IIRC=If I Recall Correctly. I got a code today and refreshed my memory. You sign up for etools, and as long as you weigh in at least once every two months, it's free for lifetime members. If you skip two months, they charge you $14.95 the next month and continue to charge you until you either cancel the subscription to etools or weigh in again and get a new code for two free months of etools. They set it up this way so that it doesn't matter whether you weigh in like clockwork or go the first week in February and then not again until the last week in March -- as long as you weigh in and get a code at least once during every calendar month, you'll keep your free etools. They give you a card with a scratch-off to reveal a unique 18-digit number; the instructions on the card are clear and it took me about thirty seconds today to scratch it off, get to the correct URL, log in, enter the code, and get my free etools refreshed.

I'll bet your balance is improving, though!

Yes, that's the goal. Five weeks or so -- still doable.

Yay, you for staying on plan even when you have to eat on the run!

Report: bad night, up at 2 and didn't weigh. No exercise today probably -- I'd like to get on the treadmill, but it's not likely given how busy today is. Ate slowly and mindfully and sitting down, though. Definitely will try to remember to weigh tomorrow even if I'm up early.

Never heard that one before. I'm guessing that's text language!

I should have realized they'd have it set up so that not everyone who knows someone who knows someone who knows a member can get access! is $14.95 what they charge for a meeting these days? It's been many years since I attended a WW meeting.

Yep, in leaps and bounds! Well, maybe not leaps and bounds quite yet.....but you know what I mean.

Definitely doable, and a good incentive.

Sorry to hear you had a bad night. You really have a tough time with insomnia, and the kind that wakes you up in the middle of the night is often harder to deal with than the kind that prevents you from falling asleep in the first place. Hopefully tonight will be better.

I'm really excited. I was watching Biggest Loser tonight, and a commercial came on for the new Biggest Loser Fitness Resort in western NY--within driving distance of here! I've wanted to go to one of their spas ever since i started watching the show, but the first one is in Utah and the second one is in California, both in places that would be wickedly hot in the summer when I can travel, and both obviously involving a big travel expense. I definitely want to try to get to the NY one this summer. I tried to get to their website but I keep getting a message saying that too many people are trying at once and to try again later. I guess everyone reacted to the commercial the same way I did!

my report: my weight was up .6 this morning. Stayed OP. Had a really good training session. Ate everything slowly and mindfully. Saved a bite for Callie. Contacted my diet buddy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Started as email language, but, yes, it's now used for text too.

I don't think it's that much -- it might be around $29 per month?

I went and looked -- it sounds like fun! Expensive, but since it's basically all-inclusive, maybe not that much more expensive than many vacations.

Report: weighed (1.4 under goal), did the wicked Wednesday class that always leaves me gasping for breath, ate a very reasonable breakfast but went out to lunch with the hubs, so a little more than normal there but not too bad. Feel like I need a nap, though.

Hope you had a great day!

I know it's really expensive, ridiculously so. But I still really want to do it. I went to the website tonight and read it thoroughly. The only hesitation I have is that is sounds like they expect you to eat what they put in front of you, which could be a huge problem for me, given my picky eating. When I looked at the sample menus, I saw lots of stuff I wouldn't eat.

YAY for being well under goal, a good exercise class, and a special lunch out. A nap is never a bad thing, either!

My weight was unchanged this morning but will be up tomorrow. I have not had a good evening, eating-wise. I just wolfed down 4 or 5 extra NS desserts after talking on the phone to my match. I seem once again to be at that point of absolute ambivalence, caught in the exquisite agony of an approach-avoidance conflict. (I'm going to visit him in his hometown on Sat.) It was a good day up to that point, though. Oh, well, move on.

Hope your day was great!

I bet they can adjust for you.

So you haven't taken your desserts out of the house yet? What do you think you'd do if you got off the phone and felt that way and didn't have a supply of NS desserts?

report: weighed (1.4 under goal), ate slowly, mindfully, reasonably, left a bite. Went to class yesterday, didn't exercise today. Probably going out to dinner with my daughter, as John went out with a friend. Not a bad day!

