Hi Skinny, good to hear from you. The club is similar to a Y, It's a big health facility with a pool, gym, equipment, day care, tennis and activities for all age groups. The whole family goes there often to swim, play ball, exercise. It's a home away from home for us. It's run with a family atmosphere and a feeling of goodness - people really like it there. It's not fancy-schmanzy, but a club with good values and goals

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm about to go drive my children to anumber of activities. This is a tough afternoon because my husband is working late and we are squeezing about five activities into a two-hour time frame, too much, but it won't be like this every week so I'll just take it step by step. This is usually when I resort to food, instead I had a really big snack (really dinner) and then I'm saving calories for a celebratory smoothie and a good show after the boys go to bed to relax. Thanks for being here.

Good morning
 

Hope this finds everyone doing well. Things here are good. Felt puny last night but took some meds, got a good night's rest and feeling much, much better today. :)

I'm doing pretty well w/eating and exercise this week. I ususally take Weds. off but now that I have my living room back, I exercised w/my pilates tape yesterday. I could tell it had been a while since I'd used that tape. Ouch! :D

I bought a new digital bathroom scale yesterday. According to it, I lost another pound. Yeah! Of course, I expected my weight to go down a little after my TOM started and hope it will go down again once TOM is over. But, I'll take it! hee, hee. Soooo, doing the happy dance! :dance: :cb:

Your club does sound a lot like the Y. I really enjoy the Y. When I walk, I like to walk outside but there are other things at the Y I really like. I'm considering a yogalates class. It combines yoga/pilates. It's on Sat. mornings. I think I'll give it a whirl this Sat. and see how I like it.

I understand what you mean about being so busy. Somedays, 24 hours just isn't long enough, is it? Ours has settle down some as marching band season is over but we still have ballgames-Karen is in the pepband-concerts and church events to keep us pretty busy.

Did you enjoy your smoothie? I tried one the other day that was okay but need to keep looking to find one I really, really like. I love them in the summer when it's 110 heat index here. A nice, healthy way to cool down.

Gotta run. Take care. Have a great day!

Hi Skinny, good to hear from you. Congrats on the pound. Every pound makes a difference. Yogalates sounds great. I'm looking forward to taking a class, perhaps I'll try one on Saturday too since the boys will be off helping my inlaws with house chores all day. I need to catch up on work too that day, but I'm going to exercise too.

I'm going to weigh in on Saturdays or Sundays each week. I'm going to try to get back to a once a week weigh in. I missed my workout this morning because I couldn't get myself out into the snow to get to my workout so my son and I are going tonight. I'll watch a bit of that Donald Trump show on the TV while I workout, then listen to music which motivates me a lot. I'd like to try a pilates tape - I think that would be an alternative for days when I really don't want to leave home, plus the kids might like to try some with me too.

I appreciate your support Skinny. I look forward to talking again tomorrow.

Hi Skinny and TOF - yes it's your long lost friend. It's been an interesting couple of weeks and something I learned was something I would have preferred not to. I fell off the wagon. Big time. I learned going back to old habits was way too easy. Eating has been my pastime lately and I'm terrified to step on the scale. But first it was more important that I come back and face my friends. I was bad and I'm going to improve. I will be back on track starting now. Reading all of your posts really helped motivate me. You two are great.

Exercise wise I'm doing great. That I didn't fall off the wagon. I love the Gazelle and I do it with DH three times a week. On the other days, we go cross country skiing or some type of activity. In the past I've never been a devotee of exercise, but I knew in my heart that falling off the wagon eating wise was temporary. It's not too hard to get back on track there, but for me, getting back on the exercise track is hard for me. So I kept exercising. I'm definitely getting in better shape, but I know I gained weight since my jeans are tight.

Skinny, I'm so glad that you weekend with your sister went well. A break from our own reality is always a good thing. How sweet of your sister to baby you. TOF - wow on the exercise. You've made incredible changes. Way different from just a month ago when you were so stressed about the class and work. Reading your posts was like they were from a different person. Way to go.

