I officially started in January with Keith, but seems like the past 3 weeks, I've either been sick or injured. :( We've both lost our drive to lose. Last week I was down 15 lbs, but don't know if I've gone back up or not - I'll check tomorrow 8-|. Tomorrow is a fresh start. :coach: I'm gonna do it!! I think I've been worse with my exercise than my eating - it's time to do something about that!! I can't decide if I want to do an exercise video or walk before Keith leaves. I think I'll wrap my ankle and do the video, but this time instead of waiting for Keith to get up and wake me up, I'll set my own alarm earlier. I also have PLENTY to do around the house to keep me moving all day. :ex:

OK, I guess that's it for now. I'll be checking in tomorrow night!!

Well, yesterday I did well with my eating - just need to concentrate on getting more veggies in. :blah: (and learn to like them!!) I probably got in a little over 64 oz. of water. :water:

I didn't get up early to do aerobics, but I stayed moving for most of the day cleaning house and did the video in the afternoon while the kids were sleeping!

All in all, a pretty good day! Well, except for when I stepped on the scale - I gained a little bit back, although I think AF is on her way - don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. :(

Anyway, I'm going walking today at the local mall with a friend. We usually do 3 laps.

Hi Heather,

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR GOOD START ..

I thought I might tell you about myself so that you would know YOU WILL SUCCEED AT ACHIEVING YOUR GOAL.

When I started on my weight loss journey, I was 57 years of age. I weighed 307 pounds (that was March 19th, 2000). I am now 193 1/2.

I am a diabetic (insulin and now oral meds dependent) and my blood sugars were totally out of control (in the high 200 -300 range); I was injecting 100 mg insulin mornings and evenings. I was given a statement IN ORDER TO GET BLOOD SUGARS DOWN YOU WILL HAVE TO BE HOSPITALIZED ...AND YOU MUST LOSE WEIGHT OR YOU WILL DIE. That was my wake up call.

Now I would be lying if I told you I lost weight every week, didn't fall off track, didn't feel discouraged, didn't have numerous plateaus ------- but I ALWAYS GOT BACK ON TRACK .

I have learned several things I HAVE TO BELIEVE IN MY ABILITY TO SUCCEED, I HAVE TO BE PATIENT WITH MYSELF, AND I MUST TAKE IT ONE DAY AT A TIME --ONE MEAL AT A TIME.

Don't look back to yesterday.....LOOK FORWARD TO ALL OF YOUR WONDERFUL TODAYS AND ENJOY THEM. You are going to succeed Heather ....IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN BECAUSE YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Just a suggestion: get comfortable with your weight loss plan; when you try to do several things (or at least in my case I found it to be so) you don't put 200% effort in it. Work on your food plan so that you are comfortable with it .......then gradually get your exercise regimen going.

One more thing ......if I can be of any help, just let me know. I hope you will join in and participate in our 100 Plus Chat. We meet on Monday's at 1 p.m. EST and on Wednesday's at 9 p.m. EST.

Make it a great day.....and a fantastic week. Always, Monica

Congratulations on a good start!
I know it's hard to get started and hard to stay motivated once you do, but you can do it! Stick with it!

Thanks, Monica :x for sharing your story!! I'm not a diabetic...yet. But, I have so much family history of diabetes, I want to be proactive with it!! My dad found out, I guess about 3 years ago that he had diabetes. When he found out, it came out that both of his parents had diabetes. I'm still not sure why they never told us - that would have been nice information to have. 8-| Anyway, it's on my mom's side too. I'm hoping if I can get this weight off and learn a more healthy lifestyle, maybe I can put it off longer!! I feel pretty good about my weight loss plan and I'm finding that I feel soooo much better about myself and that it's easier to stay away from bad foods when I exercise. :D

Thanks for the support, Jorine!! :hug:

I've been eating well today. I have the sniffles again 8-| , but I went for my walk today and it felt great!! I've had 2 knee injuries (I'm such a klutz) in the past 5 years and it's been feeling really loose again, lately. If my knee is injured again, I've been told it will need surgery to repair it. [-X So, after walking through the mall, I got myself a supplement to help strengthen and rebuild my joints. When I got home, I did some leg extensions. I'm feeling great right now, but getting sleepy. I'm going to go fill my water jug up and get up and get some things done around the house!!

Feeling icky today. I was right about AF - she's here. :blah: It's also rainy and dark out. Been doing laundry and curled up, reading on the couch. Doubt I'll get any exercise in today. Sticking to my eating plan, though and trying to drink my water!! The bad thing is I don't feel like fixing dinner tonight AT ALL - maybe I'll try and find a place to get take out that has a healthy menu?? We'll see.

