Need to Lose 100 LBS -Robins Thread !

I wasn't expecting such an outpouring of generosity from these folks. We just got here, and they were super generous a month ago when we showed up, but to get gifts all month long? It's just crazy. And they aren't just for my husband, either. A lot of them are addressed to both of us. So very sweet.

Here's one of my favorites... The runner, napkins, and coasters were made by a member of the congregation.

@fera—I was thinking the same thing as robin. Could you host some sort of get-together to use up some of those treats? The fact that you put them in the freezer is brilliant—then you can just thaw small amounts so you don’t get tempted to eat an entire sheet cake in a couple of days. (sounds like something I might do)

@tracy—yes, these mid-terms are really vital this year. I’ve heard a lot about that “Personhood” proposal—not much of it good. I hope it doesn’t pass as I think it puts too many restrictions on individual rights. I don’t know about other states, but in IL it’s actually state mandated that insurance must cover fertility treatments—including something like 4 tries at IVF. Not sure what the percentage of that coverage is, but I know people’s right to some level of coverage is protected so insurance companies can’t opt out. I wish birth control were similarly mandated. Abortion is such a tricky subject. Nobody is “pro” abortion—no one “wants” an abortion, right? However, I’m firmly against allowing the government too much control in any aspect of private citizens’ lives. I’ve taught too many dystopian novels about that slippery slope, I guess. Brave New World. 1984. Fahrenheit 451.

I agree with you that too many voters don’t take the time to really research their ballots—and really who has the time? I applaud you for making that effort. Here in IL it’s the governor’s race that is scaring me—and every other public employee. Our current democrat is not a great option as he’s already signed a bill to change our pension agreements (the bill is stayed pending judicial review in the courts—b/c it violates our state constitution). However, the republican is intent on ending all collective bargaining rights of unions. As a teacher/union member it’s a no brainer though not a happy decision.

Oh and I LOL’d about your son preferring a poke in the eye to writing and reading his poem. That’s about how I feel about reading and grading students’ poetry. I never make my students write it—as Robert Frost said, “that should be one’s own funeral.”

@kelley—have a great trip!!!

@tammy—I agree that 2 hours/night is too much for a 5th grader—that’s actually the recommended upper limit for HS students. Also, I totally agree about kids being overscheduled. I think a lot of it is due to competitiveness getting into college, and even more so getting scholarships to be able to afford college. That sad part is that so many kids get into college with the money to pay and then can’t handle the academics b/c they spent so much time in extra-curriculars instead of studying.

@robin—one of my friends is planning to go down there to see if she can catch a glimpse of the band and wants me to join her. I honestly would except I have to proctor the PSAT early Saturday morning. If I had gotten tickets to the show, I would have found a replacement. But it doesn’t seem worth giving up the proctoring fee on the very slight chance of a Foo sighting. Being a responsible adult sucks sometimes. <sigh>

@niki—Foo Fighters are considered Alternative Rock or Grunge, but were heavily influenced by some punks groups like the Pixies and the Melvins. If you are new to their music, The Color and the Shape is by far their best album. Congrats on getting into the 240s—and I view it the same way; today’s low end of our weight range turns into the high end if we just keep at it.

@nettie—so sorry you aren’t getting the aides you need. I have a friend who works special ed in Chicago and is in a similar boat. She has a student who is truly a danger to himself and others, but all she can do is document, document, document.

@naomi—welcome back!!!

Sorry for those I missed--I'll catch you on the next round.

Thursday Truth:
I'm doing pretty good with calories, but exercise has been abysmal this week. Also, I have been slacking about grading as well--just seem to have lost my mojo this week. I was thinking I might be getting sick, but now I just think it was my week of the month to be tired and lazy. Other than proctoring a test Saturday morning, I've got no weekend plans, so will devote lots of time to both the gym and grading.

Grading Goals:
1. 3/67 AP essays
2. there's more, but I refuse to acknowledge it until I put a decent dent in those essays

Exercise Goals:
Sat--rest day
Sun--walk gunner DONE + gym DONE
Mon-- walk gunner NOT DONE—RAIN
Tues--walk gunner (maybe--late meeting) NOT DONE—MORE RAIN
Wed--walk gunner NOT DONE + gym NOT DONE
Thurs--walk gunner DONE
Fri--rest day

October Challenge:
Days under calories = 11/15
Days >100g of protein = 7/15

Just a quick fly-by tonight. I've basically been figuring out outfits tonight and starting to get things together. My trainer wasn't feeling well so canceled, if he feels better tomorrow we're going to make up today's session in the afternoon. Otherwise, I will be packing and getting ready for my 6am flight on Saturday.

