Dance- I am having Davey's mom and brother in town and I am cooking. I love cooking more than I love eating. lol. I am excited because I love her as though she is my own mom!!

How fun! Enjoy!

I have been trying to write this post for several hours now.

I have had a horrible eating day, and I have not been able to exercise for the past couple of days. The reason being that Sunday night I took my son to the emergency room and they transferred us to a children's hospital emergency room in St. Louis. He somehow got the rod from a bow and arrow, fell on it, and it went into his mouth, putting a hole in his upper hard and soft pallet. It was absolutely horrible with lots of blood, and tons of pain. Anyway, he doesn't have to have surgery so far because it's healing nicely so far. However, he may need to have surgery to close the hole if it gets any worse. Ugh. So, last night I was pooped and didn't exercise. Today I have class from 5:30-9:30, but luckily I have five days off, so I'm going to revamp my exercise and food routine.

Hubby and I found a whole thanksgiving meal full of low cal recipes which we are going to make-yeah! So, that's good.

I have found out that I am an emotional eater, and these past couple of days I have been stressed and so have eaten things i shouldn't have. So, I need to get my butt back into gear.

Anyway, back to work, talk to you soon!

alyssa - oh sweetie - what a tough thing for him and for you! I hope he's feeling better. I'm so glad you have some time off and lots of healthy eating planned. It's totally understandable to get off track when something traumatic happens but it seems like the trick is not letting off track become a pattern, if that makes sense. Hugs to your son!

I ran 3 miles today and eating is good so far although I haven't added everything up yet, I'm pretty sure I'm in the 1400 or so range. Off to soak in the tub!

dancer...Great job on the three miles and on the food! I totally wish that I could run!!!

alyssa - apologies if you've already mentioned, but why can't you run? Do you have knee problems?

Ugh! I am so frustrated. I just watched biggest loser while eating a batch of cookies. OMG I don't want to be big anymore. Not only do I not want to gain ,I want to keep losing. I have to wait until Monday because I know myself while cooking but I really don't want to quit. I seriously cried while shoving my mouth full and watching the people and their hard work. I think about Jillian yelling at me. LOL. Dance- I wish I had 10% of your dedication! =(

Happy almost turkey days ladies. Tomorrow... I start cooking!!

Staccie-have a great workout in the morning. I feel and eat so much better when I workout too.

Sandy-I am getting my butt in gear now!! We should keep each other accountable to workout on Thanksgiving.

Dance-I love love love your motivation, you are so inspiring. You are what got me off the couch today to do my workout. THANKS!!! I love you for it.

AJ-Have fun with your MIL and BIL. My inlaws are coming here, but SIL is doing half the cooking. She is making scalloped potatoes, I love them and I am going to eat them. Just not like I have the last few years. Gonna control myself this time. Ok, Monday you can do this!!!! Lets get you back on plan girl.

Alyssa-I am so sorry to hear that about your son. Hope he has a speedy recovery. What are you making for thanksgiving?

Today was a good day, foodwise and exercise. I was around 1600. Did Golds gym cardio workout tonight and drank lots of water today. So I think I can get back this. Thursday is going to be challenging. I plan on eating "the good stuff", but I am not gonna let it spill over to Fri, Sat, Sun. Thanksgiving is NOT all weekend.

burgundy - you go, girl! Sounds like you had a great workout and have a plan for enjoying a special treat for the holiday and then getting back on with life and losing! It's just a meal and only lasts for a tiny second in your mouth - it's being with the people we love care about that's the important part, right? Just keep whispering to yourself 'onederland, onederland' :) What's your workout plan for today and tomorrow? Can you get the whole family to go for a big walk in the morning after breakfast before the cooking gets started? We're going to try for a long rollerblade since the weather will be up in the 60s - I'm psyched!

aj - :hug: Oh honey, I so wish you lived around the corner - I would come over and put those cookies down the disposal (garbage is too easy - you never know if they might be re-retrieved :) ) and get you out for a walk. It's totally fine to take a *FEW* days to enjoy the time with your family and not worry too much about sticking to plan but you *****KNOW***** you'll feel better during and afterwards if you do it in moderation. NO bags of cookies!!! A cookie or a few bites of dessert after a meal is FINE - the HALF A PIE IS NOT! No matter what you're celebrating or with who! You have worked way too hard to undo your hard work in a few days. I'm definitely going to have a few of my mom's famous potato rolls, god they're so good - but fitting into size 10 jeans is way too exciting to blow it. IT"S JUST FOOD - it doesn't control us, we control it!! You are a beautiful and accomplished woman - I hate hearing when you're not feeling good about yourself in part because I know just how it feels - I wasted around 5 years feeling heavy and avoiding things like big reunions and even certain social occasions because I felt too big and yucky. Life is too short to throw away time like I did and you're so young still - I'd love to see you over all this and on your way to enjoying what will be a fantastic rest of your life. Honey, you can and will do this and we will be here cheering you on the whole way! I bet if you can fit in some moderate exercise (family walks, whatever) over the holiday, it will help you with the whole moderation thing. It's one of those self-reinforcing cycles, don't you think?

