How did I work my goals this week?!

1. Lose 5 pounds per month – I lost 14 pounds over the last 10 weeks. Success!! I have changed my whole outlook on the scale. Fuck it!! The scale is just one piece of the puzzle and I am not living my life according to the scale.  I want to be healthy and strong and that is not any particular number on the scale!

2. Walk 15 miles each week - since starting the Couch to 5K my mileage has decreased! At first, this bothered me! I set a goal and I wanted to keep to it!! On non-”running” days I was walking with Leslie Sansone at least 3 miles. I was so exhausted and my legs were not very happy with me. I have since scaled my mileage back and I am letting my body tell me what it can handle. I did walk with my girlfriends last Saturday and we hit almost 4 miles. I am still getting around 10 miles each week. I am calling this a work in progress! and a success!!

3. Strength train 3x each week, every week -I also completed week 3 of the Bob Green 8, week total Body Makeover dvd that I won from Shrinking Jeans. I actually did 5 Bob Greene workouts this week! I feel so weak when I finish these workouts and I have been so sore! But I feel AMAZING!! Who knew sore could feel so great!?!?!

4. find and prepare one new healthy recipe (or food) - I am not sure I really accomplished this task this week! I did change my eating up a bit. I am sort of following the Body for Life way of eating. This week was a transition into the “clean” way of eating. Last weekend I went to the produce store and came home with a buttload of greens! I swear, I ate some many vegetables this week that I feel green!

What you don’t know about Jen…..

I am a picky eater! I have major issues with texture so certain foods I just would not even try because of the way they looked! I only recently started eating peppers & tomatoes! I hate tapioca and rice pudding, oatmeal bothers me and fried onions make me cringe! I love the smell of fried onions but will not put them in my mouth! I now will eat peppers but they must have some crunch left and I haven’t quite figured out roasted red peppers!

A Reflection on the last 10 weeks:

I have learned so much in the last 10 weeks. I always set out to be better in the new year!! 2010 truly is the year of Jen!! I am kicking ass! I am changing and becoming the strong, healthy, fanfuckingtastic woman I have always wanted to be! I am gaining confidence with each new “thing” that comes my way! I am challenging my mind and body!

Stay tuned!! This challenge may be over but I am just getting started!!

Keep on keepin’ on!!

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?

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!

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!!

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

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

How did I work my goals this week?

1. Lose 5 pounds per month – I have no freaking idea here! I may have gone a wee bit overboard but mainly with healthy foods. I have spent a lot of time trapped in my house due to SNOW! Last week’s WW meeting was closed because if the stupid snow but I am really looking forward to tomorrow’s meeting.

2. Walk 15 miles each week - I wound up with 13 miles! I must say this is a win! I did not real workouts last Saturday, Sunday and Monday ~ I did shovel snow and clean and de-clutter my house like a madwoman!

3. Strength train 3x each week, every week - 3 of my 4 walks were Leslie Sansone living room walks which includes mild strength training…and is truly a multi-muscle walk. I also started the Bob Green 8 week total Body Makeover dvd that I won from Shrinking Jeans. I did that workout twice, tomorrow is the scheduled 3rd day.

4. find and prepare one new healthy recipe (or food) -

I made stuffed peppers. Not a “new” recipe exactly but Big Man usually makes the stuffed peppers. I used barley in place of rice; this was the first time trying barley and I LOVE IT! I also added a diced up zucchini into the stuffing and a shredded carrot into the sauce.

I love adding veggies everywhere and anywhere I can get away with! And this recipe was a huge hit…even with the hard to please karate kid!

What you don’t know about Jen…..

There was this time….at band camp….

LMAO!!

My big secret…I played the flute from 6th – 12th grades.  I did not want to play after 8th grade but my mom bought me my own flute for 8th grade graduation. I was stuck playing all through high school. I was in the marching band in high school. My band director only did marching band because the school made him and since he loved his jazz band he did the marching band!! Our marching band was kind of sad…ok, very sad!! This did not make me love my flute!

Looking back, marching band was a great time but I think I liked choir better!

Now, I just want to listen to as much good music as I can! We love to go to concerts as often as possible!  Monday me and the Big Man are off to Bethlehem, PA to see Further with Bob Weir and Phil Lesh!

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!

How did I work my goals this week?

1. Lose 5 pounds per month – I weighed 204 pounds on January 2nd and 194.6 pounds on January 30th! This puts me at a total of 9.4 pounds GONE for the month of January! Here is to an equally awesome February!

2. Walk 15 miles each week - I did not log any miles this week. I have totally babied myself this week with this cold. All week long the stairs at work killed me! I was totally out of breath most of the week.

3. Strength train 3x each week, every week - see above! I did not strength train or walk this week! I did not much of anything!

4. find and prepare one new healthy recipe (or food) - A few weeks ago I read a blog post from one of my favorite Weight Watcher, Heather. Heather blogged about a new WW cookbook with 165 Crock Pot recipes!! I saw the book at my meeting and it was only $10 so I snatched it up! This week we made the Shrimp Creole recipe and I definitely recommend this one! It was delicious! I love shrimp and this recipe reminded me of New Orleans.

What you don’t know about Jen…..

I have a slight obsession with New Orleans!! I have been to NOLA twice. Once before Katrina – Big Man surprised with a weekend get-away to NOLA for my birthday after we got engaged. and the second time we went to NOLA was the May after Katrina – we got married on that trip! If I could afford it, I would go back every year! I LOVE NOLA! The city is alive with music and food and soul! I told ya, I am a bit obsessed! I am even planning my next trip to NOLA, in 2012!

This was a weird week! I was just getting into the swing of working out almost daily. I am tired of being sick and tired! I am going to try to get some activity in this weekend and I am really hoping to be back in the swing by Monday! I have a new workout dvd to try!

Did ya’ll know that January is almost over?!?!

It is almost February?!?!

How the heck did that happen?!?!

How did I work my goals this week?

1. Lose 5 pounds per month – my weigh in day is Saturday (tomorrow), last week I lost 4.4 pounds. I am feeling confident in my progress and I am not going to be ruled by the scale. I still want to keep this as a goal because I don’t want to lose sight that losing weight is one of my goals.

2. Walk 15 miles each week - I only logged 8 miles this week! I took last weekend as a rest. Then Wednesday I was walloped with a horrible headache that left me with a nasty head/chest cold. So I will not be walking tonight. I am taking a rest to let my body heal.

3. Strength train 3x each week, every week - Sort of!  did 3 walking workouts this week and as you know my walking workouts combine miles with moderate strength/resistance training and core work. I know I felt my core work but I should have added more strength but I just didn’t have it in me!

4. find and prepare one new healthy recipe (or food) - I am actually cooking chicken parm tonight! Not a new recipe or food but I am preparing it totally different than ever before! DINNER IS NOW DONE: it was very good and very simple! I made a stove-top version  – basically the chicken was browned and removed from pan, then I made sauce in the pan and put chicken in sauce to finish cooking.

What you don’t know about Jen…..

I am not feeling so hot!! I am all kinds of stuffy and congested! So, I asked twitterland – “what do you want to know about me?”

@bwJen are you double jointed? 4 minutes ago from TweetDeck in reply to bwJen

Workouts this week:

MONDAY = 45 minute, 3 mile Walk Away your Waistline with Walk Belt (walking, cardio, resistance, and core).

TUESDAY = 3.2 miles, 45 minutes Walk Slim: 3 Fast Miles

THURSDAY = 2.2 miles, 35 minutes Walk Slim: 2 Fast Miles (same dvd as above – I did the other disk)

As you can see, it was a very light week. I am taking the rest of the weekend to rest and hopefully I will be back in the game on Monday!

I am not very chatty this evening and I apologize. I am also sorry that I have not blogged …umm..at all this week. I am going to work on blogging a bit more consistently but I am not exactly sure how…any suggestions would be awesome.