In the interest of all Royals, we hearby do declare a two-week sprint to Independence Day, the focus of which will be our recommitment to ourselves and our healthy lifestyle goals.

This short sprint is a motivation booster to any who has been feeling unmotivated, and even those who have not! Along with our regular social postings, let's focus on healthy habits for two weeks to gear up for the next challenge. Two weeks...pfffft...that's a cake walk! Er...bad choice of words...but can we handle 14 days? YOU BET WE CAN!

Feel free to post your focus for the two weeks, or not...this is a no-stress challenge. As long as it's healthy and fits into your goals, it's good!

Thanks for starting new thread, Wildfire. Have set two specific goals.

1. Get in that water - 8-10 glasses a day. May have to cut back on tea a bit to do it but do it I shall.
2. Hone my relaxation techniques to handle stress better. I've noticed that I've not been as able to relax during stressful times as I was previously so (even if it means bringing out the tapes again) I must regain this skill.

I'm going to need this the next two weeks as some stressful situations presenting themselves.

I'm also honing my eating habits a bit. Have gone to skim milk instead of 2%, cutting back on cheese and ice cream (only had it twice instead of 7 times this past week). Not giving these things (or anything) up totally, just honing. Won't be reporting on this specifically - just on 1 and 2 above.

Had a good day today, foodwise, waterwise and even exercise-wise.

Cerise, so sorry about your friend. It's tough and to have it happen so close to you too. Take care and check in when you can.

Hoorah, I'm signing up for the (ta-da) SPRINT TO INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!! My goal for this two-week challenge is a "poundage" one. I will do all in my power to reach 149.5 by the Fourth of July.

This day is rather pivotal to me and I want to have made the turnaround back into the 140s by that fateful Sunday a.m. ... it's a long story but either I'll be working that day or I will have been laid off ... won't bore anyone with the chesslike details of my crazy career; just want to be in control of weight by then and it'll all work better for me.

So I'm declaring my INDEPENDENCE from these four pounds by trying to eat in an average range of below 1700 and getting in 385 FORMAL exercise minutes per week (averages to 55 min a day, but I don't plan on doing that much every day ... will average) AND trying to get in more LIFESTYLE activity, which I won't be logging! Huzzah! I'll be checking in on the 21-day challenge thread and the food/exercise journal but otherwise will be focusing my sprint activities here. I will be logging my menus and exercise in my paper journal as it's just easier than the computer right now!

Basically, though I know a lot of people hate this word, I'M DECLARING THAT "I'M ON A DIET!"

Wanted to add another hello to Cerise in case you only get to this thread and don't have a chance to read the former one. So sorry about your friend. Om shanti, stay strong.

Hello all!

Cerise- So sorry to hear of your friend's death... How kind of you to want to offer to sing at the service!! You are so thoughtful!
Here's a (((((((((((HUG)))))))))))) to let you know how much I think of you!

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Yes, this new thread sprint is a great idea!


Empress-- I can only imagine the nonstop thoughts surrounding the job changes... Sending lots of positive energy so that your name appears on the "Keep" list as well as "WE MUST HAVE THE EMPRESS" list...


Spent the weekend either away from the house, sleeping ( 3 + hour nap on Sat) or watching the Star Wars trilogy w/ DH as neither of us had seen any of the 3 movies... hard to believe but true...

My commitment--
To continue to try to add another flight of stairs to my climbing
To journal in some fashion ( sticky notes worked the best so far)

and on another note---

GET ALL THE CLOTHES THAT DON"T FIT OUT OF MY ROOM!

its positively crazy ....

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Thought of the day :

"I shall pass this way but once."
--William Gannett

Question of the day :

"If you could find the personal diary of one person from history, with all the juicy details, whose would you want to find?"
---from 'If (2)..." Evelyn McFarlane & James Saywell

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KETTLE IS ON!

PS -- Sorry to be so general and only mention two specifically....

My very best to everyone... keep smiling...

I want to recommit to ALL my healthy habits, I've simply felt 'off' lately and it's led to a 2-pound weight gain. Yikes! So I'm no longer at goal. I want to be more formal about this, to have a real plan, so I'm going to work on that and post it later.

Kaylets, love today's question! First person that sprang to mind for some reason was Oscar Wilde--now that'd most likely be juicy reading!

THANKS to Wildfire for getting us started!

Sign me up! I'm recommitting myself to stay on South Beach (my new best friend) and go through my checklist every day.

One week into SB. I'll weigh in again on Friday (or before if I'm motivated by feeling like I've lost), and then again on the 31st when I report my month's loss to the diet group. Friday is actually that 5K race that I committed to. I was hoping to be running like a gazelle by now (and -- guess what? -- I'm not ), but I have hopes of being able to at least finish the 5k and I'll be happy with that.

