Weight Watchers Chat -- Part III

[keahgirl8]

Wow, just wow! I know I keep saying the same thing, but you really do inspire me!

Thank you so much! That is very humbling.

Well, I don't think I'll ever be a hot tamale.

I wouldn't be so sure!

 

[bumbershoot]

Recently I have been rather frustrated when attending meetings and thought this would be a good place to vent. I'm also curious if anyone else has been experiencing this type if thing as well. It seems like for the last 4-6 weeks, the entire meeting is a 30 minute commercial for the Active Link. Most of the time we are barely touching on the topics of the week. The leader and the receptionist have this mock "challenge" with each other that starts at the beginning of the meeting, where the compare how many activity bars are showing on their Active Link. Then they keep moving to see who can earn the most bars during the meeting. The leader jumps up and down, and then yells at the receptionist who is bouncing around as we'll, stocking shelves and doing jumping jacks behind the partition. The receptionist will dance across the back of the meeting area, and gloat about earning more bars. It was cute the first time, but now it just seems over played, and really annoying. It is so irritating that I am considering going to another meeting, because I no longer feel I am getting out of them what I used to - it is now all their schtick.

I might actually have to kill my leader if she started doing that.

OK I'd just find a new meeting, after seriously complaining about that nonsense.


They brought it up in our meeting for the first time last week, and I hope they don't do it again. She is usually very good at explaining things, but managed to give the impression that she earns 6 APs a day by doing 40 minutes on the elliptical. Uh, no. DH can earn 6 APs by doing that, but he's a heck of a lot bigger than she is! She explained it really very poorly, and I am SO tired of the "pull the AL out of the bra" stuff. Take the stupid thing out BEFORE you go out in public, OK? It's icky, and it doesn't help MEN want to get it, if they think they can only wear it *there*!


I can't believe I've remained on track these last almost 2 months. MIL has bounced in and out of the hospital with continued embolic strokes, and I'm the main person who CAN be there for her, since I'm at home. Poor DS is dragged around with me, since I homeschool, but that has been challenging since so much of our time is spent with her at hospitals and doctor's offices!

My fruit/veggie consumption has plummeted, as has my healthy oils...and I think that at some point here my body will say "no" to more losses until I can eat at home more often. It's just such a challenge to do this!

If any of you out there are caregivers, especially those who do it full time and not just in crisis mode, I'm impressed by you! Because just the level that I"m doing this at is some of the most exhausting work I've ever done. I keep hoping someone will hand me a newborn to care for, instead of my MIL! I think I'd get more sleep.

 

[pwdebbie]

I can't believe I've remained on track these last almost 2 months. MIL has bounced in and out of the hospital with continued embolic strokes, and I'm the main person who CAN be there for her, since I'm at home. Poor DS is dragged around with me, since I homeschool, but that has been challenging since so much of our time is spent with her at hospitals and doctor's offices!

My fruit/veggie consumption has plummeted, as has my healthy oils...and I think that at some point here my body will say "no" to more losses until I can eat at home more often. It's just such a challenge to do this!

If any of you out there are caregivers, especially those who do it full time and not just in crisis mode, I'm impressed by you! Because just the level that I"m doing this at is some of the most exhausting work I've ever done. I keep hoping someone will hand me a newborn to care for, instead of my MIL! I think I'd get more sleep.

I took care of my mil from Jan. 1, 2010 until her death in August. She moved in with us. We thought we would have a lot of family support locally, but that did not happen. I even ended up sick and in bed plus hospital tests at one point for two weeks. But even then I still had to take care of getting her up in the morning, down at night, and all the bathroom stuff. No one else offered help.

The hardest thing during those eight months was not being able to sleep at night. I often thought that a newborn would have been easier because mil called to be taken to the bathroom seven or eight times a night. That was absolutely exhausting.

But on the plus side, I got to know my mil so much better and actually I enjoyed her company here those last months. I became very attached to her even though there were many times I was absolutely frustrated and in tears (never in front of her though). The one thing I said to myself when she came was that I wanted to have no regrets when she left. And I don't, which is a very good feeling.

What did I learn? ASK clearly for help when you need it. Have a family meeting if necessary to get others on board. In retrospect, I should have insisted that one of our daughters come just one night a month to give us the opportunity to have a full night of sleep in a hotel room. Say NO when you need to. Use resources available in the community. We hired Comfort Keepers once a week so that we could get out and do our grocery shopping and have lunch. Medicare might cover something like that. We also used a visiting nurse service and later turned to them for hospice care at the end.

You have to take care of yourself first if you are going to take care of someone else. Maybe that's the most important thing I can say to you.

