Okay ladies....question....WHY DO WE INSIST ON CRAVING THINGS THAT MAKE US FEEL LIKE TOTAL CRAP AFTER CONSUMING THEM!?? As you can tell I had a not so great day yesterday. It's a never ending CYCLE! You know what the foods do to you, it's not nutricious, it's not something you've got to have (physically) and it's not like it's something you've never tasted before. But yet, somehow...here we are set on auto pilot, brain is out the window and emotions are in the drivers seat, you just gotta have a "little". ArrgggHHhhh! I'm so fet up with being at a stand still and giving in to the same things that got me to 269lbs. in the first place! Why can't I be stronger, why can't I be more willing, why...why...why?!! This is not a great place to be, half living the new life and half living on the fence. Start the day out great and end it in defeat. The weekends sucks! There's a lot of my problem, I'm going to have to plan them a little more like I used to. Make my family eat what I eat and wait till I finish with the elliptical or treadmill before we get on with our plans. TIME TO PUT ME FIRST AGAIN!

Oops..sorry about the rant girls. Seems I just needed to see that concretely to make it sink in to the thick skull I have here for far too long.

Kreen, I love indian food..I'd be in heaven. But I can see why your a little nervous about it seeing that weightloss is a priority. I feel for ya but you have a great attitude. You go girl...this is just one week outta of the year. You have the rest of it to change it!

Robbin, we are going to have to think of something to keep our heads above water. I feel your frustration girl. It's no wonder that a lot of people never make it completely to goal or maintain it. This world is just set on being fat and feeding it cheap fattening food and then raise the price of fresh produce. There is a way to win this and we can do it!

Emily, way to go girl...that's what I needed to hear. You keeping up your routine is so inspiring to me today. I'm glad you still have some strength to carry on and fight the fight! I'm getting back at slowly...BUT SURELY! I will not give on me this easily!

Well, ladies...so far I have 1 1/2 litres of water gulped and it's only 12.30...yay me! That's the best I have done since last thursday. I went to water aerobics and worked hard, I'm so sore! LOL! I feel so guilty about this past few days that I feel like I should be getting on the elliptical too yet today. Good question would be...will I do it?? LOL! Have a great day and PLEASE keep on truckin', we need some good positive results to be shared in here!

TTFN!
~Tina

Just a quick pop in to say hello. It's been very hectic lately, so not much time to post. Tina, I hear you girl. I've been fighting the lure of cheap fattening foods lately too. I'll have a good day or two, then screw it up, then have another good day or two, then screw it up again. And the scales have sure been reflecting it. Today I weighed 223, the same thing I weighed 3 weeks ago. I sure miss those weeks where I could actually lose 2 lbs. Ahhhh, the good old days.

But we have to hang in there. If we quit now, where will we be? Well, I'd probably surpass my all time high of 346, if I quit. And I'm not going back there. I've just got to do it one day at a time, we'll get there as long as we keep moving forward. And for the first time in forever, the exercise is getting to be the easier/funner part of it. I can't believe I just said that, but I did. I enjoy my exercise, but the food part has been a pain in the @** this week.

Kreen, how exciting! I hope you're having a great time.

Emily, It's great that your routine is working well for you. You are practically on the fringes on onederland already.

Robbin, I agree with Emily. That smoked sausage and doritos couldn't really be two pounds. Sighhhhh, I would love to see that 219 that you're sick of right now. I wish you could send it my way.

Shawn, I'm glad to see you back. Don't you hate those mindless eating moments.

Cheryl, Woohoo on the 2 pound loss!

Stacey, LOL on the big pee. I love those two and always hope it means a big loss. Sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't for me.

Erin, are you still avoiding the scale? I may hide mine for a few weeks. I'm getting a little frustrated at the lack of progress.

Michelle, Hope to see you posting again soon.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of us in the US this week!

I'm back -- did you miss me? Or maybe the better question would be . . . did you even notice I was missing? Only kiddling -- I know I was missed (at least at first) -- and I know you must all feel that I totally fell off the face of the earth, I've been gone sooooo looooong. The last time I posted was July 27. Wow. I have really missed all of you. Yes I have been busy with that silly old work project but that is really no excuse. I sort of got to the point where I could only stand to be on the computer for so long each day and all the time seemed to get used up doing that junk and it was getting extremely depressing, too. Busy, busy, busy through August and September and then I spent most of October in Ontario. At least I got to spend Thanksgiving with my family for a change. Anyway, the project is 99% over and done with now so I hope I can get back into the swing of things around here.

