Hello everyone!
I'm still trying to keep everyone straight and get to know you all.
Question for you all-- what is your red line? Is that the weight you don't want to go over?

I had a pretty good weekend but we went out to dinner Saturday and Sunday nights. I made good choices both times but my weight was still up a little.

I'm still trying to figure out this maintenance stuff to see what I need to do to maintain. I was down at WW by .8 pound but up the week before. I seem to be up a bit for a week or two and then down for a week or two. I think I still want to lose a few pounds but maybe not.

I have an issue with Spring/Summer clothes though. I have none that will fit! I have bought some new clothes but they aren't going to work when it gets warm. Dh and I looked at college expenses this weekend and our upcoming summer plans and he told me not to spend any more money! I agree that we have no extra money, but I have no clothes!

Hope everyone has a great week! I've got to go find pictures for my dd's 8th grade graduation party and work on our summer plans and college financial situation....

Michele

hi maintainers,

Meg - I'm with you on the coffee issue. I actually always take instant esspresso with me on travel. And since I always drink my first cup in bed, I absolutely hate the american hotels without coffemakers or water boilers. I definitely do NOT want to go get coffee in the lobby at 5.45, and often it is not even there and tastes like dishwahing water. On the other hand, in the far east they do have hot water thermoses and sometimes even coffee makers, but then they only give you one packet of coffee, ar a bunch of gourmet coffeestuf that includes juck like sugar, milk,caramel hazrlnut vanilla essences. YUCK! I only want coffee, like a double esspresso, straight caffeine,no milk, no sugar, no nothing and I need it, esprecially in the dead of morning in a strange room. Now can you tell why I have an espresso machine on the windowsill of my bedroom ?

Anne - Below 70 today!!! Not that you are counting. Yay on a day of refreshing mathematics. Don't you feel that your brain is going woozy from the hormones??? I was practically brainless in the last 3 months of pregnancy and some months after giving birth. Luckily my neurons fired up again after some time (or so I think. I measured it with puzzles, but who knows ? i might have missed some aspect!). Why are you off caffeine if you breastfeed? Is it some sort of maternal issue or is it supposed to be bad for the baby ?

Lily - Yay ! One week without disasters! Good luck with the laminate. it must be marvellous to see your house improve. please do not overdo it now you are going Ok again.

Pretty calm week so far on this side. I did NRWL yesterday, and a powerclass, and took in 30 mins on the threadmill. I am still way over my red line, and not loosing anything, but at least my pants are loose. I am actually up 2 punds since last week. Also, my joints are painfull so I do suspect water retention.

Have a great day all,
Rabbit

Good Morning. I'm in the middle of the 'great bedroom move of 2008'. It's very dark and scary behind my kids' dressers.

Anne&LisaMarie-hang in there. The finish line is closer. Oh, confession time, I drink coffee like a madwoman and the little guys never seem bothered. I'm having coffee right now while BF. I'm probably raising the next generation of coffee addicts, LOL.

EZ-Yep, that one little pot of coffee just ate gonna cut it. And dh actually expects me to share too. The nerve.

Lily-I hate removing carpet. Tackboard is an invention of the devil.

Jessica- Freeze the ricotta for later use in a cooked product. I freeze it all the time.

Gary, just wait until you get pregnant and then have to function on insufficient coffee! Wait, that doesn't work does it!? :LOL: See what a state I'm in?

Rabbit, brainless pretty much describes it. I mostly attribute it to lack of sleep and insufficient caffeine. (The hormones, on the other hand make me irritable or maybe IRRITABLE and send me into cleaning fits.) Caffeine is expressed in breastmilk, and if you get it, so will your baby. I don't think normal levels are especially harmful to otherwise healthy children, but it will stimulate them, and having experienced one colicky baby already, anything that makes a baby awake and screaming is not a good thing. Then again, maybe the boy will be more mellow than DD, and I'll get a nice, full strength cup once in a while, without paying a huge price in sanity and sleep. Like joy/Lisa!

