The Elusive Goddess

www.torturedheros.com

2009-03-28T14:34:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to add a none diet related post for my website. http://torturedheros.com/

Its most for romance readers whom love tortured heroes in their stories. There are historical, paranormal, contemporary, regency and a few others book suggestions. I have a decent size database of tortured hero books. Please take a look at it.

First Weigh In

2009-01-19T12:28:00.002-05:00

I'm a little angry I'm starting over and from the exact same place as I was two years ago. I saw myself gaining and I could have stop the upward trend at around 191 but nooooo.. Anyway, no point in crying over it now.

First weigh in came back at 222.8. So 5 pounds down in two weeks. My friend who is heavier then me has lost 10. I'm happy with the results thus far. My average weight lost was about 6 pounds per month..I may be a little higher then that this first month, we'll see.

By the way, Sugar Free Maple Syrup. Best invention ever!

Posting measurements for my records.

2009-01-08T15:49:00.005-05:00

Ok I'm 4 days in and I should have did measurements 4 days ago but I doubt I've seen to much inch loss this fast.

Neck 15 1/4
Chest 46.5
Left Biceps 14.5
Right Bicep 14.5
Left Forearm 10 1/4
Right Forearm 10 3/4
Hips 47
Waist 43.5
L-Thigh 26.5
R-Thighs 26.5
L-Calves 14 2/3
R-Calves 14 3/4

Officially back on track again.

2009-01-07T22:12:00.002-05:00

I looked over my progress the last time and i'm hoping I can do it better. Right now I'm struggling to build up endurance and I don't feel good today. I looked at my last weight loss report in July of 2007. The last weight I posted was 175 but I actually made it down to 173.

August is when things went to hell. I quit smoking in August of 2007 and I had to compensate for it apparently by eating. The only good side is I am still smoke free. I quit cold turkey and I haven't had a smoke since. Not even a cheat. This was after about 18 long years of smoking and never having tried to quit seriously before.

Now that smoking is no longer a crutch, I think I can get my eating back under control again. I'm going to take water aerobics at my gym. Its hardly what I call a series work out but I think it will help get me limbered up and a little more energized. I'm doing old faithful, my DDR! I can't do a weight loss goal without this incredueble game. I have also added We Cheer! Fun fun game and a nice upper body workout. I also have Active outdoor challenge, but right now I don't have the stamina to play all these games plus the gym lol.

My newest goal was to give up soda, juice, diet drinks and just drink plan water. I'm on day two of this and surprisingly this has been a lot easier then I thought it would be. I really hope it helps speed up the weight loss. And since I kept good records of my last go at it and the starting weight is practically the same, I will have a good comparison to see if water really helps make a difference in weight loss.

I'm also strength training at the gym so I'm doing a lot of things I didn't do the last time. Last time was 2 and a half months before I even started exercising so I'm hoping this time will be faster.

I'll probably wait two weeks before I start weighing, give some of this time to work. I haven't mesaured, I need to and as soon as I figure out where that tape measurer is i'll do that.

So, started two days ago I officially weigh 227.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T21:51:00.003-05:00

Yes its been a while. I don't think anyone has read any of my blog but me. If your out there let me know and I'll keep posting my success and failures.

I realized I usually make a New Years post and I was really bummed I missed it then I realized it was still New Years so here I am! Yay!

Anyway, 2008 was good and bad. I quit smoking which is good but I started eating like a mad woman. Not so good! I haven't been on the scale, and I won't until Monday but I'm pretty sure I'm right back where I started 2 years ago. :(

I really see why some people just smoke again. I knew if I could smoke I'd stop eating all the snacks. It seems like everytime I want or would have smoke, I eat now. Anyway I haven't had a smoke in 17 months. So my quit smoking has been more success then my keeping the pounds off.

With that said, I'm starting over on monday the 5th. Got my sparkly new YMCA membership, got a friend to go with me, so weights and cardio. I'll be doing a little water aerobics because I like the water and it can't hurt to have extra cardio but my main will still be DDR!

I'm adding a new goal this time, which I think might be even harder then quiting smoking. I'm going to attempt to give up all drinks aside from water. No soda, no splenda sweetened drinks. I'm a big flavored drink drnker so this will be toughest of all.

Other then that, my arsenal of DDR games, the new We Cheer, Active outdoor challenge,are all ready to go on monday. Im just spending this week cleaning out the junk in the fridge and maybe coming up with a list of healthier choices to buy tomorrow on my trip to the store so i'm ready to start monday.

For everyone else starting their resolutions. Good luck!

Wow One Year Today!

2007-10-19T12:16:00.000-04:00

Well I can't believe its been a year since I started all of this. As of Monday I was at 181, yes I gained a couple pounds but I'm Ok with that because I was able to quit smoking cold turkey and only gained 6 pounds from it. I think the six pound gain was worth the price of dumping this nasty habit. I had my last smoke August 11th so I'm a little over 2 months smoke free.

In the mean time, from about June-July I stopped working out consistently and it shows. I can look at my work out charts and see exactly when I stopped making progress. Face it guys, if you want to loose and maintain, exercise is something you have to do for the rest of your life to keep you there.

Today i've decided to stop dicking around and get back on course. I should say I've never completely stopped doing my DDR, I did at least once a week but thats not enough to lose anything. Although I haven't gained a lot either so that is promising in making think I won't have to kill myself to maintain later.

Anyway, last January 1st I wrote something about wondering where I would be come January 2008 so I am making a goal to try and finally get to 165 by January 1st. I probably should be at goal by now but I'm not going to let it stop me. If it take me 2 years to get there so be it. I've looked at some recent pictures, and while they look better then my 226 pounds starting weight, I still see a fat person when I look at them. And you know what? I'm tired of being fat...so Exercises full force again, here I come..

I'm down to 175!

2007-07-10T15:13:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted much in June, progress has been slow, a lot of that is my own fault. I need to have two root canals of all things and until the dentist can get me in..I'm pretty much high on pain killers all of the time. I haven't exercised in two weeks.

The good side is my tooth hurts so bad I'm not eating enough to gain weight either, I actually loss two or three pounds during all of this. Today I exercised for the first time in two weeks. Wow two weeks off really makes a difference.. I lasted 25 minutes where before I did 45 to 50 minutes..

Hubby leaves for Sweden in three weeks and will be gone for two weeks. I'm still hoping to reach my goal of 169 by the time he returns..

I wanted to join the gym. Unfortunately the day I went to join the guy was on vacation then I learn my houses went up and our house payment was going up 60 dollars a month to catch up the escrow account. Bummer! I was already stretching the budget to join with with 35 dollar monthly fee. No way I can join this year now. Hopefully I can stay motivated.

I find I'm no longer in a hurry to loose anymore. I'm at a weight that while still over weight, is a far cry from where I was. I still have far to much gut that I need to start working on. But I do have a waist line again! I know I'll reach my goal someday, be it six months or another year and I feel ok with that now. As long as I'm not gaining I'm happy at the moment.

Well still hanging in there!

2007-05-21T14:23:00.000-04:00

As of today I've finally broken the 180's. I'm down to 178.8! It's been a long long road since October when I started trying to get a handle on my weight. The progress has been slow but pretty steady so I can't complain. I could always up my cardio to get more off but I don't want to become obsessed with exercise.

Anyway, doing mini goals works out well for me. I give myself more time then I think I should need to reach it. Like my last goal was to hit 179 by June first and I'm almost two weeks early. My next goal is of course reaching 169, thats only 9 pounds, and while most would give themselves a month to loose it.. I give myself two months, then if I don't hit it after a month I don't feel like I failed.

My husband is going to visit his family at the end of July and he'll return around August 13th. I hope to reach my first mini goal of 169 before he leaves, and I have a mini mini goal of being 165 when he gets back.

Things will be all down hill from the 160's so I can't wait to get out of it the 170's. I look pretty decent in the 150's though its not my long term goal..but if I didn't loose another pound i'd be fairly happy with how I look in clothing in the 150's.

I think my long term goal is to look good in and out of clothing.

I'm just 2 pounds shy of having lost 50 pounds! I'm very happy that I am finally making progress and I can't wait to see where I am by the time I hit the one year mark of this diet, or rather life style change.

As much as we'd all love to drop weight super fast, I've learned from the past that it's but another way to sabotage your progress. So I don't starve myself, I don't exercises 5 times a day. I try to get right, do at least 45 minutes of exercise 4 to 5 days a week and any drop in the scale is fine with me, be it half a pound or 3 pounds. The key is just moving the numbers down..even if its not by much. Any drop is better then any gain (unless your strength training) so give yourself a year, don't set goals of 10-15 pounds a month. Just take whatever your body lets go. In a year you'll be amazed how much that small amount of weight does start to add up and how much different you look and feel in the within the course of a year.

The Six Month Mark!

2007-04-23T16:27:00.000-04:00

Besides this being another weight in day. I am down another pound to 183.8. That means I've dropped about 43 pounds. I went from about a size 22 or 2x down to a tight (Not uncomfortable tight) 14, all in just six months. It makes me wonder where I will be six months from now.

