OWOA meet in Cambridge

Hey all

Ok, so here is my introduction post. I'm ChristyF and I have a serious addiction to Mexican food and hushpuppies. My plan of choice is South Beach. My current weight is around 140, although my lowest was 135 since starting OWOA, and my goal weight is 125. I was well on my way until I moved back to my hometown after 13 years! Now I am going out much more to dinners with the family and usually about two to three times per week we go eat Mexican, fish, or barbeque(this is where the hushpuppies are!). We also went to Disney World in August and that explains a few lbs of the gain. So, I know what to do...I just need the will to do it!

Well thats the weight stuff....Here is the personal. I am married to a Marine(John) and I have two awesome boys(Cody 12 and Dylan 5). At the present time,the boys and I are not living in the same state as the hubby. He has 3 years of active duty left before he retires, but I had an amazing job opportunity with a company I love and worked for while I lived in PA, that required me to move early. The plan is that we sell our house in PA and start building our final(yay) house in my hometown. We are going to be living separate for a little while longer, but he is supposed to be moving to NC(where we are) very soon. Then we will have weekends as a family! It sounds a little strange to most, but throughout our marriage we have been through a lot of family separations due to FREQUENT deployments with his job, so we will manage just fine. I am a member of the church I grew up in and I feel so blessed to be back home. I have the most wonderful family and friends you could ever ask for and I try to spend as much time as possible with them all. I love riding horses and I have one(Belle). My grandfather has stables and when I was younger we rode a lot. It feels almost like I just picked up with everyone where I left off 13 years ago! Also, my best friend(Hi Hope) and I walk a lot and play tennis.

So I guess that's it...Now I'm off to find a picture. Nice to meet you all(again)!

Random Food Fact

Yesterday, our cat ate a squirrel. 

Hola, Mate!

I've safely arrived in England and our very own Debs was kind enough to pick me up from the airport, even though it is an hour away from where she lives!  We wasted no time in snapping a shot with my MacBook once I excavated my UK adapter from my luggage and plugged in my computer.  

Ok, that's just about all I have the energy for right now.  Just wanted to let ya know I safely arrived.  I just posted a bit more on my blog, so feel free to check it out.  But don't be too expectant, it's not that great of a post . . . 

Introduce yourselves, please

Yeah, I know. I haven't written a proper introduction post either, but I've been depressed and had a sickness bug, what's your excuse?
All I'm asking is a quick hello post, which will hopefully include a photo. I don't wanna have to start being mean, but some people need to be around a bit more, hint hint.
(yes, you do need to email Tami and write a post. Cos i'm mean like that!)

Meet the team page

I just wanted to put up a reminder to everyone to send me an email answering this post.
So far I have received info from:

Missy

Debs

Christy F

Kimberly

Bird

Nikki

Julie

If your name is not on that list please send me an email (tlb81003@normalonline.com) by the end of this week.

Thanks much guys!

Recipes

For anyone that didn't already know, here's a quick reminder that there is a site where all the recipes from the old OWOA can be found. I'm still in the middle of tagging them, so it is a bit of a trawl to look through them, but I'll try to get to it soon. Promise!
Look here.
And for blest's oatmeal muffins you can look here

Tuesday Triumphs

Tell me something that you've triumphed in this week...
Could be getting in exercise, sticking to your food plan, or it could be totally unrelated to weight loss. I don't care! I just wanna see comments ;)

Just me

Okay, okay. So I told Debs like 2 weekends ago that I'd get an intro post written up last Sunday (the 7th). So, I'm a little late. Last week I had a friend from TN visiting and the connection speed on my husbands laptop was not the best.

Okay, all about me...(not). I'm a 26 yr old wife and mother to 2. I'm amazed every day at how quickly my little ones are growing and the continual independence they display. After I had my youngest (January of 2006) I weighed somewhere in the ball park of 260. I've worked (ever so slowly) at loosing the weight. I am now starting this blog with a weight of roughly 193. I'm an avid crafter and recently started school in order to obtain a Bachelor of Science and then a Master of Science in Holistic Nutrition. Sometimes it seems so completely odd to me that I weigh what I weigh and want a degree in nutrition but I do. I learned how to eat from my family and I know that my children watch and learn from me. I want to instill healthy habits in them. I also want to be able to help anyone else that I can particularly people with stories similar to mine. Um...my goal is to weigh around 140. I'd say my maintenance range will hopefully be 140-145. Let's see, I now reside in WA (where I was born and raised) but want to go back home to TN. My Granddaddy was from the South and his blood runs deep in these veins. I'm the only one of his current descendants that this love for the south has come out. My husband, children and I lived in TN until the middle of February.

Last but not least I love to use ( ) and ... .

