Welcome all to a thread full of wonderful women taking on the responsibilty of raising a family and trying to take care of themselves too. We look forward to a new day with members, new and old! Please feel free to jump right in and say hello Here is a little bit about who we are ...

MichelleRae: Michelle sahm to Taylor 8-25-01 & Teagan 10-13-03 Married 2 years to Zhaun. Plan I'm following is a combined WW and South Beach Diet.

Spryng: 24 y.o. married 6 years. Kids- Ava 4, Bubba (aka Joseph) 3 & Tanner 1. Currently on ww, hit goal in April.

Mompen: Penny 24 y.o. Happily Married & SAHM Momma to three active boys, Hunter 5, Nicholas 4 & Andrew 18 mo. Taking what I learned from WW & South Beach is my way of life.
Loveliam: Leigh SAHM to Liam 10.21.03 & happily married for 2 years. Doing the Weight Watchers thing.

Sydsmom: Kristin SAHM to Sydney 09-27-01, married almost 2 years to wonderful dh Began Weight watchers mid-July

Cheri: married to Donald for 8.5 years, SAHM/homeschooling momma to Nathan, 5 (9-11-98), Daniel, 3 (8-29-00) & Elijah, 1 (10-16-02) & doing the low carb thing kinda, lol
Cindi: Mom to 6 boys & 1 mean girl. Plan.. No diet for me! Portion control, exercise & lots of water (most days)

Chubba: Geri..Mom to two boys, Will (3) & Tony (1)..married for 4 years to a great guy..following Dr Phil most days!

Crystal: 27 yo sahm of 3 almost 4. Alisa 6, Ally 3, & Andrew 22 months. Due Feb 1st. Married 9 years, live in Texas & homeschool. My plan, when on it, counting calories & exercise.
Ricci sahm to two boys 4 and 5, married 7 years, doing ww

Jill: SAHM of 1 daughter, Bayley, born 9/19/03. Currently trying to lose some of the baby weight I gained with her & need some extra support to help me do so.

Melissa: SAHM of 1 girl (4) and 1 boy (2). Currently watching what I eat and exercising 4-5days a week.
Deana: SAHM of 3 boys and 1 girl. Counting calories, exercising, and drinking lots of water.

Chris: SAHM of Tiana, Kayla and Nicole: ages 11, 5, and 2. Married for 5 years. I live in Billings, Montana. I'm a rheumatoid arthritis sufferer and trying using WW Flexpoints to lose weight

Morning Crystal!!!

Jill, I fixed my pics. Thanks for offering anyway~

Michelle, should we take pics of our starting weight on the scale?

Jaymi, Nutribase software is put out by TOPs. I thinks it Tops.org. It c0sts about 40. Counts all your food calories and exercise. Gives you reports and all. Great Tool.!!!

Ok all, today is the day we get starting. I plan to challange and do additional exercise. Good luck all!!

Hi all. I had a good day yesterday until last night when mil brought the girls home. Ally had gotten sick and thrown up, BUT, she was running NO fever. Mil said she thinks that Ally ate too much at McD's and then played too hard on the slides and such. Of course, dh automatically assumes she's got the stomach flu and we're all going to get it now where as I'm not thinking the worst. I'm thinking, she ate, she's played and been busy, busy, busy all day and then fell asleep riding home in the truck and just it caught up with her. Which I think is what happened. I gave her a bath last night and she sort of threw up one time before bed, but slept all night and is TOTALLY back to normal this morning.
I think my mil doesn't slow down enough for the kids. It's happened before with Ally and once with Alisa, they've thrown up while they were with her. I think she doesn't keep track of what they ate, how much they ate and so on. She'll give them sweets and candy thinking they haven't had much, but not thinking that coke was sugary and so on. I'm not blaming her but that's what I think it is. They've NEVER gotten sick when they're with my mom and my mom treats them more like she's the mom. Does NOT give them candy, hardly any sugar at all and gives them they're time to rest when needed. Needless to say, I think she's fine today and fortunately she won't be giving anything to us.
So, as far as sleeping...it was okay. 3 hours, one interruption and 3 more hours. I'm staying home today, maybe I can nap.

Chris, I've always wanted a truck although, now I don't think that's the best thing for us. But, dh REFUSES a van, full size or mini, all SUV's that seat all of us are outrageously high, no car seats our family so all I've got to choose from is a truck and dh does NOT like Dodge. So that really narrows it down, huh? But a truck seats six and there will be six in our family. I didn't hear from my dealer yesterday and he doesn't work on Sundays, so hopefully I'll hear from him on Monday.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL YOU BLC CONTESTANTS. I'm going to really watch you all and follow along the best I can. So good luck.

Okay, Ally and Andrew are up and getting wild in here. Gonna get some house cleaning done this morning then this afternoon spend most of the day outside, it's going to be in the 70's, but not for long, next week the high is in the 50's.
Hope everyone has a great day. TTYL

Hi Ladies

Sorry I didn't make it back here yesterday Hubby's brother came in from Hawaii and we had a bday party and all that good stuff...lol

Mel,
You are doing so awesome girl! Just incase I haven't told you lately, you are an inspiration to us all

Crystal,
Hope you get good news on the truck What did you say about no carseats? Are they not mandatory in Texas? Glad Ally is doing ok... My kids have done that before with my inlaws.

