Looks like this thread has been busy tonight. Miki and Debee thanks for your condolences...I will pass it on to Fred and the kids

Miki I loved that story you posted about God and how you should respect the body you have with good food and right amounts of food and how funny is that...maybe God is telling you to cut back on red meat. Food for thought.

Lisa...I'm sorry to hear that you fell off the wagon and you are not alone...last week I did and now I am back...so if I can do it...you can do it ... and the new stress of nursing school is not helping but you will adjust to your changes. Your body is still healing from your surgery and you want comfort foods. You also fell into the trap of thinking you could conitinue to lose weight regardless of what you eat...not true...unfortunatley, these are life changes you are in the process, not a temporary diet...and I also believe that a splurge once in awhile is necessary and very ok...so long as it is just a splurge not lasting more than 24 hours...so pick a day and have a party in your mouth guilt free. I send you a big hug and lots of good energy to get you back on track for the next little while until your next hump. We will be there to pull you over...thats why we are here...remember that.

Debee the same goes for you...sorry to hear you fell off the wagon...but you seem like such a determined woman...I don't think you have been permanently derailed...but hmmm...that hubby of yours needs to help you a little more and not tempt you with delicious foods...he probably thought he was doing you a favor. But, alas, you are correct, you are responsible for what goes in your mouth...but support from your friends and family always help...I know this much is true.

Also, I have been looking into getting a pedometer...the one I was thinking of getting monitors how many paces you take...and apparently anything less than 3000 steps means you are underactive .... isnt that scary!

Reina, Lady and Cjunk and Taiwan... I missed your posts today...hope you are having a great weekend.

And now for me...I ate 1436 calories and 48 grams of fat. I am working on cutting back on my cheese...I loooooove cheese and its so fatty and caloric...God help me

Have a good evening and I will check back with your girls tomorrow. Big hug to everyone

Cyan

I havent forgotten you...thanks for all the wonderful advice you have given me and thank you for giving me your vote of confidence...hope you weekend is a great one and post tomorrow and let us know how you are doing.

Hi everyone. I will address everyone more individually tomorrow. It's been a rough day emotionally. The long and short of it being I got a message this morning that Kevin won't be flying off the ship for his transfer to run the ROTC program in March. Honestly, I'd pretty much expected that he would...and this feels like another huge set back as to when he will be home.

Cyan...you and your love birds are in my prayers this evening. Everyone hang in there...I know falling off the bandwagon can be tough, but get back on and keep at it...I'll try to be much more specific tomorrow.

My calories and fat for today are 1290 and 28 fat grams.

Betty

Hi Ladies,
Hope everyone's doing ok. I had to get a new computer but now I'm back. Happy to say I'm still on track. I missed you all . There's nothing like the support here. Talk to you all soon.

Hi everyone,

Was away for part of the weekend. Will post again later this afternoon but promised myself I would swim at least a half an hour today. I was about to back out until I read everyone's posts and they motivated me to get to the pool!

I thought that I had done well this weekend until I read a book I got for Christmas called Restaraunt Confidential made by the Centre for Science in Public Interest. Then I realized that most of my restaraunt choices are poor and cost me over 1000 calories per meal generally and that I have been drinking a lot of calories like 200 calorie iced teas etc. with each meal I eat out. What an eye opener!! I thought I was restaraunt conscious before reading this book too!!

Cyan, I think you may find this book interesting. One of my favorite foods is Thai and it has a lot of saturated fats in the coconut milks and peanut sauces and noodles etc. I really learned a lot today. I think I can cut a lot of calories and fat now at restaraunts and still enjoy my dining out experiences. I would encourage everyone to get a copy of this book!!

I will post when back from my swim!

Cjunk

One thing to ponder---if the average sugared beverage or juice, pop, iced tea is about 200 calories---how many calories in liquid drinks do you consume in a day????

I was chatting with Lisa earlier on msn and we have a mini challenge to help us today...For dinner...no bread rolls or desert...and of course...our water and no eating after 8pm.

Anyone who wants to join us is welcome.

