Turtle Club #134
 

Here's Lin's version of the fable:

Hi, Turtles,

Here's my "official" version of Aesop's 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 several 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

-- Lauren

Hey Lauren - Welcome back! When you get the chance, would you please walk us through the steps needed in order to start a new folder? I tried a few times and couldn't get it to work. Thanks.

I was emptying my inbox and came across something I should have posted a while back:

Inspirational Thought of the Day
9/23/04


Behold the turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out.


-James Bryant Conant

Thank you Lauren
 

Well, it's a good thing you showed up, Lauren. Imagine a flock/herd of us turtles, floundering around in a pond (of chocolate, not mud), our little legs flapping around, not starting a new thread. :lol:

Swanie, every time I find an old WW startup packet with a much lower weight on it than where I am now, I'm just disgusted.

I've had two days that were just about the same:
10K steps (plus a little), 84/82 oz water, 4 veg, yoga and dance.

The day I pretended I was on SB Phase I I lost 2.5 pounds. No, I'm not kidding. Then, what did I do to make up for that loss? Ate stupid Fritos.

OK, I give up, just give me the magic weight loss pill. I have money, I will pay, just hand it over.

choosewell.

PS. I heard from Lin at nanowrimo!!!! She sounds great, and she's looking forward to the writing challenge again this year. Like ME! :p

Swania, when you're on the "Other WW Clubs" page that lists the various Turtle threads, there's a tiny, hard-to-spot button near the top left of the page that says "New Thread." That's what you use. Just click it, give your message a title, write your message, and post as usual.

I just copy and paste Lin's story for the first message.

I got a note from Lin; it sounds like she's very busy with her writing. She has joined another writing group, in fact. I'm hoping eventually she'll pop in here from time to time.

As for my vacation, it was splendid, as always. The colors were gorgeous. It was wonderful seeing old friends. My friend's grandmother, Oma (German word for Grandma), was also there -- she's 100 years old! And she only takes vitamins and aspirin! Can you imagine?? She remembers the Titanic going down, she remembers WWI and WWII ... just amazing. She gets around with just a cane. I don't think I've ever sat and talked with someone who is 100 before.

Well, my eating was way out of line. Part of it was because my friends cook high-fat meals, although relatively healthy ones. They're very active, so they don't gain weight. I walked around the woods almost every day, but it wasn't enough; I put on about 3 pounds. Bleah! All my clothes are tight at this point.

So ... I've had two good eating days since returning, and one not so good. Today will be good. On we go.

I'll try to catch up on all the posts later this weekend.

Onward and downward,

Lauren
274/214.5/down

Howdy everyone!

Lauren, thanks for the help with new thread starting. I'll refer back when the time comes. I'm happy to learn that your vacation was fun! Three pounds is nothing. I haven't vacationed in years and I've put on waaaaaaaaaay more than 3 pounds! I rarely eat out. Imagine if I were a better cook...

Choosie - what are nanowrimo and the writing challenge? You have me curious. Please give Lin a turtles hello for me!

Only 2 weeks to the end of the Halloween Challenge. I have had some successes, though there is still time to blow it. There are 40+ days until Thanksgiving. I have about 40 pages left in the journal where I track my food. If I track each day from now until Thanksgiving, I get to have dessert on Thanksgiving. If not, no dessert for me. It would really suck to make dessert for the holiday and then not get to eat it.

Hope the weekend is going well!

Happy Sunday, a day for beginnings. xo!
 

Hi everyone.

Swania, nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month, go to nanowrimo.org to check it out. You type your novel (50K words in the month of November) on your own computer, and just log your progress on the site. Lin told me about it last year and it boosted my writing life seriously. I'm revising last year's novel for an agent, now, after floundering around for a couple of years previously. It's about the magic of setting deadlines and writing absolute cr** to get over writing hurdles. Come on over, Swan, it's FREE!!

Speaking of. I'm going to meet my Halloween challenge, without loosing weight. Today marks my 3rd week of writing down steps, water and veg. I'm shocked. What has helped is that I write "Steps Water Veg " in my daily calendar, then leave it open all day. I just fill in the blanks. I can be a pretty lazy turtle, and my oc self fills in blanks, well, compulsively. :)

Know thyself. (Was that Aristotle?)

Friday 12,258 Steps, 82 oz water, 4 veg.
Sat 10,800 steps, 80 oz water (barely got there, up all night), 3 veg.

