Iris, it's the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. I'm staying at the Doubletree at Reid Park, and the conference is at the JW Marriott Starr Resort. Looking online it looks like the Doubletree has a fitness room, plus it is located right at a park so there should be jogging trails. It also looks like the Marriott resort has a Starbucks onsite so I'm hoping that means I can get oatmeal for breakfast.

Paperclippy, one of my travel strategies is to take along packets of weight control oatmeal (more protein than the usual) and/or protein bars for breakfast. You can heat water for the oatmeal using your in-room coffee pot.

MBN, I use the hot water from the coffeepot for oatmeal trick too! At business meetings I always bring oatmeal, protein/fiber bars, no-drain packets of tuna, apples and bananas, etc... things that don't need refrigeration if I'm not sure if I'll have a fridge. Since I'm away from my home (chores), BF, and friends, I usually get to bed earlier at conferences than I do at home, so I can get up nice and early to use the hotel's gym.

I'm make sure I pack Zone bars or other protein bars when I travel. No, they aren't the perfect nutritional powerhouse, but in comparison to the cookies they put out at every. single. meeting. they're a big improvement.

This morning - ON my red line! Hopefully the down trend will continue through tomorrow so I can be officially under it.

Oatmeal, South Beach Living Protein bars, bananas, apples, Laughing Cow, tea bags, and Flatout bread go with me on every trip. I have a small lunchbox that looks like a cooler. It has saved me from several conference luncheon disasters.



Let's stay strong going into the weekend! Fall Festival going on this weekend for me - I definitely need a PLAN!

Jessica - Reid park is actually where I go running a lot - the "multi-use path" there is just about 3 miles. =)

CD, be strong at your fall festival! Does it involve pumpkin pie? I'd crumble...

I triumphed over pizza yesterday!

On the way home from work, DS #2 (15 yo) begged me to pick up cheese pizza for dinner. We don't do pizza very often, but I caved this time and went by the pizza shop. Ordered 2 pizzas (for DH and DS#1 too), waited in the shop for them to be made, carried them to the car ... all the time smelling the cheesy-greasy yummyness. mmmmm. It would have been SO easy for me to fall face first into the pizza pie. BUT, I firmed my resolve, changed clothes and went to PiYo class. Came home, ate on plan, then off to choir practice. This morning, I am in the 118 range, 3 pounds to redline, and making progress.

It may not seem like much, but I'll take all of the minor NSV's I can get!

Now I just have to Not Blow It Over The Weekend!

Just popping in to say this has been resonating with me ever since Jessica posted it a few days ago! Thank you, Jessica! Obvious, yes, but definitely worth restating.

Silver, isn't it weird how things can be so obvious and yet so difficult at the same time? You wouldn't think a couple hundred calories would make that much difference, but it does.

Iris, maybe we'll "run" into each other!

Thanks for the conference advice guys! I'm hoping because it's a women's conference that they will have some healthy food for the lunches and dinners, but you never know. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I don't gain much.

Accountability for Thursday:
Snacks: Check
Workouts: Check, NRLW
HIIT: N/A, strength day
Calories: Check, 1284

My scale is mad at me. It went down steadily until Tuesday, then started creeping back up (why? It's not like I ate that much!). Tomorrow is my official weigh day so I hope it will be down again.

hi,midwife!i would like to join you...i really want to lose weight..now i always sit in the office,and i feel i become fatter than before.because i have no time to go sports,eveyday i do is sit ,sit ,sit,and eat ,eat ,eat...i know it is not good for health,but how can i do...everyday i spent 8 hours working in the office....

Great job, MBN! That is a great triumph!!!

Jessica, sounds like you are ready for that conference. In my experience, conference food is always terrible though---even for women, even for women's health, even for women's health weight loss professional conferences. Oatmeal, exercise, water....you'll do great! Control what you can, right?

