Great to hear you're all so active on here! I'm off trekking/camping this weekend with a local trekking club, so have just been packing my backpack. I always seem to end up carrying more weight in my bag than others - how do they keep theirs down??! Maybe I should take out that flask of red wine? (a bit drastic). And trim the first aid kit a bit? Also a hot weather forecast here this weekend (Sydney, Australia) so I have to take heaps of water which doesn't help! Looking forward to it lots though - I love going off in to the wilderness with my little tent.

Thx for the wine advice Amy! I already sub-sampled in to a plastic bottle and used an air pump thing to remove air from remainder of original bottle (which is staying at home). They work ok for preserving wine, but agree the bags do that job too!

I found here by pressing the 'groups' button and browsing from there. I'm an intermittent visitor here and hang around for a few weeks to lose weight then disappear (and slowly put the weight back on) then come back again. And tend to repeat the process ad nauseam................ Not ideal obviously but 'maintaining' seems to be beyond me!

Plan for this pm is Bodypump. Anyone else do that? Popular in Aus and UK I think - basically an exercise class but you do weights. To music.

Hey ladies. I like the idea of a monthly thread, and maybe just call it "checking in" since the 2 week challenge tends to take a backseat to all of us just catching up? Just an idea. I can't figure out how to bookmark my group discussions and it's annoying. I reckon they're still working out kinks....

This week has not been stellar but not awful. I don't feel like I've gotten a real workout in. I walked for work, did a tiny bit of run/walking, and that's it. I ended up having too much work to do yesterday so was not able to lift during lunch. I just really didn't feel like it anyways. Food has been pretty good I guess. I was only up 0.5 pound this week and I have been alternating between 1-1.5 pounds/week so I will take it! I will officially be in my third trimester next week and I'm still right under a 20 pound gain, so I'll take that too. I can't believe I'm already 2/3 of the way through! I'm feeling good. The baby moves a lot. I don't know if he is just more active than Daphne was or if I can just feel it more, but it's crazy.

Home addition went up quickly but we're sort of in a holding pattern for now. We had electric inspection Wednesday and framing inspection today. They dropped drywall off yesterday so may start that today. We got a ton of rain last night and I woke up to a dripping sound. Water made its way into the addition and was leaking in the kitchen ceiling, so I guess they'll fix that. The contractor has been responsive to every request, so that has been really nice. I think the addition will be done by the end of the month. That meanswalls painted, flooring in, everything done. I'll just have to paint my mural and then we need to furnish it and then move my daughter in! Pretty exciting....

Sorry not to respond to everyone. I just decided to write a book about myself. Have a great weekend ladies!

Holy crap I do not like this new format. I have to go back & get caught up on everyone. This is going to take some getting used to. As far as eating goes it's not so much the quantity this week it's the quality, lots of drive thrus, parties & snacky food, gross. It's been a crazy busy week & my only exercise so far was a 4 1/2 mile run on Wednesday, not good!

Shanaber- I am the same way with packing, drives my husband nuts LOL

Amy-I want to check my BF too....going to make my appt for the bodpod today!

So yesterday was a flop again. I am in such a funk I ended up having candy after lunch and then hubby made alfredo from scratch and wine. I didn't exercise either other than do my push-ups, which are far from where they need to be. I need something/someone to motivate me, to pull me until I get up speed again. My pants are still to tight and I noticed that even my undies are getting tight.

Today I woke up unmotivated again. Hubby got up at his usual 0330 to go to the gym (even on his days off)...I asked if he would drag me with him (by the hair if necessary) but he said it was his "bro" time since he meets a bunch of guys there...*sniff*. I was running late, ran out of my shake mix...so the logical option was the McD's on the way into work. I don't think the rest of the day is going to go well either. I was complaining to hubby (not that he really understands) and he said "Well it is obvious that you don't really want "it" (lose weight) because you know you are fine now and don't need to lose it....when you did have weight to lose, you lost it and you didn't have problems with making healthy decisions"...huh? Is my husband psycho-analyzing me behind my back LOL But it makes some sort of morbid sense...If I TRULY wanted to get fit(ter) and lose weight, why is it hard for me to look at a menu and fight between the choice of a burger or a salad? I should WANT the salad!

So that was my morning...we had this discussion at 0630 and before coffee so sorry if doesn't make sense LOL. As I drove off, he final comment to me was "you are like bacon: hot, sizzling, smell amazing, tasty...and slowly kill"...I guess that is romantic...I added for the last word "and a bit of a mess when not prepared right and has a high fat content"

Ok, back to work....not that I am anticipating much happening today LOL

Congrats Shan!

My weekend was busy as always, but fun. Friday night was low key; stayed in and watched a movie and ate leftover Chinese. Saturday we ran around all morning and went to the pumpkin patch.

Oh! This is a great place to ask the question I've been thinking about. So in KY we drive out to the country to the pumpkin patch this time of year. We take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch, pick out the pumpkins, buy the pumpkins, maybe buy some apples, go to the petting zoo, there are corn mazes, etc. Is this a regional thing? Just curious. Everyone in my Facebook newsfeed is going to the pumpkin patch, but the majority of my friends live around here.....

Yeah, so after the pumpkin patch we can home and walked up to our fourth consecutive weekend festival with some friends and their kids. Went to bed pretty early. Spent yesterday mostly relaxing. We met a friend for brunch (found our new fave brunch place!), I did a quick grocery trip, and then walked up to Cyclouvia, which is where they close a major road (that happens to be at the end of our street) to vehicular traffic from 2-6pm Sunday and there's all kinds of stuff going on. We met some family and got pizza. I also ate a bunch of potato nachos with cheese and bacon. So I had a rather terrible dinner.