November last year was when I fell off the turtles wagon, due to nano time. I'll shoot for every 2-3 days this year, so I don't have to feel bad for not making it more.

xo choosewell.

Hi everyone:

Was up 1# this week at my w/i last night (must have been the Chinese food I had)
so I will have to be extra careful this week. Other than that I feel pretty good.
Got to curves this a.m. & out for a few walks over the weekend.

Hope everyone is doing well & wtg on counting all those steps! Yeah!

Have fun, bye for now.

Happy Friday, everyone
 

Hiya!
Well, it must have been a very busy week for everyone. I'm pleased to say I continued my steps/water/veg journaling prowess...only missed my step target one day, and water 2 days. I think this is the longest I've written anything down in a year, so this is a good start for me.

Swanie, I'm certified. Now they have to match me with a student. I think that won't be til later this month. Then the real fun begins. Were you excited/scared like me, the first time you tried to help an adult with their reading skills?

November is coming, and so is National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org). Family is beginning to clammer (?) for holiday attention and all I can think is how uncomfortable I am in this body of mine. I dread the idea that I haven't hit rock bottom yet, and that's why I'm not bouncing back. How far down (up) do I have to go before I wake up?

Must go do some patting of self on back, for meeting the Halloween challenge.

xo Choosewell.

Hi Turtles,
I'm back for a quicky. Taking care of dd and db and dsil has been tiring. One funny thing though. Their house has only one bathroom and it's upstairs. So--I am actually losing weight while cooking good foods for the gang and getting lots of exercise . I haven't had a chance to get online as things have been mighty busy, but I am staying with the Core program. Bandit--thanks for the tip about making seconds only veggies--that's a good idea to keep in mind.
I've gotta run--very thrilled to hear from all of you and so glad we're all kicking butt on our way to closing out the Halloween challenge.
Love,
Judy
thinner :grouphug:

Just a quickie here. Choosewell, I really hear you about the hitting bottom part. :( And I'm very impressed with your continuing to write some things down; those are the building blocks that create a discipline/habit that lead to life changes. Good for you.

Judy, glad you're staying with your program and doing well!

I finally dragged myself to a WW meeting last night. I've gone three times in three months and not at all for six months before that. Hmm, could THAT be why I've gained so much weight this year? I'm focusing today on saying motivational things to myself all day and picturing myself thin. And, of course, writing down what I eat. I've set a new long-term goal for myself: to be in virgin fat territory by my August birthday. That means losing 35 pounds by then.

Short-term goals: losing 10 pounds by Christmas, getting into onederland by February. Non weight goals: increasing my energy through working out 4x per week.

Onward and downward,

Lauren
274/214.5/204 by Christmas

Hi Ladies,

Do you have room for a lifetimer getting back to goal after baby#3...hee hee she is now 2 perhaps I can't use that as an excuse! LOL

I am now a SAHM...wooooohhaaaaa...different challenges and I feel like I am learning all over again.

Thanks Ladies!

Alissa

sw 218
cw 209
gw 170

welcome, asatch!
 

Hi, everyone, and welcome to asatch.

Asatch, this is a pretty casual (= busy) group of thinking women. Welcome!

Judy, I just read an article in ediets ...or prevention.com...no, ediets, that if your weight isn't budging and your pedometer says you're doing more and more steps, then turn up the heat: add stairs, leaping, faster paced walks, etc. You're ahead of the game!

Lauren. Onederland! I'm with you, that would be so nice. Focus, BA, focus...

Well..I can't believe I'm coming up on the wire on my month of writing down these three things. I've gotten one 14K step day this week, and I'm going to focus on adding a "real walk" not just more steps. Judy's my inspiration, adding a little speed to my step for twenty minutes several times a week would probably start the old fat burning engine again.

Swania, I met my reading guy and he's fabulous, an older gentleman who just didn't have the opportunities most kids had. I'm so excited for him, I can't stop thinking about what's next.

And, guess what? When you're teaching someone to read you can't be EATING!!! :lol:

Chow: ciao, ciao (sing that to the Purina jingle). choosewell

Welcome, Asatch! Great to have you here. What's a SAHM? Single Adult Harried Mom? Super Able Happy Me?

Choosewell, glad to hear your tutoree is a great guy. And good for you, a whole month of tracking your exercise! That's fantastic. How do you get all those steps in during the day?

I parked 15 minutes away from work again yesterday so got in a half hour of walking that way. And I stayed within my points. I pictured myself thinner. Every time I went into the kitchen at work (which is JAMMED with junk food), I gave myself a pep talk.

