I had sort of a lazy day, too. I'm thinkin' 'bout all of you individually, but I'm not up to writing the personal comments tonight. At least while I was lazin' around with my eyes closed I figured out this new collage I want to make out of the photos of water reflections on a lake a friend has been mailing me: it will be like a jigsaw puzzle, where I have to plan out how all the pieces fit together without any overlap between them. A lot of my collage work gets done while I'm awake but inert, with my eyes closed. Gotta figure out how to think up collages while I'm walking, without losing track of the trail and walking into a tree! =laugh=

Listening to y'all talk about yoga has got me dreamin' about doin' yoga again some day. I did yoga for my P.E. requirement in college: ain't that the 1970s for you? Shivering at night in a dark gothic tower with ivy all over the outside: just candlelight and incense and a turbaned instructor who knew enough Sanskrit to do the proper invocations. I guess I never told y'all I've been workin' on learnin' Sanskrit in recent years. I got pretty deep into it before my Belgian friend came into the picture and seduced me into learning French. You'd be surprised if you entered our ordinary little suburban house, because it has all these Sanskrit instruction posters all over the walls: no English of course, just Devanagari script. If my skin is tight enough after I get to goal weight I'm going to get a Sanskrit tattoo on my forearm or maybe the back of my hand (ouch): getting my first tattoo at age 60 will be some kind of an experience—HA!

Here's my weight loss tip for the day, something you can do while lying inert with your eyes closed: deep breathing. Here's a list of all the health and weight loss benefits of deep abdominal breathing. But you have to set aside at least two 5-minute sessions of it a day—10 minutes is even better—which for me, at least, is kind of challenging. I need to figure out how many deep slow breaths I can do in 10 minutes, so I can just count them, 'cause I never wear a watch anymore.

Have a terrific Wednesday, y'all!

On plan today... And played volleyball for 75 min without too much shoulder discomfort. Yay!

The week has been busy so far, hope the pace slows down. My fitbit tells me I am only getting 6 hour of shut eye, so going to head off early tonight.

Hope everyone is well!

My Belgian friend, Robine, broke up with me this morning. No warning whatsoever, just, "C'est fini. J'arrête." ("it's over. I quit.") And then she wrote a lot of stuff about how it's not my fault and how she hopes the best for me. Her closing words were "Donne-toi ce que je ne peux pas te donner. Merci pour tout." ("Give to yourself what I cannot give to you. Thanks for everything.")

She gave no explanation... and frankly, I'm stumped. I don't know why she chose to end a near-daily email correspondence (plus letters and gifts through the mail) of two years' duration. I learned to read and write French for this woman. We were planning to get together, to spend three weeks going various places in my area. She cancelled those plans recently, but she said she was just postponing them. We also had dreams of spending time together in Paris some day.

I'm devastated.

But I haven't gone out and bought any cookies. Not so far. I guess that's something.

Fi I am so sorry to hear about your breakup with Robine. It's hard, especially after learning a language for her and everything. I hope that this inspires you to do more collages which I think will help. I'm proud of you for not going to buy cookies. I know when I get emotional and end up eating cookies or cakes I feel even more lousy later. It will take time but you will get through this and we are all here to support you in any way we can. <3

Today has been kind of odd for me. I didn't have to work again today because of the icy roads. School has been called off for tomorrow so I'm just waiting to hear from my boss about what the plan is for tomorrow. I had breakfast and just lounged around until a little after lunch then DH decided to take a nap since he stayed up most of the night. He is supposed to have a show tonight at the bar down the street from out house. If I don't have work I think I'm going to go since I have not heard the music from this new band he is in yet. Just have to be careful with the snow and ice on the roads.

I looked up some yoga videos on YouTube and found a really good one that I did called Just My Size Yoga. I was able to do all of the moves except for one and I feel really good and limber. I think I'm going to incorporate that in my routine, maybe do that a few times a week. I'm running behind on my 30 day squat challenge, but I will just pick up where I left off, no harm done.

DH asked me to make roast chicken for dinner tonight because he liked the last one so much. This time I'm leaving out the lemon since he isn't too big on the lemon like I am. I'm hoping I'll have dinner done and ready before he has to leave tonight so he isn't eating so late.

Still pretty cold here and the snow and ice has not melted away like I thought it would. I am going to stay inside again tonight, but will do some exercise since I took yesterday as a second rest day. I need to get up and moving before I lose the motivation!!! I hope everyone is having a POP day!

Very sorry about your friend Fiona.

down 1.8 this morning. I've lost the water weight but this is where I always end up stuck, so I'm nervous about tomorrow's weigh on

still making progress on my house, back to work tomorrow. Have a great day everyone.

Just a quickie note today. Sounds like everyone is dealing with life -- both the good and bad. Not going to do personals today except to say, Fi, I understand your puzzlement over your friend ending the relationship with absolutely no explanation. So Sorry.

I've been having much better luck staying on plan lately -- I won't make the 10 pounds for the month that was my goal, but I was at 8 off this morning. I'll take it. I'm going to start working on the taxes. Have you noticed -- for those of you who send money to the IRS -- that there's always one company that is supposed to send you tax forms by the 31st of January who interprets that to mean that they have to be mailed by the 31st. I can do a guesstimate of where I will be, but am definitely hoping for a refund this year.

I was going to take Toby out for a training walk, but it's raining. A neighbor just dropped by and he was all over him -- jumping, wouldn't sit, wouldn't leave him alone. Lllllooooonnnnnggggg way to go on the obedience training evidently! Talk with you all tomorrow.

Fiona: Sorry about your friend. Its hard to part with someone you care about. Especially when you dont have answers to why.

Not to much going on over here. Still hibernating. I did do 10 minutes of a Walk off the pounds video. Hopefully as the days go by the minutes will get longer. Made oven baked fajitas for dinner tonight. My husband is getting spoiled with all these home cooked meals. I have found my love for cooking again! And my my love for dark chocolate! lol I save calories every night for that to be my treat!

I finished my taxes the first week of January. This was unusual for me, I am usually a last minute filer.

Fiona ~ Im sorry to hear that your friend ended your guys friendship, That is very sad.

Sam ~ I hope you were able to go see your boyfriend's new band perform.

Jane ~ Way 2 Go on loosing more weight

Today was fun at the lunchon. Tomorrow Im sure will be fun again. I havent walked since Monday cause I've been gone Tuesday and today and I'll be gone tomorrow but Im gonna walk tonight and then I'll walk tomorrow night and then Thursday I'll get back to walking 3 times a day.

I'm feeling better today, but still, emotionally speaking, like someone punched me in the gut. I need a new French correspondent, is what I need: a paper and ink correspondent would be fine, and less energy-consuming, and I may have an opportunity to find one. The upcoming month is when a bunch of folks do a challenge called A Month of Letters, which is to mail at least one letter every postal day in February. I already have some leads on French-fluent people in the challenge. =smile=

Diet-wise, I'm finding myself not hungry—kind of in that way that some people (not me) get un-hungry when they're depressed. And I have not eaten even one teensy particle of sugar. So far, so good.

And my thighs finally recovered from the STRESSful test, so I'm back to doing 600 leg lifts a night. Maybe this will be a month where I make significant progress toward my mini-goal of 280...who knows? My next weigh-in is on February 22nd, which is my 59th birthday.

Good evening everyone. This has been one of those days -- just one thing after another going wrong and all having to do with that dingy Co-op. My next volunteer job is going to be one where the good feelings go both ways.

Fi -- Glad that you're recovering both physically and emotionally. You must feel like you've had a one-two punch. The month of letters sounds interesting and hopefully you'll find a French correspondent so you can keep your skills sharp. Sounds like you'll be getting a nice birthday present if the current appetite situation continues.

Terra -- It sounds like you almost have to schedule life around your walking. I'm just teasing you -- I'm actually in awe of being committed to (and actually doing it!) walking 3 times a day.

Larry -- I'm waiting on one form -- hope it comes soon. I've done just about everything else and will get a refund so that's the good news. The first week in January and you were done -- WOW!

Edo -- Hope you can come out of hibernating soon. Finding your love of cooking is great, especially with a supportive DH.

Amazingly, I made my goal of getting 10 pounds off this month. Still not down to what my ticker says, but I'm working on it. Tonight I'm having basil pesto tilapia filets and horicot verts. Found a real easy recipe for the tilapia where you basically spread the pesto on top of the tilapia and bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degree F. Low cal and low carb. Have a great evening. Tomorrow I'm taking my brother-in-law to the doctor for the pre-surgery visit.

Fiona ~ Thats great that your looking for another french friend, I hope your able to find one.

Today was another good day at the lunchon. Everyone enjoyed the food just like yesterday so thats good but since Im gonna be home until Monday Im gonna get back on the ball and get back to walking 3 times a day, Starting tonight. Have a great night everyone.

I am looking forward to my Monday weigh in day. I think I just had a big whoosh. If you count my trips to the bathroom this would seem to be the case.

Starting yesterday at noon and lasting all afternoon, all evening and all night until this morning I was in the bathroom every hour and every time I had a full bladder. It took all my willpower not to get on the scale early but I committed to weighing once a week and I want to stick to that.

I was perfect on plan today and stayed under my calories despite having home made spaghetti for lunch and waffles for dinner.

I only ventured out of the house once today to get the mail. It only was 49 degrees. For those of us who are acclimated to Florida weather 49 feels like 30 below. I even drove my car to the mail box as it was too cold to walk there.

Tomorrow is supposed to be mid 70's and this weekend in the low 80's. I can't wait for that nice Florida weather again.

Well I didn't go to work again today LOL...this is starting to get a little ridiculous but the roads aren't very safe here since there are no plow trucks or salt trucks to help with the ice. It hasn't moved. I am supposed to go in to work tomorrow at 12 instead of the usual 8 to see if that gives the ice time to melt some more. It actually started raining here just a few minutes ago so now I'm worried that it's going to me more ice and more freeze over on the roads. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

I was pretty much on plan today. I did have a couple slices of pepperoni today. That has been my weakness this week. Being at home really makes it harder for me to stay on plan, especially since I can't leave the house really and venture out to keep my mind off food. It's not that I'm binging or anything, but when I get bored, I eat sometimes. I haven't really been eating much but I've been rolling up cheese and pepperoni in a tortilla and melting it in the microwave for a snack a little this week. Not being able to go outside and walk has been kind of rough, but I have been doing some yoga, and today I did some more indoor activities. Got back on my squat challenge and did 70 squats today.

DH had his show last night. It was fun. Luckily the bar was less than a mile away from my house so we were close by in case it started to get even rougher on the roads. He did a really good job and I got to catch up with my girlfriends who were there. I was out late, probably didn't go to bed till close to 4 am. Tonight I'm going to try and go to bed at a decent time so that I can wake up and eat on time before going to work. Luckily it's only one day until the official weekend from work and I only have to work 4 hours so it won't be so bad of a day unless we have a million voice mails from clients to return calls.

Anyway, I'm off to go find a yummy recipe for kale chips. I bought two bunches of kale at the store today and thought it would be a nice snack

Good night all <3

Larry ~ I hope the scale goes down for you


Sam ~ Im sorry you couldnt go to work again today. Hopefully you will be able to go tomorrow. Im also glad you had a good time hearing your husband perform with his band.


Im about to head to bed for the night, Its almost 10 pm and for some reason I've been tired all day so I hope tomorrow I have more energy, Good night everyone