Say good-bye to November ... all of a sudden it's December! And it's certainly going to be a chance to practice all of our maintenance skills.

How was Thanksgiving weekend? We had all of our family in town, with vast quantities of food and drink. Even though I thought I made careful choices, my weight was up four pounds on Saturday, but I dropped two of those yesterday and am hoping the other two will be gone today or tomorrow. It probably was water weight due to ahem .. an unusually high amount of carbs.

But I managed to get back in the gym yesterday and was able to use the assisted pullup machine for the first time since August (couldn't kneel on the new knees before). OMG, I'm ridiculously sore today! It goes to show what I'd been missing in my workouts. I'm so sore that I'm going to swap out my chest workout planned for today for legs instead. Then cardio, then groceries for the week and off to work until 9 pm.

I started my holiday baking yesterday and got three kinds of Christmas cookies in the freezer with no bites, licks, or tastes. My goal for the week is to be done shopping and wrapping, and with most of the baking done by Sunday.

Which brave souls ventured out on Friday? Any good buys?

If last week was a tough one, it's a brand new week AND a brand new month -- the perfect set-up to get back on track. We can make it through until New Years without gaining any weight!

Good morning Meg. Thanks for the reminder that December is the month to use the maintenance skills. I can make it through one meal; it's the continuous treats offered at work and everywhere else that can be challenging.

Glad you were able to get back on your assisted pullup machine - that's one neat contraption. My story there is that after diligently working on the one at my gym, getting the assist weight down to twenty pounds, the machine disappeared. It broke, and they no longer make the parts. Gone forever. I was heartbroken. So I reluctantly tried a pullup on a rack without assist - and finally did one. Now I can do a couple. Perhaps the assist helped get me there, and perhaps it also supplied an excuse for me not to advance.

Hoping people post good ideas for staying on plan when surrounded by holiday treats.

Good morning all!

Thank you Meg for always putting such a positive spin on things. I will definitely be practicing my maintenance skills this month .

I'm really fortunate in that I work outside and there are no treats there to tempt me. The other side of that is that I have to be out in the cold rain all day today and will be feeling very sorry for myself tonite. That can lead to all sorts of eating .

So I've signed myself and my client's aggro ridgeback up for a class for the next three weeks. And the other nights of the week will be spent getting all the Christmas sorting and wrapping done.

I am also taking a different approach to treats this year. I will allow myself a single serving of an indulgence once a week (they are selling all sorts of small servings of treats now). That way I won't feel deprived of all the Christmas excess and, since it's one serving, I won't be in "I can't believe I ate the whole thing" mode either.

DH will probably be coming up to the 20 lb. loss mark next week. He and I have never dieted together before. I think we should celebrate this milestone for him but I don't know how. He's not really into shopping as a reward.

Any suggestions?

Have a great day all! I'm off to do yoga.

Dagmar

Good Morning! December---eeek! Well, except for one lapse I made it through the holiday and according to the scales am down 2 pounds.
Hopefully I can finish Christmas treat baking this week and stow everything safely away in the freezer. Well hidden of course. I'm going to do the treadmill and some yoga today and maybe do some cyber Monday shopping. Apple is getting way too much of my money this year. Have a great day everyone.

Good morning maintainers! I am clawing my way back on the wagon today. I must have gained 10 pounds over the last two weeks. I need to get my head out of the sand and get myself on the scale, but I'm scared.

What can I say about December? Parties, parties, parties. I need my little black dress to fit on Dec. 20, so that will have to be my motivation.

Have a great day.

I too am clawing my way back on the wagon. I LOVE Mondays. Love em.

Somehow I got in my head since I was soooo "good" on Thanksgiving, eating way less then I planned to, that it was okay to be off plan on Friday ..... and Saturday ....... oh and Sunday too! Dopey, dopey me. Didn't step on the scale, don't have to. My pants are snug-er then they should be.

Soooo, today it's back to it. Waiting a bit for the stores to restock and then I'm headed out for a big produce shopping.

Have a great day and week everyone.

Good Morning all,

I love Mondays too! It always means a new start for me. Good job MEG, getting the baking down with out major pigging out.

