WIs

Home WI  (myself) 239.4 (-3.6)  Total lost from day 1: -14.4 lbs!

BL SP WI (Wed)  237.2  (-4.8)  Total lost from  BL : -6.8

BL WK WI  not this week...next Tues.

So far so good.  I only ate 700 cals yesterday bc I got  so busy in the morning and then only had time to make a really quick something before work. Couldn't get all the snack and things I wanted.  I am avg between 110-120 min of workout time. On our last chance workout (LCW) day (Tues) I did 128 min.  I did 60m on ET, 50m ripped, 18m on the bike.  

Today I only got in 60 min PC and 45 min ET.  Thurs is Tight and Tone(TNT) challenge where every rep we do is counted as 1 pt. However if you take a ST class you get 75 pts for every 10 m.  So for 60m class that would be 450 pts. Which is what I had been doing. I didn't feel like counting all the reps. But for this week they added that if we do combination moves like squats with bicep curls then we get 2 pts. Well the PC instructor loves combo so I decided to count and it ended up being 667 pts.  I was like darn I should've been counting reps the whole time bc I would've gotten a bigger score.  That's the competitor in me...I won the TNT the first week. Then was 3rd last week. This week I want to blow them out of the water :p.  

Last weekend challenge was bingo. You got point for each square you complete, along with bingos and if you filled up every square you got bonus points. I filled every square except the one with "get at least 7 hrs of sleep 3 days".  This week is Yatzee weekend challenge. I'm Pumped. I think if I get some spare time I'm going to post what the challenges look like. I'm keeping a WL journal with the print offs and I'm going to try to incorporate pics. We'll see cuz we know how I do. 

And I put up the inspirational blog. Enjoy. I will possible update more tonight. 

Inspiration Blog

This is a blog entry titled Magic Trick  by Sparkpeople user Blue42down.

It's been said before. It will be said again later by others. It bears repeating. 

There is really only one "Magic Trick" to improving our lives, and that is embodied in a single word: 

CONSISTENCY 

It is the magic behind Spark Streaks. When we start with  it is so seemingly small. 

What will one 10-minute workout do? What will one day of eating within a reasonable calorie range do? What will one night of 7-8 hours of sleep do? What will brushing our teeth twice in one day do? 

It can feel like nothing much. There's no big flashing lights to celebrate that we did one small thing good for us for one day. There's no obvious non-scale victories that we can see and measure out of one time. 

But then we apply the "Magic Trick" of CONSISTENCY. 

Day 1 becomes Day 2 becomes Day 3. Even if we only make it to Day 7 before we slip, if we start right back over at Day 1 as soon as possible, it starts to add up in tremendous ways. 

Day 1 is a snowflake.  Beautiful and solitary, but not having much power beyond its uniqueness. 

Day 31 is a snowball, able to carry an amount of force if thrown, holding the promise of a snowman. 

One month of 10-minute workouts can have measurable results. What had us huffing and puffing and perhaps even cussing on Day 1 is likely to feel surprisingly easy on Day 31. (On my Day 1, I walked less than a mile in 15 minutes and danced 10 minutes. On Day 31 I walked around a mile-and-a-half in 22 minutes and spent around 20-30 minutes doing a small Strength Training workout.) 

Day 100 is the snowman's lower body, a clear idea of the size and shape of things to come. 

A season (thirteen weeks) of consistent healthy habits can have very visible results. For some that is weight lost. For others it is more energy, better ability to handle stress, getting sick less often, being able to walk further than the end of the driveway, or just feeling mentally alert. Depends on the habit, depends on the starting point, but Day 100 is almost certain to reward us. 

Day 473 and I think I've almost got the head to set on top. I think I've only missed doing some sort of physically active thing one day - back in December 2011 when my foot was hurting badly. 

Now, that's not Day 473 of being perfect. 

Far from it. 

I've had numerous days where I didn't eat as reasonably as I planned. I've overeaten by 3000+ calories OVER my range on a few occasions. 

