HLSG: Week of May 29.

[lindrusso]

Hope everyone had or is having a nice holiday weekend. It was cold and rainy here - in the 50's - yuck! But we were fortunate! 40 minutes south of here (in Ft. Wayne) a tornado did some pretty serious damage in a busy shopping district. Fortunately, there were only minor injuries (including some people in a car that got picked up and tossed!). I'm sure glad we didn't decide to go shopping - I shop where the tornado struck all the time!

Anyway...I digress. Last week was pretty bad. I only exercised one day and eating left much to be desired.

On a positive note, the one day that I did exercise, I managed to run 1/2 mile without a break, took a 4 minute rest, and then ran another half mile as part of my beginning runners program. Later this week, I hope to take a shot at a mile without breaks.

How'd everyone do?

[Laura]

Well my eating has been horrible, really at least 5 bad days. I think it may be PMS but geez, I need to get ahold of myself. On the plus side, I have found that where I run makes a HUGE difference in my approach to running. I went running on a trail Sat morning that was so peaceful, I really enjoyed my run. Unfortunately, there are no good trails close to my home so I am stuck running on relatively busy city streets. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/frown.gif I think my goal is to do shorter runs during the week when I have to run around my home and take longer runs on the weekend around some of these great trails. I hope you are all having a great Memorial day weekend.

BTW Alysha - that is awesome about how far you are running. Keep up the good work.

[This message has been edited by Laura (edited 05-27-2001).]

[funnybone]

PMS struck me big time. I made the Blueberry Pound Cake and ate half of it the first evening/next morning! I am serious! I haven't gotten back into the swing of exercising again, but I have promised that I will on Tuesday.

Have a great Holiday everyone!

[cdm]

Well, no use in beating around the bush here. I have been terrible, craving chocolate like crazy (it must be PMS). I exercised one day also. I usually walk after eating lunch, but the sun came out and it was too hot for me. When I come back to work after walking in the sun, Im really pink though it fades during the afternoon. This weekend is nothing but party and chow down time-ugh. My timing is terrible.

[kwormann]

I wont live in the past, but go straight for the week.....

My biggest goal is to make it through this last week of the regular school year, but on top of that, I plan to lift 30 min/day-4 days and do cardio 30 min/day-4 days and spend one day with 45-60 minutes of cardio. I also plan to eat healthy and to plan foe next week when I start my Mediteranean diet from my new book!

Kim

[Kristine]

Not the best week, not the worst week. I was doing great up until the weekend....we went out to dinner on Friday at this barbeque-type restaurant, and I had way too much. Then on Sunday night we went over to some friends and I also ate too much. But the worst part is that tomorrow we have a block party--where I can't help myself to all the delicious looking foods prepared by non weight concious neighbors http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif. But this year is going to be different--I am NOT going to over eat at the party tomorrow, no questions asked.

My goal for this week is to get back on track with exercising. I am going to look for a 5k Race to sign up for to get me motivated to run more (hehe). I'm also going to try to control my snacking (control not eliminate http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif). I'll be out of town later this week, so that will help the eating (not constantly at the refrigerator), but may hurt the exercise. Fortunately, the hotel has a fitness center which I vow to visit every morning.

[GayeC]

I was sick all week with a cold or other upper respiratory thing so I didn't follow my 1500 cal./day diet, didn't exercise, and gained 1 pound. Aaargh!

[BevP]

Wow. I'm almost ashamed to say I had a good week. Ok not really http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif. I went to aerobics 4x last week despite a few glitches and didn't do too much damage eating during the week.

More importantly, I had to pull out the smaller jeans from the cedar chest Saturday morning. Those 12s were just too loose so I thought I'd try the 10s. Woo Hoo. 12s are in the cedar chest now.

I also signed up for the AFAA aerobics certification class. I'm waiting for the material so I can start studying then have the certification testing in July. Not too shabby for someone who only forced herself back into the aerobics class habit in February.

