*.*Jump into June with MWL*.*

[eptexy]

Aww, I miss having a 2 year old in the house. My baby is 7 now. *sigh*

Debbie, you can see closer up if you click on the pictures. Thank you for all the support, everyone! Maintenance is getting is smoothing out. I don't weigh in again for another week and a half but I've already lost 2 more lbs. Suzanna was right - you do gain water when carbs are added but it comes right off.

Debbie, the recipe sounds good! Think it will work with any protein powder?

Suzanna, thank you so much for the Hood Milk recommendation. I found the fat free version. 45 calories and 3 grams of carbs is awesome!

[SonoRoo]

Oye vey, my baby is 15 this summer. My only consolation is that both children will be out of the house before I am 38. For the number crunchers, yes I was a teen mom. I do miss them when they were little and had sweet voices and didn't talk back. Now they're teens, good ones, but still trying.

On a awesome note this morning, I was at a plateau all last week and was afraid I wouldn't meet my first mini goal. The fact that I worked non-stop for four days & nights straight didn't help. I really needed a pick me up after my marathon ultrasound weekend and I got it in spades this morning!!! I woke up and weighed in and I am 1.5 pounds below my mini goal a day early. So, for those of you who hit plateaus and get stressed and want to quit or cheat to console yourselves, don't do it! It will end and things will start back up!

I was eating the 500 meat + veggie calories strictly and hit a stationary weight for a week. Yesterday I didn't exercise (I really needed just to sleep and recuperate most of the day) and I ate approximately 950 calories, still managing to keep the carbs under 20g. And voila! Down 1.5 lbs this morning. I think that sometimes the concept of calorie cycling works just by confusing or jump starting your metabolism again. In my case I think stress reduction and the related swelling were part of what was keeping my weight steady as well.

Sorry that was so long, just wanted to share! I hope everyone has an amazing day and I hope you all meet the goals you have set for yourselves!!!

[nsjx]

Shelley I find when I eat more protein (more than 500) I loose more. Especially when I excercise those days I eat a little more protein. So far 28 lbs in 8 weeks without AS or Fat burners because of high blood pressure which is stable now. Thanks to this site I learned alot to be able to do it on my own. I love my new way of eating. Love the food and will never go back to the old foods. Nothing in my closet fits. The skirts are falling to my knees. Off to the seamstress I go.

[KimNC]

I forgot to log in and tell you all how I did on Friday. It wasn't nearly the amount everyone else is talking about, but it was big for me. I lost 3.2 my first week, and as I mentioned before with my thyroid issue, that's an pretty good number. My fat percentage loss was even more exciting though, the clinic was very happy with that.

I do have to admit though, I wish I'd seen more on the scale than 3.2 pounds. My scale says I've lost only one more pound since that Friday, and I'm really not doing anything wrong. Tons of water - probably more than 100 ounces a day. Only allowing myself 16 ounces of Powerade 0 to get the electrolytes. Taking all the vitamins and AS exactly as prescribed. Eating 500-600 calories a day including snacks. Exercising 3-4 times a week. It's a little disheartening, but I'm not going to get discouraged. I may up my exercise too.

[mommy2princesses]

I was right - not a very good weigh-in this morning. Only down 1.9 lbs...even though I increased my cardio this week. Ugh, frustrating! Not sure how much faith I put into their scales as far as knowing how much fat was lost/water weight/etc....but if I choose to believe that then I went down 6 lbs of fat, but gained 4 lbs of water. No idea whyI would be retaining that much water though! Here's hoping to have a good week next week!!!

Lins - that is incredible about inspiring your daughter to run....a huge part of my deciding now was the time to get healthy is that I hope to instill a love of eating right and exercising in my 2 little girls (so that they never have to "diet"!).

-Keri

[Ortal]

Originally Posted by mommy2princesses

I was right - not a very good weigh-in this morning. Only down 1.9 lbs...even though I increased my cardio this week. Ugh, frustrating! Not sure how much faith I put into their scales as far as knowing how much fat was lost/water weight/etc....but if I choose to believe that then I went down 6 lbs of fat, but gained 4 lbs of water. No idea whyI would be retaining that much water though! Here's hoping to have a good week next week!!!

