ilovemo~McD's coffee here is .. err ... eye opening.. its strong and bitter here.. but if the place has different water it could taste completely different. There is a coffee house down from my work. Yeah, I am tempted not to go there everyday. The Mocha is my weakness. I take mine as is no added anything. A co worker of mine thinks I am crazy, but to me it tastes like a good quality deep dark chocolate ( High percent Cacao) with chocolate nibs and espresso( and if I could find that chocolate bar again it would be mine ... ohhh yes it would be bwahahaha)

Evening Everyone,

I'm on Ambien time, so I hope this post will make sense :)

qtkitty I feel you on the scale thing, one moment it's "yay, I'm losing" then the next is "ugh, I've seen this number one too many times". It will go down though, sure enough give it time. Before I went low carb, I was doing gluten free. We found this bread that the store owner said was gluten free, it was decadent, the entire family was eating it like it was cake. It was Spelt. Spelt has gluten in it. A lot of things have gluten in it. And those grains that don't on not good on the low carb dieting. So it's darned if you do and darned if you don't.

Diana It does stink to have an allergy to foods you've grown up with and have loved like old friends, but the pain and ickyness isn't worth it. Ha, I say that now while I'm dealing with it. Then the moment I'm clear I eat it again. I did talk to DH about the pasta, said he could continue to eat it, but I'm going to skip it. He said he was too as he wasn't impressed. Oh and I forgot to mention, your pictures are beautiful. You look marvelous.

Berry Speaking of pictures, I second everything Diana said. You look fantastic.

Moondance I am geographically challenged. You drove to Kansas and back in 7.5 hrs? I had no idea Kansas was that close to Colorado. To be honest, I have no idea what so ever where Kansas is located. Did your dh's car get towed home? I'm glad the trip was safe and not a binge opportunity, or one that you denied. Car rides are hard to do without eating bad food. I probably gained at the very least 30 of my pounds from traveling back and forth to Delaware for a few years.

ItsMyTurn love the action shot of you. Did you get any tennis in today?

AFM I barely got anything done. I did maybe 3 or 4 loads of laundry, some scribbled notes and editing, but I ended up zonking out and not getting a workout in. And tomorrow is Tues, so not sure what will happen. I will do my best :)

I hope you all have a great night.

Mamakat~ *lol* see thats why I would not be good on low carb ... I have lowered my intake a good bit though and increased my meats. I tended not to eat meat and go for the starch and carbs more so. Not even sweet carbs but more potatoes and bread.

qtkitty I love breads and potatoes, but I'm a sweets junkie too. I am an addict to the sugar. I say I can say no, but I can't. I did do low fat dieting in the beginning and lost a good amount of weight, but I also binged a lot. I hardly ever binge with low carbs.

Hi Everyone!

I am new to this site and haven't really figured my way around it yet. I did weight watchers after i went back to work from maternity leave and kept it off for 3 years until I began struggling with crazy digestive issues that have pretty much been running my life for the last 2 years. I am desperately ready to take back control of my eating and weight. I've made several futile attempts to make WW work for me again but for some reason, I just can't get my head back into it. I know I want to lose weight but I haven't settled on a plan yet. I'm open to suggestions and hoping for a little encouragement.

Christie.

Mamakat~ you have to do what works ... for now I am just trying to figure out if I need something or if I need to cut something out. There are like a zillion paths right now and I can go anyway, but I am definately not taking the one back to where I was ... Nope Nope Nope


oh and .... I may have some of that computer age want everything right now patients issues so seeing the over all number not drop out like it does unrealistically on biggest loser... I feel like Aww man ... but I know that if this was easy then everyone would be thin and fast food joints would be out of business * snickers *

outofideazz/Christie~ welcome ... I hope that you find a plan that works for you... have you tried calorie counting.. there are several online resources for finding the calories in foods.. then you can adjust from there... or there is low carb .... low fat... finding what works for you and is healthy is the important thing.

outofideazz I second what qtkitty says. I think a major start to weight loss is knowing how much is a true serving. I think a lot of us, go through life overeating because we never learn what a true serving really is. Calorie counting is a great way to start that journey. If you are an over eater, even eating food that is good for you, is still eating too much. You can join a calorie counting site...My Fitness Pal and Livestrong (I think) are two, but there are lots. Many 'chicks' are on MFP and would be glad to friend you and give you extra support. Also whether low fat or low carb or just learning how to eat proper serving sizes, you have to work with something that works with you. If you eat foods you don't like, you will begin to find losing weight a chore. It shouldn't be. You really shouldn't look at it as "I'm doing this to lose weight" that should be the bonus of changing your ways.

