Hi Ladies-

I did not make my July 4 goal but I lost 5 lbs. I am happy with that and will continue to lose and add in moderate exercise.

Judy-Way to go on the looser clothing :)

Penny-Journaling and avoiding alcohol have been life savers for me. Good luck with your new plan.

Carol-What a great idea creating the account. My boyfriend and I did something similar a mini vacation fund.

Marie- Hope all is well

Nikki

Hi all, I'm at work today and have almost nothing to do. I'm thinking of spending the day creating a new template for our district's webpage. I'd love to get rid of the old one. My old boss created it and it's not fun - not to mention he wasn't organized so when I update it - it takes forever to find every nuke and cranny he hid things in.

Nikki, 5 pounds is awesome. I wish I could say that this time but I can't. I'm just being so-so. But the countdown is on - July 16th I'm starting up again. I'll be back from Alaska and there will be no more excuses. It sort of strange - I'm looking forward to it. There's a big part of me that likes when I'm in control. Right now I'm not. I don't see a reason to get on track when we're leaving in less than 48 hours - get on track to just fall off seems silly. But there won't be any excuse after I return.

Judy, if Penny was right about your weather, I hope you stayed to watch the fireworks on TV. Sounds like you had a nice day off.

Carol, good luck getting back on tract. Be my inspiration - be successful then tell me about it on the 16th. :)

Penny, you have the bugs eating your stuff, I have bambi. BTW, bambi and firends decided to walk with the doggies and me this morning. Three of them, two bucks and a doe, stayed about 50 yards ahead of me and the dogs for about 1/2 mile. It was weird. They kept looking back, knowing that they were safe. I sort of wanted to run after them to get them to leave as Kody was pulling on the leash like crazy. But after a while they finally veered off the road. I definitely live in the wilds.

Okay, I'm thinking of going for a walk (really don't want to work). I need some duct tape and the store is close... (and no the duct tape isn't for my mouth but that could be a good idea...)
Marie

Marie, I am picturing you walking with the doggies and the deer :D. Deer are always so skittish, it's nice to think of them strolling along without sprinting away. Sorry work is so boring! Thinking about your vaction is nice way to pass the time.

Nikki, five more pounds is awesome, good work! :carrot:

Penny, those digital photo frames are so cool! Including really old photos was a brilliant idea.

Carol, if Penny wants to lighten up her margaritas, she could just drink tequila shots, but that might lead to other problems :dizzy:.

I have so much work backed up that I can barely focus on one thing without my mind racing over to something else. It's adding to my feeling "hungry" which I'm not, really, I've eaten plenty of food already today (turkey slices, almonds, a plum, plain yogurt, a cup of squash soup, green salad with shrimp). It's just nervous energy. So I will have a big mug of mint tea and wait until near the end of the day to have a Lara Bar, which is too many carbs for South Beach. But I had an early morning meeting and didn't have time to pack my afternoon veggies and hummus. Turns out that the woman I was meeting with forgot, after all that...

Okay, I'm taking deep breaths...there, that's better. I will come back for moral support if I can't stop thinking about food!

judy

Girls regarding things eating our lovely gardens and our soon to be healthy foods try and get some human hair from the salon. I had bunnies eating my cuke plants some down to nothing little brats. Anyways I got a bag of hair and in a flash threw it in no more issues. I guess they sense us being in the garden kind of easy and no cost or fuss. ck it out. Oh Marie have a great trip my son lived there for almost a year and I never got out there. But it was a lovely lace and seems to be the place to go this year. Hope you enjoy every min. of your time away. Worry about the loss later on and enjoy yourself. Bear is off to the vets today and not quite sure why he can't have food this a.m. really turned off by this fact. I am feeling more in control the last few days back to tracking my intakes for now til I get in the groove again. I turned down an offer to go for lunch yesterday and said I brought. Today I will pack another salad but be creative with it. I took a mango yesterday and it was really good shared it with a coworker. Just doing a few days of watching the intake feels better. I will set my goal on monday for the month of July. My first day back to work wasn't to bad at the end of the afternoon I thanked my boss for doing such a good job with my caseload and told her it made for an easy transition back. NIKKI CONGRATS ON THE HIGH 5! Judy I might need a squash soup recipe there is lots coming in my garden. Well gotta go get my little poo off to the vets.

