(Yawn stretch) Mornin' Chicks
 

I didn't get to bed until close to 03:00 AM! But at seven the sun and Elvis, decided I needed to get up. I at least managed to lay in bed until 0800. It wasn't raining when my shift ended so I went to the outside track. The lightning was off in the distance and very high in the sky (almost like heat lightning). I tried jogging, but I mostly walked very brisk and swung my arms as much as I could.
I did FOUR MILES!
:cb: :dancer: :high: :encore: :cheer:

Okay, it wasn't that great of an accomplishment, but I love using smileys! :lol: I actually thought about trying for five (good tunes make me want to keep going) but the lightning was getting awfully close and lighting up the sky. The clouds were dark purple and blue, it looked bruised! Kind of scary. And when I got home at 01:30, it cut loose. Bad weather is the only time that I'm scared and don't like living alone. Elvis was really scared too. He didn't used to be, in fact, he'd console and comfort my dog, Penny, when she was afraid of storms. But now, he's afraid too. I had to shut down the computer and just sit in my living room, afraid like a nervous dog.:yikes:

I've started using my activity points (didn't use them before) and I'm very OP. Keep it up, Turtle :drill:

Lisa, I'm sure your broom was grounded from the east coast last night, due to bad weather, but I'm still waiting. BRING IT GIRL. :smug:

Hello to everyone. Good luck to everyone. Happy week end to everyone.

:o Lisa, feel free to fly over here and kick my butt for being an internet lazy! I weigh exactly the same as I did last time. It is okay though. I working hard at eating right and I exercise everyday, sometimes twice.

I am really, really sorry :( for not posting for a long time. I am okay.

My partner and I are in the process of going for custody of her nephew. He is 4 months old and the most neglected little thing I have ever seen. He is such a doll. He basically lives in his carseat and has plagiocephaly so bad I want to cry. Basically I know the parents will sign off, young druggies with no desire for any kids (their other daughter is going to her other sister for custody).

A LOT of paperwork, but we can give him so much love, a stable and consistent life, a room over his head, the nutrition he needs, and he will grow and flourish and learn there is life outside of a carseat on the floor. I am excited and nervous and I just want to go and get him and bring him home so bad. He lights up like a star in the sky when we go to see him, gosh, I wish I had pictures :cry:

We are on mandatory overtime here at work, so I have to get back to typing before 'big brother' crashes down on my behind.

Love & hugs to all of you, you all have been on my mind and in my heart.
Take care of yous and I will post sooner. TTYS.
Love, L2L :grouphug:

Looking2lose! Yay!
 

Girl, it's great to see you! I sure hope you get that little angel. Sounds like he needs some love and a wonderful home. I tried to look that word up, to see what it was (plagiocephaly) but I couldn't find it. What is it? It sounds awful.

And if you stay the same weight at TOPS, they call that a "Turtle." Well, you know I'm kind of partial to turtles ;) . So, you turtled! You'll do better. Best of luck to you kiddo.

Don't worry about Lisa, she is all bark.... I've challenged her to fly over here to West Virginia and kick my turtle butt, but so far (looking side to side nervously) she hasn't shown. :lol:

I'm so glad to hear from you. :wave: Take care of yourself and good luck on that precious little boy.

Turtle ~ Thank you for your support. Plagiocephaly is basically when babies lay on the same side of their head for long periods of time or favor one side of their head when they lay sleeping, but then one side of the head gets flat and the other side gets bigger. This baby's case, he lays in his carseat ALL the time so he tilts his head to the left and it fits into the crease in the side of the carseat. His left side is flat, and then it kind of peaks out where it fits in the corner of the carseat, and then bumps out on the right.

It basically is just pressure flatness of the head. He needs a special mat so he is forced to lay on his other side when he sleeps (then you have to keep rotating him like a rotisserie chicken to even him out). But he needs a lot of tummy time. He is able to lay on his tummy and play with easy-to-grasp toys, and can hold himself up and and his head up. He is crawling, but only backwards. hmm...

Bless you..A little bit of stress helps motivate the use of our fitness center though...so i am walking miles and using the elliptical and biking, and doing my Richard videos.

