[MELODY525]

HAPPY~ I WAS JUST WANDERING AROUND AND FOUND THAT 21 DAY THREAD. I JUST LEFT MY CHALLENGE ON PROVIDA BECAUSE IT WAS FAR TOO MUCH TO KEEP UP WITH AND I HAVE SO MANY OTHER THINGS TO DO WITH MY LEFE BESIDES READING AND TYPING! LOL BUT I WAS WONDERING WHY WE DON'T DO ONE OF OUR OWN RIGHT HERE? LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.
I WAS GOING TO PM YOU BUT....
MAYBE OTHERS WOULD LIKE TO GIVE SOMETHING UP, TRY A NEW EXERCISE, BREAK A HABIT OR WHATEVER FOR 21 DAYS.
I'M GOING TO START MINE ON OCTOBER 1ST. GOTTA PUT MY THINKING CAP ON NOW!

[happy2bme]

Mel,
Let's do a challenge here! Will be good to keep us in a positive mindset. I always do better when I have to post. Do you want to stick with Red Balloon's philosophy of keeping the challenge to 21 days? I know she's going to be dissapointed that I'm not posting on her thread - maybe I will pop my head in occasionally but I prefer doing something here if anyone is up to it?

Challenge is open to anyone who's interested.

[MELODY525]

YES!!! I AM READY FOR THIS AND RED'S IDEAS WOULD BE FINE. ANYTHING ANYONE WANTS TO DO FOR 21 DAYS AND THEY CAN START ON WHATEVER DAY THEY WANT, AND GO BACK TO SQUARE ONE WHEN THEY SCREW UP. I LOVE HER IDEA BUT NEED A SMALLER SCALE OF PEOPLE. THIS WAY I ONLY HAVE TO POST ONCE A DAY AS THE EYES AREN'T WHAT THEY SHOULD BE AND MY TIME ON THE PC IS A WEE BIT LIMITED AS A RESULT.
SO FOR ME IT'S SATURDAY AS MY START. I'LL POST WHAT I AM DOING BEFORE THEN.

[MELODY525]

HAPPY I HAVE BEEN LAUGHING SINCE YOUR POST...........WHEN I READ IT I COULD FEEL ENTHUSIASM AND IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT OF MICKEY ROONEY AND JUDY GARLAND GETTING EXCITED ABOUT PUTTING ON A PLAY!!!

[ceejay52]

happy---I'm in for a challenge. It would be more convient for me instead of going to one thread to another. October is just around the corner. It would be a perfect time for a 21 day challenge.

Mel-- I have had an email from that hunky police officer, but when I knew him before he was married. Besides I'm old enough to be his mother.

Holly--I understand about wanting to be with just your immediate family for a few day's. I would love to spend more time with my siblings but one sister lives in Texas and the other sister lives in Missouri. I'm making plans to visit both in November.

Shad thanks for the information. I even tried to reset the read only attribute but it's just not letting me. Instead of being a check mark this one is shaded. I'm waiting for a response from my nieces husband who has a degree in computers. If he can't remove it don't know who could.

Where are the other's. Linus has her hand full with little CJ I'm sure. Hello to the rest.

[Shad]

A challenge here would be good for us I think - will certainly gee us up going into Winter/ Summer. I'm in the 21 day one but won't be in the next as somewhere in the middle of the next one is my visit to Japan. There is no way that I am going to try to wend my tongue around I can't eat xyz in a foreign language. I'll be in it for Oct 1 as well then. Meantime I'l work on what I am going to do or not do as the case maybe.

I'm home for the morning fasting prior to a sugar test at the pathologists. I go down there at 7.00am this morning. Doc tells me there is an epidemic of type 2 diabetes in Australia and very few miraculous families will miss out on it sometime, somewhere insists on this test every six months (when I go to see him for a repeat prescription) He is out to prove that I am not a modern day miracle. I am out to prove that I am. Hence the fasting today.

Having said that better go and do a few things around the place. This spare time is a blessing too good to pass up.

