Thought I'd get the thread started as I enjoy my coffee.

I weighed in on Saturday - officially - for the first time in over a year. It wasn't as bad as expected, especially since I decided to wear jeans for the weigh-in. That means I won't have to show up in shorts in January

Tipped the scales at 160.2, 13.2 lbs over goal. Not great, but I'm convinced that if I stay within points and keep running, it is do-able. It was rather coincidental that the meeting topic was the use of food as a bandaid for feelings. Very timely for me.

Had a really tough long run yesterday. The group did 18 km, all I could manage was 15 and I did a fair bit of walking. Don't know why, but my legs and feet felt like dead weights. We have another 18 km next week so I'm hoping to redeem myself.

Gotta run - have my gym orientation this morning. I'll check in later.

Susan, thanks for getting the thread started. I'm glad your WI wasn't so bad. I don't know how you could run 18K; I'm still working on 2 miles!! Yes, some days the legs and feet feel like dead weights--it's awful. I took off almost a week from running (did walking instead) because of this darn hamstring of mine. It just keeps flaring up. I stretch it, but it still hurts.

Had a pretty good weekend. Went to St. Pete to see the parents. We went to Hyde Park in Tampa (ritzy area). Had a great lunch at an Italian restaurant and did a little shopping. My mother curtailed that because of her bad leg. She has fallen arches and can hardly walk. I'm very concerned about her.

I sang at my parents' church. It's a good thing I showed up as I was the only soprano. I even sang a solo. Not much happening this week--bunch of meetings as usual.

lala, how did the proposal go?

Hello, Pam, Melissa, and Austin (hope Rita didn't affect you too much.)

Good morning ladies

It was a crazy week last week and it seemed like I was running in circles. I was able to get our freshman grades out on Thursday so that's a big relief. I'm also on our university wellness committee and we have a lot going on--I'm coordinating a WW at Work series so I needed to get the flyer out to employees. Along with that we're starting up our pedometer program. So many things all at one time! In any case, Friday I left early because I headed to Chicago for my meeting. It was cool here when I left (64) and Cincinnati was very warm/humid and Chicago was comfortable. The meeting went well, although I did over indulge in the yummy rolls and cheese at the meeting. Afterwards we went to a European cafe for dessert--I'll admit I had a wonderful piece of brandy torte. I'm not much of a sweet eater but it was delicious and not overly sweet. I loved the way they served the coffee--a mini silver coffee pot (my mom told me what they call it but I can't spell it--something like conchin?), cup & saucer, small pitcher of cream and some whipped cream--alll on a silver tray. The good part of all this is that it was a nice walk to and from the place so I did get some activity.

Susan: Glad to hear that things are looking up a little for you. You're right, sometimes distancing yourself a little helps to put things into perspective. I admire the fact that you run such long distances!

Lisa: A couple of people from GU just returned from Tampa yesterday and they were saying how warm it was there. Sounds like you had a nice weekend.

Pam: Hi!

Lala: I haven't canned any tomatoes this year I need to get out and buy some this weekend and get them canned. I love fresh tomatoes in the dead of winter.

Austin: Did Rita affect you at all?

The weather here today is humid and rainy--there's supposed to be a cool down tomorrow and more fall-like temps. I sure hope so! I'll catch up more later. Have a great morning!

Hi everyone from beautiful Fishkill.

We are having a great time in mid-Hudson River Valley. Flew in late on Saturday, stopped at a diner (whoa, the things they serve ). Spent Sunday driving down to Stone Barns at Blue Hill, Peggy Rockefeller's homage to sustainable agriculture tarted up for those in Westchester County. Very nice indeed. Drove up to storm king art center to see the Di suvero exhibit and have a lovely putter. We then braved the woodbury outlets where you too can buy a 4500 chanel purse marked down from 8000 dollars. Yeah right.

We did nothing of the sort and then puttered up to eat at the Locust Tree which was yummy and then to collapse.

Today we're off the dia:beacon, a walk around beacon and then to nyc to a concert. I'm whooped, but nice to be here. It is supposed to rain, so we'll bring our galoshes.

Susan -- I'm glad you went and weighed in. I'm scared. Good on ya for the long run too!

Lisa -- I want to hear you sing! Sounds like you had a good weekend apart from mom's arches. Has she seen somebody for the problem?

