Weekend ahead..........

My apologies for not being around much lately! I've been trying to keep up on things.. just not working out as great as I want. Some things are slacking... like my blogging.. emails... etc.
With tending to Michael... running the boys around to practices... track meets... and games... I'm trying to find time in there to crochet and get commitments I've made, done.
I havent weighed myself this week... not really sure why... other than pounding headache... and not feeling like it. I'm feeling okay though... dont think I have gained or lost. I havent been real good the last couple of days with my water.... but I know I have been drinking more coffee.... need to change that... need to get back on the water... get some perk back in my step.
My little man Michael wanted pizza the night before last... like a Pizza Hut pizza. But I can tell you right now... the sodium in that is crazy... so I suggested that I make homemade mini pizzas for dinner last night ... and he agreed to that. Well.. he was more than thrilled that he passed on the Pizza Hut pizza and held out for mommy's mini pizzas. He loved them! Ate 4. I was able to buy ingredients to control the sodium and keep the flavor. Everyone else thought they were great too. *whew*
Not sure whats for dinner tonight... maybe burgers on the grill. Not sure.
Anyway... need to run... need to get back to trying to catch up on things.

oh...btw ... Ms Sissie............. dont worry about that 2 lb gain. Its not a big deal at all. You're body is adjusting... get out the water and just surge forward with today and today only.
I'm going to IM or email you all day and remind you to drink your water. SO THERE!

Hugs and love to you all.........
God Bless,
.::Tam::.

Week #2 Day # 1

Well It is weigh in this morning and I know i am early but just one of my nights where I can not sleep. but I do not think 2 hrs is going to make much difference so here it is. I gained 2 pounds:((
This is what all ways gets me! every time I think I am starting something good and really doing right this happens!.
Oh well I am NOT going to let it get me down. I will go on just like always.
Hope everyone else had a good week

hugs
sissie

Sissie

I usually drink herbal teas. And I do put regular sugar in it. Usually half a teaspoon. And sometimes drink without sugar. I have heard that the diet sugar is not very good to use every day. I usually drink one cup in the morning time and one in the evening. When I lived in Thoiry I made tea out of herbs we had in the garden. In Estonia we used to go and pick herbs and dry them for tea. When we lived in the states I used to go to the russian stores. They usually have a big variety of herbal teas. I also like earl grey tea and chai.

Why John Walks Every morning:))

Ok Tammy here is my story behind why John walks every morning!

as most of you know John works on a Hours ranch. he oversees the owners home and the horses are his hobby! He has 14 as of yesterday morning 15 and hopefully this morning 16 (the babies are oh so cute) anyway part of John's job is in the morning when he gets there he always eats them. then he would get on to his other work, well now as of 2 months ago he now has to talk the horse out to their pens cause the girl that was doing that quit! LORD you should have see John that first week! he could not breath or hardly walk by the time he was done! I felt so sorry for him. BUT now I am seeing his pase has picked up and he is not breathing hard now! I show this to him last week. It is funny cause he always walks on this job and every time he went to the dr when she would ask him about exercise that is what he told her. I told him this pass week yes now this is exerice!! LOL and a plus also, he has loss 10 pounds just doing this each morning!
I DONOT help walk the horse. I like something between them and me cause they are bigger then me!! But I do sit there in my truck till John is done to make sure he is ok cause noone else is out there. plus I get to crochet while watching him:)
But i have decided that I will start walking with him. I Know that I can not keep up with his pase but I will start:))

Here is a look at the horses if you want to see them:))
Margaux Tip Ranch

hugs
sissie

Kairi

is your tea also with No sugar? and decaf? I use to drink sweet tea all the time but it was a gallon a day! I do like crystal Lite in my water, have you tried that?

I gave up a diet soda not the regular one.I never drink regular one. It says it has 0 calories but I do feel a bit better if I don't drink it too much. I used to drink it a lot before.Now I drink water or tea or juice.

