Hi, Everyone,

Here's my "official" version of the fable:

The Hare and the Tortoise

A hare met a tortoise one day and made fun of him for the slow and clumsy way in which he walked.

The tortoise laughed and said, "I will run a race with you any time that you choose."

"Very well," replied the hare, "we will start at once."

The tortoise immediately set off in his slow and steady way without waiting a moment or looking back. The hare, on the other hand, treated the matter as a joke and decided to take a little nap before starting, for she thought that it would be an easy matter to overtake her rival.

The tortoise plodded on, and meanwhile the hare overslept herself, with the result that she arrived at the winning-post only to see that the tortoise had got in before her.

Moral: Slow and steady wins the race.

This comes from a book handed down from my grandmother to my mother to me. The book is so old it doesn't have a copyright date or an author/editor's credit.

That fable has been the motivation for us turtles for about three years. Someone on the ancient WW forum mentioned the fable and I discovered it was very motivational for me. I talked about it in posts and other people said that the tortoise philosophy worked for them, too. So, I started a thread for us turtle types.

We work toward accepting that our bodies have a natural speed of weight loss when we choose to live a healthy life, instead of "going on a diet". Many of us have experienced "the diets" as go on/lose weight-- go off/ gain the weight plus more back.

We choose to perservere with each choice we make throughout the day. We believe that choosing to be slow, steady turtles helps us to learn the skills we need to in order to lose and keep off the weight. Our main focus is to become the healthiest people we can be.

So, welcome to all who realize that losing and maintaining a weight loss is a lifestyle change. And who want support as we all learn the skills we need to successfully make the changes that will allow us to reach our goals.

Lin

Hi, Turtles,

Lauren, I don't envy you your dilemma. I'm not a morning person, either. As a matter of fact, since I've started staying up later, I've been sleeping better and I've still been waking up between 6 and 7.

I have a suggestion for you: set your alarm for 6 and get up at 6:30. That's what I used to do and it gave me that waking up time I needed in order to get my bod out of bed.

But, I'm glad there's an end in sight for this difficult time and some freelance work for the summer.

Congrats on the near-jog. Being in that much better shape must feel really good.

Erin, thanks for the info re: choosing appropriate exercise. I wonder if we like certain activities because of our personalities and because they fit our bodies? I know that I love repetitive things like walking and skating and swimming because I do lose myself in thought. That's one way I work out writing problems and other issues in my life. My emotional health is vastly improved when I do that type of exercise and so is my writing. I also love dance and other exercises done to music because I get lost in the music. I do need to occupy my brain with something while I exercise.

You and my dh would be on the same schedule. The cats don't ever try to get anyone else up to feed them in the morning. No one else ever has because all of the rest of us are night owls.

Congrats on your finals and on (I'm sending good vibes ) passing Physics after all of that hard work. It's too bad our education system seems to expect that everyone can be equally good at everything and that we all learn in the same way.

My ds has been struggling with English this year in the same way you have with Physics. He's coming home this weekend to get some help on his final project. I hope he will be open to learning some techniques I think can help him translate his thoughts from images into words. He's the artist and he thinks in pictures. It's great when he's writing poetry or fiction, but murder when he's trying to organize an essay.

I'm glad that you're feeling so good about how you've been doing and that you see results off the scale. The thing you need to consider is whether or not looking at those scale numbers will detract in some way from that good feeling about the other things in your life.

A little story to illustrate: My oldest son's K and second grade teacher told me a story about a seminar she took. The goal was to help them learn new techniques for teaching writing to their students. She was having a great time with the assignments she was doing. Then the teacher came and put that "A" on top of the paper. She kind of resented that because the judgment took away from the accomplishment she felt just from doing the work. Perhaps you're feeling like the scale number is llike a grade that shows how well you "really" did, rather than just one measurement tool among many and that's why you're wondering about whether or not to go.

I'm NOT doing well, but I AM taking tiny steps to get back on track. Mainly, I'm working hardest to get back to walking. The exercise seems to be the biggest motivator in my efforts to eat properly because it lifts the horrible moods I've been in off and on this past year and a half. And I'm working on planning next week's menu, as I mentioned yesterday.

