Well kiddies, they're counting down all over the world. We have to be up really early tomorrow so I'm toddling off to bed now. Happy New Year everyone!! I wish you all the best for 2004.

On that note, I'm posting a final article of the year. Some people are just too stupid to live. Whoever thinks, "yeah, that stuff's gonna be banned, best go out and stock me up some." Sheesh, some people are just morons.

Ephedra Products Sell Fast Ahead of Ban
By JENNIFER PETER, Associated Press Writer

WATERTOWN, Mass. - Products with names like Speed Stack, Ripped Force, TrimSpa and Kranker started flying off the shelves at the Lo Fat Know Fat Gourmet Cafe after the Food and Drug Administration announced plans to ban the dietary supplement ephedra in two months.

"People have been buying it like crazy," co-owner Christopher Pappas said. "They know it's going to be taken off the shelf so they're stocking up."

After months of rising concerns, the FDA announced Tuesday that it would ban ephedra next year and strongly urged people not to take the herbal supplement in the meantime.

Ephedra, used for weight loss and bodybuilding, has been linked to 155 deaths, including that of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler last February, and dozens of heart attacks and strokes.

Across the country, some stores reported sharp increases in sales Wednesday, while others said some customers knew the ban was coming and stocked up some time ago. Some said the demand for ephedra decreased long ago in favor of products advertised as ephedra-free.

GNC, which has 5,000 health food stores across the country, banned ephedra-containing products in June. The NFL banned its players from using ephedra as a dietary supplement in 2001.

"We have customers who have been stocking up for several months, knowing what was coming down the road," said Claudia David-Roscoe, co-owner of Claudia's Natural Food Market in Toledo, Ohio.

In Overland Park, Kan., Russell Wood of Fit 4 Less said that after the ban was announced, one woman wanted to buy two cases of 24 bottles each. Normally, Wood said, he sells 30 to 50 bottles per month.

At the Lo Fat Know Fat Gourmet Cafe, manager Ryan McElhiney, who takes ephedra himself, said one customer spent $369 on ephedra tablets Tuesday soon after the announcement.

Kate Morreale, 22, a regular customer and part-time worker at the dietary supplement store, did not wait that long. She bought two cases of an ephedra-containing drink, called Speed Stack, over the summer when a ban seemed imminent.

"It should last me a while, at least through the year," she said.

today I am a sloth

I did less than nothing today...no exercise, just a little tidying up around the house actually...The few holiday decorations I did have up are now down. They aren't away or anyway but at least they're down. I got it together long enough to go out for a few groceries when my hunny finished work but other than that, not much got done.

TOM hit me today and sort of knocked me on my ass. I guess because I've not been working, I hadn't been thinking about it and had totally forgotten about it. It sort of explains why I had been dragging my butt around on the weekend, feeling kind of tired. I'm sure I'll feel much better in the morning but today, I've been a lump, popping ibuprofen and watching daytime television. Not exactly a picture of health and fitness. Oh well, that's what New Years is for, right?

Today was a bit of a blur... I spent the majority of the day sitting around visiting with different friends in various locations. I sipped many hot water type beverages but didn't do too badly as far as eating goes today. I met a couple of friends for coffee this morning and (how cool is this?) had just a coffee...black! No fancy (read fatty) coffees, no sticky / sweet treats, just coffee. Yay me!! Afterwards, I met with another friend for tea, again, clear tea and one cookie (only because I'd had no lunch and breakfast had just been a banana and a glass of juice before I ran out the door for coffee).

Of course, we ended up going out to dinner tonight (to Chinese buffet of all things) but again, I did okay as far as portion control went. Lately we've been eating out a fair bit more than we usually do. I've noticed though that I'm not eating nearly as much as I used to. This is a huge deal for me and it's not even a conscious thing anymore. I'm still eating crap lately (since my vacation started) but I'm eating crap in small amounts, between eating good stuff. Physically, I just cannot eat the same amount of junk that I used to be able to do and, my system starts to crave whole foods and other stuff that is good for me after a while. I'd always heard that this sort of thing could happen but it still surprises me that it's happening to me. It should make the return to being 100% on plan a lot easier for me this year than it was last year....Fingers are crossed anyway!!

We took a quick trip to Ottawa today. We had to pick up some computer parts from my brother and while we were there we hit the boxing week sale at IKEA. I am practically incapable of going to Ottawa without stopping at IKEA. Sad huh?

