A Plateau like Arkansas...

First...let me put in a disclaimer: somehow I can't figure out how to post my individual paragraphs, when I publish everything just runs together...sorry!! Kyle and I have been working out consistently 3-4 times a week. I've stopped drinking all forms of pop (regular, diet, zeros) and have tried very hard not to replace it with sugary juices and drinks. That part has been a little bit more difficult, but hopefully I will keep cutting out the sugar!! My friend Michelle has become a Beach Body Coach (misswestfit@beachbody.com), and has the Kyle and I and Peeg and Daniel in a couple 's challenge on facebook. I must say, having the support, advice, and maybe a little bit of pressure ;) has kept me motivated. She is pretty intense, and I think it's good to have somebody pushing me besides Kyle! With all this being said, I haven't lost a pound in like 3 weeks. The scale is stuck! Michelle says we should get a bmi scale, which will tell the whole story, but it is incredibly frustrating. I know plateaus exist, and that other changes are still happening, I just can't believe I've hit one already, when I have so much weight to lose. Sure, let's hit a plateau after losing 40 or 50 lbs. But after just losing 12 lbs? This is ridiculous!! On the bright side, I do feel like I have more strength and endurance. The circuit at Planet Fitness (weight lifting and steps) has gotten a lot easier to get through. I have even been jogging during the step section, instead of just walking! I also can climb stairs, get in and out of the car, etc...without so much effort! I know, it's sad that it took as much effort as it did to do these things to begin with, but at least it's improving!! Finally, my fibromyalgia feels better when I exercise too. It's not gone, and I think I'll struggle with it the rest of my life, but exercising does provide a little bit of relief! Who knew? Well, everyone. Even my friend Brittany who has it told me she has to exercise in the morning or she feels like crap all day, and she told me this back in 2009. Oh well, better late than never, right? Anyone, here's to the future, at least we're making changes and eventually that will pay off!

Slow and Steady...?

Our two weeks at La Fitness were pretty intense. Peeglet (my sister Andrea) and I attended several Zumba classes, and even managed to drag ourselves through a 1/2 hour of a step aerobic class led by a step nazi! We also took daily advantage of the swimming pool/whirlpool and racquet ball courts. Kyle and Daniel also used the racquet ball courts, and did a lot of wait lifting. In the 2 week trial, we went to the gym 10 out of 14 days! I think that the pace we set for the initial two weeks was too much, but we didn't want to squander any opportunities to go to such a nice place for free. After our trial ended on March 9th, we took a week off, ostensibly for Daniel's midterm week, but I think all of us were nursing aches, pains, and bruises that needed to heal. This week, we joined Planet Fitness, and have gone 3 three times. They don't have all the bells and whistles that LA fitness has, but they're much more affordable, and so far so good. The hardest thing for me and Peeglet is the classes. We both said that we do better with supervision and someone telling us what to do, and it's hard to push ourselves when we're not really sure what we should be doing (Cardio vs. weight lifting, for how long, how intense, etc), but so far so good! At least we're going, right? In addition to working out, for the last month I have been trying to eat very healthfully and mindfully. Not every day has been successful, but for the most part, we've been eating healthy, homecooked meals, watching our portions, and tracking our calories on sparkpeople.com. When I weighed myself this week, I weighed 276. That's down from 288, so I've lost 12 lbs! I'm trying to stay excited about 12 lbs., even though it's taken almost a whole month. Usually, and even last time we tried to lose weight, I start out with some crash diet, or cleanse, or shakes, or slim fast. These methods give me quick results, but clearly haven't lasted or set me up for long term success. Hopefully, just a slow and steady start will help me to continue to move the scale back in the right direction!! Finally, if you have any suggestions for gym work out plans, let me know! We can use the advice, since we're pretty new at this! Also, if I get to my goal weight of 195 lbs, Kyle has said that I can probably get Lasik Surgery to reward myself!!!

Fresh Start?

This post will be a bit of a let down to any of those following last year. I fell off the bandwagon, hard. On Monday, I weighed my heaviest ever at 288. This week has seen a change though. Kyle and I have worked out 5 days in a row, using up a 14 day free trial to LA Fitness. We have been going with my sister Andrea and her husband Daniel. Andrea and I have been throwing ourselves into the classes: Zumba, Step/Abs, Yoga, and also swimming, as well as some other things here and there. Also, I've cut out 90% of the pop and sugary drinks I consume on a regular basis, and have tracked, and maintained a healthy caloric intake for all 5 days. I gave myself 1 year to lose almost 100 lbs. my goal weight being 195 lbs, and my Spark People Tracker app gives me 1850 calories a day to reach that goal. I am desperate to make this work for several reasons: 1. Working out, or maybe just the swimming has made my body feel so much relief from the constant discomfort I am in. 2. Kyle and I are contemplating starting a family, and the risk factors for obese women are staggering. 3. Way too many people have asked me when I am due. It happened again today, with a long standing customer I've gotten to know pretty well. "Are you getting fatter, or are you having a baby?" I think she fully expected me to say I was pregnant, because she back pedaled pretty quickly when I quipped that I am just getting fatter. However, I am sick and tired of the way I look, feel, and my mood. So here I am trying to change again. I will weigh in at the end of the 2 weeks, I don't want to peak and get discouraged before hand. Here's hope for some good news!!

