[Meg]

Good morning -- coffee's on. I made a big pot this morning because it's only 34 degrees here (though I'm sure Pat has us beat!) So grab your mug and pull up a chair.

So it's Halloween week and I got a little too self-confident about my ability to deal with my favorite candy in the house. Guess I need to realize that the Sugar Monster who lives in my brain will always be lurking there, ready to pounce. The two weeks since I've been home from vacation have been rocky, as it usually is when I've gone off track with my eating. Being a very NON-moderate person, I do much better in my safe little rut. Once I start eating sugar and such again, it's tough to cut it out. I need about three clean days in order to get back on track, I think. Meet me on the Accountability thread!

Enough about me ... how are all of you?

[rockinrobin]

Good morning everyone.

Gosh, it's real chilly here as well. As usual, we skipped right over fall and the beautiful 60 something degree weather and are stuck with a 40 degree morning, expected high of the low 50's.

I see I missed a lot of chatter over the weekend. I did see that LisaMarie did an amazing job at her race. EXCELLENT timing!!! You must be thrilled and then to have the scale back down to 165. I sure hope you enjoyed that much deserved champagne.

My weekend away at my daughters college was very, very nice. Last year we didn't go because there was no way I could have navigated all those hills and all that walking, so like so much in my life, I begged off. But not this year. I was up down and all around, here, there and everywhere. Which is a good thing, cause I ate like crazy, so at least I moved thyself. Not awful, crazy, but nothing marvelous either. I'm glad today is Monday and that I'm back home to my routine, or as Meg put it "my safe little rut".

Have a great day/week everyone.

[DGAdDawg]

Morning everyone!

I didn't post last week because I was busy at work and had to get ready for a job interview. But I did follow the threads and hopefully this week I'll do a better job at keeping up!

Its a little chilly here too. Some days of the weekend it was downright cold! I think today the high is 70...I actually wish it would get cold, and stay cold! But that normally doesn't happen till December or Jan. here.

Well, on thursday/friday my scale was showing 113! 2 pounds! But my best friend from school/Big Sis in my sorority came to visit and my eating and exercise went out the door. So this morning it said 114 and thats what I'm moving my ticker to. But it was a wonderful weekend that I really needed. After breaking up with my boyfriend a few weeks ago(actually, its almost been a month...damn), I've been a little down. Its one of those "I needed to do it but it really sucks and I really miss him and dang, what if I made a mistake?!" things. But she came and visited and we had the best weekend I've had in a while. The best part being....

Georgia 42-Florida 30!!!

Thats right, my dawgs beat Florida in a game they were supposed to have no chance at winning. Only the 3rd time in 18 years! And of course, its the first time in 4 years I didn't go down to Jacksonville for the game. Oh well. I was there in 2004 when we won.

Sorry this is so long. How is everyone? Have a great Monday! Post a lot so I have something to read at work!

[Kery]

Good morning maintainers! (Yeah, I guess I'm really a maintainer rather than a loser these days. )

Meg -- Good luck with getting back on track (though I don't like this expression in your case, because it has nothing to do with luck, but I can't find a more appropriate one right now).

Looks like we'll be two on this, because as usual at my parents', I wasn't in control of food, my mother loves cooking with tons of butter no matter what I say/how little of it I ask her to use, and add to this all the family visits stuff that usually goes with such a week-end in the hometown. Phew. I don't know if I'll be home in time tonight to make my own dinner or if I'll still have dinner here, but one thing's for sure: tomorrow morning at the latest, it's back to MY habits.

On the bright side of things, my sister gave me plenty of clothes again, so yay for the wardrobe.

And I've tried to convert my mother to WATP DVDs, but I'm not sure if this'll work in the long run.

Apart from this, I've done close to *nothing* for school, which was to be expected, but still, it'd have been nice to be rid of some of it for the rest of my week of 'holidays'. Gah. Said week will be... rough, to say the least.

Also, please wish me luck, folks? Tomorrow morning, I'm going to fill an application to get funding for 26+ people who have resumed college-level studying. I hope I can get at least a tiny grant, it'd already be some relief.