Eating was not bad. We were up and out early and stopped at the Timmy drive-thru for coffee and a low-fat muffin for breakfast. I don't know how "low-fat" it actually was, it was a very dense muffin although, it wasn't greasy so I'm sure that's a good sign. For lunch, we had dim sum. We don't have a good place for dim sum here and it was a nice treat. We had a big lunch but we only had stuff that was steamed (no fried stuff). I know that it was still hugely caloric but it was a really great treat. We didn't even have dinner tonight because lunch was so good and satisfying. I haven't done any calculations on fitday but I'm not too bothered by it.

Again, no proper exercise was done today (unless shopping counts). As I've mentioned, I'm not beating myself up about it too badly because I'm sure that I'll get back into the swing of stuff this week.

I was a complete sloth today...Well almost. Basically, all I really did today was make the bed, do some dishes and tidy up a bit. It was SOOOO nice. I didn't get out of my jammies and into the shower until almost 2!! I'm really enjoying this chill out time that I've had recently. I admit that I desperately needed it as I was completely run down and worn out at the beginning of my vacation.

Tonight, our little old guy wanted to go do some gamblin' so we took him down the road to the local charity casino. We won over $200 between the three of us (he won $7.25, I won $15 and my hunny won $180.00). Not bad huh?? Tomorrow we are heading up to Ottawa to see my brother for a quick visit. I hope to spend our winnings at the IKEA store in Nepean on the way home. It shouldn't be a problem!

As you can see, there isn't any fitness related stuff to report, just holiday stuff. Just like so many others seem to be doing, I'm not really worrying too much about stuff at the moment. On January 5 though, watch out, it's return to boot camp!! If I can do as well in 2004 as I did in 2003, I'll be really happy.

Did you survive Christmas?

We did, we had a nice day actually. We went out to my parents for the afternoon. We had a big meal at mid-day and I didn't do too badly at all. We had made a nice breakfast at home in the morning, it was big and hearty and pretty healthy so we weren't too hungry when we got to mum's. I had mostly veggies, salad and turkey...no 'taters, no gravy...Only a taste of dressing. I did have some sweets though, a sliver of lemon pie and some cookies. No booze though, and no eggnog or other fatty drinks. Very good.

I got some totally kickass gifts too. Some DVD's and CD's, some cash and some exercise stuff. I got a nice mat and some resistance bands (a set of two for arms and one for doing step stuff for legs). I haven't tried them out yet properly but I can see that they will be a big help for arms and back and legs..yay!!

For some insane reason, even though it was a gorgeous, sunny, mild day, we actually went out to the malls today. We wanted to see what was on sale at the Futureshop and we also went to the mall. We are looking for a new coffee maker (a particular Hamilton Beach model that has a stainless thermal carafe) and while we didn't find the model we wanted, we did pick up a new computer (a refurbished compaq at FS for an unbelievable low price -- we're going to harvest it for parts). The mobs were pretty insane but I just pushed my way through...Like I used to when I was young and reckless and spent too much time in crowded clubs... At one point, we couldn't find what we were looking for at Sears and we decided to walk down to the far end of the mall, to see if they had what were looking for at the Bay. I remember that we did this last year and that the walk (all bundled up, fighting through the mob) just about killed me. This year, I actually, almost ran because I couldn't wait to get through the masses of humanity who seemed to be wandering around in a daze. When we had gone the length of the mall, and back, with several stops in and out of shops along the way I suddenly realized that I wasn't winded and that I wasn't dying...Like I recall feeling last year. It was very cool!! Next year though, hopefully I'll be smart enough to just plain old stay away from the mobs and go for a nice hike outside somewhere!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I just looked outside and it looks way more like Vancouver outside than it should do. We're having a very very green Christmas this year. Oh well, at least it makes travelling easier for folks. I woke up coughing again this morning, not good. I really wish that this bug would just piss off and leave me be!! I slept okay and I'm feeling better than I did on Monday, this deep cough thing is a new development. I'm not going to let it get to me though!!

I did get my baking done last night and everything is all wrapped up and ready to go to my mum's this morning. My brother is coming into town by train this morning so we'll head over to my mum & dad's around 11:30 or so. Hope you all have a very lovely day, whatever you end up doing, whether you celebrate or not!! Happy holidays!

