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monday morning will be here soon!

  • Posted on March 7, 2010 at 1:28 pm

I have another song to get me started for this Monday…

Fleetwood Mac: Monday Morning

Go ahead!! Click the link and listen to the song!! Ya know ya want to!!

A Change will do you good:

This past week was very interesting! I decided to quit Weight Watchers. I have loved my meetings and I have learned so much but I am starting to waver with why I am at those meetings!! I have also been having a lot of guilty feelings. I have been feeling guilty about what I am eating, guilty about counting & not counting all my points, guilty about spending the money on WW!

I hit the cancel button! I canceled my WW account. As of April 1 I will no longer be a WWer. I feel oddly relieved about this.

Wednesday will be my new weigh-in day! I chose Wednesdays so that I can be in sync with Shrinking Jeans since I LOVE their challenges!! I weighed in at 192.4 for a 2 pound loss this week. I am just recording  the number and moving on. My success is not and WILL NOT be determined solely based on the number on the scale.

I am still training to run a 5K! I have completed week 2 of the Couch to 5K training! I actually LOVE slogging!! I call it slogging ~~ Slow jogging/walking is totally the way for me!! Here comes week 3!! I love challenging myself and this is the way to go! The kid is super happy about my running ventures. She is going to slog with me on days we can hit the school track. I am going to sign up for a 5K at the end of the training and when I can run 3 miles + I have decided to sign up for the Warrior Dash in Maryland in October.  This race looks like so much fun!! I am in training!!

I also finished Week 2 of the Bob Greene 8 Week Total Body Makeover. I love these workouts! They are short but powerful! I feel like I am getting stronger. I have been trying to break into strength training. I want to strength train and I know how good it will be for me but I am so clueless! I love simple workouts at home and this one fits the bill!!

I am revamping my food plan this week. I am cutting out more processed food and concentrating on whole grains and lean proteins and LOTS of fruits and veg! I am aiming for Monday – Friday to be awesome food days (now white flour, no sugar and lots of the good stuff)! This gives me the weekend to let loose a little but still make good choices. This will also allow me to eat without feeling guilty. I can record what I eat without worrying about a certain # of points.

Slogger training has made me hungrier than usual and I want to feed my body so that I can continue to make progress.  I feel like this eating “plan” I am working on will be better for me! I will be eating all the right foods, or clean,  80-90% of the time and I think this will allow me to break my guilty feelings about food.  I will be posting about this more often! I have not blogged about my food feelings very much because I am just now realizing I have feelings about food! I will come back to this topic.

NON SCALE VICTORY:

Yesterday, I put on a thumb ring that I have not been able to wear in at least 6 years! It is not tight either!! It fits perfectly!!

This week, I am going to ROCK week 3 of the Couch to 5K and week 3 of Bob Greene!

This week, I am going to eat so many veggies I may turn green! LOL!

This week, I am going to plan and prep for each day the night before (just like I make my daughter do before bed)!

This week, I am going to enjoy my life!!

How will you enjoy your week?

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perfect 10 – nine is fine!!

  • Posted on March 5, 2010 at 9:11 pm

How did I work my goals this week?!

1. Lose 5 pounds per month – we are very early in the month and almost to the end of this challenge and I am totally rethinking this goal. I never do well with setting specific weight # goals for specific time periods.

2. Walk 15 miles each week - Tomorrow morning, I will complete Week 2 of Couch to 5K training! My mileage is down this week and I may only get 9 or 10 total miles. Again, this is a goal I am rethinking. I am now training to run and I don’t want to stress miles for this I just want to finish the Couch to 5K and run my first 5K. I am still walking with Leslie Sansone in my living room a few times each week.

3. Strength train 3x each week, every week -I also completed week 2 of the Bob Green 8, week total Body Makeover dvd that I won from Shrinking Jeans.


4. find and prepare one new healthy recipe (or food) - I did make Bubbles & Squeak….a new recipe with cabbage, potatoes, ham…and a wee-bit of bacon! It was quite yummy!

