Oops! I thought that previous post had disappeared into the ether so this one was redundant. …and less spontaneous. 😊

Lolly, I put on my exercise clothes when I get up even though I wait several hours to go to the gym when it’s populated by older people like me and the machines are available without waiting lines. Once I’ve made that declaration each morning I just follow through.

I’m proud of what you’re doing! I began setting a timer and just walking 100 steps around my house several times a day. Now I’m up to an hour on a challenging cross country program on a recumbent bike. It’s amazing how that feeling of exhaustion/rush pushes us on to more healthy behavior. Thank god for it!

As I think I said before, there are ways of looking at a “binge” and ways of handling it. I try to have something I can look forward to for my last meal before my FDs. It breaks my pattern and feels indulgent. The FDs keep it from becoming craving that sabotages me.

That said, I am still white knuckling my way through the mess I made of eating my trigger foods last week when I was anxious. Best to do whatever you can (that’s an editorial “you” not aimed at you personally, Lolly) to avoid trigger foods once you’ve identified them!!! I’m relying on my Fast Diet groups to get me back on the straight-and-narrow, so thanks for your inspiration! 😏

My first thoughts Karen, where that you had missed the point. But I thought about my food journey and realized that my attitude has changed enormously as the months ticked by without me being aware a the time.

I thought that that the 5:2 would never work for me, that I was a lost cause, so to prove that point I ate 500 calories and not a smidgen more on 2 days a week. I ate whatever I liked on the others and lost 1 lb a week most of the time. I became aware that I really liked the FD food(often prawns/salad or fish/salad) and started looking at the other days and making small improvements. Months passed and i continued to celebrate each FD with an Almond Croissant the very next day-quite a bonkers thing to do, but I didn’t know that I was hooked on sugar.For 2 Decembers I have eaten what I liked and managed to pile on 10 lb…and then spent months shifting it again. This year it was 4 lb only because there was no Christmas Cake and 1 box of mince pies, I had some Christmas Pudding but decided that it wasn’t as fabulous as I had imagined and certainly not worth the eye-watering amount of calories if it wasn’t going to be wonderful.This year, there will be no pud.
In January I saw a programme by Micheal Mosley(Trust me I am a doctor)which looked at the amount of caffeine in varoius drinks and I was shocked to learn how much more was in tea, so I cut my consumption from 7/8 mugs/day to 3 overnight. I had headaches for a week but stuck to it..although now i think my headaches were lack of sugar rather than caffeine. I instantly reduced my sugar intake just in tea by 35 teaspoons/week!!!!!
I am lucky enough to be provided with a choice of meals at lunchtime and had always had a pudding along with the mid morning and mid afternoon biscuits. I found that I felt much better with less tea and then noticed that I felt rubbish after lunch, really struggling to stay awake. I gave up puddings for a week as an experiment, didn’t have the post lunch crash and felt better, tried a couple of puddings the following week and felt rubbish again. So after months of dithering I cut my teaspoon of sugar down to a half and after much urging from friends and colleagues…I stopped putting it in my tea completely. There was a week of face-pulling and moaning..but I got used to it and now 6 months down the line I don’t even think about it anymore.
I rarely have a pudding now, it isn’t worth how rubbish I feel afterwards. I eat far less chocolate, sweets and biscuits now….and as a result I feel much better.
Sticky Toffee Pudding was the highlight of my week. Now I can walk past it without any sense of loss because I know that within an hour I will be yawning and struggling to stay awake. My favourite snack is a mashed avocado on toast, it makes me feel nourished, I like it and it is filling..an excellent post run meal.
I like food that makes me feel good now. I do have chocolate etc now and again, but the daily vice like grip these sugar filled foods used to have on me has now gone. I feel free of the lunatic that was looking for the next sugar fix. Shop bought white crusty bread turns me into a mad woman as well, so i simply don’t buy it. My big downfall is ice cream, but although I love it, I just want more…and more-no surprise that this is yet another high sugar food.
I have educated myself on the calorie cost of what I like to eat, so I am past the ‘looking it all up process’ which is both tedious and necessary. It does get better, choose things that you love for 500 calories on FD and I suspect you will notice what food makes you feel good and which ones don’t.