So, runny nose and all, I exercised this morning. I was a bit of a hurtin' unit about half-way through but I was soooo happy when I finished. It goes much faster when you watch Eastenders on tape too! Anyway, I crawled out of bed and down the stairs and just did it, I'm pretty pleased with myself actually. After, I had a decent breakfast and have just spent the past 30 minutes updating fitday. It wasn't pretty but I think it's pretty accurate. It's now up to date, I'm back to movin' my butt again and I just generally feel like my body is mending. I even weighed myself this morning...I'm up 2 pounds but I'm not beating myself up over it. Considering the amount of abuse I heaped upon my poor old body over the past week, it could be a lot worse. I'm actually a little surprised that it wasn't, truth be told.

Now, I have to finish up my baking. This morning I'm doing shortbread and rugelach. I feel sort of weird about using actual, real butter in my baking. It felt super strange to buy it after many many months of buying non-hydrogenated margarine for the odd time when we actually use it. I know though, that these particular holiday items require full-on fatty stuff (it's what makes them so good!). I'm just glad that I'm using this stuff for gifts and that not much of it will actually stay in the house. Yikes. No wonder I gained a couple of pounds this week!

Anyway, thanks so much for your emails and comments of support over the past few days. It really made me feel a lot better!

Okay, so I feel soooo much better today. My nose ran like a tap today but I actually got out of bed before 10 a.m. for a change. I didn't really go out of the house until after dark today but I did get some baking done for Christmas. It's the only food type contribution I make to Christmas day stuff at my mum's place. I'll finish it up tomorrow. I don't mind doing it actually and the house smells good. I baked two kinds of cookies and two kinds of squares and only had one actual cookie so that's not too bad. Of course, being sick for almost a week now has me right off of my program. I've not really been watching what I'm eating and I've not properly exercised in several days but, no excuses, tomorrow I'm doing it, snotty nose and all!!

I'm still sick. Over the weekend I actually felt a little bit better and was able to get the rest of the shopping (and all of the wrapping) done. This morning when I woke up, I felt like I'd been hit by a bus and spent most of the morning in bed. I haven't exercised in days and while I'm not on a binge, I've not exactly been tracking what I've been eating. I'm really hoping that tomorrow I'll be feeling better because I want to exercise tomorrow. I really miss it. Anyway, that's all that's been up over the past few days...'night all!

Day 26

I think that it is fairly safe to say that the challenge is over for now. I'm still feeling crummy. My head was totally plugged when I got up this morning. All day I was totally cold, couldn't get warm for anything and my knees were achey. Now, I'm so warm my face feels like it's on fire. My resistance was so low today that not only did I not exercise, I even ate doritos!! Tomorrow is a new day and I'm sure I'll feel better than I did today. I can't feel much worse than I do at the moment.

Day 25

My cold seems to be back. I guess it never went away. I've generally felt pretty crappy today and haven't done much of anything. I did actually exercise today though so that's something I guess.

Because I was basically vegging out for most of the day, I have the TV on a lot. I don't get to watch a lot of daytime television ordinarily. I must say that I'm more than a little disgusted at all the gimmick-y weight-loss programs that are being advertised in heavy rotation right now. I am pretty sure that there aren't any more ads than there normally are but I'm probably more aware of them as I've actually lost weight this year (unlike every other year of my life!). The one that really bugged my bum was for some pill. They were saying that the pills were like $150 a bottle and they were for folks with serious weight problems, you know, the folks who are 20 or 40 pounds overweight, not for people who had "5 or 6 vanity pounds to lose." They then flashed a photo of a person who was more like a couple of hundred pounds overweight. How can folks honestly think that a little pill, one that you buy from a commercial, is going to help?!? I guess that some folks are just desperate enough to try anything. I hate to think of what they might actually do to a person. Hopefully, they're just a placebo and not something that would actually harm a person. Just once, I'd love to see someone take an ad out that said, "the best way to lose weight and to keep it off forever is to totally change your lifestyle -- eat healthy foods and exercise -- you'll be healthy and life longer and you'll thank yourself." Of course, that's just plain old work isn't it? It's not as easy as say, popping a pill that you saw advertised during Jerry Springer. /rant

Sorry if I'm grouchy today, I think it's this head cold thing. Other than my cold, things are going okay. I think we're taking the little old guy out for dinner tonight. I'm not 100% sure but I think we're going to Red Lobster. I haven't been there in a couple of years and I'm hoping that I'll be able to find something there that isn't too bad. It is seafood after all, surely to goodness it can't all be deep fried. Wish me luck!

