Princess Power - September 2016 Weight Loss and Lifestyle Change Challenge

[HappyGrape]

Feel bit defeated today. I feel I have done well and the scale isn't cooperating. I can only do my best I guess, nothing more than that!

My calorie average is down from about 1993 the week before to 1847. Sounds a lot of calories, but my daily burn was 2300, so 300 per day week 1 and 450 last week. Scale is not moving at all! It could be under, overestimating calories intake burn, time of the month

Do you sometimes look at old info on MFP, fitbit or even old monthly challenges? I looked at what I did when I lost 4 kg in one month and I took some notes yesterday. It was the first full month and first month is always easiest but hopefully few minor changes as increased protein will help me little

Dr Guinne, true story but if you have weight problem on top of everything else it won't make dealing with life situation easiest at all. Human nature is like this, we need to keep moving and set ourselves challenges to be happy. It's the progress that gives us the feel great buzz, not the end result very often. I was so delighted with myself when I was 5 kg more than I am today as I felt on fire with everything! Now I have only few to go, I am used to being smaller size already so I don't see the big deal. Like I was shopping for clothes and 2 sizes up were small and I felt what can I buy to cover up but now most things I try fit well for few months I no longer jump in joy about it. Little sad!

I took before after picture on 20th of November, my fattest ever day and this summer and I look at sometimes to remind myself how I felt. Glad I did it as it's good to have visual reminder - but it still doesn't make me jump up and down as I did few months ago when there was element of novelty.

Sorry about the loss. Hope next game goes better

 

[HappyGrape]

Another thing I do on Mondays when I pack my bag for work is I weight it. For this week I have

4 individual tubs of yogurt
2 small boxes of strawberries
4 tins of tuna ( I will have 2 this and 2 next week
3 bags of baby tomatoes
2 bags of lettuce
4 boxes of turkey mince & egg white scramble#
few bottles of fizzy water

you get the picture, it's heavy bag! Last week it was 6 kg. I reminds me I had to carry double that every second when I was heavier. No wonder I felt so tired!

I think it's important to remember what you have achieved, that you proven to yourself that you can achieve results when you put your mind to it, that you are stronger, healthier person and while the rest of your life still needs your work and there are no grantees in life you are in far better position and more able to deal with things

 

[4Mickeys]

rGood morning! Welcome to another Monday morning ... today we are going Under The Sea! "Darling its better down where it's wetter take it from me ... "




The Little Mermaid was originally written by Danish Author, Hans Christensen Anderson, in 1837. As we know the stories are adapted somewhat both over the years and by Disney. There was a sea witch in the original story but Ursula the Disney villain is actually darker than the original character. The Little Mermaid does not end up with Prince Eric but instead develops a soul (something mermaids don’t typically have) and enters heaven for an eternal ethereal life. In the original tale Mermaids live for about 300 years and then become sea foam upon their death. I’ve got to say I like the Disney adaptations and this is one of my all-time favourite movies. The Little Mermaid movie released in 1989 heralded the return of the Disney Princess movies! A couple of fun facts – Arial’s face was based on a young Alyssa Milano, during King Triton’s entrance in the crowd are Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, some of the Dwarves and even Kermit the Frog!, in scenes deleted from the movie it is strongly suggested Ursula and King Triton are siblings.




Thinking about Arial swimming around in the ocean got me thinking about swimming. I know @HappyGrape mentions swimming at her Gym. Swimming can be a great overall exercise (depending on how you do it of course!) if you are doing a freestyle, breast/back/butterfly stroke it can provide your lungs, heart and whole body muscles with a great workout – but it doesn’t help with muscle bulk or bone strengthening. Whilst swimming is great for burning calories this mainly happens whilst you are swimming but it apparently does not have the continued effect other land based exercise has … this is because the water keeps your body temperature down; therefore, the extra calories burned from the body cooling itself after getting heated up through exercise isn't there. That being said I read a study that stated if you choose activities to warm yourself up after a swim, that can have a counter effect and help you to continue to burn calories similar to the land based cool down. Swimming can be a great option for those who have an injury preventing them from their typical exercise choice such as running …

​

QOTD: Have you tried swimming as a part of your healthy life changes? Have you tried any other water sports such as water polo, surfing, stand up paddle board, kayaking, water skiing, diving or any others I haven’t thought of?

Bonus Question: I find being near the water or just floating in or on the water relaxing. How does water affect your mood?