Anne

Michelle~I saw the photos of your dogs in Gary's virtual 5k thread. Your Great Dane has a very Labbish face--very cute!

Anne~I learned the HARD way that caffeine is expressed in breast milk. Who knew that those M&M's my Mom put out in the candy dish had THAT MUCH caffeine! After a week of DS being unable to sleep at night I finally put 2 and 2 together and cut out the chocolate and VOILA! he slept. Actually it was probably a good thing--I'm sure my eating all that chocolate wasn't going to help me lose the pregnancy weight.

I had a very nice run this morning after having my friends over for pizza and basketball last night. Darn her, she brought chocolate cake and of course I indulged. The scale was up this morning. I did really good and had only two small slices of pizza and lots of salad, though. Hopefully the scale will return to yesterday's weight tomorrow.

Hi everyone,

Anne, sorry my posts are so scary and dreary . Right now everything is much better though. I feel good for a change.

Lisa, yes, tackboard is the invention of the devil. It took me 6 hours of prying to get that stuff off my hallway and front entryway and 2 closets. But, I did it!

Last night I walked Molly for 1 mile. This morning I walked Lucy for 1 mile. So, getting some exercise again. The dogs really appreciated the walks.

I'm still 100% on plan with my eating. This morning I put on my new capris that I had bought for my birthday. I didn't try them on at the store. They are very loose and comfy. That feels great. I'm sticking to my plan of weighing every Saturday morning, but from the feel of my clothes, I can tell my weight is probably decreasing even more. My muffin top has receded which is a huge plus.

Lacy is sticking to 1500 cal's a day and is doing very well. She is writing everything down too. The only problem she has, the 1500 cal's doesn't seem to keep her full, while mine seems to keep me full. I wonder if she needs a little bit more? The weird thing is, she won't hardly eat cooked veggies. But, she is loving the trays of fresh raw veggies that I made for us to snack on.

Hi Lily,

Glad to hear you are doing OK

About Lacy: it is quite possible that she needs more food than you do because a) she is a growing girl so she might need more fuel for that, and
b) she is still very young (15 ?) and has a much higher metabolism even when she is not growing.
My DS of 16 also eats a whole lot, but he is growing and burning it all off as well.

About the cooked veggies: DS and DD only eat cooked sweet corn and string beans. DD even eats the beans raw. They do not like cooked vegetables, but are happy to munch on raw ones. No problem IMO, except that if DD eats too much of fruits and raw veggies, and not enough carbs, she gets a stomach ache.

Good for you to make the veggie trays for you to snack on!

Allinell, Anne - I must be the lucky one here! My kids tolerated coffee and wine pretty well...the only "problem" was that they were lactose intolerant. Since the hospital where DS was born "helped" him along with a lactose laced bottle, he did not get the hang of nursing for the first week. I was very annoyed with the hospital because the first time they brought him to me to feed, they had already given him a bottle and when they put him to me he was already so full that milk came out of his mouth. After a week he was very thin and actually screamed violently when the bottle came. Luckily I remembered my kids sisters being diagnosed with lactose intolerance, and I changed his formula, and he learned to breast feed afterwards. Giving up milk myself was no problem because I am also lactose intolerant, and me using yoghurt was no problem.

have a great day all,
rabbit

Another disappointed entry--sorry!
 

Well, I'm 4 days into my meds for my cold. Yesterday, I scale went up 5 lbs (gulp!) I know I'm eating on plan, so I'm going to continue to believe, but I haven't seen this number on the scale for over 3 months, so it's hard to keep fighting the good fight. I mean, I could enjoy some fabulous "cheating" and gain 5 lbs honestly. I just have to believe that it's water weight. I am definitely eating on plan and continue to exercise though I must admit I'm not exercising as much as I once did. I'll restart that morning commitment to exercise next week when I'll be almost done with the 10 days of meds. Does anyone know--does amoxycillin tend to make you retain water?
Sorry to be such a downer. I don't want to make any dramatic changes in my eating--to lose weight--until I get off this med as I am just too connected to the foods I love and can have in my plan. What would others advise? Stay the course or cut back?