I don't know if any of you watch ER, but last night's episode was a real cry fest for me. I needed the tears, so I'm glad I watched. The episode was about one of the few remaining characters from the very beginning of the series. It was his exit from the show. He died from the same sort of cancer as my brother and they did a very accurate protrayal of his decline. It was like watching my brother all over again. So, when my ds walked in, he caught me all teary and he was appropriately understanding, as was my psychic cat. But I feel so much better today. Weird how sometimes fiction lets us express emotion that we bottle up in real life.

Hope you all have a great day. Happy turtlin'!

Lin

Lin, my brother only cries when he's either watching a movie or talking about one. It's the only way he lets himself release emotion. He's been doing it a lot more lately; I hope that's a step in the right direction. I'll respond more fully to yours and Erin's posts tomorrow.

Right now I have to finish some work I brought home. (Left early. It's too beautiful to stay in.) But I have to share this recipe I found here on 3FC; it looks great. We eat a lot of salmon, and I'm always looking for new grill sauce ideas:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/food/recip...ge-salmon.html

See you tomorrow!

Turtles, I have a history final (my last class that's not actually in my major, my last GE!) in about 2 hours, and I CANNOT focus. My brain will NOT let me sift through the material and hold any of the ideas in my head. I'm trying desperately to just look at it long enough so something sticks, but I decided that that was stupid. So I'm taking a break and am here talking to you.

I have decided to stay off the scale until June 1, and then revisit said scale on June 22 (the day of my summer solstice goal). For the week I have outlined what I want to achieve at the gym--the week 2 of my weights poster/workout/program/thing from M&FHers, at least 3 Spinning classes (ideally 4), at least 1 Pilates class (ideally 2)--and I am focusing on emphasising protein and vegetables for this week. And, of course, 210 points.

My best friend asked me to take her measurements last night, and I realized much to my surprise that my waist is 6 inches smaller than hers. Huh? How? What? Where? I know it's not nice to make an issue out of such a thing, or even to notice, but it caught me so by surprise that I can't let go of it. I have always been the "big" one. I am heavier than her, I think, or at least I always have been. I know I'm taller, that's not changed. What I was noticing wasn't that she was bigger, per se, but that I was smaller*. Do I really have that skewed of a sense of my body? Really? As much as I exercise you'd think I'd have a pretty fair idea of my dimensions...and I may well, but not in relation to anyone else...it just caught me so by surprise, I don't know what to make of it.

I am trying an experiment with her, this week. I was telling another friend basically what happens in the body when you start to exercise--essentially, the body is in balance and doesn't want to change anything (it's too much work for a short-term event) so it doesn't, but if you keep up "changing" things by exercise it will eventually give in and start to change--and I had a brain storm. It occured to me that BF's body might be deficient in the *extra* calcium and potassium needed for exercise, as she's deficient in everything (uptake problems) anyway...so if she tries taking extra calcium and potassium before exercise, maybe that will be sufficient. Worth a shot, right? I explained it to BF last night and she's willing to try it. So we'll see what happens this week. I drew up an exercise plan for her to do, and we plan to review the week on saturday. Fingers crossed!

Okay, as much as I love talking to you guys, I really have to work on that final. Wish me luck!

Bye Turtles!

Hi, Turtes,

I guess if my computer had to get flaky, this past weekend was a great time to do it. Not too many posts to keep up with, but that's typical for the weekend.

Eirn, I hope your final went OK. It must be frustrating to be unable to focus right before a major exam.

What you said about the way our bodies respond to exercise was really interesting. So, there is a physical reason why it's probably the most difficult thing for us to get into the habit of doing. Knowing why it's hard, helps me to have some confidence that it will get easier as I go along.

I had a really good weekend. My family made dinner Saturday night as my Mother's Day treat. My dh makes a killer lasagne!! Then on Sunday, we went to my mother's and had lunch there. It was great. Before we went to my mother's we had a family breakfast at one of the restaurants we miss. Then we wandered in a computer store and a good bookstore. It was a really good time and I think it helped my mom to have us there.

I've been getting in a lot more walking these past few days. But still not doing as well with food as I'd like. I think I'm going to focus on exercise and making good food choices this week.

Hope you all had a great weekend. I'm looking forward to hearing how you're all doing this week.

Happy turtlin'!