Cjunk if you want to chat with me on msn give me your hotmail email address and I will add you on to my buddy list or you can add me [email protected] .... this goes for any you ladies who have not added me to your list...feel free I would love to chat with you one on one... I am online often...cause of work and stuff.

Also Cjunk... I have heard of that book and have been meaning to check it out...guess I will now. I know about about coconut milk...deadly...I never eat satays or noodles at the Thai restaraunts but I do eat coconut curries..yikes!

Reina and Lady...missed your posts this weekend..hope you are well and doing well on your programs

Welcome back PreciousOne...so glad to hear that you are on track...what an inspiration...keeps me motivated to do the same.

Miki hope you weekend is going well too..let us know how you are doing.

Debee and Lobacal...keep keeping us motivated...every little piece of advice is welcomed and informative...Debee I am going to a fitness depot this afternoon and I will check out those pedometers...will let you know if I pick one up.

Taiwan...thinking of you and hoping you are on track today...I send you lots of good energy and a big cyberhug.

Actually the cyberhug goes to everyone.

I have just finished cleaning the house, vacuuming and scrubbing...so I am sweaty...so I am off to the shower and then off to the fitness depot...have a good rest of day

Cyan

Hi everyone, a quick reply for now. Cyan, I have to create a hotmail account and once I do, I would love to chat!

Lisa and Cyan, I am up for your not eating after 8pm challenge.

I actually made it to the pool today and did about a 45min swim. Moderate but not intense. Proud of myself for getting there though.

Craving for fajhitas so went to the grocery store with my boyfriend and we picked up all the ingredients to make a healthy version including lowfat sour cream and 5% MF cheese. It was excellent and some left over for lunch tomorrow. Gotta go for now. I will post to everyone but it will only let me do a quick reply as problems with post reply when I log in.

Hi girlfriends,

Miki, I loved your story about God... the devil may have made me put it in my mouth but God is watching! I'll remember that next time Ben and Jerry call my name.

Lisa, Lisa, Lisa....please put a smile on your face. I know how hard it is to be a mom and wife. You are just going through a very stressful time right now. I think yoga and mediation might help you. I just started doing it last week. I bought some tapes at Target and do them at home at night. One tape called "yoga for kids" is fun and lets you spend time with the kids and exercise.
I think taking time for a bubble bath or even a walk by yourself my help you feel less overwhemled. Take time to do something special for yourself.

CJunk--I love Thai food too...I always order the "evil jungle princess" ..a spicy chicken dish. I think that should be my new name "evil jungle princess"...ok only when I lose the 30 pounds and can get into a lioncloth.

Betty--sorry to hear about Kevin.

Cyan-- Did you get a pedometer? Mine has a step counter, distance counter in miles, calorie counter, countdown timer,
stopwatch, pulse meter. Now all I have to do is figure it all out and set the times. That would be great if you would join me on my "journey" to visit Taiwan ...the way I walk it might take ten years but it would be fun to set a goal.


My husband left this morning for Arizona for a sales meeting for a week so tonight the kids and I ordered Domino's pizza and had a "disco party" A mom from my son's preschool gave me Richard Simmons disco party exercise tape ( great exercises set to songs like "Burn baby burn", "I will survive" ) we turned the lights off, my son Jimmy has a colored disco light he brought down from his room we turned on, put on the tape and danced to the disco beat for 20 minutes I know I burnt off the one slice of pizza I had...I was sweating but it was fun. Maybe every Sunday will be family disco night, order pizza, do the tape, get the polyester out and move...oh, one more thing, on the tape was this great dancer and at the end they introduced everyone in the video and how much they lost...she lost 170 pounds!! What a motivation.

The posty reply button is still not working for me except for Quick Reply---argh!!! So I owe you all individual replies. I am logging on because I am having trouble not eating. It is my first night of trying not to eat past 8pm and I am stuggling---help!! I have already drank 3 decaf green teas since 8 and it is only 8:40!!! I think it is psychological but I am determined to make it!

So if anyone is logging on--any words of wisdom??
By the way, I logged on to fitday.com and calculated all of my food including drinks and came up with a low 1300. Considering I went for a swim today that burned 320 calories I think that this is not bad. Do I deduct the 320 from the 1300??? Maybe that's why I am hungry????

