Stacey, I hear ya! I can always think of something worse I could have eaten. That reminds me, one time when my daughter was 3 1/2 I asked her what she wanted for lunch and she replied, "pork & beans and marshmallows." LOL

I love homemade soup--beef and barley sounds great. That was my fave when I was a kid--but it was Campbell's because my Mom never made homemade. Being pro-active as you are hopefully will keep the hip replacement operation at bay for quite a while. Stretching feels so good.

Terri, I’ve heard you’ve gotta be pretty clever with your maths to be a musical genius, so maybe you and your dad and your family are just two different shapes cut from the same cloth. Is it classical instruments your family plays, or have you got some rockers happening?

Karen, I’m so sorry about your dad. Take care of yourself. You’re in my thoughts.

Rose, I’m so pleased Chico is doing well!

Yunalee, still hoping you’re going to get some good news soon!

Stacey, the worst part of camping is putting everything away. Especially if the tents get muddy and you have to wash everything before putting it away. So I feel for you, and say congratulations on getting everything stored away again. When we go camping (I know this wasn’t a ‘holiday’ for you), we try to go for several nights to make the hassle of putting it all away worth it! :D

Erinmystrom, it seems like most of us are having severe laundry issues! Hope you get it all done. Oh, and welcome!

64Rhoda, oooh, I hope everything goes perfectly for your sister! My first baby was born on my partner’s sister’s birthday and our last was born on my partner’s birthday . . . it makes for festive birthdays!

Mai, don’t fret! Your baby will be fine. She’ll find heaps of friends, even if she’s shy. Enjoy the first few years when she actually likes school!

April, I admire your ambitions. It must be tough to be a foster parent. I wish you every luck with it!

Mern, I’m glad you found out what was making you feel light headed! I guess that’s the drawback for spring . . . but you got your exercise in, so well done!

Thanks to all who gave me props for the plyo. I was dreading it all day Monday, but now I feel quite confident it will only be easier next Tuesday. Maybe no pause button?!

Yesterday, Mother Nature heeded my anti-rain dance and gave me a sunny 36 degC day (roughly 96 or 97 degF), and 78% humidity (was really expecting a storm in the evening) so I got a bunch of clothes washed, and ducked out of my nice, cool, air conditioned house into the sweltering heat to peg it on the line. Walking into air conditioning from a disgustingly hot day is probably one of the most pleasant luxuries modern civilisation has to offer.

I don't know what will happen to the bully who attacked Chico. The woman who was dog sitting him when the attack happened said that the dog had never ever been mean before. I find that hard to believe. I am hoping that the dog's owners will help me out with the vet bills that are now $630.00. This was awful timing for me since I am taking a month off and as a freelancer that is a month without pay.

I am not sure how to pursue this...

Fitness Goals:

1. Keep up the water intake to 10 cups. Yes, Yes
2. Put every effort into my workouts. Yes, Yes
3. Take a multi-vitamin every day. Yes, No (oops!)


Non-Fitness Goals:

1. Start giving the house a thorough clean (one room per day). Ensuite done, Main bathroom, vanity and toilet done,
2. Perform an anti-rain dance and get the rest of the washing cleaned and dried. Dance not successful, but two loads done. Got heaps done . . . still heaps to go (who'd have thought we had so many clothes?!)
3. Get the lawnmower fixed and start on the jungle . . . I mean, 'lawn' again. No. No.
4. Convince my partner to remove the boxes of Christmas decorations from the laundry and store them in his workshop. No (this one will be a challenge), No.

We've decided we need to put some more carbs in our diet . . . several times last week, we were so utterly drained we were walking like zombies. Yesterday, after the disgustingly hot weather and my partner spending all day right in it putting a roof on a house, he came home almost asleep and so dog-tired, yet after an english muffin with some honey on it, he had enough energy to stay up and talk with me on the verandah after the boys went to bed. So I shall have an english muffin with my scrambled eggs (omelets? No, I don't do omelets. I do scrambled eggs . . . :o) this morning. Yum!

behaze thanks! I'm really glad that Chico is doing better too. Wow, 36 degrees!!! That is hot... believe or not here in Canada we have heat waves like that in the summertime and you're right walking into the air conditioning from that heat is luxurious!

