Ocean's 11 (Team 11) - November

[LFTS]

Only two months left! Regardless of anything else, I think we can all safely say that just coming this far is a victory in itself. Let's finish in style, ladies!

As soon as I see challenges, I'll post. Until then, remember... stay away from that Halloween candy, it's still Halloween, and those points will count for November.

[simplemaw]

Sorry folks! I don't know what I was thinking (or NOT thinking!) but I was planning on sending Lisa my stats tomorrow. Hope they got to you in time to submit, Lisa.

maw

[LV2BFUNY]

Biggest Loser Challenges for November

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1. How are you doing on the Halloween challenge? Give yourself 100 points if you haven't eaten any Halloween candy in either October or November. Not a single itty bitty tiny little piece!

2. And speaking of holidays, what are you doing for Thanksgiving? Give yourself 50 points for planning ahead, and telling your team what your plans are. Where will you be eating, what will be served, what will you eat, what WON'T you eat, what will you do to stay out of the stuff you're going to avoid, what about leftovers, and so on. It doesn't matter what your plans are. All that matters here is that you planned ahead. Then give yourself another 50 points for reporting back to your team afterwards and telling how you did. Did you follow your plan? What worked and what didn't? What will you do differently next time?

3. Need a bit of extra motivation going into the holidays? Go to http://www.he.net/~zone/prothd2.html and compute your lean body mass at the beginning of the year and now. (You may have to guess about your beginning neck measurement.) Give yourself 10 points for every pound of lean body mass that you GAINED. These are the good pounds.

4. Finally, let's do another Make Your Own Challenge challenge. You know what works for you and what you need to work on. Design a challenge for yourself, tell your team about it, and let them know how you are going to allocate 100 points for the challenge. It can be a daily challenge (3 points every day you exercise) or a one-time challenge (100 points for staying out of Mom's pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes). Whatever you need to keep you eating low carb and healthy this month.

And, of course, the regular on-going challenges.

[simplemaw]

Hi everyone! November is starting out wet and dark and gray. Ugh!

My personal challenge this month is going to be taking my supplements. I haven't been taking them regularly, and I know that that affects how I feel about food, what and when I want to eat, and so forth. My meals aren't real regular these days, which is part of it. And part of it is not taking the supplements to school with me for those days that I eat at school. So, this month I get 2 points per day for taking all of my supplements as scheduled, and an extra 40 points if I take them every day.

Doing fine as far as Halloween candy is concerned. I went to the Dollar Store to see what they had that I could hand out that would be cheap, wouldn't get my house egged, and wasn't candy. I found some "holographic" pencils - pencils with sparkly outsides that change as the light hits them differently. 12 for $1, so they were cheap, too. Wasn't sure how the kids would like them, but they seemed to be popular. Lots of comments like "cool" or "it matches our school colors." And I'm not planning on eating any of the pencils I have left!

Have a great day everyone!

maw

[LFTS]

Maw, your stats were submitted on time! I understand the thought... even though we've been at this challenge for 10 months now, I still get the brain farts and think reporting day is the 1st, not the last day of the month. It just sort of hit me yesterday--"oh, crap, it's reporting day, and I didn't put a reminder up!" <duh>

Dawn, thanks so much for posting the November challenges! Wow, I'm gonna have to do some thinking on that one. I haven't been taking my supplements lately either, so that would be a good one to consider.

The other challenges are pretty much no-brainers for me. As for Halloween candy--well, DH bought some for his class, and I bought some for DD to take to a volunteer community Halloween thing for little kids, but none came home. We don't have trick-or-treaters this far out in the country. (A funny about that... when DD was little, we used to call a couple neighbors and ask in advance if it was okay to come to their houses and trick-or-treat, and we'd slip them the candy to give her. One neighbor bought an entire 8-bar pack of full size Hershey bars, and gave her the entire package. ROTF!) So, no candy around the house, no temptations. Maw, the pencil idea was brilliant! Pencils are always a big hit around here for school stuff.

