No Pain, No Gain

Or so they say. In this instance, it should be no pain, no loss. Of course that doesn't rhyme, but who cares right?

Anyway the point to this train of thought is that I worked out last night. I am amazed at how puny I felt when lifting weights. Of course I haven't exercised in over a year. In last nights class, the instructor had us doing a lot of arm/shoulder exercises, squats, and crunches. With the arm exercises, I started out with 5 lbs, dropped to 3, dropped to 2 and finally had to go to no weights. But I felt really good afterwords. Although, my muscles were kind of quivering like jello and it felt kind of weird.

I am sore this morning and just a bit tired. But it felt good to exercise again. The hardest part is sitting down and then getting back up again.

The Exercise Place Got Lost!

I drove out to the west side of town last night (slightly scary) to try out a new workout place that a friend told me about. It's called The Fit Club. Well anyway I couldn't find it. Of course I printed out the class schedule from their website, but didn't have it with me. I drove back and forth on S.R. 2 from Krogers out past the bypass and couldn't find it. So when I came to work this I checked out their website again. It's located on the west side of the bypass, but I turned back too soon. If I had driven another 1/2 mile, I would have seen it on the right side of the road. The next boot camp class is on Wednesday, so I'll head back out there before knit and try it out.

To be truthful, I really needed the workout last night too. I had a bad weekend. I went to the Quilting Day Camp at Barb's. I was doing OK staying away from the snacks (I brought some of my own) UNTIL.... Until I stumbled across the Rice Krispie Treats. Oonly they weren't made with rice krispies they were made with Fruity Pebbles cereal. OMG they were so good and so bad for me I know. So I majorly crashed and burned that day. But I did much better on Saturday. I brought a salad with me and ate it when I got there around. So I wasn't hungry for snacks. I got back on track food wise yesterday.

I am planning on changing my weigh in days to Monday instead of Thursday. It's hard to remember to do it in the middle of the week. So I won't be weighing in again until 3/9. Bonus is I get a couple extra days to make of for those RC Treats.

Speaking of the Quilting Day Camp, I finished a small wallhanging while there. I had one of those Moda 5" Charm square Packs that has been vegatating at my house for a couple of years. I never could figure out what I wanted to do with it. My friend Patsy found a pattern from Marcus Brothers. It used the Aunt Gracie Charm pack, but I like the layout so I used that one. My charm pack had lots of bright colors in it, like pink, purple, yellow, orange, blue and LIME. I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but I will.

My Quilt Guild is doing a Challenge for our March Meeting. It is called the Paint Chip Challenge. What you do is take your initials and find 3 paint chip colors that start with the first letter of your initial. Then use those colors plus a background color if you want to make a quilted project. It can be any size or shape. It's supposed to be completely done and quilted by the March meeting which is on 3/12. I almost had mine done on Saturday, but ran into a snafu. I didn't have enough fabric to finish the pieced border that I had planned. I was using up some Michael Miller Zephyr scraps I got from my friend Patsy. Another quilter Helen and I played around with it and think we have a plausible solution. Not sure how it will look. If I had not waited until the last minute, I could have ordered more fabric from Hancocks of Paducah, but since I'm a great procrastinator, I just have to deal with it. I think someone said Stitch in Time has a lot of Fairy Frost fabric, so I might go see if I can get a bit more of that to add to what I have. I am hoping to get it finished on Saturday and work on the binding on Sunday at work.

On the knitting front, I got the neck ribbing finished on my Tomato Sweater. I have to finish the arms, but I'm taking a week off to rest the elbow. Stupid Tennis Elbow! I don't even know how to play tennis. :oP I not sure yet if I want to make long sleeves or 3/4 sleeves. I'm waffeling, but it will probably be 3/4's.

First Week on the Diet

First off, I hate calling it a 'Diet'. It has such a negative feel to it. So maybe I'll call it an 'exercise plan' instead. Exercising is part of it. Yes, that's what I'll do.

I jumped on the scale this morning for my weekly weigh-in. This is my first week on the new exercise plan. I didn't think I was going to have anything to report, as I got an error message. I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought "What the .....?" I got off, let it shut itself off and tried a second time. Got the same thing. The scale is digital and apparently needs a new battery. I tried it a 3rd time after my shower and finally got a reading. I am down 2.8 lbs for my first week.

Last night I met up with Anita O. at knit night. We are planning on being partners as we both have a little weight to loose and it is sooo much easier to have a partner. I took my books along that I follow, specifying that she didn't have to follow the same ones. We had a great conversation where she made it clear if this diet book required her to give up her morning coffee with creamer, she just wasn't going to follow it? LOL I assured her she didn't have to. If you have to say "I can never have this again" your not likely to commit to the diet anyway. We are going to report into each other every 2 weeks. Of course if we have stuff to share in the mean time, we will definitely be in contact. Although I forgot to give her my phone number, I will be sending it to her.

On the knitting front, I got all of my stitches picked up around the neckline of my Tomato Sweater. I was a little thrown on how to evenly space them. Talked it over with Kathi at work and realized I had to do the ratio thing. I haven't thought about ratios in almost 20 years. Couldn't really remember how to do it. But since she has high school kids, she reminded me. So here is how I figured it: (not sure if it is the correct way to calculate it, but it came out)

I had 40 stitches to pick up and I have 55 stockinette rows. Divide both numbers by 10 and you get a ratio of 4 to 5.5. So for every 5.5 rows of stockinette, I have to pick up 4 stitches. To make it an even number and easier to fiddle with I multiplied both numbers by 2 to get a ratio of 8 stitches for every 11 rows. Since I'm a visual person, I drew a graph with 11 boxes and played around with where to 'skip' 3 rows that would make it look even. I came up with this: KSKKSKKKSKK Repeat. K= pick up/knit stitch & S=skipped row. It worked perfectly on the first side of the neckline, but I had to fudge it a bit on the second side. Might have been because I was doing this a knit night and trying to do this plus follow several conversations at the same time. I then got 1 row of ribbing done before we had to leave. I'm planning on taking a couple days off from knitting as I am going to a quilting thing this weekend, but I can't wait to get it done and be able to wear it!

Weight Loss Update

I have a couple of observations from my first week back on the diet.

1) Since I have been eating better I am not feeling totally exhausted by the end of the day. I haven't fallen asleep on the sofa once this last week.

2) Eating better foods has sparked my interest in cooking again. I have not been in a cooking mood, because all I was cooking was unhealthy junk food. I broiled a nice steak the other night with a small baked sweet potato and salad with romaine, spinach, tomato, a little cheese.

I have held off on renewing my membership to Fitness USA, because I just don't enjoy going there. So I stopped off at another one called Lakeland Athletic Club, but it wasn't what I was looking for either. I have admitted that I don't do well by myself. Both of these facilities operate basically the same. You are given a list of exercises and you do those on your own, unless you have a friend join with you. I do better with classes, but the only ones these places have are aerobics. On Friday, I'm going to try out another facility out by the bypass called The Fit Club. Sounds promising. They don't have machines, they just do free weights and classes. The first class is free, so you can try them out. Then it's either $6/class or you can get a punch card for $45 which is good for 10 classes. Will let you know what I find out.

In the mean time, I'm going to be doing some of the weights from The Cardio Free Diet Book and from a new book that I got last night at Borders. It is geared towards women and is called "101 ways to work out with weights" by Cindy Whitmarsh.

Tomorrow is weigh in day, so I'll let you know how I've done this week.

Winter is Back!

I woke up this morning to 4 new inches of snow. I actually had to wear my boots to work again. And the latch on my car door was stuck in the open position, so it would stay closed. This has happened before in cold weather, but it didn't happened when we were have the sub-zero temps, so I wasn't expecting it. I sprayed WD40 in the latch mechanism and connected a bungy cord around the handle and over to the passenger seat. As soon as the car warmed up (about half way to work) I tried shutting the door again and it finally caught. What a pain though.

Sheesh I was so hoping the snow was over with.

New Topic: I have decided that I need to get back on my exercise program. I kind of petered out over the last year. I did so great last year. I lost 30 lbs and over 27 inches. I was working with a group (B100 fit club) sponsored by the local country radio station. But once that ended I lost my momentum. I work better with a group then I do by myself. With the group, I am held accountable if you know what I mean. By myself, I'm not accountable to anyone but myself, so if I don't exercise no one knows. Well, I've fallen back into the same routine as before I lost the weight and gained back about 15lbs. I go home tired and nap on the damn couch. Then I can't sleep when it's time for bed, stay up late and wake up tired again. It's a vicious circle.

I also donated blood last month and got a new reading (non-fasting [NF] of course) on my Cholesterol In January 08 when I lost all the weight, my NF Cholesterol total was 132. So that has definitely gone up. And I pretty positive that means my Triglycerides have gone up too, which was one of the reasons I had originally started my exercise program.

I am determined to do something. So I dug out the book "The Cardio-Free Diet" that we were using with the B-100 Fit Club. And I am re-starting my exercise program. I know when I mention the book on my blog, that the author Jim Karas will get dinged on his blog. I'm kind of embarrassed for him to read this, because I was doing so well before.

I'll keep you all posted with my results.

Before & After Photos

I really do not like to have my photo taken. I always end up with the forced smile look. But I had this photo taken with Jim Karas last October when I started the B100 Fit Club.And I had Clara take this photo of me today-30 lbs lighter.
I know I feel better and am in smaller cloths, but I don't see much of a difference in the photos. I think it might have to do with the distance; one is a close up and the other isn't. Maybe I'll try another photo soon.

Revelations!

Just wanted to let everyone know how the new job responsibilities are going. I am really liking working in purchasing. I still do most of my other stuff to, but I am having fun with this. I love learning new things and I get to get away from my desk (in the front office). And to top it off, I get to shop, shop, shop. Of course I don't know what half of the stuff I'm buying is.., but hey I'll learn eventually.

I think all of the extra walking from the front office to the purchasing office, to the back to count parts, back to the front because I forgot something and then back to purchasing for a bit before starting the rounds over has been really good for me. I say this, because I jumped on the scale on Friday (first time in a couple of weeks) and I am down a total of 30 lbs. NEVER did I think I would be able to cross the 30 lb barrier. YAHOO!! I went home Friday and tried on some older jeans I had stored in the basement. As we all know size is relative. Because different manufacturers make their sizes differently. Here is a great example. My size 16 Liz Clairborne jeans fit wonderfully. (Gonna wear them to work on Monday!!!) However the size 18 Chic jeans are still too tight. I mean I can get them on (and zipped!), but I wouldn't plan on trying to breath or God forbid I try to sit down or bend over. Would probably pass out. Then I went to Kohl's yesterday and tried on some stuff just to see how things were fitting. I didn't buy anything, (1) because I still have a few lbs to go in some areas and (2) I still have a bunch of cloths in the basement that I haven't tried on yet. But how great is this!!!

While I was out and about yesterday I was enjoying the weather too. God was the weather awesome!! The sun was shining and I ended up turning the heater in the car to low and opening the windows just a bit for some much needed fresh air. I went up to St. Joe because there was a quilt shop called the Silver Needle that is going out of business. One of the partners is moving to Florida. Anyway, they had had this deal that if you saved up $200 in receipts, you received $20 worth of free murchandise. I contacted the shop and asked if they would still honor that as I still had my receipts. They said yes, so... instant roadtrip. Well, I had $150 in receipts and my friend Patsy had just over $100 worth. She gave me hers and I got free $20 worth of fabric. I got a piece of green to go with some fabric I already had and 4 other pieces in fall colors. And I bought a pattern and plastic template for a 3-D star. Everything was 25% off and then I got $20 free. I still ended up spending $36, but I got a lot of fabric. So this morning I figured that since I bought more fabric, I should maybe clean/organize the sewing room, so that I can do some sewing. When I was done, I pulled down a block of the month UFO and finished sewing 1 block and got another all cut out. A very productive morning I think.

Good News

I thought I would offset last week's bad news with a little good news.

My Mom called yesterday to let me know that my Aunt Margaret had lost her buddy. I tried to rack my brain for which of my Aunts friends might have gotten sick and died, but that wouldn't in any way be construed as good news. Well so no, that is not what happened at all. My Mom was calling my Aunt's feeding tube her 'buddy'. So after having had her feeding tube in for almost 2 years, the doctors finally took it out yesterday. Hurray for Aunt Margaret!! My Aunt had the feeding tube installed when she was going through kemo and radiation for throat cancer. She has gained about 16 lbs since she was allowed and able to start eating "real" food again. My mom said that she will still have to go back in March to have another throat stretching procedure done, so she still has to put some things through the food processor, but she's doing really well.

Fit Club Update: Even though the B100 Fit Club ended, I have not stopped my workout routines. The gym that I go to, has multiple classes each and every day. Since I work better when in a class than if I go by myself, I have been trying out a couple of the classes. I tried the Bootcamp class on Monday night (75 minutes), but have discovered that I don't really like it. The first week was fine, if a bit hard, but the rest of the sessions have been more running than anything else. In one class, the instructor had us running 'suicide lines' the length of the gym. Multiple times!! God I hate running. The only good thing that came out of that class was that I figured out that I have exercise induced asthma. There is also the Zumba Class (60 minutes), a latin dance aerobic class, which I really didn't enjoy either. I have found a couple of classes that I do like. One is the Only Abs class (15 Minutes), but am usually too late to join it. And I really really like the Signature Strength class (60 minutes) on Thursday night, with is much more like B100 Bootcamp that I had been going to. I have an appointment with a personal trainer Heather tomorrow night. Heather was the instructor in charge of the B100 Fit Club, so she will know more of what I am looking for and not just tell me to do aerobics or treadmill. My original purposes for going into this story was to say that after a couple weeks of doing aerobics and a little weight training and 1 week of weight training only, I have have come to the determination that you really don't loose weight with aerobics. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been 'stuck' with regards to loosing weight. But last week, as soon as I switched back to weight training only, I started loosing again. I have lost a total of 26 lbs and 27 inches so far. I have gotten asked by several people if I have had to go out and buy new clothes yet. The answer so far is no. When I started this all my clothes were super tight. I just hadn't wanted to buy a bigger size. So now, the cloths are fitting me great. Yes, a few are getting a little baggy, but not extremely so. And some items have been tossed in the giveaway basket, but not as many as you would think. I am determined to keep going though, not only for my health which has improved, but also because I have a friend getting married in May and I want to buy a new outfit for it.

PS: I forgot to mention something that happened when I went to the doctor last week to have my bloodwork re-checked. I got the standard look in ears and throat check. Then the doctor asked me to lay down so he could check my stomach area. I was in the process of telling him about my new exercise/diet program and as he was poking here and there, checking my gallbladder/liver/whatever, he suddenly says "wow, you really have been toning up!" I was so proud of myself!!

Owee! Owee! Owee! (Aka My Time to Whine)

I hurt! I tried an new exercise class last night at Pinnacle. It is the Bootcamp class, so I thought it would be similar to the B100 Bootcamp classes that I had been having. Well it was "similar", but more intense too. And due to the weather warm up, the place was steaming hot. And I mean HOT!. It must have been in the 80's or 90's in the building. I had to stop several times to try to cool down in the middle of an exercise. So glad I didn't forget my bottle of water. My thighs hurt the most, but the back of my arms ache too. We did A LOT of squats and at one point the instructor joked that "every time you sit down to pee tomorrow, you will remember me." Well just a word to her, they are not very fond memories at the moment. And the worse thing is that I always ache more 2 days after than the day after, so I know I will be even more sore tomorrow night.

Well, here is the latest update on my weight loss saga:
Lbs lost this week = 2.2
Total lbs. lost = 24
Percentage of weightloss = 9.74%
Total inches lost = 23 5/8

And now on to non-whiny matters. This weekend is my annual winter quilt retreat. Yeah! I can't wait to see everyone. I haven't figured out what projects to take with the exception of 1. I have a baby gift to finish. I would have finished it last weekend, except for that nasty flu episode. I volunteered for the Saturday Brunch meal and we will be having: Upside Pancake, a variation of the Egg Muffins from Giada, a Tropical Fruit pudding thing and fruit juice. Sounds yummy to me. I have to think over some good healthy snacks to take along, because there is always lots of snacks. I think I will do fine though. And I can always go back to my room and do crunches and squats Right!

Weight Loss Milestone!

Just wanted to share with everyone my exciting news from this weekend. Please bear in mind that this information is PRE-Christmas. I didn't dare weigh myself this morning, even though I think I did pretty well yesterday.

I CROSSED THE 20 LB. BARRIER THIS WEEKEND!!!!

I weighed myself bright and early Monday morning and I lost 5 lbs. last week. That brings me to a new grand total of 22 lbs. lost. I am just so excited about crossing that 20 lb barrier. Also, on Saturday, I was visiting with my friend Teresa and we were discussing some of the different exercises that I have learned from both Jim Karas and Heather at Pinnacle Gym. Ones we hated versus the ones we liked. I told her how I had been unable to do the side plank exercise. She was unfamiliar with that one, so I got down on the floor to demonstrate it to her and OH MY GOD! I could do it!! When I first started working out with the Cardio-Free Diet, I could barely lift my butt off the floor for this exercise and had to struggle to do it from my knees, because there was no way in hell I could do it from my ankles. I was blown away that I could now do this exercise!

I cannot believe how much I have benefited from all the strength training. I never got this much success when I was huffing and puffing on the treadmill or elliptical or stairmaster or stationary bike. I whole heartedly recommend this book and exercise program to anyone who is thinking they need to loose weight or to just strengthen their muscles. Personally I think calling it a diet is a misnomer, because to me it is not just a diet it is a lifestyle change. It has taught me better ways of eating, and yes I still occasionally have something "bad" to eat, but I don't beat myself up about it (at least not too badly ;o) ), I just do some extra exercises and eat better the next meal. I find that I think more about what I am going to eat now than I used to. I just don't go running through the drive thru or have a cake snack to tide me over. And when dining out, I really look through the menu and ask myself 'what would be better for me, the grilled salmon or chicken versus the fried chicken or pasta or whatever?'

So anyway, I just wanted to share this with everyone and to let everyone who has been cheering me on know that I really appreciate you comments of encouragement.

An uneventful week, sort of.

Well, this has been a pretty uneventful week. Although I did finish 2 of my knitted gifts. I have to get those wrapped and boxed tonight, so I can mail them out tomorrow. If they don't get where they are going by Christmas, I guess that's OK. I'm still working on the 3rd gift. Hopefully, since I work on Sunday, I will have at least 1 whole day to sit and knit on it and get them done. I do have a back-up gift sitting by in case I don't get it done, but I am planning on getting it done!!!

Once of the ladies in my knitting group (Jessica) is working on a Celtic/Aran sweater and I find I have been bitten by the celtic bug. I have yet to try my hand at knitted cables, but I just love the look of them. I have done 3 quilted wallhangings with appliquéd celtic designs on them. So I have been looking and browsing and I think I have finally found the one I want to do. It is the Denmark Gefjon jacket by Elsebeth Lavold. It was published in the Winter 1998 issue of Knitters. Elisabeth brought the magazine to Bella Vita last night for Carol, who was looking for the A-line Aran Sweater. I took one look and fell in love with the jacket. I will have to shorten it, as I'm not too sure the long jacket style would look good on my pudgy body. Elizabeth and Chris assure me that once I have my gage swatch done, I should be able to figure out how many stitches to leave off the cast on. You know, in the quilters world there is the handbook called "Taking the math out of quilting", well I think someone should do one of those for knitters.

B100 Fit Club Update: Well the B100 fit club has officially ended, but I still have 2 bootcamp sessions left. My totals so far are: 18.4 lbs lost and 19.25 inches lost. All the weight training is making me feel stronger and hey, I've shrunk 19 inches! I love it. I still have quite a ways to go, but I don't seem to be struggling as hard as I always did before. I plan to join Pinnacle Gym, because they are going to be starting up the bootcamp workouts again after the new year. Today I am actually wearing a pair of jeans that I tossed aside this summer because I couldn't get them on. And I really mean "on", not just couldn't get them fastened. YEAH ME!

Multiple Updates

I know, I have been neglecting my blog lately. It seems that at first there will be nothing new to say, then I have too much to say so nothing gets said at all.

I have been working on Christmas knitting. I have 1 item done, 1 a little over 1/2 done, and I just started the 3rd today. I'm not going to be posting too many details of those until they are sent out. I had to set aside my Cascading Leaves Shawl until I have the Christmas knitting finished. It's getting down to crunch time and I really need to kick it in gear. I have some Christmas sewing to do also, but those items are going to be "belated" gifts. I will be working on them during the Christmas break.

Last weekend I went to the Frog Pond Fiber Arts group's Christmas Party. It was such a blast. There were so many people there and so much yummy food. I brought knitting along with me, but didn't do any of it, because there was so much chatting going on, I couldn't tear myself away from the conversations long enough to remember where I was. Thank you Elizabeth for opening your home and letting us all in. I hope we didn't make too big of a mess and it wasn't too much trouble to re-re-arrange the furniture. Oh and the Chicken Tortilla soup was scrumptious. We had both a door prize (knitting related items) and a White Elephant gift exchange. The white elephant item did not have to be a knitting related item, although the one I received was. Here is what I got. I did not have either of these books. And Aubrey showed me this really cool cabled hat in the SNB Nation book. PS I also got a true "White Elephant" gift. I got an outdated Exel 97 computer book. I mentioned it to one of the 'computer' geeks at work and he said he still runs Excel 97 at home, so guess who getting that!!! I had a really nice Stanley Thermos in my hot little hands, but it got stolen. :o(


On Tuesday night, I went to a Christmas party with my former quilt group (BTW this is party #3 this week). The Tuesday Night Crazy Quilters meet in Hartford, MI, but the ladies travel from all over; Niles, South Haven, Bangor, Coloma, St. Joe, Dowagiac, Hartford, Decatur. I joined that group in 1990 at the ripe old age of 18. I have grown up with these women and love them all. I never really realize how much I miss them until I we all get together. Because of the distance, I just don't get to see them as often as I would like. I do go to their quilt retreats ever year though. I think I have only every missed 1 since they started having them. Originally it was just a fall thing, then we added a spring one and now they have added a winter one too. (Can't wait for January!) They are always so much fun and so productive. Since I learned to knit, I think I get more sewing at retreat then I do the rest of the year. A big Thank You to Teresa who hosted the party. And Nancy really needs to give me the Pomegranate/cranberry salsa recipe. Oh man was that good!!

B100 Fit Club Update: I keep missing the radio broadcast that announces the team loss totals, so I'm not too sure where the Dazzling Divas stand. I will see if anyone knows tonight at the bootcamp. I lost 1.8 lbs last week, which brings my total loss to 17.8 lbs. If I loose approx. 6 more lbs, I will have hit my 10% goal. Then I will set my next goal for another 10%. I learned in weight watchers once that you'll feel better setting the smaller goals and that each one will be a milestone once you hit it. It's better than saying I need to lose like 90 lbs total and seeing what a huge difference there is between 90 and 17.8. Also, last week I donated blood. When you do that, the blood bank tell you your total Cholesterol. It is of course a non-fasting test, and I think that is supposed to mean that it would normally be higher than a fasting one. Someone please correct me if that is wrong. In October when I had a fasting cholesterol test done, my total was 157 and the results from the non-fasting test was 136. SOOOO, I pretty sure that means my Cholesterol has come down as a result of this diet. I can't wait until January when I go back to have the blood work re-checked. I want to know what has happened to my Triglycerides!

Tonight is Christmas Party #4 of 5. I am going to bootcamp beforehand though. And I am brining a salad to eat for dinner, since I know I will be hungry after the workout and I don't want to pig out on all the goodies that I know will be there.

Snow!

I woke up to 6 inches of snow this morning. I just love snow. At least when it first falls. Once it starts getting grungy from all the snowplow dirt, then I want it to go away. But the sun was shining this morning and it was the light fluffy snow. The picture above is actually my car parked across the street at work. It would have been a bigger impact if I had taken the photo at home where the car was still covered with snow.

B100 Fit Club Update: I am a bit behind on the statistics for the Dazzling Divas. At last count we had lost a total of about 83 lbs. There are 8 members on the team. I must have missed it this morning in between the school delay/closing announcements. I had mad cravings this weekend and ended up gaining .4 lbs (damn that new digital scale). That makes a total of 15.6 lbs lost. I also did my bi-weekly measurements, and the news is that I have lost a total of 17 5/8 inches. 10 1/8 inches of that amount was lost from my midriff, waist, and hips. I have slacked off on counting my calories and actually writing down what I eat so that I can track everything better. So, I have decided I must get back into the habit of that. Wish me luck this next week, because starting tomorrow, I have 5 (yes I said FIVE) Christmas parties to go to. There will be 2 catered and 3 potluck style dinners. Tomorrow is my company party and we will be going to Reggios Italian Restaurant. Very YUMMY. I will be going to exercise class before the party starts though. I figure I need all the help I can get.

Post Holiday Review

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Day. My family got together at my Aunt Margaret's house for some really yummy food. I was in charge of bringing the Pop. Yup, can you believe how easy I got off. Didn't have to prepare any dishes. Although I did bring along some cauliflower, broccoli and celery to add to the veggie tray. This was done purely out of self preservation though. Because if I have those to munch on, I figured I would be motivated to leave the cheesy dips and crackers alone. I did try the 2 dips my mom brought along (cheddar and olive) but since neither of them were my favorite Baked Chipped Beef Dip, I was able to stop. Now if it had been the Chipped Beef Dip, oh man would I have had a hard time resisting that!

We were all very happy and proud of how much Aunt Margaret was able to eat. I know that is not something you normally hear someone say around the holidays. But Aunt Margaret has spent the last year recuperating from throat cancer. She is cancer-free (Thank God), however since she has had a feeding tube in for over a year, her esophagus had shrunk. She has had several throat stretching procedures over the last month or 2 and was able to eat a little bit of several different items. This is the first year that we had totally whipped mashed potatoes, because she couldn't handle the lumps. But she was nice enough to save some out for me before they were too whipped. I wouldn't have cared as long as she was able to enjoy them.

I stayed late and played several games with my cousins, Emily, Becky and Erica. We started out with a dice game called Left, Right, Center. It's fun, but it would have been a lot funner if we had been playing for nickels. But since none of us had any change, we just played for chips. The dorky part of it was that we only had enough chips for 2 rounds then we had to re-divvy up the chips. After that got a bit boring, we decided to play UNO. I had forgotten how much fun that game is. It was such a hoot. And I won.!! By 1 point, but I still won. :o) Did I forget to mention that my cousins are all between the ages of 10 and 14?

It started to snow just before the game got over. I was amazed at how bad the visibility was. It took me about 15-20 minutes more to drive home. And when I got up the next morning to go shopping with my Mom, I was amazed to see that we had gotten 6 inches of snow overnight. 6 Inches! For a first snowfall of the year, that is quite a lot. And what is even funnier, is that my Mom, who lives 30 minutes northeast of me only got a dusting and the same goes for South Bend, which is 30 minutes southeast of me. I meant to take pictures, because it was so beautiful with the sunlight sparkling and the trees all heavy with snow. But of course I didn't.

