WI: -1 NEW LOW
Pain: 0/1/5
Activity Level: 3

Credits: calorie counting , vitamins , C appointment , , water drinking

I have completed all work in 3 out of 4 classes. All that remains is my biology finals (comprehensive "book" test and lab practical). Both have to be taken in the testing center on campus by Thursday.

I am going to be so on plan today!

Robin: Sad to hear that hidden issues resulted in a confrontation with hubby. I hate those. They really do just want to be helpful. He probably had no idea how bad their menu would be!

Oo! I've an idea for next time he wants to take you out, if you're interested! You could make a list of local restaurants where you know you can find diet-wise selections. Give it to him for future reference. As long as he picks one of the restaurants on that list he'll be safe and the location will still come as a surprise!

Anne: Ouch at dozing off unexpectedly.

I am totallly bookmarking your appendice to ChinaMaine. I don't know if I'll read every book on your list, but I can definitely see the value in doing so. In fact, I'm going to email that list to my aunt. She could benefit from it too!

Bill: for pushing through your exercises! for counting up the days, since you're no longer counting down the pounds!

I've heard the same statistics, and also the statistics on how long it takes to recover from being a smoker. The body is truly amazing. Scientists now estimate that it takes 7-10 years to completely replace most of the cells in your body. (The possible exception being neurons.) Whatever the precise time frame, it is certainly true that we are constantly regenerating ourselves.

So 10 years from now, the body you have will have never been obese!

Good Morning

Tera~ Thanks for the idea! I should do that....just so we know where we can go. At least until things are under control

.....just a quickie this morning.

Did my workout at 7am this morning I feel better for it, but getting up at 6 for this night owl is rough! Thankfully the sun was shining ...I dont know how its going to work in the winter when its cold and dark.

Food yesterday was "ok" did a controlled binge if you want to call it that. 2 donuts, and peanuts. Then I was full all night, came home from an event, and had a toasted cheese sandwich. All off plan.

But Im ok today. Talking to my PT this morning helped quite a bit. Working out in the morning seems to help with eating as well. "I just spent an hour working my butt off, Im not going to screw it up with this" kwim?

Ok, Im off. Busy day ahead of me.

Have a great day everyone, I'll try to get back later tonight.

Hi Coaches

I had a good day today. We finally got to the movies. Our movie day has been postponed for two weeks due to final projects but now that I am free we made it to see Star Trek. I loved it. They got it right. Phew.

I also had my review of all my artwork today at grad review. My big bus strike print will be in the grad show and my big handmade book will be in it too. So I am very happy with that. And my ceramic work and my jester prints may make it into the other city gallery where we show simultaneously and everything's for sale. It's all just happening and it's good.

DH and I are now starting to plan the next phase of our life which includes a move out of town. It is very expensive here and our priority is to cut expenses, pay off credit card debt and save for a place of our own. Our rent is $1200. It's a lot. Way too much. I saw an apartment online in this tiny town on the shore of Lake Superior where I have cousins (pop 900) whose rent is $350 for a two bedroom apartment and $300 for a 1 bedroom. For half of what we are paying we could live in the 2 bedroom and I could rent the 1 bedroom for a study/classroom. The drawback to going there are the bears and the cold long winter. An alternate, where the economy has really hit hard is southern Ontario, in the (yum) fruit belt. I saw some 2 bedrooms for $500/month. DH is keener on a warmer town. We're going to head down to that area this weekend and take a look around. we haven't ever really explored there so I am excited. We'll drive to Toronto and stay overnight at his mom's and head out from there in the morning. These areas of interest are 1-3 hours from Toronto. we should be able to visit a few. I am VERY excited. I am VERY happy to be wrapping up school.

Oh and I decided to take the kids tech job. It turns out to be 8 weeks only: July and August and the $ is just so important right now. I can make $3500 in that time and that's a fortune to me right now and it's the right thing to support DH emotionally too. It won't kill me and it won't stop me from making things. Nothing does.

Gotta go. Have a great night!

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Took Gerbilina, my Sole Elliptical, for a walk. CREDIT moi. I do better cardio using the elliptical than I do walking, so it's a good choice even when the weather is OK.

Wandered out to get dinner last night; chose a place that DW is unlikely to want to join me, where you make cafeteria style choices from a steam table. I chose a pork roast and had to choose two sides so I choose two servings of Hubbard Squash. Then, using a technique posted by others here, I immediately put half in a take-out Styrofoam clam, and enjoyed my half. CREDIT moi. Wasn't stellar dining, wasn't stellar calories, but enough of both to be OK. And the walk there and back was pleasant in the cool evening.

Cool enough last night that the tomato plants spent the night on the kitchen floor again. I am so ready for them to go in the ground where they belong.


onebyone - Congrats on the selection of your bus strike for the grad show!!! What a grand finish for your studies.