The trip to Tibet got canceled. Bit of a giggle since that had been my motivation. Instead it's a cruise so the body can expose itself in a bathing suit without embarassment thanks to that Tibet training.

Sorry everyone is having a hard time. The holiday weekend is tempting. Just remember, as Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is another day." Drink some water, forgive yourself and get over it. Start fresh this week. Mainly drink that water, especially if you're in warmer weather.

[Kerri]

BevP-I just want to say that I think you are doing great. I have been reading posts from you for awhile now and it sounds like you are heading in the right direction. You are always so positive, even when you are down. It is very inspiring to hear about your success and going down a size - wow!

GayeC-I feel like I identify with you a lot. As you said, dieting is hard and 1500 calories isn't that much food. You have accomplish so much in the past weeks (3/4lbs every week is very good) so please don't be discouraged after a little setback.

I haven't been posting lately mainly because I irritated my hip and haven't been able to excercise. I took one week totally off and then last week went to the gym 3 times. This has cause my eating to go a little haywire, but things really aren't too bad. I really think that over the past year I have adopted a very healthy lifestyle so even though I do have episodes with those milano cookies, I am still doing very well. Lindrusso-I always meant to say thank you for starting this HLSG, but I don't think I ever did. Thanks! Now sometimes I check this board more than the Good Food one!

[lindrusso]

BevP - Congrats on packing away the 12's!! Yeah!! Oh, and don't be ashamed of a good week, we need someone to inspire us and get us back on track!!

[This message has been edited by lindrusso (edited 05-28-2001).]

[Alisa]

Thanks so much lindrusso - maybe this will help me get my butt into the gym more often. I have the time and opportunity but not the motivation. I don't understand it because I feel so good when I work out?! Does anyone have an explanation for this conundrum?

I don't care about my weight or my looks (too much) - I just want to be able to climb a few flights of stairs without feeling like I need to lie down.

[mandarin2j]

Right before I started dating my husband, I was cycling almost daily to a local park & playing tennis 'till dark with friends. One or two days a week, we would all cycle 25 miles up into a huge urban park we have here. I was eating right, but not counting calories-just making healthy choices and avoiding added fats and sugars. Then I started dating Jim, and spent a lot of time showing off my cooking skills and stopped exercising altogether. I had not yet discovered CL, and was under the impression that healthy gourmet cooking was an oxymoron-I lived on veggie burritos and stir-fry for my healthy mainstays, and showed off by cooking cream sauces & other calorie-laden goodies.

The past few weeks, I've been struggling with the "shoulds, " and feeling terrible when I fail to live up to what I think I ought to be doing. Even when people were saying that posting when we're doing poorly would help, I didn't post. I haven't done my yoga practice for almost 3 weeks now, and I've only walked once. I haven't hiked at all. My diet? Pretty poor. But today the sun was shining, and my bike was sitting in the basement, all tuned up and ready to go. I haven't ridden for over a year. I'm still a little fearful of riding in traffic since being hit a few years ago, but I brought that bike upstairs and rode to work.

I'm not sure what got me on that bike today. Maybe the gorgeous weather. Maybe the fact that I stepped on the scale yesterday and mysteriously lost 4 pounds (along the lines of Alysha's post last week…those pounds must be cavorting with my lost socks in another dimension somewhere!). Maybe it was that, after not exercising for almost 2 weeks, my walk last week didn't have me breathing hard, even though I pushed myself. I don't know. But I'm glad I did it. I really felt it in my quads, so I know I can use the work. Now if I can just get over my mental block on weight lifting…

You know when you've tried diet & exercise so many times and failed that you're afraid to admit that you're trying once again because you're afraid of messing up once again. I know, it's silly, but it's really difficult to remain optimistic when you've watched the numbers on the scale climb still higher after every failed effort. So I think, "what am I doing here, with cycling to work? Am I trying again?" And I play little mental games with myself; "I'm cycling because it's sunny. Or because I feel bad that I had Jim tune up the bike and then left it sitting in the basement, unused, forever." But really what's going on is that I am trying again, but I'm trying to sneak it up on myself, if that makes any sense at all. Because if I don't admit that I'm trying again, it won't be so disappointing when I fail. Because I wasn't really trying anyway, right?

