You totally made my day Allison. I just posted it on facebook. Thanks!!

re "yoga mat for sale". I have never tried hot yoga and this did not encourage me to run to sign up. I like being cool and alone in the dark of my basement while I do gentle quiet yoga. Sometimes with a cat. She's pretty darn good at it.

Dagmar

Ok, this is ridiculous. I very carefully planned breakfast and lunch (600 cal) allowing 600 cal. for dinner. I was ravenous at 4:30 and ate a 140 cal. granola bar, saying I would therefore eat a ~460 cal. dinner. Yeah right. I ended the day at 1370. I have apparently forgotten how to survive on 1200 cal. I need to find my old food planners from 2 years ago, to remind myself of what I used to do on a routine basis.

The hot yoga story was hilarious. I hate being hot more than almost anything so I was completely empathetic. OTOH, I love lifting heavy things over and over so similar humour about weight training would be far less amusing.

Going into my second day of "Chill the f%$#@k out."

I needed it last night. Before bedtime, I was planning what to wear and discovered that two pairs of slacks that I'd bought about a month ago were tight in the waist. Not good. I just kept repeating my mantra, and saying, "In a few weeks, they'll fit just fine." Then I had a restless sleep which left me really tired and slow to get up at 4:20 AM.

My goal for this evening is simple: After Pilates ends around 8 PM, there is no junk TV show or NY Times article that is going to keep me awake tonight before 9 PM. That's bedtime.

God saef your daylight hours are beginning to sound a lot like mine. Why the heck are you voluntarily getting up @ 4:20 a.m.?

Dagmar

Dagmar, that's to visit the gym in the morning before an hour-long commute or starting work on my laptop at home. I take a lot of phone calls and meetings with people based in Europe, particularly in the U.K., and if I start early, there's more overlap with their working day.

Weight is back up, erasing last week's losses. I have to wonder if being menopausal is messing with my ability to keep my weight in check using the methods that have worked so well for me for years.

Last weeks barbeque resulted in a 1.4 gain that stayed with me until Wednesday when I went back down and in fact lost.8 of a pound. Now I have 2 Mother's Day events coming up and a barbeque later in the month, May is a treacherous month for me. 4 dining out events and two of them in restaurants.
My hair had grown to about shoulder length and each day for the last couple of months I have changed my mind as to what to do with it.One day I decide to let it grow amd the next day I decide to cut it. The hair cut won out and Tuesday I had the deed done, my hair was still wet when I left the shop. When it dried it looked like an explosion had occurred, I looked like Harpo Marx. Thursday I went back and she cut off a couple more inches and it looks much better today.
I am in a better frame of mind today, hair looks decent and weight is holding.

We women can be so funny about our hair! I'm doing the same thing Bargoo. My hair is getting long and I'm debating letting it grow or cutting it.

Good luck Bargoo on all of your May events. My challenges this weekend (when I go to Spokane for dd's graduation) include 2 very nice restaurant meals, no exercise today, and limited exercise (probably just walks) Saturday and Sunday. My weight is still much higher than I like, so I'm just trying not to do any further damage this weekend.

Saef-- sorry the scale isn't being kind to you. Sometimes I want to kick mine across the room.

I hear there are people out there, somewhere, who don't even own a scale. Surely that's a myth. I mean, how can they survive? I'm certainly not one of them!

This week has been the last week of classes for our school term. I teach summer classes as well, but I get a nice 2.5 week break in May. I'm here in my office churning out student grades. It's been a long, stressful week, but thankfully food has been my "routine" food and exercise is a great stress reliever. I'm a little anxious about having 2.5 weeks out of such a safe routine but as long as I don't succumb to boredom eating during the day I should be fine.

About sleep - my natural pattern, I've come to discover, is very similar to Dagmar and saef. I am a morning person, no doubt about it. My body wants to got to bed early and wants to be awake when most people are clinging to the covers. I've given up trying to fight it. All of my friends, my bf, my co-workers - they all know that I'm checking out early and in bed as soon as possible. I do kind of wish it could be different- socially, it's awkward sometimes - but if the choice is my sanity or my social life, I choose my sanity.

Bargoo, why do you think you have trouble sleeping?

I'm trying to grow my hair out. I long for the days when it was long enough to put in a pony tail. It will take a long time to get there as just a few months ago most of it was just a couple millimeters long!

I can't imagine living without a scale!

Just when I think I'm going to be back on track eating-wise, something pops up. First Mother's day--we're going a very nice steakhouse for dinner. Then just four days later we're going to a black tie dinner. I've already decide not to do my wine women event the following week. I'm not happy with the venue (several others have similar complaints about the place) so that's one thing off the list!

The weather is heating up again. We're to see highs over 100 this weekend which will make golfing unbearable despite starting out before 7:30. I wish we could start earlier, but they won't allow it.

I haven't weighed in two weeks. It started because I was sick, has continued because I'm terrified now. I stare at the scale every day with an aura of dread around me.

Jen, I have come to the conclusion that I am getting enough sleep, apparently I am just wired this way. Last night I went to bed at 11 PM was awake at 4 AM but didn't get up until almost 5AM.
Going to bed any earlier doesn't help, I am usually in bed by 10 up around 4 and I feel OK . I just have always heard we are supposed to have 8 hours of sleep, I would just like to know what that feels like. I have gotten used to those early morning hours, while my friends are sleeping away, I have weighed, showered, had a couple of cups of coffee, checked my email. balanced my checkbook,checked 3Fc, made a protein shake and played a few games of Slingo.

I know that dread, Shannon. I have two methods for dealing with this:

1. Weigh after a week on plan.
2. Make up a ridiculously high number that it couldn't possibly be, convince myself that this is true, and then feel relief when the scale says otherwise.

Both of these sound like wise plans Jen.
I can't imagine people who don't weigh regularly.
They must just gain pounds every single day, right? At least that's what I fear happening when I don't weigh. I won't be able to weigh this weekend-- well, I can use my dd's scale but I know it's different than mine so it isn't wise-- I wonder how much weight my brain will imagine myself gaining!

When I can't weigh for some reason I get very anxious. If, for instance I can't weight for two weeks I step on the scale and see I have gained 5 pounds, I would be thinking if I had known earlier that I am gaining I could have done something about it.