[traveling michele]

I hadn't heard that about BYU! Too funny! Yes, dd drinks her share of Diet Coke. Some of her friends drink (gasp) Mountain Dew!

Saef-- I hope your back feels better soon. Mine went out on Saturday. It is mostly better but not fully yet. I'm trying not to feed the pain (though it is tempting for sure!).

[Shannon in ATL]

Saef & Michelle - not good on the back injuries. DH's went out on him last week. We are trying to baby it back to shape before our vacation in two weeks.

I had two small packs of M&Ms and one small pack of Skittles last night. That was it. Won't be home long enough to get into it tonight. I hope. DSS has his fall orchestra concert at 7, so will have just enough time for dinner before we go.

Jessica - look at the intermediate three day per week full body workout on Stumptuous.

[silverbirch]

I am being successful in returning to what I think of as 'clean eating'. I'm not sure what the overtones of this phrase are, but for me it means cutting out any of the crap that's sneaked into my diet and eating a lot of nutrient-rich fruit and veg, meat and fish, and some full-fat dairy produce. I operate much more smoothly like this, and don't have those 'desperate' periods. I can even get through the 4pm slump all right.

Fingers crossed. I'm in the honeymoon period.

Having said that, I am at my mother's with all the unexpected challenges that involves, and I'm doing all right. Today I'm on floor-cleaning, bulb-planting and paperwork - as far as I know.

[saef]

Thursday morning at 162.2.

Did my regular workout this morning, which included 3x10 bent-over rows with an 80-lb barbell. I was fine. I am feeling a twinge along my sciatic nerve in my left leg, which means my piriformis muscle is tightening up. I have to figure out how to get a stretch in at the office.

[silverbirch]

Just calling in to notice that the bad word I used in my post above has not been censored. Perhaps it's not bad Over the Pond.

[Shannon in ATL]

Birchie - no, that word isn't too bad over here anymore I don't think. It pops up all over kid's shows now, even.

[silverbirch]

I remember hearing my mother use it and being a bit shocked. She was describing American soldiers here, assembling for D Day, and what they used to do. Shooting crap was one of the things.

And yes. People use it fairly freely here too. I will now try another word, just for the **** of it. ****.

Astonishing.

[Sheila53]

Saef, I heard an NPR segment on a New York play called Stuffed. The comedian that created the play had so many of the same thoughts that those of us with weight problems have or had. It was amusing yet somehow hard to hear her talk about her relationship with food. Have you heard of the play? It's at the West Side theater or something like that. I wish I could fly there and see it. http://stuffedplay.com/

[silverbirch]

The play sounds interesting, Sheila. It would be good to get up an outing and all meet there! Not really possible, though. Shame.

Saef, good luck with the piriformis stretch. It's a bit awkward, isn't it?

[saef]

Friday morning at 161.5.

My back is stiff and sore this morning, unfortunately. I should have just walked on the treadmill yesterday. I'm so close to my nine-day vacation that my mind is not in the game at work. Yesterday, I gave a lackluster staff presentation and did not have much to say during a post-mortem on last week's onboarding class.

I need to write up a brief presentation about a budget item transfer and start some year-end assessments today before the weekend looms and I become entirely useless.

[traveling michele]

9 day vacation!? I'm jealous!! Going somewhere fun?

I had a **** show of a day yesterday. Guessing that will be censored. Work was awful and then by the evening, I was feeling crummy. Today it's raining and my throat feels like it has rocks in it. I'm hoping to power through at work but if my computer craps out again (the whole district had issues yesterday), I may call it a day. We will see.

[JayEll]

saef, I read that at first as "waterboarding class."

[Mudpie]

Originally Posted by JayEll

saef, I read that at first as "waterboarding class."

saef What exactly is "onboarding" please?

Dagmar

[Mudpie]

Having a good chuckle at the motto on my signature here. for this month and the next.

Dagmar

[saef]

Saturday morning at 161.2.

Laughing at these posts. An "onboarding class" is an instructional session held for newly hired analysts in my company. They're taught how to interact with technology vendors, how to give presentations, how to run advisory calls with a video component, and how to write research. I teach in a day-and-a-half class on how to write. Part of the class is a lecture interspersed with in-class writing exercises. The other part of the class is a small-group session, where I go off with three to five analysts and for several hours, we do a line-by-line group critique & discussion of a paper they're writing.

Yesterday, I did nearly nothing at work that I'd planned because I had to solve problems that arose during the day and attend three hours' worth of meetings.

My back is feeling better. Today would usually be a hard leg workout, with heavy squats and step-ups and Romanian dead lifts. I'm going to keep babying my back and won't do the toughest parts of this workout.