Wednesday, November 29, 2006

I'm Feeling Really Good!

Things have been going really well lately! I finally got my head screwed on straight. A friend, from LL, told me something the other day that REALLY helped. I told her (Katrina) that when I get sick I tend to eat poorly. She told me about a conversation she had with Coach David where he said that if you are really sick you will probably lose weight not gain it. All the crappy eating was mostly you feeling sorry for yourself and trying to comfort yourself with food. BAM!! Light bulb moment! That was exactly what I was doing and I was then further using it all as an excuse when dealling with my leverage. I need to thank both Katrina and Coach for that message because it has made a huge difference. I have gotten my weight down to 130 and am really feeling great.

My workouts have been pretty good too. I'm still struggling with my cardio because of my chest congestion. If I go too hard I start coughing to the point where it feels like I'm going to get sick. Yesterday I went out for a 45 min session but combined walking and running (10 min walk followed by 10 min run and then repeated. Finished with 5 min walking). The walking was very fast paced but it is frustrating that I still struggled with it at the end. My legs feel good and really so does my endurance it is just the silly coughing that gets me.

My lifting has been awesome. I entered my routine into LL's Muscle Professor and it has been great. The program progresses your sessions and gives you easy, moderate & heavy days. I am getting awesome pumps during/after my workouts and I haven't gotten that in a really long time.

I have about 2 weeks to reach my goal of 127 and I am going to make it - I can just feel it!!!

Friday, November 24, 2006

The Day After

I made it through Thanksgiving quite well. I allowed myself to have a small taste of most things but kept my portions very small. That way I didn't feel deprived of anything and I didn't gain any weight whatsoever.

I have given myself an extra week to reach my goal of 127 because of my illness. It is still hanging on but I'm not feeling as run down. I haven't started back to running yet because of the coughing but that will begin again very soon. I've been lifting, started using the Muscle Professor at LL, and then using fast walking and cycling for my aerobics.

I have my 20th high school reunion tonight. I am quite comfortable going - I will look great and feel great. I actually weigh less now than I did while in high school. The one thing I am sort of worried about though is the food. Since it is a catered event, I have no control over the food available. Because of where I am in my weight loss journey I don't have the luxury of letting loose tonight. I just have to stay very controlled and not let this be an eating event. The other problem is that the party doesn't start until 7:30 pm which is pretty much about the time I usually stop eating. I should go and not have anything to eat but I will admit that it would be very difficult to do that. I'll just have to see how the evening goes and just keep my goals in the back of my mind all night.

Hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving! On toward Christmas!!!!!

Sunday, November 19, 2006

I'm sick and frustrated!

I've been sick for about a week now and I'm frustrated. I tried to exercise yesterday (a quick paced walk - nothing really strenuous) and I think it made it worse. I felt run down - big time! I hate not being able to exercise, especially because it makes it harder for me to stick to my nutrition plan. At least for me, one feeds off the other - when I'm exercising consistently, my eating is better and vice-versa. I'm also worried about reaching my leverage goal. If the illness continues and I can't exercise I don't think I'll reach the goal. I'll have to talk to Coach about what to do.

Monday, November 13, 2006

I'm On a Roll!

Things have been going really well lately! This weekend could have been a disaster but I stayed strong and it was excellent. One of my goals for this weekend was to lose some weight. I'm usually content to just maintain over the weekend but not right now. I need to lose the pounds each and every day (so to speak).

Saturday was a football day so that means tailgating but I stuck to my veggies and dip! Sunday was a get together with friends. When we get together with these people it usually turns into an eating-fest but not this time. I again brought my veggies and dip and stayed away from the pizza, brownies and spaghetti.

Today was also a good day but I will admit that it was hard. I was having cravings most of the day. I also didn't get my workout done this morning (I was feeling VERY tired). The good news is that I didn't give into the cravings AND I got my RT workout done this evening. I'm really proud of today's accomplishments!

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Victory!


