this weeks Weigh in, days events, a new challenge and etc.

This week I lost the 2 lbs I gained due to medication and 2 more besides. Yea! So I'm at 204 lbs with only 4.2 lbs to go to meet my next goal of under 200 lbs.

The rest of the day has been quite busy with the bike ride to and from Weigh in, a total of 8.8 miles. Then working on the chicken coop and later DH decided he was in the mood for ice cream. We decided to ride the bikes it's about 2.5 miles each way. about 2 miles into the trip to Dairy Queen DD took a significant spill off her bike and we ended up having DH ride home for the van and then went to Urgent Care instead. DD was a great but ended up with a lot of scrubbing for road rash on hand, elbow and knee and 6 staples in her knee. To add insult to injury she had to get a tetanus shot too. Poor thing. It was a pretty traumatic day for her as she has never had to have stitches before. DH being the awesome Dad he is took us for Ice cream after urgent care at 10:30 PM even though he really was no longer in the mood for Ice cream. I ate about 1/2 of a kids scoop at 31 flavors. I really wasn't interested in any more. DD is now passed out with the knee on ice and elevated. She earned a pamper day tomorrow even though I suspect the Tetanus shot will be the worst of the pain tomorrow, but hey trauma deserves some bit of babying.

DH has proposed a new challenge of 45 minutes a day 5 days a week bike ride and Bite it ,Write it for 2 weeks. So far I'm doing OK on the bite it write it. but I've already missed last Sunday and Friday for biking so I'm really going to have to be careful not to miss any more of my rides. Once again the Prize will be an unknown and not as big as the last prize but I think he got a bit carried away last time! I love that he cares enough to challenge me to really do this when I start getting off track.

etc is all trivial...

DD#1 and the Grand kids are arriving in 8 days I need to get things ready for them to visit. DH told me that his Dad and SO are coming sometime in July. So finishing the chicken coop and major house cleaning, and gardening are an URGENT need. I will be busy for a while, but it will be nice when all is in order.

I'll try to post more often now that I am back up to speed physically. I need to keep updated on the challenge anyway!

DH just reminded me of one more thing. I have some jeans I pulled out of the closet to wear while working on the chicken coop. They are about 24 or 25 years old and they are a bit loose! So that would mean I'm in a smaller size than I've been in since my early/mid 20's. I've never tossed them as they are still in good shape. (it's been a LONG time since I've been able to wear them!) I've moved these old jeans from norther CA to Southern CA to Texas back to Norther CA a couple of places in Northern Ca and then on to Oregon. I've maybe struggled into them a hand full of times since but they've always been very tight. I do believe that when I lose another 10 lbs or so maybe I'll buy some Jeans in a smaller size and burn the darn things! Hey I'm only one size away from buying clothes in the regular store not in "Women's Plus Size stores"

Gee does this mean what I'm really doing is "Down Sizing"?

ONe week later...

I've been flat on my back for a whole week. I'm finally feeling better but very afraid that I'll re-injure my back. It's been a grim week of horizontal position drugs and TiVo killed in a freak power glitch.

As you may well guess my weigh-in yesterday wasn't good. I'm up 2 lbs. One good thing is that I know it is partly due to the steroids and water retention. But Not moving for a week isn't good either.

So I'm going to gently ease back in to moving and hope for the best. The lawn needs to be mowed today. I'll try it and see if I can do it. Lucky me it's a SMALL yard. Tomorrow I'm going to try for a short ride to the grocery store, then maybe a bit farther each day this week. The chicken coop still isn't built and that will also figure into the exercise this week these chickens need to not be in my living room! I'm hoping we can have it completed sometime on Sunday as we have family coming in a couple of weeks and I need a bird free dust free place to put them!

I guess my diet goals is watch the food and not hurt myself.

Yesterday's Weigh in and What did I do?

Yesterday I was up 0.6 lbs. I know what happened. I didn't log my food Like I said I would and I only went on ONE 9 mile bike ride. My intention was to fix that this week. Yes I started logging food. Then some how....

I hurt my back. There is NO way I could get on a bike. I had trouble getting my underwear on this morning, getting on a bike isn't going to happen for at least a few days. Sigh. I can say I feel better today than yesterday. Not great you understand but way better. I don't need my DH to help me out of a chair today. I seem able to go up and down the stairs without having to drag my left foot up each step. (I couldn't even lift it enough to step up one step!) I'm definitely limiting my self for a few days in the hopes that I will heal by the weekend and be mobile enough to help DH build the chicken coop. These chicks need an outdoor home ASAP! Granted they are still lovable, adorable and cute, but you can tell by their reaction to our excursions outside that they want to be out in the big wide world. Better or not this weekend is build a coop weekend.