Quote of the Day


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[4Mickeys]

I also did something healthy today: My town has the event every year where they offer all kind of guided tour all over the city. It goes from Friday to Sunday and all in all I think they have 400 different tours, many of which take place several times over the weekend. You pay a flat fee of 9€ to go to as many as you want. I did a few of them with a friend and the one today that we really wanted to do was a bit outside of the city, so I biked there!! I asked my friend to take a picture of me on the bike (instead of me taking a picture of my bike), so here it is:

Love the biking pic - thanks for sharing! Also what a great idea your town has about the tours - its so funny how we don't always experience where we live like a tourist would as we are so busy bogged down in our usual daily routines! DD12 and I had a day in Brisbane today to see a dance production she wanted to see (I surprised her with the tickets this morning and away we went) - but we also kind of acted like tourists (I grew up in Brisbane but it has certainly gone through some changes since I relocated to the coast 12 years ago) - so we had lunch at a café overlooking the river, we took photos and selfies with the city skyline behind us, we wandered through the mall - it was a lovely day. We shared the lunch a seafood basket - it had a good salad serving with it so I ate that, a few chips, a quarter of a small piece of fish and a calamari ring. I undid my good effort there after the show when DD and I shared a sundae - but we did share rather than have one each and walked whilst eating most of it - I like to think I worked it off at the same time as eating it . We did lots of walking today and that included up and down stairs several times - I just checked my phone and its showing over 10,000 steps woohoo - no wonder I felt so exhausted when I got home!

I also found a new way of meal planning: I am going to use the calendar in my iPhone! I use that for my business and private dates anyway already. I just opened up a new calendar in a new color and put in what I am planning to eat every evening. The good thing is that this will enable me to do meal planning on the fly and I can also always see what I am having for dinner and what I might need to buy on the way home for it. I should have thought about this earlier, but am very positive that this will turn out a helpful tool!

Great idea - sometimes the most obvious solutions are hiding right in front of us

It's funny, when I weighed 320 lbs I used to think how happy I would be if I weighed 200 lbs. Now that I'm here, I'm realizing that life at 320 isn't much different than it was at 200. Life's stresses doesn't care how much you weigh.

This is a good point and realisation you have shared. I think it will be how you/we deal with those stresses moving forward rather than reverting to our old strategies (read food). Also, I think alot of us think we are going to be miraculously happy with a magic number on the scale - and then we realise that there is so much more to our happiness than a scale number or a particular way our body looks - sure those things can make us miserable when we carry more weight but I think we tend to mistakenly assign other underlying reasons for feelings on the weight alone. The good thing about your weight loss though Dr Gunnie - I think is that it is one less stress on your body and your health - then you can deal with those other stresses better when they arise. Sorry - those are my ramblings of support - hopefully there is something useful in there

Feel bit defeated today. I feel I have done well and the scale isn't cooperating. I can only do my best I guess, nothing more than that!

I am hearing how important it is for you to achieve your goal and I support you by listening and reminding you - you have achieved a lot and been through a lot in the recent past. I know you know those last few kilos are hard - whilst we like to be lean our bodies don't like to be too lean and they resist us - who would have thought . A couple of thoughts - make sure you are getting good sleep, make sure you are not cutting your calories too much - otherwise your body will think its starving and won't let the weight go, your body may have gotten used to your current exercise regime - you may need to kick start it and your metabolism by changing it up a bit and adding some interval training. Most importantly as I know we are hardest on our selves - I will remind you - I think you look fabulous, you are a strong, determined, caring, hardworking woman who is a fantastic mother, wife and friend who is doing her best to live a healthy life and be a great example to her son

On a general note I happened to watch a show last night all about the pressure on women in relation to weight and achieving that pre-baby body asap after having kids - of course there were varying thoughts and some confronting (for me anyway) images of women weight lifting during pregnancy to maintain their fitness/body - there was one woman who went on a 12 week body building challenge - lost a tone of weight looked toned, entered a completion, thought she had what she wanted - she realised she was miserable and unhappy all the time and not a good person for others to be around - she gained a few kilos back - achieved better balance and was much happier. Her insights about the other women body builders from backstage chatter was that despite their amazing bodies they pretty much all still had negative body images of themselves and were not happy with what they had achieved.

 

[Dr Gunnie]

QOTD: Have you tried swimming as a part of your healthy life changes? Have you tried any other water sports such as water polo, surfing, stand up paddle board, kayaking, water skiing, diving or any others I haven’t thought of?

Bonus Question: I find being near the water or just floating in or on the water relaxing. How does water affect your mood?

I haven't really tried swimming as part of a workout plan. I did do some kayaking this summer, more for fun than a workout. We going swimming a lot at my parents. They have a salt water pool that I love, but again, that is more for fun and to cool off than a workout.

