Happy birthday Lily!!!!!!!! Glad to hear you're starting to feel better!

Allison - the dog my family had from when I was about 10 until my senior year of college had to see specialists and have surgery when he was a puppy. After we adopted him he was having a lot of vomiting (we even rushed him to the emergency vet on christmas day!). We took him to a doggie GI specialist and it turned out he had a birth defect in his intestines which needed surgery. We almost put him down because of the cost, but the vets gave us good financing options so we had the surgery for him. After that he lived 10 healthy years with only vet visits for routine shots! I wish he had lived longer, but unfortunately he died from bone cancer. :( My dad says he would totally clone that dog if it was possible.

Dena - LOL, glad you enjoy it!

Aqua - thanks, they are running some blood tests for muscle enzymes for me. My doc said it might be because my thyroid med dose needs to be adjusted so they're testing that too.

After my visit with my doc I am both hopeful for the future and disappointed about the present. I love that my new doc is aggressive about getting me treated and doesn't just blow me off like so many others have done. She's referred me to occupational therapy for my wrists and is keeping me on the Cymbalta. On the other hand, she said because of my knees, ankles, and muscle aches, she wants me to stick to either the recumbant bike or swimming for exercise for now. She thought it was pretty likely that as I start to feel better, I'll overexercise (true, I already did it once), and make myself worse again. I'm kind of disappointed about that because the recumbant bike is about the most boring machine in the gym, and I don't have access to an indoor pool for swimming. I miss running and the great feeling it always gave me!

Happy Birthday Lily! My aren't there a lot of us March babies here!

I still haven't heard from the vet--I'm hoping it's a case of "no news is good news." They said that if the chest xray didn't look good, they wouldn't continue with labs or the surgery. I just want to know if he had to have the root canal--that's a big part of the expense. If they can simply clean and "glue" the tooth back together (the enamel had split) then it would be fairly inexpensive. The cheapest would be to simply pull the tooth, but since it's that huge chewing tooth, I thought it best to try and save.

I think my bad night of sleep is catching up to me. I'm not tired, but I'm starving! I didn't bring extra snacks to work, so I'm kind of stuck unless I run to the deli which I'd rather not do. I want to stick it out and hopefully lose a little!!!

Jessica~I sure hope all your pains get straightened out. I know what you mean about using the boring equipment--that's why I have trouble getting on my own equipment at home. It's almost like it's not worth the trouble.

Warlock~although I've never given anything up for Lent, I doubt I'd ever lose the taste for something like meat! Your next visit to Ruth's Chris for a filet will solve your problems!

Mel, I'm so sorry... you were the first one to welcome me, and I didn't thank you in my post. :sorry: Thanks for the warm welcome, mel. I'm glad to be part of your group! :D

Hugs, Dena :cool:

Hi maintainers,

:bday2you: Lily! That makes you 1 year and 2 days younger than me!!! I hope you had a marvellous birhtday, and that your health will improve soon!

Hi to all the other maintainers. I did my first 2nd stage workout of NRWL today, and again these are some strange moves! I almost fell over at the one legged dumbell row , and I actually fell off the stability ball when I did the substiture woodchop exercise! Also, I have had to halve or thirds (??) the weights for this round. I cannot believe some of you do this kind of stuf in public! Lots of room for improvement for me.

Have a great day all,
rabbit

I have definitely fallen over in public more than once doing the 1 legged db rows and the prone jackknives. It bothers me not at all. :)

Happy birthday Lily!!!

I've done a good job of staying on my ultra-restrictive plan the last few days and have been rewarded with a weight drop. Scale said 145.1 this morning. Go scale! I'm feeling less fat too, which helps.

:wave:

Robin: I think the nasty comments also stem from insecurity. In the case of my friend's husband, he's gained a lot of weight in the past 5 to 10 years and I think he feels threatened by my losing weight. It makes him feel like he should be doing something about his weight. At least, I know that I often felt that way before I lost weight and I would see other people choosing to control their weight (but I never made any nasty comments--or at least I hope I didn't).

That's strange about your underarms if you haven't changed anything. Has something changed in your diet? These skin things are really hard to pin down. Maybe try moisturizing before putting on deodorant/antiperspirant.

Paperclippy: I should probably be getting my garden in the ground now, I just don't have the energy for it. I love enjoying what my garden produces, but I hate the actual gardening part of it. I need to find some perennial vegetables.

