Hi everyone, hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was full of driving--- 6 1/2 hours down to South Georgia for a baby shower.

Significant change in my tickers..apparently the scale I've been using is 8 pounds off! So I'm actually above 120...This means I have to kick it into high gear! I adjusted my goals...hopefully I can hit it by Christmas.

Just dropping by---at work. Have a great day!

Hi everyone! Well, as usual I screwed up my eating this weekend. I'm retaining 3lbs of water today. While I ate more than I should have, there is NO way I ate enough to gain 3lbs! Not even enough to gain 1lb. Anyway I was down to 134.6 on Friday morning and today I'm at 137.4. Hopefully drinking lots of water will flush my system. Also hopefully I don't screw up again next weekend.

To the ladies with problems with "the girls" bouncing during running: I highly recommend this bra: The Shock Absorber. I bought one (the D+ Max sports bra model) a few years ago and while I need a new smaller one it still works great. And my boobs are unfortunately huge (I wish more weight had come off of them during weight loss) so if it can stop me from bouncing too much it will probably work for you too!

Lily - I hope your sister's surgery goes okay!

Megan - sounds like the festival was fun!

About running and injuries . . . I have kind of mixed feelings on this issue. I do think that you can't just dive into running and work up to extreme distances too quickly. I think the 10% a week rule is pretty good (don't increase your distance or time by more than 10% a week). I didn't follow it, and I screwed up my knees. However, I jogged for a year, lost lots of weight, and built up lots of strength and endurance before I started overworking myself. Plus, I apparently have weak tendons in general, judging by my chronic tendinitis in other joints, so I may be an abberation.

I tried C25K a little while ago to try to ease back in to running but it turned out to be too aggressive for my knees. It definitely doesn't follow the 10% rule. Just something to think about.

I also think one of the worst things you can do when you start out running is to take "run" literally. You don't have to run for your life if your plan says you have a "run" interval. I plodded along jogging at 4mph for ages, and I can walk faster than that. Even at the height of my running fitness I couldn't run a mile in 10 minutes. You don't have to be fast to enjoy running or get health benefits from it.

Anyway I still want to work back to jogging. I'm really not sure how to go about it. I know I should strengthen my leg muscles, but pretty much every single leg strengthening exercise I've tried has been WAY harder on my knees than running is. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of my knee problems started from doing lunges and squats instead of from the running I was doing, since I didn't start doing lunges or squats or anything like that until I was pretty fit. The leg press machine, any sort of lunge/squat, hamstring machine, stepping up and down a stair, they all make my knees hurt, even when I put the weight on the minimum possible. The only sort of leg exercises I've found to be comfortable are leg lifts, and honestly they are kind of boring and require a lot of reps, plus I'm not even sure I know what muscles I'm working with them.

Okay, enough rambling. It's almost lunch time!

Friday night, I met DH in NYC for dinner before we went to a Blues dance party. We went to Saigon Grill near Union Square (14th Street & 5th Avenue) which is a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant. I had a beef, eggplant, green been, green peppers, and onion dish in a spicey curry with coconut milk sauce. DH had a great chicken dish. For starters, we had grilled vegetables with a sate dip.

We wore costumes to the Blues dance party. I was a cat again and DH borrowed a Pharao costume (spelling) He looked like King Tut. We haven't Blues danced before and since he's still nursing his broken collarbone. We only swaded to one song. It was fun to watch the young people at the party doing all kinds of twirls and dips. I'd like to try this type of dancing again.

The great thing about the host's apartment wasn't the apartment itself - which was decent sized based on Manhattan space, but the terraced deck he has all to himself. It's at least 10,000 square feet and wraps around the building in such away that you can see 3/4's of NYC. It's just magical. Can't wait to go to one of his parties out on the deck in the spring or summer time.

Saturday was a lazy day for us. We watched movies on Cable and then went out for Indian food. I had vegetable thali which came as 5 different vegetable dishes in little bowls. One was spinach with cubed cheese, another was a coconut milk with califlower and pepper, another was yogurt which I put my salad into, another with a lentil puree, and the last was a spicy chickpea dish. It came with rice and naan bread. It's the second time I've ordered this at this restaurant and I'm sure I'll order it again next time.

Sunday, we drove up to my brother's for his b-Day and so that DH could meet our 2 month old nephew. We had a great dinner of ginger soy sauce marinated tuna steaks, green beans, wild rice, and a fantastic spinach salad with dried cranberries, fresh pears, almond slivers, and gorganzol. For dessert, we had picked up a German Chocolate Cake which turned out to be one of my brother's favorites. I never knew.

Hi everyone,

Lily, I hope your sister's surgery goes well and she gets good news on the biospy report. This sounds like a trying time for everyone. By the way, my 16yo daughter wants to go out to eat all the time and gets annoyed when I want to eat at home to save not just calories but money too. I lost my weight limiting myself to restaurant meals twice a week, once during the week with my dad for lunch and once on the weekends with my dh and dd. It's so much easier to stay on plan at home...

Paperclippy, thanks for the sports bra suggestion. I'm big on top and have a huge problem finding workout bras that fit properly. I'll have to try the shock absorber... You'll have those 3 pounds off in no time. I certainly have been there done that with weekend food.

This weekend was actually pretty good and I stayed on plan most days and woke up to see 139 on the scale. It's still 1 pound higher than my lowest of 138, but at least it wasn't in the 140s which is what it's been the past month or so, thanks to too many meals out and nibbling at home. For some strange reason I feel in control right now.... Actually I think it has to do with shopping. I just bought some new clothes and it feels so darn good!!!

I'm trying to get my wardrobe ready for a lot of events coming up. One is our business is having a grand opening, so I want to look nice for that. Then there's Thanksgiving. We don't get dressed up, but I like to wear something a little nicer than just jeans. And, guess what?! My son is graduating from college on December 15, so we'll have his ceremony on Saturday and then we're having a party for him on Sunday. Oh, and TWO holiday parties on December 8. And then Christmas, so yikes, I want to have a few things in my closet that I can wear and won't have time to shop then as we will be busy with the business.

Good luck with your sore foot Jessica. I hope it heals soon. I had a knee injury over the summer and it was a huge bummer, but it did get better.

Meg, wow, your dd's wedding is going to be so much fun and how nice that your to-do list is winding down. I have a feeling that in a year or two I will be helping my son and his dgf plan their wedding.

Well, time for me to run. Hello to everyone. Oh, and Shane, your ticker is down to 135 and I don't think you mentioned it. That's great!!! You must feel so great, and I'll bet you have abs of steel! Enjoy your day off.

Bye,
Pam

Jessica, I'm glad you explained the C25K thing. I did my first night of it last night and was a litte disappointed that I was only jogging at 4.2 miles per hr. and felt like it was wiping me out. That is why I mentioned that it will be slow going for me.

Pam, yeah, I don't know why it is that kids (especially teens) always want to eat out. But, I need to eat at least 90% of the time at home to stay on plan and keep this wt. off. Even when I try to be careful with dining out, it seems I always add water weight for a few days.

I'm so happy that I've already done my treadmill today . (I usually only exercise late of the evening). But, I felt inspired after coming on here this morning to get my exercise done early. I'll try to find time to walk another mile tonite.

We're having an unusually warm day of 75 degrees. So, I'm gonna hop outside and mow my yard (hopefully for the last time this year).

Anne - when I was pg with ds I hired the cheapest sitter known to man...shrek. Every...single...day (she was in to repetition at that age) I would put on the movie and then go lie down in the next room. The TV was just loud enough that I could hear it, but not so loud that it disturbed me and I would snooze. I was always vaguely conscious and I would wake up if she needed me or during the final song.

I cant believe this thing is already on the 2nd page.

For me, it was Mary Poppins and Peter Pan (not the cartoon--the one with Mary Martin). DD could watch those every day and not get tired of them!

I'm just dragging today. I've felt for the past two days that I'm coming down with a cold, but it just isn't really turning into a cold. I wish it would so I could get over it.

DD and I went to our Mother-Daughter tea yesterday. I made her cry when I presented her with her tea cup (that's not an easy thing to do--she isn't all that sentimental). Then we came home and went out to dinner. I suppose it was the chicken enchiladas that did it, my weight is up today. Looking forward to my run tomorrow as long as I feel okay.

Oh, MileHiMama, you are observant! sounds like you have a lot of crazy times coming up! Have fun.

So yes - I hit goal today - and I posted a ton of pictures. If you haven't seen 'em already, my pictures are in my sig.

paperclippy - "I also think one of the worst things you can do when you start out running is to take "run" literally" -- you are VERY right. That's probably so many people who just start running continuously get injured. They push themselves much further than their body wants to allow, and they think they're supposed to feel that way because, after it all, it IS RUNNING!

Congrats Shane!!! Your pics look great!!

Hi Maintainers:

My name is Cynthia and I hope to be joining you soon -- I have 13.2 lbs to get to my goal weight of 120, down from 180 in 1/07. Can't wait to join you all. Lily, I will keep your sister in prayer.

Cynthia

Shane, big congrat's on meeting your goal.

Allison, that sounds like such a special tea with you and your DD.

Cynthia, welcome and congrat's on your wt. loss. You don't need to wait til you reach goal, feel free to jump on in here.

I talked to my sis tonite. The surgery went well and the Dr. doesn't think the mass looked cancerous. Still awaiting pathology report. Linda's main concern was talking to me about food and learning how to eat a proper diet for a diabetic. She mentioned that she wants to have Thanksgiving dinner with my family and asked me to make her a sugar free pie. So, I need to come up with some kind of SF dessert that would be delicious. Since, I take Glucophage, I will join her in only eating SF dessert. She has now been placed on 1600 cal. ADA diet and I know this big change of lifestyle will be hard for her. Does anyone know of any really good diabetic cookbooks that might help?

Cynthia and congratulations on your weight loss! Please join us now -- like Lily said, you don't have to be at goal to post here. We're looking forward to getting to know you.

And a quick post today to say hello to Cynthia. Welcome here!

Shane, that is just wonderful about you making goal. I'm gonna go take a peek at your pics soon. CONGRATULATIONS on a job done extremely well!!!

Lily, that is wonderful news about your sister. You and she popped into my head several times yesterday. I'm sure you will be a big help to her in her weightloss efforts.

Hi Cynthia!!! Congratulations on your weightloss. Welcome to the Maintainer's Forum. It's a great place to be and yes, please join in NOW. I look forward to getting to know you. Good luck as you ease into maintenance.

Hello to the rest of the bunch.

Morning, everyone!

Just delivered my 'rents to the airport after their 3-week visit. I'll miss them, but I'm also looking forward to getting back into my food/exercise routine. I haven't stepped on the scale recently, but I feel like someone who's been partaking a wee bit too much in mom's home cooking. (She's a reasonably healthful cook, but also a very good one, so I'm always tempted to eat bigger portions than if I'm cooking.)

to Maintainers, Cynthia.

on meeting goal, Shane!

No advice here on diabetic cookbooks, Lily, but I'm glad your sister's surgery went well.

Kim