Hi! Glad you guys had a good visit!

Still plugging away with WW here. Haven't made much progress (ok, any at all) but have not really been pushing either. Am now back to working a little harder and hope to have good results to report soon!

B

Hi All! I'm still here too. Doing the South Beach thing. What a b*itch! A few times here and there that I went off for the day I already feel like I'm gaining weight back.

Hi Girls,

Glad to hear you are both still plugging away at your plans ... Brandy, I'm with you all the way with the WW ... Raff, what's the SB diet like, is it similar to the Atkins plan? How long have you been on the SB?

Well, I've been ok so far this week, although it's taken a bit of getting used to, counting all my points again etc. Went over my points a wee bit last night due to having wine with dinner ... I blame Nick for this!! But it was the first time in about 3 weeks that we have actually sat down together over dinner and talked to each other, so it was nice to relax over a bottle (or 2!! ) ... Will cut down a little today to make up it!

I still have almost 2 weeks left of the school summer hols until I have to return to work on 25 August ... I can't believe that I'm actually looking forward to going back to work. I need to get back into some sort of routine ... I'm sure it will help with my diet. I've already planned out my meals etc. I'm going to take cereal for my brekkie as I don't have time to eat it at home in the mornings before I go to work ... at breaktime I'm taking a fruit salad ... and I will take a healthy packed lunch, either sandwich or salad. Last term I never bothered taking any lunch as I only work until 1.20pm, but always found that I was ravenous by the time I got home at around 1.40pm, and always grabbed the first thing that came to hand ... usually not a very healthy option!! We have a 20mins break at 12.15 for lunch, which is a little early, but I think it will be better to have something then and maybe a healthy snack later in the afternoon when I'm at home. That's the plan anyway ... hope it works!!

Keep up the work everyone!

Nichola

Hiya,

I'm still plugging away on WW. Felt I was doing well, but TOM hit the night before weigh-in this week, and where I'd lost 4.5 lbs in two weeks, I gained 3lbs overnight, and officially only lost 1.5 in two weeks. What a pain!!!!

Nichola it really makes sense to take lunch with you and eat early. If I go over my time to eat I raid the kitchen...usually for excessive amounts of chocolate as to me its always been a fast fix when I'm ravenous. The thing is, I never enjoy chocolate if I eat it fast, so I don't feel happy for having eaten it and had no enjoyment.

On the everyday newsy stuff....Dom has his first ice hockey match on Saturday and I'm going to miss it. I feel so guilty about it, because while he's playing for the first time ever, I'm going to be in the hairdressers having my roots done. Under normal circumstances, I'd have cancelled the hair appt, but I have two inches of roots and more importantly I start two weeks work experience in a law firm on Monday and if there's a chance that they might want to offer me a training contract when I graduate in 2006, I need to make a good impression. Looking like a skunk won't do it!!!

Anyway, must dash....taking the kids to see Thunderbirds at the movies this morning so I need to be organised.

Take care
Jo

Southbeach is a good carbs, good fat diet. Atkins has changed since the last time I did it so I can't compare the too. I like the South Beach diet except that if you go off it too much you put back weight very quickly.

Jo, sorry to hear about the gain, but don't let it get you down, it's bound to be water retention due to TOM. Carry on with the WW plan and I'm sure you'll have a loss next week. Easy for me to say I know, but we all know how much our bodies change from day to day, or week to week. So we really should look at the overall picture and not just at the present week ... does that make sense to anyone ... I know what I'm trying to say anyway! Good luck to Dom on Saturday and good luck with your work experience next week ... you must be really excited!

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend

'Speak' again soon.

Nichola

Hi Girls,

Hope everyone had a good weekend and you're all managing to stay on plan??

Weighed-in today and have lost 2lbs The annoying thing is though, that I've hopped on the scales a few times during the week (I know, I know, I shouldn't have done that!) and two or three times the scales have said 171lbs, but today they say 173lbs ... That'll teach me a lesson to practice what I preach and only get weighed once a week!! Anyway, 2lbs is better than no lbs, right? So I'll be happy with my loss and make sure that I don't WI again until next Tuesday!!

Have a great week!