I'll miss everyone and checking in, have a great week--"see" you soon!

The baby in the above photo was just born in the last day. These are the triplets.

October logging and counting -- 10/17 -- OK, so I weighed myself this morning and my weight is not going in the right direction! It turns out that getting up at 7am to make everyone smoothies is messing up my day. So I'm recommitting today, like you do. Today's green smoothie was grapefruit, pineapple, banana, lettuce, cucumber and yoghurt, and was very fresh and delicious. A very pale yellow green; I need more spinach.

A slightly stressful morning today because we're driving up to my parents' house (it's a 3 hour drive) straight after school, which means we have to pick my girl up from her school, which means she had to pack a bag, but her bf came round last night so she did not do *anything*. No chores, no packing. So we've had a wild morning, and the kitchen looks like a tornado went through it. I've gently explained to my family that if I get up in the morning and the kitchen still looks the way it did the moment we got up from dinner there are not going to be any more smoothies.

Friday fitness -- I'm still being a bit of a couch potato. October's a difficult month for that.

@JNettie73 -- Nettie, I remember the stress of not letting co-workers know I was expecting. And I was super sick too, especially the first time. A long time ago now!
@jtconst -- Tammy, my kids were relatively unstructured (my son still only has one after-school club and one activity) but my daughter's life still got very very full from when she was about 15 on. It's a big task for her to juggle everything. But my son's definitely getting a lot of homework too (equiv of first year of high school). He doesn't do it, mind.
@NK1112 -- Niki, what a thrill on the scales!
@FeraFilia -- I guess the congregation is just thrilled that your husband is there to minister to them -- and you should invite people round to eat all those sweet treats. What a lovely table setting!
@skinnyjeanzbound -- Karen, the issue I have with homework is that the teachers say how long it's meant to take. But sometimes those estimates are off, and sometimes my kids find the tasks much harder than the teacher thought they would. And both of them are inclined to leave things to the very last minute and then find it's half an hour till bedtime and they've got 2 hours work to do! Extra-curriculars do affect whether you get a university offer here, and my daughter has a reasonable set, but really it's all about the grades because everyone takes standard exams. She's predicted top grades so she will get offers from top universities.
@Lauriek70 -- Laurie, Renaissance Guy is playing hard to get, isn't he? Hopefully you can work something out next week sometime. I'm seeing 3 copies of the same baby goat I think rather than triplets?

So, yesterday I actually did quite a lot of a couple of courses, and watched the apple event (I am *so sad*) and put Yosemite on this machine (I really want the mac/iPad handoff features to work). And today I want to plan next week and catch up on all my commitments because I have three different short trips in the next two weeks.

And now the weekend! Hope yours is a great one!

-- Alison

OK, I finally found something I like about the new site! Posting pictures is very easy and the long promised ones of my laundry room redo are below. Sorry they're not the greatest, but it's such a small space it's impossible to get a good angle.

Good morning everyone.

HAVE A HAPPY NATIONAL MULLIGAN DAY !
Each year on October 17, people all across the country celebrate National Mulligan Day.
In a game, a mulligan happens when a player gets a second chance to perform a certain move or action.
This day was created as a day for giving yourself a second chance or, as some people call it, a “do-over”. We can all think of something that at one point in time we have said “I wish I could do that over”, Today, to celebrate National Mulligan Day, take your “do-over”.
According to the United States Golf Association (USGA), there are three different stories explaining that the term derived from the name of a Canadian golfer, David Mulligan, one-time manager of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, who played golf in the 1920′s. A different, later etymology gives credit to John A. “Buddy” Mulligan, a locker room attendant at Essex Fells C.C., New Jersey in the 1930′s. Yet another story according to author Henry Beard, states that the term comes from Thomas Mulligan, a minor Anglo-Irish aristocrat and passionate golfer who was born in 1793.
According to the USGA, the term first achieved widespread use in the 1940′s

All people are made alike -
of bones and flesh and dinner -
Only the dinners are different.
~Gertrude Louise Cheney

Tom

cblue315 wrote: »

@Lives2Travel - I am an interior designer. This laundry room is seriously fabulous. Belongs in any decorating magazine. The art work is amazing. Yours? Originals?

