I logged in to read everyone's post's earlier and forgot to put my own one in here!!

I've stayed the same this week. No gain at least.

Ani What a great idea, if I had $10 a day to spare I would do it too.

XX
Barb

hI ALL. Madly finishing workbooks. I copped a tree on my roof in Thursdays storm. Got SES to remove it. Not to much Damage but now have the dilemma of getting rid of it from my backyard where they left it. lol. My shed door blew off and a big branch landed a foot away from car. Neighbours copped tree against their carport just missing their new caravan. Plus we had many more odd bits to ntidy. Oh and kids cubby blew across yard and smashed into fence. Rumpus room flooded and screen bent in so couldnt shut window. Power out till midnight as tree came down ojn powrline up the road. So didnt get a chance to clean up soggy towels till friday arv. Matt got call out to tree and powerlines on fire across town. So we did well in the storm lol. Kel.... glad you're ok. Brisbane copped it real bad.

gosh Vonni that is dreadful i always thought you were above brissy but must be kel .. :)
did the rumpus leak becuase of the tree in roof or did you loose some roofing there too ?..
how long till you get someone to come fix it all and is storms covered under insurance these days??

no i am in brissy - 20mins drive to the city
vonni is west of brisbane about 2 hours i think
we were very lucky brisbane is totally looking like a cyclone hit it about 30 mins north of where i live.....
and the opshop got flooded

i had ribs and pizza tonight - all you can eat
so my weigh in tomorrow hmmmmmmmmmmmmm we shall see
may not be as "good" as i would have hoped
but whos fault is that???!!!

Dropped 0.4kg this week - I'm happy with that :carrot:, and I have $20 towards my mad shopping spree on 1st January :D.

Vonni are you covered by insurance?

Lindor - :p.

This week's goal is to stay on plan and earn as much of my 'reward' money as possible.

Vonni and Kel, I'm so glad to hear you're both okay after the storm. From what I've read about it, it got pretty crazy.

I had a lazy weekend - no gym and no eye on my food. Oh dear. Today is another day and I'm back on track and looking forward to the gym tonight. Going to get back to focussing on achieving 240 minutes of cardio each week.

I got sick of my old broken down tv in the weekend and splashed out on a lovely 32 inch flat screen beastie. It was only $777 with 18 months interest free on finance which I thought was a great deal. So long as I pay it off by May 2010 I don't pay a cent more than the cash price.

Yay Ani, congrats on your weight loss and good luck on earning that cash for your shopping spree!


:twirly:

wow 240 mins a week, how are you going to break that up???

i lost 400grams as well this week! but i know i can do better
however having a avocado tomato and lettuce bagel for lunch
working at woolies means i see more of what is available and i love bagels but didnt know where to buy them
so now i have 3 to enjoy this week
starting NOW

ani - imagine how much money you will have to spend if you put away 70 dollars a week!

Kel I make my own lunch or dinner to take to work every day. Today it's dinner because I am working 1-9pm, and this is what I am having:

• Poppy seed bread roll
• Tomato (from my garden)
• cucumber (from my garden)
• lettuce (from my garden)
• english spinach (from my garden)
• slice of smoked ham
• two thin slices of cheese
• avocado

In total it's around 340 calories, and it is so yummy and filling!

Has anyone thought about how they are going to plan for December with their weight loss?

By the way Amy - I am really glad you are back on plan. It worried me a little that you were "taking a break" at this time of year. I've come to believe that in order to stick with weight loss - which is incredibly difficult to do - you have to keep goals in your mind, or some kind of "maintenance plan", otherwise you end up giving up on yourself and going back to those bad habits and patterns that got us all in this situation to begin with.

You have done such an amazing job on yourself this year, and I am excited to see what you can shape yourself into in 2009. For me it isn't the physical side that brings the biggest rewards (although it's awesome to feel smaller), but the mental and emotional strength that comes from beating your own demons.

