Welcome Tamsie!!! Don't feel like you're butting in!! It's good to have a new member to talk to.

Second day on plan without wine and no wine in the house to tempt me. I did my power walk last night after a dinner of tomato and lentil soup (yummy) and ran 2 miles this morning. No change in weight, but I'm sure a few more days on plan and I'll be seeing a change. Frankly, my fat jeans are starting to be snug and the jeans I bought 15 pounds ago look disgusting on me (thank goodness for spandex otherwise I wouldn't even be able to get them on!).

Everyone have a great day.
Barbara--have fun in LA.
Bikinidreader--step away from the bread! (I know it's one of my downfalls, too).
Dagmar--whats the menu today?

Welcome Tam

Well let me just say that todays lunch was bad, bad, bad . So I will just pick my self up, dust myself off and move on.

Hope everyone else is having a good day!

Whew! I made it through the day and managed to stay on plan. These extra long days are always tough. I'm curious to know what you all do if you have a day where you are awake more hours than usual. Normally I wake up at 9 and go to bed around midnight, give or take an hour. Today I woke up at 5 and my bedtime is still the same. So that adds an extra 4 hours to my day. Since I eat every three hours, this is a problem. I ate breakfast at around 6:30, three hours earlier than I normally eat it, so three hours later I was hungry again. That adds an extra snack between breakfast and lunch that I wouldn't normally eat. Luckily today I couldn't eat lunch until 3, so it all evened out.

But I'm wondering what you all do in this situation. Do you:

1. Eat small snacks to enable the extra snack.
2. Add a couple hundred extra calories to your day.
3. Just suck it up and be hungry for a while.

Since I was awake for longer, and presumably I burn more calories while awake than sleeping, I'm wondering if makes sense to add some calories to the day.

Tamsie: Welcome! I didn't know water weight makes your stomach bloat. That's very interesting (and explains a lot about why my own stomach has been so poochy lately).

Dagmar: Old romano cheese in a shaker can! Ew! Just throw that stuff out. Of course, I say this while I have two-year old pie dough in the freezer that I keep thinking I'm going to do something with--despite the ridiculous number of calories in it (it's so old, it's from before I started this diet).

alinnell: LA was pretty smoggy. I hope it's not like that where you are. Luckily, I was barely there long enough to notice it. I flew in, drove to my meeting, presented, drove back to the airport, and flew home.

Welcome Tamsie! Yes (Barb), water weight makes my tummy pooch big time. Not a good feeling!

Abby don't worry about bad day... you'll have a good one today!

Allison- Yea! No wine! You're on a roll. Maybe you could just not buy any next time at the store and keep your roll going.

hey to everyone else and have a great and HEALTHY friday.

I am dreading weighing because my week has been tough... busy, spotty eating, not counting calories like i need to.

Next week will be better.... working out can't get here soon enough!

OMG!!!!

I was dreading weighing, so I had not weighed yet when I posted, but I just jumped on...146.3!!!!!!!!!

Claire~WTG!!! Now keep it up. And yes, I have NO plans to buy more wine until my birthday in March.

Barbara~no, we're not smoggy. Thankfully the mountains kind of contain that mess from getting to us (in the same way that they prevent us from getting as much rain--thus the desert here). And I think I'd just throw out the pie dough!! LOL

I've finally gotten back into the 140's. My "red light" weight was 145 at one time and it's embarrassing to say that I went over 150. Tuesday I was at an all time high of 153, but it was temporary (just one day) due to the (again) embarrassingly huge amount of pizza I consumed on Monday. I finally feel like I'm back in the game!

Have a great day everyone!

Allison - WTG back in the 140's!!!

I am hoping to join you there very soon, I've been following SB phase 1 since Monday, and I believe it starting to make a difference.

Just need to stick with a plan and I will succeed.

Lily - I wanted to ask - do you ever have that slightly yucky feeling on Ph1 of SB? A bit achy here and there etc.
I find doing strenuous cardio makes me feel a little low in the blood sugar dept....without my carbs.

Really looking forward to my oatmeal + fruit on the 21st!

Hello to everyone else - I have trouble keeping up, but keep up the good work.

-S

Thanks for the welcome Ladies

Barb - I have over 10 ovarian cysts right now, so they're causing me lots of trouble and my belly just bloats right up! Looks like I'm pg. Oh, and for an extra long day, I'd do whichever I felt like I needed. Some days I'd keep the cals the same, some I'd probably eat more, because yes, since you aren't sleeping you are using more cals.

Claire - nice job on the weigh-in! Ya know, the time off from working out could be good for ya

Allison - Great job getting back into the 140's!

