Weight Loss Week 2

It's Friday!! Weigh in day, yipee.

I am happy to report that since last Friday I have lost 4.5 lbs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To say I was excited is an understatement. It has made all the difference in the world to focus less on calories burned and more on getting my heart rate up. The treadmill is used every.single.day. I have not skipped a day in 10 days. I walk at 3.6 for a total of 30 minutes with the exception of my 2 min. warm up getting to 3.6 and the 2 min. cool down working down from 3.6 to 2.0. I also have found a 30 minute step aerobic DVD called Basic Step that I found at Wal Mart. I have only done it once but I highly recommend it. All the moves were simple in the aspect that lately doesn't it seem like you have to be a professional dancer to follow an aerobic video? Well, this one is very basic in the moves, hence "Basic Step". I tell ya, I didn't know how good it was going to be as a workout because it was only 30 minutes but after 17 minutes my heart was in my throat it felt like & I literally had to turn off the DVD. It wasn't that the workout was TOO hard, I am just that out of shape. But, I will say the workout was a great one and no matter what shape you are in this will definitely make you sweat, burn fat and tone. I really liked it and recommend it from Wal Mart. I think I paid $9.99 for it in the sports section.

I also have had the strength to stay away from sweets. Only two times this week did I indulge in anything sweet. One time I had 2 large chocolate covered graham cookies and one time I had 4 low fat Vanilla Wafers. My portion sizes are still way down and maybe it is the exercising but I don't want more food. I pray a lot for God to help me overcome the obstacles that would keep me from becoming fit and thin. I pray for him to help me overcome my desire to eat sweets. I pray for his strength to fill me and not food. I truly believe this has helped tremendously because so far, I am doing really well. I have only had one day that I was really cranky and wanted to eat all day. It was a tough day and it was an emotional eating response but I didn't do it and that made me all the more crankier but I'd rather be a little cranky than gain back some weight. Thank you Lord! Please, let me encourage you to pray and ask God not to take anything from you or do anything for you. Ask him to help you overcome. Overcome whatever obstacles are in your way from becoming a fit and healthy person.

I also have purchased some steam veggie bags from the freezer section to cook with each meal. I hate cooking and I have a very large family so I use 3 burners regularly when I cook. 2 to cook the meat and one for our rice or whatever else. Veggies usually got left out 'cause there was no room on the stove so now I buy what is on sale and put the veggies in the microwave to steam. Eating veggies now too!

The cardio has been huge in my weight loss and doing it every single day instead of the 3 days I would have normally done it. Every day. I also do crunches every day and assorted leg exercises. I can't wait to get the first 25 lbs behind me as I know I will finally feel much better when I hit around the 174 mark.

So, week 1 = 0 lbs lost. (due to not enough cardio!)
week 2 = 4.5 lbs lost for a weight of 194.

How was your week?

Jenn

First Week of Exercising

Okay, I am very late in posting. In my defense the hubster was working from home and my computer is in his office so I didn't want to bug him and then it snowed which of course made it too cold to blog. That makes sense doesn't it.

Anyhoo, I weighed my self this past Friday. I was so anxious to see the results of my hard work through the week. How many pounds had I lost? I was hoping for 2. When I woke up I raced to the bathroom so I could have my big weigh in. I couldn't believe my eyes when the results were finally in. I had lost..........drum roll please.............zero pounds. How could that even be?

Normally I eat something sweet every. single. day. I love my sweets. I don't eat a lot, but I always have a few cookies after dinner or after lunch too. That past week I only allowed myself on two occasions a total of 7 Low Fat Vanilla Waffers between the two days. I ate almost half of what I normally do, I ate much healthier too. I drank almost all water & the rest was tea with dinner only. I ate no snacks at all. I hit the treadmill Mon-Wed for 30 minutes at an incline of 4 at 3 mph. I am really out of shape, I was not trying to kill myself. I did crunches 4 days in a row and other assorted leg exercises. How could I have lost NOTHING? It was very upsetting to say the least.

I knew immediately that my easy way out on the treadmill was not going to get me anywhere. You see, on an incline at a slower pace it shows that I burn more calories than at no incline and going faster. Going faster poops me out more and since I was all about burning calories I went with the incline and 3mph. And it got me nothing. It also proved once again what I have always said about my body. What I eat has very very little to do with my weight. It is all about the cardio for my body.

Our bodies are so unique, what works for one may not work for another. My body only responds to cardio and having muscle to burn more fat. Always has, I don't know why I thought I could get away with a low mph on the treadmill? So, lesson learned here and that would be that we have to do what works for our bodies. Our bodies respond differently and we have to do what will work for our own individual bodies. My body needs cardio with some light weight lifting.

I do have some good news though. That Friday I immediately changed my treadmill routine to 3.5 mph at a 0 incline for thirty minutes. I did it Fri & Sat and I increased my crunches, still did the leg workouts and I incorporated a small amount of dancing to test the waters. I checked and I have lost 3 lbs!!!!! I will not weigh again until this Friday but I needed to check to see if this new workout was having any effect. I am also going to do a DVD cardio dance workout this afternoon. This should help. I am hoping to lose one more pound this week for a total of 4 lbs lost over last Friday's results. I am excited already!

A Healthier Me

This is me on my 40th Birthday. Not a happy day. I was very depressed on my birthday and the months leading up to it because of my weight. I was not fat until I turned 30. Two weeks before my 30th birthday I gave birth to my third child and due to various circumstances I was never able to lose the weight or go back to the gym as I had always done in the past. So I not only kept my extra 65 lbs from my third child but I gained about 30 more on top of it.

The thought that I had spent my entire 30's fat and ashamed of my body really depressed me. In my mind I still think of myself as thin me so when I see a photo or get a good look in a mirror it always shocks me at what I see looking back. I also have no energy anymore...... I NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT.

I want to join a gym but cannot for financial reasons and the fact that the affordable ones do not have daycare for my 3 year old. Go at night you say? Well, hubby works well into the night at the home computer and he needs to.....it is a necessity that he is able to do his work. My teen works most nights and then does karate on the nights she doesn't. Do it from home you say? It's hard when you try to do a video and the kids keep barging in on you. Lock the door you say? Yeah, they know how to pick the locks. Get on your treadmill at home you say? The 3 year old tries to hop onto it every single time. He thinks it is a game. If I manage to lock them out they bang on the door or fight in front of it. I could almost believe there is a family conspiracy to keep mom fat! When I try to do anything I get so aggravated and upset by how many times I get interrupted that it just became not worth the effort anymore.

UNTIL I TURNED 40.

This is my year. Period. I have been raising children and caring for a family/hubby for almost 18 years now and it is my turn to take care of me. The consequences to my health if I don't are looming. Things are already breaking down and drooping if you know what I mean. Yep, this is my year. I am pulling the two middle children out of karate to make time for my evening workouts. It's my year. I am making the 12 year old babysit the 3 year old so I can go walk when it is not so freezing cold outside. I am going to do my videos and if they interrupt me then instead of getting frustrated I will punish them so that they will learn not to interrupt me. Yep, it is my year.

I have already been cutting back my portions and I have abstained from eating sweets numerous times. At what point in my life did they become comfort to me? I think after my husband's layoff almost 3 years ago. I like to weigh in on Fridays so I weighed last Friday, today is Monday. I weighed 198.5 and I will weigh in on every Friday. Friday is a good weigh in day because it frees you up to enjoy the weekend if you want to splurge a little food wise and then you have the whole week to work harder to get rid of any extra splurging that may have occurred. Wednesdays are another good day but let's do Fridays shall we? I want to put in a Mr. Linky and hopefully a bunch of us will pop in on Fridays for a Mr. Linky weigh in and we can all post about our week and be accountable for our results or lack thereof. Wouldn't that be fun? We can all visit each other and post pictures of our progress and share ideas and tips. LOVE IT. Anyhoo, that will take some work on my part because in order to do that somebody would have to know about this blog right? So, if you know of anyone who wants to lose weight and do it with some other fine people along the way please send them the link to the blog and we can get this party started.

And now I am off to do some exercising, I will no longer do any housework until I have done some exercising. Yep, it is MY year.

Jennifer