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!

My 30 day challenge

Today was the day. Earlier this month I challenged myself to see if I could work out for 30 days in a row and I am happy to say that today was day 30! I did it! I wanted to do this to prove to myself that there is always time in my day to exercise. I figured that if I could find the time to do it every day even in the midst of the Christmas shopping and the wrapping and the visiting and the baking and everything else that comes with this time of the year, then I have no excuse for not working out any other time of the year. Does this mean I plan to exercise every day for the rest of my life? Probably not, but I think more often than not, I will be working out.

I have to say that I have felt great for the past few weeks. I've even gotten more done around the house than I normally do and I don't know if it's because I have more energy or if starting my day with exercise makes me want to stay active throughout the day. I also know that exercise is what kept me from gaining more than I did during the past week. I ate a lot of things that I have been avoiding for the past 2 months (read- chocolate, LOL!) and without the exercise each day, I'm sure yesterday's weigh in would have been much worse.

So what about tomorrow? After completing my 30 day challenge, am I planning to take the day off? Nope. I am actually hoping that we don't get more snow tonight so that I can take a nice long walk outside tomorrow. I can't believe I just typed that. If you knew me, you would know that I am not an outdoors person and when it gets cold, well, that's all the more reason to stay inside. It's been so snowy and icy that I've had to workout indoors for the past 2 days and I am ready to get back outside in the fresh (but cold) air. So keep your fingers crossed for me. There's a 4 mile path down the road that's calling my name!

Do I have to weigh in today??? LOL!

I had a great Christmas! To be honest, I had several great Christmases! We celebrated with different family members Thursday, Friday and all day yesterday. The kids had lots of fun (so did the adults-LOL) and we enjoyed good food and great company.

I have to admit that I did enjoy a little too much of the good food and though I ate plenty of veggies (when they were offered), I also indulged in lots of goodies. I did manage to get some exercise every day (even Christmas Day I managed to do a 30 minute walk) and I had a great walk (4 miles) with a friend on Saturday. I was not looking forward to my weigh in this morning, but I figured that I might as well get it over with and see just how much damage I'd done in the past week.

Drum roll, please.....I gained half a pound. I probably shouldn't be, but I'm OK with that. Of course, when I add that to the 4 pounds that my new scale has added, I'm even further away from my goal, but instead of feeling discouraged, I'm feeling motivated. I'm ready to really work hard this week and get those numbers going back in the right direction.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Yesterdays weigh in

I am happy to say that even though it wasn't a big change, it was a change in the right direction. :) I lost 1 pound last week which brings my grand total to 17 pounds. Yeah! I would really love to lose 3 more pounds by the end of the year to bring it to an even 20 pounds, but I think that might be stretching it.

My self-imposed exercise challenge is going well. I have now exercised for at least 30 minutes for 23 days in a row. A week from today I will have made it to my goal of 30 days in a row. I have to admit that when I started, I wasn't really sure I could do it, but now with only 1 week left, I think I will be able to do it with no problem.

My trip to the gym was as bad as I feared. I couldn't even find the machines I was looking for and couldn't find anyone to help me, so I wound up just getting on the EFX for 25 minutes which is fine, but I had already walked for 45 or 50 minutes that morning, so I wasn't looking for more cardio, I wanted to do some strength training. I think the Y offers a program for people "new" to working out that I am going to take advantage of. Once I get a feel for the equipment, I don't think I'll have a problem using it. Until then, I am doing squats and lunges at home, so hopefully that is better than nothing. :)

Counting calories

So I'm doing pretty well with exercising. I'm doing at least one 30 minute walk every day and trying to add another walk/video most days. The one thing I have no idea about is how to figure out how many calories are in something that is homemade. I made chicken soup yesterday, but I have no idea how many calories are in a serving. I know some of you are great at keeping track of all of your calories, so I'm looking for some help from you. Is there a website or some other source you use to figure that out? Thanks in advance for your help!

Have a great weekend!

I need blogging help

Hello blogger friends! I need some techincal help this morning. I have been trying to add a weekly progress chart to my page, but I can't get the text to line up well (as you can see). I know several of you have very nice progress charts, so if anyone wants to tell me how to do that, I would really appreciate it!

I hope everyone is doing well! I have been sticking to at least 1 walk every day and as of today I have made it 18 days in a row. I am shooting for 30 days (I didn't really think about Christmas being one of the days when I set that goal-OOPS). My kids are out of school after tomorrow, so I am looking forward to making my walks 60 minutes instead of 30 minutes (I will no longer have to squeeze it in between getting kids on the bus) and I may even head over to the gym for some weight training. Woo hoo. :)

Weigh in results

Today was my weekly weigh in and I am so happy to have reached a personal milestone. I am halfway to my initial goal of losing 30 pounds. I call it my "initial" goal because I didn't really put a lot of thought into it when I was setting it. I was thinking that I needed to lose AT LEAST 30 pounds, so I decided to start with 30 and re-evaluate once I lost it.

