I ate a danish. And I'm drinking diet coke. Haven't had a soda in a while so taking it easy. It really makes me bloated...and it's not the good time of month to do so. I ran out of my iced tea that I bring to work. I wish we had better options in the vending machines here at work.

Jodi: Glad you’re feeling better. I ate the lunch and was glad of it. Also hit the treadmill. Woo.

Holly: Oooh, rice balls! Do you have a recipe you can share? I have always wanted to try them. Do they have to be wrapped in seaweed or can you leave out that ingredient? Sounds like you have so much joy in your life right now. Hooray. Sun salutations – those are great. Do you have a tape or do you just do it yourself? I always forget the routine.

Mychoice: Congrats on the loss and your amazing attitude. Treadmilling has been going pretty well. I really like walking while talking on the phone; my mom and I tend to have hour-long conversations. I think I’ll invest in a headset phone and stroll the hours away.

Girlie: Oh danishes, one of my many weaknesses. When I worked in an office, they had pastries out about three times a week, and it killed me. Hm, I wonder who is in charge of the vending machines at your office. Maybe you could put in a request for healthier choices. Lots of offices these days are looking to make healthier work environments.

Have been having a lot of weird pain symptoms these days – especially jaw and head stuff, along with carpel tunnel crap from too much grading. I have to have an MRI next week for some headache issues, and I’m nervous. That little tunnel is scary. I just want my body to work! Guess all I can really do for now is focus on what I can control – eating and exercise.

I got a pedicure today! Felt great. My treat to myself. Now my toes are all pink and girlie and I feel pretty. Maybe bf will take me out on the town this weekend. After I finish my work, of course.

Now trying to will myself onto the treadmill. Bf comes home soon and I have the whole embarassment issue. Will try to get over it and at least take a few steps.

Have a weird issue at school: a student has been hitting on me. He’s not in my class, but is in a friend’s class, and he’s been making some comments to her regarding me (he told her yesterday that I smell good!) and it makes her upset. I’m not sure how to deal. It’s kind of nice to be found attractive, but this is no good. I’ll have to put a stop to it somehow.

Hope everyone is havig a great Friday!

Rice Balls

Cook Asian sticky rice.When it is partially cooled add seasoning to taste.Mix well. I used you-kaa-lee for one flavour and toasted sesame seeds with salt for another( you can buy them prepackaged at any Asain grocery) . Scoop up a handfull pack it tight and roll it in a ball.Wrap in seaweed or roll in the sesame seeds or serve plain. Let it cool.Refridgerate.

It was pretty good.

I have been doing yoga for years with or without tapes and classes. I know it by heart.

Girlie~ HUGS again!!

Spores~ I am glad you are getting the pain and headaches checked out even if it is scary. Have you looked at dental/jaw stuff??
I LOVE pedicures. We should all have one once a month.

Cant you just ignore this guy? Cant this student tell her friend she doesn't like what he says? I am so glad I am out of those environments. It is just a non-issue for me.
You are smart. You will handle it well.

I am going to watch 20/20. Cory Feldman is going to talk about his relationship with Michael Jackson. Normally I could care less about this stuff but it struck me somehow.Maybe because this kid grew up in the movies as I was growing up. Dunno?

Jodi? Honey? How are you feeling today??

HI Susie.

good morning chicks!
i am feeling better, all but this bloated feeling i can't seem to shake. keeping busy, too busy to put myself at the top of the list. going to work on that this week. i was reading on oprah winfrey's site about a boot camp she is starting 12 week challenge. what interested me most is her inspirational speach. she talks about how you have to rise to the top and make yourself a priority, take care of yourself like you would your best friend etc. i know many of us, including myself struggle with this concept. it might be worth a look oprah.com . busy saturday, DS had basketball at 8am, going to pick him up at 10. cleaning, shopping, haircuts and then MIL birthday this afternoon. lots to do tomorrow too.

holly- i am feeling better thanks, glad to hear you sound so uplifted! life is good!

mychoice good for you on the loss!! keep up the great work! how is your buddy system working out?

spores- i am so happy to hear about your treats for yourself! ooohhh a pedicure sounds nice! good for you girl! doesn't just the littlest treat make you smile? glad you had your lunch. keep up the great work!!! kids get crushes a lot. i wouldn't draw any attention to it, you don't want to send the wrong message. good luck!

girlie- hang in there! keep looking forward. i had a bad week, i wasn't feeling well so i wasn't really hungry but when i did eat i made all the wrong choices. looking forward to taking better care of me this week.

hope you all have a great weekend!!

girlie-

Stellar week!!!!
This has been the best week I can ever remember having.
Japan Day was a glorious success. The Games Night was a ton of fun. The time for hockey this morning was wrong on the schedule so it is at 10am not 8am. Smile.
DS is going out with friends after hockey. DH is going north. I may find something for DD to do. I will putter at home. Lots of niggles to putter at. I dont mind when I am not squeezing it in.
I have not over eaten this week but I have not been as mindful as I could be all the time. Water has been good. Exercise is better but not great.
Life is still good!!!