We had state testing at school this week and state test sucks! There was, however, one or two benefits to testing: I had tons of time for thinking and re-evaluation, I was able to recover my sore leg muscles without teenagers teasing me!  I am at a good place, mentally, and I feel I am ready for some changes. I broke up with WW this week and I feel very good about this choice. I may not have reached every goal all the way but I discovered something this week: I like working out; I like sore muscles; and even though I many workout later than I should, I am getting it done!!

What you don’t know about Jen…..

I love to watch old movies with Big Man. Old Westerns, classics, war movies, etc. I have a wee bit of a crush on William Powell and Myrna Loy in the Thin Man movies!! John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are men’s men and have seen damn near every movie from them. I love John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara is another old movie couple I love to watch! There are so many!! Too many to count! Funny thing, I never saw or heard of any of these movies before I met Big Man!

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192.4

  • Posted on March 4, 2010 at 6:16 pm

State testing is finally OVER!! I miss my students. I was with my juniors but none of my other classes. I miss teaching. State testing sucks!!

Rant over!!

The one good thing about testing was the extra quiet time! While the kids were testing I had to be quiet and not distract the kids. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t do well when I am supposed to be quiet. I can’t sit still! Or if I am sitting still I have a laptop with me and 25 tabs and tweetdeck open. Since I couldn’t do any of that I did a little thinking and writing.

I blogged on Tuesday about breaking up with Weight Watchers. I have thought a lot about that decision and I am really happy about it. I am ready for a shake up! I am confident in myself!! I will ask for help! I know I am not alone!! I have made great strides in the exercise area!!

I can do this!!

No better time than the present!

Yesterday morning I woke up and I stepped on the scale to get my home scale number. I will be doing weekly weigh ins but I am switching it up to Wednesday mornings.

192.4

That is the number. It is just a number. See ya next Wednesday.

I am wondering if I should also take measurements….I am always so bad at measurements…what do you think about measurements? Do you take your measurements? How often?

Much Love Until the next time, J

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food for thought

  • Posted on March 2, 2010 at 11:17 pm

This week is state testing at school. Basically, monitoring testing is the worst week of the school year. I sat on my bum a bit more than I would have like today but I didn’t want to distract my students by pacing the room. So I blogged…sort of..I have no blog access at school but I have plenty of paper and pens! I actually hand wrote this blog!

I have been thinking a lot about food lately.  I hate thinking so much about food! I have spent the last few days (pretty much since my WW meeting on Saturday) thinking about food. I also thought a lot about the entire past year.

I have made a ton of changes. I have learned so much about myself, food, nourishing my body, pushing my body and treasuring my body.

This weekend’s weigh in pissed me off! A  gain was just the straw that broke camel’s back. I love getting up on Saturday mornings and heading to WW meetings. This week I realized it has nothing to do with WW anymore. In the beginning I soaked up as much info as I could get from my meetings. In the middle (when I went back to meetings after the summer online) I needed the accountability. I also needed a refresher course ~ I had gotten complacent.

The end has come!

I am breaking up with WW.

This is not a decision I made lightly. WW helped me learn about food and tracking and portions. I have learned a lot but I know there is more for me to learn about healthy eating and healthy living.  I get a ton of support and encouragement and accountability from my online weight loss communities. I am currently paying $40 every month for WW meetings and I am starting to feel guilty spending the money on WW when I am not using all the services to the fullest. I have also been feeling guilty about food and that bothers me the most[there is definitely a blog post in this thought]!

I will continue to go WW for the rest of  month. Hey, I paid for them I might as well use them but I am not paying anymore!

With all that in mind, I am starting my weigh-ins at home and I am starting tomorrow morning! I need a “starting” number from my home scale. I will post that number and a bit more information about this change.

HUGE SHOUTOUT to Shrinking Jeans, Mamavation, and my twitter posse [I hope you all know who you are, I admit laziness here: It is late and I am tired]! You all help me so much! It is because of all you that I have the confidence to venture out on my own away from WW.

