Hello all,

I haven't been around much (wandered back last week, but my participation is still kind of spotty), although when I put up the other thread for the week I thought I should do this one as well. I do hope everyone is doing well. I'm on a maintenance week this week (attempting to eat at maintenance levels to 'in theory' reset hormonal levels and prevent plateaus). I'm not sure how it will work, but it sounded like a good theory so we'll see how it goes.

I will try and catch up and come back later to do personals. In the meantime, hope everyone's week is off to a good start.

Morning ladies,

Thanks Anne for the new thread. I won't be posting early in the mornings much anymore since I am on a mission to get to work much earlier than I used to. I'm tired of getting home at 6 pm or after.

It was a really good weekend. To be honest, I felt much better mentally this weekend than I did the whole time I was off on vacation. We did lots of outside work. The weather was good. DH smoked ribs on the 4th. We went into the small town nearby for their fireworks display. DH went grudgingly. For a small town, it was an amazingly large display and DH said he'd do that again.

On Saturday, I took Spanky over to the cousin's place to ride. We had much better experience with loading. Neither Spanky or I were frustrated or crying. We just rode in her arena as he was acting like a young butt. I asked her about giving me lessons to help me get him ready to show. I want to show him, not so much about the ribbon possibility, but for the experience of doing it - and the learning. All part of my master plan in becoming a better rider. They need some extra cash anyway and I want to take lessons and she is more affordable and accessible than other trainers. We'll see. After more yardwork (which never seems to end with all the rain), I had a nice time in the pool.

Yesterday was laundry, church, checking out the inside of my eyelids a couple of times, yardwork, garden work and swimming.

The other big thing I did this weekend was finally to update my resume. I meant to do it while I was off on vacation, but I was stuck by inertia and procrastinated. Last night I got it to a point where I really like it. And I submitted it online for a position that is very similar to what I'm doing now but at a different company. Someone who used to work for me called me on Thursday and mentioned this new position where he works at now. Just doing that has been very freeing. Something may come of it but might not either. Its about taking control over my own destiny and not letting myself be held hostage to fear of what might happen.

So food was not too terribly bad over the weekend. It was mostly the german chocolate cake that DH had gotten me for my birthday that was the problem. That and not enough water.

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

I'll check in this evening to catch up on personals.

to all!

Terri -- Sounds like a good weekend. I so value when I feel 'centered' but it is so hard to achieve. And a week's vacation isn't really enough time, is it?

I feel like I'm continuing to get centered. Finally starting to get some house projects started.

Hi everybody, how are you this fine hot day? I am tired! It has been a busy day for me. I find that I really hate housework. LOL! Now if I could put DH in the garage to stay, I wouldn't have so much cleaning to do.

Got up this morning with determination! Got myself back on track and will try to keep me there. That is really a hard job, you know? I am soooo weak when it comes to food.

Terri, I saw some of the inside of my eyelids over the weekend too. LOL! I am so tired of preparing veggies for the freezer. I know I will be happy to have them later, but right now....GRRR! Sorry I missed wishing you Happy Birthday. I am not sure how I missed that, but I hope it was a grand one.

I guess we have lost Val huh? Val, I miss your great sense of humor. You made me laugh out loud a lot!

Lilion, How is it going today?

To everyone else Have a super rest of the day. Ta! Ruth

Good mor'ning, all!
Ann - I thought I'd read everything there was about diets, but what is the maintenance level you're talking about?

Teri - good on you for moving toward getting out of where you are and toward where you'll be happier.

Ruth - I'll trade your husband for my husband, teenager and dog. You'd think one of them would do housework, since my husband is semi-retired, and teen is doing nothing. Instead, the stuff in the house is just getting deeper.

Heather - so glad that your center has decided to appear.

I had a stupendous long weekend - I worked out, swam, and slept. Oh yeah, and occasionally did a little cooking.
A local store had their perennials on sale, so I bought some yellow and some white coneflowers (pink wouldn't look good in this bed), and planted them. Fortunately, we've had so much rain that I haven't had to water, and they are doing just great.
I don't remember if I told you all that we had to take down the huge willow in front of the house, because it was just rotten from stem to stern. It was planted in the 1930s (the 89 year old next store remembers when it was planted), but I had the tree guys leave me the chips. I have 2 big tarps full of wood chips, and I am moving several plastic bags of it every day to one of the garden beds as mulch. For once in my life, I have enough mulch. Now, if only someone else (hint, hint, dd, who's home from school and not doing anything) would do some weeding so we could get the beds clean before I put the mulch on them. I've tried offering to pay her minimum wage, but she just gets bored and leaves the trowels and pulled weeds next to the bed, and wanders back to her video game. Not very helpful.

