Erin, let somebody around you give you a great big kiss from me! You're so right! This weight isn't going to fall off of us by sitting around wallowing. We need to take the reigns from that crazy woman who has them now and push her over the side! We have to stand back up for ourselves and get energized again. A positive thing for me is that I'm feeling the embers starting to light back up. When my weekend dies down again I'm ready, willing and able to give it till I drop (weight that is..hehehe!) Kudos to you Erin for standing up for the whole group of us who's guilty of this!

Robsia, you look fantastic! Well done! I'm so envious of you, but I'll be there in a few more 10lb. incriments. You deserve all the success because you've earned it. How's the novel coming along? I've been wondering about it. Hope it's hitting the presses very soon!

I've been nursing hubby who has a lung infection and playing hostess. My sister came thursday night with her whole kit and kaboodle and now today my great aunt and uncle will be here. Like I said, when my weekend dies down I'll be ready willing and able to blast off! I can't wait, I'm really excited about it!

Love ya all gals! Have a great weekend!
~Tina

Well, i did send it off to a few agents but got rejections back. I need to get my bottom in gear and send it off to some more. But life is busy right now - I have three Christmas concerts to prepare for at school. Fun, but busy.

GOOD MORNING LADIES!!!

So i am happy to report the ticker is already down, even after a little melt down Friday night after writing my "pump you up speech". Like i said we all suffer from moments of weakness, indecision and failure, but unless we put the focus on the positive we will never break this cycle! So got my head together a little bit yesterday and got a lot of work done cleaning up/out kids rooms, laundry and shopping. My goal for this week is to get back on the exercise. I go back to the endocrinologist on Friday and i am planning on not weighing myself again until Friday morning. Don't know if I can hold out that long or not. Only made it 48 hours without weighing this last week. but considering i usually weigh 2-3 times a day that was a huge improvement!

Robsia - hope you hear some good news on the book soon, keep at it! Your success inspires me, you look fabulous! hope you keep popping in to share your success!

Tina - glad to hear I was able to pump you up a little! What a hectic sounding weekend, try to find some me time in there too! Hope hubby is doing better!

Robbin - glad to see I had a good effect on you too! I am really hoping focusing on what i have accomplished and not what i haven't will really bring about some change! I will pray for you and your family as time grows closer, i can not imagine what you are going through i can only guess by what the thought of it does to me. My hubby's going off on a hunting trip for about 5 days and i am dreadding that! So shut my mouth! I have nothing to complain about!!!!!

Michelle- I can not imagine my babies going off to college, i am still coping with going to kindergarten! Glad to see she is looking at something relatively close to home, i was 45 min just far enough the parents wouldn't just pop in but close enough i could run home when i got home sick!!

Stacy - glad to see you are feeling inspired too! I was a little afraid i would offend someone but seems to have had a good effect. Now we got to just practice what we preach!!!!! CONGRATS on breaking the 250 mark!!! I know that dragon fly goes with a happy dance! Hope you are continuing to heal well!

Well girlies, gotta run! Time to get ready for church and a birthday party later and i am still in my jammies, so are the kids!!! Ya'll have a glorious sunday and will chat at ya soon!!!!

Hi ladies,

Erin, Good to hear that the scales are going down for you. I enjoyed the “pump you up speech” also. You’re so right that we have to put the focus on the positive. None of us are perfect, and at some point, we’ll all eat something we shouldn’t or fail to exercise or just get tired of having to watch what we eat. But we still have to get back on track as soon as possible. That is the key between failing and succeeding. I weigh everyday. No way could I wait until Friday to weigh.

Tina, It sounds like you have a busy weekend, being hostess and nurse. Have fun spending time with your family. I’m glad to hear that you are once again feeling lots of motivation and will be ready to jump back on board after the weekend.

Stacy, Even recovering from surgery, you’re getting your cardio in and still losing weight. Don’t wallow, I think you’re doing great. You mentioned biggest loser and how it motivates you to work out for hours. It motivates me too, but then we have real life to deal with, work, housework, kids, DH. Maybe if we could concentrate on nothing but weight loss, we could spend hours a day working out. (Well, I probably wouldn’t anyway, but we’ll never know, will we.) Don’t you love adding a dragonfly!

