kathy, i usually weigh about 3 lbs heavier in the evenings than i do in the mornings. maybe your bod is that way, too. good luck in the morning. let us know how it goes. we're all expecting you to be smiling tomorrow either from a weightloss or from your determination to be on track.

good luck in the morning.

melissa, what a cute photo. you're a gorgeous lady.

okay Kathy - if I"m going YOU'RE GOING! I was just sititng her pondering about how awful I ate today and maybe I should just skip tomorrow's WI and meeting - after all my gf is here, and I"m tired and I"m sure I could come up w/several more excuses.

But I agree w/Vickie - I know this would be the beginning of the end - so I will go and face the music. I too have had a rotten week - but remember: IT'S FEEDBACK, NOT FAILURE! I will actually be happy if I stay the same!

It all started innocently enuf w/the teeny tiny mini pita breads - then the dips (hummus, tzaztiki, salsa) and peppers (okay those are not that bad)...then the nibbles of cheese pizza which I made for the kids prior to eating my core dinner! Did I also mention the potato chips I sampled? Like an eating machine I was!

Now I think I forget to tell you about the little golden bag of GODIVA CHOCOLATES I found sitting on my desk this morning? Now you know I don't like average, run of the mill chocolate, and can usually stay away - but when I know there is good quality dark chocolate in the vicinity...well that's a different story. Our admin assistant was in Brussels this week and brought us all back Godiva chocolates - can you believe this? What a sweetie!

Brought the bag home - eventually opened it and found four delightful chocolate truffles (2 dark, 2 milk) - so of course I had one of the dark ones - just meltingly delicious (dh got the 2 milk ones)...then later of course I had to have the other!

...and of course did not drink enuf water today which makes me feel even worse - and did I mention no exercise yesterday or today either? I'm in a pretty pickle!

Anyhow - went to see Oliver tonight - gf complaining about how long it was - I said wait til tomorrow night - you ain't seen nothin yet! Warned her about the 4 hour long dance recital tomorrow in a freezing cold auditorium (unless they have fixed that problem). Her solution is to BRING SNACKS! We were killing ourselves laughing - I guess having food will make time go faster? ha ha ha

She wants to pack fruit and crackers and nuts and cheese - I say we are going to a 4 hour dance recital not an all day picnic! ...and now she says she wants to sleep in - then can we go to the bagel shop for breakfast? (sure and I'll just watch you eat!). So the weekend is shaping up to be quite challenging! But we're hanging in there - right Kathy?

Angela - hope the cat (and you) survive your evening...and enjoy your great bday present!

Vickie - thanks for your continued support and inspiration!

Melissa - you are adorable - what a lovely smile!

Kathy - I know about family stress eating - sounds like you made it through okay?

...oh ya and we don't even have any "missed coupons" or stuff like that so even if I don't go I need to pay - how's that for motivation!

Should really get to bed.......will check in when I can!

nitey nite

Frouf

Well I can't tell you how motivating it is to wake up and get compliments on how you look first thing in the morning!! Thanks Kathy, Frouf, and Sandra, you are so sweet. I had forgotten that I put that picture up there.

Kathy, I'm glad that you decided to go. I see you weren't as far off track as you thought. I couldn't stand it and weighed this morning and was the same. I guess that's pretty good after the past two days that I have had. I'm hoping that if I keep on truckin' it through the rest of the weekend that my Monday w/i will be better.

Frouf, you have such a challenging weekend ahead. Maybe going to that meeting will help you stay motivated throughout all of your challenges! I hope that you enjoy your dance-picnic.

Vickie, you are always so wise and encouraging. Thanks for sticking around with us!

Hope you chicks have a sunny Saturday. I'll be back later tonight!

Hello Girls! Well the late TOM from **** is still here. My scale is up and I feel like a bloated whale. Grrrrrrrr. I have a Spring recital for my 4 year old Great Niece today. That should lift my spirits!

Jim is at Kohl's for the early bird sale. He's trying to get us a good deal on the GF grill with removable nonstick plates. He HATES to clean our old GF and I always feel like it doesn't get clean enough. So I'm doing laundry and chatting with you guys in between.

Melissa, you are the sweetest looking woman! It is great to have a face to go with the name. One of these days I'm going to figure all of that photo stuff out. Have fun at the garage sale. My Niece and I usually do the one in my subdivision every year. It's more of a social event than anything else. We do get kind of competitive about whose junk is selling better! Hope you have fun and find some great Core snacks to take with you.

