For now anyway.

Weeesa: Congratulations on your good news (and bagging the scale)! Glad you'll still be here, though, because I enjoy seeing your posts. I like your version of thought stopping ... substituting a positive picture ... I have a print of a girl in a bathtub, with fields outside and a warm fire and a cat on a braided rug inside. There is a little sign in the picture that says something to the effect of: "Slow down and know the truth." I think that picture would be a great thought stopper and I will try it.

Eydie: I think you are right, it is sometimes unrealistic to think one can always be in control of food ... but I keep working to that goal because having been much heavier than I am now, I know without control most of the time, I'll be back where I started and everything in life was more difficult at that higher weight. But that's only my experience and everyone has their own way of meeting challenges.

Jelynn: Glad you are not AWOL. Fudge is a poser, isn't it? One hates to throw it away, but it does usually need to go ... whenever someone gives me fudge (especially white fudge), I eat one piece and give the rest to someone else. I live in a tourist area where I've been known to go to buy what I call "tourist fudge" in several flavors and try to keep it in the fridge for weeks ... it never works so as soon as I start to binge, I mash the fudge up and pour water on it and throw it in the trash. Extreme, but workable.

To everyone: Have a great day tomorrow or today, whichever it is where you are. I'm going to bed!

Hi girls!

Jelynn Thanks for the congrats and it's good to see you stop by. You know, I've told a lot of people this: "It takes energy to lose weight". That means if you're busy and working a lot of hours and trying to do lots of things, finding enough energy to lose weight (which it takes a LOT of energy) is very hard to do. I've always believed that a person needs to find the right time in their life to lose weight. I started posting here at 3FC's in the summer of 1999. I was trying to lose weight but I just "couldn't". I just wasn't in the right place for weight loss in my life. But then finally I went on vacation, and I heard the real "click" in my mind and I joined WW and everything else just fell into place. I'm sure it'll happen for you too!

Crone I like your thought-stopping picture. I hope that works for you! It really worked for me when my cat-baby "Tim" disappeared in August. Whenever I thought of him hurting or scared, I would "stop" those thoughts with my mental picture. I just couldn't bear to think of the awful things that could have happened to him "out there". It doesn't do any good to think about them anyways. Now I've finally come to a place where I know Tim is at peace, wherever he is. I really believe that he is up there with God and maybe he talked God into sending me a baby. It's a nice thought anyways! I hope you continue to stay in control today!

Well, I have to admit that I celebrated yesterday with a certain box of chocolates. But I stopped celebrating as of last night. I've already noticed one thing that might be a problem for me: My husband keeps trying to feed me! Ice cream, pizza, Pop-Tarts, he wants me to eat everything! At least I can tell him "No thanks, I'm feeling queasy right now" so that he'll stop the food-pushing. But it's still really hard. I'm going to try eating 37-40 Points a day and see if I'm satisfied with that. Hopefully my doctor will have some good ideas too.

I'm still in shock! I did sleep in this morning instead of working out but I'll definitely work out tomorrow. I'm going to shoot for 5 days a week of 35-50 minutes, doing Tae-Bo or treadmill or weights, whatever I feel like I can manage. I definitely don't want to lose any muscle tone while pregnant.

I think all of my animals are really happy for me. They all want to be in my lap lately, especially "Punkin" right now. She is all lovey. King, my horse, kept nudging me in the tummy yesterday and then he took off running and squealing across the field. I think he's excited. He has always LOVED kids, especially babies.

Well, I better go. I'm glad I don't have any morning sickness. My mom didn't have any either so that's probably why. I hope to see more posts today! I'll be back tomorrow.

Love, Lisa

Lisa, I was wondering too how you'd wait till Christmas day to take a test! You sound so happy and excited!!!! Your joy is our joy and your husband sounds like he's being incredibly cute right now!

It took a will of iron but I stayed fudge-free yesterday. It helped to remember how queasy I felt yesterday morning. Last night at the reception there was a bit of fudge left so I was wrapping it up for folks to take home! [Hmm, still don't feel completely right about that--but they wanted it.]

I knew last month when I had that 34 day streak that it would end and with that knowledge going OP hasn't been devastating--but I do miss that supreme control!!!