Week #1 Day # 5

Mel sounds like you had a great Easter day with your family and also sounds tiring!! I am happy to hear that with all this food around you did good! NOW I would not call running "nothing much"!! as that is one thing I never could do!! so way to go on your morning jog:)

Kairi WAY TO GO ON YOUR ONE POUND LOSS!! and good luck with giving up your soda! was this reg soda or diet? I have been drinking decaf Diet coke for year now and do not think I won't to give it up! NONE!! i read somewhere that just by giving up reg soda you could drop up to 24 pounds in a year! I think that number is right.

Tammy Glad to see your Easter Sunday went good also. and how is little Micheal feeling now? much better I do pray!

everyone else I hope your week is going good so far!

Me I am doing but am not keeping up with my goal to drink 48 oz's of water every day this week:( I did on friday and then sat and sun almost none! (why is it so hard to stay on the wagon on the weekends?) yesterday I did get 32 oz's in and today I am not working on my second bottle now. so with luck I will get all my water in today:) sorry I didn't make it back on last night to tell you about Johns walking but I will tell you all about it this evening when I report back in. I think I am either coming down with a real bad head cold or hey fever one!! either way I am feeling awful:(

Hugs
sissie

Hello.

Good morning/afternoon,
I think I lost one pound last week. I stopped buying coca cola.And also drank some water. I also don't drink coffee right now and drink tea instead. I am still snacking a lot. Hope this week I will snack less and eat properly in lunch and dinner time.
Hope everyone has a good week.
Kairi

my little extra

I forgot to mention my "little extra" for today - and it isn't much, so don't go getting prepared for some extraordinary feat... that's why it's called a "LITTLE" extra! LOL When I went down to the end of the driveway to get the mail today, I ran down and back instead of walking...

Told you it wasn't much!!!

Mel

Our Easter Sunday

Hello everyone! We had a nice sized crowd here yesterday, so I was also ready for a do-nothing day today! There were between 25 and 30 people here, I didn't count them... but from my guest list, that's how many I was expecting. 3 people on my guest list didn't show up, but 3 others that weren't on the list did, so that was pretty darn close!! LOL

We had quite a bit of food... let me tell you all about it!!

25 - 30 people isn't that many to cook for; you just have to know how to utilize things like crock pots, electric roasters, moms, sister-in-laws, and future in-laws moms... LOL

My sister-in-law made 2 hams, a big dish of potato salad, and deviled eggs...

I made 2 chicken pot-pies, scalloped corn, corn salad, a cheesecake, pink fluff, SPICY meatballs, beef brisket (well actually my husband was in charge of the brisket), cheesy broccoli & cauliflower, 48 crescent rolls, deviled eggs (yeah, I made some too) and punch...

My "future daughter-in-laws" mother brought the stuff over for the cheesecake (I thought she was making it, but it was okay - I just made it instead!) and she also made a key-lime cheesecake with some pre-made filling stuff that you just put in the graham cracker crust...

I also broke out the fancy coffee and had root beer for people to drink, besides water, milk, tea and the punch...

Mom made cream-cheese roll-ups (at least that's what I call them... LOL) and helped me with about a ton of other stuff...

Basically, we started about a week ago (my husband can be a drill sergeant when needed) with cleaning - between him, the kids, and I - we had the place pretty well neatened and clean by Sunday last week (although it had to be gone over again Friday and Saturday - but that didn't take all that long) and then Mom was here starting Friday evening... so we were working on the preparation of a lot of things which made it way easy today to pull it all together...

It was definitely a team effort, but it was worth it. Everybody had fun, got full, and enjoyed themselves... and that's what it's all about!!!

I did quite well, at least I think I did!! And I don't feel the least bit guilty... I knew this day was on it's way, so I just took it easy - where I might have gone back a time or two, I just filled up one plate, and ate very slowly to enjoy and savor the flavors... plus I was taking care of my niece's little one (she's just over 1 year) - just making sure she stayed away from the oven, and holding her, she's such a good baby!! So that kept me busy, happily busy - and I didn't scarf down my food... (No - I'm not planning to have any more! That's what is so great about other people having little ones, I can play with them, then they go home with their Mommies!!)

