Ginger: I Heart Flex

Ladies...what's up? Just dropping a quick note to say how much I'm enjoying WW online. I tried the core plan for a few weeks before switching to flex and I definitely like having more...umm...flexibility. I also like the way that WW provides strong incentive to work out without dictating the particulars. The pounds are slowly coming off. As long as I keep focusing on "off" and not "slowly" it's all good. I don't think I would have considered WW online if Scary hadn't suggested it but it's clearly a winner. Thanks!

4th Quarter: 2008 Milestones

Just try something!!
Anything!
A little something, is better than nothing!
Make a choice and commit!
Something simple. Something doable.
Let's reconnect and end 2008 with a weight-loss/health-gain Bang!
You with me???

Habits Diet

Decided to go on a personal "lent" for 30 days. Oct 4th, I gave up random snacking and snacks. I said goodbye to cheese curls, cheese balls, Spee's fried Split peas, cheese sticks, kiss cakes, and other assorted snacks that can be my "tie over" to the next meal or just a random thing to do. First day started with me remembering how ingrained this snacking habit was. Popped 5 chocolate chips into my mouth first thing in the morning. Only remembered my commitment after I swallowed. Great. But that's ok. I've been chugging along since. I'm in the hallucination stage where snacks are talking to me at the grocery store. But that's ok. It's 30 days. Well..

While I was exercising today, decided to push for an end of year bang. After my 30 days are up (interestingly Nov 4th) I'm gonna allow myself a 1 day free pass to touch base with my snacks again and release any cravings I may have. But the next day, I'm back on my no-snacks PLUS I'll be adding another "Lenting" item. Thinking of giving up soda and fake juices. Not sure what my December "give up" item will be though. I'll be allowing exceptions for the Christmas day but now as I type, I think I should still be able to do it with no snacking and no soda. I can still enjoy Christmas without those. So we'll see. I'll also throw in some exercise as I've been doing. Nothing scheduled. Just fitting it in as I can and as inspired. So far, I did 2 days last week and I exercised today.

I'm liking the experience so far. Instead of focusing on multiple things, I'm dealing with one thing, the habit. All my snacks are dispensable calories that I can live without and don't need. I am allowing some healthy "snacks" (like 94% fat free popcorn) but I haven't had any all day snacking experiences. Used the popcorn to "make it through" while cooking a meal etc. So, if I'm hungry and it's not meal time yet, I have to eat something healthy that can not fit into a random snacks list. Requires me to be honest with myself of course, but so far no probs. I'm kinda looking forward to the success of saying I did it for 30 days. Well, 29.5 (the chocolate-chipgate experience).

Spent the year vacillating around 210lbs give or take a few pounds. Weighed in at the end of the first week of "lent" at 205.4 lbs. Last year around this time I was 205.2lbs. The next week I had gotten down to 204.2lbs. I'm hoping to get past 204.2 lbs this year and even lower.

Come Jan 2009, I'm hoping that I'll want to continue the discontinuance of the habits that I tried to kick in the last months of 2008 and then I'll be adding things on instead of giving things up... example... one month I may add on vegetable/fruit servings.... or taking calcium pills or vitamins.... Basically, adding on some new habits.

I'm rediscovering the whole thing of as I focus on one health thing and implement it, I become aware of other things. So while I feel no pressure to exercise, cause all I've committed to is the giving up of snacks, I feel good about getting some workouts in. It's like a little perk. I'm also figuring that with a little exercise, I can max out a bit more from combined diet modification and working-out.

If anybody's willing to join me on giving up some habits for a weight-loss "Lent" I'd love to have company!

Here's to keeping up the fight-- whatever strategy we're doing!

Sporty: Whohoo

So, I have to celebrate this am .... for the first time in MONTHS I actual stuck to my health goals. Yesterday I exercised and STAYED within my points. WHO-HOO!

Let's do this people!

Sporty: Back on Track Wk 1 (9/8/08)

Let's get "back on track" who's with me? Over the next 4 weeks the goal would be to "ramp-up" to "being on". Are you in? See below for our week one goal.

