Good morning!

Is anyone having nice weather or are we all suffering through rain, snow and wind? My poor daffodils are just lying limply on the frost. Mega depressing! I have to pick up DS at the airport late tonight and am hoping there aren't any flight delays due to weather.

I get to start out the day with a dentist's appointment because I broke a tooth ... eating an apple slice. C'mon! An apple slice? No fair! At least it should have been popcorn or something good (though I do love my apples and PB ).

So how are things going in Maintenance Land? Any challenges this week? I don't know why, but I've been on a roll with food for the past six weeks or so. I wish I understood why some days are easy and some are so, so hard but I don't. So I'll just take the easy days and hope the hard ones are few and far between.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Well, as you all know, I've been dealing with a recurrence of my battle with peanut butter over the last couple weeks. Well, that problem is now solved. Over the last week, I overate peanut butter to a good degree. Some of you know that over the last several months, I have been on a roll where I have eaten the same thing every day for all 3 meals. Breakfast: cream of wheat w/ milk, lunch: two natural PB and fruit spread sandwiches on whole wheat bread, dinner: 2 chicken drumsticks in a tomato curry sauce with vegetables over rice.

Even before the PB started getting under control, I had some fleeting thoughts about stopping the daily lunch sandwiches. I've always had a tendency to eat the same thing for a period of time, but the last several months have been a record.

I think the overeating of the PB pushed me over the edge...I ate PB straight from the jar to develop and uneasy stomach (about 4 tablespoons) a couple of times, and I also realized on a mental level that I was eating too much of the stuff.

So...I went grocery shopping on Saturday. I emerged 2 hours and $114 later! This is very different than my usual $20/wk food bill!

I'm now going to be eating a variety of foods! I bought fresh fruit and veggies (some frozen ones, too), sweet potatoes, flatout wraps, tortillas, salsa, chicken, turkey, shrimp, and more!

I tried an oven-baked sweet potato fry recipe (I think it was Meg's) from another thread here...The fries were seasoned with salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and cumin. They were as good as the ones I had at a restaurant a few years ago! Yum!

My refrigerator now actually has some food in it. I can grab some carrots or a piece of fruit if I feel like munching! Life is going to be very different.

I felt like I ate a whole lot of my new foods all day yesterday, and I lost 0.4 pounds as of this morning! I had gained a little due to the PB excess the last week, so I think it will come of easily. For lunch I'm having a flatout wrap with turkey, cucumbers, tomatoes, pineapples, lettuce, and cranberry honey mustard. Yum!

I'm ready for this change! The peanut butter is now finished (as of yesterday), and I'm not buying more!

Tara, your new menu sounds delicious! I wouldn't be surprised if you drop a few more pounds just by changing what you're eating. I tend to fall into food ruts too, so you're a good motivation to change things up.

Tara, good luck with your new foods! They sound great!

Meg, I hope your tooth feels better! I know what you mean about the daffodils -- everything started to bloom around here and then got crushed by snow. I think it's warming up again though (fingers crossed...).

Well, my plan got pretty screwed up this weekend. Yesterday I made a cake from a cooking light recipe, since I had almost all the ingredients left over from other recipes (lf cream cheese, frozen blueberries, etc). It said 288 cals/serving, and the whole cake was 16 servings. I think I ate about two -three servings, plus licking the bowl. My fiance ate about five servings since half the cake was gone this morning. He also felt bad about eating too much so I took the rest of the cake to work this morning for my coworkers to devour.

I seem to keep sabotaging myself. Will I ever lose these five pounds? The sad part is I'm getting used to seeing 133/134 on the scale at home and 141 on the scale at the gym. I think I need to go back and read some old entries I wrote and figure out where I'm screwing up.

I like to read this thread. But I notice that there are some posts missing. The last weekly chat seems to end with April 1. Any ideas why that is? When you click on Living Maintenance there are a couple weeks of Maintainers chat missing. Maybe I'm not doing something right. Thanks.

Yes, it snowed here in South Jersey. I am SO ready for it to be in the 70's. I'm afraid we're going to skip spring and go right to the high 90's of summer.