My whole family has been subjected to cold cereal for dinner before! I don't often give in to my tiredness and just skip making dinner, but I really revel in the laziness when I do!:o

Sorry to hear about the sniffles, allergies or a cold?

Mom of 4!!! :super:woman!!! I have three, I've decided not to have any more, but my husband keeps finding insidious ways to add to our family (1 fish, 1 cat, 1 chihuahua, 2 boxer puppies).

Hi Jorine! Thanks for posting in my journal again! :) I think my husband would revolt if I told him we were having cereal for dinner!! But, we'll soon find out. He'll be home soon and I still haven't figured out what we're doing 8-|

I had a little bit of a cold, but it hasn't turned into anything full fledged, like it usually does. I'm attributing it to eating healthier!! :D

I don't feel like super woman!!! :laugh: It's sad, but right now we're a no pet home!!! Dh says no cats (I love cats) and I say no dogs in the house we're in now!! Oh, well.

A friend and I have standing appts. on Tues. and Thurs. while my DD is in preschool. We either go walking on nearby golfcart paths or a mall depending on the weather. She cancelled on me last night :( she didn't feel good. Can't blame her - been there much too frequently lately. Anyway, I still didn't feel like doing much exercise, so I went grocery shopping instead!

Keith ended up picking up Outback last night for dinner. I had 1/2 a hamburger (no cheese, no mayo) and a salad. A few fries, too - I forgot to tell them to leave them out.

I have been doing pretty well foodwise today - except for the M&M's I bought at the store 8-| at least it was a small bag. I still stuck with my portions.

I'm sort of nervous about this weekend. I am going on a overnight Retreat Friday night for a camp this summer where I will be a leader. They are feeding us dinner Fri. and breakfast Sat. I hope it's relatively healthy!! I'm sure there will be some kind of dessert Fri. night. Going to get some bottles of water tomorrow to take with me!!

I'll probably check back in either Sun. or Mon.

Well, the retreat wasn't too bad. They did a baked potato bar Fri. night for dinner. Sat. morning was homebaked breads (banana, cinnamon, pumpkin, etc) and fruit. I broke down and had 2 pieces of bread, but also grapes and a banana and skim milk. It was Sat. night that was bad. Saturdays are always hard for me. We like to be out and about as a family and that usually means eating out - something to work on. I was up til Midnight Fri., Sat., and Sun. I can't stay up late anymore like I used to be able to. It just kills my energy the next day.

This week has been ok. Have been doing pretty well with my portions. Waiting for the motivation to kick back in. (I know, I know, I'm not actually waiting for it, I'm trying to inspire myself) Went for a walk today. I want to get up in the morning before kids are awake and do aerobics to get me moving. We'll see. Its' supposed to get pretty cold tonight and that always makes it harder to get out of the bed in the morning!! :D If I can't make it out in time, I'll just do it in the afternoon. I've decided I want to buy a few kickboxing tapes to do. I think I'll make them a reward for sticking to some kind of exercise plan and eating well. :)

I went shopping in Judy2's journal this morning, you seem like you need some of what I picked up. So *handing over a cloth shopping-bag (good for the environment)* Have some Determination, some Energy (that's extra-strength, btw, a little goes a long way) a bottle of Motivation, and some True Grit!

Enjoy!

wow, I haven't even been back to my journal since Feb. Need to get better about that!! Still finding it difficult to get exercise in. My friend and I haven't been able to go walking for 3 weeks now. Seems like she usually has something that gets in the way on Tues, and Thurs. is always my day to cancel. :( I was so proud of myself this am - I actually got up before my kids and did one of my tapes. One of the sections on the tapes was supposed to help with tightening the rear. I only felt it in my legs, and boy were they burning!! I was feeling really good afterwards and then I started getting stomach cramps - I don't know if I pulled a stomach muscle or what, but it feels better when I am sitting hunched over. UGH :(

Right now I'm in my usual quandary of what's for dinner :-/ I spent an hour or 2 in the past 2 days at the Cooking Light website printing off some recipes, hoping to get some ideas and some new meals!!!! I am in such a rut. Until we started eating better, my dinners were sort of high in fat and carbs and not very healthy, so I need some new ideas. I printed off quite a few. Can't wait to get to the grocery store and get the things I need for some of these recipes. It still doesn't help me right now, though. I wonder if my family will flip if I fix spaghetti AGAIN?? :tomato: Better than nothing, right??? At least they are being fed. If they can just bear with me the next week, I should be able to do better. Check in later!

