Thanks ladies for the support.

I'll be a day without peanut butter today. Not by choice, LOL. My 2 yr. old grandson woke up before me and got the peanut butter jar open. (man, they should make them child proof, LOL). I will need to shop to buy some more, because PB with baby fingerprints in it doesn't seem too appealing to me. His mom woke up and said "did you give Taylor a PB sandwich this morning? I smell PB on him". LOL. It has to be his favorite food in the world, he takes after his grandma.

I'm afraid I may be having a slight problem. Mel, if you see this please respond. I am noticing that I am having some rash on my arms, back and chest area that pops up a couple hrs. after I eat my whole wheat pancakes. Is it possible I may have a gluten sensitivity problem?. Eating the wheat products is new for me the last couple weeks since switching to calorie counting. Is there anything else I need to watch for?. The only food allergy I have had that I know of is to shellfish.

I need to learn to not use more than one scale. This is driving me crazy. My scale at home has been up for a couple weeks and I'm not too happy about it -- it's around 132-133 (not digital so it's hard to be precise). So I need to lose 5 lbs to get back to my comfort zone. Excluding the superbowl, I've been trying to eat right. We've gone to our new gym three times so far and plan on going again today and tomorrow. What freaked me out was when I got on the scale at the gym and it said 141!!! :o I'm hoping it's just because at home I weigh naked first thing in the morning and at the gym I had all my clothes on and it was 6:30pm, but it really scared me. I've been counting my calories religiously and based on that I think I ought to be either maintaining or slowly losing, not gaining!

The other weird thing about my weight is that when I got measured for my wedding dress a couple weeks ago, my measurements came out exactly the same as they were at my lowest weight. Huh? I know I weigh a few pounds more than I did at my lowest, but my waist is still 27 inches and my bust is still 35.5. They didn't measure my hips, maybe it all went there! :lol:

Anyway hopefully all the exercise this week will show something on the scale soon. I don't think I am going to weigh myself at the gym anymore -- I'm comfortable with my early morning weigh-ins at home, even though I know my scale is off by a couple pounds.

Of course after all that talk about how I've been so good about eating this week so far I succumbed to free chocolate caramel corn at work today. *sigh* At least I resisted the pizza and breadsticks.

paperclippy, I hate to weigh on more than one scale. My Dr.'s scale always weighs me 4 lbs. higher than my own and it freaks me out a little. But, My appt. time is always afternoon when I've eaten and have full clothes and shoes on, so I just go by what mine says of the AM without clothes. Try not to worry about it, just stick to what your scale says and don't weigh at the gym. If your measurements are staying the same, chances are you aren't gaining much if any.

Yup, just pick one and ignore the weights on the others. :) Having said that, I was pleased to see that on my doc's digital scale, in the afternoon, and dressed (except shoes), I weighed what my home scale says first thing without clothes.

I always close my eyes at the doctor's office and tell the nurse beforehand NOT to tell me the number because I know what I weigh at home and a different number will just upset me. They think I'm :crazy: because all the nurses are heavier than I am. My doc is NOT.

Lily, is it just the pancakes that give you the rash or all wheat products? If it's just the pancakes, you need to look at the other ingredients. The easier way to tell is to cut them out for a few days and see if it goes away. Don't cut all wheat, just the pancakes. If you still get the rash after some whole wheat bread, then you know where to look. you can either do an elimination diet of all the ingredients, or have ELISA allergy testing done, or a genetic test for gluten intolerance. PM me if you want more info on the genetic testing. It's not covered by insurance.

I'm on track with food, but hurt both bicep tendons and that's really making weight workouts a problem! None today, maybe none tomorrow :( I'm fighting real hard not to dive into a jar of peanut butter, which is discussed WAY TOO MUCH on the Whole Foods Forum :lol:

Mel

Mel, I like your new sig.

I'm feeling a lot better these days. I don't know if I've passed out of a stage or if it was really some kind of stomach flu and not morning sickness after all. DD was vomitting about the same time, so in hinsight that seems reasonable. I got real morning sickness (all day sickness) about my 3rd month the first time around, so it could be still to come.

