[muzikjunky]

So, I've just about walked 12,000 steps today. Man am I tired! lol.

Hope everyone had a great day, and is having a great night so far.

[trnsfrmnreplace]

So i might of not met my goal for january due to my knee injury but i've noticed something. I'm so sick of being so negative when i don't get any minutes in. I deleted all my sad faces for the days i missed getting my minutes in. I want to surround myself with positivity. I give myself credit for doing what i DID do, what i was able to do this month.

May February bring everyone a healthy and great path!

[Aquanetrocker]

I'm still pretty new, so I don't know anyone yet, however, I think you ladies rock. I'm really glad you're all here.

Right now I'm working on staying on track with my food plan. I'm counting calories and trying to keep things balanced, it's been sort of tough being the only person in the house concerned about health.
As for exercise I've been going to the gym 4x a week, but recently have been running more than anything else. I'm applying for a job that has a physical agility test! Yikes! I spend a lot of time on the tredmill making deals with God.. or swearing Whatever keeps me going, right?
-Jen

[TracyFAdams]

Oh Jen...sometimes the frustration is the only thing that drives me. I'll be trying a new thing on my on demand (I think I live off on demand exercise tv) and be halfway through it thinking it's going to be great and I can do everything, then it comes to something and I cuss at the tv telling it I can't do that, either because the "great" stuff earlier was only a small taste of torture, or I just don't have the space in my small livingroom to do it.

Brooke, 12,000...psh overachiever

Trnsfrmnreplace, I hope your knee gets back to normal soon. At least you did get some good stuff in though. It doesn't matter if you can't for a while if you don't let it matter. Do what you can that doesn't hurt your knee, and you can still get in some good stuff. There's a lot of free weight stuff you can do with your arms, and maybe some floor ab work? I'm sure you can find something else to do if you want to exercise without more damage to the knee.


I must confess, this week has been lacking. I ate lunch with Tim yesterday and had a bunch of errands to run, so the only exercise I got was what pretty much ended up equal to power walking through a big store. I can't do much walking lately because my feet have been bothering me. The balls of my feet hurt when I step down certain ways, mostly when the big toes are bent. But it's an easy fix for me...I can tell it's nothing serious or else it wouldn't be slowly easing off, so I'll get some new shoes for more cushion. Mine are well over a year old anyways, and with how fast I normally walk I wear down the softness pretty quickly. But today I will step up my exercise and try to go over 60 minutes, maybe the 40 minute cardio thing and at least 30 on the gym.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the February challenge...I hope everyone is ready!!!

[Zatanna]

Wow, thanks everybody for the welcome. That was cool.

muzikjunky, we might be close in h/w right now, but apparently you've already come a long way. Rock on - it's encouraging every time I read someone's sig and see the progress that's possible.

Good luck to everybody for this week - my only problem with this forum is it actually moves (most places I lurk are slooowwwer). And today I'm leaving for a few days without internet, so I hope you all have a great week!

[trnsfrmnreplace]

Thanks so much for the good advice everyone!

So it's almost February 1st !!!!!!
Join in on the challenge!

[CookieMonster416]

You all my laugh at me, but at a recent college graduate I am finding out how tough it is to be healthy on a budget. For lunch I like to eat veggys with my meal to fill me up. However, the cheap raw veggys at my grocery store sometimes taste well spoiled. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the steamed bags but they are $3-4 a bag.

Archy - I totally know what you mean! My boyfriend laughs at me when I say I workout on the eliptical every morning for an hour and only burn 500 calories. I go as fast as I can, but I just get so tired. He says I should try and work out really hard for 30 minutes and I could get the same results, but honestly I just don't think I can pedal that fast for 30 minutes. I'd rather do it at my pace for extra time. ***Is that bad???***

[junebug41]

CookieMonster- that may be true that you can burn the same amount in 30 minutes, but I didn't lose all this darn weight going at anyone's pace but my own! I just follow the rule of thumb on the machines that if you can focus intently on what you're reading or carry on a conversation, you might want to step it up. Oh, and break a sweat! I think it's great that you can get in an hour every morning!

[britomart]

Goodness, I'm behind! Sheesh.

I have so much going on but don't want to go on and on and on about it all, so I'll give you the Campbell's version.... condensed.....

I can't seem to get on board with eating or exercise. I've been eating poorly beyond all human comprehension (don't make me get into specifics, it's really, really awful). I mean, to the point where I had just had dinner and a friend called and asked if I had eaten yet... and for some unknown reason I said no... and we went out and I had a second dinner. WTF? I'm really struggling with this, I don't know what is going on in my head to make this okay. I begin every day with the best of intentions, and then it all goes awry.

