Congrats to DD and her fiance, Allison! Nothing like a near-future target to keep your focus on your plan.

Dagmar, nice job on the streak! It is kind of funny how our housemates react to any sort of "different" behavior. My DH had me reprogram the furnace to come on earlier so he'll be "less unmotivated" to get out of bed and get on the treadmill - which he's actually done 2 of the last 3 mornings! I am strangely drawn to testing his resolve ... I won't, because I know how mean it is.

shannon, I think charging a credit card before shipping, especially weeks ahead of time, is unforgivable. Like, "roast you over the internet" unforgivable.

silverbirch, thank you for the reminder about balance exercises. So simple and yet so necessary. I'm glad they made you feel good! I'm not seeing much action on the scale either, and I'm also not motivated to mess with what I'm doing to try to change that yet. In February, if necessary.

rita, welcome!

My back seems to be in pretty decent shape. I didn't go swimming last night; after spending 3 1/2 hours standing on the kitchen tile doing food stuffs, it felt a little weird and I opted to ice it instead. I'm definitely going on Wednesday.

Nothing like a specific deadline to motivate Allison-- right? Did they decide to have the wedding in the area you and I discussed?

I tried something new this morning. I've been taking a bunch of grapes with me to work and eating them on the drive in (remember I have a grape "issue"). So today, I put whitening strips on my teeth before leaving. I still took the grapes but I'll eat them later when I'm actually hungry. I'm hoping it will cut down on my work snacking a bit. We'll see. And I might have whiter teeth as a side benefit!!

Michele~the wedding is at Hans Fahden winery in Calistoga. I've been looking at places to stay and really like The Wine Country Inn which is about 7 miles from the vineyard, but DD doesn't think her fiance's family can afford that. I think it would be much more fun to stay at a B&B than at say, the Marriott. Where do you usually stay up there?

Congrats! I have 22 weeks until my wedding. My goal was to get to 130 by then (hopefully before then to leave room for dress fitting, not that I've bought a dress yet). So far I've been totally on plan for two weeks and am back to 138. We can support each other in this since we have similar deadlines - I'd love to have a bit of support somewhere. My fiancé really hates when I talk about losing weight, it's almost like he takes it personally. He just says "you're perfect, I wish you wouldn't talk about that". Which is sweet in a way, but it also makes me feel alone in this. And I would really rather not feel self-conscious on wedding day, it's bad enough that I have always really hated having my picture taken without feeling fat on top of it.

That somehow turned into a mini-rant, sorry! We are closing escrow on our new house and moving, and the stress of that plus work plus wedding planning plus a family emergency has me wound a bit tight.

Allison-- we've never stayed in Calistoga. We usually stay in Napa. We've stayed at a multiple of places from the Marriott (when we had points), to some charming B&B's. We've also stayed in Sonoma before. There are many lovely places there that I'm dying to stay at!

JayZeeJay-- sorry for your stress. That sounds like a lot to deal with all at the same time.

No butter or peanut butter on Monday. Streak is 20. Things are going well. I felt a bit hungry at various points during the day but tried to relax and enjoy the feeling. Then it went away. Today was a rest day from exercise (apart from the 10 minutes or so I try to do always in the morning). I'll do legs again tomorrow.

Allison, you can do it! We are getting quite serious in this thread so there'll be lots of support. You're going to look great.

JayZeeJay, you're going to look great too. Like I said, we're getting serious here. No time-wasting.

Dagmar, good going on the no-alcohol streak! You can do whatever you like tonight. Is the bathroom working? Have a bubble bath? It might really warm you up.

Becky, you're so wise. When a back feels 'a little weird' you've really got to look after it.

Michele, I'd forgotten the grapes issue! You take care!

Shannon, time to take up the yoga again?

Birchie on getting to the 20 day mark. I like your thought on enjoying the feeling of being a bit hungry and being relaxed about it. To me that always means I'm spot on plan. I know I'm getting enough fuel and that I"ll get more soon enough.

