Happy April Everyone!

Hard to believe it's April! My eating has been horrendous this past weekend. It seems like no matter what I ate I wasn't satisfied. I'm hoping to get back on track begining today. Sre hope everyone else is doing okay.

I found the Skinny Cow's ice cream sandwiches here and I have to say they are wonderful! I've heard so much about them here on the board and have been hoping they'd find their way here to PA and lo and behold our local grocery store just got them in. The chocolate is wonderful! Hard to believe that they are as low as they are. These are definitely my new "treat".

Melissa ~ I love Skinny Cows too. A great treat and they are quite large!

My eating was terrible this weekend too, plus DH and I went out Sat night, and drank way too much. My pants feel really tight today. But, I am back into gear today, and will stay that way all week!! I am planning on walking each day this week and trying to walk even farther (and faster!) I have WI on Sat., and I am hoping for a loss! The spring/summer is fast approaching and I want to look good for my shorts and swim suit!!!

Well, better get back to work, I will check in with you all later!

Good Morning, all!

Wow, this time change is tough - I could hardly get out of bed this morning! Made it to my morning workout, but ate a huge breakfast when I got to work. It makes it so hard to stay OP if I eat a lot early in the day.

Melissa and Tonya - 'Morning, ladies! I, too, just love the Skinny Cows. My problem is eating just one!


Regarding the weather - we are having a short break from the monsoon that hit Austin in March - it was sunny and beautiful all weekend. Today, it is already in the high 60's (at about 9:50 am) and we are supposed to hit 80 degrees for the first time this year. But, lo! What is this cruelty I see? ... I just looked out my window and yep, you guessed, ... it's raining!! Grrrr!!

Got a few compliments from Remington (aka DH) this weekend on how I look/my weight. That was nice, since the scale shows that I still have 10 lbs to get back to goal. 10.6 to be exact. I think the workouts just really help one to look toned and healthy, even if not quite at goal. Whatever it is ... I'll take it! Compliments to tend to motivate one, don't they?!

Gotta run, chickies! Hope everybody has a great week.

Hi Ladies,

Its rained since we returned home. Apparently it didn't rain the whole time we were gone. grr.

Its really cold (not as cold as WI or PA), but bone chilling damp. We still managed to clean up some stuff in the garden and go on a slug rampage.

I am getting back on track too. I had a pretty decent weekend. I did have a run in with a pear frangipagne tart, but did pretty well. I brought a bunch of stuff to work this week to munch on and am doing the menu
planning thing.

austingal: yikes, 80 degrees and raining. That sounds rather unpleasant. I am thinking palm trees and big tropicals, though I suspect its pretty dry in the summer.


Melissa and Tonyalyn: I have yet to find skinny cows in Seattle and I think its a good thing. I tried something I saw from the list this weekend (cool whip and pudding mix----eeeeewwwww, I think my palette may be a bit refined, it was really unfortunate.

Well- I start my new job today. Whhhooooo weeee. I now get paid vacation and nice university benefits. I am very excited.

So, have a nice day ladies!

lala

Good morning Melissa, TonyaLynn, AustinGal, lalala. How is everyone?

Just back from a week in the Dominican Republic. Weather was wonderful, sand and surf too. Too much food and drink, but that was to be expected I guess. Actually, I don't think I would have fared too badly had it not been for the complete lack of exercise. I discovered that I am not really suited to doing nothing, at least not longer that two or three days at a time. The break was wonderful though, and now it's back to reality.

The number on the scales this morning was not impressive. I am up about three pounds since last week, but I had also registered a 2.2 lb gain at weigh-in last week before I left, so... you do the math. Coupled with the fact that I wanted to lose an additional five pounds anyway, I'm about 10 away from where I want to be. My reaction to this is somewhat disturbing to me. Now that it's 10 pounds instead of 5, I'm all intrigued and looking forward to being really strict and disciplined about staying on program. Is that weird or what? It's that all or nothing attitude that I was really hoping was gone for good. Guess old habits really do die hard.

So, back to journaling and exercise. Summer is not far off.

Hi everyone! The weather here is more like Christmas is around the corner rather than Easter. We had snow this morning and there were great big, fluffy flakes coming down. Looked like a scene from White Christmas. The upside is that the weather is supposed to start to improve with temps up in the 60's by the weekend. Can't wait!

Seasaw: Welcome back! Sounds like you enjoyed the nice weather. I'm in the same boat with you. Last week I registered a gain at my meeting and this week is just before TOM and I usually post a gain with that. I made the mistake of hopping on my home scale this morning and according to that I'm up as well I was aiming to get my weight down prior to my leaving on vacation on April 18th. I need to be more strict and follow the program better as well. I have 2 weeks to get my act together.

