I am envious of the cooking time! But not of the snow...too much running around this week to enjoy that! And while I'm coveting, Krystal, very nice on the food processor. I've been angling for a bigger one but I also asked Santa for the pasta maker attachment to my KitchenAid, and he does not have a limitless budget, you know.

Adding insult to injury, after juggling and rescheduling everything, court got continued. I wish I had a free afternoon, but I'm way behind, so am headed to the jail, then to reports. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Mike, are you going to post our FitDay tree? We have new folks to add!

Glad you got yours up, Jenn.

Pasta attachment for the KitchenAid?? No way!! You have to do it "Old School" and crank it by hand! Then, you've already burned a bunch of calories by the time you eat all of that great pasta! ;) Hubby and I are making homemade cheese ravs for New Year's this weekend... I make him do the work if he wants the product! lol

cookie overload!
 

Thanks Quinn:p It's not enough I have to put up with everyone posting photos of their squares and or cookies but you talk about them too!
Ok my Mom has squares in the freezer but they will stay there until Christmas. Oh yeah my Aunt is giving her some today AND probably going to my uncle's place for dessert some day this week.

Jenn

Thanks, Jenn! Gonna try!! Looking good so far!

It's interesting (and natural) that you tried to shield them but that the kids picked it up. You also mentioned Mystie picking it up; one of my cats did in one case too. It's not always like the movies - sometimes it's a glimpse of something, something (in one case for me, chairs) moved, even a chill air.

Do you feel a positive or negative presence or is it neutral? Are you still comfortable there?

Be strong, Ama! 170 cals for 1; it aint worth it!!!

Ok could we please stop talking about pasta? For some reason, that's getting me (not the cookies surprisingly) and now I have a craving for a huge bowl of whole wheat pasta pesto...

Krystal, thank for your kind words. You're such a wonderful presence here yourself; so glad to have you onboard. Plus you'll be proud: bleary from lack of sleep, I actually cut up veggies, had an egg white omelet for breakfast with some and made a salad to take to class. That attachment would have come in handy...

Love what you said, Cassie: "but Santa doesn't have an unlimited budget" lol... I hear that...neither does Yenta Claus (my Jewish version.)

I'll have to burn calories another way. I have deQuervain's in my wrist, tennis elbow, and shoulder impingement. There is no way I am cranking by hand, unless I want to lose a limb. That is why I have Otto ;).

mmmmm cookies. Today I was bad for lunch, but I'm doing better.

I wish I could. I just got some new software to do that type of stuff but it's on the high end (way too advanced for me) and just starting off is consuming my time. If I can figure it out before then, I will put one together. If not, next year you can count on an awesome one that will be 3D animation.

I feel that it's negative. It gives me a creepy feeling. Tori things that I'm dealing with a poltergeist. I have no clue, it's not invited or welcomed! I am confortable, only because it doesn't happen that often and it doesn't seem to get worse.

Hey guys, I'm here, too... bit late. I've got a busy week trying to finalize a research report about my last 7 months of work.

My goals are the usual... once again, just trying to avoid the crap food.

Joanna! Welcome!!! Good luck with the work (and the crap food.) Both challenges but you're up to it!!!

Mike, bummer about it being negative so it's good it's not that often. It IS creepy tho.

Cassie...Otto?

I named my mixer. I love him :o.

Were you thinking Austrian kitchen boy-toy?

1) Keep calories under 1900/day: Y, Y
2) Walk with dog at least five days: N, Y
3) Work out at least three days: Y, N
4) Stretch: Y, Y
5) Meditate before bed: Y,
6) Stay Positive!: Y, Y
7) Work on Christmas gifts: N, N

Phew! Turning in for the night while watching my traditional and favourite Christmas movie: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation!