As for Thanksgiving... we don't do anything all that special. It's usually our family (DH, DD and I) and then my mother--and all of us do LC anyway, with a couple extras for DH and DD. (They'll get dinner rolls, for instance.) Otherwise, everything on the table is LC. DH usually makes a Beachgirl's Cheesecake for such occasions. As for leftovers? There's usually not many, because we'll buy something like a boneless turkey breast, and that's it. Last year we decided to be different and did a duck; that was a *dumb* idea, there isn't much meat on a duck!

Physical therapy started yesterday. It seems that I'm already ahead of where they expected me to be; the range I can bend my knee is already in normal range, and my leg strength is already beyond what they expected to see. All the working out I've been doing has definitely helped.

[spydersong]

Holy crap it's November!

Congrats to us all for sticking it out this far.

I'm teaching this week - so not looking forward to it which is unusual. I'm being very "Glass is half empty" about the program because it just effing sucks - that in itsself is a whole other rant!

My Nov goals for 100 pts
- Vitamins daily (2pts per - 60pts total)
- Try 2 new exercise videos (5 pts each - 10pts total)
- Stop eating by 8pm (1 pt per day - 30pts total)

I have to get a few things done this morning before class - so gotta run!

To end on a better note

Happy November! Hope we all have a spectacular month!

[spydersong]

Nov 1 - Done eating at 6:30 pm, Vitamins taken!


Lisa - Thats great on being ahead in the physical therapy
Maw - how school going? Sounds like you are busy, busy, busy
Kelly - Whats the house status...or did I miss something
Dawn - Hey lady How ya doing?

[LFTS]

Here are the results for October:

Teams ranked in order of average points earned.

1. Team 11
2. Team 14
3. Team 4
4. Team 12
5. Team 2

===============

Woohoo!!!! Sure is nice to be at the top, isn't it? And considering that's an average of points, all of us contributed to that! Nice teamwork, ladies!

[KelleyG]

Yeah for our team

MIL leaves tomorrow - we've done soooo much the past few days. AND a lot of walking! Unfortunately I dipped into the Halloween candy - a fig newton and smartie. I know...but compared to past years it is still amazing that it was only 2 things

I'll have to think on the daily challenge and post tomorrow. I'm putting some stuff off until MIL leaves. I think my challenge need to be about weight training (adding it in again, consistently) and me time - I'll have to decide tonight.

House has still not sold and we are going to go looking at another house today on the island. I'll catch up with you all tomorrow.

[LV2BFUNY]

Congrats Everyone for sticking it out!!! We are Awesome!!!

Ok I will be the first to put up my lean body mass %..... I started out this year at 74% but currently I'm at 61%.... Not great but alot better than it was.

As far as my challenge...
Exercise... what else... That seems to be a challenge for me.

Exercise 5x a week for 3 pts a day
40 pts for completing the month.

That's about the only challenge I'm up to this month. As far as Thanksgiving.... Well it's always at my house... Just my family and MIL.... We'll have all the usuals... Turkey, Greenbean caserole, Yams, Potatoes and Gravy, Biscuits, Stuffing, Veggie Tray, Jello Salad, Ham and I think a green salad for me. Of course we'll also have All the pies and everything too...I'm going to try and make Beachgirls cheesecake.. I'm not much of a baker but I'm willing to try. I always have all my friends over for dessert on Thanksgiving and we go over the ads and make our plan for shopping for the next day. I love love love Thanksgiving!!!!! It leads into Christmas...my absolutely favorite holiday....

Katie nice to see you posting again....Both of us need to stick around this month... we're doing a great job just sticking to this challenge.... BTW Love the new Avatar!!

Kelley.... Any offers on your house yet... hopefully it will sell soon..

Maw... You seem a little down... I know you're a little off due to supplements but does the weather affect your mood... it does with me....I miss hearing about your walks with Rocky... One of the ladies in our neighborhood passed out pencils too.... The teens were complaining... I told them to be greatful that people were willing to give them anything. Besides I passed out full size candy bars.... I had over 175 kids at my door that night... then all the candy that my kids brought home. Our Rule is they have to combine all the candy and then they can have 2 pieces a day. After 2 weeks I throw it away.... but you know I haven't even been tempted....

Lisa... lets not forget you... how PT going??? So glad that your stronger then they expected... WTG on being prepared!!!

