40+ Club- I'm Dreaming Of A Light Christmas

Swissmiss

"Hey" back to you duff. I understand not being able to read all the thread. Have a great day!!!

singfree

Good Morning!

December1...the push is officially on to get motivated to lose the bulge before Christmas. Alf & I are joining Stiring as we (attempt) to eat clean until Christmas. Everyone has his or her idea of what that is. For me, it's a matter of making good & healthy choices, limiting my carb intake a bit, upping protein a bit and just saying NO to desserts and sweets for a few weeks. NO beer or wine during the week and limiting it on weekends. I will try to exercise daily, either with Insanity or P90X or both!

I am convinced that by just thinking about the choices BEFORE I put them in my mouth is half the battle. It is sooooo easy to eat a 500 +cal sweet treat that is gone in 2 minutes! Insanity indeed!!!

We got through the Thanksgiving weekend ok. We now have 3+ weeks until Christmas. This is plenty of time to get control of ourselves.

Let's focus and get it done. Don't let another day slip by without doing something positive for yourself. We are in this together!!!

Have a great day!

Swissmiss

Thanks so much for the encourageing words, sing. I entered a challenge where I was to lose 15 pounds by the end of the year and right now it looks like it is not going to happen. I think that I have been eating "clean" all along from what you posted. I was gong to change my plan but feel that I should stick with what I am doing now. At least I like the foods that I have been eating.

duffyzmom

Happy December!

I agree with ALF and Sing I'm going to try to eat clean now through Christmas. I'm reading more of the Eat to Live which I plan to start in the new year and I think I'm going to slowly start increasing my fruits and veggies this month to prepare. Because quite frankly, I can't imagine what my digestive tract would be like if i just immediately starting eating 1 lb of salad, unlimited raw veggies, 1 cup of beans and 4 fruits a day:blushing: Sweets were not a problem for me of the long weekend I actually realized this morning I did not eat any dessert except for a couple bite of squash pie. Now wine and beer:drinker: See I will always choose a nice glass (or 2) of red with some cheese and crackers over desert.

My husband has decided to give up his gym membership this year ( he transferred jobs and now has to drive 20 minutes past our exit to get to the gym). This is actually great news for me because we have decided to sink that money into more equipment for our home gym. Which is great because I think I've narrowed down the problems with my neck to push-ups and planks Obviously I have a fat head:laugh:

Swissmiss

:flowerforyou: duffyzmom, I feel the same way. I will take something savory or something sweet every time. My biggest no no is salt. I love anything salty.

I am getting back to exercising tonight. I have been missing too much lately.

StiringWendel

Hi everybody!

duffy, I'm happy to hear you've narrowed down the problems on you neck....and that it isn't running!! While planks and push-ups are great, in my opinion, they can be easier substituted with other exercises than something like running can be.

alf, my answer to your question about what I consider eating cleaner during this time pretty much mirrors singfree's answer (since singfree and I seem to be twins separated at birth.....and a few years in age!! :laugh: ) I'm trying to focus on eating more protein (though I still need to keep the carbs somewhat high because of Insanity), and limiting alcohol (my goal is to have a glassof wine only on those evenings when we are attending Christmas functions). Regarding sweets, I'm going to have a couple of cookies/brownies that my family is sending to me when I get them in and put the rest in the freezer to be enjoyed starting on Christmas Eve. We have a few parties to attend between now and Christmas, and my goal is to choose only healthy food options and not give myself the excuse 'Well, it's Christmas' and eat everything in sight.

For the week of Christmas (Christmas thru New Years), my plan is to eat the sweets sent by family members and to enjoy a couple bottles of Korean red wine gifted to us by new Korean friends at Thanksgiving. I love baking and thought about making something special and sweet for that week. But I figure I can bake anytime of the year, and since we are already going to have sweets around, I should opt for baking some other time of the year when I won't be adding my baking to stuff I already have.

