Living in the How

After responding to a friend's blog with some incessant babbling, I decided to carry it out into my own blog.

These last several weeks have been packed full of painting, raking leaves, shoveling gravel, pulling weeds, cleaning a pool, and general running around associated with buying a foreclosed home. Each night I crawl into bed - muscles I never knew existed crying out for mercy. Then each morning I crawl out of bed in much the same state.

I find it odd that I never felt that way after my daily gym trips during the last 5 months - maybe it was time for a change of routine.

My focus has still been on exercising restraint, and I have been doing so-so. I am slipping in the eating department again. Still no fast food, soda, juice, or junk food. However, I have not been keeping to my eating schedule (put in place to try to keep me from unneeded snacking).

With the prospect of my husband finally coming home in two weeks, I started this week all geared up to make the next couple weeks really count. Join me in seeing how I have done so far!

Monday: Fail.
Tuesday: Fail.
Wednesday: Fail.

Why is this so hard? I think it is because I have lost my motivation due to lack of results. And by lack of results I mean the scale hasn't moved one iota.

When the hands of self-pity try to grab control of my mind, I have to remind myself HOW.

• HOW - do I feel?

I feel great! Energy, enthusiasm, drive to get projects finished...

• HOW - do my clothes fit?

Let's just say I am ready to dress up for Halloween as the Saggy Baggy Elephant when I put on my jeans!!

• HOW - do I look?

At the risk of sounded conceited, I look great! I am happy with what I see in the mirror. Ecstatic? Not yet. Ready to strut my stuff on the beach? Hardly. But I am happy - and I should be because I had an Awesome Artist design me :)

• HOW - do I feel?

You read it right, and yes I meant to type it twice. I don't mean it twice in the same way though - I want you to take this one in a more literal sense. Literally, I can feel muscle definition now! When I flex my arms, the wind sails under my arms are solid. You can almost knock on my legs like a door they are that hard (well, I said almost). If you take the time to pull back the final traces of pregnancy (aka the belly fat) you can even FEEL my abs!!

I read in a gossip magazine a tip while working out: feel the muscle you are working out with your hands. I tried it while doing the leg press and was impressed at the muscle I felt. It helped me mentally focus on what I was doing more, and felt like I got a more controlled work-out.


So that's my how and I am sticking to it. How are you living in the how?

The Muffin Top Dilemma

Has it really been since March 1st that I updated my blog? My one committed follower gently prodded to me to write another post, so here I am. For her, and for anyone else who is silently stalking my one-way gabfest.

My lack of commitment to this blog by no means reflects my commitment to my lifestyle change. I am still holding strong, even though the results are few and far between. I have reached a plateau and no matter where I search, I cannot find the push I need to get up and go for it again. I am still diligent in my trips to the gym, but I seem to be slipping in the eating department. No where near the gluttony of my past, but I am just tired of being good all the time.

The single ray of sunshine in an otherwise dark journey: I met my 6 month goal (of going down two pant sizes) in only 3.5 months!

However, there is a "however" lurking around in the next paragraph.

However, the two-size-smaller jeans only lasted a day. I must have been having a fabulous afternoon when I tried on the jeans, because the next day they were a no-go. Physically I could get in and out of them easily enough, it was the muffin top hanging over the jeans that I had a problem with.

My name is Rebekah and I am a People Watcher. I constantly watch other people and silently speculate why the do what they do, why they say the things the say, and why in the world they wear the things they wear. During my People Watching I have often used the phrase "Just because you can get it on, doesn't mean you should be wearing it."

Since I try to not live the life of a hypocrite, I don't want to wear jeans that draw attention to my lovely love handles. This is why I exchanged the jeans for the next size up. (I did wait about three days so I could bask in the glory of owning jeans that size again though!)

So here I am, 115 days into my odyssey and only slightly disheartened. After all, I am down a solid pant size and I still have 2 and 1/2 months to reach my goal! I am learning that God does care about my needs, and as petty as I feel when I tell Him I want to loose another jean size, I know He cares. As I was telling a friend the other day, it's time I start treating the temple of God with some respect - and this is a task I can only do successfully with His help.

Staying Positive About Positive Results

So, I did my highly anticipated weigh-in this morning! And....spent the entire day moping around because I was only down 2.5 pounds in the last 3 weeks. All day all I could think about was the birthday and baby shower cake I ate this weekend, the soda I had last Thursday, the bread I ate a couple times last week, and all my other little "splurges" I'd had.

