Sebastian's STRONG and SVELTE Under the Sea September W.I.S.H. Weight Loss Challenge - All Welcome!

[DisPup75]

not like it is a bus stop through the food court of that country! The only shops that have really unique stuff are SUPER PRICEY..... I want a souvenir from your country..... I don't want to buy the country! And I don't want something that looks like I bought it as an afterthought at the airport as I was departing your country!

LOL at all of this, particularly "I don't want to buy the country."

Sometimes you need to start kind of small..... I started by making meatloaves..... 10 at a time. I would buy a bunch of ground beef/hamburg on sale.... and onions, peppers, carrots, broccoli slaw, beans, etc. (depending on what you like in your meatloaf). I used my BIGGEST plastic salad bowl as a mixing bowl and just started tossing it all in. Once I had the mixture all done, I started the oven. I used my loaf pan as a mold and lined it with plastic wrap and packed the meat into it and then turned it out onto a lined jelly roll pan (the plastic wrap helped it come out of the mold). I would do this until I had used all of the meat. I would make as many as 10 meatloaves at once! I baked them all at once ( on two racks in the oven, rotating the pans halfway through), cooled them, wrapped them in foil and labeled them and VOILA.... 10 main dishes DONE!....... add 15 minute couscous and some steamed broccoli and I have dinner in NO TIME FLAT! I would try to remember to grab one from the freezer the day before, but often I ended up just defrosting in the microwave at the last minute....... nbd!

Anyhow, that was how I started to learn about batch cooking, etc. Now I can do anywhere from 3-6 different dishes in one day. Some get fully cooked before freezing and some don't.

My biggest tips.... start small.... try to make a triple batch of just one or two things in one day.... and if helps if they are things that use similar ingredients (like meatloaf and meatballs). Make sure you start with an empty sink, empty dishwasher, and reasonably picked up kitchen. And be prepared to wash down all of your counters and floors when you are done if you are like me! I end up with a HUGE mess! Put on an apron and comfy sneakers (or go barefoot like me!), put on some fun music and go for it!

Be sure to read your ingredients list carefully because it is super frustrating to get into the middle of this project and realize you don't have cumin... or coriander..... or garlic.... you get the idea.

Check Pinterest for inspiration and lots of ideas for freezer meals..... crockpot freezer meals are the BEST!!

That has to be one huge bowl! My number one goal for the weekend it to put at least several quarts of soup in the freezer. It is finally cooling down enough to pull out the soup pot and I'd like to have a few things ready to go for when the hanger strikes!

Just 20 days until I am Bermuda bound..... but I'm starting to think that DD is more excited than we are! She needs to get away from this small group of people she has been living with, eating with, learning with, diving with, socializing with for the past month. She is a little like her mom and likes her own company the best! And apparently it is really hard to have any "alone time" of any sort where she is.

It sounds like an amazing program! But yes, to much togetherness is just exhausting.

You guys should see my Pinterest... I think I have over 5,000 pins. I'm horrible about pinning things and never, ever looking at them again. Is anyone else like that? Or I pin something thinking it will be wonderful, like a recipe, and I go back and start looking at it and it's too complicated and takes too long and I don't like half the ingredients....

I've stayed far far away from Pinterest. But I like to read magazines on my iPad and take screen shots of things that interest of me. Thousands and thousands and thousands of screen shot photos later I still have no idea what to make for dinner until I pull out a cookbook!

@DisPup75 no, no majorette theme coming up! Though, I DID march color guard in high school... We marched before the 3pm parade at Magic Kingdom in 2003! .....12 years ago.....

That sounds incredibly fun!

 

[SarahDisney]

First, every shower needs gifts!!! So please share a piece of advice or two with the happy couples to help launch them on this new phase of their lives! I want this to be inclusive so a marriage of your own is in no way required to give advice. Nor does said advice have to be about marriage.

Here's my advice (and its more life advice than anything else): Don't follow everyone else's advice. You as a person, and you and your spouse-to-be as a couple, are unique. What works for someone else may not work for you. It's important to listen to the experiences of others and see what you can learn from it, but at the end of the day, only you can discover what works best for you - and it may be something that's totally contrary to the advice you've received. Be willing to experiment and not just blindly follow all the advice you've been given.

I'll skip the Mad Libs because I already saw the answers.

 

[courtneybeth]

Two hours ago, I met the love of my life. I knew we were meant to be from the first moment I laid eyes on you at EPCOT. I couldn't believe my eyes. You were selfish and enthusiastic and totally exhausted. That's not to say it's always been easy. Like any couple, we've had our ups and downs, and we've both had to learn to paint. But through it all, I never lost faith that we would bathe. I love the way you fight and talk. Today is the most delicious of my life because I am marrying my honeybee . I can't wait to begin the rest of my life with you by my side.

That sounds about right.

 

[Flossbolna]

I am so happy that today is Friday and I can report my progress for the week!!

