While visiting my daughter and family in North Carolina over the Christmas holiday, I took part in their nightly dinner ritual where each person shares the peak and pit of their day. So I’m going to post the peak and pit of each day as I follow the BSD. Please join me as it is a great way to share how things are going with each other. You can list more than one peak or pit (sometimes it’s hard to decide what is the biggest peak or pit of your day; sometimes there are a lot of them)

Here is my first peak and pit entry~

January 1, 2017:

PEAK: Used my spiralizer for the first time since buying it over a year ago. I turned a zucchini into noodles and made a marinara creme sauce with ground beef to go over them. It was so delicious! Now I’m looking for more recipes to use for my spiralizer.

PIT: Missed my workout goal by just a few calories. I’m using my apple watch activity counter and have a goal of making the bullseye everyday for the next 10 weeks. Yesterday I earned a move calorie score of 312 out of 330. I aim to make all three rings today!

January 2, 2017

PEAK: Made my exercise goal! 432 move calories, 35 minutes of elliptical, weight training, stand 15 times after sitting, steps 12,607, distance 5.11mi (statistics taken from my iwatch activity app).
My twin sister started the BSD! Yay!

PIT: The day went by way too fast and I didn’t have time to do half the things I wanted to.
My husband is still home sick with a cold virus. :–(

Hi jmarie can I contribute?

My peak was dropping a kilo apparently overnight..I expect the scales to bounce up a bit by tomorrow but still that coloured my day..

The pit is my blistered heel and sore toe after my walk today. I knew there’s a reason why I’m a couch potato;-)

There’s quite a flu epidemic here too 🙁 hope he gets better soon.

Thank you Angela06 for contributing! That’s my peak for the day. :–)

That is so great that you lost a kilo overnight–whoo hoo-you must feel so good about that!
So crummy about the blistered heel and sore toe–I hope that heals quickly! I have that problem with the blistered heel often and have to put blister protectors on my heel when I go for long walks. Have you seen those? They are like a thick bandage that can be put on your heel. Really helps me!

Extra PEAK for my day–My husband is feeling better. He stayed home from work today but plans to go tomorrow. He is coughing so much less! I’m relieved he is feeling better. I hate to see him sick!
Also, I had to drive to another city for a doctor appointment and to get my hair cut and colored. It was raining and everyone was heading back to work so I was worried about the traffic being bad and people getting into accidents. It turned out great! No traffic both ways. Yay!

PIT: I had the day off but spent most of it going to those two appointments so I didn’t get to do anything for myself at home. :–(

Aw thank you….I know what you mean about the traffic and the rain. I always allow lots of time and arrive hours early…but good news that your husband is getting better. I will look out for the protectors, thanks for the tip.

Have a good day (or night) catch you later..

Hope your day went well Angela06!

PEAK: Weighed in and am now down 2.5 lbs. since January 1st. Only half a pound more to lose to get the 3 lb. holiday weight gain off!

PIT: I took most of the inside Christmas decorations down today; everything but the Christmas tree. I think it’s going to take me a few days to get it all put away. I love decorating for Christmas but the putting up and taking down is a big job!

Hi jmarie, well done on the weight loss, so nice to be back in the driver’s seat, isn’t it?

My peak was chasing my 4 year old ganddaughter round the park and doing 3km in the process…it really made a difference to my steps.

The pit well i have to agree with you about the Christmas decorations. I’ve been taking mine down too. A second pit is that we would normally celebrate the epithany with a marzipan tart…kind of missing that. Not so much the tart but the social stuff round it! But if I invited the family round for it I would so eat a piece of that tart!

Have a good day 😉

Peak has been getting my 10000 steps by 8am this morning, despite getting up at 4am when it was -3C.

Pit – Like you Angela, we have an epiphany cake at home (Rosca de reyes/Galette des Rois for our continental friends) but I won’t be back till late tonight so it’ll probably all be gone by then. As I lost a filling to the feve inside one a couple of years ago, I’m secretly a bit relieved.

Julesmaigret: yes it’s the galette des rois. Commiserations on the lost filling. I think I’d avoid it too after that.

And well done on the steps. I’ve been on my feet all day but am still only at 5 000.

JulesMaigret~That is some cold weather! Congrats on getting your 10000 steps in, in spite of it. Sorry to hear about the lost filling a few years ago when eating the Epiphany cake. Yikes! Hopefully everyone will eat all the cake before you get home.

Angela06~ So fun to chase your granddaughter around and get those steps in at the same time.
I love Marzipan! One of my favorites.

PEAK: Went in for my annual check up and met my weight loss goal. I have never been so low on the doctor’s scale since I started seeing her 17 years ago. She was so kind and proud of me for losing the weight! I am down 40 lbs. from my highest back in 2007. Wow! My goal is to lose another 10 lbs and then go into the maintenance phase on the BSD.

PIT: Christmas decorations are all sitting in my dining room and today I have not done anything toward’s boxing them all up. I bought some Valentine decorations on my way to the doctor’s appointment today so hopefully that will encourage me to get the Christmas decorations put away.

