Just starting the topic - be right back

Just a quick note before I run off to PT and then start another sure to be crazy week. I had a awful weigh in on Saturday, up 2.8 points. I know some of it is the anti-inflammatories and some of it was the result of some poor choices. I stayed through my meeting for the first time in a few weeks and it felt good. I had a pretty good weekend - I guess the awful weigh-in helped. My step daughter and grandson came over yesterday and we spent the day at the village pool - it was a great day. My stepdaughter started WW and as we planned to have Chinese food, we sat together and figured out points and what dishes we should have - it was great to have her there - I know I provided a lot of tips for her (and veggies for snacks) but it also really helped me stay OP. So, I'm energized for a good week - my biggest challenge is the amount of stress at work for the next few weeks but I'm going to hang in there and work for (I wrote "hope for" and changed it!) a nice loss on Saturday.

Have a great one,
Judy
163.6/157!/135

Hi everyone.

Goodness, it's quiet in here. Where is everyone?

Judy - I'm sorry about that gain Good for you for staying for your meeting and for staying OP over the weekend. You have the right attitude and you will have a loss on Saturday.

I had a decent weekend, albeit a hot one. Luckily we didn't have anything planned this weekend. Could have done better eating-wise but did well water wise. Tonight's my monthly dinner out with my friend. Probably our last as she's getting married and moving to Atlanta. I'd walk to the restaurant tonight, but it's just too darn hot. Plus I don't have my walking shoes and I'll be heading to the restaurant with another friend who's joining us. Today's been pretty much a bust food wise, but I'll make the best choices I can tonight. Tomorrow will be much better - I'm having lunch with a client and a couple of co-workers, but I know where we're going and I know I can make good choices.

Have a great evening everyone.

Carla

Hi Everyone,

Only have 4 seconds to post...Judy, your gain will soon be history; hang in there...Carla, hope your dinner went well; I'll be thinking about you through your last week of work.

Was NOP all weekend...back on the bandwagon now. Have had some good workouts at the gym.

Have a great day...

Karen

Hi group

I ran into the classic snafu of being stressed and busy and letting that pull me away from healthy eating and exercise I had company on Friday, so Thursday had to clean house like mad, Sat was Great America (in the searing heat) and Sunday was dinner w/ parents! I don't know what I was thinking yesterday when I made choco chip cookies, and then proceeded to eat most of them myself - ahhhhhhhh (up 1 lb, BTW)

Oh well, I got up at 5:45 this AM and went walking, the cookies should be gone by the time I get home, and I am ready to succeed!!

Karen - sounds like we are in the same boat -- welcome back on the wagon!

Cece - How sad your friend is moving away I hope you have a great time tonight . Keep up with that water -- we sure need it in this weather!

Judy - Shrug off the gain and keep moving forward. What a great step to have a new WW buddy to get re-motivated with!

It's crazy busy but I wanted to check in quickly.

Karen - glad to hear you had great workouts at the gym - you go girl!

Carla - it's been hot, hot, hot here too - yucky walking outside. I hope your dinner and lunch went well as you enjoyed the occasion as well as did OK points wise.

Holly - sorry to hear that about your "being stressed and busy and letting that pull me away from healthy eating and exercise" - you took the words right out of my mouth so I know how you feel. You're right - it is great having my step-daughter as a new WW buddy - very motivating.

I did OK yesterday. Tony cooked a new recipe from Cooking Light which was yummy but I miscalculated the points and ended up with very little in the evening. Still, I managed to stay within my points. I found that drinking a couple of glasses of diet V-8 splash really helped. They are yummy and my leader says you'd have to have something like 10 glasses for it to amount to 1 point.

Hope to get some kind of exercise in when I get home although I'll be coming from the dentist (replace an old, cracked filling) so I don't know if that will work. Sometimes it can increase some of the throbbing.

Gotta fly - have a great one,
Judy

Hello everyone.

Judy- don't let the gain ruin your week...shake it off! I enjoy my meetings and usually get a new tip or two from each one. How wonderful your stepdaughter joined ww...so much more fun to tackle it with someone. My mom, sisters and I would talk about points nonstop when I was on ww 4 yrs ago.

Carla- sounds like the heat/humidity found you guys too...isn't it dreadful? Hope you had a grand time at dinner with your friend last night...what kind of good choices did you make?

Karen- good to hear you're back on the bandwagon. That's the key to success..keep climbing back on and keep trying.

Lyontamer- had a run in with cookies myself on Sun...mine were choc chip/oatmeal. Actually weren't too bad though since I used splenda so my hubby could enjoy them too.

