Gettin' together -- April 2005
 

Hey, Gals, welcome to April!

Today was my first day at the gym! I was definitely nervous, Rob went with me on a guest pass for moral support. I look at this first session as more of my learning how to use the equipment more than a real workout, since there was a fair amount of stopping, starting and waiting because I didn't know how to use the machines. I did the treadmill, the bike, and a couple of the resistance machines. A nice looking trainer helped us learn how to do everything.

I was surprised how crowded it was, I couldn't get on an elliptical, so that will have to wait until next time.

So another piece of good news, I lost 1.8 lbs this week!!!!! I was thrilled. It took work, and major chocolate avoidance, but I did it. So I'm happy to see the March weight loss stall madness behind me!

Have a great day everyone, and be nice to someone Scottish! it's their heritage week after all!

Heyyyyy I am here, Like the fact that it's APRIL..and I will give my Scotty lots of sugars...hehe HAGD!

oops, Brain fart...
 

I am glad you started the GYM, WTG you will get into a routine and LOVE it...I cannot believe how sore I am today, wow...HAGD..Pizza...hmmmm.drooling, lol

If I worked out at the Y as hard as you all do, I think my pounds would melt away. Y'all challenge me, which is something I need. The backs of my thighs are still so tight from working in the yard. I'm sure the sight of me hobbling around here is amusing, but I need to do some stretches and keep moving.

A drumroll....I lost 1.5 pounds this week! The plateau, she is broken! I'm definitely retaining a lot of water right now, so to see a loss on the doctor's scale today was an amazing thing. I still feel like a puffy marshmallow, but there's still less of my puffy self than last week. :D

Kimberley - yay! congrats :) I once hopped on my scale thinking I should have gained, I was puffy as well.. and I was down.. gotta love that :) Keep it up !! :) Make sure you do a little warm up before you stretch, stretching a cold muscle can hurt it.. or I think so..

Marge - a goodlooking person at the gym? Thats always a definite motivation for me.. the gym I used to go to had tons of really hot men.. it's nice to have some eye candy to look at! Mmmm.. at my old old gym the treadmill overlooked the free weight area, it made those 45 minute runs a lot more fun! I'm showing my age aren't I? Congrats on your weight loss! You all are shrinking!

As for me? I'm.. RE-shrinking, I lost the 4 pounds I had gained, and am actually AT my ticker weight now. I changed some of my goals up, and now am looking forward to a 14 pound loss for April. I'm going to start mini training for a 10km walk/run on April 17th. My origional plan was to run it, but I just didn't train for it.. so I'll walk it. I think I'm prepared right now, but in the next couple weeks I'll look at increasing my km's, when I go for walks now I go for 5-6km's, so I'll add 1-2km's to that and really try and increase my pace. It's called the Vancouver Sun Run, the 10 km thing, and I've wanted to do it for 3 years, and I figure walking it is better than not doing it at all! My brother will come up from Seattle for the walk as well, it'll be a good time :) Alrighty, you know the drill, I have to go shower.. lol.. I'm always leaving here to shower! Take care you Fabulous Gals! :)

-Aimee

woohoo
 

WTG Marge and Kimberley for losing, Aimee u too girl :cheer: !! I will not be weighing myself until a week from Sunday...I will then have been working out at Curves for close to 2 weeks, and eating better...I took a 2 hour nap, but boy are my legs still sore..whew!
I will be ISO some great getaways for the Summer and fall with the 3 of us...Usually, we go camping, ( Tent), but, the last trip of the season last year, it downpoured for HOURS, buckets and buckets, so bad everyone in the park left...We ended up throwing out the tent and sleeeping bags ( u see here, in the Adirondacks, you camp on dirt and sand, not like the lush grass of OHIO, and rest of the country, so when it rains it is a MESS)..I hated that tent anyhoo. DH likes Domes, and it was a large one,but, with the rod up my back, it is so hard for me to get around in them since the sides curve in...I have finally talked him into a really nice Cabin tent we found, but we decided to take the year off from camping and go to hotels and cabins this Year for a change...DH works shifts, one week days, then a day off, the next 3-11, then the weekend off til Tues, when he goes in at midnight ( 11-7) then has 2 days off b4 he startsover again, some weeks he gets a lot of OT too, so he is exhausted. :tired: Usually we schedule camping for his long weekends so he won't have to use a lot of vacation time for that and we use that for longer trips, like in November we are driving to Fla to spend Thanksgiving with my elderly parents, my dad is not fairing well any more and I know he only has a matter of time ( he is 87, and had me at 50)...In May, we are using one day and taking the long weekend he has off to go back to OH and visit Heather :hyper: ...So we have planty of time left for trips...I will be looking into Gatlinburg, TN and Niagara falls today...it is hard to find QUALITY places that aren't too commercial or dumpy when you bring your small dog, we never leave him home..well, am off, gotta finish that sauce and get looking, HAG1 all!

Thanks, y'all. I was so shocked and happy to see the number dipping on that scale. :D

Lunch with our friends was great. My mom came with me and we split the dinner portion Caribbean Chicken entree since it came with two chicken breasts, and she just got two sides a la carte. Sure beat paying $8.99 each for the lunch portion. Of course, the freakin' $1.99 we paid for each coffee kinda blew that away, LOL. We shopped for 4 1/2 hours and then closed down Bob Evans for dinner.

Their new Tuscan Chicken salad is great! If I'd not had the banana bread, I would have been within my calories for the day...But you know about me and banana bread. :o And the irony was, it was again with my mother!

Ohio? Hey, now -- where in Ohio? We'd love to meet you if you have time. We may stay at a hotel in Cleveland the weekend of May 28-29 and catch the Indians game on Sunday for an early b-day gift for Howie.

