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February 19 Apology to my Blogging Buddies Thanks so much for all the support and encouragement all of you have given who post comments to my blogs :) I apologize for not being more active in replying to comments and posting comments on others' blogs. My laptop is running SOOO slow and I've run numerous diagnostics and can't figure out why, and when I get on Live Spaces it takes forever for a page to load for some reason.
I'm starting to think it's my ISP because when I run a program offline it runs just fine, but anything internet related hogs a ton of memory or something and it takes so long to do anything on here, especially on Live Spaces. I'm guessing with all the activity on Live Spaces with the Biggest Loser Million Pounds Match Up going on that it's just overloaded or something.
Also, I'm a list owner of a yahoo support group for people who have at least 100 pounds to lose (or have at one time) called Challenged to Change and that takes a lot of my online time to moderate the list and do all the admin. stuff there as well as try to reply to everyone's posts. I'll try to do better here as we really need each other on this journey we're on! I'm really thankful for the Biggest Loser and the motivation it offers us all and for all of you here as well. I know I'm definitely going to be keeping this site going long past the time the Million Pounds Match Up is over.
I 'll try to do better :) I'd love to make some new friends here!
Hugs
Helen Possible reasons for my plateau / dental issues and not eating enough! I've had a killer toothache for a while now and have been running a low grade fever on and off for a few months (thinking it was just a stubborn virus). I finally got in to the dentist yesterday for an evalutation and they took two x-rays. Turns out I have two absessed teeth :( They gave me a prescription for Penicillin (which I started on last night) and I have an appointment tomorrow morning to see an oral surgeon for a full workup and see if I can have root canal therapy on those teeth or if I have to have them pulled and given a partial. I really expect to have one of them pulled and I'm hoping hoping that the one closest to the front can have the root canal.
But the worst part of it is that something has to be done asap or I can't have my hernia repair and panniculectomy surgeries that are scheduled in April as they won't operate when you have any kind of infection like that. To say I'm freaking out a little is to put it mildly :( But actually, I'm fortunate because when I first called the ora surgeon's office this morning, they told me they were scheduling in April now and that would have kept me from having my April surgeries for sure. I was upset on the phone after hearing that and the receptionist sighed and hesitantly flipped through the appointment book and said "wait...I have a cancellatoin tomorrow morning, can you come then?" So obviously I said yes.
A few friends of mine from my support groups suggested that perhaps this weight loss plateau has been persisting the past few months because my body is in defense mode while trying to fight off the infection. I wonder if that's possible?
Anyway...another issue is that after hearing from a few people on my support groups that have been successful at losing a lot of weight, I've come to realize that I haven't been eating enough calories, especially in light of the intense workouts I've been getting in. So this week I'm raising my calories while still working out hard at the gym and swimming and combining that with being on the Penicillin and getting dental attention tomorrow, maybe the scale will start budging again.
I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around eating more to lose weight, but I'm going to give it a try this week. I did a little research in first The Biggest Loser book and my Weight Watchers materials and they both line up to say I should be eating more calories than I am, so who am I to argue with their success? :)
I refuse to give up this time around though! I've been on program (most of the time) for over a year this time and have come way too far to give up now. Say some prayers for me if you will. Please??!! :)
Helen Plateaus and other ramblingsKELLEY: February 18, 2008 Plateaus and other ramblings I have stayed the same for the last three weeks but at least the scale is not going in the other direction. I am going to try eating 1/2 to 3/4 of my activity points this week and see if with increased activity (to 6 hours a week +) that maybe I can bust out of this plateau . I just have to remember that this is a long journey without an end as even when I reach goal I have to be concerned about what I eat and exercise for the rest of my life. I have had two victories this week of the non-scale variety – reducing my Glucophage by half and putting on a 14/16 blouse I had bought months ago as an incentive and it fit! Wore it to work on Friday. I have almost filled my mp3 player up with six gigs of music. I am going to use it on Fridays when I go to the gym and walk or use the cardio equipment. It is going to be a day for whatever grabs my fancy. No set scheduled activity other than showing up at the gym right after work. I have an appointment on Feb 26th to get contacts. I had them in the past and really miss the difference in vision with them versus glasses. With good goggles, I can wear them in the pool and actually see where I am going! I will still have to wear reading glasses when I am on the computer to compensate for the fact that bifocal contacts are not available. But that is okay a small price to pay for seeing freely. I got my 20 lb charm for TOPS on Thursday night. I started there mid August as another means of support. I really enjoy the meetings and I was made contest coordinator, as up until the point I joined they never had anyone that wanted to plan future contests and be responsible for coordinating ongoing ones. I keep a contest always going. Right now, we have two. One will not be over until the first of December. It is a yearlong contest and everyone seems to be having fun with it. I have had several smart comments about my new haircut from coworkers that would love for my new life plan to go by the wayside. They always say something no matter what I do good for myself. One needs to lose weight and says every few days she is going to do it but just continues with her old habits. It is like I shouldn't be bettering myself but oh well! I can't be responsible for her choices only mine and I know I am doing what is right for myself at every turn. Till tomorrow! February 16 Upping my calories (and nervous about it), combining BL with the WW points method that worked well last yearHELEN: Ok, I dug out my Biggest Loser book (the weight loss program one...I think the first book) and looked to see what it said about how many calories you should eat for weight loss. On page 30 it says this: In calculating calories for weight loss, some formulas can get pretty elaborate, requiring you to do a lot of math. Not ours. We have a simple formula for you, put together by The Biggest Loser doctors and nutritionists. Grab your calculator; here's the arithmetic: Your present weight x 7 = Your daily caloric needs for weight loss If you don't like doing math, the chart below gives you an idea of how many calories you need, depending on your current weight: 150: 1,050 160: 1,120 170: 1,190 180: 1,260 190: 1,330 200: 1,400 210: 1,470 220: 1,540 230: 1,610 240: 1,680 250: 1,750 260: 1,820 270: 1,890 280: 1,960 290: 2,030 300: 2,100 If you weigh more than 300 pounds, start by eating 2,100 calories a day. If you weigh less than 150 pounds, plan to eat around 1,050 calories a day. page 37: For every one pound of fat you lose, you decrease the number of calories you expend each day by about 10.That's roughly the number of calories that were required to keep that fat at body temperature, move it around, and support its metabolic needs. So when you shed 10 pounds of fat, you will be burning up about 100 fewer calories each day than you did when you weighed more. If you want to keep losing weight, you either have to eat fewer calories, exercise more or do both. Unless you readjust your calories or your exercise, you'll reach equilibrium, or you may even start to gain weight. And that's NOT an option! When it's time to reduce your calories, there are four easy, near automatic ways to do so. 1. Cut your calories from your optional 200 calorie budget, 2. Replace your whole grain servings with vegetables, 3. Choose lower