I will go thrift store shopping if my ex ever decides to pay his support and try it. Doc told me the stronger my upper body is the better and I have been trying to think of things that are not too taxing so I don't kill myself off and then not move unless I have to for a couple of days.

This morning almost went off without a hitch. They got a new principle and she forgot to give my son's name when she was requesting an aide for the bus so his bus came but she told me she couldn't take him to school. I was so happy to see it was Martha going to drive him again this year. She is sooooo nice and really likes Josh. So my mother came over and sat with the girls while I ran him to school for his first day. He was so excited to go! It has been so very quiet here today lol. I am wondering how he did with the change in his lunch schedule-he is so anal about what time you eat, bathe, sleep-well he is anal about everything. Must be going ok because I haven't heard anything out of the school.

Well it is nap time for my darlings and I am going to get some housework done since I spent most of the morning at the grocery store and cleaning stuff up out of the yard.
Melissa

Melissa-7 lbs is so wonderful. I hope Joshua had a good school day and it carries over into the rest of the day.
It seems like we go to fast food and drive thrus when the munchies call. Maybe our October challenge should include no fast food and no drive thrus. It's so easy to get the junk and it's really bad even when they say it's good, it's full of chemicals and preservatives and flavor things so it always tastes the same from coast to coast.
I just took my almost never used bike out and road 1 mile on grass and thru the woods on a trail. It was hard and I feel good. I must do it everyday now.
Laura

I think that is an awesome challenge for October! I know it is one of the things I think of first when I want that quick fix. I keep watching freecycle for a womens bike. I know Josh would love for me to ride with him and I can get one of those trailers to put the girls in-boy would that be a workout lol. I am still a bit heavy to feel ok being on a bike. One of my great fears is falling-things get hurt too much if I fall. I haven't been on a bike in probably at least 10 yrs or so-at least one that wasn't stationary.
Melissa

hi y'all. i am glad to see everyone is progressing well on the september challenge. i think avoiding junk food in octiber will be a good one too. i am so happy. i only have one more pound to lose so i can meet the september goal. woohoo! i am finally at the weight that as i recall was my lowest from my previous diet. but i am pretty sure that i am thinner this time at the same weight, so that is even better. yay me it's so weird, sometimes a week or more will go by without a change, and like zap! i lose like four pounds almost all at once. i think my body is crazy or something. well i am hoping to be in the 140s by christmastime, so when i go to visit my mom, she won't recognize me
welcome to the group michelle. i've been falling behind on reading the posts. hope i haven't missed any other newbies
sandi, i will praying for the new storm to miss you and everyone else. havn't fl, al, ms, and la been through enough this year?

Melra, I am doing some weights with Kathy Smith's Lift Weight to Lose Weight dvds and we have one of those big weight machine thingys out in the garage...once I have this yard sale this weekend I might be able to find it to use it again I also have a huge set of index cards, and I went to a website for one of those health mags (forget which one, Self?) and they list TONS of strength exercises. So, I wrote directions on one side of an idex card, printed out pictures of the exercise from the website and pasted them onto the other side of the card. I now have a big set of "strength cards" and I do them while watching TV, or while cooking supper, whenever I have a few minutes or even just a second.

My back is still hurting but I am going to do the gazelle at 10 then hit the sack. I want to watch LOST, so I will do at least 1 mile, hopefully 4 if it doesn't hurt too bad. I took two Bayers so it is feeling a bit better now.

I am getting ready to have a HUGE yard sale this weekend to bring in some extra $$ and get rid of a ton of stuff my children have outgrown. MIL gave me some really expensive things and said if I can sell them I can have the money, so fingers crossed I will be richer this weekend. I have never had a yard sale before....any tips??? I am jsut making sure everything is cleaned up and shiny as possible, only putting out things I myself might want to buy and rest has gone to the dump. I'm going to feel like such a dork sitting out there with all my stuff on the lawn

Theresa

Welcome to the newcomers! I'm so glad this group and this board are staying so busy.

Melissa congrats on the big loss! Wow! That is amazing!

Melra, great job on getting all the exercise! A good workout just makes a person feel so good.

Cadwell congrats on your loss and your milestone of lowest weight from a previous diet!

Sandi hope that storm fizzles out soon. Take care and stay safe.

Suzy great job jumping up and getting right back at it after a bad day. Hope your son had a good birthday though I'm sure he'd have rather been home for it.

Theresa hope your back problem is just from sleeping wrong. Back pain is no fun. Be sure and get it checked out if it doesn't go away on it's own pretty quickly, though. I ruptured a disk in July, 04, and didn't go to the doctor soon enough and ended up having terrible pain and a limp for months (I was too stubborn to have the surgery to fix it).

Jeanne, so glad you found your way back! If you weren't committed to getting healthier you wouldn't be back. Good for you.

I missed so much that I just skimmed through and I know I missed people and for that I apologize. Hope you all are having a great and healthy evening and I didn't skip you on purpose, I just don't have the time to keep up with the reading lately!!

I am happy to move my ticker down 2 for the week. I also feel like I'm thinner this time than when I was at this weight before. In fact, I know I am because I still kept all the clothes I wore then and they are way too big on me now. I really had thought that my goal weight would have me comfortably in my old size 8's and that was the size I was aiming for. Instead, some of my 6's are baggy on me and I still have 12 pounds to go. I am starting to wonder if maybe I shouldn't be aiming more for the 155 range instead of 150 but I haven't decided yet. I have been as low as 122 but at that weight strangers thought I was ill and told me so and my family was extremely worried about me. I'm 5'8" so I'm not extremely tall or anything and it seems like 150 should be a good healthy weight for me. I definitely don't want to be bony this time around, I just want to look lean and healthy with a few curves in the right places. How do you know what the perfect weight to stop at is? It's hard to know because one day I feel thin and think it doesn't matter if I don't lose any more, then the next day all I can see is the flabby spots and then I think maybe I need to set my goal weight even lower than what it is now.

