Hi everyone, another work day done. I'm at home (ALONE) and it's so peaceful. My goal is to go through Quicken stuff, then be a bum. DH uncovered the pool, but it's only 72 degrees and I'm not wanting to swim. So I already covered it. I won't tell him as I very much appreciate him uncovering it for me.

DS2 did come over last night so I wasn't alone last night. But we had a nice visit and he packed up more of his room. I'm starting to see a guest room in my future but at the moment I don't want any guests. BTW, DS2 asked if almost DIL was at that "special time of the month" and I laughed and said yes. As I don't have major mood swings (if any, due to TOM) I have a hard time excusing the behavior, but perhaps I should. Time will tell.

I ended yesterday with 1350 cals. Last night I swam 1/2 mile and I really put effort into it. I'm getting way better with my snorkel (it makes me gag most of the time so that's been hard to get used to). And the snorkel seems to be helping my neck issue so I'll keep using it. This morning I did 3 miles WATP and 1 mile Jog ATP. I usually due 3 miles (when not doggie walking in the morning) but had a little extra time so I added the extra mile. I did have to drink my breakfast shake in the Jeep on the way to work, but it was worth it. I also had my 6 month dental cleaning today and that was good. Other than work is IRRITATING (see Judy you're not totally alone), the day was good. I'm trying to figure out what to have for dinner - easy or hard. As I can't decide I bet I'll waffle on it for an hour or so, then go with easy as I'd run out of time.

Penny, to be honest I have never met anyone that had a successful deviated septum fixed. Nary a one and I've met a few. So I think taking time to ponder is wise. And Carol, I believe, is a Leo as her birthday was recently too. I've always flocked to Leos. I don't believe in the stuff but it is sort of weird. All my best friends in life were born at the end of July or in August (except DH who was born in March). After a while I couldn't ignore the coincidence.

Auntie g, I went to 2 weddings in one day last summer and successfully missed the wedding cake at both. It sure does make sticking to plan without having to explain yourself very simple. It also helps when the food is mediocre as Judy had.

Judy, your message reminded me of hearing that some dieters lock their fridge/freezer shut. I've heard of closed signs. Whatever works is a great idea. And 199, you are so close I bet you'll be wearing that coat this winter!

Carol, I'm jealous of the blueberries as well. My strawberries are no prolific this year as in July we had to thin them out (as spring flew by and it didn't happen when it should have). I'm jealous of any homegrown, fresh fruit. I could live on fruit alone if it wasn't so blasted expensive.

Well, I just fed my hummers (it's their dinner time). I knew that 3 of the 4 feeders were nearing empty so I set my timer so they wouldn't run out. Not only do my dogs have me trained, the hummingbirds do too.
Marie

Well, it's bedtime but I want to check in. Today has been okay. I did a short (30-minute) cardio workout this morning, and slogged through lots of paperwork today. I've been eating on program. I don't have a kitchen door, just a doorway, so I hope that blocking the entrance with my coat on this lovely chair will force me to acknowledge that I'm making an active choice (I'm not sleepwalking) when I start rambling around the kitchen after 9 PM.

Gee, Penny, I'd think you'd be loath to sign up for elective surgery right now!

Marie, I read that August is the biggest month for birthdays, so the law of averages is at work here, too.

Auntie, I think that leaving a party early is a good strategy. A friend and her hubby like to invite me over for dinner, but I have been suggesting a movie or a meal out instead, because otherwise I end up getting stuffed with not so healthy dinner and dessert, and lingering over bottles of wine. I will have to accept her offer soon, tho, or i will hurt her feelings.

