Maintainers Chat: June 1 - 7

Meg · 06-01-2009, 04:59 AM

As I typed the date, I was chuckling about how it's the perfect day to start a diet -- a Monday AND the first of the month!! Then I realized that today is the eighth anniversary of me starting the last diet back in 2001. Wow, it's been eight years since I last weighed 257 pounds! Funny how the memories of morbid obesity are still as strong -- and as motivating -- all these years later. Maybe, hopefully we never forget how it felt to be fat and what finally pushed us into making a lifetime commitment to weight management. I think the ever-present fear of going back is what keeps me from sliding into complacency.

Yikes, I also realized that I discovered Fitday about nine days into the process and have Fitday records all the way back to June 9, 2001.

Now I'm feeling really old and better have another cup of coffee.

It was a mega productive weekend and I got the whole house cleaned, windows washed, and all the laundry and ironing done. After I go to the gym this morning, I need to do a big grocery shop for the week. My schedule has changed and I'll be working at least a part day on Mondays so need to do some major cooking for the week.

Funny how we sometimes have to learn the same lesson over and over again ... I KNOW that being tired is one of my biggest triggers for overeating. I know that my body can't tell hungry and tired apart. So yesterday afternoon, after my cleaning frenzy, I found myself eating and eating and not being satisfied. So I thought about it, realized I was exhausted, and took a two hour nap. It was absolutely the best thing I could have done and of course, when I woke up, I wasn't "hungry". My goal this week is to get as much sleep as possible because I know it will help with keeping me on plan.

How is everyone doing today? How was the weekend? How's your weather -- it's a crazy 47 degrees here this morning! Boy do I hope it doesn't hurt the strawberries -- they're almost ripe and I can't wait.

Mudpie · 06-01-2009, 05:56 AM

Meg

You continue to be an inspiration and a motivator to all of us! Here's to the next 8 years

Yes, it's a Monday and a new month so I'm geared up to finally lose these last 5 lbs by the end of June. Now if it would just really be "salad and fruit" weather! Had to wear a long sleeve top and a coat all weekend while gardening.

Have a great week all!

Dagmar

WardHog · 06-01-2009, 06:54 AM

Good morning, y'all! My ILs are here visiting and I have been doing some classic stress eating. It's time to stop now.

kaw · 06-01-2009, 07:04 AM

Good morning everyone!

My tale isn't nearly as interesting or inspiring as Meg's, but I recently had a "gads I've been doing this a long time" moment, too. Sunday, a friend who I bumped into at the gym asked me how long it took to get my shoulders "built". After thinking for a sec, I realized that I've been at weight training off and on -- mostly on, except immediately post-partum and a few slothful months here and there -- since about the summer of 1996. (I didn't tell her that the shoulders took me 13 years!)

We rang in June with frost last night. Had to bring in all my planters, cover the tomatoes, etc etc. What's up with frost in June?

Be strong, everyone!

Kim

BillBlueEyes · 06-01-2009, 08:26 AM

Congratulations, Meg, on your EIGHTH anniversary.

Eight years is a terrific metric indicating that you seem to be in this for the long run.

Also waiting here for local strawberries.

midwife · 06-01-2009, 08:32 AM

Happy Anniversary Meg! Thanks for being such an inspiration.

It is funny how we relearn lessons. I have been stressed out for a health issue for DS#2 and Saturday night I stood in front of the fridge looking for something, anything, to eat. I'd like to say I recognized it and walked away. I did recognize it, had a smallish snack, went to bed, and jumped right back into healthy choices the next morning.

I canNOT believe it is June!

Good luck with the in-laws, Ward.

Hello all!

One week til our trip and I have so much to do this week, it is not even funny.

Sheila53 · 06-01-2009, 09:53 AM

That's certainly an anniversary to remember, Meg! It must be kind of interesting to look over your Fitday records.

Dagmar, Meg and Kim, what's up with the cold weather? Pretty crazy for late May. If you're anything like us, you'll go straight from those temps to turning on the A/C full blast for the next three months.

Wardhog, just say no. . . :-)

Bill, I've been eating up the last of my frozen strawberries in anticipation of getting more for the freezer.

Good job on recognizing you were stress eating, Midwife.

A very difficult weekend, well, week actually, at my house, as you can imagine. This week might be even more difficult, especially for my son, because there's nothing to plan, nothing to focus on, and people have to get back to their lives. Three of my kids have already left, and the last one is leaving this evening. My DS still can't stay at his house.

Our 28th wedding anniversary is next Saturday. I've planned a surprise weekend getaway so DH won't know where we're going until we get there. Last year he was in Idaho and I was in Oregon during June so I thought I'd make this anniversary special.

