Suddenly, about an hour ago, I realized I wasn't in pain anymore. Partly, I think that it is the 800 mg of Ibuprofen that I took this morning and partly, I think that it's my back sorting itself out. Last night I felt like crap. I literally crawled up the stairs to bed and woke up several times in the night, basically every time I tried to move, a shooting pain would wake me. This morning when I got up, I was able to stand up straight but I was walking very slowly. I took one 400 mg Ibuprofen when I made it to the washroom. After breakfast, I took another one and was feeling not to bad by the time I got to work. I'm still walking a little slower than usual and I have to be very careful on the stairs but I'm feeling almost good right now. I know that I won't be able to lift anything heavier than my purse for the next few days and I'll be extremely cautious when I'm exercising (at this point, twisting myself in the wrong direction will just cause me to re-injure myself).

Obviously, I haven't worked out in 2 days now and I do miss it but I don't want to attempt it again until at least tomorrow, possibly Saturday. Eating today has been good. Yesterday's was okay until after dinner. I was feeling really rotten and both of us had had a really bad day so we did some emotional eating at the Dairy Queen. Lately, I don't beat myself up about stuff like that. I know that on the whole, I'm doing so much good for myself that an occasional visit to the DQ or a caloric splurge on something else is not going to make me gain all my weight back. I just can't do it everyday and I don't.

At this moment, I'm just really relieved to be feeling better. I may actually be a position to enjoy the long weekend instead of laying, flat on my back on a heating pad watching reruns of the Love Boat on TV land!

I'm still feeling really rotten so I didn't work out tonight. I'm hoping some time on the heating pad and a couple more ibuprofens will help. I hate when this happens. At least it only hurts when I move!

I'm a pretzel. I feel like one anyway. I'm walking all kind of crunched up today because my back is giving me problems. It's done this before and usually, it's stress related. It's not always stress related though and I'm wondering if I slept funny last night or something. I've been taking a lot of ibuprofen for it and wasn't able to workout this morning because of it.

Last night, we were up later than normal because we had dinner guests and I'm thinking that I must have slept in a weird way or something. I kind of slept in this morning and then could not get out of bed. It was a struggle just to get my lunch made and get myself showered. Fortunately, I know that this passes in a day or so but unfortunately, I'm not in a position to be off from work right now because there are only 2 people in our unit and the other person is on holidays. I'm also wondering if this isn't a cold in my back or something like that. The reason I say that is because I almost never get headaches and I had a killer headache yesterday afternoon. Whatever it is, I hope it passes soon.

We got to looking at some photos last night that had been taken last summer and fall. I can't get over what a difference 51 pounds makes. My body is still big and huge but it's not all bloated looking like in those photos. I was amazed actually. So other than being over medicated and in a significant amount of discomfort when I walk or move, I'm having an okay day. Dinner last night was super healthy and delicious and my eating so far today is great. I'm working on eating more of a variety of fruit so today, instead of grapes I brought some cantaloupe with me. It was awesome.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel more like exercising again. I miss it when I can't do it and I get really frustrated when my back does this because there isn't anything I can really do for it except to let it run it's course.

~ ~ ** ~ ~
This week's Wednesday Weigh-in is a one-liner:

What keeps you going?

Many things keep me motivated:

* How good I feel when I exercise and eat well is addictive and that keeps me going
* Writing in this journal, posting on the Weigh-Better board and recording my food and activity in Fitday helps to keep me honest, I feel accountable, not only to myself but to the folks who read this. If I gave up, I'd feel that I'd let myself and everyone down.
* My goal of longevity. I want to be a little old lady who walks around the block in a pink track suit when I'm 80. If I quit, that's not going to happen.

Today is going well so far. This week's going well actually. My eating has been on plan and I've exercised the past two mornings and feel great about that. My brother and his GF are in town this week, we saw them at my folks' place last night and they'll be coming for dinner at our place tonight. We're going to barbecue. We picked up some beautiful, lean, pork loin last night. It's been marinating in fresh lime juice and fresh basil since last night. We're also having grilled peppers and squash and stir fried mushrooms (portabello) and broccoli with garlic, balsamic vinegar and ginger. It should be really tasty and healthy. Living with a chef definitely has it's advantages at times like this. We got a beautiful seedless watermelon and a huge cantaloupe for dessert. One of the nice things about entertaining at home is the controlling of the calories. I find that the bad carbs are so hard to control when I eat on the "outside."

Yesterday's Progress Prompt, a day late and a dollar short:

Kraft, one of the largest food industries in the nation, announced this month that it's reducing amounts of unhealthy fats and oils in their food products. Do you think it will really make any difference in our battle against obesity? Why or why not?

I'm not sure which "nation" that Kraft are one of the largest food producers of but I'm going to assume that the prompt writers are American. I think that this move, which is being thoroughly documented at the Ban Trans Fat site, is good but it's not happening soon enough. These products provide a direct health threat to everyone, not just obese people. Reducing the amount of saturated fats in all food products will benefit everyone, not just folks who are losing weight. I urge everyone to read the data on trans fat. As I've said before, it's frightening stuff but you're always better off being well informed than you are being ill.

I noticed something really quite neat on the weekend: my legs are coming back. Now, don't think I lost them like the way that guy lost his dick in "Detachable Penis" or that they were amputated. My legs were covered (and still are I guess) with a big layer of fat. The fat layer is getting smaller though and I can see my old legs starting to poke through.

I have a picture of myself that was taken during the summer I was 14. I was wearing blue satin shorts and a tube top (yes, so what?! I was 14, it as 1981 for pete's sake, it was "fashionable" okay!?) and I'm standing bare-foot on a flat rock with Lake Ontario slapping against my ankles. Whenever I see this photo I think, "wow, I had me some legs back then." Of course, back then, I thought I was fat because my mother had told me that I was. I'm not going into the whole horrible/boring mother thing again... I just would be really really pleased if I could ever look like that again.

Yesterday, I stood in front of my full length mirror in my bedroom and looked at my legs, really checked them out. They definitely look slimmer, a lot slimmer. This is from the biking. For the past several weeks, when I've looked at my bare legs, I couldn't see any change. I know that they are smaller because I've got the measurements to prove it and my pants are all big through the legs. They just looked really gross, bumpy/ripple-y and large. The bumps and ripples are really getting less noticeable. My calves are looking muscular and my knees, well let's just say that I have knees and not little bumps that sort of stick out from my fat.

Later in the day, I was bending over, putting a DVD into the player and my hunny commented on my legs, that they looked a lot thinner. Confirmation! Just what I needed, I definitely have slimmer legs. yay! I think that most of the weight I have lost so far has happened below the waist. I mean, I've lost some all over but I'm noticing the biggest change in my hips and legs. The "saddle bags" attached to my outer thighs are shrinking and my butt feels like it's getting less droopy. My ankles hardly ever get swollen on humid days now and when they do, it's just a little bit and they don't hurt like they did last summer.

I'm really happy about this. I'm happy about a lot of things lately. Even when I have a lapse and give into a craving for something bad, instead of beating myself up about it, I'm trying to focus (a la Taylore) on how much I do for myself now, that is good for me:

• I eat a healthy, well-balanced breakfast, every day


• I exercise for at least 30 minutest, 5 to 6 days a week, every week


• I read the labels on everything I eat


• I get 8 hours of sleep most nights


• I drink water, all day (my skin says "thanks")

I could make the list longer but I think you get the point! I'm really trying to keep really positive and constantly remind myself of how far I've come so far! I would suggest that, whenever you're feeling like kicking your own ass for being "bad," that you kick once and then make a list of your "good" behavior. It really helps me to keep focused on the big picture...Or is that the smaller (me) picture?

