Hi Ladies-

Carol- Hang in there your mom is in my thoughts.

The scale is starting to move in the right direction again for me. I am very excited that since I made adjustments to the way I am doing atkins it is working I am aiming to hit my final goal of 130 no later then my birthday which is october 4.

Penny / Judy I hope all is well

Carol - I'm sorry to hear that your Mom has to have the heart test, but it's a good thing that they are checking it out just in case. I'll keep your Mom in my prayers. The lime dressing with salmon sounds good - let us know how it turns out.

Nikki - I'm glad the scale is moving in the right direction for you again. You're doing great!

I had a few too many calories so far today. We ate up the leftovers from the veal in cream sauce and it was so good I ended up eating a bigger portion than I intended, so I'll just be having some cottage cheese for dinner. Our heat wave is over, thank goodness. After several days over 100 deg. it's now a pleasant 80 deg.

Hi, strangers--

"Never a dull moment" is right! I was running around to meetings in a stinky, sweltering Manhattan earlier this week. My knee is giving me fits again, so I went to my doctor for xrays and meds. I will need to schedule an MRI, too. I knew this day would come, but I thought it would be a few more years down the road. Anyway, my knee is already feeling better, but my work has suffered this week (and there's a lot of it, too), and I'm supposed to be cleaning house, doing laundry, etc., before my brother shows up tomorrow afternoon. It's been hard to move around, even lying down, so this has been a terrible week for workouts. This whole week has been a calorie disater, but c'est la vie, as we say back home in Ohio.

I haven't caught up on all the posts, but congrats, Nikki, on your loss, although hurting your arm must have been a major league drag! Penny, you are losing too, good for you! Carol, I am thinking about your mom and the rest of your family and sending positive thoughts.

Gotta run (or hobble, in this case).

judy

Penny- Good job on compensating. I am munching on a big salad and a chicken cutlet for dinner.

Judy-sorry to hear about your knee. I can sympathize.

My arm is bthering me alot tonight. I got only 2 hours of sleep last niht and its just not a ood painnight for me.


ttyl
nikki

Judy I hope you'll soon find an answer to fix your knee problem. Nikki, hopefully you'll get some good zzzzz's tonight. Carol I hope you soon get relief for your backache. I think we all need a big group hug for all our owies!

Wow we are all having some type of body issue huh? Oh lets all get feeling better quick I know its summer and this is no time to feel like this. I am headed to do my exercises when I GET OFF HERE. Thank goodness its friday. I told my boss I need next thurs as a sick day she was great with it. Thats mom's test day. I did the scale this a.m. and happy to reoirt 1 lb gone every little bit counts. After the wedding I got a little to comfortable with food choices. So this isn't a real loss just a time around again hopefully the last time. We are just not always so careful or at least me. But at least recognizing and making a step to correct the issue is the important thing before it goes to far. Nikki congrats on your goal. My B day is the 20th and I hope to report at least another lb gone or 2 that would be nice. The salmon was a bit too fishy for me this time around a little disappointment as the idea was good I thought. But I had a coney and a tortilla with a little ch. salsa and peppers, onions on it folded it on have used cooking spray and indulged into that. My other intakes for the day were within my limits including at a time of a need for a munchie a health bar. I need to pick up more healthy foods snacks etc. The little ones have been over and grandpah says their eating us out of the house thats the way it goes. There growing little ones the oldest being a male and almost 11. Needless to say anymore huh? Judy sorry about your knee been there about 6 yrs ago. My thoughts are with you on that one. gOOD LUCK AND i HOPE IT FEELS BETTER SOON. Have a nice visit with your brother and don't worry about the house with your knee a little mess is understandable and he isn't going to worry about it. After all maybe he will help you out? Penny its so hard when we have extras around that are so darn tasty. I love to cook and sometimes I think maybe it would be better if I didn't less to want to eat. But then I guess I would be a box eater and thats never healthy. Thanks girls for your kind thoughts on my mom and boy will we need that. have a great day!

I am glad its the weekend some coworker office stuff yesterday made for one stressful afternoon and slid over to my evening a bit. I told my boss if someone could give me what I earn now and benefits I'd be gone. She said oh don't let it get to you that much you have worked hard. I can only hope this trouble maker moves on to a new job I guess. But at times when I have other stresses these crazy work things are just not needed. I said by now you should be getting a handle on whom is always trying to start things and it should be stopped. This is something she is trying to do and hopefully before long can. Just when I think things are going well junk comes up to stir up trouble. Why do people have this much time on their hands is beyond me cause I don't. This time they tried to get some others in trouble to. When they get talked to all will come down. This person must of gotten spoke to in the past and now she wants to tell on anyone she feels is leaving a few min. earlier etc. Well she doesn't have her facts all straight and its going to back fire at least to a degree. Oh well as you can tell I guess I am still a bit upset. But now that I have released it maybe it won't be so bad so thanks for being my batting board and support. On the food front not bad yesterday til I ordered a pizza and wings last night. But only had one and half large pieces and a few wings in my mood it could of been worse. The rest of my day only was appox. 600 so not as bad as it could of been thank goodness I ater healthy the rest of my day. So I am trying today to be good out for breakfast which will count as breakfast and lunch. Then a good dinner and something with yogurt and fruit for dinner. I am off to the farmers market this a.m. and then garage sales with my SIL and my girl friend. I am going to try and let this go now and have a good weekend I guess I have to think of the source and she isn't a very happy person and is lacking something in her life to make her this way. I should feel sorry for her but at this time just mad. Well give me some strength to let it go and get on with my life and good living plans. Today I will try my best to eat well on monday I would like to see a loss. Lots of veggies buying at the market and stock up on good things. Take care and have a great day.

