I got my new bike today! woohoo! It rides so nice! I actually get to sit up. old mountain bile make me hunch over there4 the boobs hang low, knees kept hitting stomach which hit the boobs! Ugly LOL really ugly situation. Anyways sitting up straight...good for posture and getting air into the lungs! Went for 30 min ride. Cant wait to do more. Annie...gears...concept is like shifting gears driving standard. New one is 21 gears. I dont use them all now. But when more fit means more speed! DH would explain it better. But hes on his way to Chicago!

HELP Me HELP ME the M & Ms are calling my name! I hate PMSing!There another mood swing done!

Good evening all,

I feel like I spent the entire day waiting. This morning I went back to pumping water out of the pool. Originally I was going to put it on and come back later but then I started yakking with one of the neighbours. So by the time I was going to go inside I figured I couldn’t leave it for 30 mins to use the treadmill. I did manage to get two sets in this morning, but quite far apart. The afternoon was spent waiting for the pool guy to show up. I actually finally gave up and had my mother wait for him while I went back to the treadmill. I had a couple of errands to run, but ended up doing them after dinner in the end. And it turns out that he didn't want to leave the dodgy pump running, so it will be tomorrow afternoon (fingers crossed) until we're up and running (ie. able to turn the heat on). It would be nice to get a first swim in before the rain shows up.

Catherine - I know it maybe wasn't at the time, but that's kind of funny about the tire.

Debbie - it's been so long that I'm only doing kind of medium with my seedlings. Some are doing gangbusters, but others I'm remembering why I didn't grow them again. The geraniums definitely need to be cut back. It's kind of nice having a touch of spring indoors though. The weather here was nice today, and we have a single early tulip open. There are lots of crocus and another small flowering plant - that my mother made me look up for her, which she doesn't remember planting. Just like your plants, you need to get your water. I've been feeling dehydrated, followed by bloated, but in the last few days it's evened out. I hope you get Sadie better without another trip to the vet. Just the visits are stressful for most animals.

Sandy - you're right, only 199 is much better. My worst day so far was my birthday, where I think I was perhaps 3000 calories over what I was aiming for at that time. So, you can have that bad day and find your way back. Really you can.

Bernice - we all have weigh-ins that don't go as we expect. Hopefully everything will be great for next week. At least you got a nice compliment as a nice boost.

Carol - I think we all like to see it go down. I love the daily ups and downs as I tend to ignore it as long as the lows get lower every now and then. Even the highs getting lower is good.

Ratkitten - sadly the new one won't likely go as long. We're replacing a pump that's more than 12 years old (and it wasn't new when we moved in). I understand we'll be lucky if the new one goes 8 years.

Debi - I sometimes wonder where some doctors get information from. I'm not saying that people with a lot to lose shouldn't do low calorie diets. However, it should be with lots of supervision. Glad to hear that hubby's tests were good. I mix egg whites with a single egg when making omelets. You get the nice egg colour for a lot fewer calories. I don't know what else you planted, but some seeds always sprout faster. Sunflowers, well, kind of grow like weeds. Pretty weed though.

Heather_dw - don't worry about the outfit, just enjoy the nice weather. Today I stood out in the front yard chatting with one of the neighbours. I was wearing my exercise capris (quite tight), an old shirt from work (marked, but at least no visible holes), a purple windbreaker, and my white running shoes with ankle socks. I'm sure I was quite a site.

Annie - I think I mentioned it before, but we pretty much paid the same for a house with a pool as we would have without one. It doesn't add value here because most people only use them for about 3 months. Hope for the lottery! Sorry to hear about the snow (we had a few flakes early Sunday morning, but they all melted). I'll send my best wishes for the job(s) you want. I know when you're looking that the process always feels so long to the applicant. The people doing the hiring are busy with their everyday tasks.

Julia - sounds like you're having lots of fun with your new bike. Congrats. Oh, and stay away from the bad candy. You'll hate yourself later!

Well kids, off I go to try and get a decent night's sleep. Hope everyone is having a good week so far.

