Hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed their travels and activities! Traveling is hard on the diet. Hope everyone managed as well as possible.

Was very excited to see a 4 pound drop this week! It seems to confirm that when I am in an RA flare up, I must retain fluid or something. Starting to feel a bit better with the increased medication and managing to avoid the steroids if I can. Still sleeping a lot, but that is part of the disease that I have to deal with. It's weird when you sit down for a few minutes and are wide awake and next thing you know you wake up and 3 hours have gone by.

I was very excited to see 234.4 today! Down 36 pounds so far and only 4 more pounds and I am 2/7th of the way to my goal! Of course I ignore the part on my app that says I have another 104.4 pounds to lose. :)

Big win for the month - I had to buy new undies. Who knew moving down sizes in underwear would be so exciting? My white grannie panties had become bloomers - so I opted for some pretty colors in those silky nylon briefs. I had no idea colored undies could perk you up when getting dressed! :) I love that they stay in place and clothes don't cling to them like the cotton.

Well I am sure you all have heard enough about my undergarments LOL. Hope everyone has a great day!

Kat: Good for you on the loss! Keep it up. New undies are always great - I love color ones too, they are also more prominent in the smaller sizes. I WISH companies would get with it that women in the larger sizes LOVE COLORED UNDERGARMENTS! That said, I will be joining you soon on the unders, but I hope to do that once in the 220s. My shorts as mentioned before are beginning to swim undies are thinking about it too.

Hello all!

AM: Travels went well, came home 2 lbs lighter, well I will have to see, but what I weighed on friday was not what I weighed today. So, therefore, I say victorious with the lighter weight.

I just hung shorts on the line - my goodness I rival my husband for width of shorts. Geez. I think what I will do if I can leave this decade is then go to goodwill and see if I can find ones in a size smaller, non-pilled in the leg area of course (always hit and miss there for my size and no pilling or thigh rub worn). But sometimes I have luck.

I have challenged DH to lose weight we have an anniversary coming up and I said even if we can both take off 10 lbs by such, we'll be in a better spot. So he's going to the gym tonight and I will begin again tomorrow night, therefore the kids are covered w/an adult home. Too little to be by themselves yet. Here's to the new challenge within our house.

QOD: Do any of you buy interim clothes at goodwill? What's been your best find of late?

Hey all!

Congrats Kat on the drop

I am struggling with some kind of retention/bloat right now, not sure what. Weight is up a bit. blah. But I have been on task, so I know it will get somewhere

Holding on the weight front. I need to get to the grocery as I am out of my quick on hand proteins (i.e. string cheese, chix breast etc) but can't go until tomorrow. I struggled yesterday. I can tell I didn't have my proteins like the other days and in doing so graze all day long. BAD. I did get DH to the gym last night and tonight is my night to reset and go. I will get my iPod charged and ready to go. maybe I will put some new tunes on, I haven't yet decided.

I wish weight loss were easy to do. I'm just trying to get out of this decade so I have no thought that if I were able to loose it all what I would need to do to maintain it. I think counting calories is a pain in the arse. Somedays if I want to eat I don't want to micromanage at the same time. Alas, I believe I will have to to keep the weight off.

I was given an beautiful embroidered apron that was my grandma's that she wore at her heaviest way back when - I can't even get it over my shoulders let alone my waist. I hold it up to my waist and I think I'm an additional 8" further out to the side. I am reminded daily of my size how I feel when I move and I'd like to change it but some days it feels daunting.

With that I need to go root around in the fridge and see if I can find an egg to make and an avocado for some "healthy" fat, it usually can hold me until lunch.

May the pounds fall off for all you ladies. I do hope that they start to move for me.

I'm back in town. I avoided the scale today because I had quite the food fest over the weekend. I'll try to get on tomorrow and face whatever it is.

Lemonthyme: I hear you. It would be nice to have a reset button, rather than having to work back down the scale.

Kat: Congrats on the loss!

I went and moved and I did a modified HIIT when cycling ie I did bursts of fast and hard pedaling in between a constant pace. I am sore this am as every bit was wobbling and shifting as I pedaled hard. Maybe that will help as well. I'm sure I looked like a fright as I bounced and jiggled but I felt better as I did it.

Grocery today finally to get my proteins restocked. And ready for the kids being home for the summer w activities and snacks that are good and healthy. I hope produce looks good today as I need to get a bunch of fresh. I aim to cut up a bunch and store in fridge for snacking.

Weight is starting to move out of the high range. I do hope to keep it on a downward trend.

Anyone else gardening this spring? What's your favorite garden food?

Lemonthyme: Glad you got a good workout! That sounds pretty intense! I don't normally garden because the farmer's markets around here are so good and reasonably priced. But this house we are in now has a huge garden. So, I'm putting in some just to use some of the space. I like squash, so putting in yellow, zucchini and spaghetti varieties. Also planting some lettuce and radishes, along with some pumpkins. Nothing too difficult. How about you?

Got on the scale today. It was ugly. I need to really cut back now, or I'll be moving UP to the next weight group. Not good!

