Just a quick :wave:hello and run through. Seems as if today was busy but didn't get as much done as I wanted. See you all tomorrow.

Hello all,

Tried to make a post last night and it wouldn't take. Had a pretty good day yesterday ~ not as good today.

Had one of those frustrating talks with my husband about my health. He asks why I won't let him help me. I don't think he can help me if he can not understand me. He is one of these disgustingly disciplined people ~ watches what he eats and never messes up ever. Even when I am doing pretty good, I mess up from time to time ~ he just can't understand that. If you say you are going to diet etc, you are not supposed to waver from that. I came away not feeling good about myself.

Oh well ~ tomorrow is another day.

My ticker is back, so I correcetd that ~ had to move it to a higher number ~ :(

Hope you all are doing well.

Take care

Hey everyone...!! Long time no see!

Life got really busy when I went back to teaching and time has just gotten away from me. Wanted to pop in to say hi and see how everyone is doing.
Hopefully this summer I can be active on the list again.

I have to go to work early this morning so have to skip the gym so I decided to swing by for a minute. Things are going well here...next month will be my
3rd "anniversary" on South Beach and I'm still maintaining. Got a vitamix last week and having a blast with it. Also added wii fit and zumba to my evening work outs..busy busy busy!! It was so nice reading about you all again!

Good Morning everyone,

I had to work yesterday, but I think it was another nice day. when you go in at 6 and get off at 7 and don't have time to look out the windows, it's hard to say. So I just believe what they tell me. ha I wasn't as sore as I thought I would be from the bike riding and the tennis (mostly chasing balls).

Cat, How good to see you back. I've thought about you often. Getting ready to do some more gardening? I remember the garden you put out last year.

Gayle, It's hard to "help" someone to diet and exercise. Especially when you think they are just being critical. Think about things he could actually do to help you and the next time he mentions it, suggest those things. Like, maybe, suggesting the 2 of you go for a walk in the evening?

Donna, I'm glad that you're still in there fighting. Practice untill you get it perfect.

Bobbi, Isn't it wonderful to meet really nice people? I think maybe greens might be a southern thing? I LOVE them! Kale, spinach, mustard, all mixed together. yum! Your grandson is a handsome guy! I agree about the 1# weights. Wouldn't be much of a challenge for me either. But for someone just beginning it might be as much as they can tollerate right now. Just take in some heavier weights.

Georgia, Your travels sound so interesting, especially to a stay-at-home like me. It is always easier to exercise with other people. But we don't always have that option. I think "motivation" is highly overated. I believe more inhabit. If you choose a time every day that is convient for you, and make yourself exercise then, it will become a habit. And reward yourself a little too. Something simple, like a manicure for exercising every day for week. Or a new book that you've been wanting, or even a magazine. And if you don't give yourself permission to get those rewards if you don't do what you've resolved, all the better!

Z, exercising can become a habit, like everything else. And it just makes you feel so much better. And it doesn't take that long, really. Right? And now that you have the Leslie tape down pat,you can do your walk while you watch something else on TV. Wait untill your favorite TV show is on and start walking.

Lynn, hope everythingis ok with you. You know we miss you when you aren't here!

Karen, did you do the 15 min of exercise? I hope you're feeling better, but I know how weak you get after an illness like that.

Freda

Good Morning!
Freda...ditto to everything you said, you must have gotten in my mind as what to post this morning. Thanks for the compliment on my handsome grandson. He scored 19 points in the basketball game last night, more than anyone but the team still lost the final game.:(
I'm going to post a recipe called 'Cabbage Fat-Burning Soup' in our recipe section and make it this morning for my lunches.
It's raining cats and dogs here, maybe it's help melt the 10" of snow still on the ground.
Have a good one :wave:

