If you're into folk/rock stuff, do you like The Levellers, Cannon? They did "What a beautiful daaaaa-aaaaaaaaaay-aaaaaaaaay, what a beautiful day" and Hope Street. Recommend them for *coughcoughdownloadcough* if you haven't heard them.

There's a thread about it in the Nutrition section if you're interested about the arsenic in chicken. The arsenic comes mainly from the feed the chickens are fed, but arsenic is also found naturally in soil. Church's and Popeyes are the worst for it, whereas KFC isn't too bad, mainly because there's more fat and not a great deal of actually meat...

How did the shopping go, anyway? Get any good stuff in? I love food shopping, it's always so exciting, especially when you get something you haven't tried before in. Hope you enjoyed it, anyway.

Bronsk

Congrats on your weight loss and walking! I think I need to finally get an ipod.

Drink your water and get your protein! Good luck and good job!!!

Epi

I'm familiar with the Levellers, but not Hope Street. As for the shopping I finally did it and now I find myself with a whole lot more choice. It should cut down on me having to order something or get fast food. I did well at Wendy's today for lunch though--a grilled chicken sandwich and a side caesar isn't too bad. There's a possibility in Spring time I'll need to look for another job. I think if I go into a school at 320-350 or so pounds I'll do much better than if I went in at 465. I have another trip coming up in a bit over a week and I will be forced to make some bad choices. I'm formulating a strategy in my mind now and will explain more later.

Just checking in. Now where are you going?

Just wanted to stop in to see how you are doing. Congratulations on losing 14 pounds! That is great! I'm so glad you decided to do the challenge too!

Detroit, Toronto, and Toledo. Its a baseball road trip. We go to different cities every year. The thing is we will drink pretty much nightly and we will eat a lot of things that are bad for us because we enjoy sampling regional food. In KC it was Barbeque. In St. Louis it was Italian. We also have to sample the ballpark food. I won't allow myself to feel cheated when I only eat at a place once in a lifetime so I think I will concentrate on my portion size and I'll eat extremely healthy at every meal that isn't a special regional choice. I will limit my beer intake and I'll have exactly 1 hotdog and 1 something else at every ballpark. I know I will be doing a lot of walking. For the week I don't think I can lose weight and not be miserable, but I do believe I can maintain.

yea sometime diets really get in the way.....have fun........

you'll be getting exercise in -- so don't sweat it... just have a good time...

A break even week is a good thing. Enjoyment is a better thing. Not having to lose 2 to 3 pounds you gained from your enjoyment is the best of things.

I admire your challenge. You definitely represent the mastery of thinkology.

Anyone who chooses a 2.5 year plan over a gastric bypass is pretty smart in my book.

WOW!! 14lbs gone already ... that's a whole stone. You are doing so great, I think you deserve a week off to go and enjoy yourself. And like you say, you won't go over the top, but will just enjoy stuff that you don't normally get the chance to experience. And a maintenance week does you good every now and then, it keeps the plateaus at bay Have a really great time!

Holidays do seem to plague the dieters, don't they... You've got it sussed though; just keeping the balance! And you've set yourself a target you can keep to, not one that's going to be too hard or too much effort. And like you said, you'll be doing a lot of walking which'll also even out what you're eating.

One trick I do if I go away somewhere, is take a bag of apples to munch on, so whenever I'm peckish I can go for one of those instead of sweets or unhealthy treats. If you take something low fat/low kcal/healthy with you, it may help a little as well.

Just make sure you enjoy yourself, and don't let eating get in the way of everything you want to do. You sound like you've got it sorted, so just kick back and enjoy it all. I know when I came back from a very splurg-a-rific holiday recently I was very pleasently surprised, so who knows, hopefully you will be too

Bronsk

Wow! Thanks for all the support. I just don't want to go on vacation and feel deprived. That kind of thinking leads me to binging when I get home or sometime along the trip. I really hope to lose 20 pounds before then so I have a little extra motivation to not backslide. I have 3 trips this summer and I did well on the first one, but this is the toughest because exploring local food and going to local places is part of the enjoyment.

cannon, I have always been a foodie. well just look at my weight and that tells ya something lol. We haven't been on vacations since my surgeries but when we did we would go to these little German towns and such. By the way German cuisine isn't known for its low calorie cuisine. Even Italian food is like that. So all you can do is make the best choices, It gives you an excuse to walk around the towns. I'm not sure which city your heading to but there are normally areas that involve a lot of walking. We our on our diet or our new way of eating but there is always food that isn't our on plan. Just use the best judgment you can.

Dont think of your lifestyle change as a diet where you are deprived... you're going on a trip to a place you haven't been.. you're going to a baseball game (I think), you'll be spending time with people you enjoy.. there's a lot of positives on the trip, it's not all about food, and not all about what you can or cannot eat...

Find other things to explore in the cities you'll be in... Music... Zoos... the toledo zoo has a really cool Hippo-aquarium where you can see hippos underwater, the erie street market is also a place to explore, if you've ever watched an episode of MASH, you'll find the mudhens are quite entertaining

Detroit has greektown, lots of healthy options for eating there... (even a little bit of baklava won't hurt ya much.. ) Hitsville USA is awesome if you like Motown...

Toronto has tons of stuff to do...Casa Loma will get your feet moving - exploring this old castle..

Have fun exploring these cities... they're actually fun places to visit

I want to go to Toledo zoo!!! I love hippos and I'd love to see them swim under water!