I am only 5ft 1in and my goal weight is 122. If I look and feel great at 130, I will stay there but if I think I need to lose a bit more, will go a pound at a time until it is right. I think you need to go by what makes you feel comfortable. "flabby" could just need some toning is all with some weights or other excersize. Also asking someone whose opinion you trust too to give you an honest answer. Congrats on the pounds lost too!
Melissa

Just checking in.

Glad the first day of school seems to be going so well for everyone!

This is the first year I have no children at home during school hours! EGAD! Feels kinda empty in my heart but the kids are LOVING it and I get to see my husband a lot.

I am also switching shifts at work. Right now I work 1500-2300 then 1100-1900 then 0700-1500 then 1130-1930 and 1130-1930. It is utter freaking havoc on me,my body and my family ugg. but as of Monday I will be 1500-2300 only for 5 days a week!!!! Actual routine here we come! I can't wait!

I have been a terrible dieter. no exercise, crappy food. tomorrow I am starting again. no excuses. look out for a big change people!

---carrie

It makes it really hard when there is no rhyme or reason to your day and it changes daily-I am not sure how well I would cope myself. I guess one thing would be major planning ahead-figure out what you are having the next day ahead of time to help. At least it is only a few more days and then you will be on a regular schedule and get yourself into a routine. I will be watching Carrie and good that you are jumping back on-that is what is going to be the success-none of us are giving up on ourselves or each other.
Melissa

Today was pretty awful . In the morning I tried on my jeans that I couldn't close at all 2 months ago and they fit fine, didn't hurt, zipped easy. I was happy so off I went, eating all day and night. It wasn't as if I thought somehow I was thin. It was more like you did good so now let's ruin it. I hope tomorrow will be better.
Laura

Hey everyone- well Ophelia is not fizzling out she is sitting 70 miles off the coast of where I am (volusia County) and the wind and rain bands are reaching 80 miles from her so we are 10 miles into the storm. She is just playing with us they don't expect her to cause too much trouble except rain, flooding and wind damage maybe more power outages but still it's a storm with 50 MPH winds- BUT they are worried she's gonna do a 180 and come back and hit us like Hurricane Jeanne did last year .Sigh I guess that the not knowing is making me nuts. they are pretty good at predicting where the storms are going but with this one who knows??? and that's what I am concerned about. Schools are closed and shelters are opening. Stores are low on food and the lines at gas stations are unreal (I filled up yesterday WHEW!) But we have everything ready and a safe place to run to if we need to..
I am not being perfect on the watching what I eat - and exercise ? hahahahahahha
(sorry was having a moment) Well I lugged around trash cans, secured all of the outside stuff and we put up storm shutters so can I count that?? LOL??
Well I need to get some work done today so have a great day all and I'll be back to re-read posts and YAY! everyone on-
Sandi

wow! lots of activity on here!

theresa~i'm sorry, I didn't realize you were doing the gazelle plus all the rest-that's amazing! You sound so organized with the exercise and everything too! Maybe you should be a personal trainer! I bet you'll see a sudden rapid drop in both weight and inches b/c there is no way with diet and exercise you can NOT lose.

cadwell~you sound so happy! congrats on your loss! I'm trying to get to the 140's by Christmas too, so I'll race ya!

laurab~way to go with the bike! don't beat yourself up about your momentary lapse of reason on the eating...I was always in the habit of rewarding myself with food for any accomplishment. Hang in there and get back on track.

kayelle~i just love your posts-they're so full of warmth! Congrats on the loss and the unexpected wardrobe difficulties!

fancyfrog~keep us updated on the soda challenge! If you were really drinking a lot I bet you'll see a big difference at the end of 21 days.

I think the idea to ban all fast food is an excellent idea for October! (and hard too... ) As long as we don't ban wine!

I've been thinking more about my goal weight too--I mean, that will be the absolute lowest I've been in my adult life and I have no idea how I will look at that weight. I have identified with curves and rolls for so long...! I'm hoping that at some point along the way my body will kind of just let me know where it wants to be. The only thing that worries me is that rather than pushing onward to my goal weight I will become complacent and rationalize not working harder. But at some point it's got to switch to maintenance, so yeah--how do you know? I think there were a few posts on this in the maintainers' forum too.

I was able to add some more exercise time to my total for the month. How's everyone else doing on the challenge minutes?

Just saying hello to everyone!

Well here I am at home, but I'd rather be at work. Speaking of back-aches, well I have a UTI. I was wondering if I hurt my back, or was having a new kind of "cramp" for about 3 weeks. So today I woke up and had all the other symptoms - BAD! Went to the doctor, got meds, and starting to feel better. I hated calling in sick, got a big guilt trip for it too, but there is no way I would have been able to stay. At least I had my schedule ready for the sub, but I miss those kids.
So I did avoid the fast food! Very tempting being out and about this morning. Stuck with a healthy lunch-yogurt and fruit.
Still tired, but I will exercise later. I'm going to have to start writing down my times, but so far, from what I can remember this week, I've got 140 min. in. I'm going to have to check the calendar on last week.