I walked my 20 minutes. I didn't feel good during or after, but I did it. Sigh. Well, 154 more days give or take. Not that I'm counting.

Anne

Ah, pregnancy. I noticed other people's pregnancies go by much faster than my own ever did.

Wow--three pages and the first day isn't over yet. Is that a record?

Just popped in to say hello. Back from Hawaii where it was warm and wonderful. Went snorkeling as much as I could, swam when I couldn't snorkel (murky water), and ate too much as I tend to do on vacation. Good to be home, but cold. Now I have to start working on my Dad's estate stuff. Trying to figure out if I have to file a tax return for 2007, then file a final tax return after everything is settled. Anyone know?

Caught a lousy cold while in Hawaii (probably from the airplane?). Bought some Zicam Extreme Congestion Relief and it really works.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Pat, those are beautiful pic's of the snow and ice. Mostly all we've been getting is yucky rain, freezing temps and lots of wind, interspersed with beautiful 70 degree days.

I had a good workout today. I finally braved the perpetual stair thingy for 10 min's, then I did 12 min's on treadmill and 10 min's on stairstepper. Did my upperbody workout also. I've been doing a few lunges at home, but still feel too clumsy to do them at the gym. I can already tell after only 10 gym visits that I am getting a tiny bit stronger.

My DD, Lacy, is still mad at me and not speaking to me. I'm gonna have a talk with her tomorrow night when DH is here, so it won't turn into another shouting match. These teenage yrs. have just been one great big ball of fun with her!

Sheila, glad you had fun in Hawaii. Sorry I don't know anything about the tax laws.

Sheila, I think the answer is yes, as your Dad was alive in 2007, but I'm not tax accountant, nor do I play one on TV! I'm just trying to remember what my FIL had to when my MIL died about 18 months ago. Good luck....

Good morning maintainers!

Kelly -- It's good to see that the meeting with your MIL went well enough. Things might have been tense, I suppose, but it seems it was all good in the end?

Fun stuff: I was chatting with my ex yesterday on the computer, and he complained about having gained something like 10-12 lbs and not managing to lose them. I guess he's finally starting to understand that "just lose weight" is easier to say than to do. (Well, and I suspect his new GF to feed him too many cakes. I was the one who ate too much, but at least I didn't bake three times a week. ) But since the process is the same for women and men, anyway, if he wants some advice, at least now I'm able to give proper advice.

And if everything goes well, it's day -5 until I finally get my freezer! This is going to change my everyday life. Frozen raspberries and broccoli will rock the casbah soon.

Morning, maintainers!

On crazy diets, I remember one making the rounds in high school -- early 80s, in case anyone's keeping score -- in which the featured ingredient was ... hot dogs. Yes, hot dogs. I think you were supposed to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks by eating a hot dog a day, plus grapefruit, carrot sticks, and water with lemon juice. Thankfully, my mom squashed that brilliant diet idea in a hurry, though undoubtedly I was resentful at the time.

Kery: My DH is at the stage where he says, "I've got to eat better and get some exercise." Well, duh. The problem is putting the "duh" into action: he skips breakfast, drinks regular soda, eats pizza or salami sandwiches w/cheese & mayo for lunch, and has a big bowl of ice cream with caramel sauce for dessert. (Dinners are OK, because I cook and hence he has no choice.) This has been going on for 15 years or so now. No one said men are fast learners, but geez louise!

This isn't a rant, by the way: I'll love DH through thick and thin. Even if it's more thick than thin!

Time for some real work.
Kim

Kim~didn't that diet also include ice cream? The one I remember did. My lunches in middle school usually consisted of a bag of Doritos and a Dr. Pepper. No wonder I gained weight! There was a guy at my school who was a year older. He was grossly overweight. When he was in 9th grade, he decided for himself to get in shape--he had salad for lunch every day (we thought he was crazy!) and he started to run. I saw him when he was about 21 or so and he was still as slim and trim as he had gotten that year--I'm sure he lost over 80 pounds that year.

I'm happy to announce another .5 loss! It's slow (frankly slower than gaining!)--but what you WANT is usually slower to obtain than what you don't want. Take the stock market for example. I've lost over $10,000 in my 401(k) in the past few weeks--it will take months (if not years) to gain that back. Isn't that sad? Thankfully I'm nowhere close to retirement!!

Have a great day everyone (I'm sure I'll check in later at work).

Allison, you're doing great!

That hot dog and ice cream diet is still around, believe it or not. And sadly, a friend of mine's DOCTOR recently handed her a copy of it with "Mayo Clinic Diet" written across the top. A doctor, for heaven's sake!! He fell for it because it said Mayo Clinic. If you ever wonder whether we professional dieters know more about weight loss than MDs -- there's your answer.

