Hi LWL,

Up early as usual, cleaned the house after Saturday. Phew!

About jokes about Friday the 13th, I had my share as it was my birthday, I turned a well-preserved 35...No wonder Friday the 13 is MY lucky day...
needles to say, nothing eventful happened to me except for presents (mainly about gardening).
Saturday we gave a BBQ for colleagues and friends, for mine and DBF's birthdays and housewarming reasons, about 30 people in all, + 5 stayed the night, so didn't even have time to breathe let alone work out until Sunday afternoon, luckily the weather was ok on Saturday, and on Sunday I even managed to get a tan...

Tiki, how's the back doing, feeling better now? better watch out, I did something similar with deadlifts and it cost me a whole month. look after yourself! I think that stupid woman in the gym should be put in your place and left there for an hour or so at least, that's no way to go about in a gym...

Ellen, Yeah, what IS DC fit?

llene, congrats on DS!

Mel, what certificates are you doing exactly?

Pat and Ravn, Hi, nice to meet you!

this afternoon it's back to the gym for me, changed my program so let's see what happens,

Good week to you all!

GG aka Lieke (vassiliki)

Happy birthday! My little grandaughters birthday also was that day. We have posted together on another site in the past. How have you been doing? I had lost some wt. then put it back on. But since Feb. have lost it again and a few more lbs. I am more motivated this time and when I get a setback reflect and in a bit jump right back into the swing of things. I am counting calories and try to stick to around 1400 a day and to exercise 4 times a week. That seems to work for me. I don't stick to any one diet but use ideas from several. I find that variety is what I need to not get bored with my changes I am trying to make. So what works for the rest of you? I am always up for new ideas and support.
Sounds like you had a nice birthday. I also like gardening and that was my exercise yesterday.
Have a nice day!

cacmsc -- WELCOME back to LWL , I know you're not a 'newbie' per se but what the heck, I'm in a good mood ...

Lieke -- Happy Birthday!! With all the partying how did you fare food wise? I find it difficult when there is just an over abundance of food...

Today, no running for me but legs later on...

Report in everyone .....

Goooood Monday morning!

This morning was my first chest/back split in over 9 months. As with arms, it was VERY light. I hate flies, btw. I love what they do for my arms, though.

The drop in weight doesn't seem to have been a blip, I'm actually down 6.5 pounds for the three weeks. That's so cool.

Water, food, and exercise all on track.

GG - Nice to meet you, too! And Happy Belated Birthday!!

Happy Birthday GG!!! Glad you had a good day.

Raven, I love flies. I like the way the muscle moves in that exercise.

I slept on a heating pad last night and the back feels a little better today. I don't work back again until Saturday so hopefully it will be feeling fine by then. Today is a cardio only day, so that should be easy enough. Food has been a little difficult the past few days, but I am determined to buckle down, be smart and get all the right meals in.

Tiki.

Arghhh - back to work! and a desk covered with stuff that somehow only I can do! Plus I have developed a post-long-airline-flight cold. Grrrr.

On the up side, I have a good lunch and snacks packed, and my gym stuff is in the car and I'll head there right after work.

My little conehead kitty is totally into moping around and looking at us with huge sad eyes. Whenever either one of us sits or lies down, she's right there on us. She can eat and drink fine and has learned how to use the cone like whiskers. So far she doesn't seem to be bothered by the stitches. I'm thinking as she heals more they'll itch, however. I have til the 26th til they come out.

Oh, Pat, don't you just hate that first day back? I know you will make it to the bottom of your desk soon. Take a deep breath and tackle one piece at a time. And, poor kitty - I'm giving her a "virtual" tummy rub.

GG - Happy Birthday from me, too. DCFit is part of a larger organization: USAFit that offers a 26 week program to train you for a marathon or half marathon. You do three specific runs during the week and on Saturdays they meet for long runs. They increase by about a mile a week. Last week was 4 miles and this week is 5. It is a blast. There were about 500 people at our session last Sat. LTKS is also participating from the San Diego chapter. My group is focused towards the Marine Corp Marathon the last weekend in Oct but I am shooting for Las Vegas the 1st weekend in December. Wed I will see my doctor and hope he "clears" me for such a distance.

Glad to meet you cacmsc. Gardening is certainly a lot of work. Good for you. I am doing my own thing diet wise - a combo of South Beach and WW and trying to eat most of my food whole and unprocessed. I am also trying to "fill up" on as many veggies as possible, so I guess that throws some Volumetrics into the mix, too. Like I said, a little of this program and a little of that program to make it my own.

Raventoy - great progress! Wow. I am sure I understand how you feel about flies as that is EXACTLY how I feel about reverse lunges. Must be residual from the day I fell on my butt doing them - nothing hurt but my pride.

Tiki - take care of that back. I sure feel for you.

Had a great workout today. Wish I could tell you what I did but it was a good mix of arms and legs and back. I do what ever my trainer tells me to. Hey, I just learned the names of hamstrings and quads. Now I can stop calling them "Back of thighs" and "Front of thighs". I am a slow student when it comes to such things like proper names. I also tried to do 4:1 intervals instead of 3:1 at my regular speed for today's 25 minute run. I was able to hold it and feel pretty good this afternoon. DH's b-day is tomorrow so I spent today wrapping prezzies. I hope he likes them as much as I do Come on, what do you buy the man who has everything and if he doesn't have it he stops and picks it up himself. 4 year olds are so much easier. You can give them a piece of string and they are happy if you call it a present. *sigh*

Hi LWL,

Rabbit reporting in to Ilene... after a great weekend spent with friends around the lakes up north in this country. I did NOT do anything OP food and excercise ways BUT I enjoyed myself toying around with boats & sailing. I actually organised this trip from friday afternoon till yesterday evening, we were with 8 adults, 9 children 6 - 13 yrs, rented 2 holiday cottages & 2 sailing boats & generally speaking we drank a lot of wine, did a lot of sailing, and had a good time. And my scale is not up !!! Now to keep it that way for the rest of the week.