I'm sorry you are having all these aches and pains. I hurt my knee last October, which led to an ankle injury, then my elbow start to hurt, the my calves, then my other ankle, so I know what you mean about feeling like you are falling apart. And it is really frustrating not to be able to exercise in the way you want. :mad:

Lilybelle: Happy Birthday! :celebrate: You look fabulous and not anywhere near 48! I know that writing everything down is key to me staying on plan with my eating. In my mind, if I don't write it down, it doesn't have any calories. :s: When I'm off-plan, it's always because I'm not writing stuff down. I agree with you on I Can Make You Thin; I wasn't very impressed with the 1/2 episode that I saw. He just seemed to be repeating stuff I've heard from a lot of other sources. I suppose I didn't give him much of a chance, but I'd rather just figure out what I can eat and eat it then use all these tricks to try to get myself to eat less.

Aqua: It's so disappointing when you are looking forward to a meal and then it ends up not being what you had hoped! I could never in a million years give up meat, though. I used to not like meat and was almost an accidental vegetarian but since I've started eating healthy and exercising, I've become some sort of meat-addict. Hi, I'm Barbara and I'm addicted to chicken!

alinnell: I hope Buddy is okay. I can't believe they can give root canals to dogs. I was just talking with someone the other day about how expensive pets are. But just think, it's nothing compared to what you spend on your kids. At least you don't have to put the animals through college. ;) And the animals are probably a lot easier to take care of.

MileHiMama: I hope your dog is okay too. Growing up, we had a German Short-Haired Pointer that had genetic hip dysplasia (very common in that breed). She was okay for most of her life, but really had trouble walking in the end. It was very sad, but, at least at the time, there wasn't anything they could do.

Dena, don't worry about it :hug: A lot of people think Meg and I are the same person.

Hope you had a happy birthday, Lily! You really do look much younger than 48. Your "befores" look 48!

Allison- Ugh. I've had so many nights like that. Hope you made it through the day and get a good night's sleep tonight.

Aqua- I couldn't give up meat! I'm like Barbara: Hello, I'm Mel and I'm a turkey chili and chicken addict. And I don't think I've ever passed up a good rare steak, either. Did you eat fish?

One day back on track with no peanut butter.
Hi to all :wave:

Mel

Hey Mel, even I get confused sometimes. :lol: It doesn't help that we have DDs the same age and DSs who could be clones. And DHs who look alike. :dizzy:

Dena, I didn't have to change to say welcome, so :welcome3:!

DS wanted to go to the gym with me yesterday and wasn't ready until 7:35 pm. Not my usual lifting time at all, but I gave it a go. Tiredness sure didn't help my strength and then I couldn't sleep worth beans, so I'll try not to do that again. I really do much better first thing in the morning (with several mugs of coffee under my belt!) Since we lifted last night, I'm just going to do cardio and abs this morning.

:wave: Another meat/protein addict here! My body craves protein and I find that I'm not satisfied with a meal unless it has a lot of protein in it. Maybe that's why I'm not a "snacker" per se since most snacks seem to be carb-based. I need my small meals (with protein!) every three hours. :hun:

Allison, I get the same way when I'm tired -- ravenous! Maybe it's because food gives us a burst of energy? Hope you slept better last night! :)

OK, time for another mug of coffee before the gym opens. One question -- how on earth did it get to be the end of March already? :?:

Hi everyone.

Sending Lily warm birthday wishes. :balloons: You really do look fabulous for 48 or heck, 38.

BluetoBlue, you may be on to something. Both friends who made the comments are both about 30 lbs or so overweight (I'm a terrible judge at guessing weight).

Baffled :carrot: yay for you!!!

Deodorant update: Well, I used the Toms of Maine. I wasn't sure if it was stinging or not immediately after putting it on. But after a few minutes, I was certain, it WAS stinging. Not as bad as the others, but it was definitely stinging :?:. I don't know what's going on with me. Really I've changed nothing. For now, I'm going to stick to baby powder.

I had the strangest dream last night. I was swimming in a pool with a bunch of dolphins. I kept banging into them. Then there were lots of other people I knew in the pool with me. Weird.

Just got a huge increase in our health insurance. And am now shopping around for a new plan. Means lots of phone calls to make and checking to see if my doctors are on particular plans. NOT fun.

