Hi Mary
I'll be going to the Pearl River Resort, Choctaw Mississippi. There are two hotels there and we are staying at the Silver Star.
Oh, I am so looking forward to this trip, chance to meet new people and just to travel. I just wish I could take all my family with me.
Ok enough dreaming, because I know they wouldn't want MOM to go everywhere with them
Well I am off to bed for some nice dreams. Mmm and thats not for food.
I'll be back tomorrow and check on you all lighter.

Hey Chickadees -
Looks like I am doing the night owl duty tonight! I just got back to the hotel room a short time ago and am not quite ready for sleep yet. This trip has been fun, but busy. I am actually on a business trip, but I mix some fun with it. One of my dearest friends from high school lives in this area (Minneapolis) so I flew in early yesterday and we spent a few hours together. Last night was a work dinner and today was meetings until about 2. Then we had to squeeze in some fun so a few of us went to a local casino. We stayed longer than expected. We didn't eat dinner until 11pm. Ugh --- and too much of it. We stopped at Fridays. Eating has been tough the past couple days. Tomorrow we have morning meetings and then a flight back to Philly at 3.

I will have to go back and catch up on the messages since I left --- especially the ones about burning calories while lovemaking and what was this about "gardening"??? I'm not going their right now.

I'm sure I'll check in later tomorrow once I get home and settled! Sweet dreams to all. I should probably hit the sack myself!
Talk to you later.
Barb

Good morning ladies. It is 6:30am and I have been up ALL NIGHT !!!
I am embarrassed to confess that while cleaning out corners of closets...
I have found paper crap from 1980 !!!
I found what I considered "important" papers back then. LOL
I don't think they are too important any more... 23 years later.
Can you guess what year I moved into this house ?? Yep... 1980.
I hope none of you "neat" people have had a stroke from hearing this.
I am actually pretty neat... that is why those boxes were neatly packed away into a far deep corner. LOL LOL
I have always told you... paperwork is my MAIN DOWNFALL !!!
Does anyone know how long you should keep you old 1040's ??
I have them from the year we got married... 1969 !!!!!!!!
I have heard proof of claims for 7 years if you filed long form.
The form filed itself... forever. ???????

Okay... I need to get back to work again. I have MORE boxes that I don't know what is in them. They say everyone should move every 10 years just to force you to throw away CRAP !!! LOL
It is a good thing I got out of my slump... I could NEVER have coped through all of this where I was before. I need to remember that for ME (and I speak for me only) ... that I MUST keep my carbs reduced to maintain emotional stability as well as good weight loss.

Have a wonderful day. If I ever quit working on the closets... then I will be asleep... so I don't know when I will be back.
Tina... I will try to get you a longggggg post soon. But I thought I was doing pretty good. LOL I just havent shared any "stories" in awhile.

So far so good. I made it up and about early this day and here in a minute I plan to get dressed and head out for a walk. I have had two totally OP days. Fitday is really helping me a lot. I used an idea Tina mentioned in regard to her yogurt covered raisins. I bought a bag of baked Doritos, but before I even ate one I measured it all out into portions, put them in resealable plastic baggies and put them back in the chip bag. Now when I go to grab some all I can grab is one portion without looking like a However we all have our days, and on some of them I could care less if I look like a

So this week is going well except that one slip up. Even on that day I only took in about 200 calories more than I burn. It will all balance out with what I'm doing now. Well, gotta go take that walk.

Good Morning to all!

I just got home from work...another L**O**N**G night. But I'm off tonight...yay!

One of the nurses is moving to Arizona, so a few of us got together to give her a going away party. These girls brought in SO much food!!! Chips and dip, cheese and crackers, cold cuts, bread and rolls, cake, cookies, you name it! I hadn't really eaten dinner, opting for sleep instead. (Well...I did have a few bites of steak that hubby left for me.) So, with this in mind, I thought, Okay...I can have something... So I had a few slices of ham and swiss cheese and a spoonful or two of this fabulous dip! (I'll give you the recipe in a minute...) NO: bread, chips, crackers...in other words, NO CARBS! And I was fine!

(I'm with you, 2cute...I function much better without the carbs. I am amazed at the difference in myself.)

ANYWAY...

