A storm is suppose to hit today but so far all I notice is no sun and it's kinda breezy. Suppose to snow and then rain and turn to ice. I think we've made a record this year for cold up here.

The really good news is I lost a 1/2# and that gets me a tiny bit out of the 160s. I'm sure I'll go up and down as usual before staying there, but it sure made me feel good to see the scale settle there finally. Esp since last night I ate some candy canes I found on the tree when I took it down. I only ate the cinnamon ones and threw away the rest because the grandchildren don't seem to like them. Otherwise though I did really well ...I counted my calories for each meal to be sure I didn't go over in addition to making sure I got all the right foods in. It actually felt really good doing this. I bought a $100 GC for NS online and applied it to my next food shipment. Really helps to know I can do that.

My right hip (the one I know has arthritis) has been hurting me a lot the last few days. It's very stiff and making it hard to walk...praying it won't be this way when we are traveling. Makes it hard to do things and I didn't get any housework done yesterday (other than daily stuff) so I am way behind in that again. I'll try and do some today. I think it does help to move more but its uncomfortable at the time.

Glynne - glad you figured out about the photo...I'm always happy when I learn something new and glad I can still learn.

Well, need to get to other things. Happy a good day!

Gayle, when my step-son sends me pictures they are always sideways, but when I click on them they turn. That didn't work with the pic you posted. It's a pretty tree. DH took a pic of our pink tree but I haven't seen the pic yet.

Mary I think I am going to start making a more serious effort with my eating and weight loss. I know that it's my lack of consistency that makes me fail. I want to really push to get back under 200 lbs. I know I can do it, instead of whining and feeling sorry for myself. I put my self in this position.

That's good that your weight is coming down gradually. Slow but sure wins the race. You may still bounce up and down, but the bounce down will be lower.

DH has been having trouble with his hip lately, limping around. He goes into the shower and lets the hot water hit it and it feels better for a while.

I used to like to put candy canes on the tree but no one ever wanted to eat them. One year I packed them away with the tree and used them over again the next year. It didn't matter. No one was going to eat them, anyway. Now I don't use them anymore.

DH said we are supposed to get more snow but I just looked online and it said not til tomorrow and just light snow. It's really cold, though. Single digits. We have a stray cat that comes around and we don't know how he lives out there in this.

Carol had to laugh at you using the candy canes again. Perhaps I should have kept the ones I didn't eat for next year just for decoration. I do think they look pretty on the tree. Once they are on the tree they don't bother me, but to keep them I'd have to keep them where I couldn't see them,...even though I don't really care for the peppermint kind, they'd probably tempt me if they were where I could see them. And I do like them better (any flavor) after they've "aged" a bit...they are a little softer.

Dh just told me to look outside and the street and driveway are white and the snow is coming down quickly but is still just small flake. They are saying this is much more serious snow storm. From what I've seen on the weather maps it is mostly Portland but extends up to us and even along the coast. I'll be glad when this cold weather is all over.

Ok, back to work...still on computer for budgeting, need to finish and get to other things. The internet is too distracting.

Good afternoon GG's,

It is a beautiful sunny day here today, but chilly. Down in the 20's over night ~ heat wave now (LOL) at 47*

I am procrastinating. I need to get back to work on those mini quilts. I worked some on them yesterday, but ended up with that bad sciatic pain, so dreading going back in there to sew. I am going to try a different cushion on the chair today and see if that helps.

I worked instead on making answer sheets for Jason's practice tests for the GED test. I got them done for the smaller (thinner) books, but have the big one left to go.

Had a nice day yesterday. Got to talk to mom and my sister. Then in the afternoon, Jason came over to watch a football game.

Mary ~ I wondered if it is the cold weather you are having up there now that is making your hip hurt more? I know that when it is cold here ~ I am more stiff and achy. I use some of the medium sized candy canes to decorate that little tree. Because it is a small tree, I just leave the decorations on and put the whole thing in a big box and put it in the attic till the next year. The candy canes kind of looked like maybe the heat up there affected them. Like the colors kind of ran or something. So, I bought some new ones this year ~ took the old ones off (ate some ~ and like you said Mary ~ they were a little softer). I think when we put the tree away this year, I will take the candy canes off before storing it and see if that makes a difference.