Lins - that is incredible about inspiring your daughter to run....a huge part of my deciding now was the time to get healthy is that I hope to instill a love of eating right and exercising in my 2 little girls (so that they never have to "diet"!).

-Keri

i had a pretty similar, dissapointing weigh in last week as well. I know we are still down but I get into that mentality of 'if Im paying this much, i want at least a 3# loss'. I can do 2# a week on my own. Just stay with it, and drink a ton of water this coming week. A loss is a loss. Im right there with you.

[CCCOX]

Hi Guys! It is official I am in wellness! I have posted my before and after pictures on the other thread.

Please be careful in being upset with a small loss! Even if it is 1 pound you still loss-and you are learning to live differently!

[Ortal]

congrats Cori!!! see you at 135 lbs.... you didnt even take that long to do it!

[CCCOX]

Thanks!

[eptexy]

Congrats Cori! I saw your before/after picture at the clinic! You look wonderful!

[Fit2010]

Erin - Re: protein powder fudgsicles - give it a try with whatever brand you have! You may find you can do it with vanilla and add your Walden's chocolate and the other ingredients I added!

Wow - we have so many wonderful ladies in our multiple conversations! This is great!

Re: little girls/kids - Let me tell you about an emotional thing I had happen that puts alot of what all I've been dealing with in perspective, TODAY! My hubby and I moved to our current home 5 years ago, he'd gotten a promotion in the company he's been with for the past 19 years and now as Big Wig had to move into the county so the board of directors knew he was serious about the job (a 30 mile move from where we'd been in a larger town/city actually). The house we'd moved from we'd raised our daughters in since the youngest was in 1st grade, and the summer we moved she'd just graduated from 12th grade, and we got her off to college where she wanted to go. Meanwhile, her older sister was out of state in her 2nd year of college. Busy mom, working 3-4 12 hour shifts a week started getting the house ready to sell, having a senior, all the senior stuff, buying another house that was stuck in the 1970's and needed updating like crazy and drove 30 miles there and back on days off to met contracters and do other work myself....no SELF time and being a nurse giving away bits of self over and over at work!
Then had to do more work on house moving away from so it would sell, meeting painter to go over wallpaper, etc. Still working, still house projects. Starting getting a little settled. Planned and started classes for grad school, still working 2 12 hours shifts weekly. All within a few wks diagnosed with breast CA scare/had breast surgeries/major tummy surgery/still in school online. Within 2 months working 2 days a week with students plus 2 days 12 hours with patients, plus grad school, plus recovering still. Fast forward....now it's 3 years later....
I ran errands today in the town/city 30 miles away and decided to stop by to see "old" neighborhood. Car in driveway of my old house. New owner lady let me in....house walls same, some flooring changed/updated, kitchen wallpaper/my lovely kitchen/my huge MBR bathroom same...upstairs my youngest daughter bedroom same with the dark purple we painted on the walls and the detail with hand painted stars/moons outlined in silver and blue in center with thrown on silver glitter...and I LOST IT!! I started bawling, and bawling and bawling!! I never got to grieve really having an empty nest! I was SO busy!!!
Went across street and talked with my old neighbor and just felt so much better!

My dad in Air Force as I was raised, my role as "3rd parent" because of the situation of his assignments to VietNam for 13 years, my mom's "escape" into herself, my loss of childhood...my LONGING for having a HOME, someplace settled (had moved over and over as kid). My desire to have my parents really look me in the face and love ME, not just tell me approval things that made their lives easier....

I was a great mom to my girls as they grew...and they grew up in THAT house....and I never got to really grieve leaving it! Soonafter is when I went for my pedicure, and then to a Dollar Tree for errands, and that was the first time in a LONG time that I was really, really considering eating a candy bar---I knew it was emotional, but I also knew I was hungry for lunch and it was late so I ate something OK from Taco Bell instead. I knew I'd have to come HERE and write it down in our Energy In/Out thread.

SO, my friends....my very dear friends who I may never really ever meet face to face....THANK YOU for being here! I love you all!! We are worth the focus, the time, the money, the discipline, the growth....