B100 Fit Club Update: Color me amazed! I actually lost weight over the thanksgiving holiday weekend. I lost 3 lbs for a new total of 16 lbs lost. Last week I calculated my inches lost and it was 12 3/8 inches. I can really tell the difference in my clothes too. On Saturday, I tried on the XL Diva T-Shirt that Deb (the team captain) gave me and it fit great. Of course I haven't washed it yet, but it wasn't tight at all. And yesterday I wore an older scrub shirt to work that I had stopped wearing because it was too small. It was loose!! Yeah Me!!

4 Weeks on the Program

B100 Fit Club Update: I have now been on "The Cardio-Free Diet" by Jim Karas for 4 weeks. Today was my official weigh in day. I can hardly believe the results. I have lost a total of 13 lbs and 12 3/8 inches. I am so excited about this diet. The best thing is that it doesn't feel like a diet. I eat just as much if as before, if not a little more when you count I get 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. And I have been making healthier choices in regards to my food; More veggies, leaner meats, no fried foods, etc. And exercising with either weights or the resistance bands 3 times a week. I'm loving this! I especially love not getting on the treadmill or elliptical machine or stairmaster.

Speaking of food, has anyone tried those new Steamer Bags by Glad or Ziploc? I tried the Glad ones this weekend when I was at work. They work fabulously! I used 2 bags and made Cajun Salmon in one and Lemon Pepper Asparagus in the other. And my meal only took about 10 minutes to make, including prep time. I actually cooked 2 pieces of salmon and enough asparagus that I have leftovers for lunch today. I would really recommend giving those suckers a try.

On the Knitting front: Since I worked both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, I did a little updating on my Ravelry page. I put in all of my knitting needles and crochet hooks. I put in a bunch more yarn (mostly sock and lace), I just have to add pictures of those which I haven't gotten around to taking yet. Also, I started the Cascading Leaves Shawl by Vicki Mikulak. I am working a double strand of Knit Picks Shadow lace yarn in Grape Jelly. I have 2 repeats finished. When she said that it was a fast knit, she wasn't exaggerating. It is going along really well. I also got some more knitted on my Raspberry Truffle Felted Bag. The pattern is Tote Around by Janet Scanlon from Knitkit.com. I have one of the I-cord bind-off rounds done and only have the handle and 1 or 2 more I-cord bind-off rounds to go. Thinking I'd like to get that done this weekend. Maybe, depending on how much I knit on the shawl and the socks and the scarves I have do to for Christmas presents and the UFO scarves I found that I started 2 years ago and forgot about.....

Happy Birthday Frog Pond

Tonight, the Frog Pond Fiber Arts group will be celebrating its first birthday. We are getting together for cake and ice cream. I have already planned ahead for my diet. I brought some fresh fruit and will have it over a small scoop of the ice cream. Personally, I am hoping they bring chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, because that will be easier for me to resist. I'm just not crazy about chocolate cakes or cupcakes; chocolate candy bars yes! cake not so much.

B100 Fit Club Update: Last week on Thursday I announced that I had lost an additional 3 lbs which brought my total to 13. I gained 3 lbs back over the weekend from hell. But I am glad to report I have now lost those 3 lbs again. Technically, I should be able to count that as 6 lbs lost I think; since I lost it twice. This weeks team losses are:

Dazzling Divas (8 members) = 15 lbs for a total of 55 lbs lost over 3 weeks
Chunky Monkeys (11 members) = Total loss of 136 lbs over 3 weeks

I'm trying to find out if B100 will be posting all the group totals to their web-site for viewing. If so, I will put up the link.

Bella Vita Night

I had a real good time at Bella Vita last night. It is fun hanging out with the knitting gals. Since I missed last week to go to the Chavez Family Weaving thing at ND, I didn't realize how much I would miss it.

B100 Fit Club Update: (Forgot to put this up on Monday) Last weeks weight loss was 2 lbs, which brought me down to a total of 10 and my team the Dazzling Divas is down 40 lbs. My update for today, is that I jumped on the scale this morning and I am down another 3 lbs. That makes a total of 13 lbs. Yeah!! Now all I have to say is "God give me strength to get through the weekend". My brother and I are taking our parents out for their 40th anniversary on Saturday night. Restaurant food is my downfall. The portion sizes are just too big. One of my coworkers gave me this great tip yesterday (She has lost over 30 lbs on Weight Watchers). When you order your dinner, ask for a take-out container to be brought with your dinner. Before you even start eating set a portion aside. If it isn't on your plate, your less likely to keep eating until its all gone and there's nothing left to take home.

Jan Got her Socks!

