I was in South Carolina over Thanksgiving, and literally the first 100 feet of the grocery store (BiLo) was baked goods - cakes, pies, cookies, pastries, muffins, donuts, you name it. </p>
<p>It’s a tough gauntlet to run every time you go grocery shopping. The stores aren’t helping…</p>
<p>But it can be a GREAT feeling of accomplishment to defy the temptation and walk right past those 100 feet - and feel that you BEAT it!!! Don’t let them win at their game!!! ;)</p>
<p>It is funny how the huge sale displays from one side of the store to the other lined up in front of the checkout lines are table after table after table of seasonal junk carbs. If it’s not juice, it’s candy. If it’s not candy, it’s cakes. If it’s not cakes, it’s chips…</p>
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<p>I had a set-back and returned to (thankfully mild) vertigo yesterday. Fine this morning. I think I’ve got it traced to sleeping on my right side.</p>
<p>Well- I got out there in completely deal-breaker weather. Steady rain and 34 degrees. I dressed right, and wound up doing 2 1/2 miles instead of just 1 mile. I wasn’t looking for anymore though! There was a wind, too. I had a very water resistant Lulu jacket with a hood (over a hat), gloves that were warm and I thought water resistant but were very wet when I finished, the fleecy tights iDad and I like, and a too-warm layer under the jacket. I felt very bad-ass! If my after-work event gets cancelled due to impending ice, I might get to do some dreadmill miles after work.</p>
<p>Yep, sugar is off my list. Just giving up cookies should cause me to drop quite a bit of weight. The rest of it is pretty standard common sense stuff, like eating lots of protein, fruits, veggies, and not getting too hungry to prevent a pig out. I need to re set some of my habits. </p>
<p>Swim today. Practice was cancelled due to the cold—we swim outside—but I went ahead and swam anyway. The air was pretty chilly at 32 but the water was fine. 2000m.</p>
<p>6 minute pace! Wow- I haven’t seen that since the early 80s!</p>
<p>WildChild did fine in the surgeries and the big deal guy who doesn’t take insurance posed for a nice picture with the patient post-surgery. WildChild expects to be asked for an autographed race kit for the surgical center wall to add to the football jerseys, cycling jerseys etc. of all the pros who have been treated there. He started tweeting WAY before the pain meds were out of his system! :)</p>
<p>Thanks. I don’t know what my max would be, but it does occur to me that I am relying on the treadmill not malfunctioning as well as my own ability to not malfunction… As long as neither of us messes up everything’s good. ;)</p>
<p>I’m glad to hear WC is out of surgery and on the road to recovery, MOWC. Weekend now, yay. :)</p>
<p>Fail for my Friday workout. Made it to basement. Halfway through the warmup (quadruped thoracic rotation exercise), the room started spinning. If I stop and wait, I can probably work around it, but it is very unpleasant. Even after the room stops spinning, there’s a little low-grade dizziness and queasiness. Not really all that safe to be dizzy while lifting weights. Not ideal for working out.</p>
<p>So, off to do the ear-clearing maneuvers, and wait for another day.</p>
<p>Spent the day walking around vacation town–all the stores were decked out for the holidays–the last hurrah before the tourists leave for the winter. Also went on a house tour of very old (pre-1860s) homes, which were decorated beautifully. According to my Zip, I did about 3 miles of leisurely strolling. Pretty good food day for me, except most of the stores where my kids were shopping served up bubbly (i.e., cheap) drinks to the customers. I did a bit of sampling. Five-mile walk race tomorrow morning.</p>
<p>Good to hear the WC got through his surgery!</p>
<p>iDad- I’m sorry you are still dealing with the spinning. I hope tomorrow is a better day.</p>
<p>The Dallas Marathon (Sunday) and St. Jude’s Memphis (not sure if Sat or Sun) have been cancelled. That is almost unheard of. The safety of the runners and volunteers is the most important thing, though. Dallas got a lot of terrible ice.</p>
<p>At this point, I’ll probably just back the truck up for a few days and stick to Airdyne and a walk or two if the weather permits. Upright is fine. It’s bending, twisting, leaning, and so forth that triggers it. It usually comes and goes in a week.</p>
<p>Oh no! I did hear about the Dallas Marathon. Hadn’t heard about St. Jude’s until now. It was supposed to be tomorrow. Our HR lady at work is down there tonight because she was supposed to be running it. Her daughter has been a patient down there at St. Jude’s for several years.</p>
<p>I have my own version of a maginot line in my attempt to get into shape, am at the 230 pound level with a long way to go, my scale seems to be deciding to torture me, I get below it, next day, am 2 pounds heavier, been going on in this range for a week…I know it isn’t because I am pigging out one day, I am almost certain I am below 2000 calories (not that I count them) and I am exercising most days, I suspect it is where I am building muscle (I can see it!!!) which counteracts the loss of body fat:). I am still doing the deliberate fasting where I don’t eat breakfast, and so far it isn’t killing me, even switched to black coffee…</p>
<p>I start on a new torturous regimen next week, something called turbulence training, that is body weight and dumbbell strength training done relatively fast, mixed with interval training, going to be fun. I have my ‘storyboard’ done for the first 4 week cycle, with all the exercises and reps on it, so while I am learning it I can still do it fast:).</p>
<p>8 miles done in 29 degrees with some snow flurries (well, you had to look closely). I mainly stayed out of the north wind and the only icy places were on the short wooden footbridges on the path. I wore the new LuLu jacket, and while I felt like I looked like I was dressed for skiing, it worked really well. It has zipper vents both under the armpits AND along the upper arms, which is really good. This is VERY cold weather for us, but I’m glad I got it done outside and didn’t try the treadmill. Treadmill day might have to be tomorrow since we are expecting ice with a higher chance of accumulation tonight.</p>
<p>Standing ovation! That is fantastic. On The Biggest Loser, they call that reaching “One-der-land”… </p>
<p>As you lose weight, the daily swings and stops and starts become more apparent as the rate of fat loss is no longer enough to complete mask the normal, routine swings. That’s OK. Just keep doing what’s been working.</p>
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<p>MOWC:</p>
<p>We had a little snow over night, but now it’s melting. I’m thinking a nice little jaunt on the Airdyne later on…</p>