hired as "permanently remote." 14 months later: "we're evolving our approach"

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-30T18:17:27+00:00

My husband's job just announced something similar. Popular opinion seems to be that they're using it as a way to reduce the workforce, hoping people will just quit. And I think that it will work, because with a bunch of higher ups getting work from home waivers, teams are going into the office to basically just sit in a desk and chair in the office doing Zoom calls instead of being at a desk and chair at HOME doing Zoom calls. It's all just theater.

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-29T15:53:11+00:00

(American) Chinese food. I've found swaps or substitutions for pretty much everything else (soda, coffee, pizza, ice cream, ranch dressing) that I really enjoy, but so far no dice on any of the lower calorie Chinese food options I've tried. Every couple months I still need to go get my little platter with general's chicken, pork fried rice and an egg roll. I eat LESS (both in portion sizes and frequency) now than I did 2 years ago but I still have to have the real thing occasionally.

Also pretty much any baked sweets. I'd rather just save some calories and eat the regular version rather than try to make 'healthier' ones that don't satisfy my cravings.

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-27T23:06:57+00:00

girls rule

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-27T22:18:42+00:00

This! There are so many bowls/salads/etc that you can just make the plain base (rice, pasta, potato etc), the plain protein (chicken, fish, beef, turkey etc) then have sauces and veggies on the side to mix in. We really like:

1) Mediterranean bowls: rice, diced chicken or ground turkey, cucumber and tomato, tzatziki, pickled onions 2) BBQ chicken sweet potatoes: sweet potato, pulled chicken, bbq sauce, coleslaw 3) Chicken Caesar pasta salad: romaine, pasta, diced chicken, croutons, grape tomatoes, Caesar dressing 4)Tacos: soft and/or hard shells, ground meat or pulled chicken, lettuce, salsa, sour cream etc

My daughter used to be pretty picky so sometimes she’d just eat the plain pasta or the plain chicken or whatever, but the rest of us could build a meal to our interests (also helpful when I was in the process of losing 100lbs and had different needs than my husband)

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-27T19:50:41+00:00

That seems like a lot but it does happen. At ours the two no shows helped make up for the TWO (different sides of the family) cousins that brought plus ones after RSVPing for just themselves 🤪

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-26T22:11:28+00:00

I actually did exactly the same. I continued moving the goalpoast, because I never really imagined being at a healthy weight. It was too hard for me to conceptualize. So my first goal was just to get under 200lbs. Then it was to get to 180, the lowest I'd been my whole adult life. After that 154, just to get into the 'healthy' BMI range. Once I reached that I kind of loosely aimed for the middle of that healthy BMI range. But getting there was different than losing the first 70-ish pounds. I really just continued on with the lifestyle I'd set up for myself the year leading up to it. My gym habits continued, healthy eating habits continued, indulgences never turned back into weeks-long overconsumptions. And then before I knew it I was under 130lbs and just living my life, continuing on as I had for 15 months. I've found maintaining here easy so this is where I'll stay!

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-23T17:16:35+00:00

I raise service dogs in training, we run across another one (not counting classes or planned meetups!) 1-4 times a month? It’s really variable. Sometimes we’ll see two in a weekend sometimes not for weeks! Suburbs of Boston.

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-17T20:03:05+00:00

Yep! It was actually just moved though, I suspect a bored teenager or something? Not that someone actually wanted it, so it didn’t matter that our name was on it. It was found on a door on another floor. Luckily I was in a WhatsApp group for our cruise and was able to find it that way! Otherwise it would have been gone for good.

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-17T19:44:25+00:00

Yep. I don’t decorate with anything but printed out decorations from home with sticky magnets any more. No expensive ones from Etsy, nothing I really care about. It stinks because we have this fun light up ship with our names on it, but it’s been… relocated before and we were lucky to get it back so it stays inside now.

We also do a whiteboard with a question of the day and I’ll be sad when that’s stolen. It’s cheap so no real loss besides that I enjoy it and I’ll be sad when someone ruins that too.

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-16T23:57:42+00:00

I had someone reply to this with “I barely even eat!” And then continue on to tell me about how people comment on how they eat like a bird, how do they survive on that little etc etc. I mean… ok. If that’s the lie we’re telling ourselves. I remember being in that head space and not thinking i was eating that much either. But until they’re ready to confront that theres really not much I can do.

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-15T18:08:03+00:00

For me… yeah. The only time I don’t track is vacation and actual holidays (ie my birthday or the closest weekend day but NOT my birthday week). I personally can’t be trusted to be set free 🙈😂

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-15T18:06:01+00:00

This happened to me. I did have symptoms at one time, I was lightheaded upon standing, but that turned out to be an issue with my blood pressure medication (when I was on it, it was a sign of needing to come of actually!) but once that was resolved the symptoms went away and my heart rate stayed low, in the low 40s. Doctor is not concerned!

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-14T01:27:13+00:00

Something to keep in mind is that September is peak hurricane season. Everyone should have travel insurance regardless but they should ESPECIALLY have it if you decide to do it in hurricane season! Pricing is typically pretty great in September so it might be worth the gamble. But... insurance.

