Good morning ladies. Looks like the sun is going to shine today. We got some rain yesterday, well more over the night time than day but we needed it. I will head out in a few hours to go swim and get some exercise.

Susan: I am letting nothing derail me, period. I made up my mind 8 weeks ago not to screw this up and I am not going to. It isn't bad really, just that I gained 2 lbs a couple weeks ago and have stayed the same since, so I am going to look at my eating and see where I can rearrange and plan better and eat different things and see if that will help. I am more bugged by the female stuff popping up again than anything else. Boy, you really did a number on your bedroom but I always feel so good when I have accomplished a cleaning chore and I am sure you do too.

We had a quiet day yesterday just hanging out at home. I did a bit of knitting but was in a blue funk so kind of just vegged out. At least I didn't have Jack get junk food to eat. We don't have a bunch of junk food in the house. We do have some 100 cal snacks and ww ice creams, but neither of us overload on them just give ourselves a treat from time to time and it is all planned in our pts.

I have to go to the store today and get more fresh fruit and some more salad packages as we are about out. Jack has fallen in love with the 0 pt dressing I made so he is eating more salad, which makes me happy because he doesn't like veggies much.

You gals have a good start to your week. I am going to get chores done and get me some breakfast before heading upstairs and making the bed, showering and dressing for the day.

Faye

Good evening, ladies! Rain all day yesterday and until late afternoon today. That was good, grass was dying in my yard. We aren't supposed to water outside and your rates go up a lot if you use more water in June-September than you did December - March.

Faye, I'm so glad you can get your swim in again. It sure is good exercise. I like your 0-pt dressing, too! I'm making Faye's stuff (in the crockpot) over noodles and salad for supper tomorrow.

Jean, I'm glad you enjoyed your weekend.

Maggie, we have vanity plates here. Mine is "I KWILT". We don't get new plates, just stickers every year, unless we want to change or go back to regular plates. We pay $10 once and there are no duplicates. We have cities and counties. The cities are not in counties so you live in one or the other. I live in York County but my mailing address is Yorktown because that is where the post office is. I think allowing the same license plate in different counties could really open a big can of worms if someone did something like hit and run.

I'm too send you my condolences. I guess it didn't sink in that your sister had passed away.

Nothing interesting today - or most of the week.

Have a good evening.

Good Morning, Flowers! I have another load of "cabin" laundry going. There is an older washer and dryer up there up I'd just as soon do it at home. My dishwasher (a year old in April!) went "waco" last night -- the lights looked like they were going up and down the scale w/o any music playing! Bob finally went down to the breaker box and shut it off down there since the cancel button wouldn't cancel. We let it set for a couple hours while I washed the top rack of glasses, etc., by hand. Plugged it back in and it seemed to have fixed itself so set it to run for the bottom rack and left to meet Beth halfway because she forgot her phone and camera chargers at the cabin. Get home and the *(^%$# thing still has a full cycle time showing, and it has been running the whole time we were gone. The dishes feel gritty so called for a repairman to come out and check it. That won't be until Monday because the new counter tops are coming tomorrow, Thursday, and maybe Friday if they don't get done in two days.

Maggie -- Our license plates are issued by county also. If you want a vanity plate it is the only one in the state. We both have the U. S. flag. Alzheimer's is tough on the family, and there are as many different symptoms as there are patients. My niece does home health care for a lady whose husband is trying to keep her home as long as possible. She has some stories to tell that's for sure.

Susan -- Our vanity plates are $50 a piece. I think your's is really nifty! Hope your day at work goes smoothly.

"Gma" -- Where are you this morning? I hope you didn't forget us.

I need to get dressed and get moving. Have a great day!

Jean -- from Iowa!

"Lose" Weight or "Loose" Weight? The 5 WORST Weight Loss Myths
June 19, 2009

You see it all the time - the stats on dieting and weight loss: Each year, 45 million people spend $30 billion on dieting and weight loss products. With all these resources being devoted to weight loss, you would think that the general level of knowledge would be getting better all the time. Nope.

People don't even know how to spell it - even though they want it so bad that they can almost taste it.

