I haven't stuck to the healthiest food choices these past couple days which is a bit discouraging (kept making excuses, gotta stop that) but mood has been up due to some really good news. My sister and I created our own personal card game in college (drinking applies, yay college) and it might be getting published by a gaming company soon. My sister pitched the game over the phone and the company loved it so they'll be bringing it to a conference this weekend. Cross your fingers it does well! =D

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I am doing alright. I miss Mocha and my heart aches for him but the other pets are helping me through this.

Fiona, congrats on no cookies. That is such a hard thing to do, staying away from the sweets. Stress or no stress, I eat sweets and it is so hard to stay away from them. I am so happy for you. I am also so happy that you are getting back to doing your exercises, also a big accomplishment. yay!!!!!


Kathleen, I am sorry you gained 2 pounds. I know what it's like to watch the scale inch up. It is so frustrating. *hugs*

lilturtle, thank you so much for your well wishes. It means a lot to me. *hug*

CDubs, thank you also. You're so sweet to give me some support. I really need that right now. *hug*

shr1nk, thank you so much. *hug* I am trying to do ok. I have good times and not so good times. I miss Mocha so much but I will be ok. He is at peace now and not hurting and he always, always has my heart.

Have a great day, everyone. Much love.

I feel kind of yucky today. Something sad happened with one of the rabbits last night; I won't go into details but she decided not to keep her litter... so I am pretty bummed about that, and then my partner did something that was IMO very inconsiderate, even though it didn't register to him as something hurtful... but I still did my exercises, a huge accomplishment for me since I really wanted to go hide under the covers instead, and I think that the med adjustment from last month is working also. Trying to keep my chin up even though I feel exhausted and sore and sad and grumpy and didn't get to bathe this morning. So humph!

Kathleen, keep trying! I don't feel very inspirational this morning, but I believe in you! Maybe this would be a good time to look at your whole plan and see if anything needs to change a little bit? Also keep in mind, if you have been cheating at your diet lately then a little gain might be expected and you can compensate for it in your exercise and eating in the coming weeks. As for the snow, I like it ok, but only when I don't have anywhere to be Since we don't get a lot of snow, we aren't prepared for it so the roads don't get plowed/plowed correctly and it turns into a huge mess. Then everyone drives like an idiot so its dangerous to try to go anywhere. At my house, it was beautiful because we are surrounded by fir forest!

Dazed- Congratulations on your game! That is awesome!!!

Ohio, Still sending lots of hugs, and hugs from my dogs too.

Fi, I am so impressed that you have kicked those cookies! I intentionally have run out of brown sugar so I can't make any more, but then someone brought some in to work....And so many leg lifts, I can't imagine. I did a workout last night for the first time in forever, and barely made it down my stairs this morning. You are an inspiring lady.

Penmage, still sending you good thoughts. I hope that a resolution comes to you soon, one way or the other.

Hope everyone has a good day, thanks for letting me vent about my grumpy-ness. Hugs to everybody!

Chelsea

Hi everyone,

I just got home from the Dr and according the that scale I am down 8 pounds. I am so excited. That is the first time in a long time that I have lost weight. I know what I am doing and I am going to keep up the good work. I haven't been eating as much. I know it sounds simple but I have just had so much on my mind, I just haven't had food on my mind. I also haven't been drinking as much pop. *nodding*


Chelsea, I am so sorry about your rough day. I wish I could cheer you up somehow. The fact that you did your exercises is FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!! It is so easy to just crawl right back under the covers but you didn't do that. *hug* I am so proud of you.

We'll, everyone, I have to work tonight but only for an hour. I hope it is a good hour. Sometimes, you never know?

I will check back in tomorrow. *hugs to all*

I had a good day. A friend came up. I ate one little candy heart and chipped my tooth though. I guess I have no business eating any candy. lol We are getting a big snow storm starting tonight and tomorrow. Oh, well I don't drive and have no where to be tomorrow.