Yet another great article from Yahoo!. We already eat a tonne of stuff on the list, particularly daikon, chinese cabbage and broccoli!

How Cruciferous Vegetables Fight Cancer

Cruciferous vegetables treat potential carcinogens the way Tony Soprano does a snitch. By the time members of the cruciferous family (see list below) are through with them, there's nothing left but harmless substances to be excreted.

Cruciferous vegetables' anti-cancer firepower comes from phytochemicals called isothiocyanates, which stimulate our bodies to break down potential carcinogens. Sulforaphane, found in broccoli and in even more concentrated form in broccoli sprouts, is a well-known isothiocyanate. It stimulates the body to produce enzymes that detoxify carcinogens. Among men and women aged 50 to 74 in a study from Harbor UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, Calif., participants who ate the most broccoli (average: 3.7 half-cup cooked servings weekly) were only half as likely to develop colorectal cancer as subjects who said they never ate broccoli.

Broccoli sprouts contain 20 to 50 times the amount of sulforaphane in mature broccoli. That means you'll get as much sulforaphane in a few tablespoons of broccoli sprouts as in a pound of broccoli. When scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore fed broccoli sprouts to rats for several days, and then gave them carcinogens, the animals developed smaller, fewer and slower-growing tumors than the ones that didn't eat sprouts.

Watercress contains a powerful compound called PEITC (phenethyl isothiocyanate, if you're wondering), which is not only cancer-preventive in general, but specifically blocks the nicotine in cigarette smoke from causing lung tumors in animals. PEITC is at its highest levels in raw watercress, although some remains after cooking.

Many cruciferous vegetables also contain indole-3-carbinol, a compound that affects sex-hormone metabolism involved with the progression of prostate, breast and ovarian cancers. Men between 40 and 64 who ate three or more half-cup servings of cruciferous vegetables a week were 41 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer, according to researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

MEET THE CRUCIFERS

* Arugula
* Beet greens
* Bok choy
* Broccoli
* Brussels sprouts
* Cabbage
* Cauliflower
* Chinese cabbage
* Collard greens
* Daikon
* Horseradish
* Kale
* Kohlrabi
* Mustard greens
* Radishes
* Rutabaga
* Swiss chard
* Turnips
* Watercress

Wow, I just realized that I haven't written anything all weekend. I guess that nothing really super exciting (because, you know, my life is just one big roller coaster ride after another!) happened this weekend.

I have been pretty busy around the house. I had a big list of things I wanted to get done this weekend and was able to get all but one of them done. I really wanted to mow the law this weekend but the weather didn't exactly cooperate with us. Yesterday, it threatened rain all day and then last night, it did rain. It was really humid and hot here today and the grass was way too wet to cut. Hopefully tomorrow after work we'll get it done.

I'm so happy about the stuff I did get done though. The whole house is clean and our guest bedroom is (for probably the first time ever), completely devoid of clutter. It looks so nice. The bookshelves are organized, the boxes of "stuff" are gone, my sewing corner is all set up and ready to go. We could actually have company now! We have had overnight guests before but they've either been family or really close friends who didn't mind the mess. I can't get over how happy clearing up that room has made me.

Our office is in great shape too. We don't have a basement in our house so our third bedroom is our computer room, storage space. It's also really organized now. There are a few boxes to go through yet but they are neatly piled in a corner. We also carted a huge load of stuff to goodwill and threw out of a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff that has been floating around. We have a few pictures to get back up on the walls of our bedroom and the bathroom (and the guest room too, now that I think of it) to get everything back together.

Because I was so busy working around the house that I didn't workout. My eating was pretty good thought. I mean, Saturday is my "break" day but I never go overboard. Even though I don't totally count everything, I never end up going that far over what I'd normally have. This is a good thing for me! I decided too that I'm not going to measure myself every week. Once a month should be fine. I will still weigh myself every Saturday though. Yesterday's weigh-in showed me down another pound. I'm really happy about that! I wasn't sure what the scales would say, it had been an odd week for me. Sometimes, I'm just so thrilled to be not gaining back any of what I've lost so far that a loss is like gravy!

Tomorrow I'll be back to normal workouts, in my nice clean and organized house! My weekend's been wonderful, productive yet relaxing. I hope everyone else had a great weekend too!

I'm so pooped.

We had a minor family crisis last evening (won't go into details -- it's over) that threw our whole evening routine out the window. By the time the crisis had passed and things had gotten back to normal, it was a little after 8:30 p.m. We are usually getting in to bed at that time on a normal night. Last night, we hadn't even had dinner yet. We ended up going out rather than try to pull something together at home.

We live on the edge of hamburg alley. As the crow flies, we're not that far from highway 401 and the exit we live near has a string of fast food places at it: Wendys, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, KFC, Arbys, Harvey's, Taco Bell, Mr. Submarine, 3 Tim Hortons (yes, 3!), Dairy Queen and Harvey's as well as a Denny's, East Side Marios and a Chalet. I suggested we try the Chalet. If we had to eat late, it might as well be salad and chicken.

When we got to the Chalet, a bus load of French-Canadian tourists were swarmed around the entrance, smoking (our town recently passed a no-smoking bylaw - you can not smoke in public places but you can smoke like 2 feet from the door -- they didn't really plan it out very well). When we got through the cloud of disgusting cigarette smoke and into the restaurant all I could smell was cleaning products. The manager came running over toward us to tell the hostess not to seat us in the dining room. We were directed to the bar. I'd never been in the bar before, it was very brightly lit, a little too bright for my liking actually, and the tile floor felt slimy. I'm not sure if the humidity was causing it but it was really dangerous. There was one other couple in the room, looking as thrilled about it as we were. The bar had 6 TV's showing the baseball game. I asked the hostess, politely, if she could mute the sound on the television. She informed me that she couldn't and that it just seemed loud because the radio was also on. She walked away and I went over to the bar (there were no staff in the room) and tried to mute the television with the remote. She was right, the sound would not go down. The whole thing just felt wrong and I knew that our dinner would be really bad if we lasted that long (the cleaner smell was now drifting into the bar). We walked out. I'm pretty sure that the other couple were not long behind us.

Fortunately, this all transpired in about a 5 minute period. We headed across the street to Denny's and I had a really nice club sammich, on whole wheat. The lettuce and tomato were so fresh and the turkey was delicious. It was a big meal but I was starving, from eating so late. By 10:08, we were in the car, heading back home. I still can't believe how messed up the Chalet was last night. There was something really weird going on that I'm glad we weren't really a part of.

I thought I may have trouble sleeping after eating dinner at 9:30 but I was okay. We didn't actually get to bed until around 11 or so. I totally slept in this morning though and didn't workout before work. I plan to do it tonight. We'll see how it goes. Our phone got knocked out yesterday and the service folks are coming back tonight after 5 p.m. to try to fix it. I don't usually wish away the week but I'm going to be very happy to see Saturday morning roll around this week! My period being all wonky really knocked it out of me. My eating has been okay but not fabulous, it's really been a lackluster week. Hopefully next week will be better!

Okay, so I have no patience, whatsoever.

My yogurt was about 75% frozen when I got my lunch out of the fridge so I grabbed it too. I just finished it and it was amazing!! I don't know if it just because this is the first time I've had it frozen and the texture was really nice or because it's a new kind of yogurt. Either way, it was absolutelly de-lovely!

Another good one from Yahoo!:

Give me Strength!
by Susan Moores

For good health, we'd like to see you pick up a few pounds.