 

[christinascreative]

Congratulations on all of those accomplishments!

That is great news!!! Congrats! Keep it up!

Thanks

Well, I don't think I'll ever be a hot tamale.

Awesome about the med change. I'm waiting for the day I don't have to use bp meds any more.

You CAN be a hot tamale I mean, why not try for it?
And-- I know that day will come for you and feel amazing. I can't wait til I'm off my meds.

 

[lovethattink]

Thanks for the welcome and the advice!!

Congrats to everyone who posted losses!

I can't believe I've remained on track these last almost 2 months. MIL has bounced in and out of the hospital with continued embolic strokes, and I'm the main person who CAN be there for her, since I'm at home. Poor DS is dragged around with me, since I homeschool, but that has been challenging since so much of our time is spent with her at hospitals and doctor's offices!

My fruit/veggie consumption has plummeted, as has my healthy oils...and I think that at some point here my body will say "no" to more losses until I can eat at home more often. It's just such a challenge to do this!

If any of you out there are caregivers, especially those who do it full time and not just in crisis mode, I'm impressed by you! Because just the level that I"m doing this at is some of the most exhausting work I've ever done. I keep hoping someone will hand me a newborn to care for, instead of my MIL! I think I'd get more sleep.

So sorry to hear about your MIL. I understand how hard it is to be a caregiver. Please be sure to take time for yourself. After 2 years of not getting to sleep through the night, my body had enough. I had to learn the hard way to take care of myself so that I can take care of the others.

We are a homeschooling family too! I'm sorry your son has to tag along to all the appointments, but I'm sure it helps to be able to have that flexibility with his schedule.

 

[Sandi]

I can't believe I've remained on track these last almost 2 months. MIL has bounced in and out of the hospital with continued embolic strokes, and I'm the main person who CAN be there for her, since I'm at home. Poor DS is dragged around with me, since I homeschool, but that has been challenging since so much of our time is spent with her at hospitals and doctor's offices!

My fruit/veggie consumption has plummeted, as has my healthy oils...and I think that at some point here my body will say "no" to more losses until I can eat at home more often. It's just such a challenge to do this!

If any of you out there are caregivers, especially those who do it full time and not just in crisis mode, I'm impressed by you! Because just the level that I"m doing this at is some of the most exhausting work I've ever done. I keep hoping someone will hand me a newborn to care for, instead of my MIL! I think I'd get more sleep.

Sorry about your situation. Don't let it affect your health -- that will do no one any good! In addition to Debbie's suggestions, see if there is a state or local government agency like Office of Services to the Aging. My friend is the Director of the Michigan Office and she contends that people don't ask for help that they are ready to give. Until they know someone needs help, they can't really do anything.

I find it exhausting just to go sit with my parents when one or the other is in the hospital (they're both doing fine now -- knock wood).

 

[CdnBuzzFan]

Recently I have been rather frustrated when attending meetings and thought this would be a good place to vent. I'm also curious if anyone else has been experiencing this type if thing as well. It seems like for the last 4-6 weeks, the entire meeting is a 30 minute commercial for the Active Link. Most of the time we are barely touching on the topics of the week. The leader and the receptionist have this mock "challenge" with each other that starts at the beginning of the meeting, where the compare how many activity bars are showing on their Active Link. Then they keep moving to see who can earn the most bars during the meeting. The leader jumps up and down, and then yells at the receptionist who is bouncing around as we'll, stocking shelves and doing jumping jacks behind the partition. The receptionist will dance across the back of the meeting area, and gloat about earning more bars. It was cute the first time, but now it just seems over played, and really annoying. It is so irritating that I am considering going to another meeting, because I no longer feel I am getting out of them what I used to - it is now all their schtick.

That would drive me nuts too! I'd let them know how it makes you feel before you actually leave. They may not know it bothers anyone. Why not ask in your next meeting when the meetings will be going back to regular topics? If it's bothering you, you can bet it's also bothering others.

 

[CdnBuzzFan]

I see a few of you have links to your trip reports below your signatures. I'm wondering if someone would mind telling me how to do that, please.

 

[pwdebbie]

You CAN be a hot tamale I mean, why not try for it?

At 57? I don't think so!

 

[lovethattink]

I see a few of you have links to your trip reports below your signatures. I'm wondering if someone would mind telling me how to do that, please.

Copy the link you want to put in your siggie

Click user cp

Then click edit signature

There should be a globe, click the globe

Remove the http:

right click and paste your url to the box

click either preview to see it, or save to save it if you think you've got it.

