Penny so sorry I know how bad backs can be. I hope you are taking something for it. When possible doing a few streches could help. I know standing with my legs apart a bit and hangs on the hips leaning back as far as I could was something which helped me. Good luck thinking of you!
Judy I am trying to jump back on board this a.m. with poached eggs and toast. I had a dounut choc. jump in my mouth instead of my hubbies dang stupid move. Oh well life goes on and I know what I have to do. So I am watching myself closely today and going to exercise if the storm this afternoon holds out for me to do so. Otherwise I will exercise at home but it won't be the same somes better than none. We can do this so lets go girls ! Penny your in a bad way so just feel better you too Juls.

G,day ladies.

Carol we just got a new computer too and I love how much faster it is to. It seems like we are all getting a bit of weather these days we have been having quite a bit of rain and our share of storms to but alas no snow. Your menu looks yummy and very healthy good for you.

Penny I,m sorry to hear about your back please rest up and take care of yourself I hope you will feel well enough to go and get it checked out, I am sending prayers for you and I have everything crossed that I can cross even my eyes LOL for you and a speady recovery.

Judy good that your on the road to recovery sorry about the cold sore they aren,t very nice but you are doing well and a 3lb gain is nothing to worry abotu you can lose that in no time with your exercise and will power.

I had a good day.
Brekki: cup of tea and grapes and a necturine
Lunch: vegemite toast and a coffee.
Dinner: steak and vegies
Snacks: more grapes and a plum
6 glasses water.
Take care everyone I,ll catch up again soon.

Marie and Nikki hope your well.

JULS

Judy- that soup sounds great. Sometimes a nice hot bowl of soup is such a comfort.

Marie- I did back away from the chips. I am back on track now.

Penny- I hope you are feeling better.

Juls- I'm lad you feel good :)

Carol- I think they would [probably keep the chair in frnt of the plane. I usually have someone meet me though as I have trouble walking long distances.


Nikki

Hi, there! I made it to work today, but I'll be leaving early to go and vote, and get home in plenty of time to work out (which I didn't have time for this morning). Except for some baked chips, I am on program this morning. But last night, after a pretty good day of eating, I lost the struggle and went back to the kitchen a few times for an orange and a Balance bar. Not so horrible, but nearly 300 extra calories in just a few bites...I will do better this evening.

The kimchi soup was great, and today's shrimp soup for lunch was also good (but not filling enough, somehow). I'm feeling better, although it's damp and drizzly cold outside, it was very tempting to stay home again.

Have a good day!

judy

Judy your soup sounded so good I decided to chg. my dinner for splitpea soup. It smells great haven't eaten yet awaiting for it to thicken a bit. I didn't make it to the gym as the snow started in. After dinner I will go do our downstairs steps 10 times try some situps and streches and approach using some strech band I have had forever. Some exercise is better than none. Hope your doing well everyone today. Penny hope the back is on a mends as well. Take care!

Carol- Way to go on the exercise.

I got my water in today 96 ounces and ate well. 1200 calories as of dinner and the most I'll have is another 250 which will be yogurt with a banana and some granola for desert. I rode the bike for 50 minutes today. I am getting good at that. I really feel like I should kick it up to 80 minutes a day. I think I'll work on doing that this week.


Hope everyone is doing well
Nikki

Nikkimy knee but maybe not now. 80 is a long ride. Do you chg. your levels of speed etc. as you ride. I wonder if it would burn even more cals if you could do that. Kind of like the walk jog walk things. Shake it up a abit?
Good for you staying on task.
I read a bit last night in the WD mag. and there is an article on wog which is walk and jog etc. They give you a 7 week plan and its suppose to really raise your metab. I also didn't realize that even when your sleeping the metab. cont's to work if its at a good level. I haven't been sleeping great lately up every couple of hrs. wiggling around uh! Today I will pick up a little something to get me back in the groove of sleeping correctly. This is crazy along with a hot flash here and there! Well I am off to work soon the roads are yuk sleet and rain , snow last night. I am taking my sweet time. Talk to you all later have a great day.

