You're doing great Shanell.  This is probably a struggle for most of us.  I know it is for me.  I go to bed each night and promise myself that I'll do better tomorrow.  Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't.  I am still taking a step backward for each two I take forward.  But the important thing is that I do start moving forward again.  Old habits are hard to break.  I have to fight every day to keep from giving in to unhealthy eating or skipping my exercise.  But....I am fighting!  I don't always win but I refuse to give up.  I know that if I stay focused and believe in myself that one day I will be where I want to be.  This lifestyle change will become a part of me if I want it badly enough to keep up the struggle.  The rewards will be worth the effort and the stronger I become committed to the program the sooner I'll get there.  We can all do this.  We can!  We will!

Liz

I love you guys b/c you understand that "even though I may not be doing well today, I can still get back on the ball tomorrow" and you know what? You are still losing weight, you are still being positive about every obstacle or hurdle you come across and you still make time to motivate and push others. So be extremely proud of yourselves.  Keep up the great work but we still got a little ways to go. Beachruca, lady, I agree with you... my cravings have subsided a great deal since I've been taking Alli so I can definitely testify with you.

I brought my laptop to work today so that I could keep up with everyone's progress.  I know that it becomes a little tough for me to do it at home b/c my children distract me a lot so this works for me.

Well this morning I got up to do my workout and I felt great!  After not working out for a week, once you get back into the swing of things you realize what you've been missing.  I'm working on abs tonight and every other night so this weigh-in should be great.  My goal is to lose atleast 4lbs so it is definitely a possibility.

Well I have to get back to work (you know how that is) but I'll get with you guys later.

Stay focused man,

Sy aka "hypemama"

(((Liz))) Thanks!! Glad to not feel alone.

 

<3 Shanell

Hey Ladies, and thanks for the welcome.  This week I lost 2 pounds, that's a total of 8 pounds for the month of June.  I'm trying to get the stress eating thing under control.  At the end of August I'm moving from Chicago to San Antonio, TX and its a big move for me and my husband.  His job is transfering him and at first I wasn't happy about it but I'm slowly getting into it.  Leaving family and friends to start new, it sad just thinking about it, but I'll be okay. When I'm stress I like to eat anything that has salt, I'm a saltholic.  Last year I had cut down to no salt at all, now its almost out of control, but I will get back in control. 

Sophia - Thank you for telling me about this tread, I love it.  I'm happy to hear that your finals are over I know how that can be.  I know you did well.  Do you have a Ashley Steward where you live?  They have more styles for plus size women, very stylish.

BizzyLizzy - Thanks for the tips about stress eating, I will put them to use.

Beachruca - Sorry to hear about the lost of your job and I hope you find something soon if that is your plan, you are in my prayers.

Sy - I want to say thank you for starting this tread and you and the ladies making me feel so welcome here.  I see that you are a Jill Scott fan, so am I.  Seeing her live is the best way to see her, she does her thang.  I also met her when she was in Chicago in May when she was on tour for her Butterfly bar, sold on line at www.ashleysteward.com  She is the sweetest person you would every want to meet.   

Uhura,

No problem.  I am very excited, just as I was then, that I decided to start this thread.  But the women here is what makes it what it is b/c we all want to be in a better position physically next year this time.

Yes, girl!  I love Jill Scott.  She was here in the Greensboro area about 2 months ago but I missed her.  My husband is still upset about it.  So we watched the concert on TV1 last Sunday evening but it had nothing on what it was like live.  They tried to condense the concert into one hour but it was very choppy and seemed shorter... I guess of course b/c of the commercials.

Anyway, I did visit her website and that is how I found out about the new bra she inspired by Ashley Stewart. You caught her in a good spot... Chicago.  I am going to visit Chicago one day.  I heard good things especially three words... deep-dish pizza.  I'm sorry but that is one of the things I think about when I hear Chicago.

OK... I'm focused again:)  So far so good.  I got my workout in this morning.  I ate pretty well too.  So I think I'll be able to handle this weekend.  Mind over matter, baby!

Well, off to work again.  I'll see you all on the flip side.

Sy aka hypemama

I'm still here ladies! Moving is TOUGH!!!! Almost done!

 

Not doing too good with dinner....

 What's going on ladies?

Alright ladies, I'm back from Chicago!  I didn't do too bad, I ate foods that I would never eat normally, but I mean come on, it WAS the taste of Chicago and it was great fun!!  So back to the grind today and for the rest of the summer.  I didn't gain, well, maybe a pound, I was 204.2 this morning, but that's pretty much what I was last week and my cycle starts this week. 

