Unfortunately, I felt so good Friday that, after water aerobics, I started my usual quarter mile swim. For once, my shoulder wasn't bothering me. Nor my knee. I was in a rhythm, so I kept swimming until I'd done a half mile. Tired after, but otherwise fine. Then I walked, slowly to cool down for a quarter mile. The swim shouldn't have been a problem, but it was.

I was EXTREMELY sore Saturday. In fact, today, Tuesday, is the first day I haven't felt sore. And though my legs were normal sore, my shoulder felt aggravated sore, not muscle sore. That's not so good. So, Saturday I rested. Sunday I managed a little Nordic Track as fasted cardio. Monday I skipped water aerobics. Oh, I wasn't so sore leg wise that I couldn't have gone, but I was worried about making my shoulder worse. It was cooler outside and I decided to do a bit of housework and yard work instead.

Today, natch, my feet were hurting. But the yard remains.

I made the decision this past week that I need help. I simply can't prune the trees that need pruning, take out assorted shrubs that are taking over, dig for edging, etc... etc... etc... myself. Oh, if I didn't have the foot and shoulder and arm and knee issues I do, I could do a lot of this and would. Shortly after we moved here, I managed to take out an entire dead tree by myself!

But right now, I can't cope. The yard got bad last year when my feet were bad off and it is only worse now. I called a landscape company. They are going to do some of the badly needed pruning and cleanup. Then they will install some things like a retaining wall where a wooden one is breaking down and some edging so we can keep the grass out of areas we don't want it. There's one little catch. $$$$

So today was cool again and overcast, so I thought maybe I could help keep costs down if I started working on some of the cleanup myself, at least with weeds and stuff. My feet are starting to feel painful. Turns out digging isn't only bad on my feet, but makes my cranky knee hurt too. I found that out after discovering some new, noxious looking, THORNY VINE.

I'm going to get my frozen water bottle and ice. Don't know about dinner... maybe pizza. THREE HOURS of yard work should've burnt a few calories.

I did better with my eating and exercise goals, but hardly perfect.

The basics... Monday 7/7 I was at 230.6, last Monday I was at 228.0. Loss of 2.6 pounds! OK, almost certainly water weight. After this week though, I think I'll have dispensed with extra water and will be losing fat again.

Here's the scoop... after backsliding, I find myself in a tight position. I have the goal of being at or under 200 pounds by January 1st, 2009. Roughly 24 weeks left. And given that I now weigh, as of today, just over 227 pounds, that means I must lose over a pound a week to get there.

That means I've tightened calories up a bit further. Mondays I try to eat around maintenance calories so my body doesn't freak too much over calorie restriction. But then Wednesday and Friday (or any other day that I am doing serious exercise), I'm going for 2000 calories. Days of less exercise, 1600 calories. It's actually not all that tough to stick to when all is well and no stress. Where it's tougher is when I feel stressed or tired. Last night I was tempted to eat a bit more, while watching a bit of the Tour de France bicycle race, but then I thought about my goal and stopped at my allotted calories.

If I find my feet will let me do more, I'll bump the calories to account for it. But for now, this seems to be working. Today I stand at 227.2 pounds.

Now that I am back to good PN style eating, I sure notice the difference in how I feel and energy levels. Doesn't mean I don't crash after a hard workout, but I recover better from that.

But all day, I was craving fruit. I normally eat 2-3 servings a day... yesterday, I ate fruit with EVERY meal! Oddly, my carbs were still in reasonable check even with all the fruit and veggies I ate and I did not bloat further like I might have thought. Instead, my weight was down.

It may have been a water issue. I was drinking plenty, but pool exercise just seems to suck the water right out of me. I drank water and green tea, close to a gallon and a half of liquids yesterday! It doesn't help that it's hot here. Maybe the cravings were just my body telling me it needed even more fluids as fruit does tend to have a lot of water content.

Sometimes a craving is a bad thing... but not always!

I literally dropped from 231.2 to 227.4 pounds overnight. Water, I know... that kind of large loss is never fat. But once I put the water losses behind me this week, further losses should be goo.

Calories have been staying roughly OK though, in spite of all that, so I think my recent upswing on my weight graph is just water again.

Spent a little time bike shopping yesterday... well, actually, getting a second opinion on the fit of my new bike. Unfortunately, that opinion concurs with the first, in that it is a size too large frame for me. I did get to sit on and pedal a smaller bike though! More later on that when I get a chance!

Yesterday was a good day for both eating and exercise.

Two days of decent eating and suddenly, instead of feeling sluggish and slow, I had ENERGY for yesterday's water aerobics. VRROOOOM! Naturally, my instructor decided to take us through a LOT of leg exercises as well as arm exercises. I was SORE this morning. And I felt tempted to ah, postpone small session of fasted cardio exercise until tomorrow. And then I thought about being under 200 pounds again next year and did it.

After doing my Nordic Track, I fixed a lovely egg white omelet, with two cups of assorted veggies inside.