Hi Ladies-

Carol- I vary the speed from 5 to 7 throughout and keep changing it up. I figure if I do 5o at a shot then 20-30 a bit later in the day. We will see how that goes.


I had my first weigh in this morning, I had not weighed in since I came back from KY and I lost 1 pound this week. I'm excited, I know its not much but it is something.

I hope you are all doing well today.

{love and light}
Nikki

Just checking in to let you know I'm still in the land of the living. My back isn't much better, but I can sit for about 1/2 hour and then have to lie down. I can walk but look like Quasimodo lurching around. My osteopath has surgeries all this week so I can only see him next Monday. He said so long as I don't have numbness and it doesn't get much worse I should be ok. Luckily he has an X-Ray facility in his office, so at least I won't have to take a separate trip to the hospital.

I'll catch up with personals as soon as I can. In the meantime, I hope everyone is doing well and staying on track. My DH seems to think that chocolate is the best medicine so he has been getting my favorite kind when he goes shopping. Since he can only cook fried eggs and toast, we've eaten a lot of those and take out. Good thing I can't weigh myself right now!

Penny, your new diet sounds like fun! Hope your hubby is buying dark chocolate, that's the kind that's supposed to be good for you :devil:. I'm so sorry that you're still dealing with so much discomfort, though. I'm thinking of you today :hug:.

Nikki, you're doing great :carrot:! I haven't been biking much this month, between traveling and feeling icky. But you're inspiring me to get back to pedalling! I have to be at an early meeting Thursday, so I probably won't have time for a morning workout. But I could hop right into my workout gear after work and get on the bike :ebike:. It would be great to increase your time--but be sure to mix it up somehow, so you don't risk a repetitive injury.

Carol, thanks for giving me my new mantra--Some exercise is better than none, some exercise is better than none...I took kimchi soup to work today, and folks said it smelled great, not cabbage-y :D

Juls, Marie, I hope you're feeling good today.

I'm bummed that I couldn't vote yesterday. The ice made the roads and the sidewalks so slick in the evening that I was lucky to get home without falling. Everyone was slipping, it looked like a scene from March of the Penguins.

I'm on program today. I did a 40-minute strength training video, and have eaten from the menu, except for an extra SB 100-calorie bar.

Be well--judy

Judy- I am increasing the tension and decreasing often. Yesterday I worked up a good sweat. I think today I am only going to do 30 minutes as I woke up with my back in a spasm. The scale is down another pound today. I could get used to this LOL.

Happy Valentines Day Ladies :val3: . Don;t eat to much candy. I am allowing myself 100 calories worth. I know if I deny myself I will binge later.



Nikki

Gaack, what a day!:stress: Too many random fires to put out on a day that was already too busy. Oh, well. I did my best, and I'll try again tomorrow.

Happy Valentine's Day:val1:. I hope those of you with hubbies or sweeties are having an especially great day. Nikki, I had just two little discs of super-dark chocolate that a colleague brought in, so this is the best I've done in years! Good work on moving that scale...go, go go!

I'm on program today. Another very early meeting this morning, so I'll leave work shortly so that I can work out. I had a protein shake with blueberries for b'fast, nuts and orange slices for AM snack, a big salad with tofu (don't gag, Marie) for lunch, and cottage cheese with a little pumpkin and apple chutney for a late afternoon snack. The cottage cheese mix is tastier than it sounds, kinda like pumpkin pie.

Oh, now what? Another fire, gotta run....

Judy- I had 1 piece of chocolate that was a 125 calorie heart. I plannedthat into my calories. I did ,manage to do 50 minutes on the bike too. i may windup eating another heart but hopefully not LOL.

I had to order dinner out tonight but only ate half of it so I am hoping I did not mess up to bad on that.

{{{}}
Nikki

Thanks for all your get well wishes.

Judy - I hope your "random fires" have gone out by now. It sounds pretty treacherous with all that ice in your part of the world - stay safe. I never would have thought of pairing cottage cheese and pumpkin - but I may give it a try. Did you sweeten it with the chutney? No, my hubby didn't get me dark chocolate - my favorite is Lindt Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate - I savor each piece very slowly and try and limit myself to 2 squares a day.

