Well, I had so much to say yesterday and I totally did not have a chance to get online and write a post. So today rolls around and I forgot what I wanted to say! Oh well. I will say that as of this morning that my weight is down to 198.4!!! I'm absolutely delighted!

Yesterday morning I got up and rode on the exercise bike for an hour and a half as it was really wet and looking like rain. This morning however I got up and headed out! I got a really nice ride in!!! This is the first hilly ride since my GWG ride in mid April...so it was past time to get a hilly ride in! My heart rate was WAY up there....I got a great workout in!

sickness and weight

Whew....this morning I woke up feeling like I'd been run over by a bus....no, a bus isn't big enough, a tractor and trailer....no a train! Whew. I was reduced to routing in the bathroom for medication. But, alas I don't like to take medication. It is a totally last resort for me. SO, when I finally hit the 'storage' spot I was tickled when I found something that was perfect. I checked the expiration date. I'm not anal about expiration dates...but when I saw that this had expired in 2003 I kinda figured it wasn't a good thing to take. SO I sat there and cleaned out that drawer. My garbage can is now full! I think there was only one or two things that was left. Sadly enough, nothing for me at this juncture in my life. I will say that being upright and moving has eased it up a bit. Now the big 'argument' in the house is that I'm determined to go to the gym. My husband is just as equally determined that I not work out! Well shucks!

My eating plan for yesterday worked like a charm. I didn't even snitch an extra 6 calorie pickle slice. Because staying totally on track was the goal and the end result was that cheesecake . Instead of eating huge bites of cheesecake, I savored it and thoroughly enjoyed it!

SOooo even after my cheesecake what did the scales say this morning???? 200.2 Down! WOO HOOO!!!

Holding steady

My weight held steady today. Exactly the same. I'm cool with that. I mean for the last 4-5 days it has dropped a pound or so every day. I knew that couldn't last and continue. I'm staying on target and I've got my foods planned out for today. Because I dont' have to cook for Todd and thereby if I can control myself can use less out of my food budget, I have enough left in the budget to allow for a splurge of cheesecake. It is a lower fat version. And no, it's not as smooth and creamy as a full fat version...but it does the job. So I'm super tickled to have this treat planned into my day! And no, I'm not using mad numbers of my earned exercise calories to eat this!

I got up this morning and rode the exercise bike. I soooo badly want to be outside. I probably could have gone out today on my bike...but I"m still feeling a bit under the weather. Ok, my sinus are draining, I'm hacking up the crap that's draining, my throat is sore, my voice is hoarse. Yeah, I didn't want to get out on the bike and start to feel worse...so I rode inside. Whadya know..the first day that it's not raining and i'm under the weather! BOO HOOOOOO

Raindrops keep falling on my head!

Rain!

That about sums up the morning! Well, actually not. But it does have a lot of bearing on the morning. I heard Todd putzing around the bedroom early and looked at the clock. 4:55???? What? Is this really my husband? Up before 5AM??? No way! But he was. I mumbled hello and drifted back to sleep. I drifted in and out of awareness until he was finishing his coffee and putting his shoes on. I heard him getting ready to leave so I mumbled my goodbyes. He was going to the studio to paint the floor. He had turned off the fan so I could hear the rain pounding away on the roof. Finally jarred the whole way awake, I gave up trying to sleep and turned the light on to finish reading my book. By about 6:30 or so I was done with my book and ready to face the day. I weighed myself, ate my breakfast and directly hopped onto the exercise bike. I rode until about about 9AM.....roughly an hour and a half. Todd came home while I was on the bike and he agreed to run to the next town with me to go to the bank. So I showered and we went out for a drive through the wet dreary day. We checked on the level of the river, went to the post office, ran to the bank and stopped to get gas in my car (hey, if he's going to pump, I'd be a fool not to have him do it). We took different back roads so that we saw as much as we could see before going back home. I got home and it was still only 10AM. I didn't have to be at work until noon! So a productive morning.

My weight, dropped again this morning! YIPPEE! I'm tickled! I will hopefully soon be back under 200 pounds. And I do swear that this time, when I get solidly into the 100's that I will NOT return to twoterville! I've learned my lesson...the decline (actually the rise of the scales) comes quickly and harshly, taking no prisoners!

My health....oh what a story.

