Morning Ladies. Finally a morning with little stress!

Weezle - I know just how you feel. Bry and I work together as well as live, sleep, eat, and just about everything else except go to the bathroom together! Anyway, he gets frustrated when he wants to go to places like Long John Silvers and Old Country Buffet and I want to go to Subway and Applebees! Yesterday I gave in and went "wherever he wanted". He choose Old Country and wow...it was bad. I ate a salad, a cup of soup, and some broiled fish. He had everything else there as it was all "deep fried in a 5 gallon bucket of lard, coated in sugar, and then rolled in some more oil just for flavor" (his words, not mine). I did well, but it took strength. It's tough eating OP with a man who should be a fatty, but never gains a pound. I feel ya girl, have strength.

Little Chick- Do what it takes for you to get OP. As you're a veteran (at least since I've been here), you're always welcome. I doubt anyone will say any different.

Beachgal - Laurie I'm so sorry about DH's Grandfather! I'll pray for both of you, but especially you to have the strength to help him through this time. Good luck chica. BTW, so glad you found good stuff at the Bug! Oh and if you and DH ever get down to Corning/Painted Post area, check out Peaches'n'Cream. They've got a No Sugar Added/Fat Free Soft Frozen Yogurt in Pumpkin spice. It's AWESOME!

To the rest of you gals I missed, good morning! I don't have Ellis's talent of writing to all, but I do have Ruth's of reading all!

Me -

Well, we're having quite the episode here at Grizzly Mountain. First a little background: back in February Bry left for the Army and we needed to hire to replace him(impossible ). A guy walked in and told my father straight up that he had been in prison for DWI. LONG STORY, but the guy was harmless as far as we could see and turned out to be a great and valuable employee. As a family run business we treat most of our employees as family. He broke his leg in an accident and had surgery. While out of work he took off with his girlfriend to Florida. Apparently the cops were looking to talk with him about some children he had and did not tell us about.

Lovely, really.

Anyway, yesterday my dad calls here (we have 2 locations, parents run one, Bry and I the other) and we have a conference. Apparently, the girl I hired in June has a criminal record as well for forgery. She was in prison for 8 months. WHAT A MESS! She didn't tell us about this, but we're not firing her. We'll take necessary precautions and keep an eye out, but again, she's a valuable and very good employee.

GRRR! So anyway, you might as well call Grizzly Mountain the big house of ex-cons!

What a life I lead, eh?

Have fun on the Beach girls!

Morning Chicks,

Got the kids off to school and had a nice, chatty coffee with other 5th grade moms. We have a standing date at Starbucks on Thursday right after we get the kids to school. Got a couple minutes before my day takes off again so thought I'd check in.

By the time I've caught up on all the posts, I'm always out of time to answer everyone

Thinking of chicks dealing with Ivan (and recovering from Frances/Charlie). Stay dry and safe.

Had an OP day yesterday and with any luck should today too. I need to start planning my meals in advance so that mealtime/hunger don't sneak up on me. Now that fall is here, I need to take care of my yard and get it ready for fall, etc. I have terrible allergies in the spring and summer is just too hot

Gotta go pay bills and all that fun stuff - save me a chair on the beach!

Good morning.. Hope everyone is doing well this morning and staying OP. I started back on phase 1 yesterday to take of some of the extra pounds that I have gained this week and so far. I have lost 1 pound. Hoping to lose the second pound by tomorrow or Sat., then move forward with the rest of my weight loss.

Mama - Take care during the storm. Hoping everyone is safe. Now that your have had your shower, did you read LC's message on the right way to shower? How did it go?

ellis - Can sooooo empathize with the mother...mine is often a real pain. But, she is 84 this year and too old to say anything to. We just smile and tolerate her shenanigans. What else can you do?

skherb - Sorry to hear about your friend's house. But the main thing is that everyone is safe. Things can be replaced, however, it is still hard to lose the memories. Is there a Salvation Army, or similar agency in your area? Her, when things like that happen, they are more than willing wo open up their thrift stores to supply clothing, basic furniture to help families out. Check the agencies and see if something can be done at that level.

Jodi - Just what you need at this time of year - a sore throat. Hope you get over quickly and don't spend the weekend in bed.

Ruth - After reading your post, I think it's nap time. You are one busy , busy lady. Have a great day.

cottage - You are doing so well staying OP. How is the weigh loss going?

Laurie - So good to hear that you clothing size it dropping. WTG, girl. I, too shop at the Salvation Army. I went to get my nails done last night and everyone was 'gaga' over the outfit that I wore. Yup, it was a Salvation Army special and I paid almost nothing for it. I love those second hand stores. They save me soooo much money in clothing.

