Good morning!

And a very special welcome to our newest Maintainers, John and Marti - though they're old pros at this maintenance business!

This week I'm getting ready for our family reunion cruise AND nailing down the final details on DD's wedding date and place. It's all very exciting but I'm forcing myself to stick to my AM gym routine. The funny thing is, that's my thinking time and it helps me sort out all the thousands of things whirling around in my head.

I'm still nervous about handling the mega food on the cruise. I know there will be good choices to be made, I'm just not all that confident that I'll make them, if you know what I mean. Sometimes all my good sense just flies out the window when I'm faced with a buffet. I may have to enlist the food police to help me out.

So -- what's going on in your world? How are you feeling, Mama Anne? And Joy, how long for you?

Meg,

I'll bet those buffets are going to be loaded with all kinds of enticing, scrumptious and, best of all, clean foods, all with your name on them. Wonderful fruits and veggies, maybe good things like shrimp and tuna. I'll cross my fingers and hope for a carvery. And maybe there will be baskets of multigrain rolls or something. Maybe good cheese. I tend of think of cruise buffets as being comparable to big hotel-conference buffets, and those sorts of things are always on them. So, pick up a salad plate (smaller than a dinner plate) and load it with all the good things you like. You're going to do wonderfully.

Someone last week suggested sticking with your plan for breakfast and lunch and maybe having a treat at dinner. I think that's a good plan. I don't know if you ever have a glass of wine, but I find that a great technique is to have just a half glass -- that's about 4 ounces. I don't feel deprived and I can manage the calorie count just fine.

Most important of all? Exercise of course. I'm assuming that your ship, like so many these days, has great fitness facilities. If you can stick with your routine, you'll feel like you're in control.

I'm finally over the jet lag and backlog from our trip. Had a little trouble getting back into my routine last week, but this morning I was on the treadmill for 45 minutes, and I've packed a wonderful lunch with the makings for a salad of tuna, salmon, white beans, greens and grape tomatoes. Our trip to Italy reawakened my love of Mediterranean foods, and last night we tossed pasta with a "sauce" made of fresh peas, fresh artichoke hearts, lots and lots of garlic, a couple ounces of pancetta and a little white wine. I'm telling you -- those Italians know how to eat.

The Y starts offering its summer schedule today. My favorite deep-water aerobics class is not offered early in the morning (total bummer), but I'm going to try a Power Pump class if I can get there after work. And I have two sessions left with a Y personal trainer; I'm going to ask her to help me devise a program of push-pull splits.

Good grief chickies ... it's 7:20 and I haven't even taken a shower yet.

Gotta jet. Hugs and love.

Meg, a cruise sounds wonderful. I'm sure they'll have lots of healthy foods to choose from too. I know you'll make great choices.

I'm sitting here terribly sore after overdoing it Big Time with the 5 hrs. working outside yesterday. It hurts to even lift my coffee cup. I still have more trees to trim in back yard, but they are gonna have to wait.

My fresh garden veggies were delicious with dinner last night. Something about growing it myself that makes me appreciate it so much more.

Today will be spent paying bills. Oh, joy, joy.

So far today is nice and calm. Everyone is else is still asleep. LOL

Silly me! I just posted in LAST week's thread! I'll paste it here as it needs to be said (for my benefit only!).

Good morning maintainers! Today I'm not feeling like a maintainer any longer. I think I've let myself go just a tad. Since January, I've been maintaining at between 139-142 but in the past couple of weeks I haven't seen anything less than 142, so it's time to buckle down and get those last 10 pounds off for good! Let's see, 10 pounds at 1 pound per week, I should be at goal by mid August.

Saturday I moved my office which meant a lot of time on the floor and carrying things from one office to the other. All that did for me was to make my thighs sore! It just goes to show you how out of shape I am! I think I'll talk to DD to see if she'll be willing to take me to the gym a couple of times (she can take a guest for $7 a visit). That way I can decide if this gym is going to work for me. If it works, I'll join for myself.

Take care everyone and have a great day!

hi maintainers, hi meg, robin, lily & alinell,

Robin - Yep, the italians know how to eat big time. So do the french, and the belgians for that matter. Glad to hear you liked rome, I've been there some years ago and I was all agog with the feeling like where I walked, ceasar walked !

Meg - the cruise sounds like big fun. Whereabouts are you all heading ? & I second the ideas vented before: stick to the healthy stuff at the buffets, and have a treat araound dinnertime. And keep walking those decks of course.

Lily- glad to hear your vegs are doing so well. DD made a small garde as well, but we were late in planting. so far she is snacking of the sweetpeas in her garden, she eats them straight from the plant. I guess we're lucky they only come a couple at the time or she would get a tummy ache.

Hi allison , how's the new office going ?

last week lacked in exercise for me. I have to keep it up, so i'm planning for power class this evening, and biking to work tomorrow.

