Hello Ladies,

We are watching for Issac to hit us sometime tonight since I am in North Louisiana. Weather services are predicting 4 - 12 inches with lots of flash flooding. I didn't have school today and won't tomorrow. My girls had school today but not tomorrow. They go within a 2 minute walk from our back door and I teach in a different parish about 25 minutes from home. The internet has been lagging bad today so if I come up missing for a few days you will know I am without services. Newest reports are saying 20 inches with some surges of 10 to 11 feet along the coast. Glad we are not on the coast.

Now that that is out of the way.

Amazing blog post Janet. Acknowledging as many things and feeling as possible that went into this set back I feel is a huge accomplishment. I believe that us sharing with each other about feeling has been a huge part of the puzzle for me on this journey. I never fear judgement with you ladies. That doesn't mean there may not be any just that I know anything that is said comes from experience and with care and concern and learning not out of all the hatefulness, spite, or any of the other controls that other have used against me in the past. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this "The first thing I decided to do was to prove to myself that my body had not yet reverted to its January weight, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I had not gained 50 pounds because of a week of ignoring healthy choices." Our minds play such games on us so often. This may be the best choice to remind you of what you have accomplished and that one week could not undo that !!! I so relate to the San Fran story as it sounds like the same as when I visited, I kept imagining myself rolling down the street.

Charip good to see you back. I have been in the wings a lot myself since school started just haven't had much time to post. For all of us being able to get back on the wagon and not letting a lapse keep us from trying I believe will turn into more and more victories and fewer and fewer lapses.

Snoozie that embarrassed of "I feel of my diet" defeats so many of us repeatedly. The mind takes that and festers it until we are convinced there is no reason to even try b/c we were only going to fail. That is why it is so important to not view it as a lifestyle and not something we go on and get off of. When we get to where we don't see it as starts and stops is when I believe it will become second nature and we will make our goals.

Well the lights are blinking and I don't want to lose what I have typed up so I am going to close this out but to each lady in this mad hatters groups I thank you so much for braving up and sharing so that we all can learn. Take care and to anyone that may be in Issac's path stay safe.

Morning, to my Hatter friends ,
WE are still stuck under Isaaqc here in Mississippi. My area is only gettting steady drizzly rain, no major flooding yet, like most of the southern areas are. A bit of wind gusts , too. I pray that everyone down South of me and over in La. took shelter somewhere safe.
Snooze , Glad everything went well, your still healing, so rest up those eyes.
Bis - best wishes on the race , I know you will be tired , but exhilarated at the same time.
Carol, I hope you have a great time!
TA, Sending you many prayers during this storm.
Janet, what can I say....every word you spoke resonates with each of us. You have such a gift with words. I know it gives you great peace to be able to put it to pen. I have heard that is great therapy.

To Everyone that I missed, I know you are making great strides in this mission of good health. Keep on doing it!!


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GAIL!! loved your post..... and SO glad to hear you're ok.. just need to hear from TA to know all our Hatters are safe and sound....

Love ya' Gail

Checking in as I know Snoozie is watching for a check in that all is okay. We have been without ele for a brief time but latest reports say we shouldn't have as much rain or flooding as first predicted.

Snoozie yeah !! Keep adding those little things as we have all discovered its the adding of those that make when added all together make each of us more successful on this journey.

T2 take care and stay safe. Like you we are getting constant rain but nothing heavy just yet so hoping it will all be good.

Carol hope you have a great trip

Kathy that is a wonderful inspiration and something that I keep in my mind for a future goal.

To everyone else hope you are good, take care, and make wise choices !!!

Kathy, my 5k is on Sept. 29 in Portland, OR. It's a color run. I am so excited! I won't be able to run the whole thing, but I will do as much as I can This is my first...of hopefully many. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other...

Have fun! You are doing great!!! I will be there cheering for you in spirit.

To all the ladies who have been visited by that horrid Isaac I am relieved that most of its wrath is finished, good luck with any cleanup and those standard hurricane things like power outages, trees down, etc. seems every time we are threatened with a hurricanes my skinny H decides we need to eat the contents of our freezer "just in case". So hopefully there is no ice cream in your freezer that needs to be rescued!
M in law still in hospital without a def diagnosis, she will go to rehab when her oxygen stabilizes, Then we will need to figure out living arrangements for her and F in L with dementia, they can't be alone. But I recognize that my failing to take care of my health won't help any of us. BUT for the next few days H is on his own, as I am headed to a family wedding, which brings other challenges, I can't keep up with celebratory drinking!
So I brought my workout clothes and will do my own body pump to the Hatter tunes,
Have a healthy and safe weekend! Janet

No, I'm not dead. And no I did not gain 50 lbs and get my MFP membership revoked. But like a lot of you (I have been reading your posts even if I haven't been replying), life has intervened and made jumping on the 'puter (as Snooozie would say) difficult.

