[LurchMomma]

Hello!

I'm down a couple three pounds. I would rather be healthy and losing weight the right way. LOL. I have back to back doubles this weekend so hopefully I can get back to my 5k training and nutritious eating next week. Right now it's been pushing fluids and chicken soup.

I hope everyone else is hale and hardy.

[LurchMomma]

Hello and TGIF to those of you who work a traditional week. Friday is to me as Sunday is to you!

I'm down about five pounds. I may just slide into 2017 in the 160's. This illness has reminded me how blessed I am to have relatively good health and an abundance of available food, and that there are so many people who would be thankful to have the potential to be overweight. It is something that I recognize on a superficial level everyday, but I understand on a deeper level in the midst of an acute illness. At least I can anticipate recovery with the assurance that there will be plenty to eat if I do. It sort of puts things in perspective.

I hope you are all winding down from a productive and satisfying week and that you have a blessed and refreshing weekend.

W: keep pushing those fluids, but be ready when I cough!
E: be patient and focus on getting through the weekend!
E: keep up the soup
D: practice mindfulness and gratitude

[mtiger]

Finally found a minute to check-in. Thanksgiving came and went...my long weekend came and went....now two weeks until Christmas Break. WooHoo. Can't wait. I have been going to PT two times a week for my "frozen shoulder". That's fun. I have been hitting the gym pretty regularly. Weight is up about ten pounds form my normal and I hate it. I can get it down a few but it just goes back up again.

I run, I log food, I do some weight training. Why is losing weight so damn hard??? I just read about the guy who walked to the store when he wanted to eat. Hubby said sure let's walk up to subway. Are you kidding me?? it is 34 degrees. I don't walk in the cold.

Keep pushing on ladies. It is hard, sometimes it sucks, I lose faith sometimes, but I can never quit. Sounds like a plug for AA. Oh that's right...food is our drug.

[mothermavis]

Morning chicks. Has been the week from **** here.
LM, I hope you are feeling better!
Have to get moving though. Got to day 9 of my run streak last night!

W 100
E run
e op
D going to be a long day, have to go to a memorial this afternoon. Need to get my a$$ in gear now

[mothermavis]

Mindy, I'm with you, stepped out the door this morning and turned around and went right back in to the treadmill!

W 100
E got a run early
E OP
D Ugh

[LurchMomma]

Good Afternoon Groovy Chicks:

Mindy: Great to hear you sounding so upbeat! I'm glad you are persevering and not throwing in the towel and reaching for a gallon of Sea Salt Caramel Ice Cream with a side of cheese puffcorn delights and a plate of chocolate chip cookies! Keep it up!

MM: Hope the run streak continues and that this week is less stressful!

I had 16,279 steps Saturday and 19,041 steps Sunday. I'm amazed, really, that I made it. When I see the proof of it, my head reels. LOL. I am still exhausted. The steroid made me really edgy and I felt like I was on the verge of flying into a blind, screaming rage. I had never taken steroids before. I was under the impression that only anabolic steroids that weight lifters use cause a so called "roid rage", but I looked up side effects of Medrol and sure enough, aggression, agitation, etc. Man. I took the last one today. I have 5 more days of antibiotics.

W: water and tea. lay off V8 juice. the quart I drank yesterday led to an additional pound this morning. ahhhhh sodium...
E: rest and recover today
E: not planning to eat much. queasy. push fluids.
D: remember to be thankful and learn to apply insight gained during adversity

[mothermavis]

It's been a rough time. My older son suffered the loss of a very dear friend. We have certainly been grateful to have him home, but what a horrible reason for a visit. I take him to the train today and he is going to see his girl for a few days before he heads back. After I drop him off, I am going to go to the Apple store and switch out my phone and then finish shopping for our adopt a family. I just bought my first present for my family. I guess I best get my *** in gear.

Run streak does continue! Today is day 14!! I have banana muffins in the oven right now, but as soon as they are done, I am headed to the dreadmill to get that out of the way.

Just got into a really cool race for spring (besides the Tink I am doing with Kris) Covered Bridges Half Marathon in Vermont. Think I am going to set a goal to run a half in every stete. I have Florida, NY, Vermont and Cali covered. Will do the Las Vegas Rock & Roll next October when I go see Josh. Only 45 to go!!

W 100
E run, shop!
E OP, whole foods , low carbs, reasonable portions
D Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. We will miss you forever, but I am so grateful we knew you so well for so long!.

[LurchMomma]

Hello Ladies!

I've walked my 5k course 2 days straight. Today it was 24 degrees with wind chill 11 degrees. I like bundling up and walking in the cold. I had a fall today (!) and skinned my left knee and hurt my bad left shoulder. Lol. My first thought was to wonder if I broke anything...I downloaded MFP because some of you in here and another gal from another thread swear by it. It starts me out about 100 calories lower than "lose it". My only concern is that it doesn't allow much room to titrate down as I lose weight. I think it allows me 1257 before any fitbit bonus. This is my third day of using it.