I am at 105%!!!!

(dancing bananas are my favourite smilies!!)

Now I wish I could get up to 120% until the end of the month as that would mean that all the vacation pounds are gone!

I am so happy! This is the fourth week in a row that I am reporting a loss. Over the last year or so when I was on these threads I was struggling so much and had so much difficulty losing weight. And then in July my doctor found out in a test that my thyroid was not functioning as it should. I started taking pills for it about 2 weeks before vacation and was able to lose some then and thought I could see the difference. But these four weeks now really show me how much of a difference it makes as compared to the times earlier this year when I was trying so hard and did not really manage to lose any weight (it took me three months to lose 4 pounds after Christmas).

 

[pjlla]

No time to chat....Heading out the door in literally 2 minutes. Hoping I will have time to pop on and chat today, but no guarantees! HAPPY FRIDAY everyone! You made it through another week!..........P

 

[bigsis1970]

OMG the madlibs are SOOOO FUNNY!!!
Happy Friday - I hope you all have a great weekend..

 

[ThistleMae]

Check in: I am down 5.6 pounds for the month. My goal was 4 pounds. I'm eating more and feel more satisfied in general. I'm excited because I've gotten to add cranberries, feta cheese and walnuts to my nightly spinach salad and am still loosing weight! I have to set my goal for October now because I will be gone until October 5th. I will set my goal at 4 pounds once again. I know the trip will probably put on a few pounds, so I will loose some of the ground I have made but.....I do have a plan for the trip. My sister just brought up "chocolate night!" The last night of the cruise they have an everything chocolate buffet! I didn't think about that. So, my strategy will be this: Try a few bites of whatever looks irresistible, equaling one dessert (not five)! So there you have it! Thank you so much Dispup75 for all your work on the site! You did a fabulous job. The mad libs were hilarious! Really looking forward to doing an after trip report on my food choices on the cruise for October. Good luck to all with your check-ins. I love this group!

 

[DisPup75]

QOTD - September 25​

Happy Friday!!!! How is everyone feeling? Big plans for the weekend? What are you going to do to bring it all home?

Check ins! For everyone who wants to do check-ins over the weekend, please post. I promise that I will update on our chart on Sunday (not Wednesday night like this week). We will do an end of the month check on Wednesday as well so if you want to wait until the end that is fine too!

 

[DisPup75]

Here's my advice (and its more life advice than anything else): Don't follow everyone else's advice. You as a person, and you and your spouse-to-be as a couple, are unique. What works for someone else may not work for you. It's important to listen to the experiences of others and see what you can learn from it, but at the end of the day, only you can discover what works best for you - and it may be something that's totally contrary to the advice you've received. Be willing to experiment and not just blindly follow all the advice you've been given.

I'll skip the Mad Libs because I already saw the answers.

Great advice!

I am so happy that today is Friday and I can report my progress for the week!!

I am at 105%!!!!

(dancing bananas are my favourite smilies!!)

Now I wish I could get up to 120% until the end of the month as that would mean that all the vacation pounds are gone!

I am so happy! This is the fourth week in a row that I am reporting a loss. Over the last year or so when I was on these threads I was struggling so much and had so much difficulty losing weight. And then in July my doctor found out in a test that my thyroid was not functioning as it should. I started taking pills for it about 2 weeks before vacation and was able to lose some then and thought I could see the difference. But these four weeks now really show me how much of a difference it makes as compared to the times earlier this year when I was trying so hard and did not really manage to lose any weight (it took me three months to lose 4 pounds after Christmas).

Woohoo!!!!! Great job!!

No time to chat....Heading out the door in literally 2 minutes. Hoping I will have time to pop on and chat today, but no guarantees! HAPPY FRIDAY everyone! You made it through another week!..........P

Happy Friday!

OMG the madlibs are SOOOO FUNNY!!!
Happy Friday - I hope you all have a great weekend..

Glad you enjoyed our shower break! Happy weekend!

Check in: I am down 5.6 pounds for the month. My goal was 4 pounds. I'm eating more and feel more satisfied in general. I'm excited because I've gotten to add cranberries, feta cheese and walnuts to my nightly spinach salad and am still loosing weight! I have to set my goal for October now because I will be gone until October 5th. I will set my goal at 4 pounds once again. I know the trip will probably put on a few pounds, so I will loose some of the ground I have made but.....I do have a plan for the trip. My sister just brought up "chocolate night!" The last night of the cruise they have an everything chocolate buffet! I didn't think about that. So, my strategy will be this: Try a few bites of whatever looks irresistible, equaling one dessert (not five)! So there you have it! Thank you so much Dispup75 for all your work on the site! You did a fabulous job. The mad libs were hilarious! Really looking forward to doing an after trip report on my food choices on the cruise for October. Good luck to all with your check-ins. I love this group!

Woohoo!! Great job!!! We look forward to hearing all about the cruise when you get back. Have a great time and ENJOY the chocolate!!!

