Day 10 Results

My husband isn't feeling well, but he really wanted me to go to the gym so he took care of the kids while I went. He is the best! I couldn't do this without his support.

Today was a little rough, I wanted to eat a lot more than I should, I was internally whiny all day. I also really didn't feel like going to the gym, but I kicked butt at my run/walk today. I tried to run (translation: jog) for 1 minute of each song I listened to on my iPod.  I burned the most calories yet in my 50 minute workout (529) and finished a 5K at 48 minutes (3 minutes away from my WLorB end goal). Woohoo!

Here are my official stats (more for me than you). :)

Eating: 
-Calories: 1320 Calories (I've got to get back to my 1200 goal. I did so good last week, but not so much this week).

Exercise: 
-Treadmill 54:05 (burned 529 calories, went 3.38 miles at av speed of 3.76 mph, average pace 15:56, heart rate 135).

How was your Wednesday?

Day Nine in nine words

Gym
Treadmill
Abs
Eclipse
Jacob
Abs
Popcorn
Control
Sleepy


(I budgeted my calories for the popcorn and was in total control. It felt awesome. Sorry, now that is more than nine words. ) ;)

Day 8 Results

I did my workout at lunchtime today and it was my best yet~
Eating- 1381. Oops. Need to watch closer tomorrow.
Exercise-
Cardio-Treadmill 53:35 (470 calories, 3.26 miles, 3.66 average speed, 16:23 pace (woohoo!), 141 heart rate. I was only 5 MINUTES off of my goal to do a 5k in 45 minutes. Maybe I can shave that goal down a bit? 35 minutes?
Weights-15 minutes arms.

What did you do for exercise today? :)

Monday, Monday

If you didn't see already on the main Win, Lose, or Blog page, I lost 7 pounds this week.  I should be thrilled, but instead I'm feeling a little disappointed I didn't do better. I have the most weight to lose, but didn't lose the most weight. Ugh! I'm trying to move out of that mindset and keep moving along like that tortoise. Slow and steady.

I did lose 4 inches off of my waist which is really exciting. I still have quite a few inches left until I reach an ideal waist size for my height (34" or less) but I'm on my way! I remember in high school I wore boy style jeans from the gap that were 32" waist (I wore them low on my hips). I also remember I could take them off without unzipping or unsnapping them, meaning my hips were hardly more than 32". Crazy!

This week I'm going to keep with my exercise and food intake. I'm going to up my cardio to 50 minutes (before cool-down) and try to add in more jogging intervals. I *think* my knee is doing well enough that I can add alternating leg days to my weightlifting, we'll have to see how it goes.

I also wanted to add some exercise goals. By the end of Win, Lose or Blog I want to be able to:

- complete a 5K in 45 minutes (or less)
-do 50 consecutive sit-ups (I can do 20 right now)
-do 15 real push-ups

How did you do this week? Any big plans for the fourth of July?

Day 6-Not a typical day

Normally, my husband works on Saturdays but he had the day off today. Woohoo!
I usually go to the gym to workout right around dinner time, but today I went at breakfast. It wasn't my worst workout, but certainly not my best. I just didn't feel as energetic as I do in the evenings.

We went to my husband's work's summer party at lunchtime and I had a hamburger sans bun and salad. I was still a little hungry afterward but survived. :) We went swimming at a community pool after the party and while I don't think I burned a lot of calories playing the "bad dragon" who wanted to eat a "princess sandwich" (my daughter) I was moving around and we had fun.  We went to eat at a greek restaurant for dinner and for my splurge of the week I had a gyro with the sauce on the side. It was delicious!

Tomorrow will be my day of rest, but I will keep track of calories and weigh-in. Exciting! Or so we hope.

Here are my results for Day 6:
Eating:
Calories: 1187
Exercise: 
Treadmill: 47:23 (383 calories, 2.71 miles walked, 3.43 mph, 17:38 pace, 124 heart rate)
Weights: 15 minutes of ab/core work

Valleys and Peaks

Since I told you how much I weigh (humiliating) and have blogged about other crappy things, you won't hate me if I brag for a minute, will you? Because today was really, really good.  Why was it good? Let me tell you!

It was the last day of the first session of swimming lessons for my kids. My super brave 5 year old son went off the high diving board, which scared me to death but made me really proud and made him really happy for himself. My daughter took a nap (which she hasn't in a while)  and was much happier the rest of the afternoon (bonus!). My husband got to come home from work early and I've been missing him lately.  And we had some guest over for dinner. Normally I am a little crazy getting the house ready but it was pretty clean so I decided to try a new recipe.

I went to one of my favorite recipe websites, www.ourbestbites.com and found this delish looking recipe (Chili-lime mango chicken skewers) which I had all of the ingredients for (woohoo! No trip to the store!). I also made the cilantro rice they mention on the website, garlic bread, zucchini sauteed in garlic and olive oil and brownies (my fav!) for dessert.  The chicken is SO yummy, seriously, you have to try the recipe! I didn't eat the rice, garlic bread or brownies, but my husband, kids and our guests liked them so they must have been all right.  What was exciting for me was that I ate just the healthy part and didn't feel deprived! My tummy was full and I was quite all right (unlike yesterday) with eating what I ate.

I plugged the chicken skewer recipe into an awesome free iPhone/iPod app called "Lose It" and it calculated that there are approximately 253 calories in each serving. Not too bad, eh?

Then after dinner and clean-up, I thought, "Time for the gym!" without feeling dread. I was looking forward to it! Wow! Even though I worked out within 45 minutes of eating dinner, my workout went great. I did lots of jogging and it felt good.  See what a wonderful day I had? From a valley to a peak. I'll have to try and remember today the next time I'm having a down day.

Thanks for all of your words of encouragement about my day yesterday, I am loving Win, Lose or Blog and am so grateful I was chosen for this round.

Here are my results for Day 5. 

Eating: 1194 calories
Exercise:
     Treadmill: 47:36 minutes (438 calories, 2.87 miles, 3.62 mph 16:34 pace 145 heart rate)
     Weights: 20 minutes, free weights and circuit weights for arms. (I haven't done legs yet because my knee and achilles tendon are not great right now)

Tortoise and the Hare (Day Four Results)

Right about now, dear readers, is when I would be giving up and giving in to that delicious Costco strawberry cheesecake that taunts me from our refrigerator. Apparently day four is the day when the newness and excitement of a lifestyle change get beaten down by bad habits....at least for me. 

It was just kind of a blah day.  Food wasn't filling me up. When I went to the gym I wasn't as excited and kind of plodded through the workout (I did do the 5K though).  I didn't eat badly, and I still exercised, but my heart just wasn't in it today.  Pretty sad that it only took four days!

Lucky for me, I have Win, Lose or Blog. If I wasn't in this competition than I am pretty sure I would have caved today. Maybe just eaten a bit too much, or maybe not walked as far as I did.  Then the downward slide out of eating healthy and into my regular habits would have begun.  But I know that I can do ANYTHING for 8 weeks. And I know that someone here would have been sad if I gave up already, especially me.

It reminds me of the story of the tortoise and the hare.  When it comes to eating better, exercising and losing weight I am a lot like the hare.  I'm ready for immediate results, ready to get it over with ready to be thin right now!  But I need to be more like the tortoise, slow and steady wins the race.

Thanks for being my motivation today. I'm hoping I get some of my enthusiasm back tomorrow!

Here are my day four results:

Eating: 1190 calories
Exercise: 
Treadmill-59:43 ( I completed 5k at 54:43 and did a five minute cool down) Burned 460 Calories, went 3.32 miles at an average speed of 3.33 miles per hour. Average pace 17:48 mph, heart rate 126.
Weights-10 minutes ab on machines

Results Day Three

Calories: 1419
Exercise: 
      Cardio-46 minutes on treadmill (374 calories burned, 2.7 miles, 3.35 average speed, average pace 16:53, average heart rate: 139)
      Weights- Free weights/arms. Ouch! (In a good way). :)

I tried to push it a little more on the treadmill. Still walking, but I tried (and accomplished) keeping my heart rate in the recommended target heart range for my age. Woot woot! Even though it is only day three, I am amazed at how quickly my body is adapting to the exercise. Every day I want to go a little further, go a little faster.  My goal for tomorrow is to walk a 5K. I'm not too far away from it!

How did you do today?

36x24x36??

You know how magazines recommend clothes based on your body shape? Like, "this dress will look great on a pear shaped body." Or, "these pants are perfect to minimize your tummy if you are apple shaped."

I decided to do body measurements like some of my fellow competitors/weight-loss buddies. And I discovered my body shape isn't really apple, or pear...

It appears I am a cylinder.  My chest and waist are exactly the same. My hips are 2 inches bigger.
No wonder clothes look so bad on me! ;)

Bonus points for anyone who can name the song that inspired my title.

Results Day Two

Food: 1210 Calories
Exercise:
Cardio- 44:39 minutes on the treadmill (338 calories burned, 2.5 miles walked, average speed 3.36 mph)
Weights- 15 minutes abs

When I was eating a big delicious salad today, my 2 year old daughter said, "Can I have some in a bowl, just like you?"

And that is exactly why I am doing this.

Another good day!

Exposed

Whenever I've seen the first weigh-in on "The Biggest Loser" I've been puzzled. The contestants usually get emotional and cry, and some of them look surprised. Surely they know how much they weigh! thought I.

After yesterday, when my weight was posted online for all to see, I finally get it.  It is one thing to know you are overweight, obese even. It is a whole other thing to reveal your weight for all to see.  I feel exposed, stripped down.

It's kind of silly, really because being overweight isn't like a gambling or drug addiction that can take your friends and family by surprise.  My problem is obvious, my belly rolls and double chins are always out there for everyone to see.

But that doesn't change the fact that all day yesterday I kept feeling waves of embarrassment. Kind of like when you are dating someone and get dumped. You'll be going about your day then you suddenly remember the hurt and the sadness rolls over you.  All day I kept thinking, "People know how much I weigh! How awful!"

I'm so embarrassed by my weight I haven't even told my family about this competition. My family who love me and would support me are left in the dark because of my pride. Even though I know THEY KNOW I am fat, I just can't quite tell them what my weight is. I just picture them saying, "Two hundred and sixty pound! WOW she is really fat!" Because, well, that's what I feel like!

And forget about the people I went to high school with. I think I emailed one person to tell them about the competition. I just can't bear the thought of them knowing I am fat. Maybe as I work through this competition I will become braver and tell other people. But for now this much exposure is all I can take.

Sigh. I'm so ready to not be fat anymore.

Day 1 results

Eating: Good (I plan on tracking it more specifically tomorrow so I have a caloric number)
Exercise:
Cardio-37:36 on the treadmill, went 2.11 miles at an average speed of 3.37 mph. I only walked, trying to ease my way back into jogging. I have a crazy knee right now so I took it easy, but worked up a sweat.
Weights-I worked arms tonight and spent 20 minutes on the circuit weights working biceps, triceps, back, shoulders and deltoids.
Favorite gym personality: Guy wearing a backpack (presumably filled with weights) doing pushups across the ENTIRE gym floor. He basically did a pushup, then threw one arm up and walked it forward.  He also carried around a big weight and walked backwards, doing lunges in between the weight equipment, narrowly missing a really muscular guy who looked really annoyed. Rather amusing.

Hooray for the first day!!

Worth a thousand words

Recently a mother I knew died in a tragic car accident, leaving behind five children. When I went to her Facebook page, I noticed the most recent family pictures were of her husband and kids, she wasn't in a single one. I immediately thought how sad it was that they didn't have pictures with their mom. Then that thought pained me because I hate having my picture taken. I have two beautiful kids and an amazing husband, but when it is time for pictures I avoid being in them at all costs. Why? Because the outside of me doesn't match how I feel inside.

A little background...I was a little chubby as a child, then thinned out in middle school and spent my high school years as a member of our dance team. I exercised a lot, and ate very little. The weight I remember being in high school was 144 pounds (we had to be at a certain weight for our height to perform the routines).  For 5'9", that is a pretty low weight but I always, ALWAYS felt fat.  In college I was roommates with three girls who are all very petite (height and weight), in all of our pictures together I looked enormous and felt, once again, like a fatty. I married my wonderful husband when I was 21 and feeling comfortable and loved, started eating with abandon. I remember at one point my jeans were uncomfortably small. Instead of seeing that as a warning signal and exercising or eating healthier, I just bought a bigger size of pants. If only I could go back in time, right? It's amazing how quickly I ballooned up to over 240 pounds. We wanted to have a baby, so I did the Atkins diet and lost 40 pounds over a period of 4 months.  I got pregnant soon after and gained 52 pounds (!) during my first pregnancy. I lost 20 pounds and remained at 232 until I got pregnant with my daughter. I only gained 25 pounds that pregnancy but haven't really lost that weight and my daughter is almost 3!

I'm tired of dieting though. And every time I look at my handsome son and sweet daughter I want to stop this endless cycle of gaining and losing weight. I want them to grow up with a mom who is healthy and active. I want to be a good example for my mom and dad who are struggling with their weight. I want to feel comfortable in my body and gladly step in front of the camera. 

So here I am. I'm so excited to be a part of Win, Lose or Blog.  The dieter and competitor in me wants to do something drastic and lose a lot of weight. But this is the last time I'm losing weight, and I'm going to do it right! I'm hoping all of you readers will be my support system, to buoy me up and/or kick my butt when I'm having a bad day, and to clap for me when I'm on the  right track. 

My strategy is this: 

-Exercise at least 60 minutes a day

-Eat only when I'm hungry, and stop when I am full

-Kitchen is closed after dinner (late night snacking is a bad habit of mine)

-Weigh myself only once a week

-Blog my progress each day (so you can keep me on track!)

-Full disclosure (no secret brownie-a-thons!)

I'm excited to get to "know" you. Does anyone have other strategies they think I should add to my list?

Thank in advance for your help and support, it means a lot to me!

Steph