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)

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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)

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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

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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)

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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

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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)

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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)

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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.