Hi Ladies...

Margie, I know you are so relieved! Glad you got good news.

Tracy...good for you on getting "Rhonda" moved.

I love salads. Eat one just about everyday with Raspberry Vingerette Dressing which I love too. But my dressing true love is Blue Cheese...can you get much more fattening than that. Well, I found a recipe for Blue Cheese that is really good and much lower in fat and calories than the regular.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup fat-free cottage cheese
1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon crumbled blue cheese

..DIRECTIONS
1.In a blender or food processor, combine cottage cheese, yogurt, onion and garlic; process until smooth. Stir in blue cheese. Store, covered, in the refrigerator.

It's best to make ahead and let it sit, say overnight. That's what I did. Just thought I'd share it.

Mellisa, where are some of the sites I have saved.

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/conditioning/a/aa012402a.htm

http://realwomensfitness.com/articles/

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/work-it-off

http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Exercises/Exercises.htm

http://www.gimme20.com/cardio_for_weight_loss

http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/dumbellexercises.html

http://exrx.net/Beginning.html

Please remember as with any website on the net we don't know that the information given is 100% correct. People have different opinions on what works and doesn't and what you should and shouldn't do. If something sounds fishy it is best to skip it.

Before any of us start a work out program we need to arm ourselves with as much information as we can get to make sure we aren't going to hurt ourselves.

Some key things I have read or been told are:
1. Make sure you work all muscles groups equally.
2. Skip days between muscle groups. If you work your arms on Monday then skip the arms on Tuesday. You need to give the muscles time to recover between work outs.
3. Doing the exercises correctly is important. Slow down and really pay attention to the movements. Less reps is more when you do the exercises correctly.
4. Stretch, before and after. Plus do a warm up where you get your heart rate up.
5. Mix things up. Don't do the same exact exercises in the same order every time. You will get bored that way. Also you put more into the first exercise and less into the last, since you are likely to be getting tired. So buy mixing up the order you will get a better work out over all.

While I am at it I'll go ahead and add some more links that I have saved.

Calorie counters:
http://www.myhomepersonaltrainer.com/resources/Food-Database-Calorie-Counter.asp (individual foods)

http://www.nutritiondata.com/mynd/myrecipes/welcome?returnto=/mynd/myrecipes (recipe calorie counter)

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp (recipe calorie counter)


BMR Caculators: (Figure out how many calories you need to eat a day)
http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/basal/basal.html

http://www.preventdisease.com/healthtools/articles/bmr.html

http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/library/weight/calsburned.htm

http://weightloss.about.com/cs/nutrition101/l/blcalories.htm

Awwww, thanks Tracy. I actually feel a little better. My face was burning and itching so badly that I put my face in the freezer for a few minutes Really, I did. The cold kinda numbed it and I don't feel much right now. Hey, ya do whatcha gotta do, ya know? As for the dermatologist, he did tell me that I have very sensitive skin and instead of using the cream every day, use it every other day. Well, to play it safe I was using it every 3rd day. After a couple of weeks, my skin started burning, itching and peeling. Obviously, even that was too much. What actually made it worse was that I got too much sun while planting flowers a few days ago.I put a lot of sunscreen on my face and thought I was more than covered. I was outside about 20 minutes. Well, about an hour or so after I came in the house, my face started burning like it was on fire. I guess the cream I was prescribed made my skin more susceptible to the sun and even with the sunscreen on, my face got sunburned. That on top of it already dried and peeling, just created an awful situation. I did call the Dr and was told to lay off the cream until the peeling stopped and to apply moisturizer. I did mention about having jury duty and was told that he couldn't get me out of it because it wasn't something that the courts would allow. I would contact someone at the court and ask not to be called for this upcoming case but I've already done that once when I was first notified of jury duty. I did because of my planned trip to Alabama. So, I don't feel that I should call in again. Hopefully the case that is scheduled for Friday will be continued. If not, I guess I just make the best of it.
Also, Tracy, thanks for the links, those are some great sites.
Klykat - thank you also. And thanks for sharing the recipe. Sounds pretty darned good.
OK, the box here is jumping again, so guess it's time to get off. Have a nice evening everyone. I'm on my way back to the freezer. With my luck, I'll get frostbite on my face on top of everythng else

Kat, you know I can't honestly say I have had blue cheese dressing. Hmmm.

