Hi mommapossum, I noticed that you are from Iowa. I am from IL originally and lived my whole life in the Quad Cities. Have you heard of it? We only moved to Cali 1 1/2 years ago. DH got a job promotion which moved us here and we found a great small town that reminds me of Geneseo. Heard of it? It is a small town not far from the QCA. All my family and close friends still live in the QCA and we get back to visit twice a year.

Well, it was good to meet you.

Hi,
For all those gals who are having a hard time drinking enough water, I have found a great way to drink lots of water. I started buying Diet V8 Splash Tropical Blend. It's 3 grams of carbs and 10 calories for an 8 ounce sevring. I take a large glass fill it 3/4 full of water and add about 2-3 ounces of this juice to it. It taste great and it's only about 3-4 calories a glass. Another thing I do when it's hot and I want something refreshing is to blend ice,water,and the v8 tropical blend juice plus a slice of cantalope in my blender. It makes a wonderful frozen fruit drink. Make sure you get the bottle labeled diet .They also sell a low cal drink that has way more calories than the diet drink I accidently bought it once. It's flavor wasn't as good as the diet drink.
Hope this helps,
Janice j

Welcome to our group!!

I have done WW in the past and trust me when I tell you that it does get easier. At first I felt like I never had enough to eat but soon you will feel that you are eating ALL the time. You start to see what foods are good and not so good for you the more good that you eat the more you get to eat! IT WILL GET BETTER!!! Hang on you will love the out come!!

Welcome to our group Lori!!!

I am not one to get suggestions from when it comes to drinking water. I have trouble drinking my 64 oz a day!! stick around though I am sure someone will pop up with suggestions. I got suggestions like propel and fruit 2 0. I haven't tried them yet, but might be worth it!!!

Hi. I am new here. This is my first post. I would like to lose 50 pounds by Christmas, but that is a lot of weight in that amount of time (isn't the standard 8-10 pounds a month?) However, I have 64 pounds left to lose to reach my goal weight and my original Goal Month was May/06. But MAN would I love to wear the dress I was wearing the night I met DH! It is 2-3 sizes away.
I hope that you are successful in reacing your goal! And I agree, the fees for some of these weight loss groups is quite steep. I do not attend anything like that. I am trying to get a support group started in my community just for the support aspect and accountability.
I am thinking of coming up with a Code Word for "water" wherein every time I hear that word I drink a glass full. I do not want something that I hear constantly (ie: Mama...), nor do I want something that I hear infrequently (ie: sexy...). What do you think? Should we have a "Water Fight"?

You gals have been busy! And Amy, my email subscription quit working as well- I just thought it was odd no one had posted and so I checked back. Hopefully that little e-mail blip is over!

Welcome to the new folks! And yes, to whoever mentioned it, this thread was started several weeks ago, when we were looking at 10 # per month to reach 50 by Christmas. Obviously for those starting later the loss will be less to be safe. We talked about this earlier in this thread, if you want to go back and reread it.

As far as water goes, sometimes the delivery method helps. I can easily chug water from a sports bottle. My mother has to drink hers from a straw. So you might play around with that kind of thing to see if there is a way you don't notice the water so much. I do think that Americans have a major 'drinking problem'- meaning we use anything and everything *but* water. Sometimes going cold turkey on the tea/pop/etc. stuff will help you learn to actually get thirsty for water. (Ah, novel concept, I know!) I agree with Sherri about water temp. If I've been exercising, I want it room temp or barely cool, but during the rest of the day I want it cold!

TTFN

I posted last night to join this challenge but I didn't say anything about myself. My name is Alison and I am a single mom to Hunter (who is 5 and starts Kindergarten next Tuesday) and Chloe my 2 year old little girl.

For the first time in my dieting life I am looking at this as a lifestyle change and not just to get down to a certain weight. For now I am saying that 180 is my goal weight, however honestly I am not really sure. I was at 238 last Saturday and my first weigh in is this saturday, unless I buy a new scale! I really think at some point in my weight loss (after I get below 200) that it is more of a size thing than a weight thing.

