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Still looking for the silver lining. March was a feast of stress eating, but I can safely report no weight loss, but no gain, either. The siliver lining is that my cardio health has improved - I've gotten a lot of exercise and it shows in how far/long I can jog/walk.

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Tuesday, April 3: Back on the Wagon?

On four of the last five days I've taken the dog hiking on the C&O canal, for at least an hour each time. The exercise is making a difference, though I can't quantify it yet (ie, still won't get on a scale). But my chronic knee pain disappeared early in January with all the walking, and hasn't come back. The hip pain that started in January is gone, too.

Breakfast yesterday was two scrambled eggs, coffee, and juice. Late lunch was a pulled pork sandwhich and creme brulee at Eve. Dinner was two glasses Avondale Cabernet Sauvignon rose. Today's breakfast: yogurt with homemade granola (and coffee and juice, of course). Today's late lunch: 1/2 rack of ribs (dry rub), and a sweet tea from Andy Nelson's in Cockeysville. Dinner as I type this, while sitting on the front porch: a glass of Avondale rose. I do love early springtime.

Note for nature geeks: get thee to the canal now. Recently spotted (between Swain's Lock and Violette's Lock): spring beauty, Dutchman's breeches, Virginia bluebells, wild phlox, cut-leaved toothwort, bloodroot, and two different flowers clearly in the Asteraceae that I haven't identified yet. And great blue herons and lots of turtles. And mayapple, which isn't blooming yet, but the foliage is sweet.

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Update: good news and bad news. A week and a half ago I was able to alternately walk 2 min, jog 1 min, for 40 min total. No real weight loss but the cardio fitness definitely improving. But I injured my knee and haven't been able to jog since. :blink: Even a 5 mile hike on the level canal was painful. feh.

OTOH the wildflowers are fantastic now. Huge stands of wild phlox and Virginia bluebells and field chickweed.

Recent favorite low-fat snack: homemade lassi of sorts - mix lowfat plain yogurt with Looza mango nectar (or passionfruit nectar or whatever). Very tasty, very filling even if has has a bit too much sugar to be diet food.

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By a different metric, I now have 8 pounds to go. Got on the scale Saturday after qualifying and came in at 1,678 pounds. Of course, that includes the car. Minimum weight (car plus driver) for my class is 1670, so, eight pounds to go.

Recent favorite snack: little orange citrus sold only by the bag (at WF anyway) designated "clementine mandarins". Or maybe it was "mandarin clementines". Wish they'd decide which it is. But darn tasty little snacks.

Wildflower update for Dame Edna: hundreds and hundreds of small paw paw trees along the canal downstream from Swain's Lock are now blooming. You have to be a real botany geek to find these flowers beautiful. Look at them up close. Mayapples are just starting to bloom.

And as Anna Blume said, the poison ivy is out, too. It's a pretty plant... from a distance.

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By the original measure (not the car scale), I am at the halfway mark: 10 pounds lost, 10 to go. While there's no way I'll lose ten pounds in two weeks, I'm not giving up, either. Many, many thanks to Rocks for giving this challenge, and to all of you for the support.

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Elizabeth, I walk five miles a day. Every day. I have done this patiently, regularly, obsessively for over twenty five years. (Yes, I know that when you met me I didn't look like someone who had walked this much but, my God, think of how I would have looked if I had not walked this much!!!). Still, I have an incredible amount of respect and admiration for anyone who walks/runs/jogs/bs'es calories off religiously. For myself, for yourself it is a seminal event in one's life to try on a smaller size and find that it fits!

Sometimes, for all of that which goes wrong in my life, the very real reassurance, the very real positive is that my weight and the smaller sized jeans I can now fit into make all else right!

Congratulations!!!

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Elizabeth, I walk five miles a day. Every day. I have done this patiently, regularly, obsessively for over twenty five years.

I was doing something like that for awhile, but since early May I've been spending my time in the garden, instead. Not daintily on a kneeling pad with pruning shears, but digging new beds from under sod, hoeing the existing beds, turning compost - that sort of thing. Real work. It's made a difference.

Who wants salad in February?! It's so hard to diet when, after a 1/2 mile walk with the dog on 20 degree days, the mind turns to thoughts of pot roast and spaetzle. But over the past two months, when the garden work is finished for the day, I harvest some lettuce for a salad, or Swiss chard to braise and toss with pasta, and find that's all the food I want.

The trick will be keeping it off once, as JG says, the braise fronts start moving in.

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ding ding ding ding ding!

ok, so it's more than a year late, but the scale revealed this morning that I'd made my goal and about ten more pounds, too. I mostly maintained through last summer, put a lot back on over the winter, and started seriously again this spring.

Working in the garden for 4 or 6 or even 8 hours a day when not at the job was the major form of exercise (starting in March, and continuing even now).

Eating lots of fresh veg from the garden has made a major difference in the past two months.

Major incentives: doing well in amateur sporting activity gives me confidence to work harder; nothing succeeds like success. Think I'll now indulge in a custom Nomex suit.

Also, bought myself a gorgeous dress to wear to an upcoming wedding. Vanity is a good incentive, too.

Thanks to everyone who posted with suggestions and encouragement. They stayed with me even through the dark days of last winter.

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