Phoebe jumps on the bandwagon

Hi Phoebe

I do think that we are particularly fortunate with the team.

Not only do we have very committed weight losers here - but also people that want to enjoy themselves whilst doing it, and I think that for most of us - our middle name is "support". I am convinced that if any of us go through a dark phase - the support network should get them straight back on track.

You have done particularly well so far - you are sitting on a 100% record. I am afraid I dropped points a week ago when I was retaining water and had a week with a zero drop. Two days earlier the weight drop was there and then it went up again for the weekend.

It's a shame we cannot pass aspects around between ourselves - I would have cheerfully not counted my calories in the first two weeks. I found it made me question aspects of an eating plan that had worked very well for so long. I do best if I use my judgement and ignore calories on a day-to-day basis. This week's extra exercise is a breeze for me - I go out walking for over 3 hours every day and take some gym classes too. I finished both bonuses yesterday. I could so easily take on everyone else's additional exercise time without trying.

Take care
Love
Margaret
 
Day in review:
- Woke up late, did my 15 min of morning exercise anyhow. Had been hoping to get up early and do a TV exercise program, but partner was asleep on the living room couch, so just as well I slept in.
- Dropped DD at preschool. Not enough time to go to the office, too much time to go straight to my 9:30 meeting. Went to the pediatrician's office to get an updated immunization record per school's request - for some reason, the school's record showed all her 3yo shots, but was missing some random 18-month ones.
- Arrived at client's office only 15 minutes early, to find client in the parking lot searching for her keys. Oops.
- Was let in by client's daughter, who works in the same building. Client and I did a job interview (good candidate!) and then she dug out some files for my boss. Who was supposed to be at the meeting but called from 30 minutes away about 10 minutes into the interview. Oops.
- Headed back to the office, stopping along the way to pick up a copy of another client's books.
- Arrived at office starving. Made some Honey Coriander Dipping Sauce to go with chicken; the original recipe is for wings, and it needs less soy sauce, less honey, way more lime juice, and cumin instead of chili powder to be excellent on breast, IMHO. Also a big thing of steamed spinach.
- Sat down at my desk, which is a mess. Tried to get oriented.
- Emailed copies of client tax returns to their banker.
- Client who stood me up yesterday called to see if we're still on for tomorrow (um, no, I'm in class - that's why we rescheduled for yesterday). Agreed to meet in 90 minutes at her house, 35 minutes away.
- Did an amended return, which should take me 20 minutes. Got everything done except stamps and mailing label on the envelope to the client.
- Client at the door with a notice. IRS says "you owe us $9k." He really owes nothing. Got a Power of Attorney and copies of the notice.
- Different client's banker returns my call. Me: I've been trying to get Important Tax Information from you since August, and can't get it, despite actually paying you money to provide said information. What gives? Her: I can't give you that information, it has to come from John Smith, whose phone number I can't give you, and I'm not willing to take responsibility for getting the information from him for you. Can you fax me the thing from the client you've already faxed here 4 times?
- Emailed that client to say his banker's an idiot; do they have a backup plan?
- Asked boss to call client 35 minutes away, because I'm supposed to be there in 20 minutes.
- Drove toward client's house, but got lost in construction.
- Got phone call from boss, saying she forgot to call the client.
- Arrived at client's house, 20 minutes late. Oops.
- Scheme to preserve a deduction for said client foiled by client's desire to structure things differently. Warned client she might owe $100k in tax. Took a copy of the books to be sure.
- Headed home. Sausage and Lentil Soup + stir-fried green beans for dinner. Yum. Need some more protein and fat for snack.
- DD had music playing on YouTube, so I jumped around and danced with her for 15 minutes. MIL is watching TV in her room (the only room DDR will work in), so that might be it for my exercise tonight.

Tomorrow:
- Need to get up an hour early (yawn), and get DD up an hour early (ugh) so I can be at class on time. I've promised DD a donut for breakfast if she gets up cheerfully and we're in the car on time. Will resist donut for myself, because donut for breakfast restricts my choices for the rest of the day too much.
- Class for 8 hours, at breakneck speed. (The book is like 5 inches thick, and they cover 75% of it in 2 days.) Can probably walk inside during lunch break, since they don't feed us. I bring my own lunch, and can eat during the program before or after the break. If I were super-diligent, I'd try and walk during breaks.
 
