I buy a lot of carrots. I buy a lot of carrots because I eat a lot of carrots. I buy big carrots to cook with and baby carrots to munch on. I particularly enjoy having baby carrots with my lunch. The last time I bought some, I bought a one pound bag because I found that I was going through the small bags too quickly. The one pound bag is a rip off, they are not baby carrots. They are big ass mature carrots which have been whittled down to look like baby carrots. In actual fact, they are often woody and not as tasty at all as the baby ones.

I'm feeling much better today than I was yesterday. Last night, I felt so incredibly crappy that I was sure that I was not going to be able to make it out of bed and into work. Alas, I made it out of bed and I am presently sitting at my desk, at work. Saturday night, I dog tired and fighting some kind of weird bug that is going through our office. I actually slept for like 10 hours, something I never do anymore. I felt rested but stiff. My back was all twingy and threatening to do what it had done a couple of months back (ie go out on me and immobilize me for days). I started moving around, slowly, but didn't get into bed with the heating pad. Instead, I trekked downstairs and did laundry, I kept moving. In the afternoon, we were vegged out in the living room watching DVD's of the first season of NYPD Blue and, with the sun streaming in through the windows, I started to notice how dusty and gross the room was. Again, I got moving and started dusting things and washing knick-knacks, between loads of laundry. It was exactly working out but I was moving my body. I kept looking at the bike the entire time but my back was telling me not to. I'm so glad that I did the cleaning instead of the working out. I think that the gentle, slow, calculated movements that I did yesterday helped. By bedtime last night, I felt a little twingy but looser. This morning, I expected to wake up knotted but I was okay. I actually got through a potential back issue without having to lay on a heating pad for days.

I'm not entirely certain that the whole tired / back thing wasn't caused by the food hangover I suffered on Saturday. Today, I feel like my digestive system has resumed normal activities, my back is better, I feel good. Also, despite my activities (or lack thereof) over the weekend, I lost weight this week, 3 more pounds. I lost an inch on my right thigh as well. My calves aren't getting smaller but they are getting firmer. I'm getting stronger. Tonight I plan on doing some walking and then, tomorrow, back to my regularly scheduled workouts. I know that it's going to be a great week this week because I'm going to make sure of it!

Here is this week's Progress Prompt:

The size of an airplane seat is always an issue with overweight passengers. Write about your recent airplane ride. Was it a positive or negative experience?

The last time I actually flew anywhere, which was in late 2000, I had an okay experience. I make it habit, when boarding the plane, to ask one of the flight attendants for a seat-belt extender. I have never had anyone be rude to me or refuse this request. Sometimes, depending the size of the plane, the seat can be a little snug but with an extender, I don't have trouble with the belt. I also don't "spill" over onto anyone's seat around me but I do see how this can be a problem for some people. During my last flight in fact, once the plane was boarded, the attendant asked me if I wanted to switch spots (the flight was only 1/2 full) and I was able to move to a seat with more leg room, in a row by myself. I hadn't asked to be moved, she just offered and it was much appreciated. By the way, when I can, I fly Air Canada or her partners (I've only ever flown with Canada and the States) and they have always been gracious and courteous to me. I'm hoping that the next time I fly, I won't need the extender at all.

Survived another weekend.

I kept my eating totally on plan this weekend, low fat and really low in calories and do feel better for it. The food hangover from yesterday has almost totally dissipated. Thankfully. Unfortunately, the cold / flu I've been battling for several days has kicked in. I think that it was just after-affect of the stress we've been going through over the past couple of weeks. I've felt really crappy all day today, achy and cold. Last night I was so cold that I had to stand in a hot shower for 15 minutes to thaw out. I was really achy and sore all weekend so I didn't actually work out. What I did do though was putter around the house and get some projects done that I've been avoiding. I have found that when I'm sick, I like to poke away at household things. Yesterday, I sat in my spare room and unpacked boxes of books. This afternoon, while bundled up on the sofa watching movies, I tidied up some stuff in our living room that I'd been avoiding.

Hopefully tomorrow, the flu symptoms and the cough will have passed and I can get back to working out. I really miss it when I'm feeling sick.

Got up early this morning, well, early-ish for a Saturday. We're ordinarily up around 4:45 a.m. (my hunny starts work around 5:30 a.m.) but this morning we "slept in" until like 6 or so. I took him to work so I'd have the car and have been catching up on my reading since I got back. With my father-in-law in the hospital, I didn't get much blog-reading time so I'm trying to get back up to speed with what everyone's been up to over the past week.

After our break last night, I'm really back on track this morning. My body feels really heavy and gross after last night (my hunny said that he feels the same way). At the time, we really enjoyed the meal but the food hangover is just icky. I can not believe how weighed down I feel this morning. I am trying to remember how I felt in the past, pre-lifestyle change, after big meals like that. We did that kind of thing all the time and I don't remember it making me feel like this.

The next planned break will happen at the end of April. We'll be going to Toronto for a few days for a wedding and we plan on visiting Chinatown while we're there. We haven't had really good Chinese food since our visit to New York in October. One of my interim goals right now is to get into that cute dress I wrote about last week. I'll have to dig it out again next week and see how it's going so far.

I should mention that I've received (I think) all of the CD's from the swap and I've been enjoying them this morning. It's been very interesting to see how diverse people's musical tastes are. I'm a music snob so this kind of thing always interests me.

I'm still here, I just haven't felt much like posting today. I do make an attempt though, to post every day but some days I have more to write than others.

My father-in-law is home from the hospital now. We've been so exhausted and stressed out during this whole episode that I'm surprised we survived. We decided to have a "free meal" tonight and quite enjoyed ourselves. It's the first time since we started this program that we actually threw caution to the wind. In the back of my mind I was still counting calories and still recorded everything in Fitday when we got home but I'm not feeling bad about going a couple of hundred calories over today. I had a really sensible breakfast and lunch so an extravagant meal to celebrate someone's homecoming (and our own ability to get through it - sanity in tact - sort of) isn't too bad. Particularly when we haven't done anything like this in almost 4 months. I even had dessert tonight (chocolate chip cookies) and really really enjoyed them.

I realized though, how much my thinking about food has changed. We eat out fairly often but usually at the same few places and I know how to order to keep on plan. Tonight, at a different spot, without having to be "careful," I was still thinking about what everything was and what was in it. In the past, I wouldn't have had the activity thing happening to keep the intake under control. Again, that part of my life has changed for the better. Because of this, I though that I burned way more calories than I consumed today and tomorrow I'm right back on plan.

Treats are great, like all things, in moderation.

Soup is the perfect food. Strawberries are good too, but not quite perfect. You could make Strawberry soup though, well bisque I guess.

I did not workout this morning, well not officially but what I did do was pretty darned close to working out. I'm sure that I easily burned as many calories as I would have had I been on the bike! I got up at 5 a.m., did laundry and housework for about 90 minutes before getting ready for work. If my father in law does get released today, we'll be busy at his place this evening so I wanted to get everything done that I needed to do. Also, I have spent the better part of the morning running up and down stairs here at work. I can feel my legs getting stronger with every day that passes. I'm not far away from being to fly up and down them, it's coming.