As we're standing around, chatting and eating, etc, someone whips out the old Polaroid camera! Well, I had been feeling pretty good about my weight loss, things are finally moving in the right direction, my scrubs are a little looser than before................until I saw my picture!!!!

REALITY CHECK!

Yes, I have lost some weight...and I'm proud of that...but I have a LONG way to go. So there will be no resting on any laurels until a whole lot more comes off. So that nixed the teeny piece of cake that I was going to have, just to be sociable! ((Funny how offended people get when you pass on the cake! Like I wish her any less good luck if I don't have any!))

On a positive note...I now have a great "BEFORE" picture!

I am more determined than ever to lose this weight. No more half-a$$ed efforts either. I WILL DO THIS!!

After I get some sleep that is...

Have a great day all...see you later!

Love,

Whoops...forgot the recipe...good for low carbers, or if you do low fat, use ff or lf cream cheese.

Jalapeno Dip

8oz cream cheese
1/2-1 small jalapeno pepper, chopped fine
1 tsp minced garlic
Fresh cilantro, chopped

Mix first three ingredients together til smooth. Sprinkle cilantro on top, if desired. That's it! This would be a yummy dip for veggies, but it was good all by itself too!

That's all folks, gotta run!

Oh my gosh! Tina what part of conneticut will you be in! Kat you better believe I will be there to meet my girl Tina! Steph, Barb and whoever else is in this vicinity lets all hook up! IT will be a blast!! I am sooo excited! THis is better than a vacation! LOL

OK I gotta run and get my boy some lunch...we just got back to my mom's this afternoon. I'll try and catch you all later tonight!

Love you guys!!

Well ladies, I realized something today. Yep, it is time for another revelation. This last week I’ve spent a lot of time messing around with Fitday and working out my diet plans. It has perhaps prevented me from doing some other things I had planned on doing. I was thinking as I was cooking dinner how I was going to explain the whole week having gone by without any huge accomplishments on housework. Then I realized, I was learning how to eat right for me. There have been a lot of things I thought were good choices only for me to enter them into Fitday and find they were throwing me off. See I realized learning how to lose weight is like learning to ride the proverbial bicycle. Remember when you learned??? First you had training wheels, for me I guess that is Fitday, then eventually after you got confident with the training wheels you took them off. Then at first without the training wheels you fell quite a few times, but eventually you got it. Here is the other part though, even once you knew what you were doing you still fell off every once in a while, right? So I think that is what this journey is going to be like. We can get frustrated and never learn to ride the bike, we can ride on the training wheels the rest of our lives, but that isn’t really riding, or we can take the slow bumpy road to success knowing we might fall a bunch of the times, and also knowing that getting back on is going to be the only way to succeed. I know what path I’m going to choose.

All that said, my day has gone very well. So far Fitday is keeping me on track to my goal. Hope all of you are doing well. The thread was kind of quiet, hope that means you are busy and not eating like a Get in here and tell us what is up and how you are doing, even if the wagon backed over you and ran you over again. We’re here for you.

GOOD AFTERNOON FOLKS

I am just kicking back and resting up a bit before all the company arrives. Got every thing in order that I am going to do so far except putting the finger foods I am serving in the oven. You see we are having a White Elephant gift exchange and finger food party and expect about 30 or so people to show up. What fun! Guess Turn gets to spend another evening in the guest room. Turn is my cat, actually his name is Turn Abouts Fur Play and answers to Turn. Doesn't know what kitty, kitty means. Thin you know what he looks like. It was sure great chatting with you last evening and getting caught up on stuff. I decided to come and visit over here for awhile and see how it goes. I still have the same struggles as I did when I was over 300 and just being under it now doesn't make it any easier. But I am back at it and not going to squander the rest of this year of 2003. Yeppers, these last 6 months of 2003 my plan is to lose 1 ~ 2 pounds a week and just do it. Start an exercise program and see if that helps.

I am going to try to learn each of you so bear with me for awhile while I read what you write and so forth so we can get to know each other.

Catch you all later ~ have a nice fun filled safe weekend.

Hellllloooo ladies!!!

I wanted to get a quick post off tonight. My dad was released from the hospital today. Unfortunately, his kidneys are functioning at only 30% so this means he is going to have to follow a low sodium diet. I doubt he will - he loves salt, and he is really kicking and bucking over this. If anyone has any ideas for low sodium foods or recipes, please share with me. Thanks.

