Just a fly-by to let you all know I'm still alive. Absolutely swamped at work and brain dead exhausted by the time I get home.

One of these days I'll be in to catch up!

10/2/1

I've been trying the sugar thing with SDL but it doesn't seem to have the immediate effect for me that it does for others. I haven't really studied the diet as much as I should -- could be a dosage/ substance issue. Aaaaannnyway, I picked up some wild fish oil caps and am going to give them a try. When I read about some of the research into them, I had that all-over YES!!! response. Guess it made sense to me on some level?

Nice to see you, Wildfire! Thanks for stopping in. Hope things sane-ify soon!

Ceara, it's woggling... um, woggily. But woggling, nevertheless! Do you have a pool at home? Mmmmm... ideally, i'd have a house on the ocean with a pool besides...

wsw, hope the heat lets up for you!

Clutha, yup: GO YOU!!!

K, Queenlies, Friday night dinner and movie await. It's the weekend! Huzzah!

Flying by also....Weigh in yielded another 1.2 lbs off, which thrilled me since I had just started my period, so anything off was welcome! Day 11 today. Got a great walk in this morning with my dog. Molly. We headed over to a beautiful park and tromped up and down a few hills. The park was once someone's estate, with stately gardens and acres of rolling hills and meadows. Great workout and a nice change from just traipsing through my neighborhood. Molly gets a good workout too, chasing birds and whatever else crosses her path.

Lots to do, little time. I'll be back later.

Yep, I'm declaring it DAY ONE again. While yesterday wasn't the worst that I've ever done, as a matter of fact, I "cheated" with all good foods, just too much of them! Mindless eating. Eating because it was there. Eating because I let myself get too hungry! Had a great start to the day with my hardy walk too. Last night, I was home alone, dh and dd both working. I thought that I would throw together a few things to have in the frig, so it wasn't forage and hope for the best when I was looking for a meal later this weekend. I made some pasta salad with whole wheat pasta, broccoli, tomatoes, onions, feta cheese. Did some tasting, not too bad as I hadn't eaten dinner yet. I had planned on guacamole and chips for dinner, so I threw that together. (chips made from whole wheat tortillas, cut up, sprayed with Pam, wee bit of salt and baked) With the extra onions I had chopped, I made some tuna salad to have for lunch today. While I was foraging around the veggie drawer, I found 1/2 head of cabbage, so I made some cole slaw. One thing just seemed to lead to another and I was tasting everything! Oh! And! I also made a yogurt pie. With ff yogurt, ff cool whip, strawberries and plain gelatin all mixed together and layered over a low fat graham cracker crust. Had to have some of that when dd got home from work at 12:30. After I finally had my "dinner" of guacamole and chips at midnight. {Obviously, I hadn't had my sugar water yesterday!}

Mea culpa, mea culpa. Confession is good for the soul.

I think this week I'm going to go back to counting points. Just to keep a close account of what I'm doing. Makes me feel more in control when I see those numbers go down, I know I have only so many left to work with.

I am happy to report that I did not go into the "oh well, I cheated, might as well go crazy" tailspin that usually follows a slip up. And that's all it was, really, a slip up. I allowed myself to get too hungry and just kept nibbling. I should have sat down and had a proper meal, FIRST, and then done all my food preparations. I think that since I didn't actually STUFF myself, I never realized how much I was actually consuming.

Sorry to keep rambling about this, but I'm having a self awareness moment and need to work this out in order to avoid the same mistakes in the future!

I overheard a woman at WW the other night telling her friend that "this diet just doesn't work for me." I heard someone else say that they just couldn't eat the vegetables. Then I was on alert to see just how many excuses I could hear. Someone else said that it's just "too hot to exercise," and "I'm too tired to exercise." It struck me as funny, all these excuses. So there I am, standing on line, waiting to weigh in, feeling all smug because I didn't have any of those problems, and then, all of a sudden, it occured to me that I had my own excuse ready to use, if necessary, "I didn't lose because I have my period."

