Episode 001: The Realization

The good news, I have been consistently training/working out since February! The not so good news, I haven’t lost any weight. I feel much better, my body is getting stronger and my eating has actually improved in quality. I need to make up my mind about eating less food and hope it sticks when my body goes into that feeding frenzy mode. Thinking hard about gastric banding because when hunger strikes, it is real, stomach growling real, hand shaking real, so focused on getting food real.

Current strategy is eating slower. It is working but it is a new habit I must form. My addiction to food is more than likely inherited. My dad can’t control his eating. He literally woofs his food down and then starts eating off everyone else’s plates if he can. Unless I work through it now, I am fated for the same. Several of my siblings have recognized the same potential food addiction in themselves.

Got My Booster Shot Indeed…

Step one achieved, personal trainer hired and doing her magic with my workouts. I could barely walk the couple of days after my first workout and then I had another workout! Four workouts in two weeks have reshaped my workout methodology. I was not working as hard as I should have been during my home based workouts. Here is a plug for my PT, Megan. She is great and I consider her one of my “peeps”. PT isn’t cheap but then being unhealthy isn’t cheap either, make a choice. Lost 5-lbs the first week and gained 3-lbs the second week. Fingers crossed for the official 2nd week weigh-in on Monday morning.

www. HealthHappenings.net

I now need to find a great outfit for my niece’s February wedding taking place in Arizona. My clothing choices are usually pretty casual so hopefully I can find something that works. Found a great couple of sweater tops in CostCo last week from ECI New York and may wear one of them for the wedding rehearsal pool-side affair.

Boost by Personal Trainer Required!

Egads! Hard to believe it has been over a month since my last blog. Here is my new vow to blog every day, right after exercise and breakfast. Speaking of which, I have just hired a personal trainer to kick my butt into gear. The boyfriend indicated that I tend to slack off and not hit the weights or exercise as hard as I should and I agree with him on this one. So after watching another episode of The Biggest Loser and seeing the big people do intervals on the treadmill, I sucked it up and tried it for myself. Mind you, my intervals were only 30 seconds just like the show. I usually do the treadmill at a speed of 2.5 and vary the incline. This time I started at 2.6 (get out of my comfort zone) and popped the speed to 3.0 every 2 t0 3 minutes for the 30-second interval. Oh my gosh, it worked and I dropped a couple of pounds (yes, I know some of it is water) by this morning.

With that success under my belt and my boyfriend’s words ringing in my ears, I took myself downtown to sign up with the local personal trainer. I have spoke with her previously and she has all the kick my butt requirements and understands I come from knowledge (my KB & Pilates certification). She is also providing a high protein 1200 calorie diet plan. I am pretty sure I have no idea exactly how many calories I consume in a day and I absolutely refuse to count calories. I would much rather pay attention to what I am eating in food types.

On the job front, the site LinkedIn is absolutely great for connecting with people and colleagues from the past. I look forward with pleasure to 2009!

Atkins Again...

Yes, I have done Atkins and then slid off the bandwagon gorging on carbohydrates and licking my bread crusted fingers. I know it works and I know it is the only thing that doesn’t make me crazy hungry. I’m not that fond of fruit anyway but I do love my veggies. I have already had to curb my raw veggies due to IBS symptoms which I might add have cleared up to only be troublesome in a stress situation. I can have salad a couple times a week but cooked veggies don’t cause an IBS flare up.

Called my sister to tell her I was signing up for the duration with her. She is doing the hypnotist thing (I have CDs for the same and will dutifully listen to them every day) and they told her Atkins or protein style diet is what to follow to lose the weight. South Beach diet did help me lose a bunch of weight but somewhere I lost consciousness and stuffed my mouth around bad carbs (French fries, potato chips, potato anything really along with pastries, bread and cookies). Oh, I kept eating the protein along with it so it was an additive calorie thing going on.

Day ½ is what I am calling today. I went out at lunch and bought sliced turkey and some Azurra sparkling water and organic fruit essence (zero carbs but mighty tasty). I also stocked up on unsweetened soy nut butter (my sister’s recommendation) as I have a peanut butter addiction.

At home tonight, I will clean out the pantry and make a food bank donation with the “no” foods that are nonperishable. Starting weight, gasp, 225 lbs (the boyfriend made fresh bread this weekend and I just finished off the 1st loaf). I am aiming for 180 by my birthday in March. That is only 45 lbs.

Welcome back Oprah!

Oprah weighs 200 pounds, again We all go through the denial stage where we say we will never be fat again and then our famine fighting bodies betray us. Our addiction to food becomes overwhelming and we fall off the wagon. Like Oprah, I once weighed a whopping 257 lbs. and lost 60 pounds plus, down to 186 at one point during the recent bout of not eating enough to keep me full. I still remember with fondness coming home from college back in my youth, weighing a mean 127 lbs. My sister raved about how good I looked and my mom began to stuff me with food. “Oh you look so sickly”. To this day, my sister remembers that episode and so do I. It was a conflict of wanting to be thin versus wanting to eat. Let me tell you that 127 wasn’t thin it was just about right for my sturdy 5’2” muscular frame.

Currently, I weigh 223.5 lbs and I am on my way back down the scale, again. Working out a minimum of 5 days a week, lifting weights, doing mat Pilates, treadmill, WII Fit, and any fitness DVD that strikes my fancy. It is the food that is always my issue, I love it, I crave it, I want it... ALL THE TIME.

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=343139&GT1=28103

I hope the above link works to the msn article. I have also switched my goal from being thin to being strong, healthy and fit. My target weight is near the 150 range. All I want is to weigh less than my lean and fit boyfriend so 166 would do. I wish us all luck in the coming holiday season and remember just a teaspoon of peanut butter before a party helps keep your addiction in check (just a little bit anyway).

Cottage Cheese Thighs Oh My

There I was, innocently drying off after a warm exfoliating shower. Foot up on the bathtub, stretching out a tight hamstring and I saw it! There on my thigh, clearly visible, the bumps, the lumps. No it couldn’t be. I slid my foot off the tub and stood bent over looking closely at both thighs. Cottage cheese, on both of them and not just a little patch but filling in the whole area from the top of my legs to my knees.

Glancing over to the countertop a thought hit me as I spied the Good-Bye Cellulite Gel-Cream by Nivea Body (typical price $11.49). I don’t care what anyone else thinks but if my boyfriend spies those same bumps he will surely say something truthful but not what I would really care to hear. Me, myself and my boyfriend are the only people that I care about seeing the cellulite, the rest is just noise. Grabbing the cream I spread it on both thighs, love the smell by the way. Here’s to smoothing the bumps and living in the land of “I am so not aging ungracefully if I can help it.”

Losing Weight on Thanksgiving

I can not believe I accomplished the formidable act of losing weight during the Thanksgiving Holiday. It may be a measly 1.5 lbs but it surely counts for a lot more in motivation gain. How did I do it? Well now, it is really no secret. I did not stay inside watching someone else play football or sports while eating turkey and desserts. The boyfriend cracked the whip and we stayed outside during the daylight hours and some of the dark as well while putting up a Holiday Light display.

This involved a great many things, first of all emptying the storage areas containing the holiday supplies. Heavy lifting, stretching and walking to and fro were all part of the process. This isn’t your momma’s Holiday Display it is a Lights to Music Holiday Extravaganza. As the English boyfriend puts it, “We are the nutters down the street.” Unpacking the decorations, sorting the light string boxes by color, organizing the ¼ acre (yes it is that big) display area and building the manger from recycled fencing. Hauling the hay, holding the light strings, placing the big holiday blowups and shoveling more gravel into the mud puddles. We moved onto labeling and connecting the 145 plus extension cords, bending, twisting, and lifting to help tone that core muscle group.

I was working 8 – 10 hours, being physically active all day, four days in a row with only my hunger (or the boyfriend’s daughters) to notify us that it was time to eat. Lunch was typically grabbing a quick bite, usually while walking back to the front of the property with more lights or decorations in hand that surely helped the weight loss process. I would have lost more but I suspect I was building muscle the whole time as well.

There you have it, the magic of weight loss during the holiday season. Stay outside, work your ass off, eat only when driven to it by hunger pangs or demanding children, have a glass of wine, collapse into bed, get up and repeat 3 more times.