[aggie94]

My week? Well, I suppose it could have been worse. Even with moving, I still managed to make it to kickboxing 3 nights, and out for my 45-minute walks 3 times. No weights, but I am scoping out new gyms and hoping to find something close so that I can start working out in the morning before work in addition to what I'm already doing. I didn't make the minimum 4 walks that my PT prescribed, nor did I do my foot/ankle exercises every night (I think I only managed 3 nights out of 8, but my excuse is that my styrofoam roller was in a box somewhere). Hopefully this week will be better since I have another appointment next Monday and definitely don't want a lecture from my PT.

Eating was not so good. With some inspiration from a recent thread on vegetarianism on the Great Foods board, I've decided to experiment a little with eliminating meat (poultry, beef, pork) from my diet -- it's going to be hard with DH being such a big meat eater, but I'm going to try it out for awhile and see how it goes. Other challenge will be getting enough protein -- I find that I tend to focus on carbs (pastas, rice, etc.) when I don't eat meat.

This past week, though, the move still saw us eating out most of the week and weekend. I did a few healthy subs from Subway but mostly it was a lot of fish & chips. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif I did manage one healthy meal -- BBQ salmon at a Memorial Day gathering with friends. The first room I unpacked this weekend was the kitchen, so I will catch up on some healthy cooking this week and try out some new June CL recipes (assuming I can find my mag!).

Happy healthy living to everyone this week!

[Alisa]

Sorry for the newbie questions but can someone explain HLSG? I just discovered this thread and am finding it a great motivator but I'm not sure what the "rules" are...

[MelissaAS]

Good week, tough weekend...
During the week my eating was right on target (for the first time in a while), but my weekend away with the in-laws was a bit disastrous. I am no good around a table of salty snacks and dips. And we were at one of the picnics for 8 hours! I can't resist for that long, I'll tell you that much. So my eating was yucko for the weekend- starting fresh again today. Thanks for the "start fresh" kick in the pants, BevP.

As for exercise, I only got 2 workouts in (and one only 35min.) so I was way under my "prescription" for the week. But get this: I'm really anxious to get back walking- I actually miss it! That's a first!

I have to jump in on the smaller size thread too- I had to buy new pants last week because everyone laughs at my baggy butt at work these days. So I drag myself off to the Gap after work one day and bring a few pairs of pants a size smaller into the dressing room with me and they were all too big! I've dropped 2 sizes and even these are not tight. Woo hoo, indeed!! Repeat after me: Who cares what the scale says if the pants are loose? http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[lindrusso]

mandarin2j - I feel your frustration! I've been practicing a "new" way of looking at things. Instead of paying so much attention to the scale, I just pay attention to being "heatlhy". It's hard to explain, but I find that if I view it as a way of life, and not a means to an end, it takes my focus off the pounds. It's also easier when the scale doesn't show improvement - I don't get as discouraged because I know that even my off weeks are better than the weeks I used to have (where I wasn't exercising at all, etc.) and that even if the weight isn't coming off, I'm still doing good things for my body.

Alisa - HLSG stands for "Healthy Living Support Group". We "meet" here at least once a week to share our successes, our goals, our "not-yet-realized-goals" (I don't like to call them failures http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif ), etc. There are not rules...just a group of people trying to live a healthy life. Some here are trying to lose weight, some are reaching for goals such as running marathons, and some are even trying to gain weight. So, anything goes! I hope you'll join us!

Oh and MelissaAS - you are so right about the scale. People have begun asking how much weight I've lost and it really hasn't been that much because I've also put on muscle. If it weren't for the looser clothing, I might wonder what's going on???!!!