Hi guys !! :wave:

this thread grows in leaps and bounds. Impossible to keep up.

Barbg... No I did not skip #13. :lol: But I do avoid walking under ladders and will make a U-turn before crossing a black cats path. :rofl: I also pick up any penny I find and recite the "Find a penny, pick it up , and all day long you'll have good luck" :lol: Plus I make wishes on chicken and turkey wishbones, tossing penny's in a pond, and falling stars. :lucky: Oh yeah.. can't forget putting your robe on inside out too. As a child I would not step on a crack either. LOL
Not that I believe any of it... just always lived by "Better safe than sorry". LOL

Hilta.. sorry for the confussion. LOL

Ruby.... won't hold :devil: against you. :lol:

Tracy ... WELCOME BACK. It is never too late to start again.

Angela ... thanks for being worried about me. No need though. I am fine.
But it did feel good that several of you were concerned. :grouphug:

Thin... loved your idea of the Christmas House. :cool:

Wish I had more time for replies ..
but I think I need to get back to my other life. :lol:
I will try and get back later.

thinthinker - I'm glad you've found a doctor willing to listen to your concerns and to work with you. That's really important. I had a long talk with my mother the other night about whether to transfer her routine coumadin maintenance from her oncologist to her PCP, and the long story short was that she should, since he and his staff are more attentive to her, which minimizes her stress, which in turn improves her health.

By the way - great choice about the dietician. I'm sure they'll ask you to bring a food journal to the appointment, but you might think about keeping track of what you enjoy preparing and bring copies of your favorite recipes to the consult. I was thinking the other day that it would be awesome if dieticians made housecalls to ordinary people - since that's where we live and eat. Sometimes when I'm grocery shopping, I pretend that I have a dietician with me, or that I'll be judged on my choices - and it helps me to feel good about the good choices I'm making.

I still remember a visit we made to my southern relatives when I was 17, in Texarcana, Arkansas. My maternal grandfather was from Texarcana, both his sister and brother still lived there, with various children and stepchildren in the area. They set a generous table, and each and every meal was a real production with delicious, homemade food. Of course, they put fat in everything. I wouldn't be surprised if they added fatback to soda, coffee and tea. I remember, clear as day, watching Aunt Virginia make fried corn: she cut fresh corn (lovely, sweet, August corn) off the cob and combined it in a cassarole dish with bacon grease from the morning's breakfast. At some point, she took a few pink packets of sweet'n'low and added them as well, "on account of Henry's sugar." The combination of bacon grease and sweet'n'low still makes me - well, not giggle, but smile a bit, at the memory. Of course, I tried some fried corn to be polite, and - not surprisingly - it was damn good.

thinthinker, hippievanlady, and j-anne: re, gardening. The perennial foundation beds are exactly what I'm planning to do. Right now, there is a really blowsy rosebush - I think it's a climber - an infestation of mint, and a few small perennials in front of the house, as well as, well, plenty of stray grass. And I might have to rethink the shastas, I do want more blooms. I would love to have a nice anchor tree, but my house is small and so is the frontage. I'm also on a hill, so I have a bit of flat land and a bit of sharp slope - not much, my house is, perhaps, four or five feet higher than the sidewalk and street, but the slope is sharp and tough to mow, and tough to garden. The neighbors just have a retaining wall at the sidewalk and mostly level or gently-sloping yard to the street, and I'd like to do that, but I would need to contract the work out and that could be tough on my budget this year.

I also know how hard it is to garden in a small apartment. Until I bought my house last summer, I lived in a small apartment with a narrow, shared concrete ledge for a porch. I had some pots out there with annuals, but the neighbors' kids played with my plants, dug up dirt, and so on, which was discouraging but not a total deterrant. The spot was really shady as well. I tried to keep tomatoes on the sunny side of the building, but someone always took my tomato plants (and roses, when I tried to keep them) so I gave up on apartment vegetable gardening. I bet the college students would be more respectful than my neighbors were, there - especially if you feed them.

My mother loves lilies, too. My parents have a huge yard, and mom has tons of asiatic lilies scattered throughout. She also have some gorgeous African daffodils, that look a combination calla lily and daffodil, I suppose, or maybe just a daffodil on steroids. Of course, she has to dig those up every year, along with a whole bed of dahlia tubers, because they aren't hardy to our climate. She's trying to give me some dahlias, but I refuse to take them because I refuse to work that hard for a single bed. Just think of how many perennial beds she could have planted over the years!

