The Pleasant Run Run!

Today was the day for my October Adventure.  A 3 mile family walk through some scenic Irvington Neighborhoods and parks! Overall, it was awesome. But my feet are killing me.  I really am very out of shape. Cloud Dancing's Heartsong and several members of her family and some of her friends came along with us, we had quite the entourage. I was tired before we even got to the starting line, from where we parked. But I was still feeling pretty good. We got there early and I got a starbucks which really helped!

We started off enhusiastic and strong! Things started out really well. The neighborhoods over there are really beautiful! I started struggling a little after a mile I think. There weren't markers, but we figured out that  we did a 20/min mile and it was about 20 minutes or so that I started feeling it. Irvington is suprisingly hilly. Tiny Hills! but hilly nonetheless! I really started to fall behind. CDH's parents were way ahead of us! But I pulled through and made it across the finish line. (there was a moment when we passed by where we had parked that I thought to myself, "Lets go get in the car and hit the road" But we kept going and did the 3 miles in exactly an hour! Afterward we went to Jockamo's pizza (no clue if i spelled that right) and had big salads and a relatively healthy pizza. I know that sounds impossible, but we really did well. We got a pizza with avocado, red, yellow, and green peppers and smoked gouda cheese! not bad! 

After the walk, and lunch we did a little shopping and then went back to the car! It was a great way to spend the morning! CDH's family were wonderfully supportive and I think a good time was had by all! 

AND best of all! I burned 485 calories! WOOHOO!  Pictures below!

Here We Go!

What are we doing?

Cloud Dancing's Heartsong is REALLY excited!

At the Starting Line! 

My First -ever Walk Number Badge! 

WE MADE IT! 

Wednesday Weigh-In and Weekly Wrap-Up

So the first week of this journey is over and I am very happy to report that.....

I LOST THREE POUNDS!!!

I am so happy! As far as I am concerned, any loss is a big success! Here is the wrap up of the week:

Food Tracking: I completely tracked my food for 3 days of the week, partially tracked for 2 and did not track at all 2 days. This is not a perfect record, but it is definitely improvement over what I was doing! On the days that I have completely tracked, I have found that I am able to use that information to help me make better choices than I otherwise would. I am sure that the days that I did not track I went WAY off the wagon. I'd go back and fill in, but I have no clue what I ate! I did slip up once with a soda, a late night chili run and a snickers.

Exercise: So... I am not sure how to rate how I did on the exercise front this week. I did not go to the gym at all. But, as I wrote earlier, one big fitness/ active accomplishment was my 45 minute hike with Punchy Brewser at Clifty Falls. According to sparkpeople, I worked off 591 calories on that hike!  I also did a lot of walking with my mom and spent a good deal of time on the playground with the Dude Monkey. I also must confess that I completely forgot my Textercises last night. I left my cell in the car and didn't even check it all night. I have done last night's and tonight's textercises this evening to make up for it. (In other news, Giggles reported this morning that she did last nights textercises in the cookie aisle at walmart, with her son and a poor unsuspecting couple as witnesses!

Accomplishments: 3lbs lost!, only one soda all week (this is huge, I was such a soda junkie), also have been drinking a lot more water

Improvements to make: More food tracking and more exercise! 


I need more ideas for challenges and adventures! Please give me your input!!! In the coming week, I'll be accomplishing my first adventure (the Pleasant Run Run!)! Wish me luck! I will also be scheduling at least one of my 6 zumba classes with Knitia!

Trail One at Clifty Falls State Park!

Punchy Brewser is my friend from work who had the idea for me to start this blog. She was previously referred to as "code name undetemined"and I have been bugging her to pick one so that I can talk about her on here. She is an aspiring Roller Derby team member, so she decided to pick a Roller Derby name!  Anyway, Punchy Brewser and I decide to sneak out of our conference duties and take a walk in the beautiful park.  It was a killer, it was really hard, really steep and I thought I might die! but I did it! Of course I didn't really have a choice, once I got out into the middle of the woods, I had to come back! But I was still pretty proud of myself! And of Punchy Brewser! She was very entusiastic and really motivated me to keep going with lots of "you can do it" and high fives! I feel amazing!

