NON WW & WW NEWBIES, OUR NEW LIFE, THE START OF SOMETHING WONDERFUL

@prisoner2food Good idea about the water. It’s all the cooking and baking I’ve been doing the past three days. I’ve never liked the taste of celery raw. I’ll eat it cooked in food though.

@trooworld I just discovered a good recipe for a chocolate protein shake. It’s supposed to have half a frozen banana in it but mine are always fresh so I just stick 4 ice cubes in there and it turns out good. You could drink it driving to work. Today is a new day to start over and eat within your calories. Shop online and then you don’t have to face the crowds or do like my friend and buy everything early for next year. She’s done by July. Then there’s me who says I still have time. It’s not Christmas yet. Sounds like your office mate needs a $25 gift certificate from Amazon and she can pick out her own gift. Lol.

@TrishasTime You’re still hoping a magic elf will come and plan the menu for you. It would be nice to have him cook it too. Lol. Oh then clean up. My friend that I’m doing Shred with has lost 12 lbs in the same time that I have lost 5. She’s bigger than me but not twice my size. She likes the plan because she says not a lot of cooking and preparation. I also have to cook for my family so real food tempts me more. I’ve been on the merry go round for years The best plan isn’t WW or MFP it’s Trisha’s plan. What is that? Counting is counting whether you do points or calories. Just like money spends the same either dollars or pounds. So for my plan I like structure but has to be flexible because I’m a social butterfly. That part of my life won’t change. So I am trying to follow this menu plan when I’m home and it’s a normal day and if I have an event I try and stay within my calorie boundaries for the day. The best of both worlds. Now if I can get the habit of exercise to be consistent I’ll get to goal because I’ve proven I can lose weight this weight. There’s no deprivation so I’m making it a lifestyle. I’m learning to find smoothies I like. When I’m tired of the smoothies I use same ingredients and turn it into a parfait. Your work schedule sounds like my events so you have to make your food work within those boundaries. It’s not going away any time soon. Right? So you need quick easy to grab meals that you like. What are those. Which meal is the hardest for you. That’s the one you start working on first. The one that will make the biggest difference.

@TeresaW1020 I’m enjoying myself right now cause houseguest is gone 😈 Earlier we took my sil back to the airport. She wanted to come see the kids while they were here. I’m glad you are feeling better now. 2019 goals. Dd and I have a private joke with Jan 1 I say this our year I can feel it. She replies you say that every year Mom. 🙄. In lots of ways I’ve changed my habits I should be a bit further down the road I think but I would like to get within 15 lbs of goal in 2019. I think that’s a doable number. I just need to nail down my biggest habit which is exercise

@TrishasTime Yes, I decided to track in MFP. I've set my calories at 1700 for now and have my macronutrients set at certain percentages as well. I know what you mean about starting off with a bang and then fizzling out. I do the very same thing, I think most people do that. I did learn in Noom that motivation is not constant and we shouldn't expect it to be. We just have to hang onto whatever program we commit to, whether it be WW or MFP or Noom, you get my point, just be consistent, eventually, our motivation will come back.

@theslightedgeforever I usually wait to eat breakfast until about 9:00 a.m. because I'm too hungry throughout the morning if I eat on the way to work. Plus, honestly, protein shakes don't keep me full no matter what I put in them. My goal for next year is to be done by December. I am pretty much done, I just need to buy some more things for my husband which I think will be gift cards because he will want to pick things out himself. I already bought him two things. Yeah, the thing about my officemate is that she is super thoughtful so if I give her a gift card, I'll look like I'm not being as thoughtful as her. I did buy her a nice scarf from Macy's though.

Hi all. I've got a humdinger of a headache today. Luckily I made my rollerball of essential oils so I'm using that. Hopefully, that will help some. It helped yesterday. I don't know if it has enough power to help this one, this is a massive migraine. I did little meal prep yesterday, just made my breakfast and chopped veggies for a couple of recipes. It's going to be a bad week I can tell the way it is starting out lol.

