hour of biking each day. And my situps, still doing well with those. Today was the first day since my New YEar's resolutions that I actually ate well starting is the hardest part, and now I've started. My fourth resolution was to drink more and really ahve to work harder on that.
well, it's after midnight and I'm tired, goodnight
diana

Dew Can- Congrats on the biking! That's something I wish I could/ would do. I know alot of people set it for a goal when they lose weight to run the marathon or bike or something but I would too. I don't remember the last time I biked though. I was young. (when I was 8-9-10 years old, somewhere around there, the neighborhood boys said, "I didn't know Shamoo knew how to ride a bike" )
and to your other post- about not needing to lose weight. thanks. My upper body has always been fine- I've been happy with it- My arms when I started exercising/ dieting were only 12.5 inches anyways and my waist was only 33 inches and My calves. I like my calves too- so knees down and waist up. what you can't see is the bum and thighs in that picture. They've come down a lot though. (lost 8.5 inches on each thigh)

I've going to Curves tonight (we're celebrating a birthday at work at lunch time so no curves lunch time ) I'll weigh in tonight too.

Movie review- we rented The Butterfly effect this weekend- it's been out for a while now but we hadn't rented movies in a long time. It was weird but GOOD! recommend it. and then I rented the terminal with tom hanks- it was cute. Chris didn't care for it though.

Have a great day everyone!

Hey, hey, hey~~it's weigh in day!

It's January 10. Ten days into the New Year. How are we doing so far this year? Are we sticking to our weightloss plans?

I'm happy to report that I have lost 4 1/2 inches. 3 1/2 inches in my waist, 1/2 inch around my bust and 1/2 around my thighs.

I'm proud to say that I've been eating right (around 1300 cals with no starchy/processed foods, exercise and 8-10 glasses of water.

OK, who's next?
(Hugs),
Dena

Dena, That's terrific! way to go!

I'll post mine after 6 pm. My newest "worry" is that I'm not going to be able to stop losing weight when I reach goal. I didn't do very well this weekend, not nearly as much water as I should have, lots of fried foods, little debbie snack cakes invaded my house (Chris stopped at the discount bread store Friday evening) and no exercise since Friday afternoon, all that and I still was down 2 lbs this AM on the bathroom scale. Maybe it'll (the weight consequence) show up- I can't keep eating like that!

Kandice,
Thank you, thank you very much! (Said in an Elvis style. Las Vegas, land of Elvis impersonators).

Good luck to you tonight!
Hugs,
Dena

Hope all is going well. I had a new program loaded on my computer and, of course, it messed up almost everything else! Aauugghh! So, here I am. I haven't given up.

Well, no change in the scale today. But, I just started back and my TOM is next week so I'm not fretting. I'll just keep pushing through until I see a drop. I have been op all week and have met my exercise and water goals. I just have to keep hanging in there!

Dollar-welcome to the board. You'll find a lot of support and encouragement here. I know it's helped me a lot!

When do we weigh in? Is it every week, every other or what? I'm just not sure. Any help?

Sounds like everyone is doing well from what I've read.

Skinny- every monday weigh in. Congrats on staying OP.

told you I'd post when I got back from Curves- I'm at 179- down 5 lbs from last week.

Got a sick "hubby", he came home from work today even- he never admits he's sick- so it's gotta be pretty bad... So I gotta go play nurse (and cook! ) tonight.

Have a great night!

Skinny, dont' let it get to you. Scales are very moody.

Dena and Bonnie, keep up being losers

I was down 2.5 lbs. So I have 7.5 lbs to go for Valentines, and 5 weeks to do it. Hmmm...so if I lose 1.5 a week, I'll get there. Now lets see if I can change the trackers in my signature.

Kandice, you must have posted while I was typing.

Congrats!!!!!!! That's amazing!!!!!!! You're over half way to goal!!!!!!!! Wow, 5 pounds, so...how'd you do it? You're such an inspiration. Just keep it going.

Diana

Thanks to all of you for your questions and concerns about the gym membership. Just to update you, after driving around for 30 minutes trying to find a place to park and talking to the over bearing sales guy, while noticing that there was not one piece of cardio machinery open, I decided against the whole gym membership. Mainly because they only offer contracted memberships and I do not know where my job will lead me in the next few months. (that's a whole other story ) Needless to say, my life is a little crazy right now. However, I will manage to rush home every day from work to walk the pup. We walked around Stone Mountain on Saturday and Sunday (5 miles around!!!) I wish I could do that every day, but there just are not enough day light hours. Can't wait until day light savings time.

So, my TOM came this past week and I was unsuccesful in losing any weight (probably in part to the chocolate attack I had, I wonder why?) However, I did maintain, which I guess is good. I am kind of discouraged, but I know that I just need to keep on with my points and I will be able to do this! I am so proud of all of you who lost, esp. Kandice-what a great job you are doing-5 pounds? I can only wish for that much of a loss, you are all such an inspiration to me to keep truckin'

DewCan~you are doing such a great job with your biking! Only 7.5 more pounds to go, I know that weight will literally fall off the way you are going!!!

Skinny butt~I am in the same boat as you with the TOM thing, hopefully yours will go better than mine with the whole weight thing. I don't know why, but I always make that week an excuse to eat bad. I hope that you have more will power than me. We will have to encourage each other to keep up the excercise and points! I am going to start going to the meetings with a friend from work. I know this will keep my butt in line, being held accountable to more people than just myself.

Kandice~again, I am so proud of you! Congrats on your loss!!! Good luck with the whole sick hubby thing, that will not be fun Try to disinfect the house so that you will stay healthy! Keep up your hard work, it is obviously paying off! I also meant to post about the whole relative thing, it is really hard when people around you are not supportive or when they say, "what will this one time hurt"? It is like I have to explain to them why I am trying to be healthy and then they just look down at you. Shouldn't they be happy that you are making this change to your lifestyle? I am glad that the step-mom visit went smoothly for you, mabey she is finally accepting your lifestyle change!

Dena~Congrats to you, too!!! You are doing such a good job. It seems like you are really on track. I know that you will have no problem meeting your goals!

tobaccygirl~Florida? That sounds so wonderful. Where exactly are you going in Florida? You will do fine, just stay on your plan and we will all be here for support!

Hello to anyone else I missed on this post. Hope that everyone is doing well towards reaching their goals. I am so glad we have such a good little group going here. Thank you to all of you for your kind words of encouragement, I really appreciate it!

Sorry so long, I had a lot of catching up to do! Good nite, see you ladies tommorrow!

How do I drink a gallon of water a day? Well, I have a one quart Rubbermaid bottle and I put 4 heavy duty rubber bands around it. I make sure I drink one bottle before 9, one before noon, one before 3, and one before 6. If I get to my time marker and the bottle isn't finished...I guzzle it. I just carry the bottle around all day and sip. And, when I finish a quart, I remove a rubber band, which helps me keep track. As far as running to the potty...yes, I do do that alot during the day...but sometimes it is the only time of my busy days that I get to SIT DOWN! SInce I don't drink after 6, I am usually "well flushed" before bedtime. By the way...I only make no less than 2, but no more than 3 of the quarts pure water...the last one can be green tea or sugar free lemonade, etc. I drink this amount for no better reason than to just keep myself feeling full. Seems to work:
I've lost 7 pounds since January 1. (and not ALL fluids...har har)

Sweetpea

Just wanted to congratulate Bonnie, Kandice, and Dew (and me) for being our big losers this week! And congrats to everyone else, too. This week wasn't easy~~trying to change our habits from eating Christmas goodies to training our bodies that this is now a new year and new way of eating.

Sweet Pea, thanks for the water explanation. By the way, how did the scale treat you this week? The author of Body Flex is Greer Childers. You can find info on the internet.

Cole, sorry about you gym membership experience. I understand what you're going through. I have been scoping out various gyms I wanted to try, and they all have that 2 year membership, drawing out of your account monthly. There's no way I'm giving my bank account number to these people, so they can take money out. I've heard too many horror stories.

Skinny, sorry about your computer problems. We weigh and/or measure on Mondays. Good luck next Monday. Not many weeks left until Valentine's Day... the final goal date.

Flora, how are you doing this week?

Hope I didn't forget anyone.
Hugs,
Dena

diana- 2 weeks ago- the week after Christmas I ate and ate and ate and then last week I went back to phase 1 of my low carb. no more than 20 carbs a day. That's how it came off. I'm on phase 2 again this week (40- 60 carbs) so I assume it'll slow down next week. YUP- half way to goal! The number doesn't look so bad now... actually looks attainable.

Cole- thanks for updating us on the gym membership. Is there any curves near you? They let you cancel your membership if you move 25 miles or more away.

Dena- I have heard horror stories too. actually a year or so ago I had my credit card number stolen. (I still had my credit card in my possession) Charged almost 4k on it. What a pain it was to get it all taken care of! I was going to Bermuda on vacation and wanted to charge my airline tickets and didn't have enough because the theif put me close to max. Fortunately they reversed all the charges- after a million papers for me to sign and a new credit card.
I did authorize Curves to take out of my checking for 12 months, but they're the only ones. No problems with them.