I’m so ready for the New Year.  It’ll be a new year and a new me.  I’ve done really well for two days now.  Last night I did enjoy a coke and some popcorn at the movies but I’m not going to feel bad about it because I have done so well today so far.  I work this evening so supper will be light because I had a late lunch. I have had breakfast 2 days in a row now which is a big improvement for me. 

I’m going to work hard this year and make it MY year!  You know it’s going to be a long hard road.  We are going to have bad days and possibly bad weeks.  Hopefully not months.  If we know these are going to happen then we can bounce back from it.  We’ll have weeks with losses, maintaining, and gains.  This whole trip is a roller coaster ride but not as enjoyable. LOL!  I love roller coasters.  We all have different stresses in our lives.  We have to learn how to push through them and get through.  We only fail when we quit altogether.  I know I’ve come to far to quit now. 

Let’s look at our accomplishments from where we were a year ago at this time. I was heavier then I am now.  I was taking care of my grandmother.  I watched her that night and we watched the ball drop.   I can’t say I was unhappy. I had just finished my first semester of school.  I accomplished so much this year. I’ve lost nearly 30 pounds since June. I made a big leap by joining weight watchers and am so glad that I did.  I had my foot surgery and hopefully, the pain will end and it’ll be all worth it. 

Now look forward to this year.  I’m going to lose more weight.  Will I be at goal at the end of 2008. Possibly but I’m not going to put that stress on me.  I’ll be happy to be smaller then I am now.   I’m going to be a nurse at the end of the year.  I’m going to take the steps to a healthier me.  I’m going to incorporate  exercise and water into my daily habits.  I’m going to make this the year of taking care of ME! 

We have the power to do this.  Why would we let food take control over us?  We know what the food tastes like and do any of us really like the feeling of being stuffed. I know I don’t.  When I overeat I feel horrible?  I feel bloated and my stomach hurts.  Why do we do this to ourselves? Well, I say it’s enough and i’m not going to do it anymore.  I’m going to make a new lifestyle. 

I want to wish you all a happy and Healthy New Year!  We are going to do this!  I’m in this for the long haul.  Who’s joining me?

I woke up refreshed this morning.  I had a headache but still felt like I had accomplished something.  I did good yesteday.  The only thing that I didn’t do was use all my points. Imagine that!  I left 3 points but I wasn’t hungry and decided after the bad week last week that leaving 3 points wouldn’t hurt none.  I even thought ahead to today’s menu and laid out food accordingly.  I ate breakfast this morning.  Me, eating breakfast. Yippee!! 

The feeling I get from doing good is incredible.  It in itself adds energy to me.  I need to exercise and I will if my headache goes away. I do have to work tonite so I will have some exercise from there.   I’ll be on my feet for 4 hours.  Fun huh? LOL!! 

I’m off to have another great day!  Hope you all have just as great of a day!

I have followed plan today almost to a T. I actually have 9 points left for snacks this evening.  I didn’t get exercise in but I was running all day. I had ww meeting this morning and then work this evening.  I’m exhausted now and in pain.   Yes, the foot is still hurting. I normally don’t take a pain pill but I did tonite.  

I got so much of my motivation back today.  Steph and I had lunch and talked.  We both had gotten off track and together we regrouped.  We are the greatest of friends.  She is actually my sister in law. However,  she and my brother could divorce and we’d still be friends. LOL!!   She and I are going back to texting our food.  It sure helps hold us accountable.  I’ve made some really good choices today.  I am trying hard to get my daily requirements in and am tracking it all in my journal.  I didn’t journal hardly at all last week.  I think that was a big problem.

I want to thank all of you for your kind words and help.  Kimmi, thanks for messaging me the last couple of nights.  It has helped me tremendously.  I needed to talk to someone.  Thank you for all of your advice and helping me. 

Shelley is back!!  I’m going to get this weight off and succeed!  I’m going to make right choices.  I’m going to make the changes that need to be made.   Thank you all for not giving up on me!   I didn’t give up but I did have a hard time last week and it was so nice to have the support.  Normally, I would have given up but with ww, my family, and all of you there was no way that I would.   I love you all!!!

Ok, not unexpected. I gained 3.2 pounds this week.  It’s okay though.  I’ll do better this week.  My sister in law and I had lunch after our meeting today and have decided that we need to make  a better effort.  We had a good lunch.  I have already had 4 glasses of water. How cool is that!  I’m going to work really hard.

