Woohoooo!! September!! Thank you ladies, so nice of you. This is the most supportive group, you guys are the best! Love coming here to read everyone's tales and struggles and stories.

Mihani, 8 lbs is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats, we are so proud and impressed. That was a ton of hard work and you really stuck through it all. You've inspired me. I have birthday celebrations tonight and Saturday, but otherwise, I am really determined to get back to greens and ETL and more veganism in general.

NewMe, sorry to hear about your awful but awesome day. How is your grandma doing?? I always think the first ETL day is the hardest!! I think Brian Wasink wrote a really interesting book about food behaviour and he talks about how the brain rationalizes food and snacks, and basically every time you walk past the oreos and say no, you're training your willpower but also, it's easy for your brain to say yes the 4th time ("I've already denied myself 3 times today so this is my treat). Anyway, just wanted to say - good idea to just put them away!! Good for you for resisting

Last night, I got home to a beautiful box of fresh produce at my door, woohoo! It actually made me excited about cooking and veg again. I made some yummy curried lentil soup, smoothies, and prepped some other stuff. I even got a short treadmill walk in. Hope you guys all have a good first day of September

LOVE the thread title!

Ok, I'm going to try to hit this group more often. It's way more inspiring to me than anything else on MFP.
Mihani, I hope your smoking ban is going well. I'm a thankful non-smoker, too, although I kicked it cold-turkey in my early 20s, struggled on and off for about 5 years after that, and then "poof!" -- never had the urge again. I'm rooting for you!
NewMe9597, you thwarted that little voice in your head and won over those Oreo's!! Big victory! I can relate.
Whats_Her_Name, I was a band nerd many years ago (clarinet, flute, sax) but have been thinking about picking up a flute again. It's been a zillion years since I played any reed instrument, but I can still (sort of) read music. Playing music is supposed to be good for one's mind, and mine can always use help! Music AND a Tough Mudder… you are one complex person!
A brussels sprout addiction is a good thing.
I'm still thrilled about how easy it was to pass up SAD food last week while vacationing with SAD eaters -- my least favorite step-daughter who has put on at least 30 pounds in 3 years, my also-overweight step-son-in-law, and their three pudgy kids. This was the most stressful trip planned and I dreaded it three months out. Silly me. Maybe because I'm older it wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated. There was only one snide remark about how I wasn't eating like the rest of them (that I could hear, anyway) and I'm sure the fact that I actually look and feel good kept the comments to a minimum. I was still about 20 pounds overweight when they saw me last.
During this visit, I was pleased to notice that those little voices in my head that get all excited and start urging me with "oh, just a few bites won't hurt" were very much muted by the louder (more rational) voice in my head that said "you will feel sick if you try to eat that" and "your eyes will get all puffy in the morning from the salt" or "your joints will hurt from that stuff" -- my rational voices were drowning out those excited squeaky voices when the greasy, salty, fatty SAD foods were brought for everyone else. It made it easy to pass up stuff without feeling deprived. In fact, I felt good about it. A gift to my old body. Not smug or any of that "look how good I'm being" -- just comfortable with myself about what I was putting in my body and sticking with it. That sounds odd, I know, but that's what it was. Just being comfortable that I know what's best for me, and you all do what you want, I'm okay with that.
It was just so pleasant for a change. I didn't feel like I had to eat anything to be polite. Dr. Fuhrman is correct when he says knowledge is power; understanding the science of food and what it does for your body really helps me stay centered on ETL.
Two more trips this month, but I'm ready for them.

Hi all. It has been such a WEEK this week! Thanks for all the support regarding my Grandma. She went into the hospital last week due to some faintness, irregular heart beat and sweating. After she was admitted they ran some tests and found that she had a 90% blockage in one of her arteries near her heart so they put in a stint. (We had found out the week before that she had apparently had a mild heart attack at one point - which she remembered having - but, didn't tell anyone and didn't let my Grandpa take her to the hospital.) She was then released last Friday. Sunday morning she started feeling very light headed and had a lot of pain in her back and leg, so, they took her back to the hospital. Since then every day has had something different happen: her blood counts (hemoglobin especially) dropped suddenly, she had an aneurysm at the catheter site in her leg where they went in to place the stint, she has a UTI, there have been a battery of tests, limited mobility to keep the aneurysm from bursting etc...My mom has been trying to deal with all of it (she is the nurse in the family) while trying to deal with her own illness. Needless to say, it has not been an easy week at all.

We have just been making it through the days lately trying to keep things afloat in our own little house. I got in a really solid run yesterday morning which was nice to finally have after feeling like I was in a bit of a slump lately. Hopefully that trend will continue for a while. My food has been pretty good as well. I have been really focused on clean eating so, that has been really nice. My lunch box for work has gotten much simpler as well which makes packing it a breeze. I found myself kind of teetering a little bit, starting to research some other plans and nutrition and could feel myself getting overwhelmed with the information and figure I really just need to stick with this and not confuse things. I lost 4 pounds last month, so, hopefully I will see even more of a loss at the next weigh in. Why change it as long as it is working?