Day 24

I'm feeling pretty good right now. I got up this morning and did my regular workout, ate a proper breakfast and then headed out to brave the crowds. From 8:30 a.m. until about a half an hour ago, I was Christmas shopping. Thank goodness I don't do a whole lot of it because it's a huge job. I'm tired but that's mostly because I didn't stop for lunch. I remember last year when I did this. On top of weighing a lot more, I was really sick with a bad chest cold and I remember having to sit down in the mall frequently. I know that I was pretty beaten up after I got my shopping done. What a difference a year makes.

I think I'm pretty much done with the shopping now. I say "I think" because I have to sort it out and check it against my list. I'm so happy that, at most, I'll just have to run out a couple of times, quickly to finish up. I was starting to feel like a zombie by the end of it all. I know that there are 2 things that we have to pick up at the beginning of next week but the majority of it is done. I just have to wrap it all now!

Anyway, when I got home and took my sweater off, my tshirt was soaked in the back so I did break a sweat out there. I guess Christmas shopping must count as cardio huh??

Day 23

Today was a blur!! I must have burned about a zillion calories doing errands today. I know that I'm completely exhausted and must sleep...soon. I want to get my Christmas shopping done tomorrow so I'll have to start early, like 7 a.m. early. Yikes. Sorry that this isn't much of a post but today was a pretty good day. I exercised and ate pretty well today and was too busy to get into too much trouble. Hope you all had a good, on-plan day too!!

Day 22

So far, so good. Fabulous actually!! Eating has been terrific because I haven't eaten anything yet! Seriously though, I've been up for a while and just finished shovelling. We had our first major snow fall of the year yesterday and last night so it was really piled up when I went out this morning. My hunny did the bottom of the driveway where it was really heavy but I did the rest of the drive, the walkway, the car (it had to have had about 8 inches of snow on it!) and feel great now. When I first came in, my limbs felt like wet noodles but now I feel really good. In past years, shovelling has just about killed me. Today, it was tough (hey, it's heavy snow -- that's hard work!!) but it didn't kill me. My arms were strong, so were my legs...and they did what I wanted them to do and they didn't rebel against me. I may or may not have a proper workout later on, it'll depend on where my day goes. I'm not shopping today (because the roads are pretty horrible) but I'll get a lot of stuff done around the house today. As I said above, so far, my holiday is going great!

Day 21

Still sick but tonight I'm feeling SO much better than I have in days. I didn't have to blow my nose nearly as much today as I did yesterday. I think that the sleep yesterday totally helped. I didn't exercise today but I know I'll be back into my routine tomorrow plus some. It's snowing to beat the band right now so I suspect that there will be much shovelling to do tomorrow. Hopefully it'll stop soon and I'll be able to get out and do some shopping tomorrow. I have my list sorted out and mostly know what I'm after, it's just a matter of getting out and doing it. fun huh?

Day 20

I didn't do much of anything today. Didn't exercise, didn't eat much. What I did do was sleep, a lot. I also wrote out my christmas cards at one lucid point this morning. Other than that, I didn't get anything accomplished, not laundry, not house work, not even getting out of my pj's and having a shower. It's ugly but it's true. Oh well, such is the life of a sickie. I hate sinus colds.

Day 19

I officially felt like poopie for most of the day. My head was heavy and my joints ached when I got up this morning. I didn't workout before work. I popped a couple of Advil Sinus & Cold and went to work, thinking that I'd exercise tonight. In the end I didn't but I feel so crummy that I can't feel bad about not exercising.

We had our small departmental holiday luncheon today. Again I was a very good girl. I had a small piece of chicken and some roasted veggies. I didn't have any of the cheese manicotti, or cheese and crackers, or the buns or the potato salad. I had a couple of pieces of fruit with my black coffee for dessert. They didn't have any diet soda or water available so I had to go get some tap water from the kitchen. Everyone else was drinking juice with sparkling wine in it. I was getting a lot of "c'mon, it's Christmas" from folks but I just ignored them. They had an amazing looking dark chocolate / mint layer cake that smelled heavenly but I didn't have any. As I said, I was a good girl.

My reward for being good is that I have just begun a 3 week vacation. I earned and deserve it and am going to thoroughly enjoy it! Once I get this cold thing done and gone, all I have to do is write my cards, mail 'em, do all of my shopping, wrap it...and oh yeah, bake!! Oh well, at least I'm not at work!!