I hope you are all well!

[LurchMomma]

Hello All!

I did very well the last three days of last week. I even jogged part of the 5k course on Friday. I then worked my back to back doubles and accumulated a ton of steps over the weekend. I rested Monday as is customary after the mental/physical/emotional stress associated with my job. But then yesterday, I didn't do anything. I sat by the woodstove and ate the chex mix my mother in law sent, like a gallon bag of it. According to the scale, I've gained around three pounds. I hope it's just sodium. I usually bundle up and get out, no matter the weather, but just didn't yesterday. I don't even know why I didn't. Sigh.

So, TODAY, I have to reverse course. LOL.

I hope you are all well and hale and hearty!

W: 64
E: Dig yax trax out of Jeep and put them on
E: Flee temptation!
D: Spend less time on the meaningless on more time on the meaningful.....

[mtiger]

MM- congrats on the daughter-in-law. How exciting. Are you and Kris all signed up for the race? I wish I could do it with you guys but my school schedule kind of makes that impossible. You sure do have some running goals. That is awesome.
Lurch- I certainly understand the job stress. There are days I wonder how I am going to make it through. I am no officially on break and I am going to savor every moment. I promise not to get depressed about going back until the day before.

I went way up on the scale. Got to a number I vowed never to see again in my life. That hurt. I had pizza on Thursday (class party) and leftover pizza on Friday. I have lost weight both days. Go figure. I even had a few cookies in there. I can never figure this body out.

My plan is to keep hitting the gym. I ran 3 miles last night and it was my fastest time in quite a while. I just need to tell myself I can do it and stop wimping out.

Looking forward to my BFF party this week. My niece is having a graduation party Sunday. Proud of her. SHe graduated from Western Mi as an engineer. She already has a job with General Motors. She will start out making what I do now. Good for her. Then Christmas Eve with hubbies kids and the grandbabies. Christmas with my kiddos and family. Then we are hosting a New Years Eve party. Busy times.

So you know what all those events have in common???.....FOOD!! OMG!!! I must have a plan.

[mothermavis]

Mindy, Kris and I are all signed up!! Can't wait. I've decided full marathons are too much to train for, so I am going to stick with the 1/2 for the most part after January!

I am thrilled with my son's choice. She's a great young lady and they are wonderful together.

LM, you are right I'm sure, it's just sodium. Just keep moving! Yes, runstreak continues, today is day 26!!

W 100
E run, wrap, get thyself to the post office
E OP
D Love the life you have.

[LurchMomma]

Happy New Year Ladies!

I had shot up to 182# between Christmas and New Years, but I think nost of it was sodium, as I'm back at 175.8 as of yesterday.

It's snowing here. Light and lovely at the moment. I'm getting over a cold (again), so I think I will concentrate on rest and fluids.

I actually took my measurements...I was appalled! Wow! What an eye opener. Good to have for baseline for comparison for future progress. There is a tool where you can enter your measurements and it tells you your body type. I've always thought I was an "apple", but it turns out I'm a "banana". It seems there are different nutritional and activity recommendations based on your body type. Dunno if it's hype or hope!

I hope you are all well.

W: 96 including infusions
E: no exercise today.
E: balanced whole foods.
D: start journal

[Esofia]

Hello, not sure if this is quite the right spot for me but I thought I'd give it a go! I'm 39, living in Scotland with my lovely partner and our ridiculous little cat. We spend half the week at my flat and half the week at his, where I think things will be a bit trickier. I'm severely disabled, ME/CFS and fibro in particular, also PTSD, and largely bedbound, so exercise means something different for me. I have a series of stretches I do when I'm up to it that help with various types of pain, also more of a relaxation/pain relief thing called the Miracle Ball Method. I really should do them more often, plus breathing exercises/meditation. I'm not sure whether to slot the meditation in with this or with the D.

In terms of water, the cardiologist I saw a few years ago told me to drink three litres a day and get lots of salt for the dysautonomia, and I have an app for helping me with the water. I've just put that through a unit converter, and if you're using US fluid ounces (good grief, there are a lot of ways to measure volume out there!) then that's about 100.

Eats - calorie counting, vegan wholefood diet, tendency to stress/boredom/exhaustion snacking which will be the main thing I'm working on, also how do we deal with it when my partner's not up to cooking. Smaller lunches (soup or salad was what I generally did last time) and tackling the snacking will be the main things. At the moment I'm aiming for 1250, I'll see what that settles into.

Daily goals - either meditation or doing something creative, I'll see how that goes. Creative means music (harp, sometimes piano) or quilting. Right now my health's the worst it's been in about five years, we've just had a really awful month, and I'm not managing to get out of bed much. Still, the little wire harp a friend lent me which lives at my flat is small enough to play in bed, and there's quilting I can do in bed at my partner's, so we will see!

There are three harps around: a 19 string wire harp (Kilcoy) on long-term loan from my friend (said it never really suited her plus she's short of space due to living on a houseboat - it's going to be fun when her new Norwegian Forest Cat kitten grows to full size!); a 34 string lever harp (Starfish) I'm renting which lives in my flat (lever harps are a completely different animal to wire harps), and a beautiful 26 string wire harp (Rose) I just bought second-hand which will live at my partner's, and is going over there today. Wire harps in particular need a ridiculous amount of very fiddly tuning, and I'm starting to train my partner and support workers to do it.

Quilting - I'm making my partner a quilt at my flat, where I have all the sewing stuff, and it's at the stage where I'm piecing the top and keep getting stuck on the design. I think I'm doing more pinning fabric to the design wall and staring worried lying at it than actual sewing at the moment. At my partner's, there's a bedspread I made years ago which needs requilting as I didn't quilt it densely enough before. Since I sew by hand and the bedspread is on the quilt, I can actually do that in bed. I think it'll take a year or two to redo, but it's usable in the meantime.

And the name of this thread still cracks me up, especially since I know a lot more about medical uses of weed these days!

So for yesterday, here we go:

W: 2750ml
E: 1268, all good healthy stuff. I discovered quinoa and chick peas (garbanzos) as a good salad base, along with spinach and such. I like to combine proteins where possible, I feel better on them. Weirdly, I felt a bit like I'd eaten too much at supper, which was a perfectly reasonable stir-fry at 523. Not much snacking, and I really enjoyed those bits of raw chocolate from a care package from a friend.
E: oh dear, the memory loss is hitting again. Possibly I did some Miracle Ball Method, but actually I think that was the day before. Ditto on meditation.
D: the beanbag footstool arrived for resting the Rose on while playing it. So I played the Rose a tiny amount to try it out. I think I'll need to take some beans out, but I'll wait till it's at my partner's flat to get the ergonomics sorted out. Incidentally, taking a photo of me with the Rose balanced on four boxes of catfood to share with the wire harp group in order to ask if they thought I had it at the right height was what made me realise that I really have put on weight and need to deal with it!

[Esofia]

W: 3200ml. I discovered a jiffy bag of electrolyte drinks sitting behind the draining board, which was a massive relief as I'd thought I'd gone through £100 in Nuun tablets in a month.

E: 1250 on the dot, which amused me. It was a day when we weren't really up for cooking, so breakfast was a slice of sourdough and peanut butter (I put walnuts in the bread this time - did I mention that one thing I'm doing is getting back into making bread?), lunch was a bowl of beetroot soup made earlier in the week plus another slice of bread, and supper was a Moroccan chick pea and vegetable bake with half a pouch of rice and quinoa and a couple of slices of tofu spread with pesto and baked. I now know what 100g of tofu looks like, and that my partner doesn't like those rice/quinoa pouches, but he made up for it with cheese. Couple of bits of chocolate and a few almonds for snacking. Could have done with more veg and a bit more protein, but not bad at all for a non-cooking day.

E: I hunted down a volume widget so that it's now easier to use the Peaceful Breathing app, which by default comes on Very, Very Loud, and did 5 min of meditation with that. I also did some stretches while watching TV before bed, so I am very proud of myself. My muscles are tight as ****, no wonder practically everything is setting off pain flares, but hopefully if I persevere with both of these, that'll improve.

D: We made it over to my partner's for the weekend, for the first time in a month (weird guy he knows online had asked to stay for a few days before Christmas and stuck for a month before we could get him out), and the Rose harp is settling in nicely. I've found a spot to play in and a spot to keep it, started the gruelling work of partially disembowelling the beanbag it sits on to get it supported at the right height, tuned it (repeatedly, did I mention that wire harps are a b*gger to tune?) and it's really coming into its own, with a lovely deep voice. Got a bit further with the different types of pentatonic scales my teacher has me working on, and Fair Molly (the traditional first tune taught to wire harpers) is making progress too.

Unfortunately the combination of playing the harp and doing exercises has set the pain off, so I have just necked down some painkillers with breakfast and generally Ow. Friends are coming for board games at 2, I'll make biscuits if I'm up to it.

(Am I taking over? The accountability for doing stretches and meditation is exactly what I need, and will be helpful if I run into problems with the eating part of things too.)

[mothermavis]

Esofia, love the goals and your meals are giving me great ideas too! I just made 2 kinds of soup for my work lunches this week! So glad you found us!

LM, A banana? Hm, interesting! How are things settling in?

I've had a rough run for a while, but i am back! I'll try to post at least every few days, I'm trying to decrease the stress in my life, so I am going to acknowledge that I can not get here every day.

W 100
E OP
E got a run in
D keep it together