[marbear24]

GOOD MORNING!
(The caps indicated my forced cheer and energy, due to being awake and at work on a crappy rainy morning when the rest of the world has the day off.)


Judy- Happy hour is a much better choice than a BBQ. You have much stronger will power than I do to stick to just one drink!

Penny – The lemon health benefits are quite interesting, and I do like lemons. How does it work for you with the maple syrup in it? Aka: is it good?

Mystical – Moving should provide you with quite a bit of cardio, so if you miss a day I don’t think it’s a biggie . Don’t forget to eat though! Moving is WAAAAY worse with low blood sugar.


Sigh. My husband was nice enough to get up at 5:30 on his day off to come to the Y with me. That was nice. Had he not gotten up it would have been much harder for me to get up.

Yesterday I printed out a big yellow smiling sun and taped it to my office window. If Mother Nature won't give me sun, I'll go get my own.

Portland is completely dead this morning. Even at 7:30, there are usually people everywhere heading to work. No one. I went into DD to get coffee and one of those egg white flat bread things and I was the only one there. So strange.

We need to go grocery shopping tonight, so I have no food I eat or should eat at home. I figured 280 calories for one of those things isn't bad - ends up being 40 calories more than what I normally eat for breakfast.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. We’re going to my husband’s co-worker’s house for a BBQ. I’m going to pick up veggie burgers and low cal hamburger buns so I can join in on the festivities, but remain composed .

Enjoy!

[penpal]

Judy - Sounds like you have a good plan for the weekend. I hope you enjoy a well deserved break. I love BBQ (especially ribs) too but these days it tends to give me heartburn, so I think of that unpleasant side effect and that's usually enough for me to choose something different to eat. I've never been able to drink tea with lemon in it (must be a brit thing!) but I love lemonade with lots of ice. Adding 1 tbsp. of maple syrup adds 56 calories per 10oz glass, but it's still a low cal drink compared to sodas. Maple syrup has good health benefits as it is very high in manganese and iron - much better than white sugar.

Mystical - I'm glad you're feeling motivated - keep up the good work!

Marbear - GOOD MORNING to you too! Oh well, forced cheer is better than no cheer at all . Sorry to hear you have to work today, but at least it's rainy out so you're not missing a sunny day on top of it. I live in Portland too - but on the "left" coast! We're having horribly hot weather - mid 90's - so I'm envying your rain a little bit. I much prefer cooler weather. The maple syrup gives the 'lemonade' a totally different taste, but I like it a lot. My DH tried some and now I have to make it for him too! As I mentioned to Judy, the maple syrup doesn't add a huge amount of calories and it's good for you.

I hope everyone else is doing great.

Have a wonderful weekend!

[O2Bthin]

Marbear - I can totally sympathize with you not having sun. Here in Central, PA we have had rain almost everyday for the last month or more. The last 2 days it has been sunny, but we did get rain today. Hang in there, better days are ahead. Love your idea of putting a picture of sunshine in your window.

Judy - great job on staying on plan. Good luck with the night out on the town!

Mystical - I agree with Marbear that moving will help you get cardio in. The constant moving and lifting of boxes, etc. will be a workout in itself.

Penny - We are suppose to get our first 90 degree temps next weekend. We have only used our A/C 2 or 3 times this year thus far. That is very unusual for us. I didn't realize lemon had such healthy benefits. I am not much for citrus though I do like a wedge of lemon in my ice water.

Today was a nice day. We worked outside mulching our landscape beds. My DH and I worked 3 hours and still didn't get it done because it poured down rain so we had to stop. I gave the 3 boys a choice to rake the lawn or clean the house. DS1 raked lawn and DS2&3 cleaned the entire house. They all did a good job.

I haven't done well in the exercising department. I haven't walked for over a week, but I did mow grass Wednesday for 1 3/4 hours and mulched for 3 hours today so I count that as a work out. I've been nervous to walk because the last time I did I had a guy in a truck pass me 3 times. That scared me and I've been afraid to walk since. I like to walk at 5:30 in the morning and get it in before work because I know it won't happen after work.

We are not doing anything for July 4. My DH and DS1 both have to work. We will try to finish our mulching tomorrow.

Happy 4th of July to all!
Kathy

[marbear24]

I SEE SUNSHINE!!! WOOHOO!!!
It's so nice out! Low let's hope I don't blow it at the BBQ...

[O2Bthin]

Marbear - Yeah for you and the sunshine! Enjoy your day to the fullest and good luck at the BBQ.

It is a beautiful day here in PA. My DH ran in a 5k race this morning and nor we're just relaxing. He has to work so after he leaves I'm going to do some more mulching. My body is already screaming at me for the 3 hours spent mulching yesterday, but it was a great workout.

Happy 4th to everyone!

Kathy

[judydc]

Happy Fourth! I'm spending this beautiful day with a lot of energy to clean, so I've been getting of of old paperwork, software and electronics, and trying to figure out this off-brand MP3 player I bought last year (before winning an iPod shuffle). I want to load this up with cardio music, so I can stop scaring people at the gym with my old-school Walkman and cassettes .