Jodi~ glad you are feeling better. Take a few minutes at least for yourself. I will check out O.

Holly: Thanks for the rice ball recipe. I can't wait to try! I love sesame. I have heard of them being bade with fish in the middle -- not sure how to get it in there. Maybe I'll do some experimenting. Yeah, the amorous student at school is a weird issue; one I've never had come up before. Biggest trouble is that he keeps coming into the writing lab (I tutor there as well as teach classes) and wanting to flirt instead of take the tutoring seriously. I am hoping that a few obvious mentions of the bf will take care of it.

Jodi: Ooh, bloated is no fun. Lotsa water! I hear you on the busyness. So hard to priortize ourselves, especially when work and family are so demanding. Hope you can find some just-you treat time! I am hoping the crush issue will just go away. This "kid" is in his early 30s, so he should know better!

So, a brief vent, if you all dont mind: I handed back first papers in my Composition class today, and one kid got a D. And I think I was being pretty generous in not flunking him. It was baaaaad in so many ways. And after class he came up to me and YELLED at me! Actually yelled. In the library no less. I have had people be unhappy with their grades before, but no one has ever gotten this aggressive. It was so upsetting. I stood my ground and kept my cool (which is a hard thing for me to do when someone is being so totally inappropriate), but of course now I am very upset and cant stop thinking about it. I cannot believe this guy. What is the matter with people?

And it gets me thinking about all the people in our lives that we treat so inappropriately and inhumanely: the waitress who forgets to bring our order, the grocery checker who is being slow, the person in the car in front of us who is driving slower than we want to go. I just don't know why people think it is okay to act like a total jerk when things don't go their way. Ag!

So the goal now is to not let this get to me. I am hungry, and wanna eat. And since I am upset, I wanna eat junk junk junk. And I can't let the jerks of the world dictate what I put in my mouth. Ag.

Hope everyone else's weekend is going better than mine!

Hello,
I've been busy this weekend with trying to get everything at my home caught up. I cleaned like a mad women on Saturday while DH was at work. I can get more done with him out of the house. I got all the rooms in the house clean...I'm talking I moved furniture here! except for the spare room. Which if you know what I'm talking about here...raise your hand...is a "collect all room". I thought I would get to it today, but with the tutor and then the grocery shopping, I didn't. I think I'll tackle it little by little this week. At least I can close the door on it.

I need to get back to the gym, took a few days off when I had strep throat, and today I just didn't have time. But I'll be there tomorrow.

We went to see Hitch....very, very cute movie. I like it. Had a nice time with DH.

Spores: Ok...I'm so glad you came here and vented. I hope you didn't eat. I know that feeling..I've said..just this once...it will make every things better, I'll deal and go on..but I can't tell you how many times I didn't go on..except to keep eating...how did you do after you vented...did you eat? If you did..it's ok...because we are here to help you get over that hump. I go to TOPS and I thought there pledge was silly at first, but I made a point to memorize it because I was going to a TOPS event and I knew that they all would say it. It goes, "I am an intelligent person, I will control my emotions and not let my emotions control me, Every time I am tempted to use food to satisfy my frustrated desires, build up my injured ego or dull my senses, I will remember, even though I overeat in private, My excess poundage is there for all the world to see. I will take off pounds sensibly.

I can't tell you how many times I've said that to myself over and over when I've felt like you are feeling. That part about being tempted to use foods, is that part that gets me back on track. I find that I emotionally eat for one of those reasons, so I identify it , rage about it and I don't eat. I keep repeating that pledge over and over to myself.

Anyway, I think you need to remember these students are students..you are the person in charge there, so put them in their place! Big huggsss to you...look how pretty your tonails look! *big smile!*

Jodi:I've been checking out the Oprah site. I get her magazine and I she had something on it in the February or January issue. Are you thinking of doing the challenge?

Holly: You have the most fun! Glad to hear the DH came to his senses! Men...got to love them!