This is a picture taken Friday at Pike's Place Market. I'm the taller one wearing the black top. I seriously can't believe how round my center is. I haven't had a picture taken of me in a long while and I'm glad I have. It's a reality check for sure.

Weigh away..

Good morning, it's Monday it's time to weigh.
I'm sticking this up and then heading back to bed. I have a high temperature and was sick this morning, which is not good. I know I joked to my Mum the other day that the only way I'd reach my weigh loss goal of losing 100lb in 2 years was if I got some sort of sickness bug, but I didn't actually mean it!

Anyway, weigh away..

Have Your Weapons Ready!

Here is an exercise that some of us in a book discussion on my blog participated in and I have found it to be a big help. We focused particularly on food-related issues, but it could be applied to any area where you are consistently tempted and need a quick "reality check." If you have these scriptures already "ready" in your mind and even on cards, then when temptation comes, you have an immediate weapon to use against the devil when He tempts you to believe lies. Similar to the way Jesus combated satan in Matthew 4.

Below is the discussion question and my answer in bold:

List the three main times or situations where you are tempted to overeat. Some examples are: stress, anger, greed and depression. Next to each tempting situation (or "trigger,") give a Bible verse that you can memorize and call to mind to help you to resist the devil. (See page 67.)

worried: Psalm 94:19, Proverbs 12:25
tired: Matthew 11:28-30, Isaiah 40:31
food-related gathering...feeling "entitled" or like I should eat since "everyone else is:" Proverbs 3:5-6, Proverbs 3:7-8

Depressed: didn't get to this one...but I'm hoping someone else does this one. :-)

And if you are interested in starting some scripture memory as part of the Habit Challenge coming up, this might be a good place to start. An example of a small measurable habit to form over a 21 day period might be to choose three scriptures to write on index cards. Choose one scripture each week to read, say, 3-5 times per day. Hopefully by the end of the week you would have it memorized. The next week do another and so on.

If You Could Form One New Habit, What Would It Be?

I would like to personally invite you to take part in The 21-Day Habit Challenge over at my blog, Surrender. Habits can range from spiritual to exercise to taking your vitamins and anything in between. The coolest part is you won't be alone. We will be in this together! I'd love to see y'all there! :-)

Thanks for praying!

We made it through ok. A part of our fence went down and we lost electricity for about 16 hours. I'm shocked we got it back so soon. There are at least 2.5 MILLION who are still in the dark, though. We're blessed that there's not major damage to our home. There's only one large tree out front and it is intact. And our pool held together and didn't overflow. It came close, but we were all out there in the rain with buckets scooping out water. Thankfully, our efforts were successful. And now that power is back up, we can drain a bit of water to make room for the upcoming rains.
Just wanted to let you all know my family and I are ok. Thanks so much for your prayers!

Request

Can we make the home page on here to where it shows more posts? I think it's only showing seven right now. 

Also, I kind of figured my intro post counted as my email to Tami. :-)

I've emailed Tami

have you?!

DebbieBoo update

DebbieBoo just rang me to say hi and give me an update on how they're doing. Right now their power is out and they're still likely to have another 4 or 5 hours of the storm coming through.
Please continue to keep her and her family in your prayers that God will bring them safely through.
She's meant to be flying out of Houston on Wednesday to come over to the UK. She has no idea what is happening about that right now - it will probably take weeks for the whole city to get their power back, although of course they do work on places like airports and hospitals first.. Pray that whatever changes need to happen to her plans will go smoothly.
And finally, pray for her as she attempts to try to finish packing in the dark!

Everyday's a thankful day!

Here's our official Thankful Thursday post!  Woo hoo!!!

Ok, I know it's technically Friday, but we can still be thankful, right?  

So here's the dealio -- what are you thankful for?  A new hair cut?  A new pair of shoes?  Not burning down the kitchen when you accidently over-baked that cake?  Friends?  Family?  Your job?  God's grace?  His provision?  His truth?

You can be as specific or as vague as you like.  Just leave a comment and tell us what you're thankful for!

We don't like Ike...

He's MASSIVE:

You can barely even see the coastline!

Galveston's already flooding and not a single drop of rain has yet to fall!  And that's not even the start of the 20 FOOT storm surge!  TWENTY FEET, PEOPLE!!

Sure, I'm inland, but we'll still get 80+ mph winds!  And 8-10 inches of rain.  Did I mention how easily Houston floods?  And that there's a huge water reserve right behind my house.

It's a beautiful sunny day out, but we're all feeling a bit like sitting ducks, as you can imagine.  We'll be rather hacked if it turns out we should've all evacuated when they told us to stay put . . . 

Anywho, prayers will be much appreciated.  Thank you!

Don't forget

to email Tami.
(says the girl who hasn't yet emailed Tami...)

