I have not forgotten you....I am always amazed at how much exercise you get in...so motivated and I felt your struggles earlier this week and last when you were feeling bloated and had to push harder to keep exercising....that alone gives me strength cause last night, I didn't really feel like exercising but I remembered your post about your bloatedness...and how you had to push harder...and how you felt better afterward for doing it...well that encouraged me to exercise last night and you were right, I felt better...so thank you for your inspiration and wisdom.

I am sorry to hear about your friend's mom's funeral...I will send a prayer to your friend. And you handled your emotional eating very well, it makes you a stronger person when you dont jeapardize your health journey...this means that you are changing your coping mechanisms to better handle life crisis...the fact that you did not cave and emotional eat is a profound accomplishment for you.

So pat yourself on the back and celebrate this accomplishment.

Cyan

I hope everyone is doing good today.
Cjunk, you are so right, it is a blessing to be part of such a great group. With everyone sharing their emotions the way they do. It has opened me up to be a better person.
And I want you all to know that because of this Group....
I am still here fighting to be the perfect me... I now realize that because I lacked the support of other in the past, that is exactly why I never succeeded at any of my diets. But now I don't consider this a diet. I consider it as a life altering change for the betterment of my future...
I would never talk about my weight and flab with anyone, and I am here opening up myself to you all, because you all remind me that I am not alone at this. And for all that I thank you!

LadyRider --Don't you just love the feeling of having a friend that you can unravel right in front of and they just pick right up and tell you "Get it together woman!"
I have a dear friend who I know will be there for anything.
Great choices for lunch and snacks, I am still having a hard time when we go out to eat. I just can't seem to order that all too healthy stuff yet But I do cut down on my intake of whatever I do order.
Cjunk- Sorry to hear about your friend's mother. I will say a special prayer today. Losing family is tough, Losing a Mom is undescribeable. Great that you didn't allow the emotional eating to take over. I am a huge Emotional Eater, and I usually always give in. Keep up the good work!
Cyan- You motivate me so much with your exercise regimine. I wish I could get to your level one day.
Right now, I don't actually have a regimine. I do Taebo in the mornings 3 times a week if I can, I do my glider for about 30 minutes, but I break that down within an hour. I can only do so much with my asthma. I did fall off the water wagon but I will be back on today. I just went and bought my 32oz bottle of water. Keep up the good work, and strong energy
Yesterday was the first time I weighed myself in almost a month. So I feel really good about this. I even walk lighter.
I wish you all a great weekend and I send you a a big hug.

Hi reina_mia....ummm you do have an exercise regimen...if a duck quacks and acts like a duck...its a duck. Doing taebo in the mornings 3 times a week...is an exercise regimen....doing your glider for 30 minutes ...howerver you break it down...it is an exercise regimen.... please give yourself credit...validate your efforts ...we are always so quick to point out our failures and overeating and all that but we always minimize our accomplishements...so the challenge for you and everyone else is to validate your accomplishements....victories....everything that is positive...give it the credit and value it deserves....ok?...okay!!!

you wrote:

"I don't actually have a regimine. I do Taebo in the mornings 3 times a week if I can, I do my glider for about 30 minutes, but I break that down within an hour...."

cyan

I guess I do have a regimen!!
Thank Cyan for pointing that out. I am so fixed on catching all my faults that I really don't realize that i am doing something good finally...

How I wish you can talk to my mother for me..... I was raised with always catching my faults, I don't really realize when I do good.

Thanks again.

Hooray! I have a regimen

reina_mia on the weight loss! You go girl! You are doing great with your plans.
How was the new egg beaters? I saw those in the grocery store the other day. Let me know if I should give them a try. I'm always looking for something new to try.

Miki, I congratulate you for your will power on the candy. I still have cravings for candy. I think you did great. Proud of you.

