Drag it up on that scale!

After basically a month of farting around (and waiting for my knee to get less angry) I drug my butt back to weigh in today. I have actually maintained since last recorded weigh in here. I had been up two to three pounds but that weight has sort of crept off over the last week. I've not been tracking much, and I've not been exercising much (except at Julie's farmsitting) but I've somehow managed to find some sort of moderator lately. It's good. Really good.

So I'm back on track. I started Zumba back last Saturday and again last night - all's well. I'm staying low impact for another week or two just to ease back in (for my knee).

And. AND. There is a Zumba instructor class on Nov 5th thirty minutes from home. I'm signing up tonight!

WOOT Wednesday!

Hah, isn't it funny how the number on the scale can set the tone for the day? Today I was down 3.0 lbs, for a total of 38.6. I've finally come to realize that while that number isn't everything it *is* significant to me. It's silly for me to try to act like it doesn't matter. I'm trying to not let it affect how I feel about myself in general, but it sure is nice to see good numbers (ie downward).

I'm starting to think I need some actual Zumba clothes. I've been too big for them so far, but I tried on some of my sister's duds the other day and they were a little snug, but fit. Hers were a medium and they go up to XXL, so I should be able to find stuff that fits. Even if I have to shop in the mens britches. I went to Kohls hoping to find some decent workout duds... but no. Ugh. Not impressed.

I'm also to a point of desperately needing new work clothes. I'm down to about two pair of pants that barely fit. The good news is that I have jeans from where I am now (about a 14 misses) to about a 6 misses. So at least I won't have to buy any new jeans!

Laura

______________________________

Wanh Wednesday

Well... poo. Weigh in this morning was a total maintain. That could be because I bolted down close to two pounds of blueberries yesterday. Hm. It counts as zero points, but certainly two pounds in one's body is still two pounds. They sure were good though! On the upside it should make for a nice loss next week.

In other news I almost have the $$ scraped together to go get my Zumba instructor's license. WOOT!

(Laura)

_____________________________

Someone has to do it!

It seems lately all we can manage is weekly weigh-in announcements. I'm blaming the weather. And a flood of freelance work (that's a good thing!). I completely missed last week. Almost missed this week. Got on the scale this morning and think it hasn't moved since the last weigh-in (I say "think" because I failed to write it down last time). Anyway, I'm within a tenth of a pound of where I was last weigh-in.

Again, that's not great, but in the grand scheme of things, at least I'm not gaining, and given my extremely odd eating habits lately, I'm okay with that. Still, I'd like to do more than just plod through the Gail Parkins Memorial Ovarian Cancer Walk/Run in September, so I really do need to get going. It's just hard to do when exercise must take place outside and we're in the middle of a nasty heat wave. But that is something of an excuse. I could set my alarm for early a.m. and get out there before the sun comes up. In fact, I think that's what I'll do. And I'll have to 'fess up here next week if I don't. I know you'll be sitting on the edges of your seats waiting to see if this becomes a fail for me, lol!

(Julie)

______________________

I'm glad someone got around to it - yesterday was crazy, and today doesn't look to be much better. Funny how going home at lunch again to potty puppies seems to somehow shoot my day!

Anyway, I was down 3.6 lbs this week. At one point over the course of the week I was up an additonal four pounds from there - lets just say that I played the vacation card, followed by the birthday card, followed by the "it's Nicky's birthday too" card. Anyway, that puts me back below where I was prior to playing all of those cards. I think my total now is like 35.6.

An interesting thought process to share: As I saw the scale registering me up by 7 lbs or so, I had a moment of intense dispair. It was a moment of, "Oh no... I'm out of control and I'm never going to get it back." I was sort of keeping an eye on things, and the fact that the scale was moving in the wrong direction was scary to me. So I stood there, nekkid, and reasoned with myself. I told myself not to worry, that it was mostly food and water weight. I reminded myself that the plan works, and that if I continued to work it I would see the scale back in order again.

Know what? It worked.

