Well, I've been horribly lazy this week and haven't done much of anything aside prepare for Sandy. We didn't even get all that much and we got lucky and didn't lose power here. I have friends in NYC though that are going on day 4 without power... One is so sick of her rich snobby friend's attitude that she's going back to her own apartment without power just to get away... gotta love that.

Anyway, I was semi-bad yesterday on my diet, after I weighed in at the Y, I didn't stick around for Yoga or anything, and because of the Hurricane (or SuperStorm, or Blizzicane, or whatever they're calling her) the Y of course was closed Monday and Tuesday, and my school didn't have licences for the MS certifications so I didn't bike to school.

However, I managed to weigh in yesterday and I am now 284.6, and I have beaten the 10 pound challenge 2 weeks prior to goal!!! I am also going to be writing the email to the people in charge about that stupid spice cake they gave everyone... really burns me that they would sabotage us like that.

Anyway, planning on braving a bit of snow tomorrow on the bike to get to classes. I'll check in in a bit!

I've been having a lot of low blood sugar spells lately. I don't quite know what to do about them and I feel like an idiot talking about it to anyone in real life. Oh, they're quick to hand you a butterfinger when your blood sugar has crashed and to tell you that you should work out less and eat more "actual" food (as if the healthy food I eat isn't real... oh, that makes me roll my eyes so hard), but surely there are things to do before it gets to that? And, really, can a 3 mile run the night before affect you that much fourteen hours later??

Tomorrow morning I plan to do Bodyflow followed immediately by Zumba. What should I eat for breakfast? I was going to have an egg and a couple slices of bacon but now I'm wondering if I need some carbs in there, like an apple, perhaps. Would that help?

Any advice is much appreciated! :)

Wolfshadow - Good luck with the email! I wouldn't outright accuse them of shennanigans, but rather outline your grievances with class. If you make it clear you feel you're in this together rather than a 'them vs me/us' scenario you'll probably get better results. I really hope that it was just a misunderstanding and not sabotage.
In the meantime, congratulations on meeting the challenge so early! And I'm glad the storm has left you largely alone.

I do need to start working out again. I use to be a beast in the gym. Err.. not so much anymore

WELCOME BETH!

i'll be at the gym later this morning doing some sort of running...probably the HIIT...still very sore in my upper legs, not quite sure what's up with that

will have a very busy day tomorrow between doing my teenager's birthday party and then heading to a halloween party with my younger son, my niece and her baby

i dreamed of eating eggs last night...and i freaking HATE eggs...i think it's my body's way of saying "enough halloween candy already" LOL

Try eating something small every 4 hours to help with your blood sugar, keep it at a regular level.

I am not diabetic and don't have blood sugar issues generally but I have noticed a couple of times in yoga, following a long workout, that when I bend forward and my head gets lower than my heart that I got dizzy. Once I even had to leave yoga early and I luv yoga. I am at the Y most days long enough that I need to take a full lunch. On very long days, usually Tuesdays, which I burn over 4000 calories I sometimes have to pack 2 lunches. My coach is always checking my lunch because she wants to make sure I'm eating ok. Today I burned 4057 calories. I had a sandwich before I went to workout. At the Y I had: a pb jamwich, half dozen or so baby carrots, a banana, a lowfat string cheese, and I took a baggie of pretzels I didn't eat. Don't be afraid to take plenty of food with you. I get some strange looks now and then but they're prolly from people who only go to exercise for an hour. I doubt they realize I'm there half the day. Please take care of yourself Thistleberry! We luv u!

Thanks for the advice, ladies. :hug: I've been trying to not let quite so much time pass between eating and have endeavored to take my pre and post cardio nutrition more seriously. I'm always careful about it when I lift but I tend to downplay my cardio. It's a mental thing, I suspect. I feel like any cardio I do simply can't be all that strenuous to the body by the simple fact that I am the one doing it and I've never been able to handle much. It's wrapped up in identity. Sometimes I forget that I'm now-Thistle instead of old-Thistle.

