***Tuesday Weekly Weigh-In*** 9/4/07***

Hi guys, I am so scared about thanksgiving and christmas. I have found that I can tolerate sweets now, so it is a real conscious effort to stay away. I think that if I convince myself to have it while I am at someone else's house, and not take it home with me, I will do fine. I should just indulge occasionally and it is dangerous to have such things in my house. With that in mind, I make sure I have low-sugar, low fat snacks, I can eat fruit and it helps but I dont want to eat too much of that either. Its really a mind thing. Well, onto my weight stats: HW: 241 (in 2001) SW: 233.6 (12/2006) LW: 150 (8/29/06) CW: 150.8 (today) GOAL : 130

Keep up the great work Angela.. you are doing so well! So thin!

Hi all had a great workout a****er arobics I feel great when I fini**** Hw: 340 sw: 330 lw: 225 cw: 221 (I could not believe it when I got on the scale I had to get off of it and jump back on there again lol) been so long since I have dropped 4 lbs. In one week it just really shocked me. Have a good week mini me

4 lb week!!!! Yeah for you Melissa! WooT! Congrats and keep up the good work!

HW: 268 SW: 230 LW: 136 CW: 136 (went down to 134 but went back up again) It was a pretty good week! Took your suggestions to heart to try to have less fruits and more proteins. It is hard but worth it, I think it helps with the sugar cravings and 'wanting' food overall. Prob. one of the best things I did was to send my sf kettle corn to my mom's house. That food is a craving maker, I think! Now if I think I have to have popcorn it is plain old 100 cal mini bag butter flavor and not very satisfying. End of craving! Wahoo!!! For your question...fall is wonderful but it is my WORST time of year for food wants. (Much worse even than Christmas!) The cooling weather makes me want to bake in the worst way. Last year every weekend before surgery I'd bake something and tell the kids I was 'saying goodbye' to it. They got to like that pretty well and would always ask what we were saying goodbye to this weekend. LOL Now that the baking urge is coming again I have an arsenal of healthy recipes to try! Pretty soon I'll be making a batch of PK's pumpkin muffins. And baking Terri's protein bars is a good help, too. In fact...I may just try to make a batch a la pumpkin. This weather always makes me want soup too and soup just isn't a good option for me anymore. It doesn't 'hold' me and then brings on guilt if I feel I want another serving. May have to work on some stew recipes instead of soups. If anybody likes to make cut-out sugar cookies at Christmas, I have an American Diabetes Association recipe that should be just fine for us post-ops. I used to always make a batch up in maple leaves to go along with my pumpkin custard recipe to serve my FIL on Thanksgiving. Not a very sweet recipe but still good. Personally, the white flour in it would be too much of a trigger for me so I won't have any myself.

Hey there Molly! I am glad you are finding higher proteins are curbing the carb monster a little. Seems we have to blast him once in a while to get him off our backs. I love pumpkin anything so I am interested in trying PK's recipe for those muffins. Those Christmas Cookies sound good, we have a lot of diabetics in our family.. i wouldn't dare touch them either.. just too tempting to want more and more for me b/c of the white flour also but at least I could bring them for a christmas treat.. heck the diabetics in our family eat what they want anyway, sigh. What can you do? I also love soups.. but you are right not a good choice for us, so I was thinking very hearty stews.. no much liquids... we should come up with some things.. I will also look through this new cookbook I got for slow cookers and post some things as I see them and think they would be good WLS recipes.

Good Morning everyone! My usualy weigh in is on Thursday...but I decided to join you all and I have changed it to Wednesdays now. HW: 392 SW: 357 LW: 221 CW: 220 Considering my night time munching...I am amazed at this one pound. I don't know what my problem is. I do great all day but when I get home and the baby is in bed I munch. NSA popsycles, cottage cheese, whatever is handy. I am going to have to stop buying this stuff. Yes, it is not bad, bad, but, when it is too accessable it is BAD. My problem is by the time I get home from work I don't feel like cooking so we eat easy meals, hence the munching...even my 3YO does it. We don't feel like waiting and too hot for cooking still so we do something easy. Gotta stop this. Seasonal eating...not really. I have always been a sweets eater...not so much after WLS. I do like the smells of fresh baking but can resist the sweets for the most part. More than one cookie and I will be in dump mode thank goodness.

Hi Elaine! Yes nighttime munching has always been my downfall.. sigh. I hear you there. I honestly eat the bulk of my calories now towards the end of the day b/c I stay up late. I am a night shift worker so its just my clock I guess. I don't usually eat my first meal until almost noon, it works for me.. Maybe try a day like I did this week. Yesterday I spent a day in the kitchen preparing foods ahead of time that I could freeze.. I made two pots of chili to freeze a bunch of 1 cup servings (I take it to work with me) and I made 2 batches of my crustless mini quiche muffins.. freeze 2 in a baggie so all I have to do is nuke.. it really helps to have these items available in a pinch. I also always keep deli meat and low fat cheesesticks/jerky in the fridge. I also keep prefrozen cooked chicken breasts (no not as good as regular) but if I get where I wanna grab other things this is easy to nuke up. Hope this helps!!!

HW: 265 SW: 240 LW: 174 CW: 173 Hi Melissa, I hope all is well with you, you're looking GREAT!! I've been MIA mostly...I'm just soooo tired lately, plus school has started for my kids, my husband, and myself, plus home schooling the oldest. Am I crazy?? Well, technically yes I am. I had gotten up to 176 a few days ago, but I'm sure it was water retention. I spent a great deal of time on my feet on Saturday and Sunday...and the scale showed it. This morning I'm at 173, I was shocked. Didn't make good choices, I've found if I don't eat 2 bananas a day, I crave sugary things. So this weekend I indulged much more than I should have. I have learned sugar doesn't make me dump. Thankfully, I kept portions in perspective. And while the "goodies" didn't make me physically ill, it didn't make me feel good emotionally. I did learn however that those sugary treats didn't taste as good as I remembered them to have. So good news is that I can live without them. YAY! The only exception was the almost half of blueberry cake donut from Dunkin Donuts. OMG...it was like heaven...BUT my victory there was I CHOSE not to eat the whole thing. I could have easily eaten it all, but I didn't WANT to, and so I didn't eat it. That's a HUGE step for me. I don't know about food wants/desires changing with the season, necessarily, so much as it's just being pregnant and having different cravings. Thankfully they pass before I act. I play the waiting game...if I'm still craving it after a week, rather than that moment, I MAY have some. Unless of course it's healthy and fits within my eating plan. I think one thing I will miss this year is apple cider and donuts. Though at the moment it doesn't sound at all appealing. Anyway, I blathered on enough, I hope everyone has a great week!!!

Hi Shawn!!! Thanks for the compliment! Good for you for realizing if you eat 2 bananas you keep the sugar monster away! So you know you not a dumper now eh? But that's ok b/c you know now that it really doesn't do much for you! What an awesome thing. But ya know what just b/c you didn't dump this time doesn't mean you won't next.. I have heard that anyways. I also loved cider and doughnuts.. I used to go to an apple orchard every fall when I lived in Kansas City.. I told husband we are gonna go again this year.. in Minnesota but this time I bring home yummy apples instead and just enjoy the scenery and fall leaves changing.. I will still salivate over the cider and doughnuts.. just not touch them. Haha.. oh well. Glad you are keeping that little one growing inside of you nourished. Are you feeling good?