I haven't but then again I'm watching my sugars too and if I made pancakes, I'd want to drown them in syrup, so better to just avoid lol. (Sounds like the beginning of a story: If you give a mom a pancake....) Muffins made with almond flour sound like a possibility, maybe I'll try that sometime. :) I have a homemade smoothie most mornings for breakfast. Most mornings it consists of a banana, four or five strawberries, a cup of milk, half a cup of yogurt, and six or seven ice cubes (I like mine kind of icy). Sometimes I'll mix it up and add orange or grapes or some other fruit. Sometimes I have eggs/omelets instead- sometimes we make scrambled egg muffin things and bake them like mini quiches sort of and you can add spinach or other veggies. Sometimes I have fruit and cheese. But no more pancakes/muffins/cereals/toast or any of that stuff for me! Most of the time I don't even miss it. I've gotten used to not having it AND I like losing weight too much (which I never lost this quickly on any other type of diet)! :D

That's what I'm saying lol! Thanks everyone for all of your support and for celebrating with me! I used to go to Weight Watchers meetings or TOPS meetings and I don't do that anymore so you people from this board are my occasional weight loss support group. ;) Thanks for being there!

You're welcome to join us on the Weight Loss Challenge social group if you want! Lots of support and accountability there! We have different exercise challenges that anybody can join (and if there's not one there you're interested in, anybody can start one at any time). We post our weigh ins each week. We chat and support and encourage each other. There was a thread where a few members were posting their food journals for accountability...I'm sure you could revive that because a few people seemed to be getting some benefit out of that. Check it out and see what you think. :) http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/group.php?groupid=129

Ouch, Beth. That really sobered me up. You're absolutely right though. Today when I homeschool my 11 year old, I am totally going to homeschool her ovaries, too.

:lol::lol::lol: love it!

LOL!! Yup!! :001_wub:

Thanks for thinking of me! I've lost and gained weight (plus some) all of my adult life, usually following WW, and I hope that this time will be different. My doctor feels that my body just can't handle the carbs and all the sugars in them, and that carbs are basically an addiction for some people (like me), and we found that my insulin levels were high and so on, and he was the one who suggested I give up on a diet like WW and try reading up on Sugarbusters or South Beach and do something more low-carb instead. I phased that into no carbs basically myself after reading, researching, and seeing how well I was doing losing weight without them (I did ask him if I was hurting myself nutritionally by doing that, he said no). I hope that I've basically broken a cycle of addiction and that if I keep myself out of that cycle, I will also keep myself out of the cycle of gaining all my weight back, that this will be easier to keep as a "lifestyle" instead of just some sort of temporary lose some weight diet thing that I eventually give up on, go back to old habits, and gain everything back. That, of course, remains to be seen, but that's the plan. I really don't ever want to see a 2 in front of my number again (unless it's because I had to go slightly into the 2's because I got pregnant at almost 190). :P

Yeah. :) My doctor wants me to get my BMI below 30 (then I'll be "overweight" and not "obese") :P At 5'7", according to fitday, once I get to like 190.8 my BMI will go below 30. I'm going to aim for 187.6 though...then I can say I lost 60 lbs, because you know I want to say I lost that elephant's penis. :)

Basically by cutting out grains. I gave up bread, rice, pasta, cookies, cake, crackers...for the most part, if it's got flour in it, I don't eat it. I also gave up white potatoes. I also don't buy processed "fat free/light" stuff, I try to stick to whole and natural foods as much as possible. I still eat regular "fats" like butter, mayo, olive and coconut oil, just in moderation (I don't eat globs and globs of it lol). I eat peanut butter, cheese, fruits and vegetables, nuts, squash, an occasional sweet potato, eggs, pretty much any meat/poultry/seafood/pork and so on that I want. I drink pretty much just water with an occasional cup of milk- I don't drink things with artificial sweeteners or even juice because of all the sugars, I stick to whole fruits. I don't weigh, measure, count anything or obsess over every bite that goes in my mouth like I have with other diets I was on in the past, it's just kind of eating the right things and stopping when I'm satisfied. It's worked really, really well for me. (ETA: The exception to the no lite/fat free/artificial sweetener stuff is that sometimes if I feel like I really want a dessert/something sweet aside from fruit I do sometimes eat a sugar free pudding cup or a sugar free jello, but only once in a while. Other times I'll have fruit with a little dark chocolate or a few semi sweet chocolate chips or just fruit or a homemade healthy smoothie or something like that if I feel I want something sweet...but it's not often I even want something like that...I've actually broken my sweet tooth habit for the most part)! I also try to go for walks most days. I started with just a slow paced mile on my treadmill. When the weather got nicer out, we started going for mile and a half walks outside. Recently I took my daughter for a two mile hike in the woods following trail blazes on trees...we felt so adventurous, I'd NEVER have been able to do that 45-48 lbs ago...