I'm doing much better. It takes me a while to get over things, but if I'm patient, I do recover. And it's snowing this morning! We look to have gotten at least 5 inches overnight. Unlike those of you in northern climes, we in the DC area don't get much snow. And I grew up in tropical Houston, where it hardly ever snows, so the excitement of waking up to a world gone all white and wonderfully hushed never fades. It's a great day for reading and for writing letters—just my style.

My diet continues to be boring but pleasant, at least for me: cream in my coffee, sliced turkey, cheese sticks, and an occasional package of macadamia nuts (low carb!). Every few days Bob makes me a marvelous Mexican omelet: that's my one gastronomic delight. Strange to say for a person who was once 351 pounds, I've never been big on food in general—just sweets. Now that I've given up sweets, I like my fuel needs to be simply and easily satisfied.

I seem to have injured a muscle in my right lower back doing my leg exercises, and last night it was spasming, so I had to pamper it with slow yoga stretches. It's a good bit better today, but I think I'll have to work out just my left leg for a few days.

Trish— Sorry to hear about your chipped tooth! I hate it when that happens. Did you get yourself a measuring tape?

ohiofreespirit— Way to go gal for the 8-pound loss! That's a significant amount, and I bet it helps you feel you're moving in the right direction. Give up that soda pop if you possibly can: I switched to flavored seltzer a few months ago, and it's really quite satisfying.

Chelsea— Ooooo, that was indeed a bummer of a day you had! But if you kept your chin up, that's what counts. As for my 600 leg lifts, I do them in 5 sets of 120, with rests in between. I do half on my side, half on my back. All you have to do is work up gradually, increasing the number per set by 10 every once in a while. And I count them in groups of 10 or 20, so the counting part is easy. I also do my right and left legs on alternate days, so each leg gets a full day to recuperate in between workouts.

LilDazed— That is such cool news about your card game! It must be especially fun getting to do it with your sister. =grin=

Kathleen— You have been so supportive to everyone in our group, I hope you feel our support coming back to you during this time you've been so discouraged about your weight. I care about you, girl! Remember that losing weight is 80% diet and 20% exercise, so why don't you focus on changes in your eating for a while, if you really want to make a difference on the scale. Cutting way down on the carbs would be my first move....

shr1nk1ngme— I hope your Cymbalta taper is going OK!

Ohio, I am so very sorry about your dear Mocha!!! I cried when I read what you wrote about finding him I read of someone who suggested telling our surviving pet(s) about the one who has passed, and I do that to our Eddie, about Tasha, who died five YEARS ago and I remember like it was yesterday.

Hello to everyone else, sorry I"m not able to say hey individually right now

I didn't sleep at all last night and I feel awful today. Just an emotional wreck. I've barely eaten though so the diet is still good. I have a tape measure somewhere, I just have to find it.

Funny you mention that. Even though I am on a very low sub-clinical dose of Cymbalta, I had occasion to discover that I can definitely tell when I miss my meds. Two days ago I was a basket case, feeling all emotional and panicky, raising my voice at the (annoying teenage) kids, losing my keys even though they were in my own pocket, etc. I figured out halfway through the day that I had forgotten to take my Cymbalta the night before. Ugh!

Then today I was feeling jumpy, rushed, and irritable, but I know I took my Cymbalta last night, so that couldn't have been the problem. Then I figured out that the iced tea I made, which I thought had no caffeine, actually DOES have caffeine - and I drank a TON of it. Oops.

So, lessons learned: no skipping meds (oops!), and no extra caffeine (beyond my regular morning coffee, that is).

I guess I will have to see how the taper goes. So far it is a very small difference in amount (something like 2mg less than last month) so I would be surprised to notice a difference.

