Biggest Loser Linkup Jan 28



Another great weigh-in this week!!  I have to say that I am so excited to (seemingly) have found a way to consistently lose weight after having a year of wandering around trying this and trying that.  Eating my daily calories and working out LESS is working!

I've read a lot of different blogs and advice from folks who have reached their goals and are in maintenance.  They all actually eat...they don't starve themselves, they don't workout like crazy people.  I want to get there...I want to live that life, and that's why I like to say that I'm eating the way that I want to eat for the rest of my life.  I can carry that over and say that I'm living the life that I want to have for the rest of my life.  I guess with that part, I'm not really there yet.  Even though I've been doing this for a year, I'm still trying to figure things out.  I'm still not comfortable relaxing about what I have to do yet.  I know that this may never go away but I feel like I'm always running from Previously Unhealthy Jenn.  I'm still worried that she'll catch me and hold me down.  Because honestly, there are days when if I really let my guard down, I could certainly let her take hold.  And I'm talking about those days when I'm just tired.  Tired of thinking about things so much, tired of worrying about being good with my eating...I look at everyone else and I think "Why do I have to think so HARD about this?  Why do I have to plan so much?  Why can't I go out to dinner spontaneously and not stress about what I will be able to eat?"

This weekend, Hubby and I went out to our favorite diner for breakfast.  I ordered a broccoli and cheese omelette and didn't think a thing about it...that was kind of nice.  But halfway through it, I got a little anxious because all of a sudden I thought, "Holy crap...I didn't order this omelette made with egg whites or with Egg Beaters?"  The reason that this was disturbing to me was because I honestly just forgot.  And that is NOT like me...at all.  I'm always, always trying to figure out a healthier way to eat the things I enjoy.  I stressed for hours afterwards that I just can't let my guard down...I mean an omelett is like the easiest thing to order healthily.  I love egg whites and Egg Beaters so it's not like I did it for taste...it's just that I plain didn't think about it and that worries me.

The fact of the matter is that right now, I can't let my guard down yet.  Even after a year, I'm still not free of Previously Unhealthy Jenn.  Now, obviously there are bigger things in the Universe to worry about and I'm FOREVER saying "One meal does not a bad day make."  But my vision of the me that I want to be is in the very near future...and I'm not stopping til I get there.  So I gotta keep on going!

Weekly loss:  -1.5
Total on the challenge:  4.2 lost

Total on my journey:  49.2 lost

My Liebster Award Nomination

Wow!  A BIG thank you to Miss Angie at Health Not to Health Nut for nominating me for the Liebster award – I’m honored that she would think of me!  Check out her blog; it’s great!

Here's how it works-the rules:

Each blogger posts 11 random facts about themselves.

Answer the questions the tagger has set for you

Choose 11 new bloggers to pass the award to/nominate

Come up with 11 new questions to ask your nominees

Go to their page and tell them about the award.

No tag backs! 

11 Random Facts About Me

One: I’m a huge planner.  Not like, “Hey let’s make a to-do list!”, but really more like, “I’m going to work out at 12:00, I’ll be home by 1:15, I’ll shower by 1:30, and then I can relax at 2:15…”  Yah, I plan when I’m going to RELAX.  I envy people who can relax more and not stress…I’m trying to do that this year.

Two: I love to paint.  I wish I had more time to do it; it brings me a lot of joy and I love to give paintings as gifts.  Here’s a few:

Three: I’m new to blogging but I love it!  I started out just wanting to share my healthy recipes and hoped to lose a few pounds along the way.  It’s been a great success for me healthy-wise; the accountability has been an amazing part of my journey and I wish I could quit my job and do it full-time!

Four: People think that I’m a super-friendly, outgoing person, and I really generally am, but I crave my private moments, too.  As I get older, it’s gotten stronger!

Five:  I’m a grudge-holder.  Not to an extreme in that I’ll never forgive someone, but I NEVER forget.

Six: I love shoes.  I love shoes.  I love shoes.  Did I mention that I love shoes?  I currently have over 100 pairs.  They make me happy.

Seven: In the 25 years that I’ve been with my (now) husband, I have never gotten tired of him.  We started dating when I was only 16 years old and I wanted to marry him from that moment on.  He is absolutely the love of my life and my very best friend.  Thankfully, he hasn’t gotten tired of me yet!

Eight: I was thin until I turned 19 when I started gaining weight due to PCOS…it’s very interesting to have been on both sides of the weight coin – people are not very nice to fat people; I’ve seen shallow and ignorance on many different levels and being overweight and invisible allows you to see people for who they truly are.  I vow to remain that enlightened even when I reach goal and for the rest of my life.

