Lizards13

I am so annoyed at myself for sitting around on my butt when you all are so busy and STILL make time for exercise.

Luv. Been meaning to say how well you are doing and I admire your focus on getting fit and healthy cos that's what it should be all about.

Tori. Life is certainly throwing it at you, but you sound like a winner so I know you'll cope but don't forget to take care of yourself as well. I get the "bubble", I grew up as a pacifist and a bit hippy and went into a caring profession so how I wound up involved with military was a big surprise. However it opened my eyes to life and to what we owe to people who do jobs that we would never want to contemplate. In my case it's a bit easier as I know his work is treating others, both our guys, sometimes yours and civilians, but he also has to protect them and if the worst happened he is still expected to respond. As he has been in 4 different conflicts.... I just don't ask.

Mern

Cassie, there must be a difference in the Little Caesars. Ours is every bit as good as Papa John's or Pizza Hut. My whole family counts ours up there with really good tasting pizza. Congrats on your exercise! Great job except for the sleep. Must be contageous--I've been awake since 2AM after falling asleep around 11:30PM--just couldn't get back to sleep so I gave up. Today's not gonna be fun.

Kay, I'm sorry you're having a hard time right now. My heart goes out to you. The single parenting times are really tough. Hoping today will be brighter for you and that you and your kids will find something fun and uplifting to share. Big hug to ya! Wow, congrats on the 5 miles on the treadmill!

Quinn, well, geez! You've been having an awful time, too! Sure does sound totally sucky! Will keep your mom, you, and family in my prayers and hope you find more chuckles here to help you through your hard time. Big hug to ya!

Tori, glad your cousin is OK--OMG, she HAD to be in a lot of pain.

Mike, "Butterfinger at E10". Giggle, giggle.

Darlene, tell DD she's three years PAST vintage. LOL Hmm, really interesting to read another thumbs down on Little Caesars. I guess ours down the street does something different. DH and the grandkids enjoy it once a week. 30 minute abs/squats and a walk with Kaya is great. I haven't done any exercise all week and I know the scale will be on the rise again. I must make myself get moving!

Luv, I see you're still working hard on your goals.

Lizzie, I'm joining you in the exercise slacker corner. I've just been so darned busy I haven't wanted to make time to exercise at all. I doubt I'll do any today after only 2 1/2 hours sleep all night. UGH! Hope you get some in today.

cjohnson728

Morning, all. I have another busy day in the office so may not check in until the evening, but at least there is no catered lunch today!

Quinn, so, so sorry to hear about your mom. I know you did exactly the right things to get her what she needed and hopefully you can get a chance to recoup from that exhausting run of days. She sounds like a tough lady and that will help her be on the road to recovery sooner rather than later, so here's hoping you can get some time for yourself soon, too.

Gotta run; will try to catch up with you all tonight or tomorrow .

bojibridge

Yesterday was better than terrible - I count that as a win.

Quinn, I'm sorry to hear about your mom - hugs for you!

quinnesec

Oh, I'll be lurking around when I need a break from all of this insanity!

With all of the great Mardi Gras food, I'm sure I'd gain, too!

What's that I see in your signature?? No weight update since March 2011?? Time for me to put a little pressure on you, Buddy! Just kidding... I'm sure you're doing just fine... oh, wait... is that a King Cake I see there next to your keyboard???? No beads for you!!

quinnesec

Thanks for all of the prayers... we'll take everything we can get. Feeling a bit more rested today, but will probably be heading back to the larger facility again Friday. (Getting antsy... feel like I should be there.) Came home to re-group, re-pack and rejuvenate. (Clean undies and clothes are a marvelous thing! ) My oldest son is driving down to be with her today... we are all taking shifts, because none of us lives in the town that the hospital is in (several hours away) and no one can stay the entire week.

Again, thanks for the well wishes... it means so much. I've made up my mind that I've done enough pity eating, and it's time to eat right. (It's so much easier when I'm at home!) I totally hear you about vending machines!!! Good Lord! How long has some of that stuff been in there, anyway??

Hug your loved ones tight and make a call to that Grandma, Grandpa, etc. that you haven't spoken to in a while.

quinn

taubele

Mike: Thanks for letting us know about Quinn! How's your week going??? I see no goal updates posted yet!

quinn: So sorry to hear about your Mom. Big hugs for you and her, and I'm glad that they were able to help her at the large hospital. Keep your head up and just keep going, we'll be here for you when you have more time to talk. <3

Luv: LOL! I've never been good at the stability ball either, but your dd is hilarious. From the mouths of kids come things we often didn't want to hear. It's GREAT that she's coaching you though, and I'm glad you decided to shoot for the moon!! You can do it!!

