Sunny Sunday

Our deluge of last week finally ended.  We got 12+ inches over two days.  Today is sunny and beautiful.  DH is off refereeing soccer games and I'm supposed to be catching up on laundry.  Instead, I thought I'd blog a little and then go out for a walk along the river.  

I'm still going strong with staying on plan and tracking.  I've tried out lots of new recipes in the last week and a half.  Some highlights were stuffed peppers, an awesome curried chicken salad (from the WW online recipes, called Curried Chicken Salad Sandwich), and barbecued pork chops with a peach barbecue sauce.  I bought a half a bushel of peaches at the Farmer's Market on Wednesday.  I put up (froze) about half, but we've been in the land of good eating with marvelous fresh peaches.  I had the last one sliced on my cereal this morning.

I'm going in for some minor (same day) surgery on Tuesday.  Hope to get a conclusive good biopsy and be done with worrying. The surgery is one of those deals where I'm not supposed to eat or drink after midnight until my 12:30 pm surgery the next day.  I thought I'd leave a crockpot simmering with some tempting recipe (osso bucco?) so that I can eat well (and not frantically) when I get home.  Wednesday is my WI day and I'm hoping the Tuesday fast will work to my advantage.

We're going to have our bedroom and sitting room painted soon.  I've been working my way through Benjamin Moore's blues, grays, and greens and have finally found the perfect color.  It's BM 1570, called Gray Wisp, which looks definitely gray on the fan deck and color chip, but turns the loveliest gray-blue-green color on the wall.  It was a close call with another BM paint called Elemental (a brownish olive green which works well with some of our accent colors) but I really had a blue-green-gray color in mind.   We have no fewer than 12 big splotches of paint samples up in our rooms and will both be happy to have the new wall color up. 

DH and I are working on figuring out a nice 4 or 5 day fall trip.  We want to take our bikes, maybe see a little fall color, and get away for a bit.  I need flat bike trails (!).  Any ideas?

Last night I had 4 points left over (plus about 25 of those extra weekly points).  I had a bit of frozen leftover oatmeal cookie dough in the fridge--just enough to make 4 cookies.  DH and I enoyed a very nice evening snack with milk.  (Jay was already in bed, so missed out on this little treat).

For your viewing pleasure.  We have lots of squirrels who like to hang around.  This guy evidently decided to take his afternoon siesta on the deck rail.  He was there for a good 5 minutes, just laid out flat.  Have you ever been that tired?

Time for my walk along the river.

 

Bike Holiday Report

We had a great time on our bike holiday.  We checked in early at our hotel, stowed our goodies in the fridge and then drove out to the W&OD trail's starting point in Purcellville, VA.  We found the trail-side car park with no problem (thanks little Garmie) and parked at mile 45.  We started biking about 3 pm.  DH had estimated that our hotel was near mile marker 30 so we had plenty of time.  The weather was gorgeous--about 80 degrees.  Because we got a jump on the weekend (DH took Friday off), we had the trail mostly to ourselves.

Most of the time, DH was ahead of me.  He's much faster and likes to sprint.  I go along and enjoy and he circles back to make contact every five minutes or so.  However far I go, he goes twice as far!  That's okay.  I take pictures and like to enjoy the scenery and my thoughts.  Same as running--I almost prefer by myself.  In this, picture, though, DH is behind me.  I took the picture over my shoulder.

 We saw some beautiful scenery on our ride.  Purcellville is out in the country, almost to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.  We had a nice downhill for about the first 10 miles.  There were nice long stretches where I put my bike in the highest gear and enjoyed the breeze.  I like the picture of the yellow flowers (ragweed, I think).  I like to think I was flying by so fast that the flowers are in a blur.  I also like the thistle flowers--reminds me of Wales, one of my favorite places to visit. I took that picture at a water stop.

We also saw lots of horses (lots of "horse country" in Virginia), some palatial "chateaux" dotting the rolling hillsides, and lots of cows.