For those of you who helped me through my vacation, I thank you, truly. Something about being with my family 24/7 (compounded by my husband's desire to be bike buddies and his lack of understanding about how hard weight loss truly is), made the week really challenging. I brought my scale with me, which I know some would think is over kill or obsessive, but in the past I've gained weight because I was unable (or perhaps unwilling), to be honest about what I put in my mouth while away. Coming home with a weight gain could have potentially sent me down the fat river, so I opted to sneak it into my suitcase :ohwell: Fast forward to getting home, and well, I just lost it. I had put so much energy into trying to be "good" on vacation, that I came home and ate everything and then some. I would do it for a day, than get back on track, only to do it again a few days later. When I read Janet's blog, I was so "there" with her. Janet you made SO MANY great points and things I will think about a lot (I especially liked the one about throwing out food...you are so right!). The one thing I did (also in Janet's blog post) was continued to exercise. So in the end, although I didn't lose any weight, I'm exactly where I was before I left. I consider this a huge victory (a definite IPOM), because it's shown me I can fall off the wagon and get back on (instead of riding it all the way to I can't button my pants anymore/how did this happen)!

In the meantime, my 16 year old is giving us a run for our money. We were very lucky with our daughter who wasn't really interested in drinking in HS, but this guy...OMG. I feel like I'm in the CIA, always checking his stories, smelling his breath and not trusting him. He doesn't seem to be able to just have a couple of beers...we get phone calls from his friends "I think you need to come and get him" because he's passed out. Then he's grounded (which makes for a lovely scene at home as he tortures his younger brother because he's trapped in the house). Grounding is lifted, scenario repeated. Ugh. He's playing football, but didn't really put any time in during the off season and for the first time in his life isn't starting (which makes him pissed off and us just sad).

Now we're having issues with my daughter who's in college 6.5 hours away. She isn't feeling well, it seems to be getting worse, and we can't figure out what's going on. She had 9 tubes of blood drawn on Wednesday and so far all the results are normal. The situation is compounded, because she's the kind of kid that feels everything in her body (to an extremely annoying degree), so I don't know if she's REALLY sick or not. She's missing classes (which she NEVER does), so we're hopeful something will come out in the tests that are still pending.

And than my poor youngest son, who always has a smile on his face, made the JV soccer team as a freshman and I'm finally making it to one of his scrimmages (an hour an half away today on the Friday before Labor Day, which means it will take me 3 hours to get home as I fight the traffic coming down to the beach). The poor kid just doesn't get the attention he deserves (maybe that's why third borns are so easy going?)

My dear husband, who really is a great guy is an attorney. So his way of dealing with all of this is through constant questioning, cross-examination and "discussion", which inevitably turns into an argument.

And there you have it. I know as lives go, I'm incredibly lucky. But right now, I'm a combination of nervous, anxious and angry...and my drug of choice (food, duh!) is not an option. So I'm trying to muddle through without stuffing my face.

I know this is really long, and has more information than you're probably interested in. But you're my hatters, and I know you'll read it and be supportive anyway!

Snooozie, thanks for your messages and staying it touch, you really are a special friend. Glad your eyeball is in the home stretch

Leslye, so sorry about ALL you're going through. It makes my issues seem really insignificant. Hang in there, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I have to admit, I pictured a race with the oxygen tank guy and Snooozie's goose....

Carol, in Cape May again, and again, no phone call, no coffee, lol. Enjoy!!

Janet, thanks again for your heartfelt and honest posts. Congratulations on getting back on track, we both know that that in itself is a HUGE victory!

Gail, thanks for your support, it couldn't have come at a better time. Truly, you will never know.

Tonya, I wish I could give you a hug. I'm so sorry to hear about the health issues your step son is having, please keep us posted. It is unfortunate that as moms we have a tendency to put the needs of everyone else ahead of our own. When my kids were born, my mom came to take care of me so I could take care of my babies. From here on out, I'M going to take care of me, so I can take care of them (or maybe they should just take care of their own damn selves, lol)



And Janet, when I read about your husband and the freezer, I laughed out loud. Thanks

To my Ladies (as I refer to the group when talking with my husband)

Such a tough time for so many of our ladies and so many revelations shared. One could look at these and think of the post as negative. While it makes my heart sad for what each of you are going through, it makes me very proud that we become a group where we feel COMFORTABLE enough that we can share and unload whatever is needed. I believe having a safe place to do just that helps both the poster and the reader since the post always contains something that I myself can relate to.

Well we have no more garden since Issac found it necessary to take every thing down, but we were already planning on clearing out summer remainder and getting started with winter crops so no worries.

Feeling blah today. Want to be out doing something and like so many rural areas there isn't so I am missing Seattle

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and the storms begin to pass.