THURSDAY: Today is Time for Us Thursday. Make some time for you today. You are worth it!

MAY THE LUCK OF THE IRISH BE WITH YOU ALL DAY TODAY! :) :)

POINTS:

Faye :bravo:

Check back in later

Faye :)

Hi all,

Apology accepted! Thanks for the cute poem Faye, that was sweet! It wasn't that you forgot my birthday - I knew you probably didn't know when it was, it was that after I mentioned it in my post, no one even acknowledged it - I swear you guys don't read my posts sometimes!

Anyway, I've got really bad PMS so I think that has made everything seem worse than it really is - so sorry if I came across as a bit moody! I suppose what I was really upset about (and took out on you guys!) is that my sister appears to have forgotton. I am very close to her and even though we don't really send presents, I always get a card and a phone call. This year I had nothing - I wasn't that miffed about the card, as who knows? It might have got lost in the post - but she didn't ring me on my birthday and hasn't since! Maybe I'm overreacting, but I feel really hurt that she hasn't phoned. I just don't understand why she hasn't - it won't be that she forgot, she'll probably say she has been busy - but she doesn't go out to work and who is honestly too busy to pick up the phone and wish her sister a happy birthday? My other sister is going through a messy separation, working full time and raising 2 kids on her own, but she was such a sweetie and rang me and sent me a card and gift vouchers!

I need to speak to my sister about this, but don't want to ring when I've got PMS because I'll end up crying or falling out with her and I don't want that! So I'm going to have to leave it for a week and then ring her.

Anyway, I'm off to spend my vouchers and birthday money from Nigel - I REALLY need a spring jacket and am hoping I'll be able to find a cute denim one or something.

By the way, I'm doing better with my food - still not 100%, but more or less back on track!

Love Amanda x

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PLUS 3 AMANDA!!!

I've been out of it, sorry sweetie! Hope it was a fabulous day and you find a great jacket.

It's 2 weeks till Easter, and there's so much snow I haven't even put away the last of the Christmas greenery yet!! :lol: It just doesn't look like spring, sorry, can't do it. If there's still more than a foot of snow, the greenery stays up.

The tooth feels better today. Actually, it never really hurt, just had an ENORMOUS hole in it....so this work is really a preemptive strike against major pain later.

I gotta go check out a theater that wants a belly dance teacher...another night of exercise per week! And more money!! Have to check out the facilities first, though. And the management. I run my own show, and don't want outsiders butting in where they don't belong.

Be back later everyone!
Julie

Amanda: Don't apologize. We were all dopes not to have said something as we seem to acknowledge everyone here. Like I said, I read your post and zoned. My only excuse is that I was so stressed out about water coming out from under the baseboards in my bathroom and onto my dining room carpet that I was totally self absorbed. As for PMS, honey I am the queen and don't forget I have 20 years of pms over you so don't let it bug you! As for the sister, sometimes we sisters are putzes! I am close to my sisters and always send them a gift for their birthdays, but don't let it get to you. If I were you, I would call her up, just chat then zing her with what Nigel got you for your birthday and focus on what NIGEL did and if she is not totally out of it she should be embarrassed and apologize and stuff. If she doesn't say anything like, Oh, man I forgot, Geez, what a dope I am, etc than I would be more tempted to be miffed about it!

PLEASE MAKE SURE AND DO THE LINK IF YOU WANT ACHKNOWLEDGEMENT FOR YOUR BDAY GIRLS! If you are too busy, just pm you bd to me and I can manually insert it into my bd alarm system.

Julie: Glad the ole molar is coming along and happy you get to teach another class. You know, with the skiing, small kids, dancing, I can not imagine you are overweight. You expend more energy than all of us combined.

Well, the treadmill is calling. Oh, opinion please, which do you think is better, more time on the treadmill or more mileage?