The shoulder? Hurts. What else can I say? Ever since my massage on Thursday it has been hurting worse than it's hurt in the last few weeks. Admittedly, yogo didn't help! tee hee hee Wonder what would happen if I did yoga again tonight?????? haa haa haa Ok, not a good idea, I think I'll pass on yoga tonight. However, I am thinking that a nice long soak in the tub with the Epsom salts may be a good idea.

The throat? Hurts. My voice is all hoarse and raspy. My husband is getting chuckles because I'm talking to him in this deep raspy voice. I'm leaning toward it being a simple sinus issue and not any bug (mono or the piggy flu...yeah yeah yeah...swine flu...but doesn't piggy sound much more fun??.....)due to the way that I can feel the sinus' draining and all that. We'll have to see, time will tell.

BUT, other than those two things, I feel peachy! Dandy! Hunky Dory! A little wet but pretty darn spiffy!

What was I thinking???

Got up this morning and after boiling and baking a batch of bagels that I had made yesterday. No fears...no bagels for me. First of all, bagels are not my favorite thing (I 'tolerate' them). But the kind that Todd requested I really do not like. (Everything Bagels). I had my bowl of cheerios and then we were off to the gym. 72 minutes of cardio later and we were done! We made one quick stop while in town and then we came home. For lunch I made whole wheat pizza dough and threw together a pizza for us. And then commenced an afternoon of simple relaxation. I worked on my scrapbook, trying to get some small events caught up so that I can scrapbook our vacation from last fall and then on to what I'm dying to scrap about...and that is my Girls With Gears event and weekend. :-) Moving along toward that! Dinner came and I ate wisely (fruits and veggies since my lunch of pizza took such a big chunk from my food budget). All in all, I can chalk up another day of staying in the food budget!

After dinner is when the problem began,.....or technically while I was cooking dinner. I noticed at first a tickle in my throat. And as the evening has progressed it has become a full fledged sore throat! This is not cool! Lets just look at the situation. I'm working with a gal that has/has had mono. ARRGGHHH! I"m hoping it's nothing serious.

SOOOO as if the cold wasn't' enough, I decided that I had better do a little more exercise. I have but have never used The Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga. I decided tonight was the night. OHhhh my word, I did the first two workouts (not including the warm up) and it was HARD. I was shaking and sweating up a storm as I tried to hold positions and such. But I finished. The problem? Sitting here at the computer my back is just really sore! YIKES!

Weight this morning...down again!

So far so good. I had a really good day with my exercise and food yesterday. I ate exactly what was planned. After dinner I was really craving something sweet. Not so much for the sweetness, but the tacos were spicy and I just needed something to take that tangy spice out of my mouth. SO I picked up a small piece of candy and had that. I did the trick perfectly. I logged it and I was still right where I needed to be in my food budget!

Scales are dropping. Yeah, I know that these massive drops (1.4 pounds yesterday morning and 1.2 pounds this morning) are due to water weight. But you know what...I'll take it anyway I can get it!

I just finished up my grocery list and i've culled through my coupons and I'll be ready to hit up the grocery store this afternoon....gotta restock on fresh fruits and veggies. That is the only thing with shopping for groceries only every two weeks. The second week is rather lame on the fresh produce. I plan it out as well as I can and we use my home canned produce to supplement so it's not too bad, but I'm looking forward to getting the fresh produce! And no...we save way too much money by doing groceries every 2 weeks! I found that I was spending the same amount each week (maybe 25 dollars less) for groceries versus what I'm spending now every other week. That means I've almost cut my grocery bill in half! That is amazing. Don't know if it's more close planning or the removal of two weeks worth of impulse buying...but whatever it is (probably the combination),we'll run with it!

Woke up early this morning and I rolled myself out of bed and hit the exercise bike. 52 minutes of exercise complete this morning! I'm on a roll finally the eating AND exercise is both on target. Now just to keep this momentum going. I want this weight to come OFF!

Water weight go away!

The water retention weight is slowly going away. I was happy with what I saw on the scales. Well, happier than yesterday, that's for sure!

Went to the gym this morning before work. Got in one hour and 22 minutes of cardio. I'm still not doing much strength. First because I'm bad and just don't do it. But secondly because I've been instructed to not do weights with my upper body. Ohhhh shucks! :-)

Meanwhile, my eating is all planned out for the day and I'm lookin' good on all fronts!

the attack of popcorn and water weight

I managed to not eat the kitchen cupboards and everything in them on Tuesday night. My plan worked well. I even had some extra points/calories so that I could enjoy some popcorn in the evening. However, as I was eating the popcorn, I realized my error. well, not really an error, but I realized that my weight would be skewed the next morning as I admittedly put way to much salt on my popcorn. And i was right. My weight on Wednesday morning was quite a bit higher.