I hope every one sleeps well, eats well, gets rid of their aches and pains, stays away from peanut butter, gets good work outs and feels fantastic.

Robin, Peanut butter is one thing I have trouble staying away from! Actually when I finished this jar I'll probably check out some of the other nut butters. Sorry to hear about your health insurance rates hike!

Everyone else, Haha, before giving it up I loved meat too (red, poultry and seafood) and probably ate too much of it, which is why I wanna see if I can go without for 40 days. I'm sure my first two bad meaty meals were just a fluke -- though I did go vegetarian yesterday... Hmm... nonetheless, this period did give me a little perspective about my eating habits and I think I'll be a flexitarian / semi-vegetarian (insert analogy joke to "a little bit pregnant" here :D)

------

Ok, I've been more like 1,800-1,900 calories/day (moreso 'cause I've just been feeling ravenously hungry off 1,600) as of late but my weight is still dropping (137.2 this morning, a little over 2 from goal). Yay for overcoming a plateau, though weirded out that upping my daily calories would do that. Maybe I'm exercising more efficiently now that I'm better nourished?

Also surprised that most caloric calculators say I need somewhere between 2,400-2,600 calories to maintain (especially given most 3FCs here are on plans well under 2,000)... though I guess being a dude and having comparatively more muscle & less fat have to do with that.

Anyways, happy Wednesday y'all --- weekend's around the corner so hang in there ;)

Good morning!

I had a great night's sleep last night, but could have slept in an hour or so longer! I had a pretty normal day of eating yesterday, and I think I'm on track for today as well (although I did eat a little more than planned for breakfast, but at least it was good for me food).

Buddy did well his first night home. He wandered all over for the first few hours--he just couldn't settle down. I'm sure it was the drugs. He finally fell asleep in DS's room around 8 PM and was still there when I went to bed. He must have been feeling better as sometime during the night he came into our room as usual and slept the rest of the night there. He ate a good breakfast this morning (he wouldn't eat last night). He was whining a bit this morning, so I gave him some pain killer before I went to work. He ended up having 5 teeth pulled, but no root canal as the broken tooth had not caused internal damage to the tooth.

Barbara~yeah, pets are less expensive than kids. Just the other day I sat down to figure out how much I'll need for DD's first year of college next year...tuition, dorm, food (no cafeteria at Cal State Fullerton), parking, books, gas--what have I forgotten?

Robin~our employee health plan seems to go up about $1000 every year. It really sucks. We have a company that "shops" other plans for us, but never seems to find anything that offers the same coverage for less. We're with BC of CA which is now changing it's name to Anthem BC.

Allison - I'm with the same insurance as you! My company is based in CA and had blue cross of california, but now it's anthem. The funny thing is that for employees IN california, you could choose from BC or Kaiser. For the rest of us, we get to choose from BC PPO plan (they pay a percentage, you get a better deal for preffered providers but can see anyone you want) or BC EPO plan (you pay a small copay if you go to a preferred provider, but they will not pay at all if you see a non-preferred doc). I'm on the EPO plan, which isn't as restrictive as it sounds since pretty much all the doctors I want to see are preferred providers. They haven't upped my rate at all, but I've only been here about two years.

Aqua - it's true, men can maintain on a lot more calories! DH always eats whatever healthy recipe I cook, but I still have to serve him a larger portion than myself so he won't be starving and eat half a loaf of bread later.

Robin - do you have any cuts or anything in your armpits? If there's even a tiny papercut-type cut then anything can get into it and sting. If not I'd say see your dermatologist.

I'm a mid-range meat eater. I only really have red meat at restaurants (since I am far from an expert at cooking it and unless it's stew I'll turn it into rubber!). At home I pick three recipes to cook each week (which gives us leftovers for lunch all the time), usually either two poultry/fish and one vegetarian or vice versa. Depending on the size of the recipe, that's how much meat we eat during the week!

A couple weeks ago I picked all vegetarian recipes since DH was worried about sat fat and cholesterol and said he wanted to eat less meat. Thursday night I ended up going to the grocery and buying a rotisserie chicken since I wanted meat so badly! This week I've been craving burgers. I'm guessing it's an iron deficiency because of TOM, that usually makes me crave red meat.

