Discussion Board

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday!

And I totally agree with you about the things you miss! I LOL'd at the nursing babies one too. I miss that, but sure is not gonna be happening again so might as well just forget about it!

Right now I'm missing the smell and taste of freshly roasted crispy skinned potatoes.

AND many more happy, healthy birthdays to you FrozenVeg. You are such an inspiration to me. I hope your birthday celebrations are marvelous. That spa treatment sounds like just the thing.

HI frozenVeg

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Have a great vacation.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROZENVEG!!!

Have a great vacation!! Hope you dont come back as a limp frozenveg!!

Awww--Christine, Rosey, Mrs. Doodlepunk, Starchbeet, Kittyadventure, Debbie, veggielou and Jan--you guys, thank you so much! I can't tell you how much it means to me that you wished me happy birthday (not a soul at work did, even though I TOLD the Communications Director--not even my own two staff).

And you also mean a lot to me--many of us have been here a while, some even longer than I, and as sappy as it sounds, I really think we do support one another and help one another on this forum. I've been an active participant for over a year and a half, and I know it's helped me a lot, and I hope I've helped some people, too.

Debbie, you have been very special to me all through this, and thank you again for your best wishes. IKWYM about stepping back from the "what do you miss" thread. I really felt swayed, and who needs that?

I'm busy nuking my potatoes and trying to decide if I should bother packing an ice pack in my suitcase and put some veggies in there, or if I should take it all in my carry-bag instead. That will be a tomorrow morning decision.

Time to print my boarding passes. Talk to you all when I get back!

Debbie wrote: "And, wow, thank you for Im special to you through all this. I dont feel all that special But thank you. And yes, no one needs to be swayed away. Wish this path had high boards so we wouldnt fall off the path so often, sheesh."



I am prejudice of course, but you are very special, Debbie. I love your honesty. You never lie & say, oh, I am on plan when you are not, you just own up to it. Whoops, guess what I ate? Just no excuses, even when you had that thyroid thing, you kept saying I dont want to blame it on that, until finally you had to blame it. You would have to be a really stupid person not to realize that you did have a very serious problem. Now you can get on with the process of losing weight. Still a challenge but not like before.

BTW, I agree with you guys about that thread. I had to stop reading, too. And I hate the pictures as well. One of the reasons I stopped reading some Journals was because I would read about what someone ate & then that was all I could think about all day, that food. Someday I hope I will not have to struggle with that but for now at least I am winning the war.

A belated Happy Birthday! Hope your trip is loads of fun!!

Well, I'm back! I've actually been back a while but have been so swamped I never even got time to journal! Thanks again to all who wished me a happy birthday! I/we had a great trip to San Diego, a whirlwind 4 days! We met our new SIL (DH's brother's wife), I got a body scrub (a first!) and a mani-pedi at the resort spa (she manages the restaurant there). I visited my brother & his wife -- I had no idea we were invited for dinner, but it worked out fine. They had flank steak, salad, potatoes, and asparagus, and so I got away with just a little oil on the potatoes and salad--and maybe too much of the lovely berry tart for dessert.

Then Saturday was the big cookout at DH's brothers' house. I had plenty of nuked potatoes and corn on the cob, cherry tomatoes and carrots--almost like home! At every turn, of course, people were blown away by my weight loss--I hadn't told anyone about it, so my bro & his wife especially were floored! All my in-laws were just thrilled, and proud of me, and it was very nice to have that recognition. My SIL and her daughter especially were excited--my niece is a vegan, but she had never heard of giving up processed oils. The cookout was nice, because even my nephew and his wife, whom I have also never met, got to come for a nice long visit!

Here's the best part: I didn't gain a pound!!! DH's brother, whom we stayed with, had a Costco-sized pack of instant oatmeal for me, so that was my breakfast every morning, with fruit, and I just kept up on the nuked potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and baby carrots the whole time, with us stopping at Wendy's to eat when we needed to, and at the resort restaurant, I got my roasted-without-oil veggies and steamed rice, because my SIL was the manager on duty!