Crone, I love the phrase, 'slow down and know the truth'. That's perfect! Simple. Another one I like and have in my kitchen is "I always have a choice'. And Crone, when I know that I can't have something in the house, I'll snatch it up pour dish soap on it and water and scroosh it into a big soapy mess and strangely it's not tempting anymore.

hey there. well, night before last i was craving really nasty hot dogs with cheese and all sorts of stuff (why do we crave these things??) and i resisted it. i thought about the comment on the thanksgiving thread about resisting cravings strengthens us to do it more. then, last night, i just gave in. just stopped thinking for a bit. this morning, i did some exercising before work, so i'm at least headed for the right track. i measured myself, and amazingly, i'm not too bad off for having slacked for the past few weeks.
i'm glad i'm not being tempted with fudge and cookies yet-good to hear your ways to deal with it, though. i especially liked eydie's suggestion with the dish soap
well, take care all. here's hoping our days only get better

Well, speaking of just giving in, I'm back at it. A lot of things started bothering me today and here I am back bingeing. I've also been toying with adding meat back into my diet but rather than the small amount I planned, I've eaten fast food burgers for two days ... not good when you haven't eaten meat in years. But the meat is temporary, as is the binge. Just a nutritional blip in my system ... the postive thing here is, I know tomorrow I'll hear the click again ... I can tell that click is just about ready to come through. The bad news is I probably have gained the 2.5 pounds back, but c'est la vie.

Good work on staying fudge-free, Edyie. I love the picture of you pouring soap on dangerous food!

Off to bed.

Downward, all! (Tomorrow is another day, Scarlett!)

Hello, My Lovelies!

I've been moving for the past week. Got the last of the stuff out of the old house on Wednesday, and got reconnected (high speed -- YAY!) late yesterday. We are going to be happy here. I love being in a real house (the other one was more of a cottage) and I love being in my old neighborhood, 1 block away from a beautiful park surrounded by the harbour. Walking out our front door, we can go either 3 or five miles around the waterfront. Or we can walk through the woods. In the winter, if it stays cold long enough, they put in a skating rink at either end. I've lived in this area for most of my adult life, and it really feels like coming home.

I've been doing pretty well, although eating more carbs some days than are strictly good for me (take out pizza after moving, for example). But I haven't been overeating, and I've been working pretty seriously for hours and hours a day, carrying boxes of books (millions of them) up and down stairs and etc. So I should come out of it okay. I think there's a Monday morning WW meeting I may go to.

WEEESA !!!! That is so exciting -- congrats! I know that you are going to be a wonderful mommy! One of our beloved cats disappeared the second night here; we're still hoping he'll return.

Eydie -- I laughed about the detergent on the goodies -- it reminded me of something that happened once upon a time. I worked in a Lebanese restaurant for a long time, and we served baklawa. The syrup was kept in a squeeze bottle on the counter, as was the detergent. One of the waitresses accidentally put detergent on baklawa and served it to a customer. She realized her error when I said, "oh shoot -- we're STILL out of syrup!" When she went to the table, the customer had actually eaten it and thought it was just some exotic Lebanese thing, like flower water in the syrup.

Crone, how are you doing? I don't know if this might help you, but I find that if I make sure to get some protein (not nec. meat) and fat that I have far fewer cravings. When I try to go very low fat and eat a lot of (even healthy) carbs, I often find that I have unmanageable cravings. Funny how this thing is so much easier some days isn't it.

Hope everyone is happy and healthy -- Let's make today a great one! Love to all--

xo
babette

Babette, That's so funny! I just hope it doesn't inspire me to think that maybe that soap-soaked whatever wouldn't be so bad.
Congrats on holding things together thruout your move. I know how stressful that can be. Your new place sounds great!

Hi, guys! I'm calling my personal Red & Green Initiative a draw because I'm up four pounds this week and can't possibly make the weight goal I planned for New Year's. But the good news is that I had previously lost 2.5 pounds, meaning that this disastrous week of putting my mom in the hospice and a bunch of other events only put on four pounds and not 6.5.

Today The Click is in. Got to go ... having trouble typing replies with very delayed computer processing on the forum the past few days.

Good Morning, Lovies!

I am officially starting off this week with a new resolve to journal, drink the water, get extra exercise, eat super healthy & etc. Still a couple of weeks to Christmas and a few to New Years -- I could feel pretty fabulous with even a few more pounds off by then. I'm going to go to a weigh-in this week. I think I've held my own over the last week. I ate reasonably well and definitely got tons of exercise. I'm going to drink extra water and be really careful and see if I can squeeze off a pound by weigh-in. There are 3 or 4 meetings around here that i can choose from, so I can always go to a weigh-in on a day that I feel "light." After my pre-bought package of weeks expires at WW I think i will join TOPS instead -- WAY cheaper!

So far, I went for a 3-mile walk this a.m. I'm going to try to sneak in a yoga session throughout the day and -- of course --lug a few boxes and do some unpacking

Crone, I'm so sorry about the difficulties you're going through with your mom. I'll be sending you good thoughts. Remember to look after yourself.

