I stayed so busy yesterday and have been till now, but I'm here!

Mars, WELCOME BACK! We have missed you! I can't wait to hear about your trip!

Carol Sue, great job on eating celery and asparagus and on exercising! I'm so glad you're feeling better! I wish Chickadeee were back! And Bewildered too!

Haha! PrairieQueen, you kill me! And your liquid snacks!

Rennie, I hope your pre-TOM cravings are not driving you to too much distraction!

SeeMyFeet, any luck with the scale now that you've started eating more fiber? Can you tell a difference yet? :

Week 26:
11/1--DNW (forgot before we started eating breakfast)
11/2--DNW (left at 3:45 am for a 12-13 hr drive)
11/3--174
11/4--DNW (too busy with grandbabies!)
11/5--DNW (too busy with grandbabies!)
11/6--DNW (too busy with grandbabies!)
11/7--DNW (too busy with grandbabies!) Carb Day

Week 27: High 174, Low 171
11/8--DNW (too busy with grandbabies!)
11/9--173.5
11/10--173
11/11--174
11/12--172.5
11/13--171.5
11/14--171 Carb Day

Week 28:
11/15--173
11/16--172.5
11/17--172
11/18--
11/19--
11/20--
11/21--

Yesterday's Meals:
Breakfast:
2 fried eggs
2 slices of bacon
Fage Greek yogurt with Mio
Mio water

Lunch:
Protein bar
Mio water

Tea Time:

Dinner:
Kroger fried chicken (with the skin removed)
Pumpkin seeds
Diet Dr. Pepper

Yesterday's Exercise:
Took a day off

Today's Meals:
Breakfast:
2 fried eggs
2 slices of bacon
Fage Greek yogurt with Mio
Mio water

Lunch: @Wendy's
10 chicken nuggets
Small chili
Water

Tea Time:

Dinner:
Fage Greek yogurt with Mio
Too many pumpkin seeds (and too late)
Mio water

Today's Exercise:
None

Today's menu....

Break - McD's sausage burrito w/hot sauce and ice tea w/stevia
Lunch - Amy's bean/cheese burrito
Dinner - grilled spicy wings and a few fries .... I'm already puffy and it's only been a little over an hour

I hope everyone is doing well today! It's pretty quiet around here!

PrairieQueen, hopefully you'll lose that puffiness over night!

No change on the scale for me today. I ate salted pumpkin seeds too late last night and didn't drink enough water, so I'm just glad I didn't show a gain! I need to get away from the pumpkin seeds. I start eating them and can't stop and then I feel too icky to eat something more suitable for meals. I did that last night and I did it again for lunch today! I made myself eat some yogurt last night and a protein bar today to supplement the seeds, but I need to put away the bag of pumpkin seeds and just use them to sprinkle on my salad! I need to remember that last time I did this diet and stalled, I started eating more nuts. Seeds are not that different! I wanted to be back down to 171 today but where am I? Still at 172, which is not a bad thing, but I should have been back down to 171 today.

Week 26:
11/1--DNW (forgot before we started eating breakfast)
11/2--DNW (left at 3:45 am for a 12-13 hr drive)
11/3--174
11/4--DNW (too busy with grandbabies!)
11/5--DNW (too busy with grandbabies!)
11/6--DNW (too busy with grandbabies!)
11/7--DNW (too busy with grandbabies!) Carb Day

Week 27: High 174, Low 171
11/8--DNW (too busy with grandbabies!)
11/9--173.5
11/10--173
11/11--174
11/12--172.5
11/13--171.5
11/14--171 Carb Day

Week 28:
11/15--173
11/16--172.5
11/17--172
11/18--172
11/19--
11/20--
11/21--

Today's Meals:
Breakfast:
2 fried eggs
2 slices of bacon
Fage Greek yogurt with Mio
Mio water

Lunch:
Protein bar
Pumpkin seeds
Diet Dr. Pepper

Tea Time:

Dinner:

Today's Exercise:

it's really quiet ... where is mars???? mars where are you? How are you?

