Things have been a little crazy around here as I pack to move, but I’ve been managing to get out walking most days. I did an extra lap today at the park (4 miles total), but only ran a little bit - not even a quarter mile. One good thing about the move is I’m close enough to the park that it would be silly not to walk, which should add in at least an extra mile every day. :) There’s also a (small) pool in the complex, so I plan to add some swimming in after my walks/runs. My goal this week is to break my habit of waking up around 6:30/7 a.m. and rolling over for more sleep. I figure I can always nap after I go walking/running, but it’s so much cooler at seven than at nine that I really need to take advantage of it. I’m doing so-so on eating, but I had a huge salad at a local place downtown yesterday (big enough that most of it went home for dinner later) that was really good, so I think I’m going to try my own version for lunches this week.

      I’ve finally been released from Physical Therapy.  Of course, this means I have to make appointments with myself to do my exercises (as well as new ones to tone up all over).  And I want to start eating right.  The first step was getting a small refrigerator for my office.  I did that last week, then on Sunday hauled up groceries (carrots, seltzer, caffeine-free diet coke, yogurt) and a big batch of homemade gazpacho and some hard-boiled eggs for lunch.  Other than yesterday (when the call of the hot dog wagon was too strong to resist), I’m doing okay.  When I feel bored or frustrated, I grab the bag of carrots and start crunching.  Since I clench my jaws a lot, it’s a good idea.  Hopefully, things will continue to get better.

Well i have to admit i fell of the healthy food and exercise wagon *Hanging head in shame* :) It was so hard over Christmas to eat healthy when i had immediate access to chocolate and all that good stuff, i did little to no exercise unless walking around the shops counts?? :) But i am determined to climb back up, its less than a year now till the wedding so if i want to be serious about it i really need to find the motivation and keep it. I did make a massive batch of pumpkin soup yesteday and froze it so that should keep me going for a while, other than that i’m getting back into exercising at the gym and trying to eat more healthy. I’ll see how i go next week when i report in. Cheers

If I dare say so, I did really fine last week! I kept all my goals, that is, if you count doing gymnastics once as “some gymnastics”! *g* At last I managed to drink enough, though I now think about asking my superior to move my desk to the ladies restroom. *g* Though, walking all across the office a couple of times a day gives me a lot of extra exercise, LOL! Because I was such a nice girl and worked so hard on my health last week, I thought it was time to reward myself. I bought some new, beautiful smelling body lotion and self-tanning lotion. So, here is my question: What do you do to reward yourself each time you kept your goals? Or do you think that you deserve nothing for the hard discipline you’re keeping? My goals for the next week: - keeping my fat-level - drink a litre a day - do shopping by feet as often as possible - stand up when I telephone or dictate - 4 x gymnastics - one hour walking

      No, I haven’t forgotten about this - life’s just been really hectic. Among other things, my boss needs to have knee surgery in 10 days. They want her to have it sooner, but her boss is off all week and she told them they couldn’t put her out of commission for a week with him gone. *sighs with relief*  Anyway, I invested in a new pair of running shoes yesterday, then christened them with three loops around the park (mostly walking). That’s just a hair under four miles, and I ran about a mile of it in two spurts. My goal is to be able to run two full loops (2.6 miles) by Marathon Monday (two weeks from tomorrow). The new sneakers are wonderful - like running on air. I hadn’t realized just how broken down the old ones were until I headed out in the new ones. Fortunately, my legs held up pretty well - my wind was the problem. I’m hoping warmer weather and some regular training will solve that problem pretty quickly.  I’m been doing not so great with the eating - 14-hour days at work tend to have that effect - but I started to get back on track with dinner tonight and I’m hoping it will carry over through the week. I have three meals already packed in the fridge and freeezer, and I’ll pick up a few cans of soup tomorrow. I’ve also started drinking more water, mostly because the almost-full bottle of lemon juice in the fridge was nearing the end of its useful life. So I’ve been making water with a twist all week in my 32-oz water bottle.   This week’s goals:  Run MWF, working up to running two miles out of 5.2 (four loops) by Friday.  Walk 3.9 (three loops) miles on the days I don’t run Bring my dinner to work this week and avoid the snack machine. Eat at least half the veggies in my freezer.

I went out running Monday (Brrrr!) morning and out of 1.5 miles, ran about 3/4 mile. I didn’t go quite as far as I would have liked, mostly because we dipped back down to freezing weather. On the plus side, when I started walking (I walk about half a mile to warm up), I thought running was going to be painful and unpleasant - it just didn’t feel good even walking. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually felt really good…and not just because it helped keep me warm. :) I didn’t go walking yesterday, but I’ll be taking advanatge of my days off the rest of the week to run in the afternoon when it’s warmed up a bit. I also found a Web site called www.connectingconnectors.com that’s for overweight women who are running or walking to lose weight. They have state chapters as well and membership is free, so I signed up for that. Hopefully that will help me keep on track with running. Eating’s gone better as well, though I did succumb when one of the copy editors brought in a bag of cheetos. We have entirely too much food at work. Other than that, I’ve stayed on track and kept my foods healthy and portions reasonable.

This first week went better than I thought. My SIL and I didn’t find the Weight Watchers meeting on Tuesday, though the group was supposed to meet in the kindergarten. So, I decided to go back to my good old “count fat” method. Its a method that teaches you not to eat too much fat, not a diet. I’ve done pretty good this week and kept the fat-level that’s supposed to be healthy. And I had some workout, so I even lost weight! My goal for next week is to keep the fat-level, do as much workout as this week, and drink at least one litre a day. The last one is difficult, because I don’t like to drink a lot.

I’m back from my trip. The good news? I lost five pounds while I was on vacation! I’m sure a lot of it was all the walking and stair climbing that I did. The bad news? I got sick, picking up a cold, a sinus infection, and bronchitis. So, I won’t be jumping into my new and improved lifestyle now that I’m home. But I am starting from a better place than when I left.

      Ok, a day late, but here is my goal for the week.  1) I’m going to make it to the gym and cardio at least 2 hours this week. 2) I’m going to lift weights 2 times, working every muscle group at least once. 3) I’m going to yoga on Saturday morning. 4) I’m not going to drink any soda this week.    Wish me luck!