Time change, first hike of the season...all signs that spring is in the air.

Today I pulled dragged and kicked myself out of bed to go on a run and managed 3 miles. The hills are kicking my butt so to speak. I wanted to do a longer run but considering how exhausted I felt I have to give myself a pat for managing three.

It was one of those hard days that reminds me of how far I have come fitness-wise.

Ah, wish it was nice enough here to be outdoors. Temps are not bad - in the 20's - but there's a quite strong wind, giving us those 0 windchills again. I did an hour on the - how much more boring can you get? Sorry Fran. I had choices of music, TV, and a recorded radio show, and I was still counting the minutes! Oh well, it's done. Did I tell you that somehow I've lost 5# in the last 2 weeks? Amazing. Food has been okay, but a couple of higher cal days. Bodies are just weird. Not that I'm complaining, it's a trend I like.

Ha, Nelie, that's funny about your boss. Don't forget to start practicing your new signature. I know that sounds very "junior high" but believe me it will come totally naturally to you to sign your old name and can be a huge pain to fill out a whole form then get to re-fill it when you sign the wrong name. I've been married for almost 3 years now and still tell people my maiden name occasionally.

I've been horrible with excersize this past week. Just got out of the groove and had waaaaaaay to much work to do. I finally figured out my biggest problem is guilt! My DH and I own our own business and we work together. I've discovered that if I don't say out loud to him in the morning "I'm going to workout at [whatever] time" I then feel guilty stopping work to do my workout. It's totally silly and all in my head. He's always supportive of me taking care of myself. It's not like I'm not putting in a full day because most days we work way more than eight hours. I guess it's because if I'm working out then I'm not in the studio working with him. And what's even dumber of me is that I don't even think about all the time he spends doing stuff for himself that's not a part of our business. I just feel guilty and then it's easier to just keep working. So where does that come from? Yeeesh, I've got to get out of this dumb mindset and just start again. Tomorrow is another day and I ***will*** be working out!

Beth

Yippee for you, Pat!!!

Beth

Actually, I'm keeping my old signature. It is so illegible, it really doesn't matter

Pat - Congrats on the weight loss!

Good morning all! Where's everyone hiding?

So, did some reading of all the March issues of our fav magazines over the weekend. One had an interesting study of women who not only lose weight but successfully keep it off. One key? They weigh in every day.

Hmmm.............time for a rethink.

So what I have started doing, will make me happy I think. I weigh in every day at the same time early in the morning after I wake up. I don't wait until mid-morning, I'm not going to search for magic tiles anymore, I just get up, step on the scale, take the number at face value. Chart it. Move on. It won't change what I do that day. But I will be watching for little spikes and seeing if my food the prior day was especially sodium laden or otherwise contributory to the spike. I will not obsess, I will not be insane about it. It's just a daily benchmark, like taking my temperature might be, it is not the sole measurement of the success my program.

In other news, dd (7) and dh ran a 5K yesterday. Of course, dd started out sprinting, no matter how many times we tried to explain endurance to her (even using swimming terminology of a 25m vs 200m swim). But they both finished in 44:something and ran 1/2 and walked 1/2. She was a great sport about it and just wanted to sit down and get warm inside the car afterward. It was about 35 but with a windchill that got it down to about 25. Pretty cold. We ended up winning a doorprize for a $45 gc to Outback which we used last nite for dinner, and a $20 gc to a runner's store, so we more than recouped the 2 entry fees. Love when that happens!

Anyway, dh the weekend warrior who decided to run it the day prior (even tho I brough home the forms in January!!) has a wrenched out knee now. DD decided to go ice skating with a friend last nite as well, for about an hour, and though fine last nite, waking up this morning was a different story. I had to motrin her for school, she complains that it hurts to walk (quads), hurts to sit down (hams and glutes), and she just aches from her waist to above the knees. She had on good shoes, so I'm not too worried. I just told her this was a good workout for ALL her muscles & similar to the way mommy feels when she's had a really good workout! And this is from a competive swimmer, but that's totally non-impact, and uses different muscles, I guess.

