Good morning! It's pitch dark, cold, and raining, so ... ta dum ... it must be time for the gym!

I'll start us off for the week and be back later.

Let's make it a GREAT week!!

Morning everyone! I'm running late this morning, and crossing my fingers that the schools aren't closed or delayed. Please oh please oh please oh please...

Will check in later. In the mean time, let's have a CLEAN day!

Kim

Good morning everyone. Cold, raw and rainy here as well. Yuck.

I had 2 big holiday parties this weekend. One at my home Saturday night and another last night. And I definitely ate waaaay more then I should have and the scale has confirmed that (not that I needed confirmation). It's no shock and I expected it. So this week it's back to the plan, nice and strict. I've got a few more leftovers in the house. Desserts in the freezer. I did give lots of it away, but not enough. My kids will be eating some of it for dinner tonight and tomorrow night. I do have a couple of healthy salads leftover, so that's good.

Other then that, same old same old. Work, errands, chores, bills, exercise, work, errands, chores, bills, exercise.

I hope you all have a great Monday and a phenomenal week.

Morning, Kim!

Robin, I have no doubts whatsoever that you'll be right back on track and those pounds will be gone in no time.

I'm back from the gym, where I had a phenomenal workout to kick off the week.

I woke up with a headache today. Hoping for the best...

On the plus side, DD had no tantrums this morning.

Robin, I'm right there with you.

Anne

Thanks Meg, Mel, Jessica, Rabbit, Robin, Lily, Aidyn, and Kristy for being so supportive of my concerns for switching meds. I've had 4 very small doses of med 3 so far and haven't felt an increase in appetite, but I'm still on a full dose of med 2 for 10 more days. Then med 3 will more than double and med 2 will be cut in half.

I am looking forward to getting rid of the Parkinsonian tremors in my hands, legs, and recently face. I'll be able to do my artwork again without them. Haven't painted in a year because of them. And it will be much easier to put on mascara and lipstick.

Lily - wonderful news of your gym membership for Christmas. You must be so excited. That was great of DH to go and get the note from your doctor. He sure cares about you.

The party were we had to go dressed as a verse from Twas the Night Before Christmas was really fun. My Sugar Plum Fairy costume came out great and got a lot of compliments. I wore a deep purple sweater and matching skirt and DH helped me make a pair of fabulous wings. He shaped the outline of the wings in wire and then I sewed a front and back layer of sheer plum colored fabric with golden sparkles on it to the wing frame. Then I made a wand with stripes of the fabric attached to the end of a wooden dowl that I painted plum colored. I'm going to keep the wings for next year's Halloween party and go as a fairy or a butterfly. I always like to go as something pretty and not something ugly or scary.

At that party, I purposely didn't take my 'cheese pills' - the lactate pills so I can eat some dairy products. Anything made with butter or heavy cream is still too much for my system even with the pills. That way, I avoided most of the fattening foods, except for having one deviled egg that I had brought as my contribution to the party. Having only one was strong will power on my part.

At 11 pm, we left the first and drove into NYC for the second party of the night. It was billed as a "Booze & Blues" party so I switched into jeans before going. We arrived at midnight and the party was just getting going. DH still can't lead any turns or moves with his left collarbone being shattered, but I did get him to sway back and forth to the Blues music for 2 or 3 songs. The party was in a studio apartment with a fabulous view of all of Central Park. The host had pushed what little bit of furniture he had up against the walls including putting his bed vertical. So the whole place was one dance floor large enough for about 16 couples dancing to blues or 8 dancing to West Coast Swing which needs much more room for manuvering.

One of our friends made wonder lasagne which I had to try enough though it was after midnight AND I wasn't hungry. Once I had the pills to eat the lasagne, then I could resist sampling all the different cheeses. We ended up being the first to leave the party and got back to our apartment after 2 am. Knowing our friends, they probably stayed to 4 or 5 am if they didn't end up camping out on the floor.

On Sunday, we went to the movie The Golden Compass. Which is a first in a trilogy and I felt it ended too abruptly. It did do an excellent job of mixing computer generated characters with real actors such as Nicole Kidman.

GOOD morning!

Yesterday, the GF and I ended up going to the ER because her migrane never subsided. However, our visit to the ER was NOTHING like what I remembered from a previous experience - I remembered waiting at least five hours in a very crowded room and then sharing a room with three other people. We only had to wait 20 minutes (30 at most) in a room with only a few people and then we got a room to ourselves.

Of course, she is much better today and I made sure that she got ALL the medication they could give her before sending her home. I'm glad it's over.

Plus, today is my day off, and I haven't been off plan for the last two days, so I am in a surprisingly good mood!

Rabbit - She actually takes B Complex vitamins every morning. The stress of work and school combined is definitely triggering her migranes more than usual, though she gets several migranes a week any time she has a full time job... she's actually looking into filing for disability, though I've heard it is near impossible to get it. I'm glad to hear your daughter's migranes have pretty much disappeared - that is GREAT migranes are an awful illness to have... I'm REALLY glad I don't have 'em. I could never deal with constant pain.