Lin

Lin, one of the things I was saying to my friend is that no one ever explains what's going on with the body in words regular people can understand. They're so impressed that they know the technical terms that they don't make it understandable. Impressive, maybe, but not understandable.

So, here's the full explanation.

Your body and all its chemicals is in a state of balance (homeostasis). It's letting out just enough of what it needs to function and do what you do daily. There are some things that it's hoarding for emergencies. So you start exercising. Exercising calls for lots of those body chemicals (not all of them, but most) in greater amounts. Now your body is screaming "nooooooooooooooooooooo!" because a) it doesn't want to give up what it's been hoarding and b) it doesn't want to have to balance out everything again. So if you only exercise once in awhile, your body figures this is just "emergency" stuff, and doesn't bother with the rebalancing part at all. It still panics at releasing some of its hoard (this is why exercise will be murder if you only do it occasionally). If you exercise regularly, though, your body (albeit begrudgingly) eventually accepts that it's got to rebalance and uptake more of the vital chemicals from your diet (so that it doesn't have to release the stores). You will start to retain more of the chemicals from your diet, so it doesn't have to release much of the hoard, and the body is happy. Not losing its hoard, and managed to rebalance to your higher chemical needs. This is when you "settle in" to your exercise program.

I'll bet you didn't want to know all that. I just like to talk about it.

Lin, I'm glad you had a good Mother's Day and I hope every else's was happy as well. We had a lovely breakfast with my mom and dad, brother, SIL, and nephew. Then we came home and...napped! Up too late the night before, I guess.

No results yet on the final I took saturday, but I have results from the final I took today. I'm not entirely happy with it--I had expected to do better--but I learned an important lesson: never ever count on a grade and stop working for it. ALWAYS study as hard as you can. Never take anything as given. So, in terms of what I learned, it was a good class.

I'm a bit high for 3 days (99 points) but I'm cutting myself some slack and not worrying about it so much because this is finals week, and frankly I haven't got enough energy to stress about it. I've only got one final left--Physics, thursday morning. I intend to spend the next 2 days studying. Never take a grade as given!

I was a bit off in Spinning this morning and a bit weak in Pilates this evening. Given that my mind was on my studies, this is not surprising. It'll be better next week.

At any rate, back to the book! Heh! Bye Turtles.

Erin, thanks for the exercise info. That has been precisely my experience. It was agony the first few months that I exercised regularly, really tough. But it did get better, and now I'm used to a certain level of it. When I bump up that level too quickly, it's agony again. But this time, I'm aware that the agony is temporary if I stick with it.

I haven't been getting in as much exercise as I did when I was unemployed (surprise, surprise), but instead of just quitting because I can't do 5 hours per week (my former answer), I'm getting in whatever I can. I'm aiming for exercise 4-5 times a week, even if it's a half hour each time. I know this is one reason why my weight loss has slowed down to practically nothing this past month and a half, but I'm also pleased that I didn't gain over one of my toughest times of the year. I credit exercise with a good deal of that.

This week I've been starving. Really hungry, rarely full enough. I know it's hormonal; major PMS this month. It hit me that I did not have PMS much during Lent. Why would that be? The only thing I can think of is that I ate a lot more soy during Lent. Either that, or my body doesn't like milk or meat products. I dunno. But it's interesting.

In spite of eating slightly above my points every day this week, I've maintained my weight. So I'm pleased about that. I just keep writing it down.

Lin, I'm glad you had such a nice mother's day. How nice that DH cooked for you!

Erin, good luck with the studies. Good lessons you're learning.

Judy, how's it going?

Onward and downward,

Lauren
274/189/170s before Adirondacks

Hi, Turtles,

Erin, thanks for the full explanation. I'm one of those folks who thrives on knowing as much as I can about new things. And your explanation gives me hope that things can get better for me as far as exercise is concerned.

OTOH-I was reading a magazine article yesterday and there was a little blurb in a sidebar that caused me to stop and think. They described what happens with me and exercise exactly. It was caused by not getting enough iron due to extra heavy periods. I'm working on getting to a doctor about that problem. I don't want to self-medicate with iron supplements, but I may add some more iron-rich foods to my diet. Does anyone know if it's the vitamin C in the citrus that helps with the absorption of iron? If that's what I need, I'd rather eat bell peppers for 0 points or baked potatoes with the skin on and topped with C-rich homemade salsa. There's lots of vitamin C in the skin of potatoes!!

