Sunday Sunday May 16th

Hi gang --

Hmmm looks like I get to start our thread two days in a row! Makes me wonder what fun everyone is up to, or are y'all in?!?

Marl -- you asked where I would be in NY.........no, sorry, it's not Long Island. I'll be upstate........near Elmira (the thriving town of Horseheads, to be exact).

Dany -- actually, moving from Florida to NY for the summer is not too bad.........after all these years, we have lots of practice. What's throwing me off this year is this trip to Illinois (we leave in the morning) and then coming home and having only a few days before leaving for NY.........I'm trying to get prepared for both trips at once, and that's making me :hair: so I'm really kinda looking forward to getting on the road tomorrow.........once we hit the highway, I kind of settle back and go "Ahhhh" because at that point..........there's no point in worrying about what I need to remember anymore.

Brandy and I have had our long and that will pretty much be my exercise for the day. I have a list of small odds & ends to accomplish today, and it should be no problem to get thru the list, as dh has gone to a tournament so I will be un-interrupted. Am going to have an OP breakfast, and then tackle the list as soon as I get off the computer.

My only problem so far today is..........I'm getting eat up with guilt at leaving the dogs home for this week that we'll be in Illinois.........my neighbor takes care of them (and they have a doggie door to their fenced-in yard and can go in and out all day), and they are always fine (and spoiled rotten!!) when I get home.......but I worry about them anyway...........my 4-legged furry kids. I guess worrying is in my genetic make-up. Does it burn calories?!?!

Have a great day everyone........I'll be checking back in later on today.

HUGS --
Ann

Good morning! It's a morning after a heavy rain storm. It was up to 90 degrees yesterday, but today should be in the mid-70's.

I'm doing OK on the eating - I've been doing SBD Phase 1+ (that means I've sneaked in a few carbohydrates.) I've lost 3 of those offending pounds that reappeared. Still have about 2-3 more to go before I'm back on track. I'm still 16-17 pounds lower than I was a year ago, so that's good.

Save trip, Ann!!

Melissa - nice to hear from you. I'm glad you are doing well.

I'm off to church, then to the garden center to buy lots of annuals and vegetable plants.

Pat

Good morning Ann and Pat and everyone else who follows. It seems are numbers have diminished some and I hope all of you are doing well. I had another "fall" yesterday and I am mad at myself. Today I am invited to a picnic and I pray I don't stumble 3 days in a row. I don't know what got into me! We will go for a walk today and water will not be a problem. It has cooled down some so that is nice. Have a nice Sunday everyone and don't be like me.........stay OP!

Emily s

Good morning everyone!

I'm happy today because our MLS team won their first game of the season!!! It was the stadium's 5th birthday and it was a rematch with the same team of the inaugural day. That's the good news. The bad news is that I had a piece of the birthday cake they were serving afterwards. I knew that was going to happen! Funny thing is, I didn't feel so good afterwards. That sugar monkey is finally off my back!!

Ann, enjoy all of those trips! Packing makes me crazy.

Pat, hope you find a lot of nice plants. I'm still waiting to plant the ones I got weeks ago. Too wet here.

Emily, don't get discouraged! You've accomplished a lot already so don't be too hard on yourself.

Desk, skating is so fun! Good for you for fitting it into your schedule!

Shirley, the steamed spiced shrimp sounds good!! Welcome back from the mountains.

Marlene, that was a great idea on getting rid of Fred.

Dany, are you feeling better today?

Sandi, there's an annual auto show of vintage cars in the city where I used to live. We enjoyed seeing them around the neighborhood.

Melissa, I'm glad you're feeling better and can hop on the computer again!

Hi to anyone I missed!

~ Donna

Good morning girls!

Have done my yoga and it's been a help in getting rid of some of the stiffness from the mtn work yesterday. I am kind of pleased in a way because my legs seem in far better shape after squatting, etc. than they would have been in the past. Hoping my 6.2-mile Cystic Fibrosis walk this afternoon will get rid of the rest of the soreness and not add to it! May have to wear rain gear, but in the past that only made me walk faster, so that wouldn't be a bad thing .

((((Emily))))--I am certain you will do fine if you put your mind to it. Sometimes we get caught up in the moment or are bored with our food choices or are hungry and don't realize it. Eat a satisfying snack (like the good old standby, nuts) before you go and ask yourself if you are really hungry for something before you get it. If you are, just get a small amount. Also, survey all the food choices before you put anything on your plate and then make your best and most satisfying choices. I will heed this advice also as they often have goodies galore for the walkers at these charity walks! (I will try to have a little voice in my head reminding me that I gave this good advice to Emily--I must follow it myself!)

Pat--Your post reminded me that I have impatiens that need watering and hopefully will get planted today by DH and DS (part of my Mother's Day present). Have fun shopping for your plants!

Ann--You can't help but worry about your furbabies, but you're right they'll be loved and spoiled while you are gone! Good luck with your "to do" list. I have one of my own to work in around this walk and going to hear DH play handbells at church tonight.

Desk--Well, of course, your fellow skaters treat you well. You are Desk for goodness sake. I am sure they welcome your smiling face and cheerful disposition ! Skate those calories and any stress away!

Donna--Hearty congrats on your team's win!

Sandi--That Lost in the 50s weekend sounded cool. Hope you and DH had fun checking everything out!

Have a great day all!
Shirley

Hi everyone.

Well, another week has begun and so far I'm OP foodwise. Need to get in some more fluids yet today, and my walk and workout which will be this evening. Worked out last night but didn't walk. However, I got lots of walking in just running around our building which has long halls (nearly a city block long) and lots of stairs.