I will admit that this plan is going to take all of the willpower, strength and determination I have. I'm feeling a tad blue right now being so far away from my family. Living in an empty house doesn't help (at all!). Good thing I'm enjoying Korea or else I probably would be buried in a bag of peanut butter cups right now! But right now I keep telling myself that I will feel so much better in January if I don't give in to these emotions and serve them food. My goal last January was to make it the very last January in which I needed to diet. And that's a strong motivator for me right now.

So I've made it through three days of the second month of Insanity. Boy, my legs are fried!!! Today is a 'recovery' day, which I need right now. I'm enjoying it, though not as much as the first month. While the workouts are harder, they don't seem to flow as well for me as those during the first month. That being said, they are effective. I'm really beginning to notice the difference in my cardio conditioning. I'm also trying to fit in P90X workouts when I get a chance to keep my upper body in some sort of condition (with tubing, not weights). I've lost alot of my muscle tone over the past month, but I'm sure if I keep eating healthy and keep my weight down that it will come back quickly when I do start lifting weights again.

So....off to do my recovery workout. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your day. My day (Wednesday) is just starting now!

2BLean

Hey Everyone ~

Haven’t had a chance to catch up on all of the posts but had a moment at work & thought I would let you know I’m thinking of you all and hoping you had a great Thanksgiving! We just returned last night and it was back to work and thank goodness the workouts too! Talk about craving a good cardio workout! This is my recovery week but want to get in some good cardio.

Count me in on the “clean eating” until Christmas forsure! I try to eat very clean but definitely with holiday distractions, etc. it can be tougher this time of year. I did find out we will be having family to our house for Christmas. Which to me is a blessing in disguise. It is easier to create “treats” and meals that are cleaner than if you are going to your parents/in-laws house!

Next week I will be on a trip to Vegas with friends – this will be more of a challenge to find “good clean foods” :noway: so if anyone has ideas please feel free to let me know. I am also going to look to see if there is a gym in our hotel.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far! :flowerforyou:

twin2

Happy Monday everybody! I hope everybody enjoyed the rest of the long weekend.

twin2, good to see you. I hope you can figure out a way of taking time for yourself. It does seem like alot of parents (mothers in particular) get lost in their role in the family, so I hope you can carve out a few hours a week just for you. It's so important to do that. Great job on the weight loss!


I hope everybody has a great day!

Thanks! I have been trying to figure that out but........ I thought I might get in a trip or two to the gym this week but no, with regular things going on we know we have Christmas "stuff" to do too. I will try to keep in better touch though. I did keep the two pounds off so I am very thankful for that!
I hope every one has a great week!
Rhonda

alf1163

Boy, you guys can post!!! :noway: :laugh:

I have been thinking about the challenge. It is going to be tough!! :noway: Things going on this week: Friday, two Holiday social events at work. One at lunch time and another one in the evening. On Saturday my husband and I are also going out while my son is in a teens event. Monday a farewell Happy Hour party at Dave and Busters for a co-worker. Next Friday another Holiday event. Sat 12 Dec, going out with hubby and friends to celebrate his recent promotion. 17 Dec Annual Holiday get together (lunch) with a bunch of friends/former coworkers. Christmas Eve at friends/family's house, then on to our week long cruise. :noway: :noway: :laugh: :laugh: I need some motivation here to stay in control!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I still cannot burn mega calories working out due to my injury!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad to hear everyone is doing very well. We are all pretty much very aware of our weaknesses and what to do about it. We have been preparing for this all year long but it is sooooooooo hard, isnt it? I might sound very negative but I feel better prepared this year to succeed this year. As you mentioned Stiring, I vowed for 2010 to be the year when I do not have to have the "I need to lose weight" resolution. If I gain 2-3 lbs would be a great accomplishment for me. And I could not accomplish this without all your support and motivation.

Have a great evening!! :flowerforyou:

singfree

Good Evening!

