Okay! Special weigh-in morning post! The scale is a little all over the place this morning (it's a pretty cheap one), but I averaged the numbers it was giving me, which brings me to three and a half pounds lost this week! That's not too shabby, I think, particularly given that I had a few splurges over the last week. Feeling really good over seeing progress towards my goals. And, of course, ticker movement is a happy, happy thing. Go, little ladybug, go!

3.5lb in one week is great! i hate scales. i had to get a new one because th eold one just got tooo tempremental but this one now is giving me a higher number (my correct weight). It is more accurate. soory i haven't read most of your diary but i will soon. are you taking measuremenst? i find it alot easier to work with them then the scale lol!

x

Breakfast—one cup coffee with sugar and fat-free half-and-half, one grapefruit, two small turkey sausage patties
Snack—one glass sweetened lemon-ginger brew
Lunch—three-quarters of a no-mayo tuna melt on whole-grain bread, fresh honeydew
Snack—three cubes of light laughing cow cheese, three crackers, baby carrots
Dinner—baked sweet potatoes, pork loin, brussel sprouts in mustard sauce, one cup coffee with sugar and fat-free half-and-half, one cranberry oatmeal cookie
Snack—one cup coffee with sugar and fat-free half-and-half, two low-fat oat bran mini muffins

Did twenty minutes of yoga to try and stretch out some of my achey muscles. It felt good and reminded me that yoga really does do wonderful things for my body. I think I'm going to try and incorporate yoga into my fitness routine more often, especially on my rest days, since it's challenging enough to be helpful, but not so much as to prevent my body from regrouping and regaining strength.

Speaking of rest days, I was sort of annoyed at needing to take today off, since I have plenty of time and really want to work out. Plus, I know the whole rest day concept mostly has to do with muscle work and not cardio. The thing is, working on the elliptical does work my thigh muscles fairly hard, and it's those muscles that are screaming for a rest. Basically, I need to listen to my body and give it a break when it asks for one. Tomorrow, though, is back to work!

I've also decided on what my reward should be for reaching my first mini-goal: the New York City Ballet Workout DVDs. It's something that I want that will help me continue working towards my goals, which is surely the best kind of reward. Reading the reviews, they're fairly difficult, and I won't be able to do them all (or even most of them) at the beginning, but it'll be a good challenge!

a-n-g-e-l, I don't do measurements, largely because it would be too easy for me to pull the tape a wee bit tighter to get good results. I like having something relatively objective that I can't second guess quite so easily.

ohhh me too! measuring tapes are good unless you pull them tight

Hey JW,
You sound like you are doing awesome!! I wish I could have grapefruit lmao ...just a little to acidic for me lol I like oranges although-- once in a while lol
Your workout dvd that you will be getting sounds interesting and difficult ...but cool ... that is so awesome ... I have never heard of Ballet Dvds....


well ttylater hun
always
natalie jo

Hi Sophie! I hear you on feeling restless on the "off" days - I feel like it's been an age since I went to the gym, and I only just went yesterday morning. It's funny how once you get into that routine, the good feeling of exercising makes you want to do more!

I'm totally interested in what the ballet DVD has to offer - I did ballet for a little under 10 years when I was a kid, and although it was really ballet "lite" (never even got to the toe shoes) I really enjoyed it and still remember lots of the different moves. Is it getting good reviews?

Hope you had an enjoyable weekend!!

Breakfast—one grapefruit, one low-fat bran muffin, one small turkey sausage patty, half a cup of coffee with sugar and fat-free half-and-half
Snack—fresh honeydew
Lunch—one slice whole-grain bread spread with one tbsp. mayo and a little deviled ham; spinach salad with fat-free feta, walnuts, dried cranberries, and two tbsp. dressing
Snack—one cup coffee with sugar and fat-free half-and-half, one low-fat oat bran mini-muffin, two cubes of laughing cow light cheese
Dinner—stir-fry with cabbage, green beans, mushrooms, lean pork, and rice noodles; yoplait light yoghurt
Snack—low-fat cocoa

I had one more mini-muffin after I posted last night. Fresh baked goods are hard to resist!

Did thirty minutes on the elliptical, which felt really good. I think that rest day was just what I needed to get my verve back. Tomorrow I'll go for the toning routine again—I'm actually looking forward to it.

Wishes, thanks for stopping by—you're such an awesome example to all of us.

Natalie, I love me some grapefruit. We had a tree when I was growing up, and now I buy giant bags of Texas grapefruits. Yum. I'll definitely report back on the new DVDs when I get them.

Heather, hey you! I totally wish I could be a ballerina, even though I'm probably the size of three ballerinas! The ballet stuff definitely seems to tone muscles, though. Here's the Amazon link so you can check out the reviews for yourself: Amazon.com: New York City Ballet: The Complete Workout, Vol. 1 and 2: New York City Ballet: Complete Workout: Movies & TV

hey good job on the excercise! hope today was as good or better!

x

Hey there! Sounds like you are doing some awesome work with elliptical and all your yummy food choices. I checked out the NYC ballet video - looks really interesting! I'm traditionally not a video person, but that might be fun to check out if nothing else just to do ballet stuff again.

And yeah, I was never one of those teeny ballet girls - definitely probably one of if not the heaviest in any given class, but when you're 9 it's not quite as big a deal. I was actually pretty good at it as far as tiny tot ballet goes. Not that I was ever going to take the stage, but it was fun.