Frouf, I hope you have a great weigh in but if not, you'll get your clean slate too. I've found some GF's to be supportive and some not. I've especially found the ones who need to lose weight but are not on any kind of program to be the LEAST supportive. Almost like I make them feel bad about doing nothing or worse yet they try (indirectly) to get me to be bad with them. Resist the temptations set out by the GF. I know you didn't ask for my opinion, but I don't think a good GF would drag you to the bagel store when she knows you loves bagels and that it will cost you points to eat them. Ok....I'll shut up now. Whatever you do, try to have a great time. Your DD and you certainly devoted a lot of time and effort to this show. I hope you really enjoy yourselves.

Melissa, I love being here with all of you. Perhaps I'm encouraging, but if I'm so wise how the heck did I end up being 307 pounds?! Actually, as all of us do, I know what I am supposed to be doing and how to be thin but I usually just don't do it!

Gotta go rescue a load from the washer.....

Good morning!

Kathy - your mom sounds a lot like mine. When I was growing up, I couldn't wait until I was old enough to move out..........better now since we don't live under the same roof and I have kids of my own.

Melissa - I am the same as last week too. I guess we both "turtled" Here''s to losing a few pounds next week.

Frouf - I thought my DD's 3 hr. recital was long.................next it's my neices 3 or 4 hr. show.

I started skipping weight in's and now I don't go anymore. If they send me something that says "come back now with no missed meeting fees", I might go back. I don't know why I didn't go., the last time I lost weight I never missed a meeting. Been totally CORE so far this morning., of course I've only been up for an hour. Going now to make a list for the store.

Lisa

Don't a couple of you like sushi? Here's links to 2 brown rice sushi items from Barbos Diet Kitchen.

http://www.barbosdietkitchen.com/archive.pl?read=14050

http://www.barbosdietkitchen.com/archive.pl?read=14049

Good morning everyone! I hope everyone is feeling better today. Froufie and Kathy, I also agree that going to the meeting and starting over fresh is a good idea. You know, even if you don't lose an ounce, and only maintain the same weight for the next 10 years, that's still a major accomplishment a lot of people can't manage. Your struggles are still worth something, even if you don't exactly get the results you want. Don't give up! Anyway, off my soapbox now.

A friend gave me a $20 gift card to Kohl's for my birthday, so I'm toying with the idea of going shopping. However, I don't know exactly what I want, so that might be dangerous.

You know, I need to try this cormeal chicken you are all raving about. I think I'll put that on my menu for next week. Tonight I'm making the turkey fruit pasta salad. You'd think I'd learn after the last pasta salad incident with my family , but I'm trying again.

Vickie, I feel for you with the TOM from he**. I seem to retain water for 2 weeks prior to TOM, and when it's a 24 day cycle, it feels like I'm always bloated!

And, I was discussing with my mom yesterday about how much harder she has to work at this weight loss thing than I do. She's 52, and just starting menopause, I think. She barely cheats at all, and exercises, no joke, 3 hours a day. I wonder sometimes if she's eating enough, but it's hard to tell. Anyway, it makes her feel better when I tell her about you guys that are her age and are doing it. All I can say is, I'm glad I got the weight off now, and I'd sure as heck better keep it off.

Well, must get on with the day.
Angela

Good morning! I'm all geared up to go weigh in, with the lightest clothes I could find! Empty weight was 153, clothed weight is 154, so I'll see how that aligns with their scale. Surely I'm down at least ONE pound???

Frouf, hang in there! I laughed at that recital-picnic thing ... but if food will help you get thru it, I say take food! Fruit and popcorn and maybe a few nuts, and since it's so close to right after the weigh-in, you have a good 6 days to recover. Enjoy your weekend with your GF, and I hope the recital goes very well for DD! It sounds like a lot of fun, but I'm sure you'll be glad when it's over!

Listening to you guys talk about your TOM, I've never been more grateful for my hysterectomy! I had it at age 30, so it's been 18 years and I can barely even remember what it was like (thank goodness!!) -- hugs to all of you and your bloated, miserable selves.

Lisa, thanks for the encouragement about not missing! I figure if I'm going to pay, I'd better settle down and start taking this seriously! Play time is over.

Happy shopping to those who get out today! That was thoughtful of your friend to give you the gift card, Angela! And Vickie, I hope Jim gets the grill. You guys use yours enough to warrant a really good one! When that one with the removable plates first came out, I seriously considered it but haven't used mine in so long that I couldn't justify a new one. I will drag it out and make the cornmeal chicken tomorrow night.

I bought a very pretty pork tenderloin yesterday that I'm thinking about cooking with garlic. Sort of like taking the Farmhouse Garlic Chicken recipe and adapting it to the pork. I don't know -- maybe I'll just bake it with a lot of garlic cloves and some vegetable broth and see how that turns out.