Speaking of turtles. I was wading in a pond, and I actually cut my food on the edge of a 'painted turtle' shell. I just bumped him and he was okay but I almost got stitches. Sharp little devils..but sweet as can be...TTYS

Wow you ladies have been busy again!!!! So good to see everyone posting more again. I was kind of worried we were petering out. Everything's good with me. I'm still in pain but taking 800mg motrin 3 times a day is helping.

Lookin - so glad to see you back :jig:. That is wonderful what you are doing for that little boy. You will make him so happy and he will make you so happy. You will have a happy, happy home :D. I had a friend whose baby had that because (she found out later) her daycare was leaving him in a high chair all day. He is fine now and cute as can be. Please get some pictures for us and be sure to give hime lots and lots of hugs and kisses from us. And what's his name?

Hotcup - You rock girlfriend!!!! :dance: 4 miles is amazing!!! Sorry about the storms. That is no fun at all.

Curly - It is always a big booster when others start noticing your weight loss.
Keep it up :encore:.

Lisa - Very cute Mallissa story. I love their innocence. You have to find that broom!!! :lol: Good luck on the weigh in today.

Jennie - Your first house. How exciting!! :hat: Your doing good picking up stuff here and there. It gets so expensive.

Petra - I was thinking about starting the curves low carb diet. I read the book awhile ago but I am going to re-read it and see what I think. I will let you know. Thanks for taking the time to discusss with me. ;)

TTYL

Hello Partners ~ I have been MIA for a few days... work has been busy busy and I didn't get a chance to jump on the computer at home.

But now that the weekend is here I have time to get caught up on everything.

Food has been a nightmare for me this week. I have been eating out for one reason or another just about every day this week. Hopefully I made some wise choices and the scale gods will be good to me on Monday.

Congrats to all of the losers and maintainers this week :bravo:

Hope you all have a great saturday and I will talk to you all soon !

Warning-this is going to be long and some may want to skip it.
 

Mom-

I don't know if you already go to Curves or not. I know most women who go there love it. When I was looking for a gym to join, their hours were just not long enough to accomodate my schedule. Anyway, I'm going to tell you what Jonny Bowden has to say about this program since unfortunately it isn't one of the better low carb dieting programs. He rates all the diets from 1-5 stars. This one gets a 2.5. This is from that book I was recommending to you.

"I approached this book wanting to like it. I'd heard great things about Curves, and liked the 'real women have curves' ethic of encouraging women to get fit, become happy with their bodies, and lose the apiration to look like rail-thin models. I also liked what I had heard about the thirty-minute intense circuit-training workouts. And at first glance, the choice between two programs--one a low-carb program and one a 'calorie-sensitive' program--sounded interesting.

So I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, it was hard to do. This is a textbook example of what happens when a businessperson writes a book on nutrition and fitness. It's so filled with god-awful voodoo nutrition and snake oil salesmanship that by page 23 I was downright angry. Want an example? The author talks about turning on 'starvation hormones.' I've been working with the top nutritionists and endocrinologists in the field for fifteen years and I've never heard the term 'starvation hormones.' Wanna know why? Cause they don't exist. The author claims that you can return to eating 'normally' once you achieve your weight goal, 'normally' being defined as 2500-3000 calories a day. Hello? This statement pretty much belongs in the same category of thinking as the 'flat earth' theory. It's utterly ridiculous and very disingenuous. Virtually every study (including the highly respected Nation Weight Control Registry) has shown that caloric levels for weight maintenance for women are around 1400-1800 calories. In my experience, most women--member's of the women's Olympic volleyball team and Laila Ali being possible exceptions--would get fat eating 3000 calories a day.

The author also makes a statement right in the beginning that called his 'expertise' into question. Here's what he says about other programs, from Atkins to Zone to Weight Watchers. Ready? 'These diets require you to make a lifelong commitment. I don't think this is realistic or fair--a diet should be temporary. It should not become a way of life.' Yet if there is a single thing that every diet author agrees on--from those advocating the lowest low-carb to those promoting the lowest low-fat plan--it's that to stay successful you have to make lifestyle changes, and that these lifestyle changes have to be forever. Of course eating differently has to become a way of life. That's what the maintenance phases of all the plans are about. And the irony is that a page or so later, the author says, 'The Curves program is designed with knowledge that you are going to cheat.' How can you cheat if there's no program to follow?

