Becky, your new Fitbit has encouraged me to search for my pedometer. It was quite useful/interesting a few months ago and then I thought I knew my patterns. It disappeared during upheavals connected to decorating (still going on). I'm not sure where it can be. As most of you know, it's a tiny house but...

I put on my pedometer a couple days ago only to discover when I got back from my walk that the batteries were dead. Ask me why I didn't check before I went out. Answer:

Did a weights workout this morning in the "Fitness Lounge." An older man was there too, by which I mean, probably 80. He was using heavier weights than I was. Ha! But, I am doing fine.

Meal planning day for me today. Lately I've found myself trapped in being hungry but not prepared and there are no decent options in the hospital cafeteria. Some days the salad bar is well stocked, but usually not even that (it does irritate me to think that in a hospital of all places they would not provide healthy options, but apparently they've tried and no one eats them. sigh).

Cannot find pedometer. Perhaps it fell off one day. I don't really believe that but I can't think where it can be. I last saw it on the filing cabinet in the sitting room but that was several months ago.

I'll move on from this and tell you that I'm going to do a full workout tomorrow morning. I'm also going to weigh myself (naked) in the freezing bathroom. The coldest night of the winter is forecast tonight.

Iris, that's grim about the hospital food.

JayEll, the 'Fitness Lounge' sounds strange to me, like a contradiction in terms, but it could be that the term doesn't travel. Good for that man! Good for you!

Single big 2pm meal today and that's great - very nice not to have to think about food prep, eat, cleanup but once. I had some harsh reality in the mirror this morning with bright sunlight and underwear just slightly too small. Yikes. I need to freeze-frame that in my head - not in a bad way, but just as a reference point.

Actually, silverbirch, the full name of the place is,

"Lots O' Luck Fitness Lounge."

And yes, it is a very rich name filled with all kinds of implications! I love it for its contradictions.

Back to football... Big games today.

Repeat! The Seattle Seahawks won!

Sheila in Seattle

It was an amazing game, Sheila53!

GOIN' TO THE SUPERBOWL, BABY!!!

Weigh myself. Done. Daily fluctuation -0.25lb. That's quite cheering.

Make food plan for the day. Partly done. B=muesli, cc, summer fruits, semi-skimmed milk, wheatgerm. MS=satsuma, 3 walnuts. L=Armenian lentil soup + something crunchy. AS=? T=lasagne + greens.
Edit. Have now worked out (see below) I will have four oatcakes for lunch, and a small bowl of warm stewed apples and raisins + three almonds for AS.

Do full flexibility and weights programme in the Lots o' Luck Fitness Kitchen. (Thanks, JayEll, for this very amusing name. I'm trying out a franchise arrangement here.) About to start it. ETA: done but I now remember I forgot to allow for being very hungry after a weights workout.

Keep to food plan as far as I can. Interesting phrasing here. What am I talking about? I have two unknowns in the food plan which allow some kind of leeway. I am also unsure about the value, for me, of sticking rigidly to a plan.
OK, I think that I want to have some oatcakes with the lentil soup. Originally I was trying to keep carbs down but I think the soup alone would just generate too much hunger at the end of the afternoon (traditionally my difficult time). So oatcakes for lunch, as per usual.
A blank for my afternoon snack. If I don't eat anything at this point I end up nibbling ridiculously when I make the tea. So better to manage it sensibly. What to have? It's snowing so I feel that apple and cottage cheese would not work. Perhaps I want to have an apple and raisin turnover which I shall be making for the rest of the household. Except the pastry is not particularly nice (shop pastry, not homemade). OK, I'll have a small bowl of warm stewed apples and raisins (already made) + three almonds.

So that's that. I'll do my exercises now and report back later.

Good luck to you all with your Mondays!

Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks. A bit of magic there at the end.

See you in two weeks.

I'm so glad so many people have decided to join me! Also very nice to know I'm not the only one whose red line is so far off in the distance I can't even see it.

Today's weigh-in was 159, but I'm usually up on Mondays so that's okay. I have been struggling this past week as I ramp up my exercise to not ramp up eating correspondingly. I tend toward the hypoglycemic if I go too long without eating so I'm trying to balance eating enough that I don't feel like I'm going to pass out with not eating too many extra snacks. This morning I ended up eating my intended afternoon snack (an apple) at 11:30 right before my workout, because I felt like I wouldn't be able to make it through the workout otherwise.

Then now, it's 3:15, and I'm hungry again and have no afternoon snack waiting for me. Last time I was in this situation I bought a clif bar from the vending machine, so I might do that again although I feel like it's cheating to have those extra calories. I think in general I need to plan better for having some kind of snack in the morning on workout days.

My downfall in the past has been trying to eat too little so that I could lose faster. (And, at the same time, increase exercise for the same reason.) For me, this is an unsustainable combination.

I'm going by hunger now, not by calorie count. Some days I'm hungry mid-afternoon, and other days, I'm not. And, often I find I don't need to eat all of what I have in front of me to feel satisfied. When that happens, I save it or leave it.

(Of course, after all these years, I do pretty much know what's in everything I eat. If I needed to, I could come pretty close to the cals.)

So far, this approach seems to be working for me.

Good morning, all.

Weigh myself. Done. Daily fluctuation -0.5lb. Good.

Make food plan for the day. Partly done. B=muesli, cc, summer fruits, semi-skimmed milk, wheatgerm. MS=satsuma, 3 walnuts. L=sardines, salad (lettuce, carrots), 4 oatcakes. AS=small bowl of warm stewed apples and raisins + three almonds. T=fish (tbd), homemade potato wedges + greens & carrots.

Go for a walk. This will help me to stretch out after yesterday's blockbuster weights session. I always feel rather odd the day after I get back into weights so a walk after lunch when it's got above zero will help. I've already moved some pallets, an old kitchen cabinet and some pram wheels onto the new wall to stop the rams coming through the garden. They are so determined. The plan is for a fence as well before the lambs arrive.

Keep to food plan as far as I can, and as appropriate. Yesterday worked out well. There were some unexpected developments during the day which could have affected this but the plan stood up to the test. JayEll, I've never counted calories, having decided that life is too short and the body is too complicated, so I try to follow hunger cues and avoid emotional cues. Sometimes I'm better at it than others. I think I'll add 'as appropriate' to this heading. Then I don't have to over-plan but I am prepared - which fits in with my current approach to life.

This is exactly what I need to hear and embrace. This is, almost to a T, how swimming was for me. The repetitive counting in my head with each stroke or I'd lose my lap number, the smoooooth feeling of the water flowing over me, the muted sounds under the water. Man, I really loved that. I could swim 2 miles in an Olympic pool and get an unbelievable body workout and have a totally empty mind -- which for me is the best thing ever. But with what's going on in my life now I can't make it to a pool during the hours available for lap swimmers, it's not even an option.

Weights needs to be my new swimming! I'm so glad you said this, oh, maybe I can love lifting! Thank you so much!


I enjoyed this past weekend's football, what a comeback by the Seahawks! Looking forward to the Super Bowl, it could be a phenomenal game if both teams play to their potential!