The Washington and Old Dominion is a fantastic trail.  Paved the entire way, a minimum of road crossings, fairly flat  (I LOVE flat), and well signed.  Every cross street was signed, available water is signed, and there are lots of interesting information markers about the local history and the interesting flora and fauna one might encounter.   DH's estimate of the distance for the first day was short by about 7 or 8 miles, so we had a good 23 miles.  Oh and DH turned back about 18 miles in and went back ( UP that hill I enjoyed going down the first 10 miles) and got the car.  I got first chance at the shower and fancied up for our dinner out.  We went to Outback and eschewed the mega-point cheesefries and blooming onion kind of options for a nice 6 oz steak , a salad, and a sweet potato.  We stopped at a Safeway and picked up individual Baskin Robbins ice creams for a dessert splurge.  Yeah, we painted the town red! :-)

We ended up doing exactly half of the trail the first day.  We were going to do an equal distance on Saturday but were rained out by un-predicted severe thunder storms that flew through the area in the morning.  We had coffee (skinny latte for me) at a local Starbucks and enjoyed reading the newspaper in a leisurely fashion, hoping to outlast the storm, but that was not to be.          

 We came home and I was able to wave my magic wand and come up with this yummy salad for lunch.  In WW all the greens and fruit are pretty much point free.  This one just cost us 3 points for the chicken, 2 points for the olive oil in the vinaigrette, 1 points for the toasted pine nuts, and 2 points for a bit of chopped avocado. 

I'm still feeling quite strong about staying OP.  Five days, is that a streak yet??  I'm tracking my WW points  (love the iPad!) and trying out lots of new recipes.  If you have an iPad or iPhone, be sure and download the WW Kitchen Helper App.  Great recipes and a wonderful search ingredients and they find a recipe feature.  Also will transfer the points to your tracker with the click of a button.

Hope you are having a great weekend, too.  It's not over yet!  

Getting a Jump on the Weekend

DH took the day off and we're busy doing some errands and packing because we're going on a Bike Holiday today!  Last fall Sharon (Gains and Losses) and I biked the W&PD trail from Leesburg to Alexandria (34 miles!).

W & OD Bike Trail

DH was sidelined by a broken wrist, but was our support-team for the ride.  He has wanted to do this trail ever since he had to listen to us enthusing over the great biking surface, the beautiful country scenery, the trail-side BBQ place, and the beautiful towns we went through.  Well, today (and tomorrow) he gets his turn.  We're going to HQ in a hotel along the way and drive to the trail head, in Purcerville, VA.  We're going to bike over two days (I'm not up to doing the whole thing in one fell swoop).  Tonight we're going to have a 'date-night' with dinner and a movie (The Help).

Yesterday, day two of my line-in-the-sand fall campaign, went super well.  Got many errands done, ate and tracked every BLT (bite, lick, and taste), got in a nice visit with my BFF (hi, Marilyn!),  and did my weight routine at the gym.   Oh, and at lunch (at Coastal Flats, a very nice seafood restaurant) I scored big-time.  I had their Yucatan Shrimp Cocktail and a green salad for lunch.  The YSC is fabulous and BFF and I often wonder exactly what they use in the sauce.  I asked our waitress if she had the nutritional info for it and she did me one better.  She came back with a list of the ingredients.  Not the proportions, but I can guess.  I feel a Yucatan Shrimp Cocktail coming up on the menu at our house, soon.   Ingredients:  Shrimp, mango, avocado, jicama, radish, lime juice, ketchup(!), celery seed, tomato,  tobasco,  cracked black pepper, onion, cilantro and, the surprise ingredient, orange soda.  The sauce is made with the soda, ketchup, and lime juice--I'm guessing it's about 1 T or less apiece of these ingredients, not a diet-buster.  My best calculations puts this at 5 WW points plus.  Not bad!

