quick note. hey all...No, I am in NY state,way up..close to Saratoga.. I used to live in Ohio..I am going to visit Heather in over 4 weeks...It has been almost 12 years since we have seen each other
and she is remarried now, so I cannot wait, her ex-I call him Beeazlebub, he would not allow her to have me in her life, because I knew he treated her terribly and I hated him for it. So it is a long time in coming...been staying on track so far this week, not much else going on, just busy crafting and planting...HAGD! and BBL!

I can't believe I didn't check in yesterday. I was paying the price on Monday for taking it easy last week! I missed you all! I'd love to get together! Great group of ladies!

Aimee, way to go on the 10K!! That's very cool. And you kept going even when it got rough. That inspires me. I think most people do wait until they're older or retired to travel. It's not so easy to have the extra cash and time. Or else they decide to have fewer things, a used car, a smaller house, or to rent, so they have the money to travel.

Kimberley, when I saw Coney Island I did a double take. They do the Cincinnati flower show here?? I love flower shows. They have a big one here that I went to a couple of years, but they've been upping the entrance fees and it got overly commercial so I stopped.

Ah, the dreaded ingrown toenail! I would have voted for the podiatrist on that one. I get them, never had an infected one though. Yeow!

I'm not a dietician, that said, sugary foods (like fruit loops) and very processed foods (like the Chef Boyardee) go through your system fast and give you a quick burst of energy but then leave you tired. Try to go for more complex carbohydrates (whole wheat, etc.). You might want to check out Dr. Phil's food supplement book, it's in paperback and gives a long list of foods and their nutritional values.

You also haven't incorporated any veggies. Veggies have a lot of fiber and nutrients that will fuel you and make you feel fuller too. I remember you said there aren't many you like, but maybe some experimentation and cooking them various ways might help. I remember making broccoli for a friend of mine and he was amazed how much better it tasted the way I'd made it -- his mom always boiled it to mush, I steam it and leave some crunch, and put a pat of butter and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

I'm not a big believer in supplements unless a doctor tells a person they have a particular deficiency. A balanced diet should cover all the bases. I'm slightly anemic and the doc told me to take iron supplements -- not to get the iron from eating red meat. Not that I think red meat is evil, but it's more difficult to digest, takes longer to move through the body, and tends to be fattier. (You have to be careful with iron supplements because a build up can be toxic -- I take one tablet every other day.)

I believe 1400 calories for a busy woman who's larger sized is low. And in the end, you are really busy! You're on your feet all the time and running around, you have two jobs and an active social life, it makes sense you'd be tired. Plus, like most of America, you have problems sleeping sometimes.

I got up early and went to the gym today. I'm likin' it I still have those gym-gringo moments -- like stepping on the one treadmill out of about 15 that's not working and taking five minutes to figure it out (should I push this button???)! Or having my feet slip off the recumbant bike pedals! heh heh.
Guess this post is long enough! Have a great one, you all deserve it.

Marge, you're right about so many things! I know I need more veggies. I did buy some frozen stir-fry mixed veggies (no sauce or anything added, just pieces of peppers, broccoli, and such), and I have some frozen boneless, skinless chicken. I should just throw it all together, heat it up, add a little of my teriyaki sauce, and dish some of that out for lunch each day. Now, just to find the time for it... I leave my house at 5:30am and get home around 11:15pm Mon-Thurs, so during the week is out. Normally, I do my grocery shopping and food prep for the week on Sundays, but this past weekend (and the next 2 weekends in a row), I was in MD at Jeff's. I also know the Fruit Loops are no good, but it's my one meal that feels like a splurge (even though I still count all the calories). I bought some Kashi cereal, and (not to offend those who enjoy it) I personally think it tastes like cardboard. I still have it in the cabinet, but I won't eat it unless I add sugar to it, which really defeats the purpose I did buy, however, Honey Bunches of Oats cereal with fruit in it (I know, it still has sugar, but it's got to be better for me than Fruit Loops!), so when the Fruit Loops are gone (which should be in the next 2 days or so), that's next on my breakfast rotation. I would love to have an egg white omelette and whole-grain toast or something, but I don't have the time to cook it, nor do I have the time to clean up after myself Basically, everything I eat right now is a matter of convenience and easy (or no) prep (hence the sodium-filled Chef Boyardee dinner cups!). I have no time to cook (nor am I very good at it!), and I only have time to shop once a week, so fresh foods are difficult to keep fresh long enough to enjoy them. I know I'm just making up excuses--I need to find something that works. I need veggies and more protein and less sugar--No point in losing weight if I'm too tired and malnourished to enjoy it! I do only eat between 1400-1600 calories per day during the week, but on the weekends I have much more, so I restrict myself during the week when I don't have the temptations of eating out and such. We all lead busy lives and still find the time to make things work. I just need to crack down, stop whining, and do the same!

