Cyber Monday! Who's shopping online today? I actually snagged a few online specials over the weekend, so don't have much left to do today. But I'll watch for deals! I desperately need new gym shoes but they're hard to buy online. As soon as I find a model I like, it gets discontinued.

It sounds like just about everyone had a wonderful time with family and friends for Thanksgiving. Our family gathering was big (24) and loud and lots of fun. DD announced that she's pregnant (due in June), which was the highlight of the weekend. So I'm going to be a grandma!

Is anyone dealing with leftovers? I sent my son home with a laundry basket (!) of leftovers yesterday and got everything but turkey out of the house. My weight stayed the same over the holiday, so I'm calling it a maintenance success. Over and over again this weekend I was reminded how my body is so used to eating small portions of healthy food that I physically can't overindulge much these days. A certain food may taste good for 15 seconds, but it is NOT worth feeling sick over for hours. I did enjoy some lovely wine, though. It's funny, I think I'm at the point where I'd pick a glass of wine over a dessert as a special treat. My, how life has changed!!

So it's back to reality today. Which means mountains of laundry and getting everything back to normal. The old kitty goes back to the vet today for another B12 shot and weight check, but he's doing so much better.

Regardless of what happened over Thanksgiving, today is always a new day and fresh start. A few off-plan days doesn't mean we give up until January 1! We're maintainers; we're pros at this weight loss stuff. Every one of us knows exactly what to do, so let's get all the crap out of the house and be right back on track. By the end of the week, I'm betting that any weight gain will be gone.

Good morning! It's almost December . My plan for December is to not mindlessly eat at any point.

I will only have healthy foods at home and, should I find myself bored in front of the TV, I will get up and go into another room.

I think I have reached my maintenance weight. It's about 5 lbs. over my goal weight but so be it .

I am going to concentrate on staying in the 130-135 range this winter by eating smaller portions of healthy foods, not drinking any alcohol, and splurging on the weekends with things other than food.

Have a great day all!

Dagmar

That sounds like an excellent plan, Dagmar!

Congratulations, grandma Meg!

Good luck, Dagmar.

I had fun last week; we had 74 people for Thanksgiving! That's a new record, even for us. It's back to normal today, though.

Woohoo! Congrats Meg!!

Dag, great plan!

Wow, that's a lot of people, Ward! Sounds like fun!

The scale's up today.....back to basics!

Meg, congratulations!!!! Just think, your grandchild is going to grow up thinking that grandmas are all bodybuilders like you! And you'll be able to keep up with running around after a small child since you have so much more energy and stamina than you did before losing weight.

Like I posted on last week's thread, the leftover pie we took home ended up being eaten entirely by me. However, the only other leftovers we had were a few rolls (which DH ate), sweet potatoes (which DH ate), turkey and cranberry sauce. The turkey got turned into turkey mushroom casserole -- my favorite leftover recipe EVER, I will post it on the recipes thread in a minute -- and the cranberry sauce was served with it and is now gone. We still have a baggie of turkey in the fridge which will probably go on sandwiches.

I'm up 1.2lbs today. I'm hoping to flush it out with lots of water now that I'm back at work, since I drink way more water at work than at home.

Dagmar, I'm glad you made peace with yourself at 135 and picked it as your maintenance weight. Doesn't it feel good to not be stressing out it anymore?

Ward, 74?!?! How many turkeys did you need for all those people???

Midwife, how did the turkey end up? No defrosting required?

MIL had our turkey spatchcocked (or however you spell it) and it turned out great. Basically the butcher cuts out the backbone and flattens the turkey out so it's kind of butterflied. Then you cook it all on one layer, and it cooks quicker and the dark meat is done at the same time as the white meat, so it is all moist and yummy. It doesn't look as pretty when it comes out of the oven but it sure tasted good.

I was looking over my health spreadsheet and noticed an alarming trend. Over the past month or so I've degenerated from working out 5x/week down to 3x/week. What's going on?? What a bum. I need to get my butt in gear. I told DH that when we get home tonight he has to kick me out the door for my run even if I'm whining and say I'm too tired or hungry.