Kudos for making the decision to teach this summer. And Kudos for planning the next phase of your life with your DH. Hope you find just the right apartment for you guys - near a good bike trail so you can get that bike going again, with good sunlight for your art, a little bit of warmth, and, LOL, few bears in your bird feeders.


Robin (RobinW) - Kudos for that 7am workout; that's impressive for a known "night owl." Oprah's trainer, Bob Green, insists that workouts in the morning are imperative because they raise the body's metabolism for the rest of the day. hmmmmm ... Even though I'm a morning person, I don't buy his argument, and, in his book, he admits there is no research evidence to support his claim, only his own anecdotal observations.

Ouch for your eating diversion. But I do like your Response Card, ""I just spent an hour working my butt off, Im not going to screw it up with this."


Tera (twilit tera) - Congrats on the new low; seems to be happening a lot lately.

Good luck on your biology finals tomorrow. Seems amazing that you've already completed three courses. What's up for you this summer?

Interesting comment connecting the 7-10 year cell replacement with a body that "will have never been obese!" Meg, over in the Maintenance forum, Happy Anniversary Dear Meg says that a blood test would always identify her as formerly obese. I would prefer to believe your thought, but I suspect that our bodies retain a preferred ability to store large amounts of fat, and that our normal eating during our maintenance years will be different than if we'd never been obese. Oh Well.


Readers -

Good Morning

onebyone~ sounds like you'll be closer to me!! I used to live in st. catharines. Didnt like it there, but loved the area. If I could have afforded it I would have lived in Font Hill or Stoney Creek or Niagara on the Lake. Good luck in your apt search! Congratulations on your summer job too!!

Bill~ Kudos for putting 1/2 your dinner away in a take away box right away! Im thinking about buying one of those topsy turvy planters for tomatoes. We have such limited space ....I'll keep you posted.

...I ordered an anti pasto salad from the deli next door that has awesome subs! Wow, was it good! Filled with lots of goodies! Next time tho, I'll have them double the artichoke hearts and skip the olives. Lighten up on the cheese too. But wow, it was good!.

I am very sore this morning! Remember my issues last christmas over the massage gift cert. that was given to me? Im actually considering using them! I hurt that much! ....maybe

Managed to get hubby to come for a walk with me last night. With quite a bit of help from my pt...she knows his twitter username, and nattered at him to get out walking with me Now if I could just get him to the gym with me

Im op, 85%(ish) I should have boxed half that salad yesterday afternoon. Ate my planned snack cheese that I skipped mid afternoon. I ate it late evening when I wasnt hungry (hmmm) Bit of old habits there. I need to pay more atttention to it. But ....a pretty good day otherwise.

Have a great day everyone!

WI: +1 (certainly water retention due to medication)
Pain: 0/0-3/8
Activity: 3

Credits: counting calories , vitamins , steering surprise lunch treat toward healthier options , with buddy and his daughters

Late in the afternoon something in my hip went pop. This was followed by a lot of pain, and elevated pain levels which continue into today. Fnu. I've got another appointment with C tonight, which I am definitely looking forward to.

Today I must study. a lot.

I'm going to be so on plan today!

Robin: for getting up so early to take care of yourself! Hopefully it'll be habit before the days get shorter. At your lattitude winter is dark a lot. I remember in Portland, OR, the sun rising after I'd gotten to work and setting long before getting off. To be honest, I kind of miss that. Winter hardly seems to happen down here.

onebyone: How exciting to be seeing your work on display professionally! I really loved that book too. Good luck on the new job and the home hunt.

Bill: for ellipticling. (like bicycling, only on an elliptical, right?) Sending warm weather wishes your way for the tomatoes. WTG also on the portion control at the restaurant.

This summer I plan to focus on making progress on my mobility issues. I'm going to create the personal healthcare crisis website that I mentioned before, and do some of the prep work on the online comic (character concept sketches, etc.) Lots of physical therapy and exercise to be sure.

I have 5 classes left to complete my Associates. I plan to knock them all out this fall (one of them is PE). After that, it's committment to launching the comic.

I didn't know there was a blood test for "former obesity". It does figure, since the cells we had when we got fat to begin with are replicating themselves and not some skinny person's cells. But I think that the biological disposition towards obesity is there in some of us, whether we actually get fat or not. My cells might not have been fat, but my genes will always be, in a sense.

Roasted Chick Pea recipe I tried tonight. Awesome!!!!!!!!

Coaches/Buddies My browser somehow got the downtime stuck in its craw, so I thought the server was still down. Missed you guys yesterday.

Eating has been pretty great the last couple days. Work has been NONSTOP and I actually find that helps. I haven't been sleeping well at all and that interferes with exercise. Plus my riding partner was sick today.

Bill Glad to hear you've conquered the vapors, LOL! I'm sure your gym-mates appreciate that as well. Nice to see your 3y8m there.

