The Maintenance Club

There aren't many people who're active on the maintenance forum, but i'm convinced that maintenance is the affirmation that the project of weight loss/gain that we have gone through is not just a phase, but a commitment to a lifestyle.

some dietary habits of people who have lost weight and stayed slim:

1. Drink water before/during meals
2. Don't skip meals
3. Keep a food diary
   
4. Eat lots of vegetables and whole grain food
5. Exercise moderately and regularly
6. Weigh themselves consistently
   

we might not practice all of them... but we do at least have some things that keep us on the ball/on track! I'm hoping that this thread will help to keep those of us on this forum accountable and motivated. We could post our profile, and edit our post every week on friday to update one another as to how we've been doing, and to get motivated if we've been slipping off the wagon!

I'll start the ball rolling!

Name: doedoebird

Age: 21

Height: 5'6"

Starting Weight: 130lbs

Current Weight: 112lbs

Maintenance Range: 112~115lbs

*Now vs. Then: I'm definitely less sluggish, less easily fatigued, fitter (i can jog 6 miles at a shot!). Oh! and I've got better skin (and hair) too. :3
*i thought that this will help us remain motivated to stay on track subsequently whenever we feel tempted to slide off!

Aims: Regular and moderate exercise (3-5x a week of 30~60min moderate exercise), relatively clean and balanced (vegetarian) eating. Listening to my body (get better at eating when hungry and stopping when full).

Weaknesses: Boredom/emotional eating, a propensity to laziness and procrastination, a bottomless pit when it comes to certain foods (chocolates, cookies , ice cream and pastries....)

Strengths: I try to be self-aware. I am (or at least i try to be) kind to my body (in terms of both diet and exercise). I actually do like exercise (its after-effects especially). I'm a fidgety person. :3

**How I did this week, goals for next week: Last week was great, but a sleepover during which i didn't get any sleep has been leaving me dead tired for the past couple of days, exacerbated by the fact that i'm having my ToTM now (been feeling extremely weak and achy), and i'm also pretty stressed because i'll be going away from home for exchange in about a week. This week I'm just hoping to be able to hold on, stay calm, eat more (i've been having a terrible appetite) and do very light and relaxing exercises!

**I'm thinking that we should check in and update once a week, and the next week, we'll check in and when we do, clear away what we wrote down for the previous week. For me, this is symbolic. It's a pledge to move on, and refuse to be bogged down (or caught up) by what we did wrong in the past.

anyone with me?

mdillman~  I think the kickboxing or martial arts would be really fun, but my hubby doesn't see why I need to do those things.... I think it's mostly because they are expensive.  So, for now I'm going to hold off on those.  Maybe in the future.  If you like to cook, you could join a cooking class, or some sort of sport?  Bowling league?  My hubby and I used to be in a couples league w/his parents when we lived back home... it was pretty fun, but always involved drinks and empty calories.  Your book sounds like it's going to be really interesting... I like the mystery/romance novels.  I'm about 5'7" and 135 right now.... I think I may shoot for the 130.  I don't think I'm going to allow myself to get any lower than that though.  Don't let me, okay?  ;)  I mostly just want to get rid of the stomach pudge so I can see what's under there.

hello everyone!  How are all of you?  I am having a particularly good day.  I have been keeping up with my resolutions (spanish and writing being the two that i need to turn into a habit, since i've already been eating healthy/staying active those two are a little easier).  I wrote a whole page last night in my book, which is pretty amazing to me considering i now have 11 pages and I started the thing last july...three of those pages were written since jan. 1st. 

I went on the barnes n noble website today and found a book club that meets on jan. 19th at 7 pm...a day and time that i can definitely do...

Do any of you know whether or not someone can just show up at a book club?  It didn't show any real way to sign up, but i'll look again to double check. 

Also, i'm at work right now, a job i've only had for about 2 months, and I'm realizing that I really really like this job.  The people are all very very nice and the tasks are never stressful or overwhelming.  I can freely get coffee (from the kitchen, i can't really ever leave the building unless it's lunch, but i'm okay with that) or eat a snack anytime of the day. 

My husband this morning made me very angry, and then he surprisingly (very shockingly) recognized it and apologized!  (he's a great husband, cooks and does dishes, but is usually terrible at apologizing when he says anything hurtful). 

So at the moment, I'm thoroughly happy. :-)

Hope you all are having a great day also!!

mdill--sounds like a great day! That is such a nice story about your husband. Wonderful the new job is working out so well. The week, the month, the year should keep going so well!

Hey all!

Are you all having as busy of a week as I am?  Yesterday I finished a big time research project for a local law firm (still haven't gotten "feedback" yet - kind of nervous about that...) and today school started back up!  I've been scrambling to keep up with the readings because I didn't have any time to mentally prepare.  In fact, I should be reading now, but what fun is that?

Mdillman - glad you had a good day.  I love having a day that just puts a smile on my face :)  And good job keeping up with the writing!

Oh, and Karey, I wanted to say that I have 30 day shred, too (in fact, I have the whole JM collection) but I have to really be in the mood for Jillian because she is kind of abrasive.  The turbo jam videos are fun because they are kind of cheesey and very upbeat, so even if I don't feel like working out (which has been the case a lot lately), I do them any way because I know they will imporve my mood.  Jillian DEFINITELY gives me a good workout, though!  Level 3 on 30 day shred is especially gruelling...oh, i HATE supermans!!!!  They make me grunt like a football player!

But yes, turbo jam--- I have gotten 4 new ones from my recent order, and I did one last night and one today and they are great!  It's a good thing, too, because we just got another big snow storm and I can't get to the gym!

Given my goal to gain a few pounds, I have tried to adjust my workouts accordingly.  Typically, I do mostly cardio -- running 3-5 miles 3 days a week, 2-3 aerobics classes, and maybe 1 or two strength training session a week.  BUT, I have learned that when you are trying to gain weight (or just muscle), doing too much cardio can be detrimental, so I have tried to cut back.  I am still running, because I have heard you need to keep up with that or your body can "forget" how and you risk injury when you start back up...but I have cut it back to 2 miles at a time, 3 days a week.  I've also tried to substitude more strength training for cardio.  This is actually part of the reason I bought all the new DVDs because I only had a couple of weights videos and a bunch of cardio.  So now I have new weight training videos!  Tonight I actually did one with "resistance bands," which I found to be much easier than weight, so maybe not as good for building muscle, but a lot easier on my joints!

Man, I can really get going when I talk about working out!  What do you ladies do for your workout routines?  Karey, I know you said you were thinking of joining a gym.  I know your husband is worried about the money for a gym (they can be very expensive!) but I love the variety that I can get at the gym.  I love fitness classes - in a week I can do kickboxing, strength training, pilates... Plus I love being able to swim.  Now THAT I definitely can't do with a workout video at home!!!  Are there any gyms near you that offer introductory specials?  Or have you talked to your insurance company to see if they discount gym memberships?  Ours actually covers up to $300/year/person for "health and fitness activities."  Anyway, just a thought.  You seem to be having plenty of luck without a gym, but I know I like at least having the gym option.

...and my last topic in this marathon post: gaining weight.  Today I was 122.6, which is much more what I want to see.  Don't know how much of that is food/water weight, though, because I know it's very unlikely that I gained 4 pounds in less than a week. 

I wonder how long I should/need to keep this up, though.  Typically, I love food and when I fist bumped up my calories, it was like Christmas all over because I could eat whatever I wanted!  But now, eating has become a chore and I actually enjoy it less than when I was closely monitoring my calories.  Also, I feel like I really need to "make my calories count," so I am eating all these high-cal foods (like energy bars, protein shakes, granola bars with chunky peanut butter...oh, and NUTS!  Who would have thought I could get sick of nuts!?), but I miss my normal diet of streamed veggies and lite toast with PB2!

Man!  Calorie counting is HARD!  No matter if you're losing, maintaining, or gaining, it seems like it's always a struggle! 

Anyway, I hope you're all having a great week.  Thanks for reading my 500 page long post!

Pumpkin~Good job on the weight gain...that is actually exactly what i weigh right now!  But you're probably taller than me (i hate being short--very difficult to find good jeans.)  I can understand how eating the amount to gain would be difficult after enough days of it.  Sometimes I will have not portioned my food right for work and get stuck eating way too much after i get home and i used to love that, but now it's annoying because i want to keep healthy about it and it gets difficult. 

My workouts are always done at the gym.  I occasionally walk around my apartment complex or by the river, but any lifting or real cardio work is at the gym for me.  I just started jogging outside there too, there's a nice trail that has the mile markers and everything (I can finally jog 2 miles non stop.  that's something i've wanted to do for years, just able to in the past couple months).  My husband is in the military..so very lucky for me, the gym is free.  I know some day that won't be the case though, so i do plan on buying a membership at that point, and i have a feeling my husband would too.  I'm really bad about owning weights or exercise equipment...once i have it it's too easy for me to find an excuse not to use it. 

I wish our gym had a pool though!!! That would almost make me want to buy a membership at some other gym (if I won the lottery, haha). 

And I hate this, but whenever I'm feeling good about my body I get a crazy craving to go tanning.  I know a lot of gyms offer that as part of a package deal, and I know it's really unhealthy, but if my gym had it, I'd probably use it once a week or so.  But, our gym doesn't have that either.  I live in the south though and my apartment complex has a small pool, so when memorial day weekend is here i will probably lay out every weekend...I kind of can't wait.  After the holidays are over I start looking forward to the warmer weather very early.  Especially this year...I was at my highest weight last summer...my bathing suit even broke (very embarrassing story)...now i'm back down to my early college weight (YAY!) and can't wait to try on bathing suits (another insentive to maintain.).

Also can't wait to wear skirts again.  I used to LOVE to wear skirts.  The flowy kinds that go to the knees or to the floor.  I wore them every summer until last year.  I think it was my subconscious feeling unattractive in them.  i have a ton of them that stopped fitting last summer, so i know they will fit this year (they may even be a little too big now!).

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

Greetings, everyone - all you young chicks!

Wow, I admire how you work out, jog, do cardio work, etc.  Lately I've done Zilch - I'm lucky if I fast walk 2 miles once a week.  And I haven't yet shed the extra 2 Christmas pounds ):

Now that all the "bad" food stuff is gone,  I think I'm eating OK - back to healthful cereal for breakfast, salad for lunch, veggies, potatoes, a little protein for dinner.  My rut is 3 glasses of wine and lo-cal popcorn.  Hope I'm not harming myself with microwave popcorn every night!

I'm not exercising enough because we are beginning this major renovation of kitchen and master bath - I have been literally living at Lowe's and shopping online.  You wouldn't believe how hard and how time consuming it is to try to pick out:  lighting, cabinet style-wood-finish, knobs and pulls, countertops, flooring, etc.  It's literally mind-boggling and very tiring.  I'm not complaining - I'm sure I'm going to love my new kitchen and bath and am very grateful to be able to improve them.  But it is playing havoc with my exercise.  

Hello everyone! 

Sorry, I have been kinda MIA lateyl... I've just been so busy and worn down from working and just living life, I guess. 

Lydia~  Congrats on gaining some of that weight back!  Oh, and I actually tried out one of the Turbo Jam dvd's.... I don't like it at all.  It was very cheesy and they kept dancing around and smiling - I couldn't even keep up!  I think it lasted about a minute or two and I was done with it.  I think for dvd's I'll just stick with my J.M. 30 Day Shred.  I can actually keep up with her and I feel like I'm accomplishing something using the weights and everything.  I use 5 lbs weights and I can definitely notice a difference in my arms and back from that dvd.  If you're a coordinated person I can see why you may think the Turbo Jam dvd's are fun.  I haven't gotten the nerve to try level 3 yet, so I'm not sure what a superman is, but I'm afraid!  Jillian can be very abraisive, but I kinda like that... she's a no-nonsense kinda girl!  ;)  Also, I think it's very smart that you're cutting back on cardio... even if you're not trying to gain weight I don't think cardio is all it's cracked up to be.  I agree that if you do more strength training you'll be better off in the long run and still be lean.

A few days ago I decided to take my workouts in a new direction... more strength training.  My goal is to build some serious muscle and look sexy!  Gotta get rid of that last bit of pudge and make my body hard, not soft and squishy.  LOL  I bought the book The New Rules of Lifting for Women and am in the middle of reading it now.  So far it's a wonderful book and I really like it.  I think it's going to help me accomplish my goals.  Hubby bought me a new weight bench too, so I'm very excited!  I did a few lifts the other night after my 30 Day Shred dvd and it felt great - hard work, but my muscles are still sore!  The book has six months worth of workouts in it and some eating plans/advice, so I'm really hoping to find some time this weekend to get reading so I can actually start the workouts soon.

mdillman~  You're so lucky to get a free gym membership!  Your gym sounds pretty nice though.  I think it's good you don't have tanning, it's very bad for you and the people that do it all the time are going to look HORRIBLE when they're older.  I have to admit that I have been tempted, but I try to think of horrible dry and wrinkly, saggy skin and it helps to keep me away.  ;)  Good job on the 2 miles!

Sue~  Don't stress over two pounds, they'll be gone in no time at all.  At least you've gotten all the "bad" food out of the house, so that's good.  The only possible downside to having popcorn every night that I can see may be the sodium, but that's not a big deal.  You're so lucky to be able to remodel your kitchen and bath!  I'm jealous!  Wish we could do that (to the baths, the kitchen was done when we bought the house), but we are currently in the process of getting our septic tank fixed - it needs a new drain field.  We're currently waiting for the city to issue the permit so they can go dig up the yard.  After that, we have to have a new roof put on soon.  Fun stuff.  LOL

Hi everyone,

Karey - nice post.  It looks like you are doing the right things to accomplish your goals.  How nice that Hubby participates.  That DVD 30 Day Shred sounds like something I maybe could do - I'll look into it.

And Lydia, congrats from me too!

mdillman - I know what you mean about being too short to find good jeans.  It sounds like you have a nice location to walk.  I used to jog, but overdid it and had to have knee surgery, so now a fast walk and occasional spurt is all I dare do.

Went shopping today.  Potatoes for Hubby to go with his meat (someone gave him a certificate for Omaha steaks, and our freezer is loaded!)  For myself I got spinach, leeks, marrow bones to make bean soup, and the shrimp was fresh and on sale, so I got that for dinner.  Made the vinaigrette, and we had a nice dinner of shrimp and spinach salad, plus potatoes for hubby. 

Hubby is tearing out the tile floor in our kitchen, and we cleared out the master bathroom and closet.  They will start the bathroom expansion next week, and I'm really excited.  Our house was built in the 60's, and the master bath and closet are tiny and full of doors.  You enter a door from the bedroom and have 1 sink, and a door to the left for the 3' by 3' closet (for both of us).  Another door straight ahead leads to the tiny corner shower and toilet.  It's going to be really nice to have more room.

Sue~  Thanks!  Yeah, check out the 30 Day Shred... it's nice if you want to do something with small weights and aren't very coordinated, like me.  I just went shopping today too... bought a bunch of strawberries, bananas, and gala apples.  Oh, and some lettuce for salads.  Trying to make sure I get the fresh fruits into my diet and I'm also trying to up my protien intake (suggested in my lifting book).  You sound like you are such a great cook!  I wish I could cook... I'm not very skilled in that area.  The renovations sound so exciting!  It'll be nice for you to have more space.  Our house was also built in the 60's... it's pretty small too and so is our master bath.  Wish I could afford a renovation for it, but we're still working on getting the septic replaced.

Got a good workout in this morning... did intervals on the treadmill and got up to 4 1/2 miles.  Eating was very healthy too, excpet for work I had to go to a meeting tonight and they had ordered in Boston Market.  I only had a dab of each thing and lots of veggies... tried to keep everything in moderation.  Boss is leaving so i have to go to a goodbye party for her Tuesday night, so that means more food (I heard something about getting chik-fil-a... hopefully not) and cake.  Ugh.  It never ends.

On a brighter note, I've read almost all of my New Rules of Lifting for Women book and I really like it!  I found it very interesting that there was a section about counting calories and how it can be very bad for your body and muscles to deprive your body of that extra energy and nutrition (make you feel sluggish, hormone issues, mood, etc).  They give a whole equation to figure out your RMR, etc. so that you know how many calories to start at.  I'm going to use their equations and see what I come out at and start there and adjust for days I lift and days I don't.  Planning on starting the workout tomorrow - can't wait!  Hoping to get some good results.

hello to everyone :) first time posting in maintenence.

Breakfast: 60g oats with 300ml semi skimmed milk, rasins, apple walnuts and brown sugar

Snack: almonds and a banana

Lunch: w.w egg mayo and tomato sandwich, yogurt, apple

Snack: houmous and carrot sticks

Dinner: homemade vegetarian cottage pie with extra steamed veg (2 portions)

Desert: chocolate mousse

Snack: slice w.w toast w/ peanut butter.  Glass hot milk

Hello all!

Did my first day of my new weight lifting routine yesterday!  I was surprised at how tough it was to get all 2200 calories in!  Today is my off day, so I only have to eat about 1900 or so.  The scale is still being nice to me though!  I'm 131.4 today, getting really close to my final goal of 130! 

Hope you're all doing well!  =)

Hey ladies!  It's been kinda quiet around here...

