FORTY lengths? That makes me tired just reading about it. Bet you felt like a million bucks after leaving the gym, though.

Marge, you're one wise woman. I appreciate your posts.

We're heading out at 9:30am for our first social outing since getting home. We're going to .... yep, Caribou.

I bet you missed Caribou when you were gone!!

Kylie, WTG on 40 lengths!! I love swimming!

I'm leaving work today at 3 pm. We're on a jet plane later today headed for Iowa, where it is a heck of a lot colder than Florida! I've got my coat packed on top to put on when we get there.

ahhhh, I get it. sounds reasonable. I'm slow on the uptake sometimes, heh heh.

Man, Jen, good news you don't have to leave Florida. You two need to celebrate. Ha, you probably already have!

Hey, Kylie, how was the trip? Were you 5 star pampered?

I'm so happy I have tomorrow off. Today was a little overly stressful. I have to admit I've been grabbing the sweets more than I want to. I thought that day off in Manhattan would be a bigger help, I guess one day isn't that much, then we had a problem with the hot water when we got back, and the fuse for the electricity before we left. All small life things that get me frazzled collectively.

At least I'm keeping myself going to the gym. Last night must have been teen night (how boring is the gym for someone who's 12 or 13??); it was like that commercial with the cheerleader and the cell phone (T-Mobile?) where she won't stop talking and all the scientists in white sit watching her while they go into comas ... heh heh.

Take it easy

Hey, gals! we posted at about the same time

Enjoy Caribou, Kimberley, I bet they missed you. Have a good trip, Jen. At least the cold weather isn't so bad when you know you get to go back to Florida!

Hey Ladies, I am off to Seattle in the morning, and will be back Wednesday. Just wanted to let yah know I'm alive... only away for now!! See you when I get back!

-Aimee

BTW - I weighed in, I am still holding steady at 240 pounds.

Hey girls! It's been a heck of a busy week! Whew...

We were supposed to go on a sleigh ride tonight for Sam's birthday, but they are calling for rain all day today and there's no snow on the ground anymore so it would have been a wagon ride instead anyway. I called the horse people yesterday to see what could be done if the rain actually happens, and they will move my deposit to another day. Still, I'm bummed that we won't have plans for tonight.

I had a 'little' victory Thursday... I wore a size 18 dress pants to work! woohoo! Yeah me! Then it occured to me that most people START trying to lose weight when they have to wear an 18! Oh well... I've still come a long way (weigh?) from a too tight 28.

Scale (the damn thing) won't budge! Grr! I like to see the darn numbers move!

Anyone watch the Biggest Loser Family thing on the other day? Wow, those poor teenagers... I was heavier than my friends in HS, but I didn't go over 200 until I was out of school and in a bad marriage. I just can't imagine...

We recorded The Biggest Loser and are watching it this morning. Glad ya didn't give anything away. LOL! I weighed around 175 through high school and started gaining after I graduated. What an awful fishbowl school is...It's just awful. I don't miss it, no siree!

Have a good trip to Seattle, Aimee GREAT JOB on being at 240! though I'm sorry you were sick so long.

Sarah, I can relate to the 18s, I'm just getting into them, maybe a half size away. That's a thrilling feeling, seeing the sizes go down (especially since it takes me to gd long to go down a size). Congrats!

yeah, I could empathize with those girls on Biggest Loser. I was a big teen. I remember a couple of guys who gave me a hard time. Overall the kids weren't as mean as the kids sound today. I had a group of friends, did stuff with the school government. I only remember there being a couple of heavy kids. My high school had about 900 students. The cheerleaders, sports people were perfectly friendly with me, so no Heathers scene. heh heh. Then at the 5 year reunion, people who weren't as friendly in high school were friendly. I think I was harder on myself than other people were to me!

I've been eating insane amounts of food lately, and not all healthy stuff. Today is my re-dedication to my diet, to my health, to myself. I packed my food for the day and planned ahead for dinner, and I started playing with my exercise ball last night, even if only to do some crunches (better than nothing!). I have eaten my way back up to 283.5 as of this morning, but I refuse to change my ticker to that since we had Subway and Chinese food yesterday, so I bet a little of that is just water. I'll check again later in the week when I've had some time to flush out some crap

Aimee--have a safe, relaxing, and HEALING trip!

Marge--I hear ya on taking too long to go down a size! At 40 pounds lost, I was still in the same size as when I started I can't WAIT to have to buy new clothes!