Here's a story about a food battle, or should I say candy battle. I think Cyan is the one that asked about that question. It's not much of a story but it's still fresh in my mind. When I first started I had a rough time of not wanting to eat candy. Well I was shopping and I had finished, started going towards the check out. I looked at the cart and said to myself, I did great, there is no junkfood in this cart. Well I was standing there waiting for my turn to get checked out. And we all know what is right next to the check out. CANDY! I stood there and all of a sudden the thought occured to me, don't I remember hearing that 3 Musketeers only has 1 gram of fat. I grabbed a bar with such enthusiasm, thinking oh I have found a way to be able to eat a candy bar. So I picked it up, felt like I had found a gold mine. I turned it over to read the label on the back. My heart sank standing there clutching my 3 Musketeers bar. Why did it have to have so many calories, maybe I could just eat around the calorie part and just eat the 1 gram of fat! Just doesn't seem fair.
Cyan, sounds like you are doing great. Willpower is hard to come by. You have developed some very healthy plans that will take you to your goals.
Lady, what do you mean you don't cook? Does this mean you have a chef? Can I borrow him someday? It would be really nice of you to share with the rest of the group. I would like him to be here on weekends. So mark that down, Annie will have the chef on weekends to cook for her. And if he happens to have a cheesecake recipe that has no fat and no calories tell him to bring it with him when he comes.
Precious One and Lady, I know exactly what you mean about that energy force that comes after exercising. I will feel tired sometimes and say maybe I should just rest tonight instead of doing my last exercise session. But I will climb up on the bike and do my 30 minutes. Don't know what happened to the tiredness but when I finish I feel like I could run a mile. I try not to do any of my sessions past 9:30 at night. Except for tonight, I haven't done my last one yet. Looks like I will be running that mile way past midnight!
Cjunk, glad to hear you are feeling some better. You give me such motivation. Sounds like you have such a busy schedule but yet you continue to stay on track.
I agree, I think this is the best group around. All you ladies rock
I just had a challenge for myself earlier. Had a craving for something sweet ( like candy or cake), I got a cup of yogurt, craving gone.
Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow. Might go hiking. Wish me luck.
Stay Confident, Stay Motivated

Hi all, Hi Cyan !! I took your advice and here I am tonight. It was not what you would call a great day for anything, especially dieting but tomorrow I will try to have a better resolve. As a matter of fact, I'm going to go to bed now and get this day over with. They say you shouldn't wish time away but I can live with that tonight !! haha Looking very much forward to getting to know you all.

Hello

Hope everyone's weekend has gotten off to a good start.

Went out with the family for lunch. didn't do too bad. Green beans, barbecue pork, macoroni and cheese, and small strawberry shortcake. Then 2pc of fish and tarter suace for dinner at work. Sounds horrible BUT still under 1500 calories!!!!! Two bottles of water plus a Dr Soy Bar. I know, I was greedy today!!! I kind of feel bad because I didn' get any exercise in.

Ok I'm going to bed now, be back at a decent hour Hopefully I'll have time to add a few recipes.

Remember one day at a time.

Good Morning All and welcome PattyF

I went to the Doctor's yesterday for my yearly physical and all was well--I lost a few more pounds and am now back to the weight I was at before my injury---yaay!!! That was my goal!!!. I would like to lose a few pounds more because it would be excellent to be in the best physical shape and I discussed with my doctor what would be healthy for me and we both decided I could lose up to 10 more pounds and be in a healthy range. I am on a roll and want to keep it up!! I know it was an accurate weight too because it was one of those real scales...yikes!

Annie, great work on the cravings!! Keep it up and you will definitely be at your goal and then some!!

Cyan--here is my food craving. I constantly crave McDonalds!! I think that everyone already knows this one. I go past it everyday on my way to work and the smell just gets to me...so I took LadyRider's advice and on my weaker days I take a much longer route home. My second next food craving constant is a tie between pizza and potato chips--but I won't talk much more about those because my mouth is watering just thinking about them!!!

PreciousOne---your lunch sounded very good...and it sounds like you were able to meet a 1500 cal day which is impressive...try and plan a longer exercise session this weekend and you should be okay!

Has anyone ever had eating dreams???I find when I have food cravings at night and I go to bed I dream I am at the most fantastic buffet--and guess what Annie? I am eating all the cheesecake I want!! (which is weird because with my lactose intolerance my tummy would hate me)!! My dream is in technicolour and I wake up full the next day!!!! Can I gain weight that way?????

I wish that you all lived in my area because even though I can't eat it the girls at work found a low fat low cal cheesecake called Lil'Cravings. It is a diabetic dessert at a store called zarky's about the size of a yoghurt and is 55cals, no sugar added and .5 grams of fat. The girls at work say it is a fluffier version of cheesecake but yummy!!

Looking forward to hearing from the group this weekend. This is my most challenging time of the week...so I am going out to my parents to see if I can convince my mom to do a workout with me. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cjunk

Hey Patty glad you made it over to our little corner...we are a great group of ladies, amazingly motivated, positive and on different stages of our weight loss journey/health journey. So jump on in and start sharing!

Yesterday...afterwork, I had to do some errands and then as per usual....myself, and my two best buddies....Ivano and Lisa usually hang out at Lisa's place to have dinner and chill...dinner was good...had seafood salad with side salad, a little wine...like 3oz
and yes apple crumble pie...but I was still under 1500 cals....not bad at all. By the time I got home, it was 10.30pm...very tired but believe it or not....I still exercised yep, I did 25 minutes for a distance of 7km and burned 250 cals....and for this I thank your collective support and good energy....thank you thank you thank you...truly!

