Only 5 1/2 weeks until the end of our Merry Christmas Challenge. Anyone wanting to either lose a little and/or not gain over the holidays is welcome to join us.

That said, I'll be the first to post my loss this week - 1/2 lb. I know I ate healthier and have been exercising more than before, so I'm proud of me. (Maybe it's time to eat less carbs.)

OK, how did everyone else do? I'll put up the chart on Wednesday after the losees are reported. Good luck, everyone.

Yesterday's journal~~
Breakfast: small bran muffin, egg with butter = 5 pts.
Lunch: Caesar salad, small piece of bread, small pat of butter = 12 pts.
Dinner: Eggplant, berries + 5 pts.
Total: 22 pts.
Exercise: 45 minute walk
Water: 9 glasses

Florafae, your Enchanted Faerie Garden sounds beautiful and peaceful. I can just picture it... colorful flowers, birds, a fountain. What kind of birds come into your garden? What a great way to release stress and get away from the rest of the world.

Time for my morning walk.
(Hugs),
Dena

Sounds like everyone is doing well. Kudos to everyone!

Florafee-I agree. Your garden does indeed sound enchanting. One of my favorite places to visit is Cheekwood Gardens just outside Nashville, TN-which is a couple hours from my home. It used to be the estate of the family who started the Folger's coffee co. It has all kinds of gardens and exhibits year round. Last time I went, there was a tree-house competition and it was awesome how creative some folks were.

Bonnie-Being a southerner and being raised by southerners, I know how good the cooking is and how hard it can be to resist sometimes. But sounds like you intend to get back to business today so don't be too hard on yourself. Sometimes, you just gotta eat.

My Christmas decorations will go up after Thanksgiving. Like Flora-I can only handle one holiday at a time! That was always the rule in my childhood as well-no Christmas anything until the day after Thanksgiving. However, I'm certainly ready for it by then!

Krista-I do a 30 minute pilate tape in the mornings sometimes. Haven't recently as a wayward child has returned home for a while and is sleeping in my exercise studio-my living room! I walk in the mornings now instead. Anyway, I bought a tape called Pilates for dummies and it's very good. It explains basic terms and positions before exercise and explains every exercise before you begin. I love my pilates! I can really tell a difference. It just helps to shape and mold you. When I first started, I couldn't do all the exercises. Now, I finally can do them all! Hope this helps.

Dena-Congrats on your .5! Way to go!

No exercise yesterday and I honestly couldn't tell you exactly what I ate but I didn't overdo and feel comfortable w/yesterday's choices. I guess, if you count all the running I did during our youth fundraiser yesterday-I exercised after all! I will go to the Y tonight for 35 minutes cardio and 25 minutes weights.

I did weigh in yesterday and I'm down another pound! Woo-hoo! Wasn't really expecting a whole pound after last weeks two pounds but there it was or rather there it wasn't! Feeling good about meeting my challenge!

Well, ladies-gotta run. Everyone hang in there. Make good choices and be kind to yourself. We can do it!

congrats Dena for another 1/2 lb
and skinny butt- 1 lb

good job girls! I'm nervous to see my weight tomorrow- it's gone down maybe a couple lbs but I ate and ate this weekend and then today was a woman's bday at work so we had choc icecream pie- which I had a small piece and then we went out to lunch- I had a grilled chicken salad and water, and a little bit of ranch dressing.
supper tonight is porkchops and greenbeans so at least it'll all even out.

Everyone’s postings always look so colorful, so I’ve made the leap and added an avatar. It’s a photo of some of the snapdragons in my garden. This picture was taken when they were in their prime--about three feet tall and truly spectacular. Now, they are faded, but the memory of their beauty remains.

I made my goal this week and lost 3 lbs. Hurray! I’m still riding the just-started-the diet-and-the-losing-is-easy bandwagon. I’ll ride it as far as I can. Given my daily calorie-intake, I realize a lot of this must still be fluid loss, but I’ll take it anyway. I have a long way to go before I reach a healthy weight. The Merry Christmas challenge is the first stage of the journey.

My goal for the coming week is 2 lbs. I know I won’t lose much the week of Thanksgiving, but I can still make my Merry Christmas goal, or at least get within shouting distance, if I stay on course.