In a nutshell, my life has been work, exercise, my knitting machine, my dogs, my family and refinancing our house. Skinny, you can't imagine how many times I've thought about you and your DH with finances. I remember telling you how I've screwed up ours - and I never like to face that reality. Well last week I clicked on a mortgage refinancing pop up and suddenly we're going to save about 300 a month. It would have been more if I hadn't screwed up our credit so much. I also got a free credit report and really looked at it - then I gave it to my husband. Everything being in the open is the biggest relief for me bipolar wise. There were a few surprises that he didn't really know abou (he had inklings) but now he knows everything and we've talked about it and our financial future. In the next 6 months we'll have a big change in how much disposible income we'll have. We've decided to pay off more on our debts instead of me spending it. I almost feel like a normal person. I faced the financial monster and survived. That's pretty cool. On the refinancing we're just waiting for the appraiser to give the appraisal to our mortgage company. Then the loan will we on it's way. Wow.

Work is good, family is doing better. Bipolar son restarted taking his meds and it makes quite a difference. Other son is finally putting a little effort into school and trying to pass. We mentioned that he wouldn't be graduating with his friends if he kept on the same track.

That's about it for now. Oh, what I really learned was the the old habits are still there but I have to push the new habits harder. Like posting here. I missed you two but I felt like a failure. Interesting how eating can have such a ripple effect. Tomorrow I will weigh in and face that monster and Skinny and I will lose all of the weight we regained and more. Thanks for missing me. That felt really nice.
Marie

Hi Marie and Skinny, what a nice surprise to hear from you Marie. I'm so glad that you are well. I was worried that you were sick or something. I'm so glad you're back.

Do you think falling off the wagon could have anything to do with hunger related to exercise. That's what happened to me last week. I've added more grains and it seems to have helped. I've also added a few more cals. Just a thought.

All is well here. The only problem is how to manage my boys - they've been bickering a lot and wrestling too. It seems like there is never a quiet moment. I've got one that resists school work too. Any thoughts?

Thanks for the encouragement. This is a good time to get back on the wagon (that's for all of us) and to look forward to beautiful spring with healthy, fit bodies. Take care. I'll be back tomorrow.

Hi TOF and Skinny - TOF my guess is that your boys are having the winter doldrums. I know that when they're cooped up all day and evening that kids tend to get argumentative. In the summer my boys always were better friends than they were in the winter. Now that they're basically adults, they're friendlier all year round. Maybe you could try something to exhaust them. Just a thought.

For me, I don't think it had anything to do with hunger from exercising. At no point was I hungry. I never let my stomach get empty. Anyway, I've never had increased hunger due to exercise. I always feel so much better that I tend to eat less when I exercise. Just the last two weeks were a deviation from that norm.

I did weigh in this morning and I'm up to 192. So that's a 3-4 pound gain since before Christmas. I admit I was slightly euphoric in that it wasn't too bad. I felt so bloated I figured it was worse. Today I've been pretty good but not perfect. I didn't snack at work and that's my big down fall. I've learned that if I have food at work, I eat it. All of it immediately. So I can't bring food to work except my lunch. If I eat that early, too bad for me.

That's about it. I will talk with you tomorrow.
Marie

Hi Marie,

Thanks for the thoughts about the boys. I think you're right. I'll have to build in more active time for them, particularly number 2 who is the most active and athletically skilled too.

I'm reading "Thin for Life" as recommended on this site. I really like the book. Lots of good ideas. One that I thought of as I read your thread is that everyone is different when it comes to health and eating right, what works for one doesn't necessarily work for others. Also, the studies have shown that it takes quite a while for individuals to find the right health ways for themselves and there's lots of stops and starts on the way. The important thing is to keep reaching for it.

I've been basically at the same weight for about six weeks. I think it is partly due to the addition of exercising which they say slows down actual weight loss for weeks and sometimes months at the start. I know my body shape is changing due to the exercise as I can tell with my clothes. I'm not going to worry so much about the scale for the next month. I'm going to worry more about keeping the healthy exercise routine. It's not always easy for me to get there and I have a lot to learn about stretching, how much to push and how much not too push, what kind of exercise is best, etc. I know this health course at the gym will help me learn all of this.

Glad to hear that you like your Gazelle - I'll have to see if they have one at the gym and then try it out to see what you're experiencing. What's your goal weight Marie?

Hi Skinny, I hope you're doing well. Take care Marie and Skinny. Thanks for being here.

