Morning everyone. I'm back at work and still a bit bored. It's definitely my slowtime. But you all would love the picture I make at the moment. I'm typing on my workstation computer while sitting in front fo my laptop with another laptop in my lap. I'm thinking I look pretty silly.

So TOM is upcoming and I had my traditional sign yesterday - the desire to make (and eat) chocolate chip cookies. I haven't had that sign for months but there it was. My family was SO happy about having cookies. I ate one and logged it into my program. They are 156 calories each. But only one and I chewed gum while making them so the dough wouldn't end up in my mouth. In other words, I was successful!!! I was impressed. I did my DH pack them up and put them out of my sight late in the afternoon because they were tempting.

This morning I walked a mile and jogged 2. No ab lounger or weights since my arms were sore from yesterday's workout. Tonight is the last fo the doggie training classes. I'm glad because I like that Kody is better behaved in most ways but his attitude is not as good. I liked him better as the happy go lucky donkey. I promised him this morning that today was the last day I'd ever make him go to school.

Judy, I did the salon on Friday and actually had a couple inches of hair cut off. Eeks, I noticed it more this am when I styled it (I didn't do anything with it this weekend). But it feels healthy and nice. I don't know if I could handle an entire day at the salon although I'm glad you relaxed through it. Sorry about the scale - I do think they're evil.

Penny, I love Applebee's WW menu. I always get the Steak Teriyaki Shishkabobs (spelling on all is probably wrong). It makes going out to eat so easy. Not always my favorite restaurant but definitely the only one I want to go to since they made it easy for dieters.

Carol, YEAH!!!! for bear. Good luck with getting back on track. I know you can do it. Be strong and positive about it.

Goldie seems to be doing better with the meds. I told the vet I'll keep an eye on her this week and call later this week. It's still hard to know that she doesn't have a lot of time left. But I did come to the conclusion I won't restrict her activities for her "own" good. She loves walking and running and if she passes while doing that, then she'll have passed in her happy time. At first I thought it would be best to be really careful with her, but then she'd be unhappy when I took the other doggies and not her. I've definitely gained clarity about the situation over the weekend.

Marie

Marie, I'm so glad to hear that Goldie is feeling better. I saw a golden retriever and her human out for a walk yesterday, and thought of the two of you. High fives for showing those cookies who's the boss!

Carol, you are cooking some of my favorite th ings--cabbages and lentils. I would make a great vegetarian, 'cuz I like things like lentils and edamame...I jsut like roast beef and pulled pork sandwiches, too . I know that you will stay on target this week.

Penny, I hate floor exercises, thanks to my arthritis and generally feeling ungraceful. But the more I get down on the floor for yoga and other exercises, the nimbler I am at getting up! Who knew?

Linda, I hope that your week started off well.

I am doing better with the evening cravings and managed to get up closer to my usual time this morning, so I was able to do 60 minutes of cardio. The scale is already heading back down to my posted weight, so I won't change my ticker yet. I am feeling incredibly jammed up at work, though. Much as I hate to do it, I am going to take some home tonight. And not munch after dinner!