I didn't wind up going to the classes on Saturday because I overslept. Oops. I ran 3 miles instead. On Monday I did go to both Zumba and Flow but since they were both at night I didn't have any pressing food issues. I made sure to save room in my calorie budget for something to eat after.

Oh, man, though, Zumba? Yeah, I forgot how awful I am at it! :lol: I'm tromping around in the back like an elephant all the while with a gormless sort of half smile on my face. And that wouldn't be so bad except that I can't process the moves. I can watch and understand intellectually what is happening and what I'm supposed to do, but my brain just cannot translate it to my body. I try not to mind. I mean, as long as I keep moving and don't knock anyone down then everything is okay.
I also forgot how much you're on the balls of your feet and toes when doing Zumba. I have blisters on both my big toes. (And in my brillance wore heels to work today. Silly, silly me.)

Flow was lovely and I'm glad to be back to it though I'm not big on this release. The sun sals are terrible, though possibly I feel that way because the instructer didn't take much time. I like to stay in down dog for more than 1 second. I was disappointed in the hip openers too. Wednesday classes have my favorite instructor so I'll see then if it's just an instructor style thing. Or maybe she'll have switched out tracks. She likes to do that to keep things from getting stale.

oh thistleberry, you make me laugh! Your description of yourself in zumba sounds like me. I tried it a few times and I was zigging when they were zagging if you know what I mean. My coordination isn't great, and my rhythm is worse if you can believe that. I felt about as graceful as a hippo doing ballet. It's not for me. But I do wanna try it again when I lose a little more weight because I think half of my problem is speed and just not being able to keep up.

had a great workout today. 4 hrs. burned 3117 calories and I feel really good today.

yay! is everyone glad the election is over? I was getting sick to death of those ads. Nite all!

Happy to make you smile. :)
Yes, so very glad the political commercials are over! Some of them were just so obnoxious.

Decided to go for a run yesterday instead of attending Bodyflow. I only had time for one or the other and it was such a beautiful night. And it's rare that we have so little wind.

I had a great workout. I did my all-time best on the stair machine. It's so hard and I have been building up for a long time. At first I could only do a few minutes, maybe 5. Today I did 40 mins on it! At my weight that burns 766 calories! Also, tonight was RIPPED class. It was tough. My total workout burned 4153 calories in 4 hours. Tomorrow I won't be working out so I'll hit it again on Sat.

ive had a very busy weekend AND week...phew! AND it's TOM also :( ughhh

sunday: hour zumba-style dance class
monday: HIIT on the treadmill plus some uphill walking on it
tuesday: no exercise, literally worked like 10 hours or more plus everything to do at home
wednesday: HIIT on the treadmill plus some uphill walking
thursday: body exhausted, mentally exhausted, legs super sore, did an hour of uphill fast walking on the treadmill, no running
today friday: headed out next to do HIIT and some uphill walking
saturday: planned rest day
sunday: another dance class

Wow, Chubbygirl, you burn so many calories! Congrats on besting the stair machine. That's some crazy good progress.

You are keeping yourself awfully busy, Alaskanlaughter. I hope you're enjoying it. :)

I wanted to do Zumba this last Saturday but they cancelled the class, so I just did Flow. Went for a run when I got home and, well, that didn't turn out so hot. I tripped and fell. I fell hard. Let me tell you, I fell like I meant it. :lol: I managed to roll to the right because I didn't want to jar my knees and that's great and all but my right arm and right hip are a mess of bruises. I have abrasions along my forearms and on the heels of my hands and took a big chunk of skin off my right ankle.

The day didn't improve. I managed to burn my hand, roll my left ankle, and had to pick some glass out of the right (the already hurt one!) when I shattered a glass baking dish. Accident-prone doesn't begin to cover it.

I took yesterday off and I'm thinking I'm going to skip Zumba and Flow tonight. I hate to do it, but I'm so sore. Probably the healthiest thing for me to do is just let my body heal.

sorry I haven't been logging in. been busy. worked out all weekend though. I'll try to find the time to check in. tonight I'm tired and heading to bed. tues is always a hard workout day so I wanna be rested for tomorrow. nite

I so proud of myself for being active on the weekend!

Sat: zumba 60m & 5mile uphill nature hike w/ friends
Sun: Bike riding with family 5hr outing at the beach

I hope the week goes as well :)
Mon:Rest day
Tues:
Wed:
Thurs:
Friday:

Tues:zumba 60m w/ 2lb wrist weights & 30m MAX incline treadmill walk @ 2mph

I'm healing decently. Still quite sore, but I think I'll be able to handle Flow tonight. I'll just have to be a bit more careful when we're doing things on the right.

i ran HIIT on the treadmill monday and tuesday...i still have a muscle in my upper front leg that's bothering me...today i ran a mile in intervals at a slower speed and my leg still bothered me considerably but i got it done and then i walked on an incline at my fastest pace for the rest of the time...tomorrow i will try HIIT again and see how my leg is doing

i typically do HIIT on fridays also (work out 5 days a week) but i am having a series of allergy tests done friday morning and i'm a little leery of running after having things like that in contact with my skin...because ALL of my reactions occur while running...im having the testing done because i dont know what i'm allergic to...i knew Bayer and Sudafed cause reactions during a run but apparently so does mac n cheese(????) which i ate a bit prior to tuesday's run and had a huge reaction during the run...weirddd

I was soo tried last night but I'm committed, so I got my butt to the gym and did zumba 60m w/ 2lb wrist weights

If you can workout Saturday, just give your body the Rest it Needs on Friday for your test. I like a set rotuine, so I know its a kinda errr to go off plan, but Dr. visits are part of our health journey too :)

Yeah, given your reactions I think I'd recommend that you take Friday off too. That wouldn't be slacking by any means. It's just avoiding making yourself miserable because you know how your body is likely to react.

Gah! I missed Flow yesterday because I wound up having to work far too late. I am bound and determined to go for a run tonight!

i did a extra-harder HIIT on the treadmill today...kinda to make up for not going in tomorrow...i might go to a yoga class on saturday but not sure yet...my upper leg in the front is still giving me aches...not sure what's up with that...might see if a 3 day rest will help it out

and just because i "rest" for three days or whatever, i'm by no means not moving around...i still work full time, mostly on my feet, raise our kids, run errands, clean house etc...

Ok, very short post from me..

I beat the 10-pound-10-week challenge. My start was 297, my end was 279. 18 pounds. I was also officially my Y's biggest loser during the challenge, unless someone comes today who's lost more than me.

Haven't really been exercising much. Been too cold to ride the bike and all. We did go walking, just me and Axl and Toboe (my two dogs) through the Lights on the Lake display free stroll Wednesday, and walked about 6 miles.. I haven't walked our normal route in a few months, and my hips are still sore from that walk. Hoping it goes away soon.

Anyway, since I beat the challenge, I was sorta bad yesterday and treated myself to Burger King. A Whooper, a small vanilla shake, and a small fry. I haven't had fast food in about 3 months so I figured it was worth it. I also swam yesterday for about 2 and a half hours.. so I figured I could afford the calories / carbs.

Anyway. gotta go eat something, I'm starving. You ladies have a nice day/evening and keep working!

I certainly wasn't thinking you were lying around eating bonbons all day. :lol: I haven't worked out since Thursday, so it might seem like I've been slacking, but that isn't the case. I certainly haven't been inactive. There's a lot to do! We understand. :)

Congratulations, Wolfshadow! You blew the competition out of the water. 18 pounds is crazy fantastic!

LOL my mom always gives me a hard time because my "rest" days include no resting whatsoever...she always tells me to take it easy, take a nap, stuff like that LOL

i had friday off from a workout because of my allergy testing...i tested as medically allergic to cats, lobster and cockroaches as well as mildly allergic (not enough to warrant a diagnosis) to nearly everything else they tested me for - 33 inhalant allergens like trees, mold etc and 23 food allergens...i was prescribed an epipen for my most severe reactions and basically told that my whole system is highly sensitive to any/everything and is probably inherited from my dad, who has hay fever, allergies and excema

i took my saturday and sunday rest days and today i did HIIT on the treadmill...it was a crazy busy day at work, on my feet ALL day and mentally exhausted as well...

