Good morning everyone! I'm back from vacation

I've missed the boards!

I hope everyone is doing well. Our vacation was great--got to go through a gold mine as well as some caverns. The weather was really hot in Charlotte (99 for 3 days--ugh!). They hit record highs. That seems to be my trend when I've gone out of town!

Eating wise I believe I did pretty well.

Thankfully I don't have a bunch of stuff staring at me on my desk...just some small things that need to get done. I'll write more later!

Hi everyone and welcome home Melissa. Sounds like you had a great vacation.

Nothing new here. Had a moderately uneventful weekend. Ate a bit too much, but enjoyed it.

Young dog is at the vet again. He seems to have sprained something or got bitten by something this morning after his walk. He seemed fine when we got home. So, DP is at home with him and will take him to the vet. Poor guy. Anyways, we'll soon hear what the heck is going on.

I lost 1.4# on Saturday, so I'm pretty happy. Probably had something to do with my exuberance on Saturday with my sour cherry pie I made. Eat your heart out Martha. It was good.

So, everyone , how way your weekend?

I plan to go to my WI tomorrow AM for the first time in several weeks and the first time since I've been doing this six meal thing. According to my home scale I more or less maintained. Let's see what the official scale says tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Welcome back, Melissa. It was hot in Florida, too.

I wish you belated luck, Myra. How did you do?

I've lost a couple pounds. I was so surprised after going to a fabulous brunch on Sunday. I sampled almost everything except the desserts (though I wanted to).

I plan to go to WI next week. It will be my first WI since becoming a Lifetimer.

I've been keeping very busy which I think keeps me away from food. I'm in a play, "Into the Woods." We are heavy into rehearsals.

Talk at ya later.

Weighed in today. Maintained, which was great considering the kind of week I've had. Hopefully I'll lose next week.

Hi all!

Lala: How's the pup doing? Great loss for you! Keep up the great work!

Domina: It's always a nice surprise to lose a bit after indulging...I'm grateful when that happens.

Myra: My philosophy has been at least it's not a gain when I have a week that I stay the same...next week will be better for you! You're doing great and you're sticking with it even though you've got lots going on!

I went to my regular meeting yesterday and posted a .4 gain which is great considering that I was on vacation last week, started my TOM the day b4 my WI and I felt really bloated I'm comfortable with the small gain. We did a lot of eating out and it was a challenge. I did make the best choices I could and I didn't feel deprived. I even survived a huge buffet. The challenging part of that is when you go to a buffet your mindset is "I want to get my money's worth"...I did it though and I didn't come out stuffed. It's nice being back on a schedule and hopefully my eating is back on track. It's always hard after being off a week to get back on the path of healthy eating. Once on it I actually crave eating healthy.

I'm anxiously waiting the arrival of fresh tomatoes from the garden...we've started getting a few grape tomatoes and hopefully the rest of them will be coming soon. I may just have to get out to the farmer's market over the weekend...I love fresh tomatoes!

Where is everyone else? Katie, Laurel, hope things are going well!

Okay Lifetimers--

Have you dealt with this issue? As you know, I've lost the weight and am so pleased, but here's the situation.

I have clothes that are too big (some of them recently purchased), yet I won't part with them!! What's wrong with me? I've even worn some of them to work; the pants were almost falling down. I know that some of you are laughing at me, but I need to know if any of you have had this problem?

Getting rid of the newer clothes really bothers me. I'm a tall woman and sometimes it's tough finding clothes that fit, so giving them away is upsetting.

I think the other thought that lurks in my mind is that in the past I've always gained the weight back, so I'm thinking I should hold on to the fat clothes.

Comments, ladies?

Get rid of them so you don't have an excuse to regain your weight. Be committed to keeping your weight off.

Thanks, Myra. I needed that.

I just had a thought--maybe I'll take them to a consignment shop and make $$$

But keep something to show yourself how far you've come. I keep a pair of pants that I always thought was cut badly because they were so tight around the backside. Well, if I put those pants on now, I can take them off without unbuttoning them. It's an incredible feeling.

By the way, speaking of old clothes, DH just dug up a dress of mine from 20 years ago and it fits!

