The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[bikipatra]

Ah, wearing something on purpose that is not supposed to match - don't know if I can do it. If I wear jeans and a shirt, can the shirt be like a solid color that is found in the shoes? Like, I could wear a brown shirt with either pair. Sorry if I'm being stupid. I actually thought I would need a leopard shirt and a camo shirt to wear them - and where would I find that?

The solid t would be fine. But if it has to be solid, think how much cuter a bright red tshirt, jeans and the leopard shoes would be. There are so many of those retro conversation tshirts out there that would look fine with either pair as well. For ideas of the types of shirts I am talking about go to triple w dot shopkitson dot com and look under women's shirts. Then buy the same look at a cheap clothing store.

[katesmom]

Just wanted to say Hi !
Have a great day !

[Serendipity]

Maybe TSFL has an FA designation, bebes............FASHION ADVISOR!!!!

[bikipatra]

Maybe TSFL has an FA designation, bebes............FASHION ADVISOR!!!!

I want my medallion and I want it NOW!!!!!

[nickieluv]

I am so fashion backwards, Biki, that I would never think of red with leopard. I can picture it - but I'm still worried someone would look at me and think I'm colorblind! I pledge to try it on one of the casual Fridays at work this fall and see what happens. I'll be daring!

Down a little bit overall this week - back under 200 anyway. I am truly looking forward to being back on plan tomorrow. I am getting impatient with myself and tired of waiting for goal - but all the waiting is my own fault. Onward and downward - seriously, I do have to fit into that New Year's Eve outfit. And I've officially decided to not start the family growth until 2008. This is going to seem very selfish - but I don't want to miss out on toasting the New Year as a thin me!

Hubby and I worked on our budget yesterday and we are 99% sure we're going to cancel that vacation to Florida. We both really want to go, but in the long run we have to think of using that money in a better way so that I can be out on leave again without killing our financial situation. I haven't pulled the plug officially with Disney, though, because 4 months is a long time and who knows how we'll feel about it in January - and I don't want to cancel it now only to be moaning about it after Christmas. The good news is - we make enough to pay all our bills. We just squander money too much (20 bucks here, ATM withdrawal there, pair of shoes everywhere...). So the next step is allocating what gets paid out of each check and figuring out how long it will take to pay everything off. That's the fun part. I feel calmer already just knowing that everything will be paid, and I don't have to spend every Friday trying to figure out what's the most important bill, because it's already going to be laid out for me in advance what gets paid when. Phew!

Anywho - off to church soon, then off to the water park. Yesterday I felt pretty chunky - this morning I feel good for some reason. I just hope it doesn't rain all day, and that the baby has a good time, and that in general it's a fun day and not a bust. You never know with these things.

Have a great Sunday, all!

[nickieluv]

We're home and we're all exhausted. It was a great day. The baby went on some rides - she even did a baby roller coaster with her daddy - and she was a good sport even though she didn't get a nap today. She went to bed the instant we got home and she didn't even want a bedtime story - she just wanted to climb straight into bed! Sweet thing.

So - tomorrow's the day. Back on plan, back on track to my goals. Pretty exciting. I think it's going to be hard - I've been eating whatever for a long time now, it seems. Only one more week of summer, though, and then I have the luxury of my work schedule to keep me on the straight and narrow. I totally think I could stay compliant the rest of the way to goal. I always could, really - I just didn't. I'll try to this time.

Yeah, I said 'no sweeping statements' - they do seem to get me in trouble - but ya gotta have goals, right? And making numerical goals isn't a good idea for me, whether it be weight or days of compliance - so I'm not going to count anything, I'm just going to try to get from holiday to holiday compliant. So the first holiday I have is Labor Day. I think Columbus Day comes after that, then Halloween, then Veteran's Day, then Thanksgiving, and then Christmas. So those are my milestones. No more counting anything! That means I can't say 'only XX days until such and such holiday.'

Well, I'm not sure what I'm going to do until bedtime - which won't be long from now - man, I'm tired. But it was a nice family day and tomorrow I'm looking forward to visiting my classroom for the first time since June - I'll probably go in every day for at least an hour or so, try to get back into the swing of things and get my daughter used to me leaving every morning again. Lots to do in there - getting started is the hardest part.

OK then - nighty-night gang!

[katesmom]

Good Morning!
I too am heading "back to school" today ! I am a school psychologist and work in two elementary schools...I look forward to the routine too, and I know it will help me stay the course !

Sounds like you're back on plan ! Congrats to you...

Have a great day !

[bikipatra]

Good luck today, Nickie. You know it is probably going to be a little tough, but you have been through it before. Focus on your water and make sure you are eating on schedule so you don't get too hungry. Today is about doing things differently. Wear your leopard shoes and take it three hours at a time.

[nickieluv]

Ooooh, I should have worn those leopard shoes.

