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.
Kathy, you are tempting me. I haven't tried Skinny Cows because they're so expensive here. But . . .mint . . .that's one of my favorite flavors. Have to check the budget. Good luck with your weighin.
Carol, good luck with the Wendie plan. I hate to be a naysayer, but so far, none of us have found that it works any better than anything else. But other people have had good luck with it.
Good to hear from you, Erin. (Carol, Mousie and Erin are the same person.) Sounds like things are intersting in your life these days. Looking forward to hearing more about what's going on. Sorry to hear that 2 pounds came back. Could it just be hormones?
I'm doing fine. A little frustrated with the homework for my class because I'm feeling like I won't be able to get it done and posted by the deadline. But, I'll keep plugging away. Since I'm only auditing, if it takes me longer, it's not actually a big deal. It only bothers me.
My son is home for a couple of months until he goes to college. He and I are going to have issues with computer time. But we'll work them out.
I'm still OP, but I don't know where my weight will be tomorrow when I weigh in. It's the dreaded PMS water weight time. Yuck!
We had one day of reprieve in the hot and sticky weather and today we're back into the 90's.
We went to the Wisconsin State Fair yesterday since it was cooler. We had a great time....there was lots to do and see as usual with lots of new stuff as well.
Lin,
They used to offer coupons on the Skinny Cow website, which is www.skinnycow.com. You might want to check it out. They are quite pricey at $4.99 each, but sometimes they do go sale and that helps. I tried the WW Sundae Cups and like them as well especiallly the chocolate with chocolate fudge ones. They are quite big for 2 points. I'm a chocolate freak so they do the trick for me when I need that "chocolate fix".
Good luck with your WI tomorrow. I weigh in tomorrow as well, but I'm thinking it won't be great this month.
I'll let you know how I do with the Wendie Plan. I'm starting today with it.
One of my biggest problems is water retention. It does me in more times than not no matter what I eat and how much I drink.
Carol, water retention is our nemesis. I try to keep it in perspective and realize that water comes and goes, but it can get really discouraging sometimes.
Like right now. My weight is exactly the same as last week. It's PMS, so I know I'm retaining water. This pattern has wrecked my efforts to get to my goal for at least ten years. Since WW came out with their point-based programs, I've done better. But I've had to learn patience.
Things are going pretty well for me. Still plugging away at my homework. I'll definitely finish some of it on time. Maybe I'll get it all done. The assignments are interrelated, so finishing one part will help with the other parts. But we actually had 5 separate assignments these two weeks and they amounted to over 2000 words, edited. I love writing, as you all know. I like deadlines, too. But this process is contrary to my natural way of approaching a novel, so it's been difficult and time-consuming. I'll get there.
Hi Turtles,
I just got back from my official monthly weigh in and I'm down 1.4 pounds I'm finally back to what I was the first week of June.
Lin, good luck with your deadlines. I hope you make it in time. I can really relate to the water retention issue. I seem to retain water no matter how much I eat or drink and it's certainly worse in the heat and humidity. Patience and perservence are my new best friends since time around in WW.
Hi, turtles. I'm back. You've been quiet while I was away! Must be all the heat.
Carol, WTG on losing that weight this month! You weigh in just once a month, is that right? That sounds like a sane approach to me, especially given how little my weight budges from one week to the next sometimes.
Lin, if your weight is the same and you've got PMS, you're doing great. Don't you usually gain a couple of pounds this time of the month? So you've almost certainly lost. It is hard when the scales give us those boring numbers, though -- I'm in that boat right now. I've done very well the past week, but I'm up half a pound. I'm suspecting ovulation, when I typically gain some water weight. I'm hoping it's that, anyway. I hear you about just being patient.
The family reunion was fun. I managed to stay within my points each and every day!! Whew! Bringing food helped a lot (I typically made my own breakfasts and lunches), as did going for a 4.5-mile walk one day. It was a beautiful trail that ran along the side of a lake and then deep into the woods, all the way to a huge waterfall. I could get used to walks like that one. The weather was HOT -- high 90s and high humidity. Coming home to 70 degrees is delightful. I had a reasonably good time with my dad. He didn't comment at all on my weight (though many other people at the reunion did). At one point he asked if my mother was still attending Weight Watchers. The man truly is obsessed with fat. Other than that, it was good to see him.
