285!

.....and I'll take it!!! Slowly slowly slowly..... I've stopped thinking of losing weight in terms of time... meaning I no longer am saying *I'll lose 20 pounds by Christmas* etc etc ... I'm just going to lose it.... however long it takes!!

On the upswing of things, my husband got a different job within his old company, and started the new position today .... the downside is that I'm going to have to give up the luxurious lifestyle I've been enjoying in the last 4 weeks that he hasn't been working.... I've been going to the gym every morning, whenever I want, staying as long as I want, and returning whenever I want - and I'll tell ya - it was fun!
Too bad it's ending.... tomorrow I'm going to have to bring my youngest with me and put him in the daycare at the gym, and I'm not sure how much time he'll allow for cardio :)

Oh well, I do have to make it work... and I will.

Always cold

Whenever I'm in the process of losing weight, I get so cold at night... Usually I'm always warm, warm hands, warm everything, but when I'm losing weight I just freeze. Tonight while watching TV I had a big sweater on, slippers and a big heavy blanket and I was still shivering!! So weird. My husband of course notices this, and the other night noticed that I WASN'T cold or shivering and jokingly asked whether I had *cheated* that day..... and I HAD! Crazy - but I had eaten a chocolate bar that afternoon and that night I wasnt cold.

I wonder why this happens? Is it a physiological occurance in my body where I dont have enough fuel to keep warm? Whatever it is, I find it very interesting! And the scale seems to reflect it the next day.....perhaps all that shivering shaves off a few pounds :)

Going out to dinner when you're *being good*

It sucks!!! We went to Montana's tonight with the kids - just to get out of the house and do something - as we haven't really gone out since hubby was laid off, and I just found it all just completely unfair! We went to a rib house and the kids had their usual unhealthy fair (they eat very healthy 98% of the time, so I let them go a little crazy on the fries etc when we got out) and my husband had wings... WINGS!! And let me tell ya - I wanted one those little buggers. Thankfully he ordered them waaaay too hot for my liking, so I didnt even have one.... no, I just sat there eating my dry burger on a whole wheat bun and side salad. B.O.R.I.N.G. The REASON I like going out is to eat stuff I never eat at home, so it just wasn't fun. My kids were fun, my husband was fun, but the food.... not fun.

Oh well, I weighed in at 286.5 this morning after spending 2 1/2 hours at the gym, so I'm happy. Cant move my legs, but I'm happy :)

Out of the blue.......

Well, here I am. Back. After more than a year's absence. Crazy.

This is what has happened in the past... ohhh i dont know, 13 months or so!

Moved across the country (to where there is lots of snow... brrrrr!), started walking everyday, lost weight, got plantar fasciitis, stopped walking, gained weight, had a fun summer, hosted my inlaws for 4 weeks, got kids started in school, started volunteering, husband got laid off (ummm why did you move us all the way out here then?!), started going to the gym everyday, started losing weight, realized I need more than just good nutrition and exercise to keep this up, posted to my blog.

That's it! At this current time I have lost an amazing 6 pounds since I last posted..... woohoo!!!! please please hold the applause!!!! so pathetic. There I said it - it IS pathetic - however I refuse to give in to my negative self talk, so I'm owning what I did or did not do this past year, and moving on.....

WEIGH-IN #3

I'm the same - 296... would like to blame it on the *molasses* excuse (see post below), but it's simply the result of some mindless and unhealthy eating this past week. I really do have to work on a) being more planned in my eating and b) working through my self-sabotaging. If ONLY I was as good at eating well as I am at sabotaging - I'm sure I could win the saboteur olympics if there was such a thing!

I'm thinking that this week every time I want to eat junk, I will first take a full length picture of myself and see if I still feel I *deserve* that cookie or whatever. And if this doesn't work, then I will get naked for said picture. Hard to deny reality with the bumps and lumps staring at me!!

WEIGH-IN #2

So I've stayed at 296. My digital scale registers my weight sometimes, but not all the time, so I'm going to hold off on switching to that one as my official weigh-in scale til next week.

30 pounds in 4 weeks feels great, but I also know that my weight loss will slow down like molasses from now on, and I need to make sure that this fact doesn't ruin my mental and emotional outlook!

oh happy happy day...

So today I weighed in at 296...AND, I actually registered on my digital scale (the one that only goes to 300) at 299! So, I'm hoping to be able to use that one from now on. I'll have to eat (pardon the pun) the 3 pound difference, but whatever - it feels good to be on my way!

1st OFFICIAL WEIGH-IN

and I lost another pound :) Not quite as incredible as my first 3 weeks, but I had one of those *gotta eat all my favorite junk because I'm starting in earnest on Thursday* kinda weeks. And then I forgot to weigh myself on Thursday. hmmmmm *forgot* - how convenient!

Trying to navigate the gong show that is my house. My parents have left and my husband goes back to work tomorrow, so I'll be officially on my own with 3 people under the age of 4! ACK!

I had to post this picture

I glanced at it on hide those cookies' blog and it took me a few seconds to register what he's doing with that cookie dough. Have to laugh but I also find it sad..... the fat girl's version of crack!

2 weeks post-partum.....

and I'm down 27 pounds so far. WOOHOO!! Thank you breastfeeding and not being able to drive and so have no way to get out and buy crap food on my own!!

This is as per my old analog scale. I still dont register on my digital scale as it only goes up to 300 pounds, and if I remember correctly, when I first bought it, there was a 7 pound difference between it and my old analog scale. I'm hoping I will be able to use the digital as of next Thursday. In which case I wont really show a loss, but oh well. I think it's probably more accurate than my old ancient one and I like to see those decimals. Nothing like seeing you've lost 2.1 pounds..... soooooo much better than just 2 :)

1 week post-partum....

...and I've lost 16 pounds.... that's almost 9 pounds of baby and about 5 pounds of *stuff* :) ... which leaves about 2 pounds of fat lost. woohoo ;)

I'm not TRYING to lose weight... have been eating really well as my support team (hubby and parents) have been feeding me yummy (but not always the healthiest) meals.

I'm still in quite a lot of pain as my incision hasn't healed well.... cant walk well and so I'm feeling a tad sorry for myself and chocolate makes me feel better :) Fortunately, since I'm unable to get out on my own, I dont have access to a lot of it, so it's been minimal.

I'll see what happens at my 2 week mark on Thursday, and then it's only a week til I get *serious*!! I had hoped to be closer to 300 by Sept 4th, but oh well.

What I've been doing well is no pop and no fast food, both of which I craved in my last month of pregnancy and are major trigger foods. This week I'm trying to cut back on the sugar and the chocolate and make sure I'm eating lots of fruits and veggies.

Over and out

So I had a baby......!

Well hello there to the maybe 2 people who still visit this blog :)

Just a little update......

I had my baby! A very sweet baby boy whom we named Evan David. Came into this world on Thursday, August 14th at 9:04am via a planned c-section. He weighed 8 pounds 11 ounces, which is a big baby by most standards, but a pip-squeak by ours! My daughter was 10 pounds and my first son was 9 pounds, 14 ounces. However my daughter was born a whole month before Evan (she was overdue), so I'm sure he woulda pudged up if given the chance :)

I gained a LOT of weight with this pregnancy. Exactly what I was afraid of, but what's done is done. At my last weigh-in a week before I gave birth, I weighed in at 326 pounds - 5 pounds more than I was on the day my first son was born. I dont know what I weighed on the actual day, but I will be weighing myself this Thursday at the one week post-partum to see where I'm at. With my first baby, I lost 25 pounds that first week, so that would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath... the weight didn't come off as fast with my 2nd!

I THINK that at the time I found out I was pregnant, I weighed about 283 pounds. My plan was to gain hardly anything - to try not to go over 290, but that plan was shot to hell in the first 2 months! My embarrassment at my lack of control over my food intake and the amount I was gaining led me to not feel worthy of posting here. I had nothing to say except how disappointed I was feeling, so I avoided writing on this little blog of mine like the plague. However I made myself HAVE to come here everyday in order to link to the blogs of all the people who inspire me (this probably means you), so that I couldn't totally avoid being accountable, and I knew I'd return after I gave birth with a 'second wind'.

My plan is to start back at the weight loss *thing* on Thursday, September 4th. That gives me time to recover from my surgery, let my hormones get back to normal, get into the swing of things looking after 3 kids, and gaining back some control over my emotions, anxieties and stress levels (I find it usually takes about 6 weeks to get through the fog that a new baby creates in your life). I am breastfeeding which helps with weight loss, but not if you eat crap, and so I will need much more than that to lose the weight I want to lose.

My other update is that we are moving across the country to Ottawa. My husband has accepted a job there and we are really excited to move. We already have an offer in on a house there, but it's contingent on selling our house here by the 25th. The market here in Vancouver is ridiculously slow and frustrating, and after 3 weeks our house remains unsold. 3 weeks isn't that long, but it IS when you only have a month to sell your house!

So... I have a lot on my plate. Trying to sell house (which means keeping house clean at ALL times in case someone wants to see it - try THAT with 2 kids.... and hey, now try that with 2 kids and a newborn and see how relaxed you feel!), buying a house, planning the packing and move, oh yeah and having a baby... it all adds up to a whole lotta stuff to deal with. I'm just trying to go with the flow and deal with things one day at a time and will be gearing up to getting back into the swing of things weightloss-wise in about 2 and half weeks, making little changes from now until then so that I dont sabotage myself with my usual mantra of *I'm going to change EVERYTHING about how I eat as of the 4th*!

Thanks to everyone who left little notes of support and to just say 'hi' over the last 8 months. I'm really sorry I've been MIA on YOUR blogs. I hope you're all doing well :)

Back from my 2 month sabatical from blogland!

Hello people..... people?? Are any of you still out there?! Wouldn't blame ya if you weren't - I've been MIA for so long.

Not sure why I took that time off... I think the pregnancy thing threw me for a loop and trying to switch to just being healthy and not trying to lose weight was disconcerting for me. I think I am very disappointed not to be thinner with this 3rd pregnancy... and I'm extremely concerned about gaining as much weight as I did with my first 2. You'd think these two things alone would help me keep on a healthy path, but oh no.... I jumped in and went for the complete opposite!

Anyway, time to lay it all out on the line and be honest.

I have gained weight. I am now 292 pounds. Scares the living crap out of me... as the 300 mark is looming right there. I'm not even sure if my scale goes over 300 pounds!! I picture me one day standing on it and it falling apart or sounding an alarm or something.....

Let me be perfectly clear... I am under no illusion that my weight gain is justified because I'm pregnant. At the moment the baby weighs about 1 1/2 ounces, so any fantasies about gaining baby weight are just that. Truth is my eating has been out of control. TOTALLY out of control. I can attribute a few stressful triggers for this, but I take responsibility for everytime I shoveled the food in, and I know I'm the only one who chose to eat when and how I did.

But just to make myself feel better, I'll list my stressors, as it will also catch you up on what's been going on..

Hubby's been away for almost 5 weeks of the last 8. And unfortunately bingeing has been the name of the game. BLAH. I just couldn't seem to get it together and climb out of the rut. I think I have now, but we shall see.

We are waiting to hear about 2 job opportunities that would see us moving. One across the world and one across the country. We'd prefer to stay in Canada, but that opportunity's not in the bag whereas the Israel one is... but it's taking them a long time to get the paperwork together and come up with the offer (5 months so far!!), and in the meantime the other opportunity has come up. To say the least, for a control freak like me, it's been a very stressfull year so far and I really really really just want to know what we're going to be doing. There's a million things to do if and when we do move, and the listmaker in me is chomping at the bit, but I refuse to start expending energy on planning when we don't know what's going to happen. I think I'm more anxious about the whole thing than I'm willing to admit - ESPECIALLY about moving to Israel.

In my 12th week, I came down with a pregnancy-related rash called PUPPP. It's probably the worst skin condition I've ever experienced and I could have HAPPILY itched myself to death. I think I would choose chronic pain over being so itchy 24-7.... it's a rare condition that occurs in about 1% of pregnancies and usually only occurs in the 3rd trimester, covers the WHOLE body - except the face - and it's SO bad that women often asked to be induced early just to get rid of it. Oh yeah, the only cure is to give birth and LUCKY LUCKY me gets it with 25 weeks to go!! Anyway, with my doctor only offering me me drugs to help control the itching - which included antihistamine everyday and doubling up on it at night so that I could sleep AND steroid cream (this for a woman who refused to take even ONE pill during either of her first 2 pregnancies), I was less than impressed and just a little distraught. To the point that my husband worriedly asked if I was considering terminating the pregnancy!!! Hadn't even entered my mind, but that gives you an idea of what agony I was in :( Anyway, I am happy to say that I found the solution (at least it worked for me) by reading anything and everything I could find on the subject online. And I kept reading about Dandelion root and how it had helped some women with PUPPP actually cure it and that it is safe to take while pregnant. I started taking it and it instantly helped. And I am glad to say that the rash has almost disappeared as has the itching. YAY!!! Can't tell you how stressed out I was about it and how distressing it was... thinking of being THAT uncomfortable for so long, and being VERY pregnant in the summer and not being able to wear short sleeves or shorts... especially if we're in Israel!! Trust me it was HIDEOUS. On an interesting side note, 70% of women who get it have boys... and one hypothesis is that because male fetal DNA has been found in biopsies of the rash, that my body is having an allergic reaction to that male DNA.... hmmmmmmm

Anyway, those are the 3 stressors that have CONTRIBUTED to my bad eating habits.... but I have done my best the last few days to curtail them and to get myself under control again. I have high hopes to stay under 300.... SUCH a scary number.

So that's it in a nutshell.... along with all the craziness that comes with having 2 young kids and oh yeah, I keep forgetting I'm pregnant!! I think I've been feeling more tired lately, but I'm not sure :)

Thanks to all my supporters out there - I've really appreciated your little nudges and I hope to be a bit more consistent going forward :)

STILL BORED

nuf said :) sorry guys... I plan to get back on track with everything soon!

I'm bored with myself

Let me explain... I'm just so darn bored of hearing myself talk about (in my head of course) what I want to do, what I'm going to do, writing the same old lists over and over, telling my husband what my *plan* is so that he wont bug me....and then never following through fully... sure, I've achieved some results, but most of it was half-assed and I'd still hang on to old habits, but hide them, so that they don't *count*. What a crock.

Anyway, I just completed a 2-week crap-eating regime of olympic proportions. I was out of control a lot of it....totally aware, and telling myself it was OK because as of January 1st, 2008 at the magical hour of midnight, I was miraculously going to say goodbye to my bad eating habits and couch potato-ness and become the poster child of health and hotness.

Uh huh. I knew I was bullshitting myself, but I ate anyway. And I gained 5 pounds. SOO not surprised, but SOO disappointed in myself.

In true list maniac form, I made a list of things I want to accomplish this year, and then I tucked it away and made a new list of things I want to achieve for the month of January. One month seems more attainable than a whole year, and being pregnant - things get a little wonky with the weight loss thing anyway, so I'm sticking to just trying to incorporate some healthy habits into my daily living. And since I feel that if they are *out there* in blogland, I will feel more accountable to them, here are my goals for January 2008. Ahem:

1) Bed by 11:30: This is a huge one for me... I've spent the last 6 months going to be past 1am - and this has not been condusive to feeling energized and motivated to do any form of exercise the next day - especially when one is woken up at 6:30am by 2 kidlets.

2) Daily exercise: I dont care what this is - it could be a walk to the park with the kids (and trust me the heart rate does NOT get into the fat-burning zone with a 3 year old in tow!!) or just leg lifts on the floor. I need to quiet the fat lazy girl and just do it. I truly believe the more energy you expend, the more energy you have.

3) NO bingeing or sneaking food. Critical.

4) 2 litres of water minimum a day. I'm close to this anyway, but dont keep close track and it's even more important now that there's someone else sucking me dry of H2O :)

5) Make realistic lists and follow through on them. Most evenings I make a list of things I want to accomplish the next day, and to my credit they'd be totally doable if I didn't have 2 kids, nap times to work around, 3 meals to make, cleaning and errands to run during a day. It's sadly comical how I still haven't learned my lesson on this one.

6) Eat a healthy diet. 'Nuf said.

7) Personal care: Trying to fit a shower, putting on a little make up, doing my hair, filing my nails, brushing my teeth, wearing clothes I feel good in instead of sweats and an old t-shirt.....well, instead of getting only some of those in, I'd like to make ALL of them a priority. I've fallen into the trap a lot of moms fall into, but it's no excuse... I wanna be a HOT MOM not a frumpy mummy!!

So that's it. I'm following the lead of some fellow bloggers and am putting stickers on my calendar to commemorate each day I follow my 7 cute little guidelines. I hope I can develop some good habits and then sustain them past the month of January...

So happy new fresh year everyone..... have loved reading all your new year posts and as usual don't know what I'd do without your awesome inspiration :)

HOLY CRAP

That's how I'm feeling. We still can't quite believe it's true. Even after a 4th pregnancy test which I took this morning and the line was no longer faint, I still haven't digested it. I'm starting to feel the excitement of picking a name, wondering what it he/she will look like, seeing him/her on an ultrasound for the first time, etc etc. On the other hand, I've already started worrying about its health, having amniocentesis again (which I had a REALLY hard time with emotionally with my 2nd) and of course the weight that I will probably gain.

I gained about 45 pounds with my first 2 pregnancies (each!) and I just CANT do that again. I got up to 320 with Matthew and my legs and hips just hated me at the end. Plus, carrying a 35 pound child up the stairs when you're over 300 pounds and pregnant just isn't fun.

Yes, I'm definitely disappointed that my weight loss goals have to be put on hold (temporarily mind you), but I'm also bound and determined that I will gain the least amount of weight I can by eating healthy and exercising. I definitely wont put this child in any danger by trying to lose weight while pregnant, but I'm hoping that by keeping myself in check and not eating for 2 or 3 or 4 as I sometimes did with my first 2 pregnancies; that I can end up not to far from where I am now in 9 months. I've read that a person of my size can safely gain about 15 pounds and have a perfectly healthy pregnancy, so that's what I'm going to aim for. I've also read that if you DO lose weight while pregnant, that the toxins stored in your fat cells can affect the baby, as can ketones in your blood from being in a constant state of low insulin (due to no carbs). I dont want either of these obviously, so the aim is healthy weight GAIN :)

Anyway, undoubtably many of you that read this will now find my posts boring... I mean this is supposed to be a weight loss blog, and although I'm not baby crazy like I was with my first, I doubt I'll have many inspiring weight loss posts......but it's ok - I forgive you all :) Hopefully I'll *see* you again next September when part 2 of my weight loss program starts up.

As a side note, we've been told that it's now quite probable that we will be relocated to Israel for my husband's work..... something I've agreed to commit to for 2 years. ACCKK!! Scary. However one of the good things about the move would be that I'd have my inlaws nearby to help me deal with 3 kids, whereas here I have no help. We're expecting an offer to be made in early Jan, and if it's satisfactory, we'll be moving in April!

Anyway, blah blah blah - hope everyone has a fantastic Xmas!!!

and HOLY CRAP!!!

A little *BUMP* in the road.....

Well.....so I think I'm pregnant.... AAAAHHHHHHH .....and I'm feeling a bit numb... or maybe it's denial?!! My hubby and I have always said we'd like 3 kids, and given the fact that we were told we had less than a 1% chance of even having 1 kid, AND given the fact that we had sex exactly once... on Dec 6th (yes I remember..... it's been a slow month!), this baby would be a friggen miracle. I knew we had sex around the time I was ovulating (when we thought we were infertile, I got REALLY good at tracking my cycle - so much so that I can now FEEL when I ovulate!!), and we didn't use any protection, but I thought at the time, 'there's NO way'. HA!

But I should have gotten my TOM this week, and I've been experiencing a few weird signs, and so yesterday when I was spending too much money at Walmart, I picked up a pack of their generic pregnancy tests and tested this morning. It was a faint line, but it was a line. And so here we are. I'm expecting my husband home from Arizona in about 45 minutes, and I'm going to break the news.... he'll be THRILLED. And I know I WILL be. There's just a few things I have work through before I'm there.

TIMING: We had planned to start *trying* in Feb/March... this was because (selfishly) I REALLY wanted to go to my 20 year high school reunion in Nova Scotia in early August. Well that's not going to happen now - I'll be 8 1/2 months pregnant!

MONEY: This means I won't be working before this baby comes, which means no EI from the government and we'll be living on hubby's income only for a while. It's going to be TIGHT.

MY WEIGHT: My hope was that I would be quite a bit lighter when I got pregnant again. Although I love being pregnant and also love the *I'm supposed to have a big belly* feeling that goes along with it, I still hated being FAT and pregnant... not to mention the stress on my hips and legs - blah

Anyway, these are minor concerns... I know how devastating it can be to NOT be able to conceive and so I feel so blessed that it happened so easily and I'm NOT complaining... I'm really not. I just need to work through some of these mixed emotions.

And I need to test again tomorrow morning... maybe the test I used was broken or something :)

I'll leave you with AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

6th WEIGH-IN RESULT!

Woo hoo for me!! I lost 3.6 pounds this week to put me over 5 pounds loss - finally finally finally! I guess last week WAS a temporary and somewhat artificial gain cause by salt overload at my hubby's Xmas party or something...

Whatever - I'm THRILLED!

I also enjoyed myself immensely at the hotel on my own this weekend. Did a bit of shopping, but mostly just hung out in my jammies and read magazines, watched TV and movies, and made a dent in organizing my life and weight-loss goals for the new year. Dont really believe in new year's resolutions, but I do like the feeling of it being a fresh new year with tons of opportunities for success and achievements.

I'm also proud of myself because I didn't go on a crazy binge while on my own, and believe me I was fantasizing about it last week in a major way - especially on Friday!! Thinking of all the crap I was going to buy and eat in my secret little binge nest. I ended up getting some chinese food, had a SMALL bag of chips, 1 chocolate bar and 2 pieces of licorice. It was quite the treat!!! I'm sure this sounds like a lot to many of you, but for me this was nothing..... me without restraint would have gotten 2 BIG bags of chips.. a BAG of chocolate, a BAG of licorice and probably had MacDonalds on top of the chinese food - all in just 2 days! I actually brought fruit, water and some All Bran bars with me this time, and so at least got in some healthy stuff amongst the crapola :)

Hope everyone has a good week!

Yes yes I'm still here :)

And yes yes I know I didnt post my weight last weekend. *SIGH* I did so well last week - went to my husband's Xmas party on Friday night and ate totally within my points - abstained from the desserts (which included dark, milk and white chocolate fondues - ACK!!), the fatty lamb shanks and the scallops dripping in butter. Last year I ate til I felt ill, but I really did well this year... didn't drink anything but water all night... and a lot of it!!

So when I stepped on my scale before weigh in on Saturday morning and it said I had GAINED 2 pounds overnight, I was just a TAD shocked.. just a TAD (read: TOTALLY). I didn't have a good feeling about my official WW weigh in and it definitely didn't disappoint. *Officially* I gained 2.2 pounds. I THINK that this was water weight because the foods I did eat were pretty savory (ie: SALTY) and the scale was back down on Sunday, so maybe that's it. But it certainly put me in a lovely funk for the following 4 days. So I'd like to acknowledge that I'm cheating (probably only myself, but whatever!) by not showing my gain in my ticker or spreadsheet. I just can't bring myself to do it!

I've been *good* all week (hate using that expression, but it gets my point across) so we'll see what happens this week. I also exercised quite a bit this week, so I'm hoping that will help. Even if it doesn't, it felt darn good to get back on my treadclimber and I'm hoping to make it a regular thing.

As a little payback for him being away for almost the whole month of November, the best husband in the world is giving me a weekend at a hotel for 2 nights this weekend.. we're going to the *Breakfast with Santa* event that his company puts on every year and then he's dropping me off downtown. Can't wait!!!!!

And just cause they're so cute (except for the bruise above Maya's lip!), here are a couple of pics of my babes (and me) at a restaurant last weekend :) I love how my black turtleneck makes me look like I'm just a floating head (with only a slight double chin)... woohoo! almost makes it acceptable :)

An easier way to stalk you big losers!!

I don't know about you, but I go to my favorite bloggers' sites at least once a day to see if they've posted, and I WAS doing that by clicking on their links on MY blog below... this didn't take THAT long to do, but if no one had posted, it got a bit boring (and disappointing!) after a while.

Well. I just have to say, that thanks to Scale Junkie, I am now using the most amazing tool! It's called Google Reader and it acts like an inbox for all the blogs you read - showing you if anyone has posted anything new. All you have to do is *subscribe to* (add) someone's blog, and it will automatically show if they've posted since you last looked. AMAZING!!

I'm sure some (most?) of you are already using this or something similar, but it is a delightful surprise for me... it means I can cut down on the amount of time I spend on here (my husband will thank me!) AND I can actually read MORE blogs (cause I'm a junkie for weight loss inspiration!)... even if I dont link to them from my blog. Ok I guess my husband WON'T be thanking me!

The way it works is that in your inbox you'll see a list of all the blogs you've subscribed to - and they will be bolded if they have a new post. You can link to the person's actual blog just by clicking on their post title - which is what you'll have to do if you want to comment. The only housekeeping thing I had to do was open my inbox and *mark all posts as read* as it had the last 158 posts people had made and I guess assumed I hadn't read them yet.

You can also see who has subscribed to your blog, and its *trends* features shows you how many posts you received, how many you've read, etc etc....

Anyway, if anyone's interested, you can find Google reader here: http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlereader/tour.html - it literally took me 10 minutes to add everyone's blog and then I added a link to it on my blog so I can see in 2 seconds if anyone's posted since I last logged on!

Sorry for the crazy excitement - I just love technology, shortcuts and time savers :)

On a weight loss note, I have my weigh in tomorrow, and once again my scale says I'm down... we'll see what those crazy fluctuating WW scales say tomorrow though! I have my husband's company Xmas party tonight.... and I'm planning not to drink at all or eat too much (hard - because they put on quite the spread).... but I'm fine with this because we have another Xmas party to go to tomorrow night and I plan to indulge then :)

Happy Friday and thank you thank you Scale Junkie!

Update: OK - I think I just figured out how I sometimes get comments immediately after posting a new post! duh :)