Happy - what can I say girl? You are my hero!

That link that you set me up with is exactly what I needed! I'd checked out a few sites too but hadn't been satisfied with anything I'd found - there's soooooo much out there - you could be on all day! So thanks for lookin out for me - I truly appreciate it!

Now, as for your tooth - yikes!! that sounds painful! I hope you are recovering quickly. When I had my wisdom teeth removed a few years ago I ended up getting a dry socket and was miserable for over 3 weeks! Had to go into the maxilosurgen almost every day for new "bandages" - what a nightmare!! I am sending my well wishes your way in hopes for a speedy recovery .

As for my dog problems, they are never-ending! We have a beagle who will be a year next month and is STILL not potty trained! We've actually had her since Dec and have had nothing but trouble with her in that area. We've talked/met with so many people and she still doesn't make improvements. I don't think she wants to try is the bottom line. Either that or there's something mentally wrong with her, which (unfortunately, fortunately - whatever!!) doesn't seem to be the case. So, with school coming up and me going back to work and no one to be home with her all day, we're wondering if we need to look at finding her another home. The obvoius problem being that she's hard to break, I don't have high hopes that we'll find a good home for her. Stress, stress, stress!

On to happier topics... I did change my w/o routine and am planning to do 6 days/week (same as before), rotating aerobics and strength training. It'll look something like this: Mon - aero....Tues - upper body/pilates....Wed - aero....Thurs - lower body/abs....Fri - aero....Sat - upper body/pilates....Sun - OFF. So one week I'll do pilates twice and one week just once. That should be ok since I'll still be working abs on my lower body focus days.

Well, I've been on the pc long enough and I have tons to do! Get well soon and try to have a great weekend - in spite of that tooth!! Catch ya later

Hi Happy -

How's that tooth doing girl? I hope you're recovering quickly and pain-free, of course! Just thought I'd pop in to bring our thread back up to the top so as not to get lost in the sea of other posts. TOM has hit me kinda hard this month and I'm not feeling like working out today. I'm supposed to do aerobics and I just can't bring myself to hop around for an hour. I'll get back into it tomorrow when I can do strength training again. The first day or two is always the worst! Soooooo, I hope you're doing well on your program (if you're able to do it, that is) and I hope to hear from you soon. Take care

Hi Sassy,
The tooth is going ok, thanks. Got a temporary crown so that makes eating a challenge because after a few days it comes off and I'm so paranoid about swallowing it! But I have to wait a bit for the rest of the gum area to heal up so they glued me up again and sent me packing with some cement to get me through the week. Sure does make eating a challenge tho!

DH and I are going away to visit his family on the east coast on Saturday for 5 days so I've been running around this week trying to get ready for the trip among other things. Time's flying by too fast! Didn't get to exercise last night, just was feeling tired and achey. Today is workout with the trainer day so I'll be able to catch up. Wondering what he's got in store for me today

I'm trying to be good this week because the vacation will be a blowout. Hard to resist lobster and all the goodies that await me. I'm also not known for making the best choices when eating out. Told DH I wanted to make sure we got some good walking in - preferably on the beach. He's gotten on the diet and exercise kick too which is good. He even asked me to pack him a diet lunch to take to work.

Gotta run for now, will squeeze in one more post before I leave on the weekend. Hope all is going well with you!

Hello Again,
This will probably be my last post for the week. Leaving for mini vacation on Saturday and I'm trying not to do my usual running around like a maniac not getting any sleep the night before because I left everything to the last minute.