Michelle, 45 minutes away sounds ideal. Not too far to go get her or visit if she needs you, but far enough that she still feels like she’s away from Mom and Dad. Oh, I don’t even want to think about my kids going away to college yet, but all of my friends with older kids joke and say that the teen-age years are God’s way of making you want your kids to grow up and move out. I’m sure they’re just kidding.

Robbin, I need to start thinking about doing some Christmas shopping too. I hope you were able to do plenty of walking to offset any bad eating that happened. I also wanted to tell you that I think you are doing fantastic. I know you have a lot on your mind, thinking about DH leaving in May and I am so impressed that you are still working on being healthy.

Cheryl, Bummer on the scales. I don’t belong to WW, so I weigh in everyday. Of course, my scales fluctuate from day to day, but if I weigh 221 yesterday but today I weigh 222, in my mind, I still weigh 221, it’s just water weight. Just stay on plan, and you will probably be down those last three pounds by next weeks weigh in.

Robsia, You're looking great. Congratulations on being so close to goal.

Nothing new to report. DH and I have been working on removing the carpet from our living room and cleaning the floor underneath. My house is in shambles, since the furniture from that room has been moved to the dining room. We’ve got to get that straightened back out today. The scales are still the same, (unless they changed this morning). I’ve been on plan with food and exercise. I would love to make onederland in January, so I have that goal to keep me on track.

Tammy, glad to hear I could swing a little motivation your way too! I want to get rid of the carpet in my bedroom but not brave enough to take it on myself!! I always get uptight when my house is out of order like that, hope you are coping better than me!

Good evening ladies.

Well i am glad the weekend is over...i just cant seem to keep it together over the weekend...eating lots of things is shouldnt and eating lots more than i should. Time to get back on plan...majorly. Tomorrow is a new day and i plan to make the best of it. I have an apt to get my stitches out and i am hoping doc gives me the 100% ok to workout again.

Goals for the week:
* Drink lots of water.
* Exercise on off days with extra cardio.
* Eat smaller portions!!!!!!!!.

Jtammy_ I love the idea of remodeling and the "after" but the during drives me nuts too...i get so anxious when everything is out of place. But it is so worth it, i bet it will look great. I know you can make it to onederland by/in january...wow, how exciting!

Erin- Good job on the ticker being down. My goal is the same this week...exercise, exercise, exercise. That is great you are stretching the weighing...48 hours is a long time. That is tough on me too....i weigh at least once a day, but as i get closer to weigh in, it really just gets rediculous. ha ha.

Tina- Okay, lets blast off and make the absolute best of this week.

Ok ladies. I am officially erasing my memory of this weekend Ready to start fresh.

Okay girlies...it's Sunday evening...do you know what tomorrow is!? It's time to take this weight loss effort back to the "next" level. We can do this! We can lose it! If we can't do it, no one can!!

Stacy, glad to see you've set some goals for yourself already for the upcoming week.

Erin, congrats on getting that ticker prepared for the heck it's gonna get this week.

Tammy, you're such an inspiration. You always seem so calm and together. Thanks for coming in and spreading your words of weight loss wisdom!

Robsia, keep working on getting the novel published. Don't slack off on this dream! Besides I can't wait to read the rest of it...I'm dying here! LOL!

Well, girls...I'm pumped, I'm ready for tomorrow. The house is quiet again and I can think straight. Who's ready for some numbers to drop?!!

Check back with y'all tomorrow! Have a great evening!
Tina

Hey girls this is goning to be a quickie but I will try to get back later this afternoon for personals. The boss is outta town so I should have plenty of time.

I so do not understand the scales but I guess none of us do. I work so hard all week and they stay stuck at one number, last week was 220. On weekends I loose my self-control and eat things that are not on plan and you know what, the stupid scales drop. I saw a new low of 217 over the weekend but am up 1 pound to 218, hey I will take it, it matches the ticker.