I had a good loss last night..down 2# for the week. Had a bit too much chinese dinner last night since I took the meal off from journaling....it was only 1 meal and I'm back at it this morning. Have a great think thin Tuesday!
Angie

Hi everyone

Karen - Glad to ehar that you're right back on the bandwagon and have had some good workouts. Hope you're able to slow down soon.

Holly - Great America is one of the last places on earth I would have wanted to be at on Saturday. SOrry to hear you had a stressful weekend and let that pull you off program. Just hop right back on.

Judy - So what did Mr. Tony make you for dinner? I like that diet V8 splash too. Makes a nice change from diet pop (soda to you), which I really don't keep at home or just plain water. Hope you're able to slow down soon too.

Angie - Congrats on another terrific loss. How do you like using Splenda? I keep meaning to try it, but then again I haven't baked anything in ages.

Dinner last night was good. Had a salad and for dinner a veggie plate. Started with some cornbread. Split a small dessert with one of my friends. So all in all not too bad. Of course, wine was involved. Lunch today was great. Had a grilled Thai chicken salad that was flagged as being heart healthy. Had some dessert though. I plan on eating light for dinner. I'm going to work late to get some stuff done since I'm off tomorrow and I don't want to have too much left to do on Thursday and Friday. The good thing about being off tomorrow: no food related events. I'm tired of eating. I have to take Ana to the doctor for her 4 year old check up and also to get her Dr. to sign off on her dental work and anathesia which is scheduled for 7/5. While I'm their, since he's my doc as well, I may ask him to write me a script for physical therapy. My ankle is tight and my knee is hurting.

Have a great day everyone.

Carla

Hi Everyone

Wow, what a quiet place for the last two days. No doubt everyone is hot, tired and busy.

I elected not to weigh in this week coz I'm retaining water like a camel and couldn't stand the thought of a four or five pound gain. I have been eating NOP again , because I haven't forced myself to journal.

Carla, what an emotional week this must be for you. Hope all the farewell lunches are great.

Angie - congratulations on another great loss!

Judy - we can't get diet V8 splash here, only the full of sugar stuff. Bummer.

Holly - don't you hate it when you bake and then chow down. I've really had to stop baking except for company. Can never stop at just one cookie.

Hope you can find a few minutes to post. It's lonely here!

Karen

Angie - congratulations on the great loss!! I'm curious about your "meal off from journaling". Is that something you do every once in a while? You've been so successful - I'm interested in anything that keeps you motivated and OP for the long term.

Carla - Sorry to hear about your ankle and knee. My knee has been bad the last few days and I'm thinking that Imay quit PT for my shoulder (which is been really good lately) and keep the 8 sessions I have left for the year (covered by insurance) for my knee! Good for you for doing so well with all your food-related events. So, how does it feel to be free after just one more day! Ha - Mr Tony! The last two nights we've had different varieties of pasta with veggies and pasta with veggies and shrimp - easy to put together because I got home late both Tuesday and yesterday. Tonight we're going to try a WW recipe - Cranberry and Aprical Chicken. It's only 4 points a serving and looks like it will be really tasty. Of course, since today is a telecommute day, we might share the cooking since we both like to cook.

Karen B - I'm so sorry to hear that you are having a rough time of it. Have you thought of trying a couple of baby steps for the rest of the week to try to help get you back OP? Maybe pick one thing and see if you can do it every day - like getting in your water. One thing I've been doing to stay OP to lose what I gained last week is something we talked about in our meeting - do 3 things for 3 days and then reward yourself afterwards. My 3 are: 1) to get all my milks in 2) to write down absolutely everything that goes into my mouth and 3) to stay within my points range. So far, I have 2 days where I did all three and just today to go. My reward is going for a 1/2 hour massage on Saturday - I have knots all over my neck and back from all this stress. Big bummer on the diet V-8 splash!

It's been a crazy week and the heat and humidity hasn't helped any. We had a very strong thunderstorm yesterday. I was in my bosses office with another colleague and all of a sudden we heard a loud noise that sounded like an explosion. We all jumped up and my boss looked out of the window to see if he could see what happened. The sky wasn't dark so we didn't think it was thunder. It was a very post-9/11 reaction - our first thought was explosion, not an innocuous noise - until I saw a huge bolt of lightening and then we realized it had been thunder - we all felt a huge wave of relief. Today is a little better work-wise but I don't see it slowing down for the foreseeable future. My exercise has definitely suffered - I hate the stationary bike but with my knee I don't dare do any other kind of aerobic exercise. I'm pretty bummed too because I thought it would be feeling better by now - I was hoping Tony and I could play a little tennis on vacation (7/21). I only have 8 PT visits left for the year too. I've been doing well OP -wise. I think the day with my stepdaughter helped my motivation and the 3-day challenge is helping too.

Well. back to work - those who haven't been around this week - I hope you are all doing well!
Judy

Hi all.

