Wenches Don’t Have to be Round

This week I added two workouts into my routine, making a total of 6 to 9 workouts per week.  On Mondays and Wednesdays I will be staying after at my work gym to do a group workout with the head trainer.  This began this past Monday.

After  a long talk with him and the girl who I train with regularly, it was decided that I need to add three 30 - 45 minute cardio workouts a week to the 5 or 6 days I was training in the gym.  The only time I was really doing real cardio was on Sunday, when I went for a 1 mile run that takes about 15 minutes. 

Yesterday I was on the treadmill for 35 minutes.  25 minutes of that was a run, 10 minutes a fast walk with a steep grade.    I went a total of 2 miles and realize now that I shouldn’t have let myself be talked out of that extra 5 or 10 minutes.  I could have done it at that walk or I could have run a little slower, but I talked myself out of it.  While I was tired and my lungs were burning, I wasn’t pooped and could have hung in there.  I will do that next time I run.

This weekend I plan on taking my new pedometer out in the neighborhood and trying to run for 45 minutes.  I’ll definately run on Sunday and I’ll try on Saturday, but that depends on how early I get up.  I have to be at Weight Watchers at 8:30am and it takes me 40 minutes to get there, so… yeah.  I have to be up by 6am to run and shower before the meeting.  May not happen.  We’ll see.

Today I’m wearing a pair of pants I bought last July when I started my new job.  They were tight and I was loathe to wear them at that time.  Now they’re just HUGE on me and I’m thinking I may need to invest in some new pants

Here are a few virtual mes to get an idea of where I’ve been, where I am, and where I’m going.  Whee!

Before: 235 pounds

Current: 178 pounds

Goal: 140 pounds

Anyone else have challenges now during this lifestyle change that they didn’t have before they decided to lose weight?  I have a few that are frustrating the hell out of me.

Money - Yes, money is a challenge to my weightloss.  When I’ve paid the bills and squeezed every dime out of my paycheck just to make ends meet, the one thing there really isn’t money left over for is the grocery store.  I end up being stuck eating whatever we have left in the house that wasn’t fresh.    I can’t always afford to go get fresh vegetables, which means I won’t be eating vegetables because frozen and canned have way too much sodium.  Grrrr.  It’s been this way for two weeks.  I hate the choice between veggies and gas to get to work.  *grumbles at the economy*

Time - I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have the time to do 45+ minutes of cardio a day AND my trainers workout AND cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I had to give up my lunch hour at work to get the workout I do.  I consider myself to have five hours of non-work non-drive time a day.  Two of those hours are in the morning, one spent on getting ready for work, the other spent on doing chores like washing clothes.  Three are in the evening, when I want to spend time with my sweetie, but also have to make dinner and wash the dishes.  I already get little to no downtime and the last thing I want to do with my 1.5 free hours in the day is exercise.    In my mind, I need an hour and a half each day to exercise to get myself a good workout.  Where the heck am I going to find /that/.

Energy - Anyone else not have the energy to cook dinner or do that extra 30 - 45 minutes of cardio?  I should be cooking dinner every night, but I’m so tired by the time I get home after working 8 hours, working out an hour, and driving to and from work an hour each way… I’ve spent 11 hours doing something all day!  Where am I going to find that energy??  I already eat right and work out daily, but the energy just isn’t there.  I’m told I’ll get that energy from cardio, but how the heck do I find time for cardio??

I’ve got some ideas.  Like, get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning and take the dog out for a run or take food out to defrost when I get home, go run or do Tae-Bo or something, then cook after my workout.  I just haven’t had the energy to /try/ any of these ideas.

I really feel like if I could get these few things in somehow, I’d be losing the weight and not stuck on the plateau.  It’s so frustrating!  Argh!

Anyone else have these or other challenges related to weightloss?

Here are a couple of pictures of me to show progress.

 The first picture was taken in July of 2001.  I weighed 235.5 pounds and wore a size 20.

and here is a picture of me today.  My co-worker and I accidentally wore the same colors, so the rest of them decided it would be awesome to take a picture of the bobsy twins :P  Anyway, here I am weighing 178 and in a size 12 or 14.

So.  What’dya think?  How’m I doin?

Has anyone else been sick alot more or just not felt well since starting their weightloss journey?

I eat very well on the Core program, exercise a minimum of 4 times a week for 45 minutes a day with a personal trainer, and still I find myself just plain not feeling well.  I have more energy, but I’m sleepy.  I can run further, but I fall asleep after my workout (which is bad at work!).  I am grossed out by greasy food, but healthy food is still making me gag.  

Anyone else or is this just me?

I know my medication has something to do with it.  I actually was very ill yesterday afternoon after lunch.  I contacted my doctor and she told me to stop taking one of the meds I was taking.  After a rather explosive experience with a bodily function when I got home, I deciphered that it was also my lunch that made me ill.  Between that and the meds, I was just not doing well.

I’m doing better today, but I’m still a bit off.  Understandable, I suppose, but still.  I mean, alot has changed.  Like, I don’t get headaches anymore.  I sleep more fitfully (most nights).  However, my back, neck, and shoulders almost always are sore.  Like I mentioned, I’m more often sleepy than not.  And I don’t always feel like myself.

I’m also very, very tired of the foods I’ve been eating.  I am getting desperate for something different.  With summer coming, I think it’s time to move away from spinach at every meal and move to salads.  However, I still need to get meat in and other vegetables, so I need to look up recipes.

Has anyone tried the making the baked vegetable chips on the Weight Watchers web page?  I’ve now tried twice, followed the directions using everything but salt,  but for the life of me, I cannot get the vegetables to crisp up.  They just shrink and are soft.  I’m so frustrated with this recipe!  Argh!

I don’t know why, but for some reason, as I’m driving home from work tired, hungry, and stressed from traffic, the last thing I want to do when I get home is cook dinner.  Which SUCKS because that’s the FIRST thing I need to do!  But no, instead, I stop on the way home and get Sushi, or Freebirds, or Subway instead of cooking my nice, healthy dinner.

Last night, knowing I was coming home to watc the “Biggest Loser” finale (go Ali!!  WOOHOO!), I stopped at HEB and picked up not one, not two, but THREE containers of their fresh-made sushi.   While I’m not sure that the sushi itself is all that bad, I know the soy sauce is horrid, even if I do use the Low Sodium type.  It’s liquid salt, for cripes sake!  What is wrong with me??  I’m not supposed to eat salt!  I’m not supposed to eat white rice!  But there I go, right to the sushi because, for whatever reason, I’ve decided that it’s not so bad as going to McDonald’s and getting a quarter pounder and fries.

Ye gods!  Why can’t I just come home and put my own fish in the skillet, cook it, make brown rice (which consists of boiling water and putting the rice in it) and have a nice salad or something?  I mean, heck, I’m watching two of the most inspiring women I’ve ever seen on the Biggest Loser right in front of my face and while I do that, I’m stuffing myself with food I should not be eating.  Augh!

And today I’m sitting here, it’s around 6am, I’m still in my PJs, my stomach is rumbling, and the last thing I want to do is get up and make my breakfast and lunch for today.  I need to do this.  I’m working out twice today, running at lunchtime and some interval training after work, so I need the food.  However, the thought of my breakfast, no matter how healthy my eggs with spinach and mushrooms may be, just makes me gag.  *gak*

Okay, enough with the beating myself up.  In the words of Nike, I’m going to get up off this sofa and Just Do It.  Dammit.

I wanted to write a post about my (future) stepson.

So you understand, this kid is SKINNY.  He’s got his father’s genes and he’s just plain tall and thin.  He shot up this year and his old shorts that fit him at age 10 are now /shorter/ on him, but he needs a /belt/ to hold them up!  He’s twelve now and started Intermediate School (Jr. High, Middle School) this year with the 6th grade.

He came home a few weeks ago and asked me, “Is there a way to take teriyaki sauce to school?”  Buh? 

When I asked him why, he explained, “I’m tired of eating all the fried food at school, but they have vegetable bowls.  I’d like them if I could eat them with teriyaki sauce.”

I was floored!  This is the kid that, at the beginning of the year, went /around/ me and his dad who were buying him things to make his lunch at home and asked his grandmother to set him up with the food plan at school.  Nice. 

Then last week, after he came home from being with his grandmother(s) I found a THREE LITRE of Coke in our fridge.  Coke is my #1 red light food.  (Sometimes I get so frustrated at the foods he comes home with from their house!)  I told him and his dad that they needed to either drink that Coke or I was going to dump it and throw it out.

He asked me why and I explained to him, “Sweetie, Coke is one of the major things that made me fat.”  He blinked and asked, “I thought only fat made you fat?”  Dear god, the boy has been reading labels!  I explained to him that different things can /make/ fat, like sugar and white starches, etc.  Then his father joined in the conversation and said, “You really need to stop eating all the fried foods, like grilled cheese and french fries and onion rings.”

