I walk past a Pour House every day I park in the lot, when I drive, instead of train to work- NYC :)

There is a new grandaughter coming into my life. Doctor say she can come any time, now. The name they have selected for her is Faith. I like it. Not a name that you hear a lot and definitely a girls name.

Well you know I love the name BARGOO...

since I have a Kaia Faith and now a Claire Elaine....

Oh, Gary I didn't know Kaia's middle name was Faith. I like Claire, too. My FIL had a sister named Faith, but they said they picked It because they liked it, not because of Auntie Faith.

Congrats bargoo! Let's hope for an easy delivery.

I'm proud to say I'm down another 1/2 pound. I am now half-way to my goal.

Congrats, bargoo! That's exciting :D

I can't keep up with this thread! It moves too fast. But I need some accountability, so... I fell off the wagon hard on Saturday. I ate 3000 calories. I hate when I do that. The last time I'd done it was Feb 5th. As if I wasn't losing slowly enough, now I'll have to deal with this binge. Ugh. My plan is to eat no more than 1500 for the rest of the week. Or better, until I reach my stupid goal, which is no more than 132. I'm sick and tired of not being there.
Ugh. I'm not in a good place mentally right now, and I feel that if I can't even do this (lose weight) right, I'll drown completely.

Heh, sorry to be a downer. Have a good week, guys!

I stayed OP all weekend! Woohoo! :carrot: The scale rewarded me by finally showing a pound lost Saturday AM, and it was still there Sunday, and today! I'm trying to remember this feeling and store it up for next weekend, when my parents arrive, and I'm faced with temptations eating out, etc. I'm going to try and carry this momentum through the week and lose another # before next weekend.

Kitty, great job running!

Allison, great job!!! :carrot: Keep it up!

Bargoo, how exciting! Faith is a very nice name. My BF's sister's children are Evan Faith and Collins Hope. Both girls.

Clarabr, sorry for you bad mood. We all sometimes overeat or binge. There's no point beating yourself up about it. Just look at today as a new opportunity to eat healthily and treat your body well. Oh, and drink lots of water with lemon slices in it. I'm channeling our moderator Meg and this was always her cure-all, it's become mine as well.

Happy Monday, everyone! :wave:

I'm just "off" today. I don't know if it's remnants of the time change, or the dark, dreary, rainy skies, but I can tell it's a 2-cup morning. I want to skulk back to bed and sleep for another 16 hours or so. I probably maintained over the weekend; I thought about the scale after I ran this morning, and couldn't make myself care enough to get on it. It'll be there tomorrow, waiting in judgment as always.

I want to go back to bed, too. Too tired this morning after waking up at 3 AM and never really getting back to a proper sleep.

Weight up a pound from the weekend, but I'm pretty confident that will be gone by Wednesday and then it's work to get another off by the weekend.

clarabr, you are not a downer at all. I have felt the same way many times. Sometimes these downtimes are just what we need to kick butt and get us going again. Good luck.

I went to a baby shower yesterday for expected grandaugher. I have been to a fair amount of baby showers and have hosted a few, most showers have cake and punch and maybe fancy sandwiches but this one was a barbeque. we are talking about, barbequed ribs, chicken and tri tip with chili, potato salad, lasagna, salad,garlic bread and cake and cookies. Wow ! I managed to do a little portion control, I had the chicken although the ribs looked scrumptious but I did have one cookie and a monstrous piece of cake. The scale was kind to me this A.M. but maybe it just forgot about the cake, I hope so.

clarabr- I so get it. Fortunately you WILL feel better. Eye on the end game---
You Are OK
come back soon :)

bargoo - some events are special enough to call for cake; baby showers are probably right up there. :) Faith is a very pretty name!

clara - give yourself at least a little credit for quantifying the damage! Knowledge and data are important positives!

megan - hearing about on-plan weekends always makes me more determined to try to follow suit. Thanks for reinforcing that it can be done, with good planning and intent!

saef - hooray for contractors working again! Hopefully the trend will continue; I think the universe owes you some (a whole lot of) good news soon. :)

allison - congrats on the continuing downward trend!

Time to get back on track for me. Less junk, more veggies, more running. I'm keeping the caffeine though, because who am I kidding? :coffee: I can't even deal with myself without it!

Bargoo, I love the idea of bbq for a baby shower! Your list of the spread totally made me salivate, but great job not loading up your plate with a bit of everything. I don't know if I could have resisted.

I survived DSS's birthday party this weekend (joint with XW) so am back to the real world today. Woo hoo!

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I did feel better after going to the gym yesterday. I managed to keep calories down Sunday and yesterday (though not as low as I'd like, I'm never able to do that after a binge). Oh well, let's move on.

ICUwishing, I always quantify the damage! I'm not sure it helps, since it only makes me angry for losing X days to burn those calories!

Morning all,
Stayed POP eating at a restaurant for book club last night. Delicious salad w shrimp on top. I'm once again facing a food and drink filled weekend ahead but will just deal with it when I get to it.

