Ugh, Michelle, I feel you on the arthritis. The barometric pressure does seem to make a difference, doesn't it? Are you painting for pleasure or for maintenance?

Zumba, yes, bird handlers disease is psittacosis - it's such an irony. My mom has taken care all her life to stay at a healthy weight, never smoked, all that - and then her interest in parrots did her in. Her lungs are in such bad shape, her doctor has brought up lung transplant - the survival rate of that is awful!

And I have to disagree with you - your determination IS inspiring! Even when you don't think so, I can see that you are working hard to keep yourself in a healthy place.

Rennie, here's a little something to help you hold onto those 150s:

OMG Cattails, im so sorry about your mom, thats awful. I used to feed pigeons that hung out under the elevated train in the city when i lived there and thats when someone told me about that disease and told me to keep away from those birds and their droppings. I have another friend whose mother developed some kind of lung disease from believe it or not the compost pile in her yard. Supposedly it had some kind of mold that is extremely toxic when breathed in. The craziest things can make us sick. Anyway I'm sorry to hear this about your mother....

Today i am at 149.6. I really hope to stay under 150 for the rest of June. Super busy day today running errands and then kickboxing tonight.

Marlene - I hope something turns up in the job search soon! When the timing is right it is hard to wait patiently! I suck at patience is all things, really.

Rennie - If you are looking for fiber, may I suggest cans of black beans? I can tell you, they do the job!

Zumbachica - I so agree with you on celebrating every moment and every "small" victory. I've noticed that when I start looking too far ahead at how I should do X and how I should do Y and blah blah blah, I start getting overwhelmed and it all seems impossible. When I just think about what to have for lunch I have a much easier time!

Cattails - I had previously googled bird handler's disease when you mentioned it before. That really is terrible. I'm so sorry your mom has to suffer with this -- a lung transplant is scary stuff.

Regarding my arthritis and painting: I'm painting for both maintenance and for pleasure. In the house I'm doing some door painting and sprucing up.

On the pleasure front, I am getting ready to paint a vintage-look sign as a gift for my husband's birthday. The sign will hang in our sailboat. Our sailboat's name is Knotty Dog. The sign will say "Knotty Dog Lounge" and will feature a Westie wearing a little sailors hat (our Westie is our boat dog) and I'd like the word Lounge to look like it is written in rope. It's all a little experimental and I've never tried to do a vintage-style hand-painted sign before.

SNARK exactly Snark, I kept joining challenges and giving myself a crazy goal to achieve, when in fact I couldn't even get through the afternoon without binging....so now the "goal" isn't as important as the journey. I feel too overwhelmed to think ahead like that anymore...

And I love sailboats..and Knotty Dog is a cool sailboat name! I hope you post a pic of your work....it sounds amazing....

I'm utterly behind reading so forgive the lack of personal comments. I went back to the gym for the first time since Feb and it went well. I just did a walk around the track for 30 min. In the past I've jumped into heavy cardio too fast and burned out. I'm losing weight but very out of shape. I'm taking it slow this time bc my new changes need to become habits, not fad. There is plenty of time to progress my workout.

I think I'm having a NSV. I'm hesitant to put it in black and white, lol. But I've been noticing the last couple days my right knee is not hurting and cracking when I walk upstairs. I'm not sure if it's a fluke or real. I read that every pound lost is like 4 lbs lost in terms of pressure on knee joints.

This week my hubby has started his "diet" with me. He is 200 lbs overweight...yes. He has gained about 120 of that since we married 7 yrs ago but has been overweight pretty much his entire life. He is cutting carbs, like me. He is not cutting them to the extent I am but he does not have issues with his blood sugar like I do (shocking I know but believe it or not, obesity does not actually = diabetes like most folks think). I eat based on my glucose meter, he does not have to do that. Anyway, so far I've seen him do really well....he isn't drinking his usual 2 liter per day of diet mt dew which is just shocking. I really hope he is able to be successful. We have a wild 4 yr old and I need him around, lol.

Thanks Zumba, and I am in agreement with you, Cattails and Michelle Yay on the 140's, I'm happy for you

Cattails Thank you

Michelle I am so paranoid when it comes to beans. I just feel like I'm not active enough and they will make me gain. But I will never if I don't try. I like most beans so that would definitely add the fiber that I need.

Shannon, I don't have trouble with my knees like I use to either so yes that is a great NSV way to go I just can't do the elliptical still, my knees will hurt. I'm happy to hear your husband has joined you on your journey. I know you were worried, you have obviously been a great influence to him. Keep up the great work

I am down .8 which is only .2 because of the up yesterday to 158.4. Hoping to stay in the 150's

Doing well on my plan though I don't feel right today. I think something I've eaten has me feeling blegh. I feel like I'm holding 2 extra gallons of water. Must've had something with a lot of sodium though for the life of me I can't figure out what. Scale was up slightly from Monday which validates that. Ugh. Hopefully upping the water today will help flush it out...

cattails So sorry to hear about your mother. That's truly tragic.

Zumba You just keep working it. It's a marathon not a sprint.

Michelle Post a pic of the sign when you get it done. I love that stuff. We just bought a new boat a couple of months ago. It's not a sailboat but we do love it.

Rennie Just hang in there. You're doing great.

Thanks andrew upping the water should help. I hate it when my stomach feels bloated like that, feel better soon It amazes me how much sodium is in something as small as two tablespoons of salad dressing, canned meats or for that matter anything canned and frozen meals think back you'll find the culprit

Shannon -- That's so exciting that your husband is joining you in changing his eating style! I can only imagine how much better he will feel with that extra weight off!! That's is awesome about the lessening of the knee pain. The weight makes a HUGE difference for me on my back and hips, it's MAJOR and that benefit alone makes it worth all the effort!

Andrew -- What kind of boat did you get? We'd like to get a smallish boston whalerish type runabout boat. Do you mostly boat in the ocean or in a river/lake?

Rennie -- I think of beans as a super healthy clean food, I eat alot of them. Maybe you can sneak a few in here or there without any problems?

Michelle, I would love for the pay off to be a bathroom visit for sure. You know my issue with beans also is that when we ate beans when I was growing up and even when I fix them now there is always cornbread. I absolutely love cornbread. it's like the two go together especially pinto, kidney and navy/great northern beans. I'm gonna have a half cup of black beans shortly start out slow

Cornbread.

Michelle, I am having a cup of black beans now (only a half cup was left so I had to finish them ) so good

LOL Snark...i made the same cornbread face....Love me some cornbread....

My most recent google search:

"vegan 2-ingredient 5-minute low-cal full-flavor cornbread recipe"

I wish.

It took months but Im FINALLY below 149...not by much but atleast the scale is going in a better direction....There were days I weighed in at 154 last month so I have to say that is definitely progress....Went to kickboxing last night, it was an awesome class....I am going to try and get there two times a week.....I also have trainer tomorrow, have to admit i haven't been keeping up with my weight workouts....I just have too much going on. Zumba to me right now is just a nuisance...it does nothing for me physically, but it is my only source of income right now so I have to keep it up. It is POURING cats and dogs right now, so unless it clears up there will be no walk tonight....I'll have to do some kind of indoor workout....

Hope everyone is having a good morning....