Yesterday was POP #4. Yay! The scale is up a lb today. Alas....Thursday I lifted quads, shoulders, back, and calves, so it's like clockwork. That's the benefit of daily weighing for me....

Got a new dishwasher. Stainless steel front at a surprisingly good price. Now the rest of my kitchen looks even older and more abused.....I'll spend part of my day washing cabinets and scrubbing the corners that always seem to collect dirt.

It's snowing here today. I might be stuck with the elliptical. Maybe I'll do some strength stuff here at home.

Have a great OP weekend, ladies! Congrats on the losses! Lots of hard work around this thread these days!

Hi peeps,
It's quiet around here today.

Yesterday I did have some grains. We had nachos so I had some tortilla chips. And I had some mini blueberry muffins. And a couple of small cookies. I'm okay with it all cause they were reasonable portions, which is very good compared to other times.

Today I am back to grain free. I think I'll go for 6/7 grain free days a week.

It's a challenge today. They usually have beans and a good salad bar at the cafe here at the hospital. Not today. Some funky leftover fish, rice, no salad bar. Some boxed salads (spinach and walnut, yay!), so I had the salad, a couple of bites of the fish, went to catch a baby, then the fish seemed even more unappealing. So I snagged the innards of a turkey sandwich in the lounge. Blah....

This week will be a challenge too....oh well....All we can ever do is plan and do our best, right?

There is leftover cake at the nurses' station. I don't need it, don't want it....

Yuck, midwife. Leftover cake? I really don't think so.

Yesterday was a bit off programme (usually I'm pretty much on programme) but it fuelled today. Since I restarted exercise in earnest (post long virus) my body has stopped its headlong weight loss. Now I'm on a downward trajectory but I'm bouncing around the boulders as I ski down at a much more stately (majestic?) pace.

We are going to do just fine this week.

I thought it was spring!!

Morning all,

I went a little overboard Saturday at the baby shower. The fruit, veggies, deviled eggs, and roasted cashews were "allowed" by my plan... so I got really munchy and ate lots of all of those things, ~1000 calories worth. Something about being in a room with trays of food and old Megan breaks the door down of the tiny closet I've got her shoved into. Anyway, kept it light the rest of the day and back OP Sunday. Ironically I did go catch grass shrimp for the fish after I got home Saturday so they were also huffing and puffing with full tummies along with me. My anemones also got filled with shrimp. It was a bulging belly day all around.

The cake actually didn't hold any appeal to me b/c it was a store-bought cake. Is yours store-bought midwife? Wait, forget I asked, you don't need to describe it. But yeah, old cake, ick.

Midwife, I gag at the consistency/taste of cottage cheese but I'm going to get some Ricotta (somehow this is different to my mouth). I've got some "mock" Waldorf salad made up for breakfast for a few days, with plain yogurt as the base, pretty good for breakfast. I've discovered banana eggs are really good, too! About 2 eggs, banana, cinnamon, whir it up in a blender so it's smooth, and cook like 1 big pancake. Yum, but sadly doesn't microwave well.

Oh, yes, HIIT also going well and Sat. I bumped my speed up to 7.4-5.4 mph. I'm also fairly busy and running around this week, challenge for time to work out here too. We will just do our best, right? Have a great week all!

Megan, didn't I tell you you'd love running HIIT? It makes such a huge difference somehow. Other than the deviled eggs, everything you overdid it on was healthy. I say congratulate yourself on getting more servings of fruit and vegetables instead of beating yourself up!

Midwife, did you resist the cake?

We almost had snow forecast for this weekend, but luckily the temperatures were higher and we are having rain today instead. Phew!

My weekend was mostly OP. Friday night was a dinner party at the in-laws' house. I'm proud of myself for squeezing in a HIIT run before we left for it. MIL cooked mac & cheese, broccoli, and carrot cake. I had a small portion of mac & cheese, a big portion of broccoli, and just ONE piece of carrot cake. I was still a little hungry when I got home so I count it as OP overall since I think the total calories were probably still in my range.

Saturday had lots of exercise and OP breakfast/lunch, then we went out for dinner for my cheat of the week. Sunday was pretty much OP, although I ate a little too much garlic bread for dinner.

Boo Rainy Monday Mornings!!!
esp those that I did not run and blew off 5:45a spin class

well food MUST be pop today. I am recovering from an old school eating fest this past weekend. not necessary. completely not nec. for good living.

Midwife, SHannon, I thought it was spring too!!!!
Jessica, I think you did stay op. go you!
Sliver, it WILL be a good week.
Megan, my sched. is really challenging too (as I think everyone's is-- modern times and all that fast paced living stuff) but I seem to have lost the mojo that turning 40 provided. I really MUST remember that now I AM forty and going to the gym is that much more important.
I am back to strict strict op which also happens to be an enjoyable food plan. It is all good ladies. Good busy, good food plan...I will keep telling myself that. IT IS ALL GOOD!!!

I did have some cake. It was homemade by one of the nurses who is an amazing baker. I had a little, put it away, and went to get a turkey sandwich. So, not perfect, but still an improvement compared to what I might have done in the past.

I need to go run some HIIT today.

I did not go to the store this weekend. DH went to the store this weekend. Ergo, the house is bursting at the seams with junkfood. Sigh. It's notminenotminenotminenotminenotmine. I will go today to buy some healthy stuff.

The snow melted pretty quickly. Hopefully that was the last of it!!
Here's to a good week, ladies!

I had a horrible night's sleep last night but incredibly I'm not tired (yet). I'll be heading toward the coffee maker in a minute, though.

With all the awake time I had, I finally (I think, I hope) have wrapped my head around my not losing weight. This is it. No more excuses. Today is day one. I'm even going so far as to record everything in Fitday again. If I can't fit into my cute shorts in a couple of months I'm going to be very upset.

Allison - much sympathy as I also had a bad night's sleep. I had 3 tiny lamb and rosemary sausages. I now have sausage poisoning. I've been here before and thought I could eat them. I can't. So back to the plan which was as follows:

When the others have sausages, I have some tinned salmon.

I like it so I don't feel hard done by.

Junk - begone!

KC - put in the time. It's worth it. Listen to the old lady (54).

Allison, how is your new OP commitment going?

Silver, are you recovered from the sausage poisoning yet?

Kitty, Midwife, Megan, how's it going? Anyone else I missed? Bueller?

It's been over a week since I saw 140 on the scale and I've been edging the lower end of 138 the past few days. Amazing since TOM is coming up in a couple days (my favorite thing about birth control is knowing exactly when TOM is coming...). I decided to keep my ticker only at whole numbers, so I moved it to 138. Today I had a health screening at work and weighed in at 138 for that too.

Thank you, HIIT running! I give it all the credit for my scale finally starting to move again.

I don't know if I'd call it love... I hate it less now than my first day. I do feel like it's doing good things for my body and my lungs. I did a full 20 minutes with my increased speed of 7.4mph HI/5.4 recoveries yesterday, so I'll do that a few more times until it gets too "easy" and increase speed again. It is frustrating b/c since my initial drop I have had two weeks of no weight loss (not coincidentally around my TOM), but I know I just need to tell myself to keep at it. I feel skinnier. I think all the HIIT and abs/core work I've been doing is really making a difference.

Bueller? Bueller? I own that movie - on VHS. Remember VHS?

Jessica, glad the scale is moving in the right direction.

Silver, sorry you can't have sausages but it sounds like you've come up with a good substitute.

midwife, did DH at least get some healthy stuff in addition to the junk food?

I also didn't sleep well the last two nights. Lots of waking up. Sigh. Hopefully we will all sleep better tonight. Have a good day everyone. Keep up the hard work!

Megan, of course not! When I opened the pantry on Monday, there was an entire shelf of pudding cups. They were on sale. Argh!!!

How's the exercise, Kitty? Mine's been a big bust this week. I'm telling myself that it's okay to have a rest week. Just got to get back on it.

I have a new motto. Ahem:

A penny saved is a penny burned. Calories uneaten equal calories burned.

I realize that in the wrong context, my motto could appear pro-ana or some such, but that's not how it is for me. WHen I am faced with a pudding cup, or cookies, or glazed donut holes, or whatever, I try to justify it in the grand scheme of things. "Sure the scale might bump up, but I can get it down again." Or "Sure, that negates my calorie deficit so I might not see a loss, but maintaining is okay." Or "I can tweak the rest of the day/weekend/week to allow for these calories." Or "I'll just run an extra 1.5 miles today to make up for it."

All totally lame and idiotic efforts to justify crap. If I just don't eat it, I don't have to worry about burning it off or how it will affect the scale. The most important exercise I need to do right now is close my mouth to junk. I think I'll change it to:

A penny saved is a penny earned. Junk food uneaten equals calories burned.

How much simpler it is to just not eat it in the first place.

Hope everyone has a great day!

chickity chickity chicks!
Hi
brief update: poor poor effort on exercise for about 1.5 weeks, scale brought down after food fest x 2days back to 125.
goal: get back to exercising hard as I KNOW how awesome I feel with it., continue today with writing down calories and pass on purchasing any sweets for house.

ok, Midwife and Jess, maybe when I get my treadmill up and running after our basement flood cleanup I'll give HIIT another go.
Silver, hope your poisoning is done with
Allison and Megan, hope you have sweet dreamy dreams tonight

midwife, we cross posted!

Sausage poisoning over but I've been left with strange desire for muesli or savoury biscuits. Haven't felt like this for months. Doesn't suit me at all.

Pudding cups sound Dreadful. What on earth would they do to your insides? Have some pineapple. Have some of mine. Everyone - do have some!

Last day of term here. Easter holidays of 2.5 weeks. Hols are always a challenge. Plan to get up early to go to gymn (opens at 0630) so I'll see some of you there.

We can do this. Can't we?