Kery, for sure, giving up junk food was easier for me than not having my coffee.

Allison, good luck with the other lab. Wish you lived closer, my Lucy would love being at your house. BTW, I did think I lost my rings at the lake while camping. They were in my purse that weekend and I never found them til today. I normally do sit my purse on that bookcase every night so I guess they had fallen from my purse and rolled under it. I had looked behind it before, but not actually pulled it out and looked under it. Since DH is gone for the week, I just wanted to rearrange the bedroom a little and clean it really good. I haven't had a chance to tell DH yet that I found them. I can already hear the "I told you so" speech.

Jessica, Wow, just 3 weeks, that is really soon. Congrat's and keep us posted whenever you have time. We look forward to seeing the pic's.

I just spent 6 hours digging holes with post hole diggers and planting native marsh plants. My arms feel like burning jello. I don't think I'm going to the gym after work. And I'm going to go home and drink a beer and really, really enjoy it.

There were about 10 of us helping this guy plant, and he offered to buy us lunch. I said thanks but no thanks. This is where the comment yesterday came from - my co-worker said "but why?! it's free!" and then continued to push the issue. She started working with us about 3 months ago, and after watching me eat my brantastic breakfasts she had said "I couldn't imagine not liking the food I eat". I hadn't said anything about not liking it, in fact I like everything that I eat. I encountered comments a few weeks back from another source that I posted about. I shrugged and said "I like to know what goes into my food." I know I need a thicker skin, and I know how to respond. It is just continually frustrating to me for the exact reasons Kery and Pam mentioned. I don't critique the food they eat, unhealthy, healthy, whatever it is. I would consider it rude. But I will try to stop harping on it. Today I ate my sandwich and veggies while everyone else ate greasy pizza and cookies, and that was fine with me.

Hi everybody,

DD has Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease, another one of those nuisance childhood illnesses I'd never heard of. She's breezing through it, but can't go to daycare because she's contagious. DH is out of town of course, so I have my hands full. Will try to stop back in this weekend.

Anne

Oh, and have a great afternoon everyone.

Oh, Anne! I'm so sorry. We had that one too. It's not serious, just a pain in the rear. Take care.

Megan, that sounds like one heck of a workout! I definitely think you should skip the gym. As for the food, your coworker sounds like she's really out of line in her comments. You must make her quite uncomfortable about her food choices. There's nothing wrong with silence as a response -- it can speak volumes. Or how about a big grin and a "I LOVE what I'm eating!"?

Megan - People dont always get that I find a donut and sugary cereal (for example )nauseating. I hated them as a kid, I hated them as a fat woman. I've always been a "health nut" to a lot of people even when I was fat. Like I am "so good" for not eating deep fried make me puke ick. I find frosting on cake disgusting. In fact, I hate most cake (unless it has the word cheese in it!). But of course if I turn it down then I "must be dieting".

Hi! It's a nasty rainy, gonna-get-very-windy (they say) day here. Blech. I want to go home and wrap up with a good trashy novel.

Ennay - I don't like donuts or cake either, though I could choke down a nice piece of moist carrot cake with creamcheese frosting (there's that cheese word! ) I've a vacation next week (with 5 other women) and two nearly back-to-back multi-day out of town workshops starting Oct 10. I'm already stressing about the food choices for all of thse. Vacation is less of a problem. 4 days of the 9 I'll be just with one friend at her home, and it's easier to decide what/where to eat. The other 5 days are the problem as we'll be at a B&B with the other 4 women, who are friends, but not people we usually spend as much time with, and have never vacationed with. Oh well, I'll do the best I can.

The workshops, hmmmm, I think I'll be taking at least my own breakfast foods and snacks. On one the lunches are catered, but always have lots of salad stuff, and dinner is on your own, though with only a limited selection of restaurants (it's at hotel in a ski resort town, and we get off-season rates, but it means also that not everything is open) The other is a new one to me, so I don't know what to expect. Life is always a challenge isn't it?