My attitude from when I first started this blog has certainly changed. Granted, I still don't like Aerobics and probably never will. But I'm at least not trying quick fixes anymore either. I'm still doing my DDR 4-5 times a week, anywhere from 30-60 minutes, depending on my energy levels at the time.

I still skimp on the strength training. I still have the goal of loosing most of the fat so I can actually see the results everywhere besides my shoulders.

I'm just taking it slow now. My goal isn't to lose weight as fast as possible. I'm happy with small losses as long as they are consistent. 1-3 pounds a week is fine with me. I'll take any loss over a gain or stall.

I still can't believe I'm at 183. I don't think I've been this small since my mid to late twenties. I still have a ways to go, but it no longer seems over whelming.

I can't wait to see my New Years post in 2008 and compare it with the one I made at the beginning of 2007.

Ahh well, thats all until next weigh in!

Back for another Weigh In!

2007-04-16T09:02:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted in 2-3 weeks. Finally hit a stall at 188 which lasted 3 weeks. I have been reading Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle and decided to go back with eating 5 meals a day, (Felt like a pig eating so much.) plus what he calls Zig Zag or cycling. Cycling basically is eating 3 days low carb and on the 4th day high carb. This is suppose to be the secret body builders use to loose fat consistently.

I started over the weekend, and today's weigh in has me at 184.4 Yay! And I'm down a another inch off my waist. Also started working out with resistance bands and that seems to have worked out pretty good for me.

I'm also still following Body for Life. But Burn the Fat Feed the muscle compliments that program really well and it's worth the cost of this ebook which seems to have a pretty large following on the net.

Well only 4.6 pounds until my next mini goal which is to get down to 179 and out of the 180's hopefully forever!

To date I've lost 42 pounds! And 23 of those pounds since I last saw my son in January. He'll be home from college in a few weeks. Can't wait to see what he thinks.

I also guess I should start rewarding myself. I haven't bought myself any new clothing since I started dropping pounds. It's almost a waste since you know it will probably be to big in a few months, but I guess I should do it. Maybe buy a new shirt, or pair of jeans. Been trying to wait until summer so I can buy more summer tops.

So far just seeing the weight drop has been reward enough for me. Overall, so far so good.

Until next time!

It's Weigh In Monday!

2007-03-26T08:41:00.000-04:00

And I am down to 188.6! I have completed my first mini goal to be 189 and out of the 190's by the end of the month. Yay!

Next Monday is the day I start my official body for life challenge. I've lost 38 pounds so far to date and I've slid through two troublesome weights that use to be stall points for me. It's wonderful when you know you have a problem and you actually discover what that problem was and how to fix it. Not enough cardio seems to have been my problem.

I have decided to get a weight session in this week. I know I'll be sore for 4 days at least so I wanted to get that out of the way this week so I can do training next week.

Well that's all from me. DDR has been the answer I had been looking for. Now I'm hoping Body for Life and the Get ripped series is the other.

Body For Life 2007 Challenge

2007-03-24T18:24:00.000-04:00

It's that time. I said at the beginning of my blog I would be doing Body for Life. The next round for this year starts in april. I wanted to wait and take up the June challenge but that would only leave me with one more Challenge I could do for the year, so I've decided to get started in April. Starting in April will give me three challenges to complete for the year.

Hopefully at the end of challenge three I will be where I want to be. I really wanted to wait until June to get some more fat loss in...but then I started getting worried about getting flabby. So April it is.

Inch Loss!

2007-03-21T19:37:00.000-04:00

No weight drop as I said in the other post but I did some more figuring and it seems I misjudged loosing muscle. I reentered all my stats and found my starting fat percentage was higher then I first had thought. This seems to have turned everything all around.

NOW I've gainned 5 pounds of muscle and have not lost any. I know I kept up with my protien so I wasn't sure how I could have lost 8 to 11 pounds of muscle. Seems I made a mistake and this is working out even better then I had thought.

To date i've lost just shy of 40 pounds when you figure in the muscle gain! And I've lost to date 43.5 inches over my entire body! 7 of that alone was in my waist. Yikes!

Let's compare..

2007-03-21T16:40:00.000-04:00

I am now the same exact weight I was 3 years ago when I quit the gym. The only difference is in how I loss the weight. At the gym I did some cardio and a lot of strength training. This time I did a lot of cardio and no strength training. I thought it would be fun to compare my then measurements to what I am now using these two different methods. Plus I needed a reference for this and I figured my blog was probably the best place to keep it.

Now
Fat% 39.9
BMI 32.9
L Arm 12.5
R Arm 12.5
Neck 14.5
R Thigh 23
L Thigh 23
Upper Abs 35.5
Waist 37.5
Lower Abs 39
Chest 41.5
Hips 41

Then
Fat% 38.1
BMI 32.9
L Arm 12
R Arm 12
Neck N/A
R Thigh 24
L thigh 23.5
Upper Abs 35.5
Waist 35.5
Lower abs 38.5
Chest 41.5
Hips 41

There is not that much different until you get to my waist line. Huge difference there and apparently those measurements has a lot to do with me loosing muscle mass which I didn't do when I was at the gym to now..where I have loss a bit of muscle. Seems I've lost 8 pounds of muscle instead of the 11 pounds I thought I had loss. The other difference is my fat percentage was a bit lower when going to the gym.

No change this week.

2007-03-21T16:32:00.000-04:00

Well I'm still right at 191.8. I've said before 191 is a stall weight for me, however sitting two weeks on this weight isn't yet a stall to me. If I don't loose anymore by this coming Monday then I am officially stalled and its time to add something new to my routine.

Probably not the brightest idea to loose weight first then start weight training. I've lost 34 pounds but 11 pounds of that is muscle loss. Ouch! Still the muscle loss seems to have slowed down a bit but I probably need to start strength training to regain that loss muscle.

I can just see my scale moving in the opposite direction now.

Down almost 2 more pounds.

2007-03-12T23:18:00.000-04:00

Well I had a late night. Didn't get my full 8 hours sleep, more like 3 but I weighed in at the normal time then went back to bed. When I woke up I weighed again for the heck of it and was down another pound. I tossed out that number and kept the first since it wasn't the normal time of day I weigh in.

Last week 193.4 This week 191.8 and the reading I tossed out was 190.4! I was happy enough with the first number so it's staying.

I am very close now to my first mini goal which was 189 by the end of March. I sure hope I make it but if I don't..close enough!

I can't say enough good things about DDR. It's really changing my life! Just 4.5 months ago I was 226 pounds, now I am 191 and so far so good, I look better and I certainty feel better. It's great!

Down 1.3 Pounds!

2007-03-06T04:03:00.000-05:00

Well it wasn't a big loss but it was a loss just the same and I'll take it! I have now loss 36 pounds since I started in October and so far so good. DDR has really been working wonders for me so far.

I have a mini goal to get to 189 by April 1st. But my big mini goal is 175 by July first though I'm hoping I loose 18 pounds I need for that faster then July. But this way I'm not disappointed as much if I don't make it say, by June.

Anyway I'm not far from my first mini goal. Here's hoping I don't stall. I'm sitting pretty at 193 and I usually stall at 191 so we'll see. I'm happy with my progress so far. In 4.5 months I've come down 36 pounds and about 2-3 pant sizes. I still haven't bought any clothing even though mine are to big. Maybe in another 1 pounds I'll buy a pair of jeans. I don't work so its not like I'm out in public everyday anyway.

I'm currently down to a 16W in pant sizes. I'm thinking I'll buy a pair of jeans when I hit size 14.

Anyway I've babbled enough. It's 4am so I'm heading to bed.

Another Weigh In Monday.

2007-02-26T08:22:00.000-05:00

Didn't post last Monday. Nothing to report, no loss, no gain, just maintained. This week however I'm happy to say i'm down another 3 pounds. Down to 194.6. I had a real good DDR week the week before last, burning like 2700 calories for week. Last weeks session was like 1600 calories. Not bad, but not as great as the previous week.

Since the day I got into my 30's (i'm 41 now) I have never had luck getting past two hundred. I would get right to 200 and stall. So far I've been sliding right through. Oh sure I expect to stall sooner or later. And I already have my back up plan ready to go. Once I hit my stall, then in comes the weight training with more DDR. Not giving up the DDR here.

I finally bought a Red Octane Ignition 3.0 from Best Buy with a 2 year service contract on it for 13 dollars. As expensive as those mats are 13 dollars is a small price to pay to cover it for 2 years. The pad had to grow on me. Right off I can tell my feet and joints love the thick padding much better. I just have to get use to dancing on it after using a thin, flat, foam less mat all this time.

Anyway, that about covers this Journal post.

If you hate cardio try DDR. It's working wonders for me..

10 Pounds With DDR!

2007-02-12T09:13:00.000-05:00

Today is official weigh in day. And I am now down to 197.4! That's ten pounds light since I starter DDR as my main cardio exerise.

I'm wondering down if I had atually stalled briefly in January. Since I lost 4 pounds in 4 weeks at that time..however in the last two weeks I've lost 5 pounds! Usually the 200 mark is a GIANT stall for me. But since I started DDR what use to be a long stall ended up making me sail through the 200 mark. I couldn't be happier!

