Just getting the thread started, bbiam...

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. I sure did...our dinner party went well on Saturday, everyone seemed to have a great time. The food was all WW friendly ( I made 3 kinds of pizza, shrimp alfredo, BBQ chicken, and sausage garlic onion) and I got compliments. I think everyone was pleasantly surprised that it was low-fat and pretty healthy.

I took inspiration from Lisa on Friday afternoon. I bought one of those T-shirt dresses that it seems like only little sticks can wear. It actually fits pretty well, except for the whole hip, tummy, and caboose area. I think that it will look good about fifteen pounds from now, though, so I'm using it in much the same way that our Lisa is using the hooker shirt. So I just have to think to myself...tshirt dress, tshirt dress, tshirt dress every time I'm tempted.

I hope everyone had wonderful weekends! I'll do my WI in a while, when I get a chance.

Good morning Jayne! (and everyone else about to post!!)

Jayne ~ I am glad to hear the party went well. I am always so appreciative when I go to parties and the hostess has made health conscious snacks and meals! Way to go! Your dress sounds very sexy! I think it is important to find a "motivator", in losing weight. My motivator is my jeans, I have gained so much weight in the last couple months, I don't think I can even fit into any of my jeans, so I better get my butt in gear, because summer will be over soon, and shorts in Wisconsin in November, just won't happen!!

Well, I am failing miserably in the weight loss saga! I so need your help ladies! Every morning is the same, I start out with good intentions, then when I stop at the gas station for coffee in the morning, the chocolate chip muffins call my name, so I buy one, they are at least 6 points, then it is lunchtime, which I normally don't do too bad, but have at least a 6 point lunch, then I am starving by 3 p.m have a little snack (usually animal crackers) then by dinner, I barely have enough points, and I say "What the ****! I might as well eat what I want, I am over anyway!". I know what I am doing is rediculous, and I know what it takes to lose weight. It is just all psychological!!!

So, this morning, I am starting once again, and this time, I denied the muffin and am just having coffee, I am not hungry (I eat when I am not even hungry, which is a big problem of mine!) so if I get hungry I will run down to the cafeteria, and get a banana. I am planning a light lunch, and stir fry for dinner. I know I can do this!!!!!!!

I think the tough part about getting on track again, is making it thru the first week being OP each day. I know I can do this!!

So, I need your support! It helps me so much when I post and journal and just get into the mindset that I can still eat what I want, but I have to work it into the day.

Anyway, sorry about the self centered novel! I hope everyone had a great weekend! The kids and I hung out and cleaned the house and my DH worked all weekend. I missed him, but love the overtime he makes!

Well, better get some work done, BBL!

Ick, it's all rainy and grey here today. But, I suppose it beats the 300 degree weather we've been having lately. (OK, maybe I exaggerate).

I did NOT have a good WW weekend. I was complaining about my plateau on Friday, as some of you may remember. Being on that plateau has sort of caused me to not care so much. When I'm at home, it's easy to stay OP (and I usually can't go overboard because there's nothing in my house to eat), but when I go out, it's tough. Saturday, I -ed out first by gorging myself on walnuts, marshmallows, and chocolate chips. (I have no idea what got into me). Then, BF and I went to a friend's for BBQ. I had a good-sized steak, and a big helping of macaroni and cheese (which I haven't had in a really long time). Later in the evening, I had a big bowl of regular ice cream with chocolate syrup and butterscotch. Then, yesterday, I went a little over my points... I haven't had a "bad" weekend in a long time (at least, not that I can remember), so I'm not going to fret over it too much. I'm just going to jump back on the wagon...

I'm not feeling super-hot today. I'm really nauseated. My stomach keeps turning and I told myself that once I got to work and was distracted, it wouldn't bother me, but I'm still having some stomach ick. I was hoping that eating breakfast would help, but it doesn't appear to have made much difference. I just got sick time, I don't want to use it yet. Even though I don't know what I'm waiting for...

Jayne--Yay about the TShirt dress! Maybe I need a motivator like that, even though nothing is really motivating me right now...

Tonya--Come on! You and I can get our rears in gear together!

OK, that's all I have to say right now... Will be back later to check in again!

Hey all...

Jess, sounds like you have what I had last week. Went to the doc on Friday and she did a bunch of tests. Turned out to be viral. I was still sick a little this weekend, but at least I am eating again. They did a PG test just to see if that was causing it, Nope. And period came this weekend. So I was quite depressed again. My cycles are really off the last couple of months and I think that is causing some problems with getting PG.

Jayne, yah on the dress. You are a shopping fiend lately!!!