Marie- Enjoy yourself in Alaska :)

Carol-Wayto go on making wise food choices. The beginning is always the hardest.

Judy-What is a Lara bar? I love tequila shots :)

Penny -Hope you are doing well.

I am still plugging along. I feel like I havent lost anything even though the scale says different.

Nikki

Carol, your poor little doggie! I just read in my backlog of magazines (Ntl Geographic, maybe) a funny take-off on the X Files, but with dogs as Agents Mulder and Scully. Since they don't always understand cause-and-effect, they were freaked out by sudden disappearance of fleas (collars), not being able to scratch their noses or see behind them (cones), or waking up from a deep sleep and finding their manhood missing. I'm glad your reenty into work wasn't bad.

Nikki, I love straight "sipping" tequila more than shots, if it's a really good quality tequila. Luckily, that's too expensive to indulge in often, and there's no point in having more than two. We may be facing a shortage a few years from now, because changes in the agave crop, so I say stock up now! Lara Bars are near the Power and Luna bar section of the store. All natural, half a dozen or fewer unprocessed ingredients--the entire list for the cashew cookie bar is "cashews, dates." Flavors are cocoa mole, lemon bar, etc. They don't have as much protein as some of the others, but they don't have that chalky taste that some have, either. They do have a few grams of fiber, and they're gluten-free. When I miss having baked goods, I can have a sweet, chewy Lara Bar and not feel so bad.

I'm pulling things together for a quick trip to Manhattan next week. Like Marie, I'm not feeling too motivated about working, since 2/3 of the people around me seem to be on vacation! I guess that's because the holiday was in the middle of the week. I didn't work out yesterday, to ease my knee back into things, but I did a cardio video this morning, and will go over to Curves on my lunch break. Every day has been a struggle with munchies (note my gushing over Lara Bars, above) because I indulged in empty carbs when I was in Atlanta. I'm trying a new thing: I bought a little tin of cacao nibs at Whole Foods. They're smaller than Chicklets, but just a couple seem to chase away my late-afternoon craving for sweets. The entire little tin is one serving (140 calories) but at this rate they will last me for two weeks :D.

Back to work! Have a great day, all.

judy

Marie - I loved your story about the deer. I bet they have learned that dogs on leashes are not a threat and like to torment them! Kody was well behaved under the circumstances and your arm got an extra workout! I hope you guys have a wonderful time in Alaska.

Judy - I hope the deep breaths helped. You sure had a stressful day. I hope you have a nice relaxing weekend.

Carol - That's interesting about using human hair as a critter repellant, I'll have to try it some time. I hope Bear does ok at the vets. I'm glad you're starting to feel more in control.

Nikki - I'm glad the scale doesn't agree with you in this case! :lol:

I'm feeling a lot more in control too, now that I've started journaling my food again. Don't you guys get me started on tequila shots! :lol: I'm better off not having any alcohol as I just can't afford those couple of hundred extra calories. Have a great weekend everyone!

Judy- I just started drinking tequila and I mix some with a bit of watermelon sf syrup it is divine the aave with watermelon mmmm.

Penny - Way to go on getting back on track :carrot:

I just got out of the pool did 30 min of swimming. I am sure I will feel it in the morning.

Hi all, I'm making progress in the prep for leaving town. But probably not as much as I should have as I'm easily distracted. I did finish the laundry, got the suitcases from the shed (I'm thinking Judy has hers always ready to go...), re-printed itineraries, etc. Today is DS1's 22nd birthday and they're coming for a BBQ. I made a gigantic chocolate mint cake. Hehehehe - they have to take it home with them. It looks incredible though. The cake is actually lo-cal but the two tubs of icing aren't. C'est la vie - I'll only be having one slice.