Jill & Marge~~You all wore me out...Before I get into all of that...I got a compliment today from someone who has not seen me in months, so it must be working, I will know how well on Sunday!!!

Marge~ How right you are about everything...I agree...I do like the suggestion with the broccoli, will give that a go myself!

jill~ have you tried cutting up the veggies, like carrots ( baby, ths smaller they are, the better), cucumbers ( I get the european ones wrapped in plastic--they do not make me burp and taste better to me), and celery sticks, placing them in a divided container with ranch or other dressing to dip as a snack? I do this often...I agree with you about the Kashee, like eating sticks to me, lol. I eat a lot of Cheerios ( honey nut, wholegrain) or similar cereals, or when I want oatmeal, I eat Nutrition for women by quaker, it has soy in it, and I like the Vanilla Cinnamon one...I also eat a lot of lowfat yogurt with some granola mixed in, and fruit for breakfast. As far as other foods go, maybe investing in a nice sized Crockpot is the way for you to go. then on the weekends, put in stuff for nice stews or soups or pasta sauces, then divide them up and freeze them so you will have meals for the week ( cook the pasta and mix in the sauce)...then you will have good food, and it won't take too much out of the weekend plans for you to have to cook all day, the crock pot does it for you...Below are some great sites for you with recipes, low-fat, low-carb, whatever...Dottis also has great tips for everything else..Once you find the recipes you like, print out and keep in a folder...I like the other sites too, and the directions are great for most of them.. Just some ideas...Hope they help!


www.dottisweightlosszone.com

www.recipezaar.com

http://www.angelfire.com/journal/wwrecipes/index.html

I love the Cheerios with fruit, amazing how they manage to do that, heh heh. I usually eat a little of that, mixed with Wheat Chex and/or Grape Nuts. I have cereal with skim milk just about every day.

I don't know if I could survive your schedule! We sometimes cook a pot of something or casserole and eat it during the week. You might consider frozen veggies that you can nuke -- if you don't have a microwave you can get one for $50 and under nowadays. I know you've had some unexpected expenses lately. Maybe the crockpot would be the better investment, they can be pretty cheap too. Sometimes if you ask around or mention your looking for those things, someone might even give you one. My boss gave me our office microwave (a small one). You can always make your changes bit by bit, so it's not so overwhelming time wise and habit wise.

With cooking for this diet, I find if I have a repertoire of about 5 dishes or so that we rotate, that can keep us going for quite a while before we get the urge to shake it up. That makes shopping easier.

I'm going to check out your links, Diana. I could use some new dishes. Now that it's getting warmer, the urge to cook starts to really go out the window!

I just found some yummy looking recipes off of that last link all are WW type low fat...I must have printed out about 30 of them LOL..Even some of the desserts look good, gonna make them and never tell DH they are low fat..hehe...have fun!

Hey Girls!! Very late post from me today.. I got up and had to head to the new job to fill out papers, and then headed to my old, icky job.

I have GREAT ideas for breakfasts and lunches Often I'll have nothing to take for lunch and need to eat in a grocery store.. with that in mind I bought myself a bag of croutons (they make low fat ones!), some parmesean cheese (which is low fat!), a bag of already chopped lettuce and some low fat ceasar dressing. I can usually make a HUGE salad, and then have some pudding for dessert. I also converted to head lettuce in my dislike for preparing things, I can chop it up and it takes maybe 5 minutes to make a salad. Also, I usually buy a HUGE bag of broccoli from Costco, it's already chopped so I can add it to eggs, salads, stirfry's. I always look for creative ways to add protein to my diet (I reallllly don't get enough, if any).. and when I did the Winsor Pilates diet thingy I learnt how to. My ultimate fav thing was "Apple Cobbler" It has 1 cup 1% milk, 1/3cup of oatmeal cooked, 3 teaspoons slivered almonds, 2/3 ouch protein powder, and 1/2 a granny smith apple chopped. It was SO delish!! my second fav thing ever on that diet was Skim ricotta cheese, 1/2 a pear sliced (or sometimes grapes), and 1 teaspoon slivered almonds. Oh man.. so yummy. I'm looking at the diet right now, and am thinking I should try it again, I just have to track down my dvd's. Soon.. in the mean time, I'm reverting back to South Beach-type diet, that I'll start on Thursday.

