Today I took a quick walk to warm-up and then I made up my own tae-bo workout.  Many years ago I was on a tae-bo kick and I would do the workout every morning, so I just did my best to remember as much as I could.  I did front kicks, side kicks, punches etc.  I'm sure I would've been embarassed if anyone had seen me, but it worked.  I got a work out in and it didn't hurt my foot.  Woo Hoo!!

 

Then the day got better when... my palm synced with the weight watcher's site.  I don't know what the deal is with their software, but it's kind of hit and miss.  It works for some people and not for others.  Apparently the powers that be have been "working on it," but it wasn't working for me.  Many people on the ww's boards said they just kept trying and finally it worked... so I followed along like a leming and guess what?  It worked.  Now I have no excuse for not tracking my points.

 

 

For the first time in 1.5 years, hubby had a run that took him right through San Diego when he wasn't scheduled for home time.  We took advantage of the opportunity and captured a couple of pictures for our space.  (See, I really do have a partner in this adventure.  )

 

In some ways I have been doing really good and I'm feeling great.  In other ways, I just feel like I haven't quite hit my stride...  I'm losing a little over a pound a week, but I truly haven't committed myself 100%.  I'm letting myself slack off too much.  I count my points for a day or two and write everything down, then I slowly stop writing things down.  I've even been researching and contemplating switching to core in order to shake things up a bit. 

 

On the good side... I've been exercising more and more.  I even tried the elliptical again.  My foot made it through fine and it felt wonderful to get such a great workout.  I'm going to keep adding a little at a time and I think I just might be back into my old schedule in a couple of weeks...which probably means I'll have that fighting spirit back too.

 

I skipped walking this morning because I knew I would be coaching volleyball at church tonight.  I'm sure I will get a pretty decent workout helping the girls with the drills. 

 

I joined Jillian's online club today and I'm already impressed!  I printed out my workout and plan to start trying it out tomorrow. (Today is my "rest" day on her plan.)  I was needing some direction as far as weight lifting and other exercises, besides cardio.  I'm not sure that I'll be able to survive the workout listed, but we'll see.

 

gotta run....

And I'm not talking about the kind that goes with chips.    After several months off I finally went back to the salsa class at the gym last night and it felt oh so good!!!!  I put my orthotics in my split sole dance shoes and it made a huge difference.  My heel still hurt a bit and I was worried that it would flare up, but I iced it and massaged it as soon as I got home and it feels "normal" today.  As for the rest of my body, well it's pleasantly sore.

 

I think this means that I'm officially back in the game!!!  I'll have to remind myself to pace myself and not overdo, but I think I am finally over the whole injury hurdle and that makes such a difference mentally.

 

And... in other news... I've added yet another piece of clothing to my closet!  Woo Hoo!  I have a ton of clothes that a friend gave me when she lost weight after having gastric bypass.  I went through them and sorted them by size when she first gave them to me.  As things start to fit, I transfer them to my regular closet...  Well today I'm wearing a new top and I tried on a few more that are oh so close... Sadly they fit everywhere but the arms.  Lets hope that the next few pounds come from my arms because this in between size limbo thing is wreaking havoc on my mornings.  I'll put on something that fit last week, only to discover that it has crossed over to ridiculously big and baggy. I'm not complaining, but it sure would be nice to move a little quicker in the mornings.

Well last night went better than I thought.  I ended up getting the rotisserie chicken.  I kind of blew it on the veggies though.  I planned to order the grilled veggies, then I saw zucchini and thought Yummmmm... turns out it was crusted with parmesan.  It didn't look deep fried, but I'm sure it wasn't as healthy as the grilled veggies.  Lesson learned!  Read the menu more carefully.  I ate some of the food and brought the rest of the chicken home. 

 

New Jeans?  My jeans have been driving me crazy.  I put them on in the morning and they are pretty loose, but by the end of the day they are so loose that they annoy me.  Even using the belt was beginning to be a problem.  The waistband was so bunched up from the belt that it was kind of funny.  And yet, since I've been blessed with an ample behind and legs, they were loose in other areas, but not as bad as the waist.

