Weight Loss

I have looked for twins and poked around other groups without finding a real support group.

I am 48, 5'5", SW 151, CW 134, GW 128

I am the school teaching mother of three in their upper teens, wife of my 3 lbs from goal hubby.

SO...

Anyone interested?

Original Post by skn6131:

Greetings to all-
Guess I seem to be a regular slacker these days as my trips out to catch up with all of you have been rather sporadic.

Axe - I was able to give blood regularly when I was younger but after having children my blood pressure seems to run too low (go figure on that one!).  I find that pretty much all the time, I need to get up slowly or that momentary blackness of low blood pressure almost puts me on my knees.

 I remember many years where my blood pressure was always low.  Standing up and walking meant standing, taking 2 steps, stopping, waiting for the vertigo to pass as the pressure equalized, then continuing.

I thought that now, since my blood pressure has gone all the way up to normal (!) I'd give it a try.  Eh, live and learn.  I guess low normal is not enough, because after taking a pint out, I'm back to just low.  All my symptoms are explained by low blood pressure and - duh - anemia.  Once my bones get the new troops in I'll be fine.

skn - I've never been around York, Pa. I mostly stay around SW Pa. I like hearing when people do charity work. Especailly for Habitat for Humanity. For some reason I just love what they do.

lucyalus - I have degenertive Discs (yep, more than 1!). The L4-5 and L5-S1 are just falling into pieces, literally. So I have nerve damage which causes the left leg pain and numbness all the way into my feet and toes. I have like 7 diagnosis!  My spine is curving from it so they say I have slight scoliosis too among everything else! GRRRR  I always have pain, but I get alittle relief from all the meds. No chiropractor will touch me, so I can't even go that route. No surgeon will touch me either. I had one surgery in '99 when I herniated my L5-S1 when I was working. That's what started this whole mess! Believe I had 20 jobs from '99 - '06? Trying to work and kept getting flare ups.

Physical Therapy twists me up like a pretzel! lol I had home therapy the last time in '06 and it didn't do any good and they were afraid to do anything with me. Well, I couldn't do much to begin with!

I weighed in this morning 1.6 lbs lighter! After gaining 2 lbs during the week last week, I lost almost all of it over night! How weird is that???

Went to the pain dr and got my refills + an anti-inflammatory med. My back is swollen again. I didn't dare say I was trying to walk. They'd have a fit! lol And say I was doing too much.....blah,blah,blah

I'm not able to give blood either. I pass out every time I've tried. Haven't tried again in years after the last time! I walked out of the little van thing they drove and passed out right there! someone could've ran me over!!! I coulda been filling in a pot hole some place. lol

Do you all have alot of potholes in your roads?  We had a ton of them by our home and they finally redid part of the road to get rid of them. I hate when they try to just fill them and a month later they are back! :(

Original Post by momof2funykds:

I'm not able to give blood either. I pass out every time I've tried. Haven't tried again in years after the last time! I walked out of the little van thing they drove and passed out right there! someone could've ran me over!!! I coulda been filling in a pot hole some place. lol

Do you all have alot of potholes in your roads?  We had a ton of them by our home and they finally redid part of the road to get rid of them. I hate when they try to just fill them and a month later they are back! :(

 Are you kidding?  We've got potholes in our office parking lot!  They're terrible, and there's enough of them they can't just be swerved around. :(  The whole lot needs to be redone.  One of these days someone's gonna break an axle.

Original Post by momof2funykds:

lucyalus - I have degenertive Discs (yep, more than 1!). The L4-5 and L5-S1 are just falling into pieces, literally. So I have nerve damage which causes the left leg pain and numbness all the way into my feet and toes. I have like 7 diagnosis!  My spine is curving from it so they say I have slight scoliosis too among everything else! GRRRR  I always have pain, but I get alittle relief from all the meds. No chiropractor will touch me, so I can't even go that route. No surgeon will touch me either. I had one surgery in '99 when I herniated my L5-S1 when I was working. That's what started this whole mess! Believe I had 20 jobs from '99 - '06? Trying to work and kept getting flare ups.

