Great2BThin

So made just lost a whole long post GRRRRRR I remember 'tule' fog well from living in Sacramento, I had to be to work at 4am and hated driving on I-5 to the airport in it. One gal that worked at the airport was killed in it one morning. So sad. Ok, gals, looking for opinions about a baby shower. My friend is throwing DD a baby shower on the 29th and she's holding it at the rec center where she works (and I used to ) she can rent the room for free. It's the only date available til end of Feb. We chose this date due to the fact DD has been having the contractions and after the first of Feb the dr will take her off the RX that is controlling the contractions and off bed rest, and allow her to go into labor if that so happens. DD would like the shower before the baby comes. PROBLEM: DD's MIL informed her last night that she has to work that day (she's a nurse) and demands the shower be rescheduled. And also that it shouldn't be at the rec center. She just doesn't like the place. She's not offering any alternatives either and thinks the shower should be after the baby. First, this is my friend that is having the shower, not me and I think it's a wonderful thing of her to do (she also threw a bridal shower for her at the same place). She is inviting family but it wasn't necessarily a family shower. It's all our family and friends on our side of the family. She's free to throw another shower. Is it wrong to still have the shower when both grandmas can't be there? She is saying if DD doesn't change it that she will forever hold it against her (and me). This is the same woman that didn't want her son to marry my daughter, told my daughter she needed mental help, wasn't good enough, etc. She was horrible during the wedding preps, did nothing to help, and at the bridal shower, said she wasn't interested and came 45 min late and sat and cried the whole time. I feel if we change the date, it's caving to her demands and setting a precedent, DD has given in to her so many times in teh past and it's never enough anyway. What would you do? DD is beside herself, said that something that was supposed to be so joyous and fun has now become ugly and she feels stuck.

Oh what I wouldn't give for a 61 degree day to go walking in. I am just asking for a day over 32 degrees. Ain't gonna happen today, it got to about 22 is all, but it's sunny!!!!! Kelly, congrats on the 50 lbs! Glad you checked in, we've been wondering how you are. Wonder how far Apples made it today? Phyl, you and Earl sound like lots of fun in the kitchen. LOL My bet is you'll make it to 50! I really miss Trader Joes, had never heard of them til we lived in northern CA and we had them in Delaware but none since then. I think it's due to the liquor laws in Colorado and Utah, so much of TJ's business is their wine and liquor sales. They still have 2 buck chuck? I figured it would be at least 3 buck chuck by now.

Oh no, I think Janet just called me a pig! LOL I love costco samples. LOL Don't get them often but love to try the new things. DH and I always cruise through when there to check them all out, I only partake if it's something I am interested in though. But have been known to get one anyway to give to DH LOL We have sunshine today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it's even melting a little of the snow. They say we may even get above freezing tomorrow I think it is. We've not been above freezing since Dec 29th they said. I don't care so much about that, but we have sun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gotta watch my Packers play this afternoon. They have to win so maybe they can play PHyl's Seahawks next and Phyl and I can cheer our teams on and have a little rivalry. LOL Phyl, I love Angry Birds. i completed all levels on my ITouch but have it now on my Droid Phone and this time I am not advancing levels until I get all 3 stars, much harder that way! I also downloaded the holiday version. TX, congrats on the NSV!!! It's amazing how many things we notice getting easier. Linda, so sorry about your struggles with you DSD I pray she gets the help she needs for real this time. It's one thing when we do things to mess up our own lives but when it affects others especially children so hard to take. Arlene, how was your DH able to eat the muffin? I thought with bypass they dumped on things like that? Does he not have problems with the dumping? Congrats to him on losing 100 lbs!!