JuleeCeeS - I picked up a whole new kitchen wardrobe when I moved into my house. Of course, my new kitchen isn't huge, and the appliances are old, but having a bit of room and some nice gagdets makes cooking more fun. My favorite purchases were a set of really good knives and my super heat-resistant silicon spoonula - I use both, daily, and having good knives (for the first time since I moved out of my parents' house - I always had cheap knives before) is a real pleasure.

Scooter - I too have grown to enjoy daily exercise while developing the habit over the past 2 months. It's weird, though, I still have a momentary mental struggle over whether or not I'm "too tired" if I try to exercise at night after work, so mostly I make sure I get in the necessary exercise first thing in the morning, and it works. I've made it an enjoyable (sort of) habit.

And, to chime in on the potato issue: potatos are very nutritious. They certainly don't turn to sugar when cooked, but as thinthinker said: if you're diabetic, you have to watch them. Also, there are better choices sometimes, and it's easy to overeat w/potatoes. The ones at Wendy's are probably 2 or 3 servings, they're so big! The "average weight" is 10 ounces, according to Wendy's website, and that's 270 calories for the potato before any topping go onto it.

I think that if you're eating bread with your meal (aka - the bun!) it might be best to go with the salad rather than the potato, or to remember to cut the potato in half and eat the skin (! - that's where a good bit of the nutrition is), so that you have a reasonable portion. Or, maybe, eat your burger and/or chicken patty without the bun, and then have the whole potato. Another idea for Wendy's might be to combine 1/2 or 2/3 of one of their baked potatoes with a small bowl of chili for your meal. If you're cooking at home, try making a baked sweet potato instead of a baked potato on occasion. They have a bit more fiber and so on, and anyway, it's good to vary your diet - it makes dieting more interesting.

I like the mini-packs of microwave popcorn, too. I have "100 cal" microwave bags, which are perfect for me. With mindless foods like microwave popcorn, I need help limiting portions.

Tracy: I'm sorry to hear about your grandfather, but I think that you've found a way to channel your fear in a positive fashion. We've been through alot in my family over the past few years, and in many ways that is also motivating me to do the work necessary to get healthy.

Okay, I went back a good ways for that, which I probably can't always do, but I was motivated this morning and now I'm going to get back to work and use some of that motivation productively. Hilta - we had a gorgeous morning here too - 50 degrees, sun shining - but now it has clouded over and is raining, and tonight it's supposed to snow. I don't mind: we had a gorgeous day on Sunday, and part of the odd charm of spring is the freakishly changeable weather. Later, ladies!

On the run - gotta be quick!

Tracy - welcome back, and sending prayers up for you sweet Papoo.

Scooter - diets are based on different concepts. It depends on who you believe and what works for your own body. On my main plan (Sugar Busters) a white potato is a no-no, because of the glycemic index (basically makes your blood sugar spike). The same is true of rice cakes. Someone on a low-cal or low-fat diet would eat plenty of these foods, maybe they would lose weight, but personally I can't handle that. Find out what works for you.

Leanne - heartiest congrats on reaching your mini-goal!! WTG!

Best of the day to everybody - gotta jet - Ruby

Hi all, I've been AWOL. Had a bad weekend, so depressed I slept almost the whole weekend. Didn't eat according to my plan, didn't exercise, didn't drink water, didn't post. Hey, I guess that's my picture in the dictionary next to "off plan"!

However, I'm going to get on the March challenge... who's with me?

And I'll try to catch up with reading shortly, but I may just have to skip replies for a few days. Work is mega-busy, and having slept the weekend away, I've got a lot of catching up to do. Know that I'm thinking of you all even when I don't reply.

Hi Ladies,

It's raining! :?: After months of snow it's finally warm enough for rain. Of course it's a one day warm up and tonight they are predicting a "flash freeze" as temps plummet once again and the warm rain rapidly turns to snow. Guess that means I'll be cracking ice to get into the car tomorrow.

It's been a good day food wise. I've got to get going to get all my water in for the day though.

ANGELA: :drill: Put the weekend behind you and go forward from today. S**t happens. We just have to shovel it away and keep on trying. :grouphug:

LEANNE: :cheer:50 lbs!:cheer: FANTASTIC!!!!

TRACY: I'll say a prayer for your Grand Dad. He's still young. Hope he improves rapidly.

JULEE: You are one active lady. .3 lbs is close to one half pound. Good for you! As you know a loss is a loss! My pattern usually is a big loss, a 1 lb. loss, 2 wks of tiny losses and back to a big loss again. I just have to bite the bullet and not get depressed on the little/no loss weeks.

JILLY: Hope you feel better soon. Keep warm and take care of yourself.

That's all the replies I have time for now. Might be back later ......

