I just got home from work. I was at a friend's house after we left the office. One of our really good friends and coworkers was fired today, without notice. It was pretty sick and disgusting.

I ended up not eating lunch and then having pizza and wine for dinner. Not good. What was good though was getting together with my friends after work, to deconstruct what had happened to support this wonderful woman who's been let go.

I'm really pooped and am heading to bed. Sometimes, work really sucks ass.

Here's the latest Wednesday Weigh-In:

Does the change in seasons affect your health, or your exercise routine? How do you handle that?

I get up around 4:45 a.m. to exercise. I get up, get dressed, workout, have breakfast & shower. Some mornings I may do a load of laundry while exercising, on the whole it's a pretty productive routine and I usually feel like I have accomplished a lot before I get to the office. I have come to realize that if I don't exercise first thing in the morning, I'm probably not going to do it. Several weeks ago, right as things at work started to get crazy, the mornings became very dark. This made it really difficult for me to get up at my normal time. As we got closer to the official start of fall, I was sleeping later and later. I was still working out but I was pretty out of it some mornings because I couldn't get going. It took me a few weeks to adjust to the change. Fortunately, I've gone past that now and will be okay until the time changes. At the end of the month, when that happens again, I'm sure it'll throw my routine for a loop for a few days until my body adjusts. I must say though that autumn is my favourite time of the year and I find it easier to push myself to exercise when the weather is a little cooler.

I'm back at work today. Back on track, back into my routine.

I got up this morning and my back was still a little twingey but I worked out anyway. I took it easy though and didn't hurt myself. I felt great afterwards and I could feel my back loosening up. It's going to be all better by tomorrow, I'm sure of it. Because I'm back on a normal routine, I am back to eating lunch again. It's so nice to have a break in the middle of the day. Lunch, what a concept.

I was supposed to see my doctor this afternoon but she had to postpone my appointment so I'll see her next week. Other than that, all's back to normal, or as close to normal as normal gets around here.

I'm sick.

That cold I've been fighting for 3 weeks got the better of me. I know that's why my back was bothering me yesterday (and continues to do so today). My head is stuffy and I feel gross. I haven't worked out and I can't keep warm.

I've got the flannel pj's on, the old chenille housecoat, the wooly socks and the homer slippers on. It's a lovely sight, ugh!



I just got up from a really good nap. I know that you're not supposed to sleep on a heating pad but a 45 minute cat nap can't hurt. Since I've been up, I've been catching up on some of my blog reading. Over the past few weeks I really missed keeping up with what everyone has been up to. I want to wish a belated Happy Birthday to Lose the Buddha! It's a whole year old now!! I was surprised on the weekend to realize that this blog is almost a year old too (well, 10 months). Where does the time go huh?

Overall, catching up, I see that everyone's doing pretty good. I mean, we all some weeks when we do better than other weeks but overall, everyone's staying on track. We're not letting little slip ups here and there defeat us. One of the hardest things to do is to not let the little mistakes get you down. I was watching Dr. Phil yesterday (Monday is Weight Loss Challenge Day) and he was talking about "right thinking" for weight loss. I haven't picked up his book yet (and most likely won't until I see it in a $3 bin at Chapters) but most of what I'm hearing about it is good old common sense that most of us have been applying to our own programs all along.

Yesterday, the participants were discussing their internal dialogues when it comes to their bodies and weight loss and he's right, most of us are our own harshest critics. If you don't believe that you can get healthy and fit, no one else will either. Kind of like what Fred says about it, if you live like a fit healthy person, you'll become a fit healthy person. I'm really glad that it seems like Dr. Phil is helping these folks so far. He's not being a bully, he's being a realist. I just wish that he'd quit making it sound like he's the first person to have come up with these ideas. I half suspect the was reading our blogs in preparation for these shows because so much of what he's saying, I read in everyone's journals, all the time.