I know I have about 70 or so pounds to lose - and I feel very confident that I will lose all that I need to... I haven't weighed myself in a few days; my weight fluctuates by a pound or two during the day, so I probably won't post progress in one-pound increments... but after 5 pounds are gone and stay gone for a week or so - I'll make sure and let you all know!!

I'm glad everyone had a nice holiday...

Mel

A day to relax ..........

and catch up on things. After a fun...long... busy day yesterday... we are all ready for a day of relaxing. And my poor baby Michael is totally ready for a 'do nothing' day!!!
We had a great Easter. Hope everyone else did!
The menu I shared in a previous post is what we had and it turned out great. And even though it wasnt the traditional Easter dinner.. there were NO complaints. Of course ... I think anytime homemade soup is made.... everyone is happy! I was a busy little one yesterday.. making my apple pie... a cherry cobbler... getting the white base sauce made for the soup... cooking chicken to cut up.. bacon... potatoes and all the other goodies that went into the soup. Best part.. it was VERY low in sodium. The only thing that held any real amount of sodium was the bacon.. but it was in the WHOLE pot... so the bowl that Michael had... was still very low in sodium and good for him. I dont cook with salt anymore.. havent since Michael was diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome. So we just salt our own plates... which oddly enough... has become less and less ... as we have discovered other ways to flavor our food without sodium.
Anyway... I did good... I didnt lose any weight.. but I sure didnt gain any either... so sitting still is fine with me after a Holiday meal. :)
So..................... how was everyone elses Easter?
What did you all have?


God Bless
.::Tam::.

Good Monday Morning

hope everyone had a good Easter Sunday! I didn't do anything here. we do not have any family here so just john & I so we just did the normal Sunday thing, which is Nothing LOL!
didn't do to good over the weekend with my water but I am back on it this morning:)
have you ever notice that it is harder on the weekends to stay on the wagon?

I did finally do my first walk with john this morning, not far but a start:) I will tell you more about John's walking this evening.

got to go answer some emails, will be back to report in tonight:)

hugs
sissie

HAPPY EASTER...tomorrow....

Just in case I dont get a chance to post tomorrow... I thought I would come and wish everyone a very Happy Easter! Share a bit of what we're going to have tomorrow... and remind you all.. NO Pressure tomorrow.. enjoy... be cautious ... but dont deny yourself.

Because Michael has relapsed inside a relapse... we are back to being VERY careful what he eats and drinks. So ... the typical Ham dinner for Easter isnt going to happen here. We have to keep Michael on a VERY low sodium diet.
Tomorrow ... our menu will consist of:

Homemade Corn/Potato Soup
Homemade biscuits
Salad
Apple Pie
Cherry Cobbler
DietCoke Cake
Veggie / Fruit plate
deviled eggs

Water
Coffee
Juice

I will be staying home from Church tomorrow with Michael he needs rest! His cold has really become a pain! There are signs of the edema setting in too. Poor little man!

Okay... off I go... need to tend to my boys.
talk soon.
HAVE A WONDERFUL EASTER ..............
God Bless,
.::Tam::.

**Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God for His own sins! Isaiah 53:4
~ Isaiah 53:4**

Making small changes

so you want a hot dog for lunch? do you really need the bread or is it just there to hold your dog with?

I say leave the bread in the bread bag and use a paper plate! place your hot dogs on the plate cut them up add mustard or Ketchup to your plate for dipping:)
This will save you calories that you didn't really need from the bread:)

hope this helps you the a good lunch:)

hugs
sissie

Why is it?

That you can go all week long and be good with your eating and everything else, BUT come Saturday morning you wake up and all you think about is FOOD?!!

I am never hungry in the mornings! all I want is coffee. then when I get home from taking john to work I have to Make myself eat something! BUT Not on Saturdays!! I Am up and I do not have to go anywhere and all i can think about is FOOD!!!

why is that????

Hugs
sissie

I am sorry

I wasn't here to stop you from the choc chip attack!!! Please tell me you did not est it? now as for the popcorn that would have bee a good choice, of course without the butter!! LOL

Sorry Micheal is under the weather again! I pray he is feeling better this morning and will have a great Easter weekend!

Not the day I planned.........