Kathy, you've had a long day! I can't imagine running a race then heading off to work. Your hubby is a good example. I'm sorry that you've been spooked while out walking. Maybe you can make a show of talking on your cell phone if that happens again, and wearing one of those really loud whistles around your neck. I hate it that women can be intimidated so easily--but we have good reason to be watchful, unfortunately.

Mystical, what day is Moving Day? Maybe if you're good about working out thru all the craziness, you can treat yourself to a massage or something. I was beat for a week after moving last fall. Hope you are careful about dragging and lifting, and pace yourself. You have an ambitious workout schedule, but I know that you can do it!

Penny, lemon in tea is wonderful, especially in old-fashioned orange pekoe. But a touch of milk works, too. I love creamy, spicy chai tea, but it tends to have a lot of sugar.

Marbear, I hope you're enjoying your BBQ and the sunlight! It's great that your hubby is supporting you by gong to the y at the crack of dawn.

I've been in a very good mood this three-day weekend. It may disappear Monday morning, so I'm determine to enjoy every second of my off days. I did an hour of cardio at the gym yesterday, and put down the money for five half-hour sessions with a personal trainer. I had been a little depressed about the way that my Fourth of July challenge fizzled, but although my weight hasn't really gone down, I've done a lot of good things these past six weeks that will keep me on the path: getting in the swing of logging my food; joining (and using) a gym; signing up with a trainer; making an appointment with the nutritionist; committing to a week-long retreat at the end of the summer--and not falling off the wagon altogether in frustration. So, yaay for me! I'm figuring it out....

[mystical]

Hello Ladies " HAPPY 4TH OF JULY"

Marbear: I am glad it is sunny for you. It is awesome when you spouse is supporting you. My hubby is awesome in that way as well.

Penny: Hope you have a great day and thanks for the support.

Judydc: Moving day isn't until July 23 but it seems we have so much to take care of before we get to that day and I don't like to wait until the last minute. So I am trying to get everything packed well at least the most of it.

Today has been pretty good, I didn't eat totally on plan since I made homemade biscuits for the boys but I just had one. I guess that isn't too bad. We have been out shopping for new furniture and YEAH we finally found some that we all agree on. It will be in on moving day can't wait.
I didn't do my morning walk but I guess doing all that walking today while shopping counts for something LOL I will be doing my walking tonight before I go to be. Ok ladies have a great evening and I will check in with you later.

How do you guys get all the smiley's in you posts ?

[penpal]

Kathy - Sounds like you got a great workout with all that yardwork! Gardening is my favorite form of exercise .

Marbear - I'm glad the sun finally came out for you .

Judy - It sounds like you're having a good weekend and recharging your batteries. I hope the feeling carries over into next week for you. You're doing all the right things, so you should soon start seeing results. I'm sure the nutritionist will have some good ideas too. Hang on to that wagon - falling off can be painful (as I well know)!

Mystical - You must be getting excited about your move. Just think of all the extra calories you'll burn lugging all your stuff around - kind of like weight lifting . To add the extra smilies, you just click on (More) underneath the smilies to the right of the text entry box when you write a message.

I hope everyone had a good 4th. We went out for sushi - not exactly your typical 4th of July fare - but it's our favorite and waaaay less calories than BBQ. Our neighbors sure had a good time with all their M80's and other "special" fireworks until about 1am . I'm just glad that none of the rockets landed on our roof. A house burned down in a nearby neighborhood last week and fireworks were suspected.

I'm feeling great today as my scale shows I'm "officially" down another 2 lbs. Yay! I'm now down 5 lbs. from my recent high of 210 after I gained back 20 lbs. I'm on track to be in "Onederland" by my birthday.

[mystical]

I don'ty have a smiley box on my message box all I have is just a text box to type in does that appear after I get my signature on here?

[marbear24]

There's a "post reply" under the left hand side of the last post, or you can click "advanced mode" to get the smileys. The "Quick Reply" doesn't have them.

Sunshine! Woohoo! Went for a four mile walk today, in the sun. I was loving it

[penpal]

Hmmmm, that's odd. Are you clicking "post reply" or "quick reply"? Quick reply doesn't have smilies. If that's not it, try scrolling down and click expand for Additional Options, make sure the 'Disable Smilies in Post' isn't checked. Perhaps someone else has some ideas? If not, you can contact a moderator and they could probably help you in a jiffy.

[mystical]

where is the advanced mode there is nothing with my text box except the text options.

[mystical]

marbear24: Oh ok thanks

Penpal: I feel like an idiot now. LOL

[penpal]

Mystical - Looks like Marbear and I posted at the same time. Don't feel bad - most of us had a bit of a hard time getting the hang of things in the beginning!

[marbear24]

Hello ladies. Hope everyone had a great weekend. I'm in a funk today, can't rellay explain why. It makes me... blah. Perhaps caffeine will help, but it didn't do anything yesterday and I was in the same mood.

I gained 4 lbs from yesterday morning, while eating on target for my calories and walking 4 miles. Not an encouraging way to start the day!