The New Joan.....

Here I was yesterday exactly one week being at goal.

Changing/Exchanging?? Which do you need to do?

Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.

H.L. HUNT

Good Morning Sister W.W.F.F.,

What are you willing to exchange to get to your end goal? Or if your already a lifetime member, what are you willing to change to stop the ''flip flopping"? Both valid questions.

For me I had to do a ton of exchanging and even now I have to decide what else I am going to change to get myself into what I like to call, ''maintenance rhythm". Last week was my first week on maintenance, and I was up .2 pounds. I had already been told I would probably have a gain, so I was prepared for that, and since it was such a small gain I feel pretty sure it was not really anything that I had done wrong.

We do need to think about the things we can change to make our weight loss or even maintaining our weight loss to go more smoothly. Yesterday we had our weigh in, and yes its the weekend, and I know that most all of us have the hardest time during the weekends. I always did until I got my mind set in the right direction. I cannot treat Saturday and Sunday any different than if it were Monday-Friday. I still get in my activity, it may not be going to the gym, but I make sure I exceed those ten thousand steps on my pedometer so at the end of the day I have a nice number of steps added up.

I found out--something I knew, just did not want to admit to it--I cannot have the treats on the weekends. In fact I am not one of those people that can be trusted with a treat, as I know many of you share that same addiction. So back in January I just had to tell myself, ''you have this control problem when it comes to food, there are some thing you are just never going to be able to have."

For a while it was as if someone died, and yesterday I got tested right there at our Weight Watchers meeting. The Ginger Snaps are back and they are back for a limited time. My first thought, ''go get your wallet, buy three boxes?" My immediate second thought was, ''ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" I was so about to set myself up for a disaster. Oh it would be great if I could just eat the one package and move on, but no if I had purchased those three boxes that I first thought about getting, before I went to bed last night they would have been all gone, and what would I have accomplished? Nothing except some really negative thoughts and feeling that would have followed, and I know myself well enough to know, it would have been just the beginning, I would not have been able to say, ''I am on my second week doing maintenance".

So I have changed. I have changed my thinking, I have decided what is more important, that instant joy I think I am getting when I was sneaking and eating out of Bob's Russell Stover's candy at night, or being able to say, "I am more important than any chocolate martini (which I have never had), I am more important than that ice cream sundae, I am important enough to do the research and plan before heading out to eat, I am important enough to myself and to my goal to ask for that take home box before I even begin my meal.

I am, You are, WE ALL ARE IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO MAKE CHANGES. We are worth the effort it takes to get up and get excited. Ladies today is a brand new day, make changes if you need to, if you find you are struggling call a friend, heck you all have my phone number and if you don't here it is 423-8294, if I can't talk trust me, Bob is great in talking people off the ledge, ha. All joking aside, we need support and we try to give it here, we get it at our weekly meetings, we need change, and change can be scary, but you know it can also be really good.

Have a wonderful Sunday, and STAY STRONG,

Love to all,

Joan

Saturday after Weight Watchers 06-13-09

Good almost Afternoon Sister W.W.F.F., (Weight Watcher Friends Forever),

First off I want to welcome Angie and Annie to our daily e-mail group. Ladies, just jump in wherever you like. Some days we have lots of replies and there are days that no one talks. So just make yourselves at home.

I also want to congratulate our Christiane for reaching her 10% this week. Christiane, you are doing so great and you look wonderful. Keep up the great work.

Our Jennifer D. did her first marathon last week. That totally rocks, and even though she thought she had a horrid week food wise, the scale proved to still love her. Great job Jennifer.

It was so great to have Randy, Becky and our Lisa B. back, you all have been missed. I'm sure there were others on our e-mail list that may not have been with us today, and please forgive me for not giving you a shout out, but know you were missed.

Today's meeting notes:

Fifty ways to leave your lover OR 22 ways to lose...weight.

1. Walk....you can walk just about anywhere.

2.Cycle...indoors or out

3.Run...if you can

4.Play...its summer get out with the kids

5.Get with your best friend (call a friend and take a walk)

6.Step it up (do a little bit more)

7.Fitness DVD's (remember the DVD exchange for next week)

8.Skip...be a kid again

9.Dance....4 fast songs will result in 2 activity points.

10.Clean up.....cleaning you house from top to bottom each week, in one year will result in 50,000 calories burned.

now that is a really good reason to clean house.

11.Dig for Victory....work in your garden...get your hands dirty.

12.Isometric exercise....these are much more effective that people really give them credit.

13. Pilate's...harder than it looks, but great results.

14.From the kitchen....police your kitchen, clean out those pantries that are holding all that stuff that can get you in trouble.