Melissa -- I haven't a clue what that is called. I do like the whipped cream for the coffee though. I have seen people do that for their tea and that is wierd.

Hi to everyone else, I'll check in tomorrow.

School starts here on wednesday. gulp.

lala

lala, sounds like you are having fun. Mmmm, the Locust Tree looks like a yummy place. Yes, my mother is now going to a chiropractor who uses new techniques. She had gone to some place that made her orthotics and the orthotics made her problem worse (don't you love it).

Melissa, I've heard that WW at work groups are very successful. Sounds like your trip to Chicago was fun.

Looking forward to our trip next month to Newport, Rhode Island. DH will run the marathon and I'll be going through those lovely mansions (excuse me, cottages!)

Hi everyone. It's raining hard here this morning, but the air is warm, particularly for late September. It was a total waste of time drying and styling my hair this morning cause I now look like something the cat dragged in.

Had my first session at the gym yesterday. The instructor spend about 90 minutes with me, going over the cardio stuff and It felt good to be back in the mode after several years.

Had a bit of a curve ball thrown at me regarding my DH. Nothing important, really, just a bit of news that kind of surprised me. I proceeded to use up all of my flex points for the rest of the week on and red wine. Am feeling better and more in control this morning. I'm going to have to bite the bullet if I'm going to register a loss this week. I obviously haven't yet mastered the ability to curb emotional eating.

Hi everyone,

Lisa -- Those are quite the cottages. I like Rhode Island, but have never made it further than Providence. Hopefully you will see some fall colors while you are up north.

Susan - Yeah on the gym. Boo on the reason that you dove into the chocolate. It is hard to stop the emotional eating, it is a hard thing to keep in check. I hope it gets better soon.

You will love the weights, but dear Susan, you are a great exerciser based on your ability to run.

How is everyone else? Waving at Pam, Austin and Melissa and everyone else!

We had a great day yesterday. Went to dia:beacon and bumped into one of my mom's best friends from Seattle. How wierd is that? Hopped on an early train to NYC, got there in rain and humidity that did not make anyone happy. Realized that every fricking museum is closed on Monday and did what most hot and cranky tourist does other than SHOP, walked from interesting eating place to interesting eating place on the way to dinner. Is that pathetic? At least I had tea at most. We sat in Bryant Park, walked to Rockafeller Center and watched them build houses for Katrina Relief which was cool, then ambled to Dean and Deluca, La Maison Du Chocolat (DP's second fav in the world), went to a great dinner near Carneigie Hall and then watched Keith Jarrett wow a sold out crowd with his amazing piano playing and compositions.

We didn't get back up here until 2 am. I'm pooped,but we have a few hours to kill, so off to find a farm stand or two and some local cheese for some apples we picked up.

I can't wait to get back into the normal swing of things for the next few days.

Talk to you all later! I have pics, I will post link tomorrow.

lala

lala, sounds like you had a great time. I want to see your pics. I'm not familiar with Keith Jarrett; I'll need to check him out. Mmmm Dean and DeLuca. Good for you for having tea.

Not much happening here. Choir practice tonight and bowling tomorrow night.

How's everyone else?

Good morning! It was a chilly 54 here this morning but the upside is that we're supposed to get up into the mid 70's this afternoon. The rest of the week is supposed to be cool with temps maybe getting up to 60 if we're lucky. At least the sun is shining today.

I've been having a hard time getting up in the morning with it being dark out. I need to just get up when the alarm goes off and not hit the "snooze" button! Last night I had a little collision with oreos--DH bought some and usually they don't bother me but I had one, then another, you get the picture.

Lala: I can totally relate to things being closed on Mondays--it's so frustrating! Sounds like you did the best you could under the circumstances. It was humid here on Monday and we had some rain. I won't miss the humidity!

Susan: My hair doesn't cooperate either with the humidity & rain, although yesterday and today are perfect kind of days. I can relate to the emotional eating--it's a hard habit to break and sometimes you just have to roll with it and get back up afterwards. Good for you for getting to the gym! I need to get back into my routine of working out--I miss it.

Hi to Pam, Austin!

Hi everyone,

Drive by on my way to the gym.

Melissa- we flew across Eire yesterday. Looked like a beautiful day.

I had some outstanding hairdays this weekend with the damper than I'm used to weather. Made me realize that it is time for a cut.

