Hi, all ... I have had a rough last few days as far as eating is concerned, well I guess I have only done half bad ... I seem to stay OP through breakfast and lunch and then have something fatty for dinner like chinese or pizza ...
anyhow trying to not sabotage myself at dinner tonight ...

Amanda - I am with you, lets make September a really good one ... Sept is an odd month for me anyhow, my birthday is this month and I will be turning 32!!! ughhh !! So lets do this!!!

Hope you all are doing well, and I will talk to you all later ...

Good morning guys - what a busy week as we get ready to open our schools. Mentally, I fell drained and exhausted by the hard work, but also so depressed by what is happening in our country. It is just so hard to see and really believe that it is happening here! I have some relatives in Alabama and Mississippi. We know they are ok, but suffering from the shortages, no power, etc. Praying that things will look better by next week.
My eating has not been great, but I am determined to get back on track here. Have a great weekend, all.
Marsha

Hi all,

I got 4 points on Weds and 2 points yesterday - I came over really sick on my way to the gym and could only do half an hour before I decided to come home. In the end it turned out to be the mother of all migraines brewing, which funnily enough I was glad about as at least it wasn't some bug that would knock me out for a week! I'm already feeling better today and had a great cycle class.

After I finished one of the trainers who used to teach a class I did called me over and said to me 'wow Amanda, you are the incredible shrinking woman, every time I see you you are getting smaller!'. We had a good chat about how well I am doing and she said that I need to buy a new gym kit to show off my new figure as my one is really baggy on me now. It felt really good to hear such positive comments (heaven knows I didn't get any from my family when I visited) and it's really boosted my confidence and self esteem. When I walked away to get some water, I could hear her telling this woman she was training what an amazing diffrence she could see in me and how fantastic I am doing! Well that just made my day!

Needless to say I've already started looking for a new gym kit - I've known for a while that the trousers are really baggy and saggy, but if other people are starting to notice then it's time to get a well fitting new one!

OH YES - I lost 6lb in August - which I am happy with as my eating was terrible! I was hoping to get under 16 stone (223lb), but that darn needle will not budge from 224!

Come on everyone, lets have a great September!

Love Amanda x

woohoo, hello sweeties! no, i am not home yet, i will be back in here on sunday, but thought you might like to look at all the stuff from the trip. this is the link:

(e-mail or pm me if you want this link)

i was sick on and off most of the time with some kind of freaky bug, but we still had a great time.

back in here in a couple days. hope everyone is well. we supposedly got some damage from katrina in memphis, but our condo is well protected so i am sure everything is fine there. missed you all bunched!

faye

Hi all,

I got 4 points yesterday - yay me! I really feel like I am getting back on track now.

Great to hear from you Faye - loved your pics. That yellow t-shirt really suits you! Settle an argument for me about that picture of fluffy white birds in a nest- are they A) Real birds B) People in bird costumes or C) Robotic/Anamatronic ???
Nigel thinks it's A, where I think it's C - but they look really real , I'm so confused! Sorry to hear that you've had a bug - it's always the way when you go away isn't it - hope you still had a great time. I really hope your home isn't damaged by the hurricane - I did wonder about you as I know you live in the South, but that is where my knowledge of US geography ends!

Have a good weekend

Love Amanda x

Morning girls. Home all safe and sound. My cat is driving me nuts though! lol Fortune is still at the kennel and will be until after the holiday so b is lonely and wants all our attention of course. My dd and dgs came over and spent like 2 hours here while we were gone and he ignored them completely and wouldn't let my dgs pet him or anything so guess he was upset we left him! We left here with gas at $2.57, we filled up in Vegas 3 days ago and it was $2.76 then yesterday it was $2.86 and we came home last night and the cheapo Walmart was a whopping $3.03! In the middle of this horrible thing, the gas producers are gouging people. How sick is that!!!!

If you had trouble at the webpage you will be able to see everything now. I increased the bandwidth by purchasing the site for one month so everyone could see. We did have a wonderful time, but I had intestinal problems the WHOLE time. I was either constipated, in pain or had runny stools. It was miserable, but I had periods where I felt ok and that is when we tried to do things. We kind of had a routine, we would get up at 6 am go down and have the $2.95 breakfast, come back up and go back to bed until 9:30 then shower and out to site see until around 1, come back, go to the pool for an hour then took a nap then went out for the evening if I was feeling ok. We did a lot of things we didn't the first time, like went to a club, the two shows etc. It was a totally awesome vacation but we are glad we are home, though I have a mountain of laundry I can't see around ! I am going to the commissary this morning as we have no food in the house and had to have McD's last night (UGH!) We are tired of restaurant food and anyone says buffet, might get a punch in the nose!

