Morning all, things again are slowly improving. Yesterday I "swam" .25 miles. I actually used my aqua jogger vest on backwards and did a lazy breast stroke to just move the arms in the circular pattern for 20 lengths then it was too sore. So I finished the last 15 lengths kicking with the kickboard. But, hey, I moved myself for .25 miles. I also did 1.5 mile walk in the morning. Yestedays cals were at 1600 (I think a hair under but I'm too lazy to get my PDA to check). So a good day.

Penny, I'm so excited for my soaps. I told DH and told him he's not to use them. Then DS2 piped in that if he wanted to smell nice his dad could use his cologne. I gagged (DS2's colgne reeks) and I said I'd much prefer DH use the orange blossom soap. Quite an entertaining conversation. Take it easy on the shoulder. I'm thinking of really starting a beginner yoga for better balance and flexibility. I'm noticing I'm much more tippy than in years past. Eeks, old age is on its way...

Hope everyone else is well!!!
Marie

Marie - I'm glad you're able to do a bit of swimming again. That's funny about your DS2 and his cologne . The yoga is helping with my balance. I read somewhere that you lose the sense of balance as you get older which can cause falls (one of the reasons so many old folks break their hips). My instructor told me continuous messages go from your brain/foot/brain when you are trying to stand on one foot. Your foot constantly makes tiny adjustments to keep you from falling. It seems to work as I can now stand for a minute on my bad foot as opposed to a few seconds when I started. A lot of the yoga poses are to do with balance. I think my posture has improved as I was always a sloucher!

Marie, you make me feel like such a slacker! I've been finding reasons to sleep and not exercise this week, and there you are, all banged up and still swimming . I'm glad that you are steadily improving.

Penny, just reading about your soaps makes my nostrils flare...hmmm, maybe not a great image, but you know what I mean. I don't spend money on make-up, but I do love rich, fragrant soaps and lotions. One good thing about being single again is that I can slather myself at night with products that smell of vanilla, roses, lavender, etc, and no one complains that it's too much. I miss the days when women had signature scents, but that's not so popular in these times.

I'm feeling better. I think it may be mental, that the summer's ending and my worklife will be at full speed again soon. Besides blowing off exercise, I didn't log my meals Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'm back with my Coach today.

Hope everyone else is doing well!

judy

Marie I love making soaps sometimes Penny gives me some ideas. I love lavender with mint so pretty it is. Your doing better it sounds thats good. I worked on garage sale stuff last night for saturday. Really cleaned out my craft room. Now its a mess but beeds to be reorganized. Somethings I never would use are going out. I think it will be better soon and maybe give me an incentive to start some projects. Bear is enjoying a knotted piece of fleece I made him. My two coworkers are applying where my last supervisor went to. Time will tell how For me the benefits there might be good but her moo d swing woo!
My cals were okay yesterday I got a walk in. This a.m. I did my back exercises a little pain med is also helping. Until I get rid of my muscle pain its smart to take a little something why suffer I figure. This weeks work has been stressful just lots of issues I am dealing with them one by one and that seems to be helpful. I think there must be a full moon or something. I did run into the girl whom is leaving to be a director at the other company she was disappointed I was not going there but understood. She told me if I am ever ready to leave and things don't improve for me here that they would love to have me. That they were very impressed with my skills and knowledge. Nice to know and I told her that is something for me to keep in mind in case its needed. But for now I am trying to just keep things working out for me here and if I am unhappy I am first going to try to address it with the right people. I did tell my supervisor the other day that we were talked to in an appropriate manner she asked well how could I of said what I needed to get across. I gave an idea. People are getting frustrated over the manner and tone things are said. The dept. is small and its hard not to over hear etc. Oh well thank goodness it is friday.I plan to go to the fair on sunday for the whole day lots to see and do. The hubby hates it even when he could go easier not a place he enjoys but what is lately. Seems he's becoming the grumpy old man not wanting to go places.
Judy I like your idea just lathering up and doing your own thing. Hope you have a restful weekend planned.
Penny what kind of soap are you brewing these days?
Nikki hope your doing well. Everyone else hello.
Trying my best to stay on track today.

Carol, I can answer that one for Penny - she's brewing up Orange blossom soaps for moi. I'm so excited for them to arrive. I love, love, love the scent of orange blossom. Brings back the great trips to my grandparent's house in Florida during the spring. There was an orange tree outside the guest room and at night, I'd smell the orange blossoms all night long. It was intoxicating and now Penny made me soaps to bring back that feeling. As I said, I'm excited for them to arrive. Told DH hands off my soaps when they get here.

