Hi SB Glad to see you over here too! Where in drizzly old England do you live that you can run on the beaches? I'm pretty sure I asked you this before but...the memory cells are not all functioning today Congratulations on getting all the "objective measures" in a better place

Mel

Only Me: I ran on Monday night at about -29C... yup, I am addicted...

Fearless: So true about how I can control how react....


Yet I haven't been doing so lately in a positive way. I have been completely stressed this month, it was looking like it was calming down and then whammo, on Monday my boyfriend came home at 11:30am (I had taken the day off) with a letter, a cheque and an EI form... he had been "restructured" out of his company (don't get m started on his owner/boss). No one except the owner wanted him out. The president had to fight for severance beyond the 2 weeks she had to give. So that happened. Yesterday I got offered a new position which will help some (there's a raise involved). Today I got diagnosed with a UTI which are always fun... But anyway, haven't been as dedicated to good foods lately and have found some bad habits coming back. I am stronger than food I know... I can't run for the next few days either due to my infection grrrrr....

So I am stressed, happy, angry, sad and am in discomfort all at once...

I need to work on my coping mechanisms though, maybe use that as one of my new years goals.

Anyways I hope everyone has a great holiday...

Ali

Its my first xmas without a cat too and I am missing her loads. Noone to play with the balls on the xmas tree

I'm being unchristmassy with food so far. Keeping good but xmas is going to be dreadful. I am not going to drink much and I'll just have a veggie xmas roast which isn't too bad but I will end up eating a fair bit of trifle and ice cream. I don't have gym membership here either, but I will walk alot instead.

I haven't posted here in a while. My only excuse is being busy. Here goes.

Mel and Meg - thanks for keeping this forum going through the year. I can appreciate how much time and work it involves.

Mel - I don't have a cat now but in years past, we had a dearly loved black cat (Shadow) who insisted on playing in the tree every year. He would sit quietly by the tree as we decorated it. As soon as we were done, he pounced and continued to pounce until the tree went out the door. It was cute but could get expensive. But he was well worth it. I miss that. A lot.

Dr. Anne: I can relate to your "mom" problem from the other side. I have two daughters, ages 20 and 24. I think they're just fine, but they are both currently on diets. When they visit I tend to try to drown them in home cooked food. It wasn't until one of them remarked to the other that I was sabotaging their diets that I realized what I was doing. I am now trying very hard not to do that. But we mothers tend to want to take care of our babies, even when they're not babies anymore. It's 3 days before Christmas and I still haven't figured out what I can put in their stockings that isn't fattening (traditionally stockings have been filled with candy and other goodies). I will come up with something, I'm sure.

Viviki: Know what you mean about missing the cat. Ours has been gone for about 4 years now and even though we now have a chihuahua that I dearly love, there are still days when I experience sadness because Shadow is gone. For about a year after he passed, there would be times when I would "hear" him or feel his presence in the room and then remember he was no longer with us. They are just like our children.

I've been doing pretty well this month. While it's not official (my weigh in is not until tomorrow), I hit goal this morning on my home scale and so I expect that I will officially be on maintenance. I intend, though, to continue on my Jenny Craig diet until after the first of the year just to avoid all the holiday temptations. Have been to several Christmas parties in the last two weeks and have managed to stay strong and not go off my plan. I think I've been able to do that because I'm so close to goal that it has been a major motivator for me. It has also helped that my husband decided to do the JC diet with me and so we have been each other's support.

With the exception of finding things to put in the stockings, I am DONE, DONE DONE with my Christmas shopping. We are going to our neighbor's house for Christmas dinner and so that's one less thing to stress about. I am probably going to do some Christmas baking on Christmas Eve and hand out goodies to my neighbors - but I intend to use low-cal and low fat recipes so even if I'm tempted to "taste" it won't do a lot of harm. Other than that, my plan for Christmas dinner is just to use good sense - keep the portions small - and otherwise enjoy my dinner.

Hope that you all have a great holiday.

wndranne? Amish food is very plain and heaps of it! Just ordinary food, mashed potatoes, gravy, roast chicken and beef, maybe a pork chop or two, apple pie ... with a bit of a German flair. Schnitzel, whatever that is.

I have not been doing very well food-wise, but better than other years. On a happier note, my home gym is actually in the new fitness room. I think we'll have time to assemble it tomorrow. That ought to take care of the extra chocolate and mixed nuts!