 

Well I have another pair of jeans that are exactly the same size, but a different brand.  I bought them a couple of years ago, wore them once, washed them and they have never fit since.  Quite depressing if you ask me.  I've tried them on a couple of times since July and even though the other pair keeps getting looser, I just couldn't seem to get the smaller pair on.

 

Well, my jeans were dirty today and I needed something to wear.  Guess what fits??????  Oh, they are pretty tight.  A nice reminder not to overeat, but they are comfortable and they fit. 

 

woo hoo... now it's time to set my eye on the pair that is one size smaller!  (after that I get to go shopping!)

I'm meeting some friends for dinner tonight at Claim Jumpers.  I'm not sure which one of them picked the restaurant, but I'm thinking they didn't make any new year's resolutions involving weight. hahaha!  Ok, so I'm all for learning how to make the best choices I can, while living my life, so I went to their website.  No nutritional information... None, zip, nada.... I can't blame them.  HUGE portions are their claim to fame, so it's probably not in their best interest to tell us how many calories those portions contain. 

 

Well, I'm off to do the best I can. 

You may have noticed that we haven't posted any weigh-ins.  Hubby is on the road, so unless he decides to weigh himself on a big truck scale, he may have a hard time weighing in.  Although, that is a thought.  I may have to ask him if the truck scales will work.

 

I do ww, but I haven't been to a meeting in a few weeks.  No worries.  It was a planned break.  I've had some conflicts with my schedule and I'm trying to REALLY lose the 6.8 pounds they thought I lost last time I was in.  (It was a post stomach flu weigh-in.)  I know it's all mental, but I just don't want to hear the word "gain" when I weigh-in. At first I was avoiding the scale all together and I enjoyed the holiday food a little too much.  I had to nip that in the bud and face the scale before I truly started gaining.... so at least I'm dealing in reality.  No matter what, I will weigh in at ww next Thursday. 

 

All that to explain my inner turmoil over what weight to use as my starting point.  I've finally decided to just track two different weights.  One here and one with ww.  They are a few pounds different because of when I weigh in (morning at home, evening at ww), but it's the only way my BL weigh-ins will be accurate.

 

So... with a starting date of 1/3/08, I have lost 2.2 pounds.  Considering I have done no exercise to speak of, I am truly happy with that loss. 

 

Speaking of exercise.... 

I've recently discovered Jillian Michaels' podcast and I am hooked!  I'm actually pretty impressed with how knowledgeable she is on a variety of subjects.  On one of the podcasts she gave a woman suffering from hip problems a ton of workout suggestions that really helped me to start thinking of things that I can do.  It also helped me to really think about why I am such a whiner.  Ha.  Anyone who knows me, would laugh at that statement.  I'm really not a whiner.  I'm the "let's go," "suck it up" competitive girl.  This whole dealing with injury thing has been a humbling experience.

 

I think part of the reason I have had such a hard time shifting gears is because I loved the routine I had going.  It was working and it fit in my schedule and I was having a hard time thinking of something else that would fit as well.  One of my BIG obstacles is that my main workout time is from 6am - 6:40am, while my son is in seminary class.  It's not really practical to take a bunch of equipment with me and I don't have any other "routines" memorized so I have half-heartedly tried doing other exercises, but I'd get bored or feel stupid and I didn't really follow through.  Listening to Jillian has kind of pumped me up to try again to find something else that will work.

 

So here are a few fitness goals for the week:

 

1) Gym/weight training Saturday

2) Sunday - go through my dvd stash and find a couple that I can try.

3) Monday - I'm contemplating trying my orthotics in my split-sole dance shoes and doing the salsa class at the gym.  I used to do a whole hour (cowboy boogie/salsa) but I had to stop.

4) Tuesday - Friday:  exercise dvd's during seminary.

 

It feels good to have a plan!  Now I just have to remind myself to modify, modify, modify.....

 

 

 

I feel kind of bad.  I signed up for this, but just wasn't feeling that pumped up, ready to go, thing.  I was just going through the motions.  That means I would start the day out thinking, "I am going to track my points, eat healthy and drink all my water." And then I'd end up eating all my points, plus a few pieces of leftover Christmas candy, a brownie and lots of diet soda.  It wasn't an all out piggy fest, but it was no where close to what I planned in my mind at the beginning of the day.