Tracy I'm glad to see you back. I wasn't here before so I don't remember you for good reason! LOL. I understand completely though what you went through. I've had my ankles and knees go out on me at least half a dozen times and the pain is unreal. Every time I would go to the emergency room they wouldn't even Xray my ankle, just told me it was a bad sprain/hairline fracture and to use crutches and an air cast. Well, at 300+ lbs I couldn't stand to use the crutches and just ended up walking through the pain until it was healed. I still have to be careful though b/c if I turn my ankle even a little the wrong way I drop like a load of bricks. One time I was in Columbia on the street in front of USC while all the students were walking from class and in the middle of the street (I was crossing it with my Mother) BAM! I went down. OMG I cried and cried. And you do play it off and try to laugh b/c you're horrified at what everyone is thinking. Ugh that sucks so bad.

I'm glad that you feel ready again to tackle this though! Just stay positive and know that things will get better. :)

j-ann--I hear ya on this weather! It was in the mid-upper 60s today (absolutely gorgeous when I left work at about 1pm), but tomorrow we're supposed to have windchills of low 20s during the day. So much for spring! Of course, as much as I would have loved to walk in the beautiful weather of today, I came home and crashed on the couch to sleep away my icky cold :(

On a better note, I felt much better when I woke up. Quite energized, even.

My boyfriend and I ordered pizza last night (big mistake since we always have leftovers and they always stay here and I always eat them!), so right now, I have some boneless skinless chicken breasts cooking in the basket in my rotisserie. Also, as soon as the dishwasher is done running, I'm going to use my little gladware containers to make single-serving cups of sugar-free, fat-free instant pudding to snack on. I make 3 servings per container instead of 4, so there's still less than 100 calories per pudding cup--a great snack for me to eat at my desk between breakfast and lunch at work :) Between some quick already-prepared chicken and pudding, I should be able to limit my pizza consumption to a normal level rather than eating 10 slices in a day :jeno: Leftover p[izza isn't even really one of my favorite foods--why is it so hard to not eat something that isn't even all that special?? I could just throw it away, but since I'm so broke (and the bf paid for it),I decided I should keep it and make it last me for lunch for the entire week. 2 slices per day--I can do it!

I was already thinking about taking tomorrow off from work. I really am sick, and having spent the weekend at my sister's and driving home yesterday afternoon, I'm also quite tired. Of course, however, we have a deadline of 5pm tomorrow for a project that my boss decided to let me head up (couldn't pass up an opportunity to accept a leadership role!), so I really need to be there. grr, I never take time off, so howcome the one time I actually want to, I can't?! Gotta love Murphy's Law :dizzy:
I am so excited for this weekend. I PRAY that I am 100% healthy (kickin' this cold to the curb!). It is the big 1-year anniversary for me and my Jeff. I don't think we're doing anything particularly special since we haven't been able to just hang out alone together in almost 4 weeks, so it'll probably just be back to our normal weekend. It's a milestone, though, since his longest relationship before me was 6 months, and mine was, umm, nonexistant :p To go from never being with anyone to sticking with one person for a year is a big step for my ability to trust and to allow others to touch me (I used to freak out when people touched me--even people I wasn't close enough with hugged me and I would more than likely hit/yell at them).

Alright, time to check the chicken! Thanks all for the get-wells sent my way...they seem to be working :goodvibes I'll have to come back and finish reading everyone's posts from Friday through today. For now, :wave: to all, and hope everyone's week got off to a great start!

Jilly, just wondering... what do you do to your chicken breasts before you rotisserie them? Do you add any marinade or anything? I been thinking about putting some in ours too but I don't want just plain, dry chicken to come out. Blech!

Today was a great day! I felt good when I woke up and after showering and eating breakfast I met a friend and walked 2 miles around the lake here. :) I also got some GREAT shots of flowers (I am a serious amateur photographer heh). My friend and I have a blog called "Camera Whores" where we issue photo challenges. LOL. Anyways, it's been a pretty ok food day and I'm finding that I like the Boca things pretty good. OH! And the coolest thing, I ended up finding a little shirt and jacket from Catherine's that I really liked, so I ordered it for SRD coming up in April. Well, I've never shopped there and ordered the biggest size they had... and I've been worried ever since that when it got here I wouldn't be able to fit in it. Well, it came today and guess what?? The jacket is too big! HEH. That really doesn't happen often lemme tell you! So I'm getting the next size down and I'm SOOO relieved that I have something dressy for SRD now and I won't feel so embarrassed and ashamed. :) Thanks to all of you who sent me to the Catherine's website! You're lifesavers.

