Marie - I just noticed the new Stephanie Plum book is out. I'm looking forward to reading it when they get it at the library. Thank goodness for our library, or I'd go broke buying books! The chef detective books are great. Goldy (the main character) reminds me a bit of Stephanie Plum. I think you'd like Tough Cookie as the story (like all the ones I've read so far in this series) is set in Denver and there's lots of exciting skiing stuff. As usual, I've started reading these in the middle books of the series instead of at the beginning , but I did the same with the Stephanie Plum books and it worked out ok as the writer explains some of the previous background for new readers.

Auntie G - Sounds like a good day for soup where you are. We're supposed to warm up to about 50 deg. later this week. Luckily, we don't have any sidewalks, being out in the country, but it used to bug me when we lived in a house in town and the neighbors never did the courtesy of shoveling their sidewalks.

Hi, chickies! I've been in a fog lately, getting lost in lists and projects, and coming up for air when it seems to be too late to do anything except go to bed .

Welcome, Mysty! Please jump in with both feet! And congratulations on meeting your goal. I see that you're also in the DC area. Hey, soon we may have enough for a capitol area caucus or something.

I've been doing well and on program, and down 2.5 lbs, to 221. Today has been hard, though. I'm working late, and essentially had enough food to cover everything but my evening snack. It's partly stress, and partly the perpetual chill in my office. I've got a space heater, an office sweater and a throw, but Marie, I may need to invest in your foot-warmer after all. I will pack up as soon as I'm done with this post. I plan to ride the exercise bike for a while, and finish the night with a smoothie. I rode the bike for 55 minutes yesterday, my first long ride in quite a while.

Auntie, I hate walking when it's slippery, I feel like a hog on ice and am petrified of falling. But thanks for the loony reminder, I'll look on my way home tonight.

I forgot to record Oprah last week . I have been recording the National Challenge on the Discovery Channel. The overweight participants do have to work as teams, but so far without the hateful histronics you get on The Biggest Loser and similar shows.

Greetings, Marie, Mariana, Kathy, Penny, etc. Let's all have a terrific week!

judy

Hi Everyone! It seems like we all have had the Monday blahs. Work went well today. I was very busy so that made it go faster. This week will be a crazy one because our consultant is coming on Thursday and Friday and that means a lot of financial stuff to get ready. One of those days I will be on the consultation for a coupld of hours to helpf with the financial end of things and to make sure we are posting everything right. It is a very stressful time and frustrating.

I've also been frustrated with work. I like the work I do the job is good, I'm just tired of being a secretary. I have done secretarial work for almost 30 years and I'm ready for a change. It may have something to do with the fact that I'll be 46 next month. "Mid-life crisis"!!!!

Auntie g - Yeah for the Eagles. I would love to see a Eagles/Steelers Super Bowl.

Mazza - Shoveling snow is hard work. It kills my back but I do it when I have to. Thankfully I don't have to clean the cars off because we have a garage. When we moved to the house we currently live in we thought we were in heaven because we had a garage and didn't have to be out in the rain, snow, mud, etc., like we did at our old house.

I hope eveyone has a great week.

Kathy

Judy - Congratulations on he 2.5 lbs. loss! You're doing great on the e-bike - Wow 55 mins.!

Kathy - Sorry to hear you're having job stress too - seems to be a lot of that going around. I was an executive secretary too for about 25 years and then worked in the past 15 years for my DH in his business. I'm still working part time at home and my secretarial experience comes in handy. It's hard to motivate myself to work sometimes as there's always something I'd rather be doing at home.

I hope everyone else is having a good Tuesday.

EEEk! I can't stop eating bread. I'm eating way too much these days. If I stop for a day or two, I getcravings for bread and oatmeal back, even if I hadn't completely cut them out to begin with.

Mariana, I'm totally sympathetic about the carb thing! I can eat whole-grain cereal from now until Sunday and still want more. If I cut way back, I'm fine, but once I bring back the oatmeal, etc., my body sees this as a chance to make up for lost time. I was very careful last week, had two good servings of filling carbs twice a day, and was fine. As soon as I relaxed this week, the carb monster emerged last night and really, really needed waffles This afternoon I had microwave poporn. Sheesh! I hope you can tame the monster--and then let me know how you did it!

Penny, I hope you're feeling good today. Is it easier now to work on the keyboard? I was surprised that I last so long on the bike. The fitness room in my building isn't as big and fancy as at my other place, but it's pleasant enough, and if I'm not the only person there, at the most there have been two other people. So it's quiet, no waiting and no distractions.