[Libby1972]

Hello Ladies:

It's chilly here as well 31 degrees! But, tis Michigan weather. Meg, I know how hard it is to maintain and we all have our pitfalls and ruts we get comfy cozy in! You'll bounce back. You're a new woman now. You will be fine. Remember how good it felt to get to the point you are now and just relish and bask and it will all fall into place.

I had a great weekend. Very productive. Been doing some organizing and decluttering of my various closets and little junky areas of my home. I feel so accomplished! Getting ready for Christmas again. I can't wait to haul out the decor! Would Nov 1st be pushing it? Naaaa!!! Hubby would object, I'm sure, but my little guy Austin would love it! We'll see. A compromise will have to be made! I have been doing well maintaining. Have been running the last 5 weeks and have managed to creep down another pound. I decided to see what 115 lbs feels like. I'm not sure if A, I will successfully get there or B, will want to stay there once I get there, if I get there, but we'll see. Plus, we, as fore mentioned, we do have the holidays coming up and that means one thing....CHRISTMAS COOKIES!!! I love them. They're my kryptonite! So a big "we'll see" there!

Hope everyone has a fab week and keeps on track!

[srmb60]

DS#2 worked the earliest this morning so coffee was made when I got up. Such luxury!

I work evenings this week so I won't be digging into the candy for the trick-or-treaters or me. Hopefully nobody thinks nurses need baskets of kisses and caramels.

Evenings are good for other things too. I can exercise in the morning before I go and visit 3FC when I get home. Which is ALL good because I'm into that zone of being not really at goal anymore. Don't like it.

[paperclippy]

Hi everyone! Well, despite my good eating last week, which had me down to 134 on Friday, I ate CRAP this weekend and am up to 136 today. I can't believe how poorly I ate (see my post on accountability for the gory details). Despite the fact that I'm trying to lose right now, I went over my maintenance calories. BOTH days! Wednesday needs to come fast to get this Halloween candy out of my house. I would have done okay about it if DH hadn't opened it up and started snacking on the Reese's Cups. If it was just me I wouldn't have unsealed the packages until Wednesday night. But once I saw him eating it, well, you know how that is. Neither of us needs to be eating this stuff right now, not with Thanksgiving coming up. There's pretty much no chance I'll be back to 130 by Thanksgiving.

Kery - good luck with the grant!
Robin - It's great that you got to visit her college this year!
Meg - I hear you on the candy...
DGAdDawg - good luck with your job hunt! How did the interview go?
LisaMarie - great job on the race!!! You are making me jealous, my best time was 37 minutes before I stopped running for my knees.

Ladies, I am so frustrated with myself right now. I've been eating poorly, not exercising enough, and when I do work out I don't seem to do a very intense one. I know if I could get back into running everything would fall into place (including my mood), but I am so afraid of making my knees get as bad as my wrists, which have been constantly aching for the past two and a half years. It's like I have the body of an 80-year-old but I'm only 25. Ugh!

In other news, I think it is time for me to find a new doctor (family practice or general or whatever). My current doc is now half retired -- only works 5-6 months out of the year -- and I didn't like her that much to begin with. Plus maybe someone new will finally get my wrists taken care of, and maybe will actually EXAMINE my knees, which none of my other docs have done (they just say "Oh, your knees hurt and you used to run? Just don't run anymore."). My last round of lab tests from my rheumatologist came back all normal again, except for the SED rate which he said is a "nonspecific marker of inflammation." Okay, I think we already know that I have inflammation, why do a test when all it's going to do is confirm that? He just says "Come back in three months unless you have any swollen joints or rashes."

I am so frustrated and it is leading me into worrying about my career again. The temptation to quit my job and get a part-time job at the local dog daycare is huge, but I can't get over the fact that I get paid so much here and don't want to lose that. Plus I do have a bachelor's and master's in computer science and I'd feel like I wasted my parents' money if I didn't use it.

Okay, enough complaining about my life. Anyone have tips to keep myself AND DH out of the Halloween candy?