Breakfast—oatmeal and oat bran cooked with nonfat milk, topped with cranberries, walnuts, and half a banana
Snack—apple
Lunch—leftover stir-fry, fresh honeydew, one ounce cheese, one low-fat oat bran mini-muffin, one chocopod
Snack—popcorn (100 calorie bag), cup of coffee with sugar and fat-free half-and-half
Snack—Yoplait light yoghurt (110 calories)
Snack—one nectarine
Dinner—one baked sweet potato with half a baked banana mashed in, small serving lean pork with one tbsp. of ginger marinade
Snack—one cup ½% milk, heated with ginger and one tsp. sugar

Did thirty minutes on the elliptical today. I didn't get to the muscle stuff because I woke up this morning with my shoulder all funky and sore, which has been happening to me intermittently for the last month and a half or so. Should be better by tomorrow, at which point muscles shall be whipped into shape.

The crazy number of snacks relate to my weird schedule for the day. At around five p.m., after my popcorn and coffee snack, I fell asleep for over five hours. I woke up and had my yoghurt before going to the grocery store (didn't want to be hungry there). Then I came home and had a nectarine to give me some energy while I worked out.

I was so proud at the grocery store, though! I didn't buy one single thing that would have made me ashamed to have all of you look into my cart.

My scale is finally moving back into submission—for the last two days, it's been randomly up to 282—tonight it finally went back to where it was on Saturday. Not sure what's up there, as I haven't done anything since Saturday that was different from what I was doing before. Anyway, maybe now I can start cracking that 280 barrier!

Angel and Heather, thanks so much for the encouragement! I love my elliptical, creaky and broken-computered as it is. It really gives me a good workout and makes me feel like I've done some serious work on my flab for the day!

glad to hear the scale is moving in the direction it should be and the great workout again!!

have a good day

x

Breakfast—one grapefruit, one oat bran muffin, half a cup hot milk (1/2%) with instant coffee and one tsp. sugar
Snack—fresh pineapple
Lunch—one slice margherita pizza, romaine salad with light caesar dressing
Snack—coffee, as above
Snack—Special K Bar (90 calories)
Dinner—three ounces lean pork with two tablespoons of ginger marinade, pureed ginger carrots, salad of spring greens with about twelve spritzes of balsamic dressing (dressing=12 calories)
Snack—one cup hot ginger milk with one tsp. sugar

Did thirty minutes on the elliptical and then my muscle toning routine. It was a little bit easier today than it was the first time, but still felt like I was getting a very good workout.

I decided that my hot drinks were stealing too many calories. I'm not giving them up, but I am trying to find ways to reduce the sugar content, which is the biggest problem with these drinks. So last night, instead of cocoa, I made ginger milk, which didn't need much sugar to taste good. This morning, I violently tweaked my coffee to have more milk and way less sugar. Hopefully this will help me with seeing results faster. I'm sure I'll still have the occasional cup of cocoa—but less often.

Received the American Medical Association Family Health Cookbook in the mail today—it seems to be absolutely full of delicious, healthy recipes. It's not really diet food, just good, fresh, nutritious meals. I'm really excited to try many of these and have already marked pages to make!

Angel, you're the awesomest cheerleader ever.

Hey Sophie! Glad to hear about the scale treating you nicely again.

And ooOOOooo on the new cookbook! I always shy away from cookbooks as I get all of my recipes online (and subsequently can then put them in little plastic barriers so my cooking slop doesn't get all over them!) but I'll be interested to hear about what this book has to offer!

Just a thought on sugar stealing your calories, as I can certainly sympathize with - ever try Splenda? Not that I'm advocating fake food (I'm not a big processed food person), but I swear by that stuff. It literally tastes just like sugar to me, if not even a little sweeter. And you don't kill your calorie count with it!

Hope you had a great day

Breakfast—coffee with half a cup ½% milk and one tsp sugar, Dannon Light and Fit yoghurt (60 calories), one low-fat oat bran mini-muffin
Snack—apple
Lunch—leftover stir-fry, small portion grapes, five Laughing Cow light cheese cubes (35 calories total), coffee as above
Dinner—three ounces seared beef (fat trimmed) on a large bed of spring greens with low-fat homemade dressing, brown rice with green beans and some grated parmesan
Snack—one cup hot ginger milk with one fun-size Milky Way

Thirty minutes on the elliptical at a more moderate pace than usual, but still enough to work up a bit of a sweat.

My dinner was absolutely out of this world. I lovelovelove that beef salad, which is beautifully flavored with lime juice, fish sauce, grated ginger, and a tiny bit of sesame oil. And the rice and beans was so delicious too, and with very little fat since there wasn't much parmesan, and parmesan itself is naturally lower in fat than most cheeses. All in all, a fantastic, healthy dinner. I wish I could knock it out of the park like this more often.

Heather, I might give Splenda a try, at least for my coffee. I've already descended to weird little spray bottles of things that are Not Quite Salad Dressing and that I Certainly Can Believe Are Not Butter, so why not embrace this brave new technological world of foods?

Hey Sophie!!

Good job on the scale! ITs going your way!!

and thirty minutes on that machine is so good, sweating it up, heart taking off for flight in a frenzy ..you are burning that weight off!!
Keep it up girl!!
and as far as Splenda, if you get a bad reaction to the Splenda, which a lot of people I know do ..

try sweet n low ..or equal ... they work really well and aren't as hard on your tummy ...

I wish you the best hun and thanks so much for stopping in ..

Cool beans ...the Twenty minute meal is really working for me. Try it, you might like the result !!

best wishes hun
love yas
natalie jo