Thanks to all for celebrating the achievement of my 2nd mini goal along with me. It was much appreciated! I'll rest on those laurels until next Monday's official WI, and then set the next one.

Congrats to everybody else who also reported losses and small victories of any kind.

I'll be 40 in 1 short month! I haven't quite decided how I feel about it yet.

I can sooooo relate to the frustration of losing the same weight over (and over and over) again. I think I'm working on these same pounds for at least the fourth or fifth time. It gets in the way of feeling like I've really achieved something, even though the rewards are obvious in the way I physically and mentally feel with 75+ pounds gone this time.

It's extraordinarily hard for me to be patient with what is a comparitively slow process when I yearn too for that 220 pound mark which is the best I've done on a diet in the last many, many years as well. Under 220 I'll feel like I'm breaking new ground, making new strides and perhaps on my way to a permanent solution to this life long struggle.

Noooooooo......you'd take 28 grams at this point.

Seriously, I imagine it can be tough to stay focused on the issue of excess weight and continue to participate in and contribute to the dialogue we have here without the 'reward' of weight loss. So way to go, and thanks for sharing your wisdom etc. with the rest of us while you try to crack the scale movement puzzle.

Oh I so hear you. We were getting snow up and into last week. Supposed to be super nice and warm and sunny here for the next few days. It's amazing how much it can lift the spirits. I had a tough winter emotionally with this and that, and I know I've been waiting on real spring for it's external signal of change and the passage of time.

Anyway, I'll be raking things this weekend!

WHAT is with all the sewstresses here. I am insanely jealous, due to the fact that I can't sew a straight line. Unless of course I'm trying to sew a crooked line.

Well, the scales are safe for another week. I think taking them out front to show them a bus going by did the trick. I finally lost the weight I gained over the St. Pat’s Day / Birthday / Easter time. Now I can start losing stuff I gained since the marriage. I’m sitting here watching the snow fall again. If I didn’t want to listen to the Yankee game getting ready to start, I’d just go back to bed until the snow stopped, probably some time in July.

Ammi-I understand better than anyone what a long journey this can be. Women who can reach their goals in 6 weeks to 6 months just have a different mindset. To them it is temporary like taking a certification class and getting diploma at the end. For us it is more like college/med school/internship/residency. We have to learn just about as much about health and nutrition, and it can take just about that long, at least in my case. I think in the long run we will end up healthier because it has to be a lifestyle change, a life long change, not just a diet. I know a lot of skinny people who are really unhealthy inside. They never have to learn about nutrition. My mom had two younger sisters that she has now outlived who were both tall and skinny and couldn’t gain weight if they tried. They both had terrible diets, and ended up dying of strokes.

Zelma-We don’t seem to have the time anymore for the kind of craftsmanship that went into old buildings. I guess without TV and computers and phones, they had lots of time to do things that we can’t even imagine. I think that is why I enjoy sewing so much. It is a dying art. If it wasn’t for quilters, my sewing store would probably be out of business. There is a tailor here that has been a family business for a 100 years and is The place for a formal custom made Canadian military uniform, and it’s closing, not because they don’t have enough business. The economy here can definitely use several custom tailors with all the oil money floating around, but he can’t get enough sewers. Most of the old ones have retired now, and the last 10 years most of his employees have been from overseas. New immigrants are going to the oilsands, so he can’t get enough help to stay open. My gown pattern also came with a matching cape pattern. A lot of Irish wedding gowns come with a golden cape instead of veil. I decided that since the investiture is in October, I’m going to need some kind of coat, so I’m going to make the cape. I’m puttering with the idea of making it reversible with a rain side and the other side in my tartan. I saw some shiny rain coat material that was light and drapey, and kind of a champagne color that would look nice over the red. I’m still debating.

Sandy-That was great news about your step-daughter. I remember hearing so many parents at the little league say, “well, at least they’re not on drugs.” That has got to be a huge weight off your shoulders.

Emily-With a new dog, I know you will be getting lots of extra walking in. Happy Anniversary.