I did manage to get about 20 minutes of yoga yesterday and a good amount of walking in over the weekend. I thought about lifting, but just didn't feel like it. Again, I seem to be appreciating my downtime more and more and would rather do a puzzle or read or watch TV during my 2ish hours of free time during nap time on Saturdays and Sundays.

My plan for the week is class Tuesday, lift during lunch Wednesday and try to get some walking in while we're out of town. Mom and I will probably walk around the complex Saturday while the guys golf. There's a gym at the clubhouse too, so I could go down and lift if I wanted to, which I may. Or I may choose to be lazy. We'll see. Only a 3 day work week for me then we head to the mountains! Woo hoo! Have a great week all.

Happy Monday everyone!

Better - they do pumpkin patches and mazes here too but it isn't quite the same. On our drive up the coast this weekend I did see huge pumpkin patches where you can go into the field and pick a pumpkin along with the hay rides and mazes - much more like I was used to in Idaho and have seen in other parts of the country.

Abigail - your pumpkin festival sounds like so much fun as does the cider press party!

We don't see as much of the community activities here - I think it is just too urban and everyone is so wrapped up in their own lives. We feel fortunate to have a pretty close neighborhood where everyone knows each other and our neighborhood is not the norm (sad but true but I know too many people here who have never even met their neighbors). We tend to do more in the summer with BBQs and swimming or at Christmas. It is also still really hot here and no one is feeling too much like fall so that could be part of it too.

I went out for a short recovery walk/run this morning and feel so much better - I was so stiff this morning. I am still pretty sore but plan to spend some time really stretching and rolling out on the foam roller.
My goals for the next two weeks are:
1) recover from this half and get ready for the next (run 4 days this week and taper next)
2) drink more water
3) get more sleep/get to bed earlier - none of this staying up until midnight playing on the computer...
4) stretch, stretch, stretch

Have a great week!

Hi guys! My name's Tiffany. I am new to this group and have been trying to lose weight for a long time. I weigh 145 and want to lose 10 pounds by the end of the month. Is this possible?

Two week goal: 3 cardio per week, 2 hikes per week, good food, drop 3 lbs. have fun!

Also....i can't log on to "groups" from my phone....so f$cking annoying!

I only get a silver star this week....forgive me, thanksgiving had to happen....

Hey ladies. I had pilates last night which I missed last week and I can tell! My shoulders are super sore today....good stuff. The class was great last night. Some things are getting really hard for me, but others are still making me feel great. I'm still loving the class. I don't think I'll sign up for the next 8 weeks as they would fall between 30-38 weeks of pregnancy, but I may drop in from time to time.

So sh*tty news....our house was broken into yesterday so I've been kind of consumed with that. Thye kicked in our basement door and took a laptop and 2 tablets, so not a ton of stuff. We suspect it was one of the workers as they seemed to know exactly what they were going for. I was mad and worried about the safety of my house, but I've decided I just have to get over that because living in fear is no way to live. Needless to say, we are setting our alarm everyday now, which we used to do religiously but have not been since we have people in and out of our house to work daily sometimes. Our general contractor will be letting all workers in from here on out. So the alarm system does give me at least some sense of security.

I'm off to the mountains tomorrow so catch you all next week. Have a great weekend!

Hi ladies - quick checkin. I had a long weekend and am playing catch up today. Ashley - so scary about the break-in... try and and enjoy your vacation.

I'll be back later today!

Ashley - It is terrible having your house broken into! Ours was many years ago and that feeling of having your space violated lasted a long time. In our case the kid was in our house for several hours while we were at work and he took so many things, not a lot of value but important to us. He also took and used a credit card and we only discovered it when we got a bill. Definitely keep that alarm on and I would also make sure the general contractor knows what happened.
Amy - what is the Scream Scram? The name sounds fun whatever it is!
Beeps - Happy Thanksgiving Canada style!

I was exhausted yesterday evidenced when I went to train and hit muscle failure on things I have been doing for a long time Got to bed early last night and feel much better today so I am going for a nice recovery run... I have to get ready for my next half a week from this Sunday. Kind of wishing I had never agreed to run it but my nephew is so excited to run it with me

There have only been 3 check ins for the star challenge and one of those was mine... I am not going to post the sheet this week.

Happy Hump Day!

Better: I would put a post on Craig's list saying what was stolen and if anyone was selling them, you had non-proprietary tracking software on it to deter buyers

I have been horrible We had a 4 day weekend and I didn't track and other than my long run on Saturday, no exercise...and I ate and ate and ate. Yesterday I went to the store and bought salad mixings and more smoothie stuff...I need a reset. Mom called and let me know that friends were coming to HI an were wanting to meet up...my first thought was OMG, they will see how fat I have gotten. Such a sad state of mind to be in.

So this morning I had my smoothie, not sure what is for lunch and plan another smoothie for dinner since hubby is going out star-gazing and I have my running club.

PT test is next Friday and I am mildly panicking about it, I still haven't made it to the track to see how fast I can run. I can run 15 miles no prob, but I don't know if I can run 1.5 in less than 13 min? Does that translate somehow. My push-ups are still weak. I had my second appt at occupational therapy and they are convinced it is tendonitis from an overuse injury and b/c I have full mobility of the joint, it can't be my broken arm. *sniff*

Ok, back to work. The computer trolls are busy today and everyone is having issues so it is fun times!