Hope you have a good one tomorrow, and feel less anxiety over going to your matche's hometown!

I'm going to call and find out! It wouldn't be a deal breaker either way, but I want to know before I get there. I also want to know if I would be allowed to bring in NS food to supplement theirs if I have a problem with their food.

I took care of them today (trash day) by throwing out the few I had left. I feel better having them gone. I don't know what I would/will do next time I feel that way, but at least I know what I WON'T be doing.

Glad you had a good day. How did your dinner with Jane go tonight?

I've been meaning to ask you how your tooth is doing. I was reminded of it today when I had an emergency dental appointment. I've had a mild toothache that has been gradually building for several weeks. The tooth has felt a little weird ever since I had the lumpectomy back in Oct., and now the gum tissue is sore as well. My dentist thinks the root may have gotten cracked when I had anesthesia. I am going back to the endodontist who previously worked on the tooth, next Friday. This is the same tooth on which I had a root canal by drilling through the existing crown and then had to get a new crown afterward anyway. I have also had two gum surgeries on this tooth. Thousands of dollars have already been poured into it and now there is a good chance I am going to lose the tooth anyway. It is also the only lower molar I have left on that side, so I would probably need to get an implant to replace it--in other words, lots more pain and expense. Sigh....

There is definitely some anxiety there, but mostly the feeling is one of conflict. Obviously I have issues about relationships, which I know are right at the core of why I have been fat so much of my life in the first place, and I know that I need to resolve them. I am watching Nightline on TV as I write this, and just now there was a segment on a woman who has lost a lot of weight and has been rewarding herself for each 5 pounds she loses by buying a night with a gigolo!! Maybe she has the right idea!! After all, I already have enough charms for my bracelet!

my report: weight was up 1.2 this morning (ACK, but no surprise), had a good OP day, ate everything sitting down and mindfully, took a walk, contacted my diet buddy. I have a training session in the morning, so I need to get to bed now.

Hope you had a great day!

So you're going to try going without them at all for now?



We ended up ordering in, but I made good choices, so I'm happy!

Had the permanent crown permanently affixed yesterday -- so far, so good! Sigh, indeed. Arg. Fingers crossed that it's not the worst case scenario!



LOLOL! OMG, that is too funny.

Not a bad day, considering.

report: weighed (holding steady at 1.4 under goal), went to class this morning, took the car to the shop and walked ~1.2 miles to get some breakfast while they were working on it, ate slowly and mindfully but forgot to leave a bite.

Have a good day tomorrow with your match!

YES. They seem to be nothing but trouble for me lately.



Good job!
And hopefully that will continue! There's nothing like a nagging toothache to put a damper on your day. I'm glad you'll be rid of it.

I'm crossing my fingers AND my toes, and any other appendage that is remotely crossable!!



I thought so, too! She was completely unabashed about it. She said that her doctor told her, "Whatever you're doing, it's working, so keep doing it." That was pretty comical, too!

It was a good day, and today was even better. My weight was down .6. I had probably my best (but also most exhausting) training session ever. I burned just under 300 calories according to my Exerspy, a record by far. I did several things I've never done before, like running up and down stairs with a 20 pound weight in each hand. But the best thing was that I finally was able to do lunges (albeit a tad shaky) without holding on to anything, and with weights in my hands (I think they were 10 pounds each). That tickled me! Anyway, I stayed OP all day, consumed about 1400 calories and burned over 2100, which I think is the most I've ever burned in one day! Ate everything slowly and mindfully and sitting down. Definitely a good day.

Sounds like you had a good day, too, and I bet you'll be rewarded with a loss tomorrow.

I'm excited about it. He called me today to ask how I would feel about hiking a trail that is probably wet and somewhat muddy, and I said that sounded great, and meant it! It's supposed to be in the 50's in his area tomorrow. He warned me at least 3 or 4 times about the dangerous roads with hairpin turns, so I'm intrigued to see what the area looks like.