Yes, you read that right - but we're not talking about your waist or hips. We mean it literally; lifting weights to build muscle helps keep you lean and fit.

Researchers are learning that a moderate strength-training (weight-lifting) program can do wonders for our bodies. After we turn 30, we lose about 10 percent of our muscle per decade, or a half-pound of muscle every year. That may not sound like much - but by age 70 it means we've been sapped of at least 40 percent of our strength. Lugging a 20-pound bag of groceries at age 30 may be a chore; by age 70 it could be a pipe dream unless we do something to maintain muscle.

Whether you are 20 or 90, strength training stops muscle loss and builds new muscle tissue. That muscle will burn calories, give your body shape, influence your flexibility and sense of balance, and protect you against several diseases.

To a certain extent, strength training even reverses some of the changes normally associated with old age, such as decreased stamina, energy and balance.

The Perks of Pumping Iron

Muscle Out Body Fat. Muscle is greedy for attention - you either use it or lose it, and when it's gone, body fat takes its place. The more body fat you have, the greater your risk of heart disease, adult-onset diabetes and certain cancers. By doing strength training, you keep building muscle, which burns more calories and crowds out body fat. Strength training also helps lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels; heightens your insulin sensitivity, which keeps blood sugar levels normal; and improves blood flow.

Strengthen Bones. Strength training preserves bone. After age 35, women lose approximately half a percent of their bone mass each year. That rate doubles, and may even quadruple, after menopause. Bone loss at this rate can lead to osteoporosis - in fact, one of every two women over age 50 will suffer a bone fracture as a result of osteoporosis. But a study at Tufts University's Center on Aging found that women who participated in strength training not only stopped losing bone density, but actually gained bone mass over a year's time. Those who skipped strength training lost about 2% of their bone density during the same period. More than two dozen other studies support these results.

Improve Reflexes, Balance and Flexibility. Strength training perks up your nerves. Left unchallenged, muscles grow less responsive to messages from the central nervous system. Strength training gives nerves a charge, improving response time to messages sent by your brain. Muscle weakness is also partially to blame for the loss of balance and flexibility that can cause older adults to fall; about 30 percent of people over age 65 take at least one spill a year. Strength training fortifies muscles and strengthens connective tissue, giving joints stability and flexibility.

Boost Recovery from Illness. Strength training significantly reduces incidence of depression and fatigue after an illness, and accelerates a patient's ability to regain the strength and endurance needed for independent living. Studies have shown that strength training can effectively prevent and treat the disabilities that often follow a heart attack. Studies have shown that a strength-training regimen improves quality of life for cardiac-rehab patients.

Maintain a Good Attitude. Strength training can lift your mood and reduce anxiety, tension and stress. Several studies have shown that it reduces symptoms of depression while boosting self-confidence and self-esteem.

As little as two to three 20-minute sessions a week is all it takes to enjoy benefits of strength training. Positive results may become apparent in as little as two months, but there is one requirement: You must stick with a program. Once you stop, the perks go away, too.

I had such a tough time getting up this morning. We didn't get to bed until almost 10 p.m. last night. That's very late for us, we're up at 5 a.m. or earlier, usually. This morning, it was a bit later and I seemed to run around a lot this morning. I did get my workout in though. I felt so much better when it was over than I had when I started. That's how it usually goes. I felt so good that I even got a load of laundry together and started before I headed out to work. I didn't think I'd have time to get ready much less sort out laundry. It's a small thing but I'm happy about it!

I'm trying a new yogurt today. I ordinarily eat Astro Fat Free yogurt. It's really yummy and I can get it in 12 packs for under $5. The other night, I picked up Yoplait Source yogurt. The girls at work have been raving about it so I thought I'd try it. It's actually 6 calories less than the Astro and you get 16 in a package for the same price as the Astro. I brought 2 with me, one for lunch today, and I stuck one in the freezer. I've been wanting to try this for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow, it should be frozen (our work freezer is really crummy so yes, it will take that long!). I hope I like it because it's a much better deal than what I usually get.

I've been trying to eat more fruit lately in addition to keeping my water intake up. I know that most fruit is a good source of extra water too. I've been eating a lot of seedless green grapes lately. They're pretty good right now and the price is not bad. I'm looking forward to when the fresh peaches hit the stores. The local ones I mean. They should be arriving in a couple of weeks or so, same with the local field tomatoes. I could live on them. Actually, in the past, it was toasted tomato sammiches. This summer it'll just be tomatoes and cucumbers and pepper..mmmm...I love summer!

We didn't get home until quite late tonight so I never did get a longer bike ride in. We did end up being downtown tonight though so we walked around a little bit (and goodness knows I did enough running around in the grocery store with our little old guy!). I'm heading off to bed. Hopefully I'll be more energetic tomorrow. 'night!

I'm feeling much better right now than I did last night and this morning. I slept like a log last night though. I remember having a dream about a song. I can't tell you what song it was, it might have been something by Dar Williams, I really can't say for sure. In the dream, I was sure I could hear Emmy Lou Harris singing. When I walked toward the source of the music, Emmy Lou was there, singing her heart out. I'm not sure what else happened, that's all I can remember. Maybe I listened to too much Gram Parsons yesterday. Dreams aside, I woke up feeling a little fragile so I had a short, gentle workout. Depending on how tonight goes, I may try to get another one in tonight, at least a couple of miles on the bike. It'll depend on what time I actually end up getting home at.

Here is today's Wednesday Weigh-in:

If you drive, do you eat in your car? If so, why? If not (not because you don't drive), how have you been able to do that?

I do drive and no, I don't eat in the car anymore. The only exception is when we're traveling long distances. I do take a coffee with me to work each day but I only have a five minute trip from home to the office so I don't actually sip on my black coffee until I get to my desk. We stopped eating our car when we changed everything else, in January. Cold turkey is the best way, I find.

I remember seeing a comedian on television, years ago, make a joke about "Almost Home" cookies. He said, "Almost Home? Try, 'almost out of the parking lot' instead!" We used to be bad for that, digging in to stuff on the way home from the store. Part of the reason for this, in the past, was due to the fact that we drove a hatch back and now we have a sedan so all food purchases are put in the trunk. I think it's a really bad habit to get into. We used to eat our meals in our laps, in front of the television. Now, we eat at the dining room table. The TV may still be on but at least we're in a better position for eating. I noticed a huge difference in how my meals were digested when we got up off the sofa and to the table.

Yuck.

I'm feeling really crummy at the moment. Actually, I'm feeling crampy. TOM is being excessively weird this month. 10 days ago, I had killer PMS from hell. I thought TOM started a week ago Saturday because, hello, I was bleeding and had gone through a terrible bout of chocolate cravings (which, sadly, I gave into). This was odd because it was like 4 days early (and I'm NEVER early). I was supposed to start properly last Tuesday. For the past week, I've been merely drizzling off and on. Tonight, things got moving with a vengeance. I'm glad. I hate when it's wishy washy. This usually happens when I'm stressed about stuff. I don't feel like I've been overly stressed about anything in particular but I do know (thinking about right now) that there are a number of small things that I'd had on my mind over the past month. Tiny on their own, piled up together they could cause my period to get wonky. Who knows, maybe I can't really read a calendar (or remember exactly when I thought it last happened) and I'm right on time. Somehow, I don't think so. What I do know is that it's here, big time, and I'm all crampy. Lucky for me, I'm crampy at bedtime so I can Aleve myself and konk out for 8 hours. This totally explains why I've been so tired for the past week. I can't imagine what it would be like if I'd not been taking my vitamins every day (like a good girl!). I'm sorry if this is more information about my cycle than you'd all care to read. I guess it's not out of line here though as my cycle does affect my energy level which controls how much I work out and how good I am at resisting tempting foods.

