Good morning!

How did everyone do with Father's Day? Any food challenges? We celebrated Father's Day and DH's birthday yesterday with German chocolate cake and lots of goodies, as always. I managed to get by with only a few finger licks and stray pecan pieces so . And my scale is down again, so now I'm two pounds below pre-cruise weight. I celebrated by clothes shopping, of course!

I was a bit concerned that it would be hard to get back into my routine with food and exercise, but nope, it's totally ingrained into my brain now. I don't think -- I just go on autopilot.

So other than spending the weekend cooking and baking, I was working on our Rethinking Thin book discussion. Suzanne set up a subforum in the Maintenance Library for us and I hope to get the ball rolling with a book synopsis later today. So check it out, even if you haven't had a chance to read the book. You should be able to pick up enough from the summary to join in.

One question -- what's the best treatment for poison ivy itch? (that's what I assume I got in Mexico) I'm using Benadryl gel -- anything better?

Wow, where is everybody this morning?

We had to hospitalize one of the dogs yesterday for some very bad GI issues, and hopefully today we will get some answers on the cause, whether it is a BIG issue, or just one of those things that passes. The good news is that she seems to be doing very well after some IV fluids, but this is very stressful for me. And, yeah, expensive, and it is very disturbing to figure out how much a long time friend is worth to me in dollars. We are in the fortunate position that most of our decisions can be made on quality of life type issues, but we have our limits.

I'm still feeling very well. I can almost forget I'm pregnant most of the time, which is extremely unusual for me. I have my first ultrasound tomorrow, and if things look good, the risks of another major badness happening are considerably reduced.

I gained about 5 lbs almost instantly, but my weight has plateaued from there, which is about where I want to be right now. I'm doing OK with my eating--I'm craving a lot of fats (mmm, butter), but I'm doing pretty good maintaining a balance.

I'll check back in a day or two about the dog and my scan. Hope everyone is doing well.

Anne

Anne~I hope your furry friend is going to be okay. It is really hard when our non-speaking, four-legged friends get sick. Don't let the stress get to you.

Today is my first day back to dedicated losing in order to attain my goal. I didn't do so well yesterday. DH wanted to go to the movies and we normally don't get treats, but the kids wanted something and I got a package of Red Vines and ate most of them myself. Dinner was healthy, but too big and I didn't stop when I was full. But today is a new day and the first day back at real dieting. Don't look at my ticker. It's wrong. I'll let you know when I get back to ticker weight (hoping for Friday).

Hi everyone!

Meg - welcome back! The cruise sounds like it was awesome. I bet all the exercise kayaking and snorkeling made up for the food!

Anne - I hope your dog is ok and your ultrasound looks good!

Allison - good luck with staying on plan today!

We had dinner with my fiance's parents last night. Dinner was relatively healthy with the exception of a cream sauce with pasta, but then there was an apple pie AND a lemon tart. I didn't stuff myself but I did eat more than I should have. Plus Thursday Ben's coworker who is also our neighbor brought over a plate of cookies and we ate the whole thing that same night, and Friday we went out to dinner at Thai food (yummmmmm, it really hit the spot, but curry with coconut milk and peanuts is not exactly the healthiest meal).

Last week, three gym days. Aiming for three again this week since I have a meeting with a caterer and acupuncture Thursday and Friday.

I planted a bunch of seeds in our yard -- watermelon, zucchini, and buttercup squash. I now have three zucchini seedlings, about 20 watermelon seedlings, and maybe 1 or 2 squashes but I can't tell yet, they might be more watermelons (I planted them next to each other). Plus we have a tomato growing and some peppers (I bought a pepper plant that already had some started since we were so late in the season). And my herbs are doing well even though I only have basil and garlic chives so far. Oh, and we have what I think is a pumpkin plant that was a seedling when we moved in and is now HUGE!

I've been fighting emotional eating a lot lately and losing most of the time. This week I'm going to try not to sneak any treat foods. I think the new medicine my rheumatologist gave me is helping so I am feeling less stressed out, plus exercise definitely helps. Who knows, maybe I'll be ready for a 5K again in a few months -- right now I'm working up to jogging 30 minutes straight. The last (only) 5K I did took me 40 minutes, but I'm not as fast right now as I was then.

Have a good week everyone!

