Guess what I joined this morning?! You guessed it from the title, I joined the 10 lb club! I am beyond thrilled because I have kicked the 250's good bye! I never want to see that on the scale ever again. I am really enjoying seeing the numbers go down and have a few more before the weight starts to slow down.
Yesterday, I was at the gym, listening to my I-pod singing along to all my awesome music and it really encouraged me to continue to burn off those calories and go in to cardio over drive! This week my team is doing a cardio challenge and I am working as hard as I can to keep the pounds moving!
Do not forget, Saturday is National Dance Day, so get out there and dance the pounds off, I know I will!!
Some current stats that I want to share with everyone.
I am beginning to really love exercise. Mind you it has been about 15 weeks since I began but it is an acquired taste. Some people love it, others do it because it is healthy and others find every excuse in the book NOT to exercise. My friends fall into all of these categories and provide a different insight into the world of exercise.
As I mentioned, I love exercise. It is a major step up from where I was last year or even the beginning of this year. In deciding to lose weight and exercise, I decided that exercise needed to be my main priority before I began worrying about what I ate. It is harder for me to watch what I eat and then incorporate exercise. Why? Easy, the numbers on the scale tends to go up for the first 12 weeks of exercise because of building muscle.
Yesterday I decided to take the plunge and buy a year membership at the gym. The nice thing is I was able to get another 2 months free because of a special they were running. I have gone both yesterday and today and spent a couple of hours both days there. There are so many benefits to the gym; the numerous workout machines, weights and classes. Today as I worked out on the elliptical, I observed all the people lifting weights to see what kinds of tips I can take away from their workouts. It was very eye opening and many things I saw, I will use when I work out.
The fun part is posting on loseit.com every time I work out and what machines I use. Today, I found the perfect comment from a guy named Joe. He came to the conclusion that "you're carrying out a vendetta on exercise machines everywhere." Whether that is true or not, is my secret but it is safe to say that is what I am doing and loving every minute of it.
I guess the main idea I want to get across, is find something you enjoying doing for exercise. Each person has their own strengths and weaknesses along with something they are good at. The options are endless when it comes to exercise/playing sports, you just need to try and find your outlet and run with it. I used to play softball among other sports and while that is no longer an option for me, working out, using the elliptical is one of my favorite things to do. Try not to get discouraged if you do not find something right away, it will come, just try and it will be worth you while.
I think the title speaks for itself. You as a person are irreplaceable, once gone that is it, there are no take backs or redo's. So why not live life to the fullest in every capacity? What is holding you back from living? What relationships are you afraid of having? Are you afraid of people saying things about you or what others might think? Is that extra weight keeping you from going out?
For the longest time I did not want to live life to the fullest. There were many factors that contributed but as a result my weight rose to the highest it ever has been. I decided not to go outside of the home for months at a time only to go to High School and come home. I have worked through many of those contributing factors and am pretty happy where I am now. So what is holding me back?
My weight. Simple as that.
I haven't been on a date since last November. I have never kayaked. I can't fit into a seat to go on a simple roller coaster ride. That is pretty tough to chew out of all my 'can'ts'. I have realized though in my short journey thus far that my can'ts will be changed as long as I keep at it and will be 'cans'. Isn't it better to CHOOSE not to do something as opposed to not being able to? That is the way I think that it should be.
Weight should not define who I am and what I can do. So, I have decided to take back my weight and my life. I am working towards being the person I want to be. After all, I only have one life and one body it is my time to show the world who I am. I am irreplaceable.
I think most people would agree that they would love to get money as a tip every once in a while. It is almost like free money but you work for it. That waitress that you gave a hard time to the other night because your meal wasn't what you wanted because the cook messed up, deserved a good tip for putting up with you. My brother, likes to get tips for mowing the lawn once a week.
One thing I hate for sure is exercise. The idea of taking time out of my day to go and get sweaty for an hour or two does not appeal to me. However, every time I see a skinny girl out at the mall and I want to punch her because she has those genetics, I decide to ride it hard with exercise. I have been exercising for 14 weeks and while it is getting a little easier for me to do all the things I do (stairmaster, cardio, aerobics), my love for exercise has not changed. There are days I am able to tolerate it more than others (NOT hot days) which is great. It is the motivation that drives me to exercise and to sweat like a big. I figure if I am going to exercise, I might as well go hard or not do it at all.
