Happy Friday all,

Before I forget (again), here is the nutrition for the General Tsao's Chicken recipe that I posted earlier this week. I count the rice separately, and usually throw in 1.25 lbs chicken for the same amount of sauce. Per 4 cooked oz/or one-fourth the recipe of chicken w/ sauce, you have 279 cal, 7g fat, 16g carbs, 35g protein, and about 900mg sodium. It is really delicious!

I'm feeling much more centered today. I had a good weights and cardio workout at the gym yesterday, and I even got up the courage to ask the trainer to show me proper form for a lat pull-down. Girls night was fun, I didn't over-indulge on the food, and got a pretty good night's sleep. Ahhhh.

Gary, have a nice weekend and I hope you can get your family all together.

Kim, hi, and congrats on reaching your BF goal!

Meg, lol, that sounds like quite a picture. You should definitely send it in to America's Funniest Pets!

Some friends and I make beer and are having a tasting tomorrow evening at my house. I'm not worried about the alcohol (the thought of it still makes me shudder), and I'm keeping snacks to a minimum and serving a veggie plate (w/ dip made of light sour cream - mwahaha they will never know!) and fruit plate, so hopefully all will go well. Have a nice labor day weekend everyone!

Good morning. I got a nice sleep in and this is only my first cup of coffee.

I love lat pull downs. They make me feel posture perfect and shapely.

Here's a little for Ennay who has never offended me.

Gary ... I think hanging drywall and roofing are young mens' jobs but ... you can't tell an old carpenter much.

Allison ... my left lid droops far more than my right. A hazard of aging methinks.

A beer tasting with snacks! Where does that Megan live and what time do we eat? BTW ... how cute is that Megan?!

I'll vouch for Kim. She's a very well behaved poster and inspiring Featherweight.

And a coupla for Carolyn and Lily.

Who'd I miss? No one I hope because you all are good to know.

On my day off ... today ... I'm going to dust, tidy, walk, breath and reassess my sadly lacking veggie intake and nap.

Megan, good for you for asking a trainer to help with lat pulldown form! Lat pulldowns are the #1 exercise that I see done incorrectly at my gym. I'd say 80% of people are doing them wrong and many of those are doing them so poorly that they're going to be injured. Ah, but can a trainer walk over and offer to show them correct form? Not if you want to live! So I literally have to avert my eyes at times -- it's that bad.

Morning everyone!

Meg, why can't you walk over and show them the correct form? I love that the trainer at my gym does that when I'm doing something wrong. Do people really get upset with you?

Ennay, you've never offended me either. I suspect the women on your other board get more of a thrill from being offended and having drama than we do. It's one of the nice things about 3FC.

So I've almost survived the first week of classes. I have a class later this morning, but I'm all ready to go on it. Food stayed pretty good, exercise decent. There was a faculty social the other evening and we had a few drinks before we came home. We were both very tempted to just order a pizza or something but our virtue prevailed and we made some lovely fish and veggies. Yay us! I did "real" squats in the cage the other day for the first time and now have bruised shoulder blades--I suspect I am doing something wrong, but I'm not at my regular gym and so the trainer-who-helps-me was not around to correct my form (!). Anyway, I'm proud Meg, what does the bar itself weigh? I put 2 10lb plates on it, which wasn't too heavy, but I definitely think the weight of the bar is not negligible. (And, if my goal is to squat my body weight, does that include the weight of the bar? Or do I have to use 140lb of plates?!)

We have to drive to Oregon after my class today for a wedding, and we've promised ourselves a big fatty breakfast before we head home in the morning. Actually, I'll have to go easy on it because we're going to a cheese-making party Saturday night, followed by dinner made with the cheese... The saboteurs are everywhere!

Still, scale says 139.2. All-time low and a full 1.4lb lower than last week. It ain't all bad.

<hugs> to everyone!

ennay~I belong to other forums as well, and once I said something and was totally ATTACKED by another poster. All I had done was answer someone's question with my opinion (after all, that's what the poster was asking for). It got really bad to the point that I rarely go back there now. sorry to hear it happened to you, too.

Gary~have a great weekend and I hope you don't have to work. DH most likely will work his usual half day Saturday but I've got plans for us for the rest of the weekend (can you say clean the backyard BBQ area!).

Kim~I don't think we have any food taboos here in the Maintaner's area! We all seem to recognize our trigger foods and can read about them without going ballistic and heading off to the store to buy them!! LOL I guess it is one thing about being a maintainer--we know what we need to do, but it is still hard to do the right thing!

