OK, Day 12 in progress. Thanks for all the positive comments everyone! For some reason, I just do not want to eat badly right now, and I do want to exercise--believe me, it will change again soon, but I seem to get like this for a week or two, then have a bad couple of days (or more) then have to fight to get back on the wagon and back in the zone. I've been noticing this pattern lately--and it really doesn't seem to have much to do with TOM at all. I mean, it could be hormonal, but since I am so old I'm not regular at all, so no real connection there that I can see. Weird. I'm just grateful to be in a good frame of mind right now.......

Anyway, finally using exercise to relieve my stress now (usually), instead of food, or reading. I still read, but I try to use it as a reward AFTER I've done my exercise--otherwise I could read the day away.....

Red--yes, we will get out of our "decade" and progress onward. I have to just look at how far I've come and I can see that results are accumulating. It just is frustrating--but I was like that around the low 190's and never thought I'd be in the low 180's consistently, but I am now so I know it just takes time.....

schmalger--you have DAILY headaches? Oh, that's rough! You haven't figured out any link, hm, like any foods or caffeine or position while studying or whatever? Do you have to take meds for them? I hope they aren't too debilitating for you--apparently you've learned to manage them.

Cyndi--7 servings of veggies/fruits is so admirable! I don't think I get in more than 6 usually, but I know I should get in more.....

Tech--Yeah, no one ever guesses my weight right--they are always under-estimating it. I guess that makes me feel better, but.....

At my lowest (in college) I wore a 5-6, and was about 115 lbs., but that was too low and you could see my ribs, etc. And still--I had what I though was heavy thighs. I guess I'll always be "thick" in the legs, (and hips). Oh well, I'd like to just get them firm again!!!

sunni--got rid of those leftovers yet? Pretty much done here, yaay!

miriam--do you mean you wear skirts all the time? What are you gonna skate in, just a really long skirt, or can you wear a split skirt? Yeah, pack some leggings, it will be quite cold to you in NYC.

Daily Exercise Day 8
Level 3
Exercise? Check!
Stats? 30 minutes on the elliptical – 4.70 miles

On a different note, I think I may have gained this week. (I’ve been cheating and getting on the scale, even though I’m not officially going to weigh myself in until Monday mornings.) Not sure why, honestly. I haven’t started officially counting calories yet – the plan is for after next week (final exams and insanely busy work schedule coming up). BUT, I’ve been really watching what I eat, and I feel pretty confident that if I were counting, it would have actually been at or below about 1500 a day, including on Thanksgiving. But you know what? I may be mad at the dang scale, but I am NOT mad at myself. I’ve accomplished a lot this week, largely thanks to y’all here rooting me on and my diligence at maintaining the connection for accountability. At some point, this weight will start going in the opposite direction again. So for now, I’m just going to relish in my accomplishment and keep at it!
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TechAlum – Thanks for the kudos! Great job on sticking to your “writing it all down” challenge. You’re 1/3 of the way there! Keep it up! And you’ll get there on the “face care” challenge – just you wait and see. It really is easier knowing you have to report in, isn’t it. It’s making a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE for me. I truly don’t believe I’d have made it this far without y’all here rooting me on.

modcat44 – DAY 12?!? You rock! That is FANTASTIC news about your positive attitude about “diet” and exercise. Boy howdy, and do I know what you mean about reading. I’m dying to finish up with school so I can read for leisure again. I am a certified bookaholic, and I’m not ashamed. No ma’am. Yeah…the headaches have been daily for as long as I can remember. I’ve been to more doctors than I can count, off and on since childhood. I’ve had CTs, MRIs, full physicals, you name it. I’ve had my thyroid checked, my blood sugar and cholesterol. Surprisingly all good. I’ve been prescribed migraine medication, blood pressure medication (though I actually have normal to low blood pressure), and anti-depressants (even though I’m not depressed), all to try and treat the headaches. Nothing worked except over the counter stuff, and that only occasionally. Back in July, I stopped taking ALL OTC medications, because I got worried about taking it daily for as long as I have. And I stopped drinking caffeinated beverages (I was absolutely addicted to diet sodas). Stopping the OTCs and diet cokes drastically improved the headaches, but they’re still here – just thankfully much duller than before. I’m hoping that an improved diet will continue to help them improve. (I have a major candy/sugar problem that I’ve drastically improved over the last couple of weeks. And I plan to add a great deal more fruits, veggies, and water as well.) Anyhoo. I have learned to manage them in the sense that I’ve simply gotten used to them. I’ve learned that I cannot wait until I’m *starving* to eat, and I cannot handle getting too hot or bending over a lot. Other than that, the super bad ones have gotten pretty rare. I can live with that. (Sorry for getting so lengthy, there. Long story, though.)

redballoon – Get on with those walking boots, girl! Sounds like you had a great exercise at the track, and good on you for skipping the free beer AND the bar. Talk about pressure; free beer at the track! GREAT JOB! You are so disciplined, and yes you are on a roll. Take your bow!