judy

Marie good old Tom he just always makes the scale mad. Good luck with the evil scale. I think your right with Goldie and if you need to in the future to adjust the amt. of time she walks or jogs then you can. But yah can't cut her short on things that make her happy quality of life means a lot. I am trying my best to be strong and have purchased a little journal with lines and area for dates etc. I think it will work out well. I switched to a larger purse in order to carry it not heavy but a 5x7. I like the design of it so its a bit larger than my norm. I asked a friend whom has gone off to ww what she thinks was the biggy in losing her 11lbs? She said cutting back on junk and ensuring she has a fresh veggies with her meals, and portion control. So I am looking into the portion controls cause I pretty much do the other but slip and slide sometimes. Thats where my journal comes in. Today I had irish oatmeal for breakfast taste like nuts, and then I am taking a gala apple to work and measured out 1 tbl. of peanut butter to dip it in. For lunch 2 meatballs from last night and a little mozz. on top and small salad. I plan on making some cabbage soup for this week. I am trying rode my bike a bit before dinner last night but I like the treadmill better. Hey that was great on the cookie front. I made some to send to my DS and ate a couple I have to admit the other day. Not today I got the want out of my system I am hoping that the scale knows that on fri. Judy glad tot hear your at the ticker wt. I am still up but want that number back soon. Thanks for the encouraging words everyone I still need a kick in the butt.
Penny I have to get some fresh garlic I love it. If you can get the kind which is a bit purple in color oh wow its great. I like that sauted in a little olive oil and some salt, pepper , parm cheese and pasta and a fresh veggie oh so good. Can yah tell I love to cook? Well anyways garlic fights off so many things and is really great for your health so eat away! Yes Bear is doing so much better but boy is he like having a baby in the house a toddler always into something. Keep up your good eating I am sure it will be a good thing on scale day.
Linday hope your having a good day too! Wow you sure knock my socks off with the exercise good for you! Just becareful with your back! The scale should honor you with all your hard efforts.

Hope everyone is doing well! I had been dreading today's pile-up of deadlines and meetings, but I've gotten through it, so far so good. Now on to Curves, and working late at home on my side job for Saturday.

Carol, your plan sounds good--especially the extra veggies! It helps a lot to enjoy cooking, doesn't it? I enjoy eating out, and will have an ocassional frozen dinner, but the idea of paying Jenny Craig or someone to provide all my meals is horrifying to me.

judy

Marie - I'll have to try the shish kabobs (sp?) next time we go to Applebee's. It's not my fave restaurant either - I don't know what it is about that place - the food isn't bad but somehow the ambience isn't all that good considering the prices aren't that cheap. I'm glad they've updated their menu though and hope other places follow their example. Funny you should say that about making chocolate chip cookies and TOM. Years ago a friend of mine told me that if you want to go into labor when you're pregnant, bake some chocolate chip cookies (actually Tollhouse cookies). I had forgotten about her words of wisdom when I was pregnant with our son and was baking some of these cookies (only the second time I'd ever done so) when my water broke and I had to call the same girlfriend to take me to the hospital (of course DH was out of town). I've never made them since!

Judy - Good for you for getting your cravings under control and finding time to exercise. I'm glad the scale is heading in the right direction for you. I'm definitely going to start looking for a beginning yoga class.

Carol - Good idea to keep a food journal. Journaling can be very helpful. I keep a food log online, but I also write down my feelings when I'm going through a rough patch and it's causing me to eat out of control. When I look back at these entries from a couple of years ago I can see how worried and anxious I was and how desperate I was to lose weight. Now that I've lost quite a bit, it brings it home to me how far I've come and I don't want to go back to those times of desperation and feeling like a failure. I'll look for that purple garlic. I'm putting it into nearly all my veggies lately and they taste great. I have the Irish oatmeal about every second day for breakfast. I like the different texture. I'm glad Bear is behaving himself a bit better. Maybe all that running around after him will help you lose a pound or two!

Linda - I hope everything is going well for you.

I've been doing half an hour on the treadmill every day for the past week, so I'm glad my ankle is holding out. I'm looking forward to walking outside when the weather warms up a bit. Our snowdrops are in bloom! Spring is definitely around the corner.

Okay Penny, you're only 250 miles away and to the north!!! and you're starting to see signs of spring??? That's just not far. I thought of digging through a little ice/snow pile to see if the lilacs were getting set, but then I remembered it was January. I love spring so much!!! BTW, DH and I are probably going to travel to Portland in a month or two to go to the Columbia outlet - I need new ski clothes since all mine were from 40 pounds ago. I thought end of season would make even better deals. Maybe we could meet???

