Emy: I second Pam's advise about taking a video for squats. I really like Mehdi's (strong lifts) video. A really good book about squat form is starting strength. It is a similar program to strong lifts but they do power cleans instead of rows. The starting strength book has about a billion pages on proper squat form. What I took out of it is to widen your stance and put your elbows between your legs to push your knees out, that way your are getting *kitten* to grass all of the time for the most benefits.

Pam: Congrats on your weight loss! That is awesome!

Marielle: It isn't that much of a bother taking the weights off of the bar. They way I looked at is that my grip strength, or hand strength, was weak, and this is a great way to improve it. I found that my hands were getting really weak, I think from spending so much time on the computer everyday at work. Now I don't seem to have carpel tunnel problems.

Good morning ladies! We have some nice cool temps in my corner of the world, so I am looking forward to my run this morning. I think I am going to go for 30 minutes, or maybe I will do interval training. I think I have my exercise groove back. This will be 6 days in a row meeting my exercise goals. Now the food is coming along, but I don't feel like logging it. I really need to drink more water too! Grrrrr... I will get there.

My children (mostly DD) had been bugging me to bring them to day camp. I brought them yesterday & now they don't want to go back. They have never had the opportunity to just stay home during the summer & chill, but they are old enough now. She told me at the beginning of the summer that I was ruining her life. LOL. I am just happy that I don't have to add 2 hours onto my day every day this summer. I just wish that I could get them to be more active during the day. I put it out there that I will give them $5 every time they ride their bikes to the store (that will give them a 6km bike ride) but we will see if laziness prevails.

Have a great day!

Morning!

A lot cooler here as well this morning. I went for a late-ish walk last night, didn't leave the house till 9.15 and quite enjoyed it. I was contemplating to maybe attempt a run again soon. Who knows, I might feel energetic this evening. :bigsmile:

Hahah at your DD Lisa. How old is she? That's all in store for me over the next few years I'm afraid...
Mine have their last day in camp today, they brought thank-you cards for all the team leaders. They have loved every single day of it (thank god).
Good one on the water, hang on while I drink some of it right NOW.......................

Done.

Brenda try to hang in there. I know how easily it happens, especially when life's busy it's hard to focus on good food and take time for exercise. Don't give up and undo all your hard work! :flowerforyou:

Pam I'm delighted for you, nearly at your first milestone! You come across as such a dedicated happy person - your smiley face helps too :happy:
And thankks on the advice on the lifting - your too, Lisa and Emy - I really want to take this more seriously. I love the look of my arms when the muscles are visible, but I've definitely let it slip a little.

Wow Johanne, 1200 cals is very low indeed. MFP recommended the same for me, but I just can't do that, so I've changed it to 1500 (I find that hard enough as it is!).

Ooo nearly forgot, Emy, how did you get on last night?

All,

Since we've been talking about lifting heavy, I thought this article might be of some interest: http://www.leighpeele.com/bulky-muscles-and-training-females-the-definition. There is a part two as well. Very interesting reading!

Cindy, that's so great that you are wearing your jeans today! Today will be tough though! Wearing the jeans will be a reminder of why you are trying to resist temptation!

On the italian restaurant, can you look up the calories for items on the menu beforehand? I've been doing that the couple of times that I've eaten out. I actually chose a different salad at Mellow Mushroom recently because of the calories and I loved it! Might not have ever tried it before reviewing the calories. In looking at it, I discovered also that maybe I could have a slice of pizza someday as long as I plan ahead and make sure to keep the rest of my calories down for the day.

Lisa, I think you posted while I was in the middle of typing my post. Too funny about your daughter! I can't count the number of times mine have told me the same! It hurt the first time or two it came out of my oldest child's mouth, but now I just realize I must be doing something right if they say that!

TGIF! Happy that it is Friday.

The days are getting shorter. A few weeks ago, even if I wanted to sleep past 5:30am, the birds were waking me up. Now, it is dark.

Heading to the gym this morning. There are 2 guys that we are trying to beat to the squat rack. They beat us on Wednesday, hopefully they are young enough that they go out to the bars on Thursday or something because it is deadlift day & we need both the squat rack and dead lift area!

Yesterday my kids rode their bikes to the store for $5. I also gave them money to go paddle boarding at a local place. It could of turned into a nightmare, but everything ended up ok. My son(9) cut his foot, as they were close to shore and he tried to push himself off. He gave up and they (DD-13 & friends) couldn't get him back. The rental was for 1 hour, they ended up taking 2, putting classes that the company was putting on late, having the instructor paddle DS back. None of the kids wore life jackets, and the company didn't take any information but one of the girl's names. If there had been a real emergency they would have had no way to contact us. So that's it for that. I thought it would be a cool way for them to get exercise. Maybe in a few years. I had popped by 45 minutes into their rental. they told me that they had told them to stay in the canals, and that they looked good when they had passed by. They told me they would be back in 15 or maybe 45 minutes. they weren't sure... I could not see them, so I left, to cook supper. I guess I should have trusted my intuition. Maybe I should drive them to day camp every day. less worry. The money/bike thing worked, so hopefully they can keep that up.

