Greetings from the UK - Traveling Too Much

Today I find myself outside of London for a few days of business meetings. While that sounds like fun - I'm now traveling 50% of the time and quite fatigued by airplanes and hotels. 

I've lost three of the past 5 weekends - traveling on Sunday to be at meetings starting on Monday morning. 

Frankly - this sucks and has put my ability to manage my New Leaf commitments at risk. Eating in restaurants or worse yet, office catered meals leave zero room for customizing my choices. Many meals are now in airports or on airplanes :(

Hell - when packing for the latest trip I had to reach into the size 14/16 to get the right items. DAMN! At the start of 2016 I was squeezing into size 10/12. YIKES. I hate this.

I'm now missing half of my weekly workouts with my trainer because I am simply not in town. So that makes the weeks that I do meet with him great - but also challenging as it seems like every time is new. 

I'm not sure how, I injured my knee. I'm going on a month or so of weakness and pain. This has constrained the workouts. Although I still bike - which might not be the best decision. 

One the positive side - a few weekends ago I participated in a charity bike ride outside Chicago. Despite arriving from Europe only the day before and being sleep deprived and jet-lagged. I rode the furthest I've ever done at one time - 38 miles. This was in 88 F and 70% humidity. I didn't feel at al fatigued or sore the next day. Great news.  A few days ago in Ireland we went hiking in the Wicklow National park. It was over 25k steps that day. 

I need the turnaround plan to get in place and kick in. 

Starting next week - I'm going to refresh the weekly summary tracking. Perhaps a tad more visibility and accountability. I'll also start with the weekly weigh in again Sept 2... that gives me a few weeks lead time.

My Life not in balance.

Teresa Marie

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