My next stall is usually around 191/188.. After that i'm not sure where my next stall will be. I normally stall around 165 but I'm sure there is a stall somewhere between 165 and 188.

We shall see, but sliding through this stall has pushed me and motivated me to keep going.

The one thing I have been stalling on is adding weights. I may wait until I actually do hit a stall point. I'd like to lose another 20 pounds before I hit the weights hard and heavy. Trying to avoid the sabotage the weights created with my scale the last time.. (only 15 scale pounds lost in a entire years though i was smaller.)

Anyway, good luck to everyone and whatever way you decide to approach losing.

8 pounds down in 5 weeks!

2007-02-09T12:58:00.000-05:00

I already posted I lost 3 pounds this week. I went back through my blog to see how much I weighed when I started doing DDR. I was at 207 and in 5 weeks I lost 8 pounds. That might not seem like a big deal to some. But I did this using nothing but DDR were maybe 10 minutes of Wii sports thrown in after my DDR workout.

I really like having this blog even though I think I'm the only one that reads it. LOL! But it's mainly for me..to keep track of what I'm doing. And then going back 2 months to see where I was and how far I've come is especially nice. I would recommend anyone trying to lose weight, get yourself a blog. It really helps to write it all out and bare your soul to yourself and the rest of the world.

Here's hoping another successful 5-6 weeks.

DDR and Wii Sports and 3lbs down!!

2007-02-05T18:15:00.000-05:00

Well I wasn't happy with last weeks weigh in but this weeks! Wow talk about motivating. I dropped down to 199.4 exactly 3 pounds lighter. And most importantly I finally broke the 200 barrier.

I must say using Wii sports and DDR together is not only fun but seems to be working.

I'll be happier when I am a lot further away from the 200 mark but for now I am happy to finally not be in the 200's this week!

Weigh In Day Finally!

2007-01-29T06:43:00.000-05:00

Well to make a long story short. I am down to 202.4 which is barely 4 pounds in a month. Not very happy...going to have to look over my diet. But I did cheat here and there to..

I burned close to 5000 caloies for the month..so maybe I shouldn't be surprised I only lost 4 pounds?

Bright side is I'm not up, but down on the scale.

I don't think i'll go a full month again. I think i'm just one of those people that need to see the numbers move to motivate me.

Sad part is I didn't fall into the plateau weight I was hoping to...so 2 more pounds to go before i'm dealing with that to..

Example of my workout

2007-01-22T21:12:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd put up a workout graph so you could see the difference between when I started Aerobics against when I started DDR.

As you can see, the first 3 weeks were Turbo Jam. The remaining weeks are all DDR. Can see where I began to slack once I could no longer see a scale. The last week doesn't count as its Monday, today so the week isn't over yet. But you can see from the chart even when I was slacking I burned a lot more calories then just doing Turbo Jam.

Three weeks down! One to go!

2007-01-22T19:58:00.000-05:00

Well its now been 3 weeks since I managed to stay off my scale. I don't think I've loss a single inch. It reminds me of Greer Childers when she says something like who cares if your small but look the same. Or something to that affect.

I can tell you three years ago after 3 months of going to the gym I was a lot smaller. Why? Because of weight training. However my scale wouldn't budge..I think I loss 15 pounds in a year and even my inch loss crawled to a halt.

This time I thought I would test just doing cardio. So next week will be one month of nothing but cardio. No strength training. The idea was to try to loose enough fat to get past my known weight stalls. I was 206 when I started the no scale for a month idea. I usually stall at 200/199 so I was hoping to get past that. My next stall is 191/188 range. Once I was past those stall points I was going to add in some strength training. My ripped series to be exact.

Still as obsessive as I can be about not seeing weight drop. Seeing no inch loss seems to be almost as bad. Granted I haven't measured everywhere, just my waist where it counts. :)

Once i've gone through 2-3 months on the ripped series, i'll switch over and start body for life. The idea is to keep changing things up so my body wonders what the hell is going on!

I will admit i'm nervous. What if next week's weigh-in is a big failure. what if i'm still 206? Worse, what if I weigh more then 206? I'm not sure i'm up for that big of a disappointment. But whatever happens, I aim to keep pushing and not let even a full month set back toss me off the wagon.

I have cheated also during the month. But I decided if I wanted something i'd have it. I'm not going to beat myself up over it. So i've probably cheated once a week every week this month. With out the motivation of the scale to show me its working, I didn't have as much motivation not to cheat. I can say I cheated in moderation. I didn't go over board with anything.

So stay tuned to next weeks weigh in doing only 35-60 minutes of DDR 3-5 days a week.

I got my WII!

2007-01-22T19:50:00.000-05:00

Yes, I got the tip that Target would have Wii's on the 21st this month. I stayed up all night, it was 3AM before Targets ads finally confirmed this. So out I went at 6AM to camp my Wii.

There were 2 people sitting outside and maybe another 4 or 5 sitting in their cars. It was cold as snot and snowing here in Michigan so I stayed in my car til the line grew from 2 to 10. I was number 11. This was at 7AM, by 7:15 there were 13 in line and Target handed out Vouchers. I cannot tell you how happy the line was we could go sit in our cars with the heat on.

A few more stragglers showed up between 7:15 and 7:45 and Target handed out its remaining vouchers. 17 in total. Many showed up after this and turned away empty handed. I'm sure most of them made it to Best buy at 11AM since they had the same sale going. Ironically went I drove past Best Buy at 8:30AM no one was yet in line.

Anyway I got my Wii! Tennis is a hoot! And Boxing is a cardio killer. Its awesome, you burn a lot of calories and I try to move around as if I were boxing. Video games helped contribute to my out of shape exterior, now their helping me regain some fitness. And its fun! Not boring like walking on a treadmil so I am extremely happy.

If you hate cardio as most do. Hate the treadmil, find Aerobics incredibly boring. DDR and Wii might be something you might wish to consider giving a try.

Wii Sports Experiment: Results

2007-01-16T13:55:00.000-05:00

I have been tracking this guy for about a month. He decided to incorporate 30 minutes of Wii sports into his daily routine to see if he lost any weight. You can find the story here.

Needless to say, his results were very impressive and inspiring.

Two Weeks Down, Two to Go.

2007-01-16T13:43:00.000-05:00

Alright, i've discovered something while not weighing in for the last two weeks. While the scale can be devasting if your numbers don't move the way you want them to, it can also be a motivator. It can inspire you to work harder if you dont see the results you want, or it can give you that push to continue if you do actually see what you hoped for.

The reason I bring this up. I worked out much harder while weighing weekly. Soon as the crutch was taken away and I no longer had that visual telling me if it was actually working, it sort of made me feel lost. No I haven't stopped working out. But I went from burning two thousand calories one week to about a one thousand the next. I'm at 500+ for this week so far, so while I'm not burning nearly what I was, I am still doing more then I was a month ago.

What does this mean? It means I want my freaking scale back! But I said I wouldn't weigh for a month so I'm going to stick to it. Maybe in two weeks once I see some results (hopefully) i'll be inspired to push it harder. However if I see nothing, we are back at that devasting blow again.

I'm still doing DDR and i'm still loving it. But I'd like to add something else to change up my routine. My plan is to buy a Wii this weekend when they are finally back in stock. Some might say, why bother, just walk the treadmill and do ''rea'' exercise. I say to this, if its boring, your not going to stick to it. If you can make exercises and fitness fun, your way a head of the game.

What I'm currently doing..

2007-01-09T02:34:00.000-05:00

Well today was my official weigh in normally. But I'm still trying to go a month staying off the scale... so no weigh in for me.

Currently i'm still doing DDR ( Dance Dance Revolution ) and I'm loving it! Again, I completely hate cardio, but I love DDR. To show you how I've progressed since starting, here's what I was doing. 20 minutes of Turbo Jam and I was burning roughly 700 calories per week. Since starting DDR all that changed. The first week I burned 1500 calories and the second week I had burned 2000 calories in a week. Today was my first day doing it after taking the weekend off and I burned 553 calories.

I also noticed my endurance today was a lot better then it had been before. I had gone nearly an hour and wasn't even tired. This is a big deal when before 20-30 minutes had been doing me in. I wait towards the last 10 minutes or so to do a really hard song (for me) and push my heart rate up to the max of where it should be, then I do a couple slower songs to cool down.

With regular cardio when I'm done, I'm done. With DDR, I sometimes think about getting up and doing it again after a few hours. I don't always, but sometimes I do. Especially if my first workout was in the AM then I might do one in the PM as well.

I guess in 3 weeks we'll know if it's paid off. I'm really hoping I'll be below 200. As my last weigh in was 206. 200/199 is a platue weight for me, and to sail on past it would be great!

I'm still trying to get my hands on a Nintendo Wii. I think the tennis game will be great for working the upper body. Yes I'm such a geek and its about time my love for games have met my need to be fit.

Here's hoping..

No Scale for a month!

2007-01-02T02:40:00.000-05:00

I have no idea if I can stay away from the scale but I'm going to try and give it a shot and not weigh in until January 29th which will be the 5th Monday.