Nine: I love books; I love to read but I’m not a fan of the library…because of Random Fact #10…

Ten: I'm a germophobe…and not in the way that most people are.  I’m a germophobe because I have a fear of vomit.  Anything that could lead to that horrible event is what I’m fearful of…so I cook my meat until it’s completely done, I don’t drink to drunkness, if you or your children have tossed your cookies in the last 48 hours, please stay away, and please don’t be offended if I use hand sanitizer after touching you J

Eleven: We lost our beloved dog, Cosmo 4 years ago and it’s been very difficult to get over that loss…especially for my dear Hubs…we both feel we are almost ready to take the plunge again – fingers crossed!  Here’s a picture of our boy:

11 Answers to 11 Questions:

1.    What is your number one hope for 2013? 
To get even closer to my weight loss goal.

2. What changes are you making for yourself this year?
I’m trying to be less of a worrier and trying to enjoy living in the moment.

3. What inspires you to keep blogging?

I love food and everything it is about. The experience, the joy of tasting new things, the enjoyment that people receive from great eats, and I love sharing recipes.  I like trying to remake a previously unhealthy recipe into a healthy one – and it’s an extra special bonus when it actually tastes great!

4. Who do you blog for?

I started blogging for my friends; now I know that I blog for me.

5. Where do you see your blog in 5 years?

I would love to be a full-time recipe blogger and make enough money to do it!

6. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a dancer!

7.  What is your greatest accomplishment?

My greatest accomplishment is my 18 year marriage.  (Coming in at a close second is my weight loss success thus far.)

8. What advice would you give someone trying to get healthy?

Eat like you want to eat for the rest of your life; healthy living is a way of life, not a temporary situation to get you through.  Don’t cut anything out, just make smart choices as often as you can.

9. What's your fondest childhood memory?
I have many; but I loved all the car trips my family would go on – we loved to just “go for a ride.”

10. Do you have a favorite pair of shoes?  If so what are they?

I have many favorite pairs that I love for so many reasons.  Currently, my favorite pair are by Diba.  They are black platform, sling-back peep-toes.

11. What is one health trend you wish would just disappear?

It’s really more that I wish the philosophy of a quick-fix for losing weight would go away.  It’s HARD, people!  There’s no easy way – it really and truly is eating right and getting some exercise incorporated into your life.

Thank you again Miss Angie for tagging me!

My Nominees - Check out their Blogs!!

KTJ Weighing In
Onederland or Bust
Latte and a Prayer
111 Pounds
Football & Glitter
Isn't She Beautiful
Fat to Fit Mommy
The Journey to Get Me Back
Sixty to Go
Michelle's Journey
Life By Lex

My 11 Questions for Nominees:

1)    What do you enjoy about blogging?

2)    How do you gain followers and what types of advertising (if any) do you do?

3)    Do you prefer working out in the morning or evening?

4)    What are your favorite workouts?

5)    When you go shopping, do you prefer to do it alone or with friends?

6)    What’s your favorite book, movie or both?

7)    Phone call or text?

8)    Do you watch reality shows and if so, which ones?

9)    What are your goals for 2013?

10) Where was the last place you vacationed?

11) What is your dream job?

 

Non-Scale Victories Linkup

I love this idea by Katie at KTJ Weighing In and Lex at Life By Lex.  The scale is not the only way to gauge our successes but we put so much power in that little 12x12 box, don’t we?  Like she notes, the scale doesn’t know all of the little healthy things you choose to do during the week.  And it’s certainly not going to say, “Hey Jenn, great job for driving past that parking spot close to the door and instead choosing the one at the other end of the parking lot” or “Gurrl, I saw you kicking ass on that treadmill; all running and stuff…”

Wouldn’t it be great if it did?  That scale would be my best friend; I’d pet it and tell it how much I loved it every day...

So instead of working hard and jumping on the scale only to be kicked in the gut when it doesn’t acknowledge our hard work, Katie thought a great way to reward and REMIND ourselves how all of those little things add up, is by sharing what our non-scale victories were.