I always want to write thing here that are clever and witty and insightful. More times than not, I don't actually accomplish this. I've wanted to post more often than I have recently but I haven't had the energy to get it done. Fortunately, we've just found out that my father in law should be coming home from the hospital tomorrow. I don't mind visiting him every day but the whole hospital thing was really getting to me. Particularly with this whole SARS thing that we're reading and hearing about. It's in Ottawa and in Toronto and while there haven't been any reported cases here (yet) I don't want to be spending any more time in a hospital than I absolutely have to.

Today was great foodwise and exercise wise. I got up early and, despite the fact that when I started my heart was not really into it, I worked out before work. I kept to my food plan too, we even stopped off to eat on the way home (by the time we got finished at the hospital and got our groceries neither one of us could face cooking) and I kept on plan. I'm tired this week but I know that part of that is just all the extra running around and worrying that I've been doing lately. I'm feeling 100% better than I did last week though so there must be something to do this exercise and good food thang. ;-)

Hump Day already! Here's the Wednesday Weigh-In, courtesy of Carla:

Portion Distortion
1. True or false: American portion sizes are significantly smaller than portion sizes around the world. What makes you believe that?

I can't speak to the size of American portions but I know that in restaurants, Canadian portions are huge. I can't say that in other western countries that the portions are sized differently because I haven't travelled outside of North America, yet. I do know that restaurant portions seem a lot larger now than I remember them being when I was a kid.

2. Is a cup of rice (for instance) the visual equivalent of your fist?

I would say definitely no. I have measured a cup of rice (and cereal, and everything else I put into my mouth) and I know that a cup of rice is not as big (visually) as my fist.

3. What's one way you can make smaller portions seem like hearty portions?

I think that the trick (for me anyway) it to eat more than just three times a day. I find that if I have a piece fruit mid-morning and mid-afternoon, my lunch and dinner are more satisfying (and I'm not absolutely starving at meal times).

This week's Progress Prompts were posted after I went to bed last night, so here it is, better late than never:

Childhood obesity is on the rise. Why?

I think that a number of factors contribute to this, including our society's increasingly sendentary lifestyle and poor eating habits. I could write an entire book on this subject but I wouldn't cover any ground that hadn't been already been done to death in the press. A few years ago, I remember reading an excellent article on this topic in Radiance magazine.

Monday, what a day.

I'll be so glad when we're back on a normal routine. I've been trying my very best to get everything that I ordinarily do, into my day along with the extra stuff that we now have to do (daily visits to the hospital, extra errands for my father in law, more hours in the office getting ready for the move, skipping lunches, etc.). I'm absolutely exhausted, even after having had a good night's sleep last night and a nap yesterday morning. I think that everything had just caught up with me.

Also, last week, I stayed within my calorie range, and, with the exception Wednesday, I did some exercise every day, my eating was totally wonky. I'd been into this habit of getting the most nutritional bang for my "calorie buck" if you know what I mean. Last week was tough because we ate out, a lot. I mean, Tuesday night, after spending the whole day in Emerg, we actually ate at Pizza Hut! Add that to a couple of meals at the Chinese Buffet, my calories were in line but the fat was out of control. I also had periods of missing taking my vitamins. I have a feeling that this was contributing to my malaise, that and stress.

The oddest thing happened today though, and it happened twice last week, I skipped lunch. Me!! She who never (or rarely) misses a meal! Skipped Lunch!! I just wasn't hungry and I was so busy that I just worked through and grabbed an apple (yes, an apple, not a bag of chips, not a gigantic -- and delicious -- chocolate-chocolate chip muffin - a granny smith apple) 1/2 way through the afternoon. Perhaps that is why I went a little "fat wild" last week, somewhere inside me I felt "entitled" because of the skipped meals. Whatever it was, the combination of the bad-ish eating, the stress, the forgetting about the vitamins and the irregular exercise routine really caught up with me over the past 24 hours.

I do feel a lot better though for having worked out this morning. With every day that goes by, I'm finding the stairs at work easier and easier. I'm not running up them but I'm not gasping at the top and I'm definitely running down them. I know that by getting back into my normal eating routine (we're having a healthy home-made dinner here tonight -- no more Chinese Buffet for a while) and continue with my morning workouts, everything else will fall back into place. Although I did show some losses on my measurements this week, it wasn't as good as it had been in previous weeks and I really want to work on that, get those numbers down some more before my spring / summer clothes claw their way out of the Rubbermaid bins next month.

I better run now, supper smells amazing!!

I managed to get up and at my workout early again this morning. I really thought that after my nap yesterday, that I'd have a tough time getting to sleep last night but I didn't. I fell right asleep and had a great night's sleep, I must have been really pooped.

I really missed my morning workouts during those off days last week. I'm finding that it's so bright in the mornings now that it's not so tough to get up at 4:55 right now. I think that the warmer weather helps as well, we've had our upstairs windows, wide open, for a week now. Today should be fun, it's the last day of our office move and I'll be settling in to my new digs, I'm looking forward to it. How's that for odd? Looking forward to a Monday!!

Yesterday was a bit of a washout on some levels. On the exercise front, I did get my workout in and a lot of walking on top so that was very good. We did go out for dinner last night though and my fat calories were up a bit higher than I like but I had worked hard all week and enjoyed the meal. Today was good though, back on track and then some. Again, did the bike thing and the walking and was way under what I've been at the past few days calorie wise. We even went out for brunch (at Denny's of all places) and I found that I can actually order food there that is low fat, low calorie and tasty. Who knew?!

My father in law is still in hospital so that's very stressful. We're looking at Tuesday or Wednesday as possible release dates, we'll see. I think that everything kind of caught up with me this morning because I felt like absolute shit after I'd been up for about an hour. I managed to go back to bed for a couple of hours and felt groggy but better afterwards. I must say that tonight, I feel better than I have in almost week. It'll be much easier on all of us when he's home.

It's practically past my bedtime now and I can hear the pillow calling my name!

Why are Saturday's such a struggle? I often find myself fighting the snack-monster on Saturday afternoon. Today's no exception. I've been keeping busy and that helps, but yikes, it's tough. I figure if I sit down and post right now, that will distract me for a few minutes. It's not like we have any junk food or bad crap in the house. If I did splurge on something, it would be organic microwave popcorn with a Diet Coke. I still want to resist because I don't need anything right now. I just want to much. Dumb huh?? I've been doing laundry and some other stuff around here this afternoon too. A lot of chores got neglected this week with all the trips to the hospital and what not.

I was able to get back into my regular workout routine this morning. As it had been a couple of days since I'd been on the bike, I chose the shorter program for today. Tomorrow I'll do the longer program and get back into that alternating thing I wrote about earlier in the week. I think that this will definitely work for me.

Friday, already. This week was a blur. I am happy that I made it through, on program. I changed my workout this morning, instead of the biking / weights thing, I did some serious walking. It felt great to be outside in the springy weather. It was misty and dull today but still warm. I felt great after the walk, I still like my bike and all but it was nice to mix things up a bit.

My boss and I were out running errands for the best of the morning. We ended up going out for lunch afterwards and we ended up at the Chalet. We usually only go there at night or on the weekends and I didn't realize that they had a fabulous lunch menu. I had a 1/2 wrap and garden salad, it was perfect. Their club wrap sandwich is my favourite thing on the menu and I absolutely love the way they do garden salads so to have a 1/2 sandwich and salad suited me down to the ground. We've had to eat out a few times this week, what with what's been going on and all, and I've managed to stay completely on plan.