 

[lisah0711]

QOTD - September 25​

Happy Friday!!!! How is everyone feeling? Big plans for the weekend? What are you going to do to bring it all home?

Check ins! For everyone who wants to do check-ins over the weekend, please post. I promise that I will update on our chart on Sunday (not Wednesday night like this week). We will do an end of the month check on Wednesday as well so if you want to wait until the end that is fine too!

Happy Friday all!

Very happy to report that I was down another pound at WW yesterday bringing my monthly loss to 6/5 or 120% -- yay!

Like my friend, @Flossbolna, I've spent so much time being stuck or gaining and losing the same few pounds over and over -- it was crazy frustrating! I'm happy to report I've had a loss at WW for SEVEN, count 'em SEVEN weeks in a row. It is such a nice feeling!

Nothing exciting this week-end but starting on fall cleanup tasks. This was my last weigh in for the month so it will be time to be thinking about October goals.

Many thanks to @DisPup75 for hostessing this month.

Remember everyone you still have 5 whole days -- almost 17% of the month left to make progress on those September goals -- you can do it!

 

[DisPup75]

QOTD - September 25​

Happy Friday!!!! How is everyone feeling? Big plans for the weekend? What are you going to do to bring it all home?

Check ins! For everyone who wants to do check-ins over the weekend, please post. I promise that I will update on our chart on Sunday (not Wednesday night like this week). We will do an end of the month check on Wednesday as well so if you want to wait until the end that is fine too!

I'm finishing up the week feeling strong!!! On the advice of my WW coach, I am abandoning exercise goals other than walking for the next few weeks. It feels wrong but it was a major source of stress for me and I think I'm happy to make like Elsa for now. I was at 203 even for the week so currently sitting at 4.6 for the month - 59% of my I desperately want to see Onderland goal. If I can't pull it off by Wednesday, that's OK because I know that it is just around the corner!

As far as the weekend, birthday week officially kicks off Saturday! Unfortunately filled with pre-scheduled eating opportunities!!! Brunch on Saturday, lunch on Sunday, lunar eclipse on Sunday night, another brunch on Monday, and official birthday dinner Wednesday night. I've been studying menus and I think I can make this work if I am extremely disciplined about all of the other meals. I'm totally willing to use all of my weekly and activity points so there is room to carefully indulge. I don't normally engage in five birthday celebrations but it has been a weird year.

 

[DisPup75]

Happy Friday all!

Very happy to report that I was down another pound at WW yesterday bringing my monthly loss to 6/5 or 120% -- yay!

Like my friend, @Flossbolna, I've spent so much time being stuck or gaining and losing the same few pounds over and over -- it was crazy frustrating! I'm happy to report I've had a loss at WW for SEVEN, count 'em SEVEN weeks in a row. It is such a nice feeling!

Nothing exciting this week-end but starting on fall cleanup tasks. This was my last weigh in for the month so it will be time to be thinking about October goals.

Many thanks to @DisPup75 for hostessing this month.

Remember everyone you still have 5 whole days -- almost 17% of the month left to make progress on those September goals -- you can do it!

Woohoo!!!

 

[PTownGirls]

QOTD - September 24​

In lieu of today's question of the day, I want to do something a little different. As we all know, our @JacknSally is getting married to her DH2B in just a few short weeks. That happy event will quickly be followed by the wedding of our @ANforever1030 to his lovely DW2B. So let's throw them a little online wedding shower!

I've got a buffet table loaded up with magic zero calorie treats (Crabcakes Benedict and a Bellini for me) so pull up a comfy chair and join in!

First, every shower needs gifts!!! So please share a piece of advice or two with the happy couples to help launch them on this new phase of their lives! I want this to be inclusive so a marriage of your own is in no way required to give advice. Nor does said advice have to be about marriage.

Second, games! Just in case they need some help with finishing up their vows, I've found a wedding related mad lib to help them out. Fill in the following word types and I'll be back to post completed vows this evening!

• Length of time
• Place
• Personal characteristic
• Personal characteristic
• Personal characteristic
• Verb/action
• Verb/action
• Verb/action
• Verb/action
• Description
• Term of endearment

Always remember the things about your husband /wife that made you fall in love with them.the spacial traits that make them unique, Its those things that often times can infuse a bit of magic into challenging times.

 

[JacknSally]

Good morning, my little rays of sunshine! Can I just say how happy I am that I can come here and get a giant dose of positivity (spell check on this computer/the boards is telling me that "positivity" is wrong?? It's got the red squiggle under it... Am I losing my mind?? Google says it's a word and it's spelled right! Whaaaattttt?? I will stress about this all day long, you don't even know...) and pixie dust whenever I need it, and for that I am eternally grateful! My office is a giant incubator for negativity, and it's so, so hard to not let it affect you when you have to listen to it for 8 hours a day, especially when a large portion of those hours of negativity involve others complaining ABOUT YOU, literally just a few feet behind your back, like you don't exist. Every day it gets harder and harder and harder to hold my tongue... but everyone in the office has seniority on me, so if it came down to me vs. them, most likely it would be them, and I am just not in any position to lose this job right now... We desperately need what little income it generates. Just gotta get past the wedding and Disneymoon, and then I can start looking for something soul-satisfying. Gotta keep telling myself that. ...Has anyone seen Office Space? LOL.

