Sore

I can hardly move this morning from the exercise ball workout! The only parts of me that aren't sore are from my elbows to my fingers and from my knees to my toes! I guess it really does work your core! I am holding off on my run/walk today until I don't feel so sore. I'm hoping I'll feel a little better later tonight but I don't think I should count on it. Maybe I can convince my husband to go for a walk this afternoon. Although, it's only 34* outside! Tomorrow is weigh in day and I'm expecting a small gain that I'm sure I can have off by next week.

After Christmas Crunch

The Christmas holiday went ok food wise. I definitely didn't eat like I would have last year. I limited myself on the sweets and worked on portion control at dinners. When I got home I had gained .8 and now I am up about 1 lb. After all of the rich foods I had over the past few days I am ready for the healthy food again! I have just felt terrible.

I did my run/walk yesterday and did a 50 minute workout today with my new exercise ball. I can't believe how sore I am! I got the Reebok 65 in. ball w/ workout DVD at Target and it really works me out! I'm hoping this will help in addition to my run/walk 3 days a week.

With January 1st coming around, a lot of people are focusing on New Years resolutions. After reading Mike Huckabee's weight loss book titled Stop Digging Your Grave with Your Knife and Fork (which is what really got me motivated to try losing weight again), I have started to look at weight loss differently. So this year I am not going to say, "I want to lose 50 lbs by the end of the year." I don't care how long it takes me to lose the weight, I just want to lose it! I'm not going to use any Holiday as a goal for when to start or when to lose a certain amount of weight by. Instead, I want to come up with monthly goals that incorporate my health and fitness. Obviously, I want to track my weight loss and continue losing, so 4 lbs a month is usually my goal. I know that if I am not losing that amount, then I need to step it up a little bit. Usually I have lost more, so I know that I am on the right track. But this isn't my focus. So, I'm still thinking about what some of my January goals will be and hope to have them posted soon!

Weigh in Day

I lost 3 lbs this week!! I am so happy to see some progress after not losing and then just losing very small amounts at a time. I even got my 5% star! I am 3.6 lbs away from my 20 lb. goal! The next 2 days will be a trial, wish me luck!

Sweets and Emotions

I am already feeling the effects of the Holidays. Yesterday, a coworker gave me a tin full of Christmas candies. I wish I could say that "I didn't even want to eat them!" But I can't. Sweets are my struggle. This time around I have been focusing on the emotional side of why I eat the way I do sometimes and what makes me crave the sweet stuff. I find that when I'm stressed out I tend to turn to something sweet, but then again when I'm really happy I feel like I can eat the sweet stuff and it won't affect me. Now that I know where I fall, I can keep myself from falling, or so I hope!

I got my 3 days of exercise in this week! I'm really proud of that. Since I am done with the semester I have a few more hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays before work and it's perfect for my workouts. I know I should probably get up in the morning to get my workouts in, but waking up at 4:30 would be too hard and possibly cut my sleep short. I'm going to have to motivate myself to workout in the evenings when school starts again.

I asked a trainer on WW.com if I was getting enough exercise or if I needed to increase it. She said that I was off to a great start but to try to incorporate some weight training in to my workout so that I get a full body workout. I need to try to find some sort of weight set that would be inexpensive. I used to workout at Curves but I found it really hard to get there since I work so far away from where I live. Curves was practically across the street from work, but I am so mentally exhausted by the end of a work day I need a little while to relax and found myself not being so faithful in going, which is a waste of money. I am much more faithful working out at home on the treadmill and bike, plus I think I workout a lot harder. I do miss the weight training there though. Another suggestion was to try to work out harder in small bouts during my workout. Today I ran at 5.5 mph instead of my usual 5 mph for part of the time.

Today is my last day of work until January 5th! My husband and I are both taking the whole time off with our saved up vacation time. We're really excited! We will be with my family over Christmas and that can sometimes be a struggle as I try to eat healthy because we all love to eat. Otherwise, I feel like I am able to eat healthier when I am at home than when I am at work, so I'm hoping for some losses over the break! Tomorrow is my weigh in day--- Wish me luck! I'm thinking I'll have a big loss based on the scale this morning, but we'll have to see what tomorrow brings! :)

World's best Husband

I have the best husband in the world! On the weekends he will work out with me. While I'm on the treadmill, he'll ride the bike and then we'll switch. It's so encouraging to have him with me and the time passes a lot faster. He'll give me the high fives like Jim and Pam on the office. :-P Maybe we're a little nerdy but it keeps me going!

