Not to worry, guys, there isn't any meaning to us being at the bottom of the forum. Suzanne consolidated several of the forums that had been below us into other forums over the weekend and we ended up at the end of the page. There are still changes being made, so don't be surprised if we end up somewhere else. I'll try to give you a heads up if we're going to make a drastic move. :)

Carolyn, that dinner sounds magnificent! How wonderful that you could attend it and enjoy it!

Jay

Hi GALS ~

Doing OK...my mom's obiturary was in the paper, I read it when I got home from work today, got a living plant from my sister in law and several cards. Was a little down...got the dogs and took off for 3 miles! Just as my mom would want!

Can't stick around here...Angie wants to catch up on UGLY BETTY's we DVR'd....

Checked in at 174.0 this morning....still MAINTAINING!

Doesn't matter to me where we are...top...middle...bottom...all I know is you gals are the best!! Top of my list!

MEG ~ That poor lady lived just 4 miles from me....friends from our church were her neighbors.

:hug: Gary

I've been busy with work and sick and food has not been great but some how miraculously the scale is staying in the same spot. I must not be doing too bad.

Had a major revalation this morning about how much I actually lost when NOTHING in my closet was even close to fitting. I kept my bigger clothes purely for economic reasons but it has gotten to the point where I just look stupid in these clothes. They are no longer "just a little big" but kind of clownish. Better go shopping again.

Meg those ballons were so cheerful. They brought a smile to my face. Can imagine it would be even more cool in person.

I still don't see the difference in the mirror.

Morning, everyone! Just a quick hello before I roust The Boy and the day really begins.

Hello.

See, that was quick!

Kim

Morning Kim and everyone! :wave:

Did you see that the forum moved overnight? Zap! :wizard: Hope everyone found it with all the recent changes -- I think the new forum structure is pretty much in place and things should be stable from now on.

DH and I are staying in a charming B&B outside of Santa Fe that ... you'll never believe this ... doesn't serve coffee until 7:30 am. :faint: I'm up at my usual ridiculously early hour with NO COFFEE! Oh, the humanity!

We're heading back to Albuquerque this morning for the second weekend of the Balloon Fiesta and more wedding stuff. We're planning on meandering down some of the little roads through the East Mountains rather than driving direct on the interstate so we can check out places for our dream house. :)

Our room here has the world's most slimming full-length mirror, like a circus mirror. I actually look tall and thin!! I want to take it home with us. :lol:

Hiker, speaking of mirrors, I think a lot of us have trouble seeing ourselves as we really are. Clothes are an excellent reality check. It definitely sounds like it's time to go shopping. :D

Along with early morning coffee, charming B&Bs don't have fitness centers. And boy howdy, do I have calories to work off. :eek:

Meg, I've been known to take a small coffee pot and coffee when traveling for just those contingencies. It's too cruel. ;)

Tried out our new George Foreman grill last night on a Del Monico steak, aka ribeye. What a cool thing! yum!

Same old stuff today...

Jay

Hey! :wave:

Dang, Meg, I want a mirror like that. You're 5'4". If it makes you look tall, it probably would make me look like a freakin' runway model! If you're up so early without coffee, you should go back to sleep. In the meantime, I'll send some Rock Star energy drink over the computer to you ;) This one has zero calories, zero carbs, and as much caffeine as three cups of coffee.

Hello, Kim! :lol:

Carolyn, that party sounds quite elegant and the food sounds amaaaazing, even if not diet friendly. And I just got a funny image of you shaking your fist in the air at those men, and it made me smile. :D
I agree that copays should not be so high for mental illnesses. I don't have any mental illnesses myself, but I know plenty of people who do, and from my experiences with these people, I am quite sure that many mental illnesses are chemical imbalances... and that the people who think they don't count as illnesses are quite ignorant.

hikerchick - CONGRATS on UNDERGROWING all your fat clothes! :D

Hi everyone! I don't have much to say, except that I'd like one of those superslimming mirrors myself. I'm 5'9" so I'd probably look extra lanky -- I could go for that.