Back again for a second. I am excited!!! :chef: If we can make it through this week on what we already have, I already planned our dinners this Sunday through next Sat.!!! I showed the menu plan to Keith and he was pretty happy about it. :) AND, I already made out a short shopping list - I'll go on Sat. while Keith is home. I guess I should try and plan something interesting for the rest of this week as well. This is little, but it's a big leap for me. Ever since we started eating well, I've just been STUCK on what to fix for dinner. Next week I do my every 2 week grocery shopping, so I guess before then, I'll plan out the 2 weeks after that. By planning better, I hope I'll eat better!!! And, I hope my family will be happier with what we are eating!!! :D

You are doing great to plan those menus in advance like that. It leaves nothing to chance. BTW we've had those spaghetti weeks too....the kids love it. :x

Hi Lindasue! Thanks for dropping in!

Today is Mar. 18, 2001. Emily turns 4 in 2 days. That means lots of temptation this week. We have to take snack this week to preschool, so that means I have to make cupcakes today for tomorrow's snack. I'll save 6 for us to have the night of her B-day and send the rest. Her party is Saturday, so we'll have to have a cake then as well. I still haven't decided if I'm making the :cake: or buying the it. The other struggle I see this week is my dad coming in on business. I made my first healthy meal plan for this week before I remembered he was coming. He likes to take us out to eat and it is sooooo hard for me to eat well when we're out. The night of Emily's B-day, she chose Mac & cheese and hotdogs for dinner and Keith and I were just going to have frozen dinners. She would probably love going out to eat on her birthday, so maybe I'll let him take us out that night and just have dinner ready when he gets here, the rest of the time he's here.

Usually every morning for breakfast, I have 1/2 a grapefruit and and english muffin with a little bit of Promise spread. That's all I've had today so far + a cup of skim milk with my vitamin.

My goal for today is to drink my 32 oz. jug 4 times over. Thats 128 oz.!!! :water: I also hope to do my exercise this afternoon.

check in later!

OK, it's time to get serious. I've only been posting in here when I'm doing well, it's time to post when I'm not doing so well, also.

I did pretty well yesterday, until last night, that is. I ate pretty well, but I had too much laundry and ironing to do yesterday to get my exercise in. I usually do it while my kids are taking a nap, but that's also the only time I can get my ironing in. The big kids aren't a problem, but it's too dangerous to do the ironing around the baby and he HATES to be contained. Anyway, last night was BAD - it was the only night I really had to go out and get stuff for the kids' Easter baskets. I asked Keith if he would bathe and get kids in bed if I took the baby. He said he would if I picked up a treat for him. UGH I went and picked up mostly toys and a little bit of candy for the baskets. Then we have a Easter Egg Hunt w/ church on Sat. and we were asked to bring plastic eggs filled with candy. After finding the eggs and candy to go inside them, I picked up 2 pints :o of ice cream for Keith and I. He only ate a few bites of his, but I managed to down mine. X-( Worse is he's out of town tonight and I'm left here by myself with his ice cream and all this Easter candy!!!! I already broke into one bag of choc. eggs this morning. But, I told myself that I could do this and I tied them up with the rest of the candy in a grocery bag. I'm going to fill those eggs tonight and get rid of any excess candy.

The good news is, yesterday for the first time, I actually drank my 128 oz. of water :water: !!!!!! Of course, I was drinking up until I went to bed, so I was up in the middle of the night!! :laugh:

Gonna do it again today! And this afternoon, I will exercise!

Well, yesterday was just horrible as far as being healthy goes. :c( I'm not even going to go into details - just going to let it stay in the past. :hop: I filled the Easter eggs that I needed to fill and packed the rest of the candy up and sent it to school with DD. I sent a note saying I hoped they could use it for the Easter egg hunt, but if not to use it for something else. I told DD that she was NOT to bring it home under any circumstances!!! Let's hope that they don't try to send it home, because she will listen to them over me. 8-|

Well, I've already got my jug filled with water and I've eaten my English Muffin and 1/2 grapefruit. I'm going to go get dressed and brush my teeth, find my ankle weights and get some work done around the house. :ex:

Today is a pretty interesting day for my husband. He was promoted earlier this year at work, but he needed a certification for some of his new duties. He's had to take a test to get that certification and he's taken it and failed it 3 times now (That is not like him at all - never failed any test in his life!!!). He has to take it today again and he says he won't take it again, no matter what the outcome is. He's taking the test right now as I'm typing and I'm so nervous for him!!! Then, and this is the exciting part - he may get to meet Pres. Bush today!!!!! Bush is going to be in Atlanta today and my husband was selected by his Dept. to go meet him!!! He has to be there by 1:45, I think and the test he's taking is a few hours away, so we don't know if he'll be able to make it or not. He will be pretty disappointed if he can't, but he's GOT to take this test!!!