No rest for the weary...back on night shift for a few nights filling in for another supervisor. Plus I have to do some lab work since the lab guys don't work night shift. I was in the quality control lab for 13 years before I was promoted (??) to this job. I sometimes feel that it doesn't pay to know too much! On the bright side, when I am on night shift I tend to eat a bit better and naturally no wine at night. The downside is that I am ALWAYS tired and don't really feel like exercising. I will really try to at least get some exercise in daily.

Alf, I sympathize with your dilemma. You want to enjoy these outings, but wind up dreading them because they are not very good for the waistline. I know the feeling! Just remember to do everything in moderation. You will survive this!!! If you load up on carbs at the get-togethers, just cut back a bit and increase your protein during the non-party days. Drink plenty of water to flush the sodium out of your system. I think sodium is as big a problem as total calories...it is for me. Good luck!

Have a good night friends,

Your Night Watchman

StiringWendel

singfree! You're awake with me. :drinker: Of course, it is still day (evening) here and it is way into the middle of the night there (almost morning), so this is tougher on you than it is me. I have a question for you. Why didn't you worn me that Insanity's Max Cardio Recovery was so tough??!!! There was no 'recovery' in that workout that I saw. Yes, I wasn't jumping up and down, but every muscle in my body was shaking when I completed it. That is, no doubt, one of the toughest non-cardio workouts I've ever done. I loved it! :laugh:

twin2, congrats on keeping the weight off over Thanksgiving. I wish I could say the same. :embarassed:

alf, your schedule looks very similar to mine in terms of Christmas parties. Like singfree said, it's tough to balance enjoying them with the fear of attending so many functions that could lead to less-than-ideal eating. I'm approaching them with the attitude that I'm going to do what I would do at these functions if it weren't Christmas. Like I said earlier, I have a tendency to say to myself 'Well, I'm going to do this because it's Christmas' and, usually, that means grabbing some outrageously high calorie food and inserting it into my mouth. The thing is, I enjoy social gatherings when it isn't Christmas and I'm not eating everything in sight, so I'm not so sure why I think I need to eat so much to enjoy the gatherings when it is Christmas (if that makes any sense). I think it is because the foods at Christmas are more unique. But, regardless of that, I know in my mind that I can have a great time at any social function and still eat reasonably. So that's what I'm going to do.....remember that the true enjoyment comes from the company and not the food. I'll let you know how that works for me because I have my first of many parties tomorrow night.

singfree

Stiring, you are right about Max Recovery! Even though you are not getting your HR high, it is one tough workout. The only difference is that it is a break from the high impact stuff. I get so used to heart pumping exercises that I almost feel guilty when something like Max Recovery comes along. I need to reassure myself that it is ok to mix it up a bit and is necessary to give the body a break from those bone jarring exercises.

My goal is to maintain until the New Year, then go back to a mix of about 70% Insanity/ 30% P90X for 2 months, then do 3 months of P90X, but substitute some Insanity instead of P90X cardio. At the end of those 5 months I leave for Germany & Austria. I want to be totally fit and lean by then. When I have a long-term goal, I can easily do it and stay focused. The last time I set a goal before a Euro vacation, I was able to get fit in only 8 weeks, so I know it can be done. I'm just a procrastinator at heart. I need a firm goal like a certain date to get me pumped.

As for now, I can be content to maintain my weight and strength levels, even though I know I am nowhere near where I want to be.

I'm going home in 1 hour...need sleep badly! I worked day shift on Tuesday and went back to work for 10 pm and no sleep. I'm not a pill taker, but I am thankful for Ambien at times like these. I usually take 1/3 of a tablet and it relaxes me enough to sleep during the daylight hours. Normally this is a huge problem for me. My body clock does not want me to sleep when it is light outside.

Swissmiss

YES, the three pounds I received at Thanksgiving are gone !!!! Time to get working on losing some more. I think that I may do better if occasionally I eat too many calories.

twin2

Swissmiss, congrats to you less than a week and the pounds are gone! That is awesome!

I made a BIG FUMBLE this morning! I haven't had a coke in several days but this moring I was craving one, and I have learned from the past just drink and get over it! But I also had ginger snap cookies, so I have already went over on my sugar intake for today. So I guess I will be getting over it with a little guilt this time, I should have just left one of them alone!