Then I de-fuzzed the living room. This involves piling all the cat toys that normally reside there elsewhere until the vacuuming is done. We've got a "Crinkle Cave", two different style "Crinkle Tunnels" a "Play Cube", a "Play Center", a "Mystery Triangle" and a cat bed we call a "Kerfloppen".

One thing sure, if it comes to "They win who die with the most toys.", my cats are on top of the heap. This is only the tip of their massive collection. And boy, do they get concerned every time I pick the toys up!

One of my recent strategies is less computer time. I was posting on several forums, but now am sticking to just a couple and less of those. One, less computer time means less aggravation of the chronic tendinitis in my forearms and two, it gives me more time to work on projects, chores and exercise. Oh, that doesn't mean I won't be reading blogs and commenting and stuff like that, but I'll probably be doing less of it.

Yesterday, I got in a good 90 minutes of exercise, kept the calories on target and got my water in. Unfortunately, my knee was bothering me pretty badly in water aerobics and after, and I realized that when I mess up on the eating, I also sometimes forget important supplements that help my joints out, like fish oils and glucosamine chondroitin. Oops! Well, I got those in yesterday and have had my first dose today as well.

Today, the knee is still bothering me. I thought about NOT doing my little bit of fasted cardio on the Nordic Track this morning, then I thought about my goals and got up and did it anyway. 15 minutes was perfectly do-able, even with my knee not entirely happy. I'll try and add a bit more later.

I cooked up 4 oz. lean ground meat with a pile of onion, carrot, mushrooms, cabbage and zucchini for breakfast. Next... I want a cup of green tea. And our fuzzy girl cat Sister wants some play time. Funny how the cats are ALWAYS ready to play and get some exercise. I should be like that!

Will head bump for TOY...

For those who wonder why Luna gets all the camera love, well, Luna is just THERE, she is the aggressive one of the bunch and involves herself in everything. Sister and Tablet are a bit more shy.

We refer to Sister as "royalty with a price on her head". Sister is a bit paranoid about things like assassins, paparazzi and the like. She is very loving, playful and social with us... but heads straight for the basement at top speed should anyone else come into her house! Luna and Tablet like to aggravate Sister, they can make her snarl like a bobcat!

Subject: RE: Can you confirm you received my info.?

Yes, thank you I did receive Cynthia's contact information. We will be sending her the bike soon.

Thanks,
 Tanya

Soon turned out to be June 27th, when a UPS Quantum View tracking email arrived in my inbox! My bike was coming to me all the way cross country from Connecticut.

This message was sent to you at the request of ZANES - TREK CYCLE to notify you that the package information below has been transmitted to UPS. The package(s) may not have actually been placed with UPS for shipment. To verify when and if the shipment is tendered to UPS and its actual transit status, click on the tracking link below or contact ZANES - TREK CYCLE directly.

Important Delivery Information

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scheduled Delivery: 07-July-2008

Monday FINALLY came. WOW! It was a BIG BOX! Luna immediately took possession. She is funny that way. In fact... she resisted being moved from the box. But I had to get into that box myself! Here come the pictures...

All boxes belong to Luna!

Given the size of it, I just started unpacking! I wasn't too convinced that I could move it out of the way of the front door easily otherwise. At around 35 pounds, it wasn't insurmountably heavy exactly, just AWKWARD!

Inside the bike box...

Once I removed Luna from the box and pried up all the staples holding it together, this is what I greeted my wondering eyes when I peered inside. Amazing. They fit the bike in there all right! I found a small box wedged in there somewhere and I thought I best open that first. A label on the outside of the big box said that the necessary tools for assembly were included and I had a hunch they might be in the little box.

Little box full of goodies

The little box contained an allen wrench, pedal wrench, owner's manual, pedals and the front wheel skewer. Plus the assembly check for $75 and several coupons for FREE 1.5L bottles of Lipton White Tea, any flavor.

There was also a sheet of directions for assembly. I did a quick read, decided I ought to get better acquainted with my bike and intrepidly forged ahead. It was either that, or figure out how to get that VERY BIG BOX down to the bike shop and admit to being a total bike assembly wuss.

Bike booty unpacked!

Hmmm... this didn't quite look like a bike yet, and it was up to me to fix that. A big surprise was the included Bell Radar bike helmet, I wasn't expecting that! Kudos to Zane's World Famous Cycles for tossing that in!

Anyway, I set to. I put the seat post into the frame and clamped it down. That was easy! Getting the handlebars on was a little more complicated, but once I puzzled through the dark illustrations, not so bad.

Then I got to mount the front wheel. It looked much more like a bike at this point! I hit a snag connecting the front brakes though. I just couldn't get the cable to seat in the bracket and was afraid to force it. That I left for the bike shop. Pedals went on easily and suddenly, I was done!

And here's the BIKE!

OK, I forgot and left a little packing material on the rear frame. I'll do a better photo later, when it returns from the bike shop with the front brakes connected. Chalk it down to excitement!

Three cheers for Lipton Tea and their bike giveaway!