new level, weather, I can have sweets again!, they wanna what?

Calories burned: 355.3
trip miles: 10.15
ave mph: 20.3

Today was the first day of tension level 5 (look out ya'll, I'm getting tenser!!!). It's a pretty good ride for a first day on a new level. This level will be carrying into the new year as next week we may be headed to Tennessee for the holidays and I wont be riding for at least 6 days. It's going to take a bit to get me back up and riding again after that I'm sure so I'm just going to take it right to the 15Th of January to make sure I'm in proper shape for level 6.

The weather yesterday was wonderful. I'd bundled up to go for my appointment at the dietitian and didn't even need the winter coat. I ended up ditching it and just going in my shirt sleeves because it was so warm (66 degrees!). Today? *laffz* Today it was so cold I had to wear my Jammie bottoms to keep warm inside. They're calling for rain and 60s by Friday, temps in the high 40s and rain on Saturday and then low 40s and snow by Sunday. No freaking wonder I've been in and out of not feeling well. Thankfully the Dr wrote me a 'script on Friday for an antibiotic, just in case. I suspect I may just need it by next week. With the way my ear's been acting, I may just take it anyhow just to be sure.

As you could tell by yesterday's first entry, I was a little jazzed up on my appointment. The dietitian was very very happy with me. We sat down and went through my food diary and she nitpicked here and there but saw alot of what I was doing RIGHT (which I hadn't been doing before). She was thrilled about my biking, about the fact that I increase the tension every 15 days, and even more thrilled that I'm tracking it on a spreadsheet as well as listing the day's ride in the food diary. She high lighted some problem areas to watch out for and gave me other options for those choices I had made. She's told me that I now need to really watch my fiber and gave me a target to reach everyday on that. It'll be easy to reach if I just increase the amount of bread I eat...lol. Each slice is 5 grams of fiber each.....and the Total cereal (mmm Cinnamon, yummy) I've been eating lately will help out there too. She's also told me I need to increase the amount of fruits and veggies I've been eating....well not so much the veggies because a good many are gotten in my daily salad and now that we're hitting winter, there'll be a bowl of soup with veggies in it daily. She DID add, however, something I've been hoping for. I'm allowed (as opposed to eating them when I know she said not to) the occasional treat again....there are only 2 rules. 1) It cannot be more than 100 calories (yeah right) and 2) it must not be every day. I think I'll be trying to stay the course and do without though because I know me and my sweets. Since October, I've only had maybe 4 treats total and only one swig of diet caffeine free Coke.


Well we did get some bad news yesterday. Not only has hubby's company mostly closed the plant in Boise and rearranged some of their work force....not only are they forcing their workers to use their vacation time (gotta love those companies that use timebanks) and not come in to work for 2-3 weeks, but now EVERYONE from the CEOs down to the first rung employees are getting a pay cut. At this point, it looks like this company's gonna do it right though. The ones getting the biggest cuts (20% of their salary) are the ones at the top of the ladder...the executive officers (damn well know the other company he worked for would NEVER have done that). In fact, a couple of them are voluntarily taking an additional 10% cut (for a total of 30% reduction in their salary). The rest of the pay cuts are going to be on a "sliding scale (?)" where each pay level is going to have a certain percentage taken....those at the bottom (new hires) shouldn't be losing anymore than 1%. Now this doesn't seem like alot, but considering that he only got a 6% raise from his last job to this one AND we're in an area where things are more costly than the national average (compared to Garland where they sit a good 4% BELOW national average on most things)...this is a bit more than I'd like to see disappear from the check. On the other hand, I'm grateful that the upper levels of management seem to be bearing the brunt of this cut AND they haven't been talking lay-offs. That would be a killer.

I think that's about it for now.....

Everyone have a nice evening and stay safe n warm!