Welcome, Nish! Losing weight is both simple and difficult but so so worth it!!! I really think it is 80-90% nutrition, so even if you don't have a lot of time for sports or exercise right now, really look at the foods you are eating and see how you can make healthier choices. How much do you weigh? How tall are you? What do you eat on a regular basis? We can give you some feedback.

This week had gone so great food-wise for me, and then yesterday after work was the PERFECT STORM for me....stressed out, overly hungry, poor planning, and the easy foods to reach for were neither satisfying or nutritious. It could have been a lot worse. I crawled into bed at 8 pm and slept straight through until 6:15 this morning. I needed the sleep, I think. Lots of water today, and back on plan. I feel terrible. Not guilt, but terrible, bloated, thirsty, my eyes are puffy. I just can't do certain foods anymore. I had some ritz and pepperoni (300 calroies worth) and I feel like I'm hungover.

It's FRIDAY, people!!! I know that the weekend is a DANGER zone for me and a few others here. So, I pledge right now to have a POP weekend.

So, we get fed lunch every Friday at work since we have a meeting at lunchtime. When we were asked for what type of food we wanted (months ago), I put in my request that we have a healthy option at each meal. Usually this is no problem -- we almost always have a salad, unless it's pizza day, and I can handle a couple slices of veggie pizza.

But today's lunch was just GROSS. Bellacino's grinders. The most disgusting food on the planet. (Of course, the guys on my team love them and have been asking for them for months.) Basically, it's a sandwich with oily bread, coated in mayo, with 1/4" melted cheese, some small pieces of meat and some wilted veggies. I swear they brush the entire thing in oil again before toasting it. SO. GROSS. Bellacino's also sells salads, but for some unknown reason, today there was no salad. All there was was these disgusting sandwiches and potato chips. But I hadn't brought anything else for lunch, anticipating it being one of our usual lunches, so I ate it anyway. One veggie and one chicken.

I went to look up the nutritional info after lunch, and it made me really angry. Why? Because the nutritional information on the website ONLY has nutritional info for their "light" items. WTF?! Since when do I only care about nutritional info for the "light" items? I want to know the info for ALL the items! The "light" chicken grinder for the size that I ate is 308 calories, and that's with "fat free" cheese and "fat free" mayo. So how many calories is the one with full-fat cheese and full-fat mayo?

They have a phone number to call for more info on the nutritional info part of the website, but I hate calling people (I seriously have phone-o-phobia), and I certainly don't want to call from my cubicle where my coworkers will hear me and think I'm a nutjob.

GRrrrrrrrrrrrARGH.

So, despite the yucky lunch yesterday and going over my calorie limit, my weight was 143.6 this morning. Yay!

Accountability for Friday:
Snacks: Check, except I skipped the apple and instead had a snack at night
Workouts: Postponed until Sat morning because of rain
HIIT: N/A
Calories: Fail, came in at 1647.

So far today I did my workout already so I'm on track.

Jessica, sounds like you made the best of a hard situation. Yea for behaving scales!

My scale is not behaving. Weekends are always tough for me. The kids wanted breakfast burritos after the cross country meet. I really wanted one too, but I'm eating my cottage cheese and strawberries as planned. For lunch I'll have eggs, beans, and chile and it will be good and on plan.

Jessica, I hate calling people, too. That's frustrating that they didn't have a salad or something on the side... but I'm glad it didn't set you back!

MBN, congrats on the pizza triumph! I love pizza... almost ordered one myself last night but instead made a homemade, much healthier one.

Midwife, breakfast burritos sound so tasty! Good for you making them and not indulging!

This afternoon my department is having a fall gathering for dinner... catered for the main dish (although they didn't say what it will be - last year we had tamales) and then everyone's supposed to bring a side dish or dessert. I need to tread VERY carefully. It's so easy for me to overeat at functions like this.

On the bright side - I have weighed in at 129 2 days in a row!! I want to keep it there, so that should be good motivation this afternoon. =)