Yo! Good morning, s!!!! This be a flyby and I be in extreme brevity mode for me!

Kaylets, that's a really good point re the cortisol being something nature created to protect us and that we need to find other ways to discharge the stress (and hence the excess cortisol that produces the excess fat) rather than trying to pop a pill. I'm thinking that I've read that moderate exercise is helpful in controlling cortisol, whilst intense exercise produces it. But since intense exercise is supposed to be helpful, I dunno!

I am making no sense ... Anagramatic, have fun with thy organizing and with prince and princess bride!

Good morning s! Sorry for my extended absence - I have been making a conscious effort NOT to spend the evenings online. The hours pass too quickly and nothing gets done.

Kaylets, congrats on the job! I hope it will be all you want it to be.

Frogger, welcome back! Glad to hear you are doing well and the job situation has improved.

Amarantha, any luck with your job hunt?

Eydie, insurance companies are criminal. They will do anything to stick it to the little guy. I hope you get this resolved and give them a piece of your mind while you are at it! Glad to hear Jubal is okay.

wsw, sorry to hear your friend has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Sending my very best : that the treatment is successful. It's nice to see you posting again!

with the yard sale, Punkin! Glad you are back, too!

zadie, you are working too hard. Take a break!

anagram, enjoy your visit with the royal family!

Where is Cerise hiding?

Hello Arabella and Ceara!

Well, I am about to become a gym rat. I'm going over to sign up at the YMCA that is just around the corner from my apartment. It was just recently expanded, so it is like a brand new building...huge two-level gym, new pool, locker rooms, etc. Hoping to find a personal trainer, too.

Sis and baby are doing well. http://friendpages.com/pages/writers...00/photo16.jpg

Later!

hello all!
Well, we found a few things but the big excitement was DH's find of a gas chain saw....hmmmmmm. Found a few cheap things for me... I guess the Sansone walking tapes was a find although it appears they are the earlier tapes rather than the most current... no matter...

DH is laying down, I just reviewed some of the sign up pw I need to bring with me...much of it is exactly what I expected... some is about Internet security, building security, and smoking policy. Luckily, the smoking one will be easy since I don't. And as for Internet... there is a real chance there will be no other access other than email... which eliminates temptation!!
And since security is an issue more than ever everywhere today, I resisted reading that one... Hopefully its just that I need to carry my ID card at all times...

A friend mentioned to me that since the beginning of the 2nd quarter, her job stress had increased as she was suddenly in mandatory meetings at 5 pm ... rather than go to the gym after the meetings, she felt so bulldozed about these meetings, her first impulse was to leave the building ASAP... and this trend continued up until this week... She realized it had been nearly 2.5 ,mos since she had been to the gym and was shocked at how much she had gained even though she was eating ok... I think she only gained about 3 lbs but when you are eating ok, that would be annoying to me too... much less, I think the big shock was how much of a difference the workouts made... or is she too seeing the weight gain as a stress sympton???

so... if we used other stress relievers ( no, no, no, please tell the Royal Vinter to roll those casks back into the cellar.... )
would we still see a weight increase... ie deep breathing, mediation, music,
singing, .....
or is physical activity the best stress reliever ???

hmmmmmmmm


so.....

I think we could use some humor...
I am off to find us a grin!

What a gift to come in and see Frogger's back! I'm so happy to see you posting again.

Speaking of babies---thanks for posting the link to the new munchkin in your life, Wildfire!

How was the big sale, Punkinseed?

We had to go back to the vet this morning with our ancient cat, Weed. [No, she's NOT named after THAT!] The poor thing has cystitis. She was showing us by not peeing in her litter box--by peeing blood on the light-colored kitchen floor and then looking at us and screaming as if to say, "Hey, this isn't right!" Pretty smart, huh? So that's almost 400$ in vet bills in one week, with rabies and Frontline, heartworm pills, Jubal's surgery. Oh well, it's only money.....Money worries get to me like nothing else, and I'm really rying to stay positive thru it all.

