Wednesday, March 30, 2005

day 87 - hurray for hump day

There really isn't much to report today.

Yesterday we finalized all of the paperwork on the purchase of our new home. Tomorrow night we'll be listing our place (do you know anyone who is looking for a really cute house in Kingston?). On Monday, all hell will break loose at our place as the work begins. Some of what we're doing probably isn't absolutely necessary but I think it will speed things up. I know that if we were to show our house today, we could sell it for about $20K less than if we spend $5K on upgrades. We've booked into a neighbourhood hotel for a couple of days next week. During the first couple of days, I know that we won't be able to sleep in the house. The LOG will be camping out with my parents. It wouldn't be fair to stick him in a hotel room for 3 days, all by himself while we're at work. Hopefully, around this time next week, the bulk of the work will be done.

Sorry that this isn't really about healthy stuff or weight-loss today. I will say that I'm a little concerned about how much this is going to disrupt my fitness routine but I can't worry about that too much. We just have to survive the next two weeks and then all will be back to normal, or as normal as things can get when you're selling a home. I've never been through this process as a seller so I'm sure it'll be an education.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

day 86 - sleepy headed

I think that everything has just caught up with us at home. This morning, neither one of us wanted to get up. We went to bed at our usual time and I know I had a really good, solid sleep but when that alarm went off, I did not want to face the world. Tonight we'll sign off on the new house and Thursday night we're listing ours. We should be ready for viewing by April 15 but the agent suggested listing it early, getting the sign in the lawn and generating some "buzz." Lucky for us, we're in a pretty good neighbourhood, there are 2 elementary and 2 high schools within walking distance of our house and we're central to shopping and stuff so everyone is telling us that we should have a quick sale. We basically have 50 days to get a firm, signed offer on our place. I can't imagine that it will be a problem. I was just so relieved when we heard from the bank yesterday. I always go to the worst case scenario with things like this. I guess that's good because I'm always pleasantly surprised when stuff works out.

Speaking of working out, I did my faithful exercises this morning. I will admit that the fatigue and TOM have slowed me down a bit. I'm not pushing myself like I was a couple of weeks ago but I figure, at least I'm doing it. I can get all ramped up again when we're not spending every evening packing and cleaning.

Eating was good yesterday. All this stress is making me want to eat anything and everything I can get my hands on but I didn't give into it too much. Today has been a bit of a struggle but I'm coping. I know it's early yet but some days are longer than others. Ugh. Anyway, while the routine is all messed up, I'll white-knuckle things for a while. I know that in a few weeks everything will get back to normal, in the meantime, I'm trying to keep myself from doing too much damage!

Monday, March 28, 2005

day 85 - week 13

I'm back at work, for a rest. I shouldn't say that actually, yesterday was kind of restful. Thursday, Friday and Saturday though, we worked our tails off. Right now though, the biggest chunk of our stuff is packed and sitting in a storage locker.

On Thursday morning, I got up at my normal time and worked out. I then did a couple of hours of cleaning and packing while I waited for the store to open. I did errands like a mad woman for a few hours and came home to pack some more. Friday was much of the same. Our handy man/painter guy came by in the morning and gave us an estimate. They'll start work next Monday. He's terrific and gave us some really good ideas on how to cut our costs (yay!!). I didn't do a proper workout on Friday or Saturday but I more than made up for it with what I was already doing. On Saturday, we rented a truck and loaded everything up and hauled it to the locker. It took us about 6 hours to load and unload (with breaks!). Fortunately for us, the weather was gorgeous, sunny and warm, so it didn't feel so bad being outside.

Sadly, I didn't have time or the inclination to track my eating over the weekend. Some days I ate very little, other days I ate a lot. I figure it probably balanced out over the weekend. This week should be much better as far a routine/schedule goes. We still have some more stuff to do this week to get ready for the carpenters and painters but the bulk of it is behind us now. Oh yeah, we also had great news from the bank as far as financing goes so now we just have to sell our place. yay!

Anyway, once again, it's Monday so here is my latest weekly wrap-up:
summary - week 12
  • I was able to break 7 miles again, each day that I rode. I ended up riding 4 days last week for a total of 29.66 miles
  • I took my vitamins 5 out of 7 days this week
  • met daily water intake goal 7 out of 7 days
  • intentionally exercised 4 out of 7 days
  • did a lot of lugging and slugging and generally moving my butt while we were packing and moving stuff
  • didn't even think about looking at the scale until this morning. I decided to not bother with it. I'm holding steady at 17 pounds lost since my restart on January 3

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

day 80 - feeling groovy

Happy hump day kids. Despite the fact that there is a freezing cold wind blowing around outside, I'm feeling pretty good today. In addition to my regular exercise, I've been moving a lot of boxes, running up and down stairs and extra walking. By the end of the day, my muscles are quite sore and I'm at little stiff and slow moving when I get up in the morning. As a result, my workouts are a little slower in pace this week but I feel so much better when I'm done.