Allison - 3 dogs??? Gads. We're having trouble decideing whether or not to get a second cat. We lost our old cat last spring, and our other cat would really benefit from a second one again. As would we, as we are the object of all her affection, and she's quite needy that way - always wanting to be on our laps. She's siamese, so quite vocal about her desires!

Lily - I'm so glad you found your rings (and that DH was telling the truth). I'm sure you'll have to listen to the "I told you" routine, but oh well.

Anne - good to hear that the illness is not serious, but these things do seem to happen when the other parent is away, don't they? Hope you're getting in some good mother-daughter time anyway.

Megan - don't know what to say about people who comment about your food. I don't get too much beyond, "aren't you going to have some of whatever?" I just smile and say "no" or "I'm full." I never comment on what someone else eats, and I would be offended if they did on what I eat. Great workout digging post holes - I've done it myself.

I managed to get up early and do my LBWO/PT exercises this morning so I'll go home and do laundry and plan my clothes for the rest of the week so I can start packing. I leave Friday night late, late, late, but I'll be out on Friday evening, so I need to be ready to drive to the airport when we get home about 10. Which reminds me, I need to go check the weather to see what I need to bring....

Have a great evening.

Hi everyone,

I don't understand these people and their rude food-related comments. I'd have a very hard time restraining my inner b*tch if someone were to make such comments to me. (Which is probably why people don't say anything like that in my direction. My inner b*tch is not especially well hidden. ) I actually tend to suspect the opposite--that people must be very envious of my delicious lunches. There's a guy on my floor who nukes nasty, nutritionally void frozen food (like frozen mac n' cheese) each day for lunch. I wonder how he doesn't starve to death on such calorie dense, insubstantial meals, but I also wonder how he can bear to eat that crap when I'm tossing a delicious and colorful salad and reheating fragrant homemade soup packed with veggies and grains and legumes. My lunch is MUCH better.

I'm struggling with my eating this week. After my bingey weekend (described in the old thread), my body has been loudly and insistently demanding fat, fat, fat! It's quite odd, when you think about it. I can go weeks and weeks happily eating my healthy whole foods and moderated treats, but if I spend a few days eating pizza, cheese and American breakfasts, it triggers some primordial desire for more of the same. I have been CONSTANTLY fighting the urge to eat french fries since Sunday. I really need to create a bit of an extra deficit after the weekend, but it's very difficult when my body keeps demanding french fries. I've been doing my best to resist, but it is difficult.

Baff, I'm the same way, except that it's usually that wonderful combination of sugar AND fat. I have to keep reminding myself what happens if I stray off plan because it's so, so hard to fight past the cravings and get back on plan. I hate cravings! If you can make it through the next few days without giving in to the dreaded FF monster, things should get much easier.

BTW, you can make lunch for me any time!

baffled~I have the same problem. Fat makes me crave fat. Carbs (especially bread) makes me crave carbs. Leave them out for a couple days and the cravings disappear, but until then--WATCH OUT!

Hey Everybody ~

Just finished chatting with Angie, she sat down here unwinding from work while I was posting here. She took off for a 3.5 mile run. I walked the dogs earlier before treadmill work-out.

I weighed in at 179.0 this morning! It has been a long time since I was in the 70's. I didn't post it yet, could be a fluke, but either way I have been at 180 for 4 straight days

Birthday party for one of my nieces tonight. Just ice cream and cake, and it is just across the street! I'm with some of the rest of you, I do not eat cake or cookies, well usually I don't. Never have craved them. That isn't to say I don't like them...I just don't eat them....usually. I will go on an ice cream kick about once a year for a few weeks. Earlier this year it was Klondike bars, I haven't had one, or any ice cream for that matter, in about 3 months. Don't miss it... getting used to not eating potato chips too. I have had some since my "better choice" journey, but not many. I do want and miss those!!

BAFFLED ~STOP IT! You are making me hungry!

ENNAY I'm with you on the freakin' donuts!

MEGAN ~ I think I told you earlier they were jealous or were just trying to make conversation, not really meaning anything...well...now I say "just slap 'em!"

