Weekly Weigh In - 3/28/09

The results are in and they are more awesome than I could have imagined.



- 3 LBS

Hard work truly does pay off. After having gotten my 10% and 25 lb charm last week and then getting sick, I really could have found many excuses to slack off. And I did think about it, but I just kept thinking to myself. "why would I repeat old patterns?" That didn't work out so great for me before, so I chose to do something different. And that meant hitting the gym even though I would have rather I had curled up in bed and slept. It also meant that I not stop at Taco Bell and pick up something instead of cooking. (I actually had help on the cooking front this week, because my Mom cooked dinner like 4 days this week so I didn't have to, which was awesome!)

And you know what's awesome about this week's loss? I am now out of the 220's! I have 3 more lbs to go and I will b e back at the weight I was the last time I quit WW's, so I am almost to the point of finally losing new weight. I can't, can't wait!!! Have an awesome (there's that word again) weekend.

Friday Randomness

I can not speak. *sigh* I have no voice. It sucks because I like talking. A lot.

My ex is coming in to town tonight to see The Kid. It's been almost 2 years since TK has seen him. It's nice he's made the trip... I would have rather he'd sent the money as child support rather a wasteful trip across two states and a hotel stay, but what do I know? And before anyone thinks I'm trying to keep him from my daughter. I'm not he made some very poor choices... including walking out on us when she was 4 and basically not seeing her again until she was 12. With almost 4 years with absolutely no contact at all. We didn't even know he'd moved to his current state.

Weigh in is tomorrow. If I can keep from retaining water (a problem I actually have when I forget to take my BP meds) I might actually see a good loss! I let you all know in the AM.

Currently watching Sarah Connor Chronicles. I'll watch Dollhouse next, but I'm really sad there is no BSG tonight! Alrighty, I'm all randomed out. Until tomorrow.

Not stopping

Not even sickness has stopped me from exercising. Yesterday, I was so not feeling hot, but went to the gym and did 75 minutes on the elliptical. My legs were like jello when I finally got off that machine. Today, I'm actually feeling much better. I still sound very nasally and I'm dealing with a sore throat, but I have more energy than yesterday and did my Tuesday routine of Abs and Zumba! And the instructor worked us hard in both classes she added new things to do, changing things up which of course left my legs and abs trembling and I was sweating a lot more than I have in previous Zumba! (I can't type that without the ! I <3 Zumba! so much) classes. The sweating part I think actually might go back to getting off of the beta blocker. Since my heart rate gets up there now I seem to sweat a lot more... which I hope means more calories burned.

Watching Biggest Loser right now and they are about to do the vote off, and they voted the way I hoped they would. I feel bad for the eliminee but I liked the other guy a lot more. (see how awesome I am no spoilers!)

Sick

I'm sick! It started while I was at a play with my daughter. My throat started getting scratchy and now 3 hours later my throat is sore, my nose is stuffy, and I'm not feeling like myself at all. I'd managed to avoid everything that had gone around throughout the entire winter cold season. Figures that I'd get sick on the first weekend of Spring I'd come down with something. Feeling, blah!

Before pic

I promised a before pics. It was taken in July 20, 2008, the day before I actually quit smoking. The first 6 months of '08 I managed to gain 33 lbs, while "trying" to lose weight. You can see from this pic, how well I was succeeding at weight loss. I'm also posting a pic from June '08 on what should have been one of my happiest moments that I would totally want captured on film, but hated every moment of it, and that was my college graduation. I can't believe how heavy I was and how losing just 28 lbs has made such a difference in my life. The funny thing is even though I'm almost down 30 lbs, I still haven't changed pant sizes yet... or maybe I have because for a while I was only buying clothes with elastic waists. I haven't had to buy any pants in new sizes because I basically can fit into all of my "fat" pants and have breathing room. 10 more lbs and I'm sure I'll be able to fit into my "before" fat pants, that would be the 16's and 14's depending on the brand name. So enough stalling already I present my before pictures:

July 2008

June 2008


And just so you can see where I'd like to go back to. Here is a picture of me taken when I was about 150 lbs, maybe a little more but not much. I'd be happy in the 160's, I think... but I look at this picture and think I look good here.

