Hope you get well soon, Chellez. The flu sucks, I feel for ya.

Rhonda, take advantage of that better mood and get on that treadmill

RHONDA - This is HUGE! Being OP consistantly is a great habit! You'll see the scale move. That's great that Dh is going to run with you. Is he one of those fit kinds? My DH is not naturally that way - he works at it. Before I knew him he got up to 300 pounds for a short time. It's so hard for me to imagine him that way since he's been basically the same for over 10 years now.

CHELLEZ - sorry you are sick. Sore throats are the worst kind of pain. Do you get strep easily? This time of year really sucks. There's a superflu bug going around the hospital where my DH works and it's kinda freaked me out when I think about it. Or it getting into our home...

THERESA - congrats on you loss. What's your system - why do you have the different time frames for weighing in again? You're just like the real show TBL!!

Hope you all are starting a great OP day. I have personal training today and he's going to give me a new lower body routine! I love working lower body - it needs it so much.

Oh yeah, I got into my 16W (from Avenue) chinos yesterday! Quite easily. They do run a little *big*. My real happy moment will be getting into my regular size 16 stuff.

Heya!!! Hope you all are having a good day. I'm sorry to hear about Pam's kids, hope they get better soon, I'm sure she and Ellie and their family are worried sick. And Rhonda, hmm.. I dunno about running, I only made it to two minutes a few times in my life. LOL.

Ok, my answer to the question:

Blue Bunny fudgesicles.... 100 cals. low fat

Pudding cups....120 cals, not sure fat and these aren't sugar free

8oz of coke, frozen in fridge til you can eat it with a spoon.... 100 cals I think

Grapefruit, sectioned then all pulp mixed up together with 2 tsp sugar, then eaten with my son's baby spoon, takes forever and realllly good. Not sure of cals, but not bad, maybe 100-150.

On day 180 I think. Yesterday was my worst day yet. Had to force myself to stop early in the day. Had a cucumber late to help til morning. I just don't know if I will make it the second half of the year. I want to, very bad! I just know that I'm going thru alot and I just don't know if I will have that kind of power over myself. I want so bad to believe that I do tho.

I'm reading Lorna Luft's family memoir about life with her mom, Judy Garland. And I'm also reading Elie Wiesel's Night. Soo goood, yet sooo sad, both of them, in different ways. Then I find myself washing dishes, turn on my tv in the kitchen to find babies coming home from the hospital, all tiny and perfect, parents exhausted the first week, etc.

Soooo depressing when you are wanting one. And for me I literally have NO control over when I get one, even worse than trying all month while taking fertility drugs and seeing a negative result on the stick, over and over, which we've done and won't do again. Not only do I have to wait for a 'call' to become a mother again, I have to take the baby and raise it as my own until it's judge in court decides it is to go to someone else. So I pray every day that it's here that it'll stay, if it's one we hope to adopt. Just don't know how many more I can lose and still try. And people in our families don't really feel like our babies died but we do when they go because we aren't allowed to talk to them ever again, or even ask how they are doing. So we grieve alone.

Guess I'll stop complaining and go try to be happy. You'd think having two already would make not getting a third easier. Why doesn't it?? One thing is I'm getting older, I turn 35 in Dec. I'm sure with the way it's been going, if we get one that can stay it still takes a year or more to sign papers and all that.. then we could lose several b4 getting to keep the fourth and I might be 40 with our last one or older. I don't want to be in my 60s when they are just getting grown, I want to be here to help with their kids and all that stuff!
Uggh, I'm just getting more mad. I better shut up.

Thanks for letting me vent, I wish there was sunshine here too Rhonda. I need it too, literally. Thought about getting the lamp thingy for when it doesn't come out. Hmmm... just wouldn't be the same tho. Sometimes Emily and I go lay out in the lounger in the backyard just to soak some up bc it makes my mood better. Weird but true. I think I have SAD, seasonal affective disorder bc my mood stays good from spring to fall usually then I have these dips all thru winter. So aggravating!!!