I've had days where I didn't really put my all into my workouts and was more on cruise control. 

I've had days where I didn't get more than 1 or 2 hours of sleep. 

I've had days where I totally failed to clean my teeth. 

BUT, I never stopped through all those 473 days. I always accomplished at least something. I tracked every one of those days. Well, not even that perfectly. There are two recent days that my tracking was slipshod. I got completely behind on everything I needed to do and by the time I went to track I couldn't begin to guess if I'd had 3 of something or 4 or 9. I just estimated reasonably high (1500 over calories) and tracked what I could remember. 

Consistency does not mean perfection. 

If Day 7 is a complete wash, we have two choices. 

The choice that emotionally destroys people over time is giving up because the streak ended. We quit. We don't try again until something motivates us - often something that hurts (physically or emotionally) more than "failing" at our streak did. 

Think of those snowflakes combining together and building up in a snowball. Something happens that makes us feel like we'll never get it big enough - perhaps it rolls off the snow and onto bare cement. So we turn our backs on it and walk away. The seasons change and what we had accomplished melts away in the sun. 

The better choice is found in consistency. Day 8 becomes a NEW Day 1, a fresh start to the streak, but we don't give up. Now we have a 7-day streak as a goal to beat. (Or it could be a 300-day streak we break. It doesn't matter which day, only that we get right back to it.) 

Again those snowflakes. Instead of walking away completely, we get that snowball back on the snow-covered ground and keep rolling. We aren't starting fresh with a single snowflake (or handful) - we're starting with all the progress and momentum we have so far. It might be called Day 1 of the streak, but it is still Day 8 of the overall journey. 

 and build your future through CONSISTENCY  

================== 

And one last thought - CONSISTENCY needs to be about DO, not SAY. No matter how many times we tell others or ourselves we will do something, it won't get done until there is CONSISTENT action. 

Ending with a semi-relevant quote: 

** What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say. ** 
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

NOT SAME SAME-YOUR HOMEWORK

SAME SAME ...Why it's not true anymore.

1.  The family picture fiasco. It was the  first time I have ever had a negative physical reaction (tearing up) to seeing myself.  It was a knee-jerk, first impulse reaction. I FELT really bad.

2. I think you might have mentioned this in one of your blogs too, but I just feel different inside.  Previous years I would get excited and all hopped up on New Year's "fresh startness".  The past couple of years that was also combined with panic and a sense of dread. 

3. Me, Pam, and maybe the other sisters, Pam's BF are trying to go to the Dominican Rep. in July. Maybe even mom too. I decided this year since I have vacation time, I will use it for a proper vacay. Pam's BFF (Mimi) knows people and when they went last year, she got an all inclusive (food and drinks) for 150$ for 4 days. Split that with 3 people less than $40 a day and you don't have to worry about buying anything but souvenirs and plane ticket. Last year the plane ticket was like 380. So...if you want and can manage it then you're invited too. All that to say, my butt will be in at least, AT LEAST, a cute one piece this yr. Stretch marks and veins be damned. That's what waterproof body makeup is for. My ultimate hope is that I can manage a bikini.

TOP 3 GOALS FOR 2013: other than weight... but it is -100 lbs.

1.  Fitness-I think I want to be certified as a fitness instructor. Now don't get excited. I don't actually want to teach any classes. I just want to have it and maybe do it at home. I don't even know what all that entails, maybe schooling too. If it does then I probably won't attempt it but if it's not something too rigorous, why not? Also, I've been thinking about doing a marathon for like 3 yrs. The lymphoma society has a thing where if you raise $2500 (3yrs ago) they train you,  send you to the race (that yr they had one in VA beach, Nashville, New orleans, & out west) and you get a tshirt. They set up a website for you and everything. They gave you time to back out if you didn't think you could raise the ;money by the due date. It's usually towards the end of the year.

2. Completely vain but I want to wear single digit clothing. I was going to say size "8" but I figure shoot big so I'm going to say size "5".  So I probably need to change my total weight loss to 120....