Carolyn - those parties sound awesome and, as previously established, so does your costume. You need to show us some pictures! Also WTG on skipping all the fattening foods.

Good morning!

This is our beginning festivities week too. Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.

I'm so glad the days will soon start to get longer. I don't do well this time of year. Bah humbug and pass the butter! No, just send all the food to my room.

One of the perks of being my age is that migraines often disappear. While I still have the odd headache, I haven't had a migraine in ... I don't know how long.

Hi all,

The weekend flew by. I went to the "big" city Friday and took advantage of the less expensive stores to buy ingredients for the food for the office Christmas party we're hosting at my house this coming Saturday, and got most other holiday shopping done. BF & I went to parties of friends both Fri. & Sat. night. I had too much wine and a piece of cake I shouldn't have eaten on Saturday, but restrained myself Friday. Sat. I got in a great weights/strength workout at the gym. Sunday I wasn't feeling well (darn wino in me!) but I spent the day cleaning the house, scrubbing the bathroom, doing laundry, and getting my chores done anyway. I went to bed early last night! This week is more of the same - busy at work, errands, meetings, etc. etc. Other than Sat. night I stayed clean and OP all weekend, so I'm trying to stay there this week.

Susan, I'm like you too - I hate it when it gets light late and dark so early. I definitely affects my mood. I'm sure Pat has it much worse than us!

Shane, glad that your ER visit wasn't too terrible and your GF's migraine has finally gone away.

Carolyn, I think Meg said what I'm thinking really well in last week's thread. I hope your transition to your new med goes well. We are always here to support you!

Anne, I hope your headache goes away.

Robin, I agree, you'll get rid of those few pounds in no time.

Meg, glad your workout was so great.

Kim, I'm right there with you - let's have a clean day (and week)!

Have a great Monday all.

Good morning ladies:

Shane I hope your GF is feeling better. Migranes are no fun thing.

OMG did I have a weekend. Well Friday night was enough for the whole weekend. I partied like a rockstar and the scale reflected it. I had a 3 lb gain in a matter of 12 hours. I think that is a new record. I have since lost half of it but...I know I'll be back to my "fighting weight" by the end of the week. I ate my weight in mini meatballs and cheesy chicken dip! Plus....merlot and pudding shots. LOL It's been a while. I am a HUGE lightweight, but I got the hang if it after a while. Had a blast! But...that was then, this is now. I'm going to kick my butt tonight working out and eating clean and vegan this whole week, well except for Friday. I have another work party, but this one will be alcohol free. I can probably be a bit more conservative now.

Ladies I hope you all have a wonderful week and if any of you have a glaze of ice like we do in Michigan, please be careful!!!

Good morning maintainers,

On day 8 of a vile, nasty cold. It has taken up residence in my chest.
Haven't exercised for over 10 days - woe is me

Hope you all have a great Monday

-S

Good morning! Just checking in before I have a multitude of errands to run. I have to go to the bank with an extra deposit as we're giving out our year-end bonuses today. The guys will be happy.

Hello, everyone!

Just checking in during my planning period before I have to get some work done. Ate a bit too much over the weekend, but the scale showed 161, so I'm happy about that. Haven't been running, though, because of the cold I had. I'm going to give it a try today, since I'm feeling better. It's raining, though, which means I may have to use the dreadmill here at school (and yes, I meant DREADmill -- soooo boring).

Have I mentioned that I haven't started Christmas shopping?

SusanB - I was going to say the same thing! I suffered with those babies for years - spent a number of years taking prophylactic drugs, which I swear didn't stave off a single one! Nasty nasty things, migraines.

I'm hearing about all the nasty weather y'all are having. It's cold here, but we're dry! and of course, as someone mentioned, dark. Today the sunrise is 10:03 am, and the sunset 3:54pm. And still 11 days to go til the 21st. It certainly does make one crave lots of comfort food. Somehow, salads are not too appealing right now. Fortunately, I love me a good bean burrito and I can make them pretty "clean" with ww tortillas and ff beans.

Have a great day everyone.

Hello everyone!

I had a decent weekend. Weight is still up. However, I also got back the results of my thyroid test, and it showed an underactive thyroid (TSH was 8.03), so I will be going to the doc this Thursday. If taking thyroid medicine will cure all of my problems, I think I will cry from joy! (I'm not being sarcastic, I'm totally serious.) OTOH from what google tells me (because google is of course an excellent source of medical information ) it's unlikely that my abnormal inflammation lab tests are related to the thyroid thing.

Of course now that I know the lab tests were abnormal I'm imagining that there is this gigantic softball in my throat! We'll see what the doc says in a few days. (And if he says I have it because I don't get enough iodine because I eat a low-salt diet for DH's hypertension, I think I will die.)