Barb - Great work on the exercise. I still try to get mine in everyday, but I don't much enjoy it. I do power walking and use the Kathy Smith workouts for that, so at least it is structured. I converted my CDs to mp3 files last night and loaded them on my mp3 player. I got a RCA Lyra with 128 K (??) internal memory. I am using it for my walk today, so will have a better idea whether I like it or not.

Weezle - You can do this phase 1. Go to the fridge right now and put the SBD treats and snacks at the front. Then, when you want a snack grab something from the good areas of the fridge. You can get through today...be determined.

smilin' - Don't worry about using the scale too often. I think that how often you weigh yourself is something personal and can either motivate weight loss, or hinder it. You need to decide what is best for you and follow that plan. For me, I weigh every time I pass the scale. I find that, when I do that, I am more disciplined with my eating program (a reminder), and can react quickly to the WOE if something goes wrong. This week would have been truly a failure if I had not been weighing myself...I gained 2 pounds in the first few days after my official weigh-in. Yet, if I had waited until Friday to check the weight situation, I could have been in worse shape than I am. Since I discovered early that I was gaining, I have adjusted my WOE and will lose those extra pounds before my next weigh-in. Sooo my advice is to find out what is best for you and follow that program.

Me - I didn't do very much last night - had a nail appointment, so spent my time being pampered. I really love that. Then I went home and converted all my workout CDs to mp3 files and loaded them on my new mp3 player. I was finally finished that about 11:00 and fell into bed. The poor puppy kept checking to see when it would be time to go to bed...she sat watching for the longest timewith her head drooping. Poor little spoiled brat - just can't get enough attention. She's just not happy until everything is in its place at night.

Gotta go here...it's now coffee time and can't miss that.

Take care and be safe.

Ellis, thank you for your kind words regarding my dad on another post. We were very frightened but everything is going really well right now. I am sorry for your loss, I had access to a computer when at the hospital and checked in a couple of times so I read your post about your dad passing. Now to deal with your mom. I know my mom knows exactly how and where to push my buttons, don't they all.

Prayers to all the people who live in the way of Ivan.

I too would love to respond to everyone but if I don't take notes I don't remember who said what. Maybe that will get better with getting to know everyone. I remember that Ruth has puppies on the way and that Weezle has problems with her ...well you know.

A little about me, I own and operate a small Italian restaurant, rescue cats (currently have 10) and have a dh of 37 years, 2 sons, 5 grandkids, used to be a legal assistant until we opened the restaurant. My dh is retired and we hope to do some traveling once we sell the restaurant although traveling always depends on the cat population here. I just restarted Phase I this morning after stress eating for the past week. I am still at a 21.5 lb loss so didn't do too bad but want to feel better and that takes eating properly. Still need to lose around 100 lbs.

Off to restock the cupboards and fridge so I have plenty of good foods here.

Little Chick, I would think TOPS and SBD would be fine together since TOPS doesn't actually recommend a program for losing just offers the support we all need. I even thought about rejoining here to weigh in once a week and be accountable to someone face to face. Although from what I have seen there are plenty of people who hold us accountable here and willing to yell FRANKENFOOD when we stray.

Whoever it was that posted about your friends losing their home, they are in my prayers to. Okay, off to work.

I just have a minute before I finish Scan Disking my freakin' hard drive. It's been on all morning, and it's only half-way done. Gee... I wonder how long the darned defragmenting will take.
Quicky... Laurie... sending lots of prayers and hugs to you and your DH. I'm so sorry about DH's grandfather.

And I just want to say, that if you "look carefully", you'll notice that I only write in the Daily a couple of times a week. I WANT to write to everyone, but on the days I don't have time, I just disappear.

Gotta run and pick up my baby... back later... love you, girls!

Morning ladies-

Things have been, um, going here (read all about it linked below)

Will check back later but wanted to say hello and give hugs to all!

Jenn

Hey all, Just a quick pop in. We have been on weather watch all day. They called off school here as well. Another great OP day though! Hope all is well with everyone! I'm praying we don't lose any of our about 30 trees at our new house! Check y'all chicks tomorrow!

I need you girls to come to my house and hold me down. I didn't go WAY off plan...just off Ph1 plan. I had my flatout. I made a pizza out of it . I just am down to the scraps (grocery shopping Sunday) and don't have a whole lot to eat. Wanted to save salad for tonight.

I still want ice cream.

Now....let me rationalize for you and see if it makes any sense....Carb Karma from Ben n Jerry's....has more calories than the 75 sweet calories for the day.....what if you eat your serving with the extra 85 sweet calories....while you're on the stationary bike? So the entire time you're eating it, you're burning them off, so it's really like you didn't put any extra calories in your body at all, right? ?

Sigh. I know. No ice cream. I was just reaching.