Oh What a beautiful morning.......

I am so blessed to live in Liberty. What a wonderful little town. The city has many parks and trails. There is one trail only about 1/2 mile from my house. I took the dog for a walk this morning. We walked to the trail and then down the trail for about 1/2 an hour. Then we came home. So we walked for about an hour. It was so beautiful. The trail is wooded on both sides with a nice path. There is running water throughout the trail. The sound of running water is very soothing. I took my Ipod for tunes, but decided against listening to them. I just enjoyed the sounds of nature this am. Mitzy was very excited to get to go for a walk again. I thought she would run and hide, but she was falling all over herself trying to get out the door. She is doing really good on the walks too. She isn't barking like she used to at everyone including pets. It is fun to go for walks with her. Although squirrels still get to her. She wants to chase them down. I saw so many beautiful birds today. It was a very enjoyable walk. The only problem, I had no idea how far I had walked. I looked online at the city's website for trail info, no luck. So I called and they have a map with mileage. I went and got a couple. One for me and one for the family, they like to bike ride the trails. I think I put in about 3 miles of walking according to the trail I was on and the mileage from my house. Not a bad little jaunt. Will have to do it again soon. :)

Family Fitness Fun

What a beautiful day this has been. I started my day with my first ever 3 mile walk. I went to the Walk for Life at the Pleasant Valley Baptist Church. My husband and children went as well. I set a goal to accomplish all 3 miles in an hour. That would be three 20 minute miles. I thought that is a good pace for me at this time. So out I went. The kids were going to try and do a 20 minute mile as well, but only 1. My daughter finished her mile in about 15 minutes, she has long legs. My 7 yr old son did his mile in 23 minutes. He has just been diagnosed with asthma and he gets worried about running now. I want to get him out more so he can see he can still do things and breath. I have noticed an improvement in my asthma now that I am working out. I just use my inhaler before I get started and usually do just fine. Today was a little cold in the morning while we were walking. But I warmed right up. The last mile I picked up my pace because I was afraid I was not going to make my goal. I came in at 55 minutes for the 3 miles. I am so proud of myself. It was great fun and I was so pumped after that I just did not know what to do with myself. I am going to participate in the Walk for the Homeless in Liberty on May 17. I am not sure how long it is, but I am going to do it. Look for more updates as the time gets closer. I am out of here, have to take my daughter for a haircut.

Retraining needed......

Today I sent my daughter and her friend into Quik Trip with my credit card. OK I know a big mistake, but in more ways than one. It was cold and rainy, and I wanted a Diet Coke. I told them they could get a snack for themselves and my younger son. Anyway, they came out with snacks and my diet coke. But their snack was Ben and Jerry's pints of ice cream. First off, I was upset about the amount of money they spent. So I told them they would pay for the Ice Cream.

Then I said, "how many calories are in those pints?"
They said. "260."
I said "let me see them." I began to read it to them: "There are 4 servings of ice cream in these containers and each serving is 260 calories a piece. That equals 1040 calories in one container. " (FYI, one pint of Ben and Jerry's is 25 points on Weight Watchers. That is almost an entire day of points.) They were planning on eating it in one sitting.
They said , "it is only part of our daily calories."
I said , "how many calories do you think you can have in one day?"
They said "20,000."
I said, "try 2000"
They said, "So one zero off big deal."
I said, "add that zero to your weight and it is a big deal!"

I so have to retrain my children. I have been a bad influence on them. I hope it is not too late.

PS. My daughter caught me writing this blog. She got upset that I am including this story. She said, " Thanks to me one of my teachers reads your blog. Don't write that." So if you know my daughter try not to hold this against her. She was with her good friend and they were being goofy. You know that preteen age is fun, fun, fun. And besides, I have taught her everything. Bad I know. But I am working on fixing that. :)

Don't it feel good!

I just got back from Weight Watchers. I have that song in my head, "I'm walking on sunshine." The chorus, goes like this:

I'm walking on sunshine, wooah
I'm walking on sunshine, woooah
I'm walking on sunshine, woooah
and don't it feel good!!

