can you say sabotage???

Well, this week was rough.

After such a sublime vacation, it was hard getting myself back into the "real world". And on top of that, work was a bear. This is probably one of the worst issues I've ever had the "privilege" of working on. It's like, everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong. The only comforting part about it is that none of it was anything I did or was caused by me being on vacation. I was afraid everything would have fallen apart while I was on vacation and then I'd have a huge mess to clean up when I got back. Well, I had a huge mess to clean up, but it didn't have anything to do with me being on vacation. It's almost like everyone else went on vacation with me. But hey, that's job security, right??

We had to delay shipping the magazine to the printer by 2 days. I've never had to do that before. That's how behind everything is. But I'm taking it one step at a time and getting done what I can and it'll all work out. It always does, you know?

On the "diet" front, I had an official gain this week at WW. Up 6/10ths of a pound. I'm not to upset about it, though, because I can tell you exactly what happened...

First of all, I have to say that I was totally blown away that I could go on vacation and weigh in—in the middle of vacation—and lose 1.2 pounds. Quite a testament to my mom's home cooking. And I mean that in the best way. She's learned how to cook good old fashioned home cooking the light way. (She's on WW too.) Go mom!

Then by the time I got back from vacation on Sunday, I had only gained a pound. That didn't take long to get off. Then I lost another pound by Wednesday. Woo hoo! Right?? Well... Thursday, we came home for lunch and there was a FedEx envelope on the door step. Opened it to find a gift card from a client of hubby's. He'd done some pro bono work for this guy recently and his thanks was to send hubby a $200 gift card to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I don't know if you guys have ever heard of it or been there, but it's a horribly expensive steak house. The $200 gift card was just enough to cover 2 meals with drinks and dessert.

Well, neither of us had ever been there (hmm, wonder why? $$) and so we decided to go that night—Thursday night. I knew it was the worst time to do it because WI was only a day away, but we were so excited to go there we couldn't wait.

So we went... and ate! And ate, and ate and ate. Oh, man! Their food is ooooooooohhhhhhh so scrumptious! I had Onion Au Gratin soup to start with. Then a 7 oz Filet Mignon with grilled shrimp. Our two sides (it was the huge kind where you share your sides) were mashed potatoes and Ziti Au Gratin and oh my gosh was that pasta out of this world! The cheese was extremely rich and flavorful and it was baked with caramelized onions and topped with some sort of yummy breading. Then of course we had dessert. We split a Chocolate Molten Cake, which was not on the menu, but it was a devils food cake with a warm center of chocolate ganache and topped with a hard scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and then caramel sauce drizzled on top. It was huge and definitely made for 3 people—but we at it all!

Needless to say, I gained 3 POUNDS from that one meal. And it was Friday morning—the day before weigh in! I was screwed! There was no way I could lose 2 pounds to break even with last week's weigh in. But I tried. I had a very light lunch and for dinner a grilled chicken breast and fruit. And lots of water all day.

I managed to get 1.4 pounds off before Saturday morning, which put me at a gain of 6/10ths of a pound since my last weigh in.

So I totally sabotaged myself. But I enjoyed every minute of that meal.

The only thing I didn't like was about an hour after the meal was over. I was sitting with hubby on the couch moaning with a horrible stomach ache. I had eaten WAY too much and was in so much pain. I had to take some Pepto Bismol to get it to stop aching! I was miserable.

But it's all behind me, now and I'm ready to get back out there and start losing again. I'm falling a bit behind on my 18 Pounds in 18 Weeks challenge. :( There are 11 weeks left and I have 11.8 pounds to go. I'm not doing horrible, but I do need to make sure I lose at least a whole pound each week and one of the weeks in there I need to lose 2 pounds. I'm up for the challenge, though.

I am going to lose that 100 pounds by Thanksgiving!! I am!!

I'm going to start biking Monday morning back to my regular routine (bike on Mon, Tues & Fri and walk on Tues and Thurs). Can't wait!