QOTD - September 25​

Happy Friday!!!! How is everyone feeling? Big plans for the weekend? What are you going to do to bring it all home?

Check ins! For everyone who wants to do check-ins over the weekend, please post. I promise that I will update on our chart on Sunday (not Wednesday night like this week). We will do an end of the month check on Wednesday as well so if you want to wait until the end that is fine too!

Happy happy next to last check-in of the month! I'm going to refrain from checking in until Sunday... My numbers are up at the moment from last week's weigh in, thanks to TTotM, so I want to see if I can get them back down to at least where I was a week ago. I really need to get more water in every day. Does anyone here use a Hydroflask? I'm having a ton of trouble with mine having a weird taste. I've had the bottle for months, but the odd flavor is happening more and more often. It'll be ok for a while, but then it gets so bad I can't drink it... At first it would be ok for a few days... Now we're down to it'll be ok for 20 minutes. We wash it using the "approved methods", but that doesn't help. I need to email them since there's a lifetime warranty on it, I just haven't had the opportunity yet. A quick google search brought up lots of the same complaints on their Facebook site, though those specify a metallic taste, and I wouldn't say this flavor is necessarily metallic... It's just BAD. Haha.

Anyway, my scale might be reading higher than I'd like today, but I am pleased to say that I am comfortably wearing a size LARGE t-shirt to work today! Considering I usually hide under 2x t-shirts, and only recently got brave enough to wear an XL t-shirt in public, this is huge. In a desperate I-can't-find-anything-to-wear panic, I grabbed this shirt out of the drawer and threw it on, and in my opinion it fit! Who knows, it probably doesn't look as decent to everyone else as it does to me, LOL, but oh well. So, yay for small victories!

Weekend plans...

Tonight we have a meeting with our caterer to nail down wedding food! YAY! I'm so looking forward to this. Our caterer is actually DH2B's aunt, who owns an amazing restaurant here in town. She is the coolest, nicest, most wonderful person. She can see what's in my head and totally understands our vision and is an amazing voice of reason without being condescending or patronizing... She keeps me sane, so I'm definitely looking forward to being able to talk with her tonight.

Tomorrow I'm getting my hair colored! SO SO excited. Ready for a fall look! It's also the first time I've ever had my hair colored professionally... It's been a billion different colors over the last 13 years, but I always do it myself at home. So this should be fun! My anxiety is kicking up, as I always stress about new situations, but a good friend of mine is a hairstylist and is the one doing it, so it'll be fine, I know. Afterward, I'm running over to my parents' house to try on my dress with all the accessories we have currently to make sure everything works together... Pretty sure I need to hunt for a necklace, but I won't know for certain until I try on the ones I have with the dress.

Other than that, tomorrow night and Sunday are chock full of wedding crafts and plans, plus groceries (I can't tell you the last time we went to the store... We have eaten out SO MUCH this month... But we both agreed tonight's dinner with the caterer is our last "cheat" meal until the wedding... Tomorrow and for the next month, we are going to be crazy sticklers.... Fingers crossed).... Going to put up my Halloween decorations this weekend, as I won't have a chance next weekend, and I like to have them up for the entire month of October.... And yardwork is MANDATORY... We've let that go for WAYYY too long. I think our neighbor has cut his yard 3 times since the last time we cut ours... But he is also weird about his yard and cuts it the same day, every week... One day he edges, the next he mows, the next he weedeats... Every week... No time for that, sir!

So yeah! Busy, busy, busy weekend, but hopefully a good one!

Happy Friday, everyone!

29 days!

 

[PTownGirls]

Good morning, my little rays of sunshine! Can I just say how happy I am that I can come here and get a giant dose of positivity (spell check on this computer/the boards is telling me that "positivity" is wrong?? It's got the red squiggle under it... Am I losing my mind?? Google says it's a word and it's spelled right! Whaaaattttt?? I will stress about this all day long, you don't even know...) and pixie dust whenever I need it, and for that I am eternally grateful! My office is a giant incubator for negativity, and it's so, so hard to not let it affect you when you have to listen to it for 8 hours a day, especially when a large portion of those hours of negativity involve others complaining ABOUT YOU, literally just a few feet behind your back, like you don't exist. Every day it gets harder and harder and harder to hold my tongue... but everyone in the office has seniority on me, so if it came down to me vs. them, most likely it would be them, and I am just not in any position to lose this job right now... We desperately need what little income it generates. Just gotta get past the wedding and Disneymoon, and then I can start looking for something soul-satisfying. Gotta keep telling myself that. ...Has anyone seen Office Space? LOL.




