Hi!  Yesterday i posted that it was the 20th.  I walked around all day thinking that today was the 21st.  Guess what?  It’s the 20th.

Today I ate a little more than I should.  And it wasn’t the best food either. I mean, it tasted good, but I could have chosen better.  McDougals…chicken strips and french fries.  In my defense, I didn’t eat all of the fries, an I declined the free ice cream.  And let me tell you…that ice cream is good.  My mouth is watering just typing this.

In brighter news, the scale was down 2 whole pounds this morning.  Now, I’ve been at this long enough to know that it might not stay there, but since it’s been hoovering in the higher ranges lately, that made me happy enough to do a backflip.  But I didn’t.  Because everyone else was sleeping.

My Pilates connection today has been the awareness of my shoulders.  I’m a writer, and a spend a lot of time like I am now: with my laptop in my lap, typing.  The tendancy for many who sit in front of a computer or a steering wheel a lot is to get “hunched” over the keyboard.  A lot of tension can build up in the shoulders and shoulder blades.  Now- the best thing for this is a massage.  But financially, that’s just not within reach for all of us.  So this simple exercise helps me A LOT.  It’s called Chest Expansion, but I like to think of it as hands-free bra removal.  Because that’s more fun.

Using the muscles just below the tips of your shoulder blades, draw you shoulder blades down your back.  This will draw the outside of your shoulders in.  Picture yourself unhooking your bra with your back muscles.  Men, I haven’t come up with a better analogy than this, so try a bra on and find the muscles that way 🙂  This isn’t the same as squeezing your shoulder blades together.  That works your rhomboids.  We’re trying to work your mid and lower trapezious muscle, the one that balances out the upper trap.  The upper trap is the one you use to lift your shoulders to your ears.  Like you’re doing right now.  See?  You didn’t even realize it did you.  Shoulders down!

Here’s my stats.  I plan to be up for a bit longer, so my calories will go up, but probably not enough to make a huge difference.

• Calories Burned: 2253
• Calories Consumed: 2053
• Deficit: 200 (that’s easy math!)