My favorite, super easy dressing has 4 ingredients. Sweet N Low (sugar or your favorite sugar sub), white vinegar, oil and a little splash of water. My grandma has always made this when we had big family dinners so we didn't have to worry about having everyone's favorite dressing. Before serving we toss the salad with the dressing so everything is coated nicely.

If I'm in the mood to go a little furthur I'll make a dressing using those, then also add garlic, finally chopped green onion, and a squirt of Dijon mustard. You can also add to it what ever herbs you want. When I make this one I like to do it an hour or so before serving, so the flavors can meld. I've also kept it in the fridge for several days.

I can't give exact measurements on these since I don't measure. I usually go a little heavier on the vinegar than oil, so I'd guess like 1/4c (4 Tablespoons) vinegar to 2-3 Tablespoons oil. The amount of sugar sub depends on your sweetness preference. I kinda like the bite of the vinegar myself so I go a little shy on the sugar or sugar sub.

Even if you use real sugar in either of these you can adjust it to the amount you want. Rather than all the sugar they pour in to the dressings, especially the low fat ones. And a little oil (you can use olive or canola) is okay, as long as we use it in moderation.

Well Margie, it was an idea. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you don't get picked of they decide they don't need anyone!

Me and Rhonda walked for a mile this afternoon. I'm going to try to talk myself into another mile this evening. Especially since I have been in a munchie mood this afternoon/evening. I haven't been able to tell myself no as much as I usually can and haven't made great snack choices. Sigh.

Tracy I will have to try your recipe. I love the vingear dressing, but less on the oily side. I'll have to make your next. And thanks for all the exercise and info links.

Margie I get the up and down lines on here too. I guess it's something wonky with all the upgrades going on.

I will weigh in the morning and check in then. Good night ladies...

Hello y'all!

Sorry I wasn't on yesterday, I didn't feel all that great. And it was all I could do to get the house presentable for DH! You know I feel lousy when I'm not on the computer!

TexasSugar - Wow! You're the best!! Thanks for all of the links. I can hardly wait to check them out. And I want to try you salad dressing, too. I prefer the sweeter ones usually - I like to put some fruit in my salads. But I could use a little more sugar if I need to. I also like the bite of vinegar. Kylkat - I love the raspberry vinaigrette! But I'm also a big blue cheese fan, I'm anxious to try your recipe. thanks for sharing!

I dropped to my lowest weight in a long time on Saturday, 210!! Then I went back up to 211 1/4 yesterday, now I'm back to 210 1/2. I'm ok with that. I'll be anxious to see where my weight levels out later in the week. So after two weeks of making healthier choices I'm down 2 pounds. I've lost about 3/4" in my waist and about the same on each arm. Thank goodness I measured when I started this time. I didn't measure hips or anything else, I don't think I want to know!!! I would have liked to have lost more weight (wouldn't we all!), but I'm ok with what I've accomplished. I stuck with it, haven't given up and I feel better.

I know that you're supposed to not do the same exercises every day, but every morning I do 50 wall push ups and 50 squats. I'm afraid to stop doing that. I'm afraid that I won't do anything. I know that there are tons of other things I can do. But I do those in the shower first thing in the morning. So I at least do something. Is it really a bad thing to do that? I know that you need to let that muscle group rest, and I'm guessing that by doing the same stuff over and over I'm not getting the results that I could if I did it 'right'. But like I said I'm afraid to skip a morning - at least I've done something. I'm going to go find my hand weights and do some of the exercises that I copied off the 3day melt infommercial!

Butternut, I'm sorry that you're having such a rough time. I hope that you're feeling better. And I hope that the whole jury duty thing works out just the way you want it to.

Here's hoping that everyone has a great day, makes healthy choices. That we don't let our cravings/desires get to us.

Melissa

Tracy, congrats on the weight loss! 3.3 lbs is awesome!! I love your workout video idea!! I've never liked workout videos much because I find them monotonous and kind of corny the way they are all happy and smiling and crap. LOL! I've been to real aerobics classes, and nobody looked that perfect or happy!

Tracy, thank you so much for those fantastic links, and way to go on hooking up with Rhonda again!