Food was decent over the weekend, but not perfect. One advantage of the long-term medication I'm on is that it decreases appetite, so I am very aware that I eat largely from "Hey, I'm walking through the kitchen and there are peanuts on the counter," or "It's dinner time, I have to cook something. What sounds good to taste buds." Which gives me something to work on. The downside is it also suppresses metabolism, so you have to work harder to lose anything.
Does anyone else's scale do this - we have one of those inexpensive spring scales. Every time I get around another decade (like 240), it seems to first just touch the number, then it sits on the number, then for, like, EVER, it seems to dangle from the number for more days than I care to see. Then it drops like 2 lbs one day, and I'm off in another decade. Makes me nuts.

Well, off to earn the income that makes computer access possible. Take care everybody.

Hi ladies,

You know what, I need a wife. Or maybe a personal assistant. Someone to do all the things I don't want to do so that I can focus on the things that I really want to do. Ironing is not one of them. Laundry wouldn't make the list either. Cleaning house. I might keep the yardwork and the garden work.

Last night I worked in the garden. We have a ton of tomatoes and they are probably all going to turn ripe at once. I was doing lots of weed pulling and tilling so that I don't lose control of it this year.

Tonight is the fitness center. And today I'm back to healthy eating. I am completely caked out. Between cake for my birthday and cake yesterday for someone else's birthday - yucko, I'm done. I want veggies. Tonight, we're having squash from the garden and cukes too. Anything but cake!

to all!

Good Morning Ladies (& Gentlemen!)

Gosh, I was sure I had posted yesterday. Guess I was imagining things.

I had a good weekend diet-wise. In fact, today marks FOUR days perfectly OP! In fact, I've had a hard time getting in enough points and had to resort to PB&J sandwiches for a snack before bed to get close. Oh the joy of WW and being REALLY FAT - you start off with a LOT to eat! Especially since we're doing really well at getting those veggies in and I've located 1 pt english muffins, bagels, pita bread and wraps. I got in a bit of exercise. Went to the 4th of July celebration on Friday with DS and walked around, probably a couple miles, and was pleased the ankle held up pretty good. Sunday I weeded - and weeded - and weeded. My yard's been somewhat neglected.

The biggest downer of my weekend was the discovery that my new swimsuit from last summer is a size 16 and I'm back into a size 20. We're taking DS to a water park at the end of this month, so I'll be buying a new suit that I'll probably wear only once. At least they're on sale now.

DS has gone to visit his grandparents for the week. They picked him up while I was at work yesterday and we'll get him back on the weekend. It's quiet in the house and nice to concentrate on DH - but I miss him. Actually, it'd be quiet all the time if he and DH would quit arguing. DH is a very strict kind of guy and really, he nags the boy about everything. Really, is it a big deal if he uses too much ketchup or doesn't sit up straight all the time or if he doesn't snap to the second DH tells him to do something. Does it matter if he dwadles over his meal and chats instead of getting dinner over with? And really, who cares if he does his chores at 10 a.m. or 5 p.m. so long as they get done? I'm having a really hard time with this conflict in my house. Some days I just want to say "Leave the boy alone!!!" but I don't want to contradict him in front of DS and undermine his authority either. Although I have to admit, sometimes it slips out. It's just that, with DS at 13, we're going to have war in my house for the next 5 years unless we come up with some compromise. DH is the best husband in the world, bar none, but there is a problem here I'm not sure how to address. Maybe I should try while DS is away, but I don't want DH mad at me for the next - God knows how long - either or to hurt his feelings.

I don't know where all that came from! I really didn't intend to go there when I started typing.

Ruth - It's hot here too - 90 - and raining! You'd think it would cool off with rain, huh? I envy you having veggies to freeze. Mine still aren't doing much. I accidently "weeded" the carrots I put down by my mailbox this weekend! I ate one baby one, but the other's were a loss since I pulled them up.