3.  I've heard people say that losing weight doesn't change the problems you have. But I think that a lot of my problems stem from my weight, mostly.  I will always be introverted but the shyness, not being confident in "getting out there and living" is from my weight. I'm not talking only dating, but things like taking voice lessons. I know I'm not a vocalist but it would be fun to learn, I think. Or joining the works kickball team. You know just to try new things. I don't want to be 80 and say, I had the opportunity to do (blank) but I was too self conscious or embarrassed etc. 

4. BONUS*-The plant isn't doing well and Jan is the make or break month. I'm not sure what's going to happen but if a lay off does. I think I'm safe for a little bit bc I can always go back to wax. My personal hell. I would really be looking to work elsewhere and here recently there have been so many articles about weight discrimination.  Earlier this week they I read about some study they did with differ CEO of  million(s) dollar companies 4 or 5. In the study people would rate how effective a CEO was. They kept everything as controllled as possible (same gender, same age range, same credentials, etc) and the only difference was weight. The people who were overweight were rated least effective.  Like there was a big gap. I'll take any little advantage should the need arise. 

Ok that is it for me. NOW your homework:

Because you have an issue with working out, I'm going to have you do a progressive exercised. Each day  doubling the min of exercise you do. I'm not explaining it very well so I'll just lay it out for you. Maybe you can print it as a reminder.   

DAY 1: 2 min of exercise. That's it-120 sec of continuous movement. It can be dancing, doing wall push ups, squats, jumping jacks, doing a video, brisk walk. Whatever!  I don't care what it is but it must be INTENTIONAL movement for 2 min. Of course you can do more. 

DAY 2: 4 min of exercise. Same as above.

DAY 3: 6 min of exercise. Same as above.

DAY 4: 8 min of exercise. Same as above. 

DAY 5: 10 min of exercise. Same as above.

DAY 6: 12 min of exercise. Same as above.

DAY 7: 14 min of exercise. Same as above.

BONUS* on DAY 7 in addition to minutes, also do a video that you have at home. 

Obviously this is more to get you in the habit of moving and setting aside time for it. Hopefully once you get started you can keep it up. There isn't a need for rest day. YOU can do this!

Ok gotta wrap it up...off to do my other online crap!

NOt Ignoring you!! But ...

Super duper busy. With the BL at SP and work, I hardly have time to participate, prepare meals and workout. so I've been putting this on the wayside. If I can get a good solid chunk of time I will expound further but for now here's what I got. I'm doing this before I even read your blogs so at least you'll know what's going on .  On SP BL they laid out the rules before you even began and basically said if you can't give an hr of online interaction then you should probably not sign on. Well, I signed on and man is it overwhelming. They weigh in on WED and my first WI with them was 244 and now it's 242. My WI her on MON is 243.3 which is up .3 from last MON. And WI  at work (bi-monthly WI) was 255 at initial and 222 yesterday (MON holiday). I don't know I did wear my heaviest jeans, sweatshirt and steel toe shoes so maybe that contributed along with some PMS?! I don't know but basically a loss this week.

BL SP. I haven't had time to do the homework but I am going to go back and read your blogs and leave comments. I am hoping to take this weekend and plan my time. If I don't I think everything will go by the way side. Krystal got into VCU in Richmond so she was moving out while Em moved back. She didn't like the roommate sitch and she could save money. However that meant the house is TOE' UP. I've been getting that together this past WE. Anyhow, made some good and bad decisions on food been working out at least 2 hrs a day which is why prob only 2lbs lost. I will work harder to get on here more. But off I go, to read and comment on your blog before I get ready for wokr in 45 min. WAH!

WED

So I totally like the homework idea. I thought it was fun to do. So if you want we can do it.

