Week 13

It's been a few weeks since my last post but life has been crazy the last few weeks. I was doing really good (and currently am), up until Libby was put in the hospital overnight at the start of week 11 and that week was all about her and getting her better. I hadn't worked out Mon.-Fri. that week and decided by Sat. that she was doing much better and I really needed to exercise, so last minute I scheduled an indoor cycling class. I was actually down to 202 that week! Amazing what stress and tiny hospital food portions gets you! Unfortunately coming back home to eat what portion sizes are the my normal, I'm back up to 205. Which I'm happy about the 5 pound weight loss (I started out at 210) but annoyed that that's all I've managed to lose so far. That is, until I saw this pic!

Really puts it into perspective! Doesn't it?

Week 12 I did 3 days of Jillian Michaels "No more trouble zones", which is really kicking my butt! and I'm loving the results I'm seeing with it! (my husband does too!) ;) My legs are starting to look amazing! and I can see the rest of my body changing. There may not be much weight loss but my body is certainly starting to look better! and of course week 12 I also went to my Indoor cycling class.

For the record: My husband is absolutely wonderful and loves me & my body no matter my size! He's truly amazing and I'm so lucky to have him! I was having a conversation with him a few weeks ago. He was telling me, how proud he is of me for being so determined to exercise no matter what the weather. I replied, "I know you love me no matter what my size or weight, which makes me love you more, but I need to do this for me!" He responded with "ditto!" He's been hitting the gym at work 2-3 day a week. If I let the weather stop me, I'd never get out and exercise. I can use excuses all day. It's too cold! It's too hot! It's raining! etc., etc. No more excuses!

I decided since I love the results of the workout video, I'm going to do that 3 days a week and jog or walk 2 days and keep doing the indoor cycling 1 day a week, that way I have 3 days of strength  training and 3 of cardio. I plan on doing jogging only but for now will just walk. I had an appointment to see a Dr. about my asthma to see what else I can take/use to prevent the exercise induced asthma but it happened to be one of the days Libby was in the hospital and I have yet to reschedule. Yep, no excuse for it, I just haven't.

So far this week I've worked out eachday (I will get to it today, when Libby goes down for a nap). :) The last few weeks I've been bad about veggie intake but was still eating lots of fruit. I'm still eating/making lots of fruit salads and today for lunch I was good (with the exception of a brownie) :) and made a green salad.. I need to get back on track with veggie intake I'm still working on dairy. One of these day I'll have it down. I have faith in myself! I obviously have days/weeks where I do better then the others but I'm out there trying and that's what matter's most! anytime I fail, I know I can just pick up where I left off. I can't let my set backs keep me from doing what I know needs to be done and what I know I can do!

week 9

I wasn't able to jog everyday last week, due to asthma, I did go walking two days instead and I just forced myself to jog the third day. I did go "jogging" yesterday and walked five, jogged five, and repeat, for a total of 35 minutes. I'm hoping to increase the jog time each week. 2-3 weeks (or so) ago I managed to go 10 minutes straight before turning to walking but shortly after my asthma kicked in more forcibly and I could barely go 5 minutes before needing to stop and walk. I really need to make an appointmentt with my Dr. to see what I can do to help with my asthma!

I've decided I need to work out more than 3 days per week and went for a walk tonight, Brady joined me on his bike. I like that the boys are wanting to get out and exercise in addition to riding their bikes to school each day! I'd like to continue jogging, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and walk on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm thinking of doing indoor cycling classes (or spinning, whichever you'd like to call it) bright and early Saturday mornings. I discovered a place in Salem that is strictly for indoor cycling and would like to take advantage of their one free class to see if it's something I'd like to continue doing! anyone want to join me???:)

I was recently looking at the labels of some of my fat free dressings and noticed a couple of them have high fructose corn syrup. We've been trying to do away with any products that have that in it. I really should have checked the ingredients before purchasing but didn't even think of it. We've already swapped out some products that do have it for others that do not. Once those are used up I won't be buying them again! I hate to throw them out, as I hate to waste money! My husband has been trying to get me on the "NO HFCS" bandwagon for awhile, I'd oblige him by not buying certain items and after reading about it for myself, I'm all for it! We do most of our grocery shopping at Trader Joe's so most of our food is natural or organic or at the very least, less processed and better ingredients! From a recent article on "Yahoo", sounds like we have more "ingredients", if you can call them that, to cut out of our diets.

I took my little fruit salad joke seriously and started making fruit salads to eat with a meal each day. I'm still eating veggie salads  most days but I'm thinking I need to find more ways to be creative with my veggies, like a veggie stir fry or ???, if anyone has any tips, I'd be happy to hear them!? Now that I'm getting better about my fruit and veggie intake, I need work on dairy. occasionally I've tossed yogurt on my fruit salad but I really need to get more dairy/calcium in each day. I often think of "Bob" from "What about Bob?", by taking all these "baby steps" to reach my goals! ....That's a great movie! anywho.........

