Reading about the storm and wishing everyone on the east coast well.

I made zucchini "pasta" last night. Really tasty and surprising how much the zucchini resembled spaghetti. I think the little tool I bought made it that much easier. It's a three in one peeler, one of the settings peels julienne strips--just the same size as spaghetti. My dog was happy as well because as soon as I got to the seed part of the zucchini, he got to eat that!

I forgot to weigh myself this morning. It was a little confusing as we added a new member to our family yesterday. We brought home an 18 week old kitten from the shelter. His name is Louie and he's an orange kitty with beautiful gold eyes.

allison - congrats on the new family member!

saef - very glad to know that you are safe and have at least the anchor of an office to go to. I am so sorry that your apartment and loved things did not make it. Many, many restoration personnel from the Midwest are there or enroute - perhaps there is still a chance that certain items could be saved?

krampus - good to see you again! The new friend sounds interesting - although, as you said, potentially detrimental to your scale numbers. I tried to redeem one of those types once (my single attempt at martyrdom).

carolyn, good to see you survived the storm.

Not much to report so far - still waiting to hear the outcome of the interviewing. The last candidate was done at 10am. It's slightly awkward since the hiring manager is a friend of mine, who actively recruited me to apply for the job. I don't want to pester her, but if she leaves me hanging much longer, I may be flipped inside-out! And yes, I confess, there has been stress-eating going on. I'll try a different direction tonight and see if a brisk walk-kinda-run will set my head back on straight.

Hey folks, I'm back from vacation with a couple pounds extra. I have no regrets though -- I thoroughly enjoyed the cherry pie, cherry strudel, cherry ice cream soda, cherry ice cream, PB&J with cherry jam, cherry stuffed french toast, pecan pancakes, apple cider donuts, fudge, beef wellington, tons of fish, and a delicious braised lamb shank. And a lot more. We definitely ate a lot, and it was good. If any of you guys every go to Door County I highly recommend the fish boil at the White Gull Inn. Who knew boiled fish and potatoes could be so tasty?

But I did get a lot of exercise too. I took the custom orthotics out of my shoes which I think was a good move (will have to discuss with podiatrist later, but for now my feet feel a little better). I decided that I was on vacation and wanted to do fun stuff and I would just ignore my feet/wrists/etc hurting and do what I wanted, and it worked out pretty well. I did some powerwalking with Carter, attempted to swim in Lake Michigan but it was too cold and I was afraid of the currents so I waded and splashed with Carter instead, hiked a few trails, rented a bike and biked around Washington Island, climbed a million stairs to a lookout tower, and went kayaking. Then yesterday, at home, I biked 18 miles, mowed the lawn, and walked the dog. Back at work today and my wrists are already bugging me from the computer. Oh well.

In any case, I am at 141 today. So, definitely in the operation 5-10 range. I'm going to try going gluten-free to see if it helps my tendon problems and I'm hoping that I will lose some weight just by that alone. Otherwise I'm thinking of checking out some other diet options. I'm sick of counting calories for everything I put in my mouth. I'm thinking of checking with my sister who is on the new WW plan where you don't have to count fruits and veggies to see how their plan works.

Becky, good luck for the new job!

Carolyn, welcome back, nice to see you again!

Saef,

Hi everyone else!

139.6 this morning. Most of the vacation weight must have been retained water. Went for a power walk this morning with the dog since it was too dark out to ride my bike since I lack safety gear. On the one hand, it's probably not good for my feet to power walk a lot. On the other hand, my feet feel better when I'm doing active things all day as opposed to sitting in a chair all day. One full day back at work and I already am feeling the pain & exhaustion that comes from sitting at a computer for 8 hours straight. Remind me why I do this type of work again?

In any case tonight I am planning to ride to the bike shop to pick up headlights, tail lights, and a reflective vest so I can go ride at 6am. Because some idiots thought that Indy should be on the same time as NYC, the sun doesn't come up until after 7 right now. We really ought to be on Central time, not Eastern. (Other people say, but it is light so late at night! Yeah, but I want to cook dinner and sleep at night, and go outside in the morning!)

Back to pre-vacation weight this morning myself. I still need to lose a few more before I'll be comfortable in my swim suits.

I have a swimsuit vacation coming up in about 6 weeks and I need to be just a little more ready, too.

Sounds like a good vacation, Jessica. I noticed it was dark enough this morning that I really could have used a light myself. And the cycle continues, time marches forward, etc.

WTG dropping your vacation weight, Allison.
Where you going, Shannon?

I've come to the conclusion that I have some depression stuff going on. The only thing I've wanted to do for the past three weeks is sleep, and this is not normal. Not quite sure how I am going to address it but it helps that I am aware. That's the problem with me and depression. Sometimes I'm not aware.

As for health, ran today, packed breakfast and lunch. Rinse, repeat.

Midwife -- I think running and packing breakfast and lunch is a good start to treating depression. My DH suffers from depression as well and in general a whole lot of exercise is pretty effective at keeping him out of major ruts. I do notice than when he doesn't exercise for a few days or weeks, he will become much more depressed.

Unrelated: I thought it was funny this morning when I was taking Carter out for his walk that I have all this night time safety gear for him and none for myself. He's got a reflective vest, reflective collar, and LED light collar!

Midwife - I'm going to Florida, just outside of Destin. I have a family history of depression, and have struggled with it myself, too. I find that exercise is a big help for me like it is for Mr. Jessica. Awareness of the condition is an important part of the process.

Speech to text software, Jessica? Have just had a quick word with the SO who's in this field and he thinks something might be possible with Dragon Naturally Speaking for someone programming on a Windows platform (I think that's you). If you want to explore it further with him, I'll introduce you.

Thanks Silver, I have experimented with Dragon before and may do it again in the future. At the moment though it's more the sitting in a chair all day than the typing that is bugging me! I am getting the cyst in my left wrist removed in about a month and I think that will make the biggest difference to my wrist issues. They seem to be generally calming down at this point in any case so maybe this whole flare-up is on its way out.

Down a pound+ today, and I expect I'll be down another tomorrow or the next day. Yay!

I want to sleep all the time lately too, but it's because I'm tired!

Jay

What did I do--kill the thread by posting a loss???

Jay

Naw, Jay. Just too much going on to post much. After an up day (and being 100% OP for two days) I have lost one pound. Still above where I was a few weeks ago, but hoping to get at least three off before the 10th.

You didn't kill the thread, Jay. High five on the continued loss, Medifast-esque meals seem to be working for you. Yay!

I have been feeling TOM ick all week this week, so have been bloated and grumpy all week long. Hoping that is almost done.