Girlie: A Danish...a coke...lord help me I can tate it now! We have a new bakery in town and I keep thinking about going in there....I can smell the sugar when I drive by. I'm going to take an alternate route..don't need the temptation.

Ladies, I've got to run. I've got to get my clothes ready for tomorrow. I'm going to an Access computer class for work. I have to leave my house at 7:00 a.m. to get there by 8:00 so I need to have everything ready to go in the mornings.

I'll see you all tomorrow.

Susie

I eneded up being really sick Sat night, still am. Very weak. Bah!
I lost 7 lbs in 1 day, LOL!! All I did yesterday was drink water, tea and gingerale and sleep. My body hurts from all the puking and sleeping. I still have the runs. 3 other kids had it over the weekend. My 2 had the runs last night but no puking so far. No extra kids today. Schools are closed because of the freezing rain and road conditions.

My darling DH was actually kind and helpful instead of going on the defensive. Apparently I have to be completely 100% incapacitated for him to step in. Oops, that sounds a little sarcastic. Anyhow, he willingly made phone calls, drove kids to stuff, tidied , vacuumed,swept, made meals, dealt with the dozens of kids needs......
So the rabbit and cat didn’t get fed for 2 days. LOL!
He wished me a Happy Valantines Day this morning. Wow!
Right now he is super grumpy. Feeling a little cornered and tied down. Giggle. He cant work today. I am still sick. I would say he is out of patience with the kids. Ha. “You have it made hanging around at house all day doing whatever you want.”
Ya, and I storm out to split wood every day at 7 am too. Hey, he had his day of trying to do what I do. I will admit he did quite well. He probably accomplished a third of what I do. He was pleasant about it. Day 3 isn’t going as well.

Today I will try to get better. Take a shower. Be kind to DH.

Mychoice: Thanks for the words of encouragement. I love the pledge. I will try to memorize it too. Memorizing something really makes it part of your consciousness. I didn't eat -- instead my bf and I cooked together and he listened to me rant for an hour. Better than pie any day. Wound up having a good evening. And I took the day off Sunday: drove up to a nearby town with bf, took a walk and windowshopped, came home and laid around talking. Total R&R. I needed it. Looking forward to this week. Am planning to cook at home (even today, when everyone esle in the world is eating out!), take my treadmill time, and just go one choice at a time. Trying to just step back and look at every little stress in the grand scheme of things.

Holly: Sorry to hear you're sick! Terrible feeling. Glad your DH jumped in to help. I think every woman who stays home instead of working outside should get a medal of honor. People just don't understand how much work it is!

Hope everyone is having a happy V day and is managing to avoid the curse of Russell Stover. I am off to class. Take care, all!

Hello everyone. Sorry I've been MIA this weekend. I've been MIA in more than one way!

I had an eating fest all weekend. I did NOTHING. No housework, just lots of eating, laying around and eating and watching bad movies. It was nice though I was a little depressed...but mainly just wanting to do nothing. Not necessarily in a bad way. I just didn't want to have to do anything. So I didn't. We had sushi on Friday night, Chinese on Saturday, I ate about five pieces of fried chicken yesterday and crackers, donuts, sugary iced tea, bread, lots of cherry cheesecake ice cream, pizza and tons more this weekend. Hee hee...I must confess all my faults. I had very little water and very little vegetables.

I finally decided I'd head to the gym last night. It was 9pm and I knew I wouldn't get to sleep until late anyway, so I went to the gym and had a really great workout. I weighed myself and I have lost a slight bit of weight despite my weekend binge. Kind of weird and not very fair. I guess it is just more hope to show me that I can turn it around. I think that my body is getting used to the regular workouts and my metabolism is getting better.

I started the day with two slices of millet toast, Silk cultured soy (yogurt) and oranges. Tonite I'm making a v-day dinner...first time cooking a full meal in a while (I don't think heating up a frozen pizza really counts!): Grilled pork chops, fresh green beans and steamed red potatoes. I may even make a tomato/cucumber salad.

Glad everyone is doing well.

Holly: Japan sounded awesome. I love Japanese food.

Spores: Odd about the student...flattering but odd and scary! And the student who yelled at you...he deserves to fail just for that!

Time for lunch. Taking it easy today. I'm going crazy because my cycle is all messed up...my period is a few days late!

CD

Hello,
Ladies, it's confession time. I was on a mini binge yesterday. I was overly tired; I stayed up on Sunday night watching the Grammy's. When I'm tired I notice that always overeat. So, I know that I must get my sleep or I mess up. Why do I let myself get overly tired like that when I know what happens?