Heather - Hope things are going well. What house projects are you planning?

Terri - Good job updating that resume. I hope you find a great job and get out of your current situation. It can't be easy staying on a sinking ship.

Anne - Good to see you back!

And now, since I've spent entirely more time than anticipated on here, I need to get to work!!!

Sue and Terri - I guess I was typing while you were both posting!

Sue, Sounds like you had a good weekend! I had to laugh at your DD refusing to work for minimum wage. My DS will do darn near anything for money! The only problem I have there is he doesn't know the weeds from the flowers unless they are in bloom.

Terri, People always told me I needed a wife. And I have one! I tell DH he's much more "wifely" than I am. He does laundry 95% of the time, cleans as often (to be honest, that's not much around my dirty, dusty house), and cooks too. It's very pleasant.

My hubby does all the laundry and ironing. It's nice. But I do most of the shopping/cooking/house cleaning. Division of responsibility.

Lilion -- Last summer we switched hubby's office and our guest room. But all the books stayed in boxes. I have now sorted and shelved all the books (well, most all, I keep finding more all around the house) and am getting ready to clean and do some basic decorating. The next project is cleaning and reorganizing MY office.

4 days OP!

Hi all! Sounds like everyone had a good weekend (not necessarily OP, but a good weekend nonetheless! ). I thoroughly enjoyed my time off from work.

Thursday evening, I picked up Andre from day care and we hit the fireworks stands. That night, we blew up about 1/2 of our loot -- we were the only ones on the block doing so, but we had a good time. He danced around and hooted at the fireworks like a little pagan boy (he's 5). Friday, our neighborhood association puts on a BBQ every year, and we went to that. Andre ran, hopped, and did wheelbarrow races. By the time Friday evening rolled around, he was dead to the world. Regardless, I woke him up -- although it took about 15 minutes -- and we and our neighbors contributed to the noise and air pollution . It was great fun.

Saturday, I got up very early and drove up to the mountains to go camping with my friends from work. It was really nice and peaceful at the campground. My friends are very athletic, so they help keep me moving -- Saturday we hiked 10 miles and Sunday we took a short walk around the lake after breakfast which ended up being 5 miles . Since I got an hour in on the elliptical on Friday and did my upper body weight workout on Sunday, I felt quite good about the weekend despite the BBQ I consumed on Friday and the blueberry pancakes on Sunday.

One of my friends is an amatuer botanist, so I'm having fun learning about all the wildflowers here in Oregon. We saw some sort of mama waterbird (loon, duck, or goose -- I'm not sure) with two little babies paddling behind her and they eventually climbed on her back. What a way to go!

I have school this weekend (yuck -- I am so ready to be done with it!) but next weekend, I'm going backpacking again with my work pals and the following weekend is family camping up again in the mountains. Summers are so nice here, I just want to stay outside all the time!

Wow, I see I haven't posted in a while -- too much time outside playing and not enough time inside playing .

Heather: Grats on your 4 days OP!

Lilion: Woot! 4 days OP for you too!!! Not that I'm an expert in kids or anything, but I have noticed that teenage sons and dads always seem to have conflicts and teenage daughters and moms. Maybe you and DH can talk offline and come to some sort of agreement about DS? Or at least hear each other's perspectives on the subject... I hate heat + humidity (90 & rain) -- I have spent some time in Topeka, KS in the summer (best friend lives there) and the weather just sucks. Give me 65 degrees and drizzle any day!

Terri: Good for you on getting back to healthy eating! That's cool that you had a good time riding Spanky! And, good for you on updating your resume. I need to do that myself -- my company got bought out by an Evil Empire and I am not at all sure I want to stay here much longer....

Sue: Sounds like you had a great relaxing and exercising weekend. My scale doesn't do what yours does -- it's electronic and it measures to 1/10th of a pound, but if I step on and off it three times, I get three different readings. I'm an engineer, so I understand about measurement tolerance (when you weigh close to 300#, 1/10th of a pound is 0.03% of the total weight so probably the scale is not that accurate). I just take the average of the readings .

Ruth: Good for you for your fresh attitude to getting on track!

Anne: Good to hear from you -- I will have to check out that plateau prevention method -- do you have any sort of reference?

