[HowlinAtTheMoon]

Birchie, the extra reading is a much better escape choice than extra eating

Sounds like everyone is sticking with a program -- that's good to hear.

Michele, it's not so bad to look like a police officer. Fewer discipline problems with the kids, perhaps?

The usual gray and dreary weather has settled in over the Central Valley. We need more rain, just not the mud.

[saef]

Sunday morning at 160.3.

Didn't get away from my desk. I did shut off a radiator and the cold arrived, so now it's a bit cool in parts of my apartment. I got some work done yesterday, but only enough to give me a sense of how much is still to be done. I didn't take a break at the movies.

I will be sad on Monday at where my weekend went, but I see no alternative as this is the only way to stay abreast of promised drafts in the coming week.

[yoyoma]

Hi, folks!

I spent the first week of the year in NYC with folks eating 3xday and apres theater. Even though I often wasn't hungry, I ended up eating at each of those meals, so I'm up at least a few pounds to 130.4 even though I was maintaining my 15K steps while in the city. (We got home almost a week ago; there are no signs of an effortless decline from here.)

I am still struggling trying to find a new WOE that allows me to lose/maintain but won't raise my cholesterol. I am currently trying mini-meals for breakfast/lunch and a restricted window (breakfast starting at 10:30, dinner done by 6:30). But if this doesn't work out, I will go back to pure OMAD, at least until I get back to my target weight range.

It's not helping that I have no feedback on the cholesterol front. The scale is a very imperfect measure for weight loss, but at least it's something. I have no idea if any of the steps I've taken since my last panel have improved my lipid profile and I wish I could get a reading at least once a month. That said, I try to take a more holistic approach to minimizing my CVD risk rather than focus solely on those numbers.

Birchie, I agree that sleep is a central issue for a lot of us who struggle with our weight. I know that has been the case for me. I've had to make a lot of changes to allow myself to get enough and I need to keep working on that front. I should also spend more time on books and less time on click bait.

[JayZeeJay]

Hi all -

Allison, that stinks. I've been doing some semi-scientific analysis of my tracker and weight charts, and I think I've come to a few fairly solid conclusions:

1. I don't lose weight unless my calories come in at under 1300-1350 as a rough average. This is for my typical days where I ride my bike 8 hilly miles (commute) and walk a few miles at work, so not a heavy exercise day but not totally dormant. Even though I eat mostly vegetables, this calorie level still leaves me pretty hungry, pretty often.

2. On days that I exercise intensely, I can subtract at most half of the calories that I "should" have burned via heart rate calculations. Like yesterday, I ran 16 miles with about 2200 feet of climbing. I can realistically eat back maybe 600-700 calories of that.

3. The scale is an erratic and often useless guide when I'm trying to lose a smaller amount of weight. But we all know that. My biggest peeve is how much my weight jumps after certain activities, particularly weight lifting; this will last the better part of a week. Compounded with fluctuations due to hormones, etc. I find it beyond frustrating. So I'm back to weighing monthly (or less) and just trusting the process. Body fat monitoring is the way to go, but my cheapy scale has me all over the place with %fat measurements. Like 6% variation within a week. I suppose I could record the values as a moving average over time, but do I care THAT much?

ETA: Alice, how's Pepper?

[Mudpie]

We went to a really good exhibit at the ROM (royal Ontario museum) yesterday. "Vikings". Enjoyed it and also an exhibit of Dior designer stuff from the 1950's.

The timing of the exhibit put my eating/snacking schedule off kilter and I overate in the evening as a result.

It's good to have a schedule but I'll have to veer off more on weekends and finds ways to still eat reasonably well.

Dagmar

[saef]

Monday morning at 161.3.

Yesterday was a bust. I got one task completed in my desk work, did laundry, made roasted vegetables and muffins and curried chicken thighs, and then frittered away the time without going to the movies.

Not looking forward to my one-on-one today and all the stuff I've got to write this week.

[saef]

Tuesday morning at 163.4.

Ate lots of fruit yesterday, an unusual amount. My one-on-one was not as bad as I'd thought. But I've had to "pivot" as the popular phrase goes and turn to a different project, rather than the one I worked on over the weekend. Yesterday was just four meetings, chopping up the working day so that it was hard to find time to focus.

Also I have to present today and I'm not confident of my ability to speak to the material. But I'm sandwiched in between two other presenters. The good thing is, I don't have to carry the whole preso. The bad thing is, I have something to live up to so that I'm not the weakest segment.

We have a snowstorm in the forecast which I rather like hearing because it means I can hole up in my apartment and just work to get all these presentations & drafts written up, and I don't have to deal with wasted time in the NY/CT commute.