I did workout this morning. I did eat okay all day. I haven't figured out the calories yet but we had dinner at home (a REALLY yummy stir fry of lean pork loin and lots of gorgeous, colourful peppers with broccoli & zucchini). Tomorrow night we have to take the little old guy out for groceries so we'll probably be at the Chalet for dinner. Not exactly exciting cuisine but I know I can eat on plan there. I think I'm going to go medicate myself and crawl into bed. 'night-y 'night all!

Ordinarily, I like the Progress Prompts. I generally do them every week. This week's edition though, is a little sad, or at least easy to answer:

Do you have kids? Write an entry about how being a mother or father affect your weight loss program, both positively and negatively.

Um no.

So, that was quick huh? Not exactly a thought provoking topic for a person who is childless by choice.

So far, today is going well. I woke up at a decent time and did a bit of a longer ride on my bike. I felt great when I was done. The eating thing is completely under control again today. Something about the weekend just makes things go to pot. It wasn't totally horrible, just not great. I really look forward to Mondays and starting fresh because I always feel so much better when I'm eating right than not. Luckily, my appetite is no where near where it used to be so the overeating or bad choices thing doesn't too terribly out of hand anymore. Thank goodness for reprogramming!

Today was another lazy day. The weekend has been really relaxing, I feel good. I didn't workout today but we did a fair bit of walking. Tomorrow I'll do my regular workout routine again, I feel strong and good and energized. I didn't hear from the Goodlife folks this weekend so I'm guessing I will next weekend. I'm looking forward to talking to them, I have a bunch of questions about the facilities I'd like to have answered.

Thanks for all of the nice comments yesterday. I'm really quite pleased with what I've done so far. I feel best about the fact that I've not been losing and regaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. This has happened to me in the past. I'll lose 10 pounds, get all excited about it, forget what I was doing and gain it back, plus 5, or 10 or whatever. This time, even though I've had hiccups along the way, I've not beat myself up about, I just try to get back on track and keep on going. I know that I can keep doing this (and will have to keep doing this) long term. Naturally, I'm not a thin person, it's going to take work to get me there and keep me there. After 6 months, I'm committed to this new lifestyle and can't imagine going back.

Without the support of my journalling sisters, there's no way I could have come this far. I've been leaning on many of you over the past few months, and expect to continue to do so for a long while to come. Thanks ladies, you have no idea how important you all are to me!

Today was a break day. I didn't workout, I've been doing that recently, taking Saturdays off. I did very little today and enjoyed it a lot. I watched a couple of bad movies on cable and we went out for dinner with our little old guy tonight. It was my "no diet" day but I didn't go nuts. I ate pretty much on plan although I did have a few extra calories at dinner. We had mexican food and it was really good and I chose stuff wisely and only went over about 50 calories so that's not too bad.

I'm feeling really good these days, both physically and emotionally. I enjoy the way the healthy eating and exercising is making my body feel. I feel stronger and can move faster. I have more energy and get more done. It's nice, I didn't realize how much I was dragging myself around last summer until I stopped and compared it to this summer. I will admit that this summer has not been as hot and humid as last summer so I know that is part of it. I know though that the biggest reason for feeling so good is the new lifestyle.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot to mention, I weighed in today, as per my usual Saturday weigh-in. I weigh-in and measure up. The tape hadn't moved much this week but the scales had. Officially, since January 6, 2003, I have now lost 50 pounds. 5 bags of potatoes..it's a lot of weight and I'm feeling lighter without it. I can't imagine how much lighter I'll feel 50 pounds from now but I'm anxious to see how it goes! I know that I could have probably lost it faster, or lost more by now if I wasn't taking days off here and there but this is my life. If I'm going to keep the weight off permanently, I have to allow myself small breaks here and there. I know that this, more realistic for me, approach is what has kept me going so far, keeping on plan most of the time. I'm really happy with my results so far, to break the 50 pound mark feels great!

Today ended up being right on plan. I was worried though, we had a luncheon at work today and I was not sure how the eating would go. We were at a waterfront patio and it was really nice, I had a couple of diet cokes with lime and a nice salad. I ordered a Caesar but without cheese and bacon and had a nice chicken breast on the side. It was quite yummy, I didn't miss the cheese at all (or bacon either for that matter). Tonight we went out for Cambodian food and I was able to eat on plan without any problems. I'm really pooped tonight though and really hope that I'll be able to sleep in tomorrow. I don't have anything big planned for the weekend and I'm quite looking forward to doing not much of anything, aside from a few errands and a bit of housework. Should be nice, hope you all have a nice, relaxing weekend too!

Good morning all. I had to really (really) drag my butt out of bed this morning. I could have slept all day, and very nearly did. Well, I almost slept through my workout time slot anyway. Tomorrow, when I can sleep in as late as I'd like, I won't. I'll be wide awake at a ridiculously early hour!

Last night, when I leaving the grocery store, a rep from the Goodlife gym was standing at the exit. She took my name and number and entered me in a draw for cash, and for a gym membership. All I have to do, is chat with a rep on the phone, they'll probably be calling me on the weekend. Apparently, I'll get a free week at the gym for my trouble. Unfortunately, I know that they don't have early morning hours but I could try it a couple of evenings or at least on the weekend. I'm really interested to see the inside of the place. I see it all the time when I'm getting groceries but I have never gone in to see their set up. I don't know if I'd actually join right now but it will be a nice treat to check it out at no cost. That totally fits my budget at the moment!

I have one final thought to share before I head off to bed. It's something I've thought about pretty much constantly over the past 24 hours. I don't care if I ever have another oreo cookie for as long as I live. Yesterday, in the Skinny Daily Post, Julie wrote about Trans Fat and linked to an article about it. It shared the be-jebus out of me. I would strongly urge you all to checkout the Ban Trans Fat folks. I don't think that they are fear-mongering. We have enough evidence that the stuff is bad for me to be physically repulsed at the thought of processed, store bought cookies. I love them, they love me, I know that I still have some of them on my hips and thighs. I mean, we all knew that they weren't good for us but who ever thought that they'd be so bad! Read the articles and be informed. It's really scary shit!!

The soy dogs were okay. They were a little dry. They tasted fine but texturally, they lacked something. I was so full after dinner, I love it when we bbq. We tried a new kind of turkey sausage too tonight (new to us anyway), it's called "Pro Fit" and they always have pictures of hockey players on the display. Not being hockey fans, we've not been swayed by this in the past. They were on special though and the price was right. They were really nice, nicer than the Prime ones we tried before. They grilled up really nicely with a little bit of soy, balsamic vinegar and garlic on them. I'm not missing barbecue sauce much. I'd much rather have some soy or hoisin or something. Hoisin can be a lot of calories but fortunately you only need a little tiny bit for a whole bunch of flavour.

So...with dinner done and overwith, my day is complete and my eating was (again) perfectly on plan. Yes, that included another delicious ice cream bar. I love them. They are 44 calories of pure pleasure! I know that sounds sick but I know that you, gentle reader, will understand and rejoice with me!

I don't think that Loblaws employees have a dental plan. Maybe they do, I know that they are unionized and one would think that they would have dental coverage. The last two times I've been there, two different cashiers have served me and I noticed that they are both missing several teeth, front ones. It's odd, not something you see a whole lot of in non-hockey player people these days.

I stopped off after work to pick up some veggies, we're bbq'ing tonight so I grabbed some green and red peppers and some local zucchini. I noticed that PC has a soy hot dog and grabbed some of those to try. They're super low in fat and have only 59 calories each. I hope that they're as good as Yves. They look pretty nice, we're having them with grilled veggies and some lean hamburgers. Instead of having our bbq with a bun, we've taken to grilling flat bread or whole wheat tortillas. They are so yummy this way.