Well, I seem to be moving the other direction and away from that goal of 130... I was 132.4 this morning.  BUT, I do think that my muscles are still healing and holding water, so maybe it's not as bad as it appears according to the scale.  I'm just nervous because I've heard so many people on here complaining because they gain weight when they first start lifting.... so far for me it's only about a pound, not too bad.  I did notice that my body fat % this morning was an even 24% and I KNOW that it was a bit more than that the other day... so, maybe this WILL work for me.  I shouldn't be so obsessed with attaining a number.  I should be healthy and if I'm a more solid and muscular 135, or 139, that's great.  I'll have more muscle to burn extra calories, I won't be "skinny fat" and I'll be stronger and lose some inches.  I guess this should be my new focus.  Anyways... enough about me!  

How are you all doing??  Everyone keeping busy?  I've had a lot of days off of work since it's so slow.  :(  A day or so is nice, but more than that and you get bored.  LOL

Hello!  I'm sorry I haven't been around for a while.  I hope everyone's doing well.

Karey-Hope the nrlfw workouts are going good.  I looked up that book and will probably end up getting it before the summer.  I have heard so many people talk about it on here that I almost feel obligated to try it out, haha.  If your muscles are sore, you're definitely still retaining water.  And I heard you'll know when that's over with because you'll have to pee a lot more...I've actually experienced this, which was weird when I knew why I had to go every 15 minutes even though I wasn't drinking more water than usual.  If you're gaining weight in muscles than you'll LOOK better, and no one knows your weight by looking at you, they'll see the toneness and such, so pounds of muscle are fine...plus you'll be able to beat people in arm wrestling contests, haha.

Sue-Hope the bathroom/kitchen remodeling is going good.  I wish we had a bathroom to remodel.  My husband and i live in a 1-bedroom apt which over the last two years we are about to overflow with stuff we've accumulated.  I can't wait to have a house. 

I've been writing a lot since new years...i have 16 pages total so far...and that's single spaced in word with the 1" margins, so i think it's really like 30 'book' pages.  It's even freaking me out (story has a ghost in it and I keep writing at night).  I hope I finish it by the end of november and then i'll print it and read it again and make corrections and stuff.  That'll take at least a whole month...probably much more since it actually takes me a month to read a real book.  If, by then, I've really written the whole thing, printed it, reviewed it, and made corrections...I'll send it to publishing houses!!  That would be an accomplishment, huh?  I won't even care about the 'rejection' notices.  I'll just be excited to get someone to send me something that says I've written a book.  Then again, I learned in a writing class that publishing houses don't want the 'whole' thing, so i'll just send a few chapters, but i can't do that until i know i have the whole thing written, so it'll be practically the same.  See...I'm getting carried away...this is how I felt at the beginning of losing weight...excited to see results and it gave me more motivation to keep it up....so hopefully this excitement to write will help me keep this up all year!

Hope you're all doing well.  I have a 3 day weekend for MLK day monday, can't wait until it starts 5 hours from now..This day is going so slow...

Hi everybody!

It's gppd to be back.  I've spent the last 4 days in Lakeland helping my oldest daughter with her 3 daughters while her husband was away on business.  Hectic, but fun, but good to be back to get on with kitchen & bath renovations - oh!  won't go into detail on that right now!

Welcome to Butterfly:  your food looks good so far.  The Chocolate mousse:  diet form or the real thing?  It's one of my favorite things!

Karey~  good for you for weightlifting and monitoring so well.  I Need to do some weightlifting, to build/maintain bone.  I have a bone scan this week - hope the results are good and the doctors doesn't recomment meds!.  I really made myself sick on Boniva when he prescribed it 2 years ago and have refused to take it, relying on calcium and exercise instead.

At my daughter's house in Lakeland I did weigh myself and seem to be maintaing OK.  We went to an vegetarian restaurant and I had vegetarian sushi - delicious!

Mdillman~  Let me know when you decide to get the NROLFW... I'm really liking it so far.  Yeah, I have to pee ALL the time, but I've been drinking a lot of extra fluids lately too... trying to make sure I don't retain too much water weight.  Way to go on getting 16 pages done!  Wow, you've been pretty busy!  Enjoy your 3 day weekend!  I like your new pics too, you look great!  =)

Sue~  It's nice that you were able to go and help out your daughter.  I'm sure her kids really enjoyed getting to have their grandma around.  I hope your bone scan goes well and you get good results.  I've heard that weight lifting is great for your bones too.  Good job on maintaining!!

