Hello hello! Sorry to have been mostly absent here -- my comp is giving me some problems (memory full!) and I do so much work on the comp I can barely get THAT all in some days!
But here I am, so let's go! I had an AMAZING weight week last week! 2.6 pounds gone! Is it the Passover dietary restrictions? Six hours of walking around Washington DC on Saturday? Who cares? As long as it stays off!! Onederland is in sight!
Really got a good perspective on how our eating has changed when we went to dinner with good friends at a restaurant. I let DH order food for both of us (sometimes I really don't care - and he likes poring over those big boring menus! LOL) he got a seared tuna topped green salad and a chicken tender topped green salad. Not the best, not the worst. KWIM? One friend ordered an individual pizza, the other ordered a big juicy burger of some sort all goopy with warm, toasted cheese.
DH said to me later - "you know, at one time I would have REALLY wanted that burger!! But now when I see it, it doesn't look delicious - it looks like a heart attack waiting to happen." Ya know what? It didn't look particularly appetizing to me, either. Not that we'll never eat such things again..but it's the overall picture that's changed for us. And I think that's a very good thing!!
Also - non scale victory - we stopped by a tee shirt vendor on the street in DC, 3 for ten bucks. I bought an EXTRA LARGE shirt for myself. XL. Not 2x or 3x...just XL. I paid 3.34 for that shirt because i didn't need that 2x for which you pay the $6 penalty price instead of the 3 for 10! And you know what? There was room left over!!
Don't know if I'll still fit it after I wash it (it WAS only 3.34 after all!) but WOW did that feel awesome!!
Of course there's skinny little DH in his Large...but I'm getting there. Depending what HE weighed in at this morning, I'm closing in fast!! My next goal is onederland...after that it's to weigh LESS than DH...I've NEVER weighed less than him. EVER. And we met when I was 16!
I just have to love my body some times. There's nothing it likes better than CHANGE. I've been progressing steadily on an eating-less and eating-lower-fat plan, plus 3-4 visits to the gym a week. That makes sense to me.
Then the last two weeks I've gone to the gym two times TOTAL thanks to utter chaos here - first recovering from a houseguest schedule-wise, then the end of dh's cardiac rehab...which is to say, we're having to make a new routine now as a family based on that (used to be I'd go to the gym the days he went to rehab, plus Saturday...)...ie tonight we have to get HIM signed up for the gym so we can get back on track. Not that I haven' tbeen exercising at ALL -- I've walked to town with the kids a few times, up and down Hopatcong hills, that sort of thing.
And then this weekend I was nuts with the eating, or at least it felt that way. We had an extra sandwich between us (deli corned beef..mmmm...) one day, dh brought home a 'treat' of my favorite cookies...I'm not MUCH of a binge-er, but there area *few* foods I can't keep in the house because I WILL eat them all up immediately Unfortunately..ginger cookies are one of them. A servng size is 2 cookies. I think dh had two or three. I had THE REST OF THE BAG...within the space of a day, give or take.
And yet...I've now lost 2 pounds since last week. I guess my body took that cookie binge as a sign that I'm not starving to death, and liked the changeup in the workout routine LOL. Still...the weekend was enough of a scare for me that I've been VERY good since!
I'm in the 09's now! ONEDERLAND HERE I COME!!!
I hear you all about the after pic...will post it now unless I get distracted :)
I've been trying to get DH to take pics of me for a couple of MONTHS now..but every time I get myself dressed & dolled up, SOMETHING happens to squelch the plans. Today we got it done...2 hours before I'm scheduled to drastically change my appearance by having 10" or more of my hair cut off to donate to Locks of Love!
If you're not familiar with it, Locks of Love is a charity that gives hair prostheses to 'financially disadvantaged' children who have suffered medical hair loss. A localish synagogue advertised tha they were having a cut-party at a salon in Millburn called The House (which now that I've looked at the website looks like a swanky upscale spa type place - can' t wait to see it!). The stylists donate their time (apparently I get a free wash/cut/style out of this!) and we donate the hair. No charge or anything. Very cool!
Other than that...I ate 2/3 of a package of Newman's Own Gineger cream cookies in the last 2 days - ouch! Time to hunker down...I think this is week 6 of the 'biggest loser' contest at my gym, and I want to at least be AMONG the biggest inches/pounds offers, even if I don't get a prize...!
Felt the need to put a disclaimer - will be discussing ladies' issues further down! LOL
So I've had a killer couple of weeks, mostly bad but some of them just busy. Haven't been to the gym in OVER A WEEK (down from 3-4 times a week normally) yet somehow knocked off .6 of a pound - *whew* - PLUS am poised to lose a couple this week if I can be good..that would be the NICE thing about periods. Mine started - surprise! - this morning, and usually I lose a pound or 2 the day following the start.
The problem of course - I've only had a couple of periods now (well, maybe 4) since Kaycie was born, and they're waaaay not regular. This from someone who could always tell FROM MY BODY SIGNALS when it was coming. Gain 2 pounds, have certain aches and pains for 5-6 days, clean out the tummy and BOOM! Period. Only now I'm getting the 5-6 days of aches and they're ending with NO period for a while...I guess because I'm still nursing, my body can't decide if it should be menstruating or not?? So it's always a big surprised-and-I-hope-I-discover-it-while-I'm-home.
I don't usually exercise the first day - just messy and achy, you know? But of course this is the first night I've had scheduled in ages to go tot he gym. I guess I can take it easy...I REALLY want to go, and get back on track. Plus I miss the ME time, since the gym is just about the only true ME time I get!
Should be losing some pain-free weight this coming weekend, too. I've decided to take part in a 'mitzvah day' at a local temple on Sunday --donations for Locks of Love. Someone tell me that 12" of thick hair off will show as a loss on my scale! It HAS to, right? Here's hoping! :)
Hope everyone's having a good week! Hope to catch up on some of your blogs in the next couple of days.
Hey!! NO time to post anything substantial right now but I just HAD to share -- I hit my first 10% today!!! I weight 10% less than I did on January 1 of this year. WOOHOO!!!! Gonna burn some extra calories just on this <<happy dance>>!!!
A nugget from some papers dh brough home recently. www.foodandhealth.com is printed at the bottom of the page, with a page number 62, but I've searched that site and can't find this paper anywhere. But in short:
"If you eat 100 fewer calories and exercise 100 calories more each day, you could create a deficit of 200 calories per day. This would amount to a loss of 1 pound every 18 days or about 20 pounds per year."
The page goes on to talk about choices you can make to shave off calories, and burn off calories. I won't repeat the whole thing, but let me share the "100 calories activities" (based on the 150 pound person - so for most of us here, these will burn MORE than 100 calories):
- 9 minutes of jogging
-13 minutes of weight lifting
-14 minutes of raquetball
- 20 minutes of gardening
- 20 minutes of average walking
- 40 minutes of light household chores
If also points out that sitting at a computer (not that any of US do that!) burns about 72 calories an hour, while cooking, washing dishes or doing light household chores burns about twice that per hour. Very cool!
Hope this tip inspires you! I know it's got me plotting ways to kill that extra 200 calories a day.
In a recent post, I mentioned that after my husband's heart attack (at age 35), we learned that his 'good cholesterol' was less than half what it should have been, and that we are now working on raising it.
One comment I got was something like, "weird! I never heard you're supposed to raise your cholesterol!"
Your 'total cholesterol' may be fine - my husband's was 157 when he had his heart attack - but according to the AHA, "Nearly one third of people with heart disease have NORMAL levels of LDL cholesterol but low HDL levels."
This isn't necessarily an overweight or weight loss issue - it can be related, but really, this is information EVERYONE should have. Sooner, rather than later.
Please read it, and let me know what you think. I really do care!
Well. I stepped on the scale and read a weight .2 of a pound lower than the last few days. Made me realize that this is the first time I remember seeing such a small weight difference. I've gone down .6, 1, 1.8... Now that I think of it..isn't that kind of odd? If I'm weighing just about every day (which I do when I seem to be on my way down), wouldn't it make more sense if I were losing .2 a day for a few days, instead of weighing one weight one day, then almost two pounds less the next?
The Sexy Stomach: How to Get It and How to Keep It
We took the kids to the library last night. I haven' t had much luck using exercise DVDs - great idea, but when the kids see a DVD they want it to be one of theirs...KWIM? So I remembered the Jane Fonda Workout book my parents got me for my 10th birthday (no comments!), and I really did use that book fairly regularly through the years...so thought I'd just see what was in the exercise book section. 613.71, if you were wondering.
Most of the books seemed to be of the same era as Jane Fonda - majorly 80's! But I saw an intriguing one in the catalog I just had to check out. It's written by two Petersons, and it's called The Sexy Stomach: How to Get It & How to Keep It. I was curious as to how much someone could really write just on exercising a stomach - to fill a whole book with it? HM!
1983: very much so! I almost couldn't take it seriously, it's filled with SO much corniness and SO MANY MISSPELLINGS in the introductory part - one or more on most pages, it seems. For instance, pop icon "Tom Sellick (sic)" is evoked...and in an otherwise sensible discussion of how a strong stomach can help take stress off the lower back, we get this gem: "Viola, the pain goes away." VIOLA! Oh, the agony of it all! ROFL!
Thankfully, this text only lasts about 6 pages - the rest of the book is filled with exercises and accompanying photos. Beginner, intermediate, advanced. And I remember some of them from Jane Fonda - fondly, oddly enough! So I'm going to give it a shot.
Hopefully this will help peel some more inches off - after all, we're in week TWO of the Results Fitness 8-week 'inches off' contest here! Gotta work for it!
Or perhaps this should be, my soon-to-be-bridesmaid dress story! It *should* turn out rather exciting, but you'll have to wish me luck on it!
I'm gonna be a bridesmaid again!! In fact, my best friend (who's been my best friend since high school) just asked me last week to be the maid* of honor at her wedding! I was a little surprised - I thought she'd be asking her sister in law - and I'm SOO excited!
Now, my dear friend has been dating her fiancé for TWELVE years now..so as you can imagine the wedding isn't rushed either :) They're still working with clergy on the specific date, but (VERY coincidentally) it's tentatively going to happen in December of 2007 - I say coincidentally because if you look at my weight loss goal, I set my date as far out as extrapounds would let me...which is December of 2007 :) Innnnteresting, huh?
Now, bridesmaid dress shopping came up in the conversation. I asked if she had anything in mind yet, colors etc., and she mentioned that she's planning not to go with strapless (good call, IMO - her SIL is basically twiggy, but even at goal I've got cleavage that I'd have an annoying time keeping reined in a strapless dress). But then we were talking about dates for the dress shopping. First they look for a place, then The Dress. After that comes bridesmaid attire. She figures we'll start looking around September or so.
April, May, June, July, August, September. You know what kind of shape I can be in SIX months from now? But of course the scarier part of it is that whatever shape I'm in in September will NOT be the shape I'm in over a year later at the wedding...kwim? IN other words, (and you'll understand this best if you read my LAST blog entry) I'M GOING TO HAVE TO GUESS MY SIZE AND ORDER SMALLER AGAIN! ROFL! I'm not sure how I feel about that...it's added incentive to keep measuring up, as it were...but am I gonna have to sign another waiver? And it was pretty easy to go from a 24 to a 16...weight loss and such get slower as you go down in pounds, right? So I might be in the 170's trying to guess my measurements for when I'm 138. Tough!
It is, however, an exciting challenge! And I realized when talking to her, I've got another wedding to attend in September - one of my best friends from college this time - no particular attire, I'm just one of the crowd :) - but I realized I'm going to get to go shopping for a new thinny dress in August, too, for hers. It's gonna be a fun couple of years here, God willing!
Plus...loss when I stepped on the scale this morning! Always a plus!
Happy Wednesday!
*yes, I know since I'm married I'll be a matron of honor...but matron sounds so...matronly, don't you think? LOL.
