My nieces, nephews, brother and SIL - we all have as many 6PM meals when the tomatoes come in with cottage cheese!!!!! YMMMMMM sometimes we have corn on the cob too. Ahhhh makes me wish for the end of Summer
I love cottage cheese, tomatoes and garlic powder.
Oh, now I'm drooling! We have a fairly long growing season here, so we get not one, but two round of sweet yellow corn. My SIL's dad has an amazing plot of land he farms that used to be river bottom. The soil is rich and black and he keeps everything organic. I can't even begin to tell you how good his produce tastes, but his sweet corn is to die for!
I love homegrown tomatoes about any way I can get them, but the thing I miss most right now is homemade salsa. I put in lots of garlic and lime, and it is sososo good!
It is really quiet around the house this morning. Part of me wants to take advantage and get a lot of cleaning done, but it is so quiet the rest of me wants to just go take a nap. We'll see which one wins out.
I'm Baaack! What a WONDERFUL vacation we had! I feel like a new person. But it sure was nice to have a warm welcome home from the kids. It is great to be loved!
Now, want to hear my good news? Remember me saying I was going to find a cheap pair of size 10 jeans and that would be my goal rather than the scale? Well, I found them and tried them on so that I could guage my progress and low and behold - they FIT and were even a tiny bit LOOSE! Well, as excited as I was my guess was that the brand ran big so I moved on to the next store - THEIR BRAND FIT TOO! I kept this up all day. Ladies, I wear a size 10! And pretty soon will be in an 8! The 10's fit just a tiny, tiny bit loose but the 8's are waaaay too small. I came home with a new wardrobe that you wouldn't believe. I've never liked to shop for clothes. It was just too depressing - nothing fits, by the time I got something I could button around my waist the legs were two feet too long, it all looked bad, eewww, yuck to the whole experience. Well, let me tell you. To be able to walk into a store, try on trendy clothes, have the fit and look nice - what an amazing thing. I even bought underwear that sits BELOW my bellybutton (what's left of it after carrying twins anyway ). I have to always remember this feeling because it is such a motivator.
I haven't caught up on all the posts so I'll be back later. Will has karate tonight - I'm right back into the swing of things.
Hope everyone had a great week. I missed all of you! Okay, be back soon.
Welcome back Tricia. I'm just thrilled about your weight loss. This might sound a little mom'sh to say, but I'm soo proud of you.
I wish i had time to talk but still have some cleaning and packing to do before tomorrow when we head on up to our house in GA. Will talk when we get back.
Oh Tricia, I am so happy and proud for you!!!! Shopping sure made this a "good" vacation for you!!!!
I am so tired my eyes hurt. I have worked 12 to 13 hours a day at my new job and I have tons of outdoor work to do tomorrow besides getting ready to leave Sunday for my week in the cities. UGH!!!
THEN I come home and all my plant arrived so now I have to plant them tomorrow AND try to bribe a nephew into watering them during the week while I am gone.
Now I am worried - Gloria will be gone the same time I am. Tricia, Andria, Kat you had better keep this thread going until we return.
I will check in tomorrow. Glad you are back Tricia.
Don't worry, Lucky. You know me. I'll ramble on whether anybody is around to listen or not! LOL. Plus, there is always a lot of catch up work to be done after a vacation so I'll be here plenty to avoid digging into that. I know, I'm terrible, but I had to much fun to get right back into the swing of things.
My in-laws left this morning (the only reason I'm up at 5 am). I always hate it when they leave. I swear, I stress so much in the weeks before they come to the point that I almost dread them coming and then when it is time for them to pull out of the driveway I get all teary eyed. They really are good people and I am lucky to call them family. The stress of their visits is ALWAYS self-imposed. I don't know why I get so worked up.
So, this weight loss thing....
First of all, I'm getting back on the exercise bandwagon today. I missed working up a good sweat. I wasn't nearly as active as I had planned - laying by the pool with a good book and my MP3 player was too appealing. We took a couple of walks, and certainly shopping counted for something but other than that we were vegetables for a week.