Congrats to you, too! :) Momat....lol at the haircut thing!

:grouphug: It's okay. At least you learned from your mistakes and you're looking out for your grandchildren. How are they anyway? Booking any Disney trips for them yet? All the good grandparents do that, I hear (I know, I know, it's hard to think of time away from their studies when they're SO advanced, but you HAVE to, you know. There's gotta be a balance)! I'm sick of educational snobbery like this around here. I've decided for personal reasons that we will NOT do second languages pre-conception. You can push YOUR embryos as hard as you want, I'm perfectly content with the fact that mine is reading- IN ENGLISH- at college level before s/he is even conceived. :P Hmmm...what gave it away so I know for next time? I should have said s/he was reading at an 8th grade level instead of college level, right? This is a good idea!! Aw. He's smart! If my preconception is a girl, maybe they should meet! LMAO I love this 4H post...and your husband's advice!! I would take them both to Kumon. Impressive!!

:lol::lol::lol:

I'm glad you are inspired...good luck with your weight loss! I hope that the pregnancy will be my next announcement! I want to get into the 180's before I start trying. :) I hope to start trying in April or May at the latest.

For the first time in several YEARS, I stepped on the scale this morning and it said: 199.6. I AM OUT OF THE 200's!!!!!!!!! I started at 247.6- I've lost 48 lbs as of this morning and it was SO nice to FINALLY see a 1 instead of a 2 in front of my number when I got on that scale today! Now, granted, I'm wearing just my lightweight PJ bottoms and teeshirt as I am when I weigh in every morning, so as long as I don't put on a bra, shoes, jeans, or put any food in my mouth, I can continue to enjoy these one hundreds for the rest of the day (haha)... Anyone want to celebrate with me? :)

I didn't watch last night's episode yet, it is still sitting in my DVR. I watched Survivor instead. Can you believe that Colton?! But on the subject of AI, Phillip Phillips is awesome, I love him. I mean, er, Wendy, what the heck is wrong with you and how could you do this to your feti with peni? What self-respecting homeschooling mom would admit to watching something like that?! Shaking my head in disgust.

No, seriously though, I'm pretty sure if I read to my ovaries every day for six hours a day before I ever conceive, by the time I do conceive, my kid will be able to read like as soon as it implants. I won't ever have to deal with Funnix, Reading Eggs, 100 Easy Lessons, none of this nonsense. I'll be able to spend all of my time eating bon bons while my fetus reads at a college level by the time its born. I have a plan, people. And if everybody just followed it, we'd never even need schools at all.

:( I was afraid of that. Maybe there's a center I can take my ovaries to where someone can show me special flash cards and lists or something. Nice! I hope it comes in a Teaching Textbooks type format, where I can just set my uterus up at the computer, because, you know, I don't have time to do that stuff myself. hehe. Cr*p. I was feeling good about myself. Now I feel like a real slacker. Well, this board will do that to you. :lol:

The baby I hope to conceive a few months from now (keep your fingers crossed please that it happens) is already reading at college level. I don't even know what to do about this situation. How can I possibly supply enough books for this super genius fetus-to-be? What should we read next? Did your children all read well before they were conceived? If not, they should have been. I guess my preconceptions are smarter than your preconceptions. This board is crazy tonight. Why HAVEN'T I seen a good kilt pic yet? :lurk5: :cheers2:

My iphone has a handy little "notepad" function and I type my list of books I want to read, movies I want to see, things I want to buy at the store, things I have to do, questions I need to ask my doctor, etc. on there. I can access these lists from anywhere since I always have my cell phone with me whether I'm at home, out and about, etc.