I am kinda worried though because I talked to one of the nutritionists and because my resting calories are 2065, I would have to cut like 1000 calories a day to lose 2 lbs per week, so that leaves me with about 1000 calories a day.  She said not to go this low, but to do 1200 per day, but I'm like dang, 1200 calories PLUS Alli, what is the point of Alli then?!  I thought that was the point of Alli, to help you lose more, 1200 calories per day would make me lose plenty without it.  Anyway, that's where I'm at for at least the next 2 weeks to see if how my progress goes.  Then I may go to 1400 per day, or maybe I will do vice versa, start with 1400 and then go down from there. 

So how is everyone doing??!?!  How was the 4th for you?  I know that I had a lot of fun in the Chi!  Hope to hear from ya'll soon.  Have a great Monday!

 Hello G/Fs:

This is Monday so y'all should be over the 4th by now and ready to kick some fat cell butt!  I actually did OK over the week end.  The worst day was Sunday at Mama's.  Hey, who can resist mama's cooking?   But I did better than I would have done in pre Alli days.  You know, girls, we have to get serious because before we know it, the holidays will be upon us, and we all want to be slimmer and make some eyes pop when we do the holiday circuit, don't we?  By the end of summer we can make a significant change in our appearance if we really put out the effort.  And then by Christmas for sure we can look awesome.  Did any of you read the post from the guy who has lost over a hundred pounds since January.  Yes, January!  Of this year!  I wrote and asked him if he meant January 07 because I cannot imagine losing that much weight that quickly.  But we all know that men can lose the weight faster than women can because of their muscle mass compared to ours.  He said he looked fit and toned too, so even though it is never recommended that somebody lose weight that fast it must have worked out for him.  He said he just followed the Alli plan and exercised, but he did it without fail which I guess is the key.  We all know what we have to do, we just need to get serious about doing it. 

Sophia, I know your nutritionist is a professional, but girl, 1000 calories a day is almost nothing.  Your body would go into starvation mode and hang onto every ounce you have for dear life.  Your metabolism would slow down to a maddening crawl and no weight would come off.  You would cause the opposite reaction in your body than what you want to see.  You should follow the calorie/fat ratio that Alli designed for you when you signed up.  If you follow the plan specifically and get stuck at a plateau it is OK to reduce your calories by about 200 pounds to jump start your weight loss.  But before you do this you need to examine what you're doing and make sure you're following the Alli plan correctly.  The nutritionist on this site says you should never go below 1200 calories.  I'm not trying to tell you what to do, only give you something to think about. 

Liz

Liz, I completely agree with you, but I don't have a personal nutritionist, it was one on this site that told me that.  I think that is outrageous as well and at 200lbs I don't see how so few calories could sustain me.  If I would translate that into points (I used to do WW) that would be well below what I should be eating.  I think I will go ahead and drop to about 1500-1600 calories per day for the next week or 2, and see where that gets me, then go from there.

Hello to all the wonderful ladies on this thread. I am having a slow day at work(no patients) and I read through the entire post from start to finish. You guys are awesome....I'm going to consider each and every1 of you a close personal friend after reading :) I need to be in on this 4 sure....I have been on Alli since 4/2 and I am down 26lbs...Official check in on wednesday :). Wow everyone here is super inspirational and I couldnt wait to read the last entry in order to type my hellos. I post often on the 100+ website but I will come here daily(I'm on the computer everyday anyway. I'm glad that you accept everyone with open arms. Seems clickish, but open clickish, and I want in!. Well a little about me, I'm 27 years old, no children, live in NYC with my fiance(engaged on this past xmas eve) and his 14 y/o son. I work full-time scheduling surgery. I can't imagine a definitive goal weight in my mind. I put down 180, cuz to me that seems like an ideal weight but who knows really. Im not sure really what happened. I can remember shopping for my 6th grade graduation dress in a plus size area of this store called fashion bug. I tried it on, looked pretty but I remember the sales clerk trying to reassure my mom that I would "outgrow" my baby fat. Mind you, my mom is no small woman herself. Over the years, I grew allright, just didnt outgrow any fat. I'm not sure really what happened, I was always overweight, but didnt weigh myself often, as if that would make problems go away. Last time I can remember weighing myself, the scales always seemed to hover around 230. When I couldnt take it anymore(in April) I got on the scale and it said 274, what the heck, I thought it was a mistake for sure. But nope, I weighed that much and it was time for a change. No one knows my weight, not even my fiance, oh he tries to guess but I never tell. I told him that once I get comfortable with a weight I will tell him how much I started at. I know I carry my weight well, but honestly, how well can I carry 274lbs. I am down to 247.7 as of this morning( I belong to a challenge and they record on mondays), although my official Alli check in is on wednesdays). I don't exercise as much as I should, I'm working on that. You guys are so friendly and so inspirational. I wanted to give you a bit of my background in hopes of joining you guys on this thread. I look forward to chatting daily and recording our progress/setbacks :) WOOOHOOO I'm going home to do laundry, but work out in between washing and drying(good thing the laundrymat is right round the corner).

