Back on track

Gosh, I'm totally on track today and I wasn't even trying. I even got in a fantastic workout. According to my HRM, I burned 678 calories, and my points for the day totalled 20. Yay, I get me a dessert... or snack of some sort before I go to bed probably a banana at this point... because I'm doing so well.

Work is going really well. I like my job and who I work for. I'm learning an enormous amount of new and helpful things that will make me a huge asset to the company. So I'm pretty excited.

Oh and my Y started a new session for all its classes and they added another day for Zumba! So I get to take Zumba 3 times a week now! I'm pretty stoked about that.

I did not work today!

I have had a pretty great day and the only thing I have done is Zumba! Well, I slept until 8 AM. I'm usually up by 4:30 on the week days in order to make it to work by 6 AM. So that felt great! Then I dropped the kid off at my brother's so she could swimm for the day. Then I went to the Y and took the Wendnesday morning Zumba class. I feel fantastic. I'm now home. I made a turkey sandwich and had fresh strawberries and now I'm about to take a shower and then I'm finally heading to the Orthopedic Dr. to get not only my knee checked out but my shoulder too. So hopefully I'll get an anti-inflammatory and all this pain will go away! So that's my day so far. I have plans to go back to the why later tonight to take the total body workout class. I'm trying really had to lose the weight I gained last week. I'm hoping the extra workouts help.

Zumba and the knee

I did Zumba and Abs last night. There were a few moves in Abs I had to not do because my knee just can't bend without pain. Oblique work wasn't nearly as beneficial as it has been on past days. I can't do a child's pose either. It' puts to much pressure on the knee and also the whole bending thing. Zumba wasn't too bad. I couldn't do any lunges and I was a little hesitant on some of the more twisty moves, but I still got a great workout in. My instructor was very insistent about me icing my knee (as a few other people were here and other places) so I went home and iced my knee and it felt a lot better. I iced it again this morning, but it's still bothering me today. I'm not going to do Total Body Workout tonight. I am going to the gym though. I'm going to do the elliptical but probably only for 30 minutes or so.

Food so far today has been good. Oatmeal and eggs this morning (not together, that would be gross). I made my lunch so I'm having a turkey sandwich, Sugar Free chocolate pudding, and WW string cheese. I think I'm making spaghetti for dinner, but using ground turkey instead of ground beef (not a fan of italian sausauge so no making fun of my spaghetti choices)

Tuesday's Recap!

Yesterday was crazy busy. I had to go and visit my Aunt Mary at the nursing home. I usually go on Mondays but didn’t have to because it was Memorial Day so she spent much of the weekend at home with the family. Anyway, back to visiting her on Tuesday, my sister usually takes Tuesdays but started a class last night and knew she had to do school stuff so she ask me to cover her shift. I said no problem… really what was I going to say, I love my Aunt Mary. I was at work when I realized that my daughter had an ortho appointment at the same time I was supposed to be at my Aunt’s. She could not miss the appointment because I had already rescheduled it once before because I had Aunt Mary duty and forgot about the ortho appointment. Thank goodness, my lil bro is a good guy who has not left for Virginia yet for his summer job, because he picked her up and took her to the appointment and then took her to Jack in The Box for a milk shake, truly the best milkshakes evah! I’m sure I would have caved if I’d gone there, so I am so glad I did not have to deal with that temptation!

After spending some time with my Aunt, I drove home, cooked dinner. Awesome turkey kielbasa with peppers and tomatoes. Honestly, I don’t even need the kielbasa, I love the veggies over rice… I usually only eat a few pieces of the kielbasa so it’s a pretty low point meal, I think it’s 6 points per serving (not at home to verify).

After I finished cooking dinner, I turned it all off and ran off to my Abs and Zumba class. After doing Zumba on Monday, Tuesday’s class kicked my butt! My abs are sore, especially my oblique’s (is that how it’s spelled??? Too lazy to look it up!) and my arms. Tracy, our instructor was telling before class started that we’d be doing some new moves that Janine the other instructor uses because they worked muscles that Tracy does not normally work during her routines. She warned me I’d be saying ouch before the night was over… and I was, but in a good way. Oh and I burned 591 calories in Zumba. I think we had a few more breaks in between songs than usual.

