Starting the topic - be back a little later once I've caught up on more work stuff

Hi all - I still have to check out what happened here last week - I hope to do so by the end of the day. Vacation was wonderful. The Eagles concert was fabulous - it was a 3.5 hour show with a 20 minute intermission and no opening band. We didn't have the best weather out at the beach (as a matter of fact, Krista and Anthony didn't come out) but it was really only one morning of rain and we had a nice time with my parents (who came out for a day and and night) going wine tasting on the north fork. I sort of counted points some days, didn't go nuts and Tony and I played tennis a lot. My weight was not great when I got back on Saturday but I'm working hard this week to get it to where I can show at least a maintain on Saturday.

I hope everyone is doing well.
Have a great one!
Judy (who now has 13.5 days left at the he** hole)

I just read through last week's thread quickly -

Carla - WOW!! Way to go on a great loss and 2 weeks in a row.

Karen - Every loss is a great one - good for you for getting on the treadmill.

Anne - I know maintains can be frustrating especially when you've been OP BUT it is better than a gain and I'm sure the loss on the scale will "catch up with you" - sometimes there's a delayed reaction.

Jennie - maintains are still a victory. I think 3 pounds in 3 weeks is great! Slow and steady wins the race - I know it's a cliche but I think it really is true.

OK guys, it's Monday afternoon (at least here on the East Coast) so check in and tell me how your weekends were.

Hi all.

Judy - Welcome back! I missed you. I'm glad to hear that you had a good time at the beach and that the Eagles concert was fabulous. I'm sure you'll be able to pull off a maintain at this Saturday's weigh-in. Wow, only 13 days left to go at your job! That's wonderful. How great is it to come back from vacation and realize that you're a short-timer?

My weekend went alright. I ate more than I should have on Saturday, and drank more wine than I should have too, but it wasn't a blow out. And I turned down my mom's offer of a second piece of cake. I really wanted that 2nd piece too. My sneak peeks have been awful. I wasn't careful about getting all my water in and I've been retaining. Plus my knee was acting up and I was popping Ibuprofen and I think I read somewhere that that will make you retain water. At any rate, I'm guzzling away and my knee is better, so no more Advil. I'm going to be so disappointed if I see a gain on Wednesday. Tomorrow I'm going to lunch with a friend, but we're going to Panera's Bread, which is at Dottie's, so I'll be ok.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Carla

Hi All...

Judy, great to have you back! Glad you enjoyed your time away. I would have loved to have seen the Eagles...did CSN last Thurs. and it was wonderful too. I'm sure you'll be able to pull a maintain out of the hat for Saturday...sounds like you got lots of exercise playing tennis last week. And how great that the countdown to the end of the job is winding down so nicely.

Carla, hope your knee is doing better...I think I've had a water retaining thing with ibuprofen in the past too. Good for you for turning down the second piece of cake on the weekend. What willpower! Enjoy your lunch out!

Anne, how's it going with you? I saw you over at the South Beach board...let us know how the SBD is working for you.

As for me, I've pulled it back together today after a not very good weekend. Something about lack of structure on the weekend has been throwing me off big time for the last couple of weeks. During the week I know what I'm going to be eating the majority of the time, but when the weekend rolls around I'm sick to death of knowing what's for dinner and I just get into "whatever" mode. I think I'll try making double sized dinner through the week and keep stuff for leftovers for the weekend so I know that there will be a low point meal at the end of the day.

Just four more days of work to get through, then I'm on vacation for 3 weeks. Mike only gets a week off, so we'll be taking off on the 7th for a week of r&r. Can't wait. I found a super kennel for Lucy and Jasper, and Gillis of eau de salmon mort fame is going to spend the week with my parents. We took all three to the beach this evening to cool off, they all swam and romped for an hour. Such fun.

Enough rambling, better off for some beauty sleep!

Hi everyone,

I didn't have a too hot weekend. Thank goodness the pizza and cake are finally gone. I have been lazy about the water so I am working on some now (not a good time 10:06 pm).

