Weekly Weigh-In: Stuck

I think we can officially say at this point that I am stuck, at a road block, have hit the wall, reached a plateau, HAVE NOT MOVED FROM 150 POUNDS IN WEEKS.

So how do we look at this?  No gain, so that’s good.  I know those 19 pounds I lost are pretty much good and gone.  But do I want to stay at 150?  No, not really.  My dr. says I am just over the edge for a healthy BMI so I really need to keep going.  I don’t mind 150 at all except for this darn belly of mine.  So we are agreed, I should keep losing.

But how?  How?  I already exercise as much as I can and still a) take proper care of my family and b) not drop dead from exhaustion.  I make healthy choices in my eating and have cut back, frankly, as far as I am willing to go.  I don’t go over 1500 calories a day.  I don’t eat sweets, fried foods, and drink water 24/7!  What else can I do?

Sigh.  Maybe I am missing something.  Maybe someone out there can look at things from a different angle and lend me a hand.  Maybe I am just never meant to be under 150 again.

Whew, what a pity party lol!  Okay, now that that is over, I’m going to weigh in on something else.  The Biggest Loser.  I only have one thing to say about that.  Red team is down to one member.   It’s about time! :)

Thanks to Kris for hosting the weekly weigh in over at her Twilight themed weight loss blog, Eclipsed.

Weekly Weigh In

Didn’t lose a bit this week.  Probably pms stuff ‘cause I have been exercising just fine and eating well too.  Curse this 40yo metabolism!

This week I am weighing in with a few things that have helped me stay motivated and on track with this journey. 

Sorry, that’s the best pic I could find.  Do you read All You?  Have you seen their special Health and Fitness issue?  It’s well worth a look with lots of exercise and eating tips, and a special section with readers who share free online weight loss tools.  I like how the focus with All You is on real people.

I truly recommend these Arnold Sandwich Thins.  They are delicious, nutritious and only 100 calories.  They make great tasting sandwiches and since they are round can be used to make a lighter hamburger as well (while I haven’t had a french fry since beginning this journey in August of last year, I do still enjoy dh’s grilled burgers.)

I know I ranted way too much about Biggest Loser last week so I’ll just give a brief recap:  Still don’t like the red team.  ;)  Be sure and weigh in this week with Kris at Eclipsed.

Weekly Weigh In: The Biggest Loser

Our internet has been really goofy lately so I haven’t been able to visit much but I hope to remedy the problem today.  Anyway, I did make it to my goal, 150 for my annual checkup.  Stupid scale at the dr office said 153 but I was fully clothed (and had on those darn boots again…can’t help it, they are darn cute!)  My blood work came back super!  Low where it should be, high where it should be, etc.  I am on the brink of having a normal BMI as well…25.5 as opposed to 25.  My dr is very happy with my work.  The only problem was low red blood levels but hey, they did actually improve from last time (and I have always struggled a bit with anemia.)  Dr wants me to take a multi vitamin.  I’ll rant about that later lol.

Today I want to weigh in on a strictly fluffy subject…how about that episode of Biggest Loser last night?!?  What drama!  I felt that last season was finally starting to concentrate more on the weight loss but this season is starting off heavy on the drama, mama!  Jillian went way too far this time, trying her best to make Migdalia cry.  I understand she wants them to embrace their emotions, but there is a better way to do it.  Jillian said Migdalia’s daughter would turn out big just like her and like how Migdalia followed her own mom’s example.  Here in America, for some reason I never will understand, it is common to attack mothers, and say that their own personal faults make them poor mothers.  You are fat, you’re a bad mother.  You didn’t finish college, bad mother.  You don’t buy organic?  You didn’t breastfeed for 2 years?  You let your child sleep on it’s tummy?  Bad mother!  There is no one who can ever, EVER be the perfect mom.  And yet society pressures moms to be perfect every day!  Jillian should not have brought Migdalia and Miggy’s parenting into the mix.  That was a low blow.

Okay, rant over lol.  Oh, and I thought they for sure should have eliminated Michael.  Yep, he is the one who needs it the most.  Yep, he in physical danger with his weight.  But if you don’t put in the effort you should, if you don’t take COMPLETE advantage of the opportunity, then you should be booted.  The end.

Oh and that red team, MY WORD!  The only married couple on the show and they are such a poor representation of marriage.  They never encourage each other, don’t have each other’s backs, aren’t acting like a team, let alone a couple.  When they went to weigh in and Allison mentioned that only the husband’s weight loss would count, his wife looked over at him and ROLLED HER EYES!  Like, oh well, there goes the game.  And then she had the nerve to argue with Bob and Jillian when she only lost one pound (and that was the pound she gained last week!)  They have been upfront and said that their weight problems are affecting their marriage, but they aren’t even trying to work on either problem if you ask me.