Can you blame a girl for trying to live vicariously? lol

Goals:
1) plan meals -yes, yes
2) stick close to plan - ate much less, very close
3) 1600 cal max -840, 1016
4) drink 6 glasses water minimum - 5 or 6 6
5) stretch every day -no yes
6) get back into exercise reasonably- no a bit
7) don't overdo -yes, yes
8) let go of anger - no better
9) meditate -no, no
10) write -yes writing class
11) don't be a self (or any other kind of) hater -no YES
12) don't answer phone or spend too much time online till I get work done - no but this will be one I will try and follow better

I get an I for improvement. Anybody else remember getting that on their report cards?

Wed eating plan:
Bkft:
egg white and chicken sausage
fruit

Lunch
ham or turkey and goat cheese
cucumbers
fruit

Dinner
Roast chicken
broccoli
Potato latkes (It's Chanukah and my girl is coming home!)
sf cookie

Snacks
fruit
nuts

Tuesday:

1. Calories under 1100/day. Yes, Yes
2. Weigh in daily. Yes, Yes
3. No mindless eating. Yes, Yes
4. Take all vitamins and supplements. Yes, Yes
5. Be proud of every, single thing that I eat. Yes, Mostly...
6. Have a happy, grateful attitude. If that means bagging some long-time traditions that the family expects, so be it. Yes, Yes

Haha... I named my GPS Stella, as in STELLLLLLAAA!!!!! (For all of you Seinfeld watchers. lol)

I took Stelllllllaaaaa differently I guess...

As in Stella for star? Star as in Con-Stella-tion? As in a Streetcar named Desire? :)

Hope, your food choices look really good but what is chicken sausage?

That was my first thought.

I'm crashing...will update goals tomorrow but today went okay, aside from being in panic mode with everything I have to do :eek:.

Sugar, the gateway drug.
 

Had to fly yesterday, so I'm now trying to catch up.

Mike: Don't know what to say about the ghost. Too eerie. Maybe some incense and Christmas cheer will keep them at bay for a while. & btw Poptarts may be worse than pb&j.

Cassie: Liked the pic of the flab abs! For Christmas I would like an Otto to do the mixing. Also a Klaus to do the clean up! I did cook home made pasta once this year when I was ambitious. Butternut Squash Ravioli with sugo rosa, all from scratch. Used a rolling pin the way (Jupiter) intended. ;)

Hope: The meal plans are not boring. I often read them and think, 'That looks good, think I'll have some salmon too!' Know what? A good antidote for anger and hate is exercise! Oh, and I'm so stealing that bumper sticker!

Quinn: I'll be thinking of you at the Christmas party tomorrow. Thanks for the insipration.

To everyone else, keep after those goals!

- Donna

LOVE IT!!!!!!! But I admit, I thought Streetcar too.

In the Gumbo Shop in NOLA they have a Stella bellowing contest. Maybe you could win?

BTW I love your goal *6. I think I should adopt that one (it's what I meant by don't overdo. I always do too much and wind up stressed out. Not this year, I hope.)

Mike, instead of being made with pork or beef, chicken sausage is made with chicken; this one (One of the many Bilinski choices) has red peppers and spices, lots of fennel, quite good, lower in fat (3 gr). There are diferent brands: Bilinski's, Al Fresco, etc. Try it!!! Altho you know what they say: sausage and laws: you never want to think about how they're made.

Donna, go head and take the bumper sticker; it's not my original thought anyway lol (tho my daugher did have a shirt that said Sugar, sugar, sugar on it in sparkles when she was little. Talk about a sugar junky...) I am so gald the menus aren't boring and are even of some inspiration. They sure are helping me. I'm the lowest weight I've been in a while. Of course, I haven't been eating that much these past few days and we'll see what happens when the holidays really hit. But at least I'll have a cushion, pardon the pun.

Now I do haveta get on that exercise...

I also like the idea of holiday exorcism of Mike's ghost(s). Maybe wave Poptarts at `em... Lol.

It's good to see people doing pretty well - seems like we've all been struggling for a few months. I know I have.