Just read up what an Epiphany Cake is, as we don’t have that tradition here in NZ. Fascinating history and the cake itself sounds divine – I could devour in a flash right now!

Me too Tigs–me too! :–)

Tigs, yes seriously missing eating marzipan. But don’t dare…not now, not ever.

Jmarie, congratulations on your weight loss..woohoo. so rewarding. I hope you’re planning your new wardrobe 😉
In the light of the doctor’s visit, the decorations fade into insignificance. You’ll put them away one day…

My peak yesterday…probably the walk I did with my husband. It’s beautiful weather for walking at the moment.

The pits, I failed to do more than 10,000 steps even though I worked for an hour raking up leaves. Boohoo. And the battery failed in my tracker after 3 days use. Grrrh. Still I probably look at it too much. Obsessed? Just a little..

Have a good day.

We’ve packed up our Christmas decorations, but today my supermarket had Easter eggs for sale. Seriously?

Easter eggs? In January? The world has gone mad…

Natalie~So nice that you’ve got the Christmas decorations put away but crazy that the stores are already selling Easter Eggs! I need one of Santa’s elves to come get my decorations put away. I’ve almost narrowed them down to being all together in one room; all except for the tree and the outside decorations. We are expecting a huge rain storm starting tomorrow for the next 5 days so I really should get out there today and get those decorations put away. It’s just so cold! I don’t want to do it. I’m going to have to push myself hard to get it done.

Angela06~ Thank you for the congrats! I am feeling really happy right now about the doctor visit weigh in and am starting to think of trying to achieve the weight listed on my driver’s license. It has been there since my early twenties and even though over the years I’ve had the chance to update it, I haven’t. It says I weigh 125 lbs. I am only five feet tall so 125 lbs. really isn’t too low for me! Sounds like a really nice walk with your husband. Crummy that your battery failed in your tracker. It sounds like you were really busy and probably hit the 10000 steps for sure with all you did! Maybe got in even more steps then that!!! I forgot to wear my apple watch yesterday so didn’t get to see my activity. I felt really unmotivated without it so first thing this morning, I put my apple watch on. I have really come to depend on it for motivating myself to be active.

Jmarie, I laughed when I read your comment about not being motivated without the watch….yesterday I thought I’d go out for a second walk but didn’t bother because I couldn’t record the steps! How crazy is that?

Good luck with the rainstorm. Here we’ve just had a cold weather alert..only -2 but that’s cold for here and people are crazy on the roads..

It is so crazy Angela06 that our trackers motivate us so much and we are kind of lost without them! I for sure am.
Your weather is cold to me too! Brrr! People drive so crazy here in the rain too–they forget that the roads are slick–and there ends up being so many more accidents on rainy days. We have rain forecast for the next 10 days! We’ve been in a drought so it is great to get the rain. The downside is with so much rain coming, there’s sure to be flooding and lots of trees down.

PEAK: Got my workout in (did the elliptical for 30 minutes) and also got 14,688 steps in today. I walked a total of 6.18 miles.
I also got all the outside Christmas decorations down; now they are inside in my front hallway. Tomorrow, I plan to put them away in the garage.

PIT: The day went by too fast again. Two more days before I’m back to work! :–( I I feel guilty for complaining because I know so many people don’t have as much of a break from work as I do, but I still love it when I don’t have to go to work. Tomorrow is Saturday so I plan to get a huge batch of chicken vegetable soup and beef vegetable soup made from the coming weeks of work. I ordered a ton of 1 cup containers from Amazon (they arrived today) to make individual portions with and I’ll freeze most of it. Soup will be my planned lunch for the next 8 weeks or so.

Well done for the steps and gym, jmarie. As a matter of interest how long does it take you to get to 10,000 steps? And do you know why 10,000 is the magic number?
Good luck with the rain..the problem is that when it rains heavily after a drought, the rain just slides off the land. We have to have big tanks buried in the garden for new builds so rain that falls on your garden stays on your garden.

My peak for yesterday is a loss of 1.2kgs since Monday…am delighted. The exercise really helped me to lose the Christmas weight and then some.

Pit The morning was ok but felt very washed out after lunch, lacking in energy and with a mild head cold. Not very bad just enough to take the shine off the day.

I too am back to work on Monday. I teach a few hours a week but it would be nice to stay at home and focus on reinventing myself 😉

Have a good day!

Hi Angela06! I hope your cold goes away quickly!!! It’s no fun to be sick. :–(
I caught the virus that is going around here the exact day the semester ended at the college I am a counselor at. I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me. It seems I make it through the semester only to finally get a break and get sick. Ugh!

I try to walk at least 10,000 steps a day. If I’m busy around the house I for sure get the steps in but at work I have to work at it to make it to 10,000 steps. I usually go for a walk every hour, in between student appointments with me! Then when I get home, I work out for at least a half hour, depending on how many steps I got in at work. I’m not really sure why 10,000 steps is the magic number but I found this article about it on Google: http://www.livescience.com/43956-walking-10000-steps-healthy.html

My first 8 weeks on the BSD I didn’t do much exercise because I felt weak and very low on energy which is not like me at all! This time around I seem to have lots of energy and working out isn’t hard at all. I think it may be because I’m used to the diet now and I’m eating about 1000 calories a day instead of 800.