 

[bumbershoot]

I took care of my mil from Jan. 1, 2010 until her death in August. She moved in with us. We thought we would have a lot of family support locally, but that did not happen. I even ended up sick and in bed plus hospital tests at one point for two weeks. But even then I still had to take care of getting her up in the morning, down at night, and all the bathroom stuff. No one else offered help.

The hardest thing during those eight months was not being able to sleep at night. I often thought that a newborn would have been easier because mil called to be taken to the bathroom seven or eight times a night. That was absolutely exhausting.

But on the plus side, I got to know my mil so much better and actually I enjoyed her company here those last months. I became very attached to her even though there were many times I was absolutely frustrated and in tears (never in front of her though). The one thing I said to myself when she came was that I wanted to have no regrets when she left. And I don't, which is a very good feeling.

What did I learn? ASK clearly for help when you need it. Have a family meeting if necessary to get others on board. In retrospect, I should have insisted that one of our daughters come just one night a month to give us the opportunity to have a full night of sleep in a hotel room. Say NO when you need to. Use resources available in the community. We hired Comfort Keepers once a week so that we could get out and do our grocery shopping and have lunch. Medicare might cover something like that. We also used a visiting nurse service and later turned to them for hospice care at the end.

You have to take care of yourself first if you are going to take care of someone else. Maybe that's the most important thing I can say to you.

Thank you thank you.

I, too, want to have no regrets with her.

DH has been on a work trip for what seems like forever now (a total of 9 days, he's home on Thursday) and it was a huge mistake to not have him cancel or come home early, but we didn't realize that this last stroke was going to be so, relatively, big. This one has created a huge deficit in memory, both long and short term, but she's so good at covering that it's hard to get others to see it. She even had a home health nurse in her home one day, and it was a day she took NONE of her pills whatsoever, and didn't check her blood sugars even once. She forgot all day, and told people she'd done it, all day. The next day she was doing her prayers/chants, and we think she just kept forgetting how many she had done, so she kept on doing them. No pills that morning, no food, no blood sugar checks, despite multiple phone calls with people...and that's the day she had the biggest stroke so far.

She needs more care, and we're getting the family together once DH is back to start figuring out HOW.

So sorry to hear about your MIL. I understand how hard it is to be a caregiver. Please be sure to take time for yourself. After 2 years of not getting to sleep through the night, my body had enough. I had to learn the hard way to take care of myself so that I can take care of the others.

We are a homeschooling family too! I'm sorry your son has to tag along to all the appointments, but I'm sure it helps to be able to have that flexibility with his schedule.

Thank you!!!

And yes the flexibility helps. If I had to schedule appts around carpools and projects and all the rest it would be so much harder.

Sorry about your situation. Don't let it affect your health -- that will do no one any good! In addition to Debbie's suggestions, see if there is a state or local government agency like Office of Services to the Aging. My friend is the Director of the Michigan Office and she contends that people don't ask for help that they are ready to give. Until they know someone needs help, they can't really do anything.

I find it exhausting just to go sit with my parents when one or the other is in the hospital (they're both doing fine now -- knock wood).

Thank you very much!

Yes, just sitting at the hospital is exhausting, I agree.



I appreciate all the responses to my cry for help last night. Thank you so much.

 

[figment814]

Good news: WI on Saturday... down .4 to a total of 35.2 lost since the beginning of May.

Better news: I bought a size 10 dress this weekend for the first time in YEARS. When I started in May, I was a 16.

BEST news: I went to the doctor on Friday who decreased my medication for insulin resistance AND said that if I keep this up, I should be completely OFF of it in January!

Hope everyone has a great week this week--- just keep swimming! We're all going to get there together and be a bunch of hot tamales!!!

That's awesome!

I can't believe I've remained on track these last almost 2 months. MIL has bounced in and out of the hospital with continued embolic strokes, and I'm the main person who CAN be there for her, since I'm at home. Poor DS is dragged around with me, since I homeschool, but that has been challenging since so much of our time is spent with her at hospitals and doctor's offices!

My fruit/veggie consumption has plummeted, as has my healthy oils...and I think that at some point here my body will say "no" to more losses until I can eat at home more often. It's just such a challenge to do this!

If any of you out there are caregivers, especially those who do it full time and not just in crisis mode, I'm impressed by you! Because just the level that I"m doing this at is some of the most exhausting work I've ever done. I keep hoping someone will hand me a newborn to care for, instead of my MIL! I think I'd get more sleep.

Wow it sounds like you are doing great despite having a tougher road then normal! While you may not be "perfect" in the eyes of WW you are still focused enough to stay on your journey!

At 57? I don't think so!

Christie Brinkley is 58 and still a "hot tamale"!

 

[christinascreative]

Christie Brinkley is 58 and still a "hot tamale"!