I'm proud of myself because I didn't weight myself this morning.... I stared at the scale and was thinking about jumping on it, but stuck w/my decision not to.  :)  I really need to wean myself off of the everyday weighing, I don't think it's a good thing... once a week should be sufficient for me, otherwise I get obsessive about the number.  Besides, my weight will probably be a bit off anyways because of the new lifting routine/sore muscles, so I'll wait a bit and then go ahead and check, just to make sure I'm on track.

Hello everybody, hope all is well ~

I'm feeling bad this morning - 106 on the scale!  That's 5 pounds over what I want to be, even tho I fast-walked 1.5 - 2 miles yesterday and the day before.  I know it's partly because I'm not getting the exercise like I do when the weather is warm and I can get outside and work in the yard and garden.  I'm going to get back to logging on weight and food religiously.  This morning I ate leftover succotash because there was no milk for cereal and no bread for toast.  Probably ate too much - I'm going to go and try to figure out the exact weight and calories for the dishful I ate.  (Like I should have done that before eating it, I know.)

It's freezing here again this morning.  And today will start the laying of the foundation for our bathroom expansion, and probably soon they will start tearing out the kitchen; the cabinets were finally ordered yesterday.  Ugh!  I don't know how all this will affect my eating.  We will have the refrigerator and microwave standing in the hall....

How is everybody doing?

Hello all!

Sue~  Cheer up!  I'm sure you'll be back down in no time at all!  Once you're back into logging your food you'll see where you were off and get back into a routine again.  Good job on the fast walking though!  You probably need to walk fast to keep warm around here lately, lol!  I had to wear a sweatshirt and a jacket when I took the dog for a walk yesterday, it was so cold and windy.  At work yesterday, the hoses out in the kennels were actually frozen for awhile!  Haven't been outside yet today, but it looks cold... going to go out and take the dog for a walk soon. 

Glad you got your cabinets ordered and they've been working on your expansion.  So exciting!  I'm happy because they finished our new septic tank drainfield the other day... now the whole backyard is a mess of dirt and sand, but at least it's done.  Now I can do laundry again and run the dishwasher.  yay! 

I've been doing great with the weight lifting workout... I can feel that I'm getting stronger and I'm increasing the weights a little each workout.  My arms are stronger and my stomach is flatter.  I'm pretty sore after my workout last night though, so I'm making sure I get some extra protein today and just do light activity.  I've been doing great w/not weighing everyday.  I did weigh-in today though and was surprised to see that my weight is at a new low - 130.8!  Not sure how that happened... I've been reading about so many people that start lifting that go UP in weight for awhile at first.  Huh.  I've been eating quite a bit though... close to 2200 calories on lifting days and 1900 on days off.  Guess my body is liking the extra food and nutrients.  ;)

In other news... my hubby and I just booked a cruise to the eastern carribean!  My sister and her boyfriend are going to be on the same ship, too.  It's not until late April, but I can't wait!  I'm soooo excited!!  I've already bought two new bikinis for it.   :)

Karey,

Thanks for your cheering words, you give me encouragement.  I did log my breakfast and am about to log lunch, my usual green salad with 2 oz. feta cheese, skipped the lo-cal pudding and had 4 strawberries instead.  My friend is coming over and we are going to cook spaghetti sauce.  Will try to watch it, and the wine.

I have put a bid on Ebay for the 30 Day Shred!!  Hope I'll stick to it!

sounds like you ar edoing great with your weight training and maintenance - kudos!  Keep up the good work.

It's been so cold here I have had to wear scarf and gloves when I walk.  And I have baby broccoli and cherry tomatoes planted.  We covered them; hope they survive.  I can't wait to get back out in my garden!

Sue~  You're welcome!  :)  Hope you're having a good time w/your friend making the spaghetti sauce!  Also, I'm sure you'll enjoy the 30 Day Shred, I love that one!  I used 5 lb weights with it and I was starting to see a difference in my arms, so if you stick w/it I'm sure you'll get some good results.  Took the dog for a walk a little while ago and it was pretty nice out.  A bit cool, but nice with just a sweater on.  I can't wait until our warm weather comes back though, enough of this.  Bleh.

Karey ~Just a sweater on!  That's not bad.  Today is warmer, 60's, so I'm going to get out and help my husband prepare a rose bed.

Spaghetti sauce was great - my friend is a really good cook.  she made meatballs, which I never do, dressed them up with egg, oatmeal, cilantro, Tabasco - made plain old Ragu sauce (which is too sweet for me, I won't eat it) taste good.

I won the bid for the 30 Day Shred!.  Hope getting outside and using that video will help me shed these 4-5 pounds.