Thanks Debbie, have fun at Curves.

Debbie: Taking it one thing at a time is a great idea. I too get overwhelmed with all the things I should be monitoring or changing...best to break it down into workable steps. Sounds like you are doing well! Good luck with the sweet tea. Maybe you could try making it with half sugar and half Splenda? That would help cut down on the sugar without losing all the taste. I like stevia as a sweetener. It tastes less chemicaly than artificial sweeteners, at least to me.

Annie: Glad you found a new TOPS meeting! Let us know how it goes. Baby steps, for sure. I too would like to get off all medication by losing weight. That is a great goal. Glad you are feeling better today – you can always come here to unload! Sometimes we all need to just let it all out. Today is a new day.

Well, I am feeling awfully mopey today for no good reason. It is beautiful and sunny outside and I have the whole day to do happy healthy things for myself, but instead I want to crawl back into bed. Maybe I’m just tired. I ate a good breakfast, at least. So that is a good start to the day. Now I just need to get myself in gear and get moving. I will make this commitment to myself: today will be a good day. No matter what I do or don’t do, I will enjoy today. This is the only May 29th, 2005 I get, so I am going to make it worthwhile. I will nourish my body with healthy food and I will take pleasure in moving my body with exercise and activity. I will replenish my body with lots of water to help me feel less tired. I will treat myself with kindness and acceptance.

Yep, that’s what I’m gonna do. Hoo, boy. Harder than it sounds.

Hello All,
I'm having a quick lunch at my desk today. I had to take my lunch hour earlier in the day so that I could stop in to see some friends who were stopping through on their way home to NJ from MO. It was so nice to see them. I want to remember to be thankful for the small things, and today I'm very thankful for my new job because it's the sort of job that if I need to leave the office at an off time, I can. I didn't have that in my last job.

When I saw our NJ friends, they kept commenting on how "skinny" I look. It was so great to hear that! Makes rationing those Peeps worth it! lol.

Ladies, I've got to get back to work.

Oh wait..one more thing...here's a small victory from yesterday: I went into the breakroom at work and there was a cake...one I could eat. I thought about getting a piece, but then I thought, nope..it won't get you to your goal..which one do you want most. I choose the goal...victory for a day ladies! It's spurred me on today.

I'll try to do some personals later. You guys are the best support group! I love how we share, and share and share!


__________________
Susie

Afternoon Ladies....

Well now the challenge is on. Just got back from the doc. Weight was still down from my orginal start of 264, weighing in at a whopping 256. My blood pressure was slightly out of whack. Weight loss will certainly help that, therefore my doc wants to see me in a month with a 10 lb loss. I can do this, I will, I will, I will. I am tired of feeling like crap as I know weight loss will help all of this.

Spores...must be the time of month to feel mopey. You have a great attitude and I KNOW you can stick to your goals set for today.

Susie...congrats on your victory over the cake. I am sure it took a lot of talking to yourself, however you overcame it. Yippee!!

Check in tomorrow!

Love the support too!! This is great!

Annie

My name is kim. This is my third or fourth maybe 5th attempt at losing weight with WW. I am really motivated (at the moment) I have always been on the larger side of life as I am very larged boned. I hope to reach that 199 mark soon soon soon. There was a time in my life where I never thought I would even reach 199 and now I am begging to be back. Silly how that happens. I am so glad to have all of you as support. It means alot to be a part of something and have it matter. Anyway As you can see after 4 weeks of WW I am off to a snail start but maybe become a turtle soon. Well that is it for me. Thanks for all the support!

I made it to curves....

Kim: welcome.. maybe you'll go from snail to turtle.

Anne: Great loss.. thats some baby steps!!

Susie: Isn't that a great boost.. to see how other who don't see you daily react to your weight loss.

Spores: I have to tackle 1 thing at a time. I have a feeling I'm ADD. Both son's are and now as I look back at school I'm sure I am as well. I've learned to deal with it... MOSTLY! lol

hello everyone!!
today was a wonderful sunny warm day! i love the hints of spring in the air! small signs of life in the flower beds outside! i am feeling great, i did really good with food today! i ate a lot of veggies and fruit, i drank my water. now just a few hours till bed time and i don't want to blow it!!

debbie- good luck kicking the sweet tea! great job going to curves!!!

annie- you can do it! you are making good choices and positive changes keep it up! sometimes a good cry helps things a lot hope you are feeling better! good luck at the meeting tonight!

spores- you have some great ideas there, you can do this! i love the "ths is the only 3/29/05..." saying. we really do need to live every day to the fullest don't we? on saturday my WW leader said " the only one holding you back from fulfilling your dreams is YOU" i wrote this out and stuck it on the fridge, it is not only true for me with weight loss but for so many things in life. you had a great day yesterday, i hope today was wonderful too! hang in there!

klengeek- welcome! i am doing WW too, i just started 3 weeks ago. it is slow going for me too. i am hoping to pick up my pace soon! great job so far stick with it!! check in here often it is really a big support!

mychoice- good for you passing on the cake!! it is always so nice to get compliments, glad it gave you the boost you needed! keep up the good work!

hello to everyone else! hope you all have a great evening!!