Yeah, I just got word from my Monkey Swap Pal that she did get her package. Only she was away visiting her daughter when it was delivered. I am so relieved. I was paranoid that the PO had just dropped it on her doorstep and some unknown knitting junky had driven by and snatched it. Here is the link Jan's post. Now that I know she has everything OK, I will post my own pictures of the items. She loved the socks, which makes me real happy. This was my first swap and I had such a good time putting it all together. When I first started the swap, no matter where I looked, I could only find stuffed Monkeys. Everyone else was finding stuff all over the place, but not me. But I did find enough stuff and was able to through in a few extras. And I'm glad she like the stethoscope cover I made out of Monkey Fabric that I found at Erica's. I was worried after I sent it because someone mentioned that some offices weren't allowing their nurses to wear them because after one use they weren't sterile anymore. But she said she's using it and that she like it. I just got this great glow this morning, knowing that she was happy with her stuff.

B100 Fit Club Update:

Today was Weigh-In Wednesday, where B100 announced all of the teams weight loss results. I really didn’t hear all of the non-DJ teams results, although I did catch that 1 team lost 30 pounds. I think it was a Goshen team. The results for the DJ teams are as follows:

Super Jock Jamie & the Couch Potatoes = Lost 25 lbs.
Deb Miles & the Dazzling Divas = Lost 30 lbs. (This is my team)
Cody & the Chunky Monkeys = Lost 58 lbs.

I am so amazed at everyone!! Great job to all of us.

I “fell off the wagon” last night. Well, not totally. I went to a function at ND about weaving. They said they would have snacks and drinks. Was hoping for a veggie tray, but all they had were chips/salsa and cheese tortillas halves. Well, I had about 10 chips with salsa and 1 small cheese tortilla half and a bottle of water. Then for dinner, I stopped at Martins Deli and got a salad with garlic wine vinegar dressing. The only thing was that I really didn’t have any protein except the little bit of cheese that was in the tortilla. So this morning, I was starving by the time I had breakfast.

1st Week Weigh-In

B100 Fit Club Update: I have completed my first week on "The Cardio Free Diet" by Jim Karas. Really, the diet is not hard to follow at all it just involves counting calories, which I have never done before. I just keep a log of everything I eat and since I love playing around with spreadsheets I made up a spreadsheet to track everything and automatically add everything up. I also added a tab that has my exercises on it and one to track my weight and one to track inches lost. Did I mention I love to play around with spreadsheets!! :o)

I have tried a couple of the recipes from the book that I would not normally have tried. They were both really good; the Grilled Salmon and the Creamy Eggs with Spinach and Tomato. I was a bit leery about the Creamy Eggs, because in my mind I have never added creamy, eggs, and spinach together. But I took a chance and they were good. Next time though I won't cook the tomatoes in it. I like them raw and just layered over the top better.

I emailed my results to Deb, the Dazzling Divas team leader, this morning. I have lost 8 lbs in the first week of my diet. I am so excited!!!

UFO Updates: I got half of the binding done on Landon's Toddler Quilt. I just couldn't watch the "Transformers" movie and sew at the same time. I thought I was supposed to see McKelle this Friday, but nope it's not until next Friday. So I have one week reprieve . I will finish it next Sunday.

Another UFO Bites the Dust

I have been wanting to start on my Temple Guardians quilt, but I thought before I start another appliqué project, maybe I should finish the one I have started now. I mean it was only 7 flower petals and 4 flower centers away from being done. So here it is! I finished it up last night before I went to bed.
I made this to hang in the kitchen. I am planning to paint the kitchen a pale yellow and decorate in blue and white. I actually have the paint, just haven't got the actual painting done yet.

B100 Fit Club Update: Doing great on the new meal plan and diet. I made Grilled Salmon for the first time in my life last night. I've never really liked fish, because I don't like the smell of raw fish. It's just to Fishy, if that makes sense. I do like Talapia, very mild and almost no smell. Anyway, my salmon turned out wonderful; so moist and flakey. I grilled 8 min. skin side down and then 5 on the other side. I had grilled asparagus with it and it was yummy!! Also, I weighed myself this morning and I have lost 4 lbs. Tomorrow night I will be going to Pinnacle Gym to work out with Deb Miles, our group captain. Maybe someone there can show me what I am doing wrong with the Standing Hamstring Curl. This is done with a rubber exercise tube around your ankles. But every time I try it, the tub just slides up my leg.

Monkey Sock Swap Update: When I got home last night, I found a little orange card in my mailbox letting me know that the PO has a package for me. I am so excited!! My only regret was that the PO was already closed, so I couldn't go get it right then. I can't wait to head home tonight. Will post photos tomorrow.