a bit redundant....no?

Yipee-ca-yeay!

4 week weight gain.....1 1/2 lbs. Yeay for me!

Yipee-ca-yeay!

4 week weight gain.....1 1/2 lbs. Yeay for me!

Yipee-ca-yeay!

4 week weight gain.....1 1/2 lbs. Yeay for me!

One week to go....

I've made it three whole weeks without any treats. That's huge for me! There have been a couple of close calls (like the baby shower I had for my cousin ...or the birthday party for my grandpa...or like every night after the kids are in bed!) but I've held strong. The one slip up was when we went to dinner this weekend as a family and they accidentally brought me regular soda instead of the diet that I'd ordered. So not my fault! I'm not counting that. One more week to go!

As far as the rest of my weight loss journey, not much happening there. Since I last reported, I've lost a whole 1 lb. That's it. I've been so good about exercising, building up time and intensity, and eating better and less. Joe tries to comfort me by saying that I'm rebuilding all of the muscle that I lost after an entire pregnancy on the brink of bedrest...but seriously, I could would appreciate some better results for my efforts! Oh well, I'll keep at it and hopefully the results will come...soon.

Also weighing in

I realize that I did not actually say the numbers in my last post. So. I weighed 139 lbs and logged an amazing (sarcasm) 30% on the body fat meter. Now I am up to 141 lbs but I'm okay with that because *drum roll please* I lost 2% on the body fat meter! Yea! And since muscle weighs more than fat, it's okay that I have gained weight because I know that I will start losing later -- ya know, after I convert a bunch of fat to muscle. My abs though....still resemble Jello.
In other news, that whole no sugar thing lasted exactly 2 days. Now I'm going for moderation. Like, I won't eat all the cookie dough, just a couple of bites.
I did learn that I do better if I stay not hungry. I know, I know. Everyone knows that. There's a difference between knowing and knowing though. Ya know. So, I must make a better effort at having an actual lunch plan as well as actual snack plans between meals. Otherwise I break down into a treat-seeking missile.
Oh yea. And to brag (because that is at least 50% of my exercise motivation on some days): I went to spin class again today. I arrived early so I could do some back and shoulder lifting before class. After class, my friend Mindy, who is crazy in a good let's exercise kind of way, turned to me and said, "Ready to run a mile?" "bwahahahahaha! oh. you're serious. um. okay." or something like that was my response. So we ran a mile. Then we did a small ab workout. I WORKED OUT FOR 2 HOURS. 2 HOURS PEOPLE. I may lose it yet........

Weigh In

Last week sometime I weighed myself and I am now willing to own the number: 181 lbs. YIKES! Since then I have been watching what I eat better and have cut out the beef and pork products and increased the vegetable intake. So today when I weighed myself I was happier with the number I got: 178 lbs. So yay for eating better and weight coming off. Also the amount of walking I do to and from classes is probably helping in the exercise category (you know, as opposed to no exercise), but I do realize that I need to get back in that particular groove. So much of this last 6 months has been about survival, but I feel like I'm coming back into control of my own life and may be able to actually care about how I look again.

The ultimate stretch

I LOVE it when my belly starts growing so big that it starts stretching and pulling the previously formed love handles out. Not so bad. I don't feel so chubby and hopefully wont have to worry too much again about the "handles" until after delivery. That gives me a little less that three months to enjoy some semblance of "fatbacklessness". Then....it will be back in full force.

I suppose I will have to deal with it then.

How's it going? Well....

I am beginning day three of no sugary treats/snacks. I had one minor slip up when I wasn't thinking and had a piece of broken cookie. I didn't even realize what I'd done until it was halfway down. I'm so not counting it because at least I didn't say, "Oops. Well, since I already messed up....."
I got up yesterday in plenty of time to make it to the 5:45 spin class with Mindy (Ash fed at 4 and I didn't really go to sleep after). Then we did some tricep exercises. Today, my buns hurt so much from the "saddle" that it's hard to sit....
Mid day yesterday I took a nap and woke up with a killer headache and nausea. It's hard to know if that's from sugar withdrawl or the obscene hours I saw that morning.
So today.... still going on the sugar deal. My workout didn't happen today though. I slept hard until 7 when I fed Ash, made breakfast and eventually went to back to bed. Finally at 10 I drug my sorry self out of bed. (Usually the kids are up long before that but we had friends over until late and miraculously that evolved into sleeping in.) And here I am.

I want to be thin again

This originally started out as a comment on Sheena's post (see below), but as it grew massively I decided it needed to be it's own post....

I like Sheena's plan. I am attempting to also get a plan. Currently I am in negotiations with Sugar. I keep telling Sugar that I am willing to eat it if it will in return pass straight thru my system without installing itself in my fat cells. But Sugar's all, "I can't do that, it's physically impossible for that to happen". And I'm all, "But if you really loved me you'd do this for me". And then Sugar comes back with, "Have some freakin' self-control and only eat me in moderation". I think at this point Sugar may be winning at the negotiation table. Heartless Sugar.

But maybe, just maybe I can come back with......Splenda! Splenda is not sugar, Splenda is a sugar SUBSTITUTE. Which means I can eat more with fewer consequences (don't burst my illogical bubble on this one). And, LOTS OF THINGS CONTAIN SPLENDA. (I like saying it: Splenda. Splenda. Splenda. It just sounds so splendid!) Because honestly, I think for about 3 weeks a month I could probably just shun sugar, but then I'd get to that 4th week (which is actually the week I'm in now, sorry, TMI) when all the wires get crossed and I feel like I will quite possibly implode if I don't have sugar in my system RIGHT THIS MINUTE!!!!! And it's at that point that I know that I will fail.

Which is a very long and rambling way to say I'm going on a Splenda diet. Also, I'm giving up red meat and pork, because my body doesn't like them as well as it likes chicken. Also also, I bought the Wii Active because I'm feeling stubborn about getting up in the morning to workout, but I do have a small window of time when I'm home from school and the kids are napping that I could squeeze something in. And right now, anything is better than nothing. Perhaps someday I will do both. We'll see.

Okay. It's personal now...

I weighed myself a few days ago. Then today I had my body composition measured. Shoot. So I am really really fired up to change things up. Here's my plan.





Okay, I need a plan.


One thing I decided after spending 2.hours. trying to get out of the house to the gym and messing up naps for everyone: I need to get my sorry, slacking bum out of bed and go before Roy leaves for work. I have a friend who is there at 5 a.m every morning. Then I could have a work out buddy.... I am actually figuring if I'm there by 5:45 a.m. I'm good. She does an hour of cardio before strength training. I found some treadmill workouts I've been doing and like. They are more of the 20-30 minute variety....

Also. Sugar. I know some people around here are shunning the stuff. I found this unnecessary until now. I am *cough*cough* I am join*shudder* I AM JOINING THE SHUNNING. Wish me luck. Oh, except for Brown Sugar on my breakfast cereal. But I will use caution.

So far this is my plan. Shun Sugar. Wake up before the kids to exercise. Work out with Mindy because she's AWESOME! Any other grand ideas to ditch this "worse that poor" body comp?

(extra motivator: 10 year high school reunion is this summer....)

Wah-HOO!!!

I'm checking back in to let you know how my "sugar fast" is going. One week (and a day) down and still going strong. I have to say, the first day about mid-afternoon I had a KILLER headache! Sad how addicted my body is/was to sugar! The second day I still got a headache about the same time of day, but not as bad. By day three...no headache! This week is even more of a challenge because my hubby is out of town so it's just me and the kids and I don't have anyone keeping me in check. So it's all on me this week, but I think that I'll be fine.

The other good news for me yesterday was that I weighed myself and I'm down 2lbs from that week. It's a start. I've got a long ways to go. But I'll take any movement in the right direction!

I've been mixing up my workouts using the Wii Active, a new Biggest Looser DVD and the treadmill. All of those are working for me because I can do them at home whenever I'm able to fit it in. But I do miss running with my girlfriends maybe in the spring? We'll see.

So, that was my week. How was yours? Val, how's your no-sugar challenge going?

Gotta start somewhere...

Hello ladies! I'm back, after a very long absence, and finally going to face the scale. Yikes, I knew before climbing on that it was not going to be good, but still it was a big shock. So, I'll just get that out of the way and then I can focus on the positive. 203. Yep, that's up 40 lbs from the day I found out I was pregnant, 10 months ago.

So, I've got my work cut out for me, that's for sure. The encouraging thing is that I've lost the weight before so I know how to do it and that it can be done.

Last week I reached the six week mark (since the c-section) so I was allowed to start exercising again. I started the first day by jogging/walking on the treadmill for 2.5 miles. Wow, I am really slow now. Not that I was ever that speedy, but my "sprints" yesterday were at about 5.5 MPH. Sad. But, I was burning calories, that's what counts. The next two days I broke one of my Christmas presents and did some Wii Active workouts. I thought that it was fun and was surprised how sore they made me. Today, I did a Wii workout and about 20 minutes on the treadmill. So far, I'm being consistent but I've got to work on building up my strength and stamina again. Basically, I'm a big wimp right now! Some of my friends are running a half marathon in May and originally I thought that I could be ready by then (to run the race, but not to keep up with them), but now I'm not so sure...that might be a bit too soon.

Oh, and I am doing a 4-week-no-sugar-challenge for myself. Starting today, I'm cutting out all sweet treats from my diet. That means, no candy, cookies, soda, that kind of stuff. Let's face it, I'm a sugar junkie and I ate enough of that stuff over the holidays to last for the entire year, it was bad. So, I decided that this was the best way to jump-start my weight loss. Plus, I'm giving myself a clothes incentive, I set aside some money for new clothes if I can make it the full four weeks. My hubby has agreed to do it with me...for a week (wimp!). We'll see how it goes....anyone feel like joining me?