Clarabr, great job moving on and getting to the gym. Keep up the good work!

Bargoo, living in the south I've come to appreciate good bbq. Well prepared it is worth the cals for an occasional treat. The cookoff I'm supposed to attend this weekend is a rib cookoff and I will probably have 1 or 2 little ribs. My friends who are entering are excellent caterers.

I'm still dragging a little bit today. I had a fairly normal sleep last night but didn't get to "make up" anything from the DST change the night before. Hopefully we can all drag ourselves out of these cobwebs and keep going! :carrot:

I hadn't slept well all weekend, so I took some Advil PM last night and slept quite well.

My 1 pound weekend weight is half off this morning.

I walked the dog after work yesterday--so nice having a little extra light a little extra long!

I am still trying to get adjusted to the time change, slept pretty good last night , and was up at a reasonable time. Reasonable for me, that is.
Allison good work on the weight coming down..
It is pretty annoying how men can seem to lose weight just by walking to the refrigerator.
Megan, BBQ is pretty common in California , too. It was a little cool Sunday but the hosts have a great partially enclosed patio area and comfortable furniture. Many of the guest are bowlers and the hosts have a table made out of an old bowling lane in their patio. Pretty neat.
I didn't realize that someione had taken a picture of me and Misha "making out", Misha is the hosts Shu Tzu, he had hopped up on my lap and gave me a kiss.It is now preserved for history.

I'm taking a couple days of maintenance mode. There's something about the weight-loss mindset that's more rigid than I can field for more than 4-5 weeks straight; I ran into this a few years back as well. My inner 5 year-old is screaming "I don't WANT to log it! I KNOW what I can and can't eat!!!" I was at 152.5 this morning; I made a deal with myself that I will stop logging until Friday unless that number goes up.

On the positive side, DH stepped up and volunteered to cover DS's basketball game tonight. It's an away game that's over an hour from our house. I can't quite figure out if he's doing it because he realized I do the vast majority of the kid duties; or because he knows that I realllllly want to go to water aerobics tonight, or because he needs a good excuse not to go with me. :lol: Like food logs, at the moment I simply don't want to work that hard and analyze it. :D Go with the flow, baby!

Becky, re : your husband's offer to cover DS basketball game, just accept it, do not over analyze it.
Re: Dieting, do whatever works for you.

bargoo, I think I'm in an "I don't wanna think" mood. :p It's the amoeba mentality of reactive existence: hungry? Get food. Poked? Move away. Danger? Flight. The opposite of planning, tempered by the long list of educational experiences. If it works, great - but if that scale needle moves the wrong way, the deal is off! ;)

I'm 152.5 this morning as well. Was 152 on Sunday. I hope to be back to 152 tomorrow. Then to work on 151.5 for Friday and hoping for 151 on Saturday, which is my birthday. When I started doing Nutrisystem on 1/2/12, I was hoping to be at goal by my birthday (could have been done had I given up wine...). Instead I'm halfway there now. I should be able to meet goal by the end of May, dontcha think?

allison, I'll walk that last 12 with ya! My birthday is May 17, and that is my target date. We've had a lot of success in the past with cutting back on the wine - seems to be a snag for both of us. :D I won't declare total abstinence, because I don't want to ... but I might sign up to a maximum number of ounces per week? :chin:

I'm with you!!!

I managed to get by on half of my usual last night. I have an open bottle for tonight and will not open a new one. That should be easy...I have a new case that I have not yet unpacked, so perhaps if I leave it unpacked for a while longer, it should help.

Also, I managed the whole weekend with no beer. I usually have one each day with lunch. Pat on my back for that one!

Here we go toward 5/17 (or perhaps 5/14 for me as that's my anniversary).

Allison and Becky, thinking good thoughts for May for both of you. I think you can do it !!

Allison, I reviewed my last five weeks of food logs. (takes deep breath) I have been averaging 10 servings of alcohol per week - based on the typical 12 oz beer, 4 oz wine, 1 oz hard spirits. I am (gulp) going to cut it by 60%, and give myself a weekly budget of 4 servings. I used up 2 of them last night.

Um, gulp, I've beat you! I average 3 glasses of wine per night. I'm going to cut that to two this week and try for one next week (except Tuesday when we go out to celebrate my birthday--belated as we're also going to see a show).

Allison, sounds like a good plan! I only averaged the last 5 weeks - which were "weight loss" mode. I have no doubts at all that I was right with you when I was holding steady over the last few years! It's hard to beat a good glass of wine ... I guess if I'm going to cut back that far, I'm going to have to get into the truly premium stuff to make it worthwhile .... :D

ETA: I just informed my GFs and DH about the new "budget". They're thrilled about having a new designated driver. :lol:

Wine and beer are my downfalls, too. Yesterday was a decent day of eating as a maintainer again but I still had 2 beers with dinner.