The bolt of lightning hit me right between the eyes. I wanted to shout at everyone there, myself included, "STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND JUST DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO." Eat well, exercise more, drink the water. It's not rocket science. The weight will come off if we just do that.

Stepping down now....

Good grief, look at the time, lots to do today, not getting any of it done, sitting here blathering on about myself.

So, goals for the next 21 days: (the last 7 of which I will be on vacation, this will be a TRUE test)


Food as according to WW Flex Plan
Water (at least 64, aiming for 128 oz)
Exercise, at least 20 minutes daily

That's it for me, Hi to all and hope you're all having a great weekend! Keep up the good work, you are all so inspiring to me! You keep me on the right track.
...most of the time, anyway!

KatrinaB, that last post was brilliant--the part about overhearing excuses. Would you mind if I read that at my Monday night group? The topic's going to be Excuses We Tell Ourselves. I, myself, have a million of them!

I've got some big news: I've decided to go for Personal Trainer certification. And those little emoticons represent all the feelings I have about it, but I'm working thru it. The truth is, I believe [from my Mon. night sessions] that I'm good at this sort of thing, and whether I like it or not, people will be more apt to come and talk to me if I have the certification. So it's all exciting and scary and the textbook is terrifying....! But, oh well, lots of things are terrifying, right?

Ha! You know what the scariest thing is? I've got to lose these last 10 pounds and keep myself looking good. No more fritzing around with walking the talk, and all that!

Great to see you you, Wildfire!

Where's our beloved Empress? Adventuring, no doubt!

hi ceara-congrats on your 21 day challenge!

eydie-that is great about deciding to go for personal trainer certification!

and greetings to arabella, katrinabgood, wildfire, anagram, kaylets, amarantha, and to all our lovely queens, mentioned or -un! hope everyone is having a good day thus far.

this relentless heat is just the pitts. i am one big ms short-circuit, as a result. i haven't been able to do as much exercise the past couple of days as usual, but still doing what i can, and have been staying op. the only good thing about the heat is that i don't want to eat as much as i usually do, so i guess i can't really complain too much. well, take care, all.

G' mornin' Royals. Sorry for hit/miss postings recently. Last Monday was six months since dh left and I've taken some time off from almost everything to do some base-touching with myself and once again to reassess where I am and where I'm pointed.

The good news for me is that I have completed eight days consecutively of calories below 1600. Only six count toward the current challenge but that's a worthy record too for someone who's been off the wagon so much more than on for a long time now. During last week, I also managed five days of either pool or tai chi plus some heavy duty yard work. Demon Scale has responded well though most is water, of course. I also have yet to take the day of "more than 1800" calories. I will do that though. That's one of my key points. I've also been eating 4-6 times a day. Both should help fight my "deprived" feelings.

I'm with you on that heat, wsw & ceara. Hotter than Hades here again today but tomorrow should be a slight improvement. Eydie, it sounds like a perfect match for you to take on that new career path!

Wood Nymph and Ceara - happy to hear of your losses. I'm still heading for revirgined territory. Am currently less than 7 lbs above most recent "lowest" - basically back to where I had been plateauing for so long - a familiar place. But considering how long I was on prednisone this last time, I guess it could be worse.

So off I go - it's the pool today, tai chi'd yesterday.

Re the six hour reception (I've been gone a while, I guess) - something similar happened at DDs rehersal dinner. Well greased father and godfather of groom put on embarrassingly long, drawn out and wandering "speeches". WG father even started out saying it wouldn't be about bride and groom because there'd be lots of speeches about them the next day. He was true to his word and had everybody bored and starving. THIS on top of the groom's parents being WAY late and holding everything up on that end as well.

After the two of them FINALLY sat down, DH stood up and quietly directed attention back to the b&g with a sweet (and short) toast. DD told him she was never more proud of him. It did sort of put things in a more normal perspective but - PHEW - it was so torturous sitting through their maudlin wanderings.