Carol, your office still sounds like a hen house. Hopefully the roster will get it under control. Don't you hate office politics. At least you know that you'd be wanted elsewhere if necessary.

Things are going good and I'm glad it's weekend. The scale was the same as Tuesday but at least I'm not hiding from it. Cals yesterday were 1620 and I walk 1 mile and propelled .25 mile in the pool. I tried without the splint yesterday and that lasted for about 10 feet. So the left wrist is pretty bad still. The ribs are better but no deep breaths - I sneezed 2x today and oo-la-la, that was painful.
Marie

So I take it back--I only missed one day of logging this week, so I wasn't as bad as I thought. I ate on program yesterday. For dinner, I threw together some odds and ends and called it "Italian cabbage soup." Marie would've hated it but I thought it was quite tasty

I did a light aerobic workout this morning. My foot is really bugging me, but I don't think it's the neuroma. This is been a problem for more than a week, and it's not getting any better. Dang! I will be checking out the physical therapy place for my knees next Friday, maybe I oughta make a day of it and try to see a podiatrist, too. It's always something, isn't it?

Carol, you are in a position to make a difference in the management at your job. It sounds like the right people are counting on your wisdom for guidance. It will be nice to know that you made a difference for your colleagues, not just your clients!

Marie, thanks for telling us what the smell of orange blossoms means for you! I feel that way sometimes, too, but like that French guy in "Remembrance of Times Past," I get all nostalgic about the smell of food...cornbread, for example..ahhh....

I have been a little out of sorts lately. Worried about workoverlaod this fall and disappointed that I didn't accomplish more this summer, in terms of office projects and weight loss. But I'm wearing a dress today that was tight when I bought it last year in the spring, and the dress is roomy on me today, so there!

I hope everyone else is doing well! Have a great weekend!

judy

Hi everyone, I'm glad it's weekend. I'm a bit sore but DH and I took the doggies to the mtn and let them run free. They had a great time. We stayed on the road and walked leisurely. I will be glad when I feel recovered. The left ribs and left wrist are miserable. I plan to float on the pool today. I've got a bit of work from home stuff to do and will do it during the NASCAR race if it doesn't get rained out.

Judy, I know how you're feeling with the regret of not getting more accomplished in the weight goals. I'm about where I was last Christmas. Truly smaller than Christmas by a size (more muscle) but the same weight. I wouldn't have foreseen that nearly a year ago. But at least we're not gaining and our smaller clothes fit better.

Penny, the soaps are wonderful!!!! I love them and thank you so much. I enjoyed an orange blossom shower this morning and the rose petals are so awesome!!! Thanks again. I'll order more when I run low.

I haven't added yesterdays cals but am in my head at about 1600 and I walked 1.5 miles. Today so far I'm TOM craving. I'm thinking I'll probably succumb to one of them. But perhaps not...
Marie

Marie - I'm glad you like the soap. That must have been wonderful waking up in an orange grove when you were visiting your grandparents. I remember how great the orange groves used to smell years ago when we lived in California. Sorry to say, they've nearly all been plowed under for housing developments and strip malls . I hope your owies heal quickly.

Judy - Good for you sticking with your Coach. Sounds like you've been in the doldrums a bit but just think of all you've achieved in the past year - your loose dress is the proof! I think you do great considering how much you are on the road. You still find time to work out and are able to stick to your diet most of the time. None of us has a "perfect" record of sticking to our diets 100% the time! I hope your foot problem gets better soon. Your cabbage soups sounds good - thrown together soups are always the best!

Carol - I hope you have fun at the fair tomorrow. Watch out for the elephant ears and funnel cakes! I'm not making much soap lately, I used to sell them at the farmer's markets and I had them in several local shops, but it was a lot of hassle and it really only paid for my "hobby". Now I just make them for fund raisers and special requests like for Marie. In order to make a lot of soap I'd need to buy in bulk and that gets a bit spendy. I enjoy experimenting with different kinds of soaps. One of my girlfriends just reminded me of some coffee grounds soap I made for her son who gets his hands very dirty in his job. I added vanilla and it smelled like a latte! He even commented how well it worked which is unusual for a guy.

Nikki, Jennelle & Emma - I hope you are having a good weekend.

I woke up with a migraine today and went back to bed for a while. I'm feeling a lot better now but I've had to fight the munchies. Funny how I get hungry when I get a migraine, you'd think it would put me off food . I'm still down a pound, so I don't want to mess up and start gaining again.

Carol ~ I hate organizing and cleaning out but when your done you get a sense of relief that its over! I'm sorry to hear about the stress at work, hope things work out there. Me too, I had a really bad week last week. Ended up having an argument with one of my senior agents and then had to drag the supervisor into it.. ugh. Hope things work out!

