Morning ladies!

I agree Aimee--the finale was GREAT! I wrote more about it on The Biggest Loser thread.

Jill, great job! I would go by the TOPS scale too! LOL

Aimee, I've been thinking the same thing for me. Right now I am barely getting exercise at all. I know in order for me to be successful I have to MOVE my body. I'm considering investing in something for home. It has to be something that I can move out of the way when not in use--our apartment is not that big!

I taped the finale, but I saw bits and pieces of it (switching during commercials). We always watch the Amazing Race. Andrea looked GREAT. So did Seth. I had a little trouble warming up to Matt, he was a always a little bit like Man on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. I missed the first half of that series.

Aimee, don't get too upset about one day of trouble with the diet. You haven't been on it very long, and it takes a little getting used to, it's a big change. Don't beat yourself up, instead think about what decision you would have made instead, and have that plan ready for the next time you're in the same situation. You could even think about why you made that decision. Every misstep is an opportunity to learn how to do better the next time (says Mrs. Diet Dogoody).

This is actually the time of year people are getting rid of stuff. If you look at classifieds or local bulliten boards, you might be able to find a used treadmill or bike for cheap. You could even put up a notice yourself saying your looking for one. I got my first exercise bike from the hallway of my apartment building in Manhattan, someone put it out to get rid of it. I used it for a few years.

I love to walk. The weather now isn't the best for that, unfortunately. A little power walking can go a long way. And I march in place at home, as well as the stuff at the gym. A half hour walk, a half hour marching in place a day can give you a nice cardio routine to start off with. People sometimes feel like if it's not an hour on the elliptical you're just not doing what you need to do, but I don't believe that's true.

Hope that helps! sending you good vibes from the Big Apple!

Hi gals! Just got back from taking a 30 minute walk. That's the most movement I've done in ages! It does feel good, though! I'm planning to do some resistence training tonight at home. Better than just sitting!

It's a COLD one here!! I have piled on a ton of clothes, a blanket and have a little heater near by. I sure could go for a hot chocolate! Good thing I don't have any in my house..

Marge - thank you. Often I get so caught up in feeling like a failure that I actually BECOME one, I had a rough morning for food, but luckily I am locked in my house all day with ONLY healthy foods... so it can only get better! I think if I were to make this decision again, I'd probably do the same thing! Possibly anyways, it was a long day and I wasn't really prepared enough. Josh and I have more cash lately, so thats been a help, but I have a hard time finding snacks.. I gotta get this worked out. I think I'll see what I can find in the bike area, Josh's work sells an elliptical trainer, but it's not the best. I think bike's are probably the best item you can get, price-wise/quality.

Jill - congrats on that weight loss! I wonder how many people will show up for the weigh in.. I'd be scared if there was a holiday such as Thanksgiving like that! Phew, it still baffles me the difference to the Canada- USA thanksgiving difference!

Jen - a 30 min walk is great! I'm lucky that I have an extra room, my place is SUPER small.. but we've been sleeping in the livingroom because there is a weird feeling in the bedroom. I haven't ever been able to sleep in there, sometimes I'll have bad dreams in there. We plan to move as soon as we can, but in the meantime I can use it as a workout room! heh..

Alrighty, I am off to curl up on the couch! Bye!

-Aimee

I could not BELIEVE how good those guys looked, especially. MAN!

Good for you on the scale front, Jill. I snuck on the scale today, too...I'd already had 3 cups of coffee and my morning cereal, and weighed 202. I'm hopeful! Gotta slug down the water today and tomorrow (but not too late in the day tomorrow, LOL!).

My scrapbooking friend from the coffee shop went with me to Hobby Lobby yesterday afternoon and we headed over to her house to work on the scrapbook for Susie. I don't have the pictures printed yet, but we put together papers to use together in layouts and have a lot ready to go. Just need to get those prints ordered now. Would ya believe I was at Ivana's house until 1:00am working on that? Last we'd looked at a clock, it was about 8:30pm...Then Howie called at ten after midnight. Good times. :)

:carrot: way to go, Jen :carrot: Actually walking is one of my favorite exercises. And I like doing weights. Keep in mind that muscle tissue is denser than fat, and as you build muscle, it might affect the number on the scale (even though you're losing fat). Muscle helps burn fat too.

