Happy girl!

I'm in a crazy, happy mood tonight. I'm not completely sure why, I just know I feel...well...happy!<br /><br />I just got back from an evening bike ride...<br /><br />Rule #1 of biking<br />Don't stop and get off your bike when going up a steep hill. Even if your heart rate is at 161 and you're positive you're seconds away from a massive coronary, DO NOT STOP! Especially if there are people walking on your trail. They will watch you struggle to get going back up that steep hill. Sure, they're laughing "with you" as you fall off, over and over again!<br /><br />Rule #2<br />Beware of little kids on bikes with training wheels. They do not know what they're doing or where they're going. As far as they're concerned, they own the road and you're in their way. I almost crash twice tonight because kids decided to switch sides and ride on the wrong side when I was about ten feet from them. Crazy kids!<br /><br />I can't believe it's Thursday and I haven't posted since Saturday. Especially when things are going really well for a change.<br /><br />A recap of my week:<br /><br />1. I'm joining another gym! I still belong to the Bally's close to my house, and now I'm joining a gym that's about five minutes from my work for my lunch hour workouts a few times a week.<br /><br />That's what I did when I started Weight Watchers 3 1/2 years ago and it really helped. The people that work there are super friendly and it's only $19/month, with no contract. Cancel anytime. It's a smaller gym, but they have plenty of equipment and weights, and it's not crowded.<br /><br />They gave me a two-week pass to try it, with no pressure to join. Plus two training sessions. I had my first one yesterday, and he tried to kill me. I forgot how a trainer can really hurt you. I could barely walk this morning from lunges and squats. Rule #1 of working out with a personal trainer, never tell them the exercises you hate the most because that's the ones they'll make you do over and over. He's a super sweet, young man, with a very hot body. He competes in body building contests, so he knows his stuff. He's also a nutritionist, and I'm going to schedule an appointment with to talk about what I should really be eating to lose weight and gain muscle.<br /><br />2. I'm down from 199 to 191 this morning. Thank God! I was scaring the crap out of myself that I was soon going to be right back at 240. Gagan, the trainer, gave me a tip that's really helping with my cravings. He told me to stick with my protein shakes after my morning workout (with fruit, protein powder and spinach), and try to stop eating fruit around 3pm. I can't believe the difference it's made this week. I also cut out the Weight Watcher ice cream bars and Dreyer's frozen fruit bars. Apparently, if you eat sugar at night, including fructose, it causes cravings. I had no idea!<br /><br />3. Body Media - I love this thing! I got it a couple days ago, but  I didn't set it up until tonight. It's pretty cool, and kept an excellent record of my biking. It said I had 30 minutes of moderate exercise and 44 minutes of vigorous. I noticed my heart was higher than usual tonight. I still wear my heart rate monitor and often it was in the 158-161 range. Which is really high for me. Remember I'm old, almost 56 and my resting heart rate is 52. Old people have a slower heart rate.<br /><br />It's after 11pm so I have to go to bed. I'm exhausted! I hope I wake up as happy in the morning as I feel right now. I sort of doubt. I'm never a happy morning person.

Happy girl!

I'm in a crazy, happy mood tonight. I'm not completely sure why, I just know I feel...well...happy! I just got back from an evening ...

