WELCOME !!!

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!

I can't believe it is NOVEMBER already. Where did Oct go ???

Okay... let me start off by asking.... Paperdoll and QueenB .. are you lurking ?? I see you have a birthday this month. Are you still with us??

Barbg... you sure had some cute pictures you have posted lately.
I remember when I used to do that. I save them... but then can't find them later to post here. I am soooo computer illiterate.

Jen... The Turkey Contest is just a little thing I put together to help me get my act together. We were talking about the show BIGGEST LOSER. I hate that they judge success by who lost the most weight. I think it should be judged by their willingness to work for their success. That got me thinking about when I used to go to TOPS and was in charge of games and contest. Weight loss was not the goal. Following program was the goal and as a result of following your program you lose weight. Well ... that got me excited so I decided to start one in here.
It is actually more like a game plan than a contest. Each day we record our successes on this TURKEY I am mailing out. I added a few bonus points to help make up for days we fall short of our plans. The one with the most TURKEY tails filled in wins a prize. It is based on our ACTIONS rather than our intentions.
I hope you join in. I will need your address ASAP since this is a short contest.
I am already planning for a December game too. LOL
We will see if anyone is interested. It only takes 2 of us to play. LOL

Debra... I am soon to be 54 and I too am mainly interested in this for my health. I want to be able to just plain WALK. Sure.. I would love to llook good... but that ain't going to happen. My skin will NEVER go back to normal... and I don't care. I would rather having saggy skin to my knees than have fat filled flab.

Joyce ,,, You had NO Trick or Treaters... and we had THOUSANDS of them.
It was unreal !!! People loaded up their pick up trucks and vans and hauls them here to my neighborhood. You can't even drive down our streets. Church groups haul them in here too. You would not believe it. One group had 30 in it alone.

Thin... You know how I feel about those gains of .6
THEY ARE FLUCTUATIONS !!!! It will flux down as fast as it fluxs up.
I am sure it was definitely that chinese.
Great idea to dig out that WW bracelet. It is a good "tool" too.

Angela... Yep.. STRESS MANAGEMENT. It should be taught in high school.
It is much more important to learn than who was the 21st President.
One thing that helps me is "ACCEPTANCE".
I had to learn to accept life on lifes terms... not mine.
That includes people, places, things, whatever.
The only thing I don't have to accept is the truly unacceptable behavior such as abuse and such. Hope that helps some.
And I know you are asking... how do you do THAT? PRACTICE. LOL

Fwanny... Tracy... did I ever welcome you properly. I don't want to go back and see ... so .... WELCOME !!!!

Okay.. that is all of my notes. I know there were more... but I am out of time anyway.

MONDAY MOTIVATION .....

If they can do it ... then I can do it....
if I can do it... YOU CAN DO IT TOO.

Okay, it's back on track for me starting today. I have had a few bad days in the last couple weeks and am not going to let those few days turn into week, months or years!!!

I have to concentrate on drinking my water. When it gets cold (which to some of you would be year around here ) I want to have warm, soothing drinks.

Off to work

Lucky - yeah, like COFFEE!? You are MN girl through and through, aren't you?!

Terri - You aren't the hard a$$ that someone here you know who you are makes you out to be .

I had so much fun this weekend with those two chickies! And, yes, & I made a dent in the inventory . Now, before you chuckle, keep in mind that Terri was there BEFORE & I were, so who know's how much she spent .

As for the challenge, I've fluctuated between the same three pounds for the last two weeks, it's so weird. So, as of Friday I was down one pound and then on Sunday I was up three. So, according to the scale on Sunday, I didn't make the challenge. But, my legs felt like balloons on Sunday, so I'm a thinkin' that I was paying the price for those hours of shopping!

I have to get going and take care of "the boys" today. I'm way behind on replies, but WELCOMEto all you new gals!

Make it a good one today everyone! Be back later . . .

Oi, this challenge I did good in the week, but when Friday hit I *bam* I just lost control of myself! We're out of groceries, was going non-stop from 7am Friday till 10pm Saturday. I splurged I know I know, no excuses.

Today is a new beginning of a month, and a new beginning to start over and attempt this again I'm really going to kick into gear, I know it.

2cute - You're amazing! I'm really excited about this game. Like you I'm pretty sure this will keep me on track. I have Fitday (where you track your daily fitness and eating habits) and that kept me on track for a while, but with someone more fun and that I know a lot of us will be participating I think I'll do even better

I think my main goal will be to have lost weight (or gotten on track - consistency is the real key) by Christmas. I'll see family on Thanksgiving but I know thats a short time - Christmas is 2x that amount and it excites me to think I may look possibly even visibly different.

I know it sounds bad that having my family see me lose weight is so important to me and motivates me - I know I'm losing weight for myself, but I hope to god it motivates my family. My brother and mother are both also morbidly obese. My Mom is trying, but my brother isn't... and it worries me - but he's so busy. I can at least try to have him eat better though - but he still doesn't have much time. Oi! I'm rambling now.. I know they wish the best for me and I know seeing it would make them happy too.