Margie, what a scare, I am so happy that the biopsy results came back fine! I hope that things go back to normal for you soon. Are the symptoms you are experiencing normal for that cream? I would check to make sure as it does not sound pleasant at all.

Melissa, congrats on the weight and inch losses!!

I know that they say not to work the same muscles 2 days in a row, but I am of the opinion that is more for intense weight bearing exercises... I could be wrong and you will read SOOO much conflicting information!

Hello everyone. I hope the sun is shining wherever you are and you are having a wonderful morning.....
Melissa - I hope you're feeling better today. You're doing GREAT!!!!Way to go..... I really need to do the measuring thing. For some reason, I don't even think about it.
Kat - thanks for letting me know that you are having the same line jumping problem. I was starting to wonder if it was my computer. It's been doing some strange things lately.
Tracy - I meant to tell you that I really like the Healthy Choice meals too. My absolute favorite is the Country Herb Chicken. It's become difficult to find for some reason but I go to every store till I find it ) It's only 240 calories which is plenty for lunch. I also like the Smart Ones Fettucinne Alfredo which also has 240 calories. It has brocolli in it which is really good.
I've NEVER been a breakfast eater. Even as a child, my mom couldn't get me to eat until close to lunch. I'm just not hungry before noon and if I force myself to eat, I feel really sick....... However, over the last few weeks I have successfully made myself at least eat a small piece of fruit or one slice of toast. Not much but I hope it's better than nothing.
Ok, everything is jumping, time to get off. Have a great day everyone and think positive.....

A small update on me. I realized that I need to take more control of my eating. I have been hovering around 170 lbs for almost 3 months now and I know I can get down if I concentrate on doing so!

A food journal (with NO lying) began yesterday for me. Last night me and my daughter's made peanut butter cookies and I didn't even have one! Friday evenings will be snack night for me from now on, no more spoonfuls of icing from the fridge or handfuls of chocolate chips. I CAN and WILL do this!

I got up this morning and did the Jillian Michael's 30 day shred workout. She is one of the trainer's on the Biggest Loser and her videos are on You Tube. I found it okay, but think I will try level 2 tomorrow. Despite my weight and bad eating habits, I am in good shape and have a lot of lean muscle mass from weight lifting.

I need to concentrate on my running as well. I have been slacking off and only going out twice a week. Only 1 month until my 10 mile race and 3 months until my half marathon. I have to get more serious about training, and hope that along with my cross training and good eating, things will go great for me...

Okay, my ramblings are over! lol! Thanks for listening!

Good morning Katherine. I think the food journal is a great idea. I need to do that again. I used to but for some reason got away from it. I guess, cause I didn't like reading that I sneaked in a handful of this and that. I'd rather pretend that it didn't happen and surely didn't want to be reminded Yep, when you start doing journals, you're really getting serious. I'm staying at the same weight and I know that I need to get serious again. My problem is that I'm going to visit my daughter very shortly that I haven't seen in a couple of years and I know that I won't be counting calories or working out. Sounds bad but it's true. I don't want to gain any weight and I'll try not to but as for losing, not gonna happen. I'll have to wait until I get back and get serious to finish losing this overhang. And I WILL. Beginning of last year I was almost 180 lbs. I got down to 145 and now I'm at 155. I try not to focus on the fact that I gained 10 pounds from my lowest weight but instead that I've kept off 25. It's that POSITIVE thinking that will keep us on the right path. We can and WILL reach our goals. We just have to REALLY REALLY want it badly enough...... You're doing great!!!!!!

I started keeping a journal a couple of weeks ago. I haven't written anything the past couple of days so I have to get back to it. It really keeps me accountable - nobody likes to write down that they ate a large bag of peanut M&Ms, or finished off three of their kids pb&j! I also journal my exercise and the water that I'm drinking. It makes a huge difference. I know I was getting ALOT more calories than I realized before I started thinking about what I was putting in my mouth.