Congratulations on your .5 loss, Dena. I imagine you are adding muscle with all the exercising you are doing, and that you are showing progress in inches lost, as well.

SkinnyB, way to go! You are one pound closer to your goal. I’ve never been to Nashville, but if I ever pass that way, I’ll be sure and visit the Cheekwood Gardens. It sounds like a wonderful place.

May we all have a good week.
Florafae

Congrats Flora!

Hi all....I did pretty good eating this weekend but the scale is mocking me!! 158 - up three pounds? How can that be? I don't feel fatter than I did last week. And I can usually feel even two or three pounds. I'm not sure what the protocol on posting weights (what day? I thought it was Monday) but I hope it's just a bad water retention day or something and tomorrow will be better. I'll post it again tomorrow and hopefully it will be less and you can use that for my weigh in! LOL....

Sounds like you are all doing good - here's to a losing week!!

Congrats to everyone!

I'm down by 1lb. Down too 196 now...

I'm actually doing Windsor Pilates and walking as much as I can. I find it harder to fit in the pilates as I work crazy hours and still going to university as well.

Next week will be better...aiming for 2 lbs!

Krista

Shelbi- don't worry about it- there's all kinds of things that can/ will affect it.

Krista- nice job for the 1 lb- I don't know your starting weight- but doesn't it feel great to be under 200?!

I'm dreading today- by my home scale I should have lost 2 lbs, but I started AF this morning too so I'm having really bad salt and choc cravings today. (I don't have any at the office- so that's good) I'll post it later on today.

Bonnie! too funny! I live in Jonesville- next town over! (actually in the old Arlington district- right outside the Jonesville city line on 21) I work at Chatham in Elkin though and Chris used to manage the Habitat Home shoppe in Elkin for a while.

I am from southern Maine- the second largest city- and moved to central Maine for college and then northern Maine for my job (Chatham's parent company "Interface Fabrics"). My parents kept laughing that I was just going north and north and I'd end up in Canada some day. until Nov 2002- when I accepted a transfer to Chatham. I've lived here since March 2003. Love it! First time in my life I've lived out of state.

Chris' family lives all over- but mostly in Sparta and Independence (VA)- and then he's got some in Lexington too.

and it's ok- but it's Kandice- with an "i". I've gotten every spelling though- you should hear how I've had my last name butchered!

wow- 26 lbs so far! that would be half to my goal weight! I told Krista the 100s feel geat- you're right there Bonnie!

2.5 lbs for me this week. (1.19 lbs of body fat) Not as bad as I thought!

2.5 more lbs to the Christmas challenge goal for me! I may have to start on my wedding day goal after I meet the Christmas challenge- I honestly didn't think it would come off this easy at all. (hope maintaining is this easy!)

YAY US!

oh Bonnie- forgot to answer- Kennebunkport isn't too far from where I grew up- about an hour or so. yes, lobsters... my stepmom's family growing up was too poor she said to ever have lobsters and when she "made it" (she's an ER RN- been there 30+ years) she told herself that she would treat her family to lobster at least once a year. when my dad married her I was 6 (so 18 years ago) we've had a lobster feed every July 4th and then the extra lobster we shuck out that night and freeze it for Christmas eve. Every Christmas eve (for 18 years) we've had lobster stew (lobster, milk, and butter) after we get back from Church and then we open 1 present. This will be my first christmas that I won't have it since we're staying down here for Christmas (we're going up the week after)

I went up to Maine on business one time and brought back the boys some lobsters- 4 of them- 2 for me and 1 for each of them (expensive because they were hard shelled that time and the packing live lobsters to travel too)
and they didn't like them!! I ate one and they picked at their's so I made some lobster salad with some of the meat and they ate that.

so I guess we have to start creating our own traditions- this will be our second christmas together....

Hello Girls! Wow, you're making me cold just thinking about being in the Northeast - I'm in TX and it's 66 here today. I grew up in MO and had plenty of cold - guess I'm just the sun, sand and surf type. I do miss the beauty of the snow though!

