Lily, wish you'd come over and do my laundry. Yikes - it's out of control! How awesome that you found your rings. Funny story about rings -- I have my plain gold wedding band (28 years) but accidentally flushed my diamond engagement ring down the toilet six months after we were married. With no insurance. DH said it's only one to a customer.

Off to the gym when it opens, then the mountains of laundry and DD's wedding invitations. They're almost done and I plan to mail them this weekend.

Gary, you rock!

I'm going to start a thread about the whole issue of what we eat and people's comments -- I think it's worth its own discussion.

Good morning.

Gary, you're just melting away . Hang in there with the potato chips. They're not worth it. And it will get better. About the other thing, I don't know if it's just one meal, but I don't think it's an every day occurence. Don't shoot me Gary, but don't forget, women simply can not eat the same way that a man does. It'll start to show up a lot quicker on a female then a male.

Lily, I'm so glad that you've found your rings.

Meg, I'm so sorry that your engagment ring - will never be found. That's so exciting about sending out DD's invitations!

Anne, I vaguely remember one of mine having H, F & M as well. Tough week for your DH to be away.

Count me as another one who needs to avoid sugar and fat. Deadly combination for me. I also seem to go so well for weeks on end, nothing much tempts me and then BAM - the craving monster kicks in. They seem so overwhelming. I know logically that I won't die or lose a limb if I don't give into the darn cravings - but damn them. Hang in there baffled. This too shall pass. It's not easy sometimes, is it? *sigh*

As far as us eating strangely, I'm really not sure why any one wouldn't want to eat like us. Especially after watching Dr. Oz the other day on Oprah, he just keeps on confirming to me what I already have learned - the benefits of eating high fiber, high protein, low fat and carbs are ENORMOUS. Simply enormous. I always thought that how I ate BEFORE was strange. Ya know, eating whatever I wanted, when I wanted. The way I eat now makes perfect sense to me (now). I'm just sorry it took me so long to figure it out. I'm waiting for the rest of the world to figure it out as well. I'm thinking it may be a loooongg time til that happens though.

I work from my home. I keep to a scheduele though. I don't start Monday's til 1:00, Tuesday I'm completely off. I am out of the house then for the most part during those hours. I find it much, MUCH easier to stay on plan when I am not home. So today, starts my mid-week at home fest. Monday and Tuesday have been fantastic. I hope to keep that up. I'm sure I will (hopefully), but it's just not as EASY to. There's just too much yummy ON plan food in my house.

Have a great day everyone.

Happy "Hump Day" everyone,

I'm not as sore today as I thought I would be, but I am still sore and tight all over. I figured I would get all my playing in the dirt/being sore in one day, so I picked up a truckload of mushroom compost and unloaded it into my garden bed too (this had been on my "to do" list for yesterday already). It is about time to plant my fall garden, which means all the fresh lettuce I can eat in a few months! Mmm. The beer tasted really, really good after all that (haven't had a beer in about a month!), and some friends came over and we grilled chicken and shrimp. The garlic bread & beer made it my "treat meal" for the week, but I enjoyed every bite. And today...more planting! This morning our boss told us to stop when we're tired of it, since this isn't even our project.

Meg, thanks for starting that thread - I will hop over there after I finish here.

Gary, lol, I am a lover, not a fighter. Though sometimes I am really, really tempted to smack a few people that I know...

baffled, hang in there! When I am having cravings and have idle times, I try to tackle a big project as a distraction until the cravings pass. My desk at work gets very empty, and my house gets very clean. Stay strong!

Anne, sorry to hear about DD's illness. At least she is taking it ok.

Hi everyone else.

Meg, sorry you had flushed your engagement ring. Truthfully, I am enjoying wearing just this plain gold wedding band. My other rings are so big and the center diamond sticks way up high and gets caught on everything. My plan was to just get a diamond anniversary band to wear with this band. We might still do this and I will put my original rings in a safety deposit box and save them for Lacy. Funny thing was DH wanted me to go ahead and get this wedding band the other night cause he doesn't like me running around looking like I'm not married. LOL. If I recall correctly, he never cared if I wore my rings or not when I was obese. LOL. (It's not that he didn't love me, he just didn't feel like there was any competition if you know what I mean).

