Almost the end of July. Where is the summer going?

Hope you ladies had a great weekend. Mine was spent carrying and unpacking boxes, trying not to trip over a Golden Retriever and helping to protect a red-haired 2-year-old who seemed bent on self-destruction. All in all, a fun time with my family. And, as is usually the case, I was as happy to see them leave as I was to welcome them

Went for my July weigh-in on Saturday and was up .4 from last month. This was a huge surprise because my home scale registered a much larger gain. Although it wasn't as bad as I thought, I'm not going to rest. I have even greater resolve to lose those last 8 lbs to see if I can maintain 138. I think the journal challenge will be instrumental in getting me there. (Forgot my journal at home today so will post point totals tomorrow Patch)

What's up with everyone this week? I start vacation as of 4:30 pm on Wednesday and I have a 2 1/2 hour head-to-toe spa treatment booked for 5 pm - compliments of DH. If that doesn't put me into instant relaxation mode, nothing will...

Good morning everyone! I'm back

I had a pretty good week off and now it's back to work. The nice part is that the busy part of the summer is over and I have a little breathing room now to get some other stuff done.

Anyway, I went to my meeting last week and went down .2 I'm still over and am trying to figure out what the heck is going on. I got the booklet Breaking Through and have been reading that. I'm also re-measuring my portions and writing down everything that I'm eating. I'm hoping this will get my motivation and interest back.

I went to a wedding over the weekend and did well with eating and I'm proud of the choices I made. We went to the rehearsal dinner and I chose the broiled haddock (very tasty). I chose carefully at the reception the following day too. I haven't worked up the courage to step on my home scale to see where I'm at although I may do that tomorrow.

I may miss my Wednesday meeting this week as one of my co-workers died suddenly on Thursday evening the funeral service is Wednesday at 11. I don't think I'd be able to squeeze in the meeting afterwards and to be honest I don't think I'd be in a good frame of mind. He was only 49 and very active.

I'm going to try and catch up with what went on last week by reading last week's thread.

Hi all-

Man, what a weekend. I'm not sure I'm up for Martha Stewartness this year. I'm zonked and looking at all the cr*p I ate this weekend (save gourmet dinners made my DP and myself) it was not pretty. A friend came over on friday night very stressed about all sorts of things. She ended up hanging out with us and we went out for a quick late dinner at our local burger joint. The gym went to the wayside and DP decided to make raspberry icecream to cheer her up. Yikes. Its one thing to buy ice cream, but to make full fat icecream in one's home is a CRIME!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, I did not indulge and had a skinny cow instead.

We had lots of folks over on saturday too. 14 dinner guest to be exact and one german shepard that did not get along with our dog. It was really quite something. Sunday, we were zonked. Did get to the gym and a bit of a nap and then more dinner guests. Tonight, houseguests and dog are gone, we can sleep without a dog whining and a scared cat and only have one person for dinner.

I didn't make it to my saturday weigh in. I will probably go tomorrow am and just deal with the fact I've gained again. I love people, love entertaining, but its playing havoc with me losing these last now 15 lbs. I left this morning before my guests got up, DP is taking care of them. I'm happily munching my yummy protein bar (yech) and
catching up on email. I'm making an effort to go the gym at lunch and get a real workout in. Okay, nothing else to report other than its green bean season here and Laurel: I found a zuchinni recipe that works for me!!!!

I have more green beans than I want- can i express mail them to anyone?

Seesaw: sounds like you got your sister moved and settled in. Your vacation start also sounds lovely, DH can be cloned correct? Where are vacationing?

Melissa: Welcome back. I'm sorry to hear about your co-worker, its hard to lose someone at such a young age.

Okay, I've droned on enough.

off to do things to data.

lala

Hello to all -
Back at work after a nice weekend. DH, DD & I went boating/camping on the Wisconsin River again Saturday night into Sunday. The weather was wonderful & enjoyed lounging on the sandy beach & digging my toes into the warm, wet sand. Did pretty good again on the eating front but did eat a few too many chips (although at least they were the LF Baked Lays variety) - at least I didn't eat the whole bag - something I would have done pre-WW. By the time we get home on Sunday night, we are all pretty tired & in need of a shower/bath to get all the sand/dirt/sunscreen off our bodies. We are trying to get out as much as possible since we'll only have about another month of decent warm weather to go swimming. The temps are supposed to soar again into the 90s starting today thru most of the week. DH is on vacation again next week (he gets a ton of it), so I will probably take an extra day or two off as well.

lalala - wow, talk about a lot of entertaining - betw all of that & your travelling, I commend you on staying OP as well as you do - I don't know how you do it. I LOVE fresh green beans - you can send some my way!

Melissa - hi there & welcome back. I have heard that Breaking Through booklet has been pretty helpful for members. My condolences about your co-worker - what a shock.

