Thanks, silvermane! Let me assure you- exercising regularly is not in my character, far from it. But, taking baby steps helps. Mild desperation about my BMI probably helps too  .

Health: I decided to tackle my this weeks' challenge right away and marched to the gym. I upgraded my gym card to 1 years' membership. Not only is it much cheaper, but it also has free instructor services and free swimming hall on Fridays. Now, my job is just to make this investment pay off.
  Since I was already at the right place and had my exercise outfit with me, I decided to have my first workout session right then and there. To be honest, it didn't go too well. I didn't expect to be in any great shape, but I quickly learned that my shape is terrible. I couldn't meet my goal of working out for 1 hour- after a bit over ½ hour I was exhausted. But, the only way is up. If my muscles aren't too sore, I'll be back tomorrow. If (which is quite likely) I'm too sore, I'll have my second work out on Wednesday.
  On the bright side, this should really surprise my body, so maybe this will help me to avoid some plateau.
Besides, when the snow is gone and I'll start exercising outdoors more often again, I will be in better shape. That's the plan.

Hair: Hair is soft and nice. Before the gym, I wore it in a knot bun with Spring Forsythia sticks. For exercising, I switched to a segmented ponytail. It worked well.
     The ceremony where I'll receive my grant will be next Monday. I'm still trying to decide how to wear my hair. I suppose that I'll decide it 10 minutes before going out of the door on that day, but it's fun to think of different pptions. Long(ish) hair is so versatile.

I'm very proud of you, Galadriel.  You're doing a great job of taking care of yourself.  It inspires me to do more for my health.  So, thank you for posting your journey to health-it is benefitting others as well!

Be sure to drink plenty of pure water and some electrolites to help deal with sore muscles.  The mineral magnesium is a natural muscle relaxant, so you could take it as a supplement and if you can take a bath in epsom salts there's magnesium in there, too.  A whirlpool, hot bath or sauna will all help in decreasing soreness.  It really is best to rest in between days of lifting weights so your body can recover.  If you don't give it time to recover you will actually loose muscle, get fatigued, irratible and possibly injure yourself.  Recovery time is very important!  Oh yes, stretching also helps to decrease muscle soreness.

I hope you feel great tomorrow!!!

Thanks for support, everyone!

Health: No gym today. I was hoping that I could have made it as I'm used to exercising on both Monday and Tuesday- that way I can get most of my exercise done in the beginning of the week. But, it seems that my comfy old schedule will have to wait.
     In spite trying to take every precaution I could think of, my muscles hurt. "Luckily", not all of them since I managed to complete only half of my program. I'll complete the other half tomorrow...then I'll have some new muscles hurting. But, no worthy goal is ever achieved without any pain. And I really need to get in shape so I'm ready to do all fun stuff outdoors when summer comes.
  Right now my long term exercise plan is, that for a month or two (depending of the weather) I will exercise at the gym three times a week and try to improve my overall shape. I don't like going to the gym on weekends when it's crowded, so if weather allows and I feel like it, I might take a long walk for extra exercise.
  When it gets warm outside, I'll start Nordic walking and will also buy a bike or a kickbike (haven't decided yet which one). I might also start swimming laps once a week. If it rains, I just go to the gym. I'll talk about more about my plans with my instructor. I guess I might even enjoy being active when summer comes- but in order to do that, I must first do some hard work. Better be panting and miserable in dark corners of the gym than out on the streets .

Hair: Today's style is knot bun with Twisted Springtime hairsticks. It sure doesn't look like springtime outdoors, but who cares. In any case, hairsticks with twisted ribbon beads look gorgeous anywhere.
    Forgot to mention yesterday, that I completed yet another hairstick order...including my first two pairs of SwingStix. I had hoped to complete my order a bit earlier so it could have made it to Monday's ceremony, but just couldn't find a perfect pair until now. Guess I'm getting picky.

Hair feels wonderful- must be SMT! It was quite late when I washed it and when it was still quite damp, I decided to wear a sleep cap for night, hoping for those pretty "sleep cap ends". For some reason, that didn't work and instead of pretty ends I had something resembling vaguely a year old birds nest.
Today the weather is warm (=a degree or even two above freezing point) and sunny and so I have been outside without any headgear. After long winter, it feels great.
Since I didn't have to think of where to fit my hair, I put it simply in a single braid.

Health: Thanks to stretching and sauna (I suppose), my muscles are a bit less sore today. Neverthless, this week shall be remembered as "the week of pain". However, pain is temporary but results are not!
   T is gone to a work trip and will be gone until tomorrow. Usually, a night alone has meant for me watching movies and munching goodies. This time, I didn't do my old mistake and think that I will survive the evening without cravings just because I'm on diet. I have planned eating low fat popcorn and grapes as my evening snack, and since they do get me just past my calorie limit, I'm going to take an extra walk. I hope this plan will be successful.

You go girl!!!

Thanks for support, ladies! It really means a lot to me and makes it easier to keep going.

Thanks for ideas, BB. I'm a bit suspicious with plain water rinses- I remember from years ago when I tried that and it always seemed to turn my almost clean hair into a greaseball. But, that's a long time ago and I've since adopted a whole new haircare regimen.
When the weather gets warmer so that going outside with damp hair is not a problem, I think I'll start experimens. If plain water doesn't work, ACV rinse could be a good alternative.

Thanks for your kind words, G_L!  
    Right now I think that the biggest secret to my weight loss success is that I approach my task of losing weight just like anything else: with my analytical brain. My major discovery was realizing, that I should not focus on eating right or getting the right exercise. These are good things to do, but...the only thing that is REALLY necessary is to take care of motivation and focus. If I stay motivated and focused, I will succeed sooner or later. If I don't, I will fail. It's really not different from any other long term effort. Long term motivation just won't "happen". So, right now I focus on staying motivated. I try to do several things that keep my spirits up and determination strong every day. The rest follows quite naturally.
  I still have a long way to go until my goal weight (25 kg/over 50 lbs at the moment, I think). I don't know how or why it happened, but I'm not just the happy overweight person I always used to be. The time for change has come. But I don't think much of how long a journey I still have ahead of me. In any case, the only way to make it is one day at a time. That's just how I intend to do it.

Hair: A bit dirty, but definitely nice. Perfect updo hair, so I wore a knot bun with Romantic Interlude hairsticks that sparkle so beautifully in bright spring sunlight (the only thing that looks like spring outside). SMT has really made it wonderfully soft. I'm going to sauna again today, but not going to do anything special with the hair. A simple wash should be enough. This would also be a good time for s&d. I've not been dusting much lately. I have had only few splits lately...I know it shouldn't lull me into thinking that I've somehow become immune to them...


 

Phew! I just finished today's work: translating a grant application to English. At first I thought I'd get it done in a couple of hours, but it took almost whole day instead. But I got it done in time. I'm so happy of being able to work from home so much (not to mention -when I want to).

Hair: Hair is doing well, in fact very well for a third day hair. I didn't feel like playing with it too much, so I kept styling simple: a segmented ponytail for the gym and a log roll with claw clip for the rest of the day. I remember a year or two ago every other lady seemed to have her hair up with a claw clip. That isn't nearly as common in these days- maybe it's going out of fashion. I wonder what will be next...somehow I think it's not hairsticks and stylish updos. I'll settle for hoping that the mysterious "they" will come up with a new and innovative clip design or something.

Health: I was sooo tired this morning, but managed to haul my hiney to the gym neverthless. I'm so glad I did- it woke me up wonderfully, and I've been feeling all happy and fresh since. It's not possible that I'm starting to actually *like* regular exercising? Is it? 8)
     My wardrobe will soon need a spring cleaning. Some of my clothes are definitely getting too big. I don't have a huge storage of smaller clothes, so when I shrink, I will need to go shopping. I'm trying to avoid it as long as I can though- I have a long weight loss journey still ahead of me and if I am successful the next set of clothes won't be final. But even in best case, another 5 kilos and I'll be done with at least half of my wardrobe. I guess I'll have to start preparing a shopping strategy... 8)