Julie

Julie--today was actually the first time I ever used the rotisserie! I didn't put anything on them, but then again, I don't plan on eating the chicken plain. I like to make chicken sandwiches for lunch (which would include mayo and/or honey mustard) or cut some up to put in a salad. So, if it's plain and flavorless, that's okay for me cuz I'll be adding dressing or sandwich toppings or whatever to it. Maybe next time I'll just brush on some barbecue sauce while they're cooking and see how that works out. Sorry I can't be more helpful!

On a different note, I had to come back and post so I could see my new avatar. It is a picture of me and my sister's fiance's daughter from her 4th birthday party (a year ago). I have one of us from this year, too, but my nose is all red cuz of the cold I had over the weekend, so last year's picture it is :^: Yup, that's my Wacky Jackie (she's my Wacky Jackie and I am her Silly Jilly, and no one else is allowed to call us by those names) :p !

Jilly:
Congrats on your anniversary!!! Jason (BF) and I are coming up on 2 years and for us it was the same thing..everything past 6 months was totally uncharted territory for us both. We actually split up for about 3 weeks last year right before our anniversary, but the time apart gave us the opportunity to reassess and when we got back together things were so much more wonderful than they had been before..and now we're almost at 2 years!!!

Has anyone ever tried making the Cola Chicken in a crock-pot? I was unsuccessful last time on the stovetop..but I thought it might work the other way.

This week is crazy..dress rehearsals are long and I am so tired when I get home. Tempers are starting to flare and people's stress levels are really peaking. There is still so much to do and I just feel like my work stack never shrinks. I'm sure my WI this week will suck yet again. I am trying so hard to stay OP but when I leave the house before 9am and don't get home until after 10 pm...I have to do my best. I tried to be good for dinner tonight, but I probably screwed up anyways. I was so stressed that I totally bit off 3 of my nails..and I have acrylics!!! So now I get to find the time to get to the nail salon tomorrow as well....when will it end???? Then Icome to find out that the menu for the cast party is pizza and pasta. So I think BF and I are going to grab a quick dinner elsewhere before we head over...oy....calgon take me away!!!

Normally this would be a choke my stress with ice cream kind of night...but I think I am too tired to be hungry...but if I wake up with chunks of pillow missing I will know why.

Buenas Noches mi amigas!

Julee .. I made that coca cola chicken and didn't really like it... but my family did.
I cooked mine on top the stove and although it did not burn... it did stick to the pan.

Catherine... I loved your quote: ... You step on at least 5 or 6 of my toes. :o :lol:
Tell myself NO ... basiclly GROW UP !! GOOD ADVICE !!! thanks

Tuesday Tip .... "If you don't want to slip and fall ... stay out of slippery places"

Yipee!
 

Good morning chickies, :coffee: I am at the bottom of the threads again and may not get read, but that is ok. I am feeling GREAAAAT this morning. I stayed OP all weekend and haven't slipped up since that terrible weekend pigout! The results are so gratifying!! :dance: :goodscale . I have lost what I regained and two lbs more. I am a happy camper this morning.

2cute thanks for the tip of the day. You are so right. :yes:

I am not going to try to post to everyone right now, but I will be thinking of all of you. Iwillbe :wave:

Well here I am early this morning. :sunny:
But there is no sun shining here. Murky and cloudy and blah.

I wanted to add another Tuesday Tip. It has really helped my time saving.
When a title has more than one page.... you can click on the last page number instead of the title and it will automatically take you to the last page. Or, if there are 5 pages and you last read on page 3... then click on the 3 and it will take you to that page. YEA !!! I would always click on the title ... then wait for the first page to come up then move on to the next page from there. Not a big savings but when you are dial up like me... it does help. This 3fc site is the S l o w e s t site I go to.

I used to blame it on my computer and me being dial up. BUT ... it is not this slow in other support web sites. Sometimes I want to say to heck with this s l o w site... but I just like you guys too much. :D

Okay... my dog is driving me NUTS !!! I need to go babysit him outside.
There is a female dog in heat somewhere in my neighborhood and he WANTS HER !!!

Oh wait... I want to tell everyone how SUPER your photos are in the picture thread.
I just LOVE seeing your photos and having a face to put with the names and stories.
We are not suppose to post replies in the picture thread so I kept forgetting to tell all of you how nice your photos are.
I think Loki is the latest. Nice picture ... but does not qualify for your "before" picture.
You don't even look overweight in it. LOL I don't see any CHINS or fat face. You don't need to post it... but you really need a full body shot for your before photo. ;)

OOppsss ... I forgot to start the new thread. The next post goes to the next page so STOP !! Do not reply or post in this thread. See you on the next ongoing thread... #668, :wave: