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?

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.

.

]]> http://www.jeninreallife.com/2010/03/02/food-for-thought/feed/ 11 http://www.jeninreallife.com/2010/02/28/i-had-a-great-week-the-scale-just-sucks/ http://www.jeninreallife.com/2010/02/28/i-had-a-great-week-the-scale-just-sucks/#comments Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:17:32 +0000 jen http://www.jeninreallife.com/?p=765 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!

]]> http://www.jeninreallife.com/2010/02/28/i-had-a-great-week-the-scale-just-sucks/feed/ 16 http://www.jeninreallife.com/2010/02/21/just-another-manic-monday/ http://www.jeninreallife.com/2010/02/21/just-another-manic-monday/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:43:27 +0000 jen http://www.jeninreallife.com/?p=741 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

Being sick left me useless and whiny and tired!

I am tired of being sick and tired!!

I am over it!

On Monday, I was feeling totally better! I was home from school because of a snow day. I cleaned and decluttered like a mad woman (a blog with picture proof will be coming shortly).

Yesterday, I got my GRUVE back!! I was out of commission while I was sick and most days I did not even hit blue! and that is if I remembered to put on my gruve.  Yesterday, I wore my Gruve and I made sure to stand and walk at work as much as possible! I worked out hard: I did a 3 mile Leslie Sansone walking dvd and Week 1, day 1 of Bob Greene’s Total Body Makeover.  I hit my Green Goal for the first time in days!! I just looked it up and the last Green day was January 26th.

I was tweeting with @trulytrayce last night after my workout! Trayce just recently got her Gruve and she has hit Green yesterday! We decided to try to get Green every day between now and Fitbloggin2010!  We were just goofing around but I think we are on to something! We are calling it out Gruvey Green Challenge and we will have to make up t-shirts!!

So, Trayce and I have challenged each other to our very own Gruvey Green Challenge!!

Are you a Gruver?  How many days can you go Green??

I have been sick, as you may know. Nothing serious just a stupid cold! That would not go away! My ear started bugging me so I went to see the doctor. Doc prescribed an antibiotic for lingering respiratory infection (that stupid cold that wouldn’t go away was really a respiratory infection) and cream for my ear rash thing.

I paid special attention to my blood pressure and it was awesome, 126 over 72. I asked when my last blood work was done – September 2008. The Shrinking Jeans Sisters have me thinking about all these things and when doc came in I asked if we could schedule blood work just to have numbers and he thought it was a great idea. I even asked for a printout of my weight over the years. I wanted to see where I really started.

I looked at the numbers and the dates. I am going to list them here.

2.8.03: 202

8.20.03: 189: worked 2nd job as waitress all summer long.

10.2.03: 198: no longer waiting tables, back in college. Started dating Big Man right around this time

11.20.03: 210:; 2 weeks later I will be engaged!

2.28.04: 228: Moved in with Big Man couple of weeks prior.

5.13.04: 227

10.5.04: 230

1.3.05: 234

4.9.05: 230

5.26.05: 233

6.23.05: 236

8.19.05: 237

12.5.05: 242

2.27.06: 243

3.13.06: 243

8.3.06: 231

12.29.06: 235

7.3.07: 235: got married and graduated college 2 months prior

8.22.07: 235

10.12.07: 239: prescribed Chantix to quit smoking!

12.11.07: 246

1.26.08: 250: I quit smoking but gained some weight!

3.15.08: 244

6.13.08: 244

11.14.08: 242: joined Weight Watchers one week prior.

6.17.09: 210

2.4.10: 197

Seeing the number saddened me! Somehow I forgot all about hitting 250. I mean, seriously! I was looking through the printouts and my jaw dropped when I read that spot. It was 3 months after quitting smoking. I smoked for 15 years. Please don’t lecture! I quit! October 23, 2007 was the last day I had a cigarette. I am super proud of myself for quitting. So, I am torn! Part of me is sad about 250 but on the same hand, I quit smoking! aaah! I will not dwell on that for too long.

The doctor’s scale says 197, which is up from my last WW meeting but I did go to doc right after eating lunch and I knew I was up a bit but not that much. Who the hell knows! Scales suck and I am not really stressing which one is right and what not. I will go by my WW meeting scale for the most part. And really, the scale is not the only tool I am using! I will take measurements this weekend.

