Shane - Your body probably needed that sleep! As for the girl at the grocery, you never know . . . she may be thin and unhealthy, or she may be buying the food for someone else, or she may be splurging for some reason, or she may even have an eating disorder and be in the middle of a binge cycle. In any case you should feel good about yourself for buying healthy food!

About the thyroid . . . I do think it is somewhat responsible for my recent gain. Right before our wedding (10/6) I was weighing in at 133 after struggling to keep my weight down, so that means I've had an eight-pound gain in just over two months, and for one full month I was trying actively to lose. That just doesn't add up! Even when I was gaining, I only gained about 10-15lbs/YEAR. So I'm hoping that with the medicine I'll be able to get back to my comfort zone (135 is my red-line weight, 127 is my favorite weight). At 141 I'm dangerously close to crossing the BMI line back into "overweight!" And since I'll be at my parents' house next week, chances are good that when I come home I'll weigh in at 145.

Megan - I am definitely joining the club. Unlike Valerie Bertinelli, I will be making a resolution to lose weight in January! And covering up your blossoms - I am so jealous! After a storm last weekend most of the (bare) trees in our neighborhood have a complete coating of ice. We actually drove past a school that had a chain link fence, and the FENCE was coated in ice! It was pretty! In any case I'm looking forward to warming up in LA next week.

Meg - yeah, I think I will be okay with my current routine . . . I wake up, take the medicine, shove DH out of bed so he can shower, then crawl back into bed for another hour (you would not believe how long he takes in the shower!!). Then get up, take a quick shower, and have my breakfast. It's a lot easier for me to wake up early, take a pill, and go back to bed than it would be to wait a whole hour after waking up for my breakfast! When I wake up in the morning, the first two things I think are "must brush teeth" and "feed me!" I did ask the pharmacist about the milk. He just looked through the info packet and read off that you should wait 30 mins to an hour to eat, so I figure it's okay.

Allison - I figure by changing my profile I have to actually admit that I have had a major maintenance lapse. I do think it's pretty good that I managed to maintain for nearly two years before lapsing though.

Lily - Mmmm, stew! How are your doggies doing?

Well, Meg, did you make it to the gym? Hope so! I just got back. I pushed myself to do 2-30 minute segments on the elliptical with an hour's teaching of water aerobics in between. Exercise is not my favorite thing, but I LOVE what it does to my body shape!!

Kim,

Don't know if it will help or not, but when I had lost my weight, I made a deal with myself...if my weight went up 3 days in a row, I had to return to my weight loss eating plan. Since today is day 2 of a rising weight, tomorrow might not be so fun, but it helps me to catch any sort of weight gain before it gets to be too much to handle.

Ugh, page 2 already! Busy busy busy.

I've had a couple rough days, dealing with a bout of fatigue. Plus this is my first pregnant holiday, and I can't seem to stop eating.

We went to the mountains yesterday to show DD the snow. At first she just cried and cried, and I thought, yep, that's my kid, and then she started to dig it, jumping and sliding around in it and throwing snowballs at her father. Then a moron decided to speed into a small ice-covered parking lot in a giant truck and wham the car next to us. So we left soon after that. DH likes to drive like a maniac and I was getting pretty car sick on the way down the mountain road. Did I mention I hate winter?

Two more work days and then I'm off for a much needed break. A week and a half. Woo-hoo! Of course, DD will also be home for most of it, so it isn't like I'll be lying on the couch with my feet up, but I'm so sick of work right now I could spit.

Anne

Jessica, both my dogs are doing great now.

After reading others posts here today about changing their ticker, I decided to step on the scale. (I hadn't weighed in about 2 weeks). I am back down to 147 lbs, from my high of 151. I think it's the being sick that has helped me lose a few, cause I sure haven't been able to get much exercise. (unless you count all the shopping). I plan to work these other 2 lbs. off with my new gym membership. My scale isn't all that reliable, so I kinda dread seeing what I will weigh at the gym.

My eating has been kinda hit and miss lately, with some skipped meals. Mainly I'm eating soups and stews cause the warm liquid tastes good and feels good on my throat. Plus, for some reason I'm craving oranges, so eating these for snacks. Maybe my body just need the Vit C right now.

When SD got here today to take me to her attorney with her, I was asleep. So, she went without me. Yeah! (my kids told her not to wake me up cause I am sick).

Anne, hope you enjoy your vacation time and get some much needed rest.

I did a dumb thing. I let myself run completely out of my Urso (which is the med for my liver that I take 5 times a day). I finally made it to the pharmacy and this med is on back order and they will have it for me on Wednesday. I hate skipping the doses cause it puts me in serious right-sided pain. I have only myself to blame. I should have paid more attention. Lousy excuse but I guess with all the shopping and caring for the dogs, I forgot to take care of myself.