Another thing I read about calcium and weight loss said that you have to take in 3-4 servings of dairy products (low-fat, of course) daily to get the benefits of their latest research. Essentially, they've discovered that a higher intake of calcium may make your weight-loss efforts more successful, but supplements don't provide this benefit. You have to get it through diet. But I also wonder how they know it's the calcium? Did they test other types of high calcium foods that aren't dairy? Maybe there is something in milk products that 's not in other foods that causes this. I haven't seen the actual study, so I don't know how well the experiments were created to account for the possibility that something other than calcium may be requried for that benefit.

But whenever I try to put together a food plan that includes the recommended servings of all of the foods that will help me be healthier and/or boost my weight loss efforts, the calories seem to add up to a lot more than I can eat on a weight loss plan and still lose weight. It makes me want to give up trying to use the good advice I find in many of the thoughtful articles I read.

It's also sometimes hard to deal with the conflicting advice in the articles I've read recently. Sometimes the advice is exactly the opposite between one article and another. Usually this reflects a bias on the part of the writer or editor who purchased the story. But it does make things complicated.

Good luck on your finals!!

Lauren, what a super attitude you've developed about your exercise! Is there any way you could split up that hour and do half in the morning and half in the evening? I hope you can work out a way to get your exercise back up to the level you need to in order to lose weight again. You've been doing so well. Too bad you can't figure out a way to be employed at home so your schedule is as flexible as when you were unemplolyed, but you still are bringing in enough income.

I got into a yucky mood yesterday and I couldn't figure out what was going on. Then my throat started getting sore. Well, my kids have given me a nasty cold. ICK!! I don't want to exercise today, but I have to go over to the mail place at the mall and send my ds's scholarship acceptance letter priority mail to the school. Well, I'm not pushing it. I'm going to amble along and also stop and pick up some cold medication and some hard peppermint candy to suck on. It helps the throat without adding medication I don't need, a trick I learned from a doctor once when I was having trouble with my voice.

Anyway, other than that walk I'm pretty much taking it easy today. I'm going to work on the book some. I've been researching maps because I'm getting to the point where I need to make a map of my world. I don't want to make one of those faux-British Isle maps a lot of fantasy authors use. I want to try to create a more varied map that covers a whole globe. Then I can use whichever part fits this story, and I have a whole world of places to use for future tales.

One of the most fascinating things I've been learning as I research how our solar system and our planet work is its complexity. I also am amazed at how delicate the balance of some of the things that keep our planet habitable for humans is. Then you add in the complexity of human cultures and creating a whole, realistic world becomes a mind-boggling undertaking. But I'm working on it one baby step at a time, a lesson learned from being a turtle, and adding and subtracting what I need to have a workable setting for my tale. It's fun, but hard work.

Have a great day!! Happy turtlin'!

Lin

Hi Guys,
Erin,
Good luck on your physics exam. I am definitely going to read through your explanation of exercise when I can grab a minute or two.

Lin,
Glad you had such a nice weekend. Being with family can be so nice.

Lauren,
Smart of you to keep exercise up even though you don't have the same free hours you had when you weren't working.

Me,
Eating too much--getting on track --going off track. Too many pressures at work--we're the only ones held accountable, but the administrators keep throwing impossible deadlines at us and then
don't give us the information we need to complete the work. It's actually humorous until the deadline approaches and we've all figured out another way to get all our stuff done. Teaching is changing enormously. Administrators keep trying to figure out a way to make their school fine and keep all teachers accountable.
I figure they should hire the best people they can, provide support, and leave them alone. Micro-managing is only bad for morale and exhausting.
I've had some nice days in the past week, but work pressure is pretty tough right now.
You're all in my mind and heart.
Judy

Hi, Turtles,

Judy, what a hassle! As much as I love to teach, I chose not to become a teacher precisely because teachers aren't trusted to be able to do their jobs without so much bureaucratic nonsense from the legislatures, the school boards, etc.

It seems as if you're eating from the frustration of being in a situation that you cannot change. Have you considered meditation, yoga, walking, or other destressors to help keep you from eating extra food?

