embrace the journey

[tempted_by_food]

Sounds like a busy and fun weekend hope your gd's party and cookout go well, wow sounds like your very talented with the candles, sprays etc I usually buy that stuff must be great being able to make them all by yourself!! Have a terrific weekend with the family!!

[dixiegal]

OMG y'all I hurt all over!! We had a blast at gd bd party. It was outside and they rented a big ol blow up slide for the kids to play on. This thing was huge I'd guess almost 2 stories high or close to it, and of course my grand daughters wanted granny to slide with them so up I climbed and went down the slide, I had to go down with each gd and on the last one my oldest gd 9 went down behind me and slammed into my upper back at the bottom. I was ok after and didn't hurt until this morning. I woke up feeling like Id been hit by a truck and remembered the hit,lol.

Since today is callanetics day I'm hoping the stretching will work it out. In the meantime I gotta get to work. The kids where here until 11 last night and all jazzed up and cake and ice cream my house is in bad shape.

[FatFatnomore]

I'm glad to hear you had a great time Dixie! I hope your back feels better soon!

[tempted_by_food]

Sounds like lots of fun with the slide, hope your back is ok this morning!

[dixiegal]

ty ff and tempted. Yesterday was super busy! We are making a haunted house in the basement,lol. My son and dil are helping. We got half done yesterday and hope to finish it today and decorate the yard and house.
Planning on doing the major cleaning on Wed and Thurs, and the cooking on Fri.

I'm a bit nervous about making all the yummy treats for the party. Last night I went and picked up the candy and had a few rough moments wanting to eat some but managed not to. I just keep reminding myself I'm doing this for the kids and it'll be worth it. So far 29 adults and 24 kids have RSVP'd and I'm super excited about the whole thing. Dh and I have finally agreed on costumes, he'll be the hunter and I'll be his deer

The sears man fixed my washer yesterday!!

[FatFatnomore]

Dixie your party sounds like so much fun!!!!! I really wish I lived near you so I could crash the party. lol I like the costume ideas too! lol

I hear you on the candy temptation. Thank God for braces this year because I can't eat candy even if I wanted to. lol Otherwise it would be a major temptation for me cause my DD eats her candy sooooo slowly and it usually lasts well into the next year. It's always torture for me to see it in the kitchen and not attack her candy bucket. rotf

[tempted_by_food]

woah thats going to be some halloween party with over 50 people going lol it will be a blast, love the costumes lol make sure you take some pictures of everyone dressed up and post them up with the others, would be nice to see

[tempted_by_food]

Hope your having a nice day Dixie!

[tempted_by_food]

The party was yesterday? hope it went well, and you all had a great time.

[dixiegal]

Hey tempted !! We moved the party to Saturday, thank goodness cause I'm nowhere near ready yet,lol. Sorry I havent posted much , but I think of you and the others all the time, wondering how your doing.

[dixiegal]

Haven't exercised all week unless you count running up and down basement stair a zillion times, shampooing carpets and cleaning house top to bottom. The haunted house is finally done I'm glad I'll be working in it and not be the ones getting scared,lol. house is done,yard decorated.. all that's left is the cooking and most of it will be done tomorrow. I made pumpkin fudge today and resisted it so far. Haven't drank a glass of water in days, Ive been living off of ice tea. Stayed OP though and plan on staying that way! I miss chatting with y'all! Hope everyone is having a great week

[tempted_by_food]

You been so busy that sure is exercising running up and down them stairs lol that fudge sounds mouth watering good job resisting your so strong!!! Hope the festivities go well and everyone has a great time, I bet the basement is looking super!

[dixiegal]

Party was a blast! I didnt get to take pictures but some of my sister in laws did and I'm waiting for them to have time to email them to me to post some. I ended up breaking my cheat free spree but I'm not too worried about it. The way I'm looking at it is Halloween didn't make me fat.. years of stuffing my face day after day make me fat! I enjoyed small slivers of cake, a small piece of fudge, a few appetizers and plan on being right back op today.The party lasted from 12 noon until 11 pm so overall through the day I didn't do much damage, and most importantly to me, I didn't start binging on foods, I was able to enjoy small portions and forget about it. All left over sweets and op foods where given to others to take home. Water jug is filled and ready to drink today.

Callanetics today!

[tempted_by_food]

Glad the party went well, it is a new month and a new start I was so looking forward to Novemeber to start a fresh! great idea shipping all the leftovers out the door I should do the same sweets everywhere lol bet your shattered today after the party I know I am

[dixiegal]

I'm pretty tired but it's a happy tired Just got done sitting my house back to normal and cleaning decorations out of the yard. Now I'm going to take a nice bath then do callanetics, one thing I love about them is you dont work up a sweat,lol

[dixiegal]

Had a nice time out yesterday even though the movie wasn't good.

We stopped by the mall and went to Charlotte Russe's to try on jeans. I got here before my dil and felt out of place right away with all the skinny shoppers.

I was thinking about leaving and waiting for my dil outside when the sales lady asked if I needed any help. I laughed and told her my dil said I could fit into their jeans but I didn't think so. She was very nice and said she agreed with my dil and asked what size I thought I was.. I told her 16s where getting loose, and told her I was looking for some skinny jeans that didn't bag at the legs to wear with boots. She grabs a pair of 13's and tells me to try them. I told her there was no way they would fit but agreed to try.... and they fit!!!

Now granted they where a bit tight but not so tight I couldn't wear them. 15's would have been better but they where out of them in that style. Since their jeans are buy one for $29 and get the next for $10 I went ahead and bought the 13's and another style of 15's.