I get overwhelmed when I don't catch the chats early so I haven't posted here in a while, but some post-Thanksgiving accountability is just what the doc ordered for me so I'm jumping back in

I made some good choices over the holiday but ate A LOT(it was also my birthday.) I'm up a smidge but still under my "goal" of 135 (the 120s are so close I kind of can't help myself, but I'm really happy here too). Anyway I think this will be a really good experience bc I'm going to show myself that I can enjoy holidays and then get back on track and on with my life, so I don't have to worry about family events and so forth being major stumbling blocks.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. For me that means a balance between eating what I want and making good choices because foregoing half a piece of cake is better than eating the whole thing, even if I'm already over my calories anyway.

Thansgiving wasn't too bad managed to do portion control, BUT yesterday I went to a potluck and was nearly done in by coconut cream pie, OMG I wanted to pick up the whole pie and eat the whole darn thing. It was only because I was raised with manners that I didn't . I did eat a slice and a half. It was delicious. I never have a whole pie in my house, for obvious reasons.

Leftovers? After having 12 houseguests for the better part of the week? You bet I have leftovers, and most of them are the not-so-healthy type. For example, I had mashed potatoes and yams for BREAKFAST today. Breakfast. Give me a break! But it was probably better than the two slices of pizza that were calling my name.

Thankfully everyone is gone now as are the cookies that my family seems to live on. They also stocked my fridge with all kinds of juices--some of which went down the drain last night. The rest will probably join them today, but my recycling bin was too full to put more in.

And that 2 pound loss on Friday? Well, it came back with two to join it, so I'm feeling rather thick and dreary today. Also dreary as my dog is getting worse. He keeps falling and can't seem to make his legs take him where he wants to go. Last night DH got up with him twice to pick him up and he finally got him just inside our bedroom door where he slept all night (the dog, not the husband!). This morning he ate his carrot there and then I managed to help him up and he went outside, came back in, and collapsed in the living room. I imagine he'll be there when we get back. Worst is that when he struggles, he often poops. Our last dog did this, too, and we knew it was close to the end. But the darn dog keeps wagging his tail and he has a great appetite, so we really don't know what to do. But I said the other day that I doubt he'll make it to Christmas.

Allison, that is sad about your dog. FWIW they do make doggie wheelchairs for dogs who have lost the use of either their front or back legs. They also make doggie diapers. We lost our last family dog to bone cancer, and it was very difficult during his last days to see him struggle to get up and lay down. When he was up he was limping, and in order to lay down he would basically just throw himself down onto his side since he couldn't ease himself down anymore. Since his was cancer rather than just old age, we knew his legs were hurting him a lot and put him to sleep even though he was still able to eat some (although we had to hand feed him sometimes). I came home from college to see him on his last day and I think he knew that it was time for him to go. My parents got a tranquilizer from the vet so that they could knock him out at home before bringing him in to be put down, so that his last memories would be happy instead of being of the stressful trip to the vet. It still makes me cry to remember it.

Okay, to counteract that depressing thought, I have a funny and cute story about my dog from this morning. DH went out for a run, and I was in the shower, when all of a sudden the dog started barking his head off. I figured someone was walking down the street and he'd stop in a minute, but he just kept on barking. I hurried up in the shower and ran downstairs wrapped in a towel to see what was wrong -- by this point he'd been barking for 10 minutes nonstop and it was a "something is seriously wrong" type of bark rather than his usual bark, so I was worried.

There he was, staring out the window in the front room, barking his head off at . . . the giant inflatable snowman our across-the-street neighbors put up in their front yard. It was lit up and moving around in the wind, and it was still dark out. This dog would not give up. I made him come upstairs with me, and he ran right back down to bark more. Eventually, since it seemed like he was going to just sit there and bark at it all day long, I put him on his leash and walked him across the street to sniff it, so that he would realize it wasn't actually alive and threatening. This dog was scared out of his mind! He put up all the fur on his back, barked at it all the way across the street, put his tail between his legs, and tried to run back into the house. All because of the inflatable snowman. Finally I got him close enough to it that he sniffed it, then he decided it was okay after all and calmed down. The real test will be when they turn it on again this evening.

Congratulations on the upcoming addition to your family, Meg! Being a grandparent is lots of fun. Glad your old kitty is doing better.

Dagmar, no mindless eating sounds like a great plan. I think I'll join you with that.

Wardhog, 74 people?!? Can your house fit 74 people at once, or do they come at different times?

Jessica, I've never heard of fixing a turkey like that, but it sounds good. Great story about the dog. It will be interesting to see what he does tonight.

Forestroad, happy belated birthday, and kudos for making such good choices.