I'm going to miss my doggies so much. Traveling is hard - I really want to go but I wish the doggies were going too.

Nikki, I never feel achy from swimming. I've always thought that was the cool part of swimming, it never hurts. I'll be doing that soon as the temps are hot again.

Judy, you and I are on the munchie bandwagon. I'm thinking about food way too much. A week from Monday should put the kabosh on that - I hope. Good luck with the piles of work. My Dear Boss told me to go home yesterday so I did. I floated and listened to a book. But not after I'd learned a new webauthoring trick. I was actually having fun when she stopped by (she was supposed to be leaving for Hawaii and kept getting side tracked - about an hour after she stopped by, I said if she was still in town I'd have to come smack her - yest I said that to my boss - she is the best boss I have EVER had in my life). Then I went home.

Carol, I'm glad your boss kept your caseload afloat. Isn't it cool to have a good boss? My last one was incompetent (said whatever anyone wanted to hear and then did nothing) and the one before that had physical tantrums when she was pissed. My current boss is getting very close to the friend status (which I shy away from but I really do get along with her). Anyway. Good job on the food choice Carol.

Nikki, that's a new one - the scale being nicer than expected. Send that square box to me... :)

Penny, I've heard of the human hair trick. I don't know why, but it's icky to me. But I'm a bit strange. Good luck with the journaling and I'll join you on that task soon.

Time to actually pack. :(
Marie

Yikes, it hot out..96 degrees or so. Won't it be lovely when the West's heat wave makes it over to the East Coast :faint:. Yesterday I picked up around the house (although I'm not finished--how can a small apartment take so long to clean?). I got a free makeover at the Shiseido counter at the mall. It was lovely, so of course I bought more of the products than I planned. I did a workout on cardio machines for the first time since my knee freaked out last week. So far, so good, but for a while I'll only do a few bike/treadmill workouts a week, and do more videos on my carpeted floor. Today I worked out washed my hair, got a mani-pedi, and am at the office few a few hours.

Carol, I hope that Bear is speaking to you again...

Marie, I have a suitcase closet (don't laugh) and two travel kits--one fully loaded, and one TSA-approved Baggie for overnight trips and carry-on luggage.

Nikki, I'm glad you're enjoying the pool!

Penny, keep mentioning how empowering it is to journal one's food, maybe it will sink in for me subliminally:D.

judy

Marie you surely made me laugh it sounds like are last boss's were related! Was she about 5"9 ? Have a super trip and yes having a good boss makes the world a better place for sure.
Nikki and Judy you girls may be onto something with that new drink idea hows the cals no carbs right? Your too funny. I guess I will stick to my glass of red wine or blush or maybe a Mikes hard lemonade which I prefer over the others but more cals. I had a pretty good weekend with food intake nothing over the edge jumping in and being more careful always is a challenge. Why we ever let ourselves get out of a good routine is beyond me in the first place. But if I really could figure it out and stick to it life would become so much easier. At least I catch myself before too much damage is done. I did the scale and up a few lbs. So I guess I had better be good. I purchased some helathy groceries and am on a roll now and journaling my intakes with you Penny together we will be better with this step forward. I made a good black bean salad yesterday from cooking light. I purchased four mag. at a garage sale for .25 a piece and tore out the pages of interest and recipes. So I am trying to use some of those to spark my intakes a bit. Cooking Light recipes are also available on the net for free with a search but no pictures. Oh well can't have it all I guess. Well this a.m. I am taking a client to meet some folks to go to camp for a week. So I am leaving a bit later good thing cause I got to sleep in a bit the rain storm was loud and lots of lighting too. My daughter and SIL came for dinner last night they are doing so well. Their trip sounded lovely and they had a great time. She being a veggie had trouble in Mexico finding anything good on the menus to meet her needs but ended up creating somethings herself. They said its more what the Mexicans think Americans would like to eat more than what they really do. Funny huh? Bear is doing quite well a little quieter than his norm but that part is a nice change. He is such a love that it makes up for his naughty behaviors sometimes. Glad to have him back home and I THINK he would agree. Well take care and try to be good and make healthy choices . Before a bite goes in I am trying to think about what I am doing! Lets hope it works!!

