Day one of Operation Two Pounds went pretty well. I at least managed to stay on plan all day, although I was white knuckling it a bit there at the end of the day. But I think that will pass after a few more days on plan. Unfortunately my weight is way way up (5 lbs over goal this morning). We went hiking this weekend and my legs are really stiff, so I think it is just water. I KNOW I did not eat enough to gain 3 lbs over the weekend. Still...

Kaw--My hands and feet are always cold as well (this was a problem even when I was overweight). I've thought that a great invention would be a mouse and a keyboard that are also hand warmers. Seriously, why couldn't they put a little heating element in the mouse? I can sit on my non-mouse hand to keep it warm, but, in the winter, the mouse-hand is always frozen stiff.

Whittlin--My schedule varies pretty significantly from one day to the next. Usually right before I go to bed, I look at what is scheduled for the day and come up with a general plan of what and when I will eat and when I'll fit in a workout. It's important to this the night before because sometimes the only time I can fit in a workout is early in the morning, which means I have to set the alarm earlier. I always have a few easy options on hand for lunch, just in case I won't have time to make my regular lunch.

Exercising to get warm is a good idea but unfortunately I'm never actually at an office desk. I work from home, where I control the temperature. When I'm in a business setting, I'm always attending a meeting or at some sort of conference/seminar, and doing little exercise routines to keep warm would be amusing but inappropriate. As a speaker, I'd be pretty distracted if someone were doing exercises during my presentation!

Hi everyone!

Barbara - glad to hear you are hanging in there. I'm rooting for you this week!

Rswlchic (any chance you have a name or nickname that's easier to remember?) - How's the Memphis trip going? I find it very tough to eat well when I'm out of my element. Good luck! As far as biking, I have a mountain bike and road bike, and yesterday I was riding my mountain bike on the road! Ha! My road bike currently has two flat tires. I used to bike a lot (mostly on trails), and I've been trying to get back into it.

Well, I just got home, it's 7:30 pm, I have yet to eat dinner, and I have a pile of papers that must be graded tonight. So, I think at most I'll get in a few push-ups and maybe some crunches tonight. I plan to take my gym bag to work tomorrow and do something right after.

Hope everyone had a good Tuesday

I've got them too - indoors and out. Cats make pretty good foot/hand warmers (though they're kinda hard to fit into pockets or boots)

Brisk rubbing works well for me - hands and feet.

Kim I hope like heck that you are nowhere near NYC. I'm going there and have fall wardrobe planned - 80 degrees just won't do! And as for boosting your calories - a big to you!

Dagmar

Hey all,

Memphis is well. 88 degress if you can believe that. I am here taking over a new location for someone who resigned. I hate having to jump in where other people left off. Especially if they were a slacker. Now you have to explain to the staff why they have to make changes. It looks like you are the one being a stickler when in fact it should have been this way from the very beginning. I could just scream.

Barbara - I hear you regarding the exercises on the job. I work from home when I am not travelling and am on location otherwise. Occasionally I do presentations so I can imagine if I start doing jumping jacks in the middle of my talk.

Claire - How about Geans as a new nickname? Being on the road can be difficult but sometimes I am at my best when I am travelling. My day is more regimented because I am either in an office from 9-5 or at meeting which has a set agenda. Of course the meetings always have all sorts of yummy Yummies which, are hard to resist.

Well that's all for now. Still have lots of paperwork to do.

Geans

Good morning all! I think this will be a maintenance week. I find I need an extra snack (or two) in the afternoon just to get through to 7 p.m. I am staying away from the TV set in the evening although my eyes were doing strange things when I tried to read last night. Fell asleep at 9:15 or so

Geans That's easy to remember. When I was in an office (a vague distant memory) I got through meetings by strategically moving the yummies bowls a bit away from me and by always holding a pen in my hands and fiddling with it/taking all sorts of notes instead of reaching for the treats.

Barbara it sounds like Operation 2 lbs. is going to be a success. You are so organized!

SusanB Co-workers can get used to just about anything, can't they?

