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

@TeresaW1020 We are going over to my brother-in-law's apartment to eat food with him and my sister-in-law, watch a movie and that's about it. We hope to be home by 7pm before the drunk drivers are in full effect. I love watching the fireworks!!! BUT...I do not like dealing with the parking issues, so I'm hoping we can see them from our new condo. ((( SKINNY VIBES ))) for weigh in today!

@TrishasTime Welcome back! Great job, not eating the scones! I see the podiatrist in August. I take it you are asking about my dog's injections? So far, they started out well and then he caught onto us and didn't like them. So then, we had to trick him and it takes two people to give them to him: my hubby scruffles his head and kind of plays with him, and I shoot him up. lol Thank you for saying that about seeing how far I've come. Sometimes I don't see it!

@theslightedgeforever Yeah, I really like the power greens. I hope they don't get rid of those. I love the orange chicken. I could probably make it too, but I'm too lazy. Yay, little sticker!!!

Hello all. I'm excited because I'm off tomorrow and Friday. BUT...I have to work a few hours on Saturday. That's okay, it won't be too bad.

EMPOWERED.

GM everyone

@cbabie - The super swelling is telling you to back off and do less and believe me I know how frustrating and how LONG ..... 3 weeks are. Being right-handed and with a broken wrist made use my left more often and I think that is also a good thing. Fingers crossed for you

@trooworld - Have you started showing off your apartment yet? It is probably a good thing, being home with our dog who is in a new environment when the fireworks go off.

@theslightedgeforever _ I read your line re: water and food and a song by meatloaf came to mind (2 out of 3 ain't bad). I have always sensed the rebel in you Kids often stress us, so do Grandchildren who live with you

Still cycling through washing etc from the trip away. Going to change phone plan providers tomorrow so I can get more internet when I am away

Take care

Good morning and happy 4th of July to all my American friends!

@TrishasTime, Wow good for you for spitting out that scone. I LOVE scones and can’t even look at them when I go into Starbucks.

@theslightedgeforever, I agree that I need to find the balance of being able to splurge and continue losing weight. I just can’t do the all or nothing mindset or I will feel deprived and that is never good for me. I just want to be able to eat my cake and lose weight too!! There is NO better smell than peanut butter toast! Good thing for me I don’t have any peanut butter or bread in my house!

@trooworld, that would be awesome if you could see the fireworks from your new home. In my house in Florida, I had the best view right from my back yard and could just sit in a chair and enjoy the show.

@cbabie, how low are you taking your carbs? If you try to keep them under 100 net grams a day you should be able to enjoy more variety. I'm doing under 30 net grams now and I’m finding that with some recipe research there are many good options. I totally agree that tracking is key! Of course, for me doing intermittent fasting also helps because I have fewer times to eat in a day.

Yayyy for having another day off from work and getting to sleep in! So, yesterday I lost the exact amount of weight that I gained the week before and of course this morning I'm down 2 more pounds on my scale. Why the heck can't I lose that much weight on my actual weigh in day!! Today, I'm making pulled pork in my crockpot and yummy broccoli, bacon, and cheddar cold salad. I'm taking some of the pork and some baked beans and Stouffer's mac & cheese over to a family who just had a new baby boy. I'm planning to eat first so I'm not tempted by those yummy side dish smells! Then this evening I'm going to go hang out with a couple of girlfriends and watch The Office. They are addicted and I've never seen it. They are dying to show me the joys of this show, which they quote all the time! I'm leaving my poor hubby home alone to deal with our little dog's freak out over the neighbor's firework noise. Have an awesome day!!

I’ve been kind of grumpy all week, not sure why. One thing is I think I mentioned I applied for a management job, I don’t think I got it. I’m pretty sure they’re going to promote a guy on my team who is less qualified than me. This guy will end up being my boss. So I was kind of expecting that, but it is still disappointing. I’m just hoping they make the announcement soon so I can try to move on.

Anyway. Happy fourth of July! I hope everyone has a great day.

I was never a great fan of the office, just don’t like Steve Carell. However I think my new boss will pretty much be like the boss on the office except less funny and more awkward and incompetent.

