Hey everyone!

Just got back from lunch... or should I say shopping? Went to pick up my drycleaning and ended up buying 2 pairs of dress pants (smaller size than what i picked up at the cleaners *snaps* for Nola) and a nice sweater!

Interesting to see PB's name show up... after months of not visiting the other 'site', I am shocked to see how slow it is.... and I agree with others here... we are much more sensible and consider this a LIFE not a diet.

*cringes* at the thought of tossing out my egg yolks and posing in front of the mirror!! More like wiping the sleep from my eyes at 5:30 am while hubby drives to the gym and cursing as I choke down the oatmeal after my workout while on the train to work!! Would I give it up? Not a chance, not while the slow and steady progress is being made....

Speaking of slow and steady..... remember the work 'friend' who does the wanky diets... well... she is now on another latest and greatest... and it sure does not involve exercise. Much to the dismay of myself and the woman who shares my work cubicle..... (cubie mate is a gym rat and eats healthy - - not following BFL like me, but close to it... my greatest motivator!)

Must get back to it... looking forward to the weekend and will post later!
N.

Hey Nola are you still around?

JC

Mrs Jim,

I saw Kristi Larsens site and it's a revelation! As you said, bodybuilding is (fortunately) not the point with most people here I guess. I like to call it body engineering, trying to make the best of your body but keeping it healthy and strong at the same time too.

Meg it's wonderful you'll be able to get back to the gym soon!

My Sweetheart still isn't very supportive about me going to the gym although he accepts it as a passion like he has for old cars. He says why don't you look like a gym rat if you are going through all this trouble? I tried to explain to him that it's among others a slow process and the eating needs to be clean etc, but it's actually quite a challenge explaining all this to a 6foot3, 150 pound (not kidding) guy with the metabolism of a marathon runner who hates working out. He is sweet though and really tries, I must say. I guess a lot of us have these experiences.

Pookie, I never feel guilty about throwing away food any more. I consciously trained myself into accepting that if I didn't throw the food away, it would go into my mouth which would be worse for me than for the food.

Have a nice day all (most of you are probably just getting up now)

GG

Good morning, ladies and gents!

It’s a lovely day here with blue sky, high cloud and a mirror-like sea. I’m in a good mood and ready to attack a dreary report.

The Boy and I had a good hula hoop session yesterday afternoon: mostly I trained and he observed and encouraged! I think I could make a breakthrough but it’s going to take regular and serious work! That site you suggested, MrsJim! I’m definitely still at the basic, basic level and I’m certainly only using one hoop for the foreseeable future! The Man made our tea whilst we were training: beautiful shula kalambar (green lentils with spinach, garlic and spices) and brown basmati rice, followed by summer fruit crumble (made by me), ice-cream (for them) and a few grapes. Yes, we eat well at our house.

I’ve just bought a dozen apples (I eat a lot of them) and was delighted to see that the new crop of New Zealand Cox’s Orange Pippins have arrived, all green and red stripes and crunchy and spicy. I grew up in an orchard so I’m rather choosy about apples. Our British crop had been in store since last October so it was getting pretty much past it. The Cox’s have reminded me that autumn must be underway now in Australia and New Zealand. Lovely crisp mornings?

MrsJim: I’d wondered whether you’d fit in any equestrian stuff if you came over here. There seems to be a lot of it about (my sister used to event in an amateur way – very hard mentally – and is doing dressage now).

I gather from the Boy that the hairless, wrinkled cat is the Sphinx breed.

See you later.

silverbirch

Oh, hi all, I was just posing in front of my mirror, eating egg whites, admiring the slight sag of my lower belly and wondering if maybe its time I tuck this tummy. Oh, and did I mention the stretch marks?? They look great today, too!! And the 3 scars I have from hip surgery are looking extra pink today, ready for play.

OK, OK I'm just kidding. Well, I'm not looking at my bod in the mirror, but if I was that is what I'd see. And I must mention I'd see a beautiful upper body w/tons of muscle that was not there only 16 weeks ago. I must get my pics out there.