I hope everyone has a great day!
Rhonda

Swissmiss

:flowerforyou: Rhonda, the thing to do now is to forget it. Just begin to eat healthy and do not beat yourself up over all the sugar. We all do this and every once in a while will not hurt us. I find that if I dwell on my mistakes then I will say "oh, the heck with it" and continue to eat bad.

alf1163

Hello everyone!!! I've done well, as far as eating is concerned, the past couple of days. I already planned my meals for tomorrow and they are pretty clean. I am doing my upper body weight trng workout tomorrow morning. Today I just did my rehab stretches and some ab work. I feel so hungry, I miss working out heavily and eating my 2000 calories!! :laugh:

Rhonda, I agree with Swiss, it is all in the past, just get back to healthy eating right away. That is what I have been focusing on lately.

Have a great evening!!! :flowerforyou:

singfree

Good morning!

Just a quick check-in. I'm still at work, only a few hours to go. Nothing much to report here. My eating has been good and not-so-good. It's tough to maintain good eating habits on this shift, but I'm trying.

Have a great day!

Swissmiss

:flowerforyou: Good morning everyone. I am doing well even though I went out to dinner with some friends last night. If it weren't for the Long Island I would have stayed within my calorie allottment.
Not sure if I will get to my Zumba class tonight because my girls have so much planned and I will be driving them to all their destinations.
Hope that everyone has a wonderful Thursday.:flowerforyou:

zebras

Hi Everyone:

We are back and settled in from Husband's surgery. He's doing well. He has more energy than me! I had to sit around for a total of 11 hours between before during and after periods. Can't say I did anything right for that. I ate a lot of sweets, and read a lot of novels. So, beginning today, I'm going to buckle down and get back in the swing of things, and get back on track with everyone else for Christmas!

StiringWendel

zebras, having nursed my husband through a couple of surgeries this year, I totally understand where you are at right now. Don't worry about your food. This is a temporary stressful situation and sometimes I feel it is best just to get through such situations however you can and then move on. I know that's what I did for the move here to Korea, and now I'm moving on. So don't beat yourself up about it. Good to see you, btw! :flowerforyou:

alf, I've always found when I'm injured I'm actually MORE hungry than during times when I'm working out. What's up with that? I think that's one of the reasons I've always gained so much weight when I'm injured. Sounds like you are doing great, though. And, hopefully, you'll be feeling better soon and able to start ramping up your workouts (gradually of course!)

I survived my first of many Christmas gatherings last night. I ate well (avoided the white bread rolls, the ranch salad dressing, the gravy, the pecan pie, etc) and had only about 1/3 of a glass of wine. And I had a great time. I just have to keep remembering that throughout the remaining 9 :noway: events I have scheduled (so far!) between now and Christmas.

It is Friday here in Korea, so I'm going to submit my check-in. I think it is important that I keep track of things this month. I weighed 101.4 this morning, which is up about 3 pounds from where I was at two months ago. My hip and waist measurements are up about 1/2 each from where they were at that same time. I'm trying not to get upset about the fact my numbers are up given the fact that I'm living in a somewhat bizarre situation right now and am not fully able to eat/exercise as I would if I had my entire household goods around me. I'm also trying not to get upset about the fact that my numbers are up because they are still way lower than I imagined possible for me a year ago! I keep reminding myself that my initial goal was 120 pounds, and that's a good weight for me.

So I'm trying to focus on the positive right now while simultaneously working at keeping those numbers from going up further. It's a bit of an odd balance that I'm struggling with, but I think that's because my mindset just isn't where I think it should be. A couple of months ago, I could honestly say when tempted with Baskin Robbins Ice Cream (as an example), I would have more often than not said 'I don't want it' because I knew it was horrible for my body. Right now, I'm saying more of 'I can't have....' which isn't good. So I'm back to educating myself on food in hope that my desire to put mostly healthy things into my body returns. I'm sure it will, but I'm not fully there yet.