Whew, okay, I feel better now. :)  I hope to post more later about my weight loss journey and some new tools I have found to help.

Weekly Weigh In

This morning I am down another pound, at 151.  Whoo Hoo!  I had to be pretty strict with the eating since I haven’t been able to exercise as much with the hurt back (I think I should buy stock in Big Red gum lol.)  I think I may be able to reach my goal of 150 before my physical on the 19th.

This week I am weighing in on…weighing in!  How often do you weigh yourself?  I never did before I began this journey.   Now that I am trying to lose, I weigh almost every day.  Just morbid curiosity I think (or wishful thinking lol.)  I’ve heard that you should only weigh yourself once a week or so since weight fluctuates so much and then I’ve heard where you should weigh yourself every day in order to catch any weight gain right away.  There is an expert for every opinion.

Our scale is old.  I had a coupon for $10 off a new scale so I splurged a whole $9.99 on a new one.  It keeps track of two different weights and tells you if you’ve gained or lost.  Of course there is a problem.  New scale weighs me in at at least 2 pounds less than old scale (149 vs 151.)  I had everyone in the house test it as well (Katy the cat, btw, is NOT all fluff and weighs 12 pounds!)  I don’t know what to do!  Dh says use the new scale but I don’t trust it.  He asked what I weighed at the dr office last week and I said it said 154 with clothes and boots on.  “Well, the military allows you 5 pounds for clothes so there you go.”  “I wasn’t wearing combat boots, hon.”  The confusion continues. 

Please visit Kris at Eclipsed for more weekly weigh-ins.  Next week…weighing in on diet cat food.  ;)

Weekly Weigh In

Well I actually dropped another pound, down to 152 now, despite not exercising since last Wednesday because of my backache.  In full disclosure I will mention that I had a bit of a stomach thing going on yesterday which may have contributed lol.  Not the best way to lose weight, but whatever.  It reminded me of what happened right before my wedding 21 years ago.  I came down with a nasty stomach flu thing AFTER the final fitting of my dress but before I picked it up.  The owner of the dress shop was so ticked off with me because I had lost some weight and the dress needed further altering.  Uh, hello, I didn’t mean for that to happen lady!

Anywho, the back is feeling better at last!  I even did a very mild workout this morning (well actually only about 1/3 of a very mild workout, but it’s all about baby steps folks.)  My back still hurts but I am not as bent over and I can actually move.  I don’t know what I did to it, but I can say the only thing that really helped was my heating pad and staying off my feet.  Advil did nothing (but upset my stomach.)  And just try “goggling” back ache people.  No one can make up their mind about what you are supposed to do about it.  Bed rest, no keep moving, ice, no heat, take this, no take that!  Ugh.

Kris, who is hosting this weekly weigh in, asked about our favorite exercise dvds.  Well I agree with Kris that Jillian Michaels is evil and should be banned not my cup of tea.  Her workouts are kinda boring and she is, well, just mean and not encouraging at all.

 

I really like Leslie Sansone for an easy, encouraging workout.

 

I like The Firm for a good overall cardio and weight training routine.

I like Kathy Smith for variety.

  If you want a kick booty super challenging workout it’s Cathe Friedrich for you.  She  is amazing but very tough.  Come to think of it, she may be to blame for my back…

I am looking forward to the new season of The Biggest Loser tonight, and to my back continuing to improve so I can get back to working out!  Please visit Kris at Eclipsed for more weekly weigh ins. 

Weekly Weigh-In

Since I don’t count New Year’s as a “holiday” I can officially say, “I made it through the holidays without gaining weight.”  Woo hoo!  As a matter of fact I am down another pound.  153 is the official report.  Whew.  I did “indulge” a bit, having a slice of pie here and a cookie or two there (oh and my Mom’s dressing!) but I didn’t really overeat and I still exercised pretty faithfully.

I am beginning to actually see changes in my body.  I wore button up pants to our Christmas Eve gathering!  I am usually all about the elastic waist lol.  My Mom got me some exercise tops for Christmas and I don’t mind putting them on…usually I avoid anything snug-fitting at all costs.  So there is some definite progress going on.

