I often feel kind of dumb updating this because there's not a lot to report.  I am still keeping with the program.  I am losing a lot of inches, but not much weight.  Only 8 pounds in 3 months.  I'm down two dress sizes and feel a lot better than I used to. 

This week was really, really hard because I had to take a week off of working out the week prior.  I was extremely sick with some kind of respiratory infection and could barely move, much less work out.  With the sickness still around and without working out for a week, it about killed me, but I was determined and we did it every single day. 

We mix things up a lot to keep our bodies guessing what we're going to do.  Fridays are always yoga, although this week, we couldn't find the yoga DVD and we did pilates instead.  >:<  I think it was the hardest workout of the whole week.  Friday is supposed to be our down day!

Some days, we do the circuit.  I found another treadmill, so we set up it, the elliptical trainer and the gazelle with weight stations in between each one and just go from station to station, doing a minute at a time and making sure we keep our heart rate up when we're lifting weights.  We're up to 8 pound hand weights for our heavy ones and 5 pounds for our light ones. 

Other days, we'll do a DVD, usually one of the Biggest Loser DVDs or our Extreme Makeover workout DVD.  Andrea is partial to Carmen Electra's "Fit to Strip" DVD and we'll take out a Denise Austin DVD if we feel particularly invincible (this week's was Burn Fat Fast workout). 

Either way, we do *something* 5 days a week for at least 30-45 minutes.  It's taking a good while to lose weight this way, but I wanted to do it in a healthy fashion that was going to be long lasting.  I can tell that this is a keeper.  Every month I'm smaller and that's what important.  I'm doing it in a way I can live with and it might not be as fast as I'd hoped, but it's for the best.

Andrea and I reviewed the DVDs we've used so far if you are interested:

http://gffitness.livejournal.com/22439.html

We still update the fitness journal several times a week.  I just wanted to check in and let you know I hadn't given up yet.  I'm still working!

PS:  Yahoo has evaluated some of the most popular pay diet plans:

http://biz.yahoo.com/brn/070407/21620.html?.v=1&.pf=family-home

March 19, 2007

What a great weekend it was!  Nothing particularly spectacular happened; just a couple of days at home with the family, but it was lovely.

Eric and I had our New Moon Sweat last night.  He has a sweat lodge out back and once a month or so, we go out and really steam ourselves out.  I never though it would be something I would enjoy.  I'm just not in the habit of willingly and enthusiastically making myself uncomfortable, so it isn't really in keeping with my personality.  I won't even wear high heels any more because I don't want to deform my feet.  Discomfort just isn't my thing.

This, however, is my thing.  He had the big stones sitting in the big fire pit for a good 3 hours or so and when he brought them into the smaller sweat lodge fire pit in the wheelbarrow and hoisted them in, they were glowing white and read and you could see the little mineral inside sparking.  The sweat lodge is about 6' tall inside, so I can reach up and grab a couple of pine boughs to hang onto and just let the steam roll over me.  The rocks were hot enough that we were able to be out there for about 25 minutes, which is a good, long time.  From the first dipper of water that was put onto the rock until we both emptied the last of our own water bottles onto the cooling stones, gallons of water and steam later, it was glorious.

The first time you do it, it's hard to get used to breathing through the steam, but by the end of the first session, you have it mastered, so after that, it comes naturally.  You can feel your sinuses opening and clearing and as you begin to sweat profusely, you can feel the impurities in your skin and your lungs and your body and even your impure thoughts (as Eric pointed out tonight) just expunge from you and ground themselves into the dirt under your feet.  You come out of it feeling reborn, cleansed, purified and new.  Eric uses a bit of cedar and sage for his smudge mixture and the smell of it in the steam is so rich and earthy.

Stepping out into the cool night air and seeing the sky sprinkled with stars was especially lovely.