I have thought about trying a mini triathlon... maybe that will be the next step this spring.

I do like being on the water. It is calming. I was never really a beach person growing up, but it's growing on me. We've gone the past two years and I really enjoy it.

-----------------------------------

Having another case of the Mondays. My computer at work keeps giving me the old blue screen and I can't get it up and running. Driving me nuts!!!

 

[piglet1979]

This is me from Saturday. My husband decided to go play Pokemon and I tagged a long. Got me up and out of bed. We walked on and off for an hour before leaving to pick up my son from his friends house. We went in the metro parks to play.


After we got my son we went home to clean and then after my daughters therapy the kids and I went to my mom's to help her. She had cleaning for my kids to do and her and I cleaned out her huge walk in closet that is like an attic. It is in a bedroom that they don't use. Lots of walking up and down the stairs and carrying heavy boxes. She decided to start getting rid of a lot of stuff after cleaning out my grandparents house. I have started to this too. Just not as fast of her. After going through someones house when they are gone you start to realize how much junk you really have.

Sunday is football day in our house. I never get all of my steps in on the day but I did try to get some in until my cold made it so I couldn't breath. so then I rested. I did make a nice dinner and helped my husband make an egg casserole. He eats this for breakfast every day. I would love to eat this too but eggs and I don't like each other. I have found in the past year that eggs and cheese make me feel sick all day so i have been avoiding them.

Today I am back at work after being off since Thursday. It is a good day to be back. We are having a baby shower for a co-worker and almost everyone is in a meeting all morning so it is nice and quite. I do have to work late but that is ok.

Checking In -- 23.33%

Still a low number but at least it is moving.

 

[Oneanne]

rGood morning! Welcome to another Monday morning ... today we are going Under The Sea! "Darling its better down where it's wetter take it from me ... "

View attachment 197131


The Little Mermaid was originally written by Danish Author, Hans Christensen Anderson, in 1837. As we know the stories are adapted somewhat both over the years and by Disney. There was a sea witch in the original story but Ursula the Disney villain is actually darker than the original character. The Little Mermaid does not end up with Prince Eric but instead develops a soul (something mermaids don’t typically have) and enters heaven for an eternal ethereal life. In the original tale Mermaids live for about 300 years and then become sea foam upon their death. I’ve got to say I like the Disney adaptations and this is one of my all-time favourite movies. The Little Mermaid movie released in 1989 heralded the return of the Disney Princess movies! A couple of fun facts – Arial’s face was based on a young Alyssa Milano, during King Triton’s entrance in the crowd are Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, some of the Dwarves and even Kermit the Frog!, in scenes deleted from the movie it is strongly suggested Ursula and King Triton are siblings.

View attachment 197132


Thinking about Arial swimming around in the ocean got me thinking about swimming. I know @HappyGrape mentions swimming at her Gym. Swimming can be a great overall exercise (depending on how you do it of course!) if you are doing a freestyle, breast/back/butterfly stroke it can provide your lungs, heart and whole body muscles with a great workout – but it doesn’t help with muscle bulk or bone strengthening. Whilst swimming is great for burning calories this mainly happens whilst you are swimming but it apparently does not have the continued effect other land based exercise has … this is because the water keeps your body temperature down; therefore, the extra calories burned from the body cooling itself after getting heated up through exercise isn't there. That being said I read a study that stated if you choose activities to warm yourself up after a swim, that can have a counter effect and help you to continue to burn calories similar to the land based cool down. Swimming can be a great option for those who have an injury preventing them from their typical exercise choice such as running …

​

QOTD: Have you tried swimming as a part of your healthy life changes? Have you tried any other water sports such as water polo, surfing, stand up paddle board, kayaking, water skiing, diving or any others I haven’t thought of?

Bonus Question: I find being near the water or just floating in or on the water relaxing. How does water affect your mood?

Quote of the Day

View attachment 197133
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Was off-line over the weekend, so playing catch up again. I do not swim, properly at least. When I was three years old I fell thru an opening in a dock, feet first. We had gone down to check out our neighbor's fishing boat and fortunately he was right there and grabbed me by the scruff of the neck when I popped back up to the surface. Since then I've been phobic about water on my face - I was in my mid-thirties before I even got used to having water in the shower fall on to my face. I've taken adult swimming classes for the aqua-phobic, but to no avail. I can paddle around a bit if I can keep my head/face out of the water, but if I even get in to the pool you are most likely going to find me hanging out around the side and in the shallow end. I love being around the water, I particularly love a good ocean storm. I was born in a little fishing village at the most southwestern tip of Washington state, and lived there until I was 5 so that environment is kind of ingrained in me. That's where I go whenever I need beach time.