Gotta go as no more room to reply. Cjunk

Cjunk, yes you do deduct the 320 so your calories really are low for the day. I'm sure that's a big reason you're still feeling hungry. I was the same way a few days and had to decide.."Do I want my calories to be a little too low" or "Do I want to stick with making the challenge". Sometimes I ate altho it was after 8 and sometimes I suffered thru it. Make the decision based on your own self....if you didnt eat since it's after 8,would you be totally starving by morning and binge? If so, it would be better to eat a little something now. Just depends on you. No right or wrong decision in this case. ( unless of course you do eat now and eat a lot and eat really bad food choices) That's what I think anyway.

MIKI

Precious One!! Welcome back! I missed that post earlier when I came here. Sorry. Great hearing you're still on track.

Just had a nice chat with Cyan and Taiwan. I really enjoyed it, girls. I shared a salad dressing hint with them that I heard recently. When you order salad, ask for the dressing on the side. Then only dip your fork into it with each bite. You'll get the taste without actually consuming much of the dressing. That should cut the fat grams way down. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Debee, what brand is your pedometer? I'd love to have one that shows calories burned.

Cjunk, your swim sounds wonderful. No indoor pools around here. Not even an outdoor one for that matter. The public pool is nasty, and the gym doesnt have a pool. You're lucky.

Betty, so sorry Kevin isnt coming home as soon as you had hoped. That has got to be really difficult for both of you. We're all here for you tho any time you need to "talk". We're all pretty good listeners. Not sure how many problems we actually solve, but sometimes it helps just to share them. We're here to lose weight but we care about every day life issues as well.

Lisa, I'm glad my post made you feel a little better. Missed you today. How did things go? Less stressful for you, I hope. Remember...hang in there...you can do it!

I did ok calorie wise today which was a surprise considering I had lasagna and garlic cheese bread. I've come to find out lately that honestly the problem isnt what I eat...it's how much! Even with the lasagne I was under 1500 calories because I forced myself to eat only one serving. There is no reason to deprive myself of foods I love if I learn to only eat when hungry and for no other reason. I can always have more later if I get full...I dont have to eat it ALL TODAY!

I also did the 2 mile in 30 min "Walk away the Pounds" video. Reina, I know you said it didnt do much for you, but I must be more out of shape than you. I wasnt dying by the end or anything, but I could tell I had done something. It has got to be burning SOME calories because I'm constantly moving for the entire 30 min. I think Im going to rotate between it and the AirWalker for a while for a change. I'm adding the weights to the video workout next time I do it. My sis did and was actually sore the next day. We'll see how it works out.

Well, no school tomorrow and I have no work either, so the kids have company over and they want a turn on the computer. Guess I better go.

Later,

Miki

Well, I had a great time chatting with Miki and Cyan this morning (their night). I told them about my Sunday--let's just say it was bad and I won't go into details here. But today was a new day and I did great.

Ok, not sure I added it up right though. It's so hard as I don't measure the stuff (and hubby helped me get my dinner ready as I was teaching). Dinner was chicken soup (I am testing out soups for dinner). Hubby said it was 1/4chicken, no particular parts and he deskinned it. All he did was add water to the chicken and then let it simmer for about 45 min. Then I added a few garlic cloves and 1cup green beans. It was pretty good actually. I had 3 slices of whole wheat bread to go with it. I added stuff up and came up with less than 1200 calories but over 100fat grams. Ok, I knew that chicken had fat in it, but it came up to almost 80 grams of fat!!! I didn't particularly plan on so little calories, and then I exercised to burn off 265 calories. So not sure if I will be hungry later or not. We'll see.
Can't write much in the way of personal things to everyone as I am going to watch TV with my son "Animal Planet". Gotta go.

Wow, the regular Post Reply seems to be working today!! Now I can write longer than just 5 lines!

Well, I was really hungry last night but I decided that I should try and not eat past 8pm anyway. I really had to distract myself bigtime to do it. I ended up going to bed pretty early too. Feeling hungry this morning but well rested. Had a big bowl of oat bran and now I am okay.