Wednesday, I didn't let my weight get me down. I went to the gym and plugged away. I don't know if it was because I started on the elliptical and I have kinda ignored the elliptical for a while or what, but my legs felt like lead pipes. HEAVY! Good news, we may have found a new gym to go to. They are opening a Planet Fitness within a mile from the location of our current gym. We have been contemplating leaving our current gym for a while. One reason is cost...it's rough on the pocket book. But also because it's tight and cramped and filled with really old people. As in old people that can barely walk and are there for therapy. Nothing wrong with that...but it's overrun...in a bad way. So Planet Fitness appears to be a heck of a lot cheaper. The only real difference seems to be the exercise classes...planet fitness does not have them. Hmmmm, I've never gone to any anyway (with the exception of spin...which I did love...but I haven't been back in 2 months and when I've tried to go and call to reserve a spot, they have no room...already booked up). So we'll go and check it out when it actually opens.

I am however appalled at the gym. When we were talking to the sales person and he was giving us the selling points. And one of the selling points was free pizza night. Where they give pizza to their members that are there. WHAT???? The next selling point was Bagel morning. NO WAY! Interesting. Can't say that if we join that I'll be partaking of those perks!

So I knew I was in trouble with my weigh in for Wednesday morning on Tuesday night while I was eating my popcorn. But when Todd got home, I knew that my Thursday morning weigh in may be in trouble. You see he walked in and his first words were "wow, that smells good". Of course referring to the popcorn. SO predictably last night rolls around and he asks for popcorn for a snack. Yes, I ate popcorn again...was there ever any doubt? Sooo my Thursday morning weigh in was still high. I can only hope and pray that tomorrow it drops. I'm super determined to keep my food budget under control and not screw it up tonight so that hopefully I can recoup some of that water weight!

Finding the right fit

For years I've heard about people that just gush about how much they love exercise and it has always made me somewhat sick to my stomach. I mean, exercise....love? Do you mean in the same sentence? No way! That is not possible. But I do have to back pedal a bit and say that part of it is finding the right fit. Finding that right exercise to make it at least bearable. I doubt I will ever be a person that jumps out of bed and says "exercise is the best thing in the whole wide world". I know that I will ALWAYS have memories of the sluggard Maryfran that would rather wake up and stay in bed curled up with a good book. Yes, that is the epitome of a great day for me. Wake up and read all day....staying in my pajamas and just relaxing all day! But I digress. Even though I will never be one to just gush and rave about how much I love exercise I have noticed in the last few weeks that I am gushing about my bike and my bike rides. I find myself going to mapmyride.com to add in my rides (it allows you do to any exercise....not just outdoor bike rides, but also stationary bikes, walks, runs, weights, gym equipment, etc etc). True, all of my exercise/training entries are bike rides either on the stationary or an actualy outdoor ride..but they are all bike related. Woahhhhhhh hold the horses. What's up with this. It wasn't until my wild bike buddy talked about how much she loves her bike and how it was just utterly amazing to hear herself go on about her bike that I realized that...oh my word...I'm an exercise gusher! I don't live for it...but I really do enjoy it!

It takes finding that right fit for exercise. Finding what I enjoy and what makes me feel good. For me, biking is that. When I'm out on the bike I feel so refreshed and renewed when I get back. Not just physically, but emotionally, mentally and spiritually as well. For biking gives me that time to contemplate issues in my life, ponder situations and reflect on everything. Biking is my right fit!

Sooooo, my weight didn't budge today on the scale. No problem. :-) I did get up and we had breakfast together. I made pancakes and turkey sausage. So I'll be eating lighter fare the rest of the day. I've got my eating all planned out so as to not blow my food budget today. After breakfast, I left the dishes in the sink and I hopped onto the exercise bike and rode for 75 minutes. That left me just enough time to jump in the shower and get ready to be at work on time. Now I have to admit.....the weather is nice and I would have rather have been outside on my bike. However, with my lower back being so sore yesterday I wanted to make sure that I was ok before I got miles from home and then had a problem.

