Good morning and happy new week!

Last week was a long and awful week and I'm trying to put it all behind me. We had the LA Fitness shootings on Tuesday, with repercussions all week (one of the spa clients was wounded), then the assistant manager was out all week and I had to cover her shifts. So it was a stressful and tiring week. I came home on Friday and decided that cleaning my house would be the ideal way to de-stress! It was either that or wine and I figured cleaning would have more of a pay off.

With all the craziness and extra hours, I missed a few mornings in the gym and boy, could I tell -- more from a mental health point of view than anything else. I went in on Saturday morning and found an elliptical in the darkest, deepest corner of the gym, put my headphones on, zoned out and basically had an hour of therapy. Amazing how much better the world looked when I was done!

My fingers are crossed that this will be a more normal week.

On Wednesday, I had my one-year knee checkup. Hard to believe it's been a year! The new knees look perfect on Xray and my doctor attributes my fantastic results to all my activity. The only glitch is that I have a ball of scar tissue in one joint that will need to be cleaned out, probably in October. But it's done arthroscopically and the recovery won't be nearly as bad as from the replacements. He says I'll be on crutches for a few days (ha! I don't think so) and miss a few days of work. No big deal.

As always seems to happen, five pounds have snuck back on me and I plan to turn that around ASAP. I'm still in my maintenance zone but really liked being five pounds less (even though my pants were too big!) so my plan is to FOCUS and get back there. Maintenance for me is never the same number on the scale two days in a row! It's always up, down, up, down, but as long as I'm tracking and mindful, it never seems to get out of hand.

One more mug of coffee and time to get ready for the gym!

How was everyone's weekend? What's going on these last few days of summer?

I hope you have a better week, Meg!

Today's the first day of school. How did my son get to be old enough for kindergarten? :sniff:

Whaaat??? Kids starting school, last few days of summer - EEEK!!!Summer hasn't really started yet (in my mind).

I have had a couple of really rough weeks re diet and strength training ie there was a large absence of both things.

DH is not helping. Now all of his career plans have been revised yet again and he's stalling on his diet plan.

I have 3 more days of crazy work stuff and then I start planning for vacation. This involves mobilizing 30 people and 16 dogs, getting keys cut, dossiers written, emails etc. etc.

I can't use this as an excuse to gain even more weight. I swore I would never, ever hit 140 lbs. again and I'm squeezing up against it right now.

Stop Dagmar, just stop. Start writing everything down again, weighing and measuring stuff, and walk out of the room if a binge feeling comes on.

I'll be doing a lot of whining for the next couple of weeks (when don't I?) but I will get back on plan and start racking up those successes again.

Happy Monday everyone!

Dagmar

Meg, sorry you had such a rough week! I hope this week is easier.

Dagmar, I'm with you, where did summer go???

Ward, good luck with your kids!

I have a crazy week scheduled this week. Wednesday night is DH's great-aunt's 80th birthday party, at the local favorite family-style fried chicken restaurant. It is sooooo good. I'm going to try to limit myself to one piece of chicken and load up on the veggie sides (which are plentiful). Saturday is DH's cousin's wedding, plus the packet pickup for my triathlon. Sunday is the triathlon! I was feeling prepared up until I tried to run 5k in sweltering heat and humidity yesterday and took 45 minutes and felt like I was going to die.

On the other hand, last Friday I had a good bike/run brick where I biked 12.75 miles (the race is 12.5) then ran for 20 minutes and felt great. That run was slow too -- only 1.4 miles in 20 minutes. Sigh. I think this fall I need to focus on running.

In other news I did end up requesting (and getting approved) vacation for the week of labor day. It can't come soon enough! The Sunday before labor day we're hosting our cooking club at our house, then Monday-Tuesday we are going down to the country (DH got Tuesday off too). Then Wed-Fri I am going to relax around the house. I'm already planning to take the dog for extremely long walks and get massive amounts of exercise. This will be my first week off all year.

Meg, those shootings were so awful, so stupid--I just can't fathom that kind of thinking and behavior. I'm so sorry about your spa client. I'm glad your knees are doing so well. It is hard to believe it's been a year.

Wardhog, first day of school already?? Oh, my. Do the kindergarteners go back to school earlier than the other kids? You'll have to tell us if you had a teary moment leaving him at school. I did with both my kids, although they both went to daycare. Going to school just makes them seem too grown-up, I guess.

Dagmar, you're going to need a vacation after all that planning for the vacation. Sorry you're having a hard time re: diet and strength training. Maybe a relaxing (will it be relaxing?) vacation will help you get in a better frame of mind when you come back.

Jessica, glad your vacation got approved. Can't wait to hear how you do in the triathlon. Hopefully the humidity won't be as bad as it was on Sunday.