I really wanted to skip the meeting this morning but am so glad I didn’t.  I learned so much from this meeting.  We talked about our progress in 2007.  I’m entering 2008 smaller then I was in 2007 so I’m feeling good about that.  Steph and I realized that we have gotten off track of texting our food so we are going back to that TODAY!  There is no such thing as tomorrow. It never comes.  Our leader wants us to think of some goals for 2008.  I’m not making a New Year’s resolution.  I’m making goals.  These are specific goals:

1.  Make exercise a part of my normal routine.

2.  Not stress as much as I have been.  This is going to be hard to accomplish with all that I have going on. I will just take things day by day and let the next day happen when it’s today. LOL!!  I hope that made sense.

3.  Make water a part of my normal day.  I want it to become a habit to grab a water in place of anything else.

4.  To eat at home more then eating out.  Not only will this save money but is a lot healthier in the long run.

5.  To continue to come on here and blog my progress

All of these changes will make to more weight lost.  I’ll be healthier, happier, and ready to walk across that stage on graduation day in a pretty new dress.  I’m ready to do this!  Who’s with me?

It’s been a pretty bad day.  My whole family has been grumpy.  It has really sucked. Oh well!  We’ll get through it. We always do.

Diet wise not too bad I guess. I did buy a new Leslie Sansone walking video with a walk belt.  It’s a 3 mile workout so I’m looking forward to doing it.  We got a new fridge and I went and got some good groceries.  I’m set to go.  I have weigh in tomorrow morning and I know it’ll be bad but i’ll survive it and move on from there.  I didn’t want to go to the meeting but hubby said I need to face the music.  I  had a bad week but that is all about to change.  I will make  my goals and move on.  I know I’ll probably have more bad weeks.  Holidays are hard and when I fall off that bad I have a hard time getting back on. 

Well, I hope you all enjoy your last weekend of 2007.  We will all have a healthier 2008. BTW, I got my stafford loan for my books.  I’ll get my books on Friday and I’ll be set to go. 

It’s amazing how easy it is to slide back into our old habits. I was doing really good and then starting last Saturday I started blowing it.  It really sucked.   I’m sure I gained this week.  I was going to use my no weigh in pass at ww this Saturday but hubby said  I need to face the music. 

I am happy though because I did catch up on some blogs tonite.  It sure helps to read up on all of your blogs.  I gained some of my motivation from reading on your blogs.  I noticed a lot of new buddyslimmers as well.   I want to welcome you all to the greatest website on the face of the earth.

Old habits die hard.  How much damage do I think I did? I may have gained 5 pounds. It’s okay though because I will be back on track tomorrow.  I’m not waiting any longer to get back on.  I’m going to add exercise into my routine as well.  Unfortunately, we can’t keep the Y membership due to finanical problems.  I  do have an elliptical at home along with a weight bench and 2 stationary bikes so I have no reason not to exercise!   I also have dance dance revolution and can use it. I’m going to buy a workout dvd tomorrow and I’m sure that will help as well.  We can do this! 

I’m going to take all of my exercise excuses away. I can’t wait until January 5th.  Steph and I start our exercise challenge then.  I really need this.  We have plans and they aren’t going to happen if we don’t work hard at it. I know she’s had a rough week to. It’s the holidays.  It’s okay.  We can get through this and make our 50 pound loss.  I’m going to change my mini goal on my ticker to 239 which is 2 pounds away from last Saturday’s weigh in. I  will take it 10 pounds at a time after that. 

Here are my goals for next week:

1.  Drink water daily!

2.  Earn 12 activity points

3.  Limit eating out

4.  Use no flex and keep track of my points religiously!

I am going to accomplish my goals and lose this weight!

I found this article and wanted to share with you.  It’s really interesting.  It made me think.  

10 To-Do’s For Making Your 2008 Comeback

by Guest Author

Successful weight loss and physical transformation requires a major mental effort.

John A. Sarkett (author of the book “Extraordinary Comebacks“) offers these succinct tips for making your New Year’s resolution stick.