[paperclippy]

Completely unrelated to my other post . . . I saw this show on VH1 the other day called "America's Most Smartest Model." It's this weird modeling competition where as part of the show they have to answer trivia questions that Ben Stein asks them. Anyway, they had this challenge on the show I was watching where the models were given a plate with Twinkies and celery on it, and asked trivia questions. If they got the answer right, they were allowed to eat the celery. If they got it wrong, they were forced to eat the Twinkies. If they got it right they were asked a second question, and if they got the second question right too, they were allowed to make one of the OTHER models eat their Twinkies. In the second round they got a plate with chocolate cake and a rice cake.

Anyway I thought it was really bizarre and kind of an interesting diet-related thing since if it was, for example, Survivor, then the Twinkies or cake would have been the reward for getting the answer right, not the other way around. One of the girls refused to eat her chocolate cake despite being disqualified from the next challenge (a chance to exercise in the background of one of Gilad's fitness DVDs) because of it.

I also learned from this show that the people exercising in the background of workout tapes are models, not actually fitness people (like trainers or something).

[Megan1982]

Good morning all,

It is getting chilly here in NoFlo. We went from hot summer to end of fall weather with a single cold front. BF and I went to a dinner for his work Friday (actually rather gross food, so watching what I ate was no problem), and a wedding reception Saturday (really delicious food and a good bar, good company, so I went a bit over calories Sat), so the weekend was mostly social for me. I did work out and clean the house a bit. Landlady's grandson still hasn't even come over to check out the oven/figure out what replacement parts he might need so we are still oven and stove-less. Grrr. I wanted to go to BF's last night and use his oven, but he had other plans, but I'm going tonight and cooking for the week!

My roommate and I figured out last year that trick-or-treaters don't come to our house anyway, so there is no need for us to buy candy. Whew.

Meg, I am very much like you in that I am all or none. Moderation is a great idea in theory, but doesn't work for me either. I know you can get back on track!

Robin, how wonderful that you were able to enjoy your daughter's campus this year when you couldn't last year. What a great marker to celebrate your life changes!

DGAdDawg, glad to hear you had a great weekend with your girlfriend. Sometimes a little girl time is just what we need to get us out of our blues.

Kery, I hear you - sometimes it is just so hard to be around family, no matter how much you love them, when they lead different lifestyles than us. You just can't force anyone to do what they don't want to do. Every year at Christmas I both look forward to and dread seeing my family. You will get back on track, I know it!

Ugh, Libby, Christmas cookies???!!! I had managed to block them from my mind until now. So evil, yet so tasty!

Susan, last time the coffeemaker broke I spent the extra $10 to get one with a timer on it, so I can set it up the night before and coffee is waiting when I'm ready for it in the AM. It is definitely worth the $10 when I'm bleary-eyed and heading to the gym at 6:00 AM!

Jessica, that show sounds both bizarre to me, but not unexpected or surprising. How sad that such unhealthy attitudes exist in our society. I am confident that you will get back on track, too. You're just coming off of a big, emotional, stressful event. Take a little bit of time to just breathe, catch up on sleep, relax, find a new doc who is more helpful about your joint problems (sounds like you really need it!), and the rest will come.

Gary, are you out there? How are you & yours faring with the fires?

Hello everyone, hope you are having a great week.

[baffled111]

Morning everyone. I just got back from my morning run with the hound and am contemplating taking a shower. I feel unready for Monday.

Speaking of reality tv, bf and I just finished watching this series on VH1 called "The Pick Up Artist". It has nothing whatever to do with food but it was bizarre and entertaining: a group of dorky guys who don't know how to talk to women were trained by a guy called "Mystery" ( ) to pick up chicks. It was very strange, quite funny and slightly tragic. The guys were SO emotional about their experience and most of them really did learn to talk to women (you know, almost as though women are real people!).

Megan, my coffee maker has a timer and I never, ever remember to set it. I should. Waiting for the coffee to brew in the morning is the worst time of the day.

Hope everyone has a nice week.

