The boards just seem to go through cycles. I was pretty religious about posting here except for the last several weeks. Trying to get back in the habit as it is really helpful to me to be accountable and have others for support.

Hi all!

Doing alot of cooking & baking, been so busy. Halloween being my favorite holiday, I make the whole month about Halloween! It's been hard staying on track w/ my food, went over my calorie limit everyday this week. I would say 80% is healthy food every week, 20% is junk. My weight is at the top end of my personal red line, at least it's not getting out of control. Exercising a bit more everyday, hoping it helps keep my weight down, while eating more. So far it's working!

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Oct 7
B= 2 c cranberry juice
L= roast beef sand
S= sliced pears
D= Pizza night! I had leftover steak so I added that to spicy ranch, chedder, peppers/onions and rosemary. Very good!
S= cereal, banana
E= none

We eat dinner fairly early around 5pm {when Hubby gets home from work} so sometimes we get hungry again before bed. Thinking of changing dinner time but its a hard habit to change.

Oct 8
B= 2 c milk, vits
L= Chickfila grilled wrap, honey mustard sauce
S= Snickers, mug coffee
D= Datenight! Longhorn's grilled Parm chicken sandwich, sweet potato with cinn but very little butter, 1 bread/butter
E= none

Annie, I spend a lot of time knitting/crocheting because I can't do that and eat at the same time!!!

FL, at least the majority of what you eat is healthy!

Moondance, great job on the 7lbs!

Guacamole, sorry about the aches and pains!

Good news about the Mom and Twins. They are all doing well. Dad did make it there from Brazil, Mom is in a very nice teaching hospital where they are taking good care of her and the boys. She has to stay flat on her back right now to keep the twins settled, not sure how long that will last.

We bought a new mattress a few months ago, and spent more than we expected so didn't buy a new boxspring until yesterday when they had a good sale. boy, what a diffference that made!! Hubby texted me that he got a good nights sleep AND his back feels normal again! I guess that's the point behind a 'firm foundation!"

I'm feeling much better today and hope to get in a Leslie walk. I have the AC off and a window fan running, along with a few windows open.

Oct 9
B= 2 c milk, vits
L= Jason's Big Joe, broc cheese soup, blue chips
D= homemade Smothered Meatloaf, potatoes, carrots {very yummy crockpot meal!} And we ate later than usual!
S= 2 pb cookies, milk
E= does changing out a boxspring and vacuuming under the bed count? as well as shopping.

Happy Monday!

After 6 days of tracking, tweaking, analyzing, etc., Today is Day One.
Offical weigh in = 200 lbs (gained a couple back over the weekend because of my birthday!).

So far the hardest part is finding low cal snacks that actually fill me up.

Happy birthday Moondance! Just checking in....feeling scared to weigh myself, but know it must be done soon! Whenever I stop weighing in, I put on a few pounds....so, better to know and control it....

Moondance - I think I saw in an earlier post you wanted something other thatn granola to put in your yougurt. Bran buds works realy well and it is good and extremely high in fibre.

Guac - I feel the same way about weighing in but it has to be done then we can get on track. I am scared to weigh now as I know I have lost a few pounds put I am afraid it might only be like 2, but 2 is better then nothing!

PP - it really is nice to have a good bed. Sleeping at night makes all the difference in the world.

woke up with a sore throat and it is getting worse as the day goes on. Sneezing is regular and I am feeling crappier then this morning. I may stay home from work tomorrow but felt I couldnt today as I already had a 4 day weekend and felt guilty not coming in. Grandkids noses were snotty on Sun and they were sneezing, I was hoping I would not get whatever they had but seems I am. Ate too much over the weekend on two of the days, I think mostly out of bordem although I was not bored. Had thanksgiving on Sun at my moms and she had a ham as most of the family was not there. I was soooo looking forward to a turkey but I have one at home and will cook it next weekend. On the bright side i did not eat to much at dinner as I dont like cabbage rolls or the chinese coleslaw she had and dont like pumkin pie so only ate a bit of ham and some carrots and a small amount of mashed potatoes.

Happy Tuesday!
Guac: Knowledge is power! *nudge nudge*
Ashley: Sounds like you've caught the cold. Bummer. Hope you feel better.

I had no idea carrots have as many calories as they do. Luckily I can have lots of the snap peas I LOVE.

