18 minute mile

That is what I walked yesterday at the gym. Which isn't very fast, but it is the fastest that I have gone since before high school. I took Kristina's example and pushed myself. I walked 35 minutes than did my upper body weights. It feels really good to be active again. Today I am cleaning my house thoroughly, because I have company coming.

You guys are very motivational to me. I am having fun getting to know all of you.
Thanks

Just when I think that I can't go any faster, I go faster!

You know the other day when I was telling you about how I've changed up my elliptical routine. How I'll go at my normal fast pace for a couple of minutes,(around 75 RPM's)and then I'll sprint for a solid thirty seconds? Well, this last saturday, I was really happy to make it up to 131 RPM's, thinking, surely I can't go much faster than that. But then I pushed myself yesterday, and at one point in my "sprinting" stage, I made it up to 138 RPM's. Well, ladies, I'll have you know that this very morning, I got it up to 143 RPM's! I know, I myself am beginning to think that perhaps I am a bit pscycho. But hey, at least I'm a rather fast pscycho. : )

Monday: 1,919 calories and 14 glasses of water. I did 45 minutes of cardio, burning 641 calories, and lifted 42,000 pounds. And I got a whopping 16,665 steps in for the day!

More scary pictures. I am NEVER going back. I don't care if I have to eat rice cakes for the rest of my life!

Holy Cupcakes, Batman...look what I found in my photo album!!

Kristina September of 2003, She was so psyched to start her weight loss journey...then she got prego with Davie and had to stop her Weight Watchers routine. Look at how our girl has changed!!!

Six months of successful maintainence!

I have kept off 70 lbs. for six solid months, now. What a great feeling that is! I was putting on some clothes I just purchased the other day, and I was overwhelmed with the feeling of pride I had, slipping into my size 10 pants and my size medium shirt. Where did those numbers come from??? Is that really me? Is that really my reality???? What a blessing to be here, in the land of "normal". Ideally, I would like to be at my goal, which is 20 lbs away, but I am happy to be where I am now, looking back at how far I have traveled. I think learning the skill of maintaining a weight loss is a great feat in and of itself and I am giving myself a pat on the back here....I will move on when I am ready, I guess. I will know when the right time to lose the last 20 will be, just like Kristina, it will become my focus and my passion. But for now, I am so happy to see how far I have come and to be thankful and diligent to keep all my accomplishments intact. I will never go back. Never.

Love you all,

Jules

His persistance is, well, getting kind of annoying

You know that kid that works at the Y. The one that's been making comments to me lately. Well, it turns out that he is actually 22 years old, not 20 like I had originally thought. Regardless, I saw him on Saturday, I was the only one in the weight room and he strolled through and said,' Man, it is HOT in here. I think we need to get some more fans.' He was implying that I was hot, the goof. And then today, he said something else, and I said to him,' Will you stop already?! I'm old enough to be your mother.' And will you please check out how he replied back to me. He said,' Are you kidding me?! ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME? You look like you could be on the cover of a Sports Illustrated magazine. My jaw just dropped, I waved my hand, and I left the room. Perhaps the boy just likes older women. I don't know, but sheesh!
I didn't journal over the weekend, as my honey and I had a date Friday night, and then we had two barbeques to go to this weekend also. Factor in that I'm going to start my period any day... I ate too much. But I'm back on track today. And I DID work out, I did clean two offices, and I did get 15,115 steps in on Saturday. Yes, I bought a pedometer too. Oh, and I played a bunch of volley ball on Sunday with the church folk. I've got bruises on my arms to prove it. : ) I will say, that I had one of the funnest weekends in the longest time.

Tape v. Scale

I spent a couple of days in anguish over scale fluctuations. I even wrote about it on my blog. Several readers commented that perhaps I am getting scale obsessed and need a different gauge to assess my weight loss.

I have been charting out my body measurements since about early June and today I took a good look at it and here is what I found:

(in April I measured my hips as somewhere around 57 inches, the bust was the same and the waist was about 53 - I didn't measure anything else at that point.)

Neck 15 ---> 14 inches
Bicep 12.50 --->11.50
Forearm 10.25 ----> 9.5
Chest 50 ----> 45.10
Waist 47 ---> 41.5
Hip 53 ----> 43.8
Thigh 22 -----> 20.25
Calf 16-----> 15.5

Now I am not so worried about my scale. What with water weight changes, increasing my muscle mass, etc., I am glad that there is more than one method of tracking body changes.

Um, that's weird.

151?

Wait.....step off the scale.
Tap lightly with one toe to reset.
Step on scale.

151.

Wow.

I can't remember the last time I was 151. Hmmmm.

Where is my pedometer?

Oh yeah. I broke it. Last night. It was on my butt pocket and I sat on it.
That is TWO broken. Hmmm, not loving this technology when it comes to my active life....
What do I do now? Tape it to my ankle?

Continuing to push myself at the Y

Last week I came up with a way to change up my workout a little bit with the elliptical. I used to just push myself anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, averaging 75 to 80 RPM's, for the duratiion of my work out. But then I decided to make it a bit harder by going strong for about two minutes, and than bearing down and holding onto the handles and running for a solid thirty seconds, and than repeating it over and over for a full 30 minute cycle, with my RPM's going anywhere from 105 to a 115, during my "running" time (which is pretty fast). Last night I actually got up to 119 RPM's. Anyhow, this morning I burned the most calories than I ever have on the elliptical. I burned 484 calories for a thirty minute time slot. It's just cool for me to see my improvements as I continue to push myself. I'm doing things that I never thought possible at this point and time in my life... it is VERY cool indeed. : )

Tuesday: 1,749 calories, and 17 glasses of water. I walked 2 miles on the treadmill, burning 176 calories, and lifted 43,000 pounds.

Wednesday: 1,725 calories, and 15 glasses of water. I did 1 hour and 40 minutes of cardio, burning 1,429 calories, and lifted 42,200 pounds. ( I made 2 trips to the Y today, I drug honey here tonight)

Pedometer Update - Who is there?

I've got mine on - it says 1658.

What does yours say?

Pedometer Challenge Report

Hi Gals,

I just wanted to post my pleasure at taking at least 9846 steps today - (2k steps equals approximately one mile). I see my upper thighs getting a little slimmer and the scale said 152.0 this morning, which it hasn't said in over four years. Keep talkin to me baby!

I still am a miserable water drinker tho.

The twenty year old, who made me blush!

As you can imagine, I've made several friends at the YMCA since January. I mean, I'm there five to six days a week for Pete's sake. Anyhow, this morning one of the young guys behind the counter, (I'm guessing his age to be around twenty) said, ahem, "Hey, check out that good lookin' blonde over there!"
I could most likely be his mother. Doesn't he realize this? So why did this make me blush as it did? Perhaps it's because other workers were within ear shot... I don't know. But I can tell you this, he made my day. : )

Monday: 1,827 calories, and 16 glasses of water. No Y today. It was Son # 3's turn to be throwing up. Y-U-C-K!!!!

It's Scary

When I look at photos of me when I was at my heaviest (and I have a LOT of them) and pictures of me now, I have a few thoughts running through my head.

How did I get so fat and not even really notice it? Weight gain is insidious. It is easy, it is fast and it is painless. In fact, it is a lot more painful to take it off than it ever was to put on even an ounce. Sure, as my body sat in front of the television digesting an enormous meal, I was a tad uncomfortable, but underneath that feeling of fullness was an almost orgasmic feeling of saity. A feeling of, "Oh, I ate good." It is obscene to think of the digestion of food in that manner, but it's true. I would look at food as if I was set on sexual conquest, the urge is that -- well, urgent.

Another thing that I think is, why didn't I see it clearly, how fat I was getting? Well, I would hide it. I didn't have full length mirrors. I didn't have many mirrors at all. I would dress in clothing that I felt would hide my size. Soon, however, size 3x was becomming to small. The shirts were too short to hide my ponderous hanging belly. The sweatpants were getting too tight, I had to cut their strings. Still, I had a mental picture of myself as I was when I was younger, thinner. Before the weight gain. I think of it as a reverse of the problem that a person with anorexia has. They are terribly thin, but see themselves as fat, bloated. I was the opposite.

Another thing that's scary is the percentage of people who relapse after major weight loss. Heck, even after minor weight loss. The estimates say that 95% of us will not keep the weight off. I can't even begin to tell you how scary that is. When I have worked this hard to get it off, the thought of it creeping back on my frame is so terrifying. I am sure that's why a lot of people don't even try in the first place. Why bother? It's just going to come back.

But it's not a cancerous tumor that I don't have control over. It is fat. I know how to lose it. I know how to gain it. I know that I need to be taking full body photos of myself on a regular basis. I have full length mirrors now and I need to keep looking at myself in them. I need to keep my scale out and when I get to where I am maintaining after having met my goal, I need to be on it regularly. Not to become vain, but to stay vigilant.

It's too easy to be fat.

Healthy lunch ideas?

Ok. So my one-and-only youngin' starts school in (AAAAHHHH!) two weeks.

One of my (very generous) coworkers has purchased her a $35 lunch box from Lands End and $15 set of two thermoses to go in it!

So I have a daughter going to school with $50 worth of a lunch kit, and I want to set her a good example of packing a lunch. She's not too picky, but I really don't want her eating the school lunches. They may be getting healthier, but I still like knowing what goes in them.

(Which doesn't bother me when we go out to eat. I just thought of that. How odd. But I guess that's another post.)

What do you pack for your kids (or yourself) that's healthy, but travels well and won't "break the bank?"

(I don't want much, do I?)

P.S. I seem to have hit a slight plateau in my weight loss journey. I've been stuck at 159 for the past two weeks. Tightening up my "routine" a bit to see if I can get unstuck!

A part of a conversation that caught my attention...

I was at Safeway a couple of days ago, just picking up a few items, when I heard the voice of a woman behind me. And this is the only thing that I heard her say,' We're out of ice cream, we have to get some more...' Now, I didn't turn to see what this lady looked like, but I would bet that she was not a small woman. This little part of a conversation that I overheard, brought me back to a year and a half ago, when I, myself, had made special trips to the store for the soul purpose of getting only some icecream. I used to eat a large bowl every night, as did my husband. And at that point in time, that WAS one of our priorities.
It was a real eye opener for me, it reminded me of how much I have changed, and it made me really grateful. I used to eat soooo much junk! Not only would I eat it, but half of the time I would sneak it, because I was ashamed.
I'm so thankful that I no longer have to live with that shame. I feel as if I have a new lease on life, and I thank God.

Saturday: 1,720 calories, and 15 glasses of water. No Y today, we're dealing with the flu bug over here. : (

Sunday: 1,674 calories, and 15 glasses of water. I did 40 minutes of cardio, burning 555 calories, no weights today.

Kris... you are beautiful

I noticed that Kris had put a new photo with her profile... what a huge difference 32 pounds can make! I've been to your web page and seen your older family photo. I can just see the pride in your face here Kris, and I know exactly how you're feeling. I'm so happy for you. Keep on truckin' sistah!!

Three Month Photos - 94 days into weight loss

Here are my photos from three months, the back facing photo is from one month into my diet. I didn't take that pose initially.

67 lbs down, a ways to go yet. But I'll get there.

Getting this new body is like the second awesome free gift ever (the first being salvation)!

Good Morning Ladies

Hi Ladies. I've been MIA for quite a while now. I got busy with school Spring quarter and because of studying had to quit going to the meetings on Thursdays. I still did really good though. I asked my husband to give me the scale back so that I could make sure that I continue on my journey. Well, I was doing good until school quit. Still couldn't make it to the meeting as now husband was home and I wanted to spend the time with him. Didn't know what to do with myself and am a "bored" eater. So, dang it, I lost my inspiration and gained 10 lbs before I finally stepped on the scale again (1 month later). That was a wake up call to me because I'd comes so far and SO here I am again.

I was updating pictures on my blog from our hike to Heather Lake yesterday and saw Jules' post from the 13th. Thank you Jules. You'll never know how much it meant to me :0)

Ups and downs of weight loss/exercise

I had a rough couple of days here. My cardio of choice is treadmill walking. I got a terrible blister on my pinkie toe that really hurt. I no sooner got over that then I pulled several hip muscles and a groin muscle helping to move an aquarium.

But the good news is that I am back to my normal routine. I only missed one day of cardio and then took it easy yesterday with a slow walk. Today I was back to my normal walk.

You never know what's going to happen to maybe thwart your fitness routine. For me, it comes out of the blue. I try to be careful, but then things just happen. I am trying to take it all in stride and not let it derail me.

I have been dealing with some weight fluctuations, and finally got down to 206 today, that's only one pound under last week, but with the water I have been retaining, I have been up five pounds. I figure that if I am eating right and working out I am not going to go crazy with the scale. I know it doesn't make sense when it goes up and yet my clothing is looser, but I figure I am going to base more on how I feel than on those numbers.

I know this has nothing to do with weight loss...but Kristina had it on her blog!

Your Famous Movie Kiss is from The Princess Bride

"This is true love - you think this happens every day?"

What Famous Movie Kiss Are You?

Love you guys....Jules

Crazy woman reporting here...

I had an awesome workout yesterday morning, the best I've had in probably a week and a half. Anyhow, I was feeling so energized for the rest of the day, that I decided to go again last night. (I know, I know). When it was all said and done, I did 115 minutes of cardio yesterday. That is, just five minutes short of two hours ladies! I only lifted in the morning however. I burned a whopping 1,643 calories! The most that I have EVER done in one day. Now, I don't plan to make this a regular thing, I was wanting to see if it would make a difference in the scale, and it did. I am down another pound from Wednesday. 84 pounds ladies, 84 pounds. Do you know how great that it feels for me to be able to state that?

Thursday: 1,915 calories, and 13 glasses of water. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical, burning 438 calories, and lifted 46,000 pounds.

Friday: 1,549 calories, and 18 glasses of water. I did 115 minutes of cardio, burning 1,643 calories, and lifted 41,000 pounds.

I took the plunge!

And tried on smaller clothes. THEY FIT!! I started off in a tight 26-28 4x and now on the tops I am comfortably in 3x. The bottoms are still tight in the 22-24 but they are almost there. I cleaned out my closet of all my winter clothes that will not be fitting this winter. I also went through all my friends clothes that she had given me from all her weight loss. I now have 4 big rubbermaid boxes full of clothes to pass on to others.

It feels good to move on or down I should say. I has been six weeks since my surgery and I have lost 32.7 pounds and 38 inches on my body.

Hmmmm, am I, Could I?

Be a numbers girl too? Today, when with the pedometer I noticed I only had six thousand and something on the meter and I needed eight thousand to clear the four miles I had pegged so easily yesterday, I decided that I had to push on.

I am happy to report 9,268 steps (2k is one mile). I'll do some more walking tonight but I'm too chic to have this thing on me while I'm looking fabu :-)

Tomorrow I'm off to ride horses on the beach at Ocean Shores (if it isn't pouring).
No pedometer. Its vacation.

(oh, I didn't eat enough today...I had 4 bites of pumpkin loaf, a quesadilla from Taco Time and 1/2 a been and cheese buritto. Dinner was a few strips of chicken, a portion of salad and some potato salad.)

My girls however, complained about the potato salad. They are staring at their plates in the dining room. They have to finish the portion. I'm so mean :-)

A sized medium victory!

Yesterday, I stayed home, as one of my kids were sick. Anyhow, I did some extra cleaning/organizing in my room, and I came across this t-shirt that has been buried. We got it two years ago when my oldest son wrestled. It's an adult sized medium. I new I couldn't wear it, I just BARELY got my self into a 2x at that point in time, but they were out of the bigger ones, so I took it. Thinking to myself, someday, if I'm really lucky, I'll somehow be able to wear it. And to my delight, I was able to put it on yesterday! I'd forgotten all about the silly t-shirt. You know, sometimes it's the little things in life, that mean the most. : )

Wednesday: 1,803 calories, and 17 glasses of water. No Y today.

Excercise is HARD, but worth it!

I have started going back to the gym since my surgery. I have gone six times in the last week and a half. It is hard going back when you haven't been in along time. But it does feel good after I am done. I am doing about 1-2 miles each day and lower and upper body weights.
I haven't lost enough to go down the next size of clothes, so my clothes are all very baggy. I need to be patient with myself. The weight is coming off fast, yet I do not have my energy back yet. I do have more than I had at first, but they told me it might take up to 2 months to get my energy level up.
We just got back from a family reunion, which was fun but hard. They had a lot of fun food around, but I survived without to much trouble. I ate my little bit and went on about my day. It was nice getting to know a lot of my family that I hadn't seen in a few years.

You guys are a huge motivation for me. I have had fun reading all about you. Keep up the great work.

Pedometer Challenge Report!

Yesterday, I somehow walked the equivalent of over four miles. I know that because my pedometer said so. That sounds like a lot.

While my weight hasn't moved, my feet are and I've already boogied a bit today. While I think I accidentally deleted my numbers, I do have to go to the airport today to pick up my daughter, and that is always a LONG spurt of walking.

DID YOU READ ABOVE THAT I WALKED OVER FOUR MILES YESTERDAY?
*ahem* :-)

It's not alot, but I'll take it

I've been flexing with my weight like a lot of you. Up a pound or two, and then down again. But this morning I was down, a half of a pound less than I've been since I started my journey. 172 pounds exactly. 83 pounds lost, and just 12 more to go. It's funny how just a pound or two, or in my case, a half of a pound, can completely motivate you. : )

Monday: 1,925 calories, and 18 glasses of water. I did 30 minutes on the treadmill, burning 538 calories, and lifted 56,000 pounds.

Tuesday: 1,639 calories, and 15 glasses of water. I did 45 minutes of cardio, burning 555 calories, and lifted 41,000 pounds.

Baby Steps toward Speed Walking

I have been walking on my treadmill since April. I have put over two hundred miles on it so far. These days I walk a little over three and a quarter miles in an hour. When I started I walked for a half hour. I would read or talk on the phone to kill the time. As I got faster, I had to put down the books and step away from the phone.

I have realized over time that my walking "form" is sadly lacking. I tend to walk very heavily with my feet too far apart. I have an awful lot of hip spread from having all those babies of mine, and as a result my gait was pretty horrible.

As time has gone by my gait has improved somewhat, but I realize that as I get faster I need to find a new direction if I want to keep challenging myself in my walk.

I went to the library and found a book on speed walking. There was a lot of good information, which really confirmed why I would rather speed walk than to get into running. I have long-standing back, hip, knee and foot injuries. That alone is pretty much my reasoning. Running simply puts too much inpact on those areas.

I have had to change my stride, shortening it, rather than lengthening it to increase my speed. I am also holding my arms at a 90 degree angle, close to the body and pistoning them in time with my legs. I rotate my hips slightly:



and strive to keep my feet closer to a middle point on the treadmill:



Rather than my current stride:




One thing I found right off the bat is that this difference in posture and movement of the legs and arms really works the sides of my trunk. Along the ribcage and down to the hips I can feel the muscles really working.

I will let you know how it pans out.

Pedometer Challenge!

Who says being a mom isn't excercise?

I have started wearing a pedometer and will challenge myself to walk greater distances using this silly little item. I found a website with equivalents (*will find url) and will see if I can add more steps to my day when I can't work out.

For people like Suzanne and myself with a chronic pain condition, working out can be painful. I think making a couple extra steps will help keep me moving and motivated - let's see if it works?

Any joiners?

I'm a hot stepper baby!

My eighth day in a row working out...

I think maybe I'm getting addicted to excersize, hmmm.... I just feel so much better after I've done a lot of sweating. And I like to push myself, compete with myself. Today I ran the hardest and fastest on the treadmill yet. I ran 3.23 miles on the treadmill in thirty minutes. Every five minutes I would push the speed up just slightly. It was REALLY hard, but what a sense of accomplishment I had when I finished.
I wasn't planning on working out yesterday, but I had exceeded my calories quite a bit on Saturday night, and I wanted to make up for it.
It's just soooo cool for me to feel like an athelete again. I feel as if I could accomplish nearly anything at this point in my life, and here I am, teetering on my 40th year. Two years ago, I would not have believed that I could do what I have done. I would not believe that I could possibly feel this beautiful. It's a very wonderful thing.

Saturday: I'm estimating that I broke the 2,000 calorie point ( I went out on a date this night)I had 11 glasses of water. I did 55 minutes of cardio, burning 773 calories, and lifted 31,600 pounds.

Sunday: 1,801 calories, and 8 glasses of water. I did an hour on the elliptical, burning 903 calories, no weights today.

10 Years Later and You Have My Undying Gratitude

So. I went to my 10-year high school reunion this weekend and everyone decided that I look great. I was feeling a little insecure since I weigh exactly the same now as I did then - I lost the original puppy fat in my first year of college but have since gained it back - but the consensus was that I look fabulous. Everyone thought I lost weight (and I was wearing clothes that are very flattering to someone who went to high school during the garage band craze of the mid-to-late '90s, i.e., no flannel) and I really did look cute, so that's what matters.

It was neat to see so many people I haven't even thought about in 10 years, much less seen. A few of my classmates had lost a lot of weight (I walked up to one of them I hadn't seen in 10 years and, by way of reintroduction, whispered in his ear that I had the overwhelming urge to feed him). Many more had gained weight. But there was only one person who had gained so much that I didn't recognize her. I had shaken her hand and she told me her name, and I tried my best to figure out if I had actually gone to school with someone named Amy* but it wasn't until several hours (and more than several drinks) later at the after party that it hit me who she might be. Several other classmates confirmed it, and even though Amy was thin in high school, she's now literally probably twice as heavy.

So here is my thank you to all of you on this blog. Even though I have been whiny and needy, excited and frustrated, and probably everything else in between about losing weight and getting in shape - thank you to each and every one of you for giving me the support I needed in order to go to my reunion and be told by everyone how wonderful I look. Thank you for pulling me out of my funks and giving me the encouragement so that I wasn't another Amy*. Thanks for providing the inspiration to get me back to this point.

I love you all and I'm so proud of what everyone's achieved here. And no, I didn't think to take any pictures. But I looked great.

Lisa

* not really her name. We don't want to hurt any feelings on the off chance that one of my high school stalkers finds this blog. :)

After a little gentle prodding from Jules

I've come back to update.

I guess I just got a little discouraged last month, because I went through one of those lose-two-gain-two cycles. You know the one. The one where you gain and lose the same pound or two for a month or so.

I hate those.

Anyway, at the end of June we went to Georgia for my sister-in-law's wedding. It was the first time I'd missed a weigh in, other than Thanksgiving when there was no meeting, in nearly two years. And I was scared to death.

But you know what? I still lost three pounds over that two weeks! And then another pound the week after that! And then nothing this week, but that's ok once in a while too.

I did walk in my town's annual Five Star Races (I did the two-mile walk) and it ended badly. I suffered from heat exhaustion, and had to quit early. It took me two days to get over it. I was so devistated, but it just reminded me that I need to take more precautions next year - like walking outside instead of inside, so my body gets used to the heat!

And I did the "butter" thing on the sidebar too. I hope I did it right - does 78 pounds equal 312 sticks of butter? I'm slightly math challenged - which is why I don't handle our family finances!

Crunches and Pushups

Two of my absolutely least favorite exercises. I spent hours on the internet a couple of weeks ago trying to find exercises that would do what crunches do, without having to get on the floor and do crunches.

I finally realized that there really isn't anything that works the abs the way crunches do. So I researched the proper form so that I would not be hurting myself, then I got down and did a couple. I did a whopping five. But I did those five every day. I added pushups and did five of those too. I do "girl" push ups with bent knees. Each time it got easier to do them, I added a couple more in.

Today I did twenty crunches without it feeling hard. I went to thirty. I did twenty push ups and ten each of the oblique crunches.

I can see a big change in my abdomen since I started these. I am still very obese at 208, but I can see the start of a waist. Now I won't underestimate the power of crunches.

By the way, that 208 is two pounds down so far this week.

Cleaning up the joint

Hey ladies, I am trying to spiff up the blog a bit. I truly appologize. I feel like I have neglected this blog lately (which amazingly corresponds to my weight loss stall as well...hmmm). I will do my best in the next few days to dink around in the template and clean things up a bit. Just a few reminders and maybe new news to the newbies:

All of you are administrators, so you are free to go into the template and add to the sidebar and to your tickers, etc.

Please make sure your ticker is updated. I am seeing a lot of red x's out there.

Newbies (Jan, Kris, Mel, Robin...) I have added your names to the butter list and the ticker list. Please email me or post with your questions if you have any.

Let's all try to leave comments and not just be lurkers. We need each other.

Should we come up with new cafe press stuff? Elicia? Anyone???

Love you guys....and remember, I am always open for suggestions and if you have anyone that you know would like to join us here, just invite them...

Jules

I Walked My Longest Distance today!

16.5 miles logged today. We had only planned 14, but the trail ended up being 7.7 miles long, not 7, and we made a round trip with a stop for lunch at the halfway point. I'll tell ya, though, I was hating life for that last 3 miles. I'm feeling okay now, though, and going out for Karaoke tonight!

Oh, and a quick update: I spent the last couple of weeks in a weird funk that cost me a 3.5 lb gain. I blogged about it fairly extensively on my own blog. I'm back on track, though, and thankful this episode only lasted a short while. My ticker is accurate, as much as it hurt to have to ADD pounds to it instead of subtract.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we backtracked and walked over an extra mile looking for the expensive sunglasses I lost. Bet you were thinking I'm math challenged since 7.7 and 7.7 don't exactly add up to 16.5. Never found the sunglasses.

I ran my fastest mile yesterday!

For a woman that never dreampt of running any farther than the distance of her own yard, I have come a looooong ways. : ) I can actually say that I really enjoy it now. Anyhow, yesterday, I ran a mile in nine minutes flat. Which, may not sound like very fast to most of you, but it's the fastest mile that I've ever run in my life. When I started to run in January, I believe I was just barely able to do a mile in like 11 minutes and 15 seconds, something like that. And at that point in time, that was REALLY tough. I took 23 seconds off of my previous fastest mile from last week, so I'm pretty happy. The last couple of minutes on the treadmill, I was up to 7 MPH. I'm feeling so fit, and strong. I'm far more fit than I was last summer, and it just feels so wonderful.

Thursday: 1,679 calories, and 16 glasses of water. I did 50 minutes of cardio, burning603 calories, and lifted 52,000 pounds.

Hi everyone, newbie here

Hello, I thought I would introduce myself. I am Jan, I am a 42 year old mother of six. Three in the nest, three out. My kids are ages 25, 22, 21, 8, 7 and 3. I call them my two litters. I am a dog person, so that fits.

My high weight was 272 this past winter. I have been trying to lose weight since I was a kid. It wasn't as bad until I started getting pregnant. Then it really started packing on. I have always been sort of a binge eater. If something was good I wanted a lot of it. I am a very good cook, I could always cook something great and eat seconds, thirds and then take a plate of it to bed with me. A typical bedtime snack also included a can or two of pop and a handful of Heath Bars.

With kids 5 and 6, I developed a weakness in my abdominal wall that caused all the fat to slump down into a large pannus. This started really inhibiting my motion and caused an old bum lumbar disk to herniate last July. It was in July, while I was stuck on the couch for weeks and watching my marriage begin to disintegrate that I really began contemplating life as a disabled person. Disabled by food. I didn't want to be that person. It is a scary spiral: Gain weight, get hurt, lose mobility, gain more weight, move even less, gain more weight...

I went to my doctor and they gave me a prescription for Xenical. This is the drug that is supposed to inhibit fat absorption. Nasty medicine. You know, you can only go potty so many times in one day before you start seeing blood on the tissue. I guess I lost about 20 lbs, but had to stop taking the medicine. I wasn't exercising at all. By April I had gained back about seven lbs and then had a life altering event occured.

It was my son's seventh birthday and my husband took a video of me:



I hated seeing myself as I really was, I was round like a barrel. My typical view of myself was way different than real life showed me. I really felt like I was not as fat as I was. I avoided mirrors and photographs, but for some reason this video really hit me hard.

I started exercising right away and went back to the doctor. I had a full checkup. Everything other than the weight was ok. He asked me if I would consider weight loss surgery. I am the ultimate wimp. I hate needles, let alone knives! I decided to try Meridia, a weight loss medicine which works on the satisfaction centers in the brain. It has the same kinds of ingredients as an anti-depressant, and since I was depressed all the time anyway, I decided to try a low dose, 10 mg. a day

After a couple of weeks my blood pressure went way up. They had me start taking it only once every other day. By this time I was eating much better and walking on my treadmill for a half hour a day first thing in the morning. My blood pressure went back down and then something happened that changed my life.

One of the readers on my blog suggested that I try fitday.com to start journaling my food and exercise. I started immediately and have been doing so every day since. I am now able to keep my food intake to about 1500 calories or lower and about 15 or less grams of fat per day. I drink a lot of water, no other drinks at all and have pretty much gone to a vegetarian diet, with the exception of seafood. My journal is public if you would like to see it. I have good days and bad days, but I try not to go nuts by eating too little or binging. I try to keep it straight down the middle of the road. One day I journaled the foods that I used to eat. It came to over 6500 calories and 370 grams of fat per day. That was an average day. Surprisingly, that is not too much over what average Americans are eating if they are eating out frequently. The supersized fast food meals, with soda and fries are around 2000 calories and a hundred grams of fat.

I now walk an hour a day. I make the best of that hour and really work it hard. I also lift weights and do crunches and push-ups, although I am just starting out with those and am not doing too very many yet. I try to take it easy because I am still fighting with a lot of injuries. I have that bad disk, I have a wicked case of hip bursitis from a fall seven years ago, I have knees that tend to get fluid buildup and I wear orthopedic inserts in my shoes because of plantar fascitis. All of those things are made worse by weight gain. I don't want to re-injure anything and end up back on the couch.

When I first started this in April I was taking a lot of medicines. Xanax for stress, Soma for muscle pain, Nexium for heartburn, Allegra for allergies, and Ibuprofen by the handful. I have stopped taking all of those medicines. I am thinking that my allergies must have been made worse by something that I have cut out of my diet. Losing my allergies really surprised me the most. I am saving $60.00 a month in copays by not buying so many medicines. I used to have to take a soma, a xanax and two Tylenol PM to sleep. Now I am to bed at ten and up at five or six. I hardly ever nap anymore. No sleep medicines anymore.

All in all I feel great. There are many days when I don't feel like getting on the treadmill, but I make myself take that first step. Pretty soon the hour is over and I am feeling so energized.

Here is a photo that shows where I was 87 days ago, and then a shot of me that my husband took yesterday. He used the "s" word yesterday, saying that I looked sexy. I nearly fell over.


It's all onward and downward from here on in as far as my scale is concerned. I have 60 more lbs to lose and I can't wait to see what my body is going to look like when I reach 199, let alone 150!

Hello from Jules

Well, I am still maintaining my 70 lb. loss. I am enjoying my skinniest summer ever! Went to the waterslides in Birch Bay yesterday and it felt good to be "normal". I wasn't overly self conscious and I felt athletic and happy. What a change. I have never had a summer like this. Yippee!!!

Happy summer!

A size small of all things?! A size SMALL?

I was recently at Target, and was perusing the athletic wear, looking for some longer shorts for me to run in. ( I need the long ones because I sweat sooooo much!) Anyhow, I couldn't find any mediums, so I picked up a size small, eyed it over, and said to myself, I just might be able to fit into these.... And low and behold, my back side DID fit into them. You know I had to buy them.
You guys this is a huge deal! I used to be a 2x/3x on my lower body. My hips were the largest part of my body. I'm still trippin' as my body keeps morphing. Talk about an incentive to keep working out!
The photos are from two years ago... It's kind of hard for me to look at them. I'm such a different person now!

Tuesday: 1,619 calories, and 12 glasses of water. I did 53 minutes of cardio, burning 770 calories, and lifted 31,000 pounds.

Wednesday: 1,765 calories, and 14 glasses of water. I did 50 minutes of cardio, burning 632 calories, and lifted 51,000 pounds.

Who is this bundle of energy?

I continually surprise myself with how much energy that I have now. ESPECIALLY when I compare it to a couple of years ago, when all I wanted to do was lay around the house, and daydream of taking a nap.
Yesterday, after I had a really hard workout, I still had some energy left over to do two hours of yard work. It's just a trip. I wish you guys could have seen my life style before I started getting into shape. It is so, SOOOO different!

Friday: 1,559 calories, and 13 glasses of water. I did 45 minutes of cardio, burning 567 calories, and dlifted 26,500 pounds.

Saturday: ( No journaling today, I had a big potluck reunion) But I did go to the Y... I did 42 minutes of cardio, burning 618 calories, and lifted 19,600 pounds.

Sunday: 1,735 calories, and 11 glasses of water. No work out today.

Monday: 1,688 calories, and 15 glasses of water. I did 63 minutes of cardio, burning 929 calories, and lifted 36,100 pounds.

So, how much weight do you think I would have to lose in order to do this? Just the thought makes me all happy!

P.S. Blogger won't let me add a title. Has anyone else had problems lately? This is not the first time Blogger's shown me no love recently.

Kristina, do you have a twin?

Five mornings a week, my husband goes to the health club, gets on the stair-stepper, sets the timer, and buries his nose in a book. Recently, he noticed an amazingly fit middle-aged woman who seemed to run circles around everyone, took few breaks, and rarely even broke a sweat.

"It's not fair," he complained. "By the time I'm dragging myself off to the showers, she's hopping back onto the stepper for another session."

One day he came home with a sheepish grin. "Well," he said, "they're identical twins."

- Saw this joke on the internet and thought it was funny.

Hope you are all doing well and drinking your water!

My fitness report

Last night I had my fitness assesment, and I have good news to report! The biggest change is that my body fat has gone down another 4%. I am really, really pleased with that. I've surpassed my original goal to lose 15% of my body fat, from 2 1/2 years ago. I've gotten it down 18.2% so far. I've gone from being soooo poor that I was off of the charts at 44.2%, to my new total of 26%. Which, according to the charts, is borderline between above average, and average. But in my book, that is awesome. If I could get it down, just even 2% more, I would be thrilled.
They measured me, as well as use this do-hickey that you see in the picture, to measure your body fat %. They go into the folds of your skin at your tricep, your belly button, where your hip bone is, and the top of your thigh. All of those numbers were smaller. I've not lost too many inches. My bust and my arms are the same in circumferance, but I did lose 2 inches off of my waist, 2 inches off of my hips, and 1.25 inches off of my thigh.
My blood pressure, and heart rate recovery were really good after a short cardio test. My strength, and how many sit ups I could do were also marked as excellent. The only thing that I got a poor score on was my flexability... but I already knew that. : ) Soooo... YEAH ME!

Wednesday (4th of July) 1,640 calories, and 12 glasses of water. I ran my race that day!

Thursday: 1,540 calories, and 14 glasses of water. I did 61 minutes of cardio, burning902 calories, and lifted 12,000 pounds.

I ran my 2nd race today!!

I ran the Yankee Doodle Dash through my YMCA this morning. Accompanied again by my daddy. : ) I ran really hard, and I bested my race from March by 2 minutes and 15 seconds. I came in at 29:46! I've never in the past been able to run a solid three miles in under thirty minutes, and here I am today doing 3.2 miles in LESS than thirty minutes. I'm so proud of myself!
How do you like the comparison of myself from two years ago in Atlanta? We spent the 4th of July down there that year. And I WALKED a race with my sisters. At that point I couldn't fathom being able to run as I do now. What a wonderful and blessed change!
Happy 4th to all of you lovely ladies!

Monday: 1,831 calories, and 10 glasses of water. I did 52 minutes of cardio, burning 718 calories, and I lifted 33,500 pounds.

Tuesday: 1,814 calories, and 12 glasses of water. I did 33 minutes of cardio, burning 485 calories, and lifted 58,600 pounds.

My Fitlinxx stats for June

I feel like I kicked some serious arse this last month girls... : )

I earned 17,651 fit points. Placing me 1st for my age group, 1st for all women, and 4th for the whole Y.
I lifted 857,063 pounds. Placing me 1st for my age group, 1st for all women, and 3rd over all.
I burned 19,803 calories. Placing me 1st in my age group, 1st for all women, and 5th over all.

For calories burned, this is the best I've done yet! Last month I placed 10th over all, and the month before, I believe that I was 20th. So yeah for progress!

I didn't journal over the weekend. But I am again today... and I will continue to do so until I get to my goal. Because I AM GOING TO GET THERE. I'm going in for another fitnesss annalysis on Thursday. It should be interesting to compare my numbers from six months ago when I joined. I had gained, and lost that 15 pounds from the winter months, so we shall see.

Its been a while...here at 156

Hi all,

I figured it was time to post - since I haven't given anyone an update on ME lately :-)
A year ago, I wanted to event a horse, and be involved in cross country competition, but with a new look at my life and its changes, I realize that is a bit too ambitious - physically and to be honest, financially.

This isn't stopping me from moving forward tho - I'm still walking a lot and I am noticing my weight is hovering around 156 lbs. That's good - but I don't think I'm eating quite enough. I drank all my v-8 (a whole case!) so I need to go buy more.

Its summer, so now I'll be at the lake a lot more. Bathing suit weather is upon us.

Yesterday I was at the water and here's a photo for you. Seattle is gorgeous in the summer! Big love to you all - and keep moving forward!