I am going to go to a restorative yoga class on Sunday. I will not have had an opportunity to shower (DH and the guy from his work will demo the bathroom Friday but things need to dry and cure) for a couple of days but I'll find a way to clean myself up enough to go. I've been putting it off and this studio was prompt and thorough in their reply to my inquiry about fees and services. I remember how much I enjoyed the classes I went to 2 winters ago and I've been keeping an eye out for another studio that offered this type of yoga.

I want some "me" time again and this will be a great opportunity for that.

Dagmar

Feeling guilty that I haven't posted in so long. I actually wrote most of a post about 4 days ago, then lost it switching tabs on my browser to check an IM from someone. I was so annoyed that it's kept me passively reading ever since. Silverbirch, good on you for 3 weeks butter/PB-free. It's funny the things we each find challenging; I can personally stay away from butter for months at a time and not notice; ditto for grapes. But ask me to abstain from chocolate or almonds for more than 3 days and I'll go into full-on DT's.

Interesting the lengths we go to to avoid food: Dagmar pouring detergent on leftover desserts; Michelle putting whitening strips on her teeth to avoid snacking in the car; Silverbirch logging her days to avoid butter. I'm right there with you all: today I forced myself to work through my afternoon snack period because I ate more for breakfast than I should have and need to keep daily cals under 1600.

I've been very good about logging all my food the last month or so, but I know it's only an estimate- some foods I can only guess at the nutrition profile (like when I eat out Thai or Chinese), and others I guesstimate the portion (1/3 c or 1/2? or is it really 2/3?). According to my BodyMedia Fit device, I should be losing weight like crazy at that level (a pound a week at least); instead, I seem to be essentially at maintenance despite a vigorous hour of exercise most days. I think I'm not going to renew the fee-based "activity manager" program for the device (which is the only way to make it work) because it's doing little other than making me sad.

California wine country sounds fab. I would love to go on one of those leisurely multi-day driving tours of wineries and scenery one day.

Hi, I'm Lisa. I reintroduced myself in the into section. This may be the place for me since I'm trying to break my evening snack habit. I'm on day two of avoiding it but gotta start somewhere, right? Awesome job you are all doing.

My streak unfortunately ended last night. I'm not so good when I go on a challenge of any kind - I tend to shoot myself in the foot quite early.

We have one more set of people coming over tomorrow night "for a glass of wine". I think I won't keep any alcohol in the house after that until DH's birthday. I have had a troubled past with alcohol and my brain is still wired to crave it. I guess that never goes away with some substances.

Dagmar

Telling myself just because we had a snowstorm, and I get to work from home today, rather than commuting into the office, it doesn't mean that I need to give into my anarchic childish impulses ("Snow day! Play! Sunday-style breakfast! Baking cookies!"). Anyway if I do this, I will get behind in my work, just when I am catching up preparatory to next week's five days off.

Hold on, hold on. Just because you're home all day unexpectedly, doesn't mean you need to wander into the kitchen every half-hour or so.

Hi Lisa!!!

There's nothing like a "real" goal in sight that makes me want to really stick to my plan. So proud of myself last night! I wasn't too hungry for dinner so I fixed what I was planning (soup and sandwiches) and gave myself half a bowl of soup and wrapped the second half of my sandwich for breakfast today. The result? I'm down 1.1 pounds!

OMG..watched "My 600 lb Life" last night for the first time and one of the girls (Penny) just would not decrease her eating and did not lose weight after the sleeve surgery.The doctor said her stomach was the size of a banana and she still ate lots.Her husband waited on her hand and foot and cooked and bought her meals.
She would not get out of bed to even go to the bathroom.
She also had an oxygen tank for some reason because the doctor said her oxygen saturation was better than his.Penny claimed she felt better with these tubes up her nose all the time.
I thought that after such surgery if one ate too much they could burst the stitches.
She would sit up in bed like "Jabba the Hut" and bark out orders to her dutiful husband.
She wondered why she could not lose weight and argued with the doctor that the scales were wrong.
She was a huge contrast to the others who tried so hard to move around and lose weight despite their size
IT was both infuriating and sad.

That sounds about like my internal dialogue EVERY day off, but those impulses speak louder on the unexpected holidays. Good luck & enjoy a warm & cozy day!

mars, have we said hello and ? I'm not sure we have. It's good to have you around!