I'm excited because it's supposed to be cooler today. We don't have cross country practice today because the kids have early release and we have faculty meetings, so I'm going home and running there, just me and my iPod. It'll be nice to get a solo run in during the week -- that doesn't happen anymore. I love running with the kids but I prefer running on my own, really. And it's not supposed to be ridiculously hot like it has been lately, so yay!!

Hope everyone's day is good...

Bah! Now we're so close to the top! I use the User CP list to peruse my boards, and I liked having Maintainers at the bottom--best for last, and all that. :) Now we're third on my list!

Anyway, hope everyone is having a good week.

Meg, your vacation sounds lovely. Except for the coffee bit. I'm torn between my support for your god-given right to have coffee in the morning, and my feeling that no one should be up as early as you are, especially on vacation!

I'm very jealous of those of you having indian summers. We're having a true autumn here, and, quite frankly, I'm bummed about it. Autumn is fine, but summer is my favorite. I need to put all my summer clothes in storage; all those cotton skirts and tank tops are taunting me. I've even had the heat on over the last couple of weeks. It's an injustice!

Good morning everyone!

DH and I went for our run this morning. I think he's enjoying it. He says it's cool to look at the stars.

Meg~I don't know how I'd live without coffee before 7:30!! Sounds like a lovely place otherwise!

hiker~have fun shopping.

Gosh, I get a little quiet time to do some posting and then something pops up at work. Guess I gotta run.

bwahahah...just laughing at how set we get in our ways! Coffee, forum moves, everything....just dont CHANGE it! I am the same way.

Thin mirrors....Well SIL hasnt seen me in a bit and she saw a pic of me last week and asked MIL "who is that tall thin woman holding (ds)" TALL :lol3: OF course MIL then went off on her worry about how gaunt I am and how she thinks I have an eating disorder.

Good evening everyone. :)

Hikerchick -- Oh, welcome to my world. I am somewhat lucky in that I still had clothes from when I had lost weight in my first years of college, but even these are starting to look clownish, depending on what clothes they were (tops are alright, bottoms are not). Losing weight is thrilling, but a thinning wallet isn't that great all the same.

I'm pretty glad myself today, my weight-lifting instructor said I don't need to pass the mandatory test to be allowed to use the weights rooms on the campus whenever it's open for free practice. So tomorrow, I'll get my "free pass" card and will be able to lift on the week-ends too. :)

And for a little dose of bitter laugh: I found an old notebook in which I had logged my food intake sometime at the very end of 2005. I was seriously shocked to see that I would eat stuff like 100g of pasta (dry!) + tomato sauce for dinner, and consider that 'healthy'. Huh. I must've been quite wrong in my head at the time. No wonder I had regained some bad habits through 2006! (For the record, now I measure about 40g of starch when I eat some at a meal... and there's always plenty of vegetables, and protein, and maybe dairy, with it.) How I had managed to lose weight on such foods now has become a mystery to me...:dizzy:

Me chiming in at the end of the week again!
 

Hi folks!

Meg - Beautiful pic of the hot air balloons. VERY cool.

Lilly- Hope you are getting over your sickness. :getwell:

Gary - I will keep you and your family in my prayers. So sorry to hear of your loss. :hug:

On Wednesday October 10 I reached my 2 year anniversary of my life style change. On October 10, 2005, I weighed 204 lbs. On October 10, 2006, I weighed 141 lbs. On October 10, 2007 I weighed in at 119 lbs. Pretty cool. I will be in maintenance 1 year on March 27, 2008.

Pretty exciting. Thanks for reading.

Libby! :cheer2: :cheer2: :broc: :cb: :broc: :cb:

You are amazing! Good work!

Jay

:bravo: Libby! We're so proud of you!!!! :cp:

I'm back in Albuquerque, in the land of in-room coffeemakers and cell phone coverage. :lol: DH and I are heading out to PF Changs for dinner -- love that place! We only have one in Pittsburgh, way far away from where we live, so we never get there.

I had to leave the Thin Mirror behind. :cry: Now if I only can figure out a way to grow six inches ....

