Babenwaiting: My favorite excercise is by far the elliptical. I could stay on that thing for hours. After I move this summer I am seriously thinking about buying one for my home. Then I have no excuse to not go to the gym on days I have late class or lots of homework.

It's nice to see such a great little community springing up here!! I had binges Wednesday and Thursday nights but only a pound set back after the gluttony, so hopefully I can get back on track and make April goal!

Sockmonkey, I see lots of people using the ellipticals when I work out at the YMCA. It's good that you have something that you REALLY enjoy doing. I use the recumbent bike, do water exercises, etc. at the Y, as they are easier on my knees (which can tweak me at times.) But I can see that the elliptical would be really good for you.

I'm sorry to hear about your bad days, and I hope you can put that behind you, and *keep on keeping on* with us here. I think we're going to have quite a few nice people gathering on this thread, and I hope you can have a New Beginning here! Have a good night ...

Olivia

thanks for the support and will power dust ladies!
welcome flowing air!
shake off the dust from the slip ups, don't beat yourself up and move on sockmonkey (ok, talking to me too lol!)
so, sugarbaby, scrapbooking eh? i am also an avid scrapper....do you go to any of the scrap boards? maybe we know each other by another name lol!
babenwaiting...thanks for the thread and the support. I did ok last night, didn't eat a thing. My dd is 8, just turned 8 last week. She's been doing gymnastics for 2 years and joined the team this year at level 4. I guess so far she hasn't really had any falls that have made me wince so nothing really fazes me yet lol! She does best at vault really. As for the sleepover, my dh was going hunting at 4:00 am, my ds was due at a missions outreach this am at 7:30 and then dd needed picked up from the sleepover at 8:00. I didn't have to spend the whole night as I also have a 4yr old. I told them I would stay as long as she held out. As soon as the meltdowns started we were out of there. She lasted till about 10:00 so not tooo bad. Poor dd (8) does not do well on so little sleep. She wasn't feeling well when I picked her up, she went straight to bed and I don't expect to see her up for a long while.
As for me, the scale finally moved, but I will wait till monday and an official weigh in to claim it....i need to see it there for a few days in a row before i'm confident it is real!
thanx bunches ladies!
have a great weekend.
tracyg

Hope you are all having a grand old weekend. It's beautiful here in the South ... flowers blooming, birdies galore in my backyard.

Tracy, you are amazing ... you ate NOTHING on your little outing last night! Way to go, girl ... I always want to eat when there are bunches of little kiddies running around, trying to aggravate me. Sounds like a lot of fun for all. So your little girl is eight ... such a cute age.

So we're all going to hop on the scale Monday (Good for you, Tracy, that things are looking good in that dept.), and I'd bet we're going to see a few less lbs. than when we began the week. If I'm down at least one, I'll be smiling. I feel better already ... the bloated, YUK feeling is going away! (Now I have that hungry hollow feeling ... but I'll survive. )

I did my walk today, so I've exercised five out of six days ... YAY for me! My body thanks me ...

Olivia

SUGARBABY~ I know what you mean..I hate pic's of myself ...depressing Maybe you could do a scrapbook of your weight loss. Would be a fun way of staying motivated.

FLOWINGAIR~ Hello and welcome to our little group here.... on that pound gone

OLIVIA ~ On my way ...where in the south did you say you were I have to say I totally agree with sugarbaby...you have been great keeping us all motivated to keep at this.

I did a little stray on friday evening...waiting to late for dinner and stopping where I really shouldn't have. My fault moving on... I will need to go smart/healthy food shopping soon... what do you all snack on thats healthy but you still want to eat? My family seems to follow in what i eat so if it's good my family will have no problems eating it too. Salads seem to be a big hit but I know sooner or later everyone will get tired of them. Thursday I bought myself a side salad for a side with lunch and bought everyone else chips ...chips were not even touched everyone wanted my food. Time to go fill my glass up with water again before bed.
Hope everyone is having a great weekend

Hi everyone! I'm new to this site and couldn't help but notice this great thread. I'd love to be part of it. I could use the support and would like to provide it as well. My willpower is pretty good during the day. However, when evening comes around, I become a ravenous fool in search of anything edible. I hope to log onto this site at night in hopes of warding off the evil urge to eat and eat and eat and eat.

hotbikini ~ Welcome .....I'm with ya on the night cravings. I can mess up a whole day of great will power with the slip up at nights. Must be the night owl in me You will find great support here

Hi Everybody!!!