Yeah I’m bitter lol. It will pass.

@trooworld I was going to ask you- I know you’re a member of a lot of recipe sites. Is there a couple you would recommend? I’m tired of figuring out what to make for meals lol.

Sorry I’m not responding to everyone, I am kind of grumpy this week as I said. I am planning on flaking out today and watching baseball this afternoon.

@its_cleo I'm so sorry about the management job, that stinks. Hopefully something even better comes along. As far as recipe sites: there are a lot of great FREE recipe sites and some offer free meal plans so you don't even have to think about meal planning. For instance, www.skinnytaste.com is a great one, she offers good healthy recipes and sends out a meal plan once a week, all for free. www.allrecipes.com has a lot of good recipes to search through, that's where I get a lot of my recipes, but they don't have meal plans. For a paid website (but it doesn't have meal plans), I like America's Test Kitchen: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/ I have a subscription to all 3 of their sites in one subscription (Cook's Illustrated, ATK, and Cook's Country). Then there are sites like emeals: https://emeals.com/ that makes meal plans and grocery lists for you based on their recipes (but there isn't much flexibility in their plans, if you want to see a sample of one of their plans so you have an idea of what it's like, message me). Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions, I'm happy to help! I use a recipe collector website called Plan to Eat: https://www.plantoeat.com/ It's not free, but I find it's a great place to store all my recipes in one place. I hope you enjoy the baseball and that it lifts your mood.

@RetiredandLovingIt Unfortunately, we weren't able to see any fireworks but it's probably for the best because it probably would have freaked my dog out. The traffic jam is what gets me, too. I do not have a Costco membership, but Trader Joe's has frozen orange chicken that isn't too bad. I'm thinking of getting a Costco membership, but considering it's just the two of us, it may not be worth it. I hope you had a great 4th.

@cbabie I did...will tell more below. I hope you had a great 4th as well!

@theslightedgeforever hahahaha! Yes, I like both versions myself. Thanks for the link to the journal again, I was hoping you'd post that again.

Hi all. I hope you had a good 4th. I did: went to the inlaws and we watched a movie and had good food. Came home and watched tv. People in the neighborhood set off some illegal fireworks but it wasn't too bad/didn't scare my dog too much. Yesterday, we went to Trader Joe's and got a bunch of easy-to-throw-together things/frozen family sized dinners so we don't have to cook. As it gets hotter, we will feel less like cooking and we need to do something because we can't eat out all the time.

EMPOWERED.

Good morning!

@trooworld, we watched the American version. It was funny! Not funny enough for me to get a Netflix subscription though. We just don’t watch enough TV to have Netflix and Hulu. And I’m not giving up my Hulu!

@its_cleo, your grumpiness is understandable with what you have going on at work. That is stressful and annoying that someone less qualified might now be your boss. I would be grumpy too!

@cbabie, I would stay off that treadmill until your doctor OK’s it. You just have to be patient, which I know is harder to do than say. Good for you for tacking! That is the one area I’m really trying to stay consistent with too.

@TrishasTime, My Maggie Mae did really well with the fireworks. She had to spend time in her crate that but that is her safe place, so she was OK. Net carbs mean that the fiber grams were subtracted. Fiber is a carbohydrate but the body doesn’t absorb it like other carbs so many people subtract it from their total carb count and that is when it becomes Net Carbs. To keep my total carbs really low I would have to give up veggies and that isn’t going to happen, so I count net instead of the total carbs.

Going to a wedding today for this young couple who are in my church with my pastor's wife and another girlfriend. It's an hour drive away and not until 4 pm so hubby decided not to go because we would be gone way too long and we don't like leaving our dog home that long and we didn't want to have to board her. Plus, he just isn't that into weddings. I will have no control over what I eat at the wedding so hoping that I will be able to good choices but of course I'm sure that I will not say no to the wedding cake! I do plan to have a long workout this morning and eat super low carb when I break my fast to hopefully balance things out. It's all about the balance!

@LULUREBEL I hope you enjoy the game! I prefer the Dodgers, so enough said lol. But Astros are looking like a great team again this year. Yeah the Office in real life is not fun, sorry for your husband. I also used to work somewhere with a colleague who was like we need to play the Curb Your Enthusiasm music sometimes it is so ridiculous!

@cbabie that is terrible sleeping in a chair! I hope you can figure something out, so you can get the rest to heal.

@TrishasTime there are some good Australian shows. I think I watched Angry Boys a long time ago. I think I liked it lol. I can’t remember much. Good luck with your taxes, it’s always a pain.

@TeresaW1020 I hope you have a great time at the wedding!

@Trooworld yeah I heard about the earthquake, glad you are okay. Very frightening. I experienced one once, it was very mild though. And thanks for all the recipe sites, I’ll take a look. I’ve used allrecipes before but the others are new to me. I really need some help doing something different.

I’m still grumpy, but will get over it- with the job I’m just waiting for the announcement that they awarded it to this guy. Once they do that I can deal with it and try to move on.

I’m very tired today so will just chill out. Tomorrow will go to the gym and maybe do the stairs. With the exercise- with running I have hit a plateau. I usually do very slow jogs and try to increase distance, but seem to have hit a limit. So next week I’m going to try shaking things up and doing some shorter sprints. It will be fun and a change if nothing else.

With food- I am doing okay, but I’m thinking about making some changes with the meat I eat. Usually I eat everything, but I am thinking about cutting out ground beef (ground anything), and sausages, because they are not as good healthwise as like chicken breast, steak, fish etc. TeresaW1020 you’ve also inspired me to look at my carbs so I’m just monitoring right now to see what my intake is.

I’m still on maintenance calories, as I am primarily focused on making changes to my diet and getting used to it first.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Gm everyone

@TeresaW1020 - Thanks for the information - I am glad your DH like wedding enough to have one with you (LOL). Enjoy your time and pick as many good choices as you can

@trooworld - We did hear about it over there, but I was not sure where you were in relation to it. I am glad you are okay

@its_cleo _ That is a good idea to shake things up - I have read somewhere that our body gets used to a routine and does not burn off as many calories as it did when you first start the routine. I do hope you are feeling better tomorrow. I must ask - what makes you think, he got it instead of you? If nothing has been said to anyone?

@cbabie - It took me all day to get our tax documents ready for the accountant. It was complicated as DH retired in the middle of the financial year and other stuff with properties. I do hope you have a better night sleep tonight. I personally feel that if you can sleep you can cope with most things

Hello to @gemwolf110 , @thelsightedgeforever, @RetiredAndLovingIt and @LULUREBEL

I have decided to bite the bullet and see a foot specialist. I made an appointment for next week. The physio is having issues with getting me back on track as the pain in the foot is like 8/10 on some of the exercises that she wants me to do and I can not have my foot strapped up permanently.

Take care

@trooworld, Yes, I have been watching the news about the earthquakes and FB post from my family. I have family in Bakersfield and in Nevada who have felt the quakes. Scary for sure!! The worst part is not knowing when they are going to happen. Stay safe!

@its_cleo, I hope you find out about the job soon so you can have it behind you. I think taking a look at your carb intake is a good idea. I was really shocked to find out how many carbs I was eating even though I was eating what I considered a very healthy diet. I’ve also been trying to eat better qualities of meats. I’ve switched my ground beef to grass-fed beef. It cost a little more but I think it’s worth it and it tastes sooo much better.

@cbabie, bummer that trying to sleep in your bed didn’t work out as you wanted. I hope you start feeling better soon so you can get some much needed rest! Yeah, I like seeing the grade of my food in Carb Manager too. The foods that get an F grade are the ones that I’m either giving up entirely or limiting to just an acceptable amount.

@TrishasTime, I pray that the foot specialist will be able to help you. I know that you are sick of being in pain! You and poor cbabie are having such a rough time and I’m so sorry for you ladies!

@theslightedgeforever, Hahaha! Yes, I’m a major frosting girl too! Unfortunately, there was no cake! The couple opted to have ice-cream instead. And yes, I am back on plan starting today! More on that below.


So, I went to the wedding yesterday and had a really good time. The young couple is precious and the venue was a beautiful country wedding "barn" with amazing views! I did have one little incident because of a detour we had to do on the hour drive we were running late and I wasn't paying attention to my speed and sure enough, I got pulled over in this tiny town we were driving through going 61 in a 45! The officer was super nice and ran my license and let me go. I think he saw three middle-aged women dressed up going to a wedding and cut me some slack. I was so happy that I didn't have to go home and face my husband with a ticket!

My eating at the wedding was the most carbs I've had in over a month. They had BBQ pulled pork, mac & cheese, and fried potatoes for dinner. And instead of cake, they had ice cream. VERY tasty ice cream! So, I ate what I ate and that is that! My calories, the best I could figure were actually good for the day but the carbs were off the charts. That is OK though. Weddings are going to happen and I'm not going to be upset about it at all. However, today, I start my 8-weeks of LCHF with NO cheats! I watched this video from an IF/Keto guy that I really like and he talked about needing to eat low carb/high fat long enough to become fat adapted. Which is the process your body goes through as it changes from using primarily glucose for energy to using primarily fat. I'm going to be strict until August 31st just to see if this Keto thing is really for me or not. I figure I can do anything for 8 weeks and it just might get me to Onderland!!

Hi all, lazy Sunday here today. Should do my walk later tho, not supposed to be so hot.

@its_cleo hope the job situation turns out better than you think. My dd is having a rough time at work also. Office politics are the worst!

@cbabie Sorry about you sleeping in the chair, that can't be too comfortable. When I had the broken arm & leg, I finally resorted to sleep in the other bed, propped up with pillows. That way I didn't disturb dh. Know what you mean about the surgery..my knee was a chip fracture on the top of the tibia, so no surgery necessary, just absolutely no weight bearing for 12 weeks until the bone filled in. Was so glad not to have surgery.

@trooworld I would not like earthquakes, glad you are safe! You sound like you are doing well getting settled in the condo & decorating. We've been here 2 yrs now & still not a lot of decorating done...just don't have that talent.

@TrishasTime yeah, its a long drive to get the gkids. Usually dd brings them up for the 4th of July & she stays a little while & they stay another 2-3 weeks, and then we take them back. But this year, it didn't work out that way, so they were here about 10 days. She did offer to meet us halfway to get them back, but I had broken her light last time we were there & dh wanted to fix it for her. (It needed a new switch) I am just happy they are only 400 miles away..they used to live in Georgia, and that was 900 miles!

@theslightedgeforever We could go to a wedding together...I'll eat the cake & you can have the frosting! The only frosting I like is the whipped kind.

@TrishasTime , I also have 2 gkids that live about 10 minutes away, lol..

@RetiredAndLovingIt Thanks, we are getting settled in nicely! It's funny: every other place we've lived, we didn't really put much into I guess because we didn't own it (we didn't really decorate it). Now, we are really caring about how it looks lol. I don't know that we have a talent for it, but we are trying our best to make it look decent.

@TrishasTime I am back on track today, thanks. I didn't track a lick yesterday, we'll see what I track today. Scratch that, I just went and tracked my breakfast and lunch. Thank you for the tough love. Enjoy the work day.

@theslightedgeforever Yes, it would be nice. Luckily, I don't get chips and dip all the time or I'd be in big trouble because chips and dip is a trigger food for me. Thanks, I really like my new condo. Your daughter's new condo's kitchen is painted blue? That's really cool! My July goals...I haven't thought about them, so here goes: track 6 out of 7 days, drink 100 oz of liquids a day, lose 2 lbs. I think I will add my goals to my "EMPOWERED" to remind me of them.

Hello gals. It seems I've gained 3.4 lbs since 6/28, which is the last time I weighed in. I need to get a grip. I'm on my way, I think.

EMPOWERED.
July goals: track 6 out of 7 days, drink 100 oz of liquids a day, lose 2 lbs