Gm
 

Hey all :coffee: drinking some Java...Where is everybody the last couple of days? Everyone must have a life except me, lol... :lol:

Kimberley...I love Bob Evans, and sure wish they had one here...I miss that Peanut Butter Pie..YUM! I think that is the weekend we are going to be in Toledo. This is the first time I will be back to Ohio in close to 7 years, so I will be busy visiting, we will only be there 3 days...Maybe we can catch up the next time I go, lol only who knows when that will be...I am thinking in 1 year, he promised me we will not be staying away for so long, and he really wants to go to Cedar Point, I used to work there years back...This time we will be doing the Toledo Zoo, and eating some great food, I miss the variety of foods and restaurants, we are starting to get more here, but still have as of yet to find a good mexican place...and my almond chicken...I miss that a whole bunch...and we will be shopping to bring stuff back here that you cannot find here: Hires Root Beer, Verner's Ginger Ale ( nothing here is even remotely as good as Verner's), and Little Kings Cream Ales, I cannot find them anywhere here, and it is one of the few beers I will drink...Very potent...
It's funny the things you miss when you are away...I may get some Tony Packos Chili mix too, I have bought it online but it is expensive to have it shipped. Tony Packos is awesome...And, I also miss other things, like Toledo's waterfront, and the things there are to do there. Albany, which is close by and the Capital, is very pathetic, nothing at all to offer people to bring them here. We went to the Tulip fest that is such a big deal here, I laughed, it was sad...Nothing like the ones I have gone to...it is nice here, I mean we are very close to Saratoga and in the Summer that is where all the celebrities, and millionaires hang out for the race track, and the Mountains are beautiful...I just miss some things...Looking forward to the few days we will be there...
Well, gotta do last night's dishes...BBL, HAGD all! :D

Wow, Aimee! Congrats! That must feel good! The walk sounds like a great idea. There's a breast cancer walk in October that I have my eye on. I don't think it's as long as yours. Maybe a 5k. We'll see if I work up the gumption to do it, ha.

Congrats, Kimberley. It's nice that we both got to see some plateau busting this week.

I'm really impressed by your Curves work, Diana. Rob has never seen Niagra Falls, so I've played around with the idea of us going there for a long weekend. In May we're renting a little cabin on the water in a town about 2 hours from NYC on the Hudson, for my birthday, so that should be fun. Not too expensive just for the weekend. And it's early in the season, May is still pretty cool. Then we're planning a weekend to PA in July to see relatives, we'll see if that falls into place. Other than that, we don't have big vacation plans. Oh, and the cat STAYS AT HOME! :lol: We do miss her, but we could use the sleep!

It's pouring here today! Scottish heritage is going to have to wait until tomorrow! We rented Finding Neverland yesterday and I cried like a baby.

Think I'll curl up in bed for a couple of hours and read a Tony Hillerman mystery!

growing up in Calif I just love Mexican food. We had a place called La Imperial that my family would go to all the time. It was a restaurant that was originally opened in the back of a Mexican grocery store (with pinatas on the walls). It became a local phenomenon, people would line up down the street to get a table.

In the past 5 or 6 years, a lot more Mexican restaurants have been opening up in NY and Brooklyn. Before, most of the Spanish restaurants were Dominican, Puerto Rican. Yesterday, for my meal off, we went to a Mexican place down the street and I got the spicey pork chops with fresh corn tortillas. Delicious. I think I'd really suffer without good Mexican food, ha.

I hear ya there
 

There are only 3 mexican places here, well, one In Albany, but the dishes are dirty and the glassses are too, so that is a great indication not to eat there to me, lol..Toledo is considered a Restaurant testing area. They have restaurants everywhere, and actually do a lot of market testing there before they send them to other parts of the country...There are several fantastic family owned Mexican places there, and I cannot wait to go..the ones here are okay, but not to my standards. I grew up with several Mexican friends, whose parents made the best food, so I must be spoiled. I love a LOT of flavor in mine ( not necessarily hot, but flavorful.), and here, there just is not enough for my tastes..I told my Dh he is in for a real treat, because he willsee what I am talking about...Mexican is my ultimate fave food...YUM!!!! :D

Scottish heritage week? huh? I'm 1/4 Scottish! I actually went to a Scottish festival thingy with my parents either last year or the year before. The thing that struck me most was the amazingly well-trained herding dogs. My aunt actually has kilts and pieces of our family's plaid--we come from two clans, but I don't remember the names.

Anyway--it's nice to be back! I'm at Jeff's right now, but we're heading over to my place today so I can do laundry and divide/sort/pack food for the upcoming week. We are also going to a party tonight for his friend who is in the navy and just came back from doing a few years in Japan, so that should be fun.

I'm glad to see you guys are doing so well with the weight loss! :bravo: Re-losing past gains, beating plateaus, joining workout facilities...I didn't weigh in this week cuz I didn't have access to my scale, but I don't think I have to to know I gained. That's okay, though--it'll be gone in no time with the super-hectic schedule and 4 days at the gym each week starting on Monday. I won't have time to overeat! Will have to watch my sleep, though--I'll probably only be getting about 5 hours of sleep a night 4 times a week, so I hope that doesn't slow down the weight loss too much.

Well, better make sure I'm all packed and ready to go by the time Jeff gets out of the shower. I always make fun of him for taking longer than a girl to get ready to go anywhere, so if I'm not ready before him, I catch **** for it :p Catch all you Fabulous Ladies later (yes, Aimee, I am copying you--I think we should name the next new thread Fabulous Ladies :D )!

Hi all!!!! Well done with the exercise DragonWoman. I had to laugh today, do you remember a conversation we had on a thread ages ago about people who wear things under baggy pants, so that you can see the tops of them??? And I was joking about buying a diamante thong??? Well, I got my haircut today and my slim and hip hairdresser was wearing.........low slung white hipsters and a black diamante thong!!!!! I had to stifle giggles, and a desire to get out my digital camera to take a picture as evidence!!!!

I have no idea how my weight is progressing, I get weighed on Monday. I was on a break over Easter, and maintained, so hopefully this week will see a drop on those pesky scales!!! I went to the gym today and did 20 minutes on the bike, 20 minutes on the treadmill and half an hour on the eliptical. You should have come with me, there was only me in the gym, you could have had your pic of four elipticals!!!!

I've got a big week at work this week, and I'm really nervous. I work in a call center for a medical insurance firm. I am going to be training new people for two weeks. I have never done anything like this before!!!! I am really excited too, it will be a nice change (and a break from talking on the phone all day!!!)

Hope everyone is having a fab weekend!!!!!!

