Whew! We made it! The holidays are over and it’s a brand new year. Lots of us – myself included – had some struggles with the holidays. Stress, exhaustion, and too many goodies and parties can be a deadly combination … but we all made it! Maybe a little bruised and battered, but we’re here and ready to make 2005 the best year of our lives.

I love the feeling of having a whole new year in front of me, full of possibilities and dreams. It’s like a beach that no one’s walked on yet … or a perfect blanket of untouched snow … so I’m sitting here with my coffee and a kitten on my lap, just dreaming about what the year might bring. Of course, as John Lennon pointed out - life happens when we’re busy making other plans - and none of us knows what unexpected twists in the road there may be. Even so …

When I was in high school, I had a poster that said: Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Today IS the first day of the new year and the rest of our lives. It doesn’t matter if we gained a few (or more) pounds over the holidays or if we fell right back into old bad habits – it’s a new year and a fresh start. The past is history; tomorrow is a mystery. All we’ve got is today, the first day of 2005.

Happy New Year to this wonderful group of Maintainers! May 2005 be our best year yet!

Megster Happy New Year to you and everyone at Maintainers...

I bravely got on the scale today and gained only 2#, I was shocked!! It feels like alot more... So with a renewed enthusiasm I'm off to run to maybe burn those 2#? Today is the last meal I have to make for a crowd and I'm happy of it... I'm tired of entertaining and being nice ... I want to get back to the grumpy Ilene I know .... KIDDING!!

Hope everyone has a great day and "Let's be careful out there!"

TTFN ...

Happy New Year!

Started off to a great day here in beautiful sunny Tucson, ran just a bit over 5 miles and felt absolutely wonderful. So many tragedies in the world right now, and I just feel so lucky to have such a simple, good morning.

Hope everyone has a great day, and a great start to the New Year!

I couldn't make it to New Year's, so we did our toast at 11:00...before my eyes fell closed of their own accord. We thought we might as well give it a try...We ran across his parents alcohol stash from where they used to have bridge parties back in the 60s and 70s. So we uncorked a bottle of 1960's pink champaign for our toast. LOL

So far today, I've slept late, cleaned the kitchen, our bath and bedroom, and did a 2 mile run. Getting ready to go for a bike ride.

A great way to start the year off. My first post in this forum.

I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year. Glad to have the season draw to a close. Just took a quick look at the reading list and am anxious to purchase the Revised Thin for Life. I have the original and refer to it when things don't go as I would like. I hope the revised issue lives up to the first.

Take care,

Thanks for your post, Meg - totally uplifting, as usual.

So, I see we're beginning the Thin for Life discussion on Jan. 10. How much of the book should we have read by then - the entire book - the first chapter? Just need to know how fast I should be reading!

Thanks, Karyn! Yep, our TFL discussion will start on Monday, January 10, here in Maintainers. We'll have a special thread for it in the next few days. To get ready, go ahead and read the Introduction and Key to Success #1 - Believe That You Can Become Thin For Life. In my book, that's up to page 28. We'll plan to read a key per week (there's ten in all). I'm really looking forward to us all reading and discussing together!

Happy New Year all. I welcomed in the year with a 5k resolution run yesterday morning. Then I spent the rest of the day coughing. I guess I'm not quite over the flu/cold that hit me (and my two baby girls) on the 27th. So no birthday run today for me.

I didn't make it anywhere near midnight on the 31st (this cough is really kicking me), so dh and I enjoyed the sparkling cider he'd picked up over dinner on the 1st instead.

I think I'll take ds skating this afternoon and dd if she's feeling up to it. Santa brought her bob skates and a helmet for Christmas and she's been too sick all week to try them out.

I guess I should have done this yesterday, however .... I did the whole measuring thing today.
Everything is bigger except my thigh which is 1/2 inch smaller, probably muscle loss My BF% is almost 27%!
So I've spent the morning reading my exercise notebook and playing with some calculators. I'm in serious danger of becoming a skinny fat person!
Better smarten up for '05! Can one holiday season really do that much damage?

Hi, everybody,

Happy New Year!

I only gained 4 pounds, but it is scary. I kept exercising but foodwise I was really bad-bad-bad!

I ran my resolution run in under 40 minutes/5K - he-he, it was 39 min 59 sec! I went skiing and went hiking, but kept eating chocolate - I guess I ate 1 year long supply!

We are going to Mexico this weekend for a week and I am ashamed to have those extra 4 pounds on me! So off I go to the gym today!

Sandy.

Hi All. Last week was a rough one for me and so I haven't posted in awhile. Woke up last Tuesday with a toothache, went to the dentist and wound up with a root canal. No fun. Then Wednesday, we had friends in from Vegas and headed off to the desert for a weekend of camping and dirt bike riding. Needless to say, I went "off plan" a bit on the food during the weekend but still managed to maintain some control. I thought since I was so close to goal (.2 pounds away) I could go on a "maintenance" diet for the week and completely went off my Jenny Craig menus. My reward for that was to come back a pound heavier.

On Thursday morning DH and I shared a feta cheese and spinah omelette which was heavenly. But still, I only ate half of my half and stayed away completely from the toast and hash browns that came with. Then, on New Year's Eve, I totally gave in to the temptation of a slice of pecan pie and a glass of wine with dinner and a glass of champagne at midnight. Then a REAL CHEESE omelette on Sunday morning. Oh my. Guess that accounts for the extra pound. Kind of makes me mad at myself but then again I didn't do that badly and it's a learning experience.

But I have since gone super-nova on the exercise and have managed to get back to my pre-weekend weight of 115.2. Now I just have until this Thursday to lose that extra .2 pounds (and hopefully not fluctuate back up) so that I can officially be at goal of 115 lbs at my Thursday weigh in. I sure hope I can accomplish it because I'm tired of trying to reach goal and want to be there already. Wish me luck.