Oct 11
B- 2 c cranberry juice, banana, raisin bran
L=1/2 turkey and fruit
D=pot roast patty melt sandwich, veggie soup
S= 6 fun sized Butterfingers {ooops}
E=none

Oct 12
B= 2 c milk, vits, banana
L=1/2 turkey, fruit
S= 2 fun sized Butterfingers
D=Smothered Meatloaf, carrots
S= cereal
E= 50min cardio

Quick check in.....still scared to weigh in! I have eaten horribly over the weekend! Relatives are in from out of town, so things will be kooky over the next week. When everyone goes home - 10/24 - I am going to start writing down everything I eat and drink.

On to the good news...my relatives, who haven't seen me since the spring, all commented on their own how much thinner I look. Not sure if it is true...but it's nice to hear!

Way to go guac, of course its true if they all said it and clearly by your ticker you have lost weight.

Was off sick most of last week, feeling better now but was met with a meeting this morning as our entire faculty is undergoing a review to try and cut 1.5 mil from the budget. My department works directly with students and this is one of the places where they want to make staff cuts. Someone already quit and my job is temp till march so I may end up being cut. I really dont want to loose this job and I hav had many temp jobs int he past and just feel like I am geting to old to keep relearning stuff, my office and collegues are great and we all do a great job together. Although I need some time off I do not want to get laid off unless I win the lottery and can retire. I know there is no such thing as job security but I have already filled several year long temp positions. Needless to say this has somewhat dereailed my staying on plan today and I dont know why, I already know I am a temp but it was also with the possibility of becoming permanent.

anyways that is my rant for the day oh yeah and we found our my husbands social security dissbility review was denied, our lawyer now wants to appeal but I have lost any hope and it even took 4 years just to get to this point and he still has no job, has had no income for a year so now I just feel even more pressure that being the breadwinner and being responsible for everything. It is hard being female and always being the one financially responsible, I was as a single parent with no child support for 10 years, then got married and hubby had ssd then lost it then i had to support him and his children, it is just nice to be in a marriage where you get some sort of financial support from your husband. end of rant.

I am stuck between wanting to go home and drink the bottle of wine I have or going and buying some fries and gravy at lunch, right now the wine sounds better as it will help me sleep and hubby is not home tonight as he is volunteering at our homeless shelter here, at least he is using his time to help others and I have to give him credit for that and he does feel bad as he has been looking for a job for some time. Maybe I should go to a counselling appointment!

Hey all! Not checking in as often as I should. Not the best weekend foodwise. Probably would have been reasonable without the peanut butter cookies.

Got a new Leslie Sansone DVD and did that this morning. 4 miles w/ resistance band. Loved it! Really pushing the water today as I didn't get near enough over the weekend.

PP-I'm interested in hearing about that Smothered Meatloaf recipe. Anything with those two words in it has to be something my fiance would LOVE!

Ashley-I sure hope you decided against the fries/gravy and settled for one or two glasses of wine. Not the whole bottle, woman! I have some wine in the fridge that I opened a while back. I may sip on a glass myself this evening.

I have a 4 day week as I am taking off Friday to spend with my younger son. Fall Break here. Hoping to spend some extra time with my older son, too.

Annie- have a nice day off with your son.

WEll yesterday I ended up going for a walk at lunch which is a real miracle cause usually once I decide to eat there is no stopping I ate two granola bars and a protien bar then stopped. I usually go for a walk at lunch anyways but I had decided I was not going to then went anyways. I did end up eating too much for dinner, then of course regretted it. I didnt drink cause I was too full but I would have rather drank instead of eating. Took sleeping pill and went to bed.
Did have a glimmer of good news yesterday the place where my husband is volunteering had a job posting for doing exaclty what he is doing. He applied last night and this would be a perfect fit for him. He has wanted to do this type of work somehow for along time. He helps with the food bank one day a week and helps serve dinner another evening a week and he really likes it.

Hey all! I'm really struggling with keeping sweets/baked goods out of my mouth. For a long time I used good restraint and had them in reasonable amounts. I'm making a 9x9 pan of smores brownie cake-thing for our dessert tonight. 4 of us (including 3 teens) should demolish that and I am planning for a very small serving for myself. Have Halloween cupcakes planned, too, so am going to try not to bake anything else.

2 miles exercise DVD this morning. It was really cold here this morning. I turned on the heat for the first time this season.

Just popping in to say hi.

Guac: Hope you're enjoying the family time!

Ashley: I'm keeping my fingers crossed for both you and your DH!! Let us know what happens!

Annie: You got willpower, woman! All that baking and no indulging...WAY TO GO!!!

Taking the day off tomorrow. I've got to get my bulbs planted and some other outdoor stuff taken care of. Sticking to my calorie counts pretty well. Hope I can keep it up!