Hi & welcome to the playground!

babyholdon2me
my name is shawna and just joined the kindergarten about a week ago, everyone here is really nice and good company.
i have 3 daughters that are 16, 14 and 11(PMS CITY), and a foster son who is 7. my husband and i will be celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary this year. i am a manager for a store called rack room shoes, that is where i spend 50 plus hours of the week. my oldest daughter plays volleyball and her senior night is my inspiration to get this weight off.....i promised myself i will not be the fat mom there!!! i know losing 109 lbs by october is not really realistic, but i will take whatever i can. being an athlete all of my life, my muscles tend to remember what they used to do, so i lose weight a little bit faster then most. which is a good thing, but when i plateau i get a little upset ...but i stick with and then im losing again. i have been down this weight loss trail before, after the birth of each child, i would get down to about 195-200 and then slowly gain it all back. i vow not to do that this time, my health is the most important thing now, and being this heavy is not good for me. ok enough about me.....LOL
Hope everybody is having a good day, im drinking my protein shake right now, i put peanut butter in it today....not too bad, but i think i like the banana better. i slept through breakfast, not so good!! im off work today so i need to get some house work done....blah then i think im going to go do some cardio , we have water aerobics tonight, but doing some cardio would be good too.
tty'alll

Mari ~~ You have come to a chatty group so join right in! You said that you had a st roke three years ago? Did they say what caused this, because you are young? You have done really good on your weight loss! What plan were you on to lose your weight before Jenny Craig? Yes, I'm full of questions, but I like to know all of this good stuff with weight loss!

Ginny ~~ You work so hard! I hope you can get some relaxing time in sometime today; take it easy!

Jules ~~ Whenever I get in gear and stick with my WATP, I do make sure and get enough water in. I usually do it first thing in the morning when it's still cooler. They're saying that it's supposed to start cooling down some today to about 80F.

Welcome Mari!
Hi Bep and Shawna
Jules - I am waiting for my yarn to come from WEBS ( yarn.com) before I can start the skull tote. The pattern for that cracked me up, it said, " Just because you knit doesn't mean you aren't dangerous!" Let me know how your knitting is going - I have lots of online resources and I read a bunch of blogs so I could recommend a few depending on what you are interested in.

Ginny - good job on the water and biking. I skipped my yoga this morning (tsk tsk), but made up for it by working on the cow-poop pile. I have managed to move most of the unit all by myself - not all at once mind you - but I'm still pretty proud of myself.

Cristina - bulgur is a whole grain - very good for you. I get it where I buy my bulk grains... it can be cooked 1 part to two or three parts liquid, depending on the consistency you want. I blend it with lentils which cook up with the same proportions and do all kinds of things with it. You can blend it with eggs and bread crumbs and make veggie patties or veggie loaf. The other night I took 1 cup lentils/bulgur mixture to three cups of chicken broth and simmered it for about 20 minutes with paprika, allspice and garlic cloves. I served it over brown rice. I really liked it...Bulgur by itself can be cooked up like oatmeal...I need to try that some day for some variation

Gotta run and take the DD to swimming lessons

back later

ok i lost my list of what all of those abbreviations are for, somebody help me please......watp? i know its right in front of me but somebody help me out .


thanks,
shawna

Katy--I hope to get as good as you one day--my ds's gf would love the skull tote especially with a neon pink skull and black background!! There is a Common Market (www.commonmarket.com) in Frederick (about 45-60 minutes from my house on the highway) I am off the 1st full week in June -- not going anywhere special--we have a couple of "projects" Our anniversary in the 7th and I want to go to the Olive Garden which is also in Frederick so I will stock up.

Michelle ma beel--I am glad the temps are cooling down a little for you--good luck with your WATP

Bep--I miss kids in the house--both of mine are moved out--and what's ironic is when her marriage ended DD (soon to be 19) moved in with DS(21) instead of moving back home. It's actually closer to college and work for her.

Mary--I have a 21 year old Ryan!! Welcome!!