Ohmygosh Kim, your DH sounds just like my GF! She has decided she perhaps needs to "eat better and exercise" because despite being thin (she is at the lowest possible end of healthy weight for her height), she has high blood pressure and high cholesterol. These problems are (usually) easily corrected with healthy habits. Having healthy habits would probably help with her chronic migranes, too... the problem is that she eats the same kind of crap as you listed above, Kim Infact, she makes this horrid sandwich with salami, butter, and American cheese on white bread. She says no meal is complete without dessert and sure does love to FRY things up! She also hates all physical activity and refuses to even go on walks.

Meg, I would not be surprised that a DOCTOR handed your friend a copy of the "Mayo Clinic Diet" - I definitely agree that us "professional dieters" really are much more knowledgable on these subject matters At my HW, my doctor told me to follow a very specific diet and insisted that I would lose weight on it. He made a HUGE deal about my weight every time I saw him and acted like carrying a little extra baggage was life threatening. I found it impossible to follow, rather primative, and lacking proper nutrition from all the food groups --he is a thin man who has never struggled with his weight and likes to blame it all on people's actions, but I keep him because A) he's actually a good doctor in other ways and B) he's covered by my HMO

The Mayo Clinic Diet's urban legend states that it is given to severely overweight heart patients to help them lose weight quickly. I guess doctors are as gullible as the rest of us

Sheesh, like the Mayo Clinic would prescribe hot dogs and ice cream to heart patients, severely overweight or not. But honestly, we've all fallen for quick-fix diets (myself included) -- before we learned the hard way that it's not the weight loss, but the weight loss maintenance that's the challenge. Hey, that's why we're here!

ARGH!

I've just checked the campus gym website to register for second semester classes... The archery class I wanted to take on Mondays isn't available anymore--only on Tuesday, which is a workday for me, so I'll never be able to attend.

Guess I don't need to mention that I'm pretty pooped?

*grumbles*

hi maintainers,

WOW the thread is moving like fire this week ! I cannot possibly answer to everyone, sol I'll just say hi in general.

Kery, Shane - a pity you are feeling low. I hope it is better now. just remember to not sweat the small things, and most of life really is small things.

Anne - Good for you that you got in your exercise. I hope you perk up soon (although preggo with 2 yr old toddler around is probabely exponentially more exhausting than just preggo or just the 2 yr old)

Have a great rest of the week all,
Rabbit

Hi everyone,

Kaw, my DH says if he ever "gets fat" that he'll never diet or exercise. So far, he's never had a weight problem and is 44 yrs old. His sister though is at least 300 lbs. and weight problems do seem to be on the female side of his family.

Allison, my high school lunch was typically a bag of chili cheese fritos and 2 of those little bottles of Miller Lite!

I can actually remember when I was about 13 and wanting to Gain weight. My older sisters friends were all curvier and I wanted to be like them. Well ,I eventually got my wish and more than I had bargained for.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that was told for years to lose weight by my doctors. Mine would usually just hand me a copy of the food pyramid. I still remember how bad I hated seeing the word OBESE on my medical charts. It's really weird that no matter how bad a person hates their body and feels they need to lose weight, it often takes many, many, many attempts before they find success. I know that for me, I had to make it the number one priority in my life. Basically, I just had to put myself and my health first for once and let everything else fall in place somewhere down the line.

Allison - Your lunches in middle school sound surprisingly like mine in high school! I kid you not, in high school, at recess I would eat a donut or a cookie from the snack cart. At lunch on MWF I would have an individual-sized pizza hut pizza (yes, they sold these on campus, they were so greasy the grease came through the tin foil case!) and a bottle of Fruitopia (it's fruit, that's healthy right? ), and on TTh I would have Fruitopia and a candy bar from the vending machine. Gee, I wonder how I got fat??

DH is on his way to pick me up so that's all for now. I just had to share my terrible eating habits as a teenager (did I mention that for breakfast I would have frozen meals like french toast sticks or sausages?).

Hmm Allison, Lily, and Jessica, add me to the list of people who ate very unhealthy lunches in middle school. The typical lunch for me was one of the following: nachos with chili and cheese with french fries and a juice drink with 10% juice, a bag of chips or two with a 10% juice drink, Grandma's cookies with a brownie and a 10% juice drink, a slice of pizza, fries, and chocolate milk... is it any wonder that I was a pudgy kid?! Then, I'd get home from school and eat Ruffles or Cheetos with Coke

And oh! Jessica! My school had Frutopia, too! Yup, it is healthy as long as it is fruit