Day 18

I think I'm fighting a cold or some kind of virus. Both yesterday and today, as the day progresses, my knees and legs just ache. I'm also really stuffy in the mornings and have been blowing my nose a lot. Hopefully it's just overtired stuff and I'll rest up on the weekend and get rid of it.

I worked out this morning, got up at a not bad time. I also ate okay today and am generally feeling better. I went to my doctor today, had a great visit and followed up on some of the stuff we had talked about last month. I got another prescription for the pills I've been taking. I can't believe how sleep deprived I was before I started taking these. Hopefully, early in the new year I'll be able to stop but for now, I'm glad to have them. They are making a world of difference to me.

After my appointment, I went to Loblaws and dropped off my script. I had to pick up a couple of odds and ends for tonight's dinner and decided to get a couple of magazines. I want us to get subscriptions to some kind of fitness mag in the new year but I've not been able to figure out, from what I've seen online, which the best one for me would be. I picked my hunny up a copy of Men's Health and I grabbed a Shape for myself. If we like them, we'll likely subscribe. I think it'll be good to have fitness magazines in our bathroom mag rack instead of just computer and news ones. If we don't like them, we'll try different ones until we find something we like!

Day 17

This morning I actually got up at a decent time and I really worked out. I exercised before going to work even. I felt a lot better about that.

Today was a bit of a challenge. It was our office "end of year" party. They do a big luncheon for staff only (ie no spouses). This year I was very very good. I did not have any alcohol. I did not have any starchy food. I did not have dessert. I had veggies and salad and some chicken. I felt pretty good about that too. We have another "holiday season" party on Friday, again at lunch. I'm going to try very hard to be as good as I was today. Rather than actually losing 10 pounds before Christmas, I'm working on not gaining any. If I lose some, great. If I don't lose any, that's okay too. If I can get through the rest of December without gaining any, wonderful. So far so good. I'm going back to the doctor tomorrow for my regular monthly check-in. I'm thinking that she'll probably support my modified challenge. I don't feel like I'm weenie-ing out of anything, just being realistic. I've got enough stress to deal with right now without adding to it. I'll let you know I make out with her tomorrow. I generally feel better after I've seen her and I don't expect that tomorrow will be any different. Anyway, before I ramble any more, I'm gonna end this. 'night all!

Day 16 - update

I did do my workout when I got home. I wasn't going to do it. I didn't feel like doing it. After I did it, I felt much better. We ended up not having dinner at home, we had dinner at our favourite Vietnamese place. It was a vegetarian meal and I drank a lot of tea. It warmed me up and made me feel better. That plus the exercise makes for a much happier shrinking gurl.

Day 16

I'm about 1/2 through day 16 and am feeling off my game slightly. I didn't workout this morning like I normally do. I just could not get up this morning and by the time I hauled my ass out of bed it was way too late to start. As soon as I get home from work tonight though, I will do it. I promise (pinky swear)! My eating has been good though and we're having dinner at home tonight so I know that it'll be low fat and yummy.

Lately, here and my other blog, I've been talking a bit about how much crap there is going on in my life right now. I wish I could get into specifics about it here because I know that it would do my soul a lot of good to get it all off of my chest but, for many reasons, I can not. I'm sure by now you can figure out what it's related to. While I was heating up my lunch, I made a couple of lists. It did make me feel better to make them, although I cried and felt like puking while I was working on them. I guess they are laundry lists of things that are both good and bad in my life right now. I was feeling like the negative energy in my life was consuming me and pushing all the good stuff out. Once I got the lists done, I realized that it hadn't and that made me feel much better.

Again, I would love to give details but I don't feel that I can at the moment so this will have to do as far as purging goes:

Bad stuff that I'm feeling right now

* In the past 12 months, I haven't lost as much weight as I would have liked to
* I still have a very long way to go with it
* I feel tired, weary actually
* I often feel angry and frustrated
* I often feel unappreciated and invisible
* I often feel like a shit magnet
* I often feel like crying
* I often feel sick to my stomach
* I have a tension headache and a knot in my neck
* For a good chunk of each work day, I feel unhappy

Good things about me:

* I am in a relationship with a wonderful, supportive man who I love more than I could ever say
* I'm healthy, definitely healthier than I was 12 months ago
* I take time, everyday, to look after myself by eating well, taking vitamins and being nice to my skin
* I exercise at least 5 days every week
* Physically, I am a lot stronger today than I was a year ago today
* I have lost weight and been able to keep it off for months now
* I am talented and funny
* I have amazing skills and abilities
* I have awesome friends
* I help people, every day
* Our family is healthy and close by
* I live in a really cool little house

When I first read the bad list, it made me want to throw up. I definitely felt angry tears while I typed it. When I did the good list, I started to smile and feel good about myself. Ordinarily, I have no problem being positive and optimistic. Lately though, the negative shit has been working really hard to push the good stuff out. I refuse to let that happen. I'm working on making the bad list go away because I can control all of it.

