It's about a million degrees here today. I don't mind though, I'm hoping the heat is helping to melt my fat. We'll see.

I figured out my stiff neck problem. I'm pretty sure that it was a cold in my shoulder, caused by air conditioning. Going in and out of the heat and the air conditioning that is. I think it must have happened on the weekend as we were out running errands a lot and were in and out of the heat / cold. I figured this out this morning when I got to work. Last night and this morning, the stiffness had traveled north, more into my shoulder. When I got to work I started to loosen up. My office is not air conditioned. The longer I spent in the non-air conditioned room, the better I felt. The same thing had happened yesterday (I hadn't quite figured this out until today though). I was feeling okay all morning and when we got back from lunch, T & I stopped off in the parlour to cool off (we work in an old mansion which was built in 1837 -- the parlour is the last room in the West Wing which is still in tact -- we use it for meetings, it's the only air conditioning the wing). When we headed back up the stairs to our offices, my neck started to get tight. I now know it was the A/C that caused it.

I slept in quite late this morning because of it. Every time I rolled over last night I would wake myself up. Because of this, my hunny let me sleep late this morning. I couldn't believe it, how late I slept in. All I could think of was "how am I going to get my whole workout in?" as I crawled out of bed. As it turned out, I was able to get my whole ride in and some of my other exercises. I did take things sort of easy though because of my neck. I was really proud of myself though, for doing my 4.25 mile ride, sleeping in and all. I knew that we had to take our little-old-guy shopping and that he'd want to go for dinner (he did!) and that I'd never do it if I didn't do it before work.

My eating was really good today. Even with eating out, I kept my calories really low (which surprised me). I had a nice chicken wrap and a salad for dinner. I've been eating a lot more salad lately because of the heat. I'm finding too, that in the humidity, my appetite has decreased.

Wednesday Weigh-In:

Now that we're well into the "dog days of August", summer vacations and hot, sticky weather can trip you up. What tips or tricks have you discovered to help you keep yourself on track during a holiday or a heat wave?

I submitted this week's question to Carla because this was something I struggled with in late June and all through July. I'm looking forward to seeing what folks have come up with. In August, since it's been really hot where I am, I've actually been doing better than in June and July. I think that part of it is that my body is getting used to the heat and part of it was fear based. I could see how easily the pounds I've worked SO hard to get off could just slide back on. Fear is an excellent motivator. One thing that I've made sure that I'm doing in the heat is keeping lots of water in the fridge and lots of fruit. Different stuff, berries, grapes, melons. Always a variety and mostly stuff that I keep in the fridge, icy cold, until I'm ready to eat it. I've also discovered the joys of putting regular yogurts into the freezer before eating them. I'm a big fan of ice cream and popsicles so having these cold treats readily available is helping to keep me honest. Fortunately, as I mentioned above, the heat is zapping my appetite a bit so that's helpful too!