Hi TOF, I think you're really on the right track. Not worrying about the scale is a good idea. Exercising, in my humble opinion, is way more important than the healthy eating. Not to say the healthy eating isn't good, just the exercise is better. I know that my psychiatrist wants me to exercise because it controls the depression side of my bipolar. So not only does it help the body, it helps the mind. Healthy eating doesn't effect me mentally - except the guilt that comes with bad choices. I'll have to remember to ask my friend if I can borrow her Thin For Life. Maybe I can get some good insight out of it.

Yesterday wasn't a great eating day. It wasn't too bad either. We went on a car trip to the coast to buy a hunk of junk (a prize in my DH's opinion). He bought a 66 Dodge Charger that was in an accident and has been abondoned for 30 years. Anyways, when I'm bored and in the car I like to eat. So I had some extra food, but when we got home last night, neither of us were hungry for dinner, so I made some apple crisp and we had that. It was really good and not too fattening. I played with Betty Crocker's recipe and cut out half the fat. I'm going to alter the recipe some more and see if I can get rid of more of the butter. Anyway, having dinner's calories gone, I did okay calorie wise.

I didn't exercise or do much so that wasn't good, but today I'm going to use the Gazelle. I'm going to raise the resistance on it since I've gotten in better shape and it's not as much of a workout. I really do like it and I think it was a pretty good deal. I paid my first installment and have a few more weeks to decide if I'm going to keep it. I am going to since I like it. I've definitely gotten better at it. The only thing it doesn't work is my stomach and that's my problem area. I think I will start to add crunches to the workout just so I work the stomach muscles.

Today is a lazy day. I'm going to knit and just enjoy being at home. Since yesterday was travelling I like being home even more. But yesterday we found spring at the coast. The wildflowers were growing, there was a tick on my dog, I saw a misquito (I have no idea how to spell that). Then this morning there was a hummingbird at my feeder. I forgot to bring the feeder in for the winter and it was 21 degrees. So I made some food and am going to fill the feeder for the poor lost birdie. But I took it as another sign of spring. Spring is my favorite time of the year and I'm just so excited about having the little taste yesterday. Now I'm ready for it all the time.

Okay, enough rambling. I'll talk with you tomorrow. Skinny, I hope you're doing great.
Marie

Hi Marie,

I enjoyed hearing about "spring" at the coast. I've been doing a bit of "virtual vacationing" on the net today as we are in the midst of a blizzard - very beautiful and our home is warm and comfortable so a very nice family day.

My workout today was shoveling. I shoveled for over an hour and only finished half the driveway. We had about 2 feet or more of snow. In some places the drifts are four feet high.

I like the idea of altering recipes. I'm starting to try out lots of new healthy recipes. Last night I tried one from Prevention magazine that I really didn't like, the night before that I made a turkey chili that was great. I'm sure you were able to alter the crisp since it has lots of apples which are good for you and sweet to begin with.

Have a good day Marie. Hi Skinny!

Good morning, ladies
 

Marie-Hello, my friend. I'm so glad you're back! Please don't stay away next time, even when you've "fallen off the wagon." Everyone has their own struggles w/staying on the wagon at different times. Don't be too hard on yourself. You've seen your mistake and you're working to get back on track. Good for you! I'm glad you like your gazelle and congrats on increasing the intensity! It's a really good work-out. We used ours last week instead of dragging ourselves out into the cold to go to the Y! Your coastal spring sounds lovely. It's sunny here but cold-around 14 degrees right now. Unfortunately, no snow! :( I would like to have at least one good snow before the winter's over. We've had a couple of dustings but that's it so far. Oh, well. Oh, congrats on not snacking. You can do it, Marie. Just hang in there and don't give up. We'll both lose what we gained over Christmas, I'm sure of it.

TOF-How are your boys behaving? I agree w/Marie. My kids have been bickering of late as well. Maybe they need more chores! ;) You mentioned a pilates tape. The one I use is called Pilates for Dummies and I bought it at Kmart or Wal-mart-can't remember. But it's very good. It explains every exercise before it starts it and gives a basic intro to pilates. When I first started using it, I couldn't do all the reps and I didn't even try the last two exercises until I'd been doing the video for a while. I like it a lot. Keep haning in there, TOF. You'll see a drop soon. I just know it.