I've been looking at my journal and seeing some patterns that I can use to help me get back on track, once this cold (especially the sore throat) goes away. In the meantime, I'm eating foods that I can swallow, like soup and yogurt.

I'm not doing much walking right now, either. I just don't have the energy. I hate being sick, but I know that no matter what I do, this cold will take at least a week to go away.

Hope you all are doing better than I am.

Happy turtlin'!

Lin

Lin, as my Scottish ancestors would say, ach! Poor lass! I hope you're feeling better soon. Drink that water. Your "world" sounds like so much fun. If you could scan that map once you've done it, I'd love to see it.

Judy, I've decided that the main problem with the world is managers. There are so few who really know how to do the job well. It's such a tough job, too -- and people just get thrown into it because it's the logical next step up the ladder, even if they don't begin to have the skills for it. I feel for you in your current micromanagement situation. Seems like everyone I know who works outside the home (including me right now) is dealing with lots of stress right now, mostly due to the people they're working with (mostly management). DH has the most ghastly working situations you can imagine right now -- the head of his department at the hospital is a certifiable paranoid nutcase, and he loathes DH. He has loathed everyone who has held DH's position. (In fact, he pretty much loathes everyone.) So DH is finding ways to cope with stress. One of his best -- really hard workouts. They work. I'm about to go for a long walk myself, partly to dissolve some stress and partly because it's 70 degrees outside and sunny.

I've been loading up on soy lately, and I think it has really helped my PMS. Interesting. And surprising. I was down a half pound yesterday at my home weigh-in -- and up 2.5 pounds at my WW weigh-in in the evening. Scales are such unreliable barometers of our progress. I wore heavier clothing than usual when I weighed in (forgot it was weigh-in day), and I must've been holding water because today I've wooshed it back out. After this long on this journey, I just find stuff like this amusing now.

Our WW leader last night was a substitute -- she was the first WW leader I had, the one who lost 85 pounds and has kept it off for 15 years. Last night she talked about her being a stress eater, a binge eater. She has repeatedly gained back weight during those 15 years, then lost it, then gained it, then lost it. She has never gained it all back, but I saw her one time when she had put back on about 25 pounds and was coming to WW as a member to lose it again. This was a couple of years ago, when she was struggling with a brain tumor and doing some serious stress eating.

Last night I told her that one of the most motivational things for me on this four-year journey has been seeing her struggle like this -- seeing her gain some weight back, come back as a member and take it off, gain some weight back, take it off again. She doesn't quit. She keeps coming back. To me, this is what a successful journey looks like. This struggle will never, ever end. I *will* gain back weight. The all-important thing is turning that around again. And again. And again. So many people see that as a sign of failure in themselves, when they "fall off the wagon" and gain back some weight. They tell themselves, what's the point, I've blown it, I'm useless, I'll never make it. What that really means is: If I can't do it perfectly, I won't do it at all. That's been the story of my life in so many areas. I thank God that this is one area where that stupid mythology has vanished.

Gotta go get the door -- TTFN.

Onward and downward,

Lauren
274/189/170s before Adirondacks

Hi, Turtles,

Lauren, thanks for the good wishes about this darn cold.

Hey--I just noticed--you have a great new picture up. You're lookin' good.

It's interesting about the soy and your PMS. Maybe I'll eat gardenburgers more often. Anything I can do to help PMS is worth a shot, as far as I'm concerned.

Managers--boy do I agree with you there. Incompetent or uncaring management has been behind all of my dh's layoffs over the past few years.

Your story about your WW leader and the idea that gaining and losing are a part of this journey, not to be confused with total failure, is a keeper. I never thought about it, but it does seem to be the way life goes for us. We continually fight against our body's tendencies to gain weight. Those tendencies will not go away and we have to be willing to deal with them every day.

That's what I've been struggling with ever since my brother's funeral. It seems as if every major crisis causes me to lose my motivation, but once I get it back, I'm fine until the next major life crisis. This pattern, along with my PMS ups and downs, has really discouraged me lately. But your story has helped me to see that there are solutions and I can find them and use them in my life.

It seems as though there are two keys for me. One is to plan enough in advance so that I have what I need in my kitchen in order to eat within my point range. The other is to focus on what I need to do right now, this day--journaling, exercise, drinking water, etc.