My aunt, my mother's sister visited for a week at the end of August.  She's loads of fun! She turned 88 while she was here. One of the things we did together (besides puzzles, mending, shopping, watching movies, and talking) was to look through three huge plastic bins of "stuff" I have from my parents' attic.  I chose these because they were labelled "Lattin"--my mother and aunt's maiden name.  We had a ball.  Found lots of fun pictures (including one of my grandparents on their wedding day) and she recalled and told me lots of fun family stories.  One of the upshots of this was that she paid for me to sign up on ancestry.com so we could pursue a couple of questions we came up with.   Here's  one of the fun pictures we found-- my maternal grandparents.  On their wedding day.  They were married at city hall in Paris.  He was an officer in WWI and was shot in fighting along the Marne.  While he was hospitalized, he met a charming young French nurse.  They were married a few months later.  She was 19. The year was 1919.

Have a great day!

See you in September

Hi Friends,

Well, I've survived some really hot summer weather, an earthquake, and a passing hurricane since I was here last.  We are all fine and really enjoying the cooler weather that comes with this new month.   My summer was up & down & up again on the weight loss front.  I kept going to WW every week, but did not make any progress toward my goals and added a couple to the overall total.

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See that?  That's my line in the sand.  Yesterday after WW, my BFF and I sat down and planned a weeks worth of meals.  We used three recent cookbooks for inspiration and came up with some very good ideas.  Here are the cookbooks:

Eating Well 500-Calorie Dinners Cookbook
Cooking Light Mix and Match Low-Calorie Cookbook
Cooking Light Fresh Food SuperFast 

                                    
I know, I know . . . after I get my eating and exercise reined in, I'll need to start the 12 step program for excessive cookbook collectors!

Here are some of the recipes we chose for delicious meals.

Sage Pork Medallions with Maple Glaze
Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar Cinnamon

We had these last night.  Basically good lean, nutritious foods with 3 WW points added for flavor.  This got an A from my guys and I liked it too!

Lemon Chicken Stir Fry is on the menu tonight.  This is from the Eating Well 500 Calorie book. My copy of the book is due today (thank you UPS tracking!).  I don't remember the exact recipe, but I know I need to pick up some snow peas and some shitake mushrooms.  I think I had all the other ingredients on hand.

Upcoming menus include Chicken Breasts with Mushroom Sauce, served over whole wheat egg noodles,  Chicken Cacciatore,  Grilled Corn with Jalapeno Herb Butter, and Grilled Peach Barbecue Pork Chops.

DH is totally onboard with this.  He's a WW lifetime member, but wants to lose a few pounds to get back to his happy range.

We continue to enjoy twice weekly bike rides, Tuesday and Thursday nights at the gym, and late night walks.  Tomorrow we're starting the holiday weekend early and starting a two day Bike Holiday along the W&OD rails to trails bike path.  We're starting at the very beginning of the trail, in Purcerville and doing a couple 15-20 mile sections broken by a nice overnight at a local hotel complete with a swim in their pool, dinner out, a movie, as well as a late sleep in the next morning.  The hotel has an in-room fridge so we can have our own sumptuous breakfast--our favorite cereal with a great peach from the farmer's market.

I'm hoping to turn around an off plan summer and get back to that good healthy happy place.

Ciao!

Happy Monday

It's a good day today!  Yesterday I got in a 45 minute workout at the gym and a 1 hour bike ride after dinner.  I've been "on plan" for straight 5 days and am feeling strong and confident that I'm back in the game.  I so much prefer living and feeling this way than feeling sluggish and "off plan."

The kids are here today.  Jack, who has given up morning naps at his house, willingly went down for a nap about an hour ago.  Yay!  Ella and I have read stories and now she is making me a picture (computer paper, washable bright markers, and a book full of stickers).  I'm not to look until she's finished. :-)

It's so great to be able to bike again.  For now I'm sticking to my old (hybrid) bike as it gives me a more cushioned ride (nice to my still-knitting backbone), but my new road-bike "Pearlie" is going to get a turn when I get the okay from my surgeon.  I haven't had any of the balance problems that my doctor warned me about and am hoping to get back into tip top biking shape soon.  The hills are still a bit challenging after my long winter hiatus, but I'm going to conquer them.

