PatchworkPenguin - people do add beets to roasted vegetables, but I personally don't like the addition. It can make some of the other vegetables turn pink / purple in the process... I'm glad you were able to work out today!

WeightlossWanted - my nephew is headed off to Charleston for college very soon; I've never been though. Bummer about the bus not working out... sorry to hear that!

it's a beautiful city! which college is he going to newleaf? let me know if he needs anything, or just a local contact in case of any problems. and we can meet for coffee or a bite to eat if you get a chance to visit. is he your first to leave home?

oops, I thought you said your son, just realized you said nephew. i better eat some breakfast!

Happy Thursday, everyone! Count me in the "drifting" group - I've been doing some really sloppy eating over the past few days. For the most part, the caloric damage wasn't bad (except yesterday) and I did get it written down. Yesterday morning I had blood drawn for a whole raft of stuff including hormone profiles, Vit D, inflammatory markers, lipid profiles, etc, and maybe it was having to fast that made yesterday such a train wreck. It was weird and uncontrolled. Back to basics today!

Tomatoes. Oh, tomatoes ... OMW, I'm also a huge caprese fan! It's such a perfect meld of acid, savory, creamy ... I'm drooling. And Hotsplashes, I am definitely going to try a tomato-cheese toasted sandwich. Classic BLT? I'm in! They're kinda hard to work into the calorie count though - and please, nobody try to talk me out of real bacon and real mayo. I'll eat salad for breakfast instead. LOL!

Marie - great job with the loss, and with the battery! Electrical stuff scares the snot out of me. I'm willing to fire up a torch and weld or solder pipe together, but I've never been able to shake my deep suspicion of electricity. You are my hero!

newleaf - I've done exactly what you did, but with Swiss Chard instead of beet greens. That's yummy too! Roasted beets are great and the foil pack does make cleanup much simpler.

Weightlosswanted - welcome!

patchwork - sorry about the tummy bug; glad you're on the mend!

More to follow - meeting to deal with!

On the topic of tomatoes, here's what I have been doing, which I absolutely love!!

I cut an eggplant into 1" thick circles, brush with olive oil. Grill the eggplant approx. 7 min. per side. In the final 2 minutes, put a thick slice of tomato onto each eggplant slice.

If DH is home, then I serve the tomato slices separate from the eggplant slices (he doesn't like eggplant). But if it's just me, I serve it just as it comes off the grill. TOTAL yum...

ICUWishing sorry about the bloodwork extravaganza. Today's a new day!

WeightlossWanted he's going to College of Charleston. Yes, nephew, not son. I actually don't even know him that well since my brother (his father) and I are not close... But he's a nice kid, and the first of all the cousins to head out of the nest...

Morning all!

My parents are takng me to lunch, a movie {Julie & Julia}, then to get my haircut! Yay!

My abs and pecs are a little sore from yesterday's workout, but nothing horrible.

ICU,EEEK, on all the bloodwork!

Newleaf and WLW, I put beets on the shopping list and thought I'd give them a try.

Weightloss, I find that what I eat has more to do with weightloss than how much I exercise. I did P90x and only lost a few lbs because I didn't watch my eating. I would personally prefer if I could eat whatever I wanted and just exercise it off but it doesn't seem to work that way, for me anyway.

Thanks for the sympathy on the bloodwork (SEVEN tubes!!!). Funny part of it is that I ordered it myself, and am paying out of pocket. Darn engineers - we can never not look under that very last rock. If everything is great, it will be a good baseline for the future. And if it's not, I'll have a much better idea of what to work on.

7 Tubes??! Wow! Let us know if you uncover anything...

I'm back from my haircut. Its not much different from before but the sides and back are shorter. I look more like Demi from Ghost. I haven't gotten used to it yet but it doesn't look very different in the pictures I got my Dad to take.

Julie and Julia the movie was much better than the book! They paralelled the lives of Julie and Julia as they discover themselves through cooking. I thought Julie was much more likeable in the movie. While Meryl was hysterical as Julia; I thought the movie was a tad confusing on some points of Julia's life but since I have read her biography that helped clear things up. Julia and Paul were adorable in the movie and so obviously in love!

