Hello girls do you mind if I join in? I think your support for each other is great and I could use some of that. I have lost over the past year 10lbs. which doesn't seem like much but I have also dropped down to a size 10 in pants. I feel good about my size going down but would like to lose some more wt. I really need to use a journal I tried without it for the past few months it just isn't so easy. I have had a difficult time this weekend with Halloween candy, few sweets not really being to careful at all. I did get to the gym 2 times last week and planning a walk today for 35min. on the canal. Its a nice fall day here. I weigh in at 172 currently as of last fri. and then ate my sweets ooops! I will not get on the scale til Friday again. Time to recop what I screwed up. I guess we are all human? But I realize that my inc. of 2lbs. isn't good and sometimes when I am up a bit the depression takes its toll and I seem to indulge. My plan is to try and get back into an exercise routine, at least 3-4 times a wk. eat healthier and make better choices. I have never been big on keeping track of my calories but maybe thats what I should do? I first lost my wt. with South Beach Diet. It really wasn't to hard and I did learn those carbs. make you want more and more. Thats what happened probably this weekend. Today I am going to try and start off on a better note!
Breakfast: coffee
2 eggs poached
1 slice raisin toast little jam
1 canadian bacon slice w/ cheese
I will ck in later with the days intakes.
Hope you dont' mind my joining in? Maybe I should go back to South Beach.
CACMSC

Hi Cac, Welcome. The more the merrier and the better we all do. What's your goal weight? I agree with you about the carbs. I'm just checking in to stay on the up and up on this tempting day. Plus I'm having a party do there's food all over the place. I've don the prep though and the house is quiet for a minute so I'm just relaxing with a seltzer and seeing what inspiration I can find here.

I decided not to count cals anymore today as I've been trying teeny, tiny pieces of things I'm cooking such as meatballs, a dip, veggies. I decided not to make the cookies and prep the veggies instead - much healthier and less tempting. Someone else is bringing desserts. I won't eat candy today, but I'll probably try a little bit of everyone's healthy foods and tomorrow I'll be back to counting and hopefully exercising.

Take care and thanks for listening.

Hi.
Welcome Cac.This thread has been really helpful to me. My program isn't perfect but the non-judgemental support I've found here has enabled me to stick with my attempt at healthy eating. In the past if I had a "bad" day, I'd give up completely. I post no matter how I feel or what I've eaten.

Thanks for the hot chocolate idea, Tired. I send for Penzey's unsweetened dutch cocoa. I think I'll bring a thermos with mocha sweetened with splenda for trick or treating. I'm supposed to go to a place that has hundreds of lighted pumpkins somewhere in Sausalito and then on to the candy crusade with a bunch of kids. The temptation will be pretty great for me. I think I'll bring some mandarin oranges to share, just in case there are others struggling with this urge.

I gave the mini goal some thought and when I get to 160 (3 more lbs.) I'm going to get myself a new pair of stretch jeans. I have a problem buying pants that I hope to outgrow (ingrow? what's the opposite of outgrow?) but it's also depressing to wake up every day and wonder if the few pair of pants that fit, are clean. I'm sure neither of you have had that experience. So far, today I've had 2 cups of chicken vegetable soup and a mandarin orange.
Cac, I agree about carbs. I went for some time having a super low carb diet and lots and lots of fats. The diet felt too "dirty". Then I started eating more vegetables but kept up with the fat consumption. Now I'm being careful about the types of carbohydrates I eat (no refined carbs. no sugar no potatoes). I've cut back on fats AND I'm counting calories on fitday.com. I love the little pie graph.
Tired, I'll be thinking of you today with the hopes that you're having so much fun that you can't hear the food calling to you.
Cac, I'm glad you've decided to join us. The more the merrier. Good luck with your exercise. Let us know how you're doing with it. I'd love to hear about it, I'm having trouble taking the time to fit it in. I know it's possible, I just haven't made time.
Good luck today, guys.

