H20~ Keeping the Pounds Falling Off

I just love reading all of your updates! I'm not so good on remembering what everyone said to write a specific response to each! (Christine - how DO you do it?! Do ya keep notes while ya read? huh?! ...she makes me look bad!) :laugh:

Nikki - your bike ride sounds like too much fun! Now I guess I need to go out and buy a bike... maybe not cuz I know I'll never ride it. Oh wait... I already DID that... twice! Wanna know how many bikes I gave away? Yep... 2! :bigsmile: ...ah... the best laid plans...

Good thing the slave driver keeps me going to the gym! (Now you all understand why I need such a mean and nasty trainer! I am just naturally LAZY!) :happy:

Okay... well after a nice day at work and a good workout at the gym... I opened 2 new books I bought last week. They're Biggest Loser Cookbooks! Ya see... I got fat because I am an excellent cook! (believe that... I have a bridge...) Anyway... I need some new recipes to add to my new-life-eating-plan-thing! Looking forward to trying some out, they sound REALLY good! Will share as I test them out on my sons!! :happy:

Have a wonderful evening everyone!!

As an added note: I am SICK of hearing about carmaggedon too!! It won't affect me... I don't use the 405! :yawn:

Pink- I will gladly help you with your laundry once my lights are finished- one problem with living in Europe is our small front loading machines- which are also slow (of course our machine is 12 years old, so maybe the new ones are better? ) it takes forever to do laundry

as for breadpudding, perhaps you could bike or walk to it? burn off some of the calories

April- I am so glad to hear that your photography business has really swung into high gear
Nikster - great job on the bike ride!
Cazz- I think I am going to have to take notes too cause seriously I can't remember everything either

everyone else - sorry - as mentioned it 's hard to remember everything but have a fabulous day

ankle hurting a bit but not too badly- will do the 30 Day Shred tonight but skip the walk, plus more laundry tonight to be done- friends arrive tomorrow for a week so I suspect I will be getting in a lot of walking and not so much shredding- of course one of the friends is my former personal trainer and all 7 just completed the IronMan in Zurich - so I may be getting in more shredding than I bargained for....

Christine - you KNOW you're one of the Fabulously Fabulous People in LA! You're pink and shiny - the best kind of fabulous I totally caved and bought some stuff on Oldnavy.ca after reading about your finds - all 25% off and totally returnable if it doesn't work! I found a pretty pink cowl neck tank that I had to have...now I just hope it looks good! And I love the surveys at the bottom of receipts - so many stores have them now and you can almost always save 10-15% off your next purchase.

Also, I'm HUGELY envious of your food the other day. Where are these random trucks and why don't I have them? Bacon maple bread pudding sounds awesome and I'd devour a lobster slider. I'm a foodie (I spend WAY too much of our monthly budget on food) and your dinner sounds so lovely and varied. I was drooling...just a little bit.

Jen - it's good that you took a break from Jillian - she can be a tough trainer and it's good to get a rest. A few years ago I wouldn't have considered laundry and housecleaning a rest (husbands and families change that!), but hey, maybe you can sneak in some time with a good book??

Linda - did you get in a bike ride? How was it? And how was your daughter's interview? Is she employed at Old Navy? I have fond memories of my 3 weeks at the Gap many, many years ago. The discount was AWESOME but I don't think I netted any money!

April - we miss you but it's great that your photography is doing so well. Keep us posted and maybe bring some of those photos over here!

Cazz - I laughed out loud when I read about your husband and his "they paid me to take this". I remember buying stuff because it was ONLY $5.00, but often I'd end up giving that stuff to charities with the tag still attached!! Now I only buy stuff I love, expensive or cheap! And I was totally wondering what ASDA was...is it an acronym or something?

Also, keep us posted on the Biggest Loser Cookbooks! I've been making a lot of recipes from SkinnyTaste and Cookinglight.com because they're great and already fairly low calorie. A lot of the time I add extra veggies (because low calorie is not always the same thing as healthy), but I really enjoy those sites. I'm looking for more resources, so if the books are good I'll pick them up!

Nikki - your NSV is awesome! Bike riding is such a great way to see new parts of your neighbourhood and enjoy nature. I love seeing the bunnies and squirrels. I actually got restless on Tuesday night (my husband was working late) and instead of just watching TV I went for a bike ride! I confess that I rode over to the chichi part of town and ogled the really big houses - so no squirrels for me, but some lovely walkout basements! Enjoy band practice!

I am blissfully Carmaggedon insulated up here in Winnipeg. But maybe they can bring in Bruce Willis to fix the situation? They seem to do that a lot in LA with any "maggedon" type things

Now that I've successfully procrastinated I'm going to leave work and run some errands. I did the 30 Day Shred again this morning and it felt good. That was going to be my exercise for the day, but I think I'll head out for a run this evening if it doesn't thunderstorm. Getting struck by lightening = bad run!

It's almost the weekend and on Saturday I'm looking forward to...running club! Seriously, who am I and what happened to the real Lisa?? I work out at 6am (and like it) and I look forward to running. It's a strange new world - feels like an armageddon moment - send in Bruce Willis to rescue me! Or maybe someone younger, like Ryan Reynolds Hey Christine, if you know him, can you send him my way??