Ann, believe it or not, I know the town of Horseheads. Stayed there overnight at a motel once while passing through on vacation, maybe around 20 yrs ago.

Pat, enjoy the gardening. It's a great outlet, esp when you are working at a desk during the workday.

Emily, just keep on asking yourself, "What do I really want?" That question is really the key to being disciplined. "I want that second helping, but I REALLY want to look great at the wedding."

Donna, you're right, after a while the body gets used to good treatment and it kicks back if we cheat it of good food, or feed it too much bad stuff. I used to be able to take a day off, like Sunday, and just eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Now I feel horrible physically (not to mention emotionally and spiritually) when I do that. Even a heavier dessert makes me feel bad. And actually many times a small spoonful or forkful of something satisfies me, and then I have a piece of fruit as my real dessert.

Shirley, good luck on the 6.2 miles!

Well, off to relax a little.

Blessings.
Marlene

I BEST s

Today is one of those weird days that hovers between nice, warm and sunny... and then, suddenly, goes to cool and cloudy So, I don't know if I should be outside, enjoying the weather or be inside avoiding the weather.

Since I fell off the SBD wagon yesterday and Friday today is the 1st day of the 2 week Phase One part of the plan: I just want to make sure I get my blood chemistry to its upmost healthiness!!!

I must admit that one of the things I find the hardest is eating so much protein and fats: after years of having portion control and fat control hammerred in my head, it's hard to get away from the notion that I can't eat that way!!! But, when I do, I find that I do feel a whole lot better. And staying away from the carbs is getting easier and easier.

Of course, I'm still learning how the diet works, so I will slip, unintentionally or, even worse, unknowingly. But, overall, I can't believe just how effective it is and how fast the lbs are coming off: never before have I seen a difference so early in a diet.

So, so far, today has been very OP. And I'm planning on keeping it that way. And I've already had some exercise in: went for a bike ride to pick up some frozen goods this morning and am going for a shorter bike ride this afternoon to pick up the rest of the stuff.

Guess, except for (((Ann))) and ((((Marlene)))), all of us who have posted, so far, are on the SBD. Guess that's either a sign of how powerful their marketing is, how popular the notion of this plan or, hopefully, how sound and effective the plan is (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the later is the right option). One thing I've noticed, thanks to my falling off of Friday night's, is that when we slip it's much easier to slip again: guess that means it's because our slipping has affected our blood chemistry and we're having those cravings again. And, I'm convinced, that part of my problems, yesterday and Friday, came from having the carbs at a time when my body was no longer used to them.

((((Ann)))) I do wish you the best of time on your fishing trip. Hope you come back nice and relaxed... and don't feel too guilty about the pooches. Sounds like they will be well taken care of while you're away. But, don't worry, they still know who their mama is. And yep, worrying is a genetic fault in a woman's make-up.... and.... it might burn calories... providing it doesn't lead to stress eating.

Well, bye for now: I have to fold one more load of laundry, then it's off to finish my errands. I'll try and check in again tonight.

Hi all-

Sorry I've missed a couple days - turns out my run-in with the sausage biscuit wasn't the cause of my IBS flareup after all! I guess I had a virus, as I was nauseated and threw up as well (that never happens with IBS) and it lasted 2 days. The telltale sign was a rash I get on my neck and chest - have no idea what it is, but I get it everytime I have some kind of virus. Friend across the street had the same thing, too - weird!!!!

So, eating was weird for a couple days, but I am following my maintenance eating now. DH and I are walking nearly every night, as well. Think I will maintain with no problem this week or maybe even lose a little.

Hope everyone has a great day and Ann, good luck getting ready for your trips!!!!

Good afternoon ladies! Let me just start with I'm having internet issues of late. Seems it's an issue with the neighborhood and not my stuff specifically, so ... way back on Wednesday, I enjoyed chat while I was there. This weekend went by too fast! DSw came up and we've had fun. But Ann, I too baked cookies on Saturday. What's life if ya can't spoil yer man with some cookies?

We went to outback last night, I ordered the small filet (which is still big) and a baked sweet potato. Good choices, right? Ok, I didn't know they put butter and brown sugar on the potato! OMG that was too sweet for me! I scrapped it all off. ugh. They should have warned me! Our choices have been well over the weekend. Trying to keep everything in check while I can because I've got a lot going on this month.

Melissa: glad to see you've been up to posting! Speedy recovery wishes going your way!

To all: have a BEST evening!

BSQ

Hi BEST s... Don't adjust your screens: it really is me posting twice in the same day

Today turned out to be wonderfully OP and feel great for it. I'm actually quite amazed at how easy it is to stay on program, on the SBD: I only fell off twice and, compared to my previous experience, they weren't even major fall-offs. I just didn't like the way I felt afterwards and want to avoid doing this again.. which is quite a big difference from my previous attitude.

I got in a lot of exercise: I biked to the store this morning, for a 1 hour ride. Then biked to the store this afternoon and, because it's closer, took a looong detour, up and down hills, so that got over 30 minutes of biking in. That feels great and I wonder how I can even survive the winter months without my faithful bike... maybe this means we'll have to move somewhere where I can bike all year round

(((BSQ)))) I can't even imagine the taste of a baked potato with brown sugar on it!!! I really wish they would tell us when a favorite food is mutilated that way!! I always have butter on mine but, around here, most people favor sour creme (I just can't stand that stuff). Kudos on making good choices during your week-end with your sweetheart.