Jacqui I would bet a Carb Day that you are right on about your weight gain. Keep the faith! Btw, Huge Thanks for keeping your wonderful supportive energy flowing even when you are not feeling great. I'm glad to hear you're feeling better.

Do you listen to music on the elliptical? I have special exercise music with just the right pace, and that I love. Here's a couple that keep me on the cardio machines: Bridge On the River Kwai theme song; Beach Boys Surfin' USA. When these are on, my legs start moving regardless of what my mind is thinking.

Jacqui, hearing about you increasing your weights and the soreness makes me want to get back to weights. That soreness hurts so good, like the song says.

Mars, there is some music that makes me want to exercise. When I went to Slimnastics at the Y the instructor used certain songs for certain exercises. When I hear Tiny Bubbles, I want to do side bends. LOL Either that, or have a glass of wine.

ROFL I just got 5 min of cardio laughing Carol Sue!

LOL! Mars and Carol Sue, y'all are cracking me up! Okay, I'm starting a new experiment today, so we'll see how it goes! Actually, what I'm doing reminds me of Chickadeee's everyday "non-exercise" exercise! I read this very interesting article on the harmful effects of sitting so much each day and how even daily exercise at the gym cannot make up for all the sitting we do: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...ing-kills.aspx. I mean, think about it, we sit to eat, we sit in the car, we sit in the bathtub, we sit to watch tv, we sit to be on the computer, we sit to pay bills, we sit to talk in person or on the phone with friends or family, and some people have a desk job! We do a lot of sitting. This article says that the simple act of just standing up every 20 minutes to interrupt your sitting does wonders for your health! It points out that standing for long periods of time also is not good. Switching positions is what is key. The whole idea is to defy gravity. The recommendation is to stand up 35 times a day. The author mentioned that he has set a timer on his computer to remind him to stand up, and I thought, that's what I need! And so then I found this article: http://www.howtogeek.com/120566/how-...xtra-software/ and I set the task scheduler in Windows on my computer to send me a pop-up message every 15 minutes (20 minutes wasn't an option) saying STAND UP! Actually I'm noticing it doesn't pop-up in front of my open window. Instead I see the notification in the task bar and when I click on it, I get the dialog box, which I then close. I like that right now, but if I start not noticing it, I won't like it so much. I'll have to check to see if there's a way to have it pop up over my open windows. I feel healthier already, lol!

Glad I gave you girls a chuckle! LOL

That's a good idea to have that reminder pop up, Jacqui. When I worked at my last job I did data entry. At one point, they decided to change all the workstations to standing work stations. Everyone went crazy. It was so hard to stand in one place for 8 hours a day. Then they started having us stand for 4 and sit for 4. Eventually, they went back to all sitting. They told us that studies showed that people are more productive when they are standing, but everyone was so angry that they spent more time complaining about standing than doing their work, so productivity was down. I recently saw a portable standing workstation. You put it on your computer desk and it raises and lowers. I wanted to buy it and make my computer desk a standing station but DH said no. He probably figures that I will get tired of it and quit using it. He's probably right. I usually have to get up and go to the bathroom every 20 minutes so that keeps me moving.

I had a good food day today.

B eggs and sausage

L romaine salad with deli turkey and avacado

D chicken wings and a cup of veggie soup

S cooked veggies (cauliflower, broccoli and brussels sprouts)

I plan on going for my blood work in the morning so I have to be sure not to have anything to spike my blood sugar. I hope I can remember not to drink a cup of coffee when I get up.

Carol Sue, turn the coffee pot around or put a dish towel over it or something like that. Your menu was REALLY good today! I wouldn't be able to handle a standing work station, whew! I was on my feet most the day as a teacher, and my feet and back used to ache so much!

Mars, I got 30 minutes in on the elliptical today (not all at once of course)! And yes, I listen to music the whole time I exercise. I have pandora on my phone and I am partial to three stations: 70's funk (aka disco, great beat), Glenn Miller (big band swing), and Imelda May (50's rockabilly style).

Carol Sue I hope your labs give you whoosh--you sure have been working in that direction. I have to bring along the skipped coffee so I can chug it the instant they have my sample

Jacqui That is outstanding!!! I'm going to read about changing position. I do that a lot at work and I've had the feeling it was good for me. I do it a lot at home too, jumping up like a mad woman to chase pigeons from my bird feeder.

Today I drove a long way to a doctor appt. & it was very hot. I felt hungover from yesterday's activity so have been inert since getting home. I ate on program, went a little overboard on chicken. I'm beginning to notice when I've eaten past hunger. Now if I can slow down so I notice in time to stop. No biggie though. At least I wasn't dreaming of sweets, or eating any.

Chickadeee

B mushroom/avo/sauerkraut omelet, whey shake & coffee
L salad/chicken/avo/beans/0 cal dressing--still eating through the last of it.
D early; grocery store-prepared rosemary chicken, garlic sauteed broccoli
S chicken; probably some asparagus or grilled cabbage before bed
EDIT Just made some turkey chile and ate some. It was good!