I'm resolving that I will get at least 8 hours of sleep each night. I just have to. It's important for me.

I'm starting over today. Anyone else starting over with me? Do we need some sort of a challenge to get us going again? Any ideas?

Holly: I hope you are feeling better. What ever you had sounds miserable. Don't push yourself to much when you start to feel better

Girlie: Good for you for getting back to the gym.

Spores: Sounds like you have a nice time with your BF. What did you cook last night? You are doing great with the treadmilling...keep it up.

Jodi: How are you lady?

Where's everyone else? Debbie, Suzy...who else am I leaving out?

I'm off to work. Have a great day everyone and stay on plan.

Susie

I have lost a few days and today will be much the same. Still very weak. I have eaten some bland food. Lots of fluids. Still VERY wonky. C'mon, the kids bounced back in 24 hours. All us parents who got it are looking at 72+.
My DH has truly been wonderful. I am surprised in a pleasant way. He was helpful ,was kind and considerate All day yesterday. I know I make him sound like a jerk and he is not but I can honestly say that that every single time I have "needed" him in the past he gets defensive and pulls back. It is fear on his part. I am thrilled that he has come around. I love how we constantly grow and make progress in our relationship. It has always been this way.He was raised to never show emotion.He was punished for it. He is a sweet sensitive man who did not have a clue how to process or express what he feels inside.He tries his best and he had come a LONG way, baby.When we were dating he introduced me to someone as his girlfriend. I asked later, Am I your girlfriend? He replied, Do think I fix everyone's transmission?
He is soooooo open and loving with the kids and that has spilled over to me. It is actually amazing how feeling safe and secure and building trust can open a person's heart. It goes both ways. It is all about loving and learning from each other.
I remember last year when my former best friends were down on DH and they blamed him for this and that and thought I was a big victim. Marriage is so not about two separate identities you cant indentify where one thing or issue starts or stops. It is all intertwined. We have learned to say okay, this is where we are at right now, doesn't matter how we got here. How are we going to resolve it.
I guess these are my Valentines Day thoughts, LOL!

Hope everyones day is better than mine!!!!!!

Good morning, All.

Had a bad night. I was so sick. My head hurt horribly and I felt so nauseous. I know this is a little TMI...but one of the worst things about this is not being sure which end your body wants to rid the poison from. So, I didn't cook last night. DH ended up picking up McDonalds on the way home from class anyway! He was very good to me and rubbed my neck and shoulders. When I get a headache, there just isn't anything to do but toss and turn, different positions, try to relax and push that energy to another part of my body, etc. I finally fell asleep around 1am and woke up briefly around 3am and I felt so AMAZINGly bettery. So light and airy. So I re-set my alarm for 6.45 instead of 4.45 and decided to sleep in.

I feel better today and am going to focus on liquids today. I think my body was telling me I need more water. I'm VERY bad at that. I never really conciously drink water unless I'm working out or around a water fountain. Also, I don't get that stressed out...I think my body wells it all up into a ball of energy and it comes out in the form of a fireball of a headache.

I'm starting the day with oatmeal and oranges...and liquids, of course.

Girlie

Sounds like everyone is confessing to binges and/or feeling icky. No good. And I will join in: Chocolate cream pie has been a regular feature of the last few days, along with too much cheese. No good. I'm not sick-sick, but am feeling really really tired and seem to have just a variety of weird pain stuff: jaw, head, back, hips. Overall makes me feel like an ill-used sack of flour and rocks. Combine the previous with sudden snowstorm and too much teaching work, and all I want to do is crawl under a blanket with the remote. I think the idea of some sort of challenge is great, Mychoice. Something to get us all going. Maybe we should all challenge ourselves to go out and plunk down the cash for a professional massage.

V day was nice. BF and I did our traditional evening at Dave and Busters. Video games and skee-ball; fun. We were both kind of tired from work, though. Stayed up too late and barely got out of bed this morning.

Sorry no personals; have to run and get some work done before my eyes close of their own will. Am thinking of you guys and sending feel-better thoughts.

Hi everyone, I have no good excuse for not posting lately. I have plenty of time. Just get lost in life sometimes. I have't been eating right, exercising or drinking enough water. ****, I haven't done anything I should do lately. But I missed ya'll. I'll Have something happen I want to tell ya'll about then I forget and it 2 days later and its not important any more. I have such a simple life compared to everyone else. Sometimes it's real hard to find anything to write about. I know I like the support everyone gives. I know if I could just stay on task I could loose this weight!!

BIG HUGS TO ALL