I think I have the book Thin for life. I'll have to ck and drag it out so we can talk about it.

Marie-I'm glad you found a way to save some money. My DH isn't working yet but I'm not sweating it. He's actively looking and helping out around the house. With my income and his retirement (Navy) we make our monthly bills but don't have any extra to use towards getting out of debt faster. Right now, he's at home w/bronchitis. He's very suseptible and the cold weather has brought it on. He didn't even get out of bed yesterday.

I'm doing well w/eating. I only had 19 points one day and my best friend let me have it! That's 7 points under what I'm supposed to have. I told her I wouldn't do it again. Of course, I didn't mean to do it in the first place but oh, well. Friday and Saturday, I did 50 minutes of the elliptical. Yesterday I did my pilates video. Today, we'll probably head to the Y.

Well, gotta run. So good to hear from both of you. Thank you so much for your friendship and encouragement.

Hi Skinny and Marie. It is so great to have you here to "talk" to in the afternoon at my hardest time of the day. Really busy day at work. We have over 2 feet of snow here - it's unbelievable. Indoor recess and the boys were particularly chatty today. Report cards are looming and I'm going to have to stay up really, really late to catch up on correcting. My plan is to work out tonight (instead of tomorrow), go to my health group meeting and then come home and correct, correct, correct. Tomorrow I'll have a tired day and then go to bed early and hopefully catch up after that.

Great job exercising Skinny - you've been so faithful to it. 19 points wow! I agree with your friend though. Every time I go way under, I get really hungry although once in a while it's helped me to get back on track.

I'm squeezing into a size 12 right now - the jeans are tight, but I refused to by the bit big size 14s 12 is where I want to be - a comfortable 12. I've found that if I were clothes that are a bit snug I'm reminded more often about what I'm trying to do. Does that sound crazy!!!!!

Have a good night all. Good to hear from you.

sw 210 cw 175 gw 150

Hi TOF and Skinny, it was great to hear from both of you. Skinny, sorry about your husband's illness. I really hate when my DH is sick. I'm not sure why, but it does drive me nuts. He doesn't complain or anything. Maybe it's that I feel sorry for him. :) 19 points is too low, but for one day, it's not going to hurt you. A repetition of doing it would be bad - so I'm not going to scold you. Besides, I wish that I'd done 19 points one day so I envy you. TOF - it would drive me nuts to have indoor recess. What do you do to entertain them? Do you go to the gym so they can expend some energy? Report card time is coming here too - on Friday - so it's my busy days because the teachers haven't used the student information system since last quarter and the difficulties always rear their ugly heads during report card time.

I've done pretty good with my eating today. Not great but way better than I have in the past couple weeks. You both would have laughed when I was walking through the kitchen yesterday, I turned around to grab a brownie. I stopped, slapped my hand and turned back around. So there was some restraint there. So far today I've been restraining myself. I'm a little under my calories for the moment. I went to the vending machine to get a dessert for lunch since I forgot mine and found that the vending machine was gone. They took it out and I had no idea. I rarely used it so I don't know when they did that. Anyways, that's probably a good thing.

We haven't heard from the mortgage company since Thursday. I hate to be pessimistic but I just have bad vibes about it. Hopefully that's just my inner fears squawking too loud. I just wish it was over. It would help us so much that I don't want to get my hopes up too high.

I had a good day at work and got a lot accomplished. That was a nice change. Somedays it's like everything I touch breaks at work (computer wise). On Friday my big 19" monitor fried. It even left some ashes on my desk. As bad as the smell was and the loss of my big screen, I do admit it was pretty funny. Luckily I was sitting there and cut the power to it when it started to go. The district was happy about that too since our little building houses the district's main server. A fire taking that out would have been devastating. So today when everything went right, I was very thankful.

Talk to you tomorrow and I hope you both have a great night. I appreciate you both.
Marie

Good morning, ladies!
 

Hope this finds everyone doing well. Things here are good. Off to a good start this morning. I've gotten some very good sleep these past two nights and I'm feeling it today! :) I've done well w/food. I used 1.5 flex points yesterday so my food **** (aka-best friend) should be a happy camper! :D I also did 40 minutes on the elliptical and met drank all my water goals. So, feel like I'm doing well. I didn't exercise this morning. Just felt so nice and cozy cuddled up to DH so I stayed a little longer than I should have.