Eydie, hmmmm... hey now, I never actually thought of trying soap as a condiment... Actually, I really admire you folks that can throw food out or destroy it. Sometimes I'm okay with goodies in the house and sometimes not, but generally it stays until it gets eaten (sometimes this is not a long time, of course ).

Let's make this a great day, Everyone. Love to all!

xo
babette
231/210/160

Thanks to whomsoever mentioned The Click ... our favorite "Ah-Ha, I can do this" moment in relation to weight loss. I'm pretty sure the click is in now. I broke my own rule about getting on the scale any other day than Sunday and hopped on this morning. I'm down .5 pounds, so yesterday helped with 1790 calories and NO exercise, only rest and stretching.

Congratulations on your new house, Babette! It sounds as though you are really having fun getting into the swing of things there.

Have to run, figuratively, not actually.

Babette Welcome back! Congratulations on the house. It sounds like you are really comfortable there. I also thought of joining TOPS before getting pregnant. With TOPS you still have the accountability of the scale but without all the $$$. If money is tight after the baby, I'll definitely be going to TOPS instead of WW too. Let me know what you think of it. The other good thing about TOPS is that you can use whatever diet plan works for you. I plan to stay with 1-2-3 Success for the rest of my life.

Crone Ah, the click returns! Way to go on the .5 pound. NOw that you're back in control, those pounds will be running away from you. It seems like they can leave as soon as they come if we get them right away.

I had my first attack of "nausea" last night and this morning. It's like a big wave that washes over me and leaves me with a weak feeling. Not that bad but it makes me feel really tired. Plus I'm always hungry, like growling-tummy hungry. I'm just so afraid of gaining too much weight! I know that's a problem I'm just going to have to get over. I'm going to breast feed after baby is born so that should make it a little easier to lose the "post PG" pounds.

I still did my 40 minute jump rope and weights workout this morning, nausea or not. I increased my reps too, since I really want to be a buff mommy and not a flabby, tired mommy. I've been eating okay but I really need to work on it. I need to eat more fiber and healthier foods. That's my goal for this week.

Take care girls and have a great day!
Love, Lisa

Aggh! I'm being "kissed" to death. Somehow a very wicked bag of chocolate kisses made its way into my house and now I have to do battle. Either soap 'em and throw them in the trash or gaily sprinkle them into the Xmas gift bags where I'm likely to go in after them. I'll let you know how it turns out. Pray for my soul.......

Soothing, mellow and topped off with hot chocolate (Sugar Free Swiss Miss, 50 calories). No desire to binge. Able to read a book without making popcorn. No cravings.

Can't be MY house!

I'm praying hard, Eydie. Are you able to eat just one? If so, that's only 33 calories and chocolate has antioxidants and raises the endorphin levels in your brain. If you ate just one, you could soap the rest ... or put 'em in the gift bags and put the bags in the trunk of your car. This is especially helpful in places where it is cold, as one is less likely to do as one might in the desert and just go out there and get them at 3 a.m.

If you can't eat just one, my advice is to go with the soap as soon as possible.

Weeesa: Glad you survived your first morning sickness. Years ago I joined TOPS and thought it was quite a nice group. It is great you still did your workout. WW is a bit pricey. I've been thinking of joining the online program, but not sure it'll be worth the cost, since I'm essentially already at their maintenance level.

Downward, all!

No, Crone--I couldn't eat just one. Before I went into a chocolate coma Garry rescued me by putting them in his car and he'll take them to work and give them to kids. Man, what was I thinking? My intention was to do something Christmas gift-y with them but once that bag was open...yikes! There are some things that I can't have in the house and I knew that!

hello. i'm feeling more on track than i have in a long time. i finally got back to the gym this morning-wow it felt good to be back! (of course, it won't feel so good tomorrow morning....) after the gym, i went by the local health food store just to see what they have, and it's a nice little place. lots of hard to find oriental stuff, too. (i really like thai food and they had some good stuff for making it). i also finally got a box of kashi golean cereal. someone on here had been talking about it quite a while ago. i'm having my first bowl and i really like it. lower carb/high protein, too.
so, i'm heading back to where i feel i should be. in all the "bad" times of the past month or so, i did gain back 3 pounds, but it could have been worse!
congratulations to all of you winning the battle over holiday chocolates and such. tomorrow is out xmas luncheon at work-i hope i do ok. i know there are supposed to be a lot of veggies, so i can try to fill up on those.
take care and wish me luck on sticking to this!