Penguin, I’m impressed you and DH waited until 2am before calling the police. That was darn rude of your neighbors. Sometimes people are astounding. I hope your DH caught some extra Zzzzs last night. And I totally agree about eating whatever I want and exercising it off. If that was an option, I’d be on that track. I love to exercise and I love to eat. Unfortunately the exercising doesn’t fix uncontrolled eating.

Newleaf, oh I hate to admit this, but I love canned beets. I haven’t tried “real” beets since I was a kid because my mom made them taste disgusting. But your way sounds tempting.

Dancer, I’m not auto inclined either, but being married to DH for 26 years, a little knowledge rubbed off. That and printing instructions off the internet.

WLW, one thing I noticed when I started walking/exercising daily about 3 ½ years ago was that I ate more because I was hungrier. Do you log your food? That was a rude awakening for me.

OMW, how do you make your tomato mozz salad? Tomato, mozz, and basil are three of my favorite foods so I need more info. Congrats on being on plan yesterday. I think the first day back I’d eat my way through the classroom but I understand using a big lifestyle change as the change of eating too.

ICU, it’s smart to get that baseline. Too bad that it’s out of pocket. Electricity scares me. I was terrified I’d electrocute myself. I admitted that to DH and he laughed. Actually laughed at me. Meanie…

Work was so busy today I couldn’t even find a break time to visit 3FC. I had to wait until I was home. I lost the .2 so I’m going to change my ticker for the two pounds now. Yeah. 20 to go. I was told today that if I lost 20 more pounds I’d float away with the wind. Ha, I’m thinking not. But it was still a nice compliment. I got lots of those today since I hadn’t seen a group of staff in about a year. A good ego day.
Marie

Patchworkpenguin - so where's the pics? We already know you rock the short hair ... so let's see the new 'do!

Marie - big congrats on the ego-stroke - they do feel good! Only person who EVER comments on my weight loss is my mom, because she's doing WW (very successfully). DH claims to have noticed, but absolutely will not comment unless I ask him point-blank.

Well, I decided yesterday that I have had enough of corporate life. I work for a great company and a growing industry, but I have a huge yearning to be my own boss and see if I can be successful getting people to pay me for doing things I like to do. I'm really good at what I do - I just don't enjoy it all that much. I'm coming to grips with the idea that my time on the planet is approaching the halfway point (I hope), and there are still an awful lot of things I want to learn to do. Thus ... I'm moving into a major planning stage and really thinking about what an ideal life will look like. At least I've got one point defined already - and that's to never let my weight get out of control again!

ICU - wow! branching out on your own? You mentioned being an engineer - what kind of work do you want to do independently?

And you bring up an interesting point with your dh and his not making comments. My bf doesn't say anything about it unless asked directly. But then, he never said a word or acted negatively when I was gaining the weight either. What about the rest of you? How have your husbands/partners reacted to your weight loss progress?

dancer - I love the written word, I dearly love solving puzzles, and I am enthralled by colored gemstones. So I expect to start training to be certified as a gemologist/appraiser as a piece of my ideal world. I already have the equipment (I'm a rabid gemstone hobbyist), and I've found a distance-education program that can be done while I still hold a full time job. Life is too short, and I have been playing by everybody else's rules. I've exceeded every expectation everyone's ever had of me .... it's time to leap off the cliff and be unsafe (in a calculated, minimized risk sort of way!)

LOL, its funny to hear you say this I don't consider myself a 'short hair person' A little less than three years ago my hair was down past my butt, and I had no intention of every getting it cut more than a few inches. But I had been wearing it in a French braid for about 20 years, and was getting sick of it {the braid not the hair} I would put it up in a 'big bun' and wear decorative combs in it for church and special occasions {like my wedding}. The front of my hair is begining to thin so I decided to get one of these long layers cuts to the middle of my back. I liked it but wasn't convinced so let my hair grow out again to my waist. Cut again, this time near my shoulders with long layers. Next cuts were shorter and shorter. I don't like having my hair loose or hanging in my face so the pixie is actually perfect for me. I do miss my hair sometimes, especially when I see someone with their hair very long and loose. I don't miss the French braid or all the brushing.

I'll get Hubby to post pics.