DH and I are planning a holiday getaway bike trip next weekend.  Maybe just exploring a new bike trail and a fancy (on plan) lunch break or maybe an overnight at a B&B with the bikes exploring nearby.  I'll let you know.

For your viewing pleasure:

Elation at having climbed up the tree All By Herself!

Our beautiful old fashioned rose--it's a great bloomer.

Pretty clematis  

He's all about the ball--loves 'em.

Hope you're having a great day, too.

Travel Notes: Vol III, Hot 100 Update

Cora and Henry Lattin, my great grandparents

Don't you LOVE this picture?  I was finding some old family pix to put up on my facebook page for Veteran's Day and I came across this picture of my mother's father's parents BICYCLING.  Look at her outfit!  Can you imagine trying to bike in a long skirt??  They were both doctors in Albion, New York--she was one of the first several women doctors to graduate from medical school in NY.  I think this picture is probably from the mid 1890's.   See:  biking is in my blood!

Another great day.  I'm starting to sound like a broken record, here, but yes, it was another great day today.
As is so delightful on vacation, we slept until we wanted to get up.  I got dressed in my running clothes, had a quick oatmeal breakfast (perfect for a crisp fall morning) and went out for a run on the beach.  It was beautiful and sunny, a little breezy, but not too cold.  My run was a bit haphazard because I hadn't thought to consult the tide charts and I think high tide must have been reached some time in the middle of my run.  That meant that the nice "hard" surface sand kept getting washed over by the breaking waves and I had to dodge little incursions of waves trying to reach almost up to the sand dunes.  We've established that running on the unpacked sand is not fun, so I did have a lot of walking parts.

The incoming tide taking up some of the best running space.

I went 5km and had a nice run.  A couple hours after I got back from my run we went out for our bike ride.  The ride I'd read about started in downtown Wilmington and went out along the Cape Fear river to the beach.  We saw the traffic and lack of bike lane and decided to catch the trail closer to the river.  We parked in a community and were able to avoid the city traffic.  We went about 20 miles and were back in 2 hours.  It was a good ride and we saw some beautiful sites along the river, but Wilmington needs to put a little more work into its bike trail system.  The "bike lanes" were marked, but were quite narrow and the road was uncomfortably busy with trucks breezing past us as close as two feet away.  

Here are some pix from our bike trip:

A nice park at the far end of our ride.

You can see the bridge in the back ground.

A very cute covered bridge across a marshy area to a very large home.

Our bike lane.

All in all a very nice day.  We went with FIL to visit some of his friends for a late afternoon tea (I had a cup of coffee and 2 small (wonderful) cookies.

We came back to our beach house and I made a fish chowder--from scratch.  It turned out beautifully and I'll definitely make it again.  I used skim milk and skim evaporated milk and the only "off plan" things in the recipe were 3 T of butter and 2 T of flour.  It served 8, so that's not so bad.  The cornbread I made was a different story, but also very good.  I'm hoping that my 3 hours of exercise will offset 2 small cookies and a large piece of cornbread.  What do you think??

Hot 100 Update: (the quick, I'm tired and off to bed as soon as I hit "publish post" version)

I have 3 goals:

1.  I lost .5 pounds at my WI this week.  I'm headed back in the right direction.  With a few indiscretions, I have been pretty much right on plan with my eating.  I continue to weigh and record my weight daily.

2.  I am way ahead on exercise this week.  6 out of 7 days and several days with 2 sessions.  No "phoning it in" this week.  Yay.

3.  Chocolate.  I'm enjoying my 1 oz a day allowance.  I admit to doubling up one day, but I didn't have any the next day, so I'm averaging out okay.  I'm trying to stay with my 1 oz per day though and be satisfied.

Be good!  Tune in tomorrow.

