I need to do some yoga sometime, I miss it but I can barely find time these days. I got home last night, fed the cats, went for a run, took the dogs for a walk to cool down from the run, fed the dogs, fed myself while standing up and doing kitchen chores. Sat down for 10 minutes to put my food into my online food diary. Then I prepped lunch for today and dinner for DH. Prepped my gym bag for swimming. Did my physical therapy exercises, did a couple stretches, got ready for bed then went to bed.

So anyway, did swimming this morning, did running last night and I'm looking to do weights after work. So much to do, so little time.

Love all the kinetic energy on this board - everybody going here, doing that, there's a definite charge in this thread! Lydia, I hope your dizziness is gone for good and that you are feeling better now.

I'm pretty pleased. I've increased the weights for my squats consistently for the last 3 workouts w/o feeling like falling down the stairs the next day! I guess that means more weight this weekend and deeper squats. I definitely feel like my legs are heavy and that they got worked, but they are not noodle legs, so I can do more. I also increased the number of reps on my ball squats to 30 successfully, so now I guess I'll have to look at doing 1 count rests at the bottom and turn it into a 3 count move instead of a slow 2 count move. Yea for progress! Scale is not dropping suddenly, but I expect my pants will reward me first while my scale is reflecting my "BULKING" (sorry ladies, just had to throw that in there - i'm BULKING, i'm BULKING, oh no!)

Fran - I've been working on my squat form for what seems to be ages. Well I talked to the physical therapist I'm working with and he said he'll help me gain flexibility and also get better squat form. Maybe I shouldn't have asked because he already is trying to kill me!

Nelie: You are one incredibly busy woman these days. Wow. I bet you could use a good relaxing yoga session but where would it fit in. I'm finding that one day a week does it for me though. If I try to hit the studio two times a week in the evening then I begin to feel like I"m greeting myself coming and going. In between time I just roll out the mat at home and do my practice in the evening. Oh good luck with working on your flexibility. You are in so much trouble now that you have let your physical therapist in on your squat improvement plan. Good luck to ya!

Fran: Speaking of squats, look at you going deeper! I've never done ball squats. Mostly because we don't really have a good place to do this at our gym. The walls flank an indoor track and the walls are somewhat curved.

Anyway, still feeling dizzy over here. I think it may be a virus or something. Maybe. Who knows. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow when I get up or else I'll have to be a good sport like Tiki and keep my sorry self home. Wait. That means sleeping in. hmmm. That doesn't sound too bad really.

Lydia, I had about 2 days where the dizziness came and went. I would sit down somewhere and get the whirlies then, so it wasn't even upon standing up or standing too long. Very odd. Never knew what caused it and it left just as magically. But yeah, the dizzies are somehow unsettling aren't they? You fear they will get worse and level you, but mine never did.

Lydia, I have occasionally had this. In my case, it's an infection or inflammation of the inner ear. I usually first notice it in the middle of the night, when I turn over, the bed keeps moving and I get nauseous. It goes away in a few days.

Stay away from the gym if you are dizzy- I know it's hard , but you really could hurt yourself.

Halllooooooo!!!!! The October thread is in danger of falling off the map

I have been GOOD with food. Can't control events around me, but I can stop stuffing myself and self-medicating with peanut butter. Clean eating is paying off.

Yesterday dh left early to play hockey so I could do a treadmill run for am cardio. Yikes, that's seems so much harder than the elliptical even though my monitor says it's the same!

Cardio done, food packed, back and chest at the gym at lunch time.

What's everyone up to? Lydia and Tiki- I hope you are both feeling better.

Mel

I did a 45 min class of Zumba and since I was already at the gym, I stayed for the next class, Body Sculpt, also 45 min. I was not sure how hard it would be (I am going through therapy for my lower back/hip problem and I need to be careful) I used lighter weights and bar than I could have (but, no woman should lift more than 3 lbs hehehe). Nevermind, next time I will go heavier. I sweated buckets.

I am so glad that I returned to Zumba. I started in the summer when a 101 class was introduced (regular class was impossible since I did not know any of the steps) even with that, it was a bit overwhelming for my 2 left feet and I quit. I forced myself to start again (again with 101) and it's no longer so intimidating and see the fun in it in spite of the mistakes I make. I am hoping down the road I will be able to take regular Zumba classes (which represent a hefty cardio workout) because my treadmill running will have to be toned down a lot.

Mel, I like the term 'self-medicating with protein butter'. LOL I have to include that into my vocabulary. :-) (By the way, I am guilty as charged although I am slowly working on it).

Lydia, I experience similar dizziness, for about a day, once or twice a year. I mentioned it to my doctor but of course, when I see my doctor, I am fine so it's hard to diagnose. Now that I have a blood pressure monitor I can at least measure my blood pressure to see if it is too low (in me, it usually starts with a feeling that I may faint and if I don't get myself horizontal it could happen).

Good Morning everyone

The good news is, the dizziness is not from my blood pressure. I've been weaning off of the meds for the past six months and I'm on the final stage, half a pill every other day. I was convinced that the dizziness was from that. Turns out the next day I developed a stiff neck, slight fever, headache. Basic flu/cold/ or allergy symptoms. I'm feeling a little better today but staying home from the gym just to be sure. I think I slept most of the day yesterday.

Tomato: Zumba class terrifies me. Really. I have two left feet as well and classes just wig me out. Two back to back classes too. You must have been pretty worn out that evening.

Food right now is morphing into a dangerous place. Darn pretzels. It's so silly and I really can't make these things turn into something. Each time that I sit down with a plateful of them after I've eaten my lunch I'm thinking that these are the extra 200 calories that could pack ten pounds on me by the end of the year. Are they really worth it. Of course the logical answer is no. ~sigh~ I need to kick myself out of maintenance mode and back into losing mode if I have any chance of not trying to dig myself out in February and March. My first line of attack is to NOT purchase Halloween candy until the day before. I know there are good alternatives to candy as treats for the kids but my kids would freak. I also know all of the kids on my block as well as most of them surrounding my neighborhood. I have a reputation to protect.

Okay. So for today. Just for today, no pretzels. I'm staying 100% on plan to drop the three pounds of water weight that crept up this week. No skinny lattes, or dips into the kids peanut butter jar. If I want my cardio clothes to fit the way they should in the next three months this has to stop today.

Obviously it's going to be a fun day here. Everyone else enjoy the day!

Well I almost always lurk around here but have so little to add I don't pop in to much BUT after the last couple of days I figured I probably should just say Hi to help keep the thread active. I was shocked to stop in yesterday and find that no one had posted. Wow.

Anyway, my food has been doing very well, finally. I've struggled and struggled and finally about the end of August everything clicked and I'm starting to loose again. Yippee for me.

Last night I got to bed at 130AM - earliest i've been to bed all week. I'm SO ready for the weekend. The Girl is going to her first homecoming dance, the boy has his first band performance free weekend in MONTHS!! And it's supposed to be gorgeous!

Tiki: 1:30am. That's three hours before I start my day. You must be exhausted! Go to bed early tonight. Oh, and tell your daughter to have a great time! I remember my first homecoming dance. By the way, are you feeling better with that cold?

EofZ: Nice to see you pop in. It is difficult to be 100 percent all of the time. I find that my enthusiasm cycles too. I don't exactly tank out where I don't want to work out at all or I'm ready to throw all caution to the wind with my eating but I have been known to ease back a little and then come back renewed with more focus in a month or two. I'm gearing up right now for that kind of focus as we head into the winter months.

So, I'm still sick. My neck is so stiff and sore I can hardly turn it. Bit of a sore throat and extreme fatigue. I took yesterday off but went in today for a quick run and some upper body lifting. Hey, at 4:30 in the morning I still don't really know that I don't feel unwell. I wasn't dizzy and there was no fever so I thought I would give it a go. ~sigh~ I'll be sleeping in tomorrow. I came home, got the kids to school, and spent the rest of the day in bed. I'm going to use this time to research some new workouts, look up some new food options and do a lot of catch up reading. Hopefully Monday will be better or else it's off to my friendly doc to see what I've got going on. As a side note, DS1 reported that five children in his classroom were out with whooping cough today. Folks there are only twenty children in his class...I truly hope that he doesn't bring this home too. ~shudder~

Whooping cough???? I thought that was part of the DPT shot! I thought it had been pretty much eradicated....

Food was not so good today. I had 5 days in a row clean. Ah well, tomorrow is a fresh chance. No workout tomorrow, tho, we are going college visiting

Tiki- get some sleep!

EofA

Lydia- what kind of food options are you researching? I' getting tired of chicken on top of salad for lunch, but it's the easiest option I can think of.

Mel

Well I started my day with some resistance training using a Swiss ball mostly hitting the legs and core. Every time I got up and walked around today I was reminded that I must have worked hard enough to have it count for something. I'm sure it was the squats and lunges that got me. I also got a 2 1/2 mile walk in during lunch. It was hot out there today and I looked like a wet rag by the time I got back. Food’s been spot on so life is good.

Mel, I usually rotate soups one week then salads the next. My salads I really try to mix up what veggies I put on them. I may have a salad with greens, sliced strawberries and a little lite feta and the next time I will have chickpeas, southwestern grilled chicken and red/yellow peppers. Some times I will use a salsa/cottage cheese combination instead of dressing and I usually keep frozen shrimp on hand because they are quick and can nicely replace chicken. (almost did that today but wanted to clean up the chicken). I always take the veggies to work with me and assemble the salad fresh just before I eat it. Don’t forget you can make it into a “taco” type salad too.