One of the wonders of this program for eating is how durable it is. We can start out with our grudging concessions to a “diet” and it keeps plugging along and feeding us reward for just a couple days of backing off on the feedbag until we evolve, just as you describe, annette, to choosing to feel as well as we can. By that time there’s little sacrifice in turning our backs on the counterproductive foods.

So anyone can start where they start, set their goals and take all the time they need to get where they’re going making adjustments along the way! What could be better?

What do you find the medical community’s reaction to intermittent fasting is, annette? I just saw a conversation between Dr. Mosley and his American colleague Dr. Mercola who are both proponents of some form of fasting as a regular event. They both agreed that physicians and scientists are open to and persuaded by the accumulating hard information. And they agreed that dieticians and nutritionists were more likely to throw up their hands and hyperventilate at the idea. Even so, it is very slow taking off in the US despite a growing collection of anecdotal experiences and the fact that lots of the research IF is based on coming out of American universities.

Happy Birthday, dear Jade!!!! 🎂 How many is it? That’s birthdays, of course. Not restaurants.

So glad you have a husband who enjoys making you feel special. Can he grade papers too??? 😈

Happy Birthday Week Jade!

After weeks of not measuring or standing on the scales I can confirm that I am maintaining with ease. Sadly the goal is for a smaller waist, so time to get a grip. The plan is to do x2 FD week for the next 6 weeks keeping a gimlet eye on NFD and just what I am scoffing then, which is I suspect a large part of the problem.

I have signed up for another 10K in 8 weeks time, so would love to have less of me to haul round which in theory should make me faster than whatever I achieve tomorrow.Small and short goals work best for me.

Chubs-I think that the US has a bigger hill to climb than the UK in the acceptance that IF might be a good thing because it fails to make money for those that rely on us getting fat, such as the food and diet industry. If we eat more fruit nd vegetables, cook from scratch and buy far less processed foods then the profits of those 2 multi million industries are going to plummet. I eat better quality food which is cheaper and makes me feel better, but I also need to eat less of it overall. I will benefit from that but the diet and food industry are not going to, so there has to be a degree of personal responsibility but also faith that the 5:2 will work in terms of weight loss and general improvement in health. I was very skeptical, but the truth of the matter is that we are all consuming far more than we need and our addiction to the sweet stuff drives us to seek more. In the UK, some of the food companies are starting to label their products with a guide on how often they should be eaten which is based on sugar/fat/calorie content. If we all made our own tomato sauce for pasta, which would have much less sugar in, then these companies would be in a lot of trouble.

I am off to the shops soon and will do my usual thing of quietly observing what folk have in their trolleys and then looking at not only what the owners of the trolleys look like but also whether they look ‘well’ or not. It is very illuminating.

Happy Birthday Jade, loved the ‘longest birthday in history’ enjoy!

Have had an up and down week, but have not the usual cravings for anything chocolate, no idea really why, NFD have been better though so that could be the trick. Trigger foods I have loads, so am sometimes eating from quite a limited range, 🙁 Bread is my main triumph (i.e getting rid of it) cos it is the innocent partner in crime on many a ruined NFD (toast, cheese on toast etc) have been without it for nearly a year. I don’t miss the UK stable, of a sandwich for lunch! cold, tasteless and totally non-filling;-) but there are some amazing breads which I just have as a treat now and then. Most of my FD’s are at work so I don’t have to bring any lunch, agreed Annette, sometimes I have a look in the staff room fridge, they are either very lucky people, who don’t have to worry about their weight or they haven’t read anything about the dangers of sugar. Karen, no I don’t have a treat day, but do have the odd day off, otherwise this would be a prison sentence, but I think we’re all different 🙂

On the scales my weight is going up and down, but tape measure tells a better story! and clothes, I’m hopeful! the smallest part of my body is never on show! that’s the area between boobs and waist, torso? I lose weight from here a lot I am an ‘inverted triangle” broad-ish shoulders, going down in a point towards waist. I’m hoping the next 4 FD’s will begin to show on scales, with me I usually have a ‘whoosh’ moment..

