Loni's Life

Ok, I'm feeling a little better about the scale this week; though not all of last week's mystery gain has disappeared. Had some good laughs at dinner tonight - Mamma C, BFF and her DH are always a bundle of fun.

http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/2009/03/todays-writing-prompt-entrepreneur.html My BFF and I would probably start a kids to adults birthday party business. We would take the best of her cake baking and decorating skills and combine it with my Stampin' Up! talents to create birthday parties centered around stamping cards or projects followed by cake and ice cream.

http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/2009/03/todays-writing-prompt-creative.html I will be creative today by knitting and maybe even do some rubber stamping since we are just doing a 'short' indoor ride of 2 hours. I never thought I'd see the day when 2-hours was a "short" ride.

My contribution to the bake sale was 16 decorated cookies thanks to the elves at Wilton. I love their products and figured these would make a pretty addition to the bake sale. Not sure how the cookies themselves tasted but the icing, the candies, and the gumdrops used to decorate were all quite yummy.

Here's Mocha in the Window enjoying the fresh spring air (that was not today!)... Today was like Old Man Winter had returned to stay... what did that darn Groundhog predict... think we are getting that 6 more weeks of winter after all.

I spent the night at my BFF's home to help her package cookies for a church bake sale. I was in her husband's den of solitude playing on FB when she brought me cookies from the first batch. One sniff and I could tell they had been over-baked and they looked quite brown too. So I look at the cookies and I look at her.. i must have had this dejected puzzled, quizzical , how come I get the rejected cookies look. Aren't I entitled to the good cookies? Apparently she had a slight mishap in the kitchen and had definitely over baked this batch and the cookies I had WERE the good cookies ~ at least from that batch. She redeemed herself on other batches I was able to get the really good cookies. Additionally, I had gotten Wilton pre -baked Easter egg shaped cookies to ice and decorate, so we were still able to contribute nicely to the bake sale with eye catching candy coated fun looking cookies.

TGIF ~ It's a rest day from the gym. I'm hoping the JC scale is kinder than the TOPS scale. I still think the scale just lies or it's just a serious test of my mental abilities. Tonight I'll be helping BFF with some cookies for a bake sale and maybe playing some Wii. Tomorrow we were going to have our first outdoor ride of the season since my BFF has been cleared for outdoor use. However, Mother Nature is upset that we didn't ride in the snow in February so she's dropping a ton of cold weather on us tomorrow. So the revised plan, because my aching butt just cannot do another 4 hours in a recumbent bike in the gym... we'll drop off the bake sale items at the church in the morning; then we'll go to Starbucks where I can knit and BFF can study for her certification exam; then we'll get 2 hours of indoor cycling done; get some lunch; go to the mall and get BFF's nails done (since they are driving her absolutely batty). Hopefully, the weather ...

Mocha is quite happy that Phoebe has gone home since she can have full run of the house again. Phoebe is a sweet, lovable, and playful German Shepherd. Phoebe is hard to tire out... I think DH was only able to tire her out after a big day of play in a large field playing fetch (and that was after a mile and a half run). Phoebe also likes to play rough with her own kitty, Xena; so Mocha is usually relegated to the comforts of the master bedroom for the duration of Phoebe's stay with us. This is to keep Mocha safe (especially as she likes to sit at the top of the stairs and taunt Phoebe).

Hellified Dedicated... Ok , that's about the only way I can put it; that even on a rainy, soggy, miserable day with calves already sore from Monday's workout that we make our way to the gym to do 30min ride + 30min strength training. In the past, we would have easily seen the weather.. and though working out indoors, I could have easily suggested to my BFF (who hates getting wet in the rain), hey, why don't we just take it easy today and go home and rest the sore muscles.... to which she would have easily responded " ok , see you in the morning for breakfast". But no... since I had booked us appointments for 6pm for massage therapy to take care of the sore muscles, we figured we might as well go get the light workout done for today. Did that and then the poor massage therapists had a heck of a time working out all the knots... i think they could have easily worked on our legs for the whole hour and still needed to work on them some more. We left there feeling...

http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/2009/03/todays-writing-prompt-puzzle.html I am constantly puzzled by the scale... some weeks I don't really "work" at losing weight and end up with a big loss.. and other weeks I work my tail off including keeping a daily food journal plus exercising 12 or more hours and net result is a hefty gain.. what's up with that?... the scale lies. I am furthermore puzzled by this chick who think she needs $53K per week in her divorce settlement.. Douglas-David has filed court papers showing she has more than $53,800 in weekly expenses, including for maintaining a Park Avenue apartment and three residences in Sweden. Her weekly expenses also include $700 for limousine service, $4,500 for clothes, $1,000 for hair and skin treatments, $1,500 for restaurants and entertainment, and $8,000 for travel. Gimme a big-fat-break here..... It's called learn to budget and live like a real person you Greedy Wench. Learn to drive; buy some Mary Kay c...

http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/2009/03/todays-writing-prompt-puzzle.html It puzzles me how someone that is ill-equipped to care for the 6 children she already has can deliberately set out to have 8 more. It further puzzles me that she seems so shocked by the amount of intrusion into her life that has occured as a result.