The nice thing about this sweat in particular is that it was gearing me up for a cleansing of another kind, which makes it doubly exciting.  I decided this weekend that I am going to stop being such a wuss and really go all out on changing my eating habits.  I'm going cold turkey (and lots of it, actually) and I'm going to just change the way I eat.  Just like that.  There's no leading into it.  There's no weaning away.  There's no thinking it out.  I am going to go with lean proteins, fresh vegetables and fresh fruit, only whole grain products for breads and cereals and plenty of water.  No more white flour or refined sugar products.  I am going to eat all the time, as often as I can, to stay full and so that my metabolism gets used to cranking all the time.  I will continue to work out as I have been, 4-5 days a week with lots of cardio and a good dose of strength training as well. 

The only exception to this is on the rare occasion when I go out to eat.  When I do that, I want to be able to cast concern aside and eat what I want very deliberately.  Since that doesn't happen all that often, it shouldn't throw off my progress.  I mean, we have to have some fun sometime! 

I went to our little market that is about 25 minutes from here and got supplies yesterday, so I'm all set.  I followed my basic rules today and it was fairly painless.  I'm excited about the process of experiencing faster results by cutting back on my calories (which this will considerably) and eliminating my own personal vices from my diet.  I'm pretty dedicated to the refined sugars and white flour, so this will be a whole new experience for me.  But I see it as "it's just what I do."  It's how I eat now.

I wrote in my "PopLife" column about the powerful words "Until Now."  I believe you can change anything you want to with those words if you are determined to be a willing spirit and move forward.  My thought process is, "Until now, I did not eat in a way that was healthy for my body and although I made significant changes in my life in the form of exercising, I was doing so without contributing the other part of that equation that would assure the kind of success I want.  Until now, I was unwilling to make the sacrifice of my comfort food and food rewards.  Now I am prepared to let go of all of that in favor of reaching my goal faster and in a healthier fashion."

I am going to write out a contract with myself and sign it, detailing the specifics of how I will eat from now on.  I will become more involved with charting my food and water intake until it, like the exercise, becomes natural to me.  Then there's no way I will fail.

We are going into week #9 of exercising tomorrow and I am absolutely riddled with PMS.  When we began our workouts, Andrea and I were both in that situation and she put it well.  "If we can do it this week, we can do it through ANYthing."  She proved to be right, so it worked out that the New Moon sweat heralded in my New Beginning right when I will be the most challenged in my efforts.  I am SO glad I ate about 15 or so chocolate dipped strawberries this week.  What a send off!

Andrea and I walked the mountains today.  She has these long, lean legs and weighs about a buck twenty-five dripping wet, so she can outpace me like crazy.  She's striding along and I'm rolling behind her, huffing and puffing and gasping.   Dragging an extra 100 pounds around tends to slow you down.  We have a route that takes us about 50 minutes to complete.  Afterwards, I really feel like I did something.

She cracked me up when we were talking about the mountain lions and how it's not safe to walk alone.  She said, "Well, you don't have to outrun the mountain lions, just the person you're walking with."  I have a feeling if a mountain lion comes along, I'll be kibbles and she'll be gone.  :)

<=======Also, we got our replacement copy of a DVD I bought at Borders Books a couple of weeks ago.  Even though the DVD was brand new, it had a flaw beneath the surface that interfered with playing, so they had to send me a new one.

It definitely looked interesting from what we could tell.

What else have we tried?

We're completely sold on The Biggest Loser series (there are 2 volumes).  Bob Harper is a GREAT trainer and he really gets you up and moving without being annoying.  We heart Bob.  There are several great combinations of workouts on the 2 DVDs and they have all been just challenging enough so that you really know you did something when you are done.

We tried a couple of Karen Voight yoga workouts and so far, it's not grabbing us, but we haven't given up yet.  We tried Cardio Bootcamp again and were actually able to follow long pretty well, but the woman talks like Maude Lebowski from The Big Lebowski and that always cracks me up.

Other than Bob, I think the best workouts we have found are Carmen Electra:  Fit to Strip and (it hurts me to say this) Denise Austin's Fat Blasting Workout.