.

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I had a great week, the scale just sucks

  • Posted on February 28, 2010 at 3:17 pm

WEEKLY WEIGH IN STATS

Current Weight: 196.8 lbs
Previous Weight: 194.4
Weight loss: +2.4 lbs
Weight loss in Feb: +2.2
Starting Weight: 242.6 lbs
Weight loss total: -46.8 lbs

THE WEEK IN REVIEW:

I had such an awesome week!! I completed week 1 of Couch to 5K training program! I slogged in the rain, through puddles and in the snow and through the slush! I have picture proof!! I completed week 1 of Bob Greene’s 8 Week Total Body Makeover.  I am trying to get into a routine of strength training! Bob Greene is helping me get my feet wet! I worked out 6 days this past week! and I LOVED it!! I love to be outside – even though it was not the best situation for being outside! I feel like such a rockstar!! I actually want to keep training and I can’t wait to see how far I can go with this running stuff!

I feel strong!! This week was amazing and I feel strong!!

Wednesday was my birthday and I celebrated with my husband and daughter! I was blessed with gifts to help my journey. An awesome friend sent me a HRM and Big Man and kid ordered me a Wii (although I am sure they will enjoy it as much as I will) and a sports game.

**So all you Wii owners must tell me your picks for the must-have games, especially the active, get-in-shape kinds!

*image courtesy Google images*

Did you think I was just going to ignore the weigh in?

I kind of want to ignore the scale but it is part of the journey.

The scale was not kind to me but it is not the end of the world.  The scale WILL NOT be the voice that says if I had a good week or a bad week. I had a great week! I tracked everything I ate this week: the good, the bad & the ugly. I ate every single point I had coming to me: my daily points, weekly points allowance, and most of my activity points. I had ice cream cake and chinese food on my birthday. Maybe, I ate a bit too much food this week but I was constantly starving!! I don’t know what this all about but I figure it has something to do with changing up my workouts! I stayed within my points range (using allowable extras) but I was hungry a lot!

Also, Saturday morning or also known as Weigh-In day comes around and I wake up with my monthly friend! I knew I was close in time but I had no warning signs. Actually, the more I think about it the more I realize I probably had all the right signs but I missed them because of sore muscles from the new workouts. The sore muscles masked the PMS misery! Chalk another one up to workouts!!

I am not sure if using all my points, new workouts, or TOM is to blame for gain. I am not going to stress it because I had an awesome week. For the week coming up I am going to be moving on to week 2 of the C25K and Bob Greene workouts.  I will continue to track all my food but I will do it on Sparkpeople and WW etools [I will explain why in a later post].

This week I am focusing on planning! Menu planning has helped me so much! Dinners are healthy and I never have that “what are we gonna have for dinner?” moments! Because dinner is so thought out I have leftovers for lunches.  This week I am going to plan my workouts and I am going to plan every day the night before (just like my daughter has to do every night).

My menu plan is posted. Go check it out!!

My workout plan is:

Sunday: REST/clean house

Monday: Couch to 5K ~ week 2, day 1

Tuesday: Bob Greene ~ week 2, day 1 ~ Last chance tworkout ~  Leslie Sansone walking

Wednesday: Couch to 5K ~ week 2, day 2

Thursday: Bob Greene ~ week 2, day 2 ~ planks, pushups ~ Leslie Sansone walking

Friday: Couch to 5K ~ week 2, day 3

Saturday: Bob Greene ~ week 1, day 3 ~ an outside walk with the family, maybe at the bird refuge.

**I want to challenge myself to get up at 6 am with the alarm!! I am a horrible morning person but I really want to get better! This week I have decided that the best way for me to do this is to challenge myself and blog about it!

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perfect 10 – crazy eights

  • Posted on February 26, 2010 at 8:31 pm

How did I work my goals this week?