It was harder than I thought. I mean, I know I like being compliant - but those habits of the last few days - mostly the habits in my MIND rather than my body - they got to me today. Thinking about food, the whole 'take another week off' schtick in my head - yuck.

So, I need a better plan for tomorrow. The first day is going to be mentally the hardest for me. It's like I've never been compliant before, in a way. It's not about getting past the hunger, I have to get past the mental blocks to success again. Yuck yuck yuck. I wish I'd never gone off. Time to finish my little project with the journal - still stuck at page 50. But I can see it's going to be helpful already the next time I want 'just a bite' of something - IF I actually read it, that is.

I was thinking today (after the debacle) that I'm not going to have anything to wear to work at this rate. After spending who knows how much (I don't keep the best records) on new clothes, that's just stupid. Tomorrow I MUST be compliant, or I will be wasting so much - wasting food, money, time, clothing, self-esteem....

My husband says in the last 2 weeks he feels like I've pulled away emotionally from him. I don't see it as anything but a normal cycle, and us not spending time together - but, 2 weeks ago is when I started cheating on the diet, abandoning myself in a way - so maybe I abandoned him, too, because I was feeling guilty and dirty and ashamed? And trying to convince myself that I wasn't feeling any of those things?

Well, now I know a bit more of what I'm going to be up against tomorrow. I did better today - had 3 compliant meals and 3 liters of water, which is more than usual lately. I will need some plans of things to do in the evening when I start to feel like having one little grape won't be so bad. I can go outside and play with the baby. Read her a story. Play one of the little Nick Jr. computer games with her that she likes. If it's not sweltering, we can go for a walk and visit my mom and sister, and my husband's parents. And I will space my supplements so that my last one is before 8, and after putting her to bed I will drink an RTD and go to sleep early. I will have my bar a bit earlier in the day, probably around 1, to try to tide me over to a L&G between 3 and 4. If I feel hungry I will just drink a bunch of water - and if that means I pee every 3 minutes tomorrow, so be it, it's better than the alternatives.

OK, so I have a better plan than just 'being compliant' - I have specifics. I've just gotta bite the bullet and get this one day done - then do it again the next day. I know from past experience that after a week or two, it will be a habit for me to be compliant and I won't have such a hard time. Now I just must remember not to take that first step off the path - duh! Why is that such a hard lesson to learn?!!?!?!

[nickieluv]

Well I've already been up an hour and a half so I had to adjust my well-thought out schedule already.

I had my first shake around 7, and usually it's 8. I have an appointment this morning so I have to have the next one at 9 - so here's my eating schedule for today. I don't usually post this but today I figure I need the help of actually writing it down.

7 - RTD
9 - RTD
12 - Bar
2:30 - RTD
4:30 - L&G (chicken and broccoli)
7 - RTD
8 - bedtime

When I leave for my appointment I'll have to take 2 RTDs and a bar with me, because I plan on being out of the house until 2-ish, going to work right after my appointment for a few hours. I MAY be stopping by the shoe store - same branch, different town. I keep thinking about those brown heels (well, what counts as a heel with me, anyway) and that means I would actually wear them - they no longer qualify as an impulse buy if I've thought about them for four days. I still can't justify the tall boots - but if they have a shorter pair that's cute I might consider it. I should take a shoe inventory before I leave. I know I don't need anything black - still looking for navy. My husband actually allowed me to pop into Macy's on the way back from our picnic Sunday to look for the navy heels Queenie talked about - but I only saw one pair I liked, and the heel seemed pretty high. Maybe I should have tried them on, though - maybe I can do real heels now, after losing almost 70 pounds. You never can tell until you've worn them all day, though. I think I'll start with a cheaper (and lower) pair and see how it goes, first.

Well, it's going to be a long day certainly. I forgot to say why I was up so early - it was the baby, of course - but it was mostly me. She cried out a little and called for me - and while normally I would just comfort her a bit and tuck her back in her own bed, I had JUST woken up from a terrible dream about losing her and so I grabbed her up and brought her in bed with me. She tossed and turned for 45 minutes - I don't know if she actually slept, but I know I didn't - but it was worth it to have her near me this morning. We'll see if I still think it was worth it tonight when I'm exhausted - well, it was worth it anyway. She'll get a nap - I would skip work today and take a nap myself, but I've told my principal and a colleague that I'd be in all week, so I have to go now.

I got my work schedule for this year and it's - odd. Different. Of course I only have one year to go by, but there are new things on it like an imbedded meeting time on Mondays, and Student Intervention Time which I've never heard of and must be new this year - and I have the ENTIRE grade level of kids at once for a half hour, once a week. So that's going to make sub plans extremely difficult - what do you have a sub do with 150 kids at once? Especially a sub who probably knows not the first thing about music? The good news is that the principal assigned 3 or 4 aides to be in there with me - thank God for that. Maybe I can talk with them about taking more of a leadership role if I have to be out sick or something.

