Happy Birthday!!!

A slightly belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to AMY!!!

I hope your birthday yesterday brought you joy and that many blessings will find you in the coming year!

New Favorites for Lisa

Hello everyone!

What is your current favorite food, snack or recipe? I think Lisa needs new ideas:)

My current favorite is this:
2 TB sugar-free peanut butter
honey (to taste- I go for a full TB)
Warm it up in the microwave and mix

Dip apple slices in it. Kind of tastes like a carmeled apple! Really! And without all the sugar and hydrogenated fats! It sustains me for a while too:)
SueAnne

Shaking it Off

Good news. I screwed up my courage this morning and stepped on the scales. Even though I don't feel like I've done much and feel like I've been eating absolutely horribly, the scales still love me. I'm down half a pound from before I went astray.

It's not much, but I seriously expected to have gained six pounds. Holding my ground? Definitely a good thing.

Bringing on the Blues

I feel a little bad posting something like this when each of you is positively glowing in each of the Fall Frolic pictures (and video: you all seem a lot more "real" when the pictures move!) but I have a huge, massive, can't-move-around-it, smash me upside the head case of the blues.

I feel so stuck and it's showing in how I've been eating. For months I had a routine: on Sunday afternoons, I would slip on the iPod, pick my favorite playlist, and spend a couple hours dancing around the kitchen and fixing enough food to feed me every meal through the week. Cucumber salad and spinach salad; tuna with apples, balsamic vinegar, fresh basil, tomatoes, red onion, and pears; dijon-marinaded chicken; lots of fresh, sliced fruit in tupperware, easy and waiting for me to snack. I haven't been doing that lately and it shows.

I've been on practically a carb-only diet for the past few weeks and now I've started having cravings, just to let me know that my nutritional compass is out of whack. (Case in point: last night, I nearly bought out the butcher because even though I don't eat much meat to begin with, I have eaten practically no protein over the past few weeks and was absolutely rabid at the thought; consequently dinner was entirely meat and applesauce). I need to get back on track because I know that woman cannot live by rice and chocolate alone. And to top it off, one of my main food groups - fresh spinach - is now no longer an option. Insult? Injury? I'd like you two to meet.

I'm sure I've gained a pound or two but I'm too afraid to step on the scales. My skinny clothes still fit so at least I know that the damage is somewhat contained (i.e., it hasn't hit my butt yet) but I need something, I just don't know what.

I always get a little blue around this time of year, but this isn't just blue, it's blue and blah - a really bad combination. Y'all are so inspirational, though. Keep sharing the good things for each of you, and hopefully I'll snap out of this soon.

Congrats to each of you Fall Frolickers - you are all beautiful, amazing women...inside and out. From the pictures, it is clear your hard work is paying off.

The Biggest Loser!

UPDATE: I Forgot Amy, alas, my humanity is showing...sorry, girl! Also, Mary has just joined us, so I am adding her, too. I am not sure what we are going to do with this, but hey, it's worth trying out.


Hey, I watched the first show of the Biggest Loser last night and was so inspired! I so know where these people are at and it is amazing to me the radical changes they are willing to make for their health. I thought it might be fun to split our blog into the blue and red team and support these men and women. What do you think?

Red Team

Jules
Amy
Tracy
Jenny
Coreen
Elicia
Debbie
Jennifer
Mandi
Peggy

Blue Team

Kristina
Kimiko
Lisa
Tina
SueAnne
Paige
Mary
Sundee
Jodie
Kristin

You can go to their website and see who is who. We could even individually pick a certain person to cheer for! Don't feel obligated, just another way to funnel energy into our blog and inspire our own growth.

Love, Jules

Welcome Mary!