Last evening I was thinking I had turned the corner on the digestion issues, but woke up to an upset tummy again this morning, not as bad as it has been but I was expecting better. At Pilates yesterday we were talking about diet and eating trends. One of the gals is in the healthy/organic food biz and she mentioned the benefits of fermented, which I don't like, so she recommended a drink that has kumbatcha in it, so I got a few bottles to try. It's fizzy tho, which I don't enjoy. She also mentioned cranberry, so I also got some pure cranberry juice, which is actually from a cranberry farm down in town where I was born, so I like buying their stuff.

Friday at the fair was nice, but I missed the sheep by a couple days. The goats were there, which are my Sister's favorite, so that was good enough. We were only there for a couple hours, but did the things on our lists, then did some shopping as she needed jeans, and ended up having a light dinner down by the water. She said it was exactly the kind of day she needed, so that was good to hear.

Weight wise I'm up, and not feeling very comfortable at all. I need to get the digestion thing worked out first. I read up on a "bland diet", and it really wasn't a good fit. A lot of white stuff, potatoes, rice, and canned fruits and vegetables. Ice cream was allowed! I've decided I just need to stay away from the things I know upset me, and see how it goes. I'm thinking I'm not going to lose more than a couple pounds before vacation, again just trying to get back to feeling good.

Speaking of feeling good, this morning was the first morning of coming in to work an hour later - almost feels like a day off! Sleeping that extra hour feels so right, and the sun was coming up by the time I was heading out to the bus stop. Nice start to the work week.

Happy Monday everyone!

Edit add: in reading back thru posts from the weekend, ooopppssss guess I was supposed to have done something healthy :0. Pilates yesterday morning was really the only thing I can claim, but gratefully no pic to post.

 

[piglet1979]

rGood morning! Welcome to another Monday morning ... today we are going Under The Sea! "Darling its better down where it's wetter take it from me ... "

View attachment 197131


The Little Mermaid was originally written by Danish Author, Hans Christensen Anderson, in 1837. As we know the stories are adapted somewhat both over the years and by Disney. There was a sea witch in the original story but Ursula the Disney villain is actually darker than the original character. The Little Mermaid does not end up with Prince Eric but instead develops a soul (something mermaids don’t typically have) and enters heaven for an eternal ethereal life. In the original tale Mermaids live for about 300 years and then become sea foam upon their death. I’ve got to say I like the Disney adaptations and this is one of my all-time favourite movies. The Little Mermaid movie released in 1989 heralded the return of the Disney Princess movies! A couple of fun facts – Arial’s face was based on a young Alyssa Milano, during King Triton’s entrance in the crowd are Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, some of the Dwarves and even Kermit the Frog!, in scenes deleted from the movie it is strongly suggested Ursula and King Triton are siblings.

View attachment 197132


Thinking about Arial swimming around in the ocean got me thinking about swimming. I know @HappyGrape mentions swimming at her Gym. Swimming can be a great overall exercise (depending on how you do it of course!) if you are doing a freestyle, breast/back/butterfly stroke it can provide your lungs, heart and whole body muscles with a great workout – but it doesn’t help with muscle bulk or bone strengthening. Whilst swimming is great for burning calories this mainly happens whilst you are swimming but it apparently does not have the continued effect other land based exercise has … this is because the water keeps your body temperature down; therefore, the extra calories burned from the body cooling itself after getting heated up through exercise isn't there. That being said I read a study that stated if you choose activities to warm yourself up after a swim, that can have a counter effect and help you to continue to burn calories similar to the land based cool down. Swimming can be a great option for those who have an injury preventing them from their typical exercise choice such as running …

​

QOTD: Have you tried swimming as a part of your healthy life changes? Have you tried any other water sports such as water polo, surfing, stand up paddle board, kayaking, water skiing, diving or any others I haven’t thought of?

Bonus Question: I find being near the water or just floating in or on the water relaxing. How does water affect your mood?

Quote of the Day

View attachment 197133
​

I don't swim. I don't know how to swim. I will go in the water as long as I can touch the bottom and the ocean I have to be able to see what is swimming around me so I don't go too far in. My husband is worse them me. I have only seen him in the water on 3 different occasion. Twice in the ocean. He has no fear with the ocean but is scared to death to get in a pool. I don't understand it. The other time was this year at disney. He would get in cool off and then he was out. Since my husband and I don't know how to swim my kids have always been in swim classes. They now can swim laps around us.