15.#15, I can't make out what I wrote...sorry.

16. Yoga....very effective from what I have heard.

17.Simple stretching. I love this one, it does make you feel really great.

18.Make exercise your entertainment. If you have time to set at the computer, then you have time to get up and move.

19.Use local facilities.....we have so many places right here in the Louisville area.

20. Websites....google, you will be amazed at what you can find. Here are the two websites Toni gave us today....

healthierus.gov

simplefitnessgear.com

21. Work outs from the TV

22. Become an opportunist....park further away from the front door of stores. It's summer if you have access to a pool....use it.

Challenge:

Set a 6 weeks activity goal. Come up with some new ideas and new way to get more activity into your day.

Next Week: Breakfast ideas

Thought for the week:

Hiring a Personal trainer

Good

Going for a walk with a friend.

Free

Saving money while getting healthy

PRICELESS.

Wishing Everyone the best weekend possible.

Hugs to all,

Joan

Are you ready for some change.

The first step toward change is acceptance....Change is not something you do, it's something you allow.

Will Garcia

Good Morning Sister W.W.F.F.,

Here we are at the end of the week again. Can it be Friday already? This has been my first week to be on maintenance, and I think I have done pretty well. If you ever thought adding a few points to your daily food intake would be easy, well it's not hard, but I do have to do a bit more thinking and planning. I keep thinking, ''now wait a minute, I had to give up points as I lost weight, now you want me to add points". As I said, I think I have done pretty well, due to I have not been overly stuffed, but I have not been wanting to graze either. It is learning, and it is change, and I guess that is why its called MAINTENANCE.

Each and everyday our lives change in some way or other. Sometimes it is for the good other times we may stand back and ask the question, ''why now"? While I was gone on vacation and Kevin and Marc stayed with their Dad, Bob twisted his back. Now we all know how bad it is if we hurt our backs, but just think about this. Here is a man than has total body ankle-lotis (no joints move & I know I have not spelled it correctly), his spine does not bend, his left arm is the only limb he has that will bend. He walks on crutches, and has done that since he was a teenager, and then his back gets twisted? This change is not something any of us actually allowed, it just happened. Now trust me if that were me, I would be so pissed at the world and looking to the Heaven's asking God, ''now just what kind of warped sense of humor do you have?" Now that is what I would be doing. Not Bob. Bob even though he is much better, his back is still painful, but Bob looks to the Heaven's and says to God, ''do with me this day what seems good in your sight". Bob has uttered that same prayer for as long as I've know him, and I knew the man 15 years before I married him nearly 11 years ago. I asked him one day, ''why do you say that prayer every morning?" His reply to me was, ''well, it has worked so far, so why change it now?"

Things are going to change. Sometimes it will be for the good, and sometimes it may be just because we need to stop look at whatever it is that has changed in a whole different light. Yep, change happens everyday, sometimes we see it and sometimes it happens and we never even realize it did.

Hope to see EVERYONE tomorrow,

Hugs,

Joan

GET UP AND GET MOVING.

HE WHO LIMPS STILL WALKS.

Stanislaw Lew

Good Morning Sister W.W.F.F.,

Right now our gal Cara is on the sidelines, and I know she's feeling pretty down about that, but this is a time that she needs to be sitting this one out. Cara is one of "those people", that exercising is the start of her day. So Cara try and sit back and take it easy for awhile, and let your foot heal and Sweetie, count your blessings, and those blessings are not in the chocolate chips. :)

Here I sit while drinking my coffee trying to wake up, all the while listening to the thunder that is going on outside. Not long ago the sound of thunder would have been my ''excuse" for rolling over and going right back to sleep instead of getting up and getting ready for the gym. A few months ago I would not have even needed an excuse NOT to go to the gym. Now all that has changed, and if I have to miss a day of ''planned'' activity, I feel as if something is completely gone wrong with the universe.

I have heard people say ''when I don't exercise my whole day is off." To that I always thought, ''boy, do you need to get a life." Funny thing is, they always had the life, it was me who had no life.

Yesterday was a super busy day and it was one that was stressful for me, and it was compounded by my not sleeping well the night before. I did get up and go to the gym. Yesterday was my elliptical day, and I did my 55 minutes on the machine, and there were times I just wanted to stop, I just wanted to get off there and not workout. However, it seems everytime I feel this way the "Man upstairs" puts something in my line of sight where I get the message. Yesterday morning when I was thinking to myself, ''you know I'm just going to do maybe 30 minutes and that is it, I'm tired, I don't want to do anymore". As that thought went through my mind, I look up and here comes this man, that by the way I've seen at our gym several times, but the thing about this guy is, not only does he get around on crutches, BUT, he has only one leg.