This week I am going to weigh in on…weights!  I love working out with weights.  It doesn’t have to be on a bench in a gym or with barbells and all that.  Just a 1, 3 or 5 pound hand held weight can make all the difference in the world to your workout.  When you build muscle you increase your calorie burning abilities,  strengthen your bones and make every day life easier.  And you only have to use weights about twice a week to see results.  You can follow a dvd routine or just learn some of the basics and make a workout yourself.  Be sure and click over to Eclipsed and check out how others are weighing in this week.  :)

Weekly Weigh-In

154 still.  No change.  No problem, happy that we are at least holding our own.  This weight loss has been quite slow for me but it’s to be expected.  #1 I am over 40 now and the hormones and metabolism are confused.  #2 I am not following a drastic diet, just eating less of the same food I’ve always eaten.  #3 I exercise but I’m not running any marathons here.  When I complained to someone at Thanksgiving that the weight loss was too slow she said not to worry, that losing slowly meant it was more likely to stay lost.  I am finding that to be true.  ;)

This week I’m weighing in on exercise dvd’s.  Love them!  I have a nice collection, but of course it’s always nice to have some variety.  (Holy cow, I just used “nice” twice in the same sentence.  Sister Margaret, my 11th grade English teacher, is going to kill me.)   Enter Netflix.  I finally caved in and started a subscription this year, mainly for their AWESOME exercise collection.  Not only can I rent an actual dvd, but they have tons of streaming videos as well.  I just move stuff out of the way and workout right there in front of my desk.  I don’t have to worry if it turns out that I don’t like the workout…I didn’t buy it!  (Can’t say the same for Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred.  I did buy it and I hate it!)  So instead of investing $10 a month on one new exercise dvd I now spend that on an unlimited amount.  Cool.  Check out Kris’s weight loss journey at Eclipsed.  She has very inspiring posts (and hardly ever uses the word “nice.”)

Weekly Weigh In

Kris at Eclipsed hosts this weigh-in.  I am completely stoked to report that this morning the scale budged…in the right direction!  154.  Finally!  After weeks of hovering at the 156/157 mark I am down 2 pounds.  I even got on the scale twice to make sure lol.  So I started in August officially at 169 and am down to 154 (carry the two and…) that’s 15 pounds.  That sure sounds nice and feels even better.

Now I would like to “weigh-in” about exercise and weight loss.  I have exercised since high school.  As my family grew I worked out less and less but still did work out.  Exercise is great for your health.  Your body needs it.  When I was pregnant with ds4 I had the gestational diabetes.  When I would prick the finger and get a high number all I had to do was a quick pregnancy workout tape and BOOM the number goes down.  Not a lot of exercise, not intense exercise, just a little moving around did the trick.

It is my humble opinion that reducing how many calories you take in is the key to weight loss.  Exercise helps improve your health and fitness level but is not the only part of losing weight.  Consider this.  You have to do 30 minutes of straight aerobics exercise just to burn 200 calories.  I usually fit in about 30 minutes when I do workout (that’s warm up, cool down and stretch) but you have to go for an hour or more for any serious calorie burning.  I just can’t do that.  The Biggest Losers do that because that’s why they are there…they have no families around to take care of, no job to go to, no cleaning to do.  All they have to do is lose weight.  And guess what?  Even when they are injured (as several were this season) and CAN’T exercise they still lose big pounds each week.  Because they are restricting their caloric intake.  It stinks, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.  I hate measuring my cereal and milk in the morning, putting only 1 tablespoon of peanut butter on my low-cal bread, but by gosh it works.  So while I like the body I am getting with all the exercise, I know that I still have to keep a firm control over the eating.

Please go visit Eclipsed.  Kris is doing a great job with her weight loss and has insightful posts about her journey (and it doesn’t hurt to look at her neat Twilight themed blog.  Team Edward!  Sigh.)

Some Motivation For Me!

So you may or may not remember I am on a weight loss adventure, begun in August of this year and somewhat chronicled at this blog.  Well, I found another blogger also on this tedious journey (but with a way cooler blog for it…why didn’t I think of using a Twilight theme??) who will be hosting weekly weigh ins with the option of yapping a bit as well.  I’m all into weight loss and yapping so I’m jumping on this bandwagon for sure!  I will still post my exercise and eating entries at the other blog but will do weekly weigh ins here…just to bug you ‘cause I love you.

I made it through Thanksgiving with no gain!  No loss either, but no gain.  I am at 156 and stuck there for life it seems.  However two sets of in-laws at our Thanksgiving dinner actually noticed that I had lost weight.  No one else has noticed yet so I was pretty excited about that.  13 pounds doesn’t make that much of a difference in clothes and appearance, but has made a big difference in how I feel.  I can run/jog on the track.  I can do the jumps and hops on my exercise dvd’s and not “modify” those moves.  I can do lunges holding 5 pound weights and not take breaks.  Nice.  Lesson learned?  It’s not always so much about how you look, but how you feel.  But I am ready to feel even better lol so I am not giving up yet.  :)