[Meg]

Good morning! We got home from New Mexico last night and my body is throughly confused about what time it is. Even though it feels like the middle of the night right now, my alarm says TIME FOR THE GYM!

I was totally convinced that I had gained a lot of weight on the trip due to eating out for nine days and no access to a gym most of that time, like to the point of being petrified of getting on the scales when we got home last night. Fortunately, it turns out to be one pound and I'm hoping its water weight.

The whole trip was a very good lesson about how eating "normally" makes me feel like crap. I would have killed for a nice egg white omelet and oatmeal at the B&B we stayed at for a few days, but breakfast was all junky carbs. Who would have thought that I would look forward to getting back to the gym and clean eating??

So gym first, then groceries, then unpacking , laundry and cleaning up ten days of cat fur drifts.

Carolyn, I'm so sorry about DH! You guys just can't seem to get a break, can you?

Lisa, what a bummer about your hamstring. I know what you mean about being afraid to take the week off, because exercise keeps my eating in line too. Is there something else you could do to stay active? Upper body weights? Can you ride a bike without pain?

How is everyone else on this beautiful fall day?

[rockinrobin]

Good morning everyone.

Looks like another beautiful day here. I am absolutely loving this weather. Sunny, cool and crisp. It's perfect "walking" weather and I've been doing lots of it lately.

Meg, welcome back. To be away for so long and come back with a measly one lb is just incredible. Gosh, I hope to always be able to do that.

I had a real good week this past one. Really on plan, survived a feeding frenzy with friends at IHOP. Exercised a LOT. I felt good and strong again. I hope it lasts. I can see though that there will be times where I feel very in control and then times - well not so much. It sure is easier when the control is at a strong point. And on that note, I think I will head over and change my ticker - down 2 lbs to 123. A new low for me!!!

Have a great day/week everyone.

[LisaMarie71]

Robin - congrats on 123! What a lovely number!!

Meg - welcome back and congratulations on only having to deal with one tiny little pound!! That's fantastic! And yes, I plan to try to do other things besides running this week when I can fit them in. Yesterday I lifted some weights and did some ab work, and let me tell you -- my body could definitely tell I hadn't done strength training in a while. I was soooo weak and I'm soooo sore today!! I'm going to talk to the athletic trainer at school about my hamstring and see what she has to say. I really really want to run!!

The scale was back up to 165 today and I was really hoping to stay at 163 or possibly go down. We'll see what it says tomorrow on my "official" weigh-in day...

Busy week ahead!

[Kery]

Good morning everyone (though it's kind of the afternoon for me here). I hope this week is starting well enough for all of you.

Robin -- Congrats on the loss!

Meg -- I think it's wonderful to only have to take care of one pound. Sure, it's a gain, but after 9 days? It means that you're able to remain in control, sort of, even when circumstances are quite against you, which is no small feat at all in my book.

Lisa -- Good idea. It's very frustrating, but if we force ourselves in spite of all, it can be a case of causing even more serious injuries and then really be annoyed by it, so better get advice first...

As for me, I've been seriously overboard this week-end (Saturday), so it's back to the drawing board, er, I mean, back to clean foods and sensible quantities. I know one day can't do me in totally, but there's no way I want a day to turn into a week. I know better than that now.

On the brighter side, I've added a couple more weight-lifting sessions to my schedule. Now that I'm not limited to official classes anymore, which didn't work due to me having academics classes at the same time, I can go in the evenings, or on Saturday mornings, as much as I want. And I don't have to wait 5 minutes for a machine or a bench to be finally available, which I hate, since it's such a waste of time. Joy!

[KatieK]

I wanted to post today because I have just reached my seventh month of maintaining!!! YAY!!!
It is a year since I started my journey of losing weight.
Starting at 153 and going down as of today to 117.
I thought it would get easier but it seems somehow harder.
Not the eating which I can control when I am at home but the weight lifting part.
I added that in April, and I'm guessing that that never gets easier.
Meg I am so impressed that after 9 days of eating out you only put on 1 lb!!!WOW!!
I will be going away for a week to visit my daughter in Toronto and am really concerned about eating out.
I know I will be walking a lot but not doing WL.
Any tips???? How did you do it??

[AnneWonders]

Meg, I do believe that you were anxious to get back to the egg white omelettes and the gym.

Lisa, I'm crossing fingers for a speedy hamstring repair.

Kery, I'm glad your schedule opened up.

Katie, CONGRATS on the first year of your new lifestyle.