As for food - this past week was very empowering. It gave me an opportunity to learn to trust myself around food. It was strange having to rely on whether or not I was hungry rather than how many calories I had left for the day. I still haven't gone back to fitday and I'm not sure I will. I figure that I'm close enough to my goal that it might be good to start weaning myself from it. So, rather than entering every bite I eat as I eat it I plan to just tally everything at the end of the day. If I find that I am getting off track then I'll go back to nitpicking every bite. For now though, I'm going to depend a little more on myself than fitday.
Okay, my ticker is a little decieving. My current weight is actually 159.8. That is what I have entered but the ticker program obviously doesn't round up or down. Nonetheless, what a thrill to be in the 50's. Honestly, I had no idea what a big deal it would be. But, let me tell you, it feels amazing. My in-laws brought down a lot of old home movies so that Greg could copy them. One was of our wedding. That was almost 10 years ago and I LOOKED a lot heavier than I FEEL now. I couldn't stop thinking about it because I didn't remember being that fat back then. Well, I couldn't stand it any longer. I got out of bed and pulled out my wedding dress (I didn't wear a big fluffly dress, just a suit type dress, so it wasn't any trouble). The thing swallowed me. On top of that, we watched the videos we'd taken this week while we transferred them to DVD and I actually stayed in the room while they played. Usually, I get so upset by how I look that I come up with some excuse to leave. Now, I'm not saying I looked skinny by any means. BUT, I didn't look atrociously fat either. I guess I looked "normal" - whatever that is. Anyway, it was helped me see the progress I've made AND helped me see the areas that need to be focused on from here on out.
I don't mean it to sound like I'm tooting my own horn, even though I am proud of myself. I think I'm just trying to talk myself through to the next stage. It seems the closer I get to my goal the more often my goal changes. On top of that it takes such a huge mental adjustment which I wasn't anticipating. There is this voice in my head that won't let me stop being fat, if that makes sense. It is hard to balance the need to mentally and emotionally accept my new and improved body while still judging it enough to lose these last 20-30 pounds. I'm making an effort not to over think it all but I do have keep a certain awareness or I'll be back where I started in no time.
See? Rambling - it is what I'm good at! Thanks to all of you for letting me come here to figure things out.
Gloria, have a safe trip. I can't wait to here all of your adventures.
Lucky, take a deep breath. You sure seem to have a lot on your plate these days.
Wow~Finally! I've been trying to get in here all week! Whenever I had a minute or two to spare, someone else would always be hogging the computer. Seeing as there's only three of us here at the moment...(once my daughter gets home from school, forget it!) it shouldn't be too hard to get some computer time, right? Wrong!
Anyway, he's sleeping, dh is at work, I have my coffee and I'm ready to catch up....
Dad is home, doing okay, all things considered. He's extremely weak, but feeling a wee bit stronger each day. Thanks to all for your prayers and concern, it means the world to me!
Diet is surprisingly going well. And by well I mean I'm not gaining! Actually lost a lb last week. Will be re-doubling efforts to get back on track...AGAIN!
To answer your question, Andria, I'm not on the 'beach' at this time, but I have been there, and Yes! I do believe you have more energy following that plan. I've actually made it through Phase 1 and somehow it all fell apart in Phase 2! Too much freedom? For me, anyway. I tend to always go back to Weight Watchers, it seems to work the best for me.
I haven't been to the gym all week. Been doing some yard work, so I do count that as exercise, but I need to get back into a regular gym routine if I want to step up this process!
We went to an awards dinner last night at my daughter's school. It was lovely, the food was quite elegant and I did NOT overeat! Not that you could, anyway, with the miniscule portions they served! She received the Association of Language Instructors of Staten Island Award. Her professors speak very highly of her, so please allow me my mother's right to brag for a moment! She's always been a great student, very motivated and eager to learn...has always loved to read. It just astonishes me that she can read just as voraciously in Spanish!
*Okay, I'm done bragging!*
Lucky...how is the new job? Is this with a new company altogether, or a new postion at where you've been? Did I read there's school involved, too? How the heck are you going to get your raking/painting/you name it, done? I think you need a vacation in New Jersey!
Andria...You said a few things that had me nodding my head vigorously at my computer screen:
Quote:
Getting all this under control does so much for keeping my head and heart clear.
