tigger68

Tanner, I hope you were able to get into your doctor. This is not something to mess around with. You should have a larger diet than that of a small child, just based on your build. Okay, for the rest of us, here are some suggestions for holiday indulging without guilt. 1. DON'T FAST!!!! I know it is tempting to fast before going to a party because you think you're going to consume more goodies there than you should and you don't want to exceed your calorie count for the day. Well, if you fast, then the chances are you would eat more than you had planned to in the first place. Your body is HUNGRY! This is not a good practice and shouldn't be considered a good way to avoid gaining those extra pounds over the holidays. Instead, eat regularly during the day, and then before going to the party drink a glass of water. As long as you aren't ravenous when you head to the party chances are you won't overeat. 2. DON'T BINGE/FAST!!! Again, a common problem during the holidays. When you binge, you stretch out your stomach for about 2 weeks. If you binge on a meal, say Thanksgiving, and then fast afterwords you are more likely to binge again because you feel ravenous, and your body thinks you are starving. It would be better for you to eat regularly, and take smaller portions at the meal. If you eat more slowly during the meal, chances are you won't binge and your body will have a chance to send a "satiation" signal to your brain telling it that you are full. Practice before the big day listening to your body. Your body knows what it wants/needs and is more than willing to tell you if you just listen. This is vital to not gaining weight over the holidays. 3. Sweets The best part of the hoilday in my opinion. Around my house that means sugar cookies, cheesecake brownies, and my grandmother's fudge. The temptation to overeat is huge! Try to limit your sweet intake to only one cookie after dinner, or one brownie or one piece of fudge... Eating one or two won't kill you and won't destroy your weight loss. (I refuse to use the word diet. Like Garfield I think diet is "to die with a 'T'.") Okay last but not least NO GUILT! NO GUILT! NO GUILT! Better to have slip ups than go through the whole binge-guilt-fast-binge-guilt-fast cycle which is very common. Enjoy your holidays and don't feel any guilt.

I think TK/TD 8020 has the right explanation. I'm still new to the whole thing, and wasn't there, but I've heard rumors and people will debate this until the nerfs come home, but in the end we know who REALLY has the best marksmanship. However, I wonder how much the success on the Tantive IV was due to the fact that the rebel scum were wearing dark uniforms against a light background, and our TKs were wearing white against a light background. Have to run some analysis on that and get back to you.

Congratulations. You've had some great accomplishments, and here's to another 1,000 helpful posts.

Congratulations Tanner! And yes, I've been a marching band member, and you do work really hard. Not quite as hard as the DCI guys (at least not in my case) but you work hard. Remember a fluctuation of 5 lbs in a week isn't anything to be too concerned about. Okay, I've been a slacker, but I've been searching for a job and not having any success. Which has made it really difficult for me to keep my mind on working out and gtting fit. Yes, even Tiggers have their "down" days. Unfortunately for me, I tend to munch my way to comfort, which then makes me feel awful. So I'm having to remember that I don't need to munch my way out of being discouraged. Okay, that said, the holidays are rapidly approaching and if your family is anything like mine, then it is all about the FOOD! We tend to eat our way through the holidays with lots and lots of good foods (both my brothers-in-law are fantastic cooks) and so I'll be posting some ideas to help us keep our svelte figures... Also, if people want to post their success or even lack thereof on this board that would be wonderful. Just wondering how everyone has done over the past several months. TTFN...ta ta for now.

Mike, thanks for the encouragement. I'm working on trying to find just a job right now. I'm going to keep applying at Epic, just need to take a moment to catch my breath and start over. Need to work on tailoring the resume to match exactly what they're looking for.

Just an update, I didn't get the project manager/implementation consultant position I applied for. However, I am going to apply for another position with the company. At least they were nice enough to send a personal email instead of just ignoring me. Hopefully something will open up soon.

what a cool idea. Simple fix for a more expensive problem. Halloween is approaching.

From the same people who brought us Midichlorian Rhapsody. I really need to get this CD. Enjoy!

