I have a very little victory that I would like to share with you........for past 10 days I have cut on caffeine....I never thought I'll manage to live without my beloved diet coke (any more coke addicts here? )

My lifestyle is very irregular, as I work different shifts, so sometimes you really need that kick of caffeine.

During the last 10 days I allowed myself to have only 1 can of diet coke a day - it was hard and it's still hard...but I feel so much better

Lovely Day to everyone!

I had to take my son to the ER today. He has an abcess on his stomach from a spider bite. The ER Dr. was looking at my son and made a comment on how skinny he is (almost 6 ft. and barely 145 lbs.) then the Dr. looked at me and said "Oh, I see you come from a naturally slender family". LOL, I didn't bother to tell him any differently. This made me feel good.

When we left the ER , I was starving , I hadn't eaten all day. There were plenty of junk food places on the way home, but I waited and made me a turkey sandwich on whole wheat and had a SF jello when I got home. I was happy with this decision because before any excuse to grab quick junk food would have been good enough for me.

I love this!!

My NSV is a "fitness" one. Not only did I kick a** in step aerobics class tonight, but afterwards in bodysculpting class I was basically the strongest woman there! I used a higher weight than everyone else on my shoulder and bicep exercises, and the instructor tried to use the same weight but had to go lighter after just a few reps. Woohoo!! I know it's not a competition, but for a former VERY nonathletic person, it feels good to finally be the strongest or fittest person in a group.

I had started the C25K program January and then stopped because my life got insane. I decided now that things were slowing down I decided to start again. I orginally was going to start last Monday but didn't, so I said that I would start next Monday. Today I decided that no more procrastinating and started. I started over from strach but my speed is higher this time around.

LisaMarie, you are AMAZING.

Lilybelle, you slender thing you, I hope your son is doing well.

My NSV is also a fitness one. I just love it. I keep on banging into people from the neighborhood who tell me they see me walking all the time. They ask me how much I walk and where to and how frequently and they can't believe how early I'm out. One person told me she is so proud of me. Another one told me I am such an inspiration. It's been non stop now, one person after another. It's just amazing to me that I am now known as the big walker in the neighborhood. I never would have imagined it. I used to be sooo incredibly sedentary and now I'm the active one around here. It's so strange. So wonderful, but so strange. It does make me feel though like I must keep it up. I wouldn't want to let anyone down. I feel like the whole entire neighborhood is watching me. Very odd indeed.

Great job, everyone. A special great going to wiosna because I the caffeine thing was SO HARD for me! You're going to feel tons better, soon!

Thank you Tricia Yea, currently i'm getting these bad headaches....but guess thats just a temporary "side effect" of limiting those cokes

LisaMarie, Lilybelle I'm so happy for you

RememberHowToSmile - good luck with your C25K

Robin, don't you just love that "slender" word. LOL. I sure know what you mean about the walking in the neighborhood. When I first started walking outside at my heaviest weight I'd have all kinds of people stop and ask if I needed a ride. LOL. Now, everyone just waves and goes on knowing that I'm walking for health, not stranded. LOL.


Robin, thanks my DS is doing better today. I think the antibiotics and pain killers are working.

wiosna, the headaches probably are from limiting the cokes (caffeine) because when I drink less coffee I get headaches.

I am really, really wanting my Dr. to give me a note saying I can join a gym. I'm gonna keep bugging him til he agrees. LOL. I'm at the weight I want to stay at, but I'd love to be able to firm up more than I'm getting from just the cardio and gardening work. Dang it, I want a firmer butt. LOL.

My nsv for today is...I put the chips back! I picked up something for lunch (healthy), but I thought I really, really wanted a bag of real chips. I even put them in my basket and walked around the store w/ them--giving myself time to really think about my decision. Luckily, I made the right choice--out them back and chose fruit instead.

Yet another clothing NSV for me - but I really never get tired of them. I ordered a size 8 skirt over the internet thinking that it would be a good item for a month or so from now. Well, it arrived today and it fits just fine, right now. So, I guess I can claim to be a size 8 now!

Oh wow, Rachel. That's FABULOUS! Single digits!!!!!

Hey all, here's my NSV:

Thursdays are very hectic days -- and usually involve a fast food lunch between school errands etc. for me and my 2 year old son. I didn't have time to pack a lunch so we cruised through the beautiful Golden Arches of McDonalds, and I ordered myself two honey mustard/grilled chicken snack wraps. (Hey, it says "snack" in the name. I figured I needed two to make it qualify as "lunch"). I passed on my great love Diet Coke since I was toting around my jug 'o water. I got my son chicken nuggets and fries.

In the olden days, I would have swiped half of his nuggets and half of his fries, but today, the powers that be messed up the order and put both apples and fries in his Happy Meal. I gave him about 5 fries, then handed over the apples instead. You know what, he liked them just as much.

Okay, back to momma. I ate one and a half snack wraps (and in retrospect, one would have been enough) and kept my paws off the Happy Meal. Then I beat myself up all afternoon after I looked online and found the wraps to be 260 calories each. So then I went back to the McDonald's website and calculated what my normal order (Quarter Pounder with Cheese, large fries) would have amounted to: 1140 calories -- and that's not counting the calories in all of the food I'd pilfer from the little one. (Interestly: two snack wraps have the same number of calories as the Quarter Pounder...)

OOh. and I got myself to the Y a few times this week.

Today I am wearing a dress without shorts underneath - my thighs no longer chafe :-)

Oh my goodness, this is a big one! I've been wondering lately if I could do it, but I'm afraid to try! I don't wear dresses or skirts that often (as a teacher, I'm on my feet all day so I have to wear fairly comfortable shoes, which go better with pants). But when I do, I'm afraid not to wear something underneath because the pain of chafing is too much to bear! I've noticed lately when I run, if my shorts ride up a little, my legs don't really rub against each other. So I've been wanting to try the no-shorts thing but I'm scared. Congratulations to you!!

My chafing days are history. Congrats Finn.

I remember when I was a couple of months into my journey and I went for a haircut, I was so happy that I fit on the chair without hanging over after years of spilling onto the sides. Well yesterday I took it a step further, I went back to that same place and lo and behold I not only fit on the chair - I HAVE ROOM TO SPARE!!! Lots in fact. I LOVE it. Yes, it's the small things that make me happy.