But, according to the doctor’s scale I have dropped 53 pounds from my highest weight approximately 2 years ago.

Freaking amazing! I totally teared up sitting in the room reading my weight and reliving the whole up and down. Certain dates  I made notes on for significant ups or downs.

I feel a bit silly but I did get all teary. Certain dates are so important. The day I went to doc to ask about Chantix. The visit when I doc called me a non-smoker. I could go on!

Today is Monday and I have not worked out in over a week. I may have used being sick as an excuse, not at first but definitely during the snow storm. I feel better and I actually was super productive today. School was closed for a SNOW day and I cleaned my house and did laundry like a mad woman! I did not work out but seriously, I could not workout with the house as cluttered as it was. I will post about the de-cluttering mission later this week. I am totally an ADD case, not officially diagnosed but I swear I have the attention span of a gnat sometimes! I can live with some messes but sometimes it is too messy for me to do anything but straighten it all!

So, today I straightened the house instead of working out.

and that is ok!

90% of losing weight and changing my lifestyle is mental!! I keep reading that phrase this week! It is such a true phrase! I have to get past the mental bull shit! I did great until I got sick and I am not exactly sure how to get past this slump. Today helped! Organizing and de-cluttering had a very therapeutic effect.

It sounds cheesy but I am ready to tackle my workouts again! Not at this very moment, it is almost 10 at night. I am going to start up tomorrow. I am going to get in my Walk at Home workouts for next 4 days. Tomorrow night I will join @shrinkingjeans with a last chance tworkout. I will do another version of last chance tworkouts at least one more time this week and I will try a workout I have never tried before: either some sort of dance workout or a pilates class.

I have my best weeks when I work out consistently. I feel so awesome when I work out consistently. This week I will strive for consistency.

I think that is a good goal for this week! I am gonna have a great week!

Hope you all have a great week!

Last week’s weight: 198

This week’s weight: 193.6

This week’s change: -4.4

Total change:  -49.0

Before I tell you about my week, I have to reflect a bit about the number on the scale. I am not ruled by the number on the scale but it is a piece of the puzzle or game. Losing weight is just like putting a puzzle together – each person must create their own puzzle. I am working hard to find the pieces that best fit my puzzle. Part of the puzzle is the number on the scale and part of the puzzle is measurements. I finally took new measurements and there were actual changes between November and now. I have heard every option for how often to measure and I am not sure how often I will measure but probably not every week. Do you measure? How often?

Another piece of my puzzle has been setting reasonable goals. I admit I have not always been the best goal-setter.  I usually just kind of bulldoze my way through. No real planning just one day at a time. I joined two challenges this year (Perfect 10 and Rethink Your Shrink) that have been helping me set small reasonable and attainable goals.

My BIG goals are outlined in my week 3, Perfect 10 update. You can also find a list of last week’s workouts.

My smaller goals, I will discuss here:

1.  drink 80 oz of water daily I am great about this Monday – Friday. I don’t know why since I barely drink any water during the school day. 5/7

2. take multi vitamin and glucosamine every day I am horrible about this but I am getting better. 5/7

3. make time for workout As you can see if you check out my Perfect 10 update, I worked out a lot last week. I was a bit lazy the last two days but I am very happy with the progress I have made in the workout area. I look forward to working out even if I bitch about it before hand. I love that @ShrinkingJeans leads Biggest Loser commercial break workouts. I love how sweaty I get Walking at Home or on the treadmill. I love that my arms are starting to feel “tight” and I LOVE that I am getting stronger and tighter! I will continue to workout because I finally get it! I really LOVE that I found a workout I LOVE!!

Another piece of the puzzle is FOOD! Ya’ll know how much I love food. All food!! Good food, good-for-you food, healthy food, and just plain junk food. I have learned that some foods have no place in my healthy life plan and I know there are foods that if they were off limits I would rebel and binge on. No foods are off limit. Moderation. I have learned menu planning is essential to my weight & wallet management. I am planning healthy meals full of lean meats and yummy vegetables. I also allow treats and occasional “cheat” days but I don’t call them that. I have always managed to stay within my points and now that I am adding all the workouts in I am ok with some higher points splurge days.

