Happy Prez Day!! Is anyone off work today? DH gets to stay home because he works for a bank, but he brought plenty of work home to keep busy. What's nice is that he didn't set the alarm today so I got to sleep in a bit and it felt great!

Who's sick of snow? Me! I don't know if it happens to any of you, but this weather is just depressing and I really struggle with wanting to comfort eat when it's so cold and miserable. DS had cookies on the counter that were driving me nuts and I finally moved them up to his room. Outta sight, outta mind.

So I think I'll make a big pot of soup today as a better kind of comfort food. I'm usually a total salad freak but just haven't wanted to eat anything cold, so it's been all soup and chili etc. Glory posted a fabulous soup recipe that I'm anxious to try.

How's everyone doing in the cold and snow? Does anyone live someplace WARM? Want company??

Hi Meg and everyone else! I hear you about sick of the cold. I'm sick of all the dirty snow outside, my filthy garage and all the grit and dirt coming into the house. I can't wait until it's a little warmer and I can sweep the garage. I swear by my 25-calorie hot chocolate and have been having a mug every evening after dinner while watching TV. Yum. Soup sounds good too! I'm still struggling to lose a few pounds I put on in January. It was such a hard month for me, I think, because of the holiday let down, less shopping to do, more time to eat, etc. I put on about 4-5 pounds and need to lose a couple more of them. I also bought a new scale that weighs me a little heavier than my old one so that's part of the wegiht gain too. Plus I've been doing a lot of strength training and have noticed my measurements go done a tiny bit so maybe some of that gain is muscle. Anyway, I'm going to officially change my ticker to reflect my current weight. Wanting to see it go down to 140 again will definitely help motivate me. I also signed up with my trainer for another 5 sessions at the gym so that should be inspiring too. As will the fact that my husband and I just went ahead with buying 3 small gym franchises (I wrote asking everyone for opinions in another thread). Can't be a fat gym owner, now can I? This sure is scary (from a financial standpoint!) and we are going to be busy, but it should be exciting!
Anne: You're so lucky you have your DD to be a little ray of sunshine right now. I've never had a miscarriage so I can't imagine the pain you must be going through, but my son was born 3 weeks before my mother died and he was a wonderful distraction and happiness at such a sad time.
Lily: You are absolutely something special, and what you have done for you health is an inspiration to everyone here!
I hope everyone had a good weekend. I ate healthy and exercised a lot and am feeling much better about myself.
Pam

Hi everyone!

Anne, I just caught up on last week's thread. I am so sorry for your loss.

Lily, wow! You are amazing.

Meg, I'm sick of the snow too! My friend was out from NYC to visit this weekend and we didn't do much of anything because we didn't want to go outside. We hit one museum, then we were like "what else is there to do indoors other than museums?" and the only answer was "shopping."

I feel pretty guilty about my eating this weekend. I'm just losing it on the weekends lately and I bet it is why I'm not losing weight, even though I'm putting it in fitday. This weekend I ate (4) donut holes, (2 slices of) pizza, and (a scoop of) ice cream. At least coming to 3FC gives me some accountability for it. If I am going to keep screwing up my weekends so badly I need to cut back my calories during the week more. It just seems like every weekend there is something else that comes up -- usually social activities that involve food. When we lived in Providence we didn't really have any friends in the area, so it was easier. Now we visit family all the time and my friends fly in to visit every so often.

We have a reservation for a fancy restaurant coming up next weekend so I know I will be eating a lot then. We also have some leftover ice cream that will not make it through the week and although I know I shouldn't eat it I love it too much to let my fiance eat it all. Luckily I have a lot of leftover low-cal vegetable soup that I can have for dinner all week. I can't wait for summer when instead of craving hot stews and steaks I will be craving salads and light sandwiches.