There were probably 70 people there in all, and a wild time was had by all. I ended up having to lead the children in a talent show (BLEAH), so I had them sing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" but with very strange animals. A mosquito, a camel, a spider ...
As for the food, the one picnic meal was as bad as I had suspected. It consisted of hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and brownies! I brought my own light burger bun and had a hamburger, a spoonful of potato salad, a quarter of a brownie -- and a TON of tomato slices! It worked out.
Anyway, I'm sorry the scale is actually UP this week by a half pound, but I suspect it's hormonal and I'll see a loss within a few days. Unless PMS hits early, which is always possible. So long as I keep averaging 3-4 pounds a month, I'll be content, even if it all comes off in just one week of each month.
My new goal is to hit the 170s by Labor Day. (Or thereabouts.) I'm extremely excited about the idea of hitting 174 in October -- my 100-pound mark! I'm extremely motivated to hit that number. I found it helped me a lot over the family reunion to say no to all the chips, dip, candy, and other crap that was around.
I just wrote and entire post and it completely disappeared
I'll try this again....
Lauren, glad you had a good time at the reunion. It sounds like you made excellent food choices all things considered. You'll be at the 100 pound mark in no time at all
We finally have a great cool day, mid 70's and no humidity. We're on vacation again this week and it feels like I've been hibernating the house with all the heat we've had. This year is particularly bad for the temps being much higher than normal and my internal thermostat is starting to go haywire as well. Getting to be that age you know.....
Carol, isn't this weather fantastic? High in the 70s here again today, too. Love it.
I checked, and as I suspected, I was just holding water yesterday. Down to 183 today. I think I retain water when I eat carbs. Last night I was low on points, so dinner was just chicken and a veggie. That seemed to do the trick. I just don't lose as well when I eat high carbs -- that's probably why I don't lose weight when I eat vegetarian, even when I stay within points and exercise.
A friend just called and is coming over at noon to take me out to lunch for my birthday. I need to clean the house -- it's a pigsty!
Lauren, glad your reunion went so well. I'd have loved leading that talent show. How did you manage to get roped into that one? Congrats on the loss.
Carol, glad to hear you're doing so well, too. Love the new emoticons. I think they're cool.
I've been doing really well with my book. Getting a handle on the assignments. We had five assignments and only one of them was qucik and easy. So, I'm plugging away and I'll post on my homework thread when I'm done. My cohorts agree that it's better to plug away and post late than to give up, as many others have because it's a lot of work. But, then, writing a book is a lot of hard work.
I've been doing lousy with WW since the weekend. It's a bad PMS month. I've about come to the conclusion that I'm going to have these once in a while. So, I'll hang in there and do my best until it's over. Then get back on track. I tried an experiment that didn't work. I cut my calcium supplements back to 1000 mg, which is actually the recommended dose for my age. But, my body needs the higher dose, I guess. So, it's back to 2 calcium pills, a mangesium, and a multivitamin.
The rest of my projects are on hold because I'm waiting for people to do their part. AOL needs to change my account status, which could take up to ten days. The cynic in me thinks they're waiting until they deduct one final payment from my account before they put me on freebie status.
Hi turtlettes,
I'm enjoying another beautiful cool day here. DH went fishing for the day so I've had a chance to do what I want today, including going shopping. I even went out to lunch and had Wendie's Taco Salad for 8 points. It's so good and filling too.
Lin, hang in there with the PMS symptoms. They'll pass soon enough. Some months I could eat a house it seems and other months it's not too bad, go figure. I've heard that extra calcium works well, but I've never tried it. I usuallly just take one tablet per day, but it does have magnesium. I used to take Vit B6 and that helped a bit for a while, but then it didn't do any good, so I stopped it.
Lauren, I have the same problem with carbs and it seems the more I eat of them the more I want. I try to stick with unrefined carbs, but sometimes you just need some....
