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.

Just wanted to drop in to say that I may be a bit absent in the next few days, I have relatives visiting until Sunday and it will be busy busy busy! Going to try to get some exercise in each day though, hoping to run today maybe.

Happy exercising and eating well to all of you

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today I did Piyo. I am loving this! Joanne, Piyo is pilates and yoga combined - strength training and stretching. It's not as slow as yoga though which I love, but they don't go so fast like Jillian MIchaels does in her Yoga Inferno dvd. It's right in the middle. I had said earlier that I don't burn many calories doing Piyo, but I was wrong! Did the "sweat" workout this morning and burned 274 calories in 42 minutes. What I like is there are routines to choose from between 20 minutes and 45 minutes long so depending on the time I have as to which one I do. Plus the 20 minute ones I can do the same day as I run.

Pam, hang in there! We all have our "off" weeks (actually I just had two off weeks!). We just need to get back to it the next week!

Marielle, sounds like you had a great weekend and I'm TOTALLY jealous of your trip to Holland!!

Maureli, congrats on the 10k race - so awesome!!

Emy, I totally had the same thought as you yesterday ("I would definitely rather be sleeping than at work this morning!"). I actually missed my alarm (ok, maybe it went off and I just shut it off) and it was too late for me to workout otherwise I would have been late for work. Made it to work on time, but REALLY didn't want to be there. Guess it was truly a Monday!

Cindy, that turkey burger with spinach and feta cheese sounds great! Good to know about the cauliflower pizza crust - never heard of it!!

Lisa, glad you are feeling better. I too have to run/workout first thing in the morning before eating. I've tried working out in the afternoon when I get off work, but don't have near the motivation and not much effort put in to the workout. I'm usually up at 5:15 every morning (unless I "accidently" turn it off like I did yesterday:laugh: ).

Have a great day all!

Just a quick check in before I head to the gym.

I am trying very hard to eat only 1200 calories. It is really hard. I do not like to feel as hungry as I felt yesterday. I ended up eating some stuff that I promised myself I wouldn't (wine and a Popsicle) *sigh* I would like to do it for just one week & not have a hard time. I believe that it will get me out of the slump I am in, and back to losing weight!

Hopefully today will be better, but it is dead lift day, and I am ALWAYS starving on dead lift day! My mom told me to buy dark chocolate and have one square before lunch, but you have to suck on it & savour it.. Something to do to grelin (sp) hormone, and stopping hunger. I am going to try it.

Have a great day all!