Off to do my last Insanity workout of the week (plyo). I hope I enjoy this workout more this time than I did the first time I did it. I'm also going to try to fit in P90X yoga today. I've done it once a week the past couple of weeks, and after these very intense Insanity workouts, it really feels good on my body. Who knew I'd grow to love that workout?

I hope everybody is well and enjoys the remainder of the day.

alf1163

Stiring, you are about 20lbs under your initial goal???? Girl, I would not worry about a thing!!! I KNOW you will not let yourself gain that much, not with the knowledge you have gained in your journey. You are so much in control now. You always inspire me. My initial goal when I first started here in Jan 08 was to get down to 130lbs. Then as I got closer I lowered it to 125lbs, giving me just 5 lbs to play with here and there. That is pushing it really close but I am really happy with that weight and my body measurements at that particular weight. I have thought about lowering it to 120lbs, who knows. The closest I've gotten to it was in late summer when I weighed 122lbs. That was while doing P90X and training for all those running races. The moment I "let go" a little I put on the pounds. :noway: :laugh:

Zebras, glad your husband is doing well. Now, back to business. :laugh:

Swiss, I don't remember the last time I had a Long Island, they do have a lot of calories and alcohol. :noway:

I did great again today. Right now fixing all my meals for tomorrow except for dinner. I will eat healthy during the day and try as much as possible to make the right choices at my work's Christmas Party tomorrow evening.

Have a great evening!! :flowerforyou:

singfree

Good morning!

Zebras, I am very glad that your hubby's surgery went well. I trust he will be feeling fine in no time! Hanging around the waiting room can sure bring on the cravings for junk food, especially if there is a snack machine in the vicinity!

Alf, you can do it!! You have the willpower that I'm lacking (so give it back to me when you're through with it)!! :laugh:

Dear sister (Stiring), you are doing great, especially with your party schedule. I have a few thoughts about the hunger discussion. This is only based on personal experience. I normally am not as hungry when I do heavy exercising, but I do need a lot more fluids, which tends to fill me up. When I am injured, I think my body is telling me to feed the "healing" system. We tend to go overboard with the eating probably out of boredom. When injured we should be acutely aware of what we are eating, so that the healing time will be shorter. Again, people tend to overlook this aspect during periods of recuperation.

Did anything good ever come out of Long Island? :laugh: Just kidding! Yes, those things are dangerous! Swiss, stick to the simple drink like wine. Less cals and more satisfacion!

Friday reporting...night shift this week affects me in so many ways, usually in a bad way. Not enough sleep, poor eating habits and not enough exercise. I don't think I've gained weight, though, which is a good thing!

We are getting our Christmas tree today. There are a number of tree farms in the area, so I kow our tree has been freshly cut. I love the smell of a tree in our home...smells like Christmas!

Next weekend we are going to on of the Christkindlmarkts in the area. There is a great one in Bethlehem and in Mifflinburg. I am craving Lebkuchen and hot Gluwein. One day we will get to Germany to see the real thing in Munich and Nurnberg.

Have a wonderful day!

alf1163

Awwwww!! Christkindlmarkts!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been to the one in Nurnberg and several others throughout Germany. Love them!!!! Mmmm Gluwein!! Why dont plan your trip to Germany in the winter? It is beautiful!!

Well, reporting day and I am happy!!! 123.6, under my goal!!! :drinker: I need to keep this up. So Sing, sorry, cannot give you my willpower now. :laugh: As I said earlier I have all my meals planned for today except for dinner, Holiday Party. It is at our beautiful Witte Museum so I am planning on eating some, no drinking and then walking away from the food to look at the exhibits. It should be nice. But the weather :noway: crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It should be in the 20's tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brrrrrrr!!!! :noway:

Have a wonderful day!!!! :flowerforyou:

Swissmiss

I will take your advice, sing. I also realize that alcohol metabolizes differently. I lose more quickly when I don't touch it.

:flowerforyou: alf, how wonderful that you will be so busy looking at the displays that you will not over-eat. Great plan.

