Hey all.

I’m sorry for the late response and that I left everyone hanging. It’s been a rough four days.

First, Father-in-Law is fine. He did very well in the surgery and the initial tests look promising. He did one night in ICU then one in a regular room, then home by Sunday. He has the second surgery tomorrow – this one is outpatient – to implant the “power plant”, for lack of better terms. Then finally after everything heals up they program it and hopefully his tremors are greatly reduced. Fingers crossed.

Sadly, while we were at the hospital with him we had our little dogs at the vet and got the worst news on our girl. The vet said it was time to make hard choices. She was so very anemic – 5 x lower than the lowest “normal” red blood cell count – and her little body simply wasn’t manufacturing them anymore. One vet said she’d never seen blood tests that low; was surprised she was still up and around and alert. They believed that the cancer had gone to her bone marrow and that she had hours to days. We cancelled our other plans and picked her up Friday night. After a weekend of pampering and people food and many, many snuggles, we made the awful decision to put her out of her misery yesterday. While she was alert over the weekend and seemed to really not be in any pain, she could not get better and the choice was let nature take its course and drag out for heaven knows how long while she faded away, and perhaps come home from work to find her cold and alone for hours, or hasten her departure and let her feel pampered and loved, petted and held, until the very end. I think she was ready. She had to have been so very, very tired. My husband took it very hard…my big, strong, brave man wept like his heart was breaking.

Okay….making myself cry at work. Stopping now.

On the diet front…there has been no diet. There has been comfort food and plenty of it. We’re taking the rest of the week off from thinking about anything important besides work and getting our lives and house back in order and pampering our remaining little fella. So…I’ll be back, just probably not until next week.

Thanks so much for your kind thoughts over my family and, I’m sure, over my little girl.

Lilion: Well, good news on your FIL, but not so good for your little dog. I'm so sorry! It is never easy, but I do think you did the right thing. Such a tough decision to make. In time, I think you'll get to the point where you can look back and smile at the good times you had with the dogs. It just hurts for a while at first. And you, of course, know all of this, but I hope my feeble reassurances are helping in some way! I definitely know what it is like, and it sucks!

Laurie: Ugh! Sorry for all the busy stuff. Just don't forget to take care of yourself. And, maybe that just means you don't worry about the scale for now. I know that exercise helps with stress, though, so hopefully you can get some relief with that.

Lemonthyme: I am with you in that I always think I'll get stuff done early, but end up doing things last minute. There are two gifts that I was going to make, and I've decided that they will be great gifts for next year. Or the year after that. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, I hope you have some fun today and things go better with the hubby!

Bookmark: Claim those little victories right now! Taking steps, no matter how small, to get back at it are just what you need. Take enjoyment in that, and feel proud of yourself. There aren't a lot of people who try to get back to eating right and exercising this time of year, so you are already ahead of the game. Good job!!

As for me, I am still avoiding the scale. And, although I'm the one who thought it would be good to have a goal to lose some weight by the end of the year, I don't know if I'm going to get on the scale as much right now. I have to do it some, just to keep myself from putting on a ton of weight. But, I am not going to be obsessive. I also don't think I'll make my goal. Oh well.

However, I will keep going to the gym and staying on track with food as much as possible going into the new year. I'll have some new plans and goals for then, but for now, I just don't want to lose any ground on workouts. That's my plan. Just a little tweaking to get me to where I can relax a little. Holidays are stressful. I'm not going to add any extra guilt/stress to the pile.

So, I went to the gym this morning. I didn't want to go because, you know, it is cold!! But I went, and was glad I did.

Lil: I’m sorry to hear about your beloved pet. Good that you sent them off with foods they like. We did that too with our pup - cookies of all things. And I’m happy to read your FIL has been recuperating well. Here’s lots of luck for good prognosis there.

Diane: I’m sorry this season is causing you issues for weight loss. Maybe hop on the scale in a strong moment. Just so you have an idea. I suppose if you know something’s feeling tight as an indicator - at least I know that feeling all too well - it can be a benchmark. I send you cheer to feeling better about yourself!

Hello all!

Am: I have no clue where I am diet wise today. I had a cookie and gummy bears. I vaguely remember eating breakfast but can’t tell you what that was. I have gotten the top done, my table cleaned off, dinner ready to go in and my living room cleaned.

I’m ready to ship my littles off as this is the second evening of super loads of energy and noise on their end and not so much on this mamas. Ugh. I have to work on a grocery list, small Christmas list and a to do list. I got two presents made today as well. Can I just say UGH. I wish you could loose weight doing all this but I’m sure I am not. I haven’t even gotten water in yet other than coffee.

Ok - I’m going nutty. Happy evening all - I wish you well and I wish everyone’s scales look stupendous tomorrow.

Here’s hoping! And hope find my sanity in this crazy world of lists I’ve given myself. Can I hope to be 227 tomorrow?

226.6

Slowly, getting. There.

Morning all! I’m up early to get this vacationing stuff underway. Then it’s off to work on my Christmas gifts and that’s good. I made my list yesterday so I now have it right in front of me and need to begin ticking down it.

As for weight I’m back to fasting this am. I’ll have my cuppajoe and get on with it. And maybe just maybe I can find the next number down. I know - slow going. I’ll try to keep it moving as best I can.

Anyone all excited for the Star Wars opening? Not my thing but my DH is. He’s taking the kids and meeting his parents to see the show. I’m fine for not having to go. Instead I’ll stay home and work on my projects.

I looked in the mirror again today - I’m a bit slimmer from mid chest to waist line. Nothing great I just don’t feel as full in that area. That was good to see! Hey I’ll take a peak every now and then. I do hope I can stay strong with this loosing. I’m in that perilous area of the winter season where eating and staying warm sound good. Maybe it’s the area of the world I live in - wanting to stay warm when it’s nasty cold out. Who knows but I need to keep the eating in check.

Off to Get my coffee.enjoy your day!

Lemonthyme: Awesome! Seeing a little difference is great!! That's what we're all hoping for. Oh, and don't worry, I'm not discouraged with slow weight loss. I'm just making the proclamation that I'm on cruise control for the next couple of weeks. I'll be back to super motivated, obsessive planning for the new year!! Just trying to keep it from going up for now!

We have a mandatory meeting tomorrow at work, during lunch. Not excited, but I'll be there! They already said they'd have pizza for us. I like pizza and all, but I really hope there might be some salad too? I didn't want to ask, but I hope that someone is thinking about it!!!

Diane: They never have salad - breadsticks or cheesy bread but salad you are totally crazy for hoping I hope your meeting is a thank you type. I hate year end meetings as they can go either way. Good luck!

Started a new thread -well actually - two - sadly! I am asking for the one to be removed. But here is the link to the NEW ACTIVE one.