Motivation, Success and Frustration Sharing!

@Rachel0778 so glad you are getting back in your groove. Send some of your MOJO my way.

@Evamutt glad things went well with hubby, and junibee is liking his new home.

@ShyCush6 congratulations on the promotion. Good luck, stay strong and we will be here when you are ready to be back.

@janetay01 I am doing great on the challenges, except the food one. I will get at least half points for it though. I have completed the quid one, but didn't have house colors. Found a shirt that will work, so going to do another 2 miles, so I can get the bonus point. See competitive.

My weekend is going to be crazy busy. House cleaning, laundry, then team training, kids karate lesson, birthday party for son, hopefully gym time, then Mm a fights at sisters. Sunday Red Rocks weekend warrior work out. Possibly roller skating. Wow, that makes me tired just typing that.

I am doing lousy the last two days on food. I need to do better.

Have a good day everyone.

Hello long lost friends! Sorry I have been completely MIA lately - life has been wild! It was spring break for two weeks here and we had four families come through to visit from out of town. Talk about too much company! Thankfully not everyone stayed at our house, but it was a lot of events, dinners, meeting out, visiting and eating & drinking! I came into work on Monday, and I felt like I needed a vacation. I only took two days off during that time to go up to the ski hill, so it was crazy working every day and being busy every night!

Tuesday I drove 3.5 hours each way to attend my friend's dad's funeral. he died of Alzheimer's, and was sick for a long time before he passed, but what an emotional day! And I've been pretty slammed at work lately too!

We celebrated 3 birthdays during spring break, and with all the eating and drinking, my weight went up and down. Finally on Sunday I said to my son and his girlfriend - we have got to get our *kitten together!! So they both signed up in MFP and we decided that we are going to have a family competition, my hubs joined too. The losers have to buy the winner a bottle of booze of their choice. I told them if I win, they are buying me whip cream vodka! LOL!

My son's birthday is on Tuesday - he's turning 22! So we won't be counting the cals on that day. LOL! His gf is in a wedding in January and she wants to lose 25+ lbs. We made the deadline August 1 (before our family cruise). So fingers crossed I win! I had a snaccident on Tuesday after the funeral, was exhausted and emotional and ate a bag of chips and cookies!! OOPS!

Sounds like everyone is still going strong, which is really motivational for me! Hope everyone has a great week! I can't believe it's Thursday, the days are going by so fast!

Welcome! I've also been gone for quite awhile. I joined a few years ago thinking I was ready and realized I wasn't. After getting told I'm prediabetic recently I have really pushed myself and have never felt more motivated. I'd love to.join the group and get/give motivation.

I joined a year ago and never really got into it. I have restarted with 80 lbs to lose. I'm here and finally doing this for me!!!

@jdelaroy That definitely sounds like water bloat so I wouldn't worry too much about it. You must have had a fun day outside yesterday to get so sunburnt! I'm sending more positive vibes your way so that you can hopefully make it through the weekend!

@brahns5 Welcome!

@janetay01 You're right, the gorgeous weather is definitely playing into my apathy. Thank goodness it's Friday. Congrats on the loss! Turning down rhubarb crisp is tough, great NSV to go along with your loss!

Welcome @Luv2Dispatch911! You're welcome to join us here!

@Evamutt I'm similar to your husband since I'm a cookie monster too. I'm impressed you can bake two cakes and not eat any! I'm glad you were able to get away from that stressful job and retire. I've got 35+ years to retirement so I've got a long ways to go yet, but luckily I think I'm in a great place!

@bluepoppies777 4 families visiting?!?! Holy cow! That must have been absolutely insane. I love your family weight loss challenge idea, what a great way to keep eachother accountable for your upcoming cruise!

So I have great news: I got rostered to play in the upcoming derby home game!!!!

All of yesterday was absolutely wonderful. I was able to meet up with my family to visit my grandmother's gravesite and have lunch with them. My fur baby had a fabulous time at daycare, but I can tell he missed us since he wedged himself right in between us to snuggle when we went to bed. The housing class was great, it had lots of good advice for new homeowners to look out for (I didn't even know radon was a thing!). It's definitely giving me the house hunting bug! (our lease isn't up for another 6 months so we'll start looking closer to then). I was also impressed by how knowledgeable my SO is with the process. I feel a lot more comfortable buying a home with him at my side!