Weight loss to date, I managed to get down to 205, BUT, it managed to find it's way back (must've been the chocolate cake I made for V-Day!?) ;) O'well, I just keep reminding myself about that article I read about postpartum mom's and how it'll take me awhile to see results! and hopefully in a few months (preferable weeks) I'll have some weight loss to report!

Update: I called "Joy Ride" (the indoor cycling place) today and signed up for their free introductory class tomorrow. If I like it, I'll be doing it most Saturdays!

week 7

I read an article several years ago, when I was 18 and started jogging, the first time, that most people who start an exercise routine, will not make it up to, or past 6 weeks. Well today is the start of week 7 for me! I've also heard it takes 6 weeks to make a habit. Regardless of whether or not there's any truth to those two statements, I'm still proud of myself for getting out there and exercising. I've even lost the 2 pounds I'd gained when I first started exercising, I'm hoping the weight loss trend continues.

I've been eating a lot of salad lately, with fat free dressing. I gotta say fat free dressing isn't bad tasting! and it has far fewer calories than regular or light dressing. With all the salad intake, I'm getting my daily veggie servings in, still working on the fruit though. I prefer veggies over fruit and really like salad so it makes it easy to eat. ....maybe I should start making fruit salads. ;) occasionally I'll make all fruit smoothies but not often enough. I've been eating smaller portions of other foods too, I'm getting the hang of this "dieting" thing .....again!

My asthma has been acting up the last 3 times I've gone jogging so I haven't been able to jog as long as I'd like but I'll take the time my body allows itself to jog. I'm walking the rest of the way, so I'm still going (roughly) 2 1/4 miles. I think I'll try taking an anti-histamine to see if that helps, my nose has been running those last few times so I know my allergies are acting up and contributing to the asthma.

I've been kicking myself lately for ever stopping jogging. I worked so hard to lose weight, and eat right all those years ago and I just quit doing all of it. If only I knew then what I know now!? I loved going out a jogging too, I felt great while doing it and loved the time I had to myself and to think. It was always such a sense of accomplishment each time I went jogging or looked in the mirror, put on a smaller pant size and stepped on the scale to see what all my hard work was doing for me and had gotten me. For some reason, it's so much harder the 2nd time around! Or maybe it just seemed easier then because I was younger?

I've been annoyed by my lack of weight loss as well, but after reading an article recently that said it can take 6-12 months for postpartum women to lose the baby weight, I feel a little better about not losing anything yet. But at the same time, I just really want to start seeing that number on the scale getting smaller! OK, whine fest over, back to being proud of my recent accomplishments! :)

getting better

I made it about 3/4 of a mile before I had to switch to the walk/jog method, took me 10 minutes to get the 3/4 of a mile, but hey I'll take it! Plus I've never been a very fast jogger! I was able to jog a total of 19 minutes and walked just under 11. getting better each week!

Still doing somewhat, ok, on the daily fruit and veggie intake, some days are better than others. I still need to work on portion sizes. I don't know why it's so much harder now, then when I was younger!? And still no weight loss but o'well, feels good just getting out there and exercising!

I'm getting there!

I managed to jog for a total of 18 minutes tonight (walked 13 mins), not all at once but I did manage to start off running for 7 minutes before switching to the walk/jog method. I switched up my route to the 2 and 1/4 mile route, not sure if my total time is good or not?? but hey, I'm out there doing something!

I keep pushing myself and feel so good about myself, and I do better each time I get out there, (which I'm sure helps with that good feeling), increasing my jog time and decreasing my walk time. I'm on week 4 of exercising and so far I've only missed one day of exercise due to a cold which had me crawling into bed early one night but I've managed to stay on track otherwise. I get out 3x a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Doing pretty well on getting my daily fruits and veggies in, it's easier to get my veggies in than my fruit since I prefer veggies over fruit but I'm trying. portions sizes could still use some tweaking though! Still no weight loss, a couple pounds gained though, I'm really hoping that's muscle gain!? ;) but nonetheless, it feels good just getting out and exercising!

Woohoo!

I actually jogged more than I walked tonight! of course not all at once and only 1 whole minute longer but hey, it's a start!

I kept an eye on my stop watch tonight and added up all the total minutes I jogged, minus the total exercise time. so I jogged for a total of 14 minutes tonight and walked 13. The route I'm currently taking is just shy of 2 miles, so I think I'm going to change it to another route I've done in the past which is about 2 1/4 miles. Instead of a mileage goal this time around, I've decided to do a time goal. I'd like to run for a total of 45 minutes but I'll start off with 30 and continue to work my way up to 45.

No weight loss yet, not that I really expected to, since I'm only going on week 3 of exercising, but I'm hoping once I'm able to continually run it'll start to melt off. I can't wait to start seeing results!