I'm really in trouble in the weight dept. Nothing fits me,so its either crack down or buy new clothes. I'll opt for the cracking down.

lala

Another beautiful morning however it's supposed to get very windy and rainy this evening. We have an 8 km run planned; I will hold off on a decision til later. I don't mind rain, but wind always results in an asthma attack so we'll see.

Got to the gym three days in a row. I actually intended to run outside on Tuesday but it was very windy (see above) so I did my run on the treadmill. Eating has been so-so, not exactly within points but certainly better. I hope to register a small loss on the scale Saturday.

I'm also having difficulty getting out of bed Melissa. I keep thinking it will be better after the time change, but that only lasts a few weeks at best. Guess we just have to hunker down til spring.

As for hair, lala, it's been a crap shoot for me. Sometimes it looks great without any fuss at all, other days, well, a brillo pad comes to mind.

Hi to Pam, Lisa, Austin. How are ya'll doin?

Good morning!

Yesterday was beautiful Lala, perfect for flying! Today, it's another story--we have high winds, and much cooler temps (currently 55) and it's supposed to drop more by the end of the day! It doesn't look good for me to get out and walk over the lunch hour.

I went for my WI yesterday and was up .4 which isn't bad considering the weekend I had in terms of being out of town and then the dinner on Monday evening. It could have been a lot worse!

Susan: I'm hoping it gets better--I know part of my problem is that my exercise has been non-existent the past few weeks. I've already decided if I can't get out at lunch time that I'm going to the Wellness Center this evening to do something. I need to get back on track with my walking, etc. The weather affects my hair too! I'm getting it trimmed today and am looking forward to it.

Hope everyone else is doing well!

Hooray, it's almost the weekend (I'm off tomorrow). Bowling league tonight. Will play golf with DH and go to a play that my friends are in on Saturday (Bus Stop). Oh, there's also a huge 50-family yard sale on Saturday that I'll go to. Do I really need any more stuff??

Uh, oh, I went to a Chinese buffet for lunch with a friend today. I didn't exactly eat the best stuff (but it was soooo good).

Susan, how do you run injury-free? I'm having a hard time with my right hamstring. I took some time off from running and as soon as I started again, it started hurting. I'm doing stretching exercises. Grrr. If it weren't for that hamstring, I'd run fine (i.e. nothing else hurts).

Melissa, .4 isn't so bad. You'll lose it. Gosh your weather changed in a hurry. It's 86 here again today.

lala, don't forget to post some pics from your trip. I Googled Keith Jarrett and I am sorry to admit that I had never heard of him. I must check out his music--what a fascinating artist. Good for you for going to the gym.

Hi, Pam and Austin

Hi Ladies,

It's a really horrid day today, strong wind and lots of rain although I'm hearing the weekend is suppose to be fairly decent. Don't have too much planned other than trying to finish up painting the dining room. Thats been a little slow going. I did pick up some lovely curtains that will match the room perfectly. Kind of a sad week for me, a close family friend passed away on Tuesday from cancer. She was only 51 and leaves behind a 17 year old daughter who is a very close friend of Lauren's. Lauren is taking it very hard, she has been very fortunate in that she has never had anyone close to her pass away.

Lisa I also went to a Chinese restaurant today for lunch. I was good..had the steamed shrimp with chinese vegetables. I've been doing good and am down 2 pounds so I'm trying hard to stick with it. The 50 family yard sale sounds interesting..bet there will be a lot of good finds. I'm going to Newport in November (the day after Thanksgiving) to see a "Victorian Christmas" at the mansions. I'm really looking forward to it.

Melissa my exercise also consists primarily of walking outside and with the weather being so yucky lately I've got to start heading to the gym more. The .4 gain is nothing it will be gone tomorrow as long as you don't have another oreo collision!

Susan sounds like your back on track with exercising. I'm sure you'll see a loss. I also used quite a few points for wine this week..stress will do that.

Lala I've driven through Fishfill but have never really spent any time there. Sounds like you had a great time in NY. Yup, I had the same problem with my clothes not really fitting well either so that's why I've been so good lately. I just don't want to go up a size.

Well ladies my assistant has just dropped off on my desk 2 of the most delicious looking cookies. The problem is she drops off sweets quite regularly even though I've asked her not to do that. My solution is to bring them over to the Finance Dept and give them to a kindly accountant who has a vicious sweet tooth. If I don't talk to you again I hope you all have a great weekend.