1. PERSIST. Don’t quit. “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.” Sir Winston Churchill
2. MAKE THE EFFORT. Work hard. Great comebackers use all the hours in the day: Wayne Huizenga collected trash at night, sold new accounts in the day. George Foreman out-trained younger fighters to become champ. You can find your comeback right in the effort you make.
3. UNDERSTAND TRANSIENCE. Don’t extrapolate temporary setbacks into permanent defeat. “This, too, shall pass.” Lance Armstrong was given a 2% chance to survive cancer, he went on to win seven, consecutive Tour de Frances. Churchill again: “When you’re going through hell, keep going.”
4. CHANGE DIRECTION. Sylvester Stallone was stymied as an actor, so he wrote Rocky after seeing the Wepner-Ali fight. Billy Beane was a so-so baseball player, he quit and became a top GM. Quincy Jones was a talented trumpeter, but after a stroke, he had to quit, and then became a legendary music producer.
5. EMPLOY SUPPORT. Stay away from the nay-sayers, even if they’re famous or going to be (Martin Scorsese once told Billy Crystal he had “no talent.”) Pack your corner with friends who won’t let you quit. Muhammed Ali did that: he wanted to quit during his first heavyweight championship, his manager wouldn’t let him.
6. REPEAT. It took Sir Edmund Hillary two attempts to climb Everest, Peary eight times to reach the North Pole, and various authors scores and sometimes hundreds of tries to get their works published. Go again, and again, and ………
7. DREAM BIG. Your effort and ideas are worth many times what you may imagine. Fred Smith wrote a college paper that got a “C,” as the story goes, then turned it into $40 billion FedEx. Dean Karnazes ran a 226 mile ultramarathon and 350 mile run, plus 50 marathons in 50 days (2006). J.K. Rowling wrote her ideas about one “Harry Potter” during a train ride. It sold 100 million copies, and $4 billion movie box office, and counting. You can do much more than you imagine. Dream big.
8. STAY HUMBLE. Attitude — is everything. When tennis master Andre Agassi fell from No. 1 to No. 141 (1997), he started over, went back to the minor leagues, upped his training, including weightlifting. It set the stage for greater things than ever before. Attitude – not image – is everything.
9. SELF-PROGRAM. Get a mantra. A psychiatrist-hypnotist provided Rachmaninoff the composer, who had a writing block, with a positive self-talk mantra: “You will begin your concerto. You will work with great facility. The concerto will be excellent.” It worked. He wrote his Piano Concerto No. 2.
10. PERSIST. It’s not over until you say so. Don’t say so.

Sarkett’s book is Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and Success. It is available at Amazon and other bookstore

You see we can do it.   We are going to accomplish our goals and then some.  Keep your head up! 

I did much better today.  I’m still trying to get back into the swing of things with work and all.  I love my job but have noticed that things are pretty much the same now as they were 8 weeks ago when I left.  I will survive it though. I better.  Starting Saturday I work 6 days straight.  Three four hour days and three eight hour days.  UGH! LOL!  I don’t think the scheduler likes me to well.    It’s okay. I will survive it as well.

I have not been on here much lately other then to blog.  I’m off the next couple of days and hope to catch up on all of your blogs then. I do notice that I do better when I’m reading up on you all.   I don’t have a child tonite or tomorrow night so I should have plenty of time.  His grandmother kept him tonite and my aunt is keeping him tomorrow.  They both spoil him something awful.  Especially my aunt.  LOL!!

Well, I hope you all are doing good.  I love you all and will read up on you all tomorrow.  

Ok, I’ve not done much better.  I have ate so bad for the last four days.  I’m back on tomorrow though. I swear!  It’s been hard staying on plan.  Here I thought I was going to have it easy this year.  Yeah, right!  I lived and learned huh.  Ok, this is where I pick myself up, dust myself off, and move on.  I can do this!  It’s in me.

I’ve not been a good buddy the last few days. I’ve not been on to read blogs. I’ve been real busy. I will get back on tomorrow night and read.  Just know that I’m still here for you all and am keeping you in my thoughts in prayers.  Only one more holiday to go. New Years!  It’s not going to be as bad as Christmas.  Good luck all!

Well, yesterday was not good at all.  I think I ate everything in site.  The main meal consisted of ham, baked beans, potato salad, and deviled eggs.  However, snacks consisted of chocolate cake, three kinds of fudge, pecan clusters, and chocolate chip cookies.  A paradise for someone on TOM. LOL!!   I kept snacking and snacking.  It sucked.  We got there at 3 and didn’t leave until 9.  I snacked almost the whole time.  I even drank a regular can of pepsi.  It’s okay though.  You know why?  It was my last holiday meal.  I also picked up and moved on and now it’s time to bust butt.

 A little bit of bad news.  I can’t join the Y full time.  We don’t have the money right now for membership.  It’s ok though.  I have an elliptical, 2 stationary bikes, and a weight bench at home.  I also have a couple exercise video’s.  There no excuses for me.  I just need to use them.  I also got released from therapy today. How cool is that?  I’m thrilled.   So for everything has an answer.  We just have to look for it sometimes.

2007 had it’s ups and downs.  Of course, the downs are the loss of our grandmothers.  The ups are that I got accepted into nursing school.  My surgery was an up and down.  Recovery was down but time off work was up and the hopes of a better foot is an up.  We have to look at the positive sides. I’m sure 2008 will carry ups and downs as well.  Let’s just keep a positive outlook  and look forward.  I’m going to have a tough year with nursing school and all but I will get through and the rewards will be something to look forward to.  As for weight loss, we ALL will have a good year.  We ALL will have success.  Stay positive and look forward.

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!