Had to deal with my fiance's near-breakdown this past week too. He's SO close to finishing his dissertation, he's more than half done with his final chapter... He was really motivated and pumped about it, then he had a meeting with a prof who used to be his advisor to ask him if he would be a second reader when it's done.... The prof proceeded to go on and on for a half hour about how DF's dissertation was useless, wasn't a good contribution to the field, was more math than philosophy, was not something he wanted to read ever, could never be published.... And then went on and on for another half hour about how all these other profs in the department were unreliable and (this is a direct quote) "Pig f**kers" and that DF shouldn't trust any of them, especially his current advisor. Needless to say, this knocked the wind out of DF... he's been working towards this for 6 years and suddenly he's told all this crap by some guy who's past retirement and obviously has a beef with the university. Ended up DF couldn't sleep for nearly 3 nights and had to go get a prescription for a sleep aid... He has since had many talks about it with his current advisor, who has been really great an encouraging, and said that this isn't the first time this other prof has done this to a grad student. So DF is going to the ombudsman... it makes me so mad that this guy could do this to him for whatever personal reason he has... Holy cow.

I was just shocked. And the worst part was, I couldn't do anything to help. What can I do from 600 miles away, when all I really want to do is to hug him and tell him that that prof is full of crap? I mean, when one half of a relationship is having a breakdown and crisis of purpose, shouldn't the other half be there to be supportive and, well, be there for the other? I guess I'm beating myself up about something I can't help, there's no way I could have physically been there for him... Sigh.... what's that about "accepting the things we cannot change?"

ANYWAY. On a happier note, I have a wedding photographer! I finally found someone within my budget (which didn't look like it was going to happen... It looked like we'd have to double our photography budget), AND we get both the guy and his wife. And two photographers are better than one

So much for being condensed Sorry I'm going on and on like I promised not to do. Been reading all this digressive 18thC lit lately for class and perhaps the style is rubbing off on me. But I digress. Onwards and upwards, right?

Happy end of the month!!


Lizzie - the yogurt in the dish made it creamier, the original recipe called for heavy cream. I put in ff plain yogurt instead. Made the sauce a little thicker... tho I imagine if I was looking for perfection I would have put some corn starch or something in to make it even thicker. Alas Good job on the clean eating. I looked for that issue when I was at the drug store yesterday but didn't see it!

Fae - lazy people at work make me mad too. Then I do two people's share of the work and get one paycheck... The little kid in me wants to tattle, but I just suck it up and do everything I can not to have to work with those people anymore! Just know you're the better, more reliable person, and that will count for something!

muzik - sorry to hear you're having trouble sleeping. I hate that! That happens to me occasionally, when you just can't stay asleep... usually happens when there's something big going on in my life. Hope it resolves itself soon.

archy - good luck tackling all that at once! it might be hard but your body will thank you. I think it's doable to quit smoking and lose, or at least not gain weight when you quit. You may crave junk when you quit, but I dunno about you, I crave junk anyway! Find something low-cal that satisfies... when I quit I used sugar free popcicles as a good low-cal substitute. Got the oral fixation thing to go away and I wasn't stuffing my face all the time... Then when it's cold outside you don't want the popcicles anyway and it just kinda solves itself!

trns - yay, that's a great attitude! beating yourself up for small insignificant failures like that won't get you anywhere. hope the knee gets better, do some swimming or something low-impact instead of running! (do you think the dog would swim with you? )

Aquanet - lol, making deals with God... we all know how that feels! What job are you applying for that requires an agility test? I'm imagining something like cirque du soleil... haha... welcome to the boards!

Tracy - Wooohooo Feb challenge! It'll be awesome! I hope the new shoes help your feet, I think you're supposed to get a new pair of running shoes every 6 mos to a year depending on your usage of them anyway, it might be just what you needed!

cookiemonster - no, I know what you mean about being healthy on a budget... I don't know where you live but see if there's not some kind of farmer's market somewhere, you can usually get great produce much cheaper if you buy it from a little market instead of a giant grocery store. Actually look at your grocery store's flyers... Often things like the steamer bags will be on special. Frozen veggies, though not as nutritionally wonderful as fresh veggies, can be quite cheap and if you season em you can barely tell the difference (except with zucchini... bleh.... will never buy frozen zucchini again!). Dry beans are MUCH cheaper than canned... Eggs are super cheap, easy protien... Watch for specials on meat too, I never buy it when it's full price because it's so damn expensive!! Every couple of weeks, though, there will be a decent sale. Anyway, I feel your pain Good luck!

