Donna, you are so multi-talented with the doggies: owner/petparent, trainer, handler, coach. Greece is nice, but of course this is the rainy season so we never know what we'll get. It happens to be a mild Winter this year, but it's really only the older folks who are accustomed who go swimming in the sea this time of year (sorta like "polar bear swimmers"). So, even with all the snow and slush, your swimming and classes at the pool are far better.

tlatrice13, don't feel like you "need" to do anything if your body is trying to tell you to rest. Sometimes after my long run, I have a headache and just don't feel quite right, so I take a nice long rest day. The body must adapt to the demands we make on it.

Laura, thank you for the threadstarters!!! I hope you got a nice dose of inspiration from doing that (I always do). :-)



So, today was the day after my run, but I felt well-rested, so I planned to workout. DH had to work late, so after lil girl & I picked up and dropped off my son to lessons, DH met me at the gym and took lil girl. I got a good upper body workout and then started back to get my son, only to discover it was raining. boo! Ran part of the way, took the bus for part of the way (so I wouldn't get splashed by cars) and then continued running. Since I didn't do the warmup run, it ended only being about 12min today. Not bad.


Keep goin' folks, the weekend is so close I can almost taste it!

Marla, I didn't see the show, but I saw some of the fallout from it. JM & Bob(?) definitely looked shocked. Apparently she was a decent weight and quite fit when she left the show to go home for several weeks before the finale. Well apparently in those weeks, she just kept losing and losing, trying to make certain that she'd win (not knowing how far the others would go to win)--goodness only knows what she had to do to lose all that weight in such a short time (and so close to goal--it gets harder then). I'm imagining she cut her calories super low and lost a fair amount of muscle :-(.

Yep, it seems the show needs to be modified. Paying people to lose was a great way to get people going, but now that people see it can be done, they're willing to take it even farther just to win. They could actually make it very, very interesting by basing it on body fat %, down to the healthy range (but too low=disqualification)--and if there's a tie in bf%, they could do some sort of show-down fitness challenge (idk, like planks and rope climbs and running, etc, etc--or like a crossfit type competition or toughmudder or smthg)--now THAT'd make for good TV, and at least FITNESS would be the goal...not just "skinny".

Interesting topic. I'm just glad to see that fitness seems to be catching on as a lifestyle--there's evidence everywhere, The Biggest Loser, MFP, all the gadgets (Basis band, Bodymedia, Fitbit, Nike Fuel, etc, etc), Tough mudders color-me-rad runs, and idk about elsewhere but workout clothes have become standard clothing for most school kids and many adults. What a difference! It's so much better than the deep, dark, depressing days of everyone getting fatter and fatter and not knowing how to undo it.