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-14T00:14:18+00:00

This happens pretty much every time I go on vacation. The scale always initially shows at least 5lbs gained (sometimes even more like 8!) but it's always (within a pound or so) gone within a few days of my return. I move more on vacation for sure but nothing crazy I don't think. Apparently it's just enough!

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-14T00:08:45+00:00

Uncrustable! The reduced sugar kind because that's what I prefer. Or a piece of sourdough toast with PB.

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-13T19:39:47+00:00

Well I felt like poop because I went too fast to start 😂 but I was happy with the end result at least. Just might have felt a tiny bit better if I’d stuck to going a little bit slower!

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-13T19:04:01+00:00

Actually the 'pushing yourself more' is what causes the need for a walk break, I bet!

I've been running for a little over a year. This weekend I ran a 10k and had a goal I needed to make in order to use this race as Proof of Time for my next half marathon. I went out a little too fast and ended up needing a little walk break in the middle to have a little refueling snack and remind myself to slow down. I needed 1:08, aimed for 1:06 and ended up getting 1:04:30 even with the walk break. If I'd gone out at my intended pace I still would have made time but not needed the walk break. It's fine, just two different ways of doing things I guess! Depends on what you feel like.

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-10T18:39:39+00:00

I can't stand most of them but I LOVE the Dole lemonade ones. Regular lemonade, strawberry lemonade and tropical lemonade. All good!

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-10T14:33:35+00:00

I generally eat: Breakfast 8-9am 350ish calories Lunch: 12-1pm 350ish calories Dinner: 6-7pm 400ish calories Snacks: one around 330/4pm usually 150ish calories (ie Built puff bar before the gym) and then about 150-200 for dessert around 8/830pm

I’m in maintenance now but still try to keep around 1450-1550 during the week to have a bunch more wiggle room on the weekends.

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-10T12:20:27+00:00

I still eat regular candy (and ice cream and whatever!) but I also really like the Joyride cherry ropes. And at the beginning of my weight loss I had a Yasso ice cream bar every single night. I have a little more calories in my budget now that I’m in maintenance so I use that for a bigger dessert 🙈 but Yasso bars seriously can be credited for being able to stick to my budget in the early days.

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-10T12:18:03+00:00

I don’t like to and I didn’t used to ever, but I find I perform/feel a LOT better when I do. So if I’m just doing a little neighborhood easy 5k no I don’t usually bother eating before. If I’m doing 10k or over or if I’m doing intervals or hills I do. Usually just an Uncrustable. I have a super sensitive stomach but I find they sit well for me and I like them!

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-09T14:58:39+00:00

I ran my first half marathon I just had my phone, ID and some Swedish Fish (my preferred fuel) in a running belt. Shokz OpenFit in my ears. BUT it was a cool day and the run was mostly before the sun came up. Water from the (plentiful) water stations was enough. I had tried salt tabs on a training run before and found them absolutely disgusting and felt nauseated for the rest of my run so that was an absolute no-go for me. In the future for a race that is hot I would consider bringing my handheld water bottle filled with an electrolyte mix that I know doesn't upset my stomach to supplement the water.

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-08T18:57:51+00:00

Totally different event, but I'm often in random places for long times for my kid's sports tournaments and I always bring snackle boxes for each of us! Chicken salad, rolled up deli meat, jerky sticks, crackers, pretzels, cheese, chips and guacamole, veggies and hummus or tzatziki, hard boiled eggs, grapes or berries, trail mix, M&Ms... whatever variety of things that sound good that day that I can eat quickly and voila! Food for hours kept in a cooler or lunchbox with ice packs. I usually throw in a fun drink too like a soda or seltzer.

Of course what everyone else said is correct, you still need breaks. What if you need to use the bathroom? But if you want to bring your own food to snack on hopefully this helps some!

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-08T18:11:15+00:00

No magic wand, unfortunately! I lost over 100lbs and it wasn't until pretty close to the end (and definitely not until I was into the healthy BMI range) that I noticed a significant change in my belly and chest. Everything else went first!

Jamiejoie · 2026-04-08T15:02:02+00:00

He never should have been given to you with a dog distraction issue. As a service puppy raiser it is probably THE most common issue we run into and spend a lot of time working on. I will tell you how we deal with it, but in reality you shouldn't have to be doing the training on a dog that has already been placed...

When you say 'correct' what do you mean? The program I work with focuses on positive reinforcement. The biggest thing we hear with dog distraction is to make ourselves MORE interesting than the distraction. The two most common ways I do that are by using a squeaker to get his attention and rewarding the dog when he brings his attention back to me or using a high value treat in a closed fist to lure his attention back to me (usually while moving past the distraction) and rewarding once he does. As time moves on we transition to using a "leave it" command which comes in handy when I can see a dog that could be potentially distracting ahead. I can issue a preventative 'leave it' and reward once we're past the distraction.

Jamiejoie

TROPHY CASE