Michelle-That’s horrible about the cats. It makes you want to feed them nothing but canned tuna I’ll bet.

Donna-4 pounds is great, especially with the upheaval over losing your meetings. They make sewing machines with drop-in bobbins now. My machine was made while Ford was president, so it doesn’t have the new style.

Nancy-I understand about wanting something to be over soon. Just be careful you don’t jump at something just because you are tired of looking. I had one of those power failures this morning with my exercise and had to stop after 30 minutes. I try to remind myself that I am burning more fuel than I am taking on, and sometimes my body just can’t keep up.

Toofat- I know that when I am in pain, that is all I want to do is sit or lay down. I hope you feel better soon.

DJCJ-I remember when I was helping my mom make a wedding gown and all the bride’s maid dresses. I started having double vision after awhile. 20 costumes is wild. You get the Edith Head award. Happy Anniversary too.

Meta-Thanks for keeping at me. I am really trying with the metric. I have had so many nasty plateaus that they seem normal, even if irritating. The three month one where I was really staying OP and working really hard just about did me in, but I survived it. This one was more of me being wishy-washy. I’m working really hard right now, so I’m glad that I don’t have to destroy my scales yet. I sewed in the beginning because I had to or go in a toga made of bed sheets. Now I do it because I’m too cheap to buy or alter clothes. My mother sewed, but never had the patience to teach me. I could cut out and alter patterns by the age of 9, but I didn’t sew until my 20’s. I took lessons, I watched sewing shows on TV, and checked out books from the library. I bought old sheets at garage sales to use as practice fabric, made lots of mistakes, but finally started producing stuff I could be pleased with.

Dyan: Welcome. I hope you will find lots of support and friends here like I have. These ladies are wonderful!

Catherine: Hugs to you. Congrats on loosing the St Pat., Easter weight. Keep up the wonderful work. I am sooooo looking forward to seeing your dress. I love all the things you share with us. You are an amazing seamstress.

Terry: Good luck at WW. I loved the meetings. I was nervous to stay at first but found myself really enjoying them. Unfortunately I didn't loose on the diet. Hope you have much better luck than I did.

Ammi: Yep. Day 3 of Optifast. I am doing okay so far. My tummy is less growly today. lol.

Em: Happy Anniversary!

Mechelle: UGH. Not again on the pet food. This is getting scarier and scarier. Glad your kitties were at the vet in time. Hugs.

Donna: Yea. Congrats on -4 more pounds. Way to go.

Nancy: Yippeee to you on another -3 pounds. Praying you will get the apartment of your dreams. Hang in there.

LeAnneCarrington: Whoop Whoop to you on another -2 pounds. So happy that Lappy is working for you!

Carolyn: Happy Anniversary to you too sweetie. Hope it is a wonderful one.

As for me. It is day 3 on the Optifast program. I am doing pretty well with it. I had an oxygen mornitoring test while I slept last night and the results were supposed to be 90% or better and mine were at times as low as 50%. So, I'm pretty sure I will be going to have the sleep study test soon. I also had an EKG today for the Optifast and some of my squiggles looked not so great. My Dr. is pretty sure that it is because of my obesity. I knew this already but they had to do the test for Optifast. There are so many things happening to my body due to being obese. I just hate the fat. Not myself Catherine. I won't go there. I just hat this fat. I am sooo determined to get it off of my body. I hope we all can do it ladies. I am so thankful for you all and pray for you daily that we can overcome this obesity that is killing some of you and myself slowly if we don't get rid of it. Hugs to you all and a big cheer for healthy living and getting healthy.

Blessings all,
Annie

hi all! it was so fun reading all your posts and catching up on whats been going on in your lives.