Ah! anyway, I hope all of you have a great Monday I just ordered some clothes on Fashionbug and I'm excited waiting for them (even if I should be losing weight and make it where I'm unable to fit them!) because I love the feeling of beautiful new clothes... plus I bought some jogging pants and a nice velour jacket, oh I love love love winter! Love being able to wear snug warm pants and jacket without sweating to death!

Edit: hah, my new avatar tricked me! Didn't recognize it, and wondered where my post went!

Oh CD... I got so excited seeing your snowfamily.
I love snowmen... and women.
I planned using them in my JANUARY contest. LOL LOL

Lisa ... I never was one into shopping. I had a sister-in-law who thinks that is why I have always been overweight. LOL She told me to get into shopping and I would get into smaller clothes. LOL

Lucky... I found another article on drinking our water. It made some good points was soooooo long I did not post it. It said COLD water revs up our metabalism higher than HOT. So ... sip that hot coffeee and GULP that cold water.

That is everyone on this thread... so I am out of here.
Turkeys are in the mail !!!!!

Okay ladies... I NEED your help !!!!!!!!
I am a very paranoid person. I tend to always take on all blame for all things.. even if I was no where near.
Now here is my problem.

WHERE IS EVERYBODY !!!! ??? If someone doesn't post soon I am going to think I did something wrong !!

Talk to me... talk about me... but say SOMETHING !!!!!

Don't want you going crazy on us 2cutee, Don't have time to post, but thought I'd let you know I'm checkin' in






(That was my old car)

2Cute - hmmm - what to say?! I know it's not you, maybe it's me maybe it's MONDAY and everyone is trying to get back into thw swing of things? If you're really lonesome, I can tell you about my day . . . .

It started off a beautiful morning, sun was shining & it was nice and cool outside. My little daycare guy came at 7:00 to play with Isaac - that's a good thing. After breakfast I decided it was time for Isaac to have his tubby for the day - we're trying to heal a yeast infection on his poor bottom. Well, it isn't getting any better, so I decided that I'd take him to the clinic and have the pediatrician take a look at it. Maybe it's something other than that!? But taking two two-year-olds? Nah, shouldn't be a problem. They're both good boys Guess who was wrong! Isaac cried the minute the doc came in the room - and my little daycare guy kept trying to take off and play with the toys. After the fiasco at the clinic, we had to go to Wal-Mart to get his prescription. No, problem, right?! Whatever! Dropped it off & they told me it would be about 20 minutes. Okay, I had a few things to get. Meanwhile, the boys are trying to get their little hands on everything. They are being silly and LOUD! After spending about 45 minutes in the store I decided that the pharmacy had long enough and I'd go get his cream and get the boys home. NO! There was a huge line in the pharmacy. By this time, both the boys were whining and Isaac was on the verge of a melt down. I'm getting frustrated and pissed by the second with the pharmacy people cuz they're taking so FREAKING long! So, when my turn FINALLY comes, I get up there and they tell me that they don't have the anti-fungal cream that he needs and that it would take 2 days to get it! I DON'T THINK SO! GRRRRRR!!! I say, no thanks, he needs it now, call it into the pharmacy in my town. Do you think they paged me to tell me that there was a problem, NO they let me wander around waiting for something that's not there!!!!!! GGRRRRRRRRRRRR

I then pay for the rest of my stuff, get the boys in the car and head home. Had to stop at the grocery store pharmacy to pick up the cream and it's $45.00 (no I don't have insurance right now - you'd think being an agent I would, but I don't). Oh, well, what do you do?! Now I'm home, got my stuff put away and am taking a break from the boys. They're playing legos right now & getting ready for a nap!!!!! Then I'm going to take a nice hot relaxing shower before running again for play practice, voice lessons, piano lessons and choir concert - all tonight! Ahh, the price we pay as moms, right?

Okay, are you happy that someone posted now

I'm here, I'm here! Just seems like barely these days, but that is going to change! I've had a really emotional day today. I played phone tag w/ 3 Dr. offices to figure out what's next with my IVF nightmare. Finally we determined that DH will have his biopsy on Dec. 17th or 20th and I will start my next stim cycle in mid January. So, we wait again! As if all of that wasn't bad enough to deal with, dear friends of mine brought their newborn twins into work. Don't get me wrong --- I am thrilled for them because they struggled with infertility issues for years. It was just hard to see the babies on top of all my Dr. calls today.

The one thing that today's emotion reminded me to do is to take care of my emotional and physical health!!! I miss you ladies and I am going to get my butt back in here more often and back to the gym!! I've slacked off the past couple weeks due to my travel schedule, but that's over with for now. I am leaving in 30 min to go to my water aerobics class! I have not been on the scale in about 3 weeks and I am scared to get on it. I'll weigh in this Friday - which has always been my personal weigh-in day.

2cute --- I can't wait to take part in your Turkey game! Sounds like just what I need right now.

