Sarah

By what I'm reading on the link you posted regarding and apostille, it looks like it's something that can be done by a notary- they can be found many places, particularly a courthouse or township hall. Please let us know what you find out- we want to do a legal wedding too. Good luck...

Quote: Originally Posted by TAMMYM OK Wedding is off, I'm leaving for a plastic surgon for the next year.. The first photo that came up was....................................... BILL GATES ROFLMAO! You are too funny. I know, I got some pretty crazy results, but then my internet crashed and I just haven't gone back yet. I'll try to do it later...

Quote: Originally Posted by jenniferv06 You pictures are amazing!!!! Thanks- I was thinking the same thing about yours!

Quote: Originally Posted by gkashmira What is Body for Life? Kash- Body for life is a program that came out probably 5 years or so ago. It's premise is basically changing your lifestyle to incorporate healthy eating and weight training and discipline to lose weight. You have to eat 6 small meals a day, each with 1 portion protein and 1 portion healthy carb, with 2 meals including a portion of vegetables. You do weights 3 days a week for 40 min each, and cardio 3 days a week for 20 minutes each. There is a book called Body for life that you read and just follow the principles. It's good food and I felt much better when doing it, it's just very hard for me to get the 6 meals in (eating every 3 hours basically) when I'm working the schedule I do.

LaLa, that would be awesome! I did a little browsing around there and it looks like something I might want to try.

That is sooo cute! I'd love to do something like that. Tammy, will you send me the file too?

Ok, here's my diet/exercise for Monday 10-2. I wasn't feeling like starting my diet today, so this is pretty bad: Breakfast: Protein bar Lunch: Cheeseburger & 4pc Chicken Nugget from McDonalds Afternoon snack: 3 snack size Almond Joy bars Dinner: Spaghetti with no-meat sauce & 2 pcs Garlic Bread Exercise: Tae-Bo Bootcamp 30 min Today I'm officially starting the diet up again and my scale is stashed away in the closet, we'll see how it goes...

Thanks Lala. More great tips! A bunch of you girls have mentioned Weight Watchers online- I think I might check it out, I'll let you know how it goes.

Count me in! This is just what I need- some accountability! Although, my posting might look a little different than other because I work nights, so I have to count my food in 24 hour periods. What's breakfast for me is dinner for you...I'll post at the end of the night!

OK- the scale is in the back closet as of right now...Back on Body for Life I go this week and we'll see...I think I will incorporate my old Tae Bo tapes too, they always seemed to help way back when!

Quote: Originally Posted by TOESNTHESND Sarah- I know what you mean about happy weight gain. My FI says the weight gain is good, it just means i am really happy. He is sweet but come on! Every girl wants to trim down before the wedding. I am going to start training again for a local relay run. Last year when i started training i lost 12 lbs right before my eyes. I noticed it but was more concerned I was going to be the slowest one on my team so i worked my butt off! My FI says the exact same thing. He's not very helpful because he always tells me how much he loves me and how beautiful I am (I'm not complaining about that!), I just wish he'd be a little bit more supportive when I try to diet instead of saying, "it's ok if you eat this, it's just one piece of pizza..." etc.

Thanks for sharing your story. It is encouraging to see others who have been in the same boat as me. It also looks like there is a common thread- simply eating "healthy" no matter which diet program and exercising more is the answer!

Wow MariaElena- you are thorough! It's so wierd how prices can vary so much. When I was booking my trip, Expedia was more expensive than booking directly with the car companies themselves. I guess you just have to really do your research, then just jump on it when you find something cheap!

You are so funny!

Janet and Tammy, I just went to Payless' website and chose "San Jose Cabo Airport" Mexico as my destination, then chose an Economy Car. Interestingly, when I chose a week timeframe this month, the total was only $67 for the week for a Nissan Tsuru! However, when I put the week in of my wedding (in May) it quoted something like $1600 for the week! Crazy! Apparently, the thing to do is wait until the last minute with them, I guess...

When I originally booked my trip, it was WAY cheaper to book a car directly through Thrifty (even though I didn't end up using them) than it was to add it onto an Expedia package...

TammyM, Tammy host, KarlaV, Karla, and Janet Thanks for all your comments so far. I'm sure some of what I was gaining was muscle weight, although my jeans fit about the same (maybe a little looser). I think I just get frustrated when I see the scale go up so I throw in the towel and eat a whole bag of chips! I do think the suggestion of keeping track of EVERYTHING I eat is a great one. Except for when I was doing Body for Life (and I was only allowed to eat very specific foods), I think I do so much of "just one chip" here, and "only 1/2 cookie" there that I end up eating an extra 1000 calories a day, now that I think about what I actually ate today. My problem is that I have all really skinny friends that seriously do not do very much to maintain it. They are more active than me and work out moderately, but eat worse than I do. I also just moved to a new area and started a new job, so I'm just making friends in the area. Thanks for all the suggestions so far- I think I have a lot of work to do in simply changing the way I eat and paying attention to the little things. And Karla, great advice about the scale- not weighing myself is such a novel concept! I weigh myself every single morning and I think that it is doing more harm than good.