I've been doing more walking and have even added running a half of a mile (alternate walking 2-3 laps then running 2 laps, etc.) and it's been working out okay. I'm planning on going to our Rec Center again tonight and doing the same. I know that this will help.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Hi all-
It seems so strange to post with GMT as the time. I guess its a new day in London or Linconshire.

seesaw: did you like the dominican republic? It seems very exotic and quite warm. I could go for some of that right now. I'm sort of in the same boat, I had a
little gain before I left for australia etc. and I can guarantee I'm up quite a bit.
I'm going to weigh in on thursday am and stay for the meeting and try and get grounded again.

I would have loved to loll around in one place on our trip to Australia. I came back completely whomped from all that we did. We got to one place and I said to DP "we're not leaving here tomorrow", it was too relaxing.

Melissa- yikes, more snow. Do you have tender stuff growing in your garden? I hope its well insulated.

Well, I am going to leave here soonly and hit the gym for an hour. I need to get back in the groove thing after one month away from the routine. I read that a one month absence is not so bad, you just need to take it easy your first few days back. Its not as if I sat around for a month, we did hike and walk alot, but the repetitive nature of most machines really hit me after varying my routine. Time to get the day pack on and get hiking!

Sorry this is so long. I hope everyone is okay. It seems rather quiet here.

lala

Good morning everyone. After one day completely OP, I am feeling somewhat proud of myself. Let's see what today brings...

lalala: Re the Dominican Republic - it is very warm, and the vegetation magnificent in irrigated areas, especially to someone who lives on the east coast of Canada and only sees hibiscus, asparagus, etc. in pots indoors. Unfortunately, you don't get a true sense of the country at an all-inclusive resort - we only went on one short excursion to a plant/animal park - and that again was for the benefit of tourists. To tell you the truth, if I did return, it would not be in that kind of setting. It's really quite artificial. However, the beach at Punta Cana is truly beautiful, the sea water as warm as a bathtub and the sun shines nonstop. It rained during the night once or twice - gentle, warm rain and quite unlike the bashing that Halifax gets from Atlantic storms. Ah - all a pleasant memory now...

My gym membership ran out while I was on vacation. Tonite, I run outside. Yikes - it's like starting all over again. I know, I know, the hardest part is lacing on the shoes and getting out of the door. I'm sure it will all come back to me - I used to love running in the early morning before work. How did I do that?

Have a good day everyone.

Hi all-

Its Wednesday and I'm just catching up before I head to the University.

Its so lovely and light out I can't get over it! The dogwood in our neighbors yard that I see from my bedroom is starting to bloom. Its a huge Pacific dogwood and its is just glorious right now.

I had a pretty good yesterday except for the post work out pre-bed attack of the
dreyers peanut butter cup chocolate ice cream demon. DP doesn't like it so I said to get rid of it before I eat it all. I am just mining the peanut butter portions, too bad the cat doesn't care for chocolate ice cream.

Anybody have any plans for Easter? Passover? I'm trying to plan a menu for Easter that will be elegant and lightish. I have foisted the sweet making on others and am concentrating on the protein and savory starch aspects. I am going to
fill eggs with both candy and goofy little things this year.

seesaw: I can understand the getting back into the running groove. I think once you get out, you'll just run, run, run and wonder what made you not want to do it earlier.

I let my pass expire, they let me in for a couple of weeks without renewing. I felt so
guilty I renewed for the annual pass and now I know I invested 450 bucks, so I better get my money's worth, including the shower.

Okay, everyone have a good day.

lala

Hi everyone! Just got back from my weekly meeeting/weigh-in. I'm happy because I was able to lose part of the weight I had gained last week. This is going to be me fuel to stay on track and to get more walking in this next week. It's a glorious sunny day here and tonight DH and I going walking--I'm looking forward to it. Maybe I can even convince him to jog a little with me. He's a runner so he'd have to slow his pace down just a tad for me to keep up.

Anyway, the snow is gone here and the Spring flowers that I planted in the fall are now coming up in my beds. I can't wait till they bloom. Spring is one of my favorite times of the year.

Easter is a pretty low-key holiday for us. We celebrate with a traditional Slovak breakfast (hard boiled eggs, sausage, ham, horseradish, sweet bread, wine, butter, and hrudka--also called "egg cheese"). We don't have a big dinner or anything major so eating should not be a problem for me. Most the breakfast things I just take a small helping/taste of so I should be able to stay on track. The biggest challenge for me will be that we are off of work Thursday-Monday and traditionally I don't do that well with staying on track when I'm not at work so I need to lay out some sort of a plan on how to manage those days off.

My goals so far for Thursday-Monday will be:

1) Walk as much as possible
2) Journal
3) Plan my meals

I think that these are very do-able and know that I can accomplish them if I put my mind to it.