GoodAfternoon! I am AWAKE! After a sleepless night, I slept WAY in. My poor boyfriend, he's pretty stressed, and sick, and had a migraine last night. And you know how men are with pain.. they turn into babies. But he went off to work today anyways, silly boy, doesn't know when he needs to rest.

I've recently started a new addiction... country music. It makes me want to dance, hehe. I should just get up and dance, cuz my food was HORRIBLE yesterday! The only good thing I did was pick up some yogurt for today. Yogurt is a great food, it's easy on the stomach, it helps to restore proper ph to your stomach (I have issues with that), and the stuff I have is fat free, sugar free, and has no artificial sweetners :) I'm hoping I can put some stuff together in my house thats on plan, and then tomorrow at my staff meeting, I'm just going to avoid all their crappy food. Stupid crappy job. On the plus side I have TONS of time off this upcoming week, so I can properly apply for jobs :)

Jill - there is nothing wrong with you using that word :) Although, if you steal my idea and write a book, I'll probably come over there and kick yer butt ;) Glad to hear you are getting back into the swing of things... sometimes it's nice to have things the same when you are trying to lose weight. Or I find it really helps me a lot.

Marge - it's possible that I'm crazy, like 10km's is pretty far for someone who doesn't regularly workout. Granted I walk at least 2km's a day.. i'm young enough I can hurt my body and it'll recover. However when I walked those 6km's with my friend, I was completely fine afterwards, just needed something to drink. We'll see.

I better go get to doing some stuff, I want to tidy, do some dishes, and make something to eat before I leave for my walk. I'm going to meet the bf after he is done work to pick up some veggies for the next 2 days. I'll be back later!

-Aimee

Happy Sunday Chickies!!
 

:wave: Helloooooo! Boy where is everyone? lol. I got up after 11 and by the time I got here I thought for sure someone would have posted...Must be you all have lives, sad to say, I don't lol... :rolleyes:
back to Curves tomorrow, looking forward to it. Going to really start cracking down on mysel this week as far as water and walking go too...Walk away the pounds will be a part of my daily routine again. :tread:
Heather should be back today..Woo-hooo... :cheer:
Not much else going on here, just wanted to say Hi and see how you all are doign today...HAG1, Diana :D

a little poem someon posted on my Prim forum earlier, thought it was cute:

Me And You Is Friends.

You Smile, I Smile.

You Hurt, I Hurt.

You Cry, I Cry.

You Jump Off A Bridge.

I Gonna Miss You :lol3: :lol3: :lol3:

Goodmorning Diana! It is pretty quiet around here eh? Everyone must have a life... except us ;) heh.

There is nothing on TV, so I just watched a infomercial, Winsor Pilates. Oh man, I need it! Badly! I just called my mom, who is going to track down the diet plan for me, I already have the buns and thigh workout, and can get the others burned to a DVD for me. This is why I'm not allowed to watch infomercials! A LONG time ago I watched the Billy Blanks one, and now own that (I waited until it came to the stores). Alrighty, I'm insane.. and have to shower.. lol... I'll bbl!

-Aimee

Howdy, Fab gals!

Well, the Scottish fest was a bit of a bust. There was a Scottish rock band, men in beards and kilts playing rock guitars. Otherwise just a lot of pushy tourist industry types trying to get people to buy bottles of Glenfiddich scotch and book flights to Glasgow. I shopped a little in Grand Central then went to a nearby museum then headed home. We have Campbells in our family, at a family reunion there were a bunch of red heads. :lol: I would like to go there one day, really beautiful countryside from the pics I've seen. I'm intimidated by the thought that they drive on the opposite side of the road from us. Somehow a head on collision on a small road out in the boonies just doesn't sound like my idea of a vacation....

Diana, did you ever eat fried chicken at Hatties in Saratoga Springs? Wow, that place is good. Ha, I go from gym talk to fried chicken.

Kylie, can you imagine if you'd taken a pic of the hairdresser's undies? heh heh. Probably best to do that after she's put the scissors down. :lol: I would love to have been in a gym that empty! By the time we left ours there was a line forming for the ellipticals. I'm sure it will just be matter of finding the right time of day to go at our gym -- when we took the tour on a Friday afternoon the place was practically empty. I have a feeling people are getting geared up for the summer and that's why there are more bodies around. (Hey, good luck with the training.)

Aimee, I eat a yogurt almost every night (so, I guess I get the yogurt prize :lol: ) I was on a Warren Zevon kick last week, I get weepy every time I listen to his last album, The Wind (Keep Me in Your Heart for a While). He died last year of lung cancer. I've been a fan of his since I was a teenager.

Rob always takes forever in the bathroom. A lot longer than I ever do. (Should I admit that ?? :lol: )

Hey, do you ever get to the end of the week (or even the weekend) and picture yourself being able to extract something you ate that you kinda regret (like a bag of popcorn), so that it's sitting in front of you again, uneaten, and unapplied to parts of your body? It seems like every week I have a small, sometimes bigger, list of stuff that I'd like to extract and put back on the shelf. Funny how that works. :p I should create a television show around that idea, like Seven Days for people working to lose weight.

lol u are all so funny! I have never eaten at that place Marge, but thanks for the info, may check it out sometime...We went to Fridays tonight and my tummy is killing me never have I seen so much grease on a plate in my life ( It was a Chicken and shrimp Sizzler), and boy, may as well have opened the bottle of oil and poured it down my throat...YUKKKK. And I only ate part of it..YUKKKK! I hope Heather is okay, have not heard anything from her, and I know they have had car trouble in the past..Boy, now I am worried...well, gotta run, Have a great night all..TTFN!

Ugh. I am just getting home, and have to get up early for my crappy job tomorrow. The staff meeting was un-eventful, which was good.. I was worried my very un-tactful manager would bring up the conflicts in the store. I did get the cold shoulder from my assistant manager... again. She really hates me, it's amusing to watch. Because on paper I am the perfect employee, I make the most money for the company, have the least amount of returns, and always do everything they ask. It's just all stupid, I'll talk to my district manager tomorrow.. see if I could transfer to another division of the company, I just have to get out of my store. Or I'll quit. I'm just tired of talking about this stuff, yah know?