Rhoda, CONGRATS on becoming and auntie and on losing another pound!

Stacey, no I am not having an easy time of it. I'm just trying not to get too grumpy about it.

Almeeker, very interesting that your cravings disappeared when you stopped eating grain-based carbs. It's just so hard to give them up completely though! Do you think it is something you can incorporate into your daily life on a regular basis?

April, I think it is absolutely wonderful that you are going to be a foster parent. I recently attended an information session about fostering as well. I am seriously considering it too.

Mern, it sounds like you will have a full house! I hope you can handle all of us and thanks for the well wishes. Chico is curled up next to me on the couch and he's snoring. I love my little guy.

I'm thinking that it may be hard for me to go so low on carbs on the days that I work out. I'm already at 61.8g (net) and still have dinner, a snack and my post workout shake to go. I usually eat a piece of fruit after I workout to restore my glycogen but can't today. :( The bulk of my carbs came from 1/2 a serving of oatmeal (yes, a HALF), 1 medium apple, and 1 low carb wrap.:mad:

Are you really meet up for Spring break? Sound fun!!!
Mai

At the moment I'm on day 2 of being grain-free with very few to no cravings for anything. The odd part is that AF is due in a week, so normally I would be nibbling the house down, or at least wanting to. I've felt hunger at the appropriate times, but not that insatiable "I've got to eat something right now or die" feeling. At some point I'm sure I'll be eating grains again, but I'm thinking that when I need to drop a few pounds here and there to maintain, I will automatically go grain free.

Tuesday Report Card:

Health & Fitness Goals

1. Keep calories to 1,400 M-T-W-T-Sat, 1,650 F-Sun. 1,546, 1,372
2. No grain based carbs for the entire week, including corn! Success, Success
3. Exercise 6 hours. 48 min, 48 min (total 1:36)
4. 96 oz water. YES, YES
5. Carbs under 45%. 34%, 43%
6. Protein over 40%. 44%, 40%

Other Stuff

7. Call SIL and find another race, 5/14/11 is not going to work out. NO, NO
8. Clean 2 rooms (15 min each) + 1 load of laundry. NO, YES and caught up for yesterday as well.
9. Figure out basement shelving layout. NO, NO
10. Write library proposal. NO, NO
11. Work on church design 2 hours (or more). NO, NO

Bhaze, thanks for your kind words. Good luck with that plyo. Whew, it surely is hot there! You can keep that kind of weather! Intersting how people are so different. I get my energy from protein instead of from carbs. But variety is what makes the world go around. Surely would be boring if we were all the same.

Rose, I hope the owners of the dog who attacked Chico will volunteer to help you with the bills. It certainly would be the right thing to do.
Good company, wine, cake--what more could a girl want for Girls Spring Break Week. Mike is welcome, too, if he brings some peanut butter. LOL

Mike, I have no doubt you'll figure out your carb balance. It just takes practice and learning through trial and error of what works best for your needs.

Mai, no, we're not really meeting for spring break. We were just joking around because some members were having cold or snowy weather where they live but where I live it was really warm but not too hot. You would have needed to have time to read all the posts over the past couple days to have caught that it was a joke. :)

Almeeker! Way to go on your Tuesday food and fitness goal achievements!


My Tuesday report:
--Calorie limit 1600, actual 1911 and it was no accident. The leftover chicken cutlet breaded in pork rinds and fried in olive oil was calling my name. Since I did so well on carbs and protein today, I'm hoping that will wash away the extra calories. ;)
--Carbs less fiber limit 25g, actual only 13.8g
--Protein target 120g, actual 144.2g
--Omega3 easily gotten in and is becoming just routine. I may drop this part of my daily report.
No sugar free candy or low carb tortillas or soft tacos today

Water target 64 oz., actual maybe 40 oz.