Judy, good job on getting the scale back in control. And I'm glad you survived the workday. I've got to say I'd hate your hours. Way too much work. I was a workaholic at one point in my life and now I can't think for the life of my why. I like this job so much better and the hours are great and the pay is getting better. But the old job was a good payer straight up. This one will be better by July 2008. But regardless, money is the only thing I can think of why I did it. Now, money isn't as important. Hmm, interesting since I still love toys AND we're not deep in debt either. Before I had more and so I spent more. No I have less and adjusted my spending. I think it's like food. If I exercise a ton, I eat more since I have more calories to spend and vice verse. I think I have a spending problem on both fronts. Can you tell it's getting late??? I'm starting to ramble...

Carol, wow on the garlic sauteed yummies. I think I'd like visiting you. I love garlic. I love Italian cooking the best in the world. I've always sworn I was really born Italian. My step-grandmother was 100% Italian so I always figured that was it.

Goldie continues to improve. Tonight was babysitting and the such. Tomorrow DH flies to MN. I'm going to meet him at the airport to see him off. Hopefully he has a nice time. I'm glad I'm not going. This week is Semester 1 grading so I can't miss work and so I couldn't go to the wedding. Oh, bummer.

I did 2 miles walking, 1 mile jogging and the ab and arms workouts.

Time for bed, I'll hopefully chat more tomorrow. I really wish I could surf at work...
Marie

Judy paying someone for the service of making your meals at home that are regular meals is nuts. Some girls at work have gone through this service where you go to this store, put together the recipe at different stations for serveral meals then take it all home freeze it and pull them out when needed. I said you take a couple of hrs. at home your seal a meal which would pay for itself and do your own if thats what yah want. I never agreed with Jenny as eventually the need to cook for myself would be there its puting my interest a little too much into someone elses hands and pocket. So grab that crock pot out on a wintery day cook something up and freeze away. I do enjoy going out to eat though. Usually I am not so good at choosing healthy. Penny youu sure would think Bear would burn some calories I am always jumping up and out. Hah hah! Anyways good info. on the entries. I think its a good tool to look back and see what we were doing when we lost or how we felt good info. for sure. We are in for some snow here. It has already started yuk! Work has been so busy and stressful lately I was hoping for a bit of a slow down when now a coworker told us all she got a new job and is leaving by the 14th. I hope they hire quick but that is wishful thinking its always a process and takes awhile. Oh well good for her to be moving on and she seemed really happy. Well I justed finished up my oatmeal with some walnuts and dried cranberries. Last night I made a cabbage stew kind of like stuffed cabbage but all cut up in a pan. It was okay but not super great next time I would make it a little different. It had lots of veggies and lean ground beef pretty healthy and some brown rice. I think I will take some for lunch but spice it up. No exercise yesterday I need to get going on that dang it. Oh well just something I need to get going on in order to really make a difference. Due to our crazy warm spell a bit ago we had our spring signs coming I hope it hasn't caused damage. Girls wouldn't that be cool if you could get together. Hey you must have some Italian in yah. My SIL has both parents Italian and the name to go with it. My daughter isn't but looks like she could be his family especially the older aunts just eat her up when they see her. She has some polish in her so my grandkids are both nice combo I say. I love his cooking and he does it well.
Linda I hope we didn't lose or misplace you somewhere I enjoyed your company. Well I guess I better get my lunch ready and head off to work. Gotta take mom to the doctors on thurs. so I am planning a sick day. After all it doesn't make me feel so good worrying about her or the health issues. Well thats why yah don't waste those days for times I need to use them. T

Marie - I'd love to get together when you're in town. Let me know when you get closer to the date. I'm glad Goldie is continuing to improve. The antibiotics must have helped.

Carol - I'm with you on prepared meals. I did Nutrisystem for 7 months years ago and lost 45 lbs. but the food tasted gross and it was expensive. I felt yucky the whole time I was on it and didn't learn any good eating habits. They may have changed the way they do it these days, but in my opinion you'd just as well eat Lean Cuisines or other packaged foods if you wanted to go that route. I can usually throw together a nice meal in the time it takes to defrost one of those meals! They're ok for people who need something quick to heat up at work though.

They decided to do the Curves circuit the opposite direction today and I wasn't too happy about it. I'm kind of programmed to do it a certain way and kept bashing my legs on the machines doing it the other way around. I realized how stubborn I am because it ticked me off more than it should have! I'm a real creature of habit and so hopefully some of my new (good) habits will stick.