I was also reading Poppi's story. You might remember her from the biggest loser. She did cardio for 2 hours a day and circuit training for 30 minutes a day. The two hours was broken up into two, one hour periods. I'm thinking of giving this a try with DDR. And My Get Ripped Dvd is 50 minutes 3 times a week.

I think I will leave the tape measurer and scale along for a month and see what happens trying this.

Well It's Official. 20 pounds gone since Oct 19!

2007-01-01T13:00:00.000-05:00

What a nice way to start out New years day. To be down nearly 1.5 pounds from over the holidays. I contribute DDR with the lost I had over christmas. Because I did eat. Alot of things I shouldn't have had..but in moderation.. I didn't go over board. I don't like feeling stuffed anymore.

Anyway, I'm past one hurdle of many. My next 20 pounds will be tough. I have always stalled when I get around 200 and around 191..so two stalls there to look forward to within ten pounds of each other.

New Day, New Year, New Beginning.

2007-01-01T01:11:00.000-05:00

I tracked my cardio calories this week I only worked out 4 days and I burned about 1500 calories! This is awesome considering I was burning about 600 for my 20 minute Turbo Jam work outs. This week I did all DDR..and boy does it get my heart rate up fast. And its fun! I'm so consumed with getting my arrows that I loose track of time. I was having so much fun I actually worked out twice in the same day two of those days. Trust me, that is unheard of for me. Still i'm trying not to over do it. I don't want to get my body to use to it and cause myself to stall.

But thats where Ripped hopefully comes in at. The plan is to change up my strength trainning.. I may even work out with Yourself Fitness. And then of course DDR in there as well. But I'm trying to keep it in mind that DDR is a game. One I like to do..but there is no way i'll ever make it to hard. My feet just don't move that fast.

Tomorrow is my weigh in Monday. I did slip on the scale this morning though with a one pound loss. But you know how that goes. Tomorrow I might get up and have gainned 3 pounds so I try not to take it all literally.

I'm seriously thinking of staying off the scale after tomorrow for 4-6 weeks. That in itself will be a challenge. Though it would be nice to come back a month from now 10 pounds lighter, but at the same time what if the scale stays the same. I'm afraid of what that would do to me. I can hear myself now.. working out faithfully for 6 weeks and nothing! I'm at a tricky weight right now. At 206 I am coming into a weight where I always stall. Usually this is right around 200, and then I stall again at 191. Yes i've done this so many times I know where I stall!

This is why I was excited about the DDR. About 3 years ago I did water aerobics but I don't really think it burns all that much. I did about 20-30 on the treadmill to burn about 100 calories. I'd say toward the last 15 minutes of water aerobics before my heart rate got up to where it should be. And the longer I did it the harder it became to get my heart rate up. I had to really push and work harder then the people in the class.

So yes, we can say I slacked royally in the cardio department. DDR is the first program where I did cardio for an hour.. It was fun, I burned 400 calories according to my heart rate monitor and seeing that only spurred me on to keep going.

I want to do DDR at least 3-5 times a week. And strength training 3 days a week. The great part about ripped is its a total body work out so I don't have to alter days with upper and lower.

I don't really have any rewards set up for myself. I mean loosing the weight is the reward if you ask me. I'll buy new clothes when mine are falling off. They are looser but not quite falling off yet :)

I will probably get myself a Nintendo Wii and possibly a Ps2. PS2 is still debatable. You can pick them up so cheap now and they have a lot of DDR games. I'd love to get a PS3 but at a whopping 600 dollars *faints* I'm not sure I want one for that price. Wii the price is right. Also the Wii is cheaper for developers to make games for, and right now the Wii is flying off the shelves like hot cakes. I'm very hopeful they'll get some fitness games and DDR games for it and not just Mario..

Soon they will have Dance Factory. You'll be able to use your own MP3's and the game will make up steps for you to dance to. This is due out on Wii in March and i'm hoping they fixed all the problems that plagued the PS2 version. If they have..it will be an instant hit and enough reason for me to get that system.

Anyway, I've babbled enough for tonight. A year from now hopefully I will look back and see I did everything I set out to do. Making 2007 a really good year!

Happy New Year!

2006-12-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

Well as I sit here waiting to say good bye to 2006 and hello to 2007, I had to think about what my goals for the new year should be. *Laughs* Like the other billion people out there making their lose weight in 2007 resolutions..I'm there to making my own. I feel like this is it. I did start my journey at the end of October. I managed to make it through Christmas with a 1 pound loss. Not great, but great considering most gain at this time of year, I have to take it as a positive.

So good bye 2006 and hello 2007. My goal is to be more active. To do an hour of cardio at least 3 days a week. This will consist of most Dance dance Revolution but I also have my eye on the Nintendo Wii. I think it has a lot of great potential to be weight loss friendly for most of us couch potatoes. I also plan to use Yourself fitness for the Xbox. I think it will be great in helping me figure out where I should be as far as my heart rate goes so I am exercising more effectively.

My other goal is the Get Ripped series by Jari love. Low weight high intensity I think is what I need at this weight. Later I will kick it up a notch and do the Body for Life challenge. Come summer I hope to do some walking around the park. I figure it isn't enough to make a resolution unless you have a plan. If I only manage two out of the four things I've planned, well then I'm still further ahead then I was one year ago today.

One day I will post before pictures and my work in progress pictures. I think once I have 12 weeks of Ripped in I will take pictures and post them.

In the mean time. Keep trying, keep believing. If you fall off, don't give up..get back on and keep on going.

May you all have a healthy, and happy, blessed year!

Dance Dance Revolution!

2006-12-28T17:14:00.000-05:00

Ok if anyone has read my previous posts, you know any form of cardio is a boring chore to me. The most I have been doing is 20 minutes of Turbo Jam along with my trust Polar heart rate monitor. 20 minutes of Turbo burns about 170 calories. I am in my heart rate zone for burning fat for about 7-9 minutes of those 20 minutes. I suppose thats ok for a couch potato, but its not great. I have longed for something that I would actually love doing that would burn fat but that seemed like a long pipe dream. Until now..

I ran up on a girl who had lost 95 pounds doing Dance dance Revolution. If you don't know what this is..its a video game, thats right.. a video game! Well I am a self proclaimed geek anyway. So I told my son to bring his Xbox home (he'd left it at his girlfriends for the last 8 months and since mom bought it..mom wanted to use it :P) Anyway, he brought it home for me when he came home for college and his girl friend since her DDR games since she was busy with work and not using them anymore. I admit I was skeptical. I've seen videos of people doing DDR and at 207 pounds, I can't do that fancy jumping and footwork they do. Well there are different modes so I chose light and the slowest song I could find. I'd do it once or twice then sit down and say.. I don't believe this will do anything.. but after a few days I started to get a little better. That slow song I was getting a E on moved up to a D then a C then an A on to the elusive AA. Once I stopped thinking of it as exercises and just started enjoying the game..it opened up a whole new world and way to work out for me.

Today for instance, along with my heart rate monitor that measures heart rate and calories, I was on DDR for 56 minutes. Try to get me to do any bodies aerobics for that long and i'd be read to shoot myself. But this was fun, the time flew and I really wasn't ready to get off but it was time to pick up my hubby. After 56 minutes I had burned 408 calories! This, from playing a game thats fun! I was in my target heart rate zone for 46 of those minutes. I had sweat pouring down my face and I completely loved it!

This isn't a chore, its fun and I could see myself doing it several times a day..not just an hour. I think I have finally found my niche. Finally I have found a form of cardio I absolutely love.

If your kids have an xbox or Ps2, and you hate cardio as I do. Give it a try. I think you might find the video game makers are on to something.

Let's Get Ripped!

2006-12-22T17:59:00.000-05:00

Well a friend I met on the Sparkpeople boards told me about a video series called ripped. It actually uses low weights, high reps to burn fat and tone up without bulking. Its also on a rotation to keep your body from adapting. For example, you would follow the first Video Ripped for 20 workouts, then switch to Slim and Lean, the second video and so on..

The first video is about 50 minutes. You need dumbbells, or barbells, a mat and a step though you could probably get by without the step and the mat if your on carpet. The video solves a couple of problems for me. I've stated earlier I do like weights, but doing them by yourself can be boring. Doing it with the Dvd really helps solve the boredom problem. It also gets a total body work out in 50 minutes, so it saves you time. Before I'd spend 50 minutes on upper and the next day 50 on lower so this is great. And it works all my muscles to muscle failure which is a good thing.

Each video in the series gets a little more intense then the last, so your steadily building up endurance.

The other problem for me was before I used heavier weights and only lost 15 pounds of scale weight in a year. This made me reluctant to weight train before I lost a certain amount of scale weight. (Fat) But with the low weight high rep workout I decided to see how it works out. I really love this series.. If your interested in strength training, give Jari Love's Ripped series a try.

12/18 Weigh In

2006-12-18T10:23:00.000-05:00

Well another Monday has rolled around. Last week I did 20 minute workout of Turbo Jam for 6 days. I still haven't incorporated weights in, but I found a Video, The Ripped series by Jari love that incorporates light weights with high reps. This is exactly the kind of workout I need at this level. Going to be starting that this week, although my workouts might get spasmadic with my handsome son coming home from college and my husband hanging around a few days off work. Can't wait to see my son, at the sametime I cannot wait til the hoildays are over.

