Good morning from a very chilly New York (10 degrees here this morning!) I did not make it to my meeting on Saturday - there just wasn't time to go weigh in and try to have breakfast on the way to the state test. The test was a joke as I suspected it would be (it was a teaching assistant test not for teacher certification) - it took me an hour to answer all 100 questions. Still, I had to get up early for it. I didn't do great over the weekend and didn't do horribly. I HAVE to watch myself around 9:00 or 9:30 in the evening. That's the time in the last few days when I've had non-core snacks and have sort of "blown" the day. Of course, tonight and tomorrow night I won't get home until 9:00 (classes start tonight) so my challenge will be to wind down and get to bed at a decent time. I think I'm going to try to do "PM Yoga" tonight after class, a 20 minute, end-of-the-day yoga workout and see if that helps me wind down. In the past when I had late classes, it was hard for me to get to bed at a decent hour as I'd get a second wind once I got home. The bright spot in the program for me has been workouts (as usual) - I've managed to do 14 of them so far this year and am on target. I *promise* myself I will get to my meeting this Saturday, weigh in, take the post holiday hit and move on!
It's Joe and Joanne from the mountains of Oroville, CA!
Our weekly weigh in was a bummer for me - I gained 2.5 and Joe lost 2. I don't know how I gained, reviewed all my food intake sheets and they were correct. Drank all my water -- Oh well, I will keep hanging in there!
I'm 57 - does anyone have a problem losing weight as they get older? It really is depressing! However, I am using recipes from this site, adapting my own and feel we are eating really well. It's winter and I like my "comfort" foods and have found several excellent casserole recipes. The good thing is I don't feel like I am "on a diet."
Judy - Sounds like you have the same weather we do. It was 4 degrees this morning. This afternoon it got up to 18, but it's damp. Tonight we're supposed to get snow. I guess we didn't dodge winter this year. It's good that you've been able to identify you're danger time for snacking. I'm sure you'll be able to come up with strategies to beat it. I hear you about winding down after late classes. Yogo should help.
Joanne - Sorry to hear about the gain, but if you've done everything right, it's just your body adjusting to the change. And yes, it is harder to lose weight as I get older. (I'm 45.) Our metabolisms slow down and it's a harder fight. But it's still a fight that can be won. I'm with you on comfort food. I'm glad you've found some recipes to your liking. I pulled out a cookbook yesterday that has tons of recipes for comfort food made lighter, so I'll be working them into our dinners over the next few weeks.
I've had a pretty good week, although the weekend was only so-so. I did well on Saturday and then lost it on Sunday. But I picked myself up and resumed sane eating. My sneak peeks have been good, so I'm hopeful for a good trip to the scale tomorrow. I'm going to do CORE for a week to take a break from counting. And now I must convince myself that I really don't want Chinese food for dinner.
Judy and Carla - I'll take your weather any day. We're getting TERRIBLE rain from a "Tropical Punch" from the equator in the Pacific - yesterday we had about 6" of rain and not much better today. I had to change my route home this evening due to a mudslide.
Judy, sounds like your exam wasn't worth the trip - but how nice that you breezed right through it. Could you try a soak in the tub at 9 or 9:30 to ward off snacking? My snacky time is generally after work; I've been curbing that by taking lots of low cal things for snacking on all day long at work. I've been essentially munching on something almost hourly; I've been taking sf/ff yogurt, raw veggies, cheese, crackers, apple, almonds, sf/ff jello made with 1/2 skim milk, etc. and munching my way through the day. Could you try some planned snacking? Glad things are going well on the workout front. I've been tm'ing almost daily, and doing weights 3x a week; I really ought to count how many - I do have them recorded.
Hi Joanne - yup, I find it hard to lose. I'm 43 and have to fight for every pound lost. It's a lot of work and very frustrating at times - I tend to get on plateaus for weeks at a time before anything happens.
Carla - one good day on the weekend beats two bad days. I hope your sneak peaks hold up for you. I half heartedly asked for my scale to be returned last night, and then changed my mind and decided to hold off till the end of the month. Did the Chinese food call your name this evening?
Still doing quite well on the food and move-my-lazy-butt front. I've been in a cycle of getting an extra hour or so of sleep for the last week; which is nice for the body, but it means I'm hitting the snooze button many times in the morning and not getting in any exercise till evening, by which time I can hardly move. I quit TM'ing after 25 minutes this evening because I was so fatigued. I'll try and get up tomorrow and get some movement in before work. I'm so looking forward to some daylight early in the mornings - that's when I get out of hibernation mode. Dinner tonight was grilled teryaki flank steak with asparagus and broiled parmesan tomatoes, with a carmelized onion and shitake mushroom barley risotto. Very tasty. God bless Michael.
Joanne – welcome! I agree with Carla – I think it’s your body re-adjusting and if you stick with it, you’ll see a nice loss. I’m going to be 48 soon and yes, it is a harder fight to lose weight.