Wow, I'm so pleased to meet you all. Sounds like we all have a bit of Halloween treats around. What was I even thinking with saying I'd start today. Wrong it will be Monday. No way too much around the house. But I have started to take care of that problem. I made little packages for the grandkids. Oh yeah I am one of those younger grams only just turned 50 and thank God I don't feel it or act it. I enjoy those little ones though. I still have blueberry pie here but the hubby can finish it off. It was the candy! I also ate a dounut last night thats unusual for me.
Starting on Monday will be better on the first day of the work week. I am a Service Coordinator for adults with special needs. I find my work rewarding but very stressful at times. When I stress it can mean over eating and thats what I have to be careful of. Plus my hubby is disabled from a disease in the MS family. We have been dealing with a lot of new testing and new doctors gave up on just listening to oh not much we can do. So it took us a long time and maybe we'll find out nothing new but at least we are getting second opinions and ideas. That also can get stressful being the head of the household isn't what its cracked up to be. Well enough of that stuff. Just wanted to fill you in a bit on who I am.
I am finishing up cooking a turkey just thought it sounded good. That way I have some good food for the week and so much I can use it for. Some turkey soup too! I did dig out some of my South Beach info. today just some ideas, recipes. I am going to just try to eat better , exercise and inc. my water oh an track my intake of foods.
It helps to eat the right carbs and the right fats. I just need to do it!
Enjoy your Halloween evening and have some good fun! We are going to my daughters I will walk around with my 3 yr. old grandson and my daughter. The other little ones are going to the other grams. we have to share!
I will ck in on monday and that will be my start date.
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!
CACMSC

Hi, the party is over and so is trick-or-treating. This is the first time I've thrown a big party like this since I started healthy eating in August. It was challenging and next time I'll plan a little better, but it certainly wasn't a disaster.

First of all I had a very big breakfast which actually helped me not to indulge too much during the preparations. Then I did try a little of all the foods people brought (except the desserts) and I had one glass of wine which I enjoyed. It's hard eating at a pot luck because you don't know how anything was prepared, but I decided to enjoy the food and skip all desserts including the candy. In the past I would be eating piece after piece all night.

So all in all tonight was a big improvement from Halloween pasts as in the past I'd be eating Halloween candy for several weeks before Halloween right through Halloween. I ate a lot of veggies, drank a lot of water, ate a few foods that were high in cals like sweet baked beans, a small piece of garlic bread, lasagna and chicken wings in some kind of sweet sauce. Tomorrow I'll be back to business.

Thanks for all the encouragement everyone! Let's continue the road to a healthier lifestyle! Take care.

I just want to add that I went trick or treating with my four year old and my five year old neighbor. They were dressed as spiderman and superman. They ran from house to house smiling the whole way. Watching them was the best treat of all. Take care.

Goodmorning everyone,
Well Tired to start off with you did plan pretty good and I on the other hand was indludging trying to get all my junk in before starting my plan of attack today. Well I decided in order to do this right I had to weigh in this a.m. ohhhhhh! 173.5 not good! But I know that with jumping back into the swing of things, ck in days and just being better it will come off. Better to face the facts right off the bat! I will do my wt. again on Fri. as that is my routine.
Today, I have my salad fixing packed and my bag of lettuce to keep at the office. The sweets are gone, forward to reality now!
Breakfast: 2 med. eggs cooked with a bit of water and 1 1/2 slices canadian bacon and under 1 oz. of cheese cooked in a bit of olive oil. coffee
Lunch: salad greens w/ chick peas, cuke, few croutons, blue cheese and 4oz. turkey dressing made of spices and olive oil and balsamic.
snack:celery w, peanut butter 1 T. homemade
Well off to work girls I am still catching up from being on vacation 9 days ago. I will ck in again later and I am reading up on my South Beach info.
Exercise: After work depending on the weather I may just enjoy the day and walk?
Carol

Hi,
I certainly got my exercise yesterday. I went for a 2 mile walk before the Halloween
festivities. We went to Sausalito and there is an alley on the hill that closes off and is lined with incredible designer pumpkins - hundreds of them. We hiked up and down hills, not what I expected, and were in a parade, again not what I expected. I had 3 pieces of hard candy (mints) because my throat felt scratchy and I began to cough. Other than that, I stayed on program. I weighed in this morning and lost another pound. I'm pretty pleased with myself right now. I have lots going on today. My daughter is behind in her school work so I need to prod her to catch up. I'm having some dental work done, a mamogram scheduled and I need to weather strip my garage. Whew! I may try to get to the gym tonight. I love going right before it closes and I pretty much have it to myself. We'll see.