Yesterday's menu:
B: 2 eggs, 2 sausage patties
L: Mongolian BBQ...Beef, Chicken, Celery, Cabbage, Bean Sprouts cooked in Hot Sauce... it was really neet... picked out all my own food and the hot sauce and watched them cook it.... Stayed away from the salty stuff...
D: Chile Verde... I made it... No salt
Water

Well must get some work done....I'll see you later!!!

[simplemaw]

Rats! I blew my personal challenge already - on the first! I very carefully put my lunch and supper supplements in little pill bottles (Tuesday I brown bag lunch and supper) and put them in my lunch bag and my lunch bag in my back pack and took my back pack to school. Fine so far. Took out my lunch and my lunch pills and put them on the table. I very clearly remember putting the pill bottle on the table. Then I must have just put it back in the lunch bag, because when I went to take my supper supplements there were 2 bottles of pills! Grrrrr. That's 42 points down the drain. And I always find that the extra incentive of big time points for doing something every day is a big incentive. Oh well. There are still 58 points to get!

The car's at the shop again. I drove it in and then walked home. I found a way to get to school that is only a little ways on the busy road with no sidewalks or shoulders. Going that way should shave about half an hour off walking to school, which I don't do very often but would sort of like to. The way I've gone so far has been to backtrack and take the Rail Trail. I think that adds about a mile and a half. Come to think of it, there may be a way that will be even less narrow shoulderless roads. It's still a 90 minute walk each way I'm guessing, but it's nice to know the option is available.

Have no idea what Thanksgiving will be. We have a student listserve for the library school and I'm thinking of posting an open invitation to anyone who wants to come over and potluck. But I'll wait until a bit nearer the big day to do anything.

When I started Atkins two and a half years ago (started 3/26/03, but the measurements I found are from 4/6/03), my lean body mass was 81 pounds, my fat % was 74%, and my ideal weight (22% fat based on my lean body mass) was 99 pounds! When this challenge started, my lean body mass was 89 pounds, my fat % was 63% and my ideal weight was 108 pounds. As of the first of the month, my lean body mass was 93 pounds, my fat % was 58% and my ideal weight is 113 pounds. Which means that I've gained 22 pounds of lean body mass since I started Atkins, and 4 pounds since I started this challenge. But I'm going to use my end of the month stats for the challenge.

Way to go on the knee, Lisa! All that exercise you've been doing must have really helped get you in shape for the surgery. (Did I tell you all that my brother had knee surgery several years ago? He hurt it playing raquetball at the gym. Because his employer paid the gym dues, it was considered a "work related" injury and workers' comp paid for it all!)

Sorry you're not happy with the program or the teaching, Katie. Remember about a year or so ago when you were unhappy because you didn't have anything to do? On the challenge - the idea is to pick one thing to focus on, and apply all the points to it, rather than spreading them out over several areas.

Sounds like supplements are a big deal for a lot of us! Why is it so hard to "remember" to take the dumb things?

School is going well, Katie. The classes have been pretty easy so far. Not real rigorous. Which is fine in some ways, but I think I'd learn a lot more if I were forced to. Maybe they think that we should be mature enough to learn without having it crammed down our throats? Next semester should be tougher I think, based on the syllabi that have been posted so far. But I'm really enjoying a couple of my classes and sort of enjoying (certainly not UNenjoying) the other two, and I've learned a lot. Mostly, I'm afraid, that maybe this isn't what I want to do after all! (One of the articles we read for class last night was about violence in libraries. Who'da thunk it?)

We're doing great, we are!

Hi Kelley! How does DD like her new preschool?

Yeah, I am a bit down, Dawn. I don't think it's related to the weather (which has mostly been absolutely beautiful!) or the shorter days. Seems like I go through this every few months. You know how everything gets all mixed up. I'm feeling a bit down so I maybe don't eat as well as I should or I don't take the supplements so I don't feel so good so I get down and it all goes around again. Or maybe it's the food that starts it all off. I don't know what it is that starts the cycle. But I'm not going to let it get me! Thanks for asking!

Well, best finish up the personal computer stuff and get to school stuff. Unfortunately, I have lots of computer stuff to do, when I would much rather be sitting on my porch enjoying the sunshine and warmth and reading - even reading a textbook or journal articles!

