NON WW & WW NEWBIES, OUR NEW LIFE, THE START OF SOMETHING WONDERFUL

@cbabie I'm so sorry to hear about your rough week but I'm glad you're back. I got a good laugh out of your black sheep comment! I have definitely fallen into that category before. I hope everything goes well and that you all stay healthy

@TeresaW1020 I bet those red placemats will look amazing at the table! Do you have any favorite Thanksgiving foods you're excited for? I love that you're making your Mom's holiday special, I bet she'll love all the presents. And sorry to hear your back is acting up, that is so frustrating for you! Here's to hoping it'll feel better after a few days of rest.

@trooworld It truly does sound like you're having quite the spread! That cornbread dressing sounds awful, turkey gizzards are only okay as dog treats in my world.

@RetiredandLovingIt I got a good laugh out of your rum comment, you're right that rum drinks are never as tasty here as they are in the Caribbean. Might be worth cracking open that bottle of wine though, it's aged well in the last two years! And I hope your family stays healthy in Oklahoma. How frustrating that she didn't hear about it until a week later and now has to stay quarantined for the holidays.

@theslightedgeforever I love that you and your SO used to send letters back and forth, did you keep them? I bet they'd be fun to read through and relive those days! And there is something deeply satisfying about just having a sandwich or a bowl of cereal for dinner instead of having to cook! My SO and I have very different meal times so we each fend for ourselves for the most part, but when he does cook he's pretty fabulous at it. And you're right that I've been pretty go, go, go and need to rework my day a bit. I think the transition home will help me do that so I get more balance in.

Hi Everyone! I am so excited for the four day weekend ahead. I've been blasting holiday music all day and even went online shopping to buy matching pj sets for me, my SO, and the dogs. I think I'm going to put up the tree this weekend too for some extra holiday cheer. I think we all need a little extra cheer in our lives this year! I debated also buying outdoor lights, but wow are they more expensive than I expected! Plus I have no desire to spend the time outdoors in the cold on a ladder! I guess I'll just have to enjoy the neighbors instead.

@trooworld Sounds like you've got a busy day of cooking ahead! And congrats on the loss, that is a fantastic incentive

@TeresaW1020 I hope you enjoy every last bite of that stuffing and sip of wine. I think it's a great idea to take an average weight since today is a holiday and the weigh in after won't be accurate or reflect the hard work you've been doing

Happy Thanksgiving All! I'm already watching cheesy holiday shows (The Brady Bunch Holiday Movie from the 80s is a hoot!). I also watched Bad Moms Christmas which is way better than it has any right to be!

I'm going to knock out a few pages of my dissertation, take a long walk with the dogs, and then get started cooking. I've got my one friend coming over who is a fabulous baker (she's making a sweet potato candied bacon pie!!!) and she's going to supervise me in the kitchen which I deeply appreciate so I don't mess anything up too badly. We'll be doing cheesy mashed potatoes, ham wrapped in dough, Hawaiian bread stuffing, bacon maple brussel sprouts, and cranberry orange sauce. It is definitely going to be a feast to remember if I can pull it off!

@trooworld, Ugghhhh that is a long time to be in a dentist's chair! I’m glad you survived and I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

@mswatson0777 I love that Brady Bunch movie! Your friend's sweet potato candied bacon pie sounds AMAZING, as does your whole menu. I can’t wait to see how did with all the cooking. It’s always a challenge to time that much food.

@theslightedgeforever I totally forgot to watch the parade this year! I think it’s because I usually always watch it when I’m decorating the house and since I already did that I didn’t think about turning on the TV. I hope it was fun.

@cbabie Yum, I love apple butter! How did little girl like the parade?

Happy post-Thanksgiving @RetiredAndLovingIt and @gemwolf110 I hope you had a great holiday!


Good morning! Well, I ate all the things and drank all the wine and this morning my stomach and head aren’t very happy, but I can’t complain since I knew what I was in for. Our dinner was really good! I was super happy that my mashed cauliflower turned out so well. I will definitely stop buying the frozen brand now. I did take my weekly average for my weight this week and I’m up almost a pound. Today, we will eat leftovers but there will be no wine or pie. After lunch, DH and I are going up to the church to get things organized for tomorrow. I have several ladies who said they would come and help decorate the Sanctuary. I can’t wait to see how good it’s all going to look!

@retiredandlovingit I hope you and your family had a good Thanksgiving. Now to work off the holiday weight.

@cbabie Did you get in a walk? Next Thanksgiving, you should facetime me so baby girl and I can watch the parade together. Just the last 30 min. Maybe you had to cook alot of the Thanksgiving meal growing up and that's why you don't like it. My job was always make tea and set the table. Clear the table. Oh I know because I was busy watching the parade each year.

@gemwolf110 Did you and your furbabies have a nice holiday?

@teresaw1020 The parade was okay. I think part of it is the floats. They try to put in new floats and I like the old floats because it reminds me of my childhood. Although I did like Pokemon. So are you back to your 500 cal meal yet? I'm going to tone mine down a bit today and then tomorrow hit it hard with my red.

