Numbers Game, WI

0       The number of days I've taken "off" from exercising in the past month

1       The number of bloggers on my blog roll that I will have met by the end of the week!

2       The number of strength workouts I do at the gym each week

3       The number of consecutive Turkish Get Ups I can do in my Kettle bell workout

4       The number of "sticks o' butter" I lost at today's WI

5       The number of months I've been blogging

7      The number of days since I've eaten any chocolate

7       The number of inches I've lost from my hips
8       The number of lemons I bought today
10     The number beginning to appear on the labels of my clothing
13     The number of weeks left in the Hot 100 Challenge
15     The number of days until I meet my 2nd blog roll friend!
16     The number of additional pounds I will lose to reach my WW goal
22     The number of weeks I've been seriously working on losing weight
29.2  The number of pounds I've lost since I got serious
32     The number of miles of my longest bike ride (yet)
39.2  The number of pounds I've lost since my highest known weight
41     The number of Followers to my blog.  Thank you, thank you!
59     The number of years since I was born
59.9  The number of miles I've run per month on avg for the past 4 months
62     The number of miles of an upcoming Bike Holiday ride, done over two days
93     The number of years my dear father has lived
179   The number of pounds I weighed at my WI today
1012 The number of miles I've run in the past 23 months

Yes, green is good!

Seven Successful Days in the Hot 100

179.0

What I Saw, WI, Don't Let this Happen to YOU

Wednesday morning are uber busy for me, with an early alarm, breakfast, a last-chance run,  a quick visit to my Dad, my Bible Study (BSF), and then my WI at noon.  It did not go by so fast, though, that I neglected to notice a new decade on the scale when I got back from my run! 179.6  HELLO 170s!  I haven't seen a 7 as the middle number for fourteen months!  This is only the first peek at the 170s, and the just out of the shower, unclothed weight, so my WI (fully clothed, at noon)  still has an 8 as the middle number, but I sure do love the trend!  :D

I did have a planned encounter with some yummy Thai food on Friday night and it took some intensive water drinking and a couple of days to reverse the upswing in my morning weights.  The Thai food was great and I limited the damage by hopping right back on the wagon after our dinner out.  Here's the physics diet graph.  The first red bumps are from my bike holiday, the second from the Thai food. Remember, green is good.  Oh, also, note that these weights are my first thing morning weights on my own scale and not my WI weights. My own scale usually weighs me a bit more unclothed than the WW scale clothed.  It doesn't bother me because each seems consistent to itself.

My WI today was also a happy time as I dropped two pounds, or 8 Sticks o' Butter in Paula Deen speak.

This all means that my goals for the Hot 100 Challenge, include a weight loss goal of 17 pounds (my WW goal) between now (tomorrow) and January 1st. I think I can do it. I think I CAN do it. I WILL do it.

The other thing I saw today?  I was very thirsty and stopped by the grocery on my way home from WW.  I searched in the coolers near the checkout until I found a diet Pepsi.  I don't often drink sodas these days, but, somehow that's what I wanted. I felt pretty virtuous standing there with just one bottle of diet soda in the checkout line and I studiously ignored the piteous cries from the chocolates in the candy  bar display begging for one last date with me before my no-chocolate ban is official at midnight tonight.  I got into my hot car and enjoyed the icy cold Pepsi during the half hour ride home. It was only when I pulled into my garage and picked up the bottle to toss it in the recycle bin that I noticed it was not a diet Pepsi.  It was a Throwback Pepsi. "Throwback, made with Real Sugar." Aaaugh!  Don't Let This Happen to YOU!

180.0

Regular Pepsi--Notice the bright BLUE label??

Diet Pepsi--the Label is Light Silver

Throwback--full sugar--  NO FAIR!!

A Bump in the Road, WI

Okay, first the BUMP. It was pouring rain when I got up this morning, but Wednesday is my WI day, so I sucked it up and went out for my usual run.  I went 4.1 miles and it was a fairly good run (the rain and overcast felt cool and good compared to summer's usual muggy hotness). After my shower I set off for my WI. I am an every day weigher, so I knew that this morning's weight was not likely to yield a loss at my noon WI. It didn't.  For the first time since the beginning of May, I gained.  Up 3 sticks o' butter, +.8 pounds. Yuck. I hate that.  Maybe it's last week's chocolate extravaganza, maybe it's too many BLT's (bites, licks, and tastes) during cooking, maybe it's a few too many almonds. Whatever. It's just a bump in the road. I'll tighten up on my regime, cut out the extraneous BLT's, put the almonds back in the freezer in the garage and get on with it. The road is still there. I know where I'm going. I know what to do.  Next week will be a different story.

