Count 'Em!

Thursday's weigh-in was really good.  I hit a milestone!

Count those 5-pound stars!  And FYI - don't try to do the math.  That 5% sticker is just stuck on randomly.  I know someone thought she figured out my starting weight at 300 pounds from this pic.  Nope!  

 This is big news for me, because 35 pounds is halfway to my "high goal" with Weight Watchers.  What's my high goal, you might ask?  It's the highest I can weigh at WW and still make lifetime status.  My "big goal" is to be even below that, but I'm taking it a step at a time.  Oh, yeah, and I'm actually down 36.2 pounds total!!


And now for my Weekend Update...

Friday Night:
Big party animal that I am, I hit the gym.  Apparently I'm the only one in town with no social life this night, if the gym attendance is any indication.  At least I had my choice of ANY machine I wanted!

Lonely gym

Saturday Afternoon:
Back to the gym.  I decided to try to break my record for stats on the elliptical machine, and I did it!  Now, I don't know how accurate these things are, but it looked pretty good to me either way.  I did an hour plus a 5-minute cool-down, and it shows 6.56 miles distance and 912.9 calories burned.  Even if it's off by half, that's not too shabby!

My record high!

Saturday Night:
Casino Night Fundraiser for a local school.

 It was lots of fun, even though I didn't win any prizes.  The food was catered by one of my fave restaurants (Rails), and I think I ate sensibly.   I chose the spring mix salad over the Caesar salad, with vinaigrette dressing (just a drizzle) instead of the Ranch dressing.  I didn't take any bread or potatoes (hard to do, but not that big of a deal).  Then I had a smallish portion of chicken breast and a tiny bit of pork tenderloin, green beans, and a tomato/onion/pepper creole side item.  No dessert (cheesecake and chocolate cake), and a small glass of white wine.

My losing raffle tickets

Sunday:
My birthday!
Went with the family to eat Mexican food.  I wanted to have an enjoyable meal without going nuts, since it was my birthday.  I had chicken fajitas (just ate the chicken and veggies) with pinto beans (not refried) and a dab of guacamole (yum-o!).  I had a couple of chips with salsa, then asked for corn tortillas to dip instead.  That's GOOOOD!  I also had 1/2 of a flour tortilla, because they make them there at the restaurant and are my favorites.  It was a great time, and my kids were good while we were there, even though my daughter was disappointed that I wouldn't let them ask the wait staff to cram a sequined sombrero on my head and sing happy birthday.  (Fear of wearing a multi-use hat, not fear of attention.  Clearly, I love attention.)

Later we drove to Comfort, a little town nearby.  One of our friends was there and mentioned she saw my favorite (red velvet) in little cupcakes at a little restaurant/shop called High's, so we went out on a quest.  I really want to go back to High's for lunch one day.  It looked really cute, and the menu looked tasty.  Click here for the link if you want to check it out.  We took some of these little beauties home.

Red Velvet Cupcake - The Best!

Birthday Chick

 Because I'm still tracking everything I eat this day, I looked up the Points Plus value for red velvet cupcakes.  Uh, yeah, 14 Points Plus!  Yikes!  But it WAS my birthday, so I couldn't deprive myself and just cut mine in half.  Ah, just right!

Half the cupcake, all the flavor!

We also went to Sweet Comfort, a little candy and ice cream shop down the road from High's.  We picked up two of the biggest chocolate-covered strawberries I've ever seen.  I had a little bite of this (just enough) and let the family have the rest.  It's fun to share sometimes!

So.  Good.

 After all that indulgence, yes, I actually went to the gym this evening.  I didn't hit my record on the elliptical again, but I did come close.  It's probably because I had to change my age from 40 to 41 when I set it up, right?

Birthday Stats

 As I was leaving, the girl at the front desk wished me a Happy Birthday.  Then she asked why on earth I was at the gym on my birthday.  As I walked out, I realized something.  I was there on my birthday because I wanted to be.  Because I wanted to give myself a gift I've been denying myself for a long time.  I want to be healthy and take time just for me.  And that's a very good thing, and it was a very happy birthday indeed!

Post-Christmas Weigh-In and Hot 100

I made a comment last week that I WOULD lose weight over Christmas week.  Well, guess what?

I did!

Somehow I managed to shave off 1.6, which I realize isn't a huge number, but it is a loss over a difficult week for me.  I will relish it!

This puts me at -23.2 pounds total.  I'd hoped to have been down much more than that by now, but somehow I lost my mojo between Thanksgiving and now.  It's no excuse; just what happened.  But I am pretty sure now that I'll have my regular routine back, I'll be chucking those pounds again!

So how about a little Hot 100 Update?  This is the last one!  The challenge is over, so let's see how I fared:

1.  Lose 15-plus pounds by the end of the year / end of the challenge.  I had been so certain that I would reach this one, but I'm not even close.  During this challenge, I've lost 8.2 pounds, which is just over half of my goal.  Bummer!  I'll have to lose that in January instead.

2.  Get more sleep.  Some nights are better than others, but I really have improved quite a bit here.  I do notice a real difference overall when I get enough sleep.  The surprising side effect for me is that my diet/exercise are better when I'm not sleep-deprived as well.

3.  Start taking vitamins.  I started off really strong with this one, never missing a day.  Then I forgot one day.  Then I forgot a couple of days.  Then I went a really long time without taking them, and now I'm doing better again.  Yes, I had a fistful of them today, in fact.

4.  Make a plan for eating and exercising over the holidays and stick to it.   Well, it could have been better for sure, but I did manage a modest weight loss over the latest holiday.  I should have made a more solid plan to get me through, but I'm pleased with this one as a whole.

