WOW- February is half over! Whopee! Please tell me this is NOT a leap year. It's freezing cold and windy and the birds that were chirping 4 mornings ago seem to have re-migrated back south.

FRU- Hope your knee is feeling better. Take care of it and don't puch it too hard this weekend!

I've got a packed schedule today from all the folks who canceled on Wednesday and yesterday. Ds is home from school due to teachers' in-service, but he can cope. I hope I can!

Cardio later for me

Have a good one! Stay warm

Mel

Good morning all! I did my pushups last night and I'm sore today. I did them a little differently in that I had my arms a little forward instead of under my body. I'm guessing it works a different part of the muscle? I wonder how many pushup styles there are?

My little kitty has decided the best place to sleep is at my feet. She is so cute. I think it is because it is winter and she is cold so we'll see what happens in summer.

Good Morning all

Fru: Your workouts sound so wonderful. Especially since I haven't seen my gym since Monday. I'm really ready to "regroup" and add some new things to my routine now. You know, "try on" something new for the spring. Maybe I'll use this time that I've been trapped here to put together a new plan for the upcoming week.

Fran: How are you doing today? I saw your message last night shortly before going to bed and I've been thinking about you. I want to you to know I don't think that you are crazy for your pizza party the other night. I have them too. I think what is important to remember is that there is always a decision to be made for the next meal. If we consistently decide to eat foods that make us feel poorly both physically/emotionally, then we are in real danger of self destruction.

Like I said, I have these episodes too. Now that I'm closer to my goal than this time last year, I seem to have them more frequently. I sometimes feel like I am on a slippery slope too. I know what I need to do and I'm motivated to get there. The challenge I am facing right now is this freaking weather and the kids being home from school for snowdays and "inservice" days. I'm so knotted up right now I could scream, but I'll take a deep breathe, clean out the pantry of anything that has snuck in there during the snow storm and V-Day from school and make it a new week next week. Whew. I am REALLY looking forward to April.

Update to DH. His flight to Cincy was canceled yesterday. The first plane got stuck to the tarmack and one of the engines on the second plane was making a knocking sound ten minutes into the flight. He called at 6:00pm last night and said that he is renting a car and driving home from the JFK airport. At about 11:00pm he called from Pennsylvania and said that there was an accident on the freeway and 80 was closed. Instead of taking the detour at night they decided to get a room for the night. Good thing because when he called this morning he said the detour had not been treated and was a skating rink. He's now safely on the freeway again and is about eight hours away. We have another storm system moving in for this late afternoon and he is trying to get back before it hits. Geesh. I'm so over this.

Phew - blimey Lyds what a trial, but at least he's safe and is on his way home Oh and I do suggest that bodyweight workout I posted, it's quite good and you can do it in the adverts of your favourite TV show without too much hassle!

Nelie - cute cat

Lydia, my goodness what a mess with your dh. I was going to send you some amtrak links, only to find out he would have had to gone all the way to chicago and then dbl back to ohio. As bad as that option sounds, it was already sold out. Apparently alot of people in your dh's boat. I'm so glad he didn't try that detour in the dark, who knows where they would have ended up as pa is notoriously bad about marking their streets and hiways (my opinion while living there).

Thanks for the encouragement on the gorge fests, but am sad to hear it gets worse sometimes closer to goal. But maybe that's what I've been experiencing too as I reach my 1/2 way point. Kind of like that 'last chance to par-tay' mindset. I dunno.

BUT, I'm back and on track. I've had my oatmeal, will down a large cup of water, and then back to working out today. I actually feel really good, bc I found yet ANOTHER stash of clothing in some drawers in our closet. When we moved, the movers did not unpack and box them, so they have been in there untouched for the last 2 years. All size 10's and 12's. So it's not too late to wear them at all, but it was good to find them and know that once I've made it thru the 16s and 14s, I have more stuff to put in my closet. I still didn't find the "whatever happened to those size 14's I could wear at 190 last time?" pants, so I have I think one more set of drawers to go thru to find them. It's a mystery.

So yes, falling down is ok, as long as we get back up. Happy to report it was only a 12 hour fall-down, and 1/2 of that was spent sleeping!

THANKS EVERYONE!!!! (copying from FruJen who showed me this one)

Hey Fran, how cool about finding the clothes! Instant Pant-o-meters. Good to hear your back on track today. Me too. Last night was pretty rough for me too. I'm cautiously going to leave the details of my choc feast to myself. It wasn't too bad and I had the presence of mind to throw them away after the six piece. It's just that I even did it that wigs me out. The Beast is still alive and well in me I guess it just needed to come out to play last night.

I don't know if the need to detour like this happens more frequently with everyone. I just know that in the last three months I have been more permissive with myself. Spring really is just right around the corner and I know that if I want to feel as great as I did last year this time, I'm going to have to invest some real effort into it. It so worth it though.

FRU: I'm compiling my bodyweight exercises now. Thanks for the tip. My goal for this summer is to get some leg definition back and to have freaking great back, shoulders, and arm definition!

Fran - Falling down is OK. I can't tell you how many times I've fell flat on my face (and into some bad eating). As long as you don't give up, you will be fine.

Hi all,

DD was scheduled to be out of school today but due to the recent school closings, they went ahead and had class today. SOOOOO, no gym this AM but will go tonight while she is at cheer. Tonight is chest and shoulders as well as cardio so I"m kinda excited about it. I love working shoulders - don't ask why.

Lydia, glad your DH skipped the detour. What I don't understand is with all the technology, instant messaging, video conferencing, etc. why do people still have to fly all over the place on business? Especially with storms forecasted like these were. It totally screws up work / life balance.

Hiya Fran, congrats on the new discovery of 10s and 12s. Congrats also on getting back in the ring to fight the good fight. We knew you were a winner!

Good morning, oh I mean afternoon to the rest of the gang. It's been a wild morning here, run do this, hustle there, go go go!!!! I love it!

Tiki

Hullo everyone! Quiet day here. Garden tomorrow. (Bet you people with snow can't remember what they look like!)

Lydia - this will soon be a distant memory.

Have a great weekend, all!

Wow Lydia- that traffic mess he almost ended up in was a doozy! People were trapped in their cars for 20 hours in central PA! It's all over the front page of the paper today. I'm glad he stopped before he got into it. I've taken the "alternate" route from here to Columbus once when the PA turnpike was closed due to a bad accident in GOOD weather, and it was nasty. Pennsylvania is really two cities with a whole lot of nothing except mountains, snow, and bad food in between, linked by a turnpike. Somewhere in there is a large university, too.

Fran, good for you for picking yourself up so quickly. The damage is mostly mental. From my experience, the closer to goal, and once at maintenance, the gorgefests are more devastating because although you may only do a few pounds of mostly bloat damage, it takes even longer to get it off. One Saturday pity party can take me two weeks to undo. Welcome back to the land of the upright You weren't down for very long!

Nelie- endless variety of pushups? but of course!

How's the knee, FRU?

Hi tiki! Do you ever get to relax?

Home for a few hours for me, then back to the gym for 2 clients. I think I'm taking a rest day. I keep getting dizzy when I stand up and have had chills all morning. LOL, it's 11 degrees here.

Mel

And don't forget the most evil of small towns stuck in the middle.........




(OK, so I just wanted a chance to use this icon, since I would never admit to EATING the ones in my kitchen. They're for the the kids. Really. I swear it!)

Heard on the news this morning that they're closing some plants and moving operations to Mexico!

It is evil - I grew up near the Baker's Chocolate plant - just driving through town would make you gain!

OH NO PAT!!! That's just UnAmerican -- like all the other jobs that have left here. (You'll remember the ad campaign - Hershey's is....the great American chocolate bar....) So I suppose we can expect the price on kisses to go down bc they are paying so much less in labor??? Oh no, that's right, the exec who thought this up will get the difference in his bonus and all those additional shipping costs....... It's probably our own fault for buying less junk food and they are just growing their mexico markets.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/ne...7-1299833.html


well, hopefully they don't touch the amusement park. We enjoy taking the kids there every spring. Luckily you can completely avoid the chocolate if you're so inclined to - it's got its own big building outside of the actual park.

Hello!

I'm slightly bummed but my knee is heaving a huge sigh of releif. The tourney's cancelled. Well it's still actually happening, but we're not going. My instructor just rang the organisers TODAY to check it out (after we'd all decided to go) and it turns out that we decided to go on the day when they spar in a different way to us (stop start as opposed to continuous). And of course now his highness can't get the Saturday off work. I mean REALLY, he could've sorted this out weeks ago, but no. I'm slightly mad, but I know it's the sensible option to stay at home and RICE my knee and perhaps take it swimming for a bit on Sunday. Gah! Now he's all, "Yeah next time we'll print T-shirts and get a fight name and all go up and I'll hire a minibus." Seriously, I'll believe it when I see it. I wish he was a little more pro-active sometimes and that I didn't have to PESTER to fight external tournaments - I'll be a chuffin black belt before we actually go to tournament.

Ok I'll stop ranting, I love it really I just wish it wasn't such a TRIAL! (really end rant now!)

30 minutes of ice-pick-shovel cardio just now. My back was as sweaty as when I do the treadmill, so I'm going to count it!! Oh, and got to use the core & glute & quad muscles to save a near land-on-your-bottom near slip (our driveway is uphill).