Tish

Travel Notes: Vol II

What a great day!  I slept so well last night; I didn't wake up even once between when I went to bed and about 7:30 in the morning when the sun woke me up (believe me that's very rare!).  We slept with the bedroom door open and enjoyed the sounds of the ocean all through the night. Oatmeal this morning and then I went out for a run on the beach.  It felt great (especially the homeward leg when the wind was at my back).  Here's a picture I took on my way out.

Oh, this is not me.  This is the cute little guy who was my running partner this morning.

A nice lady took my picture.

DH snapped this good one of Jay and me when we all went out for a long walk after I got back from my run.

So I ran a little over 3 miles.  It's different running on the beach, I tried to stay on the "hard" sand near the water, but it's not the same as running on my normal trail.  I plan to run every morning that we're here--watch my little Nike+ girl icon and just see if I don't!

When we got back, DH went and picked up his father. They took his bike to the shop to get a new tube and then got back here.  I fixed a nice bean soup, popcorn, and orange wedges for lunch and then we went on a bike ride.  The gimp (DH, with his half-arm cast), the octogenarian (my 88 yr old FIL) and me!  Here are some pix from that ride.

FIL & DH

DH & me

FIL, looking pretty good, no? (he refused to wear a helmet)

Self portrait, while riding (nice quiet street).

We had roasted rosemary pork tenderloin, baked acorn squash & broccoli for dinner tonight and DH bought some WW latte bars for our dessert.

Tomorrow we'll do our long ride (28 miles) in the afternoon.  I want to run again in the morning.  This week will NOT be a "phone it in" exercise week!

Be good!  

Travel Notes: Vol I

Many thanks to the neighbor who has the unlocked WiFi access  :-)   We've arrived after a 6 hour drive.  The beach condo is gorgeous, I've stowed things from our huge cooler and 3 grocery bags so that we have good food choices, John unpacked the car and stowed our bikes in the garage, and Jay is happily ensconced in his bedroom with a portable DVD player and his favorite DVDs.  We have the sliding glass doors open so we can hear the ocean, the sky is relatively dark and the new moon is low on the horizon so the stars and constellations are particularly brilliant tonight.  We're sitting in the living room enjoying a nice cup of tea while I check in with my cyber world and John checks out Law and Order.  Our bedroom has a large deck overlooking the ocean and the bed looks really comfortable.  Heaven!

I imagine we'll wake up with the sun (streaming in our eastern window) and go down to the beach early.  I see oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins in my future!  I think I'll run on the beach tomorrow morning and we'll bike the island (4 miles long) and explore some of the side streets.  DH lived on the island for a year or so years ago, and he has lots of things he wants to show me.

At this same beach in 2006.  We'll get an updated version tomorrow!

I lost .5 at my WI this morning.  Not as much as I'd hoped, but with getting the car packed up, my Bible study, and the WW meeting, I didn't get in my normal Wednesday morning run, so .5 is comparatively good.  (Did you follow that?  It works for me.)

I planned our meals for this trip well and expect to stay well within my plan parameters.  Our vacation meals include a fish chowder,  roasted rosemary pork tenderloin, lamb loin chops, and a beef stir fry with red peppers, shitake mushrooms, and snow peas.  Our pantry here is stocked with whole wheat couscous, orzo, oatmeal, shredded mini wheat cereal, dried apricots, tea, and popcorn among other things.

I have our scale as well as all the electronic stuff we seem to need when we travel.  I put them all in a green fabric reusable grocery bag (ipod nano, cell phone charger, spare cell phone & charger, a surge protector to plug everything in, the download cord for the camera, the battery charger for the camera, the portable DVD player and its cords, and the nike+ thingamajig to record my runs).

How do you handle your technological accoutrements when you travel?  Do you go without  or bring it with?

Have a great day!