12/18/2006

Weight 207.8

Fat% 43.2%
BMI 35.6

Chest 44.5
Upper Abs 37
Waist 39
Lower Abs 42
Hips 43
L Thigh 25
R Thigh 24.5
L Arm 13
R Arm 13
Neck 15

3.5 Inches lost
Down almost 2 pounds.

12/11/2006 Weigh-In

2006-12-11T05:19:00.000-05:00

Well its that time of the week again. As of today my scale shows 209.6. Getting closer to my first goal of 200. I started all of this October 14th at 226. This brings my grand total down to 16.4 pounds lost! Since my next weigh in will be past the 14th this is the week of my 2 month anniversary.

I also lost 4 inches overall body.

Yesterday was my off day. But with the heart rate monitor I was inspired to get up and burn off 170 calories in 18 minutes. I am getting my head together. If you read my earlier post you'd know I was anti exercise..yet my results were to slow and then I found Turbo Jam and liked it. The plan is to do 20 minute workout for about a month then switch to a different Turbo Jam tape with different moves to keep my body confused. We'll see. I'm 9 pounds from not only my first goal, but my first Platuea.

Still using the Bean also for stomach. I've only used it 3 days so far and I think I lost 1 inch off lower abs so far. Going to give it another week to see if I see all these results I'm suppose to have. I know it will work, I feel the burn in my abs big time. Just having a inkling of buyers remorse.. Not for the heart rate monitor though..that was worth every penny.

Heart Rate Monitor

2006-12-08T12:15:00.000-05:00

Picked up a heart rate monitor today. I wanted something that would give me an idea of how many calories I'm burning.

So far today I did my 20 minute Turbo Jam workout and burned 167 calories. According to the monitor I was in my idea fat burning target rate zone for 7 of those 18 minutes. I'd love to test it on the 40 minute work out but the 20 minute is killing me lol. I just don't have that kind of endurance yet.

3 minutes of body flex burned 22 calories. Not bad for so little work and I didn't have do it at that.

I did 8 minute abs work out on the bean and burned 40 calories.

The monitor is a really great motivator and I'm glad I bought it. Now I can quit guess at how much I'm burning.

Today's total is about 229 calories for about 29 minutes work. I don't think thats bad at all for a beginner and completely out of shape person.

Ouch!

2006-12-07T15:50:00.000-05:00

Well I'm on my 3rd day doing Turbo Jam. I had done really good doing the Learn and Burn portion, which is the very basic beginners work out. The work out is oh about 16-17 minutes. Perfect for someone that is so completely out of shape.

I discovered a few things. I know you should wear gym shoes to work out, but on carpet, forget it. I just go barefoot.

I picked up the 30 minute Turbo Jam fat blaster. Its only 30 minutes and its a very good work out for body for life. The reason I say this is because you work out 3 minutes then for 1-2 minutes you work at 9-10 intensity. This is what she calls Turbo mode. There are about 4 of these spread out through the 30 minute work out. Hey its 30 minutes..not so bad..I hung in for the 17 minute work out.

Ha! That work out kicked my butt. Not to mention I just could not keep up with it. I'm so tired of being out of shape. For now, I'm going back to the 17 minute work out. At least doing that I was proud of myself for finishing it and felt like I had accomplished something.

If you haven't tried Turbo Jam, give it a try. All the glowing reviews everyone gives it is true. And this is coming from a person that completely hates cardio. Turbo Jam is the best work out i've ever tried as far as the teacher being really likable, and the music is really great. It makes you want to get up and move.

Added a few new Toys

2006-12-05T17:46:00.000-05:00

Well not much to report this weigh in. I was up 1.5 pounds from last week with about a .5 inch loss. I think my progress since October 19th has been ok but could be better. I still want to do the Body for Life challenge...but I had issues of what cardio to do since I absolutely hate cardio.

Today I tried out the Turbo Jam learn and burn routine. I actually liked it. The music helps a lot. The teacher is motivational and not annoying..I figure if I give my all with this work out then move on to the 20 minute work out she has..that should cover my cardio.

I also picked up the Bean from walmart 48.99. The reason I got it was I've been wanting to try the stability balls..but I already know I wouldn't be very stable on one. The bean is the perfect compromise with its contoured shape. I've only did the ab work out so far, but my abs really felt the burn. So I have to give this one a thumbs up also.

The last thing stopping me from doing my body for life challenge is my weights. I had bought the rebook set but from memory I dont think that set will last me very long. A 40 pound set is more idea for me. I went to the local sporting goods store to take a look at what they had. Especially the bowflex select tech. My god they are huge! I did try them in the store..very smooth and easy to change the weights..but the set is a little over whelming. I'm still debating if that will be the set I go with.

The other I was thinking of was the Gofit SportBlock set Walmart sells. The 24 pound set sells for 59.99 and you can add another 24 pounds for another 39 dollars. giving you a 48 pound set. This is a good alternative but I can't find any reviews so I have no idea if they will hold up.

Anyway i'll make up my mind soon.

Good luck everyone!

11/20/2006 Weigh-In

2006-11-20T08:21:00.000-05:00

Weight, as of 10/14/2006
226 pounds
Measurements as of 10/19/2006
Chest 47
upper abs 41
Waist 45
lower abs 46.5
Hips 45
L Thigh 25
R Thigh 25.5
L Arm 14 1/4
R Arm 14 1/4
Neck 15 1/2

Todays weigh in.
216.8
44.5%
37.1 BMI

chest-- 44.5
upper abs-- 38.5
waist-- 40
lower abs-- 43.5
hips-- 44.5
l thigh-- 26
r thigh-- 25
l arm-- 13.5
r arm-- 13.5
neck-- 15.5

9 inches lost

This has been my biggest inch lost. My husband was off all last week and I only did body flex 3 times last week. I did the advance work out which is all of 9 minutes and this seems to have given me the best results. I lost an amazing 3 inches off my waist! 2 off my lower abs and 2 off my chest. I'm very happy with this weeks measurements and think I will continue the body flex advance for a while.

Last weeks measurements.
217.2
chest 46.5
upper abs-- 39.5
waist 43
lower abs 45.5
hips 45
l thigh 26
r thigh 26
l arm 13.5
r arm 13.5
neck 15.5

Eating for Life

2006-11-16T12:21:00.000-05:00

I'm in love with this cookbook! If I knew I could eat so well I would have ordered it a long time ago. It was worth every cent I paid for it. Even my husband loves the few things I've made so far.

Yesterday we had a ground turkey meatloaf with green beans and a portion of red skin mashed potatoes. Really filling and that meatloaf was very tasty! This morning I had a carrot cake muffin since I didn't have time to cook. It's also from the cookbook and you can use it for a meal replacement. If your use to eating muffins and donuts or bagels for breakfast, this is the way to go.

For lunch I made a ham egg and cheese melt. As you can see, these recipes are yummy. I don't start my challenge until Monday, but I can tell you.. I'm loving the food already. Even if I didn't pick up a single weight or do a single exercise, I could eat this way all the time. The book has given us so much variety in our diet.

A lot of the ingredients repeat, so once you have them all in your kitchen you can pretty much make anything in the book. My husband thought it was worth all the money I spent getting everything up I needed. He normally hates my cooking so after eating it for seven years he doesn't mind the extra I spent to give him some variety he actually likes. The main thing, it doesn't taste diet to him.

If you haven't purchased this book or you are thinking about it. Trust me, its completely worth it.

If only I had known...

2006-11-13T23:35:00.000-05:00

I recently found the Body for life tracker site. The reason I quit my last diet in 2003 was because after a year I still weighed 191 down from 207. Which is not very motivating when you go work out faithfully for a year. Sure I went from a size 22 to a 16...but I still did the one thing I shouldn't. I relied on what the scale was telling me and I couldn't get over the fact the numbers weren't going down even the 1 pound a week most say is the average weight loss.

Well the tracker site has it where you can put in your measures and body fat percentages. So I did this and this is what it was telling me.

Comparing Challenge #1, Week #0 to Challenge #1, Week #8, Synergi started with a lean bodyweight of 97.5 lbs and 109.5 lbs of bodyfat. If Synergi's measurements are accurate, she currently has a lean bodyweight of 119.4 lbs and 71.6 lbs of bodyfat. This is a change of 21.9 lbs of muscle and 37.9 lbs of bodyfat if the measurements are correct. These figures are only as good as the accuracy of the weight and bodyfat measurements taken..

In truth the scale didn't move but I had lost nearly 40 pounds of fat and had packed on 20 pounds of muscles. I could cry now reading this but I won't. It's really motivated me. Using this site, i'll be able to see how much muscle i'm gaining so i'm pretty happy about that..

Today's Weigh In

2006-11-13T19:43:00.000-05:00

Ok Speaking of the scale this is official weigh in today. On the new scale im down 3 pounds this week. The old scale has me down 4-5..hard to tell because it never stays zeroed out. My inch loss again hasn't been great I loss 3 more inches but I also moved up an inch in a couple spots so make 2...The spots I did loose is what surprising. 2 inches off the waist line woot! And I think an inch off the upper abs.

