Oh no DeeMarie! Hi Wildchild, are you ice skating? Hope you soon can but don't rush it. I get the urge to roller skate but the slow wooden floors are gone and replaced by slick surfaces and my youth has been replaced by fear of falling. Tikanas if I get too much acid, I turn into an itchy fool and one orange a day over a week will do it. You can buy cranberry tablets in health food stores if you can't stomach that much juice. I am BOT (back on track) Thank goodness. Eating the overpriced eggs in a carton for breakfast. 1/2 cup has no cholesterol and 60 calories. I put frozen peppers and onions (precook a little) in them and top it with overpriced ff cheese (you gotta pay to play!) Makes a great breakfast with a little salt and cracked pepper on top. Yesterday I made sweet potato chips. Baked in the oven. They weren't Lays but they weren't bad. I don't think they would ever get really crispy until they were burned. The worst part was trying to cut them thin enough. Brought back memories of making regular potato chips when we were kids and wait - we had a chip slicer! Called mom and it was loaned to a cousin (it also sliced cabbage for sauerkraut) so I hope it comes back home. Yesterday I had a tough hungry evening and I was thankful I had made sf jello last night. Well better get something done today - thank goodness there is no more snow to shovel off the driveway. Kathy

Hi! You are on the right track. A bike ride to Curves is a good thing! My advice is this: Drink lots of water,chew sugarless gum to satisfy the urge to put something in your mouth. DO NOT keep junk food in your house.Throw out all junk today and don't buy anymore. Replace all fatty high calorie foods with lite ones ( mayo, dressings etc) Don't shop while hungry. Keep lots of cut celery, carrots and other crunchy veggies around and ready to grab for "the munchies" Make a deal with yourself not to give in to your cravings until after a 1/2 hour waiting period and a tall glass of water. The craving will probably have passed by then. Put up a "skinny" picture of yourself on the fridge. Reward yourself with a treat (NOT FOOD!!) after not cheating for a certain period of time ( a day, a week, whatever it takes...) Pick a "special" non food treat for each samller size that you can fit into. Plan fun, workout activities with your hubby or a friend. Walking, roller skating, biking etc. Pick a buddy to help you be accountable for regular exercise and good food habits. Record your food intake daily ( log EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth)Try fitday.com Pick a food plan (weight watchers, south beach etc) and stick to it. If you don't have a "weight buddy" then weight watchers is a great support system for being accountable. Allow yourself one special meal each week where you eat your favorite things in moderate amounts ( ONE meal!!)Learn serving sizes and measure. Keep busy. Idle hand, you know... : ) Keep posting here and ask for help and support whenever necessary. Volunteer. Help somebody in need. Nothing takes my mind off of me as much as spending some time helping somebody else. You will never make up for love lost during your childhood, but you can add love to your life now by giving to others. It will come back you! You can NEVER accomplish this with food. Food won't love us, people will. This is a great forum . There are some really wonderful people here. We all support eachother! Any other hints for her ladies? Now... Go make this a great Monday! Tikanas

