Posh: The countdown is on!!

Reflections:

WOW has been a great experience. 7 weeks ago, I decided to jump on board with this challenge. It appealed to my competitive nature and I decided to trash talk my way through it and figured that anything I did towards the challenge could only be beneficial. So, I worked out my exercise routine and stuck to the basics. That first day, I wondered if I would make it to the end...of the week, far less the end of the challenge. But I stuck with it and around week 4, I was feeling some mental frustration. Battle of the mind against the scale. I was seeing changes in my body but my scale was working against me. Week 5, I was able to make some peace and I started collecting other forms of data to measure my progress. Week 6, I tackled the nearby hill and found that I could make it up the hill and only had to pause once (not a stop, just a pause!). That was a big improvement from my first try when I thought every breath could possibly be my last... Week 7, I found a new workout tape that rolled fatburning, strength training and stretching into one routine and I love it! I was also able to do a test run of making healthy food choices. I went shopping on the weekend and stocked up on salad items and fruit. All week I snacked on fruit and 2 or 3 evenings, I got myself up to make a salad. It was a new and familiar feeling of eating all those fruits and veggies... new 'cause I hadn't felt it in a while and familiar because I've felt it before...Had that mentally clear feeling of I'm eating healthy stuff... Even made some choices of fruit over my favorite cheeseballs and cheese curls...Now I'm entering week 8 and the funny thing is, I feel like I just found my groove and I'm ready to go!!!

Making it to this point of the challenge was not easy. But having the support of friends and family made it much easier to do. I must give a shout out to my skinny sister, who exercised with me almost every day. Many times encouraging me to exercise when I didn't want to. My son also got up a few times to exercise with me and provided encouraging comments through out the challenge... Ginger and Sporty... Your enthusiasm, determination and grit were an inspiration to me. Early up in the challenge there were somedays I wanted to quit but you guys kept going and I determined to hang in there.... Mimi...where are you??? You aren't still doing the "lulling" strategy, are you?? Lol... I must say, I'm down for trashy novel reading in any upcoming challenges! Jill...saw you commented recently on the blog...nice to know you're still around! It feels really good to have this online community of people to share the struggles and joys of weightloss with.

So week eight, here I come! I'm gonna knock it out of the park!!!

Sporty: Week 20/Month 5 (6/28/07)

This week was worse than last week but...I am going to try my darndest to hit all my targets during this last WOW week. Gained 2.5.

Last week:
Follow WW good health guidelines 5 of 7 days - No
Drink 1 gallon of water 5 of 7 days - No
Mind Training (read Battlefield of the Mind 5 of 7 days) -No
Stay within WW daily pts 5 of 7 days - No
Plan foods the night before - No
Grocery Shop - Yes
Journal foods daily - No
Eat "home food" Mon-Fri except for work meetings. - No
Exercise - cardio (6), strength (3), mind/body (6), burn 3000 calories - No
Attend WW meeting - Yes

Targets for Next Week:
Follow WW good health guidelines 5 of 7 days
Drink 1 gallon of water 5 of 7 days
Mind Training (read Battlefield of the Mind 5 of 7 days)
Stay within WW daily pts 5 of 7 days
Plan foods the night before
Grocery Shop
Journal foods daily
Eat "home food" Mon-Fri except for work meetings, holidays.
Exercise - cardio (6), strength (3), mind/body (6), burn 2800 calories
Attend WW meeting

Posh: Nearing the end

Can't believe the challenge has only a few weeks left!

Just discovered a new, great work out: Pilates Burn and Firm

Has a fat burning pace, but so gentle on the joints...muscles don't feel as messed up after but you can feel the after effects of a good workout .... Includes fat burning pace, strength and stretching...about 50 minutes long...

Here's my two week data:

Sporty: Week 19 (6/21/07)

Slowly getting back on track with food. Dinner continues to be struggle it's like the pizza devil is on full scale attack. Made it though! Lost .5lbs this week. Aiming for next week to be better than this week.