Exercise: 2 miles aerobic walking DVD

Monday is my cheat day so I need to keep it to +729cal or less. +679

Fitness & Health
1) 65g net carbs per day (again this week) no, it was my cheat day, 65.2g :(
2) work out 3 times no yes
3) 1000 pushups :eek: 166, 160
4) gallon of water a day yes 169oz, yes 128oz
5) multi vitamin (daily) yes, yes
6) fish oil (daily) yes, yes
7) -2400 for the week (including my cheat:eek:) +679 -952

Sorry I've not got time to respond to everyone; I've read all the posts and send hugs to all who need them, and congrats to so many on such a successful day. Time-wise, today truly got away from me and the next few won't be much better. Hope you all are well and enjoying a good sleep, evening, or day (behaze, so many hours ahead, this means you!). I'm thinking of all of you even if I don't get a chance to post. Take care of yourselves :).

Checking in...

1. Balance calories in and calories out (ahem, by the numbers, Mike). Yes, Yes
2. Drink 2-3 big blue bottles of water daily. Yes, Yes
3. Sleep 7 hours nightly (failed miserably at this last week). No 6.5, Almost-6.75
4. Exercise 5-6 days; 2-3 outside. Weights inside tonight, Tennis outside this morning

5. One office organizational task per day. Yes, Yes-a biggie
6. Paint one room of trim IFF no tourney next weekend and/or work doesn't spill over into weekend.

Hi all,

I don't seem to be able to keep up with what everyone is posting. I send lots of strength and stamina to all those who need it and wish all of you a great and successful week!

Molly


Tuesday Report Card

Fitness/ Diet goals
- up protein intake yes yes
- go running at least twice this week (at least 6 ks each) yes (if only 5 ks)
- go swimming once
- drink at least 1.5 litres of water every day!! yes no
- try to do a bit of stretching/ yoga 5 days this week yes
- log in all food eaten*

Non-fitness goals
- get spring cleaning done this week At least I got started...
- get some work done on my dissertation (at least do some research five times this week)
- finish at the very least one book

*One thing i know for sure is that I need to go back to logging in my food. After my run yesterday evening I returned to my flat and was greeted with my boyfriend waving the broschure of the pizza delivery at me. Didn't take me long to gave in and order a creasy creme pizza. What the heck?! I did so great all day long!!! Had fish, a bit of rice, salad, berries as an afternoon snack... so, I need to go back to what I know works. I will start counting calories today!

Okay this morning was the first time I had that feeling that I wanted to eat just anything since starting this grain-free business. It was about an hour after I'd eaten a banana, I did not have a banana on Monday or Tuesday. Bananas are loaded with carbs, and may have to be on my "nope" list while I finish off this week. I've also not eaten potatoes, squash, peas or beans. I may have to experiment with some of those to see if they trigger it like bananas did.

hey all, still no word about that internship, going to my co-op guy later today to see whats going on.

Turns out i'm going to get a brand new lappy to replace my old one. it's going to be free but it's going to have my old lappys warinty on it, and thats end of august this year. Can't wait till next weekend to have it.

Also bought some art books too.

Fitness Goals:

1. Drink 3 of my blue water bottle a day yes!no (only 2)
2. do my workout 6/7 days Yes!yes!
3. 10,000 steps a day yes (10,017)no 5500 apox
4. start cal counting again, limit 1900 no 2,136, no 1936 (so close)
5. no fast food yes,yes
6. (forgot to add before) go swimming once a week no, no

Non-Fitness Goals:

1. finish my current homework do to list finished one thing but it was pose to be done long agono
2. put away clean laundry done about time
3. put away dirty laundry easy once clean laundry is put away
4. clean off floor and vaccum it. picked up a few things still have some things to clean up, and still need to vaccumno

Oh how disapointed! I thought you guys have a chance to be together. ;)
I actually don't have a lot of time to read all of the post. I just glance very quickly every morning and night. This thread got very popular too, lots of conversations I can't catch up.
Mai

Wednesday Update
 

Hello All!