To finish up MON, I was NOT over cals but was really close like within a 100 cals of my max. Yay, I'll take it. Tues I was under my min cals by 300. So It'll probaby even out. I don't know if you remember me talking about calorie cycling way back  during one of our many weight loss things...but basically you have a high day, then low day split pretty even throughout the week to where at the end of it your avg cals for the week fall within range. Theory being if you're super hungry one day eat more and if you're not eat less but at the end of the week when you avg the cals you're still within range and still have a loss.  I'm not going to officially do it but gonna keep and eye out on my cals day to day and see if that works for me.

I got up a little earlier this mornin and did 20m on the ET, 55m Ripped and another 35m ET after.  Haven't eaten anything yet. I'm trying to get everything caught up on the internet before I get off bc I need to pick up around the house! I taking this stop everything for health a little bit too far....house is a mess. Also, the Biggest Loser Challenge (BLC) for Sparkpeople starts today! I'm an Onyx Outlaw. It supposed to be a tougher team where people are fine getting their exercise but need an extra push for nutrition. I'll let you know how it goes.

Alrighty, off I go but I'll be waiting for that text ;P

Wk3 WI

Last wk WI:  249.2, this week 243.0 which is a net loss of 6.2 lbs!

This is really a miracle bc I had a rough weekend. Over cals by 500-1000 on 2 days. I am not preparing meals ahead of time so I'm succumbing to temptation. I bought pre-made protein shakes to counter act that. They aren't as good as home made or fresh food but they're better than chips and cookies. I did pre- make food today though. Shrimp/tilapia ceviche and IT pasta w/WW pasta, FF feta and LT IT dressing.

My effort to stay away from carbs is in the dust. When I ear carbs the supposed to be 100% whole grain or whole wheat. If I start to plateau then I'll start cutting them out. Speaking of carbs...

I stayed up when I got home and went crazy with the tortillas chips  (and cheese dip) and a tiny sliver of cheesecake. Cheese cake courtesy of the sister. Dang why is it so hard to follow this simple plan. Pre-make food and go to bed after work. I get up early enough and stay up that I should be exhausted. Blah.

You probably saw this on FB but last week I had 585 min of exercise and burned almost 8 thousand cals. My goal for this week is 600  min and 8000 cals.

Stats for today:  WO 5:40-5:55A ET, then 6a-7a Ripped, then 7-7:30 more ET.  I haven't put my food in the cal tracker but I'm sure it's way over.  Will have to put that in later.  I'm going to get off and get ready to workout.

Welll..

Finished yesterday over cal bc I ate pizza...like 4 slices. I have absolutely no will power.  My sisters suck. Today started off well 6am ripped and 30m ET  then so far healthy meals. I think I'm just going to keep within my cal range....this only seafood is difficult. NO fried, sugar, white carb thing. If on my official weigh in I haven't lost 5 lbs then I'll go back to seafood.

Here's to hoping my sisters don't cook or buy anything or if they do...they eat it all.


Quick and Short today--running late and have to get ready for work.

It's Feast or Famine....(Wed & Thurs)

So Wednesday was good. All plans are still in place but I think I'm going to let the slip ups go IF I am still within cal range. So I was way over cals on 1 day, then the next day I was under, then I was over...I guess as long as I don't go crazy it's ok for now.


I did go over..man salsa and chips (all natural blah, blah) but you can only have 7 chips! Really 7. I actually had 21 and only stopped bc no more salsa which was like 10 cal. Anyhow I went over just a little.

Wed workout was 6am ripped and 35 min ET.

Thurs is going excellent. I ate breakfast eggbeaters with salsa and laughing cow cheese, 1/2 grapefruit and banana. I worked out 15m ET before 6am powercut and then did another 30 min afterwards. I think I'm just excited that I have a new ipod nano with new songs. It's been forever since I put new songs on for workouts:)

I've been updating in the mornings bc the temptation is too great when I stay up and do it after work. Just another thing I've learned about myself. If I go to bed soon after I get home I don't eat and that is excellent.
For the Sparkpeople team that I'm on weigh ins are on Wed and so last week was 251.8 and this week was 249.4 which is a 2.4 lb loss.  The weigh in for the contest at work is on MON, so that'll keep me accountable right after the weekends and mid week.