Eating continues to go very well. I've been 100% on plan all week and can feel the difference. It's so sad, how gummed up our bodies get when binge out on crap. I surely paid the price for my binge but I seem to be on the other side of the food hang-over I was suffering.

I have booked tomorrow off so I'll have a four-day weekend. This is good. I'll get all my packing done tomorrow and Friday, Saturday, we move everything into the storage locker and Sunday, we can actually chill out. It'll be nice to get out early tomorrow morning and do all of my errands before things get too busy and still have all of Friday to work around the house. It's taking much longer than I thought it would be but it's going well and hopefully, soon, we'll have our place sold and be moving along. Yikes, it's been a week folks.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

day 79 - and so it goes

We were able to get in to see our bank manager last night. The appointment went well but took much longer than I'd anticipated. We are in pretty decent shape, it seems. I had to fax off a bunch of stuff this morning and then their appraiser has to check the house out. Hopefully we'll know something before the long weekend arrives.

This morning, we were discussing the packing project (we picked up another 40 boxes last night) and my hunny suggested putting my recumbent bike into storage (it sits in the middle of the living room) while the house is on the market. I absolutely put my foot down and said NO!. I really need my bike and I can't imagine coping with all the insanity we'll have to face over the next couple of months without it. He totally understood and I understand why he asked but boy howdy, you can't take a girl's bike away!!

Fortunately, the stress isn't getting to me this week like it did last week. My eating seems to back on track and I'm feeling the better for it. I just have to keep trudging along, as do we all on this journey, setbacks and all. Eventually, I know I'll get where I'm going.

Monday, March 21, 2005

day 78 - week 12

Holy crap last week was weird. I was stressed by so many things. My eating was totally crap. I managed to exercise 5 days last week, somehow. Still not sure how I kept up with that. My intention on Saturday morning was to avoid the scale. I received some notes from readers who urged me to do my weigh-in, good or bad. Thank you. I did. It was bad but I'm okay with that.

Oh, btw, over the weekend, we went looking at houses. We put a conditional offer in on one and it was accepted. Now we just have to have an inspection done and get our finances in order. Once that is all done, we'll get our place listed (we've already started our clean sweep - I packed 20 boxes of books yesterday) and cleaned up. We'll be painting the place from top to bottom, replacing the carpet and the kitchen flooring. If all goes well, we'll be in our new home on May 20. Holy crap indeed.

Anyway, once again, it's Monday so here is my latest weekly wrap-up:
summary - week 11
  • I was able to break 7 miles again, each day that I rode. I ended up riding 4 days last week
  • As of last Friday, I have ridden 311.77 miles on my recumbent bike so far this year. I was really pleased and surprised when I realized that I had broken past the 300 mile marker
  • I took my vitamins 7 out of 7 days this week
  • definitely blew the whole calorie goal thing most days last week
  • definitely snacked too much on Saturday night (stress eating anyone)
  • met daily water intake goal 7 out of 7 days
  • intentionally exercised 5 out of 7 days
  • gained 3 pounds, count 'em 3 pounds this week. Part of that is probably PMS/TOM related. That drops me back down to 17 pounds lost since my restart on January 3

Friday, March 18, 2005

day 75 - tgif

This has been the longest week I can recall, in a long, long time. This morning, I pulled the covers up over my head and tried to convince myself that it was actually Saturday. Eventually I realized that it was only Friday. Because it's March break around here, the office has been kind of quiet. The quiet is good in a way but I really wish I wasn't here. Ordinarily I don't feel that way but today, I do.

I exercised this morning. The past two days I have felt like I'm getting a cold (again - I keep feeling it coming on but it never happens). I can't count how many times I had to blow my nose while I was on my bike. Last night, while I was out running errands, the muscles in my butt and my thighs started to hurt. It was the weirdest thing. They hurt as if I'd been working out hard for hours. They're still sore today. I've been exercising but I've not been doing any training for a marathon. It's bizarre.

Eating is out of control too. I've been wanting to eat anything and everything I can get my hands on, all week. Last night when went shopping, I picked myself up some goldfish crackers so I have had them to snack on today, they've helped, believe me. Without them, I probably would have gone next door and bought some doritos this morning. It's that bad. I was also craving a sticky bun when I first got into work. Now, I wasn't hungry, I had eaten breakfast but I just wanted to eat something sweet. Luckily, I found a fat free chocolate pudding in the back of my desk drawer. So, I'm eating more but at least it's not sticky buns and doritos right?? It could always be worse.

Right now, the way I feel, I'm half-inclined to skip my weigh-in this weekend. I can't imagine that it's going to be good.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

day 74 - nothing in particular

I can't think of anything to talk about today. That's not exactly true I guess. One can write about not having anything to write about, it's just not particularly interesting.

I'm feeling a lot better today than I have all week. If I can stop myself from making too many lists, I'll be just fine. Whether we sell our place or not, we want to get started on the big clean up, sort out, paint and whatnot project. I also want to meet with our bank manager before we get too far into this whole thing. When we bought our home, we got pre-approved for our mortgage so we knew exactly how much we could pay for a house. Right now, we're just ball-parking it based on what is left on our current mortgage and what we think we can get for our house (minus the lawyer, the real estate agent, the inspector and everyone else who gets to make some money from this).

Honestly, all of this house stuff is just making want to run, screaming, into the easter candy aisle at the grocery store. Luckily, I have been able to avoid the grocery store the past couple of days. I keep asking myself, "why did we start this discussion when I'm smack in the middle of PMS?" There is no good answer for that, other than that I am stupid. Hopefully, this stupid girl will be smart enough to keep herself away from the chocolate sponge bob's when she goes out after work to stock up on bananas and carrots. Ugh!

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

day 73 - moving around

This morning I got up, early. Well, actually it was the time I should be getting up at every morning but it felt early. Last night, I slept so well that I don't know if I moved or not. I definitely feel less stressed today. I only wish that hadn't given in the stress last night.

Yesterday morning, instead of eating my usual breakfast, I had toasted English muffins. Yes, muffins, I had two, at least they were whole wheat. The rest of the day was pretty good but last night, when we were out running errands (I wanted to pick up some sandwich and salad stuff to take to my friend's place so they'd have something to nosh on when they got home from the hospital) I was still all tense and stressed. We ended up in the bulk store and I got some chocolate chip sandwich cookies (with chocolate icing). I tell ya, they tasted so good and I actually felt physically better after I ate them. It's at times like this when I wish I was a drinker or a toker. I know that those are not as calorically evil as these cookies were. I am not beating myself up about it though.

On the upside, I did exercise this morning. That felt good. I moved pretty slowly but I still got over 7 miles in 30 minutes and definitely helped me get going with my day. When I get home tonight, I think I will throw the rest of those cookies into the trash. My eating has been much better today than yesterday was and I don't think I'll be needing a chocolatey crutch today.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

day 72 - stressed out

I've been dragging my butt all day. I'm exhausted.

It took me forever to fall asleep last night and it's just because I'm stressed. When I woke up this morning, I thought that my back was going to do "that thing it does." Only when I'm stressed, and I'm talking super-mega-stressed, the top of my left hip gets this pinchy-tight feeling and I can't walk upright. I also felt like I had a bad cold or something. My head was stuffed up and I've been warm all day.

Needless to say, I did not exercise this morning. I could barely pack my lunch and get ready for work. By the time I got out of the shower I felt much better but I've still been moving in slow-mo all day.

We're seriously thinking about putting our house up for sale and going house-hunting. that's why I'm all stressed out. There are a lot of cosmetic things that we'd need to do to our place before we could list it. I mean, we could list it right now, as is, but I don't want. I want to get a storage locker, tuck all of our extra crap away, paint the whole place, replace some carpet. You know what I mean? I think I'm just over-thinking things too much. I really want a new house, more space (room for a home gym!!), less grass to cut, but my problem has always been that I focus too much on all of those things that aren't done.

A good friend of mine called this morning to tell me that her dad is in the hospital and he's seriously ill. All day I've been worrying about him, and her, and her mum, and her siblings, neices, nephews, her daughter. I really hope that the doctors are able to give them good news. He's tough as old boots so you never know what might happen.

So I think, and I worry, and I stress, and my back reminds me that I should loosen up. Oh yeah, in addition to that, all I want to do is eat. I want to eat bread, chips, crackers, chocolate. Carbs, bad carbs, not the good stuff. It's never good to consider making a move like this when you're in PMS week, is it??