calorie protein foods such as low-fat dairy, egg whites, and soy; 4. Reduce your fruit servings in favor of more vegetables. Just don't get discouraged! It's highly unlikely that your weight will climb on this plan because the Biggest Loser diet keeps your calories, carbs, and fat in check. (By the way, the Biggest Loser Diet is a 4-3-2-1 Pyramid of at least 4 servings of fruits and vegetables, 3 protein servings a day, 2 whole grain servings a day, and 200 extra calories and you add to or take away from each number of servings depending on your caloric needs. You just have to keep it all in balance) It doesn't factor in exercise into the calories-in formula -------------------------------- Ok, so if I compare that with Weight Watchers (which worked well winter through summer last year till I stalled in the fall), here's what WW says I should have for people my age, height, sex, and activity level (not including exercise) in the 280s weight range, eat 33 points a day (33 points x about 50 calories a point = 1650 adding in the 35 extra points a week they give you, the math is: 1650 calories a day x 7 days = 11,550 35 extra points per week = 35 x about 50 calories a point = 1750 calories a week 11,550 + 1,750 = 13,300 calories per week So I take 13,300 and divide it by 7 to give me 1900 calories a day So that's just to lose weight without factoring in exercise. Then you can use your activity points (at 1 point equaling 100 calories burnt) to either eat extra calories or not depending on how your body reacts to eating them or not eating them. So comparing the two plans, as I weigh 288: BL: 288 x 7 = 2,016 WW: about 1900 So basically, WW lines right up with the Biggest Loser plan (keeping in mind that one WW point is "about" 50 calories). And as BL doesn't have you adjust your calorie intake depending on your exercise output, and I didn't factor in WW's activity points (since BL didn't), the caloric intake is about the same. So in using the WW plan, I'd either choose to use ONLY my extra 35 points per week OR some of my activity points depending on how my body reacts to either way. But either way, my base calorie intake would be between 1900-2000. I guess I'm still having a tough time wrapping my mind around eating that much to lose weight, but WW worked last year when I was eating all my daily points, about 1/3 of my actiivty points and having some of my extra 35 towards a high point day on Saturdays. So I guess I'll go back to that and see how it goes. It does make sense in the long run as on Wednesday I ate about 1800 calories and burned 1000 calories at the gym that day, so I only had a total of 800 calorie intake overall for the day. So here's what I'm going to try: Eat all my daily points (about 1650 calories) + 1/2 my activity points every day through the week (which will vary depending on how many calories I've burned according to my heart rate monitor, but would be around 1900 to 2000 calorie intake total for the day I'd guess on average). Then about half my extra 35 points added to my daily points for a high point day on Saturday as that seemed to work well last winter and spring and summer till I started stalling in the fall. I'm going to try that effective tomorrow through Thursday and see how it goes... Friday for HelenHELEN: Friday for Helen Well I think you all know how my day went. I'm working on an attitude adjustment though. I'm still frustrated, but not in despair about it like I was close to earlier. I truly appreciate your encouragement. I'm not giving up. It's been a super frustrating, depressing day, but if I gave up I'd have only myself to blame. If I do my best and the scale stays stuck then at least I can know I did my best and I'll have that much less to feel bad about. One day at a time I'll learn to not let this get to me. One day at a time my body will adjust to all the changes and one day at a time I'll become a better example for overweight people to show them that it can be done with a little patience and a lot of prayer for strength :) I did measure myself and am down in inches, so I must be doing something right with my exercise, so it must be in the food department Bad week after giving it my all :(HELEN: Last week: 287 This week: 288.4 + 1.4 Needless to say, after busting my butt all week at the gym and doing my very best with eating keeping my calories between 1400 and 1800 a day and getting in all my water, I'm more than a little frustrated. I worked out VERY hard four days this week at the gym. Wednesday alone I burned 1000 calories according to my heart rate monitor. I have NO clue where to go from here... I have a very bad attitude at the moment. I'm sure it'll pass and I'll be happy, determined Helen again, but right now I want to pick up the scale and pitch it as far as I can. My ONLY saving grace today is that I measured myself and I am down in inches.- ¾ inch in my waist, ¼ inch in my hips, ½ inch from my right arm and a whole inch from my right thigh since I measured two weeks ago.. Had I not had that progress I probably would just say screw it. In the last six months I only have 10 pounds of lasting weight loss L I did SO great in the winter and spring last year and when cold weather hit, the great weight losses stopped. Sorry about my bad attitude right now...but I need to express myself honestly... My goals for this coming week: I have no clue at this point L The only thing that crosses my mind right now (aside from just giving up or starving myself) is to raise my calories up and eat several small meals a day instead of three regular sized meals and a snack. I've done everything I can think of otherwise. But again, my attitude is in the crapper at the moment and I'll catch back up with you all when I've given myself an attitude adjustment. February 14 NSV, Happy Dance, New Haircut, and Respecting YourselfKELLEY: February 14, 2007 NSV, Happy Dance, New Haircut, and Respecting Yourself The scale has not cooperated for the last two weeks, have been maintaining. I have not been going in the opposite direction and that is a good thing. I do have a non-scale victory and am doing a happy dance over it! I was having blood sugar lows at night just 2 or 3 hours after eating a four carb serving meal. I decided to experiment and instead of taking 2 500 mg Glucophage XR with my evening meal to take only one. That solved my problem! My sugars are normal at bedtime and low normal on arising in the morning. Monday, I went to Curves at lunch and was going to water aerobics after work. After leaving work, I found my sugar was low so I drank 12 ounces of skim milk and ate a banana to get the levels up enough to be able to exercise. Well, it would only come up to 80. 70-110 is normal and there was no way I could put in an hour of water aerobics without it being low afterwards or midway through with that starting blood sugar so I went home. I decided to do the same with the Glucophage in the morning (only take 1 pill). I did bring an extra one to work to take just in case I needed it BUT the experiment was a success and all week I have halved my dosage. My sugars have been normal except right after eating. They get back to normal 2 hours after a meal just as the endocrinologist wants. Therefore, I am doing a happy dance that my body is handling the sugar better and I am on my way to being diabetes medicine free! A coworker said since I have been doing so well losing weight and being concerned with my health and eating that I needed a new haircut to celebrate the new me! I had told her I had an appointment this afternoon after work so she helped me find a new style in one of the magazines. Therefore, I am doing the daring thing and changing styles after probably 5 years! She is right I am a new person, a very different person from this time last year and a new haircut is just what I need to complete the new image! Yes, I still have 90 pounds to go but it is just putting one foot in front of the other and seeing the goal get closer and closer. Would have said finish line but this journey is never finished. If you stop upon reaching goal, you will be right where you started from sometimes in the future. It is a daily task you have to tackle! I have some much respect and love for myself that was not here 12 months ago. As Jillian has said on her radio show if you think more of yourself so will others and it have been evidenced in my relationships with co-workers. Do not get me wrong my relationships were not bad or strained with them but they are different now. I think they see I respect and care for myself and they respect and care for me more in return. Got this Italian proverb in my email and it says it all: Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box. No matter our economic class or social status in life, we are all just as important as the next person and we need to remember that and hold our heads just as high as theirs! February 13 Super intense workout today and I feel good at the end of my day :)HELEN: I give myself a big A+ for today. I drank at least 90 ounces of water, had a SUPER intense workout at the gym today and my calories were around 1800. I went about 400 calories above my usual because I burned a THOUSAND calories at the gym today! :) Since TOM is here, I skipped the pool and spent just under 3 hours on the cardio machines and walking on the walking track for one mile. I started out walking and did 12 laps which is one mile, then I went to the fitness area. I rode the regular stationary bike for 20 minutes, got on the Arc Trainer (kind of like a gazelle) for 20 minutes, got on the rowing machine for 40 minutes (which I discovered does not have weights on it after all..yay!) and then the elliptical for 40 minutes then stretched before I went to the lockerroom and till my heart rate monitor showed 1000 calories burned. When I got off the elipital it was at 980 calories and the other 20 calories was during a little stretching when I was done. I haven't worked out that hard for a LONG time. My heart rate percentage average was 78-83%, at the upper limit of the target fat burning zone. I hadn't used the eliptical before today. When I first got on it I did NOT like it one bit :) But I made myself slow down, get the rhythm and once I got a feel for it I decided I like it after all. Especially the amount of calories you burn on that thing..WOW :) I'm definitely going to be a regular on the elliptical after seeing the calories burned go by so fast on that thing. I definitely know my diet is much lower in fat this week because as I learned when I tried the 1000 calorie diet, constipation struck again. Ugh. I'm going to have to up my fat intake a bit. With this hernia, I can't afford to mess it up worse by straining (sorry if TMI, but it affects how you can exercise :) and my hernia issue ). I don't normally go to the gym two days in a row, but I'm going back tomorrow. My husband wants me to drop him off at dialysis and pick him up again so we can go to dinner for Valentine's Day. So we're getting up early and after we get Evan on the school bus, I'll take Greg to dialysis and go to the gym till time for Evan to get out of school. I hope it helps the weigh in on Friday :) I say I had "about" 1800 calories because I had to bake cookies for Evan's preschool class for their valentine's day party tomorrow and I had a few cookies and some cookie dough as I was baking them and I don't know how many calories exactly that was, so I'm guessing the total for the day all in all would be around 1800, but after burning 1000 calories today I have no doubt that didn't hurt me anyway. I'm wiped out and about to go to bed here in a bit. I also successfully avoided getting on the scale today. One more day to fight the temptation to weigh in as two of my online support groups have Fridays for their weigh-ins so I definitely am getting on it on Friday. Oh please oh please, Lord, let it be super kind to me this week! :) February 12 Back on Track and a Non-Scale VictoryHELEN: Well I finally get another A day. I did brave the bitter cold weather and went to the rec center and swam a little over a mile and I beat my personal record. I swam my mile in 54 minutes as opposed to the 60 minutes I'd gotten down to last week or the week before, and when I started about 3 weeks ago it took me 75 minutes. That's all I did was swim because as I was swimming I remembered that I had an appointment in Akron with my weight loss counselor and so I finished my mile, took a shower and went to the grocery store to stock up to get through the winter storm we're in the midst of (that just started an hour or so ago now), took the groceries home and took off for Akron. I got in all my water and my calories for the day are right around 1400. Actually, I went to bed early so I wouldn't be up tempted to eat anything else, but while I was laying there trying to fall asleep my little boy started crying and I got up to check on him. I think he got cold, so I turned his heater in his room up and came in here to get online while I check the school closings and listen for him to go back to sleep as he's listening to his acquarium music toy right now. I'm kind of keeping an eye on him for an ear infection as he's prone to those after a bad cold like he's getting over now. I had a good session with my counselor and told her about my frustrations of late with the scale and how I was fighting my discouragement from getting the best of me. I agreed to not get on the scale until Fridays and I successfully avoided it today. I talked to her about the Yahoo Group I moderate called Challenged to Change (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ChallengedtoChange/)and my role there and she was really interested in our group and what we do and asked me a lot of questions about us. But to put it in a nutshell, she wants me to make a list of NSVs and keep focused on it and adding to it and focus on the benefits I'm getting other than the scale when I stay on track. She asked me "If I were to poke a hole in you and let all that water out, how would it change things?" I said "can you? here, please do" :) Then I said "well it would show me my true weight and not water weight and help me to know if I'm really making progress or not." She said "would it change your exercise or eating plans at all?" I thought about it and said no, not really other than maybe I wouldn't get as discouraged by the number on the scale and let the gain defeat me. She said "well if you know you're doing what you need to and wouldn't change it if I were to poke a hole in you and let the water out, why let holding the water for now defeat you?" Then she asked me if I'm measured myself or seen a difference in my clothes and I admitted that yes, I was in some smaller jeans now and my inches were going down. She asked me where my water collects and I pulled my pants leg on my left leg up and showed her my leg and she said "oh yes, I can see it there". Then we were discussing my family's health problems and how I'm feeling guilty for using money to join the gym that maybe I should be using for medical bills, etc. She said "would you still have medical bills if you used that money for that in stead of the gym?" I laughed and said we would, yes. She said "Well if you really feel a burning need to feel guilty about something, redirect that guilt and feel guilty if you DON'T go to the gym and DON'T get healthier for yourself and your family. Or feel guilty if you don't get to the gym after using the money to join it." So I'm working on redirecting my issues and making them positive instead of negative. It's going to be a long process probably :) I go back the first week of March and she wants me to bring my food journals and to bring a printout of my meals focusing on any changes I've made to my eatiing from how I ate differently than my plan and to make sure to record everything I've eaten good or bad and include the times I've eaten. I tend to not journal the things I eat when I get off track like last weekend with the paczke and the brownies. Anyway..so it went well all in all. As I mentioned, we're in the midst of a winter storm right now and we're supposed to get from 6-10 inches of snow overnight and throughout the day. I looked outside a bit ago and the road is already covered and it's snowing heavily, so I'm worried about Greg having to drive to dialysis and hoping Evan's school is closed so I don't have to worry about him being out on bad roads. I'm really going to try to carry the good day I had today out through the rest of the week and pray to have good results on the scale on Friday. I keep telling myself "The only thing you have to do to make this work is control what goes in your mouth, how easy is that? Just eat what you should and then just stop. Just do it". As we all know, it can be more complicated than that, but with my bad eating last weekend, I need to tell myself to just not put any more in my mouth than I have planned and just do it. February 10 A husband on dialysis, a little boy who doesn't talk yet and finances going down the tubes. How can I put myself first in light of all that?? HELEN: I had gotten down to 283 on Jan. 22nd just to have a 9 pound gain a few days later putting me back up to 292. Obviously water weight. I've tried SO hard to not let it affect my motivation level, but it definitely has. I'd dropped back down to 287 the other day then back up to 289 this morning. I've been working out so hard and focusing so much on this and today the scale got the better of me and I caved to temptation in the form of a paczke and brownies. And as usual, now I'm beating myself up about it and trying to figure out how to get myself back on track and rid of the water weight and closer to the 270's soon. It's stressing me out so much I'm even dreaming about it. I dreamed about Bob Harper last night for crying out loud! I can do so well and be so focused and when the scale doesn't cooperate, I cave to seeking comfort from my problems (which are many...) from some type of sweets or other carbohydrates. My little boy Evan will be five next month and he does not speak yet. He initially had the diagnosis of PDDnos when he was two years old and he's had intervention with preschool and therapies since then. He's really progressed in leaps and bounds with everything but his speech which still remains the big issue. The only word I have ever heard him say was "mommmm" and that's just when he was distressed, but it's been a long time since I've heard that. His teacher meets with us at our home once a month for a home visit to go over what Evan is learning at school and she told us recently that he's doing fantastic academically. He knows his alphabet, numbers and colors and shapes and can identify most animals and things on cards they show him. He just can't talk about it yet. Right now, doctors are scratching their heads about him as he has great eye contact, not at all in a world all his own, very loving and affectionate and interested in what's going on around him, but he can't talk to interact with people yet, so he has the hand flapping thing that's his way of communicating right now. He definitely gets his point across in what he wants by taking my finger and leading me to what he wants, but I hope and pray he can speak soon so that when he's sick he can tell me what hurts. One doctor says that if he does not speak by the time he turns five (a litlte over a month from now) that he'll be diagnosed with moderate autism. Another doctor we saw a month or so ago, after examining him said "I'm telling you, I do not see autism here anymore at all. I think when I first suspected it, I jumped the gun because now I'm thinking it's just a severe language delay that will resolve itself later than most kids begin talking. We just have to wait and see when Evan decides to start talking, but I definitely don't see autism in him at all anymore." So that gave me hope, but the mixed signals from the various doctors and the fears I have of Evan's future if he doesn't begin speaking keep me stressed out a lot (on top of my worries of our finances and my husband's kidney disease/dialysis). My husband Greg is in end stage renal disease and is on kidney dialysis three times a week. He's on the transplant list and we are just like many people, playing the waiting game for his name to come to the top of the list or for a miracle to happen and a living donor to come forward to give him their kidney (I offered one of mine, but have lots of kidney stone issues as a complication of my gastric bypass surgery, so his doctors told me I'm not a candidate). So as he is disabled, and my son needs me to get him to therapies and be home to interact with his teacher for home visits and working with him to try to improve his development, I'm a stay at home mom right now, which is killing our finances. I'm seriously considering going back to work full time this Spring or Summer after I recouperate from my hernia repair/panniculectomy surgeries because we need the money. Then if I do, I have the worry of who is going to get Evan off the school van on days Greg is at the hospital having dialysis and how will I meet with his teachers and therapists if I'm at work during the day? If I take an evening job, I won't be home with Evan in the evenings when he needs me most when he's home from school and I fear it would hurt his devleopment even more. I recently found out that he's going to be in preschool again next year and will enter kindergarten when he's six due to his birthday being in March (which is good, but that gives us one more year for him to get out of school at 1:00 instead of later in the afternoon) Sigh...so LOTS of reasons to be freaked out if I let myself be (which I do from time to time I guess). It's so hard in light of my family's needs to focus on my own health and my own needs...I'm trying to pray about it more to gain strength from God to endure it all. I'm just really discouraged today, feeling guilty for BEING so discouraged, feeling weak in my motivation and trying to give myself an attitude adjustment all at the same time as trying to calm down about it all. I've been working out hard, staying on track most of the time, getting frustrated with lack of results on the scale and caving to comfort food once in a while that's definitely not helping matters any. Sigh...I was doing great before the water retention struck. Why couldn't the numbers on the scale have kept going down when I was doing so great....sigh...it's a vicious cycle :( Helen February 09 Non-Scale Victory- compliments from a young fit lifeguard :)HELEN: I worked out really hard at the rec center today and got some nice compliments from a young male lifeguard. I walked a mile on the track, rode the regular stationary bike for 15 minutes, the recumbent bike for 20 minutes and swam one mile in one hour. When I got out of the pool after swimming my mile, I was drying off and the young male lifeguard said, "You swam for an HOUR straight without stopping!" I said, "yeah, I try to get a mile in and it takes me about an hour" (in my most humble tone I could muster lol). He said "I would NEVER swim that long. WOW!". I told him "well I'm going to be having that tummy tuck in April and I want to get as much weight off as I can and get my money's worth, right?" But inside it sure felt good to hear him say that lol. It feels good to be able to show people that just because you're overweight doesn't mean you can't surprise them with how physical you can be. It's like I'm back to trying to kill the stereotypes of big people again and that feels good. I'm starting to feel more like a normal overweight person and not a super overweight person like I used to be and it feels good to be somewhat blending in now. Celebration on my 43rd BirthdayKELLEY: Celebration on my 43rd Birthday February 8th I turned 43 years old today and even though there are no big spectacular plans for the occasion, I am celebrating in my heart! I know I have written about this before but it is unbelievable what a difference a year makes! I was taken to lunch by a coworker today in celebration and was told to choose anywhere I wanted to go. I picked a nicer class restaurant downtown, as I knew I could get a good healthy meal without feeling deprivation with a nice atmosphere. I ordered a house salad with low-fat ranch and a baked potato with salsa and low-fat ranch on the side. My beverage of choice was water with lemon. On the way back I was reflecting on the fact that I was able to enjoy myself without overindulging and in the process make good food decisions that ultimately have an impact on my future. I will be starting back my workout routine on Monday after this week of TOM and am so looking forward to it. I miss it so much when I do not go. Guess I have gotten so used to the endorphin rush that when I do not have it I miss it and feel something is wrong. If you told me a year ago, I would be exercising and enjoying it, I would have told you that you had lost your mind! Yesterday, I was going up a hallway at work and a woman I am friends with was coming toward me. At the same time, a man I work with was in front of me quite a bit going the same direction as me. The woman said hey skinny minny and the man turned around and called me by name asking a question. I said I am not skinny minny yet but getting there. She said well you must be, as Mike knew whom I was talking too. Made me feel good! A friend from one of my online weight watcher support groups was on Rachel Ray yesterday. She has lost 138 pounds in a year. Bob Greene was on there and he said, "You have to tap into how much your life is different now that you've dropped that weight. It involves realizing that weight is simply