Many times per day I see people writing that they want to "loose" weight, and I've even seen people typing "Biggest Looser" when referring to the TV show. With widespread confusion over how to properly spell "lose" weight, it's only natural that many insidious weight loss myths that only serve to confuse and frustrate millions of people continue to persist - and that some people and companies continue to shamelessly profit from promoting and selling products based on these myths. 40%20Fat%20Grams%20is%20the%20new%2030

I've put together a list of the 5 Worst Weight Loss Myths and some of them are things you might even hear from reputable experts. Here's the list with details to follow:

1. A Calorie is a Calorie (aka All Calories Are Created Equal)
2. Detox Diets Can Help You Lose Weight and Be Healthy
3. There is No Such Thing as a Bad Food
4. What You Put ON You Will Get Results
5. You Should Weigh Yourself Every Day

Myths: Meet my wrecking ball...

1 - All Calories Are Not Created Equal

Suppose you had a choice between two meals, each consisting of 500 calories. Those who believe this myth would have you believe that there is no difference in the response of the human body to 500 calories of table sugar as opposed to 500 calories of fruits, veggies, and lean proteins. You'd really have to be a simple-minded person to truly believe this. Intuitively, anyone with even a grade-school understanding of human biology knows this can't be true. But many people want a simple answer to life even when having one isn't appropriate or possible so this myth persists.

2 - Detox Diets are a Sham - Period

Your body detoxes itself just fine all by itself from the day you are born. The moment you exist your body's organs begin to do all of their jobs - one of which is to remove and process toxins. You don't need someone's "cleansing" products, or to starve yourself, or to have enemas. Don't put excessive toxins in (by eating junk food, jogging next to traffic, etc.) and you'll be fine handling the toxins your body encounters.

3 - Are You Kidding? There Are Lots of Bad Foods!

M3

If you read the above statement and a little voice in your head is telling you that this isn't a myth - that little voice is wrong. The marketing and sloppy logic has taken over your inner voice. This myth is the favorite one of food companies and they have so many people believing it that they will likely always have a built-in profit stream from unwise people who believe in "everything in moderation." Anything you eat is either moving you closer to health or farther away from it. In the terrific book, "Food Politics," Marion Nestle outlines how this awful myth has been shoved down our throats by the food industry and the government to our ever-worsening health.

4 - It's What You Put IN You That Matters; Not What You Put ON You

There are creams, lotions, and slimming clothing all promising - through scientific-sounding nonsense - to get rid of cellulite, slim your thighs, help you sweat more, burn more fat, etc. But it's what you put inside your body that matters, not what you put on the outside. Your skin absorbs what you put on it so if you're slathering on some chemical soup that promises weight loss results, the best you can hope for is that it is worthless. M4

If it does anything at all, it likely has some very negative affects on long-term health. And you can wear whatever you want when you work out. For athletes, compressive clothing slightly boosts muscular performance, but this doesn't make a difference for real people in the real world at normal levels of exercise. It's what you eat - what you put in you - that matters more than these other scams that distract from what matters most.

5 - At Some Point, Weight Must Become Almost Meaningless

I once worked with someone well over 300 pounds. One day, after hovering around 160 pounds for several weeks, she commented to me that she was getting frustrated at not having lost any weight for many weeks. She felt better than she ever had and was enthusiastic about doing things she hadn't done in years. After having a decades-long focus/obsession with weight and losing it, she entered a new phase where the quality life she was living had moved beyond an obsessive need to daily weigh herself, she just didn't know it. And she didn't yet have the coping skills to know how to function without the scale. With only one frame of reference for defining fitness or health for most of her life, it was difficult to feel good about what was happening even though she'd never felt better in her life.

In the initial stages of making major lifesyle changes, weighing yourself regularly can be helpful. But, just like you don't want to stay in 1st grade forever, you need to move on for real progress. Humans haven't always had scales and our species managed to make it this far. If you need daily weigh-ins for life, you're stuck in 1st grade of health school.

Feeling fit, capable, and comfortable in your own skin is the end result of a successful journey to health. A lifetime of daily weigh-ins shows an immaturity/lack of evolution of thought about health and weight that will make long-term progress difficult. Always looking over your shoulder in fear of the weight sneaking back up on you will prevent you from living.