So I'm back, and I'm trying to work on getting fitter and toning up more. I am changing up and stepping up my yoga routines, making them more challenging, and this morning I did a 20-minute run! Yay me!! I have to say, it is so much easier to exercise when I', 90 pounds lighter. Who would have thought, right?

We're having friends for dinner Friday after work, so I have to clean and plan food tonight (Thurs is Board meeting, so home after 7:30.) I will make Aztec Salad--I have all the ingredients on hand (although it would be nice to have a red onion instead of white...)

DH & I, once again, had a long talk on Sunday about me trying to help him eat this way. We made a little progress--but he really hates my glop! On Sunday, he asked me to try to make more plain stuff, so we had potatoes nuked, then roasted tossed with curry powder, with Brussels sprouts on the side, and corn on the cob. It was good, and I didn't pout about having 2 pans to clean instead of 1... We are doing OK. He also volunteered to pick up veggie sushi for himself daily as an alternative to going out to lunch. He has tried a million times to take salads, thermoses, and it never works--mostly because he wants to LEAVE the office! It is good for him to have the sushi at home, too, for when he wants something and can't "find" anything in the fridge or on the counter--I call it male pattern blindness--and I'm not around or I'm busy.

We'll see how it goes. Last night we had refried bean burritos with lettuce and rice. He had 2 helpings which is a good sign, I hope. (He usually won't do 2 helpings, instead looking for "a little dessert".)

Busy day at work and house cleaning tonight. What fun!

Wow, what a fabulous report, I so enjoyed reading it! I felt the glow of your relatives surprise, and the satisfaction of staying on plan and staying at weight. I also like reading about your strategies for all the different situations and how you're now beginning to work it out with DH at home. Thanks for sharing, and inspiring!

I've been catching up on your journal and it's fabulous that you're doing so well with the exercise. I wish I could have seen the look on your family's faces when they saw how slim and healthy you are now. Speaking of slim and healthy, when are we going to get to see before and after pics of you?

Thanks for stopping by, to our heath and nomikins! I really did enjoy my trip, and was so appreciative that the family were all supportive and not dismissive of the way I eat. A lot of it, I think, is that I take care of myself (my food needs) quietly and without fuss. I didn't act like my SIL, who had to get up and move far away from the BBQ grill when the brats ans steaks were put on, claiming she'd get sick from the smell. She has always annoyed all of us with her pickiness and preachiness.

I am very much intending to post a success story with before and after pics, but I know I will need a block of time (an hour or more) to do the photo part, and I just have not had an hour of free time in weeks! I have two photos I can use, and I have another pair, but I emailed the photo home from work as a jpeg, but can't get it in iPhoto or anything else. It must be something about the transition from Windows at work to the Mac at home. Instead of an attachment, the photo is in the body of the email, so there's no option to save it as a jpeg. I will have to look back in the Search function here to figure out how to upload photos to posts, so if anyone has a link, it'd be welcome!

Wow, you did great on your trip. I'm so glad you had a good experience. Thank you!!

Thanks for stopping by, sksamboots! Nice to know you're "lurking," keeping an eye on all of us!

I hit a new low today--129.4. I am quite pleased. I heard that Netflix is going to lose all their Starz movies, so I'm desperately trying to do the exercise ones that I love and to try out Pilates to see if I can do it. It will kill me to lose my Super Slim Down and the two yoga ones I love, so I need to remember to write their names down to buy. I looked at a Pilates one today--it is so hard when the instructor has any kind of an accent, I can't tell what they are telling me to do without looking, and if I look, I'm not doing it! She had an Aussie accent. I keep the sound low since all the house is asleep but me...

We are having folks over for dinner tonight, and DH is making a beef brisket--so I am doing all the sides! I'm nuking little red potatoes so they're partially cooked, and when I get home, I'll throw them in the oven cut in half with a splash of balsamic and lots of Table Tasty. I have Aztec Salad all made except for adding the tomatoes, and I want to make a lettuce salad with dried cranberries and walnuts. I wish I had another salad dressing to offer...but I love my Balsamic one--I have never wavered since I found that one and I never get tired of it.

Got to go...cat wants lap.