Have you all been having a lovely weekend? We had beautiful weather here in Oregon. Beautiful weather + spring activities = trouble. Well, we had our scrapbooking shin dig today. I didn't that great but I'm going to try to eat better tomorrow. Thanks for the website Olivia. I'll have to check it out tomorrow. hotbikini! This is a great group of people and so many supportive posts. Surfing this website sure has helped me make better choices. Hope your nightly munchies diminish as you hop on board! Tracy! Awesome job of SELF CONTROL! How empowering!! Pass some my way please... As for scrapbooking forums.. I haven't ever signed in. Where do you sign in at? How fun! Sock what exactly does an elliptical do? Does it just do an aerobic work out? Or is it a machine that works our certain muscles? Does it matter what brand to use? I'd like to pick one up but don't want to spend alot of money. Have any ideas for me? Good job on the wieght loss and exercising.
Welpers, I guess I'll get to bed. It's late here and I want to do something good for myself tomorrow, like walk! Cheers to everyone!

S.

Good morning, everyone, and BIG WELCOME, Hotbikini!

Hotbikini, I hope you will be with us a long time, and have much success here. I'm happy to see so many checking in on the weekend ... sometimes, threads just STOP on the weekend, when you need support THE MOST. But we will make ours different so that when we weigh on Mondays, the weekend will not have ruined our eating plans!!! So, if some of you overdid yesterday, just cut back a bit more today and remember that tomorrow is progress-report time. I overdid it by a couple of hundred calories Friday and Saturday ... I always seem to struggle that way on weekends ... but today I swear I'm holding it to 1200 calories, and hoping for a GOOD weigh-in tomorrow!

THOUGHT FOR TODAY: We have to accept that when we cut from 3000-4000 calories to 1400 per day (whatever number you have chosen), we ARE going to be somewhat hungry at night for awhile. We have to *own it* and live with it. Don't let that feeling drive you to the kitchen ... Get a cup of hot, maybe herbal, tea (if you don't want caffeine before bed ... doesn't seem to bother me) ... sip it slowly, and crawl in bed with something interesting ... a book, good tv program, significant other ... Odd thing is that I can fall asleep with that slightly hungry, hollow feeling, wake up to go to the potty at 3:00 a.m. but not feel hungry then ... so I think a lot of that *hunger* is in our little pea-brains, don't you???

Have a wonderful Sunday, all you Chickies, and you are all *welcome* for the Thread. Couldn't do it without you, ladies ...

Olivia

Thank you so much for the very warm welcome. I look forward to getting to know you guys I need to make some serious changes. Thank you for the support.

I'm a teacher and not too long ago a student asked me if I'm having a baby. I turned multiple shades of red but somehow managed to keep my composure. I put a smile on my face and said "No sweetheart. I'm not pregnant, but maybe someday I will be." You can't blame the sweet child for her natural curiosity. She didn't mean to ruin my day.

This might sound funny, but I'm really tired of looking pregnant when I'm not and never have been. I'm just overweight. I see other women my same weight that carry their weight differently than I do. I gain weight mostly in my face and stomach. My belly protrudes straight out from my torso. It's not even soft fat. It's hard and round like a basketball. I don’t' get it.

There's nothing really wrong with me medically. I just carry my weight this way. It's very depressing. I don't go out much because I'm self-conscious of my weight and how I carry it. I would like to date again, but I'm not ready for that. I feel ugly. I used to be really fit and thin; a size 6 most of my life. Then, I discovered comfort from food and developed a binging habit that took over everything.

I'm not expecting to be a size 6 again, but I want to recognize myself in the mirror. I used to be a model. You would never guess that if you saw me now. My mother even tells me that I don't look at all like the girl I USED TO BE. The truth is, she's right. I fear running into people who used to know me when I was thin. Their first thought is probably "What happened to her!??? She really let herself go."