Give it heaps, and turn yourself into the most fantastic woman you can imagine yourself being.

Ani you are so right my little break was a bad idea and im still not back on track .. actually im struggling all over again..

i have no energy at all and no motivation.. food is not good either.. im blowing my calories every day.. and im still gaining... :( .. after only a relativly short period i feel like im becoming more unfit.. walking to school and back only once today felt like murder... i used to do it 2-3 times a day .. my legs were hurting my back was too and i felt sick when we got home.. i mean come on.. its very frustrating..


rest of post deleted...

Crikey Amy, so sorry to hear of all your woes! That's really terrible about your friend, I hope she is ok. Thinking of you and hope that you're ok :hug:

I had a great day yesterday, was right on track with my points and I did weights followed by an aerobics class. I weiged in at 86.1kg which means that I've lost 400g of the 500g that I'd put on in Canada :D

My goals for today are to stick to my points and to have a great workout at the gym tonight.

My goals for the week are:

1) Go to the gym a total of 5 times
2) Achieve 240 minutes of cardio over the week
3) Stick to my points at least 5 days out of 7


:twirly:

Amy I reckon your body is screaming at you to put some healthy food into it. At stressful and emotionally tough times our bodies hate the added pressure of trying to metabolise crap food. It's hard to deal with family crises, and awful when things are happening to friends - but don't punish yourself by eating rubbish and undoing the awesome work you've done :hug:.

Julia you go girl! I'm really happy to see you working to your plan.

All is good here - I'm just chipping away slowly, and hoping to see the scales go below 73kg before the end of the year.

Gen and Barb where are you?

ok goal met for today ..

180 minutes walking
1488 food calories
took multi
6 glasses of water

goals for tommorow..
walk again.. stick to cals .. up the water to at least 8 glasses

sorry about the pity party last night .. i was sitting here alone worrying about everything and crying.. but it has made me feel a bit better to just vent .. was too busy to think today and got my soapys coming on tv tonight so no time to think..

hope yours all doing ok .

Don't apologise Amy, that's what we're here for!

I had a great day yesterday. Was slightly over my points but I evened that out by having an awesome workout - ran for 40 minutes then walked for 15.

Goals for today are to stick to 20 points and to go hard at the gym tonight. The gym won't be a problem because I've got my personal trainer tonight and we're going through a new circuit programme and it looks HARD!

Have a great day everyone :D


:twirly:

Hi all,

Quick question: What motivates you to drag your bum out of bed at an un-godly hour and go to the gym? I'm really struggling - I keep going 'tomorrow' and of course we know how that will end.

Love your jiggly-ungymmed friend,

Kylie

kylie - gym motivation
-if you go in the morning you dont have to go at night
-if you go you will build muscle and if you have muscle it eats your fat while you are doing nothing during the day
-if you are eating good going to the gym will accelerate weight loss
-once you get to the gym you will wake your body up and feel refreshed
-you will have half an hour to think about "stuff" and start sorting out your day before you have to get into it

amy - i was reading your post and letting jemima play with my camera at the same time... and she has a photo of me when i got to the part about your friend - i can not believe it! i honestly dont know how you stay so strong, i guess you just have to, i guess seeing all the things that can happen, happen so close to home it really makes you realise how lucky you are and makes you make the most of what you have

hungry jacks sucks for taking the baguettes off the menu, i had same problem a couple of weeks ago!

Kylie - Get a gym buddy, if you tell them your going then you will because they'll be there too and even if they don't show your already there so you may as well stay!

I am around, just in Virginia training a hospital with hot married guy. Well I was, he just left to go home. Now I'm staying with my aussie friend in Arlington for the holiday (it's Thanksgiving tomorrow) and heading back probably Sat. Then may have to go out of town again to North Carolina for an implant on Monday. Plus, my final paper is due for one of my classes next week - busy!!

Kylie I don't go to the gym. I'm a firm believer that you have to find exercise that you enjoy and look forward to, and for me it has always been walking and gardening.

