Allison, try freecycle for weights, you might get sone free.

I was already really sweaty and hot (and sunblocked) from work yesterday, so I skipped the gym and went home and showered, walked the dog a bit, and BF and I drove around in the golf cart letting her play on the beach and in different spots around the island. I was trying to just let myself breathe a bit and relax, and spend some QT w BF.

I am not freaking out about my frustrations, just going to start measuring all portions again, NBD. Of course the scale finally rewarded me with a lb lost this morning. I hope it stays that way!

What are my U.S. friends' strategies for Memorial Day weekend? Do you have BBQs to go to? I have a BBQ w friends Sunday night - I will bring something healthy to share, and eat a big salad. I'm skipping a party tonight that I don't really want to attend, anyway. I have a friend who will be in town for the long weekend who I know will be drinking alcohol. I will take the beach time with her, bring my own iced tea, and skip the late night bar hopping. I'm planning some active things w another friend - we talked about a snorkeling trip and a bike ride - in addition to long dog walks. And lastly, I'm headed to the store tonight to stock up on fruits (watermelon!) and veggies, chicken breasts and lean deli meat for sandwiches, so I can bring an OP sandwich and watermelon to share wherever I end up.

What are your long weekend plans and survival strategies?

Good morning all and Happy Friday

Megan, I plan to get in a lot of movement this weekend. Except for Memorial day, all my 'places' are open and I'm feeling an 'end of the month' push coming on I'm meeting up with a friend at some point, but there's no BBQ planned for us city folk.

Question: I think I don't know the difference between being happy with my wt. and maintaining good habits that lead to wt. loss. i.e. being on a program vs. being a 'maintainer'

Do we mean that we keep on the good fight but don't look at the scale Because personally, I can't imagine being at a weight where I have to start increasing my intake (!) or cut back on workouts (!!)

Anyway, have a great weekend all

Exhale15, this is oft-discussed here, and my own conclusion, personally, is that there isn't much difference between my day-to-day life as a maintainer and during a weight loss effort. In the latter, I eat less. I eat the same foods and exercise the same either way.

Scale is up going into the weekend. I've been at maintenance calories though, so I can only attribute it to the new workouts. Every part of me is sore except my abs and obliques. My jeans are stupidly tight across my thighs where they were just fine all last week. I'd whine about being too old to get in shape, but my grandma didn't pick up her first dumbbell til she was 75. No excuses!

Megan, we have a massive annual BBQ/potluck for about 50 people on Sunday. DH and a small crew of crazy "pit beeyotches" start the fire in the smoker about midnight tomorrow night (Sunday morning?), stay up all night and barbecue 4 pork shoulders and a huge beef brisket for 18 hours. There will be tremendous quantities of beer consumed. Friends, fun and food! I usually do okay at this one, because I'm on my feet the whole day and too focused on party control to drink all that much. If it were at someone else's house, it would be a problem. Saturday will be all about prep and cleaning, and Monday will be all recovery and cleaning.

When reached goal I asked the long time maintainers how the did it, their answer, "we keep it off the same way we lost it". What a concept ! I figured they knew something I didn't so I followed their advice.
I still count calories, I still plan meals ahead of time.
As saef said, their is not much differance between dieting and maintaining.

Wow! Becky! That is quite a party!!

My weekend will be much quieter.
My dh is gone for three weeks-- older dd made it back to Spokane yesterday-- and younger dd will likely have "plans".

Tonight I'm debating bikram yoga vs. zumba. I'm leaning towards bikram but I don't like to be away from my cell phone for 2 hours while dd is out driving-- she has an appointment and will be on the freeways at rush hour (she is 17)-- I really can't bring my phone in with me-- plus I fear the heat and humidity would kill it.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to go to a boot camp class. Then I might meet a friend for lunch. I'm thinking of suggesting a big walk around the reservoir. Then, depending on what else is going on with dd, maybe I'll go to bikram. I doubt I'll do all three, but maybe two of these.

Sunday will maybe be bikram again though there is a zumba class with my favorite instructor--- I've never gone to the Sunday class because I've always worked on Sundays-- since I stopped a few weeks ago I've been out of town or had commitments-- so that might happen.

Monday-- ditto-- Bikram or Zumba or something.

In between all of the activities, I need to clean house, run errands, etc.