PEAK: I got the Christmas tree taken down and the ornaments boxed up. The outside decorations have all been taken down and put away. The household decorations are all in the dining room but I am making progress. I might even get everything finished tomorrow and put away. It will be nice to get that taken care of so when I go back to work on Monday, I won’t have it hanging over my head as something I need to still do. I was really busy today and got in 15,000 steps. My IWatch keeps track for me. I put my watch on this morning at 4:45 am when I got up and now it is 9:15 p and I’m just about ready for bed. On Monday, I will get up at 3:30 am to get ready for work so I’m trying to get myself used to getting up early again by not sleeping in on the weekend.
I made 38 containers of chicken vegetable and beef vegetable soup. I froze all of it in 8 ounce containers and will take 1 to 2 containers with me to work each day. The soup really made a difference to me during my first 8 weeks of the BSD because I felt like I needed something hot to eat. It really fills me up! I hope it had the same effect this time around as I feel like I’ve gotten a bit lax on what I’ve been eating while I’ve been home.

PIT: I didn’t stop all day long to just relax! I need to learn to do that more. I wanted to paint an hour or so but felt like I had to much to take care of. Maybe I’ll get the chance tomorrow! It’s going to be raining all day so a good chance to stay home and do something for myself.

Angela06, I forgot to congratulate you on your past week weight loss. That is wonderful! Here’s to another week ahead of more success.

Jmarie, thank you for thinking of me and for the link….I should have looked that up myself; I’m being lazy again!

Your exercise programme sounds effective indeed and yes I experienced the same on my first 8 weeker. Withdrawal? Perhaps. I found the only way I could manage the plan was by focusing on it 100%. And now exercise is easier and maybe you’ve noticed this too, the weight does seem to be coming off faster.

And the Christmas decorations are down! You have been productive. Probably best before the rain though. Trying to dry all the decorations before storing them would be a nightmare.

My peak..not really sure. I walked a walk I used to do with my dogs, sadly both passed now. It’s uphill and through the woods. I was pleased that I could get up without too much difficulty but disappointed that it didnt amount to as far distance wise as I’d hoped but my muscles were quite tired after.

The pit was that for some reason I have wanted to eat all day. Fortunately the house is empty of the real sinful stuff but I’ve eaten half a packet of walnuts, a few handfuls of dried cranberries and the rest of a piece of gorgonzola! Dreadful. This has happened before. I’d love to know why. I’d love to say I’ll skip dinner but I’ll be first at the table.

Well done with your soups; organisation is the only way to succeed, isn’t it? And there’s nothing quite as comforting as home made soup.

Have a good first day back…Angela

Good evening Angela! I’m just about off to bed but forgot to check so here I am–Your walk sounded nice; especially the part about walking in the woods. Sounds like a great workout! Sorry about the loss of your dogs. We lost our yellow lab, Sophie, about three years ago and still really miss her. We haven’t gotten another dog yet although I dream about having another one a lot. We have been traveling a lot and it is just so hard for me to leave my dog (when I have one). One day soon we’ll get another one to love!

I had the same problem with food today. I didn’t eat any real meal except for breakfast and then I picked at food all day after that. I ate cashews and pecans, cheese and some salami. I managed to do 30 minutes on my elliptical! I stayed busy all day and my tracker shows 4.36 miles walked and 10, 680 steps. So hopefully the damage at weigh in tomorrow won’t be too bad! I’m off to bed as tomorrow morning my alarm will go off at 3:30 am and I’ll leave the house for work at 4:30 am. Ugh!

It rained all day and sounds like it will rain for the next 3 days at least followed by a day of rest and then more rain. The weather reporters are predicting lots of flooding in our area since there was a big dump of snow in the mountains followed by rain. The rain is expected to melt the new snow and send it down to our area.

PEAK: Got my workout in and enjoyed staying home all day and watching it rain! My husband and I gave each other guitars for Christmas and have been taking lessons online. We now know 3 songs! It has been fun learning to play together.

PIT: I ate too much and only had one formal meal! Only good part was I didn’t have too many carbs. Tomorrow is a new day. I’m off to bed!~ Janet :–)

Gosh, jmarie, 3.30 is the middle of the night…what time do you start work? I will never complain about mine again!

Learning the guitar sounds wonderful..it’s something I keep saying I’ll do but never get round do. Maybe in my next reinvention. Sitting cosy strumming while the rain falls outside is a lovely way to finish the holidays.

My peak, probably the nicest moment of the day was the new year drink I had with my learning English group this evening. We usually have the galette des rois and a glass of cider to celebrate epithany but this year I made some mince pies and cut up some Christmas cake and this is where the pit comes in, of course…

I ate 3 mince pies, honestly they went down so fast they didn’t touch the sides of my mouth. Do I regret it? A little but oh my they were good even if I say so myself…

Have a good day…

Angela06, those mince pies sound delicious! Good for you. I think living the BSD way is about having those moments once in a while. It’s part of your tradition. I’m so glad you indulged! What is in a mince pie and how big are they? I was staying close to Heathrow airport with my husband last year around Thanksgiving and went for a walk and saw a big poster advertising mince pie. I was intrigued!

I have managed to burn 404 activity calories today, exercise on the stationary bike for 49 minutes walk 10,468 steps which is equivalent to 4.24 miles according to my iwatch. :–) I didn’t sleep well last night in anticipation of having to get up early. I got out of bed at 3:45 am–a bit late–and managed to leave to house at 4:50 am. It was pouring rain and there was fog! It was a little scary but I reminded myself not to be in a hurry but to drive safely. I arrived at Starbuck’s at 5:30 am only to find they were running behind and weren’t open yet so I drove to another one. I arrived at work but no one else was there including the security so I sat in my car for a bit. A little scary!
Thankfully the security guard arrived and opened the door to the college for me . I was able to start work on time at 6:00 am.
I have to say I love this time of the morning when I can get work done without any interruptions.

The rest of the day was full of appointments with students every hour but I left a bit early to try to beat the traffic since it was going to rain again for the afternoon commute. I worked out when I got home and took breaks so I could check my work email. Later I made a delicious Thai chicken peanut sauce over califlower rice dish that my husband raved about. It was good!

Can’t believe it’s almost bed time now at 7:45 am but I’ll be getting up early again so it’s early to bed, early to rise. I have Wednesday off and then work again on Thursday and Friday.

PEAK: Working out after work and making a nice dinner.
PIT: It’s been hard to stick to 800 calories lately. Hard to believe I did it for 10 weeks.

Hi jmarie, that sounds like a gruelling day you have…I’m amazed you have the energy for a work out.

I see in the news that California has bad flooding…hope you’re not affected. Oh and I saw the photo of the famous tree that had fallen down, such a pity, but the vegetation suffers so badly during the periods of drought and flooding.

My peak was a pleasant afternoon with my students…

And the pit…a failure to walk. I didn’t have much time and the weather was miserable, cold, wet and windy. I used the time pressure as an excuse but I could have made time (and would have done if the sun had been shining. Oh I am such a princess!)

Tomorrow I look after my grandchildren. I know they will give me a good work out!

Have a good day, jmarie…

Angela

Angela06, so nice that you’ll get to spend time with your grandchildren tomorrow! Children have so much energy; you are sure to get a good work out in!!!!

I completely understand you not wanting to go out to walk in the cold, wet and windy weather! There is no way I would get out there in it!
I’m so tired tonight but thankfully don’t have to work tomorrow.

PEAK: I got my work out in again after work!
PIT: I went over calories again. Tomorrow’s another day to try again!

I am in awe of your work ethic, jmarie, managing your work out after work. Do you do that everyday? At the moment I’m so focused on walking I haven’t yet considered the gym. My physio wants me to try Pilates but the class clashes with my work days.

Peak today… the grandchildren kept me moving but I also did a walk early this morning that really woke me up and made me feel good.

Pit? Do you know, I don’t think there was one. Now that’s definitely a peak!

I hope you had a pleasant day off. We’re due some really cold weather at the end of the week. Is it still raining there?

Hi Angela,
I really envy your walks! I found out this past year that I need a partial knee replacement so I been trying different things to stave off the inevitable surgery. So far so good! Losing 20 lbs. is good for the knee joint. I also had a series of 3 shots (1 a week for 3 weeks) that gives nutrition to the joint and so far seems to have helped. But aerobic walking is one of the exercises that causes a lot of pain so I’ve had to cut way back. I really miss those long walks and hikes with my husband!

Working out is something I’ve always done religiously. I’ve always enjoyed it so it comes easy to me! I can’t say the same about being disciplined with food-lol! I have a gym membership but hardly ever go there. Instead I have my own home gym. I have a treadmill (which I can’t use too much now, an elliptical, a professional rower, and a professional stationary bike. I also have a full set of weights, weight bench and rack for the the weight bar. So no excuses for me! I have a TV in the home gym and that makes it easy to work out. I try to work out every day unless I get really busy and then I don’t.

The rain is still here! It is raining as I write this but it is supposed to stop by the end of the day. The rain will return next week! Will your cold weather bring any snow? Do you get snow where you live? Where do you live? I live in Livermore, CA. about 50 miles from San Francisco. It only snows here about once every year in the foothills, but once every 20 or so years at our home. We live in an area surrounded by vineyards, and hiking and biking trails. It is gorgeous right now because all the hills are green. We get brown hills in the summer and green hills in the winter if there is enough rain. We’ve been in a drought for a lot of years so this rain is nice. At least in the area’s where it isn’t flooding.

PEAK: Had yesterday off and went clothes shopping! Enjoyed trying on smaller sizes.
PIT: Had to wait an extra long time to be seen at the orthodontist because it was so busy there! When I got home, I had no motivation to work out. I did get 14,000 steps in though. The shopping was good for that!

Wishing you a great day Angela. So glad you got to spend time with your grandchildren

Janet :–)

Hi Janet

I did a project with LLNL a few years ago and have got to admit I really liked Livermore and, as you say, surrounded by some lovely countryside and tempting local produce. The bleak English rain here is starting to get a bit “white”, so probably a little cooler than CA.

JM

Hi All,

My PEAK today has been : Hearing that it may snow later!

My PIT – wasting 605 calories on a 100g pack of Cashew Nuts leaving me with a total used calories of 965 – Nothing left for dinner 🙁

Thanks all,
🙂

Libbyohno; what a shame about the nuts…best to stick with walnuts..

Janet..so sorry for going on about my walks…so frustrating for you especially as you used to be a hiker. Good luck with the knee. I hope the weight loss will help but will that solve the problem?
I am a British expat, live in the South of France, been here for 31 years. The climate is very similar to that of San Francisco, I believe, long periods of drought followed by a lot of rain. At the moment we’re feeling the tail end of the cold air that’s over the UK. It’s cold at night but was around 13 degrees this afternoon so not so bad. I’ve never been to the USA but my brother lives in Palo Alto. We are 4 siblings and between us we live in 4 different countries and on 3 continents. My poor mother really suffered.

Peak today….I managed to go about 17 hours without food..from 8pm last night to 1pm today and if I hadn’t had to cook for others I might have even skipped lunch. Result!

The pit today was that all afternoon I’ve thought it’s Friday…..such a disappointment!

Hope your rain stops and you have a great end of week..Angela

Janet, what fun buying new, smaller size clothes. It must be such a satisfying feeling. I’m still wearing some smaller stuff from last time I passed by this size but I’m really looking forward to hitting the shops preferably in the UK as shops here tend to cater for tiny french ladies. It’ll be a long time till I get there.

Hi JulesMaigret! So nice that you had a chance to visit LLNL. I’ve never been in the place! My husband visited there once and upon entering one of the buildings had to be weighed in, then on the way out he had to be weighed again. When I’m out shopping during the week I meet quite a lot of people who worked there and have retired in this area. Seems to be a nice retirement package!

Sounds pretty darn cold there in the English countryside! Stay warm. Our early morning temp today is 35 and that is cold enough for me. We’ve got the gas fireplace lit and it’s warming the family room up nicely!

Hi libbyohno!

How exciting that it might snow! I hope it does for you. I love the snow; probably because I haven’t had to live in it :–).
Where do you live?

Sorry about eating those cashews and how it brought up your calorie total for the day! I have eaten way too many cashews and pecans this week. I managed to cut back yesterday and only had 10! I think nuts seem to satisfy me as a substitute for refined carbs. I will have to keep working on not letting myself have too many at a time. My favorite nut is the macadamia nut! I could eat the entire container if I didn’t care about the calories. :–) I also have to try to not eat too much cheese as well! I love cheese now that I’m not eating refined carbs or too many carbs from any source.

Good luck with your food and drink today!

Hi Angela! I love the South of France. We travelled through Marseille, Cassis, Cannes, St. Tropez and so on one year during a 21 day vacation. It was so much fun and beautiful! I would love to go back and do it again without our kids this time around!!!

Wow! That was quite the long period of time to go without eating!!!! 17 hours. Did you feel hungry during that time?
I have to get a blood test next week so I’ll have to fast but hopefully only for about 12 to 13 hours. I can do that! The lab opens at 7 am so I should be able to get it done on the way to work. I’ll just have to make sure I remember to not eat or drink any calories from 7 pm on the night before.

Sounds like you’ll have two Friday’s this week! Nice!!!!!

Palo Alto is a very nice place to live and as I’m sure you know, very expensive to live there. It would be great for you to get to visit your brother there. Stanford University is a beautiful campus and the old part of downtown has so many wonderful shops and restaurants.

I had to giggle when I read the part in your post about the clothes in France catering to tiny French ladies. Every visit I’ve been on in other parts of the world have had tiny clothes. Living in the U.S. , there are clothes to buy for every size! On average we are a lot bigger here in the U.S. We eat too much junk food and don’t do enough exercise! There is a huge shopping outlet here that caters to tourists from other countries. Tour buses fill up the parking lots! One day I was shopping there and couldn’t find any clothes in my size; in fact most of the clothes were size small, or x-small, or xx-small. So I asked the clerk why that was and he told me it was because those were the common sizes of the tourists. Darn! There were some cute clothes but not much to find in my size. Now I might have better luck shopping there but there would have to be some medium sizes. I’m not in the small or x-small sizes—Yet !!!!

PEAK: Work was enjoyable and I was very busy so I didn’t get hungry. I was able to keep my calories down to a decent count.
PIT: I didn’t get a chance to work out yesterday and my iwatch lost power before the day was over so I missed out on some steps. It lost power before I made it to 10,000 steps. Shoot! I’m not sure I made it to 10,000 steps yesterday. Oh well! Today is another day.

Enjoy your weekend everyone! I’m hoping to just relax and enjoy being home without too much of anything planned. I still have some of those Christmas decorations to put away. Ugh!

Your post reminds me on the differentials between sizing, I did a project in the summer of 2013 near Sacrmento. There was a big outlet mall near there. In the UK I wore 3XL/2XL but in the mall I seemed to be able to get into XL – now that was an, albeit delusional, ego boost.

Julesmaigret..if you’re heading to my neck of the woods next week bring warm clothes; it’s freezing just now.

I’m definitely envious of the shopping mall, Janet. My husband used to travel to Seattle on business and he’d bring back wonderful stuff. I’m still using some fabulous Ralph Lauren sheets he picked up in a sale. Super quality..Clothes sizes are just plain weird though. In France the sizes tend to be small because french ladies like to say they wear small sizes and they’re tiny anyway but I’ve never really worked out italian sizes. It will be nice to be mainstream is what I think.

Hopefully I’ll visit my brother one day. Up till recently he went back to visit our mother in the UK and we’d get together there. Now mum has passed away, we’ll have to organise things differently. He has less holiday than we do in Europe.

So pleased you enjoyed the South of France..I’m about 30 mins inland from Cannes. Did you come on an organised tour or do it yourself? We’re on the cruise ship itinerary too and the coast does get crowded in Summer.

Bad luck about the tracker. It’s astonishing how motivating it is though I’ve worked like a demon today but barely any steps to show for it…I will give it hell tomorrow!

Fasting: I built up to the 16 hours really, started by pushing breakfast later when I wasn’t hungry and after a few days found I work better on 3 meals closer together so I eat around 12.30, have a hefty (by BSD standards) snack round 4.30 then dinner about 7.30. Mid afternoon I could eat anything so I find actually acknowledging it with a meal rather than nibble at stuff works better for me. Your timetable is quite different to mine so it may not work.

My peak scales are continuing to inch down, more slowly than some but then I’ve never been hardcore!

My lowest point, forgetting to put my tracker on so all those leaves I swept up counted for nothing 😉

I wish you all a pleasant enjoyable weekend…Angela

Hi Angela

Got the dates and location yesterday – early March and in Sophia Antipolis, near Nice, so I’m hoping that the weather will be better. Looking to stick to BSD principles and planning on going down the fish and salad route.

Spent a week in Montpelier once n May and it was extremely windy and rained every day, so I always treat the idea of “good news it’ll be in the South of France” with a huge pinch of fleur de sel.

Hi Julezmaigret, Sophia Antipolis is about 15 minutes from me…don’t know if you’ve been before. It’s a business park, albeit a fairly attractive one. Best eating choices are probably in Valbonne or Mougins if you’re hiring a car.

I can fit into mainstream clothes in Australia (14-16) but I visited a shopping mall in China and everything was so tiny. I didn’t even attempt to try anything on. And I had an acupuncturist here, a Chinese Australian, who thought I should lose 20kg back when I thought I only needed to lose 10. Australia is similar to US and U.K. in what is a “normal” size and it’s very different to a lot of the rest of the world!

Peak: a swim in our neighbour’s pool – with their dog.
Pit: still waiting on our own pool to be finished. And waiting, and waiting.

JulesMaigret~ Hope your trip to the South of France goes well this coming week! What I’ve always enjoyed about staying in hotels in Europe is that the breakfast buffet often has delicious low carb foods such as salad, smoked salmon, sausage, cheese, nuts and so on. Okay so not always low calorie but at least low carb. Here in the states it seems there are always high carb foods such as cereal, pancakes, waffles, donuts, rolls, yogurt with sugary fruit and so on.

Natalie~ I’ll look forward to visiting Australia one of these days knowing I might fit into some of the clothes when I go shopping! Shopping is a very favorite pastime of mine! How fun to go swimming . . .and with the dog. . .! I keep forgetting it’s summer there. I hope your new pool gets finished soon. We have a pool and this coming summer are probably going to be renovating it. The grout is starting to fall apart! It’s a 15 year old pool and not sure why it would already need new grout. Maybe it’s because of the excessive summer heat in our area.