I love my walks along the river in the morning and afternoons. It is very calming. I tend to just stare at the river while I walk. I also walk around the lake in my town. Also very calming.

 

[kirstie101]

Just now catching up! This is a pic I took on Saturday at the end of my 4 mile run. This kitten literally attacked me! He jump out of the bushes, chased me down and started playing with my shoes! He was soooo friendly!
Great end to a short run!

Swimming: I love love love it but never do it lol. I don't have a gym membership so thats my excuse. I've often thought about doing laps at the local pool but have never looked into it.

The weekend was ok. Saturday was good. Got my run in and ate well. Sunday I cleaned the house so that was my exercise for the day. It took a few hours so I think it counts. I also took a wonderful nap on the couch! The bad is that I didn't make good food choices in the afternoon and evening. So today I feel fat of course. Back on track this morning!

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

QOTD: Have you tried swimming as a part of your healthy life changes? Have you tried any other water sports such as water polo, surfing, stand up paddle board, kayaking, water skiing, diving or any others I haven’t thought of?

Bonus Question: I find being near the water or just floating in or on the water relaxing. How does water affect your mood?

I have not used swimming as a part of my lifestyle change. However I love swimming and the beach. I love it so much that it was one of the reasons we moved to Florida. We are total beach bums. And I also find it relaxing

 

[HappyGrape]

I have a tiny movement, too!! I am up to an amazing 7%!!!!


I also did something healthy today: My town has the event every year where they offer all kind of guided tour all over the city. It goes from Friday to Sunday and all in all I think they have 400 different tours, many of which take place several times over the weekend. You pay a flat fee of 9€ to go to as many as you want. I did a few of them with a friend and the one today that we really wanted to do was a bit outside of the city, so I biked there!! I asked my friend to take a picture of me on the bike (instead of me taking a picture of my bike), so here it is:

View attachment 196833

I am even wearing a Disney t-shirt (Disney Cruise Line).
!

Jealous of the lovely wide cycle lane! Dublin cycle lanes are tiny

 

[HappyGrape]

Re swimming and workout plans - it's amazing and I know good few over 70 adults that kept it up and look fantastic! If you find a way to move that you love and makes you happy, calorie burn isn't that important in my option. I love having the pool!

I mean the pool in the gym, not in my home!

 

[Flossbolna]

Ugg. Zumba class I really want to go to is at 10 but I have a raging headache/migraine. If I didn't have plans for the rest of the day, I'd just go and feel lousy...but I have to drive 1.5 hours each way to a funeral visitation, then come back and assist with the Lip Sync rehearsal immediately followed by my first Girl Scout meeting of the year (same girls in both - headache inducing on a good day!).

Hope today is a better day!! Migraine and funeral sound like a horrible combination!

It's funny, when I weighed 320 lbs I used to think how happy I would be if I weighed 200 lbs. Now that I'm here, I'm realizing that life at 320 isn't much different than it was at 200. Life's stresses doesn't care how much you weigh.

I think there is a lot of truth in that. And I think this might be why a lot of people who are eating their emotions are able to lose, but are not able to maintain. Weight loss is not the cure for all evil in one's life. It is just losing weight. Hope your life will become less stressful sooner!

Feel bit defeated today. I feel I have done well and the scale isn't cooperating. I can only do my best I guess, nothing more than that!

I feel with you. I am rather disappointed with my progress, too. After a good weigh in on Saturday my scale is up again and I really cannot tell you why. I have had a 500-750 kcal deficit every day for over a week now and that should mean some progress... I know my weight loss is never linear, but is frustrating.

QOTD: Have you tried swimming as a part of your healthy life changes? Have you tried any other water sports such as water polo, surfing, stand up paddle board, kayaking, water skiing, diving or any others I haven’t thought of?

When I lost quite a bit of weight about 1o years ago, this was when I was doing WW for the first time, I was swimming a lot and I felt it was really good for me. I love it, but I seem to never do it. Partly because I don't want to spend the money for the entrance to the pool and then in summer the outdoor pool is often so crowded that swimming is difficult and in winter I don't like having to travel back home in the cold after swimming.

Bonus Question: I find being near the water or just floating in or on the water relaxing. How does water affect your mood?