I had a bit of trouble with my knee in Vegas as a lot of stuff is ramps and that causes a lot of stress on my knee. I was amazed though that my feet didn't swell with the heat one bit and one day is was 110! We also flew first class so my big behind fit into the seat and didn't pinch so my leg didn't swell like it usually does on longer flights. Boy, I am going to fly first class as much as we can with Airtran. They were terrific and the service is top notch. We were scared being a cut rate airline we might end up with no luggage, late flights etc, but all flights were on time and no luggage problems at all except slow to get to the carousels in both Vegas and back here in Memphis. Took half an hour to get our luggage last ngiht.

Well, this is not getting anything done and I need to unload the dishwasher as I washed all the extra food and water stuff I left for b. I put everything away last night (dh knows better than to ??? me about not doing it so he just goes along. I did say something about starting a load of laundry and he said it was 8:30 PM and did I want to start it that late so I didn't UNTIL HE WENT TO MCDONALD'S FOR DINNER!!!!! )

Talk to you again soon and hope if you missed anything on the site you will try again.

AMANDA: You win the Vegas prize. Those were animatronic birds and were really cool.

Faye

MONDAY: Today is Mission Monday and our mission this week is work on our fall goals. Let's get up and running now that all the summer and holiday is over and work towards that goal at Christmas!

Hope everyone is doing well today and enjoying the last day of holiday. My dryer has been acting screwy ever since I had those incidents where my bathroom was getting flooded by the idiots next door and I was using so many towels and having to do so many loads of towels in it. I have all this laundry from vacation to try and get done and it takes hours to dry one load and last night I smelled something burning!!! I had taken a swiffer duster to inside of the dryer vent and cleaned all the lint out, which was wet, but I stopped it and the inside smelled like burning paper. Poor Jack had to come in while he was watching the Nascar race and he took off the vent hose and cleaned it out and said there was water on the floor. He also took off the other vent and stuck a flash light up into the dryer and pulled gobs of lint out, some of it BURNED! Thank goodness I smelled it or we could have set the house on fire. Anyway, he cleaned it all out for me, missing about half hour of the race and I am hoping it will go back to working correctly.

As to damage from the storm here, my deck is a mess with twigs, leaves and junk from the storm, but other than that, my condo went unscathed. We were lucky, there are parts of the city who had some damage I guess. I will tell you one thing, our area is really really banding together to help out the evacuees. We have all kinds of professional shelters, church shelters, and made up ones along with private homes taking people in. The temp services are providing jobs, there are hundreds of places your can drop off canned food, diapers, water etc. It is better organized here than it is at the hurricane zone.

I think I am going to crash on the couch for awhile as the cat started driving us nuts this morning (the dog won't be home until later this week) and I got up so Jack could sleep in without him head butting him etc and I am still a little sleepy.

Everyone have a good day! I missed you all and need to catch up!

Faye

TUESDAY: Today is target Tuesday and our target this week is problem areas. Let's concentrate on the area we have the most problem with this week, be it exercise, staying OP or drinking our water.

I am going to Wed woe on Tues. Brother! Our garbage disposal quit on us and we can't figure out why as it is only about 3 years old, but the really bad part is the AC/Furnace quit working completely and Jack cannot figure out why so it is hot as hades in the house. We have fans, but it is so humid here it doesn't help much and a lot of our windows are permanent and don't open. Besides, you spend all your time opening at night and closing during the heat of the day. He put in a new thermostat yesterday, but that did nothing so he is going to talk to a couple guys at work about something else he can try. It was weird, actually. The house was cool yesterday morning so I turned the thermostat up a bit, the AC shut off, now it won't start again. We have two breakers, neither of which seems to be the problem, we replaced the thermostat like I said but the thing won't turn on. Ahhh, well, we shall see.

Anyway, hope everyone has a good work week.

Faye

Hello folks,


It's great to have you back - sorry about all your household problems on your return. Your trip sounded great - apart from the tummy problems! Hope you are better now. I remember when we got Marley, our puss, back from the cattery - he was really snooty with us for a while, but was back to his normal self after a day! It broke my heart to leave him in a cattery - I just couldn't even think about it or it would have ruined my holiday!

I got 1 point yesterday - took a well earned rest day from the gym, after doing 7 days in a row! I also went out window shopping with my friend which meant a higher calorie lunch than usual, which pushed my calories over the limit.

My Autumn goal is to really get back OP with my eating - I'd like to lose at least 7lb a month for the next few months, which is achieveable if I don't let myself down with my eating. I've got an appointment at the gym today to set a new programme - so shaking that up a bit may help shift some pounds!

