Good morning fellow team mates,

Just remember that 30 minutes of something is better than 30 minutes of nothing so don't be chastising yourselves for not pulling huge times on the exercising. Do what you can and strive to increase the time or intensity each week. And sometimes life gets busy and makes other plans for us - we just have to work around them and make good choices if we can't make the perfect ones.

We're due for some stormy weather. Sure wanted to cuddle up in bed longer but there's this nagging thing called a job that keeps interfering with my desires so off I go.

Everyone give 3 little extra pushs to what ever you do today - 5 extra minutes of exercise, run a little sprint, make a better food choice or just breathe deep, stretch big and think some calming, positive thoughts for 2 minutes.

The weekend is almost upon us!

And have fun with your hubby Purple.

Only have a minute before I head off to work. Just wanted to say "hi!" Hope everyone is having a great week.

I did really well with working out not so great with the food part. I am definitely an emotional eater and had some stress this week so I ate stuff I would rather not have. Here's to another day.

Keep up the hard work!!!

Good morning everyone!
I caught up on my sleep last night, was actually so tired that I went to bed after only having some watermelon and strawberries. Starving this morning though...

Catch up on sleep...that should be my goal today, I feel drained. I have a sick baby and allergies.

I had a good day yesterday and hope the weekend proves to be good too. I usually start to feel myself slack in the weekends so I have to HOLD ON TIGHT. I am debating about going out of town to visit my sister with my 2 oldest kids. It would be a LONG road trip (7 hours) and usually those require munchies and pop to keep me awake.

I am planning to do yoga this morning if my little one will let me put her down, and hope to still get a good walk in tonight.

HAPPY FRIDAY LADIES (and GENTS if there are any)

Mornin Black Team
Hope everyone is up and moving today, its rainy here in Indiana but thats ok because there are plenty of things I can do around this house . Yeaterday was a good day did my Turbo Jam stayed Op on water & food. Planted rose bushes, tomato plants and raked front & back yards ugh I thought I was gonna fall asleep in the shower I was so tired by the end of the day.

Yes Smurf my friend is short shes 4'10" but as she likes to say 4'10.5" lol she always puts that .5 on the end. Its funny I always thought being 5'5" was average but whenever someone says something about my height they always say Im short I dont get it I sure feel tall .

Ok Im off gotta make mini pizzas for next weeks lunch going back to 9-5 monday gottas be ready. Have a great day everyone Ill check back later

Dolphin LOL about that .5 my husband does the same thing but he is 5'7.5 sometime I catch him just lying and saying he is 5'8 though I was a slow developer and didn't reach 5 feet until high school. Funny, though I out grew the boy that started the nickname, but the nickname didn't out grow me it was stuck by then.

Morning ladies,

I'm kinda ticked that we had bad storms last night and interrupted my sleep. That wrecked my plans to get up and exercise this morning. But I'm going to the fitness center tonight and will have to do some yoga or pilates at home later on if I'm going to earn that first badge.

Last night's workout was great. I finally was able to do 20 minutes on the elliptical. I have to admit that I hate doing the arm movements. I know it improves the workout but something about it just isn't a natural feeling movement for me. I don't like the stationary bikes that have the arms either.

Does anyone do any circuit cardio training? If so, do you use the circuit weight machines at the gym? I'm thinking about adding something like this as an alternate workout just to keep the body from getting too used to the elliptical, treadmill, stationary bike cardio.

Good Morning!

WOhooooooooo ITS FRIDAY!! My favorite day of the week! LOL! Thansk goodness today is the last day of TAKS testing too! Not sure the students can take much more, not sure if I can take anymore either! LOL
Its going to be a beautiful day here! Sunshine and 80s! The wind has been blowing so hard the last 2 days we had wind advisorys! But today its calm! Looks like a great chance for a long bike ride later today! Have a great day!

We had the bad storms here too last night. Quite the lightning show. Luckily I don't think we had any tornadoes around us, but I know there were some west of us. That's the joy of living in tornado alley.

I'm SO glad for the new food thread, thank you to the ladies who had the idea! I am REALLY trying to eat clean and new recipes for new veggies and fruits will help! I got on this "clean" kick about 2 weeks ago. For those of you who were here for the last challenge, you'll know that I was pretty much on a plateau (my weight was between 192 and 195 for the entire 12 weeks last go round). I started eating clean after the challenge (see my blog post about eating clean, it's a long one, but it was really, really something that was important to me) and low and behold, I'm at 189 today! I'm on the losing track again, my body fat % is still going down, I'm feeling SO much better - so clean eating is absolutely awesome!!

Hope you all have a terrific day! Even though my official weigh-in day isn't until tomorrow, I went ahead and updated my weigh-in post with my weight from this morning.

LondonJulz~ Welcome to the 180's! That's great news.

As for me, I'm having a terrible time getting OUT of the 180's. I've been stuck at 180 for a couple of weeks, and am dying to see the 170's!

JULZ - You did it!!! You broke through your plateau!! I'm so proud of you!!!

One of the things that prompted me to lose weight and get healthy once and for all was competing in the Colgate Country Showdown last year. I was right around 200 pounds. My "Marketability in Country Music" score was 3 out of 10. It was humiliating. Seeing the pics (one of which is STILL on the website) was even worse.

The radio station called me a couple of months ago asking if I would compete this year and I refused to. Then they snagged my husband at a live broadcast a couple of days ago and asked him to promise to get me to enter . . . so I did. Now I'm freaking out about song selection and what I'm going to wear. I would love to compete this year weighing 169. That means dropping 5+ pounds by 5/17. That's one of the reasons I've been exercising so much.

It's neat hearing about all you peeps eating eggplant!! What's the next healthy food on the list?

Julz, have you tried artichokes yet??

Here's wishing all you wonderful women have a GREAT weekend!!

ME TOO Beth!! I have sitting at 180.8 for 3 weeks now! Tomorrow is weigh in day and I am SOOOOOO Hoping to see 170 something! Took a peak at the scale this morning it showed 179 but until I see it at the official weigh in tomorrow at my weight watchers meeting I wont believe it! LOL

I have tried artichokes in the spinach and artichoke dip at restaurants...lol. (I'm SURE that doesn't count..lol) I would LOVE to have some recipes for them. We'll definitely have to put that on the list for the healthy eating thread.

Colgate Country Showdown? Where is that at?I think I know someone who competed in that and won, but I'm not sure.What is the prize? What are you gonna sing? I would LOVE to do something like that sometime!

I sat at somewhere between 192 and 195 since NOVEMBER, so I was ready for a new decade as they say. I keep telling myself that 10 more pounds will land me in the 170's. I can hardly even believe I'm in the 180s!! That is SOOO fun to say!!! You ladies will make it into the 170s. Just keep pushing through it!

Happy Friday and Good Morning Ladies!!

Thanks for all the birthday well wishes!! I got sick from the lunch I ate, so did well the rest of the day. This morning was my official WI and I finally broke the plateau I had been on since Easter!!! YAY!!!

Just wanted to check in and say hi and send my well wishes to everyone for the weekend. I have a final to do tonight and some more bday celebrations (that's what happens when your birthday is in the middle of the week) to go to, so I won't be getting any exercise in this weekend. I did do 100 mins yesterday though! I am walking at lunch and heading back to the gym after work again, so I should be racking up at least that many more today!

Everyone have a great weekend!

Have any eggplant haters had that lasagna and liked it? I have only had eggplant cooked one way that I liked, so I am a skeptic. My ex's mom used to make this peruvian dish that had eggplant cooked with stewed tomatoes and spices and it was served over crispy rice...OMG...it was delicious!

Bye for now!