Was on the treadmill at the gym today and someone had the tv in front of me set to "The Brazilian Butt Lift" infomercial. For the entire 20 min. I was on that machine I got to watch women's butts in bikinis and boy shorts. The product is a set of exercise DVDs, and the exercises seem pretty reasonable (lots of body-weight squats, lunges, back extensions and core work) but good grief, 20 MINUTES OF A**??? Also, the endless before/after photos where the "after" person had clearly lost -at least- 20 pounds in addition to having a shapelier backside. And of course, while the infomercial tells you no dieting is involved, they do have an "optimal results" (undoubtedly seriously calorie and carb restricted) eating plan.

Silverbirch, I am convinced that weight loss should be commensurate with calories left on the table instead of calories consumed. Alas, it doesn't matter one iota if everyone around me inhales bread/wine/dessert while I limit myself to the cajun salmon salad; my dinner still "costs" 800 calories :>(

Dagmar, I have wolfed down food bought at the supermarket while driving home on any number of occasions. Admittedly never as dramatically as you, but with that same feeling of impending starvation. Judith Beck may claim that "hunger is not an emergency" but I am pretty sure she's assuming a lifestyle where deferring a meal is a matter of 30 minutes, not 3 hours.

Got a little whoosh and am now back to the original starting line (153) this morning. I checked email yesterday morning and found out an off-schedule swim practice had been arranged for the afternoon. Most Masters swimmers practice in high school pools, so with the holiday and the weather, most of us have been out for almost 3 weeks. The practice was supposed to go two hours and pretty much all of us threw in the towel at 90 minutes. Not much you can do when you can't get your arms out of the water any more! My gratitude for the day was that the school I swim at has lots of very hot water and high pressures in the showers.

Andrea, you just reminded me of something funny that happened:

I went to the campus gym over the winter break - most of the students are gone then, so I'm not fighting a million 19-year-olds for the treadmills. However, a few students were still around. The TV over my treadmill was already on and some similar infomercial was playing. I immediately grabbed the remote and turned it to a snowboarding competition. There was a noise behind me and when I turned around, a young woman on a back row elliptical said "I was watching that!" I (rudely, in retrospect) said "you want to watch a commercial??" and she said "yeah". So I turned it back to the eternal butt lift ad and moved down to a new treadmill.

On a less jolly note: I went out with a few old friends the other night, and one of them took a lot of pictures and posted them on facebook (and tagged us, of course). So I made my annual visit to my facebook account to see the pics. There was one of us with my rear facing the camera, and my butt looked very large and square and saggy - and I suddenly thought "dear lord, I look like my mother from the back". Nothing like a photo to tell you what the reality actually is.

No butter or peanut butter on Saturday. Streak is 11. This is going well. I didn't need to buy any butter today (as I have been doing most weeks for ages) so I could easily imagine what I hadn't been putting into my body. Credit where credit is due.

A so-so day. I've worked out that I need to do a range of foot and ankle exercises with exquisite form, together with calf and soleus stretches every time I change from one activity to another (say, from computer to getting in wood). This will enable me to walk without excruciating heel pain. Am thinking I need a full-time trainer but, in the absence of anyone else, it has to be me.

ETA - and the reason for this (which has been on and off for a few weeks)? Who knows? In the frame are my new pair of boots and the concrete pavements of London.

Andrea, I couldn't have taken 20 minutes of that!

Becky, hot showers sound lovely. I'm in the process of trying out each one at my gymn to see if there's one which is better than the others. So far they're all kind of warmish, which isn't good enough.

Saturday's practice did a number on my lower back. Too many flip turns too soon, and I think the butterfly kick also contributed. I am officially too old to go multiple weeks without any exercise, I think. It's a funny sort of sore, a new one for me. I can stand painlessly as long as I have perfect posture - any sort of twist or slouch sends simultaneous shooting pains to the front of each thigh. Sitting or picking up a leg does the same thing. It's sorta like a backwards sciatica on both sides. If anybody's managed to do this one to themselves, I'd love to hear your feedback. My strategy is going to be lots of walks and standing up today, the chiro tonight, and back into the pool tonight (though I'll stick to open turns and blow off the butterfly kick).