One thing I came to realize about a week ago was how negative I am with myself. It actually came to my attention during our Wednesday night church service! Our Pastor was talking about having faith and how Jesus said that if we have faith as small as a mustard seed we could SAY... As he preached and talked about the things that we say it dawned on me that I say negative things about my weight and progress all the time. So I'm trying to be positive now. Instead of beating myself up about losing 'only' two pounds I'm proud that I have stuck with it and lost weight. I tell myself that today is going to be a great day and I'm going to make really good, healthy choices. I was claiming failure for myself no matter how hard I tried. Now I'm claiming victory no matter how long it takes!!

So I hope that everyone has a great, positive day. And I'm claiming victory for today for ALL of us!

Melissa

There ya go, Melissa!! Positive thinking will get you where you want to go...... Glass is half full, not half empty......I'm proud of you...

Wow you ladies have been busy this morning! Let me see if I can catch up with out forgetting anything.

I hope ya'll enjoy the salad dressings. They are forgiving so you can certainly play around with them to get the taste and flavor you want. Plus you can always add things them.

Melissa, I'm sorry yesterday was a bad day for you! Hope you are feeling better today!!

Even though you don't think you are doing that much to those muscles when you do do push up and squats you are really working them more than you may think. They suggest you take a break so your muscles have time to heal between work outs. As you work out you are actually tearing your muscles, they need time to rebuild. What about finding two more work outs. That way you can switch between the two every other morning.

I totally understand having to do something every day or you don't do it. I have to do that with walking. If I don't walk every day I totally stop walking.

Congrats on your 2lbs. I know we all want huge weight lose numbers but that just isn't practical in the real world.

When ever I see people drop huge numbers fast I always worry about them. Part of our weight lose journey is about the weight we lose, but there are a lot of other things we have to work on along the way. Such as our emotional or bored eating habits or how we don't really get thrilled about working out. If we don't deal with the things that have gotten us to our current weights we will never be able to keep the weight off in the long run.

Kay, thank you! I'm pretty happy with my number. Especially since it is just based on my eating. That first lost really gets you going does it? Motivates ya more than just knowing you need to lose weight. When you see you did it you catch that bug where you want to do what you can go lose more.

I have a Jullian Michael's work out video. It scares me!! Wonder if Bob has any? I think I may be able to get into it if I get to watch him.

Girl you better get after that running training! I'd need all the help I could get before hand to run 10 miles, in a day with out having to stop every 10 mins for a breather. How did the new girl work out as a run partner? The one you work with?

Margie, I'm glad I'm not the only one that likes the Healthy Choice meals. I had one the other night that was really good. It was like beef tips with mushrooms or something like that. They aren't something I could eat every day, but when you need a quick low cal meal they are pretty good.

I so have trouble with the breakfast thing too. It interferes with my sleeping. I got up at 9 this morning and didn't eat breakfast until after 10:30. Just couldn't get excited about food before then.

When I first lost weight a few years ago I started at 183 and the lowest I got was 158. After that I was with in the 5 lb range of my lowest until last year and I started gaining back. I had seen the scale as high as the low 170s and that was when I revowed to do this again. Or course it took a while to get with the program, but I was not going to let myself pull out the too big clothes cause I was back up to their size. I started two weeks ago in the 168s and now I am in the 165s.

I know I'm trying to lose before my trip and I'll have to try not to gain during the trip and reaffirm my commitment when I get back home.

Enjoy your time with your daughter. Be reasonable about what you are eating, you know what you are doing, and when you get back you can crack down on it again.

Melissa and Kay, I was bad about snacking on the little one's plate when I was babysitting. Just remember if they don't finish something off, that is okay. You can throw it away with out eating it and the world won't end. A lot of times it isn't something we think about, it is that random eating. But once you realize you are doing it you catch it more often.

Food journal's are a good idea. I would have hated to see my list yesterday, cause it wouldn't have been good. I wonder what I did with that notebook I used at the beginning of the year. Hmmm....

We all need to work on the positive thinking thing. It is really easy to forget to pat ourselves on our backs for our achievements. The negatives are much easier to point out. Like I could say, "I only walked one mile instead of two yesterday." But guess what? That is one more mile than what I walked on Sunday.

How about a little 'homework' for today. Name 3-5 positive things about your self and/or your weight lose journey to this point.

I'm off to make some meatballs to go with my spaghetti squash I am having for lunch. I'll do my home work when I get back on later.