Tera Good to see your new low, and relatively good pain numbers again. Good luck on your bio final (assuming you haven't already aced it as I type).

RobinW Nice work on the morning workout. That was quite a switch for me when I went from a night to a morning person.

onebyone Sounds like you made a good decision regarding the temp job. Good luck with the relocation. That sounds huge!

to everyone else.

Anne

Diet Coaches/Buddies - A new Milestone: Finally finished the 2 pound jar of whey protein and opened the new 5 pound jar. CREDIT moi. That matters to me because it was going slow since I stopped eating it when I stopped doing weight stuff a few months back with golf elbow. Was entertaining the Sabotaging Thoughts of "not moving forward" with my weights. And all negative thinking threatens my journey.

Particularly good eating for lunch at work: curried zucchini with leftover Hubbard Squash, herbed chicken leg, and Chinese Kale (Gai Lan) - in addition to my standard 1.9 quart of finger salad. That's seriously better stuff than the pastrami sub with potato chips that was one of my favorites before my journey. CREDIT moi.


Robin (RobinW) - Yay for your "anti pasto salad." And Yay for doubling the artichoke hearts (along with doubling the olives too, LOL.).

Hope you use those massage gift certificates; I remember your angst at the time. But sore muscles top angst in anyone's game.

And thanks for the roasted chick pea recipe; I gotta do those.


Anne (wndranne) - Yay for that good feeling of having earned the paycheck, even at the price of "NONSTOP."

Ouch for not sleeping well. Would seem that interfering with exercise would just exacerbate the sleeping issue; good luck in breaking into those two.


Tera (twilit tera) - Ouch on that hip pop; hope your session with the chiropractor helped it.

Sounds like a busy and productive summer. Do you move this summer also?

Here's Meg's statement:Readers -

Good Morning

Bill~ enjoy the roasted chick peas! Kudos for the great lunch....but I have to ask what a finger salad is?

Anne~ Im still struggling with this switch. I was planning on going this morning, until hubby told me he wasnt going to his meeting. I bailed out...and reasoned with myself that he isnt going, so I dont have to go either. Good excuse right?! No So now Im ticked that I didnt go...because I know after Im done with my day today, I will not want to go after supper. Oh well....Meg's quote has been sticking with me all day. "If you want it, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse." Along with guilt. Talk about self sabotage....Im a work in progress

Tera~ I hope that appointment you were looking forward to helps with your hip pain ....I dont miss the dark winters at all. I get a little annoyed when the time comes. But I have issues in the long winter months.

ChinaMaine~ Kudos for feeling like you are remotivated!! Sometimes a getaway will do that. I dont know if Ive mentioned to you before...we have a customer who wrote a cookbook The Super Allergy Cookbook you might find it useful. Its gluten free, nut free, etc.

Today will be a day of sitting hunched over large pieces of vinyl picking little pieces of vinyl off of it Why? Because I didnt make the customer give me at least 2 weeks notice. Oh well.

Thats my day in a nutshell....so the wind and rain arent even going to be noticed my me today.

Have a great day everyone!

WI: -1 (See? Told you it was water retention.)
Pain: 0/2/7
Activity: 2

Credits: calorie counting , vitamins , water , seeing C

Pain increase from the day before continued all through yesterday. C told me that my pain is coming from something different, and that's good, because my body is no longer feeling the same strains and it's settling into a new position. I do feel some relief after the adjustment and PT last night.

C had looked over my FitDay printout and said that I should eat less fast food and no artificial sweeteners, not even Sucralose. I agree that fast food should be kept to a minimum, but I'm not giving up my single diet rite with dinner. It sounded to me like a knee-jerk reaction to artificial sweeteners, and after reading on the tests done on it, I'm not convinced that it's a danger to me.

It's a beautiful day outside. Heavy with clouds, cracking with thunder, wind whooshing through trees. Someone somewhere is going to see a tornado I bet.

My biology tests are done. I got a pretty solid B. So low, in fact, that even including extra credit points, I'm in the B range for the semester. I'm good with this. I reflected on the exams and am certain I could have not done better no matter how I had studied. I would like to hold on to my 4.0 but Oh, well.

I feel that there must be celebration. Yes.

I'm still going to be so on plan today!

Robin: Those beans sound yummy! Sorry for the drag of a day you've got set up. I hope you find something that keeps you singing through the vinyl picking.

Anne: Sorry to hear that you're having trouble sleeping. Lack of rest throws everything off. I'm not surprised to find that a busy work schedule helps you stay on plan. No time to think of being naughty!

Bill: for seeing the signs of fresh progress in your journey! Fantastic lunch choices too!

Yes, we have the new larger apartment to look forward to. Scheduled date is tentatively June 12th, though it may change depending on the condition in which the current tenants leave it. Their exit date is the 6th.