Judy, It sounds like you vacation was very nice, did you get to do my favorite and have a little nap? I am sure you will pull off a maintain if not even a loss

Carla, I am glad to hear your knee is doing better. I know what you mean with the retainning water. Have you been better than me and getting in your exercise? I have been so lazy lately

Karen, I have been trying to do South Beach Diet but am trying to keep it within my WW points range. It is actually hard for me to get enough points in each day with the amount of salads I eat. The SBD has you eat very few carbs in the first 2 weeks and then add in good carbs (ie fruits and whole grains). You end up getting rid of the "whites" ie sugars, white flour, white rice and my favorite potatoes. I did well the first 2 weeks, 10 pound loss total and then gained 3 back with my 4 days of pizza and cake. What I find I like most about doing this is that it seems to be getting rid of my sweet tooth (which is huge). I am restarting the program, getting my system back into not wanting the sweets and am hoping it goes as well for me this time too.

We just got back from taking the kids to see Bedknobs and Broomsticks. The Historical Society has been showing classic kid films on Monday evening in a historic boathouse. Last week we saw The Lovebug and next week it will be The Borrowers. I am going to try and get to the library tomorrow and check out The Borrowers to read to the kids before next weeks movie. Does anyone happen to remember who wrote the Borrowers?

Talk to you all soon, Anne

Anne - It was Mary Norton. SBD sounds interesting, I'll have to learn more...anything to do in my sweet tooth!

Carla - Way to go on passing up that second piece of cake!!! I'm sorry to hear about your knee acting up. Yes, I think Ibuprofen may make you retain water - it's good you are guzzling. Listen, I know it will be disappointing if you see a gain, but please don't let that throw you. There's a lot of things that can make us gain on the scale many of which have nothing to do with what we have eaten. Oh, and please remind me of what I'm saying now if my sneak peek's stay awful later in the week! Yes, this was the best "coming back from vacation" I can remember!

Karen - I would love to see CSN! I'll bet that was one great concert. I think your plan for the weekends is a good one. I find it a lot easier when the "whatever" is breakfast, lunch or brunch but my dinner (which is still where I get most of my points) is a good OP one. Mmm, 3 weeks of vacation sounds wonderful! LOL about Gillis of eau de salmon mort fame. Have the other dogs shown a similar bent? Where do your parents live, nearby? The beach with the puppies sounds wonderful!

Anne - I'm glad to hear that the SBD is helping you get rid of the sweet tooth. I've always been tempted to do something like that but it would mean separate dinners for Tony and me since there is no way he'd want to give up pasta (even though we eat whole wheat pasta) for two weeks or longer. That program for classic kid films sounds wonderful. I just did a quick search on Amazon and the author of The Borrowers is Mary Norton. Ooops - I see Karen posted that already. Yes, I did get a chance to take a couple of naps on vacation. Love em!

I did OK last night until late and then I had a terrible salty cravings. Unfortunately, there was an open bag of Tostitos in the house and I dove in. I counted up the damage afterwards and am now a few points in the deficit column but I plan to get rid of the deficit today. I am in the midst of full blown PMS and am hoping that TOM comes soon (although these days who knows if it will). I decided though that tonight any salty cravings will be satisfied by either popcorn or pickels. I decided to take half a sick day this afternoon so I plan on going to the pool, composing my "I'm leaving" note to colleagues at work (a lot of people after 19.5 years!) and doing some walking in the pool. I hope to get on the spinning bike later too. I have to be careful about today - Tony just left for a golf outing with a friend which will include dinner too so I'm flying solo tonight - always a dangerous situation foodwise. My plan is to have a huge salad with some protein in it and have lots of points for snacking. I'm going to try to make sure that the snacks are fruit or protein rather than sweet stuff.

Have a great one!
Judy

Hi all.

