Welcome back, y'all and welcome to Susanna10.

I finished my donation quilt 10 minutes before it was time to deliver it this morning. I am the cashier in the jewelry room. Jewelry is donated and we clean and card it. It is priced low - mostly $1, some a little more and lots $.50 or less. $900 worth was sold in a few hours. My brain is tired from adding quickly. I did take a break to have a cup of tea and a snack with my friend. It's the women's bazaar, but the men work the dining room for us. I will post a picture of the quilt when I find a Kodak USB cord. I installed a new printer this week and it has no port for the SD card. My computer doesn't seem to have one either. I just have to remember where I put the cords - in the top of the computer desk, maybe??

Well, the fun has begin. The doctor I saw yesterday says I have fungal meningitis growing in my SI joints - which are very close to the spine. I have to have an MRI immediately. He says it diagnoses better than a spinal tap in these cases. Hey, I don't have an expendable $150 for my copay - I and I am claustrophobic. He said they have three very ill patients in their hospital who have had to had there joints scraped of mold and one died in the big medical center in Petosky this morning. Yikes. I'm not sure I agree with him, but when I was obviously dragging my feet, He said, "You don't understand - you will die without treatment." Another yikes! My house is too cluttered. I wouldn't do that to my children.

Gayle, http://www.skiwalking.com/ and check out this blog:
http://nordic-walking-usa.com/2010/1...s-pain-relief/ If I didn't have Lily and Moira, I'd immediately purchase the $70 ones.

Congratulations, CHQ. 6 pounds is near the perfect 2 pounds a week.

Dr Oz had a good program this week - maybe Thursday - check his website - they have videos of most of the featured segments. One high carb day, one low carb day with a feast day on Sunday. The success rate seems to be high and I could do this easily. The feast day adds 1000 calories. Wow! He recommended having it out of the house so you won't have leftovers looking at you on Monday. Did he ever hear of a freezer? I am a better baker and sometimes a better cook than any local restaurant. The low/high carb days are calorie controlled - whatever your normal limited intake is. Mine 1380 calories - 10 calories for every pound of my desired weight which is 138. Those aren't Dr OZ numbers, just old ones that work for me.

I am losing weight and getting healthier.
Judy

Irish quit dragging your feet and get to the doctor. There are open MRI's or they can give you something. If you don't take care of the meningitis it will just get worse. We will pray for you. Sounds awful.
The Halloween candy is gone from my house. That is a good thing. I have had my hand in the bag way too many times. I sent it home with my DD. Her roommates are thrilled with the goodies. I am a chocolate addict and there doesn't seem to be a cure for me. I am going to the gym today for the first time in weeks. As soon as the washing machine is finished I am going to the gym.
Healthy eating to all. Drink your water and eat your vegetables.
Pat

Thank you all for all the congratulations!!!! You don't know how good that makes me feel, oh, and the fact that the pants I have on are a little baggier than normal!! Just need to keep plugging away. The next 2 months are the "hard" months!!!! keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get tempted and side tracked. Busy busy will be my key to get by!!

MeanMom, I know what you mean about UFO's. I'm finishing the binding on 2 quilts I made - 3 yrs ago. One was a BDay gift for my Mom. She's 84 this month, and asked "Will I have it by next Halloween". I told her it was incentive for her to stick around...LOL. I'm going to finish it today and wash it tonight. She gets it tomorrow. She'll be surprised...LOL...that she got it.

Cindy, glad you're sticking around to run things!!!! You keep us all positive and focused. I always enjoy reading all the posts here about everybody and what they're up to, their successes, struggles, how they overcome things. They help me a lot, puts things in focus for me. Keep up the good work!!!!

As the holiday season is upon us, we need to remember how hard we have worked at taking on the weight we have lost.


First, lets remember the little things we have learned along the way.........some of the things that come to my mind are :

eating on the smaller plates
watching the portion size
watch the amount of white foods we eat........look at what we can replace it with
go for the veggies that are not loaded with all the bad stuff...LOL

We also need to remember our excerising, no matter how little or much we do.

Make wise choices and you will be successful.

My biggest challenge will be the cookies that I make........have some Almond Spritz cookies. It is hard but I will succeed in my efforts.

I think one of the things that will help me is that my son and DIL will not be coming for the holiday. He doesn't have enough vacation time. I wish he did.

Irish..........stop putting this off........get yourself taken care of. You need to take care of yourself first. Don't worry about the way the house looks.

SNS- it is all good. I will not hesitate in the future to ask for some help.


Susanna10 - welcome to the group. we have lots of fun and encourage one another all the time. Share anything you want.......projects you are working on, challenges with your weight loss, etc

Speaking of Halloween candy, we had 10 pieces left after all the kids came by. Had 300 pieces and each child only got 1 piece this year as funds for us here were very tight. Bought half as much as in years past with the same amount of kids coming by. WOW

Well today I am getting some food made up for my work week. I have to get use to working 5 days aweek instead of the 3 I did when I was in the hospitals. My hours are 9-6 CST.....working for a portable oxygen company.......and by the time I get home it is later than I like to eat my big meal of the day. SO I want to make my lunch the biggest meal of the day, with out spending lots of money each day. Today I have chicken breast in the crock pot, will make some chicken salad........and have the chicken packaged in portion sizes and make some side items. This is what was in the freezer......so I may be chickened out soon. I know mom made spagetti this weekend so I will probable take that on monday with a mid size salad and no bread.

Have a wonderful and blessed day...........I am also gonna try to work on a Tshirt quilt I need to get done.

I am in for November. I was gone for almost a week and didn't have internet access. Will catch up later. I am off to put together the crib for grand baby #1.

hello all. halloween candy????? sure..... mine is gone. i only had like 5 pieces in the house, and i ate it all one day......so, now it's gone. tootsie rolls and l twix bar. all minatures. i know, they were good. the only candy i have had in months. we don't get tricker-treaters out in the boonies, but did go to a local halloween parade, and helped a 3 yr old grandson, pick up candy that was thrown to us spectators. all of it made it into his pail, but the 5 pices i took for 'taxes'. :)
welcome, newbees. friendly lot here. and lots of wt getting lost as well.
off to a funeral today. gotta make good choices at the dinner.

I am not dragging my feet, believe me. I went from the doctor's office to the hospital for blood work and will have the MRI as soon as Priority approves it. I went to my local hospital to look at the new machine, but the MRI techs weren't there so it was locked. I will call in the morning and go see it. If I can make myself do a semi closed machine, it would be easier for my family than traveling to an open one. I plan on proving on the doctor wrong, but if I have it, I will do what needs to be done short of hospitalization.

In the meantime, I will clean house, make the Spicy Spiral I cut out wrong, walk the dogs and not eat all the chocolate in the house and, of course , pray and treat my body in a healthy way. Sounds like a day's work, so I'll see you later.

Irish.......sorry to assume you were dragging your feet on the MRI.......and yes I understand about feeling closed in on the MRI. I know my mom couldn't do a traditional MRI machine but she was able to do the Open MRI.

I love the Spicy Spiral......do you know where I can find the pattern for it? I haven't seen it locally.


I have been cooking some chicken and thin pork chops. I think I am gonna make me some fried brown rice with pork and chicken for this week. One nice thing is that work is starting a new program next year for healthy living .....focusing on weight and a healthy lifestyle.

I also forgot........I am working on my grocery list for when I get some money.....lol so I can plan for a healthy and wiser choices when I am making my meals since I only have me to worry about.

I have been drinking too much soda since I started back to work, need to take my decaf tea and water with me to stay away from the sodas.

Keep up your hard work and remember you are in control of what you eat and drink.