Good morning! DH and I are back to reality after spending a few lovely, sunny days in Florida. We were lucky and the only rain came during the night. It was so good to feel warm! And see sun!

The only downside was the coffee situation, lame as that sounds. OK, I admit that I'm a coffee addict! There wasn't a coffeemaker in the room but on weekdays they had coffee in the lobby from 5:00 - 7:00 am. A bit of a pain because I had to get dressed to get coffee, but whatever. But on weekends, I discovered that there's no lobby coffee. Like no one drinks coffee (or wakes up early) on weekends? A coffeeshop supposedly opened at 6:30 am, though it was more like 7:00 am, and charged $3 per cup. But fortunately, that was the only downside to the trip -- everything else was wonderful (and caloric!)

My scale is up almost five pounds but I think (hope) it's mostly water weight because my legs are swollen (I was stupid and didn't wear my support stockings on the flight home). But right now my red line is so far in the distance that it's scary. We'll see what a few days of on-plan eating can do. My meals are planned for the day and I'll be heading out to the gym as soon as it opens.

I've got to go back and catch up on all of last week's happenings so I'll check back later.

Good Morning all! I'm back too after a spring break. I won't even be stepping on the scale until I've been on plan a few days because last week I was definitely off! Today is my oldest dd's 16th birthday but we celebrated over the weekend so no cake to tempt me.

Meg-I'm right there with you about coffee. It is my vice of choice.

I have no idea what went on last week so if you need a hug or a prayer consider it done. If it was good here's a cheer.

Hi everybody.

I have been scarce. Super busy.

Did some reading on last weeks thread though.

Gosh, Lily, you have been through the ringer. I'm glad to hear your numbers are better. And your daughter, how's she doing? You don't ever have it easy do you?

Meg, your trip sounds lovely. I'm sure this week you will be right back to things and racing towards your red line.

joy, happy 16th to your DD. That's the age of my youngest daughter.

I am above my red line as well, by just over a pound. I had a great week, but a lousy, lousy END to Saturday night. LOUSY. Yesterday was great though. Hopefully the same will hold true for the remainder of the week. Another busy week ahead. I need some time to come up for air. Maybe next week, ummm, no that one will be even busier. *sigh*

I hope you all have a stupendous week. Mostly just be well.

Meg - I was also in Florida for a couple of days and wow, I forget how hot it can be! I love my morning coffee too and thankfully found plenty of Starbucks in the neighbourhood. I think I passed about a half dozen and I like their coffee so I was good.

I was also MIA last week. I'm just so busy at work and I've been travelling a bit so I'm trying to be super good food-wise when I'm home since I just suck on vacation! I like to enjoy and try different things when I'm away. I have managed to hover around the redline but, like a few others here, I'm avoiding the scale this Monday morning and probably for a few more days.

Sorry I can't respond to all the posts from last week, I'm just trying to stay awake and get my day going, with my coffee by my side.

Have a great day everyone and I'll try to catch up later.

Morning everyone.

I too feel strongly about coffee. The situation hotels is always inadequate! Glad you had a nice holiday though Meg! Some hot weather sounds like just the thing!

I'm still 5lb above goal but I'm starting to not be bothered by it. I've put on some fat but I'm almost positive that I've added muscle too. I'm definitely a lot smaller now than I was the last time I was this weight. I'm going to have a body fat test this week and see where I am with everything. My plan is to just keep eating maintenance calories, try to keep them as clean as I can and to keep exercising. My body will decide what it wants to do. My clothes all fit and I look good so I've decided not to worry about it anymore.

Have a great week everyone!

Baffled , congratulations on stopping smoking!

Good morning, everyone!

I know I haven't been around -- I lurk and try to keep up, but it's almost impossible these days.

I'm still gaining weight pretty steadily with the pregnancy, but I feel pretty good for the most part. I haven't walked as much lately and I can't tell you the last time I did my prenatal yoga, so I need to do better with that.

In better news, I got the approval for my year's leave of absence next school year, which means I get to stay home with my baby for his first year and I'll still have a job to come back to. Woohoo! It will certainly be tough financially, but my husband and I believe we can make it for one year on his salary as long as I can do a few piano lessons and some tutoring here and there. We're just going to have to cut back on some things. It's not like we'll have much time to do extra stuff anyway, with a newborn! I'm mostly just worried about affording diapers and other baby stuff I don't even know about yet!! I'm pretty excited, though. Just about ten more weeks of school and I'll be off until August 09. That alone is enough for me to do a little dance!