I wish I had that kind of talent! The prints are by an artist from Portland, Oregon. She has a shop called Albie Designs on Etsy and has prints of lots of US cities. They were the first things I bought for the laundry room and the rest of the design was based around them. Love the colors and graphic nature of the prints.

working on staying under calories and climbing a lot of stairs for hubby recovery. But he is sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping. He is behind on his sleep being a trucking driver trainer. He drives from midnight to noon while on the road and has to be up a lot while the trainee is driving, so lots of sleeping when home. This two weeks will be wonderful for his body and mind.

Yay! T.G.I.F. My nephew is coming down from UNR to take me to see the Zach Brown Band @ The MGM tonight! Should be fun. I lost another 1.4 lbs this last week I NEED to go clothes shopping! My small jeans will be a bit baggy, but my way slimming shirt will look good...Goin' out with a college kid, gotta look as cool as possible I think I may FINALLY get some stairs in on my Fitbit! oh and since he's driving....a couple of Coors Lights may be in order Have a Great Day everyone!

skinnyjeanzbound wrote: »

@kelley--I just saw this article. I know you were no where near the samples or patient, but it might be prudent not to advertise where you work while on your cruise:

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/Health-Care-Worker-Who-May-Have-Had-Contact-With-Ebola-Is-on-Cruise-Ship-279537152.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_CHBrand

Thanks, Karen. Yep, that was all over the news today. We're not even telling anyone we're from Dallas!

Packed and ready to go--going to be around 70 and sunny in NYC when we land so tomorrow should be a nice day. Alarm going off at 3:45, so heading to bed soon.

L2T, love the laundry room!
Today was kind of a break even day. The logging shows I was under calories, and I did get over 8 miles today, but the football food was a bit hard to log, so I'm just assuming I at least broke even.
GrammyWhammy, wonderful loss! Glad you had a fun trip. Enjoy your family.
Kelley, have a fun trip.
I hope everyone enjoys the weekend.
Onward and downward. Kaye

Good morning everyone.

Happy No Beard Day
When: Always October 18th
No Beard Day exists so you have a good reason to shave your beard.
You've had a beard so long, that you don't know what you'd look like without one. And, your lady friend isn't so fond of it. Today brings the extra incentive you need, to shave it off and go without a beard for the first time in who knows when.
So, bare it all and show off your chin. If you don't like it, you can always grow it back.
Have a happy and clean-shaven No Beard Day!! I will not be taking part in the shaving as I want the full Santa beard in December.

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.
Lyndon B. Johnson

Tom

Hi everyone, glad to see many people trying to lose weights. I'm a newbie here.

@NK1112 - I know they don't mean to cause me stress... They probably did their best to make it easier on me. It's just that they are very much morning people, and I am very much an evening person. My work schedule for years was 2pm - 11pm and my body clock still works accordingly. They are up every morning before 7am. But I felt like I had to get up when they did, because if I was snoozing away while they had to fend for themselves for breakfast I felt like I was being a bad host. Which threw my eating routine off, and my sleep routine off... And I was just all out of sorts.

.....

I am happy to report that after seeing a 3 pound bump in my weight due to the week that included my birthday, my in-laws visiting, my husband's official installation and celebration, 2 "appreciation" dinners, and the start of PMS... The scale is inching back down to where it was before the last week blew up in my face. YAY!

P.S. I found the downside to living where I live. Political ads are bad enough, but when you live in a market for 3 states? EVERY COMMERCIAL on radio and TV is some kind of political ad... And I'm getting them for Ohio, Kentucky *and* Indiana. Boo. I'm not even voting in this election mainly because I didn't register in time and so I *can't* and also because I just moved here, so I know nothing of the local candidates on the ballot (with the exception of the democrat running for city council, he's a member of the congregation lol) so, I wouldn't vote this time around anyway. November 5 can't get here soon enough! Thank goodness for DirecTV. We just record our shows, and start watching them 15 minutes in so we can fast forward through all the commercials.