(Laura)

WI Weds

Well. Here I am. I'm putting on my big girl panties and fessing up. I'm up 3 pounds this week. Yep. I was on vacation last week... and my "vacation" carried on through last night. I didn't do any Zumba last week... so yeah, the scale groaned just a little this morning. It shouldn't be a major issue as most of that is food and water weight, but still. It is easy to see how this could have the potential to be out of control in a hurry. The good news is that it's not.

The bad news is that it's my birthday and cake is going to get in my belly. Or is that good news too?

Laura

_________________________

I was a slacker, and it's Wednesday....

I completely forgot to weigh-in and come to the blog to talk about it last week, so I'm trying to make up for it this week by saving Laura the trouble of being first! See what I good friend I am? So the moment of truth: I'm down 0.4 from the last weigh-in for a whopping total of 2, yes, count 'em, TWO pounds lost! Okay, that's almost laughable, but given that I'm not actually exercising beyond the usual stuff on the farm, I will be happy with any loss. Just imagine what I could do if I just got my lazy self on my bike every morning and rode a few miles.... I promise that day is coming, but for now just eating a healthier, more natural diet seems to be helping, albeit slowly....

(Julie)

________________________

Now who's a slacker? I'm even a day late. I'm on staycation, though, so that's my sort of kind of but not really excuse. :) I weighed in up .4 yesterday. All I can say is... clearly making a pan of brownies when on vacation and alone isn't the smartest idea ever. It is a tasty idea, but not exactly smart from a weight loss standpoint. On the other hand... they're almost gone so by today I'll be safe from myself.

Editing to correct myself - I gained .2, not .4, and at a WW meeting that's considered a maintain.

Laura

Another Weigh In Rolls Around

This week I lost 2.4, for a total of 35.2. I am now, officially, back in the land of weights that start with a "1". WOOT! I'm now below my "anything under" weight, which makes me inordinantly happy. My body appreciates it a bunch, too. I'm looking forward to next week on staycation. Maybe I'll get all wild and crazy and post more than once.

Laura

__________________________

WI Weds

Weigh In this morning had me down 1.6 lbs. Total = 32.8. It has been interesting to me to see this slow and steady loss, as opposed to my previous pattern. Last time around I'd lose less than a pound for three weeks, and then in the fourth week I'd lose anywhere from 2-4 lbs. This time it has been a steady 1-1.8 loss every week, averaging about 7.5 lbs per month. This is slower than before, but I'm so very much happier. I'm approaching things very differently this time around and I think it changes things. It has changed me.

(Laura)

_____________________________

I guess that leaves me to add in my stats. Down 0.4. Not bad since I ate like a pig, and then some, all week. Okay, so let's use another analogy: I worked like a dog and maybe that helped make up for my eating indiscretions. Still less than half a pound isn't necessarily something to crow about, but given that I'm working on that same old last 15 pounds, I'll take it. So let's see, that's a grand total of 1.6 pounds in three weeks. The fat's just flying off here...lol! But the lifestyle changes are slowly taking hold. And if I could just give up most of the chocolate I constantly crave, life would be good (well, good in the sense of weight loss, not good in the sense of giving up something I love).

(julie)

Workout Alternatives

So what do you do if you live in the country and aren't near a gym and don't want to pay to work out anyway? Well, you find things around the farm that can serve as suitable substitutes for all that fancy gym equipment (sadly, you don't get the hot Latin guy, but then again, some of the on-farm workouts can lead to embarassing situations that you probably wouldn't want anyone--hot or not--to witness!).

So, let me introduce Saturday's workout machine: the Cub Cadet rototiller. This is not a small machine, and it's heavy enough that you won't move it if the engine isn't running. I borrowed this from Robin because my garden was beginning to look like a jungle, and the grass was overwhelming the plants that are supposed to provide the vegetables that are going to sustain me through the winter.

Now, running a rototiller in and of itself could be fairly easy (if you have a tiny little Mantis, one of my favorite tillers), but if your garden happens to be hard clay, with numerous rocks on and under the soil, and your tiller is one of the big boys, then it becomes workout central! Word of warning to would-be rototiller exercisers: even smallish rocks like the ones below can cause the rototiller to buck and jump like the broncs at the Wild West show. And when that happens, well, you're hanging on for dear life, which of course means you're hanging on to the little bar that keeps the tiller running. Double jeopardy: the longer you hang on the farther it pulls you--at an amazing rate of speed. So remember, if your tiller leaps and starts dragging you like a big shark on the end of a line, LET GO of the little safety bar! At least I didn't end up crushed between the fence and the tiller or worse, but wrestling it around the garden, never knowing when the next wild buck was coming, sure was a workout!

This is the edge of the garden:

And this is one of the tilled rows.

The rock in the picture above is maybe 5 inches long, but let the tiller go over it and you'll think you've struck a boulder the size of the glacier that took down the Titanic. It took me just over an hour to wrestle that beast around my garden. Thankfully, all of my limbs and digits are intact, but I can't say the same for all my plants!

But it was a good workout--my heart rate was up, I was sweating like, well, a pig, and I certainly managed to work my legs, my core, and my arms and shoulders. In fact, my trapezius muscles are still screaming their indignity today. After I finished with the tiller, I took the hoe between plants. I liken hoeing to working on a rowing machine, but a lot less fun. But it's done, and I did get some exercise, and maybe my plants will thrive and provide lots of bounty that I can put up for the leaner winter months. (For the eating healthier and simpler part of my diet/lifestyle plan.)

Oh, and I can look forward to doing this workout on a fairly regular basis, as Robin has kindly told me to hang on to the tiller for now (little does she know about the hanging on part!)....

So the moral of this story is that you can find a workout right at home; just be careful not to damage yourself in the process, because there won't be a hot Latin guy around to save your butt.

(Julie)

Zumba Saturday

image from www.zumbainthehills.com

Today promises to be a hot and busy day. I have two Zumba classes lined up - one at 9am and then another at 11am. I've done one Zumba and one Aqua Zumba class in the same day, but never two full Zumba classes. I'm looking forward to it, but am going to be careful not to be too stupid about it.

My left knee has been acting a little wonky, and I think it was because I've been feeling SO good that I've been hopping around a hair too much. Over the years I've had tendinitis in that knee, several injuries, and probably have arthritis in it. So I need to remember to be smart - easy on the jumping.

This, my friends, is mostly just a thinly veiled attempt at ogling Beto Perez with his shirt off. Yum.



image from www.page2live.com

Weigh-In Wednesday

Ok, so maybe I'm not changing gears. I'm going to rook my partners in crime back to the blog, instead. So lets start with today's weigh-in. If you haven't been weighing, now is the time to start. If you're anti-scale, now is the time to have SOME sort of method by which you track your progress. So. Let's have it.

I weighed in this morning, and was surprised to see a 1.2 lb loss. I'd been hanging right at the status quo all week, so I was pretty pleasantly surprised. That makes a total of 31.2. I found what will become my new "before" picture, and some time this week I'll post a "before" and a "30 lbs lost" picture. Now I just have to find someone to take the current picture for me. Hm.

So. Weigh in time. Or measure time. Or jeans are looser time. Or I'm just starting out today time. Whatever it is, lets do it! You don't even have to be one of the 3 Fat Girlz. I'd love to hear from you.

Feel free to either edit and add (if you're a contributor) or post to comments. By the way, I don't urge you because I'm nosey (which I am) but because I want to cheer you on, and learn from you!

(Laura)

***********************************

Surprise! Okay, so I didn't get Laura's hint at first when she said the weigh-in post was up. I lamely wrote her back to say I was planning to put a post up later this week. Then I realized that she meant that I should post a weigh-in. Is she MAD????

Okay, truth is, I've been MIA for a long time, but I did finally spend an hour or so fighting with Blogger to recognize me (since I moved and my e-mail changed) so I could start posting again.

What? I'm NOT stalling! Honest. Okay, so it turns out that I did weigh myself a couple of weeks ago. Took me a while to find where I had written it down. And since I had to get up from my desk anyway, I decided to go climb on the scale just now. So this is not a first-thing-in-the-morning weigh-in, but then again, I've been such a backslider, it probably doesn't really matter.

That said, if my scale is accurate, I am down 1.2 pounds from the last time I stepped on two weeks ago. Not a huge change, but since I've not been doing anything in particular to try to lose, any little loss is a victory.