Seasaw - so, your vacation starts at 4:30 pm on Wednesday - we're not counting down, now are we?

Back to work for me, ladies,
Later,

Hey there all.

Lala - whoa! Skinny cow chosen over homemade creamy rasberry icecream! You definitely win the prize. And I'm getting pooped just reading about your entertaining.

KT - Your boating weekend sounds just lovely.

Melissa - Getting through a wedding with tough choices is major. Congrats.

Seesaw- Enjoy every bit of that vacation! I'm counting down with ya.

Back now from the "sailing extravaganza" weekend. After writing a couple of things on other threads, I guess I'm seeing the weekend was not nearly as relaxing as I hoped it would be. Sometimes, being a stepmom is tough. And my old eating and munching habits reared their heads.

However... on Friday I managed to kyack on and off for about an hour, took a rigorous hike for about an hour on Saturday, danced up a storm that night, and between sailing home and packing up / hauling all our bags got in a pretty good work out on Sunday. And a good thing too since I average 40 pts each of those days before subtracting banked and activity points.

Also your low fat munchie suggestions helped a lot. I managed to cut up a bunch of celery and bell peppers before I left, brought 94% fat free popcorn (incredible but the boat had a microwave), and made a tasty fruit salad I ate each day since I knew I'd avoid taking out a whole fruit. Ofcourse that did not stop me from eating some chips, peanut butter pretzels, and cookies. At least I was conscious in the drinking dept.Now, for the good news... I just came back from my WW weighin and lost another .6 bringing me to 135.4 within .4 of goal!. Thanks for the support guys, otherwise I think I would have really gone crazy. -Patch-

Congratulations Patch!! Woohoo! It's always good to see the results of making good choices.

I've decided I'm going to really make a commitment to getting myself back on track. I went sneaker shopping last night and purchased walking/running sneakers. Yes, I bought 2 pairs! I figure this way I can keep one pair here at the office and won't have to keep bringing them home in the evening so I have them. I've also been toying with the idea of doing a little bit of running in between the walking. I was doing it before at the Rec Center; I would walk 2 laps then run 1, and so on and I think I'm going to start this up again. I know it will get my metabolism going and once I get my butt in gear I'll feel better too.

lala: Good for you in choosing the Skinny Cow over the high fat stuff. I, too, love fresh green beans...yum! I'm anxiously waiting for my tomatoes to start ripening. I've gotten a couple of grape tomatoes and I noticed that there's a larger one getting red. Yummm!

I love this time of year because of all the fresh veggies that are available here locally. I'm actually looking forward to the summer winding down and the end of the summer picnics, etc. Summer is a hard time for me to stay on track; I do much better in the fall/winter/spring.

Hi all-
Way to go Patch- You are fabulous and my candidate for LT/M member of the year - or perhaps poster babe?
Strange weather here, don't know whether shorts or a sweater are in order, so opted for both.
Having a good beginning of the week program-wise, but feeling a bit like Melissa in that summer is harder to stay on track than the rest of the seasons.

Good for you Melissa, having the shoes in both places is a good strategy. I'm now packing my gym bag to take to work for the same reason. It seems to be working.

Well, the last of the dinner guests are gone, now we have more low maintenance house guests. Our cat is still frazzled from our last canine visitor and the dog has still not forgiven us for allowing him into the house. Its been a long weekend.

Okay, I'm off to journal. I hope everyone is doing well and having a less hectic week.
lala

Thanks Lala and Melissa. It's been and still is quite a trek. But you and all the gals have me hanging in there. I've got three more weeks (Aug. 17th) until I go to my in-laws back East and am trying to get under goal by at least a couple of pounds. That way if I "indulge" a bit it won't be so gruesome when I come back.

For me the hardest time will be coming up. Sept. - Jan. Yes five months. Between the cool weather (makes me more hungry) the holidays and family gatherings I've tended to "lose" it (not) in the past. That's what got me into trouble last year. I'm counting on you guys and the next 12 Week Challenges to help get through that.

Melissa and Lala - I like the idea of running shoes both at home and work. I used to do that and want to get back to it.

Hello. have dropped out of sight a little yesterday. came home and was so tired I ended up dozing all night long. Not a good feeling. Still catching up from last week's insomnia I think.

It's going to be one of those weeks, with a lot of going out for lunch at work and therefore none of the lunchtime exercise classes and of course no discipline to do it on my own. Twill be a learning experience.