Do you ever have times where you've eaten, and you're not really hungry, but you feel like you are lacking some nutrient? Like your body says "You need to eat something, I don't have all the stuff I need," but you can't figure out what it is that you're lacking?

I am so bummed! Trader Joe's has discontinued my favorite cheese, their Lite Chevre. This was such an awesome cheese, only 35 calories per ounce and you'd never know it was lite. I used it in everything that calls for cheese--pizza, tacos, Mexican dishes, pasta, egg dishes. And no one else makes it. :tantrum: Now I'll have to make do with some inferior cheese.

I'm such a meat addict, I take vegetarian recipes and add meat to them. :lol: In my defense, though, I also add veggies to everything. My first thought when I look at any recipe is "what kind of veggies can I add." I'll be reading a cookie recipe thinking "would celery be good in this?" ;) Ok, not really, but just about everything else.

Bring on the peanut butter for me! One really nice thing about increasing my calories is that I can have a tbsp of peanut butter here and there. It actually can be really helpful if I'm coming in low for the day (I haven't quite figured out how to ration my calories at this new level, so this is happening more than usually). I buy SnacLite's Power PB, which is actually a blend of peanuts, wheat germ, flax seed oil, and flax seed (also a little honey, salt, and egg whites). It has half the fat of regular PB (and half the saturated fat), 1.5 times the fiber, and 1.5 times the protein, so it packs a nice nutritional punch into 1 tbsp. And, unlike with nuts--where once I open the bag I'm likely to eat the whole thing--with peanut butter, once I've measured out my 16 grams, for some reason I don't have a problem putting the lid back on the jar and putting the jar back in the fridge (hopefully I don't jinx myself by saying that :eek:).

I am quite sore today from my NRLW workout Monday - sometimes I forget it hits you harder later! Other than the body weight matrix :devil: I didn't think I worked anything else to soreness, but my shoulders, arms, and core are all sore. Gotta love it! More this afternoon.

Every time your kid says "Moooooom, I NEED to go to this concert/NEED a new backpack/NEED a new computer/printer/Ipod" etc etc, lol. Actually the technology can be a legitimate expense. I remember a friend who took art classes was required to buy several hundred $s of art supplies for most classes, which was a lot more than cost of $100-$200 or so textbooks for a science class. Some classes also had required field trips - even week-long trips to do research around the country - that would be more expensive. It's hard to predict ahead of time what classes someone will end up with, but it would be good to budget some miscellaneous fees. Glad your dog didn't need a root canal!

Aqua, I've heard a lot of people say they broke a plateau by switching their calories somehow - be it eating a bit more (the body says, ooh, I'm not quite starving, I can go ahead and burn calories in stead of hoarding them), eating high/low cal days instead of the same cals every day, or something like that. Not only do all of our bodies work differently, I know my body will act one way one month, then another way another month. It's hard to figure out! :dizzy:

I could never give up meat. Funny I would definitely have once said I'm a sweets person, but come to realize I just love all food. A lot. And my body functions better in maintenance if I eat a lot of protein all day, too (~100 g a day).

Robin, I tried to buy myself health insurance a few years ago when my employer didn't cover me, and it was really frustrating, and I could never get it. I am soooo glad that when I switched jobs last summer, I got coverage, b/c when I had my foot problems last winter it was quite expensive surgery.

Rabbit, yup, I've gotten some strange looks when I do the NRLW too (who asked about that? NRLW = New Rules of Lifting for Women) at the gym. I had to stop caring what people think at the gym a while ago when I stopped using the weight machines and broke into the squat rack and benchpress area (testosterone city), so I just laugh when people look at me like I'm crazy. I know it's working!

Jessica, hang in there. You're making progress with this doctor! I'm sure it's frustrating, but remember this is for your long-term health.

Is it only Wednesday? *sigh* I'm ready for a weekend to relax with no commitments.

Actually DD did try to get extra funding. She applied for the President's Scholar program which WOULD HAVE given her a laptop, free parking and $275 per semester for books. 500 applied and only 50 were accepted and unfortunately she wasn't one of them. At least she tried. So, yeah, we'll be getting her a laptop. Other than that, we'll be giving her an allowance with which she'll have to budget all of her expenses (she really isn't all that "needy" in terms of stuff--so I won't complain). She wants to study abroad, if it is offered at her school, we'll factor that in when the time comes. Oh, and as for research--I doubt there will be that much (she's a music education major).