@trooworld I got 50%. I know why I don't drink more because I'm not inspired. I don't like the after effects if my stomach gets too full. Which happens if I try and catch up to get 100%. I'm not much of a liquid with meals person. But I can learn to be. Although if I would allow myself to make sweet iced tea, I could drink 3 glasses at a meal. Probably cause that's how I grew up. Especially if it's cold with lots of ice.

@mswatson0777 Balance in my life.....these days seem to be nothing. so no balance. I'm journaling the reasons WHY to see what I can come up with. Exercise is still going good. That's usually my downfall. So I'll have to figure out that one too.

Oh my dd is calling me.

Start thinking of December goals.

theslightedgeforever wrote: »

@retiredandlovingit I hope you and your family had a good Thanksgiving. Now to work off the holiday weight.

@cbabie Did you get in a walk? Next Thanksgiving, you should facetime me so baby girl and I can watch the parade together. Just the last 30 min. Maybe you had to cook alot of the Thanksgiving meal growing up and that's why you don't like it. My job was always make tea and set the table. Clear the table. Oh I know because I was busy watching the parade each year.

@gemwolf110 Did you and your furbabies have a nice holiday?

@teresaw1020 The parade was okay. I think part of it is the floats. They try to put in new floats and I like the old floats because it reminds me of my childhood. Although I did like Pokemon. So are you back to your 500 cal meal yet? I'm going to tone mine down a bit today and then tomorrow hit it hard with my red.

@trooworld I got 50%. I know why I don't drink more because I'm not inspired. I don't like the after effects if my stomach gets too full. Which happens if I try and catch up to get 100%. I'm not much of a liquid with meals person. But I can learn to be. Although if I would allow myself to make sweet iced tea, I could drink 3 glasses at a meal. Probably cause that's how I grew up. Especially if it's cold with lots of ice.

@mswatson0777 Balance in my life.....these days seem to be nothing. so no balance. I'm journaling the reasons WHY to see what I can come up with. Exercise is still going good. That's usually my downfall. So I'll have to figure out that one too.

Oh my dd is calling me.

Start thinking of December goals.

I did have a nice Thanksgiving, thank you for asking, i didn’t overindulge and have plenty of leftovers. How was yours? I too need to come up with some December goals as well.

TeresaW1020 wrote: »

@theslightedgeforever Yes, I’m back to my 500 calorie meal today. I just ate a big lunch and won’t have any dinner. Gotta get that scale back to going in the right direction.

@mswatson0777 My daughter used to be very addicted to playing SIMS. I hope you have hours of fun. Your Thanksgiving dinner looked so good!!

@trooworld That is a good idea to listen to a book while getting your teeth taken care of. I am sure your tree will be beautiful. And yes your weight will totally be back down next week, just like mine will be. Sorry, you aren’t feeling well.


Hi everyone! Well, today didn’t go exactly as planned and I’m sitting here still trying to pull myself. I was up at the church with my mom, pastor, his wife, and two other ladies. We were all doing fine and almost done when Rob, my pastor thought that he could stand on a swivel barstool to hang lighted garland around the stage. Well, he couldn’t, and he fell off the chair and landed face-first on the floor with his head wedge against a very sharp baseboard. I quickly grabbed the barstool he was on top of and moved it out of the way and yelled for someone to call 911 but no one could find their phone quick enough so I grabbed mine from my back pocket and made the call while his wife turned him over because his breathing was awful and I for sure thought he was dying! He had blood pouring from his left temple that had quickly formed a huge golf ball-sized bump. After I got off from 911, I had to help Rob’s wife hold him down because he kept trying to get up. He was clearly in shock and started saying his left arm hurt. It was already very red and swelling fast. The ambulance came and took him to the hospital. I called my DH who came up and helped us finish the church and clean up the mess. I just heard from his wife and the MRI came back clean. He has a very bruised left leg, and his left arm and wrist are broken pretty badly, and he will have to have surgery in the next few days. They think he might be able to go home this evening. It’s a freaking miracle!! We have another member of our church, who is also a pastor doing the message tomorrow. Which just happens to be titled, Hope. I need a drink!

I hope your pastor is okay sounds like a pretty bad fall!

mswatson0777 wrote: »

@trooworld I don't think a runny nose is COVID related so hopefully it's just a cold. Either way getting sick is never fun. I'm so sorry you aren't feeling well and hope you feel better soon.

@cbabie I bet it was super cute to watch her dance around to the music! So sorry you didn't get to see your Grandson, but I'm so glad his mom went all out for him for the holiday. I called my Grandma yesterday and she was a little down since my Dad and I used to visit her on Thanksgiving and this year due to COVID no one was able to come down (and my Dad passed away two years ago which adds an extra layer of sadness). I am going down in 2 weeks since I'm quarantining so we do have that to look forward to

Good Morning Everyone! I got another four pages knocked out on my intro chapter yesterday morning (dissertation writing is much slower going than regular writing so it's usually at least an hour/page of work for a first draft). I stuck to my goals and felt like I did a really good job getting my workout in and not having too many treats.

