Thanks Bill! Nice to see you posting. That buffet--get this--I picked up a piece of lemon cake for dessert... took a couple of bites, and found it was too sweet. So I left it! Didn't finish it! What a concept!

Jay

Jay - Kudos for "So I left it! Didn't finish it! What a concept!"

That simple step of leaving food on the plate contintues to be difficult for me. Just last night my adult DD left about 3 spoons full of soup and 1.5 corn chips on her plate. My mind boggled at what thought process allowed her to do that. It wasn't a dieting thing; she was just done.

At least I no longer finish off my children's plates, LOL.

__________________
XXXXXXX 7 XXXXXXX 14 XXXXXXX 21 XXXXXXX 28 XXXXXXX 35 XXXXXXX 42
Completed Beck Program-day 42. You’ve met your goal. Congratulations!

Hi gang . . .

Have had some computer- problems and just got the little darling back from his long weekend at the 'spa'.

Won't even try to get caught up -- just suffice it to say, I've missed you -- and hope to be around more regularly again now. Although, my favourite computer geek says it might just be a matter of time until I'm going to have to breakdown and buy a newer 'puter. I'm still on my little old Pentium 4.

Linda - welcome back - we missed you too! Glad your computer is back up and running

Bill - I agree with you on the leaving food thing. When I did Weigh Down, it was something that we were to do - always leave food on our plates. It continues to be a difficult thing - even 10 years later. I have had some success at home, I give the last bites to the dog. While it helps with my "no waste" philosophy, it hasn't helped the dog with is "more waist" physiology.The vet has chastised me for the practice

Jay - that is an awesome victory - leaving behind pie because you lost your taste for it. This truly has been a lifestyle change for you - you are an inspiration!!!

Not much news from me right now. Work is crazy busy and meetings at church 4 nights in a row. Not much time for anything else. I have been getting in at least one of my two daily workouts though - so I am feeling pleased about that. It has been hard, but I refuse to let obligations interfere with my health and progress.

Hope you all have a POP day

Things around here are much the same as yesterday except that I've already had a little extra exercise, lugging a lot of garbage to the curb. Even with just one of me (and the five cats, of course) it's amazing how much accumulates when you only get pick up every second week. Of course, it is a little easier during those seasons that you actually get to see the pavement at the bottom of the driveway. Not something that is happening often this Winter. BTW, it hasn't started to snow yet but the forecast is still for lots of nasties -- snow, sleet, rain -- hope it holds off until the garbage trucks come past because I really do not want the added exercise of hauling everything back in again.

Those of you who are able to throw out food are doing a wonderful thing, you know. That is one of my biggest problems . . . if it's in the house, I will eat it . . . so I just try not to keep certain things in the house. Other than that, I organize things so that I seldom have 'leftovers' because they will sit in the fridge and call my name. Luckily, I'm okay with 'planned-overs'. -- Don't ask me what the difference is. Wish I could figure that out.

Have a great moving and shaking day, gang -- see you later.

I'm reading along here. Our nearest culture is LA, about 170 mile trip. I would love to go to Toronto.

The only hot tubs I have been in were at hotels. They usually have a warning sign that if you have this or that ailment, don't go in. I worry that I might have the ailment and not know about it, and that's all she wrote! I always think they are waaaay too hot. I think both my ex and present husband think that hot tubs are somehow sexy. I don't get that either. I love a swimming pool that is just right, temp-wise.

Fifteen minutes of warm weather in MI. I was there for it last summer. Just absolutely gorgeous.....Trees, grass, all the things we don't have here in the desert. We don't have any annoying bugs either - plenty of bugs, but they mind their own business.

Agree on the hot tubs . . . I've got a couple of those 'stay away from here' things anyway.

We get lots of bugs in the summer and they seem to mind everybody's business. Might just be my imagination of course because I'm allergic to insect venom and also because, being diabetic, guess I'm sweeter than average and they seem to love me.

Oh gosh, I must have a secret sign on my back that says "MOSQUITOES! COME HERE! O POSITIVE! YUM YUMM!" I put on repellent every day when I go out, because if I think I'm safe for even a moment... I learn I am not.

But ticks don't like me...

I'm allergic to fleas--that's a problem. Fleas bite people as well as other animals, but 80% of people have no reaction. I do.

Jay

Oh, Linda - are we related? Those nasty biting critters just love me. And I get the biggest welts when they bite! Mosquitoes are in abundance here and when I get bit, it swells to the diameter of a golf ball. They totally ignore DH - it is really annoying!

