Day 4

Well, if nothing else it’s just good to have it over with! I did day 4 at 10am this morning :-) Now I can get on and enjoy my day. I can’t say ‘weekend’ because I will have day 5 to do tomorrow!

For the most part I’m feeling good, legs still ache like crazy, still can’t do the jumpin jacks, but I can tell I am getting better at cardio – just a tad! It’s only day 4 and I can feel an improvement, so I can only imagine how good I’ll feel at day 14.

I must get better at the food intake though. I did eat Tilapia this week and had a few salads, but I can do even better and cut out some of the junk food I’m still nibbling on. Still trying to drink more water too – it’s a process for sure!

Day 3

I did day 3 of the Shred yesterday, I just didn’t get around to posting an entry. It’s Saturday morning now (8.30am) and there’ll be no rest from a work out. Jillian says you do 30 days straight!

Yesterday was ok, it’s the cardio still that gets me, I just can’t keep up and really modify it, to the point that I’m just marching in place at some places!  But at least I’m still moving!

Still aching too, but not as bad as the first day. I will stick with level 1 until next Wednesday, that will be my first week over, after that I think I will try out level 2 just to change it up a bit. That’s the only down side, you do the same routing every day, you know what’s coming . . . and it can get a little boring.

I haven’t been cutting back on the calories as much as I wanted, had a piece of pizza last night and some wine! But I keep trying. I’ll weigh in on Monday and see if there’s any change there.

Day 2

I just finished day two of the workout.... I'm so out of breath I can hardly type!!! Phew, this is gonna be HARD. What I find the worse is the cardio, I get out of breath really easy (even just walking up the stairs), it could be because of my asthma and sinus issues, or it could be just that I am totally out of shape. I'm hoping I get better with time. But the cardio - I really had to modify it today, those jumping jacks kill me!

The other thing I find hard is transitioning from the floor for the ab work to standing up again with the weights, if I move too fast I can feel rather dizzy! I'm just taking that part slow so I'm usually a couple of reps behind Jillian and her girls. Still, I'm doing it, that's what counts and I'm feeling it. I was really aching this morning, but proud of myself for putting the dvd on again.

I'm off to shower now ;-)

It starts today. . . .

As you can tell from my sporadic posts, I kinda fell off the wagon when it comes to good eating and exercising. I let myself indulge over the whole summer, ate whatever I wanted, drank when I wanted (and I’m not talking water!), and didn’t get out walking or do any other form of exercise. As a result of all that, I managed to gain the 10lb I lost and as of today I weigh in at 127.8lb!!!

THAT is way too much for me to feel comfortable. SO, today I am starting this -

I’m motivated by the fact that many other girls are doing this too. Jen at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam has started it. She’s asked anyone that wants to, to join in with her, keep us updated on her progress at her blog AND her Facebook page.

So, today, bad eating stops (again) and exercise STARTS!  I hope to post on here EVERY DAY for the next 30 days to confirm that I have done the 20 minute routine that Jillian puts you through each day. I will miss only two days in the next 30 because we have a weekend away planned with our neighbors. I know I won’t work out on that Saturday and Sunday. I will workout on the Friday before we leave, and actually depending on the time we come home on Sunday I may actually be able to pop the dvd in later that day – we’ll see.

Any other day  . . . .  THERE WILL BE NO EXCUSES!!!!!

I did the workout today, and it is HARD!  But I felt good afterwards. The test will come tomorrow when I know I will be sore and I have to do it all over again. Today I’m cutting out the bad eating habits too. I don’t want to totally deprive myself of the things I like, but I must not eat them so often. I WILL have a glass of wine when I want and I WILL have Margaritas on the front porch with the neighbors at the weekend. I will NOT deprive myself but I will NOT overindulge either.  I took some ‘before’ pictures this morning, I may (or may not) share them here at the end of the 30 day challenge.  I took some measurements too, which I will post here :

Bust – 36”

Waist – 31”

Hips – 37”

under bust – 31”

Top of thigh – 20 3/4

Top of arm – 11’

I know to some of you I am not over weight. Everything is relative, just because I don’t ‘look’ overweight’ doesn’t mean I don’t feel overweight. When you’re used to being about 117-120lb then an extra 10lb (sitting mostly around your middle) makes a big difference. I feel sluggish, no energy and my pants are all tight! And one thing I can definitely vouch for – I am NOT fit. I get out of breath just walking up the stairs, I’m so out of shape. 

These posts are mainly for my own motivation, but if you’re here reading it, I appreciate the time you took to do that, and I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment if you would like to, it would surely help keep me motivated if I thought you were out there checking up on me;-)

I fell off. . . .

I'm talking about my 'healthy eating plan'... I fell off the wagon so to speak :-( It was probably obvious by the lack of posts in here. Since I last posted I haven't eaten good at all, I got totally off track once summer really kicked in, got lazy I guess . . . the walking stopped because it got too hot outside, that and the fact I didn't have to get up early every morning to take Kristen to school.

I hate to say this but I have gained ALL of the weight I lost in just these past 3 months. As of today I am back to 125lb. I was 126lb last summer and after Christmas I decided I wanted to lose about 10lb. I know 125 isn't big, but I've said it before and I'll say it again, none of my pants fit at this weight and my belly just feels bloated all of the time. It's not surprising at all, I've been eating what I call 'all the wrong things' - white pasta for starters, chips, chips and more chips, glasses of wine every night, peanuts, more pasta, white 'instant' potatoes.... basically everything I used to eat that got me 10lb overweight the last time! Why do we do it?!!!

Anyway, I'm blogging here because I'm ready to get back on track and blogging about it always keeps me motivated. When I look back at these posts and see what yummy food I was eating and still losing weight, it helps me focus on what I need to do to lose a little weight again, and start exercising too.

School starts back on Monday, so I will hopefully start walking every morning and eating less during the day. Dinner time will be slightly different than before, I am on a budget with grocery shopping (I have been blogging about it at my daily diary) so I am trying to use things we already have in storage (unfortunately a lot of that is pasta and potatoes!). I will just have to make a concerted effort to have a smaller portion and fill up on salad or veggies with each meal.

My goal is to get back to 117lbs which was where I was at in May. We have the holidays fast approaching and I don't want to gain another 10lb by January!!!

So, that's where I'm at today. . . . . ready to start again on Monday!

Join me for breakfast....

Hi there, another quick update from me. I wanted to share with you this morning what I had for breakfast. . . . and for only 3 WW points! Care to join me?

Being on a diet is not all about eating 'rabbit food'! In fact I don't even like to call it a diet, the way I'm eating is a life style, not just something I want to do for a few months to shed a few pounds. I must be honest and tell you I never ate a breakfast for YEARS. Of course I know how important that first meal of the day is, I've read about it so many times. But my stomach was just never in the mood for food as soon as I woke up. Actually it still isn't ready for food at 6am in the morning, but I've come to realize that I don't have to eat my breakfast the minute I fall out of bed. I get up at 6am, and usually just have a cup of coffee while Kristen is eating her breakfast and getting ready for school. When I come home about 8am is when I will make myself something to eat. Lately it has been a breakfast like this one.

Yes, this is only 3 weight watcher points (that's not including the creamer in my coffee!). Turkey bacon (1pt for 2 slices, I had 3 here but I probably only need the two - 1.5 pts), 1/2 cup of baked beans - 1pt (these are Heinz baked beans that I buy in the 'English' section of my grocery store, they are the kind I used to eat back home, and they are fat free. I've checked out the Pork and Beans we buy here, they are 2pts per 1/2 cup). 1 slice of toast - 1/2pt (I'm using Nature's Own Light bread, only 1 pt per 2 slices) :-) Mushrooms and tomato are o pts.

I'm happy to say I didn't gain any pounds back over the weekend like I usually do. (and I did have some wine and chips AND an Appletini on Friday night) ;-) started off this morning at 119.6! I did my walk this morning and have already done over 6000 steps today. This week I need to work on drinking more water.

Time for an update . . .

Well I'm obviously not getting on here on a weekly basis despite still wanting to, it's just hard to get motivated some days. But I'm here today and am happy to share with you a little update of how well I'm doing on my healthy eating plan (and losing a few pounds).

When I started this blog I weighed 126lb and I know that isn't heavy at all. Many of you have asked (or mentioned) that I don't look overweight and I don't need to lose any weight, to which I would reply "I know, you are totally right" ;-) BUT, it all boils down to the fact that I WANT to lose weight. At 126lb my jeans and capris I wore last year were uncomfortable tight and I know the weight that I lose will come straight off my belly and no where else, so that is why I chose to lose a few pounds. Of course the main part is I want to eat healthy. I really do enjoy fresh fruit, salads and veg more than fried foods. I've been trying to get back to counting Weight Watcher points and walking more each day. It's working ..... as of this morning I weight 120lb :-) Last week I was actually 119.8 - the weekends are still my downfall and although I was happy to see 119.8 on Friday morning, I was not happy to see 122.8 on Monday morning! It's my goal this week to try and eat good over the weekend too so I don't gain 2 or 3 pound again. It's not like I over eat, but I just don't watch my points and I have a few glasses of wine too.

I've started planning out some daily meal plans for myself. Rather than try to follow examples of meal plans in the Weight Watcher magazines (which always have things I wouldn't bother cooking) I've written out 7 days of 'daily eating', keeping my points below 19 as best I can and making simple meals where I don't usually have to even follow a recipe. Here's a sample of one of my days:

You can click on the menu to make it bigger if it's too small for you to read. It's much easier seeing in advance what you will eat each day rather than trying to think of things for mealtimes every few hours! Some days my snack is a smoothie made with fresh or frozen berries and a fat free yogurt, and my night time snack is often a 1pt bag of popcorn .

My sister recently sent me her WW magazine from England (which I must say is much better than the one we get here in the US). It has so many more recipes and they have a lot more ww ready meals and chips and cookies and even wine, that I wish I could get my hands on! I made a 0pt vegetable curry from the magazine, so this dish above was a total of 3pts (for the 1/2 cup of brown rice). A few have asked for the recipe so I will try to share that in the next day or so, giving you my US version.

and here's on e of my simple low point lunches. A 0 pt salad! I make it 0 points by just having lettuce, tomoatoes, cucumber and a little bell pepper and a few sprays of 'salad spritzer' instead of light ranch dressing. Then I pair it with a cup of Progresso soup that is just 1 point. If I'm still hungry (which often I'm not) I will have a fat free greek yogurt for another 1 point.

I am wearing my pedometer every day now too and trying to get in 10,000 steps per day. I go walking for half an hour most mornings with my neighbor Cheryl. If I do that then I usually can manage 10,000 steps or more. If I don't do my morning walk I average only about 6 or 7k.

So, how are you doing with your eating habits? Are they healthy, could you do better... do you want to do better? I'd love to hear from you :-)