Hi, all! Just checking in quickly ... it is fun to read a bunch of posts all at once. I usually check in daily, but haven't had time this week, so I got to read a couple days' worth of posts in one sitting.

Melissa - glad your weather is warming up. The walk/potential jog with DH sounds like fun.

It's been in the 80's the past couple of days, but so humid it's just miserable. Kinda cloudy/gloomy too. Hot, muggy, gloomy ... sigh. Not my favorite kind of weather!

At my weigh-in today I posted .2 lbs lighter for the past two weeks. It seems that I have again entered that .1-lb-loss-per-week mode that I was in last fall. At least I'm not gaining, which is a good thing, no? Plus, I didn't really follow the plan the last two weeks, so what could I expect? Remington (DH) has lost a couple lbs recently, so now the competetive thing is kicking in. Anyway, I hope to do better about eating within my points range next week - I'll keep you posted.

Have a great rest-of-the-week, all!

Hello, hello to everyone!

First, let me apologize for disappearing these last couple of weeks. Work has been quite busy plus coupled with the fact that I was on vacation the last week of February, in Chicago for a week of training 2 weeks ago, plus I burned the better part of the last two Mondays for jury duty, I just didn't have time to post much.

My weight has suffered somewhat as a result & I am up 3-4 pounds from where I'd like to be. I have been exercising religiously, but somehow got into the notion that it was okay to snack on leftover Valentine's day candy as well as the candy dish at work with Whopper's malted milk eggs - I could leave it alone before?? Why not now?? So, I am swearing off those little snackies for now until these pesky pounds leave.

The weather has been getting warmer & the time change was so welcome!! It was getting so light in the morning that my 4 yr old DD was getting up with the sun seven days of the week (Yikes - 6 am every day is too early!) Now, she is sleeping in a little more, but I've had a heckuva time getting my butt out of bed this week!

Melissa - congrats on the loss! Your plan sounds good for staying on track during the Easter break. I do better when I'm at work, too. Vacations & being out of town on business always seem to start a downward turn of the idea that I can eat whatever I want....

lalala - welcome back! Nice to see your posts again.

AustinGal - congrats on the loss - wow - I can't wait for 80 degree weather here. If if hits 60, I'll be grateful.

Seasaw - hooray for one day OP - I am hoping to string a bunch of OP days together to get these few pounds off.


As for Easter plans, we are staying in town. I was thinking of going to my sister's in the Mpls/St Paul area, but I am going to go to the Twin Cities the weekend of April 21-22 for a brunch with a lot of women I went to college with - I haven't seen a lot of them for quite a while, so I figured I go that weekend instead. It will be great to reconnect with them plus I know I'll feel so much better about myself and everyone seeing me since I will be thin (or height/weight proportionate - I don't consider myself "thin" - just normal, I guess).

I am going to Las Vegas Sunday-Tuesday for a work conference. I hope to keep the eating somewhat in check while I'm gone. I've been checking the weather page in the newspaper and it's been around 80 degrees. Can't wait to soak up a little sunshine.

Hello to everyone else I may have missed.

Later,
Katie

Hi everyone!

Yesterday went really well...DH and I went out for our walk and I'm feeling more motivated than ever to keep up with my walking and eating plan. I stayed within my points and felt satisfied.

Katie: Welcome back! I experience the same things when my schedule is moved around. I find it so much harder to stay on track when I'm not doing my normal work schedule.

Austingal: Congrats on the loss! A loss is a loss no matter how you look at it I'll stick with the cool & sunny weather as I've never been one who tolerates the humid & muggy conditions.

Hope everyone else is having a good day

Hello katie, Melissa, lalala and others.

Just wanted to chime in with Melissa that I'm feeling pretty good today. Not only did I do my workout this morning, but I have stayed OP all day (for the first time in a very long time) and I feel satisfied. My newest craze is a 1-point snack (only appealing to those who like REALLY tangy food, which I love): A boca burger smothered in sauerkraut and mustard. I know it sounds gross, but it is really yummy, warm, and filling. I keep a box of boca burgers and a jar of sauerkraut in the work fridge, and they have really helped me stay OP.

That's all for now. Later!

Hello everyone. I don't have much time - just back from a short business trip and still trying to catch up from the week off. I'm happy to report that I've stayed pretty much on track all week, despite the travel. I also had my first outside run of the season on Wednesday. It was tough (lungs need to adjust to the chilly air and to the hills) but glorious. We (my sister and I) are heading out again tonite. I was reading through my run log and was really inspired by how happy I was when we were running outside regularly - it's great to be able to relive those times and remember why I like this form of exercise so much.

I intend to weigh-in tomorrow and weekly until I get down to my personal goal. I think it will keep my honest. Have a great weekend everyone. Talk to you all on Monday.