Today is going to be another great day. My Mom and I are meeting up for dinner and then going to a play. Tomorrow we're getting up early to go to a bootcamp style workout class and then going shopping! After that I'm heading up to my best friend's house to spend the night with her since we haven't seen each other in ages! Sunday my SO and I are going to spend the day together (he ordered Blue Apron so he's making me dinner!). I'm feeling very loved and very blessed. Happy weekend everyone!

@Luv2Dispatch911 Oh days are great! I understand missing the headset. Ours were on these long cords (12 feet I think) and we had moving desks, so we could stand. Can you stand up and walk around while you still have your headset on? If you really want to get moving while at work, there are mini bikes and steppers you can get for under your desk. Might be able to try that. And thank you for your hard work. Our emergency system would fall apart without our dispatchers, and yet they are so underappreciated.

jdelaroy wrote: »

@Luv2Dispatch911 Oh days are great! I understand missing the headset. Ours were on these long cords (12 feet I think) and we had moving desks, so we could stand. Can you stand up and walk around while you still have your headset on? If you really want to get moving while at work, there are mini bikes and steppers you can get for under your desk. Might be able to try that. And thank you for your hard work. Our emergency system would fall apart without our dispatchers, and yet they are so underappreciated.

Thankfully we have wireless headsets. I usually.walk around when I have a radio but not when I'm a calltaker for the night. We have a shift of 7-10 people so they have been helping me stay on track and we do an excerise every hour on the hour when we aren't busy. I wish we could get the desk bikes and steppers approved but unfort. we have asked and they are permitted at this time.

janetay01, that's great news & motivation is so important. I usually have a fruit smoothie I make in the morning but it's raining so no taking dogs out yet & I bought a ham so I cooked 3 oz, with 2 eggs plus my go to snack of low fat waffle, 1/2 tbl each of P butter & jam, coffee, tea. It all added up to 600 cal!! I's usually under 200 for breakfast. Now I'm motivated to go to gym & work off these calories. My dtr in law was seeing a therapist & on anti depressants cause of her job. She feels much better now. One of our sons also works there, but he's in a different position, so not stressed out but is looking for different job, been there too long. The cheese cake came out ok, I didn't put fruit in it so it's not real tasty, but I like the texture & It's 57 cal/piece & 4g protein. I would make it again

Hi! I just paid for a trainer for 16 weeks. I expect a lot from myself over that period and sure could use a group of positive people.

Hey, everyone! Happy weekend!!!

I had a half day off yesterday (hit my 40 before noon). I had all these plans. Laundry, dishes, gym. What did I do? Binge watched Glitch and grazed. Interesting but I don't love Glitch. I was just too lazy to switch to something else. I was supposed to have dinner with a friend but her kiddo had a bike tumble and they took him to urgent care instead (not entirely sure why...just some scrapes and a fat lip...but they felt the need). I was quite virtuous (if lazy) for dinner. A can of healthy request soup and some tapioca pudding. Then my hubs dragged me to the gym when he got home so I wouldn't be so totally over on my calories. I stayed under, but only barely. But I walked a full mile! Woot!

Today is Scouting for Food (boy scout thing, my husband was a scout and he helps out) and so I'm on my own again...I'm putting together a "Menu" for his parent to choose things they think sound good that I am willing to prepare if (big if) they decide to take us up on the offer of 3-4 delivered homemade meals a week. But it requires some participation and financial commitment on their part...can't afford to feed 4 adults on a regular basis (okay, I probably can...but I don't wanna). So, I'm going through my food diary for the past eight months...some things I eat that they absolutely wouldn't (read...eggplant, anything thai or remotely spicy, chili...CHILI! What's wrong with chili!?! And most things vegetarian...which is what I like)...and I've come to the conclusion I've gotten boring. When did that happen?!? It's all chicken and rice, crockpot curry, spaghetti and meatballs, sloppy joes, salad. I love Indian and Thai and Ethiopian and I used to cook that type of food...when did I stop making awesome food?!? So disappointed in myself. Of course, if I start cooking for them as well on a regular basis, this boring trend will definitely continue. Sigh.