Hi Ladies-


I had a rough weekend. I was in the pool saturday and I fell off the ladder. I strained my right arm pretty bad. I have a disability whch makes my left arm useless so I do everything with my right arm. It will be hard but I am trying to rest my right arm as much asd I can which means no exercise for the moment since I cant pull myself up the pool ladder.Then on Sunday my bf and I cleaned out the pantry and kitchen throwing away 3 big black bags worth of stuff. I still live at home and mom has been avoiding doing it so we did it. I am glad its done !I also had a weight blip I gained 2 lbs last week after not eating well on the fourth :(
I guess I was riht last week when I said I felt bigger. I am not going to type much because my hand hurts. I will ttyl.

Nikki

Nikki - Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about your accident - it's the last thing you need! I hope your arm will heal quickly. I'm glad your bf helped you clean up the pantry at your house. It's good not to have too many junk food temptations around. Don't worry about the 2 lbs., they will come off again now that the July 4th holiday (and extra calories) is over!

Carol - I'm going to join you in thinking about every bite that goes in. I think a lot of my eating is done on "automatic pilot" :lol:. I heard that the bigger variety of foods you eat, the harder it is to lose weight, so I'm going to also try not to eat so many different foods. Trouble is, I'm a real "foodie" and love trying different things all the time. I'm glad Bear is feeling ok after his "little operation".

Judy - Your Shiseido makeover and manicure sounds lovely - I'd like to treat myself to something like that. I'm glad your knee is behaving.

Marie - I hope you're having a wonderful time in Alaska.

We went for a nice walk in one of our favorite parks yesterday and my foot didn't act up. We only walked for half an hour, but it was lovely to walk along the river and see all the boats, etc. We saw a cute squirrel asleep in the crook of a tree right near the path. He opened one sleepy eye, looked at us and went right back to sleep.

So far I'm doing ok calorie wise, so I'm hoping the scale with cooperate on Friday. :crossed:

Nikki so sorry about your fall. Boy life is never easy is it. I think you have a keeper with the BF that he will help you with so many things thats great. Good to have that area cleaned out. Sometimes we all just get so many things and don't know when to discard or take the time. Now that it is done I am sure you feel better about that. Take a little break it will be fine. I know a couple of lbs. are a pain I feel it right now too along with a sore back this a.m.. I was doing pretty good it could be rain related I didn't return back to PT as I figured she showed me exercises now I can just do them myself. So this a.m. I did take the 10 min, and do them. A bit of walking during work yesterday I guess around 15min. extra and then pool time last night. So I squeezed in a little movement. I think tonight I will swim at my sisters as I can do laps. I counted my cals yesterday around 1600 so not too bad. But I did have bread english muffin mult. gr. and a ww bagel so there were a bit too many carbs. At least they were higher in fiber and protein. The down fall was a burger with cheese for dinner and some mac. salad. But I still added the cals up. Fine tuning is tough sometimes. Penny see if I don't have a lot of creative ideas and foods to choose from I get bored and go way outside the box. Everyone is so different and thats where we all have to go with some individualized plans weird enough but I think its true. We gain and lose differently too. Boy our bodies can sure be tricky. Hope Marie is relaxing and adventuring well in Alaska boy would I like to do that. Talk to you all soon. kEEP MOVING!!!