I am finding that setting mini goals (lose the first 5 pounds, then the first 10, drop 1 pants size, etc.) is helping me see progress and stay motivated. The end goal can seem so big and/or far away, that some days it is easy to lose sight of it, but breaking it down into smaller steps is helping me get there (one 30 minute walk at a time-LOL!).

I'm so motivated right now, I think I'm going to go for another walk! :)

Some sparkling motivation

For Christmas 11 years ago (right after I gave birth to our second son), my husband gave me 2 diamond anniversary bands, one "from" each of my sons. His intention was to replace my wedding band and for me to wear one of the new rings on each side of my engagement ring. I had gained so much weight with my son that I had stopped wearing my wedding rings several months earlier, so he took them to the jewelry store so he would know what size to buy. Needless to say that the size he got did not fit me since I had barely lost any of the baby weight at that point. I wasn't worried since I had lost all of my baby weight with my first son, I did not expect to have any trouble that time either (boy was I wrong!). After a year or so of not wearing my rings, he finally persuaded me to have them re-sized so I could wear them. I decided to only do 1 of the bands so I would at least have something to wear, but in my mind, if I did them both it was like giving up and admitting that I would never lose that weight.

OK, so it took me 11 years, but I'm finally doing it. As I was putting on my rings yesterday, I noticed that they were a bit loose. I don't know why, but it made me wonder if there was any chance that I could wear the second band, the one that I didn't have sized, the one that is the same ring size I wore when we got married. I am so happy to say that I got it on easily. I actually don't wear my wedding rings every day, but I have been wearing them pretty much non-stop since yesterday. It's not that I suddenly love to wear the rings. I am using them as sparkly motivation. Every time I look down at them, I am reminded that I can only wear them because of the changes that I am making. When I thought about not going for my walk today because it was cold and rainy, I looked down, put on a hat and jacket and got my butt out the door.

My weekly weigh in is tomorrow, and I'm hoping to hit a personal milestone, but even if I don't, I think I'll keep wearing the rings for a while to help keep me moving forward (plus they're pretty-LOL).

18 degrees outside and no iPod-UGH!

My day did not start off well today. I came down to discover that my teenager did not get his ice skates out of my trunk last night (even though I told him to do it 10 times during the evening and once as he was going up to bed). I found that we were out of Gatorade, so I needed to make some (even though I am the only one in the house that doesn't drink it) and when I went to get ice for his drink, I found all 4 ice trays empty (again, I am the only one in the house that never uses ice). OK, so this is really a typical morning for a mom, but for some reason, today it ticked me off. Today is also one of the mornings that I walk by myself. I obviously prefer to walk with a friend, but 3 or 4 days a week, I just grab my iPod and go alone. This morning, instead of finding my iPod where it should be, I find only my little pink earbuds. OK, that's it, now I'm really in a mood. So I'm irritated, I have no iPod and it's 18 degrees and windy outside. Am I really going to go for a walk this morning? I'm happy to say that I did!

A month or so ago, I might not have been able to find the motivation to get my butt going, but today I did. When I realized earlier this week that I had exercised 10 days in a row, I decided to challenge myself to see if I could make it at least 30 days in a row, exercising every day (for at least 30 minutes). This is a tough time of the year to do that. Schedules are even more hectic than normal, there is so much to do for the holidays and the weather may or may not cooperate with me. That's even more reason to challenge myself right now. If I can workout for 30 days in a row at this time of year, I should have no excuses for not exercising at other times of the year.

I'm trying to visualize my goal and remind myself that each time I exercise or each time I pick up an apple instead of some chips, that action got me one step closer to that goal. The more results I see, the more motivated I become. I'm just glad I found the motivation to go out today even though it was only 18 degrees and I had no iPod! LOL! :)

If it's not broke, don't fix it?

I just got back from a 30 minute walk. That's 9 days in a row for me and I'm really feeling good. I am down another 3 pounds (for those of you that read yesterday's post, yes that means I did finally get on the scale to do my weigh in) and I've lost more inches too. I know from teaching fitness classes and experience (LOL) that I'm going to be hitting a plateau soon. It's just the way it goes - when you start cutting calories and increasing your exercise, you lose weight, but you will go through times when you seem to be doing everything right and aren't getting any results. That's when you have to shake things up, try a new workout, tweak the diet, or whatever.

I know that eventually I want to get to the point of working out for 60 minutes a day instead of 30, so I'm trying to figure out what I'd like to add or change to help get me there. The easiest thing to do would to be to add another 30 minute walk in each day. To be honest, I think that might be too boring to keep up for long. I do have a couple of friends that I walk with 3-4 days a week and I love those walks, but I've been walking the other days by myself and that's already a little boring. Trying to do that twice in one day may not be the way to go. Adding a short video workout might work. I think I have enough of them to rotate to keep from being bored (at least for a while). I love the idea of taking classes at the Y, so I'd like to try that. The problem there is fitting them into my work schedule which changes day to day and often changes at the very last minute.

I guess that finding a workout routine that works is like anything else in life, you try something and if it doesn't work, you try something else. The key is to keep trying different things until you find what works for you. Something you enjoy, that you can stick to and that produces the results you want. I'll let you know when I find it. :)

What the scale can't tell me

I'm seriously thinking about not doing my weigh in today. OK, "seriously" is too strong of a word. How about, I'm "considering" not doing my weigh in this morning. When I decided to lose weight, I also decided to check my weight and take measurements once a week. Monday is my day, so I should be up on the scale right now, but I'm mulling it over for now. I usually have a hard time not weighing myself in between the "official" weigh ins, so why am I hesitating today? Because there are some things that the scale can't tell me.

The scale can't tell me that I have exercised for 8 days in a row. Some of those walks were only 30 minutes, but a couple were an hour and I added a 20-30 minute video a couple of days as well. 8 days is not a lot to some people, but for someone who hasn't worked out regularly in years, it's a big deal. I felt great all week and I know it's because I was working out every day.

The scale also can't tell me that since Friday I've been wearing jeans a size smaller than I've worn in years! Were they tight? Yeah, a little. Did I have to lay on the bed and suck it in to get them zipped? Nope. Did they look painted on or did my thighs look like they were wrapped in sausage casing? No and no.

I know the scale is an important barometer of my progress, but it's not the only one. I am keeping track of my BMI and measurements as well and the scale can't tell me that since I started this journey, I've lost at least an inch and a half in each of these areas- my waist, my thighs and my hips. Of course I've lost 2 inches in my chest, but that's a topic for another day-ha ha!

The number on that scale shouldn't be the beat-all end-all. It shouldn't make or break my day, but sometimes it does. I don't want to get on the scale today and lose the feeling that I have right now. Feeling good is only increasing my motivation right now and I can't afford to lose that. If I haven't lost weight since last week, will that discourage me or will it fire me up to work harder this week? I don't know and I'm not sure I can risk finding out, so I'm putting it off for now. I'll probably end up on that scale today (it calls my name sometimes-I swear), but no matter what it says, I'm going to try really hard not to let it affect me too much either way because there are some things that the scale just can't tell me.

Getting my butt moving - finding an exercise routine to stick to

It's been 6 weeks since I made the decision to make some changes and lose some weight. The first 10 pounds came off pretty easily in about 4 weeks. I guess going from absolutely no exercise to some exercise and picking up an apple instead of a cookie (OK, who am I kidding? Let's try picking up an apple instead of 3 or 4 cookies-LOL) made a difference. But now it's going to get harder. I know that I'm never going to reach my goal if I can't find a workout plan that I can do consistantly. I am never going to be a person who can eat boiled chicken breast and steamed veggies for dinner every day, so for me, exercise is going to be the key to my weight loss.

I am struggling to find something that is challenging enough but that I can do every day (well at least 5 or 6 days a week). For the past couple of weeks, I've walked for 30 minutes in the morning in between when my oldest son leaves for school and it's time to wake the youngest one up. That seems to be working for me, but I need a little more. I thought I might add a short exercise video to the days when I only walk for 30 minutes, but I'm finding it hard to make the time for it. I've thought about taking classes at the gym, but that has been ever harder to make time for. I tell my kids all the time that you have to make choices in life and prioritize what is important. I guess that it's time to listen to my own advice and make exercising a priority in order to reach my goals.

Can I still call it baby weight when my baby goes to middle school?

About 2 months ago I had to go to the doctor. When I got on the scale, I couldn't believe the number. I knew I had been gaining weight (read-clothes getting too tight), but seeing the actual number surprised me. I hadn't been on a scale for a long time, so it was a bit of a shock. I mulled it over for a few days and decided that enough was enough. I think many women find themselves in the same position. I'm getting close to 40, I've had 2 kids and it always seems like I have too much to do and not enough time to do it.

I have never been a skinny person, but I was proportional and fit. At one time, I taught exercise classes at the Y at 6:00am before going to my "real" job. Then I gained a ton of weight with my second child and soon after he was born wound up having to have surgery on my feet. Not being able to exercise for nearly a year (2 separate surgeries), I settled into a larger size than I was used to and got out of the exercise habit. Now 10+ years have gone by and I guess it's time to make a change.

I'm starting this blog to keep myself accountable for the goals that I'm setting and hopefully to find other people in the same boat. I know there are a lot of us out there that are carrying 20-40 pounds of extra weight and while we'd like to lose it, we just can't find the time or motivation to make it a priority. Hopefully, through this journey, we can find things that work and inspire and encourage each other on our way to becoming more healthy and feeling better about ourselves.