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Phyl, congratulations on the golf cart. How fun is that! Apples, so glad your dental work is done and you are happy with the results. It has been a marathon of dental appointments for you but it was all worth it. They look awesome. Julie, WTG on the weight loss and running. Things have really come together for you. Cheri, my prayers are with you and the family. Laura, hugs hugs hugs.

This new site is not taking me back to the last post read. I just noticed that and realized I have missed several posts.

Joyce, Maintaining through a vacation is awesome! Good job. You mentioned exercising; what kind do you do? Of course any kind is good I am just curious and always on the look out for something new. I think I would like to give meditation a try. The only problem is that I don’t even know where to start. I guess I will check and see if there is any place nearby that gives instruction.

I just finished my baking for tomorrow and just sat down to relax. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoys their family.

Happy Birthday Apples! :party: Welcome back Joyce. Hope you had a good trip. OK, my first post on the new and improved site so I will keep it short and hit the button.

You girls are too much! You crack me up. Congrats LauraK on winning and congrats to bwhitty on banding. I am off to Kohls to check out the sales. WooHoo, I have a free night - DH is hunting and DD is going out with the girlfriend. Free, free, free!!!!

Apples – Glad your troubles are almost over. Good for you! Laura – No need to apologize for spending time with your family and work. Sounds to me like you are thinking about full time??? Janet – Your quiet Thanksgiving Day sounds like heaven to me. There are times I wonder how it would be to have a holiday to myself. I don’t know if I would like it or not but I sure wouldn’t mind trying it out. Julie – I hope your trigger point helps the pain. Let us know how it goes with DSIL. TX – Awesome NSV!! That is the best. Linda – I agree with everyone else. Take care of yourself and your family. Make your visits with your grandmother when they work for you and her. The others aren’t important unless you let them be. Cheri and others who posted about giving up some computer time. I too have cut way back on computer time. It is so easy to get involved in things and the time goes by so quickly. Unfortunately, there is a price to pay for that involvement such as our family time or work. Don’t get me wrong, I still have my computer time and enjoy it but I have trimmed it back. I have totally given up FB games. I still like to read here and keep up with news reports.

Good Morning Girls and TX. I hope everyone is doing well today. I still have the crud and I am home from work again today. I have slept 20 of the last 24 hours and am still tired. Welcome CSOLO and congrats on you upcoming banding.

I have the crud too. Ugggggh. I haven't been able to take a bite all day, just water. Not that I am worried about losing weight mind you, I just have to watch my glucose carefully to be sure I don't bottom out.

You may want to consider having an opthamologist do the follow up exam. Optometrists are not medical doctors, opthamologists are. Under these circumstances it may be best to have it checked out by a specialist. I have diabetes and my primary care doctor will only let me see an opthamologist because, as the doctor told you, hemorrhages or spots are common in diabetics. Because of the spot, your health insurance will most likely cover the opthamologist. Just my two cents worth. Let us know how it turns out. I just got home after spending a nice weekend with DH friends. DH is deer hunting by his friend’s farm and I drove down for the weekend to hang out. We had such a nice time visiting, I wish we lived closer so we could do it more often. It is a 3.5 hour drive each way so we don’t get to visit as often as we would like. DH is coming home in a couple of days as gun season opens at the end of the week here. Apples, we are like you, when gun season starts it is time to duck. Thank goodness DH only does archery season. It is much less popular and he almost always is the only hunter.

Kelly, I agree 100% with Apples on the walking. Walking is a great low impact way to get some exercise in and you don't need a gym membership or any fancy equipment to do it. WTG!

