Bike Ireland!

Very enjoyable - and I'm not at all kidding using those words - biking 30 miles in Ireland a few days ago. 

I was able to go the distance and even hit a few new high speed records. I was not in the back of the pack :)

Non-scale Victory.

Take care;

Teresa Marie

Stress, Travel, & Biking

(Photo: Indoor Cycling Assoc. Website)

The past few months have been full of unusual and challenging events.  I like to think that I'm very good at handling stress - but my limits have been tested. 

What's happening...I have been to two family funerals, gone through job changes, new bosses, had a major shift to financial situation, major home remodeling and repair, supported kids through tough times, and yes, sad to say eaten my stress.

Together We Make A Normal Person

I've been thinking a great deal lately about family, genetics and fate. 

Apropos of my subject line, my sister "Little Linda" and I together make a normal person. 

She and I are just two years apart in age. We were dressed as twins until we were nearly teenagers. We shared a bedroom through high school. We went to the same college. We both have brown hair and brown eyes. We are both under 5'4" tall. We both like getting outdoors - canoeing, hiking. That's the end of similarities.

So here we are as kids - Little Linda in a dress even though we are all out fishing :) I'm in the photo on the right - plump little girl taking care of my baby sister.  

Sitting on the Fence

I have not lost any weight in months.

I'm in a very odd situation - on the one hand I have only a small distance to go to make my desired weight goal; on the other hand I'm feeling pretty good about where I'm at. It might not sound like those are at odds - but they are. When I was 100 pounds overweight it was easy to see that I needed to make big changes. Now it is even harder to stay focused plus everything that was working to drop pounds before - isn't working now.


I'm on the fence and it's uncomfortable - I want to move forward (which is downward) but my mind and my body are fighting me. I know my past and I'm looking over to the greener grass in my potential future. 

I am now at a weight where I've been most often at the bottom of my weight loss swings. 30 years ago I was at this weight for a long stretch. Holding steady at 20-25 pounds over weight. I think my body is happy here. Maybe has that memory. It seems like it's driving me to eat to maintain this weight. Evil invader within. For example - a week or so ago I started craving chocolate. While this might not seem odd - I haven't ever liked chocolate. The smell of it would typically make me slightly nauseous. But now, hum, it's looking pretty tempting! Ouch - when did that happen.  Ditto with carb cravings - totally out of control. 

Intellectually I understand what I need to do. Stick to the plan. Make good food choices and shake up the workout routine. Yup - I have good intentions to workout 6/week and kick through this. 

People have often asked me how I stay motivated to stay on track - I respond that I have not been motivated. I've been committed and dedicated to making good choices. Now I'm feeling like I need a little motivation or inspiration. 

I'm rereading my own blog let's me know that I can do this...




Teresa Marie

Gurl, Where have you been?

Wow, has it been a month since I last posted? 

The good news is that I saw the scale dip to 159#!! Woo Hoo I was very happy by that. Then - life happened and I crept back up into the 160's. It wasn't a surprise - I know fully well the implications of my food choices and exercise plan. 

My baby - watching out for intruders

After my work trip to Germany I started juicing - bought a NutriBullet and have been using it religiously. It's been fun and I've gotten very creative. Yes, I've had spinach, tofu, wheat grass smoothies for breakfast. That said, I was putting in fruit each time and that was a great deal more sugar that I had been eating previously. A good way to shake up my eating plan.

So for the past month - I've maintained or sadly gone up by a few pounds. 

Including a nice picture of my Chow-German Shepherd who should be on an eating and exercise plan - her Dr. wants her to lose 8 pounds.