Tara ~ I'm very glad that you went out and bought all those different types of food. I didn't realize that you would eat the exact same thing day in day out for weeks at a time. How would you get the nutrients your body needs from doing so? Did you feel you needed to restrict the type of food you ate to keep yourself from overeating? Only to way overeat peanut butter? (And I understand how PB can be addictive, says the girl who had it for lunch) Since it seems to be such a trigger food for you, it's best that you don't have any in your place.

Hello Maintainers!

Meg, Ahhhh...the weather!!! It's awful. No school yesterday here in NH, thank goodness it's back on today. One day stuck inside with my active 8 yr old ds is enough. Although my 5 mo. old dd loves having him around, she watches him all day. They are so cute together. Sorry to hear about your tooth, I once broke a tooth on a frozen snickers, it somehow seems more worth it than that apple

Jess - You're dedicated so those 5 pounds will come off once you decide you've had enough. Like Meg said, some weeks are easy, some are not.

Tara - good for you for trying new foods. It always helps.

Carolyn - I totally agree, I think we are going to skip spring and go straight for summer this year.

This has been a good week. Two of my friends & I are doing fitday together and it is so motivating! I've been great since a minor blip last week after I was frustrated to see the scale stay the same. It's moving down again and so things are looking up. I forgot how eye-opening it is to log all of my foods. I'm keeping my calories around or just under 1600 (still breastfeeding) and I notice a big difference. I would have guessed I was eating around that amount before logging my food, but there is no way I'm sure I was eating at least 1900-2000, too much for me if I want to lose weight, bf'ing or not!

I posted a challenge for myself over at Featherweights, as I'm up a few (gulp, 7) pounds and need to seize the reins now and get back to a more comfortable weight. I won't repeat the challenge details here, but I'm pleased to report that I am on track and meeting my personal goals. Step class tonight and Kickboxing on Wednesday will help. I'll take Thurs. as a no-workout day.

Yes, I am also in the yucky weather zone. Should April really be this cold? What about my kids and their vacation? Did I actually want them indoors the entire time (I think we can all guess the answer to that!).

Hi Carol and welcome!

I'm not aware of any missing posts or weekly threads, so I'm not sure what you mean. If you go to the main page of the forum, you'll see all the weekly chat threads, though sometimes they're out of order.

Here's last week: Maintainers Chat - Week of April 9 - 15 and the week before: Maintainers Chat - Week of April 2 - 8 and the week before that: Maintainers Chat - Week of March 26 - April 1.

Just scroll down the main page to find them all. Some will be on pages 2 and 3 and so forth, depending on the dates. If you get lost, let me know and I can help you find whatever you're looking for .

Please feel free to jump in and participate and not just read. We'd love to hear more from you!

Meg, When you click on Living Maintenance what do you see? The first post under the sticky posts is Jeans Out of the Dryer. There are no chat weeks after April 1. Strange.

That's really odd, Carol, because the Jeans thread is the 9th thread down when I click on Living Maintenance. I'm puzzled ... try clicking Reload or Refresh on your browser and see what happens? Maybe the old page is cached on your computer?

I am not computer savvy, so if someone can help Carol, please jump in!

