Isn't it funny how things change?

A little over 3 months ago, I decided that I needed to lose weight. Obviously I had thought about it long before then, but 3 months ago I got up off my big butt and decided to actually DO something about it. For some reason this morning, I was thinking about all of the things that had changed for me since then.

I've lost over 20 pounds. That is more than 10% of what my weight was when I started. I've lost lots of inches and 2 pants sizes too. The changes in my body are starting to be noticeable (I think) and to be honest, the main reason I decided to lose weight was because I wasn't happy with how I looked. Of course, weight loss comes with "extra benefits". Those extras were what I was thinking about today.

When I am hungry between meals, the first thing I reach for is an apple. 3 months ago, the first thing I would have reached for was whatever was closest - cookies, chips, anything that was fast and easy. Well guess what? An apple is fast and easy too, so as long as I keep them around, I'm not nearly as tempted to grab something that isn't healthy.

What has changed the most in the past 3 months is my exercising. When I started, I wanted to walk 30 minutes 3 or 4 times a week. For the past couple of weeks, I've been using my 30 minute morning walk as a "warm up". I love to take that walk in the morning (even when it's freezing cold). It wakes me up and gets me moving and let's me think about what I want or need to do that day, but I do it in addition to something else (go to the Y, a longer walk, 30-45 min on the elliptical. etc.). It's like that isn't even exercise for me any longer. It's just something my body needs to really get going in the morning. My walking buddy (neighbor) used to tell me that she took a quick walk in the morning to get going and then she would "exercise" when she got home. I used to think "Is she crazy? The walk WAS exercise! Why would she go home and do MORE???" Now I know what she was talking about.

I did my weight training yesterday. I woke up today feeling tight. Not sore, just tight in my upper body. That was a good feeling. I am actually looking forward to meeting with my trainer tomorrow to get more exercises added on to my workout plan. That is definitely not something I thought I would ever say 3 months ago. I'm glad I'm making these changes. I can't wait to see where I am three months from now!

Motivational music

I love to exercise with my ipod. Whether I'm walking or at the Y, listening to music makes the time go so much faster and as long as the songs are fairly fast, it helps me keep the pace faster too. When my son is working out, he likes loud music - heavy metal, hard rock that kind of thing. I am a child of the 80s, so my favorite workout tunes tend to be from that era. However, when I'm getting towards the end of my workout or it's getting hard, there is one song that seems to motivate me to push through it. Brick House. :) Even though I will never be "36-24-36" (well not without surgical enhancements-LOL), that song just puts me in the mindset to want to look and feel my absolute best.

Of course, I am always looking for new songs to add to my workout play list, so I'd love to hear from you guys. What songs really make you want to crank up the workout and burn some serious calories?

Down 1, up 1

So today was my weigh in day and I lost 1 pound. Considering how bad my diet was last week, I'm pretty happy with that (thank goodness for all of the exercising I did). That means I have 12 pounds to go in order to reach my goal. I posted last week about getting into a rut and losing motivation. Well, I am going to really try to have a great week this week and see if I can push myself to lose that 12 pounds in the next 6 weeks. For me, that means cranking up the exercise and adding some extra "active" things like more walking the dog, etc. It also means watching what I eat. I'm still bad about tracking calories because most of what I eat I make and I don't feel like taking the time to go figure out how many calories are in each serving. It also means drinking more water. I am really awful at that. I don't drink pop or anything like that, but I drink coffee all day long.

Losing a pound is the "down 1" from the title. The "up 1" is the run I did this morning. I had already taken my normal 30-35 minute walk this morning, had gotten the kids off to school and done a little cleaning and I was ready to shower and get to work when I noticed my new running shoes. I decided to try them out and see if they helped with the shin splints. I didn't run a whole mile, but I made it farther than I did last time and the shin splints were better. I think that is just one of those things that I am going to have to keep working at and hope that it gets better.

I hope everyone else has a great week too! I'm ready to kick some serious booty this week. :)

Finish strong

I have had a weird week. I've been really good with the exercise - Monday - 50 minute walk, Tuesday - 30 minute walk plus 60 minute workout at the Y, Wednesday - 30 minute walk, Thursday - 30 minute walk plus 60 minute workout at the Y, Today - 45 minutes on the elliptical. But my eating has been bad. I ate out Tuesday for my son's 16th birthday and of course I made cake & had a piece (I haven't had a piece since then though) and I've been hungry all the time this week so I've been snacking which is something I usually don't do.