If you're able to find something you actually like, it will make a lot of difference to your motivation.

Gen - good to hear from you. You do sound very busy!

I spent eight hours in the garden yesterday, and I created a new outdoor living area. I enclosed my fish pond with bricks, put bags of potting mix around, and planted ferns. Then I made a "verandah" with shadecloth and rope, and moved plants around - and then I mowed and fertilised the lawn. Slept well last night :D.

Today will be much more boring. Cleaning, shopping…

But am on plan with the weight loss, and working on earning that money for my spending frenzy!

Kylie, I am not a morning person so there is no way that I will drag myself out of bed to go to the gym! I do go most nights after work though and what makes me go is that I've made it my routine.

A couple of things that help to keep me motivated are: I keep a star chart on my fridge. All it's got is a box for each day of the week and the days I go to the gym, I put a star in the box. I hate seeing empty boxes so that encourages me to go!

My trainer has set me the goal of doing 240 minutes cardio each week and I know that the only way I'll achieve that is to exercise about 5 times a week. I keep a running total in my diary and that keeps me active too.

This morning was very unusual for me in that I woke up at 5am and couldn't get back to sleep so I got up and went for a 60 minute walk :D Feeling very virtuous now!

I'm on a course today and that's likely to finish at around 4pm so I'll look forward to being able to go straight home to relax and not have to think about having to go to the gym.

Have a great day ladies :D


:twirly:

hey guys weigh in day for me.. and i have actuially lost weight this week.. my 111.7 is now 111.6 LMAO.. but im happy becuase it has moved in the right direction.

Having john home has made me very happy.. we went fishing yesterday kiddo free and enjoyed ourselves.. we caught some reeds.. a few leaves and then some rain and we went to the shops instead. :) .. but it was still fun.. .. we bought a movie while p the shops and watched it with the kids last night .. we were all asleep early after that .. 9 pm my eyes were shut..

Anyway got playgroup today then the school disco tonight .. tommorow Cameron has a birthday party to go to at the picture theatre. that chiuaua film.. and sunday we plan on dumping the kids off somewhere and going to watch a film ourselves. ..

. cya guys later..

oh yeah and kylie i agree with ani you have to find something you enjoy.. I love swimming.. so i do that and aqua .. i also like walking .. which is good.. the walk to and from school is 60 minutes . so if i do that 2/3 times in a day or even once there is my exercise.. and then at home i have wiifit.. and the elliptical.. ( which is fun if i have something good to watch whilst on it.... bring back the biggest loser !! lol) .. ok im off gotta get the kidlets ready for school.. cya later

Hi girls,

Thanks for your ideas. I guess I've joined the gym because it's convenient, and it was easy. It's not the right season for hockey, so I wont be playing that.

It's just the 'early' part that isn't great. If I had a choice, I would be a morning person. I love mornings. They are just really hard to get up for!

ack - brb

YAY! Dropped 1.1kg this week and banked another $40 for my mad shopping spree :carrot:.

It's my birthday on Friday, and if I stick to my goals between now and then I am going to buy myself a present.

How is everyone travelling? It's very quiet in here.

Woohoo Go ANI!! :carrot: That's an awesome effort!!

I lost the plot completely over the weekend in regards to my food intake. Was bad, bad, bad!

Back on track today though and looking forward to a good week. It's that time of the month and I'm feeling pretty blah. No gym tonight as I'm getting my tattoo finished.

I had 2 days off work to attend a course last week and it was really good. It was all about "realising your potential" and it's given me a lot to think about. Both in my personal life and my work.

Hope everyone is well :D


:twirly:

That course sounds interesting Julia, I hope you get some long-term benefit from it.

Where is everyone? I know Lindor is in Darwin, but where's everyone else?

All is good here, and I'm still feeling motivated. My goal for this month is to try and find some balance. I had a look back over the past few months, and realised that I seem to have two good weeks and then two bad ones - so I am constantly undoing the damage of the bad weeks. If I can just be a little more consistent I will be happy.