I'm having a hard time with homesickness this week too. I moved to IN for very good reasons and it is very sensible for me to settle down here for the indeterminate future, but I really miss Los Angeles. It's worst when it's so cold out -- all I am remembering about LA right now is the warm weather and beautiful scenery, and having all my friends around. Realistically though I am glad I don't have to deal with traffic, an hour commute, high housing costs, and lots of really sketchy people asking me for change or following me around making lewd remarks. I don't think I've had a single car honk their horn at me since moving to Indy and that is a good thing because I really hate that. My fiance and I talk about retiring to LA when we get rich someday. I just wish I had enough vacation time to go home more often.

The plan for this week: two snacks at work instead of three, low-cal dinners, and gym every day. If the weather is better next weekend I need to do something more active that sitting home watching movies (which is all I really want to do when it's so cold out there!).

Meg, my DH had to work today. He got up when his alarm went off at 6AM and went to get ready for work. I was pretty irritated about 5 min's later when the alarm went off again. He must have accidentally hit snooze, so I had to get up and shut it off. I did manage to go back to sleep for another hour. So, I feel rested now.

Our temp's here have been crazy. It snowed all last weekend. Now it is 60 degrees. It was 58 yesterday when me and DD went walking at the park. She is out of school today so we are going again after we go shopping for her some new jeans (maybe then she'll leave my clothes alone).

I need to go to the bank and just realized it will be closed today.

Pam, I can sympathize with the putting on a few lbs. I had went from 141 to 145 and was frustrated with myself. This morning I was back to 142 so it is coming off slowly. I'm trying to exercise more as I don't want to lower my calories. I'm not going to change my ticker. Maybe next week I'll be back to my ticker weight.

Pam, thanks for the kind words. I don't think I'm anything "special" . Given the alternative, I think most anyone would have done the same thing.

These nicer temps are spurring me to want to go fishing. I love to fish.
My DH worked enough overtime and we will get to buy our camper this week with cash. If you all see I'm missing, it's cause I'm camping at the lake catching me some crappie. LOL

Thanks paperclippy. (we were posting at the same time).

Meg, I believe that show is supposed to be on again tonite on TLC. Probably at 7 or 8 PM.

Snow? What snow?

I've got the day off, so I probably won't be online much at all. I have a ton of little projects to do around the house (things that don't seem to get done on the regular weekend). I'd also like to do a little shopping!!!

Have a great day everyone!

The spinach, chickpea, leek, tomato soup? I love it, hope you enjoy it! I'm going to make a curried lentil soup that was in the latest Oprah. 2 cups red lentils, bunch of kale, onion, curry powder...if it turns out well, I'll post the recipe. It's definitely soup weather.

Ah yes, soup weather here too! Oh, or chili - I love chili! And I had an excellent 5 bean soup at a lunch meeting last week. I need to get the recipe. It had bacon in it, but I'm better it would be just as good without that. It was 15 this morning and the forecast is for falling temps through the week (like below zero overnight). I'm leaving for a conference in Juneau on Wed, guess I should check the weather there! Edit: They have the same weather today, but there the temps are increasing as the week goes on, up to 33 and rain by Friday I'm there through Sunday.

I'm still maintaining - scale hasn't moved more than a pound in either direction since before Christmas I'm hoping that once the TNT training ramps up a little more, I can lose some. Of course, if I'd stop going places where there's food I don't need (like conferences - as least I opted out of the breakfasts!) it'd be easier too.

Have a great day!

Just went back a caught up on last weeks' thread!

Anne, I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. It's a deeply sad experience, and just makes the children we do have that much more dear. Take your time in recovering physically and emotionally

Allison- I love the new picture in your siggy!

Glory- I've been living on soups, too. I remembered about 2 weeks ago that I own a pressure cooker...haha, it's been years since I used it. Last Saturday I made chicken-blackbean-spinach-red lentil soup in 10 minutes flat! I love when fresh food can be fast food.

Lily- I'm even more speechless at your story. I always had a vague feeling that I was saving my life....in the long run...but you really did it for the immediate foreseeable future!