Wow, it has been quiet in here. I was home from work yesterday to take Ana to her check-up and after we got home I was so tired for some reason, that I snoozed off and on on the couch until it was time to make dinner.

Karen - I didn't weigh in yesterday either. I've been bad with water lately, which makes me retain, and then I haven't been doing all that great with my eating. Too many food events, etc. So I'm just going to wait until next week. I'm pretty much in the same place as you in regards to not journalling, so not eating OP. Let's pull each other back up on the band wagon. We can do it, I know we can.

Judy - Sorry to hear your knee is bothering you too. Mine is better, for now. The cranberry and apricot chicken sounds good. If you like it, please do share the recipe. I've started panicking thinking about having to prepare lunches all week and dinners too. I like to cook and I have a lot of cookbooks, so I'll be fine, but I think I'm just in panic mode right. Probably displacing my emotions or something like that. That post 9/11 reaction is perfectly understandable. Heck, we're still jumpy here and we were very far removed from the damage.

Karen was right, it is an emotional week for me. As much as I don't like my job and as much as I'm hugely looking forward to being at home for at least the summer, this has been a large part of my identity and it feels weird giving it up. And it will be hard to say good-bye to my co-workers, particularly my former boss. I packed up my files today and shipped them to the people taking over my accounts. I have a few small personal things left to cart home today and tomorrow and a few small things to follow up on. And then I'm done. I figure it will take a few weeks to carve out a new routine at home. I don't think it will really hit me until we come back from vacation in August and I don't have to go to work. I think it will be a lot easier for me to stay OP when I'm home. Less stress, less running out to eat. We'll see.

Have a great day.

Carla

Carla - I'm sure it is a very emotional week for you. I'm sure that you will get back on the band wagon with Karen and have a good result next week. Maybe it's time for a babystep (like getting in the water)? When and where are you going on vacation?

I had a pretty good day yesterday although I had a small run in with some PB in the evening. I journalled it and used a couple of banked exercise points so I'm OK. I'm hoping for a good weigh in tomorrow - if I don't lose all I gained at least I'd like to come close. The key will be this evening. For some reason (maybe the stress of the week) I don't do well in the snacking department on Friday evenings - right before my weigh in! I think I'll try to cut to cut up some veggies - there's a Yankee game we can (finally) watch tonight and that's another dangerous (snacking) activity. I'll try to get back later and post the recipe for the cranberry apricot chicken. It was very good and we're looking forward to the leftovers tonight.

Judy

Hi all.

Judy - Yes indeed, I need to get back to baby steps and water is a really good place to start. We're going to Minnesota (Hi Angie) on vacation. Actually, if you'll bear with a semi-long story, it's going to be a very cool vacation. When I was young, we always went to Minnesota for vacation with my grandparents and my aunt and uncle and cousins. (We were quite the fishing family.) This past August I saw one of my cousins for the first time in 16 years (the last time I saw him had been my wedding.) No family strains or anything, he just wasn't living away - first in CO and then TX. At any rate, I mentioned that it would be fun to have a family reunion in MN sometime. A few weeks later I got a call from my cousin saying he had thought about what I said and he thought we should do it. So, he organized the whole thing and we'll all be up there together again. There'll be 25 of us. I cannot wait.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the cranberry chicken. Good luck with the snacking tonight. Veggies sounds like a good plan. You can do it!

Everyone - if I don't get back on today (I think I'll be leaving early), have a great day and a terrific weekend.

Carla

Carla - I think that vacation sounds wonderful. I think the family reunion sounds like it will be a blast! Are you flying or driving?

Cranberry Apricot Chicken

Here's the recipe - it makes 4 servings and is 4 points per serving.

4 (4 oz) skinned, boned chicken breast halves
1/2 tsp ground sage
Olive oil flavored vegetable cooking spray
1 tsp olive oil
2/3 cup canned reduced sodium chicken broth, divided
1 tsp cornstarch
1/3 cup sweetened dried cranberries (such as Craisins)
1/3 cup chopped dried apricot halves
1/3 cup sliced green onions (about 2 medium)

1. Place chicken breast halves between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap, and flatten to 1/4 inch thinckness, using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Sprinkle sage evenly over chicken.

2. Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; add oil and place over medium-high heat until hot. Add chicken, and cook 3 minutes on each side or until chicken is lightly browned.

3. Combine 1 tablespoon broth and cornstarch; stir well, and set aside. Add cranberries, apricot and remaining broth to skillet. Bring mixture to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer 6 minutes or until chicken and fruit are tender. Transfer chicken to a serving platter.

4. Stir cornstarch mixture; add to skillet. Stir in green onions and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute or until sauce thickens. Serve sauce over chicken