Anyway, I'm getting a bit of a chill so I think I'm going to crawl back onto the heating pad. Happy Tuesday all!

I'm back.

This is the longest that I have gone without posting here since I started this blog. The weekend flew by and I was super duper busy. I had an hour or so off on Saturday afternoon, between events, but I was pretty brain dead. I spent the best part of the weekend outside, in a tent. It was cold, windy and rainy for part of the weekend so, despite the fact that we had rented heaters, the tents were damp and muddy. I was a mess when I finally got home yesterday. Achey and tired. I'd slept too hard in the wrong position on Saturday night and my back's been acting up again. I'm not really surprised though, after the weekend we had. Everything went well though, all are happy and my back will be okay in a day or so. Our director sent us home from work this afternoon. She couldn't believe that we'd come in to check email and voice mail and tie up some loose ends. I'll get some more lieu time off later on for all the overtime I've put in recently.

Over the weekend, I didn't eat a whole lot. This wasn't a good thing though and I'm sure that's why I was so exhausted and dehydrated last night. Our routine has been so thrown off over the past couple of weeks that I really did not want to weigh-in on Saturday. I was sure that the late night meals would have caused a gain, or at least a non-movement week but I actually lost 3 pounds last week. I'm not sure how that happened but I'm happy about it.

Because my back is bothering me, I didn't workout this morning but I hope to later on today if I feel better. I'm planning to get onto the heating pad shortly. Even though I'm really beat and am feeling like I've got a cold coming in, I know that I had a lot more energy this year than I did last year. I know that I worked harder and did more than I have in a couple of years. There is no way that I could have accomplished as much last year as I did this year, if I was still in the same shape I was in 12 months ago. What a difference the past few months have made. I realized this morning that I started this program 10 months ago today. 77 pounds in 10 months is pretty good.

I'm back to my regular routine again starting tomorrow. I go back to my doctor for my monthly check-in on Wednesday. I'm tired and my back's a little stiff but that's okay, everything else is just fabulous. I'm relieved and happy with myself. It's all good right now!

So, the biggest part of my job, the main project that we work on all year is this event that is big and annual (no Homer, it's not the Chili Cookoff). It starts tomorrow and it lasts for three days. It's why my routine's been out of whack lately. It's why I've been forgetting to eat. It's why I've been waking up in the night making lists to myself. Because of this, I've not been posting much lately. I have, however, been working out, very regularly and have been doing fairly okay with my eating. These two things are helping to keep me far more sane than any other year that I've worked on this particular event.

I don't know that I'll have a chance to post this weekend but I am going to try to workout every morning. If you have any good vibes to send my way, I can use 'em!! Happy weekend all!

I'm actually stopping for lunch today. First time in a week. I have lots of help today and it's making things more manageable. Over the past couple of days, I have been spending a lot of time running up and down stairs (literally running!) and hauling boxes around (up and down stairs). I noticed that I'm able to comfortably carry much heavier boxes that I could before and that the stairs are not killing me. I can run up and down them 2 or 3 times in a row without getting winded. It's a great feeling, I feel so STRONG!

Here is this week's Wednesday Weigh-In:
What was the best piece of advice or tip you've received in regards to weight loss and fitness issues?

It was a threefold piece of advice: take it slow, set goals and be realistic.

The "take it slow" thing makes so much more sense. It took me a long time to gain the weight and I can not expect to lose it over night. The longer it takes me to lose it, the better my chances of keeping it off are.

Setting small goals is so important for me. I have a large amount of weight to lose but if I break it down into 10-20 pound increments, it doesn't seem so overwhelming.

Being realistic applies to many things. I don't worry about being perfectly on plan all the time. This is not a diet for me, as I've said before, it's a total lifestyle change. This means that from time to time, I'll have things that are not "healthy" as a treat. That's being realistic. I also think it applies to my long term goal. What I'd like to weight and what I will end up weighing, may be two different things entirely and that's totally okay with me!