Have a great day!

maw

[spydersong]

it's my last day teaching this week. Thank god as it has been hellacious!

So far I'm on track with my vitamins and not eating late. Depending on my mood I might try to get the 1 new exercise tape out of the way tonight

Maw - 58pts is still a good thing. By the end of the month you'll be better conditioned to take them daily

Lisa - how often are you doing physical therapy?

Dawn - how's the exercise going?

Kelley - 2 things isn't bad - at least you stopped there!

Okey dokey...I"m off to my class - just praying that things go smoothly today!

[LV2BFUNY]

7 DAYS

Hello All!!

Menu yesterday:

B: 2 eggs, pork meat
L; Cobb Salad
D: Taco bake
water, water, water...

I didn't weigh this morning until after my shower so I'm sure I at least dropped a pound... Which I'm surprized at... Tom is in town...(for the last 7 days..grrrrr) with no end in sight...

Exercise has been going great.. Thanks for asking Katie This weekend we take a turn-around trip to Stateline.... Buffalo Bill's... Can't wait... should be fun.. They will be selling food on the bus for breakfast but I already have mine worked out... I may do a LC muffin or some bacon and LC pancakes... something I can eat with my hands.

I have so much going on right now... I have a meeting tonight with the director or our Moose Lodge... DH is a member and I need to pay his dues and then rent the hall for a party... then go home dye my hair clean up the house before MIL come tomorrow and exercise all before going to bed and on top of that I broke a nail this morning so now I have to go have them fixed before saturday... tomorrow suppose to take MIL & kiddos out to dinner and get to bed early enough to get up at 4:30...Guess I have to exercise in the morning before work tomorrow...Wow I'm stressed just talking about it..

Maw I can totally tell I didn't do that % thingy right... I'll have to work on it... and 58 pts is nothing to sneeze at that's still a great accomplishment. Besides didn't I hear you lost 100 lbs????? You've come a long way BABY!!!

Kelley.... You ate Candy!!!!! ummmm I'm telling.....

Lisa.. Where you at girl???? Cat get your tongue??? Busy I know.... I'm being weird today can you tell???

Well see you ladies later... I'm Outty!!!!

[simplemaw]

Still hanging in here. Still down. Still don't know why this whole thing is so hard at the moment. Still torn between not giving a **** and caring alot. At least I care enough to keep coming back here and posting and eating only low carb foods even if my portion control (or lack of same) totally sucks.

Been doing ok with the supplements, except for that first day. Been going for walks, with Rocky in the mornings, and most days between the parking lot and the library. (The only parking lot where students can park is around the gym and the stadium. Parking isn't allowed there from 6:00 pm the night before a home game. There's a home game tonight. I got a $35 ticket for parking in the only lot I'm allowed to park in. What am I supposed to do - skip class because there's a stupid game tonight?) Rocky alternates between having to be dragged down to go for a walk and racing to the front door and barking up a storm when he hears me open MY front door! I do the same, though I try to contol the barking. Sure wish we could coordinate when we want to walk and when we don't!

Yesterday was up in the 70s. Today too. Then it's supposed to rain this weekend.

You're a busy girl, DawnMarie! I'm exhausted already!

Hurray, Katie! Class is over for this go-around. Or at least I assume it will be by the time you read this.

Hi Kelley! Hi Lisa!

Well, I should get back out to the porch and read some more. Hurray for kiddie lit classes!

Have a great weekend.

maw

[LV2BFUNY]

Maw sorry you're still down. At least you're having nicer weather than S.CA...

I'm not hiding just busy today... And I'll be gone all day tomorrow... I'll try to post tonight... Oh and BTW.. I didn't exercise last night .... got home from work at 9:30 pm had a little something to eat, Dyed my hair and went to bed....

Talk to you girly's later!!!!

[spydersong]

I've become a freak today - I have put on *gasp* Christmas Music while I'm cleaning house

Lisa & Kelley - Hi there
Maw Hope it gets better soon
Dawn - Lets see some pics of the hair - haven't seen any new of you in a long time!


So back to cleaning

[simplemaw]

Rats! Did it again! Went out for lunch and didn't take my supplements. Sigh. It's so traumatic when someone as perfect as I am makes mistakes.