This is my first time posting on this thread, but I really like the motivation it provides! My weekend was not great, but it could have been worse! So here are my goals for this week:

Fitness/food:

1. Do some form of exercise every day (at least 5 days of Tae Bo) - M(Yes), T (Yes)
2. Keep my calories under control (not really sure what that means, but I'm trying...) - M(Kinda...), T(Yes)
3. Eat more fruits/veggies (other than bananas) - M(Yes), T(Yes)
4. Stay under 1600 Calories for the week - M (NO), T(No...may amend this goal)

Non-Fitness/Food:

1. Do my best to make it through the work week without getting depressed about the weather (snow/slush/ick!) - so far so good :)
2. Get as much laundry done as possible (the pile just keeps growing!) - getting there
3. Reorganize the kids' toys and gain floor space in our living room - nope

almeeker, I think it's cool that you're becoming your own experiment. It's all about figuring out what works and what doesn't. As many years as I looked for that darn "how to lose weight and keep it off" manual, it's in our own head the whole time.

yunalee, glad you can get your new laptop; free is the best! Good luck with internship; I know waiting is hard.

MollySue, glad you enjoyed the pizza! The horse is ready for you to get back on ;).

Mai, glad you are posting. I ran out of time, too, but it's good to read and keep up. Hope you are having a good day.

Erin, where are you that your weather is so bad?

wildbeanerz, just a thought, but have you considered not buying the stuff that tempts you? Do they seriously make rainbow flavored cookie Pop Tarts? I had a conversation with a friend the other day and she was telling me that her kids "wouldn't put up with" not having the goodies...they are 10, 6, and 3. But she is the mom and she can make the decisions. No, you can't sweep all their stuff out and go all "earth momma" and feed them sprouts for snack, but I think, and I am sure almeeker can attest, that if you make small changes over time, you can work the unhealthy stuff out of your home and replace it with better choices. Other than not having it around, my tricks for not being tempted are buying varieties/flavors I don't particularly care for or having my son or husband stash it somewhere so that I don't know where it is. Good luck...I know I always have a hard time when I am at home by myself; your plan to keep busy is a good one.

Well, I caught a bit of a break today. My 5-hour eval canceled and I replaced it with a 3-hour one, so I only have 6 hrs worth of evals today. I'm frantically trying to find something to do with the chicken I'm thawing; I will have an hour from the time I get home till we have to leave for tennis drills. I love to cook; I often dislike deciding what to cook!

YES!!! Why are so many parents afraid of their kids??? A 6 and a 3 year old making parenting decisions is frightening. I know that I have posted this before, but I slowly weeded my home of unhealthy snacks and fats over time. Now, I've actually seen my daughter come home to eat because she didn't like the deep fried menu offered somewhere else. Or blot off the top of a cheese pizza because it was "greasy" on the top. Last week, a local store was handing out individually wrapped pastries as samples. I brought one home, since my husband and daughter often take their own lunch and I thought it would be handy for one of them. My daughter packed it the next day. When she returned home, there was one bite out of it and the rest had been tossed back in the bag. When I asked her why, she said it was too "processed"... her word, not mine. All I had to do was give her the "tools" and she took it from there.

Same rant for parents that have lost the ability to say "no". (...but I'll leave that one for another day! :D)

For the most part, we don't buy a lot of "junk food" but I do buy the boys pop tarts and yes, that is the new flavor I found this week. My boys are used to healthier snacks like yogurt or fruit but I try to every other night allow them to have something that isn't so healthy like ice cream or poptarts or snack crackers. They are both very fit kids. The older is 13 (almost 14 :( ) and is 5'11" and weighs 135lbs. His size 30 waist jeans sag real low with his boxers out all the time! The younger is 12 and is about 5'8" and he'd be lucky if he weighs 120lbs. They eat very healthy dinners at all times. Even extra helpings of veggies! :) We have done a very good job of showing them the ways to eat healthy if only we had learned how to follow those rules ourselves sooner in life. We eat the same as them at dinner but then later would practically eat another dinner for snack time and that was our downfall. We are correcting that now and I am pushing myself really hard to not backslide into that.

I love all the advice & encouragement here. It is nice to talk to others about it who know what you have been through. Not that it is bad, but I don't think someone who needs to lose 5 lbs so they can fit in a size 2 jeans doesn't know what I am going through needing to lose 150lbs.

I don't know who you're referring to, but if it's me, my comments were directed at the mother of the 6 and 3 year old who ran the show, not you.

No not at all...actually I hadn't even seen your post. We must have posted at the same time. I had to go above my post to see yours.

