NSV's

On the myfitnesspal website that I log all of my food I eat on they have message boards.  One of the topics often on the boards are NSV's.  Non-Scale Victory's.  That is anything good relating to your weight loss that isn't only defined by the # on the scale.  Here are some of my NSV's so far.

- At my highest weight size 18 pants were too tight.  I pretty much only wore sweat pants/yoga pants because all my jeans were too tight.  Now size 18 falls off and size 16 fits comfortably.

- My family has noticed my weight loss, and Lenny said I am getting more "hippy".  :)

- I couldn't run for even 2 minutes before.  Now I can run for 10!

- I feel better in my body.  I don't feel great, but now that I am currently losing weight, I feel so much more at home in my skin!

- I've been hit on a few times by some pretty good looking guys!  Not that I can or would do anything about that, but it does feel nice!

- I can stick to my calorie goal and not feel starved.  1240 calories a day is enough for me!

Finally!

The gym scale finally registered me below 200lbs!!  Nothing could beat the high I felt when I stepped on the scale there yesterday and I weighed 199.6 on it.  That has been my goal for so long now, and I finally reached it!  I only have another 50lbs to go before I am at my pre-pregnancy goal weight!  I think my ultimate goal weight is more like 140 though.  But either way - I did this, and I can do that!!

Speaking of the gym - I finally ended up going yesterday.  Though Lenny wasn't too happy that I missed the first part of his family dinner.  Oh well, I got my workout in and was able to eat when I got to his grandparents house.  Something I wouldn't have been able to do if I hadn't worked out.  I even had enough calories to drink some wine!  3 glasses to be exact!  :)  If I were to say I was tipsy, that would be an understatement.  haha  That homemade wine is some strong stuff!

Good and Bad Days

I've been having mixed days lately!  I'll do good with exercise, but then over on calories.  Yesterday I slightly stretched the truth so that I wouldn't go over in my calories too much.  I consider that a bad day pretty much.  We went to Seabreeze with my family - that was a lot of fun!  But after dinner I ordered an ice cream cone, for 500 calories!  So I counted the walking around we did in the park as exercise for the day so that I wouldn't go over.  I put 120 minutes of walking at 2.0 mph.  I'm sure it was more than 2 hours of walking, but it wasn't straight walking the whole time.  Either way though, that got me almost 500 calories of exercise.  So I cheated, but only sort of.

I am trying so hard to get to the gym today, but all of these circumstances are making it practically impossible!  I find out last minute that we have to be at Lenny's dads at 2:30 for dinner.  If I don't make it to the gym before that I won't be able to make it at all, since I am sure we will be there for a long time.  The gym closes at 7 on Sundays.  It's noon already and Lenny is out buying a part to fix his car.  I have Nat down for a nap so hopefully when he gets back I will be able to go.  I have a feeling that it won't work out though.  I really wanna skip going to his dad's, but I think that won't go over very well.  If I do go, and don't exercise, I'm sure that will put me over in calories for today, and I can't afford to do that.  :-/  Stuff like this stresses me out way more than it should.

Just Do It!

Last night before going to bed I told myself I was going to "Just do it" in the morning when my alarm went off, and that is what I did.  It still took me 1/2 an hour to get out of the house, but I headed for the gym at 5:30.  I was back by 6:45 to shower and get ready for the kids to come over.  I'm really liking the new treadmills at the gym.  They feel smoother than the old ones.  I did 41 minutes on the treadmill, doing intervals of 2 minutes running (at 5.5) and 1 minutes walking (at 3.5).  In the 41 minutes (that included a warm up and cool down) I did 3.1 miles.  I think my average pace was about 4.8 or so, but I could be wrong.  I used the Jeff Galloway method that I have read a little about.  I really liked it!  I think I will stick with doing that for now, because it worked really well!  I was happy with my time.

They still don't have a scale at the gym - but the one here at home has me weighing in at 196 now!  I think I am finally on the bandwagon of losing again!  I really want a digital home scale, because I really hate not being able to tell the exact number.  That will be one of my first purchases with my paycheck when I go back to work in a couple weeks.

