Just a quick post, Lily. My mum is a keen gardener and has often lost (and usually found) her rings in the garden. Once or twice she's asked someone with a metal detector to have a look and it's worked. Worth a go?

Happy Thursday everyone,

Ennay, congrats on achieving such great goals! I agree with your idea - if I must have a treat, I will buy 1 serving so there is no more.

Kim, thanks - I found the article that I originally read from Time magazine (and it suddenly came back to me that I'd read it at my parent's on vacation in June). Forgive me for mistyping, what I was thinking of when I suggested "taking laxatives" must have been where the article said one contestant "consumed only sugar-free Jell-O for several days and wolfed down asparagus, which is a natural diuretic". Mea culpa, I will try to check my sources better next time. The article did suggest some had kept their weight off, or most of it, but only talked about a few of the contestants.

Gary, sounds like a great BBQ! I know that in the summer it is just so hot that I feel more tired, and often just don't want to work out. Maybe it's the heat? You're only 53 years young!

Lily, glad to hear things are going better. I hope you find your rings. This may sound silly, but maybe you could bring your scale to the doc's office to compare them side-by-side. How can a dr's scale be 6 pounds off and they don't want to fix it??? The dr's scale is supposed to be right!

A beautiful, rainy day here. The hurricane is coming through!

Lily, I'm wishing you the best on your health. I'm encouraged by the progress with your DH and hope that continues.

I let the rain and a reasonably bad case of PMS get me off the exercise train this morning, but I'll try for something tonight. My schedule calls for 30 minutes on the bike, so maybe I'll set up the trainer. I drank my coffee from a mug this morning instead of my travel mug, took some time and watched a bird shelter in the rain, and watched The Biggest Loser reunion show, which somehow got on my DVR (I think DH was going for Law & Order). I was actually pretty happy with how much the contestants had kept off, considering the completely artificial and unrealistic weight loss environment of TBL, but did notice that there were a lot more Season 3 folks (less time) than Season 1. Hmmm... I'm thinking I may watch this new season. I set it up to record on the DVR, and can always delete it if I run out of room for Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer before I watch it.

Anne

We're scheduled for our club's annual overnight cruise to Brigetine Cove just north of Atlantic City this weekend. It's a four to five hour sail south from our club. Since DH can't do anything on the boat and I'm not strong enough to lift the anchor, we're taking another couple with us.

Right now the weather forecast is good for Saturday, but Thunderstorms and 'stormy seas' for Sunday which will be too rough on DH's collarbone. Our back up plan is to have a raft up in our own bay on Saturday and stay out until late Saturday night then come back to the dock and sleep up at MIL's house. I really prefer to do plan B because I'm concerned that DH could easily reinjure himself just moving around on the boat and that sleeping on it will be difficult. He's having enough trouble just sleeping in a regular bed.

Yesterday's food was bad. All I ate was an apple, a banana, and 3/4's of a jar of Extra Chunky Skippy Peanut Butter.

silverbirch, the metal detector is a good idea, maybe run it over our yard, garden and the campsite I stayed at when I first noticed they were missing.

Megan, Yes, you'd think the Dr. scale's would be accurate. But, even the Dr. said they aren't. He even weighed himself and was higher than he expected. My calves and feet are still swollen today and my scale says 145 lbs. My jeans fit fine. I'm drinking lots of water and gonna see what happens. I'm also leaving out most carbs for now to see if this helps. (Nothing quite like having a lunch of turkey bacon and scrambled eggs with no bread, LOL).

I gotta run and pick girls' up from school. Hope everyone has a great day.

Yes, things feel a little better around here.

I just got a call that all of Lacy's gastro. testing is scheduled for Oct. 26th.

Morning.

We need it to rain sooo badly. It was so muggy yesterday! A cool bright weekend would be wonderful!

Howdy

I have to agree that some doctor's scales CAN still be wrong, though from my experiences, the scales at places like Publix are worse. The reason Publix scales are off as frequently as they are is because kids play on them and they are not often calibrated back to zero.

I have a cheap dial scale that I test compulsively with my hand weights, as it must be extremely accurate for me at all times and it's imperative that I know my true weight. I guess I'm just a little obsessive, but I'm so happy I've actually lost weight at all and I don't want it to come back. EVER.

Weather wise, it's getting much nicer here. I mean, it's still hot as **** since it's Florida, but it was HOTTER than **** a few weeks ago. I can't wait for October (yay! the fair! haha... I still love the fair...) and November because it's actually quite nice here then.

Carolyn - that wasn't that bad. You could have said... "all I ate was a bucket of KFC. I figured it was ok since it has 0g trans fat" or, "all I ate was a tub of Ben & Jerry's. I deserved it."