Aimee, so much of weight loss is mental. If you look back and think you'd make the same decision, then I think it's fine. Besides, Rob tells me once I've eaten something to forget about the guilt and move on, it's not helpful to dwell on it. So, do you think the bedroom is haunted? I'm convinced we have spirits here, and I'm not a person who's totally into the supernatural. We've just had too many weird happenings here.

I can see spending that much time on the scrapbook. When I was doing it, it would take me hours at a time. It's fun work, I'm sure even more fun doing it with a friend. Have you planned a reward for yourself for entering Onederland? You definitely deserve something great for that kind of accomplishment (it's a reward in itself, but splurge and treat yourself!).

I snuck a peek too, at the ol' scale, I think it must be an Xmas miracle, cause I'm seeing a loss and I still have a day to go! Wow, that's a huge relief!

It's funny with the Biggest Loser, we get to see in a few weeks people losing over 100 lbs. The difference in how they look floors me. It's a total transformation. Very cool.

Tomorrow I'm definitely going shopping. I love going to the craft fairs here.

Goodmorning! I peaked at my scale this morning too... hehe, and it looks like I'll register a loss, even with my mostly off plan day yesterday. Oops! I have changed my weigh in day to Friday's, now I pretty much avoided the scale last week, because I had gained back ALL of those 2 pounds.. I just wasn't quite ready to admit that yet. I guess just waking up and not having your brain working properly yet helps! ;)

Marge - It's definitely partly mental, yesterday I convinced myself that since I had an off plan breakfast I could eat an off plan dinner (but my lunch was good!). You make sure to drink lots of water during the day, I'd stop at night unless you wanna be up all night.. heh.. oh, and eat perfectly today! I'm not too sure if it's haunted, all I know is that I get really restless in there. I toss and turn all night long and wake up feeling MORE tired.

Kimberley - you ARE very close to onederland, are you excited? Got a speech for us? ;)

-Aimee

Hi gals! Had a great afternoon walk! I went in a different direction than usual and found a nice paved walking trail through the woods! I think I may take this route most of the time!

I saw a documentary about researchers and ghosts. They said sometimes there are natural electro-magnetic currents in places and some people are very sensitive to them. Those same currents can also cause electronic devices to act wonky. Sometimes, it's natural phenomena giving us the willies. :)

Speech? No speech yet...I'm just itchin' to get there, that's all. Can't believe it's taken me 13+ years to get back down to this weight.

Posted a 1.5-pound loss at TOPS last night (for 2 weeks since we didn't meet last week)--woohoo for losing over the holiday! :carrot: Per the TOPS scale, I'm now at 268.75, so hopefully those 270s are gone forever. I just realized that I'm only 19 pounds away from the 250 mark--I can't even remember the last time I weighed under 250. I think it was early college sometime. I'm also only 8.75 pounds away from a total of 50 pounds lost. Realizing these things has really inspired me to keep going! I've got 10 more pounds to lose by Christmas for our challenge, but I only have 2 more TOPS weigh-ins before then, so I'll have to go by my home scale that last week to see if I make it. Before I left for TOPS, my home scale said 273.5 (it only weighs to the half pound, not the quarter), so it's been pretty consistently 4 pounds higher than the TOPS scale, so it should still give me a pretty good idea of my progress.

Speaking of ghosts and natural electro-magnetic currents...when I was in college in PA, there was a place nearby that was supposedly haunted. The story goes that a bus was driving a high school football team home after a game one night, and their bus rolled down a hill and went over a cliff, killing the whole team. Now, if you go to that hill and put your car in neutral, your car will actually roll UP the hill instead of down! This is supposed to be the spirits of the football players pushing your car back up the hill so you don't meet the same fate as them. This location was actually covered on a tv special once, and it was determined that it was a very high area of electro-magnetic activity or something, and that was te real reason the cars rolled up the hill. No matter what the reason, I think a car rolling up a hill would be creepy! I had friends who actually went to this place and said it worked. We tried to find it one night and got lost :p

I have to eat lightly during the day today because tonight, we are going to a place called Mike's American for dinner--supposed to be REALLY good! And I'm doing an evaluation for my secret shopping company, so I will get fully reimbursed for our $70-meal (we are required to share an appetizer, order 2 different entrees and drinks, and share a dessert, plus order a drink at the bar). Gotta love free food! :D

Hey gals! I started a December thread yesterday--should we start posting there?

Whoops! Yes, go here: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69466