 Wow, that's almost exactly like my problem.  I have degenerating disc, bulging disc at L4-5, and a bulging disc in my neck don't remember exactly where. I can't even remember how many years ago that my neck started hurting.   I actually just got home from the chiropractor.  He has this really cool thing to pop a joint behind your ear that's always causing me pain.  I had to seek other treatment because the meds just kill my stomach.  My back was almost totally cured with the disc decompression machine.  A couple of the chiropractors here have also started using a machine that causes no pain nor do they adjust you any other way.  They just run it down your spine and it makes adjustments with just a touch.  I plan to check into that.  I also do about an hour of stretches at night for my back.  I'm just fighting it as hard as I can.  My dad is in a wheelchair from his back and my brother has had surgery on his neck and back.  I work at a computer all day so that's the major cause of my neck pain.  Good luck with everything and I'm really glad you can take meds.  There's a lot of times I wish I could and if it does get really horrible I will for just a short time.  Usually just a muscle relaxer since it's easier on the tummy. 

Good Morning! Where oh where is Aly and Skn and Suz and Sue and Jen?????? Did I miss anybody? Ya know if you don't post the calorie gods come looking for you! LOL Hope all is well with everybody. Does anyone know when Betsy will be back from China? I wonder how things are going for her. Iwish her all the best and i know she's so HAPPY right now! Well ladies have a great day and stay cool!! It was 94 here yesterday with bad air quality and I am having a terrible time with my asthma even with the singulair! I'm going to go outside and try a rain dance later! Aly YOU seem to have something going with the rain gods can you go outside and do a dance for Asheville? GEE THANKS! I heard what you just mumbled! LOL Later ladies!   Connie

Original Post by cantlose:

Good Morning!  Well ladies have a great day and stay cool!! It was 94 here yesterday with bad air quality and I am having a terrible time with my asthma even with the singulair! I'm going to go outside and try a rain dance later! Aly YOU seem to have something going with the rain gods can you go outside and do a dance for Asheville? GEE THANKS! I heard what you just mumbled! LOL Later ladies!   Connie

 We were hot and humid yesterday, but got a great thunderstorm last night, and it's lovely and cool here in STL today.  SO much better!

AWWW I just read where Estelle Gettys died at age 84. She played Sophia on the Golden Girls. I used to love that show years ago and still occasionally watch re-runs. It's so sad almost as if you know these people personally. Anyway on another sad note (FOR ME) I did it again...pigged out on Zaxby's chicken fingers meal and came home and looked up the calories on calorie King cause cc didn't have it and WOOOOHHHHH baby with the sauce to dip with it was 1400 calories and almost 75 fat grams......Will one of you stop me somehow!!!! Since I have been having the breathing delima I have had to go back to my rescue inhaler frequently and THAT is an inhaled steroid which i no longer am used to and that is making my appetite INCREASE in a MAJOR way....Someone needs to post long messages to keep me reading instead of feeding!! LOL Bye for now! Connie

Hi All-

Well I am kinda fed up with work today... so I am taking a breather to drop a line saying "hey" to everyone.

Connie - I know what you mean about over-indulging lately.  Seems I am following that parallel tire rut right beside you.  I have been rather outdoing it in the pig-out dept myself lately.  Where I had been tracking about 1500-1600 calories/day, I seem to be more consistently around the 2000+ mark.  Ugh.   I too had hit the weight goal I had set for myself (145 in my case), so I think I am getting too lax now because I reached the goal almost a month earlier than I had anticipated.   I have crept up 1-1.5 lbs and I sure don't want to lose traction and let bad eating habits take over.  I feel like I have "craved" different things recently... but I have to believe it is more psychological or sub-liminal message take-over really!!!  Hmmm better get a grip on myself soon. 

Next week I anticipate I will have NO CHANCE to get online and plug in my caloric intake while in New Orleans, so I will at least try and adhere to a little common sense but that may be tricky as there will be folks from Celebration Church supplying food for the group.  No telling what!!!