Well, I'm all talked out, and have to go find dinner (in the form of delivery pizza.. I'm so bad But I'm not going to bother trying to diet until I'm away from my horrible job). Have a great nice you hot fabulous ladies!

-Aimee

Hi, everyone. I crashed really early last night - like 8:30pm - and slept through until mid-morning today. I guess it was just too many nights of poor sleep catching up with me. It sure felt good, though, I'll tell ya.

We went to the YMCA today and I walked 15 minutes on the treadmill next to Howie's, then started in on the machines. I managed three sets on each one except the assisted chin-up's. Thinking I needed to challenge myself more, I upped the weights on several of them. Oh....Too much, I think.

I'm glad tomorrow is a rest day for the weights, because everything from my forearms on down to my fingers hurts. It's very painful to grip and carry a glass of water. Next time I go, I need to identify the machines that cause my hands pain and skip them - either that or ask if there's a way I can modify my use of them.

I'm kind of discouraged about this, because my pre-existing wrist and hand problems are flaring up again, and I don't want to be further limited in what machines I can use. My arms are strong enough to do many of the machines, but my hands are not strong enough to do the necessary work.

Hey, Aimee, we posted at the same time. Hiya!

Hey Kimberley - HOT picture

-Aimee

hey all, quickie b4 I leave...wow, Great Pic Kimberly...you can really see the weight loss in your face!BBL all, HAG1!

Whew, got a late start this morning--didn't get here to work till 6:30! I made a big boo-boo last night--I ate dinner at the restaurant For some reason, I was really hungry yesterday. Usually, I eat my Chef Boyardee cup dinner at about 3:30pm then have fruit in the car on my way home at 11 (since I work from 4-11...I know you should eat every 3-4 hours, but I can't just sit and eat whenever I want when I am supposed to be standing at the door to greet guests). I'm usually okay during that stretch of 7-hour fasting, but last night, I just felt so hungry! I thought maybe it was just a craving, but after more than an hour, I still wanted food, and my tummy actually growled. So I broke down and had a horrible-for-me dinner of a chicken club sandwich and french fries. Tomorrow is weekly weigh-in...I'm sure I'll be paying for it, especially with not going ot the gym this week. Bad combination. If the same thing happens again, and I feel hungry during my shift, I will have to get the salad bar (no matter how amazing the fried foods look and smell!).

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! Still no veggies packed for my food for today (although I did forget to put my ice packs in the freezer last night, so I have a bag of frozen broccoli in my lunch bag to keep my food cold ). I do have a crock pot! When I moved, one of my friends from my old job gave me hers. I have only used it once, and that was just to make meatballs. I also do have frozen veggies (broccoli, stir fry veggie mix, and sugar snap peas) and a microwave, but I don't like them without some sort of dip or dressing, so I'll have to check and see if maybe I can find a lower-cal honey dijon or something (I LOVE honey mustard dressing, but it is insanely high in calories--the one I have now is 130 calories for 2 tablespoons!). I once went on a Caesar salad kick for months at a time, and now I get semi-nauseous just thinking about Caesar dressing

Ugh, this has been a bad week for me. I feel as if I ate like it were the weekend all week long. I had a chocolate milk on Monday (fat free, but still not on plan, especially since the bottle was actually 2 servings), then the Ruby Tuesday food last night, and the weekend was a little worse than usual since it was Jeff's birthday (dinner at Jillian's, snacks at the baseball game, a McDonald's happy meal, out for ice cream Sunday night...). I'm not even close to looking forward to tomorrow morning's weigh-in, but I can't do anything now but stay on plan for today! I will eat what I packed and nothing else!! Screw what I said before--not even salad bar tonight! I'll have to start packing food more wisely and include a snack (that does not require cooking or refrigeration) to keep in my apron at work in case I get hungry during my shift at night. Maybe I can toss my apple in my purse and have that if I need it. Yeah, I'll do that. I have plenty of other food for during the day.

Alright, blah blah blah, time to get to work--but not before mentioning how much I love Kimberley's new picture! Have a Wonderful Wednesday, all!!