We took our kayaks out for the first time in Idaho and had a wonderful trip down the river. We went with a friend who knows that particular river well so she was able to guide us through a couple of rough spots. I like a little rough water, but the area between two rocks that went down about five feet (not straight down) was slightly hairy because I got caught up on the left rock a bit. But it was fun anyway, and I had a smile on my face. We saw a couple of young great blue herons down one of the side areas off the river. Saw some beaver dams, too, but no beavers. We followed the trip up with a margarita at the local Mexican restaurant--always a fun end to a river trip.

We set a record for rainfall days in August last week plus the lowest high ever (58 degrees). I had to turn the heater on in my car, mostly to clear the windshield, but also because 58 seems really cold after triple digit heat. Got a lot done in my garden, too. I've been trying to set pavers between the raised beds. They're heavy plus I have to use a pickax so I consider that my UBWO. After one 45 minute session on the elliptical on Thursday, my dang knee hurt again. Not sure what to do about that. I miss my cardio.

Happy Monday, everyone!

School starting ? I'm still looking for a pair of white shoes for summer ! I suppose I should be looking for a Halloween costume, or should I start Christmas shopping ? Time just seems to evaporate !

Good morning! Well, afternoon I guess... hectic morning around here...

I am so not ready for school to start yet either... DSS started pre-K today... Wasn't it just spring break last time I looked?

Sheila - wow, from triple digits to 58... that is quite a swing!

Jessica - glad you got your vacation scheduled! Good luck with your crazy week!

Dagmar - sometimes you have to go back to basics to get back on track... and whine about it all you want, we have all been there!

Ward - kindergarten...

Meg - maintenance is turning out to be different numbers on the scale every day, too... glad your knees are doing well! And sorry about your client and your crazy week....

We went and had dinner with friends who just had a baby last night, I took Amanda's pork tenderloin with chunky tomato sauce, a fruit bowl & margarita fixings, they supplied green beans, mashed potatoes. Limited myself to one margarita, but got a little carried away with the multigrain tostitos with the spinach dip & the corn/black bean salsa. Then topped it off with ice cream when we got home at midnight... The day wasn't terrible over all, I had been pretty careful all day leading up to it, and the several days before actually, so probably somewhere in the 700 calorie range over where I wanted to be for the day, but the two days before were about 500 calories under budget so not as bad as it could have been....

Back on track today... tired and a little sore, so didn't get up to exercise. Doing it as soon as I get home...
Good day everyone!

Hi everyone!
I am back from my cruise.
I literally have no time to post due to mounds of laundry, bills, cat hair, dogs to pick up, food to buy....etc!

But I felt an overwhelming urge to get on here if only for a few minutes. I NEED motivation and support. I tried so hard to be good on the cruise but I ate way too much! I exercised almost every day but still not my normal routine. Of course I made the mistake of hopping on the scale when I got home and I'm up 7 pounds. I'm hoping some of it is water weight but that won't account for all of it. My clothes are TIGHT. I hated feeling out of control. I felt like I was gaining ALL of my weight back. I am going to be an angel and see how long it takes to get it off again. Wish me luck. I'll post more when I have time about the cruise-- overall a great experience....

Welcome home, Michele! Hope you had a wonderful time and enjoyed Alaska. Don't fret about the added weight yet - give your body a couple days to lose the water weight! Flying always bloats me up, no matter how much water I drink.

We had a fun weekend. Sat we went down to Hope, Alaska, a town of about 150 85 miles or so south of Anchorage. The Anchorage Square Dance Club held a community dance in the afternoon, then a BBQ, and then a regular square dance starting at 7. We got there for BBQ and stayed for the regular dance. It was held in their social hall which was built in the early 1900's and is still heated (when necessary) by a wood stove. We met some friends there, and after the dance was over, we all camped about a mile away. Got up Sunday, had some breakfast and drove home - where we scurried around the rest of the day to get our weekend chores done.

Hey maintainers! I've been posting in the food accountability thread for a few weeks since starting maintenance but I thought I'd turn to this specific thread for a little advice from you pros. I'm currently in med school and spent this past summer totally turning my life around (food and exercise-wise) and I am SO happy with my new healthy lifestyle. But, now that I've started classes again and am back with all of my friends who love to drink and go out all the time, I'm having a really hard time adjusting to a new routine, trying to balance class, keeping up with studying, working out, cooking meals AND going out with friends!

I've basically come to terms with the fact that I'll have to wake up around 5:30am to work out before class so I can study in the afternoon/evening, but then my friends want to go out at night and by then I'm either tired or I know I have to be up at 5:30, on top of the fact that I'm too scared to revert to my old lifestyle of having a few drinks and then snacking on crappy food, but I don't want to alienate myself from my friends just because my priorities have changed.

So sorry for rambling but I'm so stressed with all of this. I want to focus on me and do what makes me happy (exercise, sleep, eating well) but I want to keep my friends and try to balance it all. How do you do it??

Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it!

Taking charge Hi! Welcome!

My DH has complained all the years we've been together that I get up too early (early morning insomnia so 5:30 is sleeping in for me) and then can't go out late at night.

I can on the weekends, or if I'm given some advance notice of an event and take a nap in the afternoon. It's a matter of planning ahead a little bit.

I'm sure your friends can understand this. If they don't then perhaps you should look for a few new people who share your healthier habits to hang with during the week and save the late night guys for the weekend? If you go to a gym I'm sure there are a couple of people there who you have something (working out) in common with.

Dagmar

Hey TakingCharge!

I had friends who liked to go out and party when I was in grad school, and that almost wrecked my school career.

Personally, I can't imagine trying to get up and work out at 5:30 after having been up late drinking the night before. That sounds like **** to me. You may find that to do what's best for YOU, you have to curtail some of the "fun & games" they are indulging in. I don't mean never see them--but you may have to decide for yourself to set some limits on participation, namely, having only one or two alcoholic drinks (the rest can be nonalcoholic), leaving at a certain hour, not going every single night.

One thing you don't need to do is explain to them the why's of what you're doing. All you need to say, if anyone asks, is that you can't stay up late all the time because it's too tiring with school.

Good luck!

Jay

OK guys, I have to share this website I just found. Whenever you find yourself craving something fattening, go to http://thisiswhyyourefat.com and browse the images. Basically it's a blog of the most disgustingly unhealthy foods ever, in incredibly unappetizing photos. We're talking things like fried dough topped with pork belly, french fries covered with chili cheese + carne asada + pastrami, a brioche bun with cotton candy filling, a 1/3 lb burger topped with two slices of cheese + 4 bacon strips + peanut butter between two krispy kreme donuts instead of a bun . . . Gross! (Okay I admit, occasionally one of the pictures lookes remotely appetizing -- like corn dog pigs in blankets -- but usually just gross.)

Michele, welcome back! Give yourself a few days for the water weight to clear up before you start worrying.

Sheila, I have a question about the river kayaking. After you go down the river however far you're going to go, how do you get back to where you parked?

Taking Charge - This is a tough situation. I had a couple friends go through med school so I know the hours are extreme, the food choices when you're at the hospital are limited, and the stress is excessive. My best advice would be to limit how many nights a week you go out with your friends. Do you work out every day at 5:30? Or do you have some rest days? Suppose you have a rest day on Thursday and Saturday -- then arrange that you'll only go out with your friends Wednesday and Friday nights. If you don't want to drink too much, volunteer to be a designated driver (assuming you are driving to wherever you're drinking, which may not be the case).

I admit I'm not good at avoiding the social situations. When I go out with friends I do drink and I do eat poorly. What I do to mitigate the situation is just to not do that very often. Since I'm not in a school environment I don't actually have friends just down the hall or anything like that, so I only go out once or twice a month, which generally works out okay.

Greetings from Italy!

I don't have much time to post--especially since the wireless is very slow here. I saw a couple of Michele's Alaska photos on Facebook, but the slow connection means I need to wait to get home before I look at more. It sounds like you had a great time!

The day we flew in was weird. All the flights, the strange connection in Frankfurt (get off the plane in the middle of the tarmac, load onto a bus, get taken to the terminal to go through security and then load back onto the same bus, get taken to another terminal where you show your boarding pass, load onto another bus and get taken back to the tarmac to load onto the new plane for Italy). Once in Italy, we didn't even show our passport--just grabbed our bags and walked out to rent our car. Then we got what I call hopelessly lost--my friend said she always had hope! But 3 or 4 hours of driving around was pretty nerve wracking. Once in the city, it is so hard to tell which roads can be driven on let alone which direction you are allowed to travel on them. I convinced my friend that I did not want to get back in the car until we leave Thursday for Pisa and Lucca. We've walked and walked and walked some more. Lunches have consisted of salads for me and either pizza or salad for my friend. Dinner last night I started with an appetizer of selected hams followed by a buckwheat pasta with duck sauce. Both were terribly salty. That and I haven't been drinking my normal amount of water (and with the heat and all the walking)--I feel parched most of the time. At least I know my eating has been good and all the exercise is nice.

I'd upload photos but the connection is just too slow. I'll load some when I get home.

WOW. I am so, so, so thankful to you all for your responses. Seriously, teary eyed! You all understand so well what I'm going through and have such great advice. I've really cut down on going out and I actually haven't been drinking at all (just have no desire to) so I've been the designated driver, but you're right, if my friends can't be ok with that and support it, then maybe they're not such great friends. It's just been a really difficult adjustment for me and having your support and your thoughtful advice really means the world to me. Thank you all so much! I already feel so much better and think with some careful planning and time management, I can make it all work. Phew!

Have a good day everyone!