Yes, and so is Madeline Stowe (Revenge) who is 54. I saw her at the Katie Couric show taping yesterday and I would KILL to look like that PERIOD. I'm 34 and have NOTHING on her! Well, yet... GO for it!

 

[bumbershoot]

Wow it sounds like you are doing great despite having a tougher road then normal! While you may not be "perfect" in the eyes of WW you are still focused enough to stay on your journey!

It's extremely convenient that I find the concept of eating while in a hospital to be really really gross, LOL. I'm not germaphobic except for in that respect; seeing the people in scrubs getting food in the cafeteria makes me wonder where those scrubs have been, where their shoes have been, etc etc, and I just don't want to eat. That's probably been my saving grace in all of this!

**************************

In an effort to get veggies in again, I went to Trader Joes. Bought the pre-chopped onions in a bag, bought that thing of chopped veggies that you can just toss in a salad or whatever...very helpful. The last two nights I've used a Gardein product (vegetarian substitute for meat, I suppose you could call it) called "beefless tips" cooked in a pan with my oils, a bunch of onions, and a bunch of those chopped veggies. Tonight I added a whole bunch of spinach. Pepper (I'm really into black pepper right now), a bit of soy sauce, ooh yum.

I'm a big volume eater when I can be, so all those veggies make me happy.

 

[pwdebbie]

I had a surprisingly good WI last night. 3.2 lbs for a total of 60.6 off now. I think I can reasonably expect to reach 70 lbs off by Christmas.

 

[lovesmurfs]

I had a surprisingly good WI last night. 3.2 lbs for a total of 60.6 off now. I think I can reasonably expect to reach 70 lbs off by Christmas.

 

[MellieluvsDisney]

I had a surprisingly good WI last night. 3.2 lbs for a total of 60.6 off now. I think I can reasonably expect to reach 70 lbs off by Christmas.

Wow!!! Congrats!!

 

[MellieluvsDisney]

WI day! Down 2.5 pounds. Another big loss this week. Another 5 pounds lost, bringing my total weight loss to 20.6 pounds.

WW online changed my points last week to 33, but I decided to stay at 34 because I am losing weight with those points, and didn't see the need to change right now.

Anybody else done that before?

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Hello Fellow WWers!

Hoping I can just jump in. I read back a few pages and your awesome losses tell me there are a lot of things I can learn from you.

I won't go into my long sad tale of how I got to be where I am, I will just say that after vacations, business trips, and an injury, I am pretty much where I was when I joined WW back in March for the umpteenth time. I have decided I am going to turn this around, and I was looking for new resources. I do attend meetings and have etools and Activelink, so really, no reason I can't get my act together.

My biggest challenge is I also run (ok, it's probably a jog but it's a run for me!), and this makes me more hungry. I'm training for my 10th Half marathon (WDW Donald in January!), or trying to. I have been nursing a hamstring injury through 2 halfs in August and September, and after the last one my leg had a rebellion. Now I am just starting to try to walk/jog/run again. While sedentary for the last month, my eating increased rather than decreased, and I stopped going to my meetings. Sigh. This is totally self-inflicted, and I am the only one who can decide to turn it around.

I had been very slowly losing since 2007, but stuck in the same range (with 50 lbs to lose) for the last year or so. It was like I got under 200, and then just couldn't get myself going again. I don't know what my mental block is, but I am determined to find out and not quit WW this time. I am in this for a lifestyle not a short term change, and even when I went kind of crazy with the eating, I still haven't started drinking soda again, or eating some of my trigger items or massive portions daily. I have definitely had some massive portion days, but I would have a good day here and there.

So much for not going into my sad story!

Maria

 

[christinascreative]

I had a surprisingly good WI last night. 3.2 lbs for a total of 60.6 off now. I think I can reasonably expect to reach 70 lbs off by Christmas.

Words escape me other than you are AWESOME!

OK & Ditto! Seriously pwdebbie- just SUCH an awesome job. You must feel amazing!

WI day! Down 2.5 pounds. Another big loss this week. Another 5 pounds lost, bringing my total weight loss to 20.6 pounds.

WW online changed my points last week to 33, but I decided to stay at 34 because I am losing weight with those points, and didn't see the need to change right now.

Anybody else done that before?

I haven't done it for a full week, sometimes I borrow a point if I have just 1 leftover for the day and sometimes I leave that 1 point on the table. It hasn't affected that much-- as long as I'm making sure I don't make it a habit. But your situation is different. Why not experiment- if it doesn't work, then do what they say the next week. No harm, no foul. If you go to meetings too, you can always ask your leader about what's working for you and if you can keep that extra point for a week or so.