Wow, that was a long hiatus

Hello!! Sorry about the two months off. Lots of things happening, especially with my little sister, Andrea's wedding!! The wedding was on 7/20, and was gorgeous! We had so much fun. Also, I have been diagnosed with fibermyalgia. If you remember, in my earlier posts, I said I have a lot of pain and tenderness. I finally saw the rheumatologist earlier this month, and she gave me that as a working diagnosis. It's not the best news, but it could certainly be worse, and I'm just so excited that we're finally on the path to some relief! Now, as far as the weight loss, it's been very slow going, with a lot of back and forth. Our friend, Adrienne, who has her Master's degree in nutrition, is using us as guinea pigs, because she wants to be a weight loss counselor. For the past 2 months, (except for the past few weeks) we have been meeting with Adrienne on a weekly basis to set obtainable, weekly goals, in order to make this more of a life style change. She also gave us a quick and nutritious cookbook. Since January, Kyle and I were pulling recipes from Sparkpeople.com. Some of these were really tasty, some were really bad, but most of them took quite a bit of preparation. Needless to say, we were very burnt out. With the new cookbook, the recipes are typically 5 main ingredients or less, and take about 10 min to prepare and 10 to 20 minutes to cook. Our favorite recipe so far has been the baked potato with bbq chicken, sour cream, green onions, and sharp cheddar cheese! My current goals are to cut out sugary sodas and drinks, and to walk our dog Oscar 4 times a week. Kyle's are to watch portion control, go to bed by 10 on work nights, and to exercise 4x a week. The first several weeks with Adrienne were great! However, we have not been able to meet with her recently because of work and vacation schedules, and regretfully, we've fallen back into our old ways. I do know I am a stress eater, and there were a lot of stressers, especially helping with eveything for Peeglet's wedding, so now, we are going to get back to it, since the wedding is over! I am going to try to post at least weekly, especially after we set our goals with Adrienne, so that I can stay focused!

Long Week!

Today is my little sister Andrea's (or Peeglet) Bridal Shower!! My older sister, Candice, my little niece Addison, and I spent all day yesterday traipsing through Costco, Home Goods, and Target buying everything to make for the shower today. Then, we spent even longer baking, cooking, shredding, etc...but everything looks so yummy! The hardest part was messing up the deviled eggs. We've never really made them before, but they are Peeglet's absolute favorite. After hours of tediously de-shelling the eggs...and ripping them in half, or tearing the skin, and creating divets, we admitted defeat. However, with a quick call to mom, she salvaged the 3 dozen eggs we'd already hard boiled and suggested an egg salad! Huzzah!! We just deviled the yolks, and chunked the whites and mixed them all together! Absolutely delicious. The down side to all of this? I think every recipe had cream cheese, mayonnaise, or both! We used almost an entire Costco sized jar of Hellman's! Obviously we don't eat like this all the time, but I'm really going to have to watch myself today so I don't go hogwild! We do have a lot of fresh fruit and veggies, to be served with dip of course, so I will limit the dip intake, hopefully! As far as for the rest of the week, I was hoping to have a great and encouraging blog about how wonderful we've been doing, and all the weight we lost, and the week truly started out that way! We made delicious meals at home, watched our portions, had left overs to pack for lunch, and I even had plans with Peeglet to attend a Zumba session on Thursday night! And then, Wednesday night at work happened. To make a long, and tearful story short, I was in an encounter with the manager at work, and ended up feeling I had no respect, and so technically quit my job on Wednesday night. I got a call that I still had a job, and ended up calling the district supervisor to resolve some issues. This was such a stressful situation, and unlike anything that I've ever been involved in. For those of you that know me well, you know that I'm usually a calm person in control of my emotions, and that I very much want to and do get along with others. Luckily, after several conversations, the situation was resolved, but the stress of it all sent me into an eating downward spiral. Wednesday night, my support system (Kyle, Peeglet, and her fiance, Daniel) made and shared brownies with me, because chocolate helps so much! Then, I was so stressed out about seeing the person on Thursday, I forgot to pack my lunch, so I ran to McDonald's on my lunch break, with every intention of ordering a grilled, sweet chili chicken Mcwrap and water. But, there, in the drive thru out of my mouth came, I'll have a No. 1 with a large coke! (this is the first regular pop I've really had since the cleanse). After wolfing down my lunch (and it was delicious), I checked facebook to see a message from my cousin's wife, Michelle. She was so nice, and said how inspiring my blog has been, and that she was on day 4 of her own GM Cleanse. I felt so terrible, here I was just falling into the same old pattern! If only I had checked facebook before lunch!! I still thought it would be okay, because I would work it off at Zumba. At 7:25 pm, Peeg and I pulled into the parking lot of the little workout place for class. The music was already going, the parking lot was overflowing, and people were already dancing inside through the window. We were so intimidated, and I was still pretty overwhelmed by everything at work, that we decided to flee! So, yes, it has been a very long week, physically, mentally, and emotionally! (I cried, a lot, on Wednesday and Thursday) and I definitely saw just how much I am controlled by stress, especially when it comes to food choices! My hope from here on out is that I don't let that kind of stress and situation occur again, the situation was a long time coming, and I just kept ignoring everything that was going on, hoping to avoid a confrontation. Obviously, I found my breaking point, I'm not proud, but I do feel like I know now that I need to take the time to address things. This should carry over into eating as well! Planning and addressing food, having food prepared, and having healthy things on hand to munch on should help me avoid situations where I am at the McDonald's drive in at all!