Have a great day all,
rabbit

Hi everyone!

Meg - hopefully your cruise ship is one of the ones with a gym and lots of exercise classes and equipment!

Lily - we are just getting our veggies planted, I'm looking forward to eating them like you are!

Allison - good luck with those last 10 lbs!

This weekend was good and bad in terms of eating. We had my fiance's entire family over for dinner (9 people in all, we had to borrow chairs and silverware!!). I cooked one of my regular Cooking Light recipes and some veggies for the main meal, and we had fruit for appetizers, but I splurged and made a recipe from Martha Stewart for dessert. Six sticks of butter went into that recipe and every last bite is gone now. Plus I had a few glasses of wine. This morning I was up 4lbs! It doesn't help that I haven't been to the gym in over a week, thanks to all of our moving-in adventures and my acupuncture appointments. At least Sunday morning I was feeling motivated and went for a jog around our neighborhood.

I am feeling like I really need a vacation. I haven't taken any vacation time at work since I am saving it up for our honeymoon in October, but I'm really feeling it right now. I'm considering taking a couple days to turn the 4th of July into a 5-day weekend but I need to book my plane tickets for our honeymoon and while I'm pretty sure my boss will let me take those two days as unpaid time off for the honeymoon I'm a little nervous about it.

Allison, I know how you feel. I've teetered anywhere from 141-150 and it makes me feel like I'm not too great at maintenance. I always get back on the ball and get it back down, but it's still frustrating.

I just came from the feed store and buying a 50 lb. sack of dog food. I am so sore that I had to have the male clerk carry it and put it in my car. That is pitiful, usually I can carry it myself. I've now loaded up with ibuprofen and I hope it helps. If I didn't know better , I'd think I've got broken ribs.

4Rabbit, I have a bunch of peas ready to be picked. I've never tried them raw, maybe I'll have to try that. DH likes them steamed. Last night I cooked a big pot of fresh boiled potatoes with the red skins on them. I mashed mine up and added some pepper and a little non-fat sour cream. Yummy. Tonite I'm grilling some fresh squash.

Last night as the rest of my family grabbed for ice cream for dessert I felt good that I ate SF jello with fruit and non-fat cool whip instead.

Jessica, I hope you get that 5 day weekend that you really do need. Sounds like you've been super busy and could use some time off.

Morning all! Jessica, we're just planting our veggies too. It'll be mid-July before we're eating any! The strawberries haves blossoms though, and I can get some fresh lettuce from our local organic grower (from his greenhouse) for a price! (Heck, CA lettuce is $1.99 a head for romaine or red/green leaf, more for butterhead, and I don't even look at iceberg.)

Thanks Meg! A cruise has always sounded fun, but maybe only for a couple of days. Like you I worry about being stranded on a floating hotel with a nonstop buffet. But, most buffets I've found myself at have at least some healthy choices. And think of all the pools and other opportunities for exercise there must be on modern cruiseships. You'll do fine!

We've been exercising indoors a lot this past week. I hate it because it seems so much more boring than walking in the woods with the dogs. As a result, I'm certain I'm getting less exercise. There's just too much grass pollen out right now. Marti has a little allergy trouble, but I am awful. We got a little rain yesterday and that helped enough to do a 2.5 mi. Pedaling on the elliptical sitting in one place is no substitute for hiking the hills with the dogs. We saw about 8 turtles yesterday and a very tiny deer laying in the weeds -and then it's mother up the trail a ways. We usually go in the evening -sometimes it's dark. May try mornings for a while. Some rain last night and a little sprinkle today. Seems like it washes the pollen out of the air. So we'll probably be okay again today. We can always go to the Y for variety, but it's a 45 min drive. Anybody else hike?

This is our first year gardening since we've moved and the new place has terrible soil (clay and rocks). So while we're building it up we're trying raised beds this year. We made 3 huge ones and had some topsoil trucked in. We've got a whole lot of kale out and some tomatoes and peppers. Waiting for some more soil to come so we can set out some more stuff. It's been so dry we've had a soaker hose going on them for 15min x2 a day.


John

Hi John and Marti and welcome to the forum.

I used to hike a lot when I was younger, but now I walk outside on our country roads with my daughter or husband. I prefer the outside to the elliptical or treadmill, but don't always have someone to walk with. I do love seeing deer when I'm on a walk. Mainly I see rabbits and squirrels and snakes.

I'm turning my water sprinkler on at least once a day on my garden. It is pretty dry here this week. We keep having storms forecasted and it's cloudy but no rain right now.