Hi, Val! Hope you are OK! I just got home from WV and once again am in deflated balloon mode. This time my fatigue is a combination of barely getting any sleep last night, 6 hours spent driving through the mountains, and 2 strenuous hours hiking in rough terrain, in addition to the emotional tiredness. My day was wonderful, though, on numerous levels. When we got up to the top of the mountain and could see 50 miles in all directions, I just had this moment of deep gratitude for all that life has brought me lately and for all of the things I can now do that would have been either physically or emotionally impossible for me to do not very long ago.

My weight was unchanged this morning (surprised me; I was definitely expecting a loss). I ate about 850 calories today other than at lunch; I have no idea how to count lunch (half an egg roll, maybe a quarter of a cup of rice, some pepper steak, and a fortune cookie), but I would think I would have to be in a calorie deficit considering the hiking. Ate very slowly and mindfully, taking care to be cognizant of every bite during lunch and to stop when mildly full.

OK, I'm off to bed before I collapse. Tomorrow I am singing as part of a trio in church, so I need to be functional!

Hope you had a good day and that all is well.

Kind of a love-hate relationship?

Impressive! You are going to be entering fitness contests soon! Definitely a good day!

How likely would that have been three years ago? Sorry! Had an odd day timingwise and lost track of the fact that it wasn't still the day before which meant I'd already checked in! Wow! I can only imagine. I hope you had a camera with you! That photo would be one for your memory box! It sounds like a fantastic day, even with six hours of driving. Where in WV were you hiking? I love that area. I've always wished I lived closer to an area of natural beauty. Cincinnati is just about as far from recreational areas as it's possible to be. It's a three hour drive just to get into the foothills of the Appalachians.

With that heavy workout and then a long hike, you may be retaining water in your muscles. AND CHINESE FOOD? You go, girl! Yeah, that's hard to count -- some egg rolls are huge, others are tiny, and then you can't know how much oil is in the pepper steak I would assume so, too. You moved like crazy. Which is fantastic, given that I'm sure you had plenty to distract you! And it sounds like even though you're emotionally exhausted, it feels like a good sort of emotional exhaustion. Maybe a little like the tiredness/soreness you feel after working out is a good sort of tiredness?

Sorry for not checking in! report: weighed both days, stayed the same (1.4 under goal) and I'm fine with this weight, even if I ended up staying here long term, but I still want to pull off a few pounds before going on vacation so I don't risk coming back over goal. Ate reasonably even though I was at a charity fundraiser party where one of the fundraising ploys was getting people to buy things to consume -- jell-o shots, raw oysters -- and the other was voting on the best chili, which meant everyone needed to take a taste of all eight. I had one jell-o shot, one oyster, and the smallest possible tastes of all the chilis, didn't add any cheese or sour cream or crackers to any of my tastes, skipped all the desserts and only had one appetizer -- a woman in our group makes her own smoked salmon, and she'd brought some, so I had to have that -- and one glass of wine. I felt pretty good, considering. Didn't get any exercise. Spent the day making bread for the party, making chili, and going through old photos to pack some up to send to a place that turns them all into jpegs and posts them in an online storage account.

Hope things go well with the singing!

TOTALLY.

LOL!! Yeah, I can win the Most Improved Klutz Award!!

The BEST, on many levels!

A loooooooong shot, to say the least!

No problem. I often feel like I've done things, or told people things, because I did them or said them in my head!

Nope, no camera, but I should definitely write a memory card. I was in a tiny town of 2000 people, maybe 40 miles or so southeast of Parkersburg. It was truly breathtaking. I've never thought of myself as someone who could really explore or fully enjoy an area like that, but I can definitely imagine it now.

Hmmm, I hadn't thought of that, but I bet you are right.

The egg roll was tiny but very crispy-fried. And I have no idea how much oil would have been in the pepper steak, but I didn't eat a whole lot of it--maybe a third of the container at most.

I did! And I wasn't even particularly winded!