I should be in bed by now, as I have an early train up to NYC in the morning, but I wanted to stop in and say hey...I will try to check in every day. I get back home late Saturday night. I didn't do too badly this week, worked out mornings but never made it to Curves at all, working too late . This is just a phase...I hope...eating is okay but I have to pay better attention to portion sizes, I noticed that my dinner plates are getting hefty.

I've packed a snack bag and a set of workout gear...wish me luck!

judy

Hi everyone!!! Well we're over halfway through the week. This week is sem1 grading and so I have to be there. But Friday is teacher prep day (to do their grades, upload them and such) so it's definitely one of my days I can not have off. Having said that, I'm hoping to leave early and go skiing. By mid afternoon, all should be done so DS2 and I are thinking of going skiing. My fingers are crossed. I told him we'll have everything ready and if I call him and say it won't work not to be mad.

DH left for MN today. I went to the airport before his flight for about 45 minutes. Nice thing about tiny airports is that you don't have to go through security until the last minute. He actually insinuated that he's sick of being on swing shift since we don't see each other often. He actually said hopefully they pick and hire his counter part while he's gone. So my fingers are crossed on that one too.

Penny, very cool about meeting. We will do that. I did talk to DH about it at the airport and he thinks late March too. But he might get impatient for his treasures in Portland (I'd say what they are but their car restoring stuff and I don't have a clue what) and he might want to go earlier.

Carol, I totally agree on making my own food. And I LOVE my seal a meal. I bought the mini a couple months ago and am amazed at how fresh the chicken breast stay. We did the chili in it too. Wonderful machine!!!!

Judy, I hope your trip goes smoothly and the snow Carol is getting doesn't make it to NYC. That wouldn't be fun. Use that workout gear and the hotel's gym if they have one. Variety, you know.

I overslept and still did 3 miles jogging. I decided to do 2 but while doing it I didn't want to quit. Totally flew through getting ready for work. But I did enjoy the 25 minutes extra sleep - probably because I went to be 30 minutes late. That regular sleep theory for bi-polars is right on for me.

Talk to you all later.
Marie

Girls I had a day yesterday with mom at the hospital for testing then the doc's crazy day. Testing all turned out well no problems arised from it all. Thank goodness for that. At any rate I thought I did pretty well this week and was looking for a loss and I stayed the same which didn't make me feel very good. I read an article last night that said you should do the scale daily. I am going to try it for a week. I really tracked quit closely and I was normally around 1500 and one day a bit over 1600. But thats not awful??? Nothing to lose! If I still am having trouble losing and know I have been trying harder I will go see the doc. for a retest of my thyroid never know it could be out of order again. I am going to stop in at the new large beautiful YMCA and get an application. I think I am giving up my current membership. I would rather go with swimming and nice new machines etc. I am going to ask for a trial period if they have it. To see how I like it. Its only about 15 min. from my home and easy to get to on the way to work and home. Discouraged is me today. Not usually but I just feel the scale was a brat. Sorry to sound like a brat myself today. I will pick myself up and go to work its so could in the - today. Judy stay warm NY isn't so warm today or this weekend its our coldest this year in Central New York. Burr! Well I will take my gear with me to the YMCA maybe they will let me try it today??? Never know. Well I plan on being on task this weekend tonight will be no pizza but chicken breast dipped in hot sauce I create so I can becareful of cals. Then a nice salad on the side with a few crunchy croutons. I am not going to let myself get down I have a goal to meet and I am going to do it darn it. I am just going to keep track and increase my exercise and that is an area of lack on my part. So wish me some luck girls going up a bit over the last month was not in my plans. Have a great day!

G,day Guys, just thought I would get reaqainted I last posted here about March last year, so I,m not sure if any of you will remember me, but I recall a few of you, Hi, Carol, Judy and Marie. Last year I hailed as JULS, DOWNUNDER. I look forward to catching up with you all. BYE FOR NOW..BLESSED BE ..JULIE

Well howdy Juls, it's been a long time. So how are you doing??? We were just wondering a few posts where everyone goes? Glad to have you back!

