Back to the drawing board

A couple of the blogs I read had similar posts this week. "When life hands you lemons...". I could chime in with that feeling because this week life handed me a big pile of something, though I'm not sure it was lemons. LOL.

I know we all have busy lives. Spouses and kids and work and things to do at home can really make it hard to find time for ourselves. I've let my schedule get out of control and it's time to reign it in. I've got to get back to the place where I had time to exercise. I like to do it. I don't think of it as a chore. I actually think of it as a luxury. It's something I do for me and nobody else. I was doing so well a couple of months ago and when I tried to get back to it this week, I tried to jump back in where I left off. Unfortunately, I can't find the window of time that I seemed to have before. I think I'm going to have to ease back into it. Start out with a 30 minute walk every day and add on from there. I may have to skip the gym for a while and do some strength training at home. It's easier for me to find 15-20 minutes here and there rather than trying to find 60 or 90 minutes to drive to the gym, do the workout and get back.

Hopefully tomorrow morning I will be able to get my walk in. I miss it. :)

Change in plans already? It's only day 2.

I made a plan Sunday night before I went to bed for what I wanted to do this week as far as my workouts. Each day was based on whether or not I had to take my son to school at 6:00am for his weight lifting. If I do have to take him, I can go to the gym after I drop him off and get my workout done before I have to wake up my youngest son at 7:30ish. If I don't have to take him, I have to wait until they are both gone (around 8:45am) and that means very little time to exercise before I have to get to work. I asked him Sunday what days he had to be there at 6 and he said every day except Wednesday. Great, I can make my plan. So last night hubby tells me that the lifting schedule has changed. Now he is only going Mon, Wed and Fri. UGH! That changes my whole workout schedule. I guess I better come up with a new plan because if I don't, my work schedule will go crazy and I will be sitting at the computer at 10:00pm wondering why I didn't get a chance to exercise that day.

Is it just me or are there times when it is just very hard to make time for yourself when you are a parent? :)

Just start with the first step

Monday is the perfect day to "start over", right? That's my theory today. I've been off of my plan for several weeks now and it's beginning to show. It's time to get back to it. We leave for vacation in 8 weeks, so I'm using that as my new goal date. We all have different strengths, right? Well, in my little weight loss world, I am better at exercising than counting calories, so that is where I decided to start today.

I started last night with a calendar for this week of what I wanted to do each day (specific workouts, etc.) and a list of things to do every day (remember to drink more water, etc.). Today's goal was to do 20-30 minutes on the elliptical, take a 30 minute walk with my neighbor and do a short ab workout. I am happy to report that all 3 had been accomplished before 8:30 this morning. Now I remember why I like to workout in the morning so much. I feel great! Doing this first thing in the morning makes me more aware of what I am eating through the day and usually helps me stay on track.

So let's see if I can get there. 8 weeks to lose about 8 pounds and get this old body toned back up. I'm looking forward to the challenge. :)

Rough week

I am so glad that it's Friday. Unfortunately, I still have to work this weekend, but not as much as I did this week. I had a not-so-great week. We had great weather for most of the week. Sounds like a good thing, right? It was, except I don't have anything to wear for warm weather. My spring/summer clothes are way too big and I struggled to find a couple of decent outfits this week. Going shopping for new clothes was on my list of things to do this week, but I got sidetracked. By what, you ask.

First it was the toilets that needed to be fixed. Yes, you read that right. We didn't have 1 toilet break, we had 2 break. OK, fine. No huge deal. We get the parts to fix them and hubby gets them fixed. Then the car needed tires. Again, not a huge deal but of course it's never just one thing. The repair shop found something else wrong when they were replacing the tires, so 4 hours and $1,000 later I finally had my car back. Then the washing machine broke. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I am the camel in this story just in case you wondered. I had way too much work this week to keep adding time to deal with everything in my house deciding to break in the same week. So basically I have a house full of dirty clothes because hubby refused to buy a washing machine without me and I just didn't have time to deal with it until tonight. Shopping for a washing machine is not my idea of a fun Friday night, but I guess you do what you gotta do, right? LOL!

So anyway, there is my pity party for today. I managed to walk a couple days this week, but that's it. I was hoping for a couple of free hours tomorrow to get in a nice workout, but my oldest son gets to go to his first invitational track meet tomorrow, so I can't miss that. I'm hoping to get some exercise in, but I will also have to be somewhere doing laundry because my new washer & dryer won't be ready until Monday and I don't know if we can make it that long. :)

Have a wonderful Easter!

Getting back to it

I tell people that the hardest part of starting a workout program is the first day. Getting yourself to do it when you are't used to it is very hard. Now I think the hardest part is getting back into it once you've stopped. UGH! I am really struggling with working out right now and that has always been the easy part for me. I have let my schedule get so full that I can't find the time to get in really good workouts. I did manage to get a 30 minute walk in this morning, but as I was looking at my calendar for the weekend, I can't quite figure out when I'm going to fit in my workouts.

The kids go back to school on Monday, so hopefully I will be able to get back into the habit of doing a 30 minute walk in the morning every day. At least then I know I've done something even if the rest of the day gets too crazy for more.

Happy Good Friday!

"Are you sick?"

So there are people in your family that you only see at weddings, funerals and showers, right? I got to see some of them a few weeks ago at my grandfather's funeral. Some of the reactions I got were pretty funny. My brother's girlfriend told me that several people had made comments about my weight loss and at least one wanted to know if I was sick. My grandmother decided that the cemetery was the place to tell me that I was getting too thin (really, she couldn't even wait for us to get back to the church?). My former step-mother confirmed that she had heard people wondering if I was doing some crazy diet but since she is one of my workout buddies, she let them know that I was doing everything in a healthy way - eating less and exercising more.

I did get quite a few nice compliments, but it was hard to enjoy them because there are only so many times you can hear that people think you are anorexic before it ruins your day. LOL! I think a few people were watching me eat at the dinner after the service (seriously). One of my uncles started to say something and I think he could tell that I wasn't in the mood, so he decided to leave it at "You look good, just don't lose any more." HA! HA!

However, I did decide to re-evaluate my goal weight. Even though it is on the high side of what every chart/website says someone my height should weigh, maybe it's too low for me personally. My husband actually told me the other day that he thought I should stop trying to lose more weight and just focus on maintaining and getting toned. I'm not sure yet. I do know that I have to get back to my workout schedule and I need to get focused on the strength training, so I guess that is what I will try to do for at least the next month and see what happens.

I'm back...did you miss me? LOL!

It has been almost a month since I posted. No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. LOL! I have been working almost non-stop for the past month. I am self-employed, so I don't have normal hours or any real "days off". I just work when I have work to do and for the past month or two, there has been a lot to do. I just finished my list of what I have to do tomorrow and I finally stopped when I got to item #20.

Since my last post, I've had some good things happen. I turned 39 on March 5th and had a wonderful birthday celebration with my family. I've also had some bad things happen. My grandfather had been sick for several months and he died on March 12th. For the first few days after he died, I did really well. I was able to focus on all of the wonderful things we did as a family and I felt truly blessed that he was able to be a part of so many major events in my life (my wedding, the birth of my children, etc.). I can honestly say that I don't have one bad memory of my grandfather, so every time I thought of him, I smiled. But at his funeral, I really fell apart. I know that we were all lucky to have had him with us for 80+ years that we had him, but that day was so sad for me. I was really in a fog for the next few days. I managed to work, but if I had to tell you what I actually did during those days, I'm not sure I could. Luckily I am feeling much better now and I keep hearing that each day will get a little easier, so I'm holding on to that.

So how has my diet been? HA! HA! Well, I wish I could say that I have been working out like crazy and sticking to my diet. I guess I could say it, but I'd be lying. I've been lucky to get more than a couple of walks in each week and the 5 pounds I lost when I was sick is all back. I actually have some funny stories to share about my family's reaction to my weight loss (some of the people I saw at the funeral hadn't seen me in quite some time), but I will save that for tomorrow post.

I hope all of you have been doing great while I've been "away" and I can't wait to catch up on all of your blogs!

I'm normal

Well, I'm probably not "normal" in life, but I am normal according to my BMI chart. When I started trying to lose weight, my BMI was 30. Right on the Overweight/Obese line. As of Monday, I have crossed into the Normal range. I think it's only by about half a pound, but I don't care. I still have a few more pounds to go in order to reach my goal, so hopefully by the time I get there I will be squarely in the Normal range.

It has been another crazy work week for me. I have been going non-stop from the time I get up until I go to bed. Not great for the exercise schedule. I've managed to get some walking in, but not much else. This weekend I have promised myself that no matter what work is waiting for me (yes, I work weekends too), I am going to set aside time for myself to do 2 really great workouts. I don't know if I will go to the gym or try to get outside for a 4-5 mile walk each day, but whatever I do, I know I will enjoy it. I didn't realize how much I would miss working out.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Sybil is at it again

It feels like I haven't posted in forever! I had such a crazy work week last week and I wound up with a nasty cold. I didn't exercise at all last week, but I also had very little appetite and when I finally did eat, nothing tasted good (it's hard to find something yummy when you are all stuffed up!). I really wasn't sure what to expect for today's weigh in. I thought I would be down a little (because I felt kind of smaller), but I was in for a shock. According to Sybil, I am down 5 pounds from last week. Apparently lots of work + no appetite = weight loss. That is not the formula I plan to start using, but until last week I had been really good about working out and eating "normal" but healthier choices, so I am not going to beat myself up for losing weight the "wrong" way last week. I felt much better over the weekend, so today I got right back into my exercise routine with a 30 minute walk this morning. I am looking forward to getting back to my work out schedule. I had no idea I would miss it so much!

I have a ton of catching up to do on everyone's blogs, so if you see a new comment from a post you wrote 4 days ago, it's probably just me. LOL! Hopefully this week will be just a little calmer and I will be able to post more. I hope you all have a great day!

Update and an update photo

I am going to have to give up my 30 day challenge and start over another time. I have not been able to exercise at all this week. My work schedule has gone absolutely crazy and for the past several days I have been working from the minute I get up until well after 9. Monday I didn't finish working until after midnight. And to top it all off...... I am sick! I feel like crap. I have a cold that is just bad enough to be completely draining my energy. It's not enough to stop me from working, but it is taking every ounce of energy I have to get through the day. I have not exercised at all since Sunday.

The only plus side of having the cold is that I have very little appetite, so I'm not eating much either. Oh well, I just have to get through this week and get back on track as soon as I can. I do have an update picture to share. I came home from an appointment this morning and hubby decided to take a picture. I'm not sure if it was because I was wearing a skirt (which I hardly ever do) or what, but I let him take it. It's not the best picture, but it's current so here it is.







I'm having blogger withdrawl because I haven't had time to read any blogs since Monday, so I will be playing major catch up this weekend! Have a great week!

Wow....water......who knew?

This morning's weigh in was a milestone. I've hit the 25 pounds lost mark and I have less than 10 pounds to go in order to reach my initial goal weight. I lost 2 pounds this week and I think I may have finally broken that plateau I was stuck in for several weeks.

I had a good week as far as exercising. With the exception of Wednesday, I did some exercise every day. My eating was pretty good too and I finally managed to get rid of the urge to snack which had been plaguing me for the past week or so. The one thing that I really improved on this week was how much water I drink.

I've been saying for weeks that I needed to increase my water intake. I just couldn't seem to do it. On Thursday I put a piece of paper on the fridge to remind me to drink water and to keep track of how much I was drinking. Well, that must have done the trick because I've had at least 50 ounces of water each day since Friday and yesterday was around 80 ounces. And viola, lost 2 pounds. Ahhh, water. The plateau buster. :)

So Friday was bad for me (as you know from my pity party post), but after having a long talk with myself (is it bad when you are actually having a conversation in your head??? LOL!), I've come up with a plan.

I'm going to spend the next couple of months working towards my goal weight. It's kind of an arbitrary number, but it's based on weight charts, BMI charts, etc. for someone my height, so it's what I'm going with for now. It's also right around what I weighed before I had my second son, so it should be achievable.

Once I get there (or close to it), I am going to spend several months really focusing more on strength training and toning and less on aerobic exercise. I will still do some walking, etc. but it won't be my main concern. After a few months, I'm going to re-evaluate how I feel about how I look. If I'm still having a real problem with certain things, I am going to explore other options.

I did some pretty good soul searching this weekend and a couple of things really hit me. First, I am not 25 any more. I'm getting close to 40 and losing muscle tone is a natural part of getting older. Things do "sag" more as we age and after we've had kids. That is just a fact of life. If I want to fight that, I'm going to have to really work on strength training. Second, I may be expecting too much too soon. I've only been on this journey for about 4 months. I was overweight for over 10 years. My body got really used to being a certain size. I may need to be a little patient and wait to see how much things "snap back". I don't really know how elastic my skin is, so some of what I am unhappy with may fix itself given enough time. We'll just have to see.

So that's it. My super long post has finally come to an end. Looking at my calendar, I can already tell my week is going to be crazy and we are expecting rain & snow for the next several days. It may be a challenge to get my exercise in all week, but I am certainly going to try.

I hope you all have a great Monday!

I like to sweat

I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not, but when I do my 60 minute workout at the Y (it's actually longer than that now, but let's say it's 60-haha), the first half is a cardio workout. Based on the workout that my helper/trainer/torturer gave me, I have a "calories burned" goal. I am only allowed to do the cardio for 25-30 minutes and I am supposed to try to burn a certain number of calories in that time. I love having that kind of goal when I exercise (have I mentioned the Type A, goal setting personality? LOL!). I can use any cardio machine that I want, but I always use the elliptical. It's easy on my joints and I really feel like I've done something when I am finished. Anyway, today my goal increased and so to make sure I hit it, I cranked up the resistance a little higher than I normally would. OMG! Who knew that going up one level of resistance would make it soooo much harder? About half way in, I noticed that I was sweating. By the time I was done, I was really kind of gross. And I liked it. :)

Walking is great exercise and it's gotten me this far, but I forgot how much I like to sweat when I exercise. When I used to teach step classes, I always ended up sweaty and I always felt like I had really worked. That is how I felt today. I'm going to keep cranking up that resistance this week and I might even try a step class or two so I can get my sweat quota in this week. :)

On another note, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who commented on my post on Friday. I was really feeling bad when I wrote it and your support and nice words were very helpful. I know we don't "know" each other, but when you blog like this and put so much of yourself out there for the world to see, you feel like other bloggers are your friends (at least that's how I feel). I am feeling MUCH better now and I have a plan (Damn, I can't get away from that controlling, Type A thing, can I? HA! HA!) which I will be sharing as part of my post tomorrow after my weigh in.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

I'm headed to a bad place

Warning - if you are looking for motivation, inspiration, something happy or funny, today's post will not be for you. I feel a venting, whiny, pity party coming on.

I'm in a bad place today. Yesterday I posted that I am having a weird week, but I didn't mention one of the things that is bothering me because it's very personal and it seems petty and superficial. I read blogs about amazing weight loss stories from people that have lost a lot of weight, really gotten healthy and completely transformed their lives. I usually find them to be so inspirational! I really enjoy reading each story. Whether you've lost 100 pounds or 5 pounds. Whether you run 30 miles a week or struggle to get on the treadmill for 5 minutes, I normally love to hear about your accomplishments. This week has been a little different. I'm still reading your blogs and I'm still happy for everyone and what they've done, but I don't feel happy about where I am.

If you've read my earlier posts, you know that my initial motivation for losing weight was that I was unhappy with the way I looked. I am going to be 39 in a couple of weeks and I just didn't want to turn 40 and be overweight. I wanted to look and feel better than I did. Right now, I don't feel better about the way I look. I feel worse. I told my husband a couple days ago that I wanted my 20+ pounds back. That if I could go back, I'm not sure I would do this again. He told me that I didn't mean that. Part of me did mean it. 20 pounds ago, things were bigger, but they weren't as saggy as they are now. When I look at some parts of my body, I'm not even sure if what I'm seeing is more fat or extra skin. I don't know if those areas will even tighten up or if that's just how it's going to look (which by the way, isn't pretty).

Then there is my favorite. My chest. I have joked about it and written funny posts about it, but it's now gotten to the point that it's really bothering me. When I was heavier, I still had times when I felt pretty or sexy. I don't feel that way now. I feel healthier and I feel stronger, but I don't like the way that I LOOK. I am really struggling with this. And I'm not whining because my double D's are now B's. I seriously don't even need a bra anymore. I was never big, but now I feel like I have the chest of a 12 year old boy. That is not a good feeling. I know it's petty and I know it's superficial. I know that it's my body image issue that is causing this feeling, but I am not sure how to fix it. I didn't have body image issues before. I mean, we all have our insecurities, but I never had anything like this.

I'm not sure where I go from here. Part of me just wants to stop worrying about diet and exercise all together. Have you ever tried to fix something or clean something and you realize that you are only making it worse? Like pulling a thread on a sweater. Sometimes when you pull it, the sweater starts to unravel and you end up with a ruined sweater. You would have been better off if you never pulled the string in the first place. Part of me thinks that I've worked really hard to get to where I am and I'm so close to my goal that it would be silly to stop here, that I might as well see this through and then decide what I want to do.

Maybe I'll feel better about this in a few days. I think I'm going to keep on the diet and work out all weekend and then re-evaluate how I feel on Monday. Thanks for letting me vent. I needed that!

Weird week

Well, I am having a weird week. Monday we got another foot of snow, so of course that meant no school on Tuesday for the kids. Monday night (before school was even officially closed), they started requesting things for meals the next day. I was in a bit of a mood from my weigh in on Monday, so I figured, what the heck. I'm going to cook all the things they want and you know what? I'm going to eat them too. And that's what I did. I ate whatever I wanted on Tuesday. I did manage to get a 30 minute walk in, but that was the best I could do. The roads were so bad that there was no way I was getting to the gym and even the 30 minute walk was a little rough because there is so much snow on the ground and lots of my neighbors don't shovel their sidewalks.

Yesterday the kids went back to school and I discovered that with all of the cooking and cleaning and working and playing with the kids, I forgot.....

....to wash my workout clothes. Oh crap! It's not like I can exercise naked at the gym and it's not like you can wear those things twice (YUCK!), so I was in a bind. That is when an odd feeling came over me. I felt tired. Just worn out. Tired of worrying about what I am going to cook and eat for each meal that fits into my diet plan. Tired of trying to find time in between work and hubby and the kids and the house and the CRAPPY WEATHER to get in a good workout. Tired of remembering to wash my workout clothes. Just tired of it all. So yesterday I did not exercise.

That is really bad considering I was only 10 days into my 30 day challenge to myself, but I seriously just couldn't find the time and motivation yesterday to get myself to do it.

Today has been a little better. I did walk this morning and I've eaten the things that are on my "good" list. I am hoping to feel a lot better tomorrow and get myself to the gym for a really hard, long workout. We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck.

Oh, so close!

UGH! I really, really wanted my weigh in today to be a milestone. I really wanted to be 10 pounds or less away from my goal. So what does Sybil (my scale) do to me today? She smiled as I stepped on. She giggled while I waited for the number and then....SHE CACKLED LIKE THE WITCH THAT SHE IS!





I needed to lose 1.5 pounds to be 10 pounds away from my goal weight and I lost 1. That puts me 10.5 pounds away from my goal. So close and yet so far. HA! HA! Oh well. I did a pretty good job over the weekend with drinking water and I am really going to make an effort to keep it up this week. I need to shake up my exercise and I'm going to work on that this week too. So let's see if by next Monday, I can reach that goal. I certainly hope I can. :)

I like goals

I am so Type A. I like lists, I like having a schedule, I like goals. Anything tangible that lets me see results and I am on board. I did get to the gym today and since yesterday was my weight workout, today was all cardio. I decided to do the elliptical machine (I love those things!) for 45 minutes. I am breaking in a new pair of shoes and after about 35 minutes, the left one was bothering me. I thought, OK, I've done 35 minutes, maybe that is enough for today. Then I looked at the "calories burned" number on the machine. It was a little over 400. I decided that when I got to 500, then I would stop. It took a little burst of intensity for the last 5 or 6 minutes, but I managed to get to 500 right as my 45 minutes was up. And you know what, I was concentrating so hard on that number, I forgot all about my foot hurting. I felt really good when I stopped and I know I am going to feel great today.

On a side note. I am not sore today. While I was doing my strength training yesterday, it felt hard. I felt like I was pushing myself, but this morning, no soreness. Hmmm, I may have to increase a couple of the weights next time and see what happens. Oh won't my little personal torturer (oops, I mean trainer) like me increasing the pain (oops, I mean intensity) on my own. LOL!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Don't forget to do something special for your Valentine tomorrow and don't forget to do something special for yourself as well!

How did I not notice this?

I track my weight loss progress on a spreadsheet. Every week I enter my weight and measurements (on the weeks that I take them) and I have the last column set up to calculate the difference between my first entry and my last one. So how did I miss the fact that I am in a serious plateau? My last 5 weigh ins have been nearly the same number. January 11th was the last week that I really lost anything. Since then I was + .5, -1, +1.5, -2. So in 4 weeks I have lost a net of 1 pound. I didn't even realize that until yesterday. For goodness sake, I track this all on a spreadsheet so that I DON'T miss things like that. Where has my head been?

So I guess it really is time to shake things up. I am a morning exerciser. If I don't do it in the morning, the chances of my doing it go down drastically. Plus, I like to work out and shower and then be ready for the day. I don't want to exercise after I've already gotten ready for the day because I don't want to wash my hair twice in 1 day (curly hair, washing twice in 1 day is not a good thing for me). However, I am considering working out in the evening for a while just to shake things up.

I think for this weekend I am really going to focus on my water intake which is never as high as it should be. Then starting Monday I will change my workouts to include some classes (maybe step or pilates) for something different. I'm going to give that a week and see what happens. If that doesn't work I may have to think about exercising at night.

Do you ever feel like you are trying to "trick" your body? That's how I feel right now. Like it's not cooperating with me and so I've got to do something sneaky to get it going again. UGH!

On a positive note, I did make it to the gym today and I got to do my first workout with the new exercises my torturer (oops, I mean trainer ) gave me last week. Only 4 more to go and he will add more pain (oops, I mean intensity). Woo hoo. Can't wait for that. :)

No gym for you!

Remember the Soup Nazi? NO SOUP FOR YOU! That's how I felt today every time I tried to figure out how to make time to get to the gym. It was like my day planner was screaming "NO GYM FOR YOU!". Today was just one of those days. My schedule was packed full from the time I got up at 6:00am until I just got home a little after 9:00pm. Luckily I did manage to get a 35 minute walk in this morning in between getting my oldest off to school and waking my youngest up to get ready for school.

That little break in my morning has become my safety net. I try to use it every morning to walk. Besides getting my body "going" for the day. It's nice to know that even if my schedule gets crazy once I get my youngest off to school and I can't get to the gym, I've done a little exercise for the day. My kids are out of school tomorrow, so I've decided that no matter how much I have to do tomorrow (and my list is getting longer by the minute), I am going to workout in the morning. I am probably going to have to get up early to do it, but I know I will feel great afterwards. My goal date is rapidly approaching and it's crunch time (hmm, maybe I should take that literally and start paying some extra attention to my abs-haha). 3 days left until my next weigh in and on Monday I want to be able to say I'm less than 10 pounds from my goal. I'm hoping 3 killer workouts this weekend will help get me there.

On another note, I am thinking of trying some classes at the Y. I know that changing up my workout should help push my through the plateau I'm in (I've been bouncing around this same weight for 4 weeks now). I'd love to hear what kind of things you guys have done to shake up your workouts. Has anyone tried pilates? Yoga? What did you think? I'm looking forward to hearing about your experiences. Have a great night!

Now that feels better!

I am getting back into my "groove". After not exercising Friday, Saturday & Sunday (boo to the snow), I decided to challenge myself on Monday to see if I can work out for 30 days in a row. Today was day 3 and I got a very nice long walk in with my neighbor. This was the second snow day in a row for our kids and the exercise was just what we both needed to burn off some frustration and get in the right mood for the day. It is amazing how much better I feel during the day when I start the morning with a workout.

Although I feel better than I did a few days ago. Guess what? I miss the gym. OMG! Did I just say that? Just a couple of months ago I had gym phobia and here I am missing my strength training. I really want to get in there tomorrow and hit the weights, but I have a continuing education class in the morning and a ton of work to do in the afternoon. One son has hockey practice at 4-something and the other has a guitar lesson at 8. Oh yeah, and somewhere in there I need to make dinner. I'm going to have to get very creative in order to fit that in my schedule. I'm planning to walk in the morning just in case I can't find the time to get to the gym at least I will have gotten a little exercise for the day. Even though I'm pretty sure the elliptical machines are calling my name (it's been over a week since I've seen them), the gym may have to wait until Friday.

Well it's time for me to get to bed. I hope all of you had a great day and if you're snowed in, I hope you're snuggling with someone special. :)

Time for a new challenge

I feel like losing weight is a like puzzle. There are all of these pieces (exercise, eating well, drinking water, getting enough rest, etc.) and each piece plays a part in creating the overall picture. Some of us are better at some pieces than others. For the past couple of months, my strength has been the exercise "piece". I do it almost every day. I've increased the intensity, increased the time, added weights and thrown in different types of cardio to keep it interesting and keep me moving towards my goals. The eating well comes and goes and I am not so great about the water and getting enough rest.

The weather is really testing my resolve to exercise right now. We got a foot of snow Friday & Saturday which is a lot for this area. That meant no walking and I couldn't even get to the gym. By Sunday the roads were getting better, but the Y doesn't open until 11:00am on Sunday and by then I was already into my day and couldn't take the time to get over there. Yesterday I had a ton to do for work and because we are supposed to get another 5-10 inches today and tomorrow with high winds (which may mean power outages), I had to make sure we were stocked up on all of the necessities. I did manage to pop in an exercise DVD yesterday, so I did do something, but I need some new motivation to get me through the next few days. So I've decided to try a new challenge.

I did a 30 day exercise challenge in November/December and it worked great. Doing that really got me in the habit of exercising daily and finding a way to fit it into my schedule. I'm on the home stretch now (11-12 pounds to go before I hit my first goal weight) and I need to kick myself in the butt to make sure I cross that finish line. Yesterday was Day 1, so I'm going to try and exercise every day at least 30 minutes until March 10th. I'll keep you updated.

I hope you all have a great day. I've got to go find a DVD to do. :)

Weigh in

So today is weigh in day. I'm not sure why I even call it that anymore since more often than not, I check my weight all the time. But Monday is the weight that I use to measure my progress, so here it is. I am down 2 pounds from last week, but I was up last week due to water weight. Since I was up last week, I had been checking my weight throughout the week and my weight today is actually a pound or two higher than my low during the week. Of course I am not surprised by that for a couple of reasons. First, I apparently forgot what happened to me last week when I ate the ham & bean soup, so Saturday what did I decide to make for dinner? Ham. OMG! How stupid am I? When I woke up Sunday morning, it took me a second to figure out why I felt so crummy and then it hit me. Not again! Yep, up like 4 pounds from the previous day. DOH! Of course that meant I spent the whole day drinking a ton of water (again, this is probably a good thing) trying to get rid of it. Second, my boys and I (2 sons & hubby) watched the Super Bowl last night and I made a TON of not-so-good-for-me food. I made a ton of it and I ate a ton of it. I have to admit that it was totally worth it. I love football and I love the football party food that I usually make. I got to spend the evening eating and watching football with my family and I don't regret one bite. I didn't eat it because I was bored or sad or anything else. I ate it because I wanted to and when I went to bed I wasn't thinking of all the damage I had done to my diet, I was thinking about what a nice evening we had. I didn't wake up this morning with the attitude that I could eat anything I wanted since I had "ruined" my diet last night. Last night was over and done and today was "business as usual". There are times when I am going to want to eat things that are fattening or sugary or greasy and I don't want to deny myself those things. I want to be able to get to a place where I can "indulge" for one meal or one treat and then move on. Hopefully I am on my way to that place.

I want to thank you guys for your thoughts on Saturday. Our game and team dinner did get cancelled, but it was early enough in the day that I had only baked the cake. I was actually more worried about the cookies because those you just grab and eat. Eating the cake takes more of a conscious effort (since you have to cut a piece, get the plate & fork, etc.). I haven't had any yet and I haven't really been tempted to either, so I am hoping the boys finish it before long.

Thanks to everyone who commented on yesterday's post. I know I can't control where the weight comes off and honestly I am glad that it's coming off at all, but sometimes it is funny how this weight loss thing works. And by the way - I meant it is expensive to replace the boobs, not the bras. LOL!

Request to the weight loss gods

OK. I get it. You have a sense of humor. I decided to lose weight a few months ago and you thought you'd have some fun. I'm not mad. I love a good practical joke as much as the next person. But you've had your fun, so can we get down to business? I'm not exactly sure where I will weigh in tomorrow, but the bottom line is I have less than 15 pounds to go to reach my goal (well my initial goal anyway). Is there any chance that those 15 pounds could come from an area of my body that I actually want to get smaller? Hips, butt, thighs, tummy. Any of those areas is fine. Seriously, I'll let you pick. Just stop taking my weight from my chest!!!! I laughed when I had to go buy new bras. I joked when even the new bras seemed a little "roomy". Now I'm saying enough is enough. I can't take it. Do you have any idea what it costs to replace those things? It's not cheap. So if you could see your way to taking these last pounds from any other area, I would be forever grateful.

LOL!

Today is going to be a challenge

Snow, snow, snow. UGH! We got a lot of snow yesterday. School got out early, hockey was cancelled last night and most people just stayed in and watched it fall (and fall and fall and fall!!!). My son's hockey team is supposed to have a team dinner tonight. I am in charge of bringing the sweets. I'm baking a cake and some cookies to take. So here is my dilemma - it's possible that our hockey game for tonight will be cancelled. The team we are playing is from a more rural area than we are and they are currently under a snow advisory (don't drive unless you absolutely have to). However, the game isn't until much later tonight, so it's possible that the advisory will be lifted and the game will proceed as planned. If the game is cancelled, the team dinner will probably be cancelled as well and then you know what I'll have? A cake and a bunch of cookies in my house. I don't need that right now! Not on a day when I can't get to the gym and workout. Not on a day when I really can't even get out and walk (we have over a foot of snow and lots of people in my neighborhood don't shovel sidewalks). Not when I'm trying so hard to reach my goal. Saying that seems kind of silly. Like I'm not capable of having those things in the house without eating them. I know that's not the case. I've been really good about not snacking (especially on sweets and other "junk" even when I have it in the house), but I'm worried that being cooped up in the house will make it harder. I'm worried that one cold, snowy weekend will undo the great week I'm having. I've been at this for over 3 months now. Shouldn't I have more will power? Shouldn't I feel more in control? Of course, emotional eating is probably how I got overweight in the first place, right? Eating when I was bored or upset or celebrating instead of eating when I was hungry is how I got there. Maybe I can keep myself busy cleaning or doing other things and this won't be as big of an issue as I think it will be. If you read this, send me your good thoughts. I'm probably going to need them. :)

Hubby's 2 cents

As you know from my post yesterday, I had a frustrating day feeling totally bloated and carrying around a ton of water weight. I'm happy to say that I did end up drinking a lot of water yesterday and by last night I was feeling normal again (well as normal as you can feel when you are peeing every 10 minutes from drinking so much water).

I told my husband that if I didn't get to a certain weight by my next weigh in, I was going to give up coffee and see if the caffeine really is hindering my weight loss. He looked at me for a second and said "No." I laughed a little and he just stared at me and said it again "No. Do you know what kind of person you would be with no coffee?" I drink coffee all day long. I did switch to half caffeine at home just because I drink so much of it.

He was kidding (well, half kidding), but it made me think about the things in my diet that really aren't the healthiest. For me, coffee has to be up there. I don't think I'm ready to give it up yet (let's see what the scale says on Monday-LOL), but maybe I should cut way back and see what happens. Has anyone else cut something from their diet (sugar, caffeine, white flour, etc.)? How did your body react? Do you feel better now that you don't consume those things? I'd love to hear about other people's experiences.

Lesson learned

I feel so bloated today. Not the way I want to feel on weigh in day. I had been having a pretty good week. Lots of exercise and not too bad with the diet. I have had sick kids since Wednesday (btw, sick kids + lots of work = no time to blog-LOL). It had been cold all week and I decided Sunday morning to make some homemade soup. I had a ham bone in the freezer from Christmas and some beans, so ham & bean soup sounded like the perfect cold day lunch. It's not something I would eat on a regular basis, but I figured one bowl couldn't hurt too much. Was I wrong.

Not long after eating lunch, I felt it. By yesterday evening, I actually felt huge. I thought it was my imagination, so I got on the scale. WHOA! I was 4 pounds heavier than the day before. I am not sure I would have even noticed this a few months ago, but now I do. I know that it's water weight. I am sure the sodium content in that soup was through the roof and I just have to give it some time to get out of my system. I have been drinking water like crazy trying to make it better. I will really be watching my sodium for the next few days and I will continue with the water (which is probably a good thing since that is one thing that I am really bad at right now).

Of course, my weigh in today stunk. Up 1.5 pounds from last week. You'd better believe I intend to lose that plus some by next week. This was really a good eye opener for me. I don't count calories as well as I should, but even if I did, sodium is not something I tend to pay attention to because I don't use a lot of salt in things. It's interesting how one little thing can really mess up what should have been a pretty good week. Oh well, as the title says - Lesson learned.

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. :)