2cute ---- i see i'm not the only one with the cleaning/getting organized bug. It's amazing what we can accumulate and what we don't want to part with.

Amanda ----- your doing great; that's a great idea about the raisins and Doritos. Don't dwell on the one slip-up, just focus on the good things you've done this week.

Kat ------ i hope you'll think of me slaving away here while your off tonight. A round of applause for handing the party so well

Maggie ----- hi there; hope you have a great party

Mary --- hope you're having a good OP day.

Barb ----- hope you had a great trip.

The girls brough pot luck tonight, I brought Healthy Choice - I really want to stick with the Healthy Choice, but that fried chicken and fried corn looked awfully good

To everyone else that I didn't mention, hope you all are having a wonderful day. See you later.

I've got a couple of suggestions about your dad. My uncle is a kidney transplant recepient so has to watch his salt/sodium intake as well. Just don't put salt in any food as you cook it. I do this to this day. There is quite a bit of salt in prepped food so try to make from scratch as much as possible. Also fill the salt shaker at the table with low sodium sub. Everyone use this!!! If you can't resist having salt on your own food keep it over by the stove and put it on your plate before you come to the table. Or think of another discreet way to deal with it. My grandpa figured out where we kept the regular salt so he would take that shaker, finally we just put salt on our food at the stove if we wanted it. The biggest thing is using salt after something is cooked. That way you still get that salty taste with less sodium. Also watch the items he salts heavily like for me it is eggs and potatoes, and cook those less often with foods that don't need salt more often. Mexican for example.

Hope some of these ideas helped. Also if he uses a computer he can make a custom goal on Fitday to moniter his sodium intake. I imagine there are low sodium recipes on the web, if I find a good site for that I'll let you know. Good luck my grandpa was a real pain in the a$$ when it came to this, my uncle was easier. Of course my uncle's alternative was dialasis (sp?) which is completely miserable. In fact you could always take your dad to a dialasis clinic and let him see how much fun that will be. Maybe that will scare him straight off the sodium.

Okay, I've probably already said enough. Don't be offended by that last bit please. You have chatted with me enough to know I don't intend to hurt your feelings, and I'm sure your dad's health is a sensitive issue right now. Just know that you can't control it, just be supportive and loving.

Connie... I eliminate most salt from my diet years ago due to high blood pressure. Anything that comes in a can usually is high in salt. Stick to fresh veggies and fruits and meats over canned.
I agree with Amanda... do not use any salt while cooking. NONE. If your dad is against giving up salt he will sneak enough in on his own. POP is very high in sodium. I think Diet Rite is sodium free but double check to be sure. I use to always joke that Diet Rite was sugar free, caffeine free, sodium free and flavor free. But if you are addicted to soda it is better than nothing. LOL
Also anything processed is high in sodium too. You can't emlinate it completely... but you can reduce it a LOT. I got to the point I don't even like added salt now. They even have salt free chips now.

Maggie.. glad you joined us. I learned years ago... I am a foodaholic... I may refrain from overeating... but it is sitting there waiting to jump right back in there.

Amanda... great words of wisdom.... as usual.

Kat... your dip sounds good. But there is no liquid.... doesn't it just firm up and make it hard to dip ?? I often just add salsa to some creme cheese.... makes it more dippy. LOL

Barb... it is nice you were able to mix business with pleasure.
Nothing like getting double your moneys worth. LOL

Michelle... I am going to forgive you for meeting all of these cyber friends before me ... but you better save some vacation time to come to Okla.

Joanne... I sure hope you are flying to Mississppi from Arizona. That will be one longgggggg drive.
Have I ever told you what a beautiful smile you have. ??

Terri... you sound very knowledgeable about dogs. How do I get my 7 year old to quit licking everyone??? LOL

Sandy... thanks for posting about the reasons why it is good to be a woman. I have read those before... but they are always good to be reminded.

Tina... We haven't heard from you again.... your last words were if we didn't see you here... to watch in the news because there might be an announcement about a MURDER. I sure hope you aren't in JAIL !!!!
I posted a longggg post for you... and you are not here to read it.

Thin.... you must be having "showgirl" weekend. Give us all the scoop on the new movies. It has been a long time since I have gone.