Bill, Hi, haven't met you. You were asking for good idea's to help stay OP for the Holidays? I think you already have the answer. You said you could do one meal at a time. That works. I work where there are constant treats around. I don't try to totally deprive myself, I know I will over indulge later if I do. So, I can have one piece of something. And it has to be something really special. I ask myself "is this really worth the calories". and ya know, it's usually not. It's the same old stuff you see all the time and it will be around later. If it is special I have a small (really small) piece and enjoy it.

Dagmar, How great that your DH is losing weight with you. So much easier. And he has lost well!! But, don't mean always lose quicker?

Lisa, WOO HOO!!! You lost 2 pounds during the holidays! Now, that is determination girl!!!

Ward hog, I'm sure it's not 10 pounds, but those extra treats can really add up if not watched. But I know you, you will have them gone and look great in the "little black dress". Some times we just got to look at the big picture!

Robin, I do the same thing. I deprive myself of the things I really want and later think I "deserve" a treat to make up for it. If I had a small piece of what every I wanted I would do so much better. We think we need to be rewarded for making good decisions, when really, indulging a little bit gets it out of the system.

Freda

Hey Gang!

I actually ate quite good over the weekend, although I have a net gain of 0.6 for the month of November (stupid last 5 pounds ).
I don't venture out to the mall from here on out for the rest of the year! Although I have a great fear about going into Walmart in a week or so. I don't shop there, but I do go to the eye doctor there, and I got new glasses and a year's supply of contacts during their sale. They will be in later this week or early next, so I am going to have to face the crowds! I have a bit of cybershopping to do, and will hit a couple locally owned stores for some things.
I cannot start my baking yet. We do cookies every year, and I have to wait until the week of Xmas, or I eat them from the freezer (frozen and all!).

Meg - yay on the gym. Bet it feels great!

Dagmar, as for a reward, how about an online gift certificate to Amazon.com ? Then he can get whatever he want. Or, you could make a little homemade coupon offering him a massage (and whatever ) when he presents it to you.

Good morning everyone!

I didn't do too bad this weekend. I should say, it could have been a lot worse. I found myself irrationally hungry a lot while we were out in the country. The night we got back I figured out why -- I had barely had any grains while we were there! Many of you know that my diet is pretty much 60-75% carbs, and despite all the claims about carbs being bad and needing more protein, I found that on a diet of turkey, salad, and sweet potatoes, I was starving all the time. When I got home, I had a bowl of spaghetti and felt full for the first time in days. It wasn't even whole wheat spaghetti. Go figure.

In any case, all the Thanksgiving desserts and sweets are now gone. My fridge is stocked with healthy foods, including leftover turkey and raw cranberry salad. Back on plan 100% starting today!!!

We had great weather for Thanksgiving. It was bright and sunny and with a high around 50. The dog loved being out in the woods, as usual. He was sad when we came home! I got in a good run in the woods. We came back home Saturday, and it was still nice out so I got in a 5.5-mile bike ride. Sunday morning I woke up and everything was covered in snow! We got about 2 inches overnight. Exercise Sunday morning: walking the dog and shoveling the driveway. It's snowing today too, so I missed my run this morning. Hopefully it will clear up this afternoon, otherwise I might go to the gym.

Scale is at 143 today, so no gain or loss. Crossing my fingers for a loss over the holidays! I don't feel sick so I think my thyroid meds are probably okay, which puts the responsibility totally on me to lose the weight.

Yes it is a brand new month and a new start to rethinking how to enjoy the holidays!! Kudos to those of you who were healthy and remembered to take care of themselves!! I didn't have the will power!! However, the little black dress is definately a good motivator!! thanks for the tip....it's almost picture time!!

Hi everyone,

I didn't do quite as well as I hoped over the weekend. I made it through Thanksgiving #2 on Thursday following my eating plan. By Thanksgiving #3 on Saturday I was sliding into eating bigger portions of not so good things, drinking wine, and taking lots of BLTs. I even had 1 1/2 pieces of pie. I only went for one long walk - though it was really long, 2 1/2 hours, during our 4 day trip. Today it's back OP, re-stocking the fridge with healthy things and hitting the gym. Tomorrow is my weigh-in day so I'll see what the scale says. Aside from that, we had a nice trip and I think BF got some good bonding in with a lot of his family/extended family. Relationships aren't always so great there so it was nice to see him have a good time with them.