How is everyone doing? Snaps to you Nola. Buying smaller pants is definitely one of my favorite activities.

I'm off to get my nails done. Just had a construction guy here and he bascially told me how crummily my house was built, so embarrassing. Sometimes I apologize for my house because its not custom built or covered w/italian tiles. But I'm over it because I refuse to play that material game. Anyhoo, I am getting some new updates around here because its looking very used.

My hubby is away & so mom slept over (I'm a big baby) so I did squeeze in a 5 am workout, just did back and bi's today. How are your shoulders today Ilene?

Hi to everyone - Karen thanks again for the information. I'm going to check out that article, not that I'd ever be able to follow a diet that requires such discipline.

See you girls later.

Anne

Friday, gotta love FRIDAY! (even when there's RAIN predicted for the weekend...oh well...that's what gyms and covered riding arenas are for I guess!)

Anne - good thinking to accentuate the positive! (STILL not sure who actually recorded that song - Perry Como or Bing Crosby??) Focus on the good stuff, the positive stuff and keep goin'...that's my modus operandi.

SilverB - I still can't even handle ONE Hula-Hoop, let alone two! Speaking of horses in the UK, there are definitely a few places on my mental 'to go' list that I'd want to visit if I had the chance to stay for a week or so. One is Crabbet Park, which as I understand really no longer exists for the most part but some of the original buildings are there. Another is Halsdon Arabians, which is owned by Charlie and Shirley Watts (he of Rolling Stones fame). They have bought and bred some truly GORGEOUS horses. Oh, and Ireland - the entire country! You bought apples - I just bought another 1/2 flat of strawberries. They are so good and sweet right now here in California (not to mention CHEAP - that 1/2 flat cost me 6 bucks!).

GG - Jim is pretty supportive of my gym time, as long as I don't wake him up in the morning. We've been doing this so long, that it's routine! He has his music and his basses, I have my gym and my horses. I really enjoy Kristi's website - she's actually done the competition thing and I've never seen such a truthful journal as the one she did last year. VERY enlightening to say the least.

Pooks - you sound like my Mom - she ALWAYS said I should've been a librarian! As it stands, I spend a lot of my time in my job (and offtime as well) doing research of some sort or another...

Well, sounds like everyone's expecting great weather this weekend - except for us - as I kind of alluded to in the beginning of my post, a storm's a-brewin'! Ugh. I want SUMMER, dang it!

I hear the Eastern Seaboard is having GRAND weather this weekend - I'm sure that Meg, Mel, Jack/Dave and all the other East Coasters are soakin' up that sun after a long cold winter! Lucky you...

Ummm .... and I'm not Miss April???

I was there today, Jack! And I looked for you but no luck .... I went to do some nice, sedate walking around the indoor track, just to stretch my legs out (this is my first day out of the house). It felt so good that I kept going and going and going .... and walked for 4 miles. So I think I better keep my feet up for the rest of the day!

The sun's shining and I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Anne! Your mirror description was a hoot! You are so right accentuate the positive! My shoulders were really fine in a good way this morning thanks for asking ....Anne where are you from you have no location... Maybe it was mentioned but I forgot, sorry

So just to clarify Pook, I am a definite wannabe body builder... There is no way I could be that strict with food. Luvs my food way too much for that! And I’m cheap I’d never pay a few hundred $ for a stage outfit! Pook I am also so honored that you thought of me when you ordered your chicken, I’m soooo proud of you for asking not to bring the bread on your plate and taking the skin off....I do the same now but it took years of conditioning to do that without 1. feeling stupid or 2. feeling like I was demanding too much for the food I am going to PAY for! After all what was I thinking? I ask a lot in a restaurant now and most will do it with pleasure...The kids actually roll their eyes . But I’ve had a couple of chain restaurants “Eastside Mario’s” for one that refused to add or take away something in a dish I asked for, this was a few years ago and they may have changed the policy now to go with other restaurants that bend over backwards to please their customers....

Meg – So you weren’t walking like Frank N. Stein? I had a very decent workout yesterday girl, as mentioned I did shoulders and a very good cardio... Altho when I got there I DID NOT feel like being there at all, which is actually rare for me, but I plugged on and it ended up being a decent workout... Today I did a very quick back workout, then a bit of cardio, then rollerbladed for 45 mins with a couple of gals... We’ve made plans to go back on Monday afternoon 3PM, you comin’? Loved it, I’d forgotten how much fun blading was ...

Nola – Way to go on the smaller size!! Such a wonderful feeling isn’t it?

Silver – Those Cox apples sound delish... Spartan’s around here are my favorites.... There’s a wonderful orchard just out of town, and we all love going there in the fall to buy cider and apples... S loves apple cider...

The weekend is looking totally awesome in this neck of the woods... I’m looking forward to it...

See y’all later!!

Hope everyone is having a great start to the weekend! I sure am!

Friday night involved me falling asleep on the couch at 9:30 or so... while watching the ONE hockey game a week that is aired here in Australia... sheesh! Cheering for our canadian teams.... torn in the 2 series that have canadians playing each other tho!

Got up this morning, hit the gym for my cardio, then made my lunches for next week and a stack of shannycakes (I call em BFL cakes) and I am all ready BEFORE free day this week. Amazing I tell you. Even planned and wrote out my workouts for the week... can you tell I want this challenge to start off on fire?

I felt no guilt when I tossed out my egg yolks today while making the pancakes... felt guiltier when I accidently dropped one into the bowl!

Not much else to report.... the weather is going to be crap this weekend, today is cold and windy and definately heading into autumn over here. Tomorrow is much of the same Not heading out on the motorbikes this weekend for sure.

So what is everyone listening to these days? I struggle to do cardio without tunes... right now I am hooked on the Black Eyed Peas.... looking for some of their older stuff....

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Take care!

Oh (sob), Meg's strong enough to break machines now? Egads, the bar has been raised again. All I seem to break is myself.

Beautiful weekend here, outdoor cardio for a change, ds's soccer game, then LOTS of yardwork!

Mel

Hey everyone! I'm just sitting here enjoying our beautiful weather! I've not got much yard work to do yet, and I can't see wasting this day in the stores, so I'm just relaxing inside with the windows and doors open to air out the house.

Nothing new and exciting to report - eating pretty clean, getting my lifting and Spinning in...

Hope everyone is doing well this weekend!
Cindy

Mel, the way I read Jack's little remark was that Meg's posterior is now large enough to break machines. But don't you worry -- I have a 55# dumbbell with Jack's name on it for the next time I see him! Ohhhhh, Jacckkkkk .... yooo hooo ......

Awwww ... sweet talk from the man himself! Yes, I'm frequently violent at the gym -- you ever hear those big old 95# DBs getting thrown around? Yep, it's me when someone tells me it's not my turn at the squat rack. So be afraid, be very, very afraid ...

Don't worry, Jack, you're definitely an in my book!

Hi Ladies,etc

Silverbirch- Yes, it is getting cooler here in Australia, but Mackay is in central Queensland so "cool" is merely relative. Its not reaching 30deg C anymore, but only just. Apples are expensive here. Tropical fruits are the go. Mangos & coconuts are a local health hazard as they fall out of the trees lining our streets.

Greek Girl - If Sweetheart thinks your progress is slow ask him how long it would take him to turn a Karen Kombi-bus into a Mustang Sally. I know I'm still more of a people mover than a racing car at the moment.

Eats are clean, but still having trouble getting back into the workouts. I'm not going to beat myself up over it though. After a very bad few months in my life I'm in need of some mothering and I'm the only one available at the moment

I will succeed

Love, Dove

Hi ladies! I know I disappeared for a couple of weeks there, had some stuff I needed to deal with and just couldn't get to reading the posts or writing anything. But I'm back now and am here to stay The exercise has been right on though throughout everything so yah for me! Unfortunatly the eating hasn't been as great but oh well. Gotta just get back on board. Well I'm gonna go catch up on everything I've missed, seems like a lot of people have joined on! Hi! Talk to you all later.

Melissa