Okay, I'm going to put in some advice here. Ryan, don't get down because you're not exercising on those days you "take off" think of it this way...on your "day off" are you doing other things? Playing with your children? Trooping? Finding those droids we've been looking for? (oh yeah, that's the MEPD, sorry.) Everything you do that is outside of sitting down watching college football (my weakness right now) can be considered exercise. So don't feel fat, flabby, soggy and generally useless, you're doing some physical movement which is better than just sitting there. Look at it that way. Go back to my posts eariler about the whole denial, binge, guilt circle. I'm also going to give some more advice. You have to rest during the week. Most of us here are probably not going to be winning any olympic gold medals in the track and field events any time soon. We don't need to work out 24/7/365. In fact, even olympic caliber athletes don't work out 24/7/365. Your body needs time to recover from the exercise. Think of these days as recovery days. If you don't have them your body will break down, it won't be able to burn the fat, and you'll end up sitting on the couch munching on chips and drinking soda to drown your sorrows as your body forces you to recover. So, thought for those days when you aren't working out: This is the day my body is taking to recover. I'm not gaining any weight, and I'm probably still losing it. I don't need to worry about how I'm doing today, It is actually helping me maintain my weight loss. By taking this rest day I can go at it again without worrying about overtraining and downtime. Hope this helps! Keep up the good work everyone!

Love the sentiment, esp since I'm having to acquiesce to my GML who has asked that I make my officer's uniform "pop." Not sure what he means, but I'll try. I'm also making vests and cloaks for local custom mandos (have to supplement my income somehow) and realize there are some rules to the mando world, but nothing like the requirements for the TKs. Besides, a whole row of white and shiny TKs all looking alike looks FANTASTIC! Okay, might be beat by a whole row of Black and shiny TXs (pref novatroopers) but then, I like black and shiny. Bring on the white and shiny crew! Very funny cartoon. Have to remember this one.

Some great stories and great pics out there. Bernard, any advice/examples you have will be more than welcome. I am very happy to have more people with advice here on the boards. Okay, I need to give an update and I apologize to Pandatrooper for not doing it sooner. If you've been following along with this forum, back in May Pandatrooper offered a free EA Sports Active More Workouts Game for the Wii to anyone who would take the 6 week challenge and report back. I took him up on the offer. He sent me the game and I did the 6 week challenge with a small break in the middle for my birthday (sorry, had to eat birthday cake and pizza for my birthday). I have to thank him for the game. I did lose quite a bit of weight, which caused problems for me trying to get my officer's tunics to fit for pictures, LOL, I will recommend this to others, with some advice. First of all, if you are severely overweight as I am, this game is limited to the types of exercises you can do. Unfortunately that was one of the downsides to the game. Other than that, my own personal boredom factor kicked in, and I had to remember why I was doing this, and so I posted a pictures of a TIE Pilot, NovaTrooper, and TK next to my TV to remind me why I want to lose the weight. I needed some motivation. All in all, it is an excellent program. I do recommend it if you want to lose weight. Okay, I'm done for today. TTFN

This is going to give this thread a bump, but I just found out somr more information regarding this company. When you boot up the software and enter into the program, it says, aloud..."Jumping into Hyperspace" or at least her program was configured that way. Hmmm, there are more than one position there I should probably apply for. Perhaps hanging out with the 501st isn't a bad thing to talk about with that company...

Never thought about where the clothes came from until I got involved here. As for the shoulder bell, I think it fell down his arm. oops. Must have cost too much to go back and reshoot everything. Great thread though.

Congrats Brian! You're an excellent example of the "Troopers helping Troopers" here in the FISD. Keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing more of your posts in the future!

Skater, you'll like the EA Active. (p.s. one of the collaborators is here on the FISD). I like it a lot. I've encouraged others to purchase it. If the EA Active has the 6 week challenge go for it.

WOW!!!! I may have to commission you to make mine when I go for my Elite Nova Trooper. That looks absolutely just...wow. I can hardly wait to see you with it in person...when are you going to come out and troop at this end of the state??? Huh??? We've got toys for tots coming up in November.

Yes I saw the tree house. Just wondering if there are any Ewoks around. And the slide inside the building. I'm keeping my fingers crossed right now about the job. The more I research it, the more I want to have it. Besides, I could have an office in Deneb Building, or Andromeda, or Ganymede...too bad they don't have an Outer Rim area, or Tatooine but I guess those are copyrighted.