I actually hate to see people with their kids running the show too. Not to get too personal but we have a certain family member who has children that will be two in April and one that was just born in November so about 18 months apart. They stay up until 3 or 4 in the morning because they won't lay down to sleep??? WTF? Take some control now or look out when they get to be teens!!!

Sorry if any of my original post sounded defensive. I work hard at taking care of my family and I believe that everyone that I have met on this site does the same! :)

Sorry for late reporting!
 

jj - I hope you find some order and peace this week - life sneaks up on you sometimes, and it never rains but it pours! Just remember to find some fun in your work!

rhoda -- Congrats on soon-to-being an aunt!! (I think soon-to-being should totally be a verb...) I hope that whatever gender, it comes out happy and healthy, and makes your family all the stronger :)

almeeker -- Wow!! Maybe I'll have to try grain-free one of these days. I'm still wrestling with simply balancing out cals on a daily basis, and I often don't do well with a "you can't have this" attitude for a long time (Tell me I can't have something, and I immediately want it!), but a DAY or two I could do, especially with results like that! Thanks for the insight!

wildbeanerz -- Fostering is such a wonderful thing to do; opening your heart to a child in need like that, how wonderful! I wish you luck and good success on your path. It's especially difficult to love and let go, you must be very strong indeed! And since you ARE so strong, get that food out of the house and put your foot down about it, if it tempts you! :D

Mern -- Your Dad sounds like a one-of-a-kind person! It's great that you have so many fond, unique memories of him. I hope my Dad will be around with us for a long time too. Unfortunately, he's always been the "eat, drink, be merry!" sort, which is great for an attitude but has proven terrible for his health. He's Type 2 diabetes, and while he takes his medicine religiously, he trusts it to "do the job" as it were and has made no change to his diet except for eliminating "enriched' pasta and replacing it with whole wheat. It's a great step, but there are still cookies, candies, and starchy chips all over the house. He says he'd rather "die happy and unrestricted." He's stubborn, so it's tough. And thank you - aw, your dog sounds like he had a great home! Shyla came to us from a shelter too - she was 3 days from being put down, and we had to take her home! As for my protein -- I was having leftover pizza slices for a couple of days there (there's this great thin-crust pizza from a place nearby that's about 100 cals a slice) and that was keeping my carbs too high. Done with that now, I just hated wasting the food, lol. :D

behaze -- Perhaps so! You know, even though I'm a scientist, I sort of stink at math. I really have to work through problems every day on my job and often have people double-check my numbers, so take that for what it's worth! lol. Most of my family plays classical - my aunt was the first oboeist for the Coast Guard Band before she was in a car crash (she now tutors), and my uncle is the current conductor for the Coast Guard band. All of their children play several instruments - piano, flute, guitar, trumpet, cello off the top of my head. One is on a music scholarship to college, and the other works in the music editing industry. The third is still in high school and a little more sporty, but loves his trumpet. My other uncle is a music instructor and played jazz/polka clarinet for a traveling band (they were up for a Grammy!) My sister is an excellent singer, as are my Nan and Pop from that side. It's a lot of music!

Rose: Ugh! I hope you do get help with that vet bill! What terrible timing. I am totally rooting for you to win the lottery, it's due!

I don't have kids so it's difficult for me to have an opinion about how to raise them (when I really DON'T EVEN KNOW, lol, as my friends with kids like to tell me. I don't even have a niece or nephew or anything like that yet), but I think we all do the best we can. Hugs!

Tuesday Report Card

Fitness, Exercise and Lifestyle Goals:
1) Under 1400 cals every day and log EVERYTHING. M: yes, 1200 on the nose T: yes, 1120
2) Average 30% daily protein for the week. M: 23% T: 30% (weekly average 26.5%)
3) 96 oz. of water EVERY day. M: 104 T: 72
4) No weighing until Friday! M: N/A T: No weighing!
5) Work out 5-6 hours, split between weights and hard cardio. M: Day off T: No exercise
6) In bed by 11:30 every night M: Yes, I promise I will! T: Close, but no cigar
7) Buy a heart rate monitor this weekend. M-F: N/A

