Stuff....

I don't think hardly anyone updated on May 9th, but that's OK. You can update whenever you feel like it.

The Waites are in China. So, we can hope they'll go sufficiently off their diet for the rest of us to catch up. But, Kathryne (who's been there before) says that it's unlikely as the food isn't all that great.

Speaking of Kathryne, due to some health issues, she is not allowed to exercise at the moment. So, losing for her isn't happening much. They haven't updated because there is nothing to update.

Lysa and Jen are pulling ahead, Lysa's on a doctor supervised diet that seems to be working well. Jen is just working it off like a trooper. It looks like they updated recently.

Kathryne's says that Chad's coworkers are working hard at it and she says she'll get the info and get it posted. I'll remind her.

We're doing terrible. We do good for a few days, then it all shows back up again. I'm not sure what else to do. It doesn't help that for some reason, Sam just isn't very motivated this time around. I've started trying to walk with Lysa and Jen a few days a week and do the exercise bike when I don't walk, but I just keep gaining and losing the same five pounds. Very frustrating. I refuse to do any funky diets because I know I'll just gain it back. To keep it off I have to do it the old fashioned way. Bummer.

OK, that's the latest news.....anyone got anything to say, post it. Cheerleaders are welcome for any of our teams.

Recommitting

I'm getting back on track too... The past few months have been crazy and stressful at my house. Which means I've been waffling around the same 4 lbs. Blech! :p But I've recommitted to working harder and I've started exercising again - already down 2 more pounds. At least I think... my scale broke (darn sticky paint in the bathroom cabinet pulled one of the feet off - the one with the sensor!), so I bought a new one and in the few days I was without a scale I went down two more pounds. But that's also the few days that I started exercising again, so maybe it's possible? Or maybe it's just the difference in scales.... Either way, I'm taking it! I read this neat little insert of an article in the Redbook magazine (I got one issue of it recently... it's a long story, but it was free). I thought I'd post it because it helped my point of view anyway. I even clipped it and stuck it on my fridge. It was an article about the woman who engineered a new CD called Skinny Songs - they are songs about weight loss. She was an executive at Apple and had managed to gain quite a bit just being a wife and mother and executive. One day she got the idea to create music that was motivational for weight loss, just like the music she listened to to pump herself up for meetings and such. She ended up losing 35 lbs at age 50! This was her memo to herself for when she fell off the wagon:

In Case of Emergency:

You've just consume a whole bunch of calories you didn't need. You slipped, you splurged, and you hate yourself for it. What now? Give up? Eat some more? I think you deserve better than that. Here's what I want you to do:

1. FORGIVE YOURSELF. No one is perfect. Stop kicking yourself. Everyone who has succeeded has had moments like this. You can still succeed too, but you must stop yelling at yourself and simply say, "I forgive myself for the mess-up."

2. PUT IT IN PERSPECTIVE. Even if you ate 1,500 calories in a single sitting, it is not a deal-ending moment. You have not permanently ruined your life. You have an extra half a pound to get ride of. Big deal.

3. REAFFIRM YOUR BIGGER GOALS. Remind yourself about the importance of the goal you have set out to reach and recommit yourself to working to achieve it. Look at the dress you ripped out of the magazine, or imagine yourself bounding up a flight of stairs in a black tracksuit. Just because you ate a quart of ice cream doesn't mean you can't meet your overall goal.

4. ELIMINATE THE TEMPTATION. I don't want to waste food, but sometimes the rest of the bag or carton needs to go down the garbage disposal. This is one of those times.

5. WHAT CAN YOU LEARN FROM THIS? Take a step back and see if there is something that will help you overcome future moments like this. Did you deprive yourself so much that you were overwhelmed with hunger? Did you get mad and eat out of emotion? Think about what you can do to avoid this trigger or situation next time.

6. DON'T PUNISH YOURSELF. Don't starve yourself. Don't go on a cabbage-soup fast. Punishment doesn't work; it just perpetuates a bad cycle.

7. RECOMMIT TO LOSE. Say out loud, "I'm over it, and I'm back on my plan." Imagine yourself standing up, dusting yourself off, and getting back on a horse. Hold that visualization for a moment and feel great about that decision. Feel proud that you can recover so quickly. Now forget it and move on! You are back on track.

(This is from Redbook Magazine. March 2009 issue. Turn Up The Tunes and Lose 35 Pounds by Nicole Yorio.)

Hopefully you guys find this inspirational.... Good luck again!

Back on track....

I talked to Kate the Great (Reed) and she said they didn't post a change because there wasn't one. Sounds like us. She's dealing with some other health issues, so if she's maintaining at least, that's good. She said she would talk to Chad's buddies and see what their change was.

Sam and I are finally kind of getting back on track with the calorie counting/exercise thing. Or at least I'm exercising, Sam still mostly exercises his right pointer finger making us a living. He did start taking the stairs to his fourth floor office in the morning. We're down a couple of pounds this week, but I was right about gaining while Danny/Mom were here, so we're back down to our first month weigh in numbers. Hopefully we'll be down a couple of pounds at least this month.

We really did update...sort of.