Paperclippy- Hang in there! It will get warm soon

Pam- Congratulations on being a gym owner! I'm assuming you are in Denver? Let us know the progess. Can I get a free pass next time I go through Denver

OK, off to the for me!

Mel

Mel, I think of it as EACH of us are saving our own lives by trying to be as healthy as we can. Being overweight/obese is just no fun and there are so many associated health risks with it. I started this journey to restore my health as much as I possibly could. Vanity only came into play when I thought well "heck, I look pretty dang good now". It is a great feeling to feel better both healthwise and vanity-wise.

Me and DD just got back from walking the 2 mile track around the lake and park again. It was 60 degrees but the wind had to be at least 40 miles and hour. Each step we took it felt like it would blow us over. My thighs were actually getting sore fighting the wind. Then , like the kids we are, we went and slid down the big tube slides. LOL, no one else was at the park luckily to see us. I was just glad that I fit in the tubes, couldn't have said that before. No wonder those things are made for little kids, I don't think my 46 yr. old body is supposed to curve in those directions.. LOL.

I think my kids are tired of me making big veggie stews each week. But, I love it and could easily eat it twice a week. I have snuck ground turkey into my recipes and no one knows the difference. It really is easy with just a little effort to make foods that are lower in calories and still taste great.

Snow? What is this "snow" that you speak of? I think I've heard of that stuff...jk, jk (I know I'm so mean ), I lived with it (in Pennsylvania and Connecticut) for 21 years before I moved down here to Florida. Though I do live in "the cold part" of Florida so I have had to go cover my garden about a dozen nights this year when it got down to freezing. But I'm not complaining. I'm actually going to Boston later this week to visit some girlfriends and go skiing. I miss skiing! You all are welcome to come and visit me anytime. I live 100 feet from the beach and I've got a nice, big extra bedroom.

Lily, I love to fish too! BF is a charter fishing captain and when he doesn't have charters he takes me fishing. Mmm I love to catch my own dinner, and it's just so nice to be on the water.

Anne, I'm just catching up and I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. My thoughts are with you and your family.

Hi to everyone else! Sorry I can't write more but I have to run. Hopefully I'll be around tomorrow.

Be careful Megan, I might take you up on the offer to visit! I could use some sunshine! In fact, for work sometimes I have to go to Miami, so I suggested to my boss that now might be a good time!

I feel better after putting the weekend's food into Fitday. It turns out on the day I ate pizza and donut holes my total calories were only 1327 because I had such a low-cal breakfast and lunch. Then yesterday I had 2139, but they were a healthier 2139 than the 1327 the previous day! I discovered also that at Au Bon Pain, the large low-fat vegetarian chili is only 350 calories, while the corn muffin I bought as an accompaniment is 450!! Anyway after reviewing my fitday it looks like I'm eating less than I'm burning, so hopefully there will be a change soon. Time for the gym!

Mel: ABsolutely!!! It would be an honor to have you work out in our gym. I've been talking with the trainer I work with about working as our manager/trainer. He's jazzed and this is really getting exciting. The first step is finding our first location. I'll definitely keep you posted!
Pam

Paperclippy~if you're ever back in the LA area, you can come to the desert to visit me!!

MileHiMama~wow, you're opening a gym? That's too cool!

I got on my elliptical tonite anyway after my walk at the lake. 15 min's about kills me. LOL, I sure worked up a sweat and my heart rate got up to 152. I then got off it and walked a half mile on treadmill. I even saw my DD using the elliptical tonite too. She is getting better and better at suggesting we go for long walks. I love to walk outside when she goes with me.

I am planning to get a lot of exercise soon by putting in a garden. I want to try my hand at growing fresh veggies and some fruits. We plan to til the ground up this coming weekend. Planting will start once the winter is over. I am excited about it and looking forward to it.

Megan, I have never been out on a charter boat. My DH goes deep sea fishing every yr. with all the men in my family. It is fun to go catch your own dinner. I love my grilled fish.