Great job with the weight loss Marielle! I saw it on my feed this morning!

Have a great day everyone!

Cindy, great job on the willpower and the weight loss!

Lisa, so glad everything turned out okay with the kids. I bet they had a great time for the most part and probably learned some valuable lessons. They definitely made some memories and will probably tell their children the story one day!

Marielle, great job on the weight loss and have fun on your night out with the girls!

Maureen, you will get back on track with the weight loss I'm sure. I know it's gets harder the closer you are to your goal and you seem like you are pretty close!

Johanne, don't let today's weight get you down. Great job on getting to karate 4 times this week! Are you measuring as well? That helps keep me motivated when the scale doesn't seem to move much.

I'm taking my rest day today. Did weights last night and have another 2 mile run tomorrow. I was happy to see the scale finally move for me this week. Stayed under 190 all week and weight was 186.6 this morning!

Hello all!

Well, I forgot to weigh this morning. Kind of how my whole week has gone. Took today off from work to go to town with my husband and son. Ate bad food, but had a lot of fun with the family! During the summer the three of us don't get much family time with my work and my husbands hay farming.

So, as Maureli said, "it's time to smarten the heck up!" That's what I'm going to do. Back to exercising every day and eating right.

Lisa, glad everything went ok with the kids - pretty scary! Hope you beat those guys to the squat rack!!

Cindy, great job on the willpower! Glad to hear c25k is going well! I'm up to week 6, but I was doing it almost everyday - I think it's only supposed to be three times a week. I'm a little scared though because my next session is running 28 minutes straight. Aaaahhhh!!

Emy, thanks for the link to the article - the survey results were very interesting! I'll definitely be reading Part Deux!

Joanne, I have an elliptical at home and tend to have lower back issues as well the next day. I don't use it very often, but sometimes it's a nice change of pace from the treadmill. My 7 year old son actually gets more time on it than I do!!

Maureli - I say go for the 10k - you can do it!!

Happy Friday everyone!

Good Morning all! Happy Saturday!

Yesterday I cooked on a Friday! *gasp* This week has been a little crazy, but I managed to cook or use the BBQ everyday, even if it meant eating at 7:30-8:00. Usually when we are running that late we will pick up something, so that is a huge NSV for me. (especially since the scale has been stuck for a month!)

The weather is supposed to turn bad today for the weekend, but looks beautiful right now. I am thinking about doing my long run today. I plan to run 10km since I have not done that this month yet. Then I will just do 4-5km tomorrow weather permitting. I am on an 8 day streak of exercising.

DD texted to tell me she pulled an all nighter at a friends house last night. She should be a joy to be around when I pick her up later on today. I will need my run just to keep my patience.

Emy: I read the article you posted earlier in the week. I guess I am going for the bulky look, even though I do not consider the pictures that she posted "bulky" I consider them fit. I like defined muscles, but I didn't realize the rest of the world doesn't. Oh well, if I can ever reach my goal & start to lose weight again I will see if the world considers me too muscled.

Have a great day!

Hi everyone ! Just wanted to let you know I'm still here, though I unfortunately have not been very good at keeping up with your daily activities ! I have been checking in but I'm finding it a lot to keep track ! Sorry !
I'm still doing my logging and training and staying on track and really want to continue the weekly weigh in board. This seems to be what I can manage right now. I'm not sure I can promise being able to stay on top of the Today I Will board, as cool as it seems to be, but I will do my best. Hope you will keep me around despite my sporadic presence on the day to day action! Those who have friended me can probably keep better track of me on my feed and I am happy to see how you are doing ! Know that your quick and warm welcome in the group and your encouragement, as well as continuing to see your successes and struggles is a help and inspiration to me.
It is always good to know there are others out there going through some of the same things.
Fighting a few emotional issues (without over sharing and getting too personal...some related to a recent difficult break up), but I am trying very hard to focus on ME (as my profile says) and doing all the right stuff to make me feel good. Did an hour and a half power walk outdoors today with my music playing and, despite the sore muscles all over (!!), felt great. All of your very busy (and refreshingly normal, as I have said once before) lives makes me smile and does help, even as I might be more in the background here ! So..thanks..and hope to be as in touch as I can.
Johanne

Today is a rest day, but I think I will try another of my Piyo dvds. I've done one and really like it. I don't burn many calories (at least with the one I did), but the stretching really feels great.

Lisa, what a great day yesterday! No kids and supper with DH - love it! If your family is anything like mine, those days are very few and far between so we need to enjoy them.....diet or no diet! Hope you had a good run!

Have a great Sunday all!

I hate when I don't have time to read all your posts and reply, but that's kept me from posting two days in a row, so I'll try to get back here later and catch up on all that's happening with you all.