Allison and ICUwishing, I'm usually around 2 or 3 drinks per night. Honestly I can't imagine cutting back to 4 servings per week though I'm sure it would help with the weight! Maybe I should try a more modest reduction to 8 a week or something like that.

LOL. I'm actually the DD in our house (unless we make DS drive). DH got a DUI several years ago and the state has a zero tolerance for like 10 years after that. He was dumb enough to get one once and does not want to go through it again.

I think my problem is once I start, I don't stop. The later I start, the less I drink. For example, last night I didn't pour any wine until we sat down for dinner and therefore I only had 2 glasses--one with dinner and one afterward. If I could cut out the afterward, things would be better. But what's worse is when I get home from work, it's too cold/windy/etc. to take the dog for a walk, I sit down with my Kindle and a glass of wine (although I HAVE been making strides in this--both in not making excuses to walk the dog OR having a sparkling water in lieu of the wine while reading).

Put me on the May train with you guys. May 15th is my target date.

I've cut back my alcohol a lot in the last month - I'm averaging 1 serving two nights per week now.

I'm usually in good shape unless I get home from work and DH has already poured a glass for me. Not often enough, I make that glass last through dinner and typically forego dessert for another glass. Which tends to turn into another one when I sit down in the LR with the iPad. 4/wk is a hardship, yet still gives me the flexibility to save them all for a weekend if I want. As long as I have choices, I should be okay ... if I tried to say "No more, period", y'all might've been watching the tantrum on the evening news! :D

So we always seem to go one step forward then two steps back with XW.

So last thing I mentioned in here was that I was happy because she brought DSS over to see me at Target.

Then we had him overnight the night before his birthday, so he was at our house on birthday morning. Daddy was scheduled to take him to Wendy's for a birthday breakfast. Mommy is scheduled to have lunch with him at school. (Last year they had breakfast, then I had lunch with him at school.) So Friday morning when I'm leaving the bathroom to get his breakfast ready he stops me and says "I've got something I need to tell you" with serious face. I turn around and he says "I really wanted you to go to my birthday breakfast with me and mommy and daddy, but when I asked her about it she said 'it's either her or me'." With little tears running down his face, but otherwise perfectly calm. He then tells me that she said "It's okay if you don't want to see your mommy for breakfast on your birthday, go ahead and bring her." I almost cried. So I sat him down and assured him that I would have liked to go, but mommy won't let me. He tells me that it is my turn to go to breakfast, so I should call mommy and tell her. I tell him that mommy won't let that happen, that mommy had planned it. He says "mommy always plans everything, she never lets you do anything." Made me so mad I could barely breathe. And she wonders why he gets in trouble at school. And she took the lunch that day, too. Which he knew that I had done last year, so he didn't think it was fair that she got both.

Party went okay on Saturday - her folks were running late so they didn't get to open gifts before the party as they had planned. Which was the reason she kept him overnight on his birthday on what should have been our night - so they could come down. XW calls about 11:30 and tells us this and says "we have the party room for an hour, right?" Which we don't. Because we booked the freaking party that she requested. She says "Which package did you book? Well I guess that will have to be fine." Which one? The one she asked for.

I'm so tired.

Shannon , I wish I had some words of wisdom for you. What a crime she is doing to that little boy. I, personally feel that the more people who love my children and want them to have a good life, the better off they will be.
I'd like to be close enough to give you a hug right, now.

And thanks again here, Bargoo. Your reply made me smile. I needed that today.

Shannon, :hug: it sounds like you need to have some kind of intervention with XW to show her how much her animosity towards you is hurting her son. Alternatively, you need to get full custody of that kid.

On the alcohol topic, I usually have wine or something maybe 3 days in a week, 1-2 glasses each time. Sometimes has been more, sometimes less. Actually I've been on the higher end lately, but it's as easy for me to not have it as it is to have it.

Somewhat relatedly, DH and I are going to go see a genetic counselor next week. After a big hassle trying to get his labs done we ended up deciding to go to the counselor first in case they want to order more tests so we can have them done all at once. If his tests come back clean and we're cleared to have kids, my alcohol consumption will have to drop to zero, so it's a good thing I don't mind not having it. :lol:

My weight is holding steady at 137. Not where I want it, but not high enough to give me the kick in the pants I need to get motivated to lose. I'm having a hard time coming in under 1600 cals and I need to be at 1400 to lose.

Shannon, I cannot believe XW cannot put two and two together and recognize DSS's behavior problems are related to her actions. I admire you so much and I know DSS feels loved by you.

:wave: at everyone!

Unfortunately I think the XW is too close to the whole situation to understand she is part of the problem. She needs counseling--not the boy so much, IMO.

You're holding up really well, Shannon. It's got to be hard. Hugs from all of us!

Jessica~good luck on the genetic counseling!

:grouphug:Thanks guys. We're hoping that the counseling will make her face some of these issues, they are two weeks in so far and do the behavioral testing next week.

Jessica - I hope that your genetic testing goes well.:hug:

Jessica, hoping the genetic testing will come out as you wish.