183.5

Chilly Ride

Today was a good day.  We took my 93 year old dad to church--the first time he'd been since mid-summer.  My visit with him on Friday was great.  He was in good spirits and his memory was more focussed than it's been in months.  He asked when he was going to church, so darling DH picked him up this morning and gave him door-to-door service.  Here's a picture a friend snapped on our way in.  Our church is the chapel at Fort Belvoir (an Army post nearby) and we were celebrating Veteran's Day with great patriotic music and special recognition of our soldiers, past and present.  Dad enjoyed it.  He was done when it was over, though and we nixed our plan to take him out to lunch afterward.  DH stopped by McDonald's on his way back and I'm sure Dad enjoyed his Big Mac--I'm sure the assisted living facility where he lives doesn't "do" Big Macs.

DH and I had a lovely bike ride this afternoon.  It was his "trial run," the first time he's been biking since he broke his wrist a few weeks ago.  He's now in a half-cast (his new cast stops below the elbow) and did quite well.  We biked for about 50 minutes.  It was 52 degrees when we started and got down to 48 by the time we finished.  Rather chilly.  The weather underground forecast for our time in Wilmington this week shows highs in the 70s.  I've scoped out a nice 28 mile ride along the river which is supposed to be flat, low traffic, and quite scenic.  It sounds great.

The time change has gotten me today.  It was getting dark when we got back from our ride, so I just naturally started dinner.  We're finished now--dinner was ready at about 5:30!  I'll have to pay more attention to the clock and less to the degree of light outside.

Have a great day!

Super Saturday!

This is more like it.  A beautiful fall day--crisp out, but sunny.  I went for a 4+ mile run and loved it.  My little toes are behaving themselves and feeling good--yay!  I made pumpkin spice oatmeal for breakfast.  It is sooo good.  I've made a convert of DH, too.  I'd better stock up on cans of Libby's pumpkin.  A egg-beaters omelette for lunch, and lots of cups of my current favorite tea--Plantation Mint.  My morning scale reading is moving back down toward "Green-land" (the green=good in my caloriecount chart) and that makes me feel good.

I haven't decided what to make for dinner yet, but I'm thinking of seared scallops, whole wheat roasted vegetable ravioli, fresh spinach, and baked delicata squash--that sounds colorful and nutritious, no?

A view from my favorite running/bike path.

Our upcoming bike holiday that I hinted about yesterday is actually a quick visit later this week down to Wilmington NC to visit my FIL.  He has connections that will have us in a lovely condo on the beach there and we're taking our bikes along and hoping for good weather.  FIL (88) likes to ride his bike too, so we may make quite an interesting sight, DH (now sports a half-arm cast), and my 88 yr old FIL, and me!  If you see us, toot your horn!

Hope your day is good, too!

New Do, Hot 100 Update

Did you notice?  I got a new "do" today.  I've had my hair more or less the same style for just about 10 years, but decided to do something different today.  I took some pictures in to my hairdresser and she got it just about how I wanted.  My hair grows fast and I can have my "old do" back in four or five months, but I'm liking this right now.  I also suspect it's going to be very easy to take care of.  I'm not great at taking self portraits--I snapped about 30 and almost half only had part of my face, including the one above.  Here are a couple others.  Not in great focus, but they will give you the idea.  I'll change out my profile picture as I get more shots I like.

I'm doing better at sticking to my plan. Thank you all for your encouraging comments.  No more way off track days this week and I'm feeling more like myself (my good self!)  My results for my challenges aren't going to be pretty this week, but a new week is starting and is, as yet, pristine!  I love a clean slate. 

I grew up hating Brussel Sprouts, but have lately thought they were something I should like.  Sharon (Gains and Losses) shared her method of fixing them (loved by Mr. B.) and I started with that and came up with a couple refinements via the Internet and we all loved 'em.  Not enough to make them every week, maybe, but surely several times during the Brussel Sprout season.  Here's the recipe:

Sautéed BRUSSELS SPROUTS (serves 2-3)
Ingredients:
About 1 ¼ pounds Brussels sprouts


4 shallots


2 cloves of garlic, crushed


olive oil


vegetable bouillon cube/ (I used chicken flavor)

Method:

Clean the Brussels sprouts and cut each one vertically in quarters.  Finely chop the shallots and crush the garlic. 