And since I've been on hiatus for so long, I'll just say that my approach now will be the same as it was in the past. My life circumstances are such that there is no extra money for organized exercise plans or anything similar, so for me it will be the bike and possibly taking up jogging again (ugh!). I am still trying to do the eat healthier by eating fewer processed foods thing. I have a big garden this year and hope it produces a lot that I can freeze for eating during the winter. I will add in lamb, and I have a neighbor who has promised me venison. Maybe I'll even learn to butcher my chickens. So for me the journey will be about doing things as simply as possible, just to prove to myself that I can do it--and of course there's the up side to eating less processed more natural foods: better health at any weight!

So later this week, I will post about what I bought on my most recent excursion to the farmer's market and what I've done with it so far. I also plan to post about our exercise motivator for the summer, which is to participate in the Gail Parkins Memorial Ovarian Cancer Run/Walk on September 17th, in memory of Joan Stout Knight, who lost her battle with ovarian cancer early this year. So stay tuned; we are resurrected!

P.S. to Laura: In honor of a new start, I applied a different template to the blog to change the look slightly. Feel free to go make more changes--I just thought a slightly updated look might be fun!

(Julie)

Aliens

I think that quite possibly my thoughts have been invaded by Aliens. Admittedly I did leave the house today without my tinfoil underwear, so it's really all my fault. I left myself wide open for suggestions from the great beyond.

I'm having a ridiculously stressful day. I can actually FEEL that my blood pressure is up there. WAY up there. Up in a place that it ought not be. I tried deep breathing, but almost passed out. I went and hid in the bathroom here at work for a few minutes, and it marginally helped. I texted Sandy, who always makes me giggle, and I do think the BP decreased a tiny bit.

I finally got a moment to run out and get some lunch. I went to the Wendy's to get their new Berry Almond Chicken Salad (it rocks, by the way) which is the salad I got last week. Hold the cheese. They held the cheese. I went to a different Wendy's, and the hussy at the speaker said they're premade and she cannot take the cheese off.

I said "Never mind" and went screeching out of the parking lot. No, not really. I don't think the dog-mobile could catch a wheel unless it was some sort of a dying gasp glitch. But I did drive off with authority to find something else.

As I was wandering around a different shopping center I saw that I was driving past a Ben and Jerry's. We already know I have a weakness for the B&J. I then had this thought. I thought, "I could just go get some ice cream. Then I could go over to Jersey Mike's and get a big old sub and stuff myself. I sure do deserve it after all of the suffering I've done today."

Now here's the part where Aliens took over. Ready for this? My next thoughts were, "Now that would be stupid. I don't really even want this stuff. It's not like I'm even having a craving. All I really want is to get some relief from this stress, and I know that eating all of that food is just going to PISS ME OFF... thus adding to the stress. Never mind the guilt, and then there's weigh in tomorrow to consider. I think probably all I really want to do is stuff my face and then be able to justify it tomorrow on my blog. I don't think it's worth it, not for the repercussions."

I drove on past the B&J and picked up a grilled chicken salad for lunch. I cannot guarantee that I'll make it through the rest of the day on track, but I think at least one crisis has been averted. My blood pressure isn't any better or any worse, really, but I'm happy with the not worse thing. I'm also patting myself on the back for having an adult conversation with myself - in my head, which looks infinitely less crazy to anyone watching me.

Changing Gears

Today's weigh in has me down 1.4 lbs, for a total of 30 lbs lost. I think I'm going to change gears a little. I'm thinking to start posting only in 5 lb increments, as opposed to a weekly weigh in sort of thing. I'm also seriously considering either a. changing the name of the blog, or b. starting up a new blog focusing on weight loss, exercise, getting healthy, recipes, tips, etc. I'm leaning towards leaving this one up and referring to it, but starting up something new.

But I'd need a name. I'm in a name drought right now...

Snowballing

Yesterday I forgot to take my afternoon snack with me. Typically for an afternoon snack I choose a complex carb, and something with some protein. I'll often have a few multi-grain crackers with a couple of tablespoons of hummus. This usually takes the edge off enough to get me to dinner. But yesterday I forgot to bring crackers. So I settled for an orange.