It sounds like most of you are doing well with maintaining, as you always do! A pound or two above your red line is not a big deal, and it sounds like most of you are mentally ok with that too, which is a good thing. I'm excited about getting back to weight loss when I've had the baby, because I honestly enjoy that process -- setting goals and reaching them, watching my body change (for the better, that is), fitting into better clothes, etc. It's crazy that I was only in size 8s for about 5 minutes before getting knocked up!

Have a good Monday, everyone!

Hellllooooo......is that my red line over there in the distant horizon

Meg I am with you on the coffee front - a day without coffee is like a day without sunshine.

I am still not 100% active yet after breaking my leg - and it is really starting to show on my waistline. I have been trying to stick to 1400 cal/day and have been averaging high 1500's - to me scientifically I believe I should maintain or even drop a few at that level, but noooo, I gain!

Probably not being 100% accurate with my calorie tracking, but still.
I am really looking forward to running or anything again to get the extra pds off.

Hello to everyone - it will take me awhile to catch up.
Have a great monday.

-Susan

Good morning everyone! My red line is waaaay in the distance too. My weight has really shot up the past few days, so I am suspecting water retention. The good news is that despite the water weight and the restriction to the recumbent bike, I pulled out a size 6 skirt my mom gave me for xmas (which I couldn't fit into then) and not only did it fit, it was loose! So at least I'm making *some* improvement. My jeans are still tight though, if not as much as they were at the beginning of the year.

I have a couple confessions to make. One is that I didn't go to the gym as often as I should have last week. The other, well, remember that deal I made with myself that if I really wanted that cookie, I could go and buy it the next day? I just happened to be driving around, really hungry, right next to Panera Bread, and . . . I bought the cookie and ate it. Tasty, but in retrospect definitely not worth 400 calories.

Lily - glad to hear you are feeling better! I hope the doctors will have some answers for your DD soon.

Meg - LOL about the coffee! I guess if you don't have to go to work, you don't need coffee??

LisaMarie - glad to hear your pregnancy is going well. Congrats on getting the leave of absence!

Megan - boo for working on the weekend, did it go okay? And I agree, you'll show your friend and BF that you can do it!

We had our monthly cooking meetup last night, and I will admit to having overindulged somewhat, although not nearly as much as I could have. It was "bring whatever appetizer or snack you want" night, and I tried one of everything. I only took a second piece of three of the items, which were relatively small (but who knows what was in them?). No idea how to estimate calories for that meal. My contribution was Japanese cream buns -- they're a sweet bread dough filled with custard. Making them was definitely a learning experience -- first I spent about 4 hours translating the recipe from Japanese to English! Then I had to make two attempts at the custard because apparently I suck at thickening things with flour. Then they didn't brown right in the oven! I think I needed an egg wash and a convection oven. Despite all that, they were a big hit and tasted almost like the ones I've had from Japanese bakeries. DH brought a cooking light recipe I'd picked out -- fresh ricotta cheese mixed with black pepper, spread on whole wheat peasant bread toast, drizzled with honey, and topped with fresh raspberries. Mmmmmm!

We accidentally bought too much fresh ricotta (it was expensive, too!) so now I need to figure out what to do with it so that we don't eat too much of it. I am contemplating either making a dessert with it and taking it to work or making stuffed shells and inviting the in-laws over for dinner. Agh, just thinking about it makes me hungry! Usually I eat breakfast around 7:45, but this morning I had to get my car serviced at 7:30 so I ate at 6:45, and now I am sooooo ready for lunch but I have an hour to go!

Hi everyone I missed!

I can't say that I see my redline...see, in my mind the red line is about 138, but that's based on my goal of 133-135. Right now, I'm well over that, BUT I'm down 3 pounds since last week's disaster (I'm sure the back injury and lack of exercise and TOM caused a water weight gain). I wish I could even say I'm at ticker weight, but I'm not. I'm getting close, though. I actually hit 150 which I haven't seen for 2 years or more. But this was an amazing weekend and I'm dropping which gives me added incentive to stay on plan.

My back is better! I ran Saturday and walked on Sunday. We went out to lunch Sunday and I didn't overeat and the rest of the weekend was full of light meals. I feel so much better! My best friend is in town and we might get together tonight to watch the final college basketball game. We'll also go out to dinner later this week before she has to head home.

Hi everyone,

I'm finally feeling better. I slept last night without waking with a wracking , wet cough. My diuretics are definitely working and my weight is cooperating nicely again. Today marks 1 week of eating perfectly on plan. My capris are loose today and I had to put a belt on to keep them up. I'm still 1 lb. above my redline. Weigh-in again will be next Saturday morning.

I spent the day yesterday removing all the carpet, padding and tack board from my hallway. It's now ready to install the wood laminate after DH gets home tomorrow.