I had a good day yesterday, calorie-wise. I'm trying to wrap my head around getting back to the gym, but I'm not being very successful. I know my weight loss is much faster when I'm going, but I'm just so unmotivated these days. I mean, I'm trying to walk to/from my car, which like I've said, is a little over a mile, but still... it doesn't help that it's so cold out - just doesn't make me want to do it.

My family's 10 lb. challenge is going well! My dad and sister are both down 5.5 lbs and my mom is down 3.5 lbs. I'm down 1 lb. :( But that's my fault. Looks like I won't be winning, but I'll put $10 in the pot for my family's health any day!

Joanna, 1lb is still good! I lost .5lb which considering I didn't exercise at all last week is pretty good.
Yesterday I thought I didn't exercise but I was up and down the stairs 3 times to get 2 boxes for tree and one bag that has stuff for mantle plus down to basement to drag the tree upstairs. Each set has 12 steps.

Jenn

Haha! All of you are partially right about Stella. The Seinfeld episode is the one where Elaine throws her back out while visiting Jerry's parents and takes a powerful pain killer to attend a party. Jerry hurts his eye and has to attend with dark glasses. The rest is on the link below. I have an extremely frustrating GPS, partially because I live in a fairly mountainous region and her instructions (I call them destructions...) occasionally take me on wild goose chases. So, I use the famous Stella yell to yell at my GPS when I end up on the wrong road.

Seinfeld: Stella...Stella!!! - YouTube

I guess I shouldn't say it's negative. It's not like anything has been thrown at me or anything crazy. It just doesn't give me the warm fuzzies so I assume it's negative because to be honest... when things "go bump in the night" it kinda scares me. :o

Y'all should make it down to the Gumbo Shop, I'll join in! The sausage sounds good, I may have to try to find some. With the ghost, the activity seems to pick up when there is something going on in the house. If there is tension or work going on, like laying tile. How know what triggered it, maybe because I got rid of the old livingroom furniture a few weeks ago and got a new set, maybe it's the tree in the house, who knows?

Joanna, get your ass in gear. Get to the gym TODAY!!!! Don't throw in the towel on the 10 pound challenge. You got this!

Hope – I was strong until about 5pm when I got home and they were still staring at me! You’re right… it was not worth it…

Cassie – Sorry to hear about the panic mode persisting. Hang in there! Otto… HAHAHAHA!!!! I have the pasta attachment for my KA – I have trouble with the dough though. Can’t seem to get it quite right (it all sticks together in the bowl after cutting the pasta), but the attachment works great!

Mike – I have never seen or felt the presence of a ghost… but when living in Louisiana I went ghost hunting with a couple of girlfriends once... one claimed to be a witch and the other a psychic :eek:. Those were some crazy days…

Krystal – Nice job on your goals this week! I am having trouble with the Christmas gifts too… good luck! We had a real life National Lampoon disaster of a Christmas a few years ago. Our Christmas goal since then has been to “limit family interactions” outside of immediate family of course.

Joanna – Glad you’re here! What is it about crap food that makes it always easily accessible… I am in the same boat trying to avoid it!

Donna – Yes - it is a gateway drug! Glad you have the opportunity to slow down a bit and catch up!

Quinn – I’ll definitely check out that episode! Thought I have seen them all but your description does not ring a bell. My car has a GPS and there is a woman’s voice that gives directions over the speaker system… I should give her a name. But I’d rather see if I can change it to someone else, like sexy Italian man voice. I may use the GPS a lot more often then!

Jenn – House chores definitely count as exercise! Congrats on the -.5 lb!