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Media Mayhem

The NFL Lockout is over. Today and tomorrow NFL players will be reporting to training camp and breathing a sigh of relief that their arduous time spent away from their team's facilities is now done.<br /><br />The NFL Lockout is over. In the next few days owners are selling tickets for meaningless preseason games that had been on the brink of cancellation only a few weeks ago. Sponsors are once again making their pitches to get their signage on various billboards, car doors, and bathroom stalls featuring their team's logo and a sign that says "Official partner of the Houston Texans and the NFL."<br /><br />The NFL Lockout is over. Today fans are calling into their local radio stations and freely discussing the impact that Matt Hasselbeck will have with Tennessee or how many games Hines Ward will be suspended due to his DUI charge or whether <i></i>Nnamdi Asomugha will even consider their team in his quest to get more money than he really needs.<br /><br />The NFL Lockout is over. Today the media smugly sits on the back two legs of their chairs and says, "Our work here is done."<br /><br />We can arguably say that the players or the owners are to blame for this lockout. But for me, my blame rests on the media. The media that needs to break in to its regularly scheduled programming to let you know that "The owners are meeting at an undisclosed location!" and then interrupt again with "We found out where the undisclosed location is: New York!"<br /><br />When two sides are refusing to meet on the basis that the other side is full of "jerks," then that may be news. But when each side is trying valiantly to resolve their problem - that is not news. That's just unnecessary.<br /><br />I understand that the NFL is the most revered sport in all the land. <i>Any </i>NFL news trumps all. But the media turned this lockout into a giant waste of my time. Whenever people talked about it, I was done - I changed the channel or turned it off. The only news I desired to hear from the media was that the lockout was <i>over</i>.<br /><br />I was reading the newspaper yesterday, and a sportswriter's quote really made me think. He wrote: "The intense fan frustration over the lockout was misplaced because, in the end, nothing of importance was missed."*<br /><br />Why was there fan frustration in the first place? If the media hadn't jumped on the story when they realized the CBA was expiring, then the fans wouldn't have thought any differently. They still had a draft. There wasn't <i>meant </i>to be football between February and July. But because the media feels it needs to have its finger on every menial "Drew Brees said ______!" story, we as fans feel a responsibility to react. If this had been done behind closed doors, 1) it may have been done faster, and 2) we as fans would feel less like idiots for being strung out for 130+ days obsessing over nothing.<br /><br />So thanks, media. Because you crave the ratings, <i>you</i> are, in fact, the losers of this lockout. Don't warn us that this thing "may take a while" and that it "may cost us up to half the season" when you probably knew full well that a deal was going to get done this summer. Your hyperactivity makes us respect you even less than before.<br /><br />We're not that stupid.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Wisconsin State Journal's Tom Oates: "Biggest Winner? The Fans" Tuesday, July 26, 2011 edition </span>

Media Mayhem

The NFL Lockout is over. Today and tomorrow NFL players will be reporting to training camp and breathing a sigh of relief that their arduous...

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A Little Lethargic

I guess because this is the first week back to work after vacation, that must be the reason why I've been so tired in the evenings.  It is seriously all I can do to go to the gym, shower, make dinner and sit down for an hour before it's time for bed.  Tuesday night I even said to Joel at 8:45 PM (I go to bed between 9:30 and 10 PM), "I wish I could just take a nap before I have to shower before the real bed time."  I barely had the energy to shower!  <br /><br />Still, I've managed to make it to the gym 3 days this week, and I will be there tonight as well.  Tuesday and last night were hard - I didn't want to be there, and my legs were just so heavy.  I'm sure this is due to the low energy.  Because I'm only doing a half day of work on Friday, I'd like to challenge myself to get to the gym for 5:15 AM on Friday, so that I can meet my 5 days per week goal.  As much as I'd like to think that I would find time to walk at my sister's, I know that won't be the case.<br /><div><br /></div><div>I had a gain at last night's WW weigh in, not surprisingly.  </div><div><br /></div><div>This weekend we are traveling to my sister's house for her town's big garage sale weekend.  I have several totes/boxes worth of stuff that I'm taking in hopes of it getting sold, and whatever doesn't sell will be donated to the local Goodwill or Salvation Army.  This will be a huge help in clearing out a lot of unused/unwanted items from our condo.  After a little over a month of living in our place, we still have a spare bedroom that cannot even be used because there are still boxes in there filled with stuff!</div><div><br /></div><div>By the way, thank you for the encouraging comments to yesterday's post!  I'm just going to keep doing this.. no matter how long it takes!</div>

Gain Random Weight Loss Thoughts Weight Loss Challenges Weight Watchers A Little Lethargic

I guess because this is the first week back to work after vacation, that must be the reason why I've been so tired in the evenings.  It ...

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Interesting links from Blog readers

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i>Submitted by Deb Avery</i><br />From one of our members, Arthur Preston, comes news of a conference on 21st Century Learning in Port Elizabeth this weekend.<br />The No Limits to learning conference will be held at Elsen Academy on Friday(Cyber-bullying) and Saturday (21st Century Classrooms.)<br /><br />The Conference home page sets this challenge:<br /><br /><i>“Technology – we have it, so why aren’t we using it?”<br /><br />The aim of this conference is to expose teachers to what’s out there in terms of interactive technologies, hardware and software that SHOULD be used in classrooms today and then how to use it and why we should use technology to be effective educators, considering the learners we are trying to teach (learning styles, genders differences, etc.)<br /></i><br />Sign up for the conference at http://www.nolimitstolearning.co.za<br />if you are interested.<br /><br />The other interesting link is from Carol Brown who writes for OnlineCollege.org. Her article "50 Reasons to invite facebook into your Classroom" makes interesting reading.<br /><br />Find the link on our Facebook Page</div>

conferences Interesting links from Blog readers

Submitted by Deb Avery From one of our members, Arthur Preston, comes news of a conference on 21st Century Learning in Port Elizabeth this w...

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