Sameness

I stayed the same this week, which I am totally ok with.  I ate a lot over the weekend because of the 2 Easters.  On Saturday we helped our friend move and he got us 4 large Pagliacci pizzas.  It's good pizza!  But 4 large ones was too much for 6 people.  I ate 3 pieces.  Then we went to dinner a couple hours later.  Then we went to Easter breakfast on Sunday.  Oh, the home made butterhorns with home made frosting!

Anyway, I'm at work so I have to go.  Have a great rest of the week!

WI Wednesday

Happy Hump Day!!!  Happy belated St. Patrick's Day, too!  I am proud to say I had an AWESOME week last week and lost 2.4 pounds as of today!  I used Saturday as my one "cheat" day and ended up with 10 flex points left by Monday, so I never went off-plan.  I got all my stickers for the week, too.  I'm aiming for the same this week.

I could use some help, though.  We are having 2 Easter dinners this weekend!  Saturday for my parents and Sunday for his.  Anyone have some good suggestions?  I think I should get some gum to chew on so I don't snack.  I always drink wine at Mike's parents' house for some reason so maybe I can cut that.  Alcohol makes me think it's ok to eat whatever I want.

We are also helping Mike's friend move on Saturday afternoon.  He's buying us all pizza.  To support me in my struggles, Mike suggested we be good together.  Isn't that sweet?  I am thinking of packing a sack lunch, too.  I'm really good at resisting the pizza.  How do I know?  Mike has been getting it almost every week lately.  He gets the 3 Pizza Mia pizzas for cheap from Pizza Hut so it's in the fridge all week and I have to smell it.  Today he brought home a different box with yet another pizza to put in the fridge from work.

Oh, speaking of the love of my life, turns out his heart issues were acid reflux.  That is so much better than I was thinking about.  I was worried it could be life-threatening.  They prescribed him a pill and he's feeling much better now.  He can also exercise!  He mentioned his intentions to begin eating healthier, too.

Consistency

How's everyone's week going?  We are WASLing here in Washington.  That's the big state test that our sophomores have to pass in order to graduate.  Joy!  It's not easy, either.  I have to watch my special ed students (who have low reading/writing/math skills) try to pass this thing when non special-ed students sometimes struggle with it.  I took it when I was a sophomore and did very well, but I was above-average and got all A's in school.  And I didn't have to pass it to get a diploma.

I weighed in yesterday morning and had a .3 lb gain.  Let's call that maintaining for the week.   I knew I was going to have a gain because of how off-plan I was last week.  After using all 35 flex points I probably went over that by at least 20 more points.

I have these little sheets of paper that I use to track exercise, water, multi-vitamin, fruits/veggies, dairy, and overall "being on plan".  I put little sparkly happyface stickers in each box that I complete for the day.  I've been tracking this info since the beginning of the calendar year.  On Monday I reviewed all of them and found that consistency is my problem.  I am not staying on plan consistently throughout several weeks. 

Overall I have been losing just a little bit of weight, then there were a couple weeks where I had large gains and that's how I ended up back at my starting weight.  So far I've lost a total of 2 pounds since the beginning of January and it's already mid-March.  I can do way better than that!  Anyone can do way better than that in 2 months.  2 pounds in 2 months?  Come on!

By the way, I tried out the new Firm DVD, Cardio Dance Fusion.  It's so much fun!  It's 45 minutes but there is an express option that is shorter.  It's all cardio and you get to do some pretty fun dance moves like the charleston.  Most of the time it doesn't feel like exercising.  Only at the very end where she has you do some plei's (sp?) does it feel like exercise.  I highly recommend it.

My commitments for this week:  Be consistent and stay on plan!  Stop going overboard on the weekends and stop using all 35 flex points before the weekend even begins!

Weekend

*sigh* I just lost everything I wrote because I accidentally clicked on something.  So here we go again...

I'm here and I haven't written in a while.  Blame it on being a little bit lazy and discouraged.  I haven't really lost any weight at all this year, regardless of the effort.  Is this how it works when your in your mid-20's and up?  This used to be so easy.    I am losing inches, though.  I keep losing inches in my waist.  As long as the dress fits, which is does now, there is no reason to complain.

I've been working out 5-6 days a week.  I bought 4 new The Firm DVD's that are perfect add-ons to the series I already have.  Two are cardio sculpt, One of them is just sculpt, and the last is a brand new cardio DVD that just came out this week, called Cardio Dance Fusion with Allison.  I will try it out tomorrow and let you know how it goes.  Now I have 8 DVD's to choose from so I don't get bored.  I usually do 3 days of cardio sculpt, 2 days of cardio only, and one day of sculpt only.

Mike also bought us a NordicTrack elliptical trainer so that he could work out.  I use it on days when I really don't want to do the Firm but would rather watch my TiVo shows.  Now Mike is having pain and soreness in his chest/heart area when he exercises vigorously so it's time to see the doctor.

Wedding plans are going well.  We have pretty much everything booked and ready.  We just sent out our Save the Date cards last weekend.  They are super-cute.  Mike and I chose a picture of us from 2004 when we had been dating for about one or two months.  We were on the beach being silly, so Mike wore my girly shades and I wore my friend Kat's bug-eyed red shades.  Check it out!

I hope all of you are seeing success in your weight loss!!!  I'm on my way to check on you now. :)

WI Today

The verdict is in and I lost .6 pounds.  I have decided that I am satisfied with that because it is a loss and it's a healthy one.  You can't really expect to lose 2 pounds after having just lost 3 the previous week.

I am disappointed, however, in my overall loss since the beginning of the year.  It's been 1 1/2 months and I haven't even lost 5 pounds.  The going is slooooow.  This didn't happen 2 years ago!  I must be getting old.  I'm almost 26 now.

Valentine's Day was awesome!  Mike's sister is the executive director for an AIDS housing company in Seattle and they had a big evening full of wine, food, and silent auctioning.  Tickets were $150 a plate and that was Mike's gift to me because I really wanted to go but couldn't afford it.  It was called "Love Without Boundaries" and was lovely.  Mike's sister bought us a tote bag full of goodies that included funny boxer shorts, a big pink boa (which I wore that night along with a bunch of other people), a chocolate body stencil kit, a bottle of wine, and a bunch of other fun things.  They were also trying to raise $60,000 for a generator for the AIDS houses, so there was an auction for donations.  It turns out we exceeded their needs and they made more than enough money for it.  Then there was a drawing for a $150 magnum bottle of wine.  Guess who won it.  Me!  Out of I-don't-know-how-many hundreds of people.

Today I'm going out with my sister and dad to HD Hotspurs, which is BBQ food.  I love restaurant websites because I can look at the menu and choose exactly what I want before I even go there.  I got to weigh my options and see what would be the best choice for my diet.

Weigh-In

I didn't post last week because I was really sick.  Last week on Monday I lost about 1 pound and this week I lost 2.8 pounds.  Yay!  It is legitmate because I wasn't sick like throw-up sick.  It was a bad bad cold that knocked me out pretty bad.  I went to work for two days and spent the next three days in the bed or on the couch.  No exercise.  It's funny how I stop exercising for a week and then lose the most amount of weight.  Muscle!  What else could it be?

I got three new The Firm DVD's to compliment the 4 that I already had.  Now I can combine sculpt, cardio and cardio sculpt DVD's so that I don't have to repeat any of them during the week.  I did this one with Emily yesterday and it was a lot of pain-in-the-ass fun.  You have to be fairly coordinated to do some of the moves, so I'm still getting used to it.

I hope all of you are having a great week!  Mid-winter break is coming up so I get a 5-day weekend.  Mike recently quit his job at BlueNile.com and got a new job so he is having a 2 week break right now. :)

Per Request

We went shopping yesterday for bridesmaids dresses, a slip and shoes for my gown.  Many of you said you wanted to see the dress, so this is just for you:

Full Gown

Gown Front

Back of Gown

Back of Gown 2

I'm in love with this dress.  Yesterday I learned that the material is chiffon.  It's a European size 6 and when I bought it a month ago it did not fit me.  Now it is fitting A LOT better and I can get fully strapped into it.  Basically, from looking at the picture, I just need to lose a little bit of weight and continue to lift weights so my arms will become leaner.  Right now they're fatty and that's no good for a sleeveless dress.

I'm feeling really good this week about my body.  I don't know if I'll lose any weight on Monday but I've come to terms with the fact that I am working my muscles incredibly hard with The Firm 6 days a week.  It's amazing how I haven't lost any weight at all, yet I fit my wedding gown as if I've lost several inches everywhere.  Tomorrow I will be measuring my body fat percentage, body measurements and weight.  The weight part of it is starting to become the least important part in this battle because I'm seeing/feeling big results but it's not showing up on the scale at all.