Actually, I looked at a few that left us - Freda and Nikki. Nikki hasn't posted since her last one her at the end of August (or there abouts). Freda is posting on other threads.

Carol, the scal is evil. Just because it didn't change doesn't mean that you didn't lose some fat. The scale is not all knowing. It doesn't know if you have water retention (maybe from stress doing the dr. thing with your mom- which sounds like had good news) or that maybe a little higher sodium and such. Do not be down. BUT, I do know how that evil box can set the day off badly. And the month isn't over so maybe it'll nudge down a bit.

I didn't weight today as this TOM is probably the worst I've had in a couple years. Cramping even on day 3 (unheard of for me). Either way, TOM weighins are stupid... so I didn't bother.

My phone hasn't rung at all which is strange on grading day. So I filled out a 2 hour vacation time form and am going skiing with DS2 this evening. We'll have a good time. Tomorrow I'm babysitting DGS while DS1 and almost DIL go snowboarding. My friend is babysitting her DGSs to we're going to have a play date. Sounds great and DGS will love playing with other kids.

Yesterday was too busy to post and I'm doing this at work but this will be all the internet surfing for me here today. I biked 6 miles and then I took both DSs and DGS out to dinner (almost DIL was at school). We had a really nice time but it was my evening surfing time.

Food all week has been at 1500-1600 cals. I'm very pleased with that.
DH is in Minnesota (I assume since I haven't talked to him since he left).

TTY tomorrow.
Marie

Hi Everyone -

Long time no see. I am sorry I disapeared. I had a ton of stuff going on and side tracked a bit. However, I am happy to say since my ast post I only gained 5 lbs which I plan to take off plus more. I amlooking forward to talking to everyone again.

You are all doing so well
Nikki

Hi Julie - nice to meet you. I'm glad you've returned to our group. We all need as much support and encouragement as we can get. I lived in Aussie for 7 years and actually met my DH (who is Swiss) there in 1968. My how time flies! I'm looking forward to reading your posts and getting acquainted.

Nikki - Yay! I'm glad you're back with us too! We missed you and I was wondering how you were doing. I also gained 5 lbs., so we can have a race to lose it again. I've lost 1.5 lbs. from the 5 lbs. I gained but it seems to be sticking around longer than I had hoped. Once the weather gets better, I'm hoping to get outside more and do some yard work - that burns some extra calories. I'm looking forward to catching up with your news.

Marie - Sorry to hear TOM is being such a sob. I bet your DGS will have fun on his play date with the other kids tomorrow. You're doing well keeping your calories under control. I've been having a hard time keeping under 1700 lately. I don't know if it's stress or whatever, but I keep finding myself looking for snacks in the afternoon. I haven't been sleeping well, so that's probably what it is.

Carol - I'm glad your mom's tests came out ok. Switching your exercise around sounds like a good idea. I wish we had a Y nearer to us, but the closest one is about half an hour away. I'm wishing you good luck to get the scale to budge downwards!

Judy - I hope your trip is going well.

I weighed in the same today (188). I was a bit disappointed as I thought I'd lose maybe half a pound. At least I'm not gaining any more. I need to get my afternoon snacking under control. Maybe I'll put a mirror on the cupboard and fridge so I have to look myself in the eye when I'm eating something I'm not supposed to. I keep undermining myself by saying ''a few little nuts aren't so bad", "half a banana doesn't count for much", "one square of chocolate is only 55 calories". The trouble is, one of these would be ok, it's just that I end up eating all of them! Or, I'll say to myself "I just won't eat much for dinner" but, of course, I end up eating more than I had planned. Just going through a frustrating patch right now - sorry, I had to vent! At least I got out in the yard today and did some pruning and clean up - it was sunny and a balmy 54 deg. What a difference a week makes - last week we were knee deep in snow!

Have a great weekend everyone.