My one black Friday purchase was my SO bought me the Sims 4 to help keep me entertained this winter. I seriously love him so much. I recreated our little family in the Sims last night, including our two dogs since he got me the Pet extension (he knows me so well!). Hopefully these two weeks of quarantine fly by until I can see my Grandma.

Good luck with writing your dissertation! Not an easy task! The SIMS game sounds interesting!!

@trooworld I know you are disappointed with the gain for this month, but you will turn it around. I just had to have a tough talk with myself because this whole weekend had me eating all the things. It’s a new week and we are going into a new month, so we just have to do what we know works! Treat drinking water like its medicine or like it’s your job. Make it a non-negotiable! You can do it.


Good morning! Well, last evening, DH and I got a call from our pastor. It was good for me to be able to talk to him and gently rage at how he scared me half-to-death. He thinks that he passed out while up on that swivel barstool and has no memory of anything until the paramedics were putting him in the ambulance. He is OK, but his left arm is seriously broken, and he will have surgery on Wednesday. I’m supposed to have our staff Christmas party on Friday, but that is up in the air until we know how he does with the surgery. If we have to postpone, then that is what we will do. My eating and fasting have been half-hearted since Thursday’s over-indulgence so I’m back at it hard this week and will fast until dinner and a my 500-calorie meal today. I want to go into New Year doing what I know will get me to my goal weight in 2021 so that is what I’m going to do!!

@trooworld I'm thinking positive thoughts for you and I'm excited that you finally got to go back to work full time. Are you full time in person? How does it feel being away from the house again?

I took one look at my schedule today and just groaned. I've got back-to-back-to-back meetings from 8am-4:30pm with one 1/2 hour break (keep in mind, I should have an hour lunch break in there somewhere) so today is going to be rough. I also got my draft back from my advisor and it looks like I largely have to scrap it and start over (some of it I can salvage for later chapters so it's not a total loss...it just sucks).

My original goal was to have all three first drafts out by the end of winter break, but now with the significant revisions I don't know if that's going to happen or not. I've got until January 11th to meet it and I do have 12 days off over the holidays which will help immensely. I'm going to keep my goal of writing two pages per day over the break, and dedicating at least 30 minutes a day to my dissertation up until then. It's all going to come together, it just feels exhausting and overwhelming.

@theslightedgeforever Great article on Habit stacking. I have been trying to work on brushing my teeth right after I drink my two cups of black coffee in the morning. I’ve been drinking my coffee --> washing my cup --> brushing my teeth --> and then either get back on the computer or do something else. I’m about 75% good at sticking to the routine.

@mswatson0777 Ugghh I feel for you with all those meetings and what a bummer that you had to scrap so much of your work. You will make it happen because you are diligent about your goals.

@trooworld That is great that you are back at work and that you are happy about it. Bummer about Newsom threatening to lock things down again. I don’t know how you Californians tolerate that man. I have family in Bakersfield and my cousin is constantly raging about him. Yayyy for weight being down. You are going to have a great week.

@cbabie I think that is awesome that you are working on a blog! And yes to letting the past go. I have had to do that several times in my life and it’s hard but so much better for us if we learn to truly give it to God and let it go. Yes, I remember how much you went through with that wrist of yours. I’m not sure how pastor is going to manage with his arm in a cast. But he is incredibly stubborn so he will figure out how to make it work for him.


Good morning! It’s cold here today!! Mom and I just got back from shopping and the stores were already getting crowded. I’m still not sure about my party on Friday but I’m acting like we are having it so I have some housework to do today. I talked to my pastor yesterday and he wants me to hold off on postponing the party until after his surgery on Wednesday. He was very happy when I told him that he wouldn’t have to play any games and that I would make him cheese sticks. Fingers are crossed!

@trooworld Here's to hoping. Good news was it was a statewide training so my hope is that this will be my only interaction with these folks. Sorry to hear you're struggling with a migraine, those are the worst. I'm glad you're able to be home today and I hope you get some work done!

@TeresaW1020 I got a good laugh about the cheese sticks, I bet they are pretty tasty! I'm so glad your pastor's surgery went well. I hope you have a fun night playing with play dough, that sounds like a blast!

@cbabie That is too funny about the dust! In Minnesota we constantly combat snow slush and road salt in our entryways, but not as much dust. I also love paper books, they are the best! I'm glad you're able to get e-books to see you through until you can get back to paper books again.

Today is already going way better than yesterday, but then again it's only 9am so give it time...

It's another work day with back-to-back-to-back meetings with only 1/2 hour break so it's going to be a long day. I'm just glad we're closer to the weekend. I've taken a couple of long restorative walks (one last night and one this morning) instead of a workout and I really think it helped my mindset. Tonight I might do some yoga to continue this more zen frame of mind.