Tonight Todd will not be home. This can be a problem for me as I can be a bit of closet eater. You know, if no one sees me eat it, then it doesn't count right? Haa haa haa. but I have my plan. I've already written down my food for dinner tonight in my journal. I'll get home at about 6:15. I figure to eat and clean up the kitchen (remember dishes from breakfast still in the sink). I was watching an episode of the Australian Biggest loser this morning and it ended in the middle of a challenge! So I'm DYING to see how it ends. I have a rule, I can only watch the Australian Biggest Loser's when I'm riding (on the laptop which is propped up on the handlebars of the exercise bike...gotta love youtube). SOoooo since I'm dying to watch the next episode (it should only be a 30 minute episode) I'm planning on hopping back on the exercise bike after dinner. I'll bike that 30 minutes and then hop in the bathtub filled with hot water and epsom salts (for my shoulder) and soak for a bit. That will take me to TBL on tv tonight! And heavens, I would feel guilty eating while watching Bob and Jillian beating those guys to a bloody pulp in the gym! That is the plan! I hope it works!

weekend work report

What a weekend! The fun never stopped! I worked on Saturday morning and rushed home. Todd was just about ready to leave so I rushed around and grabbed my healthy lunch (mostly fruits and veggies). We ran up to Hagerstown to mom and dad's house. I fired up their mower and push mowed their yard, the restaurant's grassy area and my grandmother's house. All in all about 45 minutes to an hour of push mowing. Todd cut down some brush while I mowed. We didn't want to appear rude, but when the mowing was done, we piled back in the car and beat a hasty retreat back to Sharpsburg. Once in Sharpsburg we hopped onto our bikes and rode on the canal for about an hour. The canal is gorgeous this time of year with all the bluebells in full bloom. We rode between Snyders Landing and Shepherdstown (that general area) and in some areas the sides of the towpath were a sea of blue flowers. Absolutely gorgeous! We got back to our house at around 4:30 and after stowing away the bikes, I headed outside. As our riding lawn mower is still in the shop, I fired up the old lawn boy. I mowed from about 4:30 until about 6:30 or so before calling it quits for the night. (ok, I only called it quits because I broke the mower and had to quit). I went inside and made dinner and baked a cake and we had a late dinner (pizza). We were in bed EARLY as the day had worn us out.

Sunday dawned bright and early for me. I was up at around 6AM. I had my cheerio breakfast and I was off and running. BY 8AM I had the house cleaned, two loads of laundry from the day before were put away and the next two loads of clothes were on the clothes line outside. By 8:30 I was over at the studio and I was working preparing the flower beds for the upcomign season. They needed to be tilled and all that good stuff. I then moved to the wood chipper and chipped up some trees that we cut down. The chipped stuff makes an excellent mulch...and the flower beds are pretty much already mulched for the year due to my chipping yesterday. Our vegetable garden is also now tilled and ready to go also. We got back to our house at roughly 2:45 having worked out in the sun for all of the morning and early afternoon. I took a short break and drank some water inside and then back outside. I worked outside, more mowing and some transplanting of flowers until about 6PM. Then it was inside to make dinner (pesto crusted chicken, sweet potatoes, steamed brocolli). My final activity for the evening was to hop on the exercise bike. I mustered up a 30 minute ride and then called it quits!

Soooo I wake up this morning and find myself stiff as a board! My weight was up a bit. I think it's mostly water as I was drinking but I think I was sweating it out faster than I could drink it in. My shoulder is still giving me grief (but surprisingly not as bad as one would think after a weekend of work) but it's my lower back that is just making me want to scream. I periodically have problems with my lower back so I'm not too surprised. It will ease up (ironically enough, the last time my lower back hurt was the day that I worked out the stiffness on the bike...the same day that my shoulder started to hurt.....go figure). I'm sunburnt (not really bad...just a bit pink) But i'm happy with my weekends activity!

Business!

Weighed today...not happy! It seems as if my body is happy fluctuating within a 2-3 pound range and it doesn't want to go any further. The good news is it's not going up. But it's increasingly frustrating because I see 201 and then it pops to 202 or 203 or even 204. Frustrating. If I remember correctly, I had the same problem when I was getting ready to break the 200 mark the last time. So my body must like this weight! However, I'm determined to break through it! (the monthly ick could be affecting my weight today.....yeah I'll stop with the excuses!)