Lillion -4 days OP, okay I'm jealous. I find that I do one thing each day that keeps me from being right on food. It's too late for today, but hopefully, your example will keep me from going further off track.

Elmay - The fireworks with DS sound awesome. I loved the years before puberty. I covet your guided tour with botanist. Of course, it'll be a while before I can go mountain (well, hill) climbing.

I do want a wife - no, I don't. I want my dd and dh to pull their share of the load. Things are getting messier with them both home all day, and I'm the only one who works full time. What did we have kids for, if not slave labor. DH and I had a serious discussion about this last night - they have both encouraged me to get involved in an active exercise program - it's the most beneficial thing I can do for myself to keep the cancer from coming back besides take my daily pills - and diet and exercise is right up there at about the same level (I had a lazy cancer, too). But I can't work full time, heal and get emotionally more healthy, heal and get physically more healthy, exercise daily out of the house, and then come home and be the only member of the family cleaning the bathrooms. And, really, I don't want to be responsible for nagging - I can get people to do things - but why am I the only one who notices that there are 3 empty shampoo and conditioner containers on the side of the tub? I don't even use FrizzEase.

Okay, so that's my meltdown.

I really like my trainer - and I enjoy the workouts - but I'm finding that we are pushing me a little farther than my back and knee will tolerate. I'm icing my knee, and putting a hot pack on my back - it's hard to run the vacuum that way.

Hope everyone is having a good week. I'll be back to whine more later.

Sue

I hope everyone is having a good day.

I'm a bit freaked out.

I went in for a routine dental cleaning, and the hygenist found this white spot on the side of my tongue. She called the dentist in, and after she looked at it, she recommended that I see an oral surgeon and have a biopsy. After the dentist left, the hygenist started on my teeth cleaning and told me this story of a guy in her previous practice who had a spot on his tongue and within 30 days was in chemotherapy. I think she was excited about finding something, but I'm really quite scared about possibly having something.

Of course, as soon as I got back to work, I googled "oral cancer" and scared the bejeebus out of myself . I see the oral surgeon on Thursday next week and I doubt I will know anything one way or another for up to a week after that so I will have to calm down eventually....

However, in the good news department, the sun is shining today, I am down 35# from mid-April, I did my aerobics this a.m., I'm OP with my eating, and my teeth are clean now .

Hi ladies,

I just had to "horn" the dogs. They were out of control playing in the living room ad would not get off the couch. I blasted them with the marine big horn. I think Ruby went blind with fright. At least they are laying down behaving themselves now. They don't like to be "horned".

They deserve it too. This morning at 6:30, I was moving dogs from the back yard to the kennel and Wile busted through the gate. And took Duke with him. There I was chasing them down the driveway in my nightgown over to the neighbor's hay field. After they romped and ran, Wile finally came to me. They were all in the dog house after that.

I've made it to the fitness center two nights in a row. I feel like I'm having to start over again in building up my endurance.

I have to confess that I've made some stupid food choices the last two days. At least its not cake. I think I've used work stress as an excuse. Okay, having said that, and having gotten to the fitness center twice now, no more of that stupidity.

Anyone watch the Tudors on Showtime? I love that show. I had forgotten a lot of old English royal history. Last night, I watched Anne of the Thousand Days because now I'm fascinated by the history. I was really surprised but that was a really good movie.

On the wife front, DH is a great cook. But he really sucks at doing laundry and ironing. He claims he can't because of his disability. My theory is he could if he wanted to bad enough. He can't seem to put things away where they actually belong. I have given up on having an organized kitchen. I find things stashed in all kinds of weird places.

Elmay - for being now 35 pounds. All that hiking you've been doing with friends is great help and NSV. Holy cow, that hygentist needs to be smacked upside the head for telling you that about the other patient. Hopefully its nothing but good thing that you're having it checked out. I loved reading about your fun with Andre and the fireworks.

Lilion - Good job for your OP days! Good luck with the DS and DH situation. Wish I could help but I would suck at having kids since I can't seem to control the dogs.

Sue - Whine anytime. Hmmm, I would say that a little heart to heart is in order for both DH and DD. No, they aren't going to see the things that you see that need to be done. How about chore lists? You have to put your health first and that is the healthy eating and exercise. Maybe a little tough love, as in don't cook for them if they don't help during the day. Or maybe the taser I offered Ruth??