This man is not at the gym everyday, but it has seemed to me that this man shows up everytime, I am ready to stop, and not give it my all. I have never spoken to this man, I have no idea why he is missing a leg, all I do know is this...when I have those feelings of wanting to quit, and I look up and see this man coming in on his crutches, I am so ashamed of myself that I was willing to ''wimp'' out, that I was willing NOT to give it my best. Here I have two fairly good legs and just because I am tired, I was willing to short change myself.

There never seems to be enough time in a given day to get all the things done that we feel need to be done, but don't cheat yourself out of the time to get some exercise in.

Today, look for ways to get in some exercise, maybe it will be no more than parking further away in the parking lot. If your talking on the phone, get the portable one and walk and talk, and I'm sure you all can come up with more ways to get in some more activity.

We may limp, but its still a walk going on there.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day,

Stay Strong,

Love,

Joan

Are you taking care of your body?

Health is....a blessing that money cannot buy.

Izaak Walton

Good Morning Sister W.W.F.F.,

Last Saturday our topic at Weight Watchers was how we could eat healthier without spending our life savings on food. How expensive having a bed in a hospital really is. So it got me to thinking about my body and all the things it has to do and all the brutality I did and can put it through.

While printing out some pictures last night of myself, there was a picture of me taken in March of 2005 before I joined Weight Watchers. At this time, my one knee had already been giving me tons of problems and on a trip to the Orthopedic doctor he looks at me and said, ''all that weight your carrying around is not helping those joints any." My first thoughts was to give him a quick comeback, due to ''did he really think he was the first doctor to ever tell me anything like this?" Get a number and stand in line. However, something he did say got my attention, and that was, ''for every pound you lose you are taking 4 pounds of stress off your knee joints." At that time I weighed around 280 pounds, so can you imagine how much stress has been taken off those poor joints of mine?

As most of you know I still had to have a hip replaced, plus one knee replacement done, but not until after I had already lost 60 pounds. Losing the weight is what I contribute to my speedy recovery, and now I'm able to walk, do my daily care of Bob, and exercise at the gym for an hour without any of those pains. I can also breath so much better.

Looking back at that picture, I felt such sadness due to I did not realize just how huge I really was. So today I need to apologize to my body, it has given me all these years of trying to keep me going, and only in the last 3 1/2 years have I truly tried to do my part. I have noticed something this week, and I'm sure it sound silly, BUT, when walking I feel so much lighter. :>)

Trying to lose weight is hard, and trying to keep it off is sometimes even harder, but just think of the benefits your body will be giving you.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day, and be good to your body, its the only one you get down here,

Hugs,

Joan

Commitment...ARE YOU??

Commitment leads to action. Action brings your dream closer.

Marcia Wieder

Good Morning Sister W.W.F.F.,

How much commitment are you giving to your weight loss program? Are you just hitting a few roadblocks or it it more like the breaks have gone out and your spiraling down hill at neck break speed.

More and more I hear, ''its the weekends that get me." I can so understand this, due to I was always the very same way until I had to commit to this one thing, and that was this.

For this program to work for me, I have to follow it to the "T". No, this does not mean I can never eat out, it does not mean I can never have a cocktail, it does not mean I cannot take a vacation and have a good time. What it did and still does mean, is this. I have to decide which is more important to me, going out to eat, and asking for that take home box at the beginning of the meal, or will I set there, and even after I hear the sigh continue to pick and eat off the plate until I am miserable and there is nothing left there. Then I leave feeling defeated. When I took my vacation, the decision had already been made between myself and my TISSter, that yes, we will go eat out, but we are going to share the food. The places we ate at just two years ago, we each got a meal and they were big meals, and I would finish mine, feeling as if I needed the jaws of life to remove me from the chair.

I made a commitment to myself back when I joined Weight Watchers going on four years ago. I fell short of that commitment, and fell short many time, but I never gave up. This past January, I decided it was time to recommit to what I set out to do, and it has been hard work, but the results have been amazing.

Sometimes we just need to stop what we are doing due to its not working, and re-start what we know will work. There are going to always be something trying to throw us off track, and you know it does not even have to be food related, it can actually be people trying to throw you off track.

So do you need to make a new commitment? If so, do it this very day, don't allow another day, week, month or year go by. We are strong, and we are worth the effort it takes to reach our goals.

Wishing all a wonderful day.

Hugs,

Joan