It's working...

As many of you know, I blogged about making some changes to my calorie intake and my exercise routine. Well to make a super long story short, IT WORKED! All week long I focused on ensuring that I was burning at least 1000 - 1500 calories just through exercise. I consistently ate within 50 calories of the 1500 calorie goal I set for myself. The results were amazing. I lost 5.2 lbs this week! I am totally stoked and looking forward to another productive week. Already planning on walking for lunch every day this week and have a friend that wants to start walking after work. I am so looking forward to doing some more walking OUTSIDE in addition to my circuit training this week. That’s all for now, hope you all have an amazing week!

I almost forgot to give you an update to the baggy pants story. I went out and got some new jeans. They are two sizes smaller than the ones I was wearing before. Definitely needed to get new ones, huh?!?!!? :-)

Jogging with teenager….

Last night I discovered that there is no better motivator than to jog with someone who is 1/3 your own age. After watching my daughter in the “Living Stations” performance, I decided I still wanted to go for a walk. Mind you I had already gone for a walk on my lunch break and had spent 45 minutes at the gym. Not sure what has come over me lately, but it might have something to do with that exercise high that I mentioned in a previous post. Since the hubby was busy studying for class, I asked my teenage daughter if she’d go with me. She *shrugged* her shoulders and said ok. While we were in our first block I had told her that I’d like to jog every 3rd block. It is important to note here that she is in 7th grade and participates in cross country at the high school level. Last night when I made this request/suggestion I seemed to have forgotten the aforementioned fact.

So we proceeded with my plan. We walked the first two blocks then jogged the third. We repeated this process for about 1.5 miles, which is our halfway point. We get to the halfway point and I’m thinking to myself that this isn’t too bad. Yeah there were a few close calls with the ice that is still on the ground in random places, but overall I was feeling really good. Then it happened, we turned around to head back and the kid decides to take off like a cheetah. OK so maybe not a cheetah, but she was going much faster than she had been during the first 1.5 miles. During those lovely moments when we were able to walk and not RUN she was able to shed some light on the subject. The increased speed is twofold. First, since she is a natural born runner, naturally she get’s the runners high and for her that kicks in around a mile or so. The second is a bit stranger. According to her, on the way back, she noticed her shadow in front of her when we were walking/jogging. I was thinking to myself WTF, because obviously she’s a young teenage so I couldn’t say it out loud plus I think my breathing would have gotten in the way, each time we’d start our next running portion. I must have given her a strange look because she turns to me and says, “Duh I’m chasing my shadow”. Huh?!?! What does that mean? I guess there is this little switch in her brain that makes her want to catch up to her shadow, plus she thinks it looks funny when she runs. This was the secondary reason for the increase in speed. Obviously I should NOT have let her watch Peter Pan so many times when she was a small child. Who knew it was going to make her want to chase and catch her shadow and that I would have to pay for that decision physically. Although it was a bit of a challenge for me to complete the 3 miles with the running added, it was such an amazing high. Not only was I doing something amazing for myself, I also discovered another activity that my daughter and I can enjoy together.

I am so looking forward to tonight’s walk/jog/run!!!

Upping the burn...

As some of you already know, I use the bodybugg on a regular basis. The main purpose of the bodybugg is to measure calories burned. I currently consume approximately 1700 calories per day and burn 2900 calories per day. I’m thinking about tweaking this just a bit. If you do the math this formula results in a 2.4 lb loss per week, that of course is if I’m diligent and follow these guidelines. The change I’m thinking of making is upping my burn to 3500 calories and reducing my intake to 1500 calories. What does this mean for the scale? In theory this should result in a 4 lb a week loss. It’s a bit aggressive and they say you should only lose 2 lbs a week, so I’m a bit concerned. I’ll outline my plan below, tell me what you think.

In order to reach this goal, my plan is to reduce my calories by avoiding fatty and sugary food. I would say that I consume around 200 – 300 calories a day from just juice. Therefore in my mind I wouldn’t be cutting out anything really important or filling. In order to increase my calorie burn I’m going to add a 3.7 mile walk/run to my current workout routine. I am also going to go ahead and get that balance ball for my desk in hopes that it really works and increases my burn. I want to follow this routine for 20 weeks. I think the key is to remind myself that it is only 20 weeks. Right? I sure hope this works. I’ll keep you posted.

Balance ball for an office chair???

OK – I was watching the Biggest Loser the other night and one of the trainers, Bob, suggested using a balance ball instead of an office chair if you work at a desk. It sounds really strange, right? However, I’m sitting here contemplating if I should get myself a balance ball to bring into work. I sit for a good 6 hours a day and if I could get an additional workout by changing what I sit on, that would be cool. Would it be unprofessional to be sitting on a big A** ball instead of on a chair? Will my co-works decide it would be funny to play hide the ball or kickball with my new chair? Do I want to deal with all the heckling I will get if I bring in this new “chair”? Will I fall off and hurt myself? In all honesty I can kind of see myself getting up really quickly, inadvertently kicking the giant ball, watch it ricochet off my desk or a wall, and slamming me into the ground. Even after asking these questions of myself, I came back to the conclusion that heck yeah I’m going to go get me a big balance ball and bring it in as a chair substitute. I don’t care if it makes me look like a freak or a dork, if it truly gives me an extra mini-workout throughout the day then it is definitely worth it. I’m guessing after a few weeks I’ll have a story or two to share about the balance ball “chair”.

Ho Hum Tuna hot dish....

For several years I’ve been mocked and a bit ridiculed that I have never made a hot dish. So this weekend I was downright lazy and decided to make a Tuna hot dish. OMG! Let me just say although it wasn’t horrible it was pretty much the most boring meal I’ve ever made in my entire life. I’ve discovered that I like my plate to have several separate elements to it. I like the variety in colors, tastes, and textures. I mean seriously, no matter how many veggies you put in tuna hot dish or tuna casserole or whatever you want to call it, it is extremely bland looking. I don’t know about the rest of you but I eat with my eyes first. I found myself nibbling on other items the whole rest of the night. Ugh! So it is official I have finally tried to make a tuna hot dish, it was boring, I’m going back to cooking real food no matter how much longer it takes to make.

Sure wish I had a more interesting story to post, but hey my weekend was boring. :-) The posts should get a bit more interesting once the streets are dry and I start my training to go from walking to jogging. It could be entertaining.

It’s official…

You know that 3.4 lb gain that I complained about from February? Well it is officially gone. I have busted my butt at the gym for the past 1.5 weeks and have monitored “most” of the items I’ve eaten. It’s truly amazing what a little hard work will do for a person. On the upside, I still have 20 more days left in March so I’m still on track to have a YTD loss of 20 lbs by the end of March 2010. It will be an intense 20 days, but I know I can do it. I’ve come this far and there is nothing that will stop me from reaching my goal or at least getting within 10 lbs of it. :o)

When I set my 2010 weight loss goal it seemed pretty easy. I mean what’s 20 lbs a quarter? That’s only about 1.54 lbs a week. Totally doable, right? As long as I don’t have any more months like February I know that I will reach the quarterly goal. Plus as a reward, for every 20 lbs I lose, I get to go to the spa for a day. Pedicures rock! Facials are AMAZING! I need to relax and de-stress a bit. Guess I’ll have to “weight” a few more pounds.

Bodybugg, Bodybugg, Oh how I love thee...

I have now officially been on the Bodybugg program for 2 months so I thought it was time for a review. Let me start off by saying that it is hands down the best tool that I have found for myself. When the hubby bought the device for me he decided to put out the extra $80 so that I could get the display unit that can be used with the Bodybugg. If you are thinking about getting the device, I strongly encourage you to go for the full package. Without the display (watch) unit the only way to see what you daily progress was is to upload the data to you computer from the Bodybugg. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I like to monitor my progress throughout the day so the display is critical for me. It shows you the calories that you burned, steps taken, duration of activity and the time. These can be displayed in increment for today, yesterday, target, or trip. I love the trip feature because I will reset it each time I start any activity that I’m curious about how many calories I’ve burned or steps I’ve taken. It is a great way to motivate oneself.

Generally speaking the bodybugg is a program that monitors your caloric intake and caloric expenditures. It also tracks your daily activity. The device itself will provide the steps, activity and caloric expenditure data to the online program once you upload. It is the responsibility of the wearer to be sure to journal all caloric intake. The online program has the functionality to allow you to input this data. It then charts your progress. The coolest part about logging the food is that it really keeps you accountable. After taking a brief survey the Bodybugg program tells you how many calories you should be consuming on a daily basis and gives you a breakdown of how you should be consuming them. It shows how much fiber, calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, protein, calcium, etc that you should have in your daily diet. It even provides you with daily meal plans that you can follow.

Initially the web program seemed a bit cumbersome and confusing in certain areas. However after my Bodybugg training session, I was able to get all my questions answered by a professional and it’s been easy sailing ever since. There are several other attributes to this system, but I just don't have the time right now to list them all. :-)

Feel free to ask any questions that you may have. I’ll try to answer them to the best of my ability.

The Exercise High…

For those of you that currently exercise, I’m sure you know what I am talking about when I say, “the exercise high”. For those of you who don’t, you really need to experience this high. I remember a year ago when I casually decided I was going to start losing weight. The goal for the first year was to work on developing good habits; working out 3 times a week for 30 minutes, eating healthier and choosing more physical social activities. Realistically, I knew that change wasn’t going to happen overnight, so I gave myself the one year buffer to acclimate myself to these changes. During this past year I’ve noticed some physical and mental changes, which I will expand on as I continue this journey and blog. For me exercise encompasses both of these aspects. Back when I started, I very vividly remember thinking to myself that 30 minutes 3 times a week is all the time I had and all that I really wanted to do. All of a sudden back in January hints of the exercise high started to surface.

In January, I got a bodybugg which really made me conscious of the calories I burned throughout the day. The bodybugg has been especially helpful in tracking calories burned during certain activities, such as exercising. I noticed that I was burning on average 300 calories during a 30 minute workout. Throughout the month these calories increased to 400 calories in 35 minutes. My new goal that I set for myself has been 400 calories burned per exercise session, no matter how long it takes me to get there. However, last night I hit some sort of crazy exercise high and just couldn’t stop exercising. I ended up burning 600 calories in one session, which is twice as much of a workout than I would have done last year at this time. During the workout and well after I finished, I felt absolutely amazing. I was in the exercise zone. I am seriously sitting here writhing this, the very next day, still feeling a bit of a high from the workout the previous night and am looking forward to hitting the gym today at 5:00. I know it sounds crazy, but it is true. I WANT to go to the gym. In all honesty the only reason I didn’t end up burning 1000 calories last night is because I needed to pick up the kid from volleyball and the gym was closing for the night. I think I can finally say that exercising is part of my regular routine and it is officially a habit now.

My challenge to each of you is to get up and get moving. No matter what size you are and whether or not you need to lose weight the exercise high is so worth it. Plus healthy activity is good for every BODY!!!

Retiring the baggy pants…

I have several pairs of pants that have gotten to be just way too baggy. I told myself that I was going to continue to wear a pair of pants or shirts until I skip at least a size. Although this idea in theory sounded like a winner to me because it would save me money, the reality is that it might be one of the worst ideas I’ve had on this journey. Ok so the oversized shirts aren’t really my problem, it’s the darn pants.

There are several reasons why this is a bad idea. First of all, when pants get to be nearly 2 sizes too big it is difficult to keep them in place. The other day when I was running (yes I said running) from my car to my house, my pants decided that the waist would rather reside around my thighs than where it belonged. Thankfully I was in my own back yard so the exposure was minimal. I’m sure however if any of my neighbors saw my indiscretion they may be permanently blind. I mean seriously these legs haven’t seen the sun in many years and the refection from the sun off my legs, helped along with the bright white snow, could have potentially caused permanent damage. I know, I know, you are thinking to yourself that I should just buy myself a darn belt. Hmm… A belt? Seriously? I’m a big girl and it is nearly impossible to find a decent belt in my size.

The second reason is that baggy pants simply look bad. I am dangerously close to looking like I am homeless. My pants are so baggy right now that if the wind blew just right it might actually move me. I don’t think I’m ready to take flight yet, but with a healthy enough gust of wind it is possible. However, on the upside if I were to be in an airplane that was crashing to the earth I could potentially pull a Bugs Bunny and use them as a parachute. Not to mention baggy pants totally make my butt look flat. Although “magazines are saying flat butts are the thing”, well I ain’t in to that. J My butt may be big but it sure isn’t flat.

The third reason that I will mention is the most important one to me. They are way too comfortable. It’s like walking around in pajamas all day long. I know that sounds totally awesome, but it promotes laziness. And as I’m sure you are well aware, laziness is a contributing factor to weight gain. It is way too easy to hit the drive-thru at DQ when your pants are baggy. I feel like I deserve it because I have obviously put in a lot of work to lose weight. I’m not saying jeans should be uncomfortable, but they should fit. The ideal jeans would be super comfy until that moment when you’ve over indulged and you feel you need to unbutton your pants. That feeling really helps keep things in check. Now I don’t even need to unbutton my pants to take them off so I’m guessing I could overindulge quite a bit and end up right where I started.

This weekend I’m vowing to go through my closet and get rid of the old pants. Any that are in good shape I’ll donate to charity and the rest I’ll have to trash.

I guess I’ll need to go shopping on Saturday too then. I’m pretty sure I need more than 3 pairs of pants that fit.

Reflections....

I woke up today realizing that I need to take a step back and reflect on what I did this month. January was a great month I worked out 4-6 days a week and stayed OP 28 of the 31 days. Now let’s fast forward to February. All I can really say about that month is “UGH, what was I thinking?!?!”. February was the month of excuses. First it was my birthday, then it was super bowl, then it was the new Mexican restaurant in town, then it was that I was sick, and then it was the oh crap I’ll just start on March 1, 2010 again. I swear I had an excuse to over indulge and not exercise at least 3-4 days a week every week. During the month of January, I saw a weight change of 11.2 lbs, it went down. Then in February I only saw a 3.4 lb change and normally had that been a decrease of 3.4 lbs I’d be pretty darn happy, but OH NO it was a gain.

All I can say is ugh and I’m done with making excuses. I want to be at goal and I do not want to be limited by my weight anymore.

Today is the first day of my WW career.

I know that I said it several times in February, but I am serious this time, “I AM BACK ON TRACK!”