Yes. I remember that some of my best memories are about my grandfather and I was blessed to have him until I was 18. I am sorry that Gary's 3 granddaughters will not have that.

I'm 41 and still have one grandfather living, lost the other in 2005. My heart hurts for Gary's grandbabies.

Shannon, I like all colors but yellow and red/orange catch my attention first. I have a bright yellow in the bedroom, with beige and medium light blue accents. The living room walls are white with a touch of grey, grey chair, and burnt orange sofa (the sofa I bought a long time ago and it's not going anywhere). I've toyed with the idea of salmon and white in my foyer. Or maybe back to yellow.

I'm very sad to hear about Gary.

Oh. I just felt my heart drop in my chest. Moving to chat to read more.

So, so sad to hear about Gary. You can't have been around 3FC for 5 minutes without seeing one of his upbeat, encouraging posts. I'm glad they'll have hospice to help but I feel so bad for his family.

Shannon - I didn't get a run in yesterday; due to a time crunch because I left work last, I had to do a DVD at home. So it's to the trail for me this afternoon! Which is fine, because it's warmer today than yesterday. Hey, are you running the Peachtree? I got a number and will be running my first!

Oh, and I don't know that coffee shop, but I've heard of the pizza place. In fact, my (still sort-of) BF has mentioned several times wanting to actually do that challenge. Ugh.

Today is Thursday. I've been on plan, food and exercise, since Tuesday. And only NOW is my body starting to feel as "normal" as it does when I am on plan all the time. That's 3 days of recovery from an overindulgent weekend (when I still exercised, by the way). I'm sure I'm up at least 1-2 real pounds but haven't been able to face the scale yet.

THIS ISN'T WORTH IT! Why can't I remember that?

So, this weekend includes a dinner with a friend at a Mexican place (her celebration, her choice) and a weekend traveling to Charlotte to visit an old college friend. I will be on plan. These are great things, but aren't worth derailing my health over. I can make smart choices and I can certainly deal with not eating tortilla chips.

I'll probably need to check in here a few times to remind myself of the tough love.

Have a good Thursday, everyone! Off to run.

Jen - I did get into the Peachtree, yes. I usually am an ATC member with guaranteed entry, but this year I threw my hat into the lottery and got in. Now we'll see if I'm ready by then. LOL It is much warmer today than yesterday, but we have the art show at school with DSS tonight so I had to get my run out yesterday. And - the pizza at Big Pie is actually pretty darn good. The Carnivore Challenge is pretty terrifying.

I spent an hour and a half today helping move boxes at storage, and feel like I lifted heavy weights for a full workout. I've let myself fall way out of shape... came back here, changed clothes for tonight's art show. Looks like XW won't be there after all, but I'm still going to be all cute. Two of my coworkers went to visit our pie baker this morning and came back with a box of fried pies. Brought me one in and put it on my desk. I avoided it for a while, then some stress came up and I got worked up over it. Next thing you know I looked down at the desk and had eaten half the pie. With no memory of eating it. Ah, the patterns we set in our minds...

Shannon, what is a fried pie, pray tell, so I can reconstruct the accident correctly in my mind? And I also used to have out-of-body eating experiences, though not recently. What I have now are dreams in which I eat something mindlessly and then wake up feeling really guilty, like you do when, on the next day, you first encounter the person you had an erotic dream about.

And JenMusic, my definition of feeling self-exiled and excluded is now sitting in Mexican restaurants in the Santa Fe vicinity while all my friends plunge their hands into the chip bowl and then into the tableside-mixed guacamole. At every restaurant meal for five days straight this kept happening over & over, because I agreed with everyone's insistence that we ought to eat the local cuisine whenever possible. I ended the trip without having ingested a single chip, and three pounds lighter than when I rode the plane out there, which I suppose ought to be counted as a victory, but at some deeper spiritual level, I don't actually think I am a better person for it.