Robin, a big change I've noticed since starting a healthier lifestyle over 2 yrs. ago is I don't get sick as often. My immune system must be bolstered from all the healthy fruits and veggies. I don't have the sore throat, cough, cold , bronchitis stuff near as often now. There really must be truth to the old saying that a diet of junk food will make you physically sick. I think I've only been on antibiotics twice in the past year. Where I used to have to take a new course of antibiotics almost every single month.

Robin, I used to think the "eat whenever and whatever you want way" was normal. I'm the opposite of you, I do best at staying completely OP when I eat all of my meals at home. It doesn't torture me much that I have lots of healthy options right in my kitchen. (except for maybe my peanut butter that screams for me to eat it).

Megan, it sounds like you got a lot of hard work done. Good for you for enjoying your treat meal and your beer.

Lily - I've found this to be pretty true for me as well. I've always been prone to catching colds (and when I was a kid, it was the whole rondo of more serious illnesses, such as otitis and the likes). But now that I eat in an at least somewhat healthier way, I don't get sick that often either. Three times this summer I've felt a cold coming; three times I woke up the next day all fresh and dandy, as if nothing had happened, when before I would have been sure to be down for two weeks of sniffling and coughing. This is precisely one of the things I wanted to achieve with healthy eating: not being sick as often, because I can't work nor study well when my sinuses are stuffed. I'm pretty happy about that 'side-effect'.

Meg - That thread is a good idea. I'm going to have a look at it now!

ROBIN ~ I forgot to finish my thought (happens a lot to me!) on my post to you.

I meant to say that I ate a ton of food, but being young and in good shape, I burned off a tremendous amount of calories a day in my construction job. And that I did not eat breakfast, drank coffee and smoked all day, very little if any lunch...usually none...then I would eat about 3 meals for dinner! Not a good way to do it!

Meg...certainly at this point he could get you an anniversary ring though. After 28 years most guys are desperate for ideas of what to get anyway!

Lily, Kery - me too. In the past year, since I've been eating so healthy, I've had one itty, bitty cold that lasted for like 1/2 day, nothing with nothing - it never materialized. Absolutely NOTHING else. It's incredible.

Lily, when I'm out doing errands or shopping, I wouldn't dream of eating any of that stuff that's out there. I bring a little baggie full of premeasured 1/4 cupof Fiber One cereal and 5 raisins. If I'm out for very long, I bring along a 60 calorie fat free/sugar free yogurt that I had frozen. It keeps for hours right there in my handbag. But when I'm home, I can easily go to the kitchen to nibble at some baby carrots, grape tomatoes, fruit and what not. I ALLOW myself to eat that stuff that's in my home, so therefore I find it more difficult.

Morning, all! (Barely morning, for the east-coasters!)

Glad to see the board is so active, what with inner b*tches that are really outer (raises hand), found rings, lost weight, etc.

Yesterday afternoon was so gorgeous that we decided to walk to town in the early evening (a bit over a mile, not a big deal) and go to a local sports bar where TB can play pool. I hadn't been there in more than a year, and I'd forgotten what a nightmare places like that can be for someone who's trying to eat clean: out of a two-page menu, there wasn't a single OP thing, not even a garden salad. So I had a liquid dinner instead: a beer and some of TB's milk.

Of course, after I walked home I was starving, and proceeded to plow through nearly all of a (small) bag of baby carrots and container of hummus. Not the end of the world, I know, and certainly better than a burger and fries, but even carrots and hummus can put you over the top in calories. So, this morning it's back to being OP in calories. And no beer!

Hope your days are turning out to be as beautiful and bright as ours here in the middle of nowhere, NY.