Mary... can you do geneolgy on people from everywhere??
I inherited a painting by my great great grandfather. He lived in Germany or Poland at the time. Can you do that too? I would love to know more about him and where exactly he lived and such.

Okay... If I missed anyone I am sorry.
I tried to be sure I covered everyone on this thread.
I have got to go clean out more boxes out of the closets.
If you don't hear from me... after you call the police out for Tina... call the rescue squad ... to dig me out.

Hmmm, fun or not? I'm not sure. I barely got home from work and we had to leave and take #1 son (thanks thin...so much easier than typing "my oldest son") (of course, I just typed it, so I really didn't save any time after all, did I?) Anyways, we took him to work and then we went over to my granny's. Dh always takes care of her yard for her, so we went over to do that and I took the kitten that we are going to give her. (she was visiting) Speaking of the kittens, they are absolutely gorgeous! But did you doubt it? I mean, with a himalayan mama and a persian daddy? They are so beautiful. Two are silvery/blue gray and the other three (which we thought were black at first) are a deep dark chocolate. Granny is keeping one of the silver ones and we're keeping one of the chocolate ones and dh's sister is taking one and I'm sure we'll have no problem giving them away.....although I have to say, I might have trouble giving them away....I'm getting horribly attached. They have the most beautiful blue eyes. Ok, I'll hush for now...you'll have to excuse me.

I'm going to bed early tonight, so responses will be short.

Amanda: Thanks for all your good advice. You are truly an inspiration.

Connie: I'm glad your Dad got out of the hospital. Stay strong tonight at work. Chicken and corn are my favorite too.

Maggie: Welcome...my name is Tina. I've been married for almost 16 years and I have two sons, Brian (14) and Trey (10) and I am your resident Nascar expert....especially one driver in particular.

Michelle: I am going to Thompson, CT. and I hope to heavens I get to see you too! I can't wait!

Kat: Don't you love it when you feel like you're looking good and then someone takes a &%$# picture! I'm sure you're beautiful.

2cute: Well, if you are a pack rat, you are definitely in good company. I just found a two year subscription of "Episodes" (ABC soap opera) magazines that I have saved for almost 13 years. Yup, 13 years! And I don't even watch soaps anymore!

Barb: Hope you get to have a little fun mixed in with work. Thanks for thinking of us when you're away.

joe anne: You sound really excited about your trip...I know I sure am excited about mine. I can't wait to get away for awhile.

Terri: I can't believe your dog's name is Bear. That was my dog's name too. (the one that got stolen) Sure does look like yours is well cared for.

Sandy: Thank you. It is so nice to see that I'm not the only one that has the same problem. You did much better that I would have at KFC though. Good job girl!

Ok, I'm out of here for now. Dh is a butthole today. He is on my nerves so bad, I wouldn't care if he took off for a week or two. He's been doing laundry and gets so foul when he actually has to do something. Every other word out of his mouth has a in it and I'm about to slap him silly! Who says women are the only ones that have periods!?

P.S. 2cute: You and I posted at the same time, so I am here and I did read your post, so Love you!

Ladies, I am an idiot. I forgot to mention that my dad remarried and moved in with his wife. They are both in their 80s. I really appreciated all of the tips. I just don't think he is going to stick with this diet and I think she'll give in before long. They both have blood pressure and heart problems but continue to eat the pork, ham hock, bologna, etc. etc. I will try to get them some things at the store that I use and cook some things and take out to her house. When they found out buttermilk has sodium in it, well, I thought daddy was going to go through the roof!

I am rambling so I'll get off of this subject for tonight.

Hey Tina - I wish I could see your kittens; I don't think I've ever seen a brown cat. Do they have long hair??? Ooooohh, so cute.

You all have a good night.

I was not sure rather your father lived with you or not, so I tried to keep it general. Maybe you need to take his wife to the doc and have him show her what will happen to her hubby if she buckles??? It is essential that you have her cooperation. If you cannot get it all you can do I suppose is put it in God's hands. Unfortunately we all hate to give up our habits, even when our health is at stake. Look at all of us here on the thread. We are trying very hard to give up our old habits and improve our health, but it is really a battle for all of us. At 80 imagine how hard it would be to suddenly change the way you have eaten your whole life. Just be supportive, positive, and pray for them to understand.