Happy happy next to last check-in of the month! I'm going to refrain from checking in until Sunday... My numbers are up at the moment from last week's weigh in, thanks to TTotM, so I want to see if I can get them back down to at least where I was a week ago. I really need to get more water in every day. Does anyone here use a Hydroflask? I'm having a ton of trouble with mine having a weird taste. I've had the bottle for months, but the odd flavor is happening more and more often. It'll be ok for a while, but then it gets so bad I can't drink it... At first it would be ok for a few days... Now we're down to it'll be ok for 20 minutes. We wash it using the "approved methods", but that doesn't help. I need to email them since there's a lifetime warranty on it, I just haven't had the opportunity yet. A quick google search brought up lots of the same complaints on their Facebook site, though those specify a metallic taste, and I wouldn't say this flavor is necessarily metallic... It's just BAD. Haha.

Anyway, my scale might be reading higher than I'd like today, but I am pleased to say that I am comfortably wearing a size LARGE t-shirt to work today! Considering I usually hide under 2x t-shirts, and only recently got brave enough to wear an XL t-shirt in public, this is huge. In a desperate I-can't-find-anything-to-wear panic, I grabbed this shirt out of the drawer and threw it on, and in my opinion it fit! Who knows, it probably doesn't look as decent to everyone else as it does to me, LOL, but oh well. So, yay for small victories!

Weekend plans...

Tonight we have a meeting with our caterer to nail down wedding food! YAY! I'm so looking forward to this. Our caterer is actually DH2B's aunt, who owns an amazing restaurant here in town. She is the coolest, nicest, most wonderful person. She can see what's in my head and totally understands our vision and is an amazing voice of reason without being condescending or patronizing... She keeps me sane, so I'm definitely looking forward to being able to talk with her tonight.

Tomorrow I'm getting my hair colored! SO SO excited. Ready for a fall look! It's also the first time I've ever had my hair colored professionally... It's been a billion different colors over the last 13 years, but I always do it myself at home. So this should be fun! My anxiety is kicking up, as I always stress about new situations, but a good friend of mine is a hairstylist and is the one doing it, so it'll be fine, I know. Afterward, I'm running over to my parents' house to try on my dress with all the accessories we have currently to make sure everything works together... Pretty sure I need to hunt for a necklace, but I won't know for certain until I try on the ones I have with the dress.

Other than that, tomorrow night and Sunday are chock full of wedding crafts and plans, plus groceries (I can't tell you the last time we went to the store... We have eaten out SO MUCH this month... But we both agreed tonight's dinner with the caterer is our last "cheat" meal until the wedding... Tomorrow and for the next month, we are going to be crazy sticklers.... Fingers crossed).... Going to put up my Halloween decorations this weekend, as I won't have a chance next weekend, and I like to have them up for the entire month of October.... And yardwork is MANDATORY... We've let that go for WAYYY too long. I think our neighbor has cut his yard 3 times since the last time we cut ours... But he is also weird about his yard and cuts it the same day, every week... One day he edges, the next he mows, the next he weedeats... Every week... No time for that, sir!

So yeah! Busy, busy, busy weekend, but hopefully a good one!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Wow , lots of activity for you !!! Enjoy your weekend and all the preparation for this upcoming wedding !

 

[JacknSally]

Wow , lots of activity for you !!! Enjoy your weekend and all the preparation for this upcoming wedding !

Thank you, thank you!!

Forgot to mention earlier! We have a lead on an officiant!! It's one of the 2 judges in the county that are currently officiating. It's more money than we were hoping to have to spend, BUT he doesn't keep any of it... 100% of his cost goes to the animal shelter where, incidentally, we got our dog 3 years ago! So we are both ok with that. We've got a couple of other feelers out that we're going to see if we hear anything from, just to make sure we have all the options, but if we don't hear anything from them today then we'll go with this guy. AND he can be at the actual ceremony, so no shady early wedding/fake wedding! YAYYY!

 

[lisah0711]

I'm finishing up the week feeling strong!!! On the advice of my WW coach, I am abandoning exercise goals other than walking for the next few weeks. It feels wrong but it was a major source of stress for me and I think I'm happy to make like Elsa for now. I was at 203 even for the week so currently sitting at 4.6 for the month - 59% of my I desperately want to see Onderland goal. If I can't pull it off by Wednesday, that's OK because I know that it is just around the corner!

As far as the weekend, birthday week officially kicks off Saturday! Unfortunately filled with pre-scheduled eating opportunities!!! Brunch on Saturday, lunch on Sunday, lunar eclipse on Sunday night, another brunch on Monday, and official birthday dinner Wednesday night. I've been studying menus and I think I can make this work if I am extremely disciplined about all of the other meals. I'm totally willing to use all of my weekly and activity points so there is room to carefully indulge. I don't normally engage in five birthday celebrations but it has been a weird year.