Cjunk, omg....wow! I am so happy for you...you are doing so well..how much do you weigh now? I'm gonna remeasure myself after I get and finish my period and I will post here for updates...its later on this month towards the end.

Hi PreciousOne...good going on the cal consumption...you could eat almost anything in moderation and still stick to your cal range...isnt that so much better knowing that there is not a life of diet restrictions and denial of food...I couldn't do this if I knew I could never have regular food.

Annie that candy bar story cracked me up...sometimes when I want to eat something that is calorie and fat laden...I eat it as quickly as possible before I can reason myself out of eating it...pretty pathetic..I know...but its true. This morning for breakfast...I found this custard tart...inhaled it....it cost me 267 cals and 7 grams of fat. But thats ok....I will exercise it off.

Well girls...hope you have a great weekend...looking forward to reading your posts...they always put a smile on my face

Cyan

Hi All!
Patty! Nice to meet you! Boy I know what you mean – some days you're just better off packing it in and going to be early. As as matter of fact I did just that the other day. Nothing seemed to go right, so I hit the sack at 7pm and slept straight through till 7 the next morning, when I woke refreshed and ready to tackle the world again.
We went to see Harry Potter with friends last night, then out to dinner. We ate at a new Italian place and I was so discouraged to see there wasn’t a healthy item on the menue. I ended up getting vegetarian lasagna, thinking it wouldn’t be so bad, but it was swimming in a cream sauce and had a 2” thick layer of cheese poured on top. I pulled back most of the chese, ate half the lasagna and 3 garlic rolls that literally came swimming in a bath of butter. Oh well, won’t be going back there again. Thank goodness the scale didn’t show a gain this morning, and today was a healthy food day. I haven’t been able to exercise for two days, but tomorrow I will run again – even if it rains!
Cjunk, Congratulations on meeting your goal! Wow, what a wonderful feeling! You must be so proud. You had some questions about running. First let me tell you I am a raw beginner, only been doing this since September, so I’m sure no expert. Also, I really jog more than run. I don’t know what condition you’re in, but if you are coughing that hard, I’m guessing you are over extending yourself. Start out slowly and don’t go so far. There will be time to increase your speed and endurance as you go. There is an excellent running list you can check out for good advice on how to start, what to do about knee pain, etc.
http://forums.about.com/ab-running/m...Reading+%3E%3E
Also, there is a great book called "The courage to start" by John "The Penguin" Bingham. He tells you everything you need to know to get started in an easy to read fun little book. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t like running (or jogging). You might like walking or there are lots of other exercises to try. Just keep trying them until you find the one that works for you.
Reina_mia I only wish I had a chef! I have never enjoyed cooking, and when I went back to school to become a nurse I told my family it was time they became more independent…washed their own clothes, cooked their own meals…you get the picture. So “mom doesn’t cook” has long been a family joke. Now our kids are all grown and moved out, except our oldest son who has moved in with us temporarily while he saves up to buy a house…and he cooks his own meals. My husband isn’t a food person, he eats to live, doesn’t live to eat. He’s a bit picky and doesn’t like most of the foods I do, consequently, he often fixes his own dinner and I throw together something for myself. If it’s easy and doesn’t take a lot of work, I’ll cook it. Rice is nice. Throw in some frozen veggies (they don’t have to be cleaned or trimmed) and put on some soy sauce or butter and parmesan and I’m happy. I did make some lentil soup the other day. I threw the lentils, some onions, garlic, sliced carrots, a hambone and chunks of ham into a pot, cooked it until the lentils were soft, threw in some salt and pepper and Voila! Soup! ‘Course it didn’t taste all that great – but it was really filling! Now baking – that I love. It’s a great source of relaxation for me, but I almost never do it anymore ‘cause I eat what I bake.
Annie, thanks for the note. I’m doing fine, just been a bit busy. I sure identified with your candy bar story. Used to be I couldn’t go grocery shopping without buying a 3musketeers. I love chocolate and when we were little my sister and I got 25cents each for our weekly allowance. (well … so this was a few years ago, ok?) Anyway, we would pool our money and go to the corner store to buy candy and pop (soda).
We always bought a 3Muskateer and shared it, so that candy bar brings back some wonderful memories and is a real comfort food for me. It's still Very hard to resist at the check out counter.
Looks like all you ladies are doing great in keeping to your goals. I'm so proud of you! You’re balancing your eating with exercise and I believe that’s the only way we will succeed. I totally agree with you, Cyan. We all have our Trigger Foods that we have to stay away from, but otherwise we could eat almost anything in moderation and still stick to our calorie range.
Doesn’t it feel great to know we are succeeding and weare in control – notour cravings!