Non-Fitness Goals:
1) Finish edits to my scientific manuscript (this manuscript is the culmination to my dissertation, I want it out in the world!) M: No T: Good chunk of it done!
2) Make efforts on my appearence every day - hair, makeup, clothing. M: Yes T: Not really...
3) Get every scrap of laundry hiding in the closet cleaned. M: No T: BF took care of it!
4) One hour of needlework every day. M: Yes T: No
5) Have an "outside date" this weekend (the weather is SO beautiful). M-F: N/A
6) Buy new makeup. M: No T: No

Yesterday ended up being an unexpectedly hard-working day, but I feel accomplished in a professional sense. I wasn't very hungry, and my water intake was down, but there is a trend for me to eat and drink less when I'm very engaged in work - I just don't listen to my stomach, and only ate when was forced to pause in work. Even then, it was a mental thing like "Oh, I should probably eat..." rather than a physical sensation of hunger. I'm going to try and keep my protein up today (I did at least manage that yesterday!) and definitely get a workout in, or I know the stress will creep up and hit me where I least expect it, as will the lack of cals (I don't do well under 1200) and I'll go on a binge. So today I am going to try to up my intake a little, maybe around 1300.

Also, minor victory: I got home at 9:00 last night, and BF and I were too pooped to cook, so we ordered chinese. Happy to say that I only ate steamed dumplings and didn't sneak ANY noodles or rice off of his plate, and didn't touch the crab rangoon :D

~Terri

Hi Everyone!

I know I'm a little late for kicking off the week, but I just found this thread! Hopefully this can help keep me accountable for the rest of the week because I have a BIIIIIG goal 4 short sleeps from now: tryouts for a professional cheer team! :S Background: 3 years ago (which now feels like a lifetime ago!) I was a professional cheerleader...but had to discontinue in order to have a surgery in 2009. Since then, I moved cities, and the opportunity to cheer has popped up again...but I had put on about 15 lbs since my last tryout! Now, 10 lbs down, I'm feeling nervous about looking like the biggest person there...but I'm still going to give it all I've got!

This Week's Goals:

1- Exercise every day - Monday & Tuesday: gym session, Wednesday: gym and hot yoga, Thursday: gym and ballet class, Friday: gym. Saturday: day off to prep and rest up for Sunday auditions!
2- Use green smoothies to fill up before dinner and/or in exchange for evening snacks.
3- Use kitchen scale religiously.
4- Keep under 30 g fat per day.

Non-Fitness Goals:

1- Use my self-tanner daily to mitigate my apple-white winter skin! - yuck!
2- Teeth whitening 4 consecutive days pre-tryouts (W, T, F, S).
3- Mystic Tan on Saturday for an extra boost of bronze!
4- Clean bedroom, master bath, closet.
5- Keep kitchen clean!

Yucky Weather
 

CJ...I'm in North Eastern Wisconsin...the Green Bay Area. Got a late season storm yesterday and today. We're supposed to end up with almost a foot total of snow. Fun fun...it DOES look pretty on the trees though! :)

LOVING the Kid Talk!!
 

I just have to say that I LOVE all the responses to "kids running the show". My husband and I are probably somewhat old fashioned when it comes to raising our kids. We have no interest in being their "friends". We are their parents! My kids are 4(almost 5) and 2. The 4 year old is just starting to lip off a bit and he is quickly learning why we don't tolerate that in our house. We get compliments constantly on how well behaved our kids are and how good their manners are. They LOVE snacks like cheese & sausage, veggies (olives, cucumber, raw broccoli, etc) and think the 100% fruit snacks are a "special" treat.

My son asked me the other day why I started exercising all of a sudden. I initially told him because I wanted to be pretty. But then amended it to say because I want to be healthy. Now he tries to do my Tae Bo cardio workout with me! :p

If you're a parent, be a PARENT. Not their friend. They get enough of those at school.

I have that same problem, as soon as I "can't" have it, I "want" it. What I'm doing differently this time is telling myself that I "choose" not to have it. Mentally that approach is much better for me, because now it's not about being deprived its about me choosing to be in complete control. It's working very well so far, I was down another 2 lbs this morning.

I'm cracking up over the fact that you're a scientist that's lousy at math. I'm an architect with dyslexia, but I have one of those freaky math minds, not quite like a savant, but in that neighborhood. I can calculate the tip at a restaurant at a glance and adjust it so the dollars come out evenly in the total, while DH sits there struggles with it. Meanwhile he aced every math class he ever took. Not me, I had much trouble getting really good grades in math, mostly because I couldn't copy the problems down accurately. You should see me in action at the grocery store, generally I know to the penny what the bill is going to come to, which isn't that unusual, but I use coupons and all kinds of other wheeling dealing voodoo at the store. I've tried to teach others how to do it, but they get that glazed over Bambi in the headlights look in their eyes and I've lost them about 3-4 deals in to the shop.

I used to think I knew a lot about raising kids, then I got pregnant, and have since decided I do not know diddly-poo about child rearing. The only thing I know for certain, is that children seem to do well when they are shown consistent unconditional love. Mine also seem to do better in general when I take a deep breath and count to ten when I'm find them especially frustrating. Kids are mirrors, when I yell and scream, they yell and scream, when I'm mean, they're mean, when I'm happy they are too.

wildbeanerz, when I first started doing this I decided that I wasn't going to cook separate meals for me vs the rest of the family, what's good for me is good for everyone. That being said, my family wasn't too enthusiastic at first. Heck they still aren't all that gun-ho about it even still, although the outright mutinous expressions and pouting episodes have diminished. Actually DH is on board pretty much, the kids a bit less so. At one point after reading the nutritional panel on Pop-tarts, I vowed to never buy them again, my little girls do not need to start the morning off with 400 calories of carbohydrates (most of which BTW come from white flour and corn syrup). For a while thereafter I do believe the 9 and 7 year old DD's were planning to overthrow my regime and get themselves a junk food lovin' stepmother, but I digress. Tall skinny teenage boys are a bit different in terms of what they need to start the day.

I haven't gone completely "mother earth" on them, there is still some junk in the house, but it tends to be less so all the time. Sometimes they argue with me over a particular item at the store. My rule is that if you can pronounce all the words in the ingredient label without having to sound them out, then maybe you can eat it. Some other rules I stick by are that if it's made of "grain" then it has to be whole grain. I won't buy cereal that has more than 10 grams of sugar per serving. I generally won't buy any product that has high fructose corn syrup, or corn syrup, unless it's something that can't be made without corn syrup like pecan pie or hard candy. I also insist that if they want to eat junk, that they eat something healthy first, like a piece of fruit, yogurt, granola bar, etc. 9 times out of 10 that gets them too full to eat the junk.

On the Pop-tarts I recently bought 4 boxes of them, they were on sale and after the coupon they were like $.16/box, too good to pass up. Normally they would have been gone in like 2-3 days, but guess what? After the first package all three of the girls said that they didn't really taste as good as they remembered. So I am gaining ground on the healthy front lines.

I read a book a while back called "Just say No, and why your children need to hear it". I spent most of the book wondering how my own mother had managed to write a whole book and never bothered to tell me, and why she would use such a masculine pen name LOL. As it turns out she didn't write it, but she certainly could have. It was a good read BTW, mostly reinforcing my own philosophies. The author's main premise was that we need to tell our children "no" because they need to learn to hear it and accept it as the answer.

jj- I can see why it would be great to be a hermit, hopefully it means that better days are to come.

almeeker/ quinn- I'm going to have to get that book. I was raised by parents who had very clear lines to what we could/couldn't eat. It would confuse us to no end why our "fruit role ups" came in wax paper (my mom would make real fruit puree and bake it to a leather) The funny part is my friends used to want to trade for it instead. There was no such thing as pop until we were in our teens. Now my fiance and I have our house which will only have pop if there is company coming. We try and keep the "tempations" out of here which makes it a lot easier to stick to.

We know family members who would do great by learning "no". Be it animal or child the knowlege of "no" is irreplaceable for quality of life.

This week is going great down to 119 (4 lbs to goal!:D) though I did slip up a little last night.... ice cream was involved. I'm finding the no refined carbs to be much easier than I expected and am limiting by choice through the week. I just seem to feel better without them.