Today, my shoulders are so very tired. Tonight, when I head to the gym, I will not be working my arms. Two days in a row of working the arms is one day too many! And we didn’t even use weights! Just keeping them up and out and above the heart… well and Monday we used a body bar. Both of the Zumba instructors have incredible arms. Well defined and toned arms. I want that, so whatever they tell me to do, I’m doing. I’ve already lost almost 2 inches on my upper arms, so I’m heading in the right direction.

Oh and one more thing, one of the ladies who takes the class with me hasn’t been in for about 6 weeks and when she came in last night, she looked at me and was like WOW, you look awesome! You’re getting all kinds of skinny (which was hysterically funny because she’s like 70 so it was funny hearing her talk like a teenager). And here is the NSV… I said Thank you, I’ve lost almost 40 lbs. And that was it. I didn’t add anything about having a long way to go or anything that would diminish my accomplishment. I’m learning!

I did not get home from Zumba until almost 8 PM. I ate a small bowl of my dinner… which is also an accomplishment because when I make this dinner I always want to eat like 3 bowls of this stuff! I talked to my kid for a little while and then I went to bed. It was a long day. Hopefully today will be much calmer.

Monday Workout

Ahhh, it's been wonderful not having to work today. I was thrilled when my gym was actually open for half a day and that a Zumba class on the schedule. So Awesome! It was a Zumba class that had interval training incorporated into it, so we did two arm routines and one routine for the thighs. Can I get an ouch. I can barely lift my arms, I'm pretty sure it's going to be worse tomorrow. I wore my HRM and it said that I burned 661 calories!

Fo food today, I started out with a slim fast shake with a banana blended in. So yummy (I know that's crazy to say! but it totally was) I was full until about 1 PM when I made a ham and cheese sandwich (I toasted it and added no condiments) and had 3 reduced fat chips ahoy (it was the last 3 cookies, so not buying htem ever again, they are way too tempting) and a glass of 1% milk. For dinner, I'm eating over at my Mom's house. There will probably be salad and some kind of BBQ. My Mom knows that I'm doing WW so there should be chicken. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm feeeling really good about being back on track. I really want to get this weight off. I have 15 lbs until I reach my next mini goal and I want to reach it before I hit my one year lose-aversary in mid-July.

Tuesday Zumba!

I had an abs class and Zumba tonight. Once again I used my HRM. I had a goal to burn an extra 1000 calories a day, but only got in 850 calories today. I'm going to take that and be happy about it. I'll try to make up that 250 calories tomorrow. I really like my HRM it keeps me motivated at the gym.

As for food, I've been much better this week than the previous two weeks. Making my lunch is really helpful, and keeps me from overeating in the cafeteria because it's not about the choices of food I'm making but rather the amounts that I'm consuming. When I bring my food I have much more control about the amounts of food. I'm really hoping for a good number on the scale this week. Some of you may have noticed that I failed to report a weigh in on Saturday... mainly because I did not go to my Weight Watchers meeting to weigh in because I had too much sodium and too many cookies throughout the week. This week, is totally different.

Tuesday Zumba!

My regular instructor was not there tonight, which was a bummer, but meant that I got to see the other Zumba instructor that I really like. I hadn't seen her sonce December and she was amazed at how much my body had changed. So, I was feeling really good about that. I even said Thank You very much... it's hard to accept compliments but I'm trying to acknowledge how far I've come and appreciate that others notice.

Back to Zumba class. OMG, I hope I'll be abl to walk tomorrow. Tonight's instructor is more fitnessy than the regular girl (who is very dancey and awesome). Anyway, she kicked my ass, in the Jillian way. squats, lunges, plyometrics (Oh my!) I'm toast.

When I got home from Zumba, I watched The Biggest Loser. I was really surprised at who won. I never would have expected that person, EVAH!

Tomorrow... I'm going back to Shred.

Another On Program Day

Another day finished and another day back in control. It helps so much to have groceries in the house. It has made a huge difference in my fod choices and my desire to eat healthy. I feel strong and healthy this week!

I am now on day 3 of gym going. Tonight, of course, was Abs and Zumba! Still so excited to go to class every week. It's how I know it's where I still belong.


I watched tongiht's Biggest Loser and was very sad to see Kristin go. I really hoped she would win it. She will do awesome in real life though so ultimately that's all that matters. Currently watching the Blues in OT. Please let the playoof dream continue. The boys need to win at least one. Go Blues!

One last thing, I broke down and bought 30 Day Shred. Day 1 starts tomorrow!

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.