Have a good, and hopefully warmer, Monday, everyone!

paperclippy · 06-01-2009, 10:36 AM

Good morning everyone!

I had a sort-of NSV this morning -- one of my (female) coworkers said it looked like I'd lost a lot of weight. I was like, well, I gained 20lbs, but then I lost 5, so yes and no!

But I do think the NRLW lifting is helping. I'm wearing one of my skinny skirts today even though I'm still 15lb over goal.

I'm switching my official weigh-in day to Saturday. Since I do my second NRLW workout Thursday, it turns out that my sore muscles are always retaining water Friday, and I always magically drop it by Saturday.

Meg - happy anniversary! We're having crazy weather too -- 60 degrees this morning with a high of 84 this afternoon. We did buy strawberries at the farmer's market last weekend though, but they weren't very good. Our strawberry plants produced one strawberry though, which was exciting! The bunny managed to get the second one even though we put netting over it.

Dagmar, to respond to your comments from last week's thread -- I eat too much when I drink too. :sigh: I just figure if I do it infrequently enough I'll be okay, like only have a drink once every two weeks or so. I did think about getting insurance for Carter, but I don't know if it's worth it. They are pretty expensive and don't cover the basic preventative care which is most of the cost. He's five years old so I don't know if that is too old or not.

Ward, good luck with the in-laws!

Kim - your 13 year trained shoulders must look awesome!!!

Hi Bill!

Midwife, where are you going on your trip? I forgot!

Sheila, where are you going to take your DH? Or can you not say in case he finds it? DH and I have a sort-of plan to follow his grandparents' example and take big anniversary trips on the "important" anniversaries (5, 10, 15, 20, etc). I might talk him into taking me up to Chicago for our anniversary this year though, just for one night.

AnneWonders · 06-01-2009, 11:09 AM

everyone!

Meg, keep on keeping on. The longer we do this, the more I'm convinced that getting too tired or perhaps not getting enough rest is one of the BIGGEST problems we face for weight management.

8 years and a two hour nap. My inspiration.

Anne

Shannon in ATL · 06-01-2009, 11:09 AM

Good morning everyone. I'm tired tired tired today. Busy weekend. My grandmother has been moved from the hospital into the rehab center where she was originally scheduled for her knee rehab. This facility can monitor her cardiac rehab, too. She has been up and around a lot in the last few days, so is doing really well. Still along road ahead...

I cut grass this weekend with my HRM on, curious to see what it said. According to it I burned 723 calories in cutting the grass and doing about half of the edging. I don't know if I believe that or not, but the heart rate was interesting to see. DH was in school at night all last summer so I used cutting the grass as part of my exercise schedule, might not do it so much this year.

Meg - congrats on the 8 years!

Busy morning - I opened this reply over an hour ago and just got back to finish it...

Just found out that DSS got bitten by a new kid at daycare this morning, badly enough to draw blood. Trying to decide now if he needs to go to the doctor for antibiotics. My mom (nurse) suggests we look at it and see, but that if it bled antibiotics are not a bad idea. Always something...

Hi to everyone! I'll be back to reply later once the dust settles.

traveling michele · 06-01-2009, 11:12 AM

Meg-- Wow! 8 years is a huge accomplishment. And to keep fit day records for so long-- I'm sure that has been a big part of your success-- daily tracking. I am hit or miss with the tracking and I definitely do better when I'm tracking!!

Paperclippy-- Saturday weigh in sounds like a good idea. I weigh in Saturday and try to run on Friday nights with no lifting-- it seems to really help my weigh ins. False lows perhaps, but I'll take them!

And a night in Chicago sounds heavenly! How many years will it be for you this year? We have our 22nd Anniversary on August 1. We will be driving on August 1-- I will be picking one dd up from camp to the north and dh will be picking our other dd up from the south-- and then we leave on our Alaskan cruise on August 2!

Sheila-- more hugs and prayers to your family. I'm glad you are planning a getaway-- that will hopefully be a good break for you and dh.

You won't believe the trip my brother-in-law and his wife just started. They live in London and he is changing jobs. He has a noncompete clause so he has quit but will continue to be paid for 3 months (what a dream!). So... they are in Greece for 2 weeks, then are coming to the US for 60 days-- will be driving all across the country including Canada. They have the whole trip mapped out. They don't have kids yet-- can't imagine it with kids but they should have fun! I'm just jealous of the Greece part though-- a beach sounds heavenly right about now!

I forget where you are going too Midwife... somewhere fun, I hope!

