Very glad to hear it, Ward!

Oh very glad to hear Ward! Have had several of those repeat sessions myself. I go tomorrow for my annual squashing!

Ward, yeah on the all clear!!!! Relief to say the least.

Pat, part of your day tomorrow sounds pressing.
Marie

I hate to join the chat late in the week because I feel like I'm coming into a party late-- everyone's already talked and I don't want to bring up something that has already been talked about.

But.... Marie-- sounds like a good idea to add the thigh lift so you only have to recover once. Your dh sounds like a real keeper!

Ward--glad you got good news! I only started getting mammograms two years ago and I've already had two biopsies, plus a ton of mammograms and ultrasounds. After my weight loss, I am VERY tiny (in the "girl" department) and they have said that is part of the problem--- it is hard for them to grab enough. If they biopsy much more though I'll have nothing left!

Hi to everyone else!!

As for me....
dd went back to college on Sunday after coming home to heal her broken heart for the weekend. She seemed "ok" but not great. We'll see..... Dh is out of the country again so younger dd and I are alone. She is finally going to the gym with me. We went Monday night and the regular instructor for "boot camp" was gone so the class was quite different than what I'm used to. Mostly hand weights and squats, push ups, etc. Very hard and I am so sore I can hardly walk. Dd started a weights class for PE the next day so she is even more sore than I am. We are going to try to go to spin tonight. I hope we can do it!

Other than that, I am busy and tired.

Shannon--- will your coworker get fired or just told to keep off the internet? Many sites are blocked at my school (including facebook) but not 3FC's. Once in awhile I'll get on for a few minutes but I have too much work to do to stay on long. At home is another story!!

Still no word from Lily? Does anyone have an email for her?

Michele~time heals all wounds. Tell that to your daughter in a week or so. I'm sure by then she'll be more open to that sentiment.

I'm watching the Australian Open. The knee brace that Li Na is wearing. Amazing and interesting. I wonder who makes it and so on. Did anyone else see this amazing contraption?

Yay Ward

Shelia "a few squishing later" - OUCH!!!

Have fun in LA Allison

Marie - "pressing"

And I hope your squishing is not too painful today Pat

I've just seen something I thought I'd never see again.

My scale said 139.8 lbs. this morning. That's basically 140 lbs.

I rarely cry and that was my response, which is so unlike me.

I can't seem to cope with life any more and I'm eating and eating and gaining and gaining.

I don't fit into any of my "skinny clothes" right now. And I don't seem to really care . All the things I use to motivate myself are not working.

And I still have 3 more months of winter to get through.

Dagmar

Dagmar, big ! It's such a hard time of year, all dark and cold and we're cooped up inside. Does exercise seem to help? For me, it's an anti-depressant AND I can't eat while I'm working out. Can you treat yourself with something other than food? A new book, a manicure or pedicure, pair of earrings or something that makes you feel good other than food? Which may feel good for a moment, but ends up making us feel bad in the end.

Hang in there! Spring is coming.

It's a cold, snowy morning here and we're heading back into some really cold weather. The cats are all plastered up against heat vents. I'm off to the gym in a bit and then -- woohoo -- housecleaning! I'm also going to make some big batches of healthy meatloaf and chicken-black bean chili for the freezer.

Dagmar hang in there!

I'm currently reading a book on mindfullness, depression & happiness: the basic idea seems to be that we have evolved to worry a lot about short term unpleasantnesses and deploy behaviour to evade these short term issues, unfortunately at the expense of the longer term.
The idea is to tackle this by being more in the moment (hence the mindfullness angle), face up to whatever it is that is bugging one at present, and thus get out of the worry-short term avoidance-long term problems cycle. I'm probabely expressing this rather muddedly, but I'm mulling this over lately: it is a pattern that I recognise often in myself, now that I'm paying attention to it.

Long story, but it all boils down to:
Try to take it one day at a time, and this winter will also pass.


Rabbit

Rabbit, what a fascinating book! Can you share the title?

Ward, glad to hear everything was okay! I am dreading the day I have to get mammograms, it sounds so unpleasant and since I'm pretty, uh, well-endowed, I'm afraid I wouldn't fit in the machine!

Dagmar - Have you thought about seeing a therapist? Or if winter is the problem, getting a light box? I'm starting to think about taking my dog's approach to eating. He always eats more in the winter, then eats less in the summer. The vet said it's fine for him to add that extra fat in the winter as long as he takes it off again in summer. If it's okay for him, it should be okay for people too, right?

I was so sleepy this morning. Still in that weird state where I feel like I might be getting a cold, but I never actually get sick. I'm starting to think that all the healthy living has boosted my immune system to the point where when I catch a cold, all I get is this vague "am I coming down with something?" feeling and sleep a little extra. I'd almost rather actually get sick -- at least then I could stay home from work! I think this weekend I will sleep in a lot. I was planning to go to bed early last night but DH wanted to watch the state of the union address. We ran out of steam at 10:00 and figured we'd probably heard all the really important stuff.