Oh. My. Goodness. That grandson of yours looks like a movie star, Bobbi!!!! (I guess good looks run in the family, eh?) :D And an athlete! Betcha his momma and poppa are pround. And I know how you push yourself to exercise, and just from hanging out here with all of you, I am definitely a believer, but I just haven’t been able to get into the groove and stay in it. I wish I could walk without Leslie, Freda, but I don’t think I could remember the whole routine. If it was just walking, that would be one thing, but it’s knowing when to side-step and kick and all the rest. And it’s not even that it’s particularly hard to do or unpleasant to do – it’s just taking the time (or MAKING the time) to do it. Most mornings I’m afraid I’d rather sleep that extra half hour. :dz: But, on the bright side, maybe now that I’ve been sleeping a little better – and longer – I’ll be feeling more energetic.
And, Lynn, I just had the opportunity to experience, first-hand, the rigors of a visit to the eye doctor. On Monday, I seemed to be seeing a lot of black spots flashing at me, and some very brief (and tiny) flashes of bright light, and everybody (DH, children, co-workers) seemed very anxious for me to be seen by a doctor, so I called and they gave me an appointment yesterday morning. I had never had my eyes dilated before, and I’ve got to say, that was pretty weird. The blurriness went away fairly quickly, but I was SUPER-sensitive to light (and wouldn’t you know, we had bright sunshine, yesterday…) so I had to wear my sunglasses (prescription, thank goodness) for just about the rest of the day :dancer:. I had a meeting to get to in Holyoke, MA (about 50 miles from where I live) and I had printed out Mapquest directions for myself. Well, my sunglasses only have the prescription for seeing at a distance, so whenever I took them off to consult my directions, it felt like I was trying to see into a blast furnace :flow1:. Yikes! Well, there’s apparently nothing wrong with my eyes except the fact that I’m getting old, so that’s good (?) news, I guess. He also said to avoid rapid eye movement because the only thing he would worry about with me was a retinal detachment. Oh, joy. I forgot to ask him if that meant I shouldn’t go to sleep. I mean, when we dream, we experience rapid eye movement – or REM – in our sleep. So how do I avoid that, I wonder? Tsk.
Georgia, the way you traveled – I mean, staying put in one place for a prolonged period of time – is the only way I would really enjoy traveling. My first husband was a fiend for going on these stupid seven-countries-in-fourteen-days tours. Nothing but hotel rooms and racing from one tourist site to another. We saw nothing of the locals, had no idea how things really were in those places, but he could brag at cocktail parties and such that he’d been to Europe, Asia, South America, blah, blah, blah ad nauseum. NOT my idea of fun. My current DH and I have discussed spending a few months in Greece when I retire – which I think I’d like to do – but as for my current 23 annual vacation days, I have to spread them out to spend time with family. My sister is in North Carolina, and I like to get down there for a week or so every year, and then she likes to come up to me, so that eats up a bit of time. I’ve been flying out to spend a week with my son in Los Angeles, and then just taking some days to spend at the beach with my local kiddos and grandkiddos. So there it is. Vacay over. No time for sightseeing trips to anyplace where I don’t already have family to see.
Gayle, I think if you have a plan in place that allows you enough flexibility so that you can have what you want sometimes without being “off your diet”, you might be a little more comfortable with the whole issue. You might check out the Wendie plan, because it gives you one “super high” calorie day when you can have just about anything you want (in some moderation, of course).
Hey Cat, I’m glad to see that you’ve managed to keep that weight off. I miss the pictures you used to post.
Oh, Freda, yes…I put greens in everything, practically. My soups, I mean. I don’t serve them just as a vegetable much. My former mother-in-law used to cook them the old southern way with the ham hocks and seasoning, and they were scrumptious. Now, of course, I wouldn't want to use the ham hocks, so I just put them in my soups and pasta sauces.
Hey, PT….are you doing Wendie? Today is my super high day. I don’t know what to eat. I feel like I’m standing in the window of a candy shop, and can’t choose from all the yummy stuff. Actually, I think my big splurge is going to be some homemade cornbread with supper. I LOVE it – love it especially, with fresh melted butter. So I’m going to have myself a nice big (double) piece for supper and use up all my extra calories. It’ll be worth it!
Hiya Isabella, Rosey, Karen, Linda…
Have a great day, GGs!!!
:grouphug:
Z

Good morning---- Just stopping in to let you know I did do my 15 minutes but then the next dayI was down and miserable again...sigh------Now am working on 2 days straight at feeling half way good. So I think my plan now is to wait through the weekend and see if I really am over this and then get back to my routine. Gosh, this thing has been miserable.