If you guys don't keep journals you should really think about it. I've been doing my Body Flex now for a month.. So I compared them with my last trip down diet lane.

Last time I started low carb at about 226 give or take. I got down to 207 this is with out any kind of exercise..

This time I started at 226 and only did body flex..

Todays results Low carb diet 2003
weight 217 207
chest 46.5 47
upper abs 39.5 38.5
waist 42 44.5
lower abs 45.5 45
thigh 26 (both) 26
arms 13.5 14

Just having those to compare shows im getting some toning doing body Flex.. Then in my journal I started the body for life strength trainning routine but stuck to my low carb diet. I must have got lazy in my journal but I tracked at least for two months my results.
.

Todays results / Low carb diet 9/4 2003 / to 12/4/2003
weight 217 / 207 / 198
chest 46.5 / 47 / 41.5
upper abs 39.5 / 38.5 / 35
waist 42 / 44.5 / 35.5
lower abs 45.5 / 45 / 40
thigh 26 (both) / 26 / 24
arms 13.5 / 14 / 12
hips 46.5 / 47.5 / 41

Not a whole lot of weight loss from september to december but boy did that routine suck me all in lol. I went from a 22 to a very comfortable size 16 in 8 weeks.

Body for Life Challenge

2006-11-11T02:51:00.000-05:00

Silly me! I realized it was end of year and near time for the official Body for Life contest to start up. And you know what? I actually entered it! Me? Who has never seen a pair of abs on myself in her life!

But I got to thinking, yes dangerous I know. But why not. Someone has to win it. Its not even really about winning. It's a challenge and a goal to work towards win or lose.

In the meantime. I'm starting my first 12 week challenge soon. It would be nice if I could drop 20 before the official challenges start.

I will be spending the first 12 weeks at home using my free weights. If I survive the first challenge i'll see how i'm progressing and if I need to join the gym. Waiting to the join the gym in January is the best thing to do. They always have specials like two for one or some such and since I belonged to it for a year, I at least won't be intimadated by the buffed hunks walking around.

The Lazy Dieter

2006-11-11T02:40:00.000-05:00

Thats probably what I should have called this blog. If anyones read any of my posts thats probably the impression I made. It's not that I'm lazy, it's more like I'm tired of failing. But aren't we all?

I have to thank Steve over at body performace for making me believe I could do it. That I could loose 70 pounds to find the inner goddess within. My official weigh in is monday but I confess I peeked yesterday and I was down another 3 pounds. If the weight stays off til monday it means I lost 10 pounds doing nothing but body flex and portion controlling. Pretty painless..

I did mention I like to weight train? At least I did the one time I tried it a couple of years ago. I did it a solid year and while i lost alot of inches and 2 or 3 sizes, I only lost 10-15 pounds for the whole year. Then we had a storm to make a long story short the entire city was out of power for a couple of weeks. We lost the neurtral to our house and ended up staying in a hotel for 3 weeks. No longer able to cook I gainned 10 of those precious 15 pounds I lost in under 2 weeks. Something that took me a year to loose. After that I was pretty devestated and I gave up.

By the way, I was using the body for life work out routine and was getting pretty good results. I however didn't follow the BFL diet. If any of you have read the book you know brown rice and dry pasta isn't going to make anyones day.

However! Now there is Eating for Life! I hear tell all the bland food is gone. The items are easy to fix, common ingrediants and it will work well with the portion controlling I was already doing. So I ordered the cookbook. I'm very excited that i'll have the diet to go with the workout.

I will be starting in about a week. I need to get my kitchen in order and I'm still waiting for the book to come.

Good luck to me and to everyone else who plans to give this a try.

Another weigh-in diaster.

2006-11-06T14:16:00.000-05:00

I think I should have stuck to my original plan and weighed myself either every two weeks or once a month. After one week, I didn't loose a single pound, inch or fat percentage and it completely killed my motivation.

Of course I'm sure there will be many, many more days, weeks like this..Im taking in alot less calories then I was.. no reason why the weight shouldn't come off sooner or later.

Anyway, I think I will go have a good cry then get back to my Body Flex.

Novembers Goals.

2006-11-02T15:03:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone.

Well now that its November I was sitting here debating what a good goal would be for the month. One goal is to make it through thanksgiving. I'm getting so use to portion controlling I don't think the food side of it will be a problem. I guess i'll eliminate the half pound of butter I use to base my turkey with this year. :) The desert side is another story. I think I will keep it light and not make a bakery this year.

Weight goals I'm to afraid to set one. I'd love to drop another 10 pounds to get closer to the 200 mark. Inch loss i'd like to loose a 3-4 off my waist. I have no idea if any of these are realistic goals, but I think its good to have small goals. If I don't make it this month they can carry over into December.

My birthday is also at the end of the month. So 10 pounds off would be a good present to myself. :)

Fat Loss Monitor

2006-10-30T08:49:00.000-05:00

I was watching fit tv the other day. They were showing a few personal trainners in a well known gym franchise trainning these people to get fit before a class reunion. Anyway, aside from weighing them, they also used a body fat analyzer. I thought, neat, I need one of those.

I was thinking back to my previous weigh loss attempt with a year of weigh trainning. Even though I was smaller my scale barely moved one pound a month. Maybe if i'd had one of those analyzers I would have known even though the scale wasn't budging, I was really gainning muscle and loosing fat.

So I looked around and found one on Amazon for only 26.00 USD. This is the same one they were using on Fit-Tv. If its good enough for their personal trainers its good enough for me. Its called the Omron HBF-306C Fat Loss Monitor incase anyones interested. Its always good to have another way to gage progress besides the scale and measuring tape. So i'm very excited to have picked this up.

Next week when I get it in i'll do another weigh in along with my body fat composition.

First Official Weigh-In!

2006-10-30T08:46:00.000-05:00

Well I finally got the nerve to officially weigh.
I started at 226 I now weigh in at 219. That is a 7 pound loss in 2 weeks! *cheers* So my portion controlling along with body flex is working. I've also lost about 4 inches...so so far so good.

First day using Body Flex

2006-10-27T15:48:00.000-04:00

I picked up the old tapes on amazon that don't use the gym bar from 1993. I have to say, wow..I completely feel this work out, it had me huffing and puffing and I felt great after it was over. I think between Oxycise and Body Flex, I difianately like how I felt more after Body Flex. I'm tired yet I feel energized at the sametime.

Also, I was just getting a headache as I started and once the routine was over, so was the headache. Anything that makes me take less aspirin is a good thing to me.

I did slide and take some measurements, but I really wanted to wait 7 days from starting these breathing programs so i'm going to retake them on monday. I can tell you I have lost some weight and inches, so my portion controlling seems to be working.

I'm eating what I want, not what some diet is telling me I have to eat so im happy.

OMG! Chronic Headaches

2006-10-26T18:40:00.000-04:00

I suffer from chronic tension headaches. It starts in my neck, shoulders then moves up to my head. From there is changes from a tension headache to a migraine. I get these every single day. At first I took anywhere from 6 -8 aspirins per day. I know way to many. But this was the only thing that gave me relief.

I later discovered Omega3 fish oils. This is a natural blood thinner and antiinfammatory. Basically the samething asprin does but it won't kill my liver. Omega3 did an amazing job of getting rid of the tension that crept up in my shoulders and neck and just made me miserable daily. I still got the headache but thank god the tension part was gone.

After taking Omega3 I was able to cut my aspirin intake down to 2-3 a day. Still to many but a long way from 6-8 doses in a 24 hour period.

I imagine you all say what has any of this to do with my diet. Well I started trying a new herbal remedy this week to see if it helped with my headache. Then I realized my headache was lessened to the point I could take just 1 aspirin. So I was like wow I think its working.

Then something happened today. I had a big headache so I was about to go take my dose of aspirin for the day but I stopped to get the mail first. Well it was my body flex tapes. So anxious to check it out before I ran to pick up my husband, I popped it in.. Tried it out for maybe 5 minutes then I left. And then it dawned on me.. my headache was going away! And now I know why just this past week my headaches have been better. I started Oxycise this week.

I started taking the herbal drug last week, no difference but I thought i'd take it long enough to build it up in my system in hopes that it works. But since I did Oxycise this, I noticed my headaches werent' nearly so bad.. but doing Body Flex today my headache completely went a way.

This is a huge huge deal for me. I'm just sitting here waiting for the next one so I can test this out, but if the deep breathing helps my headaches.. then, aside from weightloss..I just found a reason to stick with the program and this has me very excited!

I completely hate taking drugs. Deep breathing for 15 minutes to keep from getting a headache is a life saver. I just pray this is really whats helping me but I believe this is it..

Drawing close to 2 weeks!

2006-10-26T00:09:00.000-04:00

Well, i'm drawing close to the two week mark. This consisted of 2 days on the treadmill for 20 minutes and 20 minutes on the easy shaper the first week.

Week two, consists of nothing but Oxycise, 15 minutes for 3 days, but I plan to do it all five days of this week.