I'll also be writing some Helium articles, having discovered the addictiveness of having my essays rated publicly.

Let's see... leptin is the hormone that makes us feel sated, right? Yikes. That explains a lot. Can't we stimulate leptin production naturally? I'm going to have to go back and read that chapter of YOU: On a Diet.

ChinaMaine: Welcome back! for having such a great attitude toward your condition (being celiac) and making it work for you instead of fighting it!

Coaches/Buddies Four hours sleep last night. Lousy run this morning, but "run" did happen. Eating on plan. All good.

My head is swimming. Gotta try to sleep.

Bill, Tera, Robin, and ChinaMaine. I'll try to do proper personals tomorrow.

Anne

Anne Mon: Ouch for the lack of sleep! Thanks for the list of books – I’m saving off to a Word doc and I’m going to try and work through them. I haven’t had a lot of time for the Kolata book, but I’ve listened to another 1.5 chapters and I know I fundamentally disagree with her screed. No, I don’t want 6 pack abs and a bikini. I want a healthy life, a healthy body and a healthy weight. I believe it is possible, although it’s possible my body (leptin?) and even my genetics may make it more difficult. Like Kirk, I don’t believe in the ‘no-win’ scenario. I’ve saved off your link to the Maintainers discussion of the book – I’m just too tired to delve into it tonight. But thanks! Wed: Interesting that non-stop works helps you, has the opposite effect on me I think. I’m glad today was better for exercise and I hope tonight was better for sleep.

Bill Tues: lol at feeling the vapors. Credit for another month of maintaining! No, the more I read Kolata, the less I’d recommend it… Wed: dinner sounded great! Thursday: Congrats for ‘moving forward’ and for all the progress you’ve made on ‘your journey’.

Tera new low on Tues! Wed: Ouch for the elevated pain levels, and for the pop! Congrats for all the hard work in spite of it, and for studying. You have such a positive, proactive way of approaching the future – bravo! Thurs: I’m glad C was upbeat, but I agree that the reaction to 1 diet soda a day may have been over the top. Moderation in all things, right? I’m glad school is over – so with 1 B, you still have better than a 3.8, right? That’s a fantastic GPA! Re-leptin. I agree with Bill that leptin may be something to look at. But research on leptin is still pretty ‘young’ in experimental terms – less than 20 years I believe. I have to admit the Kolata book I'm reading has me a bit gunshy on the conclusions made based on the leptin research. But it seems very clear that leptin plays a very important role indeed.

Robin Tues: ouch for the cheese sandwich and donuts. Credit for the workout! Wed: Kudos for the walk with you DH! Thurs: Yikes for the vinyl-day! I looked the book up on Amazon, it looks great – thanks!

one by one Tues: they did get Star Trek right – I want to see it again this weekend! (geek alert!) I can’t wait to see what you think of Southern Ontario. I used to camp on the shores of Lake Erie in Ontario. North of Toronto is beautiful, sort of extreme, but southwest of Toronto is very nice too… I agree with Robin Niagara on the Lake is my favorite. My Mom and I plan to visit there over Memorial Day weekend (5/25). I have fond memories of taking my son there every 2 weeks when I was a very poor student.

I drive back to Maine tomorrow evening, so I won’t post before Saturday… Stay well!

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Worked through a two hour meeting at the office with a large bag of roasted peanuts passed around. I had none. CREDIT moi. The good news is that it wasn't torture. I didn't have to fight it. I wasn't particularly tempted. I had had my normal morning snack of soy nuts before the meeting and lunch was going to happen afterward. Just like Beck says it was going to happen. Yay Beck.

Worked late enough that going out for a walk before dinner wasn't appealing even if the weather wasn't threatening. No problem; took Gerbilina for a quick walk in place. CREDIT moi.


Robin (RobinW) - Ouch for picking vinyl; Yay for taking care of your customer.

Thanks for reminding me of Meg's quote, "If you want it, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse." Yep.

A finger salad (a term I pickup up from someone on 3FC) is a salad meant to be eaten by hand without dressing. For example, I keep the Romaine lettuce in full leaves which are such a pleasure to eat by hand.


Anne (wndranne) - Kudos for running after only four hours of sleep. Emailing hot chicken soup to calm your system and help it get some rest.

Tera (twilit tera) - Congrats on your solid B in biology, and Kudos for your acceptance that you won't have a perfect 4.0 grade average.

Love your description of thunder, lightning, and strong winds as "a beautiful day outside." We just don't get the serious thunder storms of Texas.


ChinaMaine - Yay for being re-motivated and for Shrimp Fra Diavolo. Making good use of NJ there. And Kudos for using your hotel's treadmill.

Thanks for reading the Kolata book so that maybe I don't have to. Not sure what I can do with the information about leptin even if it's accurate.


Readers -