Time for bed! I'm still feeling a bit deprived in the mornings, after restless nights.

judy

Happy Birthday Penny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We went to dinner for our anniversary and the hammock I am getting this next week. We are getting some work done around the house before the s flys in NY. The 2 loads of grave at the cost of 400.00 and then having a roof put over our deck is our is some of our costs at this time. So the hammock will be next weeks funds. They actually aren't too bad around 64.00 for the one I saw that can fold up. Nice for camping too. Gotta ck them out more. But it will be a nice gift for the house as well.
Work has been crazy glad to have a schedulded day off friday and 2 more next week one to take the gs's to the state fair another to go to camp. Ooops not sure I put in for that friday off no biggy we can leave when I get home. Not in any big hurry its just state land camping roughing it.....
Marie I never made it back to Kolhs so I didn't do too bad. Auntie g your cheese fries sound interesting.
Judy good job firming up.
I think the scale and I aren't so happy either Marie I like the finger motion idea.
Of course eating out last night and lunch out today no wonder I am not liking the scale.
I will have just a salad for dinner tonight as the girls wanted to go to lunch.
I have been at the gym on monday and plan a walk or the gym today. This weekend will get some exercise with camping, swimming and hiking....Taking good snacks and some healthy choices.....

Good evening, ladies! Food's still on track, but now that the weather is getting nicer (cooler!), I feel like I won't be able to avoid exercise much longer - LOL! I'm not sure how much more progress I can make without kicking it up a notch anyway. So soon I must get on some serious walking before winter becomes my excuse!

Marie, egad! You reminded me that I forgot to fill my birdfeeder AGAIN! It's just a regular one (no hummingbirds), but I've been meaning to fill it for a few days now, and I keep getting distracted. My little bird friends are probably really mad at me by now! Glad to hear Mr Scale is cooperating!

Judy, yeah, socializing with friends is definitely tougher on the diet than staying home! I'd try to arrange that dinner with friends for when there aren't any other big eating occasions during the same week. I'm sticking with the theory that one meal a week can be a little splurge-y. We still have to live, right?!

Carol, I never got my cheese fries over the weekend. They'll have to wait. We went to Red Robin (don't know if that's a national chain or not) for the first time and I had the most delicious hamburger I've ever had in my life- so that was my big Saturday splurge. Mmmmmm, it was good! Hope you have fun camping! Oh how I miss camping... Haven't gone in 8 years, but some day...

Have a great Thursday everyone!!!

Auntie G - I'll have to try a Red Robin hamburger next time I get the urge. There are worse things to splurge on! At least a hamburger has plenty of protein .

Carol - I hope you have a great time camping this weekend. Where abouts do you usually go camping?

Judy - I hope you'll soon catch up with a good night's sleep. I have the same problem of never getting a really good deep sleep. That's why I'm considering getting the nose surgery to open up my airway. I sometimes also can't sleep because of racing thoughts. I have a feeling certain foods contribute to that (or maybe too much coffee.)

Marie - Sorry to hear about your foot. You've had more than your fair share of accidents. I hope it heals quickly for you. The weekend will be here before you know it so don't be too bummed out. I don't think you could have gained on 1300 cals. Maybe your hubby is right - perhaps you "absorb" water doing all that swimming! More likely your body is rebelling about losing weight and it will give in once it knows you mean business!

I went for coffee yesterday with a group of friends, one of whom has recently been diagnosed with bladder cancer and she has also suddenly lost vision in one eye, is losing vision in the other eye and after many tests nobody knows why. She's being very brave and it brought it home to me how much of a crap shoot life is and how people manage to find strength they didn't know they had when faced with such a dire situation.

My scale is also being mean and showed my weight being up 3 lbs. this morning! I kicked it, flipped it over a few times and weighed again and it still showed the same weight . Not surprising since I haven't exercised at all for over a month. I'm starting back at Curves on Friday, and not a moment too soon!

Penny, I love "I kicked it, flipped it over a few times". That's really worse than giving it the middle finger salute. BTW, I cleaned mine (the dust from nearly a year of not weighing was gross) and I think I shouldn't have done it. That or I should have thrown it in pool so it could be a sponge just like me.

I'm very sorry about your friend. Take good care of her and it sure does point out how tunnel vision we all can be about our lives. Being Thursday shouldn't have bummed me out. Your friend's situation saddens me.

Food is right on still today. I didn't feel like swimming but am thinking about doing a video if I can find where I packed them. I don't have many non-WATP videos on DVD. I still can't get at my treadmill (guest bed blocking it) so I'm not sure what I'll do. Since I did exercise this morning, I might go with just that. We'll see what I can find.