Oh yes and I put some spring photos of my garden on webshots last night. So go take a peak. It's Spring

[PainterWoman]

I've just barely skimmed today's summary subscription. I'm here! I'm OK.
The cool front arrived with a boom and a flash. I hope it is cool enough in the morning for me to mosey around the neighborhood a bid and get my corpuscles moving.
Will somebody tell me either where to find the "Red" challenge or what it entails? Maybe going back to "confessing" my edible sins will be a help.

Made an appointment to consult with the radiologist Oct 7. (Day after my birthday... Double Nickle. What a treat. HA!) Anyway, I might be starting radiation as early as 10/12 which would put me at the finish line by our Thanksgiving (late November.)

I have hair sprouting on my head again. Some hairs are even more than 1/2 inch long. Bad news, is that I think I might have to re-commence shaving my legs again, too. I was REALLY nice having any hair to shave all summer.

I don't have anything on tomorrow's agenda besides exercise and my surgery follow up. I hope I don't totally waste the day... but get some weeding done (the rain will have loosened the @#$%^ing roots, I hope) and maybe some knitting and drawing and writing. Or balancing my check book. Not seeing clients has made the end of THIS month a real challenge. Grrrr. Funny how that works.

[Tig]

I woke up "working" and couldn't get back to sleep so rather than toss and turn and wake up Slim, I came out to the computer room to catch up and get caught up. Evidently we had a power outage sometime in the night because all of the clocks are flashing and the TV cable box wants to be reset. That might have been what woke me up.

The race season started and the first race of the year was on the beach. I was first in my age group. I beat hundreds of old ladies who didn't show up and my First Place plaque doesn't even include the words And Only on it!

Slim and I are taking a four-week course called Financial Strategies. We had our first class last week. So far I've learned that Slim is a financial genius. But we all knew that. The class is at Cocoa Beach, about 30 miles north of us. We were going to ride the motorcycle because it's such a beautiful ride home in the moonlight, but we're supposed to get storms again tonight. Maybe next week.

We had a great ride last weekend and ended up at a fun biker bar. Another round of unsweetened iced tea for our table, barkeep! (In the southern USA, you have the choice of sweetened or unsweetened iced tea. And when they say sweetened, they are not kidding.) We're such party animals! We got caught in a rain squall, but this time had our rain gear with us. I've learned that raindrops really sting at 55 miles per hour. Tomorrow is a day off for me and we have another ride planned. This time we are going south. Slim had a leather scabbard custom made for my cane for the bike and we're going to go pick that up and then we're going to ride some more. I'm on new medicine that is wonderfully taking care of the pain. On the old medicine I could ride for only a half hour or so max. Last week we were gone for three hours after running the 5K race in the morning and I was still okay. I'm getting extra wobbly - not fun - and my running time is getting slower. Very annoying. My running time on Tuesday was 4 minutes slower than three weeks ago.

In a couple of weeks we are hosting some of Slim's internet friends at a gathering at our house. The latest count I think is up to 30 or so. They are mostly from Florida and Georgia. They've been internet buddies for several years - I know I met one lady from Atlanta. She's going to stay at our house. I don't know if I know any of the rest of them. It will be a lot of fun. It's his "Where's George" group. They track US dollar bills. You can go to wheresgeorge.com to see what they do if you like. I think they are weird, but aren't we all?

If I go wake Slim up, I'll bet I can get an invitation to go out to breakfast and then a ride to work on the motorcycle.

[happy2bme]

Good morning ladies,

Interesting posts this morning. The original challenge thread is called the 21 Day Challenge - Challenge to Victory and it's within this group on the Support Groups section. There are some twists which I won't go into but the jist of it is to choose something challenging (but not so challenging that you won't stick with it) for 21 days straight. If you blow a day, you reset your counter back to day 1 again. Don't try to tackle too many things at once also - you want to be motivated, and it has to be reasonably do-able. You can pick any activity that you'd like to improve upon - drink more water, eat 3 servings of veggies, take a walk, or even things like clean your dishes before going to bed or spend 15 minutes a day tidying up. Your challenge, your choice. Then each day you report on whether you've met your challenge for the day.

I am starting today because I have made too many empty promises in the past. My challenge is to drink at least 3 bottles of water a day and to spend at least 15 minutes a day getting into exercise mode again - walking or crunches. I am admittedly starting slow but my point is to develop good habits again.