Worked out with my trainer today. He gave me a bunch of exercises to do on the road. We started out on the recumbant bike and I didn't last very long on that at all. Uses a different set of muscles than the regular bike and he said even well trained people peter out on it. So I asked then why are you making a cow like me get on it???? I couldn't even make 10 minutes on it so he let me get off and go to the "easier" stationery bike where I had to do 15 minutes to make my 20 minutes of cardio. Then after my legs were good and tired he made me do about 8,000 leg lifts. I asked him if I could stop when my leg fell off. When it was time to switch sides I told him the other leg didn't want to do it because it knew what was coming. I told him when my glasses fog up he knows I'm really pushing the limits and today they got so bad I couldn't even see him for a few minutes. (It gets really warm and I must be putting out about 200 degrees, especially when I'm pushing to make the last few reps of the last set - so my glasses steam up). Exercise video instructors are never this hard. But I kid around and I really do look forward to these workouts. I was mostly doing walking on the treadmill but I think I'm going to start doing more bike work because I felt like a real weenie that I zonked out so quickly.

I hope you got your eating plan straightened away along with your dog woes (we had a cat with the same problem). Enjoy these last few weeks before school starts - I know I intend to! Talk to you in a week - have a great one.

Hey Happy!!!

I hope you have a wonderful vacation!! It's awesome that you have exercizes to do while gone too - so you make sure and do them at least once! Picture me standing in front of you looking like your mother - one hand on my hip and the other out in front, shaking my index finger back and forth (but in a nice way, of course!) .

You are so lucky to have a trainer to watch/help you as you do your exercizes - form is so important and especially when we get tired it's nice to have someone put you back in line - even if it does hurt a little. I wear my glasses when I workout too cause I'm blind if I don't; and if I wear my contacts, I literally sweat like a fountain and would ultimately end up with burning eyes and crash into the wall or something! It's true - I've never seen another female sweat so quickly and so much - it's really gross and embarassing . What to do though, ya know?

Anyway, I'll miss ya and I'll probably post now and then just to keep this around the top. Plus it'll give you something to look forward to when you get back! Have a great time and just remember !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Howdy Happy -

Just thought I'd pop in for a quick sec to get us back up to the top. Sure is lonely around here. This is when I wish there were more people who were interested in chatting with us. I find it interesting that soooooo many people are willing to check us out but none are willing to stick around. Do we smell? There must be something going on - it drives me crazy not to know what it is!!

Anyway......I'm still doing the exercises but I'm getting to a low point with the motivation, I think. I'm finding that I'm procrastinating more and more - especially when I have to do aerobics. I would rather clean the toilet than do them !!! I need you to pump me back up!! I'm probably going to be going back to work soon and then I'll have an even harder time getting motivated to w/o. UGH!!! I need to get my priorities straight - I think I'm gonna go and do a little journaling so I can re-focus. Hope you're having a great time and can't wait to hear from ya

Hi there Sassy and all you lurkers out there,
I'm back from vacation, full of clams and seafood and low on the motivation myself! Actually coming back is always a low point for me - hard to trade thinking about having fun everyday to the realities of job work, house work and diet work. It's also nice on vacation because I actually get 7 to 8 hours of sleep at night compared to my usual 4 when I'm at home - guess I trade sleep for hanging around the Internet DH has the rest of the week to goof off but it's back to the hamster wheel for me on Thursday.

Mr. Trainer gave me exercises to take on the road and I did take my stretchy band. I looked at it each day but of course did nothing with it except to repack it at the end of the trip. We did do some walking but nothing that really counted as exercise. I have a personal training session tomorrow and I know I'm going to cry or faint or both because I haven't done much of anything for a week but I don't want to weenie out and cancel so I will go and take my punishment.

I know what you mean about wishing there were more participants than lurkers around here. It's nice to talk to people. I've noticed about 1/2 the people who come over here post once or twice and then disappear. Don't know if they don't know how to get back here or what the deal is. I found out that my sister checks out this forum (Hello Seester ) - I asked her why she didn't participate and she said that she finds the threads interesting but because she's not on a diet or exercise program right now, felt she had nothing to contribute. So.. all you lurkers out there, why don't you talk to us?? I'd hate to think it's because we smell - you had me rollling on the floor with that one Sassy!

That's pretty bad woman when you'd rather clean the toilet than exercise! So.. how do we both get motivated again? School starts for me on 8/26 and tho I'm only taking one class, work is getting super busy and it's easy to get distracted away.