How old is your daughter? I am confused, I thought she was a preschooler? So, how then, does she have a church preference different than your own?
 
She's 4. She wants to go to Chinese church, because there are Chinese kids there, and she's self-identifying primarily as Chinese these days. (She's mixed.) The church we're members of has no minorities who attend at all, and only a handful of kids her age. It says a lot for how badly she wants to hang out with other Chinese kids that she tolerates the less-enjoyable-for-her aspects (me not being with her, not knowing anyone yet, immigrant culture - she's technically first-generation both by genetics and by parenting, but she's not being raised culturally first-generation).

She's having a hard time figuring out the race stuff lately - she was really upset back at the beginning of school, and said she didn't want to go out in the sun at all next summer, because it makes her skin brown (which it does - she turns the same shade sunscreened as bare-skinned), and "I don't want to have brown skin anymore."

Since the only Asian people she sees regularly are my partner and MIL, I figure she deserves at least one activity a week where everyone looks like her. Particularly since it's not uncommon when she's out with me for people to comment on her appearance in front of her. (Those same people generally also assume she's adopted. Other than her coloring and her eyes, she looks *exactly* like I did at that age.)

Other than that, she has a huge number of preferences different than mine. I could probably count on one hand the number of things we have identical preferences for. ;)
 
Okay. I was just thinking, "How did she ever even go to a different church? It's not like she drives!"

So is your partner an immigrant (you said DD is first gen.), or your in-laws?
 
Phoebe,

Just reading what a typical work day for you is like makes me feel exhausted!!!!!!!

Hope all is going well,

Frankie
 
Today in review:
- Class for 8 hours.
* Good: I did my 15 min of exercise at oh-dark-thirty this morning, and walked on the morning break and at lunch, and now only need my 15 minutes tomorrow morning to get full bonus points on this week's challenge!
* Bad: People kept talking to me when I was trying to go walk - I wanted to be all done by now! And I had an hour and 40 minutes of possible walking time, and only got like 40 minutes in.
* Good: Everyone agreed with me that some other CPA's position on a certain issue was wrong, and mine was right.
* Bad: I now know 3 returns I did last year were done wrong, and the mistakes involve a significant amount of money. I hate that!
* Good: The cramps that accompany my period didn't start until the way home, so I wasn't miserable in class.
* Bad: I don't anticipate needing the services of my uterus at any point in the future, yet can't find a way to unsubscribe from the monthly reminders.
* Good: Hormone-related water retention was today, which means it should be gone for Saturday's challenge weigh-in. Which means I might have a loss after all.
* Good: I'm normally a huge in-class snacker, and my boss always brings nuts and jellybeans for snacks. I stuck to 3/4 of a pomegranate, half an apple, and a stick of low-fat string cheese. Oh, and some flax bread with butter, but most of that came home and was eaten with dinner. I avoided the morning donut spread altogether, and had some chicken breast (with totally-not-worth-the-calories honey dip) for lunch. Still feeling hungrier than I ought to be for the calories I think I consumed, so will eat more later on. Must think of what lunch to bring tomorrow; I'm without any handy lean protein that stores well and doesn't need reheating.

All in all, a good day!
 
That's cool. I love experiencing other cultures. My friend went to Taiwan (and Shanghai) in 1999. She really enjoyed that trip.

Good job on not eating the donuts!

P.S. Unfortunately, o-dark-thirty is when I have to get up, too. I feel for ya.
 
Good day in class today. Came home way short on calories and protein - thank goodness for tilapia. MIL also made stir-fried onions with scrambled egg and ham (might sound nasty, doesn't look great, tastes *wonderful*) for me for dinner, and I think it had way more oil in it than I estimated, because I'm still short on calories by my guess but I feel like I've eaten enough. Still a bit short on protein (15g or so), but I'm undecided as to whether to have a proteiny snack or just go to bed.

Loving the pedometer. Knees not really loving my enthusiasm for the pedometer.

Going to sleep in tomorrow. Only one more week before vacation, and sooooo much work to do before we go. DD's Nutcracker performance is Sunday, so tomorrow is the only sleeping in day.

Oh, and my new scale, which weighed 1.5 pounds heavier than the old scale last night? Weighed exactly the same as the old scale this morning - at least as much as the old scale ever gives a good weight. Old scale = more broken than I thought, maybe.
 
Hi Phoebe

I hate it when scales dont tell the truth for any reason. I suspect that my scale was naughty when we went away a few weeks ago. I think that the different location made it flatter me a little. It is confusing and makes you not know where you stand.

Remember to put your pedometer on as you get dressed and leave it on until bedtime. It is the only logical way because all those steps burn calories.

Well done for doing the exercise and resisting the doughnuts.

You are such an asset to our team.

Take care
Love
Margaret
 
You're showing a great attitude and determination in the way that you're getting your exercise in despite the timing challenges. Good for you.
 
Margaret: Thanks for the reminder! I actually hadn't put mine on for the day - oops. I know I miss my morning exercise steps, because I do that in my underwear, but there's no point in missing the ones once I'm dressed.

Oh, and the scales today - the new one weighed lighter than the old by 0.3 pounds or so. At least both of them were under the weigh-in goal for the challenge - that would have been a dilemma!

Felici: Thanks! I'm really enjoying the challenges, being competitive that way. ;)
 
Hi Phoebe

Well I will admit something to you that I havent mentioned on this forum (or any other for that matter!!!) if I find that I am wandering around the house in my underwear and not immediately putting on outer clothing - I clip the pedometer to my knickers. I dont capture all the steps - but it does get a decent proportion of them. :biggrinjester:

It sounds like a joke - but this is totally true.:smilielol5:

It is really odd the way that your scales are going. Are you being sure to place them in the same place on a hard surface because both those factors are supposed to cause problems. My bathroom floor is tiled so I line two sides with one of the tiles every time.

Well done again for maintaining your 100% in the challenge. You havent slipped up once in 4 weeks.

Take care
Love
Margaret
 
At a gurl Margaret! :smilielol5:

OooO I just love that story! :smilielol5:

*****

Hi ya Phoebe!

Yer doin' Super Great!

Have A Great Night. :hug2:
 
Bleah. 10:30pm, and I'm ravenously hungry, plus have a caffeine-withdrawal headache. No caffeine for me this late at night, so hopefully the ibuprofen will help it.

Ravenously hungry maybe = stressed about the busy day tomorrow. Not looking forward to getting up early, or to going to church, or to getting DD fed and her hair done in the hour between church being over and her being required to be at the performance venue. She's supposed to have curly hair, which she doesn't want at all - she let me put curlers on her tonight, but then howled whenever I tried to dry her hair. (I knew there would be no getting her to sleep on them.) So at 2 hours past her bedtime, I took them back out, and as expected, she has sticky-up curly bangs (which need to be slicked back flat) and no curl in the back (which needs to be curly). So I get to be the bad mom whose kid isn't meeting expectations twice tomorrow. :p

So far, I've tried chocolate and bread-and-butter, and neither have made me less ravenously hungry. Maybe will have some leftover pork tenderloin from dinner and see if that helps. I've already had a gallon of water today, so probably not thirsty. And while I think stress is making me want to eat, identifying stress as the trigger normally makes it go away, and today it isn't. Hmm.
 
What in the world does she HAVE to have curly hair for? Can't they let her play the part with straight hair? I mean, come on people, she's 4!

Margaret, when I work out and my gym pants have no pockets, I put my pedometer in the pocket of my bra that is meant for the little boosting pads that I took out of them!
 
Amber

That is brilliant!

Finally I have found someone as eccentric as me!

And we admit it all in Phoebe's diary!!!

Phoebe

I agree with Amber. They should let the kid be comfortable and happy with straight hair. Some people just look to invent problems. No wonder you get headaches, feel stressed and want to eat. I bet most people on this forum find their natural inclination is to want to eat if they feel stressed.

Take care
Love
Margaret
 
Apparently, I walk a bunch before I get dressed in the morning. Like 1,100 steps! That underwear trick works!

DD is currently having her hair curled by MIL, at DD's request. (Oops - she just reappeared with the same stick-straight hair - her hair is thick enough that the weight pulls the curl right out.)
 
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