Happy Monday LWL!

This was such an exhasuting weekend, going back to work today should be relaxing. I spent a day raking after working half of Saturday, then all day Sunday was devoted to FOOD. I made a Turducken and some pies, which are safely tucked in the freezer.

No workouts since last Thursday I was sore everywhere and needed a break. Back on plan today!

Mel

OMG Mel, that Turducken looks really complicated no wonder you spent the day in the kitchen!!

I made my Christmas meatballs last week and it took me an hour ...

I've got to get on a better food track... My calories are ok, but the food is not clean and I feel it!! Today I am doing LEGS ... Back later to report...

TTFN

Wow, Mel, my husband has been threatening to make Turducken for Thanksgiving. How harrowing WAS the whole process?

Hi LWL,

Wow Mel, that turducken really looks complicated!!! I can imagine you was busy in the kitchen for the whole day. is this for thanksgiving?

Today I had a bad day. I had an emotional weekend, the first weekend that XH had the kids. Then I heard from a friend where XH had been to dinner on saturday, that he had been discussing that he hoped to bring his new love to the parties in our communal circle of friends. I completely flipped at that. Of course this is up to the friends, but i phoned XH and has an emotional and tearfull conversation with him. I do not accept that he is injecting NL (new love) in my sphere of living with this (in my eyes) undecent speed. He only told me about her like 5 weeks ago, now he is planning to live with her in about 1 month, then that my kids will go there part of the week after school, and that she will be attending at parties at our friends. I cannot take this, I told hime that I would take like 2 years as a minimum before I could handle being with her at the same party, and that he is embarrassing our friends and myself by even suggesting this.

As some kind of reward I went out and bought myself an electric drill for sinterklaas, and I used it already to make a hole in the wall to hang a mirror that my daughter had decorated especially this summer. My first self-drilled hole in the wall, this hould mean something.

But I am still very down and tearfull. I have taken another pill to pick me up a bit. I am not proud at myself for this day, but maybe this is just the kind of day that you only have to hang on in here. Nothing else.

Have a great day all,
rabbit

Hi LWL,

The pill did its work and I am up again. Today I went to work and i made arrangements to work monday mornings also. I think it is better if i start the week with a structured activities especially after the kids have been at XH for the weekend. Woirk this morning really helped to take my mind off things. Besides that, I need to build up more stamina because I will need the earnings of this job.

What is nice is that I met a female colleague of some years back and a chat with her really cheered me up. We exchanged adresses and I can go visit her when the kids are at XH again, have some fun. With XH injecting his NL in our communal circle of friends, I need also to expand my circle of people.

That said, I can face the rest of the week with some confidence again. I was down yesterday, but now I'm okay again. I will just have to wait and see how things develop. Yesterday XH removed his plants from my house, so i am ready for som redecoration. I really like the more empty look I have now, and I may hang new curtains.

Have a great day all,
rabbit

Rabbit -- Hang in there things will get better... I can almost bet that MANY of your friends will be upset with your XH and will not be as accepting of his NL as you think they may be. I personally think that he is making himself look bad and not you and your friends. Things, I think, will settle down and you both will find new circles of friends, like the new friend you made a work, now that's a good thing...

Yesterday wasn't a good food day, AGAIN... I can't seem to get a handle on turning around and saying NO and walking away these days. Same with the working out, I'd rather stay home or go shopping ... Well on that note, before I convince myself again to not go to the gym, I am OUTTA here!!

Rabbit, I bet that when it all shakes down, your circle of friends will divide - there will be some that he spends a lot of time with and that embrace him and there will be those that embrace you. However, it all takes time. I remember trying to get used to the kids being gone and man it was hard at first, but each time they were away, I got more and more used to having time alone to think, run errands, just do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it and now I CRAVE my weekends with them gone. You will too. You will need that time away to focus on yourself so you can be a better you and therefore, a better parent to your kids. Keep on making new friends, decorating and moving forward. That's the way it goes. Step at a time.