Pam: Sometimes you just need a nap, girl. I'm glad you got one and I hope your sleep is evening itself out. I've been getting bad about sleep habits myself. I find I'm needing more sleep than normal lately and it's throwing my mornings off.

Mea: Good for you for tracking the cheat!!!! I find it really helps me to get over it just by logging and looking and moving on - if I don't log it, I feel guilty AND I wonder what I did to myself. Logging it lets you know and helps you have some peace. We all learn what works for us as we go on - now pick yourself up and log a better report the next day!

April: SO happy to hear you got to speak with your son in person and that he was having a good day. I'm sure it was great for all of you to be together and discuss it. You're keeping a level head and an open heart, and that's exactly what you need to do, I think. Big hugs for you. Also - yes, BF did dishes, but it's probably all he's got in him for a few years, so not sure what sending him to you would do!!!! Also... 34K?!?!?! That poor girl! She must be in so much pain!

Joanna: Big hugs to you!!! We all have this weeks where it just seems like nothing is going our way, but you stick at it girl! I know you can do it!!

Tori: He does the bathroom after MANY death glares. He has his own bathroom currently and he's a mechanic, so it gets fairly gross in there fairly quickly, and he tends to leave the shower stall until it's more brown than white. I get that he doesn't want to clean it so often, but it's so nasty I just don't go in there very often. But he DOES do it eventually. I do my own bathroom about once a week or so... sometimes a week and half if I'm being lazy about it. LMAO about your death glare, it DOES run in families, I don't know WHAT I would do if a 9-year-old gave me that look, I think I'd want to laugh and be shocked at the same time. And girl, if I were you, I'd be having the same delusions about playing cards and such and thinking about the combat as little as possible. I say go ahead and think about safe activities for him, maybe some of the good juju will go his way!

I hope your friend DOES get the wake-up call he needs. My Dad has Type 2 Diabetes and a heart attack and a triple bypass later, he still doesn't manage all that well. Some days when I think about it, it's just too much. Remind him of how much you love him on a daily basis if you can. Also, WTG on the home of your own!!! My sister moved back in with our Mom and Dad for a year, at 29, when she was also saving up for a down payment. It's not such a big deal as long as they don't meddle too much, lol. We do what we have to do!! Good luck with your move!

Good on your willpower at the vending machine! Those Cheez-Its would have been devoured >.>

Mern: Sometimes we just need to go over. I hit EXACTLY 1600 yesterday, which is my upper limit on cals, but I also had nearly a 1k burn and I think my body needed the fuel. Your lasagna sounds entirely delicious. Maybe I'll make a lasagna this weekend, there's a recipe I've had my eye on. The Schedule C WAS a pain in the butt, but if I get my refund it's all worth it!

Cassie: Practice from 3:30 to 8:45, holy cow!!! Only an hour off in-between there? This tennis is way more hardcore than the tennis I did in high school, lol. Good on your for resisting the Pizza, Pizza. Just remember you're worth more than cardboard

Kay: I feel you, girl. We all have days like that. Sometimes we just need alone time. Not adult-time, not responsible-time, but just time to do nothing and recharge some batteries. I like to think that women have more pressures on us day-to-day then men do, and you just need to hit the pause button every once in awhile. Big hugs, and hoping you feel more like yourself soon.

Weekly Goals

Food/Exercise/Lifestyle Goals:

1) Keep calories between 1200 and 1500 daily. Week average around 1300. No single day over 1600. M: 1,335 T: 1,012 W: 1600 (Week Average: 1,315)
2) Exercise at least four times this week M: yes (small) T: No W: yes, twice!
3) Calorie deficit of 5000 M: -676 T: -797 W: -985 (Week Total: -2,458)
4) Protein 25-30% average for the week M: 29% T: 35% W: 25% (Week Average: 29.5%)
5) In bed by 11:30 every night M: yes T: No W: yes
6) No more than 1 lunch and 1 dinner out M: No eating out T: No eating out W: No eating out
7) At least 64-80 oz. of water daily. More is better. M: 80 T: 72 W: 88
8) Weigh in on Monday and Friday and report the weight here M: 161.5 (Superbowl, you do bad things to me)