All this talk about cortisol has me wondering something that may or may not be related. A friend of mine lost some weight on the South Beach diet and it was mostly weight around her middle. Why is that? Do you have any idea, Wildfire?

Hello !

Here's the grin I found...
its multitasking as a good thought too..
"
MISTAKES

Joke:

Two guys walk into a bar. You'd think the second one would have seen it.

Ouch! But it's true. We watch other people make mistakes, then we go ahead and make the same mistakes ourselves.

Mistakes are lessons. They should be heralded as such. But wouldn't it be great if we could learn many of those lessons without actually having to make the mistakes ourselves? Pay attention to the mistakes people around you make - not to belittle them, but to avoid making the same mistakes.



May you live all the days of your life,
David Leonhardt,
The Happy Guy"

so...

Eydie- I can relate... Money worries me like nothing else too...
And especially when things just load up one after the other...
Last fall we had a vet bill after vet bill... need to do the heartworm quickly too...

as for your friend losing it around her middle, is she younger?? That used to be me... last place would be hips and butt.... but this time.... its been the torso that has been the holdout...

need to run to get some whole wheat flour... might have fresh baked bread tonight!

hi wildfire-thanks for sharing the picture of the precious, beautiful little prince! so glad to hear sis and nephew are doing well. good having you catch us up on how you've been. have missed you.

frogger-so glad you are feeling well and that new job is good. exciting to think sept. will be here before you know it!

was op and did my exercising today. i woke up very early this morning (4 am) and wasn't able to go back to sleep, so was kind of concerned i'd use that as an excuse to eat more than had planned since such a long day for me, but tossed that idea out of my head, fortunately, and hung in there. i am on my way to bed now, in fact, but wanted to check in and say hello to everyone in the royal court. take care, all.

Yo! Save me a place in line for the money worrying!

I do it all the time!

Hmmm. Interesting discussion about the weight gain around the middle. My brother worries me because he, in common with all my family, seems to have too much fat around the middle, even though he is active and eats carefully. Oddly enough, I eat very poorly and am stressed to the max and have my family's genes, but I put on weight around hips and thighs, I don't seem to have that dangerous middle-age spread. I'm convinced it's the planks! I do a lot of 'em.

I'm convinced planks are the single best exercise in the universe.

Eydie, oh no...Weed is sick now? Did they put her on medication? Poor thing...but smart to let you know! Yes, money worries are right up there near the top for most of us, but somehow it always works out.

I don't know the scientific explanation for the weight loss around the middle with SouthBeach, but it does seem to happen for those who carry their weight there. That was one of the reasons I tried it. I have also heard from diabetics that if you cut out the sugar you lose weight around the middle.

I do know that the SouthBeach diet was developed to help those with cardiac problems, and the apple body type is predisposed to heart problems. Dr. Agatston, who developed the diet and essentially bucked the AHA's long-standing recommendation of low-fat, high fiber, had quite the battle in getting his well-deserved recognition for a diet that is helping thousands, possibly millions get healthy. It is VERY different from Atkins. Much healthier and flexible.

Given all of this and recent articles I've seen about exercising for your body type, I am going back to weightlifting...maybe even bodybuilding. With my body type and where I gain when I gain, weightlifting is the recommended way to go. I refuse to be one of those women who say they don't want to bulk up so they do high reps, low weights. I build muscle fairly easily and I'm taking advantage of that six-month window you have when you start training in which the most muscle growth takes place. I intend to lift heavy....lift like a man, if you will. That combined with a South Beach approach (as I'm not ever following a strict diet again!) will hopefully be the key for me. I'm committing to six months to see if it will work. Anytime I face a new challenge (like changing jobs) I tell myself I have to give it six months before I'll really know if I like it. If I didn't, I would have quit this new job inside of three weeks.

Must be off...enjoy your Sunday!

Well, I lost a half a pound, so the Scale is safe from being turned into a lamp for the nonce!

Wildfire, hooray for you in deciding to go with the heavy weights ... I'm working on that, too, except I had to go lighter for a bit because of a health matter ... but now I want to get back up to the strength I had. It really works!