I sort of feel like the warrior in the above picture. For some reason I have really had to fight during this round of weight loss. I plan my days and I start out with really good intensions and then I just let the whole thing fall apart. I was starting to feel like I was losing the war. But not today, today I won the battle. The war isn't over but I won one small battle today - I ate clean and I finished all my exercising.

I think part of my "problem" is that I'm doing this purely to see how it feels/looks. It is definitely a different mindset than I had over the summer when I lost the majority of my weight. I need to view this as another challenge and get out of my comfort zone. Coach, at LL, was talking about stepping out of the comfort zone just the other day. He is bulking up for a bodybuilding contest so he is having to pretty much eat non-stop. One of the members commented about how she envied his being able to eat large amounts. Coach then said something very interesting. Change is difficult regardless of what it entails. Purposeful weight loss or weight gain is still change for the body and it is difficult - it takes us out of our comfort zone. I thought that was a very powerful thought process. Just because it is difficult doesn't mean it can't be done though - Coach is doing awesome! Now it is my turn - I need to keep taking those little baby steps and string a bunch of good days together. I will be taking one meal at a time and one day at a time and I will reach my goal! I have put myself behind the eight-ball in terms of time so now I don't have much room for error. I want to keep my shoes though so I need to step up and take control!

Monday, November 06, 2006

Where has the time gone?

Boy, time sure is flying by. Before you know it Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here. I started a team on LL about 2.5 weeks ago and I think things are going pretty well. Activity on the forum page has dropped way off but the team numbers are looking pretty good.

I was doing GREAT but over the past couple of days I seem to have slipped off the wagon a bit. I made a bit of a recovery today but it was not a "perfect" day. I had a great lifting session this morning. I really felt like I was pushing really hard because I used the weight I was lifting for 10 reps and went for 15 reps. It really showed me that it is time to up the 10 rep weights. Then I taught my gym classes today and really tried to keep moving the whole time - especially during our warm-up runs. I finished the day by running to my staff meeting. The distance was a touch under 2 miles and my pace was 7:53/mile. I was going to run home but I got yelled at by everyone because they thought it would be too dangerous. They were probably right so I decided to accept a ride home.

Tomorrow we don't have school - election day. GO VOTE! I'm not sure what my run will be tomorrow but I do have some extra time if I decide to go a bit farther than normal. I also need to really start to buckle down on the nutrition aspect of my program - I'm not really sure where I got off track. I guess it is just having the Halloween candy around. It is triggering all the bad food habits/desires that I have. I honestly believe that if I can just get 1 "perfect" day under my belt it will go a long way to getting me back on track.

I contacted a photographer today about our Christmas family pictures. I think I'm going to have them taken Thursday evening. I'm going with a different photographer this year. The one we've been using the past few years never called me back after I had left a message so I decided to go with the one who did our school pictures. She does a great job and I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Since there is no school tomorrow, I'm planning on taking the kids to our local natural history museum. Hopefully the neighbors down the street will be able to come too. It would be a lot of fun for me to have another adult to talk to and the kids love to play together too. Hopefully a great time will be had by all!!

Off to finish my nightly routines and to do my journaling for the day.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

I DID IT!!!!!!



I DID IT!!!

I purchased the above shoes to use as a leverage for my present challenge. If I make 125 by Dec. 8th, I get to keep the shoes. If I don't make it, then my dh will donate the shoes. I really want/need those shoes so there is no way I won't make my goal!!

I've been feeling really good about my nutrition and my workouts. Speaking of working out, the funniest thing happened tonight. I had just gotten back from buying my shoes and my ds comes running up to me. He is all out of breath but he's still impatiently asking me if I'm going to go out and get on my stationary bike. He REALLY wanted me to go out back and get on that bike. I hadn't planned on going out but with encouragement like that, who could resist! I went out and did a good hard 15 minutes. Now it is time to start me evening routine so I'm signing off. Here's to good health and weight loss!!!