Dagmar (TGIW - 3 more days of **** week)

Morning!

It's warm and muggy here lately too. Raining right now. I think after the school buses clear the roads, I'll go run some out of town errands. Hopefully I can walk later.

Woo-hoo--I'm back down to 2 lbs over goal this morning! I did not gain 3 lbs over the weekend; it really was just water! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! I feel so much better!

Managed to stay on track for day two of Operation Two Pounds (and maybe I'll see some progress now that I really am back to just two pounds to lose), although there were some white knuckles again at the end of the day. We have this gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting that my SO is eating (and the worst thing is that I made it for him) and boy will I be glad when I don't have to see that in the fridge.

OMG - Barbara, you are too tough! I don't think I would do well AT ALL if I had anything with cream cheese frosting in my house. I love cream cheese frosting way too much to have it within reach. WAY TO GO on being just 2 lbs from goal! I know you are relieved about that!

Geans - sounds like a good name to me! It's easier than your sig, which I was pronouncing (in my head) 'Rascal Witch,' even though I know that's not really how it looks. I guess I was having a dyslexic moment the first time I read it, andI couldn't get that pronunciation out of my head! Sorry to hear you're having to kick butt in Memphis, but aren't we always picking up after the slackers? I wonder, on a daily basis, how some teachers (and actually administrators) at my high school keep their jobs. I've had about 4 students in the last week switch into my class because another teacher's class is so wild they can't learn. She and many others who completely lack professionalism keep right on teaching year after year... and getting paid the same as everyone else to do very little. It gets pretty frustrating, and I know we all deal with this in some form.

Dag - Nothing wrong with a maintenance week. You've been doing great, so you can take a break.

Susan, I'm going to take a cue from you and go on a walk. I didn't work out yesterday, and I just polished off way to much cheese and tortilla chips, so I need to get in a good walk.

Have a good evening, girls!

A couple of years ago, my DD had a Spanish teacher who would greet the class, take attendance, hand out a worksheet and then proceed to the back of the class to play video games all period long. DD was so perturbed with the lack of teaching (and she WANTED to learn Spanish) that she went to the vice-principal who "dropped in" one day the following week. It really flustered the teacher (and DD was proud that she was the cause of it). The teacher must have had a number of complaints because he was gone at the end of the year. DD ended up taking Spanish 2 the following year, but had to really cram in 2 years of learning into 1 year because she didn't learn anything in Spanish 1 that year.

Arghh!!! Hearing that absolutely infuriates me, Allison! For the most part, we have a strong and dedicated faculty, but we have a handful who are exactly like your DD's Spanish teacher. The students rat them out CONSTANTLY, which verifies to me that all students like to learn, even the so-called delinquent types. After a certain point in the year, when the honeymoon period wears off in these slacker classes, students actually come into class complaining "Ugh, we're watching a movie AGAIN in Ms. B's class!" Even the non-studious students eventually get very perturbed at this type of "teaching." I think they realize that they are being ripped off. The killer for me is that I am in a large school (2,000 students), and our administrators appear to be oblivious to much of this. I say "appear to be" because it seems that they just don't want the hassle of doing anything about it, so they chose to not notice it. It's shameful, really. The good teachers are also 'punished' because we get the students who demand to drop those classes, we get the difficult students because guidance knows we can handle them, etc. etc. The effective teachers are punished and the incompetent ones are rewarded. I'll give one more quick example and then quit *****ing about it. Two years ago we had one of our extremely incompetent teachers really screw up her administration of our state test. These tests are a pain, of course, and require that we all spend time 'training' and giving the tests. She screwed up to the point where our principal told our dept head that she would no longer be giving these tests. So now, during the week of testing, CRAZY TEACHER gets about 3 full days off - planning days, if you will, although we know she's not planning, she's shopping on the internet -- while the rest of us trudge through these tests. So she gets a little vacation as a reward for her incompetence and still brings home the same paycheck I do every month.

Ok. That's the end of my rant. I know all of you have similar workplace stories, so I'll get off my soap box and get going on my walk.