So what sorta cravings have you all had recently?  And how do you NOT give in?  I started my day out well with Oatmeal then progressively got worse.  Before lunch I sauted some young zucchini with garlic and olive oil ... so that wasn't too bad.  However I then managed to suck down a can of sardines (salt craving; and yes I am scandanavian so that behavior comes thru the genes) and another hour later a South Beach diet "snack bar" (sugar).  I recently did a prowl thru the kitchen - wistfully eyed the partial bottle of chardonnay in the frig but it is way to early to even consider that.  The boys had polished off the last few potato chips in the pantry (still in salt craving mode).    Well maybe I will mosey back over to the frig and have a nice cool bowl of gazpacho with some extra salt added in to see if that doesn't calm the cravings.

More thunderstorms rolling thru - almost daily occurence for the last 5+days.

Cheer, skn

Hi Skn isn't that weird that we are both doing the same NO NO's! I am the same on the salt but the chocolate type rich fatfatfat desert stuff is what's pulling me at this point even worse and normally I am not all that into sweets. I think the fact that I have deprived myself so long from fried stuff (good choice I know) but I think my mind is the enemy right now not to mention commercials for every zillion calorie goodie there is coming on when I get a minute to sit down! I do my best not to keep stuff in the house that has alot of fat and calories but lately I have even been adding up alot of low cal stuff on top of eachother till I'm up past my intake by lunch....What is up with all this really? Maybe it is part of the passing the goal, gotta stop before you might feel happy, moment?! LOL  Enjoy yourself in "NAWLENS" and I think its wonderful what you are there for (besides the food). I wish I were there helping right beside you. If I could keep away from the FOOD long enough to be of help to anyone! SERIOUSLY! I also have noticed I have not been drinking my water as faithfully. How about you? Still drink alot but not near the quantity I was before. I feel bloated for some reason and that may be part of the problem. Ok Cause of zaxby's gonna go to bed tonight with no dinner! hmmmmm anyone got a hammer to make sure I do that? Have a good evening all!    Connie   Oh hey no one has said one word about the pictures in my gallery with my sarcastic comments at the bottom! Where are my critics and jokesters these days huh?  Bye ladies!

Hi Connie,

The pictures were pretty funny.  I have pictures of everything and everybody else but not many of myself.  Hmmm maybe I do that on purpose. lol.  Everyone have a good night and lite day tomorrow.

I just want to know where everybody is?????? Aly do you see these!!!!!!!!!! Jen? Momo? Skn, you aren't going to NYC till next week right? Ok, you guys know if I don't have something to read in the a.m. I will EAT more! So the next lb will be on all of you! LOL Have a great/happy hump day! Um well since Aly thought viagra on the other post I should probably just say Happy WEDNESDAY! LOL   Later  Connie 

Soooo Connie, what have you eaten this morning without group reading material to detour you?  

Yup, I don't leave for N'Orleans til Saturday - crack of dawn.  Seems like life is spiraling out of control -- just WAY too many things to do and too few hours to get it done.    Besides the full time day job and feeding/breeding the four legged equine family, I have been working at my mom's place trying to clean out years of *stuff*.  My dad died last August and he was a knowledge hound til the end and seemed to save just about everything it seems.   I have done probably a half dozen pick truckloads of recycled paper (magazines, newspaper clippings, etc), then there is the juggling of *collections*.  He was an entomologist (laymans language - bugologist) and has a very extensive collection which various educational & public / private individuals have been vying to obtain.  He was also one of the pioneering members of the VT Archeology group and I swear there are a couple tons (weight) in artifacts that are going to the VT Archeology Society.  And the lists go on and on.  I think there are enough books (reference & reading) to outfit a small library!!   So anyways the point of this ramble is that my mom is having the rather small entry porch on the house ripped off, a big bay window replaced and a spacious three season porch put in to replace it.  This means that I had to do alot of cleaning/clearing so the contractor could work un-impeded.   We had a very large dumpster brought in (they do a 10day rental for about $700) and I have been busy trying to get her money's worth out of this dumpster before I take off Saturday!!  Like I don't have enough projects in my own life that need attention!!!

