Say on. You make lovely good sense and I (I'll bet all of us) appreciate your taking the time to be so thoughtful. And you're right. Those of us who stick it out are a tight community and, I think, a generally nice bunch of people. Willing to share.

And [B][B]Marion, I'm so glad things seem to be getting better, except the ankle. The way I look at it, your ankle is sort of your livelihood.

So yesterday, when you all said such nice things, after I stopped blushing I was too embarrassed to say how rotten I was feeling about still being up 2 pounds. Thank heaven, only .6 today and I've got a whole new perspective -- helped by the fact that I made it the whole way though the 8-week challenge AND didn't do too badly. So there, I say to myself. GET A GRIP!!!!

This is a group of nice people. Linden I have to 'fess up -When I first came back I was so humiliated that I had gained some of my weight back I didn't want to admit it. That was a very hard thing for me to do. When I saw your name on this thread, I was relieved because I remembered you and your non-judgmental attitude. Thanks for always being supportive of everyone here. The beauty of how this works, shines through the people that contribute with ideas and suggestions. The encouragement is what keeps me coming back, being successful in my own right, and encouraging others. This site is a blessing to me because I know I am with people that understand. This particular thread is fabulous and I hope to be able to contribute as time goes on. Thanks everyone for being here. And I love it - "Get A Grip" - I will do that today!

But first, Rosemary, I clearly remember l when you started, just about a month after me, and how remarkably well you did. I really looked up to you and admired your persistence and your wonderful losses. Funny, isn't it -- how others see us, and we see ourselves. But you're doing well this time, too. And now we know so much more.

After the week long fiasco of no protein isolate and the horrible gain, I finally got my ducks and proteins in a row and started boot camp Monday. Boy, I don't know how long the effect lasts but I've lost 2.8 pounds. Doing the real boot camp -- 4 powdered whey servings of protein, and the same vegetables, water, and oil. Talk about easy.

Which brings me to my dilemma. When I joined the new challenge last night I put in my Wednesday weight because that's when I started so that's when I've weighted.

But the challenge says to enter your 31 October weight and I would really like to change my weigh in to Monday to be able to end when the challenge ends. The problem is that there will be a discrepancy between the end weight of the last challenge and the beginning weight for this one. That's OK, right?

Oh well, and I also screwed up last night and entered yesterday's walk totals twice, and there's no way to correct it. So I'll adjust today.

I don't know why I'm in such a confessional mood? But I'm sure it will pass.

Well I couldn't remember what I was on Monday so I made something up.

Well not really, but I could remember what I weighed that morning so I put that weight in. Now I can't remember what day that was. So everything Linden is saying makes sense to me.
Oh I just remembered I am not a restarter but all you people seem so sensible to me, I lurk around here often.
But I'm not a good lurker because I can't keep my mouth shut.
Anyway best of luck to all of us in the challenge for the toughest time of the year.

Pat

What fun this is - I really enjoy talking with you terrific ladies. I think that we get our strength through each other. It is easy to "confess" our fears and mistakes when we know there is support on the other end. I am so glad that tomorrow is Friday - I need a couple of days off. I want to sleep until 8am on Saturday and that is really sleeping in for me. Have a great night and thanks for being out there.

Hey Rosemary, I hope you get to sleep in tomorrow, THEN you get an extra hour on Sunday. What riches.

Patns, you make me laugh -- in the nicest possible way. And I have my eye on you, too. But you've already blown me out of the water.

Marion, I hope your dentist appointment is, was?, good. You and IowaHM are due to catch a break.

And IowaHMom, I went to an absolutely wonderful museum yesterday. Everything was very well curated (in German and English), the paintings, sculpture, and artifacts were in excellent condition, even the very old tapestries. Subtle but effective lighting, and everything in a seamless chronological order. I though of your son. Anyone how loves history, not just history-as-war, would love the exhibition I think. Well cheers, all. Keep warm.

Oh Linden - How I envy you. I would love to go to Europe to see the old history and the museums that house so much of it. When I retire in a year and a half, I am taking a trip to Europe to see everything that I have always wanted to see. I am a romantic about old and beautiful things and I like to imagine who has touched it or what part it played in the lives of people centuries ago. I love to use my imagination and believe that the tangible things in museums were part of everyday life for the people that owned them. Well - enough of that tangent -

Pat - How was your job today? I know you are probably counting the days until you can sleep in every day. I made a soup out of Amish chicken stock, breast of chicken, celery, mushrooms, and green beans. It is delicious. And for my husband I sprinkled a little instant rice in it and he loved it. So for once we ate almost the same thing.

I hope everyone is healthy and smiling - this is not so hard - it is a way of life. Marion - the illnesses, injuries, and the teeth pulling are hopefully over. Talk to everyone tomorrow. I am sleeping in.

I agree, this is a nice group we have on this thread. We all have a common goal to help each other out along this path. We when slip up, we help each other back up.