I left the store very excited and then started thinking that their jeans must be cut bigger, met up with dil and we decided to try Rue 21 since they have jeans on sale for $10 all the time... same thing there 13's where a bit tight but very close to fitting. I still cant believe they worked. Last time I low carbed I got down to about 185 and was still having trouble wearing 16s. Its been a few years back so maybe they have started making vanity sizes bigger again.. either way I'm excited though. I still felt very out of place in these stores even though the employees where very nice I was the largest person in them. It was just so nice to have more choices in clothing and not have to end up at Lane Bryant's to find something I could wear.

[tempted_by_food]

awesome job on the jeans you must be so pleased glad you enjoyed the shopping, being smaller opens up alot more choice

[FatFatnomore]

Dixie, that is awesome! I'm so proud of you. All of your hard work is paying off. I can only imagine how great it felt to fit into a smaller size jeans when you thought there was no chance they'd fit!

[dixiegal]

thanks tempted and FF as you can tell by these photos I still have a long way to go, being short sucks because you have to get really small for the loss to show,lol



me and my favorite nephew as slash and my youngest gd




me and hubby with some of our family and one of our employees baby who is just like family

[dixiegal]

OK I'm going to go ahead and bite the bullet. This is me at my highest weight. I don't know how much I weighed because I refused to step on a scale. I'm guessing I had to be knocking on 250's door.

Dont mind the strange get up Im wearing I was on my way out to bottle feed 5 baby goats and didnt much care how I looked It was taken last spring 08 and by the time I would allow the photo in my profile to be taken (fall 08) I had lost to about 220 and of course that photo is taken from above where you cant see my triple chin and body fat,lol. Then I gained back up to the 230's when I started posting again on this forum and started Atkins again.

I refuse to take another photo until I reach the 175 or less mark.

[FatFatnomore]

Dixie, your transformation so far is AMAZING! What a difference! Isn't it amazing how much younger we look after we've lost weight too? Geez, even more incentive for me to lose some weight! Great job!!!!

[dixiegal]

Ok I gotta get my bottom in gear. I have been pretty much just playing around all morning. I'm addicted to Africa so bad now that even when its foggy and I cant see anything I'm sitting here waiting for the fog to lift.
No exercise today but I have some housework to do.

I was checking out some bmi calculators sights this morning and realised I would have to get down to 163 before I could be considered overweight instead of obese. I would have to get down to 135 before I could be considered in a normal range. I know these calculators don't take into consideration muscle mass and the fact that even though I'm short at 135 I would look way too thin. I have been thinking of 150 as my goal weight or even 160 I would be happy with both but would still be considered overweight. I think I'm just going to focus on small goals and I will know when I get there

[tempted_by_food]

I think you look beautiful at the halloween party Dixie, you sure can see a huge difference your so much smaller, you should be so proud of your transformation to date, am with you on that wait til you get to say 170lbs and reacess how you feel and look, my goal weight isnt going to be the one they tell me it should be I would look to skinny at that too.

[dixiegal]

FF and tempted you both keep me going

I don't know about y'all but I'm a bit nervous about this challenge. I burn out at 6 weeks and this one has 2 Holidays in it To reach the goal I set for myself I'll have to lose 2 lbs a week steadily and that's hard for me. I don't know if it's the time of year or shorter days but I'm having a hard time keeping focused right now I'm hoping a new goal will get me going.

[FatFatnomore]

Dixie, I feel ashamed that I basically have had the same goals for each challenge and yet I keep gaining every challenge instead of losing. lol I woke up this morning completely determined to achieve my mini goal of getting to onederland this challenge. And if I'm compltely honest I'll say that I REALLY want lose a lot more than that.

I know it will be difficult with two major Holidays during this challenge, but I know we can do it. I know that it really is mind over matter. What makes today any different than yesterday? Yesterday I was down on myself and thinking I'd never lose the weight, and I allowed myself to eat candy because of that mind frame. Today I woke up and said "there's no way I'm going to eat carbs today. I made my plan and I'm sticking to it."

I just need to work on making every day a positive attitude day.

I promise I'll do what I can to keep you motivated through this whole challenge so that you don't burn out at 6 weeks. And you've accomplished SO MUCH already, I'm positive that you will reach your goals for this challenge!

[dixiegal]

Your so right FF, I don't want to fall into the trap of thinking too far ahead, one day at a time always works better. We can keep each other motivated!

I notice you have a goal of 21 days cheat free I know it can be discouraging to be going in the wrong direction but you have made your mind up now and there's no stopping you!

[FatFatnomore]

Thanks Dixie! And yes we have 3 weeks exactly until Thanksgiving and I WILL stay cheat free until Thanksgiving.

[tempted_by_food]

You have the right idea one day at a time, am just glad we dont celebrate thanksgiving, gives me one less holiday peroid to worry about!

[dixiegal]

Got in my hour callanetics. Over half of my water drank...going out to eat mexican tonight!! Grilled porkchops for me

[dixiegal]

Well one good thing about thanksgiving is turkey,lol. We plan on deep frying ours this year, and I know there is a recipe somewhere on here for low carb pumpkin pie with no crust, a low carb cheese cake. The rest is pretty easy to make low carb. Just have to skip the dressing, because I cant figure out how to make cornbread dressing low carb Deviled eggs for appetizers. Maybe some buffalo chicken dip with celery. Green beans, loaded broccoli. Can do the gravy with that low carb thickener and at least have it with the turkey.