Hello, everyone!

I may be hoping for too much with the little time we have until labor day, but I am back on the wagon and hoping to lose!

I went straight from dealing with my sick son (who apparently had gotten mono from Vacation Bible School - 4 kids had it too, all from the preschool class!!) to moving my mom, finishing all of my layouts for my client (who promply ordered 80 more...) and trying to get my house in order for the new school year. I USED all of those as excuses to not focus on eating right. (Although I did try to limit snacks, drink water.) I haven't stepped on a scale for fear of what I may find yet, but when I do, I'll report the whole sordid amount - can't start out lying to myself!

Except for the weekend in the hospital, none of those were REALLY excuses to not diet - my biggest weakness is FINDING an excuse. So here I am, trying again, and hoping not to disappear on y'all again. :-)

So, off to eat something GOOD for me for breakfast.

Hugs, and I hope you all are well - I'll try to go back through the posts I missed later!

Rysa

Yeah! Rysa is back!!! We missed you! And, I am so glad your family is feeling better. Back to school has been hectic for us too!
It just wasn't the same without you here! And, I am going to get right on you about drinking the water . Glad to hear you are focused and ready!


I have a lot more comments, but I need to feed my kids....Be back in a bit!!

Morning!

Well, last night, my abs/chest felt tight...so I called it a light day & just did 1 additional mile of WATP last night. And I took this morning as my rest day, since I exercised on Tuesday morning. I'll get on the bike tonight, and not feel the need to ride ****-bent for destruction for a change. Tomorrow exercise will be limited because we're having the dinner for my mother in law, plus, we've got to stop at the builder's and sign plans, and take pictures of the light fixtures that we need to buy. Yeah, it's a year out, but I want to at least get the photos now, so we know what we need for each room. And then, I can also post pictures of what the elevations & arches & stuff look like. And the kitchen & master bath.....this is the house I want to die in- you'll have to pry me out of the garden tub! LOL

Kinda a weird day- nothing planned, but so many last minute issues popping up. Thanks to other departments, we're now in a time crunch with a file...gotta love these fricking people. Too many hands in the pot, I tell you. I need an advill, and a few days off.

Plan for the day

AM- rest day

Breakfast
1/3 cup soy smart start
8 bite size mini wheats
1/2 a pineapple cottage double (got distracted & it got warm & unappealing)
iced decaf earl gray
12oz diet coke

Lunch
2 meatballs
3/4 cup whole wheat rotelle pasta
sprinkle parmesan
4oz diced pears

PM exercise
most likely a jaunt on "my pressscious" exercise bike with some good music.

Dinner
TBD

Rysa- so glad you're back. I know you had your hands full, ans wow- 80 more orders??? Wow! That will surely keep you busy! The good thin is that there are still 4 weeks until Labor day to undo some of the damage, and you know what? We all have setbacks, and bad weeks (I had a bad month- all of June was thrown away) and there's a brand new opportunity to get back with it.

Jaymi- not sure about the tax free stuff...one of the chicks with kids might be the better ones to ask.

Lisa- how's that toe feeling, chickie?

I'll be back in a bit- hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday. It's just about time for another weekend!

Absolutely drained of energy and have a cold now. Know what I want? 12 hours of uninterrupted deep sleep, a can of chicken noodle soup, and a grilled cheese sandwich. Then I'd feel happy. Oh, and new feet. Since I can't have the sleep, I opt for the soup & sandwich as my breakfast/lunch today. Don't ever have time at work to eat lunch, that kinda sucks... *shrug*

Anyway lots to do, but I have Sunday & Monday off of work, so I'll post a real (really long) update then, probably Monday. WHICH IS MY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Anyhoo time to go eat my breakfast and get ready for another loooooong day at work! Hope everybody is doing well, and Rysa, I'm glad your son is doing better!!! I'll update later, I swear to you all.

Thanks all for the welcomes back - and the water reminder, Lisa! LOL I would "put my past behind me" in the words of the lion king, but man, there's already enough on my behind! :-) So I'll just have to forget the setback entirely.

The good news, I did step on that scale this morning and it was only at 211, and that was clothed and 2 hours into the day. So if I haven't lost, at least I haven't gained much, if any.

Lucy, good luck shaking that cold! Feel better!

Jaymi, if you're craving banana fudge pops, have you tried a frozen banana dipped in low-fat chocolate (like Hershey's syrup?) Just an idea...