1. Lose 5 pounds per month – I think I am only down .2 for the month of February but we will see what happens on the scale tomorrow. I have decided that I don’t really care what the scales says. Yes, I am curious but I will not let the number on the scale determine the success or failure of my week.  I am really embracing non-scale victories.  While I have finally set an ultimate weight loss goal of 100 pounds, I have decided to not set specific time sensitive weight loss goals. I will get to my goal weight! I am ok if it takes longer than I want it.

2. Walk 15 miles each week - I wound up with 10 of 15 miles this week. But I started and completed Week 1 of Couch to 5K yesterday! Go check it out if you haven’t!! There are pictures!! I am still grinning ear to ear knowing I finished week 1!!

3. Strength train 3x each week, every week -I also completed week 1 of the Bob Green 8 week total Body Makeover dvd that I won from Shrinking Jeans. I threw in 2 walking dvds and a yoga workout courtesy of exerciseTV.


4. find and prepare one new healthy recipe (or food) -Mission accomplished! I actually made 2 new recipes this week. A Pot Roast recipe I found on allrecipe.com and a Roasted Garlic Chicken recipe that was in this month’s Food Network magazine.


What you don’t know about Jen…..


I am camera shy! I prefer to be behind the camera. I love taking pictures and I hate my picture! I have always been like but it goes even deeper. I am a teacher so I should be fine standing in front of a group of people and talk like a normal person. I CAN’T!  I stand in front of rooms full of teenagers and i am not nervous at all. Change it to grown ups and I get all blabbers. I can’t remember what I am talking about or what I already have said. I am ok, if we are all sitting around chatting.  It’s not the talking to people that bothers me, I think it is being the center of attention that makes me nervous.  Those who know me in real life cannot understand this from me! It makes no sense! I am very outgoing and personable!

Random Thoughts

This was an awesome week! Setting my ultimate weight loss goal was actually quite freeing. I started and completed the first week of the Couch to 5K training program. I may not be setting any records but I kind of am!! A record for me!! I swore I wanted nothing to do with running! Now, I am looking forward to next week’s training!

I am feeling stronger (physically and mentally) than I have in a very long time!!


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SLOGGIN’

  • Posted on February 25, 2010 at 9:06 pm

Last week, I did the unthinkable!! and I did it without even a second thought!!

What did I do, you ask?!?!

I

SIGNED

UP

FOR

THE

NEW BALANCE 5k AT FITBLOGGIN

OMFG!!!

I will stop using caps now!!

I have not run a mile since high school and that was forever ago!

I tried running earlier in this journey and failed miserably!

What the heck was I thinking?!?

Who the heck knows what got into my crazy head but I did it and I sought out to train for this newest challenge of mine! I am such a challenge junkie!

So, Sunday I layered up and went out for Day 1 of the Couch to 5K training program!

‘Then Tuesday it rained all day!!

I went out in it anyway for Day 2!!

And today it snowed!!

I went out in it anyway for Day 3!!!

Please enjoy a photo journey of today’s SLOGGER event!!

This pike path runs one block from my road and runs through 4 towns.

Since my town’s school had school, that section was plowed!! Pretty, isnt it?!?!

I am not good at self-portraits but here is the before training pic!

Sorry about the glare but do you see those 3 green check marks?!?!

I complete the first week of the Couch to 5K!!

Do I look sweaty?!?

I certainly felt sweaty!!

and stinkin’ proud!!

How are my fellow Couch to 5Kers?!?!

and those of you awesome runners….can you suggest how I prevent or relieve shin soreness?

Thanks for all  the support, love and encouragement!!

Days left til Fitbloggin 10!!

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just another manic monday

  • Posted on February 21, 2010 at 11:43 pm

Manic Monday

Click the link!! You know you want to!! Click and watch the Bangles!! I promise it will make your Monday!!

WEEKLY WEIGH IN STATS

Current Weight: 194.4
Previous Weight: 196.8 lbs
Weight loss: -2.4 lbs
Weight loss in Feb: -0.2 lbs
Starting Weight: 242.6 lbs
Weight loss total: -48.2 lbs

THE WEEK IN REVIEW:

The week started off with such promise! After snow days and chest colds hampering me I was hopeful that I would get back to consistent working out.  Big Man and I went out of town on Monday to see an awesome concert. I was in the car for over two hours but I think I made up for it with a half hour in the hotel pool and 3 hours of hippie wigglin’ (I don’t know what else you call the dancing one does at a Dead show).  I did not have my Gruve (it is currently broken and I have been slacking on sending it to be fixed but tomorrow it will go to FedEx) but my pedometer racked up 11,000 + steps while I was at the show.

Tuesday morning I woke up to a text from my mother. The kid had been up 3 times to puke! Oh joy! We drove home in very limited visibility due to snow. I spent the day lounging with a very sick kid. I always know she is sick if she is super clingy and if she takes a nap willingly. I swear the kid thinks naps are evil!

Wednesday I woke up and got ready for work like normal. I left the kid sleeping with daddy on duty. I drive 3 miles to get to work! In the time it took me to drive to work, mind you it is 3 miles away, I was feeling nauseous and overheated! I got into school ans lasted about 20 minutes before I was sent home. As I was walking to my car, the bus arrived. Don’tcha know I slipped on damn ice and went down quick and hard! Did I mention I did this in front of a bus of my students?!?!

Thursday and Friday I was feeling better and made it to work. I wasn’t 100% but well enough to be in school. Fridays at my school are workplace readiness days. We don’t necessarily teach academics. One of new classes started this Friday and I am super super excited about this class. I am teaching a Girls Essential Skills/Self-Esteem Building/Fitness Class.  Our first day was awesome!! We started some self-esteem building exercises. I am looking forward to how this works.

I did have some exciting things happen during this otherwise bleh week of sickies:

  • The class I mentioned above started and went extremely well. The girls are “into” the class! A few of the girls even asked me if I would stay with them after school to work out in the gym (our school is very small so we do not have the gym facilities of a traditional high school)
  • I set my ultimate weight goal this week!! After reading @amerrylife ’s blog this week where she set an awesome super big goal , I decided that I also wanted to lose a total of 100 pounds. I have been himming and hawing about what my ultimate goal will be! I think my vagueness has only hindered me. 100 is a nice even number and I am almost half way there!
  • I decided to sign up for the FitBloggin’ New Balance 5K! TO RUN this 5K! I am not a runner but I want to challenge myself to try this!! My goal for this 5K is to just finish the dang thing and run half! I started the Couch to 5K training program today.
  • I was named Teacher of the Year for my school

I am looking forward to the week ahead! I have new workout goals!

  • couch to 5K training with @FitinmyHeart, @damanlovett, @JeepJenn, @priorfatgirl, and @amerrylife [IF you are training with me and I didn't list you please hit me up in comments ~ I want to make a list (with links) for all me fellow SLOGGERS in training!!
  • Start Bob Greene training with @fitinmyheart [this is a dvd with an 8 week total body makeover plan] Monday (tomorrow) will be week 1, day 1.

I will also work on:

  • drinking 8 glasses of water every day
  • remembering to take vitamins every day
  • stretching every night before bed!
  • track! track! track!!

Oh life is good!! I am feeling better! The family seems to be over the sickies! I am ready to take on the world!! At least, for the next week!


much love, Jen

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Perfect 10 – week 7 update

  • Posted on February 19, 2010 at 7:48 pm

This may be my shortest Perfect 10 Update!

I have not weighed in this week but I will let you know how February ends up!

I have not had many traditional workouts this week.

I finally got out of the funk of the chest cold last week and started working out again. This week the kid got walloped with a stomach bug that she happily shared with me. All along I have been battling my skeletal issues (my alignments gets out of whack easily sometimes and my hips can be up to a half inch off). Did I mention that on Wednesday, I attempted to go to work but was sick so I got sent home? I was walking to my car as the bus was dropping off the students and I slipped on some ice and hit hard! Both knees have lovely purple bruises! Tonight my hip is causing a bit of inflammation and as I am typing this post, I am sitting on the couch on a heating pad.

