God Bless America!

We want to invite everyone to join us in our journey.
We share laughter and tears.
We share what works for us and what doesn't.
We recently started a Topic of the Day.
Monday........Motivation Monday
Tuesday.......Tuesday Tips
Wednesday.....Wednesday Weigh ins
Thursday......Thankful Thursday
Friday........Friday Facials, Fingernails and Fun
Saturday.......Sit-up Saturdays - any physical activity
Sunday.........Soup and Salad Sunday - recipes

These are not required topics ...just ideas to share. We have found them very helpful. We also share heartaches and fears...joys and celebrations.

WELCOME!

Good morning ladies! I just got back a little while ago (actually about an hour ago, now that I look at the clock) from a with my girlfriend. We get together a couple times a month for that. It's nice.

Man, the website is slooooooowwwwwww today! I don't think it's my computer as the other sites I've been visiting aren't doing that. Ah, well. Will just teach me patience, right?!

Skittles: Thank you, ever so much, for that Smack up! I needed it!! Of course it came AFTER I had eaten the three cookies this morning . I had to grab them and come into the office to check up on y'all.

BarbG: Glad that your thing is over, too. I haven't had the pleasure of that experience, but my girlfriend has. EWWW! I know that it's necessary, but it sucks to have to deal with that.

MissMel: My sister has PCOS so I know a little about it . . .

Thin: My words to you are on the other site - yes, I was nosy and HAD to read it!!

Lucky & Terri: Are we going to try to get together?

To everyone else: Mary, BarbPA, 2Cute, Kat, Andria - and oh, heck, I'm having a brain fart, I'm gonna have to write everyone's name down and put it on a sticky on my monitor! Hope you have a fun friday and a great weekend!

We're leaving this afternoon for the Cities for my cousins wedding. That's the one I get to play piano at. I haven't played piano in public for about five years . I'm not really nervous, I just don't want to screw anything up for her important day, ya know!?

I suppose I better scoot so I can pack. I haven't done any of that!

Everyone take care, have a safe fun weekend. I'll be back!

hello all hurricane didn't get up this far had a little rain and some wind. Thin I love you don't give up.

Hi Ladies! Happy Friday! Just have a couple minutes, but wanted to get in here. I lurk around frequently, but don't usually have much time to post. In 20 minutes DH and I are having a conference call with his new urologist to see what the next step is in this long process. Then I am going to gym because I know I will have some frustrations to work out and I (obviously) need the exercise. The goals for the weekend are the gym Friday and Saturday and smart eating. Sunday will be my day off from the gym, but I need to do lots of work around the house that will keep me active. Our neighborhood is having a community yard sale in 2 weeks and I am hoping to get rid of a bunch of stuff!

Mary - I am happy you were spared by the hurricane.

How about everyone else? My family is all in Ft. Walton Beach - my parents evacuated and actually ended up in Arkansas. At first they went to MS and then realized the storm was moving further that way so just drove out of the path of the storm. My brother and his family stayed home. Not a lot of damage to their homes - lots of trees down and debris. My parents house has a tree laying on the roof and several large ones down in the yard. They were all very lucky. I grew up in Pensacola - which you probably saw on the news because of some of the damage - I have lots of friends to check on. I hope the next one stays away!

Lisa - Have fun at the wedding. I am sure you will play the piano beautifully!

Michelle - I know you are gone to NC again. I hope you find your new home!

Susie - Congratulations on the recent weight loss! Keep it you. You can do it girl!!

Andria - You've had so much going on, yet you keep on moving! Good for you and the modified workout at Curves!! Keep on smiling!!! Good job on the loss!

CD - You've been doing a great job working out!!! Don't worry about knocking yourself out for a long string of days in a row. A day off here and there is not a bad thing. I aim for 5 days of working out and some activity the other two days.

Mellissa - Good to see you popping back in! I'm happy to hear that your dr. has been able to discover your PCOS. I saw that you found the PCOS board for some answers and support. I do not have it, but I do have high insulin and have recently started taking Metformin to help with my goals of getting pregnant. Keep us posted.

Barbg - Happy to hear that all was fine with your not-so-fun procedure!

Chris - What can I say?? Men!!! LOL

2cute - Have a good time at the wedding. Hope to hear more from you when you return.

Skittles - How was the doc appt?

Ok, I know that was all quick and I missed a few. DH just walked in the door and we are getting ready to call the Dr. We managed to avoid a 45 min drive to the appt and agree on a phone call! One positive thing!

I'll check back in later.

Love ya!
Barb

Good Afternoon all you beautiful women!!!!

