SaraJane and Virginia-WELCOME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!

HI ALICE!!!!!!!

Still plugging along.....

Watch out Virginia -
Cake decorating is VERY addictive! It has taken over most of my life. Good $$$ in it tho'. My mother used to be a deli manager, and now shes a wonderful decorator!

All is well here - actually drank a whold gallon of H2O today. Tomorrow begins the walking!

I definitely want to join this challenge! I was about 145/6 this morning, having endured 2 weeks of not being able to plan my own meals when we were visiting the dear old in laws in England. It was very tough as I ended up eating much more rich food than I am used to but trying to eat little portions to compensate, so ended up hungry and eating garibaldi biscuits in the hotel room every night (they are dry raisin biscuits, they used to sell then in the US in the 1960s as Sunshine Raisin Biscuits, and were my favourites when I was little).

I resisted the little wee cakes that came out every lunchtime but at supper MIL had usually dished out 6 dishes of trifle or whatever and I felt a little cornered. And the main courses weren't much better though I DID enjoy the chipolata sausages! Did NOT enjoy all the white sauce though. Blech.

I missed my own fridge and the various scales I use. The Old Navy jeans I brought were helpful though as they did not get any tighter over the visit (they were my conscience).

Oh and Chris, I did eat the Smarties my dear youngest child left on her airplane seat, when we all went to the washroom on the plane yesterday (12 hours of car/shuttlebus/plane/taxi travel, yuck) - alas no dish soap!

And there are bourbon creams left over, in the fridge NOW (chocolate sandwich cookies to me, but 62 calories each - must remember this). I am not listening to them.Not.

Oh yeah - the challenge!

Yeah. Well, would LIKE to lose 15 lbs by next week. But perhaps that is unrealistic! Let's see, would like to be 139 (magic number, 130s) - no, 138 (a little more into 130s, safer than a '9' number) by September. That is 8 lbs.

Mind you I'll be happy with anything below 145 really, but I had better challenge myself.

I am feeling very bloated. Full of bread sauce and mac and cheese and chipolatas. Bleh. And we barely did any walking really. Strolling in boiling heat around National Trust sites only to arrive at tea room. Fending off scones and cream and sugary sparkling elderflower water.

"No thank you ever so much no REALLY I can't possibly eat that much oh yes well er um thank you yes it does look lovely NO PLEASE no cream thank you oh oh...er, well, er, thanks very much [sigh]"

Lidian

Hey girlies,
We're leaving for a week vacation...a few days at the beach and then off to DC to see our friends and their new baby. So, I may not be back in for awhile, our friends in DC have a computer so maybe I'll have a chance to check in while we're there.
anyway, I'm still feeling good about the challenge and feeling like it's doable...welcome Lidian! Haven't seen you here for awhile! and Virginia too.
Ellis, I just got a letter from my health insurance provider saying that they sent a survey to my primary care doctor...after she completes that and mails it back to them I should get the finally okay on their paying for the surgery...once that happens I'll schedule it! Wow! Gives me a couple of months, probably, to lose some more weight and get fit...I'll feel better going into the surgery feeling healthy and like the rest of my body will fit those perky "C"s...don't want to look like the pop-in-fresh dough boy with half a tennis ball glued to each side of his chest!!!
Love you girls,
Soozie

HAVE FUN SOOZIE & FAMILY!!!!!!

Have fun on your well deserved vacation Soozie!!!!

Have fun on your holiday Sooze!

thanks loves,
home for a quick breather then back to work until 8pm...or so...working late to squeeze in clients before I go on vaca.
I'm planning to do lots of yoga and walking while we're away.
thanks again for your well wishes...how could I have stayed away so long?
you girls are the best!
Love, Soozie

Have a wonderful time, Soozie! 1/2 tennis ball, huh? Getting a fairish bit chopped off, are you?

Lidian, thank goodness you're home... away from all that clotted cream.

I just had an unfortunate encounter with a bag of toffees. I think I must have eaten about 2 dozen. First ingredient: sugar. Second: glucose syrup. Damn.

Ellis, maybe some dish soap on the rest of those toffees? I had better throw out or put dish soap on the Wheat Thins, chocolate chips and other Bad Things (oh yes and a pack of garibaldis and ALSO the best granola bars ever, from England, called Tracker bars - don't know WHY they have such silly names as Tracker and Garibaldi, which sounds like a law firm doesn't it...anyway these bars are soft chewy rice krispie bars with a thin layer of peanut butter on top and THAT is topped with peanuts and choc chips. I had 2 already today & they HAVE to GO!)

Mind you I did better than some of the other times we went to England. I remember buying 2 or 3 packs of Waitrose brand chocolate liqueur balls and eating them in the bathtub (only time I was alone was in the washroom, or rather the lavatory, they find the word washroom very funny)

Lidian

hahahahaha! The rest of the toffees, Lidian!! That's a good one!! Where exactly do you think "the rest of the toffees" went!
It was an open bag that my DD left behind when she went for a sleepover to my parent's place. I thought, "I'll just have four." And then eight. And so on. Until there were only four left in the bottom of the bag. You know where THOSE went! Who could possibly leave four toffees in the bottom of the bag? NOT ME!?!?

You know, we Brits can't cook worth a damn (other than roast beef and Yorkshire pudding ), but we DO have darned fine candy!

Lidian... when I'm out with my Mother she still embarrasses me by asking for "the toilets". Ummmm, Mom? Could you be a little more SUBTLE!!! (strange, because she's a "lady"... )

Oh yeah... and this is a good one...
I said to my daughter, "You were supposed to take those toffees with you to Nanna and Grandad's!"
She said, "MOM!! I left them there as a test for you! I was going to congratulate you on not eating them when I got home!!"
Obviously my daughter doesn't know me as well as she thinks she does.

On the other hand, maybe she does and was being sarcastic!

ROFPIMP!

Hello ladies!

Well I am doing great on the September challenge, pass the toffees Ellis.(That is sarcasm for the lurkers ;-)

Thinking about doing a bootcamp this next week till I go out of town on Saturday!

OH AND SOOZIE HAVE A NICE TRIP!

I will definitely start using the Lidian method wit sweets if I can't find a way to control myself.

HAVE A GREAT SUNDAY!
Miss Chris

Ellis, that reminds me of the time ages ago when I breezily said to the girls that I was giving up sugar...which lasted about a day, and for months after that, at the oddest moments, eldest would say 'you haven't had any sugar have you? you said you were giving it up!' Hahahahaha...! And like the word toilet, the word lavatory sounds very, um, unsubtle to me!

Speaking of which, we went to the little town library where the in laws go, me and DH and FIL, and DH tells me that he asked for the lavatory while we were there having a riotous time. And they don't have one, you see, it is just a tiny library. But the librarian, not used to such requests, THOUGHT that DH was asking was the PLACE a lavatory and said no sir, this is a LIBRARY. Wish I had actually heard this, though probably it is just as well as I would have disgraced myself laughing like a wild hyena.

(How can she have thought DH, so so - so English, so proper, would mistake the library for a lavatory?)

As for me, I still have not applied dish soap to the chocolate chips, but I had better take aim very soon (or there won't be any left)

Lidian