This weekend will be really busy. I work until noon today. I'll be rushing home and eating lunch. From there we will hop in Todd's car and heading to mom and dad's. I'll be mowing their house, the restaurant and my grandmothers properties while Todd runs the weedwhacker and chainsaw on a few problematic spots. I know from past experience that it takes about 45 minutes to mow all that up there and Todd estimates he'll need an hour. From there, we will head home and hop on our bikes. We want to take a ride on the canal today. The blue bells are up...and it is always so pretty to ride through a sea of bluebells! I'll be taking my camera! After that, I hope to come home and mow our yard. Or at least part of our yard! The riding lawn mower is still in the shop, so that will be more time behind a push mower. After that I do believe it will be time for dinner. So inside, shower and dinner! Dinner tonight is homemade pizza. I figure that with all this activity, Pizza is a perfect 'reward'. One, it's my favorite. But secondly, I'll have burned those calories before I even eat the pizza! (I have a big but low point lunch planned for myself, so even without the exercise, I probably would be ok with the pizza!)

Tomorrow it's another ride planned for me (hopefully on the road) and then garden work all day. We will be starting at the studio and doing those gardens first (we actually have someone that bartered studio time for manual labor time, so we will have help to get those flower and the vegetable garden area in shape). Lunch (we are feeding the guy) and then a full afternoon in our yard and garden areas! WHEW! I'll have laundry out on the line and I should work on cleaning the house when I have a spare minute or two. (I got on my hands and knees and scrubbed the kitchen floor last night...so the kitchen is done...for the time being!)

I'm all excited. There is another ride I want to do. It's on June 6th...and it's in Lancaster Co. How perfect is that. It's to raise money to save the farmlands of Lancaster Co. The ride is actually in New Holland. I hope to do this ride...and I'll be talking to Todd and making the final yes or no decision this weekend! This ride will be 20 miles and from looking at the route and comparing elevations seems to have no hills that are worse than what I did in GWG, and seems to be a bit flatter any! (not to mention 5 miles shorter!)

I'm hoping that life slows down some. However, I'm not sure that it will. This morning I was up at about 6:30AM. I got an hour ride in on the exercise bike (it was cold out at 6AM) and I had the clothes on the line outside by 8. I ate my breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen and got ready to go to work. Even though I had already ridden about an hour, I decided to ride my bike to work. Yessiree bob, I did. I rode my bike in to town. It's a great feeling. I'll admit that because of my earlier ride, my legs were a bit stiff and sore. Ohhh wait, maybe that's because the road I live on, is just plain no fun to ride!!! Soooooo I've had a good day of exercise.

This weekend will be busy. I'm determined to ride one if not both days. We are going up to Hagerstown tomorrow to work in mom and dad's yard (I'll mow their properties and Todd has some weed whacking and chainsawing to do). And then we have a lot of stuff to do in our yard and vegetable garden! Not to mention that our riding lawn mower is still at the shop..so I'll be push mowing AGAIN! Great exercise! Just think of all the extra food I'll get to eat because of all of this activity! I will also have more laundry to do and hang that out on the line (and then of course bring it in off the line) and the house is in desperate need of cleaning. And lets not forget the normal cooking and cleaning up that cooking entails. So no rest for the weary this weekend!

I can't believe it is Thursday already. Where has this last week gone. I think it was partly because it was such a big weekend for me. And the high that I've been on has contributed to it just flying by. Not to mention that I've been just insanely busy. I've been running errands and just going hither and yon all around town. Yesterday the plan was to get to the gym in the midst of appointments, pre-arranged meetings and those pesky errands. But somehow that just didn't happen. I think part of the problem was that after my massage my shoulder felt so good that i didn't want to 'upset the apple cart' and irritate it any! So this morning I was planning on definitely exercising. Afterall, I didn't have to be at work until 8. BUT once again life intervened. I spent a good chunk of my morning working on an issue with a company regarding something for the studio, making dinner for tonight (I have a mandatory training meeting after work tonight, so I'll be getting home later...which means I want to have dinner pretty much ready to go) and all that general stuff around the house. Let me tell you, I was scrambling to get my shower and eat lunch before I got here!