WTG everybody! Keep up the GREAT work – you inspire me every day!!

Evening all

Well I managed Day 3 of the no chocolate & 7 veggies/fruits and Day 2 of the weights/stretching challenges! Tomorrow it's back to work and the evil sugar free chocolate in my drawer. I think the trash can is my best bet with that.

The day whizzed by and I'm about to fall over now so a short note tonight. A giant to all you exercising, booze resisting, challenge acing Chicks Great job everyone!

Hi everyone, I'm back again! Between sick kids, sick hubby, and sick me I just can't seem to stay on task - Oh well that's life. I am here and ready to start AGAIN! I know once I get on track I can do this, I just need to get going!

I am also adding another challenge. I obsessively weighed myself this month and fluctuated up and down a pound, with only a .2 lb loss for the month. It really upset me and made me so much less motivated. So my new challenge is that I will not weigh myself AT ALL - I weighed in this morning to get a baseline, since I record the beginning of each month, but no more weighing for me. This may be a challenge, especially since I tend to weigh myself 8-10 times a day - it's terrible, I know!

So here are my challenges:
Exercise Daily - 2 pauses
Eradicate 1 bag of useless junk/clutter/stuff from my home - 2 pauses
DO NOT STEP ON THE SCALE - 1 pause - just in case I have to go to the Dr

Hope everyone is well! I'll post more later today!

Thanks for the encouragement everyone!

So I had an light Day 10 yesterday cause it rained and I wasn't in the mood to take a pause day or OMG go back to start - no way! So I ran up and down the stairs at least 5 times. I worked myself up into a sweat. Um that will count.

I'm really ticked off about my weight. I was up to 170.5 on Sunday. That's my highest weight ever that even before exercising was never close. Then today I was 169.6. Um. Ok. I thought it was the salty stuff I ate on Thursday that would be flushed out, but guess not. So today I worked out in the morning (walked 4 miles, woohoo!) and I come back and don't drink any water. Then I get on the scale to see the change. I'm down to 168.2. Huh? How can I lose 1.5 lbs in um 1 hour? Craziness. I'm so fed up with the scale. Not that I expected to see a huge decrease after 9 days of working out, but at least 0.1 increment decreases or staying the same, you know? That makes sense. This whole 3 lb increase just ticks me off. Boo.

modcat - all leftovers gone!! Actually, scratch that we have some turkey left but I'm the only one in my immediate family who eats turkey and it gave me a tummy upset so I'm staying away from it for now.
texscrapper - You can do it!!! A carrot for you!
redballoon - I walk my miles but I do it as briskly as I can. I used to jog at least a mile out of those 4 but then I started pushing off my workouts because I dreaded the running/jogging part of it. I'm trying to get into the habit of exercising in the morning before attempting to incorporate running. I need to make exercising once a day a habit. Ok, that was a really long answer for a simple question. Haha. :P

OMG!as my students would say! You girls have been really supportive over the last few days! I wish I could have taken you with me on my trip! I gained three pounds. It did not seem like I was overeating, but I wasn't being very attentive to what I was eating either, and the water was way down. But, I did finish my exercise challenge! Yes! I finally made it to 21 days!

So, new challenges for me:

Back to Adtkins induction plan for 21 days, starting tomorrow. Following the plan strictly and logging every bite I eat. One pause allowed.

Exercising at least 30 minutes daily. Three pauses allowed.

8 cups of water minimum, daily, one pause allowed.

This all starts tomorrow because I have already blown today. I got way off track with Thanksgiving and I have got to get going again. I will be back later to post personals. I need to catch up on all the chat!

Sheri

I am back!
I feel angry at myself and depressed because I gained over Thanksgiving. I was really pulling the old denial trick about what I was eating and thinking that I would just get back on plan when I get back. But, here I am kicking myself in the butt. I wlll just pull myself together and work on it all starting again tomorrow-see my challenges above.