 

I've enjoyed reading the other blog entries and have had fun celebrating the success of so many here on live spaces, but a little part of me was sad.  Sad because I was that girl that was so pumped up.  I was the girl happily jumping on the scale everday to watch my weight fluctuate.  I was the one pumped up about exercising.  But lately I have no idea where that girl went.

 

Well I think I finally found her.  Today was the first day back to my "normal" schedule.  School is back in, I'm back to taking Josh to seminary in the mornings and it's been two weeks since the doctor said "you can probably start exercising with your orthotics in about two weeks." 

 

I walked for 10 minutes.  The bad news is that I'm probably not going to be able to return to walking yet.  My heel didn't enjoy the experience very much.  The good news is that it felt great to be out in the crisp air, to think things over, to rededicate myself and I'm feeling powerful and motivated.  My NEW plan is to go ahead and take a nice leisurely walk every morning.  It may not be as healthy as my 40 minute power walks, but I think it puts me in a good mental state so that I am motivated to stay on track with my eating and even put in the time on the dreaded exercise bike.  I figure that if I can walk around a store for 10 minutes, I can certainly do a light stroll in the mornings without causing more pain....and the mental stimulation is well worth it!

 

On another note.  I have a couple of questions that you all can help me with...

 

1) I bought a bag of mini bell peppers from Costco yesterday.  It was a great deal, but I'm new to using bell peppers and I haven't quite developed the taste for just biting into them.  I prefer to add them to cooking..... so tell me.... what are some of your favorite ways to use red, orange and yellow bell peppers.

 

2) I'm new to live spaces.  How do you keep up with new entries from your friends?  I use google reader to track when blogs I enjoy have updated...hmmm...maybe I just answered my own question.... Any other suggestions?

Now that I've tried to get a little more familiar with the site, I'm ready to give you all a little more info about where I am and where I'm going.  I've been doing ww for the last few months and I'm down a little over 25 pounds.  To be honest I've been hovering around the 25 pound mark for a couple of months now.  I ran into some problems and I let it sidetrack me a bit.  I'm grateful I didn't gain weight, but it's a shame that I haven't done better.

 

I have plantar fasciitis (heel pain).  I've been struggling with it since May.  At first I chose to ignore it and just ice my foot and/or complain about being in pain.  My theory was that losing weight would help, so I was just going to push through it.  That didn't work out so well.  It got to the point that I couldn't ignore it.

 

I've spent the last two months going to the doctor and the podiatrist.  While I was at it I faced my health head on and got all my bloodwork and annual tests/check-ups done too.  Good news is that I got a clean bill of health!!  My bp was a little elevated and I need to raise my good cholesterol, but no other worries (I can't help but wonder what it was like before I lost the 25 pounds!).   Bad news is my foot was kind of a big problem.  I was told "no walking and no ellliptical."  For me those two things spelled huge success in my weight loss efforts.  It really knocked the wind out of my sails to have to give them up.

 

But here we are a couple of months later and my foot is getting better.  I got my orthotics and can start exercising within the next couple of days.  (Granted, I could've been swimming or riding the stationary bike all along.....)  I'm planning to walk 10-15 minutes on Monday to see how my foot tolerates it.  If all goes well, I'll add 10 minutes a day until I'm back up to 40 minutes a day. If not.... well, I'll make friends with the stationary bike again. (grrrrr)

 

Dawn

Just a quick post to get things started.  My hubby and I love Biggest Loser.  We watch it every season and have enjoyed watching so many people make incredible changes in their lives.  Last season was the first time that I actually followed through and ended the season lighter than when it started.  Now that the holidays are over, I'm ready to keep going and keep losing!

 

Hubby is a long-haul truck driver which adds a whole different twist to our journey.  We challenge each other and compete to see who can lose the most between his visits home.  He's often on the road for 4-6 weeks and then home for 4-6 days.  The good part is that since we don't see each other every day, it's much easier to notice the big changes.  The bad part, besides missing each other, is that it's really hard for hubby on the road.  He is often stuck with the limited food choices at the truck stops and never knows what kind of weather he'll encounter each day.  He does his best by walking as much as he can at truck stops and rest areas, but it definately gives me the weight loss advantage!  Good thing since I have a lot more to lose than he does.

 

Well, stay tuned and we'll continue to update the site and our stories!