If only I had exercised more restraint, maybe the scale would have been more considerate to me this morning.

After that got me absolutely nowhere, I manually shifted my focus into the progress gear. Instead of making my slow journey the star of the day, why not hone in on the positive? Instead of drilling in on the fact that the scale is moving at an almost unmeasurable speed, I should make my focal point be the positive:

* As an average, I have lost almost 1 pound a week for the last 9 weeks! That sounds better...not any other way I had put it throughout the day.

* My belt now automatically goes to three holes tighter from when I started.

* It is time for some smaller jeans and tighter work-out pants - down one size!

* I have worked out consistently for the last 60 days, missing Sundays and an occasional day here and there due to circumstances out of my control (aka not just being lazy).

* I have had 3 people comment on my success to date (probably the best encouragement of all).

Even though I was hoping to just watch the pounds fly off after I had built my muscles up a bit, I am going to be encouraged by the fact that I am not getting negative results. I am going to stay positive about my positive results!

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The Weeks My Weight Stood Still

Too eager to wait until Wednesday, I decided to weigh myself on Monday before I met with my lifetime fitness coach at the gym. Ughh - bad choice! Down only half a pound in 12 days?? Not satisfied with that result, I weighed myself again today with a happier outcome of another half pound down. Making my total loss for the month 7 pounds.

A little discouraged after my weigh-in Monday morning, I took my one half pound less body to the gym to meet with my coach. She tore into me saying that checking the scales is not the way to go unless I want to fight off discouragement every single time. It is better to use results as my scale, not the actual thing that uses numbers to say "still too fat."

My coach, Kay, was very helpful and talked to me about fat vs. muscle. She said the muscles in my body are actually being used now and to expect them to get bigger! And what happens when things get bigger? They tend to weigh more. With all my exercising, I am replacing my fat weight with muscle weight (which is a good thing). She also told me that within 4-6 weeks my muscles will stop expanding at such a quick rate and that I will be able to start to see the numbers go down on the scale.

My new goal is to not once step on that scale until March 1st, and this is a goal I am going to obtain. I have also set mini-goals to keep me on track for my ultimate goal (size 8 for those of you who simply skimmed my last post).

Mini Goal # 1 - Continue my elliptical and weight routine 6 days a week. I set this goal high, especially since I have been so busy getting everything together to buy our house. However, if I set it any lower I would use that as an excuse not to go in!

Mini-Goal #2 - Write out a schedule of when to eat, and not take one single nibble in between. My times are 8am, 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, and 6pm. It is easier for me not to eat after dinner, so that's why I have two snacks in the afternoon.

Mini Goal #3 - Adding a couple classes to my weekly routine. Those classes really push me to keep up the entire hour, instead of my breaks I tend to take while working out alone (you know, pausing to take an extra sip of water or chat it up with fellow fatty next to me). If I was going to take a class in the afternoon, I would only do about 30 minutes of my morning routine.

Even though Kay was very helpful, I wanted to do a little research on my own to make sure I was eating properly to go with my new work out regiment. I found a couple cool websites devoted to the 'C' word: calories. Am I really the person who counts every calorie she puts in her mouth? Fat chance! But I went ahead and wrote down a normal day's menu and added up those calories to see if I need to starve myself, and was quiet pleased with what I discovered.

Check out http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

There is a pretty neat tool to figure out how many calories you need to maintain the weight you entered (and common, it's a computer, don't fudge the weight). It also gives a recommendation for weight loss and extreme weight loss. My normal day's tally landed me right smack in the middle of the "weight loss" and "extreme weight loss." What a motivator for me! By simply cutting out my juice, candy, most bread, and desserts I have moved into a diet to loose weight, and I never let myself go hungry.

*If you want to go with less then they recommend for an extreme weight loss, please note that everywhere I have read says a woman needs at least 1200 calories a day - don't go too extreme!

Yeah, I cut out a lot of the good stuff - but not all of it. Instead I am making substitutions. Gone with the after-dinner Oreo (times 4) at 50 calories for one, I enjoy a snack pack with only 100 calories and a cold glass of non fat milk. No more butter popcorn, sugary cereal, and gummy candies - instead I get 100% satisfied with kettle corn popcorn, Honey Nut cheerios, and granola bars.

Well, I am going to take my goals and get out of here!