a symptom. It is about living your life and giving yourself a more meaningful life every day. As long as you view it that way, that's going to keep you on the straight and narrow and continuing to live that way." That is my attitude now and will continue to be and I cannot wait to see what the next year brings! February 07 Lessons learned from ZechariahHELEN: Ok, well a better day today than the past few days. I get a B. I went to the gym and burned 600 calories walking a mile (as I watched for a stationary bike to open up), riding stationary and recumbant bikes for 45 minutes and swimming 1/2 a mile. Not as much as usual because I had to hurry and get home to get Evan off the school van, but a good steady two hour workout all in all. I think I ran a little short on my water, but I definitely went a little over my calories I had planned. Emotional eating I think, but I hope I worked it off at the gym. I got brave and wore my heart rate monitor in the pool as my friend Shelley has the same kind and told me she found out you can wear ours in water. I kept looking at it after every lap at first to make sure it was ok and it was fine (thanks Shelley lol). I got up today, got on the scale...same number it has been the past few days, still up 5 pounds from where I was last week (stubborn water retention). Ugh. Someone poke a hole in me! :) But I gave myself a good talking to and prayed a lot before leaving for and on the way to the rec center. I'm realizing that this big hump I'm trying to get over isn't going to happen in my own strength. I definitely need the Lord's help. I'm constantly learning and growing in my Christian life and learning how God talks to me. Last night I went to bed and read the Bible on my PDA before getting sleepy enough to fall asleep (as I can read that in the dark to not wake Greg up). I was reading the book of Zechariah and basically it's a vision God is showing Zechariah about how He's going to restore Israel. In chapter 2 verse 8 it says "...for whoever touches you (Israel) touches the apple of His (God's) eye." In chapter 3, it's talking about a vision Zechariah had where he saw a high priest standing before God and that Satan was standing there accusing him. It says "The LORD said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan." and it goes on to talk about how God restored the high priest symbolic of how God is going to cleanse and restore Israel as a priestly nation. Then in chapter 4, verse 6 talks about how God is going to help restore Jerusalem and He said "not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord Almighty." These verses really stood out to me in light of what I'm dealing with about my weight right now and I know that you can read a verse in the Bible one day and get one thing out of it and another day and get something totally different out of it, depending on what you're facing in your life at the time. Anyway...what God spoke to me about this is that I am the apple of God's eye and that God wants the very best for me. If anyone (be it Satan accusing me or me making bad choices for myself) touches me, they're touching the apple of God's eye. So when I don't take care of myself, I'm not doing for myself what God would want for me. On the opposite side of the coin, many things in the life of a Christian is spiritual warfare. Sometimes when a Chrsitian has low self esteem, it's forces of evil accusing them to try to render them ineffective in their lives and boy does it work. If we get so down about ourselves, we are ineffective in every area of our lives and when we're ineffective we are no threat to the forces of evil, so they have us where they want us. So whether it be making bad choices for myself or listening to accusations that make me think I can not accomplish what I want, it's touching the apple of God's eye and not at all what God wants for me. So then when it discusses Satan accusing the high priest and God says "The Lord rebuke you", it strikes me that it's HIS power that rebukes evil and not my own. He does not say "hey high priest, rebuke Satan who is accusing you." He says "I" rebuke you, get out of here and leave my child in peace. So that reminds me that I am God's child and He wants me to come to Him asking for help and to depend on Him more to fight for me. I depend on my own strength way too much. Which is where chapter 4 comes in. It's not by my own power or might that I accomplish anything, but by the help God gives me. So anyway...it's a lesson to me as a Christian that I try to fight way too many of my battles in my own strength instead of asking for help and depending on God more to help me get through things. I'm also guilty of not asking others for help enough, I'm aware, as I'm the type that's always afraid of bothering people. Often I'll avoid calling a friend to talk for fear that I'll call at the wrong time or bother them and so I just won't call even when I love my friends dearly. It's a fear of losing people thing I think. I've lost so many friends and family to death that I don't want to lose anyone by being a pest so I don't lean on them like I probably should. But more so, I do the same thing with God. I'm always afraid that my problems are too small for Him and then I get the old tapes playing in my head that say I'm not important enough to trouble Him with my issues. I get that from a very temperamental father who would often berate me and I learned to avoid him as much as possible due to his nasty temper, so I'm transferring that to my spiritual Father too. Anyway...I know not everyone here shares my faith, but I've noticed that many of you do, so I hope that the lessons God was trying to teach me last night and this morning is something you can glean something from as well whether you have Christian beliefs or not. So I'm really going to try to lean on God more often and try to stop listening to the accusing voices that tell me my issues are too small to trouble God or the people in my life with and I'm going to try to spend more time in prayer asking for help outside myself. My motivation level is better today. I did eat a little off my plan, but really not all that far off. I'm going back to the rec center tomorrow and I can take my time as we're keeping Evan home from school again since he came home today with his nose running and coughing a lot, so Greg's going to be home with him and I can take my time at the gym. HElen February 06 Blood Sugar and Weight LossKELLEY: Blood sugar is part of everyone's body chemistry but is a concern for every minute of my day. I have been blessed that I only have to be on oral medications. At one point, I was taking a medicine for diabetes that could cause low blood sugar. Every night before bed, I would eat an Extendbar to keep my blood sugar up while I was sleeping. I was waking up many nights very sick to my stomach as my sugar had bottomed out. In came Januvia, in my opinion, the diabetes wonder drug. Away went the nightly snacking at bedtime, as it does not cause the lows. HOWEVER, as I have lost weight and my body processes the sugar more efficiently I have found that I do still experience lows at some times. One such time is after exercising vigorously as my body is pulling from the sugar sources for fueling my workouts. I have combated that by consuming a protein and carb serving about an hour before working out. The time that is really causing me problems lately is during my monthly cycle. Blood sugar always does weird things during that period of time, which is well documented. I am experiencing lows just a few hours after eating my evening meal and right before bed. I have always budgeted a few flex points for extras in the evening but Saturday was a real doozy. As I had already used some extra points I ended up with having to use 11 of my weekly points allowance of 35 for the day as my sugar was low at bedtime. The last few days I have been eating light during the day so I can have a bigger dinner with more carbs and if a low comes on, I can treat it with food without worrying about using a bunch of weekly points. Sunday I only used 3 extra points and last night 2. I am very grateful that there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel for me in relation to my diabetes. I can and will survive all these bumps in the road and they can be managed with planning. It will be the most marvelous day when I can throw those pills away. I am looking forward to seeing my A1C test results next month at the endocrinologist. February 03 Still battling the water monster - The warrior is a childHELEN:
Sigh...