Saef - hmm... How to describe our fried pie. We make our own in restaurant from scratch at our flagship using our own machine, this vendor makes for our outlying locations and we fry them on site. It is a pastry dough, rolled out into a circle. We then put in a ladle of hot diced apple filling or peach filling (fruit, sugar, spices, like a pie filling I guess), fold the dough over into a crescent and crimp the edges. Drop it in the deep fryer in a special basket and voila, fried pie. They are individual pies, like turnovers I suppose. McDonald's used to sell something similar, but they bake theirs now. Then ones today were demos from the vendor - we had chocolate, key lime, cream cheese and pecan. Mine was cream cheese, also covered in a sugary glaze like a thinner, handmade version of the glaze on a Krispy Kreme.
I can't make this pic load in directly, but you can see our peach pie here. It made it into the Better Homes and Gardens 'things to do before you die' book a few years ago.

Chocolate fried pie - my idea of heaven.

Lots of bulbs starting to come up in my garden but I haven't had time to enjoy them. And my yard looks horrible this year, as my fence really crumbled over the winter. But it's nice to have at least a glimpse of spring.

Steph - I tried one of the chocolate ones last year, it was divine I must admit. How are you doing? Have you been able to get any rest?

I've now exercised 5 days in a row - I'm counting the boxes from yesterday as exercise, it was hard work. I have a healthy meal in the slow cooker for when I get home, so I'm on track for five days of mostly healthy eating (outside of the pie yesterday.)

Shannon, way to go on 5 days in a row! Here's to keeping up the streak!

My run yesterday was awful. Slow and painful indeed - I had lower leg cramps, which, for some reason, always happens when my nutrition has been off. The next run will be better. I managed to run 3.25 with some walking intervals for a total of 4 miles.

saef, I've eaten at the main restaurant of where Shannon works and seen the fried pies. For some reason apple pie is one of the 3-4 sweets that doesn't appeal to me, so I've never been tempted, but you better believe they look amazing. And a chocolate pie would be hard to pass up.

As for those tortilla chips (or birthday cake, or breadbasket, or snacks a parties, whatever) I've often wondered if people realize how often my gaze returns to them. How, on the outside, I'm paying attention to conversation and completely at ease with not eating whatever yummy carb is on the table, but inside I'm definitely not comfortable. Depending n my mood and level of huger, my discomfort ranges from "I wish I could eat that" to "You're not really hungry, don't do it" to "NO! NO! NO!"

Jen - the peach is so much better than the apple, IMO. Just sharing my food porn with everyone today. LOL

Oh I do the same thing with chips on the table when we are out with friends. On the outside I'm having a pleasant conversation, on the inside I'm staring at the basket, counting how many of the few chips that I'll allow myself I've already eaten, then desperately fighting with my head to not reach for more. It is easier in a large group, when it is just DH and I out I lose track sometimes.

Peach doesn't do it for me either. Now cherry, on the other hand . . .

Lunch was at the local food truck park - meeting yet another friend. I made what I think was a good choice: 3 different meatballs on lettuce wraps. One was lamb, one was pork, and one was beef. Each meatball was right around or maybe a little smaller than golfball sized and had some veggies and a little cheese and sauce. I guesstimated calories but really have no idea . . . maybe 250 per? Eh, who knows. It wasn't ruinous for my daily calories, is all I know.

The funny part is traffic got me there late and lunch wasn't until 1:30, which means my 5pm Mexican dinner shouldn't be nearly as challenging. In fact, if I'm not hungry, I'm not going to eat. That's what "normal" people do, right? Then I can have some Greek yogurt and berries later in the evening and call it a day.

Sorry for the boring food post, but I need this to keep me on track for this weekend of food!

I have never had fried pie or even seen one, but I love peach pie so I imagine I would go for the fried peach pie , too. I am sure a fried cherry pie would come in as a close second maybe even tie for first place. Apple would be my least favorite but I can force myself.