Kimberley, Very cute pic!

Maybe one of the trainers at the gym could give you exercises to strengthen your wrists. In the meantime you could concentrate on the leg strenthening machines.

It's another warm gorgeous day here today, yeah! We bought window fans this week. We have an air conditioner but only like to use it as a last resort. Mid May we're going up into the Hudson Valley for a long weekend to celebrate my b-day. We'll probably take Amtrak up there then rent a car. Can't WAIT for a little break.

I peaked at the scale and I've lost last week's weight (official weigh in Friday). I'm 95 percent sure it was TOM water weight (whew! ). I keep a journal and as weird as it sounds that same week for the past 2 months I've gained the exact same amount of weight (to the tenth of a lb). Then I get my period the following week. So, like, I figured it out! heh heh.

I have to say restaurants can be my downfall. I admire anyone that can go in and get a meal that fits well with her/his program. I see a menu and I want to get what looks most delicious, which is rarely the salad plate! I love salads, but I get pulled towards the less desirable choice usually! When Rob and I got that sandwich last week to eat in the park, I did manage to not get a bag of chips (Marge patting herself on the back). That's a step forward for me. I know this is going to be a challenge for me this summer since we'll be going out a lot more. I'm going to have to keep my eye on the prize!

all I can say is ouch! lol. That was a very interesting workout to say the least. Hi Marge! good to see you. Kimberly, gorgeous pic! I hope to one day put one like that up.
Jill, how is your foot feeling? Aimee, hope the last few days of your old job go ok. Di, he may be beelzebub, but my mom always said he reminded her of Frankenstein...lmbo.
Have a wondeful day all. I have to go to rehearsals. I'll try to be back this evening. Its warm here but is supposed to rain...and I love how the sky gets dark in the daytime before a storm..not sure why though..lol. Anyway, have a wonderful day ladies! big hugs to all of you.

Goodmorning Ladies!! How are yah'll? I'm pretty good Feeling good, I work today, but then have Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off, so tomorrow is going to be the day I get 100% on plan!! I have a little workout thing set up, I was reading this month's Glamour (I'm addicted to magazines), and they have a whole thing "Body by Glamour", so I signed up. There is a workout, which helps me, because I hate trying to figure out what to do, plus I have to workout at home (can you believe a gym membership costs 50+ dollars a month AND you have to sign up for a min of 2 years?!?). So I'm going to try their weight routine, and will do my own diet. I really have to get serious if I want to lose some of this weight before the summer gets here! Once I get tired of all of that.. I'll do the Winsor Pilates thing. I get tired of workouts WAY too easily, I'm hoping to hang on to this thing for at least a month. I wish I lived closer to a gym, and had more cash to spend on that, I'd totally hit up different classes.

Jill - Cheese Strings would be a great snack! You can get low fat ones, which will keep your fat down, but that protein will help you keep on going. Or even peanut butter on celery.. just to name a few ideas. I think the cheese string thing is my best idea. Or WAIT! Green pepper, yellow pepper, red pepper! They are semi sweet, AND veggies!

Marge - restaurants are my downfall too, I have a hard time picking a salad.. but only because I can make a salad at home, why go out and pay 10 bucks for a salad? Just seems pointless! I'm cheap.. sorry.. heh. How much weight do you put on before TOM arrives? Sometimes I go up 7-8 pounds!!! It always scares me, I'm not weighing in this week (my scale is already saying I'm up 2 pounds, eek!) I'm going to change my weight tracker though.. gotta measure my weight loss for real I guess.

Heather - I LOVE pilates! The best part for me is that it stretches my body, and works it out all at the same time. I bought the pilates for dummies tape about 4 years ago, and then got the winsor pilates tapes from a friend, and have one called pilates for weight loss. I just don't do them enough (fighting for the tv/dvd player when the bf is home).

I can smell the warm weather (sounds weird... ), I left my window a little bit open last night.. I absolutely LOVE the summer.. I just hope to be able to enjoy it properly this year. Alrighty, this is taking me FOREVER to write... so I'm going to go off and be productive before work.. have a great, Fabulous, day! My brother was here and decided I needed to do a blog thingy (don't ask me.. no idea what the heck it is), so he set one up for me (I don't even know WHERE it is either!), anywho.. it's called Fabulous Aimee or something along those lines.. he wants me to write a book on being fabulous... he's so funny. Anywho! BBL!

-Aimee