Oh, yeah, plenty of distraction for sure.

Yes, it was definitely a good tiredness, both the physical and the emotional components of it. I slept really well last night.

Good for you for being comfortable with your weight. I think that's half the battle. And it sounds like you did a great job of controlling what you ate and drank at the fundraiser, under some pretty challenging conditions. When you are in a situation like that, especially when there is no way to know exactly how many calories are involved, what is your strategy for deciding what to eat?

The singing went great! It was a very good day. Weight was down .2, stayed OP all day, ate everything sitting down and slowly and mindfully, and took a walk. Hope you had a good one, too!

That is the coolest thing ever -- feeling new possibilities open up to you!

Very crispy can actually be better -- it can mean it was fried at very high temps, which means you don't get grease soaking in. Sauces are tricky at Chinese places, though. In most cooking styles, a clear sauce is a lower-calorie sauce. In Chinese cooking, a clear sauce can be high in fat or sugar.

Yay for you!

Really it's just to limit portion sizes and avoid the really worst things unless there's some compelling reason (generally that it's something I don't often get) to try something, and then again to limit the portion.

Yay, you!

Report: up latish for class this morning so didn't weigh, but I feel kind of heavy and blah -- going to have a very low day today. It's a good day to as I don't have any eating events planned except for lunch with my friend Sue. Jane's off school, and she wants to babysit Sue's 3-yo and 1-yo grandkids, whom Sue watches most days for her son and daughter-in-law while they work. She told Sue she'd take them for a couple hours if Sue wanted to run an errand, so I'm taking Sue out to get lunch. (She's blind and doesn't drive.) But Sue is a very healthy eater, very calorie-conscious, so we'll likely go somewhere we can get a salad. Walked to class this morning even though it was coooooold, so got both planned and spontaneous exercise. I'd like to get on the treadmill too, as I'd like to start getting on daily even if only for fifteen minutes. I left my sneakers on when I got home from class, am planning on not taking them off until I get on the treadmill. That'll give me incentive because I really hate wearing shoes and never wear them unless I have to.

Hope you had a great day! Were you off today?

Update: got on the treadmill for not quite 20 minutes, yay me! Did some one-minute intervals of running and walking, which is a new one for me. Even one minute of a very slow run (4.5 mph) started to make my calves ache and twitch, and they couldn't do more than three running intervals in a row without slowing to a fast walk for the "work" intervals, which tells me how out of shape they are. But my knees seem to have held up, so yay for that!

Val

It really is. I hardly have the words to express the sense of gratitude I often feel lately. I feel like a little kid in a lot of ways--a happy kid ready to play and explore!

Hmmm, that's interesting (and good to know) about the super-crispy egg rolls. I would have anticipated the opposite. I do know that the sauces on Chinese food can be really fattening, though. And they also have MSG, right?



That's simple but effective--and capitalizes on the sensory-specific satiety effect.



Wow, it must be challenging to take care of two toddlers without being able to see. Hope you two had a good lunch! I would love to go out to eat with someone who watches what they eat. Most of my friends seem to gravitate toward the most caloric thing on the menu!

WOW, YAY YOU on all fronts! I applaud your intent to get on the treadmill for 15 minutes daily, just to establish the habit. My trainer recently asked me to get on my treadmill for 20 minutes each day, but I admit I haven't done it yet. My reasons are that I can't stand the thought of getting up any earlier, having to change my clothes an extra time, and using the treadmill when it's so cold in my garage. But those are all just excuses--and not even very good ones!

Nope, it was a normal work day, but it was a good one. I got my student evaluations back from last semester, and they were wonderful. In addition to all the appropriate and relevant comments about my teaching style, there were several comments about my looks--mostly about how nicely dressed I always am and how professional I look. But then there was one saying that I have "the best legs on campus." The feminist in me knows enough to feel guilty that I'm not offended and outraged by comments like that. But the 57-year-old former fatty is pretty tickled!