Some Struggles

This week has been full of ups and downs for Kyle and I. We both gained back a few pounds from the cleanse. Kyle said he knew this would happen but I thought I'd finally be in the 250s for the first time in years. But, it looks like it might be a few more weeks til I get there. However, we went grocery shopping and bought a bunch of fresh things, and I've been given some good looking recipes from friend's and found more on pinterest. This week we get to look forward to mexican pizza, jalapeno-popper stuffed chicken, chipotle black bean burgers, crunchy chicken salad with poppy seed dressing and some other goodies!

Hopefully the new recipes will keep us inspired. I got pretty discouraged this week, because I gained weight back and I felt like no matter what I eat, I'll be at 265 for the rest of my life. This is the weight that I usually am, and it seems like every diet/exercise try stagnates at this weight. Today, however I was 263...and that was after even cheating with some Pizza King pizza (my favorite!).

The next step to get sorted is exercise. I'm planning to start out slow, just long walks with Oscar, our dog, and Kyle. Again, exercise would be helpful, but because of my arthritis/joint pain, strenuous exercise is difficult. I am doing a lot of physical therapy for my lower back and Sacriiliac joints, and its the best I've felt in years. Even my parents said I looked really healthy when I saw them yesterday! So, walking should go a long way I hope. Also, my little sister has moved in with us for the summer, until she get's married July 20th! We really want to try Zumba to work out and look sexy for the wedding!

What do you eat when you don't have a diet to follow

     Since finishing the cleanse, we've been on our own again with food, which is a little scary. We've done ok, but not great picking our own meals. The hardest part was eating barbeque at my sister's and fiance's engagement party. There was so much food, and we indulged quite a bit. Ribs, chicken legs, spaghetti, deviled eggs, salad, cheese cake, breadsticks, etc... to name a few items. However, we were incapable of gorging as much as we normally do. And the biggest difference was we had some regrets about eating so poorly. We also felt lethargic and uncomfortable for the rest of the evening, and even woke up more sluggish the next day. We are definitely noticing a huge difference that eating poorly plays on how we feel, and we're choosing to try and eat healthier just because we feel better and more refreshed.

Last night we also ate out again. I surprised Kyle with Alex Clare concert tickets at the Old National Theatre, and so we decided to make it date night and check out Mesh on Mass Ave. We're trying to do a little bit more expensive date night once a month to some nicer restaurants we want to try, rather than running to Applebee's or O'Charlies type restaurants once a week. Mesh was absolutely delicious!! And we ordered somewhat consciously. Kyle and I split the Applewood Chicken Salad and a 14 oz lamb t-bone which was out of this world good! We also split the calamari for an appetizer and broke down and split the bread pudding for dessert. However, we felt the lamb and salad were good options, and we only had 1 refill on our basket of bread instead of the two or three we normal eat.

All and All were realizing this is going to be hard work and we have to choose to make the right choices everyday. I know there will be times when we mess up, and I know that we can't get discouraged, but instead just need to do better the next day. But, for the first time in a long time, I feel like this is something we can do and be successful at!!