Monday, March 14, 2005

day 71 - week 11

As it usually does, the week is starting out pretty well. The weekend didn't go as well as it could have but it wasn't as bad as all that either. Considering that TOM is due next week, a considerably small quantity of chocolate was eaten over the weekend. I apologize for the brief post but my work schedule is kind of insane this week.

Anyway, once again, it's Monday so here is my latest weekly wrap-up:
summary - week 10
  • I was able to break 7 miles again, each day that I rode. I ended up riding 5 days last week
  • As of last Friday, I have ridden 282 miles on my recumbent bike so far this year (when I was updating my totals for Going Nowhere, I realized that I had missed a day on my spreadsheet so I actually found an extra day). I'm over 25% of the way to my goal
  • I took my vitamins 6 out of 7 days this week (I flaked out on Saturday and just plain old forgot)
  • met daily calorie intake goal 5 out of 7 days
  • definitely snacked too much over the weekend
  • met daily water intake goal 7 out of 7 days
  • opted for water when we ate out (twice) this week instead of diet pop. I had a couple of cans of diet sprite on the weekend but had nothing with caffeine in it all week
  • intentionally exercised 5 out of 7 days
  • lost one more pound this week. That puts me at 20 pounds lost since my restart on January 3

Friday, March 11, 2005

day 68 - hey, hey, it's friday

When I was changing my blog template last weekend, I almost switched to blogger comments from enetation. The way blogger has been behaving the past couple of days, I'm glad that I didn't. It took me I don't know how many attempts to post yesterday. Today I've noticed that the comments aren't working on some blog spots. Weird.

Today started out pretty good. For some weird reason, I had a really tough time falling asleep last night. I think I lay in bed for at least 90 minutes before I nodded off. This morning, I got up without any problems but I was moving kind of slow. Today was not an 8 mile day either but that's okay. I did 7.40 miles and felt good about that.

Sadly, I have had a headache all morning. I felt terrific when I got to work. One of my office mates arrived shortly after. She put some new lotion on, something by bert's bees I think. The smell of it went up my nose and my head has been pounding ever since. I must be allergic to something in it, it's horrible. The smell itself isn't unpleasant but the headache is terrible. Now that I've started eating my lunch, my blood pressure has changed and it's not so bad. Yikes.

That's about all the news I have today. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, see you back here on Monday!!

Thursday, March 10, 2005

day 67 - so close

This morning I woke up and had a purpose in mind: today would the day I broke 8 miles. Sadly, I came very close but, as we all know, close only counts in horseshoes. I managed to get to 7.90 miles. Not quite there. Not yet anyway! Nicole asked me how long I'm on the bike when I'm trying to hit 8 miles. I'm doing a 30 minute interval right now.

Looking back to where I started, I have come a long way but could probably have come a lot further. When I first began, I would be lucky if I could ride for 5 minutes each work day. Eventually, I worked my way up to a full 20 minute interval program every day I rode. Later I started to alternate the 20 minute program with a 30 minute program (I also do stretching, some strength training, ab work, etc. in addition to the bike). Early in January this year, I decided that I would do 30 minutes every day. In 7 weeks or so, I have worked up from just barely hitting 6.5 miles to now, almost 8. For some folks, that might not be a big huge deal but it is to me. I am feeling so much better for it lately and am really proud of the progress I have made.

This week, food has been remarkably easy. Fortunately, there have not been any treats around the office to tempt me. Even last night, when we went out for our weekly dinner out with the LOG, I was pretty good. The guys wanted to go to one of those country market buffets. I had a huge plate of salad stuff with some lo-cal Italian dressing and then some roasted veggies, roasted chicken and a tiny bit of mac & cheese (it was so yummy). For dessert (yes, I let myself have dessert last night), I had some ice cream (well actually it was soft serve so I think it was ice milk). Again, I was pretty impressed with my restraint and when I got home and officially calculated my calories for the day, I was well within my allowable range.

It's all going really well this week. I sound like a broken record I know but I'm just really happy about things right now and am keeping my fingers crossed that I can keep it up!!

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

day 66 - just great

My eating has been just great today. I feel motivated to stay on plan and I literally haven't have 5 minutes to stop all day. Goodness.

I was in the office at 7:30 a.m. to do a special project that needed to get done before everyone else was in the office (with our network) and I am just now (after two major interruptions) getting to eat my lunch.

I cannot wait for this day to be over. Seriously.