Karen - Weekends are tough for me. Saturday's are busy and Ana has Spanish class in the late afternoon. Sunday's are often breakfast out, plus I don't really feel like cooking. I think your plan to double up dinners so you have leftovers is a good one. How great that you're taking three weeks off. Where are you going to go for the week? It's good that you found a good kennel for your pups. We board Luigi at his vet's. I know he's in good hands there. Of course he doesn't like it so much. He's still "talking" about his two weeks there while we were on vacation. I could swear he called me a b*tch when he first got back home.

Anne - Nope, I haven't been better about exercise, although I got in at least 15 minutes of walking on Sunday and Monday. It's not much, but it's better than doing nothing. I really have to get motivated to start that up again. I have a real sweet tooth too. I was tearing the kitchen apart last night looking for something sweet. Fortunately, I didn't find anything. Well, there was the bowl of frosted flakes.... The movies sound great.

Judy - Sorry to hear you got into the Tostitos. You have a good plan in place for dinner tonight. I can understand how you couldn't get Tony to give up pasta for a couple of weeks. It goes against his genetic code! As for my weigh-in tomorrow - I'm debating as to whether I even visit the scale. We'll see in the morning.

I had a pretty good day yesterday. Lunch was good, but more point-laden than I planned. Not to worry - I plan on BLTs and a salad for supper. I have Oscar Meyer center cut bacon, which is only two points for three slices, so I'm in good shape. I still feel rather water-logged, so if I do weigh in tomorrow, I don't think I'll be seeing a number I like. Tomorrow we're going to my mom's for dinner. My oldest nephew just recently moved to Las Vegas. Actually, he took a vacation there to visit his girlfriend and ended up staying. He's home for a couple of days to get his stuff, so my mom is having dinner for him. She's making his, and my, favorite - Risotto Milanese. Must save points....

Talk to you tomorrow.

Carla

Hi Everyone,

It's cooking here this afternoon! Way too hot. I'm going to the early WW meeting this evening so we can get the dogs back to the beach tonight to cool off...

Carla - We're going to Kelowna, which is in the interior of BC, it's in the Okanagan region, which is semi-arid, and a major fruit and wine region. It's on a huge lake; we've rented a lakeside condo at a very nice hotel for a week. They have a great gym, pools etc. so should be able to get some exercise in. I'm looking forward to eating tons of fresh fruit from the roadside fruit stands - peaches, apricots, cherries and all kinds of other great stuff. Will do a few wine tours too! I'm a bit worried about boarding Jasper, we've boarded him for just one night with Lucy a couple of months ago and he came home with a nervous wreck with vomiting and diarrhea. The place we're taking them comes highly recommended. I'm going to get some sedation for him from the vet, and the kennel owners can give him some if they feel he needs it. Your BLT's sound great...I love them. The chef is preparing sauteed prawns with stir fried veggies for dinner tonight.

Judy - I agree about the "whatever" thing, but should I try not to make it breakfast or supper. If I start out the day high point, I tend to work out the points, decide I can't possibly exist for the rest of the day on my measly remaining points, and write the day off. How dumb. I like to have 10-12 points left for dinner at the end of the day. As for Gillis and his affinity for all things that smell disgusting, he has trained Jasper well in the art of rolling in disgusting things. My folks live about 1 1/2 hours east of us, which is en route to our vacation destination. Our total drive is about 5 hours.

Anne - on further perusal of the SBD boards, I'm noticing just about everyone seems to be getting stuck and going back to Phase 1 for a kickstart...is that something recommended in the book? Your 10 lb loss is very impressive. I agree about the
nap thing on vacation...I intend to have one EVERY DAY for 3 weeks.

So far so good today...I'm on track with everything except exercise, and it's just too damn hot to do anything...will be back later with tales from the scale...

Minus 1.8 today for a total of 16.8

Just time for a quick note today~

Carla - risotto Milanese???? Can you say heaven in a bowl????

Karen - Way to go on that great loss! The vacation spot sounds heavenly.

I did OK yesterday. I ate my max points but I used my exercise points to wipe out my deficit (I did 40 minutes of dripping wet spinning). Tony (aka Grandpa) is taking Anthony to the pool this afternoon so I am going to leave early. We're having hotdogs for dinner - ff ones for me so I should be working on a fairly low point day. Now if I can only stave of the snack attacks. PMS continues. My TOM is missing. Here we go again (good ol' perimenopause)!