Jacqui, these cravings are killing me ... I too am like that but with honey roasted cashews, sunflower seeds and peanuts. I attempted the military diet again today but blew it after lunch. So I'll try again tomorrow. I think my major problem is that I don't go to the bathroom often at all.

PrairieQueen I feel you on the puffiness ... everything makes me that way it seems. Hope you can flush it out today

Well Carol I'm at 173.2 today which is so not where I wanted to be when mars returned. So I await her post glad the dizziness has subsided

Today's menu....

Break - McD's sausage burrito w/hot sauce and ice tea w/stevia
Lunch - Amy's bean/cheese burrito
Dinner - Cinci chili spaghetti 3-way w/onion

Hi Everyone, Sorry for the disappearing act. Yesterday was a looong travel day, and today I've been running around trying to catch up. Mostly need to catch up on sleep. I awoke at 3am avery day in Cuba, just like at home, except home is 3 Pacific time..

Jacqui Congrats on twin grandbabies!!!! How wonderful. I'll bet you will have a full dance card with tot sitting! I hear you on the pumpkin seeds! I prove it to myself over & over that I can't keep them around. But wow, you are on the verge of the 160s!!!

Rennie You are likely wayyyyy better with where your weight is than I will be when i step on the scale. I did okay on the trip, at least my clothes fit and I look okay in photos. But in the flight home, for some reason I ate a bunch, then when i was walking through the airport to get my baggage, I passed a nice snack store--yes they do exist, apparently!--and got a bag of mixed nuts AND a cookie. As if I had suddenly forgotten our challenge. Tomorrow am I will weigh

Carol Yes, there is no place like home! But I'm a little sad too--a sign of a good time, so I won't complain.
I'm really glad you are feeling ok--good for you for figuring out a likely culprit.

Prairie Queen, I hope the bloat went away by now.

mars , I had my weight wrong yesterday it was 173.2 not 172.3. My goal was to get down to 165 by the time you got back and we see that didn't happen. I did get down to 169 point something (closer to 170 then 168) and that was it . HA yours was a snack stand, mine was cookies, doughnuts, chips, cereal, smh. I know better. Hopefully I won't do too bad on Thanksgiving since I'm trying the military diet again for the 4th time. I almost got yesterday right but dinner was a hit and miss. It was supposed to be 3ozs of meat (I ate chicken) 1 cup of green peas, 1/2 banana, 1 cup of vanilla ice cream (I had the ice cream only) Still I had a .5 drop this morning so I'm doing day two today. Breakfast was OP (1 egg, toast, 1/2 banana (I ate a whole small banana) Lunch should be ok, 2 ozs of cheese, 1 hard boiled egg, 5 Ritz crackers. I'll keep my fingers crossed for dinner

Morning All! First day back at work. I'm still waking up thinking I have to hurry to repack to get on the bus.
Rennie my weigh in today is 168.6. I'm kinda relieved even though it's up. The last few days I have been pretty random. ut I gotta give it to you for this one, my friend! I'm ready to start again tho.

I ate a lot of carbs in Cuba and had a cocktail almost every day. The hotel buffets offered loads of meat, fish & cheese, eggs at breakfast. Salad of lettuce, cucumber tomato. Very little other veggies except yucca, potatoes, other starches. Lots of rice and beans. Lots of breads, sometimes fresh. Mostly we stayed in large state owned hotels as we were 18 with the guides and driver. But 2 nights in a private hostal, called casa particular. They served a phenomenal multi-course feast, including collard greens which I think we almost fought over, lol. Also fresh lobster, octopus (no thanks), shrimp, and all sorts of side dishes on & on. Avocado wasn't everyday, but when we had it, it was great. I think I mostly did a good job with tasting little bites of things, but the last few days when I no longer had to worry about fitting into clothes, I started to slip. It's always that way, once you get a little over confident, the slippery slope is right there, like a banana peel!

Water....we drank only bottled, just to be on the safe side. Glad to back to tap water! Coffee was strong & wonderful. Exercise was walking, I think my tracker said about 3 miles a day on average. It was never strenuous except switching gates at the airport, lol. I swam in the Bay of Pigs, and anywhere I could, but time was so limited. We did the bird counts all day, often having to get to the sites before dawn. Long bus rides, but they were so fun--looking at the countryside, and our Cuban handler who smoothed the way with hotels, etc., was bright & charming, extremely well-informed. She told us everything we wanted to know about Cuban history, culture, daily life, etc., incl. the story of Cuban-US relations from a Cuban perspective. We all could picture her as a diplomat.

I thought of you all often & am so happy to be back on the thread. Carol I gotta hand it to you with managing the buffets, you too Jacq. I took a picture of the breakfast buffet last day, when i had a touch of GI and decided to skip it. Thee was a big warmer of sweet potatoes smothered in.....sugar!

Time for work.

Rennie I think my goal was to lsoe a lb, or not gain, and I didn't do it. But we did pretty well, would have been wrse if not for the challenge. I will read your diet when I get online at my break. Not sure if the word military is motivating, lol!

mars, we were typing at the same time

mars those buffets sound hard to resist. Your trip sounds great but I'm happy you're back I think it's called the military diet because of the ability to drop weight quickly in the 3 days. It's fairly easy I'm just not disciplined

I do great at the casino buffet because they have so much different protein. There are always a few different types of potatoes and there's pasta station I've never visited. An Asian station that always has steamed and fried rice, but I have learned to stick with the meat and seafood, along with some veggies. Occasionally I will take some mac and cheese, because theirs is so good, but only a spoonful for a taste. Their bread and rolls are always stale since they sit out in a basket all day. I don't think a lot of people fill up on bread.

It sounds like you really had a great time Mars, seeing so much of a different culture. I'm glad.

I don't usually like breakfast buffets as there is usually too much carb there. I like biscuits and sausage gravy. Yum.

Lol Carol I went to Golden Corral after work one day and ate enough bacon to last forever I ate some other stuff also of course but I mainly remember my plate of bacon and two yeast rolls

Mars, your trip sounds like it was amazing and I'm so glad you had such a great time.

Rennie, I have faith in you that you can get back into the 160's before Thanksgiving. You can do it.

Carol Sue, that's some great restraint at the casino buffet. I like how much protein and non-starchy carbs they have to offer too. The starchy foods always look so tempting though and DH always brings some wonderful looking desserts to the table, which is rather torturous.

PrairieQueen and SeeMyFeet, I hope you're doing well today.

I'm 172 again today. It looks like I'll have to wait till next week to drop back down again, if I'm going to drop. I'm hoping to get into the 160's and make my goal but I'll have to see what my body has in store for me. If it decides to stop in the 170's, well, that's where I'll stay. I can be happy here if this is where I land.

Today has been a very hard day for me. I'm letting Ichabod go tomorrow morning. I have to. He's getting worse and it's not fair to let him continue to go through this with no hope for improvement. I've tried everything I could and nothing's helped to stop his decline. So I called the vet last evening and I slept on the couch with him last night, which I've done quite a few times since this began, so he could curl up with me like he used to without fear of falling off the bed. He just purred and slept right next to my face. Today I've spent much of the day outside with him, which he loves the most. It was a pretty day. I'm heartbroken. I just can't believe that 6 months ago I had 6 pets (3 cats, 3 dogs) whom I loved and adored and tomorrow I will be down to 1 (not to mention I lost my brother in that time). I'm just kind of numb. But again, I love my sweet Ichabod too much to let him continue to get even worse, so tomorrow I'll say my goodbyes. Needless to say, I have an unreasonable fear about losing my last cat, Baby, now. Hopefully this weekend I'll get to see my grandbabies and it will help make things better.

I went back to the doctor's today and he added another BP drug to my meds. It's one I took before and had side effects from, but I told him I will try it again and see how it goes. I'm running out of options. I just wish my BP would go down and I won't need meds.

Jacqui, I'm so sorry to hear about Ichabod. My thoughts will be with you. I've had to do this so many times. Do you think you will get any more pets?