@prisoner2food I’m reading a book called Atomic Habits that talk about we haven’t changed because our identity (how we see ourselves) hasn’t changed. Example three guys sitting outside a workplace on a break. One guy offers each a cigarette. One says I’m trying to quit. The other says I’m not a smoker. The first guy still believes he’s a smoker trying to be something else. He’s hoping his behavior will change while carrying around the same beliefs. The second guy smoking was a part of their former life not the current one. I think food is tricky. We need food to survive just not the amount of food we eat to keep us fat. So maybe adding I’m not a glutton to our beliefs would help. I just started this book today. So still trying to figure it all out.

@trooworld Tell yourself I thought it was going to be a bad week by the way it started but I’m turning this ship around. We are what we think.

@TrishasTime my word for this year was consistency. For 2019 I might need to go to a thesaurus and look up another word that means the same thing as 2018 word 😏. So sorry to hear the news about your son and dil. I lost my first one via ectopic pregnancy at 11 weeks. Surely a devastating time.

@TrishasTime I really like "own-it". I hope my headache goes away soon too, right now it is killing me. I'm so sorry about your DIL. That must be very hard on all.

@theslightedgeforever As soon as I can get rid of this migraine, I'll work on my attitude.

@cbabie, where are you? :O

Hello all. My migraine is very severe, nothing is helping. I left work at 11:00 a.m. yesterday and it is likely that I will stay home at least this morning from work. I may go to urgent care tonight if it doesn't go away by tonight. There, they will likely give me a shot of Demerol or something similar. As it is, my neck is starting to get stiff from the pain and my whole head is throbbing. I'm going to get off here and lay down.

Morning everyone

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

@TeresaW2010 - Where are you getting these great quotes from? They are certainly food for thought. Why wait until 01.01 - as @theslightedgeforever would say ( see she is my head) - why not the very next meal. I have started a fresh today - I really do not want to put on any more weight and I feel if I do not draw a line today, it will be worse if I started on 01/01.

@theslightedgeforever - Can you please send the owls out to Cbabie? Consistent - yes I have been consistently good then consistently bad - I just need to be on way where there are no the massive roller coasters and just little bumps.

@prisoner2food -How is going back to work and maintaining your good habits going?

Question - has anyone done a vision board - where you put pictures of where you are going to be? if so has it worked for you or not

Take care

trish

@TeresaW1020 Well, I took some medicine with no hope that the migraine would go away, took a hot shower, and what do you know? It went away! I went to work and was fine. I'm so relieved!!! I'm sorry you had a gain. 2019 WILL be your year! I like that quote.

@TrishasTime I have a virtual vision board on Pinterest. I will attach a screenshot. I have my board set to "PRIVATE" so nobody sees it but me. I have it set as my homepage so that every time I open up a webpage, it comes up. It helps me a bit focus on positive things. Maybe others can speak to their experience.

@theslightedgeforever when I don't feel good I just want to lay on the couch and watch tv, I can't read, I can't concentrate enough to do that. But luckily I feel better. I did have a car accident but I've been having migraines for years, even before the car accident. I'm about to start seeing a new acupuncturist in the new year and I hope that he can treat my migraines. I'm not confident that my old acupuncturist was that good (although I really liked him).

Hi all. Today is the library's holiday potluck party. I made beef bourguignon (beef stew) for it in my instant pot. It should be fun. Tomorrow is our company-wide party where food is provided and there are raffle prizes. I hope to win one but I haven't won one yet!

GM everyone

@trooworld - Thankyou for sharing your private Pinterest. I have never used that before, so I will investigate. I am glad that your migraine has gone. Good luck with the raffle - finger crossed

@theslightedgeforever - I am glad I could for once reset your thinking. You always do it to us (evil grin). I went to the studio last night and "OWNED_IT". I accepted the weight gain instead of staying away until I had gone down again.