Good evening. Just got home from some friends for dinner (one of the couples I had here had us over tonight). We had steak and OMG was it ever good. But she cooked way too big of one for me and I felt bad leaving so much of it on my plate. Oh well. It was a wonderful evening. DH is busy cooking up a storm in the kitchen, but it's all stuff with his 'critters'. He decided to cook up a bunch of stuff with his deer meat, his pheasants etc. he makes things like stroganoff, chili and stew and then but it in food Saver bags in the freezer in portion size servings. This is actually going to help me a lot as then I just worry about my meal and he gets out a bag of whatever for dinner as I won't eat his critters. LOL (I don't cook it, clean it or anything with it I just tolerate it LOL). He's got about 4 crockpots going now. And I just super cleaned my kitchen when I reorganized my pantry. Arlene, I think Janet has some good advice there about just following a healthy eating plan, this dieting and falling off the wagon has been hard on you. Remember we didn't get banded to follow a 'diet' but to eat a healthy diet in smaller quanities. I'm trying to vary my days, some much lower in calories than others. I am basically watching calories and Protein. Janet, I have been having a slice or two of deli meat each day when I get the munchies. It's higher quality but will look at the label to check out the sodium in it. Heck, I know I am eating a lot better than I was and the body will have to follow eventually am sure it will lose it much slower the 2nd time. But I'm okay with that, I've stopped the train wreck I was on. Karen, glad you made such good progress today on your drive and are safely out of the blizzard. Sounds like bad weather coming all over the country tomorrow by all the pages and alerts DH is getting from his company and flights cancelling, places like Atlanta, Memphis, Denver, etc. So far our storm has missed us. Safe travels tomorrow. I am waiting for a Calcium pill to go down or maybe back up. I usually take the Citracal petites and have no trouble swallowing those. I opened a new bottle tonight and thought the pill was bigger, and yep didn't get the petites, I thought well I will try it anyway. Won't do that again. now I gotta chop them all in half. UGH! Why didn't I notice that? Probably was in a hurry.

Good morning. Had a text from Karen this morning and they are on their way. They had the first 60 miles of unplowed roads but said it was smmooth sailing now. Glad to hear I wasn't alone (misery loves company LOL) in not getting to the boards last night. I figured it was a site problem but like someone else mentioned the error message said something about it being a problem with my server or something. Remember that 5 lbs I supposedly lost? Well I weighed today and guess it was a fluke on the scale as it's back today. So far zero, zip, nada. GRRR it came back on so easy. But if I keep doing what I know to do, the scale will have to cooperate. Arlene & Phyl, best wishes for recoveries for your mothers.

I couldn't get on here earlier, but now I can but am on my laptop, did anyone else have trouble or is it a computer issue for me? Will go try again on desktop. DH and I went back to costco tonight to get one more "Cansolidator" and they had a larger size tonight so we got 3 of those and I am taking my 2 smaller ones back. We got it all rearranged again. Helped to have him helping me. He's making some little shelves for me too. Also went to Ikea to get a cheap rug, he's worried all my working out is going to wear on the carpet. LOL I was crying when I read Linda's post. I think we were raised by the same mother. I am so like you Linda. A perfectionist, don't get over things easily, always felt not good enough. Trouble is I still hear it from my family or am super sensitive to it from them so take everything that way. I make great strides then something will come along and shake my new found confidence but I am getting over it quicker. I apologize all the time, because I just know whatever wasn't good enough, etc. Our chat over Breakfast in Vegas was really ground breaking for me and I've done so much better since then. Janet, Tonga is another Polynesian Island near Samoa. We have a lot of Tongan and Samoan people in Utah. Wonderful people. Any special plans for your birthday?? Did you get your cleaning done? I finally got off the computer long enough to do some. Linda, sorry to hear about DSD, you were right all along, not something you wanted to be right about, but let's hope she can get the help she needs. If she were to lose Aylah would you take custody? As for Bob and Jillian, just Jillian is leaving, Bob has said he was not leaving and couldn't imagine ever leaving the show, think I read that on Facebook or something.

Janet, I am in good company then. I worked out 4 days Mon, Tues., Thurs, and today and my muscles hurt too! Today is a little better. Maybe it's time they just stopped hurting, maybe it's the extra Water, who know's but I'll take it! Oh and I have done my Vitamins every day this week too. LOL I am supposed to be cleaning the house but instead here I am. LOL Apples, must've left, hope they get out of that blizzard ok.