Talk to you all tomorrow,
Stay well,
Lady

Hello Again!
I really like this little poem and want to share it with you all.

I wish for you comfort on difficult days,
Rainbows to follow the clouds
Laughter to kiss your lips Sunsets to warm your heart
Gentle hugs when spirits sag
Friendships to brighten your being,
Beauty for your eyes to see,
Confidence for when you doubt,
Faith so that you can believe,
Courage to know yourself,
Patience to accept the truth,
And love to complete your life.

Have a great weekend,

Welcome, Pat! You've chosen a great group to join. I promise you'll love it here!

I'm in a really good mood tonite!! Except for that one bad nite when I had wayyy too much spaghetti and went a little over 2000 calories, this is the BEST week I've had as far as my eating in a lonnnngggg time. ( like in a year ) I have found out that "healthy" is definitely the way to go. For the past year, I have pretty much eaten one meal a day, two at the most because I work thru my lunch hour alot and I've never liked breakfast. I only ate at nite with my family. I decided to try eating 3 small healthy meals a day instead of the one big one at night. It was very hard for me because I have this mental block about eating 3 meals. In the back of my mind I always feeling like I'm eating too much if I eat 3 times. At first it was almost like I couldnt enjoy it because I felt like I was blowing it. And I sure never thought I could afford adding a snack on top of the 3 meals. But since last Sunday, I have stuck with it, and it has paid off!

I did blow the challenge I gave myself about waiting 2 weeks to weigh myself. I just couldnt stand it anymore and had to find out before I kept eating 3 whole meals. I was too scared not to just in case I was gaining instead of losing. Sooo...I did it. I got the scales out (which I had hid from myself to keep from using them so much..lol) and weighed today. I was 5 lbs lighter and lost an inch in my waist and an inch in each thigh! I could not believe it!!! ( of course this is one time that I WILL let the scale judge me LOL ) Oh almost forgot about the exercise...Still using my AirWalker and I wasnt joking last Sunday about only being able to make it 5 minutes or so. I was ashamed at how out of breath I got from just that little bit. But I'm now doing 15 minutes at a time now. (Still out of breath but I can make it at least )

Cyan, you are right. It IS possible to eat GOOD things ( even those not necessarily considered healthy) and stay within a lower calorie range. We had that out of town ballgame last nite and it was late when we stopped to eat. I almost didnt eat because nothing on the fast food menu seems to be something I should have but I had a small cheeseburger and 10 of my son's french fries and still barely had over 1000 calories when I logged everything I'd had all day. I had dreaded adding it all up. Just wish I had known WHILE I ate the cheeseburger because it would have tasted a whole lot better knowing I didnt have to feel guilty.

Cjunk, I'm so envious of you reaching your goal! More happy for you than envious tho...I'll get there someday too You're an inspiration to the rest of us to stick with it! That 5 lbs I lost is a start. If I do as well for 14 more weeks, I'll reach MY goal...or if I do only half as well for 28 weeks..LOL

Anyone else noticed that we all seem to be a little more cheery than we were this time last week?? I think the weather had to do with some of that. At least here. Rained all weekend last week but it was a beautiful day out today.

Lady, that lasagna is making my mouth water! I could just picture the cheese as you pulled it back. All melted and gooey and YUMMMM!! Cheese makes anything good! There is no way I could have been as strong as you and turned that down. Good job on the will power!

Precious One, your lunch sounds delicious too! See?? Thats my problem, I love it all!!

Reina_Mia, I agree with you. This group is a big part of the reason I'm on track now. My weight isnt something I like discussing with most people but here I seem perfectly comfortable doing just that. Feels good to know others struggle just as much as I do. Feels even better to know they struggle but still overcome!!

Annie, thanks for the candy bar story! It is the reason I'm sitting here glued to this chair rather than going to get a handful of those malted milk balls that I am DYING for right now. I'm telling myself " Noooo..just think of those calories you'll be wasting when you're not even hungry. "

My husband told me today that he thinks he can already see a difference in my size. I think he is just trying to be nice and helpful but it gave me incentive to keep on. Not only do I want to be healthier, I want to look good for him. He is great...never once has he made a negative comment about my weight even tho during our 18 years of marriage, I have gained 80 lbs or more. He constantly tells me how pretty I look no matter what weight I'm at and I know he really means it. But I want to do this for him as much as for me. I've always kinda felt like people see us and think, "Wow, how did SHE get HIM?" lol or even worse, "Poor thing, how did HE get stuck with HER?" LOL The answer is easy tho...I was just lucky!