Another piece of the puzzle is accountability! I NEED lots of accountability!! I tried ditching my meetings and just using WW online….I lost and gained the same 5 pounds the entire 4 months. I went back to my meetings and did a little better but then Christmas came and we went away and I did not track and I gained back a few pounds. I found a group of Moms on the same journey.  #Mamavation is an awesome motivational community of moms in various stages of the healthy journey.  The mamavation ladies are all just so sweet and supportive!

Now, on the other side of the coin I found the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans…how could I not check out a group of chicks with a blog titled that?!?! and they are a riot – super supportive & encouraging and not afraid to YELL at me to get my ass moving! I love how sarcastic, snarky and down right brutal their love can be – they are the best!

I join all kinds of challenges! Challenges keep the whole  journey new. I am not always the best challenge participant. Not  the challenge’s fault…but I lack follow through some times. I get all excited but don’t always finish what I start. I am currently involved in two challenges: Perfect 10 and Rething Your Shrink. I liked these two challenges and since the principals behind the challenges were so similar I felt (and still do) comfortable participating in both challenges.

Twitter is the best motivation!! I tweet to inspire and motivate as well as be inspired and be motivated! My twitter peeps are my friends. My twitter peeps know all the answers to all the questions I have!! My twitter peeps don’t let me get away with sulking or not working out! I may be addicted to Twitter but I swear it has huge benefits!

I rambled and rambled! This was a good week – mentally and on the scale. I am finding the perfect balance for me. I am finding what is right and works best for me. This has to be my journey, my way!! I have been traveling on this journey to health for over a year now and it really has been the last 3 weeks that I can honestly say, “I get it!!”

Did I tell you that Twenty Ten is the Year of JEN?!?!

Join me in making 2010 the best year!

At WW meeting I stepped on scale, here is what happened:

WW lady: “2 pounds”

Me: “wow, I lost 2 pounds”

WW lady: “no, up 2 pounds”

Me: “wow, I gained 2 pounds, really?”

I decided to chat it up with my leader before the meeting,

Me: “Stephanie (my leader’s name) should I be concerned with being up 2 pounds? I tracked, stayed within my points and worked out. I even worked out this morning and late last night.”

Stephanie: “you tracked?”

Me: “yes”

Stephanie: “Everything?”

Me: “yes”

Stephanie: “Well that is a success! You worked out…that is a success! You are here…that is a success!!”

I have been thinking about this conversation since then…it is all I could think about!

And damn it, I may have gained this week but it was a great week. Ok, to be fair…it started off slow but ended with a bang.  My workouts and weekly goals are recapped here on my Perfect 10, week 2 update. I am so tired of being a slave to the scale. I had a great week and the scale will not dictate whether or not I had a good week. My Perfect 10 update includes my BIG goals but here is where I post my smaller weekly goals:

1. drink 80 oz of water daily I did this 6/7 days

2. take multi vitamin and glucosamine every day I remembered 4/7 days. I MUST get better at taking my vitamins.

3. make time for workouts I totally made time for me and my workouts!! I worked out 5/7 days and on the other 2 I did enough around the house to be “moving”!

On Tuesday I had an absolute meltdown! I can’t even tell you exactly what happened. I said something to Big Man and he gave me some look and I got all snappy. I snapped at him he snapped at me and I burst into tears. I must tell you all that me and the Big Man never fight! NEVER! Our friends think we are weird because as crazy as it sounds we actually like each other…and we don’t believe that fighting is productive ~ definitely stems from how we both grew up and the last relationship we were prior to meeting each other!  Sorry for the ramble here – but I really love the big dummy! Anyway, I cried and cried and it took a little bit to stop. I can’t exactly explain what started it or what “it” was even really about. I was left feeling very tired after the tears ended.

Later that night, I tweeted about my meltdown and I was hit back with many similar stories from my friends. When I talked with my WW girls, I again heard similar stories from this week. Something must be in the air.  I was also tweeted back by @debroby and she told me that at the start of a new fitness regime it was normal to have freakouts!! REALLY?!!? This is normal. huh?!?! @mizfitonline has said this very thing before.

What does this freakout mean? Well, later that night I saw my girls at @shrinkingjeans tweeting Last Chance workouts during Biggest Loser commercials. I do not watch Biggest Loser but I needed to jump into the action. I did a few exercises and lots of tweeting with my friends @shrinkingjeans, @lissjoy, @girlsworld, @fabfattieShan, and @footdr69 !! I needed that time and I did indeed begin to feel better. Wednesday came around and I worked out and felt awesome. I even bumped it up a bit ~ while doing my walking workout I did the middle mile twice!!

I also walked on Thursday.

Friday we ordered Chinese for dinner. I ordered chicken & shrimp with veggies (steamed with sauce on side). I didn’t eat any rice but I did eat a few steamed dumplings.  I drank a ton of water after dinner to try and combat the sodium. I walked on the treadmill for an hour (at 3.0 mph) and worked up quite a sweat.

I woke up at 7:30 (ridiculously early for a Saturday) to get ready for a walk with my girlfriend, Tammey. She was at my house by 8 and we walked for an hour and almost 3 miles. It was cold but we were moving and talking and the time went by quickly.  We haven’t walked together in forever and it was nice…even though it was cold. Ya’ll know how much I hate being cold!! After our walk I had a banana and some water and headed to my WW meeting. I stepped on that scale and gained 2 pounds. ugh! Not what I was hoping to see but a good learning experience. This weigh-in really taught me to not rely on the scale.

After WW meeting, I went home to eat something more substantial than a banana. Then it was off to the Red Cross to give blood. I have not donated since I was in high school…in 1996!! My daughter went with me and snapped some pictures!

**I chose to give blood because it is what I have to give! I am not a rich woman but I have plenty of blood and I am healthy!! If you are healthy, please consider going to the Red Cross to give blood!

**I am going to go back again March 13, 2010! That is the next time I am allowed to go back and I will give blood every 6-8 weeks, it is the least I can do! Who is with me??

One final note: I will not be using my previous Saturday Scale Time anymore. I will instead give a week in review every week after I attend my WW meeting.  I do not want to focus on the scale as the most important tool!! My success will not be determined to a number on a scale!! I will continue to weigh in at my WW meetings because I think I should….what are your thoughts about the scale?

much love!!

Jen

This week’s #: 196.0

HOLY CRAP!! I lost 8 pounds!! This is totaly awesome! In one week I have lost all but .6 pounds of the 8.6 I gained since the saturday before Christmas.

Lesson learned: I need my routine!! I went in to the holidays with the intention of being “good” but I wound up going a wee bit overboard and lounging around lazily way  too much!

Last night I posted my Perfect 10 update and there you can find my workouts for the week.

We had Outback curbside take away last Saturday and Sunday there was a frozen pizza incident.

Monday

breakfast – oatmeal with banana & sugar free syrup

snack – apple and hardboil egg

Lunch –  tilapia with brussel sprouts, acorn squash and 1/2 cup brown rice

Dinner – grilled chicken with butternut squash, asparagus and a BIG salad

snack – berries

Tuesday:

Breakfast, snack, and lunch same as Monday

Dinner – Grilled chicken with red peppers, steamed broccoli and a BIG salad

snack – a nice mix of berries, apples, and tangerine

Wednesday:

breakfast – oatmeal with banana and sugar free syrup

snack – apple and a hardboiled egh

lunch – grilled chicken, butternut squash and 1/2 cup of brown rice

dinner – Salmon, spaghetti squash with marinara and a BIG salad

snack – hardboiled eggs, 1/2 apple

Thursday:

breakfast, snack and lunch – same as Monday

Dinner - Grilled Chicken with grilled zucchini, spaghetti squash with marinar and a BIG salad

snack: apple

Friday:

same breakfast

snack – apple

Lunch – grilled chicken with brown rice, broccoli and red peppers

Dinner – Hubby wanted to order out – he got a stromboli and I ordered grilled chicken, sauteed spinach and a large tossed salad.

snack – fiber one oats & chocolate bar

This was a great week! I worked out! I ate great! I felt great! This week coming up will be just as awesome!!

I thought I would be bored of my food options and maybe I need a bit more variety I am ecstatic about the results. Not only did I lose 8 pounds but I feel amazing. I know that eating well is helping me to feel this awesome. I will splurge a bit  this weekend. I will add some variety this weekend but Monday – Friday I will eat the same way I did this week. My family enjoyed it for the most part but they are willing to do it again!

My Rethink My Shrink Goals are:

1. drink 80 oz of water daily I did this 5/7 days

2. take multi vitamin and glucosamine every day I remembered 5/7 days

3. make time for workouts I totally made time for me and my workouts!! I worked out all 5 work days!

This week was very successful!  How was your week?

My first post is about Walking. You can follow that link or just keep reading…

I have been on the path towards healthy living for a little over one year. Honestly, I walked into my first Weigh Watcher’s meeting because I wanted to lose weight. I wanted to be skinny but I had no idea how I was supposed to do that. Fast forward to today and I have lost 47 pound and I am eating better than I ever have eaten. However, food is not the only piece of the weight loss puzzle. The other “F” of healthy living, Fitness, is equally important on this journey. I am just learning all about fitness and I am NOT an expert by any stretch of the imagination!

I do not have a gym membership. I do not have a personal trainer. I do not have a Wii.

I have a constant need to learn. I have a treadmill. I have internet and google.

Walking was my first break into the world of fitness. I have a treadmill but it was sadly underused until last year. Last November, my doctor suggested surgery to repair a weak ligament in my ankle. My doctor wanted to schedule the surgery as soon as I could but I am a teacher and my classroom is on the top floor and the bathroom is on the bottom floor and did I mention there is no elevator. Can I be honest with you? Surgery scared the $&*# out of me!! I told the doc that I would have surgery after school was out for summer. I had already joined Weight Watchers and was making progress but I wanted to be lighter and in better shape if I was going to have surgery. I knew I had to be more active but I had no idea where to start.

I had a treadmill and I started using it! Man, was I slow! I only lasted 20 minutes! But I kept at it. I walked and walked and walked some more. I slowly built up to more time and faster speeds. Winter around here can be cold and wet so I stayed inside. I learned to love my time on my treadmill. I faced my treadmill to the TV and I watched episodes of General Hospital on the DVR while I walked. I walked because I know how to walk. There is no learning curve since I have been walking for 30ish years.

Seven months of walking later, I went back to my doctor for a pre-surgery check up where we would schedule my surgery. Doctor was very happy about the progress I had made with my ankle. I had built muscles in my legs and near my ankle, my ligament would always be weak, but the extra muscles I built were helping my ankle stay stable. When I told doc I felt “AWESOME” he was very happy. We decided that surgery was not necessary at this time. I was so happy because I did not want to stop progress. The surgery had a total healing time of 3 months – that is a lot of time to be out of commission.

I loved rotating treadmill walking with outside walking but July and August were mighty hot so I needed to find a new way to walk. A bit of googling and tweeting brought me to Leslie Sansone and Walk at Home. Using my DVD player, I walked in my very small living room. At first I felt silly walking in place in my living room but within 10 minutes I was sweating and breathing hard. I was walking in a new way and I loved it. I now rotate living room walking with treadmill walking and outside walking.

I am still on my journey to weight loss. I have more weight to lose. I am getting healthier but I am not all the way healthy. Walking has been my main source of fitness and it has been good to me! I have walked myself out of ankle surgery. I have walked myself 47 pounds lighter. I have walked my legs stronger. There are tons of benefits to walking for health.

From The American Heart Association (and the Start Walking campaign):

Walking Toward a Healthier You

There are countless physical activities out there, but walking has the lowest dropout rate of them all! It’s the simplest positive change you can make to effectively improve your heart health.

Research has shown that the benefits of walking and moderate physical activity for at least 30 minutes a day can help you:

* Reduce the risk of coronary heart disease
* Improve blood pressure and blood sugar levels
* Improve blood lipid profile
* Maintain body weight and lower the risk of obesity
* Enhance mental well being
* Reduce the risk of osteoporosis
* Reduce the risk of breast and colon cancer
* Reduce the risk of non-insulin dependent (type 2) diabetes

There really are so many benefits for such a simple activity!

Walking is a fantastic exercise and I enjoy it very much! But, I am ready to add something new.

I want to be stronger and I want to transform my mind and body. Stay tuned while I learn more about fitness! Every week, I will be back to share with you what I learn about fitness!
Together we can get fit!!