[Mudpie]

Working in the snow today. Garbage collection day in my work area too. I can't risk using my shortcuts (alleys that don't get plowed) so I will get trapped at some point today by a garbage truck in front on a one way street. People will pile up behind me and honk their horns. I don't bother. Does nothing to move the truck and the garbage collectors just become even more stubborn and dickish.

Trixie is gong to meet the young dog who i hope will be her housemate at the end of February. She met him once before but he was so shut down I don't think he'll recognize her. Should be OK - he's very sweet and docile but playful when he meets the right dog.

Dagmar

[Mudpie]

Interesting how the censor didn't pick up "dickish".

Dagmar

[paperclippy]

Well I totally failed at eating well over the weekend. At least I managed to eat some vegetables. :P 158 today.

[traveling michele]

The censor feature is interesting to say the least!!

I started my "new" program a couple of days ago. It's called 80 day obsession and it has me pretty obsessed! I'm excited to see the results. You do a different workout each day for 80 days and it focuses primarily on abs and booty (combination of weights, cardio, bands and sliders). It has a specific meal plan that I initially resisted-- it is called timed nutrition and it sounded "too hard" so I didn't want to try it. However, after seeing amazing results from the people who were in the test group, I decided to give it a try. Basically, you eat specific food groups and specific times depending on when you're working out-- to fuel and refuel your body. It has me eating 5 times a day and a lot more than I'm used to. Depending on your weight and activity levels, you are in a certain food plan. According to my weight, I would be in plan A (eat the least), but because I have little to lose and mostly want to tone, they recommend eating in maintenance, which is plan C. I was scared to start there but saw some people who've had amazing results and decided to trust the process. I ate so much yesterday and couldn't help but get on the scale today, fully expecting a big gain. I was down over a pound! So.... I'm giving it a try. I'll report back and let you all know how it's going. I've long felt that I've been restricting my diet too much-- leaving me little reserves, so I'm hoping I will sleep better and have overall better energy with more food/fuel.

Good luck to all with crummy weather! Dagmar-- take it easy. My dd in Houston has a "bad weather" day. Only in Houston, can it be 65 degrees one afternoon and they cancel school for the next day! It's currently 29 degrees there and sleeting!

[Shannon in ATL]

Michele - your plan sounds interesting. I did a focused ab and booty plan last summer and I did see a pretty significant impact from it. Let us know how it goes - I do sometimes wonder if I don't eat enough when I'm exercising regularly and then overcompensate on other times.

I didn't do great with food this weekend. Back on track so far this week, though it is only Tuesday. I have my lunches made and in the fridge for the week, and have meals planned through Saturday night.

Will we or won't we have snow and ice tonight? School isn't cancelled for tomorrow yet, but I suspect it will come soon.

[traveling michele]

Saef??? Anybody???

Good morning!
I had Monday off and then yesterday was a work day with no kids so I got a ton done. Today will be wild and wooly though!

Enjoying my new food plan so far but I need to go to the store to buy more food and prep more meals already!
I did a fun workout this morning called Country Heat-- basically it's country music/ dancing-- totally enjoyed it. Had to take another shower after so I know I was sweating! I figure I've got a Texas wedding to plan for so I better learn some country dancing!

[saef]

Wednesday morning at 163.2.

Just off a contentious meeting with a direct report who's getting hysterical over a lengthy and difficult report that she's working on, which we'll handle through a new workflow. She's a worrier. I've seen her play out the same scenario of saying, "This is impossible, I can't do this" and not even trying, needing to calm down, and then somehow doing it.

I hope I can make the most of this day, which now has no other meetings, and get a pptx written introducing the concept of "coaching" which our dept wants to implement.

[yoyoma]

Much to my surprise, my weight has settled down a little further to 138.7 and I'm now below my (newish) redline. =) I think it might be because I spent the weekend recovering from our trip the previous week (catching up on unpacking, laundry, taking down the tree, etc) instead of going out. So, it looks like the mini meal plan might be working. I've also been pretty anal about getting my 15K steps in daily.

However, I am going out to a play tonight with a friend and this weekend is coming up fast. Also, I think I will have to cut myself some slack on my steps today (though I am on the treadmill right now, I won't have any time after work).

Michele - glad you found a fun workout! I know from experience that I cannot stick with an exercise that feels like work on an ongoing basis.

Saef, I sometimes feel like your direct report -- overwhelmed with a task. But after a bit of panic, I focus on defining a subtask that will make progress and work on that. Rinse, repeat until done.