I certainly wouldn't have braved the rain as you did--that is for sure. Have you thought about taking a day off exercise each week? I have heard that it's good for your body to do so--gives it a chance to rest. I think a treadmill is a great idea. Seriously, I would've preferred to walk in place in front of the telly rather than do a drowned rat impression.

I can understand the incentives of re-hiring Mr. Belgian Chocolate.

I hope the forecastor predicting the least amount of rain was correct, and that you only resembled a slightly misty rat today.

I see the scale is going down again.

Hey there SKINNIE MINNIE wow you are on fire and so inspired
by how well you have done and it totally motivates my butt to lol!
I am phyched to see "155" all that walking really rocks and it is getting
warm now to where I can start walking again insted of the boring bedroom routines lol.Whats weird is we had a blizzard Friday-Sunday 15 inches of snow and this week 40's and 50's lol our weather is screwy!! wELL HAVE A NICE KICK BUTT DAY!!!

Thanks for visiting. I hope that your week is going well. Things are fine here. I should have a busy day Thursday because we are setting off for Newcastle about 1pm as hubby is taking the afternoon off work. I am hoping to still slot in my long walk (even if it is a cut down version) before we set off and will be busy getting packed too.

Kim

I often think of brussel sprouts as being like little cabbages too. I dont think that they count for the challenge - but to be certain you could try asking Kimberly. Failing that - hope that the race takes us from Moscow to Belgium. She would never ask us to eat chocolate or drink beer so there has to be a decent chance that you could eat brussel sprouts - or at least that would be the case if your twin did not hate them!

I added the ankle exercises in after Valerie suggested that they might help a sore ankle that I was getting. I spend so much of my time walking that you really notice a sore ankle.

I am pleased that the creaming is working well for you. I cannot say that my skin looks too bad - so at 48 and out in all weathers - I am pretty satisfied with that. I dont need a facelift yet!

My weight seems to go round in circles. I have spent the last two weeks getting back to where I started. Here are my weights so you can see:
Wednesday 27/02/2008 11st2.0
Thursday... 28/02/2008 11st1.8
Friday....... 29/02/2008 11st2.8
Saturday... 01/03/2008 11st2.8
Sunday..... 02/03/2008 11st4.0
Monday..... 03/03/2008 11st4.4
Tuesday.... 04/03/2008 11st3.4
Wednesday 05/03/2008 11st3.6
Thursday... 06/03/2008 11st3.4
Friday....... 07/03/2008 11st3.0
Saturday... 08/03/2008 11st2.2
Sunday..... 09/03/2008 11st3.4
Monday..... 10/03/2008 11st2.8
Tuesday.... 11/03/2008 11st2.0
Wednesday 12/03/2008 11st1.6

Thankfully - from a challenge perspective it looks like I have lost weight when we are really talking about TOM gain. TOM always removes my weight loss for at least two weeks out of every four!

Rae

I must admit that I like plums and was tempted into buying them because they were at a particularly good price this week. My digestion is prone to be on the sluggish side so it could use a bit of coaxing and I wondered if the plums would help.

Kimberly

If we do get a treadmill it will be impossible to miss in the living room - but it could bring many advantages. Major ones being that it might coax hubby into doing more walking and that I can use it - particularly when the weather is bad. I accept that walking is something that I will have to do pretty much forever - but I am hoping that I will be able to cut it down to a more manageable quantity. Most people add in more food when they get to maintenance - but I think that I will be removing some of the walking.

Tuesday brought us more rain - but it wasnt so torrential. It has been very windy all week. Today brought us no rain - but the wind was still very strong. Several times I had to cover my nose and mouth with my hand in order to be able to breathe. The wind was blowing so strongly across my nose that I felt like I couldnt breathe normally.

Tammy

When it comes to weightloss - you are doing tons better than me at the minute. In some ways I seem to have spent the past two weeks standing still.

You certainly are getting very mixed weather. I thought that things were bad enough here with torrential rain on Monday.

It's good that you are so patient about the losses you inevitably (but sometimes slowly!) acquire from all that careful eating and steady walking! Patience is such a vitally valuable virtue to weight losers!!

I hope you enjoy Newcastle!

Hi Margaret~
It would seem that you and I have spent the better part of the last 2 weeks fighting the same 2-3 pounds!
Every morning I keep thinking that I will be down a bit more but I either at the same as the day before a bit up.
It can be so annoying. Especially when I know that I have not over-eaten the day before.
I hope that you guys have a wonderful trip and that the traveling is very uneventful.
I am sure that you will make a good effort to get in as much walking as you can on your holiday.

Brussels sprouts do not count as cabbage. Sorry.

Sounds like you'll be very busy these next few days. Be sure to check out the info for week 2 in the challenge section before you go.

I'm sure the scale will be kind the next 2 weeks.

The last walk I took was in pretty windy conditions, so I know what a nuisance it can be. Not being able to breathe properly must be rather frightening, though.

Have a safe trip to Newcastle!

mmm brussel sprouts are good! and they are cabbages! they are rabbits cabbages!

