todays cals-1810, exerc-body sculpt at the Y.

Gayle-I enjoyed your story about the kitty walk. Always nice to have company.

Marie-Okay 1800 is about as close as I can get to your 1400 cals. I would be a whiny, crying baby on 1400 cals. I am suffering on 1800-not from hunger actually-I am just craving a sugar fix. Oh well, tonight reason prevails and I am sticking at 1810 calories for the day.

todays cals-1955, exc-step class. Okay day. At least I am under 2000. I said no to myself when I wanted to go out to eat instead of cooking and also refused to allow myself the extra liquid calories I was considering when I was making my dinner. Life is tough!!

Gayle-Hi! Hope you are out there having fun riding your bike!

Marie-I have a confession-I ate more food after posting last night. I made chili to take for my lunches this week and could not resist eating some. I will keep aiming for the illusive 1800 number though. Perhaps I should aim for 1600 and then maybe I would hit 1800! You use your evenings for such interesting things-yoga, quilting and now foreign language. Neat. I usually read but now and then-like tonight-I watch TV. Tonight is Nashville!

I haven't done so well the last couple days. Did not get my bike ride in either day. Didn't eat so well today.

Tomorrow is a new day.

Feeling kind of blue. Don't know why. Kind of goes in cycles. My sister thinks it has something to do with the full of the moon. Maybe

I think partly, I feel kind of lost sometimes. I lost my job back in August. My husband is trying to work it out so I can retire. I really want that, but guess I am having a hard time adjusting to that. Also, I used to talk to my mom every day ~ 2 or 3 times a day. Usually on my way to work, on my way home from work and right before I went to bed. We joked about that ~ I told her I was calling to get tucked in. But now with my mom in a nursing home, I don't get to talk to her that much. Not always every day, and not for that long of a time. So, maybe after years of talking to her every day ~ I am kind of lonely. Even though she has alzheimers, we were still able to talk and have fun. She has always been a good listener, and she never lost her sense of humor. We joked that she was my therapist.

I get kind of tickled with her ~ she will talk to me for about 10 minutes, then she gets to itching (nosey ) to get back over by the other people to see what is going on. I am glad for her though that she likes to be around the other people and not just sit in her room all alone.

I have friends I can talk to, but the topic eventually turns to my troubles ~ lately with my brother. It just kind of all spills out. So, I hesitate to talk to my friends, I don't want to drive them away by venting about my troubles. They probably get tired of that. Hopefully someday, I will be able to visit with my friends and have a pleasant conversation.

Oh well. Thank you for listening. Writing therapy I guess.

todays cals-2060, ex-body sculpt at the Y. I did okay especially considering I attended the neighborhood bookclub meeting tonight and there were lots of goodies. I tried to be moderate and not greedy. My calories may be low since I had to guess on the slice of pie from said meeting-hopefully I am not too far off but as a wise woman once said "c'est la vie".

Glynne-I am sorry about the troubles. Glad you took the opportunity to vent. Life is throwing you some doozies. I have been in and out of jobs several times in the last few years so I am familiar with that bit of unpleasantness. Plus you have the family stuff as well. It is nice you have such a sweet mom-I can see how you would miss the talks. I hope things get better with your brother. For what it is worth- I have four brothers and my philosophy is "take them as they are".

Marie-How nice of you to take in Coal. It sounds kinda fun. How long will he be staying? With that many animals you will surely be induced to take some long walks. That could help make up for missing the time on the yoga mat.

Thank you Marie and Tera for your kind words. Eventually things will get better. So, I just take one day at a time and if I do ok ~ good, if I don't do so good ~ well tomorrow is a new day.

Eating today was so-so. Bike ride did not get beyond the thinking stage. I did look at the "Y" schedule and there is a deep water aerobics M-W-F at 8:30 in the mornings that I am thinking about trying out. It would kind of change things up a little bit. I love the water.

Saw this pic on Facebook today ~ a good thought to hold on to.

30 minute bike ride. I'm back on track with that for today. Food, I hope to do right. Feeling frustrated ~ and wanting to chew the walls ~ LOL. Working on the unemployment stuff and it is frustrating and stressful ~ I want to chew something LOL.

todays cals-2200. Enjoyed a great weekend with the family. I went "Christmas" shopping on Saturday and ended up buying myself a new coat, a pair of black boots, a red sweater and snowflake earrings. My kind of Christmas shopping! Eating this weekend was on the high side but I made cabbage soup tonight so maybe I can be good this week to help make up for it.

Gayle-Try not to sweat the unemployment stuff too much. It gets easier with time and practice. Trust me, I have had a lot of experience with unemployment. It is not any more pleasant even with practice but you can get in the groove of sending resumes and going on interviews and making good use of your time in the meanwhile.

Marie-Great job with the cals and exercise. My new job is keeping me busy. I think I am being useful to them. I am getting a new computer this week which will make my life ten zillion times better. I got kicked out of the accounting software last week and only half an entry was recorded. Having never had experience with getting kicked out and half entries, it took most of a day to find the error and that was only after backing up two days. Thus the new computer, yea!!!

I missed yesterday ~ the exercise part. Did only so-so with the eating.

Walked 30 minutes on the treadmill (in 3 ten minute chunks) and got a bonus 10 minutes on the bicycle. Eating has been pretty good today.

yest cals-2230, ex-step class. I missed posting yesterday because I was feeling a bit low. My dear aunt died. She was very old and very ill but it was still sad.

Gayle-You posted a pretty decent day. Keep up the good work.

Marie-Yumm, caramels. I would have a very hard time stopping with those also. So perfect for the season too. Those food scientists know what they are doing! I say enjoy and then back to the hard work of weight loss!