Judy ~ the soup sounds yummy. I add cabbage and sometimes bean sprouts just at the end to soups sometimes to vary the textures. I hope your foot gets better.

Marie ~ I'm so glad to hear that your injuries are better. We're so proud of you for making an effort to keep moving despite the pain! You're inspiring!

Penny ~ I really hate headaches, its strange that you still want to eat despite the headache. lol. I hate doing anything at all when I get one. Hope you feel better soon.

Nikki & Jennelle ~ hope you girls are doing okay!

I had an okay week overall, got my exercise in, was okay on food (except for the noodles and chocolate yesterday!) have a weigh-in this afternoon with my dietitian - hoping for a loss but I'm not sure if its gonna be big because of AF visiting today. Will be happy with anything (loss or no loss) as long as I don't gain! Will check in and let you know how it went tomorrow

Just when I was about to pitch the scale down the garbage shute, it nudges down a couple of pounds to 222, my lowest weight (by half a pound) so far this year . Despite working out, logging my food and eating more veggies than a rabbit, I thought maybe I was waking up in the middle of the night eating in my sleep. I celebrated by buying lots of new (clearance sale) underwear and bras.

Emma good luck with the weigh-in

Penny, I hope your migraine has migrated elsewhere.

Marie, I want to join you in the tantrum ! All I can do is step back from the week, month, season or even year, and consider that I've been overweight for decades, most of my life, so maybe I should measure progress from a broader sweep of time. Ten years ago I was nearly 270 pounds! Still, it would be nice to move along just a teensy bit faster .

I've been eating on program this week, and had good workout yesterday and today. Time to throw together a new soup!

judy

Emma - Thanks for the get-well wishes. I'm feeling fine now, thanks. I did cave and have a tiny bit of chocolate that I was craving, but otherwise I'm on track and maybe even a bit low on calories today. I hope your visit to the dietician went well. I hope your work problems smooth out next week. I've found that extra stress makes it harder to lose.

Judy - Congratulations on your loss!
You deserve a whoosh! Your patience has paid off. My weight loss is glacially slow too - so I know how it feels. As you say, it took us a long time to gain the weight so it won't be gone overnight. Slow weight loss is far healthier in my humble opinion. Every time I've lost weight quickly I've gained it back quicker and then some. Keep up the good work. Enjoy your new undies .

Hi all, I'm a little bit blue today. My improvements from my bike crash have stalled for the last couple days and I'm depressed. I so want not to hurt anymore. My left rib/breast is still so screwed up. And my left wrist, we'll not go there. And then there's the toe surgery 3 weeks ago that reminds me it's stere every step. So I'm depressed. I was patient for a whole week and I'm out of it. I resolved not to whine to DH so I'm going to whine to you all. You can just skim to the part where I stop.

I really want to work out. I'm mean, get my heart rate up and feel like I'm working out. If I do that I can't breath in because of the ribs and probably soon because of asthma. I gave up trying to take my inhaled meds as I couldn't get them in so I'm only on the singulair pill. Keep your fingers crossed I don't have an asthma attack.

Ok, done with the whine - at least for now.

DH and I walked the 1.5 mile block with the doggies this morning and whne he was measuring the floor area for the wood stove we bought in April, I sat next to him on the exercycle (while giving my so wise opinions). So I decided to pedal. I went 5 miles but without much resistance.

Judy, thank goodness you didn't throw the evil scale down the shute or you wouldn't have gotten such good news. WTG chickie!!!

Penny, I'm glad your migraine has left. I always just want to eat when I don't feel good (hence the major struggle the last week). For some reason my body thinks gaining a pound or two a day when not feeling well will have a positive effect.

Emma, hope that the evil scale treats you nicely. While AF is to visit you TOM is to visit me. I know about that saying that if women live together, they have TOM together - but a diet blog???

Hope everyone else is okay. I guess I'm ready to go back to work. As all my crafts require wrist strength and the right wrist is doing ok but not not recovered, I can't do much. I've slept a bit this weekend. Probably didn't help my deep blue funk.
Marie

Marie - I'm so sorry to hear you're having such a rough time with the after effects of your fall. Don't be hard on yourself, you need to give yourself some TLC and not expect to do do too much till you feel better. I'm incredibly impressed that you managed to ride your exercise bike for 5 miles! Did you get checked out by your doc when you had your accident? It sounds like you're in a world of pain and I hope you soon feel lots better.

