New photos posted - finally getting around to sharing my C3 week 5 progress photos - and your opinion is welcome.
Cindy

Well I guess since you all say everything so well for me I will just do a quick check in. Where are the pics posted again? I thought it was in a sticky and now I can't find it. Dying to see Cindy's results

I probably doing as well as can be expected. I am sugar free and sticking to my food plan. Physical therapy sucks and is super painful. I have come to rest with cardio. I have surrendered, instead of fighting it and feeling miserable the whole time I have given up and I just do it. It's made my last several workouts more effective and I have been able to do the full 45 min (I STILL RATHER LIFT WEIGHTS AND DO THE 20 min HIIT).

I feel like my life is calming down without the sugar and I am gaining a clarity and a sanity I have not known for a long time. BUT now I can smell better, doughnuts about bowl me over and sickly sweet smell of them makes me sick.

So thats it for me. Keep being so wise. And Karen your so right on Free Day, especially when it comes to us binge eaters.
Chris

I used to be a binge eater, no doot aboot it (as we canadians are acused of saying hehe) During C1 I used about the 1st 2/3 of my freedays to binge. And I always felt it the next morning.

But somehow I realized just how silly and disfunctional that was. So I decided to slowly change my freeday. I still bought the chips, but I would only eat half the bag and then throw the rest out. I ate all my favorite stuff but only half what I used to (ok, lasagna is the exception here. Swedish lasgana doesnt have any cheese in it, just lots of meat and tomatoes, so I still have a big peice. It doenst torture my tummy).

Now on freeday, I go out for coffee and a peice of cake with my SO. Once a week, we sit down in a nice cafe and enjoy each others company over a latte and something sweet. It satisfies my sweet tooth, and feels really nice. Like a date almost. Freeday has more become "date day" for me.

I start off with a clean breakfast, then we have coffee in the afternoon, and then I have a tasty dinner (last weekend was hamburgers from the local joint. very good!) which is usually modifed to be slightly healthier. For example. I didnt get any dressings on my burger. I had lettuce, tomato, pizza salad (will post recipie for this eventually, its a swedish thng and its so good!) pickles and ketchup. At home I added american mustard (Swedish mustard is horrible) and light mayo. We made oven fries instead of getting the fat bombs from the burger place. Horrible meal made better, and much tastier with no cramps after We had chocolate pudding for dessert, but no whip cream for me.

That, and LOTS of water was my freeday. No candy, no crazy nacho eating. Im finally in control.

For me, freeday helped me see what the problem was, and gave me an authorised chance to fix it, slowly, on my own terms.

So it really is a very personal thing. What worked for me can be disaster for some other people. Im just glad that (So far) Ive come out on top.

(btw, yesterday I brought a myoplex bar for after my workout but the thought of all that sugary stuff made my stomach turn! I bought a banana istead )

Tidey

**just saw your pics Cindy!!! WOW! The incredible shrinking behind! :O And you're loosing the spillover at your bust too! You're leaning out in the tummy and legs and LOOK AT THAT SMILE!! Thanks for inspiring me to have another clean day!**

Picture a tennis ball. Got it? Round. Fuzzy. Inflexible in the middle.

Now, picture a tennis ball doing a yoga pose, say the triangle pose, or the dog pose.

Got it?

That's me doing yoga.

When I got up this morning, I felt stiff and tired but I wanted to do *something,* so I got out one of my yoga tapes and gave it a whirl. I'm about as flexible as a 2-by-4, but I must say it felt really really good. So I'm going to add some stretching and yoga to my routine. It's a great alternative.

Tidy, thanks for the other alternative workouts (the reverse pyramids, if you will). I may try those as well, once I get back to upper and lower workouts. And what great insights on freedays and binging. Thanks for sharing.

Chris, hang in there with the therapy. I know it's painful, but it will help! Do they treat you with heat and/or ice afterward? Sometimes that helps a lot. And congrats on successfully dealing with the sugar.

TGIF, eh. Hope you all have a good one.

Hi LWL! Happy Friday!

Cindy - Definitely can see some firm up and the "amazing shrinking butt." And a difference in your waist. You go, girl!

Tidey - always something good from the wise and exprienced. You're a pretty smart chickie, for a chickie.

Chris - So glad to hear your assessment of sugar elimination. It gets easier as it goes. Several years back I had a partnership in a cotton candy mobile and have developed an adversion to cotton candy. When I *think* I want sugar, I just imagine watermelon or bubblegum flavored sugar being spun into cotton candy. Hope PT gets easier for you.

Meg - Taken under advisement, copied and filed. I put it on my calendar for review on May 15, 2004.

On the run today, everyone have a great day and I'll check back later.

dip

I thought you gals might get a chuckle out of my physical therapy session this morning. He staightend my arm, and I took a big inhale and went into my yoga breathing, concentrating on getting the breath into the muscle. Then we did all this back and forth flexing, and he starts to give me a hard time,"You breathe like a bodybuilder" Then he tells me not to strangle the towel or to put my full effort into the excercises. If 110% is what I am willing for why not. 45 min of therapy and 10 mins on ice, and here is the really dumb part, I actually worked up a sweat. Still motored my booty over to the gym for my LBWO and 20 min of cardio. Got my Advil in and my Icy/Hot on and we'll just see how the arm feels when I do Yoga tommorow.

Tidey-You said what I meant and so much better. Though I have given up on the first bite of any trigger foods.

Airregirl- Good for you doing Yoga, any stretching program can prevent injury. And the flexibility will come.

Dip- Don't forget to smell the roses during your running


Miss Chris

Thanks for the comments, Dip and Tidey - I hadn't noticed my "incredible shrinking behind", but now I see it. It's always a bonus to realized you're improving anywhere in back, since you never get to see that part of yourself!

I'm actually up at 7am today (shocking for a Saturday), and over coffee I'm contemplating keeping up the morning workout thing, and getting on my treadmill or Nordictrack in a few minutes. It would be great to get it out of the way, and chances are, if I don't do it now, I may skip today.

Also thinking I'll drag out my Winsor pilates DVDs and do them as well - it's been a while, but I want to start focusing on my middle more.

Ok, off I go - will check back with you gals later. Happy Saturday!
Cindy

Cindy, you're looking very pretty. Nice work.

OK- I know I've gone round the bend now. I woke up sitting up in bed at 3am, still half dreaming about doing an ab workout and struggling to do full sit ups. Dh pushed me back down and grunted at me. Do ya think I need to do abs again today??

Mel

Good morning gals! It's just occured to me that last week, for the first time in ages, I actually got all 6 of my workouts in!



Yesterday after posting, I got on my Nordictrack and got in a great 20MAS - although I froze since my NT is in the garage, and it was around 32F outside! My hands were the worst - in fact, I had to stop and grab gloves to put on! Think I'll have to move it inside, or in the basement if I intend to keep using it! Then, I was motivated enough to also do my Windsor pilates tape. Today my stomach and thighs are quite sore - in a good way, of course. I'm planning to keep up the pilates on my cardio days, and perhaps continue using the NT for Saturday cardio - saves me from having to drive into work to use the gym.

Had a great breakfast of protein pancakes and OJ this morning - I think I'm going to eat clean today and make this out to have been an absolutely perfect week!

Did some clothes shopping yesterday - needed a new winter coat, since last years is just swimming on me. I was thrilled to be able to buy some tops in Large, as opposed to XL!

IN Robin - good for you for doing some yoga - because of the physical therapy for my knee, I've become aware of how not flexible I was, and I've been trying to add a lot of stretching into my routine as well. Perhaps I'll see about getting a new yoga tape.

Re: Free Day - mine has been reduced to a couple of free meals each week - usually Friday and/or Saturday night, or maybe a free snack somewhere on the weekend. Yesterday it was a couple of ounces of Combos, just because... Last week I didn't take any free meals at all. I think just knowing I can have the free day/meal if I need it is enough. At the beginning of BFL, my free days were always a complete eating frenzy, but have tapered off as time has gone by.

Tidey - I may try your reverse pyramids as well - feel like I need to shake up my routine a bit. I was also looking at the article on "periodization" in the lasted issue of Energy, and if I can figure it out, I may think about givng that a try.

Ledom - congrats on getting back into the "dungeon"!

Ok gals, enough rambling - I'll check back with you later! Have a good day!
Cindy

Thanks Cindy, just so you know it wasn't a one day wonder - just finished a great back and tricep workout AFTER hiking 3 mountain miles w/ my girlfriends this a.m.

LOL Mel, yep, difinitely around the bend IMO!!!!

Sunday, November 16, 2003

Good Mornin’ Girls

*~ Airegrrl ~* I love Yoga and should do it more regularly. My SIL is a teacher and I could go to her classes for free but I don’t , lazy that I am after a full day, I hate to go out after I’ve settled in for the evening...

*~ Mel ~* Doing abs in your sleep Yep I’d say that’s over the edge...

*~ Cindy ~* You are looking really awesome! Great work!! I have to kick-up my workouts a notch too this week, my body adjusts to w/o’s in about 3 weeks... Maybe I’ll try my fav EDT training...

*~ Colleen ~* Are you still doing the EDT workouts? The routine I am going to start this week is different than the one I posted a while back.... The one I’ve been typing from the magazine, I haven’t worked on it for a while, and I WILL finish typing it, so I can post it on the Exercise sticky...

Well gotta go I need to do some shopping.... Later all...

*~ Nola ~* I forgot to mention your pics!! Aren't you just the cutest thing!! What a beautiful scenerie at the top of that bridge...

Good for you, Ledom! Where are you located that you could do a mountain hike? I could do one near here, but it's just too dang cold out!

Mel - we must have been posting at the same time! That dream is a bit much - and the fact that you were actually sitting up! Scary! But funny you mention full situps - I just read an article that said that they were one of the most effect ab workouts - much more so than crunches!
Cindy

Hey girls! Been a busy week... but it was a GREAT one!

It may have taken a full challenge and more to figure out the free day binge=disaster! I had a nice free meal, and low fat ice cream and voila! No cramps and pain! DUH! I never thought of myself as a 'binge' eater, but I do have that trait. I am an emotional binge eater, even worse!

After having a very strong week, I am so ready for another one!

Lanai - thanks for the compliments he he he *blushes*

Well... I have a huge day ahead of me at work and need to kick some serious butt.

Have a great day girls!
Nola.