I better get this posted and get the dogs in bed. to all!

Okay, so I got caught up on the other thread so I thought I'd try and do the same here (and then keep up).

Terri - until the fall I'll probably be around most mornings. I've been a tad lazy about getting up early this past week, but that has to stop. I'll check Monday mornings and start it if it isn't already. Remember ladies, first one here in the morning can start it! Sounds like you're having fun with your riding, so that's great. On the resume - I'm a huge procrastinator but they do say you should always have an updated one available just in case. Oh, and happy belated birthday.

Ruth - I used to love and hate when we had a big garden. At the time I wish I'd had the food dehydrator I have now. It would have been so nice to just dehydrate veggies to use in soup later. Now I just use it for cherries (soon), tomatoes (later), and will try doing herbs in it this week. I did some herbs last fall, but it wasn't that many. This year I'm growing a few of my own again so I'll play with it more.

Sue - the theory is that when you're dieting that you should consider a week in which you eat to the levels that your body needs to maintain weight. ie. you don't want to lose weight that week. For me that works out to about 3000 cals a day, but I'm sticking to the usual foods that I eat (ie. I'm not just eating madly for a week). Supposedly doing this every 12 weeks should help me avoid the inevitable slow down. We'll see how it goes. It's worked well so far this week. I'm eating more than usual and my weight is just staying the same. I suppose I'll know more in a week when I go back to my usual calorie levels (2150 & 2400 depending on the day). I'm far too controlled at the moment with my eating to consider just eating until I'm full and not planning my food. You're really just supposed to eat until you're full and perhaps just a little bit more. I'd either undereat or overeat so I just took my usual planning method and increased the calories.

Terri - I've always said that every working woman needs a wife.

Lilion - I'm still a little hit and miss with being online. I really am trying to spend more time outside, even if it's just wandering around and watering. I did miss you guys so I will definitely be around more. Congrats on being back OP. It's amazing sometimes how it can be hard to find enough to eat. It's been drummed into us so much that we shouldn't eat too much when trying to lose weight. I'm really stunned how much better I'm losing weight this time - eating more. I look back at the logs when I last passed 300 pounds and I was averaging under 1500 cals doing lots of cardio. Now I never eat under 2150 (and that's my rest day) and I didn't hit that horrible stall I hit the last time.

Elmay - the idea of a maintenance/rest week came from a woman called Leigh Peele. She bills herself as a fat loss troubleshooter and sells a couple of e-books. She also done one on one programs for people (coaching of sorts) where she'll send them a bodybugg to wear and do daily/weekly reporting/feedback. I know a couple of women on another board who have done well with her. I can't afford the personal program but I bit the bullet and bought the e-books. I didn't find anything earth shattering in them (although there was a lot of common sense things that have taken me a long time to figure out on my own). It made sense because (for me) I went a year with rapid weight loss (100) and then the next 4 months I struggled to lose little (20). I ate less, exercised more, and my body freaked out. I figure the worst that will happen for me is that I won't lose weight this week (maybe gain, but so far I haven't). If it helps me gear up for another 12 weeks of consistent losses I can do that. Again, we'll see how it goes.

The catch is - I've been on plan for 178 days (just looked on my blog, that was as of Sunday). I don't do cheat days, or cheat meals, although I calorie count so anything within the range I've picked is considered on plan. I have worked in some treat items along the way. I've had low loss weeks and early in that period I might have had some weeks where I was up a little. Somehow I've managed to keep the food bang on. So I'm fairly certain I can end this week by going back to the lower calories and sticking with them. Other times I've tried to lose weight I'm pretty sure that doing this would have thrown me completely off track. This is a nice way of saying 'do this at your own risk'.

Elmay - yikes, just saw your second post. It's good that she pointed out the spot, and follow-up is always important. However, she should consider keeping her mouth shut with the stories. I do hope everything is fine - don't google illnesses, you will make yourself crazy! And congrats on the loss - I saw your hiking pictures. It looks like you've found a fun way to get your exercise in. That's always a fantastic thing.

Well, I think that's me for the night. It's maybe a little after my bedtime. Hope everyone is having a good week so far.