Thanks! Your labs are adorable too. What are their names? There were two of the sweetest labs at the dog park the last time we went. They were very blonde-- almost white. They were smiling and sooo sweet!

I agree about Lacy. Maybe she isn't getting enough calories? However, if she is happy eating raw veggies I would let her keep eating them to fill her up. Is she drinking her water? That will help too. Also, how active is she? My dd (17) is fairly inactive and needs to limit her calories somewhat (we do WW so we don't count calories). She is going back to horseback riding several times a week so I'm hoping the increase in activity will help her.

Hi everyone,

I dodged the bullet last night cause both Lacy and Shelbey begged me to take them to the local Tuesday night pizza buffet. I explained that I already had dinner thawed out and cooked grilled chicken breasts, brown rice and green beans sauteed in olive oil and garlic. After we had dinner, Lacy thanked me for being strong and refusing the pizza pigout. She is really trying to stick to plan, but with Shelbey not "dieting", it makes it harder on Lacy.

rabbitt, Lacy has decided to stick to 1500 cal's a day til Monday and if she isn't adjusting better to it by then she will increase to 1600. It may be that she needs a little more, or it may be that this is such a dramatic decrease in what she usually eats that it takes some time for adjustment. I am very glad to see her snacking on oranges, apples and raw veggies instead of pop-tarts, buttered popcorn and potato chips. In fact there is no junk food in our house and I plan to keep it this way.

goal, I would personally wait it out til you are off the antibiotics. I know my own weight recently went completely haywire while I was sick. Now everything is back to where I was before the huge gain. If you are eating as you previously had, it's not a gain of fat, but of water. I know it's still hard to see the scale up but it will go back down.

Michele, Since Lacy got sick with the flu a few weeks ago, we haven't been to the gym. She is normally very inactive but had gotten to where she would workout at the gym with me 5 times a week. We plan to be back at the gym by Monday now that both of us are feeling better. She is drinking several bottles of water a day.

DH is at traffic court this morning for a speeding ticket he received about 2 weeks ago. I've told him a million times to slow down, but he didn't listen. Mainly it hurt his pride because he thought since he had been a trooper for so long that he was exempt from getting a ticket. I just hope my insurance rates don't soar and I hope he learns his lesson!

Plans for my evening will be to cook a healthy dinner and DH and I to work our butts off laying new floor in the hallway.

Good afternoon everybody. Today is gray and chilly again. Argh! The nice weather the last few days made it much easier to be active-we walked, went to the park, I picked up the yard, etc. I need to clean closets but I doubt that's a really intense calorie burner, unless my frustration burns calories. As to the veggies, my family will only eat them cooked. ~sigh~ it would be much easier if they liked them raw.

Lily-I'm glad you were 'strong' for the girls. I, personally, would starve on 1500 calories unless I carefully planned everything to be very high fiber.

goalsuccess-hope the cold is better soon

rabbit-I was very lucky that nothing ever bothered my kids. The only thing I ever did that bothered them was eat a half jar of jalapeno's. It didn't bother their stomach but it sure made their diaper area red. Ooops, didn't do that again.

michelle~my dogs are Buddy (14 year old yellow lab) and Chico (3 year old black lab). Chico's my best buddy as he runs with me several times a week.

lily~I imagine it would be difficult for Lacy because Shelby isn't dieting as well. I'm glad she goes to the gym with you--I wish my DD would go with me (cuz I know my DH won't go). Good for you to stick to your guns about dinner!

Here I thought I was doing so well, the scale was down this weekend, but for some reason it's back up again. Not quite as high as it was, but I've been quite OP this week. I guess I need to tweak it some.