I'm sorry if this sounded rambling and stupid but I feel so much better for typing it all out. It's all that negative shit that has me taking those pills at night so I can sleep. It's been a very long year. I made a lot of positive changes but a lot of bad stuff was thrust upon me by others around me. I started this holiday challenge as a way of trying to distract myself from what's been happening lately. It's not really working this week. I'm just tired of the struggle right now. I've made a new challenge though, one that is much bigger than trying to lose 10 pounds by Christmas....by the time my birthday rolls around again (in May), I'm going to have eliminated the negatives and be a much happier camper. It's a promise that I've made to myself and to you all. I'll double pinky swear on that one.

Day 14 and 15

I had today off from work which was nice. I spent the best part of it running errands. Overall, my weekend wasn't as great as it could have been eating-wise, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been either. I'm still a little pooped, drained I guess but I got a good night's sleep last night. I had a touch of a tummy bug this morning. My hunny had it on Thursday and I felt like I was coming down with something last night. This morning I was up at my normal time but wasn't feeling all that great. Tonight I'm feeling much better but, as I mentioned, drained. Whatever it was has worn me out.

Tomorrow I'm back to work and I should be back to my normal routine again and, hopefully, I'll have more to post!

Day 12 and 13

It's odd that I did not post anything for a couple of days but I wasn't in front of the computer much. Last week was a blur for me. Work has been kind of insane and as I've written recently, there's a lot of stuff happening all at once and it's been difficult for me to concentrate. Over the past few weeks, I've been posting in the evenings, rather than at lunch time like I had been doing. The past few days though, by the time I'd get to the machine, my brain would be mushy and I couldn't write. Not that there was much to write about anyway.

The past 2 mornings, we've slept in and it's been great. Yesterday I stayed home and did some cleaning and sorting out. I got the whole house clean and a major dent into some papers that had been piling up in our office. To de-clutter the place has made me feel better. Also, it's been very cold here recently and the sun's been shining brightly for the past two days. The rest and the sunshine have gone a long way to making me feel better.

Friday morning (day 12), I did exercise and my eating was okay. I have to say, sitting here on Sunday morning, I can't really remember much of the day at all. Yesterday (day 13) was my normal break day. I didn't workout but I did do a lot of physical work, cleaning, hauling stuff up and down stairs, that kind of thing. My eating wasn't so great yesterday but it wasn't horrible. I'm sure that today will be much better because I'm feeling stronger and more rested. I also forgot to weigh-in yesterday so I'll have to do that today.

As I said, the days are just fuzzy for me right now and I can not remember ever looking so forward to a vacation and I am to mine.

Day 11

Today was another difficult day. I got through it but it was a huge struggle. I got in a lot of activity but I ate more than I probably should have. I know why though, it's because I'm absolutely exhausted right now; mentally and physically. If I wasn't working out regularly I'm absolutely sure that I would go completely insane. I can not tell you how much I'm looking forward to my 3 weeks of vacation. December 12 cannot come soon enough. I'm looking forward to having some time to myself, to getting some things done around the house and to just spending time with my hunny. It's been a long past few months and I am so beyond ready for this break.

I wish I could write more right now but I can't. I'm brain dead and pooped and am going to, literally, crawl into bed.

Day 10

Today was a weird day. My moods were up and down like a yo-yo. There is a lot of stuff going on in my life right now that I can't really talk about here at the moment. I'd like to, but for many reasons, I can't.

Having said that, today was a struggle. I exercised this morning, ate breakfast and went to work. Somehow, I didn't get around to eating my lunch. I had a couple of errands to do though so I piled on my winter clothes (can't believe that I'm wearing boots and a heavy coat again -- I was in denial, I know it's December!) and did them. The walking outside in the fresh air was invigorating. I felt great afterwards. I had a busy afternoon and by the time I left the office I was starving.