While T and I were out running around this morning, we stopped at this discount store for a few minutes. I found myself looking at clothes in a different way. I am still wearing plus sizes (and expect to be for a while yet) but today was the first time in a LONG time that I actually bothered to look at regular sized clothes. I was able to picture myself in them, not this year, but next summer....I've never been able to do that before. What I did buy though was a really funky cool purse. We have an evening wedding to go next month and I needed a new bag for that. It has to be big enough for my camera stuff but still cute...I found the perfect bag, and it was only $10! I have a "nice" black dress (I love black!) that I wear for events at work that I plan to wear to the wedding. I also have a really "cute" black dress (a classic little black dress) that I haven't been able to wear in a couple of years on back up. If I can get into that, I'll wear it instead. It's quite short and swingy and funky and it would be really nice to wear it again. Here's hoping!! I haven't been excited about clothes in a long time. The past few years, if it fit, that was all I needed it to do. Now, I'm actually having fun with clothes again. I had almost forgotten how much fun it can be!

Wow, despite everything that is going on right now I had a great day, food and fitness wise. I kept my calories quite low and my fat, almost non-existent today. Not bad huh? I'm still a little surprised that this current family crisis hasn't got me wallowing in potato chips or chocolate bars.

It ended up that I didn't workout properly today but I did get a lot of exercise anyway. We moved offices today so there much lifting and carrying and up and down of stairs today. I felt pretty good after it was over but I'm a little stiff in my calves right now. We did have movers to the bulk of the heavy lifting but you really work your muscles hauling boxes of files hither and yon as you pack and unpack. I think my calves are tight only because I wore some sneakers at work the past couple of days that I hadn't worn all winter. In fact, I haven't worn my winter boots since Tuesday -- It was probably the schlepping around in the hospital in them that did my leg muscles in, in the first place. What I like is how strong I feel and how much easier it is for me to be running the stairs at work. I know that this probably doesn't sound like a huge fitness accomplishment to many folks but to me, it's a big deal.

I won't have as rushed a morning tomorrow as I did today so I'll be back to morning workouts for sure. I'm going into the office a little later than normal and then I'm working at home in the afternoon so I should have an excellent day, workout wise, tomorrow. Hope you do too!!

How many calories does worry burn? ...I took today off from working out because I just could not face it this morning. The no sleep thing from last night had me dragging my ass all day. I did manage to get everything packed and all the boxes moved around before the movers get to our office in the morning. I also walked a fair bit today, the weather was nice though so it didn't feel like exercsie! Foodwise, the stress is causing me to not feel like eating much. This is odd for me because, in the past, a stressful situation would have me running toward a box of cookies or a bag of chips. We did go out for something to eat on the way home from the hospital and errands and stuff. Even with eating out, I still came in way under in my calories. I hope to get back to working out tomorrow, I think I'll really need to by then.

So I got some, not much, but some sleep last night. I think I was just too tired to sleep. I could feel every muscle in my legs as I lay in bed last night. I think it was just the sitting around waiting, and then the nervous walking up and down of halls, in winter boots...the tension and all that made me feel so sore. I still incredibly shitty this morning, not rested, and physically spent. I'm hoping I'll feel better after I get some breakfast. I'll be going into work a little late this morning but I've decided to take a day off from working out today. I think I would just hurt myself more if I did. If I can, I'll take a walk at lunchtime.

And it's Wednesday, already....Weigh-In Wednesday! Where's the week going?

Exercise
1. Do you have a specific fitness goal? What do you want to achieve?

I don't know how specific this is but I would like to be stronger and more flexible. Right now, 8 weeks into my program, I can feel that I already am stronger and more flexible than I was when I started. Eventually, I'd like to join a gym (I'd actually rather prefer to build a home gym but we don't have room in our house for much more than the recumbent bike which takes up 1/4 of our living room) and really get toned up. I think that will be in the fall though, when what I can do at home is no longer challenging and I've lost some more weight.

2. How do you measure your exercise progress? How are you doing so far?

I measure how I'm doing as far as progress goes by what I can do now that I couldn't do when I started. For example, we walked miles in the hospital yesterday and it didn't kill me. 3 months ago, I'd have been winded and walking very slowly as we walked through the labyrinth of hallways and tunnels. I really think that the physical exhaustion I felt last night was from stress, not from the activity. I can ride my bike longer, and at more challenging programs than I could when I started. I can run up and down stairs more easily than I when I started. I think I'm doing really well considering the condition I had allowed myself to get into and how hard I've worked since January 6.

3. What would be your fitness fantasy? Would you like to run a marathon, climb Everest? Race in the Tour De France?

That's something that I hadn't thought of before. I've seen that Fitness Fantasy program on the Discovery Health channel but never thought of something that I'd like to do along that line. I know that I'd love to go on a vacation in Europe and do that I'd want to be strong and fit enough to do a lot of walking every day so that I could really enjoy it and get the most of out of it.

What a day we've had. My father-in-law had to be taken to emerg this morning and we spent the whole day, stressing at the hospital. He has been admitted into the cardiac care unit for observation for a few days. This is just a precaution, he had an ulcerated aorta and, because he's on blood thinners, they want to monitor him while they take him off of those and keep an eye on the tear. The doctors are fabulous and are confident that he'll be home by the weekend. He was teasing the nurses pretty good when we left him so I think he's taking all of this much better than we are.

This may sound silly (or not) but I was so glad that I'd worked out this morning, I know that it gave me the strength I needed to get through the stress of the day. Fortunately, my office is directly across the street from the hospital so I was able to literally run down there when I got the call. We were so brain dead on the way home that we stopped off for dinner, at Pizza Hut of all place. Pizza is one of my major trigger foods. I guess because we'd not eaten much of anything all day, the calories were under control. Also, I'd ordered a thin crust veggie pizza which was tasty and not as bad as say, stuffed crust with the works. For the first time ever, we didn't take what was left over, home. I'm not sure what will be going on with us for the next few days but I know that I'll sleep better tonight knowing that my father-in-law is in good hands.

I actually woke up early this morning. I started waking up around 4:15 or so and just vegged until 4:45 a.m. I think my body has once again shifted it's internal clock to accommodate my workouts. I was downstairs moving my butt by 5:15. I've decided that, for now, I'm going to alternate the amount of time I do each day. Rather than take a break one or two days a week (because I'm not doing heavy duty weights or anything at the moment), I'll do an 45-60 minutes one day and 30-40 the next and alternate back and forth. I figure this way I won't get too bored and, if I'm feeling really good on my "less" days, I can do "more." We'll see how it goes. So far so good!!

What a Monday!! I crawled out of bed at 4:45 a.m., a little groggy from the anti-sinus stuff I was taking yesterday. I really wanted to get back to that early morning workout thing I started last week. I managed to get downstairs and do it. I was all done by 6 a.m. and I felt so great after. I think I sweated out the medicine residue. The only dumb/weird thing was that I was watching my Once & Again DVD while I worked and it was the episode where Lily & Judy's dad died, so I was trying not to cry (it's hard to concentrate on your breathing when you're crying!).