Wowza! A lot of birthday celebrations for you coming up. I'm so glad that you are enjoying coaching. One of the best things I learned this year from one of my coaches is that WW is a pass/fail course -- you don't have to get an A. That has gone a long way to helping me appreciate all the things that I do right instead of dwelling on not reaching my unrealistic expectations. Keep up the good work!

Good morning, my little rays of sunshine! Can I just say how happy I am that I can come here and get a giant dose of positivity (spell check on this computer/the boards is telling me that "positivity" is wrong?? It's got the red squiggle under it... Am I losing my mind?? Google says it's a word and it's spelled right! Whaaaattttt?? I will stress about this all day long, you don't even know...) and pixie dust whenever I need it, and for that I am eternally grateful! My office is a giant incubator for negativity, and it's so, so hard to not let it affect you when you have to listen to it for 8 hours a day, especially when a large portion of those hours of negativity involve others complaining ABOUT YOU, literally just a few feet behind your back, like you don't exist. Every day it gets harder and harder and harder to hold my tongue... but everyone in the office has seniority on me, so if it came down to me vs. them, most likely it would be them, and I am just not in any position to lose this job right now... We desperately need what little income it generates. Just gotta get past the wedding and Disneymoon, and then I can start looking for something soul-satisfying. Gotta keep telling myself that. ...Has anyone seen Office Space? LOL.

So much stuff going on with the approaching wedding! Hang in there! And positivity is a word according to Google. Hope the work thing gets better or at least more tolerable.

 

[SarahDisney]

Hey guys ...

Another quick hit-and-run for me, as I have to leave for my first physical therapy session in a few minutes.

Got some good news on the scale this morning - I'm down 2 lb for the month! That's 67% of my goal, and puts me in a good place to make it to goal this month!

 

[ThistleMae]

I'm finishing up the week feeling strong!!! On the advice of my WW coach, I am abandoning exercise goals other than walking for the next few weeks. It feels wrong but it was a major source of stress for me and I think I'm happy to make like Elsa for now. I was at 203 even for the week so currently sitting at 4.6 for the month - 59% of my I desperately want to see Onderland goal. If I can't pull it off by Wednesday, that's OK because I know that it is just around the corner!

As far as the weekend, birthday week officially kicks off Saturday! Unfortunately filled with pre-scheduled eating opportunities!!! Brunch on Saturday, lunch on Sunday, lunar eclipse on Sunday night, another brunch on Monday, and official birthday dinner Wednesday night. I've been studying menus and I think I can make this work if I am extremely disciplined about all of the other meals. I'm totally willing to use all of my weekly and activity points so there is room to carefully indulge. I don't normally engage in five birthday celebrations but it has been a weird year.

Wow! Yeah...that is a lot of celebrating! It sounds like you have a good plan though, that is the key...isn't it? Always have a plan. When you enter those "danger zones" with no plan...it's over! I like the term you use..."carefully indulge"....that is a good way to think of having a treat. I will be carefully indulging on my cruise. Good luck...you can do it...stick with your plan and enjoy!

 

[pjlla]

I am so happy that today is Friday and I can report my progress for the week!!

I am at 105%!!!!

(dancing bananas are my favourite smilies!!)

Now I wish I could get up to 120% until the end of the month as that would mean that all the vacation pounds are gone!

I am so happy! This is the fourth week in a row that I am reporting a loss. Over the last year or so when I was on these threads I was struggling so much and had so much difficulty losing weight. And then in July my doctor found out in a test that my thyroid was not functioning as it should. I started taking pills for it about 2 weeks before vacation and was able to lose some then and thought I could see the difference. But these four weeks now really show me how much of a difference it makes as compared to the times earlier this year when I was trying so hard and did not really manage to lose any weight (it took me three months to lose 4 pounds after Christmas).

Congrats on the loss!!! Glad you were able to get your HEALTH checked and it is helping with the weight loss..... so double woohoo!

Check in: I am down 5.6 pounds for the month. My goal was 4 pounds. I'm eating more and feel more satisfied in general. I'm excited because I've gotten to add cranberries, feta cheese and walnuts to my nightly spinach salad and am still loosing weight! I have to set my goal for October now because I will be gone until October 5th. I will set my goal at 4 pounds once again. I know the trip will probably put on a few pounds, so I will loose some of the ground I have made but.....I do have a plan for the trip. My sister just brought up "chocolate night!" The last night of the cruise they have an everything chocolate buffet! I didn't think about that. So, my strategy will be this: Try a few bites of whatever looks irresistible, equaling one dessert (not five)! So there you have it! Thank you so much Dispup75 for all your work on the site! You did a fabulous job. The mad libs were hilarious! Really looking forward to doing an after trip report on my food choices on the cruise for October. Good luck to all with your check-ins. I love this group!