I don't often because at least in the Pacific NW, clothes at goodwill are often more expensive than new clothes from places like Ross, Marshalls, etc. I will occasionally look for a specific item like jeans because there are only a few brands of jeans that are the right length for me.

slash: I jam and cram in my garden! I don't have a huge space like my inlaws, but make do w/what I got. I have 6 types of tomato plants, climbing beans (less space they go up!), onions, zukes, chives, basil, chard, romaine, carrots, I think that's it. The other things like potatoes and rutabaga and pumpkins I get from my MIL. My kids love the tomatoes and I do hope this year they are prolific. When I first started my garden they were but the last few years not so much.

ennay: Oh I hate when Goodwill overprices donated clothing! That grates on me. My local ones are great, they have tag of the week which means whatever color that week is always 50% off. It changes on Sunday morning. The only time I have seen big prices on clothes would be jeans (higher end labels) are usually 10-12.99 and new clothing with tags on. But again, if it's a corresponding tag for the week and I am there on sunday to get the better items before picked over - then they aren't bad. Both of my local ones are college towns (either direction) so there is a lot of turnover.

Hello all!

AM: Well though the scale is still in the higher end of 230s it's not bad, and for that I was happy. Tomorrow is my work out day, tonight I am making a veg heavy lo-mein. I do hope it's good, new recipe for me. I just need to be easy on the noodles portioning.

My trip to grocery was good. Lots of good produce and I have my protein during the day staples restocked, bonus they were on sale this week!

My mini goal to start June is to get to 234. I have been there multiple times but perhaps this time I can start June at 234 and cruise on down to 224 in the month. I am hopeful. I REALLY NEED to get into the 220s to feel I know what I am doing and doing well.

Happy holiday weekend to you all!

I wish we had a switch that turned off cravings! I am just saying', that would really be nice.

Tonight is my night to work out. I didn't get weighed this morning due to storms and LOs upset by the wind and rain. I can guess I am probably at same point as yesterday. However, an incentive of the last few days: MY SHORTS. Here I stand and I can pinch about 5-6" from the waist. WOOT. Now mind you they still fit me through the bum, well, not as swimmy there, but looser. I guess its nice to see inches down even if the weight is not. I have been tracking my inches from the beginning. So even if the pounds aren't down, the measurements have shrunk some and the clothes are looser than they were last summer.

Happy day to you all. I will try to post a weight tomorrow if the world slows some. Weighing daily in the past was a help, I need to make it point once again. Off to drink my water before the need for food grumbles back at me.

Lemonthyme: Well, you do much more with your garden! I'm with you on getting back into the 220's. It makes me mad that I've let it creep up like it has, but that's the way it is. Now, just need to make choices to put me back in the 220's, so that I can get to a goal!!!

Things are already gearing up for the weekend. We have lots of people gone from our office, so it is busy. Makes it hard to focus!! I do need to concentrate on making good food choices. I'm going to try to run tonight. Last time I went, it just wasn't good. Maybe tonight will be better.

Some of you are lower than I am. I went to Doctor Tuesday and checked in at my highest weight of 231.+ Was shocked, but in reviewing I realized that my food is as high after a good supper as before supper. OUCH!!!

Back to logging food and exercise on line and really concentrating on more veggies.

Gardening? Boy, do I ever! We are in a subdivision with the T shaped house dividing the back yard, allowing us to put gardens around the edge of the property. Lovely old huge tree in back makes the back addition cooler in summer, but it shades the veggie patch by 3:30 PM.

Have lots of peppers (love pepper and eggs for breakfast) 2 regular slicing tomatoes and 1 grape tomato that produces like crazy. Also only one cucumber survived out of 5 a week ago. Herbs? Dill, basil, thyme, chives, tarragon, parsley (lots and lots of it). Rest of garden area (200 feet) is perennials and annuals with a few shrubs. This year the garden is in, mulched, and looking the best ever before June even gets here.

Most of my exercise is in the garden altho I do belong to a gym and during the fall and winter used it fairly often. Still weight is so very high. This MUST be the time to get out of 220's and to onderland.

I'm going out tomorrow to buy the rest of the starts I need. I have 4 4x 12' raised beds and then a bunch of pots I am trying out this year. My peas didn't grow this spring and I need to take them out to make room for tomatoes. I think the weather confused them. :(. I might just pull a few and put the cherry tomatoes in between and see if I can still get some peas before the tomatoes get too big.