Physically, I felt terrific afterwards and it's definitely helping me out at work right now. I'm still packing and moving boxes at work. We're moving on Thursday morning and there's still a lot left to do. I did great, foodwise today, and when I measured up this morning, I was down another 4.5 inches!! That's 36.6 inches overall, I didn't lose any off my bust this week so it's still down 8", I'm down 5" in my waist and 9.5" in my hips. I lost another 3 pounds too so that's me down 33 pounds since January 6!

I'm going to try for another early night tonight, so I can get in another early workout tomorrow!! 'night all!!

If it's Monday, it must be time for the Progress Prompts:

Academy Awards is this coming Sunday. What are your thoughts and feelings about Hollywood's standards on what an actress should look like? Are they still strict on the old standards, or are they finally letting plus-size actresses into movies? Name a favorite plus-size actress and tell why you like her. Do you think the standards are different for male overweight actors?

I personally don't like to watch Hollywood films. I've always been a fan of independent and foreign films. I think that Hollywood standards on most things are totally fucked up. It shouldn't be a surprise that their ideal body image is skeletal. I mean, how is someone like Lara Flynn Boyle or Calista Flockhart supposed to be representative of the female form. They both look like undernourished 12 years to me.

I think that the Hollywood cookie cutter machine only allows people who are "different" into films when it suits them and generally only as character roles. This goes for both men and women. Television has been a little more supportive of non-traditional looking people than film has been but not much. When I say "different" or "non-traditional" I'm also speaking to visible minorities and people who are differently abled.

As far as plus-sized actresses who I admire, there's quite a list: Pam St. Clement, Conchata Ferrell, Marianne Sagebrecht, Dawn French, Pauline Quirke, amongst others, they just pop to mind immediately. I like these particular women because they are real and they generally portray ordinarly women and their size isn't an issue. They just are who they are and their size doesn't limit what they are able to do. They play wives, mothers, career-women, sex pots, you name it.

Today was challenging for me. I woke up with a massive sinus headache this morning. For most of the day yesterday I dragged my butt and had a bit of a headache but I chalked it up to the fact that I hadn't had any coffee. My hunny works on Saturdays but pops home for coffee around 9 a.m. Yesterday, when he got home, I was finishing up my exercise and felt so good about it when I finished that I couldn't be bothered with coffee, I usually have 2 mugs on Saturday. Anyway, today, this headache was just crippling. I found some Advil cold & sinus in the medicine chest and took that. The headache subsided long enough for us to make a trip to the grocery store. What a madhouse that place was. No Frills was crawling with frenzied mothers and their bratty children. You could totally tell that both mothers and children had just had too much of each other during March break. I'm sure that they'll be happy to see the school bus tomorrow morning.

By the time we got home my head had started pounding again. I thought to myself, "fine, today will be a day off and I will just take it easy, no workouts today!" After lunch though, I thought, working out can't possibly make me feel any worse than I already do and, it might possibly help my headache...so I did it. I got off the couch and exercised while watching a show I'd taped on Friday night (Paradise Heights, BBC Canada -- don't miss it!). When I was finished, as I suspected, I didn't feel any worse. My muscles felt good, physically, my body felt great but my head was still pounding.

I'm quite proud of myself though, for making myself move. I like the way that I can feel my muscles moving underneath my fat. I like to imagine that they're chasing the fat cells away. Like in a cartoon, that the muscle is all hot and red and the fat cells are sweaty and have these really worried looks on their faces. I know that probably sounds silly but it works for me!! Foodwise, I had a great day. We had a wonderfully delicious nutritious dinner tonight featuring some gorgeous Chinese eggplant and portabello mushrooms. It's a good thing that we both love stir fry's because we're living on them these days.

My head is down to a dull thud at the moment so I think I'm going to have an early night. I want to get back into that 5 a.m. workout routine again this week. It worked so well for me last week that I'm really looking forward to next week!

We just got home from a late lunch / early dinner and I've been having a terrific day. I worked out this morning, plus did laundry, and cleaned the house (including the icky bathroom -- why do I hate cleaning it so much?) and went up and down the stairs here like, 30 times. Physically, I'm moving so much more than I have in a long long time. I like the way it's making me feel and I'm noticing that I'm slimming down a fair bit. I'm starting to really see it in my clothes. I think that it's because I can move more now than I could when I first started exercising. At my starting weight, my body was not capable of the movement that it is now. Anyway, that having been said, I've had a really really busy day and I'm pooped and I think I'm going to veg for a while. After the week I've had, I deserve it!!

I read this on Yahoo this morning and thought it was interesting. I know that I have always personally believed some of this because I'm a fat person who has always been healthy. No matter how much weight I lose or how fit I get, I'm probably always going to be "above average" because of my height and the size of my frame.

Fat and Fit?
by Steven Blair

Most people think that you can tell if someone's fit, active and healthy just by looking at them. It's not true!

Fit, healthy people come in all sizes and shapes. The same is true of unhealthy people. I know several thin people who are unfit and have serious health problems.

Weight Isn't Everything
How is it possible to be fat and fit? Quite simple. You may have the genetic predisposition to be "stocky," yet you engage in regular exercise. A colleague once asked a 5' 4", 200-lb. woman how she viewed her weight despite routinely devoting an hour a day to vigorous exercise. She replied, "I used to weigh 100 pounds more than I do now." In terms of her health, that's a tremendous difference.

I often tell people that I was short, fat and bald when I started running, but that after running nearly every day for more than 30 years and covering about 70,000 miles...I am still short, fat, and bald. But I suspect I'm in much better shape than I'd be if I didn't run.

Fitness = Longevity
For much of my career, I've tracked a large group of patients from the Cooper Clinic. Each individual received a medical examination upon entering the study, including measurements of height, weight, body composition and cardiorespiratory fitness. We have followed these patients over the years to see who gets sick, who stays healthy, who lives and who dies. The results are fascinating.

Our follow-up has shown that the death rate for women and men who are thin but unfit is at least twice as high as their obese counterparts who are fit. In fact, across every category of body composition, unfit individuals have a much higher death rate than those who are fit. Fitness appears to provide protection against early mortality no matter how much you weigh.

Defining Fitness
Being fit, as defined in our study, does not require high-level athletic training. It means meeting the consensus public recommendation of a cumulative 30 minutes of moderate intensity daily activity, such as walking. Doing more brings additional health benefits. Overall, our data show about 50% lower mortality in the moderately fit as compared with the low fit; highly fit individuals lower their risk another 10 - 15%.

Another interesting finding: Many people classified as obese by current standards actually have a good health profile. We see that as many as 40% of obese individuals have normal cholesterol and blood pressure, do not smoke and are physically fit.

Anyone who struggles with their weight should take this as good news. My recommendation is to focus on good health habits, no matter what number you see on the scale. Give fruits, vegetables and whole grains a major place in your daily diet. Be moderate about fat and alcohol. Don't smoke. Work on managing stress. Perhaps most important, get out of your chair and start moving for at least 30 minutes every day.