Cerise, love to you and your former classmate's family. It's always so unfathomable when someone so young dies, and just seems wrong. I've never quite managed to get my head around the deaths of young friends and relatives. Hope you manage to make contact with his widow.

Anagram, me too, on the stress thing! The winter/spring has been extremely stressful for me, and I should have been focusing on stress reduction more than I have. I even found a great 10-minute guided meditation -- quick, and almost effortless -- but have I made myself do it? OK, I WILL today. Here it is, in case anyone's interested: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/3/story_385_1.html

Kaylets, I think I'd go for Emily Dickinson -- I just think her observations would be interesting! And then I almost said, yup, Oscar Wilde for sure when I saw Eydie's post. Incidentally, I just read yesterday that Lord Byron once embarked on a weight loss plan in which he ate a single meal a day and did strenuous exercise while wearing six waistcoats simultaneously. I think he lost about 30 pounds, but funny picture for Romantic poet, eh.

Eydie, I feel bound to say that 2 pounds from goal should be considered goal. Really, weight bounces around so much anyway, right?

Love to all, mentioned or unmentioned -- let's make this a good one! HUZZAH!!!

AAAH, my Sisters in Stress! It seems to be such a recurrent theme in our posts, there is no doubt that it is a large factor in fighting our battle to be healthy. I've been taking the time to try to relax but I'll be doing the tapes too and checking out that site, Wood Nymph, for sure.

Empress - sending good job vibes to thee as well. Inspired by Kaylet's situation and how all worked out and wishing the same in your direction. Also by Frogger's situational turnaround. The sun does so often shine after the stormy periods.

Have been having some technical difficulties lately. Addition of another medicine, the horrible humidity, etc. have added some more swelling which has my weight way up again. Am working hard to bring it down. I know it's the swelling (I've mentioned this is why I don't often weigh and why I report only new lows) but it still makes it hard to stay faithful when I'm feeling bloated, etc. However, seem to have adjusted to medicine, the D--- humidity has broken for the moment and I'm eschewing salt as much as possible again so I'm hoping at least to feel more motivated.

Portending stress involves dh and his medical situations but we've done this one before and we'll do it again (too many WWII news items lately - that motto is musically ringing in my head). But not a bad motto. Sorry for the age reference - may be the only one who knows it.

Speaking of age, kudos to your acquaintance, Cerise, for her bungee jumping. But I am the MOST chicken person so erase that picture of me doing same. Terribly afraid of heights.

No, Kaylets, I'm not done and it'll take ages to finish up all this shrub destruction I've planned. DH is sorry he bought the new lopper as I only chop, he picks up. Taught the elder princess a bit of this over the weekend and the part she seemed to enjoy was telling her grandfather she had made a lot of shrub piles for him to pick up. Technical difficulties got in the way but even so would not have been done as I only work under perfect weather conditions which does not include humidity at all.

Well, Monday's my "organizing" day when I plan a lot of things that never seem to happen as I think they should. But that doesn't deter me from trying to get it together so I'm off to do that.

Have a good week, s! We can bring a solidarity of commitment to the fore and make the sprint a real success so we're in fine shape to face the battles of late summer.

Hi,
I am always up for a sprint. I am mostly going to keep chugging along with the biking and the eating, but one added element is that I am going to clean my house. Thats right, I think that the best thing I can do for my emotional and physical wellbeing is to have a clean and organized home for at least a while rather than the usual chaos. Now do not get me wrong, I am not aiming for antiseptic neatness and I do not want to lose the charm of a million little projects cheering up the place, but I really need to be able to navigate without tripping over things. Plus a clean house makes me more likely to eat at home. So there.

Cerise - I was so sorry to hear about your friend. My greatest condolences.

Mornin' all,

Cerise, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend Luke. I saw his picture on the news and for some odd reason was drawn to him - my thought was "he looks like someone I'd be friends with". Now I know why I thought that... my thoughts are with you, and his family.

I myself had a wonderful/awful weekend.

Visit with dad and Stepmother was fun. We did a lot of walking around antique-ing and talking. They headed home Saturday morning. I really enjoyed their visit...

Saturday was horrible. My mom called me over once I got home from breakfast and seeing my dad off to tell me that one of our dear family friends had died while visiting family in CA. Apparently she had a staph infection that they diagnosed as "flu" and after 3 weeks her kidneys failed. She was older (late 60's, early 70's) and had been through chemo last year for bone cancer, so why on earth they let this go for 3 weeks I don't know... but I'll miss her tons - her threatening me bodily harm if I don't give her a hug before I left, her always looking for unique cow things for my collection (I have a hand painted shovel she had done for me) and how she loved my mom like a daughter.

That being said, weight wise I did so-so last week. I held my own eating out 3 days in a row with dad, but Saturday and Sunday I pretty much ate whatever sounded good...

Ok, phones are going nuts, must away and will be back later if I can - I'm alone in the office all week!

Terri

Punkin, sorry to hear about the loss of thy friend ...