Although I haven't read everything in this new thread in depth, I did scan back to the beginning. Glad to see new faces Hope to get to know all of you in the next little while. Glad to see so many old faces, too -- but sorry to notice that a few have gone missing. But who knows -- some of the other 'prodigals' may return, too.

My good news -- in the almost four months I've been missing I did NOT gain weight. As a matter of fact, I lost a little over ten pounds (at my usual snail speed; but I'm certainly happy with it, all things considered.)

Anyway, old-gang-of-mine, I will be back tomorrow . . . I really, really will. Have a great evening, everybody. Keep moving and shaking. We have nowhere to go but down.

Just a quick drop in, lots to do before heading out of town to the inlaws for thanksgiving but let me just say....Tina, you read my mind. I dont know what my deal is...i am SO scared that i am working my way into a funk. Last week was great but only lost a little over a pound and i think that got me down. I should have been happy but i just feel like this weight loss is dragging...what happened to the 3 pound weeks that came so easily? Did okay on the weekend actually, rare for me, until sunday night. I wont even go there. Monday started out great. I was ready to recover and at work the office ordered BBQ, and instead of eating half of my sandwich, i picked at it until it was all gone, and it was a BIG sandwich. I did great today and then my son made homemade macadamia brittle...oh my gosh...i could eat it until it was gone. I keep going back for one more bite...so i have had about 20 of those one more bites. Now tommorrow we are off to the inlaws where there will be no exercise and lots of food. I am getting SO depressed just thinking about it. If i can just maintain i will be insanely happy...but that is looking like a long shot at this point.

I wish us all luck this week with most of us having to deal with family and thanksgiving...gosh that sounds bad, ha ha, but you know what i mean.

Lots of love and encouragement to you all, talk to you when i get back to town.

Well ladies, it's been a long day of fighting my mental battles...A.K.A food cravings and desires. I kept reminding myself of the awful feeling afterwards and so far that has kept me at bay. I had a really good day, kept all in line. Food, water and exercise and feeling pretty positive. Lets hope this sticks!

Tammy, I hear ya girl. We have to keep our spirits up as best we can. It's been a tough go this past while but we have to hang in there. Results don't come in little cookie jars, chip bags or nice hot comfort food. LOL!

Wow, Linda! Look who crawled out of the wood work! Glad to hear things are beginning to clear up for you again. And wow, you've lost through it all. Way to go girl!

Michelle, haven't seen you in a while either. How are you doing?

Stacy, as being smart women you would think that we'd learn after one downfall experience. I guess it's true what they say, food is an addiction too. My gosh it's hard to go without our little friends named sugar, salt and crispy. I think it's harder to overcome a food addiction because we can't go cold turkey, we have to eat to stay alive. It's harder to form a healthy relationship with food when quick, easy, fattening foods are thrown in our face everywhere we go and it's those foods that got us through our days. So obviously it's going to be hard to avoid them and sometimes we feel we can't and that's okay because we get to fix it and try harder the next day. We can beat this, one step, one avoidance at a time!

Have a great night girls, see you tomorrow! Remember, we're a support group...if you're going through a rough spot...don't stay away..Keep posting!
~Tina