[alinnell]

My coffee brews while I run so it's ready when I return, but it's too hard to re-set the timer every day, so my alarm goes off on non-run days and I have to hit snooze at least twice otherwise I'll be sitting in the kitchen waiting for my brew! I guess I shouldn't complain about the extra horizontal time, but I usually wake up half an hour before my alarm goes off anyway. I guess I ought to get up and use that time to do some exercising. Wow, what a concept!

DD was in the golf cart parade yesterday and we all went to watch that. Lunch was at the parade--I had a Philly cheesesteak sandwich (too big, couldn't finish it) and for dinner, DH and I got take out Chinese (which I finished for breakfast this morning). I'm up half a pound, but I'm not complaining.

We have a concert tonight after dinner at our favorite southwest restaurant. The rest of the week is busy as well. I need to get my hair cut again--this time I think I'll go really short. We'll see.

My office assistant is off this week so I anticipate a busy week, but so far it's not too bad.

Everyone have a great week!

[evilwomaniamshe]

Hey everyone,
I am back on trackie today, but this wknd I fell off my healthkick plan yet again, this time it was booze that did me in! I had way too much wine, I thought I could stop at 1 or 2 glasses while out for halloween with friends. But nope, I honestly lost count after 8 glasses of wine! Can you say Wino?

Booze is so bad, I seriously don't drink very often, this is a rarity really for me. After getting a bit lit up, (sorta like a chiristmas tree) of course I ordered some fattening fare to help absorb some of the alcohol in me. Its a miracle I had no hangover by the way, so I am thankful for that!

I seriously prefer to stay home and stay on plan. But the main thing is I am back on track today and I know its all about consistency rather than perfection. But I have been consistently bad the past 2 weekends and I would much prefer to be somewhere's near perfecto on my wknds too! When will I ever learn?? ..... And so the yoyo maintenance continues for me.
arghhh....
~wendalyn

[WaterRat]

Morning all. Yes, Meg, it's colder than that here, but I won't torment you.

DH is finally feeling a little better, and my "can you get me X?" moments are less. Plus the Red Sox won! so I'm pretty up today.

We haven't had trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood for several years. However, a new family with younger (but more like 10 or 11) has moved in, so I don't know if they'll be out. DH is going to check with the people next door who are more friendly with the new people and should know if the kids will be out. But, no candy in my house yet.

My eating has been so-so, but since it's all at home, at least if I eat too much it's not junk (if that makes sense). Now I need to hit the exercise more regularly....

[EZMONEY]

HI MAINTAINERS ~

A quick one today....I am in the process of making spaghetti and meatballs...70 of them...for my nephew's birthday party tonight. We will have around 20 here, all family, for his #17.

I got home a little early from work so I was able to get 3.25 in on the treadmill, do some chores, then take the mutts out for 3 miles...nephew joined us for half then headed to the tennis courts when we turned back home.

MEGAN I am around ~ I did post in last weeks maintainers chat over the week-end. Even put some pics in mini-goals.

Well...back to party stuff, Angie has yoga after work so cooking is up to me....just want you all to know I am thining of you.

Good luck maintaining this week gals ~ Gary

[ennay]

Hi, I will once again claim to be back. Binging has kept dogging at me. I also need 3 clean days, but I am going to be realistic an say that spanning halloween isnt my best bet. What I really need is 3 days on phase 1 of southbeach but I am not mentally there. No fruit! No Squash? But I have all this lovely tangerines and acorn squash.....

I am doing ok with halloween candy so far, but that is because the bag isnt open.

I am getting so pissed off about not running (no weight bearing exercise for at least 1 more week), but pleased that I have fought boredom well and last week did the stationary bike 6 days. Nov 1 I can buy a pool pass and add swimming in, although I find it VERY hard to swim early in the morning in winter. Why it matters in an indoor pool is beyond me. Why swimming in a heated indoor pool makes me shiver and I want to go running in the chilly rain instead has got to be psychosis.

At least on Thursday during my weights session I realized that machine quad and hamstring curls were not weight bearing! DUH! Nothing else for lower body allowed. sigh

ME ME ME ME ME....

I need to go look up LisaMarie's race now, I have been slacking on reading too.