The book is not all bad, however. The exercise program is great and very doable. There's some decent info about protein and cutting junk carbs, though nothing original. I can't get past some of the scientifically silly ideas like eating all the calories you want or not 'counting' certain foods, or advice to go back to 'eating normally-2500-3000 calories a day.' But many women have been helped a lot by the Curves philosophy of balance and the way its centers welcome and embrace women of all sizes and get them started on a very decent fitness program. And the idea of metabolic healing--though much better articulated by Diana Schwarzbein, and with much greater scientific credibility--is a good one."

Ultimately, you need to choose a plan that you can live with but I would still encourage you to read this book. It isn't long or difficult, and choose a plan with a stronger scientific foundation. Just my humble opinion. I can at least give you the run down of those: Atkins, Fat-Flush, Protein Power, the GO-Diet (renamed The Four Corners Diet), South Beach, Schwarzbein Principle, and the Zone. Most of these are featured on the Diet page of 3FC if you want a really simple overview. Having read all of these books except Fat-Flush (which I purchased today), I can tell you that the easiest one to read and understand is Four Corners. It is a more conservative plan (50 net carbs per day and limited saturated fat) but it is hard to find an argument against this diet whether you have weight to lose or not. It's just plain good nutrition. It's not the most well-known and in my opinion, is WAY under rated. However, it may not be the fastest low-carb diet. Good luck.

Petra - Oh My!!! You rock girlie!! Thank you so much for taking all that time to respond to me. Yes I go to Curves 3X a week. I bought the book and to tell you the truth alot about it seemed odd. Like it says that if I stop losing I need to do the metabolic tune up (which could take 1-3 months). Okay so I should stop losing altogether for 1-3 months? That kind of defeats the whole losing weight does'nt it?

The thing I like most about the curves diet is being able to have alot of veggies and some fruits. I just can't get the taste of the Atkins diet out of my mouth. Know what I mean? So I guess my problem is I'm thinking all low carb diets are like atkins. Also I want to be able to have a piece of cake or an occasional cookie. Know what I mean? I feel like if I do low carb that is not possible because putting that sugar back into your systems really screws with that kind of diet.

Okay so knowing all that what do you think? Oh AND I need to lose as fast as I can.

Oh you need to get some work done today? Sorry your all mine. :lol:

P.S. what do you think of South Beach?

We have a South Beach follower on the board so maybe she can tell you better. It is a good program, you get to eat lots of veggies but no fruit for the first two weeks. You won't be able to have that cake or cookie for quite a long time on South Beach unless they are sugar free. It is also NOTHING like Atkins. You won't get anywhere near ketosis--so forget about that taste in your mouth.

I'm reading Fat Flush today because I suspected this was the fastest low carb diet and I wanted to give you an honest opinion about it. It does appear to be the fastest because it is both low carb AND low calorie, at least initially. What you would like about this plan is that you can eat unlimited amounts of most nonstarchy veggies in the beginning and 2 servings of fruit a day even on Phase 1. However, this is probably the most complicated regimen to follow. I would have to take 2 weeks off from work to do the Phase 1 of this diet because I don't have any flexibility in my workday. There are certain things you are suppose to eat or drink at certain times. If your life is more flexible you might be able to do it. Also there are some strange things on this diet like unsweetened cranberry juice mixed with water that is consumed several times a day, hot water with lemon juice. Also, the author of this book (Ann Louise Gittleman) is clearly Jewish and there are some prejudices in the book that clearly come from her Jewish heritage like not eating pork and not eating milk and meat together (sounds kosher to me). She tries to make some scientific explanation for this but I don't buy it. This plan actually has a lot in common with The Schwarzbein Principle except it is designed to be a weight loss plan. The Schwarzbein Principle is designed to be a wholistic approach to health that just happens to have weight loss as a byproduct.