Textercising, Playing and Generally Having a Good Time!

The last few days have been really busy but have given me a lot of good opportunities for exercise and making good choices. Friday night I went shopping and to dinner with Bombshell McGee! We had a great time, we did a fair bit of walking. We did go to a pizza, pasta, salad buffet, but I think I did OK, under the circumstances. I had a HUGE salad right off the bat and that really helped me with my portion control. In full disclosure, we did split a piece of smores pizza, it was delicious. I am not sure if I should feel guilty or not about that choice, but I think not. I think the key to maintaining all of this over the long haul is moderation and having small allowances. It was a small piece and then I split it in half, so I have decided to be OK with that.

Bombshell and I continued our evening at the Super Target, where of course I got a Textercise! Queen Bee sent me 10 squats, which I promptly decided to complete in the shoe department of Target! Bombshell (who was not caught up on her blog reading) did not know about the Textercise challenge and was very disturbed! "I don't know what is happening" were here exact words, it was pretty funny! I am glad I did those squats right there in the middle of target, I proved to Target and more importantly to myself that I am willing to do whatever it takes to lose this weight. I know I'll make mistakes and fall off the wagon, but I am taking this one day and one choice at a time.

Saturday I did some family history research with my mom which involved a lot of walking around (and chasing a toddler around) the cemetery! That was really good exercise. Then Sunday I took the Dude Monkey to a park and that was also very good exercise for both of us. Right now, I am at a conference! I am a little worried about my eating, so far I have been able to make good choices! I am not sure what lunch will be though. It is at a start park, so my friend... (who is still code named undetermined) and I are going to take a little walk around the park! I am really looking forward to weigh in on Wednesday! I think I have really made good progress!

Textercise Challenge

Today was the first day of the "iCarly Textercise Challenge!" Giggles, Queen Bee and I set up some ground rules.

1.  We will each send a textercise to the other two at least once a night, but not more than 3 times. 
2. During the week we can only send them after working hours. 
3. We can not send exercises that require equipment. 
4. No more than 20 reps per exercise. 

Tonight I sent the girls 10 lunges each, Queen Bee sent us 10 crunches and Giggles sent Jogging in place for 20 seconds. I did my textercises while watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman with Cloud Dancing's Heartsong. 

I have also chosen my adventure for the month! On October 30, I'll be participating in the Pleasant Run Run with Cloud Dancing's Heartsong, several members of her tribe and possibly Knitia, and Queen Bee.  The Pleasant Run Run is a 3 mile Family Walk through historic Irvington. I am so excited, it is going to be so much fun to do something active with so many supportive people around. I will definitely document the event with plenty of photos. 

Today was a pretty good day! I resisted temptation this morning! I stopped at the gas station and got a sugar free cappuccino and a banana. I thought I was doing really well. The cappuccino was way too hot so I didn't get around to drinking it. When I looked up my breakfast on SparkPeople, I discovered that the SUGAR FREE cappucino was still 300 Calories and 54 grams of carbs! I promptly dumped it out and jsut got some regular coffee from work! This taught me that sugar free doesn't mean it is good for you! I also went on a walk around the neighborhood with Cloud Dancing's Heartsong! Overall it was a pretty good day. 

so far so good.....

I feel like things are off to a good start already! I have the most wonderfully supportive friends in the whole world. They are already giving me all sorts of great ideas.

Food Journaling went fairly well today. I went to a catered dinner for work tonight, so I have no idea how to count the nutritional information for that meal. but aside from that...not bad. All the experts say it, and I think it is true, I really do think about whether or not I want to add something into my journal. Slam-Slam sent me out for a frosty this evening and I almost got a kid sized one, it sounded sooo good. But I thought to myself, I really don't want to put that in my nutrition tracker. So I didn't get it.

In fitness news, my friend, Knitia and I just signed up for 6 Zumba classes. I have done them before and they are really a work out. If that doesn't help kick start things I don't know what will. Also, my pal,  Giggles, came up with an awesome exercise challenge for this month. She got the idea from an episode of I-Carly. I guess the brother in the show gets this text messages with random tasks and he has to drop whatever he is doing and do the task. So we are going to do something similar with each other after work hours and on the weekends. The tasks will be exercise related, for example 10 jumping jacks, or 15 sit-ups, etc. We haven't worked out all the details, but I think Giggles, Queen Bee and I are going to do this for the remainder of October and see how it goes.

I also would like to do some sort of "adventure" before the month is over, get in my one adventure/month rule. Any thoughts? I have some ideas on the rules and adventures page but I am hoping to get more ideas up there before I make a decision. I need a little more variety and your input is much appreciated.

I think that is all for now. I am working out in my head what my weight loss milestones will be. Also, I have decided that each Wednesday will be "Weigh -in Wednesday" so if you don't hear from me before then, I'll definitely be posting Wednesday with a progress report. In the meantime, I need ideas for the October Adventure!

To Blog or Not to Blog.....

That was the question I had been asking myself and everyone I know all day today. It all started after an ill-fated trip to the doctor's office. You see I am overweight, actually according to that EVIL chart called the Body Mass Index I am Morbidly Obese! I know.... I can't believe I said that out loud either... ! 

Anyway, my weight has been a struggle all of my adult life and a good part of my teen years. I have lost a little weight, and gained it back, lost a lot of weight and gained it back with some bonus pounds added in. I have read every book, tried many plans, and have just never been successful with this weight loss journey. This summer I began the journey again with renewed enthusiasm. I did well, I lost 20 lbs. Then I plateaued, then I forgot about the weight loss thing altogether, then today I went to the doctor, and found I had gained 14 of those 20 lbs back! I know I could have said to myself "its a different scale," or "i am wearing boots" but the bottom line is, I know I have put at least that much back on. The weight has been creeping back into my checks, my baggy clothes fit again. I have yo-yoed back up... again. 

This brings us to the start of this blog. I went to work thoroughly dejected and very emotional and my lovely friend "code-name yet to be determined" gave me the idea of starting a blog to document my weight loss journey. This friend is incredibly supportive, she always has a kind word about my weight loss struggles and tells me all the time that I can do it and that one day I'll be on the Joy Fit Club on the Today Show and she is going to nominate me! She also supplied the title of this little endeavor.  I talked it over with a friend who has her own awesome blog,my friends Kitten and Bombshell McGee and my hubby, Slam-Slam  and everyone agreed that this was a great idea and promised to offer their support. 

So I decided to go for it and here I am.  In order to be inducted into the Joy Fit Club you have to lose 100 lbs with diet and exercise. So that is the goal. I haven't really figured out much beyond that. I am hoping that this blog can be an outlet for me to write about this journey. I know it will help keep me motivated and keep me accountable. I plan to discuss the successes and pitfalls that will happen along the way, as well as tips, tricks, recipes or anything else I might stumble across that I find helpful. I am hoping that any of you out there who might read this will give us the benefit of your knowledge on these matters and maybe share your success stories as well. 

I plan on making some of this up as I go along but I have some rules to start out with: 

1. I will post AT LEAST once a week. 
2. I will keep a food journal on my SparkPeople account and blog about my eating habits
3. I will document my weight losses (and gains) in my posts on this blog and on my SparkPeople account 
4. I will post periodic pictures that I am in (I got this idea from the aforementioned friend's blog) so that you can physically see the progression. 
5. I will do some sort of "adventure" once a month that is active and fun. 

Other than that, I haven't figured it all out yet. I am going to have to set some goals and some deadlines. I'll have to decide on an eating and workout plan eventually, I have done all those things a million times before,and have not yet been successful. I think that means I need a new approach, and I am not sure what that is yet. So for now I am just committing to working on this weight loss journey and telling you all about it. I don’t know if this will be a success story or one that goes on forever with one stumbling block after another, but I am willing to see it through.

I hope you enjoy it!

Here is a picture of me and Slam-Slam's corn dog at the State Fair. It was taken a couple months ago, but I haven't really changed since then.