Exercise Restraint

So my love of typing and writing has finally collided with the popular internet pastime: blogging. My topic of the blog will generally focus on my ups and downs with my goal to get back down to a size eight, but of course my day-to-day life will probably seep into my rantings from time to time.

I am a 24 year old mother to my amazing daughter, Adalynn. When Adalynn was still a twinkle in our eyes, my husband and I were living in newlywed bliss....and eating to our hearts contents. He likes to cook and eat, and I was living with him, so what was I to do but eat what he cooked and eat what he ate?

When we happily found out we were expecting, I was already up a few pounds from when we got married. A few? I would say a good 15lbs, to be honest. Not one single sit up was to be found in my routine, and the attempt at exercise was taking my dog for a walk down the road. Once. Fifteen may sound like a whale to some, and 15 might sound like Thanksgiving dinner to others - but to give you a clear picture, the time frame was a mere 8 months.

My husband deployed, I got more and more pregnant. During my pregnancy I was very careful to watch what I ate - and all the fruit and smoothies paid off when I gained a normal weight gain of 32lbs.

But...let's not forget to add that 32lbs to my original weight gain of 15lbs. I cannot even type the sum to that equation so I will let you do the honors yourself.

The good news to this story? I dropped the baby weight by the time my husband came home from Iraq six months after baby Adalynn entered this world! Breastfeeding is a magic diet: I could eat what I want, when I want, not exercise and still drop the weight faster then I gained it.

So why the need to get fit, loose a couple pant sizes, and write this blog? Long story short, 16 months after his deployment I have gained it back. Remember, he likes to cook and eat and I...well, you remember. And, despite what some women think, I couldn't nurse my daughter forever! No, really, I am trying to make a point here. A baby over one starts to look funny, but a five year old? Common ladies.

My game plan is simple: exercise restraint. Or in my case, exercise AND restraint.

I am all set with a spiffy new gym membership to the Antelope Vally YMCA - a beautiful, new facility set up for people who want to get the most out of their work out while doing the least. It has a computer to tell me what weight machine to do next, how long, how fast, and how much weight! All I have to do it simply pull the bars. And let me just say, spending 30-45 minutes on the elliptical is a breeze when I can catch up on my favorite HGTV program or watch an awesome infomercial on the Cricut (which I already own) or on the YuDo (which I really really want).

The computer system logs in every work out I do and does a great job motivating me to persevere. Plus I can earn points for free t-shirts! Who doesn't LOVE a free t-shirt?? The free childcare for Addy is a super duper bonus as well. It gives Addy a chance to play with other kids...even though every time I look in on her she is in the ball pit saying "wheeee! wheee!" all by herself. Who needs friends when you have a ball pit?

I am exactly four weeks and one day into this exercising restraint business and I am very pleased with my results! I only weigh myself every other Wednesday so I don't get caught up in the numbers, but rather the results. As of the 20th I had lost 6 pounds! The good news is that through blood, sweat, tears, and depriving myself of my arch nemesis (the swedish fish) I know that those six pounds are really gone, not just lurking around to pop back up on me.

Other results include: higher amounts of energy, 1 and 1/2 belt holes down, loose jeans, a glowing complexion (yes...no?), and not running out of breath as frequently. I also am finding that I can push myself more and more each day at the gym.

The day to day includes working out for about an hour every day. Elliptical for 30 min and 30 min of weights and machines. I have also cut out anything to drink beside water and NON FAT milk. Not one drop of juice or soda has touched these lips in 31 days. I have also been avoiding sweets and breads and replacing some of my lunches with Slim Fast chocolate shakes or a homemade smoothie. My snacks are usually one of those pre-packaged 100 calorie treats or fruit, and dinners are whatever my mom fixes but proportioned so I don't over eat and ruin the whole day.

So far I have had minimal treats. For example, before my brother went back to college, I worked extra hard all week so I could treat myself to a dinner at Olive Garden. What has happened in the past is I would deprive myself for so long then say "oh I deserve a treat" too many times. This way, I work up to a specific treat and set limits before I go. I only ate half my soup, one breadstick, and half the pasta on my plate. I went away feeling treated, but not stuffed.

I am eagerly anticipating my next weigh-in on Wednesday and will keep you posted. What is extra awesome, is this week I found an accountability partner who is going to do the weigh-ins every other Wednesday with me!

This IS going to work...it is not a simple New Year's Resolution, it's the beginning of a skinnier and healthier me!