As a side benefit yesterday I started taking my vitamins again and I am renewing my habit of stretching in the morning. Work out the kinks and get some oxygen in the muscles and blood!

I think most all of us are getting a kiss of cooler weather these next 2 days. Was 86 yesterday and a high of 70 today. I will be taking a walk at lunchtime.

Enjoy your day...

[MELODY525]

PAINTER~ WHAT LENGTHS WE HAVE TO GO TO FOR AVOIDING LEG SHAVING!!! SORRY ABOUT THE LEGS BUT GLAD THE HEAD IS HAVING SOME COVERAGE FOR THE WINTER. JUST IN TIME. I AM DETERMINED TO WATERCOLOR THIS WINTER. I NEED TO DEVISE AN EASEL. EVERY TIME I LOOK AT THE "STUFF" I THINK OF YOU!!

TIG~ GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE RACE! I AM SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT THE WEAKNESS. I HAVE THE SAME STORY HERE. HOPE YOU GOT THE BREAKFAST AND THE RIDE!! YOU SHOULD TAKE A PIC OF THE MEAN MACHINE WITH SCABBARD AND POST IT!!!

SHAD~ GOOD LUCK WITH THE TEST...GUESS IT'S OVER BY NOW!! LOL TYPE 2 IS ON THE RISE EVERYWHERE AND THE DR TOLD ME TO GET TESTED ONCE A YEAR NOW. GOTTA BE ALL THE SUGARS ON THE MARKET!!! HE SEEMS TO THINK IT WILL AFFECT JEN'S GENERATION LIKE A BOMB. HOPE HE'S WRONG BUT I COULD SEE HIS REASONING. WHO IS WATERING THE GARDEN WHEN YOU GO? NEED A HOUSE SITTER? HAVE HOSE WILL TRAVEL:MOPED:

HAPPY~ SO GLAD WE ARE DOING THIS. I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE I PICK STUFF I WILL ACTUALLY DO...YOURS ARE ALMOST THE SAME AS WHAT I HAVE BEEN THINKING OF. WATER AND MOVING!!! GETTING VERY LAZY OVER HERE. LOVELY TEMPS ALMOST EVERYWHERE. THE WIND IS PICKING UP ALL NIGHT AND TODAY. THE REMNANTS OF RITA ARE HERE. SUN IS STILL OUT THOUGH!

CEEJAY~ YOUNG IS GOOD!
LOOK AT DEMI MORE? SUSAN SARANDON? ELIZABETH TAYLOR?

I FINALLY FACED FACTS AND CALLED THE WHEELCHAIR PEOPLE AGAIN. ANOTHER WOMAN IS HELPING ME GET SOME THIGH RESTS SO I CAN PULL MYSELF INTO IT. ONE CHAIR IS FINE BUT THE NEW ONE LACKS "SIDES" LIKE THE OLD ONE DID. CAME BACK FROM THE BBQ AND COULDN'T GET OFF THE TOILET AND BACK INTO THE CHAIR. I DID IT THE DAY BEFORE. THINGS CHANGE SO QUICKLY AROUND HERE! WHEN THEY COME, THEN I CAN SEND THIS CHAIR IN FOR MINOR REPAIRS AND DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH THE TOILET ITSELF. SOME SEATS ARE WAY TO HIGH FOR MY SHORT LEGS
I BETTER GET MOVING BEFORE THE STORM COMETH IF I WANT TO GET OUT FOR A SPIN!
HAPPY THURSDAY

[Hollyhock]

A blustery mornin' to ya! It is veeeery windy, 9C,48F, it was pouring rain....I love this weather. I feel so invigorated.
Lots of empowering stuff went on yesterday.1) I had a good day in general. 2) I made my fav cauliflower soup and it is beach friendly!!!!! It is darned good.I will post it.
3)I ran errands along the way to the city, did Grandma's hair, she commented about me not going to Thanksgiving but seemed okay with it, She said the odd thing that told of conversations about me and hubby amongst them.4)It reinforced my decisions positively.
5)I stopped at an old friends to pick up some fav books I had leant her and was missing. I did another haircut and then 6) went to a new friends for tea. I got home around midnight.
I ate 1/2 a multigrain bagel with ff cream cheese. 7)The rest of the day I did carb free without a hitch.8) Got lots of veggies in!! 9)Had a great sleep. 10) DS was happy and agreeable this morning.11)I am having coffee with you ladies! 12) I just have the 4 preschoolers today and they will all nap this aft and I will have 2 hours to myself.13)
i am going to take a bath in a few minutes. 14) I sent the parent guide to the school board printer yesterday!!! It's like giving birth. I have been working on it since last Feb. It will be celebrated when complete. 15) I am feeling clear headed and full of possibilities for the future!!!

