Operation 5-10 The Holiday Edition!

midwife · 11-03-2009, 09:56 AM

Congrats, Megan!

157 this am which surprised me a little. I thought it would be higher. Food is planned for the day, including a restaurant holiday party. Chose to sleep in rather than get up and run (I needed it!) so I'll pack my gear and try to get intervals in at lunch.

Have a good one!

ICUwishing · 11-03-2009, 12:01 PM

1500 clean calories yesterday, and 60 minutes/2700 yards in the pool. Carb cravings are beginning to subside already. Decided to challenge myself to making it to Thanksgiving (24 days) POP.

Ward - love your avatar! You're much prettier than the big ole pig you've had up! Best wishes with the in-laws - I know that if mine were to stay for a week, well, I just don't have those strategies down.

CountingDown - the pumpkins sound terrific! Can you save the seeds from a pie pumpkin for roasting, or are they too small to bother with?

forestroad - Congratulations on the final pound! You've made an amazing transformation!

paperclippy - "voluntold"

Been there!

Megan - wow, an actress on top of all the neat things you do - wonderful! And what a way to handle good news - not with pie, or booze - the treadmill. Nice!

silverbirch - I NEVER sleep well after a workout ... what's your secret? I'm confined to 7:30pm pool time, and when I get home at 9, I am WIRED.

midwife - In my world, sleep trumps everything else! Oddly, the better shape I get in, the less sleep I seem to need - or maybe I'm just getting higher quality rest. Wish I could get by with less than 8 ... but gotta go with the cards you're dealt, I guess!

Hello to everyone else! I'm looking forward to getting to know you!

silverbirch · 11-03-2009, 04:18 PM

to everyone. I am finding my equilibrium, thank goodness, after the time away. Second day at the gymn: bit of cardio and a lot of stretching has left me feeling much more human. I'll be back to normal-ish by Friday.

ICUWishing - can I join in your challenge to be POP every day until Thanksgiving? I found myself thinking that it isn't very long and that I can do it. I'm in a team with Jessica (paperclippy) and Megan to lose 5lbs each by then and I feel I need a bit of a push. And I don't have any emotional baggage to do with the date (being over here where it doesn't feature) so it's just a date.

And my secret to sleeping well after working out is two-fold. Firstly, probably overdoing it. My life is very busy. Secondly, I work out in the morning. I think I'd be wired if I did it in the evening. What's the Nationals in Atlanta in May 2010? Are you a competitive swimmer?

Forest Road - many congratulations!

Midwife - you are right about awareness being so important. It's central. But so difficult to hold on to when exhaustion or great emotion strike. A matter of practice, do you think? Or Iron Will?

Kittycat - refocus on good habits and attitudes. That is great. We all have good habits and attitudes but they are probably just slightly out of focus. All we have to do is twiddle the binoculars a bit or clean our specs and all should become clear.

Megan - you will be a lovely beauty queen. Past, present and future! How are things going with the 5lb challenge?

Jessica - are you out at D and B's? How was it?

to all, especially those I've forgotten. Weights again tomorrow.

ICUwishing · 11-03-2009, 04:49 PM

silverbirch - Of course you can join the VERY informal "POP" challenge - I just figured it was a good, quick jumpstart to get back in the weightloss mentality through the holidays - which last year accelerated me right to my highest weight! Midway through Day 3 and goin' strong!

I spent all my youngster years in competitive swimming, up thru my junior year in college. Came back to it again in my later 20's and my last National event was in 1997. I'm rediscovering it and really want to hit at least one qualifying time (you're allowed to swim 3 events even if you don't). It's a good excuse to go to Georgia in the spring.

Megan1982 · 11-03-2009, 05:09 PM

Aww, you guys are so nice.

Busy busy here, but I'm trying to get out of the office so I have time to get in a good workout. That's why I don't have time for personals today, but I just wanted to say hi, and keep it up everyone!

silverbirch · 11-04-2009, 02:51 AM

Checking in as my day starts (0650 now) to confirm that today will be OP.

yoyoma · 11-04-2009, 04:49 AM

Me too, Silver! I've been a little sloppy with the odd piece of Halloween candy and BLTs.
ICU -- I need a POP challenge to get back on the straight and narrow!

Despite that, I am notching the ticker down a pound... just one more to go for T-Day!!!

Congratulations on making the challenge, Forest, you rock!!!

Megan -- I'm not surprised you got the part!

Midwife -- I envy anyone who can sleep in... Good for you, putting a priority on catching those Z's!

Good luck to all with your challenges today!

midwife · 11-04-2009, 09:39 AM

Midwife - you are right about awareness being so important. It's central. But so difficult to hold on to when exhaustion or great emotion strike. A matter of practice, do you think? Or Iron Will?

Both, I think. Either sometimes. Preparation (if I don't HAVE the junk, I don't eat it). And sometimes even awareness is not enough and I still fall into old habits....but it is rarer and rarer....and perfection is not the goal for me, improvement is.

paperclippy · 11-04-2009, 10:24 AM

Hi everyone! Sorry I wasn't around yesterday.

I got annoyed by the Dave & Buster's thing . . . rather than just having us all go there and order off the menu, they had a private room, with a buffet. Of course, all the items in the buffet were the unhealthiest things on the menu and NO VEGGIES.

I took a small plate and had 3 chips w/salsa, 1 mini cheeseburger, 2 beef skewers, 2 mini quesadillas, and 1 mini quiche (at least, I think that's what it was). Probably not too much damage calorie-wise (I skipped all the fried stuff they had), but I was hungry when I got home so ended up eating more, although by now I can't remember what I ate. I think it was a slice of bread.