Anyway, thanks for the story. I needed to hear it today.

This cold seems to be going away slowly, but surely. I'm sure I'll be fine in a few days. Meanwhile, I'm taking it easy and getting some extra rest. I made a huge pot of soup yesterday and it's wonderful!!

Hope you all are doing well. Happy turtlin'!

Lin

Hi all!
Lauren,
Love your new picture. My goodness, your weight loss is really showing up. I'm a morning person like Erin, but sympathise with your need to get to work *on time.* You are getting up really early for someone who doesn't like to get up early. Also, you're doing a lot. I understand how that's the only time of the day to get stuff done and I think you've got a pretty good plan. Good luck and keep in mind that you won't be doing this job for all that long and you've got the free-lancing to look forward to.

Lin,
Hope you're over your cold by now. I like your plan for keeping your home in order and still making progress with your book. Of course if I tried writing at two a.m. the whole book would be like the manuscript in The Shining. I'm definitely a morning person and a lot of my valuable energy is poured into working with little kids. They're worth it, but I'd like to have some energy left over when I returned home.

Mousie,
I think your exams are all over now. Hope you did well. Always glad to read your explanations of exercise and how it affects our bodies. Good stuff.
Hey, remember that relative that was coming to see you and dh
from Britain? Has he come or is it this summer that he's coming?
Isn't it fabulous that you're changing the shape of your body?
You won't even have to worry about what he thinks because you're on the right track.

Tonight we had Chinese food from take-out. I checked out the points first and found out that a cup of broccoli and shrimp is only two points. Yummy--that's about one of the best bargains. I also love the steamed dumplings at one point apiece.
All goes well here. I'm at the countdown at work. There's so much more work than anyone can handle and tempers are starting to flare. I am plugging away like crazy and have a good handle on it, but I sure don't do much more than work, sleep, and eat. Am eating less and I've stopped the gain. In baby steps I hope to chop off some of this weight I've gained.
Let me say it again so you can all remind me if and when this happens again. All the weight I gained came from eating out of anxiety about the fear that my dh and dd had symptoms that indicated a possibility of cancer. We didn't know for sure for three months. They are both fine, thank God. However, I gained about fifteen pounds which is not fine and which can undermine my health. Now that's something to really worry about! So, when I start to worry about something that is indefinite at the time, please remind me of this and help me see it through.
You guys are the best!
Have a great weekend. I plan to buy good foods, prepare them ahead and set up my week at work with good, tasty, low-point foods.

Enjoy!
Judy

Judy, let's help each other on the worrying-over-potentially-needless things, OK? I'm a major disaster thinker, and it just sucks all the joy out of life sometimes. I know all too well what it feels like when you wonder if spouse or family member (or self) has cancer. Unlike you, when I'm that stressed out, I actually lose weight because I have trouble eating. But it's still a joy-killer -- and for what? What will all that worrying do to improve things? NOTHING. It just wrecks your health and your joy. It helps no one.

So let's remind each other of that, OK? Instead of walking down all those "what-if" disaster scenarios, let's choose to believe the best outcomes. I'm so glad your husband and daughter didn't have cancer!

On a related note, I've been putting off getting a mammogram (I've never had one) for fear that they'll find something. Isn't that incredibly stupid? It's the disaster thinking gone completely warped. I went ahead and made an appointment with an OB-GYN for the middle of next month to get my woman-cancer checkup, and she'll give me a perscription for the mammogram then. I've just been awful on keeping up with this stuff -- it's been 4 years since I went to the doctor for anything. One of my main goals this year has been to take care of myself by flossing, going regularly to the dentist, and going regularly to the doctor. I'm getting there. I refuse to let my disaster thinking control my life like this anymore.

Lin and Judy, thanks for the comments on the picture. That was taken at the Dotti's convention last month. I've been using the picture over on Dotti's board and finally got around to putting it up here. I still weigh the same as I did then -- I've been playing with the same couple of pounds for a month and a half now for some reason. Don't know why; I just haven't been as committed to losing weight. But I'm entering into the time of year when I tend to do the best at losing weight (summer and fall), so I'm hopeful. I think part of my problem is I've been pretty happy with the way I look lately, compared to where I've been. I need to remember that carrying 45 extra pounds is still unhealthy; I'm still obese.