Other Life Goals:

1) Make an effort on my appearance every day M: yes T: yes W: yes
2) Don't sweat the small stuff M: yes T: Tried really hard W: Needed to regroup, but yes
3) Send in at least 5 job applications M: 2 T: 0 W: 0
4) Do something special for BF - he was a saint all this weekend. M: not yet - I need to come up with a good idea T: I have a V-day idea, but I want to do something non-V-day related. W: not yet, but I have an idea
5) Write something wonderful that happens every day M: Got my taxes done and am getting more refund than I thought. T: BF did the dishes IT'S A MIRACLE. W: Managed an unexpectedly choppy day yesterday.

My day was extra-busy yesterday, but I wasn't aware of it until the middle of the day when an unexpected presentation got dumped in my lap. I suddenly got really scatter-brained -- actually, my walk at lunch managed to clear out my head. A lot of the time when I get upset, I don't even know what's truly bothering me and I need time to sort it out. The extra work wasn't bothering me, nor was the last-minuteness of it (though that was annoying) -- what was really bothering me is that I sort of feel "done" here in my current job and I know I need to refocus. I've been thinking about the future so much that I've been ignoring my present (except for my teaching). Once I realized that I was able to focus much better and my annoyance left me. Great what a mid-day walk can do. I didn't burn too many calories (didn't want to sweat in my work clothes) but breaking up my day of sitting with some activity felt great. I'm going to try to do it again today if I have time.

After my walk yesterday I ALSO got in a bitchin' workout - 820 cals in 55 minutes. That felt good too! And I actually wanted to, wahoo!!

Happy Thursday everyone. Looks like a 12-hour workday for me!

~Terri

almeeker

LOL, E1 Snickers bar for me please.

almeeker

Wednesday Check-in

Health & Fitness:

1. Calories 1,400 week days, 1,600 weekends. 1,357, 1,699, 2,026 ugh
2. 100 oz water. Y,Y,Y
3. 7 hours exercise. 50 min, 0 min, 72 min (total 2:02)
4. Calorie deficit 5,000. -774, -427, -351 (total -1,752)
5. Protein 25% or higher. 27%, 27%, 31%
6. Log & report everyday. Y,Y,Y
7. Last Monday 165.8. Post weight: 164, 162.2, 162.2, 162.6

Other stuff:

1. Finish 1 rabbit cage, cut pieces for 3 more. N,N,N
2. Finish my little part of the taxes. N,N,N
3. Housework 45 min daily +1 load of laundry. YY,YY,YY
4. Write calendar for G.S. N, DONE
5. Distribute 4-H calendar. N,N,N
6. Cut out pieces for Betsy Ross costume. N,N,N
7. Write and send out Valentines. N,N,N
8. Write down the most wonderful thing that happened. Yesterday my DD and I had a really great conversation about her history day presentation. I had one vision that I was sort of steering her towards, but she has really good ideas of her own and it's better all the way 'round if I back off and let her do what she does best.

I got in a 72 min brisk walk last night and had some really great conversation with my workout partner. We both have kids and it's nice to spend some time hashing out our own parenthood fears and concerns, especially when you can do that with a someone that has a similar approach.

My calories were way out of whack yesterday. Part of it was planned and part of it was an incident. Ugh, I made room in my budget for homemade cookies, but I carb crashed afterward and ended up having a mindless pepperoni binge around dinner time. Ugh. Once the package is breached I'm a goner. Fortunately it was just pepperoni and not pizza, cardboard or otherwise it all goes down really fast once I get a whiff. I'm with you Mern, our local Little Cesar's makes a pretty good pie, although I don't think it's as good as the local Pizza Hut. What I usually do is focus all my willpower on imagining "heartburn", which really helps to keep things in focus. I always get heartburn from Little Cesar's, and pretty much every time I eat Pizza Hut too. I think it's the combination of wheat and grease, tomatoes don't bother me the same way.

Quinn I'm so glad to hear that you stuck to your guns and got your mom the right care. Technically I suppose it was the bigger hospital staff that saved her, but let's face it, you deserve credit for making that call in the first place. You're an awesome daughter by the way, your mom is one lucky lady.