Faye :D

Good morning!
It's been really tough to get in here lately with all the stuff they are doing to my house to sell it, and with my best friend being home from college on spring break. My parents are now begging me to move with them to a city I hate. My dad is a Lieutenent Colonel in the Army, and he is probably going to be deployed over seas....AGAIN...pretty soon after the move, and since my mom is a major depressive, and has suicidal tendencies, he doesn't want her to sit in a brand new house alone for a whole year. So I will probably hang around Houston until he gets deployed then move up there. Lately I've been having okay days, not great ones...a couple 3 pointers, some 2's...not really any 4's. I feel like I've been half-assing this for too long. I know that I actually have to try to get results...can't live the same way, and expect different results. So...that is my main focus for this week....finding a healthy groove.

Faye-I gotta say, that was a killer poem. I would have never been able to come up with somethign like that. Hmm...as for the treadmill...I'm not really sure...when I used my treadmill I tried to go for more mileage becuase I would stay on it the same amount of time and I was trying to quicken my mile and have a more intense workout jam packed into a 20 minute time frame.

Julie-What kind of dance do you teach? Is it only belly dance? I was always curious because I love dancing...and I always wondered which kinds were better for excersice and such. I'm glad your tooth is doing okay.

Amanda- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I wasn't around to wish you one, sorry you've been so stressed and PMS is a bummer. I'm sure your sister has a good excuse, try to give her the benefit of the doubt...it's hard I know...but she will come around.

Okay, I have a ton of stuff to do...gotta restain my hot tub....clean my room...do laundry...pack my bags...ugh...I hate this kinda stuff.
Nikki

Nikki: I actually have two poems published in poetry books, one about eating and a love poem to my husband for his birthday a couple years ago. Anyone who cheers my poetry gets her own so here goes (took me about 5 minutes btw):

Where or where has Nikki gone?
Her friends all want to know.
She says she's moving out of town,
Because her dad says so.

Now Nikki isn't happy,
She likes where she lives now,
But Daddy's going overseas
She'll move so there's no row.

She's worried that her eating plan,
Just stinks and she won't lose,
She's dragging feet and eating junk,
But knows that she MUST choose.

So Nikki's going to make it work,
She'll eat right and behave,
So when she's back to visit "H"
Her friends will rave and rave! ;) :D


Faye :^:

FRIDAY: Today is Weight Loss Fantasy Friday girls! Tell us some more fantansies you have about losing weight!

POINTS:

Faye :bravo:

I'm so old, can't remember what I said last week. I know we have some gals that want to wear boots. Ok, I think I would like to get to a place where I am stared at for other reasons than my weight!

Back later girls

Faye :)

Faye, you're so cool! Both those poems were awesome....

Okay, still with the same old, same old. But March is almost over and spring has GOT to be lurking around the corner somewhere! :dizzy:

I'm going to try something new, but I don't want to make a big deal out of it until I know if it works. I'll let you all in on it later....but I have high hopes that my whole life is about to change! Oooh, I'm so mysterious :D

Nikki, sorry you're having such a tough time of it all down there. Just take one day at a time. And remember that you have to put yourself first, always! Right now I do just teach belly dance. Depending on who you take it from it can be a great workout or it can be a very spiritual experience....I try to make my classes a bit of both, but mostly great for fitness and having fun. Any dance form is good for conditioning...it really just depends on the kind of music you like, really. And what's available in your area. If it was available around here, I'd take salsa classes in a heartbeat....except James wouldn't like that too much cuz there's just so much bumping and grinding and he doesn't dance....so, well, I'd have to do it with someone else. Yeah, THAT would go over just GREAT! :lol:

Amanda, hope that pms is letting up some and you can get back to normal! Have I told you lately how proud I am of you? Keep it up, sweetie~

Carrie, Sandy(s)...everyone else, have a great day!

I have all day to myself, cuz Ben is visiting a friend! Gonna go out to lunch and buy some bras and maybe browse barnes & noble for a while....YAY!

TTFN,
Julie

Ok, Julie, I told you that anybody that praises my poems, got one back so here goes:

We have a friend named Julie,
She skis just like a fool,
She lives where snow is up your rear,
She even thinks that's cool.