DD's concert went well! youngest DD & I drove in early and stopped by the mall to pick up a purse oldest DD wants for her birthday. I had the mall set in my Tomtom since I have never been there......when we got done at the mall I set my Tomtom to get me to DD's dorm......well it is alot of back roads (country roads) and when we were close to the school it said to turn on this little bitty road. I followed its directions(mind you we were running close to time because of rush hour traffic in Lexington) the road said NO OUTLET.......but trusting TomTom I turned onto it.....well it was country houses with long gravel driveways....then there was one little driveway that went up a hill at the top of the hill was the backside of the college however the road had a HUGE Gate on it and of course it was closed! So I had to go back to the main road & turn around .......took me a different way 4 miles around the town & college needless to say we were 10mins late! I told DD that it was due to traffic.......LOL I will tell her the truth this weekend when I give her the purse! LOL

Well I had a good OP day as far as eating goes! I took DD out to eat after her concert (Arby's) I had coffee and visited with her while she ate.....I did pick at her curly fries....LOL ate about 6 of them ..........but luckily I had bought a SB bar earlier so I just ate that.....THOSE are GOOD! also they are very high in Protein! LF! I am going to look into getting some of those for days I'm in a pinch!

I stayed about 200 shy of my max calories.....so I did real well! YES I even posted the curly fries on my calories! LOL

Hope everyone has an awesome "ate-well" kinda day!
Sis-in-loss
BErNICE

P.S.
OHHHHH fogot to tell you all.......I jumped on the scale yesterday morning and it showed a 2 lb loss..........so I think you all were correct that it was water retention! We will see how I do at my weekly WI next week....I am not calling the 2lbs till monday since thats my WI and we all know crazy things can happen to that scale over the course of 4 or 5 days!!! LOL but I do feel better knowing it was mostly water!

G'morning Peeps!

I went to bed early and feel mostly rested this morning. Yay!

Julie, w00h00 on your new bike!! Just to give you a quickie sizing lesson, your leg should be slightly bent when the pedal is at it's lowest position. If it's not, raise your seat. Your seat angle should start out LEVEL. Don't do fancy angles. Adjust your seat after riding at a level position for a while. Most companies expect you to change your seat because they normally put torture devices on the bikes for looks, not function. Terry bicycles makes some great women's seats that accomodate our wider pelvic bones.

Anne/Real - the pumps I was talking about were air/bicycle hand pumps hehe, not water pumps!

Bernice, yay for getting rid of that water retention! I hate that stuff and it reared it's ugly head for me as well yesterday.

Debbie, so cool about your seeds! While beach cruisers are nice, I do like to downshift periodically on the bike. There's no way I use 21 gears (there's a lot of overlap, btw), but it's fun to fly down hills in a big gear or go to easiest up a hill (gravity hates me! hehe).

Debmitch - glad you got rid of that crazy doc!!

Annie - snow?! OMGosh.

Heatherdw - Hang in there girl! Your walks are great This is the longest I've gone losing weight consistantly and not doing major setbacks. Hugs!

Heather/prof - Come up for air periodically when grading papers!! hehe

GGG - I drank so much water yesterday, I was ready to buy a boat!

Well, off to work my sweet peeps.

Hugs and Luv,
Ratkity

For some reason Heather/prof gave me a laugh.

I'll be coming up for air this weekend as I'll be out of town for a few days. Preparing for it and returning, however, are putting me in a tailspin! Too much to do!

Yesterday was good food wise too. Andy went shopping for me last night and Abby & I have several good, low calorie, high fiber foods so we don't have to eat out the whole time. There's a glich at the cemetery. My sis found our uncle yesterday. He moved a town over, and I couldn't find him to let him know about Mom in August. That's the good news! The bad news, is my cousin may be buried in one of mom's plots and we don't know which one or if that's even for sure. So, Abby & I are leaving just as soon as I can get my stuff together. I'm picking her up from school as she had a presentation she HAD to do before we left. I love the south and the people are so kind, but it's like my sis said, it takes them 30 minutes to finish a sentence. Not meaning to offend any one here. Us Yankees are just in a hurry to do everything.
Off to shower, finish packing and some cleaning.
My sis has her lap top with her, so I'll try to log on while in Alabama.
Hugs to all.

Good morning ladies! no, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth... We (DH and I) took our youth to Aquire the Fire this weekend and it was AWESOME!!!! and Zack is preaching a revival in a town about 45 min away every night this week. So things are a bit crazy right now. I don't know if I'll ever get caught up or not. LOL I lost one last week and Zack lost 4. WI is tomorrow but i don't know if I have the guts to do it. with being out of town and being fed at the revival our eating hasn't been the best. Well i have GOT to get ready for work! toodles!

Morning all..
OK who said they got snow???? We are hitting the 90's out here...so not fair!!!!

Well I watched TBL last night and was so happy Ali won!! Maybe one thing is cause she is from Arizona..but also she looks great!! WTG for her!!

As for me and the weightloss aint happening. lol I go to the dr's on monday again for my swollen foot. I know what they are going to say but I have to go back for blood work to get my thyroid meds renewed.