Week 1: Get back on the scale

Much love,
Sporty

Sporty: A Return to Awareness 2

Tues 8/26/08
Exercise: Bike/EFX --20 mins
Food: 6" wheat veggie meat w/ light mayo, coke zero, apple slices, Roti, curry potato/channa, curry chicken, spinach & cheese patty, coke.

Wed 8/27/08
Food: Evaporated milk, cereal, oatmeal bar, rice, general tso's tofu, diet pepsi

Sporty: A Return to Awareness

Ok people, clearly I've been missing in action. With a growing waistline and decreasing energy I've decided to give this another go.

Mon 8/25
Weight: 239
Exercise: EFX 25 mins
Food: Qdoba's burrito bowl, sugar free lemonade, chicken potsticker, chicken ceasar salad, diet coke.

Ginger: Coconut Bliss

It's pretty sad that a new "ice cream" find is what brought me back to the site. It's been ages and I'm off all kinds of wagons. This stuff ain't bad (tasting) and it meets my latest food fad requirements.

Jill's Update

I know you haven't heard from me in like a million years but now I feel like I'm understanding what's going on. I haven't been motivated to excercise like I was last year or even been excited about starting to get motivated. I think part of my issue was/is slight depression, comfort and laziness. The depression comes from missing my mom and nursing school not going the way I thought/want it to go. The comfort comes from possibly being happy and comfortable with myself. I know I have imperfections, but they don't seem to phase me as much as they did before. The laziness comes from me being me.
So now I've decided and realized that the depression over my mom isn't going to go away that easy or maybe ever and that's something I will have to pray about and deal with as each day comes. The depression over nursing school is almost gone as I know God has a plan for me that's much better than any plan I could have for myself. With that understanding, I'm trying my best to be patient in all things that are heavy on my heart. I'm happy that I'm comfortable with myself, but I need to get active and eat correctly. I've gone back to eating more vegetables and less potato salad and rice. I must say that Sabbath lunch can sometimes be a real battle. I'm going to go back to my walking dvd and pilates dvd and I have to purchase a yoga dvd (I wasn't able to get the set of 3 I saw at Target yesterday because the display price was $10 less than what the register said).
So that's what's been going on with me for a while now and now I'm ready to get back into action and live a healthy lifestyle.

2008 Milestones: 3rd Quarter (Jul-Sept)

Ginger
-BodyPump or cardio @ least 4 mornings/week
-Eat before 7PM
-Other food stuff TBA

Good Chips

I've been on the hunt for a decent chip for the last week or so (since I'm kicking sugar and all). It really irks me that a lot of the "small" bags are two serving sizes. Who eats half a bag of chips? Anyway, I think I've finally scored with Popchips. The whole bag is one serving AND it comes in interesting flavors. Yay.

q2. Week 11

Okay, so I'm back to a more consistent workout schedule (2 BodyPump classes + 2 cardio workouts). But.....no food change = no weight change. Clearly this is going to be the storyline until I do something different. Hmm.

Ginger: Miscellaneous Thoughts on Food Etc.

1. RAW MILK
So...raw milk. What do you guys think -yay or nay? CA is one of the few states where you can buy it legally. I've been reading some stuff about the benefits of drinking it "straight" -the way it used to be I guess. See this Boston Globe article.

2. VANITY -PART I
Public locker rooms. Hmm. I usually avoid the one at the Y but that's where their scale is so I've been darting in and out every Friday (usually trying not to notice all the random bodies in various stages of undress). It's a little icky but also kind of refreshing to be reminded of what real women look like vs. glossy, perfect, airbrushed images. It's a teeny ego boost -never mind that the Y is heavily populated by senior citizens!

3. VANITY -PART II
I've been avoiding cardio -partly 'cause I don't want to sweat my hair out! I can't believe it. It's been years since I've had to pay attention to my hair. Is it vanity or am I just being practical? What's the point of paying to have it done every two weeks when it all goes to fuzz in one workout?

4. NEW BOOK
There's a new book on my radar. The taste of sweet. You all know I have this ongoing battle with desserts (sugar). The title sounded catchy so I'm gonna check it out at the library (after I pay my fines). If it's good maybe I'll do a review or something.