Workout done!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Joyce, good job on going to the gym 3 times this week. Jodi, a website my daughter got lots of ideas for her wedding was www.etsy.com, I've heard it has lots of neat stuff haven't checked it out much myself. I was so blessed that she was an event planner at the time as I was so lost at what to do. DH & I gave her a budget and she went with it. Since she was actively event planning at the time she got so many good deals, the florist did a superb job and just charged cost of the flowers, etc. cause she gave him so much business. Funny on your comment about the date being nerdy. My daughter laughs now because I used to tell her in school always be nice to the geeks/nerds, you might marry one some day. And she did! LOL Well I've cooled down, time to hope in the shower and get on with my day. We had a one day reprieve from this inversion yesterday and actually saw blue sky and proof that the mountains really do exist, but it's back today with 'freezing fog'. They say it will blow out tonight with an approaching storm. Why does it have to take another storm to get rid of it? I don't mind the cold or even the snow it's this darn inversion that gets me. I need sunshine.

Good morning. I am on the computer before my workout. Shhh, don't tell Janet. LOL Not really, it's a little rule I imposed on myself. I've been getting up and doing that first thing to get it out of the way. Did I mention I HATE exercise? Anyway I've been getting dizzy, thought maybe it had to do with not eating something first. So now I am eating something first and checking in here. Next stop exercise, I am dressed for it and everything, no going back to bed. Safe travels, Apples, hope you get everything fixed there in a timely matter and can hit the road soon. Bad but suppose that it was good timing on the Water pipe. LIke you said would hate for that to happen while you were gone. Linda, yes I am going to Denver for the day on Tues. to spend with Grandma. In the morning back at night. I did watch Biggest Loser. Interesting about the new trainers. Did you hear Jillian is leaving? She did that once before. my personal opinion is she gets a little full of herself so maybe change will be good. She's got so much stuff out there now on the market that she's attached her name to including diet pills of some sort. She said she's leaving to pursue motherhood but I bet she also appears on her own show some where. I think the team with the Olympic wrestler will do well or the Samoan team, he lost 41 lbs in the first week, not bad for a 61 yr old! Also am rooting for the twins just because they are in their 50's.

Janet, I actually do get quite a bit at costco even for just the 2 of us. I get all my paper products there, most of my cleaning stuff, dog food, Water softner salt, ground beef, chicken, seafood when they have it where you can buy smaller quanities, milk (DH drinks a lot of it), and some canned goods since they keep a long time and I like being able to have stuff on hand. Then of course all the extras I seem to find. LOL Like today the canned goods organizers. Meredith, DD never heard back on her test result and they told her no news was good news so am going with that. I hate that as I always think the test is sitting on a desk somewhere forgotten, I like to get the results either way, but what can I say? They are making her be a couch potato and take her RX for contractions until her 35th week (she'll be 31 on Sat) and then they'll take her off and let her go if she goes into labor. My friend in Denver just scheduled a baby shower for Jan 29th so hopefully she makes it. 837 calories today and 41 gms of Protein. a little low on the protein

Arlene, I got the can organizer things at costco. I think it was a 'special event' not sure if they carry them all the time. Then I got some plastic bin type things at Ikea to put in all my little things that either don't stack well or stand well in the pantry and tried to sort them. Like I have one for baking that has nuts, chips, that kind of stuff in it. I'll probably be so organized I won't be able to find anything, I'm so used to my unorganization. LOL Never heard of the finger problem, weird, hope you don't need surgery

Arlene, sorry to hear about your mom. Hope she's better soon. Good job staying on the wagon in midst of the stress!!! Apples, if I don't get on later, and if I do and forget, SAFE TRAVELS tomorrow!! I think you should talk DH into taking a LBT gal route to AZ and stop by let's see, KS for Joyce, IL for Cheri and Sandy, IA for LInda, UT for me, TX for Arlene, etc. LOL the scenic route! LOL WHew, I got another session of exercise in today if you count reogranizing my pantry. I got these neat organizer things for cans that organizes them and rotates them, you put newer ones in the top and use them from the bottom. Anyway I emptied the whole thing, wiped down shelves (found bugs in my oatmeal GROSS it'll be awhile before I ever eat oatmeal again) and then restocked it. We also have shelves in the basement we keep extra pantry stuff in (buy in bulk when on sale etc) so I was up and down the stairs getting older stuff to put in and taking new stuff down. My quads were sore already and now all those stairs they are a burnin!!