Hello everyone. I hope everyone had a nice fathers day. My eating was a little off but this is the first year I have been with my father on fathers day in over 10 years. He insisted on cooking new york strips, and of course he did not have to convince me to eat all mine. It was so good and so was the cake my mom made.
Meg your cruise sounded wonderful. I would try some cortisone cream. Not only does it help with the itch it also helps with inflammation.
Anne, sorry about your puppy. They are like kids and you feel so bad when they are sick. I hope everything goes okay.
Sounds like everyone is doing great with their gardens. I love eating fresh vegetables just don't like growing them.
Looking forward to a good week.
Terrie

Well of course since we have 4 kids we had to make a cake. We made a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing but I substitute like **** with my recipies and the family doesn't mind. Saturday we made it for our big walk accross town to the used book store and of course they didn't have much so we stopped to see DH at work (he was laying outside turf at a pub dowtown) and we passed another used book store. man was it ever big my DD2 got lost....lol Then we went to the park for a couple of hours then back up town (VERY steep hill) and I bought a dress for our pics. We ended up walking about 17 miles. We set up the pool for the little ones and the sprinkler for the older ones (the whole street ended up here) and spent the day outside on Sunday.

Hi maintainers,

it's a new week ! I went to power class today, so 1 hour towards my goal. eating is not too good, again, and scale is not moving down. But I definitely see more muscle than 1 year ago. I have not given up hope yet, maybe it's TOM, maybe i build muscle first, then loose some fat. I could add a bit of weight to the bar at power class, so that is good.

Jen - your day with the kids sounded great! Lots of exercise, lots of fun, and i very much relate with going to the used book store...it is one of my favorite stores as well.


Have a great day all,
Rabbit

Morning ladies!

I had an excellent weekend. We had our last long training session for the half-marathon on Sat, at 8 am which turned out to be perfect since it got very hot by about 11. I spent from 11 to 4 watering the garden and new grass. What a royal pain. Had to move the sprinkler every 15-20 minutes, which means turning off the water, walking out to the sprinkler (muddy), moving it, turning on the water and checking the area getting wet, then sometimes moving it again. Go in the house for 15 minutes or so which is not long enough to get much done. Repeat ad infinitum. At least I got 1" of water onto everything.

We had a Team in Training BBQ Sat night at the coach's house, and got all our final stuff. Whoever made the race jersey (purple instead of the team ones that are white) had no sense at all. Now I'm long waisted, and hate the short t-shirt fad of the last couple years, but this tank top leaves 6" of my stomach exposed. Not a good look for someone of my age and size! I've emailed the state coordinator to see if I can get a men's race shirt which is just a regular t-shirt and should be longer. We have a pasta dinner (be still my heart) on Friday and hopefully I can get it exchanged then.

Sunday was not as nice weatherwise, and I did grocery shopping and a bunch of stuff indoors. DH was thrilled since I baked him some bread. Also grilled a salmon (yes, whole!) so I know what we're eating all week.

Short work week for me. We're leaving Thurs noon to go to a wedding about 4 hours south of here. It's at a lodge on a river, on the solstice. The groom is the son of good friends, and it's his second marriage, but the bride's first. We'll stay overnight and drive back on Friday, stopping in Anchorage to do errands, get my race bib, and go to the pasta dinner. Then we'll be back in Anchorage on Sat am before 8. Race starts at 9 and right now the forecast is for cooler and overcast - in other words, perfect. My biggest challenge now is what to put on my iPod to listen to for 3+ hours.

Meg - great job on navigating the cruise! Loved the photo too. I second the cortisone cream for the itch.

Lily - hope you're feeling a little better. You've had a lot of stress in your life the past couple of months, and you've done very well handling them.

Jessica - how is the medication doing for your wrists? Good job on getting back in the gym.

Anne - sorry to hear about your dog. We had to have our older cat put to sleep this spring, and we still miss her. We'll likely get another in the fall. Meanwhile our remaining cat - a siamese - drives us nuts looking for constant attention - she's very talkative! Must be baby season. Had an email from a friend who's just pg, and my niece is due the end of July.

to everyone! I really need to get to work. Darn, why don't they just let me do what I like and send me the paycheck.

Had a good weekend at the shore. Our club hosted the annual regional Hobie Cat sailboat regatta. DH crewed on our friend's 18 foot catamaran and I took out our little 13 foot Hobie Wave catamaran.

We had good winds on Saturday and I got the boat back to the beach just as they were getting too windy for me to hold the boat down. I no longer weigh enough to right the boat if I capsize it. We're going to get a waterproof bag that I can fill if I go over and strap on to help me with the leverage to turn the boat upright again.

I really like to sail the boat fast and 'fly a hull' which means one of the catamaran hulls comes completely out of the water so that I'm sailing at a 45 degree angle balancing on the bottom hull. But it's easy to lose control in a gust of wind and have the boat go over on me if I don't hike out far enough, let out the sale quick enough, or turn the boat into the wind fast enough. Then I get launched off the boat onto the sail which is then in the water. Once, I hit the back of my head on the metal beam that supports the trapoline and got a concussion, so I always wear my life preserver.