--------------------

With the above 5 myths/beliefs/misconceptions out of the way, in the next issue I'll present a few of the best cutting-edge concepts in fat loss. The wrecking ball needs a rest now.

Jonathan Ross
National Body Challenge Fitness Expert
on line community:
www.inspire.com/JonathanRoss/
www.AionFitness.com

Good morning, ladies! Wonderful day in the 70s.

I posted the article above from the Discovery Health new letter. I found it interesting and enlightening.

Jean, you are up bright and early today! They sure don't make appliances like the used to. Dishwashers don't seem to last more than 4-5 years and then they have to be replaced. I hate doing dishes by hand. I really wish you could get stuff that didn't have all these computers in them. More stuff to break that cost big money to replace.

Faye, are you out swimming already?

Maggie, tell those slave drivers at the glass house construction site to let you post!

Have a good day.

Good morning to you all! I know I am usually the early bird, but today I am pooped. Don't exactly know why I am so tired, but I had a lot of long nights over the holiday and I don't usually do that so it might be I am trying to catch up.

Maggie: My dear friend, I so apologize for not seeing that your dear sister had died. Suffering with that disease is so horrible and now she is whole and well and when you meet her again you may spend the rest of eternity enjoying each other and you catching her up on all she missed while she was ill. We have a retired Navy plate on our car. I think we paid an extra $10 for it and it is permanent. We just get the stickers to show we have paid the licensing each year and plop them over the top of the previous year. The idiots around here will reverse them or put the stickers in different areas of the license even though where they go is shown on the stickers as well as on the license plate itself.

Susan: We are having a bit of beef and noodle for dinner. Jack likes to have mashed potato, but I no longer eat two starches like that together if I can help it. I opened a can of beets for lunch yesterday so think I will have them tonight. We may be having Thomas overnight tomorrow night so I am going to stick a roast and carrots and new potatoes in tomorrow. Thanks for the article. It seems that a lot of people disagree with me that you have to fix your head problems if you want to have permanent weight loss. I had one guy tell me that not all people have head problems. Well, if you are fat, you have a head problem as you haven't dealt with why you are fat. It is never just about overeating as all people are not bingers, pig outers, etc. The thing is, all people have issues with food and that is a head problem. I tried to tell this person I didn't mean all people had emotional problems, abuse, etc in their lives, but pretty much all fat people have body and self image problems and mix them all up. I really strongly feel that if you don't like yourself fat, you won't like yourself thin and like this woman the article talked about become obsessed. You have to like who you are to change and make it permanent. You don't have to like what you have done to yourself or how you look necessarily, but you have to like the person you are inside to make changes to your body or they won't ever stick. Here I am on the ole soap box again!

Jean: We have a home warranty that covers our dishwasher and they are pretty prompt about getting out and getting it fixed. The only things we usually have to wait on is furnace problems when there has been a cold stretch and ac problems in a heat wave because they get swamped during those times. They get to you in order of your call into them. Hope you can get it fixed real soon.

I got my yarn for my shawl and it is beautiful, but going to be a real troublemaker when knitting it. It is lace weight, which looks like sewing thread it is to thin and the pattern is supposed to be on size 10 needles, which are quite large. I cast the stitches on last night, but couldn't then get them up and over the needles to knit so had to take them off and will try again at a later date. I don't need it for a year so I have plenty of time to fool with it.

You girls have a wonderful day today.
Faye

Good morning gals! Last to post yesterday back to first poster of the morning!

I noticed one of the ads for The Palazzo in Las Vegas on the top of the thread here. That is an excellent price. When we were thinking of going back to Vegas next year, I checked out this place, which is a new suite hotel attached to the Venetian. The rooms at there regular prices are around $205 a night. I found them for $179 a night so $129 a night is fabulous. They are pretty snazzy and large suites. Vegas is in mucho money trouble. I guess they have raised taxes to try and help out the city because the shortfall in tourism is so very bad. Nevada doesn't have a state income tax so they have no revenue coming from that. On top of that, the housing market is in the toilet partly because of unemployment and partly because 5 years ago in their greed, they skyrocketed real estate and people paid the exhorbitant prices. A modest house out there 5 years ago could set you back half a million $$$ and I looked online and the type same house is now selling for sometimes less than $200,000. If you have a job lined up out there you can get a pretty nice home for pennies on the dollar. Used to be the houses would sell in a couple hours and now they can hardly give them away.