[tydreamer]

Holy COW, Debbie!! You made me sad! There is a new song (country) by Miranda Lambert called "The House that Built Me". She goes back to her old house and walks thru the halls and she tells the new owner that the handprints in the cement on the porch are hers and her favorite dog is buried in the front yard. She says, if I could just touch this place, I think I could heal this broken place inside me. I won't take nothing but a memory - from the house that built me.

Now every time I hear that song, I will think of you, my friend.

May the tears you shed today be the healing kind!!

[Fit2010]

It's amazing you said that....there's even more that happened today in the house.

I saw the mural my daughters' and I painted free-hand in the computer room to cover where the adjacent's room's built in closet we'd built had an uneven wall...for nothing could I sand it completely flat and it would have looked imperfect. So I painted a floor to ceiling lighthouse right there, my oldest daughter free handed the clouds, my youngest daughter filled in all the paint...we put our initials at the bottom of the lighthouse in the corner. Her son was half-asleep in the adjacent room so we didn't go in, but when she told him there was company here and don't come out in the hall that's when I saw the lighthouse! I'd forgotten about it!

And, when my husband had been off on a trip our cat had to be put to sleep because of FIV (feline immune virus)...just in the 4 days he was gone he missed out on saying goodbye to Smokey. We'd had him in the vet for IV and got the news of the diagnosis. The neighbor dug the grave 4 feet deep in our backyard, and the girls said goodbye to his sleeping body, we added momentos into the box, and the neighbor buried him and even made a cement 1 ft by 2 ft paver marker and stenciled Smokey on it and the girls put their young hand prints into the fresh cement and wrote the date we buried him. When we moved we brought that paver with us...it's here!

Don't be sad for me...I've been overwhelmingly blessed. And I am grateful! I just have made myself feel I didn't deserve to be a focus when I was busy, then I felt shame and guilt for not being better....but most of it is me being so hard on me....I didn't let me love myself and I was unapproving of my own self. Messed up! Thank you for being a dear friend Lea....and praise God I know I'll get to meet you cuz you're right here in that bigger town/city!

[mommy2princesses]

Oh Debbie! You just made me get all teary-eyed! We are currently getting our house ready to put on the market - actually, we have an appt set up with our realtor in about 10 days. We have definitely outgrown our home - small 2 bedroom Cape-style house...and I am ready to have a bigger house, bigger yard, etc. BUT - this is the house that my husband and I came home to after our honeymoon (we literally spent the 1st night in this house the night we returned home), this is the house we brought both of our baby girls home to, this is the house where they each celebrated their 1st birthdays, where they learned to crawl/walk, the tree outside where their baby swing hung.....it just makes me sad when I think about leaving it all. I never realized how important it will be to grieve the leaving of this house - not the leaving of the memories, but the home that we made together.

I so need to find the motivation to get on the treadmill...I was all ready to go at 8:00 and watch Losing it with Jillian....but now the presidential address is on, and for some reason - I don't think listening to that will get me to push it on the treadmill!

Cori - I just read your signature...and wow, did it hit home with me. It is so sad when I look through photo albums from the past few years (of course the years of my girls being so little!) and very, very few have me in them. I am always the one taking the pictures (of my own choosing, so then I don't see myself in them!). I WANT to be in pictures with my kids, I WANT my girls to see a healthy mommy, and you are so right - I WANT to be the fun, self-confident, outgoing girl I used to be. Congrats on your achievement!

Ok, you all motivated me today - this is a way of life FROM NOW ON, 1.9 lb loss is STILL a loss...I just have to keep going! Off to treadmill - because I DESERVE it!

-Keri

[Fit2010]

Whoo Hooo Keri!! You go girl on that treadmill!

