YUM! thanks

hey thats a cool chart, very nice!

Off out to watch my partner race motorbikes today, for a couple of hours anyway, my turn next week! At least I can fit into his leathers, so I guess he misses out next week or finds some other leathers for him... I suspect he'll find some somewhere!

Thanks Maquis, that's awesome! Sorry - can I change my start weight and mini goal please? I weighed myself and was heavier than what I thought LOL. Only by 1kg if it's too hard to change though! So 81 start weight, and 73 goal weight for this challenge. Thanks!

Rashika, I hope your cold is improving.

Maggie, thanks for creating the stats page

Pigkey your tomato soup recipe sounds yummy. I have loads of tomatos in the garden, might try the recipe next week.

Nimbus, oh, cool your own webpage. Can you share the link once you're up and running? I'm very much of a hobby photographer too and am thinking of making it into more of a part time job in the future if I can. I love photography and am looking at ways I can improve my skills. Are there any particular courses you can recommend? I do my photos with an old fashioned conventional SLR (film) but would like to upgrade to a digital SLR. My main question is I have got two lenses with my SLR, if I upgrade to a digital SLR, can I use these lenses?

I have done my sit ups for the day and feel good about keeping on track with my excercises. Not sure if you really count 10 sit ups a day as exercise. Anyway, it's a beautiful day out there and I will go out shortly to do some gardening with DD's help.

sunflower, 10 situps is definitely counted as exercise

Nimbus, no worries, done!

Rashika, bike racing? How cool!

No exercise today, but have been doing okay foodwise. Am about to have a glass of wine, though...

Morning everyone

Nimbus, oh no to possibly being in the local rag! I when I read your story.. My strategy for no sweet stuff is the same as yours, so I have stopped baking & buying treats for now.

BellaB - *snap* we also watched "Quantum of Solace" last night. I had no idea what the storyline was but great, fun movie all the same!

Maggie, the stats page looks great It will look even greater when we see our weights going DOWN!!

Have fun at motorbike racing Rashika. To fit into your leathers again is a great incentive for weight loss, how cool when you achieve that

Sunflower - well done for keeping the exercise on track. I feel pretty good too with my efforts so far, have been doing my sit-ups everyday too.

Jax - good effort for not having fish n chips with the family Yesterday I had tuna instead of BBQ sausages for dinner, so felt quite good about that

PK- I'll be making some of your tomato soup too this winter, sounds delish

Beautiful day today, so will make the most of it & go for a walk later. Also planning on going jogging tonight to keep my exercise goals on track for the week

Maquis - what a fantastic job you have done with the stats page

Rashika - motorbikes in your family too huh?? I'm in a family of 4 males (incl hubby) who has motorbike that he goes trail riding on, and 2 older sons that are into motorbikes big time, and hubby even went to the extent of purchasing singlets from Australia with motorbikes on them for our baby!!! I think I better learn how to ride one

Nimbus - you'll have to let us know if they publish your pic (and then if they have a website -so we can all see )



Beautiful day down this way today - perfect for our open home (selling - need a bigger place to cater for the latest addition)

All done

sounds like a great plan!If ya cant beat em...

I've got 3 bikes at present (which is unlikely to change now) 2 for racing and one for road. The race bikes are for F4 and pre82, and the road bike is a Buell XB12R... and I luv them all! So much fun racing at the track, even tho I'm no speedy gonzales, it is still fun cos there is always plenty who are slower so always competition. Good way to get the adrenalin going, not too expensive (our classes aren't anyway) and probably safer than on the road cos there is an ambo right there if the worst happens.

Woohoo that is so cool. Thanks Tasha and Maggie

Well my weight loss is still going well and I am running out of clothing to wear but all is good I have a few items I keep recycling by washing them at night drying them ready for the next day.

There were a pair of trousers that I got passed on from a friend of mine and they have always been too small. At the beginning of the year I couldn't even get them passed my thighs. Well this weekend I tried them on and not only did I get them on passed my thighs but I also got them done up and I wore them comfortably at a Women's Conference I went to at church. They look amazing on me. They are Black trouser with pinstripe which make me look taller and I wore heels for the first time in ages. I think I had been too heavy to wear heels comfortably but I spent most of the weekend in heels it was so wonderful.

We went for a walk around the lake today 2km I really love going for walks especially long ones.

Rahika cool on the Bike racing. I would never do that. I am really wanting to start cycling again but I sold the only bike I had (it was too big for me) I am hoping I will be able to save to get myself a nice one so i can wear my rather flattering padded cycle shorts again LOL.

Does anyone want to post before pics and maybe pics of when you were a size you would like to be now? Or even an after pick or a before before pic IYKWIM?

I have a pic of me when I weighed 80kg and one of me weighing 70kg. I have yet to have one of what I look like now but I do have one of what I looked like on my wedding day and I would very much like to be maybe not as skinny but close.

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for the stats page, Maggie - it looks brilliant!

And thank you, Tasha, for posting the link and tickers on our first page (sorry - ignore that part of my latest PM!).