Annie - OPTIFAST? wow. i had a coworker that did that, and she lost a tremendous amount of weight. Good Luck to you on that

I havent weighed in in a while, mainly because i havent been home on my meeting days and the rest of the week has been insane. last weekend my cute friend (his name is Bart) and i along with some of my other friends went camping. that was fun. so much so that we are going back this weekend. this time just he and i. im really excited. we went and bought all the rations we are gonna need for the weekend, and will head out tomorrow afternoon. I have an interview at ICON entertainment (the company that did Passion of the Christ). im pretty excited

school is almost out, and if i do the summer and one more year, i will finally be done... its onmy my AA, but i will be the first person in my family to graduate College. im pretty excited about that too.

i am trying to pop in more often, but im so busy a lot of the time i just sleep... lol

i hope you are all doing well

*hugs*
Luan

Annie-I’m so glad you seem to be okay on the Optifast. I do understand how you feel. At times it is like the fat is an alien infesting your body. After seeing the list of chemicals and hormones fat can produce, it’s no wonder. I will be the first person to admit that I truly hated myself at one point. I think admitting to myself that I did allowed me to do something about it. The sleep apnea could be the reason that you are tired and a lot of other things. I will continue to pray for you.

Luan-I was the first to graduate in my family, and I know how big a deal that is. I wish I could go camping. I’m close. I can get up and down off the ground, but whether I can do it in a tent, I’m not so sure. My husband has always volunteered at a summer camp here, and wants us to go this year. I think I’m going to wait until next year. I want to give myself the time to get some more under my belt so to speak. I have to remind myself that I’ve only been walking about 2 years, so I need to give myself some time to rehab all those atrophied muscles.

Catherine - its only taken me 10 years to get this far... with school that is.

im lucky in that i have always been athletic and of my 300 lb body almost 200 (174) is muscle and bone. im REALLY insanely muscular under the fat. no one believes me that im 300 lbs. we went rock climbing last weekend and it wasn't even a struggle for me (im a tree climber...). which is good. hopefully i can handle 2 days of it this time..

Metachick - SNAP, I can't sew a straight line either. Just today rather than sew up the hem on some new trousers (pants) I used that stuff you iron into the hem instead of sewing them I love whoever invented it

Catherine - the scales live another day Well done on losing your Easter/birthday/St Pats day weight, onwards and downwards now to lose the post marriage weight

Thanks for your insight into our weight loss journeys, you are right about how we learn how to eat more healthily, not just lose weight. You always have such amazing insight into things, I REALLY cannot wait to read your book

Annie - I love the way you said you hate your fat, not yourself, I am so glad you don't hate yourself because you are a beautiful person!! I am sorry things didn't go so great with the oxygen monitoring test, nor your EKG

Luan - have fun camping with your cutey. Good luck with your interview at ICON, you have such an interesting life

Hugs,

Ammi

Hi Everybody~~

well I haven't been able to post every day like I thought I would since my last post. My bf likes to spend time with me at night and after all of our problems I think it's kind of important that I spend time with him. He's worth it to me, you know? But he's away for 11 days so I can come here to my hearts content. I'll probably end up posting early in the mornings when he's in bed and I'm getting ready for work.

Anyway--I have to change my ticker because I've gained weight --I'm at something like 246 which means I've gained almost 20 lbs. I don't remember the exact weight because I stopped weighing myself every day. I'll change my ticker in the morning after I weigh myself. I'm going to restart the daily weigh in since I'm sure that was so key in my success until now. I also have to get my eating back on track--let me just say that I've fallen into some of my OLD habits and I've become re-addicted to McDonald's double cheeseburgers and recently to Dunkin Donuts Large Iced Coffees with 8 and 8--that means 8 creams and 8 sugars for those of you NOT in the know. *sigh* Did I also forget to mention the wonderful Maple Cheddar Sandwich served on a flaky croissant that Dunkin has? I'm going back to my low carb diet and I've actually made a food order to be delivered to my house which is what I was doing all the time that I was losing weight before. So that's my plan for my eating. Wish me luck.

I'm proud to say that I've started to get my exercise on track. I haven't been able to do the hour each day that I wanted to, but I've been doing 30 minutes on my treadmill and part of that time I've actually been JOGGING. I can't believe it, but I'm actually enjoying the running. I figured that if I can't do the 60 minutes that I wanted to that by jogging I'll be burning extra calories so...