I stuck to my plan in November so well (minus the last 3 days) that I'm not worried about getting back OP today. I know I can do it. Besides knowing I'll be visiting family and traveling for over a week at the end of the month, I have a wedding Jan. 30 (with a bunch of my skinny friends from college) so that's even more reason to keep my weight down.

I didn't venture to any stores all weekend. Being in crowded stores has always stressed me out. I'm either going to shop locally, in our small stores, or shop online. I put up my tree and lights last week before we left for our Turkey day trip. I love decorating for the holidays!

Let's make this a great, healthy month everyone!

We had a wonderful weekend. DD's party was a huge success and everyone had a great time. I forgot to upload the photos, but will try to do that soon. DH and I went to bed at 10 PM and fell asleep so fast we had no idea how long the party lasted. The next morning I asked DD and she said midnight. I told her that we didn't hear a thing which surprised her as she said they were VERY noisy playing pool and video games. I seriously didn't hear a thing.

We went to see Twilight yesterday. Hmm, Edward, serious eye candy (and I told DH and he didn't seem to mind!).

I have leftovers for three dinners and two lunches and after that all weekend food will be out of the house. I still have the turkey carcass to make soup from and I hope I'll have time to get to that tonight.

I used my new treadmill for the first time today!!! I couldn't use it this weekend as we had to take it out of the guest room to make room for DD's boyfriend who stayed the weekend. I absolutely love this treadmill!!!! I may even start using it twice a day! I did a nice 30 minute pre-programmed workout this morning and went 2 miles. I should step it up in the mornings and do a nice after dinner walk in the evenings.

Dagmar~congratulate your DH on those 20 pounds! Maybe buy him something that will help get him in shape. A heart monitor comes to mind (because now I need one!!).

Megan~We didn't venture out to the stores either (for which I was thankful as there was a shooting at the Toys-R-Us that is less than 5 miles from my home). We did go to a mall Friday (for lunch--it was amazingly vacant) and on Sunday for a movie (again, vacant--where are all the people!).

Robin~you're crazy! You love Mondays? Crazy I say!!

Okay, hi to everyone else. I need to get some work done around here. I'll pop in later.

Good morning maintainers!

I seem to follow the thread ok on Mondays and then....pfftt!!! I get behind. I did enjoy the mouse stories last week.


Good morning Meg! I did venture out of the house early Friday am. We got to the mall at 6 am, found exactly what we wanted, and were out of the mall by 7, when it was starting to get busy. I got a really great deal on a nice leather jacket for DD. Shhhh!!!!

Congrats on the pullup, Bill. That is one of my goals.


Mud, sounds like you have a good plan re: indulgences. As for how to reward DH? The simple things in life tend to be highly prized by men.....

Congrat on the loss, joy!

There's lots of room on the wagon, Ward. Drink plenty of water today and I bet the scale won't be as bad as you think it is tomorrow.

Eek! So much for great plans doing personals today! Gotta run!!! Hi everyone!

Hi everyone, I'm with the group that is trying to get back OP after my extended weeklong Thanksgiving feast. Tonites weigh-in at WW should be enough to scare me straight though.

I mailed off 2 packages to my son this morning. With his gifts, I couldn't resist mailing him a small Christmas tree with lights and ornaments and his Christmas stocking full of goodies. Hope he doesnt think it's too corny. LOL. DH bought Shane a special engraved pocket knife and was disappointed to learn that it can't be shipped to Iraq. If he had really thought about that purchase, it was kinda like DUH! LOL. I'll put it up and save it for Shane when he comes home.

I paid all my bills this morning and allowed out the monies for the rest of the gifts that I need to buy. The great thing is, for the first time, this year we are playing White Elephant thing with all DH's family. I'm so happy and relieved, I hate trying to buy for 30 people!

Meg, I did Black Friday shopping. All I bought was a belt to hold up my baggy jeans with and a new purse.


midwife, I had to laugh at your suggestion on how Mudpie could reward her DH. LOL. (of course I have a dirty mind, lol)

I got my hair cut really short this past weekend. I HATE it. I'm not used to short hair! I feel BALD! Lacy has already told me to quit whining about it, LOL.

Thanks for all the suggestions on how to reward DH at the 20 lb. mark.

He's so burnt out studying that he rarely has time for a "massage" these days. But it's probably at the top of his list for rewards so I'll see what we can squeeze in.

Dagmar