Wow Wow Wow !!! One day without me checking back in the afternoon and we have exploded. I am so happy to see all of the faces here. Linda you have definately been missed. Actually anyone who hasn't posted for more than a couple of days has been missed. I really do miss anyone and everyone. This group is my life support. Without all of you I would never have made it this far. There is a girl in my office who is now trying to loose and has told me I am her inspiration and she comes to my office everyday to discuss food and weight loss ideas. She has said that without me being there she wouldn't have even been able to start. Well that is how I feel about you ladies. Don't want to put the pressure on but, man, I do depend on all of you to keep me going. I feel like most of you know me better than my close "friends" and family. I have always been totally honest with all of you on my feelings for food and weight. I have never done that with others before. It is so hard to tell someone who is close to you that sees you all of the time exactly how messed up in the head you are when it comes to food. And that is exactly how I look at it. Somewhere along the way in my life my relationship with food became a bad one. Just like people who are in an abusive relationship with another person. They know they need to get out but they are too afraid to do it and sometimes too comfortable with what they know. I feel that is how we are/were. I have abused food for years and years and let it abuse me. But I haven't ever really done anything about it because i was too afraid of failing or because I was too comfortable with what I was eating to change it. For some of us I think we might have inherited it from our parents. I know I did both of my parents have always been heavy. And when I look at what we always ate when I was living at home, its no wonder we all ended up heavy. So just how am I supposed to go to my mom and dad and say "Look, I have an abusive relationship with food. And I think you do too." They would probably put me in the loony bin. And as for my husband. Well I think he knows I have that bad reationship but he just doesn't understand. He has never never had a weight problem. He can put on 10 pounds this week and take it off next week with no problem.

LOL, ok that ended up a little longer than I had intended. Sorry, I guess my point was, I LOVE YOU GIRLS, I really do.

Good Morning, everybody . . . told you I'd be back today. Thanks for the big welcome back from Michelle (so sorry about your Mother ), Tina, and Robbin. You don't realize how much you count on a group like this until you don't have it for a bit.

I'm right in there with you when you talk about how open we are with this bunch . . . nobody except my pals on here actually know how much I weigh, or how I feel about it.

I'm also right there with you when you talk about the love/hate relationship we all seem to share with food. Boy I don't know how many times I've wished you could just give up food 'cold-turkey'.

Someday, they really will invent a diet pill that actually does work, but I bet it will only happen when the world's food resources are so depleted that we will need that pill to actually replace all other forms of nutrition in order to keep the population alive. Good thoughts and bad thoughts to that idea -- I'd really miss food, but wouldn't it be great not to have to think about it at all? Just take your nutrition pill once or twice a day and get on about the rest of your life? In the meantime, gang -- we are in this together and WE CAN DO IT.

Anyway, got to run. Need to get in the shower and then off I go to the GYN (oh joy). Since this 63 year old body was trying to have a period at the end of September (talk about a surprise), decided I'd better get things checked out. Probably nothing more serious than all the stress, but better to be sure.

In the meantime, WWI (Wednesday-Weigh-In) was good to me this morning. The FFM (Fairy-Fat-Mother) took away another 1.4 pounds, so it's time for me again.

See you soon, kiddos. Keep up the good moving and shaking.

Hiyas,
My name is jamie and I am a mother of 3 ages 1-5 and boyt hey are a handful.. I need to find ME time and really start working on the inside so it shows on the outside. I have no motivation, don't know why, just after the kids came, sleep was soooooooo important. I'm glad I was invited to this thread, I can't wait to get to know all of you and give and recieve words of encouragement on losing the pudge

Welcome Jamie! I hear you!! I have 4 kids ages 2-8. This is the first time in such a long while that I've actually put myself first as far as taking the time to exercise and eat healthfully. I'm so happy that whatever needed to finally clicked and it's happening for me. It's hard...I am so tired some days and some days I don't do much house-work, but oh well. I'm making exercise the main priority and everything else gets done eventually, lol.

Hey Linda! Glad you are back! I don't know if you remember me, but I do remember you-- from this thread and around the boards too. We have Canada in common and I think we have both been around for awhile!

I am really tired tonight. I've been getting up at 6 am to do t-tapp, then today was a running day too. I hardly had any energy the rest of the day. But the scale is looking good for weigh-in tomorrow. Then a friend is hosting an American Thanksgiving for me and a couple other transplant friends. Should be yummy! A little worried for desserts...she is having pumpkin pie, cheesecake and apple crisp! Ack! lol

I got a feeling it's going to be awfully quiet in here this weekend...LOL! Hope all you American friends have a blessed Thanksgiving and enjoy your families.

I'm just on my way out the door to do water aerobics after dropping Alyssa off at school. Feeling pumped today, which is a good way to wake up I guess! LOL I would love to keep this motivation and determination up through out the weekend.