I tried something new last night and it was just great. I'm not a big meat eater, but I decided to try Laura's Lean Beef. I bought two strip steaks and made them on the grill. One steak (4 ounces) was 4 points. It was great, very tasty and moist not dry like you think lean beef would be. The also have lean ground beef and different cuts of steaks. I buy mine at Dominicks here in Illinois. You might want to check out their website since they have a store locator and you can also request coupons and recipes. www.laurasleanbeef.com
Have been busy quilting, and did a little reading, (a book that had a quilt theme..very good booK) so have not been posting. I have been doing a-ok on food, not so well on exericise..And me riding my bike 13 miles on Sunday I must be out of my mind, but I am going to do it anyway. I am just going the 1 way cause I need to get home and work on the quilt (it needs to be sandwiched, and quilted before I leave on my vacation around the 20. Sounds easy but it is not, It is very time consuming,and lots of time, you just want to throw your hands up and scream..*I give up!!! but you don't you just keep on quilting..or you get up and do someting else for a few minutes and get back toit. I am very please witht the quilt..It is called Puss in the corner, and it has all these circles in the middle of each block that had to be appiqyed on. Then I did more around the border. This ended up being a very big quilt. Not finnishing is not an option.
This weekend will be a challange. I am going to the water slides in Sacramento with dh and sil and a friend. I am very excited. Haven't been to the slides in a long time. I will be doing a lot of walking cause you have to walk up the ramp once you go down on the slide. I will eat well. I will prob eat a carb on Sat night to get ready for my bike ride. I will miss the official spaghetti dinner but it can't be helped.
Lauren..I totally agree with you about the carbs...I do so much better when I limit my carbs. I don't want to cut them out but I do like to watch how many I eat..
Did I telll you all last week I lost 2.8 lbs??? that means I have lost a littel bit over 6..I am so excited. I got my 5 lb bookmark..I am so proud of me...
Lin, Erin, Carol, hello from me...Miata!!!
Well go t to get to bed, need to finnish the quilt top tomorrow am and start sandwhiching...
Kathy, woo-hoo! Congrats on dropping those 6 pounds! You're obviously doing something right. The quilt sounds fun. Any chance you can post a picture of it online when you're done? I admire people who can do things like quilts -- I have absolutely no ability in that direction.
Carol, I'm a big fan of Laura's Lean Beef, too. It's more expensive but so worth it. Now that I have high cholesterol, it's also a necessity if I'm going to eat beef. I rarely do, but when I do, it's nice to know there's something available.
Lin, don't let PMS derail you. You're doing so well! You CAN control what you eat, even when your hormones are nuts. Don't lose the ground you've gained recently! Slug me if you want, but don't give yourself permission to overeat because of hormones. That's what keeps us stuck in the same place for months and months and leads us to give up. Go for walks, swim in the pool, rant, rave, throw things, chew gum, ANYTHING other than overeat. And remind me of this in a few days, when I start chewing the kitchen countertops!
Well, my blood pressure monitor arrived yesterday. I'm working on getting over my phobia of having my BP taken. I have "gray cuff hyptertension." Anyway, I think it's working. The first time I took it, it was high (145/90) and so was my pulse -- well over 100. I took it several times yesterday. Today I took it again and this time distracted myself by watching Chloe, our tuxedo kitty. It worked -- BP dropped to 119/78, and pulse was in the 70s.
DH said "See, you're not old and falling apart; you're just old and neurotic."
I think there are life lessons for me in this. I have to face what I fear and work through it rather than my usual modus operandi -- to RUN like crazy! I guess this means I should schedule my mammogram ...
Program is going reasonably well. Yesterday I had a close encounter with mint Skinny Cows -- I ate four of them! So those won't be coming into the house again for a while. Sometimes I can handle them, sometimes I can't. I made up for it by eating a very light dinner, mostly veggies.
Last night I took my first yoga class. Tough! Yikes! My abs and arms are VERY weak. It was interesting. But I noticed another class going on at the same time -- Salsa dancing -- and decided to do that one next time. It looked like a blast.
Hey, did I mention that I just bought a pair of new jeans -- in a misses size 16??? OK, they were stretch jeans, but still. I was thrilled.
Have a great Thursday, everyone. Judy and Erin, be sure to check in, OK?
Kathy, wow, I could never quilt. Yours sounds lovely. I hope you can post a picture.
Lin, I just read in my fitness magazines that all these studies have recently come out saying that supplementation has been proven to help with PMS symptoms. You can look at that and laugh--you knew this long ago! Keep taking them, really pay attention to that, you KNOW it works!
Lauren, wow, size 16! I'm so impressed--you're definitely Speedy Turtle.
Hi Carol! Glad to hear things are going well.
Judy, you're MIA too, huh? Check in when you can.