I will admit to struggling with unplanned eating this week. I knew that this week before TOM would be challenging, it always is. But a Trader Joe's trip that resulted in me buying two chocolaty treats for my boys (that I end up snacking on), a stop by that bakery that lured me into getting something else unplanned, an unexpected dinner with friends last night that had me shoveling crab dip in my chatty mouth. Geez! This week was gonna be hard enough with the bloat, but I may have just shot myself in the foot. I did make some good choices in the midst of the bad ones, so I'm definitely in a healthier place than I was 6 weeks ago. I did 20 minutes of freestyle laps at the pool when I took the boys on Friday. It's one of these big aquatic centers with water slides, a "river" and all sorts of kid stuff, but I took some time to go into the lap pool and get my heart racing for 20 minutes. I also only had a half a burger with dinner after eating all the crackers and dip.

I still have 3 days to be squeaky clean with eating before the weigh-in, but I'm having a real struggle with sticking to the food log. I think I need to spend some time with the notes I took from my Willpower Challenge book. This 4-6 week time frame is a dangerous time for me because I seem most likely to fizzle here and not follow through with my plans. But the weight loss graph I posted on my wall goes through November, so I'm not even close to being done. Lots of work to do still! Time to renew my resolve!

Today I will be running errands, sending the youngest off to a friend's for a sleepover, and hopefully sending the oldest to his bf's so the hubby and I can go see a movie. I need to squeeze a workout in somewhere! I also need to come up with an alternative dinner besides chowing down on my leftover southern baked beans and potato salad.

Today I will take some me time to renew the vision I have of "Future Me" and deciding that my long-term goals are more important than any short-term desires I may have to eat off my plan.

Just a quickie update from me this morning, on my way to work.

Did the 10K race yesterday and so glad that I did. Had a time of 59:08. I really just wanted to break one hour and I did! But the best part of all was just finishing and knowing that I did it. Dh did very well too with his marthon - 3:20.

I have relatives visiting for the week and it is our festival here so it will be a busy week. Today will be a rest day for sure, tomorrow hopefully I will run.

catch you all later!

Sounds like everyone had a busy and fun weekend! I had Friday off for the first time in a few weeks. One of my daughters is in Wyoming visiting friends, my son is in London/Wales/Scotland for a couple of weeks, and my husband and last remaining child went to visit family Saturday through Sunday evening! I so enjoyed my day and a half to myself! I did my first real 2 mile race on Saturday (I got a t-shirt so that's what differentiates between a fun race and a real race for me, lol!). It was great! I was able to run at my pace and not feel pressured to keep up with everyone. This time there were real people there, not crazy fast runners, LOL! I finished 72 out of 108 of the women. I was still very slow - Brenda was it you that posted that quote about running slow? I loved it! - but I felt good about how I did.

Marielle, yes I'm jealous!!!! Sounds like you and your husband will be having some nice "kid free" time! From my experience, that time can do wonders for a marriage! And, you are always happy to see the kids when they come back home!

Lisa, I agree about being bulky! I should have linked the forum post as well that was talking about bulky versus muscular. I didn't do it though and now I'm not sure if I can find it again. It was really surprising to me to see that a lot of people think muscles on a woman are not fantastic! I guess in my 20s I was the same way. I do remember my husband saying when we were dating that he like bodybuilding type women. I thought that was awful back then! I have always tended to be more muscular looking but always wanted to be thin and svelte. Now I'm at a point in my life where I'm way more comfortable with my own, unique body, and I want to be strong! I want to have muscles and who cares what the majority of society thinks. Great job on getting your 10k in. I'm still pushing for the 5k so your posts give me hope that one day what I'm doing now will seem easier.

Maureen, I'm so glad you ended up doing the 10k! Great job on your time! And thanks so much for the encouragement on my weight loss!

Pam, you will get back on track! Focusing on your goals should help you minimize the unplanned eating. I was just reading a quote over the weekend about failure, something along the lines of "falling down is not failure but not getting back up is." None of us are perfect but we sure expect perfection of ourselves sometimes.

Brenda, you are flying through the c25k! Glad you were able to enjoy some family time!

Johanne, please don't feel any pressure to keep up with everything here! This should be a no pressure zone! Just pop in whenever you have time/energy and update us on how your are doing.

Cindy, hope you had a great weekend! Congrats on doing so well with the temptations last week at work! I'm not so sure that I would have done so well!

This week, I'm trying to add in a little something extra and see how I do with it. I'm planning to try fasted walking in the morning. I did it this morning but mainly because I woke up at 3:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep. Will see if I can keep it up on a consistent basis. Will do my weights this evening.

Hope everyone has a great Monday! I would definitely rather be sleeping than at work this morning!

Emy

P.S. I bought my red dress on Friday for the Red Dress Run in two weeks! The only problem is, I actually love the dress! I'm going to hate seeing it get covered in beer! It was a great deal though - only $30.