This was a fun challenge, and I enjoyed having the weekly updates to keep me focused.  Thanks to Steve at Log My Loss for putting this one out there!

It's New Year's Eve, and I'm not going out tonight.  We almost never do for this holiday.  But we will make an effort to stay up til midnight (sorry, goal #2) and might have a little glass of bubbly.  No party buffets, no overindulging in alcohol, and no high heels tonight.  Many years ago I would have been horrified by this prospect.  Tonight, I'm looking forward to a cozy little ringing in of the new year here at home with my honey and my sleeping kids.

Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous 2011!

Jabbering Janes

I love to talk. Sometimes I talk too much.  I'm okay with that. However, there is a time and a place for it, right?

Today at the gym, there were women on the two machines next to mine. They were chatting it up - LOUDLY.  They both had their earbuds in, and were speaking at a volume to allow them to hear one another over their own music.  Now, if they can hear each other over their music, doesn't it stand to reason that everyone else in the gym is hearing them too?  And I have my music on because I don't want to hear anyone else talking.

But wait, there's more!  Since it was impossible not to hear them without causing serious damage to my own ears by blasting sound into my head, this is what I picked up: Their conversation covered several topics, with some of the loudest portions centering on the following: All the details of getting their first period; neighbors and friends who are addicted to drugs and/or in prison; and how much they hate Mormons.  There were several middle-aged and older men in the room as well, and most of them wore that "please shut up" expression.

When they finished with the machines, they stood in the aisle right next to me and continued to chat it up on these subjects, but now they were joined by who I assume was the daughter of one of them.  Oh, yeah, and this pre-teen was in a bathing suit, sopping wet.  Then when somebody wanted to leave, they would not move! Finally, after two "excuse me" attempts, they scooted over half an inch for me to pass, but the soaked kid bent over and stuck her rear end in my face as I walked by.

But enough about my new best friends; it's time for my workout report...

I did 45 minutes on the elliptical, which means I'm making progress!  I've been doing 35 minutes, but I couldn't resist the sparkling conversation around me and stuck around for ten extra minutes today.

Additionally, P90X with my neighbor Denise continues on most days.  When we haven't done the workout, I've gone to the gym or walked, though I do take one or two days off each week.

The tag line for the P90X workout is, "Bring it!"
So I say to you now, you know you've got what it takes, so BRING IT!

Weekly Weigh-In

Today I went back to my Weight Watchers group.  I hadn't been to a meeting since June, but I'm going to use my weight from then because I left off not far from where my weight is now.  It will just be easier for me to keep track of it that way.

So from last week, I lost another 3.8 pounds.  For my Weight Watchers log, I am down a total of 12.4 pounds from when I started in May at my all-time highest weight.  Today I got a 5-pound sticker and my first 5% star.

I'm feeling pretty good about that!  

Today's meeting topic was about appreciating the smaller losses.  If you lose less than a pound, there's the temptation to say, "I ONLY lost 0.4 pounds," (or 0.2 or 0.8, whatever).  

But really, think about this:  

If you lose 0.2 lbs. every week for a year, that equals 10.4 lbs. in a year;

If you lose 0.4 lbs. every week for a year, you've lost 20.8 lbs. in a year; 

If you lose 0.6 lbs. every week for a year, you've lost 31.2 lbs. in a year;

If you lose 0.9 lbs. every week for a year, you've lost 41.6 lbs. in a year;

If you lose 1.0 lb. every week, you have lost a whopping 52 pounds in a year!

A loss is a loss!  They add up.  On the flip side, I should remind myself that those add up in the gaining column as well.  Sometimes I gain a pound or two, and I think, "Oh, no big deal.  Just two pounds."  But then I do it repeatedly, and what do ya' know, I've got a weight problem.  

I'm aware of the problem, and I can and will manage it.  I really feel excited about this commitment to lose weight this time.  I don't always enjoy it, like when I'm craving something I know will trigger a binge, for example, but I am excited about the possibility and the power that are within me.

I'm also excited about the discovery of using a blog as a weight-loss tool.  I am amazed by the support I've already been getting from the blogging community, and most notably a couple of veteran bloggers who are successfully losing and maintaining weight losses of their own.  I am so grateful for that!  And for anyone reading this who would like to comment on my posts, I welcome and encourage that.  

Another little bonus at today's meeting is that I had a friend join me.  It's nice to have someone you can trust and just talk about some of your struggles.  Here's a snippet of our conversation in the parking lot after the meeting:

Me: "You know, if you've never had a weight problem, you might say things like, 'I could have eaten that whole box of cookies.'  But you don't really mean it."

Her: "Yeah, like they just mean it would be tempting to eat the whole box."

Me: "But I'll bet a lot of them haven't actually tested the theory like I have, and PROVEN that I can do it."

Her: "Right on, sista!"

So here's to celebrating the small victories, whatever they might be, because they truly do add up!

It Counts!

So I've added a whole minute to my walking routine.  I don't want to make any marathon runners jealous, but I did go a full 13 minutes walking tonight!

I'm taking it as progress from my 12-minute walks.  It does count!

I went for months and months with extremely low levels of activity.  First it was due to an injured foot that left me barely able to walk, and then it was due to my complete lack of motivation.  So now, due to my 104 resting heart rate, the doc says to start slow.  Yeah, even if I wanted to do more, at this point 13 minutes is good for me.

Oh, and I took a couple of pics with my iPhone, because the sunset was so pretty tonight after yesterday's hurricane rains.  I also saw a deer (oh, dear!) standing near me, just watching me huff my way down the street.  I took a picture of her too, but it came out too dark to see.  A nice walk.  I'm feeling pretty good about these changes so far.

Onward I go!