It relaxes me like nothing else. I am usually someone who needs to do something all the time, not necessarily active things, but I need stimulation. Sitting somewhere and watching people for example or listening to music is just too boring for me. BUT I can sit and look out on the ocean for a long time! Not sure why. But this is why I love cruises so much! This is one of my favorite things to do on a cruise ship:

On a general note I happened to watch a show last night all about the pressure on women in relation to weight and achieving that pre-baby body asap after having kids - of course there were varying thoughts and some confronting (for me anyway) images of women weight lifting during pregnancy to maintain their fitness/body - there was one woman who went on a 12 week body building challenge - lost a tone of weight looked toned, entered a completion, thought she had what she wanted - she realised she was miserable and unhappy all the time and not a good person for others to be around - she gained a few kilos back - achieved better balance and was much happier. Her insights about the other women body builders from backstage chatter was that despite their amazing bodies they pretty much all still had negative body images of themselves and were not happy with what they had achieved.

Isn't it a shame how much pressure we put ourselves under with our bodies? People just do come with all kind of shapes. Just like not every apple can be absolutely perfect in coloring and size.

DD12 and I had a day in Brisbane today to see a dance production she wanted to see (I surprised her with the tickets this morning and away we went) - but we also kind of acted like tourists (I grew up in Brisbane but it has certainly gone through some changes since I relocated to the coast 12 years ago) - so we had lunch at a café overlooking the river, we took photos and selfies with the city skyline behind us, we wandered through the mall - it was a lovely day. We shared the lunch a seafood basket - it had a good salad serving with it so I ate that, a few chips, a quarter of a small piece of fish and a calamari ring. I undid my good effort there after the show when DD and I shared a sundae - but we did share rather than have one each and walked whilst eating most of it - I like to think I worked it off at the same time as eating it . We did lots of walking today and that included up and down stairs several times - I just checked my phone and its showing over 10,000 steps woohoo - no wonder I felt so exhausted when I got home!

Sounds like a wonderful day! I love doing touristy stuff at home and you are right, one does not do it often enough.

She decided to start getting rid of a lot of stuff after cleaning out my grandparents house. I have started to this too. Just not as fast of her. After going through someones house when they are gone you start to realize how much junk you really have.

My mother did this, too, after her parents moved to an assisted living facility. However, when my parents moved house a few years ago, there was still far too much stuff to sort through! It would have been horrible if she had not done some clearing before.

Weight wise I'm up, and not feeling very comfortable at all. I need to get the digestion thing worked out first. I read up on a "bland diet", and it really wasn't a good fit. A lot of white stuff, potatoes, rice, and canned fruits and vegetables. Ice cream was allowed! I've decided I just need to stay away from the things I know upset me, and see how it goes. I'm thinking I'm not going to lose more than a couple pounds before vacation, again just trying to get back to feeling good.

Sorry that you are having so much trouble! I hope you can find something to resolve it soon. It does sound very uncomfortable!

Jealous of the lovely wide cycle lane! Dublin cycle lanes are tiny

Ha! I wish we had cycle lanes like that everywhere. This is about a 100m stretch. Before that the lane was non existent and directly after it, it was full with cars parking on it and only half as wide. Things are improving slowly, but this results in cycle lanes changing around every two blocks. When they touch any road now, they add cycle lanes, but the policies of how to add them has been changing over the last 20 years, so it is really kind of jumbled together now. The one you see there is really nice, it is part of a very large crossroad and the way it is now is very safe!

 

[cmarsh31]

Feel bit defeated today. I feel I have done well and the scale isn't cooperating. I can only do my best I guess, nothing more than that!

My calorie average is down from about 1993 the week before to 1847. Sounds a lot of calories, but my daily burn was 2300, so 300 per day week 1 and 450 last week. Scale is not moving at all! It could be under, overestimating calories intake burn, time of the month

Do you sometimes look at old info on MFP, fitbit or even old monthly challenges? I looked at what I did when I lost 4 kg in one month and I took some notes yesterday. It was the first full month and first month is always easiest but hopefully few minor changes as increased protein will help me little

Dr Guinne, true story but if you have weight problem on top of everything else it won't make dealing with life situation easiest at all. Human nature is like this, we need to keep moving and set ourselves challenges to be happy. It's the progress that gives us the feel great buzz, not the end result very often. I was so delighted with myself when I was 5 kg more than I am today as I felt on fire with everything! Now I have only few to go, I am used to being smaller size already so I don't see the big deal. Like I was shopping for clothes and 2 sizes up were small and I felt what can I buy to cover up but now most things I try fit well for few months I no longer jump in joy about it. Little sad!

I took before after picture on 20th of November, my fattest ever day and this summer and I look at sometimes to remind myself how I felt. Glad I did it as it's good to have visual reminder - but it still doesn't make me jump up and down as I did few months ago when there was element of novelty.

Sorry about the loss. Hope next game goes better

Similar here - I'm counting and exercising but reminding myself that small losses are good and constant.