Over the weekend, the picture below was on my news feed. It was of a workout tips jar. The idea is to tip yourself $1.00 for EVERY workout you do. That means, because I work out once a day, I pay myself a $1.00 every day. I really think I like that concept. In addition to my reward of ice cream, I get money. Is there anything better?
Since I have recorded my work outs on another web site, different from LoseIt!, I am taking advantage and including those in my workout tips. What is my goal you ask? I am saving my tips up until next year at this time, when I will be able to go out and buy a kayak. That really motivates me to workout. This time next year I will be posting pictures on here of me in my beautiful kayak on the Lehigh River or maybe even the Delaware River.
I think I can speak for most people and say that I love water (Unless you are a hydrophobic)! It is good for making food, swimming, washing clothes and a whole host of other awesome things. The best benefit is that you can drink it, and it is completely free.
One of the biggest benefits of drinking water is it helps promote weight loss. The one thing that bothers me is the taste aspect of it. The lack of taste is rather annoying and I know I have to force myself to drink the water. It is a better alternative than soda, sports drinks and juice. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of lemons or lines or else I would put those slices in with my water but I am unable to handle the taste, plus acid reflux gets the best of me.
But I want to take a look at some of the benefits of drinking water. There are six according to webmd.com
Drinking water helps maintain the balance of body fluids
Water can help control calories
Water helps energize muscles
Helps keep skin looking good
Helps your kidneys
Maintain normal bowel function
I have been drinking a crap load of water for about 2 days now. I spend most of my time in the bathroom it seems like. How much water am I drinking? 1 gallon!! That is a lot, imagine drinking a gallon of milk a day. I feel a lot better now that I cut all the soda, almost healthier which is what I want. Tomorrow I weigh in so it will be interesting to see what the scale says.
Some may ask, how do you figure out how much water per day you should drink? Well, it is really simple. Take your weight and divide by 2. That is how many ounces of water per day you should drink. It seems like a lot but the more weight you lose the less water you have to drink. I am hoping that I will be singing at 85 ounces of water a day. That is my goal.
I have a challenge for all of my readers. I dare you, to drink water for a week without drinking soda/pop. However you need to drink the amount that is given to you from the formula above. Take it one day at a time and you will be amazed, you may even see numbers drop on the scare. Go for it!
What a rough weekend I had with food. Ugh, drove me absolutely nuts! I weighed in on Saturday and was upset with myself because I had gained .4 lbs. Now, that may seem minor which it really is but I took it way out of control. I beat myself up because I am working so hard to try and lose 60 lbs by December for the cruise. What did I end up doing? I gave in to the little devil in my head saying "go eat from the closet, no one will know". Yet, you know who knew? I did, and felt completely guilty after the fact because I knew what I did was wrong and I cannot take any of that back. There is no way to "throw up" the calories of what was eaten during that period. I just have to accept that I was week and tomorrow is a new day and I can start over again. That is just what I did.
I decided that in order to aid in my weight loss plan, I need to be proactive about meals throughout the week. This means planning out what I intend on eating and what kinds of exercise I need to do in order to accomplish what I need to. Yesterday, what a struggle day with my willpower but I won. How do you ask? Well, I planned to have this yummy taco pie for dinner. I went out and bought all of the ingredients needed to make it and I was so excited. After I came home, I was informed that everyone was going out to the diner. (Say what?!) Realizing that I most likely gained the .4 lbs from eating at the diner, I chose to be proactive and stay at home and eat my taco pie. (It was to die for by the way) I am not going to change my meals because of what other people do or do not want to do. It is time to take care of me, and me alone.
