Last Minute Notes

Just doing some double and triple checking. I went thru every single transaction...um, yeah, super boring. But I want to make sure our totals are correct and we're actually pretty darn close. I know it gets confusing especially if I didn't invoice you until a few days later and seems like you got two right in a row sometimes.

I'm also sending this as a group email since that Paypal search was so boring, I don't have the attention span to send each person an individual email anyway.

Some notes:
First, TOMORROW IS THE FINAL WEIGH IN. Winners will not be official until a few days when Heather and I get the chance to double check records and make sure weights are properly recorded. ALSO, PER THE RULES, TOMORROWs WEIGH IN is to be accompanied by a photo of your feet on the scale as the same as your very first weigh in to verify your results. Winners will not be declared without this verification. There's a lot of money at stake, we want to make sure it's accurate!

Second, a hearty congratulations must be offered to both Jeremie and Michelle who, at least thru week 11, were the only two who never paid a fatty fee. That is excellent work!

Third, the only Paypal glitches I have are Susie and Suzi. I'm sending Susie a reminder invoice for Week 10 and Suzi a reminder for Week 9. If you gals have a Paypal invoice reflecting this payment, please forward it to me. If you click on "details" for your transactions, the Subject line will state the week of the fatty fee. Just so you can tell them apart.

If you haven't yet, I just invoiced week 11 yesterday, so I know everyone will get those paid soon.

Thanks for your participation on this, we hope we gave you some basic health information and provided a fun and competive incentive to keep at your weight loss.

-Sonia & Heather

Week 11 Results - One Week Left!

Holy crap - down to the last week folks! Here are the results for last week....


Jeremie -1.5
Sonda -2.6
Sharon +1 (FF)
Heather -1
Susie -4
Andy +0.5 (FF)
Keeley 0 (NWI-FF)
Michelle -1
Suzi -0.8 (FF)
Donna 0 (NWI - FF)
Julia 0 (NWI - FF)
HeatherG 0 (NWI - FF)

Great job Susie - our biggest loser this week - awesome!!!!

Eat Your Veggies (and Fruits)

Way back when you were a little kid, you were told about the food pyramid. And over the years, the pyramid and how many things in each group has seemingly been subject to change. Because of course, research is going to come out from time to time and change thinking on the impact of diet.

How many times have you been told eggs are good, then bad, then good, then bad?

But as always, following a common sense diet plan that is within healthy, moderate limits is sometimes easier said than done.

Example, when is the last time you think you got all the servings of fruits and vegetables in a day that is recommended?? Sadly, I cannot think of it, I'm sure I fall short pretty much all the time. Ugh.

In today's Washington Post Lean Plate Club column, they discuss fruits and veggies. And, folks, it's not rocket science, but thought you might like a reminder...

Yet research clearly shows that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables can help control blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, cut the incidence of diabetes and lower the odds of developing some types of cancer. In this era of ever-widening waistlines, people who eat more fruit and vegetables are less likely to be overweight or obese. Eating more fruit and vegetables may help prevent some age-related vision problems, and it even helps improve bone density, key to staving off osteoporosis.

Read the entire article for a refresher on your fruits and veggies. Then, go eat something, it's good for you!

Week 10 Results

Week 10 (wow!) Only a few weeks left. Some of you guys are totally kicking ass! Way to go!! So here are the results:


Jeremie -2.4
Sonda -2.4
Sharon -1
Heather 0 (FF)
Susie -0.4 (FF)
Andy -1
Keeley 0 (NWI, FF)
Michelle -1.5
Suzi 0.6 (FF)
Donna -1
Julia -2
HeatherG -1.6

I hope everyone kicks it EVEN MORE into gear in these last few weeks. Frankly, I'm really talking about myself.

Great job guys!

The Scoop on Percentages

Jeremie is far and away our LBS lost leader right now, with over 54 gone! WOW! Fabulous job Jeremie...

The percentage lost race, though, is still pretty close. Here's the run down:

1. Sonda - winning
2. Michelle - only 1.55% behind Sonda
3. Julia - only 2.14% behind Sonda (and only .59% from Michelle!)
4. Donna - only 3.58% behind Sonda
5. Susie - only 3.68% behind Sonda

Close race ladies - keep it up!!!

FYI, Sharon and Andy are still in it too, if they keep up the losing, it might be an even tighter race in this home stretch!!

The Wall...Revisited

I've totally hit some sort of wall myself, so I went back in the archives and found this. Good stuff, especially if you're feeling a lack of motivation or need that extra kick for the next few weeks!

Sounds dramatic doesn't it? But hitting the "weight loss wall" or plateau can be extremely frustrating. I recall a few folks in my WW group who hit the wall and couldn't get passed it for weeks and weeks. One even quit and gave up. DON'T QUIT. You CAN fix it. But I know - it can be so frustrating to feel like you are doing so well, and BAM - the weight loss stops. You haven't cheated, you're still watching what you eat and exercising but the weight isn't coming off. But take heart - if you've really hit the wall, its actually a good thing.