Ok, so I'm still all full of water and I'd gained a whopping nine pounds! Oh man! But today I have one of those pounds off and my tooth has stopped hurting and the worst of the symptoms I had for about 3 days are gone. I sure hope the other 8 leave me SOON and take a few friends with it.
I'm pretty bummed about it today to be perfectly honest, but I'm trying to take my own advice and take it one day at a time. If the water is still here tomorrow, I'll try to focus on tomorrow and that's it. Then the next day...the same thing. Eventually my body will cooperate and get rid of this stubborn water. But at the same time, I'm thankful for the lessons that I learn through moments like this.
It teaches me endurance, patience, tenacity and to overcome temptation (like giving in to cheesecake when the scale is going UP instead of down after a week of heavy excercise). Also, by being honest in my journey and chronicling the bad with the good here, maybe as I learn what helps and hurts things like this (my water gain), it can help those who read my posts who may be dealing with the same things. I've come to learn through the trials I have with my family's disabilities that there's a reason why the Lord allows things like this to happen and that if we focus on the lessons we're being taught through the trials, it's easier to bear up under the weight of the struggle. This too will come to pass :) Eventually! Today I've had on my mind something my online friend Leela said the other day. I'm trying to "soldier through it". The imagery for me is that of a soldier trudging through a battlefield and walking one step at a time even though bullets are flying from every direction. Then I think of that Twila Paris song, "The Warrior is a Child". If you've never heard it, it goes "They don't know that I go running home when I fall down, they don't know who picks me up when no one is around. I drop my sword and look up for a smile. Deep inside this armour....the warrior is a child." So I try to trudge through the battlefield and go home, drop my sword and drop to my knees and cry out to the Father to pleeeeeeease help this warrior lol.
Lyrics to Twila Paris song, "The Warrior is a Child"
Lately I've been winning battles left and right
But even winners can get wounded in the fight
People say that I'm amazing
Strong beyond my years
But they don't see inside of me
I'm hiding all the tears
And they don't know that I go
running home when I fall down
They don't know who picks me up when no one is around
I drop my sword and cry for just a while
'Cause deep inside this armor
The warrior is a child
Unafraid because His armor is the best
But even soldiers need a quiet place to rest
People say that I'm amazing
Never face retreat
But they don't see the enemies
That lay me at His feet
And they don't know that I go
running home when I fall down
They don't know who picks me up when no one is around
I drop my sword and cry for just a while
'Cause deep inside this armor
The warrior is a child
And they don't know that I go
running home when I fall down
They don't know who picks me up when no one is around
I drop my sword and look up for a smile
'Cause deep inside this armor
Deep inside this armor
Deep inside this armor
The warrior is a child
Imagery does help at moments like this :) January 31 Looking Back and Forward to the FutureKELLEY: The month is almost over! I turn 43 on the 8th of February. I was just thinking how much healthier and in better shape I am than this time last year. What a difference a year makes. I have not been sick one time since starting WW and adopting a healthy eating lifestyle. I am not working the program from the aspect of you can have anything just as long as the points are there to use. I eat nothing fried, watch my fat grams, no fast food, restaurant food is planned beforehand to have healthy choices (only a select few I go to), limit processed foods as much as possible, buy organic if available, lots of fruits and vegetables, a stickler for my daily sodium intake etc. I think you get the picture. So many times I have had to hold my tongue at work when I see others putting garbage in their mouths. I also am trying to set an example at home as to how you should eat to lower cholesterol, lose a few pounds, and get healthier overall. That is a tough one and really has not worked. I do cook very healthy meals and my adult brother who lives with me eats what I cook, but with oversized portions. Do not know what I weighed this time last year but the 44 pounds since May 5th (WW anniversary date) feels good and has really made a difference. Clothing size there is a big difference also. I was wearing a 26W jeans and I can fit into a 22W with room to spare. Have not tried on a 20W but will the next time I am in Wal-Mart. My tops were 24/26 and I am comfortably wearing 16/18. I even put on several 14/16 I bought a while back as incentives and they fit just still a little tighter in the bust than I like them. Exercise wise I would never have worked out before! Now I enjoy it and when I do not go for some reason, I miss it. Afterwards it feels awesome like you are on Cloud 9! Guess that is the endorphins and probably a big reason I hate not doing it. I go back to my endocrinologist mid March and I want to have lost 50 pounds total by then. She was so pleased in September when I had lost 25 pounds on her scale. She said I should lose another 20 by March but I have almost surpassed that and am looking forward to seeing her with at least a 50-pound total loss. I have 90 pounds to go to goal BUT that 90 pounds is as doable as the first 44 were. I look forward to everything the future holds for me! I am sure there will be bumps in the road but as the song says the future looks bright, I got to wear shades! New health issues, seeking help. Lymphedema? HELEN: I've been having some health issues lately on top of spending more time at the gym trying to get this weight down. I just got off the phone making a doctor appointment to try to seek some help for this water retention. I'm up yet another pound and am looking at 292 today (from the 283 I was at just the other day), so that's up NINE pounds now. I called my doctor and the soonest they could get me in was the middle of February and after the receptionist asked me what was wrong and I told her, she said I needed seen sooner than that, so she made an appointment with the nurse practitioner tomorrow at 1:00. I hope I can keep the appointment! We have a winter storm watch from tonight to late tomorrow night, so I'm concerned about making it the nearly hour drive to Mansfield. I've been having some new symptoms and after doing some research online the other night, I really think it's lymphedema. I've had a killer toothache, some blurred vision, lots of dizziness, severe fatigue, feeling like I'm in a dream. Those are all symptoms I read about on the web the other night for symptoms of lymphedema, along with my old symptoms of darkened skin on my lower left leg from when I was at my heaviest weight. I really think I did a lot of damage to my lymphatic system when I weighed 457 pounds that I'm seeing the results of now at 283 (or whatever my true weight is under all this water). When I woke up yesterday and looked in the mirror, my neck was swollen and it was hard