November 1999


To celebrate my 10%, I am going to get my hair colored at 2PM so I will post current pics of me when I get home with my awesome new color!really it's just to cover the grey unless my stylist has an awesome idea for color which she usually does. I hoping she wants to go lighter this time rather than darker. And yes I do leave it in her hands because I trust her and she has never steered me wrong.

Weekly Weigh In - 3/21/09

Gosh, I haven't posted anything all week! I'm not sure why, but I think I've been feeling a bit of lather, rinse, repeat and haven't had anything interesting to say. I've been eating right and exercising all week, so I was hoping for a decent loss on the scale. I even said no to Cold Stone ice cream cake last night when celebrating my brother's 23rd birthday. I ate a skinny cow ice cream instead. So on to my results:

I am


-1.6

and I received this today at my Weight Watchers meeting:



So I feel renewed and inspired to keep going on this journey because I can do this. I can get healthy and thin if I just keep on this path. As a reward for all my hard work I am going to get my hair cut and colored. I haven't given myself any reward yet, even though I was going to do something at the 10 and 20 lb marks. Since I didn't I feel okay with rewarding myself for 10% and then my 25 lb Weight Watcher loss. I just hope I can get an appointment this weekend, I've got lots of gray showing and I've got to get rid of it soon! Then I might post some before and after photos. I saw a picture of me from July 08 (just before I started exercising) and I can not believe that is what I looked like!

Weekly Weigh In - 3/14/09

Results are in and all I can say is, at least it's a loss.

-.4

I can't even b e excited about having a loss, because I'd gotten my hopes up so high for a big loss and it didn't happen. But it's a loss, and I should just get over myself and be grateful it's not a gain. *sigh*

Sore Abs!

I usually only do abs once a week. I know, I'm lazy. I'm still sore from Tuesday's abs class, but decided today that I'd go the Thursday class. I. AM. SORE! But I feel pretty good about it. I've really been working hard at the gym, and I'm really looking forward to weigh in to see if all this work I'm doing pays off... I realize it will eventually, but I'm kind of looking for the instant gratification. I'm impatient that way ;)

My food has been okay. I did have pizza on Monday and went out to dinner at Red Robin, but I had a grilled chicken sandwich and a side salad for dinner, instead of the burger and fries I really wanted. Tonight, I made a family recipe but adjusted to be lower in calories, but I was really hungry and ended up having 2 servings of it for a total of 11 points, which was okay because I had 10.5 points left for the day and I earned 7 AP's today. So I'm feeling pretty good... I just have to be sure I don't laugh too much, my abs are feeling a little tender. Have a good evening all!

Exercising without medication

So I've been off the beta blocker medication for a week now and I've noticed something while exercising. It started two days ago when I was on the elliptical. I was sweating a lot more and my heart rate was a lot higher, and I was finding myself struggling with incline/resistences that I had previously found easy or acceptable. Two days ago I just was like "huh, that's weird." Last night at Zumba I thought I was going to die. I had sweat pouring off of me, I couldn't catch my breath, and I was pretty sure I was going to have to quit halfway through the class. That;s when it dawned on me, that without the beta blocker my heart was actually moving into a fat burn stage, and did I ever move into it. Tracy, the Zumba instructor stopped in between songs twice to check my heart rate, the first 30 seconds after a song ended I was averaging 15 beats in 5 seconds, that's like 200 beats per minute, Yikes! She said after 30 seconds though it dropped to where I would average about 160 beats per minutes. Tracy thinks I might start seeing better results on the scale now that my body is actually recognizing that I'm working out... and if you'd seen how glowing I was you'd know I was working hard. I've been on this exercising kick for 7 months now and I've never felt like I worked harder than last night! Tracy also worked Abs and Arms before Zumba, so I'm feeliing a little sore everywhere. Sore has never felt so good. I'm totally excited for Saturday's weigh in, to see if my results are any better off blood pressure meds.