We do our best to teach our kids to eat right, exercise (and if your anything like me, you've used yourself as an example as why they should do so). We help them to go down the right path because we love them...it's time to love ourselves. Its time to take our own advice. The motivation behind losing the weight/changing our lifestyles shouldn't be for anyone but ourselves because we are the ones who must do the work and live the results. So on hard days you should repeat a mantra that reminds you that you are worth it. That's what I do.

I use Christine Agulera's You are beautiful, no matter what they say. I think one of our hardest struggles in life (for everyone, not just overweight people) is loving ourselves. Sometimes we feel selfish if we do it or sometimes we aren't raised that way, so it can be very hard. But that what lifestyle change needs. You must love yourself enough to make that change and stick with it. When the scale slows down or we have a bad day (and we will!) we have to remember, we are worth it.

I wish you the best of luck. Stay strong and post often.

Berry - WOW!!!! Love your new avatar! Look at you with definition in your neck and your face is all reshaped just from your last one! :O Amazing!!! Great job!!!!

Diana - Unfortunately nothing really fun happened in class - although I have realized I have to take my full dose of Ritalin to get through the day, LOL! The instructor was asking ME questions on functions of her computer - and have yet to really learn anything I didn't already know, but did get an opportunity to take 2 of the mandated testings you need to be allowed per federal standards, to be taking calls in that area - so there's my plus , :lol:

Mamakat - I don't get a chance to play tennis on weekdays. By the time I get home from work it is borderline dark and there are no lights at the courts. As soon as I got home both of my girls were waiting on me to help with homework, so not much time for anything outside the family last night. I am hoping to get out for walk/run or elliptical tonight though - feeling like I need a workout after being couped up :) Sorry about no movement on the scale, but you have been doing incredible lately, so I wouldn't worry about it ;)

Everyone have an awesome day!!!!

Good Morning, Everyone! :wave:

TTOM has me feeling sleepy/tired this morning. Still working on my morning energy :coffee2:

Calories for yesterday: 1440 + :coffee:
Weigh In: 146.6 (TTOM)
Down: .2

outofideazz (Christie) Hi :wave: and welcome to the check-in!

Hi Everyone!

Scale up a bit still from the weekend - more carbs than usual - but mostly back under control.

Heading out for my morning walk.

Have a great day on plan, everyone!

Wow, Diana, I'd didn't even notice some of those differences! Even when I was much think, I didn't have a lot of bones showing through in my shoulders and neck area, so if I ever gt that it will seem realllllly weird. It's funny you mention that I looked almost giddy. It was below freezing outside, it was 8:30 in the morning Andy was racing to get everything done in the morning and I was worried the sleep crease in my one eye lid would show up in the picture. I wanted to take photos that morning as Sundays, because of work, is when I usually look the best and someone is around to take photos. The Saturday photos of me in my mommy clothes didn't turn out as nice.

Anyway, thanks... My face has changed so much it's hard for metorealize it's me!

The scale is such the enemy. My scale, after a very weird month, is doing its usually thing now. Stuck for awhile... Pay attention to what foods spike weight, what times of the month stall you out and when the whooshes come, it helps with keeping your sanity.

Hope your headache is better today and now I want to try making that bread. I'm an avid baker and that has peaked my interest... Though I wouldn't eat it myself as I stay away from such carbs.

And thanks for the compliment on the picture. I had just gotten my hair cut on Friday and I like this cut a lot. It is really wash and go. Took me 3 minutes of drying to do. And the lightness is just the way the sun was hitting my hair. I haven't colored/bleached my hair since I was 23.

I'm about as much of a natural girl as you get. No plucking eyebrows, no foundations and creams, no hair dyes and bleaching, no nail polish, etc. I put on minimal makeup and I feel I need to because I'm so fair. My eyelashes are blonde. Without mascara, I have no eyes (and I only wear mascara on my workday or when I'm going out, so typically Sundays)

Anyway, thank you!