Well I need to get up and get going.... Church and all that good stuff this am.

Good luck to everyone on the challenge today! I want us to lose a ton of weight!!!

Morning Mel and Jaymi.
Penny, oh yes, car seats are mandatory. It was Alisa I was unsure of being 6 years old. If I get a truck she has to ride in the front and I don't like that, but it's legal as long as she's fastened. The others can fit in the back seat all in car seats.
Okay, Andrew is already terribly cranky because he got up so early. We're eating breakfast and when he naps, I'm gonna get alittle cleaning done and the few gifts I've got, I'm gonna wrap.
I'll talk to ya later.

Crystal, glad you Ali is feeling better.

Penny, thanks for the kinds words. Have a good day.

Jaymi, the exercises posted on the challange board you must do to get points. If you do additional thats great. Michelle is thinking of adding additional points for additional work. Hope this helps.

I am going to do a walk in at the doctors office today. I want some blood work done so that I can make sure there is no other reason why I wouldn't be losing. I'm still eating well and scale says 205.4 this am. Just because Saturday I don't do exercise. Well, I'm getting some done today that's for sure. I've already done 25 of my 100 crunches. Got interupted when dd woke up, so I have to do more. I will do my regular 200-300 though. So I've got a ways to go. Probably start over too. I like to do them all at once. I'm still decided what kind of cardio I should to. TReadmil, Eliptical or Arch trainer. hmmmmm Maybe a combo. I'll check back later. ttyl

Good morning!! I was getting ready for church this morning but my daughter is sick so I'm staying home. The plans for the day is to hopefully decorate our house! Today, is going to be a great day. There will be absoultely no more junk food for me, only healthy food for me for the next 8 weeks. At the end of the challenge I will treat myself for a job well done..wether I win or not I plan to give this challenge all I've got and at the end of it treat myself to a new outfit. I plan to get smaller after the challenge but I think it's nice to have incentives for my achievements. It really gives me something to look forward to.

Crystal~ Happy Sunday!! Have a lovely day.

Mel~ Here's to a great challenge!! I know you're going to see some great results!!

Penny~ Good morning!! Here's to a brand new day and a wonderful challenge. We can do this.

Jaymi~ Have a lovely Sunday! Here's to a great OP week for the both of us. Lets make it a great one.

Okay, I better go for now but I will be back later!! Have a wonderful day everyone!

Good Morning Ladies!!!!

Crystal, when I was a nanny and was being certified, they always told us that children shuld remain in car seats until they are 80 lbs. and then they should be able to sit on the car seat and their knees will bend directly over the edge of their seat when sitting down. Here is a good page on carseat regs maybe it will help you http://www.carseat.org/

Yayyyyyyy challenge day!!! Good Luck to all of us!! I will have my pics up in a bit
I just woke up though lol

Okay I need to shower and get my pics up, BBL!!
Michelle

Michelle, thanks for that info. I know for safety issues that's correct, however, Ally and Andrew are both definately in car seats and will remain as long as my car allows them to. On that note, I'm fixing to add a carrier to that as well, so to have one for Alisa that's just not possible. Without a SUV to seat 7 or a van it can't happen. With a truck, I will have 3 car seats in the back but Alisa will have to sit in the front. That's not what I really like, but I don't or won't have a choice. I read on a Texas seatbelt page that Alisa will have to wear the lap and shoulder belt. Technically, I can't get in trouble because I can only do what my vehicle allows me to therefore I can't get a ticket if I'm doing that. I don't feel safe with Alisa in the front, but like I said, I won't have a choice. Dh REFUSES vans and SUVs are too expensive. Besides, he may be losing his work truck and with the work that he does, he may need a truck with pulling power and that back cargo capacity.
Anyways,
Jeniqua, so sorry about your daughter. Hope she gets better. Hope you have a nice day.
I'm fixing to start lunch then afterwards we are spending the day outside. I got the only gifts I have wrapped and hope to get the rest of my gifts in the mail this week or I might be in trouble.
Hope you are all having a nice day and a GREAT first day on the BLC.
TTYL

Hey Everyone! I went to the doctor this morning and he ran some blood work. He commended me for my actions on trying to lose the weight and encouraged me not to give up. He said some people who eat 1500-1800 calories/day can be anorexic and some can be obese. So, he said keep up with what you are doing and we will see what happens in a few days. He wants me to go to a nutritionist to see if they can be of help. I'll catch up with you all later.

HI all...
Just got back from church awhile ago. Did the dishes and then headed out for a walk. I got 40 minutes in. Then I guess I'll start on those crunches.

I'll check back later after I get some more stuff done. TTFN and hoping everyone is having an awesome day.

~chris

Quiet day on here today. I check with the BLC site and looks like everyone is doing okay.

HEy Jaymi...I got my crunches in too. I'll be sore but I guess that's what it's all about.

Well the family is hounding me...so I have to go be MOM for awhile. Check back tomorrow.

~chris

Hi all,

Extremely busy but fun weekend...well except for yelling at the kids to not pull the ornaments off the tree...am I just neurotic or what?? I put the ones on the bottom that I didn't care if they broke but it drives me up the wall that they can't stay away from it!

Good luck to all of you doing the challenge.

Off shopping with some friends tomorrow...hopefully will finish the list tomorrow.

Take care!!