Marie

Well girls I am packing for camping what a job. Yah know as much as I love it surely it is work and next friday we go again for 2 days only. The gs's are excited so am I in some ways. Then I am back to work on monday off on tues. to take the boys to the fair. Then in Sept. I am going to take the girls to camp on a friday nite til sunday. We will wait for a good weather weekend and camp closer to home. Today we are going to a New York State Park it is called Fair Haven if you want to google just for the fun of it. There is a cookie factory near by that all generations of our family have visted 5 min. from camp. They have the best choc. cookies they call them PMS cookies I will have to save some cals for one. The little bakery house has craved post of elfs and fairies and just a cool place to visit and lots of fond memories they serve coffee, tea or milk etc. it is across from the water just a lovely view. The bakery is filled with gallon sized mayo jars each filled with a certain type of cookie a little village of houses go around the room. It will be saturdays adventure at some pt.
My youngest daughter and her hubby are meeting us there I have today off with the boys. He has never camped oh we'll have some fun with him. They are using a tent not me!!
My mom's testing came back great no cancer I was pretty worried as at her age we would most likely not beable to treat it at all.
Penny so sorry for your friends news I will pray for her.
Marie the pool thing how funny you are. 1300 cals isn't bad but maybe your body doesn't think thats enough and then goes into a different mode. Isn't it crazy how our bodies work. I recently found that since my hot flashes have stopped I feel that my wt. has seemed to increased. It must be a metabolism thing and is really making me upset. This weekend I will increase my exercise I am sure then going to becareful. If it doesn't seem to make a difference in a week maybe my thyroid is off again. But its not nice in any manner..... I know I let stuff in my system that sometimes is a bad choice but never had this effect so quickly. It might just be a dang age thing......
But what ever I am going to kick it.....
Hope all is well with everyone else and Auntie G we have one of those rest. but I haven't eaten there yet sounds yummy and if you add it in thats not so bad.
Talk to you all soon have a great day!!!

Happy Friday Marie, today really is the big day

This has been a stressful week. I'm trying not to get into a negative spiral of annoyance at the office, but that will take a heckuva a lot of energy....I haven't been sleeping well, and Wednesday night was especially bad, so I took a mental health day yesterday. It helped, and I slept better last night. Besides giong into the office today, I'll be having lunch with a friend I haven't seen in a while, and stopping by one one the farmers markets. My organization is having a BBQ on Saturday, and promised to bring fruit trays.

Carol, that's good news about your mom! Have a great time camping! It's good to have so many outdoorsy things planned before the weather starts to turn.

Penny, it's hard to get back into working out after a layoff, but it sure feels good once you get into a routine. Your friend certainly has big challenges ahead. It reminds me not to take my poor body, flawed as it is, for granted.

Auntie, I agree that you have to have something decadent to look forward to! My problem is that the treats I like most are addictive (e.g., chocolate), so I have a hard time keeping splurges in their proper place. I hve been eating too much sugar these past few weeks--which makes me want to have more, more, more .

Marie, enjoy your quiet, guest-free weekend. And dig up those DVDs, 'cuz swim season will only last so long, alas.

Blocking the kitchen with the chair is mostly working. There's only been one evening where I pushed it aside for more pistachios and mini-chocolate bars. My scale could use a good dunking in Marie's pool, but I can feel my arms, quads and outer thigh muscles toning up nicely, and I bought another pair of size 18 pants .

judy

Down another 2 lbs! This weekend will be challenging though. Tonight I have a graduation/birthday party to attend, which actually shouldn't be too bad if I can stay away from the chips and dip. Tomorrow I'm going to a baby shower where I know there will be all kinds of awesome food, so I think I'll hold my Saturday splurge til Sunday this week.

Today DH is working, then taking one of the nephews to the Phillies game, so I'm on my own and I'm thinking of trying to install a new bathroom faucet on the sly. I've never done it before, but I'm hoping I can manage.

Carol, hope you're having fun camping!

Judy, mmmmm, chocolate is a weakness for me too , but good for you, taking fruit to the BBQ. I think I've had REAL chocolate only once since I re-started this journey on May 4th. It's too hard to resist if it's in the house, so it just has to stay OUT! I'll probably be fine until I'm forced to buy Halloween candy.