In a large flat-bottomed frying pan, heat enough oil to cover the base of the pan.  Place the Brussels sprouts in the pan, cut side down, in a single layer.  Scatter the chopped shallots and garlic over the sprouts.

When the sprouts are just starting to caramelize (you will smell them), turn them over and cook for another 5 minutes or so. 

Add enough water to cover the base of the pan with about 1mm of water and crumble half a vegetable stock cube into the pan (I used Knorr bouillon cubes). Give the pan a good stir and then allow to steam-fry until all the liquid has cooked off and the sprouts are tender.  Serve hot.

{sorry, I have no idea why all the little emoticons showed up!}


Okay, now that you've had your veggies, here's this weeks Hot 100 Update:


My goals:

1. Reach my goal weight by Jan 1st by following the WW CORE plan, weigh & record my weight each morning, attend weekly WW meetings.
2. Exercise at least 6 out of 7 days with varied exercise including at least 2 strength workouts and 3 cardio workouts each week averaging 60 minutes per session.
3. Keep my house and my body reasonably chocolate free.  Limit dark chocolate to 1 oz per day.  [amended 10/20]

How I Did:

1. I blew this one pretty badly for the first part of the week.  Did not stick to plan--lots of unplanned splurges.  I did, however, weigh & record my weight each day and attend my WW meetings. My weight was up and I am farther away from, not closer to my Jan 1st goal. [maybe the hair cut will help . . . .] 
2. I get credit for this one, but it was certainly not the best quality exercise on 4 of the 6 days.  Okay, but not great.
3. I blew this one too.  I splurged on chocolate over the 1 oz allowance on a few of those days.  There was also the brownie incident (I made 1/16th of my recipe and had two brownies--yummie, but not on plan--however better than the bad old days when I'd eat a whole batch. . . .) 

Tish has much "room for improvement" in meeting her goals.  


Come back tomorrow to hear about my upcoming "bike holiday."  DH got his full arm cast off today and now sports a jaunty half arm cast and hopes to be able to bike with me.


TAFN,

Biker Girls, Hot 100 Update

About to take off after a nice OP breakfast at our B&B with a nice send off from DH,
our one armed support team.

Wait!  I could be drafting behind Sharon if I hurry.

Evidence that we started before the 34 mile marker on the trail.

Carolina Brothers BBQ stop at the 6 mile point, too bad it was only 10:30 am!

Self portrait.  Still smiling.

Sharon and DH enjoying a lunch break at a trail side Whole Foods.

DH,  our super-duper one armed Support Team.

Trail's end, 34.5 miles later.  Tired but HAPPY and feeling very accomplished.

We had a great time.  No flats, no unintended pizza stops, no weirdos on the trail,  and only one snake.  We're definitely going to do this again--and we're hoping the fellas get to come with us next time.  My caloriecount.com site tells me I burned 1768 calories on our ride!   

It's time for the Hot 100 Update!


My goals:

1. Reach my goal weight by Jan 1st by following the WW CORE plan, weigh & record my weight each morning, attend weekly WW meetings.
2. Exercise at least 6 out of 7 days with varied exercise including at least 2 strength workouts and 3 cardio workouts each week averaging 60 minutes per session.
3. Keep my house and my body chocolate free.  This includes dark chocolate, chocolate chips, chocolate candy bars and any baked goods that have chocolate in them.

How I did this week:

1. I did not go to my WW meeting (I was out of town on a bike holiday).  My daily morning weights indicate that I am losing, slowly, but regularly.  I will definitely weigh in next week.  I ate OP all week.
2. Nailed this one.  Praise Moves, Hiking, Running, Biking, Strength Training at the Gym, more Hiking, LOTS more Biking.  Averaged more than 120 minutes per day!!!
3. Sharon says I didn't and she was keeping track!  YAY for me.

I'm feeling good about things, EXCEPT I really want to hunker down and get my weight moving down a little faster.  I'm looking forward to a good WI next week.

All for now.