Kathy, I despise shoveling snow! Not having to think about chores like that is one of the benefits of renting an apartment--shoveling is somebody else's responsibility .

Except for the popcorn, I've been on program today. I had do come to work early, so no time for a work out. I'll work out tonight.

judy

Hello to all, and thanks for welcoming me!! I now have to get to know you so that I can reply to each of you as I see that you guys are used to doing already.
Congrats on all the losses and I'm sorry to hear of the job stresses...that always sucks...

I'm feeling kind of "out of line" today because I had french fries and butterfinger bites at lunch...I know that I have not ruined my diet, but I cant help but to feel that way. I dont even think I really wanted the fries, I was just joining in with the regular lunch crowd...its going to be an interesting shift from what I normally write in my food diary, thats for sure!

<sigh>

I will be back on track tomorrow!!

mstyblue - We all have those days we feel out of whack with our "life change" journey. The thing is to make the change the next day. You can do this, just take it one step at a time.

Work was okay today. I've talked to so many people that are having the same feelings about work that I am. Please don't miss understand, I am very thankful that I have a job. There are just some days that are worse than others. One this week is over and the consultant is gone things will calm down.

I felt stressed today and so I ate a couple bites of a brownie. The good thing is I didn't eat the entire pan!! Other than that I stayed on plan.

I did exercise today. I did 20 minutes on the treadmill and my knee seems to feel better with the exercise. We plan on exercising again tomorrow.

Have a good night!

Kathy

Happy evening everyone!!!

I'm going to do personals and ignore my life. BTW, things are going great, just have personals on my mind.

Mysty, french fries... I learned how to handle going out with anyone fast food and having fries without problem. I realized at some point in the last two years that I ate them without thinking after the first few. The first ones were divine and so excellent, then I really didn't taste them anymore. I paid attention where that point was and realized it was 6 fries. I loved the first 6 then I didn't taste them after that. So now when I go out, I don't order any. Everyone that knows me, knows to give me six fries. They think I'm insane but it works so perfectly. And Auntie is so right that having a slip-up can't be the winner of the war.

Kathy, it's always right to be thankful for one's job, but when you know in your heart that you're capable of more, it's hard to sit back and just not do anything. Keeping your eye out for new prospects is a good thing to do. Brownies - oh yum... I have the sweetest of taste buds.

Auntie, brownies with beans. OH YUCK!!!! Even my sweet tooth would revolt at that combo. Pumpkin is a good sub although I can see beans would add protein. Not worth it. And pull the trax out. I bought a pair last year, lost one and bought another pair this week. They are the best invention for ice walking, especially with doggies that pull. If there's a chance of slippery, I put them on my boots.

Judy, bye-bye 2.5 pounds!!!! I bought the heated footrest at a place called buyonline.com and you couldn't take that thing from me. I even bought another new pair of Birkenstocks just for the heated footrest. I got clogs (my first pair ever) that I can slip out and put my feet directly on the heat Man oh man, I did that today because my feet were cold. Toasty warm after 15 minutes.

Penny, ok you sold me - I'll look at the chef detectives. I research the series books and get the list in order so I can enjoy the whole thing. So I'll probably start at the beginning. I'm enjoying the new Plum book but haven't listened as much as usual as I'm into Sirius radio at the moment.

Mazza, put down the bread. Carefully pull your hands away from the bread and put your hands up in the air (then dance around). I hope you've watched a cop show once or twice.

Well, it's nearly bedtime. DS2 and DH are fighting with my new couch to get it in the guest room and it won't fit. Barely fits down the hall more or less in the doorway. Since DH is the one that said we should get a hide-a-bed for the guest room, I will not feel guilty.
Marie

Hi Everyone!

Just a quick note tonight. I just go home from choir practice and don't have a lot of time. Hope you all are doing well. I'll talk more tomorrow.

Thanks for the words of encouragement!

Kathy

Mariana - I must admit I'm a carb junkie . If I have one meal heavy in carbs I crave them for days. Good thing you do so much exercise, at least you burn a lot of carbs doing that. I, on the other hand, hate exercise and really have to push myself to go to Curves a couple of times a week.

Judy - My shoulder is a lot better, thanks. It still acts up when I overdo it, but at least I can type again and put my bra on.

Mysty - It's so hard to stay on plan when eating out with friends. I like Marie's idea of limiting fries to 6 only and swiping them from somebody else's plate! That takes a lot of willpower though.