Okay, for those of you who know me, I've been looking for full-time employment and have been for a while. Well, this week I decided to update my resume and reformat it and post it on Monster.com. That day, a recruiter for a healthcare software company emailed me (probably just a form email anyway, their search engine hit my resume and found keywords I'm sure) and said I might be a good match for one of their jobs. So I decided to research the company. It is in Wisconsin. I'm not a big fan of the cold, but I can deal with it. Second, the garrison logo has um, a farm on it. I left Idaho to get away from the stereotype of "farm girl" even though I've never lived on one. So now I'm thinking..."do I really want to apply for this job." Then I looked at their website and they describe the place. The first page has the corporate headquarters name.Corporate HeadquartersThen I got down to the dress code. I decided after seeing these two items that I definitely wanted to work there. Oh yeah, and they have 530 acres of land, including a still working farm...with cows. Wish me luck in my application. After researching the job, I think I would make a great member of their team. I'll even deal with the um, cows...No'l do you think I could borrow your "cow trooper" armor? Just so I can blend in?

Okay, the first one was just strange...the second had me laughing. Thanks for the links.

I remember everything. However, I think the lasting image, impression will be the picture of the three firefighters raising the American Flag at Ground Zero. I pray for peace every night, and wish it for everyone. May we never forget.

Okay everyone, here is today's informational update. Besides the fact that my new ISB tunic I just submitted for approval is now getting loose on me, I have some good websites to go for information on how to live without dieting. The first is: Overcoming Overeating A great place to start. The book I recommend with this information is currently out of print but you might be able to find it on abebooks.com or alibris.com the title is Overcoming Overeating (anyone see a pattern here? The second website is Nourishing Connections I'm not really familiar with this one, but it was recommended by my Dietician friend so I'm looking at it to find out more about it. Just remember, this is something that you need to be able to sustain for a long time (hopefully) and dieting just isn't the way to do it. I know I can't succeed dieting, for me it takes a combination of smaller portions of whatever, and intense exercise before I start to lose weight. The good thing I've noticed in the past is that once I've lost some of the weight, I can actually go about 3-4 months without working out before the weight starts to come back on...and then I get depressed, which makes me want to eat, which makes me more depressed...okay I want cheesecake... Where was I, oh yeah, so check out these websites and see what they have to say. Another good book is Intuitive Eating. So read up, study and see how this new information can change your life for the better. I'm off to find some New York Style Cheesecake...

Okay, take a step back, take a deep breath and relax. I've been waiting for something like this post to come along. No, really I have. Now I can pass along some more data and solutions. First of all, yes Virginia, there really is a "diet roller-coaster" that people get on. You lose 20lbs and you gain back 50lbs. It is a scientific fact. Okay, that said, diets do not work in the long run. I'm going to repeat that...diets do not work in the long run. Depriving yourself of things you enjoy will only make you binge on them at a later date, feel guilty, so you deny yourself, binge, deny, binge....you get the picture. Let's look at something. There is a subject out there called the French Paradox. The French eat real butter, cream, and lots of it, but don't have the diet or health issues faced by Americans. Why? Simple, eating to them is well, not just a means to satisfy hunger, but an enjoyment. You heard me, enjoyment-pleasure-fun. All by sitting down and eating. If I were to say the words, Paris, France to you, what comes to mind? A sidewalk cafe where you watch the world go by? The Eiffel Tower? Lots of rich foods? Then why don't the French have a serious cholesterol or fat problem? Okay some simple answers here. 1. Portion size. Yeah, I know, you've heard it before. But it's true. The United States and other countries have increased portion sizes out of control. It is very scary. However, if we re-train ourselves we will eat the proportions we should be eating of food. It isn't that difficult. It isn't necessarily WHAT we are eating, but how much. 2. Enjoyment/relaxation. Okay, here is where it gets difficult. I want everyone to sit down to your FAVORITE dinner and before you start eating, set a time for 1 hour. You heard correctly 1 HOUR. Then you get to start eating. Oh, I forgot, you can't finish the meal until the hour is up. Uh huh, you'd better have food on your plate, and still be eating when 50 minutes have gone by. Americans on average eat in 30 minutes or less. This doesn't allow your body to receive the "I'm full" signal so you eat more than you really need. Taking your time over a meal helps to reduce the amount of food you ingest. 3. NO GUILT! So you ate a piece or two of cheesecake. So what? It isn't going to immediately kill you. (Unlike the little mint in Monty Python's the Meaning of Life but that's another story - see portion size above.) If you feel guilty, you are going to deny yourself, and when you deny yourself you tend to binge. I've got a bad feeling about that, if you binge you'll feel guilty, deny food, then binge and guess what? You'll do it all over again. This is probably the worst thing you can do to eat healthily. Indulge yourself. But, if you do have that piece of cheesecake (a particular favorite dessert of mine) then remember to eat it slowly and savor it. You'll eat less and enjoy it more. 4. Fresh is best! I know we're heading into the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere (all you S.H. people please refer back to the earlier posting about how to survive trooping in the heat, and heat injuries please!)which means for us Northerners less fresh veggies right? Okay, your local farmer's market may be closed due to the season, but that doesn't mean your local Mega-Mart (thank you Alton Brown) won't have some fresh veggies. Or you can do your work now, purchase lots of veggies and fresh freeze them, or can them yourself. That way you can dictate the sodium and sugar content of the veggies you are eating. Hidden calories there my friends. Okay, enough lecture for today. I've emailed a friend of mine who is a Nutritional Therapist and Registered Dietician who espouses diet-free living to ask for websites and recommendations. As soon as I hear back from her, I'll post them here. Remember, you are not alone my friends. We're all in this together.

