zelma - I hope you are feeling better and I'm glad to hear you are not in the way of the fires.

kayley - I do love the sore days! Sometimes I get going and I push myself with that "Eye of the Tiger" song being played over and over again in my head and the next day or two I'm hobbling around with sore this or that lol. The best part, and this is something I've really come to realize recently, is that after my sore days I can go longer and push myself more and more.

***

Well I didn't exercise for 3 and a half days, but today I got back into it and did my cardio. I could not get all the way through it like I did a few days ago. I mean I had a breakthrough as I got through the entire cardio and cooldown segment of my overused DVD lol. Today I got through a bit over half of the cardio, but I think it was the lack of exercise and I ate way to close my exercise time. My tummy was just upset the entire time and I think I used a lot of energy fixating on that.

Tomorrow I get up at 5am and take my morning walk for an hour, then do my cardio workout in the afternoon. That gives me plenty of time to work and exercise and do whatever else I need to do.

I hope everyone is well.

Hi everyone!

Not much new to report here - on plan yesterday with eating and exercise, and heading off to the gym again today since it's cloudy and drizzly.

Lorrie - hope your sis is feeling better

DCHound - so cool that you treated yourself to the flowers!

Zelma & Annie - hope you're both feeling better soon. Glad you're safe, Zelma

Kayley - sounds like a great workout! sometimes that soreness is inevitable if you're really challenging yourself

Jacquie - that's some serious exercise . . . I usually consider 1 hour of walking to be my cardio lol . . . KUTGW

Just wanted to pop in. I'm feeling sort of under the weather with a sooooore throat. Plus another mouse died in our air ducts and the smell is so nasty. I've got candles burning all over to get rid of the smell. Sometime this year we're getting our ducts cleaned and the underside of the tubes redone and new skirting on the house. Can't do this nasty mouse smell anymore. That's what we get for living out in the country.

Zelma, glad to hear your ok. It's awful that someone would start some of those fires. Take care.

To all of you who are sick, take care and get better.

Toodles

Hi lost 5 1/2 pounds this week!!!!! BUt I did GAIN 3 last week (greedy at my mum's, lol) & 3 the week before (no idea why!!!Grrrr) I am feeling good and more positive about losing this FAT, especially as the weather seems to be warming up, my bulbs are sprouting and I have gorgeous snowdrops in bloom, it makes me glad to be alive!
Zelma so sorry you are feeling down again, though after your fab trip everyday life is bound to be a bit of an anti-climax! I hope your Drs can help you, you keep getting ill and feeling depressed, it doesn't seem right to me, is there something your body is 'missing'? I really hope you can get sorted out soon, it must be so frustrating for you, as you're usually so upbeat AND busy.xxxxxxxx
Beth, I am THE QUEEN of procrastination, often leaving 3,000 word essays/dissertations until two or three days before they were due in!!!! I find the pressure gets me working, lol. Hope you get it all done in time.xxxxxx Annie, hugsxxxx Hope you feel better soon.
Catherine, at least your hubby needs to lose weight, mine is skinny & eats EVERYTHING, never gaining any weight!!! At least you can eat healthily together.xxxxx
Must go but hugsxxxx Not meaning to forget everyone else!xxx
xxxxxsharon

Jacquie – That is quite true! It’ll be back to the gym for me finally tomorrow. My boy came over, and gave me a calf massage, which helped IMMENSELY! Lol. My legs are still a bit sore, so I think I’ll just be doing my upper body strength training tomorrow.

Debbie – FEEL BETTER!!! *hugs*

Sharon – That’s fantastic!! A loss is a loss! Keep rockin’ it, lady!

Wow, it’s been really dead in here this week thus far! I’m so glad that tomorrow is FRIDAY! I’m finally feeling a lot less sore, so I’ll be back to the gym tomorrow. I miss it! Lol. I just finished up with a looong test for my Legal Ethics class, that was due by 11pm tonight. It’s nearly 10:30, so I got it in just under the wire. Heh. I’m pretty happy, because I got a 99% on my Tort Law exam, and a 98% on my Family Law exam today. Yay! Lol. It’s the little things, really.

Tomorrow is my long day at campus. Blah. Hope you all have a great night!!

OK, it's Friday afternoon (4:15pm) and I am sitting here in my underwear sipping an icy cold drink because it has been a VERY hot day and I don't have any energy left. It got to 36C/96F and it doesn't seem much cooler now. The hot wind didn't help at all.

I actually had a lovely day though. I am training a new choir and I have about 70 students in it at the moment. I have a few kids (particularly a couple of boys) who have very low self-esteem and they seem to be loving choir, so I hope this improves their confidence over the year. I stood in the middle of them today as they sang "I Am Australian" and I almost cried. They sounded SO beautiful. I have told them that if I get 'chills' then I know they are doing a good job and I stood there with CONSTANT chills. It was so lovely to have that happen so early in the year.

We don't have any plans for the weekend at the moment. We were hoping to have our new car for the weekend, but that doesn't seem to have happened. We are leasing our car through Salary Packaging, which means that some of the payments are taken out BEFORE tax, which makes it all cheaper. It is a great idea, but changing over cars is proving to be a huge pain in the rear end! We are getting a Mazda3, which should be better for fuel consumption. Hopefully it will get here next week as we are planning to go and see Mum for the long weekend (Labour Day). Fingers crossed.