Okie Dokie, let me think. Positive things about myself/weight
I'm 25 pounds less than I was 1 1/2 years ago
When I really set my mind on something, I see it through
I'm a very caring and giving person
I'm very loyal
Gee, guys, this is fun.. I like patting myself on the back.... Ok, I'll give you guys a chance now.

1. I have lost weight.
2. I can walk 2 or 3 miles with out passing out.
3. I can leave food on my plate when I am full.
4. I am making better choices with my eating.

This is a very hard thing to do! Should it be so difficult to say nice things about yourself? I just asked my 11 year old son (who has very low self esteem) to name two good things about himself. He said, after much thought, that he's a Christian and he's sexy! I told him I think he's very cute but I can't say he's sexy, I'm his Mom!! But I wonder if that's something I should do with my guys. I think what I'll do is have us sit together and have each kid say something nice about the other ones. That could be a really great thing for my family!
Now me...

1. I have stuck with my committment.
2. I am making healthy choices.
3. I am a loving wife.
4. I am very giving.

Wow, that was tough. I think that each day we should say something positive about ourselves. Thanks for the homework - I've never said that before! And thanks for all the kind, positive, encouraging words! Y'all are truly a blessing to me!!

Melissa

Melissa it is hard! But we need to be reminded that there are good parts to us..

Now if I had asked us to name negative things about ourselves I bet we all could have come up with a list of 10 items or more.

Here is another hard one (since we all have body issues)... Name one part of your body you are happy with. And you can't answer eyes or smile.

I can give you a big list of things I hate (tummy and inner thighs would be at the top) but I can say that I love my calves. They are the one part of my body that has muscle definition. I also think I have cute feet.

I just got off the treadmill. I did another mile. Now I'm all hot and sweaty, even though I did walk indoors.

Tonight we are going out to eat, since it is Momma's birthday. We are going to an Italian place. Oh the pasta and cheese!! I'm going to try to pick something on the healthier side, limit how much bread I eat and get a salad so I won't eat all of my dinner. How is that for having a plan in place?

Tracy, I hope your mom is having a wonderful birthday and you all have a great time at dinner.
The one thing I like about myself is my legs. They always stay thin, no matter how much I weigh

Tracy, thanks for asking about my running partner! She and I had a great 12 K run together, we will be running once a week or so!

Four Positives I can say about me and my journey:
1. I can no longer shop at plus sized stores.
2. I feel comfortable in t-shirts without being conscious of my huge belly roll.
3. I have more happiness and patience when I am around my family and friends.
4. I have increased my fitness level by a huge amount, which is evident while trying new exercises and not finding them brutally hard!!

My favorite body part about me are my arms! I have muscular arms so even though they aren't teeny weeny, they look defined and nice (to me!).

Give me strength today. I usually pick up McDonalds for the kids on Wednesdays since my husband golfs right after work and doesn't get home until after 9pm. Today I am cooking us a healthy meal instead! At least there will be no temptation to feast on their left over fries and nuggets! lol!!!

Good morning everyone!!

Y'all will be proud of me - I did different exercises this morning, 50 crunches, 25 leg lifts and I've gone up & down the stairs 4 times! I'm pretty proud. I also lost a pound, so this morning I'm down to 209 1/2. I'm hoping to stay there and not go back up over 210. Wow, that 199 mark is starting to look awful close!

Today's a pretty busy day for me. My Mom, sister (who has cancer and a brain tumor that has really hurt her mobility), neice and her three sons come over to visit. Then when they leave I have to get the house clean, bathe and feed my kids and get everyone ready for church. Wednesday's can be very stressful. But I'm kicking everyone out at 3:00 today - sometimes my neice will stay till after 5:00! I'm very thankful that I am able to spend time with my family. Just give me time to get my stuff done.

My Mom helped us buy an above ground pool yesterday. We splurged and got an oval one, 12x20. I'm really excited. My kids live in the pool during the summer. But I can actually swim in this one, I love to swim. This will be a great way to get more and different exercises in.

How is everyone else doing today? Did anyone watch Food Network last night? I was watching that new show, I think it's called 'The Best Thing I Ever Ate', Bobby Flay was talking about french fries, I had to change the channel!! I think I could live off of fries. They looked SO amazing. I've always wanted to try cooking them the way they did. Maybe this weekend.