Suffice it to say that the orange, by itself, just didn't quite do it for me. I got home and immediately started munching. A piece of chocolate. A handful of nuts. Then I changed plans for dinner from a chicken breast with veggies to pasta and smoked sausage. Dinner plans went from about 10 pts to about 15 pts.

Then... not to be outdone by myself... I topped it off with 2/3 of a pint of Ben and Jerry's. Yes, really.

Of course there are consequences. First is that tomorrow morning is weigh in, and I'll be up from where I would have been had I not done that.

The second consequence? Lactose intolerance. Full flare. I wasn't even sure I'd make it to work this morning. The whole thing was just unsatisfying. I'm irked that I didn't, at the very least, consider the lactose intolerance thing. I mean, aren't I supposed to be all about being healthy? It's not healthy to have faucet-ass because I snarfed almost a pint of ice cream. It's not like I didn't KNOW I'd be in serious gastronomic distress if I ate it.

{insert gigantic self-flagellating sigh here}

By the way, in case anyone was wondering, this indulging business only put me over by 1 point for the week. So that's not so much the issue, as much as it is the mindset with which I was operating. I know I should be cutting myself some slack here. In the big grand scheme of things it's only a minor blip. But, until my gut settles I'm sure I'll continue to really curse my own stupidity.

Oh, and the moral of the story is don't forget your crackers.

Aqua Zumba!

Today I plan to forge a new frontier. Aqua Zumba! One of my favorite instructors is doing a class today, and I'm going. I'm really going to support Katie more than anything, but also because it sounds like fun. Well, maybe not so much the wearing a bathing suit part, but with the heat we've been having lately pool is sounding nice.

So there is that bathing suit thing. I haven't been out in public in a swimsuit in several years. Even first go-round with WW I didn't go out in a bathing suit, other than maybe once. Fortunately the pool will be closed to the public, so it'll only be me and the other Zumba peeps. The idea of being the only fat girl in a bathing suit is freaking me out, but by the same token I'm taking refuge in the fact that I am doing something about the fat girl part.

While I'm on the subject, lets talk about swimsuits. Around this time last year, I bought this suit from Lane Bryant:



(photo from www.lanebryant.com)

It is a Miraclesuit... supposed to make you look ten pounds thinner instantly.

Uh... hello??? When you weigh upwards of 200 lbs, ten pounds thinner isn't really all that noticeable. Seriously. What? It's going to tame one roll or something? One miniscule roll? None of my rolls are miniscule, but whatever.

I'm a couple of sizes smaller now than I was when I bought the suit, but surprisingly it still fits. The bust is a teenie bit loose, so I'll have to be careful of bobbing and weaving around in the pool. Wouldn't want the girlies floating away, now would we?

I'll be back with a report on how it goes today. Oh, and I'm going to a regular class in a little over an hour, so that'll be two Zumba classes today.

The video is from the www.zumba.com site.

For a Splurge

Last night for dinner I had my sausage pasta somethingorother for one. It doesn't even have a name, and this isn't really a recipe. The cool thing about this is that one can make as little or as much of this as desired to meet their individual caloric needs. Here we go:

1. Put some water in a pot to boil.

2. Measure out how much pasta you need. I usually do two servings - 4oz dry. That adds up to a lot of points though - 11. Use less if you want less. I'm hungry, and I have the points for it, so I'm GOING for it! Add salt to water, and then put the pasta in when it's at a full boil.

3. When pasta has about 6 minutes left, put a non-stick skillet on medium heat. Add 2 tsp of EVOO. To this oil add whatever spices you like - I add crushed red pepper and basil.

4. When pasta has about 4-5 minutes left, add 2 oz of smoked turkey sausage (cut into little bite sized pieces) to the pan with the EVOO. I also like to use lite kielbasa. Stir to coat with EVOO, and then leave.

5. At about 2.5 mins left flip the sausage. If you like garlic or garlic powder now is the time to add. If you add it any sooner it will become bitter or burn. Also take a small measuring cup and pull out about 1/4 cup of pasta water, and set it aside.

