Good morning and happy Memorial Day to those of us in the US! Who's dealing with BBQs and cookouts? I think it's easier to host than to attend one since we can always provide good choices. DH and I are having our own little cookout with grilled sea bass and watermelon (I should try grilling the watermelon!)

And happy birthday, Sznn! May this be your best year yet.

It's hard to believe that this is the kick-off for summer, maybe because spring was so goofy and cold here. I feel like it's about the beginning of May, not the end. Or maybe it's just the phenomenon of time racing by as we get older? Summer is the easiest time for me to maintain my weight because of all the wonderful summer fruits and veggies. Of course, the lack of holiday goodies helps too! DH's birthday and the 4th of July are the only holidays that I have to deal with during the summer. DH always, always asks for a German chocolate cake but fortunately it's not a favorite of mine. And 4th of July cookouts are quite manageable.

The gym doesn't open until 8 am this morning, though of course I'm wide awake and ready to go. I have a ton of paperwork and bills to get done here at my desk, so I'll drink coffee and work until it's time.

Sheila, we're all thinking of you at this most difficult time.

So what are everyone's plans for this summer? Vacations? Stay-cations? House projects? Gardens? Lose 12 pounds in a week with my patented EZ, Quik weight loss plan, only $49.95 (plus s&h)? (kidding! )

Stretch(y) jeans - or ?

I just switched up my fall/winter clothes for spring/summer. Can't button up most of my spring jeans (no stretch) or my shorts (ditto).

Amazing what a difference a 5 lb. gain can make. 1300 calories per day until I can get into my clothes.

And DH is starting to come on board too so this should make things much easier.

130 lbs. here I come

Have a marvelous holiday Amercians and a great week all the rest of us!

Dagmar

Dagmar, five pounds is a pants size for me too. It's funny because I had to lose 35 pounds before I changed a size when I first started losing weight. Now I swear that two pounds shows up! (all in the butt, of course)

You can do it!

Travel-cations for me this summer.
- Oxford UK in a week. This one is for work, so it's a quick trip.
- Alaska in June/July for my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. We're celebrating with a stay at Camp Denali (http://www.campdenali.com/) and a kayak trip in Homer. Yes, my parents are incredible!
- San Francisco in August for work
- Seattle in late August for family visit.

Gah, how in the world am I going to get any work or gardening done?

Hope all is well. Happy Memorial Day to the US crowd!

Be strong,
Kim

Sheila~prayers to you and your family at this difficult time.

Sznn~Happy Birthday! And don't worry, you'll re-lose that weight. You've done it before, right?

Memorial Day plans: lunch out perhaps, then take in a movie and then home for a back yard burger BBQ. Nothing extraordinary planned.

I am happy to report that I have lost 5.5 pounds and can now start moving my stats. Yes, I've left my stats at 154 knowing full well that I actually got up to 159.5. Ugh. But, I'm on track and once on track nothing much slows me down. DD and I are planning a short road trip in a couple of weeks and I hope to lose a couple more pounds before then. I certainly hope I'm back down to goal before the fall hits (I should be at this rate). I really want to wear some of my nice clothes again--they fit, but they're too tight to be comfortable.

I've decided to not take the Melatonin and see if it helps me get out of bed in the morning. That means I'll have to deal with the consequences of not sleeping quite as well, but if I can get out of bed and get on the treadmill again, it will help me with this weight loss. Last week I didn't exercise at all. Today, DH and I took our dogs on a 4 mile walk. That was nice. Now I need to go cut up melons for my DS's breakfasts. And boil some eggs for my breakfasts.

Good morning and Happy Memorial Day Maintainers!!

Meg-- I hear you on 2 pounds being a big difference in the way clothes fit these days.... We are grilling at home but I have made it well known that I won't eat ribs (don't really like them) so whenever we grill them, dh gets me some chicken. So, I'll have chicken, grilled asparagus, and we bought pineapple and banana to put on the grill for dessert! I'm so excited to have a day off! I'm working 2 jobs some days and Mondays is one of them-- I am off from both of my jobs today! Hooray!! I am going to the gym in a few to take a dance class. Most of the classes are cancelled today (including my boxing boot camp) so I'm curious to see how many people come to this class.

My two dd's are still sleeping. Older dd leaves for the summer on Thursday. She has been working with the personal trainer for the last few weeks and says she sees a difference but told us she hasn't lost any weight-- sigh... we know she is eating better because she is eating with us.... I would swear she has a thyroid problem but we've had it checked several times. I tell dh that we have to be careful what we wish for. I always thought I had an under active thyroid because I couldn't lose weight. I tested normal several times and then was diagnosed with an OVERactive thyroid (Grave's Disease). Once I was treated for the Graves, I gained another 20 pounds in less than a month!

Summer plans are busy for us. I will take another class for my masters and it is a hard one. I tried it once another semester and dropped it but it is a required course for my degree so I have to take it. Dd and I will go to Houston late June/early July to visit friends and inlaws. Dd and I will also go down to see older dd at camp once in July and dh will go down to see her another time (she gets small breaks and will be stuck in the middle of nowhere with no car). She will be fairly close to Disneyland so we may go there when we go down.... not sure yet. The whole family is going on an Alaskan cruise in August. Younger dd will go to camp for a week. I think that's enough for the summer!!

kaw-- you have some exciting travel coming up too! I love to travel (hence my name-- I actually took my name from another board I post on because I used to be michele in houston when we lived in Houston, then we moved to S. Africa so I became michele on safari, then we moved again and I decided to just be traveling michele to cover any future moves!)

