Frustrated

WOW Candice! Yanno, if those were the first pics I'd seen of you I would never know you'd ever had a weight problem. You look like a thin chick! Even wrapped up in layers like you are in those pics. :Dancing_biggrin:We must dance too! :biggrin:

You're looking great Donna. There's a big difference there in the arms and around the tummy area. Your clothes are looking baggy in the second pics. Good for you! :Dancing_biggrin:Time to Dance!:biggrin:

It's been an up and down day for me so far today. I woke up at 5am this morning with a sore throat. :cool2: It felt like I was swallowing hedgehogs. :tt1: We had planned on getting up at 6:30 this morning, so I just stayed up until the alarm went off and woke DH. I tried to have some breakfast because we had planned on a long day today. I got one piece of toast in before my band said "Enough." Our Aikido school has adopted 2 miles worth of highway and today was a scheduled trash pick-up day. We had 1 hour of class at 8am and then picking up trash that took us from 9am-11am. I had a couple of slices of cheese, about 6 Ritz's crackers and a handful of wasabi peanuts. Then we stopped at Starbucks on the way home and I had one of their new Signature Hazelnut Hot Chocolates. It was soooooo good. So 3 hours worth of exercise (but I'll only log 2 because the walk was kind of casual) and some choices in food/drink that could have been a little better. But I'm worn out now and I think I'll join Candace and have a nap. :tongue_smilie:

I haven't heard from Janet and don't really expect to, but she's never far from my thoughts. I too have slipped off the wagon. I don't think I've been too, too bad, but I haven't always made the right choices. We'll get back on track together. :smile2:

Congrats Phyl!!!! You're melting away. :thumbdown::laugh: :Dancing_biggrin:Let's Dance!:rolleyes2::Dancing_biggrin:

Phyl, please send on my heartfelt thoughts to her as well if you should make contact again. :thumbup:

I also forgot to mention that I found something similar to help me out when I have an urge for cookies. I have Fiber One protein bars in my pantry. My favorites are the Oats & Caramel or Oats & Peanut Butter. There are other flavors. They're really nice and would probably be the equivalent of 3 cookies but only have 140 calories. So it might work as an alternative for you as well.

Dr Cribbins is fantastic! And he's cute too. :crying:

My slow cooker is my favourite kitchen appliance. I can't wait to try some of these recipes. I don't have one of my own to share, I just typically throw whatever I have in the pantry and fridge in there with some browned ground meat. I vary the liquids I use. Sometimes it'll be some red or white wine, sometimes chicken or beef stock, sometimes beer and I've even used Guiness. Diet Coke is a new one on me, I have to try it now. :crying: Oh, and if your slow cooker stews manages to make it past a few days and you're thinking of more ways to serve it to your family, I make what my son has come to call "Treasure Pie", which is basically just leftovers baked in a pie crust. I'll bake a ready-made pie crust for about 10 minutes (poking holes in it so it doesn't rise during baking) and then empty the leftovers of my stew in there. Then top it with mashed potato or sweet potato or any mashed vegetable combination of your choice and cook it for about 30 minutes until its heated all the way through. That way you you can stretch it out even further.

Thanks HarleyGirl. I think Fall is one of my favourite seasons simply because of Pumpkin Spice Lattes. It will be good to make them at home and not have Starbucks rob me any longer. :crying:

If you have trouble finding a post, you can click on your user name at it will give you a dropdown menu to choose from. Select "Find more posts by CANDi3CoRn19" and it'll give you a list of posts you've made. You'll find it there.

I agree with glorybee, except I think "several hours" before is a little unrealistic. If you can manage at least an hour it will be good. 2 is even better. Also watch what you drink prior to bed as well. For the moment, keep sleeping as upright as possible. As you become better able to sleep, gradually remove pillows until you're on your back again. A few months ago when I was having problems similar to this, but it felt like food was going through my band well enough, but jumping around in the area past it, making me feel nauseous and wanting to barf. Not because there was something stuck, just because it felt kind of like my stomach was churning. I started taking chewable Papaya Enzymes and that really seemed to help settle. I've not tried them before bed because I haven't had that problem in quite a while and I'm not suggesting it'll work for you, but its worth a shot and they're relatively inexpensive. And tasty. :crying: GNC - Natural Brand™ Papaya Enzyme

Cookies are the work of the devil. :eek: They weren't always at the top of my preferred junk food list, but since being banded they shot up there to be equal with ice cream. They became one of my slider foods. Foods that just slip through your band no problem at all. There are days when my band is tighter than others. Even though I make good food choices, it doesn't mean my band will let them through. It doesn't matter how much I chew, how much I puree the food, if it's not going to go, it's not going to go. But give me a cookie and I could not only eat that, but follow it up with all its friends in the pack! :crying: I'm not going to try to convince myself never to have another cookie. I don't keep them in my house. If I'm that desperate for one I force myself to walk to the nearest Starbucks and buy one of their cookies or some biscotti. The walk helps ease my guilt and the fact that I only buy one helps as well.