I am over tired tonight and unhappy and I was going to post some personals, but I will do it tomorrow. I am glad to see everyone still here and a few new people, too! I am going to make a good dinner and go to bed and get rested up and come back with a better attitude tomorrow.
Sheri

Daily Exercise Day 8
Level 3
Exercise? Check!
Stats? 36.40 minutes on the elliptical – 6.50 miles

Oh yeah. You read that right. 6.50 MILES! I am a machine! Seriously, though. That's a new record for me. Once I reached 30 minutes and was already over 5 miles, I felt like I had it in me to keep going - so I did! I can't believe it. I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow, but it was so worth it to push myself. I think I could have gone farther, but my stomach has been upset today, and I needed to go ahead and stop when I did. Oh. And sorry about jumping the gun. I've *GOT* to stop trippin' over daily fluctuations on the scale, however massive they may be. Today I actually recorded a 1.20 lb. loss for the week. That brings me to -3.40 lbs. so far!
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CyndiM - WTG on your challenges. You're doing great! Keep it up woman!

texscrapper - I'm so sorry to hear about all of the illnesses in your family that have sidetracked you. I hope everyone is feeling much better! It's good to see you back raring to go! And do I ever hear you about obsessing over the scale! Why do we do that to ourselves? Good luck on that challenge; I'm not ready to go there yet. BUT I have decided that I'm not going to let massive fluctuations upset me. I know I'm doing what I need to be doing, and for now, that's all that matters.

redballoon - Thanks for the congrats! It means more than you know - ha, y'all probably all know! It's really encouraging to get affirmation from each other and remember that WE CAN DO THIS and we ARE. You're doing an amazing job on keeping up those challenges despite the many many pressures. I admire you! And I do think you're on to something with the MSGs. I eat A LOT of Lean Cuisines and Healthy Choice dinners because we stay so insanely pressed for time. It will probably continue through May, but after that, I plan to start cooking again. Cooking?!? What's that?!? I can't wait, honestly. I'm not only sick of those pre-packaged crap baskets, but I also enjoy cooking. So I'm looking forward to that and also the HUGE possibility that it will help reduce or even eliminate my headaches. I've already found several triggers (smoking - giving it up next week, caffeine, not enough sleep, etc.), so I'm still hunting them down.

Sunnigummi - Even more scale woes, I see. Sometimes I want to chunk that thing out the window, especially when we know we've been working sooo hard. But you're doing SO well on your challenges! WTG!! That number's gonna go back down soon, just you wait and see!

Quixotica - WTG on finishing your challege! It's so inspiring to see all of you successfully completing your challenges. It makes it that much more real to me that I can do this, too. And here's to feeling much better tomorrow! You've got some great new challenges ahead of you, and Thanksgiving is now BEHIND you! You can do this!

WTG everybody! You inspire me and encourage me everyday. That deserves some serious thanks and praise!

Day 13 almost done--but man the urges were strong today........
Had a bit of a shock about some financial (bad) news, and still wanting to go feed my face. But, I will not! But that's what I used to do, and I am learning to subjugate uncertain stressful times into something else besides food (at least today I am!) I am thankful for so many other things in my life, my good health, my DH, etc, etc. <just keep telling myself this...>
Who need's money? hehe......

Welcome back Quix, tex!!! Back on track, back in the game, now FOCUS! (talking to myself here as well....)

sunni--same problem here, can't get that darn scale to move and stay moved! Even after several "good" days in a row!

Red! Congrats on the journal completion!! Maybe I'll do that again, sorta fell off the FitDay bandwagon, thought I could do this in my head now, but maybe not......

schmalger--why oh why couldn't you live near me and come help push me to do 6.5 miles? I can barely force myself to do 3, and usually only twice/week. Oh I do some wogging about two other times/week, but often only can do about 2 miles or so. To me, my "long" run is doing the 3.1 or 3.2 "training for a 5K" I push myself to do. Maybe I'll be able to increase my mileage someday soon.....

Cyndi, Tech, Arabella, and everyone else lurking......

I did it! Nailed all three challenges again yesterday and followed through on throwing out the Dove sugar free that was in my drawer at work. For once I felt in control of that stuff! So 4 days of the no chocolate and veggie challenges and 3 of the stretches. I love this. One thing I've learned about myself is that I do a lot better if I have to be accountable to someone else and if I have a challenge. I reached goal last summer and immediately lost my focus (and gained 4 lbs). It took me a few months to get back on track but I feel like I'm on the way again.

Mod - Discovering I often actually like exercise and find it useful was a real eye opener for me. I've always been a stress eater (and a celebration eater and a boredom eater and an opportunity eater and, well, you get the idea!) so using exercise, especially yoga, has been great. The economy is making things tough. DP lost her state contract last summer and we've been belt tightening ever since. Why is it that belt tightening makes us want to do things that make that phrase a lie?! Hope things settle down for you.