Hi Kim and Bill!!

Stay strong with the inlaws WardHog! Then give me some of your strength. I am going to stay with mine in a few weeks with dd. I think I made a mistake... we went last summer for a few days. Wasn't really planning on making it a tradition but we are going this summer too. Now they are talking about "every summer" when we visit. Egads... I guess I have to go every year now. I need to lose a few more pounds if possible before we go because they are already planning dinners out at all of our favorite, decadent, HUGE TEXAS SIZED PORTIONS restaurants!

Hi Dagmar! It is cold here too. I hate it. I know when I'm in Houston in a few weeks it will be sweltering but I don't appreciate freezing now. We went to the San Francisco Giants game Saturday and froze. They were selling blankets for $50. I was horrified to think that ANYONE would pay $50 for a blanket-- what kind of idiot would do that?!?! Within 20 minutes I had that blanket wrapped tight around me!

Only 8 1/2 more days of school here but who's counting? I work one more week after school is over sans kids. I am taking a summer class and was bummed when I realized it starts next week. I shouldn't be starting a class while I'm still in school-- oh well...... This is a crazy, hectic time of year with all of the end of year stuff......

Dd went to her camp for the summer. The campers don't come for a couple of weeks and she will be training until then (the campers are children and adults with disabilities). She is so nervous. She doesn't know anyone and so far she is the only one staying in the housing as other counselors don't have to be there so early. Hopefully the other counselors are nice and friendly..... She won't have a car and is in the middle of nowhere. Some of the employees went to "town" but she didn't go because she knew they would be drinking and she doesn't drink (and she is 18, they are all older)... She didn't bring her computer because she didn't think they'd have access (but they do) so the only communication is spotty cell phone reception. Dh is going down to visit her in a month and will bring her computer then. My brother-in-law and his wife are going to try to visit as well on their cross-country trip.

Better get back to work!!

Oh....I'm off to the endocrinologist today to see about my wayward thyroid. I've only seen my general doc for it since moving to CA but it is out of whack and I'm having lots of symptoms. I'll be curious to see what he says....

paperclippy · 06-01-2009, 11:23 AM

Michele, this year will be our 2nd anniversary, but we'd been together for seven years before finally getting married. So it's not a big one yet, we've got three more years to hit 5! OTOH it would be nice to celebrate our 10th anniversary of being together next year, but I guess at some point I'm going to have to stop counting those seven "unofficial" years and actually count wedding anniversaries.

lilybelle · 06-01-2009, 11:37 AM

Meg, Wow, big congratulations on your 8th anniversary. Also, great job on getting the whole house cleaned. I cleaned my whole house last Saturday while DH and the girls were gone. Yesterday I cleaned Lacy and Shelbey's rooms for them and did a ton of their laundry. In fact, I'm still finishing their laundry today. I found all the missing towels in their floors!

Sheila, I hope you and your DH have a nice anniversary. Our anniversary is next month and we plan to go to Eureka Springs (where we got married).

The weather here is finally beautiful. Mid-80's and sunny. My plans this week and golf Tuesday, golf Thursday and golf Friday. DH gets back home tomorrow and we plan to keep 3 the grandsons Thursday night. My only other plans are to have DH weedeat while I trim all our trees (which we have a ton of them).

Last night I had a strawberry-banana fruit smoothie made with fat-free yogurt, fruit, ice and splenda. It was delicious and I'll definitely have it again.

My son is doing great. Last night he called and asked me recipe advice for the home-made chicken and dumplins he was cooking for himself. Man, I wanted to say "bring me some", but I didn't. That took willpower!

Jessica, my official weigh-in days are on Saturday too. I try to just stay OP and stay off the scale the rest of the week. I seem to always do better just weighing once a week. Also, don't feel bad about having that regain cause you are doing great now and taking it off. I've done the same thing and am now getting back close to goal again. I know I did some stress eating while my son was in Iraq and it seems now that he's home and doing great I can relax and concentrate on getting back to goal again.

carolr3639 · 06-01-2009, 01:59 PM

Lily, my brother lives on Holiday Island. We were just there on Mother's Day. His wife has breast cancer but seems to be doing good. We ate at a buffet in Eureka Springs.......something like Maggie's Kitchen. Not sure of the name. It was good.

iriswhispers · 06-01-2009, 02:39 PM

Wow, I feel behind on things! I've been off the web for a few weeks (about a week driving and then getting things set up here). It sounds pretty positive here, and a monday that is the first day of the month is sure a good day to start with a fresh slate!

I'll catch up when I can and be checking in more often. =)