Just stopping by long enough to declare my challenge. It's going to be an exercise challenge again. I'm going to expand on my ab workout. In addition to doing my full ab routine, I'm going to add pushups, squats, and lunges. Time for serious toning.

Have a great weekend all!

Sometimes I just get so annoyed with myself. (And with the rest of the world too, but...) Right now I'm sitting in my nice little hotel room, trying to justify paying $10 a day for a few hours Internet in the evenings, plus the cost of the network cable I ended buying - the one provided by the hotel is too short for me to use the laptop on my bed, so I went out and splurged on a 12-footer. Whoever said size doesn't matter?

As I said in my short post earlier, I'm starting to realize I may have been a little too quick to drop some meds I was on. Once I realized they might be part of the reason for the excessive sweating, I was so done with them! So now I'm a lot dryer, but everyone around me is walking on eggshells and sweating bullets because they never know when I'm going to blow another gasket. So far I've been fortunate, in that my worst tantrums have turned out to at least be about real issues. (It's a little embarassing when I pull out all my best sarcasm only to realize I was in the wrong from the getgo...) But UPS DID lose the Gazelle, and the hotel Internet WAS impossible to connect to, and there really was no one answering the help line....

Tomorrow I was supposed to be working; it seems they can get by with 5 instead of 6 of us, so I've asked for a free day (good for the client who saves $$$, and for me and my colleagues as I get to rest and regroup.) I go home on Mon after a day's work, and then have to work 2 days very understaffed, which means more money but always wipes me out. So I'm glad to get a break now. Maybe it's my advanced age, but I really didn't expect to take so long to get back to "normal" after what really was pretty minor surgery.

Things seem to have been pretty busy on the thread: Mez working on batwings, Marble taking advantage of my absence to try to kill herself (no doubt wanting to start a new challenge at the same time as me ::,
Fish BEING ACCEPTED TO THE BAR!!!! YOU GO, GIRL!!!!!,
Red eliminating everything but oatmeal and gravel from her diet , apple suffering from the blues but hanging in there, ... I'd love to mention everyone else, but am using a very skittish IP and it won't let me "go advanced". Now I think I know what happened to last night's post...

I think I'll finally start the challenge once I get home from this little trip. I'll ponder on it overnight, but think it's time for some big guns to come out. And soon my nose will stop being fragile, and I'll get some energy back, and I'll be home with no excuse... (Speaking of which, dinner out was absolutely scrumptious. I really do have lovely friends who treat me so wonderfully. Sniff, sniff.)

My apologies to those of you I didn't mention, Chaps, Curly, Friend, our many new members... And by the way, Red, as far as the dreaded 2's are concerned, I very much fear that ship has already sailed...

I'm still doing good as far as eating. And I'm walking ALL day...ATLEAST 8000 a day. But I'm so tired when I get home that I don't get around to getting on here. So I'll make this challenge simple. Post here EVERYDAY with the number of steps that day. Simple enough. I give each and every one of you permission to kick my behind if I slack off again LOL.

This morning I started the new challenge. I didn't jog because it's raining like mad, so I made it a big strength training day. Did the abs, lunges, squats, and then focused on arms. Up until today, I have been doing pushups on my knees. Today I did ten of those, and then thought I would try "real" pushups. Holy mole', what an eye-opener! So much tougher!! But I did three, and that's a great start.

Mez - I hear you about the bat wings. After losing a bunch of weight, I had resigned myself to the flappy skin which remained, and just figured that unless I can afford surgery, I will have to live with it. *BUT*!!! When I started the situps and saw a huge reduction in the flappiness around my torso, I realized that all was not lost. That is really what is motivating me to start working on my arms, because I know for a fact that it can be helped. Red is totally right about the triceps, I highly recommend giving that a shot for a couple of weeks.

Marble & Friends - I think the biggest thing that throws new exercising hotties such as yourselves off the track is starting too big. It makes tons of sense - you get all motivated and you want to do it all in one day. We have all done that. But just like weight loss is best done slowly, starting exercise is best done slowly. You might not feel it too much at first, but that's great, because you will keep at it! You can do it, youcanyoucanyoucan!!