Anyway...Congrats Rachel on getting to play for the team this weekend! Your idea of a binge and mine are a lot different. Mine includes a lot more junk and, from the sound of it, more of it. Came perilously close to one yesterday. Looked it in the eye. Stepped back. Your post about soy noodles (here and on your profile) made me laugh out loud. In training. While I was training. I looked at my phone while I was waiting on them to complete an activity and it gave me the giggles. My trainees looked at me like I was nuts. I've had that experience. O. M. G. SO gross! House buying class sounds amazing...I wish I'd had one when we were shopping. I *thought* I was totally going to get into gardening and turns out I suck at gardening...and I have six garden beds in my back yard (all weeds!)...when we sell, clean up will be h*ll. Be realistic with yourself! Something they may not tell you is that when you close on a mortgage, a lot of times your first payment isn't due for about 3 months...it might be worth it to close a couple months before your lease ends so you have time to do anything you want before moving in and to take a bit more time with the move. We did that and it was much easier (we had friends coming from out of town two months after we closed and we just left some minimal furnishings, air mattresses and linens & extra kitchen stuff and they crashed at our nearly empty appt rather than a hotel. Today is my gran's birthday, if my sister were still with us, we'd probably do something...but it's just me, so probably won't. Your visit sounds nice.

And all the motivation everybody's got! Must have totally missed me.

janetay...still haven't finished cleaning the work mess up. Had to train two days, one of them required about 6 hours of driving (to and from), so gah! then catch up. Pancakes with strawberries and chocolate sauce sounds AWESOME! Don't let me near it! I totally hear you about liking your job but it making you crazy...me, too. Especially this time of the year. People say, Can I have...and I say, not likely. One of me, five thousand of you. I can only make one person happy today, you're not that person. Get in line (behind me). Everytime you post about swimming, I'm jealous. And swimming with kiddos is so amusing. I don't think I've been swimming in more than 10 years. I planned to a couple times last fall with a friend but it kept falling through.

Jdeleroy...your pork chops sound similar to my chicken in mushroom cream sauce, though I don't do it in the crockpot...maybe I should. Be much less effort, though I add in more crap (onions, garlic, extra fresh mushrooms, spices) and dump it over mashed potatoes. I don't eat pork but many pork dishes can have chicken subbed in. Love potato soup, never make it; can't eat commercially available/restaurant because most all of them have bacon (ick!). I should totally make some...

evamutt...I love that pic of your dogs. So much puppy diversity and cuteness! I'm the opposite on carbs...if I eat too much protien I feel like total kitten. Bring on the carbs!

Shycush6...pickles are NOT better than girl scout cookies...they just have fewer calories! Congrats on the job!

Bluepoppies777...Glad to see you (and your memes) are back. RE the Nobody wants to hear about your diet...I've actually had several people ask about what I'm doing to lose weight the past month or so...I think about the time I hit 40 pounds down, it started to really show. I'm at about 55 now. Some say, yeah, but I bet you exercise a lot...(with a pissy face). Nope. I walk (not even a lot). Stationary bike now for ankle rehab. And I was in a cast for 8 weeks! Of course, some of that might have to do with the big push my employer is doing about joining the stupid weight loss program that's available (I've hissed about it before...half intermittent fasting, half super restrictive calories, all WOO...I'm "participating" but not following it) so more of us are trying to lose and to talk about it. It sounds like you were super busy and had a bunch of fun! Sometimes I find I need a vacation from both work and vacations...

Welcome to those new to the thread! And...I've gone on long enough. Have a great weekend ladies!

Hi Everyone. Just a FYI I'm going to be away this week. My SOs father passed away on Saturday so we rushed to my MILs home to mourn with family.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter, I should be back next week to catch up with you all.

As an aside, I've learned I'm not a fan of most funeral food so sticking to my calorie goals has not been an issue. I also wake up way earlier than everyone else in the house so I've been able to fit in daily workouts before the craziness commences.

Rachel, I'm so sorry to hear that

@lnewsome - welcome! I wish there was an easy answer on the sweet stuff. We try not to have it in the house for our two year old - but I totally understand what you would find that hard to do with your daughter. I think it's about having a balance of snacks so that you (and they) can make the nice, healthy choices as well! Beyond that, I found that really asking myself what my reasons were for wanting to lose weight helped - my reason for doing this needed to be strong enough to mean that it was more important than weakening and eating the entire box of chocolates! Exercise helps as well of course - I'm small so I don't have much to play with calories wise but a workout that gets me a few hundred calories usually gives me the room to treat myself.

@melaniedscott - enlightened self interest - I like it! But in all seriousness, I understand - they are important to him and therefore to you as well. I'm sorry to be causing cravings - no more mention of them!!

Rachel - sorry to hear your news. Take care of yourselves.

Not much to report here - just a standard Tuesday at my desk whilst the sun shines outside