Nikki - You are doing fantastic with the exercise! Good for you limiting your candy. We can still have a little of what we like, so long as we count it in our total calories. Otherwise life would be too boring....

Carol - I had some problems sleeping due to menopause and I've had success with taking 1/4 tablet of Melatonin. I get mine (mint chewable) from Trader Joe's and cut them into quarters with a pill chopper. I only take it if I'm really having trouble sleeping and take the smallest dose possible. I think it's better than taking strong prescription stuff that can get you hooked. We also keep the bedroom cooler at night now as I still get hot flashes and continuously throw off the covers! I also switched to a cotton nightie as I seem to get hotter in synthetic ones.

Marie - I heard about the buildings caving in down there under all the snow. You must be getting a bit fed up with it by now (even a snow bunny like you!)

Juls - I hope everything is going well for you and that you're over your pneumonia by now.

I'm feeling lots better today. I was able to take a shower and wash my hair for the first time in a week :yikes:. I still have to shuffle around but can stand almost straight now. I hope the doc has some good ideas on Monday. I gingerly weighed myself - after eating chocolate and laying on the couch for a week I was sure I'd gained a ton - but was surprised to see I hadn't gained any. Hmmm maybe I should switch to the 'chocoholics diet' - just kidding :D. I was glad I had made a lot of soup and spaghetti meat sauce before my back went out, so we had enough food in the freezer. My DH is the world's worst grocery shopper and always comes back with the wrong stuff - he means well though, so I can't complain. He's good at getting takeout though! :D

Girls its been a busy week and now I have reached the long weekend hurray! My intakes in the past 2 days haven't been great so today I will work on that. Between taking the girls to see the Hannah Montana movie and out to eat then friends in last night! I am going to go to the gym either today or sunday. I kind of like sun. mornings as I am not rushed and its quiet at the gym. My friend was only on a free pass and has decided not to join. Oh well sometimes its easier to go on your own. You can fit it into your schedule much better etc. I was thinking of going in the a.m. sometimes and that would fit into my day better and be all done too.
I'm going to make out a schedule for the next week with some exercise scheduled in and a preplanned menu. I will see how this works out for me. Just trying to tweek my life style a bit. If yah don't try new ideas you'll never know if that might be just what yah need to keep the wt. down and reach the goal we want easier. So be it I will try this new linIe of thinking. It is going to be extremly cold today but by monday in the high 40's crazy huh?
Judy your intakes sound like creative thinking is going on in your food area. Good for you bordeum always adds to trouble. Hope your work calms down. For me things are so much better in that area. My coworkers are wonderful and my director was telling me yesterday that the past one that left really showed her true colors in the end. She also told me how upset she really was when I had gave my notice. I think that might of really been an eye opener for the dept. and when they wouldn't tolerate anymore crap from her unless it was in writing she crumbled and decided to go. So I feel pretty lucky to of stayed where I am now and its working out well. Sometimes the job is tough but I know my players and the support in the office is great. Hope to keep it that way. Judy I hope your work gets smoothed out too. The daily stress is tough but when we deal with human services its tough.
Marie hope your enjoying some of the snow? Your getting so much you can ski for months to come.
Penny glad your healing nothing worse than a sore back. Don't over due take your time to heal. Hope the doc has some relief in store for you. Thanks for the idea on menopause boy its not nice. It seems to be fading away again thank goodness. Good for you not gaining!
Nikki hurray another lb. good deal huh?
Well I just made some cranberry scones with oj in them. I will have one for breakfast and a piece of fruit my blk coffee thats it for the a.m. other than water. Going to cook something hot for dinner as its a cold one here. I am going to ck out the freezer then decide something within my limits. I might be creative today with spicy chicken or something on that line.
Take care and Juls I hope your feeling much better too. Boy this flu thing is hitting my area hard so far I have been very lucky in that area hope it stays that way.