Hello All,

Welcome AliLewis and Sveva! Glad you are looking to have a healthy lifestyle.
For those that didn't read the earlier threads, 2 things we do here!: Brag and sag (great things, and not so great things!) and Friday weigh-ins!

Brags for today: I drank all 64 oz of my water yesterday, and despite that, my weigh in is down 2 lbs this morning! Sag is that the scale I was using was apparently off and my starting weight is actually 175! That's 7 lbs. more than I thought I weighed, so it's a bummer. My official weigh-in for today is 172, so I'm down 3 lbs. in 2 weeks.

I've kept my strenght training up, except for yesterday. I didn't have a major muscle group that wasn't sore. Looking forward to when I've been doing it long enough I don't get sore anymore!!

Someone asked for suggestions on what to do that TOM when all you want to do is eat. I learned after having kids that I do the same and I found a solution that works for me. It's called LOT OF CHEWING GUM!!!! It satisfies whatever need there is for me to pig out!!!!!

OK girls, I need to run! NOW IT'S YOUR TURN TO WEIGH IN!!!!
Have a healthy weekend and keep up the good work!!!!!!
Missy

Woohooo!!!! I just weighed in!!! Last week I weighed 268 and today I weighed........................drumrolll please.......................265!!!! Yep that's right I loss 3 more pounds!!!!

Congrats Missy on your loss!!!! How did everyone else do????

Good Morning All,

Well, weigh in time... down 2 lbs. to 175. I have my ww weigh in on Monday so hopefully I will have another pound or so if I stay the course. Right now I have good incentive to do well this weekend since I don't want to weigh in on Monday and gave gained back the 2 lbs.

BRAG-- I have been doing better with my cravings. For now, when I get a graving for something I grab a big glass of water and chug as much as I can as fast as I can. I don't mind the taste of water or the lack there of so water isn't a problem for me.

SAG-- Exercise!

Keep up the great work everyone. Congrats! to everyone, just by trying we are succeeding!

weigh in..same as last week Dr increased meds and added another. He also made me switch diets from Adkin's to ww. I am just glad I did not gain any!

For Friday weigh in-well, I will weigh at my mom's tomorrow, hopefully by next week I will have a new scale, my current one got a little water logged by my 2 year old trying to give it a bath!

Brag: For my first week I am feeling great. I am actually going to bed early (instead of 3am) and waking up with energy for the day! I really think a lot of this is due to me not having food to keep me awake at night, no late night snacks, just a later evening dinner and I am good! I have drank at least 100 oz of water a day this week... very proud

Sag: I took my pictures for "starting diet" this week... ugh! Not a pretty site, hopefully next months pictures are better. No exercise this week, however I do pick up my gazzel tomorrow!!

You ladies are doing well!

My weigh-in: 202. Same as last week. 0 lb. loss. We shall see what next week brings! I think given the exercise I'm doing that it's impossible for me NOT to lose, so I'm assuming it's replacing muscle with fat. At this rate it'll be April before I hit 150. <sigh> I won't even bore you with my clothes shopping expedition (you know, one store you wear a 16, the next a 20, the next a 22 and another an 18- very depressing and insane!).

Brag: Have new rowing workout schedule planned.

Sag: Mountains of laundry to do! (Can I just count that as exercise? Down two flights of stairs with dirty laundry, up two flights with the clean laundry!)

Hey ladies, it sounds like everyone is doing a great job and off to a better start. I have not been a lucky as the rest of you. I have lost a total of 6 ozs. I have been eating great except for the mini size chocolate bar I had at lunch today and we all know that I drink a ton of water but I didn't loose as much as I was hoping for. I was feeling pretty dicouraged after I weighed my self this morning, but maybe this coming week will be better. The only thing that I can contribute the lack of weight lose to is the fact that I had been lifting weights like a mad women. There is not single part of my body that doesn't hurt when I move. Even though I haven't lost much I can tell that I have lost inches by the way that my clothes are fitting. Well I had better run.(literally) I will talk to everyone later.

hello all just signed up here - been doing core for about a month and only 8.4 down = i am happy with the loss just not excited - thought i would do better - any helpful hints would be appreciated - good luck to you all