Swimming - I'm a decent swimmer but have some chronic knee issues that unfortunately HATE being locked straight for a good strong kick (knee cap tracks out of whack) so I settle for playing with my kids in the water. I much prefer the ocean (Southern Atlantic or Gulf please, I've had entirely enough Cape Cod and Maine cold for a lifetime) and can spend hours just floating and enjoying the water. The Little Mermaid is my all-time favorite Disney movie

Survived the marathon yesterday - thanks for the good wishes everyone. Meds kicked in and I just felt nauseous and hyped up (yup, totally hyped up - one of the moms in my GS troop asked if I was ok because I was more than a little manic - works well for keeping 10+ 8 year old girls entertained).

Today was a good day. My run was REALLY hard. I was very disappointed in myself... until I got home and saw that I was at a 10 min mile WITH my warm up & cool down averaged in. Whoops! That's a bit faster than I should be going only on training week 6! So, I guess I see what no humidity and 60 degree temps do. Spent another hour and a half outside gardening after I finished and now I have tulips, crocuses, daffodils, and garlic (take that chipmunk!) planted in my front beds.

 

[courtneybeth]

QOTD: Have you tried swimming as a part of your healthy life changes? Have you tried any other water sports such as water polo, surfing, stand up paddle board, kayaking, water skiing, diving or any others I haven’t thought of?

I can't swim and am deathly afraid of water... so doing none of these!


Reporting in for 75% of the month. Yay!

 

[4Mickeys]

I have thought about trying a mini triathlon... maybe that will be the next step this spring.

That would definitely be a new challenge - last month they had a triathlon iron man world championship here on the coast - there were people from all over the world competing.

This is me from Saturday. My husband decided to go play Pokemon and I tagged a long. Got me up and out of bed. We walked on and off for an hour before leaving to pick up my son from his friends house. We went in the metro parks to play.

Great healthy living pic - our Pokémon hunting has dropped off a bit ...

After we got my son we went home to clean and then after my daughters therapy the kids and I went to my mom's to help her. She had cleaning for my kids to do and her and I cleaned out her huge walk in closet that is like an attic. It is in a bedroom that they don't use. Lots of walking up and down the stairs and carrying heavy boxes. She decided to start getting rid of a lot of stuff after cleaning out my grandparents house. I have started to this too. Just not as fast of her. After going through someones house when they are gone you start to realize how much junk you really have.

Lots of activity in that cleaning, carrying and walking up/down steps I have way to much 'stuff' and also need a good cleanout - but I get to emotionally attached to stuff - I imagine one day the kids will be going through some of it thinking "what was she thinking keeping that?" lol

Was off-line over the weekend, so playing catch up again. I do not swim, properly at least. When I was three years old I fell thru an opening in a dock, feet first. We had gone down to check out our neighbor's fishing boat and fortunately he was right there and grabbed me by the scruff of the neck when I popped back up to the surface. Since then I've been phobic about water on my face - I was in my mid-thirties before I even got used to having water in the shower fall on to my face. I've taken adult swimming classes for the aqua-phobic, but to no avail. I can paddle around a bit if I can keep my head/face out of the water, but if I even get in to the pool you are most likely going to find me hanging out around the side and in the shallow end. I love being around the water, I particularly love a good ocean storm. I was born in a little fishing village at the most southwestern tip of Washington state, and lived there until I was 5 so that environment is kind of ingrained in me. That's where I go whenever I need beach time.

That must have been scary - and isn't if funny how those experiences stick - even though we mostly don't remember things from when we are 3.

Friday at the fair was nice, but I missed the sheep by a couple days. The goats were there, which are my Sister's favorite, so that was good enough. We were only there for a couple hours, but did the things on our lists, then did some shopping as she needed jeans, and ended up having a light dinner down by the water. She said it was exactly the kind of day she needed, so that was good to hear.

Sorry you missed the sheep! But so glad to hear your sister had an enjoyable day

Speaking of feeling good, this morning was the first morning of coming in to work an hour later - almost feels like a day off! Sleeping that extra hour feels so right, and the sun was coming up by the time I was heading out to the bus stop. Nice start to the work week.

Happy Monday everyone!

Edit add: in reading back thru posts from the weekend, ooopppssss guess I was supposed to have done something healthy :0. Pilates yesterday morning was really the only thing I can claim, but gratefully no pic to post.

ok - will forgive you for no pic - we trust you - a little change in the work regime can make so much difference! Hope you sort out your food issues and feel better soon.

the ocean I have to be able to see what is swimming around me so I don't go too far in.