Karen you asked about the want for career change 🙂 I lived in Latin America for about 12 yrs and developed a total passion for Salsa, Rumba, tango etc..Started the classes 2 years ago (doing ongoing certificates/training alongside) so a ‘fledlging’ business. When I reached 50 had just got divorced and had to ‘re-invent’ myself to some extent. I’m hoping now that I could turn this into something more business-like and cut down on the day job!..

Lolly congrats on the 30 mins challenge, yes I also put on exercise gear in advance, or make sure it’s ready to go the night before.

Chubster, I also notice that when I’ve succumbed to ‘family bag of Minstrels” had a dodgy FD the next day, must be the drop in blood sugar. did anyone see this article?
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/07/the-sugar-conspiracy-robert-lustig-john-yudkin

hope that worked 😉

Tango xx love to all Spring, QB, Jade, Annette, Lolly, Karen, anyone else?

Stop it, Chupster! Not fair 😉

(How do you manage to bake it and then mit eat it???)

Tango, sounds like you made some right decisions in your life. Great to make a living with work that one really enjoys. So good luck to you that you can cut down more and more on your old job.

YAY, annette! *Another* 10K before you’ve even done the first one! You are intrepid and we’re proud of you. …even if you *are* spying on our guilty pleasures and failures of will as we troll the grocery aisles unaware. 😏

And, say, may I ask something? The other day you said you cut down on your tea consumption even after you’d managed to eliminate the sugar you put in it. What was the reason you did that? I ask because I drink a quart-sized pot of tea every day and once Summer starts I’ll increase that by probably another quart of ice tea and fermented kombucha. I know that’s a lot of caffein but I’ve never been sensitive to it. I just LIKE tea. But is it a mistake to be drinking so much?

I stopped smoking almost half a century ago, Karen. You’re so right about how much easier that is. There may have been clinical addiction and it may have taken me multiple efforts back then but, as you say, once given up it’s over while eating is something necessary and unavoidable that we have to learn to modify and modulate. So much harder!

Happy Birthday, Jade!

Really interesting discussion on binging, thank you to everyone. It helps to clarify my own position when I see things I either agree or disagree with, so all input is valuable.

My admittedly short experience with IF and sugar avoidance/low carb has given me something I never expected to have — weeks of not wanting to binge. The minute I let the sugar go it all began to fall into place. (The other half of the equation was wheat but i had already been forced by health to give that up 6 years ago.)

Every other attempt to lose weight has left me white-knuckling it, craving my trigger foods, knowing that it was just a matter of time before I gave in and binged for a month on everything in sight. Along with that came self-loathing and the inevitable regaining plus some.

This is the only plan which I can absolutely picture staying with for the rest of my life. DIETS DO NOT WORK FOR ME!!! This is not a diet — it’s the way I’m living. And I can adjust it as I need to. The relief is beyond words. I have wonderful food. I eat my fill and then — I STOP. Only another binger can appreciated what that means.

I always looked at people who left food on their plates as lunatics. “I’ve had enough.” What’s your point? Since when was that a reason for stopping? There was never enough food for me, and hunger had nothing to do with it.

I have a lot of weight I’d like to be without. But for the first time in my life I can see not only losing it but keeping it off. I’ve had bits of this for years but wasn’t able to put the whole picture together until now. Finally, it makes sense.

And so do all of you.

Ah, the island is full of wisdom today! Lolly, know exactly what you mean, it’s a relief to have the right approach to eating, finally. And lol “what’s your point” indeed 😂 You nailed that.
Chubs I shall call you Slim, or maybe Perseus? You are a strong one, baking bread and appreciating all the things about it that don’t involve eating it. You made it sound rather therapeutic 🌅 I, on the other hand, just went to the local bakery and bought a loaf of french bread. It’s all about triggers, and I don’t think that is one for me. I don’t care much for sandwiches either by the way! But kudos to everyone who has kicked it out of their lives completely.
Tango thanks for the link – fascinating, almost depressing, article. The degree to which those opposing sugar were shunned is disgraceful – reminds me of politics and how opinions are dismissed with much disdain simply because the other person disagrees. it makes you not want to trust anyone about anything! 😡 But I have seen the proof myself on sugar, in fact, even though I got the bread, I wanted the HB egg in the fridge instead. Go me. And yes, I work in “whooshes” too – stay pretty steady but if I keep at it, the loss comes. Likewise, the gain is not as quick easy.
Karen I think it was you asked about the binge day? I need to clarify – there are days I just relax and do whatever I like. I have been 5:2ing long enough now though that I’m much more in tune with how I like to feel, and stuffed and over-sugared isn’t how. Though I was certainly over-sugared just a few days ago! The nice thing is that it’s OK. It’s just one night. I feel ok the next day and move on. I’ll do it again, I’m sure, but again it’ll be OK. For a time I did plan “days of wild abandon” but I’m just stubborn enough that it made me crazy thinking I had to wait for whatever wicked food I had in mind. So I don’t plan them, I just sense when I am in one and let myself relax. The great thing about 5:2 combined with sugar avoidance is that it just doesn’t happen very often. And oh yes, maintenance IS work, but really just the work of staying aware. And staying healthy is worth it. I wish it were so easy I didn’t have to think about it! But I suspect most people either do or they gradually gain weight – I mean, it’s EXPECTED (in an approving way) that we will all gain ~5 lbs a year or more as we age. Um, no thanks to that.
Annette, wow another 10k? I love the excitement of races but most are too far away, so I just stick with running in the state park near us. Very pretty by the river, and the dogs are usually enough encouragement to get me out there ♥️🐶 Not today so far…still feeling fuzzy from last night’s cocktail and wine, I am such a cheap date.
Well, now I have gone and barked at hubs for refusing the fritter I got him at the bakery. I am a total fraud!!! I have to go back now and apologize – ugh, Aries (Rams) hate to apologize….😂😉🔆🌴xxxx
ps Hi caspersmum! Just saw your post – welcome and congrats on the transformation, well done!

Hi La Chubster.
I’m also a woman of a certain age who also enjoys Fantasy, sci-fi and anything drangony, if that’s a word.
I admire your exercise regime. I have a damaged knee cap and a Rotator cuff injury so exercise is difficult until its resolved. Seeing physio tomorrow and I hope it helps as I’ve lost my muscle mass in my thigh and arm. Fingers crossed for an improvement soon.

Way to go, annette!!! “Not last” never looked so good! I am beyond impressed. And I love the clothes from a charity shop idea. Bonus is that you’ll be out of them so soon that you can donate them right back!

Thank you! I completed it in 1.16, which is slower than my PB of 1.12 which was when I was much fitter..so overall I am very very pleased. I need to walk less and run more at a consistent pace. Yes, it is 8 weeks until the next one which should keep me focused on training and shrinking. I remember the constant pain of climbing stairs when I was 3 stone heavier, my poor knees were always aching.I have gone down 3 bra sizes too which makes a huge difference when running!

I have a bit of an addiction to charity shops as a result of losing weight.As my weight decreased and my shape changed I found it made much more sense to see what I could find that fitted me and that I liked for a fraction of the shop prices. I have a huge pile of things to re-gift that I have loved and felt good in…but sadly are too big now. I hope someone else will have as much pleasure with them as I have. The great thing is that I can get good quality clothes that no one else is wearing for a small outlay. My walk home from work just happens to be on a road with 7 charity shops to a 5 minute peep is easy to do. There have been weeks when there has been nothing at all though, so you have to keep the faith and keep looking.

Have a lovely week.

Hey Islanders! I have to explain my absence. I got carried off the island by this ENORMOUS wave. Remember when Augustus Gloop fell in the chocolate river? Well it was a stray wave from the chocolate river and it just knocked me right off my feet.

There I was, floating in all the chocolatey loveliness and who did I bump into?! Jade’s bad boy bachelor #3, who we’ll just call Suge. He was wearing a disguise but I think we all know who he is. What can I say? We hung out. A lot. All I can say is yes, I am now walking funny (because my trousers no longer fit).

Anyhow I haven’t had a chance to read everyone’s posts but I am planning to do so and will post again but I just wanted to say hello and lovely to see all the regulars here – big hello to Jade, Spring, Annette, Queen, Chubs, and GOLLY MY GOLLY I SAW A PENGUIN – and all the more recent posters all sharing their trials, tribulations and wisdoms. Sending big love out to you all.

As usual after a sojourn to the mainland I am fiercely avoiding the scales and am due to do a weigh-in tomorrow (big intake of breath) so wish me luck

xx

Thanks Jade. I love the cups..I will never get a real one. Never mind Jade, it is a new week tomorrow…

mcca-never mind. We have all been there, but it is almost a new week. Nothing that can’t be undone and the scales/measurements may not be as bad as you expect. If they are..we are all here willing you on. I think that it is perfectly normal to have these blips and as time goes buy they will diminish.I speak from experience!

Brilliant! Chubs..or should that be ‘slim?’ That has made me laugh…and laugh, but that is going to be a lot of chocolate..

I am toying with the idea of ADF this week..

Just a flying visit really but I wanted to say HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY dear Jade (possibly currently in a food-coma?) and CONGRATULATIONS Annette on your amazing effort in the 10K. I’m in awe of anyone who can run after 50, so take a few more bows! Good work to all of you really, cause reading through this you’re all doing good stuff in so many ways.

Welcome back mcca and nuff said about rouge waves of chocolatey loveliness that appear to offer happiness but instead leave one dumped in the surf with another mouthful of sand… The Island is full of us ‘slow-learners’ but I do think we’ll ALL get there eventually 🙂

Welcome caspersmum and can I assume from the spelling that you’re either down this way or in the UK? Would be great to have someone else in the same (time) zone so to speak. Sounds like you’ve found a way that’s working for you, so all the best.

I’m in a weird state of agitation at the moment that’s making food-life tricky but I can say that I’ve managed to do my 30 minutes of moderate exercise everyday since I started my 90-day challenge. The puppies are sleeping better, the garden is looking much improved so I’m succeeding in one important area of life and I’ll just have to take that as a plus and not beat myself up about the eating. I won’t go into details, but it did involve a 250gm pack of butter that was almost consumed in 5 days until I threw it out in a fit of self-disgust. It’s not even human the amount of butter I can consume if I’m in a buttery kind of mood and needless to say the scale damage was considerable. God knows what my liver looks like right now but I’m fasting today so that will hopefully help – how I wish I could get off this carousel of craziness.

Well, so much for a flying visit. Instead, I’ve managed to have a self-centred rant/whinge and not really engage in what you’re all up to so sorry for that. I will promise to read and respond better in days to come and meanwhile thanks SO much for being here. Love Spring xxx

Hi to all

Sorry for not reading all posts, so many full of wisdom 🙂 and fun

Spring totally get “buttergate” was also on the butter yesterday, which I’d supposedly banned 🙁 wasn’t a great day!
Slim love the chocolate ugly lady, will try to put that in my mind..
Lolly totes agree with with people leaving stuff on their plate, why? love your comment ‘what’s your point’ that got me laughing 🙂
Jade, where do you get your icons from? really cool
Annette, great result! well done for the 10K, what an accomplishment! you must be proud! Yesterday I was a volunteer at the marathon where I live, I was on T-shirt duty, amazing atmosphere! I will start running again soon, but have to wait for my physio on knee.

Have had a weird couple of days, as got an interview for a job overseas, which would have meant a sizable income (enough to rid me of money worries) but in the end have decided to stay put, and continue with my career change goals, hope I don’t regret it 😉 out of the 2 I chose the less predictable route, which in the end got me running willy nilly in search of wine, bread etc, luckily not a mega binge, more a big blip, Back on track today.

Hi mcca, and welcome capersmum!
hi Karen and anyone else I’ve missed..xx
Tango

Hey dear Spring – always good to see you, and sorry about the craziness but BIG pats on the back for doing the exercise anyway. Some days, logging on here is the ONLY thing I do for my health, but at least I’ve done something. And yesterday despite feeling icky with a bread-only antidote, I took the dogs on a walk around town. So…right? Doing something = not giving up. Some days you do more than others.

I wouldn’t get on the scales for love nor money today. Mcca I’m sorry you got such a nasty slap from yours BUT at least you are back on track, spitting sand out of your mouth 😅😡! I’m going to do the same, give it a good go this week and then see. I could tell the jogging shorts were a bit snug yesterday (ha, and they’re basically OSFA elastic). But you know, it’s like kids. What’re you gonna do when they’re difficult, stuff them back in? Probably not the best analogy, stuffing 😂

Annette go easy on yourself if that 4:3 turns into 5:2. Post race appetite can be tricky and girl you burn a lot of calories before you even get to work! And oops, Karen you mentioned the old bugaboo TDEE! Mine is quite a BIT lower than almost any of my days last week. I may have to check in with MFFP although it is soo so tedious. Well, right, so are kids sometimes. Ok, got it. And I like the name LA Slim for our Chubster, maker of ugly chocolate 😆, baker of breads she doesn’t eat, and regular dispenser of witticisms.💪

Tango, good for you for picking a job not based just on money. Yes it’d be nice to have no money worries, but at what cost otherwise. Having lived this long, I know that a bad one is never worth the money. Have never uprooted to go overseas, but just the thought would send me to the wine bottle 🍷🍷 Glad you’re back on track. Oh, and the emojis are on my iPad. It’s my fun toy 😍

Rainy day here, and speaking of fun, I’d better get ready for work and for nature to water my garden and get those seeds going! Fresh herbs and veggies soon I hope – 🍅🍆🍠🌶Have a great day islanders 🌴🌴xxx

If it’s worth considering, mica, I don’t weight myself on a regular basis. Three times since Christmas — and 2 of those were at the doctor’s office where it wasn’t my choice. I think it skips a lot of frustration. I know if I’m doing the right stuff I’ll lose weight. And I know when I don’t there’s a consequence. And I can see the difference in my clothes. So I choose to eliminate the obsession about a number (I *would* obsess) and just move forward.

Tango, I don’t know where homebase is and what your field is and I guess I completely missed something about a change in careers. I would just say that my husband’s career gives him the opportunity to live in other countries for extended periods. (Me? I’m just the carbuncle on his patoot. …but I *do* get to go along.)

I think the opportunity to *live* in other cultures is a particularly privileged way to come to know the world and get perspective on whatever “home” is. But, if you’ve already lived in Latin America for a decade you know all about that. And, I’m sure you know what’s best in your circumstances and for your long-term goals.

My daughter is just making a third career change at 38. She will probably never again make the bucks she did in career #1 but she’s happier and she’s made a family that requires more of her than she would have been able to give back at #1. On the other hand, she and her family live in our pool house while they’re getting it all together. It’s tiny but it’s giving them this opportunity for reinvention. …and we get to see our grandson grow up on a daily intimate basis. …when we’re in the same country.

Karen, may I speak for everyone when I say if you are not a native English speaker/writer NO ONE would have known!!! I deeply admire the ability to speak multiple languages. It eludes me *completely* but, like living in another country, it causes such a fundamental shift in thinking and viewing the world that I’ve kept trying (lamely) to learn French since high school.

I’ll keep thinking about that name but LA Lean is perfectly logical, appropriate and has a certain alliteration that speaks to *mastery* of English. I may simply go to a screen name that I use on other forums — Bake @ 350 (that’s Farenheit, of course) — since baking is such a defining hobby. …and I’m creating myself in this oven of IF.

Thank you all for your congratulations. Jade you are right, I am hungry. The ADF plan was all those endorphins whizzing about rather than common sense. No FD today. I will see how I feel tomorrow.

I am still laughing at the enormous, sad, chocolate women. Genius!

Those are awesome shoes!! And an awesome price tag to match 😈 but what a terrific reward for a job well done, Chubs! Sorry, I love the name chubs whatever your shape. LA Loafer’s pretty cool too though 👍 Lolly big kudos to you for the exercises. There’s no rule that says 15+15isn’t 30, so you just keep slamming it and it will pay off.
On the subject of jobs, I traded a big law firm job long ago to work with a govt agency, then switched to teaching. I enjoyed the firm and liked the folks I worked with, but I wasn’t really helping the kinds of people I knew needed legal help for life to be fair(er). I know people who are still at that firm whose ONLY source of joy is the money they make. And they do have a lot of fun with it. But I’d hate to look back on my life and think I did it all for the money. Ok, sermon over 🙏🤐
Yesterday’s FD ended a bit early, right when OH suggested going out with friends we hadn’t seen in a while. Ha! So we’ll have to put that one in the FUFD column and try again today! At least I’m getting back in the groove until 6 pm though. Hello hunger 👋 Not afraid of you 👊
Annette, hope I didn’t put the hex on your AFD idea! You are one determined powerhouse of a gal, but surely holding the tdee line with 2x FDs will get the results you want. I’m hoping today is the start of some newfound discipline here – I have been a wild child lately. But OH is still grieving, and it makes him happy, and I’m not saying I did it JUST for him. But to everything there is a season and a time, as it goes….. I hope today brings joy to every one of you in some fashion or another ♥️🌴 xx

annette and Jade, you might enjoy this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-boston-marathons-last-place-finisher-is-its-biggest-winner_us_57165175e4b0060ccda459ec

PS I went out yesterday and tried on those sneaks. (One of my keep-busy-and-distracted activities for my second FD) Can I just say OMG!!!! They are soooo comfortable. It’s like what-if-you-could-just-run-in-socks-with-a-protective-sole. There is *nothing* to bind or pinch or rub. Supposedly you can even wear them without socks and they come with 2 innersoles for adapting to whether or not you choose to wear socks.

I was sorry to find out they have conventional shoestrings that need to be tied. They don’t show that in the photo illustrations and even at the store the ends were neatly tucked back into the shoe to look like they wouldn’t need tying. One of the attractions for me was no shoestrings to come untied and get tangled ’cause, other than that, they’re pull-on and go. I may investigate substituting a length of elastic tape for the shoestrings ’cause they’re really not doing anything but resembling a conventional sneak. The fit comes from the elasticity of the knit.

I liked the cool aqua and there’s also a silver that’s kinda neutral to not fight other colors so much.

I’m still wondering how grubby they’ll get — ’cause they are simply a lightweight open knit. The ladies at the Nike store weren’t sure about tossing them in the washing machine… But I am extra super jazzed about getting to 150 now. That’s 15 pounds to go but I can’t wait!

I wash all my running shoes quite frequently. They need to suffer from dirt, rain and my sweat, so I figure the occasional foam bath will not hurt them 🙂 Silver sounds great!

My life is all around work and my husband & the kids. I am enjoying your company immensely 🙂 Am living in Germany.

All best,
Karen