Fish - Congratulations on the bar, that's fabulous!

Redballoon - Early rising. Yes. I am finally at a point where I don't even think. I hear the coffee pot brewing, then I hear the alarm, and I just get up without even thinking. If I stop and think, I will talk myself into staying in bed, when I'm in that non-rational state between sleep and awake. Oh, by the way, next time I'm in Tokyo, I'll gladly eat cold oats with your horse!!

Everyone else, have a great weekend! Beat those challenges into submission!

Hey Chaps, I owe you a big thank you - your comment about situps helping the "flappy torso" (I just love some of the expressions around here!) hit home and I think situps, Red's bat exercises, and some pushups are going to be in the next challenge. I've never been so fluffy in my life, and it makes me look a lot fatter and older than if I had nice firm fat.

So far today I'm both proud and embarrassed to say it's almost one pm, and I'd probably still be dozing if the phone hadn't rung. So I'm needed at work this aft after all, but in the meantime I've rested well and feel so much less tense. I think a nice big breakfast will be just what I need to keep me going all day. I'm pretty hungry , but for FOOD, not junk.

Later gaters,

ok back to business... chai and I are heading out for a nice 3 mile walk... then i am gonna come home and be lazy and read all my nutrition books i checked out this morning.. i bought a tae bo dvd i will try that out tonite and do some time on the 'zelle


so day 17 done!

Chaps...but what's the excuse if you've been exercising regularly for YEARS AND YEARS? (oh it must be old age?)

Ah-HAH, Ms. Carla rises from the ashes like a Phoenix.....her nose is perfect and her tummy flat from all that abdominal work while she was recooperating....

My back is feeling better every day, I've been stretching it and applying heat. Hopefully by Sunday I will renew my challenge and get past the single digits....

have a great weekend everyone!

yes I myself would like to know why my weight will not move down faster...

becz... I am walking a total of 5 miles a day, I go to the gym everyday and work out for 1 hr...

as u know i dont eat white flour, sugar, potatoes,rice or pasta


heres my weights... as u can see in the graph i was stuck on a plateau.. when my weight went up.. i moved my tracker up,, when it went down i moved it down... so it probably seems like it has been on the same numbers now for a while..

Well, curly, you are losing, just very slowly. It looks like you'll have to cut the amount of food you eat. It's the same as me. I can cut all the junk out of my diet but as long as I don't reduce the overall amount of food, the fat won't come off. It's simple arithmetic. What's not so simple, of course, is doing it and I'm not in a rush, because, probably like you, the healthful eating is the priority. But since you were wondering about why your weight doesn't come off, it's simply that you're still, for YOU, eating too many calories to create a deficit. Good luck! It's what I'm working on too....

i eat 1200- 1300 calories per day, but like u said i am not going any lower becuz this is forever...

Posting to say hi.

8,459 steps today. YAY!!!

Gotta work tomorrow, even though its SUPPOSED to be my day off cuz we have a birthday party to do. SO oh well. Atleast its not ALL day.

Finished Day 2 of adding pushups, lunges, and squats. Man, there is nothing quite like jogging 3.5 miles, doing a series of leg exercises, and then having to walk up 5 flights of stairs when you get home. Oh, and it's 46 degrees outside.

Carla - "nice firm fat" - bwahahahaha! That cracked me UP! But soon it will be replaced with nice toned muscle. Who gets the last laugh then??

Marble - Oooohh, I didn't know you were not just starting. I guess that's what I get for coming in partway through a conversation. Well, glad to hear you are feeling better, anyway!

Redballoon - Yes, I will take it easy if this challenge starts to make me feel too sore. I know that I don't need to prove anything to anyone but myself. And besides that, I have earned two pause days, so I think I'm in pretty good shape. I hope you got to sleep in today!

Have a great day everyone!

day 18... walked 3 miles