I've dealt with the bloat part of the December weight gain and will proceed on to the real work. Whee.

Hey ICUWishing,

As a former swimmer myself... those butterfly kicks are really rough on the lower back. You probably have inflammation going there, and that's causing the nerve pain. Pain in the front of the thigh can actually be sciatica, strange to say.

My suggestion would be that you take some rest periods where you lie down on your back with an ice pack under your lumbar/sacral area. Put pillows under your knees to relieve the angle. To get down on the bed, sit down, lower to your side, and then roll onto your back, twisting as little as possible. When you get up, turn to your side toward the edge of the bed and then use your arms to push yourself to a sitting position.

Also, take the anti-inflammatory of your choice. Tylenol is useless for inflammation; I'm thinkin' aspirin, ibuprofen, Aleve...

Don't over do the walking and standing. And I really wouldn't go to swimming practice tonight if I were in your position.

Feel better!
Jay

I used to have horrible sciatic pain on my right side that started in my back, went down into my glute and then wrapped around to the front of my thigh. This was back in my late teens and early twenties. Thankfully I don't get that any more! It was horrible to the point I would be in tears from the pain. What is weird about it is that I would get it from sitting for too long--even movies were excruciating to sit through.

My sciatica (relatively new for me) flares up when I sit too long-- movies, car rides, even the couch.

Becky-- I also don't know that swimming would be good tonight. It sounds like something is really inflamed. Take care of yourself.

My weight was under 130 for the first time this year. Hopefully I don't jinx it....

I'm just reading the story of Dagmar in the car with the chicken and am greatly entertained.

Great job on the 10 days, Birchie.

I started my Train to Be Awesome plan last week (Andrea, by the author of the Lift Like a Girl program) and the workouts kicked my tail. I have the fourth workout today and am dreading it. LOL
I didn't eat awesome this weekend, but last night was the only one that was really terrible.

136.6 lbs. this morning. I'm inching down by 1/10ths of lbs. Better than inching UP.

Dagmar :

140.5 this morning - I am apparently in "inching up" mode. Some may be water bloat for TOM, but it ain't a pretty number regardless.

ICUwishing: maybe a sports massage instead of swim practice?

I read an article this weekend that said people whose scales only showed the whole number without the .xx lost more weight and were less stressed. I get that.

[Raises her hand ashamedly, as someone who's watched exercise infomercials on gym TVs]

They are inspirational when I'm grinding out the cardio for long periods of time. At least the P90X and Shaun T infomercials are.

I'm not sure I could look at perfect butts for long periods of time, though. My self-esteem might plummet, as this is a body part that I don't like much. (I can still remember, many decades later, a comment that my mother once made in a department store dressing room about mine: "It's big, but at least it's flat." Thanks, Mom.)

It's funny what childhood memories stick like glue. I have a lousy memory for my childhood but one memory stands out clearly. I danced and had to have recital costumes made each year. My mom didn't sew so she had to have a lady make my costumes. I went to her house and she measured me, proclaiming how large my bum was and what a hard time she would have making my costume. I was humiliated of course.

Shannon-- interesting about the scale. I think I have an "issue" with scales. I weigh myself way too much and my scale is shockingly accurate. For some reason, I bought a new scale. Why? I have no idea. It says I weigh a little less by the way. I was tempted to believe the weight on the new scale but I know it isn't true. Now I'm trying to figure out where to put the new scale. Dh is not going to be happy when he sees I bought something completely unnecessary. It remembers the last weight and shows that after your current weight which is a neat feature but totally unnecessary. I have my regular scale in my bathroom. Maybe I could put it in the guest bath-- is that rude or would guests appreciate the option of a scale?

Michele whenever I do a dog sit I'd really like access to a scale. But I rarely have it. Most of my clients, if they have a scale, keep it well hidden. The others are so complicated that I just don't bother trying to figure them out. There's also the fear of erasing or inadvertently altering some incredibly important data of my clients' which is stored in the scale.

Dagmar