I'm still debating if I will weigh. Scales are evil, they either make you feel really good about your progress or down in the dumps at your failures. Frankly i'm a bit chicken to do measurements also... I feel really good about what i'm trying to do and I just don't want anything to discourage me before I give it all a fair chance.

I may measure and weigh next week or I might just measure. I'm still waiting for my Body Flex cd's and tapes to come in so i can see if I like that better then the Oxycise.

Anyone thinking of trying Body Flex, Home Shopping Network has the set on clearance for 7.18 regulary 39.85. I believe I paid 35.00 for my original set that I lost the tape for (and never did the workout) so that is a great deal. Grab one, they won't last long at that price. You get the 30 day return policy so if it doesn't work for you, send it back. But at 7 bucks, that is a great deal, to good to pass up.

Soda, is Evil!

2006-10-25T23:18:00.000-04:00

So I talked to Steve, the personal trainner guy who's link you'll find to the right of my page. I told him I downed a 2 liter sprite every single day without fail. This added 800 calories on top of whatever I ate for the day.

He said wow! Thats a 80 pound weight gain in a year.

Now I knew it was probably soda that made me stay heavy because I really don't pack the food away often. I mean I have my moments as I'm sure everyone does. But day in and out, I eat very little. Hearing him say that my soda is what put 80 pounds on me was eye opening.

Remember I'm 5'4 and I weigh 226 subtract 80 from that and you get 146 which is pretty close to what I should weigh. Heck I can live with 146 or even 150 considering what I know now about weight trainning. At 150 I wouldn't be the same chubby teen I was in high school. I'd be smaller and look pretty fit.

For those that are drinking regular soda. Track how much your drinking in a day/week and add up the calories. Same with jucies that use sugar. You actually may not be to bad, as far as your eating goes...it could all be in what your drinking.

Atkins Diet

2006-10-25T23:09:00.000-04:00

No, I'm not on it. I once tried it..well maybe twice. I mean, who doesn't like a diet that lets them have butter and cheese? The very first time I tried Atkins I dropped 20 pounds in 2 weeks. I was pretty geeked after that. But then the weight loss slowed way down and I lost interest.

For those that can stick with it, yes its a great diet. I for one don't see myself being that limited on carb intake the rest of my life. I've said in other posts, im cutting back on unnessary calorie intake but other then modifying some of the things I eat, i'm pretty much just controlling portions and seeing how that works out for me.

I'm 40 years old, at least for about another 5 weeks. I have been on all sorts of crazy diets dating back to a teenager in high school. I've starved myself, worked out like crazy and then that moment comes where you slipped for a month, gained ten pounds and you say screw it! I'll just stay a fat person and eat whatever I want.

Its time to sit back and think. What can you truly live with for the rest of your life. I couldn't live with atkins personally, but many can and kudos to them!

Why do we sabotage ourselves?

2006-10-24T00:47:00.000-04:00

I was reading another board where someone mentioned all they have to do to keep the weight off is body flex for 15 minutes 4-5 times a week, yet she and many others still managed to fall off the wagon. Why is it we do this to ourselves. We see results, or we get on the scale and see 10 pounds gainned and we throw the towl back in.

15 minutes a day to permanate weight loss. Are we indeed just lazy? From personal experience I know im lazy. But i'm not sure if its lazyiness, or loss of interest or disappointment that i'll never beat the weight thing that hopping on the scale and seeing ten extra pounds just does me in.

2 years ago you couldn't have paid me to remember to take a supplement everyday. Now I take Omega3 without fail and have for the last 8 months or so because it made a huge difference in how I felt.

I am hoping I will see Body Flex the same way.. A supplement that not only helps me loose weight, but just make me over all feel better..

We shall see..

Oxycise

2006-10-23T15:11:00.000-04:00

Well while im waiting for my new Body Flex tapes to come in I happened to already have Oxycise from a couple years ago. I had the level one work out as well as the tape that teaches you how to breath. So instead of doing nothing, I did my first 15 minute Oxycise tape today.

Today is one of those, that time of the month so i feel like crap anyway, so i can't comment on how I feel after doing it. I can say I smoke, and my smokes tasted like crap after doing the work out which is a good thing. I know the Body flex is suppose to help you stop smoking and now I can see why.

The two programs are very simular but the breathing is different for both. Oxycise seems more gentle but for some reason I find body flex easier. Not to say Oxycise isn't easy, I just find for me, it seemed easier. I'll know for sure once the tapes come in and I can do the whole 15 minute work out.

If you hate moving as far as jumping around, running/walking on treadmills, or following some plastic blonde bimbo with a freaky smile on her face telling you ..you can do it! I'd suggest trying Blody Flex or Oxycise. Everyone can breath..if your 400 pounds and can barely move..this is a great way to start your weightloss journey. The best part is these two programs are suppose to burn more fat and calories then all other traditional exercises.

The excercises may get boring after while. But hell they all do in my opinion. But I can honestly say I don't hate doing these..I think its something I can stick with. I mean whats easier then breathing for 15 minutes a day. I suppose the true test will be next monday when I do measurements.

So next monday will be Oxycises chance.. and hopefully if the tapes are here, the monday after that will be Blody flex's chance to make a believer of me.

Here's hoping.

I gave Body Flex a try

2006-10-22T16:50:00.000-04:00

Why not! I had it here sitting collecting dust from a year ago. I really followed her instructions and while I laughed at some of the faces she made.. I have to say Wow! After we were finished I felt really good, full of energy. The way you feel after you do traditional exercises once the worn out feeling passes and your full of energy. Except with body flex, I skipped over the worn out feeling.

I'm going to continue this. I've also ordered her old tapes since my tape is more instructional and I want the full work out tape. Last night I poured over tons of reviews on Body Flex on Amazon.com website and 85% of them were very positive. That many people can't be wrong and its a real eye opener to what burning fat really means.

I will keep a weekly tab once I get the real tapes on a week to week basis and go from there. But over all I love how it made me feel, it only takes 15 minutes and its certaintly something I can stick with because I didn't hate it like I hate walking on a treadmill or riding a bike in place.

The Diet Obsession Wagon

2006-10-20T20:03:00.000-04:00

I want off...
Seriously! Why is it everytime one is determine to diet that is what they live and breath for months and months? Every waking moment is of what I'm going to eat, don't cheat..am I loosing, is it working? I'm tired of it..

The sad truth is...you come to a point you fall off your obsession. So why do it to begin with? I can't believe it took me 20 years of my life to come to this point. I'm going to eat. I'm going to eat what I like regardless if I should or shouldn't have it. The key that is different for me this time is two things..

Do I need it? Example: Butter... Recipe called for 2 tbsp and the calories were 200 for the butter. The food I was making yeilds 5 servings. Thus that butter was adding 40 extra calories to what I was going to eat..

Portion controlling..

Hunger pangs.. instead of saying uh oh.. im hungry, I now drink 16oz of water and wait 20 minutes. If i'm still hungry after that I will eat. I'm finding that sometimes i'm not hungry at all.. my body is thirsty. I read part of a book that said that your body begs for water in the same way it does food but we often mistake hunger pangs as needing food, when in fact we needed water.

I use to think I couldn't eat every 3-4 hours but as long as I have something quick I can throw together really quick, i'm finding its not hard at all. In fact I was thinking to myself that wow, 1400 calories is really a nice amount of food. As long as I continue to eat every 3 to 4 hours, hungry or not.. i'm not binging.. body is getting plenty of food and i'm now controlling the calories that come into it.

Take yesterday.. it was late night and I wasn't hungry but I only had eaten 1035 calories for the day. So I ate anyway. Its important to keep the calorie count up. If you starve yourself on 1200 a day..the moment you hit goal..(if you last that long on 1200 caloies..) You'll find once you begin to raise your calorie intake, you probably will start gaining again.

I wanted to eat between 1500-1600 calories.. but I keep falling short of that goal...but I think its ok since I go to bed not hungry, which is the most important thing to me.

I guess you can say my new obsession is portion sizes now.. and how I was adding unnecessary calories to my foods that I didn't need.

You need to eat to loose weight.

Sounds a lot like you need to spend money to make it.

Bodyflex Anyone?

2006-10-19T17:15:00.000-04:00

I bought the bodyflex gymbar and tape off QVC two years ago. I believe I did it only one time. If you've read my Road to Weightloss thread, you know I hate cardio exercises and that i'm doing the very minium because im trying to have a plan I know I can stick with.

My diet consists of mostly portion controls and eating more often then before. I also cut out fried foods and adding butter, which adds quite a few calories.

Anyway, I saw my bodyflex set while looking through my excercise things and I started reading the reviews over. I think i'm going to give it a try for a week and see if it really works.

Anyone else tried it? Post your results..

Starting Measurements

2006-10-19T16:13:00.000-04:00

I actually started my so called diet last saturday. That was six days ago. Unfortunately, I didn't take measurements, so i'm doing that now. Its best to have both weight and measurements... Going a two week span with no weightloss and the frustration that could bring, might be off set by a loss of measurements.