I forgot that I came here to thank you ladies for dancing and celebrating with me yesterday. You're all terrific body shakers and nobody stood on my feet! :crying:

Oh Steph that's just awful! :crying::sad: I would probably have done the same thing, but still been mad this morning. Our own pain is hard enough to deal with, but when you see your child's it hurts exponentially. Big hugs to the both of you today.

:Dancing_biggrin:Who wants to dance with me?!?!?! :thumbup: This morning's weigh-in puts me at 168.6!!! Weeeeeeee! I've finally gotten out of the 170s. I am SO pleased with that. I stopped trying to get my calories up to target allowance on the days I was short. It just seemed silly having to eat something bad to give me more cals at the end of the day. Plus it was making me fall back into bad habits, wanting to eat ice cream every night. So I was a good girl this week and just took each day as it came. If I was short on cals, I didn't try to make up for it at the end of the day or the following day. Each day started anew. I know I haven't kept up with the updates here, but I seem to have been busier than usual this week. I haven't had any extra chores to do, I just haven't been able to find the time to come here. Once again I am looking forward to tomorrow's day off. I've really come to love my exercise and when it hasn't been going well for me I've felt like I've wasted a day of no exercise on Sunday. But this week I'm feeling good about it. Last week my body was begging for a break. I was just so happy to not see a 170 score on the scale this morning. I know it's still possible that I'll go back up over it if this last 6 months is any indication, but this is an new low score for me and I'm over the moon about it. :smile2:

Oh no ladies, come on. :smile2: Please don't do this. We've never become heated and angry at one another, so lets not start now. I will not take sides in this argument and I will not take sides on the political discussions. I like you both and would be saddened if either of you stopped coming here. We're all very strong women and I'm not asking for anybody to apologize or feel that their opinion is less worthy than anyone else's. There are no winners in these kinds of disagreements and there are no losers. There are differences and there's nothing wrong with that. What I do ask is that we put this behind us and move forward. Please.

Hi ladies, just popping in once again. Karri - yes I did enjoy my lazy day on Sunday. I probably overdid things at my Aikido class on Saturday afternoon and as a result I had aches in muscles I didn't remember I had. I was hobbling around much of Sunday and spent a lot of the time watching TV and reading. It was good for me and I didn't feel bad about being lazy. Steph- how about Bullet or Turbo for a name for your dog? Greyhounds are meant to be fast, so that's why those two names came to mind for me. I also wanted to say something about your comment regarding my exercise. I would say it's become an obsession. I guess if there's something to be obsessed about, exercise isn't a "bad" thing. I wouldn't call it an addiction because I make myself take a day off once a week and this time around I really enjoyed it. I needed it too. I get such an adrenaline rush from my cardio exercises. My weight sessions are making my arms stronger and no longer flappy. My Aikido classes bring me focus, increase core strength and I get to hang out with some wonderful people at class. Those are all positive things. DH has told me "Stop!" once before when it was getting too much for me and I'm confident he would do the same again. I don't like being told what NOT to do, but I do recognise that I'm not the best judge of things when it comes to self maintenance. :smile: Janet - I do plan my meals for the week. The trouble is my band is inconsistent and doesn't always allow me to eat when I should. For example, I may plan to have a dinner of 300 calories and then only be able to get in a couple of bites. At the other end of that, occasionally I will have planned well, only I'm really hungry in the afternoon or evening and blow my allowance. These food demons are clever. They change their game plan all the time. :sad_smile:

Hello ladies. Just quickly checking in. I seem to be so busy these days. I still haven't caught up on all the posts since the weekend, just quickly browsed over a couple. Jackie, welcome home. I'm glad you're back here amongst us. Phyl, size 18? WOWZERS! You go girl! :wub: I've still been keeping up with food logging on daily plate and need to work harder at keeping my cals in the right zone. I seem to either be way over or way under. :wub: I don't know how to plan properly for the days I'm hungrier than others, or the days where nothing wants to go through my band. :redface: I still haven't been able to figure out how to slow down on my exercise. :w00t: Anyway, gotta dash.....

Hi ladies. I'm just checking in quickly this morning before we head off to Aikido class. Once again my weight is 171 for the second week in a row. It's less frustrating for me this time around. I think that's because it hasn't gone up to 175 like it's typically done in the past - one week 171, the next week 175. So while it's the same, it's different. If that makes any sense to you. :smile: My appetite has increased. That's both good and bad. It means that I'm eating more calories, so I don't feel so guilty about working out as much as I do. But I have to be careful that I don't overdo it. Tomorrow is my lazy day and for the first time in forever I'm looking forward to it. My muscles and joints feel old today. Well that's it for now. Might try and check back later today to read up on missed posts.

