A Collection Of (Very) Short Stories

I pushed myself far beyond the normal number of sets for each of the exercises that I did today. I’m feeling very proud of that! It definitely won’t be something I will do every day, but if felt really good to forge a little further ahead of my own perceived abilities. And, man, did I sweat!

I bought a new pair of jeans this afternoon. They are a size 22W Calvin Klein's dark washed boot cut. If I was actually able to afford those jeans from the mall I would have opted for a regular 22 at this point, but I found them dirt cheap at a thrift store and couldn't pass them up. Who knows with my fashion sense... they could be a knockoff. But for the few bucks I shelled out for them, I'm happy to have what appear to be a trendy new pair of pants that fit me much better than my old ones.

This evening, when I was feeling the craving to eat more right after I had just had a meal, I specifically told myself to wait for a while until the full feeling kicked in. I thought that was some pretty good self talk. I waited and, lo and behold, I forgot that I had wanted more and didn't eat again for a few hours. Along the same lines, when I was completing one of my sets of stair climbs I was mentally cheering for yours truly and telling myself that I could conquer those last few steps. I like the voices in my head.

Finally, my latest poll asked how you reward your weight loss. The results are in with eleven people casting their votes. No one opted for the ‘at set intervals’ or ‘never’ choices – I’m quite happy that nobody choose the latter since I think everyone deserves to receive something out of the ordinary for walking this path. There were four remaining options available to select for your opinion and this is the final report:

7 votes for 'at set weight goals’ accounted for 63.6%
1 votes for 'once at goal weight' accounted for 9.1%
2 votes for 'when the mood strikes' accounted for 18.2%
1 votes for 'other' accounted for 9.1%

FOOD & BEVERAGES:
- 10 glasses of water throughout the day
- 1 cup of blueberries
- 2 cups of celery with 2 Tb. light peanut butter
- 3 slices of cooked ham with mustard
- 2 cups of steamed broccoli and potatoes with margarine
- 3/4 cup fat free mixed berry yogurt with 1 cup of Force Active cereal

EXERCISE:
- 7 sets of 30 stomach crunches (3 straight, 2 right, and 2 left)
- 6 sets of 10 knee push ups
- 3 sets of 15 lunges for each leg
- 3 sets of 15 squats
- 20 sets of walking up and down stairs (not all at one time)
- 2 sets of 5 minutes of weight lifting with 5 lbs per arm