Last Week:

• Mind Training (start reading Battlefield of the Mind) - Yes
• Stay within WW daily pts 5 of 7 days - Yes
• Plan foods the night before - Yes
• Grocery Shop - Yes
• Journal foods daily- Yes
• Eat "home food" Mon-Fri except for work meetings - Yes
• Exercise - cardio (6), strength (3), mind/body (6), burn 2800 calories - Yes
• Drink 16c of water 5 of 7 days - No
• Follow WW good health guidelines 5 of 7 days - No
• Attend WW meeting - Yes

Targets for Week 20:

1. Follow WW good health guidelines 5 of 7 days
2. Drink 1 gallon of water 5 of 7 days
3. Mind Training (read Battlefield of the Mind 5 of 7 days)
4. Stay within WW daily pts 5 of 7 days
5. Plan foods the night before
6. Grocery Shop
7. Journal foods daily
8. Eat "home food" Mon-Fri except for work meetings.
9. Exercise - cardio (6), strength (3), mind/body (6), burn 3000 calories
10. Attend WW meeting
    

Sporty: Ironman Challenge

Check out this challenge that's going on the WW message boards:

"The Ironman Triathlon Fitness Challenge for June is in progress! All skill levels (and distances) are welcome. You do not have to aspire to be an Ironman to join this challenge. You may join at any time and adjust your goals to fit how much of the month is left. (We'll be back next month, too.)
The rules are simple, between June 1-30, you must complete:

• 2.4m of swimming (4200 yds)
• 112m of biking (any bike indoors or out will do)
• 26.2m of running/walking/elliptical

Add up your distances and post them to the daily thread using the following format:

• Earned Today (or most recently) / Earned to Date / Goal for Month

If you do a little bit at a time it is totally manageable.Will you reach the finish line by the end of the month?"

Maybe we can be ready for something like this at some point. What do you think?

Ginger: The Bottom Line [June 14-20]

LIFT: 2 strength training workouts. NOT SURE?
MOVE: 2 cardio workouts. NOT SURE?
EAT: "5 a day" + vegan. NO -0 "5 a day" + 1 vegan
DRINK: 32 oz water a day. NO -3.
STOP: Eat meals + snacks before 8pm. NO -4.
SLEEP: Get to bed by 10pm. NO -3.

Several consecutive nights of "early" sleep. Very refreshing. Early AM exercise this morning. Also good. Off to bed now!

Ginger: The Bottom Line [June 7-13]

LIFT: 2 strength training workouts. NOT SURE?
MOVE: 2 cardio workouts. NOT SURE?
EAT: "5 a day" + vegan. NO -0 "5 a day" + 2 vegan
DRINK: 32 oz water a day. NO -4.
STOP: Eat meals + snacks before 8pm. NO -1.
SLEEP: Get to bed by 10pm. NO -0.

My tracking system took a beating...the food diary ran out of pages + I didn't have a post-WOW system for tracking cardio vs. strength workouts. I have a new Google doc now and should be up to speed again by the June 21-27 update.

Sporty: Exercise as a Form of Worship?

Today I had spirit-filled workout session with the trainer. Since the door was opened for spiritual discussions, it has taken our sessions to a different place. At one point I was getting tired and she do this as if you were doing it for Jesus. I thought about that and I did the last few reps like they were the first! To borrow the title from the book I'm reading - the mind is the battlefield! Today we did a lot of things that 6 weeks ago I couldn't do without significant pain i.e. jumping jacks, steps, hopping over a step bench for 15 reps, etc. My trainer said that it was a true testimony how far I had come from my hobbling days!

Anyways, near the end of the session the trainer said something that gave me a reason to pause. She said that since our body is the temple of God taking care of it is critical and that exercise can be a form of worship. Hmmm, like praise or prayer or bible study?

Exercise as a form of worship? What do you think? (see this site)

Sporty: Deter or Help?