As I set my Christmas Menu (it is almost at my house every year), I was reminded that I am "a healthy lifestyle" every Christmas, watching what I eat. Making sure lollies etc are far away. It would be nice, that the healthy habits are so ingrained next year that it would not matter where the lollies are.

I decided not to follow the Christmas traditional menu of ham, turkey this year and instead are having prawns, chicken tenderloins and pork belly bites for those who love them. Salads will be a watermelon, feta and mint salad and a dressed up garden salad. Remembering it will be hot here. The heat usually does not bother us as we have air conditioning, but I want to minimise this year instead of taking the day before to prep and the whole Christmas day to cook

Take care everyone

Trish

@corriepelc Welcome! Congrats on your weight loss and making the decision to try MFP. I wish you all the success!

@TrishasTime Thanks, yes I am so glad that the migraine is gone! The raffle prizes aren't as good this year as in years past, but hopefully, I win something!!! I'm proud of you for going to the studio and owning it, brava! Your Christmas menu sounds delicious and healthy, well done!

@theslightedgeforever Absolutely I did not stay within my food budget lol. I didn't even track, I had no idea how to track what I ate, I "fog ate". I did have a healthy salad for dinner though. Thanks for sending out the owls for cbabie. No, you are not an exercise skipper. You are a healthy person!!!

Hello all. Oh dear, I didn't do HORRIBLY as there wasn't that much good food at yesterday's gathering, but I did do enough damage to not be proud of how I ate. Today will be better as the food is catered and the choices are usually decent and not plentiful lol, more just snacks (Today is the company-wide party in case you missed it).

We'll see how I do!

Hello everyone!

@TrishasTime, Like Trooworld I have a vision board on Pinterest that is filled with motivational quotes about health and fitness. You can click the link and look at it here if you want. https://www.pinterest.com/teresa66/getting-fit-and-looking-good/ Your Christmas meal sounds wonderful!

@trooworld, so glad your migraine went away. How was the party? Parties make it so hard to stay on plan. I've decided to cut myself some slack until the day after Christmas. So did you win anything?

@theslightedgeforever, you know I like your idea of saying that January should be our month!! I think sometimes we try to bite off too much and then we get discouraged and quit. Maybe just taking it one month at a time and doing our very best will give us our very best year. Hmm, worth a try!

@cbabie, so sorry this has been a tough week for you! We are here to support each other and that is what makes this such an awesome group.

@krupalip, I hope you are well?

Well, today has been a busy day and it's not even over yet! I had my review this morning and it went even better than I had hoped it would. I was so humbled and overjoyed by what my staff had to say about me. They really do love me!! The only real issue that they want from me is to improve my technology skills for our website. I have promised to work on learning more of the inner workings so that I don't have to rely on our children's pastor to do it for me. The good news is that our children's pastor is taking over the scheduling of our nursery, which I have been doing this past year. Yayyy!!!

After our staff meeting and my review, the pastor took us all to lunch. Then I picked up my husband and we went to Sams to buy stuff for our church breakfast this Sunday. Tonight, we are going to a staff party where we are having a gingerbread house decorating contest. I plan to win!!

@cbabie I'm sorry that you are having a tough time. I hope it gets better soon. ((( HUGS )))

@TeresaW1020 You know what? Last night's party was okay! I had fun, I only had a small square of pecan pie and a small tarlett of apple pie but none of the "main food". I had two beers. Other than that, I socialized, took pictures with my coworkers, and had fun! I did not win anything but one of my besties at work won staff of the year, so that was fun! Congrats on a good review, yay!!!

@TrishasTime I did not win anything unfortunately but I had fun and did not eat hardly any of the food so I consider THAT a win! I get Christmas eve and Christmas Day off but that is it. I'm going over to my inlaws and we are making italian food. My husband is making lasagna and I am making arancini balls with marinara sauce, which should be quite the chore. Congrats to your GD!