Thank you ladies for your kind thoughts:) My arm is a bit better today but it is only 9 am. I sept with it elevated and wrapped up. My eating has been good. I am dep in ketosis which means I am burning fat. I found an alternative to using Fit Day. It is called MY PLAN and is a tool designed for low carbers. I started tracking my food yesterday and I'm going to see if I can pick any trends up in food consumption and weight. Yesterday was so warm I drank a gallon of water.

Penny-Good job on the walking. I am glad your foot is holding up.

Carol-My boyfriend is so good with many things but oh so bad in others. I guess we have to take the good with the bad. I really love him and am hoping we can both get good jobs and get married. We are waiting for financial reasons right now.

Nikki nothing is ever prefect but somethings can be groomed over time. Good luck with the new plan I will ck it out. I am trying to be really good doing my PT exercises in the a.m. 2 days in a row hurray. But my food intake was too low during my day yesterday by the time I came home I could of ate an elephant. So now that the macorni salad is out of the house I won't make it for a bit. I think it came out too good and then it was cool and something simple. Normally I stay away from pasta but in the 90's and it was there well yah know the story. Girls I am happy to say my daughter has pretty much accepted a new job with regular hrs and not the pay she is making but for starting in a new field not bad at all a couple of dollars less than the one she has been at for 7 years. The boss was surprised but she has been telling them you need to get me different hrs. etc. before Sept. when her son starts all day school. I am thrilled for her to have weekends off 7 yrs of missing family functions is long enough for all of that a normal life will be nice and no driving home in the middle of the night. Mom can be at peace without wondering will she be okay its storming. Well wanted to share the good news. Hope your enjoying your vac. Marie and taking in all the great sights. Judy are you away too? Penny hope your doing good? Well tonight I am having grilled salmon on skewers that were prepackaged with peppers hope their is good as they look. Only 90 cals each so I put out two and will do grilled squash and a rice to go with them. Take care friday is scale day for me.

Carol - Good news about your daughter :) Salmon is yummy in the summer.

I had my weigh in this morning and I lost 1 lb. Better then nothing! I know now that I am watching different things that I neglected to before I will lose more in the coming weeks :carrot:

Penny/ Judy- hope all is well

Carol - I'm glad your daughter has finally got better hours. It will be nice for her to be able to join in more family get-togethers. I agree with you that I couldn't give up my favorite foods completely. The idea of eating bland foods to lose weight would get old real soon! Yesterday we had company for dinner (a business associate of my DH). I made the Swiss national dish of Zurcher Geschnetzeltes (veal in cream sauce) which, as you can imagine is NOT low cal! :lol: I took just a small portion with about 1/2 cup of egg noodles and lots of salad and was satisfied. I would usually eat about 3x the size portion! It's not something I make very often, but it always gets raves when we have company. For dessert I put a small slice of pound cake in a dish for each person, drizzled it with a good amount of sweet sherry and topped it with fresh raspberries and a small scoop of Haggen Daz reduced fat vanilla ice cream - easy and delicious. Today I'm having Lean Cuisine to make up for it!

Nikki - Yay on losing a pound! :broc: I'm glad you found an alternative to Fit Day for low carbers. I'm sure it will make keeping track a lot easier. I hope your arm is continuing to improve. I sprained my wrist last week being too gung-ho with my yoga and it's amazing how you don't realize how often you use your dominant hand all day long till it hurts to do so. I put a brace on it and stuck Salon Pas pain relief pads all over my hand and forearm and it really helped. So I know how you feel although your injury sounds a lot worse than what I had.

I'm down 1/2 a pound from last Friday so I'm hoping it will be a whole pound by my Friday weigh in.