Thomas is coming to stay for the day and all night tonight so that should be fun. I am going over swimming early this morning then bringing him home with me. His grandparents have plans for the day I guess and needed someone to keep him today. He is getting all ready for his big trip to China. They leave next Tuesday I believe. He was so funny when I talked to him on Tuesday and ask him if he had started packing and getting things ready. I meant clothing and such and he told me all about how they had bought their snacks for the plane and he has taking such and such video games, his computer, his Kindle, etc, etc. My little electronic grandson is going naked to China but he will have things to keep him busy on the plane!

Since they are going to be so busy next week and their anniversary is Sunday, I think I will take my dd and sil's anniversary present to the house and drop it off so they get it before Sunday. I have to get a card though. Here is what I made them this year. The other side of the pillow is the solid rust color. They have browns and such in their living room so thought this would be nice if they wanted to nap or such. The pillow is nice and soft and squishy to lay on not hard.

Well gals, I need to get going and get chores done and get some breakfast. Have a great hump day. Going to be really hot here today I guess.
Faye

Good Morning, Flowers! We had thunderstorms last night -- heavy rain that did a job on my flowers and wind! I don't like it when it happens at night and I can't see what is going on. The counter guys just finally showed up; I got up early thinking they would be here at 8 -- wrong! I'm meeting a former student for lunch. She is the one that I befriended the last few months of school, and I haven't seen nor talked to her since the end of May.

Susan -- Thank you for sharing the article with us. I cringe when people use loose instead of lose! Lots of good reminders and information. I don't mind doing dishes except I don't have a window over my sink and I do miss that. We are using paper plates and disposable plastic glasses until the sink is back in place. Ernie jumped up for his morning drink out of the faucet and looked at me like, "where did it go?" Hope you have a good day at work.

"Gma" -- Your shawl will be beautiful when you get it finished. As I've said before you have so much patience with your knitting projects. I know you will thoroughly enjoy your time with Thomas! I had to laugh at him getting the important things packed for his trip to China. We were talking over the weekend about what the kids will want to take on the plane. There isn't much wiggle room and they are seated a row apart. If nothing else will be entertainment for those sitting around them. Maddy listed just about every item she could think of! The pillow looks beautiful! Do you use markers to change stitch patterns or can you just tell by the looks of the rows?

I need to run a couple errands this morning and do some ironing. Hope you all have a great day!

Jean -- from Iowa!

Good morning, ladies! Another hot one here!

Faye, we depend a lot on tourism here, too, and it is definitely down this year. They have even lowered prices at Busch Gardens Theme Park. Fortunately we have a lot of military so it hasn't affected the economy overall very much. I like the throw and pillow. They should be happy to get it. Have fun with Thomas!

Jean and Maggie, I'm waving hello!

Good morning to you all! Oh what fun we had with Thomas. After leaving his house we came back to the condo for a bit, then we decided to make homemade ice cream (more about this later) for supper and I needed to ship back some stuff to HSN so I boxed it up and we dropped it off at UPS then went to McDonald's for lunch. I stayed OP as I had a small burger with a bit of fries and diet coke. We then went in search of fresh vanilla bean, got it and the heavy cream and returned home. The stupid custard took 45 minutes instead of the 5 I thought it would AND I forgot to put the container in the freezer to freeze so there would be no ice cream to make. The container still isn't solidly frozen as I found out this morning so back it went into the freezer and I guess Thomas is not going to get homemade ice cream unless I can make it and send some home with him on Monday when they bring the dog over for us to care for while they are in China. They leave on Tuesday. He spent his time playing our Mario Wii game in the afternoon, ate everything on his plate for dinner (I had fixed pot roast, new potatoes and carrots for dinner) and had an ice cream bar for dessert. Poor substitute for homemade ice cream but it was the best I could do! We then played a couple games of Clue with Granddad, which I beat the pants off both of them both times (actually, I just got lucky but don't tell) and then Granddad went upstairs to work on a project for work and he and I watched tv. He told me he could stay up until 11 during the summer so we stayed up until 11 and you know I was nodding off as I get up with Jack at 5! He went right to bed and was asleep in about 2 seconds.