Meg, I'm with you on the coffee. Gotta have it as soon as I wake up.

LisaMarie, That is great that you get a whole year off with the new baby. That time will be so special and so worth it even if money will be tighter.

joyofsix, Happy 16th to your DD. My DD will be 16 next month.

rockinrobin, I know you'll do fantastic at getting back below your red line. I only wish I could do as well as you do. But, isn't it a great feeling when we reel ourselves back in and see the lbs. start dropping again. Even this past week of being on plan has made me feel so much better about my situation. I know that with my health problems there will be times like I've just encountered. But, I refuse to give up on my quest to keep my weight in the "normal" range.

Allison, glad to hear that your back is better.

I forgot to answer to the coffee issue. I finally gave in and subscribed to Gevalia coffee. My sister had sent me a gift basket of Gevalia goodies for Christmas and I got hooked on their coffee. Somehow their coffee just tastes better (to me anyway). It's more expensive but I haven't had a bad pot yet. Since I signed up, I got a free programmable 12 cup coffee maker, but I didn't even take it out of the box. It will go in our motor home next time we get it out of storage--my coffee maker in there is an el-cheapo thing that spills when you pour and often stops brewing mid-pot.

Well, I'm back from Chicago and all I can say is "the best laid plans..." I did great on my travel day, pretty good at the conference (except for one night out at a Greek restaurant but the food was worth the calorie splurge), and then I got to my parents house. I'm sorry to report that the friendship bread won. And that wasn't even the worst of it.

The good news is that this morning I was only .5 lbs above my redline and I know at least some of it is water. But the bad news is that I expect I'm not yet seeing the full amount of damage and that the the scale is going to creep upwards a bit before it starts heading in the other direction. It usually takes me a week to drop all the water I retain from travel, so I've decided to keep my calories at 1400-1500 until next Monday, then I'll see where I'm at. To be honest, even if I am still up a few lbs, I'm not sure I care about losing them. As it is, my suit (which I really only got a few wears out of) was hanging off me and clearly has to go in the thrift store pile.

And--horrors of horrors--I left my iPod at my parent's house ! I discovered the tragedy on the plane and tried to get them to turn the plane around but it was no use. Luckily, my step mom is the nicest woman in the world and, after a panicked call from me, immediately ran over to the post office and overnighted it to me, so I should have it by noon tomorrow, just in time for my workout. Whew!

Meg: I totally understand the need for coffee but you know those coffee makers in the hotel room are filthy! They never clean them. And if the cups aren't wrapped in plastic, you don't want to be drinking out of them. Ick--you are much better off with the $3 cup of coffee.

Meg, I MISS my coffee. Ok, I'm not abstaining completely, but this mostly decaf nonsense is just brutal. All of the heartburn, none of the fun. Just when I'm so fatigued out of my mind that a good healthy dose of caffeine would do me so much mental good. And, horror of horrors, I need to keep it to these anemic levels for as long as I breastfeed. Sob.

Oh yeah, let's see. 70 days until EDD. Not that you asked. Not that I'm counting. Who are we kidding? I'm soooo counting.

Hi joy/Lisa. Happy birthday to your DD!

Robin, I'm about 30 lbs above my red line. For good reason of course, but ack. It looks pink from this distance.

Welcome back Elisa!

Baff, I'm so proud of you still being a non-smoker. I know it is so hard. Sounds like your body has settled into it too.

Hi bargoo!

LisaMarie, I think it is your turn to email.

sznn, I hope you mend fast so you can get back to it. Enforced rest is no fun.

Jessica, I vote for the stuffed shells. Maybe you can mix in some shredded zucchini to the ricotta to thin it out a bit more, and freeze the extras. Mmm, now I'm hungry.

Allison, I'm so glad your back is better.

Lily, I must admit I'm always a little afraid to read your posts. Seems like something bad is always going on. But not today, one week on plan--woo hoo!

Barbara, sorry about the friendship bread. How often do you visit? In the grand scheme of things, it is probably just a blip, and sounds like you are taking care of it. Glad you are getting your iPod back.

Hi everybody else.

Long day today for me. It was a busy day at work, which was actually sort of nice for a change. I got to do some actual math, which is always fun. Too much time doing paperwork lately. DD was reasonably well-behaved and DH helped with the dishes after supper. The Boy is beating me silly today. He has discovered my ribs.

I have been reading the Omnivore's Dilemma lately after so many people here have been talking about it. I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Anne

MEG ~When I go out of town for work I always take my coffee maker and coffee with me! Even if the places I stay in have a coffee maker...there is always ONLY ONE regular coffee packet...now how in the heck am I supposed to function on one packet...4oz. of coffee?

are they serious?