I've been so out of touch with you guys over the past few weeks, but I finally had some time to visit you today. Everyone seems to be doing okay. MaryFran, don't give up hope, gains come just as weird as losses do sometimes. Keep going, though. Donna, looks like you had a blast camping last weekend! Have you finished The Shack yet? Am dying to hear what you think about it. (carashow at gmail dot com). Karyn, I love the new library! Man, I wish I had that many books. What a collection! If you guys want some great ideas for food, you should check out My Bento Box's blog. I love the way she shows pictures and recipes of everything. She hasn't updated in the last couple of weeks, but hang in there, she does that from time to time. She'll be back. Although SpunkySuzie has stopped her push up challenge, looks like she's gotten alot of good walks in lately. Check out the beautiful pictures she took last week. Katschi has a great food blog as well, though she hasn't updated the past couple of weeks. And she had a gain the last time she posted. I hope we haven't lost her.

I want to update your 18 Week Challenge weights, so please leave me your loses for last week (or this week).

I can't wait to go back up to WV. I almost have hubby talked into coming with me this time. The leaves start to turn about the 2nd or 3rd week in October. Would be the perfect time for us to get away. And it would be great for hubby and my mom to get to know each other a little better. We'll see how it goes.


*************************************************
Challenge Update! - Week Seven (updates in bold below)
"18 Pounds in 18 Weeks"

Bento Box Diet (sat WI) - gained 3 pounds las week
Katschi (tues WI) - lost 1.2 pounds last week
MaryFran (tues WI) - gained 5 pounds last week (I hated to type that in here, I'm so sorry, MaryFran)
Karyn (mon WI) - lost 4.4 pounds last week
Donna (mon WI) - lost .4 pounds last week
Spunkysuzi (sun WI) - gained 2.4 pounds last week
Cathy (fri WI) - Lost 6/10ths of a pound! Way to go!
*************************************************

back from vacation and still on course...

Well, I'm finally back from vacation.

:(

I sure do miss WV!! ...and my mom!

We got back late Sunday night, drove 14 hours straight. Hit a bad rain storm about 4 hours from home and it lasted until we got home! Ugh! It got so bad that at several points we had to slow down to 40-45 mph and turn our emergencies on so the cars around us could see us. I hate driving in the rain! I hate driving after dark worse! But I absolutely hate driving in the rain after dark!!!

There was one bad accident where an SUV had flipped over and was laying on it's side, with the top facing traffic, in the middle of the storm. It looked like everyone was okay, though. They were all standing in the median with the cops. I'll bet it was horrible, though!

But we're safe and sound and home sweet home!

So it's back to work, exercise and the daily grind again.

I was supposed to go biking yesterday and this morning but I couldn't find the energy to do it. We walked all over God's green earth while I was up there and my legs were so darn sore when I got back. They're still aching a bit. Tomorrow I'll start walking with the girls again, though. Then again on Thursday and I'll bike again on Friday. Back in the ole routine.

I was surprisingly good while I was on vacation. I actually lost a pound after the first few days and then by the end of the week I was up 3 pounds but by the time I got back home it had all come back off and I'm now down another pound. Just hope I can hold that pound off until Saturday's weigh in.

I thought I'd share with you two last photos from vacation.














This first one shows the massive stairs (and believe me this is only a small portion of them) that we had to walk down (AND BACK UP) to get to the 3rd waterfall.

























This was my viewpoint from standing directly under the waterfall looking up.

I need to visit each of your blogs to get updates on your weight loss. Sorry it's out of date. I'll update it tomorrow.

*************************************************
Challenge Update! - Week Six (updates in bold below)
"18 Pounds in 18 Weeks"

Bento Box Diet (sat WI) - Gained 3 pounds.
Katschi (tues WI) - Lost 1.2 pounds.
MaryFran (tues WI) - Down to 178.4 lbs (not sure if that's a loss or gain)
Karyn (mon WI) - Lost 4.4 pounds. Woo Hoo!!! What a loss!!
Donna (mon WI) - Lost .9 pound.
Spunkysuzi (sun WI) - Lost 1.6 pounds.
Cathy (fri WI) - Hasn't weighed-in in 3 weeks :(
*************************************************

.

life should really be this simple...

This morning I went for a walk. Well, you might actually call it a hike. I walked off my mom's mountain. We're 3,500 feet high up here on the mountain. And, no, I didn't walk all the way down, but I walked 2 miles down to her mailbox and then back up.

Picture this... Walking down a rocky, dirt road that's so steep I keep slipping on the rocks in the road. I get half way down and ask myself, 'what am I doing?' I didn't bring any energy bars with me so I had to eat some peanut butter before heading out and that only lasted me maybe a half hour. So then I get down to the mailbox and look back and the rocky, dirt road looks like it's at least a 30 degree incline. I really don't think I'm exagerating. I asked my mom what she thought the grade was up her mountain and she agreed it could probaby be between 20-30 degrees steep. I didn't know how I was going to make it back up. But I didn't have a choice. There's no cell service on the mountain. In fact, you have to drive an hour away before you'll get cell service. And everyone was asleet so I didn't have a choice but to keep trekking straight up hill.

And I did. I kept saying "come on, Cara, you can do this" out loud to myself. The worst part was her driveway. I'll bet it's at least a 45 degree grade straight up. She has to have a hummer to get up it in the winter. It's impassable when there's any snow at all. My heart rate got up to 180 for the last 100 feet or so up the driveway.

What an adventure!!

You know what sucks? My heart rate monitor says that I only burned 346 calories. What's up with that??!! That walk kicked my butt! My heartrate wouldn't get above 155 the whole way!

Oh, well. I feel better that I walked. I miss walking. And I miss biking. I can't wait to get back home so I can go biking in the morning. I just found that perfect route that took me 12 miles in one hour to finishe and I burned, I think, something like 800 calories. Now that's a workout.

I don't want to leave here, though. We're having a blast.

Tuesday, we went to Green Bank radio observatory. A place where they have huge telesope dish receivers that listen to noises in space and make beautiful pictures out of the sounds. Most of the beautiful photos that you see of colorful clouds in space come from a radio telescope. (That's me and my mom in the pic with the 100 meter tall dish telescope behind us in the distance.)

Then went to Snowshoe ski resort. And of course there was no snow but we rode the ski lift down and back. I've never ridden a ski lift before. Heck, I've never skied before! It was beautiful!

Yesterday we went to the Greenbrier River Trail. What a beatiful place. This picture doesn't do it justice. We walked for about a half hour then went down to the river and walked right into the middle of it. The water is WAY down. They haven't had alot of rain lately. So we sat down on a couple of large rocks poking out of the water and just sat there. I could have stayed there all day, I kid you not.

Then, today we went to the General Lewis Inn and had lunch. What an amazing place. I cheated a little... I had an open faced crab salad sandwich that had melted mozerella cheese on top. It was yummy. I had a side of fruit and water. Was a bit of a splurge, but that's what flex points are for, right? :)

I've been staying on plan as best as I can. I'm only up one pound since weigh in. That's really not that bad because usually I'm up 3-5 pounds by mid-week after WI. So I figure I'm ahead of the game. I've been drinking A LOT of water, too. I think that really helps! Plus we've been walking EVERYWHERE! We don't go anywhere unless we walk miles to get there.

Then we ended the day at the Greenbrier Hotel. What a truly amazing experience. What history is there! I didn't take this photo because my pictures are still on the memory stick, but I took one that was JUST like this. We toured inside the hotel and took some amazing photos. What an experience!

The best part of the day came after we got back to my mom's house. We went 4-wheel-driving! Oh man! I've never done that before! I screamed with excitement the whole way! My daughter and I took turns driving. One drove while the other was on the back. We rode up to a beautiful spot on top of another mountain and stopped and watched the horses graze. I didn't get any pictures, but it was a heavenly experience! I felt so close to God up there!

Really, this is how simple life truly should be!

.

vacation can be a cool thing...

Hello from vacation!

I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get online, but I am. Woo hoo!

(You have no idea how long it took me to upload these two pictures :)

We had a great day today. Went to a place called Cranberry Caverns and Beartown something-or-other. The cranberry place was a hike in the woods. We only walked for about an hour, but it was a trek! Walked deep in the woods to this clearing that had a spectacular view of surrounding mountains. I picked up a 6 foot tall walking stick to carry with me. Was so cool!

The beartown place was a boardwalk through huge rocks and caverns where bears hide. A real live deer walked right up to the boardwalk. We spooked him at first but then he came back and I pretended like I had a piece of food I was going to give him in my hand (I know that was mean). So when I extended my arm out, he inched closer and closer. Daughter got some good pictures of the deer. Obviously these deers are used to people and all but it was still cool being that close to such a magnificent creature.

The boardwalk was really cool, but I liked the hike through the woods better. I remember hiking through the woods as a kid and it brought back great memories. Especially because my guide was my mom and behind me was my precious daughter.

But the thing that came to mind most was a post I read by Lyn when she was talking about a walk she made in the woods and about how she'd tried it before but never could make it all the way and what a triumph it was for her to make it so far. I felt the same way today. I didn't get winded at all. My mom, who's not used to walking so much, did get winded. I thought how that was so me last year. I'm sure there would have been no way I could have walked as far as we did today if I had that extra 90 pounds on me.


Oh, did I mention I weighed in today? Yea, because I'm in a strange place, I have to weigh in when they have their meetings and they only meet once a week in these parts--Mondays at 5pm. I know I just weighed in 3 days ago, so I knew my weight would be up. I've been good, but I'm always up at least a couple of pounds by Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Well, surprise, surprise. I lost 1.2 pounds!!

Could not believe that at all!!!

I have really been being good while I'm here but I had no idea I was being that good. And I've been drinking a lot of water over the past few days. That might have helped some, too.

As a treat, we went right from WI to Dairy Queen and I had two West Virginia hot dogs. If you've never heard of them before, let me tell you what a treat. I had no idea there was any way you could ever eat hot dogs until I was a senior in high school and we went on a mission trip to Canada and they talked about eating Canadian hot dogs and some other girls from Indiana talked about how their hot dogs were different as well. A WV hot dog has chili made with finely ground beef and no beans and on top of that is cole slaw where the cabbage has been minced. They call it a "Chili and Slaw Dog". Oh my gosh! What a treat. You can't get them outside of WV. I've tried, but they're never the same. The cole slaw is usually with shredded cabbage with very little mayo or with chili that has big chuncks of ground beef or beans in it. But oh man were these dogs heaven!


(P.S. you have no idea how long it took me to upload that picture of the hot dog :) The fries weren't mine, my daughter shoved them in there right before I clicked the picture.)

A true treat!

More later...


*************************************************
Challenge Update! - Week Five (updates in bold below)
"18 Pounds in 18 Weeks"

Bento Box Diet (sat WI) - Gained 3 pounds.
Katschi (tues WI) - Lost 1.2 pounds.
MaryFran (tues WI) - Down to 178.4 lbs (not sure if that's a loss or gain)
Karyn (mon WI) - Lost .6 pound.
Donna (mon WI) - Lost .9 pound.
Spunkysuzi (sun WI) - Lost .8 pounds.
Cathy (fri WI) - Hasn't weighed in in 2 weeks :(
*************************************************

.

i'm finally going on vacation...

I just wanted to post a quick note telling you that I'm not sure how consistent my blogging is going to be for the next 9 days. I'm going on vacation for the first time in over 5 years. Woo H00!!! I'm going to my mom's house, up in the mountains. She has internet, but it's dial up so I'm not sure what my patience will be with that. So we'll see.

But if I don't get a chance to post something new over the next 9 days, I'll still be thinking about you guys and hoping you're doing great on your 18 Pounds in 18 Weeks challenge. You've been doing great so far!! Donna and MaryFran keep biking in my honor. I won't be able to bike next week. They only have dirt roads in them there mountains. Although my mom has alot of outdoor activities planned that should substitute, although, let's face it, there is no substitute for bicycling now is there? :)

I'm bummed because I didn't get to go on a bike ride this morning. We're leaving out early tomorrow morning so I went to WW this morning to WI. I lost 1.2 pounds! Hallelujah!!!

I'm back on track, now. I've got 11.4 pounds to go and there are still 13 WI's between now and Thanksgiving. So I'm still doing good.

You guys have fun, but not too much fun without me. I'm so excited about my vacation!!!


*************************************************
Challenge Update! - Week Five (updates in bold below)
"18 Pounds in 18 Weeks"

Bento Box Diet (sat WI) - Gained 3 pounds.
Katschi (tues WI) - Lost 1.2 pounds.
MaryFran (tues WI) - Down to 178.4 lbs (not sure if that's a loss or gain)
Karyn (mon WI) - Lost .6 pound.
Donna (mon WI) - Lost .9 pound.
Spunkysuzi (sun WI) - Lost 1.6 pounds.
Cathy (fri WI) - Hasn't weighed in in 2 weeks :(
*************************************************

.

from 12 miles to eternity and beyond...

My scale still isn't budging, but boy am I having fun biking.

Today was another personal record... I went 12 miles!

It was an awesome route, too. The hills weren't terrible like the route I usually take. This one was slow and building, but steady hills and descents. And to boot that, I burned 750 calories!

Lately, even the tough route that I usually take has only been burning 600 calories. This route was much easier but I burned more. Woot!

It just dawned on me, today, that I'm not going to be able to bike on Friday morning because I'm going to go WI then. I have something going on Saturday morning so I'll have to weigh in on Friday this week. And there's no way I'm going to be able to get an hours worth of biking in, in addition to the WW meeting at 7am and then get ready and get to work by 8:30. Besides, I usually gain a pound or so when I workout.

Bummer.

Oh, well, life goes on, right?

Work has been so busy lately, but I've been able to start exercising my HTML skills. I've known basic HTML for a while, but haven't had the chance to really use it much. Just fun stuff or helping hubby on a limited basis with his web projects. I've actually been having alot of fun with it.

My next hurdle is going to be learning CSS. I've used it before, but I don't know it very well at all. I mostly just recognize different snippets of code more than I do actually programming in it. It's alot of fun, though.

Another thing I did the other day that was a blast, was this past weekend I created a new piece of art on my computer. I got the idea from an artist who creates pieces of art by hand by cutting paper and fabric into shapes that create a picture. So I scanned in a bunch of different fabric swatches and pieced them together in Photoshop to create this beautiful picture of Golgotha. I'm sure it won't convey on this tiny little blog, but I sure had fun creating it. (If you click on the picture, you'll see some of the details of the fabric. Might take a while if you're on dial up, though.)






















Well, I guess I didn't really have alot to talk about weight loss, but now you know a little bit more about what's been going on in my non-diet life.

By the way, you guys are doing great on the challenge!!!


*************************************************
Challenge Update! - Week Five (updates in bold below)
"18 Pounds in 18 Weeks"

Bento Box Diet (sat WI) - Gained 3 pounds.
Katschi (tues WI) - Lost 1.2 pounds.
MaryFran (tues WI) - Gained .5 pound.
Karyn (mon WI) - Lost .6 pound.
Donna (mon WI) - Lost .9 pound.
Spunkysuzi (sun WI) - Lost 1.6 pounds.
Cathy (fri WI) - Lost 3.8 pounds last week.
*************************************************

.

did I mention that I LOVE the olympics???

Well, WI wasn't that spectacular, but at least it was a loss.

2/10ths of a pound.

:|

I'm now officially falling behind on my own challenge. That's okay. I'm going to kick it in gear this week and hopefully have a great loss next weekend.


Okay, as you guys have probably already guessed, I LOVE the Olympics. Especially the summer Olympics. And wasn't that opening ceremony amazing??!! It was absolutely HUGE! And the lighting of the torch was just spectacular. This guy, Li Ning, who was a former Chinese gymnastics gold medalist, lifts right up off the ground on these hidden wires and is lifted up to the very top of the Bird's Nest and he "runs" for a little over a quarter mile across the brim of the stadium while pictures of past Olympic great moments are shown on the screen. I thought he was going to fall at one point because he had to release his wires to allow him to be able to run on the side of the screen. He goes all the way around, running in slow motion (feet never touching the screen) until he makes it to the huge torch and lights it. WOW!






But that wasn't what I wanted to talk about. We had first planned on having an Olympic Opening Ceremony party at our house but we just couldn't get our act in gear enough to do it. We had planned on making an Olympic rings cake and I was really looking forward to doing it, but our plans changed so we didn't do it.

But when I got home from work Friday night, the house smelled like cake. Mmmm. My daughter had surprised me and made the cake! It was the cutest thing. She'd stopped at Joann's and bought some small little 3" cake pans and made the 6 rings using these pans then she cut out the centers of the cakes and iced them with the 6 different colors of the rings. What a kid!!! Here's what it turned out looking like.



















Yes, I ended up eating half of one of the rings. :)

Aren't they just cute??


*************************************************
Challenge Update! - Week Five (updates in bold below)
"18 Pounds in 18 Weeks"

Bento Box Diet (sat WI) - Gained 3 pounds.
Katschi (tues WI) - Lost 1.6 pounds last week.
MaryFran (tues WI)- Lost 2.6 pounds last week.
Karyn (mon WI)- Lost .6 pound.
Donna (mon WI)- Gained 1 pound last week.
Spunkysuzi (sun WI)- Lost 1.6 pounds.
Cathy (fri WI) - Lost 3.8 pounds last week.
*************************************************

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it's olympics day!!!!!!

Personal goal today! I biked 11.5 miles this morning!!

It was really tough, too. I had to concentrate on efficiency and making sure I was taking advantage of the down hills. Usually, the down hills is when I catch my breath and coast a little, but today I pushed through hard on all the down hills.

The up hills weren't a piece of cake either. :)

But more importantly...

TODAY IS THE START OF THE OLYMPICS!!!

I'm so psyched!




I will be leaving updated on my fav competitors.

Hope everyone enjoys the opening ceremonies tonight. I will!!!!



Biking Stats:
Total Calories Burned: 767
Minimum HR: 90
Peak HR: 184
Average HR: 155
Total Time Biking: 67 min
Total Distance: 11.5 miles

*************************************************
Challenge Update! - Week Four (updates in bold below)
"18 Pounds in 18 Weeks"

Bento Box Diet (sat WI) - Gained 3 pounds last week.
Katschi (tues WI) - Lost 1.6 pounds last week.Way to go, Katschi!
MaryFran (tues WI)- Lost 2.6 pounds. WOW!!!
Karyn (wed WI)- Gained .8 pound. Don't worry, Karyn, it happens to the best of us. :)
Donna (mon WI)- Gained 1 pound. Hang in there!!!
Spunkysuzi (sun WI)- Lost 1.6 pounds last week. Great job!!
Cathy (fri WI) - Lost 3.8 pounds!!!! She started this challenge a couple of weeks late, but I think she just caught up! Way to go Cathy!!!
Koala - No report, yet, for week 3 or 4. (somebody give that girl a battery so she can fix her scale!!!)
*************************************************

biking my way to the olympics (well, not really)...

First of all, I have to give a big shout out to my two favorite WW people, ever—my weigh in peeps, Charlotte and Barb.

I gave Barb my blog address last weekend and she passed it on to Charlotte who hasn't been weighing me in since last fall. She "moved on up in the world" to a leader. I miss her, though. She was "my" weigh in person for the first 50 or 60 pounds that I lost. I found myself becoming accountable to Charlotte for my weight loss for many-a-months.

Funny (or maybe weird would be a better word) how that worked. I'm losing the weight for myself, my health and my family, but Charlotte was the one who I would tell me if I lost or gained so she became the one who I was losing weight for.

Now there's Barb (who is my new inspiration—she's SUCH an encouragement) and some other lady who I can't remember her name for the life of me. I think subconsciously I'm not remembering her name because I'm in denial that Charlotte left. Come on, Cara, that was last Fall when she left!! I hope that doesn't offend the new girl, I'm just weird that way, I guess. I used to think it was superstition (which I totally don't believe in) that I could only lose weight if Charlotte weighed me in. But now I'm still losing weight without her. So I guess it was me after all. :)

Anyway...

I didn't go biking this morning. I figured, I biked 4 days last week and walked 2 days I deserved one day off this week. Right? Other than that, I really had no other excuse for not biking. Especially after going 11.3 miles yesterday morning. Oh, did I happen to mention I bike for 11.3 miles yesterday. Oh, I think I did. I'm still psyched that I did that. Was way cool!

Okay, I already regret not biking. :(

Oh, well, I went out and bought a bike lock so I'm going to ride my bike to the lady's house where we all meet to go walking. Tomorrow morning is WWTG day.

Opening ceremonies are only 3 days away. I can't wait. You should check out the official Beijing Olympics website. It's really kind of neat watching the Olympics from a completely different perspective. Watching how the Olympic flame is being passed from location to location, person to person. I was watching a report from the Great Wall the other day and the reporter was asking about how excited the Chinese seem to be about the Olympics and how proud they are of their country. And I thought, what a dump thing to say. Of course the Chinese are proud of the Olympics being in their country. Do you remember how excited WE were when the Olympics were in Atlanta in '96?? Man, we sure had Olympic pride!! So, yea, they deserve to have it now. Go China!

I'm especially looking forward to the opening ceremony because we missed it in '04. Hurricane Charlie hit that night and the power went out about 20 minutes into the ceremonies. Then all heck broke lose! A tree fell on the back of our house and we all ran for the bathroom in the middle of the house. Huddled around a battery powered b&w 5" tv watching the weather man show the progress of the eye as it passed right over us. But that wasn't the worst of it. The worst of it was that they didn't replay the opening ceremonies after the power came back on. I wasn't worried about the huge oak tree leaning on the back roof, I was mad because I missed the opening ceremonies!!