Hi everyone, we had a nice evening at Karaoke last night. I sang 3 songs and didn't get too nervous. We ate dinner out and I stuck to grilled chicken, cabbage and a salad, so stayed on my plan. DH drove through Sonic and let Lacy and Shelbey both get fried chicken strip dinners and butterfinger blasts, but I refused to eat that. (truthfully neither one of them need to eat junk like that either, but I tried to hold my tongue about him buying it for them).

SusanB, it's raining here and we're forecasted rain for the next 5 days. Our temps are now mid-80's and I'm loving it.

I'll be spending my day paying bills , banking and doing grocery shopping.

Hi everyone! I haven't posted in a while because I started school last week. So far I'm really enjoying my classes. My major is Business Management but I'm taking 2 Phys Ed electives, Tai Chi and Beginners' Weight Training. It's really great. On my own I usually use dumb bells to strength train but in the class we mostly use the weight machines. Each class we do about 10 machines and do "one set to failure" (usually about 8-12 reps on each machine). I've really been feeling the burn and am sooo sore but it's the good sore!

Food has been good - I pack my food each day because the cafeteria food is not only ridiculously expensive but high in fat & calories. Having all my food accessible can be a bad thing for me though because as soon as the stress kicks in I reach for it even if I'm not the slightest bit hungry.

Shane, hi! Congratulations on your weight loss - you should be soo proud of yourself.

Lily, did you eat or drink anything btwn the time you weighed on your scale & the time you got to the doctors? Glad to hear things are getting a little better there.
Have you considered therapy for your children or family therapy? As a child my parents separated for a period of time because my father was an alcoholic. (not the abusive kind, just very heavy drinking & spending) My mother not only got therapy for herself and my father but for my brother and I as well. The therapist basically reinforced the fact that it wasn't my fault. I was very young - around 8ish. I was so shy and remember not really talking to the woman but your children are older so they might really benefit from it.

Carolyn, I'm so sorry to hear about your husband. I hope he gets well soon! I hope you have a good weekend, whether it's in the boat or the raft. Sorry about your difficulty finding a lawyer. I'll keep my fingers crossed. PS. Throw out the rest of that PB!

Anne, don't you want that to be YOU??!

Gary, welcome! Congratulations on going from 201 to 188 in 40 days! I bet you feel amazing. Keep it up!! Sounds like you had a very active Labor Day. Oh and get those miles in! -- how many are you aiming for each day?

Megan, it's hard for me to get my veggies in. Those dips sound delicious I'll have to give them a try. Have fun at the wedding! Being DD sounds like a really good idea - that way you can enjoy your food without wasting so many calories on wine.

Lisa congratulations on the newest addition to your family! Adeline Clare is a beautiful name. 7 children - all I can say is WOW!!

Hikerchick, congratulations on your pull ups! I can't do one at all but since I started taking a weight training class at school, I've been using the Gravitron (the assisted pull up machine). It definitely assists me but I would love to get to a point where no assistance is needed!

A big Hello to Robin, Ennay, Meg, kaw, Susan, Jessica, Allison and everyone else! Have a great weekend

Hi everyone! Just a quick check-in since I have to run to a meeting.

Ennay, congrats on meeting your health goals!!

Megan - I buy treats in single servings too. No more half gallons of ice cream in the house, if I want ice cream we have to go to the ice cream shop.

Lily - glad to hear things with your DH are improving.

A month from today I will be a married woman! Things are finally clearing up and settling down with the wedding, and it looks like everything will be fine. We're going at lunchtime today to pick out chairs and tablecloths.

Today's weigh-in was 133.4! That's the lowest I've seen on my new scale so far. I'm aiming for 130 on the new scale, but with the wedding coming up and all the stress I'm probably more likely to eat more than to eat less. Plus all these appointments take up my gym time. I can't wait for our honeymoon, I'm hoping we do some active stuff like snorkelling, kayaking, and hiking.

Sweet Amor, yes, I ate between weighing at home and weighing on Dr. scales. I weighed at home at 5AM before we left and at Dr.s' at 2:30PM. After my US and lab work, I had a large diet coke, a large cup of coffee, and a grilled chicken salad and a small amt. of bread. At home I weighed naked and at Dr. office I had on clothes and shoes. Not sure this could account for a 7 lb. difference. Just in case, I did schedule my next appt. for 8AM so I won't have eaten before I see him. I did weigh this morning at home and scale says 145 lbs., no matter how I stand on it or where I place it on the bathroom floor. (when I go get my med's today, I'm gonna step on the big scale at the pharmacy and see what it says).

Jessica, it sounds like everything is coming along great for your upcoming wedding. Congrat's.

Sweet Amor, I am definitely considering family counseling for the kid's as well. Lacy has some major resentment towards DH for his perpetual screwing up.