Oh, how I relate to that! I've
s l o w l y been clearing stuff out of the house and it's amazing how clearing the clutter out of the house, clears the clutter out of the head!
Quote:
It feels so good to be able to get out of one of those beating myself up moods and move on without wasting an entire day in the pity pot.
Some more head nodding here! I've wasted entire WEEKS on the pity pot...It feels SO much better being productive, even if it's just keeping up with the laundry!
Gloria...I just LOVED your story about the hot carpenter! You described him so well! I could see myself riding my bike into a telephone pole as I gawked at his bod! I think it's cute that he caught you staring! I hope that Sky is doing much better.
Tricia! Woo, girl! A loose size 10? You go, girl! You are on FIRE! There's nothing like seeing yourself on video to get a new perspective...I love that you said you look 'normal.' That's what I want to look like...NORMAL!
Chelsea...I sure hope that you are feeling better by now! Could any of your symptoms be allery related? My dh has an awful time of it this time of year, what with the flowers blooming and pollen flying all over! Maybe a good antihistamine like Allegra or Claritin will help.
Skittles, are you still with us? Redballoon?BarbPA?BarbG? Hi to all, I hope this finds you doing well...it's never too late to pop back in and say "hi!" (look at me)
I hope that everyone has a great weekend...the weather is looking a bit iffy here, but I am determined to get my flower beds ready for planting today! And mow the back yard before I need a machete to get through the tall grass!
Thanks again for your love and prayers....You guys are the best! It's good to be back!
Last edited by katrinabgood; 04-30-2005 at 10:25 AM.
See? I post again and the thread sinks like a stone!
I'm sure everyone is off...busy busy busy on this last day of April. I can hardly believe it's MAY already...didn't we just have snow on the ground a few weeks ago? Sure seems like it.
Hey, I'm not complaining...everything is in bloom and the grass is so green. I did manage to cut my lawn today, sprinkles or no...it HAD to be done. My son and I made quite a bit of headway in the back yard. We had torn down the old swing set and finally got the wood all hauled out of the yard...it's starting to look good back there! There's a ton more to do, but I'm happy to use yard work as my exercise!
Lucky, one the very few things that I miss about working is the business trips. Thankfully, I did not have to travel a lot. But, once every couple of months I'd have a week long meeting to attend. I am here to tell you that those meetings saved my sanity more than once. A quiet hotel, drinks out with my counterparts from other states (who happened to also be good friends). It was more like being on vacation than it was being at work. More often than not we met in Atlanta because that is where our HQ were plus it was central for most of the SE states. So, we were never short on things to do or places to go. Sometimes we would rotate which market would host so I also had the pleasure of visiting various other states. Those were always great too because the person hosting always new the best restaruants, attractions, etc. - places that I'd probably never come across if I'd been another visiting tourist. Of course, sometimes I'd just head straight to the hotel and order room service, do my nails, and read a book. Truly rare pleasures with three children to tend to.
I hope your trip goes as well as mine always did, that you learn a lot, and make plenty of new friends.
I'm just stopping by to let you know I'm still around. I just don't feel lime posting very often. My life has been so stressful this year, that when I come home I just want to sit in my chair and do nothing that involves any kind of concentration. I usually just play games or look at graphic sites and ohhh and ahh over the creativity of some of the graphic groups.
Say a few extra prayers for us. We finally paid off the property tax that was casuing us such a problem, now maybe we can get back to the actual "business as usual" mode. We are still operating at half staff, so that means that I still am doing all sorts of things I'd rather not be doing, and the fact that I have this stupid AI disease just makes thing doubly hard.
Unfortunatly I'm not being good at all with the food choices. Thursday I got caught having to run between out two facilities and didn't have money for lunch, so I bought a pint of ice cream and ate the whole thing. And cookies are not safe in my site. But with the stress, I think I'm burning calories more, cause I am holding my own as far as the scales go. I am still going to the health club every morning, and that is keeping me sane too.
Hope everyone else has a great weekend, and a good week next week, I'll stop back in when I get a chance.