Alrighty ladies, I'm SO tired, I'm gonna get some sleep.. I'll talk more tomorrow :)

-Aimee

I'm off to work now, while you are all sleeping, lucky things. I'm not doing any exercise today, my day off!!! I am too stressed to think about the gym. I am even going into work an hour early to get organised. I had to move desks on friday night, and my new computer won't have any of my files on it, so I have to sit at my old one and transfer them all, what a pain in the neck that is!!!!

Hope everyone has a lovely Monday. I've even packed my lunch today, so I can have a walk at lunch time and not be stuck in the cafeteria. I had a lovely afternoon in the gym yesterday, the cute instructor was there, and he was exercising. I am trying to teach him to smile, and he gave me a lovely one when I arrived, so he is making good progress!!!!

Good Morning!!
 

Hey there ya all...Hope everyone is ready for the new week...having my morning coffee b4 curves. :coffee: our weather has been so depressing this weekend, sure do hope the sun comes out one of these days. :sunny: Need it so my tulips and Irisis wills start growing more...I love Spring ( when we are lucky to get one usually it goes right from Winter to Summer here) and Fall the best. :flow2: I sue do hope we have a Spring this year. 3 years ago, we had a beautiful one we went and bought some purple fountain grass to plant around our deck, and that next day it snowed ( the day b4 memorial day weekend) and we thought they were toast...I had to cut them to the ground and pray for the best, luckily they were fine...the following week it was in the 80s...lol..I just trimmed my climbing roses they look like they survived the Winter, They are one of the few roses that do. :flow1:
MY MIL is supposed to go with me, but she had a date last night and is not on yet this morning so maybe I will be going alone lol...she has, now I just got this out of her, are u ready...6 boyfriends. :cofdate: U see when I first moved here, she was like Aunt Bea on Andy Griffeth, even wore housedresses was chunky the works...well, 3 years ago, she started losing weight and meeting friends online to play games with and chat with, then she started wearing regular clothes ( not house dresses) and getting her hair colored etc...then she left her husband if 38 tears and filed for divorce...and now she is a COMPLETELY different person. Boyfriends~ She has two black ones ( before she said she did not condone dating other races) and 2 younger men, ( one is only a couple years older than us, and 2 her own age ( 54)..She says they are all just friends, but, for some reason, Blanche from the Golden Girls keeps popping into my mind. she wasn't going to tell me, it sort of slipped out. She swears they are all non-sexual...LOL okay we will see..She had better be careful is all I know..My DH says he doesn't even know her any more or like her this way at all...I can see his point, I mean, she went from One extreme to another ya know? When she went through the change she literally changed. And she changed the entire family in the process...Her hubby was a major mental abuser, so I am not saying I don't blame her, but to stay for that long, I just don't get it..Should have left long ago in my opinion, but to change that much, wow. Christmas is so weird now. :sorry: Hmmm not on yet, she is usually always on by now...Oh well, and his sis, well, she will be the next chapter of my book, but this one will crack you up...Hint: She is my age gonna be 37, has a mullet, wears tweety shirts EVERY day of her life, and still ives at home ( with her father)...hehe..and on that note, am off..HAGD! :lol3: :lol3:

LOL @ Blanche from the Golden Girls :lol: Oh, Diana, at least she's feisty at an older age instead of sitting around drinking Ensure and watching Judge Judy all day, right? :p

Aimee--GET A NEW JOB! I know, easier said than done. When I was working at Payless, I complained endlessly about my job for like a year before I quit, but when I did, GOD it felt good! And even the bad parts of the new job (no job can be perfect all the time) seemed so much better in comparison!

Marge--Heck yeah, Jeff ALWAYS takes longer in the bathroom than me! I go from pajamas and icky hair to squeaky clean and dressed in like 20 minutes. He goes in the bathroom and lord knows what goes on behind those doors, cuz he doesn't come out for at least an hour! Now, I don't wear makeup or do anything to my hair other than brush it, so I guess if I were a "normal" girl and actually did girly things, I would take longer, but he doesn't have to do those girly things, so why does he take so long?! He says it's because he has to shave, but ya know what? I'm pretty sure the surface area of my legs and armpits is much greater than that of his face, so that's no excuse! Bah, who knows--maybe I really don't want to know what goes on in there...:dizzy:

Kylie--I just got into work this morning after being out a week only to find that I have to switch desks, too! I came in and my computer and phone were moved to another cube, so I had to move the rest of my crap over, too. I wish they would have waited for me to be in the office so I could have done it all at once, but, c'est la vie...:rolleyes:

Well, I did NOT pack my lunch for today, which means I will be eating in the cafeteria (bad Jill! :mad: ), but that's only because I have pretty much NO food at my house! After being gone for a week, I had to throw out a lot of food. I couldn't even have my usual cereal for breakfast this morning because I had to dump out my milk that had gone bad! I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead, which used my last 2 pieces of bread, so no sandwich for lunch. At least I don't have to work at the restaurant this evening, though. That means I can run all my errands I didn't get to run over the weekend, which is good. I haven't been sleeping well at all lately--even when I get a chance to actually sleep in, I am up early and wake up multiple times throughout the night, which means I'm not getting any REM! Oh well. Back to the old grinding wheel...Hope you all have a great Monday!!