How can it be a good thing, you say?? Pull up a chair. What it means is that your body is adjusting to the new calorie intake and exercise. As you get smaller, your body requires less to function then it did before. So, you have to shake things up. Here are a few suggestions to break thru:

1. Write down what you're eating. I know its annoying, but it WORKS. Just do it for 3 days. You think you are really watching what you eat and how much, but maybe you're not. Do you taste what you cook? Do you eat off your kids plates? Grab a few crackers from the box on the way out the door? I'm telling you, the journaling thing can be VERY enlightening.
2. If you really AREN'T cheating, then maybe you're being too strict on yourself and not eating enough. If you aren't eating enough, your body will tend to store more because it feels starved. Make sure you're eating what you need, listening to Lesleh on the protein too, especially if you're doing alot of exercising/weight training.
3. Another tip if you really aren't cheating. Have something that you are craving - a cheeseburger, or a little ice cream, or whatever. Shake your body up a little. Don't go overboard, obviously, but shake up that metabolism.
4. Add or change your exercise. If you aren't exercising by now, start! If you are exercising, change it up. Increase the time you're doing something or add some hand weight training. Do an exercise DVD a couple of times a week instead of walking. Shock your body a little. Move some different muscles.
5. Make sure you are drinking your water. Seriously.
6. Get enough sleep! We did a post on the importance of sleep when trying to lose weight...go check it out! Suffice it to say, get at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night and your body will thank you. And it will help you lose weight.
7. Think about why you wanted to lose weight to begin with. Write it down. Get copy of a 'before' picture. Keep the list/picture with you in your purse or wallet. Pull it out when you want something you shouldn't have. Taking the time to write things down and reminding yourself can be a great motivator.

We want you to succeed - if anyone has any tips on getting over this speed bump, please share. Here are some of my sources. Check them out for additional tips too. If anyone has any specific questions, please post and we can try to get some answers.

Good luck swimmers!

Week 9 Results

Quick post to give you the results - hope everyone had a great weekend! Great job Jeremie and Andy - our biggest losers this week!


Jeremie -5.8
Sonda -0.2 (FF)
Sharon -1
Heather 0 (FF)
Susie -0.4
Andy -3.5
Keeley (NWI - FF)
Michelle -1.5
Suzi -0.2 (FF)
Donna -1
Julia -1
HeatherG (NWI - FF)

This Egg's For You Andy....

So, Andy wanted to know more about why it's so important to eat breakfast. And apparantly, some of other swimmers wanted to hear more too. That tells me that some of you may not be eating breakfast yet - Bad girls and boys!! I hope this post can convince you that eating breakfast is very important - especially when you're trying to lose weight.

First lets start by talking about me! HA! Before I lost my weight on WW a year ago, I HATED eating breakfast. I was never hungry when I woke up in the morning. As far as I was concerned, there was no reason to eat if I wasn't hungry - that must be helping me lose weight, the not eating in the morning thing, right?? WRONG! Turns out, if you aren't eating something for breakfast, you're actually making it harder on your body to lose weight. Let's say you had dinner at 7:00pm. You don't eat lunch until noon. That's 16-17 hours between meals. Your body is going into starvation mode. Your body and brain need glucose to function. Going 16 hours without food forces your body to look elsewhere for the glucose it needs to operate. This is a distracting process and lessens your ability to anything efficiently or as well as you could if you'd just eaten something! Bottom line is, eating breakfast improves your concentration, problem solving ability, mental performance, memory, and mood.

Back to me. So, after not eating all night or in the morning, by the time I would eat at lunch time, I was ravenous. Legs shaky, tired, just miserable. Portion sizes were harder to control. I cared less about WHAT I was eating then the fact that I was FINALLY eating. It's much harder to control your eating habits when your body is screaming at you to give it fuel. Will power, motivation, and your ability to make good food choices go right out the window when you're so hungry.

Now, I LOVE me some breakfast food - I just never ate it at breakfast time unless it was some special occasion or I felt like cooking on the weekend. However, some people don't enjoy the typical breakfast food, but that is NOT a good excuse for not eating in the morning. Eat something - even if its not a typical breakfast food. When I had access to a toaster at work, I would make myself an english muffin (low fat/whole grain) with some low fat peanut butter. YUM! Most of the things I read suggest that you should have something with fiber (complex carb, like a whole grain) and a protein (peanut butter!) to make sure your breakfast sticks with you until lunch time.

If finding time to eat breakfast is your problem, then suck it up! There are alot of good-for-you grab-and-go foods now too if time is your problem. (OMG - have you tried the new Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookie from Quaker Oats - YUM!) At our house, I keep a big tupperware container full of on-the-go breakfast choices so that everyone can can pick up something on our way out the door.

If I haven't convinced you, here are a few links (and some of my sources) to help you find out more...and maybe get some new breakfast ideas.

Importance of Breakfast

Breakfast is for Weight Loss Champions

Breakfast Excuse Buster!

Mr. Breakfast (Recipes, Reviews, Etc)

If anyone has any good breakfast recipes they'd like to share, or want to share what their favorite breakfast is....comments are open!

Happy eating!

Week 8 Results

Hi all! Hope everyone had a great weekend. Sorry to post the results so late - I was gone this weekend, and Sonya took off too. So, you're stuck with me this week!


Jeremie -4
Sonda -2.3
Sharon +1
Heather 0
Kristi (NWI) 0
Susie -3.6
Andy +0.5
Keeley (NWI) 0
Michelle -1.5
Suzi (NWI) 0
Donna -1
Julia -1
HeatherG -1.8

I hope everyone read the post on staying motivated...its a tough thing motivation. I know all too well. Also, I will be posting this week on the winning Challenge topic - Eating Breakfast. Andy gets a pass this week from the FF for coming up with the winning topic. So, come back and check it out!!