I'm aiming at tracking my points and staying within them for one week. Just one week. I haven't done that much in a while. You gotta start somewhere.

Today will be a challenge; we're having a party at my old client site in honor of the ending of the project I used to work on. It'll probably be something like pizza and junk food. I won't stay long if that's the case. Maybe I'll eat an apple before I arrive.

Onward and downward,

Lauren

TY for the warm welcome, choosewell and Lauren :)

Lauren: SAHM...stay at home mom...I no longer work for pay...LOL I like your Super Able Happy Me...lol. the apple sounds like a great idea, I find that when I munch like that I am SOOOO much less likely to *pick up* that point busting finger food.

OP for me today, will be hitting the gym later this afternoon as my youngest is napping now...what bliss...however momentary ;)

choosewell, how wonderful to give such a gift to someone...good luck to you and your student reader!

Alissa

Have a wonderful day ladies!

Hi Turtles and welcome to Asatch!!!!
Choosewell, I've got a great idea. Why don't you just call wherever you are right now "rockbottom" and don't worry about falling deeper? You're doing so many great things for yourself with walking up a storm and tracking it and water and veggies. Seems to me that Fritos have crept into your posts a couple of times lately and maybe it's time for that bag to stay in the supermarket for awhile and give you less of a temptation? I say this with loads of :grouphug: because I hear you and feel you wanting to lose weight and willing to do everything to make that happen. Hey, a tip from my WW leader from the mtg. today: Think about the one thing that you really want from losing weight--have you got it in mind? Visualize it--now bring that vision up each and every time you want to eat something that you know won't be a wise choice. I hope this helps and I'm sending mega :goodvibes: to you and us all.

If this is harsh, I apologize for heaven knows I am none too spiffy in this business of losing weight. I honestly feel that these last two weeks have been exhausting and I probably lost some weight because I was too tired to snack. (But to be completly honest I did try really hard--and even had oatmeal for lunch at the hospital because all the other choices weren't close to Core foods) So, I am happy today. At my WI I lost another 1.6# and am only 2 full pounds away from the weight I lost in my first year in rejoining WW's in 2000 when I lost 25# and thought I had the world on a string. Well, the string snapped, I gained back all 25, rejoined again and again and have been dealing with the same stupid pounds over and over again without even breaking onederland. However, I digress--the good news is that I have lost plenty of weight and am doing well with Core. I do feel fuller and that's a huge help. Running up and down steps has been very revealing and I can see how much that kind of exercise helps me. Enough about me!! I do go on and on.

Choosie,
Great good luck with your reading buddy. He's lucky to have you as a tutor. Let us know how this all progresses. Reading is such a wonderful gift. You're kind to share your ability with him. :bravo:
Lauren,
This is the Lauren I know and love. Yes! You've got plans that will lead to weight loss. Hey, do you still have those friends you used to like to walk with? Are they still in your WW's group? I remember that worked out very well for you. Good for you for figuring things out and planning to leave if need be if food at mtgs. etc. gets to be too much. Glad you enjoyed your vacation and sorry the food was tough. We're all getting better at this.

Gotta run,
Caught a miserable cold and had to come home from dd's home yesterday. Plan on getting back there on Friday and I'll aim to get some step climbing in there too. My other dd was able to come and help his sister for a bit, so I hope the little guy and all involved over there finally get some sleep.

You all take care. The holidays are coming up and our Halloween Challenge is fast approaching. If I keep on keepin' on, I'll be okay. I am envisioning a lower triglyceride number on my medical chart to keep my eating in line.

Good luck to us all, :high:

Love,
Judy
234.6/211.6/thinner on my way to onederland

Afterthought:
chow instead of ciao? Absolutely hysterical. Choosie I hope you do write a book because I'll buy it and you can autograph it for me.
Love,
Judy

Hi everyone!

Sounds like you all are doing well - so congrats on that!

I got to curves 3x so far this week - before work has been much better than after.

At my w/i I was down .2# this week. Not much - but as long as I seen a -# in my book it keeps me on track and re-focussed for the week. BF has been making all kinds of excuses for not walking at night & the more I try to get after him the stubborner he is - anyway, he is having some blood tests done & I am hoping the doctor will suggest he lose some weight. I know it is up to me to keep OP but when there is always so much junk food around & bf is sitting eating chips & chocolate bars it makes it really hard to keep saying no.

Keep up the good work & talk to you soon.

