Good morning and welcome to a brand new week! I woke up at 3 am and couldn't go back to sleep for the life of me. Must have been because I was so excited to start the new week's thread.

Actually, DH is in Europe right now and I miss him so much, which is why I can't sleep. I'm used to him being gone to NYC for overnights, but Europe just seems so far away and it's for the whole week. I have my five little kitty buddies here for company but it's just not the same.

I spent this past weekend in Chicago for my nephew's graduation. His college said that the ceremony would be held outside rain or shine and they weren't kidding! It poured rain for the entire 3 1/2 hours that it took to get everyone graduated and got progressively colder as the day went on -- from 61 to 54 degrees. I was dressed for summer and had a mini folding umbrella, which did nothing at all. They handed out disposable plastic ponchos -- basically clear plastic garbage bags -- but by that point I was already soaked to the skin. What a totally miserable experience!!

Other than hideous weather, the weekend was nothing but food. OMG, excessive and enormous quantities of food and drink! (this is what always happens when my family gets together) Even though I ate three times as much as I usually would -- and felt sick -- I ate less than 1/3 as much as some of the rest of the group. The amount of food and drink that some people can put away is truly staggering. Was I ever like that? I guess I must have been.

Even the breakfast buffet in the hotel was a calorie extravaganza. I'd say that the typical diner there had about 2500 calories of food heaped up on their plates. I managed to find oatmeal and had some scrambled eggs and cut up honeydew, which is a big breakfast for me. But everywhere I looked, it was enormous people eating enormous food. This is what passes for normal today.

The good news is that my weight is almost exactly the same as before I left (down .2 pounds). It's such a relief to be back home and in control of my food choices! I'm off to the gym when it opens at 5:30, then a stop at the grocery store for my supplies for the week. Then off to work!

So that was my weekend! How was yours? What's going on this week?

Hello Meg.

I hear you on the food thing. On Saturday evening, I went to a restaurant in a village nearby with 15 other people (one of them was celebrating her b-day). It was a restaurant with a lot of traditional Alsacian food, which meant flammekueche, spaetzle, and other knepfle (I'm just linking images for those who don't know what it is; as you can tell from said images, these foods are clearly not vegetables ). Now I know better than a few years ago, and I somehow felt that if I were to order that, it wouldn't be just two spoons thrown on a plate (besides, to be honest, the duck & chicken salad with lettuce and carrots sounded really more appetizing!). But I didn't expect to be so shocked at the portions size when what the other people ordered was brought to the table. The flammekueche were something like 1.5 foot long (I kid you not), AND then people were told "oh but these are only A HALF flamm's, let me bring you the other half now that you've finished the first one". Oh my god. I was glad we didn't order dessert there.

Well, I'm glad I stuck to my salad. The slices of duck meat were really delicious. And I couldn't even eat all of it, since it was served on a 12" plate.

Seriously, if any of you ever gets to go on holidays in eastern France, always ask about portions size first. It seems that in Alsace, we still uphold a kind of northern tradition consisting in eating the same amount we'd eat by -15°C in the heart of winter.

Meg, I am sorry about the rainy graduation - that sounds miserable.

And Kery, I am not even going to click on those images. I know I will just get hungry.

I have been on plan for about 10 days now and I am feeling good. But, I was stung my some yellow jackets yesterday while cutting the grass and my left leg is killing me. I am hoping to do a regular workout today but I am not sure I'll be able to.

Have a great week, everyone.

Truth be told, those are not even 'great' foods. I mean, they're okay, but they're also kind of... bland? Like pasta. It's some kind of staple, but nothing to drool on, at least not in my book. It's the kind of food you eat in winter just because it's warm and fills your stomach, but when it comes to gastronomy, it's just pretty bland.

One of our family favorite restaurants is a buffet where you can eat as much as you want. well. they make money on me, I get salad. meat and a vegetable. But I see people with plates piled high and they go back for more. Need I say these people are usually quote obese. In the past I would have had two or three gooey deserts. Gooey deserts aren't quite so attractive to me , anymore.

Happy New Week everyone!!