Saw a couple who I haven't seen since last September and they were shocked at how little I've become. They joined the club within the past 3 or so years so they never knew me at my 'normal' weight. It's a great feeling when people notice.

Hey, folks! I have been so bad about checking in here lately. I just got back from 3 1/2 days in Manhattan. I went to a conference. I didn't know anyone, but I still had a good time. I saw a Broadway show, spent time in Times Square, and had a brief appearance (in the crowd) on the Today show.

Eating was interesting. I definitely went off of my usual eating plan, but it was fun. I decided that I wanted to experience some New York food. I had a bagel and marmalade every morning for breakfast.

1) The first day, I got to my hotel in the evening, and I walked around the corner to one of these prepared foods stores. I ordered a vegetarian spicy burrito (which they heated up), and some chicken noodle soup.

2) Day #2
Lunch: turkey sandwich and an apple provided by the conference (skipped the chips and brownies in the box)

Dinner: TURKISH food. Don't know what it was called, but I ordered grilled ground chicken over pita bread with onions. When I ordered, I thought it was grilled chicken breast, so this was a little less healthy than I had anticipated, but not too bad.

Day #3
Lunch: conference gave us a salad with about 2 ounces of grilled chicken. I didn't want to do chips and the cookie in the bag, but i felt I needed something a little filling -- got a honey wheat bagel and toasted it at the cafeteria.

Dinner: TIBETAN food! I can't remember the name, but I had some steamed shrimp dumplings. It wasn't quite enough food, so I also had picked up some veggie soup and another veggie burrito.

After dinner: Passed a CUBAN restaurant, checked out the menu, and saw that they served Tostones. I haven't had these great green plantain treats since the time that I spent a few months living in the Carribean. Had to get them, and they were great! I need to make them one day -- I'd forgotten how good they are.

Day #4
Lunch: STREET FAIR! I had a GREEK chicken gyros with hot sauce instead of the white sauce, and a side of some FALAFEL.

Then, I went home. Sigh...maybe I should move back to a huge bustling city -- such diversity!

Checking in after a week away. DD finally got to come home from the hospital yesterday after her scoliosis surgery. She had some complications and spent some time in ICU. Her seven day hospital stay didn't do much for my eating plans. I had way too much fast food, cafeteria food or probably worse just no food. Hopefully things will slowly get back to normal here. She is still in alot of pain so I'm playing nurse. It has also been so hot and dry that no one really wants anything heavy. I made a sort of pasta salad with whole wheat cous cous yesterday that wasn't too bad. It sounds like lots has been going on with all of you. I'll have to find time to read. Have a great week everyone.

My kids had their family picnic at school today.The food didn't settle with DS stomac he ended brimging up the little bit of bun he ate (his food has to be done a certain way in order for him to eat). He did alright with the pop and popsicle.lol when we got home I got him a wasa cracker with peanut butter.

Last night a girl I hung around with in junior high came to visit.I haven't seen her since school. We met up again on facebook. Beside that nothing much new here. Tomorrow I have to pay the bills( I think the phone,power and cable companies would really appreciate it) and I have to try to find DH a shirt for pictures.

Lisa

Today, a writer from lifescript.com called to interview me about my weight loss. She had contacted me through 3FC's email after having read about my weight loss.

Lifescript will have a new section in a month or so on Weight Loss Success stories. At first, I didn't think I would qualify as a good article candidate because my weight gain and then loss was tied so closely to medications, but she assured me that many people have similar stories.

As it turns out, her husband is on the same medicine for the same condition that I have and has recently gained 25 pounds as a result. I'll let you know when my story gets posted. I'm going to have to see if I can find some higher resolution before pictures and then retake my after pictures.

DH has only been at his job for 3 weeks and he's already looking for a new one. He's been kept very late many nights and had to cancel many evening events. Last night, after the 2 hour drive from our North Jersey apartment to our South Jersey house, he didn't get home until after midnight. Today, he's at jury duty. Tomorrow, he has an early morning interview in North Jersey and is being considered for a job near our South Jersey house. Guess which one I'm rooting for?

Hi everybody,

The dog is fine now, after some IV fluids and antibiotics. She's home now, comfortable, and completely digging her chicken/rice bland food diet. The other dog is jealous.

My scan went OK today. It wasn't as definitive as I would have liked but they did see a faint heartbeat, and everything was looking pretty much as it should. I'm not sure I'm going to feel any more confident until I see/hear a good strong heartbeat.

Anne