Kathy - I hope doing the treadmill helped relieve some of your stress. It's hard to limit brownies to a couple of bites - good for you!

Auntie G - I have never heard of making brownies with beans. However, I love adzuki bean ice cream or popsicles, which are available in oriental markets. Japanese people love sweetened adzuki beans and eat them almost every day in some form. They also make little sesame seed dumplings with adzuki paste inside, yum. So I can see how you could use beans in brownies.

Marie - I hope your guys managed to wrestle the couch into your guest room. I used your tip and had 6 of the fries that came with my fish yesterday. My DH was happy to eat the rest. Normally I get a soup, etc. instead of fries, but I wanted to see if I could eat only 6 and it worked! It was probably less calories than a soup.

It's really foggy here today. I'm hoping it warms up as I'm really itching to get outside and do some clean up in my garden.

First off - I want to say thanks to all of you ladies for supporting me with my carb situation. (Marie, I did dance... it made me feel groovy )

There's a devastating bushfire situation going on here. I was going to go bushwalking with some mates on saturday, but the area where we had planned to go is now in flames.

Marie - I praise your willpower - being able to stop at 6 fries!! Oh man. On a difficult day, that would be an accomplishment. From all the things I've read in this thread over the past (weeks, months), it really seems like you have such a positive attitude in relation to how you approach your dieting habits.

Penny - do you have a big garden? Gardening on a sunny day sounds like a gorgeous idea. I know what yo mean about having one heavy carb meal and then craving carbs for days. Sometimes fruit is even a huge trigger for me - does that happen to you too? Especially mangoes, since they are SO SUGARY (but soooo good). I'm really into mango sorbet packs right now (140kcals) - they are like little tubs with natural mango juice in them that you can freeze.

Auntie, brownie with beans? Whoa - never heard of that combo. If you ever do try it, let me know how you go! I hope inventory is over soon. 4 days in a row! good on ya Especially with the cold weather. I find it so hard to stay motivated to exercise during the winter sometimes. Great job with being on plan this week! Turkey soup ..yum.

Kathy - I hope everything's going well

I'm still in a bit of a diet rut (my 'forgiving' pants are tight... ugh). But I keep reminding myself that I've lost it before and I can lose it again. It's not completely out of control, fortunately - I'm focusing on my commitment to achieving my goals. Sometimes if I have a shocking day off-plan, I remind myself that maybe it was the best I could do that day, and not beat myself up about it.

Perseverance!

Hi, chickies! I'm getting ready for the inaugural craziness . Now I'm going to two events, so I stopped by Filene's this evening and bought a little black dress (if you can call size 18 "little") to wear Saturday night, and I'll save my green one for Monday. Getting my hair done and Friday, and frantically getting my apartment ready for overnight guests. I've been sloppy but not too bad with my eating, but I haven't worked out much this week. I've been working late and feeling a little "off," kind of low energy. I'll focus on logging my food and not pigging out, and things will pick up.

I'm going to bed soon, which is really early for me, but I think it will help me perk up. I hope everyone had a wonderful Friday!

judy

Hi everyone! We have had meetings at work the last 2 days and will have one again tomorrow. Along with meetings comes the food for lunch which consisted of chicken cheese steaks and pizza. Yesterday I had 1/2 of cheese steak and ate carrots instead of chips. Today I had one peice of cheese pizza and again ate carrots instead of chips. I counted my points the best I could and hopefully I counted enough. I'm not going to worry about it. I'll do better the rest of the week.

I have been exercising again. Each day my knee feels better. I had my routine thyroid checkup and got a good report. Since my thyroid levels stayed the same the last 2 checkups she has scheduled me for a 6 months checkup instead of 3 months. My cholesterol stayed the same which is in a good range and my trigycerides dropped from 186 to 126. The doctor was really excited about that. That tells me that I'm on the right track and doing well.


Mazza - You just keep moving on with your "life change" with food. You are doing well and will get back down to where you were. Don't let the small set backs derail you.

Penpal - Have you been able to get in your garden yet? I wish it was warm enough just to get outside and take a walk. It hasn't gotten out of the teens the last couple of days. I think by the weekend we're to get up in the 20s which will seem lik a heat wave here in PA.

Marie - You are my hero to eat only 6 fries. The only thing that slows me down with fries is if they are to salty. I will take your advice and try that the next time I'm craving fries.

My DH is waiting for the laptop so I better run.

Take care everyone and have a great weekend

Kathy