Steven Blair is the Director of Research at the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas.

wooohooo...it's been a great week for me, I must say (holy smokes, maybe I really am Ed Grimly!). I kept totally on track with my eating all week and started this morning workout thing which I'm absolutely loving. I've had a tonne of energy and just general enthusiasm this week that I haven't had in a while. I totally think it's down to the change in workout routine. I can't say enough about how much a simple change in routine has affected my whole outlook the past few days...This despite the fact that there is still stressful shit happening in the office. I'm not letting it bug me anymore and I think that knocking the shit out of my stress, with exercise, each morning is helping. My closest colleague (and friend) at work and I have become some-what empowered by some recent developments and we're not letting the assholes get to us anymore. That probably sounds vague and weird but it would bore you silly (and make me crazy) to put it all into words. Suffice to say that it's sort of typical insanity/office politics. The kind of stuff that you can't avoid anymore, no matter where you work. I'm looking forward to getting a few things done around the house and taking it easy over the weekend. I figure if I can drag my butt out of bed before 5 a.m. 3 mornings in a row, I can beat up the laundry monster that is about to take over my bedroom!

Wow, I thought that some of these sound great (and I tried a couple too), check it out:

Workouts at Your Desk
by Norine Dworkin

We all know we should exercise. The real question is when? If you're up before dawn to reach the office on time and ready to collapse when the sun goes down, here's one solution: Get your exercise at work.

Sure, there are days when you barely have time for a bathroom break, let alone 30 minutes of cardio. That's why we asked two fitness experts to share some mini-workouts to fit snugly into the workday.

Research suggests two or three 10-minute exercise sessions a day can build fitness and burn calories even more effectively than three weekly 30- to 45-minute workouts. Best of all, you won't need to find gear or a shower - we won't even muss your suit.

Strength Training

You could lug weights to the office, but don't you already have enough to carry? Instead, stay at your desk and try these isometric exercises - using your own body weight for resistance - recommended by Dan Johnson, executive director of the Wellness Council of Tucson, Ariz.

Chest
- Hold hands in a prayer position in front of your chest.
- Press hands together.
- Hold for 30 seconds.
- Repeat three times.

Abs
- Sit up straight with your back against your chair.
- Exhale.
- Tense your stomach muscles.
- Hold for 30 seconds.
- Repeat three times.

Glutes
- Sit upright in your chair.
- Squeeze your buttocks together.
- Relax and repeat.
- Do three sets of 10 - 15 reps.

Arms

Biceps
- Use a heavy book (but not so heavy you can't lift it) for curls.
- Start with your arm at your side
- Raise the book to your shoulder.
- Make sure your elbow stays tucked near your hip; don't hunch your shoulders. Grip the book firmly but lightly to keep your blood pressure level.
- Do three sets of 10 to 15 reps, alternating arms.

Triceps
- With your back to your desk, cup your hands around the edge.
- Extend your legs in front of you.
- Lower yourself so that your upper arms are parallel to the floor.
- Press your body back up.
- Do three sets of 10 to 15 reps.

Legs
- Stand about six inches from your desk chair.
- Squat as if you were going to sit down.
- Just as your bottom touches the chair, stand up.
- Repeat to a count of 20.

Stretching

-These easy stretches can improve flexibility and protect against repetitive motion injuries. Plus, they're easy to do while you're on the phone, sending e-mail, even in meetings.

Wrists
- Make a fist.
- Rotate wrist in a circle.
- Reverse in other direction.
- Head and neck
- Drop your head sideways toward your right shoulder.
- With your right hand, gently pull your head down further to your shoulder.
- Hold for 30 seconds.
- Repeat on the left.

Shoulders
- Bring your right arm across your body, parallel to your shoulders.
- Grip your right elbow with your left hand and gently pull.
- Hold for 30 seconds.
- Repeat on left.
- Feet
- Take off your shoes.
- Roll a golf ball under one foot.
- Roll the ball under the other foot.
- Feel the energizing blood flow back to your feet.

Cardio
Walking is a great cardio workout. It's easy on your joints and requires no equipment or training. Just remember, you have to pick up the pace - no strolling! Sherri Dixon, fitness director at Lake Austin Spa Resort in Austin, Texas, shares these hassle-free ways to step up your walking routine.

- Park your car about two-thirds of a mile from your office, then walk the rest of the way.
- Take the stairs to your office. If you work on a high floor, take the elevator part of the way, then walk to your floor.
- Use a bathroom on another floor, and take the stairs to get there.
- Go to the mall on your lunch hour and dart around for some high-speed window-shopping.
- Meet friends for a lunchtime walk instead of food.
- Have a "moving" brainstorming session with your staff, either around your company grounds or in a nearby park or parking lot - just keep the pace moderate, so everyone can talk without wheezing.
- Take a walking "breather" with books on tape or favorite music CDs or MP3s that you reserve exclusively for exercise time.

Norine Dworkin is a health and fitness writer in New York. She has written articles for Fitness, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle and Natural Health.

Woohoo...for the 3rd morning in a row, I've gotten in my workout before heading to the office. This morning I felt really (really) groggy when I got up but I dragged my butt downstairs and got my body moving anyway. I feel so much the better for it. I feel like I'm getting a lot more out of this in the morning then I do at night and it helps me to get through the day. yay!!

Yikes, what a day. It's basically been a blur since lunch time. One of the main reasons that I'm so happy to be doing my exercise stuff first thing in the morning is because later on in the day, after work for example, it's just too damned busy to do things properly. Tonight we went out for dinner with my father in law. We went to a place we used to go to all the time, one of those country style buffets. We made really excellent choices and ended up having a nice meal. They have a beautiful salad bar so we each had a gorgeous plate of salad.

Anyway, I'm totally pooped and have to get to bed. I can't believe that tomorrow is Friday already!!

I've been trying to get onto blogger since like 6 a.m. I could log in but it wouldn't let me get to the "edit your blog" screen, odd.

I got up again at 5 a.m. this morning and worked out. Getting out of bed was a smidgen more difficult this morning than it was yesterday. I woke up at 3 a.m. with a charlie horse in my right leg. I hopped out of bed, got the cramp to go away, went to the loo and, after about 15 minutes of laying there, wide awake, fell back asleep again. I was glad to have fallen back to sleep at all but it made waking up at 5 a.m. a little tougher than it usually is.

When I finished with my exercise, I went about my morning business, putting on coffee, making my lunch, that sort of thing and I could totally feel the workout in my butt. I had this weird feeling like someone was pushing on my butt while I was walking around the kitchen. Very weird. Anyway, this morning, at work, the work out has continued because I've been emptying cupboards and hauling boxes around as we start to pack up our office. I'm really enjoying the not getting tired so soon thing that's happened since I started working out and eating better. It feels great to feel so good (hopefully that makes sense!!)!!

Wow, this is my third post today, that must be some kind of new personal record for me.

I had a terrific day overall. Working out first thing this morning made such a difference to my whole day. I felt terrific all day and had a lot of extra energy. I had to run up and down the stairs a lot today and didn't find it to be that taxing. Ordinarily, by the afternoon on days such as today, my heel is really bothering me but that didn't happen today. I have a spur on my heal so I find that the stairs can cause me to be hobbling by the time I get home. Subsequently, I can't always get through my workout because of the heel. I think that by getting my butt moving this morning, I got things stretched out and my blood flowing and it prevented me from being in pain with my foot. Starting next week I'll be spending a lot more time on the stairs at work so this change to my routine will definitely help things. The building I work in is almost 200 years old and the staircase up to my new office is quite steep so it's a good work out to be running up and down them all day, yay!!