I got the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred video from my mom last week.  I haven't started it yet, but hopefully I will by the end of the week.  I know it isn't something I will be doing everyday, but it will be a nice good workout for when I can't get out of the house.  The dvd player we have is daunting to me right now.  I can't quite figure out how to turn it on.  L has showed me, but I am pretty electronic illiterate.  That is one of my goals for the week, figure out how to start the damn dvd player.  Once I do that though, I will have no excuses not to do the 30ds!

To do:
Take measurements
Figure out dvd player
Start 30DS
Lose more weight and inches!  :)

My Goals and Rewards!

Starting Weight: 238
Goal #1: Under 200 Pedicure   (met 8/17/11)
Goal # 2: 185  New work out clothes
Goal #3: 170   New shirts
Goal #4: 160   Mani/Pedi
Goal #5:  150! Tattoo and new clothes
Goal #6:  145 and tone up      Vacation!


I can do it!

So True!

-

It's Sunday!

I like Sunday mornings because I have time to sleep in a little (7am) and still go to the gym for a good workout.  Lenny didn't have to work until 9 this morning, so I was able to workout from 7:30-8:30.  I went to Planet Fitness, and they finally opened the new gym!  It was so much nicer in there than the old one!  It is about a mile further away, but I can't really complain since it is only 2 miles away now.  Lol  It is so much bigger inside!  The locker room is like 3 times the size of the old one, with nice showers and private dressing rooms.  There are a lot of lockers (unlike the old one!) and places to get ready.  There are lay down tanning beds in this one.  That should be a little more relaxing, though I do feel a bit claustrophobic in them.  And a nice relaxing room with massage chairs.  You aren't out in the open if you want to relax!  I have never tried them before, but I think I will now.

I wasn't able to weigh in like I had planned.  They didn't have the scale there.  I am hoping they put a new one in or something.  Whatever.  Maybe it's a blessing, since I went over in my calories for the past 2 days.  I will have to wait and try and weigh in next week.

I ran 1 mile without stopping in 12:18!  And a lot of it was at an incline!  I am quite proud of myself.  That is the farthest I have ever run, plus being at an incline!  They have new treadmills at the gym and I like them a lot.  I sure pushed myself today.  I ended up doing 38 minutes on the treadmill and then when I got home I did some circuit training as Natalie cheered me on.  I am even thinking about going back to the gym later if someone will babysit Natalie!  I want to burn lots of calories today so that I don't go over again.  We are having a steak dinner at my parents house and it is always when we are there that I seem to go over.  Or I may take N for a walk.  She would like that.  First I need to get some caffeine in me!

Quotes I Love

I am going to add running quotes here when I find ones I love.  I just saw this one today, and thought it was great!

"Jogging is very beneficial. It's good for your legs and feet. It's also very good for the ground. It makes it feel needed." ~Charles Schulz Peanuts 


"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels!"                                                                                                          'Take each run for what it is. No matter the distance or how long it takes, it is still a run and many in the world cannot do what you just did.'                                        

I Cheated!

I cheated, and got on the scale before Sunday.  I couldn't help it.  :)  But...  guess what?!  I finally got off this plateau I have been on and lost 2lbs!  I now weigh in at 198ish!!!  GOODBYE 200's!  I will never see you again!  (SN: I need to buy a digital scale.  My crappy little scale just isn't good enough at giving me an exact number.)  I did it, and I am so happy!  I didn't expect to see my weight go down when I stepped on the scale, since it hadn't in so long.  And since I had cheated some over the weekend.  I think maybe that was what my body needed - to know it would get lots more food.  Then it could let some more fat go.

WOO HOO!  I'll weigh in again on Sunday morning at the gym and see what that scale says.  It always measures me a couple #'s higher than the scale at home.  I would be so happy if it said less than 200 as well!

My Top 10 Reasons

This post is purely for me.  These are the reasons that I want to lose weight!  (In no particular order.)  When I am feeling discouraged I will look back at this post and remember all my reasons.