I tried to do sit ups today and could only do 10!! How terrible is that? But, it's a starting point and I'm going to do 10 a day now until I can increase it. I'm already able to increase my running since I started. I run at 5 mph and feel like I am trying to outrun the treadmill, so it may be time to up the speed a little bit too. I don't want to push myself. My goal this time is to take things slow so I don't get disappointed and give up. I don't care if it takes me 3 years to lose this weight, as long as I do it this time!

I found a new fruit at Sam's club that I love! They sell a big box of clementines. I had never had them before and I love them! They're so much easier to peel than the ordinary oranges and only 1/2 pt for 1 small. I go to Sam's club to buy most of my fruit. They are so much cheaper than all of the other stores and you get so much more. I was disappointed that they aren't selling the plums anymore, they are SOOOO good too.

I've been thinking about the Holiday season and my struggle with sweet stuff. I know it is unrealistic to say that I am not going to eat any sweet treats between now and New Years so I am going to make sure I limit myself. I feel like if I try to deny them to myself, I'll just fail and feel bad about myself. Besides, if this is a lifelong journey, I can't deny them to myself forever. Moderation is the key. I think this is a huge thing for me to work on. I can eat the "forbidden" foods, but I cannot devour everything in sight.

OK, so today I did pretty well at the Christmas party. I stayed away from things I can have every day and had very little portions (about 1/8 cup) of sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and my apple salad. I had 2 small pieces of ham. I did have a decadent piece of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake for dessert that I am not feeling the least bit guilty about. I have never had such delicious cheesecake in my life. I have documented all of my points and I had to dip into my weekly points thanks to the cheesecake. Overall, I feel OK about how I did today! Workout hard tomorrow morning!!!

Any Loss is a Loss Indeed

I lost weight this morning, so that's the good thing! I had a .8 loss from last week, so I am back to where I was 2 weeks ago. That's progress. I weigh everyday because then I can see where I have been. For example, yesterday I weighed a pound less than I did today, but I only count the weight that I see on Wednesday. I got up yesterday and ran on the treadmill. I tried to pick up my workout a little bit. I have been walking for 5 minutes, then alternating running 30 seconds, walking 90 seconds. Yesterday I walked 5 minutes and then ran 30 seconds and walked 1 minute for the next 10 minutes. I do a total of 20 minutes on the treadmill and then 10 minutes on the bike. I am not up to getting 30 minutes on the treadmill yet, but I still want to get a 30 minute workout. It's kind of a nice cool down to ride the bike for 10 minutes. I am looking forward to the day when I can run the entire 20 minutes but I have to take it one day at a time and not try to rush myself or I will fail like I have in the past. Today is the Team Christmas party at work. I made an apple salad. I am going to limit my portions but enjoy the food.

Another Trial

Like I said in the last post, I feel like I am sliding off track. I have done so well up until this point and I really don't want to mess things up. My husband's birthday was this past weekend and so I made him a cheesecake per his wishes. I even made it out of the weight watcher's cook book but that still doesn't prevent over indulgence. What can I say, sweets are my weakness. I really need to keep them out of the house. Today was the company wide Christmas party. They catered in Fazoli's food (spaghetti, bread sticks, salad) and then all of the supervisors provided desserts. I got my salad with fat free Italian dressing, but the spaghetti and bread sticks weren't good for my points. For dessert I got mixed fruit, hoping that would be the best choice. I really need some help right now and I know that I am the only one who can help me. Since I don't have class in the morning I don't have to be at work until noon tomorrow. I am going to get up and run on the treadmill, hopefully that will make me feel a lot better. This time of year is always so hard. Today I learned that I absolutely have to plan before every meal. So Wednesday is my work team Christmas party which will undoubtedly be a buffet of every unhealthy food imaginable. I am going to have to limit my serving sizes and try to eat more from the veggie tray than from the dessert tray. I don't feel good when I eat like this so I don't know why I do it. Tomorrow is a new day and I need to take it a step at a time.

The First Post

This Blog is to help me on my journey to being at a healthy weight. I want to lose enough weight that I feel comfortable and happy in my own skin. I have been dieting since mid-October and have decided to take it slow this time. My goal is to lose 1 Lb. a week (More than that is acceptable!!). I have dieted since before I can remember. I have lost some and then gained more back. I want it to be for good this time! I have currently lost 12.8 Lbs and I weigh in on Wednesdays. I had a small gain this past week.

The reason that I am starting this blog, other than what is mentioned above, is that I am starting to feel a little discouraged and I feel that writing down what I am thinking about will be therapeutic for me. I don't want to give up!!! I have to say I am feeling better already. :)