Well gotta run, have a few things to get done. Check back later.

Erin...Thank you so much for your pep talk. It's just what I needed, plus some self talk on top of it.

No time for personals, hope to have time to do that sometime tomorrow. I had a big self talk with myself over the weekend and I also went back and read my food journal...what there was of it. I'm back on track again, and I'm going to be faithful to write everything down I put in my mouth. Figured out the water weight I have is from the popcorn I'm eating at night. So no popcorn or I eat only popcorn I pop in the air popper.

I got a new book from my book club and I highly recommend it. It's call, "Our Lady Of Weight Loss"". Miraculous and motivational musings from the Patron Saint of Permanment Fat Removal. Has chapters like...Our Lady Suffers from Constant Cravings....Our Lady of Self-eSTEM Your Vegetables...Our Lady's Evil Twin. It's buy Janice Taylor and she has a great sense of humor.

Cheryl

Ladies - can I jump back in here? I'm a bit embarrassed for being gone for so long, and I have NO idea how everyone is doing, and overwhelmed with the thought of trying to get caught up. So I'm just gonna jump back in, and try to check in more often, if that's alright! I hope you have all been doing great, and losing lots!!

Good morning chickies! How was everyones monday of re-programming? Well, like I posted sunday night, I was hyped and rareing to go but sometimes life is gonna throw you a curve ball and spoil your plans. Sunday night was a terrible night for my daughter that ended us up in the ER for 4 1/2hrs. Her temp was 103.6, she was complaining of being dizzy and couldn't hold her head up. After some x-rays we found out she had a lung infection that was progressing into an early onset of pneumonia. Yikes! So between nursing hubby who was put on antibiotics for lung infection on friday and my daughter I've been thrown a little off. Food intake was great yesterday, water suffered a bit and I didn't get a chance to get down on the elliptical. Not to mention, that I'm starting to feel like crap myself. I'm determined though, I will get on the elliptical today and start chugging my water early.

Robbin, girl I love the results! Keep up whatever it is your doing! I kinda of figured that hovering for a couple of days meant that you were going to have a nice drop. Keep on rockin'!

Michelle, glad you found your determination again on saturday! Way to go!

Cheryl, another one putting her goals back in line! I love it! Your new book sounds like it's alot of fun to read. Would you mind putting in a couple of blurps you think our group would love to hear?

Shyla, jump back in anytime. As you can see a lot of us are pulling ourselves back up. It's been tough going (for me) finding my motivation and determination. But I took a lot of time to think and realized I'd be more miserable if I didnt' stick this out. We're all capable of meeting our goals, just remember that! Glad to see you again girl!

Well, I'm off to start the day. Just getting up actually. It's 9 am and I think Alyssa and I both needed the rest considering the night before. I gotta try to get some food in the little tike, she has absolutely no appetite, too bad mommy has enough for the both of us! hahaha!

Have a great day ladies, and remember work with what the day presents you. It may not always fall under what you think would be a good schedule, just don't let that be an excuse for you! You have the capabilities to change things! WE ARE A PRIORITY TOO!

TTFN!
~Tina

Well girlies, second day of no scale and no convulsions yet!! However, i have probably checked my blood sugar about 10 times in the last two days! Just gotta be checking something!!!! I have to say that i have done well with eating as in no sugar but am probably no where close to balancing things the way i should. Lots of protein right now but that gets me through the lack of sugar, fat satisfies the craving as well. I feel thinner today, i have definitely put off some fluid, my rings are so loose! However we have been a good bit colder around here lately so that helps too. We are supposed to be having a bit of bad weather tomorrow, sound like the system that got Michelle has tracked its way over to me. The national weather service has us under a moderate risk of severe weather which makes me a little nervous to say the least.

Stacy - thanks for the encouragement! I like the idea of erasing the weekend and then starting fresh!! I like your goals too, so how are you doing??

Shawn - glad to see you back!!! We all do the drop in drop out so dont' let it worry you

Girlies, i am so sorry to cut off here but my kids are getting WAY OUT OF HAND!!!!!!