Love the armor Joey! You did a great job. However, I'm noticing something wrong with this evolution package. I'm a simple imperial officer at the moment, but doesn't it say stormtrooper? I may be mistaken, isn't that TD armor????

Okay, I'll jump in here with my $.02 on Adkins, and other diets, dieting works to lose the weight. However, once off the diet, the weight will come back, and probably justs more. Just don't take a swing at me, I'm not saying that anyone is wrong, just wanting to make sure that the best information is provided for our group. The low glycemic index diet is a good one and if you want to make it a lifestyle change go for it. Now, that said, there is some interesting research being done within the past 3 years on dieting. One researcher in particular (I'm kind of biased he was my exercise physiology and cellular biology prof) found that higher levels of carbohydrates actually inversely affected weight in human subjects. This was particularly significant in those persons who consumed whole grains, although both whole and refined grains were studied. The citation for anyone who wants to look it up: Gaesser GA. Carbohydrate quantity and quality in relation to body mass index. J Am Diet Assoc. 2007;107:1768-1780. There are also studies that have shown the Atkins diet may affect blood vessels if followed long term. I'm not talking about the diet that Blackdog has researched which is the original Atkins diet which came out a while ago, I'm talking about the fad diet that people started following. The same study also looked at the South Beach Diet and Ornish Diet, and compared the three of them. The results were if the Atkins diet derived 50% of its caloric content from fat, it increased LDL (bad cholesterol) by an average of 15.4 points (mg/dl), the South Beach diet which derives 30% of its calories from fat reduced LDL by an average of 10.2 points, and the Ornish Diet which derives 10% of its calories from fat reduced LDL by an average of 25.5 points. Miller M, Beach V, Mangano C, et al. Comparative effects of 3 popular diets on lipids, endothelial function and biomarkers of atherothrombosis in the absence of weight loss. Study presented at: American Heart Association’s Scientific Session; Nov. 6, 2007; Orlando, Fla. I think the real thing here is to avoid processed sugars, something that Americans seem to have found essential to living. Start reading your labels on canned foods. I'll bet you'll find some sort of sweetener in them, be it High Fructose Corn Syrup, real sugar or some other processed sweetener. Okay, take my advice here, find what works for you. If you want to increase your body's sensitivity to insulin, i.e. you need less insulin to process the glycogen in your body, exercise will provide a great way to do that in conjunction with staying away from processed sugars (my own downfall). Exercise also reduces blood pressure, increases metabolism, reduces stress, makes you feel better about yourself, and you'll look better in your armor. I know the only way I lose weight and keep it off is through exercise, I can diet until I'm blue in the face, but my body will store the fat and I'll lose it, but I also lose muscle mass which is the opposite of what I want to do. Phrase for the day: MODERATION IN EATING. Okay getting off my soap box to go sweat to my Wii.

Just moved to a different area of the Imperial Military. My rank remained the same unlike poor Col. Yularen who got demoted from flag officer status in the Clone Wars to Colonel in ANH. I like the way the two-tone uniform looks, and according to our GML, we don't have another ISB in our Garrison, so I would be the first. I just can't wait until I finish losing the weight, get a full-time job so I can afford my TK, TX and TI armor. not necessarily in that order.