I'll have to finish this post later because I've been informed that my dinner is almost ready. Yay! Happy supper everyone!

Wow, I had a perfectly on plan day...great workout this morning, excellent eating all day. I even had calories left over at the end of the day (which included having a fudgesicle...they are SO good and on for $1.99 a box at Loblaws this week!).

I'm really feeling good about this week is going so far. Here's hoping I can keep it up!

This story was in our home-town paper today, I think it's a great program!

Walk On: Fitness making great strides
By Sarah Hammond / Wednesday, July 16, 2003

Local News - Making physical activity part your daily routine should be as easy as a walk in the park.

For many, though, exercise is overlooked behind family and work commitments.

Walk On is a new program designed to encourage people get out of the house and become active.

Since May, volunteers have been leading walkers on a variety of two-kilometre routes throughout Kingston.

The program has been so successful since its debut that three routes were recently added, for a total of 10.

Dorothyanne Last, a public health nurse who spearheaded Walk On, said the plan is to create enough routes that everyone in the city can simply step out the front door and hook up with a walk.

"A lot of people have difficulty making time in their day for physical activity," said Last, who works at the Kingston Frontenac Lennox & Addington Health Unit.

Health Canada recommends 30 minutes of exercise, five to seven times a week, Last said.

"It's easy to postpone physical activity, but you end up paying for it," she said.

Last said one of the goals behind Walk On is to ease people into walking longer distances.

Once people feel comfortable with the two-kilometre route, they can hook up with more advanced walking groups, like the King's Town Trekkers and the Rideau Trail group.

Participants should be able to complete the two kilometres in 30 minutes if they're walking briskly.

"People should still be able to talk while they're walking, but they should be going fast enough that they can't sing," Last said.

Gale White, 46, is one of the programs most dedicated volunteers.

A keen walker, White leads three routes each week. She currently walks routes at West Park and Kingscourt and is covering the Queen's University route this month. Next month, she'll lead a Henderson-area walk, one of the three new routes.

White said she volunteers with Walk On for health reasons and because she'd be walking even if she weren't doing the routes.

"It gets me out of the house," she said, adding that she finds walking is an easy way to get exercise.

She walks her routes even in the rain.

"I just pop my umbrella up and away I go," she said.

"On the hot days, I just go a bit slower."

White said she can usually complete the walks in 25 minutes, depending on who's walking with her.

"We walk at the speed most comfortable to the slowest person," she said, adding that she provides faster walkers with a route map so they can move ahead.

There's no pressure and the environment is friendly and relaxed. People of all ages are welcome to take part.

White said mothers and their children or elderly couples often accompany her on the routes. Sometimes she has only one person out with her;

other times there's a group of six or seven.

"It's a really nice way to meet people. You just have to get out the door and do it."

To create Kingston's Walk On program, Last met Daryl Martin, a geographic information specialist at City Hall.

Together they mapped out the circular routes for the program, which mean walkers start and finish at the same place.

The routes aren't on busy roads but they aren't completely isolated either, so that people feel safe walking in the evenings, Last said.

Walk On currently has eight volunteers for the 10 routes. The routes are scheduled at different times and on different days so that people can take advantage of more than one walk if they choose.

Most of the walks are in the evening, but there is one scheduled in the morning.

"We want to see if this time is desirable," Last said.

"A lot of seniors have more energy in the morning, so we wanted to offer that option."

Wow, it's that time again, already! Wednesday Weigh-in:

Has your weight or your health held you back from anything?

Despite my weight, my health has always been good. The only things I can think of that my weight has held me back from are: buying funky clothes in second hand shops -- they don't make 'em in my size! and riding rollercoasters. When I was a kid, I loved to ride the rides at amusement parks. At my current weight I'm still a little too big to safely ride them. That's one thing that I'm looking forward to doing when I have lost some more weight.

Day two of being back on track is going well. We had dinner out with out little old guy tonight but I made my choices pretty carefully and and happy about my eating today.

Tomorrow night, we don't have any external commitments after work so we'll be able to make a good and healthy dinner at home. I'm getting to the point where I'm really not enjoying eating out, I'd rather eat at home where things are more controllable. Eating out too much lately is what got me off track over the weekend, I got lazy in my choices and could feel myself starting to slide back into old habits. Fortunately, I snapped myself out of it before too much damage had been done. I didn't like how it made me feel...lazy and slow and fuzzy-headed. I have enough trouble with those things on my own, I don't need bad carbs making it worse!

Someone found my page by doing a keyword search on the following:

Home+Depot+is+a+terrible+place+to+work

I know that these things shouldn't amuse me so much but they really do. I guess I need to get out more or something.

I'm having a really good day so far. I feel good, my eating has been good. It's all good!

I was up early early this morning but made the mistake of getting up to pee and then falling asleep again. 4 a.m. would have been way too early to get up but by doing this, I over slept a bit. Not enough that I didn't get my workout in though. I had intentions of doing a longer workout this morning but it didn't happen. Some days, I'm disappointed in myself for not doing more exercise, some days I'm really happy with my efforts and others, I have to remind myself that I am actually exercising, 6 out of 7 days most weeks.

A year ago, I could never imagine doing that. This morning, while I was exercising I thought about last summer...we had bought our recumbent bike in May 2002. When we first got it, I rode it every other day pretty much. Once the weather got hot though, I used that as an excuse not do do it anymore. I put it on hold until the fall. This summer, I just crank up the fan and do it. Mind you, I do it really early in the morning, before the sun's had a chance to get too hot. The key is that I do it. I take the odd day off but I don't let excuses get the better of me very often anymore.

Now, I know that Progress Prompts are for Mondays but they weren't up when I posted yesterday so here it is, better late than never, right?

Are you logging in all your food in a diary?

Yes. Although I don't have a diary per se, I use Fitday to keep track of what I'm eating and what I'm burning, everyday.

Do you enjoy jotting down every bite you eat or are you having trouble being consistent?

I like that when I input everything on Fitday, at the end of the day I see a breakdown of where my calories came from. The reports are very cool too. I try to be as accurate as possible for tracking purposes. I've now been doing this just over 6 months and it's interesting to see patterns of both eating and exercise, emerge from the data.

Do you think keeping a food diary is the key to successful weight loss? Why or why not?

For me, it's key. This is really the first time I have seriously committed to recording everything and I know that it helps to keep me on track. I promised myself to be brutally honest with it and I have been. I feel good when I'm having a low-fat, low calorie day and I rethink things when I see that my fat intake was higher than it should have been. It's one of the reasons I've been able to lose weight this time.

Today was so much better than the weekend.

For one thing, I worked out this morning. A great workout, the really sweaty kind. I felt good after it was over. I usually feel good afterwards. Partly I guess, it's the endorphins but some of it is because I'm pleased with myself for doing something good to my body.

Food was good today. I kept things really low fat for a switch. Lots of fruit and veggies. I got these amazing grapes at Loblaws...green seedless ones. They are huge and really solid. Meaty grapes. Yummy, not sour really, totally tasty, just lovely. mmm...grapes! A good grape is hard to find, for me anyway. I can't remember ever being so impressed with a grape.

Also, I have discovered the perfect PMS food, courtesy of Nestle. They have these fat free, sugar free mini fudgesicles that are only 44 calories and have almost no fat in them. They have aspartame instead of sugar and are totally delicious. Absolutely. I had one tonight after dinner and it was dreamy. As good as the real thing, truly. They are totally cold and creamy and wonderfully chocolatey. Fortunately too, they are low enough in calories that if for some odd PMS-y reason, you freaked out and ate the whole box of 10, you wouldn't do too much damage to yourself.