Hello Friends! Just wanted to check in really quickly before I have to leave my house. No time for personals but I am reading along. Just came from the gym with my daughter. I so did not feel like working out when I got there, but I managed to do 35 good minutes on the treadmill and feel a lot better now. I need to remember this...... that I feel better (usually) after working out..... for the next time I feel resistant to it. Eating has been a tad bit better, but I know I have a long way to go in that department to get back on board with healthy eating and portion control. As you said, Fi, I need to really focus on the eating part since it is so critical to weight loss. I have thought about joining Weight Watchers. (My hubby is doing Nutrisystem for a month to jump-start his weight loss.) Then, when I think about all the work I would need to put into counting points, etc. ~ I figure I will put a real targeted effort into healthy food choices and portion control, and hopefully I can get that scale to budge DOWN!!! I really don't want to do another major commercial diet, since I lost weight on Jenny Craig awhile ago and gained it all and more back. I need to learn to be able to stay in control of my eating MOST of the time. I did order 3 books, including a cookbook, about the DASH diet, which is just eating focused on healthy principles (originally focused on preventing hypertension and type 2 diabetes, I think). Will tell you more about it once I receive the books. I am hoping it will give me some guidelines to follow while I focus on healthy eating and portion control. Another option is to also work with a nutritionist at the gym we go to, but I really don't want to go that route if I can avoid it. Trish, I am so sorry you are having a lousy day due to lack of sleep. Hope you can get a good night's sleep tonight! Hugs to everyone! Also sending good vibes to all!

I finally got some sleep today. Of course it screwed up my hours as I slept from 7am to 2 pm. Hopefully I can get back on track.

Bob and I have been goin' through a rough couple of days. His sister called him and laid a MAJOR guilt trip on him for not being more involved in the lives of various children in the family, especially his niece and her 7-yr-old son. It was nasty, because she got it all mixed up with the feelings from her messy divorce which took place 30 years ago and what she felt like as a single mom. Ugh. Poor Bob. He has treatment-resistant depression, and she's doing this to him!

Bob and I are an anomaly in his ever-expanding family for two reasons: (1) we have a successful marriage, and (2) we chose not to have children. We also both suffer from mental illness. So while we empathize with the problems of the profusion of single parents, we just don't feel like it's our job to be babysitters for them.

But it looks as though Bob may have been bullied into providing after-school care for the 7-yr-old. Bob is both extremely agoraphobic and social-phobic, so this is going to be really stressful. And of course his sister thinks it will be good for him: he hates it when people try to tell him what would be good for him. We're going over to his niece's place on Sunday to see what the deal is.

I am on the brink of buying cookies in response to all of this! I don't want to have a 7-yr-old whose only interest is in video games in our house! We don't even have any video games...I am SO craving sugar.

Trish: Glad you got some sleep. Hope you can get back on a regular sleep schedule soon!

Fi: Please don't succumb to the cookie monster!!! You have been so strong in RESISTING the cookie temptation. I don't want you to do something you will regret. Is there a more healthy (in all ways) substitute? How about writing about your feelings in a journal? That might help. So unfair of Bob's sister to bully Bob into taking care of HER child. Isn't that HER responsibility to figure out? Why do you guys have to solve HER dilemna?!? Hmmmmm....... I can see why you are upset. Just don't sabotage yourself over this. It is NOT worth it!!! Could you or Bob call her back and say that, upon further reflection, you are NOT going to be able to provide after-school care for her son? You would both be SO relieved!!! Let us know what happens! I am sending you to help you RESIST those cookies!!! STAY STRONG, FI!!!!!

Waving hello to everyone else! Hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day! We went out with our daughter and sister-in-law to hear our brother-in-law sing (Frank Sinatra style). We had a good time!

ohiofreespirit: Just wanted to check-in with you and see how you are doing. I know you are heartbroken over Mocha. I hope you are being extra kind to yourself and hanging in there! Sending you BIG HUGS!

Well, I'm just posting to say that my thoughtless sister-in-law has not caused me to eat cookies, or anything else with sugar in it. I'm hanging in here, stubbornly sticking to the diet, come what may.

Thanks so much for the support, Kathleen! It does indeed make a difference.