[JudySP]

Starting the topic

[JudySP]

I've got to make this quick - I have a ton of catching up to do. Thanksgiving was wonderful - everything worked out well and I even got a chance to enjoy it this time. Foodwise on T-day and since: I wasn't as good as I could have been or as "bad" as I have been in the past. I slept late on Saturday so I missed my meeting. My sneak peeks aren't great but it's PMS time and the new anti-inflammatory I'm taking is making the water retention worse. I'm going to try to get on the bike today (my exercise has been pretty non-existent lately). Saturday we spent the day with my step daughter and grandson. Yesterday wa spent catching up on everything - including health care plan selection for Tony (blech).

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

Looking forward to an OP week,

Judy
163.6/156.6/135 (last week's numbers).

[Garon1199]

I am back, Canada was nice, but sooo much better to be home!

Food wise, UGH I packed a bag of all premeasure snacks and all my fat free etc. Forgot it! Grocery store is all in french and labels are all different plus they don't have same brands so I was clueless. Then we went to check into hotel. Well I have never been so scared in my life. I would have never stayed there without my husband. Lets just say toilet was in kitchen and shower was in bedroom. So I went to the nearest liquor store to ease the pain. Room was that bad, my drinking was not. I did have a couple over the trip and eating was not the best. I managed to get out for a couple of walks and I stayed away from junk, just did not make the best choices. Right back on track as soon as I got home, but with TOM I did not dare go near scale this morning. I am not going to make my regular meeting today, I am going to the hospital to see my friends baby. She had him on Tuesday, she has been released but he has not. He was born with a cleft lip and is having some eating problems, plus he was 5 weeks early. She is lucky he was 8.5 at 35 weeks, should make his eating problems less of a medical problem at least. I guess he will be able to have the corrective surgery at 4 months. So I will not make the lunchtime meeting today. I will have to check the schedule out for the rest of the week, I am not going to skip the week, just today.

I hope you all enjoyed your holiday! Have a great day.

Judy-good job staying not so good not so bad. I was definately not so good.

[Phoinix]

Hi everyone! Well, we survived Thanksgiving, and it sounds like Judy and Michele did well! So did I, could have been better but i'm pleased with myself for not being terribly bad. Only four weeks til Christmas. I resolve to stay OP and exercise religiously until then. Want to join me? I'd like to lose 6 pounds by then, which is 1.5 pounds per week, and I think that should be attainable. Have a great day!

[JudySP]

Michele - sorry to hear about that room! Well, at least the second leg of the Bermuda triangle (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukah) is behind us!

Karen C - I'm with you on staying OP through the end of the year and exercising. The exercising part is going to be tough for me (even though it usually isn't) because I really can't stand the stationary bike (the only cardio I can do for now). Still, I want to jump start my efforts so I'll have to grin and bear it.

I got on the bike this morning and did 20 minutes - it was boring but it felt good to sweat. I'm off now to my yearly visit to the neurologist (for migraines) and then back to work. I'd like to try to do a short yoga tape after work. I'm feeling very premenstrual - very crabby and I think that would help.

Judy

[Merrylegs]

Hi Everyone!

Sounds like you all enjoyed thanksgiving and managed to more or less on track. Can't be perfect all the time!

Karen C - 6lbs by Christmas? I'm in! Nothing like a challenge to keep us motivated.

Michele - sorry about your accomodations! I feel somehow responsible, being Canadian! Hope your friend's new little one does well, that's a good size for a premie!

Judy - sounds like a wonderful weekend! Sleep ins are so rare these days, it was probable well worth the missed meeting.

Friday I climbed on the scale, and was rewarded for all my exercise, great eating habits, and drinking enough water to float the navy with a 5 lb gain! I know it was all water weight, but still!!! Anyway, I have persevered, and this morning I am delighted to report a 2 lb net loss!

Hope everyone has an on track day...

Karen B.

254/249/150

[cece]

Hi everyone.

Judy - I'm glad to hear you were able to enjoy your Thanksgiving despite hosting the dinner. I'm with you on Thanksgiving eating. Not as good as I could have been and not as bad as I've been in the past. I'm just about at PMS time myself, so I should come down with raging crabbiness soon.

Michele - How horrifying your accomodations sounded. It's the pits being stuck in an icky hotel room. Sounds like despite all your challenges, you didn't do badly at all. Yay for you. I'm sending good thoughts and wishes for your friend's baby.

Karen C - I'm with you on staying OP between now and Christmas. I'd like to knock off about 6 pounds myself.

Karen B - You must have been horribly shocked by that water gain on Friday. Congrats on your net 2 pound loss!