Good Morning Everyone! I haven’t posted in a few days, sorry. I have been very busy lately. I won’t even try to respond to everyone. I guess I need to check in more often to keep up properly. Apples, Congratulations on the Anniversary! I hope your dinner went well. I enjoyed seeing your photos and lovely family. It is such a wonderful thing to have a loving family like you do. I have been very busy at work lately. We just moved into a new building and have spent a lot of my time with move related stuff and getting many, many small things fixed. I fell behind in my regular stuff and have been pushing to get it all caught up. Whew, I am almost there. I had a rather disconcerting confrontation with an employee this week. He got all in my face because I did not schedule him to work overtime today (veteran’s day is a holiday for us) even thought he told me as far back as July that he wanted to work. Ok, he really did not put it to me quite so nicely; actually he got rather ugly about it. I tried to explain three separate times that I do not schedule overtime based on first come first served but rather try to distribute it equally. Since the people on the overtime list for today all had less overtime to date than he did, I had to exclude him. He was very angry and just kept it up. Finally after repeating myself three times I just told him I was sorry he felt that way but I could not help him on this one and walked away. Yikes, why do people act like fools? Maybe he will realize that you just can’t call dibs on a holiday 4 months in advance. If I let that happen I would have people requesting overtime a year in advance. Not happening! I have been exercising a lot lately. Since I reached my goal of running a 5K ( it took me almost a year to accomplish) I needed a new goal. I debated a while whether I should try for a faster pace or longer run. I figured at 53 a faster pace was probably silly and I would never catch up with 20 or 30 year old so I am going with longer. My new goal is to run a 10 K without any walking. Speed is not important; I just want to be able to do it. I talked to my trainer about it and she is going to design our sessions to help me get there. She is such a cutie. She had me outside for the first half hour of our session doing intervals of running a block and then stopping to do an exercise like jumping jacks, squats or lunges. With all of the exercises thrown into the run it took a half hour to cover one mile. We went inside for the last half hour to do weights. Whew, some days she really kicks my butt. I hope everyone enjoys their day. I have lunch plans with a friend today. It should be a good day.

Laura - the pictures are awesome! You must be so proud. [/url]

Jodi, I checked at Trader Joes and what they carry is peanut flour which is not the same. I bought some though to try a pancake recipe I saw online. I will let you know how they turn out. I have decided that I cannot order more of the chocolate PB2 as I like it way to much. It could become a trigger food for me so better not to have it around. The regular PB2 is very good too but I am happy just to have a Peanut Butter sandwich. It doesn’t trigger the sweet tooth in me the way the chocolate PB2 does. Warning, danger, danger, chocolate PB2 is too good. LOL. Congratulations on the job offer. It feels good to get an offer even if it doesn’t work for you. It sounds like you are focused on your family. I wish all parents were. Charlene, Your table is beautiful! Nice job. I don’t think I will do the red and aqua theme either. It doesn’t even sound good. Laura, I am so glad you enjoyed your time off. Sometimes it is such a treat to be by ourselves. It is so good to have Daddy / Son bonding time too. Awesome. It is getting cold here too. It was in the 20s when we started our run yesterday and in the upper 30s when we finished. Go figure, it is supposed to get in the 60s and possibly 70s tomorrow. Winter is coming. Apples, Charlie and I talk all the time. Not sick at all. Our dogs are such a part of our families, aren’t they? Joyce, It is great to hear from you. It sounds like you will be off that plateau at the end of this trip. Enjoy your trip and your family. Attached is a post run picture of my friends and I after the race. That’s me on the far right in the brown coat.

Noooooooooo........I started trying to run last Nov and thought I would pass out after 40 seconds. This has been an awesome year with a lot of firsts and a lot of accomplishments. Hunting - I respect everyone’s opinions about hunting and can honestly say I don't think I can ever shoot the arrow at anything other than Styrofoam but, I have grown to love the taste of venison and hunting is the only way to get some; can't buy it at the store - at least around here. Apples, your gun season is rather early. We still have another month of archery before they open it up to guns. DH usually has 2 for us before gun season so he rarely shoots his gun. On the positive side of hunting - anything over 2 that he gets we donate to the state and they distribute it through the food banks.

Just a quick one to thank everyone for the good wishes and juju. IT WORKED! My goal for the 5K was anything under 45 minutes as my last two runs were at 45.5 minutes. I finished in 44 minutes and 37 seconds (by my watch). The official results will be out later. Yay!! Happy dance

If I ever get to meet everyone you will know Apples and I by our gleeming bright smiles.LOL:w00t:

I would love to meet you!

Julie – I live in Illinois in suburban Chicago. Grant Park is our big park downtown. Good idea to get checked out if you’re not feeling well. I am sure your friend will appreciate dinner with you. Cheri – That would be awesome to meet your family. It is a small world sometimes. It’s going to be cold tomorrow. It will be in the 30s when we start and the 40s when we finish. Glad you are feeling better. Charlene – Having your toes done can be addictive. I think you are hooked. Thanks for the juju. I am ready! LauraK – Enjoy the dates! Eva – I can’t wait to get the braces off. They come off sometime this spring. I wore braces as a kid. Unfortunately my teeth shifted a couple of years ago which resulted in TMJ. My dentist said the only way to fix the TMJ was to realign the teeth. It worked! No more pain, but the realignment continues until they are perfect. This time the orthodontist will cement a permanent retainer on the inside of my teeth.so I don’t have to go through this again. I would not have gotten them for cosmetic reasons as they did not look bad but the pain got to be too much. As a consolation prize to myself, I will have my teeth professionally whitened when I get the braces off. You make retirement sound so inviting. I can’t wait to join you. I hope everyone is having a good day!