Shawna ~~ WATP means Walk Away The Pounds, and they are workout videos.

Mari!!! Wonderful to have you here!

Morning Bep!!! Top of the mornng to you too!! Just wanted to say hi and chat later!! lol

I have to get to work!! My boss said so.....dang.

Was up all night with Gaby. I took her to my mothers this morning, she didn't go to pre school. She whined all night and complained about her mouth. Teeth coming in?? lol...............feel so stupid. Don't teeth have to come out before teeth can come in???

blah - blah.... I will catch up slowly through the day.....

Michelle......question on those videos!! What kind of exercise equipment do you need???

Ginny - Yes, Hawaii. It was offered from Rocky. He has 2 round trip tickets and he wants Gaby & I to come over sometime this summer. Also , I meant Nov 04, not 05 that I went......seems just yesterday.

yak, yak.....
ewwwww - had a cold Atkins and banana for breakfast. Still tatse icky. I don't remember those shakes being so chalky,,,,,,ewwwww....BATHROOM!! yikes......gotta go..........

Shawna on the compliments that you are getting!! You deserve that! I was a heavy mom when Rach & Beck were in grade school. It was a private Catholic school on the coast. I was always in the back waiting for the girls to come out of class. I remember the back stairs that you would have to climb and I would be huffing and puffing.....only like 8 stairs....determined to be an active mom in my childrens life.

Deb Where ARE you ??? We miss you!!

I better go. Had some bad news $$$$ wise this morning. Blow.....need to scramble and figure out some bills and what gets paid the next 2 months..lol

oops.......ya, I want a tropical vacation!!

Thanks for the great welcome!!

Michelle: About the stroke, they never pinned down one thing that caused it but here is what they say:

In Nov. 2002 we had our second child Julia and she was born premature at 24 weeks but did not survive past an hour. We had 4 miscarriages in the previous 24 months so we were so excited when we made it past the 3rd month. We finally told Ryan he was going to be a big brother soon. Then three months later, with no warning I went into preterm labor and the rest is history. One doctor thought I might have had clotting problems and it could have resurfaced a year later.

In September 2003, I was laid off my job that I was at for 16 years and ten days later my husband was laid off from AT&T and he had been with them for 11 years. So we went from 2 income family to zero all in two weeks. So my neurologist thinks it could have been a combination of stress and my cholester was really high!! 325 when I had the stroke and my weight was around 260 so as you can see there was a variety of factors that led up to it.

I was in the hospital for about 8 days and fully recovered my left side functions within about 48 hours but was slow for around 3-4 months. I thought I would never get better! For two years I went back and forth to the hospital for relapses and more TIA's (ministrokes) and I have been relapse free since November 2005. When I would go on the treadmill or diet I would get sick again. It was very discouraging.

As soon as Dec 6, 2005 came around I knew my chances of having another stroke went down dramatically and I decided to take back control of my life. So Jan 1st, I started Jenny Craig, used my treadmill and drank liquid amino acids and I have been trying to stay focused. OF course I really would love to just go and eat whatever I want!!!!! But I have to think about my son and his future since he almost lost me and I can never let him have that fear again. he is still verrrrrrrryyyyy close to me and unfortunately his teachers think he is not independent enough but they don't know the history.

Okay this was sooooooooo long and I am so SORRY!

Kindergarten Reminder!!! 4 days until Monday weigh in!!!! Claim your victory over the scale lol

That is really a powerful story Mari on human strength that we all have. You are such a strong person in all that you have faced. I have never had the physical problems - though I did overcome years of bulimia.
Just amazing. We are strong people. This weight thing is a piece of cake......ok, not cake....lol

HUGS Mari and thanks for sharing that!!

Susan ~~ You don't need any equipment for WATP except your body! The hand weights you can get as your progress and there is also an ab belt and stretchie band you can buy to use in all different videos that use boosters in them.

Mari ~~ Thank you for sharing your story with us. You have really been through a lot, and have come so far since then! You have really done good losing all of your weight just since January 1st! Glad you were able to take control of your life and get back on track now!