Well, I made it through hosting Thanksgiving in one piece. Of course, that means I've been contending with leftovers as well, but really haven't done badly with them. One thing we didn't keep leftovers of is desser, except for a pumpkin pie and I don't like pumpkin pie, so its not a problem. And now for the third leg of the burmeda triange, as Judy calls it. We really don't have a lot of Christmas parties coming up, so I don't have that worry. I just plan on staying OP and keeping junk out of my house so I'm not tempted. We're so few people here in the office now that I don't think we'll be doing our usual bake off or anything. I'm sure there will be treats here and there, but I'll just have to steel myself to say "no" and to plan low point breakfasts and lunches so I can work the occasional treat into my day. And I'm going to up my water intake as well. That always helps me to do better.

Have a great day everyone.

Carla

[Garon1199]

I AM IN!!!!!! One month till Christmas and 6 pounds sounds good to me. I only have 5 parties between and now. No problem Starting this Sat. night, next Sat night, then Sunday, the next Sat. night and Sunday, nevermind the weekend visits right before xmas. I will be lucky not to gain 6 pounds. I am definately in though. Exercise is no problem, eating not so much, just so hard not to drink at parties and that is such a weight loss NONO.

Has anyone ever heard on Xenadrine? I was in GNC yest. and 3 people bought it while I was in there and they all swore they were losing weight with it. Did not buy, just wondering?

Carla-good for you on eating and ignoring those leftovers. I am not a pumpkin pie eater either. SOunds like we all pretty much suffer through TOM about the same time each month. I am surprised I did not bite my husbands head off this weekend.

Karen C-with you on staying OP and exercise. We will all lose 6 pounds by Christmas. Good idea!

Karen B- I hate those water weight weigh ins. Good for you on the loss. Thanks for the thoughts on the little one. He is doing good and may come home very soon.

Judy-Bermuda triangle huh? That is a good way to put it. Great job getting on that bike. I know I hate working out at home in basement, but I always feel so much better afterwards. I hope you get to that Yoga tape, I know it will ease the PMS tensions.

Well I hope you all have a great night. Going to get to Jazzercise tonight no matter what!!!!!!!!!!! Actually 70 degrees here today, that makes me want to get out of here (work) and go do something besides sit here.

[JudySP]

Karen B - Yahoo! Great loss. I'm sure Friday was water retention. Did you have any high sodium foods Thursday? Anyway, the important thing is that you didn't let it throw you!

Carla - raging crabbiness - I love it! I'm glad to hear you survived hosting Thanksgiving. I hope you were able to enjoy it a bit too. I'm happy to say that I did this time - I guess my slightly anal pre-T-day organizational stuff paid off. I'm glad you've been doing OK with the leftovers. We had very little in dessert left over too - some of my light pumpkin pie plus some wicked, wicked chocolates. Needless to say, the chocolates are gone but I had a lot of help (my parents came over on Friday to help Tony and I eat some leftovers). I'm glad to hear you don't have a lot of Christmas parties coming up. Neither do I and for that I am glad. Of course, I will be starting to bake soon but I will count the tastes and most of it is given away anyway. That (with you) with low point breakfasts and lunches and exercising should be OK. Good idea on the water - I'll add that to my plan.

Karen C - I forgot to say last time that I am in for the whole challenge - the 6 pounds, the OP, the exercise. I would like to start the New Year on a roll.

Michele - I know, it's hard to be careful with the drinks at parties. One thing that has always helped me is to have 2 glasses of water or club soda before each alcoholic drink. It fills you up, you get your water in, and you don't drink as much alcohol.

[jennifa]

hate the holidays, next year I am running away. will get some fabulous boyfriend to take me to Paris.

6 pounds? i am losing 30!

get this - weighed in on thursday at 216, today i weigh 202. i hate scales.

humbug humbug humbug

but I love pumpkin pie so can I have yours????

[Phoinix]

OOPS! So sorry, I forgot that some of us don't celebrate Christmas, so I like Judy's idea to make it 6 pounds by the end of the year. That actually gives us an extra week. Great idea about drinking two waters for every alcoholic drink. It's probably good to drink two waters for every cookie or candy too. I know we can all do this. Take it one day at a time and remember, when you think you're hungry, you're really thirsty, so drink water first.

Karen and Jennifa--great losses! I find if I weigh daily and record it, when I have a gain I can look back and usually see a pattern. Jennifa, you camel woman! How are the jeans fitting? I won't hold you to that 30 pounds by the end of the year

Carla, congrats on surviving the holiday. Are you planning to get your exercise in?

Judy, how do you like the yoga? My sister called this morning and said she attended a class with a friend this weekend and she felt renewed.

Michele, gee that's a LOT of holiday parties! I know you can do it, just focus on the warm Caribbean breezes!

[Pepper]

Judy - Glad to hear you had a good Thanksgiving. I know what you mean about the food. I keep telling myself at least I am making progress. (The leftover desserts made it all the way to Saturday night!)