Thank you and you are welcome, Lawshark! I'm sure I'm speaking for Meg, too, in saying that we both get much more FROM this forum than our individual efforts that go into it. The forum exists because we needed a support forum and on getting to goal!

My daughter (22 yrs) has also accused me of trying to fatten her up whenever I visit or she visits me. I guess it's a mother thing, except my mother seems to be missing that gene (good). For stocking stuffers, I've gone to Staples and gotten lots of pens, scotch tape, bright post-it notes. Then a trip to Victoria's Secret for some undies (haha- that should be entertaining when she pulls them out of the bottom of the stocking in front of her brother, father and boyfriend), and a handfull of inexpensive lip glosses from Bath and Bodyworks. Not a calorie to be had unless she licks her lips a lot. BTW, she has no weight problems, but has the sense to know that she can't eat a stocking full of chocolate. Too bad her mother didn't catch on to that quicker.

SusanB- I think assembling the gym will probably take care of a few extra nibbles! We are disassembling ours on Friday and I'm not looking forward to lugging several hundred pounds down the stairs and out. I sold it to a neighbor since I pretty much live at the gym anyway.

Mel

Hi Folks,

A friend of mine told me about this site, so I decided to register. Though I would like to lose that last 20 pounds, I consider myself a maintainer as I have taken off the weight over the last three years. If I don't gain back what has come off I'll be happy enough. Seems that Christmastime is getting to me and I want to eat everything in sight. After three years of watching it, I don't feel like denying myself today. You can probably tell that this isn't the best of days with regards to maintenance. Any words of encouragement would be appreciated.

Hope to get to know you all a little better!

Hi all, I've just realized this is the first December in my entire life that, if no horrid eating accidents happen in the next week or so, that I will have actually lost afew pounds. I have had Decembers when I have stayed the same with lots of hard work, but never losing. And of course most over my life-time I have probably gained.

Christmas Eve I will be at the home of a family member for their ample buffet, and the food there is generally substandard, tasteless, and totally unappealing. I usually have to look carefully to even find enough to satisfy my normal bodily hunger. Fortunately the company is good, but no worries about over-eating there. Christmas day I will be in the home of an anorexic cook. Very good food, but very small amounts. Give me the second circumstance any time -- satisfying tastes with built-in portion control. To over-eat, I would have to steal things from someone else's plate.

I was at costco today and saw some sugar free chocolate covered cherries. Upon reading the label, the chocolate was sweetened with sucralose (splenda) and it got me to wondering if anyone knows if there is a plain chocolate (no fruit or nuts) out there that is sugar free. I wouldnt mind a chocolate fix every once in awhile.

Oh yes, if anyone likes sf jello, here in so. calif. they are on special at Von's for 50 cents/box for the next couple of days.

JanSanta

Hi Orate, I hadnt seen your post before I wrote mine - I would have been less gleeful about losing in Dec if I had. I have a good friend who has lost lots of weight (also in the triple digits) the past few years, and she too was beginning to slip abit. What she did was to remind herself why she wanted to lose weight in the first place -- she had a long, very detailed list of reasons for wanting to lose. She also wrote a long list, or even essay, about how difficult and pain in the @ss it was to lose all the weight in the first place just to remind herself that she didnt ever want to have to do it again if she started eating too much again.

What works for me is to tell myself I can stop this very second being careful of my food amounts and what I eat, but if I do, I have to accept the full range of consequences, and do I really want that? No, I dont. And neither do you. Of course there is a difference between having a treat once in a while to prevent feeling deprived, and totally losing it. Only you know what is happening with you.

Jan

I am so inspired by those of you running and exercising in the cold! Makes me feel kind of lame for wimping out when it's just below freezing here. Well, postponing until the afternoon anyway!

My exercise has been going great. My eating is a little off. I had a 'hungry' day today and just ate and ate and ate. I didn't really stuff myself at any point and ate slowly and mostly healthy food, but I just had a bottomless stomach today. I counted up the calories, just really frightening. I'm a little stunned, but yeah I was really hungry. Don't feel guilty exactly, just sort of going 'wow'. Hoping it was the right thing. We'll see in a couple days.

Thanks for the info on Amish food Susan. Actually sounds kind of nice to me.

Welcome Orate! Hope you get as much from the forum as I do.

Thanks everyone for the support on the 'mom issue'. Sounds like a very common thing! From both sides of the fence.

