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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This week's Progress Prompt:

Do you eat out? How often?

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

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

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

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

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

I had another great weekend day.

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

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

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

I rock!!

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