Weekly Workout Thread 26th Feb till 4th March

[Modified Brilliant]

Hey Rod,
I've been reading about your situation. It's crazy, isn't it? It gets harder as we get older to just "pick up"
and leave a place that we love and feel comfortable. Everyone wants a place to call home. I know that you will
do what makes sense. You only get one life and you might as well be happy. Good luck!

P.S. got a great workout moving office furniture and stuff up and down stairs today. My adult son helped
thankfully.

 

[monarch64]

DeeJ, at which restaurant did you dine? DH and I love seafood and are always looking for fab ones downtown aside from our current faves...sad to hear you had such a "salty" experience! Drink lots of h2o to flush all that out of your system!

Rod, gosh your experience is starting to sound like something out of a crazy dream! On one hand I'm sure you must be sort of thrilled to hear the old comp. wants you back, but OTO you've just begun to get your bearings in Raleigh...ugh, it's like being in a relationship with an addict! Yikes! I hope things start to settle down for you very soon. It's no fun being pushed and pulled, and especially in a career situation.

Kimberly, I was reading back through these threads and noticed since the beginning of the year(and your thread on whether to call it a day as far as weight loss, can't remember the title, sorry) that you've lost more weight and I wanted to congratulate you! Congrats! you must feel a huge sense of accomplishment! Yay!

Mara, I am so envious that you are having warm weather spurts...here by Chicago we are just windy, snowy, rainy, and still cold no matter what. Just impossible for me to find the motivation to go and freeze my butt off, and our puppy Daisy is still not having anything to do with her leash...she just will NOT walk on it, you have to drag her...I miss the days of just being able to go out with Milo (our other beagle) and walking no problem. But I'm happy to hear you and Greg and Portia are able to get outside and enjoy the nice weather you're having! And flowers! Forget it! I have to wait until at least the end of March for that...sigh.

My last few days of nutritional intake have been a hodgepodge...salads and healthy things mainly, then I made a yummy veggie lasagna for DH and I (just an 8x which was wonderful, but was trying to figure up the calories and didn't have the patience. LOL! I'm "guessing" a 4" square was about 250-300 calories...then last night DH was craving pizza from our fave local restaurant and we ended up getting not only pizza, but jalapeno poppers and toasted raviolis...I honestly only had one small square of pizza, one popper, and half a ravioli...just too much fried food. Blech. I'm sort of happy to say I'm pretty much burnt out on fried food or pizza! (And that is monumental for moi.) Tomorrow I have a pretty good menu plan going as far as spinach salads and Dh and I are going to make baked potatos with some non fat toppings and veggies for dinner, so hopefully our bodies will thank us for that!

ETA: well duh, I left out the "workout" part: I did about 10 loads of laundry today, plus cleaned almost the entire house and did some arms with freeweights! (Laundry for me consists of toting lots of baskets up and down two flights of stairs as our w/d are in the basement) so I feel like I probably burned about 2-300 cal. folding, loading/unloading, making beds, putting away, etc. It took me from 1 p.m. today until 10 p.m. tonight to finish! Wish I hadn't waited all week, but hey, it was sort of a workout!

 

[KimberlyH]

Morning All!

monnie: Thanks so much for the kind words. I really hit a patch of frustration for a bit, and I tihnk my body just wanted me to change things up a little. I am so not a patient person, so I didn''t think calorie counting would work for me, too time consuming, but I actually am so glad I decided to do it. I didn''t think I could lose as much as I have, so it''s kind of cool.

It''s an exercise day for me. I''ve been up since 6 working on school projects and tonight we''re going out to dinner. Should be fun!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic Sunday morning.

 

[Mara]

oh my gosh, so can i just say we JUST got home from SF not 30 minutes ago? and it's 11am on Sunday. first off the whole night was quite the 'adventure'. i'll try not to ramble on too long (though you guys know me and my long-winded tales!)...but basically we left earlier this time to get there earlier, got there 30 minutes before the ballet started, and there was a HORRIBLE traffic and parking situation due to some trucks that were blocking like 1/2 the street to the big parking garage! i ended up getting out and going in while greg tried to park the car. basically the whole 30 minutes was on ONE 200 yard stretch as he tried to park. so frustrating. anyway he ended up getting to the garage only to find it was JUST filled entirely. like 2 cars before him. so he had to find another garage. he got into the ballet right as it was starting so they would not let him sit til intermission!! oh i was so frustrated. i could see him in the back there, they let you stand in the back and watch, but 1.5 hours of standing? my poor guy. anyway during intermission i bought him a glass of champagne to help him chill out but he was in pretty good spirits, the love.

shortly after the intermission was over and the ballet started again, this mother and daughter down our row were eating super loudly out of this crinkly plastic bag...some candy or something. oh my god that drives me INSANE when people at the ballet are loud or talking or doing obnoxious stuff. it's the friggin ballet people...appreciate the art, this is not a movie theatre and people paid a lot of money for these seats! so i eventually told them to shush...and the guy next to me basically got pissed at me for telling THEM to be quiet (totally unrelated party!). so he and i had a quick little hushed heated exchange...i was honestly shocked that he thought it was okay for these people to be LOUDLY rustling stuff during quiet times of the ballet. i mean like 5-6 people turned and gave this woman the glare of death and she was totally oblivious. people like that drive me nuts. also greg was on the verge of saying something so i figured i was closer so i'd just do it. ANYWAY...at that point i was like OMG this night is just crazy..what is going on.

so the ballet finishes (and by the way, totally underwhelmed by it, swan lake last year was WAY better...though maybe the whole fiasco of not having greg with me and then mr loser next to me was coloring the experience..hehe)...we head out, walk to the restaurant...and get seated...have an amazingly wonderful dinner. yummy bread, a pear and blue cheese salad, rib eye steak, caviar, marinated olives, pommes frites all made an entrance into my belly...and then the crowning glory, the scharffen berger pot de creme, OMG divine. greg got a cheese selection which he loves, with olives and flat crispy bread and the appropriate wine pairings...so he was in his little slice of heaven as well. i kept trying to renew my palate by tasting his cheese then drinking water in between my pot de creme-gasm so that i could appreciate the flavor without my taste buds getting bored....just amazing. and a nice portion, hehe, i ate the whole darn thing!! at this point i was feeling pretty full and i knew i was going to have that lovely 'food hangover' feeling tomorrow morning...where you ate a bunch of rich foods and your body is like argh!

so we are paying the bill, i visit the ladies room and come back and greg says guess what?! we look at his watch, and it's 1:15am....which means that the garage holding our car is closed!! they closed at 1am.

so he says well lets get a hotel and stay the night, have breakfast in the morning then head home. i was SOO sad about it!! i was totally looking fwd to sleeping in this morning, having a nice leisurely breakfast together at home, playing in the garden, hitting the gym...all with time to spare (we are having friends for dinner tonite). at least my parents had portia so we were okay on that front. so we took a cab over to the union square area because greg wanted to stay at the sir francis drake..but they were totally booked! two other nice hotels nearby were booked too! so we finally ended up at this small boutique hotel, very cute with absolutely tiny rooms but the bed was really comfy with lots of blankets and down comforter which is all that mattered...i really felt out of it because we had NOTHING with us literally...and i had my mini party kind of purse with me so i didn't even have all my regular purse stuff. but we slept like the dead, woke up at 9am, had some breakfast at the hotel and then headed out. i was SO HAPPY to get home!!

so my morning is kind of thrown off now...it was quite the adventure though we didn't ask for it...and thankfully the hotel had healthy items for their breakfast too (i was envisioning some huge meal i'd have to eat on top of what we ate last nite and was not looking fwd to it!!), so i had coffee and a serving of wheaties mixed with a serving of special K with ff milk. greg had a waffle and a boiled egg. i was afraid i'd be tempted by a donut or something but thankfully none of that! so now i am dressed and headed for the gym...where i will burn off some steam and calories...and then play in the garden this afternoon. so i'm happy about that!!! and then we are having friends for dinner tonite, i'm making us the yummy pasta primavera, with multigrain toasted bread, salads, and then sugar free banana cream pudding with whipped cream and chocolate biscotti for dessert.

but oh my gosh, what a friggin night (and morning)...it was starting to feel like one of those weird movies where everything starts going wrong and you think 'this can't possibly be really happening' but it is. i'm just thankful we had a good time, great dinner and found a nice, comfy place to sleep!! hehee. wow!

i just skimmed the posts so i will respond more later...(isnt this post long enough, oh my gosh) but i was cracking up this morning thinking 'oh and here i was SO looking fwd to this great night out...'...hehe. it was surely a night we won't forget.

rod congrats on the company wanting to potentially take you back. my only caution is this..remember that you were expendable. quite easily expendable in fact. so honestly...i know you want to 'go home'...but it would be really hard for me to go back to a company where i gave a huge chunk of my life and loyalty to them and they threw me away. it's like an old boyfriend who tossed you aside for a new fresh face and then later realizes his mistake. i would probably have too much pride to go back and also i would wonder 'what about next time' kinda thing. but maybe your eyes are wide open now so you could go into it knowing that...and make it on your own terms. in any case..i don't want to discourage you since you sound excited at the potential...but just be careful my friend.

gym time.

 

[KimberlyH]

So I got in another good workout today and met my goal of 2,000 calories burned! Woo hoo! I''m estimate a HIGH calorie count for the day though, with our dinner out, but that''s okay as we all know, splurges are more than allowed (in moderation, of course).

Mara: So sorry your night didn''t turn out as expected. At least the meal was good, even if the performance didn''t wow you and the evening was riddling with frustrating incidents. I hope you have an enjoyable meal with your friends tonight.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Wow Mara what an adventure! I''m sorry the ballet wasn''t that good but your dinner sounded fab and it''s is kind of fun to have a spontaneous hotel adventure (although the whole I was reading your post I was like, um, what about poor Portia?! so I was relieved when I got to the part about your parents, LOL).

Monnie, the restaurant is Aigre Doux and it''s in the space that used to be Pili Pili on Kinzie right by the Mart. Honestly, we probably will try it again since it''s literally about two blocks from our house, but it was a bit disappointing last night.

Kimberly, good for you on all the great workouts!

This morning I went over to the gym and planned on the tradmill for an hour but when I got there all the treadmills were full so I jumped on the elliptical. Even though I kept my heartrate under 140 about 13 minutes into it I had to stop because of the jabby heart pain. Right then though one of the treadmills opened up so I went and did that for 32 minutes and kept my heartrate in the low 120s. Total of 280 cals.

Tomorrow night my best girlfriend and I are going to LOBSTER FEST!!! Yes I am embarrased to even be admitting this but we go to Red Lobster every year for Lobster Fest, but we''ve been doing it for 20 years now and I''m not giving up my annual indulgence in the cheesy lobster dip, ha ha!

Tonight though the happy hubby has made some sort of wonderful beef dish--I have been smelling it cooking away ever since I got home from my open house. And he made the no pudge brownies too--YUM. I wasn''t exactly hooked from the first bite but they grew on me and now it''s going to take all my willpower not to have another one before dinner even rolls around...

 

[Mara]

lol kimberly...yeah..things work out funny sometimes.

so hit up the gym and burned 600 cals...my goal for today. so that puts me at i think something like 2550 cals for the week burned, which is perfect. now i am eating another experiment which turned out WAY better than the one yesterday, quality of the yogurt i think, anyway i used the 0% fage with chopped fresh strawberries, honey, and splenda. YUM. seriously. and only 130 cals total. whip it up a bit and it's like dessert. you could even add cocoa shavings or unsweetened cocoa powder as a dusting on the top to make it a dessert...or vanilla for more flavor. gotta love the fage. and no i am not deviating from it anymore!

funny you mention a high splurge night kimberly...because i estimate roughly that my dinner last nite was about 2500 cals! hehee. which is not surprising considering how many things i was tasting and eating, and it was all totally worth it!! also i overestimate in on things like portions and dressings, desserts, etc. like my steak was quite large but i only ate the non-fatty areas, however i still estimate it was more than the typical small 4oz serving of rib eye for like 450ish cals. so i am estimating it at more like 600. and the pot de creme, desserts can be huge on cals, aka if you look them up online to find estimates, you will find 700ish for a dessert made with all top notch stuff is not irregular. restaurants can really pack a caloric punch (but so worth it!).

the rest of the day i had only eaten like 650...so while i was not expecting to eat 2500..i'm more than fine with my weekly intake..in fact the scale is showing a little lower this week but i am interested to see if it stays there next week.

got all my stuff for our dinner tonite...for dessert i decided i am going to make sugar free jello pudding parfaits with white chocolate and chocolate fudge puddings...layer them in glass parfait cups with fat free whipped cream in between, then top with fresh strawberries. should be pretty, tasty, and low-cal and non-fat, gotta love it!!

off to play on the patio garden now...haha i noticed someone saying something about bad weather elsewhere, monnie? sorry about the bitter cold...honestly sometimes i wonder if i could ever make it in a winter climate, i think i'd get too depressed by all the doom and gloom...i live for the sun and warmth. and we are talking about going to a colder climate maybe for living, yikes!!

oh speaking of depressing/winter climates kinda thing...i was reading an article today at the gym...actually two interesting tidbits for my WWT buddies. the first is that people who work out all the time who are forced to stop working out for a period of 1-2 weeks show higher signs of sad moods and depression than those who are able to continue working out. they mentioned that something like an injury and not being able to active was severely affecting people's moods. and they said people who are serious lifestyle exercisers, aka have been doing it for a while, showed the biggest pronounced depression levels. kinda interesting. so keep working out to keep the blues away!!! they said even doing ANY type of activity has been shown to help.

the other tidbit i picked up is that they ran this study where they had people eat foods that were high on the Glycemic Index scale (aka high in sugar, processed foods etc) and then other people eat foods that were low on the GI scale (aka low in sugar, more wheat, higher fiber etc) then go and do a 60 minute run/workout. the two groups burned the same amount of calories basically BUT the group that was eating lower GI foods then working out turned out to burn a fair amount more fat than the people eating high GI foods then working out. so they were saying, if you want to burn more fat and not just go for a calorie burn overall...then eat better for you foods up to 3 hours before working out....to fuel your body with the right kinds of things and give you a longer lasting energy level and more effective workout!! i wondered if maybe this was also why i continued to drop body fat but not change weights, because i eat a fair amount of unprocessed and fresh and high-fiber/wheat kinda products anyway throughout the day...anyway kind of interesting.

i also was thinking about that stat i posted a while back about people who drink more than 500mg of vit C per day have been shown to burn up to 30% more body fat than those who do not. i was wondering if that had anything to do with my body fat dropping as well. anyway i guess it's all hit or miss, you just read these tidbits and think oh thats interesting!! but i figure if you can incorporate it in, why not? and if it's good for you overall, the whole body fat loss is just a perk.

oh DJ...the no pudge i think get better after a day or so, they thicken and harden a bit like brownies do and the more dense they were the more 'satisfying' they were...like i could have a small one and be like okay that's enough chocolate. it was fabulous! oh and funny about portia, yes if my parents hadn't taken her for the night...or if they had dropped her back off at the house for us sometimes like they do when we go out (aka if they know we are coming home at midnight they drop her off at 9 then she sleeps for a few hours til we get home)...we totally would have taken a cab home and then just gone back to get the car today. but the cab ride would have been like at least $150 so we were like well lets just get a hotel since we don't have to go home. but i surely miss sleeping in my own bed when it's not a planned thing! hehe.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Date: 3/4/2007 5:35:58 PM
Author: Mara


oh speaking of depressing/winter climates kinda thing...i was reading an article today at the gym...actually two interesting tidbits for my WWT buddies. the first is that people who work out all the time who are forced to stop working out for a period of 1-2 weeks show higher signs of sad moods and depression than those who are able to continue working out. they mentioned that something like an injury and not being able to active was severely affecting people''s moods. and they said people who are serious lifestyle exercisers, aka have been doing it for a while, showed the biggest pronounced depression levels. kinda interesting. so keep working out to keep the blues away!!! they said even doing ANY type of activity has been shown to help.