Things are OK here. I've been sick for almost a week now--almost certainly fallout from the stress, fatigue, and exposure of traveling. It is an upper respiratory thing which is alternately threatening to lift or become a lower respiratory thing. I'm hoping it lifts soon though, because I'm so tired of it. My eating is off, which is unfortunately normal when I feel physically ill, and haven't been able to exercise much, unless chasing a 2 year old counts.

Anne

[EZMONEY]

HI MAINTAINERS ~

I am hanging out around the house this morning. I have a periodontist appointment this morning, I hope the last one! Last week was supposed to be, but he wanted to fine tune a spot around the small area he did surgery on several weeks back.

Our Pastor's celebration was very nice. A great day for him! Not so good "maintaining" wise for me though! My eating over the week-end was pretty good....but....let's just say between watching the games on Saturday with my son and Pastor's party yesterday I uh...er...well....if I allow myself 2 drinks a day, then I am good for the rest of the month!

Ok, so gaining the pound I lost over the week-end back...I have my work cut out for me today!

MEG ~Great job on maintaining on your trip! It is strange...but good... coming home after being gone for over a week isn't it? I am happy for you that it was a nice experience....although....if I don't have my by 4:30 I start

ROBIN ~ on the loss! Way to go on the exercise over the week-end. We are not perfect people...there will be times you feel out of control...the key is...and you have found that out obviously....is how you handle it, even if you blow it from time to time. Now you know that if you screw up one meal/day that you just push a little harder the next day...no big thing anymore!

LISAMARIE ~I hope that hamstring heals...ouch! I know how painful that can be, I hurt mine in high school on the first step after taking the baton in a relay...riiiip! Hurt so bad! We have a high school cross country race here a few miles from my house, the kids ran it Saturday. It's really fun to watch, all the #1's race each other, then the #2's and so on, through your schools Top 10 runners boys and girls. I used to love to watch my son race against kids at his talent level. He was around a #6 for our area...if there were 150 boys in an invitational race, he would usually run between 35-50th place. Good luck on healing!

KERY ~Awesome! Adding more weights! That will really help you out. Yep, wating for machines really can take the "rythm" out of a work-out. Super attitude on that "little bit overboard" this week-end....just bring it back in check today...easy for a pro like you!

KATIE ~Great job on maintaing 7 months! That is so cool!

ANNE ~I hope you feel better soon! Goodness...and YES! Chasing 2 year old's count!!

Have a great start to your week ladies!

[srmb60]

Morning! I'm well into my second cup of half caf (which reminds me I need to buy coffee) on my one day off this week. I do not like that. There just seems to be sooo much to do and the day goes so fast.
It's also my baby's 21st birthday. How on earth did my wee smiling baby get to be 21? Doesn't seem right somehow.

[JayEll]

Greetings!

Just a few words that may help with keeping true to maintenance goals: HARD TO START AGAIN.

I'm getting back into the weight-loss harness, and it's quite an adjustment. Very hard to hold back after three months of maintaining on what seemed like a lot of food...

Jay

[Megan1982]

Good morning all,

I've done some bad eating the last few days and posted copiously in the accountability thread about it. *sigh* Gym-going has been decent. I'm struggling to get back on track in the face of a lot of social commitments in the next week or two, where I will have to bring my own, separate meals and be very giantly conspicuous in order to stay on the clean eats wagon. I have no problem with the conspicuity (I think I just made up that word) but I am still tenuous on having the willpower to say no to some of the junky foods. I'm going to have to wake up nearly as early as Meg () to get to the gym tomorrow. BF and I did go sailing on his boat yesterday with some friends and it was an absolutely beautiful day for it! He gave me a sailing lesson too.

Susan, happy birthday to your daughter!

Gary, I'm sure you can take that pound off in no time.

Anne, I hope you feel better soon. Chasing a 2-year-old definitely counts as exercise!

Katie, congrats on your maintenance! When I travel I try to find out as much about the situation ahead of time so I can either decide what food will be "safe" or bring portable things with me. When I go to visit family I usually make a trip to the store to stock the fridge with some things I know I will eat (bran cereal, ff yogurt, fruit & veggies) and when consulted about what meals to make or where to eat I will request a food or place with healthy options. And I bring my workout clothes and try to sneak in some workouts. Good luck!

Kery, let's try to get back on the clean eats together. Your added weightlifting sessions sound great. I hate waiting for machines, too!

Lisa, I hope the trainer can help you with your hamstring.

Robin, congrats on your new low, and feeling so great! Kudos!

Meg, glad you enjoyed your trip and only gained 1 lb! That is great! I think craving your normal eats and gym routing after a 9-day absence is completely normal. I do it, too, and I know I'm not the only one!