I'm not sure how I will go but I have re-set my goal for December and I am going to work hard and try to get below 72kg by the end of this month.

In all honesty I don't feel like I am close to my goal. I am still carrying a lot of fat on my body, and I can't see how another 5kg is going to make a significant difference.I'm not aiming to get skinny - just to a healthy weight - but I would be disappointed if I get to goal and I still have a lot of fat on me.

Am I doing something wrong? Am I being impatient or unrealistic? I guess the next six months is going to be an adventure, and a bit of a journey of discovery for me. Hmmm…

I'm here. Plodding along..... Am reading posts daily, just nothing really to say
Vonni xxx

Yay Ani, so great to see you so motivated and doing so well :D

I wish I was the same! It's that time of the month and I've been feeling really blah. Didn't get to the gym yesterday and I won't go today as I've got a hair appointment so that's already the first 3 days of the week without any exercise.

Food not going great either as I haven't been keeping my food diary like I usually do and due to TOM I've been craving vast quantaties of mashed potatoes and lollies!

Will get back on track for the remainder of the week though, starting tomorrow.


:twirly:

Well yesterday was a disaster. Last night I binged and scoffed a bag of potato chips and a whole block of Lindt chocolate.

:no:

Not good. Today I am determined that I will go to the gym. That always gets me back into the right frame of mind.

I've got a lot of thinking to do at the moment as one of the girls I work with has asked me if I'd like to move in with her. It would just be the 2 of us and it would mean that I could go from living in an ancient house which is kind of manky to living in a lovely new townhouse.

The biggest draw is that I'd have my very own ensuite bathroom and a proper wardrobe. In my current flat i have a shower in a cupboard and a sink in the corner of my bedroom and no wardrobe so have clothes hanging in a single wardrobe made of canvas that occasionally collapses!

I also have the world's tiniest kitchen so it would be nice to have a better kitchen to cook in.

The only thing I'm worried about is that I've lived by myself for almost 2 years now and I don't know how I'd like living with someone else. Also, I work with her so worry that it could be a bit much.

It is a great opportunity though as I've thought about moving for a while now but can't afford anything nice and modern by myself and I wouldn't want to live with someone I don't know.

Anyone got any feedback or ideas of things I should ask her or think about? I'm going to look at it this weekend.


:twirly:

Julia it's one of those balancing acts. Living with someone is different to working with them, or being friends with them. In my experience, the things that will make it successful or not are the small things - do you share the same values about 'clean versus lived-in'? Can you stand to listen to the music she is passionate about? Do you both have good boundaries around space and privacy?

I think it would be great to move out of your tiny little closet and into something a lot more spacious and fresh. It might also give you a different perspective on life. I know that for me, my surroundings are important, and are a reflection of how I am feeling emotionally.

I'm sharing at the moment. It isn't perfect - but nothing is when you're used to being on your own - but it's an immense relief financially, and it gives me more freedom. It also challenges me to look at the "I'm set in my ways" stuff, and I kind of like that.

As for the chips and chocolate binge - pfft! I've done it more times than I care to think about. Put it behind you, because today is a new day and a whole new set of opportunities :).

All is going well here - I am aiming for consistency this month, and hope to get it.

Had to go to the dentist yesterday - blurk! - but it was less painful than I expected.

Getting my eyes tested today and will have new glasses soon - woo hoo, I'll be able to see soon.

It's my birthday tomorrow. I was rostered to work from 1-9pm but one of the boys has swapped with me. So I'm now working 6,30 - 2.30pm and then going to Fremantle with a friend for a wander through the shops and for dinner.

Vonni why don't you have anything to say? What's going on?