We left a mobile home we'd brought our first daughter home to in CA and moved to a bigger home in CA....brought that daughter home there. Moved from CA to KS. One thing we ALWAYS have that we can always drive past is that when they were kindergarten and 2nd grade (prior to moving from a different house to the one we'd just moved from) we took dirt from our first KS house, and the other girls in the girl scout troops brought baggies of dirt from their home backyards, and we put it in the ground to mix with the planting soil and dirt as we planted a NEW ornamental flowering tree in the front yard of the elementary school they went to at the time...I was their girl scout leader...and we knew we'd be moving to another location in a smaller school district within about a year. This school was a busing school and everyone came from all over the city and we chose to go there (and keep my oldest there K-2nd grade) because it was a great multicultural experience. I'd grown up multicultural in Hawaii and I wanted my girls to experience that too. And I let the 8 girls in the troop know....as you grow up, this tree will still be here. That school is enroute for me to stop by after I teach my nursing students at a large hospital near there....and about 2 to 3 times a year I drive by and remember and see it grow, and see it flower. I don't have a lot of places I can revisit from my own growing up....but I can remember from my girls! Sigh! Happy memories...And you know what? We needed different houses along the way here in KS....and you need a different house now. It's okay....but as women we just get a little emotional, and it's OK!

[tydreamer]

The House That Built Me - lyrics

I know they say you can’t go home again
I just had to come back one last time
Ma’am I know you don’t know me from Adam
But these handprints on the front steps are mine

Up those stairs in that little back bedroom
Is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar
I bet you didn’t know under that live oak
My favorite dog is buried in the yard

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it’s like I’m someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I could just come in I swear I’ll leave
Won’t take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me

Mama cut out pictures of houses for years
From Better Homes and Gardens magazine
Plans were drawn and concrete poured
Nail by nail and board by board
Daddy gave life to mama’s dream

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it’s like I’m someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I could just come in I swear I’ll leave
Won’t take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me

You leave home and you move on and you do the best you can
I got lost in this old world and forgot who I am

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it’s like I’m someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I walk around I swear I’ll leave
Won’t take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me

[tydreamer]

Originally Posted by Fit2010

It's amazing you said that....there's even more that happened today in the house.

Don't be sad for me...I've been overwhelmingly blessed. And I am grateful! I just have made myself feel I didn't deserve to be a focus when I was busy, then I felt shame and guilt for not being better....but most of it is me being so hard on me....I didn't let me love myself and I was unapproving of my own self. Messed up! Thank you for being a dear friend Lea....and praise God I know I'll get to meet you cuz you're right here in that bigger town/city!

Debbie, we WILL meet and I look forward to that day. You are truly a beautiful person and I am honored to call you friend.

[tydreamer]

Hey Erin,

Somewhere in the last few days I saw something somewhere on one of your posts - like a mantra - that said something about the finish line. Maybe how it isn't a race to the finish line or it doesn't matter who gets there first, or it doesn't matter how fast, or something like that that made me THINK all of these things!! Whatever it was, I'd like to read those words again because they really moved something in me. Could you repost or tell me where I can find them??

Thanks!

[SonoRoo]

Awww Debbie!!!

[eptexy]

Debbie! I'm so saddened by what happened with you today but so inspired by how you moved through it and learned so so much about yourself! You're amazing and thank you so much for sharing! With that amount of self-awareness, nothing will stop you!

Lea, I'm not sure if I said exactly that but in the past few days I have mentioned that there is no finish line - that we will have to work at this for the rest of our lives. Hmm. Maybe it was this paragraph?

"Some people have less to lose and have less of an addiction to food. Some have an intense addiction to food and unfortunately, Medi will ultimately not be the answer to their issues. The bottom line is, while similar, each path we are all on is different and it would be impossible to relate to everything. At the same time, though, we should all be entitled to talk about it and expect empathy and support."

[mommy2princesses]

I did the treadmill for 30 minutes, then decided to try out my new Wii "game"...Biggest Loser. Wow - what a workout! I think I sweated more doing that for 40 minutes then jogging/walking on the treadmill!

Anyone else do anything on Wii? Would like to have some variety!

-Keri

[eptexy]

Really??? Ill have to look into that. We just got a Wii Fit and I don't know if I'm just so stupid that I don't get it or... What. I lose at everything!

[lins]

We just sold the house that I brought all 3 of my girls home to, last fall. We live in a brand new house and I love it, but I will always think fondly of our first house. Sweet memories in that home, that I will never forget.

I got for week 10 weight-in tomorrow and I am so hoping for some more good numbers. My 30th birthday is one week from tomorrow and my original goal was to be at 145 by then, so it's possible.