6. If sausage is browning fast, take off of the heat when ready.

7. Drain pasta in a colander, and immediately dump the pasta into the pan with the sausage, and toss to coat. If the "sauce" needs more liquid, add some pasta water. It won't take much.

Put it in a bowl, and enjoy!

With 4 oz of pasta, 1 turkey smoked sausage link (Hillshire Farms) and 2 tsp of EVOO I wind up with 15 Points Plus values. It's a lot to spend, though, so if you have fewer points to burn consider only doing 2oz of pasta, and adding some veggies to fill it out some!

Last night I used cavatappi pasta

Weigh-In Wednesday

This past week's weight loss is 1.6, for a total of 28.6. I expect a "whoosh" in the next day or so, because after all of the work I did outside yesterday in the hot sun I felt like I was retaining water, even after the 8 bottles I drank.

Other stats:

APs earned: 74
APs swapped: 74
Weeklies Used: 34 out of 49, with 15 left over

Holy canoli that's a lot of APs! I had four days of Zumba, plus lots of yard work, and I went on a couple of cleaning benders.

It's been a successful week in many ways - I navigated obstacles like the family reunion with style, and without depriving myself. I almost forgot - I got into some size 14 misses jeans. I wasn't quite ready to wear them all day yet, but I think in another week or two I will be. Here's to next week being just as good!

Revelation Reloaded

I thought it might be interesting to make a play on the title from my other blog today. It has been my week for revelations, apparently.

I was having a conversation with an acquaintance at work last week about weight loss and Weight Watchers. She was asking some questions, and I was explaining about how I'd been through this process before and had made a mistake when I hit maintenance. My mistake was thinking that I could just sort of do my own thing and keep the weight off. Once it started back on it snowballed, and then I found myself in trouble.

She asked me if this meant that when I got to maintenance that I'd have to keep tracking for the rest of my life???

I replied, "Yes. I think that's exactly what it means for me."

The surprising thing is... I'm OK with that. I am going to have to track what I eat for the rest of my life. I've tried to do my own thing, and it has become obvious that doing my own thing doesn't work. I think in the big grand scheme of things tracking daily is a very small price to pay for not having to keep doing this over and over.

On some level I've never internalized this (the tracking forever... being a weight watcher for life). Somehow it just... settled for me. The path became clear. It suddenly has become less of a burden.

This is big for me.

WI Wednesday

I stepped on the scale this morning to find myself down 1.6 lbs from last week, for a total of 27 lbs lost. I still have a long way to go to get to goal, but not such a long way to my "anything under" weight. 8 lbs. 8 lbs to my "anything under" weight. I'm stoked!

Someone posted on FB the other day to ask WW peeps if they do, or do not swap out activity points. There's always a lot of talk with WW'ers about whether or not to use weekly points, and whether or not to use activity points. My answer to that is... you just have to figure it out for yourself.

Everyone is different. I personally do. I use my activity points, and I also use my weekly points. I don't always manage to use all of them on weeks where I have a ton of APs, but typically I come pretty close. For example: this past week I had 69 activity points (yes, really). If you add the 49 weeklies in with the 69 activity points that's a total of 118 extra points to burn. I managed to use up all but 22 of them. So on top of my 33 daily points I also burned up an additional 96 points over the course of the week - and lost 1.6 lbs.

I think different people lose in different ways, so what works for me may not work for someone else. My strategy is this - if you're using all points and not losing well, then try cutting back. If you're not using all points and not losing well then try using more.

I think for future weigh ins I may report on how many weeklies and APs I've used. I think it will give an interesting picture.

Catching Up

I made the executive decision last week to change my weigh-in day. I had been weighing in on Tuesday mornings - which was frustrating because I like to use my extra points on Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun. What was happening is that I was still retaining water on Tuesday mornings. I know these things work out in the wash, but it was making me a little crazy. So, new WI day is Weds.

Week before last I lost 3 lbs. This past week I lost .4 lbs. That's a total of 25.4 lbs lost total now.

Overall I'm very pleased with my progress. I have a busy weekend ahead of me from an activity standpoint, and I'm looking forward to it!