Saef, do you get this big toe pain often? I've heard it can be a sign of gout. I think certain foods can affect gout.

It is inspiring reading this thread. You have all done a great job of losing and maintaining!

We took a day trip with the kids yesterday. I'm proud of myself for resisting quite a few temptations. I did have two pieces of chocolate and a caramel at a chocolate factory, but ate a reasonable lunch and decided that the kids begging for a snack were going to get goldfish crackers from a convenience store instead of ice cream, and that we would not stop on the way home at the fancy German bakery, and that we'd go home for dinner instead of a restaurant, AND when we got home instead of eating the mac & cheese that the kids wanted, I ate some leftovers from the other night that had more nutritional value. (I did make the kids eat some vegetables too, fwiw :lol: )

Still, the scale is up again. Sigh.

Good morning! And happy belated birthday, Shannon! :hat: :high: for the Bulls!

Jessica, welcome back! I too was thinking back about the folks who used to post here (myself included, although I have been slightly better since I quit my job). I have to agree with the others about not letting a week (or 3) determine whether something is a pass or fail. In the support threads, it is routine to advise the first-timers that they need to give any new program 6 solid weeks before changing things.

JZJ - outstanding effort on the 50K! That is an amazing, wonderful, awesome feat to complete!

Saef, you definitely have something unusual going on. Did you eat anything "weird" and outside your typical diet? That much weight and inflammation sounds a lot like what I go through with artificial colors.

Silver, I am always amazed by what a simple cup of tea can fix. Thank you for the reminder!

Dagmar, I've shared your experience with cupcakes. They sound so tasty and look so tempting - yet it seems like the vast majority of the time they just don't live up to the hype.

Michele, I will chime in with another vote for Merrell. I have a pair of snow boots and a pair of sandals by them; they've held up extremely well and they just seem to be designed for comfort. Bought my son a outdoorsy-type of hiking shoe over a year ago and he wore them through the winter and through every type of messy disaster - they stood up through two washings and still are unscathed.

Today's the "big 5-0"! My husband's birthday is 6 days before mine, and because my mom knows we'd never schedule anything like this for ourselves, she booked us into a bed and breakfast up near Traverse City for the weekend, including a chauffered wine tour of the Leelenau Peninsula! Very much looking forward to it. Our wine racks are depleted, plus the only way to get DH to relax is to get him hundreds of miles away from home where he doesn't think about all the stuff he has to do. He's in the middle of spring chores (garden/fruit trees, bee colony management, beer brewing, prep for our Memorial Day BBQ) plus insanity at work. This will be good for him too. We'll come home in time for DS's possibly last vocal recital Sunday afternoon. Graduating senior - also "slightly" stressed and will benefit from us being away for a bit. :)

Happy birthday, Becky!! I just turned 50 in March myself. Enjoy!

Thanks all for the shoe opinions. We had Merrell's the last time we hiked through Italy (I was in my mid 30s then so it was awhile ago!). I had Solomon's for my "tough mudder". There were some brands I never heard of (can't recall them now) when we looked at the local outdoor store. We will be in Florence for a couple days before we start the hiking tour. I made the mistake of looking at some of the top restaurants there-- yum!!! I better try to drop some weight now to offset those!

I'll have to start today with a once a year tricky situation in my work space. My library is being used this afternoon for the volunteer "tea"-- where we honor all of the parents that have volunteered all year-- with tons and tons of sweets! It will be all over my desk.

Speaking of being honored-- I was asked to speak at the PTA meeting last night. I was terribly nervous as I don't like speaking in front of people. I'd prepared and practiced a speech. I changed clothes three times. I'm usually horribly early to everything so I purposely left later than normal because I thought I'd be less nervous if I had less time to wait. Big mistake-- there was more traffic than I thought and I agonized that I'd be late (I wasn't). I got there and was surprised to be honored as "teacher of the year"-- the speech was a ploy so I didn't have to speak! I wish dh could have been there but he is up in the air-- he still doesn't know as he's been flying from Singapore to London to Brussels-- long time in the air....

:carrot::carrot:Congratulations, Michele!:cp::cp:

Weight down to 158 exactly through copious drinking of decaffeinated coffee and plain iced tea yesterday. Still I am feeling discouraged.

I don't have gout, as I've just had my blood work done and that would show up. (I know because my father had it.) The big toe ache is a mechanical issue -- the joint is arthritic. I have enlarged big toe joints, have had them for decades now. My podiatrist called them "dorsal bunions" because they don't stick out on the side, they crest on the top. It's probably bothering me because it's the "good leg" and that likely bears more weight.

Beautiful weather today and I am bored at working and restless.

Super Congratulations, Michele, Madam Teacher of the Year

Happy big birthday Becky!!! :bday2you: :celebrate:



And a HUGE congratulations to Michele!!! :congrat::bravo:

JayZeeJay, big congrats for finishing that 50K!! Wow, that's impressive! On April 30 I completed the 21 mile Big Sur Marathon walk, but that was a breeze compared to what you did! I wore Hokas. No blisters, no discomfort. I wear them for hiking too.

Michele, how wonderful to be named Teacher of the Year!! Congratulations!

As for me, I have survived another day of retirement. I am incredibly busy somehow and loving every minute.

Same from me!

Dagmar :yay:

Congratulations all round!

Life is offering me a space to do weights more seriously so I'm taking it. It has the usual effect, though: it makes me eat like a horse.

Congratulations to Teacher of the Year, Michele. There you were, filled with dread, and instead, they gave you love.

Down another fraction, to 157.7, despite fluid retention in my legs. I just made it through a call with our Product org, promoting retirement of a particular deliverable. They want more statistics. They didn't really know who I was, but now they do.

Happy birthday, Becky! Good to "see" you too!

Congrats to Michele!

I finally saw a change on the scale today, down to 150.6. I'll give it a few days before calling it official, but I'm pleased. I'm wondering if some of the problem has been water retention from sore muscles -- today I don't feel sore and my weight was down. Time to fix that "problem" by going back to the gym :lol:

Wow, congratulations to many on this thread it seems. Michele, I am impressed. I can't recall a school's librarian ever getting an award during our boys' grade school years, so I think it speaks volumes to the work you do with all the kids. Becky, congrats on getting over the great divide. Welcome; it's not so bad over here :>) And JayZeeJay, I'm speechless. 50K is 40K more than I've done at one time (and believe me, I felt plenty exhausted after the 10K) and for you to do it off-road is simply astonishing. You go girl!

I'm continuing my own plodding progress in the weight loss department, finally seeing numbers sufficiently below 130 that I believe it's actual fat loss and not just a low-carb day reducing the glycogen load in my liver. Here's to continuing one foot in front of the other, as the title of this thread suggests.

Friday morning, down to 157.1, after the unfamiliar discomfort of a warm & humid night. Temperatures suddenly spiked into the low 90s.

I need to get to the gym and run some early morning errands before the working day begins. I have several meetings and need to prep for delivering a presentation to a large meeting next Tuesday, which I'm fretting over enough to think about it all weekend.