DD has a concert Saturday night in Lake Elsinor (she was asked to do percussion for the Inland Valley Symphony as one of their regulars is away for the weekend). DD also has to possibly drive to Murrieta on Sunday to pick up several pairs of drumsticks. Our local music store is sold out and just this morning she tells me her band instructor is telling her she needs to have 4 pair at all times (in case of breakage and in case someone forgets theirs). She is also being recruited to join a gay orchestra in our area--I guess they need a percussionist, too! That would mean that as a high school senior, she is a member of 1-Palm Spring HS marching band, 2-PSHS jazz band, 3-PSHS symphonic band, 4-Buddy Roger's Youth sympony, 5-Coachella Valley Symphony, 6-the gay band (what ever the name is) AND invited to sometimes participate with 7-Inland Valley Symphony, 8-Palm Springs Pops band and 9-Coachella Valley High School (for their school musicals). Now if that doesn't merit some sort of scholarship, I don't know what will!!!

DS got a new computer and has been busy getting it set up so he'll be ready for school Tuesday. He's happy, but we can't find the installation disk for his wireless internet adaptor, and you can't download a new one if you can't connect to the internet......kind of a Catch 22 in some ways. He's excited to be a part of Advanced Robotics in school this year. If they do will, we'll be going to Oklahoma in July for the world conference and Botball Tournament.

My weight is up a pound today and I really don't know why. I ate OP yesterday and also exercised. And to top it off, I was hungry this morning! Usually I have to force myself to eat breakfast. I had my usual ff cottage cheese and fresh pineapple and ended up making myself a half a PB&J sandwich. And Fridays are the days DH and I go out to lunch. Thankfully, DD is going to the football game tonight so we can have an omelet for dinner! (She hates eggs.)

Oh, and another thing.......

Have you all noticed that Joy hasn't posted since 8/20?!?! She had a doctor's appointment that day.......Joy~do you need to change your user name to joyofseven yet?

Do you ever have the problem of forgetting what you intended to post between the time you log on and read through all the new posts since your last post? I do all the time.

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes for my DH. I finally get to see him tonight since his accident on Monday. Living at opposite ends of the state has its draw backs.

My brother's wife is due next week with their first baby. She's home from work for the duration because her feet and legs have swollen up so badly. She's so ready to have the baby. They're waiting to be surprised as to what it is.

Meg - if your printing the wedding invitations, that much mean it's coming up soon??

Jessica - do you have a count down till the wedding day yet?

Ennay - can imagine anyone getting offended at what you post. Quit that group - they're a bunch of crazies!

Kristy - I thought cheese making took time, as in the ageing process. How can you eat it right after you make it?

Hi everyone, we made it to Lacy's appointment. The gastro. Dr. thinks her gallbladder may be bad as well as the hiatal hernia has been stretched out. They are now setting Lacy up to have a Hydescan (?spelling, it's where they shoot dye in your IV to see if the gallbladder is not functioning properly) which is more reliable than the gallbladder US that showed no stones. Plus she will be having a barium swallow and EGD for the hernia problem. She is again to take Prilosec and it never worked before. The Dr. was very concerned too regarding my mom's Liver Failure and now Mine. She will be having all the Liver tests also. I felt really good that at least they are going to do a very thorough workup to see what problems she is having. I'm hopeful we will get to the bottom of this and I will be able to get help for her.

I absolutely hate driving in traffic, so I was a nervous wreck as we left the city at 5PM in 6 lanes of very fast traffic. And to think I used to live there for 16 yrs. and drove in it every single day. Now, I'm just used to our little one lane town. LOL. Shelbey went along with us, just because she wanted to and her dad said it was OK. Has anyone else ever drove 8 hrs. in a car with 2 fifteen yr. old girls. I swear they changed the radio so often I never heard more than 3 lines of any song the whole trip. I only got lost once which was when the girls wanted me to find a particular restaurant that we used to eat at. I never found it but I did find lots of one-way streets and like to have never found the dang interstate again. LOL.

Meg, LOL at your cat. You should video that.

kaw, nice to see you joining us and WTG on your wt. loss.

carolyn, I hope your DH heals quickly. That does sound awful.

SusanB, my one yr. old grandson snores loudly too and I put him in bed with us too. It's really a toss up as to which is louder , him or DH.

Allison, i'm glad your Dr. brought up the wt. issue with your DD. Lacy's Dr. didn't mention it to her yesterday and she was up now to 151 lbs. from 143 just last month. But, she did caution her about staying on a Low Fat food plan due to all her stomach problems and high triglycerides.. She is 5'8 and her BMI is normal so I'm sure that is why she didn't mention the wt. thing.

Gary, all I will mention is that we are trying to get the help.

No I hadn't noticed and feel like such a tool. Who else is missing?

Meg, I must be blind. Did you post cat pics? Sometimes I feel like I'm sleepwalking.

Ennay, we like you here. So far Once in a while someone here will get set off (usually me), but it doesn't seem to happen very often. And even I am doing better at holding my breath and looking away when I need to.