I'm actually not sure...long story. In short, the dude at Thrifty told me he used to work for Payless and said he'd work something out for me. He took us over there, showed them the Thrifty quote and they gave me a car for the same price. I have no idea what their normal prices are. Maybe I just got lucky

UPDATED: This is my TTD dress Ok here's my dress....maybe. I bought this dress the week after I got engaged. One of the bridal shops in town had donated their discontinued styles to a local thrift store and one of my coworkers saw this dress and sent me in after it. It really does fit the "beach" theme well, with the blue beads on the bodice, but I just don't know if it's fancy enough for me. It was an $800 dress and I paid $99. So...tell me what you think. I'm tempted to just go dress shopping and find something that I LOVE, rather than this dress that I just "like". Of course, I think I loved this dress at first, but now that I've looked at some others I don't like this as much (Karla, I know what you mean!) Sorry that the pics aren't so good. It's really hard to get this dress on by yourself because it laces up the back, and my puppy kept trying to get in the way (he's in the last picture- Loomis, the Jack Russell Terrier, 6 mo old). Here is the dress: This is the bodice with beading detail: This pic shows the slit down the side. There is beading on the fabric inside the slit, kinda hard to see in the photo:

Thanks MariaElena! I like those pics too. The Payless people were very nice, I was quite happy with their service. BTW, congrats on Member of the month!

Quote: Originally Posted by KARLA I agree with both Tammy and Janet. Depriving yourself just works against you. The second I think "I'm on a diet" it's the second I head for the fatty foods. I pretty much eat everything, but in moderation. It's all about lifestyle change. You start eating healthy and all of a sudden you crave fruits and veggies! Sarah, I never asked... what is "slow" results for you? Don't forget that healthy weight loss is only a couple of pounds per week. That is so true- I think diet and I only think of what I can't have and then want it more. I kinda described my "slow" results to Janet above, but it seems like every time I diet and exercise (and this is not very frequent!), I lost 2-3 lbs, then gain it all back plus more, even though I'm still exercising and eating good. Until our vacation last week, I had been doing Body For Life, by the book, all the weight training and cardio, and had lost only 6 lbs in 8 weeks. I must just still be eating too much, either that or BFL just doesn't work for me!

Quote: Originally Posted by JANET1111 Hey Sarah, I am not a skinny girl (but damn I try really hard to be one...haha) I swear I am like a dieting/exercise pro, because I have to do it or else I will turn into a whale. Anyway, here are my tips: No matter what gimmick is attached to any one diet or exercise plan, the basic premise is that you need to eat less, and burn more. (but your pics look great and I totally do not see how you could lose 30 lbs!?!?! just sayin'..... ) Gee thanks. I know I don't look terrible, but I used to wear a size 2-4 and now I wear an 8-10. And I did it over such a long period of time that it never was very shocking until now that I have to think about peranent pictures of myself (and buying a wedding dress). I wear scrubs all the time- I work in them, I hang out in the house in them and I don't have an extremely active social life so it was easy to let the weight creep up on me, besides the fact that when I turned 23 my metabolism came to a screeching halt. All of your tips are excellent. It's like, I know what I need to do, but I need to hear it from someone. I also need to find a way to be accountable because the FI is no help- he eats terrible!

Quote: Originally Posted by KARLA Are you sure there's not something you're sneaking into your diet? Sweets, alcohol? Are you doing cardio more than 4 times a week for longer than 30 minutes? It wasn't really a matter of sneaking anything into my diet, because up until a couple weeks ago, there wasn't any diet. I pretty much ate whatever, whenever. Very little alcohol, but the sweets are definitely a problem! I was doing NO exercise (except horseback riding once weekly) until about a month ago when I started Body for life. I lost about 3 lbs right away, then gained 4 back, even though I was doing all the dieting and weight training like I should. Do you think it could be just gaining muscle weight? So, then we went on vacation and I kinda fell off the wagon and need to get started again.

Oh I definitely need diet and exercise! I really need an entire lifestyle change

Janet, you are so not kidding! It was funny because Jeff is not an aggressive driver, but he was apprehensive about me being the one driving even though I have a total lead foot and drive about 15 mph over the speed limit all the time. He was laughing at me because I was too scared to speed because I didn't want to end up in Mexican prison, but it was killing me to be in the slow lane with people zooming by!