Do weight loss challenges ultimately deter or help? Should you have a "lifestyle" plan in place before a challenge?

Ginger: Weight-ism

So, I just had a random and vaguely unsettling experience.

As I was leaving an interview, I caught sight of my reflection in the glass door. Now I should mention that I was already a little paranoid about my top (in case you're wondering, think horizontal stripes...'nough said). Anyway, it didn't help that, as I walked away from the office, I noticed a slight waddle. You know, the "I've gained some weight but haven't quite adjusted to my new size yet" walk?

In the split second that it took to register what I was seeing, I had the fleeting thought that I looked -and I hate to admit it- slightly less "professional" than I felt (kind of like when you're chatting up a storm then find out that your hair was sticking up or you had something stuck in your teeth). A flood of guilt quickly followed: "What?!? Why would I think that? Do other people see me this way? Does this mean that I unconsciously judge other people based on their weight?

This crisis was largely theoretical and very short lived (as most of my crises are). No, I decided, I may have a body image issue or two but I'm not a weight-ist. However, the incident DID make me wonder: have any of you guys ever had interactions that were colored by weight? Does your sense of self (which may or may not = self esteem) vary at different sizes?

Sporty: Intuitive Eating

Ginger's comment to an earlier post prompted me to look into the concept of intutive eating. Interesting stuff. The WW core plan's personal hunger zone certainly reflects these same principles.

Here is an excerpt from their site. There's also a cool quiz and an intuitive eating blog.

Intuitive eating is an approach that teaches you how to create a healthy relationship with your food, mind, and body--where you ultimately become the expert of your own body. You learn how to distinguish between physical and emotional feelings, and gain a sense of body wisdom. It's also a process of making peace with food---so that you no longer have constant "food worry" thoughts. It's knowing that your health and your worth as a person does not change because you ate a so-called "bad" or "fattening" food. On the surface this may sound simplistic, but it is rather complex. For example one of the basic principles of Intuitive Eating is the ability to respond to inner body cues, “Eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full”, which may sound like a no-brainer. But when you have history of chronic dieting or rigid “healthy” rules about eating it's quite difficult because a number of things need to be in place, including the ability to trust yourself! Here is a summary of the 10 principles of Intuitive Eating, from our book, Intuitive Eating, 2nd ed, 2003.

Intuitive Eating Principles

1. Reject the Diet Mentality Throw out the diet books and magazine articles that offer you false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. Get angry at the lies that have led you to feel as if you were a failure every time a new diet stopped working and you gained back all of the weight. If you allow even one small hope to linger that a new and better diet might be lurking around the corner, it will prevent you from being free to rediscover Intuitive Eating.

2. Honor Your Hunger Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for re-building trust with yourself and food.

3. Make Peace with Food Call a truce, stop the food fight! Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you tell yourself that you can't or shouldn't have a particular food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and, often, bingeing When you finally “give-in” to your forbidden food, eating will be experienced with such intensity, it usually results in Last Supper overeating, and overwhelming guilt.

4. Challenge the Food Police .Scream a loud "NO" to thoughts in your head that declare you're "good" for eating under 1000 calories or "bad" because you ate a piece of chocolate cake. The Food Police monitor the unreasonable rules that dieting has created . The police station is housed deep in your psyche, and its loud speaker shouts negative barbs, hopeless phrases, and guilt-provoking indictments. Chasing the Food Police away is a critical step in returning to Intuitive Eating.

5. Respect Your Fullness Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry. Observe the signs that show that you're comfortably full. Pause in the middle of a meal or food and ask yourself how the food tastes, and what is your current fullness level?

6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor The Japanese have the wisdom to promote pleasure as one of their goals of healthy living In our fury to be thin and healthy, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence--the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting and conducive, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content. By providing this experience for yourself, you will find that it takes much less food to decide you've had "enough".

7. Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food Find ways to comfort , nurture, distract, and resolve your issues without using food. Anxiety, loneliness, boredom, anger are emotions we all experience throughout life. Each has its own trigger, and each has its own appeasement. Food won't fix any of these feelings. It may comfort for the short term, distract from the pain, or even numb you into a food hangover. But food won't solve the problem. If anything, eating for an emotional hunger will only make you feel worse in the long run. You'll ultimately have to deal with the source of the emotion, as well as the discomfort of overeating.

8. Respect Your Body Accept your genetic blueprint. Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not expect to realistically squeeze into a size six, it is equally as futile (and uncomfortable) to have the same expectation with body size. But mostly, respect your body, so you can feel better about who you are. It's hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and overly critical about your body shape.

9. Exercise--Feel the Difference Forget militant exercise. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body, rather than the calorie burning effect of exercise. If you focus on how you feel from working out, such as energized, it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk morning walk or hitting the snooze alarm. If when you wake up, your only goal is to lose weight, it's usually not a motivating factor in that moment of time.

10. Honor Your Health--Gentle Nutrition Make food choices that honor your health and tastebuds while making you feel well. Remember that you don't have to eat a perfect diet to be healthy. You will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency or gain weight from one snack, one meal, or one day of eating. It's what you eat consistently over time that matters, progress not perfection is what counts

Ginger: Uncle!

I just got back from Black Grad -YAY MIMI- and have no viable cardio option -very unfortunate since I needed that workout to get the maximum number of WOW points.

Now...if I had anticipated today's busy-ness (which wouldn't have been hard to do) I could've worked out on Thursday. Another forward thinking strategy would have been to hoard those free points. What can I say? When it comes to food + exercise, forward thinking is not my MO.

This dynamic is complicated by the fact that I'm putting a lot of energy into school stuff right now. Per my advisor, this trend has to continue! History clearly suggests that I can only go "all out" in one area at a time. If "losing" and "dissertating" go head to head, dissertating wins. I'm sort of ok with temporarily sucking it up (or in -ha ha) and adding a few more "L" tops and "12" pants to the wardrobe.

All that being said, I'm still committed to not gaining weight and emphasizing good choices. I'll see how this week feels, think about what a lower-key strategy might look like, decide on a routine, and check in again at the end of the WOW week.

Posh: 5th week over

I'm focused on getting to the end of this challenge. My body and the scale seem to be doing their own thing. It's been frustrating, 'cause they didn't send me a memo, but I'm on to them now. So I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing-- focusing on doing the WOW challenge. And work towards food adjustments. Want to try a few pre-planned meals this week that helps me get in the recommended fruits and veggies for the day. Will do measurements and body fat every two weeks, so next week i'll include those on my post also.

Sporty: Week 18 (06/14/07)

This week was better than last week. Going to continue working on getting my mind "in check".

Wrap up for Last Week

Stay within WW daily pts 5 of 7 days - No
Plan foods the night before - No
Grocery Shop - Yes
Journal foods daily - Yes
Eat "home food" Mon-Fri except for work meetings - No
Exercise - cardio (6), strength (3), mind/body (6), burn 2800 calories - Yes
Drink 16c of water 5 of 7 days - No
Follow WW good health guidelines 5 of 7 days - No
Attend WW meeting - Yes
WOW challenge - Yes

Targets for Next Week

Mind Training (start reading Battlefield of the Mind)
Stay within WW daily pts 5 of 7 days
Plan foods the night before
Grocery Shop
Journal foods daily
Eat "home food" Mon-Fri except for work meetings.
Exercise - cardio (6), strength (3), mind/body (6), burn 2800 calories
Drink 16c of water 5 of 7 days
Follow WW good health guidelines 5 of 7 days
Attend WW meeting

Sporty: Self-Awareness and Mindfulness Mediations

Here is a Mind/Body Exercise that we can use:

One of the healthy habits we encourage at the Duke Diet & Fitness Center (DFC) is self-awareness or mindfulness — the act of paying attention to what you experience in the moment. Mindfulness can contribute to your overall sense of well-being in many ways, one of the most significant being that it can help to reduce stress.
As part of our self-awareness programming at the DFC, we teach our clients a technique called mindfulness meditation. Developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center's Stress Reduction Clinic, mindfulness meditation is a method of paying attention to the present moment, without letting your mind drift to the past or future or judging your every thought and feeling.
You can practice mindfulness meditation by carving some time out of your day, finding a quiet place where you can be alone, and then turning your attention to your breath or to some other sensation in your body. As thoughts, emotions, or other sensations arise and compete for your attention, you simply observe and acknowledge them without judging, analyzing, or trying to suppress them. Just give the thought or feeling a little bit of space, and eventually it will pass.
This very simple process can prove quite challenging. Most of us have never tried to train our minds to gain mastery over where our attention is from moment to moment. The solution is to practice.
This week, set aside some time to practice mindful meditation. Make a point to focus on what you are experiencing. Let the feelings flow. See what emerges. After a period of regular meditation practice, you may find that it's easier to be mindful in other situations in your daily life. Next week, we'll show you how to be mindful when you are eating.

Sporty: Greek Egg Special

This is my new favorite breakfast. For those of you on WW you get count 1 oil, 1 milk and 2 fruits and veggies.

Greek Egg Special (4 pts)

Top 1 cup steamed spinach with
1 fried egg (1/2 c eggbeaters, 1 tsp olive oil) and
1/4 cup feta cheese.

The flavors are crazy!

Sporty: Quick BFL Tip

QUICK TIP
Spreading your meals throughout the day will give you more manageable meal sizes, improve nutrient assimilation and make sure that your body always has the calories it needs for muscle building and repair. Eat a balanced-ratio meal (40/40/20; protein/carbs/fat) every three hours. During normal waking hours, that usually equals about six meals.

Posh: 4th week over

The challenge is more than 1/2 way over. And what do I have to show for it? I looked at my "numbers" and got a bit frustrated. My lbs are up... almost as if they're sky rocketting...started nit-picking at my successes...probably I should focus on my food more, get a diet going, probably I should increase my cardio, probably I should do this or that... While some of the things I'm coming up with, are probably things I should start doing anyway, I think I want them to come from a more positive place. Came to a few conclusions.

1. Gonna keep charting my weight. Was ready to throw out the scale, but decided that it's data. Data is subject to interpretation.

2. Decided to increase my data bank. Took my measurements on Friday. And I was able to find my measurements from the begining of the blog that I had used for my virtual model (Although I hadn't measured arms and calves at that time). Below is my comparison, the second figure, being my current measurement.

Bust 46/45.5 *
Waist 44/44.25
Hips 47/47.6
Thighs 27/25.25*
Arms NA /14.3
calves NA/16.5

Noticed some loss in inches in a few places...=)

Also measured my body fat % earlier this week. 39%.

3. Reminded myself to focus on the non-quantifiable data. Like how my clothes have been fitting much better. The extra energy I have. Climbing stairs isn't a brush with death anymore. How exercise routines are becoming easier. The fact that I've stuck with an exercise routine for over 4 weeks!!! The muscle development that's taking place in my body.

4. Found that when I focused on number 3, my enthusiasm levels rose and I felt like I had a lot to show for the last 4 weeks!

5. Gonna see what data I can accumulate in the next 4 weeks!

Ginger: Help Needed

I'm looking for a new strength training routine to add to the mix. Right now I'm alternating between BodyPump classes and the Body-for-LIFE weight training plan.

Any ideas?

Ginger: The Bottom Line [May 31-June 6]

LIFT: 2 strength training workouts. YES -3.
MOVE: 2 cardio workouts. YES -5.
EAT: *under construction*
DRINK: 32 oz water a day. NO -0
STOP: Eat meals + snacks before 8pm. NO -0.
SLEEP: Get to bed by 10pm. NO -0.

*Update*
OK, here's where I'm at with eating. I love CORE conceptually but I need something that feels a bit lower-key right now. My main problems -as usual - are restaurant meals, fast food, and ice cream.

Decided to start by blending elements from a couple plans. I'll go back to 2005's vegan diet (if it ain't broke...) AND shoot for 5 fruit + veggies a day. Will check in on Thursday and tweak as needed. Looking forward to the cleaner, leaner diet.

Sporty: What's the dilly yo?! Diet?

Stayed within my points yesterday. Yay! Actually needed to eat 7 pts but was distracted so I didn't notice (not good either). Anyways, bouncing back from being off track is a huge "mind challenge" it's not that I like how my body feels when I eat unhealthy. Frankly the food doesn't really taste as good as it used to - even pizza *gasp*. It's like I'm rebellious - I want to do what I want, eat what I want, when I want. Anyone feel me on that?

Exercise has been totally rocking given the WOW challenge but my diet is definitely slipping. We have a couple weeks left in this challenge and even though this may be the LAST thing you want to think about right now, I was wondering if anyone was interested in adding a food component to our next challenge? Now, I'm just talking about everyone doing something that fits their life but just raising the bar by earning challenge points for it. For example, you can earn 15 pts if you stay on your personal food plan for 5 of 7 days.

What do you think?

Sporty: Week 17 (6/7/07)

Ready to make this week better than last week! I was totally off the food program last week. After I got back vacation I ate whatever. It didn't help that I did not make the time to get groceries. Having food/groceries at home is clearly essential for staying on track! Even though my food was off, thanks to the WOW challenge, I was on track with exercise. Yay!!

I gained 1.5 lbs so clearly, exercise "minimized the gain" as I was (-) 225 pts in the hole!



For this week, I'm taking it back, back to the basics:

1. Stay within WW daily pts 5 of 7 days
2. Plan foods the night before
3. Grocery Shop
4. Journal foods daily
5. Eat "home food" Mon-Fri except for work meetings.
6. Exercise - cardio (6), strength (3), mind/body (6), burn 2800 calories
7. Drink 16c of water 5 of 7 days
8. Follow WW good health guidelines 5 of 7 days
9. Attend WW meeting
10. WOW challenge

Alli

Anyone heard the buzz about Alli -the new non-prescription diet drug?

Whaddya think?

Ginger: Toss Your Scale?

Last week I broke up with my scale. I still think that setting goals and tracking progress is important but "the number" was becoming an obsession. I just randomly came across this WebMD article that kind of makes sense to/for me...

Sporty:Check-in

How's everyone doing?

Mimi and Scary we miss you.

Jill it was fun working out with you last week :-)

Ginger: The Bottom Line [May 24-30]

LIFT: 2 strength training workouts. YES -3.
MOVE: 2 cardio workouts. YES -6.
DRINK: 32 oz water on 7 days. NO -1 day.
STOP: Eat before 8 pm on 7 days. NO -4 days.

Ginger: Thursday's Food Log

I don't have my food diary on me. Gotta write this down before I forget.

Kashi Granola Bar, Honey Almond Flax

Banana Wheat Germ Pancake
Cheese Melter
Cranberry Juice + Sprite

Ice Cream Cone

Rice + Peas
Jerk Salmon
Fried Plantain
Corn Festival

Julie's Organic Sorbet Bar, Blackberry

Sporty: Stay the course, until we turn the corner

W said this about during one of the '04 debates. It was funny given the context but somehow Scary and I adopted it as a weight loss mantra.

We're half-way through this challenge and it's probably beginning to feel like really hard work.

Remember it is TOTALLY worth it. Just think of all the positive gains and losses you've made:

• Less winded as you climb stairs?
• Need to workout harder to get your heart rate up?
• Does your summer shirt fit a bit looser?
• Can you lift a heavier weight?
• Can you wine down lower (lol)?

Stay the course, WE WILL TURN THE CORNER!