Geez, that is a lot to have to deal with. I read your post about it in general chatter and hope the ladies that responded there were able to help you make a decision about whether to pursue additional testing. I have some allergies but they've always been quite mild so have never been in your position.

I did get a nice run in on Sunday and I did both Zumba and Flow yesterday night. I found out recently my work covers gym costs up to a certain amount though the studio I go to doesn't qualify, so I've got an orientation appointment at a local gym later today. I expect I won't enjoy running on a treadmill quite as much as I do running outside, but I've got to face the reality that it is just too cold (not to mention dark) when I get home from work at night.

monday: HIIT on the treadmill
tuesday: walk at fast pace uphill for an hour on the treadmill
wednesday: HIIT on the treadmill
thursday: rest day - happy thanksgiving!!
friday: going to do something on the treadmill LOL maybe HIIT
saturday: going to try a morning yoga class which i dont think counts as exercise but still...
sunday: rest day

i stayed pretty good on calories today...i aimed for 1500 or less calories on mon-wed and gave myself permission to eat with awareness today and i ended up at about 1700 calories PLUS a slice and a half of homemade pumpkin pie, whatever that equals out to be

i feel full but not stuffed...just nicely full, which is what i wanted, was to NOT end up feeling insanely stuffed full

i did the entire meal cooking today as well as all the kitchen-cleaning and also the laundry...im tired and going to bed now

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

i didnt do any workout on friday after all...i was just in a holiday mindset i guess LOL

saturday i tried the yoga class and really liked it...felt GOOD to take time for myself to stretch out, refocus, meditate etc....the 5 minutes of deep breathing meditation at the end was 5 minutes more than i've ever meditated in years! i remember why i love yoga now!

today sunday i felt like my body really wanted to run...so i swept off the snow from the 4wd truck and went to the gym even though it's snowing today (expecting a foot of snow total by tomorrow)...i ran my HIIT and then walked at a fast pace and incline for the rest of the hour....i feel much better now

im also trying to commit to a low sugar/low wheat way of eating until christmas because i KNOW those kick off my cravings badddd....we'll see how that goes....i KNOW it helps my diet but whether i can actually do it or not, we'll see how my willpower is :)

I'm glad you enjoyed your yoga so much. :) Good luck on the low sugar/low wheat! I hope it's going well so far.

I've been feeling pretty poorly the last week or so and haven't been very active. I'm trying to convince myself to go to Bodyflow tonight but I feel like such a pitiful lump.

its been going well with the low sugar/low wheat...i have a hard time with ZERO sugar or wheat or even low carb in general because i rebel against such hard and fast rules...so i kind of bargain with myself like i can have ONE something that contains some sugar, like in a store coffee, or ONE something with wheat, like the noodles in our dinner....but the rest of the day needs to be clean...and that's worked well so far...i think about what one thing i want to spend that on and then it's easier to eat clean the rest of the day...also aiming for calories 1500-1600 and working out pretty hard daily

we'll see if it makes a difference...i can tell that my appetite and cravings have diminished...unfortunately my appetite has had little correlation in the past to what i actually put in my mouth LOL but i'm working on it

today i did some running and some walking for an hour on the treadmill...my arm is still bothering me from a week ago (i think i posted in general chatter about it) but it's slowly feeling better...tomorrow i'll do something similar on the treadmill

it's a late night...worked til 6 p.m. and went straight to a board meeting for an organization that im on their board of directors...got home at 9 p.m. zzz

I've stuck primarily to calorie counting because I don't do well with hard and fast rules either. I do try to keep things lower carb, but every time I have tried "low" carb it just doesn't work out. I think it might be beneficial for me, especially as I have PCOS, but it requires so much more planning and so much more work because, though I have come a very long way, I'm still somewhat of a picky eater.
Do you keep track of your macros at all? Just curious.