So no exercise this morning. I keep telling myself that I'll do it tonight. But being honest, I know that it may not happen. if I'm not getting home until around 8, by the time I eat dinner and clean up from that it will be 9 or so. And will I really exercise at 9PM??? If I don't, I'll be getting up EARLY tomorrow morning. NO EXCUSE!

tuesday check in

This morning I honored my vow. I weighed before my weekend began. Todd and I treated the weekend as a holiday. I did splurge and had a piece of cake on Saturday. I didn't eat all my fruits and veggies. I drank some diet soda and not my normal water. And on Sunday on the way home from my bike ride I just started thinking about how much and how good a milkshake would taste...so I got one. It was delish! That said, I still tried to eat responsibly and of course I rode my bike on Sunday for a few hours. :-) My vow was that I would get myself back on the scale on Tuesday morning no matter what. I stepped on the scale. At my pre weekend weigh in I was 202.8. This morning I was 201.8. Not to bad! Whew. So no damage!

I hopped on the good old exercise bike this morning. I'm kicking myself now. They were calling for thunderstorms this afternoon so i didn't ride my bike to work. And of course I'm sitting here and the sun is shinning! Oh well! I plan on riding a bit more tonight....either before TBL or during the first half!

I'm pretty happy with how my body did on the bike ride on Sunday. It is definitely the longest ride that I had ever done on the road!

WHEW! Yes, my bike ride is over. I'm actually quite sad. Because even though I was nervous, I had a blast!

First of all, it was absolutely great to meet Donna and her husband Andy! They totally rolled out the red carpet and welcomed us! Meeting someone that I have corresponded with for so long was a real treat and would have made the weekend special but then add that to the bike ride and it was splendid!

Saturday morning Todd and I woke up early (early for us) and headed out. The plan was to get to the early check in area for the bike event at around 10 or 10:30 and then have the day to sight-see and relax. Normally Todd and I do not get lost but wowzers, did we get lost. Somehow we totally got off the road and onto a totally different road without knowing it. So we didn't get to the early check in until about 11AM. I quickly checked in and got a recommendation for lunch. We went to a little dive looking place called Ortino's. I got a Pesto Turkey Wrap and a side salad. Quite tasty. (Todd got a salad and a veggie burger). From there we headed south to Valley Forge. We did a little of the tourist thing there. (As a side note...what an awesome place to be active! We saw horses, bikes, runners, walkers, roller bladers, sunbathers, etc). After Valley Forge we headed up to meet Donna and Andy. Great couple (yes donna, I'm being honest and saying this even though I know your reading it...don't let it go to your head...tee hee hee). We went to a vineyard where Todd did some taste testing and purchased a few bottles of wine. I'll admit, when we pulled up I was a tad bit skeptical as it looked like a total dive. I was wondering what in the world I had found online and I was thinking that I drug everyone there and it was going to be a bust. However, it was a good lesson to not judge a book by it's cover. After the wine tasting and purchase we headed toward dinner. We ate at a great place called The Perk. I got the tortellini with two big meatballs. It was sooo very yummy! And yes, I ate a little of Bessie the cow. But hey, I never said I was going to go totally beefless! After dinner we finished our tour of the town and then relaxed and chitchatted with our new friends.

Saturday morning dawned early. I awoke nervous. This was it! It was time to sink or swim! I showered and got ready to go. We had breakfast and we were off. We arrived at the park where the ride was to begin at around 7AM and we unloaded our bikes. I had a bit of a panic as somewhere somehow I had misplaced my bib number. Yes, I know that I was rider number 68...but where was the pesky bib number. I tore apart the bags in the trunk...I searched the car high and low, it was not there! YIKES! Oh well, Donna and I had walked to get the cue sheets and I had figured out that I didn't really need the number as I had already received my goody bag and my meal ticket was actually an armband (can be worn in the shower...teee hee hee) that I did have. Soooo by about 7:20 or so, we were on our bikes and heading out. We had decided to head out as early as possible so that we didn't have to worry about our speed and we could go at our own pace and stop when we wanted. The scenery was wonderful! The temperature (for the whole weekend) was fabulous! We rode. My head was on a swivel and I babbled on for the first half of the trip. I didn't talk as much the second half. :-) The first half, while more hilly was my favorite. We were on back roads. The second half of the ride was in more developed areas. Just my personal preference. I am proud to say that I rode every inch of the ride...which actually ended up being 26 miles instead of 25. I didn't break any speed records and the hills were done at a snails pace....but I did them!!!!