The other very excellent news is that my teaching day ends at 2:30 almost every day - so on the days when my sister can't watch the baby, my husband can bring her to me on his way to work (he leaves at 2:30). This will only happen once or twice a week, and I will of course check with my principal about it first since it's going to be a semi-regular occurrence - but it simplifies things a great deal to not need a back-up sitter. I actually thought about not needing my sister to watch her at all - but my sister would miss her niece, and she also counts on us paying her, so it wouldn't be fair to suddenly tell her she never needs to watch the baby. Plus, I feel having the baby come to work every day would be taking advantage of the situation, and there's no need to advertise that I suddenly teach much less than I used to. Technically they could probably make me half-time with the schedule the way it is now - well, not the way it is now, but with some adjustments. Well, actually, scratch that - but I could be 3/4 time. And I see no reason to publicize that until it's to my advantage to do so. Which it never will be because if they can cut my schedule, how long before they do it to everybody and we're all out of a job? I have a feeling this is something we're going to try this year and then get feedback from the teachers about how it works. They are not losing any prep time, and I can't really judge how it will affect my teaching until I try it and compare it to what I was able to cover last year - and all of this is probably very un-interesting so I'm going to go. Thanks for reading.

[queenielou]

Thanks for posting your meal schedule, Nick. I continue to struggle with the correct spacing for all of my meals, even after 4+ months. I should have a supplement as soon as I get up, but I never do. I'll work on that. Hope your day is going well!

[holberry]

good moring Nikie!

You must be a very strong teacher for your principal to have you take all the kids at one time. Kudos to you

eat well my friend.

[nickieluv]

I did it! I'm going to take one more liter of water upstairs with me, and the final suppy of the day, and I have licked this one! There comes a certain point in the day when I know I'm going to be OK. It was rough about dinner-time, but I made it, and I'm safe.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Hol - but really, I think it's just that I'm a music teacher. What other teacher would be given 150 kids at once? At least it's not the whole school - and I do have aides with me to help out. My first job I taught 80 6th graders all by myself, literally, no aides, in chorus, and it was a - learning experience, shall we say? But having that many kids at once is expected in my area of expertise, and by the way, those 80 kids were only half the chorus so on concert nights it was me, a piano, and 160 11- and 12-year-olds. Talk about trial by fire!!!

I'm in the midst of a disturbing book - "Running with Scissors." I don't like it in the slightest - but now I have to finish it, I'm a little compulsive that way. I'm hoping against hope that it all turns out OK in the end - I'll find out in a few hours, because I'll be finishing it upstairs tonight.

Well, that's all the news - I was compliant today, for real compliant even, no extras - and tomorrow is a new day and I'll be doing it again - hopefully a little easier tomorrow to make it through the day without random foody thoughts.

[nickieluv]

Well, I'm still over ticker but that's because I went up again Monday and Tuesday after roll call. I didn't get an accurate weight yesterday because I forgot to weigh myself ( ) until a couple of hours after I woke up. But I'm just at 200 even today.

I didn't have that huge proud feeling this morning when I woke up knowing I had been compliant yesterday. Maybe compliance is my normal state now, and I only feel guilt when I eat something I shouldn't instead of also feel good feelings when I stay the course. Then again, it will take a few more days before I am flying high in the MediZone - my mood will improve by then, I bet.

Compliance isn't glamorous or exciting but it sure does get results. I truly am optimistic about making it through the fall cheat-free. Weekends and nights used to be tough for me, but I was compliant for almost 40 days during the summer, which is basically one big long weekend - so I think I'm up for the challenge.

I'm hoping to get into work earlier today - but it all depends on when my husband wakes up, and that might not be until 11. I really wanted to go in around 9, but I don't want to wake him up. OK, I DO want to wake him up - but that wouldn't be nice. I got to sleep at 9 last night after finishing my book (nope, it never turned out well - don't read that sucker if you have delicate sensibilities) and woke up twice to use the facilities, pretty normal as I'm getting used to consuming all that water again. But I was able to sleep until almost 7, so I'm feeling pretty rested at the moment. I need to do that a few more times, though. I'm usually good with 8 hours but I've shortchanged myself so much this summer that I need to get extra this week so I'm well-rested for school. Plus, more sleep helps the weight-loss for some inexplicable reason, and I'd like to get back down this week and fit into at least one thing in my closet - get rid of all this bloat.

And I'm basically typing to type, nothing to say, so I'm going to go. Toodle-oo.

[katieb920]

I have to say I give any teacher credit. Even just teaching 10 kids. I think I would strangle myself. You all have so much patience. I went to my sons school once to help with a party and I was like no way. Never again.

Nickie good job on being compliant. Hope you have a great day.

Katie