Suppose I should work today. Bluchhhhhh...

Mornign girls!
its the last day of my extended long weekend and i'm hitting the gym for an hour later
JAyne woohoo on the dress what color is it?
I was remotely OP this weekend and that was only sunday
Jess you've been soo good maybe your bod needed to be shook up
and that walnut marshmallow choc chip thing doessound good
Tonya I'm startingfresh with you today
why dont you try that starting your points at night thing
so when the muffin craving hits you can see what you have left
I ofcourse thought of doing this this am when it was far too late to calculate last nights slightly slippery gastronomic slope
Jen honey I'm glad your feeling better my tums all kindsa screwy too
and btw love the truck
Morning everyone else come out and play I'm off to get some yogurt and fiber1

Jayne - glad your BBQ went well. Those pizza's sound delicious. If you wouldn't mind the effort of posting, I'd love to know how to make those - I'm a total pizza fanatic and would love a healthier option.

Tonya & Jess - I too am trying to get back on track this am. Wish I had wise words of advice but can only sympathize and say that if you'll kick my rear into gear I'll do the same to you!

Jen - sorry to hear that you were disappointed again this month.

My weekend was not so fun. Saturday I went to my meeting and weighed in (maintained - yeah!) and then went and got a manicure (Still yeah!). Came out and my battery light was on and power steering gone (not yeah!). So am digging through car manual to diagnose problem when discover that I can't find car keys. Spend 15 minutes looking for keys - find them in car door. Decide to call local service station - discover that left cell phone at home. Walk 1/2 mile to service station in 90+ degrees - they will fit me in if I can get car to them. Walk 1/2 mile back to car. (Silver lining - got some activity points) Get to service station where they squeeze me in (thank goodness because all my friends are out of town). Sit for 3 hours. Get new tensioning rod, new serpentine belt, new charge on credit card. Decide to go home. Tire blows out on way there. Must get out and change tire on side of busy road in the heat and humidity. Luckily, half way through, a gentleman stopped to help. I can change a tire but not as quickly as he did! So drive on donut to Wal-Mart where wait 2 hrs on new tire. So that was Saturday. Spent all day Sunday here at work because we had a system failure last week and I needed to finish up a lot that didn't get done. So woe is me, little pity party, but I feel as though I need a weekend!

Laura

Jayne - tshirt dress tshirt dress tshirt dress. I'm glad the party went well... those pizzas sound delicious! Mmmmmm.

Tonya - of course you can do this. Hey - no muffin this morning, that's a great start. Your pictures are amazing. You can totally do this... it's been rough for me lately too. Posting here is helping though... and remember those jeans!!!

Jess - I do hope you feel better really soon... it's awful to feel that way and have to concentrate on work. My WW weekend wasn't super great... although I'm thinking I may have not done that bad. I had a friend in town who wanted to eat at Cheers. I had a blackened chicken sandwhich and ALL the fries. I have no idea how many points.. but then I skipped dinner... so maybe I was only over by a little... I know it's not good to skip dinner... but the lunch was so big I wasn't even hungry anyway. I'm not freting either... I think we've come along way now that we can have a not-so-great weekend and then move on instead of dwelling on it and then saying the **** with it.

Jen _ i'm glad you got checked out and it was nothing serious...I hope you're good as new very soon.

Kier - morning.. sorry to hear about your tummy. Hope you feel better!

Winter - goodness. I totally feel for you... that's such an awful story. I would have been in tears... one thing after another... that's always how it happens. You totally are entitled to a pity party.

I had a friend in from out of town.. we went out and around the city...then Sat night went to a cookout with Brian. My friend and Brian got along so well, I felt like the thrid wheel at times. They both are into flying and golf.. so they had plenty to talk about. Then Brian and I went out last night... I didnt eat dinner though because I ahd ahuge lunch. Brian actually stayed over - only because he lives an hour away and by the time we got home and cuddled for while it was close to 3am. He was a perfect gentleman though... I let him know ahead of time that nothing would happen and he respected that.

Agh... WI's tomorrow... I want to be down like 4 pounds (because last week I was up 2 because of my period).

Lisa

New pic of Emma from everyone that wants to see how much she has grown!!

Ok, I did my WI and once again, I am at 178 for a two week maintainence. Not bad, considering it's getting close to TOM and it's definitely better than a gain. This was also after a chai tea latte, so I'm thinking some water weight...maybe I'm fooling myself, but I just don't care

Tonya, didn't know you were also a cheesehead...I'm originally a Milwaukee girl. Yeah, shorts in November would probably be chilly...I guess we both better take advantage of these last six weeks or so of decent weather to get out there and get set for jeans. Let's make a deal to stick to our journals religiously, k? If I know you're doing it I will find it easier to do it because I won't want to be the one to mess up

Jess, do you think you could have a touch of the flu? You sound a bit miserable...maybe with the icky weather, it would be a great day to just go home and crawl under your beautiful new comforter and catch some soaps...feel better soon!