[TracyFAdams]

I'm so sorry about your fiance. I know what it's like to not be able to comfort someone after such a horrible day, especially when my husband was halfway around the world on the other side in Japan. But just being able to talk to your man will help him out, listen and try to cheer him up. His hard work will pay off, it always does even if it takes a while to do so. And congrats on the photographer! We had the same problem when we planned our wedding. We couldn't find one and had no way to double our budget, then I came across an independent "company" that's just the man and his wife instead of a large company with eployees. It was soooo much better! They knew what to do because they had the same expectations from their own wedding, instead of some person that isn't even in a relationship but studied art or whatever. And also, a married couple just gives that vibe...that feeling when you know they understand and will do everything as close to perfect as possible. I didn't think twice about a place if I didn't get the vibe as soon as we met. Also, the husband and wife team is great because a lot of people like to have pictures when you're getting ready, and the wife can go in and just in case someone has to do a quick something that isn't fully covered, you don't have a creepy guy in there staring

[muzikjunky]

Ah, I feel horrible today. That TOM, and I am beginning to feel very bloated, and icky....achy..and ack..I just feel tired. I don't feel like doing diddly squat.

Guess this means I can't weigh in this Friday. Ah, well. I just don't want to weigh myself and see that because of that TOM that I've gained, or whatever...that would blow my ego. I just need to get someone to hide the scale away somewhere now. lol.

[muzikjunky]

On the plus side, I met my Jan exercise goals. I actually went 160 minutes over! yay! Going to update it for Feb now.

[TracyFAdams]

I just thought I'd share







The room design makes it a tight squeeze, but it is working out perfectly. I was on the floor beside it while he did the weight stuff and we had no problems. In a few months, we'll be nice and buff and maybe we'll look like we belong together a little better

[CookieMonster416]

WOW! Equipment looks nice. For now I work out in my apartment's gym. One of the major requirements I had when I was first looking was I needed a gym in the building, otherwise I would NEVER do it. Unfortunately, I don't see working out as fun or a hobby. I have a friend that works out once every few weeks and makes a big extravaganza out of it. She puts on her fancy workout clothes and goes to her fancy gym in the afternoon. I on the other hand workout every single day at the crack of dawn as part of getting ready in the morning. I like to "get it over with" right away in the morning and THEN my day begins.

[Megan1982]

Hi everyone,

Wow, so much to catch up on! Quick "me summary": Food good. Exercise good. Little tired, but have been getting enough sleep so will try to get extra tonight. Going to aerobics class at gym tonight. I hope it's step class! Tomorrow is a colleague's 50th birthday and we're having a dinner party for her. I hope I have the willpower to make good choices. I also just found out that another person is making a cake for her at work, so there will be 2 cakes tomorrow. I will only have 1 piece of one, and will go to yoga before the party. I hope.

I got a thai cookbook for Christmas and made Phat See Ew last night. I cut the oil in half, and doubled the vegetables for bulk (and for vegetable goodness, of course!), and was careful about servings. 1 serving has 590 calories, but that's ok w/ me since that was my whole dinner and I didn't have any dessert or anything. I love cooking thai at home! Does anyone know how to make tofu a little crunchy without frying it? Last time I made Pad Thai I didn't fry it, just cut it up and cooked it in the pad thai, but it was a bit mushy.

muzikjunky, great job meeting your January goals. If someone said this to me I'd probably not appreciate it...but I actually really, really feel better from TOM bloating, pains etc. after I work out. I also skip my weekly weigh-in during TOM. Anyway, hope you feel better soon.

britomart, hang in there . I agree that your fiance's former advisor sounds like a total...well I can't write it here. But I'm sure you can imagine what I'm thinking. Way to be supportive of him. I'm sure you're doing everything you can. Congrats on finding a wedding photographer! I doubt there is anyone here who has not binged/eaten more than two meals at one time. We all have issues with food. You are aware of the problem, which is a good first step. We are here for you!

CookieMonster416, I hear you on the cost of veggies. Do you stock up when they're on sale? I also often buy the undressed, not "steam fresh" bagged frozen veggies. I think they still taste good, and it's not any more work to open the bag and dump a serving into a microwaveable bowl. Perhaps you could try intervals on the elliptical. Peddle really hard for 5 or 10 minutes, then slow down until you catch your breath, then peddle hard again.

trnsfrmnreplace, way to be positive and give your body the time it needs to heal. Lifting weights and core exercises can get your heart rate up quite a bit too.

Zatanna and Aquanetrocker, welcome!

Hi to anyone I missed. Man, I need to start checking this site more often and not let conversations pile up like this - I end up writing so much to everyone when I get back here!