I also have had a few rough weeks. A week ago my uncle by marriage passed away. He went in to have his should operated on and then flatlined about 40 minutes after the surgery!! He was young 60 maybe. Very sad..great man. Then yesterday my brother's first girlfriend from high schoool who he has remained friends with passed away on Sunday. She had some sort of staff infection in her tailbone..and she died in her sleep. She was only 31. She had been in a wheelchair since she was 16.

I tell ya I don't know what has been so "GREAT" about 2008...burried my grandpa in January. UGH!!! Life really sucks sometimes.

Hi all:

Not much happening here -- just keeping on keeping on. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that it took me something like 45 minutes to figure out how to change the weight on my tracker...oops...

Cyn, I'm so sorry about all that's been put on you this year -- it does suck, and you deserve better. I guess maybe if you were looking for a silver lining, it would be that 2008 can't keep going like this, and maybe by the end of the year it will have been fabulous? I feel for you, anyway.

hello,
well my day is ok pretty good so far. The boys are being good and playing. Its kinda quite here today. Its windybut i am thining out taking the boys out to play. I am hoping to pull a few weeds out of my flower beds while they play.
I made salmon again for lunch today..today i had veggie mix with it. I have some cod filets..cant wait to try them. The boys helped me eat the veggie mix. It had a few to many carrots for me..they ate them right up . I went back and cooked the rest of the bag and they ate it even though they had already had lunch.LOL
I have found a solution for my tummy issues...i have been eating 5 little dried prunes per day and its is really working well. Plus they taste good., kinda like a big rasin.
walrus it took me a few mins to figure out the weight thing also.

cyn_ sorry things are tough right now. Just remember there is a reason for everything...even if we dont understand it now.

lauren_ glad to see you back. I had wondered about you !!! Glad to hear you had a good weekend.

sandy_ have a safe trip

ratkitten_ I went to bed early also last night and woke up early. Glad you feel rested

heather_ the boys i keep moms are both school teachers and i can tell they are stressed right now. They are bringing the boys earlier in the morning and picking them up later. When does your shcool let out for the summer. We get out May23.

dmpls_ hugs my friend!!

anne_we planted squash, a few have sprouted. bananna peppers , hot peppers, watermelon and cantaloupe. We will get plants for tomatoes. I do grape and better boys. I love the grape tomatoes. We had 4 plants last year and couldnt pick them all. It was crazy!!!!!!!!!! This year we are getting 3.

carol_ hope you are having a good day.

debbie _ how are you doing?

hope everyone i missed is safe and healthy.

julia_hows the bike...I hate bike seats. My bottom always hurt after a bike ride.
well im heading outside with my kidos
debi

We haven't had snow since Monday. When I left to go to my doctor's appointment, it was raining, but the rain was kind of big and white, but was melting right about eye level. That was weird. I'm supposed to be working on my final exam today. If I don't get it finished today, no going shopping tomorrow at the Nike outlet. Yesterday I went to a close out sale at a place that is a cross between home depot and pier 1 imports. Up to 90% off, and I had a lot of fun. I only bought two things, but having incentive to walk is good for trying to get my strength back. So himself is arranging rides to my favorite things. If I survive the Nike shop, I get to go to the fabric store. My exam is only 8 pages. I can write that much in an ordinary email. I once wrote a 10 page letter to go in a Christmas card, and my brother wrote back that I'd better not be expecting him to reciprocate.

Debi-get a Hobson Easyseat. It is the best bike seat know to man or woman. It has kind of a small seat for each cheek, and it is adjustable for how wide your bum is. It rocks on each side as you pedal. It is the only seat I will use. You can order online, or any bike shop will order it for you. Put it on regular bikes or exercise bikes.

Julia, what kind of bike did you get? We plan on getting beach cruisers so we won't have gears, at least on the ones we get, but it does have the big seats on it. I can't wait. Have fun out there !!

Anne, the crocus are so pretty. I should get some of those. Sadie's leg lump is going down but I don't know what the vet will say when we take her in on Saturday. Keep getting that water in Anne, it's so important.

Ratkity, do you use the other gears on your bike very often? Our roads are pretty level around here so I don't know if I would use them or not.

Sandy, have safe travels.

Lauren, WOOHOOO for the 1lb gone!!

Cyn, so sorry about your losses. I hope the rest of the year is an improvement. It's so hard to stay focused when you have tragedies coming your way. Just take it easy and maybe try to maintain for now. My prayers are with you.
I was so glad when Bernie won too! I didn't want Mark to win, he's won so much already and to lose by 1 lb...wow! And it's about time a woman won!!!

