Weigh-In-Wednesday and my excuses

Today is weigh-in-Wednesday and the scale is smiling on me. I weighed in at 187 for a 2 lb. loss last week and a grand total of 18.5 pounds lost! I don't want to get my hopes up, but I am hoping to reach the 20 pound mark next week. Over the past couple of weeks, I have found myself thinking that my total weight loss isn't really that much. It may have something to do with the fact that I still have so far to go or maybe it is the fact that I have not been looking at the big number for what it is and have just been seeing my 1-2 lb. loss each week. But today, I am celebrating 18.5 pounds. That sounds like a lot to me! I don't think I have been giving myself enough credit. :) I hope you all will celebrate every pound you lose, too!

Now on to the not-so-good news. I did week 4 of C25K training again today and failed miserably. I didn't even attempt the final 5 minute run! The final 3 minute one seemed extra hard today. Here are possible reasons (my excuses):

- I woke up late (once again) and could not get on the treadmill until after the kids were off to school. I had to talk myself into even getting on the treadmill. I think I set myself up to fail. My hubby has been sick and I'm not sure if he isn't setting the alarm or is just turning it off too fast before I hear it. I need to do better and listen for it.
-I only ate an orange before my workout. I usually only eat a piece of fruit before, but I wonder if since I had been up longer I should have eaten breakfast before.
-Once again, I let my mind talk me out of it.

This is all disappointing seeing how on Monday I was able to complete week 4 at my normal speed (walk-3.8, run 4.8). Today, I did walk at a higher than usual speed (4.1) for 8.5 minutes in place of my 5 minute run. And after that I lowered the speed a bit at a time and continued walking until the workout was 45 minutes long. I will try week 4 again on Friday.

Maybe if I had one of the shirts Trisha @ Endurance isn't only physical is giving away it would be easier. :) Check out her giveaway here. Some of my favorite T-shirt slogans are: "Who moved the finish line?", "Slow is the new fast" , "I'm only doing this so I can post a picture on facebook" and "This seemed like a good idea 3 months ago". LOL!

Things-That I Love-Tuesday and the truth

Happy Tuesday, everybody! Well, it is time to come out with the truth from my list of 7 things yesterday. Here it goes:



1- My husband and I are such huge college football fans that we planned our wedding around our favorite team's schedules so we would not miss a game.
** My husband and I ARE huge college football fans but we did not plan our wedding around the season. We planned it around our school schedules. We DO plan our dates around football games during the fall, though.

2- I once won a trip to the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas. While I was there, I was able to meet Kenny Chesney at an after show party. I love that man!
** I did win a trip to the ACM's and I did see Kenny perform at an after-show party, but I did not meet him. :( Sigh.

3-I spent 1 1/2 years in Argentina on a mission for my church.
**True! I spent 18 months in Argentina serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Next to being a mom, it was the hardest, most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life. To find out more about the church, click here. And when you encounter a missionary from any church, please be nice. :)

4-I have never been to the ocean. :(
**I love the ocean! Sadly, I don't go enough....but I have been there.

5-I am the youngest of 5 girls in my family. Talk about drama!
**I'm actually an only child. Not too much drama there.

6-I have been playing the flute since I was 5 years old.
**I do not play any kind of instrument and don't seem to have any kind of musical talent whatsoever.

7-I spent my junior year of high school in Chile as a foreign exchange student.
**My cousin did this and I think it was way cool. Not sure I could have done it though. I'm one of those crazy people that actually enjoyed high school. I don't think I would have wanted to miss junior year at my high school.


Now on to my thing that I love this Tuesday. It actually has nothing to do with exercise, diet or anything usually related to this blog. It is just something I love, so indulge me. It is:

Have you seen this show? Do you love it, too? I LOVE this show! It is quirky, hilarious and makes me smile. I'm sure you have all heard about it. I can't get my husband to watch it. There is just something so "High School Musical" about a show that focuses on a high school glee club. But it is so much more than "HSM"! It is definitely meant for more mature audiences, I would not let my daughters watch it, and it has a lot of great adult characters and storylines, too. I actually downloaded quite a few songs from the soundtrack onto my ipod. I am writing about this today because after a couple of months of a break it is back on TV tonight. Okay, they are not going to show any new episodes until April 13th, but I will be able to get my "Glee" fix for now on after American Idol on Tuesdays. If you have not watched it, give it try.

Today I slept in and decided to forego the treadmill because I realized I had three lunches to make and three kids to make sure were bathed and ready for school. Next time I will plan ahead and prep the night before. So I did my Biggest Loser Wii game training. It was only a light 15 minute workout today. I thought it was my day to volunteer in my daughter's class today so I was planning on that being my exercise today. But then I looked at my calendar and realized it is next week I am scheduled to volunteer. So after the kids were off to school I did my "30 day shred" video, level 2. What a workout!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I was able to do day 3, week 4 of my C25K training at my normal running speed. Hooray! I will repeat week 4's workout tomorrow and Friday of this week before I move on next week.

I hope you all have a happy day!

Shhh......Do you hear that?

Do you hear it? I don't hear anything either! Isn't it great? The kids are all back in school this morning after a three week break. I love my kids and we had a great time together on the break, but the last couple of days were hard! They were errand days. I don't know what our kids think we do while they're at school. They must think I sit around all day, or am always out doing something fun. And somehow, the groceries just end up in our fridge. They really hate running errands with me. Plus, I decided since they were off school it would be a good time to take them to get their Easter outfits. So, yes I took all three of the kids to the mall with me! Duh! My 8-year-old daughter loves to go shopping and try on clothes. Her brother and sister were less than thrilled with her little fashion show, she must have tried on 8 different dresses! At least, we only had to hit two different stores to find what everyone needed. Anyway, I am enjoying my solitude right now.



Lisa @ One Mom's Eating Recovery awarded me this award. Thanks Lisa! It's nice to know she thinks I am a great liar. I don't feel really creative, but I hope I entertain sometimes.





Here are the rules to the award:

1. Thank the person who gave this to you.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you.

4. Tell up to 6 outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.

5. Nominate 7 "creative writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.

6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

Here are my outrageous lies and truth:

1- My husband and I are such huge college football fans that we planned our wedding around our favorite team's schedules so we would not miss a game.

2- I once won a trip to the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas. While I was there, I was able to meet Kenny Chesney at an after show party. I love that man!

3-I spent 1 1/2 years in Argentina on a mission for my church.

4-I have never been to the ocean. :(

5-I am the youngest of 5 girls in my family. Talk about drama!

6-I have been playing the flute since I was 5 years old.

7-I spent my junior year of high school in Chile as a foreign exchange student.

Can you guess which one is true? I'll tell you all tomorrow.

Now, here are the seven blogs I nominate:

Mary

Leanne

Kristin

Tiff

Alex

Ellen

Shelley

If you have already done this or do not find this kind of thing fun. No worries. I just wanted to recognize some of my fave bloggers.

Have a great Monday!

Time To Step it Up & Some Pics

Now that I am eight full weeks into my journey I want to reflect on my progress so far. In case you missed it, and I'm sure many of you did, here is a look back at my first post and goals I set. Here's a list of my victories so far:

• I have stayed true to my goal to exercise regularly. I think I have only had one week that I did not get on the treadmill five times and that week I did it four times. I have done strength training 2-3 times a week.
• I have been faithful about tracking my calories using sparkpeople and have stuck (pretty much) to my food plan.
• I have not ordered french fries at any fast food restaurants. I HAVE enjoyed a few out of my kid's happy meals, but really just a few.
• I started and am about half-way through the C25K training program.
• I have still been able to enjoy foods I always have and will enjoy, like ice cream and chocolate.
• I have not drank soda pop since I started this journey.
• I am feeling new muscles in my body. I like to put my hand on the top of my legs when I go up the stairs just to feel my muscles. I better have muscles there, considering all the lunges I have done over the last 8 weeks. And I'm pretty sure my husband is tired of me making him feel my biceps.
• I have walked/jogged 10+ miles a week, that makes for 80+ miles total!
• I have lost weight every week.
• I still have tortilla chips in my pantry from SuperBowl Sunday. :)

Shortly after I started this journey I had my daughter take a picture of me. I just had her take one and wished I would have done a side shot, too. Anyway, here is my beginning of the journey picture:

Here are a couple of pics I had her take today:

Can you see a difference? I think I can in the face. I also think this second outfit is much more flattering. I will take the next couple of progress pics in this same outfit for better comparison. After that, I'm hoping the pants will be falling off and I'll have to put on a smaller size.

Now that I've been at this for 8 weeks I think it is time to step it up a bit. So here's my plan:

• Continue to track calories on sparkpeople and aim for 1400-1500 a day.
• I have been doing the treadmill for about 30-35 minutes each workout day. This has included a 5 minute warm-up walk, my C25K training, followed by a brisk walk and cool down. My goal will now be 40 minutes. This will give me 5 min. warm-up, 30 min of a good workout and a 5 minute cool down. Today I actually did 45 minutes.
• Really aim to do strength training 3-4 days a week.
• Continue to do the 2nd level of "30 day Shred"
• I have not been taking measurements. I will start doing that as well.

Today I completed day 2 of week 4 of C25K. It was a bit easier today and I slowed the speed down for just 2 minutes of the last 5 minute jog. I'm feeling good about it.

Gwenny gave me a sunshine award. Thank you, thank you! This really brightened my not-so-sunny, snowy day! Since I also received this award a couple of weeks ago, I'll direct you all to that post to see links to some of my favorite bloggers. I just accidentally deleted the sunshine award picture......arrgh. You'll have to look at the other post for the pretty pic because I get frustrated trying to upload pics after I've written so much text.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

Happy Wednesday everybody! The sun is shining here, it is beautiful! Of course, by tomorrow it will be a different story as storminess is projected. For today, I will just enjoy the preview of spring.


Today was my weigh-in day and I just have to say I am very pleased with the numbers. I now weigh 189 lbs! That is a two pound loss this week, a total of 16.5 pounds lost and I am in the 180's. I really couldn't be much happier right now. I think I've said before that it has been a long time since I've been in the 180's.


I think my victory on the scale and my excitement about it propelled me to a non-scale victory. I was able to complete week 4, day 1 of my C25K training today. I was not able to do it on Monday, you may remember. Today I slowed down from 4.8 to 4.3 for the last 3 minutes of running. I don't know why I didn't think to do this on Monday. Duh! I have been concentrating on running time instead of distance for this training so slowing down was okay for me. I think I will repeat this week, though. I would like to complete it running at the speed I have been running for most of the time.

My girl scout cookies arrived yesterday. I'm happy to report that I only had two thin mints last night and was quite satisfied with them. I did want more, but realized that two was enough. I'm even happier to report that I had none for breakfast today!

Today I am taking the kids to one of their favorite indoor pools. I must say that the thought of getting into a swimsuit is not very exciting for me. Seeing pics of myself in my swimsuit last fall is one of the things that helped motivate me to start this journey. I haven't been in a swimsuit since. However, I told myself a long time ago that I would not let my weight issues effect my kids. I knew I needed to either "get over it or do something about it"! So here I am doing something about it and since I am still far away from feeling good about myself in a swimming suit I will have to "get over it" today and go swimming with my kids. It should be a good day. I hope you all have a great day, too!

Tomorrow I will be posting a progress report about my journey so far as well as some new goals for the next couple of months.

Things-I Love-Tuesday and Level 2

It's Tuesday and I'm all about the things I love. One of my favorite bloggers is back! So my first thing that I love is Lisa's blog. Check it out, although I'm sure you already have. :)


Here are a couple of other things I love:

MY CROCS!!!!

Last year about this time my friend and I decided it was warm enough to start up our early morning walks again. We also decided to start jogging a few minutes of each walk. Unlike, this winter I had not been exercising at home during the winter months. A combination of being overweight, starting up exercising again and running caused me to have plantar fasciitis. Click on the link to learn all about it if you don't already know. I was having a lot of heel pain, especially in the mornings. It was all I could do to get up and walk out to meet my friend. Once I did, I could usually walk through the pain. I was describing my pain to another friend and she recommended that I go see a podiatrist because I probably had plantar fasciitis.

I am so glad I went to the podiatrist. Sure enough, I was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. As part of my treatment the doctor said I should always wear shoes, even in the house. Wearing shoes in my house has always been a no-no. In fact, I did not even like wearing shoes. Anyway, the Dr. suggested I get some crocs. He said, that they should be the name brand crocs because they really are better than the knock-offs. Well, being the cheap-skate I am I was having a hard time justifying buying a pair of crocs JUST for my house. I had already bought inserts and was planning on buying an expensive pair of good-for-my-feet sandals. So when I was at the shoe store buying some new tennis shoes I was elated to see a pair of crocs on the clearance rack for just 5 or 10 dollars (I can't remember exactly)! Yes, they are pink. A kind of ugly, salmon pink but I love them! I wear them faithfully all day long inside my house. On Sundays, when I've been at church for three hours in high heels I can't wait to get home and put on my crocs.

I don't know if I would ever buy me a pair of crocs to wear outside of the house, but I sure do love the ones I have! They definitely helped cure my heel pain. After a few months of being faithful in my shoe wearing and doing the stretches the Dr. suggested for me before I got out of bed each morning the pain was gone. I have considered it a great blessing not to have gotten plantar fasciitis again once I started exercising and running this time around. I was really worried about it. So the moral of this post is, Crocs are really comfortable and you should always wear shoes! Take care of those feet, people!

Today, I decided to try Jillian's 30 day shred- Level 2. It was hard! But not any harder than the first time I did Level 1. So I am going to stick with Level 2 for now. One bonus is there are no jumping jacks, besides the warm up ones. A downside is all the static lunges and squats in the strength portion of the workout make it really hard for me to get my legs to want to move during the cardio portion!

C25K- Week four,Day one

Hello, everybody! I hope you each had a fabulous weekend. Mine was great! My husband and I finally went and saw Avatar. We saw it on the IMAX. What a beautiful movie! I was not that excited to go see it, I never am for science fiction, but I really enjoyed it. In fact, I haven't heard one person who has seen it say they didn't like it. So if anyone out there has seen it and not liked it let me know, just curious.

As far as my eating went this weekend, I did a little better on Saturday than I have on past Saturdays. However, I did have a bit of loss of control on Sunday. I won't give you all the boring, yummy details but let's just say it involved tortilla chips and candy skor baking pieces. No, I did not melt candy skor on tortilla chips, sillies! I ate them at separate times. I did get on the treadmill on Saturday morning for a walk at an incline. Exercising a little on weekends helps me stay more on track.

This morning was day one of week four of my C25K training. And....I could not complete it. It looks like I will be repeating it. This week's training is jogging 3 minutes, walking 90 seconds, jogging 5 minutes, walking 2 1/2 minutes, jogging 3 minutes, walking 90 minutes and then jogging 5 minutes. I made it all the way until the final 5 minutes of jogging. I only jogged about 2 1/2 minutes. I knew going into the training that I may have to repeat days or even weeks, but I am still disappointed. I am mostly disappointed because I think I failed this one mentally. From the time I saw what this week's training was (I just looked last Friday) I began thinking how hard it was going to be. I wasn't sure I could do 5 minutes of jogging at once, let alone twice in one session. I was telling my family how hard it was going to be this morning before I got on the treadmill. And then I forgot my mantra, "I can do hard things"! My legs truly were tired by the last 5 minute interval, but I think my mind is really what did me in. I will do better on Wednesday! I will have a positive attitude about it. If my brain is thinking good thoughts and I still can't physically do it, then I will be okay with repeating this week.

I hope everyone is having a great Monday!