I had to make an instant, gut-wrenching decision today in response to a client's question. It means I will probably lose two labs who I've doted on since they were tiny. And with DH being unemployed soon with no EI it's even more disturbing.

I made the right decision but I was bleeding inside the rest of the day. And even though my brain worked it all out tidily my emotions are still raw now. I argued with myself in the car all the way to the first of my two cat visits and then caved - grocery store and a package of cookies.

While I entertained the cat I ate one row of cookies plus some cashews plus half a box of crackers. Didn't do a damn thing for the pain in my heart and now I felt nauseated as well.

So I drove to the second cat sit and ate the rest of the cookies plus a couple of butter tarts my client had left for me. I felt seriously sick by this time but the emotional pain was still there.

I used to drink to dull the pain but that got so messy that I had to stop. Now I don't want to eat but I don't know what else to do. I'm not a crier or a screamer so there is no release.

I'm so glad this day is over. The two dogs I'm going to lose are going to a show for the rest of the week so I don't have to look at their dear faces until Monday. And I was so looking forward to my holiday in NYC. Now it will be touched with sadness as well. DAMN !!!

Dagmar

Hi everyone! Been a busy day and I still have some work to finish before bedtime, so I'm just checking in. Did a back workout this morning and stayed reasonably well on plan considering lunch was provided at the office. Another day in the books.

Dagmar:

Kim

Wow, Dagmar. I'm so sorry you are going through this. Was it your choice to give up the dogs. Any possibility of a reconsideration? Whatever happens, hang in there, try to take care of yourself in positive ways. Maybe you need to take up kickboxing or something aggressive that will help you cope with stress. You do yoga too, right? I hope that's helping. Hang in there!! And don't worry about today's foods... you just can't beat yourself up now. Tomorrow is a new day.

Well I guess this is kevetch about your job day. So here I go. The you know what hit the fan today. As I mentioned yesterday I have been taking over these new locations from a slacker who left the company. My team leader , study manager and line manager have recently learned of the desparity in her work since she left. We have been trying to figure out what to do because it is possible that we may not be able to use the data she collected unless it is all re-reviewed. Here's the rub... nobody has officially told any of these locations. I have been doing quiet re-review as instructed. Well the Memphis location had a lot of issues that were never caught by the previous person and they are very upset that they have been sited for all these errors. Now let's keep in mind that we are supposed to review their documents for accuracy but they are ultimately responsible for their work. For instance, if I tell them to do something unethical they should report me. So I am pointing out the errors as I am supposed to do and they keep telling me that no one told them and that they have been doing this for years and the last girl which, they really liked, didn't say anything. I got so sick of their excuses that I flat out told them they are fully responsible no matter how good or bad their previous monitor was. She even goes as far as saying that she noted some descrepancies but didn't want to say anything because the girl was her friend. I tell her "that may have been a little of the problem because while our job is not to make you miserable we aren't meant to be your best friend either. If you keep the professionalism then you will be able to speak your mind freely when you notice a problem".

Here's the red in the face part. What does she do? She called the study manager to complain about me. Can you believe it? She let's this other girl slack off for 8 years knowing that she wasn't doing her job efficiently and I come in for 1 freaking day and she decides to get a back bone and calls the study manager. She told him how unprofessional I am and that she did not appreciate my approach and how I spoke to her. So what does he do in response? Does he pick up the phone and call me in light of the situation? Does he apologize for the misery but tell her it's necessary that we collect accurate data? Does he tell her that he will look into things and get back to her? No..... he tells her to contact my manager and the company I am contracting with. She in turn feels vindicated and believes it is her duty to tell me how I have offended her in every way. This of course was done after she proceeds to ignore me the entire visit and not respond to my requests. At this point I am trying to figure out who is the bigger ***. The study manager or her.

I am so angry I could choke somebody. Now I find out that everyone has been having meetings all day about the problem but nobody bothers to pick up the phone and find out my side. Now I know why 4 people have quit this project in the four months since I came on board.

Dagmar and chic-- Sorry you both are going through such a tough time right now.