My spring bed has lettuce and beets that I will harvest over the next 2 days and then tomatoes go in there. I have potatoes that are growing faster than I can hill them. I have space for eggplants and peppers to go in this weekend but I need to refill the soil. I've got a hood strawberry patch and then I have green beans, cukes, zucchini, carrots and onions. In my containers I have patios cukes and squash and I have shallow bowls with pumpkins to grow out of and sprawl. I am trying watermelon, but our weather has been too cold for them to sprout, so might look for starts. I also have a makeshift bed I put in when dd came home with mystery beans that we think are a pole/pinto variety. And I have blueberry bushes that I put in last year, but it looks like the hailstorm knocked most of the blooms off before they could set fruit.

ennay: Sounds like you have a fantastic garden in the works! Do you can and/or freeze your goods? I do both, got into canning last year, more for salsa and some fruits, but it's been fantastic to use through the cold months. Whats your favorite?

love2: your garden sounds just as busy. I live too far north for mine to be looking really great yet, but it's fairing well w/the crazy swings of temps we have been having. I love basil, it smells fantastic. I confess, sometimes I put in herbs just for the smell when it rains or you brush up against them like lemon thyme in the garden - lovely.

slash: So where are you at weight wise? Did your run go well? I haven't been back to cycle with all my good thoughts, by the time evening gets here and my kids have run circles around me, I curl up and sleep. Maybe you and I can do this decade together and GET THE HECK OUT!

Hello all!

AM: Oh, with the best laid plans, I would hope to be really doing well. However looking back on this week can you say big fail on loosing? I have held steady, not lost though. I start out w/really good intentions and then life gets moving and I am running w/my kids schedules etc and all of a sudden the day is done. I need better management.

I know this is the weekend to start summer - my FIL is having a cookout, I aim to do better w/the calories and getting to the gym. I have asked DH to pull the bikes off the hooks in the garage and get them ready and maybe we can do family treks this weekend in town here.

How do you all keep the faith on loosing and keeping it going? I have been wobbling far too long like the top that spins and doesn't give up and wobbles along before falling over. I know I can picture myself thinner, I know I feel better thinner, I know clothes are cheaper when in smaller sizes, I know lots of things, HOWEVER counting calories has been hard for me to stick with and exercise well, you know that story. Do you find it harder especially when your spouse or kids can eat anything and not gain (my DH is not one of those, but he does like to eat)? I am looking for some good ways to get this going and stick with it wholeheartedly. I like those smaller numbers and want to see them again. I need to change my mindset I know, so looking for extra ideas to help.

Happy start to summer!:broc:

I do can, although not as much as I did one year. I was canning for friends one year (for $) but most of the stuff comes on in the Summer when the kids are off school and i felt it wasn't worth it. But I can stuff for myself. Mostly salsa, tomato sauce, V-8, chicken stock, peaches and apple sauce and jams. I freeze most of my garden stuff because I don't like my vegetables cooked as much as you have to to can them.

My absolute favorite canning recipe is a blueberry/cayenne/shiraz jam I do up for holiday gifts. It is mostly for appetizers, so good with cream cheese. But I can eat a sleeve of crackers and a tub of cheese with it so it is a diet NO right now. My other favorite and much more diet friendly is homemade V-8 and I am OUT so this year I need to put up a bunch. I will probably have to buy extra tomatoes. No matter how many I plant I need more! I need to pick up some greens to dry soon for it while the greens are still young (the 6, 7, and 8 in V-8 is dried spinach, dried beet greens and dried kale - it doesn't take much to punch it up!)

lemonthyme - I have struggled sometimes and found it easy sometimes? I lost 60 lbs after my son was born and calorie counted and had no problem doing it daily for over a year. Then after I started gaining a little I tried again and rebelled. And then this time I seem to have no problems accepting it as part of my day BUT right now the kids are still in school and I am mostly working from home and right now work is very light. (One week this year I worked 15 hour days 11 days straight. ACK). But right now I am having few problems with temptation. I do fear the summer - it's usually my worst season. And we are talking about taking a real vacation this year in a hotel - usually we go to a place with a rental house so I still have more food control. Right now I think I am still just still facing that I let opportunities go by the last 2 years that I am not willing to do again. Now I am ready.

I think I got a lot out of the Beck Diet Solution (although I do NOT follow her diet plan). The giving myself credit every day for everything I do well is really working for me. There is a lot of focus in the book on how to retrain your brain to stop fighting the reality of what YOU have to do.

One of the other tricks I find when I am faced with family eating everything is to mentally tally "what I would have eaten had I not been taking control" . I know myself well enough to be honest that normally it would be 3 glasses of wine and 2 helpings of A AND B, etc But I will actually go through and enter ALL of it in MFP and then compare that to what I actually ate. Instead of feeling deprived, I end up feeling mastery over the 1000 calories saved.

One thing that has always been important is to track, even if I am way off plan. I have gone back the day after binges and to the best of my ability filled in the gaps. It isnt a punishment or guilt thing, its more of a getting back into a good habit thing. I weigh daily no matter what. I track daily. I know by now that the first symptom of completely going off the rails is I start to let those things slide.

I eat the same thing for first meal almost every day. Then I plan dinner, then adjust lunch accordingly. So I can still cook family favorites.

OH - one of the things that used to trip me up with calorie counting is when I don't know for sure or when a recipe is hard to measure. Now, although I make an effort to be as accurate as possible, I realize that the ACT of counting is often more important thant the accuracy. I make soup a lot. I have a few "typical" soups in MFP and I dont sweat if I have 3 carrots in this pot and 2 in the next pot. etc. Or for something someone else cooks, I just look at 2-3 entries in MFP and pick one.