Off to jump in the shower and get ready for what I hope will be a short-ish day at work. Feeling very very lucky that my family lives just a short drive away and I don't have to deal with the airports over the holidays anymore. Safe travels to anyone who has further to go!

Hey Ladies,

Ok, competition still on! Woo Hoo! Burgund sounds good! I WILL hold you acountable and so glad your back at it!

AJ, Cookies? Am I reading right? What the he**? Come on girl, you are so close. Stop sabbotaging yourself and start loving yourself more than a a few minutes of the taste of food. The days of feeling good far out weigh that!

Well, I am going out and trying to beat the rain with a workout. I haven't worked out in days, and really want to kick in my metabolism - plus it makes me feel good ;-)

I will check in later. Oh, AJ my weight at the start was 217.

mygrits - woohoo for a workout! I'm going to post my cals again today - and post belatedly for yesterday once I get them all entered. You too? And I have a crazy idea but not sure if you'll go for it - you interested in setting a limit for Thursday? I'm going to shoot for no more than 2300. Anyone else want to join me in a thanksgiving calorie cap? I know I can eat that much and stay in maintenance mode.

Quick check in -

AJ - hang in there. Don't give up yet, just take a week or two off. BTW my weight was still 156.5! Please don't add weight to me. LOL I don't think I can handle it.

Dancer - you are an inspiration. I need to check in more but time won't allow right now.

Alyssa - sorry about your little boy. I hope he gets better.

Staccie - I agree we can both get through this week and do it.

Sorry if I missed anyone - totally swamped this week.

My younger son came home from school yesterday and I could just hug him to pieces for being good support to me. We all went out for lunch yesterday and the first words out of his mouth were "So do you want to split something". We each had a cup of soup and split a grilled tilapia sandwich. I didn't eat a single one of the yummiest fries even though they gave us double the portion and handed them out to my aunt and my mom who didn't get fries with their meal.

Unfortunately, I have not exercised the last two days because I am trying to get all my deep cleaning done so I can put my Christmas decorations up as soon as the weekend is over. And I am not done yet - so I am paying my son to deep clean the basement for me today - I assigned a dollar value to the jobs and told him if he gets them done for me I would be most appreciative. That leaves me with just the kitchen and the main floor bathrooms.

I did cave and decided to weigh in and I am actually down a half of a pound. So if I can exercise Thursday morning and stick to my eating plan then maybe I will see a budge in the scale.

I will try to check in sometime before the weekend as I need all of your support.

Everyone have a great Turkey day!

Hey girls. Just stopping by for a sec. I will read and catch up later. Got home from baltimore on sunday. Had a great time.. saw my husband for a total of 10 minutes the entire time.. but nonetheless it was a fun trip. Until I got home and realized i left my only set of car keys in baltimore! AH.. so i'm car less right now.. waiting for fedex to come deliver my keys so i can get my abandoned car.
Diet wise- I went balistic. I ate whatever. I didn't even enjoy it. I hate eating out anymore. ugh. The scale has bounced around 184-186 over the past couple days. I WILL NOT let myself gain. So.. I'm back into my routine today.

Well... I'll catch up more later.

OMG, TOM came EARLY this morning so I didnt weigh this morning like I usually do cos just looking at my hands I can see they are swollen. So I will weigh when this is over. Im not gonna let this stop me though. Dance, you asked what my workout plan is for today, I am gonna go for a walk and probably do the golds gym workout again tonight. I am repeating it ONEDERLAND ONEDERLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sandy-I dont know if I will have the time to get a walk in tomorrow, but I am gonna workout with one of my DVDs after everyone leaves. We can do this;)

Popcorn-so glad your son is helping you and keeping you accountable. I have a little more deep cleaning to do too today. Almost done, just have the other bathroom and my bedroom. Gonna make my hubby help with that today. Gotta torture the dogs(I mean vacuum) too.

Neesy-hope fedex is fast with those keys, it sucks to be carless.

Ok, gotta get up and get moving today. It gets dark so early now so I gotta get that walk in before 4. Have a great day everyone.

AJ-have fun cooking today.

burgundy -woohoo for a walk AND a workout - that sounds great!

neesy - glad you're back! What a huge bummer about the car keys!!! Hope they arrive soon!

popcorn - really nice job eating out - what a sweetie your son is. And congrats on the 1/2 pound - woohoo!