........but thats okay. Still a good day!
My poor little Michael is pretty sick. He has a bad cold. So didnt do the 'day out' I had planned to do. But I'm totally fine with it! Staying home taking care of my baby is where I needed to be!
Called his doctor to see how to deal with his protein levels going up. Looks like we are going to hold him steady at the amount of prednizone he is getting right now until his levels drop back down to zero... then we will go back on the weaning schedule. *sigh*
Kept him warm today... plenty of fluids... and fed him very low salt healthy foods.

Speaking of food.......... I did good today.

breakfast -200cal
lunch - 400cal
dinner - 300cal
snack - 100cal

coffee - 100cal (from all day creamer)
water - on my third liter right now.
___________________
total cal for the day....... 1100

boy do I want a chocolate chip cookie bar right now!
or maybe a whole bag of buttery popcorn..................
YIKES..............someone stop me!

okay... off to make sure Michael is still covered up.
have a great night ladies.
God Bless,
.:tam:.

Day #1 Week #1

And I am off and running here!! Ok so here it is and let me tell you all it is not pretty!!

Fridays will be my weekly weigh in here at home, what will yours be?
since you all know that I have a LOT of weight to lose it does not bother me to tell you all that I am 292.0 pounds this AM:(((( But now there is good news to all this! First I am so thankful that I am NOT over 300 pounds! (cause I was back in June!) and I was so shocked that morning when I was at the gym and she weight me and the dang scales read 304! and I had been bringing it to me by all the time going around saying "If I hit 300 pounds I will Die"!! and I do believe that you bring things to you! even the lord tells us to watch our mouths! anyway the good news I did not die:)) the bad news is I hit 314 before I started going down again! so between June and now this is what i have lost. the only thing i did was stopped all my meds and daily supplements that i was taking!
as of now I am back on my BP Med cause my BP really jumped! this pass week when I was at the Dr it was 150/100 and I started have the bad head aches again. so I did start this Med again this morning, plus I am back to taking my aspirin a day and Centrun silver multi Vitamin every day. other that these I am not taking anything! I am thinking about adding cinnamon to my supplements:)

so my Goal for this week is small put will be a challenge for me! I will drink 48 ozs of water each day!!

Hugs,
sissie

Exercise or Comedy show?

So I totally forgot to tell you ladies of the tennis game my mom and I had..... OMy!
I had a day with my mom earlier this week... we went to breakfast... then tanning then to play tennis. Just the two of us. I'm not sure ....but we may have done more laughing instead of actually playing. And I think her and I played maybe a British version of the game... known here as 'fetch' LOL..............LOL...............LOL
Imagine this if you will............ I hit ball... she misses... chases after it. She hits ball... I miss... chase after it. And so on.
So............. we got lots of exercise... and the folks all around town... got the best comedy show of the day. hehehheeheeee
Whats even funnier.......... we plan on doing it again. LOL... OMy!
My crazy mom even bought us tennis skirts to help look the part. Although I'm thinking dog colors would have been more fitting!

okay.... off to tend to my sick little Michael... poor baby sure has a bad cold... *sigh*
have a GREAT weekend all!

God Bless,
.::tam::.

have you heard?

Of Body BROWN FAT! I just heard about this and it is a better fat in our body's than the white fat and will even help to reduce our white fat! kinda like our good and bad cholesterol I think.

Researcher are looking into a pill that will help our brown fat get a jump start:)

here is more on the story
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20090407/can-brown-fat-make-you-thin


Hugs
sissie

Looking good.....................

....this meal .. our blog and our determination!
I am so happy to see some of you posting! And I'm really happy to see that we're working together on our new habits and our new blog.

I had another good day... even going out to eat and having a steak.. potato and salad.
Breakfast - 190cal
Lunch/Dinner - 800cal
Snack - none

Coffee -100cal (all day worth of creamer)
Water - drank 2.5 liters
_______________________
total for the day - 1090cal

Just in the last few days ... I can feel the difference in not feeling so tight.. like my hands and such.
I think tomorrow I'm going to treat myself to a manicure / pedicure and a trip over to Michael's to get that ball of yarn I earned........ :)

you all have a GREAT night... and a Better tomorrow.
God Bless,
.::tam::.