Lucky, Terri & Lisa ---- I am so happy to hear that you ladies had a grand time at the MOA. Wish I could have been there with you!

New Friends ---- Sorry I haven't properly welcomed you! I am looking forward to getting to know you!

Hugs to all!

Barb

Hi ladies!

One work day down, four to go.

We had a good trip. It was nice to be away for a few days. The weather was yucky though. Actually bizarre. We expected cold and it was 75 or so on Friday. I can now add the MOA to my list of been there, done that. DH and I had a good day shopping on Friday. I bought a few clothes at Macy's and Bloomingdale's. I was disappointed in Lane Bryant. Again. Either I couldn't find what I liked on the mannequins or else it was only in a size 14/16. Besides that, they had a lot of ugly stuff. My big purchase was a new coat that I needed. I am proud to say that anything I bought was on sale so I didn't spend all that much for what I got. We shopped at the candle shop, the Garlic shop and passed a lot of stuff by.

On Saturday, two chicks picked me up at the hotel and we went off to breakfast. I did not chastise anyone for what they ordered. We had a lovely time just sitting, drinking coffee, eating, and talking. Then off to the mall for more shopping. We spent a lot of time in the scrapbooking store. What fun!!! I felt sorry for Lucky and let her have a break and coffee. They did do a good job of knocking several items off their Christmas shopping lists. It was fun to watch others spend money! Dragging me through Legoland and Camp Snoopy with a bazillion children and their parents is what did me in. Lucky joined DH and I for a lovely dinner at the Outback. I don't think we scared Lucky off too much at dinner. But maybe so! I was so mad at myself when I realized that I didn't get any pictures! What an idiot.

We'd love to go back to Minnesota and spend some time at a cabin on the lake somewhere. No shopping though!

Today it felt good to be back on track. The scale was downright rude, evil, and otherwise hateful this morning. Partly due to not enough water for several days, food, the beginnings of PMS, food, and maybe too much walking. Tonight I did 36 minutes on the airdyne cycling through Switzerland. Watching the tape helps because I hate the airdyne. Its great exercise but it is so tedious. My food is within my points. I've had 50+ ounces of water. How many tail feathers do I get?

I'm proud to report that I have not attacked the leftover (or before) Halloween candy. I am determined not to do that to myself.

The dog is thrilled to be home. DH got him at 4:30 tonight. He's all fluffy and shiney from a bath. He must not sleep well when he's boarded because he's been a slug all evening. Too sleepy for a walk tonight. Hey Lucky, my doggie loves me more than he's afraid of me. Only when I yell.

Welcome to the new gals!

2Cute - Sorry for your feeling paranoid but guess some of us are at work and can't post during the day. That or they are sleeping from the night shift.

to everyone else. This has taken awhile and I better get it posted before I screw around and lose it.

Have a good evening!

Hi gang--

Well, I'm still heavier than I was at the beginning of October, but a couple of pounds have come off since I've started getting back OP. Thanks for being here and being welcoming.

Thanks, 2 cute, for your encouraging words about stress management. I know a lot of my issues have to do with particular life problems that I'm not dealing with very well, so I actually know a lot of what I need to do. These crazy men issues have got to be resolved--and I actually have a start on that, but unfortunately I can't seem to fall out of love. If I could just do that, I think I could get a lot of things straightened out emotionally. Anyway, today's a good day so far, and I'm resolving to check in daily (though I'll probably never be able to manage more than once a day--today, for example, was hustle-hustle-go-go every minute from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m.--then dinner, call my ex, call my mom, now I've got to get back to writing for a couple hours, exercise, and collapse for the night... that's what they're all like lately).

2cute--sorry I never remember to start new threads! and thanks again for trying to help me think about these stress things.

cd--I think it's great you hope to motivate your brother. As long as you're mainly doing this for you, if you can help people you love by your example, that's an extra blessing.

BarbPA--Hang in there! Getting back on the horse is what counts. That weigh-in won't be that bad. Go check out the weigh-in thread: we've had a rash of small gains.

Jen--I struggle with the eating out thing, too. I pretty much know the 1 or 2 things on the menu at each place we go that fit in my eating plan, and I try to order almost as soon as I sit down, without looking at the menu, so I won't have a chance to get distracted by a burger or something else comfort-foodish. Or I sit down and immediately start telling someone else at the table how great the teriyaki chicken sandwich is, so then I practically HAVE to order it.

Aw...2cute...don't be paranoid! Although, I often feel like the minute I start posting, everyone hides! Partners in Paranoia! But, Terri's right...there are just so many different schedules here...you know how it goes...somedays we go through a thread in a day and other times, it just plods along. Hmmm...kind of like dieting!

cd...your picture is so cute! You are a very pretty girl!

Terri...Bad scale day, that's all. Kinda like a "bad hair day." Your trip sounds like it was fun...wish I could have been there!

BarbPa...Welcome back! Will crank up the prayers once again for you!

I have more to say...just too darn tired...I'm falling asleep at the keyboard.

I'll be back in the morning...