Hey, alright now
and don't it feel good!!
hey yeh ,oh yeh
and don't it feel good!!

walking on sunshine
walking on sunshine

The reason I feel so good today is I lost 5.4 pounds this week! This means since I started trying to lose weight I have lost 20.6 pounds.(since I started with Mandy,but if i count since I Thanksgiving time, it is 22.6 pounds. ) WOW 20 pounds. I can hardly believe it. I feel so good right now. I feel like I can do anything. I cannot even begin to explain it. I called Mandy right from the meeting. Several ladies from Church are doing WW too. They were at the meeting today. The meeting was so good. I just love my WW leader! She is so upbeat and I love the stuff she tells us. Today she talked about going for a run on Sunday. She was talking about how she started out a walker and then progressed to running. She also said she goes running no matter what the weather is too. It was really good. She mentioned that if she doesn't run she gets to feeling anxious and depressed. I know how she feels. I love the way exercise makes me feel. I almost wish I could do more exercise. It is funny because my mind is willing, but my body has to play catch up. It is great! and Don't it feel good! YEAH!

Steps toward my dreams....

Tonight I attended the Liberty PTA Council Banquet. I sat in a room of volunteers who work with the local schools to help the students. It made me feel really good. One of the teachers who know me but has not seen me in a while, said I did not recognize you. I cannot figure it out but you look different, did you change your hair or something? I know it was because I am losing weight and I am happier. I looked pretty good tonight. I felt good and was in control. We had a dinner. It was baked chicken with breading, veggies, bread and potatoes. I took a larger portion of the veggies, no bread or potatoes (they were all cheesy), and I took some chicken. I scraped off the breading and ate the chicken breast. It was good. I drank water. In the middle of that table sat a large plate of dessert goodies. Chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels, as well as cookies. They came from the candy store here in town. I ate a chocolate covered strawberry. It was delicious. So sweet and tangy. I only ate one, I did not obsess about it and I wasn't tempted to eat more. In the past I would have tried the pretzels and the cookies too. I chose the strawberry because I have never had a chocolate covered strawberry and it was fruit with the chocolate. But I did not eat seconds or even thirds and there was so much left over. Such a nice feeling to leave a dinner out not over stuffed. I felt in control.

This week I bought a Nano Ipod. I absolutely love it. I needed something to listen to while working out. My old mp3 player is not user friendly. I could not even access the music I had on it. I got frustrated with it every time I used it. So I went and bought the newest color of Nano in hot pink. I also bought an arm band. I was thinking about getting the Nike sport add on , but the reviews are not very good. If anyone has this product, let me know how you like it. For now I am so happy with the Nano. It was a nice little reward for me and it will help me to keep moving. :)

Well it is that time of the night and I need to get the kids to bed. BTW, I actually have a clean house. I have so much more energy now that I am able to get more done in my day. It is so fab! I can hardly wait to put in that garden. :)

Biggest Loser....

I, like many others watched last nite as the first woman won the Biggest Loser. The show was so great. I cried as contestant after contestant told their story and got on the scale. I was so happy for them all. So inspirationaI. I know they had real big losses because they devoted so much time and help from the Biggest Loser. I know that losing that much weight in that amount of time is not realistic for me. But the way they pushed and the way they felt about being overweight really inspires me to push on. I was so excited when Ali won. She was voted off early and then brought back. She continued her weight loss when she went home. She really knows how to dream and accomplish her goals.

I bought a little magazine from the Biggest Loser. It is full of weight loss tips, exercise routines and logs to help you while on your journey to lose weight. It is really a packed little magazine. I have found it very helpful. One article has 8 steps to making the big commitment of losing weight.

1. Be Honest about your weight problem.
2. Don't make excuses.
3. Learn from your past.
4. Do a clean sweep of all junk food.
5. Build your support system.
6. Set realistic goals.
7. Make daily resolutions.
8. Expect to face obstacles.