ANNE ~My kids never had that, but right now my friend's grandkids have it, from pre-school. I remember years ago I was the coach of my son's baseball team, 10 yr. olds. All the kids wore the same couple of helmets back then, now I think they all have their own, anyway one day after a night game the day before, my son brings home a note from his little christain school ~ "your child has been exposed to head lice"....You should have seen me trying to tell 14 mom's that their kid may have shared the same helmet as my son. Some laughed...been there done that...other's freaked out (not at me, they understood) because they had been there PICKED that!

ALLISON ~I am missing my beer....just trying to get the weight down since I am doing so good. If it wasn't coming off so fast I would probably drink more!

PAM ~You do look very shapely in the photo! I can see why your going to be a "STAR!" Oh, about the kid that's hurt, no need to be sorry, I just wanted you to know my son was older and his teacher just for communication purposes!

LILY ~ Now that the "wedding ring mystery" has been solved...we can rest easy!

MEG ~I hope your cat is better. I had to keep my dog, that is hurting right now, crated for almost 2 months when she initially hrt her leg. That was almost impossible, she just runs full bore everywhere 24/7!...unless it's nap time!

ROBIN ~I really doubt if it's their once a week bad meal, maybe. I am 6 foot tall, I never weighed over 155 until I was almost 40 years old. You would not believe the amount of food I could eat! My buddies and I would fast food trip in school, I always out ate them. My wife said she had never seen anyone eat like my brother and I do...and she grew up with a fireman dad and his friends and uncles that were longshoremen! After 40, the weight stayed though...bummer. Great job!

SUSAN and KIM ~Way to work that scale in your favor!

Well off to the birthday party after dinner....be good ~ GARY

I forgot to mention this in my post! Lily, I'm so glad you found your rings. What a relief to know for sure that your husband didn't sell them behind your back! No more niggling doubts!

Allison & Meg: I'm glad I'm not alone in this. It's quite frustrating. I'm also STARVING at the moment, no matter how much I eat. I think I might be ovulating. I suspect that I get hungrier then. Either that or my stomach has expanded dramatically after the weekend. It could go either way.

Lily - Glad that you found your rings.

Megan -- Really, some people are WAY out of line! 'Not liking what you eat'? So because it's not deep-fried, covered in tons of butter or half-drowned in sugar, it must be disgusting and we're forcing ourselves to eat it? Seriously, don't bother the next time and just tell them that you wouldn't be crazy enough to eat something you don't like, or something to that avail. Maybe I am a rude person as well, but now, when someone throws the first stone, I don't worry anymore about hurling back a boulder rock in turn. (And Meg is perfectly right.)

Ennay -- I wonder why that is, why so many people don't seem to be able to understand that. We all have different tastes, and because one is/has been overweight doesn't HAVE to mean they always prefer deep-fried and stuff to healthier alternatives. After all, one can gain weight on eating too many bananas, too. Of course, if I coul not like cake and cookies now, I'd be glad.

Baffled -- Sometimes I wonder. I got told I eat "super-diet-like" when I brought a plate of green beans, turkey and basmati rice + a coffee-flavoured yogurt at work for lunch once. I think I gave my colleague a blank stare and just said "but, that's NORMAL food, not diet food". Go figure. :roll:

And good luck with that 'primordial desire'. I have very similar triggers, too, and boy, it's hard to fight them. For the moment, if I go astray, so to say, I know I have to take it back into control right the day after, because I don't dare let more than one day pile up.

I think this is the issue. It is normal for humans to eat moderate quantities of vegetables, starches and proteins in balanced proportions. It is NOT normal to eat giant piles of starches slathered in fat for every meal. It's also not normal to eat food processed within an inch of its life all the time. The fact that excessive fats and extreme processing strike people as normal while balanced whole foods are perceived as unpleasant, abnormal and suited only for diets reveals a real perversion of attitudes towards food in our culture.

Thanks everyone about my finding my rings. LOL, DH called from his work tonite and I didn't tell him yet. I just didn't have the courage yet.

Gary, WTG on seeing the 170's.

I'm wide awake and doing laundry late tonite.