Hi everyone, I've been missing for a few days. First my puppy chewed up the computer cord and we had to find a new one to replace it with. Then on Sunday I was gone all day to my grandson's B-day party. Then on Monday, well it was a long, stressful day. I finally had my DH confront his oldest DD (the one that is going through the divorce and custody battle) about the fact that she definitely looks very pregnant. This particular SD came home with me Sunday after the B-day party. While unloading her stuff, I noticed she had 3 bottles of pills. Ultram, Hydrocodone, and Lorazepam. I told DH that night that she could kill her unborn baby or cause severe problems by taking these med's while denying pregnancy. So, we called her mental health worker and of course they couldn't help due to "patient confidentiality". We then decided to tell her that if she wasn't pregnant that she must have a thyroid disease or a large abdominal tumor and that in any case she needed to see a doctor. She cried but finally relented. DH and I took her to the nearest medical clinic. He stepped out in the hallway and told the nurse that he was very concerned that she is pregnant and denying it and showed them her pill bottles. The doctor came in and had her give a UA with the nurse with her for "help". She then examined her and told us she is at least 26 -28weeks pregnant. She cried and cried and denied every missing her period. Which I think is a total lie. Anyway, we called and made her an apt. with her OB/GYN. Plus, called her attorney to let him know what is going on. I am very concerned about the health of this baby. As, I personally know of at least 3 times in the last few months that she went to the ER for "jaw pain" and recieved Demerol. Plus last week she went under anesthesia and had her wisdom teeth removed. She has been on pain med's quite often lately. I have absolutely no idea why she'd try to deny this pregnancy and do these things other than the fact that she is messed up mentally and simply couldn't cope with this. She has not yet notified her soon to be XH of the pregnancy. I know that her attorney will notify his attorney. My DH called and let her mother and her sisters and her grandmother know. I am trying to be as supportive as possible, considering how fragile her mental state is. But, as a former OB nurse it is really hard for me to accept that she could deny pregnancy , do tons of pain med's and smoke 2 packs a day. I am not very happy with the rest of DH's family either. She is living with my MIL and she took her to have the wisdom teeth removed and didn't mention to the Dr. that she thought Samantha was pregnant and allowed them to give her the anesthesia and the pain pills. That whole family just acted like the pregnancy was non-existent and that they didn't want to "hurt her feelings". No one was considering that they were enabling her to hurt her unborn baby. Every single time someone did broach the subject with her she'd cry and tell them that it was just stress and to quit making fun of her for getting "FAT". The doctor yesterday did offer to put Samantha in in-patient psych. center and my DH refused the need for this. (which I thought she needs).

Sorry to say that I've let all this stress get to me and ate off-plan the last few days and gained wt. I'm trying to get back to my food and exercise plan today.

BTW, I also saw the Dr. yesterday for my continued Headaches, fever and neck pain with bronchitis. I had a tick bite on my left arm that is very swollen (bigger than a golf ball) and my Dr. put me on 2 different antibiotics that will cover both the bronchits and possible "tick-borne disease". Lab work was drawn but I don't know the results yet. My temp. was 101.2 I just know that I've felt very rundown for last couple of weeks.

Our weather here is nice during the day, 60's and down to 30's at night. I need to get outside and work in the garden and replant the tomato plants that all froze.

Hi maintainers,

Lily - just wishing you strenght from this side! The SD pregnancy situation surely is very traick, and I agree with you fully that any medication should have been prescribed considering the effect on the unborn baby !

hi to all the other maintainers, weatherwise i can report an unseasonably warm spring. We had over 25 C for the weekend and yesterday, which is a mid summer temperature for here. It now is about 20 C, stillvery good!

have a great day all,
rabbit

Hi everyone,

I have nice weather! I feel embarrassed since I know the weather just about everywhere else stinks. You are all welcome to come visit. We had huge thunderstorms at our house Saturday night. I was getting ready to go sit in the bathtub. I have never been so scared by storms before except by hurricanes. At least the garden got a good soaking.

BF's family was visiting over the weekend and their dog ran away. They had to go home so BF and I found their dog, finally, and are caring for her until they can get back to pick her up. She is very sweet and totally housebroken, so it is no hardship.

Food is ok. I'm still resting my foot, but have been back at the gym lifting weights. My weight is pretty steady. I have even longer rehearsals in the evenings now, and opening night is Thursday. Next week when the play is over I'll try to ease back into cardio and see how the foot feels. Right now I feel more like I'm just "surviving" until then.

Lily, oh my, what a terrible situation. No wonder you are stressed.

Tara, cranberry honey mustard sounds yummy! So does the rest of your food. Yum.

Meg, I'm glad that you're having such a good food month. Congrats

Hi to everyone else. I've gotta run back to work.

Megan

Thanks ladies. I do feel stressed but definitely feel like confronting the situation head-on and forcing her to take responsibility was for the best. I am disappointed that not one of her sisters, mother or grandmother even called to talk to her last night.

This evening should be a fun time. We're taking our 3 yr. old Grandson on his first fishing trip. I hope he doesn't fall in the water. LOL.