Hi everyone

I haven't checked in for quite some time. Soo busy with school. Midterms are already approaching. I can't believe how time flies.

Eating has been so-so. I'm always thinking about food and what to eat next. I've been within my calorie limits but it's still so hard. I always write down what I eat but I don't usually plan a day's meals or a week's meals. That would probably lift a huge weight off my shoulders. I tried planning a full day's food halfheartedly a few times. I always planned healthy meals but when the time to eat came around, I was either craving something else or just too lazy to actually prepare what I had planned. So I grab something quick and easy. :(

I also noticed I'm not eating enough fats. I think I'll buy some black olives. I tried Picholine olives yesterday and wasn't too pleased with the taste. They have more of a crunchy texture.

Exercising has been good. I'm noticing awesome definition in my arms and legs and even upper abs from my weight training class. :carrot: I really hope to keep it up after the semester ends. Not too sure where I am weightwise...haven't weighed in the past week or so because I've been spending most nights at the BFs and he doesn't have a scale. Clothes still fit so that's promising. :)

The rain here was unbelievable today! I drove to school and at the end of the day when I went to my parking spot, it was like my car was the midpoint of a flood. Needless to say my new running sneakers and socks were soaking wet! To top it off I was standing in the rain in my drenched sneakers because the 'Unlock' button on my car keys wasn't working for a good 5 minutes! All I could do was laugh.

Gary, so sorry about your mom. :hug: Carolyn's right - Your mom would be thrilled to see how you've been keeping up such a great attitude. :)

Libby CONGRATULATIONS! WTG :D

Lisa, I'm with you on the solo running with iPod. Although I've never ran with a partner or a group, I can't imagine ditching my music!

Hi to everyone else!!!! Have a great weekend if I don't check in for a while.

Yay Libby!!!!

Cute new picture of you and your son. You look so great!

Ugh, I have munched ALL day. I haven't even counted how far I went over my calories, but I definitely went WAY over. I don't even have a good reason for it -- just stress, I guess. I had a really good 3-mile run, but it doesn't keep me from feeling really icky. I have a stomachache from too much food!! It's been a long time since I've felt like that.

Sigh...here's to a better day tomorrow...

Congratulations Libby
 

Libby - On Wednesday October 10 I reached my 2 year anniversary of my life style change.

Congratulations, Libby, it's great that you celebrate from the beginning of your life style change. That's important to me because it shifts the emphasis away from goal weight, which is the response of my body, to life style, which I directly control.

Congratulations Libby. I am so happy and excited for you!!!!!

I don't have much to say, but...
Congrats on your lifestyle change anniversary, Libby! :D Now, you need to celebrate by going out to eat, of course. ;)

Congratulations Libby!!! :carrot:

Hi everyone else!

Good morning everyone!

Congratulations, Libby! Well done!!

It's going to be a long day. My in-laws arrive back today and we'll go see them tonight at the high school football game. Until then, it will be a quiet day. Work is going to be slow. Isn't it weird how some days are so busy you can't think straight and other days are terribly slow?

I'm not happy with myself this morning. I got a new pair of jean at Express a couple of weeks ago and this morning the scale was up another 2 pounds over yesterday and the jeans are uncomfortably tight. I was hoping that going from zero exercise to running 3 days a week would help me lose--not gain. It's really quite discouraging.

That's too bad, Allison. Are you still actively trying to lose?

I don't have much to say today except that I achieved an important non-scale goal today! I did 2x10 squats at 140lb. That's my bodyweight! Hooray! I'm rather pleased at how quickly I was able to meet that goal. I was doing unweighted wall squats with a ball in June. Hooray for muscles!

Happy friday, everyone!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy, Baff!!!

You're running with the big dogs now. :D

So what's the next goal?

:bravo: baf!!!!!

Libby- You look incredible! WTG! Two years is fantastic!

Mel

HI MAINTAINERS :wave:

I will NEVER catch up on posting, and I know that is OK! I want to once again :thanks: thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers. It has been a rough week, as expected, but gets better each day.