OK, so that is my rant/ramble for the day and contribution to keep Connie out of the frig & cupboards!!!     Haha.   Sooo whatcha all doing today?  Connie is right that it is pretty quiet out here lately.   Well I suppose I should contribute a little to this place that thoughtfully employs me.  Have a great day.

skn

Thank you skn for saving me some calories! I knew you were going to N'Orleans but wasn't someone going to NYC? (sorry in my thoughts toward food I was confused) LOL Anyway this a.m. SO FAR I had a lean pocket. I just didn't feel like the breakfast food stuff. It is getting ready to come a thunderstorm and after the lightning episode the other day I think I will unplug my whole house. You know that would keep me busy and away from the fridge! Imagine/storm over... re-programming everything and setting clocks etc. UGH! Now I mst get off the computer I hear thunder so what oh what will I do with my time??? nom nom nom Bye for now.  Connie

Hello everyone!  And Connie, it's me who is in NYC!!  You are not totally doo-lally  

Having a fun and indulgent time here...and whilst I am out doing plenty of walking around the city, I am eating (and drinking!) the majority of my calories in the late evenings.....not good, lol.

New York is thankfully coming out of a heat wave...but today is muggy and thunderstormy...hope we don't get too much rain...

Aly, have not been to Little Italy this trip...but so far have had Japanese, American (southern) and Greek food....yum!!!!!!!!!  It's my birthday this Friday so there is still more eating drinking to be done, lol  

Skn, sounds like you will have a wonderful experience in New Orleans... I visited last year (on a convention with my hubby) for the first time.  It is a wonderful city with amazing people although I could sense a sadness in many of their faces.  Your project is  very worthy, and I am sure the church ladies will be fattening you up with all sorts of delicious "local" food!!

What else can I report? My daughter is currently in LA visitng a friend from high-school (she moved back to LA from Bermuda just before they all went off to college)...they plan to go celebrity spotting (they are 19, what can I say, lol!)

Good news on my niece...she was recently released from hospital after 4 weeks...still has a long way to go before fully recovered, but we still have her with us, thank the Lord!!  Docs keep reminding her that she had a life-threatening illness and she will need 8 - 10 weeks recuperation - she has NO recollection of the first 2.5 weeks in hosp - scary stuff!

Don't think we have any members in Hurricane Dolly's path (sincere apologies if I am mistaken there)...but praying that the outcome is all good. 

Ugh...just watching the local weather here....soaking rain on its way...best get out and about very soon.

Have a great day everyone!

Suz

I really don't have much to say!  I pretty much just do boring things. Nothing exciting enough to write about! that's for sure.  Been windy here today so my walk was nice today. Still very humid though. Suppose to get thunderstorms here tonight, so maybe it'll cool it down some. AC has been running pretty steady lately.

No need to bore you more! :)  I'll check in later! Byeeee

Hi Girls! Momo you will never be boring to this group. Just talk or do the "connie ramble" and we will respond with our usual sarcasm! LOL Axe nice picture. I like that one better. Not that the other one wasn't nice also but you can see u better in this one. My scales for whatever reason are back down to 132 this a.m. Isn't that strange that I go up and down 3-4 lbs on any given day? Do you all do this? I'm thinking maybe using that inhaler so much (it being a steroid) is maybe causing some of the fluctuation in maybe water? What do you all think? Anyway I like this end of the spectrum better...till tomorrow probably.   Suz I'm glad you are having fun in NYC (thanks for supporting my dead brain cells and reminding me it was you LOL) How are the NY pina coladas? Ha Ha! You know I think I have burnt myself out on those for now I haven't even wanted one lately! I need to just stick with the rum and diet coke version if I MUST have a stress reducer beverage! Anyway I am happy to hear your niece is doing better and will keep her in my prayers for a full recovery soon. Have a good day everyone!   Connie******   Have you guys tried the special k meal bars or protein bars? They are very good especially the chocolate peanutbutter. The new special K cereal cinnamon pecan is also good. Just thought I would share.