Tired and eating too much. I have to figure out how to turn off the eating drive. I've been having a lot of fluids and sugarless gum, and that helps some, but not enough. I have managed to overeat on healthy stuff and not cookies and muffins, but I really don't want to do 60 lbs again. More sleep would probably help as well, but I'm just not sure how to do that with work (already part-time) and DD.

My vote: if you are within 10 lbs of your 'official' weight on a different scale, you are fine. That bottle of water you had with lunch, your shoes, and a couple of pounds of calibration on the scale can easily add up to 10 lbs. Besides, different scales don't count.

Anne

:lol3: That's a great quote. I need to remember that! I didn't weigh at the gym yesterday, and I don't plan to today either. Phew!

So usually my fiance packs our lunches while I'm in the shower. I usually end up with a main dish, an apple, and a yogurt cup for snacks. I told him this morning that since I didn't eat my yogurt yesterday, I didn't need one today (it was still in the fridge at work). When I got to work and opened up my lunch bag, there was an apple and a yogurt, but no main dish! Oops! Anyway I had two yogurts for lunch today, which is about the same number of calories as my main dish usually is.

I'm so glad it's Friday. I don't know what happened this week, but I feel totally burned out! Even one of my coworkers yesterday said to me, "I can tell you're ready for the weekend!" :o

For this work week I'm averaging a bit over 1600 cals/day, with the highest day at 1887 and the lowest 1389. Including today (I haven't gone yet, but am planning to), four gym days this week! We did a leg workout yesterday with the weight machines. My legs were quivering at the end of it but surprisingly I'm not sore at all today. Next time I'll up the weight more. My fiance laughed at me because he was showing me how to use this calf machine, and he was like "it should be easy, there's barely any weight on it," and I couldn't do it at all. He took all the weight off and it was still hard for me! :lol: Some of the other machines I'm setting at 40lbs and he's setting at 240lbs. He doesn't even do leg strengthening usually beyond whatever happens naturally on the elliptical, but he sets the resistance pretty high on it.

Another thing I noticed at the gym . . . I'm 5'4" and I have to set all the weight machines to the absolute smallest settings (in terms of seat adjustment and stuff like that). There are plenty of women out there who are shorter than me. What gives? Are they not supposed to ever build up muscles? Do they all just use free weights?

You nailed it - there are a lot of women who can't use the weight machines (at least correctly). It's a huge pet peeve of mine that gym equipment is designed for large men! I'm 5' 4" also and automatically put the seats on the highest setting and leg extension on 1.5. In my experience, someone who's 5' 2" and up is usually OK but anyone shorter than that is going to have problems with machines. So yeah, a lot of short women use machines incorrectly (bad solution), skip weights entirely (bad solution), or use free weights (good solution :) ).

Good job on the four gym days! :high: I think you'll be surprised how quickly your legs will get strong. :strong: I did legs today too and definitively have those 'jelly legs' too. :D

I'm 5'4" too (if I stand up really tall :lol: ) and I found this to be true as well and a real nuisance. It is one of the reasons I moved to using free weights, but I also found that I made better progress with the free weights, as well as involving other muscles just by the fact that I was having to use my whole body to stand upright. :) I do still use a leg press, and of coures the lat pulldown. That's about all for machines, except that I occasionally see how I can do on the assisted pullup/dip machine.

Anne - glad you're feeling better, and that the morning sickness doesn't come around the 3rd month this time. Never been pg myself, but I've watched a lot of folks, and it does seem to vary from baby to baby....

Mel - I too love your new quote! Goes right along with a friend's t-shirt "Life is too short to drink cheap wine!" :rofl:

I'm freezing in my office today. I wish they'd get this heating job done! All the equipment is in and changed over, but it needs to be programmed by zones. I have a lovely new wall thermometer/temperature adjuster in here, but it doesn't do anyhthing but tell me the temperature - 65 at the moment! Brrrrr. It's actually in the 20s outside - mildish for us - and snowing lightly. We've accumulated about 1/4-1/2" in the last 24 hours - just enough to be slippery under foot!