Robbin, I for one count on you too! Seems we all take the words or thoughts right out of eachothers journals. This is such a great support to be surrounded by wonderful women who know exactly what crap you're going through.

Linda, honestly...I don't think I would really like the idea of eating just a pill for nourishment and I hope I'm not alive when the world comes down to that. LOL! I love food and desire to have a healthy relationship with it, not just trying to figure out a way around things with what I can get away with. LOL! Congrats on your loss! We need some good positive weight loss news in here. Now, can you send that FFM around a little!?

Jamie, welcome to our group! Glad to have you join us. We all know how hard it is to put ourselves first especially when you're taking care of everyone elses needs too. You Can do this girl!! Looking forward to getting to know you!

Emily, okay girl...you just gave me a "no excuses" kick in the butt. If you can get up at 6am to exercise then I should be able to too! I'm excited to hear what your scale has let go of. Keep it up, you're so inspiring!

Have a great day ladies. I'm off to either drown or swim my way to a thinner me!

TTFN!
~Tina

Hi gang . . . just wanted to say a quick HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all of you "southerners" (anybody on the other side of the Canada/US border is a southerner in my book )

JAMIE . . . A great big welcoming for you girl. Will be looking forward to seeing less of you lots more often now that you've found us.

EMILY . . . Of course I remember you and glad to see you here, too. So, do you do two Thanksgivings every year? And then turkey again at Christmas?

TINA . . . We all know that the FFM was yours to begin with and I'm sure she will not desert you for long; but I do appreciate being able to borrow her once in a while. I don't think we have to worry about that "diet pill" showing up anytime soon . . . and I agree I would really miss food, too.

MICHELLE . . . The holidays are always the toughest, but the change of scenery should help a bit . . . this is probably a good time to start a new tradition.

Well, I've had a rather unpleasant couple of days. My GYN appointment yesterday afternoon was . . . well, painful. Apparently (to quote the doctor), an Endomitrial Biopsy is one of those procedures that becomes "increasingly more difficult the longer you are after menopause". Translation, (mine) "the older you are, the more it hurts". The good news . . . everything looks fine and dandy, so far. Still have to have an ultra-sound, but the earliest booking I could get was for January 8. Then today, after much discussion with a good friend, I decided it was time for poor little Goldi (my orange cat) to make her 'last' trip to the Vet. She has been suffering with a string of problems over the last couple of months and no amount of medical efforts have alleviated her problems. She has now gone to a better and less painful place. But it is hard to do, even when you know it is for the best. Needless to say, I've been indulging in a little too much comfort food over the past 24 hours -- my blood sugar reflects it now and the scale- will probably notice by this time next week.

Enough of my blathering for now . . . see you all tomorrow. Keep on moving and shaking, gang.

Wow . . . everybody must be out doing that "day after Thanksgiving" shopping thing we hear so much about on the news.

Have a good day . . . get lots of bargains . . . and remember that a good 'mall-crawl' counts as exercise.

See you soon, gang.

Good morning! I'm just happy to report that my determination is still strong today. Scale has come down 1.5lbs. since yesterdays weigh in. I'm getting slowly back to ticker! There is no school today and hubby is taking the morning off, so already it feels like the weekend. Sheesh...I just hope that I can stick to my guns! I'm going to have some breakfast and then off to the elliptical, just gotta keep focused on the long term benefits!

Michelle, just keep surrounding yourself with loved ones who know exactly how you feel. Together you will get through this first holiday without your mom. And holy cow! You don't like sweets?!! I so envy you, I'm dreading the baking I have to do for Christmas cause I know it will be incredibly hard...I'm mean INCREDIBLY hard for me to keep out of them!

Linda, whoa...not envying you my dear. That appointment sounds like it was really uncomfortable. I hate those appointments. I haven't had "one of those" since I was pregnant. At the six week check up after birth I used the excuse that I had TOM and never went back! I'm terrible I know, and the only one I'm fooling is myself...but they are just not a pleasant thing to go through. Sorry to hear about your kitty, but like you said it was for the better. Now you need a new little kitty to help you get over it and stop feeding your grief...LOL! Try that excuse on the hubster!

Well girly girls...I'm off to beat this day with an elliptical! Have a great one!
TTFN!
~Tina