Carol - I'm sorry to hear that your coworker is being such a pain, you don't need that now, especially with all the stress about your Mom. I hope the troublemaker gets what's coming to her real soon. People that send out bad karma usually get it back in spades! Just remind yourself how glad you are that you are not that person! I hope you have a nice time at the farmers market and find lots of good bargains at the garage sales. It will be a good way to get your mind off your work stress, etc. Keep up the good work with your diet - I know how hard it is to stay on track when stress gets you down.

I'm glad to say I'm down a pound - finally! I thought the scale would never budge. It's cooled down quite a bit here so I may get out and do some yard work today and maybe go for a walk later.

I hope everyone else is having a good weekend.

Way to penny

Hi all, we're back from Alaska. It was beautiful and exhausting. We hiked and hiked and my feet hurt. The knees aren't doing very good either so I should fit in here just fine with Judy's knee, Carol's back, Penny's wrists and my knees. We're a fine bunch... My knees/feet are sore from climbing mountains. today we took the doggies out for a short, slow walk on the mountain behind the house. They ran and ran and I strolled along. Last Monday we climbed Mt Healy in Denali and it wasn't easy. Literally exhausting and painful. They didn't have many switchbacks - just straight on up trail. At some point when I'm not ready to sleep, I'll get the pictures off the camera. We also saw a couple dogsled demos and I got to play with doggies. That was the best. What I really liked about Alaska was they revere huskies. My doggies wouldn't be the oddblalls there.

Food was bad. I relate with Nikki - I feel big. The clothes still fit but I feel like I gained 25 pounds. Yesterday and today I've been good. Tomorrow is the day to be totally on track.

Carol, my thoughts with you and your mom. I hope everything is okay. JKudy, get that knee MRI'ed and get it fixed. Exercise will make the 50 by 50 possible. Nikki, I hope that your arm is better. It would be a shame to miss some of swim season.

Speaking of which, I'm going to check my pool's temp. The solar heater wasn't on while we were gone and it was chilly last night.
Marie

Marie you have been missed but glad you had a great time. Its always nice to get back home. Especially with your doggies good you had some to play with. Sounds like the hikes were great I bet the views were beautiful. Welcome home. Penny thanks for your kind words and sometimes thats so true. I would like to know how this person has so much time on her hands to check up on others. Cause I don't! Well girls the garage sale were great and the Farmers Market as well. We had a good time just one friend and I went. We enjoyed the day the buy of the day was a Pergo Floor package with all the flooring and supplies needed for 120 and all brand new in a pkg for a 12x12 room. My friend was delighted to say the least good buy and she is re doing some of her house. We laughed and ran errands etc. That evening i grilled the steaks and we had a little vino. It was a pretty good day not to over board in cals. Then on sunday first thing my weekend turned as the news from my sister that my couison whom has been battling lukeimei passed away. She was on 56. From that pt. on it was not a good day. I am sad for everyones loss and awaiting arrangements also as i need to take time off and maybe cancel Mom s hospital trip as well. We all thought she was going to be okay so this was more of surprise to all of us really. I guess we all take life for granted too much. So when I think of my petty job and how people act at their ages it makes me a bit angry. But some things we have no control over. I am trying to do my best to stay on track with my intakes. Yesterday I had some clams only a couple of dz. they weren't the best ones we ever had. But due to the saltyness I am not using the scale til wed. no since in setting myself up for failure. I have to really get into this and make a move to lose. I packed a good lunch for today and will plan a nice dinner as well. Nice to have so many veggies around now. I bought some flavored pasta homemade at the market jalopeno flavored. The gal gave me a recipe it has chicken in it but I plan to make it with out it. Take care and have a good day.

Marie, I'm glad that the trip to Denali was good, and that you got to meet some new canine friends along the way.

Carol, I'm sorry to hear your sad news. I hope that your co-worker won't be adding to your stress load today.

Penny, yippee on losing another pound!

Nikki, how's your arm? My knee is much better. I took Friday off, and while I've been walking around a lot with my bro, I haven't worked out since last weekend. I am desperate to get back on the exercise track this next week and a half, before I go to see my folks and pick up my nieces. I will have an MRI on Thursday. My fear is that the little cartilage left is disintergrating a little earlier than I'd planned, and that I will need to get my knee 'scoped, or I will have more episodes like the two I've had this month.