Good evening ladies.. i hope everyone had a beautiful day. just got done having dinner, with my hubby and the neighbors.. Its a late late dinner but, **** happens..

When I get some time ill upload a few of the pictures Ive taken lately. I hope all is going well with everyone..

Lisa... Yeah, it's really easy to overdo it on a run with the best of intentions. A few weeks ago I came home from work on a Saturday at noon, had a nice lunch and about an hour later decided to hit the pavement... it was hotter than I thought and I didn't have my water belt yet. I totally regretted those last three miles!!! But live and learn... I'm still learning too!!!

Linda, I hope your work doesn't kick your butt like mine did this afternoon! Whew, I was ready for that day to end!!!! I have to work tomorrow (only 4 hours) so I'm going to bed early.

April... It's nice to have you back! Can't wait to see the pictures.

I was scheduled to do 2 miles today and knew I wasn't going to want to do it tonight (boy was I right) so I got up early and did it this morning. I'm SOOOO not a morning person, and it sucked! The run was fine, it was the getting up at the buttcrack of dawn to do it! Of course, I didn't have time to eat first, so running on an empty stomach which I haven't done since last year. Yeah, not a fan. So tomorrow I was going to try and do my long run before work, but that's SOOO not going to happen. I literally would have to start running at like 5am to get my 9 miles in and be in the shower before 7am. Instead, I'll work and have lunch and wait until later in the afternoon/evening hours. It's supposed to be really hot tomorrow... oh goody! I love the heat, don't get me wrong, but running in 60's is so much better than 90's with high humidity!! Gotta love Michigan....

I'm thinking of happies today.. I need to get this out because I'm feeling blah today.. so they are:
The sun is shining
I got enough Gatorade and energy beans for my long run tomorrow
I have awesome MFP friends.

Nikki - What's with the energy beans? I mean... what ARE they?!

Okay... my NSV... I am growing out of my new Guess jeans! The RIGHT way! :bigsmile: Now, I wish I hadn't purchased 2 pair of the size 10's. Good news is I also bought some size 9's. :happy:

Now... my complaint! WHY, oh WHY, can't the middle go as quickly as the bottom?! :sad:

April!! You are SO good at what you do! KUDOS!

Thank you.. I hope one day it can be my full time job..

Nikki - What's with the energy beans? I mean... what ARE they?!

Okay... my NSV... I am growing out of my new Guess jeans! The RIGHT way! :bigsmile: Now, I wish I hadn't purchased 2 pair of the size 10's. Good news is I also bought some size 9's. :happy:

Now... my complaint! WHY, oh WHY, can't the middle go as quickly as the bottom?! :sad:

Energy beans are jelly beans (made by Jelly Belly) that are good carbs to use to get energy while you work out. It's recommended when you work out (run) for +1hr that you use some sort of fuel + hydration. On my long runs I'm starting to go closer to 1:30, so I need energy to make it through! There's lots of type of fuel, but since I'm still new to this, I liked the beans. They literally taste like jelly beans and helped get me through 8 miles last week. Planning on them for tomorrow's 9 miles! Plus I got some Gatorade since I will most likely need the electrolytes with all the heat and humidity I'll be having on my run. For sure will need sunscreen tomorrow!!!! Yay!

April.... awesome pics!!!!

Thanks for the info, Nikki!

Thank you Nikki & Linda.. Its something I love to do.. im hoping in the next few years we can save up and buy a house, one with a garage or a basement and turn that into a studio.. Keeping my fingers crossed! I want to be able to do it full time eventually..

It sounds like everyone is doing GREAT!!!

My three happies:

1 - we are going home tomorrow:bigsmile:
2 - we are going home tomorrow:bigsmile:
3 - we are going home tomorrow:bigsmile:


Can you tell I'm SO excited to be going home? Three weeks is TOO long to be away. :happy:

Have a great weekend, Ladies! :flowerforyou:

So, Crystal... are you happy to be going home?! :bigsmile: Come on!! Tell us how you REALLY feel!! :laugh:

Beautiful pictures April

And I want to eat jelly beans now

Thanks BJ!

I hope everyone has had a great Saturday.. Ive been soo BLAH today.. Im off tomorrow but I have a photo shoot.

Had to work this morning, but since I do my long runs on Saturday I had to wait until evening to beat the heat that arrived. I'm not complaining, I just like to get these long runs done so I can enjoy the rest of the day and eat all the yummy calories I've earned. So I ate more than I usually would this morning and for lunch in preparation for the run. I ended up taking a nap even! I went out about 7pm and it was still warm, but the beating sun had started to go down, so it wasn't so brutal. Did my nine miles!!! Yup, nine. I can hardly believe I can say that. I felt so hard-core when I was out there.... like I was on top of the freaking world!!!! So I got home and showered and didn't want to do anything for supper. Ended up eating the two pieces of pizza left from when the kids had pizza a couple hours ago. It's all good... you can eat like crazy when you burn that much!!!! Still sipping my Gatorade for recovery, but feeling pretty good. Hope you all had a great Saturday!!!!

YAY for you, Nikki!!!