Not this year. No hurricanes are scheduled for Friday (hopefully). So I'm all set! I'm thinking about making an Olympic rings cake in honor of the special day.

You want to see some really cool pictures, go to the Olympic photo gallery. Some of the architecture over there is just amazing!

Do you follow the Olympians? Who's your favorite?

Mine is Dara Torres. She's the same age as me and has a 2-year-old and she's the favorite to win several golds. If she makes the team this year, it'll be her 5th Olympics, the most ever for an American woman swimmer. Go for it Dara!!

I'll update everyone on the 18 Pounds in 18 Weeks challenge tomorrow! Everyone's doing great so far, though!

biking to make up for a slip up this past weekend...

Had another great bike ride this morning.

I went 11.3 miles in just over an hour. WOW!

That's my all time farthest so far!

I think I like this bike riding thing. :D

My HR was real good, too. The highest it got was 182, but it was only there for just a short while. Most of the time it stayed around 160. And I burned over 700 calories.

Smokin'!

I ran out of gas half way through, but stopped and rested until my heart rate got back down to around 135-140 and then I had enough energy to make it the rest of the way home.

What a ride!

I overdid it a bit this past weekend. Sonny's BBQ has put their nutritional information online and I was able to realistically figure my points for what I'd eaten and man is their food bad for you. I had the BBQ chicken, which is essentially a quarter of a smoked chicken without any BBQ sauce. IT WAS 18 POINTS!! Can you believe that??!! I thought I was doing good by eating chicken that wasn't marinated or smothered in sauce. Boy was I wrong. Now, granted, I didn't eat the skin and that probably took off a few points. So maybe realistically it was 15 points. But then there was the green beans 3pts, corn on the cob 2pts plus a little butter, maybe another 3 pts (overestimating). I had a salad bar with about a tablespoon of their chicken salad and maybe 2 tablespoons of their crab salad, so add another 5-8 pts. What a horribly high in points meal!

Then yesterday we went to Pizza Hut for lunch, but I didn't have dinner. Well, actually, I had a bowl of cereal for dinner so I think it balanced out.

Though a high fat weekend, it was worth it (sort of). I'm sure my ride this morning compensated for it. Hopefully.

Well, off to eat some high-protein cereal and soy milk and then off to work.

Have a great day!!

By the way, did you guys check out some of the blogs that people put in my comments from yesterday? I added a couple of them to my list of blogs I like. Keep 'em comin'.

.

i absolutely love blogging...

WI today went better than last week. I got to WI with Barb this morning, who always gives me a great WI. I know, I know, there's no difference between the 3 scales they have lined up. They're all calibrated. I know it's all in my head. But whatever it is, it worked. I was down 1.2 pounds this week! Woo hoo!!!

I've got 15 weeks left on my 18 Pounds in 18 Weeks challenge and I've only got 13.8 pounds left to lose. So I'm ahead of the game! I was hoping for one pound per week. Well, that's my average, being as I gained last week, but at least I'm keeping my average on track, right!

In honor of my 100th blog post yesterday (can you believe that???), I thought I'd talk about blogging a bit...

I just spent a couple of hours reading through everyone's blogs (well, everyone that I know, anyway). I must say there are some amazing stories from you guys. Most times, blogs are just 'this is what's going on today' but I've been reading some that are just amazing and inspiring.

For instance, Karyn is a new one I just found. Or rather, she found me somehow. I really felt like I was reading some of my own stories on her blog. I even cried once reading something she posted. Another really good one is Lyn. She's an excellent writer and when I'm reading her stories, I feel like I'm right there with her. And then there's one of the first blogs I ever found, Jennette. She's kind of a celebrity, now. Her new book, Half-Assed (which I've read and if you haven't already, you should read it), has been featured on the Today Show, The Early Show and written about in many popular magazines and newspapers across the country. Now, Roni is someone who takes her blogging seriously. She's a stay-at-home mom with her hands completely full of kids, but she somehow manages to keep up with her own blog as well as a weight loss social network site (with almost a thousand members) called Blog To Lose. It's a great community. And something she started all on her own this past year.

My favorite part about finding a new blogger is going back to their first posts and reading about what got them started. Then I really feel like I can identify with them.