Well, I came in to work later than usual because I had to drive back to the school to pick up one of my girls who is sick.
I will try to get back on here later.

zebras

Thank you for all your good wishes for my hubby. I did not get on the scale to make a report this week. I figure I better wait a week so I'm not too shocked. I ate well yesterday, and my plan is to continue to have all good eating days!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

bampitt

I'm new here but I have been lurking for a while.

I am currently on a huge push to lose some goo around my waste. I'm doing P90X lean phase (week 2) and I have eaten clean every day since Thanksgiving. I gave up the eating clean during Thanksgiving weekend and I came back home craving veggies, fruits, and whole grains. Go figure! Heh.

I haven't seen the scale move a whole lot the past month and I had to revamp my diet a little and increase my calories. I haven't weighed myself since as a workout buddy said to ignore the scale for a while. But, I feel like a million bucks and my energy is fantastic. I'm finally at the point in P90X where I don't feel sore any longer. Two more weeks and Tony will change it up on me and the soreness comes back, lol.

Texssippian

Hi everyone! Crazy busy week at work with long hours at the beginning of the week. Was shocked yesteday to find out it was Thursday. Every day felt like Monday. I did manage to get to the trainer with hubs on Monday and to deep water aerobics on Wednesday. Hubs is now ready to be serious about the weight loss and fitness plan. He was really bad about waiting until 9:30 at night to eat, snacking up until dinner. We have been able to eat dinner by 8:00 (ok, still not great, but better!) this week.

Had wet snow on Wednesday morning which piled up on the grass until about noon. Only got to see it falling as we left town because I had to be at work before 7:00 in Dallas. Supposed to be cold this weekend.

Weight has fluctuated a little this week but starting the downward trend. Have on clothes today I could not wear this time last year. Plus have on boots that are 21 years old. Still look pretty good.

Big football weekend. Crosstown rivalry high school football teams in state semi-finals at the local stadium on Saturday afternoon. UT and Nebraska also on Sat afternoon (Go Horns!). Florida and Alabama (Go Tide, sister graduated under-grad from Bama) Sat night. Have the tree up and two strings of lights. Hope to get more done this weekend. Hubs trying to decide how many of his manger scenes he is going to put out with the son's cat in the house.

Best first week of December to all. TxMs.

StiringWendel

singfree, I echo alf's recommendation to try to get to Germany sometime during the winter. I love the Christmas Markets, especially those in Nurnberg and Rothenberg. Nothing like gluwein and some hot German sausage on a cold winter's afternoon/night. I love how the German's do Christmas. And the country looks beautiful when covered in snow!!

alf, you are doing so well!! Congratulations. I hope you have fun at your party tonight. Sounds like you have a great plan.

Swissmiss, I'm sorry to hear your daughter is not feeling well. Hopefully it isn't anything serious. I'm with you on the alcohol. Nothing impacts me quite like alcohol does. I'm okay with the odd glass of wine (a couple of glasses a week), but any more than that is just not good for me or my body.

zebras, I hope your husband is continuing to do well. Great job on getting back to good eating!

Welcome bampitt!!! Sounds like you are doing really well. I just finished my first P90X rotation (I did the standard rotation) in October and really got some great results from the program. You probably will continue to be sore throughout the program (especially during the last month when you are switching up the workouts more), but I kind of like that. Of course, I'm a little crazy too! :laugh: I defiinitely agree with your workout buddy about ignoring the scale for a little while, especially since you've just started this program. I know my body retains water like crazy whenever I switch up my strength training program, and that usually lasts a good three to four weeks. So go with how you feel right now and enjoy that!!! There are a few of us P90X grads on this thread now, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Oh, and I hear you about craving healthy food. If I don't get my daily veggies in, I get cranky. And a day without at least one piece of fruit.....not a good day.

