Hydra - Tamiflu is a wonder drug. I have some on hand that I got from my doctor when H1N1 first appeared back in the Spring. Glad I got it then because they are being a little tight with it now. I wouldn't worry about the exercise, you don't want to over do it.

WLW - That is a GREAT deal on the gym membership.

Hi Petra, Welcome to the group. I'm Cindy guardian to four dogs and one cat. I'm sure you will find the ladies here on the 40 something supportive. We all go through phases but most of the time we are very active.

Patch - I didn't need to hear about Pizza, I've been craving cheese in the crust and garlic balls.

Marie - Glad DH is home safely. Enjoy your time together.

OMW - You are definitely on your way. I know for me when I took the summer off I had several false starts back at it but the last five weeks have been GREAT. I'm a little nervous about vacation but I hope if I continue to workout and watch my portions I can keep the gain to under 7 lbs. I really wanted to be in the 130's before I left but it doesn't look like that will happen. I've lost weight on a cruise before so there is no reason why I can't this time. It's the second week with my family that I'm really concerned about.

Our hike yesterday was awesome. Total of 9.5 miles, seems not all washes lead to the trailhead.... LOL I'll be uploading some pictures later today. We ended up going up one slot canyon (the one we did last week) and down another and the second one was even more like being on another planet. I'm just amazed that this place is less than an hour from our house.

So I started carrying a bigger backpack with two 100 oz. reservoirs, first aid kit, flashlight...... total weight is 20 lbs. I'm sitting there at the top of the peak looking at both our packs and realized that I had lost that much weight (Mack's weighs about 23 lbs.). It was a really good feeling.

CruiseCAT your hiking is really inspiring. I know what you mean about having that a ha moment of how much weight you've lost; I've experienced that, too. You are doing great; 44 lbs, wow! As for the Tamiflu, just a warning that it gave me a really wonky headache while I was taking it. But otherwise I didn't have any problems with it. Neither of my kids complained of headaches, though.

Hydra I love your new avatar... I'm not sure when you changed it, so maybe it's old news, but I just noticed it; you look great, and happy.

I'm sitting here hungry so I'm off to make my morning coffee. I've already been up an hour but have been tackling the laundry beast that has been on my back for quite some time.

Hi ladies,

Sorry for not posting, but I'm lurking every day ... It keeps me going.

This week another 2 lbs gone .... never to come back .

best regards to all
Nell

Morning all. Hubby woke up with a headache, so we decided to sleep late.
Its a nice day out so hopefully we can get out an enjoy it later..

Pictures posted from yesterday's hike:

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/575447863NFUAuU

Yesterday's hike went down Owl Canyon as we did last week but instead of an out/back we continued to the west to Rainbow Basin Peak and then down to another slot canyon (we think it was Fossil Canyon). Round trip should have been about 8 miles but we tried to take a short cut through a wash that was a dead end and that added about 1.5 miles.

I did not include pictures of Owl Canyon, you can view those in the album I posted last week from that hike.

Penguin, sounds like you really like variety in your workouts. Go chickie go! Excellent job.


Newleaf, DH had the audacity to mention that his boss talked about putting him on swing shifts. Since I work days, my response was what difference was it then him being deployed other than I’d see him on weekends and my sleep would be majorly disrupted every night. I’m guessing he wishes he’d have kept that to himself. Now that I’ve pondered it, at least I’m used to being on my own and my doggies would have company during the day. Man my life is getting pathetic. The wrist burn is very messy. I’ve never had such a severe burn, it’s down to the meat and it just oozes. Sterile pads stick to it no matter how much bacitracin I put on it. I look at this quarter size stop and try to imagine these poor burn victims that have 60% of their bodies 3rd degree burns after fires and the such. I can see why they’d nearly have to drug them into a coma. My empathy level is much higher now.

Lamb, I will let DH know we will look for a running store so he can do that. Thanks for the info.

OMW, congrats on the roll and moving that ticker. I happy for you that you found your groove.

Welcome petra!!! You definitely found a home. Just make sure you go to the week two posts after catching up here. I bet you’re battening down the hatches (always wanted to say that) with the hurricane warnings. My DS was in Biloxi for tech school a couple years ago and the damage from Katrina was horrendous. And I love your avatar. Are they your two dogs? Do you have more? I have huskies.

WLW, that would be so cool to have a gym at work. I’d need one with a punching bag occasionally…

Hydra, DS and soon to be DIL spent nearly all day here yesterday and we ran out of time – didn't make the onion. DH reminded me about it today as he has plans for it on the menu. I’ll let you know.

Cruise, way to go on the long hike with the heavy pack. That is an amazing workout!

Nell, great job on the 2 pound!


Marie

Thanks for the welcome everyone. I look forward to getting to know everyone and it will take some time so bear with me. I already kind of know Hydra since we both post in the Sonoma/Mediterranean forum.