This is the week end me and my kids were going to be in Illinois visiting my mom, plane tickets for them from Thursday to Sunday night and me until next Thursday....so much for planning :(

Little things remind me of my mom, as they should! I was on the treadmill this morning, watching CBS morning show, when the weather came on and went to the Illinois section I looked...out of habit. we always talked on the week-end once she moved to Illinois a few years ago, the WEATHER always came up! So predictable :D Gonna miss those phone calls. Doing better each day!

I am down another pound to 173, that is twice in 4 days, we will see if it sticks. I am eating just fine gals! I have been getting my walks in also, 6 miles this morning on the treadmill. We are a little slow at work so I just took the day off. I might take Monday off too, with a periodontist appointment in the morning. We'll see.

If I can get to 170 that would be cool! I can "spare" it, that's for sure. It would be nice to get a little :turkey: Thanksgiving turkey cushion going too! Angie and I will be doing a 5K Thanksgiving morning, as we have done for 5 of the last 6 years. My ex-wife's sister will be joining us for sure. Haven't talked to the kids yet, they have done 4 of them with us, now that they are off and married, maybe not this year, knucklehead nephew probably will run it....if I get him out of bed ;) It is a pretty fun one, finishes along the beach...last year it was so beautiful!

Tonight is :love: date night :love: so Angie and I will head out to dinner...with eating sensibly at the top of my list!! Then back home for Ghost Whisperer and sneaking off to the family room, for me, from time to time to catch baseball scores ;)

I hope to catch up this week-end with individual posts...if not....know that I am thinking of all of you!

We are having a big day at church on Sunday, it is the 40th anniversary of our Pastor in the ministry, 38 years at my church. I am so glad to be able to go.

Have a great week-end with your families and maintaining ladies!!....Bless each and every one of you ~

Gary

Hi everyone, I've been fairly busy since DH got home Tuesday night. On Wednesday we had a big family gathering at my MIL's. DH's niece is planning her wedding for June, 21st and it's pretty exciting. I got to see our only granddaughter that is now 3 1/2 months old. She already weighs 21 lbs. and I don't think I've ever saw a baby that young as big as she is. She is really long. Her dad is 6'5 so I expect she is going to be very tall. I am happy to report that Whitney (my second oldest SD) is being a wonderful mom to this baby girl and is so totally different from the oldest SD that it seems impossible that they are related.

On Thursday we had our date night and went to Karaoke. We had a great time. My eating that night was definitely not on plan (DH cooked dinner).

DH and I loaded up the boat today and spent the whole day fishing. Caught lots of fish and had a very peaceful day. We left the boat hooked to DH's vehicle and plan to fish more this weekend.

Thankfully today, I was back on track at least with my eating. I really had a totally non-hungry day. Strange how that happens sometimes.

Libby, big congrat's for the wonderful job you've done at meeting your goal and keeping the weight off.

Gary, I'm glad to see that you are doing OK. I know there will be many times to come when things will remind you of your mother. My mother passed 10 yrs. ago and the smallest things still remind me of her.

Allison, sorry to hear of your jeans experience. Today while we were preparin to go fishing, I pulled on an old pair of jeans (that used to be Samantha's , my oldest SD's) and I noticed they were pretty threadbare, but figured they would be fine for fishing. NOT. I ripped the whole seat of them out while fishing. DH got a good chuckle out of my humiliation. My wt. isn't even up, so I'm blaming it on the fact they were wore out. LOL. At least I had some shiny new undies under them. LOL.

Morning! Libby has done fabulous work, yes?

Nothing new to report here. I'm just pluggin' along.

Hello, been out for a while! Yikes! Work has been sooo time consuming. I even barely have time to read a couple posts a week, much less write one. I'm sorry for your loss EZ. Congratulations to Libby and Lily. I hope everyone else is doing well -- I haven't been too up to date on what's been going on.