Good afternoon. Just got home from costco, eye dr and pedicure. First eye dr, not good. The spot is still there, he now doesn't think it's a dot hemragge, but instead a micro anueryism (my medical term spelling is not good) it hasn't changed so good news, it didn't get worse, bad news it's still there. I need to get it rechecked in 6 mos and watch for any warning signs of floaters, flashes of light or worsening vision. It has me a little freaked out but am praying it's just gone next time. Maybe I will go to specialist next time to be sure. Linda, yes I know you were joking about my travel. But then I thought I hope I didn't come across as braggy. Jodi, have fun on your date tonight. Wow those bat mitzvahs are sure expensive. Reminds me of the 'quincineros' parties the Mexican culture around here (more in Denver) have for their daughters 15th birthdays, huge affairs, formals, etc. When DD was an event planner she said they costed as much or more than a wedding. Joyce, nice to see you posting again. Hope your knee is better soon. LauraK, well I think you are special too! Any more dates with Mr Filet Mignon??

Oh my aching quads and hamstrings. Just got done with my workout on the EA Sports Active and since I got a new XBox and had to reconnect and reconfigure everything it doesn't remember my first 2 workouts so it started me back out at day 1. Day 1 was all those squats that got me so sore in the first place. But I did them. Had trouble with a few and the trainer gal on the TV kept telling me I could go lower and I yelled at her LOL We'll see if I can walk later. I am drinking lots of Water as I heard that that helps flush all the lactic acid out of your muscles and that is what's making them sore. Worth a shot and water is a good for me anyway. Today I have an eye appt I am a little nervous for. When I had my eyes checked in Nov they saw some dot hemoragges (sp) and wanted me to come back for recheck. He said they were signs of diabetes, blood pressure and all that, but all that was just checked and good. He said he thought they'd be reabsorbed when I came back so I hope so. Then it's off to costco since it's close. I went the other day with my coupons but the coupons weren't good til today. Jewel, not sure what a BCBS scholarship is, but any scholarship has got to be good. Congrats to you! How much more schooling do you have? Apples, does your route take you through Denver? There's a Cracker Barrell at the 120th Ave exit and I-25 which is about 20 miles north of downtown, it's right on the exit so it would be easy on and easy off if you'll be on I-25, not sure you might be on I-76. Still got all 12 pairs of shoes packed? LOL I can't imagine having 12 pairs of shoes that fit. LOL I have such big wide feet it's hard to find shoes but have discovered DSW shoes and they carry 11's so I have become a little bit more of a shoe fanatic but still not much real stylish I get Born and Merrills a lot as they fit my ugly feet well and are so comfy. Arlene, how's that train today? I am making some Texas refried bean chili in the crockpot for dinner tonight. Starting to smell good already.

Wow Apples, I can't believe your 'friend', how insensitive, but how classy how you handled it. 600 calories in chicken fingers and fries? I want to go on her diet! LOL Now I don't mean to gloat about my travel and hesitate to post about it sometimes but it is what I love to do. and it's free. LOL I denied myself travel for so long when I was fat as I was too embarrassed afraid of needing the seat belt extender (did several times) and when I travel stand by we get the last seats and 9 times out of 10 they are center seats. I just hated seeing the looks on peoples faces when they realized I was going to sit between them. So now I got some time to make up for. LOL Arlene, I tease you about the 'excuses' because I am the queen of making them. LOL I am dreading my workout in the morning (but I will do it) due to my muscles hurting so bad. I hope there's no squats in the program tomorrow. LOL Good job on staying on the train today. I did a 'Janet' at the grocery store today. I got some ingredients for chili and you know me and my Fritos and I love them with my chili. And.... they have chip displays all over the store for the football promotions etc. Anyway, I told the Fritos off and to leave me alone and they did not come home with me. Oh and, Arlene, the chili I am making is from the Texas cookbook you gave me, DH really liked it it is 'refried bean chili' I leave out the Water as it got too soupy when I made it in the crockpot.