I would like to introduce you all to a sweet, sweet gal who is apart of my Prism group that meets every Thursday night. Welcome, Mary! We are so glad to have you here. Don't be shy. Feel free to comment on any post and to post anything that is on your heart. This includes the bad with the good. We really rely on encouragement here, so any advice and kind words you have for others will be greatly appreciated. It is our new "junk food". Ha! Also, if you have any friends or family members who would like to join, you can invite them. I have made you an administrator on the blog so you can do this as well as monkey with the template and add a weight loss ticker, too. (see bottom of page)

Welcome, welcome!
Jules

Verklempt

Verklempt: (Yiddish and German) Adjective, to be overcome with emotion. Check out the reation to Kristina our Elicia had to her amazing weightloss.

A few shots of Kristina before she got moving!

These are some ancient photos of our girl...The one in the purple sweat outfit was when she was moving to California. I think it was around '99. And the one in the orangish outfit, well, that was one of her favorite outfits. I remember how beautiful she felt in it. Compare these shots with this weekend....What a warrior!

Goals

Hello friends!

Well, after spending time with our skinnier than ever friends yesterday, I have the hope and energy to continue. My goal for this week (that's right one week at a time right now) is 4 work outs, all my water, under 1500 calories per day and NO mocha frappiccinos. I will be checking in daily for the mocah issue. Because I really have an issue. I am just an addict. Can't do this one in moderation. If I didn't have taste buds, I could just shoot it into my veins.
Kristina's skinny, size 10 butt is really my inspiration:) This will be a lofty goal believe me. I just started my cycle and feel really lovely and bloated. Working out is so fun then-NOT. With any luck, maybe I will be down to what my ticker says by my next weigh in. I will check in this time tomarrow to let you know if my car kept on driving past my coffee shop!
Cheers to less of us!
SueAnne

Julie listens to us thank her for starting the blog.

We give ourselves CHEERS TO OUR SUCCESS (and remembering those who weren't able to attend)









Then, we went shopping!

Julie presents Kris with her award.

Kris shares her secrets too - "Work OUT - IT WORKS" she says.

Queen Livealot Reveals her Secrets!

Further Frolic

Jenny explains her secrets to success.

Kimiko flashes her beautiful pearly whites.

Fall Frolic pics

Here is our beautiful group of ladies who were able to come to the Fall Frolic!
Left to right: Jules, Jodie, Jenny, Hannah, Elicia, Kristina, Paige, SueAnne, and Kimiko.

Kimiko after her new uplifting foundation!

Kristina, purchasing size 10 cords at Ann Taylor! She has gone down 2 more sizes since the spring!

Where oh where has Kristina's butt gone? Oh where oh where can it be?

Our inspirational Jodie, with her lifetime award for making goal in August.

Jodie and Elicia and Paige, waiting for our food at Red Robin.

Jules, handing out the trophies! So much fun!

Jenny and her daughter Hannah, talking about her 2 most life changing tips.

Beautiful Kimiko and her "Most Improved" award.

SueAnne and her "Most Tenacious" award. Keep sticking with it, girl! We are rooting for you!

Together, we have lost 134.2 lbs.! WhooHoo! Kristina received a trophy marking her "75 lbs. Gone!"

Sweet friends. Elicia cried when she saw Kristina. It was a very moving moment. I will post the video later. Stay tuned.

So who of us would DARE to order the chocolate shake???? Our "Word Master", that's who, and more power to her, baby!

Kimiko and QueenLivalot!

Jules and Kristina on our way to the Frolic.

SueAnne traveled with Kimiko over an hour to get to the event. So glad she came! Kristina was "eating" up the time with her. It was hard to say goodbye.

Our awards!

Fall frolic

(Here I am at my heaviest, 250 pounds) ( To the right I have lost 26 pounds, now I am down 30 pounds.)

I had such a good time yesterday with all you ladies! When I got back home, the first thing I did was try on all the clothes that Kristina and Jules passed down to me ( Thank you!). So many of the tops were size 16,18 and 20's and they all fit! Can you believe it? This is so big. I was a 3x and bustin' out of that at the beginning of the year. So to fit in to these smaller sizes was huge for me. Fitting their clothes inspired me to try on "the can't fit yet" side of my closet. I was able to move over so many tops and a pair of size 20 pants. Yippee. My give away pile received all my 22 and 24 pants and skirts and tops that were really baggy and unflattering on me.