Thank you Ms. mini-fudgesicle inventor... I am assuming that this was invented by some smart woman, a man could never come up with something so good and so low in calories!

PMS kicked my ass this weekend.

At first, I couldn't figure out why my appetite was so intense or why I was giving in to really stupid cravings. I know now, it was PMS. Fortunately, my period started today and tomorrow I get back on track. I feel rather disgusted with myself over the amount of food I consumed this weekend but I'm not going to allow myself to dwell on it and keep doing it (if I dwell on it, I'll just continue the bad eating and I'm not going to let that happen).

Yesterday was workout break day and today, instead of working out, I mowed our lawn. The whole thing, not just the front. I usually do the front. It is a huge job, we have a big lawn and it took me a long time to get it all done. By the time I was finished, I had one of those dehydrate/heat headaches. I stopped 1/2 way through for a water break but I think the sun just did me in. The headache only lasted an hour or so, until I cooled down and rehydrated myself. I'm feeling pretty okay now, TOM aside. I'm well medicated and will be heading off to bed soon....once the pills kick in...yay ibuprofen!

I ended up not doing much of anything at all yesterday.

To be honest, I wasn't feeling all that great. Eating wasn't fabulous and I didn't workout. I mean eating wasn't as bad as it could have been but I didn't get in as much fresh fruit and veg as I usually do. I'm still not feeling that great today either. It might be PMS rearing it's ugly head (that would certainly explain why I had M&M's yesterday) or I just might be pooped. Either way, I'm going to take it easy again today and hope my tummy feels better and my mood improves. I have a few errands to do today that I forgot to do yesterday when I was out. I've been pretty ditzy the past couple of days. I never forget stuff and I'm forgetting everything. Very odd. Today, I will actually read my list instead of just carrying it around without looking at it. I'm sure that will work better.

Sometimes, the Yahoo health features are quite interesting, here's one I read this morning:

Does Variety In Exercise Matter?by Steven Blair, Miavita Scientific Advisor

Exercisers who find one activity they love and do it again and again often wonder if they're missing out on anything by not mixing up their routines.

In some respects, variety is irrelevant. If you're exercising primarily to control your weight, for example, your goal is to burn more calories than you take in - how you do it is up to you. Burning 100 calories will contribute to your goal whether it's by running or by washing your car.

Beware of Boredom
But engaging in different exercises has advantages. The more you do, the greater the odds you'll find a way to exercise and not get bored. Switching between exercises also may reduce the risk of injuries from repeated stress on the same parts of the body.

Finally, regular participation in a variety of activities means that regardless of changing seasons, locales, availability of exercise buddies, etc., you're likely to find a way to keep exercising.

Different Activities, Different Benefits
But the best argument for variety is the need to balance activities that offer different physical benefits - primarily, aerobic fitness and musculoskeletal fitness.

You'll build aerobic fitness by walking briskly, jogging, cycling, swimming, and playing sports with at least moderate intensity, such as tennis, basketball and soccer. Aerobic fitness reduces risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, colon cancer and obesity.

Musculoskeletal fitness comes from resistance-training activities such as weight lifting and stretching. Its benefits are centered on enhanced performance, but it may also reduce the risk of some chronic diseases.

Aerobic and musculoskeletal fitness each help combat the loss of function that often accompanies aging. A fit, active way of life increases not only longevity, but also quality of life. You've heard it before, but it's true: "Exercise adds years to your life and life to your years."

My Advice: Stay Balanced
I advise exercisers to engage in at least one aerobic activity and do some resistance exercise for musculoskeletal fitness, along with stretching to maintain joint flexibility. If there's one routine you like to do again and again in each category, that's OK. If you like to do different aerobic and musculoskeletal exercises at different times, all the better.

What really counts is to find the exercise program you like enough to stick with over time. Keep it up, and you'll reap the incredible benefits that come from a fit, active way of life.

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

I totally slept in this morning.

I never sleep in.

Well, not never exactly. Never on a school day though.

I didn't get up until around 6 a.m., that's almost an hour later than usual. I was so tired last night, I barely remember getting into my bed. I'm pretty sure I didn't move much all night, I was just beat.

Of course, sleeping in meant that I didn't have time to workout but I'll be sure to squeeze it in when I get home. I can't believe that I've been back at work for a while week now. The days just flew by. This morning, something I thought I'd get off my desk in an hour, took the whole morning to complete. It's one of those days yanno? At least it's passing quickly and the weekend will be here soon!

This week, since my sleepless Monday night, I've had the toughest time getting out of bed in the mornings. This morning I could hardly do it, I almost went back to bed after I got into my workout duds. Pathetic or what?!?

Because of how I've been feeling, I've done sort of "soft" workouts. I do my normal thing but haven't been really pushing myself as hard I usually do. I feel inclined to blame the weather. At the beginning of the week, it was super humid (and I was sick!) and that dragged me out. The past couple of days, the air has been clean and it's making me dozy (okay, dozy-er). At work, I'm getting lots done but at home, I kind of flake out. It's odd, and annoying. I keep telling myself that it's okay and that any workout is better than none at all. It's true, I know but I still feel kind of bad about it.

Hopefully, I'll recharge my batteries on the weekend and will back up to steam on Monday again. The gas thing just kicked my butt this week. I have talked to my doctor about it a couple of times and we've ruled out gallbladder problems (it's not that kind of pain, it doesn't happen on the same timeline, etc.). Slowly, I'm figuring out what to avoid or limit and what's okay. Basically, really hard to digest veggies (cabbage, broccoli) are what I'm going to have to limit. I feel good knowing what is wrong with me when these things happen and I know how to control it finally. The first time it happened it scared me, a lot. I thought I was having a heart attack or a gallbladder attack or something. Funny how our minds just jump to worst-possible-scenario at times like this huh?

So, other than lackluster workouts the past couple of days, I'm back on top of things. My eating is really going well and I'm liking how much better I feel when that's under control. My vacation really kicked my butt. I'm looking forward to seeing some results (my vacation didn't put be back any but it should didn't get me any closer to goal -- thankfully!) over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I'm keeping my toes, fingers and eyes crossed!!

so healthy that I'll make ya want to puke!

I had the most awesome doctor's appointment. I totally love my doctor, she rawks.

We were going over my blood work (which, by the way is perfect!! no diabetes, no thyroid, no nuttin' hunny!) and she gets down to the cholesterol numbers (the ones I was most concerned about -- not that I'd had trouble in the past but just because so many folks I know have high-cholesterol) and says, "you're genes are awesome." She explained to me that she suffers from high cholesterol and that she's inherited it from her mum. This is a tiny woman who works out every day, sometimes twice (she swims every day and golfs a couple of times a week), eats no dairy, very low fat, does all the right stuff AND is on meds for it and still has scary-high cholesterol. She told me that even with all of that, and the meds, her cholesterol would never be close to what mine is. I have ridiculously low cholesterol and that's genetic. She informed me that none of the fat on my body is anywhere remotely near my heart and that the fat I do have is totally lose-able. We went over my program together, in great, graphic detail and she was really impressed with what I was doing.