I've used Denise Austin's walking DVD as well as the classic "Walk Away the Pounds" DVDs and they are all good in a pinch.

We're up to a 50 minute work out, although we have done 65 minutes and didn't die.  Mostly it's time factors because she can't get here until about 9:15 and I have to leave for work by 10:30 and I like to eat breakfast before I go.

So that's where I am at this point.  Still determined and now excitedly entering into phase #2 with the modified diet!

Feb 27, 2007

How fun!  I never suspected how much I would enjoy working out.  Sure, there are times I just really don't want to do it, but once I'm doing it and it's done, I can't imagine not doing it.  The effects are amazing.  I haven't lost much weight according to the scale, but I've dropped a size in clothes and I'm much stronger and more flexible.

I still have not particularly changed how I eat, but I'm still losing inches.  This has let me do this without feeling deprived or persecuted in any way.  Sure, I could get faster results by dieting as well and will likely continue to nip and tuck on how I eat here and there, but for the time being, I'm seeing results and that's what is important to me.

So this is just a quickie to let you know that I'm hanging in there!

My complete reports are posted here almost daily:

http://gffitness.livejournal.com/

Hugs!

Feb 11, 2007

So much has happened since the last time I wrote.

Andrea and I just completely our fourth week of working out.  The first week, we worked out 4 days, the next 5, the next 4 and this past week, 5.  Normally, I don't work out on the weekends, taking those off as some kind of entitlement.  This weekend, I worked out both days.

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we do circuit training.  We set up the recumbent bike, the gazelle and the treadmill in a circle facing one another.  In between them, we put a station for the exercise bike, a station for the resistance tubes and gym bar (including a resistance tube that is on a door appliance for pull downs and chest presses) and a yoga mat with weights beside it for weighted lunges, arm work, sun salutes or stretches.  We have about 3-4 playlists that we use of music that lasts 40-45 minutes.  We put on the music, Andrea whips out her digital timer and off we go.  We do a minute at each station, working out as hard as we can, then switching to the next one when the timer goes off.  When the music ends, we know we're finished. 

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we usually do a DVD.  We have Yoga Conditioning for Weight Loss, The Biggest Loser 1, The Biggest Loser 2, Pilates Conditioning for Weight Loss, Yoga in 10 Minutes, Carmen Electra's Fit to Strip Workout and four, count'em FOUR belly dancing DVDs.  I also have Walk Away the Pounds, which I have used on my own.  We have several others that we are working up to and are scared to try at this point.

Regardless, we do a minimum of 40 minutes of work out a day, then work out on our own on the weekends.

Our treadmill died on Friday, so Eric is going to pick up an elliptical machine tomorrow to replace it.  We tried a mini trampoline for a while, but right away, I started having back and knee pain, so we took it out. 

We set up a livejournal account which she and I write in pretty often if you are interested in our daily ramblings about what we're doing.  If you have a livejournal, please feel free to comment and share your own experiences.  If you don't have a livejournal account, you can still comment.  Just remember to write your name in the subject line or at the end of your post.

The link for the livejournal is:  http://gffitness.livejournal.com/

I, again, can't express what a difference it makes to be doing this with someone else.  Everything from competitiveness to mutual support and encouragement to learning more about the other one has really come together to make this a success. 

We still plan to work out together on each school day and work out on our own when there is no school. 

As to progress, I can definitely feel an incredible change in myself.  I know I have lost inches, although I did not measure before I started.  My clothes fit differently and I was able to get rid of one size of "fat clothes."  My clothes that I was wearing and should have bought a bigger size (but could not bring myself to do so) fit fine now.  I have only lost 2 pounds in a month, which is discouraging.  No matter how much I try to tell myself that "muscle weighs more than fat" and it will eventually come off, I'd still like to see the scale move for my efforts.  If I don't see progress in that respect within the next month, I'll likely make some changes that are a little more aggressive.

For now, I'm staying with the really good daily exercise.