Have a good day

Love Amanda x

Hi Everyone,
I'm still here...just been wicked busy on a deadline. It seems to be easing a bit now, though. That's how it is with writing, either you're rushing around or sitting around with nothing to do.

I've been eating like crap the past few weeks, wayyyyy too much sugar. Going to get back to basics today and just fix a nice bean soup for dinner. It was in the 40's here last night, so it feels like Fall...but by this afternoon it will be warm again.

Welcome back Faye! I'm glad you had a great vacation in spite of the sickness. I just had to edit an article about Vegas, so I was thinking of you.

Well, I just wanted to check in with everyone. I'm going to go take a walk now.
The kids are all in school all day! So I can do (mostly) what I want during the day....except drive! Gas here is $3.60 a gallon

Hope everyone is doing well...I'll be back tomorrow.
Julie

Afternoon All ... things are going so fast today, I am having one hellish day at work... so busy and do not know where to go next...hate those kind of days...well as far as the dieting is going, it isn't... ha ha
Yeah I kind of gave myself a free three day weekend since it was a holiday, but back on today to give September my all...

Faye - So glad you had a good time in Vegas, those pictures were great, me and dh would love to go next year.

Julie - Girl, you are so lucky to have your day to yourself to do what you want, I so envy that.

Amanda - Great to hear that you got some compliments about how you are doing, you are doing so well, I know hearing those kind of things only makes you more determined, keep up the great work !!! You will be under 200 before you know it.

Hope you all are doing well !!!

Hello to all. Welcome back, Faye. Glad to hear the trip was a success for the most part. I have been swamped trying to get ready for school. A 12 hour day today with conferences. Tomorrow is actual first day, so maybe things will settle down. Good to be back in here - I , too, have been eating like crap this week. I keep saying, tomorrow - tomorrow. No more!!!
Marsha

WEDNESDAY: Today is Wednesday's Woes so gripe to your heart's content, girls!

be back in a little later

Faye

hello,

I got 4 points yesterday! No Weds woe for me - I am in such a good mood today! I had my new programme set at the gym and it's totally different, so it is all new and exciting and will tone me up even more. I bought some new gym pants today - I saw some I liked in a normal shop i.e, not a specialist 'plus size' shop. I knew this shop went up to size 22 (US 18), but didn't know how generous they cut their clothes. Anyway, they only had a size 20 (US 16), but I thought I'd try them on anyway as they are loose jersey with an elasticated waist. Well, I am happy to report that they fit perfectly! These are my first size 20 pants in years! I also bought new underwear in size 18 (US 14) - so I am VERY happy! The new trousers I bought a month ago are now getting a bit big aswell! I am going to wear them for as long as possible as I can't really spend anymore on clothes right now.

Oh yes, I've dropped another 2lb, so I am finally under 16 stone as we Brits say. It feels good to weigh 15 stone something, rather than 19 stone something which is where I began.

JULIE - Good for you for planning a healthy supper and a good walk - one step at a time and you'll get there.

CARRI - Sorry work is manic, hope it eases off soon. I know you are going to have a great September!

MARSHA - Sorry work is busy for you too - but hey at least those long summer holidays were great while they lasted !

Love Amanda x

Sorry I am not very focused today. When it rains it pours I guess. Now I am having trouble getting those morons to start my mail back up or at least deliver my 12 days worth!!!!!

POINTS:

Amanda

Amanda: Congrate on new sizes and new weight! It is great to go to the next plateau and you deserve all the accolades we can give you!

Carri: Hope today has settled down some at work. I always hated being overloaded. I never handled it well I guess.

Marsha: You too! I hope you are getting things grounded for the school year!

SusanVA: Hope you and hubby are doing well!

Julie: Don't type too much on all those jobs or you won't have any fingers to give us.....

Nikki and Susan: Hope you are both doing ok at school again this year.

Please please forgive anyone I missed. I am so wound up about the condo problems (they can't get here anytime soon for the AC as he is all alone since firing his worker) and need to get a disposal now too and kick butt with the USPS. Thank God dh and I can laugh about it and truly that is all you can do. We at least have a home that is dry, food to eat and no raw sewage in the yard even if Jack comes home smelling like it!

I am just hanging on as much as I can until I can focus on weight loss. I know that I am in no frame of mind to try and handle this and the house problems so I am trying my best. I have to figure out how to get to walking as it is way too hot to use the treadmill and so I may have to start going outside early but with fall coming it doesn't get light until later and by then it is already in the 80's! Ahh well, I will figure it all out!

Have a great day ladies and work hard towards your fall goals!!!!!

Faye