Carol Sue ~ I've been thinking of you. Hope you are feeling a little less blue. Does the cold dreary weather in your area bother you? I know one year when I was up home (NE Ohio) visiting in March ~ it was cold, snowy, rainy. I stayed with my sister and she was working, so I was there alone, she had no TV, I had to wait for her to get home before I could go see my mom and dad. I guess I was lonely and between that and feeling cold ~ I was pretty miserable and just wanted to go back home. Hope that stray kitty is alright.

Hello eLany. Hope all is well with you.

Guess I'll get off and try to get something done. Hope you all are having a good weekend.

Our church campus was closed this morning so we stayed home. I didn't sleep until after 3 am and slept in til 11:30! I was up once not sure when but went back to to bed. And I'm still yawning as I sit here! Our son didn't have to go into his drill because of the weather so we are all here, but I can tell he's wanting to go out.

I got the kitchen floor mopped yesterday but didn't do much else other than we made some more travel arrangements. I may do a quick vaccuming in the living room today because it's such a mess and I need to move some end tables around that we moved because of the tree. Joe is cooking today so I don't have to do that.

Glynne - I don't know, hadn't thought about the weather affecting my hip...I suppose it might. It's a bit better this morning but still hurts and kinda stiff.
I just figured I need to get back to the gym or at least stretch it more. I haven't even ridden my bike for a couple days now. Your comments to Carol made me think of when we first moved to the NW, we lived in Seattle and I didn't have a car, Joe worked long hours, lots of overtime with Boeing, so it was just my first daughter who was only three and me at home a lot. The rain just kept coming down and it was depressing. A lot of people who move up here get depressed the first year and after that first year they either move away or they grow to like it. I was one of the latter despite the fact that our 72 months spent up there was kind of a lonely sad time. I did learn a lot though through it but it sure wasn't an easy time for any of us not just because of the weather but because of Joe's job. He always felt he had to accept all the overtime because people were being laid off. After 72 mo he was too and we moved back to Portland. Doesn't seem to me like we get so much rain anymore down here...suppose Seattle still gets more though. I still hear people complain about it though.

Gayle, this is going to sound weird, but I hate when we have sun. LOL My eyes are so sensitive to the sun and I can't see when it's sunny even wearing sun glasses. I need to make an appointment with the eye doctor, but I'm procrastinating. I never wore sun glasses, and I think I did a lot of damage to my eyes. Also, I have a hole in the macula of one eye.

I think my depression is due to my weight. For a long time I bounced between below 200 to above 200. Now I've stayed above 200 for a very long time and it just won't come down. My highest weight ever was 217, in 2008. I am getting closer and closer to that number. I would be very upset if I got back to that weight, or even higher, but I am the only one who can do anything about it.

DH got another bicycle at Goodwill for 99 cents today. These are really nice bikes he's been buying. They have them marked between $10 - $15, but if they don't sell in 4 weeks they become half off. If no one buys them half off they are sold for 99 cents. I don't know what happens to them if no one buys them for 99 cents. I think no one is interested in bikes right now because it's winter. I think he's going to give the small one to our grandson and the adult bike to his other grandparents. Their other grandchildren live out of state and visit for long periods of time in the summer, so they like to have extra bikes for them to ride.

Mary, I saw on the national weather forecast that you were going to get snow in your area. DH and I were commenting about how everything closes now when it snows. Back in the day, nothing closed, even our schools. I remember in high school I lived 6 blocks from my church and I walked to church every Sunday, even in the snow. Now when it snows, we see all the closures scrolling along the bottom of the TV screen.

When I kept the candy canes I just put them in the attic with the other Christmas decorations. In fact, I didn't even realize they got put in there until we got the decorations out the next year and there they were. I'm sure they were affected by the heat in the attic, but no one ever eats them, so I didn't care. I just put them on the tree. One time I bought some candy canes that were cherry flavor and DH ate some of them. He hates peppermint, and I guess everyone else does, too. One year I made some cookies that had pieces of crushed candy cane in them. The only person who ate them was my step-son's neighbors son. LOL Never made them again.

Has anyone been watching the new show "This Is Us?" I really like it. I heard about it from someone else so I watched it on demand to get caught up. It's a very touching story. It starts out with a woman going to the hospital to give birth to triplets. She has a boy and a girl, then the third baby is stillborn. At the same time there was a black baby boy in the nursery who had been abandoned, so they adopt him and take him home with their two. The story continues, flashing back and forth between their childhood and into adulthood.