Hi everyone! It's official, spring has arrived! We have crocuses and daffodils blooming, there are teeny leaves on some of our shrubs, and there are pansies everywhere. Our peas have sprouted, and so has the lettuce and the pak choi. We've had a bit of a problem with bunnies though -- a rabbit came through and ate an entire tulip plant!! DH has been spraying all the plants with a hot pepper mixture to deter them. We planted two raspberry plants and he thinks the bunnies chewed them up too.

The only problem with all this is that it's supposed to snow Sunday. :( Hopefully they will change the forecast and it won't actually get that cold!

Lily - maybe Lacy needs some more protein-rich snacks too, like string cheese? Or something with more fiber, although fruits and veggies have it, but I mean more like oatmeal or bran or something. I'm glad you two are feeling better!

Thanks for the advice on the ricotta, everyone! After talking it over with DH I think we're going to make a really big lasagna (with extra veggies) and then freeze it.

My weight has finally settled down from my weekend blip. I'm back to 137.8 this morning. I'm kind of disappointed because I was really hoping to see 136 soon, but I guess it will just take time. At least my clothes are fitting pretty well, and I feel like I could fit into any of my skirts now. I'm guessing the lack of weight loss is partially related to the recumbent bike and partially related to the fact that I've been coming in at 1500-1600 cals lately instead of 1300-1400.

Here's a question for you guys. I went to my local farmer's market last weekend, where they had a person from the Weston Price Foundation. I talked with her a while and picked up a bunch of their brochures. What I'm trying to figure out is if their nutrition ideas are at all valid, or if it's completely fake. Basically they say you should include fermented foods in your diet more (tempeh, yogurt, and a variety of others they were selling at the market), and that you should avoid all processed foods. But they go a step farther than avoiding processed foods - they say you should eat a lot more fat from animal products, and avoid anything low-fat. You should eat monounsaturated fats, but not polyunsaturated fats. You can use "natural" sweeteners like honey and maple sugar, but not regular granulated sugar. The list goes on and on, and has some wacky stuff on it, but I'm really curious how much of this is scientifically motivated and how much is junk.

Jessica~I think I've heard that if you add dish washing liquid to whatever you spray on your plants it helps. I think it makes the stuff stick to the leaves a bit more and it is rather bitter in and of itself, so it deters the little munchers. WE had quite a problem with bunnies our first year--they have voracious appetites! Nowadays, they tend to just eat our grass which is just fine by me!

I don't take a coffeemaker, but I take coffee, filters, and my sweetener. 1 little pot can fill my travel mug, and another can fill whoever's traveling with me. And they are always so happy I remember to bring real coffee. How could I forget something so important?

Right after I posted Saturday, a big storm came through and knocked power out at my office for hours. I went home, came back Sunday to work, and the data server, internet, everything was down. The storm blew out some switch along the line and it was finally fixed this morning. So I haven't been able to do any work on my big project (my data files are so big that they're all on the server) and am even more behind. Ahhhhhh!!! I will be here all weekend.

Right now in my garden I have a huge population of pill bugs. They aren't terrible, but are definitely eating a few of my sprouting veggies. I'm trying to find a natural control/deterrent. Anyone know of one?

I made a delicious salmon florentine last night that had ricotta mixed in with the spinach topping. I've also read some high-protein turkey meatball recipes with ricotta in them. I bought ricotta to make BF lasagna for his b-day this weekend. He hates sweets (yeah....... he's weird) so for his b-day dinner every year I make his favorite, lasagna.

Jessica, congrats on fitting in the skirt! That is awesome!!!

Lily, I'm glad that you're feeling so much better. Good for you for not giving into the pizza.

Michele, do you have a decent thrift store nearby? You could probably get at least a few decent summer pieces inexpensively.

Hi to everyone else! I've gotta get back to work. Ah, woe is me. :p