Michele - Sorry to hear your room was a nightmare. Good job getting in some walks and staying away from the junk. Even though you didn't make the best choices, I'm sure it could have been a lot worse. Hope your friend's baby will be out of the hospital soon.

Karen C - I'll join you on the challenge. I need to get moving downward again...especially since the new scale I bought gave me an 8 lb gain!

Karen B - Way to go on the loss.

Carla - Sounds like you have a good plan for handling Christmas. Good job getting rid of the dessert.

Jennifa - Running away at least for Thanksgiving sounds great to me.

Well, I survived hosting Thanksgiving (barely). My kitchen is just not big enough. I did send a lot of the leftovers with my sisters. We kept some of the desserts, but I didn't do too badly with them. I did buy a new scale this weekend. Unfortunately it weighs me about 8 lbs higher than my old scale. I'll just weigh in Wednesday morning and go from there since I think the new scale is probably more accurate.

Can't get out for my walk in the morning since Laura has to go to the orthodontist. Hopefully I'll get away from work early and be able to get it in.

Talk to you tomorrow.
Pat

[JudySP]

Jennifa - yup, the holidays can wreak a little havoc but I'd still rather celebrate them. Now if it would just start getting cold so it felt like the end of November! Actually, my PT said I can go for walks so maybe it's a good thing it's warm. Wow - your weight really fluctuates wildly!

Karen C - yup, that extra week can really help. Usually by then I've had it with all the food challenges! I like your idea of having one or two glasses of water for each cookie or piece of candy. I love yoga (although I didn't get to do the tape yesterday). I've taken some live classes a few times. The one at my gym I didn't like at all (too many stock brokers into showing how they can do the tough stuff). I took a class in Brooklyn once that I loved but it's not very convenient. I do find it very renewing, relaxing although you can still work up a bit of a sweat (depending on what you do).

Pat - Sounds like you have a good attitude about the new scale. Good for you for not doing badly on the desserts. I know what you mean about kitchen size. Tony and I had to clear the counter of half of my spices, all my appliances (except the coffee maker) and bring the microwave downstairs so I could use the cart it's on for carving! I only really felt "done" when we had moved all the stuff back upstairs. I'm going to try to go for a walk today too. It certainly is warm enough.

I had a pretty good night yesterday although I did have some leftover cranberry mold which didn't leave me a lot of points for lunch today. It looks like lunch is going to be a salad. I have a meeting uptown this afternoon so I plan on walking to the train from the office uptown - a nice 20 minute walk.

Have a great one,
Judy

[Garon1199]

Good Morning! I hope everyone had a good night.

Quick post, busy morning! I will try and get back on later.

Good night, OP and Jazzercise!

[cece]

Hi everyone.

Michele - Good for you for staying OP and getting to Jazzercize last night. I can't believe how warm it is in your neck of the woods. It's been unseasonably warm here too, but in the 50s.

Judy - Yep, raging crabbiness alternating with the woe is me syndrome. Got to love PMS. I can't wait to see what menopause is going to be like. I think I'll have John build a shed in the back yard that I can live in when I'm not fit for human company. I did enjoy my Thanksgiving a bit. Yes, there'll be the baking challenge to contend with. I normally don't bake a lot during the holidays, but now is a good time to start doing cutout and spritz cookies with Ana. I think I'll get them in the freezer as quickly as possible and just bring out one or two every morning or so for Ana to enjoy in the evening.

Karen - I like the idea of drinking a couple of glasses of water for every cookie or candy. As much as I know that I need to start exercising, for right now I'm going to stop saying that I'm going to do it. It just stresses me out when I don't get it done. What I am going to do is concentrate on getting my act together at home - getting organized and getting myself into a routine and Ana into a better routine. I never really did that when we brought her home. It was pretty chaotic what with a new baby, a death in the family, and hernia surgery for John. And it has just snowballed over the last 2.5 years. Once I have home under better control and I'm sleeping better, I can better work exercise into my day.

Pat - Sounds like your dealing well with the difference in weight on your new scale. That reminds me that I was going to get a bag of flour or sugar and see if my scale (which is the old analog kind) is weighing true. It's hard hosting a holiday dinner when you're short on room, isn't it. My kitchen is actually big enough to accommodate it. That's one of the reasons we bought this house - after so many years in apartment kitchens having adequate counter and cupboard space was a real draw. But the rest of my house is small and its always a challenge to figure out how to seat everyone. Good for you for handling the desserts well.

I got home last night to find out that John had taken Ana to the grocery store and she had insisted that they buy a half cake for me. She knows that I like chocolate with white frosting. So I had to have a small piece. Monkey wrenches in well-planned days - gotta hate them. But she was so excited that I didn't have the heart to disappoint her. Oh well, not too much damage done and I'm just moving on to today.

Have a great day everyone.

Carla