Fast forward to today, I planned all my meals, recorded them and was ready to carry out my day. There were no problems in the morning and afternoon and I really enjoy knowing what I am going to eat and not have to question or wonder what to do for snacks or meals. On my way home with family, someone asked to get a 20 piece McDonald's Chicken Nuggets (940 calories). We stopped and got it and once I arrived home, I had leftovers of my taco pie and some tortillas. Still delicious even though they were leftovers. I contemplated reaching over and have a chicken nugget but know that the grease and fast food is not healthy or good for my diet. So, I did not eat one and ate my dinner which was delicious!
I guess the point of my post, is that I am realizing how much willpower I actually have. To be able to sit and eat dinner knowing I could grab a chicken nugget and devour it but instead turning away and saying no, was pretty easy. Every time I pass on eating something unhealthy, I feel even more powerful than before. I am going to be rocking the weight off with this willpower before you know it!
Writing this blog today, I was not sure as to what I wanted to talk/write about because there seems to be so many thoughts racing through my mind recently. I stumbled upon the video that I have below on a website that I follow religiously and after watching, things were put into some perspective for me.
So, my post today is about me being an inconvenience to others. It seems to occur more and more in my daily life that I do not fit into what other people want to do as far as going out to eat. There are people who enjoy eating out all the time and try to encourage me to be like one of those people but if I did, I could only imagine myself being 300+ lbs. That stresses me out more than anything! After eating so badly for so long, I need to get myself back in check and that is what I am doing by packing my meals and watching my food intake. This body of mine has a lot more to go through in life seeing as I am only 22 and I want to make sure my body can last through it all. That means taking care of myself and working to maintain a healthy weight and being active.
I make my meals at different times because I do not want to eat with people who are not supportive or who want to sabotage me. I refuse to cook a whole family meal because of the 'is that it?' comment. I have learned that life is not about everyone else, there needs to be time to take care of me, and if that means I count my calories, use measuring cups to measure my foods and eat at a certain time, well so what? I am comfortable with it because I am working towards a hard goal in life, being healthy.
All too often people get sidetracked and go meet up with friends and where is it? At a diner or a restaurant, where there is food and no way to track calories. Why? It is fast and easy and no one has to cook anything, you can sit and chat. What happened to dinner parties? Or inviting people over to your house and pre-making the food before guests arrive? We are so wrapped up in socializing around food that we forget there is a whole world of other things we can be doing that does not consist of us sitting on our bums, eating.
There again people stare and judge you because of your weight and because you do not care what you are putting in your mouth by going out to a restaurant. Last time I checked, skinny people go to restaurants as well, right? This world is made up of all different shapes and sizes and it is what makes us all unique. Just because a person is not doing what you want them to do, it should not be an inconvenience to you. Or at least, do not vocalize it day after day. It tends to get repetitive and annoying.
I try to find motivational and inspiring songs that pertain to me and KT Perry's song Suddenly I See, is one that is growing on me and I am enjoying. It fits right now in this stage of the weight loss battle. Finally, I have opened my eyes to see what my weight has done to me and that I need to go about changing it once and for all. It feels like I have had blinders on for so many years and it is time to take them off and take charge of my life; who I am and who I want to be.
Today, I decided to weigh myself on the scale and see if I could push my luck a bit and lose some weight. Well, wouldn't you know, I lost 1.4 lbs! I am now officially down 5 lbs. This is where the picture of the Weight Jars comes in. I took a picture and posted it above. One jar represents the weight that I need to lose and say good-bye to. The other jar represents the weight that is gone and that I never want to see come back. It was a lot of fun making these jars and I am excited to see the progress that I make within the jars and changing over the stones once a week to show how much weight I have lost. I found this idea on Pinterest the other day and just went to the Dollar Store and bought all the necessary supplies. For some people buying smaller clothes is the best incentive for them but I prefer my jars, they are easy and inexpensive to make!
I look forward to the days ahead and all that I have to offer myself. I have been able to change my mindset on different things and now is the time that I will be putting it to the test. It is going to be difficult but I am being held accountable by a number of people so the only way from here is up and I cannot wait!
Taking back my life has been the push I needed to get refocused and to find my inner healthy person. Follow me as I overcome challenges and bumps in the road to be a better person physically and emotionally.
Thanks to all who continue to support me along my journey.