I did sort-a bad yesterday. At lunch I went Christmas shopping at Barns & Noble and Panda Express just happened to be right across the street. My favorite is the Panda bowl with chow-mien and orange chicken, but the calories are sky high so I compromised and got steamed rice, Mandarin chicken and a cup of water. It was awful. Then I spilled the sauce covered rice down the front of my work clothes. Serves me right for eating forbidden foods – and while in my car (parked of course)! Then before dinner I had the cookie – the gooey butter filled calorie laden peanut-butter cookie. And a beer. But DH wanted to go out for dinner last night and I talked him out of it (slight redemption?). We had black bean soup and sandwiches instead.

I have not made it to the gym this week. This blasted head-cold has me worn down and I can’t seem to find the motivation to get the exercise in. I know... excuses, excuses! I have my gym bag in the car and will try hard to get there after work tonight. I plan to get DS to the indoor pool Friday morning at the Gym. DH and I are teaching him to swim, and I need to consistently work in those Friday mornings for both of us to get some good exercise in the pool. Gee I’m chatty today! Better get back to it!

Hope everyone has had a great day! Ama

Hi all,

I am going to just jump in. I need the support. My goal is to do two things that will motivate me.

Let me guess - Get up and walk away from the computer? ;)

- Donna

Hey Tammyjane, welcome!!!

Ugh, I just ate TOO MUCH. Ama, talk about it was there (and then gulp! it wasn't) and it was SO NOT WORTH IT. DD came home so I made potato pancakes which I THOUGHT I could resist. Nope. Overcooked the chicken but ate too much of that too. Put out carrots and guacamole and ate too much of that too. But I promise you this: I am NOT going near the donuts. I PROMISE.

Uggh. I hate how this feels. Overstuffed, especially since I've been eating so little lately. Heavy sigh. There goes 131...it was nice while it lasted...

Mike, I love NOLA!!! Love that place.

I have had experience with ghosts but isolated incidents, family members saying goodbye and a few times feeling stuff in other places (sometimes intense like been pushed on the stairs.) Have a couple of good hair rasing or touching stories. But never anything on a longer term basis. It's interesting to hear there may be triggers but it makes sense.

Ama, don't beat yourself up. We all have lapses. And feeling crappy often triggers em. Feel better, honey. Nice to hear you "talking."

Joanna I love the "10 pound challenge." When is it over?

Hey Tammyjane - feel free to post what motivates you, and maybe we can help you accomplish your goals!

That's a crazy story, Hope! I'm a skeptic when it comes to ghosts, but I'm still very interested in the phenomena. I've never had any ghost experiences, but that probably has something to do with anything that I might have chalked up to ghosts I blame on something else, simply 'cause I don't believe in them. Who knows, maybe I'm missing out!

Another good day food-wise. Spent the entire day in the kitchen again working on Christmas goodies, but limited my taste testing to two "rejects". lol

Wednesday:

1. Calories under 1100/day. Yes, Yes, Yes
2. Weigh in daily. Yes, Yes, Yes
3. No mindless eating. Yes, Yes, Not bad...
4. Take all vitamins and supplements. Yes, Yes, What I could. (ran out of calcium)
5. Be proud of every, single thing that I eat. Yes, Mostly..., Except for a little cookie dough.
6. Have a happy, grateful attitude. If that means bagging some long-time traditions that the family expects, so be it. Yes, Yes, Yes

1. RELAX. Yes, I'm putting this as a goal. If I actually see it in writing maybe I will do it. Mon, Tues-YES Wed so/so
2. Try to keep carbs/protein in check. Mon 130/50Tues no
3. Drink the water! I think I only had about 1 day all last week that I actually met it. Yep, Yep and Yep :D
4. Exercise at least 3 days for 30 mins 20 mins today, housework tues
5. Put up tree. This is rolled over from last week because Sat went out with friend and Sun church.

I decorated mantle today--our house looks so festive! Now if only some little elves could come and clean (and fold my laundry) that would be great!!