Again he asked why and my DF told him, “Because they are fried in melted fat.  That’s what a grease is.  That’s what butter is.  It’s melted fat and it’s coating your insides and hurting you.”  My stepson is borderline OCD and obsessively washes his hands all day.  I pointed out that if he doesn’t like grease on his hands, think of how it’s sitting inside of him.

That got the point across.

I’m just so proud of him that he’s this aware of food.  He’s been spending alot of time outside riding his bike and playing with his friends recently instead of playing video games or watching cartoons.  It’s just a HUGE deal for us that he’s coming around this way.   He’s even told his mother he didn’t want to eat at whatever fast food joint she was taking him to, that he’d just wait until he got home with us!  It’s because he knows we’ll feed him healthy foods!

Just amazing, isn’t it?

I am /finally/ back down!  In fact, I’m .2 lower than I was at my lowest, so right now I’m at an even 58 pound weightloss!  Woohoo!  On the Weight Watchers book, I lost /6/ pounds this week!  However, considering that last week I /gained/ 4.8 because I selfishly ate sushi with soy sauce the night before weigh in and swelled up like a pumpkin… you get the point.  I think that, instead, my weightloss was actually 1.2 this week because I consider the 4.8 pounds to be pure sodium weight.  I’m excited to be back on plan!  Woohoo!

I want to make my Sunday Morning omlette this morning, but I am out of avocados, so I need to go to the store first.  I also wanted to go for a run this morning and see how far I can get, if I can run over a mile without stopping.  I think I can.  I spoke with my trainer at length this week about stepping it up to get to my goal weight before the wedding.  He told me he wants me adding 3 more days of cardio on top of the 5 days I usually work out with him/them.  So he wants me to run when I get home from work or on the weekends at least 3 more days a week.  Shouldn’t be too hard.  I already run on Sundays, so I will need to run on Saturdays and add one run a weeknight.  I might step it up and run Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays in my neighborhood, then run around Memorial Park after Weight Watchers on Saturdays.  The huge challenge for me is that working out after work where I’ve already worked out for 45 minutes, plus driving 2 hours a day makes me very tired by the time I get home, so running in the evening is going to be a HUGE challenge for me.  We’ll have to see how it goes.  I wish I had enough time before work to run in the mornings, but that would mean getting up at 4:30am and… no.  Before 5am is still the night before, for cripes sake.

On a different note, we found the site for my wedding this weekend and one of the many benefits of the venue we chose is there will be food at my wedding that is ON PLAN!  While I know I shouldn’t worry about that for my wedding, the fact of the matter is that it will NEVER be out of my mind.  Among everything else, we will have fresh fruit and an omlette station!  YAY!  And durnit, I am /going/ to eat a nice, fat piece of my wedding cake and my sweetie’s grooms cake.  HELL YEAH!

How much fun is this??

So I was talking to my head trainer yesterday and told him I really want to have another 40 pounds off by mid-July.  He said it’s possible, but I have to really blow off everything else and concentrate on it.  He said it’s much more realistic to have that 40 pounds off by September.  The work will be nearly as hard, but I don’t have to kill myself to do so.

He suggested that on top of what I am already doing, which basically is working out about 45 minutes a day 5 days a week, that I add in 30 minutes to an hour of cardio at least 3 more days a week.  Starting Sunday (today I have a doctor’s appointment, tomorrow I am spending the entire day doing wedding foo) I will be doing just that!  Not entirely sure what I’m going to do each day, but I know I’m going to run the 3 miles around Memorial Park on Saturdays and at least 2 miles around my neighborhood on Sundays, though I may go find a local park to do that as well.  We’ll see.

I’m on a downswing weight wise.  Not quite back to the total weight loss of 57.3, but I’m /almost/ there.  I hate plateaus.  You don’t just stall, you yo-yo.  Oy.

When you’re losing weight, or you’ve lost weight, don’t you just want to take your friends and family who are overweight and teach them how you’ve done it so they can experience the same joy you have as well?

Or, even more difficult, when they’ve decided they’re ready to lose weight but are, in your opinion, half-assing it?

My mother is one of the half-assing it folks.  One of my good friends says she ready but hasn’t started yet.  All I want to do is go to their houses and cook for them and get them to work out with me.  A real workout.  Not a leisurely stroll around the block or on the treadmill.    I want to redo their entire way of thinking about eating and exercise.

Unfortunately, as my best friend says (who has lost over 100 pounds now!), you can’t make someone do it.  They have to decide for themselves and just vocalizing and wishing won’t make it happen.  Action has to be taken!

So to all my fellow Weightwatchen Bloggers… don’t half ass it!  Just do it!  Take ACTION!  It’s all up to you! 

Woohoo!