And the answer is!

Little Debbie4 oz Cheese Danish

430 calories
18 grams fat (9 are saturated!)
370 mg Sodium
63 carbs!
only 1 fiber
36 grams sugar
6 grams protein

McDonald's Sausage biscuit
430 Calories
27 grams fat (12 are saturated!)
1080 mg sodium
34 Carbs
only 2 fiber
2 grams sugar
11 grams protein


ok so now looking at this which do you say? if you are counting Calories then either is good, If you are counting carbs then you better get the Biscuit. either way I would rather have had the biscuit but the danich did give me my craving for sweets:)

and now my story behind this:))
This morning I left here to take john to work and forgot that i was not coming back home cause I was meeting sandy to go over to Hagerstown to Micheal's craft store. and of course I had not eaten cause I always wait till i get back home to eat! and I know we will not be back into town before noon! so I figure I better stop by the country store and pick my up something quick to eat while i am waiting. of course all i could find was the danish that I wanted! now i did try to be good but they did not have any fruit LOL!
So I get my danish and a bottle of water(that was good) and head on over to the wal-Mart parking lot to wait on sandy. well I totaly forgot that there was a McDonalds right there in front of the wal-mart!! Man I could have had a sausage biscuit!!
and now you know the rest of the story:)

wish me luck tomorrow morning i will be getting on my scales:)
hugs
sissie

I'm going to say the McDonald's Sausage Biscuit... yes, that's my final answer! LOL - Mel

Making a choice! which do you think would be better?

You are in a hurry and only have a choice between a cream cheese Danish OR a McD's sausage Biscuit, which do you chose? which is the
better Choice?



I will be back this evening to tell you:))

hugs
sissie

ok not very good with My pictures and placing them LOL

I'm a newbie...

Okay - time for my FIRST EVER blog post! I hope you're all sitting down!!! LOL I am not counting calories, so you won't be seeing a log of what I ate all day or anything... I AM going to drink more water - in my house, one of my hubby's favorite sayings is "Do Or Do Not - There Is No Try." So, I'm training myself to not say I'm going to "try" to do something... I'm either going to do it, or not. I love that particular phrase, as it eliminates a lot of hemming and hawing about things... don't say you're going to try! Just do! Anyway - I got on the scale today, YIKES! do I have my work cut out for me!! But, I know I can do this, especially since I've got everybody's support and nobody's judgement (except myself, which is plenty!!)... Yesterday I walked the 8 or 10 or whatever blocks to get my daughter from school... the downside to that walk is I have everybody with me, so I can't walk fast. I feel that since I'm out there, though, that's more than I did the day before, so it's a good thing anyway... I just want to thank Tammy from the bottom of my heart for thinking this idea up and putting it into motion! I think it's great, and I think it's going to work!!! Thanks for listening to me ramble... - Mel

Yea!

Yea I made it here. Walked yesterday morning and night and again this morning... and drank all my water yesterday. water is just not necessary for drinking. it does so many things. it can clear your sinuses out, helps your skin... etc.
Denise

Goals

I will try to lose around one pound a week. Not sure if I will count my calories just will try to eat less snacks and see if it will help.
Right now I am 60 kilos and since I am very short I have to lose atleast 5 kilos to be in my right weight. I take pictures of my weight to keep track of it.
I also have to drink more water. Will try to do that too. I will be checking every Sunday and see if I have done any progress.

I did it................

I LOST 1.5 pounds!!!! Gosh... if it wasnt for the fact that I'm being good about my eating habits... I would bake myself a cake..... hahhahahaaaha

You know what... I just might do that...... I'm going to make a diet coke cake so that I can celebrate later today after the boys get home from school .... my first pound lost.

Yep.. thats what I'm going to do! Chocolate diet cherry coke cake.... Yum!

But for now............. I'm off to get my SlimFast for breakfast ... fill up my water bottle and get a fresh cup of coffee.

you all have a WONDERFUL day.......... I know I am!

God Bless,

.::Tam::.