When I read this, I evaluated how I have done on these steps.
1. I have embraced blatant honesty.
2. I have stopped making excuses about not losing weight.
3. I am working on evaluating my past weight loss efforts, so that I can benefit from those experiences.
4. Junk food. Working on that step. I cleaned out the house but some people bring it back in. So I am working on converting the family over to no junk food. :)
5. I have successfully built a strong and fabulous support system.
6. Mandy has helped me to set realistic goals.
7. I love the daily resolution idea. I have been working on weekly, so now I will try to be more daily in my goals.
8. I have faced obstacles and so far so good. Overcoming them and keep on going.

It is a good feeling to know that I have made some big changes and that they are in line with weight loss experts advice. I am well on to a new life with big dreams.

Losing it all over.......

Saturday I put on my skinny jeans. I had ordered them off the Internet and they never did fit right. Always way too tight and too hard to zip. On the off chance I did get them zipped, then I could not breathe and would have dunlap over the belt. But Saturday they zipped without any effort. How great. I was excited, they even felt a little baggy in the hiney and legs. I was so surprised. I went to the store and tried on some new clothes at Macy's. I cannot usually buy clothes there because they only go to 24W and I wore a 30/32. I can get into a 24W! It was still a little tight, not quite loose enough for my taste. So I decided to not buy anything right now. I figure I will just wear my loose fitting stuff for now. I am on a downward slide, might as well save my $. :) Anyway, Monday I went to buy new pair of walking shoes. I went to the Metro North Walk/Run shop. How great are they? They have you walk on treadmill and watch your gate and then measure you and make suggestions for your needs. I usually have to go in and buy a size that does not have a lot of options to choose from. I got to try on several pairs of shoes yesterday. Why? you ask. Because my feet are skinnier. Who would have guessed it. I did not know your feet could lose weight. :) I went from an EE, which is double wide, to a D. The lady said my left foot was a B but my right foot was a D. So we fitted for the D. Woo Hoo! I am seeing changes in me in more ways than the scale. It is a good feeling.

I just love the ladies I work out with at EQ. They are the best. So supportive and caring. Mandy is the greatest. I am so grateful to have these people in my life. It is such a blessing. I plan to go to a walk on Saturday for the Women's Clinic in Liberty. I will put a link to it later. It is 3 miles and it will be my first time doing something like that. So cool. :)

bump in the road

Last Friday I was walking on the treadmill, going at a pretty good pace and feeling really good. Then suddenly I got a bad headache. I started to feel dizzy and nauseous. I thought maybe I was dehydrated. So I drank some more water and kept walking, When my headache would not go away, I finally gave up and took break. I drank some more water and but still felt bad. I was so angry that I could not continue my workout. I was just beginning to feel like I was going to make my goal for the week of 7 miles. But my head hurt so bad, that I just decided to go home. First I checked my blood pressure. It was fine, so I went home. I ate something and voila, my headache went away. In fact, I felt much better. I had a pretty busy weekend with the family and did not get a real workout in all weekend. On Monday I went to EQ. I barely got started on my work out and boom, my headache returned. I felt sick again. I talked to Mandy and we came to the conclusion that it could be that I am not eating enough in the am. So I went home and ate. And yes, I felt better. Today, I ate a better breakfast with some protein and carbs, then I worked out. I felt so much better. I refuse to quit. This is just a bump, a learning experience. I just need to revamp my eating habits. I have never been a breakfast eater So eating before I work out is not something I was really doing. I would grab a glass of milk and a banana or just a banana. I have to rethink my habits. My body is changing, so I guess my metabolism is changing too. I need more calories in the am so I can workout. Goal for this week is to eat a good breakfast every morning.

Now I get it......

I want to write about what I have been doing. Yesterday, I took my 10 pound dog on a 2 mile jaunt. We walked at a pretty good pace. I wanted to take in the fresh air and get in a good workout. Poor little dog, she was panting and going as fast as her little legs would carry her. As soon as she saw the front door of our house she got real excited and darted into the house. Drank down some water, and plopped onto the couch. She looked up at me as if to say "are you crazy woman? I am going nowhere else today." It was hard to get her to move. She is so funny. But it was a great walk. I had some tunes in one ear and kept a watch on my heart rate, because I wanted it get it up in a good zone. And we just walked. It was nice. I was thinking about the movie "What Women Want". You know the movie where Mel Gibson can hear women's thoughts. I had just recently seen a part of the movie and was recalling the commercial they made for Nike. It was about a woman jogging on a road and the voice over was talking about how the road doesn't care what you are wearing or how you look, the road is just glad you came to visit again. It made me smile to myself. That commercial has a whole new meaning to me now. I love working out. It makes me feel so alive. I used to see people on the road jogging or walking in the rain or even really hot weather, and I would think "Are you guys crazy, are you in such a hurry to die? " I looked at it as foolishness to be out in all types of weather walking or running. Now I get it. Now I know the feeling they get from exercising. The weather is not always going to be perfect for a leisurely walk outside. But it is always good for workout for your health. You just have to dress appropriately. This is so weird, to think this way. I am addicted to working out. I love it.

Today is Thursday and I did go for my workout with Mandy. It was really good. I had a stressful morning with my son. My van needed some gas and I could have easily gone into Quik Trip and gotten a Mt. Dew and a cinnamon roll, my usual de-stress fare from QT. But I did not, instead I went to work out early and put in a 20 minute mile on the treadmill. I was nice and warm for our workout today. I was visiting with one of the my workout buddies. She has lost 110 pounds. We were talking about the Biggest Loser contestants having to put on fat suits and weights (in the amount of weight that they had lost) and then they ran on the beach. I asked her if she could still remember what it was like to be 110 pounds heavier. She started to cry, she said she remembers every day what it was like. She sees her wedding pictures and it makes her sad. She made me cry. I know the pain she is talking about. I was hoping it would go away when you have lost that much weight. But I guess it will be good to remember, so I don't get back to that weight again.

I went to Weight Watchers today. I took a friend from church who wants to lose weight too. She is having some back problems so she can not start working out yet, but as soon as her doctor releases her, she is hoping to join in with me and Mandy. It will be great. She is a really nice person. I have never had anyone I know to go to WW with or even work out with. I have gotten to know several ladies, but this is someone I already know. Kind of cool. Anyway, it will be nice. I lost 1 more pound this week. I know it was a tough week. I did count everything, and I did not have any Mt. Dew this week. But I know that I did not eat as many veggies as I have been eating. I need to eat a more balanced diet. I am working on it. I also know that I have been at this for a month now and my weight loss is bound to slow a bit. But I really want to lose at least 2 pounds a week. I will just be diligent every day and continue on my path. I know I feel so much better and can do so much more than I have in years. It really does feel good. It is funny, because I schedule just about everything around my workouts. I have to workout. If I do that 5 times a week, I know that I will continue to get healthier. I am tracking my food intake and sticking to the plan. So it is bound to come off sooner or later. :)

Back to the workout with Mandy. I have to say, she worked me hard today. I really can feel the pain. OOOOOHHHH, such sweet pain. It is not really bad, it really does make me feel alive. I love feeling like I pushed myself. I like feeling like I cannot do it and then doing it. Wow. So today, she had me do these push up things on the bench. Where you sit on the edge of the bench and slide forward in a sitting position with your hands on the bench. Then you drop your hiney down and lift with your arms and legs bent. She had me do 2 sets of 12. It was hard. I did not think I could do it. In fact, I kept telling myself I couldn't do it. So the first 6 were torture then I took a break and started again. I told myself, if Mandy thinks I can do this, I can do this. Then I was able to finish and it seemed to get easier, but still painful. Maybe I just had to work through the pain to get to the other side of success. It was great. I shared with Mandy an exercise I saw on Biggest Loser. She decided to have us try it out. You sit on the ball, slide forward in a sitting position and then instead of doing crunches, you lift your legs towards your opposite elbow. It was hard too. :)

I want to talk about someone else in my life that has been a great support. My son's teacher, she is a great lady. I just love her. I sent her my blog. She has been commenting to me about my journey every time I see her. The other day I saw her in her classroom before school started. She was unpacking her food for the day. She had all healthy fare, fruits and veggies. I said "look at you, eating all healthy." She said I had inspired her. That made me feel good. I complemented her on a nice cardigan she was wearing. We discussed where she had bought it and how she wasn't sure that she liked it for her. Then she said I could have it when I lose my weight. It was so cute, the way she said it. We kind of have this mutual admiration society. She is really a great teacher. I believe she is exactly what my son needed at this time in his life. I feel like we were led to move here for her. That is how strongly I feel about her influence in my son's life. So it makes me feel really good to have her say that I inspire her.

Recently, so many people have given me such great support. I want to be successful for myself and everyone who is cheering for me. I cannot express it enough how much I appreciate all the kind words and thoughts. I really needed this level of commitment to help me to keep going even when it is hard to do. Thank you so much to all of you. Now go do something good for yourself today.

Think First

This has been an interesting week. I went to WW yesterday and it is official, I have lost 14 pounds since I started this journey. I am in my fifth week of working out. I feel pretty good about my accomplishments so far. I know it is going to be a long road, so I am trying to focus on the here and now and just do it day by day. Friday I went to the doctor for some minor things. But at the check up I had lost 16 pounds since my last time at the doctor, which was 6 months ago. That is a good start. My blood pressure was real low. Not that it was high before, but it was on the high side of normal. Now it is on the low side of normal. Nice benefit. But my doctor was a little discouraging. Which I will just chalk up to being male, not thinking first and not understanding what it is like to be me. Anyway, he was saying that the best thing I could do for myself right now is stick with the weight watchers. He said, and I am quoting here "You could never exercise enough to lose the amount of weight you need to lose." This really bothered me. He sounded so condescending. I was hoping he would be glad of what I had done so far. I feel really good about working out. I know it is good for me and it is helping me to stick to the weight watchers plan better. I know that if I eat certain foods, it just defeats all the work in the gym. I believe the key to my losing weight is the exercise. I know it. I don't care what he says. I admire my doctor, we have seen him for well over 15 years. I do not think he meant to discourage my exercising. But he was not very encouraging. So I will just have to find my support somewhere else. So there. I love the way working out makes me feel. So I am going to continue on the path I have started. (btw I climbed the stairs to his office and back down again. That was the first time ever, I have always taken the elevator.)

So I went to the store to buy some cooler pants to work out in. I ended up buying a smaller size. It was great. In fact, the size I bought is a little baggy. So I probably could have gone down another size. But I did not think of it. I just put on the next size down and thought great they fit and bought them. I am going to wait a little longer before buying some more. :)

At WW I received a book about finding out what stresses cause me to eat. It was really enlightening. I know I am an emotional eater. I eat because I am happy, sad, lonely, depressed, bored what ever. I eat. So I took a quiz and then the quiz tells you what type of things trigger your eating habits. Then it tells you ways to handle that trigger. The biggest thing I learned from the quiz is that I need to learn from my past experiences. Losing weight is not a new thing to me. I have tried many times, had some success and then went right back to my old ways. So this learn from experience is something I can really use. I tend to think of my past attempts of losing weight as failures. So I never really looked at them as learning experiences to help me this time do better. So I am going to make an attempt to think about my past weight loss attempts and try to see what did and did not work for me.

I did do that in regards to the exercise thing. I know that I never have put it in my life, so that is why I went to a trainer. To get more knowledge about working out. By going to weight watchers, I can learn from the people there. What works for them may work for me.

I do know that if I have anything like ice cream or sweets in the house, I will eat it. So I just cannot go there. I need to keep healthy stuff like fruit and veggies in the house. I will eat them. It is helping not to have pop in the house. I do not drink it, if it is not easily accessible. It is time to admit I am addicted to sugar, in any form. Even the low cal treats. I just have to stay clear of sweets. Save them for special occasions, and plan for them in advance. I really do love eating vegetables. So I am going to try to find new recipes for using more veggies.

Another thing I have learned from doing Weight Watchers so many times in the past, is to read the literature. I have never read all the stuff that they hand out to you every week. I always thought "Oh I know about that......blah blah..." So I did not take the time to read the literature. But this time I am reading the stuff they give to me. I have actually found many things in there to be very helpful. I have marked pages and underlined things to remember. I am using them as tools to help me on this journey. I think it is helping me to be more focused and to think first.

While thinking over my past attempts at weight loss, I discovered a pattern. I realized that I would get so far in and maybe not lose as much weight as I wanted for a couple of weeks. Then I get discouraged , give in and eat too much (not writing any of it, or counting it), then I would quit feeling like a failure. Thinking aobut this pattern made me want to discover why I get so down on myself. I want to know what I can do now to keep myself motivated.

I like to learn new things. Once I feel like I have learned it all, I get bored. I need to mix it up and keep in interesting. I also get tired and bored with my food. I stop eating my comfort foods without finding other ways to comfort me. I need to learn new comfort techniques and new recipes. I need to learn to cook in a different way. That will be my next big challenge, to learn new healthy cooking habits. Maybe I will take a healthy cooking class. I am discovering new ways to relieve stress everyday. Exercise is really helping. I am proud of myself. I am on my way to a better life.

We went out to eat as a family a week ago on Friday. The kids really like the buffet at the Ponderosa and I love their salmon. I ordered a good side salad with fat free dressing (no buffet for me), and grilled salmon with a baked potato butter on the side, no sour cream. I ate the salad and the waiter brought out rolls. But they were really big and I decided not to eat one. I did however, plan on having a Mt. Dew. When I finished my Mt. Dew the waiter brought me another one.But by that time I had eaten half of my salmon and half of my potato and I felt full. I am really trying to pay attention to my body signals. You know when you eat all the time, you do not feel hungry or full, so these are new sensations. I asked the waiter for a doggy bag. I took half of my meal home for lunch the next day. So then I was sitting there, everyone is still eating and I am done. So I started to drink that Mt. Dew. Then I stopped, I was full and did not need the Dew. So I took a dirty spoon and threw it into the glass of pop. My dh said, well that's one way to stop drinking it. I said well it was just too tempting to keep sipping it while sitting here. I did not drink any more. Yeah! also, that was the last Dew I had. I have not had any Dew this week at all. That is a big improvement. Now I have given up pop before, but it never lasts very long. I have given it up cold turkey and then I crave it so bad that I give in. I am not saying I will never have another pop. But I will count it and write it down.

I heard something interesting on the radio the other day. Did you know that the pretty little country singer Carrie Underwood, writes down everything she eats? That must be how she stays so fit.

I learned today, that Mandy, my trainer is younger than my oldest son. Wow. she is so on top of things. She is so busy and seems to have it all together. I can learn so much from her. She finished both her college degrees in 4 years. She really knows how to set goals and accomplish them. I love that about her. She is really great. She pushes me past the place I think I can go. I would give up and I sometimes tucker out and try to give up but she is right there, saying you can do it. She makes me believe I can.

A good friend has been sending me these little eDirections for how to lose weight. Today I got one that was really good. Here it is:

Last week you began the process of making wellness your reality.

Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, says ".start inside - paradigms, character, motives."

What keeps you thinking about changing your diet? What keeps you from following through? Once you know both sides of your internal debate, your chances of making the change improve.

Reread the list you made last week. Ask if your reasons for wanting to change seem stronger than those for keeping the status quo. Want to reinforce your reasons for making a change? Look for other people who have lost weight, got fit, stopped smoking. Ask about their motivation. Talking with others can often teach you about yourself.



© 2001 - 2008 New Directions Behavioral Health, All Rights Reserved.

This is so cool. It really fits into everything I am learning about weight loss and working out from WW and from Mandy. This is life changing stuff. Mandy has encouraged me to make goals and every week she goes over them with me. To see what progress I am making. Doing this blog has helped me to talk out my feelings about this journey. It is helping me to have conversations with people that I might not have talked to before. It is helping me to learn about myself. One thing I am really learning is to Think First. Think First. before you eat, before you talk (maybe my doctor should have done that! LOL ), before you work out. Think about what you are doing, why you are doing it and how to best get what you want.