1. I want to live to be able to PLAY with my Great-Grand kids one day.

2. I want to live a healthy life to be a good example to Natalie, also to incorporate activity into her life.

3. I want to feel like I am pretty!

4. I want to be a milf!  Haha

5. I want a new wardrobe, all because everything else won't fit at all.

6.  I want to be able to run a 1/2 marathon, and eventually a full marathon!

7. I want to wear a cute swimsuit next summer, and feel good in it.

8.  I want to live to see 100!

9. I want to have a healthy BMI

10. I want to not only not have to shop in the plus size department, but I want to fit into single digit sized clothes.

Not Going to Beat Myself Up Anymore

Last night was tough.  I was feeling really down about this weight loss plateau, plus I had a bad day of dieting.  I went over on my calories by about 400 and was just being really hard on myself.  All I could think was I am beginning to fail at this whole dieting thing.  It's just that, plateaus suck!  All this hard work to see no results.  Finally I got on SparkPeople (I have an account, just don't do much on there since I log on MFP instead) and started reading some motivational stuff on their message boards.  I realized I was being way too hard on myself. I have done an awesome job this far - losing almost 40 lbs in like 3 months.  That is no small accomplishment!  I decided to not worry about the day, and I decided not to worry about today either since I knew I was going to Seabreeze and would probably eat junk there.  I figured maybe my body needed a quick change anyway, and that a 2 day increase in calories, and then back down to my normal amount tomorrow may be just what my body needs to start losing again.  It has to realize that there is no famine, and I will always feed it.

So this morning I went to the gym around 7:30.  I did 45 minutes on the treadmill and burned about 330 calories.  It was a good workout!  Then I went to the picnic and ate what I wanted to.  And I DON'T feel guilty now!!  I have a feeling I will start losing again this week.  I am not going to weigh myself until next weekend.  And I really hope I am in the 190's finally!  I will weigh myself at the gym next Sunday when I go, and hopefully not until then.  I am also considering getting a tape measure and taking my measurements.  That may be the better judge on my progress.

Lesson learned!  I won't be beating myself up anymore.  At least I will try not to.  :)

I See Lots of Flat Land

and I need to find a downhill sometime soon!  Man, this losing weight business is tough stuff!  It's seriously no joke.  I was doing so well for so long - I mean, I lost almost 40 lbs in like 3 months!  But now my weight doesn't want to change.  I tweaked my calories a little yesterday, so now I am on ten less a day.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but hopefully that works!  I have stuck to my calories every day.  I try and get close, but just under my goal, so that I don't go into the dreaded starvation mode that everyone talks about.  I'm not sure what I am doing wrong!  But either way, I am going to stick to this, and keep at it.  I will see all this weight come off!

I really want to buy a heart rate monitor, that way I will know the exact calories I am burning doing different activities.  I may be over estimating the calories I burn during a workout.  Yesterday I didn't have a chance to workout at all, so I had to stick to only my calories in, none out.  but I did really well and felt satisfied all day!  One of the first things I do when I go back to work in the fall is buy a HRM.  I think I want a polar one, but if I can't afford one of those I have seen some Target brand ones that look good.

Today will be hard.  Natalie is going to her friend Walter's birthday party, so I am going with her, and I am sure there will be food there.  Hopefully there will be some healthy choices.  I ate a good, filling breakfast (Greek yogurt with honey and a banana and some coffee) so hopefully I am not too hungry.  I also need to try and get in a workout today.  I hope I can!