Hi everyone. Just checking in after a couple of very busy days. Unfortunately, I haven’t lost any weight but the good news is I haven’t gained any either. I have either worked with my trainer or jogged every day this week. Tomorrow is a rest day because I have the hot chocolate 5K run on Saturday. It benefits Ronald McDonald House. The race is sold out so we are expecting 30,000 to run. It is being held in Grant Park and the after party is, you guessed it, hot chocolate and other assorted chocolate concoctions. It should be fun. Julie, I loved the pictures. Apples, hand in there. It will all be worth it when it’s over. Janet, Glad your visit went well. LauraK, didn’t you recently have a date? How was it. Charlene, you are doing awesome. You seem to handle things well. I am going to rest. After work I ran 1.5 miles and then brushed my teeth to go to the orthodontist. He said we can talk about removing my braces at my next visit. I am so ready to be done with this. Did I mention, I also had braces as a kid and this was my second go around?

We want to see pictures!!!!

Charlene, I hear you on the slow weight loss with medicines. I take medicine for diabetes and it does make it harder to lose weight. On the other hand it is that much more important for me to lose the weight so I will keep on losing at whatever rate my body lets me. TX – So glad to hear it went well. Soon it will be a distant memory and all you will be aware of is how much better you feel. Sandy, how is your Charlie? What did you ever find out about his leg? I never heard or I missed it if you posted it here. Merry continues to amaze us with her running -- the other night she did 4 laps around our yard - and it's a big back yard. I'm so grateful that it all turned out so well. Merry does not tolerate "dressing up" -- she hates all clothes -- so I'm a little jealous to hear of all of you having your doggies in halloween costumes. LOL. Linda, Charlie just finished all of his antibiotics and his toe is completely better. It must have been a bad infection after all – thank goodness. I am so glad to hear that Merry had done so well after her surgery. I am sure you are relieved with the outcome. Charlie won’t tolerate a costume either. He will be my candy distribution helper but no costume. Thanks for asking about him. Apples, Your Halloween pictures are too much. LOL. I just loved them. I almost forgot my calories for today 1378. Not too bad considering I ate dinner out and had one cocktail.

Woo Hoo Phyl!!!WTG with the challenge! And not one, but two hot grandsons! You should be one proud lady.

Is this color ok for reading on a monitor? Phyl, hope you feel better soon! Being sick is really crimping your style (and Zoey's too). TX, How are you feeling today? I was looking up PB2 recipes yesterday. There are so many I just don’t know which one to try first. Does anyone have a favorite? While looking at the recipes Google brought up, I found that Trader Joes carries Peanut Butter flour which, from what I could tell, is equivalent to BP2. Has anyone tried this? Since I bought 4 jars of BP2 I guess I won’t need more any time soon. I have a meeting in Racine this afternoon so I have the morning off. I am planning to take Charlie to the doggy park. It is his favorite places. It is a 4 acre fenced park where dogs can socialize and play off leash. Julie, It has been a very busy and exciting week for you. As you get back into a daily routine I hope your pain lessons. Charlene/Arlene, I have seen both names used. Which do you prefer? How is our pact going this week? So far I have watched my intake and except for my one lazy day (yes, Janet did kick me around over it) I have exercised. I haven’t seen any movement on the scale yet but my week doesn’t end until Monday. I only record my weight once a week to avoid getting upset over fluctuations. How does exercise work for you with FM? Does it make you feel better or is it a struggle? Eva. How is the new job going? Apples, I haven’t been to the doctor yet but I planning on having a TT, breast lift and maybe a small augmentation. I have always been small on top so nothing too big; I would be happy with a B cup. I have never been larger than an A cup even when I weighed 260 pounds. My DH started a separate saving account for my redo. I had mentioned that someday I would like to have it done but it was expensive and I would have to take a loan and make payments. In typical fashion, he grabbed the bull by the horn and has been socking it away. LOL, the thought of a loan must have scared him. They say you should be at goal and I still have 43 pounds to go. Hopefully my weight and money come together this coming summer or maybe early fall. Heck if I am going to take 6 weeks off of work it won’t be in the winter!

I just tried my PB2 - oh my gosh, I think I am in love.