Uphill Battle

Remember two weeks ago when I gained a bunch even though I was on plan and worked super hard?  Then I lost 5 pounds the next week.  Well this week I gained 2.3 pounds.  Now I'm back at the original weight I was 3 weeks ago.  In fact, I'm slightly heavier.

For the last 3 weeks I have been almost flawless.  I have been on plan, worked out 6 days a week for 45 minutes on average, getting in healthy foods and not binging like I used to, drinking 80 ounces of water a day, taking a multi-vitamin.  I often ate my activity points when I was feeling hungry and I usually used at least half of my weekly flex points, too.  Because we're supposed to use them if we want them and still lose weight.  Right?

Anyway, now what do I do?  Give up all my AP's and Flex that I'm supposed to be able to use?  Eat 1100 calories a day straight up, no leeway?  That doesn't sound right to me.  I have done this before and don't recall having this much weight fluctuation while doing the right thing.  As I'm sitting here, I feel bloated and yucky like there's a bowling ball sitting in my stomach.  No, I'm not pregnant.  I'm on my period as we speak (TMI, yeah I know).  You're supposed to gain water weight the week before your period with PMS, not the week you are on your period.  Right?

You all are so wonderful with your support and I could really use some right now.  This morning I just wanted to give up when I saw the scale because I've gotten nowhere in my efforts.

Support and Determination

Thank you to all of you who have been such a support to me.  Your comments to last week's post really helped keep me motivated throughout the week to make sure I don't beat myself up over a gain.  You were all right, it was water weight.  I lost 5 pounds this week!

This means I lost the 3 pound gain plus an extra 2 pounds.  I'm going to say that the 3 pounds was really water weight and the extra 2 pound loss was hard work.  It seems like a more realistic way to view things.  I am hoping to lose 1-2 pounds next week.

Over the course of the last week I did that whole 6-day workout regimen and then on Sunday we helped a friend move.  The move was sooooo hard!  We were moving all her stuff into a storage facility and her storage section was on the second floor.  Imagine filling up 3 cars and taking them all to the storage place, unpacking all 3 cars in and around an elevator, then taking everything out of the elevator and down a hallway that's as long as half a football field, at least.  Now imagine doing that 3 times in one day.  Can we say "U-Haul"?  Helloooooooooo!

Mike and I were the only truly healthy people of the group (there was our friend who has endometriosis among other health problems, Mike's dad who recently had a heart attack, and his mom who's relatively healthy but older so we didn't want to strain her too much) so we had to do most of the heavy work.  By the time we got home around 5pm we jumped into bed and just watched TV together the rest of the night.

Tonight I'm going to join the same friend to see Ingrid Michaelson.  She had an extra ticket and can't go alone.  I'm familiar with her music.  She kind of reminds me of Lisa Loeb.

The Day After Weigh In

It's the day after the impossible happened.  It can't actually be impossible because it did happen.

I gained 3 pounds.  Yep, 3 big ones.  GAINED.  Big ol' plus sign.  Accumulation.  Extra.  Rise.  Increase.  Enlarge.

I exercised 6 days for 40 minutes each day.  I stayed within my points and yes, I did use most of my flexies on Saturday but come on!

Emotions are much better today.  Yesterday I stared at the scale with disbelief and re-weighed myself to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.  At this point I can only hope it was my muscles holding in water because I recently began a rigorous workout routine within the last 2 weeks.  It's not PMS for sure.

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By the way, if anyone is curious about my workout routine -

The Firm Cardio Weights (Body TransFIRMation System):

Mondays - Hi Def Sculpt:  This routine is my favorite.  It is a good mix of cardio and weights but a little more weights.  45 minutes.

Tuesday - Cardio Party:  This is my second favorite.  All cardio and no weights.  It felt silly at first but it really grew on me.  Lots of leg work and a little bit of dance.  40 minutes.

Wednesday - Hard Core Fusion:  3rd favorite.  There are some extra weights added so lots of good arm work.  Good balance of cardio and weights.  They claim this one burns 3 times the amount of fat that regular cardio burns but I'm not sure I can back that up completely.  55 minutes. 

Thursday - Cardio Party.  Yay!

Friday - Cardio Overdrive:  Holy crap, somebody shoot me.  It starts off easy but when they go into "overdrive" I can barely handle it.  I'm still getting used to this one since I've done it less than the others.  45 minutes.

Saturday - Hard Core Fusion.

Sunday - Rest.

For anyone interested in these DVD's, do not order from TheFIRM's website!  Ever!  Trust me, I went through hell to get what I ordered.  You will too.