I am so inspiried from seeing Kristina's tight little bottom in her new black jeans that I am roaring to go full speed ahead on my exercise plan. Kristina is the "poster child" for excercising being great for the body. She isn't flabby at all! So I am sticking to it too. I am saying, "No to the flab!"

Well my goal for October, November and Decemeber is to lose 17 pounds to get out of the 200's before the new year. That is only 6 pounds a month. Very doable. I wouldn't even have to starve, or give up all my favorite treats.

Have a great week everyone!

Smiles

Marathon, not sprint

Hi ladies.
I haven't posted for a few reasons. One being ridiculous busy-ness, which isn't really a good excuse. The other is that I've been struggling a little. I'm still doing so-so eating, and exercising, but I'm not going at 100% anymore, to be honest. I'm getting tired of thinking about this all the time, and saying no all the time. I'm also tired of getting up early.

I haven't stopped. I just need some renewed motivation.

I do have a confession though. Last night I binged like I haven't binged in a long time. Mac and cheese, then I ate four poptarts (of the chocolate chip cookie dough variety). They must have been in the pantry from the last time my niece and nephew visited, and I was jonesing for something... well, rebellious to be honest. I felt gross after- kind of like I had, well, eaten four pop tarts.

Like I said, I need some renewed motivation. I'm going to have to reach inside of myself to find this.

That being said, I want to show a little of my progress:

Here's me last year at the NYC Buddy walk:
I weighed probably about 200 here? Maybe 210.












Here's me in January, when I was at my highest.
I weighed about 220 here.












Me at my friends wedding a few weeks ago:
I'm about 187 or so here.












To round out the narcissicm, a recent pic of me at this year's buddy walk:
That's me, my husband, and my nephew. I think maybe it's hard to tell in the not-s0-great pics, but I've lost 20-30 pounds since the last buddy walk. I wore the same pants- last year, they were really too tight, this year, really too baggy!























No mysteries here Jules!!
Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Victory!

Good morning Ladies! I know I will see a few of you later today, but I was so excited I needed to tell someone. As you know I have been a bit frustrated lately. It seemed no matter what I did, I wasn't losing any weight. I've been stuck at 221 for about 3 weeks. During this time the Lord was teaching me a lesson about perseverance. Learning to do what I know is right even through the disappointment and frustration. He was teaching me not to give up even when I felt so low. I think the most significant change I can see in me over these past few weeks is that I didn't binge, as I would have in the past. Instead, I went to the Lord in prayer asking what I needed to change so I could move forward. He showed me a few things I needed to do to tweak my diet and exercise plan to better fit my body makeup. Desperate to see change, I put those things into practice this week. When I weighed myself this morning I had lost 4 more pounds! Thank you Jesus! I know this might sound a little odd but I don't know if I have the words to express how grateful I am to be known by God and to know that the things in my life that concern me, is also a concern to him. Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Kristina and Jules back in the day....

We were both Curves babes. But we were not too curvy.

How far we have come!

I've lost more inches around my body than my own height!!!

I'm at about 10 pounds under my heaviest weight here...

I just got back from Curves, where I had my monthly weigh and measure... I've lost another 3 1/2 inches! Bringing my grand total up to 67 inches! I'm only about 65 1/2 inches tall you guys. This is HUGE for me. Talk about a moral booster! : ) My weight hasn't changed since last weekend, but do I sound like I am discouraged? Let me break down my inches since I've not done that for a couple of months. I've lost 10.75 inches off of my bust, 10.25 inches off of my waist, 13.25 from my abs, 13.75 from my hips, (Or what's left of them): ) 10 inches from my thighs, ( 5 inches each), 9 inches from my arms, ( 4 1/2 each), and my body fat % has gone down a solid 10%! I am sooooo ready to do some more shopping tomorrow!