Here are some of mine:

• Said parking spot choice above.
• Said interval running on treadmill above.
• Buying a sweater and a blouse in size 14/16 which I have not been able to wear in ohhhh…20 years.  I know this is relative since so many clothing designers do not follow the same sizing...but it felt good.  Really, really good.
• Turning down a bite of a buddy’s chocolate chip cookie.
• Eating only part of, and then throwing away the rest of, a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory chocolate caramel apple (that one was hard…)
• Trying a new cardio class – Body Attack - and liking it…I’m a Zumba girl at heart so this was out of my zone, but I’ll try anything once!  Another great bonus to this class was stretching at the end:  I found myself performing moves that in the past I could not do because of my girth.  That was pretty exciting J
• Eating healthy on the two nights that I did NOT plan meals for.  This one doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but many of us know that if we don’t plan it’s harder to make healthy options.  But what was great was that I have enough healthy stuff in my house so that even when I don’t plan, I still have lots of healthy options.  In the past, I would have said, “Screw it, we’re having pizza.”

So the next time your scale is not being nice, just give it the finger and then try to remember all of the seemingly little things you’ve done during the week to make healthy choices…they add up...and then pat yourself on the back.  Go You.

Biggest Loser Linkup Week 3

Yahoo!!  I had a great weigh-in this week!  So excited that it was a WHOLE number vs. being a POINT something or other…I know that I should be happy with any type of minus, but those bigger numbers sure make a week’s effort pretty rewarding, don’t they?!  Boy, it's so nice to finally be moving past this latest plateau; it's taken me a little over 5 months to lose these last 5lbs.  Even though that's a loooonnnnngggggg time, I tried to just keep going.  It's all I know to do.  I'm not going to start over again, that is for DAMN sure.  So take it from me, if you are hitting that wall and not moving...you will eventually bust through it.  It may take some tweaking, but you WILL get through it.

I stuck to the plan of eating my daily calories no matter the day or whether or not I worked out.  I took a day off between workouts which is very hard for me.  I honestly LOVE working out; I look forward to it.  My friends laugh at me when I get excited that I’m going to the gym or home to use my elliptical.  It’s true what they say about being addicted to working out or at least the “high” of working out; at some point it changes from being work and turns into fun. 

I’m not going to lie, it really is hard work work…I mean, really hard.  And in the beginning I had to talk to myself every day and force myself to do what I needed to do.  Even as recently as this past holiday; I said many times, “The last thing I want to do today is work out…so I guess I’ll work out.”  It’s not easy, but no one ever said it would be.  In the past, I dreaded it!  The difference is that this time, I want it more than anything else.  I want to be healthy.  And when you start to like exercising and being healthy, things change.  I love this quote: 

And it's even better to see your hard work pay off every now and again.

Weekly loss:  -2.0
Total on the challenge:  2.7 lost
Total on my journey:  47.7 lost

Almost to 50, woohoo!

I hope everyone had a great weigh-in, too!

Biggest Loser Challenge

Biggest Loser Linkup

Very excited to be participating in the Biggest Loser challenge!

This is my first week on the challenge but I've been on my journey for a little over a year.  I really think this challenge is going to ramp up my efforts and I'm so glad to be a part of it!

The changes that I made this week had a small impact but I am slowly inching past this latest plateau.  Slow and steady wins the race, right??  That's what I'm going with!

What I did:  I used to try to eat back all of my workout calories and for the past week I stuck to eating the same amount of calories every day; about 1700.  And it seems to be working!

My workouts were impeded a little by my knee, but by the weekend, I was back up and at 'em.  My typical workouts include 45-60 minutes of elliptical 2-3 times per week and Zumba 2 times a week for a total of 5 days.

Weekly loss:  -.7

Total on the challenge:  .7 lost

Total on my journey:  45.7 lost

Thanks for stopping by and good luck to my BLC buddies!

Pit and Peak Linkup 1/11/13

 

I love this idea (and anyone who knows me, knows I love the Kardashians) of sharing our Pit & Peaks of the week.  I'm excited to take part!  So here goes:

I'm starting off with my peaks (two parts) because my pit came from them :)  I haven't been to Zumba in a month because my mom was here in December and I'd rather workout here at home with her than leave her to go to the gym.  So on Sunday, I FINALLY got to go back to my favorite Zumba class and just like it always is, it was a kickass burn.  I felt so good, surprisingly since I'd been gone for month!  I jumped around like a crazy person and shook my badonk like I hadn't shaken it in a while...I loved being back to the gym and I burned almost 600 calories by the end of the class.  I left there and then joined one of my workout buddies at my house and walked another 3 miles and I ended the day with over 1100 calories - awesome, right?!?