Well, both kids are arguing who gets the computer next and it's already getting kinda late so I guess I better go for now. Hope everyone has a fantastic rest of the weekend!!

MIKI

PS...anyone heard from WI_Wide lately??? I miss her!

Miki and Annie - I FOUND YOU! Thanks Annie for the update as to where you had moved. I have not had time to get on the computer. I was stuck out of town three days last week. Living out of a suitcase and eating out every meal, I was so stressed out because of a bad snow storm I couldn't get home, so I ate.

Have decided not to even get on a scale, I know I was bad. I am such a stressful eater, and driving in an unfamiliar town, in a bad storm just created havoc in my life, it took me a few days just to settle my nerves. I think the wedding was a breeze, compared to last week.

Now that I found you all again, I will try to be faithful to check in. If nothing else, it is a daily reminder for me to be better at portion control and water.

Well today I am planning a big birthday for my daughter who just got married. First she gets 3 wedding showers all with presents, then she gets wedding presents, today she gets birthday presents, next month Christmas presents, then baby shower presents, she is going to be so depressed in a few months when eventually she won't get presents!

Keep in touch everyone, gald to "see" you all again! WI-wide
Go Pack Go!

Hello WI-Wide, so glad to meet you--it sounds like you have a busy next few months of celebration with your daughter--congratulations! I would love to be in her shoes someday.

MikiG Congratulations!!! You deserve a big victory dance!! I think changing meal patterns is one of the hardest things to do and you have proven that it can be done! And weight loss as well--great work! I will use you as my inspiration for eating breakfast on those days where I don't feel like any!!!

LadyRider, thanks for the information! To answer some of your questions, I would say that I am normally capable of moderate to high cardio where I can usually sustain it for up to 1hr or so without feeling too bad. I would consider myself to be in good shape--which is why I can't understand why I feel crappy when I run. I think you are right that perhaps I am starting too fast. Maybe I will try a walk to run method. Thanks for the website info too! I will read on about the knees!

Cyan, thanks for the support! I am going to hold off on announcing weight for now, because I am superstitious that I will re-gain. Until I can sustain this loss I will wait for a bit....I have lost an inch overall pretty much everywhere and am back into my old pants. I think that even though I weigh the same I am not as toned as my pants still aren't as comfortable as they used to be..I will get there soon!

My boyfriend is making breakfast this morning and I am impressed! He's grilling veggies and then scrambling them in the Break Free egg substitute for us. I really like that stuff. I find I can feel full with very few calories and little fat and still feel like I've had my eggs!

Yesterday wasn't the greatest eating day for me. I really didn't have any fruits or veggies which is unusual for me---gotta get those today! I visited my parents in the morning and had a single poached egg on dry toast and then a small serving of pasta later in the evening with my boyfriend's parents---I was very undernourished yesterday and not to mention starving all afternoon but we were stuck in a training where they didn't feed us!! (they had pops and a bunch of different potato chips--1 had 10 chips which cost me a lot in calories! and a diet soda).

I hiked with my mom in the morning. They have a beautiful hiking trail near their house and we hiked for 11/2 hours--with lots of hills!! It was cold and snowing here but we were too warm to notice the temperature from the hill climbing!! I guess I burned off those chips!

Although I did reach my goal I think there are two challenges for me:

1. Maintaining my goal
2.Reaching my new goal that I developed with the help of my doctor!

So I guess you can say that I am happy with the success but am going to build on it! Thanks for all of your support!!! I don't think it would have come this quickly without all of you!

I had a few discouraging things happen yesterday:

My mom said, "wow you look good but remember your genes...your aunts all have the same build as you and look where they got for not keeping it up. You are going to have to be diligent for the rest of your life or you will be overweight and have health issues"---and..."you were really getting chubby there for a while" not exactly what I needed to hear right then and there---needless to say I felt that "forever" is too big and not attainable.

She did her best to support me in her own way but I think it was challenging because I was a little sensitive yesterday!! It was excellent for her to come hiking and encourage my fitness as well. I know that she had best intentions in mind.


Looking forward to reading all your posts! Gotta go plan the day for eating and exercise or else I will crash and burn--I usually have trouble on weekends! I think I will pick up sushi from the grocery store for a nice light dinner. We had a gorgeous snowfall that stayed on the ground last night---Cyan did you get this in Montreal too? I should go out and play in it!

Cjunk