Ariana: That is just too cool and I am so proud of you... that must just be a great feeling to be skinnier then you have been in a long time... can't wait to feel that myself Anyway.... good job!

Princess

Good morning turtles:

Ariana - congratulations!!! That is absolutely fabulous - good for you.

The trailer is a rv - the kind you sleep in, we have that instead of a cottage.
It can be pulled behind a vehicle if we really wanted to travel with it, but it is pretty big so we have it at a trailer park on a permanent site & go up throughout the summer.
It is fully functional, flush toilet/shower/fridge/stove & can sleep 6 easily.

Anyway, tonight I have my w/i and it is not going to be pretty. But, I have missed the last 2 so am definately going to face the music and be accountable.

Anyway, have a good day.

Ariana, fantastic! I'm so excited for you...and since you can do it, I can do it too! (Mine's a lot further away, but you're inspiring!)

Turtles, I PASSED MY LAB TEST!!! I've been stressing about this for TEN MONTHS, seriously, really, honest to god, since last July. I PASSED!! WOOHOO! Life is back on track!

My weight is about 271--so right about where it has been. I'm maintaining, but now that THAT great weight is lifted off my shoulders, I'll have more energy to put to losing again!

Good morning, Turtles:

Mousie - great news for you! What a relief that must be - stressing over things for such a long time certainly takes it toll on concentrating on other things. So, nice to get past that & onto focussing on your goals.

I went to my w/i last night & was afraid of results. But I was exactly same as 2 weeks ago so I was relieved about that. And as I said I was not very careful, so I must have actually lost a few this week to maintain.

I am going to curves shortly and will eat proper this weekend. Sunday night we have a dinner show to go to & I have ordered roast beef for myself and will plan ahead accordingly for that (I know I will have a couple of drinks).

Take care everyone & keep up all the good work.

Bye for now.

Yay for you, bandit! Maintaining for a couple of weeks is great, especially when you were nervous about it. It sounds like you've got great plans for the weekend, too.

I weighed in at 270.0 this morning. Basically where I have been, but now that I know I'm past my lab test (I still have the written final, next thursday) and I'm almost at the end of my semester, I can start making plans!

Hope everyone is doing well. Keep on keepin' on, Turtles!

Princess -- thank you! Yes, it is an extraordinary feeling. And trust me, you'll get there -- and we'll be here to celebrate with you!

Bandit -- thank you! I'm so excited! Being half way there makes the rest feel even more accomplish-able (not a word, but you understand what I mean.) I understand now about the trailer home. It must be nice to have a home away from home, a place to get away. That's how I feel about my family's home, about 2.5 hours away from me. It's almost like, by getting away from your daily surroundings, you can get away temporarily from a lot of the stresses.

Mousie -- thank you very much! You absolutely CAN do it. I know that when I started WW, at 206 pounds (more than my mother, the horror!), 40 pounds seemed a long way away. But the support from my ladies here, and being good about counting points most days of the week has paid off in a big way. I plateaud for a long time, and why? Because I worked out less and I didn't count points. BTW, major congrats on passing the lab test! Listen, maintaining during finals is OKAY. Finals are so rough. And you can get back on track afterwards -- it sounds like you're already on your way!

I'm going home this weekend, ladies, so I'll see you Tuesday!

Well I had a wonderful and very busy weekend! My husband and I bought bikes for our anniversary presents and we had a ton of fun tooling around the neighborhood for the past couple of days

I have a busy morning so will have to stop back later on to catch up but I weighed in up north in South Bend while I was away and am down another 3 lbs so things are going well

Princess

Princess, you're the speediest Turtle ever! We'll call you Turbo Turtle from now on. Bikes sound fun! Make sure you wear your helmet every time you go out. Take it from me--a brain injury is NOT fun, you really don't want to go there!

I missed your question earlier, so I thought I'd answer now. I'm working my way through a licensure program for Physical Therapy Assisting. I already have a Bachelor's degree in Kinesiology, but I decided not to go to PT graduate school (not at $40k/yr for 3 years! OUCH!). So I'm doing the Assistant program at a local community college. Once I do that and take my state boards, I can work. I have 1.5 more classes and then 300 hours of internships left to do--after my two written finals this week!

My weight is holding steady at 270 (yes, I weigh every day. I know all the arguments, but for ME it works better to keep a daily tab on things. I know how my body fluctuates). It's been bright and sunny and beautiful here for the last few days, and I hope summer's going to be like this. 70 and sunny--that's why we pay to live in Southern CA.

Hope things are going well with the other Turtles, check in soon!

Mousie: I weigh almost every day also... I want to catch things that I may be eating or doing wrong as soon as possible instead of waiting a week to find out that it what ever it was that I was eating or doing was not working for my body. Good luck with your schooling... I went to college later in life also... started my Associates at age 38 and my Bachelors at age 40... graduated at age 42... my kids keep asking when I am going for my masters but I still have to figure out a way to pay for the first two degrees .

I hope that everyone is doing well... this is like week 5 of not smoking and all is going really well with that... the walking is going well in the evenings with my DH when the weather permits. We get at least 3 times in a week and that really seems to be helping since we walk just short of 5 miles at a time.

Not much else is new here really... have to run for now but will check back again soon!

Princess

Princess: Congrats on the weight loss. I used to love to bike ride everywhere when I lived on campus -- my bike and my computer were my most valuable material assets for those four years (computer for school and entertainment, bike to get EVERYWHERE.)