I usually don't weigh until Monday morning, "officially" anyway. But since my schedule is all off from vacation I decided to start weighing Sunday mornings instead. Imagine my disbelief when I stepped on the scale this morning and saw 157.6! That is 3.4 lbs this week. Now, I am assuming that some of this could be muscle loss from having not done weights this week. But, to be honest, I don't care. I didn't start this program to get muscular. And, I still have enough definition that I don't look flabby (well, under the fat that is left if that makes sense).
I have to say that seeing my ticker after having updated it was as surreal as it gets. 22 pounds to go? Just 22 pounds? I catch myself thinking that it is still a long way. It isn't. Sure, these last 22 may be harder to shed than the first 22 were but it isn't far to go. I just try to remember how I felt when one of my thinner friends would complain that she needed to lose 20 or so pounds. My exact thoughts, I believe, were "that's NOTHING". So, I am trying to stay focused so that I can ride out this last wave.
I fully expect to hit 135 and decide that 10 to 15 more pounds are in order. Fine. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. It is absolutely amazing how much less pressure I feel now. I guess because I WANT to keep losing and I know that I WILL. In the meantime, though, I am happy enough with where I am not in such a hurry. Don't get me wrong - I'd drop it all in a day if I could. I just mean that I don't look in the mirror in disgust now, I feel comfortable in my own skin and that is very empowering. Of course the trick is going to be keeping this attitude once the pool opens later this month. Right now, I don't have a lot of other people to compare myself to. But, come swimsuit time it will be easy to fall back into one of those nasty, self-depreciating mindsets. Admittedly, most of my motivation isn't that I think I look GOOD but that I look soooooo much BETTER.
I am telling you girls, the pain and suffering along the way is worth it. You all seem to be doing really well on your plans lately and I hope you will find the determination to keep it up. Seriously, if I feel this great 30-40 pounds away from my ultimate goal then I just can't even fathom the joy of acutally BEING at goal. It is certainly better than any pill I've ever taken. LOL!
Just wanted to share my good news and happy feelings. Y'all have a terrific day!
Aww, thanks Tricia. I do "sort of" like to stay in a hotel. This time is different in that I have to STUDY!!!!! I haven't studied in a l o n g time.
I am taking some books along too. Plus tonight I am having dinner with one of my closest friends so that will be fun.
BarbG: I was so happy to see your post. I am hoping you will help post this week here since Gloria and I will be gone. I am also glad that things are starting to look "up" for you. Just come here and talk - ya know we like to listen!
Well, this is it until Friday - I already miss all of you.
Keep sending me learning thoughts that my brain can absorb all I am suppose to learn.
I am telling you girls, the pain and suffering along the way is worth it. You all seem to be doing really well on your plans lately and I hope you will find the determination to keep it up. Seriously, if I feel this great 30-40 pounds away from my ultimate goal then I just can't even fathom the joy of acutally BEING at goal. It is certainly better than any pill I've ever taken. LOL!
Thank you, you always give me hope!!
P L E A S E don't ever quit posting!!!!!
I know it may not seem like it, but you are an inspiration to me.
I had the most fun last night! Since I had done a good bit of shopping while on vacation I decided it was time to clean out my closet. All of those yucky old fat clothes are gone for good. I have to say it was very empowering. Sort of like an awards ceremony to declare I will never be that fat again.
It also makes me that more determined to stay on track. If I out grow my pants it means buying new ones because I don't have the bigger sizes to fall back on. I even packed up those comfy old warm ups, etc. It was hard at first but pretty soon it just felt good - like walking out into the sunshine after being stuck inside with days and days of rain.
I think it is interesting that with past weight loss efforts I never even thought to get rid of too big clothes. It is almost as if I knew deep down that I wasn't going to keep the weight off. I don't know what has changed in me this time around but it is certainly a change for the better. As an added bonus, getting dressed is a breeze. I know that everything left fits well and looks nice. So, unless I get behind on laundry (that would NEVER happen ) I can just grab what ever catches my eye and be on my way.
On another note, entering my food into fitday at the end of the day rather than as I eat has been ideal. It does what I had hoped in that I am more in tune with whether or not I am actually hungry. [B]Gloria was right! It didn't do me any good to obsess over every single bite I ate.
We'll see which one wins out. 
I already miss all of you.
Sort of like an awards ceremony to declare I will never be that fat again. 
