<p>As long as sugar is considered a grain.</p>
<p>Someone contacted me with availability of two more of the racquets that I recently purchased - I wanted a third but I can only get a pair for a total of four - that’s fine with me, these are in fairly high demand and I could sell one if I wanted to. The price for two is 500 Euros. Buying clothes is nothing compared to buying pro stock racquets though hopefully these will be good for the next five years.</p>
<p>My weight is up a little, which isn’t a big deal, but I don’t want it moving in that direction, so I’m trying to stay away from the donuts, cookies etc for now. Or at least be reasonable. I don’t want extra weight to carry around for marathon training…</p>
<p>I think that weight control will be easier once we get past winter. Yesterday and today are a taste of spring - longer days make it easier to workout early in the morning and not have to worry about carrying more clothes around or doing extra laundry for the long-sleeve stuff and tights.</p>
<p>Uh-oh. Sounds like MOWC has registered for another marathon! This sounds serious. Tell us more… :)</p>
<p>I’m up two pounds since Thanksgiving, but my pants fit about the same, maybe a little looser, so I don’t know what to make of it. I’ve been doing a little more weight lifting and a little less cardio intervals this winter, so maybe I’ve put on a little muscle mass. Calories are up a bit, typically, from where I was losing weight – probably more like 2000 calories a day now. </p>
<p>Fresh fruit has been my cross to bear lately! I can’t lay off the apples and clementines and blackberries. 
I guess there are worse snack foods!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Thin mints come to mind.</p>
I’m getting ready to go out on my 16 x 400 intervals this morning. I’m all covered up because I had some cryosurgery yesterday on some “areas of concern” at the dermatologist, along with one precancerous thing. The doctor says it’s nothing to worry about, but he likes to get rid of these things rather than wait to see if something develops. My one brother recently was found to have a couple of melanomas, so we all ran to the dermatologist to get checked out. It’s a good thing to do at our ages.
Yeah. I used to kill off a box of Thin Mints in a day! Those things are almost as diabolical as peanut butter cups in the Halloween bowl!
Sixteen 400 meter intervals is beyond me! I’m back to the basement today after a little break and rearranging the workout schedule to cash in on some unseasonable weather yesterday.
<p>Hey, Reeses Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter cups are pretty healthy. I was at Marshalls recently and they had a number of interesting t-shirts. One with Mountain Dew, One with Pepsi, One with Reeses Pieces and one with another candy that I can’t recall. I thought about it - especially the Mountain Dew shirt for my daughter - it’s a cool shirt in the gamer community. I decided that I didn’t want to be an ad (I didn’t check for womens sizes) for soda or candy.</p>
<p>We used to have York Peppermint Patties in the office - they had low calorie or low fat or something like that on the wrapper. We don’t get them anymore but they made a yummy afternoon snack.</p>
<p>Ran 2 miles today on rough hilly country roads and through a field. Now I have scratches on my ankles and lower calf. Oh well! Weight update!</p>
<p>Beginning Wt: 177.8</p>
<p>Current Wt: 152.2</p>
<p>Total loss is 25.6 lbs.</p>
<p>I am about halfway to my goal. This is hard work mentally and physically.</p>
<p>Wow. That’s awesome, MSPEARL. Sounds like another five pound party! </p>
<p>Don’t burn yourself out! The ideal, once you’ve got the weight falling off, is to start mentally thinking about permanent, sustainable changes. That’s not possible at the start, but as you get closer to your goal, it’s easier to think about diet and exercise in those terms. For me, it was transitioning from “I won’t buy Pringles this week” to, “you know, I think I can be perfectly content if I never buy Pringles…”</p>
<p>Hooray mspearl!!! Way to go! Congrats on your success!</p>
<p>Thin Mints are sitting in my freezer right now waiting for D2 to pick them up. I am not a sweet eater but they are so very tempting!</p>
<p>Back to PT today. Enjoying the stability ball workouts. If I maintain good form I feel great…if not then I pay the consequences. Therapist is surprised at how much strength I have gained. Maybe she really didn’t believe me when I told her I did work out regularly before this injury. ;)</p>
<p>Back in the gym. I’ve done this workout before</p>
<p>Dynamic Stretches</p>
<p>5 minutes double unders</p>
<p>4 rounds 60 seconds on, brief transition, feels like no recovery between stations</p>
<p>Cook bar overhead press
plyo split squats
Keiser machine push/pull punch
OH squats
Keiser lat pull down
v ups</p>
<p>Did my 16 x 400 intervals, with 1 minute rests in between. The total distance was 5.03 miles, total time was 49:39, avg pace 9:52. I’m thinking I’d be pretty happy with this pace for my 10k. I might try my long run this weekend doing the first 3.5 miles run/walk, and the last 3 miles running.</p>
<p>nMINN:</p>
<p>Yay! Sounds like the progress continues.</p>
<p>cjane:</p>
<p>That looks like a great workout. I’m not a fan of v-ups (or similar variations). They hurt my lower back unless I put a folded towel between my back and the floor. But, the other stuff all looks fantastic. Those split squat jumps might be the the most tiring thing I’ve ever done. They were brutal in the Spartacus workout – the 5th of 10 exercises. I always had to hit the PAUSE button after those for an extra 60 seconds to stop panting.</p>
<p>Sorry for the following hijack, but I do consider you all my virtual friends, and this is big news for me.</p>
<p>The good news: I no longer live in New Jersey during the week for my job.</p>
<p>The bad news: I’m no longer employed.</p>
<p>The more interesting news: When confronted with my allegations of a hostile work environment, my boss flat out lied and said the event I described never occurred. My subordinate corroborated my version (because it happened to be TRUE).</p>
<p>I get to remain on the roles until bonus time, and then I get some severance. This is what I wanted, because I. Could. Not. Work. With that – that – woman anymore. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the boss is still employed, but I suspect her career in this company is about to go down the toilet. I mean, she flat-out lied.</p>
<p>Edited to add: Just to keep this relevant to this thread, now I’ll get to go to the gym in CT every day if I want!! Yippee!!</p>
<p>Stop talking about Thin Mints!!! (I have some in the pantry but they’re going to the next place I have to bring a treat…if I opened them at home I’d be sunk.)</p>
<p>And those “free” donuts…will the bakery also pay for our heart bypass operations? :D</p>
<p>I don’t buy Pringles. Once you see the figures…22 calories in an ounce of potatoes, or was that corn? and 5 or 6 times that, once all the water has been replaced by fat to make chips…talk about value added! Calories added is what it is.</p>
<p>VeryHappy- Good for you. It sounds like a good result.
NMinn- Glad you are progressing and getting the hang of the stability ball.
MsPearl- You are doing great. Keep it up.
Jane, iDad and BCE- great workouts. You inspired me to stop at the gym on my way home and lift a few heavy things.</p>
<p>A friend dropped off a new torture device for me to use called a Thera Cane. Very interesting contraption. Tried it out and goodness! Way better than rolling on a tennis ball!</p>
<p>VeryHappy…glad you will get severance and be back at home.
MOWC…glad you got a workout in!</p>
<p>4 miles, 8:31 pace. Smith machine and free weights. This feels like my first full week of running after my relatively minor injuries. My practice is to slowly increase distance, about a quarter mile per week to get back up to six miles.</p>
<p>Tomorrow there’s snow. A big snowstorm is coming this winter. It will drop up to 1 inch of snow!!! Supermarkets will be packed tonight! Not.</p>
<p>Forgot to mention: I forgot to pack a carb snack before my run. I went back to that kitchen - there was part of a blueberry muffin, part of a cranberry muffin and two sugar-glaze donuts with perhaps, custard, filling. I took the partial blueberry muffin for my pre-run carbs. Worked out quite well. I was going to bring a Clif bar but forget to pack it - I just had my nuts and turkey meatballs in my bag today.</p>