We have a firepit on the patio. It does help keep some of the bugs at bay when we use it

I really shouldn't complain about our Michigan weather. Gail is right - we have the most beautiful summers. I don't like HOT weather, and we only need to run the air conditioner for a few days all year long

Last summer, I got bitten really badly by mosquitoes. We were visiting DH's son and family in northern CA. I had twenty bites on each foot/ankle. I actually felt ill from it. I went right home and bought two different kinds of repellent to carry permanently in my travel bag.

I am not kidding about being grateful for the lack of annoying bugs here. We have some really ugly ones, some venemous bugs, some huge scary looking bugs, but none of them go out of their way to mess with people.

Being Buddhist, I almost never will kill an insect, no matter how ugly it is. I have been known to trap cockroaches and take them outside. But I do swat mosquitoes. I figure anything that's trying to eat me is fair game.

Jay

Yep . . . I get the golf-ball sized mosquito bites too and, like Jay, I'm fair game for fleas as well -- one of the many reasons my cats are indoor cats is so they can't bring home fleas to eat me. Do you get scorpions around your house when you live in the desert? The mere thought of seeing one of those, up close and personal, would totally terrify me.

Woke up to +8C (46-47F) this morning and most of the snow we had amassed in the past few weeks has mostly melted again. By early afternoon, the temp had dropped to -2C (28-29F) and all the little lakes had turned into little skating rinks. Really, really weird weather. Instead of an afternoon mall-crawl, following lunch; we did a morning mall-crawl, ending with lunch to try to beat most of the ice-over.

When I first got up this am, I was quite pleased to discover that my ticker was correct again . . . so, of course, I had a lovely little bag of valentines chocolates for dessert at lunch -- I tell you, gang, I really do not understand why I do these things to myself. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Have a good moving and shaking afternoon and evening . . .

I hate to admit it but I have a tough time leaving food behind as well. I think this is a great secret to success that I know I need to work harder at.
As for the bugs well I am afraid that is what keeps me out of hot tubs. Just a huge place for breeding bacteria. I used to work in a medical lab and so now I see "bacteria" everywhere.

Hope everyones day is good. I am doing well and have lost a couple of pounds this week. Happy about that. See what next week brings. More time at the gym I hope.
Cheers.....Jude

Counting, I don't need to tell you what summers in Florida are like... But actually, it's just as unpleasant sometimes in the Northeast in summer.

hijude, where you been! Congratulations on the 2 pound drop!

Well, I joined the new gym, and a couple days ago I had a session with a trainer. This is the one free session that you get. My trainer was a 25-year-old, 6 ft 3 in tall woman with long dark hair and green eyes who looked like a GODDESS!

I told her that I was interested in finding out how to use the weight machines--that I had used them at my previous gym but that these were a different brand. Unfortunately she didn't seem to hear me. She instead took me through an hour of "core exercises" and "stability" work. These are good things to do, I have to say! As she explained it, people tend to lose core strength as they get older and are less stable, that is, they may fall more easily.

All well and good, but I wasn't about to sign up for 4 sessions at $40 per half hour after that. Although--well, I might have taken a few lessons from her, but I felt as though she had an agenda because I was older. Her idea was evidently that I "have" to do the core exercises before I do the weight machines. She didn't understand, or didn't care, that I'd been doing weight machines for a year and a half now.

So, I felt discounted by that sweet young thing. However, I am figuring out the weight machines on my own. They do have instructions written on them. I also have a feeling that there are a few employees around who can help me if I can't figure something out.

It's nice to be back at a real gym, though!

Jay

Oh, Jay - sorry for your experience! It is starting to happen to me a bit too. People treat me differently because I am "older". I'm not liking it much, since I definitely don't see myself in that place yet.

I relate to your values regarding insects. I trap all kinds of critters and let them go - spiders, flies, mice, whatever. I do swat mosquitoes - it is me or "them".

Like Linda, fleas LOVE me. Since our pets do go outside, we flea them every year (meds are great for this). I learned my lesson the hard way. And once you get fleas in the house, it is really, really hard to get rid of them. They actually jumped off the dog to bit me - I must be very tasty indeed

Jude - congrats on the weight loss! Way to go!!!!

Gail - I carry repellent with me too. And chapstick. And a Swiss knife. Forget a make-up bag - I carry the REALLY useful stuff