The melatonin strips are, well, I'm not really sure what they are, but they resemble those mint strips in that little tiny case that you pop in your purse and I think the ones I have are chocolate flavoured (not that they taste anything like it, but still!). I got them over the counter... in fact, I think I may have bought them at the airport... I'm not sure. But I definitely don't have a prescription for them. I've tried Nytol as well and the melatonin strips win hands down. I was out like a light almost the second I crawled into bed and slept really well, not waking up constantly as I had been before. I only needed to take them for one night before I was on schedule enough to get back to my own sleeping habits.

Sorry, no MySpace here.

I would say doing Pilates consistantly between now and your cruise you will definetly see results in your inches. It seems to really tighten everything up and because you are working your abs the most the building of muscle there will burn your tummy fat alot faster. Where are you going on a cruise to? I am going to Vegas for my birthday in March, so I plan on starting Pilates again to get some extra inches off before then

I am on myspace user name is steph0320.

lizzie - OMG your son sounds absolutely adorable. What wonderful support

freedom - is a mini stepper different from those huge things they have at the gym? I'm invisioning things that look like bicycle pedals on the floor... Hrmm... Always looking for more ways to work out in our (very small) living room!

zoesmom - I'm sorry to hear about your babies. And having trouble sleeping doesn't help either! Hopefully you find something that will help with that, I don't think I've ever taken anything to help me sleep so have no suggestions but I can offer these: And no myspace here, either...

Jane - thanks for stopping by my blog Thankfully everything has worked out, though it's still pretty stressful. I wanted to tell you don't worry about calling me Judy, that's a logical thing to do with my screenname! Someone ought to write up a big book of "Netiquette" so we all know what to do in every situation



So let's see... It's been 3 days since my last work out I was doing great with exercising every day or every other day, but with all the stuff I had to go through this week all the sudden I just lost the motivation. I'm going back to it tonight though, no question -- right after I get a hair cut. (Yay, hair cut! It's something I've put off for way too long...)

I'm getting nervous about my WI. This will be my first since I gave away my scale... So I have NO idea what to expect. How the heck do others deal with this? How do you deal with not knowing until you're THERE? What if it turns out horribly? Should I expect the worst? That's not a good mindset to get into... I have no idea how to prepare myself for this! ACK! I'm really, really hoping for a loss this week... even a teensy one... I need to see some motion in the proper direction or I'll have to start seriously questioning my ability to do this thing. I think I'm just getting myself too worked up about it.

Hey, I wonder if my haircut will help my weight go down?

I only weigh at my meetings and I know that if I followed the program the way you are supposed to that I don't really care what the scale says. The scale is not my only measure of success. It's all a mind game and you have to get yourself into the mindset that the scale doesn't matter. If you know you are following the program andyou know that you feel better you will have success regardless of what the scale says. Good luck on your WI!!

That's funny about the hair, but...A few months ago I was dieting on my own and not doing too much, just watching what I eat and being a little more concious. Well I had really long hair (and my hair is thick) and I decided to go have it cut and donate it to locks of love. Well I lost 4 pounds of hair. So it is possible

Steph, we are cruising from LA to Mexico. I am so excited. I have never been on a cruise before, and I think this is the sort of incentive I needed to get my act together!

A mini stepper is like a stair master but without all the bells and whistles and it is only the size of about two shoe boxes put together side-by-side. I tuck mine under my desk when I am finished. When I was using it regularly, I noticed a huge difference in the firmness of my legs and also, it made my rear end quite a bit smaller! Of all the places on my body that I wouldn't have minded keeping a bit of extra weight, that's where I lost it from first! I really recommend them as an at-home exercise machine. They're not very expensive and doing it 30-50 minutes a day, four or five days a week, really helped tone up my legs. You can adjust the height of the steps too. I just put a DVD on and start stepping!

steph - Wow, that's a lot of hair!! I certainly don't have that much... maybe 3" that need to come off... so we're talking ounces here

freedom - thanks, I'm definitely going to look into that. I love working my legs, and it'd be nice to have something relatively mindless that i can do when watching a movie or something.