I definitely sweat now whereas it was really hard for me to work up a sweat before.  I am much stronger and not nearly as short of breath.  My blood pressure is still too high.  I can feel how strong my muscles are through my fat.  My rings are looser.  My bras only have 2 boobs in them now instead of 4.  I am much more graceful and surefooted.  I sleep better.  Most importantly, I no longer wonder if I can exercise regularly for the foreseeable future.  I know that I can. 

I had an epiphany as I was journaling this morning.  I started thinking of all of the reasons why I had failed before and tried to figure out what it was that caused me to pull back and sabotage myself just when I started to see results.  As I was mulling it, I realized that it really didn't matter.  Whatever happened in the past that resulted in my failure is irrelevant.  In fact, focusing on it is likely to stall me out in and of itself.  "Analysis is paralysis."  What matters is every day that I work out, every day that I have a diet soda instead of a "real" one.   Not stopping is what matters, not why I stopped before.  No need at all to overthink it.

So that's what I'm doing.  It's working.  I'm not getting the results I expected in regard to the 2 pounds a week, but I am getting positive results, so I am trying not to question or be ungrateful.  I'm just giving every single workout on every single day everything I've got and demanding more from myself.

This coming week, I'm discreetly tucking my calories in a bit and pulling down some of the intake of refined sugars and fats.  I'm going to make the portions a little smaller and up the water intake ever so slightly.  Gotta sneak up on this.

Jan 23, 2007

I feel like saying, "Here we go again."

Except that this time, I know that it's different.  It's as though I can feel that it's different.  I have stopped counting how many incarnations this journal has been through in the past 6-7 years.  Sometimes, I've gone at it with a sense of resolution  just because it has to be done.  Other times, I felt as though a light had clicked on and I was ready and hopeful.  This one is not like those times.  I'm not saying I will be successful, but I do feel as though I have a better chance of being successful this time.

I toyed with the Jan 1st thing and tried the "upside down" diet where you eat the bulk of your calories and food in the morning, then a moderate lunch and then have a bowl of fiber cereal for dinner and other than that, no eating after 3pm or so.  I did fine with that and found it to be pretty comfortable, but I didn't really lose any weight.  As a nutritionist said who evaluated the diet critically, you can't just invert what you already are eating.  You still have to make better food choices.  I definitely agree with limiting calories and fat and definitely carbs within several hours of sleeping.

So some friends of mine who are all friends with each other started this inadvertent chain of conversation where none of us completely realized the other ones were talking to each other about the same thing.  I talked to Marcia and found out that Marcia had already talked to Andrea and Andrea said something to me and pretty soon, we had a morning exercise group formed.  Andrea's mother joined us for a few sessions.  We have done much better than we expected.  We have used "The Biggest Loser Workout DVD" (the first one; I intend to buy the second one), "Suzanne Deason's Yoga For Weight Loss" and "10 Minute Yoga."  So far, we do cardio and strength training on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and Yoga on Tuesday and Thursday for flexibility, toning and strength.  So far, the Yoga kicks my ass every bit as much as the cardio/strength workouts do. 

We have been surprised by our progress in just a little over a week.  Andrea has lost an inch and a half and I lost 3 pounds (although I gained one back over the weekend when we did not work out).  I have not yet altered my eating much and figure that is my next step, probably after I see how the third week goes.  My goal is to lose 2 pounds a week, so that I've dropped 50 pounds by July and 100 pounds by next January.  If I end up dropping 20-30 more after that, I'm OK with that too. 

We have had so much fun and I really cannot vouch enough for working out with friends. I had never done that, other than with Eric for a short period of time, and it makes all the difference in the world.  Working out with other women, even if they have very different goals and objectives for the exercise (the other two are not overweight).  When we are getting ready to drop the position or let go of the little hand weights, we look over at the other one who is struggling, but keeping on keeping on and there's no way we can do anything but push on a little further.  We have had a lot of firsts, like first time to touch the floor with flat hands, first time to hold "Proud Warrior" for the full time, first time to go into horizontal leg extensions without collapsing and even first time to get all the way through the work out.