Have to go eat something.

hello all!

Yes, it really is Sunday... Just came back online... seemed like the server had been down for days!!

Here's our thought of the day :
****

Thought of the day :

" 'There' is no better than 'here' " ---from Life Lessons


Question of the day :

"What is earliest memory?"


Its been overcast nearly all day... had a to take sinus medicine twice but a nap really seemed to help the most.. Am trying to play catch up, 15 minutes at a time..
Finally cleared a space in my living room that was just getting higher and higher..

Yes, you guessed it...more than 1/2 of it could be thrown away... even found coupons dated 2003 in the pile!!

so... let me go hang some clothes !

Thanks for the South beach info, Wildfire! Very helpful. I've considered looking into it myself; I haven't heard anything bad about it ever. It'd be nice to have a flatter belly---hmmmm. My big trouble spot is my thighs--I can't seem to get that nice defined look. Hey, maybe I need to go for heavy weights too?
BTW, old lady cat Weed is on antibiotics for her cystitis--she already seems to be feeling better! Now the vet wants us to bring her in for bloodwork because she's dropped a lot of weight, but gradually over a few years. Her highest weight was a robust 15 pounds, now she's down to a svelte 8. That'll have to wait until July.

Sunday afternoon greetings! I'm going to go take a nap in a sec.

Eydie, glad thy little Weed be better! Don't cats often lose weight as they age? Dunno. Mine weighs approximately 8 ... eats like a small horse!

QOD: I think my earliest memory is being carried in my mom's arms at night with the light on. I think she was frightened about something. But I have a lot of baby memories ... scooting on the floor (I did that before I crawled) in a living room with a Christmas tree and a big man with a mustache handing my dad a red mustache cup ... I didn't know it was a mustache cup, of course, I think someone must have told me later ... my mom hiding my brother's birthday cake in the washing machine (?) ... listening to a little gold record and watching my mom put on a hat with a veil ... sorry, you only asked for ONE memory ... but I don't know which was the oldest ... there are lots more, but I'll spare ya!

Congratulations to me on my half pound loss!!!

Congratulations on your loss, Empress. Most impressive.

Sweet, sweet baby, Wildfire. Just wanta cover him with lite kisses.

Good vibes for tomorrow, Kaylets. 'Twill be stressful to be sure but i'm looking forward to reports of kind words from ex co-workers who haven't seen you for a while and don't yet know the new and revised version.

And, Wildfire, that comment about first three weeks on new job sounds ominous. Things better?

Eydie, what a smart little kittie you have! Such a good visual you painted.

Had a super marvelous weekend with ds & dsil. Plus stopped in for an hour or so with the princesses on the way home. I'm just full of good vibes tonight, feeling great. However, eating was not great and I can't even discuss it except to say yesterday wasn't too bad with lots of walking and water. Today was an embarrassing story......

Hello all!

Per usual, I slept very little last night... seems to always be this way each time I begin a new job... Luckily most of the stress was softened once I reminded myself, that I know these people already, I know how to get there, I know the dress code, etc, etc.... why I seem to get to such a fever pitch with this stuff is the question I guess....

So...
let's get back to basics...

Breathe in...

one and two and three and four

Breathe out

one and two and three and four

Repeat....

***
Thought of the day :

"Keep smiling, it is the beginning of peace." --- Mother Teresa

Question of the day :

"Can you whistle?"

****

Congrats Empress on the .5 down... I havent seen the number yet today, took a shower first and hair is still wet ( )

I think I should polish up my FRESH START Card and keep moving...
No point in wasting any more time trying to guess why a couple of pounds have reappeared... they did... I know how I can lose them again...
Just going to change the tire and get back on the journey!!

I keep meaning to look at the pics... will get there tonight!

Good vibes to all --- including pets!

Punkin! We need an update on the yardsale?!?

Arabella- saw you posting on the other thread ( that I just never seem to get to... maybe that would be a good start for me too!)....
How is life treating you??


To all!
Have a good one!

KETTLE IS ON!