I did try a new recipe! It was not so good to me but the husband loved it! We made a purple cabbage (shredded), green apple (peeled, cored & cut up) with vinegar and seasonings in the crockpot. I prefer crunchier cabbage!

You don’t know….

when I was in high school I was a cheerleader! Yep, I cheered for basketball and I also sang the Star Spangled Banner at most games.

PS~~Sorry for such a crappy post! It has been a kind of crappy week

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The Shrink I did Rethink

  • Posted on February 14, 2010 at 1:53 pm

Rethink Your Shrink!

The Shrink I did Rethink

I have this post written in my head but I have been having the hardest time actually writing! I am not sure why. I have been in a bit of a funk since we got all this snow. I am tired of winter, tired of snow….and the weatherman says we might get more on Monday and possibly more again on Saturday. I am OVER this snow stuff!! I love my home – it is my favorite place on the planet but even I need to be able to get out of my house once in a while!

Snow rant over!

The Monday ProjectMy friends at Shrinking Jeans posted this assignment as a final project:

Rethink Your Shrink is coming to an end! Are you ready? Did you rethink? And moreover, did you shrink?  What happened over the past 7 weeks? Did you move more? Did you find victories? Did you find non-scale victories? Did you do something you’ve never done before? (And in a good way?) How much did you lose? How much did you gain in knowledge and preparation? How did you do when you had an off-week? Did you fall off? Did you get back up? Where did you find motivation? Did you like this challenge? How did you do?

On Saturday, January 2nd I weighed in at 204 pounds and yesterday, February 13th I weighed in at 196.8, which is a gain this week of 2.2 ~ thank you sickness and then snow storm but a loss of 7.2 pounds over the course of the 7 errrr 6 weeks of this awesome challenge! I don’t think I shrank but I grew in so many ways during this challenge.

I am also involved in the Perfect 10 challenge and the Mamavation; what can I say?!?! I love challenges and I love the support system from my online peeps! I have met some awesome people during these challenges! I have participated and continue to participate in many challenges! Rethink your Shrink has been unlike any other challenge and I think that is why it has meant so much to me that I am sad it is over.

I finally had my a-ha moment! I woke up and realized that I have been half-assing this weight loss thing! I was not putting my whole heart into it and I have now vowed that 20-10 will be the year of JEN and I am embracing myself and my journey. I have made working out a priority. I have found workouts I LOVE and I have learned that I have to do what works best for me and not what everyone else is doing. I have a problem with that, I get caught up in other people’s excitement. Example, everyone was doing the 30 Day Shred and I had to have that!! I finally received it and I almost killed myself trying to get through it – it was a killer on my knees!! but everyone kept tweeting and blogging about it and I tried to finish…what the hell was I thinking. I do not have to be like anyone else! I am not ashamed of my walking dvd workouts and I think my knees are thankful: they are getting stronger, I am getting stronger and I am doing it my way!

I finally get it!!!

This is my life, my journey and I have to do it my way!!!

I have grown and I continue to grow and learn. I am finding my way and I am finally having fun doing it! I am not blogging as often but when I blog I enjoy it! I workout and I am enjoying it! I am spending more time with my family. I am finding myself getting more organized and less cluttered which is definitely helping my weight loss journey. I know, it sounds crazy but it true!

The last week was a bit crazy with being trapped in the house with the snow immediately following a bout of sickness! Even though my eating was not awesome, I did get back to working out this week 4 days in a row!! I had actually started to miss my workouts and I am so glad I pushed myself to get back at it! I loved when I needed it, I had a ton of support and ass-kicking!!

The past 6-7 weeks I have really stepped up my physical game and I have bulldozed through mental blocks and I feel stronger and more confident than ever.  I am stronger, physically and mentally! I am more confident and satisfied with myself. I am not perfect and I am ok with that!!

I will continue to fight for my health and greatness!!

Thanks hookers, ya’ll throw a great challenge!!

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