TOF-I totally agree w/Marie-I would hate indoor recess. Ugh. Did you survive? Better question might be, did THEY survive! :D Congrats on the size 12! :dancer: That's the size I'm aiming for as well. Right now, 16's are getting a little loose so about 10-15 more pounds I expect to be in 14's. I try on some snug clothes every now and then just to remind me why I'm doing what I'm doing and that I need to keep doing it. It doesn't sound silly at all.

Marie-Congrats on resisting the brownie!! :flow2: You wouldn't believe how many times I pass up things b/c I know I would end up having to tell you guys about it. I look at it and think...if I eat that, I'm going to have to fess up to TOF and Marie. It's helped me resist more than once! So glad you were there when your computer burned. That could have been a pretty bad fire. Also glad you were not hurt and your quick thinking cap was working! Hope you have another great day today.

Oldest DD is home w/the latest stomach virus. Yuck. Now I have two sick sweeties at home.

I feel like I'm doing well ladies but I am struggling w/something. I am very tempted to step on my new scales every day! I know that isn't good for me and I know once a week or every two weeks is plenty. But it keeps calling to me....tempting me.....I think I'll hide it. does that sound silly?

Well, have a great day. Be kind to yourself. Talk to you soon.

Hi Skinny and TOF, I suppose I should fess up right now. I had a bear claw after I had breakfast. So this morning wasn't too good. When Skinny wrote about having to fess up, I was pretty sure that will stop me in the future. But for now, I screwed up the day, but I'm going to continue like I was on track and be good for the rest of the day.

I didn't exercise last night. I'm so obsessed with the mortgage thing, it's driving me nuts.Don't they know that I'm anxious about it? I suppose not, but I wouldn't have signed the loan documents if I wasn't serious and wanted to refinance. I guess once they've got you a a customer, they don't have to be as diligent in keeping you informed. Yesterday I finally called them and they said that the loan was in the appraisal review. Unfortunately I don't have a clue what that means. And I'd like to know what the appraisal said. Since I'm paying for it, don't you think they should automatically give the home owner a copy of the appraisal - no they just send it to the mortgage people. Enough, Marie. I need to stop obsessing.

Work is okay. I'm doing more boring stuff today so it's not as fun as yesterday. I did get the FTP working for a teacher but I can't get it to work through Dreamweaver. If the loan doesn't send me over the edge, then the web server will. It's been the bane of my existence for the past few months. I didn't set it up but I'm supposed to manage it (without training). So here I am, setting up security and not knowing what's what. I ask my boss for help and he said that he wrote a procedure for it and where it is. I'm thinking great, I'll have clue. But no, there's no such thing anywhere that would have potential (including where he said).

So, I'm going nuts. Slowly, but surely. Truly I am kidding. I'm just frustrated. So I take it out on eating wront. But the rest of the day will be good. And I will make up for yesterday's missed exercise. I'm not going to wait for DH tonight. He was out with his new prize until a late dinner then I was exhausted. So tonight when I get home. I exercise. And eat healthy. I was thinking of taking on the the 3FC recipes that I saw last night and making it with chicken. The recipe is new and is for parmesan fish back. I thought that parmesan chicken would be good. (I hate fish) So that's the plan for dinner.

I guess I should work again. Talk to you later.
Marie

Good morning, ladies!
 

Hope that things are going well for everyone. Things here are fine. I walked 4.5 miles on the treadmill last night, was op and met my water goals. Feeling a little puny today-sinuses-but otherwise okay. I'm taking over the counter stuff right now. If it doesn't get better by tomorrow, I'll go to the doc.

Marie-I understand about the finances. I can tell my DH is feeling better b/c he's starting to worry about finances again! I hope you hear something soon. I understand about sometimes feeling lost at work. I work in the legal field and it is constantly changing. Just about the time I finally get one procedure down cold, they change it! It's very frustrating. But, you're an intelligent woman so I have no doubt you'll lick this thing. Hang in there. How was your new recipe? Did you get to exercise?

TOF-let us know how it's going for you. How's the grading coming?

Well, ladies. Gotta run. Stay focused and please remember to be kind to yourself. Have a great health day. Thanks for all your support and encouragement.