Other interesting things that happened in my world today--I ate ground up flaxseeds for the first time. They weren't too bad. I used them in a recipe for pancakes. I took the boys out in the car and haven't put the dog barracade back in yet. So Kobe, who goes crazy in the car for some reason, managed to get half the back seat down and climb up to the front seat with me. I had to stop the car and get him all resituated. Of course, that got Buddy all stirred up too-if Kobe gets out of the car, he has to get out too. What a mess. Time to get that baracade back in the car. I also found out that I'm going to get a letter from a psychiatrist in private practice in the community inviting me to join his practice. Hmmmmmm....... I'll have to see what the letter says. This psychiatrist also runs an intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment program which is the kind of patients I like to treat. That's how he knows my work--I refer a lot of patients there. If he makes me an offer I can't refuse this could get very interesting. That has really rattled my cage today, although it is clearly very flattering.

Lookin: :)
I sure hope that u and your partner are able to adopt this lil one ..
i read what u wrote about him being left in the car seat and it just broke my heart..
and then i was angry that someone could be so thoughtless..& selfish to be given the
gift of this little boy and just leave him sitting in a car seat all day. :mad:


Lisa: I sure hope u swing by here with that broom .. my house looks like a tornado went thru

give that miss turtle a whack... she thinks 4 miles is no great accomplishment.. (sigh) what are we
gonna do with her???

little miss turtle: 4 miles is a lot!!!! thats 2 more than i wanna walk ..lmao


Sunshine: Dang u go girl!!


Angel Eyes: Chai is not agressive with me.. just strangers & only if they try to touch him :devil: he is half german spitz and half chow not a good combo to start with.. and i have only had labs in the past so i was really spoiled!
we usually walk a total of 4 miles a day so he is gettin his exercise he was a nervous shy puppy and has learned that when strangers
approach him the snarl and growl will make them go away! the dog whisperer is comming to maryland... but its the same day as my leukemia walk :(


jennie: fill ur tummy up with water before the picnic :dizzy:


Petra: thank u for all the great info... and crossing my fingers that u get the postion !


to all the pic's i hope u had a great saturday!!!!!!!!!!

Curly-can you comment on the pros and cons of South Beach for MomX3? As you have actually been doing this for a while you can probably give the best opinion.

Mom-I have been giving your question about the refined sugar some thought and basically if you are planning to eat cookies and cake with any frequency you probably won't do well on any low carb diet. They all know that you are occassionally going to have a treat. In Protein Power they call it "visiting the honey tree" but it is meant to be a rare event-maybe 3 or 4 times per year (birthdays, holidays, graduations, etc.) Then they provide a way to get back on track. However, there are lots of good low carb items on the market now and you may find something else that can take that place. I have found some low carb ice cream bars that I really like and have one 2 or 3 times per week which seems to fill that sweet tooth for me. There are also some alternative items you can make that are pretty good tasting--one that is recommended in South Beach is ricotta sweetened with sugar substitute and some sort of extract. It is actually very good. I also have this nut mixture I make with splenda and cinnamon that I just love. Another thing to consider is that you can start on one low carb plan (like Fat Flush to lose some weight fast) and then move to a less restrictive one later-like South Beach, Schwarzbein, or Four Corners.

L2L- hope things go smoothly with the nephew. Every child deserves a loving, safe environment to grow up in. Having been removed from my mother's custody and placed in foster care, I have very strong feelings about this.

Turtle-keep up the good work and stop being so hard on yourself. What is up with that? Do I need to find you a shrink in WVA?

TLB-we miss hearing from you as regularly as we did before. Hope things are going well. Eating out is always so challenging which is why I avoid it most of the time.

Lisa-we didn't hear about your WI. I guess you were too busy with grandkids or broom flying.

Well I better get ready for church. I'm reading the prayers this morning. TTYL

im not actaully doing south beach... I have just been reading and taking bits and pieces from what i read from various plans..

but i am just cutting out white flours, white potatoes, white rice, and trying to follow a low gylcemic diet .. cutting back on sugars and natural sugar basically a diabetic diet...