Angela~Sounds like you’ve gotten fairly used to fasting for 16 or so hours. During the work week, I get up at 3:30 am and leave the house at 4:30 am. I arrive at Starbuck’s at 5 am and have coffee with half and half. Recently before starting the BSD, I used to eat a breakfast sandwich and now I don’t eat anything.
I arrive at work at 6 am and usually eat something about 9:45 am- usually some fage yogurt or a piece of chicken (in between counseling appointments). Then I eat lunch around 11:45 am-vegetable chicken soup or salad with chicken (in between counseling appointments). I arrive home about 2:45 pm and that is when I am the most hungry and wanting to eat. This is when I want nuts or cheese and it is easy to over do it! Funny! I have tried to eat more at lunch to try to not be so hungry when I get home, but it hasn’t worked. I think it is just my time of the day where I want food. I find if I do my exercise at this time, it helps a lot! About 6:30 pm, I eat a small dinner–salad or vegetable and meat. I don’t often snack after dinner!
Years ago, when I was at my highest weight, I’d start the morning out with 2 chocolate old fashion donuts chased down with a diet coke . For lunch I’d eat some kind of fast food or if I was doing well, I’d have a Lean Cuisine frozen meal. Always drank a lot of diet coke with meals and in between meals.
Then of course there would be cookies or candy somewhere during the day, followed by a small dinner. I wasn’t very hungry by the end of the day. It is no wonder I weighed so much! I ate terribly!!! The only thing I was doing right was the exercise.
A couple years ago, I went for an entire year without having any cakes, pies, cookies, candy and so on (things with refined sugar). I didn’t lose any weight but I didn’t gain any weight either during that year. I also had spent some time following the paleo diet and had some weight loss success.
So I think those two ways of eating prepared me for knowing I’d be able to follow the BSD way of eating.
Angela, you sound like you are doing really well with both your diet and exercise. How long have you been following the BSD? I like your approach–not having to lose weight too quickly–seems to be working for you. And it seems like you are losing weight consistently! So nice.

You asked about our trip to the South of France–We took our kids on a 21 day trip (their first trip to Europe) when our oldest child–our daughter had graduated from college and our son was a 17 year old high school student. We flew into Paris and stayed a few days, then took the train to Marseille and rented a car. From there we drove up the coast of France and into Italy. We stayed at different places along the way. In Italy we stayed two nights in Cinque Terra and then drove to Florence. We took the train to Rome and returned to Florence. Then we took a train to Venice. From Venice we took an overnight train back to Paris and flew home from there. It was a great trip!

I am very tempted to delete almost everything I’d typed above as I have rambled on and it is most likely very boring for others to read, but I think I’ll just keep it there as it’s good for me to be able to look back and remember where I’ve been and where I am now.

Angela, sorry to hear your mum passed away! My dad died 6 years old and my mom has been alone since then. She is now 81 and slowing down and getting frail. Hopefully you will get a chance to get together with your siblings one day soon.

PEAK: I’ve started going through my closet and getting clothes that no longer fit ready to be taken to the donation station. It feels great to clear things out and keep only those things that truly fit.

PIT: The Christmas decorations are still in the dining room waiting to be wrapped in bubble wrap and put away. This will be my goal for the weekend. We have Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday so I don’t have to go back to work until Tuesday! Yay!

Natalie, this will probably make you itch but I’m writing this sitting cosy in front of a log fire. Bliss.

JulesM. There’s the possibility of snow next week right down to the coast. Hopefully it will go away.

I have never really been mainstream re clothes sizes as I’m all out of proportion, too big on top so clothes never really fitted. I’ll be happy to be back in a size 14, would never dare aspire to a 12 but who knows. It’ll be nice to have a choice at any rate. What I really wish is that this WOE had been around when I was younger.

We too have a pool. It’s a huge bonus in the summer and Natalie, good luck with yours. Given Australian summer temperatures, I expect it’s pretty well a necessity there. However, Janet, I sympathise with the maintenance issues. We need to resurface ours but it will have to wait…

Janet re the BSD you flatter me, truly. I’m two steps forward, one back. I try to stay within the guidelines but usually end up eating too many nuts, too much cheese, have too much cream in my coffee etc. I’m just really happy that somehow I feel more alive and that my last blood test seemed OK (except for the cholestrol…that would be the cheese)

My peak for Saturday is a goody…my daughter left half a chocolate cake in my kitchen with instructions for us to help ourselves. I pretty well forgot it was there…now that’s progress. Three months ago I would have inhaled it all..

The pit..exercise, or rather lack of it…again. Did a bit of garden tidying, house cleaning but nothing that caused me to break a sweat.

Have a pleasant Sunday everyone…and how nice to have a long weekend, Janet.

PS What a fabulous trip round this part of Europe. What was the high point?

Hi Angela,

Fortunately the visit is postponed to earlier March so hopefully the weather should have turned and I met get to eat outside (my one true measure of being somewhere warm!)

Angela~ Congrats on not eating that delicious sounding chocolate cake! Cake with buttercream frosting is one of my favorite desserts. I would of had to douse it with salt and throw it away in order to keep from eating it. So awesome that you have gotten to that point where you forgot it was even there.

PEAK: I finally got every single last Christmas decoration boxed up and put away! I also finished my project of going through my closet and collecting all the clothes that don’t fit me any longer.

PIT: I didn’t do any formal workout this weekend. I made my 10,000 steps because I was busy but I need to map out a workout plan for the coming week.

Wishing everyone a nice week! ~Janet :–)

PEAK: Got 14,748 steps in today! I didn’t get a formal workout in but stayed busy enough to get lots of steps in. I had the day off for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Back to work tomorrow. I really have to make a huge effort to get up every hour when I work and get some steps in.

PIT: My husband left on a business trip this morning! I miss him already.

Well done with the exercise, Janet, and with the Christmas decoration project. I really do enjoy the whole Christmas thing but I do actually like the house when the decorations are down again. It always seems a good start to the new year!

My peak, in fact there are two because I did my weekly weigh in this morning and am down 1.7kg, not a huge amount but the trend is still down and the second peak is that I remembered to put my tracker on so have done and recorded the steps.

The pit…thought I was getting a cold yesterday but feel ok today. I hope your husband is on a short trip away. My husband used to travel to Seattle frequently and because it was so far, he’d be gone a few weeks at a time. I always hated it so I sympathise with you.

How are you finding the second round? For me it lacks the dynamism of the first…it’s more of a slog this time.. I really need to weigh my foods..I’m starting to graze and weighing keeps me honest. I’m also trying to forget that ideally I probably need to lose another 25kgs. Horrors!

Have a good day. Angela

Angela:
I am feeling the same about about this 2nd round! My motivation is not a strong. I have yet to eat just 800 calories and my weight is not going down. Since my doctor appointment goal, it has gone back up to the weight I was on January 1st. I’m feeling good about staying on the BSD and not straying from the low carb way of eating. Yesterday I ate just a few nuts and a little cheese.

Congrats Angela on the 1.7 kg. loss! That’s a success. :–)

My husband is gone for just a short trip this time around. He travels a lot and often to Asia or Europe. The longest he’s been gone was 18 days. Sometimes I get a chance to go with him. Last September I travelled to Vietnam with him and before that Singapore and Japan. This March I’m going with him to Belgium as I’ve never been. I went to Amsterdam once with my daughter when she had business there but didn’t go outside Amsterdam so looking forward to seeing a little more of this part of the world. On our way back, we’ll stop off at our daughter’s home in the Raleigh area of North Carolina. I’ll stay a week and half there to help her and her husband out with two of our granddaughters (age 7 and 10) while she delivers granddaughter number 5–delivery date set for March 30th unless she goes into labor earlier. We are so excited about another baby in the family!

Angela, so glad you didn’t come down with a cold! Hope you stay warm during the cold snap!!!!
Congrats again on the weight loss. You are doing great! You are my role model. :–)

Wow, Janet, you have so many lovely events to look forward to this year …the travel, visiting your granddaughters and welcoming a new one (number 5 :-)) . I’d love a new baby in the family. It’s going to be an exciting Spring!
As far as the BSD is concerned motivation is really hard to find this time but then something happens and I remember why I’m doing this. At the moment I’m really appreciating fitting comfortably into my clothes.

It’s been a quiet day here. I haven’t got on top of the exercise..which will be my pit. I’d love to be sufficiently motivated to try the high intensity stuff but somehow it just doesn’t appeal.One day….

And today I think the peak was the weight loss I posted this morning. And maybe the good nights sleep last night.

Have a good day. I guess you’re probably starting your day as mine is finishing.

Angela, you are so right! A good night sleep is a wonderful thing. I woke up a lot last night! Tomorrow, I don’t have to get up early since I don’t have to be to work until 12 noon. We have a nursing orientation for our newest class and their families are coming for a dinner at 5 pm and I need to be there. I won’t get home until about 9 pm but I don’t have to work on Thursday. Rain is once again in the forecast for the next week. I hoping it won’t be a serious rain tomorrow night as it’s already hard enough to drive in the dark for me, let alone driving in the dark in the rain. Yikes!

I got up at 3:30 am and left for work about 4:45 am. It was cold outside! 32 degrees this morning. The Sierra’s are supposed to get more snow this coming week. I’m glad I don’t have to hurry off to bed tonight. I’m enjoying relaxing with the fire going and watching one of my favorite tv shows, “Fixer Upper”. HGTV. Love it! Since my husband is gone until tomorrow night, I can binge on the shows I love to watch.

I like how you mentioned remembering why you are doing the BSD and how nice it feels to fit comfortably in your clothes! I will remind myself of both those things. I too love fitting into smaller clothes and don’t want to regain the weight I have fought so hard to lose.

PEAK: Got about 6500 steps in at work. Worked out on my stationary bike for 1 hour when I got home from work today. Then I vacuumed the house. It’s a big house with 4200 square feet, so it takes a lot of time! My sister and my mother are both coming for a visit this weekend so I wanted to get things in order for there visits. I decided I didn’t want to spend my entire day cleaning on my day off on Thursday. I have a doctor appointment that day which will already eat into my free time so getting some of my chores done now will give me a little more time to myself on Thursday. So now at 8 pm at night I have accumulated over 10000 steps not including the hour on the stationary bike.

PIT: I think I have a small tear in my chest muscle and it has been causing me a lot of pain. I keep putting off getting it looked at because I really dread having to get an MRI done. I think I injured it about a month or so ago weight training–not sure–but need to really cut back on carrying things on that side and not lifting heavy things. Weight training is out for the time being! Shoot! I feel so flabby– I really miss weight training! :–(