Nichola

ACK

PMS

MISERABLE

Up millions of pounds, MILLIONS!!!

Hope to be back to my normally charming self soon.

Brandy, hope you're feeling a bit better today ... it's so unfair isn't it that we girls have to suffer like this every month ... men just don't know how darn lucky they are!! I wished that just once they could all have a TOM, just so that they know what we have to put up with ... there again, the world would probably come to a complete standstill, so better be careful what we wish for, eh?!!

Had an email from my relatives in UK last night ... they have both joined WW, so we are now all in competition to see who loses the first stone (14lbs) ... I'm going to have to try really hard as I know that when they both put their minds to it, they lose really quickly in the first few weeks of a diet, where as I tend to struggle after the first week!! ... As if you didn't already know!!

Nichola

Thanks for the sympathy. As men don't have to directly suffer the misery of PMS, I do my part to share the "love" by being so miserable that my husband ends up miserable too. And not even on purpose. I'm just that miserable to be around. I'm such a whiner!

Good luck with your contest!!! I'm sure you can do it - the advantage you have is you already know how to work the program. Remember how easy it is to misjudge and run out of points in the first few weeks! You have the know-how behind you! Good luck!!!

B

Yes. PMS. I almost threw a can of crushed tomatoes at a huge trackertrailer that was trying to cut me off the highway yesterday That's what PMS can do.

I'm okay otherwise. Took a little break from South Beach. Am starting to realize that there will never be a diet that I will like. I just have to accept the fact that I can't eat the way I wan't, when I want and expect to lose weight and keep it off.

Brandy, thanks for the encouragement ... I only wished that I felt as confident as you that I can do it!! From Monday to Thursday last week I was really, really good, but as soon as Friday arrived everything went pear-shaped!! Just can't seem to stay in control at the weekends no matter how hard I try ... well, if I'm honest, I didn't really try!! What the **** is it with me that makes me go so out of control at weekends?!! With four good days and three really, really bad day, I don't expect to make much progress! Note to self: MUST TRY HARDER AT WEEKENDS!!!

Raff, I hear what your saying, and I think it's something that we all need to accept. All these years of trying to lose weight, you'd think that I'd have got the message by now that going out of control at weekends and eating/drinking whatever I want, isn't going to help me lose weight I keep trying to tell myself that I'm not "on a diet", that I just have to change my attitude and my relationship with food. It's like I've got some sort of obsession with it and it's about time that I got it under control. Anyway, I don't hold out much hope of a loss at this weeks WI, but I am going to try my hardest not to lose control again at the weekend ... it's only FOOD for goodness sake!! It's not like someone's holding a gun to my head and force feeding me!! I will not let it get the better of me!!

Nichola

Weighed in yesterday and have lost another pound ... could have been better (or worse as the case may be!!)! I really must try to keep on track this week ... the slightest little thing seems to throw me off the rails ... like last night!! The kids had spaghetti bolognese for dinner, which I love, and I had prepared a salad with chicken for Nick and myself ... very good you may think ... but no! ... Sophie has a VERY small appetite (not like her mother!) and left half of her spag bol ... no prizes for guessing what happened to the left overs!! Consequently this took me over my points as I had the stupid mentality to think 'oh well, I've blown it now, I might as well have some of those cookies!' ... which of course I did!!

Trying hard to keep on track right now though. Went back to work today after two long months of school summer hols ... It was hard getting up this morning! Hopefully, being back at work will help with diet

Nichola

Hi guys! I haven't deserted you all, even if it seems like it. I'm so freakin' busy with moving and work right now, that I'm going bonkers. Not even thinking about diet. Will start up once we get to the new house. It's fantastic and I'm totally stoked about it. I'll send pics when I get settled!

Lorraine

Lorraine, just to say ... Hope the move goes well!

It's not been a good day today ... really busy at work trying to get the classroom ready for the kids to start back to school on Monday ... been so busy that I forgot to eat my lunch, which I had taken great care over preparing last night to take to work (all points calculated!) ... came home and forgot that I'd left it in the fridge at school so ended up grabbing things that I shouldn't have because by the time I got home I was ravenous!! Hope I'll do better when we get back into a normal routine on Monday

Nichola