We had to get groceries for our little old guy because he wasn't feeling up to going out. We got his stuff, took it to his place and put everything away. I really wanted him to go out for dinner with us but he insisted that he was not going out but wanted Swiss Chalet. We trudged back out and got take out, went back to his 500 degree old person apartment and sweated while we ate. The whole dinner was stressful (because we were both overtired and hungry and he was not feeling good and therefore grumpy). I couldn't wait to get out of there.

Unfortunately, we didn't resist our better judgment and we ended up stopping in at Timmy's on the way home. We didn't need donuts but we had them anyway. Not sure why, not too happy about it now but it was a emotional eating type thing. I know that. I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I know what I did, I know that I shouldn't done it but it happened, it's over and I'm moving on. It's not that I think I'm never going to eat another donut but, I don't want to get into a habit of eating a donut when things are stressful. Anyway, I counted the calories, donut and all, I didn't do too too badly and I did get a lot of exercise today. I know that Day 11 of the challenge will be better. Right now, I'm just bone tired and cannot wait to crawl into bed. 'night all!

Day 9

It was cold today, all day. Really cold. It snowed a little bit last night. This morning I said, "it'll be gone by lunch." This time of year, snow is usually gone by lunch. Not today, it was brrrr....cold, all day. It really felt like winter today.

Oddly enough, the cold didn't bother me too much. Guess I heated up my motor pretty good this morning. It took me a little while to get moving this morning but once I did I got a lot done. I worked out and did a load of laundry before work. Day 9 was pretty good overall. We had dinner at home again tonight and it was great. My hunny had made a delicious tomato sauce on Sunday afternoon so we had whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce, sweet pepper, zucchini and some lean pork loin. It was so good, lots of garlic and onion too. mmm....For dessert, we had some of those Dare low fat cookies, the cinnamon snaps and the lemon social teas. I was surprised by how tasty they were. They are really low in fat too which is nice. I often crave cookies and these will feed that particular craving without a tonne of sugar and transfat.

The water thing has been getting better this week. Both yesterday and today, I drank a little more water than I'd been drinking. It's a slow process but I am really working at upping my intake!! Also, I'm going to try really hard to get up earlier tomorrow than I have the last couple of days. I'd like to have a slightly longer workout but I've been having a rough time getting going the past few morning. I'm off to bed now, hopefully "early to bed, early to rise" will work for me tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Did anyone see 48 hours on Saturday night? They did a show Called "Heavy Burden" and talked a lot about a diet consisting totally of raw foods. It was quite interesting, apparently it's a method of detoxing your body but some folks do it all the time. They only eat raw foods. They interviewed a couple of scientists though who said that for some vegetables, you need to cook them at least a little to get the benefit of the nutrients (otherwise it's just fiber and you poop all the good out). Some folks swear by it and they say that if you're eating only raw foods, you can eat as much as you'd like. It totally makes sense I guess. It's not something I think I could do but it was interesting nonetheless.

They also talked about how non-teenaged females are developing anorexia. There is some stuff about the show on the link I put above. It was quite scary. I hadn't realized that some women develop the disease later in life. They interviewed one women who was in her mid-40's and other who was in her 50's. The one woman they followed had never had a problem with her weight and had been put on a low fat diet by her doctor for health reasons (she'd been having stomach trouble). She eventually developed such a low-calorie / fat regime for herself that she was basically starving herself. She was doing in-patient treatment at an eating disorders clinic when they hooked up with her. Fortunately, she was able to gain some weight there, get help and was able to go home. Again, really interesting. I don't usually watch 48 hours but had seen an ad for this particular show somewhere and was glad that I watched it.

Day 8

Well, I did great today. Last night, I hauled my ass and several boxes of books up and down the stairs here at home. It felt great, I was working up a sweat by the time I finished but I didn't get winded, it was AWESOME!!! This morning, I wasn't a hurtin' unit and managed to workout before heading into the office. My eating was great, all day. I'm really happy. My rings are really getting loose on me, as are my pants. I wore a sweater to work today (my snowflake sweater) that I hadn't worn in a while and I noticed that it's almost too big. Around the waist it's too big anyway, I think I stretched it out last winter. It feels good though, I totally do not mind getting too small for clothes!!

So, other than feeling strong and healthy, there is not much to report tonight. Happy December everyone!!