Please send some prayers my way that we get to move on with our lives and that we get a baby and it gets to stay.

Hugs, Selina

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to pop in and say WOW - we really won the weigh in this week!!!! Awesome! I'm so excited. I'm happy I lost too, and it feels good to accomplish goals that we set for ourselves!

QOTD: Planned snacks for me are plain popcorn and bananas. Boring I know. Most of my planned treats are things I enjoy when eating out with family/friends which I try to do very infrequently. Recently I went to a family dinner and it was ribs/corn/white rice, so I drove home (2 min away) and made myself a chicken salad w/balsalmic vinegar and told my MIL that NO I wasn't going to eat that stuff!!!

I don't do the thinsations treats, or mini bags of MMs or the light ice cream bars or any of that stuff. Just not my thing!! I'm really into whole foods/organic foods and those kinds of treats just don't fall in that category.

GO BLUE TEAM!

Cheers,
Ginger

I am not as good about it when I am alone, but when I have my little in the stroller, I ALWAYS have pepper spray. I had a dog come up on us one evening last year, very menacing. This poor woman with what looked like a two-month old baby came out to get it, but the more she tried to call him off, the more aggressive he seemed to be. I told her flat out that if the dog advanced one more step, he would be sprayed. She was able to get his collar.

My mom got bitten once, and I would not hesitate to blast a canine. I like to think that I could shout one down, but if not.....the spray is coming.

So, sorry, pal. Flu has been rampant here, even with those who were vaxed. Lots of hospitalizations.

Your pain and bravery are unimaginable to me. I could not keep putting myself out there the way you do, but I am so grateful that the children who pass over your threshold have you to care for them.

MomTo2 - A big congrats on getting into those 16's!

Walmart sucks. I needed to pick up a few more sweatshirts for DH for work so I decided to hit the clearance racks at Kmart and Walmart. Not much selection left. Then I went over to the womens side to find a new shirt for myself. When the heck did they start calling a 2X size a 16-18???? Didn't a 14-16 used to be Large, an 18-20 XL, and 22-24 2X? It made me feel like a gigantic old whale walking around.

The only thing that made me feel better was I did find two sweatshirts from Kmart for DH. I wasn't sure what size he needed as sometimes he wears XL and sometimes 2X so I bought both. The XL fit ME! The last time I tried on his shirts and XL was to small. Probably a fluke but I'm gonna take it.

I got up and did my new WATP Walk & Kick this morning. That was a pleasant change. I don't think I had enough protein with breakfast though. I ate leftovers and I have been munching all day. Didn't help that I robbed a few of todays calories for dessert last night. The strawberry shortcake was worth every bite though. Probably a piece of fish and some veggies for dinner, no calories left for starches tonight.

Selina I'd like to say hang in there or it will get better, but with issues like these there is nothing in the world anyone else can say to make you feel better, so I'll just give you a big and send up a prayer that a baby out there in desparate need of a loving mommy will find you and stay forever. What does it take to get one that you can adopt...don't they know that is what you want? I don't know the system, but seems there has to be one baby somewhere you could love forever I want to cry with you.

zinke--you sound like me with stealing calories from the next day sometimes it is so worth it, long as the next day isn't stretched too thin.

momto-- for the 16s! I found early on that I get bored easily and need to change things up in all departments. So, I started with mondays as my WI then when I got tired of that I started waiting on the last week of the month and just weighing in on the last day of the month, then that day would become my new WI for the next month. It works well because I get excited for that last WI, my last chance to up my total lbs lost for the month. I don't get bored this way, it adds more motivation at the end of every month, and I get to track how many lbs lost each month easily. So, today was my last Thursday WI and I'll take my total for the month next Friday and I'll be weighing on Fri. for March.