Excerpt from: http://thepracticalpw.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/1-some-marriage-tips-from-my-dad/ Remember - marriage is a team effort and you’re both on the same team. Some words to think about … THE SIX MOST IMPORTANT WORDS “I admit I made a mistake.” THE FIVE MORE IMPORTANT WORDS “You did a good job.” THE FOUR MOST IMPORTANT WORDS “What is your opinion?” THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT WORDS “If you please …” (Although Ken would’ve said “as you wish,” since he was a Princess Bride fan.) THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT WORDS “Thank you.” THE ONE MOST IMPORTANT WORD “We.”

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A dull ache has taken permanent residence in my tushi... but we got thru 4 hours of indoor cycling today. We also took M's bike into the shop for a tune-up and Bike MS inspection; plus finally got her into clips for her cycling shoes. While she was in the bike shop, I went next door to a running gear shop and picked up some Nike Air Equalon 3's for the same price I would have paid online. Then I went back to the bike shop and spent my Christmas gift cards (thanks Mamma C plus M, S & S) and bought some new cycling shorts. I'll get my bike up to the shop for its tune up and inspection some time this week.

After 4 hours of indoor cycling followed by a hot shower and then a Pampered Chef party, I am tired and about to fall asleep while typing this email. We get to do another 4 hours tomorrow; then Monday we'll do a shorter indoor ride and strength training. Off to get some much needed rest.

My DH has been going thru a series of groundhog days since his mom fell and busted her hip... pretty much his days have been get up, go to the gym, go to work, go to the hospital or rehab center after work, come home, go to sleep.. repeat. She was released from rehab last week, so now just replace hospital/rehab with go to mom's house. For myself, I've also been going thru a series of groundhog days that are basically get up, go to work, go to the gym and cycle a lot, go to Subway for dinner, go home, play with Pet Society of facebook and check my emails while watching TV, take a hot shower, go to bed, and repeat. Included the periodontal home maintenance work in there too. I must say, I am sleeping quite soundly except when Mocha decides she wants attention somewhere between 4 and 5am... I haven't quite gotten her to understand "snooze" or "go back to sleep" The extended cycling sessions are getting easier, though I will be glad to get outdoor...

A dull ache has taken up residence in my glutes... fear it may be a resident for a while as we train for the Bike MS and Tour de Cure in May. We finished up 2 hours of indoor cycling at the gym. Thank goodness that tomorrow is a rest day! I sure hope the JC scale is looking a bit more favorable than the TOPS scale did this week. It's almost depressing to work this hard and the scale doesn't budge.

Really? A turtle (stayed the same on TOPS scale)... after 9+ hours of cycling and keeping my food chart and making healthy choices.. a turtle... really... what's up with that... so unfair... see my post " Green " I am certain that if we just keep up this hard work consistently, that not only will we do well during our cycling events, but sooner or later these stubborn fat cells must shrink.

http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/2009/03/todays-writing-prompt-green.html Ha, easy one... people that can pretty much eat what that want and exercise very little and have no weight problems. Meanwhile, I can look at a picture of cheesecake in a magazine and somehow absorb the calories ~ or ~ that I have to really do the meal planning and spend hours in the gym before I see just small results. Somehow, it just doesn't seem fair.

This week's plan Minutes 30 + Wts Wednesday, March 18, 2009 120 Thursday, March 19, 2009 0 Friday, March 20, 2009 240 Saturday, March 21, 2009 240 Sunday, March 22, 2009 90 Monday, March 23, 2009 0 Tuesday, March 24, 2009 Last Week Planned vs Actual 144/0 Wednesday, March 11, 2009 108/0 Thursday, March 12, 2009 0/0 Friday, March 13, 2009 240/200 Saturday, March 14, 2009 240/240 Sunday, March 15, 2009 96/96 Monday, March 16, 2009 0/0 Tuesday, March 17, 2009 828/536 (65%)

Yippee, I'm doing OK, we did 96 minutes last night and my rear didn't object too much. I am sleeping really well and feeling more energetic. Today is a rest day, whew! This afternoon, I go see the dental hygeniest for another checkup and the ultrasonic debridement (planing & scaling) of another quadrant. Then I think it's back to 1 week of CHX rinse followed by 2 weeks of fluoride and then the next quadrant. I hope that she's happy with the progress.