Food has become my only reward and release. It's something I look forward to at the end of the day when I can binge in the comfort of my solitude. It's just me and the food. I control myself pretty well during the day, but at night I go crazy eating whatever I can. It's like I'm on the hunt for the one thing that will satisfy me and I eat different things until I find the one food that does the trick. By then I'm ridiculously full but content and SATISFIED. The stress from the day vanishes and I'm left in a brief yet pleasant food coma.

I'm tired of this. I want to live my life and change my antisocial behavior. I want to be confident again with my appearance and not self-conscious. Food has such a grip on me. I just joined this site and I've made some positive changes. I just hope I can stay focused and not fall.

Thank you for lending me your ear.

Hey Hotbikini,

I can relate with the night time food eating madness. It would seem like I would be busy doing everything for everyone else all day and then after everyone would go to sleep I would be like...hmmmm, what's there good to eat? It would be my relax time. Then I would go looking for that one thing to satisfy my craving and a salami sandwich, coke, couple of cookies , etc later- I'd be stuffed but still stuck with a hankering for something. I guess that's why the book that I think Tracy mentioned will be a great read for me. A friend of mine once said that she realized that some of her so called hunger pains were actually not really hunger "pains" but caused by being thirsty. Sometimes we have to just stop and think about why we think we are hungry and question if we really are. Food coma's are great for an emotional moment but the long term denial will be well worth the sacrifice. I found diet SF jello, 100 cal popcorns, FF puddings to offer some benefits of warding off a dangerous craving attack. I think just being aware of the motives behind our eating habits help us start focusing and putting into action better eating habits. Anyway, I feel your pain sistah.... It'll get easier.
Oh, and btw- I used to be a size 5 too. My wedding dress was a 3. My hubby has a pic of me from our honeymoon on his computer as his screen saver. We had one of our son's friends ask us who that was. Talk about embarassing. He didn't even recognise that old me. I, too, know that I won't ever look like THAT again... But I'll take anything smaller than I am now. (Wow, and to think that I thought I was fat then!!!!)

sugarbaby the elliptical is a cardio machine that also target the legs muscles. it's really easy on the ankles and knees.

I think boredom and habit have a lot to do with the evening snacking too. Our days are done we are at the home in our comfort zone.

Hotbikini- We all have felt the way you do about yourself a time or two. Don't take your Mom's comments to heart. Everyone is going to have some not wanted comments or advice. I can bet you feel you look a lot worse than you actually do Get out of your antisocial behavior with or without the weight loss and do something you enjoy while losing the weight.Getting out will keep your spirits up while dieting. How about joining a gym or weight watchers? That will keep you around people with the same goals. You lost 7 pounds already You are on your way to that HOTBIKINI

My weekend hasn't been to bad. When everyone was snacking I just jumped on the computer. It works pretty well. Also doing those things you have put off...... Anywhere where you do not have to be by the food in question. I think back to whoever posted that comment about how it was all mental. Keep those goals in mind and check back to these posts here when you need a little boost of why or how your going to keep this up.

Hotbikini, almost every overweight person I know has the evening-eating syndrome to some degree. I sure can identify with your problem ; if I'm going to kill a good day of eating, it will be after eight at night!!!

That's when the acceptance of feeling a bit hungry has to come in; I think some of that is mental, but not all, of course. If my stomach is used to 3500 cals. a day, then I only eat 1300, my body is going to let me know. Also, I think that's why it's a good idea to figure an evening snack into your daily calorie limit, then after eating that ... make yourself stay away from the kitchen. (Boy, sounds so easy ... NOT ... so hard to do, but we have to! ) BTW, Hotbikini, that is wonderful that you've already lost seven lbs. for you ... You can do this; we all can!

Losing, way to go with distracting yourself rather than snacking! ATTAGIRL! I've taken up crossword puzzles again lately, to serve the same purpose ...

I've done my walk today so I have exercised six of seven days; YAY!!!

Olivia

Ok well i'm back home and back on track. I'm not gonna lie, i ate fairly well but the sweet tooth kinda kicked me in the rear...i don't plan on doing that again soon. I went to the doctor on Friday and I weighed a little under 218, which was good, but I still need to become a little more strict with my caloric intake. I have done better and will continue to follow my plan to eat little and only when I'm really not hungry. Thanks for the supprt and I have more to read from missing the weekend...let me know what's going on with each of you.