to tell where my jaw ended and my neck began. As the day progressed, it went down and my lower left leg swelled up more. I did work out at the rec center yesterday and had to have a shorter workout as I had my first appointment with the counselor I'm going to be starting to see (that works with my surgeon) every other week. So I walked about two miles and got on the stationary bike for about 20 minutes but skipped the swimming since I had to be in Akron for that appointment. I definitely skipped getting in the hot tub or sauna as I think that may be the cause of this recent increase in symptoms. I was originally doing research online to see if a sauna would improve (or make worse) the water retention issues I've been having. I wound up following links to other places about lymphedema and that's how I came to find out the toothache and all the other symptoms are symptoms of lymphedema. Anyway...I read that you should avoid sources of heat like hot tubs and saunas if you're having trouble with water retention because heat constricts your blood vessels making the passage of fluids more difficult. Bingo. I think that's what's caused my problems here lately. I've been sitting in the hot tub after every intense workout thinking it would HELP my circulatory system, but instead it's the opposite. I've been in the sauna twice as well. I really don't think my doctor can do anything about my water pill prescription due to my problem with low potassium, but I'm going to try to see if the nurse practitioner tomorrow will 1. Give me a prescription for compression stockings (as I don't know if I'm wrapping my legs too tightly or not tightly enough with the ace bandages) and 2. A referral to some type of physical therapy to try to pump this excess fluid out of me on a regular basis OR 3. Refer me to a lymphatic specialist. Something has to give here...I'm sick of seeing the scale shoot up like this, but lately much more than that, this recent set of symptoms is scaring me. I know it's not a true tooth ache because I've had a root canal done on that tooth. It's not at all like me to get so severely fatigued in the evenings (and all day long the day before yesterday) as I'm usually a night owl, as you all know. So pray that the weather holds up so I can get to my appointment tomorrow and that I can have some type of therapy or something to help with this. Thanks! Helen January 29 Updated David Letterman Top Ten Ways to Know You're Working Out Too HardYa know, I just remembered that I can add number 9 to this list :) Yesterday at the gym I went to use a recumbant bike, but they were all busy, so I got on the regular stationary bike till a recumbant bike opened up. I got on the bike and realized the seat was too low, so I got off and adjusted the seat and got back on and started pedaling and a little while later I drop about six inches with a loud thud that startled the guy on the bike next to mine and I thought he was going to fall off his bike. Turns out I didn't have the adjustment all the way locked and when I got to pedaling really hard it put pressure on the seat and made it slip and drop down to the lowest point. It was a loud thud and the guy had been reading a magazine while he rode and the sound and sudden movement of me dropping on my seat startled him and made him lose his balance and looked at me in shock as he grabbed onto his bike to keep from falling. Fortunately, he's someone my husband and I had made friends with last week. I was so embarrased and just got off, fixed the seat back and made sure it was in the locked position, apologized and got back on my bike lol On my yahoo support group that I moderate, for people who have at least 100 pounds to lose (or have at one point) called "Challenged to Change", we're compiling a silly list of incidents we have when working out. We're calling it the David Letterman Top Ten Wayt to Know You're Working Out Too Hard :) So far we have eight and I thought I'd share them here: 8. You have an 'incident' with your exercise band when you have to put it behind you to work your arms behind your back. When you go to bring it over your head and back to the front it gets caught in your hair at the nape of your neck like a big gigantic rubberband!!! 7. You haven't worn your bathing suit since you lost over 70 pounds and you join a new gym and start swimming. You get halfway down the lane and your swim skirt (that's detachable and separate from your suit since your suit is the type that doesn't have a skirt) slides down your waist, over your hips and off your legs and floats by you and you have to grab it and put it on the side of the pool by your towel hoping that nobody noticed and thought it was your actual swimsuit that came off J 6. You are exercising too vigourously when, while trying to do double- sidesteps in a Leslie Sansone "fast mile", you extend youself too far and end up with one foot on top of the other. The momentum you had built up in your body by working out at such a fast pace causes you to stumble hard and SLAM into the couch arm rest, bouncing off onto the floor, and getting painful carpet burns on your left leg and arm. It also causes your husband, who was in another room, to come flying out to the living room to see if you had fainted because he heard the enormous crash! Leela...who is still in a little bit of pain! 5. While out on the road riding your bike, your husband calls your cell phone. While he is thinking you are getting ready to have a heart attack, the sweat that is dripping off of you hits the phone and makes it shut off and not turn back on until you take the battery out and dry everything off. During the 5 minutes it takes to do this, he leaves about 10 voicemails and the last one says that he is calling a friend of yours and sending them out to find you! 4. Your phone rings while you are working out and you answer it without taking time to get your breath and the person on the other end thinks something is horribly wrong and starts saying "Are you OK?" in an I'm-going-to- call-911 tone of voice. You manage to squeeze out "Exercising" so the person knows what is going on...but you keep exercising during the rest of the phone call even though it means you can't speak because you don't want to lose your momentum! (Poor Philip...:) ) 3. You're doing sit ups on the hydraulic sit-up machine at Curves and go back so hard the machine slides backward on the carpet and the next time you bend over and then sit up and go back you hit your head really hard on the fire extinguisher that's mounted on the wall and nearly knock yourself out. (true story :) I pull the machine out farther every time before I use it now). 