Welcome BB! I have a friend on Prednisone for asthma too - it makes it harder to lose BUT you can lose (she is too) Wow you would have loved the old WW diets - that was exactly what they did and there were not nearly the choices they have now. The only problem I have with the rigid diets (and menus can be found in most Women's magazines) is that they tell you to eat for example 4 ounces of salmon for lunch and a half cup of green beans. OK so where does the rest of the salmon go? Do you toss the other green beans? There are no salmon or green beans mentioned for the rest of the week. So my suggestion (and it is worth what you paid for it) is to make a list of the foods you want to eat and would fit the plan you want to be on. For example - breakfast for me is cereal OR a Weight Watchers bagel with ff butter. That is what I like and eggs don't make me feel full. You might be different. Snack is an apple or pear. Something I can come in and eat on the run when hunger hits - high fiber. Lunch will be a lean protein with a low starch veggie. If I get snacky in the afternoon I'll grab some carrots or another pear. That leaves a lot of room for a nice evening meal (low on starches and always a steamed veggie) or a leaner meal and a trip to McDonald's for a cone or hot fudge sundae. If I go out for lunch or supper I choose something in the 300 calorie range and it does not take long to learn what you can eat. Evening snack is frozen fruit. A whole bag is usually about 150 calories and I don't eat the whole bag. This works for me for now. It might not be a diet you would like but your diet is out there. Hi gang! Well I had spaghetti wars yesterday. Made it for supper and long after I had my bowl it started singing to me so I popped it in a bag and froze it. Today there are Snickers bars and cookies leftover from a teen class (only 3 showed up - sunny day). They are getting bagged and taken to the basement. Every day is another battle. We are having a false summer here and I want to plant my stuff outside so badly! But I won't - not until after mother's day and that is taking a chance. We have had late frosts many times before. I went to a used booksale yesterday along with 351 other people in line. It was huge and I bought a lot of gardening books. I checked out the diet books too but nothing jumped up. Spent my $20 (all I allowed myself to take) and got out of there. There were people buying hundreds of dollars worth of books. Most were $3. I found a stack of Country living gardening mags from the 90s for $1. Lots of good ideas there. Well must go start the day - stay strong everybody (and especially) Kathy

Hi Everyone, going to the doc's on Friday morning. I have suggested the perimenopause but there is not much they can do but I know I have the 'classic' symptoms - especially having to stick my feet out off the bed. I go to bed FREEZING and in the middle of the night I am roasting. Of course we are having NOVEMBER weather in the UK - it's not nice out, it's cold and windy and the house is still being heated a few hours each night but...my body is changing for sure. The sleep patterns being out of sync is normal for me - could be perimenopause, could be the parasites (yep), could be the brightness at night (still) or could be my SAD/hormones....geez that's 2 strikes for hormones - head and body ones! What's a gal to do! I want so bad to get on my stepping machine at night but I am sooooo exhausted by the time I get home (for no reason) - I can barely keep awake to make it through dinner. Erica, I think you are doing just fine. Do treat yourself for all your efforts - I have a great earring collection and lots of new shirts for work - my treats for sticking with it. Keep putting one foot in front of the other - if ya fall down, dust yourself off and stick a foot out. What about getting that shirt and wrapping it up for yourself as a Santa gift? I do this sort of thing for inspriation. In the meantime - do something to treat yourself and let us know what it is! Even if its a hair job, manicure, a bubble bath with the nicest stuff, pedicure or even some fun, fuzzy house slippers that put a grin on your face. Alice - you are motivating me to get with it - your weight is right where I want to be as my old 'normal' weight. I know bodies change with age, I would be jumping for joy if I could hit 135 right now. Keep us posted with your activities and keep posting when you hit goal because the maintenance takes awhile to become routine. Anyway - I would just love to keep in touch with you! Wildchild - I too used to lose weight when ill or if I missed dinner. Not anymore. Sometimes I think illness was mother natures weight maintenance programs....thanks for the info on the 'parasites' - never considered the garden aspect - and I do a lot of it with bare hands - and we do have many, many, many cats around here (which I love). I don't chase them from the garden because they are such little characters and I love animals - even DH (just kidding, just kidding!). Yellowhair, sorry to hear about your tooth. Ouch! Wish I could have gone with you to Nashville. I sooo miss good country music over here. I keep ordering CDs and listen to them often. I would also love to join a club for swimming but none are near/convenient to get to and would really cost a fortune adding on the transport. I am thinking of getting one of those small trampolines to make home exercise a little more fun. Well, loaded up my desk with good foods today. Have my 2 litre bottle of water open (strawberry - yum) and hoping to behave today. Let's make today count. If you fall over, get up and get with it! Cheers everyone, glad to see the posts - was feeling a little lonely! McPeg