Weeheee!!!

[ceejay52]

Challenge for me is to keep calories at 1600 per day and to do 30 to 45 minutes of daily aerobics, in general a healthy living strategy. I shall start tomorrow because after working 6 - 12 hour days I need a rest. I slept until 9 a.m. this morning. (I'll have a good pay check in the morning.) My goal is to lower cholesterol and fasting blood sugar levels by next appointed dr.s visit in 6 months.

Painter woman-- I was 55 in August--hope you dr visit in october goes well.

Shad--Blood sugar testing. I suppose that one of my challenges should be to watch the carb and sugar intake. Dr. fussed at me because my fbs level was near the high end of the scale. yikes.

Holly--you sound rested and in control this morning.

Happy--I love the fall. I'm going to get out later in the day and get in some exercise in the yard and some fresh air. I'm wanting what I call "fall foods" also. May make some home soup and corn muffins tonight.

Tig-- A Financial Strategies course would not hurt anyone. Have fun with the "internet group" .

I need to run some errands but may weight until tomorrow-pay day. I ordered a pair of shoes online. They should be comoing in the mail today or tomorrow.

Speaking of financial strategies, I paid off 2 credit cards this morning. I got upset with CapitolOne this morning so I paid that one and my Discover card in full. I'm going to close out CapitolOne next month when I get that statement. I'm making sure all
payments have been posted first.

[Shad]

Yeah g'day,

I think we should post a list of all the challenge goals and ideals. It will then be easier to go back to if we want to see what we actually set out to achieve.

Do you want to have the pause day as they do in Red's 21 day challenge. Basically it seems to go like this.

Choose your goal/s for the 21 days. Report it in every day. If you stuff up, you go back to day one and start again. If you wish you can take one pause day (better to keep this for later in the challenge when you don't want to start again) This doesn't mean that the pause day is counted in the challenge. If you are on Day 15 and take a pause day, then the next day of the challenge is Day 16. .
Hope that makes sense.

My goals will be as in Red's thread:
Portion Control
Exercise 5 days a week
Drink the water
Lo Carb.

Weigh in and measure this morning. General trend seems to be down, some of that will have to do with the fasting yesterday for that sugar test. I'll take it, don't care how it comes. I'll post the results tonight when I get home.

Friday, last day of the month. I'm hoping to leave early tonight to go and pick up my Japanese Yen (120,000 - sounds like I am taking a fortune to spend doesn't it), but I may have to make that next week. We will see. I'll pick up the tickets tomorrow after gym. That always make me feel like the day will eventually come. Large hole will appear in bank balance tho' - arghh well it's my medical fund really that will decrease. This is preventative medicine so I can justify the expense. The things we do to justify spending money!!! 27 days to go.

Ceejay - glad to hear that you have paid off the credit cards. It makes life so much easier if you don't have those and the incredible amount of interest that they charge hanging around and ruining the budget.

Holly - good to hear you sounding upbeat (or should that be offbeat??) Dear old grannie. Isn't some of these family occasions a bit hard on her at 95? Mind you I should hope to be as good if I ever get there.

Mel - DS2 is going to house sit the house, garden and cat! Should have an interesting cause and effect. They are not in love with each other, but she tolerates him because he feeds her. He tolerates her because he has to! It's an interesting stand off. She should win but don't put your money on it. Sorry to hear of the problems coming up with the loo and the chair. We may have to invent a gadget to get you off the loo! Can it get much harder? Oh and thanks for Ralphies message. It's a good one.

Happy - starting slow is good. It reduces the risks of strains, sprains and splints to mention just a few nasties. What size water bottles are we talking here?? I'll start mine today with you. Make a note - Friday 30th September, well that's what it is here anyway.