Tex - We all slip sometimes. I think the trick is getting back on track faster each time.

Red - Love the kitty photos I'm like that with my babies too - it's embarrassing how often I can find a kitty pic and not a kid pic.

Sunni - Wow, nice exercise substitute! If you're exercising more check your measurements too. Sometimes the tape measure will show what the scale won't.

Quix - I'm always impressed that I can convince myself that if I don't log what I ate somehow it won't show on the scale! Today is a new day - get back on track and keep moving. You can do it!

schmalger - Wow!!! I am awed and impressed! You're an inspiration.

to anyone I might have missed. Another long day here so I'm getting good snacks prepped and planning my day. Have a good one wherever you are

Thanks Red and CyndiM for the good words. Yep, we will hang in there, who knows, maybe even come out ahead in the long run (after a few years?) I am extremely embarrassed to say this, but I want to say it to somebody, so I'm just gonna put it out there. I wanna tell you guys (only). Heck, you don't know me really so........

Anyway, I may have told you my DH was getting sued over a business deal gone bad. Well, we thought we could work out a payment plan or something, but we lost the judgement for the full amount, (plus interest and lawyer's fees, etc.) Ok........so then we thought just DH's wages would be garnished (up to 25%, it would really hurt, especially since his work and incoming collections have really slowed down, and since I have only been working 2-3 days/week, also b/c of slow economy, but......)

Found out this week-end the other party got a court order to take all of our money from our personal accounts! We had been told that couldn't happen, but without warning, $30,000 gone, poof!! That was our cushion to help pay our bills for the next several months as we have just recently started running in the red with incoming vs. outgoing bills, until I can get another job or two or three, and DH also, or until our primary businesses pick up. This happened as a whole bunch of checks were going out for the mortgage, cars, bills, insurance, etc. etc. And we truly have no back-up--having already cashed in most of retirement accounts this last year to cough up more money for the high down the mortgages now require, and the stock market halving what we had left, down to next-to-nothing now......

So a major scramble on Sunday to call/cancel all those checks, yell at our lawyer (who has got to be the WORST lawyer in the world!) and now, talking to a bankruptcy lawyer to try to be able to keep our house, etc, but maybe get this debt (and consequently our stupid credit cards, which I never would have done but for this HUGE problem) off of us.

I am one of those people who NEVER EVER EVER entertained the thought of bankruptcy, and we always worked hard to maintain our EXCELLENT credit rating, Always were a bit smug in our good financial sense, our education which led to high-paying careers, our ability to not get behind in money matters, our "fiscal responsibility". Now, ruined credit for 10 years, that's right, it stays on your record for 10 years. This is extremely humiliating........ I feel like an idiot, stupid, a fool, but also selfish and self-centered to just be worrying about something so trivial as money, when people all around me have cancer or disabilities, or lost loved ones, or have handicapped babies, abusive spouses, etc, etc. I have told DH if this is the worst thing we ever have to surmount in our life, we would be lucky to have such a good life. Problem is trying to really believe that right now.

Anyway, just wanted to open up just a bit more about this to someone or else I might burst. It has been on my mind constantly for about 48 hours now and I am coming to terms with it, but, what a shock, and finally an unescapable realization--about what we have to do to be able to survive. (with our house, hopefully, but if not, back to trying to find a rental with BAD credit and 3 dogs, or go home to live with family-in-laws with our tails tucked between our legs--OH GOD!)

I am generally the optimistic one, the one that can always see the silver lining, blah,blah. Imagine what I have been having to deal with with DH's extreme pessimism and discouragement--I am emotionally wrung out just trying to not let him lose perspective and keeping his spirits revived. I can even make weak jokes, like, at least my gym and pool membership is paid for at least 6 more months, or, at least I'm now eating about half the quantity I was used to eating only about a year ago, etc.
I foresee myself becoming an exercising fool in the next few weeks, as I try to work my self into exhaustion so I can sleep most of the night. Who knows, I may truly reach my goal sometime in the first few months of the New Year?

Anyway, I totally don't mean to be a downer and bring down the party. I just wanted to vent, and be honest and open to someone, (anonymously, of course........)

Hi All!

I hope you don't mind if I join this thread!
My challenges are going to be:

Drink atleast 8 glasses of water a day(no pauses)

Record everything I eat whether its on or off, because maybe i wont eat the bad stuff if i know i have to write it down later. (no pauses)


I can't wait to get to know everyone!