My plan:

breakfast- red peppers, carmelized onions and mozzerella cheese (we're out of eggs
snacks- 2 satsuma oranges

lunch- chicken salad

dinner- chicken vegetable soup (I'm making it as soon as I finish this post)

Tired, it's wonderful to hear about the shift you had this Halloween. There is such a huge difference between PLANNING on "tasting" outside the boundaries of your diet and accidentally bingeing. I know that there is little that I have control over in this life but overeating and not being at all aware of what I'm putting in my mouth, feels like chaos to me.

I so enjoyed the festivities last night and didn't have to feel remorse this morning.
Good luck today, Carol. Sounds like you have a good plan in place. I'll be thinking of you today.
Looking forward to our next check in.
R

Hi all. I can't tell you what it means to me to come home and have this site to check in with. I feel your support. Life is hard and this is an incredible place to reenergize and stay on track both in terms of health and living a good life. Thanks, thanks, thanks! I wonder how I can replicate this energy in my life's day to day actions - something to think about.

Roll, you must be so proud. I'm so proud of you! Your loss is my gain in support and inspiration. Way to go - one pound down and a day without the remorse of overeating - super. Actually knowing how good I feel after a day of healthy eating has started to become a reason for not overeating.

Carol, good luck today. I know you can do it. Just think if I started this process at 173 rather than 210. I would have had to lose so many fewer pounds. Good for you for starting now! You can do it and you will feel so good

A good eating day so far and I really think that I may be able to get to the gym tonight - finally.

Breakfast - healthy smoothie - 400
lunch - salad with turker - 300
orange - 100
snack - diet hot chocolate - 60
dinner plan??

I'll check in again later. Take care.

Hi! Is it okay if I join in with this thread/group? Let me know if not. I'm still learning my way around, but the idea of checking in sounds really good. I'm Michelle, SAHM to 2 girls & beginning homeschooler. I have PCOS & may be hypothyroid (I go to see a doc in the next few weeks), I also have mild hypertension. I am really just starting on my weight loss journey. So...

I walked 20 minutes on the treadmill, after taking the last month off with a variety of excuses.

I ate a protein bar with a glass of milk for breakfast (I'm still trying to figure out b-fast ideas that don't have cereal everyday that I can stand).

For lunch a few chips (maybe 10) while my girls had some chips w/queso & it looked so good. I also had a veggie chimichanga - not too great w/it being fried but I told myself it wasn't too bad b/c of the veggie side of it (spinach, black been, corn, onion & pepper). I had iced tea that I sweetened with Stevia.

I am currently drinking a Diet Dr. Pepper which I am trying hard to really cut back on (from 5 a week or so to 1 or less). I need to get off my rear & get dinner started. I have a pound of ground beef thawed & need to come up with something creative to do with it! I'm planning on a salad along with whatever the ground beef ends up being. If I can get through the rest of the day without overdoing it I will have had a pretty good day except for not drinking enough water.

Michelle welcome to this site. I just joined on sunday and started to get on track today!
Rollmdl good for you on that loss. Its so nice when those numbers go down.
Tired I agree checking in will help with me too! My short term goal is 165. Long term 155. I am 5' 7'' and got me some shoulders. Good thing cause sometimes I have to carry a heavy load. I do get weak at the knees sometimes though and need support.
Breakfast and lunch went really well. My salad was kind of big but it had about 2 cups of lettuce plus everything else. I limited my self to about 3 cups of coffee today. I was in the office all day long. Lots of paperwork to catch up on just busy work. I usually get out to see my clients but not today. The coworkers brought in candy it was hard to stay away from I did eat 3 little tootsie rolls and one awful piece of gum. I forgot to take my celery and peanut butter for a snack. At least I didn't get into the candy bars, popcorn that others were eating.
For dinner I had roasted turkey about 4 oz. with low carb pasta 1 cup and broc., zucc, onions and garlic with a 1/3 cup of white sauce from the other night. I figured on the high side. About 500 calories?
I figured out my calories for the day to be about 1200 or so. I will plan to eat a piece of cheese for a snack later.
I didn't stop to work out but plan on voting early in the morning and then going to Ballys to workout and then go to work. Sometimes working out in the morning is easier if I can get there.
I am glad today is almost over my work at least is almost caught up. My hubby has an appointment on Tues.. He is getting a nerve conduction test done and results from his MRI. So I am going to go with him and work a bit later to make up for my time. Thurs. I have another appt. with him at the MDA Clinic. At least maybe we can get some answers. We wasted 10 years with another doctor and had no answers. Well take care and oh by the way I didn't eat the blueberry pie. It is going to my sister inlaws on Tues.
Carol

Hi Michelle and Carol, Just checking in again to get some strength. Unfortunately I'm not going to make it to the gym - my cold accelerated so I'm going to head to bed early.

