It's been raining all night and hasn't stopped. The grass was getting a bit dry so the rain will do some good. Happy Canada Day week end. I hope that the rain stops for fire works. I will keep busy indoors today.

Donna - 66 grams of sugar in a salmon dinner! Yikes! I wouldn't have thought it possible.

Joanna - I'm glad you recognized your low blood sugar problem so quickly.

Epixi - Yes, 20# is possible and you'll get there and exceed that.

I keep thinking about how healthy we all must be getting. I've been watching a series called "The Food Hospital" where they try to cure people's various ailments through diet. The changes after just 8-12 weeks are frequently amazing. Some things, like depression, are evaluated by self-report, so there could be a placebo effect going on there. But changes in things like cholesterol, blood sugar, fat in the liver, etc. are measured scientifically. And changes in skin disorders like exzema and psoriasis can be seen visually. Anyway, despite how fast (or slow!) we're losing weight, our internal systems have to be so much healthier.

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1. Avg under 1400/day calories for week 1412, 1369, 1323, 1290
2. Avg 45-min day extra movement 65, 55, 35, 120
3. No white flour, sugar foods N, Y,Y, n
4. 3 cups of green tea daily (started Tues) Y,Y, y

Mike - you are on a roll! :D

Carolyn - I did not write it clearly (that happens more and more on this side of 50...) but I meant places that are only pools, not general gyms that have lots of offerings including pools - those probably would not offer "pool only" memberships, alas. Where I live a lot of municipalities have individual Recreation Departments and most of them have pools (outdoor, indoor or both) that are available only for the use of local residents (or sometimes for non-residents, too, but at a different (still nor outrageous) fee). We found them to be the best deal - my husband practically lives in the pool all summer. Do you have Recreation Departments structured like this in your neighborhood?

I added a bit to the walking total which is currently 3.2 miles with 6.8 still to go.
I also did a 10 minute DVD ab workout as one out of the three extra activities that were planned for this week. Lame, I know.

Kocia - A dvd ab workout is not lame as an extra activity - those can be killer. Anything you don't normally do should count as an extra activity.

My local pool is a great deal - both the drop-in rate and the season pass. But it's outdoors. I think us lap swimmers would swim all year round, but I know it's not cost effective to keep the pool open for us. The closest indoor city pool to me is 25-60 min away (I used to work there - the time variation is traffic!). They do have a drop-in rate. It's too far to drive there regularly, but if I go down that way for another reason, I should keep it in mind for an occasional swim.

The potential upside to not being able to swim for 8 mos is that I might discover another activity I really enjoy. Years ago (and I mean YEARS), I used to do yoga regularly. Now I do it occasionally. My daughter's been taking yoga classes - if she's still doing it in the fall, maybe I'll join her.

Don't sell yourself short, Kocia. I don't think 10 minutes is lame at all! Especially not 10 minutes of abs work. Ouch! Work it and claim it!

Carolynn (and all you swimmers), you're so lucky to even partial-year access. Aside from the pool at the local, members-only golf club, I don't think I've seen a pool around here at all. I haven't seen any pools in backyards, not even above-ground ones. None of the subdivisions have pools that I'm aware of. None of the local towns have municipal pools or even splashparks or fountains for the kids. Most of the parks are just grass and trees, maybe a swingset or climbing gym. I only recently found one public tennis court. I guess that's why so many people bike or run here. Not much else to do.

One of my favorite activities years ago was water aerobics. Our local pool had a phenomenal teacher -- she used the latest music and worked out some serious dance routines. There was a core group of about 15 of us, ranging in age from mid-20s to 80-something (and yes, Ms. 80 was hot stuff!). If YouTube had been around back then, I'm sure we'd have been an Internet sensation. Oh yeah, we were kickin' it!

Sadly, I haven't been swimming in any form or fashion in well over 10 years now. I miss it.

So last night I cheated and had a small DQ Blizzard, saw the calories and had a major freak out (poor hubs got to deal with me). Then I get on the scale this morning and I'm -1 pound. Weird, but I'll take it.

Go on... :D What kind was it? Oh the DQ Blizzard, i'm going to have dreams about the "flip".:D

I just ate five delicious chocolate chip cookies. Five. They were so good. If I don't eat anything for the rest of the day, I'll come out just over 1400 calories for the day, assuming each cookie was 200 calories each.

Eek, Joanna! I'm right there with you! We have a birthday tonight (not mine), so, in addition to cake (and ice cream), we now have a box of 6 chocolate chunk cookies. Haven't cracked the seal yet... but we haven't even had dinner yet.

Could get ugly up in here real quick...

Joanna - well, at least the cookies were good and you enjoyed them. I hate it when I break down and eat a bunch of something that's not even that good. Eat some protein now!

Epixi - Stay strong at tonight's party! Eat lots of veggies at dinner! Yeah, I am lucky to have a pool close by - even an outdoor one. And there are two other city park dept pools within 10-12 miles of me (even my local one is 7 miles from my house). The water aerobics sounds like it was really fun. My pool offers water Zumba classes mid-morning. The time doesn't work for me, but I'd love to give it a try.