Good morning, Karen, take care of yourself and up the vitamin C. I hate strep. Being allergic to most antibiotics I have to go every day for a shot of the only antibiotic I can take. Such a pain. Let's look at the bright side... You may feel too bad to eat and lose a few extra pounds! :) Poor Baby. I'm not trying to make fun of you. Just trying to make you smile. Jas, 15 minutes from the beach! How awesome is that!!!! We started camping with a tent. Then a friend gave us a good deal on a older pop-up. Nothing fancy, but has air conditioning. The older I get the less I can handle these hot, muggy, sweaty days. Harold, I know what you mean about the glasses. I take mine off and turn off the light at night , wake up and reach for them first thing in the morning. Otherwise my world is REALLY fuzzy! Ek, That waist is so tiny I got my magnifying glass out to see it! Encouraging is what Harold does best. Which Carolina are you from? I love both. Our favorite vacation is Nags Head. If it is just the 2 of us we like the off season so we can have the beach to ourselves. Snuck away one New Years and it was GRAND! We were all alone on Pea Island and the sea shells were fantastic!!!! Dh and I have a running contest of who finds the biggest seashell and biggeat piece of sea glass. He ALWAYS wins. One year after a storm I found a gallon vinegar jar washed up and claimed the biggest sea glass for the day!! He said I cheated,but I don't care!! His favorite was when I found a tall wooden step ladder washed up and dragged it forever to reach the truck. Hey, it was already salt treated! I spent a week in Chapel Hill with my niece last May. Loved the shopping. It's a beautiful town. We finally made it to Hilton Head year before last with another niece. Even sneaked down to Savannah and had lunch at 'The Lady and Sons' and checked out the beautiful homes while we were there. I'm dreading starting to work out to tone and tighten. I really need inspiration for that. I can do the treadmill, no problem. But, I don't even want to talk about all of that ab, thigh, etc. I am lazy,lazy.lazy. I will get off of the treadmill and stand in front of the mirror and do maybe 10 bicep curls, tricep extensions, and side leg raises and that's it. Hopefully when I lose a little more weight I can get motivated. I've got this lower stomach thing going on that I've had since I had my hystorectomy 22 years ago. It almost looks like the Dr forgot to bring the muscles back down and sew them back together and they 'pouch' out, for lack of a better word. My niece says she has the same little area since her cancer operation. Maybe the Pilates would help with that? I hope everyone has a great day. Betty

From a website: Our ancestors - for thousands of years, ate all day long. A bit of food here, a bit of food there. The last 400 years we decided to eat 1, then 2, then 3 big meals a day. The problem is our bodies are not "programmed" to eat 3 meals a day. You eat, then do not eat again for hours and the body responds by storing body fat because your body literally thinks you are starving! Include the foods we eat daily - highly processed foods that we digest in less than 1 hour - we are hungry all the time! So we eat, and eat. So how to eat now? Eat portion foods. A portion is a small hand-full of food. Every 2-3 hours, eat one portion. As you go along through the weeks, you will re-teach your body that your are not starving, so the portions will get smaller and smaller. You will never be hungry again. What to eat; fruits, vegetables, nuts, and ONE protein serving. Again, our ancestors ate very little protein. A can of white chicken breast, small can, in water, will give you all the protein you need each day. Throw away the water. Try different foods to see what you like, and do not. Fast food? Get the kid-size burger, kid-size coke.

Siversword, no DOUBT that scale of yours is broken what with all that jumping on and off you do, Ha Ha! Don't make me come over there and hide it from you, now! I weighed in at 146 this week but I KNOW I am up at least 2lbs by week's end here, as for the first time in a long time, I ate GARBAGE all week. It wasn't a matter of will power, I just didn't care. Pants are fitting tighter and I feel downright sluggish. Yuck! I won't do that again for a long while as my energy level has suffered. After eating so well for so long, I can really feel the awful difference : ( I went out this afternoon and stocked up on nonfat yogurt, lite string cheese, fresh fruit, veggies, fish, turkey breast and chicken breasts. I made a low fat bean soup and a roasted tomato-red pepper soup, prepped a HUGE bowl of salad and cut up celery, carrots and cukes for lunches and snacks. tomorrow's another day... I don't weigh again for a couple of weeks but I'll check in. Tikanis

Good morning Iva! (and everyone else!) I went to the gym yesterday. 17 minutes on the stair machine (ugggghhh!!!!) I do it until I hit 150 calories burned, and I really can't last more than 15 minutes. Then 40 minutes on the elliptical, total calories burned was around 500. Then I went upstairs and did some weights. For the first time in a while I actually saw leg muscles coming up. It was really validating. Weighed myself before I left the gym and was 139. There is something so wonderful about moving that big block weight thing from the 140 to the 120 before using the slider, even if the slider is all the way to the right!!! Went home, made a big salad (black beans, peas, feta cheese, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, red onions, a little fish with balsamic vinegar and olive oil) Poured myself a half glass of wine and only drank half of that. Resisted the temptation to go out and get a snack before bed. Stepped on the scale this morning.... 137. 145/137/125 145/8/125 12 more pounds to go!!!