Bandit, I too am surrounded by junk food (in my case, mostly just while at work, though we have a few things in the house, too), and it really does just come down to focusing on what YOU want most. I hope your bf does make healthier choices for both your sakes; it's exhausting having temptations around all the time!

Alissa, thanks for the explanation. :) With three young ones, sounds like you have your hands full!

Judy, I always love your posts. Wow, you're only 2 pounds away from virgin fat territory!!!!!! WOO-HOO!!!!! You go, girl! Don't even THINK about slowing down now. I loved your tip about picturing something concrete that you want from weight loss. I'm going to do that, and change it every so often. Certainly I have some clothing items I want to fit into; maybe I'll hang different items in my bedroom and rotate them so I can see them each day. And I think I'll picture low blood pressure readings! :D And maybe dancing and running up steps. And effortlessly sliding into tiny airline seats. And ...

Didn't do super well yesterday at the project party but didn't do horribly for the day as a whole. I'm tracking, I'm counting. This is typically my hardest day of the week (Thursday) because I work from home, and I use food to procrastinate. If I stay out of the kitchen, I do much better. So I think I may take my laptop to Barnes and Noble and do my work there this afternoon! It's a beautiful day here. October is such an amazing month.

As for Halloween ... I'll do my usual thing. I'll buy candy on the day itself; I'll buy something I don't like; and I'll make sure we have practically none left at the end of the evening by dumping huge quantities into the last trick-or-treaters' bags. They always look so amazed and happy when we do that! :)

Onward and downward,

Lauren

Seems like ages since I've been in here.

Welcome Alissa! You're in the right place for ongoing support.

Choosie - Congratulations on your certification! Now you are on the way to helping someone in one of the best ways possible! What level is your student on? How have your sessions been so far? It sounds as if your Halloween Challenge has been great. Tracking consistently is one of the hardest things to do.

The Halloween Challenge is drawing to a close. I have done well with the journalling, less well with eating only one portion. I have periods where I do well and then there's the majority of the time. :lol: It's not quite that bad, but there's always room for an improvement.

I am thinking of goals for the next period of time - maybe from Halloween until the first of the year. I must have goals during the holidays. I can't believe that it's that time of year already.

Gotta run now. Happy to see Lauren, Bandit and Judy checking in with frequency.

Hi Turtles,
Lots of challenges this weekend starting with my kids coming in this weekend, big Halloween party, and then Halloween itself with all sorts of tempting candy. Dh bought it today so it hasn't been a temptation till now. I have to keep on visualizing what I want and keep that uppermost in my thoughts.

Good luck to all of us and the challenges we face.
Love
Judy
234.6/211.6/thinner :cool:

Happy Halloween!

Now, who do I have to thank for more than a month of writing down steps, veg and water? Wasn't that Swanie? Thank you, thank you. This week was stellar (I'm looking at my date book): 4 days out of the last 7 I made more than 12 K steps, and only had one day each that I didn't make water or veg goals. BUT I wrote 'em all down.

Judy, what a concept..leave the fritos at the Albertson's? You know you are right, I have an image of what I would be at 1xx lbs. (anything that doesn't start with a 2 basically...) anyway, it's a white t-shirt tucked into snug jeans, my old 150-170 uniform. Is that ridiculous? So simple. I'm going to work on a visualization for this month.

To everyone: here comes November, another opportunity to shine and develop our healthiest selves. Hats off to the turtles.

I'll be at nano if you need me, and I have no idea what I'm writing YET>..6 hours to start...

choosewell.

Congratulations Choosie on your stellar writing down of steps, veggies, and water. Wow! That's great. Good luck with Nano. Next year I *really* mean to do Nano. Seems like I said that last year.

I met my Halloween challenge and feel great about it. I did slip up here and there over this past weekend, but I'm on track today and am hoping that 35 points covers some of my missteps. This week a crew is coming in to redo our kitchen and eating will be challenging, but not impossible. I'm figuring that fruit and cooked chicken or canned tuna will work out fine. I am going to knock off any fluff weight that happened this weekend and be just fine. Do you hear me? I'm shouting! My dh got rid of Halloween candy, all party treats are gone and I'm ready to continue this fall season of holiday after holiday.

Swania, are you going to start us off on a Thanksgiving Challenge? I'm up for it.

Everybody have a good day!
Love,
Judy
234.6/211.6/thinner to onederland:grouphug:

Time for a new thread, tortoise ones. See you there.

-- Lauren