Jennifer, way to go on the exercise, and good luck with your house building plans! I would be looking into stuff like lighting in advance too - very exciting!

Off to watch a movie with dh.

Jenn K

Morning, chickies- today is going to be a hectic day.

We'll be hitting the road in about half an hour. I've got to be with hubby during one of his jobs this morning, then we have to drive an hour to the bank to drop off a check & sign a float down- the interest rates dropped a lot, and we're planning to take full advantage of that. From there, a 15 minute trip to stop at the builder's to sign the survey & point out 3 mistakes on the plans, and take the pictures of the lighting. If we can get away with more, I might have some cool pics to show you all later.

Then, we've got to drive back here, get prepped for the dinnertime birthday celebration. Wrap her present, gotta get a card...too much stuff to take care of...but it will keep me busy and there's no way I'll have time to exercise today, so tomorrow I need to get up & get that started.

Have a great Saturday, chickies! Enjoy the weekend!

Morning ladies!

Today is ok. Yesterday was ok. Laundry, dinner with my best friend, calories at 1402, no exercise, that's about it. I don't know how today is going to turn out. But I've decided to refocus once again. I've figured out that the only way I ever get anything accomplished is to refocus my efforts on a regular basis. I've let myself slack, and as a result, the weight is staying right where it is. I don't particularly like that, so it's time to crack down.
Up until this point I was focusing on calories only: calories in vs. calories out. It didn't matter what food I ate, as long as I fit it into my calorie budget. So now I'm going to start focusing on eating healthy foods--i.e. fruits and veggies, lean meats, whole grains, etc. I don't know how well this is going to work, especially since I don't do the grocery shopping around here, but I'll give it a shot anyway. I've got to do something.

Anyway, right now I've got to get ready for work. I hope everyone has a healthy day!
~Elisha

Hi all...
I'm back from my trip to Ohio...had a great time and Kaleigh really enjoyed her time with her sisters from China, but she is glad to be home and back in her own domain!!

The weekend was good as far as food. I planned very well and had lots of help from my "coach", so things went pretty smooth. I can't say I was "perfect" (which I was hoping to report) but I did do so much better than I could have done without planning! Yesterday I ate about 3 pieces of pizza (Julie! ) , but I had salad too...then we went out for Chinese for our last dinner together and I did eat some crab rangoons, but I stayed away from deserts for the most part! There was a chocolate shake incident on the way down which was not pretty (it was for Kaleigh but she ended up not wanting it!), but it's all behind me now!!! I got up early yesterday and took a walk to the nearest gas station to get a phone card (our cell signal was inoperable while there!), swam in the pool for a while with kids climbing all over me and stayed quite active the whole time (except for driving)! So, I'm feeling like it was not a gain or lose situation, but a "mostly good choices" weekend...which I am happy to report!

I was just reading my email and I get that Truestar Health letter every day. Here's a link to an article that I thought would help those of us who are "emotional eaters". I'm going to try to link it HERE (OK, the link is at the very end of this article...sorry!)

We are going "clothes shopping" for our daughter this afternoon...just to look and see what's out there! She will be going to a school where they wear uniforms, so it will be pretty easy to shop for her! I want to get her a couple of "fun" outfits too for "causual days" and weekends! She has managed to outgrow ALL of her jeans (except one pair) this summer!!! She, BTW, was the tallest of the 4 girls from our reunion this weekend...and probably the BEST eater, too! She will eat most anything, which I am happy to say! There are things that she doesn't like, of course...but generally speaking! I'll attach some pictures of her later!

I want to get this sent and then get my pictures onto the computer, so I will close fo rnow! TTFN

Julie

I'm still a little horked about the weekend with his family. I'll get over it, but it is at least affecting my mood today, and carried over fro
Saturday night was the birthday dinner. I am so glad we don’t spend more time around his side of the family. His sister thinks every single occasion needs to revolve around her. That pretty much kills a 65th birthday celebration. The highlight- SIL had a boob job about a year ago- went from nothing to a C cup. Now that she’s almost 6 months pregnant, she’s carrying the baby high, and she’s gaining. Chest is now a quite full DD, with the baby pooch right underneath it. With her streaky hair, boobs out to there, and wearing skin tight, low cut shirts, she looks like a knocked up stripper.

knew my SIL wouldn’t notice anything- I could have shaved my head & she’d be oblivious. As critical as MIL is, I figured she would notice something had changed (like, um, 50 pounds lost since she saw me last) but her only comment was to my husband, calling him “skinny.” I really shouldn’t feel as slighted as I do, because this is typical. I guess I was hoping for any kind of reaction. This does tell me where I really stand with her. It hurts, because my mother treats hubby like he’s her own child, which is the same way Grandma (her mom) treated my father. Next time they ask why they see us so infrequently, hubby is going to have a hard time holding me back. Sigh.