Just been busy and totally off track. Sugar levels have been skyrocketing and I havent lost any weight even though I ate reasonably well all month and was on my feet 6 days a week. So Dr sent me off for blood tests... E/LFT, THS, FBC, fasting glucose (i was gestational diabetic)Iron Studies, Folate studies, Cholesterol, blah blah blah lol. She was almost convinced I had type 2 diabetes but Got results today, my LDL is raised (almost double acceptable) and Triglycerides up and HDL down. So going tomorrow for a chat and no doubt to a dietician and blah blah blah we are EXPERTS in this damn diet stuff and they can't give me any more info than I already have so it'll be a waste of my time and theirs.... I DON'T drink, I DON'T eat saturated fatty foods. I cook healthy (olive oil or none) lean meat, chicken, veges steamed/ My vice is a choc or a small snack pack of chips.... So go figure why its raised?????????? I'm pissed off.... and scared lol. Scared cause I am trying to lose weight and eat right and this happens grrrrr.

There.... I've said something :D

Oh yeah....I dnt even drink softdrink or cordial.... Water tea and coffee. AND I have used skim milk for 20 years.

**hugs** Vonni.

My Black Dog is back, so I have zero motivation for anything at the moment. Had two days off work because of it, and I'm really struggling being back here today.

I'll go to the gym tomorrow night, that might help.

Love you all, just finding it hard at the moment.

xx Kylie

Oh Vonni I'm sorry to hear that you're having some medical worries. Hope you're able to get some answers soon :hug:

And Kylie, I'm so sorry to hear that the black dog has arrived on your doorstep. I know how hard it is to get yourself out there to do anything when you're depressed so don't be too hard on yourself.

It's a vicious cycle - it's so hard to get yourself out there to do something active because you're depressed but you know that if you do get out there and do something active you'll likely feel so much better.

Try and do some exercise if you can manage it and I'm sure that it'll give you a bit of a boost.

Take care mate :hug:

Hey guys im back.. been busy.. with the hubby.. he went back this morning..

i have been readin just not posting..

Vonni do you think she needs to retest? i mean if there is no reason for the levels and your diet is good.. what could you be doing wrong?


Kylie im sorry your blue :( .. :hug: for you!!

Ani ...http://i34.tinypic.com/2quu7i9.jpg for tomorrow


Kel .... where are you hiding???

we had a fabulous week . went fishing twice took the family out(nan mil fil and bil ) for dinner and then went just us n kids.. took leah to the the adventour playground beach and had fish n chips at the beach. watched harry potter.. and booked a holiday .. :) IM so excited..

we are going to go on a house boat for a week from the 5th to the 12th of january. it launches at murry bridge. so not to far to driveand is a great big boat.. for $1300 for the week .. :) we are not telling the kids.. we have just told them we will go fishing.. lol ..

Diet wise.. i have quit counting calories.. becuase it had started really annoying me.. i feel like i know enough to not count them anymore.. It has been over a month or two since i wanted to do it but did so faithfully until sunday..

Im still working my butt off and making good choices.. but ive lost alot of weight in the past without the counting.. and i eat more when im counting then when i do it alone.. so .. only stands to reason ... move on.. do it my way.. I had a big thinkl about it.. when im counting i knopw exactly where i am at for the day calorie wise.. and that leads to night time junk.. i know i didnt eat them all so why the **** not have a little something.. lol .. now i have stopped counting i have stopped that behaviour.. and im hoping it will make things easier for me.. i dont want junk food at all i eat well.. and 95% of the time i am right on my calories.. i have learnt alot and feel i dont need to vcount them anymore.. so im going back to basic.. good food good exercise.. ( and i do plenty of it anyway.. i average 1000 minutes a week )..

Gosh Amy that's a helluva lot of exercise! Good for you. Hope it works out for you not counting calories. Good luck :D

Ani ... :bday2you:

Hope you have a WONDERFUL day!

Thanks for your thoughts on my housing dilemma, they were helpful and gave me something to think about. Today I'm going to do some research on what is a fair price to pay per week and tomorrow I'm going to look at the room. I must admit, the more I think about it the more appealing it gets!