She affirmed that everything I'm doing is smart and healthy and that by starting this now, at my age, is just going to help me maintain the quality of my life for a good long time. She actually told me that she was proud of me, of what I was doing and that I came to it on my own. I explained again to her how this is now my lifestyle and how it's not a diet and she complimented me on my attitude. Something that she stressed, a lot, was how lucky I was and how important a supportive partner is in all of this and she's bang on right. If my hunny wasn't doing this with me and didn't understand what it was all about, I couldn't do it. I know that. I'm going to continue to see her and weigh-in once a month and carry on with what I'm doing. She told me that with patience, there is no reason for me to not reach my goals and I know this. It took a long time for me to gain it all, it's going to take me a while to get it off and I'm okay about that. I know that the slower I lose it, the better my shot is at keeping it off.

Wednesday Weigh-In:

Do you have any weigh-in day rituals?

I weigh-in on Saturdays now. I get up and try to move around a bit and make sure that I use the bathroom before I do it. I get on the scale and just do it. I walk back to the office and type in whatever the number is. I type it in on Fitday, on my yahoo diet page, in my weigh-in chart and in BMI chart. After weigh-in, I measure myself and record all of this. As it happens, Saturday is also my official day off each week so, while I don't go nuts, I don't worry about working out or counting every morsel that goes into my mouth. More often than not, I end up working out and stay within my caloric limits but it's nice to know that if I'm really craving something "bad," I can have it on Saturday. Other than that, I don't really think I have any other "ritualistic" behavior to accompany my weigh-in.

I'm back and feeling great.

The beginning of the week really took it out of me. Last night, I slept like the dead, I was in bed before 9 p.m. and didn't move until 5 a.m. I feel so much better right now. When I first woke up, I felt kind of dopey but after I worked out I really perked up. The humidity has broken too so that is making a huge difference. There is a gorgeous breeze blowing through our office right now and everyone is a lot happier than they have been recently.

So far today, my stomach has been fine and I'm eating good stuff. I have an appointment with my doctor this afternoon and will get the results of the bloodwork I had done a couple of weeks ago. I'm not too anxious about getting the results. Given all the good stuff I've been doing for my body recently, everything should check out okay (here's hoping anyway!). I feel a lot better about my program since I've involved my doctor in the process. It's nice to have someone to check in with every month. I don't need it to be kept on plan really, it's more to make sure that my health isn't being adversely affected by what I've been doing. I'll keep you posted on my results!!

I'm so sleepy.

I'm heading to bed soon. I feel much better and my meals have settled in my tummy so I think my gas situation is fine for the moment. I feel kind of bad about not working out today but there was just no way I could swing it. I felt like hammered shit this morning and by the time I got home I was pooped. I'll be back at it in the morning though. Yikes, what a day. 'night all.

Yesterday was absolutely brutal.

The gas attack thing that I had in the morning pretty much stayed with me all day. I got hungry around my usual time and did eat my lunch. Unfortunately, I started to feel really crappy after I ate so I went home early. As soon as I got home, I tried the diet coke and burping thing and eventually fell asleep. When my hunny got home, we went to the grocery store. I wanted to have a sandwich for dinner, something without raw veggies in it as I know that they were the cause of my problem.

By the time we got home from the store, I felt like a truck had hit me. I think that when I have this happen, it must release some kind of toxins into my system because my muscles and joints were achey. The sandwich didn’t do any more good than anything else I’d eaten all day and the discomfort stayed with me until 1:40 a.m. I didn’t get much sleep last night but I’m feeling better now. When I woke up this morning, I didn’t want to risk eating anything so I skipped breakfast and am functioning without the benefit of caffeine at the moment. I also didn’t get to work out this morning. I was barely able to drag my butt into the shower and get ready for work. Lunch should be interesting. If I get through the afternoon without another attack, I’ll be fine. Fortunately, I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow afternoon so I’ll have to talk to her about it again.

One nice thing about feeling completely shitty is that you really appreciate how good “normal” feels when it returns. On that note, I better go get rid of these hunger pangs and make my lunch.

I feel kind of crazy admitting this but I'm quite glad to be back at work. I find that I need the routine that I used to take for granted. It keeps my eating controlled and it keeps me on my exercise program.

I woke up this morning and dragged myself downstairs to the bike. I did my regular routine but felt kind of gross the whole time I was doing it. My stomach seemed off a bit. After I finished my workout and was making my lunch and doing my morning stuff, I realized that I as in the middle of a mild gas attack. I ate my breakfast and trundled along, eventually I had to give in and chug a couple of diet cokes and started belching. This helped a lot and I was able to get back upstairs and into the shower. I was still in a lot of discomfort though so, after I was ready for work, I drank yet another diet coke. I had a few more good belches on the way to work and, although I felt a little wonky when I arrived, I was a lot better than I'd been an hour earlier.

The side effect of this is that I've been running to the loo, a lot more than normal, getting rid of the cokes. I got my appetite back about an hour ago and just finished my lunch. The only residue I'm feeling now is that I'm really tired. I'm looking forward to getting home and sleeping. I figure that it was caused by my dinner last night. We had sort of a big lunch so I made myself a cabbage salad last night. I ate a little later than I normally would so I think that my stomach was having some trouble with the cabbage this morning. I'll have to be more careful about that in the future. I'm finding that my digestive system doesn't like it much when I eat too late in the evening.

The office was pretty busy when I was away so I have a fair amount of stuff on my desk right now. It's not too bad though, I actually prefer it when it is like this, I love being busy. Luckily, I also love my job so it's a good busy. I have a feeling that this week is going to fly right by. Speaking of which, I should probably get back to it!

So for the past four days, I've been back in my regular fitness routine. What a huge difference it makes. I feel amazing right now. I just finished working out and I was really sweating. It's going to be crazy hot here today, I can feel it already. I'm so glad that I've done my routine and can relax for the rest of the day. I'm not sure what we're doing but I suspect (and hope!) it'll be a whole lot of nothing!

I am noticing this year though that the heat is not killing me as badly as it did last year. I am guessing it's because of the weight that I have lost, my body has do to less work to keep me cool than it did last summer. I remember last summer, using the heat as an excuse not to do regular exercise. I won't do that this summer. I think that my stinky, sweaty workouts are helping to keep me cool (somehow, not quite sure, any ideas?) and I feel too crappy when I miss them.

Tomorrow I'm back to work and back to my regular routine. As much as I enjoyed being off, I'll be glad to get back into a regular routine again. It makes the food thing so much more manageable.

I think it's time for coffee and breakfast. Hope you all have a wonderful, relaxing, OP Sunday!

I posted this on the weigh-better board but I thought I'd put it up here too (for those of you who aren't reading over there). A while back, I wrote about how I could finally fit into those red capris I bought last summer. This week, I'm happy to report that I'm going to have to have my mum (she's an awesome seamstress) alter them for me. We were walking around the Futureshop today and they nearly fell off of me!!

Speaking of Capri's, my mum made me a really nice pair of white capri's for my birthday, back in May. She had added a few inches to a 32W pattern to make me pants over the years (my ass was way to big to fit into the 32W standard pattern pants). She hadn't made any for me over the past couple of years as I didn't want her measuring me because I knew that I'd put on more than a few inches.

Yesterday, she popped over with another pair she'd made me. A very funky floral pattern on a white background. I knew that she was making them and that she had only a small amount of the fabric to work with (it was the end of a bolt that she picked up at Bouclair). She called me the other night in a panic because she didn't know if she was going to have enough. I suggested that she take off a couple of inches and we'd see what happened. I figured they'd either fit me or they'd act as a good motivator for me to get into them. When I (nervously) tried them on, they fit!! Not only did they fit, they were a little big. She told me that I was now "officially" the size 32W on the pattern (she had cut out the extra inches she'd been adding for all these years).

