January progress report

So this month wasn't a total loss.  Well, it was a loss because I did lose weight, but I wasn't very dedicated to hitting my goal.  I'll take the lazy 4lbs weight loss! My progress in the last six months includes a grand total of 23 lbs lost (30 all together, or 54 if you count baby weight, which I really haven't been. Until right now...) and 17.25 inches lost all over this hot (almost) bod.  I have a number in mind for where I'd like to be at the end of this month but due to my current superstitions about posting a goal out loud and not hitting it (see previous months!) I'll just let you know if I make it or not!

Also looking forward to my Valentine's gift:

My man knows what I like! So he is taking me on a very special date in Las Vegas. We are doing a 5k color run Valentine's weekend! Some girls like to get flowers, some, chocolate, others like getting jewelry.  Not this girl! I want someone throwing color in my face as I huff and puff my way through the streets of downtown Vegas! There's truly nothing on the planet I wanted more and I was so bummed because I thought we weren't going to be able to do it! I love that man! He gets me!

hoping we end up looking like this happy couple!

There will be a post following the happiest 5k on the planet.  Speaking of happy 5k's, the first one we ran was the Disneyland 5k back in 2009 and every year since then we have planned on running it again, it was so much fun.  BUT...This damn race has gained so much popularity that it has been sold out each year since the year we ran.  This year the race entry opened on January 22nd and was sold out in under ten days.  Boo!!!! Disneyland obviously needs to start adding a few more races to its annual agenda!

Until next time, stay healthy, friends!

PS; I implore you to check out the random comment on this blog! I count this as success! I am a big shot blogger when cookie monster comments on my page!

PPS:  Speaking of cookie monster, every time I try cutting out sugar, this is exactly how I feel:




Motiv----ah, whatever!

Last time I checked in I was struggling all through December, not working out, plagued by illness, and eating like crap pretty much all month, and I didn't manage to hit my goal of below 200 lbs. I did lose some weight, but not at all what I needed to lose and most of it sickness induced, so I entered the new year determined to hit my goal and be done with the terrible 2's for good. 


...Unfortunately, I missed the mark again.  My motivation left the building almost ALL month long,  leaving me close, but no cigar.  I have worked out a grand total of 10 days this month. Ten!! Most of them in the last two weeks as I struggle to get myself back on track. 

And I'm close, really dang close, so it pisses me off a bit.  I should be telling you all that I'm close to the 180's by now! But this struggle is my life.  And sometimes we get sidetracked by life.  Some days I'm feeling good, working out, eating great and feeling like this:


Only in a perfect world...

Aaaaaand then there are days when I'm shoveling fistfuls of cookies into my pie hole, while sitting on the couch watching "Glee", feeling a little bit more like this:


Yes, I did go there.

I'll keep on mentioning that this whole process is a journey.  It doesn't start one weekend and finish the next.  This is me changing my life. And life change doesn't happen overnight.  What I need is to stop telling all my lovely (two) readers out there about how I sometimes fail and that it's ok, and start looking into the mirror when saying that.  I need to hear it the most.  I'm not a contestant on the biggest loser, I don't have anyone telling what, when and how much to eat or what, when, and how hard to work out.  I have myself. I don't have a fancy gym membership.  I have some dvd's and my own two feet.  I'm doing this 100% solo, no buddy to cheer me on (sometimes my husband does) no one telling me that the days I don't want to work out are the days I need it the most.  No one telling me that cookies are bad (without moderation) and to stop eating like crap.  It is all on my own shoulders, so my progress and my failures are solely my responsibilities.  And that makes my victories SOOOOO much sweeter.  So maybe I'm not quite where I wanted to be at this point.  But I am on my way, and now I'm not stopping!

This is a marathon, not a sprint!

So long 2012!