Cyan, I am sorry to hear about your lovebird. It is always hard to lose a pet that you loved. I hope you had a good weekend considering. Out of curiosity, did you end up getting anything fun at the fitness depot? I am looking for a new bathing suit. I end up going through them every 4 months and it gets expensive because they cost about $40.00 each time.

Miki, thanks for the advice about deducting the calories. I am never good at counting calories but I think that the fitday site is excellent so I thought I would try it. Yesterday was my first day trying the site, so I wonder if I used it correctly. I know that I am short with a medium frame, so at a complete resting rate and without exercise in order to maintain my weight, I can only eat about 1450 calories per day. I had this assessment done at a health fair (I work in the health industry) and I was pretty surprised at how low it was---keep in mind that is with no movement at all! By the way Miki, I read somewhere that walking is an excellent form of exercise and that tape sounds great! Variety is important as it keeps you motivated and it also keeps your muscles challenged.

Taiwan, don't worry about Sunday--getting right back on track is the way to go. I am not sure how your soup would have registered so high in fat. Seems curious to me---I would add it up again. Have you tried using Fitday.com?

PreciousOne! Hello! I just returned recently myself!! Welcome back and so great to hear from you!! I got off track for a bit but jumped back in again and am trying to lose the couple of pounds I put back on in January. It is fantastic to have you back. We missed you!

Betty I am very sorry to hear about Kevin. I can understand how that would be challenging when you expected completely different news in that area. We are here to support you and so you found the right place for a lot of hugs and open ears.

Debee, your disco party with the kids sounded amazing! I almost wanted to dig through my music collection after reading it so that I could dance to disco right along with you! Does your husband go away on business a lot?? My boyfriend works very long hours and it is hard at times because he often comes home and logs into his computer and continues working. Can I join you on a journey with a swim to taiwan?? So far I have clocked only about 11/2 kilometres, but it is a start! What a neat idea you have!

Lisa, we would love to hear more from you! Emotional eating is a common bond between many of us. Don't let one episode get you down. We can help you through it together---trust us, we have a lot of experience in getting ourselves out of binge and back into regular eating! A big hug goes out to you.

Ladyrider, Lobocal and Reina--how did your weekend go? Hope all is well with each of you. Looking forward to hearing from you all.

Okay, here is my plan for today:

Drink lots of water--I haven't been drinking enough
Eat within the 1500 calorie range
Exercise at least 30 mins

Have a great day everyone!!

Cjunk

Cjunk,
I did check it on fitday. I wasn't sure how to figure it out though as I wasn't the one who put the stuff in the pot. Hubby said he bought half a chicken and put half of that in. So a quarter of a chicken right? It was cooked without the skin on it. I am sure I am figuring something up wrong. I was trying to good and keep my fat grams under 50 for the day, that kinda blew it.
I think I'll try tomato soup tomorrow. Anyone familiar with making soups? You know, I was quite suprised at 1/2 c of white rice came up at only 84 calories and 1.5grams of fat---guess I'll eat more next time:-)
Well, I am signing off til tomorrow. Looking forward to reading about everyone's day. Hope it went well.

Nighty night

I havent had the chance to post earlier...I am at my new office space and it is quite nice...but now I am even closer to the boss...I stare right at him...right smack dab infront of me..yeesh...oh well.

Food wise today thus far...breakfast and lunch and snack totalled up to 741 cals and 17 grams of fat...so I have to figure out what my dinner will be for tonight. I am thinking of spaghetti with a tomato sauce..hunts is really good and for a serving of 125 grams..it only totals 97 grams and 3 grams of fat..so I think I will be having that.

Debee I did purchase a pedometer but I am having a hard time programming it...and I left the instructions in my friend's coat pocket...he will give them back to me this weekend so once its programed I will join you on your walk to Taiwan.

Cjunk...I tried 8 different eliptical machines...or gliders..boy did I get a workout...15 minutes later I was pool of sweat.

Later Ladies
I'm at work so I cant take too much time chatting away

Cyan