Lin, glad the cold is starting to lift. What was in the soup you made? There's nothing like soup when you've got a cold. I'm glad you got as much out of what my WW leader said as I did -- I find a lot of peace in knowing that gaining is part of the journey, that it doesn't mean the end of the journey or even a detour. This is how it goes. I think part of my long plateau over the past six weeks or so is actually a good thing -- turning around small gains before they get out of hand. As I've said here, I have never been able to do this until I started using WW's tools on this journey.

The first gain I had on WW was 16 pounds. I finally said "enough," and gradually took it back off. The next gain was 9 pounds before I took it back off. The next was 4 pounds. Now I seem to be able to catch the gains within a 1-3 pound range and turn them around, which is so much easier than waiting until it gets out of hand. I just can't express how deeply happy I am to see that I can do this now. I feel like something profound has happened deep within my mind and spirit to produce this new way of living; I believe God is working something wonderful in me. I feel like -- if I never make goal but just keep on this track, I'll be happy. I want to be here or lower 10 years from now, 20 years from now. Most days, I no longer fantasize about the perfect body, no longer expect perfection but am content with the process.

On a very practical level, I think the key to all this (aside from God, the real key) has been the journaling. So long as I journal every single day -- even going back and filling in previous days, if I've "forgotten" to record them at the time -- I can turn around a gain quickly.

My WW leader related a story I'd heard her mention before: A WW'er called her up one Friday and said "I'm eating a half gallon of ice cream right now. Help me."

Donna told her: "I'm not going to tell you to stop eating the ice cream. I'm going to tell you that when you're finished, figure out the points and write them down. Then the next day, eat at the *high* end of your points. The day after that, eat at the high end again. The day after that, aim for the middle."

The wisdom in this is wonderful. So often when we overeat like that, we feel we need to cut back and eat practically nothing in order to regain control -- which rarely works. We set ourselves up for failure. Or we decide we've already failed, so why bother going on, and we keep overeating. But by telling her not to worry about stopping right now, just count it and write it down, then eat at your high end ... she was giving this woman something doable. Something she could succeed at, something that would create that cycle of success again.

The woman counted 140 points for that day. She ate at the high end of her range the next couple of days, then managed to get to the middle. At the end of the week, she LOST weight. A high day is not a disaster. The key is to turn it around right then and there, and the way to do that is to write it down.

Anyway. I didn't mean to go on and on, I just find that story so inspirational. It releases me from all that crippling perfectionism and gives me peace.

We can do this, turtles.

Onward and downward,

Lauren
274/189/170s before Adirondacks

Hi, Turtles,

Judy, it's always so good to hear from you. I understand exactly what you mean about the fears in life and weight gain. I do the same thing. Or, like now, I look at the whole mortality thing and wonder if it really makes any difference.

However, when I start thinking like that, I end up writing in my journal how defeatist that is. That attitude isn't my natural inclination, so I usually get over it and back to normal after a while. What's really interesting is that while I've been too sick to do much, I've been watching movies I taped over Christmas and hadn't had time to watch. It's amazing how inspirational a silly, sentimental film is to me. I end up realizing that I want to be healthy enough to keep on living the life I've been given and that's why it's worth it.

Lauren, your post is another keeper. Your recap of your journey in the past little while is so inspirational because it shows us what is possible and what is doable. I like the idea of eating at the high end after we've been eating over points and gradually getting back into control.

I've been writing down what I'm eating, but not writing the points lately. Now that I'm past the worst of this cold, my next step is to write the points. Once I figure out what I'm actually eating, I can set a reasoanble point goal for the immediate future. I'm considering gradually lowering my points by a set amount until I'm eating within my range, rather than jolting my body with a huge deficit all at once.

I also haven't been exercising. I may have to take that slowly because this cold really wiped me out. I have no energy. But, it is almost gone and I expect that my energy level will get back to normal soon.

As for my soup recipe, it's pretty much the same as the soup I always make. I used chicken stock for the base and cut up some chicken and threw it in to poach it. I put some gentler herbs and spices than I usually do. I didn't think my sore throat would appreciate the spicy peppers I usually add. Other than that, it was my usual beans, two packages of veggies, and orzo pasta.

Have a great weekend!! Happy turtlin'!

Lin