 There's always room for one more.  We're glad to have you here.  What challenge do you belong to?  I joined the Labor Day challenge.  Hey, don't even try to figure out how you got to the weight you are now.  It doesn't matter.  What matters is that you're ready to do something about it.  I imagine most of us have shied away from scales for a long time. When I decided to get serious about losing weight I weighed myself for the first time in a long time.  I even used to look away when they took my weight at the doctor's office.  Sometimes the nurse would call it out and I would be depressed for the rest of the day.  This is a wonderful thread, and it was started by a great gal, one of the most upbeat, pleasant, inspirational people I've met in a long time.  If you went back and read all of the posts you must realize this too.  All of the girls here are great, though.  This thread has so much humor and is so positive and inspirational that you have to feel good after reading a few of the posts.  We are all down to earth and honest too and share everything like true girl friends do.  So, walk right in anytime you feel like it.  You will find every emotion known to womankind in this thread, from pure joy to incredible despair.  But the despair is very short lived here because the support and encouragement here is so wonderful.  As soon as you stumble somebody is reaching out to catch you.  And if you're celebrating a victory we're clapping, singing and dancing with you too.

LIz

 Ladies... welcome back!

So how did everybody cheat?:)  We all seemed to have fallen victim to the holidays and that is why I am glad that we have a little more time before the next one to prepare.  Well, I did not do as well as I would have liked.  I started off with a seafood salad then I started looking at all of these hungry people in my house and ladies, I tell you, I could not walk away from that good food.  Yes the flesh is weak but especially when we're talkin' about grilled food.  But I did pay for it this morning b/c I had pretty bad stomach aches throughout the morning.  So I just started my entire plan all over again about 5 minutes ago.  I am recomitting to do better b/c I can't do this again.  Here's another thing... I have a few pictures of me, from about 10 years ago, when I looked my best (remind you, I am 27-years-young) on my office bulletin board.  Today, a coworker of mine couldn't believe it was me in the pictures and told me that I looked so different.  I wasn't sure how to take it so I just left it alone b/c I didn't want to play with fire.  So that kind of had me thinking the rest of the day and I thanked God for that coworker saying what he said b/c I needed it.  I needed another reason to ask myself why am I so serious about losing the extra poundage now?  So that was my great moment today after a trainwreck of a weekend as far as my diet went.  Otherwise, I had a great time with family and we hosted, what I believe to be, the best gathering thus far.

Anyway,  JR... welcome, lady.  As LD mentioned, we gladly welcome anyone unto the team.  There are no clicks here... we only ask for people who are serious about acheiving their weightloss goal.  Now if you slip sometimes, we understand that it's ok so long as you learn from it, get back up and try again until the job is done.  We just want everybody to have their fair chance of making it across that finish line with the best support possible. But just a couple of things... we ask that you check in atleast every other day if everyday is not possible for you and last but not least... enter this group at your own risk and bring the baddest pair of pumps with you b/c once we all achieve our goal here, you are going to have the fiercest strut you could ever have.  Trust.

By the way, I'm that crazy lady they call Sy, so any time you need your dose of motivation with a large portion of honesty, trust we will give it to you.  We are all family here b/c we all have so much in common.  We don't do negativity but we do major in positivity b/c you can get that other stuff somewhere else on other forums.  Besides, anything else would be uncivilized like Charles Barkley says. As a fellow 20-something member, let's make our time here in this life count while we still are pretty young by becoming healthier and pushing a little harder than we have been.  Besides, I'd like to see you finally happier with yourself:)  Don't dwell on your past experience with your weight.  Baby fat, huh!  The only thing you should be saying to yourself is bye to the fat, baby!  So let's get it girl. Oh and by the way, don't sweat your fiancee.  If he's with you now, when you have the weight, then you have nothing to worry about. He's not sweating how much you weigh. Marry that man! But I can understand why you wouldn't want to tell him... a lady never tells:) 

Well, ladies... here's to another great start, a new focus, and to all the reasons why we need to assure ourselves that we need to stick around for as long as we can...

See you on the flipside,

Sy aka hypemama

 

hello ladies its been a while!! i hope everyones ready to get back on the ball i know i am. well i decided since my both my brothers, my cousins, and my uncle came to town thursday to make it easier on my mom and cooking and not to request a seperate Sally menu that only has 19grams of fat per meal. So i decided to take a break from everything and kick back and have a margarita or two...it was soo fun. Well i started my pills and diet back up yesterday and i did the 5 mile bike ride. today i stuck to the diet and went to the gym and did an hour on the stair climber. fun stuff. welcome to every new!

Thursday is my last day of work till im laid off...sigh but i have a temp job set to start monday. im supposed to be getting a job with the FAA they just work at two paces for hiring which is slow and stoped. Sounds like you guys enjoyed the weekend!!!! have a great day!