Have a great one,
Judy

Hi all.

Karen - Oh my gosh, your vacation sounds divine. I love being on the water, and add wineries to that, well - it sounds like paradise to me. Sounds like there will be plenty to do to keep you active so I'm guessing you'll have a very successful vacation, weight-wise. I'll keep my fingers crossed that Jasper deals with the kennel better this time.

Judy - Ah yes, heaven in a bowl indeed. We (my sisters, cousins and I) all grew up loving it - it was a holiday staple. I can't wait to get my hands on a big bowl of it tonight. Congrats on having a good OP day with Tony being away for dinner and the evening. I know that's a tough time for you.

Well, my trip to the scale was the bummer I was anticipating. I found Karen's 1.8 pounds. I was so disappointed, but I know it's water and I'll get it right back off. Thankfully, I have no challenges coming up, at least that I know of, so I should be in pretty good shape food-wise.

Have a great day.

Carla
279/277.4/145

Hello everyone

Judy, what a fantastic job on the spinning. Do you take a class or are you able to do it at home. I lately have been very lazy about getting on the treadmill. I know you will be looking good at your weigh in on Saturday.

Carla, I have this silly theory that there are only so many pounds on the earth; when someone is losing them that means someone else must be gainning them. Unfortunately I was the gainer for a long time Now I am hoping my pounds go down to my sister (misery does love company you know). I am sure you will see a lose this next week, just keep pounding that water.

karen, Way to go girl !!!! That 20 pound mark is just around the corner You will have to do something special for yourself when you hit it. About the question if the book says you can go back and restart the program, the doctor actually recommends it. He feels that if you have gotten off track it helps to start over and kind of detox your body of all the bad carbs ie sugar, white flour and just all the junk we know isn't good for us. I had gained 3 pounds in those 4 days of feasting. I never really felt good during that time, wanting to nap and just kind of sluggish. I have been back on the program for 3 days, my energy is up even though it is muggier than all get out and am back down 2.5 pounds. But I do see what you mean there does seem to be a lot of people slipping and restarting. I am truly trying to make this a way of life for me. What is really helping me is that my husband has been doing Atkins since March. The kids still have all of the "bad carbs", but I feel that they need it. We never have been white bread eatters but I think they need bread, rice, pasta, etc. Even sugar, I don't want to create sugarholics (?). I am jumping off of my soapbox now and am sorry if I went into it more than you wanted, I was just trying to answer your questions.

Have a good day everyone, I have to go seperate my fighting children.

Anne

Carla - sorry to hear about the gain but it sounds like you have a good attitude about it. I'm right with you on water retention - still no TOM - I can't tell you how sore my chest is! Glad to hear you have no food challenges coming up. That's always a relief!

Anne - I like your "silly theory" - I hope I can pass along what I gained on vacation to some skinny person! I have only ever taken one spinning class - a few years ago when I still belonged to a gym. I bought a spinning bike earlier this year and I am really enjoying it. I have some good tapes (you know me and videos!) and I've found that with spinning at least, I have gotten over my dislike of stationary bikes (which started when I had to use one every day for a year when I re-habbing my knee after surgery).

I had a good day yesterday. I left work a bit early (I found out that the only reasons I went into the city were cancelled!) because Tony took Anthony to the pool and I joined them when I got home. We were going to have ff hot dogs but decided to get pizza instead. I did OK and managed to stay within my point range even through the evening. I plan on exercising later today - after this interview I'm going on. I'm going just to meet the interviewers - it's for part time only positions for asst teacher - not what I want but I figure it never hurts to go and try to make a good impression. I almost cancelled it this morning - I'm very PMS'y but I've decided to stick to my original plan and go. Today should be an OK day foodwise. We're having ff hotdogs so it will be a pretty low point dinner - always a good beginning to the evening!

Have a great one!
Judy