Weekly Weigh In - 3/7/09

Much better results this week! I'm down:

1 lb.

So I feel pretty good about this. I found myself at the gym 4 days this week, 2 days where I took a Zumba class. I hard a hard time sticking to my daily points target this week, I went over every day except yesterday. I don't have to wonder at the reason why, I know it's because I worked out really hard so I felt a lot hungrier this week AND my mouth has been having a hard chewing anything that is hard or crunchy so I was limited on what kind of fruits and vegetables I could eat. I did the best I could while dealing with my newly discovered TMJ problems.

I did go to the Dr for the jaw problem, and he gave me a muscle relaxer and something else (Nuerotin) which sort of scares me so I haven't taken it yet, and I'm only going to start it if the pain doesn't go away by next week. He also suggested Botox for the muscle that is having the spasms, but that's a final option for me. I only want botox in my forehead to get rid of the frown lines ;). While at the Dr.'s I did have a NSV. I've been on double blood pressure meds for 6 years and he took me off the Toprol this week, so now I am only taking HCTZ, which is a water pill. Another 20 lbs and I think I might get off all the meds. So, there's a Yay for me! So back to the jaw pain, I am going to get a mouth guard for night to see if that helps. Not the expensive kind from the Ortho but a cheap one from the store and if it helps then I'll dip into my FSA account and get the custom made one.

Today is my niece's 10th birthday. I guess we're having hot dogs and cake and ice cream today. I've already had a really good breakfast so I doubt I'll eat much, if anything, at the party. It's actually kind of nice to be able to go to a party and not feel like it's going to "ruin my diet" ... I don't actually feel like I'm on a diet anymore. I feel like I'm just living my life and making a series of choices that help me lose weight. I think I might actually, finally, be getting it.

Tuesday Exercise

I kicked as tonight at the gym. I took 30 minute Abs and of course Zumba! I take these classes every Tuesday so neither is new to my schedule, but I did try to put more effort into each move, whether it was a crunch or a squat. I'm a good kind of tired tonight. My knees are a bit sore right now, but I think I'll be fine by the morning. Both classes earned me 13 AP's today, which is a good thing because I was horrible with food this weekend... I ate all my WP's before Sunday was through and AP's that I hadn't even earned yet. heh. The last two days have been pretty good food wise. I'm back on track and making healthy choices... It would be great if I could transfer my eating habits during the week to the weekend.

Karma biting me in the *ss!

So last week I blogged about only working hard enough to lose so as not to embarrass myself, and this week I worked out hard, tracked my food, and ate better than I have in a couple of weeks... and how I am I rewarded? Well I'm still retaining water and at this morning's weigh in I showed a gain!

+.4

Not a huge gain, but a gain none the less. I can only hope this is a fluke and next week I'll show a better loss. I'm so close to two of my goals and I can't believe I haven't hit either one of them yet. It's so frustrating, but maybe I needed this kick in the ass in order to step up my game.

In other news, I'm still experiencing mouth pain. I'm going to have to get that mouth guard because I can't live like this much longer. It is so hard to eat anything hard or crunchy, and soft food that I will eat usually equals not good for my waist line. *sigh*

Bits of randomness

So I'd like to say that I've just been incredibily busy and that's why I haven't posted since Monday, but that wouuldn't necessarily be true. I could have posted but I haven't felt like I've had anything interesting to say. There have been a few littel tid bits that I've thought I should blog that, but then just never did because the post would have only been a few lines long and just didn't seem like it was worth the effort. As I re-read all this I think I might have a bit of depression going on. Mostly I think because I've been living with pain in my mouth consistently for about 2 weeks, but intermittently for about a year and half. Yes I've been to the dentist twice, there isn't anything specifically wrong with my teeth. I totally have a tooth fetish and am pretty meticulous about mine because I have such high expectations of everyone elses teeth. Yes I am weird, I know this.