Cruise-your pictures are awesome. Great that you have such a cool place to hike. I'm not so fortunate here but I do have a beach, LOL

Marie-yes, we are under a hurricane watch. When I saw the emergency warning come across the TV this morning, I thought "you must be kidding!" The weather here is actually quite nice right now. I'm a doctor and if the Hurricane is due to actually come close to here, I will have to be locked into the hospital during the storm so this is a big deal for me. I have to board my dogs, take food, clothes, etc to the hospital because I may be there for a couple days. This is not looking like something that warrants plywood on the windows or anything. The hospital is currently not on any kind of hurricane watch so I'm not freaking yet. The recovery from Katrina is coming along well

A little about me. Yes, those are my two babies in my avatar. I have a soon to be 7 year old yellow lab and a roughly 4 year old German Shepherd. The shepherd is a rescue so I don't know her exact age. They are in love. I have been overweight most of my adult life. I have tried many, many diets. I have successfully lost large amounts of weight twice. In 2002 I lost 50+ lbs on weight watchers, but never reached my goal and obviously didn't keep it off. In 2005, I lost 65 lbs on a low carb diet called protein power. I got closer to my goal weight than I ever have-about 25 lbs away but never made it and have again, gained almost all that weight back. I seem to have learned something from all these experiences and in the past few years have settled on mediterranean style eating but have had trouble kind of getting a handle on it so I would lose a little 15-20 lbs and then get frustrated and give up, and come back, etc. This time I have made some changes that I think have helped me get over those final hurdles and I believe I'm gonna get there. I don't want to overwhelm you with info so that is probably already more than you want to know. I'll try to keep up as best as I can. Sometimes my job gets crazy and I don't have time to check everyday but I'll try.

After watching the weather report, I figured I better do a little more. I got all the furniture, grill, etc off my back patio.

Marie: lol, we actually have punching bags and a dummy type thing they use for kickboxing as well! They have trainers at the gym and are pretty well equipped I usually either walk the parking lot in good weather (and weekends) or hit the treadmil for about 20 minutes on my lunch break. Plus a half mile walk each way to the bus stop. Planning to step it up this week with more elliptical/bike and arm bike : ) And I really need to work on my pt execises too! It sounds like you may need to get that burn looked at : (

Petra: welcome and I hope Ida misses you, or weakens considerably!
Cruise: I so envy you those great hikes, hope I can build up to those kinds of distances!
Nell: lurking is ok, as long as you're getting motivated!

I'm doggie sitting for a few days, we'll see if it encourages or discourages me from trying again with another dog of my own : )

TLC I live in PA, too, and the boys went to school in shorts today. My DS8 is hoping that it will be a record-breaking heat LOL. Sounds like you had a great weekend, and congrats on the jeans size...

weightlosswanted good luck with the doggies! I'm sure you can get a lot of support for that on this site, with all of our resident alpha dogs...

petra Here's hoping that Ida doesn't impact you too much...

marie I hope your burn is continuing to heal, and that your DH's boss comes to his senses... arrrrrgh.

cruiseCAT good luck with all your trip prep this week. Your photos were great!

nell congrats on the 2 lbs!!

Patchwork I hope your DH's headache was fleeting and you got out and enjoyed the day!

Well, it's the start of a new week and I need to gear up to plan out the dinners again. I plan to exercise as well, and of course need to fit work in there, too. I'm on the hamster wheel...

Oops! I posted on the old thread yesterday. Here's what I said:

Petra - welcome!!

newleaf - nice to "see" you. Great job on staying on plan.

onmyway - congrats on seeing that scale move! It's going to keep going.

weightloss - do you maybe have a public gym nearby that you can drop into once in a while when your gym is closed? It might help to keep your momentum going. I know that my keeping up with the gym is about momentum and I can't stop for long or it's so hard to go back.

Hydra - glad to hear your Tamiflu is working. I've been taking a homeopathic remedy for the same reasons and it seems to be working. It's supposed to be stimulating the immune response. So far, so good. I started feeling sick on Wednesday and I've managed to keep functioning ok. I am soooo tired, though.

Marie - your marinara sounds good. I think I might have to consider canning, too. I have an intolerance to garlic and it seems to be impossible to find any salsas or spaghetti sauces that don't have any. Hmmm...

It's TOM and I'm borderline sick with almost having the flu, although I'm fighting it off as best as I can.

Added today: Feeling better, but I didn't go to the gym this morning. It'll probably be a couple of days before I'm up to it. The really good news about my gym is that it has been bought out by a local fitness chain. The new owner is buying $1,000,000 of new equipment! It's always been a well maintained and very clean gym, but there was a shortage of the newer cardio equipment, so this should change things. It'll be a wonderful early Christmas present (the new equipment is supposed to show up anytime now and it should take a month for it all to arrive).

Hi everyone! My turn for a drive-by - want to say a hello and welcome to Petra, and extend wishes of healing to Marie, hydra, and Maggie and continued health to everyone else!

I got to come home for lunch today. A rare treat. The weather is starting to get very tropical here-very windy and the rain has started. Apparently the hospital has decided against a lock down which makes me happy. Thanks for all the warm welcomes.

Nell and Giv-congrats on your losses. Size 12 pants! U go girl!

Marie-Lake Tahoe, and Cancun. I'm jealous! I'm going home for Christmas-to the Philadelphia area. Can't believe I'm saying this but it might be nice to see some snow.