Girls you all sound very motivated hope you don't mind if I join in? I have also been trying to increase my exercise and drop some more wt. I have been working out 3 days a week and now have challenged myself to 4 starting this week. Recently I discovered by going in the morning I have no excuse not to get to the gym. In the afternoon I have many excuses. I haven't done the scale thin in a week but will this saturday. I find saturdays to be a good day because at least it makes me watch myself a bit more on fridays. Well good luck to all of you. The talk of camping makes me want to pull that popup out but still talk of snow showers in NY.
CC

I'm baaaaaackkkkk.....
 

heyyyyy all :wave: missed you while I was gone. I am so proud of all you have done for yourselves. TOM decided to show up two days late, and while in the car on the way to MO, but its here, nonetheless. Also making appearance on the trip is possible strep..lol. I know its customary to bring things back w/ you from vacation, but this is ridiculous :crazy:
I tried to do my best while on vacation. all my snacks in the car(its almost 10hours by car) were lowfat(unlike the family, who were eating candy and doughnuts and pop, but they dont have a weight issue, so its cool) and when we had to stop at ff places, i only ordered chicken. while at DH grandmother's house, ate the good stuff, and no ice cream, or homemade country desserts, or grandma made pies....i never knew i had willpower.. :lol:
I also made sure that while there I did some walking. One night DH and I took a brisk walk on the dirt road. The next day, we all did some walking on Grandma's property(she owns two farms, and each farm is roughly 750 acres each, so we just kind of walked up a lot of high hills)we stuck to one farm, and didnt walk the whole property, but we did some serious walking for about an hour or so. she lives near the Ozarks, so there were a lot of inclines...it was rough to say the least, but it felt good to be able to do it...a couple of months ago I wouldn't have been able to.
Well, I'm off like a dirty shirt. I'll bbl. Have a wonderful day! ((((all of you)))))

Heather - sounds like you did alright.. no bad eating.. and you were worried.. silly girl :) Congrats though, it's hard to go away and eat good.. All that walking definitely should help yah out. I'm going to hike down my mountain, and up it today. but only cuz the bf works until 10pm, and I want to get home before then. It's quite the workout!

Jill - bad jill. BAD! ;) I say this as I prepare to head to work without eating, or packing a lunch either.

Diana - you are too funny, I love it!

kykaree - I hope your Monday was Fabulous!

I'm running late... again.. I need to work that out... get up earlier or something. I'll talk to you ladies later! :)

-Aimee

Hi, CC. Doesn't this weather completely suck?? I know April showers bring flowers etc., but give me some sunshine!! I'm going to do the gym in the mornings too. Getting up early tomorrow as a matter of fact. Hope I don't encounter another elliptical line, I may have to figure a way to empty out the gym to be able to get to use one...hmmm...either a nasty fluffer or shouting Brad Pitts filming outside (or both...). Anyway, great job on upping the exercise.

Last year Rob and I were on vacation and I got my TOM on a holiday, ALL the stores were closed. I didn't have anything. It was like a bad anxiety dream. I was going to the hotel bathroom every 1/2 hour that night! Never will I travel unsupplied again! I'd say skipping Grandma's pies goes beyond will power. I'm impressed by that.

I hate to say it, but I still have many files on an old computer that I haven't transferred or saved yet :eek: I've been meaning to lug it over to the local PC place and have them put the files on a cd for me and haven't even done that yet. Well, it's ONLY been about 6 months.... Yikes! I can relate to not liking to transfer files (in my defense, the floppy drive is broken and there's no CD-rom drive, so I was attaching the files to email and doing it that way, can you imagine?).

Well, at least that crappy job will soon be just a memory. One lady I worked for, at a book PR firm that she ran out of her 19th century mansion/house here in my neighborhood (her mom *owned* an island), used to go through employees (three of us) like someone with a cold goes through the tissue box (new one every six months). We all had our own keys, and she had the door set up with an alarm. You'd get something like 15 seconds to punch in the code or else it would sound. I usually was the first one there; a couple of times I set that sucker off and it was LOUD. She would come down the stairs in her NIGHTGOWN and slippers (the two other employees were young guys). She used to stand behind the door so she could listen to what we were saying without our knowing. Those were probably the least psycho things she did.

Wow, 6 boyfriends! Never has my love life been so busy! Our accountant is going through something like that. He left his girlfriend and went to Russia to meet a woman he'd been corresponding with over the internet (and phone). He's part Russian. He's living la vida loca right now, going out with different ladies all the time. He tells me he's having the time of his life, and I believe him. I guess there's hope for me yet! :lol:

Jill, I agree, let's leave it as an Unsolved Mystery heh heh.

I've been putting it off, but I have to go do some check book stuff for tax season. Found a dog sniffing expert this morning. I'm a woman of many talents ;)

Okay, okay, so I did a bad thing and had lunch in the cafeteria, but it could have been a lot worse! I got a grilled chicken wrap (no mayo) and a small salad--will drink water or the 1 20-oz bottle of diet pepsi I allow myself each day. Considering they also serve amazing-looking cheeseburgers, fries, pastas, pizza, calzones, etc., I think I did pretty well :D

I found out today that I will be working on government proposals pretty much full-time for the next week or two. YAY! I actually got turned down for a job before due to my lack of government proposal experience (living near DC, it's pretty much a must-have). Now I can add it to my resume for next time around.

I also found out that I will not be getting the security clearance I was hoping for. I really only wanted it because you get paid a lot more if you have one, but apparently the company is currently processing about 1500 new clearances, so they basically said I'm SOL for now. Oh well. I'll have to find another way to get the bug bucks :p

Can I just say that I haven't even had a grand total of 6 boyfriends in my life, let alone at one time! Actually, Jeff is my first real boyfriend (the first relationship that I've had that is based on more than drunk party weekend hook-ups), so I'm lucky to have caught a good one early off. A big light bulb went on over my head this weekend concerning him, though. We have been together for over a year now, and my friends keep asking if I think we'll get married, if he's made any mention or hints about possibly proposing, etc. It got me wondering why we don't really talk about marriage at all. My friend from college got engaged on their 1-year anniversary and had been talking about it for months before then. So what gives? Well, his friend proposed to a girl this weekend, and Jeff's initial response was, "They haven't even lived together yet." Ah HA! There went that light bulb! Jeff and I are planning on living together when my lease runs out (not until early November :( ), so I take it as a really good sign that he wants to live with me, since he clearly thinks that is the pathway to marriage. Don't get me wrong, I completely agree that people should live together first--you learn a LOT more about people when you share the same space. I just didn't know it was such a major step in his mind. I feel better now--not that I had any reason to not feel good about our relationship. Does that make any sense?

Alright, back to pretending to work (since I don't really have much to do until this government proposal comes my way in a few days). Hope your Monday is Marvelous--catch ya'll later!!

Good afternoon e1
 

hey there ladies...And "Welcome, CC!" :wave: Our group is very friendly and a great place to get a boost every day...
Heather, my dearest friend, WTG! :cheer: you truly amaze me, I haven't got that much will power, of course, I am trying not to Cut everything out because then I will Pig-out on it one day, instead, I just have a small piece, then I am happy...