Cassie, wow, no wonder you're overwhelmed, practice until almost 9:00pm? Great job staying away from the pizza fat bomb, you're a far stronger woman than I. All I did was read about it and now it's all I can do to keep from driving 3 blocks to get one. Yes, that's right there is a Little Cesar's less than 3 blocks from here and yes, I have driven there many times for a fat fest. I should make it mandatory that I at least walk down there for a binge, but that's not how a really good binge works is it? Salad for lunch, salad for lunch, salad for lunch, must consume green leafies... Anyone convinced yet? I'm not even close...

Tori, I too moved home for a while to save money for a down payment, not only did I move home, I dragged my then fiance with me. There is no shame in working toward the future. And no I wasn't saying that you should trash CN, lol, just get rid of your old "fat" panties and bras.

Joanna, wow what a nightmare with the insulin. My SIL is diabetic and I know for a fact that her blood sugar has a serious impact on her mood. Hopefully you can get this worked out quickly. You know grad school can be really hard unless you're one of those people that lives for higher education. I can remember when I was in my last semester, it was brutal, I'd been a student for going on 10 years and I was just "OVER" it. All my friends were moving on to better jobs, spouses, kids, and I felt left behind. It was so bad, I was falling asleep routinely in class, forgetting to take notes, leaving my books all over the planet, lot's of sub-cerebral messages there... Anyway I set up a little rewards program to get through it. I bought a couple of bags of mini chocolate bars and hung them on a string, one for each day. Anyway I wouldn't recommend that exact incentive for you (maybe sugar free chocolates?), but having a visual reference helped me tackle it just one day at a time.

Pam, Mern and Kay, I'm sending you out some good sleep juju. I've been sleeping really well lately and I think it has to do with making sure I work out regularly and steer clear of caffeine or concentrated sweets, and quit drinking water by 9:00pm. Yikes, the trips to the potty can really break up your night. I'm really hoping that my sleep pattern is contagious this time, not yours, no offense.

Tori I'm totally cracking up over your "death" stare. I have one, but it doesn't sound nearly as effective as your genetic gift. My mother has it too, but my SIL, holy cow she's got a nasty one, the fam refers to it as "the stink eye". My nephews are really funny, she makes that face at them and they raise their arms up in front of their faces to block the glare and scream "not the stink eye" and run to do whatever it is she's P.O.ed about. I need to harness that super power...

Darn, I think if I had a dog that would turn me into a runner I'd be tempted to get one of it's legs removed, LOL, just kidding. I'm glad she's got enough energy to get both you and Lucky moving.

I have a fun mom thing to share. Yesterday I was tidying up oldest DD's room. I don't clean it, but once/week I spend 15 minutes in there just to spruce it up and do the things she forgets. Anyway, I picked up a piece of folded paper and it was an assignment from keyboarding class. In keyboarding they concentrate on punctuation, capitalization and spelling, but the content is wide open. Since it's homework I read it, notes from her friends I usually skip, since those are private. Anyway she wrote about how the snack bar has horrible junk food and she wished it had healthier options!!! This from my DD who had nearly knock down, drag out arguments with her mother about WHY I should let her buy food from the snack bar every day! I actually got choked up over it. HA, I'm making progress, at least I made progress on that one day when she needed something to type about in keyboarding class.

meachan

Yesterday was definitely a much better day than Tuesday!:

1. Under 2000 calories - 1844, 1968, 2538! D:, 1910, ?, ?, ?
2. At least 72oz of plain water only (NO crystal light!) - Y, Y, Y, Y, ?, ?, ?
3. NO refined sugar except for 1 Luna Bar a day - Y, Y, N, Y, ?, ?, ?
4. NO fried food -Y, Y, Y, Y, ?, ?, ?
5. NO dairy other than nonfat plain yogurt - Y, Y, N, Y, ?, ?, ?
6. Go to the gym at least once a day (400-500 calories), preferably twice a day (800-1000 calories) 900, 400, 1000, 500, ?, ?, ?
7. Do at least one full set of stretches after the gym - Y, Y, Y, Y, ?, ?, ?
8. Take supplements (B12, Calcuim/D/K) - Y, Y, Y, Y, ?, ?, ?

Thanks again to everyone for their kind posts and words of encouragement! Interacting with everyone is making this so much more easy and dare I say, fun? (OK...did I just say dieting was FUN?! Might need to head off to the gym now to knock some sense in to me!) Cheering for everyone this week! <3