So anyway, the dentist last week finally said I probably clench my jaw in my sleep and that's why I'm in pain. He also said I need a mouth guard, and did I want to pay for that now? I said no. On Tuesday my daughter had an ortho appointment and I mentioned to my pain to the Dr. He told me to hop up, and looked at my mouth, asked where the pain was and said "Oh, that's good!" and then said "What I mean is the pain is coming from your muscles not joints or bones, we can fix this." He then gave me a couple of suggestions and then proceeded to call me the next day to make sure he had explained everything fully. He also suggested a mouth guard, because he did show me where my one tooth is getting hit when I clench at night (and believe I have absolutely no idea how I get to it in my sleep because no normal person would place their jaw the way I have to to damage it!) So I have options but the pain is... painful and makes me really irritable. So enough about that.

Over the weekend my daughter thought it fun to challenge me to a plank off. She said her PE teacher makes them do planks and that she could totally beat me at it. I do planks at least once a week when I take my Abs class on Tuesday's. So down on the ground we went, got in position and ready, set, go. About 30 seconds in she starts trash talking. "Ooh are you breathing? Do I see some shaking? Is your back straight?" My Mom, who was watching, said H, she's straighter than you are. At the minute mark H dropped! She starts cracking up because she totally thought she'd win and didn't. She was proud of me, and then was like I'm out, you can stop now. I just looked at her and said "Oh no, I want you to know just how much I beat you by, not that I just beat you" And I stayed up about 15 more seconds. I was shaking too bad to stay up any longer. The point of all this is though, when I first started doing planks I could go more than 15 seconds and I can go for almost 2 minutes now. Underneath all this fat, I 'm getting some muscle! So yay me.

I've managed to get to the gym everyday this week, I feel good about that. I'm staying within my points, haven't even broke out the WP's or AP's either. I'm retaining water big time, and am not sure why, and last but not least I love Lost, I always end up with a WTF? look on my face while it's on, but it sure is a fun ride even if I have absolutely no idea what is going on. ;)

Feeling Fine

So today has been a very good on program day. I was finally able to do a bit of grocery shopping so I have fruit and vegetables back in my house, so I ate breakfast from home rather than from the cafeteria.

Breakfast
WW english muffin with peanut butter
1/4 FF cottage cheese
1 scrambled egg

Lunch
Turkey sandwich
String cheese
FF strawberry yogurt
pickle

Dinner
Sloppy Joe's made w/ Turkey meat
Salad w/ 1 tbsp of Buttermilk ranch
1 small banana muffin

All that food and I hit my points exactly! Plus, I actually made it to the gym and got on the elliptical for 30 minutes. I used a different elliptical than I usually do and it felt a lot harder than usual. I think I might need to go back to that machine again in the future. I'm exhausted! All that's left tonight is an episode of Heroes. Only and hour and 20 until I can go to bed!

Weigh In Results

So I did manage to save my week. Thursday and Friday I stuck to my points and got a bit of exercise in so my weigh in ended up okay. It was not stellar and I am a bit disappointed in myself, if nothing else because I sabotaged myself and only worked hard enough to not gain rather than worked harder to get a good loss. I'm not sure if that makes any sense to anyone but myself. If I'm being honest the only reason I have a loss this week is because I didn't want to embarrass myself with a gain, it's not because I did all the right things and should have had a loss... so if I can work just hard enough to show a loss why in the world am I not working hard enough to show a significant loss? SO with that said... my loss this week is

0.6

I have a lot to think about, because I am really close to my 10% goal. A goal I believe I should have hit this week, but didn't because I made choices that were not wise. I have to figure out why I do what I do and work harder so not only can I hit my 10% and get my key chain, but get my 25 lb charm too because I hit 10% and then that 25 lb mark right after each other.