I had a lot of weight to lose this week -- I reached my 1 year high on Monday of 125.4 after indulging in apple pie for two days. I'm happy to report that this morning I am back to 119.6. I was worried that some of those extra pounds came from real calories turning to fat and would be difficult to lose. I'm going to have to be strong today...I'd like to eat healthy today so that I only have one day of indulgence this weekend rather than two! I find that on Sunday that my anxiety about going back to work causes me to eat a bit more.

For lunch today, I'm going to try to do a microwaved sweet potato and some soup. For dinner, maybe chicken breast and veggies in a Moroccan sauce w/ oven baked seasoned sweet potato fries. I bought these sweet potatoes a month ago, and still haven't used them. Last winter I ate sweet potato fries all the time, but I haven't done so for quite a while. I guess I just got off that ride! Maybe this will set me back on it. When I get started eating something, I usually eat it almost every day for quite some time. I'm weird like that.

Have a great day everyone.

Morning all!

Gary I am glad to hear you are doing so well!

Lily - too funny about your pants!

I am happy to report that 3.8 of my 6 lb gain from the past 6 weeks is gone...:woohoo: I am also finding getting back on track fairly easy. 6 weeks of bad bingy eating I was ready to dive in like its a "new diet". My boredom with tracking and the temptations that have plagued me since April seem to be gone for now so this may be a good time to push to a new low!

I am also chipper because even though ds woke me at an ungodly 3:30 and then again at 4:30 he then slept until an unheard of 7:30--and so did I.

I went to the doctor yesterday to get my foot xrayed and convinced her that no I couldnt wait the 2-3 weeks it takes for a stress fracture to show up on xray, so monday if my foot isnt better I will get an MRI. Then I will know.

Have a good weekend!

Morning all!

Lily! LOL about your jeans!

Ennay, congrats on the loss! I've been feeling unmotivated this week too. Suddenly I'm excessively tired of logging my food. I'm also starting to feel that as long as I eat the same sorts of breakfasts, lunches and snacks, I'm probably going to be on target with dinner. I know what kind of meal composition I need to stay within my calorie range, and I know what I can have for an after dinner snack. I'm just not 100% certain that I can be trusted. My weight is holding steady, so I don't think I have much room for error. I'm still exercising enough, so that's something.

Thanks for the congrats, Meg and Mel! I'm not sure what my next goal will be. My back and shoulders really felt the 140 yesterday, so I'm going to go slow with the increases for a little while, while my upper body catches up. I should shoot for 200 with my squats and focus on trying to do pull ups. I'm just embarrassed to even try pull ups at the gym because I'm quite certain that I can't do one... We'll see. I need to figure out something with my lunges. I've known for a while that I need to increase from the 40lb bb, and finally got around to using the 50lb yesterday. The lunges were easy (I think I could easily go up higher), but as I did lunges directly after military presses, I found that I absolutely COULD NOT get the 50lb bb over my head! The trainer-who-helps-me patiently acted as my weight rack while I supersetted lunges and abs. LOL. I need to work out a solution to that particular problem!

I made an ethiopian feast for dinner last night! I adore ethiopian food and obviously I can't get any out here in the wilderness. The beef, lentils and chard turned out fantastic--it tasted really authentic and delicious. The injera (sort of a sourdough pancake made of a special ethiopian grain called teff, which you use to eat your ethiopian food and which is notoriously difficult to make) was a bit of a disaster. I've been working on the teff batter for weeks (the recipe requires you to start with flour and water on your counter, wait for wild yeast to appear, ferment for a couple of weeks, convert to teff, ferment, make batter, ferment for three days...) but it did NOT work out. Disappointing, but at least the lentils and kitfo (ethiopian steak tartare) were delicious. Practice, practice, practice.