Monday is weigh in day and since I have a new target date (hit my goal weight by my birthday which is 6 weeks from today), I really want to be down a couple of pounds. I really need to finish the week strong with 2 good workouts and better eating than I have been doing. I feel like I've gotten into a little bit of a rut this week. I thought that as I got closer to my goal, I would get more motivated, but the opposite seems to be happening. It's like I'm feeling pretty good about the 20+ pounds I've lost and part of me is getting content where I am. That's not what I want. I do want to feel good about what I've done, but I want to keep whatever it was inside me that one day said "enough is enough" and decided to start this journey.

I've decided to buy some real running shoes and to give running another try (thanks to everyone that told me not to give up after my earlier post this week), so maybe adding that and setting a goal (like running a 5k this spring) will help get some focus back. Any advice from those of you that have hit your goal or are very close? Do you ever feel like you lose some motivation? How do you get it back? I'd love to hear from you!

Uh oh, more collateral damage

So the first collateral damage from my weight loss was my boobs. I've written a couple of posts about this because seriously, they are just gone. If I lose any more weight in my chest, I will have to start shopping for bras in the pre-teen department. Oh who am I kidding? If I lose any more weight in my chest, I won't need a bra at all. :) Now I've discovered more collateral damage, but first a little background story.

Have I mentioned on here that I have a wonderful husband? We've been together for over 19 years, married for almost 17 years and I'm still just crazy about him. He makes me laugh, he's a good friend and a great father. He is very thoughtful and I am thankful for him every day. Anyway, a few years ago, I wanted a pair of knee high boots. I have always had big (muscular, curvy, whatever you want to call them) legs and I could not find a pair that I liked that would zip up over my calves. I spent hours going from store to store and had no luck. He even went to a few places that I wouldn't have gone (I am cheap and he isn't-LOL) to look. He brought home a pair that the salesperson assured him would fit a big calf. Guess what? It didn't fit. One day I was watching Oprah and she was wearing exactly what I was looking for. I turned to him and said "Seriously, I know I'm overweight, but Oprah can find boots to fit her legs and I can't? There is something wrong here." He just looked at me and said "Honey, I'm pretty sure Oprah can have boots custom made to fit whatever she wants."

Fast forward a couple of months to Christmas and guess what he gave me? Custom made boots! He went online and found someone in France that makes them and he measured me (he measured everything so I had no idea what he was up to) and had them made for me. Is that the sweetest thing you ever heard??? Obviously, they fit perfectly and I absolutely love them! I put them on the other day and they are a little loose around the calf now. Uh oh! I was pretty happy about needing to get some of my clothes taken in (The last time I needed to have something taken in was my wedding dress!), but I hadn't even thought about my boots being loose. Oh well, I don't care. I am going to wear them anyway.

Here is a picture of my favorite boots ever. :)

I do have muscles...

...and they are sore!

I posted a couple weeks ago about getting a personalized workout plan from one of the trainers at the Y. Well, the day after he gave it to me, I slipped on the ice and hurt my ankle and then I was out of town for several days, so even though it's been 2 weeks since I got "The Plan", yesterday was my first official "Plan Workout". It's supposed to take 45-60 minutes and the first part is 25-30 minutes of cardio. I have a goal for how many calories I am supposed to burn during the cardio portion. Yesterday's goal was 220 calories. I decided to do the elliptical for 30 minutes and since I wasn't 100% sure how many calories it would burn, I cranked the resistance up a bit. Then I started reading my magazine and when I was finished reading, I had done 31 minutes and burned 300 calories. Yeah! Next is the strength training. I only have 4 exercises that I am supposed to do right now - chest press, lat (pull down), lunges and crunches. I did 3 sets of 15 for each one and I was feeling pretty good. I felt like that is definitely a workout I can do 3-4 days a week. Until this morning. :)

My quads are so sore. My upper body is a little sore too, but nothing like what's going on in my legs. Don't get me wrong, I know this is the way it's supposed to be. I'm not in pain, just feeling the soreness that comes from using muscles that haven't been used for quite some time. It's a good kind of soreness. The kind that makes me realize that my body will eventually respond to what I'm doing and tighten up so I don't look and feel so squishy (is that a word?). LOL! This mornings workout was a 30 minute walk and I think I'm going to leave it at that. Most days, I try to do more than just the 30 minutes, but I think today will be a "light" day while I recover and prepare for Day 2 of "The Plan". The scary part is that after 5 of these workouts, I'm supposed to call him so he can add additional exercises and increase the intensity-YIKES!