Carla – Good for you for recovering from your slip. I hope you’ve given yourself a pat on the back for it! No, you really don’t want Chinese food but you do want to get moving and get some exercise in!!!! Come on, girlfriend, get up and get moving (watch out or the drill sergeant will be back)
Karen – yikes! I’m glad you’re OK. Those mudslides are scary. Yes, I like the idea of having snacks available – I had some cut up raw veggies left over from the weekend and snacked on them when I got home. The yoga helped a bit. I think a nice hot shower or bath might help too. I guess that depends on how clean the tub is – the last thing I want to do is clean the tub when I get home from class ;-) Way to go on the workouts – yes, count them – I find it motivating. Do you lend Michael out??
Karen - I'll have to agree with you- I'd rather have my weather than your's also. At least we've had some sunshine, although none so far today, and mud slides aren't something we have to worry about here. Those are some really well-thought-out snacks you've been having. I think it's great to combat a snacking problem with healthy snacks. You win all the way around. Good for you for changing your mind on getting your scale back. I think that the focus that you're doing on healthy eating rather than where the scale is heading is setting you up for really developing a new, healthy lifestyle and good things weight-wise are sure to follow. Your dinner sounds divine. I'll tell you what: when I get done visiting NY for Tony's meatballs, I'll swing around to Vancouver for that same exact menu at your house. And if Mike ever has a hankering to come to the Chicago suburbs to cook.....
Judy - I'm glad to hear the yoga helped you. And I'm with you on not wanting to clean the tub when you get home from work. You're so right - I have to get moving. I don't know why I'm being so resistent to exercising right now. I mean, as you well know, it's never been my favorite thing to do, but I've always been able to force myself to do it. I'll have to figure this out, that's for sure.
Well I'm pleased to announce that I lost 3.6 pounds this week! Imagine - you work the program and it works for you. Who'd have thunk it? And I steered clear of the Chinese food. I was really contemplating having John bring home a frozen pizza and I even said those words to him, but then I thought how hard is it to open a can of ff refried beans, heat up some tostada shells and chop some onion and tomato. So we have tostadas after all. Better for our bodies and our pocketbooks. (I'm really trying to lower our food bill. We're carrying a credit card balance for the first time in our married lives and I want to pay it off as soon as possible.) Tonight I work, so it will be a can of soup - whatever's on hand that's core - for me for dinner.
Hello! I am here for my weigh in. I weighed this morning and I have lost 3lbs. I am really pleased. I just hope I can stick with it. I does get hard at times. When do you all think is the best time to weigh yourself? I always do it in the morning.
Melissa
Carla – congratulations on that great loss and way to go on steering clear of the Chinese food. I’ve never made tostada shells – are they a lot of points? That sounds like a great meal to me although I don’t know what Tony would think of it – but then again, he’s always willing to try something. Any exercise in your week? How about this – commit to me that you will walk in place for 10 minutes while watching TV sometime between now and Sunday – whaddya think?? Are you having the snowstorm we’re supposed to get tomorrow? We’ve cancelled out dinner plans with a friend already as they are talking anywhere from 7 inches to well over a foot of snow with windy, near blizzard-like conditions!
I’ve been very snacky at night for the last few days – PMS monster, probably stress of starting school again, not getting enough sleep the night before last – whatever the reason,. it has to stop. I will go weigh in tomorrow and I know that gain will be sizeable, not just because I haven’t lost what I gained over the holidays but also because TOM came today. However, since Tony and I are going down to AC next Friday (until Sunday) that means I won’t be able to get to my meeting next week so tomorrow it has to be tomorrow. I haven’t exercised in two days but that’s OK – I didn’t do yoga when I got home from school yesterday and really felt the difference from the night before. On Tuesday night I was able to get to bed at a decent hour – Wednesday I didn’t so that tells me it’s a short yoga session after school both nights. I was planning on doing a little something yesterday (yoga) but I gave blood after work and my arm was a bit sore. I have a chiropractor appt after work today but I told Tony I have to do a yoga session today – I just feel too stiff.
Have a great day and if I don’t get back here, a great weekend!
Judy
Hi from the blizzard of 2005! The forecast calls for somewhere between 12 -18 inches when it's all over tomorrow afternoon. It started snowing about 3 or so hours ago and it's really starting to come down hard. I finally went to my meeting today and weighed in with a whopper of a 5.4 pound gain - I'm not too bummed though because I have TOM so I think about 1/2 of my holiday gain is about gone if you don't include TOM.
I just finished reading and taking notes for one course and since I already took a break to make a huge pot of split pea soup (yum) and do a 50 minute cardio/weights workout, I'm going to curl up with a book for my Children's Lit class, a Newberry Award winner. I'll prepare a presentation about the book (as well as a Caldicott winner) tomorrow (it's due on 2/1 but I don't want to have to do it when I'm in AC).
Have a great rest of the weekend,
Judy
17/240 workouts for 2005
Weigh in at home 1/17 - 1/23