I had a good day yesterday. Haven't been recording my food intake so don't know if I went over my points or not but I did go to the gym and had a great workout - 30 minutes of weights followed by 60 minutes of cardio.

Goal for today is to go to the gym after work tonight and do 30 minutes of circuit type weights and 30 minutes of cardio.


:twirly:

Ok well the proof in my madness came out this morning.. ...


weigh in day. i have been bouncing around 112 for a few weeks .. but TOM finally came this week ( about 2 weeks late).. of course becuase hubby was home... LMAO .. and this morning.. im 111... woohoo.. so thats a loss of 600 grams this week .. im very happy with that. goes to prove i can do this without counting the calories.. i stopped counting sunday so.....

Im very happy :)

http://i36.tinypic.com/15hzkpe.jpg ANI

Happy Birthday Ani!!!

:bday2:

Thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes :D. I had a really nice day, ate Japanese for dinner and didn't splurge at all.

Been at work all day today and I have come home starving hungry. I must burn a fair few calories at work because I am losing weight at the moment on 1800 cals/day. That's pretty high for my weight, but I work pretty hard and come home buggered most days.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Grrrrr the Gremlins ate my post. I did have this on it
:bday2you::celebrate::woo:
But rushed out as soon as I hit post and didnt wait around.
Sry Ani so Happy BELATED birthday now.
:balloons:

xxx

ok guys this is getting silly.. i dont like seeing only the odd blow fly in our room.. where is everyone??? lol


I really hope you stragglers are ok .. :grouphug: to you all..


I have been insanely busy and hope you have too which is why your not here..

Ani im glad you had a nice birthday :)

My quitting calorie counting.. feels good and right and im very happy.. i have removed the pressure off myself and doing my own thing.. it may sound really strange but im in a good place with myself at the moment im happy to just loose the rest of this weight slowly and not be in a rush .. i feel fit and healthy i like how im looking and i will continue making the good choices.. but no more pressure on me.. which is great ..

Christmas for us will be great got all the family coming.. i cant wait and after xmas is Johns birthday thenour holiday.. we are taking th4 kids up the river for a week.. so lots of fun to come :)

anyway.. i really hope you guys are ok.. especially you Kel .. im starting to worry bout you

shucks amy you were worried about me!!! how nice!!!

i was on holiday - i am sure i mentioned it once or twice before i went away.... just didnt have time to log on and say goodbye - i felt rude about that - anyway HAD THE BEST TIME
will post some photos soon

went to maleny (up the mountains in the country) and stayed on a farm! so benji and jem were very surprised and LOVED it they milked a cow fed chickens and ducks and horses and other stuff THEN we went to Perigan Beach (near noosa) but quiet and had 2ish days on the beach and in the pool so they were surprised again and loved it
and i have come back relaxed and pumped
pumped to STAY relaxed!

however
almost had to call greenpeace to get me off the beach..... yes i am now like a beached whale

it is almost funny BUT IT IS NOT how much weight i think i have put on in the last 2 weeks.
it is NOT funny coz it is my health
i can feel it this time
i really have put on too much weight
i am honestly committed to healthy new start
my new years starts now
and my resolution is not only to lose weight but to keep it off and have healthy lifestyle for baby and me
to plan meals for my family
to budget for my family
and to keep a tidy house to keep family healthy
be organised for family
so i am not stressed
so i am healthy

forgot my meds all week so will find them and get back on to that.

happy birthday ani

is john home for a while now amy?? for xmas??

gen do you get holidays?? do you get a break?

julia, what kind of things did that conference teach you??? did you go for the flatmate option?? i would if i were you.... save some money and get some variety in your day to day life.... at least see how it goes?

going now had a gazillion emails to answer then as part of new year kel not going to be on the net so much but wont be able to help myself but to check emails at least once a day....
oh will be back tomorrow to weigh in..... eek