Here are some witicisms, I like to call Thomasisms:

When discussing our cruise for next year, Thomas asked me if we had paid for it yet. I told him no, that I was putting the deposit down on it this fall to which he replied, "So, you aren't paying for the whole thing in case one of you has a heart attack and you can't go and you can get your money back?"

Obviously, Granddad and I have one foot in the grave!

When discussing this same cruise, I told Thomas that this ship had cantilevered whirlpools which meant they stuck out over the end of the ship and it was like sitting in air. Pondering this and how the ship could possibly get water into it if there was nothing underneath it, he replied he thought possibly that the whirlpool had a pipe running straight from the ocean into the whirlpool (since the swimming pools had salt water this made perfect sense to him,) The issue with this he thought was the possibility of fish getting into the water pipe, swimming up the pipe and plopping into the whirlpool.

I will certainly have to beware of any dolphins I find in the whirlpool on the cruise.

He is a true gem and absolutely delightful.

Maggie: What drives me nuts is people who are responsible for posting information on tv or in print and have obviously not spell checked before sending it out. Drives me kookoo to see mispelled words across the screen of a tv. I saw the word separate spelled seperate the other day on tv.

Susan: We are baking this week too. It does cool off overnight though so the pool has been a bit chilly actually. It is totally in the shade at all times and my skinny little grandson was one big goose pimple yesterday.

Jean: I have been at it long enough that I recognize the stitch pattern differences so I didn't have to use markers. I am using markers on the current blanket because the first three stitches on each end are knit, and I have goofed them up twice on the wrong side row not paying attention and purling the stitches which makes three rows of stockinette then instead of 3 rows of garter stitch so I got wise and put a marker after each 3 stitches to remind me to knit the first and last 3 so I didn't have to rip out a bunch.

Well gals, I am going to go upstairs and make the bed and check on my little boarder to see that he is alright. I know the tv was on all night as he usually puts it on when he goes to bed so I will shut that off.

Have a great Thursday! Oh and btw, that husband of mine is now down to 228 which means he is down 22 lbs and only has about 15 more to go, the bugger!
Faye

Good morning, ladies. It has turned out to be a really nice day - only 77 right now and the humidity is gone. I turned the AC off and opened the windows when I left for work.

I made an appointment with my PCP doctor this morning for next Friday (17th). I want her opinion on whether or not I should see a cardiologist. From all I have read and heard from 2 friends who are nurses, Pulmonary hypertension (right ventricular heart failure/enlargement) should be aggressively treated because it is a serious condition. Today my feet are all swollen and I had to wear Crocks to work because it was all I could get on. Of course, my weight jumped up 6 pounds from yesterday. That cannot be good.

Faye, you could write a book of Thomasisms and have a best seller to take you through your "old" age. He sure comes up with some good ones. I had forgotten about the ice cream maker I have. You put it in the freezer until it freezes and them crank it a few times and viola! Ice Cream. Some peach would be really good.

Maggie, we had literally hundreds of styles of license plates. Any group that can get 250 people to plunk down $10 can get its own plate. I have a cardinal and magnolias on mine.

Jean, do you give Ernie cat treats? Cupid is rather spoiled and I have to give him a couple after he eats - guess he thinks its dessert. He'd rather just have them instead of his Purnia Prime Fillets. That is the only cat food he will eat and Fancy Feast dry. As I said, he has trained me well.

I have quilt guild in the morning tomorrow and then the respiratory tech in the afternoon so I won't get much done. I'll have to redouble my efforts on Saturday so I can take Sunday off.

Faye, are you going to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince next week? It opens on Wednesday here. I can't wait to see it. I saw in the paper they are making 2 movies out of the last book.

Have a good day!