Hey Momo...like Connie said...rambling on day to day stuff is exciting enough to report on this group!  I love to read all about everyone's days, activities, weather, family, etc.  Speaking of weather, did you have those crazy storms last night around 10-11pm (you are in PA right?)  Man it was crazy here in New York, watching all that lightning - beautiful but scary, lol.  Thankfully I was home and not out walking around   Haven't had any Pina C's Connie - I must admit to being a wine drinker, in general.  Although if I am at a nice bar or restaurant here in NY, I have been known to order a Cosmopolitan - I know, I know...you will all groan and think aghhh very Sex and the City, lol.  But honestly I just like the drink and consider it my "holiday" treat.... (or should I say "vacation!!)

Well I am off to Macy's for some shopping...we dont have any large stores like that in Bermuda, so I enjoy going there.  I am not normally a big shopper, but I'm a little weird and will end up spending most of my time in the sheets and towels section, ha ha!  Clothes shopping kind of depresses me (I guess it's the challenge of finding nice things to suit a size 16 body).  Did anyone here find they gained a new love of clothes shopping after dropping a few sizes?  I hope I get to experience that some of these days!!!

Anyways...have a great day everyone!  Suz 

Hi Suz! Yes earlier in the summer when I had the "big night out" I REALLY, for the first time in many years, enjoyed shopping! I tried on everything from jeans to shorts to dresses and all were like 10's and they were too big depending on the brand name! I just couldn't believe my eyes so thats when I came home and went through my back closets (things that i had wished one day to get back into but had planned to give to good will) but I could wear them all OR they were too BIG!!!!!!!  So anyway I had a blast but I like you am still not a big shopper but it is alot more fun when I do go!!!!! If I could afford it I would definitely take advantage of being in NYC!!!  Connie

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone is having a good day.  Suzenf your post made me sooo hungry. lol  When my weight is up I have always avoided shopping for clothes until I just got sick of always wearing the same things to work.  I love to shop though so I shop for things for the house also.  When I've been at goal though I was always buying clothes.  Reading about everyone traveling creates a longing in me other than food.  I've always had the traveling bug but because of raising a family, working way too much, not enough money, etc.  I just never have been able to do much of it.  In fact I've never been out of the Southeastern States except for a short cruise to Mexico. 

I would love to know what everyone's favorite vacation spots are so I can start my wish list.  On it now is Hawaii, Alaska, The Grand Canyon, Vegas (love, love, love poker).  I know there are great places all over but I'm having trouble thinking outside the box. 

Ok, here is my ramble!  I went for another 4.4 miles today. Really motivated to do it now since I lost 1.2 pounds after walking that far yesterday. Don't get me started on the fluctuations! I'm the fluctuation queen of CC!! lol  I love pina coladas, but have to admit I haven't had one in a long time. I haven't drank much since starting to lose weight. Just a lite beer every now and then. I love Special K cereal. I buy the kind with the yogurt in it. I forget what it's called. I try not to eat it often with all the sugar in it.

The bad weather skipped us. It stayed to the north of us. I guess it got pretty nasty up there.What's in a cosmo? I'd like to try one. We have Macy's here and buy alot of the kid's clothes there. Oh, and shopping! You find it a challenge buying a size 16? Try a size 20! THATS depressing! When I got to be a size 16, I was soooo happy! Now I'm almost a 12 and really liking the shopping experience now. :)  Just trying to hold off on buying too much bc I'm still losing.

Ever traveled out of the country? I was stationed in Berlin,Germany and would LOVE to go back since they took the wall down. That's where my daughter was born and have always wanted to take her there. I always say if I hit the lottery, we're going! hahahaha

That is my ramble.....talk to you all later! Have a nice night! :)