I have the same problem that when I'm in pain I tend to want to medicate with food resulting in not only having the pain but also the guilt!! I once read that women who have PMS symptoms also feel pain much more acutely in the week before their period (not just period pain but any kind of pain). If that's true in your case, hopefully you'll feel much better once TOM has gone. Take care of yourself .

Judy ~ OMG, that's so great! 2 pounds is amazing progress! and you were about to chuck the poor scales down the shute just keep on doing whatever you were doing when you lost those two and you'll eventually get there. Yay for the new underwears & bras, you deserved that reward

Penny ~ I feel the same way about pain before periods. Once I had to do my eyebrows the week before my period and it hurt three times more than on normal days! I also get a terrible headache the night before my period comes.

Marie ~ You need to take it easy, you're doing great by trying to keep moving. don't be too hard on yourself, your injuries need time to heal. I think TOM is not helping with the depression either huh. I really feel bad for you, I hope you get better soon

Jennelle, Carol, Nikki ~ hope you girls are doing okay!

So about the weigh-in, well, here's the thing: her scales say that I've dropped 6 lbs in 15 days - she uses the old big bulky one where you have to adjust the readings. according to my electronic scales I've dropped 4.4lbs . The thing is I did not weigh in on the first day I visited her on my scales so I may be a little off with my calculations. 6 or 4 lbs, at least its a loss, I'll take it!

Didn't do any exercise since last week, will hit gym as soon as I get home and get at least 60 mins in. was on track yesterday and will try to keep this going and hopefully lose another 6-4 lbs before I see her next

Hello all its been a crazy busy weekend and I am ready for work almost anyways! Almost glad to go and rest from my busy weekend hah hah! The garage sale wasn't too good guess advertising more would of worked better we are to far off the road for folks. They just thought we were having a party and our garage sits sideways so the couldn't tell we even had stuff in there. Oh well at least I cleaned out and more to go. The hubby pack rat had a fit on a couple of things and bet he took them back in the house as I went the fair. Hah hah! Oh well! At any rate in two weeks we are going to take it all somewhere else and try again as its marked etc.
The fair was fun first we of all we rode there with my daughter and the kids my friend and I spent time taking them around after around 5 hrs. They went home my friends daughter and her boy friend went to a concert and we did our own things which was nice. We all had a great time and the kids enjoyed the concert but it ended late and so I got home well after 11. ( Carrie Underwood) I gave them the tickets as she was a fan and I just knew who she was and the tickets were given to me. They really enjoyed it more than I would of probably. Getting up for work wasn't fun at 6. But I did really well with lots of walking plenty that is. Also I can proudly say my intake was great we had breakfast at home then no lunch and had a nice dinner with some pulled pork which seemed very lean, cabbage salad with a vinegar dressing and baked beans. More walking we must of put on several miles at least it sure seemed it. This was the New York State Fair. I did see a chiropractor in the health building he was the chairman of the asso. He ck'd my back and told me I had a lower back problem before I mentioned it. I am really thinking of making an appt. He talked to me about calcium but I told him I had a bone density test and I was off the chart. He said well guess your good to go there. Have any of you been to one and did you feel it was helpful? I'd like your input. I wonder Judy if your soup is like the ww one?? What do you use for broth? I have used V8 before or just crushed tomatoes garlic onions etc.. I should make some in the crock pot and freeze it in my seal a meal bags for work. It freezes well and cals wouldn't be bad at all. If its the ww one you can eat as much as you want as they say. As long as we don't eat it with nice thick crusty bread. Oh I am being naughty. The soaps sound lovely girls. I will have to make some orange blossom soap this fall. I made one with coffee and vanilla put some almonds in as well oh it smelled great. Fun stuff too. Marie so sorry about you not feeling so well from that fall. Are you sure you didn't break something? My SIL fell the other day at the fair on a slippery bathroom floor. She and her friends never reported it. I told her thats crazy you always should just in case you need medical assistance later on. She has iced it on and off all weekend and is feeling a little better now but it ended her fair activities for this year too bad. She really likes it.
Well its monday and I am ready to go make some flax seed toast before work and take in a peach for my mid morning snack. Trying to eat healthier. Tonight I will venture for a walk since I am all into it from yesterdays walking might as well keep moving I think. Take care and hope everyone is in a good mood at work. The supervisor as us on friday if anyone was interested in her job she was giving notice but then she laughed and moved out of the room quickly leaving us all wondering if she is leaving? Oh time will tell. I am hoping for some positive changes in our office and for me I am trying to stay away from some of the neg. vibes.
Judy hope your work week goes well. Congrats on that loss its a nice one and I also need some undie treats too maybe it will motivate me.