Way to go Penny :)

Nikki congrats on the loss. I am scaling friday hope for some change to the good. Wow sometimes its hard to get into it all. But in the long run the long haul is the best way and do I know it. So I didn't do the salmon last night but had venison very lean tonight I will have my salmon its marinating in some lime dressing. Haven't tried this before light lime dressing by Paul Newman. I will let your know if its good or not to waist your funds on it. I like my own lime so I thought well give it a whirl. Hope your arm is better Nikki and you too Penny I must of skipped over that one. Wow we are quite a group and my back is bothering me a bit again. Guess should of kept up with therapy huh? Penny good job keeping to your choices of food the best you could. Having some is sometimes better than not at all or in the end we consume more than what the cals in what our real choice would of been. Congrats on control!!! I have never had that dish but it sounds like heaven! Next week I am taking off thurs. my 85 yr. old mom is going in for heart catherization and they will see if she has something going on in there that shouldn't be. She was to get carpal tunnel surgery on tues and it was canceled due to pretesting results. Never a dull moment. So thats where I will be a week from today with mom at the hospital praying it all will go okay. Its never easy seeing them go through things like this. Well take care everyone I am off to prepare a nice salad for lunch today.

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! :grouphug:

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 :dance:

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! :carrot:

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.

Hi ladies-

Sorry I have been MIA. I had an emergency situation I had to take care of with my boyfriend. I have been out of town sti am until tomorrow. My eating hasn't been the best because I have only been eating one meal a day and drinking lots of diet soda and coffee to keep the adrenaline going and handle what I need to handle. I won't weigh in this week until friday.

Marie- I am glad your trip was so nice.

Carol- So sorry to hear about your cousin. My thoughts are with you.

Penny- That coconut shrimp sounds great. Hawai would be nice right about now.

Judy- i dont know how my arm is.. It stil hurts a bit but I am running on pure adrenaline now so I cant feel as much pain. I guess I will find out thursday how I actually feel once I am home and can relax a bit. I am glad your knee is better.


ttyl
Nikki

Hi all, I just lost my whole post - incoming message startled me and somehow I deleted everything... :mad: and it was such a good post. Very witty...:p

So to try again...

Nikki, I hope your emergency with your BF is resolved positively and quickly. One meal a day is bad, but we all have to do what we can do in hard situations. Our thoughts are with you.

Carol, since you're sending feelers out about a new position, you might want to make a pro and cons list of leaving. If it's just the irritating idiot, perhaps you could talk to you wonderful boss about putting physical space between you - such as a different office, cubicle, dividing wall, etc. She might want to keep you enough to go the extra mile if she knows you'd be willing to leave because of this person. And if you get a job offer, you can look at the list and really make a good decision that's best for you. Remember the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence. You have a nice boss and that's a rarity - and 5 weeks vacation is nothing to sneeze at.

I faced the devil this morning. It's been 1 month since I last weighed in. I was going to wait another week, but decided to unbury my head. It was ugly. Really, absolutely ugly. There's a reason I felt fat - I gained 5 pounds in the last month. Eeks. The evil scale chortled at me and I didn't drop kick it into the pool. I'd sort of expected it. I truly thought 2-3 but I will deal with the 5. Nothing as motivating as an evil scale. I took my tracker off as it's wrong and I didn't feel like changing it. I will let you know when it's accurate again.

Yesterday's stats: 1539 calories, 1.1 miles walking, .4 miles jogging, and .25 miles swimming.

I'm pleased that I got my calories back in control. today is day 3 of being on track. I hope it stays relatively easy.

This morning I added 2 miles biking as my knee is getting bothersome. Believe it or not, the walking/jogging doesn't hurt but after sitting for a while it stiffens up pretty quickly. DS1's orthepedist told him to use the exercycle to strengthen his knee - he didn't but I will give that a go. Pretty soon I'll have to admit there's a problem if it doesn't get better.

Time to work... :(
Marie

Nikki, I hope you and the BF are okay.

Carol, your clients are lucky to have you on their side! I hope that the one difficult person doesn't drive you away from your work.

Penny, hanging out on the river and in the Pearl District sounds wonderful. That's such a neat area.