{"la la la la, la la la la, Elmo's world...."}

Sorry about that, my 2 1/2 year old is watching Sesame Street and now I can't get that song outta my head!!

Well, had a heart to heart talk with my co-teacher and all is well. In fact, what a day!!! The water main downtown broke so we called as many of our families as we could to tell them not to send their kids to school as we had no water. So, we ended up with 2 kids all day! Needless to say, got tons of planning and paperwork done. I then got my workout done, grocery shopping done AND home by 2:45 pm so hubby could go to work. Then, to top off my much more wonderful day today, I found out that we are getting our windshield replaced for FREE!! $50 coupon from Saturn and my deductible is $50.



Ordering Dominos pizza for dinner; my son has 2 friends over so thought we'd splurge. Otherwise, hubby gets home at 7:15 pm and we plan to finish up reloading stuff onto the hard drive. Then time for us to relax and unwind.

Gotta run. You all take care and have a great night!



TTFN

Hi All,
Just got back from the beach, trying to catch up with all of these notes. I'm glad we chose the Atlantic coast for a few days at the beach, we were glues to the weather channel whenever we were in the room. It was nice and relaxing. Did good with the food, and excercised in the pool at the hotel. So I lost 6 pounds on the trip!
Looks like I should travel more often. DH was very good for a change.
Ironic, isn't it that we came back to uprooted trees and terrible wind damage all over our area from tornados spawned by IVAN? Enough already.
It is still 77 degrees at 7:30pm. Love to sleep out on the porch tonight.
Bye for now,
Debra

This is me, picking myself up, ONCE AGAIN, brushing myself off, ONCE AGAIN, and getting back in the saddle, ONCE AGAIN.

Thanks, Thin... for telling me not to read your rant.
Duh...what did you think we'd do? NOT READ???

It was just the wake up call I needed!

{{{hugs}}}

Good morning ladies,

We've been having a thunderstorm since midnight. Poor DH had to get up and leave at 6:15 for a 12 hour trip to take the girls volleyball team to a tourney. I always worry about him until he's home safe and sound. Especially since he'll be driving a bus in this rain.

But on the other hand....the dog and I have the whole house to ourselves for the whole day. The dog better watch out or his butt will be in the garage.

Yesterday, I took a half-day of vacation. I was lamenting to DH about not having ridden my bike in what seems so long and when do I ever get the chance anymore. Between work, the horses, and trying to keep up around the house, it seems a low priority. Which is not good as I love it so much. So I am going to try to take some early days from work and go ride while the weather is still good for riding. I was really surprised how little stamina I had in my legs.

I had a good ride in until an old man driving the OATS bus damn near killed me. He pulled up on a side street, looked down the street, and gunned it except that I was already in the intersection and right in freakin' front of him. I yelled and he fortuantely nailed the brakes. I wanted to beat him. They are really bad about that in my neighborhood. For some reason, they think its okay to run over me instead of yielding to me.

Last night, we went out to the barn to check the horses. I decided to ride Tanyah. I had a good ride. She and I are getting along better and she's not as stubborn with me. We did lots of trotting and cantering so we both got a good workout. Good for the upper thigh and butt muscles.

I need to go get laundry started and get busy.

P.S. Anyone needing or wanting a butt chewing, go read my post on Thin's whine thread.

I'll do replies later on a break.

Rollcall for the 2 lbs by 9/30 challenge:

Terri
KAT
Redswirls
Judy
Lucky
Angela
Thin
Skittles
Andria
Lisa
BarbPA
Barb.G
CD - healthy behavior
Chris
2Cute

Did I miss anyone?

Okay ladies, what plans do each of you have for this weekend so that you're successful in this challenge?

Pigging out is not acceptable behavior.
Laying on your butt is not acceptable behavior.
Whining is not acceptable behavior.
Rationalization is not acceptable behavior.

We know what to do and how to do it. So let's just do it.

Thank you signing me up! Two lbs by 9/30...yep, I can do that! I WILL do that. My plan is to follow WW, journal every morsel that goes into my pie-hole, drink an ocean of water and exercise this body every single day.

Some strong, positive words being spoken here this morning...I like it!

I have no excuse for being AWOL. other than falling off the wagon, not meeting the challenge and not wanting to face up to it, here or to myself, and being too embarrassed to admit that I'd screwed up AGAIN.

No looking back. Only forward. No dwelling on mistakes, just concentrating on making each moment count.(sometimes you just have to take it moment by moment)

That's what I'm doing...the one step at a time plan. One baby step at a time!

Now I have to run...football picture day today...guess I'd better get those pants in the wash!

PS...thanks to all for being here!

Rationalization is not acceptable behavior.
Rationalization is not acceptable behavior.
Rationalization is not acceptable behavior.