I think I may be "voluntold" to go again next week when we have our second group of interview candidates in. Sigh. Also I ended up missing my workout yesterday that I usually do at lunchtime because our interviews were scheduled back to back all day with only 30 minutes for lunch. I was going to do it when I got home in the evening, but the interview wrap up meeting went long and I was starving when I got home and didn't have the energy for an hour of weight lifting. Current plan is to do my regular Thursday weight workout tomorrow and do the one I was supposed to do yesterday on Saturday. Same thing for next week too since we have more interviews.

Megan, congrats on getting the part!

Wishing, swimming is impressive! I started doing triathlons so I have been swimming more, but I am sloooooooooooooow.

Despite all the weekend and interview food wobbles weight is still headed down. I should meet my 5lbs for Thanksgiving goal with no problems at this point (knock on wood). Not sure if 5 more for new year's is reasonable to expect or not.

kittycat40 · 11-04-2009, 11:00 AM

Hi everyone. Today will be POP for me! I WILL report back with a pop day.

Started out great with a run when I really did not want to. Felt awesome

Found a cheese stick from yesterday in my bag and ate it for breakfast as I left my balance bar on the counter at home. It was absolutely fine. Those things must have so many preservatives!
Now at work. I will buy a tremendous salad and have it for very early lunch and snack. Dinner remains unknown. I have a vat of kim chi which I bought in an asian market in NYC. It is so good that my thai sitter and her bff sent me back for more. I have been chowing on that for the last several weeks. My dh and kids are not too psched (super smelly and spicy cabbage) but they will deal.
Have chicken in freezer. Will ask sitter to defrost with some italian dressing thrown on it. Then I will broil or grill. Frozen broc in masala sauce.
Now dinner is known

THX!

have a great day all

today's a bit nutty, will be back later....

ICUwishing · 11-04-2009, 02:26 PM

3 1/2 days down and still holding it together. Back to the pool tonight for another round; hopefully DS10 will be feeling well enough to go too. He's been troubled by an upset tummy for about a week now - no fever, no cough, no aches, no congestion, no lack of energy - just doesn't feel like eating and is nervous about barfing. I suspect it's dizziness more than anything else, maybe due to inner ear. I'm letting him fight with it til Friday, and then we'll head for professional help.

kittycat40 - my experience with most cheese (except soft-ripened) is that if you can keep air away from them, they'll stay good. Counterintuitive since most cheeses need to "breathe", but if you vacuum-pack your own cheese sticks they'll put up with several days out of the fridge. We take them backpacking and have gone 4 days with no issues. Drooling over your kimchee - I am way too fond of all forms of fermented cabbage. Spouse is currently working on our first batch of homemade sauerkraut - yay!

paperclippy - I swim because I'm way too much of a klutz to do other things.

At 42, I like the idea of avoiding gravity while exercising. Sorry about the D&B debacle - sounds like you handled it as well as you could. I hate being backed into a corner like that.

yoyoma - hop aboard! It's only three weeks and a day ... how hard could it be?

(says one who fondled - but did not eat - the kid's Halloween haul that is discretely out of sight on the lowest shelf in the pantry behind the blender).

WaterRat · 11-04-2009, 02:54 PM

ICU - I love your little swimming graphic in your signature! It's one way to learn to go faster.

Jessica - I'm very slow too, but I figure it'll be easier to get faster after I build up more stamina. I swam a lot last winter, and haven't gotten back to it this fall. I probably should as I keep finding any excuse not to do any other sort of cardio. WL is fine, and I really like it, but cardio - not so much.

paperclippy · 11-04-2009, 03:26 PM

Pat, I was going to take adult swim lessons at my local pool but then it filled up before I could sign up.

I think I just have really bad form or something, or I am not training right. I improved my stamina until I could swim about 2/3 of a mile (starting from only being able to go 15 yards), but I never manage to get any faster. I said to DH, "How can I learn to swim faster?" and he said, "It's easy, you just swim faster."

I'm having trouble staying motivated with NRLW. I'm on Stage 5 but the workouts are so long that I don't want to do them. 2 minutes of rest between each set adds up to about 50 minutes *just resting*. I cut the rest time between sets in half, and do three sets where it says to do 3-4 sets, but it still takes me an hour. Ugh.

To be honest, I don't think there's really any exercise that I don't get tired of after about 30 minutes. I guess I can handle biking for an hour, or running 40 minutes, but I'd rather just do 30. At this point though after months of hour-long NRLW workouts I'm just tired of it.

midwife · 11-04-2009, 04:00 PM

Yea, active chicks!!

23 days til

Just noticed....

ICUwishing · 11-04-2009, 04:08 PM

I can relate to the time limitations! I'd much, much rather do something super-high intensity for a short time and get it over with. Swimming's the only exception - but that's more like a moving meditation. Speed in swimming is mostly efficiency in the pull - not "catching" enough water at the start, or not pulling the body over top of it. Total Immersion videos with Terry McLaughlin can show you the tips/tricks of improving form - even Netflix has them.

WaterRat - I have difficulty embracing cardio, too. I don't exactly love to sweat, which I think is why swimming appeals to me! I bulk up muscle really fast doing anything else - at least with swimming, the muscles are longer and smoother (my perception). And who wouldn't wanna at least TRY to look like Dara Torres????