No telling how much riding I'll get done but I am logging my food and will be extra careful to make sure that I at least I'm not shooting myself in the foot with food.

Shopping for Bike shorts

Wow! Yesterday We all went to the bike store so I could replace the bike shorts I had out grown. I figured that surely I could find a pair in size 2X to replace the old size 3X's that were just too big. Yeah right all they had were 1X in the store. DH says try them on. OK. I was sure that there was no hope and I'd have to order online and hope for the best. Anyone who is larger than normal will tell you how much that sucks. The size 1X fit! No binding or pinching etc. I even had a choice of 2 styles!

That's right. SIZE 1X FIT! I think maybe I'll take the old ones to WW and ask if one of the ladies who is just starting to ride wants the old ones. It would be a shame to toss perfectly good size 3X bike shorts and I'll never wear them again. Tomorrow is weigh in. I'm not sure what it will bring but wow I've come a long way. I've still got a long way to go but I am going to get there.

This week in brief...

I read a couple of books. Did some garden work and was reasonably good about diet. Finally today I did a ride that was a about 9.2 miles and tomorrow is church and that will be another almost 8.8 miles. No records but better than sitting on my rear all week.

Today's ride was a bit special though. DH went out and scouted a ride for me this morning. Then he came back and DH DD and I each took our own bikes and rode the route, with a mot so brief stop to see "Up" at the local theater. DD has never ridden her bike that far by herself. Usually when we go on family rides DH and DD take the tandem. Everyone did well. DD only had to walk her bike up one hill and it really was a tough one. I made it up the hill, but it really was tough. I'm very proud of her for not only finishing the ride but not complaining about it at all.

Our strawberries are finally getting ripe. We've picked a little more than a gallon of them so far this week. Yum! Of course that means We've been eating more dessert than is a god idea. I'm going to have to freeze some and make jam soon. It looks like we have a bumper crop this year. Speaking of harvesting... Fava beans, Mustard greens and Peas are also being picked and we are really enjoying them too.

This weeks weigh in... ( Week 22)

Is a loss of 1.4 lbs that's down a total of 32.4lbs. I'm finding that I'm loosing slower in the last 6 weeks. About 1/2 as much. It really dates back to visiting my family. I got out of the habit of logging all my food and I really need to start logging it all again.

I did get a huge grin in WW meeting today. One lady who it seems was inspired by my bike riding told about how it got her back on her bike. She took it down and got it tuned up and then decided to ride to a friends house about 5 miles away. The friend said she would bring her home if she needed a ride home. She made it about 6 blocks. But she made the effort. That to me was big. Another lady told of getting her bike out and it taking 3 people to help her get on the bike. LOL She said she gave up when after all that to get on she fell off. Poor thing. I am very pleased that people are trying. I'll keep encouraging. Hopefully they will keep trying.

It's been a busy week.

Lots to do, not much time on the bike. I'm feeling it. I need to get a good ride in tomorrow.

I did talk DD into going to the grocery store with me on our bikes. She was a real trooper. I think that 2.2 mile ride each way was about the longest she's done on her bike. It was certainly the longest on high traffic roads without being on the back of a tandem. We still have some work to do before she's ready for real road riding but she is doing well and eager to do it. I'm very proud of her.

I need to try to get out on the road more myself. I need to find some good bike rides that I can do in under an hour. Either than or I need to get my bike back on the trainer soon. At least on the trainer I can squeeze in 15 minutes here and there. even if I can't get out for a couple of hours at a time.

Down 2.4 lbs for a total of...

31 lbs even. Now if you subtract the 1.6 I was up last week that's only down 0.5, but I'll take it. DH says I look like I been losing so I think I may be gaining muscle mass and losing fat. I have been doing a LOT more exercise in the last month than I used to.

I'd like to push a little harder and see if I can get under 200 in the next 2 or 3 weeks. I really don't want to get stuck at a decade mark again for several weeks. The weather is supposed to cool a bit over the next few days then warm up into the 80. That should be very comfortable riding weather, better than the 90's anyway. Last week I rode about 27 miles. Today I did 8.8 miles and if I do a couple of grocery store runs (2.2 miles each way) this week and can squeeze in a fun ride or 2 maybe I can do better than last weeks 27 miles. I need to ride with DH at least once if I can, as I seem to push harder when riding with him. We replaced the batteries in the bike computer on my bike but it's still not working. I'm not sure if we have the instructions as it's an old one that DH used to use. I guess I'll just have to start timing my rides again to figure out how fast I'm going. Google map can tell me how far it is. That will work till we figure out the Bike computer issues.