As for me, I'm still stuck. NOTHING is budging, which is getting perversely entertaining. I'm seeing how far I can push my metabolism, and my luck. I'm consuming an average of *2400* calories a day now. Hmmm. And I'm not gaining, either. Not losing, not gaining, no change, no measurements, nothing. Hmmmm. I'm at the point where I refuse to stress about it. Leave it to me to chose a direction for my life (fitness) that is utterly inappropriate for my body. So I've decided that I'm going to expand the person I am otherwise. Have tried soapmaking, candlemaking, getting back into writing, working on sewing again (or I would be, if I had a small sprung hoop)--and classes start in 4 weeks. I got all of my classes, and I got a space in the rock climbing class! I'm not sure I can do it, I'll have to talk to the instructor, but if I CAN do it I have a guaranteed space.
I've got to head off to Spinning, Turtles. I'm going because I want to, because I love Spinning--NOT because I should, or a feel I have to, or I want to burn more calories.
Hi, tortoises. We're quiet lately. I'm about to put out an APB on Lin.
Erin, a "speedy turtle"! Lemme tell ya, having lost 5 pounds since mid-April doesn't feel too speedy to me! Granted, most of that has been lost in the past month, so that's probably where your "speedy" perception is coming from. I'm sorry you're still not losing. That must feel incredibly frustrating. I take it you're measuring, writing down what you eat, etc.? I know I find portions creeping up on me sometimes, and I kid myself if I don't write it down.
FWIW, I don't lose weight on a vegetarian diet. At all. Even when I stay within my points. I don't know why that is. Do you eat dairy or eggs? That helped me, but I found I had to add fish in order to lose.
Anyway, I hope the dam breaks for you soon. What does your nutritionist think?
I think your attitude is great, though. Focusing on other things -- and such interesting other things -- sounds like a very sane approach.
It's time for me to re-read my post to Lin. Hormones are kicking in, and the past two days have NOT been great in the points department. Actually, Thursday was fine until late evening, when we visited our friends with the scotch. Well, it was fun. I found out that a drink or so a day brings down most people's cholesterol levels, so I told myself it was medicine. Then yesterday I ate out for lunch AND dinner, and ended up having too much nonfat frozen yogurt. DH and I are definitely hitting the club today, and thus far I'm low in points for the day. I plan to finish at the low end.
Today DH and I have been going through stuff and getting rid of a lot -- lots of clothes, videos, etc. It feels good.
Turtles,
I'm back. Read all your posts and I'm so happy to know you all.
I can't possibly reply to all your posts you wrote while I was with my sisters and dad for family reunion/ work project. I can tell you about me. I was super proud of myself for all the good selections I made. I never ate a candy bar while on the road driving to NC.
I drove by myself, got a motel room, etc. Navigated and drove the whole trip. Mighty proud. Last time I did that, I was 35 years younger.
Food was good the whole trip. Even when eating out, I made good choices. I worked with one of my sisters in her cabin. LOng story but a contractor left her in the lurch after starting a million projects in her home and not finishing even one. She was very discouraged, still paying off the loan for his unfinished work, and was reallly down about the impossibility of it all. However, we found out that she really is handy, knows how to use power tools, I sewed, and we turned the cabin into a livable entity. Put vinyl stick tiles over the plywood floor, assembled cabinets for storage and getting rid of clutter, I sewed curtains and valances and cute little coverups for the cabinets the contractor failed to make doors for, etc. We worked non-stop for 4 1/2 days and then I headed back north. We were a great team and didnt annoy each other once! Great accomplishment. I'll weigh myself in a few days to see how that all went.
Mousie, you predicted you'd regain those 2 pounds. I am so glad you're taking this in your stride. egads. I think within the next two weeks you will start to shed weight.
Carol, glad you're doing so well. Good to hear you here.
Miata, you're doing great. And without beer, you'll probably do even better.
Lin, PMS is a kick in the head. You'll lose real soon.
Lauren, glad your reunion went so well. Really thinking about it helped you to be so successful. Congrats on your birthday accomplishment.
Gotta go guys. Family is here and I stole a few minutes to catch up with you.
Turtle Club #77
Happy Saturday
YIPEE
It worked out. 
(me this week. <sigh>
Anyway, I think it's working. The first time I took it, it was high (145/90) and so was my pulse -- well over 100. I took it several times yesterday. Today I took it again and this time distracted myself by watching Chloe, our tuxedo kitty. It worked -- BP dropped to 119/78, and pulse was in the 70s. 
