Hey guys!

Instead of explaining my absence in all the threads I frequent, I thought I'd just put one here for the people who may have noticed I've been gone for a few days!

My work AND home computers died at the same time, on Thursday, so I can't get online when I'm at home. I haven't been home all weekend, though, because I'm in the Finger Lakes region of New York on a short little vacation. I'm heading back home today but I thought I'd take this last chance to get online!

I've been eating like a madwoman on this vacation -- fast food on the road, pizza, seafood, lots of wine, homemade chocolate fudge, candy, desserts, you name it. I went a bit crazy. I intended to go a bit crazy but jeez... I really feel like I've gained at least five pounds. We'll see when I get home!

The good news is that even though I haven't run since Thursday, I've been doing some hiking up here. The beautiful gorges and waterfalls are amazing, and we hiked up them quite a bit the last two days. I burned some calories and worked on my leg muscles, but I doubt I made a dent in all the food I've been eating!

Oh well...right back on track when I get home. I'll have to re-lose some pounds and then get back to heading toward my goal.

Anyway, I've seriously missed you guys and I hope I can get my computer fixed so I won't have to miss you anymore!!

Lisa, its so good to hear from you. I had noticed that you were missing and I was thinking of sending a PM today. Its wonderful that you're having such a good time...but, get your butt back on track young lady!

We've missed you, too! Have fun on the rest of your trip and have a safe trip home. "See" you when you get back!

Thanks for letting us know! I do start missing the familiar "faces" when they "disappear" for awhile. Glad you are still in the "race" and hope to see you consistently back online soon.

Hi LisaMarie. Ahhh.. Vacation. Sounds really nice. Like a beautiful place.

I too have been a bit MIA. Went away again for the weekend visiting friends who have a home amongst many of my friends. And I'll be going back for the next 2 weekends as well. We actually left on Thursday so it was a looong weekend. These are my really good friends, we had lots of laughs and good times, but unfortunately one of the big focal points - is eating. So I ate. NOTHING at all like in the past, not even close, but nevertheless, not good. So yes, LisaMarie - I hear you loud and clear. I am up about 2 1/2 lbs. YIKES. I'm almost ready to cancel my plans for the next 2 weekends.

Today - it's back on track for me. At least that's the plan. I knew the summer was going to be hard. That's why I started my journey when I started it - September 4 - yup - AFTER the summer. I will be very glad if when Labor Day rolls around and my weight is in the low 130's. Very glad.

Lisamarie, I hope your computer is back on track - and you too.

I've missed you, Lisa. I wanted to tell you I'm up to running both straight-aways and walking the curves for two miles. I'm going to be a runner if it kills me! Have a great vacation!

New York sounds beautiful - I'm glad you're enjoying yourself! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that your "going crazy" was just what your body needed to shake things up and start you losing again once you're back on plan.

Boy, Robin and Lisa gone at one time - it's a wonder we all made it through the weekend! Well, you have both been missed, but somehow I knew you would be back posting soon.

Lisa, sounds like you're having a great vacation, so glad to hear you're enjoying it. I know you'll be back on track (literally) when you return. The finger lakes sound really lovely - I haven't been to see them myself, but I imagine the hiking is quite spectacular.

Thanks for the responses, everyone!! And yes, the hiking WAS beautiful. Unfortunately, however, it didn't burn enough calories to keep me from doing some SERIOUS damage to my weight loss efforts. I gained more weight than is mathematically possible in 4 days. Leave it to me. Yep...I gained TEN POUNDS in FOUR DAYS. Back up to the 180s. Clothes starting to feel tight again. All that stuff. It slowed me down on the first run I did when I got back too. It's insane. My husband ate more than I did and didn't gain a pound. Of course, he hasn't damaged his body over the years the way I have, so I guess that makes sense.

Anyway, I'm dealing with it. The hardest part is that I can't get back onto 3FC for support because my computer's still messed up (I'm on my work laptop at a cafe right now, but the internet doesn't work on it at home). I'm not sure when I'll be back for good. So I'm going to have to go it alone for a few weeks, which is going to be tough. I'll check in when I can, though. I want to catch up on all the other threads, but I don't think I'll have time today. I had a root canal this morning (ugh) so I need to go home and take painkillers to prepare for my first cross country practice tonight as a coach!! Scary!!

So....it'll be a bit longer than I thought it would before I hit my goal of 165. I'm annoyed, but I did it to myself. I didn't think it would be THAT much of a setback if I took a break for 4 days, but here I am. I'm back down to 179 now, so I got rid of 2 of those 10 pounds already, and now I have to start chipping away at the rest. Sigh...

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for checking in. Hope the root canal goes great for you. And, Congratulations,Coach!! I'm so glad you took the position.
From what I hear from the maintainers, they say that eating on maintenance is pretty much like eating when trying to lose the weight...with just a few minor changes...but, nothing much will change if you plan on keeping it off. Sounds like they're right. I know it was a hard lesson, but, as long as you learn from it, alls good, right?
We miss you around here. Post when you can and we look forward to getting you back on here everyday.

Oh!! No no no.... I didn't think I was eating on maintenance. On maintenance, you can't drink tons of wine and eat everything in sight! I honestly expected to gain between two and four pounds, and I was ok with that. It's just the TEN that I'm kind of surprised by!! It's ok, though -- I'll get it off!!

Thanks for the congrats -- I'm nervous about coaching, but it should be fun!

Hey there buddy. I hope you recovery quickly from that root canal. Yuck. At least the procedure itself is over with.

I am very excited for you with your new coaching position. How very cool!!

Don't worry about those 10 lbs. There is no way on earth you could have actually gained that much. I was away this past weekend and I overate and was up 3 lbs. on Monday morning. Today is Thursday and they are gone. I'm sure yours will be too in a matter of a few days. I don't know if it was the pure volume of the food adding on the pounds, the water, the salt, the whatever. But rest assured those pounds will come off easily.

I hope to hear from you soon with a good report - on your teeth, your great new coaching position and your weight. I have no doubt that everything will be just fine. More then fine in fact.

Thanks, Robin!!

You're right, that weight is pretty much gone now. I'd gone up to 181 (well, I saw 183 on the scale at one point, but I pretended not to see it), and today I was back to 172 after my run. Craziness.

The coaching is going well so far but we've only had a few kids come out to these "unofficial" practices. It's wearing me out trying to keep up with these short, fast runs and still do my long easy runs to prepare for my race. I think I may be overdoing it. My husband is feeling the same way about his own training, so we're not running with the kids at tomorrow night's practice. It's just too hard to do a fast 3 miles with them at night and then get up the next morning and run 13-15 miles. Not practical! I'm trying to stay injury-free! Other than that, it's going well.

As for my eating, well...I've had several days where I went over my points by a few, and that disturbs me. It's almost like I've become slightly complacent here in my 170s. I really WANT to get to the 160s, but apparently I don't seem to want it ENOUGH. I'm still counting what goes in my mouth, still making healthier choices, and still burning tons of calories through running, but I've been a bit too relaxed with my caloric intake! You'd think vacation would've scared me into being strict again, but it didn't. I've been hovering around 172 for FAR too long. I kind of feel like I can't quite get a handle on the eating as long as I'm training for this race. That could be psychological, or an excuse, or something, or it could be that I'm quite simply requiring more fuel to run 30 miles a week. That's logical. It might mean I maintain for a couple more weeks and then get back on track with my eating and start doing 3-5 mile runs again like a normal person!

I've rambled enough for now. Sorry! It's just that I can't get online anymore at home, so I can only talk to you guys about once or twice a week!