This thread is for anybody who is over 250 lb and wants the support of a loving group of people to help them lose those pounds.

Well, I have very good news today. I guess staying OP and getting more exercise is the answer. (who woulda guessed?). I had my WI this morning and was down 2 pounds. That's a GOOD LOSS for me. I'm on my way to getting my 10% loss. Gosh what a long, hard battle but I'm feeling better and better every day.
Hope you all have a great weekend.
LindaBC

Mel: Yes, I was a court reporter for 25+ years -- started in 1975 and except for taking a couple years off to have my children, have done it continuously since then.

Don't want to discourage anyone from entering the field, but a couple of facts that the court reporting schools rarely give you is that, on average, only 10% of the students who enter school graduate. Another factor to consider is the cost of schooling and the cost of equipment when you graduate. Your steno machine and court reporting software is about $7,000 plus whatever you spend on your PC/laptop. If you go into captioning, that's another $3500 or so for that software.

I have a friend/coworker who was 50 when she started school ... she's in her early 60's now and we've talked several times about how to make the decision about the return on our investment. If you'd like to talk with her I could give you her email address ...
Donna

I'M B..A..C..K......

What a trip! Saw two tornadoes starting to form while I was parked on the Interstate north of Columbus, OH, in a downpour of hail and rain. Drove across the very muddy, Mississippi for the first time. Made lots of new friends. Did not fall on my face while chasing "Sarah Pointer" in the Agility ring. Found a fantastic rib joint. (Terri, It's in Eureka on 5th St. Near the intersection of 109 and I44. Just about a mile east of 6 Flags. It's "Super Smokers". Best BBQ Ribs I've ever had!

Oh, and I was able to stay
on program, or very close to it, every day!

Walked a lot but can't wait to hit the Y pool. Maybe tomorrow.

I'm not going to try to catch up but it looks like y'all did great while I was gone. WI for me on Mon. or Wed. I really want to try a Monday group here in town.

Got my hair done today - I call it my "paige Davis" cut hehe
not sure how to insert the picture.. but here goes nothing!

oh.. forget it... I can't figure it out..



Feel free to email me if you want to see the picture.. and I will reply back with it.

j-ann.. wb - I would love to be a tornado chaser.. were you scared? there is a tour you can go on for a couple thousand bucks or so to go with a guided tour -wild, eh?
http://www.cloud9tours.com/ can you imagine what their insurance would be like?

Anyhow.. food wise today has been a good day.

I had another Garden Burger today - man, are those good! This time I added cheese for an extra point. I am only at 22.5 points right now - I love having lots of points at night

Since this is only my second week can any of you fill me in on how excerise points work? Don't we get extra because of the extra weight?

Thanks

Dana

[email protected]

Hello everyone!

I've been really busy this last week and have not had much time to post.

Fiday DH and I had our 16th wedding anniversary. Our DD and her boyfriend came over and we BBQ'd. I made sure we put out plenty of veggies so I could stay OP. We grilled corn and squash too. Didn't do too bad except for the frozen margarita's.

I am so far behind on personals I won't respond to everyone this time. I 've been reading everyone's posts and it sounds like everyone is doing great.

CONGRATS TO ALL THE LOSERS!!!!

I hope everyone has a great day and I'll try to keep in touch more often this week.

Has everyone reached their goal? Don't need support?

Well, I sure do. I've had a tough weekend. I hosted a Weekender fashion party at my home today and, of course, I had baked goodies to serve my guests. Some of them found their way into my mouth too. (how did that happen?)
Anyhow, back OP tomorrow for sure. I don't want to blow things now after six losing weeks in a row.

LilacGlitter? SlutBunny? Where the heck are you?

I'm here in spirit.

Its been a very rough month for us here -- my mother's heart attack was very stressful (I can only imagine how much more so it was for my mom and dad), visiting my in-laws is lovely (they are dear people) but also stressful. Finally, I'd forgotten how gawd-awful tax time is for us -- as no one buys anything in April! So here it is May 6th and we haven't made the $ for the rent yet. I withdraw when things aren't going well - so I've withdrawn.

Food is an interesting thing right now. I'm trying to make the right decisions, but honestly while were in the midst of such financial turmoil I find myself thinking, "Its okay if I have another bowl o' ice cream because I can't do anything else to treat myself special right now..." Yesterday I broke away from that by replying, "Yes you can. Go hiking." So we went on a three hour, very steep hike. It was truly wonderful and reminds of why it was we left family and friends to move to the mountains of NC.