So Jen and I decided we would go to an Italian restaurant for lunch and then go to the grand opening of a new exhibit at the museum. (At which, by the way, they had absolutely yummy smelling food that I didn't have any of!) We'd never been to this restaurant, and the deal was that we would go there if they had something I could eat. We looked at the menu posted outside and the prices were out of sight. Decided to go elsewhere. The next menu board had much more reasonable prices, but then we saw that it was the lunch menu so figured that was it. For example, the Caesar salad was $3.50. Went inside, were seated and given menues. The Caesar salad is $6.50. So I told the waiter that we wanted to order off of the menu outside, and at those prices. "Oh no, you can't do that - that menu is several years old!" So I told him that it was misleading and that we had come inside based on the prices on that menu. He said there was nothing he could do but he would tell his manager that we thought it was misleading. We had already decided to stay even at the inflated prices because they were about what we would pay anywhere along there. Still makes me mad, though! Anyway, so I ordered what sounded like a great sandwich, but with a side of romaine instead of the bread. And got a dinky little bit of food. Jen ordered a sandwich, too, and it came with a generous order of spaghetti, so maybe the dinky bit of sandwich stuffing was reasonable. On the other hand, I wasn't even offered any spaghetti! Oh well. I didn't starve. And we know not to go back there!

My commitment for today is to not eat anything until supper, and not to eat anything after supper.

Just spent a fortune at Sam's. Eggs and cheese and sour cream and veggies and a chuck roast and some dish soap. Hardly seems that should come to almost $80!

I think I'm doing better attitude wise. I hope!

Have a great rest of the weekend everyone!

maw

[simplemaw]

I'm tired. Sirens (I think tornado sirens) woke me up about 3:15, and I stayed up for over an hour watching the tv tell us about the high winds and "monsoon-like" rain we were experiencing and the tornadic systems overhead while it stayed calm and dry outside. Hope everyone else had it as calm as we did right here!

Food's going ok, I'm eating my veggies, walked this morning even though Rocky didn't come out and play (I hate waking them up on the weekend if Rocky and Zander (3 year old) are letting them sleep in. I need to ask Ryan if he'd rather I rang the doorbell and woke them up so he doesn't have to walk Rocky, or if he'd rather I just let them sleep. Doesn't really matter to me), and didn't eat after supper last night. And other than being tired (I hate disturbed nights like this!) I'm feeling pretty good.

I decided that I'm going to put a notice on the library student list-serve inviting folks who will be here over Thanksgiving without family to come to my house for a potluck dinner. I talked to a friend in the program about it yesterday, and she's going to be here and said she'd come so I won't be going it absolutely alone. But this will entail a massive housecleaning!

Have a great day everyone!

maw

[LV2BFUNY]

Stopping in to say HI....

and to let you know... I weighed this morning..... I'm 1 lb away from Twooterville!!!!!!!!!!!

tired.... going back to bed..

[KelleyG]

Hi all.

Been having a hard time coming here. Those 2 little peices of candy have exploded and I need to go back to induction. I know it's all stress related, no offers on house yet, found 2 here we love and would be perfect. My mind is just not in it right now.

I'll go figure out my body fat and the other challenge and be back later today.

Not out, just down

[spydersong]

Maw - Glad you were safe from the tornados - how scary that must have been having the sirens going off

Kelley - You'll get it back together

Dawn - Yay! You're so close to it!

Lisa - hope the knee is doing well

I'm doing pretty good - yesterday I just couldn't get enough to eat and it was crazy the quanties that I was putting away! Then ended up going out last night and had more, plus alcohol so I was not really good in terms of diet

Today is going much better for staying on track!

[simplemaw]

Things are going well here. I think that I have vanquished (for the present, anyway!) the black dog that had been sitting on my shoulders. (Anyone know where that reference comes from? I know I've run across it in various books, so I assume it has some sort of literary basis but no idea what it is.) Food has been good the past few days. I've been adding a daily special committment, just for one day, on another thread, and that seems to be helping. I don't seem to be doing very well with the supplements challenge! I do fine when I'm home, but don't always take along my supplements when I'm eating out. But that's part of life and this WOL - finding ways to continue with my good habits even when circumstances change. End of sermon.