So that was our fitness weekend, in not such a nutshell. Have a great week everyone.

Pat – congrats on the 5 pounds!

Today completes week one of “back on the wagon”. Not too bad, I got a reasonable amount of workouts in. The touch of spring we had this last weekend was certainly a help, I got a couple of jogs in. Food can always be better, but I am being much more mindful and watching my portions more carefully.

Friday we had a dinner party, and I am happy to say everyone enjoyed the low-fat vegan menu. This is my new favorite desert recipe: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/10/and-answer-is.html

I'm going to tinker with it to see if I can't cut down on the sugar, but overall it's not too bad as desserts go. I even used whole wheat pastry flour and no one was the wiser.

We drove around on Saturday and looked at potential places to have our ceremony, and I think we have a winner! The Allen Centennial Gardens on the UW campus http://www.horticulture.wisc.edu/all...ish_garden.htm Hopefully we will be able to book the early afternoon slot for the English Garden on May 25, 2008. Had to use my imagination a bit since it's all under snow at present, but the pictures on the website have me convinced this is the perfect place. Now we just have to settle on a place for the reception and about a billion other details and we'll be all set.

Hi Fran. I'm not hiding! I read that too about the study about women who weigh daily. I'm a former Queen of Denial about the scale. That's how I got up to 190 pounds in the first place! Anyway, I'm getting on the scale everyday and trying not to obsess aobut it too. I know you were trying to avoid it because it can be so discouraging when you're doing strength training and the scale just won't budge and may even go up, even when you're eating right. Still, I think it's a good idea to see what you weigh everyday because it teaches you about normal day-to-day fluctuations and gets you used to seeing the scale go up and down a little. If you only weigh one day a week or one day a month, you don't really have an average -- you could be up or low that one day due to salt intake. When you weigh everyday, you can take a weekly average and see whether you're really up or down. Plus you get used to getting on the scale and facing the music, so to speak, after you've had a bad eating day. That's been my trick in the past: I like to weight myself when I'm eating right, but after overeating for a day, would avoid it like the plague and then keep on eating because I'd kid myself about gaining weight.
Anyway, you are doing an awesome job and look fabulous. Keep up the good work.
I've been doing well with 45 min of cardo plus 20-30 minutes of strengh training (split body) 6 or so days a week. I got the scale to go back down to 141 last week but now it's up again thanks to too much food Saturday and Sunday. Ugh. I really want to get down to 138-9 and have 140-1 be the numbers that make me go "Oh my gosh" and get back on my maintenance plan.
Hi to everyone!
Pam

Good morning everyone! Happy DST Monday to those in the US - made for a very early morning today, didn't it?

Not a good Monday for me - my knee, which I hurt on Thursday, doing side lunges, is still hurting, and I promised myself I'd go to the doctor if it was still giving me issues Fingers crossed that it's nothing serious... I can walk fine, and walk up stairs, but can't walk down stair or do anything that involves bending while having any weight on it. It's fine every morning, then after the first pain, it aches for hours after.

Had a nice weekend - went to Boston on Saturday to just walk around and enjoy the 50F weather there. I was pretty good foodwise - I told DF I didn't want this trip to be about food, as it usually is!

Because of my knee, no workout last Friday, none today, and none tomorrow, because of a call. I'll see the doctor tomorrow, and will see if he'll clear me for cardio at least - the elliptical actually doesn't cause my knee pain, but I want to make sure I'm not messing anything up any further. I'm trying really hard not to let this mess up the progress and momentum I had going.

Have a good one everyone!
Cindy

Hello LWL

Fran I think the daily weighing can be ok especially if you don't let the little fluctuations get you too down. My scale is not very good so when it is up I just decide it is broken. But of course there is the denial creeping in.

In spite of my lack of workouts on my lower body my leg muscles are growing by leaps and bounds. I think the hills that I run are doing more than I realized. Its almost like repeated lunges. So I have been alternating running with various upper body workouts. I think I have found a good balance of pushing myself and finding a long term exercise plan that I can reallly stick to permanently.

Hope your knee feels better BFL cat

Hi all,

Just finished reading - catching up with March, whew. I don't have all of who did what straight in my head cause reading it all in one whop is kind of like cramming for an exam. HRBabe, congrats on the loss and cool pic. Keep up the good work. 2F and Mel, yeah both of y'all are mega impressive to me, what with the discipline and creative workouts you put in. You both are key motivators on this thread and I'm glad you both post here. Cindy, I hope your knee gets better quickly. Lydia, you are in my prayers. Nelie, I agree that it sucks when your guy does less than you and loses more. Men are evil like that. Big ups to everyone else on here. I hope this week is stellar for everyone on the board.

DD finally had a physical where the doctor didn't say she was fat. Instead she was amazed at her muscle development cause the girls arms are CUT!! DD also made the volleyball team, so that's an additional thing I have to add to our schedule. Weather here is beautiful. My workouts are non-existing, but my eating is making my existence larger and larger. Gotta get back on track. However, I'm determined to not run away.

Tiki

PERFECT

That is how I use the information too. I know I'm up four pounds this morning but tomorrow, I estimate it will be down two pounds from that. I've seen the trends and I just don't get wiggy about it anymore.

I am SOO impressed that you daughter has finished a 5k! I can't even get DS1 to run a lap around the backyard. Yeah, I fixed his wagon. He is signed up for three weeks of sports camp this summer. I did get a few of his friends to sign up too so he won't be going it alone.

I want to thank all of you for your kind thoughts and prayers for myself and my family.

Anyway, I'm home. I'm carrying a little extra weight from a weekend out with the girlfriends but considering it was the first I had eaten in several days, I'm not worried.

Tomorrow it's off to the gym, some playdates for DSs after school, and I'm meeting my sister and our cousin for dinner later. Maybe I'll just have the water and bring my own baggie of protein powder. Oh, and some gum. I chew a lot of gum too TIKI.

Have a great evening everyone!

Fly by post before I head to work (aka the gym)...
Welcome back Tiki- congrats to DD! Don't shy away from here even if the vending machine is your current best friend!

Lydia- Welcome back to you also. You've been in our hearts.

off to the sweatshop

Mel

Lydia, glad to see you back and actually glad to hear you gained 4 instead of losing 15 (with most of that being muscle). You can work that 4 off in no time.

I had another amazing thought yesterday. I eat worse when I forget to go to the store (or get low on cash and can't afford to go) cause I end up eating the food from our conference meetings instead or tossing loose change in the vending machine. I've started giving DD any quarters I get back in change at the store, gas station, etc. in addition to not carrying cash to work. I am worried about the time change. Usually when the time changes, I end up with less time to work out and I gain weight. However, I haven't LOST any weight this winter so I'm terrified about how I'll look come June. DD is so busy with volleyball, cheer, and gymnastics that I meet myself coming and going. When track starts (next month) I know I can run/walk while she's at practice but that's only two days a week. I need a clone!!!!

Where is everyone else????? Check in ladies!!!!

I'll check in

Went for a nice walk in the park last evening, enjoying the spring thaw. I better not get too excited though, knowing March in Wisconsin we've got at least one more winter storm coming before spring really gets here. But this early taste has me excited for the months ahead where I can exercise outside every day.

I’ve been reading the latest book by Christina Pirello, “Christina Cooks: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Whole Foods But Were Afraid to Ask”. The informational chapters at the beginning and her personal story are really interesting and given me much food for thought. She basically cured her leukemia over the course of a year and a half by drastically changing her diet, her doctors called it “spontaneous regression”. I can’t wait to make some of the recipes in the book, most them look pretty simple but delicious and elegant.

Tonight I plan on going out for a run followed by some upper body lifting and some pilates. I love this extra daylight at the end of the day! Though getting out of bed these past couple mornings has been excruciating.