Well, back to 156 today so those 2 nasty pounds have left. And I am on track and motivated to only go down. Congrats on your weight losses and to Kandice - maintaining will not be easy but shouldn't be too difficult. I've found that I cannot just eat whatever I want all the time but a treat here and there helps satisfy. It seems when I turned 30, everything changed. I have to watch every bite. Once you accept that, it's not too hard. I used to weigh 173 at my highest. I remember losing 5 pounds and thinking "wow, I look good" but I was still 165 at 5'4"!!! LOL!!

oh I know maintaining won't be easy- shouldn't be too hard though- I was eating whatever- and I mean WHATEVER I wanted for the first 4 months of exercising and gained .75 lb in those 4 months. I'm counting carbs now- but have slowly been stopping to write it down and just to make a calculation in my head for the day- still staying between 40-60.

is it just me- or do sweets taste more sweeter(almost to the point of TOO sweet), breads fill you up faster... they do me! we had turkey burgers and I figured I could have 1 bun in my total for the day- I ate about 1/2 the burger and bun and had to just eat the burger- the bread filled me up and I didn't want any more. Anyone else?

congrats shelbi for losing that 2 lbs!

Hope today finds you w/great health and healthy choices. Things here are good. Went to the Y last night; 35 cardio and 25 weights. Walked for 35 minutes this morning. It was 43 here this morning so I was motivated to keep moving! Plan on going to the Y again tonight for 30-45 cardio.

Eating has been going well. Had chili last night for dinner. Of course, you can't have chili w/o crackers, cheese and peanut butter sandwich! So, I had it all. I stayed w/in my WW points though so no harm, no foul. Tonight LF chicken casserole w/corn and broccoli.

Shelbi-glad to hear your two pounds are gone. Keep hanging in there. Sometimes I go up or maintain for 2-3 weeks at a time and then, as someone else said, bam-2-3 pounds gone. You sound like you're doing great, though so be encouraged.

Maine-The farthest north I've been is Toledo, OH-I have family there. I have been to a lot of the southern states, California and Nevada but haven't made it north yet. Hope to visit NY, Mass and Maine sometime in my life. Actually, I'd like to visit all the states at least once. Oops, forgot that I've been to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois! No offense to anyone but it was a short, unpleasant trip (MIL funeral) so I probably blocked it out of my mind! I liked those states, though. Just didn't get to see much. Anyway.....

Kandice-I agree; sweets are sweeter and breads are more filling. For me, it's b/c I'm actually thinking about what I'm eating. Plus, when you're not used to eating it very often, it doesn't take much to satisfy like it used to. So, I guess less really is more!

snow We are anxiously awaiting snow here in KY but probably won't get it here in my part of the state until late December/early Jan. We're almost as far south as you can get and still be in KY. We love snow here, though. We go sledding, make snow angels and snow cream. Yum! That's even on my diet! Where I grew up in Ohio, (Christiansburg) we had snow all the time. Started in early December and went right up through April sometimes. And we NEVER missed school! The joke used to be that our super had a 10 foot high mailbox and if he could see it, we went to school. One time in the six school years I was there, we missed 2 weeks but that's all I can remember. It shocked me that in KY, it snows 1/2 an inch and the county schools are dismissed! Of course, the roads here are a lot twistier so I guess I can't blame them. My girls go to the city schools so they hardly ever miss. Oh, there's always a run on the grocery stores here when snow is predicted-must buy more milk and bread, you know!

Keep up the good work, ladies! As Kandice stated eariler, YAY US!

Wow, this thread is really jumping! Everyone did a great job this week! I'm so proud of everybody! I'm a little behind the eight ball today. Yesterday I stayed home pretty much all day waiting for the cable guy. What a drag that was! I decided after a year and a half of moving here to fabulous Las Vegas (from southern CA), it was time for cable. (Shelbi, it's sunny here, too, today. I love it!)

Oh, I digress~~I was watching like 3 channels before that, and felt like I was missing out on everything. (I was hoping to become more intelligent without t.v,. but that never happened.) Anyhoo~~the first cable guy came and left. Then the cable went out. I had to wait for a second guy. What a fiasco! Was it worth it?! I do get like a thousand channels now, and I'm overwhelmed by it all. Today I have to make up for not doing much yesterday.

Talk to you all soon. Keep up the great work!
(Hugs),
Dena