On a happier note, we had the inspection on our new house today and the inspector never stopped raving about what a great house it is and what good condition the appliances/furnace/AC/roof/etc  are in. With our heavy rain this morning, it was a good day for making sure that there are no water problems in the house. There were a few minor electrical things, but we'll get the seller to fix those and be ready to go.  I want to start taking some pix to put together to show potential renters.

I wish I'd had a camera with me on my run this morning. It stopped raining about half way through and it was really beautiful out.  Everything felt cool and fresh and clean. Some of the trees have leaves that are starting to turn. I'm going to take my camera next time and see if I can snap some pix of the beautiful leaves.  I think they're black gum trees. Some of the leaves are a bright crayon red now. Also the sweet gum have dropped some beautiful yellow star shaped leaves. Does this mean that fall is coming??  I sure hope so.

I have the g-babies tomorrow.  E has become fairly reliably potty trained over the past few weeks. Yay!  My oriental carpets are breathing a collective sigh of relief! And I can ditch the remainder of the evil siren m&m's which have caused me to put hand to mouth many more times than I should have in the past few months.  J, not to be outdone, added a third tooth to his collection this week and now has the equipment to give a pretty good bite with both lower and upper action. This is a picture of E, showing off her sticker collection. She used an entire sheet of stickers and put every one on her legs and tummy.

DH is trying to convince me to use biking shoes and clips when I ride. He actually bought me the shoes when we bought my bike, but I've never used them. I'm scared of not being able to get loose and falling, but I know I read blogs that talk about how much more efficient (easier) it is when you do use the clips.  DH has an exercise bike which he uses a lot (while he watches soccer or football).  I never use it.  He thinks I can get used to the shoes/clips while using the exercise bike.  Do any of you all have any advice on this subject?  Do you use them (the shoes/clips)? I like the sound of easier riding, but don't want to fall.  [It doesn't help that the first time DH was showing me how nifty they are, he fell off his bike right in front of me!]  Do you think I could learn to be comfortable with them before our Labor Day bike vacation?

Feeling a little blue about the gain, but going on,

185.0

Wednesday's Child is Full of Woe

My oldest child was born on a Wednesday and I decided the day she was born that the old saying quoted in today's post title is full of malarky.  Our Laura has always been overflowing with joy and happiness and optimism.  So no Woeful Wednesdays in our household. Today was no exception.


I didn't sleep well last night.  We made an offer on a very nice house that we want to buy as an investment.  We offered, they countered, and we counter-countered yesterday, ending up with the ball in their court at 10 pm last night.  I  was thinking about all this, a little excited,  a bit anxious about my WI today, and generally just not sleepy, so I got up and read for a couple of hours.  Then I went back upstairs, still not sleepy, and tried on clothes in my closet for about 40 minutes.  I found a few nice "new" outfits that fit again and finally went back to bed at 5 am.  I woke up about 8, had my usual un-frosted mini-wheats, a sliced peach, and skim milk breakfast.  I ran along the river (and Sharon, the trail you described is exactly where I love to run) for about 50 minutes.   When I got back from the run, I got an e-mail from DH letting me know that the sellers accepted our offer on their house!  We gave them a generous time to find and purchase a new home, so we probably won't close for three or four months, but I'm already itching to get in and start working to get it in tip top shape so we can rent it out.  The house is actually in very nice shape, but I want to put my own stamp on things like paint colors and landscaping.

At the end of yesterday's post (in very small print) I wrote that I do believe in magic.   Not really magic, per se, but in happy endings, in optimistic outcomes, and in miracles.   My belief was rewarded today at my WI.  I was down two sticks o' butter!   Take that, Paula Deen!  I'll work hard not to take this as some validation of out of control chocolate indulgences.  I've lost 7 of the 12 pounds I set as my goal in the Summer Diet Buddies Challenge (see red box link in right sidebar). I've got just 4 more weeks to lose the remaining 5 pounds, but, maybe, without the excess chocolate baggage, I can do it.  I definitely like seeing the number on the scale go down, feeling slimmer,wearing clothes with smaller numbers on the labels, and being able to exercise and feel fit.


I'm a dyed in the wool optimist.  How about you?   Do you focus on the positive accomplishments or on the length of the journey still to come.

184.2

Wordless Wednesday, WI

WI today: - 11 Sticks o' Butter!

deliriously happy, deserving,