Weight, as of 10/14/2006
226 pounds
Measurements as of 10/19/2006
Chest 47
upper abs 41
Waist 45
lower abs 46.5
Hips 45
L Thigh 25
R Thigh 25.5
L Arm 14 1/4
R Arm 14 1/4
Neck 15 1/2

Nothing like laying out the embaressing measurements for all to see. I'm not sure i'll weigh this week. I'm a little afraid to see if any of my current eating and portion controlling is working.

I'm currently digging through the house trying to find my old journal. I'm curious how my measurements 2 years ago stack up against them today at the same weight.

My goal is to add weight trainning later. But i'd like to see the scale move into the 180-190 range. Before when I did weight training my scale moved 9 pounds in a year. Even though I loss inches, I sabotaged myself, thinking I wasn't really loosing.

Weight trainning is wonderful for sucking it all in. I was 191 in a size 16. In highschool I was a size 16 at 160 pounds. So yes.. Weights can get you into smaller sizes way faster. Anyone leery of it, should give it a try. You'll be amazed at how it makes you look.

Not The Typical Diet Menu

2006-10-19T05:16:00.000-04:00

Since i'm logging what I eat, i'm posting it here. I will continue to update and add to it til the end of the month. You may notice there is not alot of green in my diet and there probably never will be. I do take 2 maxium green suppliments. 2 Ultimate Omega3 suppliments, along with a few other suppliments. Hopefully this is enough to make up for the green I don't eat.

10/16/2006
Ham sandwich, 1tps light mayo, 2 slices light bread, slice chesse 350-400 calories
Snack Ritz crackers 60 calories
Hamburger Helper1 cup 330
Hamburger helper1 cup 330
2 8oz cranberry juice light 80 calories
2 8oz ruby red light 80 calories
Crystal light16oz 10 calories
whip cream 25 calories WW carrot cake 80?
Total 1390

October 17th
Did about 17 minutes on treadmill About 18 minutes on easy shaper.
1 cup special k half cup milk 150 calories.
1 cup hamburger helper 330
1 ham and cheese sandwich 350-400 calories
8oz cranberry juice 40 calories
8oz ruby red grapefruit 40 calories
48oz water so far..
16oz crystal light 10 calories
6 town house crackers 60 calories
Rasin Bran and 1 cup of milk 290
Carrot cake and cool whip 105
Total 1435

10/18/2006
Treadmill 20 minutes 1 mile 130 calories burned
3 pieces bacon 390
1 egg no oil 70 calories
8oz ruby red grapefruit juice 40
30 oz water so far
4oz turkey thigh 190 calories
2/3 cup julineen potatoes 100 calories no butter save 40 calories per portion.
1 cup coco 100 calories
Ham and Cheese sandwhich 300-400
16oz cranberry 80 calories
carrot cake cool whip 105
1475

10/19/2006
Im really sore today. Also I just felt the onset of shin splits yesterday. Thinking of laying off the treadmill today and maybe doing an exercise tape.I'm even thinking of breaking out the body flex tape. Does that really work? I'm skeptical, but you can't ignore all the reviews that are more for it then against it.

You'll notice my menus tend to repeat. I usually save dinner from the previous night and have it for lunch the next day. My ham sandwich is something quick to eat to give me the calories.I use 2 oz of ham and a teaspoon of light mayo instead of a tablepoon. Also light bread, which makes two slices equal to what one slice of regular comes to in calories.

1 ham sandwich, no cheese this time. 160 calories for 2oz of meat.
2 slices of light bread 80 calories
2/3 cup J potatoes 100 calories
4oz turkey 190 calories
8oz cranberry juice 40 calories
8 oz cranberry light 40 calories
8 oz ruby red grapfruit juice 40 calories
1/2 cup rice 100 calories
1 teaspoon can't believe its not butter 5 calories
4 oz turkey thigh 190 calories
Weight Watchers Carrot cake 80 calories
1 teaspoon coolwhip light 10 calories
3 oz chicken 100 calories
2 slices white bread 80 calories
I tbs light mayo 45 calories

1260

10/20/2006
chicken sandwich 175 calories
ham sandwich 215 calories
1 serving yogurt 90 calories
16oz cranberry light 80 calories
Jambayla 1 cup serving size 320
32oz water
16oz crystal light 10

Its the weekend, i've been slacking on cooking but trying to squeeze in food every few hours, I may just cook something anyway to get my calories up there.

Why I'm giving it another go..

2006-10-19T05:05:00.000-04:00

His name is Steve, you'll find his link to the right of the page. He's a personal trainner who makes these fantastic video blogs on how to loose weight.

For instance, one of his video blogs mentioned the slim fast diet. The old ads of have a shake for breakfast, lunch and a sensible dinner. I think we all remember that ad. Well Steve goes on to point out that you could do the same thing with Sneakers bars. One for breakfast, one for lunch and a sensible dinner and you'd still loose weight.

This wonderful guy with his 1 minute video blog changed my entire outlook on how I thought about diets. He has over 50 blogs and they are very eye opening, I would encourage you guys to click on the link and visit his Body Performance site and check out Steve TV and the forums.

Is Quznois the Better Choice?

2006-10-19T04:52:00.000-04:00

I've found you either hate them or really love them. I've yet to see anyone inbetween. Many may not know that Quznois will not publish any nutritional information on their website. Many won't eat there because of it. Many want to be able to make choices based on what that information gives them.

Come on people. I eat at Quznois maybe twice a year, usually within the same week because their subs are addictive to me. By the second one that week I say, ok going to give me a heart attack, I can't eat here anymore. Do I really need nutritional facts to tell me their subs are so loaded with triple meat and double cheese that one sandwich is probably my entire calories for the day?

Why won't they publish this info? Its simple. One look at a fact stating that sandwhich you want is in excess of 1500+ calories, will loose them way more business then the folks that won't eat there because they don't print the info freely.

I heard of a gal that went in weighing 121 eating two subs a week for a few weeks only to have shot up nearly 20 pounds.

Knowning this.. eat it at your own risk. Luckily they are so expensive, really helps me stay away from there.

MY Tools

2006-10-19T03:49:00.000-04:00

I’ve been at this for about a week now. So far my tools are..
Measuring cup that also measures oz for liquids.

A food scale for weighing portions

My Easy Shaper by fittness quest

My Treadmill

My handweights

As of right now im not using my weights. I know if I use them I will start to tone up and it will be easier to burn fat. First I want to see if my insane eating style will actually work for me.
I have various work out tapes, from taebo to belly dancing. I might try the belly dancing. Taebo is something I know I won’t stick to so i’m going for what I will actually be willing to do this time around.

The Crazy Road to Weight Loss

2006-10-19T03:34:00.000-04:00

I have come to realize recently that I cannot diet. Nor can I exercise an hour a day because I completely hate it. Now im not saying I wouldn’t, I have done this in the past for a year or so.. and I hated doing it. I’m sorry, exercise bores the snot out of me and im tired of pretending that while I might stick to it for a year, maybe two.. that I will stick to it the rest of my life. Not gonna happen so why pretend?

Probably my only saving grace is that I do like to weight train. Thank god i’m not a complete loss in the exercise department. So my goal is to cardio 20 minutes a day. Hey, that is something I can realistically do the rest of my life and I refuse to let my body get use to me working out 5 hours a day only so that the minute I cut it in half it says, uh oh..time to add up some pounds!
I also am not a health nut. I’m sorry, im going to be honest. How many people have tried a diet and said.. this isn’t bad. I can do this, I can get use to this? I’m one of those people. For me, what that translate to is, ok Syn, talk yourself into believing you can eat this way the rest of your life. I’ve decided I can’t. I’m not going to pretend anymore, im not going on anyone elses diets and making them richer.

I realize after thinking over things.. I eat far less at 226 then I did in highschool at 155ish. I use to bike ride as most kids did in the summer til I hit maybe 16 and thought I was to old for it. But other then going to school, I think the majority of my excercise came from going to malls with my friends. I still remember me and my best friend going and we told our parents to pick us up in 5 hours. Five hours! I can’t stay in a mall 5 minutes now before I want to run home.

I also realized that like most Americans, I am largely addicted to soda. I can down a 2 liter a day of regular Sprite. Thats 800 calories! So as of last friday October 13th, I jugged down my last soda. Not even doing diet soda, I just hate them.

I have divided up my drinks in various ways. Crystal Light ready made Ruby Red is my drink of choice. The whole bottle is 10 calories (2 servings) and I drink about 2 of those a day. Very good stuff if you guys have never tried it. I also drink about 40oz of water, 16oz of cranberry juice light at 80 calories. I drink the cranberry for the detox benefits. And I drink 8oz of the real ruby red light 40 calories, just for the simple fact it actually makes me feel good. So I have went from about 800 calories to 180 calories on just what I drink.

I plan to keep a log of what I eat. If your expecting Tofu and carrots, wrong place. I eat stuff like hamburger helper, ham and cheese sandwiches and I eat every 3.5-4 hours, never giving myself a chance to get hungry. I guess only time will tell if this diet will actually work for me.
If you look over to your right under previous posts, this is where all my new blog entries will land. Feel free to browse as I add and post whats working for you.