I have been reading, reading, reading!!!! Nice to see everyone here. I am feeling pretty healthy today. It was a VERY full day. I had 8 kids from 8-4:30 and then the 2 school boys came home at 3:30 for a grand total of 10. DH was home. He puttered outside a lot. Split some wood for next winter. he has had several calls and interviews.1 offer but they were vague about the pay. NOT.
It was +12C today and sunny. most of our snow melted. Kids were incredibly MUDDY!!
I am finished the Parent Handbook. I need to add 1 topic after a workshiop on Thurs. I am feeling proud and empowered about the whole thing. The article I wrote for church was in the Newsletter on Sunday. A woman stopped in today to tell me how moved she was.
I am soon to bed. HUGS and support and love to all!!!!!!!!

Mychoice: good for you for making the healthy choice over cake. What a great victory!

Annie: You can definately reach that 10 pound goal. Health is such a great motivator; reminds us what's really important in life. You can do it!

Kim: Welcome; glad to meet you. I too remember the day when I thought I would surely never see 200lbs...and then 210...and then 220...et cetera. But we'll all shed those pounds together!

Debbie: Woo hoo! Yoyu made it to Curves! Good for you. That must feel great. Keep it up!

Jodi: Glad you had such a good day! It really is great to post up those sayings that stick with you. Last time I visited my best friend back home I opened her cabinet to get a coffee cup and she had a sign that said "Check your perceptions" taped inside the cabinet. I thought that was so cool! I tend to glaze over the stuff on my fridge and bulletin board because those areas are so cluttered with stuff. I think I am going to tape some things inside my kitchen andbathroom cabinets to sneak some little revelations into my life.

Holly: Glad to hear things are going so well. Good for you!

Okay. Here's the deal. Had a pretty great morning and afternoon: ate on plan, got a ton of stuff accomplished, when I got hungry I snacked on carrots, I did my workout even though I didn't want to and I actually enjoyed doing it. And then, poof, all that goodness out the window and in came the Chipotle and Dairy Queen. Gugh.

I know, I know, this is only day 2 of my little program. I feel so lousy, like I must be an awful failure if I cant even make it two whole days. And this is the same old pattern. Start really strong and the fizzle out faster than a dud firecracker. So. Not going to fall victim to negative thinking and go back to the negative habits.

So I guess the first thing is to wonder what went wrong. I think the main thing is that I just got too hungry. I don't deal well with hunger. I have a tiny little window where I am okay, but if I get even a little more hungry, I totally panic. I cannot seem to convince my little instinctive reptile brain that there is a Safeway two minutes from my house and the fridge is full of food and that there is no massive famine approaching. When I get hungry, I go all instinct-like and want LOTS of food right NOW. So one thing I can learn from this is that I need to make sure I don't get that hungry. When I start getting hungry, I need to stop what I'm doing and eat something healthy. That way I can slow down and make good choices instead of going into panic mode. The other reason was that my BF also wanted to get fast food. And of course, as soon as he said he wanted it, it was somehow "okay" for me to have it. So I need to find some way to stop looking to him for enablement. I need to be answerable to myself for my choices, and not look for permission from an outisde source.

Okay. Well, I am going to have a great day tomorrow. I'm not going to dwell on one little failure when I have lots of little successes to think about. I did awesome for a day and a half! That's something! And I can turn that day and a half into many many more great days.

Thanks everybody for listening. Your support is a lifesaver.

Good morning all,
It's a great day here. Sunny and in the 80's. I have to go back to work, so this will be short.
I did good on portion size. I could have done better on content. My p-chop was the size of the palm of my hand. Yeah..
I plan to go to curves after work.

Hope everyone has a great day.

BIG HUGS

Good morning Ladies,
You can't live in Ohio today and not be happy. It's going to be 75 degrees! The sun is shinning and I wish I had the day off. Since I don't, I'll drive with my windows down at lunch time.

I'm not much of a plant person, but I do love them..just don't have a good green thumb, however, last year for my birthday I received an African Viloet. The thing is still living and this morning it had a bloom on it again. I just couldn't help but smile!

The warmer weather gives me a boost and I just feel like I can tackle anything.

I've been doing good this week with food. I'm not overdosing on sugar. I'll tell you though, the workplace sure can be a source of temptation if one lets it. This morning in the breakroom there is a plate of iced sugar cookies...ladies I love them...dunked in milk..but I talked to myself about them when I was filling up my water glass...and I know that I don't want them as much as I want my goal...so no cookies for me...and anyway I have my rationed Peeps to look forward to!

Debbie:I'm so proud of you for going to Curves like you have. Doesn't it make you feel good an enpowered?