Bargoo, good for you for not scarfing down the coconut cream pie.

Allison, so sorry about your dog. That's so tough to watch them decline.

Thanksgiving was followed by a winery tour on Friday, which was fun. We visited 6 wineries. Saturday we had a second Thanksgiving dinner with some friends. I've been saying no to desserts, etc. since about mid-June so I didn't have trouble with that. Give me a crescent roll, though, and I'm in trouble. Luckily, when I eat at other people's homes, I control the urge to put 5 on my plate at once. Back to the gym today for an hour of elliptical!

Here's the kitten I took home last Tuesday to foster. In my total lack of imagination, I named her Tuesday. She can get spayed at 2 lbs. (she's 1.01 here), then adopted by her new family thereafter.

Oh Sheila what an adorable kitten!

And to grandmom to be meg!

Congratulations Meg!

Dagmar - Sounds like a great plan to me!

Ward - wowza, 74 people!

Midwife - Back on plan today! Me too.

Jessica - I've gotten off track with my exercise, too. Have to get back on a more regular schedule!

Forest - happy birthday!

Bargoo - whole pies are hard for me too.

Allison - sorry about your puppy.

Jessica - Your puppy story made me cry. Hope your dog does okay with the snowman this evening!

Sheila - Cute kitten! The winery tour sounds like fun!

Going to get back on track today. I have a full body workout planned for this afternoon, I believe that DH has a buddy coming over to listen to records so there will be no pressure to be social and I can focus on the exercise. Going to run tomorrow when it is supposed to be back sunny again. Still going to be cold, but at least should be sunny.

I have now watched two episodes of Glee, totally out of sequence. I think I saw episode 8 last time maybe? The one where they had to do song mashups? The one today was the one where the cheerleader found out she is pregnant. Haven't seen enough to know any names yet, but it is a weird little show. I'm entertained so far.

Hi all,

I ran up to the city for work today to see the final project presentations of some of the grad students I took out in the field this semester. They were very impressive! Of course I got to stop at Publix, the best grocery store in the world. Ok, at least within a 200-mile radius of my home in Florida. Oh, joy. I've got fresh produce galore!

Even with the gym closed I got in a long walk Thursday (6 miles) and Saturday I was in a really bad mood and just kept going... ended up walking about 10.5 miles. I even surprised myself! Hopefully that balanced out the pie. I ended up eating the 1/4 of the pumpkin pie that got sent home with us Thursday night (I mean, didn't eat it all Thursday, it just came home Thurs. after Thanksgiving lunch). Then our friends were packing up Saturday and the entire pie was still sitting there, and they foisted it off on BF and I (again, why did you say I should bring pumpkin if you clearly do not like pumpkin pie?). I could not eat another pie, but just couldn't bring myself to throw out this delicious pie!!! My parents, sis & I are meeting up in another part of Florida for Christmas, so I froze the pie for my Mom b/c she'd mentioned on the phone that she "missed having pumpkin pie this year, they didn't make one since she & I are the only ones who eat it". I guess this is slightly better than eating it all myself (I should mention I'm sure my Mom will have lots of help eating it at Christmastime, I'm not really giving her a whole pie).

BF took me fishing Sunday, went out fishing w/ friends Friday and Saturday. I caught a 22-lb redfish. I pulled it up and I swear it was the size of my leg - that's no fish tale! We ate flounder Sat. and are eating it again tonight. Yum yum!!!

The weekend was POP but not wildly off-track, either, and right back OP today.

Allison, so sorry about your dog.

Sheila, cute kitten! It must be tiny at <2 lbs!

Congratulations Grandma Meg!

Jessica, I'm laughing so hard about Carter freaking out about the snowman. Hilarious!

I must run off to the gym before I sit still for too long and get sleepy. I'll check in tomorrow. Hi to everyone!

I want to participate here,
Hope there is room for someone with a negative mood.
I've been having a very difficult year, in that no matter what I do,
my weight just won't drop back to my former lows.
I keep hoping it is a temporary glitch, and that "this month will be different".

But this entire month of November I've done very well with my food intake,
averaging 821 calories a day..including over Thanksgiving weekend.
According to my detailed records re my average total daily calorie burn,
this should have given me about a 250 daily calorie deficit.
But instead of the (1/2 lb a week) 2 lb weight drop I earned,
I've had a 3 lb unearned UP-Bounce.
Right now, this moment, I am so bummed out.