Ladies,

Sorry to rant yesterday, this month has been hard... Anyway this cheered me up a bit:

Find your Christmas name here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/derby/fun_stuff...er_names.shtml

As Ali I am Happy dancing-baubles

As Alison I am Lucky Dancing-Baubles

Cheers!

Ali

wndranne, if we didn't go out in sub freezing weather, we wouldn't spend much time outside 4-6 months of the year. It is supposed to get slighly above freezing today though, accompanied by an inch or two worth of rain and freezing rain. Makes -26 sound not so bad really. I was out shovelling the driveway (again, it snowed last night too) with the kids this am when the freezing rain started. So instead of taking them a sled ride afterward, we're stuck inside for the day and my 5 year old is still complaining about it. Colder would be better than rain.

My Christmas name is Lucky Monster-Baubles.

Mel - Thanks for the great ideas. I was furiously jotting them down while reading your post. I get off a Noon today (Pacific Time) and plan on heading straight to the nearest mall that has a Victoria's Secrets. It'll be crazy I know but those were such great ideas I have to follow through.

Orate: Welcome. Consider yourself encouraged. I've only been at this losing weight game for 6 months now and I've just reached my goal. I'm not really at the point you are at but I can just image what it's been like to pass over the holiday goodies for 3 years. I think that the secret to that is to not totally deprive yourself - if you do, you run the risk of giving in and binging. Let yourself have a couple of treats now and then and then stop. You've done such a great job that you certainly don't want to blow it now. Be strong. You can do it!

Jansan: Thanks for the tip on the sugar free Jello. I luv to have a SF Jello with some SF Cool Whip at night as a tasty snack. I'll have to stop a Von's too before I go home today and snap up that deal.

I'm so impressed by those of you who venture out in the freezing and sub-freezing temperatures to do your walks/runs and exercise and feel slightly embarrassed when I think of how I've given myself an excuse not to walk when the temperatures here dip below 50. I will remember your example in the future and do better.

:merry:

Huh! I just got to work a half hour ago to find...a tin of those Danish cookies on my desk from a co-worker (who is off today...like about 96% of the other employees here). You know those little sugary fat bombs...

Since she's not here today, I had absolutely no problem removing the gift tag and taking the tin two floors up to one of the OTHER office kitchens in our building (each floor has two kitchen areas here). Yay for me Neither Jim nor I need that stuff! It's been a pretty clean holiday season for me this year. Christmas day at my sister's house is going to be the apex, then it's smooth sailing after that - Jim might be playing a gig on NYE and I generally either babysit or just go to bed around 11ish (gym opens at 8 am on 1 January and traditionally I'm the first one through the door).

We FINALLY - FINALLY saw the film "Super Size Me" last night (I bought a used DVD). GREAT film BTW - Jim and I both enjoyed it, though we could have done without the barf scene! Remember at the end, Morgan Spurlock had gained 25 lbs in his 30-day 'experiment' of eating McD's at every meal...it took him only 30 days to GAIN the weight...but according to the epilogue it took him MONTHS - I forget how many months right off the bat, will have to write it down - to LOSE the weight, even while he was on his girlfriend's vegan 'recovery' diet. And here's a killer thought - I got the impression that Morgan S. has never been fat - he looks like a guy who's been pretty fit all his life; you'd think that he'd get that excess weight off fairly easily once he started eating normally again...but it took him MONTHS! Kind of puts a different spin on the holiday feedlot season (between Halloween and New Year's) as I know there are SO many people who think "oh, it's only one month...only a few cookies...only a few chocolates...I'll just start my diet right after the holidays" with the feeling that they can lose the weight as quickly as they put it on...hmmm....

just some thoughts...

I just read that it took him 14 months for him to lose that weight. Goes to show how easy it is to put on and how hard it is to take off!

"Holiday feedlot" I like that - sort of describes my life at the moment. I've been hiding becuase I haven't been at my strongest with eating and exercise. It's often struck me as ridiculous how I withdraw from my sources of support during the times I need it the MOST!

So, exercise is nada (except for shoveling snow from the driveway). My exercise partner is away for Christmas and she took all my motivation with her. To my credit, my bingeing is under control and I'm eating the holiday treats in moderation (a miracle for me). So, not gaining at the moment, but still hanging on to vacation (in October), Thanksgiving and some Christmas weight - 8 lbs in all.

I was VERY excited to get my updated Thin for Life in the mail today. That's on for January, right? I can't WAIT!!!!!

Congrats to all of you who have remained strong and active. That's simply a huge accomplishment this time of year.