As I mentioned before, a couple of the girls in my office are going to Weight Watchers and they've been doing so well. We all started at around the same time and we're all doing so well. This morning we had a big compliment fest when we got into work. My friend G started it. She mentioned that she usually sees me sitting at my desk and could see that my face was getting thinner but hadn't realized how much I had slimmed down through my hips until she saw me yesterday, standing in her area (we'll be sharing an office starting next week). My hunny has told me the same thing (and it was much appreciated to hear it!) but it felt extra nice to hear it from someone else!

Foodwise, I came in with calories to spare! Dinner was a fabulous stir fry, pork loin, lots of veggies and those yummy, lo-cal rice noodles we love. yum, yum, yum!! Anyway, I'm off to watch That 70's show. Hope you all a great day too!!

Once again, it's time for the weekly, Wednesday Weigh-In:

Sabotage

1. What is scary about losing weight?

I don't know if I would say that I was necessarily scared about losing weight. When I first implemented the changes to my lifestyle I was a little intimidated by the process, about how long it would take me to reach my goal. I am a little concerned (again, I think scared is a little strong) that after I have lost the weight that I want to and I'm feeling more healthy and fit that I may have a lot of excess skin on my body. I think that by doing this slowly, it won't be as much of a problem as it might be for someone who, let's say, has weight loss surgery.

2. Do you have hidden payoffs for remaining overweight? If so, what are they?

I can't think of any at all. I suppose that one could argue that eating anything (ie junk / crap food) you wanted, any time you wanted would be a payoff. I don't think so though, in the end, bad nutritional habits will result in poor health. I've been very lucky in that I'm very fat and have remained very healthy overall. I'm in my mid-30's though so I can't expect that this would last forever, hence the change in lifestyle.

3. If you lost weight, what else would you lose?

My fat girl clothes and my bad eating habits are the other things that I've been losing along with the weight.

Ever since I started working out again, I have been wanting to exercise in the mornings, before work. I did this last year for a while and really liked the way it jump-started my day. This morning, I actully got my butt moving and got in 5 miles on my bike and some weight work. I feel sooooo excellent, I'm going to try to do this every morning. yay!!

We just had dinner and are both feeling a bit better. Dinner was really yummy tonight, my hunny felt well enough to cook tonight. We had broccoli and beef with brown basmati rice (wow, such alliteration in our dinner!). I came in really under in my calories today which makes me feel really good. Increasingly, I'm noticing a difference in the way my clothes are fitting. Last week when I measured myself, I didn't show much of a difference, probably because of TOM related water retention. This week though, over all I was down like 7 inches. I have a lost a total of 32.5 inches from various and sundry parts of bodies, most notably 8" from my bust, 4.5" from my waist and 8" from my hips.

Anyway, last night we ended up not getting to sleep as early as we'd hoped. Tonight we're going to hit the hay at a decent time, hopefully by 8:30 or so. It was nice to come straight home from work tonight and not have a tonne of errands to do. It's been a really nice evening so far, hope you all have a good evening too!

I'm at work right now, just eating my lunch as I type. When I woke up this morning, I felt pretty okay. I had slept very soundly last night and, despite some odd dreams, felt rested. About an hour after I got up though, I felt like I'd been hit by a car. This bug is so strange. It hits me either while my food is digesting, or I'm hungry. After I eat, I usually feel much better. As I hadn't had my breakfast yet, my stomach was rumbling and I felt so gross. I wasn't sure I would be able to get to the shower much less get to work today. I did get my shower though, and my breakfast and, after eating, felt human again. Weird huh? I did get into work today, which is good because the other person in my unit is off today, and I have a lot to do. I'm not moving too fast though. I'm just keeping my head down and working away, I hope this thing goes away soon, when something is mucking up your digestive processes, it really throws everything off.

In spite of all of this, I'm keeping totally on plan with my food. If I feel up to it tonight, I'll work out. If I still feel like crap, I won't. I am also not going to beat myself up about it. I just don't want to make myself feel worse. My hunny is home sick today with the same thing I've had. Hopefully we'll be back up to normal speed by the weekend, this is not fun.

Wow, another Monday over. I find that if I can get through Monday in one piece, the rest of the week will be cool. Today was an excellent day food-wise. I'm still feeling a smidgen of what I had on the weekend, it's not that I feel sick, I just don't feel good, do you know what I mean? Not 100%, not what I know I should feel like. It's odd. My hunny has come down with the same thing today. I think he was fighting it over the weekend and it's finally gotten the better of him.

Despite whatever it is we have (or perhaps because of it), we stopped off for a bite on the way home from work. We stopped at our favourite Chinese place and had a great meal, I've really learned how to work the buffet in my favour. I have a lot of their yummy broccoli and mushrooms and stay away from anything that is fried. Fortunately, they have really nice pepper chicken and a spicy beef dish that I love. I came in under in my calories even with going out for dinner.

I think we're going to have any early night again tonight. The extra sleep will do us both a world of good and will (hopefully) help us to forget about how flipping cold it is outside!

So, yesterday I actually worked out again. It felt great, just to be moving after being doubled over in bed for a couple of days. I'm not sure what it was exactly, I'm just glad that I'm over it. I've also started taking a calcium and magnesium supplement in addition to the multivitamin I had been taking. I was a little concerned about my calcium intake as I'd practically eliminated dairy from my diet (except for the occasional fat free yogurt). This, with the enriched soy milk I've been drinking brings me up to a good daily level. I really like that nutrient calculator on Fitday. I'm really paying attention to what's in my food these days, aside from the calories and fat. With each week that passes I'm learning more and more about what's actually in everything that I'm eating.

Anyway...here's this week's Progress Prompt:

You have a lot to be grateful for as you lose weight, become active and feel good about yourself. Write a gratitude journal entry.

I thought that this week's prompt was a little odd. At least for me. I frequently write about gratitude in my journal, and I notice that many of us who have weight-loss / fitness journals do as well. I suppose though that some people do get hung up on what they have yet to accomplish instead of reflection upon what they have already done. I'm very pleased with myself and what I have been able to do since I began this on January 6. I do know though, that this is not a "diet" for me, I've said this before. This is a total lifestyle change that we are committed to and have chosen to accept for the rest of our lives. While I do enjoy that my clothes are starting to get loose on me, the main reason for the change was to improve our health. Obviously, one of the side effects of improving our overall health and fitness is weight loss, and we both have it to lose. While I wish that we had made this change earlier, I'm glad that we did it when we did and I'm very happy about the way we feel. We're both stronger and healthier today than we were 3 months ago and for that I am thankful.

I'm finally starting to feel more human today. The nausea and gassy feeling have passed. I did about 6 loads of laundry yesterday so I don't have any real chores to get done today. I'm looking forward to a peaceful day, so far so good. I did not end up exercising yesterday, at least not on my bike or with my weights. I did make about a million trips up and down the stairs though and did some stretching. Both things made me feel better but I was really exhausted by dinner time yesterday.

I'm just glad that whatever bug I had seems to be gone. I really hate how illness can throw you off program. I'm finding that I if I deviate a little bit from my routine I miss it. Funny how that is huh?