Kim

Morning everyone,
Add me to the list as someone who does't get as sick as often now that I'm eating better and working out. Somedays I might feel a cold coming on, and I'll work out and then it just goes away. I used to get coughs and bronchitis all the time before.
I plan to check out that thread about people commenting on how you eat. Thanks Meg for starting it for us.
Gary, thanks for the wink. Congrats on getting into the 170s. You must feel amazing.
Robin: I work at home and some days it is so tough to stay OP. I do better if I don't have any foods in the house that might trigger me to overeat. That can get pretty hard though because sometimes nearly any food can do that, even something like Wheat Thins or cereal. Certainly peanut butter. I just threw the jar out because no one in my house really eats it and it was causing a problem for me. My biggest problem is going out for lunch. Afterwards I come home and want to snarf everything in sight. I do better if I stay home and eat my own food.
Good luck fighting those cravings, Baff. I'm right there with you.
Have a good day, everyone!
Pam

I don't get sick often at all either. Had one cold last winter, none the year before. When we were on our camping trip over Labor Day, I had a scratchy throat the morning we left, but it was gone the next day. I love it.

Lily, we must have been in sync last night - I was doing laundry all evening. Now I'm ready to pack my suitcase. Right now everything is sitting - all folded - on the bedroom floor waiting for the packing elves.

It's about equal between home and not home for me to stay OP. The best place actually is work, provided no one has decided to bake for us. I keep those little 1 serving unsweetened applesauce cups in my desk, as well as a couple of Luna bars. If I'm really hungry or craving sweets these will suffice. They are not interesting enough when I just have a craving though. Oh, and I have a bar of Lindt 94% dark chocolate too. I'd forgotten it, and saw it yesterday. Probably haven't had any for at least 3 weeks before then.

Gee, this might be a good argument to use on DH--a reason to lose weight: you won't get sick! He's been sick at least 4 times this year--the kind of sick where he stayed home in bed for a couple of days. Me? Maybe a little tummy trouble here and there (nothing new), a small sore throat (didn't keep me down) but nothing serious.

I get sick much less too. I was heavier until I was 22, and graduated from college. In high school and college I would get a horrible cold/cough every winter and the cough would literally hang on for 1-2 months, because in addition to eating less healthily and not exercising as much (did eat slightly better and exercise more towards the end of college), I would also study so much and be involved in enough extracurriculars (school-related, not social activities) that I would usually only get 4-6 hours of sleep a night. Now I sleep enough, eat well, and exercise a lot more, and my body is so happy for the change!

Hi Ladies...I'm doing really well still with my maintenance. I am so sorry that I'm not on that much. I am super busy right now. I do get plenty of time to work out. I have started mixing things up a little. I still do 4-5 days a week of cardio and 3 days a week of strength training, but I am not doing the same things over and over again. I alternate constantly. My eating has been really great. I get people telling me all the time..."stop losing weight. Are you STILL losing weight?" It's really annoying, but I smile and move on.. I am not trying to lose weight anymore, but my body still wants what it wants. I eat between 1400 and 1800 calories on average. I burn about 300 - 600 calories a day via working out. I am down to 119 and I'm 5' 1/4 " (which I round off to 5' 1" ) I hardly think I'm too thin. I do have a lot of muscle and people just don't get that. Oh well. I just wanted to pop in and let everyone know, I'm still in the game.

Lilly - I'm so sorry to hear about your DH's Cousin. That is awful. Wow your son is really in for quite an adventure huh? He is and will continue to be in my prayers. I am proud to have him defending our country! Thank him for me, please.

Meg - You are so much fun. I really miss reading your posts. Always entertaining, informative and fun! Sometimes you make me feel like I'm drinking that coffee right along with you!

Everyone else, keep up the good work. Don't beat yourselves up over little mistakes. Tomorrow is a new day! Don't ever be afraid to start over. Just remember giving up is far worse than starting over.

Take care everyone!

A friend asked if she could squeeze my shoulder. Her sister is painfully thin and she wanted to make sure I was OK. She's a honey, I wasn't offended. Apparently, I'm not bony thin