How about a challenge or pledge? Let's say you catch this post on Thursday so how about by Sunday you make a pledge to do a certain amount of exercising? I will pledge by the end of Sunday to get in at least 6 miles on the treadmill, 1 session of swimming laps, 1 training session and will do my crunches every day starting tonight (Wednesday) through Sunday. I'm really bad on sticking with the crunches... hopefully that will get me going again. Either that or I have to pull out the ugly fat pictures and take a good look again. What's your pledge? Don't let me down now! Have a great rest of the week!

Ohhhhhh Mannnn!!!!!

A pledge? And at a low point too - is your nickname sergent? Ha ha just kidding! WELCOME BACK!!! Can I just tell you how *not fun* it is to talk to myself all the time! I have other places I post too (thankgoodness!) so I wasn't completely alone but boy, not much chat going on in the exercise forum period!

So no exercise on vacation huh??? (tisk tisk tisk). No, come on, I completely understand. It's always something that you *plan* to do and then you say to yourself, "I'm on vacation! I can exercise like crazy when I get home.", and then you get home and you haven't exercised in a week and you just don't feel like getting back into it. Blah! I haven't been on vacation and I still don't feel like it but if I don't do it, who's gonna? So YES SIR! I ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE SIR! HERE IS MY PLEDGE LIST SIR!

1) I will complete 2 sessions of aerobics and 1 1/2 sessions of strength training by Sun.
2) I will not eat the brownies that I begged my dh to make for me last night . I will let dh or the girls have them instead. (I'm really bad - I know!!)
3) I will drink at least 3 liters of water daily by Sun.
4) If I have pop, I will only have one can or less daily by Sun.

Enough already!! That's all I can do! I have a feeling the one that will give me trouble is #4 - I love my coke! Glad you're back and I'm glad you did this too! Now that I've committed, I can't and won't back down - til Sunday then!!!

Drill sargent? Hardly I am in some serious need of motivation myself! I think I left mine under the dirty laundry or something... School starts for me in a week and a half - I don't want to go. I was working on another project at work and am seriously behind in my primary duties and there's NO TIME to get anything done. When I get that way I just get all goofy and I tend to drag my feet even more. The evenings just fly by I don't even know where they go anymore. So.. you drill me and I'll drill you!

If you pass up those brownies this week then you indeed are MY hero. I have a hard time resisting chocolate chip cookies and brownies.

So young lady... lets get with it now. Looks like the forum may be down from Friday at midnight until Monday morning so we're both on our honor here to meet committments.

I may have to swap out my walking for the exercise bike. I've got a big old blister on my foot that is hurting like the dickens and making walking just a no no. And I did weenie out on my training session today, but he will be waiting to greet me at the door on Monday.

Have a good weekend Sassypie!

Howdy Happy -

Well?????????? How'd you do on your pledge? I did so-so... I did do all my exercise - that was that most important to me. I don't think I got all my water in - I kinda lost track mid-way through. I did eat one brownie just because I did BEG my dh to make them for me- I felt I owed him and me at least one . And the pop, hmmmmm, the pop...well, I think I had about 4. So 4 pops in 3 days insn't too shabby considering I'm a popaholic! So, ok not great, coulda been better. I have made another one for the week (Mon-Sat). Here goes...

1) Do at least 40 min. exercise daily
2) Drink at least 3 liters of water daily
3) Have a max. of 1 pop daily (shoot for none)
4) Eat 3 nutricious meals and have healthy snacks between daily

So that's it. If I'm able to really do this right for one week, I think I can get myself to keep going. The hard part is not cheating! Actually, I've already blown #4 today. The girls were at Grandma's today and made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies . Yup - guess how many I've had so far? I don't even know - it's that many! I was reading the paper and eating them at the same time and lost track !

So now it's time to go workout and do upper body and pilates. I'll probably get sick trying to hold my stomach muscles tight. So much for willpower . I'll check in later in the week and see how things are going with you. If only I didn't love everything that is really really bad for me ........sigh....... Talk to you later!