We had 3 tornados all around us yesterday.... had quite a bit of wind and rain but nothing happened close to use. There was one tornado that they were tracking right towards us but it missed us. WHEW!! Tornado sirens and all.. Poor Ginger was so scared... Sissy just slept through it. Two totally different dogs for sure.

Cat good to hear from you. I've thought about you and wondered how you were doing.

Well, I need to get busy and get some stuff done around here. I'll try to get back later.

Karen, when I lived in Louisiana (for just two short years) I lived in fear of tornados. Being from California, I would rather be in an earthquake than a tornado. I guess it's all about perspective. My Louisiana neighbors thought I was nuts!

Ella, I have loved really settling in where I visit to get to know people and each place. I've been to London four times now, each being a 7 to 10 day visit, and I have to say, that's one of my favorite cities. I loved walking all over the place, which I think is an important factor for me in travel destinations.

You're going to have a lovely time in Greece! I can't wait to go back! I met my uncle and cousins in Athens and had a lovely family celebration for New Year's Day three years ago. We walked all over the Plaka, up to the Acropolis, through parks. We stayed in a holiday apartment on the same street where my mother walked to school when she was young. We drove to Corinth and walked around the ruins, then spent the afternoon in Nafplion, a Venetian city on the east side of the Peloponesian Penninsula. I really want to go back to that city with a group of friends with whom I can have a really good time. Went with the X and he wasn't any fun at all.

I have more family on the island of Samos, where another uncle has a hotel resort on the coast. I hope to go there in the next couple of years with my boys, and include a trip to Turkey's Agean coast from Izmir north to Istanbul.

Holiday homes and apartments are the way to go, if you don't have generous family connections. It's less expensive than hotels, you can do your own cooking, and depending on where you go, there's easily accessible public transportation. We've stayed in a gorgeous cottage on an estate near Cork, Ireland for two weeks, 10 days in an apartment behind the Musee d'Orsay and had lovely walks to the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the markets just a couple block from us. Fresh croissants every morning! My favorite spot was a week in Cyprus in a very old stone house in the traditional Tochni Village in the hills. We walked down to the taverna for dinner in the evenings and drank local wine and ate olives. My boys navigated through the narrow stone streets with local kids in tow to buy them all ice cream at the tiny shop in the center of town. (Apparently "ice cream" is an international word for "Dude! We're best friends now!")

(*sigh* I should get a job with Fodors.)

Freda, I will work on that habit thing. In the past I have been guilty of setting ridiculously high fitness goals for myself and even injured myself in the process of trying to achieve them. I'm actually more nervous about exercise than anything. I'm in the process of setting smaller goals and getting in some physiotherapy type work to address some joint issues now before I hop back on any Iron-Woman routine. My doctor wants me to succeed at six weeks of the prep workout before I get into the bigger stuff. So, six weeks will be a good length of time to establish the habit.

I watched some PBS stuff this week on weightloss and diabetes. I'm considering going low-fat vegan for a few months, just to see if it'll help me control things better. I'm doing some reading now on how to make sure to get all the right nutrients when you go vegan. I'm going to have a challenge since I'm seriously sensitive to soy and now discovering a wheat sensitivity. For protein, that leaves me with beans and beans and beans. Thankfully it's warming up in California, because I am going to have to crack a window!

I went to a vegan restaurant a few months back where they served nearly everything raw. It was very delicious and creative, but my eyes were watering in the car on the way home until I rolled down the window. I am so glad I was traveling alone! Has anyone ever calculated the cost of going vegan vs. traditional junkie American cuisine? I'm inclined to think it's cheaper. Maybe I'll put my savings into a jar marked "Samos". Ella, when I have enough saved, we're going!

Hello-- I thought that this was worth passing on.