I was able to get up out of bed this morning without my glutes just absolutely screaming in terror. I think this is a sign that the training is working because I'm recovering quite well. This morning just a little tiredness in general and some residual soreness in the glutes, hip flexors, abductors and adductors; but elsewise feeling really good. Bike MS DFW 2009 2-day Dallas to Ft Worth, May 2-3, 150 miles http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/loniholt Tour De Cure 2-day San Antonio to Austin, May 30-31, 160 miles http://main.diabetes.org/goto/loniholt Livestrong Challenge Austin 2009 Oct 25th 45 to 65 of the hilliest roads to travel by bike http://austin09.livestrong.org/loniholt

Today we did four hours.. yes 4 hours of indoor cycling. My legs are fine, my knees are fine.. my glutes hurt like heck and my tushi is tired of sitting. I'm doing ok walking, I'm ok sitting, I'm ok standing... but my glutes scream at me at any attempts to transition between these positions. I am hoping that the concentrated effort will pay off bigtime come the first and last weekends of May. A hot soapy shower has done wonders and I will sleep really well tonight! Only 96 minutes on the schedule for tomorrow, yippee!

or Oh Dear God.. take your pick... my rear is sore from this indoor cycling gig... but it's good training for the Bike MS 150-mile 2-day event the first weekend of May and then the Tour De Cure San Antonio to Austin the last weekend of May. We've been diligently doing our gym time and now our "short" ride is 2 hours. After we get thru the 2-day events, we can ease up on the training plan and incorporate some alternate cardio classes and more strength training. Right now my rear is fine sitting, it's fine standing, it's even fine walking.. it just is not happy with transitions in between any of those positions.. like once it settles and is happy it hardly bothers me at all... until i have to shift positions or get up and move like to floss, brush, and fluoride my pretty little teeth.. and then my rear lets me know it is feeling every bit of the 3 hours and 20 minutes I made it do today. One thing I know for sure, I will sleep goooooood tonight.

Ok, I haven't seen my JC counselor from My Centre #2 since the last week of June.. no calls or emails to check up or follow-up, so I was pretty much in a 'whatever' mode. But then 2 weeks ago my BFF's counselor from my original Center #1 changed her days and so BFF opted to see a new counselor which happened to also be my original counselor from Centre #1 that I followed to Centre #2 until she unexpectedly left Centre #2. So now I am back at Centre #1 with my original counselor... so last week we did the full weigh and measure thing; set basic goal for the week to be more on JC plan and to keep a food chart (which I did for 5 days of the week). I weighed in with a nice loss; so mentally that gives you a big boost. I am definitely aiming for a certain Twenty Wishes trip by the end of the year!

Not my favorite, but not totally detestable either. I've found a new instant oatmeal that i can actually enjoy. Quaker Oats (hmm... are there any other kind) lower sugar Maple & Brown sugar flavor. Ok, so I think oatmeal was another of the many foods that I tell my BFF I was traumatized by as a child (along with pickles, ketchup, pork & sauerkraut, and coleslaw to name a few). But this oatmeal has made a pretty filling snack and is pretty nice on these surpringly chilly spring days.

Oh my, it sounds further away when it's on my Ticker Factory in Months/Weeks/Days... when you get it down to just days, it's downright scary.... but I'm encouraged by a 2 pound loss this week and renewed efforts on watching the nutritional front since my original JC counselor has returned to my original centre.. I'm hopeful to see the pounds continue to drop away. I'm down 9.4 pounds from 8/27/2008, woohoo! This week Planned Minutes of indoor cycling 144 Wednesday, March 11, 2009 108 Thursday, March 12, 2009 0 Friday, March 13, 2009 240 Saturday, March 14, 2009 240 Sunday, March 15, 2009 96 Monday, March 16, 2009 0 Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Last Week Planned vs Actual 132/132 Wednesday, March 04, 2009 102/0 Thursday, March 05, 2009 0/0 Friday, March 06, 2009 180/180 Saturday, March 07, 2009 180/120 Sunday, March 08, 2009 96/0 Monday, March 09, 2009 0/0 Tuesday, March 10, 2009 690/432

Yippee, I weighed in with a loss tonight and am at my lowest since my first weigh-in of the year. I was Weekly Best Loser at my TOPS Chapter this week. It really helps to boost you mentally to have those nice losses... especially when I did 432 minutes of cycling this week. The week ahead yields a pair of 4-hour long rides across the weekend... though I may have to switch off between the recumbant bike, the upright bike, and the elliptical trainer to give my rear some different pressure points.