You snuck in before me. :cool2: We must be sharing the same brain today. I have some eggs on the stove at the moment, boiling up for egg salad later in the day. I put extra in the pan to keep them in a plastic container in the fridge for when I'm foraging around for a snack in the next few days.

My other post this morning has disappeared somewhere. Sometimes it's like putting socks in the dryer. :laugh: Steph, I feel like you do from time to time as well. I get tired of trying to keep on track, of trying to divide up my calories, of trying to think of alternatives when something doesn't work. It just goes on and on. Living the fat life was easy. But I did discover when I took the time off over the summer, that you CAN relax. I just need to work hard to get to the point where I don't have to continually think about my band. It will always be there and I should always be accountable to it, but I shouldn't have to think about it 24/7. That's what I'm working towards. I think once I get to my goal weight it will be more of a weekly check for me. Have I eaten right this week? Do my clothes still fit the same? Is the scale still in a good place? At the moment E-V-E-R-Y S-I-N-G-L-E T-H-I-N-G I put in my mouth has to be counted. And counted before I even consider it. We'll get there. We get closer and closer every day. Janet - loved your choice for the ad. I hope we all get to see it. It probably won't go to air anywhere else but your local area, but maybe you can find someone to put it up on youtube for us so we can all oooohhh and aaaaahhh over you. :laugh: As for being a personal shopper. No thank you. I don't like shopping. But what I do like to do is be critical. :cool2: But speaking of shopping, I need to do some more soon. I don't like my baggy jeans. I felt confident when they fit me well and thought I looked good. Now that they hang it's not so good. :tt2: So perhaps this weekend I'll pick up a couple of pairs of jeans. Something cheap. Maybe a couple of $10 somethings from Ross or Marshalls. :eek:

Well here I am back again. :smile2: Monday was a bad day. Bad food choices, bad mood, bad everything. I didn't keep track of my food. Tuesday was kinda bad. I wanted to make good choices but my band wouldn't let me get too much down. I only managed a total of 536 cals. Today was a much better day. Total cals = 973 Carbs = 126g Fat = 28g Protein = 56g Water = 16oz :mad: I'm still struggling to get my totals up in the range I need. It would help if I was able to eat earlier in the day and didn't have to try and cram it all in at night. Sometimes I'm not even able to get any breakfast in until around 11. And then it's typically just a protein shake. I did get oatmeal in one day. I should try that again. Yes Steph, I've tried a lot of different "remedies" for TOM. I actually find when I'm grumpy for a couple of days before he arrives it means I'm going to have a cramp-free period. When I'm not grumpy I suffer more physically. I don't like being in a bad mood, but I prefer it to being in pain. :smile: Right now I'm tired. I went to the gym tonight and tried out a new stepping machine. This one is sort of a cross between a stepper and an elliptical so it's not so hard on my knee. I liked it. A lot. But because I didn't drink enough water today, I have a dehydration headache, so I'm going to try and get a couple more glasses in before heading off to bed. Gonna crash on the couch for a bit. See you all tomorrow. It's good to be back. Even though I didn't go anywhere. :laugh:

Well Howdy neighbor! I'm here but I'm not in the mood to post. I'm waiting for TOM to arrive and it's got me cranky!! :drool: :crying: Doctor visit yesterday: the vampires took blood to test my thyroid. They called back this morning to tell me I was normal. :cursing: They obviously don't know me very well. :frown: I'm trying to figure out my next step, but TOM is messing with my brain. Don't ask me what I ate yesterday, I can't remember everything but I know there was more bad than good. :thumbup: I'll be back when I'm in a better mood. :thumbdown:

Good morning ladies. Steph, glad you managed to get some food in and even happier that you'll be able to get an unfill. Normal?!?! Wow, I can't even begin to imagine what that's like. :tt2: Good for you! :thumbup: I'm fighting a headache this morning. :thumbup: I've taken Tylenol already but it's being stubborn. I'm also fighting against the TOM chocolate monster. :thumbup: When it rains, it pours. :tt2: I managed to get an appointment with my PCP today at 2:45. I went to the gym this morning for my regular weight session and kept getting the chills in between sets. It's a little cool in the gym, and I turned the heat up a bit, but it didn't seem to help much. It probably takes a while for the a/c to recognize a change. I took a few extra minutes out in the sun before coming home to warm up a little but I still had goosebumps when I walked in the door, so it was straight in the shower for me. I was going to get hubby to take some pics before he headed off today, but forgot. I've had coffee this morning and that helped. I need to get something else in. I'm going to try some oatmeal even though I'm not hungry. Will check back in later. Enjoy your day ladies. :cool2: