I often teach pre-schoolers, and I have two older kids of my own. I totally get this story.

I hope it had a happy low-calorie ending, because I think that after all the giving, the least we can get out of it for ourselves is the entitlement to eat as we'd planned. (It is hard ... I hope today is a good one for you.)

Hi Phoebe

I hope that your Monday is going well.

It sounds like it is quite hard to get your food and exercise to go to schedule - no matter how hard you plan.

My mouth had already watered at the idea of home baked bread, and now you speak of bread and butter. I really miss the simple things - I axed them from my diet some time ago. I weigh every day and started looking out for things that I eat and coincidentally my weight goes up or down. The things that give me a regular gain - I axe. The things that give me a regular loss - I eat more of.

We are team-mates. We are both in the same team for the Christmas challenge. I am convinced that our team is going to have the most fun.

Take care
Love
Margaret

I'm looking forward to getting to know you better while we walk through onderland's team challenge!

Yep! I had a big mug of tea, which warmed me up (my house is freezing!) and filled me up, and then a square of 85% dark chocolate before bed. (That's my big "treat" food, because a 10g square for 53 calories is enough to nibble on for about 10 minutes.)

Bread & butter wouldn't have been a bad choice, either, but I decided I was more in the mood for chocolate. I don't stick to such a strict calorie limit that if I'm really hungry, I won't eat. But if I know I ought to have had enough, I will try to drink something or find a distracting activity and see if that solves the problem.

Yeah, it's only recently that I've been adding a bit of bread here and there, because it tends to make me gain, too. This bread isn't very breadlike (in that it has a lot of fat and protein per carb compared to "normal" bread), so I'm treating it more like oatmeal - something I can eat as a treat, but too calorically dense to eat more than a measured serving of.

Our team is going to be great - we have some awesome people on it!

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.

Wow, you are freaking busy!! Good luck with all that...

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

All of 'em. They came from Taiwan in 1979 or so.

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.