I found this on Yahoo and thought that it may be of interest to others:

Live Longer By Simply Trying to Lose Weight
By Amanda Gardner
HealthScoutNews Reporter

MONDAY, March 3 (HealthScoutNews) -- It's the thought that counts, even when it comes to weight loss.

Successful or not, people who try to lose weight live longer than people who don't try and whose weight remains stable, says a new study appearing in the March 4 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

The lowest death rates were in people who tried and actually succeeded in losing modest amounts of weight, while the highest rates were in people who lost weight without really trying.

Although countless studies have looked at weight loss and mortality rates, none has looked at unintentional weight loss vs. intentional weight loss, and few have looked at long-term results.

"There's an ongoing paradox in weight-loss research as it relates to long-term outcomes," says Edward Gregg, lead author of the study and an epidemiologist with the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in Atlanta. "There's a whole lot of evidence that, in the short term, people who are overweight, when they lose weight, they have improvements in a whole lot of risk factors. And at the same time, there's also a fair amount of evidence that people who are at high risk for hypertension and diabetes will reduce their risk of developing those disorders if they lose weight."

Other research, however, has linked weight loss to an increased death rate over the long haul, the study says.

Here, the researchers analyzed data from 6,391 overweight and obese American adults 35 years or older who were part of the National Health Interview Survey. The participants had responded to questions about whether or not they had tried to lose weight.

After analyzing the data, the researchers discovered that people who tried and succeeded in losing weight had a 24 percent lower mortality rate than people who didn't try to lose weight and whose weight remained stable.

"People trying to lose weight had a lower death rate essentially regardless of whether they lost. However, the lowest rates was associated with modest intentional weight loss," Gregg says.

"Trying to lose weight may be an important factor above and beyond how much you succeed, so I think the best advice we can give at present is for overweight people to try to achieve gradual weight reductions with lifestyle changes," Gregg adds.

People who lost weight without trying had a 31 percent (the range was 29 to 77 percent) higher death rate. "To me, unintentional weight loss almost always means people have some dread disease," says Dr. John Maylard, a cardiologist with the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in Covington, La. "This is not a society where people just lose weight for no reason."

One unexpected finding was a lower mortality rate among people who gained weight while reporting that they were not trying to lose. This link was found mostly in men and disappeared after excluding people who smoked.

One limitation to the research is that the data was reported by the participants themselves, rather than by an impartial expert. It's also not a randomized, controlled trial like one now under way through the National Institutes of Health.

Limitations notwithstanding, why would trying and failing to lose weight be associated with living longer?

Possibly because these people are watching what they eat and are also are engaging in other positive health behaviors, such as wearing seat belts, drinking alcohol in moderation, and seeing their doctor on a regular basis.

Their weight may also be more stable. "These people probably are moderating what they get into. They may not be losing too much, but they're not gaining too much either," Maylard says.

And exercise may be a factor as well. "These people may also be engaged in higher levels of physical activity, which has been associated with lower mortality even though more physical activity doesn't mean you will be more successful at losing weight," Gregg says. "The same may be true with certain dietary approaches. People who reported trying to lose weight may be eating healthier diets. I don't think it's really clear yet that it's actually the weight per se that someone loses or is it the behaviors underlying it."

More information

For more on managing your weight, visit the American Heart Association. To calculate your body mass index, use this calculator from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I'm starting to feel a little better today. I spent the best part of yesterday trying to keep warm and resting. My stomach is still a little wonky, and I have a bit of a headache. I feel really wiped out. It's a weird bug I tell ya. I slept in a little bit this morning, got up around 6:50 a.m. or so. I've had my breakfast and it's sitting okay. I couldn't have much coffee though, don't know why I tried, I don't think I really thought about it to be honest. It's just a reflex in the morning isn't it?

Today I'm not going to do too much, I have some laundry to do and if I feel like later on, I may work out, as gently as I can. I hope that this doesn't last much longer, I wanted to relax this weekend but not this way!

Well I'm home from work. I made it about 1/2 way through the morning. I feel really crappy, like someone has inflated a balloon in my stomach. It's very uncomfortable. I'm running a bit of a fever too so I'm heading to bed. There's been a bug going through our office all week, I've fought the good fight every day so far but today I lost. Just in time for the weekend too, charming. When I first started feeling yucky I assumed it was my period starting but this is totally different, something I've never had before. It feels like a stomach bug, on top of my period starting, doubly charming. Who has more fun than people I ask you? Anyway, I'm heading off to bed. Snuggly blankets, here I come...

Well, I'm awake but feeling really fuzzy and achey this morning. I'm not sure if it's because of the cold and dampness or just because my body is starting to give into the bug that has been going through our office. Whatever it is, I'm gonna have to drag my ass into work this morning because I have a bunch of stuff on my desk that I have to deal with. Hopefully I'll make it through the whole day. Yikes, not a nice a way to start the weekend is it?

It was such a long day, I'm so happy to be home and chilling out. We took my father-in-law out for supper tonight. We didn't go to any of our "safe" bets, we tried a place that we hadn't been to in a few years. It was pretty okay, we ordered very sensibly and came in under slightly for the day. It's amazing what a difference it can make when you avoid creamy and fried things. I had a wonderful club sandwich on really fresh whole grain bread and some salad and baked potato with it.

I didn't ride my bike tonight but we stopped off for a few odds and ends for the weekend at the grocery store so I got a tonne of walking in then. Also, we're moving office at work so I was up and down the stairs a tonne of times today. My office is being moved upstairs so I'll have a lot of extra exercise each day, which I'm looking forward to. I do notice though that my heel started bothering me by the end of the day again. I'm thinking now that it's related to the stairs and I'm sure it will subside when I get used do doing all that running.

When we were at Loblaws, I stopped off in the health food section to try and find a calcium supplement. I'm trying to get the most nutritional bang for my "buck" so to speak and I have noticed that my calcium is a little lower than I'd like it to be. Rather than go for a multi-vitamin, I found a Calcium, Magnesium and Vitamin D supplement. The woman I spoke with explained the difference between the different brands and combinations of stuff and this one came out on top and was on special. I find that the reports section of Fitday is great for finding out where you're getting too much or not enough of a given vitamin and/or mineral. I'm really concerned about my bones and teeth. I don't want to end up with osteoporosis or dentures when I'm a little old lady so I figured I'd best get started on this now.

Anyway, I'm making lots of typos now so I should skip off to bed. 'night all!

I'm so tired today. I could have stayed in bed all day. I didn't sleep that well last night, I think because I was cold. I only had a part of the blanket on me when I woke up this morning. I've been fighting something (a bug is going through our office right now) all week. I've been getting up each morning and medicating myself before going into work. I have been managing well until today, for some reason I'm dragging my butt, must be the PMS / flu fighting combo.

I just had my lunch and it's sitting well. This hasn't really affected my appetite, not much does, unfortunately! I think we're going out for dinner with my father-in-law tonight. I'm feeling more confident about eating in restaurants now. Much better than when we first went on this plan. I was terrified to eat anywhere that didn't have a website so I could research what I was eating. I'm better now at judging portions and ingredients and, with fitday, it's easy enough for me to keep count and stay on plan. It'll be a nice treat for us and this way we can just go home and crash tonight!