I will be weighing myself on Sunday, so hopefully I will have lost a few pounds..Not eating nearly as much like a :ink: as I used to hehe..

Marge and Jill~ once, long long ago, I used to date a ton of guys, when I worked 2 Summers at an amusement park ( Cedar Point, the greatest in the world, will post the link below)...I once dated...2 Scotts, 2 Todds, a Brett, A Michael, and a couple whose names I forget all at the same time...It was all innocent :angel: ( went out for ice cream, mini golf, stuff like that) but had a blast..Every guy in the park knew me, they used to sing "Dirty Diana" to me in front of the entire employee's cafeteria ( over 350 ppl) and my nickname was "Boogie Bunns"...LOL Ask Heather , she was there too, hehe...Oh and there was a Scott at home too, but we were just in lust with one another but too scared to do anything about it, lol...Serious Boyfriends, well, ones that I really loved...3, before my husband and found out what real love is all about... ;)
Well, that 's it for now..Just got back from ****...er Walmart...Today it was TERRRIBLE, just wanted to yell "Get the **** out of my way you idiots" but that truly would not have been nice eh?.. :^:
BBL HAGD!

Cedar Point it has been vote the Number one Amusement park in the world the last few years..
www.cedarpoint.com

Hey, y'all - I stopped by here a couple days ago and there'd only been one post! I got one notification and then nada, so I forgot to come by. We were running about all weekend, and today I slept in late then worked outside. Ahhhh, ouch again, but not as bad. I've read your posts (LOL about the nightie-clad boss evesdropping).

And welcome CC! Didn't want to leave you out, especially since you're new! :)

P.S. I have Chicken Reuben in the oven. Anyone here like sauerkraut?


Chicken Reuben Casserole
Makes 6 servings

1.5 skinned and deboned chicken breasts, into strips* ( 750cal/8g fat)
1 14oz can sauerkraut, well-drained (73cal/0-fat)
7oz swiss cheese, sliced (700cal/56g fat)
1 cup Kraft fat-free thousand island dressing (250cal/0-fat)

Total per serving: 295cal/11g fat

Chicken can be browned in skillet or put in raw. Put chicken in bottom of a 9" casserole dish and layer on sauerkraut, cheese and dressing. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 45min to an hour.

* You can use whole boneless-skinless chicken breasts and just have less kraut/topping per serving. I'm serving this with a generous side of veggies.

Holy crap my body is sore!! It was my first all day shift in almost 3 weeks!! It was alright, I worked my butt off.. and it went fast. I sold 1,455 in crappy clothes today, yay for me.. heh. After work I went to see my bf, and then walked home from there. Just over 2km's straight up my mountain. I really need to take a picture of it, I told my friend about it.. and she didn't really think much of it.. until she drove me home one day. It's insane! So thats my exercise! Tomorrow? My exercise will be applying and FINDING a job! I'm thinking I might apply in a restaurant.. tips would be nice :)

Jill - thats awesome about the government thingy (me smrt). I agree that it's a GOOD idea to do anything you can to make more money... 1 year and you are *ready* to get married? I've been with my bf for over 5 years, and I'm still not ready for marriage. I know that my bf wants to be more financially secure before he pops the question, I agree with him.. mostly only because I barely make any money and would like to be "grown" up.. man, I really need to think about this career thing.

Marge - try the stairmaster.. I love it! It hurts so badly.. I'm crazy. Those ellipticals are really popular, this one gym I went to had like 15 of them, and they were almost always in use. Try mid morning, like 10-11am. I usually found that was the most dead time. 6 boyfriends at a time is hard to juggle, I've been know to.. date more than one person at a time. My boyfriend is the only one who could tame me :)

Diana - "dirty diana" i love it!! When I was young.. and rather stupid.. I used to tell people that my theme song was "I get around" by the Beach Boys. Oh man, I got really popular off that one! I suspect I really did have a bit of a reputation, which is funny because I really did NOT get around in that kinda way. Wal-Mart is evil. I worked there for almost 5 years. I was working in the photo lab, so I was pretty secluded from the rest of the store. I had some pretty bad managers, and was very mouthy.. I was never fired though.

Kimberley - I was wondering where the heck you were! I want to sleep in, you are making me jealous :)

I am off to watch some TV... NC tarheels won the NCAA finals :) Yay! I'm tired, so have a great night all :)

-Aimee

hey all just a quicki b4 curves...yawn....you are all too funny...I am assuming, Kimberley, that you must got to bed very late, and sleep in very late, lol, or else that was your midnight snack? lol...I am in bed at the latest 12. I really need o go to bed before that, but seems like things just pile up and I never get done before then, and yes, Aimee, you do need to take a pic of that mountain of yours, just so we can see it..lol...And Jill...I think, with me, I had dated so many people that by the time I met my DH, I was ready for marriage. If I wasn't ready by then I may never have been. We lived together for a year before we got married, I think, when it is the right person, you know, and time is irrelevent. I know of people who dated for years, lived together for most of them, got married and 6 months later were headed for divorce. Ask heather too, she lived with her first hubby for a good many years before they got married and now she is re-married to another guy. Like I said, when it is the right person, there is a feeling you have inside and you know...I hope that is the feeling you have with jeff...Well, am off, gotta get dressed..BBL, hag1!

Good morning, Fabs!

Time for the usual morning complaint--I'm tired! I didn't get to sleep till about 11:30 last night, so when that alarm went off at 4:30, oi vei! Only 4 days a week, though--get to sleep lots on the other 3 to make up for it :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SwimGirl 1 year and you are *ready* to get married? I've been with my bf for over 5 years, and I'm still not ready for marriage. I know that my bf wants to be more financially secure before he pops the question, I agree with him.. mostly only because I barely make any money and would like to be "grown" up.. man, I really need to think about this career thing.

I'm not ready to get married--I'm ready to get engaged :p I know once he pops the question, it'll be at least another year of wedding plans and stuff. I've got a life plan, here: I want 4 kids. I want to be DONE having babies by the time I'm 30. Therefore, I must begin having babies at age 25-26 (I'll pray for a set of twins to cut down on the time spent pregnant ;) ), which means I have to be married by 25, which means engaged by 24. So, he's got one year to make up my mind, since I will be 23 in July :p I know, I'm young, and I don't really need to "rush" things quite so much, but I really want to be a younger mother so all my kids will be grown up and on their own by the time I want to spend my older years with the husband. It all makes sense in my head...

Also, I think I've done a pretty good job of proving to myself that I don't need to rely on anyone else, which was the biggest step for me toward becoming "grown up." I'm definitely not completely a grown up yet (and hopefully never will be!), but since I left my parents' home in August of 2000 when I graduated from high school, I have pretty much figured everything out on my own. While I'm not exactly rollin' in dough, I'm financially stable enough to afford to rent my own apartment (which in this area is basically equivalent to paying a monthly mortgage!) and bills and student loans and yadda yadda yadda. I have lived both with other people and alone, so I know I can survive either way if I ever have to. I've also made it pretty clear to Jeff that once I'm married and kids are in the picture, divorce is not an option (unless under certain extreme circumstances). We are the adults and should be able to handle our problems without involving (or jeopardizing) our children. Since his parents just got divorced about 2 years ago, I know he's completely on-board with that idea. Once I get married, I plan to stay that way (not that anyone really plans on getting divorced, but when my friend got married at 19 and I expressed my concerns with her, she once said, "It'll be fine, Jill. If it doesn't work out, we'll just get a divorce." JUST get a divorce?! Like it's no big deal?! Like it's the easy answer, the easy way out?! Words could not adequately describe my feelings when I heard that come from her mouth).

My grandmother (who just passed away Easter weekend) and my grandfather (who passed away when I was in high school) would have celebrated their 60th anniversary this spring. My sister and I sent my parents on a trip to New York City for their 30th anniversary in November. If my psychotic and dysfunctional relatives can make it, then so can I :p Of course, I don't want to get married just to be married. I do love him, and he's got an amazing amount of patience when it comes to dealing with my sometimes-neurotic emotions and outbursts :dizzy:

Okay, enough blabbing about my Jeff. I miss him so much during the week (he stays with me Friday-Sunday night, but I don't see him at all Monday-Thursday since he lives on the opposite side of DC in Maryland and I live in Virginia--bout an hour and a half apart). Good thing I have a picture of him on my desk at work and bug him on AIM while he's at work all day :p

Jill~~~"I'm not ready to get married--I'm ready to get engaged I know once he pops the question, it'll be at least another year of wedding plans and stuff. I've got a life plan, here: I want 4 kids. I want to be DONE having babies by the time I'm 30. Therefore, I must begin having babies at age 25-26 (I'll pray for a set of twins to cut down on the time spent pregnant ), which means I have to be married by 25, which means engaged by 24. So, he's got one year to make up my mind, since I will be 23 in July I know, I'm young, and I don't really need to "rush" things quite so much, but I really want to be a younger mother so all my kids will be grown up and on their own by the time I want to spend my older years with the husband. It all makes sense in my head..."


Hey hon...I want to just say one thing..not that I am an expert, but maybe with age comes knowledge..I had a life plan too...I planned to be married and have 3 kids by the time I was 30...well, got married at 30 and no kids yet...Life just has its way of pulling the punches on ya sometimes, and things just do not go as planned...I hope they do for you, but a lot of times they just don't. Marriage is VERY hard. A **** of a lot harder than I ever thought it would be. Living together was hard too, but, for some reason, things change when you say "I do" ..I know that sounds nuts, but, it is very true. Ask anyone, and they will say the same thing...lol..twins run in my family, but I am having a heck of a time conceiving and carrying to full-term, granted, it gets harder the older you get ( I am 37), but we have been trying to conceive almost 5 years. I can now conceive, but cannot carry, and it is weight related, so this is why I am sticking to my guns. My neighbor is 34 and she tried to conceive for 10 years with her hubby whom she married at 23...they had to go through all kinds of fertility tests. She had twins almost 3 years ago, and now, they are not having a great time of it, because, she had no idea how much kids change marriage. And they do, I don't care what anyone says, kids change a relationship. Not saying it is bad, but just saying they do...You are young..so stop fretting and thinking you have to stick to a plan. Just go with it and relax, let things happen as they are meant to happen. Maybe he is scared because you have it all planned out, and this is somewhat intimidating to him? just a thought. Only you can know how you feel. As for divorce..i don't think anyone goes into a marriage planning to divorce the person they "Love til death do us part" unless they have alterior motives. Sometimes people just change, things change them, things happen. I would have rather my mother, for example, have divorced my father ( whom she has been married to for 50 years last July) then allow us kids be subject to years of abuse, alcoholism, and infidelity on his part. We would all be better off for it now, but she stayed, and we are who we are because of it, I love my dad for who he is now, an 87 yer old fart, but I will never forget the things he put us through. Same with Rod's mom...She left after 38 years, for one because she had changed yes, but because she was tird of being emotionally abused by him, after 38 years, she wishes she would have done it 20 years before. Even Heather, she loved the SOB she was married to and had been with for 13 years and had 2 kids with, but finally ( THANK GOD) she left him and divorced him and found someone who showed her she is worthy of living. I know, who am i to say anything to you, but I was you once too..I had been engaged before, I had been in a serious relationship before, and thought I would be happily marrried in a nice home with 3-4 kids by the time I was 30...Then things just happened and everything went in a different direction for me...
...Okay, Okay, enough already... the Dr. Is out now...HAGD!:)

Ladies, you all are so interesting.

I love saurkraut. Thanks for the recipe. It did seem like you were gone for a long time, Kimberley!

Diana, my family used to go to the Santa Cruz beach and boardwalk. That was a lot of fun (except for the time I laid out too long and turned my legs as red as as cooked lobster -- that was less fun). There's a huge rollercoaster there -- probably not huge anymore compared to the ones they build nowadays. When I see the stories on teenagers on the news and on talk shows, I feel like we were so innocent! My group of friends (girls and guys) used to go out and have ice cream, that would be our wild time, haha. We did drink some beer after highschool. It was all pretty G rated. To hear the stuff that 12 and 13 year olds do, shocking to me. You'd think I grew up on a different planet.