I have my home weigh in tonight. Hard to tell what's going on precisely since my scale has a mind of its own, but I think i'm in the general 2# ballpark of goalweight.

lala a) send me greenbeans and b) gimme the zucchini recipe. I'll have to make it with store bought zukes but that's okay. I do have my very first grape tomato blushing on the vine out there. So exciting. And that volunteer cantaloupe vine is really a volunteer gourd vine, with very pretty green & yellow gourds.

patch you are doing so great. What a pleasure.

melissa i was thinking of including some running in the routine too! in fact today walking on the treadmill i was sort of tempted to break into a trot but felt a little inhibited. Let me know if you do it.

everyone else - your vacations sound so wonderful. I don't have any vacation time and don't seem to do anything too glorious on the weekends. oh well....

talk tomorrow.

Hi everybody.

LM: I hope you're feeling more energetic. Loss of sleep can really do a number on your system and your routine once it takes hold. Take care of you.

Patch: You are doing so well! Congratulations for sticking to it and doing what needed to be done. You seem to have handled the weekend challenge well if you posted a loss afterwards!

lalala: Green beans here too. Harvested one sweet pepper over the weekend from my patio plant but haven't tasted it yet. By the way, is the dog feeling any better?

Melissa: I hear ya about the shoes not being where you need them. I seem to have solved that problem; since I replace my runners so often, I have plenty of old pairs around that are fine for walking, gardening and other things.

kt: A little hitch in the vacation plans. On Monday morning, his first day of vacation, DH threw his back out - no doubt related to all of that moving on the weekend. He has been going to physio and is taking meds but it sure doesn't look like he'll be sleeping on an air mattress or doing any biking or hiking next week.

He mentioned this morning that I might want to put my holiday off, but the thought of another week at work after having been so focussed on this date just seems out of the question. I am really disappointed, but we'll just have to make the best of it.

Since we don't have a computer at home, I will not be able to check in at all until I return to work on August 20th. So have a great few weeks everyone, and stay focussed! You're doing just
fine

Hi everyone!

I decided to bite the bullet and head to my meeting after the funeral this morning. I needed an uplifting hour after the funeral. Anyway, I was down .6 which is good. I would've liked it to be a little more but heck I'll take the loss.

I've been journaling everything down and hopefully next week will show a better loss. I think the reason for the smaller loss is that I'm smack in the middle of TOM and that usually contributes to water weight gain for me.

Anyway, hopefully everyone is doing fine. I feel emotionally drained and have a killer headache.
Catch ya later!

Hang in there Melissa. I'm so sorry you're going through such a tough time with the loss of your friend. You get a lot of credit for getting outside yourself and taking yourself to a meeting. That's huge.

Seesaw - I'm also sorry to here that your sweetie through his back out. It's the worst. Here's hoping he recovers enough to be able to do some fun things with you during your vacation time
Ice packs and gentle stretches have become my friends, probably his as well.

And Seesaw and LM thanks for the congrats.

All of you gals rock - Patch -

Hi everyone,
I sure am having trouble today w/my archaic
web browser, but my other system is at its knees doing some calculations...

Anyways, hard night w/moving a friend who well, had way more stuff than I had imagined, didn't pack well and who had hit overload. They couldn't even get their books on the truck, so we're going to ship them amtrak to them. Unbelievable what people will carry around for years and I thought DP had some archival tendencies. All it did was make me wanna have a yard sale.

Seesaw: I'm sorry about DH, that has got to be very uncomfortable and disappointing. Maybe with all the therapy, he'll get up to some speed by the end of the vacation. Do you have any one else to do some of the more active things with?

Melissa: I understand the emotional drain that funeral services can have, please take care of yourself, get some rest and drink lots of water for your headache.

Laurel: sleep is a good thing, get some and tell eddie to watch tv and eat frosted flakes until 7 am. I will post the zuchinni recipe if you want.

Patch: I like your question on this weeks challenge. I'm thinking.

Okay, I'm whomped and DP is playing: What's for dinner tonight? I say pasta, she wants chicken enchiladas. yikes.

lala

Hi good morning.

Sort of stressed out today. so just a quickie note.

lala yes, please post the zucchini recipe. should I look for it under the official recipe posting place or here?

everyone else - keep up the good work throughout this wonderful thing we call life. When you walk through a storm, keep your head up high.........

Hi everyone

It's steamy here in PA--88 sweltering, hazy, hot, humid degrees. This is definitely NOT my kind of weather. Give me 75-80 with a nice lake breeze and I'm a happy camper

I did manage to get a teensy bit of walking in over the lunch hour (took my water bottle with me so I wouldn't dry up) but nothing really major. It's way too warm to try any major walking. I'm hoping the rain comes like they're predicting.

I am feeling much better today...I went home last evening, took a couple more aspirin and drank lots of water. I am feeling good about journaling everything down, and I mean everything. I know once I get on a roll I'll be fine. I always feel better when I eat right and get my walking in.

Lauren: Hope you're hanging in there!

Seasaw: Hope you get to go on your vacation. I know what you mean about having to put it off when you're so psyched about taking the time off. Hopefully it will work out for you.

Lala, Patch Hope you both are doing okay today!