Happy Weekend Everyone!!!! Yeah, a quiet day. DH is putting up an oak gate on my craft room and we moved all the guest furniture out and into DS2's old bedroom. Now if he'll only finish moving his stuff out, I could paint and decorate it. For now the furniture is stacked in the middle. But I got my craft room back.

Judy, I found Richard Simmon's Sweatin' 2 video tape and it took tries to find a VCR that worked in my house, but I did that on Thursday evening. I had so much fun I did it this morning. I'm thinking of visiting Amazon to find a couple dancing exercise DVDs for when the season is over. And good for you taking the mental health day. I'm hoping a quiet weekend will work for me as we're down to h*ll week, my name for it next week. The teachers return to work and they drive me nuts the first few weeks, but worst the first week, the reason h*ll week was named. Anyway, I can't take a health day for at least another 2-3 weeks.

Carol, you wrote exactly what I was thinking about this morning. Maybe 1300 cals is too low for the amount I exercise. I'm going to bump it up to 1500 and see if that helps. I've only lost 1.5 pounds in 2 weeks. Have fun camping!!!!

Auntie g, I think it's wise to be flexible in your splurge day. Have fun at the baby shower. I love dark chocolate and have it daily. I have a canister of dark choc. M&Ms and I measure my 70-80 cal serving. I bring it to work and have it after lunch. I don't know why they're not tempting other than my designated serving but alas, it works and how I love those little buggars.

So food is on track but perhaps a little low. I'll try 1500 cals the next 2 weeks and see if the scale is nicer. I really should learn not to clean it (mucky dust from a bathroom) as it hasn't been nice since. I swam 3/8 mile last night and had done the 1.5 mile walk with doggies. Today I'm going to hand vacuum the pool, float and listen to my new downloaded book (now that I have my new otterbox (waterproof) for my new ipod) then swim 1/2 mile. DH has guard weekend so he'll be leaving shortly but after our BBQ turkey is done. White turkey meat is lo-cal so I'm so looking forward to lunch/dinner since they'll be lots of left overs. The turkey was my impulsive purchase at the grocery store yesterday. And yes, I did walk pas the chips and grabbed a turkey instead.
Marie

I'm feeling good this morning! I slept well for the first time in over a week. This morning I enjoyed a 60-minute workout on the cardio machines. The BBQ was fun but not terribly productive, oh well. My fruit trays were beautiful, if I do say so myself.

Auntie G, you are cruisin' on the scale! I hope you're enjoying your social weekend. I've finally figured out how to deal with trick-or-treaters: I buy candy I don't like, like licorice .

Marie, I love left-over turkey, that's the best thing about Thanksgiving Richard Simmons makes me cringe, but I'm glad he works for you. I bought a new DVD, Prevention Mag's Butt, Belly and Thighs workout. It was breezy and fast moving, and I can do most of routines, so I'll mix in in a few times every week.

Let's declare this National Whoosh Week, and go all out between now and Labor Day! We can't let Auntie G be the only one who gets along with her scale....

judy

National Whoosh Week! I like it! I'm not counting on it, but I like it!!!

Well, last night's party was fine. I had a few chips, but no dip, so I consider that a victory. Today's event shall definitely be a little tastier...

I chickened out of installing the new faucet when I found that I couldn't loosen up the old one. Oh well, some day...

Marie, mmmmmmm, turkey... I never ever make one except at Thanksgiving. Odd, I guess. I never make hard boiled eggs except for at Easter, either. Maybe I should shake things up once in a while! I think you're right about 1300 cals being too low with all the exercise you do. It's kinda cool to think you could eat more to lose more. Good luck! And congrats on the return of your craft room. I've got one too, and though I don't do the amount of crafts I used to do, it's still nice to have a room that's mine, all mine!

Judy, I like the idea of buying Halloween candy that I don't like. If only I would buy all gummy stuff and no chocolate, that would be great. But DH seems to think that I should get something he likes, so I end up getting chocolate that's not my favorite, but then I end up still eating some. Ugh! I guess I just have to decide that I mean it this time! And congrats on enjoying your workout. I'm not to the point where I think I would enjoy working out...

Good luck this week everybody!