My parents were married until my mom passed away in 1996, something like 52 years. They had a good marriage. Rob and I have been together since about 1995 (wow, it's been a long time!) and we've been living together since about 1996. We might get married some day, but it's not a huge deal to me. I agree with Diana that a relationship is hard work with lots of compromise. Also, I feel as a person that I changed quite a lot from the time I was in my twenties to the time I was in my thirties. All I'd say about marriage or a committed relationship is do lots and lots of talking about all your goals, dreams, habits, likes, dislikes, needs, money, expectations, etc., to make sure you're on the same page. It's tough enough to navigate life if your sailing in the same direction, if two people start to act with cross purposes, then it can really create problems.

So, I went to the gym this morning and got on a gazelle type thing. Then did the bike and several of the weight machines. Felt good. Definitely the morning is a better time to go, not many people at all. They have a stair machine and rowing machines, I'll probably give those a try sooner or later.

Good luck on the job front, Aimee. I'd love to see pics of Vancouver and the Hill. They call my neighborhood here in Brooklyn the Slope. heh heh. It does slope about 30 degrees going up to the park.

I definitely agree that marriage (or any type of relationship, for that matter) is a lot of work. I also know that having a plan doesn't mean that everything will go according to plan. For example, I know it may be difficult for me to conceive because I only have one ovary (had the other removed along with the 10-inch cyst that killed). However, I also know that if I don't try to stick to the plan, then there's no way it will every happen! I also mentioned that I feel divorce is an option in extreme cases (I would consider ANY type of abuse to be extreme, whether physical or emotional, or even substance abuse), and I would certainly not put up with him ever cheating on me (after all, what kind of example would that be for kids?).

I'm not saying it would be easy. I'm not saying I won't be happy if everything's not perfect and peachy. I've dealt with plenty of ups and downs in my life and have overcome them all, so I know I'm pretty good at rolling with the punches. I know a lot more about myself than a lot of other people ever do (if that makes sense--I have known people who have a very difficult time admitting things about themselves, ya know?), so I also know that I'm ready whenever he is. I've lived the wild n' crazy college years, I've stopped drinking ANY alcoholic beverages (I know that I can never have just 1 or 2, so might as well stop a problem before it starts), I've lived with a 4-year old for a year, I've lived with multiple psychotic roommates, and I have lived alone. I'm definitely ready to live with Jeff :) And like I said, it'll be about 2 more years till we're married anyway (if he even proposes), so we've got some time to figure things out and even change our minds if necessary.

I just don't want anyone to think that I'm completely delusional in assuming my life will pan out perfectly as planned. I just know that I do have a plan and will deal with obstacles as they arrise, but for now, it's nice to imagine my perfect little world in my head :p Just like weight loss--I have read that if you can't picture yourself thin, then you probably never will be--you have to BELIEVE!

Jill - I have to say that I'm with Diana on this... I was married (at age 19) with every plan in line to have 2 kids (he wanted 5!) by the time I was 25 and to have the happy ever after. We lived together for 18 months before we got married (we were already engaged). He was very sweet to me the entire time we dated and were engaged. He had strong marrage values as do I. Divorce is *not* an option! With the exception of cheating and/or beating. I swear though by the time we were home from the honeymoon it was like I had married someone else completely! He was rude and a slob, he was always going out with friends or hunting/fishing without me. I felt absolutly stuck, but I had a 'plan' set in place and my values, so I had to follow that right?! We tried to have kids for over 3 years. It never happened. (Thank god now though!!!) A combination of me being overweight (I was 320 at that time and had gotten down to 297), and after seeing a fertility specialist she discovered I had a 'hostile environment' for his sperm... gross I know. Anyway, come to find out that while I was screwing my hormones up with the fertility drug Clomid, he was screwing his girlfriend! We seperated a month after I found out and were divorced less than a year later. My 25th birthday was the worst day of my life. I cried ALL day. Got really drunk and cried some more. I felt I had failed myself because I was not a mother, or a wife, I no longer had a family, or a house... it was really hard. It took a lot of self-reflection to get through that. My point is, don't put time constraints on things you have no control over. I hope that everything works out great with you and Jeff but promise to not put pressure on you or him to have unneccessary goals.

Kimberly - that Reuben Chicken sounds delish! I'll have to try it soon! And congrats on falling off your plateau!!! Woohoo!

I'm sorry, but that sounds really funny. All I see in my head is like the scene from the beginning of "Look Who's Talking" (where they show the sperm all going for the egg), and the egg like whips out a baseball bat to beat away all the sperm :lol: I'm glad you had a "hostile environment" for his sperm since it didn't work out.

I really didn't mean to start anything here, guys. I was just babbling--everyone has hopes and dreams and the perfect little picture in their minds. I was just blabbing mine out in a post. I do not pressure Jeff for anything (he actually mentioned living together before I did--I even asked him if he thought we would kill each other if we lived together, but he seems pretty confident that we'll be okay, and that is what I feed off of and use to push my own apprehension away), and my timeline is very much based on life being perfect, which I very well know it is not. Like I said, I know obstacles may (will) occur, and that's fine. Having a plan does not mean ignoring bigger issues to stick to that plan. Plans change. People change. Life changes. I know all of this. And also, like I said, I will not be unhappy if life does not go according to plan--spontaneity is half the fun of life, after all! If things don't work out with Jeff, I'm sure it's because there's someone out there that's better for me.

Jeez, I guess having spare time to babble about stuff in the morning is a bad thing. I know I sounded dumb, but I also know that a plan is good to have (not necessarily as specific as mine, but still). However, I am realistic [since I was about 10 years old, all I have ever heard is, "You're so mature for your age!"--I even had a teacher in middle school have a conference with my mother about my maturity level and how he thought everything I said was true and funny (I've always been quite sarcastic), and how he would have laughed and agreed with everything I said if I were 10 years older, but he felt inappropriate laughing at that sarcasm coming from a 12-year old]. From now on, I'll be sure to just complain about how tired I am and leave it at that (yeah right--I'm good at causing a ruckus) :p

:lol: Fabulous women can handle any ruckus ;)