And hello everyone, nothing too great of news here. Both my job interviews went nowhere. They didn't love me. Boo hoo.

On the up side, some good tomatoes from the garden. And this year I'm growing a cherry tomato called a Pink Droplet. They look like grape tomatoes and don't get super red (hence pink). Last year when I grew grape tomatoes, they came out round like cherry tomatoes, but these are elongated. very good. Plus good old Beefmaster. I think that's my fav tomato to grow. Every year I try 5 or 6 varieties, but the best ones are the Beef masters!

Greetings all,
Gosh, I am so out of the loop! This is our busy time at work getting students enrolled for our upcoming programs, plus the fact that I am still a newbie so I don't know what I am doing yet.

Re: keeping old clothes that are too big. I am with Laurel -I kept one pair of blue jeans that I could barely squeeze into --otherwise I gave the rest to Goodwill. Don't ever want to "grow" back into those. Right now I am up about 5 lbs & I can immediately tell with a gain of about 4-5 pounds that clothes are a little snugger.

LM - keep your chin up about the interviews - at least you're getting interviews. When I was unemployed I had one interview in about my first 2 months of being jobless - then it finally started to pick up. I figure any interview is an opportunity for practice.

Not much going on around here. The weather has finally moderated some, and this week has been wonderful. DD starts kindergarten this fall and yesterday received a note from her teacher and other information regarding school supply needs, bus schedule, emergency forms, etc. She is pretty excited to know what her teacher's name is! Can't believe she's already big enough to start school! We don't start here until after Labor Day.

Gotta run,
Later,

Domina-

Having just given 7 bags of clothing and toiletries to a transitional shelter and gotten a nice tax write off I can say this.

One of the women who lived in the shelter was very hopeful that I had some plus sized things in my bags. There is a great need for nice plus sized clothing in the shelter community. The cash is great if you can get it from your consignments, but for me, the tax benefits are even handier.

Myra is right, get rid of it and you won't grow back into it. I still keep a pair of size 2 gap jeans in the sick hope that I'll be there again. I'll settle for a 4 now.

So, other than that, I am happy to say that it is sunny here and the blackberries I nibbled on the way back to my office were delightful.


Melissa- great you didn't post a big gain coming off vacation. I totally understand the getting the money's worth on the buffet too. I stick to the expensive fruits and seafood.

The dog is at the vets today. We are day boarding him because our housekeeper is cleaning. They are going to shave his new hot spot, so those on the east coast, sorry if you can hear the baying.

I'm going to weigh in tomorrow, I think. I'll go to my normal meeting on Saturday, but I'm thinking of drinking some adult beverages at a show I'm going to and I wish to enjoy them.

Have a great day ladies!

lala

Hi everyone! The weather here has been perfect...cool evenings (great for sleeping) and the days have been warm (70's). The weekend is calling for more humid weather but it's not supposed to be too bad.

Laurel: I can't wait for our tomatoes to start ripening...I've gotten a few grape tomatoes but nothing major...I may just have to go out to the farmer's market and get some!

Domina: I would find somewhere to donate the clothes to...as Lala said the shelters are always in need of things like that because most of the women take very little. I'd definitely keep one thing as a "reminder" of where you've been. I didn't keep any of my clothes and I wish I would've kept one item.

Katie: Glad to hear from you! We're getting ready for the semester to begin as well but we're experiencing a little lull and it's been nice. Next week things will start picking up as I'll be busy getting notices out and orientation stuff finished up.

Lala: Good luck with the weigh in! I'd probably do the same thing...that way at least you can enjoy yourself without stressing about any "water" weight

Have a great weekend everyone!

Hi everyone,

Just a quickie. I weighed in this am and was up .2. Not too bad, but not great. I'll attribute it to the gin and tonic I had last night. However, it was a great wake up call to the massaging the system mind set I am getting into again. So, back at it, not blts of stuff unless I write it down.

However, I am going to have a great weekend dagnabit, even if I'm here at work instead of the garden watering and weeding .

Okay, back to writing an abstract.

Have a grreat weekend.

lala