Thankful Thursday?

When we were brainstorming ideas on Debs' blog I tossed the idea out there of doing something that I try to do on my own blog.  I have a Thankful Thursday category and every week (but actually, not recently, so don't go look and tell me I'm wrong!) I make a list of things I'm thankful for.  It helped tremendously when I was at a very demanding job that constantly tried to pull me into a bad mood.  It was good to go back, even when I was having a bad day, and think of all that I have to be thankful for and ways that God has blessed me. 

Would y'all be interested in doing something like that here?  We could do Thankful Thursday or Wonderful Wednesday or Fantastic Friday or Terrific Tuesday or whatever.  Any thoughts???

I figured it would be a good idea to have another consistent post, too.  Like weigh-ins, it will be something that's always posted to get people a bit more involved, and even if I'm not around to post it, someone else can.

So, what say you?

Quick Question

I've added some of the old links from OWOA to the sidebar - including Kalyn's Kitchen. But I haven't added any of the exercise and fat counting type links. I have them, and can add them if anyone wants me to, but I just know that I for one never really used them! Any thoughts?

My Name Is Bird, And I'm A Food-O-Holic

I thought I'd do a quick introductory post for you all. My name is Bird (well, that's a nickname actually), and my lovely wife is Brandi. 

I started out in March of 2007 at 231.5 pounds. Thanks to Blest, our former fearless leader, I had the inspiration and the idea (via Brandi) to do Southbeach, and it took off like a rocket! For about the past six to eight months, though, my weight loss has been slooooooooooooow. I think the overall trend is still downward, but I'm wanting to start losing a consistent one to two pounds a week again. Right now I'm at 184, but I fully expect to lose a couple of pounds at weigh in on Monday. (By the way, Debs, I'm totally for another optional weigh in during the week. I think you had that idea.)

Right now I'm not doing Southbeach anymore. I'm doing the whole eat-when-you're-hungry-and-stop-when-you're-full thing. My goal is to get down to 160 ... so here we go! 

Waist size

Does anyone know - officially, where IS your waist? Is it the thinnest part? Or round the tummy-button? Or what?
Also, how is it that your weight can go down, but your waist size can go up? (And, no, it's not muscle, and I don't think it's water.)

Introduce yourselves

Don't forget, as well as emailing Tami some details about yourself, it'd be great if we could each write an introductory post on the blog as well. Some of us have been around a long time, some of us only a little while, but it'd be a good way to get to know each other a bit better.

Give me all you got!

Okay gals and Bird! I need your info. Could you please spend some time this week and send me an email. Tell me a wee bit about your selves. What is your current starting weight? What is your goal weight? If you so desire you can tell me what your starting weight when you joined OWOA was and what you've lost. If you've been maintaining how long have you been what was/is your struggle. For those that are in the process of loosing what is your biggest struggle? What are you doing to try and loose the weight? Are you exercising and if so what are you doing/what is your favorite thing to do for exercise. Last but not least, I know that at the old site we told one odd fact about ourselves. This time around I would like to know 1 ultimate dream. Like Bekki, you really wanted to fit into a vintage dress. Is that a super big dream of yours still? One last thing. If you are married? Do you have kids?

Just give me a blurb about yourself but please include most or all of the above. You can email me at tlb81003 at normalonline.com. Just remove the spaces and change "at" to @. Thanks ton guys! I won't have the page up anytime this week since I have company from out of state through Monday morning. I would like to start putting it together though.

Surrender

I thought I'd do another shameless plug for my wife's excellent personal blog, Surrender. She's got some excellent insights on freedom from food bondage. I think her wisdom is sound because she's right there in the middle of the struggle for freedom herself. Check it out! 

So, Tuesday...

How's your day going?
I had intended to write a proper post today, but the kiddos decided that napping at the same time is sooo last week, and that put paid to that. Maybe tomorrow...

Walk this Weigh

Welcome to the first ever weigh-in on the new site.
No fancy pics or anything yet, so I guess you'd better all just WEIGH-IN!

Keep it or toss it?

I know that the blog header is nothing spectacular but after HOURS of searching (and even trying my hand at creating) this is the best I've got so far. Are you guys liking it? Is it something that can stay around until something else comes along or are you really wanting to see the apples up top go?

General layout questions..

What order would you like to see the stuff on the sidebar appear?
Which things would you say would be useful to have near the top, what could go lower down. Do we want the list of 'contributers' on the siderbar? It's good to see, but I think it'll be pretty long, would just having the blog links be enough? I plan to have a 'meet the team' page (or however it is you do that on blogger!), so do we need the list of names, or just a link to the team page?
Talk to me people.. pretty please.
(I'm going with time zone as being GMT, so I hope that's not too confusing..!)