Good Morning everyone,
Last week my server took until Wednesday to let me see the board and then I got so busy I don't think I even sat down at the computer until yesterday. I tried to catch up from last week but no time. What I did see-Welcome John and Marti and Anne!!!! Woohoo!!
It was unbearably hot here last week so I didn't do as much physically as I should have. Yesterday I had to go to the MD and face the scale. Not pretty. I'm obviously going to have to use the treadmill, even though I find it boooorrrrriiiinnnngggg. Four pounds/month will put me way over. I have two and a half months to go. Otherwise all was ok which is good. I'm off to teach Bible school this morning so better go have a healthy breakfast or the kool-aid and cookies will start to look good about 10:30.

Wow, it has taken me 6 years to post on this part of the forum. I first posted in 2001 (I recently decided to look back after a long hiatus). I was posting under the binge eating forum then and guess what!!! I still struggle with the binge monster even though I am now a size 4 these many years later. My quality of life is so much better - I have a trainer, I am to be married in a few months, and I have great friends (that compliment me on my weight loss) But lurking in the bushes is that part of me that struggles occasionally with eating way, way off plan. It happened last week, in fact. I have done more to analyze what my triggers are and why I still have the problem with me. The problems still stem from psychology and self-talk. I can fall into that dark hole pretty quickly when I feel like I'm starting to slip. I still wish for the magic bullet to make the problems, stresses, and hiccups of life all go away, but they don't - but what I have learned is perseverance. To get right back to my routine when I fall off the wagon. Cheers to all of us who persevere on maintainence. This part of life is a whole 'nother ball game when compared to weight loss. I'm glad to be back..

Hello Maintainers,
I haven't been posting much (per usual, due to baby demands) but I have been lurking.

Meg, somehow I missed that your dd is engaged, how exciting! I agree with everything Robin said about the cruise buffets. I'm going to Florida this summer and it will be buffets and food galore. I take a small plate and fill it with fun things that I would not normally eat at home, like smoked salmon and fresh tropical fruits for breakfast. For lunch and dinner a good strategy is to fill your plate with fresh veggies/salad/fruits and pick just a few (two or three, decide on a number beforehand) other things and take only one small portion. Eat the salad first and then move on to your special choices. The other thing I do is plan a dessert night, one or two nights of the vacation where I allow desserts, the other nights I just skip it. On dessert night I like to sample two or three small portions of several desserts just to feel like I had a treat and don't feel deprived, it is vacation afterall Plus, work out every day and you'll be fine!!! You're planning ahead, which is more than half the battle.

OK Allison, I'm with you on losing the last 10 pounds. But I first must say, you ARE a maintainer, we all go up and down, it's part of the journey. Like you, I've been playing with the last 10 pounds leftover from my pregnancy and it's time to get serious and take them off for good! I've been eating very healthy foods, but allowing too many cheats and too much mindless eating that I do not even enjoy!! I'll check in with you at the end of the week, we can keep each other accountable.

My baby is now 7 months old and has 2 teeth, I can't believe it. She is an absolute joy. I just finished weaning her recently, she bit me and then cried every time she nursed and her feedings were taking forever. So, we're done with that and now it's time for me to get serious about weight loss. I'm so close to fitting into all my pre-prego clothes, and was so determined to get this far. Why is it I lose my resolve when I get down to the last 8-10 pounds?!? It's such a head game. I did my cardio already and just finished my healthy breakfast, so looking forward to a good day.

Kazem! You probably wouldn't be surprised to hear that most of us still struggle after goal with whatever eating issues have plagued us our whole lives. Reaching goal doesn't somehow make them magically disappear, though I honestly thought it would.

I still fight the Binge Monster and it's been five years at goal for me, so I'm pretty sure this is something I'll be dealing with for the rest of my life. It's all about management, not a cure ... we just have to learn how to cope with these issues. I think doing exactly what you said -- figuring out the triggers, planning to avoid them, and getting right back on track -- are the best things we can do.

We're so glad you've joined us!

Welcome Kazem, glad you joined us. Congratulations on your upcoming marriage.

Lessismore, it's good to see you posting again. It sounds like you're doing great both with the weight and with the baby.

My soreness is much better today. I've already went out to the garden and picked some fresh peas to cook with dinner tonite. Plus mended the fence gate that my labs had chewed a hole in so they can't get out of the yard.

I weighed this morning and need to be more diligent at staying on track. It's coming down slowly but not quite back to my ticker weight yet. Last night I was craving sweets and grabbed 2 cookies. I ate one and put the other one back in the jar. I guess that beats eating them both. I've been doing tons of outdoor yard work and gardening which I'm sure has helped me from gaining more than I did. My forearms look swollen and I'm sure I'm having some water retention. I'm gonna try to force myself to drink more water and less diet soda. My goal for today will be to work only 1 hr. on weeding garden and walk at least 1 mile on the treadmill or elliptical.

I'm finding that having the 2 extra SD's in the household is proving to be more challenging in cooking and plain nibbling.