Tig - well done on winning the race. I don't care if you were the 'only'. You took part, you won. You would have won in my eyes anyway even if you weren't the only one. So please to see the Financial Strategies coming into play. When you are done, send Slim over with the wizardy to turn me into a millionaire - come too. Plenty of places to run around here. The city has just put in a floating walkway/ cycleway. You can now ride/ run for miles and miles from the far western suburbs of the city to the far eastern suburbs of the city on both sides of the river and it is a beautiful way to exercise the day. If I lived in town or nearer to town I would do it myself - as it is I only get to walk a few k's of the facility in my lunch break. Life sounds so interesting with that bike. I'm so glad you are both getting pleasure out of it. And great news on the medicine working as well. Iced tea?!? sweetened or unsweetened I think I will leave it thanks.

Painter - Radiology - does that stop the hairs on your legs growing again? Always something to bug us. State your aims on this thread challenge. Easier than finding the other and sorting out who is who. Read Happy's post and/ or mine to see what you have to do. Good luck my friend. Birthday coming up?!!! Oh good, we like to celebrate with cyber cake on our cyber terrace, in our cyber home - where do you want to be for your birthday - Bavaria or the summer house on Manihi????

Teel ????/ Linus????/ Meadow???? where are you??? Don't make me come over there and fetch you back (unless of course there is a man on the scene? )

[Shad]

There you go, told you I would be back. You lot have obviously been snoring off while I've been slaving away.

Measurements are as follows:
Weight 73 71.5 down 1.5k or 3lbs more or less
Upper Chest 36 36 same
Bust 40 40.5 Up 1/2 inch
Lower Chest 34 33 Down 1 inch
Waist 33 32 Down 1 inch
Upper Hip 38.25 38 Down 1/4 inch
Lower Hip 38.75 38.5 Down 1/4 inch
Top of Arm 12.25 12 Down 1/4 inch
Top of Leg 21.25 21 Down 1/4 inch

I'm really pleased to see the lower chest and waist measurement reducing. I've been putting a lot of effort into abs and crunches. Still not enough and those bl**dy boobs are GROWING!!!


So that's it for another month. Of course next month will be early before I go to Chris' place.

[happy2bme]

Good morning ladies,

Day 1 of my challenge completed. Water good, exercise good. Did do a little bit more than the minimum committment because it was in my head that I was in a challenge - so a good thing.

Half my day at work will be meetings today. When I get home I MUST work on the neighborhood newsletter. Ok, just apply yourself and get it done and over with already. It's gloriously cool here. I'd love to dig the bike out over the weekend.

Shad, good to see you are getting some positive results in the measurements, I know you've been working so hard and it's been so frustrating. How long will you be visiting Chris and when do you leave?

CeeJay your mention of soup and cornbread sounds very good to me too. Will have to dig out my soup cookbooks this weekend. I love cornbread too. Good for you on paying off the credit cards. Sometimes when you threaten to cancel they lower the rates substantially. We got rid of all but 2 cards and pay them off each month. Best thing we could have ever done.

Holly sounds like you're busy as ever. Hope you get out in the garden this weekend.

Tig, it's not always about finishing first, sometimes it's about just finishing the race. I admire your determination. Good riding this weekend.

Mel, I hope they get your chair working for you properly. I had to laugh at your comment about Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland the other day. Does anyone besides us and Tig know what that meant? I can just picture the enthusiam!

PW - funny but I never considered an up side of chemo as to not shaving the legs Hope you get a bit of an energy jolt that lets you get out and about. Take a walk and stock up those cabinets!

My allergies are in full bloom here - I'm allergic to mold so the fall is worse for me. Drippy cough and tickly throat. Makes me crazy. And I can't get my favorite over the counter allergy medicine anymore since punks have cooked it up into some sort of substitute drug concoction and the chemists don't carry it anymore. I hate to go to the doctor but might have to if this gets much worse. Ugh.

Hellos to the rest of the lot, Teel and Meadow where are you? Linus we are thinking about you even if you are too busy to check in. Nae is probably outside on her porch enjoying the view and fresh air...