Now Julie has a vision,
To make ALL want to dance,
To make their bodies jiggle,
In low slung belly pants.

She has some lovely children,
And one of them is Ben,
He's just an ity bity guy,
Today he's with a friend.

Our Julie's keeping secrets,
She won't tell what or where,
But you just wait, she'll spill the beans,
We KNOW she'll have to share!

Julie: One of my favorite places to go is Barnes and Noble. I am book crazy. Make sure you are full, full, full then look at Maya Angelou's cookbook. The stories are great and the recipes to die for (sort of literally) Bra buying for big jugs here is torture most of the time. First off, I don't want grandma's bras, but I guess designers don't think BIG BOOBS/ BEAUtIFUL BRAS go together. I mean, they are out there, but darn, $40 for a bra?

I am finding self awareness girls. After all this dieting struggle I may be finding that I can actually eat something good without the lack of taste or nasty taste just make it healthier. I am on my 4th 4pt day this week and doing really well. For example, I try to change up my breakfast ( I eat low cal like 100 or so for breakfast then have a snack about 10) so one morning I have my cheerios with the fruit in them and 1% milk then maybe a banana the next morning, etc. I decided to make egg beaters today and since I was up at 2:30 because the darn neighbors thought it was daytime and made a ton of noise, I went back to bed and slept until 9:30. Well, that means I missed bk so I waited until 10 and combined bk and snack, which gave me more calories. I didn't want just egg beaters and thought, what could I put in them to jazz them up without a lot of cal? I put 1/4 c ff cheese and 3 oz precooked grilled chicken pieces. It is really yummy! No sausage, no bacon, etc and still really good. I have to be satisfied not to freak about my losing right now as far as lbs showing. I am up over 330 again from eating badly a week or so ago and my scale only goes that high. I know I am losing though, because my rings are whirling around on my fingers and that only happens when I lose weight. It is actually pretty funny to go to my nail salon. They are all Vietnamese that Eng is definitely a second language and they spend half their time trying to communicate to me to make my rings stay in place! :lol:

You know, with me, exercise is NOT the hardest part of my program. That is probably the easiest and if I could just figure out what compels me to exercise everyday, then use that to compel me to eat right, I would be slim in no time. Maybe I have found it now, I don't know. I think I may be moving into the next phase of menopause (I guess I shouldn't say that without crossing my fingers and they are busy typing :lol: ) Which may help with the food cravings and wanting to binge somtimes. You know, why don't people that research weight loss ideas ever do so regarding women's hormones? Think about all the times you have posted here saying you have PMS and want to eat eat eat?

Boy, I do ramble on, don't I? You all have a wonderful day! Julie, have fun shopping! YOU GIRLS ARE THE BEST!

Faye :)

Hey girls!
So yesterday I was painting my hot tub, and I got SOOO sunburned its insane. I was out there for FOUR HOURS and I'm only half way done...gah. We have this housing thing with sliding doors all around it so I have to paint that stuff too. My back looks like a color wheel from my tattoos and the various shades of pink, red and maroon from my sunburn. I watched my two best friends get their first tattoos last night, so now there is only one guy in our group that doest have at least one. I started wondering what all of us were going to think when we get older...like...man what the **** were we thinking when we were 18? But I suppose I hardly even notice mine are there because they are on my back so they arent staring me in the face every time i look in a mirror. We also spent like 3 hours baking cookies making a complete mess of my house and I didn't go over board on anything! Jen, Joey, and Hannah were taking that dough out, and I was pretty good. Maybe a wee little taste :).

Faye-that is so rad. I have had a few poems of mine published as well. I used to be able to write pretty well, I can still BS my way through any essay or short story in about 10 minutes. I wrote a 5 page research paper on a poem I had never read 20 minutes before it was due, and I ended up with an A on it. But lately I have found that I can't write poetry as well these days. I used to write all the time. It was mostly that dark teenage angst the whole world is against me kinda stuff...and Im pretty much out of that stage. Now its hard for me to come up with decent material. Thank you for the poem :).

