Katteh, if you get bored on the treadmill, you might want to try varying speeds, intensities (inclines) to kick the boredom. Welcome!

Whittlin' so glad to meet another tapper! They seem to be few and far between here. Welcome! I'm of the sandwich generation as well, tho' my kids are older and out of the house, and my parents are in their 90's.

Allison, that vegetable pie sounds divine! Did you just improvise it or is it a published recipe?

Fru, enjoy your celebration tonight. Guess you went back to the gym...did that guy pose in front of you again?

Susanb, envy you your part time freedom....oh well, retirements not too far away....

I'm determined to drop weight and/or inches before I leave for Little Rock in 2 weeks to see my grandbaby....can't wait...haven't seen her since Thanksgiving. I'm really finding it hard to get anywhere...in spite of the exercise and the good eating....I'm sticking to between 1200 and 1400 cal, so I should be ok...the weight is refusing to budge.

Ah well, tomorrow is another day.

Hope everyone has a good rest of day....

artmaker~I got the recipe from my old Cooking Light cookbook. You can check their website to see if it is there. If not, let me know and I'll post it for you.

Self aware ... hmmm ... it does sound better than control freak, doesn't it?

A group of gals at work are on the weight loss train ... including me. It should be fun. I'm not sure what we're actually doing together but ... it's fun to talk.

Oh yum, that recipe sounds delicious!

I'm doing really well with my snacking - I've been so good! Today is my 10th wedding anniversary, and DH took me out for lunch - I had Thai chicken curry, so very unhealthy. We also went to the movies - I had a coke and some popcorn (both small serves). I'm making up for it tonight with a massive workout at the gym. I felt a bit guilty about it, but I've been so good with my diet lately that I thought one slip up wouldn't do too much harm.

I hope everyone is having a great day!!

SusanAM - different gym this time! Not many posers at my usual lunch time gym. However there is one guy who is just plain odd. He hangs from the barbell when it's in the rack and has his feet on a stability ball and does pull-ups. He's almost horizontal so I don't really see what he's actually working - but it looks fun! He can do proper pull ups and stuff too, but that stability ball thing just confuses me!

I had my brown belt celebration last night! I was tremendously restrained, but I had a good time all the same! I didn't really mean to be restrained but I felt like it. How odd! I think something might be sinking in! I had a lovely goat's cheese toast thing, 4 choccy truffles which weren't as good as I expected, but were still nice! I skipped the ice cream which I was going to buy because at the end of the day I just didn't want to go that far over my calories!

I've got to spar hard tonight. Gah! Maybe I shouldn't have had that champagne last night - I feel a bit tired Never mind, I will carb-up today. I have lots of lovely multi-grain bread, some protein pancakes and I'll grab some malt loaf on the way to kickboxing.

It's all good!

Happy new month!

Well I've just lost 1/2 a pound effortlessly.. i gave blood! Was my first time and not half as scary as I thought it'd be.

I have a new goal for February.. I want to be at 145lb by Valentines day! That's a 4lb loss in 2 weeks, which is very achievable I think. Then I'd love to be 142lb by March. But whether or not that happens, is another story.

My bf and I are out to dinner at a friends place tomorrow, and I'm bringing the pudding, going to make a banoffee pie. It's going to be hard enough making it without trying any, let alone not having any tomorrow. Wish me luck!!

Whit, I kept thinking of your words yesterday...."if a workout is boring but you lose inches, that's excitement enough"....and they stuck in my head and kept me going...thank you!

Last night went out for Ethiopian food with a friend....ate too much, but had been super careful all day so didn't feel too bad...and my hands still smell this morning from all the spices in spite of washing them....so good! For those of you who haven't ever eating Ethiopian food, you eat with your hands, using a spongy pancake like bread to scoop up the food.

Had a good nights sleep with no interruptions, and even tho' it was only six hours, I feel rested. Got up at 4, went to the gym and did some heavy duty elliptical work....realized while I've been pushing the resistence level up, and gaining muscle, I haven't been pushing the cardio level so that my breathing is taxed enough, so I did a variety of intervals and really got a great workout...then came home and did t-tapp, but by then my legs were wobbly, so I didn't get through the whole tape...will continue this evening.

Fru, if I am reading on what you wrote correctly, I think the stability ball makes him really focus on his core because of the lack of stability...he's got to tighten those core muscles to keep his equilibrium. Does that sound like a possibility? Glad the celebration turned out well.

Pink Pirate, happy anniversary!

SusanB, it's nice when you have company on the weight loss journey, especially real, in addition to the virtual companions like us....isn't that why we're all here...for support?! I think when you surround yourself with others who are on the same wave length, it multiplies your strength.

Allison, will check for the recipe....if I can't find it, would love to have it. It sounds like a good recipe for me to make when I visit my DD, DSIL and DGD.

Have a great day all! Looks like we're in for snow and freezing rain here.

Good Morning, on the first of February!

I think the more that you can make your world (environment etc) healthy, the easier it is to stay that way yourself. Now that I have compatriots at work, the only place I have to go that can be dangerous is church
A pretty sheltered life, I know but I can do that for one little month, right?

While I did a terrible job of maintaining over Christmas and our vacation, I have lost 5 lbs since we got back. I did a lot better with my calories these last several days. I feel pretty optimistic about February.

Yeah SusanAM - I think he is doing core stuff. I might try it one day when he's not there to see if it's any good!

SusanB - I have a good feeling about February too! Although I missed a check in the box on my spreadsheet already, but I know I will have more than enough working out tonight!

I totally agree that February will be better than January! I just know I'll lose a few pounds!

Everyone have a wonderful day!

I can't believe I haven't posted here yet this week ... Gotta go read some posts, be back later...

I wondered where you've been, Ilene!!

Whittlin -- yes! I lurveee my kitty. And I am going to Montreal in only a couple weeks. It's huge motivation for me to see when I'm going because I'm going clothes shopping there and I want a tainted size...if that makes sense.

SusanB -- that's fun that there's people at work to comiserate (spelling?) with! I miss my one friend (the girl I'm visiting in Montreal! ) who I always used to talk about health and weight related things with. And I definitely agree that if your surroundings are healthy it's sooo much easier to be healthy.

Pink_Pirate -- Happy anniversary! I wouldn't worry about splurging on such an amazing ocassion, though that it very dedicated (and admirable) to want to have a big workout at the gym later.

2Frustrated -- that is a very strange exercise...I had to read what you said twice just to picture it in my head; I would definitely be giving him a second glance out of curiosity And I couldn't resist ice cream yesterday...and it was reallllly good. It was gelato, actually, and it was white chocolate and After 8 in a waffle cone...mmmm...

Katteh -- nice work give blood! And good luck.

artmaker -- mmm...Ethiopian is good. My friend used to work at an Ethiopian restaurant and I got to try some stuff. Tasty.

Ilene -- I was wondering where you were too haha.

Happy Februaryyyy! Ahhh!! I'm so excited...it's my birthday on Saturday

I'm around girls, but I barely have time to post by the time I read everyone's post ...

I'm having a tough day today... I don't want to talk about it in case I set someone off on a bad food day like I'm going through... I have decided though that I am going running at 4pm... I was too lazy to go to the gym this morning ...