[Fit2010]

Shelley and Erin - I'm sure we all have our own stories to tell.....life is. . . . .

[SonoRoo]

LOVE Wii Fit & Wii Active and the sequel! I also do around two hours of Dance Dance Revolution with the kids when I get home and have a chance in the evenings. It really makes working out fun and it doesn't feel so much like work. I finally got the pool chemicals under control and I can't wait to go swimming. When it's clean and we keep it clean I try to swim for at least an hour every single day. THAT is relaxing!!!

[Fit2010]

Confessions of an emotional eater: This will be brief (I'll try) because I know I've gone on and on and on already....

I sat at my laptop last pm reading from thread to thread and had fresh rotissaire (sp?) chicken in kitchen to have planned to eat for supper, but since I ate lunch so late (after 2pm) wasn't hungry til later in evening....hubby gone to Board Meeting til 8:30pm and when he came home he brought the left over catered meal they had....I still hadn't eaten. I was excited to tell him about visiting the old house and the insight, etc and started....as I did he turned on the TV to watch the World Cup (or whatever it's called!). He did turn it off when I asked so I could go into the drama, the emotions, and even cried again explaining about being in youngest daughters old BR. When done he looked at me like, "OK" and turned on the TV. So, I went to the kitchen and instead of planned chicken and diet jello I ate the catered meal: a croissant/chicken salad sandwich that was yummy, 2 servings of a favorite broccoli salad (just like I had resisted earlier in the day at the grocery store), and a serving of a yucky desert pudding thing which I wish I would have spit out of my mouth! Goal: to nuture myself for not being "understood," I was thinking thoughts I thought he had about me (intruder into old neighborhood, needy wife, blah, blah, blah). Then about 10 mins later I could feel my blood sugar go up and felt so terrible....not WORTH this assault on myself emotionally or physically!! Just that AM my counselor had said to think about how I react/think....is it in which of 3 categories: 1) emotional, 2) spiritual, or 3) rational. The goal is to have LESS emotional!! I had totally reacted in my thinking emotionally, then I nurtured and punished myself for those thoughts. And when I asked myself what was probably really happening and what my husband was probably thinking it was NOT thoughts of judgment on me. In more rational thinking it was probably that he'd been gone to work since 6:30 am, gone 14 hours, just got done with a board meeting and who knows what, was tired, wanted to relax and watch the world sports show going on, had hugged me when he got home, did listen to me, and wanted some time to unwind....it wasn't about ME! See how the fear of abandonment from childhood stuff gets all screwed up in my thoughts? This is terribly, terribly revealing.

The book, "Fat Chance" is really great....I thumbed through it and there are no other verses that I see listed other than that one I wrote about from Psalms. I asked God today to help me find a verse to memorize for ME to grow on...letting Him retrain my head. Here's what I have memorized so far of Psalm 37: 8-11 "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or mule which have no understanding..." He will not abandon me....He has promised to be a father to the fatherless....He does not expect perfection, David in the Bible was not perfect, but he had a relationship with God and believed in Messiah....I am harder on myself than I need to be! I need to be kinder to myself. I need to stop being so abusive to myself. I'm OK. Thanks be to God! He wants me to learn, to use reason (rational thinking), to know that He's got me no matter what! My husband loves me, but he cannot be expected to share every feeling and emotion in the same way...he's a man. So today I drank LOTS of water, jogged/walked, and I'm very low carbing it today. Plus called DH and told him to come pick up this left over stuff and take it to work!

[sally1]

Fit,

You have done today what is most important. You lifted yourself up, dusted yourself off, and moved on! that is what I hope to learn how to do. It's not always the one meal gone bad......but what you do after that.

Sally1

[sally1]

Debbie!!! Just saw your name

[Fit2010]

Sally - agreed! Just wanting to learn to have to STOP having to pick up and clean up so much....I've got places to go and things to do!

[jbiggars63]

Hello everyone! Hope all is going well for everyone! Welcome back Ash! Debbie is a good soul! I am so glad to have had a chance to meet you in person! I hope to have a major announcement in the next few weeks! Stay tuned! I am just waivering between 193 and 195! Keep up the great work everyone!