TxMs, good to see you!! Good to hear your husband is getting on board with a healthier lifestyle. I know when my husband is more focused on eating better, I'm more focused as well. We're each others worst enemies at times when it comes to not-so-good food enabling. Take care with all that cold weather in Texas (you too, alf!) Is your husband Mr. Holiday for Christmas too? Sounds like it if you have multiple manger scenes. How fun!

Things here are going well. I woke up to a massive rain storm (with thunder!), and it is supposed to snow today. We're headed into Seoul for a Christmas reception this afternoon, so keep your fingers crossed that the weather doesn't get too bad. At least somebody else will be driving, and that always makes me feel better. I've got my food plan in place for the day because we have another event (non-food though) planned for tonight (a branch of Cirque de Soleil is coming to perform a holiday show on base), so I want/need to make sure to get all my water in today in between events. But I'm looking forward to them both, so it should be a fun day (as long as it doesn't snow TOO much, of course).

No workout for me today, and my body definitely needs the rest after that tough week of Insanity. I did Max Plyo again yesterday, and liked it much better this time than I did the first time I did it. Tomorrow I start week 2 of month 2. Let's hope these old legs hold up! It's funny because I'm not feeling the impact in my joints, but my quad muscles are definitely being tested by these power moves. I suppose that's a good thing, but.....yowza.

Hope everybody enjoys the rest of Friday and has a great weekend.

singfree

Good morning!

Just a quick check-in on this busy Saturday morning. It's just begun to snow here! We are expecting an inch or two, just enough to put us in the Christmas spirit as we decorate our tree!!!

I'm planning to do a good heavy workout today after my wife leaves for Church to play for a wedding (she's the organist and I'm the choir director). I bought some ground turkey today an will make a turkey meatloaf for dinner. Add a salad and some cauliflower and we're good to go!

Have a great weekend!

StiringWendel

Hi everybody! I hope everybody enjoyed their weekend. :drinker:

Like in so many parts of the US, we had snow this weekend. It was good for getting me into the Christmas spirit, but, boy, was it cold! I'm kind of missing Los Angeles right now. :laugh: We ended up not going to the Christmas reception in Seoul on Saturday as result of the weather, and I was fine with that. We have so many events to attend right now that being able to spend an afternoon around home was really nice.

I'm still eating clean, but I have a feeling it is going to get harder and harder as the holiday approaches. I have what I hope is a good plan in place, but we'll see. I'm feeling stronger and much more energetic lately.....the best I've felt since a couple of weeks before we left LA. I'm sure alot of that has to do with lower stress levels (Christmas stress has NOTHING on moving stress!), but I'm sure getting my eating under control is helping as well.

I've had a couple of interesting experiences over the past couple of days here in Korea. I went downtown shopping yesterday (the first time I've actually been shopping in our local town) and there are many stores that make custom clothing. I heard before we got here that they will turn some Americans away for being 'too big' because Koreans are much smaller than many Americans. I had the opposite reaction. In virtually every store I went into, the store owner would pull me away from my friends and point out something, saying 'You'd look good in this' or 'I can make this for you'. I even had one come up to me today and say 'I should make suits for you' at a base event we were attending--and I was already wearing so suit so I was wondering if he was telling me I had bad taste in clothes! :bigsmile: But it finally dawned on me that they were really telling me that I'm the size they are comfortable catering to. I don't actually feel that small anymore so I didn't really catch on to why they were reacting to me the way they were. Anyhow, I took it all as a compliment. Of course, if I get clothes made for me at this weight, that may inspire me to actually keep the weight off more!

I'm two days into my second week of my second month of Insanity, and I'm enjoying these 'max' workouts more everytime I do them. I wasn't sure that was going to happen, but they really are great workouts. I decided to do the fit test again yesterday, and actually got my husband to join me. He hadn't worked out since we got to Korea, but something about doing that fit test finally inspired him to get back into the gym today. I'm glad it worked that way. If he were inclined to workout with DVDs, I think he'd love this series (he enjoyed the fit test), but he's more of a gym guy than a DVD guy. But it was fun for him to join me for a workout.

Hope everybody has a good day. :flowerforyou: