Monday, November 28, 2011

Post-Thanksgiving weigh in

274.4 ... that is a great number for me right now.  It is back where I was 2 weeks ago.  After spending the weekend visiting Katie for Thanksgiving (and an AWESOME turkey), I had to leave early to help fix a tenant's water heater.  So Sunday, I went hiking, and this morning after riding my exercise bike, I weighed in.

I'll see where this week takes me, but I had an ingrown nail cut out of my toe this afternoon, and I grabbed takeout on the way home, so that is not a good start to the week.  The toe hurts like heck right now, and I hope it won't slow me down too much this week.  Well, I will post on Friday and let you know how I fared.

Mamavation Monday - MILI Wrap Up

I don't really know where to start with this post. It's hard for me to believe that this is my last official MILI post. The time since we first applied has gone by so fast and here we are, at the end. Except, I refuse to let this be an end. For us, it's really a beginning. We both have so far that we want to go on this journey. This challenge was merely the first steps in what has become a lifetime commitment. I feel like I'm on an episode of the Biggest Loser and the announcer is saying something about checking in with the person who was evicted. In a year from now, I guarantee you won't be seeing the same me that you see now. I'm not done. If the stress of the past few months have shown me nothing else, they've shown me that I'm not a quitter and that I can do this, even under enormous amounts of stress.

It's not easy. There have been more days than not during this campaign where I let everything overwhelm me and I gave up on that day. I threw my hands up in the air, ordered a pizza and curled up on the couch. I ought to be ashamed to admit that, but I'm not. I'm human, just like everyone else. I had bad days. I had days where I thought why the hell am I doing this? I let things bother me that in all reality, I should have just let go. On the other hand, I had things thrown at me that in the past would have crippled me and this time I dealt with it and I moved on. I may not have lost 20 pounds during MILI but I learned from the experience.

I learned that challenges don't motivate me. That one came as a bit of a surprise. When Justin told me that Megan had challenged the pair of us last week, I thought woo! this will get me going. Nope. I moved out of a sense of guilt, not out of a sense of competition. Major lightbulb moment for me. I looked back over the campaign and realized that at some point, I started doing this 100% for me and people challenging me to do more so that they would do more was no longer a motivation. I realized that the times I was the most motivated was when I had someone doing it right alongside me. It was those times when I'd post on Twitter that I was doing something..be it water or working out ...and someone would pipe up and say you know what, I'm going to do that too. It wasn't who did more. It was that we were in it together. It was watching people on Twitter cheering me on to make that next target. Having those personal cheerleaders inspired me to work just a little bit harder.

I also learned that I have to be real and sometimes that's not easy for others to deal with.  Over the past few months, my stress levels have continued to grow.  For the most part, the factors aren't anything I can do much about. I know that and I've been trying hard to focus on what I can control but there have been times when I've let it all get the best of me. I haven't always been the perky, upbeat, positive person that people have come to expect. I had someone call me on it last week. To that person and perhaps to the entire group, I apologize.

I really am sorry. I know that some people consider me a big time cheerleader in the group. I really do love to motivate and support the members of Mamavation. Without this group, I don't know when I would have started taking my health seriously. This group has been the kick in the pants and the loving arms I've needed and I'm sorry that I haven't been there lately for them like perhaps I should have been. Life has been tough and that's no excuse. People don't need you less when life is tough. So, for any of you who have been on the receiving end of my negativity lately, I am sorry. Please know that it's not you or the group. I love the group and I'm lucky enough to call its members my friends. I'm going to try to do better. I only ask for patience and understanding and maybe a cheerleader to work alongside me. After all, a few more sips of water or bits of movement are good for us, right?

I'm going to be selfish here and ask for one more thing. Sometimes, you're going to read something you don't want to read. Sometimes, you're going to hear things you don't want to hear. Sometimes, those things may be from me or about me. Whether they are or not, please try to remember a few things.

1. No two people are going to agree about everything all of the time.
2. You don't know all of what's happening in someone's life.
3. You would hate for someone to judge you, so please don't judge others.
4. Approaching someone with an open heart and kind words often helps far more than accusations.

Now, I suppose I ought to get to the reason everyone really came here...my results...

First, the numbers:


After 2 week challenge/at start of MILI:
Weight: 276.8 
Chest: 48"
Waist: 40.75" 
Hips: 54.5" 
Arms: 18" (left) and 17" (right)
Thighs: 27" (left) and 27.5" (right) 

At the end of MILI:
Weight: 260.6 -16.2 pounds
Chest: 48"
Waist: 40" -.75"
Hips: 52.5" -2"
Arms: 17" (left) and 16.5" (right) -1" and -.5"
Thighs: 27" (left) and 26" (right) No change and -1.5"
Grand Total Change: -10.8 pounds and -5.75"


And the pictures:

Before:




















After:






The Real After Pictures:

















Ok, you might have guessed those middle photos aren't me. If you didn't, might I suggest you call your eye doctor? Those are just placeholders until I can get my son to take some new after pictures of me this afternoon. My company for the weekend was supposed to take them but ended up having to go home early. Check back later tonight for the real after photos. They will be here, I promise!

After pictures are now posted. I don't know about anyone else, but I can't see a difference. In fact, they make me wince...I guess instead we'll just have to look at the scale pictures...

Before:

Today:




This last picture is just here to serve as a reminder...Do not step backwards onto your scale while sweeping the floor. I did this last Monday, right after taking my picture. I stepped backwards right onto the display. So, today, I bury my old scale..the one who has come so far with me on this journey and I welcome the new scale (in today's photo) and hope that it will stand by me (or under me) as I continue this journey.

This week's numbers:
Average Daily Water Intake: 30oz, give or take
Workouts: Black Friday shopping, Thanksgiving dinner prep, wall pushups, sink plunging (yeah, we went non conventional workouts this week)
Weight Change: 260.6 (-8.2 pounds)
Overall Weight Change: -31.0 pounds

MILI ending

And here we are at the end of Move It Lose It and, well...I probably should have moved it a little more and probably should have lost it a little more, but that's on me. I still ended up improving my overall health and weight...just not as much as I had hoped. This is a beginning and not an ending:

Starting scale

Ending scale


Starting front

Ending front


Starting back

Ending back
(Please ignore the side of my head. It was one of those days. :) )

start of MILI
Weight: 362.6
Chest: 59
Waist: 56.5
Hips: 51
Arms: 15" (left) and 17.5" (right)
Thighs: 25" (left) and 25" (right)

End of MILI:
Weight: 359.0 (-3.6)
Chest: 59 (0.0)
Waist: 55.0 (-1.5)
Hips: 51 (-0.0)
Arms: 16.5" (left) and 17.0" (right) (-1.0)
Thighs: 25" (left) and 25" (right) (-1.0)

Total, -3.6 pounds, -3.5 inches


(Note, still need to get the after pictures in. Those will be up this evening, never fear! In the mean time, look at my lovely placeholders!)

Monday, November 21, 2011

Mamavation Monday - It was bound to happen

Do you know this boy? I do. That's my oldest son standing outside of Spartan Stadium on Saturday morning. We were incredibly blessed to be gifted two tickets to attend Saturday's game against Indiana. Ben is what I'd call a superfan. He rarely misses a game if it's televised. He knows the players names. He cried when the quarterback came off the field to allow the second string quarterback a bit of experience. You see, the quarterback is a senior and this was his last home game.

My plans for this weekend didn't include driving 45 minutes to Lansing. I was going to clean (desperately needed) and focus on the holidays. Instead, we dropped everything and went. Know what? I wouldn't go back and change that decision for anything. This boy, so eager to see his team, didn't hesitate when faced with a huge flight of stairs up to our seats in the 59th row. Instead, he handed me his blanket and put one hand on the bench in front of him and hauled himself up. He hauled himself up all of those steps. He jumped to his feet cheering when his team scored. He threw himself at me and hugged me. He didn't let the fact that he has cerebral palsy slow him down one bit. He didn't complain when we had to walk down 8 flights (4 stories) worth of stairs after the game. He just did what he had to do and is already asking me if we can go again next year.

I need to take my inspiration from this little boy. He could have looked at those steps and said mom, I can't do this. Instead, he climbed. He could have stayed rooted in his seat because we were so far up but instead, he cheered and jumped up to support those guys down on the field.

This week, I've had roadblocks in so many aspects of my life. My house still looks like a tornado ripped through it. I lost days worth of kitchen cleaning and catch up because my sink blocked up. We got it fixed, just to find out that instead of fixed, it's now draining into the other sink. The plumber doesn't want to come back out even though he said it was fixed. Justin is still 2300 miles away with no sign of him being here anytime soon. It will probably be another 2 months until I see him again and then just for a weekend. The strain of the distance is especially horribly hard during the holidays. Take all that and the one week a month I hate hate hate to weigh in (women, you know which one) and the gain resulting from massive amounts of water retention and other blech and yeah, last night I said flat out, I want to admit defeat.

Will I? No. I'm going to try really hard to take a lesson from my son and just keep going, to focus on the good that's happening and hope that those who are around me this week can take a bit of inspiration instead of seeing only what I didn't get done.


Average Daily Water Intake: -- I'm honestly not sure.
Workouts: Friday swimming with the 5th graders & allll those stairs at the stadium with a few pushups thrown in.
Weight Change: 268.8 (+7 pounds) <-- The scale picture doesn't lie, but umm...yeah...wow. That's precisely what I lost last week. It will come off again.
Overall Weight Change: -22.8 pounds

Same as they ever was.

I'm hovering right around the same spot again. This is a bit frustrating. I skipped working out on Friday because I was poisoned at work all day by solvent fumes. I wonder if that's my missing .4 pounds. Annoying. Back to the gym today.



Weight: 359.6 (+0.4)

Friday, November 18, 2011

What the .... ????

Hmmm ... 274.4 plus 3.4 equals 277.8.  And that leads me to my post title.  What the????  I haven't really done too much wrong this week.  Lets break it down, shall we?

First the good: I made it all five days this week.  I hopped on my exercise bike every day this week and rode for fifteen minutes each day.  WOOHOO!  Another good thing: my water consumption is up, about 48oz per day.  My short term goal is 60oz.

Now the bad: I ate out a few more times this week than I had for the past couple weeks.  I love Shrimp Fried Rice and Kowloon Chicken from Wong's Wok.  It took me a long time to get off the burgers, but now I need to find a better way to structure my food consumption of my new favorite fast food.  I know what the problem is: portion size ... they really load you up there.  If I were smart, I would bring a nice storage bowl and put half of it in there.  Oh, and if I eat out, I do it later in the day, so it throws my eating schedule off whack.

As the old saying goes, he knows what to do, he just doesn't do it.

Well, lets see what next week brings, shall we?

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Three in a row ...

... can I make it all five?  Since Monday, I have been getting up as soon as my alarm goes off and hopping on my exercise bike for fifteen minutes of riding. Sure fifteen isn't alot, but it is more than I had been doing, which is zero.

More importantly, I have noticed a distinct change in my energy level during the day, and my attitude along with that.  Both are better wit the morning exercise than without.

Now before you say it, yes, I know.  I should remember this from before when I was riding the bike regularly.  All of the literature says exercise is good for the energy level and emotional well-being.  I know, I know,  So now, I just have to keep going.  Will I make it all five days this week?  I'll let you know on my usual Friday post!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

New Workout

As one of the Mamavation #Homework Gurus, I'm a major advocate of using homework as a workout. Not sure what homework is, well maybe this new workout this will help you. I personally think it looks like a lot of fun!





What do y'all think?

Monday, November 14, 2011

Mamavation Monday - Umm...What?

I don't really know where to start this week. I could tell you how I spent the entire week still sick but slowly getting better. I could tell you how I barely drank any water at all. I could tell you that I saw my first snow storm of the year. I could tell you about a lot of things and they would all be true. Instead, it's my family that weighs on my heart today.

As some people know, my grandmother is dying. She has stage 4 inoperable colo-rectal cancer that has moved to her lungs and her liver. Yesterday, we called her. We were supposed to go visit her but with me still having the dregs of something and the kids being a bit sniffly, we didn't want to risk her getting sick because of us. It was the first time since her diagnosis that she warned me, in her own way, that she wouldn't be here much longer. The reality is that this is probably our last Thanksgiving with her and she didn't seem so positive that she would be here for Christmas. I could hear it in her voice when we talked about me swapping holidays with the boys' dad. I didn't want to do it but she wanted me to.  I still don't want to but now I think I need to see if there's a compromise to be worked out. This breaks my heart. She's the only mother I ever knew and soon, I'm going to lose her. At that point, I'll basically be an orphan.

And now that I've totally depressed us all...I should focus on some positive. This past week was parent-teacher conferences. I'm so proud of my boys. They both did amazingly well. Ben had 4 A's and 2 B+'s. Roger had all A's except for one B. I guess all that time we spend doing homework is paying off. Did I mention that I'm super proud of them?

Another accomplishment this week? My bathroom is officially done! I'm going to be writing up a post over at Life With Katie sometime this week that should include before, during and after pictures. Until then, though...let's look at some numbers:


Average Daily Water Intake: 20oz (I drank more juice that water this week.)
Workouts: Nothing other than normal running around stuff.
Weight Change: 261.8 (-7 pounds) <-- The scale picture doesn't lie, but umm...yeah...wow.
Overall Weight Change: -29.8 pounds

Does anyone know which way the numbers are supposed to go?

Clearly mine are going the wrong way. I have to say it's very frustrating to see a bounce like this. Normally I'm very optimistic and I'm going to continue to be. My weight is up this week, and next week it's going to be back down. I need to do better on the water again, since I was so busy at work last week, that I didn't do as well as I like to. Also I need to plan a little better on portions. Tonight is pork chops and I expect to have a start of a good week. How did you all do this week?



Today's weight: 359.2 +2.4 pounds

Gold Star

I did it!  I got on my exercise bike this morning and got in 15 minutes of riding.  This is my goal ... fifteen minutes each morning when I first wake up.  I understand that the first day of any exercise program is the hardest.  But than again, I am sure the econd day will be just as hard.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Baby Steps

Sometimes weight loss is a study in what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.  I have done plenty of wrong in recent days, and now I have finally gotten some right in there.  there is only one problem ... I am not sure what I am doing right.

I still haven't started exercising.  I am still not drinking enough water.  I am still eating out too much.  Those are my major wrongs.  But guess what, I am down another fraction to 274.4.  So somewhere, I am doing something right.  Maybe it was the Halloween candy.

I like to have lots of candy for trick-or-treating.  I remember loving knocking on doors as a kid, just to walk away with a tasty prize, and so I hate to disappoint the young ghouls and goblins when they come to my door.  This year, I got my huge bowl of candy together.  I flopped out on the couch to wait for the doorbell, and promptly fell asleep.  I had had a busy few days prior and was totally wiped.  So I missed the doorbell.  That left me with a huge bowl of candy, and only one mouth in the house ... mine.

So, I took the huge bowl of candy, dumped it in a bag, and took it to school.  Now I ask questions, and when a student gets it right, I toss them a piece of candy.  They are happy, and I am not eating the candy.  It is a win-win!

The holidays are coming, and I am sure I will waver a few times during the holidays.  Last year, I tried out a recipe for mashed cauliflower (to replace mashed potatoes) but used too much milk.  I will try to get it right this year.

Well, that's all for now.  If anyone has a good healthy holiday recipe, let me know!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Mamavation Monday - Sick of Being Sick

Ahhh! I cannot stop smiling when I see this picture. That is the very sexy and very talented Raven Gregory over there and he is holding up a sign that he wrote wishing me to feel better! Ok, I'm trying not to go all fangirl but I have to confess to having a bit of a crush on this guy. He's good looking, talented, smart and really nice. He's incredibly down to earth and he did that for me! Ok wow, my fangirlness is getting out of control so I'm going to take a few deep breathes, not imagine what it would be like to actually hang out with him and get back onto the track of this post.

So, as you can see by the sign (do not insert fangirl squeal here), I've been sick. Honestly, I've been flat out ill. It's been horrible. It included swollen and painful tonsils, fevers, aching, head/throat/chest congestion and general ickiness. Thankfully, a week later and we're down to just wracking coughs that lead to never having enough sleep. I'm on the mend though, thank goodness!

However, due to my ickiness, I don't really have a lot to report this week. When I wasn't taking care of the boys, I was flat out in bed for the most part. I do apologize for my absence but rest was required. I should be back more this week, though!  Now, for the numbers:


Average Daily Water Intake: 30oz (I didn't even want water, I felt so crummy!)
Workouts: Just Dance with the boys (while sitting on the couch)
Weight Change: 274.6 (-5.8 pounds) <-- This is what total lack of appetite does.
Overall Weight Change: -22.8 pounds


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Mamavation Monday Question:

How has Type II diabetes affected your life?
Diabetes is something that is on my mind fairly frequently. I have not one, but three different friends who deal with this on a daily basis. In fact, Jim, who is a regular contributor here is one of those friends. I've watched him work on bringing it under control and we've talked about how being a healthy weight is a part of that. It's one of the reasons I'm trying to get my weight back down into the healthy range. My family has a predisposition to having problems with Diabetes and like I've said many a time, I don't intend on becoming a statistic. 
 “This post is sponsored by Better’n Eggs and I’m writing this to be entered into a giveaway hosted by Mamavation – a community dedicated to obesity prevention & weight loss for women” 

PS Want to know more about the hottie at the top? He's a comic book author. You can find his work at http://www.zenescope.com Seriously, he's good stuff.

Back on track

Starting back in the right direction again. I had a weird adventures in gymnasium event this week. I managed to forget to take my lock off of my locker at the gym on Weds after I was done getting dressed in street clothes again and discovered on Friday that someone took it and kept it. That's right, someone stole my combination lock. Without knowing what the combination is. Some people will steal anything, I guess. Been working the dadavation challenge too and I guess that's been enough working out, since I edged down this week after edging up the last two. It's nice to be back on the path again.



Weight: 356.8 (down 2.2 this week. Down 5.8 since the start)
Water: more than humans should consume. I seriously drink a ton of water.

Friday, November 4, 2011

In a holding pattern ...

Another week wondering ... why o why am I stuck?  This morning's weigh in: 275.6.  That is actually up a fraction.  Hmmmmmmmmm.  OK, to be honest, I haven't been "working" at losing weight lately.  I have been rather discouraged about the whole thing lately.  I know what I NEED to do, I am just not doing it.

Well, OK, maybe little things here and there.  For instance, I am slowly ratcheting up my water intake.  Everyone knows that water intake is beneficial to weight loss.  I have been grazing a lot lately at night, and I really need to change that.  I have a HUGE bowl of Halloween candy from trick or treating (I fell asleep on the couch during trick or treating and missed all the kids ringing the bell).  I have been taking that to school in little dribs and drabs and using it as inducements to students when asking questions.

Now on to the future:  I will try to drink more water and eat better this week ... I'll let you know how it all goes.

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