Mary, where did you live before you moved to the NW? I don't remember if you ever said. I have lived in PA all my life, but the first 7 years were in Philadelphia due to my father's job, then we moved back to Pittsburgh, where my parents families were.

Mary, I don't watch much TV either, but someone recommended this show so I watched it, and now I'm hooked. I watch 2 soaps every afternoon. Sometimes I'm just listening because I'm doing something else, then if it sound interesting I run in and watch. Also, they are repeated in the evening if I miss them in the afternoon. In the evening I watch things like Say Yes to the Dress, and some of the news type shows on CNN or MSN. That's only if I don't have anything else to do.

We don't get nearly the amount of snow we used to get. We might get it often, but not usually more than an inch or two, just enough to cause havoc on the roads. We used to get several snows of 6-8 inches, and at least once or twice a year got a big one of a couple feet. We haven't had that since we retired. I heard that S Caroline got 10 inches yesterday. I never would have thought that they would get that much snow that far south.

I didn't realize you had a grandchild that old. You probably mentioned it, but I just didn't remember. So I guess she is the daughter of the son who lives with you. Right? Nice that you will spend some time with her.

I feel that I'm going well with my eating but my weight keeps going up.

I just tracked my food for today to see how I did. I might have forgotten something because I have less than 1000 calories and only 44 gm of carb. I cooked some turkey bacon today to see if I liked it and I think I forgot to add that in. It is very low calorie and no carbs. I was so shocked that DH tried it too, and liked it. He never likes fake anything. He asked me how they get it to taste like regular bacon. I won't buy it on a regular basis though because it still has nitrates in it, which are believed to be carcinogen. It will be an occasional thing.

I don't feel full, so I might eat some veggies later on. I need to start drinking more water and exercising. I don't think exercise really helps with weight loss, especially since I am not a high intensity exerciser, but I do think it's important for health and mobility.

I am very surprised that you have so many older grandchildren. I think it's so nice for them to have their grandparents for so long. My father's parents were dead before I was born. I didn't meet my mother's parents until we moved back to this area when I was 7 years old. My grandmother died when I was in 5th grade, and my grandfather died when I was in 9th grade.

Yesterday I ended up slightly over 1000 cals and 54 gm of carb. Today my FBS is 155, finally down below 200 and my weight is down 2 lbs. Now to keep those numbers going down. I have become very carb sensitive. The least little bit spikes me, and it's almost impossible to get it back down. Better to just eat to keep it down.

Mary, my vision isn't all that bad. I have glasses, but I don't wear them on a regular basis. I can see. Things are just a little sharper with my glasses on. I wore them at work, because they are blended bifocals and I need the bifocal to read. I have store reading glasses that I use when I read. I can read on my kindle without them because I can make the font bigger, but the paper or a paperback book, recipe, etc, I need my reading glasses. It's just that the sun just blinds me. If I forget my sunglasses I have to keep my head down. I don't know how I got the hole in my macula. They said it could be from an injury or just age. They said it would not get worse or move into the other eye, and so far it hasn't. That was in 2011. It does not affect my vision unless I cover the other eye. I have been putting off going to the eye doctor. I know I should go every year, but I don't. I don't want to get new glasses because I feel that I will probably have to get cataracts removed soon and then not need the glasses or the rx would change. When they diagnosed the hole in the macula, they said I had a cataract starting. I don't know about the other eye. I'm sure my blood sugar has caused damage, but I don't know to what degree. I will probably make an appointment soon. I want to get my BS under better control before I go. DH wants me to go to the same doctor his brother went to because he had cataracts removed and all went well. There are doctors in Pittsburgh who do the surgery that corrects both close up and distance but I hate to go to Pittsburgh.

Hi everyone! My name is Nancy. I just joined this site yesterday and found your thread today. I have yo-yo dieted all my life. Here I am, 58 and the heaviest I've ever been!

I live in northern Michigan with my second husband and two dogs. My 2 children from my first husband and my 3 grandchildren live about 3 hours from me in the metro Detroit area. We are currently having a winter storm! We got about 5 inches of snow so far today, it's starting to get windy and it's supposed to start raining before it starts snowing again tonight! Needless to say, I'm glad I'm retired and don't have to go out in it today. I'm a retired healthcare worker. After working for nearly 40 years, I was "eased out" of my last job about 2 years ago. I have a number of health issues I'm dealing with now so it's all for the best, I just wish it didn't go down the way it did.

I'm looking forward to getting to know each of you! I hope you're all having a great day!

