ANNE Seems to me that there is an awful lot of "WEE ING" going on in Ireland over the holidays. LOL LOL

LILY You are right you did have an ALAS day.

I'll be back tonight.

Hello, everyone, my name is Marsha and I would like very much to join this group. the posts are so interesting, and everyone seems to be so nice and so encouraging to those who struggle to stay OP. Right now I'm struggling and not succeeding. It's so discouraging to go along losing half a pound or sometimes a pound after a perfect OP week, and then have a bad week and gain back not half a pound or a pound, but [b]ten pounds![b/] It happened to me Thanksgiving week. It's enough to make a person want to tear her hair out - only I don't have enough to spare any more. Guess I'll just have to buckle down and work it back off.

I'm 58 and live in Southwest Louisiana. I've been here about 20 years, having come originally from California. I have about 100 pounds to lose, and know I have to do it for my health's sake. There's nothing wrong with me, thank goodness, and I've never felt better, since I started working out at the health club, but I can't keep all this extra weight on. I've been going to WW for almost a year, and had lost 25 pounds until that 10 came back. I hope to lose faster next year, without so much of losing one week then gaining the next.

It's really nice to find a place where people from all over the world can come together to support each other and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you.

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Marsha

Hi Marsha, Those stubborn pounds will come off if you perservere. I know, it took me 22 months to rid 71 pounds and they didn't come off very easy. The first year my average lose was 1 pound per week. The next 10 months it was
1/2 pound per month. You bet it was disouraging but worth it in the long run. My only advise to you would be to follow the program, write everything down that you eat, drink your water and exercise. I chose my exercise to be walking and I faithfully have walked every since day for the last 23 months at least 20 minutes. Now I walk 30 minuets first thing out of bed in the morning, I'm dressed and out the door with my walkman on. This was a big undertaking for me for I had to start walking a block at a time. Then to get up, get dressed and out the door was major steps. I would much prefer to lounge around most of the morning in my robe and slippers. When the weather got hotter, I had to get up earlier to avoid walking when it was too warm.

I do eat a lot more fiber now than I ever did before. Bran muffins for breakfast, Kashi cereal some times for lunch, W W veg. soup after a week of no lost. You know the drill. Sometimes I plan meals ahead and other times I wing it. DH and I are retired so that makes it easier. We travel by RV months at a time and fixing our meals is a lot easier than eating out. If I loose 5 more pounds that would be great but if I stay the same I won't complain. Size 14 fits just fine and some medium blouses also fit. I never did wear any size below 12 in my life.

Good luck to you, believe me, I know you can be successful.

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Ann P

Hi Marsha Welcome and of course you can join us, we just love hearing from new gals. You live in Louisiana and I live in central Canada where we are freezing our tush's off. Boy it's cold today and really windy. I have been feeding a grey squirrel since spring his name is "Sammy" and today I looked out and he was eating the peanuts I put out for him and I guess his little toes are cold (we have snow) so he would hold one tiny little paw up against his little belly and then other to warm them up. Poor little guy, well not little he's really fat. He'll soon have join a WW Squirrel Class. LOL
Marsha come and post here often, I think that helps us to stay on track and if we fall off we get all the support we need from the rest of the gals. This is not a easy thing losing weight or maintaining the loss. I don't have a lot of choices about whether I get old or not but I don't want to be old and fat. We have this lady who goes to the little Mall right in my neighborhood every single morning and stays until lunch time. It has a grocery store, health food store, drugstore, hairdresser, bakery and a bank. Her husband passed on some years ago and left her financially well off but she really doesn't have any family. She lives across the street from the Mall in a nice town house and just walks over every day. If the weather is really bad she orders a cab to drive her across the street. Anyway, the first thing she does is has her hair either shampooed and set or combed out at the hairdresser's every day but Sunday.
She gets all dressed up to go to the Mall to. She usually wears a black skirt and sweater and black stockings, and her mink jacket if the weather is in the least bit cool. She wears lots and lots of jewellry including several gold anklets. I forgot to mention this gal is likely in her late 70's. She is a slim gal and when she walks she likes to kind of flip her feet so she can see all the anklets. She talks to everybody who will spend a few minutes with her. One day she told me that growning up in England she loved to eat chocolate but couldn't afford to buy it. She said she can afford to buy all the chocolate she wants now but will only allow herself 1 bar per week, because she doesn't want to gain any weight. Some people like my "Lady" make such wise food choices for themselves and others have a devil of a time, (like me). Anyway, I want to be thin like her when I am in my late 70's. (the gold anklets would be nice too hee hee