Ok, the plan was for 3 hours of indoor cycling time... I only got 2 since I was dealing with some oncall issues for the office; but my steady training partner got her full 3-hours in. I had intended to go back after lunch and get some more time in; but i was listening to my sore muscles right above my right knee and called the 2-hours good enough.

The rear is tired, but the legs are ok. We made it thru 3 hours of indoor cycling with minimal breakpoint time (two ten minute breaks or so). I'm really pleased we've been able to get back to this point so quickly after a 5-week hiatus due to travel to Kauai, illness, and my BFF's hand surgery. Now to get thru the next few weeks indoors until her hand has healed sufficiently that we can make our way back down to our favorite training loop. We've got another 3 hours tomorrow and then a mere 96 minutes on Monday. However, our workouts will be solo this week while my BFF is in travel status for the job. She has pledged, however, to still get in her workout time at the hotel gym, so I'll be making sure to take my gear to go our regular gym here.

http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/2009/03/todays-writing-prompt-five-years.html I'm a lot more serious about cycling now than I was five years ago. In fact, five years ago my mountain bike was gathering dust in the garage. Now, the mountain bike is gone as it was replaced by a road bike.. and even that first road bike has been upgraded to another road bike after last summer's rear-end collision in which our bike's were totalled. Now, we're in training for a pair of 2-day events in May ~ Bike MS from Frisco to Ft Worth and then Tour De Cure from San Antonio to Austin; we'll go to Wichita Falls for the Hotter N Hell ride in August; and we'll close the outdoor cycling season with the 45 mile course of LiveStrong Challenge in Austin.

Oh yes, the mental games continue.. but this week because I happily lost exactly what I gained last week. I knew last week's was probably Mother Nature's monthly bloat... but still, those gains just weigh on you pretty heavily... but after 5 1/2 hours of indoor cycling in the past 3 days, I was pretty sure that it should be a loss and it was. Now to just get back to keeping track of the dietary part since I have the exercise part already scheduled in my Happy Bunny planner.

Hooray Week of Wed Feb 25 thru Tue Mar 3 Planned vs Actual Wed 0/0 Thu 0/0 Fri 0/0 Sat 20/20 (2 hours) Sun 20/20 (2 hours) Mon 15/15 (1.5 hours) Tue 0/0 Yippee, met all of my exercise targets and weighed in with a 2.40 pound loss at TOPS. The week ahead, March 4 to March 10 Wed 22 (2 hours, 12 minutes) Thu 17 (1 hour, 42 minutes) Fri 0 (rest) Sat 30 (3 hours) Sun 30 (3 hours) Mon 16 (1 hour, 36 minutes) Tue 0 (rest)=

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Ok, finished with this round of CHX, now I get to move on to the fluoride treatments for the next 2 weeks until I go back to the dentists... oh the joys of being 12 again...hahahahaha, yeah right. Tune: Row, Row Row Your Boat... Brush, brush, brush your teeth. At least two times a day. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, Fighting tooth decay. Floss, floss,floss your teeth. Every single day. Gently, gently, gently,gently, Whisking Plaque away. Rinse, rinse, rinse your teeth Every single day. Swishing, swishing, swishing, swishing, Fighting tooth decay. --Author Unknown

She knows she's not supposed to perch on the DVD player... but of course, that is one of her favorite perches.. probably because it is always emanating a little warmth. DH chases her off of there all the time.. in fact, he can just walk into the room and off she goes.... but when we're not looking, there she'll be again. And then of course the other fun game is what can I knock off or pull off of your shelves. Such a Naughty Kitty... that's what you get for having a youngster in the house again.

Well, almost.. our road is indoors for next month until my cycling partner is released from our orthopaedic surgeon to get back in the saddle outdoors. We completed our 2 hour indoor cycle yesterday and again today. My tushie is not that happy with me, but my legs and lungs are feeling A-Ok. Bike MS weekend will be here the first weekend of May and then the 2-day Tour De Cure from San Antonio to San Marcos to Austin will be the last weekend of May. We'll be logging lots of indoor miles here in March and will be back outdoors in April and May. After our heavy-hitting 2-day events are done, we'll then be in training for the 50-mile version of the Hotter N Hell ride at the end of August in Wichita Falls. We'll end our cycling season in Austin for the LiveStrong Challenge at the end of October. Bike MS 2009 2-days, 150 miles http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/loniholt Tour De Cure 2-day San Antonio to Austin, May 30-31, 160 miles http://main.diabetes.org/goto/lonih...