Spores: Don't despair. I'm sure you didn't do that much damage at Chilpote and DQ. You might not have made the best choice from the menu, but then again, there's only so much of it so you didn't overeat as much as you thought. Also, there isn't any food that is bad...all food has some sort of nutrional value...it's important that we choose those foods with the most value so that we feel good and keep from being hungry and overeating..but it won't do us in if we make a bad choice here and there...it's over with...move on....(huggggsss)))...also, give yourself credit for looking at why you overeat and that you now have a plan so that won't happen again.

Holly: Glad to hear from you. That's great about the handbook and the article. I think there's a writer lurking inside of you...let her out girl! I'll come to your first book signing.

jodi: So nice to see you back on track. You are doing great. I bet you finished the day yesterday on track didn't you?

Anne: Ok..you have a challenge...show that doctor that you are boss of yourself...you are in control.

Kim: Welcome to the board..hope to see lots of posts from you.

Ladies, I have to get back to work..but felt like I needed to check in. I do have something that is nagging me at the back of my mind. It has to do with DH. He goes back to work tomorrow and he's not in the best frame of mind about it. In fact last night he was really hard to get along with. I know that no one likes to work, but so what...we all have to do it. I've told him that if he wants to do something else...figure that out..do what it takes to get to that point and do it. He would rather wallow in the misery I think, and as much as I try to not let it bother me...it's there to deal with. I know I need to vent about this or it will eat at me and I'll start using food to comfort and deal with my frustrations...I don't want to do that...so I'm getting a good grip on it from the beginning by talking about it here.

Susie

Susie~ Men like to wallow, in my experience, it takes them a LOOOONG time to process their feelings. In the mean time they are just crusty. HUGS to you. Try not to let it get you down.Congrats on the sugar victory!!! My Grandma said on the weekend, you always were a writer. Wish someone had told me!! LOL.

I have just 2 kids today, going home at noon. I cleared out 3 closet this morning for the thrift shop, 3 entire large tub of misc stuff, 3 large bags of clothes.I have 2 big boxes or burnables and 2 large bags for the dump!!!!!!
Next this weight is gonna fall off too!!!!!!!! Weeheeee!!!

Hi there everyone from sunny Indiana, 75 here today also, Susie, don't you just love it and makes for a great frame of mind!

I went to TOPS last night (VICTORY). I absolutely love it. I joined and everyone was soooo supportive and made me feel very welcome. My weigh in at the doc and at TOPS were both the same, exactly.

Wow Susie you are making some great choices, food in the work place is very hard to bypass. We all know men are the biggest babies and love to wallow.

Debbie - great food choices and good job of going to curves. You rock!

Spores - we have so much in common. Do a wonderful job all day then come evening, look out! Eating Frenzy. We just have to grip it and be strong.

Kim - welcome to Race to 199. We are a great support group, keep coming back, you will love it here.

Holly - Become that famous writer, be rich. I truly think you have it in you to write.

Gotta get back to work. Just came in from a 15 minute walk and hope to go back out again for another 15, since I didn't take my lunch hour today.

Howdie to all I missed....

May the force be with all of us, stay OP, and exercise.

Annie

Group hug to all of you! The sun is shining, here, too, yippee!

I've been reading other threads and don't have time to comment on the conversation here since yesterday. But it sounds like everyone is identifying issues and thinking about the best ways to deal with them, which is what it's really all about, yes? My Haitian friends have a saying that I used to think was very depressing: "Beyond the mountains, there are mountains." I would think, wow, that's so pessimistic. But actually it's a good reminder that the nature of life is seeing challenges and overcoming them. Once you accept that, it's a lot easier to take the long view and be balanced, I think. The part of me that relates to Buddhist teaching also appreciates that sentiment. For this particular challenge, it reminds me that once I hit my three-year goal (and I will!), then I'll move on to the challenge of maintaining a healthy weight. Maybe I'm weird, but it helps me pace myself, and keep my ups and downs in perspective.

See you tomorrow! Keep making good choices--judy

hi chicks!!
beautiful day here today too. i started to post earlier but stopped so i could go out for a walk. i knew you would all understand! i walked my videos back to the video store, 2 mile round trip. i feel good!

judy- you sound very positive! good for you!

annie- so glad you enjoyed tops!

mychoice- i didn't mess it up last night! i ended the day with a mini bag of microwave popcorn low fat even. i stayed on track all day today too. i got some exercise i am feeling like i can actually do this. i hope DH gets over his funk. maybe he is just stressed about jumping back in since he has been off for a while. don't let it get you down. he will work it through. be as supportive as you can, but don't forget to take care of YOU!!

holly- good for you!! i need to get spring cleaning myself. so much to go through so little time. you are so upbeat! nice to hear!!

spores- hang in there girl!! why do we do what we do?? that is the mystery of the ages. good luck!! you can do this!! we are ALL going to do this!!

debbie- good job going to curves!! keep it up!!