I made it here:)

I made it here:) and you are right Tammy this is NOT a diet! it is a life style change. have any of you heard of Joyce Meyer? she wrote a book called "Eat and Stay Thin: Simple, Spiritual, Satisfying Weight Control. I just got it a couple of weeks ago and started reading it this morning:)

ok on to my day:) I am not doing any of the counting yet, but i did eat good today. sandy is feeling lots better and wanted to go to Apple bees to eat lunch. we sat there for 4 hours just talking!! I had the Oriental Half Salad which is what I always order when we go there cause i love it:) and had a glass of tea and a cup of coffee then for supper I had grilled round steak with rice & black eyed peas.. now if i can get though till bed with out craving sweets I will have it made:)

so no good on my water today:(( will start working on that for sure tomorrow!
also I have decided that I am going to make Friday my weigh in day, what about ya'll how are you handling that?

Hugs,
sissie

Aurora's Day

Well here is a breakdown of my day...........

Skipped breakfast, I know this is bad, but shakes had not been put in fridge, (I don't drink warm).

Did 10 minutes on Stationary Bike in afternoon

Lunch=150 calories
Snack=75 calories
Dinner=270 Calories
Coffee=80
__________________
Total for today 575

I also did another "stationary bike" ride, but didn't last the full 10 minutes....but I am counting my cleaning of the house and laundry as EXERCISE! LOL

Wow that is not a whole lot........I guess I need to get better at this.....I started seeing a dietician who told me to count calories, my original intake was 1500 a point system, which was easy.....but when I started to keep track of all I was eating, I found that eating that much in a day was hard, when you actually pay attention and count calories, you find that 1500 is a lot to eat. LOL so she let me go down to 1300-1400 but no less............I lost over 30 pounds doing this in a few months, but then got pregnant, and doctor said no more counting.......I was high risk like my first pregnancy.....luckily I only gained 15 pounds with my second pregnancy.......Anyway I went to store and bought some lunch for tomorrow......A Weight Watchers meal, I think sesame Chicken, and I also got something for Aiden.............I also bought a pineapple.

So far so good........I am hungry now though, my stomach is growling.........which is new to me..........I usually don't eat very healthy so my stomach never really growled with hunger.......I am drinking flavored Wal-Mart water "Mandarin Orange) Will try to drink all 33.8 oz of it before bed.............OMG before bed???

Had a good day..............

Kept busy today with getting this blog set up... crocheting ... drank coffee...laundry... crocheting...drank more coffee... helping the boys get their fishing poles set up to go fish in the pond on the land next to us... made fresh pot of coffee...crocheted.... drank coffee....hehehee... get the idea I got some crocheting done while drinking some coffee?

Two thread butterflies I made

Anyway... I had a good day with my eating and got exercise by getting up lots of times today to tend to things.

Breakfast – 190cal
Lunch – 300cal
Dinner – 500cal
Snack – 100cal

Coffee with creamer – 100cal (all day worth creamer)
Water 2 ½ liters drank
______________________________
Total Calorie count for today.... 1190

now to just stay away from the chocolate chip cookie bars I made the boys............*sigh*
have a great night all....
God Bless,
.::Tam::.

And here we are............................

Our very own blog of support! Ladies... I am more than excited about this. We are going to have a great time here! The weather is getting nice.. we will start to feel like getting out more and the air and exercise will be great!

Now remember....................... NO GOALS. We focus only on one pound at a time!

More than that can become discouraging.

And for me............... I am going to do my best an not calling this a 'diet' I'm not dieting.. I'm simply changing my habits and getting healthy.

So....................let me tell you my plan.

I'm doing the 'calorie counting' plan for my eating habits.

I have two flights of stairs in my house that I can walk up and down for exercise ... along with a Gazelle and 11 acres of land. So I'm ready.

I have my water... 2nd one liter bottle by the way for the day. :)

I have my coffee... cuz anyone that knows me.... I WILL NOT GIVE UP COFFEE! This is suppose to be fun... remember.. and me with no coffee.......... NOT FUN!

Okay... speaking of food and all........ I do need to tend to some dinner plans.

You all have a great evening...

God Bless,

.::Tam::.