Zoesmom -- first of all, I am sooo sorry to hear about your losses.
I just wanted to comment about you "bringing all this up has nothing to do with WW" when in fact it DOES. Your stress, along with other factors including job, happiness, etc. has everything to do with weight loss. It all plays a factor in how we lose.
I'm glad you are posting, especially since talking about it makes you feel better.
Take one step at a time, don't dwell on your slip-ups, and try to plan. (easier said than done, but surely there must be a day that you would have to yourself that you can sit down and plan out a few days worth of meals). Maybe on one of your insomnia nights you can pull out the pen and paper and start planning, and then take another night to chop and prep some healthy choices to have for when you do wake up. Just a few suggestions.
to you, and with the program. You have come to the right place for support!!

Hi all,

New to the whole WW boards but not to the whole dieting world. Just wanted to say HI on the chat thread, and also confess that I am in binge mode today, and having JUST STARTED WW Flex, I've already used 15 of my 35 Flex points!!!

Seeing as I'm also quitting smoking today, I'm considering giving myself the weekend off of counting and start Monday. Wow the relief I just felt by saying that!! Yeah, that's the plan.

OK, off to the first 5 hours of a weekend long class about psychological assessments....uuuuuuuggggggggggghhhhhhhhh...

S

Don't worry, last week I hit Saturday and had used all my flex points, and my week only starts on Wednesday! lol Some weeks are better than others, as I'm sure you know from past dieting experience! Quitting smoking too? Trying to do that and lose weight at the same time is, I imagine, quite a feat. It will certainly be good for your health, though, to put away those cigarettes, not to mention your wallet! I had two grandparents die of smoke-related cancer a few years ago, so I applaud you for getting out of it now and not putting it off, as my grandmother used to ("I'll quit next year", etc). They both smoked almost up until their last days because of their addictions. Good luck shrinkinglizzy!! I'm rooting for you!

My grandma was like yours Freedom, she passed away about 25 years prior to my grandad, she was totally addicted. It kind of made me hate smoking, but I have smoked myself in my younger days, but something made me puke after having a ciggy and that was the end of that.

Lizzy, don't get stressed about the flex points, I would recommend still keeping some kind of record of what you eat, I'm at 41 FPs, my week starts on tuesday, but I'm afraid if I don't keep track I'll just totally let loose.

We decided to have a treat night last night and now I have to just keep working my program, we're not going to lose every week of our life, so we have to learn to get back OP after slipping.

So, now I have to drink some more water (for some reason this is a constant challenge for me anymore, I have some good days and then I can hardly get myself to drink 20 oz. a day! sheesh) and get on the treadmill. We had ice rain and then regular rain so my outside walk was impossible

Anyhow, best to everyone...thanks for posting, it helps me even if I just read everything and don't get a chance to post!

Well, I made the BBQ Chicken Chili for dinner tonight and it was FANTASTIC! I had to modify it a bit because of what I had and what I didn't have, so I used less ingredients. One can each of the beans, a bottle of sweet chili sauce so I could omit the molasses and brown sugar (I used a bit of regular white sugar instead), half an onion, four chopped up chicken breast steaks, a red pepper instead of a green one, a can of tomato puree, garlic and cumin. I didn't use any of the other things because I didn't have them. It was the best chili I have ever had. It burned my pot badly, even on the lowest setting on our hob, but it was soooo good I don't really care! lol

Quiet board the past few days I hope everyone is doing well.

Freedom--I am glad you enjoyed the chili. I am eating my last bowl of leftovers right now I will have to make more this weekend. It is 80 degrees outside right now so hard to be enthused about eating chili.

Well I just wanted to check in. I have WI tomorrow and not sure how that will go, d*m* beer!!

Hey, hey, hey!! Hope all is well with everyone. Today is a better day for me. I generally try to save my points for the afternoon an evening and I never use my flex points. However, yesterday I thought I would enjoy a larger point breakfast and it threw me off the rest of the day. I only get 23 points so I have to be choosy.

How do you all split up your points?

Steph, I must find this chili recipe and good luck with your WI!!

Found the chili recipe!!!