So here comes my pit :(  Monday morning, I was standing in my kitchen at work, doing something pretty substantial:  um, standing there.  I went to take a step and bam!  My knee gave out!  I could barely walk but somehow made it up to my office.  I have felt little tugs on my knees in the past - I mean, let's face it, they've been under some stress for the past 20 years - but this one hurt a little more...I couldn't just walk it off. I decided I'd sit and rest it for the day...I changed from my cute heels into some boring flats...and figured that I wouldn't do anything crazy and I'd be fine for my Monday night Zumba class.  Thankfully, I have a great team that I work with and one of my gals ran to CVS to get me a knee brace; it helped a lot.  I still had plans to workout...that is, until my gym buddy looked at me incredulously and said, "You are NOT going to the gym, you crazy person!  You are going to rest your knee."  So, I pouted, but figured that she was probably right.  I certainly don't want to do so much damage that I have to have surgery and be off my feet for even longer than a few days.

I started to think about why I was hesitant to "take a break".  I mean the old me would have taken any opportunity to NOT workout...hangnail?  Oh I better rest.  So what I came up with is something I've been thinking about a lot lately.  One thing that I've learned in this journey is that I sort of rely A LOT on my workouts to be able to enjoy a few extra treats in my day.  I don't go nuts, but it's nice to have a little bit of a cushion on some days.  The problem with this philosophy is that I still struggle mentally with my inner fat girl & I worry that at any moment I could lose all control and just go over the edge.  Does anyone else feel this way?  Hubby says that it's because I still don't know who the "new" me is and I certainly don't trust her yet.  He doesn't even know that old fat girl anymore; he only knows this new chick who rolled up and seems to have her crap together.  Which is pretty funny since we've been together 25 years and 20 of those years, I WAS that fat girl.  

But isn't it funny that even though my life is so drastically different that it used to be, that girl still just lurks there?  I wonder if I'll spend my life always trying to squash her?  In truth, I don't want to squash her; she is a huge (heh heh) part of me.  I liked her, quite honestly.  She was the girl who pointed me in the direction of this new me.  We're always going to be buds.

So, back to the other part of my peak, I relaxed a little bit (mentally and physically), rested my knee and ROCKED keeping my calories in check WITHOUT relying on my workouts.  I took two days off and then did a little toning with not too much cardio.  Next week my goal is going to be to do the same.  I want being able to manage my calories ALL the time to become a habit.

I only had a small loss (.7) but I need to start enjoying those small losses as much as I do the big ones.  Overall, even with an injury, a great week!  I hope you a week with more peaks than pits, too.

January 3, 2013 - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Welp, I got through the holidays no worse for wear and I’m super excited about that!  The scale didn’t budge either way, and for me, that’s a huge accomplishment.  Overall, I did alright; not too crazy with all of the cookies and delicious treats around.  But, I certainly partook.  I honestly am crediting my crazy workout schedule because I certainly ate more than I had been before the holidays.

Basically, my philosophy during the last 3 weeks was simple; the convo went a little like this: 

Me to Myself:  Ugh, the last thing I want to do is work out today! 

Myself to Me:  Guess that means you better get your ass in gear & work out.

And that is exactly what I did.  I didn’t get a chance to get to the gym because my mom was here, so my handy elliptical got quite a workout itself.  AND, I got caught up on most of my trash TV, heh heh.  Hey, I’ve told you before, I’m not ashamed of my reality shows; they get me through the workouts!

I have to admit, I got a little, teensy bit nervous to get on the scale.  I mean, I had every intention of waiting to weigh until I could be good for at least a week straight after the New Year.  But then I decided I better just bite the bullet and see what the damage was.  I wanted to know how I was starting off the year.  I gave Myself the pep talk beforehand:  “Okay, you’re going to be okay no matter what it says.  You WILL NOT freak out; you will OWN what it says and you will take that information and move forward and you will NOT beat yourself up!”  I honestly, had my eyes closed and peeked.  Well, imagine my surprise to have remained the same and how VERY thankful I was that I listened to Myself…she’s alright.

But here’s an interesting thing that happened while I was avoiding my stupid friend, The Scale, and enjoying some yummy treats.  Even though I was working out like a crazy person, I was still not eating as well as I usually do and my whole mentality was really off as I got closer to having to weigh.  I started feeling bloated and fat.  I tried on a bunch of clothes that day and nothing felt good; nothing felt right or flattering.  I just KNEW that bitch was going to tell me that I had gained 10lbs.  But I hadn’t…not even an ounce.

Basically, my point is that doing what we need to do and what is right to get healthy makes us feel better.  It just does.

So, it’s the New Year and my healthy goal (NOT a resolution!) is simple:  Keep doing what I know I need to do and don’t lose momentum!  And for Gawd’s sake, give Myself some credit for all of her hard work.