I am having a good week so far. I had the BEST weekend that I've had in a long LONG time. It involved time with my girlfriends, time with the cute guy, an end of season cheer meeting / party, tequila and cards with more friends, gym time, and plenty of napping on the couch on Sunday. I tried a new Kwando class at my gym last night to shake things up. The instructor has NO RHYTHM!!! I worked like a dog, but couldn't help laughing at the poor guy. The cool thing though is that by going to the gym last night, I found out that they offer a spin class from 7 - 8PM so I'm gonna try that next Monday. Today was legs and I properly shredded them. Then I wore 4 inch knee high boots to work. I guess I have a death wish. Tonight is a hair appt. so I can be cute for, well for me I guess!

Ilene, get your food in gear. If you don't turn around and say no then you are going to HAVE to go shopping - for BIGGER CLOTHES!!!!

Tiki.

OUCH!!!! Damn, THAT hit home !! Thanks Tiki!!

Hi LWL,

Tiki, Ilene, thanks for the support. I guess it's true what you say: I will loose some friends, and I will make new ones, and in time I hope I will like to have the time to myself when the kids are gone for the weekend.

I'm off to do some curtain hanging, and general chores.

Ilene: Pity about the food!! Is this because of the holiday season??? I read in some other post that only a couple of days are the real holidays, so why would you treat the entire 6 weeks untill new year as a food war zone??? Of course all the shows and magazines urge us to see the holidays as very food centered but this surely hinges on the idea that food equals love and good times in the family. You can have love and good times also with less focus on food! Watch a great video together, go for a walk, Maybe go ice skating instead of eating cookies??

Have a great day all,
rabbit

Pardon my intrusion, but are newbies allowed to post in this thread? I lost a fair amount of weight a while back, but regained 10-15 lbs earlier this year that I'm trying to lose. Weightlifting and a bit of running is pretty much all I do for workouts. I'm pretty consistent with my workouts but my eating is total crap right now, and I could definitely use some accountability in that area, preferably from fellow lifters. Could someone let me know if I've stumbled into the right place? (This forum is huge, and I feel a little lost sometimes.)

Shannon -- Welcome to Ladies Who Lift -- You are very here and anywhere you make you niche on 3FC... We positively, LUVS newbies here ... I also weight lift and run... We also have a running thread in the exercise forum, so come and join us there too...Shannon as you will soon see, many of us have no problem with the exercise part of healthy living, it's the dang FOOD that drives us ....

Rabbit -- I'm not sure what is my food problem lately... I'm not stressed, I may be bored a bit though... and I will do something about that, not sure what yet though .... I had a much better day food wise yesterday and I feel good today about food too, so I'm off to a good start...

Off to the gym....TTFN

Thanks, Ilene. I definitely feel most at home with other iron ladies.

Tikanique, your warning comes a bit too late for me. This extra mess I've gained means that my skinny jeans are too tight for me...and I worked so hard to get into a size 4. If I hadn't gotten some hand-me-down jeans in a bigger size from a family member, I'd be in real trouble. My problem now is that I can't even remember what it was that motivated me to lose all that weight in the first place. Gotta figure it out and quick...

Your welcome any time Ilene. I figured I was just beating Mel to the punch. Glad to hear yesterday was clean. Now just add today and then one more day and then so on and so forth, you get the picture.

Shannon, you should have TOLD me earlier that you were having issues. I would have fussed at you earlier too.

What I really should have done was fuss at me too. I didn't go up in jeans sizes, but I do believe that I swapped out some muscle for some squishy stuff. Time to get it back in order so back to clean eating, and sweat, Sweat, SWEAT!!!

Tiki.

Ma'am yes ma'am! I'll make sure to remember that next time.

Do you guys list your workouts in here, or just kind of give each other general checks and balances, or what?

ETA: What do you all consider "clean" eating? Do you use that term in the bodybuilding sense, or more generally to refer to cutting out the junk food?

Shannon -- You can start a weekly thread for your workouts if you wish, I think that's ok, right Mel? What I/we mean by clean eats is to eat as unprocessed as possible and as close to nature as possible, and I think that's what bobybuilders do to. Most of us here also eat 5-6 meals/day with a protein and carb portion, but honestly we are far from hard core ...

I had a good workout today I did 5k on the dreadmill because it was pouring out, I was sooo looking forward to running outside too .... I wasn't able to do anything else because some girl wouldn't shaddup when I past by her on my way to the exercise mats to do some abs, and by the time I finished up with her I HAD to leave.... Tonight I swim, it's the last session for spring but I registered again and we start Monday... I really like this class...