Abby - hope your day was better today

Have a great weekend everybody. I'm throwing a 40th birthday party for my husband tomorrow night, so I doubt I'll have much online time this weekend.

Ladies! May I suggest getting a new scale!!!! I was worried about using my new scale and having it show me up in weight and it had me DOWN 3 lbs.!!!! Now, I know I didn't lose 3 lbs. but it was fun! I had just never thought of a new scale showing me down, not sure why!

Abbyin-thanks to you I was able to answer a football question correctly today! I had stupidly thrown on a Chargers sweatshirt when I went out this morning and someone tried to engage me in football talk and I said I really don't know anything about football and he said well, do you even know who the Chargers are playing on Sunday and I DID!!!! I never would have known if it weren't for you!!!

Barb-I frequently am up longer than I want to be due to my crazy work schedule. I will wake up at 6 am on my monday then go to work at 8 pm without ever having gone to sleep (and then I work until 6 am!) I try not to do that more than once a month without getting a nap in there somewhere but I'm not always successful. I just try to pick lower calorie foods, higher fiber, more protien, lots of fruits & veggies, the usual. I just have to space it out as well as I can. Of course those are usually my highest calorie days but I try not to overdo it and I always try to get more exercise in (and being up that long leaves plenty of time for exercise!).

Ok, I've actually gotten my exercise in today, Curves and 30 mins. on the elliptical. Speaking of crazy schedules I start back on nights tonight so I am NOT going to have one of those marathon days. I'm going to take a nap from about 6-10 pm. Hope everyone has a great day. Jane

I'm so disappointed. DH and I go out to lunch on Fridays and today we were going to go to Panera. I've always wanted to go to a Panera--and one opened here a few weeks ago. Well. It appeared that everybody and their brother decided to go for lunch there today. No seats at all and the line to order was more than 20 deep. We walked in....walked out...and went to Chipotle instead. What a disappointment. Chipotle, while not bad, is not that great, either. Chicken tacos just don't do it when you have your heart set on clam chowder. We'll try tomorrow for lunch after DS's ortho appointment (but they don't do clam chowder on Saturdays. :-(

Everyone seems to be doing really well! It's encouraging. Sadly I haven't done terrifically well. Sugar has been calling my name. I had to make some cookies for a dinner tonight. I only made a quarter recipe so I wouldnt eat them and yet I still found 4 to sneak in! Not good. Otherwise, I've been sticking to my exercise plan. I just have one spin class, 1 walk, and one time up the dreaded stairs to my 8th floor apartment left to reach my 2 weeks of following plan!! A new workout item! I'm excited. If I do yoga again next week, I get new runners! I'm going to be poor by the time this is over .. ahah.

I went to the movies last night and couldnt resist getting candy. I really thought about it but couldnt. And then I got home and ate some more sweet treats. Shows me that I shouldnt even pretend to be able to eat anything sweet and not keep going! For now anyway.

I'm weighing myself for the first time in 2 weeks on Sunday. I'm a bit scared that it wont be different from when I weighed myself the first time. Hopefully between the scale and measurements I will have some positive change. Positive thoughts!!

Allison, I'm considering drinking tomorrow night when I go out with my sister.. I keep thinking of your 'no wine' and trying to use that as inspiration! I'll let you know what happens.

have a nice friday everyone!

Hi everyone,

Barbara - I would probably eat the extra snack, thus adding in another 1-200 calories, but it would save me from possibly overeating, which I do if I get terribly hungry.

Tamsie - I sympathize with the cysts/bloating problem. My surgery last week was to remove a polyp in my uterus... it was only discovered because I'd been having heavy periods, which lead to an ultrasound, which found a cyst. When they rechecked to see if cyst had grown, I had a more thorough ultrasound, which revealed a large endometrial polyp. All of this caused lots of bloating and cramping. 10 cysts must be just miserable! I feel for you. On a more positive note, I hope your husband's party is fun this weekend.

Allison - I'm so sorry you didn't get your anticipated Panera meal, but I am JEALOUS that you have Chipotle! I've eaten there a few times, but the closest one is about an hour away. I, personally, LOVE the burrito bowl... it's so fresh, yummy, and filling.

Jane - WTG on the 3 lbs... who cares if it's just a difference in scales?! :-) And good job getting in a Friday workout!

Bikini - good luck with your weigh in this Sunday. I am a Friday weigher because it frees up my calories a bit on the weekend, and then I can tighten up during the week. But I have a lot of friends who weigh on Sunday or Monday.

Time to watch DVD (Knocked Up) with DH.