You know other types of blogs I absolutely LOVE to read are ones that post pictures of the food they eat with the ingredients and points. Like Katschi and My Bento Diet. I love being able to see the food to know if I'm going to like it or not and then also it give me ideas for eating new things. And I love bloggers like Cara (no not me, another Cara) who write down the food before they eat it. I just love the ideas I get from her and others like her.

There are many other bloggers who I didn't specifically mention here that are WELL worth reading. Just look at my list of "Blogs I Like" to the right (scroll down a bit) to read some of them. They're all worth reading on a regular basis.

I guess when it gets right down to it, we're all blogging for the same reason. We want a way to share our struggles and victories with people who are going through (or have gone through) the same thing we're going through. And that's such a beautiful thing. To have a place where you can talk about something that's so personal to you and know that no one is going to judge you or say anything bad about you is really something special. And most of us only have wonderfully encouraging things to say to each other in the comments.

If you've come across some blogs that have impacted your journey to thin, be sure to leave them in my comments so we can all share them and enjoy them as you have.

Happy blogging!


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Challenge Update! - Week Four (updates in bold below)
"18 Pounds in 18 Weeks"

Bento Box Diet (sat WI) - Uh, oh, haven't had a post from Bento since July 22nd. :,( Come back!!!!
Katschi (tues WI) - Lost 1 pound last week.
MaryFran (tues WI)- Down to 181.0 last week.
Karyn - Will need your update to add here.
Donna (mon WI)- Lost 1.9 pounds last week.
Spunkysuzi (sun WI)- No report, yet, for week 3.
Cathy (fri WI) - Lost 3.8 pounds!!!! She started this challenge a couple of weeks late, but I think she just caught up! Way to go Cathy!!!
Koala - No report, yet, for week 3. (somebody give that girl a battery so she can fix her scale!!!)
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i need more water...

Boy I did not want to go biking this morning but I knew if I didn't I'd really be hating myself all day. I forgot to set my alarm clock last night, but luckily hubbies alarm went off at 5:30 so I was able to still have time to head a protein bar before biking. I wrestled with myself for a good 10 minute, though, before I finally kicked my butt out of bed.

I had a good ride, though. I took a new route again this morning. I went further that I've ever gone in one ride. There were very few hills, though, so my heart rate didn't get up to what it does with my usual route. The usual route has so many steep hills and alot of them. This one just had a few hills and they weren't very steep. Oh, well, I still enjoyed myself. So i didn't burn 900 calories, at least I burned 500, right?

WI is tomorrow and I think I've gotten my weight back down to where it was last Saturday. Now we'll just have to see how WW's scales are doing and see if they agree with me this week.

I've been having a hard time drinking my water lately. I do love water. But I just haven't been drinking it. I can't put the Crystal Light et. al. powders in my water any more because the artificial sweetener in them makes me crave sweets soooo bad. But I really don't miss drinking my water with that stuff in it. I truly enjoy drinking water all by itself. I just need to drink more. I know that's what's been hurting my weight loss over the past few months.

I wonder if everyone who's on the challenge could leave me their weigh in day so I can be sure to get your updates in there?

I can't wait for the Olympics to start! I'm so psyched!! I've been watching the gymnastics final competitions for months, which I love because they usually don't air these competitions on regular tv. I can't wait to get to know more of the athletes. The swimmers and soccer players and the track and field team members. I love the stories they tell about these kids.

And, oh, the opening ceremonies are usually so spectacular! Can't wait to see what China has in store for us.

I can't wait!!!


Workout Stats:
Total Calories Burned: 539
Minimum HR: 95
Maximum HR: 163
Average HR: 143
Total Time Biking: 62 min
Total Distance: 10.5 miles


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Challenge Update! - Week Three (update)
"18 Pounds in 18 Weeks"

Bento Box Diet - Uh, oh, haven't had a post from Bento since last Tuesday. :(
Katschi - Lost another pound this week. Yeah!!!!!
MaryFran - Down to 181.0 this week!! Steady as she goes!!!
Karyn - She's back!!! I finally got her blog address, now all I need is her WI progress. Woo hoo!!
Donna - Lost 1.9 pounds this week. Way to go Donna!!
Spunkysuzi - No report, yet, for week 3.
Cathy - (just started las week)
Koala - No report, yet, for week 3.
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