The following foods rank highest on the glycemic index. These foods should be avoided or kept to a minimum by those wishing to consume a low-glycemic-index diet

Bread, cereal,and rice to avoid:

* Rice
* Rice cakes
* Most breads, breakfast cereals, snacks, and desserts made with refined flour products

Other starchy foods to avoid:

* Potatoes (except new potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams)

Fats, oils, and sweets to avoid:

* Soft drinks, including sweetened fruit drinks and most sports drinks
* Most cakes and pies
* Candy and candy bars
* Granola bars and most sports bars

Vegetables and fruits to avoid:

* Raisins
* Overripe bananas

Best bets

Bread, cereal, rice, and pasta:

* Whole wheat and whole grain breads
* Breads containing whole, intact grains and seeds (millet, flaxseed, etc)
* Brown rice, basmati rice
* Barley, buckwheat
* Whole grain cereals, muesli
* Whole wheat pita, chapatis
* Oatmeal

Other starchy foods:

* Legumes and legume products (hummus, baked beans, lentil soup, etc.)
* Bakery products made with whole grains, bran, whole fruit pieces, and/or nuts

Dairy products and dairy substitutes:

* Unsweetened milk and milk products
* Unsweetened yogurt
* Soy beverages

Vegetables and fruits:

* Most vegetables and vegetable juices





http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/hea...emic_Index.htm

http://www.healthyweightforum.org/en...lycemic-index/

http://www.shakeoffthesugar.net/


http://www.diet-i.com/low-glycemic-d...eight-loss.htm

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Can you say WORN OUT! The girls were here when I came home from WW yesterday. I was on the go until 8pm last night! The baby was great. Dave took mostly care of her while I entertained the 2 year old. I took her and M to the park for 2 hours in the morning. We mostly walked around through the Botanic Gardens and even were part of a wedding. LOL They played at the playground for a few but it was too hot and the equipment was on fire. SO we walked around the lake instead. M had her doll stroller and Sweetie with her and I had S in the stroller. Great time. Then after lunch I took them swimming. S never had been in a pool and she did ok. She wouldn't let go of my hands at all. LOL The showers weren't working at the pool so we had to wait until we got home to shower. It was great and a lot of fun. We went to bed at 9pm last night..we all were exhausted.

Almost forgot about my WI. I had a loss but it was small. LOL .8lbs... I am ok with it. I really do think the Chinese food skews the scale so close to weigh in. This week, I am going to my meeting on Thursday so we will see if I am correct. DH says you can really start to tell I am losing and keeps telling me how great I am doing although he laughs at me when I am doing Richard. Friday night he said, he needed to get the video camera and sent it in to AFV.

L2L: WE didn't go through the state to adopt M but she was formerly Dave's granddaughter. A friend of mine I met online and in person have a website for kinship care www.kinsupport.org and another great resource is www.grandsplace.com Both sites have a message board, chat room and email lists. Check it out. The ladies there have great advice about the process and you will not feel alone! The process is long and difficult and if the state is involved...you will feel like screaming and venting at times!!

Petra: Thanks for all your research. I love the one about not being a lifestyle change and a diet is only temporary but if it is..wouldn't you gain it back when you leave the program? That has always been my research! No offense but I don't need a doctor to tell me that...because I lived through that one several times. LOL Good luck with the private practice thing. When we had problems with our guardianship and trying to introduce M into her bio parents life we found a wonderful play therapist for M... we still are friends with her today. She is actually a regular guest on Dave's talk show. She just branched out on her own so I know how stressful that could be.


Curly: What L2L is going through is all too much common! Some of the stories I have heard on my grannie groups would make your head spin. There are also a lot of aunts on these groups too. Although many say our story was easy compared to most, they didn't have to live through some of the things we did. Now everything is calm and M's bio dad(my stepson) is back in her lives but we know in the future we will have to answer some of the hard questions like why did he keep Carrie and not me. With her mom it will be somewhat easier, she is a meth addict and had at least one other child she didn't keep either and I think she is due to have another one, who she won't keep either. She learned after M, children=$$$$$. Sad but true. I must of came by my house too. LOL I can't find the livingroom floor. LOL or the kitchen floor, or the bathroom floor......... Curly...take all the complements you can get. LOL