Linda, ya know, I got a mailing from Weight Watchers on Saturday with a "free" recipe for some baked cookie things. What bothered me about this was the fact that they were from WW but were still 3 points a piece! And the pieces were only 2" x 2". I then began looking through the WW cookbook my mother bought me last month and realized that while most items in there were meant to serve 4, when the points got too high if it was 4 servings, they just made the receipe serve 6 or 8 instead (or that's how it looked to me anyway). I got to thinking that while this *can* make sense, in their recipe book it looked to me just underhanded, ya know?

The musings of a less than with it woman.

I'll try to be back tomorrow.

I agree with you completely slut bunny..
I don't buy WW cook books for 2 reasons - 1/ the recipes are like Martha Stewart's - stuff I just don't like or 2/ It's no "diet" recipe - it's just smaller amounts of food!

Congrats SB on going on your hike - personally I'd rather have the icecream! :LOL:

This weekend went "okay" for me. The danger night was Friday - where I was scrapping till 1 am. They always put out lots of goodies! It's a dream. I had 2 squares of Papa Murphy's pizza - I counted that as 12 and 1/2 cup of M & M's - I'm guessing 4 points - but don't have a clue. I could have eaten A LOT more. So I'm not too disappointed. I ended up with 31 points for the day. Yesterday I did the same - ended up with 31 points.

Today is weigh in - keeping my fingers crossed! Question: what time to you finish drinking water before WI? my meeting is a 6 pm.

Have a great OP day Ladies!

Dana
oh.. I forgot.. here is my picture...
http://homepage.mac.com/danaking/PhotoAlbum14.html

235/231/212 10% mini goal

Hello, hello

I missed y'all over the weekend! I'm happy to report I lost 1.5 pounds at WI Friday! Now I'm back in the saddle again, on the straight and narrow, I will not deviate from the program norm this week - - (I think I can, I think I can....)

LindaBC, I absolutely RELY on y'all for support and encouragement! Congratulations for loosing TWO pounds!!! That's fantastic! WTG!

J-Ann, Staying OP during your trip is great!!! Sounds like a lot of fun. BTW, I started Charlie in a novice agility class last week and have been working with him this week on "Come"

JoyceW, Happy 16th Anniversary and best wishes for many, many more!!

Dana, I love your picture and cute haircut! Thanks for sharing! I wish I knew how to do stuff like that online!

Donna, Oh my goodness, I had no IDEA how expensive it was to get into court reporting! I definately do not want to have to invest that kind of $$$ for a retirement job! Thanks for the heads up!

Bunny, I'm sorry you are still having such a hard time. It seems like "when it rains, it pours" sometimes, but remember to take it one day at a time and take good care of yourself . BTW, I agree with you about the WW recipes, I got the same thing in the mail, being long on glamour and short on substance. What I try to do is alter the recipes, especially for deserts, so that I can eat say.....1/2.... of a recipe for 8 ( ) and still stay OP. I have a great recipe for banana cream pie that I do this with, if anyone is interested.

264/251.1/226.8 (mini 10% goal)
OP 3 weeks and counting

Mel

Hey ladies!

I've been AWOL again. I've been trying to keep up with the projects around the house. We got the garden tilled (first time tilling is a killer) and veggies planted. I've been working on what seems like the great wall of china (landscape project) and staining some furniture. All in the spirt of keeping active and burning calories.

I've decided to put the scale away. I figure if I focus on keeping the journal, keeping active with projects, strength building and walking or biking...I'll got to lose weight over the long haul. I just get sooo focused on the scale and its hard not to be discouraged. My clothes fit differently and I feel better. So I want to shift my focus so that this is a way of life.

So here's my two cents on the WW recipes and such. WW is trying to convey the message with their 123 program that its not "diet" food vs. real food===you can lose weight on anything you want to eat as long as its moderation. Perhaps that is what they are doing with the cookbooks. If its high point, cut the portion size to within a more reasonable point size. I don't think its a copout. Moderation is the key to success. Anyway, not trying to be argumentative --- only food for thought (which is zero points btw!!!).

Congrats to everyone who has lost!! You'll all doing great and are an inspiration to me.

Bunny - You're still in my prayers. I hope your mom is doing better.

Everyone else - Keep up all your great efforts and spirits. This battle can be won.

Take Care!

Bunny I'm so sorry you've been going through a bad time. Some people find it easier to share their miseries with others (A trouble shared is a trouble halved theory) while others crawl into a hole and pull it in after them. We each deal with troubles in our own way. Just know that we're here to help if we can, encourage, sympathize, motivate, etc. I agree with you about the WW recipes. Today I picked up a new WW magazine and looking at the beautifully photographed foods I realized that the portion sizes are really tiny. I understand that we have to learn to enjoy "real" food in moderation but come ON!! If I bake a Chocolate Amaretto Cheesecake and then realise that the portion I'm allowed is paper thin, I find it very disappointing.