Arlene, yeah if someone has got to do it (go to Hawaii I am glad it's me LOL). Now if only DH would get the dates and hotel pinned down, it keeps changing. I started laughing when you said you didn't go to the gym because of your dog (sorry), it reminded me of the 'my dog ate my homework' excuse. Glad you went walking still though. Linda, I concur with the others, you look great where you are. But you know what is comfortable for you and what you can maintain. Are you looking at any plastic surgery? You'd probably be below goal then.

Linda, well your screaming only posted once. LOL Great news for me.... couldn't resist the scale this morning and 5 lbs of bloat is gone already! WOOHOO! That is what I gained over the holidays, I was shocked. I think my quads and hamstrings hurt more today than yesterday if that is possible. I thought I stretched and everything, but oh well it is what it is. I even took some tylenol for it and I hate taking anything. Still cold out but the sun came back today. Yesterday we had that inversion crap so bad you couldn't even tell there were mountains out there. They have a red alert out for the air quality. ONly thing that seems to blow it out is an approaching storm which they say is coming this weekend. I am making some travel plans so far I got: Denver on Tues for the day to see Grandma Hawaii on Sunday the 16th Then on the 21st some friends from Denver come for the weekend. Then Denver again on the weekend of the 29th for DD's baby shower, hopefully she makes it. Tuscon????? DH promises some dates soon. Now I gotta call the dog kennel place. Poor babies. It's what I hate most about travelling.

Where is everyone today? Or am I going to find out when I go to try and post that the board is down? I am still very sore today from my workout. DH and I did take the Kinect back last night and exchanged it for a new one that comes in a bundle with a new XBox console unit. DH hooked it to the TV last night and I am working on getting it set up today. The workout program I am following on there says today is a day of rest. So we'll see. I am pretty sore so I might just make it that. Not much else planned for today, DH is in Phoenix til this evening. DS told me to take the old XBox to Game Stop and they might give me a few bucks for it so might check into that. And I need a pedicure. Not sure why I get them in the winter when I never wear sandals but they feel so good, it's my indulgence. Plus I get ingrown toenails a lot and sicne getting pedicures I get very few. Arlene, going to go to a WW meeting today?? Bugwitch, good luck on your banding. I've not been banded 5 yrs and don't think anyone on this thread has been banded that long. But several very successful ones.

Good evening, I am watching Biggest Loser now. They sure aren't showing much of the new trainers but sound like they are doing great iwth the huge losses some on their team have bad. The Olympic wrestler that's on there is big news on the local news here since he is from Utah area. Guess there's another couple from here as well, not sure which one. Arlene, WW has weigh ins more than one day a week. Why don't you go to one tomorrow? Face the scale and be accountable?? It might make it easier to go next week and not put it off again. I ended the day today at 1100 calories and 99 grams of Protein. A little higher than yesterday but still good. Meredith, good job on the protein today. Good luck on your math test tomorrow.

Apples, I didn't think the route would probably take you through here but I was hopeful. LOL It will be so nice in a week or two not to have to drive on that ice, huh? Our main roads are good now but side roads are still yucky as are parking lots. Linda, we saw True Grit over New Year's, we really enjoyed the movie. Bridges (can't remember first name) did an amazing job as did the 14 yr old girl.