Dagmar-- glad dh still seems to be on board!

Morning all! Another gorgeous day in the far north. Kim you should have been here the last 3 weeks - spectacular!

We have no memorial day plans. We grilled last night - chicken sausages (sweet Italian seasoning) which I put on homemade buns with sauteed onions and peppers. We had ff baked beans with them. Today I'm cooking quite a bit as my sister arrives tomorrow night and I don't want to spend too much time cooking while she's here. We have some leftover salmon and pork so one of those will be dinner.

Michele - what class is giving you so much grief? If I can help, PM me. I've had several MLS students come by this spring to "interview" the librarian. Most are school librarians getting their degree. You don't have to be a librarian here, only a teacher, but I think an MLS gets you more $$.

Great job on the loss, Allison. I was looking at my cookbooks the other day and found (blush) that I have a Cooking Light one called Superfast which looks really good, though I'm still considering the fresh foods one you have.

I'm spending the day catching up on things so I can spend guilt-free time with my sister. I'm only working Tues (she gets here that night) and Friday (a daylong training scheduled before I knew she was coming) so I'll have plenty of time with her. DH will take her on a glacier cruise on Friday. Today I'm finishing the laundry, mowing the lawn, cooking as noted above, and paying bills. That ought to keep me out of trouble.

Happy Birthday Sznn! Next year will be a good one!

Happy Memorial Day, maintainers!

We'll have a BBQ this afternoon---grilled turkey burger and roasted veggies for me. And I do have a pineapple, so I think I'll throw that on the grill too.

DH is out of school for the summer and he has been deep cleaning. The house is looking pretty good. Now, to keep it that way! I swear, none of us are ever home, so how in the world does it get messy? I'm pretty sure we have gnomes or a poltergeist or some such.

As for travel, in 2 weeks, DH, DD #1 and I are going to France. Squeee!!! I'm trying to squeeze in a day trip from Paris to London. I've heard it is doable---have any of our maintainers done such a thing? So, in France, there will be wine and bread and cheese and wine and chocolate and wine....I think I will need to travel with some protein powder! Most breakfast descriptions are low in protein. I'm also taking my running shoes and some resistance bands. My body really seems to have settled into a natural maintenance range so as long as I make reasonable choices, I'll be okay. And we'll be walking a TON!

In July we go to Tennessee for a family reunion. And we need to squeeze in some road trips to look at some colleges. Will be a busy summer!

Happy Birthday sznn!

midwife~I can't vouch for a day trip to London from Paris. From Rouen (sp?) yes, totally do-able. I imagine it would take most of the day to GET to London and then you don't have time for the sights. But you should check in with some of the UK girls here and ask them for sure (it's been 33 years since I've been there and my memory is a LITTLE hazy to say the least!). Have a WONDERFUL trip with your husband and daughter!!!! (jealous!) And yeah, breakfasts in Paris--croissants and rolls with coffee or hot chocolate were what we were offered. Not even fruit. Oh, and we have a maintainer who lives in France...

Midwife - I did a daytrip from Paris to London when I was in France for a semester in college. Doable. We took the train, left early, came back late. Had a blast, but were tired afterward because we tried to pack in too much in one day... I remember the trip taking a few hours each way, threeish maybe? 13 years ago, so the details are a little fuzzy.

Happy Birthday Sznn!

Allison - high five on the 5.5!

Dagmar - in my opinion, stretchy pants have become the devil... they give me a false sense of security... Good luck getting back on track! You can do it! Having DH on board will help.

My grandmother was moved out of ICU tonight and is in a regular room now. I'm pretty relieved about that - now it is on to physical therapy.

No big summer travel plans here.

Hi to everyone I missed!

Doable, I'd say, especially if you plan ahead. Here's the link to Eurostar (the high speed train between London and Paris - and a few other places too). There might be a deal involving an overnight stay which would make it less exhausting ... and even more thrilling!

http://www.eurostar.com/dynamic/index.jsp

Pat has told me to call in more often and say 'hi' so I'm going to try to do that. My news of the day is that, although I'm 7lbs or so up on this time last year, my shorts and linen trousers fit much better! I put it down to going to the gymn consistently, come rain or shine! I do lifting, cardio and stretching.

midwife Our member Kerry is the one who lives in Paris. Can't remember her "screen" name at the moment.

Dagmar

Good morning, maintainers! I hope everyone had a good holiday. It's been raining a lot here, so our official start of the summer has been delayed.

I think Kery lives in Strasbourg.

Sheila, I'm so sorry about your granddaughter.

Dagmar - I love stretchy jeans, but not so much because they give me wiggle room with my waist as because most jeans just aren't cut quite right for my body. Getting stretchy jeans just makes them fit better. If they aren't stretch I always end up with jeans that are tight on my butt and falling off my waist.

Allison, great job on the loss!

I wish I was going on a big vacation, but sadly I'm not. DH and I are planning a long weekend trip with the dog up to Saugatuck in Michigan sometime this summer but haven't picked a date yet. I'd like to go visit some friends in Seattle, Philadelphia, and NYC too but I don't know if any of those will happen. I might aim for Philadelphia just because it's closest. I'd also love to take a weekend trip to DC. So many places to go, so little vacation time. Sigh. Why are we not more like Europe???