2.You run into the bathroom real fast at the gym bec. you do not want to interrupt your work out, but end up having a piece of toilet paper hanging out of your pants when you return to the gym floor! (luckily this happened a few years a go at a different gym!)CE 1. The wire in your underwire snaps due to too much pressure from all that bouncing and jumping during and exercise DVD! Activity, Weigh In, and cleansing physically, spiritually, and mentallyKELLEY: Had a great past week! I joined the local university rec center on the 18th at a 3rd of what the local Y would cost me due to being an alumni. The good thing is that it is state of the art! Opened in April of 2007 after being destroyed in a tornado in 2004 or 2005. Their indoor walking track is made out of recycled Nike shoes along with the flooring under the cardio equipment. There are 2 racquetball courts that I would like to learn how to play. I am trying to convince my brother to drop his Y membership and join too. He knows how to play racquetball and I suggested maybe he could teach me but that didn't get too far. I haven't used their weight equipment but they have a 5,000 square feet area devoted to weights. They also have 3 basketball courts, volleyball court, and an awesome swimming area. I am enjoying water aerobics classes two evening a week after work. Monday evening was usually my Curves time but now I am going to Curves at lunch. Don't want to give up my resistance training. I will be measured again this week to see what I have lost inch wise. Tonight I start swimming lessons after water aerobics. They run until April 14th. I can swim as it was a requirement to get my college degree. If you didn't pass swimming you didn't graduate no matter what else you had done. I want to improve my stroke technique. I wear glasses but have had contacts in the past. With my tax money, contacts are on my list so I can actually see in the water with the use of water tight googles. They also have personal trainers at a very reduced rate. Comes to about 10 dollars a session. I have to wait till I go to my endocrinologist in March to get a physicians clearance form completed and I will definitely be on board with that! I also had an awesome week on the scale! Lost 3 pounds down to 220! Don't remember when I was this size! Sometimes in high school and I graduated on 1983. Twenty five years or longer – unbelievable! Got this verse and devotion in my email this past week. It really spoke volumes to me! It is the way I feel so self confident. I look strangers in the eye, smile, and speak in passing. I never would have done that before losing these 44 pounds. It just feels awesome to know I am doing everything to get my body into tip top shape and that I actually enjoy working out! 1 Corinthians 6:11 . . .but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. In many respects, dieting is like a washing away of fat. What greater joy is there than to step up on the scales and see the pointer a few marks to the left of where it was a couple days before. When we lose, we feel cleansed, and the cleansing is not just physical. Emotionally we begin to feel better about ourselves. Our guilt, our poor self-image, our pain all begin to wash away, too. This is the best washing of all. We are renewed both inside and out, and we become a fitting and holy temple; a righteous dwelling place for the Lord! Today's thought: Each pound lost cleanses me physically, spiritually, and mentally. I dreamed over the weekend that I was being trained by Jillian. It was such and awesome dream and how great would that be to have just 1 training session with her! She is definitely an inspiration for me as she was an overweight kid that turned it around. I have been really considering getting a graduate degree in exercise science in the next couple of years. It can be done online through my alma mater. If the opportunities were available around here when I get to my goal I would love to become involved in training. I think this comes from loving my body for the first time in years and seeing the importance trainers play in changing people's worlds! January 28 Water Retention attack in FULL Swing :(HELEN: I'm fighting off some serious frustration today. After seeing 283 just the other day, today I got on the scale to see 290!! Sigh...water retention just will not leave me alone and here I am looking at a SEVEN pound gain after one of the heaviest workout weeks I've had in a long time while staying right on track with my eating and water drinking. I could just cry...sigh. But I have to get it through my head that I've always been a camel and I probably will always be a camel for whatever reason and I need to get it into my head that I did not screw up and gain any fat back and that it's just temporary. Boy is that hard though. I can't wait to get this water out of me...grrrrrrrrrr. :( I get a C for yesterday, Saturday (food calories were fine, but turned out to be way too high in sodium I later found out) and I didn't work out. I had a Subway six inch sub that I found out today had 1500 mg of sodium in it! Yikes! But I had a three pound gain show up yesterday, so today was an extra four pound gain since yesterday. Today (Sunday) I get a B. I didn't work out, but I normally don't on Sundays, I got lots of water in and my calorie amount was ok, but I could have made better choices. I"d pre-planned my meals up through Saturday and hadn't planned today, so I winged it. I definitely have to keep the planning process up. I spent most of the late night last night trying to figure out why my attempts at adding a banner to the Live Spaces page Kelley and I are using for our Biggest Loser Million Pounds Match Up wasn't working. It was driving me insane! :) Then I slept on it, got up today and worked on it for a while again, got aggravated again :) So then I ran Windows Update, a spyware program and Norton Windoctor, rebooted, took a break and then tackled it again and found the check box I needed to make the banner work. I guess the maintenance steps I took fixed whatever was keeping me from seeing the check box I needed to access. Then I spent another couple of hours changing the colors and some of the layout on it, so most of my lazy day was spent on maintenance of my computer and the web site (http://helenkelley.spaces.live.com) I just finished baking cookies a few hours ago. Not for me, but for my women's Bible study group tomorrow night. My group has hospitality duties tomorrow night and it's a rare night that the small discussion group I lead is down from about 7 ladies to just two of us (for just tomorrow night) and two of us have to bake cookies and serve coffee so since I'm the leader of the discussion group, it's my responsibility to step in and do what's needed done when my ladies aren't there. So I made a quick batch of chocolate chips cookies since I had chocolate chips left over from Christmas. I put them in a zip lock bag as soon as they were cool enough and I put them up to take to Bible study tomorrow night so I don't get into them. I did have a couple fresh from the oven (who can resist that? :) ) But I didn't devour them like I would have at one time, so it's all good. I'm getting up and going to the gym earlier than usual because my son's teacher is coming for a home visit tomorrow afternoon, so I have to be home earlier than I would normally be concerned about getting home by. I'm looking forward to the gym though. I'm going by myself again this time, so I should be able to get my full workouts in, and if I get there an hour earlier than I had been, I'll have time to get on the recumbant bike and gazelle. If I have time, I may try out the elliptical too. My aim is to walk three miles and swim one for sure and definitely the recumbant bike. Anything else I can squeeze in will be icing on the cake (low fat of course :) ) |
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