Peroxide vs. Bleach

This was written by Becky Ransey of Indiana (a doctor's wife), and I want to share it with you. She was over recently for coffee and smelled the bleach I was using to clean my toilet and counter tops. This is what she told me:


"I would like to tell you of the benefits of that plain little old bottle of 3% peroxide you can get for under $1.00 at any drug store. What does bleach cost? My husband has been in the medical field for over 36 years, and most doctors don't tell you about peroxide.

"Have you ever smelled bleach in a doctor's office? NO!!! Why? Because it smells, and it is not healthy! Ask the nurses who work in the doctor's offices, and ask them if they use bleach at home. They are wiser and know better!

"Did you also know bleach was invented in the late 40's? It's
chlorine, folks! And it was used to kill our troops.

"Peroxide was invented during WWI. It was used to save and
help cleanse the needs of our troops and hospitals. Please think about this:

1. Take one capful (the little white cap that comes with the bottle) and hold in your mouth for 10 minutes daily, then spit it out. (I do it when I bathe.) No more canker sores, and your teeth will be whiter without expensive pastes. Use it instead of mouthwash..

2. Let your toothbrushes soak in a cup of peroxide to keep them free of germs.

3. Clean your counters and table tops with peroxide to kill germs and leave a fresh smell. Simply put a little on your dishrag when you wipe, or spray it on the counters.

4. After rinsing off your wooden cutting board, pour peroxide on it to kill salmonella and other bacteria.

5. I had fungus on my feet for years until I sprayed a 50/50 mixture of peroxide and water on them (especially the toes) every night and let dry.

6. Soak any infections or cuts in 3% peroxide for five to ten minutes several times a day. My husband has seen gangrene that would not heal with any medicine but was healed by soaking in peroxide...

7. Fill a spray bottle with a 50/50 mixture of peroxide and water and keep it in every bathroom to disinfect without harming your septic system like bleach or most other disinfectants will.

8. Tilt your head back and spray into nostrils with your 50/50 mixture whenever you have a cold, plugged sinus. It will bubble and help to kill the bacteria. Hold for a few minutes, and then blow your nose into a tissue.

9. If you have a terrible toothache and cannot get to a dentist right away, put a capful of 3% peroxide into your mouth and hold it for ten minutes several times a day. The pain will lessen greatly.

10.. Put half a bottle of peroxide in your bath to help rid boils, fungus, or other skin infections.

11. You can also add a cup of peroxide instead of bleach to a load of whites in your laundry to whiten them. If there is blood on clothing, pour it directly on the soiled spot. Let it sit for a
minute, then rub it and rinse with cold water. Repeat if necessary.

12. I use peroxide to clean my mirrors. There is no smearing, which is why I love it so much for this. "I could go on and on. It is a little brown bottle no home should be without!

"With prices of most necessities rising, I'm glad there's a way to save tons of money in such a simple, healthy manner!"
This information really woke me up. I hope you gain something from it, too.

Pass this on .. and on ... and on!

Bobbi-- I was just looking at your soup recipe. I was wondering if that could be frozen for later use? It looks really good and thought that I might try it but know that it wouldn't all get eaten if some can't be froze.

Good Morning Everyone,

HI CAT - it is so nice to see your post. Hope you can visit more often - we miss you.

I'm off to Philly - this is my DD's birthday trip (postponed from 2/15 when I had the flu). We're going to the Constitution Center for the Rome to America exhibit; dinner at Buddakan; and staying overnight in the city.

Check back tomorrow.

Lynn

Hmmmm. Things seem kind of quiet around here lately. :(
So far so good for me this week. No exercise to speak of, but I'm good calorie-wise. :)
PT, whatchew up to? Come and say something, please! :^:
Weekend starts later on today. Supposed to rain here. Oh, well, you can't always have the kind of weekend we had last week. Spring is right around the corner. ONE of those corners, anyway. I shudder to think that we may actually have some more snow before we can call winter officially over with. I hope everyone is happy and well, and hope that you're all looking forward, as I am, to a nice, relaxing (or exciting...take your pick) weekend.
Bye for now,
:grouphug:
Z