This is so me! I don't go into the ocean past like my thighs - when I lived in South Australia for a little while (where there a LOTS of Great White Sharks) I used to freak everyone else out if we did go in the ocean by spending the whole time looking down into the water! I am slowly getting better about going further onto the river when I go paddling on my surf ski - I am still nervous though and look around me a lot!

This kitten literally attacked me!

Great pic - that is just too cute!

I also took a wonderful nap on the couch!

I love a good nap on the couch - maybe too much!

I love it so much that it was one of the reasons we moved to Florida. We are total beach bums. And I also find it relaxing

Isn't it great to live so close to the beach?!

Partly because I don't want to spend the money for the entrance to the pool and then in summer the outdoor pool is often so crowded that swimming is difficult and in winter I don't like having to travel back home in the cold after swimming.

Yes this! It is so not cheap to use the public swimming pools here either - and when the kids want to tag along it just makes it impossible.

BUT I can sit and look out on the ocean for a long time! Not sure why. But this is why I love cruises so much! This is one of my favorite things to do on a cruise ship:

There is just something mesmerising about the ocean - I haven't done a cruise yet - I have been thinking about it though.

Isn't it a shame how much pressure we put ourselves under with our bodies? People just do come with all kind of shapes. Just like not every apple can be absolutely perfect in coloring and size.

I know - I know I need to make changes - but I remember when I was thin - I could still feel bad about myself and I still had other issues.

yup, totally hyped up - one of the moms in my GS troop asked if I was ok because I was more than a little manic - works well for keeping 10+ 8 year old girls entertained

 

[4Mickeys]

Have you tried swimming as a part of your healthy life changes? Have you tried any other water sports such as water polo, surfing, stand up paddle board, kayaking, water skiing, diving or any others I haven’t thought of?

I can swim - but am not a swimmer as such - I am too unfit to swim a lap freestyle - I also have trouble coordinating my breath with the strokes and then it exhausts me. So when I have tried to incorporate it in the past it hasn't gone well or I end up using a kick board and wear flippers to push me through the water. In my late teens/early 20s I did a lot of water skiing - as then partner owned a ski boat. As you know I do some paddling on the surf ski and have tried SUP. I will never be a diver lol I get way too anxious -I can't even snorkel in deeper water - the idea of what is down there just freaks me out lol. We do go to the beach fairly regularly in summer and play in the waves - but I would take a swim in a gorgeous resort pool over the ocean any day - I hate how the ocean salt water stings my eyes - I know such a baby.

I find being near the water or just floating in or on the water relaxing. How does water affect your mood?

Whilst there are things about the ocean that annoy me - I have always been a water kid - loved being in it and have always found looking out at the ocean relaxing. It was really this year that I began to notice how much of an effect being on it can have on my mood - starting my mornings on it before work was brilliant and when we were losing my aunty I could really feel my whole body relax when I was on the water.

 

[TimonTracy]

I enjoy being in the water - that being said, I'm uncomfortable in my bathing suit; as I lose the weight and start feeling better about it - its one of the things I'd like to incorporate into my life. Goal is next summer to actually use the pool pass. The kids really want mommy to come in swimming with them

 

[piglet1979]

Great healthy living pic - our Pokémon hunting has dropped off a bit ...



Lots of activity in that cleaning, carrying and walking up/down steps I have way to much 'stuff' and also need a good cleanout - but I get to emotionally attached to stuff - I imagine one day the kids will be going through some of it thinking "what was she thinking keeping that?"

We don't play Pokémon as often anymore but I will if I am walking. It gives me something to do and will keep me out longer.

I get emotionally attached too. While going through books at my moms house I almost took a few of the little kid books that my mom used to read to us all the time. I didn't take them. I don't need them. My kids are too old for them. I have also kept all of the clothes I have made. I made a blazer, flannel shirt with matching the stripes, prom dress, homecoming dress and more. I am too proud of them to get rid of them.

 

[4Mickeys]

I can't swim and am deathly afraid of water... so doing none of these!


Reporting in for 75% of the month. Yay!

You must have snuck on while I was replying to the other posts - Congrats on the 75% - hope your run went well and you had a fabulous time in Canada.

I enjoy being in the water - that being said, I'm uncomfortable in my bathing suit; as I lose the weight and start feeling better about it - its one of the things I'd like to incorporate into my life. Goal is next summer to actually use the pool pass. The kids really want mommy to come in swimming with them

Oh I hear you about the bathing suit - especially now that I am the heaviest I have ever been. Great goal I definitely want to hear about you in the pool next summer!