JulieBoBoo

I'm 230lbs and I feel beautiful and sexy and attractive. I'm so totally into myself right now it's not funny and I love it (so does my husband). I was 330 when I was started and if you'd asked me what I thought about myself then I'd have told you that I was attractive and funny. I have no trouble finding "before" pics…

I like salad but not only the traditional veggie type. I make chick pea (garbanzo beans) salad with olive oil, lemon juice, parsley and salt and pepper, bulgur or couscous salads, bean salads, greek salads, pasta salad, tuna salad, etc. You can get very creative and have lots of variety.

Congratulations!

As much as possible offer to be the designated driver. In other cases "no thanks, I'm driving" will suffice to get people off your back. If all else fails you can use the "oh I wish but I'm on antibiotics for an infected toenail" line. I went dry once because I found myself drinking more than I would like and to tell the…

Try to avoid packaged food, stay away from soup, try to enjoy food in as a pure a state as possible, avoid bottled dressings, don't eat pickled food (including olives), and watch out for spice mixes when seasoning. 1500 mgs a day can be really difficult to hit. Good luck!

We did it in the bed in the kid's room which then was the guest room. That's where he slept while the girls and I slept in the master bedroom because he couldn't sleep with all their wiggling. We don't do it any more often now than we did then (the girls are now in their own room and hubby and I are back to sharing bed…

in an online chat room. We met online on Sept 2, 1998, in real life on the 13th, were engaged by Boxing Day 98, moved in together in July 1999, got married on Sept 2, 2000 and have been very very happy ever since.

Elvis' White Christmas Album. It's a childhood thing.

Our first Christmas together my then boyfriend, now husband bought me a can opener. It actually was kind of sweet because it was one of those fancy ones that leaves no sharp edges and he bought it for me because he didn't want me to hurt myself.. but I'd been hinting pretty strongly that I wanted diamond or pearl earrings.…

That's another thing, the longer I'm here the more I realize that there are many different ways to go about losing weight so telling people how to do it the way you are doing it can actually be contradictory to their method and rather unhelpful. Telling someone on a no-carb diet that they need to eat more carbs won't go…

If I want my diary analyzed I'll print it and bring it to my doctor or a certified nutritionist. If I want to push my exercise to the next level I'll hire a personal trainer. Quite frankly, I'm not interested in having people second guess and criticize what I'm doing. My friends keep me accountable mentally because when I…

you look fantabulous!

I started losing weight in October 2010. My starting weight was 330.2lbs. I never entertained bariatric surgery despite having both hypertension and diabetes for several reasons. A few of those were: I wanted to keep our family holiday traditions and being the one eating a tablespoon of food doesn't work really well with…

apples fresh green beans carrots celery low sodium chicken broth chicken breast eggs raw almonds bananas quick oats popcorn kernels (this is my daily treat) 1% milk French Roast Starbuck coffee beans (another weakness) real butter unsweetened apple sauce (for baking) pork tenderloin sweet potatoes turnip squash onions…

My apologies to Mexico and the other Central American countries included in North America.

I guess it depends on the person. My family certainly makes a big deal of it and it is a Statutory Holiday. We do the turkey and all the trimming complete with pumpkin pie and always have. We don't have Black Friday though. Our big sale day is Boxing day which is the day after Christmas.

Actually it's a North American holiday... we celebrate in Canada as well only we celebrate in October.

I started at 330. I followed the calorie recommendations for MFP and I also ate back my exercise calories. I lost 100lbs in a year. Good luck! One thing I would recommend is that after every 10 lbs loss go in and manually reset your goals. Sometimes MFP doesn't compensate automatically.

Eat the way you plan to eat for the rest of your life. If it's not sustainable for years and years then it will fail in the long run. And check with your doctor.

My favourite is the AHA Spice Mix http://www.kogagrove.org/recipes/aha.html sooo good and great that it has no sodium. Low fat homemade granola Multigrain Pancake mix http://allrecipes.com/recipe/multigrain-pancake-mix-for-gift-giving/ Low fat muffins (use half wheat flour and half white flour and substitute half of the…

I would not consider that an appropriate wedding gift. But then I always give cash.

Congratulations! I'm so proud of you.. not just for releasing but for being brave enough to post today!

If you are lightly active on a regular basis you metabolic rate is higher than if you were sedentary. Your metabolic rate won't drop just because you're not active for a day or two (least I don't think it will). It's like a car.. if you drive it half an hour to work 5 times a week it's going to be well oiled and all the…

I think you're beautiful but I likely won't be able to convince you. Try doing little things for yourself: Painting your nails, buying a lipstick, getting new sexy shoes... All these things help me feel pretty. In fact, getting laser hair removal on my neck and chin was a FAR bigger boost to my vanity than losing weight.…

My husband is not a good gift giver so I buy my own gifts. It works for us. I'm getting the Femme Fatale chocker from Stella and Dot, a pair of boots, a couple of books I want to read, the Looney Spoons compilation cook book, and a puzzle (we all get a puzzle every year as a family tradition and I like puzzles). For the…

I like to blog. Some of my blogs get a lot of votes. If it's a particularly popular blog I can get up to 20 friend requests after posting -- especially when people see I've lost 100lbs. So I'm torn between looking like a snot for not accepting the friend request or looking like a snot because I accept it and then don't…

I was Christmas and I was 8 or 9 and my Mom spent hours and a ton of money buying and wrapping a full Barbie Wardrobe for me. I mean there was like 40 outfits in all and after opening everything she asked how Santa did and I answered sadly: "I guess I wasn't very good this year, I only got small stuff." She never lets me…

Would he use a thermos? That opens up a lot of possibilities for you both.

I make my husband's lunch most days. He almost always eats it and he really appreciates it. It's one of his love languages. Sure he can do it himself and some days when I'm really busy he does, but for him, my making his lunch is one of the ways he feels loved and appreciated and since it's only 5 mins out of my day I…