OK, this thread is now my maintenance lifeline.
scale hovering @ 129.5/131 (prob really 2 pounds more on the at home scale)
going home to real world this mon
NEED:
TO TRACK CALORIES and KEEP MY HANDS FROM DELIVERING FOOD INTO MY MOUTH!!!!!!!

what's that? oh yes, can, will, must, uh huh, uh huh!

With you, kitty.

We leave my mother's in a few hours. Back home and work for next week. Then a long weekend for my birthday.

I feel I know you all well enough to disclose that my knickers are a little tight. (Not sure if this word crosses the Atlantic in safety. Panties?)

Measure. Weigh. Cardio. Weights. Stretching. Sleep.

Down 2.1 pounds, as TOM departs from my life for another blessed 24 days, or whatever my cycle has become.

Off to the gym, hoping this will energize me. I don't want to get sleepy during my long drive Upstate.

But I was up late last night, cooking components of an eggplant casserole which I'll be baking while I'm packing this morning. I didn't get in the door till 8:30 PM & didn't finish cooking till nearly 11 PM. I watched "Jersey Shore" while doing so, since it seemed appropriate, what with the eggplant in the oven & sauce on the stove.

The people on "Jersey Shore" must be some of the stupidest people alive. But they're remarkably happy with their lives. A long night at the club getting wasted & having their physiques admired is all they seem to require. One thing strikes me: The men are always in the gym; I don't think I've seen any of the women in the gym yet.

Hi all,
I am here and I'll be more active. Got DD off to college and that was a big deal. But life goes on. And my pants are tight. And I have unsightly bulges. And I haven't run in 6 days or lifted in 13 days. So unlike the ladies of Jersey Shore, it is time for me to get my ever expanding knicker-clad derrier into a gym. And to keep junk food from passing my lips. But my kitchen is well-stocked. I'll run today. And I'm taking DH to look at gyms today.

Well done, midwife. Good to see you.

Safe travels, saef. I'm just collapsing in a farmhouse B&B after a testing car journey (thick sea fog, thick motorway traffic). There's table tennis and pool in the cellar so I'll be diving around later.

Arggghh. Bad enough to have medication problems, but I developed a cold while on vacation last week. I thought it was about gone yesterday and then this morning I woke up all stuffy again, with runny eyes and a sore thorat. Grrrrr. My life has been so inactive the last month that I feel like the Pillsbury Dough Girl! Only salvation is that I feel lousy enough that combined with the meds issues I haven't been eating much.

It has at least stopped raining here (32 days straight - set a new record) but of course it's moving quickly into fall. Yesterday and today the temp when I got up is below 40! Bright and sunny, and it'll be warm by afternoon, but still.... School started yesterday, maybe that's the reason.

Okay chicks, I need to get back on the bandwagon. Today I ate donut holes, egg rolls, and cake. This stops now. No more junk.

Oh wait, I'm leaving on vacation Thursday for TWO WEDDINGS.

I have a feeling after this vacation I'll be back at 140. So let me pledge that at least I will eat well until I leave for the vacation, I will get totally back on plan when I get back, and during my vacation I will:
- not eat breakfast at restaurants
- exercise as much as possible, preferably every day
- make good choices when eating at restaurants, with indulgences allowed at the actual weddings and at the one rehearsal dinner I'm attending
- hike my butt off during the three days I'll be in Yosemite

At least I'll be saved a few hundred calories by showing up too late to be able to attend my sister's bachelorette party. I'm sad I have to miss it since I think it would be fun to go, but on the other hand I don't really need to drink a whole bunch of cocktails and eat too many munchies. Between the three scheduled nights out for the wedding I'm sure there will be more than enough junk food and cocktails.

Pat - my birthday's at the end of the month and I've always thought it was a summer birthday. Last year and this year, it seems as though I've got an autumn one. So strange, after all these years.

Jessica - weddings are no real excuse. (Tough love.)