My Non-healthy week so far

Ughh, things have not gone weel this week. I have not been to the gym since Monday. Tuesday I tried to go but my Zumba class was cancelled and I didn't bring my iPod so instead of doing something I just left. And I'm not even sure I want to admit what I've been eating, but it hasn't been good. See I didn't get paid until well today actually so grocery shopping has not been an option for me (because I live on a budget, thank you Dave Ramsey). Basically I've been out of fruits and vegetables since Sunday as well as being out of turkey for my lunches. So I've been scrounging for food in my pantry, which btw, is better than fast food but still totally not as healthy as I should be eating. You know yummy things like Mac n Cheese and hot dogs! So while portions have been much smaller than they used to be, I've managed to eat a ton more sodium than I've been used to. And to top it all off, I went to dinner last night with my Mom and it was Italian. I ate chicken parmigiana, yum. I did take half of it and immediately asked for a box so I wouldn't eat it and I basically ate the salad without dressing... because the house dressing was creamy italian and it was gross, way too sweet and I think italian dressing should have a kick to it, but I'm sure that dinner was over 600 calories.

I am heading to the gym tonight, I don't care who I have to run over to get there. I can't stand not working out. I sleep a whole lot better after a good workout, so my sleep has been way off, and I need to burn some serious calories. I peeked at the scale this morning and it's up almost 2 lbs (thank you sodium!). So I'm drinking water, water, water and hoping I can get my groove back for the remaining 2 days before my official WW weigh in.

Food and Exercise

So after the dentist I finally ate lunch. I had an omelet for breakfast at 6:30 am and didn't eat lunch until 3 PM. I took my daughter to Subway and ate a 6 inch turkey... I actually bought a foot long so I'm eating the other half for dinner tonight. After Subway, I put on my exercise clothes and headed to the gym. I got 30 minutes on the elliptical and did 20 minutes of weight training. Not as long as I normally do but long enough for me not to consider myself lazy. The only other thing I have planned for this evening is watching Heroes! and after that I'm heading to bed!

Monday

So I didn't work more than 6 hours today because I had to go to the dentist. My teeth are nice and healthy and clean and shiny. My only problem is that I have this jaw pain that I've had for quite some time and when I mentioned it the dentist told me that I most likely clench my jaw in my sleep, which makes total sense because I wake up in pain every morning. The cure for this diagnosis? A $400 mouth guard. Uh yeah, thanks I think I'll put up with the pain for while. $400 worth of dental stuff is just not in my budget... you know that budget I've mentioned a couple of times that Dave Ramsey's finance class has put me on? Yeah I'm still trying to figure out how to survive without credit cards. I'm getting there, but doubt I'll be afloat until sometime later in the year. The Dental Hygenist suggested I try an over the counter mouth guard from Target or Wal-Mart in the mean time, so I am going to give that a go and see if it helps any.

Weekly Weigh In - 2/14/09

So the results are in and while I can still feel and see the water in my poor abused ankles I did get a really good loss in. So I'm relieved and really looking forward to the rest of February's weigh-ins, because I am so hitting my 10% goal before Feb. ends. So my results:

-1.4 lbs

Happy Valentine's Day all, I hope you have a wonderful day with your special someone. As for me, I'll be spending the day with my daughter after spending the morning having breakfast with the family. I'm thinking the DD and I will head to the movies tonight. My see He's Just Not That Into You.

Srsly?

At this late in the game I'm getting a caffeine headache (I've had enough of them to know what they feel like). My head hurts and I have no caffeine in this house to try to fix it. Hope tylenol pm will kick in so I can sleep through it.


And my darn cat has decided to play with a plastic grocery bag. She is freaking annoying me right now. She's running all over the house right now. What is wrong with her, she's normally the laziest cat on the planet, the main reason why she's 14 lbs! This is her...