Julie-I would love to learn salsa! I would have trouble fiding a dancing partner though, none of my boys like to dance. I also would really llike to learn hip hop. There is a lot of urban culture around me, so thats sorta what I am used to. My buddy Ash has been belly dancing for like 12 years or some insane amount of time like that. She tried to teach me one day, I'm not too good at it.

Okay well, as for everyone else, I hope yall are doing well!

I have to still do a ton of stuff before I can get goin outta town. I won't be back until Tuesday, so ya'll have a great weekend!!.

Nikki

SATURDAY: Today is Sunny Thoughts Saturday. What do you have to share with us to make us laugh?

My contribution:

A car was driving down the street when all of a sudden it started swerving. The car was going back and forth till someone with a cell phone called the police. A police officer pulled the car over. A blonde rolls down the window and says, " Officer, I'm so glad you are here. I saw a tree in the road, then I saw another. So I had to swerve to keep from hitting it!" The officer looks at her, then says, "Ma'am, that's your air freshener."


POINTS:

Faye :bravo:
Amanda :bravo:


Have a great day!

Faye

Hi all,

I had a 4 point day yesterday - even though I've still got PMS, I'm really trying to get back on track. I've decided to increase my calorie allowance by 150 during PMS week which means I avoid the disappointment of constantly going over my calories a little bit. I'm definately back on track with my exercise, I'm back on the exercise bike which I hadn't done for about 2 weeks - it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be, although I'm sticking to 30 mins at the moment, where before I was on 35 mins.

I bought a really lovely denim jacket - and it was cheaper than I expected, so I could afford a pair of trousers aswell! :cp: As soon as I saw the jacket, I knew it was exactly what I wanted, but suprise suprise they were sold out of my size. In the end I got the next size down and although it's a little tight on the bust at the moment, I'll soon slim down. The trousers I bought are baggy combat style in a rich chocolate brown - really funky! I bought these in my normal size UK 24 (US 20 I think), and though they fit perfectly well on my thighs and bum, the waist is so loose that they are nearly falling off! The thing is I know that a 22 will be too tight on my thighs and bum, so I'm going to keep them and hold them up with a belt! This just goes to show that I am really losing weight from my waist and hips at the moment - hopefully my legs and bum will catch up soon! That's the thing when you lose weight isn't it - you are often inbetween sizes and a bit out of proportion!

Faye - well done for keeping on track! I'm sure your scales will show a big loss soon. Like you say, you are losing - you just haven't got the exact numbers to prove it yet. About the treadmill thing - my sister is a fitness instructor and she always tells me to try to go for as long as possible for as fast as possible! Time and mileage are more important for fat burning than stamina and hill climbing - although a slight incline will really burn fat as long as you are still walking fast.

Nikki - Sorry you got sunburnt, I know what agony that is! Have you decided what to do about your folks moving? If you go, then surely you will have to pull out of college as well? I expect that you've spent alot of your childhood caring for your mum - personally I don't think it's in your best interests to go, it's time to look after yourself. I know it's not as easy as that though when you have guilt and pressure put on you. Is your mum on medication, or getting any other help - it sounds like she needs professional support.

Julie - ooh, I'm intrigued by your secrecy! Can't wait to find out what it is that has got you all excited! Hope you got some great bra's and books!

Carri, Sandy, Jan - hello!

I'm off for my swim now!

Love Amanda x

Oh Gosh, I can't believe no one has checked in since my post yesterday afternoon! Don't mind me, I have no life! :lol:

I got 4 points yesterday. My pool is closed for a week now for repainting :( so I don't know what I am going to do! The prospect of going on the exercise bike for 7 days does not fill me (or my backside) with glee, so I'm going to check out a pool in a different area - it will mean a bus ride and back, but will be worth it!

Have a lovely day

Love Amanda x