Good morning...

So last night DSS and I made mini pizzas for dinner. He had a great time, enjoyed helping make daddy's, was excited to make his, said everything smelled good, then wouldn't eat it. Daddy said "I wouldn't have eaten it as a little kid either, it tasted too earthy for a kid" so didn't make any effort to make him eat it. I give up. The only thing I've given him that he likes recently has been a pb&j. That and the cheese sandwich he always ate, that I introduced him to several months ago. Next time I'll just buy a $5 cheese pizza from Little Ceasar's. He wouldn't eat the lasagna I made on our last weekend, or the fries I made last Wednesday either. Sorry for the fussing, I'm just frustrated. I feel like we've exposed him to different foods his whole life and he just rejects everything. I also feel specifically rejected right this minute because of making things from scratch he wouldn't eat three times now. We gave in to the fast food too much when he was younger, for our own convenience and because we knew mom did the same thing so why bother trying at the time... Now, he doesn't eat much of anything at all, even at school. Yesterday he had a roll and some juice for lunch at school, some milk for breakfast. He was worn out when I picked him up and I know it was because he didn't eat.

Jessica - I have felt kind of run down with that 'coming down with something' feeling all week myself. I wondered the same thing about my immune system, actually. I wish I wold get sick enough to just stay home.

Rabbit -that book does sound fascinating.

Dagmar - light box might help.

Michele - no, he probably won't get fired, but he will get sanctioned I'm sure. Glad you and DD had fun at bootcamp!

Ward - glad your results came back clear!

Allison - I've read references to the knee brace, but haven't seen it.

Pat - hope your visit goes well today!

Hello to everyone else!

Morning all,

I'm in a happy mood b/c the scale dropped to 153 and I'm fitting into some pants I tried on a few months ago and they didn't fit then. They're still size 8's but are smaller than the other 8's I've been wearing. We've already had many discussions on the annoyances of women's pants sizing.

Jessica, I'm a big fan of hitting the sheets when I think I feel something coming on. I do have sick days I could take from work, but... most of the time I just don't have time to be sick! I'd rather be doing other things. My immune system is definitely much healthier than when I was younger. I'd get sick and it would just linger for weeks and weeks... b/c I was studying til all hours of the night, not getting enough sleep, and my diet wasn't awful but it's certainly much better now.

Dagmar, I was going to suggest a "happy" lamp but Jessica beat me to it. Do you take a multivitamin? Do you have an idea if your stressors are physically based, or is it a particular thing or things in your life that are stressing you? Hang in there.

Rabbit, that book does sound interesting. Title & author, please!

Michele, ooh, I love "the good sore" from the gym. (Is that weird?) Lately I've been reading blogs where people go to classes at their gyms and experiencing gym class envy. My gym's few classes cost extra, and are only offered at 8:30 weekday mornings. Boo. Enjoy your classes w/ your DD! I'm sure it hurts to see your child in pain. Hope she heals quickly. She will heal!

ETA: Shannon, we posted at the same time. Sorry to hear about the frustrations w DSS. It's even harder to try and tackle a problem when there is inconsistency, even DH isn't helping so much, let alone his ex. Have you sat down w your DH and explained that you need his support in trying to get DSS to eat what you prepare? At least peanut butter is healthy... does he eat it on wheat bread? Not too bad...

Happy Thursday all!

Well done, Shannon, for making the food and I'm glad it was fun. Did DSS nibble as you made it? Perhaps he just realised later about his 'rule' not to eat much. for him too. Can't be much fun. I'd say carry on and he'll join in before too long. And he won't starve. And you won't go really certifiably crazy. Not really really.

Morning. So nice to get up and not have to rush around getting ready for work. I'm sitting in the living room with my laptop balanced on the arm of a chair and a cat asleep in my lap. I do have to distturb her but I do need to shower son. The mammogram people insist that you have no perfume, powder or even deoderant! Yikes. Luckily I'm going from there to the gym, and another shower. No wonder my skin is dry.

Jessica I'm a DD myself, and the tech tells me mammograms are actually easier for larger breasted women.

Dagmar I hate winter myself, and I don't have to out in the cold and dark the way you do. I agree that you might want to try a light,and you might want to get your Vit D level checked. My doc says soo many people who live in the north have very low levels.

Ah, the cat left, that makes things easier....

My grievance issues is still going on. THe HR people has now interviewed all of my full-time staff - getting two of them in from vacation (well, one the day she got home). I just have no idea where this is going. Meanwhile, the employee is at work, being just super nice. Makes me so angry.

I had dinner with two GFs last night and then a couple of hours with my quilting group (about 8 of us). It's a great stress reliever for me a couple times a month. Some of us are planning a summer trip to another part of the state, so that was fun to discuss.

Michele, don't worry about being here late. Some days it's hard for me to keep up as well.

Oops better get into the shower and eat something besides Have a great day.