Maybe that''s why I''ve been so pissy these past few weeks, ha ha!

Date: 3/4/2007 5:35:58 PM
Author: Mara


i also was thinking about that stat i posted a while back about people who drink more than 500mg of vit C per day have been shown to burn up to 30% more body fat than those who do not. i was wondering if that had anything to do with my body fat dropping as well. anyway i guess it''s all hit or miss, you just read these tidbits and think oh thats interesting!! but i figure if you can incorporate it in, why not? and if it''s good for you overall, the whole body fat loss is just a perk.

This is really interesting. Several weeks ago Lorelei and I were posting about different grim diets and I mentioned that my mother had done the "grapefruit" diet back in the late 70s or early 80s. You had to drink a full glass of grapefruit juice before every meal and I just figured the trick was that you would have to eat less to feel full since you already had all that juice in your stomach but mabe there is more to it. Hmmm... [Dee scampers off to do reserach on juice... ]

 

[basil]

Rod - I hope everything works out the way you want it to!

Mara - Sounds like a crazy night. I hate unplanned nights away from home too. I totally can''t stant to be without my contact solution and PJs. And clean underwear!

Well, somehow between yesterday morning and this morning, I lost 1.2 pounds! Even though the scale had been so stuck at the exact same weight for the past week that I started to wonder if the thing was actually broken. I hope it''s not that I was weirdly dehydrated or anything, but I don''t think so.

I bought these wrap things called "Flat Out Wraps" tonight to make pizza. They are 90 cals and 9g of fiber and pretty big (10"x7"). I was a little worried when I took them out of the package that they were so floppy, but they crisped up nice in the oven. Sort of like a cracker-y crust, not yeasty. I put tomato sauce, sauteed mushrooms, low-fat cheddar and parmesan, and turkey pepperoni (80 cals for 17 full size slices) and it came out pretty good! Next time I''ll use tomato paste flavored with my own spices rather than spaghetti sauce which was too thin for my taste. Overall I had two big pizzas for around 530 cals, which isn''t bad. I''m totally stuffed now!

 

[Rod]

Mara.....sounds like you had a fun adventure at the Ballet. I hear what your saying about being expendable. And I don''t disagree at all. But, I know the reason I was laid off to begin with was this evil president they had hired who let a lot of really good people (myself included) go during his two year tenure. He didn''t value any people who had been there a long time, and he just churned and burned through some terrific resources. BUT...he was just let go. So, current management consists of people I had worked with for years and who valued me and trusted me and who I know would not have let me go to begin with. Still, I will be cautious and I do understand now how anyone can be expendible in any environment. The advantage of this situation for us, would be to allow us to go home and that''s something I miss a lot.

Thanks for everyone''s support on my roller coaster. I guess I really don''t have any decision to make until they make an offer. Then, I suppose I''ll have to decide what to do. Though I suspect we would pretty much run back to our home if given the chance. Only time will tell.

Since I had slept so badly Friday night, I really really slept last night. Then I had a little breakfast and took a nap on the couch and woke up with Sakai, the wonder kitty curled up in my lap. Sakai is completely better now. I do know she would be ever so grateful to go back to her sunny home in Florida!!

Then we had a quick bite to eat and headed to the gym. Today''s workout was much better than yesterdays. It''s amazing how much better one can be with enough rest. I guess we worked out for about 2.5 hours and of course ended with our 35 minute intense elliptical session. Now, we''ve got some chicken baking in the oven and we''re having fresh veggies and healty brown rice on the side.

Have a nice evening everyone. And I hope your week is happy and healthy.

Ps: Glad you and your son had a good workout moving furniture Jeff, but didn''t you say you were heading back to the gym too!!??