This morning, I had no trouble whatsoever getting up. I felt terrific and had a great session exercising. I actually hit 7.77 miles. Another all-time high. I'm so close to 8 miles I can taste it.

So, this week, so far (and we're now officially over the "hump") has been going so well for me. I can't describe how good I feel about it all. I'm really really pleased with myself!

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

day 65 - good stuff

Boy, normal feels so good. The past couple of weeks I felt lousy. Being under the weather like that sure makes you appreciate how good just normal feels. I am finding that it's taking me a little while to get going in the mornings. I've actually been sleeping about 20 minutes later than I had been before I got sick. It throws my morning routine off a bit so hopefully I'll snap myself out of it soon.

My eating has been terrific the past couple of days. As I mentioned yesterday, I definitely over ate on the weekend but I'm doing really well now. I figure that if I'm going to eat too much, at least overeat "healthier" snacks. It seems too that what I now consider overeating isn't really all that bad, relatively speaking. As I keep saying, as long as the good things outnumber the bad things at the end of the week, I'm okay.

Other than sleeping, eating, working and exercising, there isn't much going on with me this week. At times like this though, boring is good. It means that I'm sticking to my plan and that it's working. I know that is boring but that's okay with me. When it comes to losing weight and getting healthy, I'm all about boring!!

Monday, March 07, 2005

day 64 - week ten

The weekend was very relaxed. Eating was a little lax too but I'm not beating myself up about it. Again, I did more good things than bad things so it always manages to balance itself out by the time the week is over. Today, I have lots of good fresh fruit with me for snacks and I'm not finding myself to be too hungry today.

I have felt better yesterday and today than I have in a few weeks. Even so, I had a hard time getting going this morning. My ride wasn't totally terrific. After doing so well on Friday, I'd hoped to break 8 miles this morning but it didn't happen. I just couldn't make my legs move as fast as I thought I could. I was still over 7 miles though. That's something.

One kind of small thing that I have noticed over the
Once again, it's Monday so here is my latest weekly wrap-up:
summary - week 9
  • I was able to break 7 miles again, each day that I rode. I ended up riding 4 days last week. One day, my normal routine was disrupted by a heavy snowfall and a "hoser workout" that day
  • As of last Friday, I have ridden 237 miles on my recumbent bike so far this year
  • I took my vitamins 7 out of 7 days this week
  • met daily calorie intake goal 6 out of 7 days
  • ate a little too much Ben & Jerry's Low Fat Frozen Yogurt on the weekend but it was worth every calorie (yum, Cherry Garcia)
  • met daily water intake goal 7 out of 7 days
  • realized that I have stopped drinking diet pop at home (I never drink it at work). I'm only drinking it when we go out for dinner now
  • intentionally exercised 6 out of 7 days
  • lost three pounds this week. That puts me at 19 pounds lost since my restart on January 3

Sunday, March 06, 2005

day 63 - weekend update

Just a note about the design change. With spring just around the corner (and you can so tell it's spring outside, there is a blizzard going on here, right now), I felt like I was long overdue for a redesign.

Last night, I uploaded a template but discovered (after loading it) that it didn't work in Firefox. This morning, I changed it again (and this one, I like better actually) and it seems to work with both IE and Firefox. If you have any problems viewing it in another browser, let me know.

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!!

Friday, March 04, 2005

day 61 - I survived

For some sick, strange reason, typing "I survived" reminded me of ELO's "I'm Alive." A ghastly, horrible song from, of all things, the Xanadu soundtrack. Why is that we can never escape those things that surrounded us in grade 8? Oh my goodness, it just occured to me that 8th grade was 24 years ago. Holy crap I'm old.

This week felt really long to me. I know it's because I felt so lousy for most of it. Today was probably the best day I had all week. When I woke up this morning I felt a lot less fragile than I'd been all week. My eyes were still very sensitive to light and I could feel just the slightest twinge of the headache if I heard certain loud sounds but overall, it was a huge improvement. Good thing too. Last night, my head was pounding so much, I was actually whimpering. Not fun. I've been trying to get through this with little or no medication but I had to break down and take another aleve before bed. It helped, a lot.

When I woke up this morning, I was a bit stiff and sore but I did my workout anyway. I really pushed myself and was able to ride 7.72 miles. That is an all time high for me. I was so happy about it. It was a great way to start my day.

