I found a new exercise for my arms. I arm knitted 3 scarves last night and my arms were burning like I had been exercising hard with weights. This morning they are so sore I can barely move them. I can also feel it in my upper back. Who would have ever thought it would be such a workout.

Food was not pop yesterday. I just can't seem to focus. Will try again today.

I gained one pound last week, I think it threw me for a loop. I am back POP but may take a pass at WI this week.

Getting ready for more winter - spring was sure a tease.

Let's do this!

We have an icy mess coming in Sunday. Not looking forwArd to it. I'm so ready to be outside. Food was great yesterday until I opened a box of Girl Scout cookies to give the kids for snack. Shortbread cookies are my favorite and hubby had gotten a box. He goes to the dr on Friday and hoping that will inspire us to stay with a diet.

I'm soooo glad I haven't seen any Girl Scouts. Maybe they aren't selling them here yet. We always sold them in warmer weather when I was a kid.

POP yesterday. It felt really good. Hoping today will be the same.

14º here this morning. The sun is shining but 10 miles North they are getting slammed with lake effect snow. It's supposed to stay north though.

Judy we were at 14 this morning also. It hurts after being so warm on sat. We hit 57, on Thursday last week we hit 70. They always say if you don't like the weather in KY just hang around a few days and it will change!

We made it to 40 for a few minutes over the weekend. Hopefully this week might be the last bitter blast.

I found a no oil Strawberry Ginger Dressing I'm going to try. 3 ingredients and a blender should be all I need.


Strawberry Ginger Dressing

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups frozen strawberries
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled

DIRECTIONS:
Combine all ingredients in BlendTec or Vitamix. If using Blend Tec, choose dressing. If using Vitamix, start at level 1, gradually increasing the level to 10, stirring carefully. After about 30 seconds, increase the speed to high, until the dressing is blended well. If the dressing is too thick, add in water little by little until it reaches your desired texture.

Debbie, what's arm knitting?

I am soooooo sick of the scale refusing to budge. Yes, I've had too many days lately when I haven't been on plan. But it feels like I've been POP more often--two solid weeks before my birthday, about half the days last week. I've upped my exercise and decreased my food and the scale goes up a little, down a little, up a little, down a little. Basically no loss all month.

So, okay, I need to start really making sure I'm OP, so that I'm not guessing at how much that is. So I'm going to start posting that daily. If I can string together 30 days POP and I don't lose anything, I'm quitting WW altogether and doing something else, though what I have no idea.

So far: POP since Feb. 24 (2 day streak)
WI on Feb. 24: 280

Angela I am arm knitting bulky scarves. Heard about it and had to try it. I did one in school colors and sold it fast. I got orders for a few more.

I did good at church until I caved and ate cake.

Oh, I took a look at a video, Deb. Yes, arm knitting looks strenuous!

Judy, did you try that dressing? How is it?

Had a busy day yesterday and another today. Once the meetings start, it's all meetings all over campus from 10:30 until 5:30. I'll be late for the one where lunch is provided, because I have to move a job candidate from one stage of her interview to another. And we've still got brutal cold here…

The worst thing is the meetings that don't really serve any purpose. But I need to go to support graduate students and junior faculty members.

Hope everyone else is doing well. Hang in there for Friday.

POP since Feb. 24 (3 day streak)
WI on Feb. 24: 280

i didn't w/i last week and this week wasn't perfect but it was better than I expected. I lost 8/10th of a lb. I'll take it! Meeting this week was on portion control. The difference between eyeballing and measuring. It was a good reminder. I keep my food scale and meas. cup and spoons on the counter as a reminder to actually use them.

It's cold and the wind is really fierce. Think I'll stay in the rest of the day. High tomorrow is 13º, then 30º (heat wave!) on Sat. Then it's back into the teens for most of next week. I'm so ready to be over Winter.

Hmm, measuring. You know, I realize in part I just eat an awful lot of prepackaged stuff so I won't have to measure. If I cook in advance on the weekend, I'll measure out portions for the week. I also do something I suppose WW would discourage; periodically I "calibrate" a particular portion of a particular food in a particular dish, so I know that, for example, a cup of pasta e fagioli or chicken paprikash fills my soup mug to the brim but my salad bowls to an inch from the top. I know my blue ladle dishes out about 3/4 of a cup if it's full, and my black one holds about a cup, too. I suppose that's eyeballing, but you know, I already resent the amount of time I spend tracking my food.

Long day yesterday but managed to stay on track. Today's challenge will be the likelihood that I'll be eating dinner out with DH. That's one of the times when I typically used up some of those WW weekly points, but I want to stay in my dailies today. Gotta keep this streak going for 30 days so I can evaluate the plan. So, I'm eating a filling breakfast and for lunch I went for the lowest-point Gopicnic plus a yoplait light. That leaves me 17 points for dinner, which really should be enough. I would say I'd go for salad and soup, but the two places where we eat dinner are terrible about having high-cal soups, either cream soups or chili or some way just a lot denser than like a nice chicken noodle. Maybe I should call and ask what their soup of the day will be…Does anyone else feel like food controls your life more when you're on plan than off?

POP since Feb. 24 (4 day streak) -- WI on Feb. 24: 280

Angela, nothing wrong with calibrating as long as you recalibrate once in a while. We all do it and my WW leader suggested that if you use the same dishes all the time go for it - just periodically recheck your guesstimate.

We actually did this yesterday, but not with containers we were always familiar with. Folks went up and measured what they thought was a single portion of Cheerios into a bowl, cooked pasta on to a plate, peanut butter onto a knife, and wine into two different sized glasses. Amazingly we often guessed the smaller of two of the same thing and it was less than a portion. So eyeballing something familiar is okay as long as you do the portion check once in a while.

Enjoy your dinner out - keep your fingers out of the bread basket and you'll do fine.

I haven't tried the strawberry ginger dressing yet. Have to get the
ingredients.

Yesterday was POP!

Stay warm on this last day of February.

Thanks, that's good to know about measuring, Judy. Maybe I wouldn't hate meetings completely after all… but I would still resent the time, I know that. And one thing Diet Bet has reminded me… I hate talking to people with 20 pounds to lose about their regimens (and especially getting their advice for mine).

Well, TOM took his leave and the scale is slowly inching downward. No whoosh this time. But I'm staying on track with my 30-day experiment. For the next week or so, I want to adjust my exercise a little--I want to keep doing my Zombies, Run! missions, because I enjoy it and it feels like progress toward a 5K, BUT I don't want to do this within 2 days of my weekly WI. I also want to get back to doing the weight loss yoga DVD and the beginner's ballet DVD, since those are a different kind of challenge, and finally I want to INSIST with myself that any day the high is above 40 I will take a walk outdoors.

POP since Feb. 24 (5-day streak) -- WI on Feb. 24: 280

Let's see what we can do with March!