Getting back to the park was extremely exhilarating! I had done it! It felt great! We talked a while and then we got in line for our lunch. Lunch for me was a grilled chicken sandwich and a Cesar salad. Food tastes so good after exercise. :-) While waiting in line for our food I received the shock of my life. Posted nearby was a list of the top three fundraisers. Whatdaya know....I as number three! We went back to where the boys were and we were eating. Todd ran up to get a picture of the poster and heard them calling my name. I went and they gave me a $100 gift certificate to thank me for my fundraising. It was to the local bike shop!. We talked to Andy and Donna for a bit more and then we headed out. We had a long drive in front of us and we now had to stop at the bike shop so that I could spend my money. (Oh yeah, and the massage...I paid for a massage on my shoulder before we left). At the bike shop I briefly contemplated buying a new bike (I want one!) but decided that buying a bike 4 hours from home would not be the most prudent thing. SO I instead bought the cutest bike skort and bike jersey that matched! Absolutely adorable! And then it was off toward home!

My shoulder. I was so nervous about this ride due to my shoulder. I kept praying for my shoulder to be ok for the ride. On Saturday my shoulder did pretty good. ON Sunday while I could feel a dull ache, the shoulder was GREAT! After my ride I utilized the massage therapists that they had on the premises (it was a dollar a minute donation for a massage...with the money going toward the organization that put on the ride) . I figured it was wise to try to keep my muscle as limber as possible, and the massage therapist from last week agreed that if I could get a massage on Sunday to go for it. So I did. This therapist (the Sunday one) told me that in terms of degree of how bad this is....on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst my shoulder was an 8 at that time. And that was with no sharp pains...only the dull ache. Heavens, what was it before the first massage???? I spent much of my time on Saturday forcing myself to relax and trying to help my muscles relax. (yeah, I'm weird). Anyway, not as much pain on Sunday. So I wake up optimistic today and BAM...pain abounds! So today has been a rough day. Go figure....but hey, I prayed specifically for my shoulder to be ok on Sunday. It was ok on Sunday...but just!

Today was supposed to be a relaxing day. But it was hectic! We ended up taking Jodi to the vet for an emergency visit. $120 later and we were home. We had a quick lunch at home and then we were off back to town and a fun day of errands. We hit up the grocery store (actually two) a health food store, a craft store (yep, two of those), a friends place, oh yeah and we got an oil change in Todd's car. Got home, unloaded and put away the groceries and it was time (past time) to make dinner. So just busy and hectic!

Took today off from exercise. Looking forward to getting back into it tomorrow.

thank you card, originally uploaded by mfcstotler.

collage for TM, originally uploaded by mfcstotler.

MaryFran, originally uploaded by mfcstotler.

Today was the massage. Well, I still am quite sore. :-) But at least I don't have that shooting absolutely miserable pain that just takes my breath away. She felt my back and she was like...ohhhh your back is just a hard mass. Normally muscles are soft and pliable...uhhh not mine. My trapezius and the erector muscles on the left side are totally seized up and the right side is really tense (she said it'sbecause I've been so stiff and sore on the left that it is just naturally affecting the other side). She wasn't able to even work the muscle enough to take the pain away....it is apparently going to be a couple visit deal. So I have another appointment next week.

At the ride on sunday they are apparently going to have massages for a $1 a minute donation. I may try to sneak in and get a short massage on my shoulder. In the meantime, the therapist told me to continue with the heating pad, take warm baths after working out, and soak in the tub with epsom salt.

Meanwhile, my eating is out of control! I just can't seem to stop eating. I do not know what is up with me. That coupled with the fact that I am feeling absolutely lackadaisical about exercise and riding my bike! What is wrong with me???

Ok, so last night I gave into tempation...and the food friend thing a bit. Todd wanted dinner rolls..so I whipped some up. With half the batch of bread dough (I made a sweeter dough) I made the dinner rolls. But with the other half, I made cinnomon rolls. Uhh yeah. we each had cinamon rolls for dessert and then we each had two for breakfast this morning. They are gone..no more.

Sooo this morning I was just really fearful about stepping on the scales. It's been a couple days since I was on the scales. And of course, if you know me.....I did have some dough that I ate. Hey, I can't help it! But step on those scales I did. And my weight was down to 201.0...which is 1.2 pounds down since Saturday. WOOOHOOOOO

I have been very lax about exercising these last few days. I say I'm going to...but when the time comes I just don't. Part of it is sheer laziness. Part of it is the back/shoulder pain. (the back pain just isn't easing up...and in fact, today is the worst that it has been!). BUT this morning I did it. I woke up an extra hour ahead of schedule and rode the exercise bike for 50 minutes.