Have a great day everyone.

[Kery]

Gary -- Haha, maybe I'm turning into a professional maintainer, instead of a professional dieter. (I sure wouldn't want to find myself forced to redo all that work just because I let myself gain weight again!)

Megan -- Works for me! I'm never sure about posting in accountability threads (I'm ashamed to admit I always tend to eat the same things--I have veggies and proteins and all, but it's always the same food, I can't afford much--so I tend to avoid them...), but anyway, if I'm not accountable to myself, who do I fool? Myself as well. So my Fitday and a faithful notebook remain my companions in that no matter what.

[alinnell]

Good morning maintainers! My what a chatty group!

I had a great weekend. Friday was the football game with the in-laws. They returned to the desert after an absence since April. They'll stay until June this time in order to see DD graduate.

Saturday, after DH and I went on our run, DD and I went for her senior photo shoot. The photographer is a friend of ours, so I'm sure he "did a little extra" with her. Lets see--6 outfits, 3 instruments (bass clarinet, bass guitar and drum sticks) and 2 hours of shooting. He got more than 200 shots! I pick up the proofs on Thursday (he picks out the best for a booklet of proofs). Anyway, she had a lot of fun.

Saturday night DH and I went to the Bighorn Golf Club for a wine and hors d'oeuvre party at two just completed homes up there (the intent was for one of the 300 invitees to put a bid on the houses--no way: $11million is a bit out of our budget!). It was also in conjunction with the Samsung golf tournament. While I didn't see any celebrities, I did see a lot of um...er....interesting people. Why people think it is necessary to flaunt body enhancing surgery is beyond me! Wow. That's about all I can say about it.

Sunday, DH and I went on an abbreviated walk--just 3 miles. Then I had grocery shopping to attend to while DH did the laundry. The in-laws came with lunch and stayed for dinner (kind of our usual Sunday thing to do when they are in town). It was really nice catching up.

After all that, my weight keeps fluctuating. I was up on Friday, down on Sunday and back up on Monday. Jay--you said it, it is hard to get back to dieting after maintaining for a while. But I've got to do it. I'm up 10 pounds since last Thanksgiving and I'm not happy about that. I really need to get back under 140.

[Tara D]

Hey, guys!
I did pretty well on Saturday. I stuck to what I was going to eat -- ate my healthy food I had at home, and didn't pick up any "extras". The plan was to eat healthy Saturday and to allow for indulgences on Sunday. For dinner Sunday I picked up a turkey burger, fries, and carrot cake from the Cheesecake Factory. I haven't had any sort of burger or fries for at least a couple years. The turkey burger was actually really nicely seasoned. I'm thinking I might get it another weekend. The carrot cake was not so good -- for some reason, I still ate it. I was surprised since it's a place that specializes in dessert!

BTW, does anyone know if you're supposed to tip for curbside car pick-up from a restaurant???

However, it's amazing how long such a heavy meal can stick with you. I ate it at 7PM last night, and I wasn't hungry for breakfast this morning. I still felt like the food was still in my stomach until this afternoon! It's weird feeling stuffed for 18 hours. I've gotten so used to lighter and high veggie conent meals!

I had apple pie for lunch yesterday, too, so I went up 4 pounds in 24 hours.. Yikes!

I had an idea for a new meal that was stimulated by buying some bottled chili starter from Williams-Sonoma. Tonight, I sauteed some onion, frozen chopped green peppers, extra lean ground turrkey, and fresh tomatoes. I added the chili starter, let it simmer for a while, then ate it over rice. Yum! It's been quite a while since I made up a new meal! I get home late from work, so I gotta cook stuff up quick -- I like my dinners fresh rather than leftovers.

If anyone knows the answer to the whether to TIP question above, I'd appreciate it!

[Kery]

Good morning all! I'm slowly setting myself to work here (yay for somewhat adaptive hours, that's at least one good point in this job), but here's a little post all the same, before I completely lose track. I'm glad, because I finally managed to find a way around my workout DVDs not being played in my computer, so I resurrected my WATP ones, and there I went. No excuses to not move my little buttocks at 7 am.

Tara -- I'm sorry, I can't help you with your question. In my country, tips are usually included in the waiter/waitress's salary, so when we tip, we never bother to make sure if it's enough, if we have to tip, etc. They're really little extras (I believe in the USA, they are necessary though, right? Since that kind of wages seems to be lower than here?)

[srmb60]

Morning! I ground my own beans in the store yesterday and this coffee is gooodd!

I can't help with the tips question either, sorry.