Momx3: Have you tried WW? When you describe what you want out of your "lifestyle" change it equals WW. The veggies, the fruit, and being able to have your cake and eat it too. I need the accountability of weighing in with someone else every week. That is what keeps me motivated. Some think it is expensive but I think of it this way. If I wasn't doing WW, I would go to McD's or somewhere else two or three times a week and since I am not going and taking my lunch for work... it pays for itself. There is no magic answer to losing weight... if there was..we all would be doing it. LOL

Turtle: 4 miles.. WOW girly!! Ummm..even with all the exercise I do..other than biking..I don't do 4 miles of nothing. LOL Keep up the great work..the scale will start to show it. I think we all get to where we think we should have bigger losses each week but the reality of it..it is a crap shoot. LOL

TEB: My work life has been crazy this week too. Doing 5 days of work in a 4 day workweek....is hard. I also have to do it next week too. I am taking off Friday and we are heading to South Dakota for a few days. No TV, no internet nothing but us and the black hills. I am looking so forward to it. We are going horseback riding, playing in the hot springs and watching them wash the faces of the presidents. LOL

Jennie: Subscribe to freecycle. You probably could pick up a few things that you will need here and there. LOL Not new but the price is right. It is exciting to get your own place.

Sunshine & Angel, glad to see you post.. My broom was grounded last night because of the storms..but I will get it into shape in no time.

Everyone have a great and quiet Sunday. My plans are to go to Walmart (if they have anything..they are getting ready to open a super center in 2 weeks) and get cat food.. we ran out last night and my kitties are not happy!! Mr C woke us up at 3am..telling us it was time for breakfast and he wanted in..I just rolled over. LOL and a few things we need for our vacation.

Counting down the days...

Lisa
Wyoming

Morning Chicklets
 

Ahhhh gorgeous Sunday morning. A week end to myself. I can do ANYTHING I want and may even slip the bathing suit on and bask a bit. We shall see. I only did two miles on the track last night and that is a very long story (as to why) that I put in my journal. But I was suspicious of a kid that was on the track too. So I quit early and did only two miles... but HEY, it was my Friday. I'm surprised I went at all.

No Petra! I want YOU to be my shrink. There's a whole weird, warped and twisted world inside my head :devil: . Step into my nightmare! :lol: You may rethink your career path, once you get in there. ;)

You all sound like you're doing really well. I'm thankful everyday that I found this thread! :grouphug: Cheers and hip hip to all my PIC buddies. I'm off to do turtle things on a turtle week end. No Pooh Bear (sinus infection :( ). Ooooh the possibilities. Hey Lisa! Bring that broom, come help me clean house :lol:

Good Morning Lovely Partners !!

Another dullish day here (don't think that's a word but it works), some patches of blue sky out there but nothing spectacular. Not sure if summer will ever arrive. I have in-laws coming in a couple of weeks from New Zealand, I hope the weather gets better for them.

Had a great day yesterday with my paint brushes (i do tole painting, acrylic paints on wood). I haven't painted in months.. probably close to a year.. because of being so busy with work and school. But yesterday I spent the better part of the day working on a few projects. I think I will probably do the same today :D

PETRA ~ thanks for all the great information on low carbing. Carbs are definately my :devil: and I have a real hard time staying away from them, although I know if I did I would probably be a lot more succesful on this journey.

MOM ~ good luck in finding something that works for you. Keep us posted on your findings.. I know how much you want that surgery !!!

CURLY ~ I have read the book "GI Diet" I believe it is by Rick Gallop. Pretty much the same as the list that you provided. I tried it for a few weeks and actually really liked it, also it prevents those sugar high and lows that one can get throughout the day.

LISA ~ congrats on your loss ! I am hoping for similar results on my WI monday. Sounds like you will be having a nice relaxing time next weekend. I love getting away like that were all you can do is relax.

HOTCUP ~ well done.. another 2 miles !! Do you use the journal function on 3FC ?? What is it like ?? Is it a good place to just write down your thoughts or can everyone read it ?

To all the other partners ~ hope you are having a great weekend and look foward to hearing from you soon.

TLB