WOOHOO on the weight loss for September!! Congrats on exceeding your goal!! And the salad sounds so good!! Isn't is GREAT to find something you LOVE to eat and you can still lose weight!!??

The chocolate buffet sounds.... DANGEROUS! SO PROUD of you for going into it with a PLAN!! Yup.... cruise the buffet a few times, figure out what looks AMAZING and take a TINY portion of that stuff.... and if it is NOT amazing don't feel bad about leaving it on your plate!!! I am such a stresser about WASTING food..... but honestly..... why WAIST it rather than WASTE it..... make the smarter choice!! The hardest thing I ever left behind on a plate was a chocolate "Mickey ears" dessert I took from the buffet at Chef Mickey's...... it looked amazing and adorable and delicious and was the perfect center for the picture I took of my dessert selection.... but tasted icky!... So I decided to leave it behind.... and I still remember it now because it was hard. But glad I didn't consume calories that I didn't enjoy!

QOTD - September 25​

Happy Friday!!!! How is everyone feeling? Big plans for the weekend? What are you going to do to bring it all home?

Check ins! For everyone who wants to do check-ins over the weekend, please post. I promise that I will update on our chart on Sunday (not Wednesday night like this week). We will do an end of the month check on Wednesday as well so if you want to wait until the end that is fine too!

I'm holding out hope for a better number on the scale tomorrow. I admit to a RARE sneak peek earlier this week and I was delighted with the direction things were going in.... but today's number was ....... I am just hoping it was a fluke and that tomorrow will show a continuation of my downward trend (even a LITTLE would be nice!). So today is all about the basics! Water, water, water, healthy fats, green tea, healthy fats, more green tea... and MOVING!! Sneaking out for a walk before they can grab me and toss me as a filler somewhere here! If tomorrow's number is satisfactory, then I will call myself DONE for the month..... but if I am not pleased, I may give myself until Wednesday for a "do over"! I know it is a silly game, but this month I am playing it!

No big weekend plans..... but since I spent a lot of time in the kitchen last weekend, I'll probably end up outside helping DH with some yard work. The weather looks terrific.

Happy Friday all!

Very happy to report that I was down another pound at WW yesterday bringing my monthly loss to 6/5 or 120% -- yay!

Like my friend, @Flossbolna, I've spent so much time being stuck or gaining and losing the same few pounds over and over -- it was crazy frustrating! I'm happy to report I've had a loss at WW for SEVEN, count 'em SEVEN weeks in a row. It is such a nice feeling!

Nothing exciting this week-end but starting on fall cleanup tasks. This was my last weigh in for the month so it will be time to be thinking about October goals.

Many thanks to @DisPup75 for hostessing this month.

Remember everyone you still have 5 whole days -- almost 17% of the month left to make progress on those September goals -- you can do it!

WONDERFUL job on exceeding your goal..... and on being a SEVEN TIME LOSER!! So happy to hear that!!

I'm finishing up the week feeling strong!!! On the advice of my WW coach, I am abandoning exercise goals other than walking for the next few weeks. It feels wrong but it was a major source of stress for me and I think I'm happy to make like Elsa for now. I was at 203 even for the week so currently sitting at 4.6 for the month - 59% of my I desperately want to see Onderland goal. If I can't pull it off by Wednesday, that's OK because I know that it is just around the corner!

As far as the weekend, birthday week officially kicks off Saturday! Unfortunately filled with pre-scheduled eating opportunities!!! Brunch on Saturday, lunch on Sunday, lunar eclipse on Sunday night, another brunch on Monday, and official birthday dinner Wednesday night. I've been studying menus and I think I can make this work if I am extremely disciplined about all of the other meals. I'm totally willing to use all of my weekly and activity points so there is room to carefully indulge. I don't normally engage in five birthday celebrations but it has been a weird year.

Woo hoo on being "JUST AROUND THE RIVERBEND" from your Onederland goal!!

Good morning, my little rays of sunshine! Can I just say how happy I am that I can come here and get a giant dose of positivity (spell check on this computer/the boards is telling me that "positivity" is wrong?? It's got the red squiggle under it... Am I losing my mind?? Google says it's a word and it's spelled right! Whaaaattttt?? I will stress about this all day long, you don't even know...) and pixie dust whenever I need it, and for that I am eternally grateful! My office is a giant incubator for negativity, and it's so, so hard to not let it affect you when you have to listen to it for 8 hours a day, especially when a large portion of those hours of negativity involve others complaining ABOUT YOU, literally just a few feet behind your back, like you don't exist. Every day it gets harder and harder and harder to hold my tongue... but everyone in the office has seniority on me, so if it came down to me vs. them, most likely it would be them, and I am just not in any position to lose this job right now... We desperately need what little income it generates. Just gotta get past the wedding and Disneymoon, and then I can start looking for something soul-satisfying. Gotta keep telling myself that. ...Has anyone seen Office Space? LOL.