I talked to Rocky's man yesterday (Ryan) about whether I should knock loudly or ring the doorbell when I go to take Rocky for a walk. I do hate to wake them up on a weekend if Zander and Rocky will both let them sleep! Ryan said that by the time I go over there (usually between 7:30 and 8:00) they're usually up, but don't hear me. Ryan took Rocky for his morning walks Saturday and Sunday because they didn't hear me knocking. He said that he had to really pull Rocky past my house! Apparently Rocky knows that I'm supposed to take him for his walks in the morning and is concernced when thing are different. They're all gone today to visit grandma in Indianapolis, so no Rocky walk today. But I do plan to walk to school (about 2 hours each way, though I think I've found a way to cut it down a bit) today to get in some exercise.

Not much else going on around here. As I said yesterday, we didn't have the bad weather that they had just south of here, in spite of the tornado siren going off twice. School is going well and I'm still enjoying it.

Oh, the big news from around here! I put a notice on our library school student list serve inviting anyone who doesn't have a place to go for Thanksgiving to come here for a potluck dinner! Way way outside my comfort zone. So far (I only posted it Saturday night and most people probably don't look at it on the weekend) 2 people have responded to the post, plus 1 person I asked ahead of time so I'd be sure to have someone I knew there. The program is pretty small - about 300 I think - so I figure even if everybody doesn't know everybody, everyone should at least know someone. I'm hoping for about 10 - 15 people, which should make for some good interactions. Wish me luck!

Have a great day and a great week everyone!

maw

[LV2BFUNY]

Whew... What a weekend!!!!!

Friday afterwork went and got my nails done, then ran up to Los Angeles to pick up MIL went shopping and bought me a new top for the bus trip..(decided that I'd been doing so good I needed a treat) went home made Jello shots for the bus trip and made some LC muffins... I took 2 muffins with me on the trip but only ate half of 1... Did however drink alot of alcohol... (Rum & D.Coke) brought my own so was completely legal. ate 1 meal at the casino... had roastbeef, salad, greenbeans.... I was pretty drunk by that time so I was glad I was in control enough to stay away from the bad stuff. Yesterday my parents came for the day and I had to feed them dinner... I made Steak, Baked Potatoes, greenbean caserole, salad, and then pumpkin pie for desert... I had Steak, greenbeans, salad and Jello for dessert. I feel so in control... DH thought I should just eat the filling in the pie and not the crust and it isn't so long ago that I would have agreed with him... but not now... I'm staying strong. 12 days strong and still going!!! Walked around all day saturday in 2.5" heals... not a big deal for some but it was for me... gave my calves a great workout.

Todays menu:
b: 2 eggs, 2 sausage patties
l: not sure yet
D: pork roast in the crockpot and salad or greenbean casserole

I've decided that having a treat (ok Dessert) on sunday is a good reward for me. Yesterday I was going to have a LC brownie w/tiny scoop of LC ice cream but had Jello instead.. We always had dessert on sundays as a kid and it seems to have worked for me and it gives me something to look forward to... I know it's not right to reward yourself with food and that's not what I'm doing... Dessert is very big in my house so by limiting it to sunday I'm helping the kids and I get to look forward to a treat vs. killing myself every night watching them eat ice cream or whatever... make sence?? ON a good note the bowl of candy from halloween is almost gone (thank to my Mom & Dad)... it sits on my kitchen counter but doesn't affect me at all.. I'll be throwing out the rest this week.

Maw.. Tornado sirens OMG that would scare me to death... Good thing it didn't hit your area. Isn't Rocky cute... worring about you... about going outside your comfort zone... GOOD FOR YOU!!! Wish I could come to your party... but sadly I'll be home cooking for MIL... Oh she offered to make the stuffing... Glad you're out of the funk...

Kelley..THROW AWAY THE CANDY...I'm in no position to give advice but I know you'll pull it together and be back on top soon.

Katie..I'll post some pics. soon... all the ones lately I'm either drunk or have a drink in my hand... not good pics for here.

Lisa... PT must be taking all you time... Where you at????

Well this is getting kind of long... better get to work.. See Ya!