Unfortunately, as the day went along, and I grew more tired, my headache returned. Fresh air definitely helped and going out of the building with a friend (and our healthy brown bag lunches) to eat helped greatly. Right now, I'm really stiff, sore and tired. I'm so looking forward to doing nothing but sleeping all weekend. Sadly, my hunny has come down with the same thing so I think we'll be spending the weekend nursing each other through it. Fortunately, or not, it's one of those bugs that you can function through, albeit in a limited capacity.

I hope you all have a good weekend and are able to avoid the germs that are floating around out there in droves. Stay healthy folks!

Thursday, March 03, 2005

day 60 - dull roar

For the best part of the day yesterday, I slept. Last night, I thought that there would be no way I would fall asleep and yet, I did. I must have needed it. I feel better today. The pounding has given away to a dull thud. My hunny seems to have whatever I have too. He heard something about a bug that makes you tired and achey but not really "sick" sick. It must be what we have. It's weird.

The other night when we were out running errands, we picked up a couple of pounds of strawberries. I forgot about this time of the year, when the Florida berries hit us. They are so lovely and inexpensive ($1.97 a pound). They taste like spring and we've been enjoying them, a lot. It's so nice when really tasty, healthy, low calorie things are cheap and plentiful.

Headaches aside, the week is going well. I've exercised every day so far, we have only been out for dinner once and no chocolate has passed my lips. Come to think of it, I've completely avoided "junk" so far this week. Yay me, huh?

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

day 59 - pounding

Last night as I lay in bed, my head was still pounding. I actually broke down and finally took an aleve and was waiting for it to kick in. I was sort of half awake, half asleep, like you are as you're falling asleep and I woke up, wide awake. Eyes wide open, heart pounding like a drum. I must have been dreaming or something because I thought that I heard a loud crash. It was the sound, I imagine, that one would hear if the walls collapsed or the roof fell in. It felt that loud. After the sound and the waking up, I realized that my head was clear. For the first time in 30 hours, it wasn't pounding. Of course, just about the time I realized this, it started hurting again. Weird huh??

I didn't sleep well last night and when I woke up this morning I still felt lousy. It's a sinus thing I think. Everything just smells, more...smelly. Does that make sense?? My eyes and nose are really watering a lot (I paint such a pretty picture don't I?) and I can't really focus on anything. Exercising didn't really help (although I'm glad that I did my ride, 7.52 miles this morning). I ate some breakfast and realized that I really can't go into work today. I can't concentrate or focus so I'm heading back to bed. I just took another aleve and am hopeful that it'll help.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

day 58 - munching

Sometimes when I'm typing this, I'm also eating baby carrots and the crunching is so loud in my head that I can't hear myself think. Sometimes, it's not a problem.

I've had a bit of a headache since yesterday afternoon. After lunch, we had a large group meeting from 2 to 4 p.m. The first hour and a bit of the meeting went well, it was a productive, group-work session and we had flip chart paper and markers to use. We were using white-board markers which were very smelly. At first, the windows in the meeting room were open I felt terrific. Eventually, it got kind of cold for folks sitting near the windows (I was in the centre of the room) so they closed them up. Once they did, it got really warm and smelly and the markers gave me a massive headache. It's settled into a dull thud but it's there, on the back burner, if you know what I mean.

It's funny, last week I felt really crappy but I was still able to drag myself into work. I've had episodes like that all winter, off an on. For a few days I'll feel like I'm getting the flu or a cold but I never get flat out, down for the count, sick. I almost wish that I would get good and sick and just be done with it. It's the weirdest thing and I remember it happening last winter too. Occasional periods of malaise instead of actual winter illness. It's strange.

Eating is going well. Last night after dinner, I baked some muffins. Now, ordinarily I'm a "scratch" baker but I had found this mix by Quaker for low fat carrot muffins and I tried it last night. They smelled very good, I think that there is a lot of cinnamon in them, while they were baking and we all had one once they had cooled. I was surprised at how yummy they were. They were still 140 calories but considering how many calories are in the big ass muffins from the coffee shop, it wasn't too bad. It's probably not something that I'll make all of the time but the mix was around $3 and it makes 24 muffins (I made 12 last night) so that's a pretty good value (and all you have to add is water) for a treat once in a while.

This morning I didn't do my regular workout. I had to shovel the driveway again. I finished it up at around 5:30 or so and by the time I had done the rest of my morning routine, it looked like I hadn't even been out there again. It's been snowing all morning so I suspect that I'll be doing my "hoser workout" again tonight. At least in March (and hurray, it's March!!) the sun is too warm for the snow to stick around for too long.