I am still working on losing my holiday pounds. I actually gained even MORE when we got back, which could have been due partly to the depression flaring up, and partly due to hormones driving me nuts, and partially to the extra medication that I was put on and m-a-y-b-e some of it may have been due to just not eating quite as well as I should have. Thankfully a few pounds have come off this week, so I am pretty much at the same point I was at the end of the holiday. So, I have more to lose yet, but I am getting there. I bought my third charm, (for the third year I have kept the weight off) while we were away. It is a lovely little girl with a heart in her middle. I chose this one as I am pretty much re-living my childhood since I lost weight. For example, at Disneyland I had to have my photo taken with lots of characters and I had my first ever (that I can remember) ride on a proper merry-go-round. I haven't been wanting to put the charm on until I lost the holiday weight, but I worked out that I was seeming to be 'punishing' myself by holding off on doing it. So after talking with my psychologist I have decided to put the charm on this weekend. I think it may actually give me the positive boost I need. I mean... I HAVE kept most of the weight off, and I still have HEAPS of good habits that I didn't have before, so I have EARNT my third charm.

Some people have talked about unpredictable TOMs and what a pain that is. When I talked to the doctor about how my hormones seem to make a huge difference in my 'happiness' levels, she said that at least I could prepare myself for when I may be feeling "down". When I told her that it didn't work that way because this last cycle was 4 weeks late, she put me on the contraceptive pill. Almost 47 and just put on the pill!!! Oh well. If it helps it will be worth it. Not only will it let me know when I could be due to get moody, but she said that it will help to balance out the hormones, so it may not get as bad anyway. We'll have to see about that one.

To all of you who have been feeling unwell, I hope you are feeling great again soon. It will be interesting to see how my throat goes this year seeing as I am teaching Literature and Library instead of Music. I will still be using my voice to talk and read books, but it will not be anywhere near as stressed as when I was teaching Music. Hopefully I'll get to keep my voice the whole time this year.

Kayley - 98% and 99% are NOT little things. You totally deserve to be smiling over results like that!!! Well done!!!! If you were in my class I'd give you a cute Winnie the Pooh stamp and a hug for working so hard.

Sharon - That is wonderful that you lost so much weight this week. You may have gained the last couple of weeks, but this week definitely made up for it, so you should simply be patting yourself on the back.
You are right about the anti-climax after the holiday. When I spoke to the psych, she said that she should have probably talked to me about this kind of thing happening as it was quite common for people to become depressed after such a long and wonderful holiday. I wish I had been warned! At least the relapse would have made a little more sense.
You are right about me having been sick a lot this past year. The doctor doesn't seem to think it was any more than just extra strain on my body with the new role at work (Music) and simply the fact that LOTS of people were getting the same bugs and it was hard to avoid. I just have my fingers crossed that this will be a MUCH better year.

Debbie - You are certainly right about how terrible it was that some of those fires were deliberately lit. I was sickened to hear that even after more than a hundred deaths were reported, there were still a couple of fires that had been deliberately lit. How could they!?? I can't imagine what someone must be thinking to do such a thing!

I know I have missed people, but it wasn't on purpose, I am just getting a little worn down. I am going to get another iced drink and just rest. I am SO glad it is a weekend!!!!!

Take care all,

Zelma

It's me again. Just decided to change my avatar because the other picture was a little old. I like this one because it shows that I actually have facial features. I spent SO long with my features just blending into one another.

I do have one collar bone that sticks out further than the other one, but I think I am the only one who notices and worries about that. LOL

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!!!

Morning ladies...

Zelma: I am glad you are safe from those fires! I am also so sad that so many people lost their lives. I have irregular periods as well. And with that comes major hormonal imbalances. I was on the pil when I was younger and all it did was make me sick. My sister takes the depo shot and loves it. Not sure it will be the right choice for me.

Dgramie: I collect snowmen too!!!! I love them!

Debbie54: dead mice in your vents UGH!! lol I want to live in the country someday..minus the dead mice lol.

Well I am officially sick..again! My throat is killing me and I can barley talk. Which makes work hard since I am a client service rep! So I took today off to give my voice a rest.

I am off to try and get some rest.

Toodles

Zelma -- I'm so glad to hear you decided to add the charm. You really really are a weight loss success, and need to remember it!

I'm struggling still with my 20 pound gain, and I have to remember that too!!

TGIF - its been stressful here. Lack of work has had hubby underfoot and he is looking for alternate employment. So it is crunch time for us here and worried about paying next monthes expenses.

Today I am trying to put all that behind me. Cause my little adorable blonde baby is EIGHT years old today! He is my sweet gentle heart fellow. Welcomes me each morning with a hug and kiss. Loves spending quiet time with me cuddling with a book. His nose is speckled with the sweetest pattern of freckles. Big green eyes! I will have to beat the girls off him with a stick when he is older!

Good food choices for the last two days despite STRESS! Hey its easy to eat healthier when there is no $$ for extra munchies!

Good morning everyone! I enjoyed reading everyone's updates today. I'm just looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend. I have several boxes worth of old papers, etc., in my bedroom that I hope to sort through and get rid of this weekend--and, if I do, that means my house will be 100% perfect top-to-bottom, cabinets, everything.

What a relief! I was so depressed for so long I let the house go to **** but starting back about October I began working to get it back in tip-top shape, and these papers in my bedroom are the last major thing I have to do. Basement, yard, kitchen, living room, both bathrooms, and the other bedroom are totally perfect. I am soooooooooo happy about this. I started in the basement and moved up - now to finish this last bit. Yay!

Happy weekend to all!

I jsut saw carol on the webcam in the islands.She looks amazing and so happy!!! She truly looks GREAT!!!! I cant wait to tell her how awesome she looks!!!

Hello all. :]

It's Beth (Baz ox).
I have made a new account because for some reason, I logged out of my previous account and I couldn't log back in because I forgot the password. The account was linked to my old e-mail address, which I don't use anymore, so I couldn't get to the e-mail I had which contained the log-in information. No worries, though. I didn't like my username in the previous account, anyway! (: It sucks because I have to wait twenty days until I can make a signature.

I will be back online once I have done my essays so I will answer to personals, then.

Beth
xx