Hi everybody. I have used all the sugars in my body by riding my bicycle up a REALLY BIG HILL, so my brain isn't functioning at 100% yet. I'll try to catch up later.

Anne

OK, now that I just posted over on the fall clothes thread (you can go there to see what I'm planning on wearing over the weekend) I finally remember what I was going to post.

Today, I'm putting on my new cowgirl boots, driving up to Jersey City, taking two trains to get into NYC and meeting DH for dinner, or we'll meet up in JC and get together with our friend who had spinal surgery on his neck on Monday.

We'll stay over at the apartment Friday night because there's no need to be stuck in bad traffic to get to the beach since DH won't be able to sail or swim or do much of anything. We'll head down sometime on Saturday and stay at his mom's house so he can sleep upright in the recliner chair.

Tomorrow night is a BBQ at our friend's beach house. I'm already salivating over the ribs he'll be making. Plus he makes the best marguritas - one of the few drinks I'll drink (hate beer, wine, gin, vodak, can take rum and tequilla in very small doses.)

Sunday night is our Labor Day Cocktail Party at our yacht club. Then sometime on Monday, we'll head home to our house. DH will telecommute to work next week so he'll be more comfortable.

What does everyone else have planned for the long weekend?

Time to go out and cut the back yard. It's a jungle out there.

Just a quickie for Baff before I take DS to the Diabetes Clinic -- an standard bar in the gym (called an Olympic bar) weighs 45 pounds. Certainly not negligible! And you absolutely count in the weight of the bar when you're adding up the pounds you're squatting. 65 pounds is a very respectable weight to start at, for sure.

My suggestion for next week is to start off with a warm-up set with the bar, then do a set with 65#, throw two more 10's on and see what you can do with 85#, then drop back to 65#, then strip the bar and rep it out -- do as many as you possibly can with just the bar. Try for 25 - 50 reps.

As for welcoming trainers' advice -- you are very much in the minority. But it's the right attitude to have!

Have fun with squats! Did they feel different than other exercises you've done?

It evidently depends on the cheese. Mozzarella and ricotta are 'instant' cheeses. Apparently you can go from a gallon of milk to a pile of edible cheese in about 30 minutes. Not bad! I'll report back as to its easiness and to its tastiness I like the idea of making mozz and other basic cheeses myself. So wholesome.

Meg, the squats felt different to the hack squats, but about the same as the barbell squats I was doing a couple of months back, with the exception of the bruised shoulder blades and general awkwardness getting out from under the rack I will say, however, that my butt has been KILLING me for the last couple of days! I don't know if that's from my stiff-legged deadlifts and improved form, or from the squats. Either way, I'm happy. Thanks for the advice about how to proceed with the squats. I'll give it a go!

I'm off to corrrupt the youth and then driving to Oregon for the wedding. Have a nice weekend, all!

Baff, re bruised shoulder blades ... if your gym doesn't provide squat pads, you must buy yourself one! I couldn't do BB squats otherwise. It's a thick pad that velcroes around the bar and look like this:




They work equally well for BB lunges (hint, hint ).

Hi, everyone! I am soooo far behind! The worst computer disaster happened Wednesday morning! My computer completely crashed out of the blue. It's not good, and I'm still waiting to hear from the computer repair shop to see if anything can be done. I'm writing this before I leave from work.

Unfortunately, I have to give a talk in 1 1/2 weeks, and I may have lost it completely -- at any rate, I don't have it to work on it now, so I'm thinking I may have to spend this weekend redoing it. That means traveling back and forth 10 miles to work over the holiday!

Strangely, I find this computer freedom a little liberating -- I'm reading more of the newspaper, and I'm realizing how much time I spend on the computer when I'm home. I wouldn't mind much at all if I didn't need to access the computer for work-related emergencies that might come up and for this talk. I guess I can say that at least it didn't crash the day before the talk!

Foodwise/weight-wise, things have been a little weird. As I said (before the crash), I didn't overeat last weekend. The strange thing is that my weight has been up the last few days. Since I last wrote, I've been above 120. In the past, I'd be about 122-123 on Monday, and by Friday I'd be 118-119. I started out at around 119 on Monday morning, and I've been between 120 and 121 since Wednesday. So weird! I'm pretty sure my calories for the week in total are lower! I did change my breakfast to grape-nuts, and I'm wondering if that has something to do with it. I ate some straight out of the box, but I thought I accounted for it. I've been back to Cream of Wheat the last few days, and I threw out the rest of the Grape-Nuts -- they had dangerous (overeating) potential (plus they were sending my fiber intake a little TOO high!)

Well, wish me luck with the computer thing...
I hope they can fix it.

Good morning!
I had a huge nap yesterday and then struggled with the knowledge that I'd wasted most of my day off. But I feel sooo much better and my eating was sooo much better. Housework waits? right?