I'll be back to post personals tomorrow since it took me a couple of hours to get caught up and it's after 9:00 p.m. I have to get to bed because I get up early in the mornings to drive school busses. Even though it's school vacation week here, I want to get myself in the habit of waking up a little earlier so I can come post here. I'll see you guys at around 5:00 a.m.

Vicki

hi ladies
Was just reading through the posts ive missed and wanted to say hi. i have had a really busy week and havent been able to post as often as i wanted too.
i am happy to report i am down 2 more lbs ive had a few strange things happen this week, a couple people who know me, didnt recognize me they havent seen me in awhile, but the feeling was a good one. i know i have lost wt, but for some reason my head hasnt caught up with my body, does that make sense? like i cant "see it" like others can. anyway, i am happy i am still losing. alot of people that lost on the diet contest have gained alot back. (ANNIE< my team came in 3rd out of 50)
im happy to see so many others enjoying sucess here too and for the ones struggling, i truly know how that is, but dont give up.
I hope to post some personals later this week. i hope everyone has a great night

Hi. Dunno if anyone remembers me or not. I've had QUITE a few setbacks, and I knew I had gained weight....but I can't believe that I've gained it all BACK. I went to the doctor, and he told me there might be something wrong with me, because there's no way I could have gained back EVERYTHING I lost, since I was counting calories. I'm looking for support, because honestly, I just don't feel like doing this anymore.

Sorry I haven't been around...in months. And to come back here like this. It's just killing me. I did SO well for so long, and BAM. I'm just about to give up. I swear.

Good Morning All,

Another bright and sunny morning here in Wales, I really hope that later today hubby and I can go out for a walk. We were SUPPOSED to be going to the gym, but once again hubby doesn't feel up to going. He had a bad night's sleep and god forbid he woke up with two spots (zits/pimples) on his face and it's the latter which might make him not want to go for a walk either. He is so vain when it comes to having blemishes on his face, they really bring him down. Heck if I never went out when I had them I'd be housebound So anyway another work out missed today, it's just a good job I have my Gazelle and work out DVDs at home

Kayley - Oh my goodness of course you are remembered, in fact if you look at one of previous posts from yesterday I mentioned you I am SO sorry that you gained back all the weight that you lost, you were doing so brilliantly. But you know what, you lost it once and you can lose it again, you know you can, and if you stay around here this time I am sure you will be able to keep it off. You also of course know you need to get some tests done to see if the doctor is right that you may have a problem which contributed to you gaining back all that you lost. I am so glad that you are back because you KNOW this is THE place to be for the best support you'll ever get. How are things other than the diet, still madly in love with your sweet heart? I am guessing so seeing as you have the picture of the two of you as your avatar

Vicki - now how's that for determination to post.....you getting up early just so you can do it Good for you I say It will be great to see you posting regularly again.

I'm sorry you've gained back a little weight, but I have to say what a GREAT way to do it The food you talked about made me start to Especially those donuts and the cheese croissant. Boy oh boy, my cornflakes for breakfast seem so boring after talking about those

I love how you and others can way daily and find it really helps. Personally I would be happy to never have to get on the darn things so once a week is more than enough for me. The other week I saw a gain, an undeserved one, and as much as I KNEW that it wasn't a 'fat' gain, and not to worry about it, it gave me the excuse I think I was looking for to take time off from my diet. I must really learn to not let those scales have such power over me!

Kymberly - another 2 lbs down, you are doing amazingly well, it won't be long now until you are at your goal It's a shame that some of the people who had lost in your work's Biggest Loser challenge have gained back the weight they lost. You show 'em how it's done and keep on losing. I bet you are a huge inspiration to them.

Great about people not recognising you, I think we all suffer a bit with not realising just how different we look since losing weight. It's a real buzz when people can't get over the change. Though do you tend to think they are exaggerating, I know I do when it happens to me. One day 3 people's jaws dropped when they saw me, and they all enthused about my weight loss, and I was like, come on, I'm not that different. I guess I am though, just like you are, and one day we will realise that ourselves

Time for me to go get my breakfast now, I'll be back later today. Take care all,

Hugs,

Ammi