This is a big one for me. I'm gonna make it #1 for me this week. There is nothing rational about putting food into a body that doesn't need it and that is already into health problems because of the open mouth bite down policy it's lived by for years.

From The Skinny Daily Post: (you know how much I love her!)

This One Day
Life while losing weight and life while maintaining weight is both the same and different. It is the same in one important respect: You do it most successfully when you do it one day at a time.

This language, this idea, borrowed from AA work, works just as well when we struggle with weight loss as it does when we fight any addiction.

We fight the idea, but it’s true. When we face up to it, we become able to deal with it: We are fighting an addiction.

We are addicted to habits that slow our metabolism. Some of us are addicted to food too. Some of us, to make it worse, are addicted to foods that don’t work well in our systems. Our bodies, fighting to maintain great health, may store fat more easily because of it.

But making all of the changes that we must make to lose weight permanently can feel impossible. Overwhelming. Giving up addictive food, taking on exercise, cutting back on caffeine, buying and preparing whole foods, measuring, weighing, preparing, recording. It’s a lot to ask. It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of change. Is it too much?

Well, it is too much if you try to do it all at once, if you expect overnight change, if you have a deadline, if you require perfection, if you feel you must turn it into your religion. Work this way and you are almost guaranteed to be overwhelmed. Work this way and your focus will remain on all you must give up or do differently rather than on what you gain by building better habits. Work this way and you’re working against your human nature, just making it all too darned hard.

No. One day at a time. You really don’t have to manage much more than 16 waking hours at a go. Within those 16 hours, you need to manage your calories in, your calories out. Try to include 30 minutes of heavier breathing, maybe some strength work.

That’s it. Manage this day. Take small steps in the right direction. If you get to the end of this day and you aren’t happy with your performance, learn from it and move on to the one day you have before you. Talk it over with an advisor or friend, and give yourself the gift of deciding to do a little better tomorrow.

The easier you make it on yourself the better. The less you work against someone else’s ideal dieting day, the better. You need to work your choices into your real life, your preferences, your world.

Just today. Manage this one day.

Fabulous small steps at www.smallsteps.gov

Great post Kat!

I never made it back to post replies. Sorry! I've been working on the computer quite a bit getting caught up on all the bill work and checkbook balancing. Sure sucks to be an accountant because I probably spend way too much time being meticulous. But its in my blood.

I read this today in People magazine. Its a question directed at Oprah and her response. I just loved it. And it had nothing to do with the fact that Oprah said it; it was what she said.

Q: How did turning 50 change you?

A: You what I decided? I decided to live on the edge, not be as predictable and to step out on the edge of your life a little bit: kick it up. I'm doing that with everything. I cleaned out my closet. I changed my hair. I lost some weight. I'm moving from the center. And I'm having a good time.

That really touched me. So I picked up the phone and called the salon not that far from home and took a chance. I got right in and got my hair cut by someone different. I hate changing my stylist. I hate going into a new place and having someone I don't know anything about cut my hair. I would have like it a little shorter and will tell her next time but I survived. It feels great. What else can I change? What have I been putting off doing because of feeling self-conscious or hesitant to try? All the horseback riding has been one big event this year that is on the edge for my life.

Lisa - I would love to meet up at MOA at the end of October. I'll keep you posted about the work situation and any obstacles with being off.

BTW, Oprah did pilates every day this summer to get her looking so darn good.

Well, its time to go walk the dog. I've had a headache most of the day because of all the rain we had last night and allergies. After that, I'm going to bed.

Goodnight!

Oi, I've fallen off the boat again.. 2nd day in a row with out exercising, haven't been eating too healthy. Oi... having relationship problems really gets at me Its not like I get upset about the relationship and say "im going to binge or not exercise to make myself feel better" I just completely lose track of time and motivation escapes me. But I'm going to hopefully work out as soon as I finish this... and start over tomorrow. I planned a surprise party for my mother's bday tomorrow so I'll be swimming laps tomorrow too. I'm not sick anymore so I'm doing semi-better

I will do better! Wee..

Good luck everyone!

I was happy to see all the butt chewing going on here - TERRI!!!! NOT sure I want to meet you at the MOA now!!!!

I needed it!!!! I have been on a tramatic, emotional few days and needed the reminder - I can't let anything derail my health. My one sister had another stroke - some of you remember she had one last year - anyway, she had surgery Friday. She is in Arkansas and I felt so sad that I couldn't be with her because she was so scared. She is home today and will, hopefully, be doing better each day.

So, tomorrow is exercise my "butt" off day!!!!!

Thanks for being here!!!