My Dilemma

I have been trying to figure out if I should work on speed or endurance first.  I think I have decided to work on endurance.  I can now do a very slow jog for about a mile before wanting to walk.  My very slow jog = 13 minute miles.  OR, I can jog faster (11 min/miles)and tire out after 1/2-3/4 mile.  So I have decided to increase my distance of my slow jogs, and once I can jog a full 5k, then I will work on speeding it up.  Maybe by doing it that way I really will meet my goal of running a 5k before the end of the summer.  Even if by "running" I mean slow jogging a 5k.  :-)

Blah

So tired, and "blah" feeling today.  Natalie is teething like crazy, and kept me up half the night.  I set my alarm for 5 this morning to get up and go to the gym.  I actually got right up, got ready, and was heading out the door at 5:20 when I hear her start moaning and groaning.  I went in to hopefully quickly cuddle her back to sleep.  I then proceeded to try every trick I knew to get her to calm down.  Nothing worked and she ended up being up and awake, and crabby for the day.  That meant no gym for me.  Which is making me grumpy and tired for the day.  :-/

I did finally decide to weigh myself though this morning.  I was 200 on the nose.  No gain or loss.  I was really hoping for a loss, but I did totally go over my calories yesterday, so I shouldn't have expected a loss.  I was doing well all day until we went out for ice cream as a family.  I ordered a small low fat cookies and cream in a dish.  It was delicious!  But totally put me over my calories for the day.  I am trying to make up for it day.  So far I am on track, but we are supposed to eat dinner tonight at my parents house, so that will be difficult.  Right now I have about 900 left for the day.  My mom is making steaks for dinner - so if I limit my portion and have lots of veggies with dinner, I should be fine.  I really wanted to get to about 1000 calories today though instead of 1250 because of cheating yesterday.

Soon we are heading out to the zoo with Sam.  It's just me Lily and Natalie going because Joshie is sick.  We are all excited to spend some extra time with Sammy before he goes to San Diego though!  Maybe I'll try and make us do some speed-walking there.  ;-)  LOL.

Back from Vacation!

We got back last night from "Nanny Camp", and we had a great time!  It was so nice to see all of my cousins, all 13 of us were there.  It's been at least 5 years since we were all together!  We got several good family pictures.  :)

I did okay on my diet while we were there.  I succeeded in logging everything I ate on MFP.  I couldn't have done that without my app!  :)  I stayed in my calorie range every day except for yesterday.  Yesterday I went over by 400-500 or so calories.  :(  We were traveling and I snacked way too much.  I haven't stepped on the scale yet since being back.  I think I am going to wait until the end of this week - I am scared of what it may say!  Lol

I went kayaking for 2.5 hours on Friday with my Dad!  It was a lot of fun, and a good workout for my arms for sure!  I was pretty sore on Saturday.  I also went swimming in the lake, and did a few "laps" back and forth in the deep end of the beach.  I didn't even log that as exercise, but I am sure that burned several calories, since I'm not used to swimming at all!  Then on Saturday morning my cousin Kit and I got up early (8am!  haha) and went for a walk.  It was great to get time away with her and talk, and the added exercise was a bonus!  Saturday evening her and I went for a bike ride together around the campground - we would have gone further, but it was dark.  Then Sunday I didn't get in any real exercise.  Oh well...

This morning I was back to getting up early for a morning run!  I set my alarm for 5am, but when 5am rolled around there was no way I was getting out of bed.  I reset my alarm for 5:30.  When that went off I just decided to be lazy and reset it for 7am when I would need to get up for the kids.  In my sleep though I accidently set it for 6am, and when that went off I thought it was time to get up, so I did.  Once I was out of bed I realized it was an hour earlier than I had thought, so I decided I should make use of the time and go out.  I left the house at 6:15, and was back at 6:52.  I jogged almost a whole mile without stopping though! Way better than I thought I would do.  I only went 2 miles, because I knew I would have to be back in time to shower and get dressed for the kids.  Tomorrow morning I'll get up earlier, and go further.  :)  It felt good to be back in the swing of things!

Going Camping!

When L gets home from work we are going on our annual family camping trip!  This is one of my favorite times of year, if not my favorite.  Nanny (my grandma) rents a huge camp on the St. Lawrence River and my entire family comes up and has a big reunion.  She rents the camp for usually 1-2 weeks, so you can go whenever you are able to.  Normally we don't get to see everyone since people sometimes come at different times.  This year will be the first time that everyone will be there at the same time!  We are having a huge birthday celebration for Nanny on Saturday so everyone will be there at once!  A photographer is coming out to take a big family picture, and a few one my cousins will be meeting Natalie for the first time!  Hopefully the weather will be nice the whole time, because for some reason it seems like we always get rain the entire week!