I should get my ducks in a row to leave. The meeting starts at 9:30 so I'll try to get there around 9:15, which means leaving home at 9:00, which means I have a precious 15 minutes to get ready and play that %^&#@ Text Twist game. I just can't get enough of it -- good thing it's a harmless game and not something BAD for me!!

Angela, it's always hard to lose weight but it does get more difficult after 40 as far as I'm concerned. Give your Mom my best since I certainly understand what she is going through. She might not be eating enough. Lately, it seems that when I eat at the high end of my 35 points, I seem to lose more. If your Mom is exercising that much, she's earning AP's too. Maybe she should experiment one week by eating all of her 35 points and just not dipping into the AP's. If you make my cornmeal chicken recipe, my advice is to make extra for leftovers. I can't tell you how good it is leftover and cold. I'd bring it to a picnic, it is that good to me. We almost like it better cold than hot! Finally, Jim just got back from Kohl's...no GF with removable grills after I CALLED last night and they said they had them. I told Jim I think they took them off the shelf until the early bird sale was over. My point really is Angela, that EVERYTHING IS ON SALE! Jim came back with some great White Sox shirts that were 40 or 50% off. You should go shop. You could probably get something really cute for your $20.

Melissa you are just too adorable ....what a great picture....see what Kathy started....I got curious too :-)
Kat---go to the meeting....and get the real weight, be it down or up.....I agree with Frouf, if we weighed you have to too Don't not go now, and pay twice next week....be like Nike....Just Do It...you'll feel better knowing what the WW scale says and then compare it to at home with what clothes you wore and see if there is a difference.
You paid all that $$ last week....get the full benefits of the 12 weeks worth of stuff! Good Luck....I Turtled as Sandra said, would have like a loss but had some not so great days, but weighed in anyway. Back on track and if I keep this up those last few days WON'T catch up with me
I feel good today.....let's pray it lingers all week...Boy would I LOVE to lose 3 lbs this week....
Kath you're right ONLY the weigher sees the number. Weighing on two different scales will more times than not give you two different weights, so you need to stick with one scale, be it there's or yours. Unfortunately we can't w/i nekked at the meetings..

Frouf hope your w/i goes your way......when I am off as I was for two days, a STS - turteling ya gotta love that.....is always welcomed. So Good Luck!!

Vickie enjoy the recital......kids are soo cute when they are that young.

Angela, what you said about maintaining makes so much sense...getting there is hard...staying there is harder.....we must work at it everyday....it IS the neverending battle...for us, but we can and will do it.
WW is such a great way to live our eating lifestyles...you just can't beat either program, both of which work well and they do work!!

Sandra, Terry,Lisa, Cher, Akiss, hope all is well.
Lisa how did w/i go??
Have a good Saturday, once again I am at least a page and 1/2 behind, and that was only from yesterday about 4:30. This IS one Active Board...whewww
Ciao for now.....Linda.
Let's get out there and do it!!

Kathy, good luck and I couldn't be prouder of you for going to the meeting and weigh in. Sounds like you are going to do terrific!

I'm home! I got so excited that I didn't stay for the meeting. It was PACKED! There were no empty chairs according to the leader, who was rushing around looking for stashes of week 1 materials. I guess a whole lot of new people joined, plus there were missing people last week because of the Memorial Day weekend ... I might switch to Sunday afternoons if it's a smaller crowd. Besides, it's not like I know anyone yet.

And I was down 4 pounds. Yes, 4 pounds!!!! I just wanted to break right down and cry when she told me that! There IS a Santa Claus!

Kathy, that's awesome!!!!! And to think, you almost didn't go! Congratulations, and keep up the wonderful work!



Angela

kathy, that's fantastic!!! i am very happy for you. what a great day! i can tell from your post how excited you are. makes me smile.

angela, i'm 58 years old. my mother always told me it was harder to lose weight when you get older. of course, i didn't believe her. i do now. tell your mom i'm proud of her.

i'm up 2 lbs this morning. i know i wasn't going to weigh before monday, but i couldn't help it. i'm sure wishing now that i hadn't. oh, well, life goes on. i'll do my official (posting) wi monday am. sure hope these lbs go down by then. i'm super impressed at kathy's weightloss. kathy, i just looked in the mirror and, yes, i'm green. congratulations again.

vickie, we all love your words of encouragement. you're right about some gf's being saboteurs. i've even been one myself on occasions. wonder why that's so? maybe you're right about when someone's losing and we're not, we need to justify ourselves.

well, it's time for cereal. i sure do need to walk some. i'm stagnant.