Waterrat- glad you are back, I hope you enjoyed yourself!
GG- a belated happy birthday
Tiki-I hope your back is healing
Ellenuw-great about the running! I am thinking about getting a pair of running shoes to go outdoor, but it still is very cold out here. At present i do intervals at home.

Hi to all the others,

rabbit

Hi everyone,

Ilene, I did not fare well foodwise, but fortunately I made everything myself (including dips and salads) so at least I know where I went wrong (the wine and sausages mainly). That said, I ran around from 08.30 until 02.00 at night so I guess I did the stairs about 30 times at least plus all the lugging about. I could hardly walk at night...

I also try to find the best from various diets and food plans, adapt them to French eating habits (hard!, nothing is prepackaged here so I do everything myself) and see what fits me best, this seems to be the golden formula anyway according to the stats and several articles I read about the subject.
Golden rules for me: fresh, tasty, calorie and portion control.

thanks for all your best wishes and camsc, pm me so we can pick up where we left off last time, and welcome back.

Lieke

Hi all,

Pat, you are on day two. I hope the smoke is clearing from your desk.

Ellen, good job on the intervals. I hope everything goes great with the dr. tomorrow. You are so motivated about this.

Hi everyone else. Yes, the back is feeling fine now. I was even able to go out yesterday with the old fashioned push mower and cut my backyard - grass was over a foot tall so that was QUITE a workout. I had planned to do Tae-Bo but after 1.5 hours of grass cutting, I figured I had cardioed enough. Unfortunately, while cutting, I got into some pretty negative self-talk and followed it up with some pretty negative eating. I am doing some serious thinking about this, trying to figure out why I always get to this point and then sabotage it all. I guess I know what life is like heavier but maybe am afraid of what life would be like if I succeeded and got to goal.

At any rate, lots of headwork in store for me today along with cheer practice and cardio tonight.

Have a good day all!

Tiki.

Tiki - very good point. I'm going to think about it as well. Thanks for bringing it up.

That is such a head game that I struggle with too... Sometimes I think it may be because I *think* I can go back to eating like a so called *normal* person, but I *know* I can't because when I do, I gain.... OR you get lot's of compliments and I'm not sure how to take the compliments... BUT I am getting better at it because I have lost and kept off 12#, that's a good thing for sure... Sure is something to think about! Thanks!

Tik - I have, over the years, gotten to varying points relative to my 'goal' weight, and gotten scared and run away screaming into the comfort of food and fat.

I think without having found 3FC, I never would have figured out that I was the one doing it to myself. I would have blamed it on whatever, but the sad fact is I use my weight as a barrier against the world. I hide behind a lot of things. I even posted a journal entry about that today.

One of these days, I'm going to beat my demons into a bloody pulp and walk over their bodies to my goal weight, and I'm going to stay there. Maybe this time. I fervently hope so.

I don't know when the head game ends, if ever. Maybe it never ends for some of us. I still do that too, Tiki. I'll be doing great for a few weeks, then see a new low on the scale and BAM! it's all over. Into bingeland for a few hours, which is enough to erase that new low and make me work two or three weeks to see it again. Since I'm not really still trying to lose, I guess this is my maintenance strategy...but it really does a number on my head. I hope you've recovered from the negative self-talk and eating.

My week has been really crazy so far, and isn't going to let up. I'm taking an on-line course on "Exercise Anatomy" as part of my recertification continuing ed credits My brain really doesn't learn this way very well. I'm having to print out almost every page, and read it the old fashioned way, highlight and re-read. I felt like I had antique-brain syndrome until I talked to my almost 23 yr old daughter today who said she hated any course for which the notes were online, because she ended up having to print off the whole course to read it anyway So either it's a lousy way to learn, or it runs in the family

Today was a really long shoulder session- I just really got into it and was going heavy and trying out new exercises. 2 short cardio sessions. No, I'm not going cardio crazy, just had to fit it in around clients

Back to relearning muscle structures....

Mel

Yeah, I guess I'm through with worst of the bad talk. Now its more whadafa were you thinking talk. part of my isssue yesterday was I was tired at work yesterday PM so I drank a full cup of regular coffee followed by a sugar-free Red Bull. I was so wired, I spent most of the night sitting on the couch eating the kids cereal and watching Nick at Nite. I did decide today that I am going to start being diligent about getting all unneccesary sugar out of my diet. Grocery shopping took a while cause I was looking on everything for those four bad words - high fructose corn syrup. I found a sweet relish for my tuna that is sugar free so that is a great thing. Had tuna salad with raw spinach for dinner. Yum!

Mel, good luck with the online classes. My girlfriends tried to start a book club reading on-line books but it didn't work. We all kept printing off the pages and then finally just gave it up cause it was too much of a hassle. The way I see it, a book is a book, a PC is a PC and its best to not try to mix the two.

Thanks everyone for your support today and just saying "Yeah, me too." That phrase is so powerful for me. Takes away the feeling that this struggle is mine alone.

Thanks again.

Tiki.