Hi everyone!

I want you to know that you guys inspire me when I'm doing my thing. Today I had off and all I really wanted to do was sleep (I'll be in school all weekend) but I took TWO walks (one for about 2 miles at 7, came home, had oatmeal and egg whites, waited about an hour and went for another 2 mile walk), took a nap and woke up to do a killer UBWO. I feel great. When I do my LBWO I'm going to try those swiss ball squats that mrsjim talked about. The only problem with working out at home is the lack of good leg exercises without the leg press and extensions. I need to get one of those (one or the other) but right now I'm pretty well broke. I think the swiss ball squats will be great.

Thank you all for posting and plugging away. I need to hear it. I think of you guys when I'm out on my walks. There was something Pam posted a while ago (and I don't know if I read it on L&S or MrsJim reposted here) about how the part where you're grimacing is where the changes happen. I think about that now when I'm struggling to push through. It helps!!!

Off to bed...long weekend ahead.
Susan

Looks like you all are doing great! I'm off to Tae Kwon Do classes for my son and myself, but wanted to post a little first.

Roseanne -- As everyone else is saying -- you're doing fine. Speaking as someone who is a size 12 now after 22 weeks on BFL, a size 12 is nothing to sneeze at! All those inches lost, too! My husband Brian and I use a circumference method to determine our body fat (not perfect, but probably better than bioimpedance), and using our method you would show a lot of fat loss and muscle gain, which is our goal in BFL. Also, if you haven't already, compare pictures -- I bet you'll see progress!

Quadzilla -- Great to see you here. My husband Brian and I post as TeamTigger on leanandstrong, and your site has helped us immensely!

Have a great day!

Carrie

First I had my workout - shoulders/abs/calves - then my riding lesson - got to ride the new horse who is a chestnut (red) Irish Throughbred - 17 hands high and that is one TALL boy! but so gentle. I just have to get used to his big stride - felt like I was on Secretariat compared to riding Butch (the old grey TB that I usually ride - they're getting ready to retire him soon though - he's been a good worker all his life and it's almost time for his vacation!).

After that I drove to Stanford Shopping Center, haven't been there in AGES and wow has it changed! I bought a couple of books that looked interesting - the sequel to "Confessions of a Shopaholic" (if you enjoyed Bridget Jones' Diary, I recommend it!) and another book called "Slightly Single" that looked like a fun read. What I do is after I read them, I loan them to sister Jen, who reads them and then sends them on to her twin Amy. So it's a little family book club we have here!

I'm cleaning the house right now but wanted to take a mo and write. I have been feeling so great - and getting compliments again from so many people - during Free Week I tend to bloat up a bit - not as diligent in the nutrition or water. I'm sure most of the bloating is gone now. I am just feeling so great - and the weather is finally starting to warm up from the arctic freeze we were having these past weeks.

Sounds like everyone is kicking butt...I just had my meal #3 - a bit late due to the bustle of running errands - a green salad and the new L&S fave, hot cinnamon apples and cottage cheese! YUMMY. I just bought about 5 pounds of Fuji apples which were on sale and TWO large tubs of cottage cheese. I am looking forward to Free Day tomorrow - Jim and I are going to Red Robin for hamburgers, fries and real milk shakes. I have a feeling, tho', that I'll be having some CC and hot apples tomorrow even with Free Day! Later all!

My cable connection was out all day and I felt cut off from the world! Had another PT session today, but I was so wiped out from yesterday that today's was more "instructional" than a workout. Did a couple of sets of hanging crunches- never saw those before, a lot tougher than the floor variety! I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow. He took me through a complete back workout, and I remembered why I flunked 7th grade gym class- the dreaded pull-up My new goal for the end of this challenge is to do 2 unassisted. Sounds so pathetic!

Carriej- nice to know who TeamTigger is!

Susanje-How far along are you in law school? That was one of my dreams that I put off way too long and now will never happen. Good for you!

MrsJim- Your L$S post about your father and aspertame brought back memories for me. My father was a chemist also, in polymer research at DuPont. Like you, families were the guinea pigs but not always of such good stuff. I remember when I was about 6 or 7, we got a set of really cool plastic cups from his lab. My brother and I used to fight over who got the red one, cause our milk would turn pink! Better living through Chemistry! LOL We thought it was great then, but I shudder at what I must have ingested. Obviously, that plastic and/or dye never made it to market.

Hi Quadzilla- You gonna hang out with us now and be chatty?

Kelster- You sound pumped! Good for you getting out of the mall.

sleep time,

mel

Hi Mel,

I am officially halfway through since I am halfway through my second year and it's 3 years all together. When I turned 40 I realized that there were a few things I really wanted to do (learn Italian, get a degree in English literature from a good school and go onto a good law school). Believe it or not, I've done all those things in the past few years. Well, I'm still working on the law school part. I wish I had had the time/money when I was younger but I did not. I had my kids young and was divorced when I was 30 so I spent my 30s supporting them and working in the high tech field. While there I got a Masters in Psychology at night and worked in that field for a few years (while working in high tech, I had a fulltime techie job during the day and would do psych emergency services at night). I also worked as a private therapist for a while. I spent so much time encouraging people (especially women) to follow their dreams and do what they really wanted to do that I had to be honest that I wasn't taking my own advice. While the dual career (tech/psych) was great in that I never got too burned out on one or the other, I knew I wanted to do many other things. I traveled to Italy the year before I went back to school and had studied a little Italian. I fell in love with the language and really wanted to learn it. I went back to school to take some Italian courses and then I met my husband who encouraged me to quit working and go to school fulltime to get a B.A. in English (yes, post Masters) I originally was going to teach English (something I always wanted to do) and Italian but we had plans to move to California. After realizing what it would take to certify in Massachusetts (where I lived before) and then transfer/recertify in California, it would be 3 extra years. In 3 years I could be through law school so I applied to law school and was amazed and thrilled when I got into one of the best law schools in the country (and one of the hardest to get into). So here I am.... Sorry to have gone on so long! anyway, another year and a half for me. We're totally broke (since I've been out of work for almost 6 years) and I'm exhausted but the end is in sight.

Mel - I know how you feel about being cut off due to no Net connection - we had that same problem with cable internet back early last year. That's why we switched to dialup but now we're on DSL and so far it has been great - so fast!

When I was growing up (along with my three sisters) Dad used to bring home all sorts of great stuff. We were not the only guinea pigs - all the neighborhood kids were as well. Anytime he was working on a new flavor all of us would try it. Most of the time the flavor would end up morphing into something else or become a 'regional' drink (sold only in one part of the country). Our house was VERY popular at Halloween - instead of candy we gave out cans of pop. But I could never understand why kids preferred getting sodapop over candy! Guess it was the novelty of it all.

Well today is Free Day, and we are planning on going to Red Robin for burgers and shakes. We aren't football fans but our upstairs neighbor Billy is going to have a Super Bowl party and we will probably toddle up for a spell...at least for the halftime show anyway! I'm one of those people who enjoys watching the commercials.

Yesterday we got a surprise - a big box from Neiman-Marcus. In it were six HUGE Egyptian Cotton towels - monogrammed - a gift from my mother-in-law! They are so nice and fluffy. I washed them straight away and used one last night after my bath. Jim and I have always been crazy about good quality towels!

I have to take Sparky to the vet tomorrow he has something on his chin - like a bare spot - and keeps scratching at it. My boss - whose sister breeds cats - says it sounds like it could be ringworm...hoping it's not but whatever it is it doesn't cost too much to treat!

Hope everyone else is doing well!

MrsJim --

My last male cat (he lived to 18!) had exactly what you describe. I took him to a feline allergist and he had -- acne! She gave him medication for it and he could finally get a prom date!

Hope Sparky isn't itchy with whatever he has. I know he'll be better in no time after the vet fixes him up!

Just a quick note to let you all know I finished week 1 and had no major mess-ups!

I can feel my muscles start to get a little firmer under the flab, my body likes the leaner food, and my moods are improving thanks to the "heavy breathing" on the exercises

On into week 2! Had a great LBWO this morning.

Hope everyone is well and happy!

It was party town here last night! (Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady hails from my home town!) I'm not a football fan by any stretch of the imagination but after finding out that we had a local boy playing just HAD to watch.

Consequently, the gym was pretty empty this morning...except for us diehards!

Free Day was pretty quiet for me - Jim and I had burgers and shakes at Red Robin which was packed.

Susan - all that AND BFL too??? You go gal!

I had a really great chest/tris workout with a little bit of abs tossed in for good measure. Tonight I have another workout with Theresa - we're doing back and bis tonight.

Waterbaby - After reading some cat health websites I'm hoping it's acne too... I'm hoping Sparky doesn't have to wear one of those collars to keep from scratching. It's not like he spends hours scratching at it but I've seen him get his little back claw and just pick pick pick at it. Jim is not coming with me because he didn't feel it was necessary for BOTH of us to take time off work. Fortunately our vet is only 1/2 mile from our house - I'm dreading having to put him in his carrier. He doesn't like it much.

Oh, well, got some work to do before I split so gotta run! Later gals!

I sprinkle a little catnip in the bottom of Rusty's carrier and he is more than happy to go for a ride...

They didn't put a collar on Buster when he had acne. The told me to be sure to wipe his chin after he ate because he was getting food stuck in the fur and the oil from it was causing his zits. It was good quality food; even with short hair, he was still getting crumbs in his chin...the vet also gave me a liquid to dab on with a cotton ball and it cleared it right up.

I decided after 7 months of clean eating, to take a real free day yesterday. I used to love cinnabon, and the smell still makes me drool. So I was going to treat myself to a BIG one at the mall, but old habits die hard, and I had a big salad first. Then I was too full, so I went shopping for a while, hit the dreaded bathings suits, and just couldn't bring myself to eat a cinnabon after that experience! I just kept hearing that Pam B. phrase "Is this bringing me closer to my goal?" Obviously not!

So my free day treat was 2 glasses of wine at a Superbowl party, and some shrimp. LOL- can't cheat bad when I try. I'm kinda disappointed tho, I really did want one. Maybe next weekend.

Couldn't sleep because of the wine, and ended up gettin up at 4 am and doing a weight workout. I know that's normal for some of you, but NOT me . I hit 10's on much lighter weights, and got stuck under the bar again, luckily was able to ease it off me instead of yelling for hubby who would not have been amused So now I'm a zombie, hardly remember my UBWO (does it count if you can't remember it?) and need to go to bed.

bye for now,

mel

Waterbabe - you were right - it WAS acne!

We had started him with a plastic bowl for his food and a ceramic dish for his water...well if they're bad for cats why do they sell 'em?? Anyway it's strictly glass for this kitty from now on.

So for the next week or so, we have a gel to clean his chin with and some cream to put on once or twice a day. Dr. says it should heal up right quick - the fur might take awhile to grow back.

Just now having meal #4 (cottage cheese and hot apples) then I gotta run to my PT appointment...busy busy!

Hi everyone!

Thank you for the compliments...yes the body is the last frontier. I think about that a lot....how I have knocked down goal after goal and even though I'm struggling a lot with this one, I can do it. I quit smoking and that slowed my metabolism way down but that was a big feat that did NOT happen overnight and I plan to keep plugging away at this one.

I didn't take free day on Sunday and that was tough. Hubby is Boston born and bred (in fact we met in Boston b/c I lived in MA for 10 years) and was doing a lot of nervous eating during the game. He is a long suffering Patriots fan and everyone on his job (Raiders fans) have been giving him crap since the call in the Raiders game. He watched the game alone while I did school work but I came down now and again to sit with him and see how his boys were doing. His nervousness was contagious and he was chomping on potato chips the whole time. I was tempted but I didn't indulge because I had a dinner planned for Monday night and wanted that to be my free meal of the week.

I've never been a big Pats fan but I was happy for Michael to be able to see his team do it and they were pretty lovable. I was very happy for him and I'm still not sure he believes it happened.

I ate clean yesterday but went with a bunch of bedraggled law students (all of us older students) to chinese food in Berkeley and the heartburn hit me almost immediately. eyuk!!! It bothered me all night and I start an internship this morning. Sometimes those free meals are just not worth it.

Off to a new adventure,
Susan

Well it has been a few days since I have posted......I have just been trying to enjoy my week off......and wouldn't you know it......I get a call from the office Monday and have to go in......get a call today.......again.........what good are holidays if people keep calling you at home........ aaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhh .........thankfully I have stuck to the workouts boy do they help in the stress relieving department........

I must say I am learning more each day.......especially.....I AM READING THE LABEL......laffs.........I just really really want to eat right.......I have noticed a big difference in the way a feel......from doing the body for life program......

I keep thinking to myself........if I only knew then what I know now.......but as in everything in life.......it is a learning experience......and maybe I just wasn't ready before.......

I find myself telling everyone about this program......my b/f is even going to ready the book.......we will see what happens there.......my daughter loves the food I cook.......she is eating just like me...........well the meals I cook anyways........she has asked alot of questions about it as well.......

anyhow.........I popped in to see how everyone was doing.....and it seems that all are moving along nicely.......that is GREAT....

Have a wonderful evening.......