We're off to a wedding on Mt Hood today. We'll be spending the night in OR and coming back tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to be wearing a black summer dress with a pashmina, and tall boots that I don't like and which are far too big around my calves. :( Stupid winter weddings. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Re Ethiopian Feast
 

Baffled - Congratulations on pulling off the Ethiopian feast, and for even attempting injera. We've become fans of a local Ethiopian restaurant, particularly enjoying taking people there for their first time. I really enjoy the food but do seem to overdo eating the injera each time I've gone. I hope teff is a healthy grain :)

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Teff is a super-healthy grain. It's packed with nutrients and is particularly high in protein and fiber.

http://ethnomed.org/cultures/ethiop/teff.html

Apparently you can make porridge ('oatmeal') with it too, which would be a super-healthy breakfast. I have never liked porridge so I've never tried it, but it would be a great way to get protein and complex carbs in the same bowl. :)

Yeah teff
 

Thanks for the link; that teff is one cool grain :)

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Welcome Bill Blue Eyes!

Congrats Libby!

A few weeks ago I filled out the National Weight Loss Control questionaires for my first anniversary of successfully keeping off 30 lbs (instead of waiting until I hit my goal weight). Today, I receive a few pages of the questionaires back to complete. There were a couple of questions that didn't have the right answer for my circumstance so I had left them blank. This time around, they asked me to choose the one that best fits the scenario.

Yesterday, DH went to the doctor for a check up on plate that was put on his collarbone 3 weeks ago. He told his doctor that it was moving around on him and the doctor said that just can't be. But when they took the Xray, it showed that 4 of the 6 screws have come loose.

He's schedule to have surgery on Monday to put a new longer plate in. He'll be back to day one of healing again. I feel so badly for him.

My mirror is better than any of the mirrors I've seen in dressing rooms. It might be because it's never been hung. It sits on the floor leaning against the wall. To me, I look tall in it because of the angle. Anyone else who would try to look in it would have their head cut off!

Meg - I have one pair of shoes that makes me 5'4" like you and I feel soooo tall when I wear them. - It's all about perspective.

Morning everyone!
The men of our church served the ladies' meeting yesterday and DH brought home left-overs! I had an eight enchilada encounter but I'm feeling much better now ;) All I have left is lovely fruit. I'm taking a big bowl for me and tha gals at work this morning. That'll be better than the eclaires some doctor left yesterday. (no, I didn't have any)

HI LADIES ~:wave:

I just finished 3 treadmill miles. Angie is at church playing in the bell choir, we will both go to second service and meet my son and daughter in law. Our Pastor's anniversary celebration and lunch is today.

Spent the majority of the day, yesterday, watching football. I did 6 miles in the morning on the treadmill then my son came over. His wife was at their school all day, their football team was playing a team from up-state and her dance squad, she is the coach, was performing at the half-times of the JV and Varsity games.

SUSAN ~ Any leftovers? Never any enchiladas at my house...never!

CAROLYN ~Tell DH I am always told I have a few screws loose, he'll be OK. All kidding aside...ouch! Poor guy, prayers for a successful, easy surgery!

BAFF ~I don't believe I have ever had Ethiopian food, I wouldn't know where to start.

ENNAY ~I hope the foot heals quickly! Congratulations getting some of that gain..lost!

TARA ~Thanks. Good to see you! Good luck with those sweet potatoes!

LILY ~ I hope you had a great catch this week-end!

ALLISON ~I hope the meet the in laws/game went well.

LIBBY ~Thanks. Great job maintaining! Cute kid!

SWEET AMOR ~Thanks. good luck with those mid-terms!

MEG ~ KERY ~ MEL ~ ROBIN ~ SHANE ~ HICKERCHICK ~ LISA MARIE ~ JAY ~ ANNE ~ AND EVERYONE ELSE! :wave:

Hope everyone's having a good weekend! I can't believe it's almost over already! Mine's been filled with lots of work and lots of sleeping. I just couldn't seem to get enough sleep this weekend... And I've been doing a lot of reading to prepare for what I have to teach this week. I'm starting Fahrenheit 451 with one of my classes and I hadn't read it in ages, so I had to go back and reread it. Boy, Bradbury really did see into the future, huh? I swear it seems we're headed down the scary path he laid out for us in that creepily prescient novel... But I could go on and on about that and bore you all to death!

I'm pretty sad about this pain in my left hamstring, which is keeping me from running the last few days. I'm thinking of taking this whole week off, and that worries me. I REALLY have to keep my eating under control if I'm not running...