Weekly Weigh In: Feb 25, 2010

I had a really great weigh in this week but it sure did not come by accident. After my silly 1/4 pound gain last week, I made sure I hit the exercise extra hard this week. I exercised 5 days for an average of 30 minutes each time and most of them were pretty high intensity. I bought another Biggest Loser workout tape (Cardio Max) which helped keep me motivated because I was trying something new. Anyway, all the hard work paid off and I lost 3 1/2 pounds. That means I only have 6 1/2 pounds to reach my goal! I am so excited!
I am still eating 1400 calories a week, which is another reason I really vamped up the exercise. I just can't seem to eat less than that. I have tried cutting back even another 100 calories a day but I still don't seem to be able to do it. If I cut it at one meal, I make up for it at the next. Oh well, I am still losing, so it does not matter. I hope to have another heavy workout week and another great weigh in next week, but we shall see. I just can't wait to finally be there!

The Biggest Loser: The Workout Video

When I first started to make exercise an integral part of my lifestyle, I had trouble finding something that didn't drive me absolutely crazy. You have to agree, walking on a treadmill several times a week gets really old, really fast. While Richard Simmons is an exercise icon and helped me out many moons ago, I just can't hear or watch another Sweating to the Oldies video. Trying to find modern exercise tapes was also discouraging. I am sorry, but I am a conservative, 42 year old woman and I don't do Latin dance moves or worse yet, Hip Hop very well. Sure, they look so cute on the screen but that doesn't come naturally to me. I just wanted something like the old Richard Simmons tapes. Not disco dancing and funky music, but REAL people, doing REAL exercises.

About that time I got into a conversation on exercise and weight loss with some ladies at church. One of them was doing and exercise video form the Biggest Loser. She was currently watching the show for the first time and they were sharing a bit about it with me. Having never seen an episode, I was certainly willing to give it a try. I went home and added the Biggest Loser: The Workout to my Netflix Que and waited for it to arrive.

From the first time I put it in I was really glad I did. There on the screen were real people doing sensible exercises and each one of them had a weight loss to show for it. These are exercises anyone can do! After the first day my husband even started doing them with me. That was a big clue there that this was not some dorky exercise video. If he can tolerate it, anyone can! It wasn't long before I purchased my own copy of the video. I am now also a fan of the show The Biggest Loser as it inspires me to see how much work these people put in to shed those pounds.

This particular video - Biggest Loser: The Workout has 4 different routines as well as a warm up and cool down segment that I do each time I workout. I started with the Low Intensity and did that for quite some time before attempting any others. The next one I tried was Tone and Sculpt, then on to High Intensity and then finally, I braved the Boot Camp workout. Now I change it up depending on my mood, the time and how much or what type of exercise I want to do. This is a great workout video that I highly recommend. I will be trying some of their other videos soon.

Below is an excerpt to show you what it's like. This is not an endorsement for the place that is advertising it as I know nothing about them. I got mine for just under $9 from Walmart.com but the NBC Store currently has it on sale for $8.11.

Weigh In: February 18, 2010

I had a lousy weigh in yesterday. Ok, so it wasn't lousy, but I did gain...a whole 1/4 of a pound. Still, it was discouraging since I still only ate 1400 calories a day. The problem, I believe, was the lack of exercise. I had some spring cleaning to do, both at my mom's and here at my house. That sort of kept me from exercising and unfortunately all the cleaning and moving furniture obviously did not do much for burning fat. That's alright though, I am hitting the exercise hard again this week and we will make it all up. It's not really about how fast I get there anyway, it's about getting there and then STAYING there. I am just so close that I am getting a bit anxious to finally see it through. Instead I need to continue to be patient. I have exactly 10 pounds to go to reach my goal!
Sorry I didn't get any posts up this week. With the spring cleaning and other catch up things I had to do coming off my cold from the week before, I just have not had the time. I hope to post some more entries this week.

Weigh In: February 11, 2010

Well, even with the week I had I managed to lose another pound and a half! This makes it official, I now have less than 10 pounds to go to reach my goal. I can't believe I will soon be able to say that I am not overweight anymore! At least I am not classified as "obese" anymore. I think that the title "obese" is applied way before it's necessary, but that is just me.
I was also proud of my mother yesterday. She hit an important weight loss milestone as well. She hit a number that she has not seen in 27 years! Way to go mom! I am doing all that I can to encourage her to keep up the good work!.
So here is to another week. I finally managed to get some exercise in, which is probably what helped me on the scale. My muscles sure are feeling it. I really want to start to work on toning the trouble areas now. I want my belly flat again, if that is even possible! Well, I hope you fellow bloggers have a great and successful week!