Sounds like Christmas has become somewhat commercial every where. I think it up to us to push that aside. Being from New Mexico we do have a tradition of a Mexican supper on Christmas eve. We have tamales and posole. Posole is a northern New Mexico dish that is Indian in origin. It is a bleached corn (somewhat like hominy) simmered for hours with pork, garlic & onions. Then red chili sauce is added. Most people now serve the red chili on the side so you can make your bowl as hot as you want. It is ssssooo Good!

I'm really having to adjust my points some days. I want to at least taste all the unexpected things that keep popping up. I am keeping 0 points soup in the freezer so I can have that for supper when I've used all my points for the day. And the days there are no treats I'm eating almost entirely vegetables to help me keep banked points. I'm truly trying to make this a lifestyle change so I am trying all ways I can think of to keep within my weekly points total.

And I'm happy to report that I am finally feeling better!!

Phill

[This message has been edited by phillpc (edited 12-03-2000).]

Slavika: What a great story about that Lady! Its really true about the choices. Just wish I new better when I was younger.

Welcome Marsha! Hang in there. Just keep working at and the pounds will come off. Its a slow process sometimes but you can do it!

Phill: glad you are feeling better! That red chili sounds yummy. Havent had that in a long time. Have a recipe to share?

Here it is Sunday and my first post in a week. I've checked in most days just to see whats going on. Was going to post last night after reading all the wonderful Christmas Traditions. But this site was so slow I gave up trying to get into the reply page. So I'll share mine now. Christmas Eve My three kid and all their kids and my Parents gather at my house for a supper of sloppy joe's and potato chip and just a lot of snacky stuff . We open gifts and get to watch the little ones wade through mounds of wraping paper. Then its off to a church service for some. On Christmas day we met at my brothers house for dinner. Sometimes all my brothers and their families are there. Sometimes it just those of us who live in town depending on the weather. We visit and play games. We never know what is going to happen until my brother springs it on us. I totally enjoy getting together with family . I remember all those years we were in the service and how lonely I was for family.

Well Last Minute Karen has set a record. All the presents are bought and (drum roll please) wrapped don't have my tree up yet but I'll wait until next weekend or even the weekend after that. we"ll see.

The weather here so cold. Every time I have to leave the house the first thing out of my mouth is I Hate Winter Have had to resort to useing the tredmill for my exercise. Been getting in at least 20 minutes a day. For me that is realistic as I'm gone so much. I'm also keepng my journal up to date so I'm on top of my points and know where I stand in case a cookie should find it's way to my hand. Did the food shopping yesterday and as soon as I got it home I washed all the veggies and put them in baggies. Then today I re-arranged the fridge so that I could see all of it as soon as I opened the door. Nothing good is hiding in a drawer. Can you tell I'm on a mission to maintaine over the holidays.

Welcome all our new members to our little group that is growing every time I check in. That is a good thing. I can't remember who lost what this week but I was happy to see it while I was reading the board.

Slavika- I really enjoyed your story of the lady at the mall.

Just one more week until New Program is introduced . ( You should see the room I call my office it is piled high with many ,many boxes of the new materiels) I'm Sure that those of you who are unhappy with your rate of weight loss will like the changes. For the rest I say if it ain't broke don't fix it. Being a leader I am using the changes and all is going well for me. I like the idea of something new, kind of gives me a fresh out look on this whole weight loss deal.

Well I think I'll shut up and let some one else talk. Bye for now.

G'day everyone,
What great Christmas traditions, make mine sound pretty boring
Loved the story of the lady in the mall Slavika, I agree I cannot stop getting old but I definetly do NOT want to be fat and old
I had an enjoyable weekend with friends. We get together once a year around Chrismas time and catch up on what we have all been up to during the year. Two of the friends have just returned from a month's holiday in Africa and the luncheon took on an African theme, it was all very nice. A bit difficult to work out points but I just had a taste of most dishes and had fresh fruit for desert. We all went for a long walk after lunch and it was just a great day.
DH is home again, went for 1 1/2 hour walk at 7 this morning along the beach and I am looking forward to another great OP week.
Welcome Marsha, I haven't been here long myself but you will find it a very friendly and supportive site like I have.
Keep warm all in the cold climates and I will try and keep cool
Cheers
MAria

Karen: I cant wait til we get the new materials. My Leader has been raving about the program. 2 more weeks for me.

Maria: Your luncheon sounded interesting. Never had African food before. What did they serve?

Slavika: Wheres Trudy? Hadnt seen her in a while. Is she ok?
Or Maybe she is working on my tree skirt

[This message has been edited by LilyG (edited 12-03-2000).]

Hi Everybody: I'll just say welcome to
STEPTWO once again. "WELCOME"
GEEZ KAREN you sure are good. I think you would probably go into cardiac arrest if you looked in my kitchen cupboads. Yikes even my kitchen counter. I'm like my little backyard squirrel I got all kinds of goodies in case I can't get back to the store for the next year or so. LOL
HI LILY trust me on this one...LOL LOL TRUDY has NOT been busy this last week working on "YOUR" tree skirt. I'll let her tell you what she has been up to~~~~~~~
PHILL I love Mexican food, well who am I kidding I love all food. That would make a good topic for us to discuss. Is there any food you gals do not like and if yes, what is it? I tried "caviar" and have to say I would not rush out to eat that again. I found it salty and well fishy. Someone told me it must not have been a very good caviar if it was fishy, I wouldn't know. There's no accounting for taste because I really love herring.
Talk to you all tomorrow.

ALAS Was hoping she was working on my tree skirt.

Food I wont eat: Raisins, and prunes. Yuck!
all wrinlkly...

[This message has been edited by LilyG (edited 12-03-2000).]

Thank you for the warm welcome. I'll certainly try to follow Ann's advice, and today I did start a new journal and count the glasses of water and get in a half hour on the treadmill. WI is on Tuesday and I'll be keeping my fingers crossed (and my mouth closed) until then.

Slavika, your squirrel sounds so cute. I have bunch a them in my yard, but they are all rather skinny and look too much alike to be given names. I loved your story about the lady who goes to the mall - that's going to be me someday.

Well, it was cold here today, high in the 40's. That probably sounds springlike to you Canadians, but I shivered all morning and had a hard time getting started. Finally got in gear though and accomplished a lot. I, too, now have all my gifts wrapped, as well as two dishes prepared for parties next week.
Tomorrow is going to be another busy day, so I think I'll sign off and take a look at the news and go to bed. Night, all.


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Marsha

Hi Everybody I thought I would just come back here to tell you gals what I found on the internet a short while ago. LOL
I was looking at recipe sites (one of my fav things to do) and I went to Mrs. Claus's kitchen at www.northpole.com and came across a recipe that had more calories per serving then I would ever have thought possible. The dessert is a pudding called, "Aunt Mazo's Eagle Brand Dessert". My arteries b
began to harden even as I read it. Per serving: 1002 calories with 60 g of fat. Now ladies don't you agree with me that after seeing that "ANY" recipe we actually would make would be "low fat" compared to that.
LILY what do you mean you don't like raisins, they are almost my most favorite thing. I make rice pudding with so many raisins a friend told me I should call it "raisin pudding." LOL

I had a look at the site you mentioned Slavika, there were a lot of rather yummy recipes there
My most unfavourite food and I cannot make myself eat it is squid.
Cheers
Maria

sardines yuk!!! My DH eats these yukky things I can't get them past my nose. The cat is his very good friend when he opens a can.

Lily ,raisins used to be on my hit list. Then one day I read the box. In 1/4 cup there is 130 calories. I said to my self MMMMMMM lots of calories I need to try this stuff. Just as I figured lots of calories I had to like them and I have been snacking on them ever since

Marsh you found a good place to chat with caring people. Hang around and you will be inspired by all of them. It's also nice to have a place thar we can talk about other stuff too. Ann gave you some good advice . Time is on our side.

Ann I read with intrest about your traveling months at a time and that you still are able to stay on program. Thats put Rv-ing at the top of my list as to what to try when DH retires.

Catch you later

Had to come back to tell you that I checked out that northpole site and I found some great pictures for Grandkids to color. Thanks Slavika





[This message has been edited by Karen L (edited 12-04-2000).]