Our ticker still looks the same becuase we haven't lost any more. Pretty pathetic, since we started this silly contest in the first place. I'm not sure what's up with the Reeds or their friends, but I'll poke Kate and see if there's no update because nothing happened, or no update because they forgot. Jen did update their ticker on the 9th.

We need some serious motivation, I'm not sure what the problem is. But, Liz (Waite) and Jen are looking lovely...

We WISH we were on a plateau...

We actually gained...or rather I did and Sam lost enough to cover for me. We definitely need a kickstart. The Waite's are kicking our butts....but they'll start plateauing before too long.

This weekend Mom Bailey and Sam's brother Danny were here and we ate WAY too much. I don't even wanna know what we weigh. I'll weigh on Wednesday, after I fast for a couple of days, lol.

Weigh-in

We've updated our ticker... Has anyone else weighed in for April? We haven't gone far... kind of at an impasse. Anybody else on a bit of a plateau? Any ideas to kick-start things again?

Jen

Wasting Time

Just thought I'd post to shake things up a bit. Anyone have any good healthy recipes for Easter?

Lysa

weigh in

That's better... Here's our updated ticker... Sorry it's late. :)

Header pic....

Ok, I don't really like the cow buns picture, because those cows have bony bottoms and I certainly don't.

So, if anyone has seen a good picture to use for this spot, let me know. I thought about bread buns, but they make me hungry. I looked at pig butts (possibility, didn't find a good pic yet) elephant butts, etc, kind of like a "before" thing. Haven't found one so far and it's not like I have time for this. :0) A group of skinny butts might be appropriate...couldn't think of an animal with a skinny butt (a snake, perhaps, lol) and didn't really want human backsides on here. Baby bums are cute, but they're perfect...not too big, not too little.

Any thoughts????

Tickers...

Thanks to brilliant Kathryne, we now have tickers for everyone. Just double click on it to update the weight, any time you want, and for sure on the 9th of every month. Team Brent and Andy will remain faceless (they are my brother in laws coworkers) and Kathryne will update their ticker when they call her with the info. On the 9th of the month, when they are all updated, we will stack them in order from top to bottom, so the current leaders will be on top.

Welcome Waites...

My sister in law Liz and her husband Greg are a team in this competition. Greg just joined the blog, so he'll be posting stuff soon, I would guess. They are pretty fierce competitors at anything we've done, so they'll be some good competition.

Pics...

Hey everybody. At Michelle's request, I'm posting pics of me and my family. She's right about my hubby, Jeff. He'd disappear if he lost weight! It seems my two boys have inherited his tall skinny genes, thank goodness! Jonathan is 18 months, James is 3 months... Hence why I need to participate in this challenge! Two babies back-to-back really turns your body into bad things!

This is my skinny husband, Jeff.

This is our 18-month-old, Jonathan.

This is our 3-month-old, James.

This is a "fat" picture of me...

And in this lovely shot, you can actually see my face.

Introductions...

Since some of you only know some of you and some of you don't know any of us, I'm doing some intros. I'm certain that made no sense at all.

Anyway, Kate....can you get an email address for Chad's co-workers so I can invite them to post on here? Oh, and FYI, I don't think anyone calls her Kate but me, I'm sure she hates it. :0) I emailed my sis in law, Liz, we'll see if she shows up soon. If anyone else shows up, we'll do more intros.

So far, everyone that's on here knows me. And, I think Lysa knows everyone, and everyone knows Lysa. I don't think Kathryne's met Jennifer, though (Lysa's partner). Kathryne is my next to youngest sister. She's the mutant: short, curly hair (or it used to be anyway), smart and until recently no allergies. We got her at KMart. She's married to Chad, the second coolest guy on the planet. She builds fighter jets at Lockheed (cool, eh?) and Chad runs the water district in Lancaster, CA.

Jennifer Toone is Lysa's partner. Jennifer needed a partner because if her husband lost any weight, he'd disappear. Lysa was looking for a partner, so they joined forces. Jennifer is the other organist in my ward and she has two super cute babies, 15 months and 3 months.

Maybe you guys can post some pictures of yourselves. ;0) And don't forget weigh in day on the 9th.

Team Reed

Here is ours!!

As for putting them on the side.. I think Shel has to do it because we only have access to post.. not customize.. we'll just have to send her the code and she can cut and paste them into objects on the side.

Team Lysa & Jen

 

Team Lysa & Jen

So how do you put this on the side and not in a post?

Biggest Losers....

Ok, I'm trying to get this blog going. I'm going to make it so that the five teams can log in and post (but they have to set up their google user account, if they don't have one...it's easy and free). I tried to set up "tickers" for the weight loss graphs. www.tickerfactory.com has some cool ones, but I couldn't get them to work. So, if anyone is smarter than me, go for it. I pictured a ticker for each team, based on their combined starting weight and going down 20%, but if someone has a better idea, I'm all for it.

It would be kind of cool if everyone posted any ideas for exercise, mini competitions, recipes, tips that have helped, links to recipes or tips, etc etc. Even though it's a competition, it would be nice to be supportive of each other.

Lysa had a cool idea for a 1/2 marathon here in Monterey at the end. I'll let her post it. Since everyone doesn't know everyone, ya'll should post an intro.