Kimberley--I absolutely don't miss high school either. There's a lot of good to be said about growing up in a small town, but it's hard when you know everyone in your grade practically from kindergarten through graduation. You don't have many chances to meet new people, so sometimes I had no choice but to befriend those who made fun of me when I was younger. Those feelings of resentment are hard to get by...which is why I went to a college where I didn't know ANYONE!

Jen--hope you're having fun in Iowa!

I've been doing this for a while now, and more than once I've had to rededicate myself to the program. Seems like I slowly slide out of it, I see success and so I'll let myself eat a little more, then I'll let some of the exercise slide. Before I know it, the weight loss stops and I have to get back to where I was. I figure I spent the majority of my life with the bad habits, it might take me a little time to replace them with the good habits.

I was reading in Dr. Phil book yesterday about how some diets that make you weigh and measure everything can make you fixate even more on food, and how some others give you the impression that once an addict, always an addict -- he thinks that encourages binge behavior because it creates a feeling of deprivation, you know, I WANT to have that but I CAN'T have that, and makes you think it has to be the way for your entire life.

I still feel like food has a hold over me, though I feel a lot more in control of it than ever before. I'd love for one day for food to take a major backseat in my everyday life. One step at a time.

I know what you mean. Howie and I have been slipping more and more lately. Last night we got pizza plus had ice cream. Wish we could just reprogram the parts of our minds that make us do that. NO giving up, though - can't. This is too important.

On the plus side, we have been walking every day. Yesterday we even donned our ponchos and walked in the rain. It's only a mile we go, but that's a mile more than we've been walking, and it's a miracle mile every time for Howie.

I'm BAAAAAAAAACK!!

Glad to be back in the WARM WEATHER!! It's a good reminder of why Alan and I live in Florida!!

I wrote about my adventures this weekend in my blog: www.jen41565.blogspot.com

Will catch up on posts and write more later when I have time! I missed you all!

Hi Gals!! I am posting from a very cloudy but no longer raining Seattle! It was VERY wet on my brother's moving day (which was yesterday), I definitely worked harder yesterday than I have in MONTHS. Which isn't to say much, because the only reason I got out of bed for most of Dec and Jan was to go to work. Today we are shopping, I am all done with cleaning and moving!

So before we left for Seattle I was 239, I'm sure this is been completely undone, we've been eating TacoBell, random fast food, and been to QUITE a few restaurants. On Saturday night we went to my brother's Christmas wrap-up party, wow. Amazon does a decent party, there was TONS of food, we all got 3 drink tickets, fake money for gambling (It was a vegas theme), there was a Karaoke room, a chapel (where people actually DID get married), and yet another room with a HUGE dance area, lots of tables for gambling and another huge bar area... it was amazing! Not only that, it was at a realllllllly nice hotel. I guess they can afford it though!

I went to 3 highschools, the first one was a pain, boys sexually harrassing me, to which I went to the principle and said if this doesn't stop, I'm charging the school because I'd told them a lot it had happened, my second highschool was... worse yet better, I was dating some popular guy which annoyed a girl who liked him and I got the rep of being a slut. Silly people. My third highschool was a breeze, I immediately became friends with "popular" people, joined tons of committee's, all of that. But I wasn't a B*tch, no sense in that.. I think overall I had it easy compared to some of the stuff i hear about in the USA, plus I wasn't really that large, maybe a size 10 at most. Highschool is TOO hard to have to deal with more than crappy people!

Well I better get to the stores... I have some money burning a hole in my pocket! Have a good one ladies

-Aimee

Happy Tuesday, ladies!

Not much to report.....Alan's first day on the local job was yesterday. He said it was okay, but nothing spectacular. I really think he is more suited for being his own boss. There is still hope for that to become reality again!

Kimberley: How is Howie today? Walking a mile just weeks after back surgery is AMAZING!
Aimee: Glad you had fun in Wash! I didn't know your brother worked for Amazon!
Marge: I know what you mean by feeling like food has a hold on you. Food has been my constant companion my entire life. I think I started putting on weight as a child to shield myself from my abusive home. Then I got MORE abuse for being fat! I couldn't win...
Jill: how do you like your exercise ball? I've been thinking of adding it to my workout.
Sara: Size 18 is AWESOME! I would love to see that label soon!!

I liked what everyone said about re-dedication. Maybe I should re-dedicate myself every day....what do you think?