I hope everyone has a GREAT day. I'm off to do the stairs again - that really kicks my butt1

Melissa

My four positives:

1. I am losing weight and have stopped gaining.
2. I have faith in myself that I can accomplish my goals.
3. I am very dedicated to my job.
4. Even with my added weight I still have nice curves

We all seem to be in the right state of mind as far as our goals and where we are now. I am really trying hard to stay positive. You girls are my pretty much my only support. My bff could care less about her weight.

For some reason I haven't weighed since Monday a week ago Maybe I will tomorrow.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!!!

Hey ladies!! I'm down another pound. That makes me...139!! Considering I was 135 when I graduated college, this is awesome.

Hmmm, positives for my journey so far:

1. I reached my goal, and then some.
2. Although my husband has always found me attractive, I find myself attractive again.
3-5. I have the will and strength to be ENCOURAGING to the other ladies in this thread. I am a source of INSPIRATION for others.

Keep going ladies!

I was pretty good at dinner last night. I didn't finish everything on my plate. I had over half of my pasta left, half of my salad and only had one piece of bread. I did have dessert, tiramisu, but I had the mini version which is less than 1/4th of the full size one. Even though I did have dessert, I could have had over 75% more calories, plus the 50% more with the salad and 50% more with the pasta.

Over all I was proud of myself. I ate, but not everything and I did not caving in and getting the big dessert, especially after everyone else at the table had the huge dessert plates.

Now today for lunch I was bad, very bad! I was going to make chicken and apple salad but my nephew doesn't like it very much so I though I'd treat him. I made him corn dogs. While I was looking for a recipe for it I found an onion ring recipe too. So today was corn dogs and onion rings. I did only have one all beef corn dog, but probably had more onion rings than I needed.

Tonight will be a Healthy Choice dinner night, so this will be my biggest calorie meal today. And as soon as my tummy settles I'm climbing on the treadmill to work off some of the pasta and onion rings.

Melissa, I watched that show the other night. You should have seen the fried bacon over a salad. They had some interesting food on there, but atleast we don't have smell-o-vision for tv's yet.

emrdlsky- Thanks for hanging around, reminding us that we can do this! Wow, 139!!!! That's awesome. Congrats!

kykat - I liked your positives. Especially the first one, it helped me remember that I have stopped gaining weight. Besides the occasional gain from water or even if I splurge, it's not the free-for-all that it was for a while. I'm on the right track.

TexasSugar - I think you did fantastic with your dinner! Being able to enjoy a special meal, but not over do. Isn't that what it's all about?

I've been really good today. I had my usual breakfast toast and a fried egg, it's a little less than 300 calories,depending on how much butter I use! Lunch was a Greek salad with romaine, maters, feta cheese, some croutons and a low fat, low cal dressing maybe around 300 cals. I had 1/2 a piece of cinnamon toast and most of a yogurt (I think I'm addicted to those Yoplait whipped yogurts). I also went up and down the stairs 4 more times. So I'm hoping to have a great weigh in tomorrow. I'll be happy as long as I don't gain. I need to check the sodium in the dressing, I'm not sure if it has alot of salt.

I hope that everyone has a great evening and a healthy, satisfying dinner!


Melissa

Emrldsky---I love your pop-ins too. It is very encouraging for me. Congrats on your extra weight loss

Tracy---you should be very proud of yourself. You have amazing will power and should pat yourself on the back. Now, on the other hand the corn-dog and onion rings is another story I love them both and know I would have over indulged on both. I really love a good beer-battered onion ring, yumm meee!!!

Melissa---I love yogurt and yes, the whips are fabulous!!! There are so many wonderful flavors now. Not a whipped, but the Boston Creme Pie and White Chocolate Strawberry are to die for

I plan to weigh in the morning. I was this morning but time got away from me and I never made it. Fingers-crossed I haven't gained any...

Jade, you are awesome, such an inspiration to us all!!!!!! Thank you for checking on us every now and then.

Tracy, even though you may have over indulged with onion rings, at least you are conscious of it and know it was wrong!! Sounds like are doing great!

I exercised again this morning, did 30 minutes of Jillian Michael's workout, then a 30 minute bike ride in the rain! I'm garnering strength for the weekend, strength to avoid crap food!