I would love to catch up on personal responses, but, work has gotten a bit back logged and since the morning time seems to be the quietest on the family front I better take advantage of it. Take care!

WARNING: LONG POST COMING UP!!!

Good morning - I hope everyone had a great long weekend.

The Tough Mudder is NO JOKE!! We had miserable weather - it was only 7ºC and raining. SO COLD. I couldn't feel my fingers for much of the race.

I'll just run it down and give you the highlights.

- we had to climb a wall just to get to the start line
- the mud is so deep and so thick throughout the WHOLE course that you're slipping and sliding more than you're running (think pulled groin)
- my shoes were so caked with mud that I was probably lugging around an extra 20 lbs per leg
- I fell so many times I can't even tell you (and turned my ankle 4 times, too)
- at the 2km mark, the obstacle was called "Arctic Enema". You climb a ladder and then slide down into an ice bath, where you HAVE to submerge just to get around the netting that's above the slide. It is SHOCKING how cold that ice bath is.
- most other obstacles have water pits in them as well, but at least they're not filled with ice
- we had to repel down a 50 foot cliff - the mud on my gloves was so thick and slippery that I thought I would fall to my death
- we had to climb back up, of course, and that was HARD - I kept sliding down the hill and had to grab onto plants to prevent myself from sliding - a lot of the plants were thorny (my gloves were fingerless)
- after a few more km and a few more obstacles, we had to go down another rope. This time it wasn't steep or scary, but the mud was deep and slippery - took a long time to trudge through
- at about the 10km point, I stopped participating in the obstacles that had water pits in them because it was insanely cold
- the second time we had to go up a hill, I was convinced they were going to have to air lift me out. I kept having to go to my knees to prevent myself from sliding down. I clawed at anything on the ground to try to pull myself up. When I finally made it to the top, I started sobbing uncontrollably because I didn't think I was going to make it. They closed that section of the race after we finished it, because it was deemed too dangerous.
- the mud kept pulling at my shoes - although I never lost a shoe, both of my heels were bleeding from the friction
- after falling on my right arm so many times I cannot count, I hurt my elbow and could only run if my right hand was held to my chest - I could no longer swing my right arm.
- I skipped the electric shock therapy obstacle because it was right at the finish line, and my brain said "eff this, go to the finish!!!"
- The medic tent was overflowing and some people got hypothermic disorientation and wandered off course and ended up at the WalMart.
- Back at the hotel, after 2 showers and a bath, I STILL got mud all over my towel.
- I have a giant bruise the entire length of my thigh and I have no idea where I got that
- I could not get warm for the rest of the day. We had the heat in our hotel room cranked to 25ºC and we were under the covers. We refused to go anywhere that night and just ordered in room service.
- A friend who has finished 3 previous tough mudders said that this was the hardest one she'd ever done.

So I'm sure I am forgetting some stuff. But it was BRUTAL.

BUT WE CROSSED THE FINISH LINE!!!!!
AND AFTER I LOSE 50 LBS, I'M GOING TO GIVE IT ANOTHER GO (but in July or August, when it won't get so freakin' cold).

mwah ha ha ha ha.....

So how was your weekend????

Karrie that is fantantic. You must be in such great shape.

New me hope your grandma feels better soon.

As far me I have good news and bad news.

The good:
Back on strict ETL. I felt like crap when I fell off the wagon.
My Dad is helping me out at work now and I am finnally getting the paper work under control. Plus, has been a little slow with out super hot weather and people taking the end of summer vacations.

The bad:
starting last July I have been getting intense knee pain. So, I thought it might be from exercise. I took a break for a couple of weeks and it did not get any beter. I made an appointment with a rheumatologist. I thought for sure she was going to tell me it was osteoarthritis but the diagnosis came back Rheumatoid Arthritis. . I will be on steriods for awhile.


The ugly:
the xray came back with some bone damage

The next step: Strict autoimmune etl, vitamin supplementation, and what ever the doctor recommends. Will start back at the gym next week with a new plan. This challenge is just anohter reminder my sweet tooth is hurting my body. (also, my genetics)

Off to work everyone have a lovely day.

liapr wrote: »

I actually thought to myself "Just get out, Karrie" while reading it, lol, like it was a horror story.

Holy crap - that's EXACTLY what it was like. lol... That's hilarious!!!

I FINISHED. I DID IT. After all that horror!!! Yes, I'm proud of myself. I really nearly quit more than just once or twice. But then I just squared my shoulders, took a deep breath and pushed through.

And no, I'm not in terribly good shape. I'm just stubborn...

I can run a 10km, but I'm slow. And I can curl 20lb dumbbells, but not much more. That's really about the extent of it. I can do better. I can be better. And I will.

My focus for the next 8-12 weeks is gonna be all about nutrition. I've gotta get rid of my spare tire.

After I've lost about 30 lbs, then I'll start ramping up the workouts again.

My brother is getting married in January and I want to WOW everyone.

And I will.

I found the BEST salad at my work! kale, garbanzo, cabbage, almond and feta. I'm loving it. It comes with a balsamic. Sometimes I add a can of sardines instead of the balsamic, or salmon (my menopause diet), sometimes I eat as is.