Hi Sassy, you're posting late tonight...

So we had a pledge, huh? Well... I think I did the "un-pledge" myself. I have been in a funk since returning from vacation last week. College starts next Monday and just like a 7 year old - I donnwanna go!!!! I'm only taking one class but one night of class and 2 nights of homework (at least) will take a big chunk out of my week. I'm looking around the house and thinking of all the things I need to do and I just don't feel like doing anything. So I kind of didn't... I puttered around the house on the weekend, did some cleaning, and flitted between some things I wanted to do like go through my cabinets and toss out the little travel bottles of toiletries I bring home from hotels and never use and go through the 4 foot pile of magazines and catalogs that I'll look at "some day". And a squeezed in a nap or two. I don't know why I'm so tired lately, I think it's psychological rebellion because I don't want to do my chores. I didn't eat terribly but wasn't back on my diet either. Pizza on Saturday and a decent dinner on Sunday. I finked out on my personal training session on Thursday and figured Sunday night I'd better do something so I didn't pass out on Monday's training session. Told DH I was going on the treadmill and he suggested a walk outside. He agreed to slow his pace down a bit so I wasn't clutching my chest, gasping for air and wheezing and we set out on a nice evening walk. It was a great evening, a few white clouds in the sky with patches of clear sky. All of a sudden I felt wet on my head. Thought it might have been a wet tree from sprinkling but all of a sudden it starting raining like crazy. We're both looking up at the sky and it's clear overhead, just the stars shining. We couldn't figure out where this rain was coming from??? It rained on us all the way back and stopped about 10 feet from our door. Since I am such a sweetie made of sugar , I didn't want to risk melting so I was done for the night - hubby went trotting for another 1/2 mile. I figure we got in about a mile or so.

Monday I was feeling tired and crabby but I was not going to wimp out on my training session again. I was 15 minutes late because I got stuck with a problem at work which didn't help my mood. But I did get there and we started out on the bike. It was really, really hot in the room with the cardio equipment and I was complaining while steam rose from my head - I could actually feel the heat from my head on my shoulders. It really got unbearable and I stopped short of my time because I thought my head was going to explode. Mr Trainer who is compasionate but pushes because that's his job made me finish out the 3 minutes to finish half of my session. I was biting his head off and snapping at him instead of just my usual whining. I did finish, wobbled off the bike and teetered over. I think I scared him. We went to just walk in the gym to cool down and I started hyperventilating. This has happened to me before and I know how to bring myself out of it, but it is kind of scary to whomever is around you watching it happen. Many times after we've done a strenuous workout, I've threatened to faint or scream or cry or just pass out and I'm wondered if he thought this time I was going to make good on my word. I did get my breathing back to normal, we went to a cooler room and finished with weights and the machines. I was in a much better mood when I was done tho he did take it easy on me the rest of the session.

While I was eating a quick lunch I turned on the TV. There was a woman guest who was born without arms. All she wanted in life was to live her life like everyone else - she just did with her feet what we do with our hands - she even drives a car. I watched a clip in fascination as she diapered her infant son with her feet. Unsnapped his one-sie, pulled up his outfit, pulled off the diaper, cleaned him up and rediapered him and resnapped the one-sie all with her feet! It was amazing. That sort of snapped me out of my funk. I thought, geez... here I am whining and look at this woman. I have nothing to complain about. I did have leftover pizza for lunch and tossed the rest away so I'd be done with it and had a cheeseburger and fries for dinner tonight. My reward for scrubbing the grout in the ceramic floor with a toothbrush to get the dirt out. But... I am back on the wagon and ready to continue like I should.

This time I am committed to my pledge:
- at least 3 times between now and next Tuesday on the Lifecycle for at least 15 minutes, hopefully 20.
- I have to walk at least 8 miles on the treadmill by Sunday to maintain my exercise pledge on another thread
- I won't be able to go swimming this week as I have to go into the office everyday for the rest of the week but maybe I can sneak in one session on Sunday.
- I will take my lunch and snacks to work so I'm not tempted to get takeout stuff.
- I will drink 2-1/2 to 3 quarts of water a day (was nice to sleep through the night a few times and not have the midnight potty run - I will miss that...)

As for the pop - well Sassy, up until I started my diet I was a dedicated Coca Cola junkie. On a good day I'd only have 3 cans, on a bad day sometimes I'd have 5 or 6. I thought I'd never be able to give it up. I missed it the first 3 days but after that I got away from it surprisingly. I'll have maybe a can or two a week and I often don't finish it. Doesn't taste as good as it used to and sometimes I noticed if I have one can with pizza, I'll want another right away. I think it's a sugar thing with me...

Anyway, enough for this chapter in my life. Good luck to both of us this week! We'll be Amazon women yet - Sarong measurements will be taken at 2pm on Sept 20. Have a good one!

I have also seen some of your other posts. You go girl on that Pilates!!!

Hey Happy -

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted - this has been a very busy week! Oldest dd started school on Mon and youngest started today. I'm going back to work in a week so I wanted to "test" the evenings and see how things would run. So far, so good. The real test will come when I'm actually back to work for a few weeks and I start to crash - which I know I will do cause I'm a total type A . So, I've been on and I have posted, I just haven't made it over here - I'm sorry to have stood you up . I need to work out a system where I can make it to all my posts and just not be on so long with each one - I have a tendency to ramble (eh hem - clearing my throat) .

So anyway, hope you're feeling more motivated now than you were last week - sorry to hear about your hyperventilating episode - I can imagine that it would freak people out - that could be used to your benefit sometimes, you know? I have done well so far this week with my pledge. I've had maybe a few too many oreos but otherwise, not too bad. Here's my pledge for this week (almost over) and it will be the same for next week too:

1) complete at least 40 minutes of exercise daily
2) Drink at least 3L of water daily
3) Drink a maximum of 1 coke/pop per day (Lord help me!)
4) Eat 3 meals daily with only healthy snacks if I have any
5) Be honest when reporting my food intake and don't withold anything - even though I will probably really really want to fudge the numbers to make myself look better - on my honor!

I gotta go get dinner ready so I'm gonna take off. I hope you're doing well and I'll try to get back before it gets too long. Take care!

hi guys, I just finished reading all your posts, laughed my way thru most of them (including the part about you guys being smelly!!) & decided I would stick my nose in & join you!!!!
of course, now that you're both busy going back to work & school & all, I'm gonna assume it'll be pretty quiet on here & that'll get me off the hook!!!
I hope I can find this spot again to come back, but if not, please forgive me...tho I will try!!!!!!!
I post mostly on diettalk.com & have a daily journal going over there but I really enjoyed you guys so much & was thinking about starting pilates myself so here I am!!! I've gotten a few pilates tapes from the library but haven't actually done any....I'm also not as limber as I would like to be & find that my huge stomach gets in my way alot of the time...atz why I don't do too many crunches...but you guys have gotten me pretty motivated & maybe I'll give it another try!!
right now I do a workout video (mostly leslie sansone) every day & I have since june 19, to be exact....I might have missed 1 day the whole time & I really am very proud of myself for that!! I vary them between the step aerobic tape she has (I think it's the only 1 made that I can do the whole thing!!) and her 2 & 3 mile walks...I try to get out on my bike too as often as I can but riding alone is no fun so I have been slipping on that !!
I'm 45 & I think I am going thru some kind of menopause thing only cause my TOM is skipping some months & then hitting me twice a month for well over 5 days or so...no hot flashes so far & I'm not on any medication so we'll see what happens next!
anyway, I also lift weights, between the 5 & 10 pounders, every other day & also do leg lifts with 5 lb ankle weights....there are so many more things I feel I should be doing & I hope the more I learn the more I can vary the routine a bit! I had also started on weight watchers, but since I'm not a real great organized person, trying to figure out the points has been hard for me, so I just try eating lots of fruits & veggies, drinking water & trying to get in as much protein as I can (I recently gave up meat again, so occasionally it's chicken & tuna & salmon & lots of beans!!).
I've been out of work since december but I'm looking & once I find something I doubt I'll be online too much to write, but hey, with me ya never know!!!
we live in upstate NY (me & my sweetie & a dog & cat) & sometimes my son, who basically pops in to pick up some clothes for the week (he's been doing some freelance landscaping) so it's pretty quiet around here most of the time!!!
geez, I have been babbling alot, eh???!!!
but anyhow, I'll keep checking this out cause you guys are just full of good stuff!! I'm pretty motivated & I hope to stay that way!!!
take care!!!

Well Hello MeAnBuji and welcome over to our little piece of grass here - hope you find your way back here again. I can give you some tips on finding this place again if you want.... Sassy and I are happy to have another person to talk to. Just be aware that we don't post daily so don't think we're ignoring you.

That is really awesome that you haven't missed a day of your walking tapes. Pass along to us some of that dedication, will you? Sounds like you've got a very great routine going for you. As for suspecting early menopause - that was the way it began with me. TOM got very erratic tho it still seemed to always time itself as a nuisance around holidays and vacations! After I skipped a few months and had it for 22 days straight I went to the doctor, got tested and they gave me the good news. Early menopause at 39. The hot flashes were never very bad but they set in eventually - hormones helped. I'm over it now finally but it's a process that takes years to peter out completely. My only suggestion to you is to start consider taking calcium supplements if you aren't already - you really start to lose bone mass at a fast rate at menopause. Keep up with the weights too as that is excellent for maintaining the bones!

Talked it over with DH and we decided to buy a new treadmill. He said he intends to use it himself. Costs an arm and a leg but I think it's a worthwhile investment. Of all the stuff in our basement, it's the one piece I use regularly. I'm excited as our old one is 15 years old and this one has a lot of neat features. I'll get a much better cardio workout - this is if this stupid blister on my foot ever heals. I've been limping along all week and I'm getting very aggrivated with it. We delayed delivery until the end of next month so we can do some cleanup/fix up in the basement. Speaking of which, I'd better get my keester in gear and go do some work. I was also cleaning out the cabinet and found that I have a Pilates tape from Living Arts that I never even opened. I have one of their beginning yoga tapes that I really like - it's good about showing beginning, intermediate and advanced movements depending on your level and I hope the Pilates will be just as good. I can't really do any walking right now so it's on my list after laundry and cleaning to try this out tonight.

Have a good week ladies. Will check back later!

hi happy, thanks for the tips on the dreaded menopause!!! if this is the worst that it gets for me, I shall do no complaining, but it has managed to rear it's ugly head off & on for the past couple of years, so maybe I'm at the end of the cycle!! as for bad moods, I'm crabby all the time anyway so nobody would ever be able to tell!!! LOL!!!!
I hit the library yesterday looking for different exercise videos & found everything BUT pilates...so I'll keep a lookout, but I did find a book that I think I'll study & see what it alls about...I know that form is the key so I was hoping a video would be a little clearer regarding that, but the book is pretty detailed so I'll give it a shot!! I hope that video you found gives you a good workout, if so, pass on the name!!
I get so excited when I order new stuff!!! a new treadmill sounds awesome, especially since you actually use it & don't just keep it to hang stuff on like I did!! but mine was real old & really required you to dig in to get the rubber moving...not a user friendly item at all...yours sounds nice & I hope it brings you years & years of fun!! I love to go out walking but hate to go alone & my sweetie has really bad emphysema so he has to walk really slow & keep stopping. I don't mind when we're just out together for a stroll, but as a workout it just doesn't do it. that's why I like the videos so much I guess...at least till I get up the nerve to venture out alone!!!
well, so far it's beautiful out so I think I'll try getting out on my bike for a bit.... hope to talk to you soon!!!!!