I am so happy to hear that I am not the only parent on this board who will gladly tell their almost teen " I wasn't put here to be your friend. " when he shouts, "I hate you. You are the worst mom ever!" :rolleyes: Ya gotta love that part of being a Mom. My younger one can be a real challenge and he spends a lot of time with no video games, cell phone or computer when his attitude can't be tolerated any more. I figure if I don't set rules & examples for them now, what are they going to do when they are out on their own? My husband tells them too...if you behaved this way at work...You would be fired. Sometimes that sinks in with him and sometimes not. All in all, they make me proud to be their mom though.

jj,

I absolutely loved your post! Then we wonder why it's hard to stay on a diet, right? :)

almeeker,

I agree. I'm at the other end of parenting. The part where your children are (hopefully) grown, productive, married adults (my 27 year old, anyway). Although I am no expert and certainly have no formal training, I know this as a fact... the example that we set at home, most of the time, is the example that they use to set up their own homes, good or bad. (Although they won't admit it... ;)) Ideas of ours that they like and those that they reject will be used as their foundation.

I think... again, simply my opinion, that it's just as important to be good role models for them with our health, nutrition and fitness as it is to be good role models in other traditional areas. My kids know that, 3 seasons of the year, mom and dad walk every morning and we invite them to come with. They see that good nutrition isn't just a fad or something recently discovered. (My grandmother held a master's degree in food and nutrition from Cornell three generations ago.)

Do we drink? Do we smoke? Do we exercise? Do we take care of ourselves emotionally? You can't fool them. They see everything and they are watching every moment of every day. My 27 year old can remember sentences that I said to him when he was five! :)

Parenting
 

It's is interesting b/c sometimes you try to do everything right but it didn't show.
I have try to feed my kids as healthy as I can. Snack on fruit and vegi, cheese. Every meal have 3 components of vegi, protein, starch. Juice, chocolate milk just occasionally. Hot dog and other junk just have one in a while. Everybody said how healthy their diet is.
But they loves junks (hot dogs, fried food, burger, cake, chocolate, icecream.....you name it). I think some of this is came from gernetic (Daddy's side.. LOL)
Yesterday, my 3 years old request "hamburger and fried for dinner". It took me 30 minutes to explain to him that it's impossible b/c I already have dinner plan (spaghetti and meatball). He gives in at the end but It took some kind of patien for it.
I don't know what he gonna be like when he 13. I am sure I still love him though.

I suppose wildbeanerz was referring to me, and all I can say is that I offer advice that is free for anyone to take or leave. When I hear someone saying that they are having a tough time with something, I tend to share advice that may be helpful. This discussion of food for kids to be healthy has been going on long before today's post and it's a relevant topic that members have discussed over time.

I don't believe I ever said you didn't feed your children healthy foods, only that if it tempts, you, there's a way to avoid that.

I'm here to maintain my weight and to learn and share. That doesn't mean I have any less right to be here, no matter the size of my jeans.

:eek:
What have I missed today??? I guess I'll chime in with my 2 cents, I think that's all I have left. :(

When it come to pop tarts. I use to love them, one of my favorite late night snacks! They do have a ton of calories and bad stuff in them, but that's besides the point. The point that has been missed is that Toaster Strudels > Pop Tarts hands down! :D As I close my eyes I can almost feel the flakey crust and if I had one and my 18 year old daughter wanted it, I'd have to tell her no... as I was eating it!

Call me dumb, but I rarely look at the signatures as far as how much weight someone has to take off. I don't think it matters. Whether you have 5, 50, 100, 150 lbs. to take off, it doesn't matter. It's the same struggle. Everyone needs encouragement and motivation to lose and to maintain that loss. It's tough to maintain. Really tough.

If losing weight and maintaining that weight loss were easy, we'd all be skinny, young models out in Cali somewhere, right? :D:D:D

Well I'd certainly like to think so...

Naw I take that back, I don't really see myself as the "model" type, hand me the camera please, I can take it from there.

You're right Toaster Strudels are uber-delicious, artery clogging, love handle building, rectangles of yumminess. Mike you have to take it easy on my this week, dude I'm grain-free, and thanks to you I'm now experiencing phantom fragrance sensations, like what it would smell like if I hung my head over a hot toaster full of strudels.