Now I feel really bad for quitting on everybody for a while! I took some time off from the DT because I've had a bad couple of weeks and dieting was just too much on top of it all. Now I wish I'd stayed and kept up with everybody; we're all in the same boat! I wish your husband luck on his exam, and I hope he gets to meet "W"... I'm a fan.

Thanks for stopping by again, Jorine!! Don't feel bad! My natural reaction is to stop coming here when I'm not doing too well, but I have to keep reminding myself that the reason I started coming here was for support when I am having a hard time! :hug:

Well, Keith got to at least see Bush! LOL He made it in time for the speech, but since he didn't have his uniform on, didn't get to sit up front with everybody else. He said he did make eye contact with Bush during his speech. LOL That was our excitement for the day, yesterday.

Anyway, I had another semi-bad day yesterday. I just can't seem to get my eating under control. I'm not bingeing, but I'm eating more than I should and things that I shouldn't. I wasn't able to get my exercise in again, yesterday. This is completely whiney and I should be able to find some way to exercise and I know the things I'm going to whine about wouldn't be an easy fix, but I just gotta get this out: I want a treadmill so bad!! We don't have the room or the money. I could work out the money part some way, but we *really* don't have the room. We're bursting at the seams as it is. As I was drifting off to sleep last night, I was going through every room in the house, trying to think of a spot where I could fit one, and it's just not going to happen. We really don't even have the closet space to get one of those folding ones. *warning, more whining ahead* Since that's not an option, I want to join a gym, but that's not really an option either. Here, again, is a money issue and since they usually want a monthly payment, it's just not possible right now. The other problem is babysitting. I think alot of the places around here have babysitting, but they want $1/kid every time. Well, in addition to between $30 and $50 a month, that's $3 every time I go work out. If I'm good about going and working out and go every day, M-F, that's another $60/ month. :( I may be just making up more excuses, but here goes: Keith offered the option of going after the kids are in bed, while he is home, but at the earliest, that is 7:30. After taking care of 4 kids all day and trying to keep house, by 7:30, I am just exhausted, besides I rather enjoy that time with him and really wouldn't want to give it up. The other option is going before Keith leaves for work, but he leaves for work around 6, so I would have to leave around 5 :eek: at the very latest (we don't have a gym close by) and I haven't even been able to make it out of bed to do a video, let alone leave the house. I know, I know - if I want it bad enough, I will figure out a way.
Whew!! Sorry about that. It's just been bottled up and frustrating me!!
I guess I'll just have to stick with walking. I have a double stroller, but 3 kids with me most of the time! :) It's fine, now, but soon it will be to hot! Whine, whine, whine.
I guess that's enough whining for one day!!!!

In the midst of all that moaning and groaning, I forgot to mention that even while I don't feel like I'm doing well, I'm not gaining anything back!! I'm not losing, but I'm not gaining either!!

UGH I'm stuck at home today. :spring: It's soooo beautiful out today and I was sitting here planning a walk this am when it gets a little warmer, but hubby took the van and my double stroller. :c( I might try and dig out an older single stroller for the baby, but my 2 yo is going to be my test. He loves to ride and I'm afraid of getting down the street and him deciding he doesn't want to walk anymore. 8-| I've done it before, but the thought of carrying him and pushing the stroller doesn't exactly make me want to get out there!!

Well, I've had my morning 1/2 grapefruit, english muffin and a glass of milk. Oh, and I took my vitamin too. I'll probably have either a lean pocket or a turkey sandwich - no cheese and a little bit of low-fat mayo, and 1/2 a banana for lunch. Yogurt and maybe some carrot sticks for a snack. My dinner meal plans this week have gotten a little skewed, so meat loaf is sort of the plan tonight. I usually bake it, cut it in half and freeze the other half for another meal. It's easier to eat smaller portions that way. If that's what I end up making, we'll have mashed potatoes, green beans and salad with it. We'll see if I feel like actually doing that much work! :chef: