Morning ladies,

I'm excited about tonights weigh-in. The scale at home is looking very good. I'm also excited that after doing the 60 minutes on the spinner, my knees aren't killing me. That's always a good sign of progress.

The doggies were restless last night for some reason. I got up three times. Normally, that isn't a problem at all. But Dixie kept barking. I even put a bark collar on her. She was quiet for a while but leave it to Dixie to figure out how to bark without barking. I even threw some of them outside for awhile. But then sometime I heard the driveway alarm and then lay there wondering if that was the dogs running free.

Heather - 50 minutes on the elliptical is awesome! An inspiring goal to work towards (by Fall! )

Time to get the doggies in for breakfast and then out to the kennel.

to all!

Terri -- My pups were restless last night too. Three times they woke me just as I was nodding off. Then my own demons kicked in and kept me up. *sigh*

Have a great weigh in!!!!!

Good Morning Ladies!

I'm not even going to pretend I did well with food this weekend. It was an endless string bad choices. I really had planned to not do it. DS turned 13 on Saturday and the weekend was kind of one big celebration. (Spoiled kid, I know. ) First we told him Friday we'd take him out anywhere he wanted to go. He picked Chili's. I was going to get lettuce wraps. DS says, "It's my birthday Mom. For a change don't worry about food." So I had steak and shrimp and loaded mashed potatoes. At least I skipped the ribs. Then, DS was having three friends sleep over. DH bought all kinds of snacks and donuts for their breakfast. I LOVE DONUTS! I am a donut addict. And these were Krispy Kreme. I ate FOUR on Saturday. (Not as breakfast, in addition to breakfast.) And 13 year old boys must have pizza for dinner. I was going to have a salad and eat one slice of pizza. PULEEZE! Lets not forget - DS HAD to have cheesecake for his birthday cake. We still have 1/2 a cheesecake in the house, calling my name. Sunday - more donuts. Then we went to play paintball - which, by the way - was a BLAST! Then McDonalds. Then more pizza. And ice cream.

Okay, binge over darnit! The left-over donuts and cinnamon rolls (did I mention them?) are out on the secretary's desk for the office scavengers to devour. I don't have lunch with me, since my choices were limited to left-over pizza, so I'll get a salad at the cafeteria. I brought a huge bottle of water with me. I will have grilled chicken for dinner. I just need to get rid of that darn cheesecake! DS will have a fit if I throw it out or give it away.

On the up side of the weekend, paintball was SO much fun! And exercise. LOTS of exercise. Four hours of ducking and bending and running and such. I honestly can't remember the last time I had so much fun! In fact, we liked it so much DH promptly went looking for someone selling used equiptment and found someone in the next town with complete stuff for two on Craig's List. He's going to check it out in a day or two and see if it's worth buying. I told him, it's an expensive hobby and we barely have time for the expensive hobby we have now! But DS really liked it too and it's something we can do to get the kid outdoors and away from the video games. As much as DH and I love the medieval reinactment, DS just isn't that into it. And it's not really exercise for me - DH get's a work-out on the fighting field, but I sit around doing my embroidery. So I guess another time-consuming, expensive hobby it is.

Terri, good luck on the WI! And I agree with Heather, keep your feet flat if you can!

OMG! I just realized it's been well over a week since I was last here. Where did the time go!? I'll be down in Columbus from Thursday thru Sunday, and then DH will be home for a day or two. This weekend is the Equine Affaire, which is an awesome opportunity to immerse myself in everything horsey. Clinics, seminars, demonstrations, performances, shopping, lectures - with some of the best clinicians to be found in every field of horsemanship. TERRI - I SO wish you were coming!!! Saturday and Sunday we get to watch the filming of The Extreme Cowboy Race. There was a time when Steega & I might have done well at that, but that time is long past. The little one who rides him now LIVES for the day she can enter it. The fee is $300, so I hope she's saving her allowance!

Stay well and take care of yourselves!

TerriGood luck at the weigh in. I have a few weeks before I weigh in again and I'm in that bargaining stage. Can I have this tonight if I don't have that tomorrow????kind of stage. On the good side, my sister is losing weight finally and her MRSA infection seems to be clearing up with a new antibiotic. TG!
I was on the phone with her last night though and she had made pineapple upside down cake for her husband. It's one of my favorites, and he was in the background going on and on about how good it was, and honestly, I could have climbed through the phone and eaten the whole thing! LOL Of course, now I'm dreaming about that cake. I wish I could just have a single piece, but they don't make one piece cakes or at least not small ones.
Lillion I'm with you. Warm, sweet, soft Krispy Kremes are food of the gods, and I could OD on them big time. OMG, what did I just say? I'm binging online! Anyway, birthdays only come once a year, so chalk it up to that and get back OP. You'll be okay.
Have a good week all.
Bearcub

DONUTS! Did someone say DONUTS????
WHERE? I want one, I need one, or two, or a whole box! Oops, I guess not. I'm addicted to the darn things myself Lilion. Pizza runs them a close second. No one ever said I got fat because I ate carefully. :-)


My dogs slept like rocks last night. I was the one who was tossing and turning and "the girls" didn't want to give me the space. Tonight they're sleeping in their crates.

I've got to develop a load a day laundry habit. I had big plans to catch up on Sunday and never timed it so I could get the machine. It's mine now though so I've done 5 loads and I'll shoot for five more tomorrow. This is ridiculous. I've got another bad habit to change. Thing is I'm always so pleased when everything is clean and hung up. Duh!

I'm kind of partial to chocolate cake donuts with chocolate icing. But sometimes, you just can't beat a fresh glazed one.

Tonight's weigh-in went great. Some young thing lost 11 pounds and another lost 7. I was down 5 lbs. Or close to it. I started at 263.8 (I think) and was 258.4 tonight. I was so happy to see the under 260; who cares if its exactly five or plus/minus five.

Since three of the dogs are laying around my desk, I should get up and disturb them. Why should they get to sleep? Poor Zeke though. He's shaking like a leaf because of thunder outside. I may have to give him a doggie 'lude so he can snooze.

Thank goodness tonight is the final two of March madness. DH is all excited because of KU but I'm not a fan. They better get to playing a little better than the first few minutes. I like March madness better than the baseball playoffs though. Oh goodie, this weekend is the Masters golf tournament. Guess there will be lots of workout time for me this week with all the sports on TV.

I'm going to go put doggies in their crates and see if I can pry Zeke out from the corner he's wedged himself in on the other side of my desk. Yep, back behind the side table and amongst all the power cords for all the computer accessories.

to all!

The official loss was 4.8 pounds. I'll take it!

Did ya'all see the challenge to do a5K this weekend? I'm going to try to do it on the treadmill this weekend.

Good afternoon all,

Well, I took my math evaluation test and ended up with 75%. This is much better than I expected because, well, I really didn't study as much as I should have. I think not knowing what I was studying for was the main reason. So I have a few areas marked as 'needs some development', which is optional. It's suggested that you work on them until you score over 80%, so I will.

So I actually walked outside this morning. The drive to the college took me less time than I expected so it left me with a ton of free time, so I did a circuit of the campus and the parking lot for 30 mins. It also didn't take as long as I had planned (booked time was 9-12, but I was out by 10:30), so I managed to get in my treadmill time when I got home.

I did a nutty thing that I hope I don't pay for later (or tomorrow). I really just walk on the treadmill to keep myself active. I usually just walk at 2mph, but at about a 5% incline. This breaks a sweat, and raises my heart rate, but I noticed that I'm not needing to put in as much effort recently. So this morning I did a combination of walking intervals with 4mph 1-min jogs in between 2-min walks. It was fun (ie. almost killed me) and I definitely broke more than a light sweat! As long as my knees are okay (specifically the left one), I'm going to start doing at least one of these each day. Of course today, I've likely overdone it as I did it 3 times, 20 mins each time.

Lilion - I do hope you found a way to get rid of that cheesecake. It's not something that would tempt me. The donuts might, and the pizza almost certainly would. It does sound like you had a fun weekend, and that's not a bad thing, as long as you don't make a habit of them. Okay, the fun would be fine, just not the food.

Although I must say that for whatever strange reason, I don't seem to be struggling with cravings recently. I wish I knew why so I could duplicate it when needed. We've been trying to go through the canned stuff from the crawlspace (especially with being away last winter). I found a number of quart sealers of fruit sorbet mix I canned up a few years ago. I'd put them in a box so they didn't discolour (and they haven't). The plan is to use them up this summer, trying to take only small amounts (yikes). For those wondering, it was a summer we had a lot of fruit (lower prices) and I'd found a recipe for peach amaretto sorbet. It worked out really well, and had this great thought that it would be nice to can up the mixture (fruit, sugar, tapioca) so it could be made earlier in the summer. So the mad canner (me) ended up making peach, two cherry, and berry mixes. To finish them you take a quart sealer's worth, add a couple of Tb of liqueur, and freeze them. Very nice. Maybe too nice.

Val - sounds like you've got some fun lined up as well. Hope you have a great time.

Bearcub - I was never one for cakes and such, but recently made some pecan cherry bread from an Amish Starter that's been working its way around the neighbourhood. I cut the sugar back, and made it into mini loaves (5 all told, instead of 2 larger ones). Once the mini loaves are cut into slices (7 or 8) each slice isn't that bad. I've managed (so far) to simply enjoy a single slice toasted in the morning with a bit of jam on it. Although I admit there are times I could have eaten a loaf without thinking about it.

Judy - I don't know why, but I always seem to end up with way too much laundry to do on Sundays. I don't need to leave it, but I still do. Old habits die hard I suppose.

Terri - congrats on the 4.8 pounds. I'm never sure that I like my newer digital scale that weighs in .2 increments. You can end up being down small amounts (I know any are good). Although now that I think about it, the old scale did half pounds, and I used to use a scale that weighed in 3 digits (the shipping scale at my old job). Maybe we should go back to those old style dial scales where you could guess the weekly number. I did see the challenge for the weekend. I've been making Sat and Sunday my rest days, and likely will keep that schedule at the moment. Although I'm doing it slower than most, I just realised that I do just under 5K each day (broken up though).

Heather - I didn't go back to last week's thread, but I saw a comment about 50 mins on the elliptical. I'm so very impressed. When I used the plant gym they had one, but I think 15 mins was my max. After that I wouldn't keep the pace up well enough. I never did master it.

Well, I think I'll see how far behind I am on the other thread. I'm still trying to motivate myself into spring cleaning... so far, no luck!

Anne OMG I used to make the Amish starter bread (sometimes called friendship bread) all the time. My sister gave me a starter and I would make lots of little loaves. The pecan cherry sounds yummy. I made lemon bread, chocolate bread(very yummy), walnut banana, and pecan bread too. Of course, once you start with that bread it's hard to stop. I made loaves for weeks before my friends cried "uncle" and made me stop. I finally threw away the last of my frozen starters a few months ago. I think it's a passion I go through periodically. It's great around Christmas. My sister has the recipe for how to create the starter. But you're right, it's addicting. As for the math, I'm helping one of my home students with algebra and we're struggling together with solving equations by elimination. Hmmm. There's a great little book out there that helps - Learning Algebra Painlessly. I'm glad I don't have to take a math evaluation anymore, I'd never make it.

Terri Great on the weight loss. That's a good weight loss to have. Keep it up. or down as the case may be.

I did 14 minutes on the recumbent bike today but skipped the treadmill. I'm going to do the treadmill tomorrow instead. I think I've been pushing too hard on some things because I've been too sore and then I don't want to do the work. The 14 minutes was good though. I've been such a slug that any exercise for me is good. I'm doing weights too to build strength and I am feeling better because of all that too. You are all wayyyyyy ahead of me. My sister is too. She is so good at all this. And she's finally started to lose weight. but I think I already told you that. Hmmm. Losing it am I? Need sugar...Need donuts NO.. going to get to work now.
Later.
Bearcub

Lilion--DS turned 13???? He's really a teenager now... how does he like it?

Hi ladies,

Its been a stressful week. Work just sucks. I hate that too. Especially when I was happy for a few months. Today, about 50 people were terminated. Most did not expect it. I knew something was going to happen but didn't know who would be impacted. Heck, I even expected to be called today. The people are only given enough time to get their personal stuff and escorted from the building. Pretty damn sad.

I tried to do a workout last night. But I've had such a tension headache for two days now that it just didn't go well. I did about 30 minutes cardio and then tried all the toning machines. That was rather relaxing. I'd love to have one of those chiropracter machines that rolls up and down the spine.

Tonight, we stopped by Lowe's and bought a new washing machine. Mine was 17 years old so it was expected. But didn't want to do it NOW. I really want those beautiful Duet sets but holy cow, what a lot of money. I did get a front loader GE machine. Hopefully this will cut down on the number of loads I do. Especially when I'm doing dog bedding.

How's everyone faring all this spring weather. We've had so much rain. But at least no bad storms. Hope everyone is dry!

Time to head for bed. Yay for Friday tomorrow!

Terri -- Layoffs are REALLY stressful. No wonder you've had headaches and didn't want to workout. Good for you for doing some!

Bearcub - I think we're going through that passing around the starter phase in the neighbourhood. I found the recipe to make the starter from scratch, so a few of us have decided that we'll just let it die away. Later, when we're not overloaded on it, we'll start it again. Although it has made me want to make some bread this weekend (I'm thinking cracked wheat).

Terri - I'm glad you survived the cut. I was one of those people walked out the door about 5 or 6 years ago. The silly thing is that I knew the cut was coming (we'd split the plant and I'd turned down a job at the new one). I remember thinking it was odd that if you quit, people throw a party. When you're laid off they want you out as fast as possible. It worked out well as I loved my next job. And there was a non-company Christmas party that year in our honor (there were four of us). When the old white-haired SOB (plant manager) asked me how I was I gushed enthusiastically about my new job. I think he was a little disappointed. What was even sillier is that I was unofficial tech support... and they didn't cancel my user account. I could log on remotely for almost a year. I would do it once a month just for fun. The first time I really just wanted job leads in the way of email addresses (business contacts). After that I just did it to see how long it would take. Oh, and twice after I left someone called asking for passwords - that I had written down for the HR manager before I left. He hadn't asked, I offered. Seems he couldn't find them at some point.

So yesterday evening I went over the finances and cashed some of the last of my savings out. (Not retirement savings, they're untouched.) It will cover my school fees, books, etc. for the first year, and some expenses up to that point. So, then of course, I went out and bought weights. Nah, I'd planned on that. Nice PowerBlock dumbbells that are adjustable and if I ever need more than 50lbs each I can expand them. I don't think I'll need more, but who knows. I also bought 2-25lb plates to add to the barbell. That should keep me going for a while. I didn't even embarrass myself carrying the two plates out to the car. The sales guy carried the dumbbells.

Then I started cleaning out the family room, although I will have to continue tomorrow (or the weekend, depending on my time tomorrow). I'm trying to force myself into the spring cleaning mode. It's not working out that well so far! Of course, being asleep at 1:30am would probably be a good start. So off to sleep I shall go (again, I've already tried once).