Kitty - one hour at a time is about all I have right now.

I made it through the week-end on plan. So far my scale does not recognize my efforts, but it will in time.

I went for a swim today (and I am sooo sleepy this afternoon) and I was reading the facility rules as I was walking out. Rule #2 says: Patrons entering the pool must wear a swimsuit. It made me laugh.

Full speed ahead, everyone!

148.5 this morning, drifting back down. Seeing the 150.0 on Monday scared me straight again, I guess - I want to get far away enough from that number that "blips" don't go that high. I'm in a mucky mood, for no particular reason except an accumulation of tiny reasons. The biggest one is that DH (the other meaning of DH) is freely spending time and money that is in pretty short supply right now, and letting his share of the everyday stuff fall on me while he indulges in every concert he wants to hear, every golf outing that comes along, and every retirement party or night in the bar that he can justify. I'm having feelings of being drained, trapped, paralyzed, and invisible. There is only one path out of this kind of mood, and that's exerting enough energy to DO. SOMETHING. Heck, ANYTHING. I think I will take my attitude out on the backyard thistles. It's fairly far down the priority list, but it is satisfying to make an open spot where there hasn't been one. Poor weeds!

Yeah, Becky, hack the h*** out of those weeds, then go find something fun to do, just for you.

Becky, I have a weight bag in my garage for moments like that. Hack away, honey. Then maybe have a pedicure.

I was on my way into spin today when I noticed The Hunger Games was in the cardio cinema and it was about to start. I read the book a while ago and wanted to see it so I skipped spin and spent 2 hours, 20 minutes doing cardio instead. Enjoyed the movie.

Becky, when you finish with your weeds can you come and fight with mine? My yard is out of control.

Ward - that's a way to get your cardio in! Oh, thanks for the nice comment on my running last week. I saw it and then never replied to it.

Came home early from the hospital (details in chat thread) to find DH entering the house with a bag of chocolate chip cookies and a box of crackers.

Yeah, we ate them. I am so tired and not looking forward to the battle that's already begun with my dad that I used both those as an excuse to binge eat.

Then DH told me he wants to make up a list of what he'll be eating and start his diet "seriously" next Monday. He wants to "discuss" this on Saturday.

Great! He is finally taking control over what he eats. If this involves separate food shopping and dinner prep so be it. But he HAS TO CLEAN UP after himself after dinner. Not leave everything for me to do the next morning.

And I'm hoping we can still sit together and chat while we are having our respective dinners (I suspect DH will try something like macrobiotic and that doesn't work for my body) since we will now have 2 dinner times and separate food.

I am going to be very calm and open about all of this but the clean up rule is going to be priority.

Dagmar

Ward, what is the cardio cinema? Are the machines inside a dedicated screening room, or is it an option on your machine? My gym has the little individual TV screens on the cardio machines, but it's just a handful of Cablevision channels. Would there be a cardio cinema channel? Also, I am wondering whether it would be the case, as with music, that action-packed films where s&^%$t blows up would be more motivating than humorous & poignant & slower-moving summer chick flicks starring Meryl Streep.

Dagmar, one thing I have learned from my own binge-eating history is: Never **eat at** anyone. It resolves nothing. It's one of the questions I ask myself when my jaws start working: Who is this aggression really aimed at? If a name immediately comes to mind, I stop, put down the food & back away slowly.

Becky, I weighed in at 148.5, so we're exactly the same weight. Two ships that pass in the night. Only I'm 4.5 inches shorter than you. Some of my weight is swollen muscles, as I'm still sore two days later from a ruthlessly efficient Monday night circuit training class. Again, I keep dropping abruptly into chairs rather than lowering myself down in the usual way, because my quads and hamstrings are stiff.

This weather is amazing, so clear, bright & crisp. I was actually cold in my apartment yesterday & had to put on socks and a light sweater. Every time I ate a MacIntosh cold from the fridge or drank cold water, I shivered hard afterward. Soon I'll resume my weekly soup-making. Usually I start off the soup-making season with escarole and beans, as I find it amusing to drop lettuce into boiling liquid.