I watched Montel yesterday and he had Poppy on there from BL...remember her? I loved her! She has kept her weight off and looks really good. She was on there for some teen weight loss challenge, she helped the teens through it. She said two things during the show that were very inspiring to me, and I thought i would share. I wrote them down so I could quote her exactly:

"It's not about the end result. It's about the decision to do it."

"It's not about 1 pound or 30 pounds, but about making that change within yourself."

I find these to be very true, after thinking about it last night. Once I really made the decision that I was going to do this no matter what, the focus shifted from the end result to all the little wonderful things that are happening along the way. And I love my scale and watching the numbers, but she really is right that what is really important is the changes that we are making in our own bodies, minds, and spirits. So true, made me think.

That's what I'm talking about! It's so easy to make the scale the focus - and it does need to go down - but it's soooo much more than that. Great quote. I remember Poppy also! Like her!

Selina - you are a beautiful human being and I hope your every wish in life is fulfilled. All of them! I'm sure you are very blessed for doing what you do. And the happiness must outweigh the hurt. I just don't know how you deal with the heartaches that come with each goodbye.

So, Josh KILLED me today at the gym. Like 4 new core/ab exercises and my legs are still sorta quivery from the new leg work. So many sumo squats, lunges and then these crazy hard Hamstring Rolls a body ball. I was embarrased of the sounds coming out of me.

Great job Rhonda on day 7. You are doing so well.

Purplefirefly - I like your salad idea. I'll file that idea away for when I have one of those days.

Selina - wow. 180 days. How sweet.

I'm on day 5 of decreased carbs. It's actually going quite good. The only struggle I'm having is to fit in a minimum of 20 grams of fiber each day. Flaxseed and broccoli to the rescue!

QOTD on treats.....I am really lucky that I don't have a huge sweet tooth but what usually satisfies when I want something sweet is a cup of peppermint or Chai tea with 2 sweetner and a bit of cream in it. That or fresh blueberries with a little spoon of cream.

Hi all, great job with the weight loss soooo far. Tonight I took a night off from studying and got my nails done. =)

planned treats-like snacks, special k-bars
like TREATS..... skim mocha (no whip cream)

Sorry I haven't been around. With the constant running inside and outside trying to housebreak the puppy and the upset in my normal sleep schedule, I think I dealt my immune system a blow. Now I'm in the midst of the flu. Like, it hurts to hold my head up (hence my not stopping by here for the past few days!). I'm going to take a "pass" on the weigh in this week, but hopefully I'll be back in full force next week. Hopefully everyone is well.

Hi Bluesers! TGIF!

I only have a couple of minutes, but wanted to check in. No exercise yet as I've been putting in long hours on this project. The scales have decided to smile for me a bit, so I started the day off on the right note. Now, if I could just get this project completed! Speaking of my project, I better get going on it. I'll check in again later and get "personal" with everyone.

WW desserts - usually the Key Lime Pie
1/2 cup of Eddy's No Sugar Added Butter Pecan
Orville Redenbacher's Smart Pop Kettle Korn - only 15 calories per cup!
5 ounces of red wine - makes my HDL's very happy!

Hope everyone has a great on-plan day. GO BLUE!!

SCgirl- I was just wondering where you have been. So good to hear from you. Sorry to hear that you've been sick. Take care of yourself. Seems like its going around now.

To all of you that aren't feeing so well...remember to pamper the princess!

A freebie day from the kids here. DH took them to grandma's house and they won't be back until after dinner. Woohoo! I only did 20 minutes on the treadmill this morning. Gotta scoot to work and run some errands but I am hoping to not get sidetracked when I get home this afternoon so I can get back on there and finish my hour.

I have joined the group that is starting the c25k program March 1st. My goal for the c25k was to run one for my birthday on July 12th. Hopefully we will be moving in the next few 8-12 weeks. I decided to do some hunting and I found a 5K run in our soon to be new town for July 19th. Perfect timing if I do say so myself.

Hope everyone who is down with the flu starts to feel better soon. I know Chellez said she had it too. To the rest of us, stay healthy!