Jenn

1. Check in daily. Yes, Yes
2. Log everything. Yes, Yes
3. Exercise when I can. That has not happened.
4. Get on the scale by the end of the week. Yes
5. Make smart, clean food choices (aka spend calories wisely). Yes, Yes, Yes

M-W
 

Thought I'd better report in on goals.
I'm doing a lot better than I thought I would so far, but there's a cocktail party tonight that may be off the charts.

• Exercise > 30 mins: 45, 0, 45
  • Plus a couple hours of heavy hauling Monday, and dragging an overpacked carry-on through the airport on Tues ...
• Cholesterol < 250 : 113, 164, 237
  • Woohoo, I can't believe it's so low. Even on Wed when I ate 3 shrimp, beef, salmon, and ... pie.

While I'm on a roll, I guess I post the rest of the usual:

• Calories: 1255, 1872, 1808
  • Not too bad
• Protein g: 53, 39, 92
  • Not too bad
• Fat % : 32, 48, 37
  • Knew I could find some bad news in there somewhere!

Being especially nice to my Mom: So far, so good!
(Can't say that about anybody else, though!)

- Donna

Phantom Cholesterol?
 

Just checked the 'label' values on that pie. Just as I suspected - no cholesterol. But the crust didn't taste that way to me, so maybe the cholesterol were actually a bit higher.

- Donna

Yesterday was pretty good. My calories the last two days have been really low - probably too low, so I'm going to aim for a bit higher today. The reason I've been keeping them low is kind of to have a mental diet, you know? To prove to myself I can do it and not like, die or something. Truthfully, I've felt totally normal and well-functioning.

Mike - I didn't go to gym yesterday :( I was stuck at the office 'til 6:30 and then had to work some more in the evening - it's this research I'm trying to write up. I did walk from my office to my car, even though it was freezing!

Donna - that's great that you're sticking to your goals this week!

Anyone seen Mern?

Okay, all of that ghost stuff is rather creepy, I have to say. I don't believe in ghosts one bit, but I do know strange phenomena does happen. Mike, with your girls and everything? That's so crazy! And Hope, with the vision and dream? I would have booked it out of there too!

Big welcome to Tammyjane! I'm new on this forum too, but it really is helpful to have such positive energy from everyone on here. Just that in itself is a big motivator for me! :) What about you? What are your goals and motivations?

Well, so far so good this week. Last night I crashed early. I was ready to work out on the elliptical but my body was just so run down, I figured a night of sleep would be best for it. No matter what, we always need to listen to what our bodies are telling us! I'm glad I slept because I have a slight cold this morning. More sleep, lots of tea, and I'll make sure I stay healthy! Visiting a friend in NH this weekend and I don't want to be sick for that!

Alright, here are my goal updates:

1) Keep calories under 1900/day: Y, Y, N
2) Walk with dog at least five days: N, Y, N
3) Work out at least three days: Y, N, N
4) Stretch: Y, Y, Y
5) Meditate before bed: Y, Y, Y
6) Stay Positive!: Y, Y, Y
7) Work on Christmas gifts: N, N, N

Here's to finishing off this week strong! :p

Missing out? Hmmm, I don't know. I believe in them because stuff has ahppenedd. Then again, I've always believed so maybe that's why stuff has happened lol. I jsut know that a friend once told me that when she was young she ran and told her mother that her dead grandmother was in her room (not literally but as a "visit.") Her mother calmly said, "Well go in and talk to her. She wouldn't harm you in life. She won't harm you now."

OK, no more ghost stories!!! I deleted the intense one.

Just checking in. Another crazy week for me. Too many things to do and not enough time. But I've been good with my eating (even with 2 potlucks at work). I managed to lose another 1.2 pounds and am now at 216.2!!!. I realized I have not been this weight since my oldest son was born and he turned 30 this year. :eek: Seems like everyones attitudes are more positive this week and the group seems to be avoiding most of the temptations that are everywhere this time of year (or at least feeling badly after they give in, lol).

Keep your goals in mind as you are tempted by all those holiday goodies. My favorite saying currently is "indulge in moderation".