Will try to get back to you later but if bad weather moves in computer will be off SORRY TO BAIL MID PERSONALS!!!!!

Doing well today. Made it to the gym, first time in several days. I hope i can undo the damage that my weekend caused. i have been drinking water like crazy and very mindful of my eating so far in the week.

What is good for dinner tomorrow? I am thinking maybe salmon.

Oh, i got my stitches out yesterday. Hooray. Feels SO much better. I still didnt get the okay to do upper body, he said give it another week...dang, but that is okay, i just added to my cardio to make up for it, so that works.

Erin- Good job on holding back from that scale. I know it is tough. Did you actually put it out of site...I usually have my son hide it in his room ....so i am not tempted to sneak a weigh in when i need a break from the scale. I am sorry but that is so funny that now you are testing your blood sugar constantly. I do the EXACT same thing but instead of testing blood sugar, i start measuring my waist, biceps, etc...non stop. Too funny. Hope you fair through the storm safely, will have you in my prayers tonight.

Tina- Oh my gosh, your poor baby, 103 temp, i bet you were freaking out. Bless her heart. Sending love and prayers her way for a quick recovery. Pneumonia is scary for a grown up, but for her age, that is super scary.

Shyla- I was thinking about you just the other day. So glad to see you again. You picked a perfect time to jump back in, most of us are just getting back on the bandwagon as well...must have been something in the air.

Cheryl- Your book sounds great. I know what you mean about writing everything down, i am SO bad about that. I think i am being so dilegent, then when i think about it really hard, i think, well i didnt count that sugar free cookie but it was just one cookie, or i didnt count that hand ful of cashews but it was just a couple of bites. I too have GOT TO be more specific ...its the little nibbles here and there that kill my weigh ins i believe.

Michelle- Good for you for getting back in the game now, 2 pounds is nothing, but before you know it, you put it off, put it off and you end up gaining 20...or that is how i do it anyway.

Robin- That is awesome! I am really wanting to see a big drop like that before

Ok gals. I am not going to have any splurges til Thanksgiving. I have just got to start seeing that scale move and my past weekend is NOT going to get me there. One pound in 2 weeks is not going to cut it. So only clean eating from now until T-day.

Hi Girls...I have had a really good day with making good choices on what I put in my mouth and writting it down, plus chugging the water down. Not much in the exercise department, I pulled something behind my left knee coming down the stairs this morning. I'm doing leg lifts while I sit here and type, trying to loosen it up.

Ladies, we need to remember that there are two ways to measure our progress...the scale and a tape measure. If the scales are being stubborn, whip out the tape measure and see how many inches you have lost. Either way is a success for improving our health.

Shawn...Nice to see you back and still plugging away like the rest of us.

Tina...So sorry to here that your hubby and daughter are sick. Thank goodness you caught it in time. Hope you stay well while caring for your family.

Erin...Looks like you and I are hanging in there. I haven't gone near the scale in the last couple of days, tomorrow is soon enough for me. weigh-in day at WW, haven't decided if I'm stepping on the scale or taking my first pass. I have gone back to writting down and planning what I eat, which I have noticed have taken care of the cravings I was having for the last couple of weeks. Lots of veggies/fruits does the trick.

Tina...Here are "The Ten Commandments of Permanent Fat Removal" from the book.

1. Thou shalt honor and believe in thyself.
2. Thou shalt move thy body. Move it and move it some more.
3. Thou shalt never go hungry again. Eat small meals and healthy snacks
throughout the day.
4. Thy shalt stock thy fridge with the right stuff-the fruits and vegetables
of the earth.
5. Thou shalt honestly write it down. If you bite it, you must write it.
6. Thou shalt weigh and measure-thyself and thy food.
7. Thou shalt drink enough Holy Water to frighten Noah and map out all the
restrooms in thy village.
8. Thou shalt not deny thyself a treat or two now and then.
9. Thou shalt not eat out of misery, boredom, anxiety...but should thou
indulge,thou shalt forgive thyself.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's plate.

See you ladies tomorrow.

Cheryl