Mel, thanks for responding. I haven't noticed the rash except with the pancakes. I'll try to pay closer attention to it when eating other wheat products. The rash just itches a few hrs. and then goes away.

I made it through the funeral today and spending the day with family. I'll definitely be back to exercising and eating properly tomorrow. Food wise, my eating was far from clean today to say the least. I did great at the church luncheon and cut me a half of a piece of cake, so I was happy with that. Then, to my surprise the ladies at the church sent home a chocolate cake and a peach cobbler with my MIL. To make matters worse she cooked chili dogs and frito chili pies for dinner. Needless to say, I succumbed to the temptations and ate about twice my usual calorie allowance.

The only good thing that I did was my MIL had a tree that was shattered from our recent ice storm. I went outside and helped DH cut all the firewood up and load it on our trailer. Also helped move and burn a huge brush pile. So, I'm counting this as at least getting a little exercise today.

Anne, I love your vote that "different scales don't count". I'm going to remember that one.

A rash that pops up, itches, and goes away in a few hours sounds like urticaria -- an allergic reaction. I'd pay close attention to what you are ingesting...if it is a pancake mix, look at the ingredients. Look at anything else you might be ingesting, too. Since you already keep a food diary, it may not be as difficult to figure out if this is food related.

On a good note, my scale was down today for the first time in over a week. Hopefully, the steady climb upward is over!

Thanks Tara, I will pay close attention to the rash and what I'm eating. I know that since I have the liver disease, that I often break out in rash from the bile salts rising to the skin. But, this rash from the salts is different it takes higher prednisone dosage and weeks for it to go away.

Tara, WTG on getting the scale to go down. I didn't weigh this morning, was afraid mine is probably up after all I ate yesterday. I am back totally on plan with my food and exercise today. I'll wait and weigh on Monday and see how it goes.

sorry to double post. I am stressed out. My SD has been staying here with the kids age 2 1/2 and 8 months. I can't get enough sleep. I can't get my exercise with the kids under foot. Her DH is going to be gone on his job for 5 weeks. I just wish she'd go home. I know my DH would be upset if I said anything to make her feel like she has to go home. She is griping about the way I cook now and I just want to say then "take your happy butt to McDonald's". I'm not going to cater to her wants.

My son's jeep had the transmission go out yesterday, so he is having to use my vehicle. I'm stuck now with no car and a housefull and I'm miserable. I think I'll put some warm clothes on and just go for a long walk outside. Maybe that will make me feel better.

My eating has been back on track so that much is good.

:hug: Lily! I hear you on unwanted visitors. I'm so used to having just me and DH that anyone who is here for more than a day or two starts getting on my nerves. :) Fortunately we're far enough away that it doesn't happen often! How is your sister's hand doing?

It's cold here this morning, and I'm trying to dress warmly enough so that I don't have to keep my coat on in church! They keep the heat at a low setting all week, and unless someone goes by on Sat night to turn it up, the sanctuary is mighty chilly on Sunday morning. Last week I had long underwear under my clothes and was not too warm!

:wave: Have a great Sunday everyone.

Thanks Pat for the show of support. She has now decided to go pick up her 14 yr. old step-daughter and bring her here too. That is all I need. I think I'm very tired and grouchy because I haven't had enough sleep with all the noise and I'm tired of having extra people here. Plus, I'm tired of changing diapers, getting left to babysit, doing all the clean-up after the kids make messes and my puppies (12 of them) are being picked up right now and I have to keep the house clean for people to come through the house to see the puppies. I've had twice as much laundry and dishes as usual and cooking more than I normally would. Maybe if I quit cooking they'd go home but I doubt it. She actually thinks that since my son is using my car right now that she is doing me a favor by staying here. LOL, I'd rather walk the 1 mile to the closest store if there was something I needed.

Anyway, I bundled up and went out to walk and it was just too cold. So, I ran the kids out of my room and hopped on the treadmill for a while. At least I got some exercise.

My sisters hand is doing well. It is casted now and she says the pain has gotten much better. Thanks for asking.