My weight is still going up as I had more grapes yesterday. They're gone now and hopefully I've learned my lesson (yet again).

Yesterday evening was cruddy. I had a short conversation with dd and it left me so disheartened. She is so miserable at college and was taking it out on me-- just super cranky. She later texted me that she had a migraine due to the weird weather there-- they are having monsoons. So I'm sure that had something to do with it. I'm trying to send her little things in the mail and apparently I send the wrong things. I keep asking her what she needs and she snaps NOTHING. So, I was a little out of sorts. Then it was a comedy of errors when I finally decided to head upstairs and get ready for bed. I went up and turned on my bedroom light-- poof-- the bulb burned out. Five minutes later I went back upstairs and my cat was having poo issues on my bedspread. I can't even remember what occurred after that but it started getting comical.

I'm hoping Wednesday shapes up better. I've packed less food for work-- while I pack healthy things I think I'm eating too much. Planning on bikram yoga tonight to sweat out some water and stress-- hoping the combination will start the scale moving in the other direction.

Ward, if I ever get my yard back under control, I will make the trip to Atlanta to tackle yours. Please, don't hold your breath - we haven't done a thing to our yard outside the vegetable garden this year! Even DH's flowerbed is merely a mess of self-seeded individuals. There are some rowdy snapdragons, a few renegade cherry tomatoes, and some leftover biennial herbs. I should take a picture of the thistle in front of my house. We have let it be, because it's one of the spreading types. Kid you not, the sucker is almost 3 1/2 feet in diameter. It's so awful it's kind of cool, and now we just want to see how big it will get before frost kills it off (if it does). It's very symmetrical and a beautiful specimen of its type. If I put out a dignified copper identification tag, does that make it okay?

dagmar, yes, stand firm on the cleanup! I hope that DH's renewed interest lasts a while and that you two can find some common dietary ground. Cooking together can be enjoyable. Don't let the exhaustion do you in!

saef, we may be close in weight, but I have no doubt at all that you are stronger, more flexible, and more healthy than I am, which is so much more important!

michele - good grief, I'm glad you were able to laugh instead of scream! I'm not sure I could forgive a cat for defiling my bed. The retaliation would get me jailed for sure.

I only had 15 minutes with my thistles last night, but it did really help. I filled about half of a 55-gallon trash bag, and cleared maybe a 6x6 area. As far as I know, there are no obstacles in the way of getting to the pool tonight, which also is improving my outook. And the 147.5/148.0 on the scale didn't hurt either.

He didn't do it on purpose. He had obviously just visited the litterbox and didn't wipe properly. Therefore that was happening on my bed. He has tummy issues and dh has to cook a chicken concoction for him-- he can't have regular kitty food. The good and the bad result from that is my kitties aren't very regular (they rarely go) but they sometimes have some constipation when they do. TMI I know!

saef, the cardio cinema is a big, dark room with ellipticals, treadmills and stationary bikes with a big movie screen in the front. They show a movie on continuous loop for a few days, then change to a new one. Usually they pick "action" films, which don't appeal to me that much but it's a good change of pace sometimes.

Michele, my DD is 10 and miserable in 5th grade ("soooo much work ... I'm soooo behind ...). Today is picture day and she wanted her hair curly for the photo. So last night I put her hair in foam rollers and she slept in them. Before I even got up this morning I could hear her crying hysterically because IT IS TOO CURLY AND IT LOOKS STUPID! I talked her down and offered to wet her hair to get the curl out, but no, she decided to go off to school with the curls after all. I know in her case a lot of it is a hormonal shift, but she is still making me crazy.

Shannon, no worries. I know you have been a little stressed.

Sorry about last night, Dagmar.

I want a cardio cinema!
That is such a cool idea!!! Do you just plug in your headphones to the equipment so you can hear?

Nope, it's just super loud in there, just like at the theater.