Scale down .6 to 168. So far so good with the big avocado. Avocado = wt down;sugar = weight up.

Good job Mars! That avocado is really working for you.

LOL, My MIL hated the pigeons in her bird feeder. They need to eat, too!! DH chases the robins out. He only wants to feed the little bitty birds. Robins are supposed to eat worms and bugs.

Unfortunately, my labs did not give me a whoosh, and not even my wonderful menu helped. The scale didn't budge.

Today is Carb Day for me. I remembered not to drink coffee in the AM but after bloodwork DH wanted to go for breakfast, so I went all out and had the full deal.

Since I've decided it's carb day I think I'll make lasagne for dinner. I feel guilty having carb day since I didn't really do well staying away from them all week, but I'm doing it. That is one part of the program that I am going to follow to the letter. LOL (shame on me!)

I think I read somewhere that there is a Fitbit or other tracker that will notify you to get up and move every 20 minutes or so. I really need that feature. We went to Dunham's today looking for bike parts and I was looking at the exercise equipment. I really don't need anymore, I just need to use what I have, but they had a really, really nice treadmill on clearance that I would love to have. Lots of bells and whistles. Mine is pretty basic, and really, that's all I need. Somewhere to walk so I don't have to do it outside.

B eggs, toast (whole grain), hash browns, sausage

L deli turkey sandwich

D ravioli

S Chocolate cake and more chocolate cake


I am also going to make a chocolate cake, and will probably eat a small piece. My step-daughter and husband are coming over tonight for Father's Day so they can take the leftover cake home.

Mars, yay on the drop!

Carol Sue, enjoy your Carb Day!

Chickadeee, where are you?

The scale is cooperating this morning and I have dropped back down to 201! Now, if it will just keep going down for the next two mornings before I start my Carb Day, that would be great!

Week 5: High 206.5, Low 204.5
5/31--(202.5) 206 Carb Day
6/1--(203) 206.5
6/2--(202.5) 206
6/3--(202) 205.5
6/4--(201) 204.5
6/5--204.5
6/6--205.5 Carb Day
Week 6: High 206.5, Low 204.5
6/7--206
6/8--206.5
6/9--205.5
6/10--206.5
6/11--205.5
6/12--204.5
6/13--204.5 Carb Day
Week 7: High 205, Low 201
6/14--204.5
6/15--205
6/16--203.5
6/17--202
6/18--201.5
6/19--201
6/20--201 Carb Day
Week 8:
6/21--202
6/22--202.5
6/23--201.5
6/24--202
6/25--201
6/26--
6/27--

Today's Meals:
Breakfast:
2 eggs fried in coconut oil
1 slice of bacon
4 tbsp of Greek yogurt
Mio water

Lunch:
4 tbsp of Greek yogurt
Chicken
Steamed brussel sprouts topped with coconut oil
Mio water

Snack:

Dinner:
6 tbsp of Greek yogurt (the last 2 with Mio strawberry watermelon flavoring, yum!!!)
Large field green salad, topped with leftover pulled pork loin and walnuts, with ranch dressing
Mio water

Today's Exercise:
2-mile walk around the track, 30 minutes on elliptical (7.5 minutes, 4 times), 3 sets of 12 reps each on 8 leg and waist machines

Well, as I feared, I started not noticing my task scheduler "stand up" message last night since it doesn't pop up over an open window, but this morning I finally figured out how to get it to make a sound and flash in the taskbar, so that's even better! First I had to delete the task that I made in task scheduler yesterday. Then I had to go to Notebook on my computer and open a new page and type: x=Msgbox("Stand Up!",0+64,"Be Healthy!") . Stand Up! is my message, Be Healthy! is the name of my message box, and the rest of it is script code. Next I had to save the notebook page as a vbs file (so instead of saving it as standup.txt, I saved it as standup.vbs and I saved it to the desktop, so I could find it easily). Then I just followed the same steps as on that how-to webpage I posted yesterday, except when I got to New Action, instead of choosing "Display a Message," I had to choose "Start a Program," then hit the browse button, find my vbs file on desktop, and click on it." And that's it! I love having it make a sound and flash in the taskbar now! Even though it still doesn't pop up over my open window (which again, I kind of like), I never miss it!

Hey everyone, I have been dragging a little. Got lots of exercise and sweating last night moving a new sewing table. (did I say sweat, yep) Up and downs steps for an hour, but I slept good and feel good even the next day.

The standing topic is interesting, they tried a standing work station by us, the guy that tested it out, ended up with lower back pain over a period of time. He either had poor support in his shoes or he had a back issue and standing all day made it worse. I try to get up as often as I can, if I remember too.

Tonight is pizza topping night and I will make broccoli to go with it and we will have a smoothie for dessert, just greens with pineapple in it.

Woohoo, Chickadeee! Up and down steps for an hour is quite a workout!

I just got back from the gym and I am exhausted! I don't know why, but I was just dragging, and now I am wiped out.