That goes for you too, Jen! Question: did you just go off the pill? Because that could mess up your cycles for months! I wish you luck, hon...I've been there, and it's so anxious. I have been quite the shopper lately...I got a pile of money from a voice student and another from a tutoring student, so I had about $200 not earmarked to blow...it was WAY fun! I still have about $40 to go, too!

Miss Kier, I'm proud of you for hitting the gym! Yogurt and fiber sound like a great way to start the day. The dress is a gray Tommy with navy and red piping around the sleeves and hem. It really is awesome and I am so going to fit into it soon!

Laura, what a bummer of a Saturday! I also think that you're completely entitled to a pity party, and you did miss a weekend...no wonder you feel like you need one. Any chance of taking a personal day and doing a little R&R so you can make it through the week? For the pizza, I don't have the recipe in front of me to calculate the points, but I can tell you what I did: For the crusts I used the refrigerated pizza dough, at 15 points per tube, so I figured on 5 servings per pizza and did the rest of the ingredients accordingly. For the shrimp pizza, I used 5 oz of shrimp, 1 oz feta cheese, 10 TBSP Mozzarella, and 5 TBSP alfredo sauce, made from the packet, wtih brummel and brown subbed in for the butter. For the BBQ chicken, I used 5 TBSP BBQ sauce, 5 oz grilled chicken breast, 15 TBSP smoked mozzarella, and green onion tops. For the sausage onion garlic, I used 5 TBSP pizza sauce, 5 oz turkey sausage sauteed with 3 TBSP minced garlic, and onion slices, topped with 10 TBSP mozzarella and 5 tbsp shredded parmesan. Sorry I can't tell you the points right now, but they weren't too hard for me to calculate.

Lisa, sounds like you had a fun weekend...glad to hear Brian isn't too pushy about stuff like that, or he might lose his "angel" status around here.

And I just discovered tons of new smiles...I'll leave you with my new favorite:

Emma is gorgeous!!!

Thanks Jayne, we think so too. I have more pics and will post the website once I get them loaded. As for the pill... went off in February??-ish. Was only on for 1 year this time. Before getting PG with Emma I was on the pill about 7 years and didn't have the irregularities I am having this time. Guess my body is all screwed up. Did you go on fertility meds to get PG or just kept trying? How long did it take you (if you don't mind me asking, since you said you had some problems). Thanks.

I don't mind at all... Aaron tok three (long!) years to arrive. My problem was a horomone imbalance. I didn't have much trouble getting pregnant, but I couldn't seem to keep a pregnancy past 5 months. The second longest was six weeks, and the rest were all miscarried within a few days of a positive test. There is a progesterone test that can be given to maintain these pregnancies but it's experimental and tests have shown that it seems to cause miscarriages in more cases than it helps maintain a pregnancy. Knowing this, I did nothing except take my temperature and chart to find out my fertile days and keep on keepin' on. We somehow hit the jackpot with Aaron.

After you have had a baby, it seems that things like the pill and depo provera have a much different effect on your body, I don't know why, but this is what I've heard through all my research. I wonder if things won't settle down for you in a few months when those pill horomones are completely gone. I have several friends who went the Clomid route, and it worked, but my gosh were they terrible to be around when they were on it...it was PMS magnified by ten! Hope the info helps...stay postive, keep those good horomone levels nice and high!

Thanks Jayne, I like to hear positive stories to keep me trekking on. I don't want to try any drugs for quite awhile. And I am sooooo happy that I have been blessed with Emma. I just get those women emotions about the whole thing tho!! I guess everything was so perfect the first time, no problems, etc., I just expected that it would be that easy this time. Guess not!

It's not like I'm an emotional eater or anything. Stressful day at work and I just mowed (and I do mean mowed) my way through 4 cups of fresh veggies. Oh well, at least if I'm eating out of frustration instead of hunger it's healthy. Right?

Jayne and Jen - I thought my mom had mentioned what I needed to know but wow! I think I now know more about getting pregnant than I ever thought I'd need to.

Morning Kier - we must have been posting at the same time.

Lisa - glad you had fun with your friend and that Brian was a gentleman. Someday after I pay off the car repairs, I hope to once again have a social life that will involve meeting gentlemen.....

Laura