Eating has been off-target. Not horrible, but my fitness-minded brother does like his ice cream....he's leaving today. We have a good time hanging out and playing Scrabble, I am blessed to have such nice sibs.

judy

Marie - Welcome back! I'm glad you had such a great time in Alaska. Hiking in Denali sounds so wonderful. I bet your puppies were so happy to see you when you got home. I'm sure all that extra exercise negated any additional calories.

Carol - I'm so sorry to hear that your cousin passed away. You're right about us all taking life for granted. Since my illness, I treasure every day - even the "bad" days are a gift! My DH had sad news today when he called an old friend only to find out that he had passed away a few weeks ago. I think our loved ones who have passed on would not want us to grieve their passing but remember the happy memories of the good times we had with them while they were with us. I'll be keeping you and your family in my thoughts and prayers.

Judy - I'm glad your knee is feeling a bit better. Good idea to get the MRI. I know several people who have had the keyhole knee surgery and it's worked well for them. It must have been nice to have your brother visiting - especially as you get along so well.

Nikki - I hope your Monday is going well.

We had a nice weekend. Yesterday we had lunch on a floating restaurant on the river. I did ok with the calories - I had coconut shrimp and shared some with my DH as they were quite big. Afterwards, we took the streetcar downtown to the Pearl District and walked around a bit. I had a small gelato icecream which was delicious. The weather was very warm and humid - it felt like Hawaii. Later, I got quite a bit of yard work done.

Hi all, I finally got rid of my emails that piled up through the week. Luckily it's summer and most are gone for the summer or it would have been worse. Now it's back to playing with the webpage stuff. Probably tomorrow I'll be able to work on that - that will be fun.

Starting today I'm going to post the previous days calories and exercise. Part of being accountable and getting back on the losing wagon. So yesterday was 1742 and I walked 2 miles and swam 1/4 mile. The 1742 is not bad since I wasn't trying to be on track - I was just sick of eating from the trip. Today I'm a bit hungry as I'm aiming for 1600 cals per day. A shock to my system.

Carol, I'm very sorry about the passing of your cousin. Good luck holding all the irons in the pan. Especially the petty woman at work. Eeks. I don want to ask - how can she be a caring social worker when she's a back stabbing a$$? Can she actually do her job?

Penny, your day sounds nice. I'm sorry your DH lost his friend.

Judy, sounds like you and your brother had fun. I loved the description of fitness minded brother and ice cream. That's me fitness minded but don't ever take my ice cream. I LOVE ice cream. Not as much as I love my doggies, but ice cream is comforting. Speaking of which, at least the doggies aren't fattening - they make me exercise. Everyone should have a dog.

Nikki, hope your arm is healing. I'll do a few laps in the pool for you tonight.

Marie

penny your lunch sounded wonderful on the river. Something I would surely enjoy also. The hubby and I went on a dinner cruise once for an anniversary it was nice. Your right about life so many times we do take things for granted and then things happen to make us think twice about that. We had a family gathering with all us cousins and my aunt whom is 81. So sad but at the same time we were able to share the good times as you had mentioned. It will be a rough few days. Her son is flying in today. No services til wed. and thurs. Judy thanks for your warm thoughts also. Your all so nice and sweet and so supportive. Hope all your aches will be mended soon. My work is funny the trouble person seems to try harder than ever to be nice to me yesterday. Even came in my office to tell me a riddle now how off the wall is that??? She has never done it before almost feeling a bit guilty over her actions I think. Yah know the time has come for me to at least venture in seeing what another company pays etc. So today is the big step I am sending my info. to another company. Don't no if I will even get an interview but lets see and just interested in seeing what someone else has to offer. Go figure I am up for 5 weeks vac. next year. Well if they could give me good benefits, professional work site and decent pay the change may be worth it. But I would miss some of my folks thats for sure without a doubt. Nothing seeked nothing gained maybe in the end I will be more grateful for where I am??? Stress level times are tough but I did okay I think for the most part a little wine with the family and some cheese and crackers but otherwise not bad. So funny you should say that Marie as yesterday I timed her she was chatting away about everything and anyone for 45min. in the a.m. when I was doing a report. I am starting to document the times it happens and at the end of the week maybe I will hand that in but thats not my game and I feel awful even thinking it I think she has pushed me a bit to far this time around. But people like that which have bad karma will get it back in droves!!! Too bad someone is so jealous huh?? One of my clients moms thanked me last evening for working with her son. They are wonderful people and I would truly miss them if I left my job. But sometimes you can only take so much. Then it wears on you mentally and physically. Well I will match you with the calorie count Marie and put mine on too. Yesterday added up to around 1600 and that included my wine!!! It did relax me a bit and I slept like a log. Have a good day.