The FastDay Forum

@Tracieknits, We ended up with a whopping 5" here, and they had a travel ban up all day. We had a much worse time of it the previous week's storm where we had a mix of rain and snow that turned to ice on all the roads. This was just that light powdery stuff that is easy to manage.

I think it is the 24 hour news cycle and all those cable TV channels. They have to find something to talk about and there is only so much you can say about supposedly deflated footballs.

Go Pats!

wow I haven't hard of 4-3 with 800 calories before! I may have to try that if 5-2 doesn't work. But right now i'm trying a modified 4-3 with my 3rd day being 1000 calories and the other 2 being 500. This seems to work ok so far, but last Friday we went out to eat and I couldn't stick to it.

[Tracieknits]

My husband figured out a long time ago that at our TDEEs, we could do three fast days at 1000 calories or two fast days at 500 calories and it would result in the same calorie reduction for the week. We have certainly done it before, but it can be hard for him to fit three fast days in to the work week, as he often has working lunches/meetings. I haven't noticed any appreciable difference either way with weight loss. But certainly 1000/day is much easier to follow!

Thing is, we all seem to be wired slightly differently, so small (or large) tweaks may mean big or small changes for different people. Some people can't tolerate carbs because of sugar issues. Some people don't seem to notice an issue. Some people do really well on 16:8 and some people gain weight on it. Even though we are roughly the same, scientists are noticing that seemingly minor changes to DNA will result in minor mutations that end up meaning something just works a little differently - like how some people can't eat cilantro because they think it tastes like soap, or some others can't see colors or roll their tongues.

@Peebles 5"? are you western MA? I certainly agree that 5" of powdery stuff is no big deal at all. Ice, on the other hand, ick! We nearly had an accident getting home last Sunday night because of black ice. Luckily my husband grew up in Nebraska, that combined with snow tires and the heavy battery pack in our prius really helped!

Well end of the day I'm at 700 calories instead of 500 because hubby brought home chocolate. Is 700 ok? Better than normal I guess.

They have to find something to talk about and there is only so much you can say about supposedly deflated footballs.

Go Pats!

So, what plans do we all have for the Superbowl on Sunday?? I've lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years and still don't really understand American football - but I'll watch with Hubs and, along with him, cheer for the West Coast team. As for food and drink, we always used to go out to a sportsbar, but we're getting a bit old for that and our big screen TV seems bigger than most in the bars. We will have a couple of non-alco. beers (altho. our sober month will be officially up and OH will probably manage to buy the real thing!!!). There may also be some pizza involved.

Weather hysteria??? Y'all have got NOTHING on Seattle forecasters; if there's the slightest chance of "lowland snow," the apocalypse is here! Yeah, it's a pain; with all our hills, and we don't have the infrastructure in place for serious snow, so when we DO get it (once in five years, generally), it's pretty ugly. But it doesn't rise to the level of Armageddon you'd expect from their going on and on and ON about it! As usual, while the rest of the county is buried in snow, today was sunny and mid-50s (F, for non-Americans). Though walking on the beach was windy and chilly; still, I'll take whatever sunshine I can get this time of year.

yes, @lovemyparrot, root for those 'Hawks! SEAAAAA-HAAAWWWKSSS!

My son (age 25) doesn't usually follow ANY sports, but even he's consented to wear a Seahawks shirt and we're having us a little party at a friend's house. At least we won't scare my cats this time; last game (the really crazy close one), they didn't come out from under the bed for hours. Got my guac and chips and Brie...ooh, it's a light day, don't think about it now!

@peebles, we'll just have to agree to disagree... about football, anyway!

[Tracieknits]

@Ferretgal you aren't kidding about Seattle forecasters - but then they have a reason. The whole city shuts down if you get an inch of snow (I lived in Redmond for a while, and Silverdale and Olympia). The buses stop running and *nobody* knows how to drive if there's any white stuff on the road. I grew up in New England, and can handle driving in small amounts of snow, but driving in Seattle with 1/2" on the road was terrifying because of all of the other drivers. Plus Seattle doesn't have the equipment to plow or sand/salt the roads, so the roads are untended. It's so much different in the northeast, where we have massive snow removal teams, plows and sanding trucks that all work very well to keep the roads safe in all but heavy snow.

Football, schmutball. I have no interest in watching millionaires throw a ball to each other.

@Tracieknits, the "other drivers" are the reason I told my supervisor (several years ago) that if it snowed--or was icy--I would be staying home! I have a 4WD and was taught to drive in snow by a former Brooklyn taxi driver, so while I might be OK, you never know what the "other guy" is going to do! (something stupid, probably!) Several years ago we had a big snowfall out of nowhere that started in the afternoon; to say that the commute was a mess is to call Mt Rainier a hill. There were abandoned cars and jackknifed buses all over I-5; my bus DID make it, but a trip that usually took 35-45min took FOUR HOURS! When our bus driver (an older lady, hee hee) made it off the freeway (a long curved exit too), we gave her an ovation! (I just checked; this happened in December 2008.)

Another time, I made it to work just in time to be told the office was closed and we could go home. I said, No way am I going out there and waiting for a bus for hours; I'll work till the buses get sorted out...which is what I did. (I worked in downtown Seattle, almost everyone took the bus.)

[Tracieknits]

I worked in downtown Seattle too, and took the bus in from Redmond. I worked at a left-wing law firm near Pioneer Square

Yeah, I remember a commute home that should have taken 40 minutes took about 2.5 hours once, because of snow. Crazy!

Do they still drive like maniacs on 405 in Bellevue? I used to feel like I was on the east coast on that road I'll bet half of the things I miss about Seattle are gone now. I heard Ruby Montana's Pinto Pony closed. There was a fantastic hole in the wall Thai place where I used to get my pad thai for lunch, and I remember amazing mission style burritos that would put Chipotle to shame. I heard that Pike Place is very different now. I moved over to Silverdale in 1997 when I got engaged, and we moved to the east coast in January of 2000 - so it's been quite a while!!

[Tracieknits]

So who all is getting snowed in? School was cancelled for today and I woke up to about three inches in the front yard and about five inches in the back - it's all that very light powdery stuff that blows around easily. The forecast says we'll get 10-16 inches before the storm is over tonight.

We had 3-4 inches of snow & then a nice layer of ice on top. I didn't have any trouble getting to work. We never close, so not coming in was not an option.

I had a stomach bug over the weekend(Friday night/Saturday) so managed to lose a couple pounds. Not the method I'd recommend, let me tell you!

Spent yesterday reading a book called "Till the Fat Lady Slims". It's basically intuitive eating, but I'm going to try to really put it into practice on my "eating" days. Today is a fast day, so far so good.

Have a good Monday!

Hi @Tracieknits and all--Schools are closed here today in Central NY State with snow falling pretty heavily right now, not scheduled to stop til this evening. Lots of very cold temps and blustery winds predicted. Sunny tomorrow, so I should be able to make my grocery run as planned. We use carshare, so yesterday OH asked about how close to my 11:30 am reservation tomorrow can I cancel the car without penalty (3 hours) I appreciate his concern, but we live only a mile from the store! He'll be taking the bus up to Cornell campus to sit in on his favorite professors' lectures--he's doing that today, too--like NY City, Cornell never sleeps (closes), no matter the weather.

There should be a smiley on here for "husband out from underfoot"

[Tracieknits]

Glad to hear you're feeling better Lori, and that you have the husband out from underfoot, Marybeth!