Welcome Nancy ~ glad you've joined us ~ we look forward to getting to know you too.

It's still snowing. Very pretty but I haven't been outside yet. Happy to say I lost the 1/2# I gained and am now down another pound. I was just about to lower my calorie limit so happy to see this. I rode my bike 20 min last night and apparently I did ok with my meals. This morning I found another NS pancakes pkg in my freezer...although normally I rarely eat pancakes, I was glad to see it because I didn't want to eat eggs again. I have no bread...I've had to throw out two whole loaves that went moldy! If I buy bread again, I guess I'll have to freeze and just remove a couple slices at a time as right now none of us are eating it. I can eat it but just haven't been since I've been on NS.

Nothing going on here ...staying inside keeping warm. I'm sure dh won't be able to stand it too long and will be out there shoveling so he can go to the store. Do you all have snow too or is it just out here?

Mary, we have had a couple very small snowfalls. They make the roads a little dicey for a while but don't last. It's been in the 40s the past couple days so there's no snow left. The past couple years I have been looking for a little snow shovel, the kind that you just use to push the snow off the walkway instead of lifting a heavy shovelful of snow. I finally found one at Goodwill for $2. DH laughed at it, and didn't want me to buy it, but I did. Here, he used it yesterday morning because we only had a little inch or so of snow on the steps LOL And he laughed at me buying it. We saw them in the store for $15, so I saved some money buying used.

I haven't had pancakes or waffles in years. I overeat on them, and they have too many carbs for me. DH made some waffles yesterday and I am happy that I stayed away from them. I packaged them up and put them in the freezer so he call pull a couple out when he wants them. There are pancakes you can make from almond flour or coconut flour that are low carb, but I'd rather just do without.

I stopped at the pharmacy to refill my Amaryl and they said the rx expired and they will contact the Dr. I am waiting to hear from them, hoping that he fills it and doesn't not require an appointment. I know I am overdo.

I went out this morning to go to Walmart. Then when I got home, I had an email from the library that a book I requested is ready for pick up. If I had known, I could have stopped for it. We went right past the library. Now I think I will wait to hear if my RX is ready and do those two things in one trip. None of these places is more than a couple miles away, but I hate to make so many trips.

I have not started dinner and don't know what DH wants to eat. If he wants to go out, I will get a big salad. If he wants to stay home I will grill some salmon. Up to him.

Hi Nancy, Welcome! We like getting new posters here. It's interesting hearing about other people's lives. And naturally, we are all attempting to get our weight down. Jump on in and tell us more!

Good Morning
Gayle saw my post on the 50+ intros and invited me here. Thanks Gayle I've read over several posts and looks like a perfect thread fo me. Though being 59 and 60 in a couple of months maybe I should be on a 60+ site lol.

A little bit about me I am the mom to two college age girls and have a great hubby. I have waitressed part time at the same restaurant for 18 years. That wasn't exactly the plan. I started when the girls were babies so my husband could watch them at night and we didn't have to do the daycare thing. I intended to go back to work full time when the kids were in school but by then my elderly parents needed help. So I cared for them. Crazy times but I am glad I was able to do it. Now I am looking for full time day work but it is hard since I have been out of business so long plus I'm sure my age doesn't help. But I keep applying. Luckily I love my current job.

About dieting/eating healthy....I joined 3FC back in 2005 but probably haven't been here in 8/9 years. This week I just said enough more because I don't feel great. I am good at denying how much I weigh and have gotten too comfortable in my own skin except when I look in a full length mirror and go buy clothes. So I started Monday on The Diabetes Miracle Diet by Diane Kress. It sounds like one of those fad diets but it is not. It is supposed to help reset your pancreas and blood sugar levels. I found it from my sisters friend. He went on it years ago and has kept the weight off and maintained normal blood sugar. His Dr had said he had to go on medication unless something changed. I am not diabetic but my mom had type 2 later in life. I am considered
pre-diabetic just because of my size. So the diet is pretty restrictive for 8 weeks low carb but add more in 8 weeks. Doing well this week though the diet mentality almost snuck in one day when I ate more than I should and I almost did tha, t"well I should just eat what I want I ruined today anyway" but happy to say I stayed the course. And finally got to the store to buy some bread with 5gr net carbs which has helped.
I look forward to getting to know everyone, getting support and giving it.
Have a great day. I know I am planning on it, it's my day off.