What a difference a day makes: this morning the scale read 3.5 pounds less than yesterday. I knew I was retaining a bit of water, but not *that* much! (goalsuccess -- I made a similar deal with myself. It's a drag having to get on the scale every day, but so far it's been [kinda] successful.)

I have noticed, though, that the lighter I am, the greater the variance around my average weight. About 20 pounds ago, my weight might fluctuate a pound a day, but no more than that, even during TOM. Now it seems like 2-3 pound fluctuation from day to day isn't that uncommon. Did anyone else notice this when you got closer to your goal weight?

Or, maybe it's just that the springs in my scale are loosening up from overuse. I never knew a scale could get carpal tunnel, but there you go.

It's obnoxiously early -- couldn't sleep -- so I think I'll sit back with a cup of coffee and let my fingers do the shopping. This time of year, Amazon is my friend.

I should weigh myself everday. How freudian is it to forget? Especially after a celebratory weekend.

I've been weighing myself every day and today the scale is up to 165. I can't let myself get higher than that, so I really have to buckle down today and watch what goes into my mouth. I've been just grabbing candy here and there and letting myself snack whenever I want. I seriously have been extra hungry lately, but I know that snacking on candy is not the way to deal with that. I could fill up on good, healthy stuff instead, and I'm being lazy about it and just grabbing whatever is around (and we all know that the holidays are NOT the time to do that). I have to make 2 batches of peanut butter cookies tonight (one for my work lunch tomorrow and one for my brother-in-law's) and I've told myself I can have one and that's only if I still have calories left at the end of the day. If I don't restrict myself, I'll probably eat 5 cookies or something. Ugh...what is WRONG with me?

Is anyone else freakishly hungry all the time lately? I know some of us have mentioned that it's because of the cold weather. I'm also colder this winter because I've lost my "fat blanket."

LisaMarie- Yes, Athens, Georgia. My college friends and I had a Christmas dinner party there together. And Saturday night I got to go to my favorite "nice" Athens restuarant for....Ostrich!! So yummy.

I try to make myself get on the scale every day. I'll admit, I didn't do it yesterday because this weekend was great for my diet. But I'm def. doing it all through the holidays. At least, while I'm at home. I'm going to Memphis to see my boyfriend and got to a wedding on the 29th with him and spend New Years together.

soooo cold! Have a great day everyone. I'm taking advantage of my Starbucks giftcard and hitting that up on the way to work-- Tall Christmas blend w/Sugar-Free Caramel syrup added. Yummy!!

Count me as a daily weigher. And I had that "deal" as well, but there are times when even if you try your hardest, it just doesn't seem to work. Lily, you're lucky your only 2 pounds up. I'll be joining LisaMarie with a 5 pound gain. I'm not fretting over it--I have too much to do this week to worry, but I have a plan that as soon as my Christmas guests leave, I'll be back to diet-ville until I reach my goal. I'm shooting for my birthday in March.

And I can't say that I'm freakishly hungry all the time--I seem to be the opposite. It comes to meal time and I'm not hungry, but since the food is ready, I eat anyway. This is my biggest problem. That and the fact that the cold makes me crave casseroles and creamy cheesy foods.

Tonight I'll make my turkey noodle soup. I even found whole wheat egg noodles! I should have plenty of leftovers for lunches--it's a fairly low calorie lunch if I don't add crackers or bread.

Next I have to start planning my holiday meals. Having extra people in the house always seems to disrupt my shopping habits. I can easily get by on a once-a-week grocery trip and already I'm planning for 2 or 3 before the weekend is over. We're meeting my future BIL on Friday and I don't know what kind of an eater he is. I'm the type that is "fend for yourself" for breakfasts, but he may be a big breakfast eater, so I need to be prepared.

Anyway, off to work. Everyone have a great day!

Good morning maintainers! Page 2 and soon to be 3, eek! My dsl was out for two days. Let's talk about withdrawl. Christmas (and being snowed in with the kids for two days) have not been kind to my weight. Too many goodies and too many requests for those once a year treats. I admit, I'm hoping to hold steady until Jan and then get back in the groove. I did finally wrestle the tree into submission and the kids decorated. Now that I have some tall ones it actually looks pretty good. I went snowboarding with my boys yesterday. Does falling down alot increase your calorie burning? Have a great day all, I'm off to wrap some presents.

We got our tree yesterday. I picked it out while we drove into the lot. We walked around it and DH asked if I wanted to see any others. I said, "Nope, it's perfect." That's the way I like to shop - decisive. It's a very full, 6' Douglas Fir that smells great. This morning I'm stringing the little white lights on it. Sometimes, I have themes for the decorations on it. Not sure what I'm going to do this year. We haven't had a nautical theme in a few years so that might be good to do again. Last year was hand blown glass balls and jewelled fruits, pine cones, and leaves.