---6/18/08 Update---

I just had my first bowl of cereal with raw milk. I'm not really a big milk consumer (ever since the infamous health lecture nearly two decades go) but I was willing to give it a try. Not bad.

q2. Week 10

Okay, if nothing else, this "let's stay aware" thing sure shows you how quickly time passes. Where are the weeks going?!? Today's workout (in a few hours) will make it a total of "2" for this week. I'll be back to 3x a week next week.

I have to say that going to the Y consistently for a while really put the pressure on to keep going. It was a lot more difficult to blow off workouts this week and last. By yesterday I was almost panicked about working out so that I wouldn't have to start from scratch with BodyPump.

No change on the eating front -and consequently no change on the weight front. My stylist did say that my face was looking thinner though - does that count? Ha ha. I think it's cause my hair is growing but I'll take it!

I know I keep saying that I'll do something re: food. I may need a push. Maybe I'll talk with Mimi and see if we can do a food version of our hard core workout plan (which is what got me to the gym again).

q2. Week 9

Only one workout this week. The Y was closed on Monday and I was feeling the pressure of a big deadline on Wednesday. I finally made it to the gym on Friday -and I'm glad that I did. It had been a week since my last class and I could feel it. It's crazy how quickly your body reverts if you start skipping workouts.

I lost a few pounds -wonder if they were muscle? I definitely wasn't doing anything stellar on the food front. I'm gonna schedule a body fat analysis and start tracking that in addition to (or possibly instead of) my weight.

I HAVE to do SOMETHING with my eating. I'm resisting a food intervention but I know that I need one -if I want to see any real changes...

q2. Week 8

More BodyPump -plus two cardio workouts thrown in for good measure. I weighed in at the exact same weight as last week. I kept a rough food log which showed that I'm not as hard core as I'd like to think I am when it comes to my (modest) food goals. Not horrible, shocking stuff but just...inconsistent.

I dunno...sure the body changes with age and such but I think there's something about the way I'm eating now that doesn't reflect my usual relationship to food. "Food As Entertainment" or "Food As Stress Relief" are storylines that pop up when I'm crunched. I think it'd be fair to say that grad school has been one long crunch :-)

I could just wait it out...history suggests that weight balances out when life balances out but being overweight is getting old (and so am I). So...week 8 will feature a little experiment called "I wonder what'll happen if...I eat whatever I want -but only when I'm hungry?"

Stay tuned.

--Update--

Okay, it's several days and several high fat/sugar/calorie desserts later. I clearly need to go with minimizing the damage of "boredom" or "stress" eating instead of trying to go cold turkey!

Sporty:05/16/08

Working on getting the waist to be smaller than the hips ....

Last week
Cal burned: 3750
Avg daily cal eaten: 1800
Mood: Variable

q2. Week 7

Oops, up goes the little line. Strange 'cause I've been feeling a little "fitter" overall -less fat days, you know? I dunno...maybe it's water...muscle?

I've been keeping up with BodyPump (four weeks...yay). I didn't pay quite as much attention to my eating. I don't think I ate anything too crazy but I may have overindulged a bit here and skipped a meal there.

I should probably do something to regularize meal times just in case that's the issue. Let's say 3 meals + 2 snacks.

Also, shout out to Sporty! I like where your line is going :-)

q2. Week 6

Okay, I try not to get too caught up in the scale BUT it was pretty exciting to see the little trend line take a dip at the start of Week 6. Weighing without shoes...I'm a believer!

BodyPump seems to be paying off and I'm slowly increasing the weights which is fun. I can feel my body adjusting...responding to the challenge (kind of makes you wonder what else "one" could accomplish if "one" really put her mind to it). I had moderate success on eating before 7pm and on the salad front.

I'll keep chugging along and see what happens. At some point I should probably add cardio workouts on the "off" days. Just putting it out there...

Sporty: Program Our Minds for Success

Pray this prayer with me to help program our minds for success

"Father, I am ready and willing to start believing You for more good things in my life. Help me get rid of those old attitudes that would limit my vision and cause Your work to be stifled in me.

I will believe for better!"

Joel Osteen "Daily Readings from Your Best Life Now -

90 Devotions for Living at Your Full Potential"