I went to Flow last night! And it was lovely. I was still feeling all out of sorts with myself and my body and exercise though. So, even though it was already quite late by the time I got into town, I stopped at the gym after Flow and hopped on a treadmill for half an hour. Consequently, I got to bed way too late and I'm awfully tired today, but I feel good. I'm glad I did it. I plan to go in after work tonight.

i dont keep track of my macros as tightly as some people do...i log things in a notebook so i dont have the fancy trackers and apps online that other people use...i write down what i eat and the calories in it...i try to hit my two goals every day : 1500-1600 calories (either total or with exercise calories subtracted) and low sugar/low wheat...i keep track of macros to the extent that i try to eat healthy, i try to eat good protein, try to keep sugars low and try to stay away from junk foods...i also track my exercise and what i do, i track the vitamins and medications that i take, and whether there's an unusual amount of stress during the day

where has all the 30-something accountability gone?? :( :( its just been me and maybe thistleberry? for awhile now

i took an hour and a half yoga class yesterday and spent the day running errands ahead of a big snowstorm moving in...today we're getting lots of snow...gonna take the 4wd truck out to do a few things and then keep staying home...it's a rest day from the gym today and probably wont even go to the hot tub there because of the snowstorm...i know *I* can drive safe on the roads but i dont trust that everyone else can and it only takes one stupid driver to slide into me...i love DH's truck in bad weather :)

where have you all gone since thanksgiving??

I've been stuck putting in long days at work and running all over trying to sort out some car troubles. I haven't been able to exercise nearly as much as I'd like. But, annoying though it may be insofar as time is concerned, it makes me feel very blessed. I have a job and I have enough money in savings to cover the car costs. Things could be a lot worse.

Ran 2 miles today. I would like to have done more but would not have been able to shower in time to make my meeting, and surely something is better than nothing.

Not exercise related, but I'd recently been having a lot of headaches and couldn't figure out why. I think I've narrowed it down to artificial sweeteners. I didn't realize how many had crept their way into my diet! Gum, syrup, salad dressing, pudding, etc. Now that I'm aware of it, I'm trying to cut the majority back out. Haven't had a headache for two days now so I'm hoping that was it. Fingers crossed.

Hope everyone is doing well. :)

Been getting a lot of informal exercise the last few days playing with our new puppy. She's a black and white cocker spaniel and pretty much the cutest thing you've ever seen. So sweet!! :love:

I ran 5k at the gym yesterday morning and then decided I wanted to go swimming at the aquatic center in the afternoon. I managed laps for half an hour. I really wanted to do more but my contacts were glued to my eyeballs and they were burning something fierce. I went out and bought a pair of goggles yesterday. Thought I'd probably go swimming this afternoon as well, but town lost power and it was just safer to stay put. I think I'm going to go tomorrow afternoon (have the day off owing to a dentist appointment) and then attend Flow at night.

I always feel so embarrassed swimming but not for the usual reasons. I actually don't feel much anxiety wearing my swimsuit in public at all anymore except that it's too big and I'm constantly worried I'm going to lose the bottoms when I get out of the pool. :lol: My big problem is that I'm awful at swimming. I mean, I failed basic swim classes as a kid. Twice! But it's just such an enjoyable form of exercise and it torches so many calories even when you don't do it right just so long as you keep moving. And isn't that a wonderful thing? I feel like the lifeguards have got to be rolling their eyes at my flailing but I try to ignore it as best I can.

Where is everyone? It's all getting all kinds of echoey in here.

I picked up some goggles for myself and hit the pool again last night. Swam laps for about 45 minutes (didn't actually look at the clock before I got in so it might have been longer) and I pushed myself a lot harder than I did the other day. Wow, do I feel it today!
I admit I'm not big on going from the pool to a warm shower to the snowy outdoors in less than 10 minutes but it is what it is. In an ideal world I'd have an olympic size swimming pool in my immaculate, sprawling mansion. Alas! :lol:

Bodyflow tonight. Really looking forward to it. :)

In scale news, I've been under 140 for the second day in a row. Just under, as in 139.8 today, but it's such a boost and so surreal in a really happy way! I don't really trust it though. I'm scared to change my tickers for fear that this will be but a temporary dip and I'll be battling the lower 140s again for the next few weeks.

im here...nothing ever really changes here...still working out etc...same old stuff...kinda quit posting because it only ever seemed to be me and you around here anymore