Jade, Congrats on losing another pound! You are doing awesome.

Thank you Melissa, Kat and Kay. I do have to say at dinner the other night I was full at the end, so I'm glad I stopped when I did and wasn't overly full. I won't give up going out to eat, but it is good to know I can go out and still do okay eating.

And yes the corn dogs and onion rings weren't the best choice, but as a once in a while thing, it could have been worse. I think next time I know to make less onion rings. It is amazing how many rings one onion makes.

Dinner last night ended up being taco salad. So I went light on the meat and cheese and did a bunch of veggies. I also didn't add any sour cream to it.

I'm trying to decide what lunch will be. My nephew is eating my left over pasta from the other night. Hmmm, it will either be left overs from the spaghetti squash lunch or a Healthy Choice dinner with a salad.

Guess I better go decide since I also have to take my nephew to his guitar lesson in a little while too.

Hope everyone has a great Thursday! I can't believe another week is almost over. Where is time going?

Happy Saturday!

How are y'all? I hope that everyone has had a good week. I'm feeling pretty good this morning. Tired but good! I'm down to 208 3/4!! Woo Hoo! I am pretty darned excited. We got our pool out up yesterday so I went swimming at 7:00am I did 50 laps - maybe it was 25 laps, I counted down as 1 and back as 2, etc. Anyway, I swam 1000 feet and did 50 lunges. Then I came in and did 50 wall push ups! I am feeling really good right now! I've done some exercise, I've got the dishwasher going, everyone else is still asleep so the house is really quiet - life is good !
I'm starting to have a hard time making myself eat enough calories. Yesterday I only had around 1100. I know I need to eat more, but that scale keeps popping up in my mind. I am terrified that I will gain weight and then give up. That's my normal scenario. How can you know stuff in you head and not apply it to your life!? I know that I need to eat, I know that my weight is going to fluctuate, I know that to be healthy, lose this weight and keep it off I need to change my life and do it the right way. But then I get so obessed that I lose my perspective. Losing weight becomes my only focus, my god. I guess I just took care of my problem. As a Christian I know that there can only be one God in my life, I need to pray about this and let God help me through this journey. And y'all, too! I couldn't do this without all of you. I gain so much strength, courage and knowledge from all of you. You have no idea how important you are to me. I know that all of you understand how hard this is, how important every milestone is, and you don't get tired of me talking about what I did today, how many calories or how much exercise I got. Well, you might but I can't see you watching tv as I talk ! Thanks for all that you mean to me.
I'm off to have another cup of coffee and prepare for my day. Another busy one. We're having a luncheon after church tomorrow. Did I tell y'all that I'm incharge of the kitchen? So I get to fix the salad, drinks and dessert. And set up. The youth are selling pizzas so I don't have to worry about a main dish. I have all of that to take care of. Tomorrow is my son's girlfriends birthday. I have to help him get things organized for that - I cna't say much about it incase she happens to read this later. And we might be having company over for dinner tonight! I think I'll just go hide in the pool - I'm already exhausted!!
I hope that everyone has a great Saturday!

Melissa

Melissa, I think everyone drops below calories at some point in this journey. We get so scared of eating and we are trying so hard to cut back that we cut back too much. I know the first time I lost weight I cut out all drinks except for water and ice tea, because I knew most regular drinks, even milk and juice 'empty' calories and I wanted to save those calories for food.

We can eat food, it is okay. Food in general is not bad. We need food to live. The healthier the food, the more we can eat of it. 100 calories of veggies is a lot bigger than 2 cookies for the same amount of calories. We just need to know that the food we are eating is the good stuff that gives us what we need, vs the bad stuff that just weighs us down. We have to find the balance of good food with realist serving portions.

Remember the numbers on the scale are just that. They do not reflect who you are. They are just numbers. Yes they keep us grounded, help us on our journey but we can't let every action in our lives be judged on the scale.

I'm still struggling with the same issues, talking myself in to walking, eating breakfast and that dreaded snacking hour(s) late night. We are about to start another week so I'll keep working on it and see what I can do about it. I have a feeling I didn't lose any more this week, but that is okay. I'll do better next week.

Happy weekend everyone!!