That's it for now....going off to cook a healthy meal.
 

(Sun) Mon & Tues

So all my so all that big hullaballoo and I messed up big on SUN night.  I was fine but the  Sister made homemade broccoli cheese casserole. I resisted for about 2 hrs but it looked so darn good. Then I was like I messed up so I might as well eat some white rice with soup and then I was like I need something sweet and I ate 2 mini mint 3 musketeers and 2 andes peppermint bark. My cal count was 1000 over the max. What was I doing instead of cooking?  Messing around on the computer and did laundry.

So.....what did I learn?  If I don't have something healthy readily avlb I will fail. I broke my resolution about my health coming first adn that won't happen again.  I will make my meals EVERYDAY.  I did however avg the other 5 days cal count with SUN and for the week it avgs out to 1440 per day which is within my cal limits so that is very good.  Lesson learned

MON- had a bit of a mess up from what I wanted to do but in the whole scheme of things I did eat somewhat healthfully. I did workout 6am RIPPED and then did an extra 30min on ET.  What was it that I said about putting health first? I spent the morning putting Christmas decos away and that took way longer than expected and missed lunch. I did make the healthy meal though. Seafood Curry. I took only one bowl to work so on my second break I had some almonds and blackberries. Unfortunately I was starving!  My sister had cooked baked chix and steak and so that was what I ate.  Like I said not necessarily unhealthy but not on the agenda. Then the other sister came home with taco bell. They put extra food in her bag by mistake and she had an extra beef meximelt and chicken quesadilla.  I ate 2 peices of the quesadilla and then left it alone but you know I wanted the whole thing. And the beef meximelt. Then I wanted some peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream which was also there but I didn't get any. Just went to bed.

Lesson: Stop doing other things and put your health first. I should have stopped to eat lunch and whatever wasn't finished will have to be done later.  Eating lunch would've negated the starving feeling and I could have probably said no to the taco bell.

Tues- Worked out 6am Powercut and 30min ET. Went to WM to get some healthy food and got distracted by 75% off Christmas sale so got home late. Meaning I missed breakfast. But I did eat seafood curry and and oz of chix for lunch and I am making more healthy food. For later.

Update later after work.

Sunday

I still have about 200 cals to eat to make min on the cal but still tracking. I did 60min body pump and 45m on the elliptical.  As you've probably seen I was very tired but it is what it is. I am on a roll.

I need to make my food for tomorrow and do some laundry. I'm going to try to get 8hrs of sleep so I'll be very refreshed for my 6am workout.

Haha...maybe I will use  the last post as the beginning of my success story! I am back and whatever motivation you need let me know so I can support you also. 2013 is our year...for everything, I can feel it.

Beware-Super Long Post!

Wow! I totally didn't realize I went all of December without blogging. Dang time flies.  I was going to write a short and sweet one but as I got on it just kept going.   Well, I can't remember what I did and didn't share so sorry if I repeat myself. :)

First things first...you better call me Missy!

Secondly, as you know I have been feeling "blah" which translates into eating whatever I want, whenever I want. I did manage to workout 3xs every week  except for week of Christmas and New Years. Only worked out twice throughout those 2 holidays. I know that this is nothing near what I need to do to lose weight.  At least, I've been hovering within the same 10lbs 245-255.

I might have experienced my 'HIT BOTTOM OR BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT." I don't want to get too excited though in case it's another false start. The parents came during the 1st week in Dec and we got family pix taken.  I was pretty bummed  up until then but when  the pics came and, I think, probably  the coinciding of the weather getting colder and darker (no sun).. it just really brought me down. I literally thought of Rosie O'Donnell when I saw my face and body.  It's so cliche this reaction but I'm talking my eyes started to water when I saw the reality of what I  looked like. I guess bc with the couple of other pics that might be floating around of me at this weight I could always say I'm in my work clothes or I have on  lazy day clothes. The picture showed that even at my BEST:  my hair done, make up on, cute clothes,  I looked horrible. What the mirror showed me or however my mind interpreted how I looked was so off from the reality of the actual picture--I think it jolted this extreme emotional reaction.   I don't know if I was feeling embarrassed?hurt?depressed?  But I literally teared up and had to mentally compose myself.  Now that I'm talking it out out, I'm thinking it was definitely embarrassment with a healthy dose of hurt.  

