Wow One Year Today!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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..

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!!

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!

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

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!

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!

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.