Knocked Up is fantastic - enjoy it Claire!

I'm a Monday weigher. I know weekends tend to be binging times, but my Sundays are usually my healthiest days of the week (tons of time to exercise, and I usually tend to eat lightest on Sundays too). Plus, it makes me a little more reluctant to pig out on Friday and Saturday night if I know I have to weigh in on Monday!

Today I was really proud of myself. Had a business lunch, and I avoided the bread basket (honestly, that's my biggest nemesis when I go out to eat), skipped an appetizer, skipped a dessert, AND drank water. Of course, for my actual meal I had a Beef Wellington, which isn't exactly the pinnacle of health, but I think the rest made up for it I had eaten a very light breakfast in preparation, and now a salad for dinner. Only one beer at happy hour, so I still even have a few calories left to go drinking tonight! Big turning point for me not to turn a business meal day into a major off-plan event.

Keep up the good work everyone!

Glad to hear everyone's doing so well!

I finally figured out what was bothering me so much about this situation with my father that I was going Off Plan several nights in a row.

He and I have never, ever gotten along or had what would be termed a "normal" parent/child relationship. A few years ago I finally had hope that we would. Now that has all gone down the toilet and we are back to the same old threats, verbal abuse, bullying etc. that I've always had from him. I can't cut off contact with him either as I have no chance to have any kind of retirement (I'm almost 51 now) if I don't inherit his house.

That sounds cold and hard but that's been the relationship he has chosen for us all of these years. Master/servant with the servant (me) getting the reward after the master dies.

Last night I kind of tested my DH's resolve to stay OP. I suggested we get snacks (candy and ice cream) and he was out the door so fast I coudn't believe it. Came back with said snacks and a bottle of wine.

He and I also had plans for today and now he's bailing to go drinking with his buddy. It seems whenever I need support he bails.

I just wish I had made myself independent earlier in life by getting a well-paid professional job and not having to depend on any man for anything.

I am where I am. I can change myself so I will. I'm back OP today, despite DH (that's dumb, dense, d*ckhead husband) bailing today. Lots of water, fruit and salad today and I will treat myself to a "girlie" movie I want to see this evening and throw out the rest of our evil snacks after DH leaves for his buddy's place.

Have a great day everyone!

Dagmar

I'm with you Dagmar! I am also working on not using food to deal with my relationship with my mother. Two nights ago my grandmother called me to tell me that I should look after my mother after her surgery. This was frustrating to me since I talked to my mom before that and she said the doctor told her that she didnt need anyone to stay with her and also because my grandmother and her have this very dependent mother daughter relationship. One that I never had with my mom. My mom seems to be a daughter only and rarely a mother. She gave up on her illness and my dad took us because she just thought being an alcoholic full time was allright. Anyway, I just dont think my grandmother has the right to tell me what I should be doing in this relationship since we dont have a normal relationship. I have realized I can not rely on her at all and now I dont expect to. So I dont get upset with her when she's not available or when she decides to be drunk instead of keep our plans. So along with that - in my opinion- comes that I dont owe her anything. She doesnt get to rely on me either. It could be very mean but this has come from years of heartache. Anyway, my point is that the guilt I feel over my decisions about this relationship normally do lead me to binge eat along with other things. It's a major stress source so I try really hard to be concious of that. I was talking to my sister the other day and we realized if this relationship was not family we would have dropped it by now.. a long time ago. It's just harder when you are related I guess.

I weigh in tomorrow and I'm petrified. I dont think I've made enough changes to see a change but Im hoping that I did! I'm off to one last spin class to hopefully make some sort of difference. I might go out tonight but Im not drinking. I've decided. It's not worth the calories. If I seriously hate it after tonight, then next time I can have a couple drinks. I used to go out without drinking though, I think I've just forgotten that it can still be fun. Then maybe tomorrow morning I'll get back to the gym again because I wont be lazy from drinking!

Yesterday I definitely had some unneccessary cookies. However, when I got home, I went for another treat, made a little bowl and then when I went to the kitchen for more, I actually said out loud "you dont need this. You are done" and I put the bowl in the sink. Luckily I live alone and nobody called me crazy but it worked! I felt great after. For me, I really have to talk myself out of eating extra. I've gotten really used to not thinking and just eating and I find when I stop for a minute to let the rational part of my brain say no then I wont eat it.

Laura: good job with making your day manageable even though you had that lunch. I read some of your blog the other day. It was hard to pull away from! Have you seen the show Cashmere Mafia? I just watched it for the first time last night. It's from the creators of Sex and the City. It kind of reminded me of that!

Have a nice saturday!