Kery-- I did click on the images and they didn't look particularly appealing to me..... rich and creamy.... glad you were able to "abstain".

WardHog-- sorry about getting stung. Have you taken any benadryl? That might bring down the swelling.

Meg-- that graduation does sound like a terrible experience. Wow. I hear you on the food front too. Glad you escaped with no collateral damage! My dh is away now too. In fact he flew into Chicago on Sunday (just missing the storms) and then drove to St. Louis.

I am in the throes of maintenance woes which is where I continue to be. I am just getting used to my cycles now. Up, down, up, down. As soon as my weight is down (I finally changed my ticker down from 125 to 124 after being 124 for a couple of weeks), now my weight is up to around 127. I truly think it is sodium and I'm trying to track that to see if I'm right. I am using the "ring test" as I cannot get my wedding ring off. I'll give it a few days, watching my sodium closely, see what my weight does and see if my ring gets looser.

I have one more week to work at school this week so I better get to work.
Talk to you all later chickies!

Well, truth be told, it wasn't particularly hard to abstain. Moreover, it was very hot on Saturday, and I don't think I could have stomached rich food in any case. ^^;

I had mentioned here how well my DD was doing at losing weight. We had a problem here yesterday. I noticed that her behavior was strange, (slurred speech, stumbling, very sleepy) and I confronted her about it. She admitted that she had been taking melatonin every day for the last 3 weeks and had taken several late Saturday night. I was concerned that she couldn't stay awake (even by 5PM) so I took her to the ER. She said she had read on the melatonin label that it aides in sleep and weight loss. She somehow thought that if 1 helps her to not eat much that 15-20 would keep her from being hungry "for a few days". I was shocked. She had never done anything like this before. After the IV, EKG, urinalysis and blood work it was determined that she would be OK. She was put on antibiotics for a kidney infection and about 12 hrs. later I was able to bring her home. I had hoped the doctor would be more stern with her than he was. Basically he just said "kids do some stupid stuff". We had a long talk about healthy weight loss and exercise. She agreed to never do anything like this again. It scared me to death. I am upset with myself for having no idea that she was taking anything. All I had noticed was that she was sticking 100% to plan and feeling good about herself. (She's lost at least 25 lbs. in the last 6 weeks!). I hope she decides to eat healthy and continues to lose weight the right way. I'm also upset with Shelbey as she knew Lacy had taken all these on Saturday night and didn't wake me up and tell me.

Sheila, thanks for the pet advice. My dogs do have microchips now and tags with our names and address on them.

We also live in the land of the buffets here. I'm always surprised too at the people that eat tons of food at them. I always tell myself it's no reason to "pig out". I do enjoy the large variety of fresh fruit though.

Meg, sorry about the rainy graduation. I went to an outside one of my nieces a few years back when it was 106 degrees. I thought I was gonna roast by the time they finished. It was totally miserable. This was after my weightloss, I surely would have had a heat stroke before that!

I miss my computer access! I started a new schedule this week so am able to come home after my first dog walk and get on the computer. YAY!!

I also don't have a scale at the dog sit so I don't know how I'm doing by the numbers. But my skinny jeans are buttoning up although I can't bend (or breathe much) in them yet.

I ate really well last week and have the plan to do so this week too! There was an "Arts and Crafts" fair on the weekend a block from where I'm staying. I bought all sorts of yummy low cal dressings and some fudge (for DH's post-exam celebration) and sugar coated almonds. Managed to stay away from the fudge but the almonds went into my stomach Saturday night.

Meg The graduation sounds like it was a real wash-out .

Lily Glad your DD is ok. Sometimes it's easy to forget that "natural" supplements are drugs too.

Ward Ouch! Sometimes a paste of baking soda and water takes the pain out of wasp stings.

And I am always amused by the "all-you-can-eat" buffet. I go to an Asian/Canadian one a couple of times a year with the other dog walkers. I get plates of shrimp, raw veggies, etc. Dessert is a lot of fruit. They all think I'm weird. Some people there stuff themselves until they can barely move. How is that fun?

Have a great week all!

Dagmar

Meg - that graduation does sound miserable. And I've noticed the same thing about portion sizes lately - everywhere I look there are huge servings, buffets, all you can eat, etc.