This week is just flying by. I know that I say that every week but it's true!! I still felt thin today, which is great. Well, thinner actually. I'm still waiting on my period, it's a couple of days later than I thought but last month I was a whole week late. I know that my body is still just adjusting to the changes. I can feel my PMS happening though so it should be along anytime now!

I had a wicked good eating day today. I'm still working on my eat-more-veggies goal. I definitely ate more of the good stuff last month but I'm still increasing the amounts. This morning, I made a huge salad for my lunch, it had romaine, cherry tomato, red pepper, mushroom and a tonne of broccoli. I bought a small amount of low-fat smoked chicken breast at the deli last night so I had that too. It was delicious and it took me my whole lunch hour to eat it all (chewing all that broccoli takes time!). I've also started having my daily banana in my cereal. This way I eat less cereal and my breakfast takes me farther in the day. I also had my fat free yogurt at lunch and munched on carrots all afternoon. I feel a bit like a bunny but it all tasted so good and I feel great for it!

I'm not sure what's for dinner but it smells delicious. I think I'm gonna hit the bike for a quick ride before we eat. Hope you all had a healthy happy hump day!!

It's a frosty cold "hump day" where I am. Here's this week's Wednesday Weigh-In:

1. What's the dumbest way you have ever tried to lose weight? Please explain, and what the results were.

Do you remember the cabbage soup diet? You made cabbage soup and ate it until it was coming out of your ears, literally. And you couldn't eat anything but cabbage soup? Yeah, that's the dumbest thing I ever tried. The result was that I got sick of the soup and didn't stick with it.

2. Red Light Foods: Do you have a specific food(s) which you have difficulty controlling eating it, to the point where you have to eliminate it completely?

Potato Chips or chocolate. They are two things that I have competely cut out of my life. I did have a small amount of chocolate last month during TOM but so far, I haven't had any at all, despite being in mid-PMS. The chips I don't miss either since I discovered Skinny Sticks. I still eat them sparingly but regular chips or a chocolate bar could potentially just send me off.

3. What are you top 5 "staple" foods that you keep around at all times that help you stay on your program?

That's a tough one...we always keep rice in the house, and a lot of veggies, I also always have fat free yogurt, fruite like apples and bananas and soy milk. We try to vary what we eat so we mix up the vegetables. If we keep the house full of nutritious, healthy food that's what we eat. We just don't bring any over processed, crap food into our house anymore.

I spent part of Sunday afternoon burning my CD's for the CD Swap, and getting them ready to mail. It was so bitterly cold last night after work that I didn't make it to the post office. I did get there today so, Alison, Kymberlie, Shrinky, Shelly, Bethanne and Carla should keep an eye on their mailboxes cuz there is a package from Canada on it's way to you.

Today has been terrific so far. I actually feel thinner today. I don't feel that way every day but I do feel it today. My favourite cardigan is getting a little loser on me every week and the turtleneck I wore to work today is starting to get a little on the baggy side (I really noticed it in the sleeves, they seem to be "stretching"). I actually ran up and down stairs at work all day and didn't get winded like I used to.

Something odd happened to us the other day that I meant to write about earlier but forgot about. Friday night, after work, we stopped by the grocery store to pick up some last minute stuff for Saturday night's dinner. Hubby was making sushi (amongst other things) so we needed fresh stuff. The majority of our groceries are now of the fresh-not-packaged-variety these days. I was loading our stuff up onto the belt from the buggy and it was stuff like soy milk, lots of veggies, seafood, fresh pineapple, strawberries, raspberries, some Skinny sticks, water, etc. This woman and her daughter were checking out ahead of us and she looked at our groceries, looked at the two of us and gave us one of the "those" looks. You know the look? The "they are both over 300 pounds and who the hell do they think they are trying to fool, buying all that stuff that I don't recognize" look? She was slender, so was her daughter. Her grocery order consisted of frozen pizza, huge bags of potato chips, 2 litre bottles of pop, pop tarts, packaged and frozen everything and ice cream. I smiled smugly at her and thought to myself that her cholesterol is probably way higher than mine. It annoyed me and amused me at the same time. It's funny how people judge you by what's in your buggy (and how you do the same thing exactly, without realizing it!).

Anyway, I just hopped off my bike and ran upstairs to post. Supper smells marvelous so I think I'll go back downstair and see what's happening. Hope you're all having thin days too!!

This week's Progress Prompt:

Do you eat out? How often?

We generally eat out once or twice each week. Prior to our lifestyle change, we ate out several times a week.

Are you able to select healthy choices or are you easily overwhelmed or intimidated by the food menu?

We have limited the number of places that we will go to and I always plan, carefully, what I'm going to have when eating out. My hubby's elderly dad lives here in town and we take him for groceries each week and usually have dinner with him afterwards. It's usually Swiss Chalet or a really nice Chinese Buffet which is close to our house.

What are your strategies for staying OP if you're having a meal outside your usual parameters (at home, at work)?

As I mentioned above, I carefully plan my meals, just as I would at home. I have found that if you use the online resources which most "chain" restaurants have, you can determine exactly what it is that you're putting into your mouth. I journal all of my food at Fitday and use it to figure out what I'm going to allow myself to eat in a "foreign" food environment. It's kept me totally on track!

I had another great weekend day.

Foodwise, I munched out a bit more than I usually would. Chalk it up to PMS. So far this month though, I've totally avoided anything chocolate. I'm so pleased with myself about that. Today though, we munched through a bag of Skinny Sticks during King of the Hill so it wasn't too bad. They are a good source of crunchy/savoury snack food. For me anyway...Exercise wise, I feel terrific tonight.

At the beginning of February, I set a goal to eat more veggies and to work up to being able to do a full 30 minutes (in a row) on my recumbent bike). Well, it's March 2 and I've totally got the more veggies thing down and today, I was able to complete the second program on my recumbent bike. It's a 30 minute program and the middle 10 minutes of it is at 7 resistence and a very fast pace. I was watching a taped episode of Eastenders while I peddled and I just kept watching Phil Mitchell's ugly bald head and wouldn't let myself stop. It was a really difficult program for me but I'm so thrilled that I finished it. I actually did the whole sweaty program!!

When I first started out on the bike, I'd ride 10 minutes and think I'd done something. I had warmed up for bike ride with some weigh work, when I was finished on the bike, I went outside and shovelled snow for a bit. I feel so good tonight and my calories were under again today. Not too low, just a little, I'm really happy about that. I managed to get through the weekend, keeping my eating totally on plan and working out every day.

I rock!!

The weekends have become very manageable for me. I remember back when I first started my program, I would dread the weekends. I was worried that a lack of routine would result in binge eating but that is turning out to be not the case. I spent the afternoon and early evening with a friend of mine today. She was staying for dinner and hubby made us a huge feast of sushi (for an appetizer) and spinach omelettes (my friends' favourite) as the main course. As we sat down to eat, he suggested that perhaps we may want to skip fitday today. After dinner was over though (and my friend left) I suggested that we figure it out and see how it went. I knew that sushi wasn't overly overly with calories and the omelette wasn't bad either. We both came in with calories to spare today, and we both had done a lot of exercise. I cleaned the house this morning and then did my workout. I feel really good, albeit a little tired, I'm usually asleep by now. Anyway, I'm heading off to bed shortly, it's been a very very good day!