<p>Thanks ID and mathmom for the tips! Now I just need to figure out where to buy a small bottle of soy sauce.</p>
<p>I was lazy yesterday and passed on the snow shoveling. 
OTOH, my sister got a Wii for Christmas, so my extremely sedentary mother has been getting sore from playing ping pong.</p>
<p>They must have soy sauce in Sharples. Don’t they even have a wok station where you can do your own stir fry?</p>
<p>You can buy soy sauce at every grocery store. They all sell Japanese soy sauce and really bad Chinese soy sauce. Some even sell decent Chinese soy sauce, like Pearl River Bridge brand. </p>
<p>The sushi counter in my local grocery store gives out packets of Kimlan, which is really good Taiwanese made Chinese-style soy sauce (not really the right choice for sushi, but great for cooking).</p>
<p>^I feel like they should, but no clue where. I’ve also heard about this mystical stir-fry station, but I’ve never found it. Then again, it took me nearly the whole semester to figure out where the granola was. 
I will investigate when I get back.</p>
<p>Interested dad, congratulations on reaching your goal! Your story is very inspirational!</p>
<p>Mathmom:</p>
<p>17 pounds is a lot of weight to lose. Much better to lose 17 pounds with sustainable eat less/move more changes than go on one of these crazy yo-yo diets.</p>
<p>Thanks idad. I’m happy. I even fit in a size 6 pair of jeans. (Which I have to say is a total lie since the last time I wore a size 6 I weighed 20 pounds less than I do now.) Size deflation in women’s fashion! But it is the same brand I bought a size 10 of last year. I’m pretty confident that the weight will stay off this time.</p>
<p>Here’s a little Christmas treat. Workout Muse, the guys who do the cool iPod MP3 workout soundtracks (they’ve got a free [Spartacus</a> Workout soundtrack](<a href=“workoutmuse.com”>workoutmuse.com)), just posted a 50 minute interview with Alwyn Cosgrove, owner of Results Fitness in California, husband of Rachel Cosgrove. It’s one of Men’s Health Magazine’s top 10 gyms in the United States and their focus is on group training, almost exclusively for general fitness/fat loss clients.</p>
<p>Lots of interesting stuff.</p>
<p>[Alwyn</a> Cosgrove interview](<a href=“workoutmuse.com”>workoutmuse.com)</p>
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<p>Going down two sizes, from a 10 to a 6, in the same brand sure as heck counts as fitting in your “thermometer jeans”! That’s a pretty significant change.</p>
<p>I think that maybe the most satisfying thing about losing weight and getting more fit is being able to grab stuff out of the closet and know that you’ll feel good about wearing it. It’s the just the opposite of the horror of grabbing an old favorite and realizing that you can’t get them buttoned anymore.</p>
<p>Wow…what I would do to fit into a size 6. Don’t worry, be happy!</p>
<p>Miss all of you guys…reading through these last few pages…fun to catch up with folks I feel like I know. Congrats IDad! Wow. </p>
<p>Well, at least I’ve gained 0 pounds after 2 months of a brutal work schedule and the holidays. I have been trying HARD to protect the 18 lbs I lost this year! Knee is hurting though so will pick up some stationary biking…(can’t bike in the piles of snow out there!). </p>
<p>Wow…would love to be in Hawaii. We did the volcano bike tour - what a blast. Will look for something like that in St Lucia…less than 2 weeks away…YAY.</p>
<p>I only wear a 6 in jeans with spandex, but hey I’ll take it!</p>
<p>I haven’t seen any spandex pants for men at my local Marshalls!</p>
<p>I did break out the polartech long johns today for blizzard snow clearing. Wore them under some mid-weight fleece pants I found on sale at Campmor last summer. Perfect. Nice and toasty – except the fleece wasn’t windproof when the 30 mph gusts hit.</p>
<p>Was up and down last night so didn’t sleep well. Went to the gym half hour late but I went! Biked for 70 minutes and that was all I could do today as I am sleep deprived. Leave for Cabo in about 3 weeks so will really be buckling down on eating clean and upping weights in the gym. My resolution is to shift to more weight/core work. Hope I can stick with it.</p>
<p>Congrats Idad–you done good! I worked out last on X-mas eve and didn’t get back to the gym until today. Did shovel for an hour or so on the day after Christmas and felt like it was a good workout. My area didn’t get hit quite as hard as the rest of MA–only 10 inches. My big dilemma is that my trainer is leaving next week. She’s been a great motivator and has pushed me in ways I wouldn’t push myself. I credit her with getting me started on Weight Watchers, which really helped me lose 46 pounds (I started on January 26, 2010.) She really is the best trainer at my gym; I did a session with another trainer she recommended, but it wasn’t as vigorous a workout. I know I can workout on my own but I’m worried that I’ll not push as hard as I can (I tend to be lazy). Looking at the possibility of going to the kettlebell gym and a few other options for indivdual/group training. I know I’ll figure it out, but it’s one of those worries in the back of my mind that’s unsettling. I think lots of folks here have really had a good year for working on and reaching health/fitness goals.</p>
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<p>Alwyn Cosgrove, in the interview I linked above, makes the point that the fat loss success rate at Weight Watchers is better than at the average gym and average personal trainers – and all Weight Watchers is doing is group meetings, weigh-ins, and motivation. The lesson he draws from that is that the community/support/group motivation and culture is a real key to weight loss. I think we see that in action even in an internet thread like this one where the shared experience is motivating – even among people who do wildly different workout programs. Cosgrove tries to implement that kind of culture at his gym, which he compares to the bar in the TV show *Cheers *or the coffee shop in Friends or the diner in Seinfeld.</p>
<p>His gym particularly specializes in small group semi-private stuff, mostly done in circuits with the people rotating from station to station.</p>
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<p>This works for traders too. Too small and everyone leaves. Too large and there’s too much noise and too many arguments. It’s a lot easier to be successful when you’re chatting with those that are already successful.</p>
<p>idad, you deserve congratulations. You also deserve to bask in your success. And, I think we’ll all forgive you if you want to brag a bit, too. That is absolutely awesome!!</p>
<p>Looks like I’m not going to make it to the gym today – I’ve procrastinated so long that I can’t go now or it will bump into our dinner invitation. I too shoveled like crazy yesterday. What also helped with keeping my weight level (I think) was losing power for 15 hours and shivering in the dark. Not fun, but maybe I burned up a few calories.</p>
<p>Anyone know what to do when the computer gets fried by a power surge?? My son has graciously let me use his laptop, but I need my computer back. Ideas? If not, I’m afraid I’m going to have to use the dreaded Geek Squad. (The kid down the block who used to fix computers for pocket change hasn’t called back yet. He may be out of business.)</p>
<p>What did the computer cost and why do you think that it was hit with a power surge? What are the symptoms of it being down? Also, how old is it?</p>
<p>My son lost the video card on his home desktop - it was purchased in 2005. I have a spare card which I’m going to put in. I offered to replace the system but he’d like to keep using it.</p>
<p>Wife: Let’s have pizza tonight.</p>
<p>Me: We had pasta last night. I can’t eat stuffing and lobster bisque and pasta and pizza night after night.</p>
<p>**Wife: **So what do you suggest?</p>
<p>**Me: **How about if I run to the store, get some chicken breasts, and I’ll make my chicken caesar salad?</p>
<p>**Wife: **You are fooling yourself if you think chicken caesar salad is less fattening than pizza.</p>
<p>**Me: **Well, it looks like I must be fooling myself pretty well then…</p>
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<p>No workout for me today. Two days in a row. I’m concerned about this injury. It appears to be “tarsal tunnel syndrome”, which is something pressing on a nerve that runs down the leg the inside of the ankle/heel. Certain movements cause a tingling/shooting pain on the inside of my heel. I’m trying to lay off of it for a day or two and let it simmer down. I did spend an hour or so shoveling 15 inches of snow off the deck and over the railing. I burned some calories and will probably be sore tomorrow, but I’m not sure it’s the best exercise in the world for me.</p>
<p>The injury may actually have come from standing on my feet cooking for about six hours on Christmas Eve. Or the new pair of shoes I stood around in on Christmas day for four hours. Or, it could have been rear foot elevated split squats on Sunday. It wasn’t one of those deal where I felt any particular injury.</p>
<p>The first thing I do with a “fried” computer is try to boot it into safe mode. If that’s successful, I roll back to a saved system point from a day or two previous. That almost always fixes it. I did have a major fry this past year that required reinstalling Windows. That actually turned out to be a fairly painless endeavor</p>
<p>DH and I are going to brave the elements and walk the Beer Trail. The S word is all over the forecast, so today might be the best day of the week for enjoying the outdoors.</p>