LisaMarie - if I made peanut butter cookies, I would not be able to stop at 5! Tomorrow, I'm making DH's favorite - butterscotch cookies - for our West Coast Swing Christmas dance party. It's going to be hard to keep him from eating half the batch before the dance.

Lisa - isn't Indiana pretty flat? I didn't think you had mountains to snowboard on.

DG - are you back together with your ex-boyfriend, your ex-ex-boyfriend, or is this a new boyfriend that you're talking about?

Allison - Turkey noodle soup sounds good.

Morning Another sub-zero start to the day. Brrrr. It's a time when I'm glad I don't have a job that requires me to be outdoors a lot.

Lisa, I'm sure falling down burns more calories! It's what I hated most about skiing - not the actual falling, but the getting up on a slippery ski slope with other people coming at me who were probably in no more control than I was!

Allison - the soup sounds really good. I bought a small 10# turkey over the weekend since we'll be going to someone else's house for Christmas dinner. I miss having the leftovers. When I cook it, probably this weekend, I won't do all the extras (i.e. stuffing, doctored up veggies, etc).

I think I'm actually done with Christmas prep. My DH is getting a couple of catalog pages wrapped up - but what can you do? I have a potluck lunch today, for which I bringing a spinach salad with pomegranate, baby orange slices and a few candied walnuts, dressed with a light raspberry walnut dressing. It's a small gathering of librarians and we also drew names, so it'll be a fun lunch - following a less fun monthly meeting.

Speaking of which, I'd better get my stuff together for that meeting.....

Good morning!

Just got back from the gym. Note to self: don't work out less than 24 hours after you give blood. I could barely make 15 minutes on the elliptical before I got breathless so I switched to the bike, which I could only do in 5 min. increments. Then I did the leg press machine, which did me in. I couldn't figure out why I was feeling so puny until I remembered that I gave blood yesterday. Oh, yeah, there was that part about resting and building your iron back up.

Anne, right with you on the hating winter thing. I hope you feel a bit better as the pregnancy progresses. Is the eating all the time good eating, or the satisfying the cravings kind of eating? Based on my own pregnancies, I can make a guess on the answer! That's funny about DD hating the snow, then getting into it. The truck guy sounds like a moron--they're everywhere!

Jessica, hope you can get into a good routine with the thyroid meds. I don't follow the guidelines about waiting 1/2 hour to eat as well as I should, but luckily it doesn't affect my thyroid levels--maybe because I've been taking the stuff for over 30 years so I've got a build-up.

Lilybelle, glad the dogs are doing okay. While being sick isn't usually a good thing, one bright spot is that you were able to avoid going with SD. Hope you're feeling better soon.

Regarding weight gain, when I know I've been eating poorly, I don't weigh myself until I've been back on plan with eating and exercise for at least a week. For some reason, looking at higher numbers actually makes me eat more. I have to own my denial, I guess.

Wow, Carolyn, your tree sounds like it's going to be incredible! How about a photo when you're done decorating?

So we got back into town on Sunday, and we'd gone out to dinner because we had no food in the house. Just as the waiter delivered the food, I got a call to take my Dad to the hospital. HIs blood sugar was in the 400s and the pharmacy was closed so he couldn't get insulin. So we were at the ER, and they wanted to do a urinalysis to see if he had a UTI, which could make his blood sugar do bad things. After several hours, the ER doc told me he'd forgotten to write the correct order--he had the grace to apologize. Then while we were there, my Dad got a fever so they did a chest X-ray and it turns out he has pneumonia. The poor guy just kept getting sicker the longer he was in the ER! Now that he's on antibiotics, hopefully he'll do better. He's got dementia, and when he's ill, he's even more confused. Don't know if anyone else here deals with an elderly parent, but it can be difficult and a full-time job.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!

Hey hey!

Remember that test I told ya'll about? The one for one of the city jobs I applied for? I got 92% - I was number one out of 87 applicants!!

I have an interview on Thursday and I need to buy some business clothes ASAP - all the business clothes I have are ones I wore at my highest weight and now literally fall off my ***.

Kim - I am the same way; the lighter I get, the more my weight fluctuates! I'm wavering between 131 and 135 right now (similar to you, right?) I retain water like nobody's business. I've also noticed that when my body is adjusting to a new weight, it fluctuates a little bit until it gets more comfortable and used to that size. I'm not sure if that makes sense; it's just my observation of my body.

Carolyn - your tree sounds beautiful! and yes we must see pictures!

Sheila - I hope your dad feels better soon. How old is he, if I may ask?
My parents are not elderly, but I've briefly been involved with taking care of my 91 year old grandmother, which is also a full time thing. She's going through a bit of senility. My grandmother also gets pneumonia often.

Geesh, I am TOTALLY dreading old age. Just THINKING about old age makes me depressed! BOY am I glad that it won't be something I'll need to worry about for awhile