My weight was down .8 this morning (finally!). Stayed OP all day (much easier without those darn desserts around!). Ate everything sitting down, slowly and mindfully. Got no exercise other than intentionally parking in a spot far from my destination at the mall.

Whenever I do get on the treadmill in between training sessions (less often than I should), I do the one-minute intervals, so I know what you mean. It's very tiring. But the fact that your knees can take the strain is a great thing! Have you been back to your orthopedist lately to see how your knees are doing? And BTW, if it's your calves that are tired, there's a machine at my gym that has strengthened my calves to an amazing degree. Maybe your gym has one, too. You sit with a weight clamped down on your lower thighs, put your toes on a little ledge, and then repeatedly flex your calf muscles to lift up the weights repeatedly.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. In addition to my classes and a personal training session, I am going out to dinner with a colleague from school, and then we are going to a play at the campus' PAC. We're going to Applebee's to check out their new low-calorie entrees that I keep seeing advertised on TV.

Hope you had a great day!

Generally. MSG makes food taste good. As long as I don't get it often, I don't worry too much about it, but some folks are sensitive to it.

She manages. She's "only" legally blind -- can see to get around as long as the light is right (dim light is best for her), can even read large print with a very strong magnification lens she puts on the page and puts her eye right up to it.



They aren't =bad= excuses, but they do seem to be ones you could overcome. Maybe only do it on days you don't have a blindingly early class, put a space heater in the garage and turn it on as soon as you get up so it'll be warmer by the time you're dressed and ready to walk, start with committing to -five- minutes on the treadmill?

Hey, it's only offensive if it's not welcome. There's no need for feminist shame for enjoying a man's appreciative attention. Gloria Steinem seems to manage looking hot AND being taken seriously.

Hey, that's something.

I haven't. I'm actually thinking of changing docs -- this one has gotten so big and famous that the word is he doesn't do his own surgeries any more. His fellows do them. I want to know who is going to be cutting into me and that I'm not part of anyone's training process. I don't have a gym, other than the little studio, and it doesn't have ANY machines. Everything we do is free weights or using our own body as the weight. But I used to do something similar to that machine -- every day I'd do thirty times up and down on my toes slowly. No extra weights, but I could just build to doing it with weights in my hands, or even pressing myself downward by clamping my hands under the kitchen counter to put more 'weight' on the calf muscles.

What's a PAC?

report: didn't weigh at home, but did weigh at WW meeting, .2 over goal with clothes on and after drinking a ton of coffee and having breakfast, so I count that as under goal. No exercise yet, and I haven't put on my exercise clothes to get on the treadmill -- usually when I'm trying to build the habit, I put on my exercise clothes and shoes first thing in the morning and don't let myself take them off until I've worked out, but this morning I had to be at an appointment at 9:30 and a second one at 11, so I had no time. May go put my exercise clothes on after this, though, as I don't have any more appts today.

Hope you had a great day!

MSG causes water retention, right?

"Only" legally blind still sounds like a pretty major handicap.



That all sounds very reasonable and doable. But I'm not ready to commit to it right at the moment. The motivation just isn't there.
I guess what I'm saying is that I know it is SUPPOSED to be unwelcome!! But I just can't help myself!


Hmmm, that's definitely the downside of having a doctor who's "too" good! I definitely agree with you, though.

I knew you go to a small place but didn't know it has no machines. But there are always ways to accomplish the same goals without all the fancy equipment. In fact, in many cases, I think all of that equipment is just a money-making racket!

Performing Arts Center. The play was great--really intense and draining, but incredibly well done. There were only four actors in the whole thing, with one of them being involved in virtually every single scene. I can't imagine what an undertaking it would be to memorize that many lines.

I think you are definitely safe in saying you are well under goal! Were you successful in getting on the treadmill?

My weight was unchanged this morning. Had a good personal training session. Had a new dijon chicken entree at Applebee's, which is supposed to be less than 550 calories. Otherwise OP. It's been a long and busy day, and I am very tired.

Hope you had a great day!