Good afternoon, goodness it's 3pm and this is the first I sat down at the computer. I expected to be much more behind on posts though. LOL After DH left for work this morning, I crawled under the blankets and fell back to sleep. It was 845 when I woke up. I haven't slept that late in ages. Then I HAD to do my exercise, Janet! LOL So got dressed for that right away. I am sooooo frustrated though. Today my XBox Kinect acted up. We think it's the Xbox console as it's an old one my DS had, so tonight we are going to try it again and if still not working, DH said we could go buy a new one. I still did the workout though. I did the exercises the program had for me, it just wasn't registering my progress or reps so I'd do them then hit SKIP this exercise. So the trainer on the Kinect thinks I didn't work out and said I should try harder. I wanted to scream at her. LOL I did so many squats that, well, um, sitting down on the bathroom throne is very painful in my thighs. LOL My quads and hamstrings are killing me. Also, for those that have Android phones, I know PHyl does, I found a great app by SparkPeople to track food and exercise. So am donig that. Yesterday I was surprised I only had 800 calories and 89 grams of Protein. I will vary the calories but I thought that was an excellent 'first day back'. So far today 700 calories and 74 grams protein. Julie, congrats on Mimi having a daddy! Miss seeing ya around. Cheri, miss you too, everything okay? Jewel, I've never cruised Disney but they do seem much pricier the few times I checked. I still think you'd have a lot of spring breakers regardless of the line. Carnival has excellent children's programs and so does Royal Caribbean as far as it looked. Apples, it's so cold here as well but not that cold. Luckily SLC doesn't seem to get the subzero coldness that Denver got. We still haven't hit freezing though in over a week. What route are you taking to AZ? going through UT at all? Arlene, we are going to have to tie you up to that wagon and lock you in! Get right back on, don't use it as an opportunity to say, well I already fell off I might as well have....... I know that's what I do. Meredith, did you get some more protein? Good luck on that math test! Eva we used to have a hummingbird feeder, I love to watch them. I would never have pictured there being many in AZ, are they there yearround or just for the winter? Phyl, hope your mom is better Linda, hope you get that right balance of busy vs slow at work.

Janet, I am drinking so much Water I had to excuse myself twice when I met my friend today to use the facilities, I heard that too so have been drinking up. LOL My daughter wants the Zumba for Kinect to lose weight after the baby. Though having only gained 15 she isn't going to have much to lose. She went to the dr today and is still having contractions and on bedrest for 5 weeks. They ran some swab test again I think it was a FFN test ??? it's supposed to tell them how likely she is to deliver within 2 weeks. We hope for a negative on it.

Melissa, I never heard of a reimbursement plan. But sounds like it wouldn't work for you. We have a HSA which is sortta reimbursement I guess. It is a very high deductible plan which you have money withdrawn from your check pretax to go into a Health Savings Account to cover that deductible but once it's met the coverage is 100%, this is our 2nd year on it, so far it's worked well for us. Bummer about your husbands company not adding you on due to the diabetes. I thought a group policy didn't exclude you for preexiting conditions. Hopefully sam's club plan won't. You seem to like this job so hope you can go full time soon to get those beneies. Jewel forgot to comment I like the hair. I think of you as blonde as well.

Good evening. Well Day one is about to draw to a close and it went well, though I have the munchies bad and feel hungry tonight. But theres nothing to go grab as far as unhealthy stuff. I did have a package of sliced beef I bought at Costco for camping this summer in the freezer, I defrosted it so if I get the munchies I can grab a slice of it. Not Fritos LOL but it'll do. I have strictly had protein today with some sauteed mushrooms with my pork tonight but they only had 3 gms of carbs. So on to Day 2.

Just got home at 4pm from my 1130 meet with my friend at McD's. We sat and gabbed for hours. It felt good. They probably are wondering what the heck. It's one of those nice McD's that is sortta done like a Starbucks inside. Janet, yep it was that Janet that sits on my shoulder and keeps bugging me about exercise. LOL Arlene, I started back up on my Vitamins today too. I put them in the weekly thing. I was doing that all the time and then just started taking them when I remembered from the bottle. I do better when I have them all sortted out a week or two at a time. Meredith, Right! no looking back! Only looking back allowed is learning from mistakes, we did so now it's onward! Tina sorry your appt was cancelled, maybe the dr had an emergency or a surgery that took too long. Melissa, I concur with the others, you need to take care of your health. You have some serious health issues. I thought you switched to this job because of the insurance? Didn't your last job have insurance at that small company?