I'm Done

with week TWO of the C25K! Yay me! I'm enjoying running more and, as ever, the BTL nike+ challenge makes it fun. I resolve that this month I will NOT be at the bottom of the leader-loser board

DH is away for a week, but I'm managing to stay on plan, say "NO" to the munch monster, track my meals, and exercise. The biggest challenge is evening meals. It would be sooo easy to make a hot dog for Jay and then just give in to pasta, potatoes and rice, but I'm making good dinners. Last night I made Tonyne's Lemon Orzo (yum) and tonight I'm making a WW taco sald (sans chips or tacos). A little planning (like defrosting the beef for tonight and having planned what I'm going to eat) goes a long way to making it easier to avoid late afternoon munches.

Hoping for a negative number at WI this week. And hoping this motivation stays in place.

Hopefully yours,

Done with Week 1, Bring on Week 2

I just finished the first week of C25K. I found an awesome (free) podcast on itunes with Christian music. I have to say it was easy. Today, I added another run during the cool down walk. I'm ready for next week. I'm feeling in the groove with my plans. Nothing like a bit of halo shining to get me through lunch time with a modest cottage cheese and mandarin oranges (fat free and sugar free respectively). I've got a nice fat roasting chicken and lots of beautiful veggies that are going to meet my grill in an up-close-and-personal way tonight. Gorgeous strawberries for dessert.

The forecast is predicting heavy weather tomorrow, thunder storms and lots of rain. I've bought tickets for a West Point Cadet Choir concert and am planning to take my dad for an outing. He should love it. He was a WP grad in the class of 1939. His stroke 16 months ago left him confused and not making a lot of sense, but he still enjoys music and remembers all the words to almost any song he hears. An hour or so of patriotic songs, including some WP songs should make him happy. If we can just get him out without too much interference from the weather.

Happy weekend. I'm sticking to my 3 things (yes to C25K, and NO to noontime carbs and M&Ms).

Three Things Challenge

Carly, at Chubby Chicks Run Too is doing a three things challenge. Sounds like a great idea to me, so I'm doing it too. Here are three things I'm going to do differently to help me reach my goals.

1. I will complete the C25K (Couch to 5K) program. I did Week 1 Day 1 on Monday and I can do this.

2. I will not get into my 2 yr old granddaughter's M&Ms (a little stash for rewards in her goal of being potty trained) even though they are very tempting to me.

3. I will not eat bread, rice, pasta, or potatoes at lunch time. I've drifted away from the WW guidance in this regard and it hasnot helped.

I will check back here occasionally to report on my progress.

WI tomorrow. We'll see.

Are you interested in losing weight? or . . .

Are you committed to losing? That's the question for my second day of working through 100 Days of Weight Loss. Just seeing the first part of the question, I responded with an immediate yes. But, maybe that's the problem. Just being "interested" in losing weight is not a very firm relationship. If I'm just interested, I'm easily thrown off track by special occasions, beguiling chocolate chip cookie smells at the Safeway bakery, and temporary setbacks in the downward trend of my weight.

Just "interested" doesn't cut it. I need to be "committed" [okay, no wisecracks from the peanut gallery!]. If I'm truly committed to losing weight, I'm better equipped to just say "no" to the munch monster on my shoulder, the temptation to skip a planned workout, and other roadblocks which I know are going to come my way.

There used to be a TV commercial for a Karate school in the metro DC area. It ended with a very young. cute kid, clad in his white pajama uniform, saying "nobody bothers me!" That's my attitude from now on.

I'm committed to losing this weight and adopting this healthy, active lifestyle forever.

How about you? Are you interested in losing weight or are you truly committed to losing weight?

May 11th, 2010

I just got a new book, Linda Spangle's 100 Days of Weight Loss. The subtitles are The Secret to Being Successful on ANY Diet Plan and A Daily Motivator. It's the beginning of February, and while I'm still moving ahead on my New Year's resolution, I wanted to ratchet up my motivation a notch or two and to make sure that, this time, I reach my goal and stay there.

You're quick, I know, and have now guessed that May 11th is 100 days down the road. Just watch me, I'm gonna be there a thinner, fitter person than I am now! I'm liking this book. Each day, or chapter is just two pages long--a bit of thoughtful discussion of a motivating technique and a very short assignment. For today, Day 1, the author encourages you to face your inner fears about past failures at losing weight. She encourages you to adopt a new mantra--"I used to be that way, but now . . . ." My assignment for today:
**Make a list of any fears or negative behaviors that have hurt my weight-loss success in the past. Read each one out loud, and then say, "I used to be that way, but now I'm different."
**Then write new endings for them by completing this sentence: I used to _____(fill in your old behavior), but now I _______(write in your new ending).
**Read these new outcomes often, and then live in a way that makes them true.

1. Lose some weight by proper diet and exercise then gradually give up the exercise.
2. Give in to food temptations (like grocery aisle candy bars, or Costco "free" samples) because they didn't always show up immediately on the scale.
3. Start avoiding the scale (at home and at my WW weigh in) when I think I might have gained.

I could make a very long list, but I think I'll start with these three fears that I'm going to transform into new outcomes.

May 11th, here I come!!!! Want to join me??

I'm Lovin' It!

I'm a daily weigher--a "scale hopper" as some call it here. For me, it's important to weigh myself daily. I know from long experience that if I avoid weighing myself (as I did the last couple months of 2009) I'm putting on pounds. It's a head-in-the-sand kind of avoidance of what I know must be happening. I read that in a study of people who have lost and kept off weight for at least 5 years (yes, that study, I can't remember its name), anyway, I read that successful losers who kept off their weight had many similar habits that they had despite the program they followed to lose their weight. One of the top similarities was that they weighed themselves daily.

My own plan of choice, WW, does not encourage this. They want you to weigh only once a week at their meetings. They say they're afraid you'll be discouraged by the vagaries of the normal ups and downs of one's weight. Doesn't make sense to me. Maybe those vagaries will make my WI day one of the "up" days and I'll go all week long thinking I've blown it somehow. More sense to see the pattern of how my weight reacts to what I eat, to my body rhythms, to how well I sleep, to my exercise, etc.

Anyway, I'm not out to change anyone's mind here. I know people feel strongly about this. For me, though, weighing myself daily (and recording that weight in my journal) work. I love seeing a picture of myself where I think I look pretty good and then going back to my journal and seeing how much I weighed that day. And when I see my sister next month, I can quickly check and see how much I've lost since I saw her in November. Cheap thrills, I know. Maybe some day I'll get the courage to post my current weight on my blog posts. I know I love seeing other people's progress this way.

And my title today--I'm loving' it because my daily scale is on a nice downward trend. My new year's resolution, weight-wise, is to lose 10 pounds the first month (5 week months), 8 pounds the second, and 6 pounds for each of the next three months to get to my goal. I'm in the middle of my 5th week and have lost 8 "official" pounds so far. My trusty scale shows 1.5 additional pounds lost so far this week!

Do you think I'm gonna be "good" over the weekend? You betcha! How about you??

Baby Jack Inspired Me to

go and do some yoga. What can I say? I'd love to be that flexible!