I think I'm back...It's taken me about a month to get it together.  I didn't think I was going to get that "happy, excited, shiny" New Year's Resolution feeling but it came!  Cutting it close though, I think a couple days after Christmas I was getting excited for my new weight loss plan. Unfortunately for me, I'm still all about the charts and graphs...the preparation aspect. I LOVE it, what can I say.

My RESOLUTIONS are as follows: the exact same every year but trying to approach it different:
1. Lose weight-Rejoined sparkpeople under new name and have been religiously tracking food and exercise. It takes up most of my time before work but this is important to me so I will sacrifice whatever it is until I no longer need  these things. I believe tracking really helped with my big loss before and they make it easy.  I also joined the Biggest Loser Challenge (BLC) 12 wk challenge. It's apparently been going on for 5 yrs on the site and have like 20 different teams so you can kinda customize the group you want to be with. For example I need hard core exercisers with focus on nutrition. People who are overly supportive aren't going to help me, may even be detrimental to my progress. They had 3-4 teams that fit my "profile." It doesn't start til Jan 16 so until then I'm doing this on my own.

**Regimen: I started on  Jan 2 bc that's when the gym opened up and I got the last of my cravings out. A lot of my time is spent on cooking healthy meals and putting them in the food tracker. Hopefully, though, once I'm done all I have to do is go in there and click on my meals.  I make 3 servings , eat 2 ( for lunch and dinner) and save the 3rd one for the next day's lunch.  Then do the same the next day. I make my breakfast fresh every day-first before I make my meals. I am trying to keep carbs to twice a week (whole grain etc), For my protein: eggbeaters, seafood.  All the veggies and fruits I like. Decent amount of water. No processed snacks. Workout 1 hr at least every day pretty hard and on the weekend have some fun (zumba, dance party). *Working out, tracking and prepping food is time consuming and leaves me no time before  work but the sacrifice is worth it.

Results since Jan 2: worked out everyday for an 1hr except today. I worked 6am-12am but only got 4hrs of sleep and I needed a nap and then I needed to prep tomorrows food. Kinks still being worked out for the wkend. Eating habits are excellent...I made a tilapia stew, tilapia chili and tonight I made spicy seafood soup. Tracking like a fiend and I've been on the lower end of my eating range and haven't been hungry. But that never really was my problem was it?

2. Finances-get them in order. If I have to spend the rest of my waking moments (after healthy stuff) working to get them in order then so be it. I worked last weekend and NYE (triple x) and I'm working this weekend. If I am tired...I won't work as many hours but for the most part: NO EXSCUSES.

3. Smoking- quitting that is. Yes I have picked up smoking in the last couple months. I decided bc I cannot tackle all these things head on without making myself or everyone else around me miserable I would let this one be the most lenient resolution but I have a plan. I avg half a pack a day. So this first week I am allowed 3 cigs a day. I usually do one after workout, right before work and right after work. Next week it will be 2 cigs. One after workout and one  either before work/1st break. I plan on showering and going to sleep when I get home so I don't have to worry about night craving. The 3rd week is 1 cig a day. Just whenever I think I really need it (probably on one of the work breaks) and finally 4th week I should be smoke free. Jan 21st to be exact.

So the summary on the weight loss I rejoined Sparkpeople, joined BLC.  Excelllent progress so far.
I took my weight on 1/2=251.8 lbs and msmts which I'll probably put up later. I also took before pix front and side view in short wo shorts and tight tank.  

Ok that's it for now.  Sorry so long.