Marie, after work today I will go to the bookstore and buy one of those skinny calorie-counting notebooks, and starting tomorrow I will post my calorie count here everyday. It's July, and I won't come anywhere near my 2007 goal if I don't suck it up and focus! Years ago those little books helped me lose over 60 pounds. I just purely hated all that tracking, but that beats weighing over 200 pounds for the rest of my life. I have to admit that nothing else is rally working for me, and I've been backsliding like nobody's business for a month now. So there's nothing to it but to do it!

judy

Marie - Give your scale a good kick from me! :kickbutt: Don't worry, the pounds will come off quickly now that you're back on track. I think it's a good idea not to have to stick 100% to your eating plan when you're on vacation, otherwise you just feel deprived and miserable. It's the other 300-odd days of the year that count. I hope your knee gets better. Mine was "cured" by doing lots of leg lifts, lunges and squats at Curves. I started out really slowly and carefully and built the reps up. My thigh muscles are a lot stronger now and that helps support my knee. You can do the same exercises without any machines if it's ok with your doc, I guess it depends what's wrong with your knee.

Judy - You and me both! It's just too depressing when the pounds start sneaking back on when we've worked so hard to get them off! I've been backsliding and have only just knuckled down and started keeping track the last couple of weeks. I seem to be heading in the right direction again. No more backsliding for us - we can do it! :carrot:

Carol - I'm with Marie on being cautious about "jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire". You have a good thing going with a nice boss and 5 weeks vacation. Don't let one aggravating coworker spoil it for you. Maybe you need to do a little confrontation (not something I'm good at) but it might clear the air and let the person know that you've got her number. A private word with your boss might help too, especially if you drop hints that you might not be able to continue working there under the circumstances.

Nikki - I hope everything is ok with you and your bf and that your arm is feeling better.

I'm down another 1/2 pound :cb: Not official yet till Friday, but at least I'm no longer gaining.

Well girls the ----- hit the fan today. My boss came in and told me she was sorry about confronting me last week but the info. the other person gave was not accurate and she found out I was the one telling the truth about it. The other girl stuck her nose where it didn't belong confused a whole lot of stuff trying to look good and make me look bad. It back fired but I did show my supervisor that I was at my end of the line and was ready to look for something else showing her the resume on my desk. She said no way then said please give me a chance to straighten things out your good and I don't want to lose you. She actually tried hard all day to let me know that too. Well I sent out the resume but didn't tell her doubt I will even get a call on it and if I do I will follow up to ck it out never hurts to look. But you are all right 5 weeks vac. a yr. from Sept. is nothing to sneeze at. I also really do like my boss and my clients as well. Most of my coworkers are great just a couple bad apples. I guess you get it anywhere. She did get talked to today and stayed to herself all day long and looked upset. Now just how does it feel I say oh guess I am a bit bitter but look how many times this has happened. The boss ensures she is putting a stop to it this time. From now on write ups! Hurray!!! On the calorie count good for breakfast and lunch dinner now was chinese just wanted it kind of a victory dinner in away. Shouldn't be such a bratt I guess. Marie sorry to hear but I know you can get it off. It happened to me to. We just take a little brake and think we can eat like we used to and it doesn't work for us. To bad we don't just learn it right off the bat. But look at it this way we stopped before it got to out of hand. Im with all of you lets get it off. Judy you too look how far you have come. Sometimes little things make us crazy and we just go off a bit. Vacations, weddings, stress etc........ Nikki sorry to hear about your boy friend hope everything is on a mends now and you will be fine. Together we are all learning to cope with stress and changes. It sure is a learning experience huh??? Thank you all for your ideas and support and I agree not to really let her push me out. Like the boss said if she had not ck'd with me and kept it to herself the truth would not of come out. So in the long run this might of been worth it. Calling hrs. on wed. night and the funeral on thurs. so sad I say. Too darn young for such things to happen. Thanks for your kind words everyone.