Hi Debi, I'm doing ok. I'm one pound away from my ticker weight so I'm hoping to get there by Friday. I've been up and down sooooo much this month it's disgusting. I was reading on another thread about what plan works for people and learned some stuff. I'm so thankful for all of you and I just keep learning from all of you and from that, figure out what I've been doing wrong....so thank you!

Catherine, I hope you get your final done so you can go out to the NIke store. It sounds like you really enjoyed going to the place with 90% off. I sure would of found more than just two things to buy though.

Still raining here so no activities outside. I did the 1 mile WATP yesterday and I noticed that Gary is starting another 5k on Memorial Day weekend so signed up for that one. I should have my bike by then and will be peddling my A** all over town to get my 3.1 miles in plus more. I'm going to be riding that thing all over the place.
Doing fine OP wise and finally got my 4 liters of water in yesterday and finally the swollen body has gone down so I feel lighter. I have 1 more pound to reach my ticker weight...yet again and hopefully it will just keep going down after that. I don't think I've been serious enough about losing and that's been my problem.
Hope all are having a wonderful losing, drinking, moving day!
Debbie

Debbie: Thanks for the seeds idea. I may go look for one of those planting things. Yep, we got the rain/snow mix yesterday all day long. It is mostly sunny today but some clouds occasionally. I'm ready for this to stop!

Julia: Woo hoo for getting your new bike.

Anne: I hope your pool gets straightened out soon.

DMPLS: Glad you got to see your daughter sing.

Sandy: Have a safe trip sweetie.

Luaren: Good luck at your weigh in today.

Cyn: HUGS to you sweetie.

Catherine: Sounds like you are having fun shopping! I am just hanging out today. Sould clean the house but it looks clean and I am having a hard time telling me self to clean it more. lol. I should at least vacuum the whole thing. Maybe clean tomorrow.

Well, Hope you all have a great day. I am so tired today. I guess just a few things going on that I need to relax about. lol.

Blessings all,
Annie

Good afternoon all,

It's a lovely sunny day out. Not that warm (because of the wind) but quite nice. Still waiting to hear from the pool guy, although it's now nice and full of water. I suspect if he doesn't come this afternoon I'll likely try priming and starting the pump myself. I've done it before, but would rather have the new pump in. It's only 2pm so I'm likely just impatient. My mother and I have agreed that she'll deal with him this afternoon so I can get my strength training routine in. Once I start the warm-up I'm pretty much tied into an hour of work, so I don't want to stop. The electrician is here at the moment, although working in the garage and I think my room. He's not really an electrician, he's a fireman. He does the electrical inspections for the local fire department, and does a few jobs on the side. It's rare that he charges my mother any more than 20 bucks plus parts. He and another fellow installed the new garage door opener and I forget what they charged her, but it was a very good deal.

Ratkitten - I did know you were talking about air pumps. I was just thinking about manufacturing standards in general and how they've declined.

Sandy - glad your food is going well. Sorry the other things are causing a little stress.

Lauren - eating when other people control the cooking can be challenging, but not impossible. I spent 5 months away last winter and managed to maintain the weight I was when I left (actually came home a few pounds lighter). The easiest thing to do is drop the starch from some of your meals. I would do the meat entree and just some vegetables most of the time. I was lucky that there was also salad offered for two meals during the day. Nothing fancy, but it helped. Of course I was also lucky that the only read 'dessert' offering was ice cream at Sunday lunch. Towards the end of the trip the second cook decided to get a little fancy and might make a quick bread once a week as well.

Cyn - as much as my feelings are mixed about the show I'm also glad that Ali one. I guess it's a girl power thing. I'm sorry you're having a rough couple of weeks. I do hope it improves soon.

TheWalrus - hey, the fact that you needed to change it is a good thing though.

Debi - I miss having a bigger garden. We grow tomatoes and peppers in containers though. Homegrown produce always seems nicer, doesn't it?

Catherine - go write your exam!

Debbie - I love the crocus in the spring. They're so small and delicate with great big pops of colour when everything else is just starting to green up. Of course I love the other bulbs that follow as well. Hopefully your rain will pass and you'll get some nice spring weather.

Annie - we all need those days of just hanging out every now and then. I find this something I struggle with. I'm enjoying the exercises that I'm doing, but sometimes on my down days I feel like I should be doing something else. Then I remind myself that this is a permanent change, it's not a race. So when the weather is nicer I'm going to try and spend at least one weekend day with my behind planted on a patio chair. Of course the patio needs to be cleaned up first and the pots all planted first!

Well, on that note I'll sign off. I've still got an hour before I'll start my afternoon workout, so I'll see what trouble I can get into before then. Hope everyone is having a good day.