I'm back home. Proper water (we live in a soft water area and have been in hard ones), food, bed, you name it. It's been good to be away and I feel re-energised to lose now I'm back. And to do something about my thighs which have spread again since my lower back and associated strangenesses have curbed my exercising.

Away again for a long weekend for my birthday but it's in a lovely holiday let, not camping out with friends and family.

May not weigh myself tomorrow morning.

Definitely back to basics here. I do know what works so I'll go with that.

Hi all! I've returned from the Badlands and Yellowstone, uneaten by bears. We did see some from a safe distance - a grizzly mom with two cubs, and a young black bear, and they've been captured with pictures. Many, many pictures of the magnificent geology and kinda scary thermal features. The sorting process is just beginning, as between DH and me, we've taken something like 1300 pix!

Currently detoxing the processed food and restaurant meals. Apparently high-altitude hiking burns just as many calories as it does the rare oxygen molecules. Good grief, it's a weird feeling to have the leg muscles fully willing to haul my carcass 680 feet up a mountain over .6 miles ... and yet to be gasping for breath! I was doing better than DH, and not as well as DS11, who must be part mountain goat.

Home to bountiful tomatoes and raspberries. However, the zucchini, melons, and beans have been completely destroyed by a groundhog who moved in while we were gone, so tonight will be a stop at the trusty Tractor Supply to get a live trap. A good friend swears by mangoes as bait.

It was a wonderful vacation. I remember how good it is to move vigorously and sweat, and I am looking forward to the new swim season this fall!

Welcome back Becky! I've heard high altitude is a killer -- I'll be testing it out myself in Yosemite next week.

I've been good about food this week so far. Go me! DH has been an angel and talked me out of eating junk this weekend, with the very correct reasoning that we are going to eat junk on our vacation next week so we don't need to start early. Still working on my workout schedule. I'm getting in NRLW 2x/week no problem, it's fixing everything else that's the issue. Sunday is swim day, no problem there, Saturday seems to be turning into long run day. I need to fit in at least one more run per week and preferably a bike ride too (although I need to see my doctor to make sure my tailbone isn't broken since it still hasn't totally healed).

Exercising on vacation is another challenge. The goal is to work out in the morning before everyone gets up. The only problem is that the treadmill and weights are in the bedroom that my uncle and dad's cousin are going to be staying in. Outdoor running should be fine, but I'm not sure about the weights. Maybe I'll steal my mom's dumbbells and put them somewhere else. When we're in Yosemite it will be easy to get plenty of exercise hiking.

And now my biggest vacation challenge -- the weather has thrown a curveball. Instead of being roasting in LA like it usually is in August, the high temps this weekend are going to be in the 60's-lower 70's. Bizarre. I have to unpack my fall wardrobe for a vacation to Los Angeles? What? Seattle is going to be right around 70 too. At least Yosemite will be around 80, which is perfect.

Thanks, Jessica - have a blast in Yosemite! Don't be a noob like I was and forget that high altitude also equals thin atmosphere - slop on the sunscreen!

Little victory on the scales. Tuesday morning I jumped on the scale first thing as usual, and saw 149.0. Then went to doctor's office for thyroid followup, and weighed in dressed for work - 149.0 again. Love not having to hear the "clunk" of that 150# weight sliding across the bar.

Hi guys! Sounds like some fun trips!! I had a very bad food day yesterday, but today it looking much much better. It's amazing how much my food/movement/mood/energy leve/outlook on life are all interconnected.

Down 2.1 pounds from last Friday, before I set out for my trip Upstate. I'm surprised because the machinery at the gym near my mother's house that I go to when visiting seemed creaky & was not offering the resistance & challenge that I'm used to. So it must have been the food. My guess is that when I'm visiting & out & about, I move more incidentally & eat less than when I'm stuck in front of my laptop all day. Whatever the reason, I'll take it. At 142.9, that's really not a bad place for me to be.

Been POP since Thursday. Will stick with it, even if the scale is being Tired and cranky this morning and would like to fall face first into some dougnuts but I won't.

Cheers!