Tamryn - that's a great idea! I will look for a pic of me at my heaviest and another at my lightest - might even include one of me now. I'd love to see your comparison pics! Great that you managed to get into some nice new trousers!

neemze - was an action-packed flick, hey?!

Maggie - *snap* on the glass of wine - I kept it small but it was a lovely treat!

nimbus - at your story! Wouldn't you just know there'd be a camera there that day?! LOL

Rashika - wow to you racing bikes! I'm far to chicken for anything like that!

Anyone finding they've discovered new treats to reward themselves while dieting? I've found that I really enjoy a good cappuccino (no sugar) - makes such a difference to have good espresso when you can't mask the bitterness with sugar! So that's my latest treat food. Oh, and of course my two squares of dark choc. LOL

Off now to get a few things done before bed. ttfn

-Tracy

OK - here are my pics

Face shot Feb '07 (my heaviest - 78-80 kg):


...and the pic which made me start my diet (March '07):


Me at my lightest (62 kg - November '07):




...and a recent shot (73 kg or so):


Sorry for the inundation! LOL Let's see some others...

This is me at my heaviest 81kg just after we arrived here



This is me at 72kg in January 2008 (a month or so before I got pregnant with Rebecca



And this is me at the beginning of March weighing 69kg and in my size 12 trousers



I will take more in a few more kgs time
Sorry if the pics are too big.

Wow to the bikes Rashika and Jax! I would be far too much of a wuss LOL.

Smoochie - show us your pics! I have before pics - in my undies and bra - they are hideous. Hehe not sharing just yet - maybe a clothed one though, will see if I have any.

WOW Bella and Smoochie - your photos are amazing, well done!

I had another really really really bad day - not just a bad pudding this time! Too many carbs and fat for lunch (made some bread, yummo). And as we had 2 lots of visitors today, I had some junk food they brought (fudge). Then fish & chips for dinner. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. The hardest part for me is getting back into line when I have been bad!

Some pics....

In this one I was preggers with DS1 - somewhere around 63 kg (I was 63 when I fell preggers, not sure of weight in this pic - bue being early preg and having hyperemesis, it would be around that weight - so approx target weight). I was 10kg lighter than this when I first met DH!!!



These are current pics (yuk) at around 80kg

At the trains where I met Bryan (Colonel Sanders)


At SIL's wedding in Dec

sunflower - I got my digi SLR less than 3 years ago, and I had a film SLR before that. RE the lenses - what sort of camera do you have? Canon ones can be used on both film and digi (and I think Nikon might be the same) - but there are things you need to be aware of. Unless you are spending more at least $5K on a digi SLR, the sensor size is smaller than 35mm film - which basically means that you have to multiply the zoom on your lense by 1.6. So if your lense is, say, 50-100, it becomes 80-160. If you have a Canon I can help more with camera choices etc if you like? My website is very much still in the making, but if you want to have a look it's kimhowellsphotography.viewbook.com (just a freebie if you want to make your own, it's really easy). If you live anywhere near me (Waikato), I am keen as mustard to start doing weddings (I hate doing them but they are easy money) - but I really want to do them with another person.

Wow, am loving the pics! And what a cool idea to do before and after. Not sure I'm game yet to post mine though

WTG on the trousers Smoochie!! And what a difference in your photos Looking good!

BellaB, unfortunately I didn't stop at one glass Need to work on that. Have limited my alcohol to Fri & Sat nights, but need to be a bit harder on myself. Haven't found a nice treat yet... dark choc could be the key!

I must remember to take my measurements too... not that I want to know really

bummer that I'm in chch, cos I am (at times) quite keen on my photography too. I have a dig SLR Canon EOS 350D bought about 3-4 years ago, wonderful wee toy. I started with a Minolta SLR Film years ago, but enjoy the digital, its just so easy to check ya shots as ya go so you KNOW you are getting good ones and can delete the bad ones. Cant afford to get more lenses but the 18-200 Tamron was a good choice for an all rounder. I often take shots of the racers at the track... thats quite a good skill to get, shooting moving targets. The guys love it when they see themselves in print.

as for pics of me... ugh... I'll see what I can find.

Rashika - fast moving subjects are something I need more practice at! I did some for my MW the other night of her kids doing gymnastics - not overly happy with the results, but they are OK. I learnt lots LOL!

Thanks Nimbus, I currently photgraph with a canon EOS300 in film and would like to change to digital. Any suggestions about a good digital canon SLR that will also allow me to progress into doing a bit more advanced stuff (ie if I'd like to do some part time jobs in portrait photograpy) would be much appreciated. At the same time I haven't got lots of spare cash to buy a really expensive camera.

Your website looks great, stunning photos on there. I really need to upgrade my skills a bit in the lighting area and then probably do some family portraits to get a portfolio together.

Great idea about wedding photography to be done in a team, unfortunately I'm not in the Waikato region. I'm down in Wellington. Otherwise I'd bee more than keen to team up for wedding photography.

Re: the lenses, I guess it is best to get a standard new 18 - 80mm lense with a digital camera to cover the lower spectrum of the lense.