Hope everyone has a great day. :)

I am so NOT a runner

I secretly want to be a runner. I've never wanted to be a runner before now. I had times when I ran for exercise, but it was when I was like 19 and I was just trying to stay in shape, so I'd get up a few days a week and run a mile or two and that was it and it didn't last very long. Other than that short time, I've always done something else for exercise. I've taken step classes, I've used cardio machines and when I started this journey a few months ago, I just walked. Running never interested me. Until now.

Now I notice the people running when I'm driving, I notice the runners when I'm walking in the park and I notice them in the gym. I think it would be cool to say "I'm going for a run" instead of "I'm going for a walk". Yesterday my son was home from school and since there was no weight lifting and no hockey practice, he decided to go run a mile. I wondered if I could do that. I walk at least 30 minutes a day and most days I try to either walk longer or do an additional workout later in the day. When he got back, I decided to give it a shot.

I made it about half or two-thirds of the way. My thighs could have gone farther, my lungs were OK, but the shin splints-OMG! Now I remember why I quit running when I was 19. LOL! For now, I guess I will stick with other forms of exercise.

Have a great evening everyone! I'm going for a walk. :)

Oops

Well today is weigh in day and Sybil (my scale) did not give me good news. I have gained half a pound since last week. That isn't totally surprising. I spent the weekend at a hockey tournament out of town and even though I did manage to exercise each day, my eating was not good. I find it so hard to eat well when I'm in a hurry, having to eat out and trying to make sure my son eats enough to give him the energy he's going to need for a hockey game. Then when we got home yesterday, I was starving all night and could not stop snacking. UGH!

My birthday is just under 7 weeks away. I would really love to give myself a present by hitting my goal weight for my birthday, which means losing 13 more pounds. I'm not sure if that is attainable or not because I know those last 10 pounds will be the hardest to get off, but it's what I'm shooting for right now. I've been thinking about what I'm doing well and what I need to improve and I came up with this list.

What I do well -
1. Exercise. I have typically been doing some kind of exercise 5-7 days each week
2. Not snacking. Until last night, I had been pretty good about not grabbing snacks when I'm not actually hungry (you know like when your bored or whatever)

What I need to improve -
1. Water intake. I drink water, but I don't drink enough. I drink coffee (half caffeine) all day long. I need to drink less coffee and more water.
2. Tracking calories. I really don't do this at all. I have just been trying to make healthier choices, but sometimes what I think is healthy probably isn't. I need to do a better job of paying attention to that.
3. Increasing the intensity of my workouts. Most days my exercise is still just walking. It's doing the job, but if I want to kick off those last 13 pounds, I'm going to have to rev it up a bit. This week my goal is to get to the gym 3 days (the days that I don't walk) and really kick butt on the elliptical and with the weights.

Wish me luck! I'm gonna need it. :)

Exposing yourself

Warning - this post is about body parts/issues and may contain TMI for some readers. :)

I have been having an odd day. I woke up this morning still pretty happy from yesterday's jeans experience, but when I started to get dressed, it felt like something was missing. I looked down and I swear my chest looked like a couple of deflated baloons. It's like they actually shrunk overnight. Today I got to walk with a friend and I told her how frustrated I am getting with how small my boobs are these days. They are smaller now than when I was a teenager and weighed about 20 pounds less than I do now. Several times today I caught myself thinking about getting plastic surgery once I meet my goal weight.

I decided to catch up on my favorite blogs and when I got to Jack Fit http://jackfit.blogspot.com I saw that he had a guest blogger. Her post was about the Exposed Movement and if you haven't read it, you should take a look. She posted a picture of herself wearing very little and wrote positive comments all over different body parts. Reading her post and looking at the picture really made me think.

Yes, I have stretch marks, but I have two beautiful sons to show for them. I have a round butt, but it's probably what caught my husband's attention at that party almost 20 years ago and made him turn around to come introduce himself to me. My body isn't perfect and it's never going to be perfect, but this is the body I was given and all I can do is try to make it as strong and healthy as possible. Don't get me wrong, I'm still ticked about having just completely lost "the girls" and in the future I may decide that I do want to have surgery, but for now I am going to try to think positive thoughts about my body. I'm going to try to focus on what I love about my body instead of what I'd like to change. As women, that is probably something we should do more often.

Have a great weekend everyone! I will be out of town for a hockey tournament, so I'm sure I'll be dying to catch up on all of your blogs on Monday.

Single digits

This morning I realized that I was out of clean jeans. Well, that's not completely true. I have a closet full of jeans in various sizes, but I was out of ones in the size I am currently wearing. LOL! So I had 2 choices. Put on a pair of baggy sweats or try to squeeze into a smaller size of Levis. A couple of weeks ago, Jenn at Watch My Butt Shrink posted some of her favorite weight loss tips. Her tips must have stuck with me because one of them was to start wearing smaller clothes as soon as possible. That tip popped into my mind and I decided to go for it. I am happy to say that as I type this I am wearing a size 8. WOO HOO! I seriously can't remember the last time I wore clothes with a single digit size. When I started trying to lose weight a few months ago, I was wearing a 12 (sometimes a 14 for dress pants) and they were getting TIGHT! I'm not saying that the pants I'm wearing now aren't tight, because they are a little too tight, but not crazy. I'm guessing that once I lose another 5 pounds, this will be my new size.

Putting these on has really motivated me today. I have a very full work schedule today, but I am going to make time to work out later today. Thanks for the tip Jenn! It really works! :)

And Sybil it is

I'm definitely going to rename my scale from Psycho to Sybil. After today's weigh in, I am convinced that it has multiple personalities. According to Sybil, I lost 6.5 pounds this week. I was thrilled to see the number, but I find it suspicious. :) Maybe last Monday I had a false high, like a false positive in medical testing. I've only exercised 3 or 4 days since last Monday and I didn't spend the week starving myself. I did think that I was coming down with something because I didn't have much appetite for a couple days, but I never got sick and although I ate healthier than I would have a few months ago, it wasn't a stellar week, so I really can't explain the huge loss (my biggest ever).

I'm really not complaining because I am thrilled with my weight today. Last week I said I was going to kick the scale's ass today and I guess I did. LOL. Today's weigh in marks another milestone. I've lost over 20 pounds. I'm more than halfway to my goal.

My ankle is feeling fine now, so I hope to spend the week really exercising hard and getting into the weight training. Maybe if I do that and eat well this week, Sybil will be nice to me again next Monday. :)

Mother Nature is conspiring against me!

I really, really want to reach my goal weight by this summer. We go on a vacation every year to the beach and I am ready to go and feel good about how I look in a bathing suit (maybe even a bikini-LOL). My work schedule this week has just been crazy and I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to get to the Y and still do everything I need to do. I decided that I would just go ahead and bundle up and walk outside. It's faster and easier and I was hoping that I'd be able to get a couple 30 minute walks in each day and at least maintain until I can get back to the Y next week. So what happens? I slip on the snow/ice and hurt my ankle. I haven't been able to do any exercise since Wednesday. Oh Mother Nature, you are killing me with all of this crappy weather!

One interesting thing that I've noticed the past couple of days - I'm grumpy when I don't get to exercise in the mornings now. Actually, I didn't notice it as much as my husband noticed it for me-HA HA! My ankle is feeling better today so I am hoping that if I take it easy one more day I will be all better by Sunday and ready to work out hard!

Naming my scale

So I've decided to name my scale Psycho. It apparently has a mind of it's own and it is CRAZY! I could have also named it Sybil because it seems to have multiple personalities.

After being totally stunned on Monday when I had apparently gained 1.5 pounds from last week, I decided to sneak a peek today and see how I was doing. If you read my post on Monday, you will know that I was really surprised. I had been exercising every day and eating pretty well, so I was just shocked that my weight went up. Well today Psycho tells me that I have lost 5 pounds. WHAT??? There is no way I've lost 5 pounds since Monday. I have been eating normally and although I am exercising, the weather and my schedule have made it hard to get the 60 minutes I was trying to get each day. So what gives? I guess I could have just been retaining water or something on Monday. Maybe I ate something high in sodium over the weekend and I just don't remember. Don't get me wrong, I was absolutely thrilled to see that number on the scale, but I don't think it's right.

I guess I will just have to keep doing what I'm doing and wait until Monday for the final verdict. I just have to try and stay away from Psycho until then. :)

Progress pictures

I don't actually have progress pictures, but because of the time of year, I happen to have pictures of myself taken at about 1 month intervals since I started this journey. I don't usually post pictures, but I'm going to try it now.

This is me with my dad and my siblings at the end of October (my nephew's 1st birthday party)





This is me with my youngest son at Thanksgiving





And here are a couple of me at Christmas











Every time I see a picture of my family (my husband and sons) it cracks me up because our oldest son looks just like my husband and our youngest looks just like me. I swear we look like the Brady Bunch (with less kids). It looks like one is his and one is mine and we just got together. LOL!

Finding inspiration in an unlikely place

It's just after 6:00 am and I just got home from dropping my 15 year old off at school. He needed to be there by 6:00 in order to lift weights before school. The football team's off season work out program lets the kids lift after school 4 days a week, but since some of the kids play winter sports, the coach opens the weight room at 6am three days a week. On days that my son has hockey practice after school, he always asks me to take him in the morning.

My son loves sports. He plays 3 which keeps him busy all year long (especially when you consider that 2 of the 3 have pretty serious "off season" programs). He is not a natural athlete. He actually plays a position in football that he just doesn't have the size for (my husband and I call him Rudy). He loves the position he plays, so instead of trying to change positions or give up because he is so undersized, he just works harder. When he was in middle school and was frustrated by his lack of playing time (the coach actually told him that if he were bigger, he would start every game), I told him that the only things that he could control were his effort and his attitude. I said that if he worked hard and always gave 100%, that was all anyone could ask. He worked hard in practice and lifted weights whenever he got a chance and during his freshman season, he got to start most games and he played a lot.

He's a smart kid. He does very well in school, but grades come pretty easy for him. I'm not saying that he doesn't spend some time studying, but it's not a lot. I'm actually glad that he has something in his life that he has to work for, something that doesn't come naturally or easily because when he achieves a goal, he knows he deserves it because he's worked really hard for it. I asked him how many kids had been there to lift Monday morning and he told me 6 (there are over 100 kids on the team). I think he really likes being in a small group that is willing to get up at that hour and lift before school because that takes a real commitment when you're 15.

As I was driving home, I thought about how committed he is and it kind of inspired me. He doesn't complain about getting up, he just does it. He doesn't whine about how hard the work out was or how hard the coaches pushed them, he just does it. He could skip the 6:00am work outs. He could just lift after school on the days that he doesn't have hockey practice, but that wouldn't be giving 100%. That wouldn't be taking advantage of every opportunity that he is given.

I think I'm going to take my own advice. All I can control are my effort and my attitude, so I plan to give 100% until I reach my goal. When I want to feel sorry for myself because the scale didn't move in the direction I wanted or my workout is getting hard to squeeze in to my day, I will look at him, a kid who is a foot shorter than some of his teammates and give myself a swift kick in the butt. I know that when I reach my goal it will feel great because I'll know that I worked really hard for it!

I hope you all have a great day! We're having a heat wave here (23 degrees), so I get to walk outside this morning! :)

Trying the weight thing again

I posted a week or two ago about going to the Y and not recognizing the weight machines they have. Of course that is bad for 2 reasons, the first is that it means I haven't worked out in so long that the equipment has changed and the second is that it means I am getting OLD! LOL!

When I was in there yesterday for my cardio (I am so sick of the snow/ice/cold that is preventing me from walking outside), I asked about a program I noticed called Fit Start. One of the directors or trainers will meet with you to design a workout that fits your goals. The flier said they meet with you once a week for an hour to show you different equipment, evaluate your progress, etc. It sounded like getting a mini personal training session once a week for free. Sounded good to me so I signed up to meet with my "coach" today. He asked me about my goals, my experience with weights, etc. and then showed me several of the machines that he wants me to start with. He wrote up my workout and gave me a log sheet to use. Instead of every week, he wants to meet with me after every 5 workouts so he can add new machines (or free weight exercises) to my workout and adjust (increase-LOL) the weight I use for each exercise.

I have to say that this program was exactly what I was looking for. Right now I don't want a personal trainer (my schedule fluctuates too much for that right now), but I did want someone to show me different machines and give me a guide for what to do. I'm looking forward to toning up and getting stronger. I'll let you know how it goes!

Well that sucks!

I am so irritated! Actually pissed is more like it. I just did my weigh in and I am up 1.5 pounds. I was so shocked, I got on the scale again to make sure it was right. Yep, it was right. I gained 1.5 pounds since last week. I honestly am not sure how that happened. I exercised 6 days last week (only missed yesterday). The only workout last week that was under 60 minutes was the day I did 45 minutes on the EFX. My eating wasn't bad either. I didn't eat the pancakes I made for breakfast, no reuben sandwich during the Rose Bowl (GO BUCKS!) and no crazy snacking. UGH! Well, I guess I have 2 choices. I can let it pull me down or I can let it push me forward. I am choosing to let it push me forward.

So my plan for this week is at least 60 minutes of exercise every day, really tracking my calories (which I admit I am horrible at) and getting to the grocery store to stock up on my favorite healthy foods. Next Monday I am going to kick that scale's ass! :)

And so the streak ends

I didn't exercise today. Yesterday was 34 days in a row of exercise and I was hoping to make it a while longer, but the streak ended today. Not that I sat around and did nothing all day. I spent the day taking down all of the Christmas decorations, washing and putting away the Christmas dishes and getting my regular dishes back out, doing a ton of laundry and cleaning the house. I'm sure somewhere in there a few calories got burned, but I didn't actually work out.

I just told a friend the other day that I am a morning exerciser. If I don't do it in the morning, the day tends to get away from me and I am much less likely to exercise at all. Uh, did I not hear myself say that? I knew darn well that I should have gotten up this morning, gone for a walk and then got busy on the other stuff, but instead I decided to get a jump on the laundry (which is probably good since my sons don't want to go back to school tomorrow naked-LOL).

I'm not going to beat myself up for it because long term I think I will probably only try to exercise 5-6 times a week, but I was enjoying the every day thing while it lasted. I guess I'll have to be like those businesses that keep track of how many days they've gone without an accident. Tomorrow I'll just start over at 1. :)

So I'm on this new diet....

I'm on a new diet. It's very effective. Well, I don't eat anything at all and then when I feel like I'm going to faint, I ate a cube of cheese. I'm only one stomach flu away from my goal weight.

Anyone recognize that line? It's from The Devil Wears Prada. It's one of my favorite lines and it always cracks me up. As I was watching the movie the other day (a Christmas present from my brother-in-law), it made me laugh, but it also made me think about all of the things people (myself included) will try to lose weight. Recently, a few people have noticed that I am losing weight and have asked me what I'm doing. When I tell them that I am trying to eat less and exercise more, a couple have looked disappointed. Like they were hoping I had discovered a new magic pill that had let me lose weight.

I've thought about what I've been doing and I can honestly say that everything that I'm doing is something that I can keep doing long term. I'm not taking any pills. I'm not eating any special foods that have to be ordered and shipped to my house. I didn't have surgery. I'm not judging people that have done those things because each person's weight loss journey is personal and whatever you need to do in order to lose weight and get healthy is your choice.

As far as exercise, I am not doing anything fancy. Most days, I just walk. I haven't hired a personal trainer because I was hoping to be able to motivate myself. I want to exercise because I want to, not because I have an appointment with someone. Again, I am not knocking personal trainers, in fact, I may decide to use one at some point, but for now, I want to push myself towards my goals. I am hoping that by doing things that are easily repeatable, the weight loss will be sustainable. I don't want to do anything that I can't keep doing for the rest of my life. If I am trying to make a lasting change, then that is key.

I hope everyone is having a great start to 2010. As for me, I have to go. It's time for my walk. :)