On my program, I cannot weigh every day. With the Wendie plan, your weight is expected to go up for a day or two after your super high day, and that's normal. It's worked so far. Except this weekend. I went home and went nuts. For some reason, I can control my eating behavior when I'm here in Tucson, but when I go home to see my family...I don't know, it's like I just sort of regress into my old eating habits. I eat, compulsively, all sorts of junk and in large volume. Afterwards, I feel unwell and guilty, and then I do it again. I actually gained .8 pounds this week, and I have been losing or maintaining since March!!!

I wish I could say that I was on my way to the gym to work on losing that weight again, but I'm still at work. One of my projects imploded, and I'm here fixing things. No one is putting pressure on me to do so, but I can feel myself panicking about all of the things that have to get done, so here I am, working on a Thursday night instead of working out. I know that I have to manage my stress better, but as yet, I don't know *how*. I do my best to work out 4x per week. I save the last two hours of every sunday for sewing and pizza (2 pieces, 8 points), my version of stress relief therapy. Part of my problem recently is that I've been given increased responsibility, which means more work, and we have several new people, so I spend a larger percentage of my time helping the new people and doing node management, while I still have the same heavy workload as before. On top of that, ALL of my current projects are priority 1, it's only a question of 1A vs 1C vs 1B. <sigh> It's making me a bit nuts. If I can catch up today, maybe I won't have to work Saturday, but it's unlikely. Plus, I get SO MUCH done when it's quiet here. (I'm waiting for a patch to run while I write this email, but other than that, there are no real distractions. It's just me in the office.) I used to be able to work like that when I had fewer responsibilities, but lately, I feel like I only spend 50% of my time working on my regular job responsibilities, and the other 50% doing management tasks and training. <sigh> Anyway, I guess I'm all wigged out and I needed to rant. The truth is, after this week, I WILL get my butt back on track. If I work late tomorrow night, I can most likely skip Saturday altogether, although I should come in anyway. It would reduce my stress level a lot if I could get caught up. Our problem here at this company is that we have more work than we can handle (and not enough people to do it.) We keep hiring, but it takes months for a person to become truly skilled at this job. Oi. Anyway, I'm hoping to get a lot done tonight (the darn patch is STILL running) and if I put in some extra work over the next few days, I should be able to catch up.

Anyway, I repeat myself, I babbleth, but I am just so stressed out I needed to rant. Thanks for listening, ladies.

Ariana: I sure hope that your stress level goes down soon... I am sure that you will be back on track in no time... keep the faith

Nothing going on here today... I am ready for the weekend!

Have to run but will check back in later on.

Hi Turtles,
I am so amazed and happy at all the success here! Yay!
I tried to read page 2 of this thread, but I've got dial up and I couldn't get to it--kept getting thrown off. But I can see from the words on this page that Ariana has completely gotten halfway through her goal weight. Weigh to go! I'm sorry you're feeling stress right now, but you'll work it out. Glad the Wendie plan is working so well for you.
It may be time for me to try that again.

Princess, I second the idea that you are a rip-roaring turtle! You are really applying yourself to give up smoking, exercise, work, have a life, and still lose weight as rapidly as you are. Weigh to go!

Bandit, glad you've got your trailer set up for a lovely summer. Glad you're here and chiming in with your good exercise and diet tips.

Mousie, you're really busy with school. Glad you're doing so well with your exams. Also glad you and dh are seeking counseling to make your marriage stronger. I love a new sentence I just heard: I'd rather face my stuff then stuff my face. Love it! You're doing great to maintain and I feel soon you'll start dropping weight again.

I'm going to weigh myself now, but I think I may have knocked off some top weight. I haven't been able to exercise because of the bursitis at the top of my leg, but it's slowly healing and I look forward to getting into the pool and exercising without overextending myself. I'm still here, still putting effort into this, still trying to get my head straight.
Love,
Judy

Good morning Turtles! Judy, it's great to see you here for a moment. Dial-up...wow, how much has the internet world changed in the last few years? When I first got on the net (in 1993) there was no WWW, and our modems were 2400s! And now dial-up of ANY description is "slow", and everyone's using cable access...

Ariana, I do not envy you the amount of stress you are under! At least you have some family around to steady you, even if not daily. Take advantage of that!

Bandit, it sounds like you're all set up for a great summer.

I have finished my last finals (as of yesterday) and I'm free for summer! I have a feeling this is going to be a fantastic summer, everything's going my way. My weight is still about where it's been--269.5, this morning. We'll see what happens.

Let's keep roaring along, Turtles!

Hi Turtles,
Glad to hear you so cheerful Mousie! Have a great summer. What fun.
All goes well here. I knocked off a little weight and now have a new goal set to "release" 5 pounds. Once that's done, I can "release" 8 pounds and be back to 200 pounds. When that happens, I'll need you all to talk me into getting into the "onederland" mode. I've been there twice in the past couple of years and always sabotage myself. I'll call for you support and I know you'll be there for me. Onward and downward.
Love,
Judy

Good Monday morning, Turtles!

Nice to have everyone chiming in & hope you all had a great weekend.
BF pool is up & running - had a bbq there last night with his daughter & her family and my dd - so was good time for all.

I have really been bad with my eating & definately have to get back on plan starting today. I feel terrible and have to get a mind-set that just because we are travelling or entertaining it does not give me permission to overdo it.
There is absolutely no reason not to make healthier choices & if people don't like it - too bad. That is how I am feeling today.

Anyway, have a good Monday everyone.