Yep. When we were house hunting, there were houses we didn't even stay at for as long as six minutes because there were things about them that ruled them out for us right away. For example, when the backyard wasn't even useable for us because it was basically just a hill rather than a flat, usable yard, I wasn't at all interested! Well, like you said, Jeannie, at least you got your house ready for showing on Friday! Good luck!

Haha I love it. "You know, Ratchet, school is an institutional setting most comparable to a prison. Out there in the real world and in adulthood, all this bullying of which you speak just doesn't happen much. I mean, I can't remember the last time somebody picked a fight with me in the supermarket while I was comparing toilet paper brands, or called me names while I was doing my banking. Of course, every now and then, you run into a coworker who likes to give people a hard time at work. I suppose I could give her some early exposure to that by bringing her in on take your daughter to work day and introducing her to you!" wink wink, nudge nudge. That is hilarious! How I would love to see her face!

I read something on Chowhound.com that said: "Q: Does FRENCH'S® Mustard need to be refrigerated? A: The FRENCH'S® Dijon Mustard can lose heat and distinct flavor, if left unrefrigerated, so we encourage refrigeration. For all other mustards, refrigerating will help maintain its flavor; however, if you prefer your mustard to be room temperature, it is not necessary. There are no ingredients in mustard that spoil. "Refrigerate After Opening" is not required for food safety. It is recommended to maintain optimal product flavor." I would not have thrown that mustard away! And I'm on the squeamish side about what I will and won't eat!

Have a "tinkering" class for your homeschool group (if you're in one), or just for your family. Give the kids some old appliances, tools, let them take them apart, see what's inside, try to put them back together, and so on!

And the lesson we should learn from this is that every parent should use the curriculum that works for THEIR CHILD. Not every program is going to work for every person, because everybody has a different style of learning. No matter what curriculum somebody loves, somebody else is going to hate it. No matter what curriculum somebody hates, somebody else is going to love it. That's why we need to each evaluate what we think will work best for our children and then just go for it. In the case of MY child, yep, that's TT, and so far, zero regrets. I guess people can sit here and say that my child will probably be "ruined" because of it by the time she gets to be college-aged. Fortunately we have people like Darla here to shrug and go "didn't happen to my kid" who went through TT in high school and made it to college and is still doing just fine in college level math. This is why I say ignore the TT stereotyping and just do what you think is best for YOUR child. If you think that's TT, go for TT. If you don't think that's TT, go for whatever you think it might be. There are lots of options out there. Research them and go for whatever seems to suit YOUR child's learning style best.

Wow. Yeah. That was most DEFINITELY condescending educational snobbery if I've EVER seen it. And the most ridiculous comparison I've ever seen in my life. OP, look at those links someone else provided. It'll become quite clear quite quickly that it's way more than a bunch of us saying our kids like math better since using TT. (Although that IS quite important to those of us who had kids who used to hang their heads and cry and talk about how they were no good at math. If some people on this board are lucky enough to not have had kids like that, good for them. They should spend their time being grateful for that instead of trying to knock others and making them feel bad with unfounded nastiness and holier than thou attitudes). You'll also see how much their standardized test scores improved and so on. And then, make your own choice. If it works for you, great!! It certainly does for me and many others here. I have a child who likes math (she didn't used to), has confidence in math (she didn't used to), thinks she's good at math (she didn't used to), can do math independently (I used to have to hold her hand through all of it, so this frees me up for other things and is good for me because explaining math isn't MY strongest suit), and who scored in the 82nd percentile (as well as or better than 82 percent of other kids who took that test nationwide...kids who used all sorts of different math curricula, not just kids who used TT mind you) after one year of using TT at grade level with no supplementing, which was up from the 59th percentile the year before. Which means it's helped her understand math. If that's comparable to eating french fries, then pass the ketchup.