The week before we started working out together, I did the Biggest Loser workout and it completely kicked my ass.  I was barely able to finish it and I was literally sore for 3 days to the point that I could barely move.  It was pretty bad.  Yesterday, Andrea and I did the the entire workout and said, "Is that it?"  The same one that a week and a half before had crippled me.

It is uncanny how fast your body changes after you start exercising daily.  I already feel stronger and more graceful.  Sure, I'm still a big, fat ol' thing, but I have the feeling that something important has begun and that this is really, really it.  I feel as though I went to bed as one person and woke up as another.  I look forward to each and every one of our workout sessions and I miss them on the weekend.  I have worked out while really sick with this terrible chest/head cold thinking if I could do it then, any other time would be a breeze.  Andrea has kept going despite getting some flack from her husband for the hour they lose in a day while she's over here.  Basically, we get our kids to school and then start exercising.  It usually goes for 35-45 minutes.  Even the 10 minute Yoga DVD is a composite program, so you build your workout from a 10 minute warm up, 10 minute session (burn, flexibility, strength) and then 10 minute cool down. 

It feels great to go through 5 days a week knowing that by 10:30am, I have done my exercise and felt good about it.  This is the beginning of change and I am going to trust that Andrea (Marcia joins us 1-2 times a week) is going to keep at it just like I am. 

Yesterday, I felt terrible when I woke up.  I didn't sleep enough and had no energy at all.  The sick was trying to get me again.  Eric suggested that I call Andrea and tell her I couldn't do it and just go back to bed (bless his heart), but Andrea and I are a little competitive and no way was I going to be the first one to puss out!!  To be defiant of how I was feeling, when she got there I told her I wanted to do the workout that had killed me a couple of weeks before and that was when we mastered it.  Our motto is "no excuse is good enough."  I can't imagine a year of week days of us doing this, but that's my hope.  I don't ever want to work out less than 5 days a week.  I am completely committed to making this an ongoing part of my life rather than just when I think about it or feel guilty. 

I feel I am being completely realistic about this.  Two pounds a week isn't an unhealthy loss.  Sometimes it might be more and sometimes, it might be less as my body cycles through the month.  I'm good with that.  I have a mom's body.  My opportunity to be totally fit and toned is probably passed.  I have been really overweight for about 15 years in increasing amounts.  Now I'm tipping over 250 pounds and that is the biggest I've ever been, including pregnancies.  Eric has never seen me anything but fat.  My belly is huge and gelatinous and my butt and hips are a giant, square mass that doesn't even differentiate.  It's hard to tell where my waist is because of how big my belly is.  My ankles are starting to get little folds over them that I don't like.  The time to do this was about 55 pounds ago.  I don't expect to be 120 again and I will always have stretch marks and possibly a good bit of loose skin after I tone up and lose the fat.  I don't imagine I'd ever have cosmetic surgery to  have it removed.  It will just be there. 

So far, because I have not really altered my eating, I feel absolutely no sense of deprivation or resentment.  It's just something else I do in my day, like the mail or the laundry.  The difference is that it's something I enjoy and I can really feel the difference in my chi.  My energy force is so much stronger and I am so much more "here" than on the days I don't exercise (the weekends).  I feel really grounded and connected to myself and I am definitely much more productive.  It sets the tone for the whole day.

Because we exercise between 9-10:30am, I will eat an egg or two in the early morning (6-7am) if I wake up starving, which I sometimes do.  Otherwise, I'll eat something quickly before I have to be at work at 10:45.  I still try not to eat after 6pm or so. 

I struggled with whether or not to even restart the health and fitness journal because I have done it so many times.  But hey, I share everything with you guys, so how could I not?

I will keep you posted on my progress (and I'm not even going to type "or lack thereof" because I know it's going to work this time).