NO need to put up with an office full of "Betty *****y" or "Gus Grouchy" folks! Find a new job in a more positive environment asap!! And YES, the Dis spellchecker doesn't like the word POSITIVITY or a bunch of other words..... I get weirded out by it as well!


Happy happy next to last check-in of the month! I'm going to refrain from checking in until Sunday... My numbers are up at the moment from last week's weigh in, thanks to TTotM, so I want to see if I can get them back down to at least where I was a week ago. I really need to get more water in every day. Does anyone here use a Hydroflask? I'm having a ton of trouble with mine having a weird taste. I've had the bottle for months, but the odd flavor is happening more and more often. It'll be ok for a while, but then it gets so bad I can't drink it... At first it would be ok for a few days... Now we're down to it'll be ok for 20 minutes. We wash it using the "approved methods", but that doesn't help. I need to email them since there's a lifetime warranty on it, I just haven't had the opportunity yet. A quick google search brought up lots of the same complaints on their Facebook site, though those specify a metallic taste, and I wouldn't say this flavor is necessarily metallic... It's just BAD. Haha.

Anyway, my scale might be reading higher than I'd like today, but I am pleased to say that I am comfortably wearing a size LARGE t-shirt to work today! Considering I usually hide under 2x t-shirts, and only recently got brave enough to wear an XL t-shirt in public, this is huge. In a desperate I-can't-find-anything-to-wear panic, I grabbed this shirt out of the drawer and threw it on, and in my opinion it fit! Who knows, it probably doesn't look as decent to everyone else as it does to me, LOL, but oh well. So, yay for small victories!

WOOHOO!!

Weekend plans...

Tonight we have a meeting with our caterer to nail down wedding food! YAY! I'm so looking forward to this. Our caterer is actually DH2B's aunt, who owns an amazing restaurant here in town. She is the coolest, nicest, most wonderful person. She can see what's in my head and totally understands our vision and is an amazing voice of reason without being condescending or patronizing... She keeps me sane, so I'm definitely looking forward to being able to talk with her tonight.

Tomorrow I'm getting my hair colored! SO SO excited. Ready for a fall look! It's also the first time I've ever had my hair colored professionally... It's been a billion different colors over the last 13 years, but I always do it myself at home. So this should be fun! My anxiety is kicking up, as I always stress about new situations, but a good friend of mine is a hairstylist and is the one doing it, so it'll be fine, I know. Afterward, I'm running over to my parents' house to try on my dress with all the accessories we have currently to make sure everything works together... Pretty sure I need to hunt for a necklace, but I won't know for certain until I try on the ones I have with the dress.

Other than that, tomorrow night and Sunday are chock full of wedding crafts and plans, plus groceries (I can't tell you the last time we went to the store... We have eaten out SO MUCH this month... But we both agreed tonight's dinner with the caterer is our last "cheat" meal until the wedding... Tomorrow and for the next month, we are going to be crazy sticklers.... Fingers crossed).... Going to put up my Halloween decorations this weekend, as I won't have a chance next weekend, and I like to have them up for the entire month of October.... And yardwork is MANDATORY... We've let that go for WAYYY too long. I think our neighbor has cut his yard 3 times since the last time we cut ours... But he is also weird about his yard and cuts it the same day, every week... One day he edges, the next he mows, the next he weedeats... Every week... No time for that, sir!

Sounds like a retireee with too much time on his hands!!

So yeah! Busy, busy, busy weekend, but hopefully a good one!

Happy Friday, everyone!

29 days!

View attachment 125704

Counting down with you!!

Thank you, thank you!!

Forgot to mention earlier! We have a lead on an officiant!! It's one of the 2 judges in the county that are currently officiating. It's more money than we were hoping to have to spend, BUT he doesn't keep any of it... 100% of his cost goes to the animal shelter where, incidentally, we got our dog 3 years ago! So we are both ok with that. We've got a couple of other feelers out that we're going to see if we hear anything from, just to make sure we have all the options, but if we don't hear anything from them today then we'll go with this guy. AND he can be at the actual ceremony, so no shady early wedding/fake wedding! YAYYY!

PHEW!! You must feel so relieved!!!

Hey guys ...

Another quick hit-and-run for me, as I have to leave for my first physical therapy session in a few minutes.

Got some good news on the scale this morning - I'm down 2 lb for the month! That's 67% of my goal, and puts me in a good place to make it to goal this month!

WONDERFUL! Hope the PT helps a lot!

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Okay friends! Done with my morning test proctoring, ready to go do a lunch duty and then HOPEFULLY sneak off for a walk before I help cover the office in the afternoon. Then on to tonight's maintenance job (was going to work 3-8 but talked myself out of it and will probably only work 3-6) and then head home for the season premiere of The Amazing Race.... not as exciting as the premiere of Survivor, but still a fun Friday night!

TTYL..................P