I am nervous about being on a diet at "Nanny Camp".  There, I said it.  I am afraid all the hard work I have put into losing weight will be wasted because I will gain it all back.  Now, I know it is not possible that I gain a whole 35lbs back, but even a few of those would suck.  My goal is to not gain any weight back while on vacation, and if I lose any that will just be a bonus.

Things I plan on doing to NOT gain weight while there:

My mom already brought my bike up there for me, so I will be able to go for bike rides.  It is really pretty up there, so that should make for some nice riding.

I packed "work-out" clothes and my running shoes, and I plan to get up early and go for runs.  Well, at least 1 of the 3 days.

I am going to try and log everything I eat into MFP.  Wait, not try, I WILL log everything I eat into MFP while I am gone.  That is going to be hard - but I will do it.  There is always so much food to eat, all of the time.  But I am going to try as hard as I can to stick to my diet.  Hopefully I will get lots of exercise in so that I can eat a few more calories than normal while gone.

Go kayaking with mom/dad/aunts/uncles.  Go swimming in the river.  Walk to the beach, not drive.  It's only 1/4 mile up the road.  Chase kids around.  Play beach volleyball.  Find a nice trail to hike on.  Go water tubing (that has to burn some calories, right??).

I am mentally preparing myself for this.  Normally I eat whatever I want and lounge around.  But I am going to NOT be lazy this time.

I will report back on Monday!  :)

PS.  I lost back the pound I had gained, but not anymore than that.  I hate plateaus.

WTF?

The scale went in the wrong direction, and I don't understand why.  I gained a pound since Saturday, when I should have lost another pound I would think!  I've been doing everything right, and recording every single morsel of food that goes in my mouth and working out daily.  I don't understand and it is very frustrating!  I wish I knew if I was eating too much, or not eating enough.  Every day I have been under my calorie goal for the day in net calories, so you would think I am losing weight.  Right?  Wrong!  So WTF is going on??  Maybe MFP is overestimating my calories, or under estimating the calories in the foods I am eating for the day.  So I will try and aim for 300 or so cal. under for each day and see if that works.  If it doesn't then maybe I'm not eating enough and my metabolism is slowing down and holding onto weight.  This is so frustrating after all the hard work I am putting in.

Yesterday I got up at 5, my mom picked me up at 5:30am and we went for a 12 mile bike ride on the Oatka Trail.  It was so pretty!  I really wish I had my camera for it.  I will definitely have to go back and walk it maybe so that I can take pictures.  It was a beautiful country road with gorgeous houses and gardens.  For the first half of the ride both of my tires were half flat (I only knew the front one was flat-ish) and my seat was too low.  It was way more difficult than it should have been!  Finally I passed my mom at one point and she noticed how low the back tire was as well.  No wonder it felt like I was riding through mud!  I bet that burned me some extra calories!  Lol  After that we stopped and we used my moms mini pump to put air in the back tire.  Something was wrong with the valve on the front tire and we couldn't get it off, so I had to deal with that being flat.  But we also raised the seat up, and that made a huge difference!  I couldn't believe how much easier the ride was after that stop!

Today I got up early to go to the gym.  I got up at 5:15, but didn't get there until 6.  I had wanted to go there instead of out running because I wanted to tan.  But since I wasted so much time that never happened and I only got to do the elliptical for 25 minutes and then do some arm free weights.  That was all I had time for before running home to shower to be ready for the kids to get here.  Oh well, maybe tomorrow.  But I would really like to go for a run, so I'm not sure.  We will see.

Hopefully I will try and not weigh myself for another week, and I wll see the numbers going down.  This weekend will be hard though because we are going camping, and camping means loads and loads of junk food.  Also my grandma's birthday party on Saturday, and that will be lots of junk food too.  Hopefully I can keep it together.  I am planning on bringing my bike and going for some rides and runs.  It will be hard, but I am least hoping not to gain anything.