I had a fun night last night. Dd and I took both doggies to Doggie Night-- Jozi the Great Dane, and Dewey the Dachshund. We had never been before-- it's in a cute downtown area and you walk around to the different shops-- some open their doors to the doggies. Plus there are booths with doggie treats, etc. The best part was seeing all of the other doggies-- hundreds of them! There were at least 5 other great danes and tons of doxies. Our vet was there and our boarding facility and the dogs seemed excited to see them. We ate outside at a cafe that is "doggie friendly". I had never been there before and made a so-so choice-- a veggie burger that was amazing-- but came on a yummy bun-- and had some delicious chips with it. Then we walked to our favorite little chocolate shop and I splurged on one decadent chocolate. The scale stayed the same this morning (still up 4 pounds) so I was glad I wasn't rewarded with more weight! The dogs loved it and were exhausted after!

My gain is almost gone. Another half pound and I'll be back at 149. I'm happy about that!

I woke up with a horrible headache this morning. Took some Advil and went back to bed for an hour because I didn't need to get up to fix DS his breakfast (his school is on furlough for two days giving him a 5-day weekend). Got up at 6 and still had the headache but persevered to get to work. I'm sitting here now willing the stupid thing to go away. Every once in a while I get a huge KNOCK above my left eye and gosh it hurts.

My weekend plans are to golf every morning! It cooled down here so that will be very pleasant. Right now it's only 72 and we're looking at highs of only 90 all weekend. I have a lot of errands to run on Saturday, but the other two days will be relaxing and probably reading a lot.

I did a bad thing yesterday. I bought a huge chunk of braunschweiger. It's one of my favorite things and I don't think I've bought any for about 4 or 5 years. I had some on crackers when I got home and it was so yummy, but it's ridiculously high in fat and calories. What was I thinking? I'll do my best to portion it out so it lasts for about a week, but I also shared it with Chico, so perhaps it won't last that long.

My weight is lower than last Friday and a few days earlier, but still hasn't reverted to what it was before my now-12-day period began. But in the gym this morning, I wore a tank top over my sports bra and I am absolutely certain my arms have tightened up considerably from how they looked last fall, before I started working on my upper body three days a week.

Also my shoulders look completely different. If I had photos or taken measurements, probably I could see the changes rather than having a vague impression of them. One slightly odd change. I think that, while my stomach is smaller, my torso looks squarer. Something about my sides. Does this make sense?

This whole post sounds narcissistic but it is a sign of my looking at something other than scale weight to determine my well-being.

Over the weekend, I hope to go horseback riding (if the stable will return my call) and I'll be looking at bathroom tile in Home Depot this evening. Unfortunately, I have to work. Over the past two days, someone backed a dump truck up to my laptop and I now have to co-write a presentation, co-present an already written presentation, work on two long documents about the state of IT in China and in Mexico, and review a slew of other documents. So I am viewing Memorial Day as a work day but without phone calls or instant messages or meetings interrupting me. I don't foresee any special meals. I'm marinating chicken right now for this evening's dinner. I am not thinking about food so much as about how much time I get on the laptop over the long weekend.

YAY!!! I've developed a bit of a bat-arm and am hoping that my purchase this weekend of dumbbells (and my intention of doing upper body workouts 3 to 4 days a week) will tighten things up. I'm certain it will now that I've heard of your success!!

Now, I am going to have to go out and buy some braunschweiger, and it's all Allison's fault !!! My favorite way to eat it is on toast well anointed with mayo.
I get a small package about every two weeks or so but I skip the toast and mayo and just have one slice with my lunch. I do count the calories in my menu for the day, it is worth every calorie spent.

bargoo, when I was growing up my mom would make liversausage sandwiches--they were my favorite. Braunschweiger and sweet pickle relish. YUM! These days I just eat it plain or on a cracker.

I had to look up braunschweiger to see what you ladies are talking about. Hmm... I don't think I would care for it. My mom & sis would get scrapple (I grew up near PA Dutch country after all), my dad and I would scorn it and go for the bacon. Then again I was recently introduced to boudain and like it a lot!

I had to look up boudain. At first I thought you mistyped poutine! It sure looks like sausage--but according to Wikipedia, Louisiana cajuns don't consider it sausage.

I once tried a new recipe, forget what it was for but it required Cajun Spice, didn't have any so went to the store and bought some. I went home proceded with my recipe adding a liberal amount of Cajun Spice. Wow ! Can we say HOT ?