Good morning everyone! I had a super busy day yesterday and today will be a short day as I have to pick DD up at noon for our drive to Fullerton for a tour of UC Fullerton (her current #1 choice for college). DS has his Karate ceremony tonight and I hope to be back in time for that (but there is no guarantee I will make it). He's moving up a rank to red/black belt--next stop will be black belt, but it will take at least 12-24 months before he reaches that rank.

Morning everyone!

I'm down another 1.2lb today, to 138.0. I'm not quite sure what to do about this. I've lost about 5lb since the beginning of August, and I haven't even intended to lose any weight at all. It's a bit confusing. I'm sort of informally cycling my calories--I wind up a bit under maintenance during the week and then I think I go over on the weekends or if we go out mid-week. I keep expecting it to balance out. Perhaps I just need to get rid of the idea that I should be 142-143 and just let my body settle where it likes, given healthy eating and lots of exercise...I just don't want to lose so much weight that I start gaining it like crazy and find myself weighing 200lb. Does that make sense? How have rest of you STOPPED losing without giving up exercise and a commitment to getting most calories the healthy way???

Anyway, have a lovely weekend, everyone.

Good luck with your campus visit Allison; I hope your daughter loves it.

HI GALS ~

I had the day off work today, my brother and I finished a house yesterday and decided to wait until Monday to start another job.

I took my mutts Reba and Rylee and a 3.75 mile walk this morning after dropping knucklehead nephew and his buddies off at high school....don't know why they get mad at me for honking at all the pretty girls as we drive through the parking lot .... They said they will walk from now on

I am within a pound of my first goal, as of this morning! 15 down! Amazing what you can do in 47 days when you ~

#1 Exchange chips for fruit

#2 Exchange watching Judy for treadmill walking

#3 Exchange DODGER watching for walking with your wife and dogs after dinner

#4 Exchange the "BLOATED feeling" from eating EVERYTHING on the dinner table for a "full feeling" and SHOVE away from the table...knowing that a "light" snack will be OK if needed to survive til breakfast

#5 Exchange uhh...eating nothing for oatmeal for breakfast

#6 Exchange CRAP for a turkey sandwich, fruit, veggies and soup for break and lunch at work


Enough of me....

BAFFLED ~I am assuming that this is healthy losing and you are feeling OK? Maybe your body is just adjusting and settling in...I know a lot of us would love that problem

ALLISON ~Have a nice FRIDAY drive to Fullerton...my prayers are with you At least it has cooled down a bit. Too bad I am not up that way today, I could give you a tour of the gym, tennis courts and track...that's all I know about the school from my many trips there...other than their awesome baseball team...no music info! Have a good trip.

LILY ~I am glad things are a bit better. Good for you for going with DH, it sounds like he wants to be well and with all his good qualities you listed...well...he should make it! My prayers are with you.

PAPERCLIPPY ~Great job on the weight and WOW only one month until you are married! Awesome, just went through that with my son and daughter since Novemember. Congrats!

SWEET AMOR ~ Boy can I relate to the cafeteria food stories from my dauhghter's horror stories in college! She is and always has been a healthy eater...it was so hard to eat in the caf...other than fruit and veggies everyday. She had a lot of outside options but "having" to purchase a meal ticket until she was a senior was really a waste of $$$. My step-daughter is in New York going to college. Great PE classes. I am aiming for a 5k ~ 3.1 miles at least everyday of the week but one, for rest, if needed.

SHANE ~ The weather here in so. Cal is getting a lot nicer too...although it hasn't been...other than last week...a bad summer at all.

SUSAN ~ I am sending

CAROLYN ~Maybe next time 1/2 a jar

ANNE ~ Susan wants some of that

MEGAN ~ I hope you have a great time at the wedding on Saturday

HI MEG ~ MEL ~ RABBIT ~ SILVERBIRCH ~ JAY ~ ENNAY ~ KAW ~ AND EVERYBODY I MISSED!!

Have a great week-end MAINTAINING! ~ Gary

Baffled, if you are comfortable with what you are eating (don't feel hungry all the time, etc) and are eating well, and you don't feel like you look bad at a lower weight, I would just keep doing what you're doing. Eventually your weight will balance out. I lost four pounds past my goal since I didn't change anything, then stopped losing and eventually gained some of it back. There has to be a point at which calories in = calories out and you stop losing. As you get lighter the amount of calories you need to take in goes down, so eventually it should reach that magic equivalence point.

OTOH if you feel you are getting too skinny, there are easy ways to add a few more healthy calories into your diet. Add a few more drops of a "good" oil (olive or canola) while you cook, eat a Tbsp of PB, one more piece of fruit as a snack, etc.

I do the same sort of informal calorie cycling as you. I tend to eat fewer calories during the week, then significantly more on the weekend. Right now I'm a little above where I want to be so I welcome any loss. Usually my weight is up on Monday and at its lowest on Friday or Saturday because my weekend eating leads to water retention since it's when I go to restaurants and have salty food.