Wednesday 12/03/08

General Data:

Morning walk = 6.3 miles
Round the block = 5 times
Extra exercises = none
Weight = 11st 1.6 lbs (i.e. 155.6 pounds)
Steps = 30,784
Distance = 11.90 miles
Remembered to take normal vitamin / supplements
Continued my creaming regime – missed one bio-oil massage.
Continued ankle exercises

My Food / Drink:

For challenge I need to eat 5 cups of cabbage during the week:
Saturday – 1 cup eaten
Sunday – 3 cups eaten
Monday – 1 cup eaten
Tuesday – 1 cup eaten

Basic eating plan

1 banana
3 weetabix, sweetener, 350 ml skimmed milk
1 large handfuls honey Shreddies
1 large handfuls honey Shreddies
1 clementine
1 clementine
1 pear
1 pear
1 apple
40 grapes
2.5 litres of cold water
some diet cola

Salmon fillet, 2 new potatoes, sweetcorn
0.5 large handfuls honey Shreddies
1 plum
40 grapes

Hope you have a good time in Newcastle and that the weather holds off for your drive. In Yorkshire the forecast isn't good.

Rae x

Hey Omega,
unfortunately either I take the wrong echinacea or my system doesn't work, because even though I religiously took it every day sicne the first sniffles... I got the flu AND a very painful and high fever tonsillitis!!! Can you believe it?? Bummer!

Now, I know you feel like it is standing still but I am sure you will lose weight again... you lost a bit over the 2 weeks anyway... and when the summer comes and walking is so much more fun, it will all be much much much better! I can't wait for the summer... even though summer means that my time here in England comes to an end and that is sad in a way. Yesterday I heard a song that we used to hear everytime we went to a pub in my first year here in england with my man, and we both listened to it and hugged each other (and I cried because that is just how I am)... it feels such a long time ago.

Why do you need to eat the cabbage?? I understand it is part of a game, but what is the specific goal of eating cabbage?? Other than being quite "windy" afterwards !!
Have a great day, Camy

Hey Margaret~
Just wanted to pop in one more time before you head off to NewCastle. Hope you have a GREAT TIME!
Talk to you later.
Ciao

155.6!? Is this a new low???

I hope you've safely arrived in Newcastle by now.

Have a nice visit with your parents and friends!

Thanks for visiting and your good wishes that I have a nice time in Newcastle. I always enjoy visiting my parents in my home town. I was in such a rush thismorning to get away that I diidnt have time to write anything - just paste in my diary page. Well I got my morning walk in today and we got onto the road. The weather was reasonably ok and the journey took 6.5+ hours.

Lastnight I managed to get around to putting some dye on my hair. It is a darker brown than my natural colouring and I dont think that I will get it again. I wanted to get it done because I didnt want to be seen by family and friends with as many grey hairs as had turned up.

Felici

As you say - patience is a virtue. I currently am concluding that I am not a virtuous woman. Hubby has just seen that I have written this and he says that it is very true that I am not virtuous. Things certainly do slow down deep into a long term project.

Dawn

It is quite annoying to think that we have made so little progress for being so good for the last couple of weeks. I think that it is just the way things are and there is little that can be done about it. The journey was uneventful but time consuming. You know that I will get in some walking - just not as much as normal. The pedometer is currently on 8.85 miles but will not go up much more.

Kimberly

I checked out the challenge info - but havent watched the video yet. My exercise will be fine. Homefully the scales will be kind to me for the next week but I doubt that I will get much after that.

155.6 is indeed a new low - only a fifth of a pound down from the previous low - but it is new and it happened again after my walk again today so I filled it in on the challenge scoresheet just in case.

Wishes

I must admit that I like brussel sprouts - but I wasnt keen on them when I was young.

Rae

There was quite poor weather in Yorkshire and north from there. I got wet running to the services and bringing the stuff into the house.

Camy

I am sorry that the echinacea did not help you. It would be annoying having flu when you were on your snowboarding holiday.

I must admit that I am looking forward to the summer. Maybe it is because I am a Leo but I certainly love the sun (or as much as we will get in England). Its a shame that your time in England is coming to an end - but they always say - as one door closes another opens. I am sure that the future holds lots of new experiences for you.

A number of us here play the games in the challenges section. Quite a lot of us are in the middle of a team game which is apparently based on an American tv program. In it each team has to complete a different amount of exercise and carry out a task connected to somewhere that the game has theoretically travelled to. The current week was dealing with Russia and it was said that Russians eat a lot of boiled cabbage so to get points we had to choice of performing a very difficult and athletic cossack dance or eat 5 cups of cabbage. Many of us considered eating the cabbage to be the easiest option. I ate mine with no difficulty.

Take care
Love
Margaret

Cabbage - I ate heaps raw last night, and as I just posted in Kim's diary - it tasted great then but I am sick of that taste now!! It's kinda like the difference between eating it and smelling it cooking ... I do like it but I guess raw isn't best for everything!!

You may not have the sensation of patience - but it is the patient application of your good eating and exercise despite that, which has brought you so far and will continue I'm sure.

And it looks like you will be on track for the summer solstice weigh in too!! Go the Blue Team!!

Glad to see you made it to Newcastle without incident.

Lol@you not being virtuous. Neither am I...

Congrats on the new low! I suspect tomorrow will be even better.

Looks like we've got the max challenge pts for the week. The rest depends on how the scale treats us tomorrow.