Sunday we spent the day running around. Lots of shopping that was supposed to be done- only about half of it got taken care of, though. More rain, and dealing with people who can’t drive in the rain. We did manage to find a bathroom set that hubby loves- we bought it now, while we could get all the pieces, and put them away for his “office bathroom” in the new house. And we bought new everday dishes- the local outlet mall had a big sale on Corningware and Corian, so we were able to put together a really nice set, without being stuck with saucers & 4oz mugs for 8 or 12 people. We got the pieces we actually use, and additional serving bowl (which hubby uses for cereal...go figure) set, so now we are covered. We can donate all the mismatched pieces we’ve been using, and clear out all the mugs that we never, ever, ever use. Who drinks just 4oz of anything? Especially coffee???

That’s about it. I’m in a mild funk with the whole in-law-weekend deal, so I just have to put it behind me, and see if at Christmas, when I’m down 75 fricking pounds, if anyone bothers to notice that the shirt they buy me is now 6 sizes too big, and hanging off me. Looking great is going to be the best revenge.

Evening ladies!

Today was ok. Long, but ok. Calories are at 1437, water is coming along. Not sure about the exercise yet though. My thighs are still killing me from Saturday, so the stairclimber is out, and I have to get up at 4am to go to Charleston for a meeting, so I think I might just shower and go to bed. I'm tired today. But I shouldn't be late getting home tomorrow, so I'll have plenty of time to exercise. And I did get the kitchen cleaned up some this evening instead of working out, so I guess it's ok.

Here's today's menu:

Breakfast: coffee with creamer, fried eggs, whole grain toast
Lunch: leftover Japanese (fried rice and chicken teriyaki), water
Dinner: stroganoff with ground turkey, salad with Caesar dressing, whole grain toast, diet pepsi, more water

We'll see about the exercise, but I'm doubting it. I don't really feel like moving much.
Anyway, I'm going to sign off for a while. I hope everyone is having a great day!
~Elisha

I'm in a funk too today, but it's raging PMS, should I say DMS since it started this morning! UGH!!! I know that 80% of my inability to focus on what I need to do for myself to be healthy today is my own doing and only the other 20% is TOM, but geesh...

CONFESSION TIME! I had two handfuls of (stale) peanut M&M's today, drank coffee like it was going out of style (that's two cups fo rme!), had a really good greasy cheeseburger (1/4 lb with the bun, NO fries) for lunch today and made Enchilada casserole for supper and now am eating a REAL fudgsicle! I drank MAYBE 60 oz. water today and have NOT exercised! I feel bloated and icky and just want to go to bed and wake up feeling like my old self again!

End rant!!!

Jennifer, I'm sorry that your MIL is insensitive! She was focused on her birthday, maybe? Maybe, like you said, she's just too critical to say anything complimentary! 50lbs is a lot NOT to notice, so my guess is she's just insensitive AND critical!!!! And I second what Jaymi said about your SIL! I had to laugh...but I can just see it...belly all puffed up, boobs all puffed up and thinkin' she's HOT!!! LOL! If pregnanat women only knew!

Jaymi...hope you get your "mojo" back! You're in my thoughts chickie!

I'm going to bed early tonight! I just finished spending about an hour with my daughter in her room trying to get her to quiet down for the night but her little brain just "turns ON" at night and she is full of a thousand questions. I stopped her at 999!!!! LOL!!!

Hope the rest of you are well! I am planning to do my exercise in the morning and eat more healthy tomorrow...and drink my water! I also want to start my toning again this week! It always feels so good to do it, but I don't know if I will have time. Friday we live for 4 days camping UP NORTH!!! Yea! We are going to Interlochen State Park near Traverse City. Interlochen is famous for their music camps and programs. Maybe we will see a concert while we are there! Sometimes they have some pretty famous artists! It's all outdoors venue in a beautiful setting! Ahhhh! Can't wait to go and enjoy the fresh air again for a few days and ride my bike and hike and sit by the campfire! I'm going to go to slumberland now so I can dream about it all!

Hugs to all!
Julie