For dinner I had a bit of lasagna and a little chili left over from the party yesterday. I had some veggies too and lots of water. I'm down eating for the day. I'm back on track so that's good after the weekend. I'm anxious to exercise and right now I'm in the midst of really looking at my time and priorities. I think I'm a bit off track.

Have a good night all.

Hello All,
Welcome Michele. Glad you are joining us. I am also a homeschooling mom. I have a 12 year old girl.

I went to the dentist today and had to keep my mouth wide open for 2 hours without talking or eating I then went for a mamogram. Whopee! Never let it be said that I don't know how to have a good time.

Here's how my food went today:
breakfast- sauteed red peppers, onions and mozzerella 170

lunch- chicken cucumber salad 350

dinner- lots of egg salad all by itself 650

total 1270

It's apparent to me that I start each day with a food plan and stray at some point in some way. The changes aren't necessarily bad choices, just a little rebellion or exhaustion.

Making the plan and reporting on the outcome does seem to help, though. I'm not exactly sure why and it may not even be important.

Once again, I haven't had enough water. I wish I could get into the habit of drinking more (healthy) liquids.

Tired, I feel for you, having just gotten over being sick for too, too long. I still have a little cough. Good for you, going to bed. It's the best remedy and so difficult for moms to take to bed. I hope you are being babied by your family. I know how frustrating it is to want to exercise and know that rest is a wiser action. Take good care and keep it up with the water.


I hope your health returns quickly.
I'm exhausted and need sleep. Talk with you all tomorrow. Thanks for being here and for being such a support.

Hi. I'm checking in early to start the day well. I'm taking the day off to rest and recover. As you know and as you've so kindly listened to me again and again - my plate is too full this term. I have much more to do than time to do it. I'm sure that's why I'm run down. Today i'm going to do a lot of thinking about priorities. I'm also going to do a lot of organization work and some catch up reading for the course.

What do you all think about prioritizing? Do you think it's difficult in this age of so many choices and possibilities? My job - teaching - is endless. I could literally work every minute of every day individualizing, creating, correcting, conferencing, giving extra help, etc. Children love every bit of attention they can get and I like to do as good a job as I can. Parenting is similar. I know I can't do it all so I'm at a point to really look at the situation and choose what's most important.

I know that this healthy lifestyle change is important! I can't tell you how much better I feel. I know this symbolizes a change to better, more meaningful living across all categories of my life. Thanks for being there for me. I hope I can be there for you.

Hi,
Good for you for taking time off, Tired. I hope this rest helps to clear things up in more ways than one. Sometimes (often) it seems as though EVERYTHING is a priority. I have yet another Dr.'s appointment today. I also have lots of scheduling tasks, driving duty, household repairs. Oh, I'm going to stop myself from going through my list for you. I've been told by many people that I need to create a sabbath for myself. I'm always on. I tried it for a few weeks and it was truly wonderful to say no to everything that wasn't nurturing for one day. It was difficult to do. How bizarre. It's difficult to allow myself to disengage from the stressful aspects of my life. It's something to look at. A speedy, stressful lifestyle definately leads to unconscious eating for me.

I just filled my water bottle up while writing this. Well, not WHILE. I took a moment to go to the kitchen...........

My plan for the day:

breakfast- scrambled eggs with cheese and red peppers

chicken salad with pine nuts

chicken vegetable soup

Yesterday I carmelized a big onion and 6 red peppers. They are in the refridgerator and ready to use today. Yum


One thing that I'm going to focus on is drinking lots of water today. I'm making a committment to dring 2 32 oz bottles of filtered water and 1 32 oz bottle of water flavored with unsweetened cranberry concentrate, spleda, milk thistle and black cohosh.

I let you know how I do.
Michelle and Carol, how are you doing today? What's up? Are you following any specific diet? Any mini goals? Michelle, good work doing the treadmill. I'm starting really slow with exercise, partly because it's probably safer and partly because of the time/scheduling factor.
I'll be thinking of you all today.