Journal: Slow getting back on track

I am feeling better but it's still hard for me to get in a good workout. I seem to be so out of shape by just taking a few days off here and there. I can't seem to build the stamina back up as quickly but I am working on it.
It doesn't help that this is my cycle week again, so I could be looking at another bad weigh in. Tie that together with the lack of exercise and I don't know what to expect when I face the scale this week.
What I do know is that I am really working on trying to prioritize some things and it is harder to get my exercise in while doing that. However, when I haven't been "exercising" I have been moving furniture and doing some deep cleaning. My hope is to find that one day where I can really clean the house well, and still manage to get my exercise on other days. It's definitely a work in progress.
I'm looking at getting a hot air popcorn popper to replace my microwave popcorn. I have done that once in the past and the thing died after one month of use. I eat popcorn EVERY night for my TV munchies snack and whatever one I get, it needs to be able to work hard and work often.
Other than that I have just been busy with church work, schooling my daughter and the other usual wife and mother stuff. I still haven't had much time to read blogs, let alone write them. I am missing my encouragement from reading about others. I hope to get to that later this week. Until then, have a great week!

Weigh In: February 4, 2010

I am very excited to report that I had another good weigh in yesterday! I lost 2 1/4 pounds. This was really amazing since I had a couple of days where I know I did not stay within my calorie range (especially on Mom's Night Out) and was not able to exercise much due to my cold. I am sort of afraid that I might have it show up the following week. My plan is to make sure that does not happen by really sticking to my calorie limits and getting in some vigorous workouts this week.
I am now only 11 1/2 pounds from my goal. I am so close I can almost taste it!! (Ok, taste is probably not an appropriate word to use in this context! How about FEEL it? That would be an accurate statement because I sure am feeling better than I have in years!) As you can see, I am very excited. There was talk at the TOPS meeting about me becoming a KOP because I will be the only one in our little group that is. I hope I can do a good job at motivating others to join me there. I would love to see us all reach our goals. I hope you all have a successful week as well. Just remember to face it little by little, day by day and choice by choice! We can do this!

Baked Tilapia

Tonight for dinner we had one my favorite dishes, Baked Tilapia. This is a really easy fish to make. I simply spray my pan with a 0 calorie cooking spray to coat is. I then spray my fish with my 0 calorie butter spray. This helps the Old Bay seasoning to coat nicely on my fish. Then I throw it in the oven and bake at 425 for 20 minutes. One 4 ounce fish patty is only 100 calories! What a way to get a good helping of protein for such a low calorie count. I then made some broccoli seasoned with my butter spray, salt and pepper along with some corn on the cob. I was able to eat 2 pieces of fish, corn, broccoli and a 1/2 cup of light peaches for dessert all for under 350 calories! (I do not count the broccoli since I allow that as a "free" food) That is just one delicious way to eat something satisfying for a mere 100 calories!

Journal: I'm sick

This is going to be an interesting week. I am fighting a cold and it is starting to drain me. I hopped on the treadmill yesterday and walked a much slower pace than normal but was still not able to make more than 20 minutes. Today I am feeling a little bit better but I don't think I have the strength to exercise.
I also have been craving food these last couple of days. I think it's that "starve a fever, feed a cold thing." My body seems to be craving nutrients. Because of that I did go over my 1400 calories yesterday, but at least it was with healthier foods like fruit and a protein bar. With all these things in mind, I am not expecting a loss this week, but I will be glad if I at least don't gain. I am not sure how today will pan out, for I still feel hungrier than normal.
Of course all of this is on top of the fact that I have a special mom's night where dinner is food brought in by each mom and those nights are HARD to stay in range. We also had a date night where we went to a restaraunt I had no information on. I went with the salmon, but the mashed potatoes were probably really fatty, but they were really good. I tried to eat the section that looked like a 1 cup portion, but it's hard to tell. Their portions were huge! They also didn't have any diet salad dressing! For that I took my dressing on the side and just dipped my fork in it with each bite.
I will just have to see what this week holds. What I do know is that I can't wait to feel better so I can get back to my regular exercise routine soon! I will not let this become the start of the end of a really good thing!