I hope you get to sleep in tomorrow. I always plan on doing that but I always manage to wake up even earlier than I do during the week. Dang. I even stay up late on weekend nights and still manage to wake up early.

Linden, that sounds like a place my son and I would really enjoy. We are gathering info making our plans for next June. Thinking Germany will be our primary spot and then branch out. Since we are forking out the money to travel over the pond, we figure we may as well see all we can see for the time we are there. I will be getting ideas from you if that is all right with you. Summer of 2010 my daughter and I flew to Athens, Greece, went to an island, Rome, Venice, Nice France, Paris, and ended up in London. A 19 day on our own tour. Mostly via trains, subways, with only one flight in there. The public transportation is awesome. My son is a huge history buff and Germany is his main focus. Any info and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Germany sounds wonderful! I hope I am at goal by then so I can sample some of their great beers

iowa, what a wonderful trip you had with your daughter and another great one coming up with your son. And a lot of the enjoyment is in the anticipation and planning beforehand and the remembering after.

Linden, glad I made you laugh, I laughed at your explanation of figuring out the weighin.
Rosemary I am looking forward to retirement mainly because I will finally get some time to myself.
But I do enjoy working with the students. What I am not looking forwad to is the amount of driving I have to do between schools when the winter gets brutal. We had a really hard winter last year and I hope we are not going to repeat that. When it gets down to extremely cold temps it takes so much longer to get around, traffic gets so backed up. So I really am looking forward to not have to venture out in the depth of winter next year.
Well I should look around on the board for some receipe ideas, I'm getting into a rut with food.

Pat

How our minds work really is a mystery to me.....Today while at the grocery store, I was checking out all the off program items that I could of put in my cart. One minute I'm thinking to myself, just put it in the cart and you can bend the rules a little bit. Ten minutes later, I'm in the check out line without any of those items. I talked myself out of buying them. I had even circled back around to have a second look at a few of them. Good thing they didn't have any samples out or I know I would of caved. Happy to report......I made it.

My experiences are similar - I usually try to convince myself that nuts are ok. I am always having a battle in my head about buying nuts. I love the hand to mouth activity. I bought chick peas and tried the recipe that was going on a month or so ago and I liked them. I cooked them until they were hard and crunchy and used chili seasoning on them. I thought I would try them with pumpkin pie spice and Truvia. They count as a vegetable and crunch like almonds.

I slept until 7:40 and the phone rang. I guess that is the way it is. Today I have already cleaned my house and my son bathed the two chihuahuas. I have a 3 pound, 14 year old Shih-tzu, and she has to be tranquilized to groom her. I am doing her next - I clip her and bath her and clip her nails. She is a chore.

I hope everyone has a great day. I think I will bake me some chic peas today. IP living, YEA!!!

[Tried to post earlier today but after almost finishing a long post I lost the whole thing. Same thing happened yesterday. So I’m typing this in Word and hope it will copy . Moreover the back space won’t work since the cat sat on the keyboard. Oh, and the IP stopped serving from mid-morning to late afternoon and the German dictionary on this computer thinks every English word is misspelled.. Sheeze.]

Rosemary, about that hand to mouth satisfaction. I remember reading, about a year ago, someone saying how satisfying it was to eat with her fingers. Made the food seem more real, more tangible and filling. I think there’s something to that. I was reminded of it last week when I grilled shrimp and broccoli a la Steven (delicious) and ended up eating it with my fingers. Of course I can get away with that when I eat by myself.

And I chickened out last week and traipesed the pup halfway across Berlin to the only groomer I could find who speaks some English. When she asked me to leave and come back in an hour I almost leapt for the door. The pup makes a truly uncannily human baby sound when he's distressed. She looked a little frazzled when I got back.

IHM, the name of the museum is the German Historical Museum and they have a LeMO – Living Museum Online site, http://www.dhm.de/lemo/home.html. Somewhere on there is a click for English. I also like the Metropolitan Museum’s historical time line: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ It’s a bit larger, I think, but it’s been up longer. [I’m not posting this as a PM in case anyone else might be interested. And just for fun (and for Rosemary) here’s a site for German castles. Germany does castles very well.] http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20111006-38043.html

Your trip sounds wonderful. Isn’t it great when you can travel with your adult kids?

There was more, but I'll spare you.

Linden, what luck! My son was home today for a visit and we visited the sites you posted. His response was, "we got to go there!" Now he's making a list of places we have to tour.....what fun to see him light up planning this trip. Memories are priceless. June can't get here soon enough for both of us.

I just took a tour of Germany's 13 top castles and they were fabulous. Thanks Linden - I enjoyed that. Iowa mom - I hope you have a wonderful trip with your son. Memories are what life is about and it sounds like you are going to be making beautiful ones.

End of boot camp week and down 3.4; 11.4 to go. Definitely worth it. Now back on Phase I for a week, just a hair below where I stalled out for almost 3 months the last time.