Well, the month of December has been a total diet flop.  I believe I worked out a grand total of three days this month (yikes!) and lost 3 lbs solely due to anxiety (which I gained back thanks to this freaking cold). It ended up being a heck of a month over here! Mom had knee replacement surgery and on that same day my husband started at his new job so there were a few adjustments that needed to take place! And once I got into a comfy groove Christmas and all its madness was upon us! Now sick with the mother of all sinus infections/colds I am out for the count.  Screw this month and all its difficulties! But I am still just fine with where I am as far as my weight loss.  I've not gone so far backwards that I can't fix it!

At the beginning of 2012, I made a set of resolutions, nothing super crazy as I have done in years past, but just some pretty general goals for this year that I am proud to say were for the large part all accomplished! And it feels good to say that I can check those things off my list! This new year will be no different, and one of my big goals for the year is to lose a grand total of 47 (it was supposed to be 40!) pounds this year, putting no specific amount on any month as in the past, because somehow setting an amount to lose each month hasn't worked for me. Maybe I'll decide to lose more once that 40 is gone but I feel for my body that I'd be comfy at 160, and that I'd probably look pretty good and not too skinny per husband's request! Also on the table is to run my first half marathon, either the Disney half in Sept or the Las Vegas rock n roll in Dec.  With a few 5k's peppered in here and there.

In high school I was a mediocre student, just skating by with minimal effort and getting mostly B's and the occasional A or C and I always wondered what my life would have been like had I put forth the effort in school and worked hard.  I could have gone to a really good college (and would have been stuck in some crazy job that would pay well but make me crazy I'm sure) but the mediocrity is carried over to my dieting life as well.  As an "average" dieter I have managed to lose 25 lbs this year with a pretty moderate effort and I can imagine what I would have lost giving 110% all the time.  So one of my soft goals this year is to try a little bit harder each month, and to not dwell on my failures but thrive on the small successes.

And so, with that,  I wish you and yours a blessed new year! May you set some goals and go out and achieve them! Now get out there and get moving!

Progress Report

Try this on for size, watching the Victoria's Secret fashion show, having taco bell for lunch and writing about my weight loss for the month. Things that just don't sound like they fit together! But this is my life! I say, forget the idea of "normalcy" when it comes to dieting and getting healthy! I will probably never look like a VS model and I'm ok with that.  And I'm going to eat what I want (within limits) and not tell myself I can never eat something again.  I am getting healthy my way, and it's working!

Did I meet my goal of 10 lbs this month? No, just half. Did I lose tons of inches? No, just one. And I am proud of what I've done this far.  Here are some accomplishments that I did make this month:

I stopped nursing Lucas the beginning of the month and had a ton of trouble losing anything for the first two weeks, even with Jillian four days a week! So I quit Jill for a minuet and spent the next 2.5 weeks running. Ah! My old fling running, we quickly became reacquainted and the pounds started to come off. And I hit some major milestones with my running, my fastest mile time, 13:13!! The last time I saw a mile like this was my freshman year...of high school! I cried, I felt like a million bucks the whole rest of the day.  A couple of days later I ran the entire two miles with out walking, and I cried that day too! I squeezed my butt into a pair of jeans two sizes smaller than I have been wearing for years and I have to wear all my bras on the last hook (that's probably mostly due to nursing!  Good thing the hubby is working now so I can buy some smaller bras!) and I have hit my lowest weight since before I had kids! This was a monumental month for me! It may have not been my biggest loss, but it was by far my most rewarding!

This coming month I am changing my routine a bit.  I can't expect to lose more than 5 lbs a month by only working out for 20-30 minuets 5 times a day! So 3 days a week I'll be doing 45-50 mins of cardio and strength training and the other 2-3 days just 20-30 of cardio.  I will also be adding a mile to my run on Saturdays until it gets comfy, then I'll be running 3 miles 3-4 days a week.  If you want big results, you need to go big! I am also sticking really close to my calorie intake of 1200-1550 per day, as I am not nursing anymore it's very important to stay within those limits so that I will be able to hit my goal for this month.  I originally wanted to set a small goal of only 5 lbs for this month as it has been difficult to hit my goals the last 2 months, but I am a mere 8 lbs form being 199.  I haven't been out of my 200's since before E was born! And now I am only 8 lbs away!!!  You have no idea how thrilled I am, and I am sure that this will be enough to motivate me to bust my butt this month and meet that goal!

I wanted to ask you a question though...what do you think about starting a group of us that are trying to get healthy to chat, give advice, maybe meet up and work out once a week?? Anyone interested?

Ugh! Now that this baby is mobile I have to chase him around the un-baby proofed house! I'd better get running!

I'll have some posts about how to keep the holidays from ruining your diet and next month, before during and after pictures as I hopefully hit my first goal!!

Failure can be a good thing

I set out a goal to lose 10 lbs this month, like I did in September. I thought it would be easy. I honestly thought my great motivation and will power would keep up and I would even lose 15 lbs! I felt so strong and so empowered by that first 10 lbs that I thought for sure I could take on the world!

But I can't.  Rome, as they say, wasn't built in a day.  I didn't gain this weight in a month and it is going to take some time for it to come off.  I made a huge mistake in this journey by thinking that I was invincible to all of the dieting pitfalls out there. Like I had magically undone all of the damage and bad habits of a lifetime of eating crap and lethargy! I am human. I. AM. HUMAN!!

I did lose weight this month, a whole 4 lbs, so not bad, I didn't completely fail, but if you know me at all, this is like a huge fail to me.  I may as well not have lost anything (I'm so ungrateful!) at all the way I have been feeling.  It was a rough start to the month and I knew that that set me back a bit.  And my energy levels just tanked around lady week and I kept getting migraines and other nasty headaches too.  So hard to try working out when your head feels like a bomb just went off in there! I was also tweaking my workouts and working out less, not really watching my calorie intake, ect! Human. Not bionic woman!

This "failure" has shown me a thing or two, though.  That this is a long journey.  A marathon, not a sprint, and that I have to learn and grow along the way.  I may not always hit my target weight every month and I need to be ok with that. I may need to settle for a smaller goal, I mean, any weight loss, even if it had just been 1 pound, would have still been a step in the right direction! I can do this, and I am doing this! And I'll be dammed if I let my inhibitions hold me back again this month!

So once again I am putting that big 10 number up there.  If  I hit it, great! Let's celebrate and par-tay!! If not, hopefully my numbers will still be going down! Even 5 lbs will put me at my lightest weight in 4+ years! Just 5! That's an awesome accomplishment! I can be proud of that!

October, week 3

Bonjour...weekly check-in time! Let's talk numbers, as in the 4 lbs I lost this last week.  Thanks mostly in part to the 3 day thing I keep squawking about.  I was thinking I'd try it again today but, it gets really hard! So maybe next week.  And cutting your calories that often just tells your body that you're starving to death and you lose muscle, not fat. So I don't recommend doing it all the time.  Once or twice a month to help out is probably good.

I think that those two weeks of slacking off  early this month and not eating very well has hurt my chances of reaching my goal of 10 lbs this month.  I'm not too sad about that because I'll be close, but lucky if I reach that mark.  I have a soft goal for the rest of the month of an additional 2 lbs, pretty sure I can do better, but baby steps.  I am already lighter than I have been in the last 4 years and other people are starting to notice!! Once I hit that 2 lb mark I will have lost a grand total of 20 lbs, a feat I have not achieved since I was about 20 by taking a random supplement that is no longer found on the market (scary!) But yea for small victories!!

This week's plan includes starting a round of the 30 day shred, 5 days a week for 30 days (and if you've ever attempted Jill's 30 day shred, you know that this workout is HARD!!) so I am a bit terrified.  I usually do it once or twice a week and am so sore after that that's all I can do! But I have yet to do a whole 5 days of workouts this month (last week my day 5 work out was a 1 mile walk with the kids so I don't count it) even though I have been planning it for sometime, so it may be time to step it up!

Does anyone know just how hard it has been to eat well this month? There is so much candy around that it has proven rather difficult!! I feel that October is one of my personal "bad" diet months.  November, eh, that's usually confined to one day of binge eating, and December usually I'm baking for other people, not having that stuff around the house, but October? The kids got a ton of candy from the Mickey's trick or treat party at Disneyland earlier this month, which means each person who went got about 1-2 lbs worth of candy each! Then we have an additional 3 days of trick or treating that we are doing this year at school/church/Halloween! So even more candy! I am also setting a smaller goal for next month for this reason.  I can't put so much pressure on myself when there will be temptation staring me down all the time, I'm human you know and chocolate is my weakness!!

Next week's update will include pictures and numbers! Time to let it all out there!

How's everyone else doing? Struggles? Victories? Fill me in!

Would you give your kids cocaine?

Well, would you? I mean, no parent, even the crappy ones who take drugs themselves would willingly give their child something like that.  But in a recent study, it was found that certain processed (read: junk) foods can cause the brain to respond and have addictive cravings the same as someone who uses cocaine.  (This article was featured in Thursday's Daily Press newspaper, "Under Fire." Article could not be found online.)

Certain "over" processed foods, such as flamin' hot cheetos have recently come under fire for such reasons.  Researchers state that these foods are super processed with these flavors causing people to crave the heck out of them.  Foods are genetically engineered to so that the brain's pleasure centers are flooded with dopamine, which causes that "feel good" state thus perpetuating the need to repeat that feeling. And there you have it. Your kid is addicted to crack! (In the form of food)

I try so hard not to criticize other parents for their choices.  We live in an overly critical society and I try very hard to never want to not be a part of that, I mean, to each his own! Live and let live folks! That's Betty's stance! But giving your kids crap like soda, and junk ALL the time to me is absolutely unacceptable.  You wouldn't willingly give your kids poison would you? The why would you pollute them with unnecessary junk food? It's relatively the same concept! There is no nutritional value in giving your kid a soda, there is no benefit to them in giving them fast food ALL the time. In fact, the opposite is true, this is detrimental to their health and well being over time.  And people wonder why their kids are overweight, or why their kids teeth are rotting out. Really? Let's think! Childhood obesity is not the child's problem, it's the parents!

I know it's hard. Shoot, despite my best efforts, my kid's favorite food is french fries!!  I was a product of this type of behavior, and I grew up an overweight child.   And I also admit that I allow my son to have some junk, occasionally, because we can't avoid it 100%, not a single one of us can.  Some days it's way easier to hit the McDonald's drive through on the way home, or to just let them have something like a soda for a special dinner out. The key is occasionally. Giving in to your child's whims, tantrums and begging is lazy parenting. (Ugh and I hate to go that route, but I am VERY passionate about this!!)

Just think of the struggles you are having yourselves to be healthy, do you really want that for your child? I know that this is the number one reason I am the food Nazi with my children.  They will never be allowed to raid the pantry, they do not get juice every day (maybe once or twice a week, and only one a day), they will never have a soda under my roof, they will eat at least one serving of fruit or vegetables daily, they will be extremely limited in having fast food. They will have the options to make wise food choices, they will learn why these things are not healthy for them, they will be allowed occasional treats because kids have gotta be kids, but they will be given every advantage to be as healthy as possible. Because I don't want them to be teased in school about their weight, or to have a phobia of eating in public, or to struggle their whole lives with obesity like me. And why would anyone else want that for their kids? This is such a passive epidemic, I mean how often do you think about that as you hand your child some chips or candy? You don't.  You really have to be mindful of these things and that requires extra effort to an already overwhelmed parent! But isn't it worth it? Like I said before, you wouldn't willing poison your child. Maybe take small steps and just be the bad guy and say no. One day, your son will be in fresh and easy begging you to buy him some cauliflower! (that one blew me away!) And think of how great that will make you feel! Hooray for small victories!

* I implore you to do some digging about some of these things, google, bing, do whatever to learn some of the facts surrounding these things! Becoming informed is like arming yourself for battle!*