Kery - your salad sounds good to me. I looked at the pics of those food items and I can't say that they would have been incredibly appealing to me even when I overate all the time. Though who knows, I might have dived right in. I avoided vegetables like they would kill me...

Ward - sorry about the stings! Ouch!

Bargoo - I haven't been to a buffet in forever... they would definitely make money off me at this point.

Michele - I agree with the sodium theory. I've been getting to know my cycles, too, and sodium really whacks me in the face these days.

Lily - wow, glad Lacy is okay!

Dagmar -good to 'see' you! and, if the jeans are buttoning up again you must be going in the right direction!

This weekend wasn't great for me - well, Saturday wasn't. I didn't eat a lot of food, but had a go bit of ice cream. I had a milkshake from McDonald's at lunch and a coffee toffee frosty from Wendy's after dinner. Head colds wreak havoc with my taste buds and willpower... Sunday was a lot better. Just waiting out the three pounds of water I'm carrying from the weekend. Still stuffy, hoping I'm on the downside of the cold. Thinking about going to the doctor this afternoon for a steroid shot.

Good day everyone.

Meg, the rainy graduation sounds unpleasant!

Kery - somehow I didn't notice that Strasbourg is in Alsace. My ancestors on my mom's side are from that region, although the German side! I guess "ancestors" might be too old a term, my Grandma was born in Germany but came over when she was very young. The funniest thing? My DH's mom's family is from there too! Weird. Then both DH and I have Russian Jewish ancestry on our dad's sides.

Ward, ouch! I hope your leg feels better.

Well, I am back from my Michigan vacation! We had a great time. I ate a lot of junk, but it was kind of refreshing to take a break from being so careful for a few days. I'm up 2.5lbs this morning, but I'm expecting most of it is water. I definitely got exercise climbing up sand dunes and walking around all day. Carter got to swim in Lake Michigan, although not as much as I wanted (he only got to go on one day). The dog beach was an hour away from our hotel and the road to get there was really poorly designed, then it rained on Saturday. Then we took him to a closer beach, where the website had told me dogs were allowed after 7pm, and they told us no dogs, period. Argh!

Anyway, my photos are here. Here are a couple selections:

Lily, wow, that sounds frightening. I'm glad she is okay now.

I've never managed to eat much at Chinese buffets, come to think of it. I'd pile up a small bowl of rice, four or five nems and a couple of other dumplings, thinking I'd go back for more, and then I just couldn't eat more than that. My ex and his brother, on the other hand, ate for five or six. XD

Lily-- How scary! I hope she was very scared by the experience and won't do anything like that again. My younger dd (14) confessed a few months ago that she was feeling depreseed and we started seeing a psychologist with her. She told him she had tried to kill herself with sleeping pills. I didn't know what she was talking about because we don't have sleeping pills in our house (or so I thought). She finally told us she had taken several melatonin pills as well. I was somewhat relieved that she hadn't taken anything stronger but still realize it was a cry for help even if her "poison" wasn't as strong. Teenagers are so incredibly difficult. I will be so glad when my girls are "all grown up". This same dd is going to a graduation party this afternoon. My dd just finished her freshman year. She is already a year younger than most freshman (she started school early) and she is going to a party with seniors who have graduated! I thought it was pretty harmless because it is a pool party at the girl's grandparents house so we said she could go. Now she wants to spend the night as well. Dh and my first reaction was to say NO, but the psychologist is telling us to try to trust her and not be too strict so we are torn. She feels like we don't let her do anything (you know the story). She said the girls sleeping over (a small group of about 5-6) are all "good girls" and they just want to have an old-fashioned slumber party. These are friends from her choir group at school. What would you do?

Jessica-- glad you had a great time and that Carter had fun too! Love the pics especially the last one! He looks so regal.

Took me so long to write that post that I missed a couple . . .

Lily - I'm glad Lacey is okay! How scary! 25lbs in 6 weeks is super fast. I went on a really stupid semi-starvation diet once and even then I only lost 10lbs/month.

Hi Shannon, Dagmar, Bargoo, and Michele!