I am a subscriber to Light & Tasty Magazine and I find their recipes much more "real" with ingredients I'm likely to have on hand and the portion sizes are fairly generous. Yes, you have to sit there with your Points Finder to figure out the points for each recipe and some of them are too high but I have also found many recipes that I've been making again and again. Cooking Light Magazine is much like WW in that they come up with lots of ethnic recipes that may be delicious but I wouldn't have the ingredients in my fridge and no way am I going to rush out and scour the town for an ingredient I'll possibly never use again. Simple recipes with a few easy to find ingredients are the kind of things I like to make.
Determined...Hi! Glad to see you and congratulations on putting away the scale. I have put mine in the closet and I only get weighed at my weekly meeting now. I tend to be a compulsive scale-hopper and it's really stressful living that way. Good for you in your plan to just be more active and journal. I'm sure that's the way we all should be doing it.
JoyceW congratulations on your anniversary. 16 years is a long time but not as long as 38 which is how long Peter and I have been hitched come this September. I can't believe I haven't bumped him off by now.
Mel good work losing 1.5 lb. Those bits will all add up quicker than you think. I picked up a 10 kg sack of flour the other day (22 lb) and I was stunned when it occurred to me that I had lost exactly that much. That sack of flour was HEAVY!! No wonder I'm feeling so much better these days. I can't believe I was packing that much weight around all the time.

Hello everyone!

Boy what a day! DH & I woke up this morning and the inside A/C unit was making a terrible noise. We cut it off and went to garage to open it up. It was filled with dirt, dust & mold. So we spent the day taking the fan/motor off and cleaning everything up. Now it's running great. I'm glad DH knows how to do things like that because I'm sure it would have cost us alot of money to get it cleaned professionally.

Today is day three of being totally OP. I mean journalling, exercise, veggies everything. I feel really good. We'll see Saturday when I weigh in.

I have great motivation now for getting this weight off. DD called yesterday and her boyfriend proposed Saturday night. He got down on his knee in front of all of their friends at a benefit dinner they attended Saturday night. We really like him. They have a tentative date of Oct/Nov 2003. So that gives me a little over a year to get myself in shape.


Determined - Glad to hear you got a garden planted. I'm sure you'll will really enjoy it. Ours is doing great. Just having to water and keep up with pulling weeds.

Mel - Whooohoooo!!!! Congrats on the 1.5 lb. loss. Good luck with staying OP. Your doing great.

Dana - Great picture! I like your hair. Good luck on weigh in.

Bunny - Great going on the hike. Nothing like a good walk to take your mind off of things. Hang in there. It will get better. My thoughts are with you. I hear ya on the financial problems. The last two years have been a financial disaster for us. Our pump went out on well last year and this year it's a new roof because of hail damage. DH is self-employed so we have quarterly IRS payments. And we know all about not buying anything unnecessary until we know what we have to pay. I wish you'll the best and hope things get better soon.

LindaBC - Great going on the 2# loss. Your on a roll girl. Keep it up. Just dust the crumbs of those baked goodies away and get right back on track.

Tomorrow I have to run errands and water the garden. It has been so hot and dry here. The temps have been in the low to mid 90's the last few weeks and no rain.

I hope everyone has a great OP day!

Hugz,
Joyce

Happy to report that I lost 3.8 lbs last night!

Off to meet some friends today - we are driving half way to each other to meet for lunch. McDonalds! - I am having the chicken ceasar salad with vinegarette dressing (3 pts total) and a small fry (4 points) Our toddlers are going to play and we are going to catch up

Joyce - you are very lucky to have a dh that can fix things. I am no good at stuff like that. We would have just called someone to clean it. We had the same situation on Saturday with our lawnmower.. hubby fixed it while I was ready to just buy a new one.

It cold here in Wisconsin... high in the 50s today.

Have a great day!

Dana
235/227/212 10% mini goal only 15lbs to go!

Hello, Friends,

Such success and positive news from everyone today!

Terri, DH tilled our garden for the first time this year and it was a hoot ! Besides being HARD work with all the roots, etc., he looked like he was riding a big sea monster that kept dragging him into the dirt! The doggies went wild! But what a difference it makes to our garden!

LindaBC, I'll have to try Cooking Light. I'm always looking for good recipes that I can use or modify to stay OP. Making new recipes helps keep me interested and on target!

JoyceW, You really are so lucky that your DH can fix things like your AC. We are at the mercy of repairmen for everything and it's soooooo expensive, even if it's something simple. Today my car's in the shop because my brake light started flashing last night on the way home. Hope it's not something major! I'm so happy for you that your DD is engaged! (AND that you like her fiance! ) What fun to plan a wedding for the fall!

Dana, -3.8 pounds, YAHOO!!!!! You go girl! Success is a great motivator, keep going!

Hi to everyone else!!!

All for now, back to work.

Mel