I was so happy to hear this. The last pair of jeans I bought was what's called a "supersize," 38W. Now I'm back into regular plus sized stuff in pants (I've been down from a 36W top to a 30W/32W for a little while now). This time next year, I'd love to be into regular sizes. Time (and a lot more hard work) will tell!

I totally forgot to post yesterday.

I was kind of busy but in a good way. I got up at my normal time and worked out in the morning. It felt great and I really enjoyed it. I still can't believe how much I missed the regularity of it over my holidays. After my workout I had a tonne of errands to do. It's really really hot here again so I went out early in the morning for groceries. The local strawberries are in and they're not that impressive. I'm guessing it's partly because the early spring here was cold and rainy so everything in the garden is about 2 weeks later than it normally would be. The other factor is that when they would have been getting to the final growth spurt, it got really hot and muggy here and I don't think that this did them any good. It's sort of disappointing because I look forward to them all winter and this year they're kinda blah. Our local grocery store has been carrying these gorgeous seedless watermelons recently, for only $2.97. That's actually cheaper than the regular watermelons. They're so delicious too, yum!

I guess by the time everything that needed to be done, was done, I was just too pooped to plunk my butt in front of the computer. Foodwise, it was an okay day. Breakfast and dinner were totally on plan but, in the course of doing errands, we ended up having lunch in the mall foodcourt and I did split an order of fries with my hunny so my fat intake was higher than I would have liked.

We've promised each other that we're not going to do any work around the house this weekend, just chill out. I think I need it. I've done more work around the house since I've been home than I would have at the office. Funny how that happens huh?

I wanted to quickly follow-up on something I asked about earlier in the week. I wrote about a woman I observed in a restaurant who was hollowing out her bagel. A couple of folks let me know that this was a good way to cut down on the carbs while still enjoying the bagel-y goodness. Here's something I found on Yahoo! tonight which backs it up:

Bagels: The "Hole" Truth

One bagel-shop bagel with regular cream cheese has the same amount of calories as three donuts. To save empty calories in the morning, eat only half a bagel and use low-fat cream cheese. While bagels are low in fat, most are equal to about 4 servings of bread, so the calorie count is high. If you're devoted to your morning bagel, cut some of the calories by scooping out part of the doughy inside. Or, start your day with a slice of whole-wheat toast, and save about 175 calories.

Finally, a perfectly, on-plan day. As long as I don't eat anything else today I'm fine.

I stayed super-busy all day, which I hadn't planned on but it turned out to be okay. I sorted out our bathroom cupboards and this huge bin of old video tapes today. I created four bags of garbage, which I don't feel great about, but the clutter is disappearing. Because I was so busy though, I worked straight through breakfast. I had a terrific lunch, some salad greens, a red pepper, a tomato and some chicken. I really like the Renee's light salad dressings and bought some of her Caesar Vinaigrette to try. It's delicious. It's a little high as far calories go, 48 per tablespoon, but it's so tasty, you don't need much. I had my tossed salad with a small, whole wheat tortilla, yum-yum!

This afternoon, once my projects were completed, I worked out. It felt great. I did 4.39 miles on my recumbent bike and 20 minutes of weight work. It doesn't sound like much but it was a good 40 minutes for me and I'm so happy that I did it. I never thought that I would become the kind of person who misses exercise but I've realized that it's happened. Odd huh?

Late this afternoon, I took our little-old-guy shopping for his groceries. He wanted to take us for dinner afterwards and we ended up at our favourite Chinese buffet place. We had an amazing dinner. Tonight they had a huge variety (better than normal) of really fresh veggies so I really loaded up on them. I even had some orange jello and cantaloupe for dessert. It was a great meal and within my caloric range.

Tomorrow, I'm going to do my workout earlier in the day and do my errands afterwards. I can't believe that my two weeks off are almost over. I'm really very happy about all of the work we've been able to accomplish around the house. It looks really good (even though we still have a few things to finish up on the rooms we painted) and I'm loving my new living room furniture. This is the first time in my life that I've owned brand new living furniture. I'm 36 so this has been a long time coming. I must say that putting the money and time into the house these past couple of weeks is way better than going away would have been. For the rest of the summer, I'll be able to relax and really enjoy my evenings and weekends because the bulk of the work that needed doing this year is done. Yay us!

Being on vacation has made staying on plan really tough for me. We haven't even gone away and I was sure that staying home would help.

I've only worked out a couple of times since I've been off work. It's not that I've been sitting on my bum doing nothing though, we've been working, really hard, on the house. I've been doing lots of very physical stuff but none of it has been proper working out type of activity.

Today was not great, foodwise. I was really busy today which made it easy to stay on plan. Tonight, however, I went over on my calories. We were waiting for the furniture to arrive (which was coming between 5 & 8 p.m.) and had small salads while we waited for the guys to arrive. By the time the furniture arrived and we had done what needed to be done, it was kind of late and we were both totally exhausted. The other night when this happened, we ended up at Subway. Tonight it was Taco Bell. I ended up going 300 calories over today. I know that's not really terrible but I'm not look forward to weigh-in this weekend.

I've enjoyed having time off from work and I'm really happy with what we've been doing around the house but I'll be sort of glad to get back to work and into a routine again. Staying on plan is so much easier when I'm working!

Here's this week's Wednesday Weigh-In:

Throughout your change, what non-scale victories have you experienced?

There have been a few. Many of them are related to clothes that didn't fit me that I'm now able to wear, comfortably. I find that I can fit into chairs (with arms) much more easily and standing up from the sofa is easier too. I also discovered that I can cross my legs again. That was huge for me. I don't remember exactly when it was that I couldn't do this anymore but it was a while ago. A couple of months into the program, I realized that I could do it again. My flexibility has improved, a lot, as has my strength and endurance.

The painting is done for now. I have some stuff to do in both rooms to get things totally finished off but the worst of it is behind me now.

I didn't get to workout today but I think that painting the bathroom again and a couple of hours of gardening made up for it. Food-wise, I had a terrific, low fat, on-plan day. I'm pretty happy about that and tomorrow I plan on working out first thing in the morning. Hopefully, if all goes well, the rest of the week will be relatively low-key for me and I'll be able to pamper myself and get some extra exercising in!

Good morning all. I slept like the dead last night. This is a good thing because I really needed it. The "late" night subway fiasco kept us up until after 11 p.m. We ordinarily go to bed around 9 p.m. I just cannot eat my meals after 6:30 p.m. anymore. I have to finish up the bathroom this morning (it's looking really good right now!) and am sipping my coffee at the moment.

I just read this on yahoo and thought you all might be interested in it:


10 Ways To Put More Fruit In Your Diet

1. Top your cereal with apples, bananas, berries or raisins.
2. Bulk up chicken salad by tossing in grapes and sliced apples.
3. Apples won't weigh you down; take one with you to work for a snack.
4. Add berries or sliced bananas to low-fat or fat-free yogurt.
5. Citrus segments - oranges, clementines, tangerines and even grapefruit - are refreshing ingredients in green salads.
6. Instead of a candy bar, munch on mixed dried fruit (raisins, apricots, cherries, prunes).
7. Fruit slushies and smoothies are low in calories, delicious and satisfying.
8. Serve fruit wedges with a low-fat yogurt dip.
9. Make a "baked" apple in the microwave: Put a cored apple on a microwaveable plate. Pour a couple of tablespoons of orange or lemon juice around it, and put two teaspoons of raisins inside. Sprinkle with cinnamon, pierce and cook on high for five minutes.
10. Work melons into the beginning or end of your meal. Perfectly ripened melon slices make a tasty first course. Melon balls mixed with berries are a luscious dessert. Buy melons that feel heavy in your hand; check for a distinctive, sweet fragrance.