Saturday, August 22, 2009

Summer is nearly over!

Summer is drawing to a close and I realize I haven't updated since the middle of June before it even really started here.   A lot has happened since then and the weight loss has continued which is great.  In late June I found out that I'm expecting my 2nd baby!  Even though my energy level has been extremely low and my appetite really high I've managed to lose 8 pounds since finding out I was pregnant.  Unfortunately some of that came back on but I'm still working on it.  Just this past week I was able to start the longer 2k walks again.  Before then I was too exhausted to do much but I'm taking advantage of the energy rise in my second trimester and will start adding in some other exercises as well.  My dr said she was fine with me continuing to lose weight at least for a few months, I expect that eventually she will want me to gain some.  With Olivia I only gained a few pounds until I got pre eclampsia and swelled up really badly.  I also lost some at the beginning of that pregnancy.  I'm in my 13th week and things are looking good with my blood pressure so far.  I feel fine, aside from some gassiness and constipation.  I'm hoping my state of health before I got pregnant will assist me to get through this one much easier than with Olivia.  We've had one ultrasound and there was one baby in there, looking just fine (and pretty cute if I do say so myself). 

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Walmart Walk for Miracles

We did the walk for miracles this morning even though it was a bit of a late start. Our human alarm didn't wake us up until 9 am which is quite surprising. Usually Liv is up at 7 am, even on weekends. We finally got out of the house at 10 am or shortly after. It was not especially warm but we stuck with it anyway. The gps wasn't working properly until halfway to our destination so I just reset it when we got halfway and calculated distance by doubling it. We walked 2.08 km which is 1.29 miles in about 40 minutes. I took one short break to sit while Olivia threw a fit in the jogging stroller because she was "tuck". She wanted to be moving or free from the stroller. She whined for most of the way home until daddy started playing peekaboo with her. It really wasn't that difficult to do this time and I hardly felt it afterwards, I was just tired. I am surprised at myself. I was able to walk more than 2 km without hurting too badly and if you told me I'd be able to do this 5 months ago I would have said no way. Good news, the scale is being replaced by the company we got it from but it's from Hong Kong...it may take another 6 weeks or so to get here. If only we'd been able to find the receipt so we could return it to walmart. This week is supposed to be sunny and warm so we set up the pool this evening in the hopes it will warm up a bit by tomorrow or Tuesday. On Wednesday we're going to Cochrane to see the polar bears which will also involve quite a bit of walking.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Down another 8

The walks have been helping immensely! Jake has kept me accountable to walking as much as possible. We even took a walk alone without Livvy and Shawn the other day as I was trying to map out our 2k walk for the Walmart Walk for Miracles. We'll be doing that on June 14th so if anyone wants to support us or join the team, click on this link I've recently gone back to resistance training and boy is it tough. I'm doing 10 minutes each on upper body and lower body. So far the upper body is much harder because I think I've been more lax on it in my wii fit workouts. There isn't as much for upper body on the wii fit so my lower body is far stronger. I've been looking at the Wii active but my mom says it's awfully hard for her to do. That makes me wonder if I could even handle it and I've been working out 5x a week since February. Anyway I'm excited because I've lost 8 pounds in the last week. The work is paying off and my goals are in sight!


Friday, May 29, 2009

What doesn't kill you...

Only makes you stronger...I think this is actually true in the exercise world. I can remember reading this quote on the wall of the gym I used to work out in when I lived in Thunder Bay and at first I would think "yeah right, if it doesn't kill me it surely will eventually". I think after time though I agreed and found that perseverance and confidence that I can do what I set out to do came naturally. I've been exercising for four months now and I have stayed true to my diet plan and exercise regime although I'm finding some of it a bit stale at this point and I can only thank God for giving me that confidence and stamina as well as the motivation to keep going. He puts people in my life to encourage me and prods me to get up off my butt by reminding me why I'm doing this. Today I was doing tricep extensions and by the time I got to 18 of 20 on each arm I found it so hard to keep going. I felt like I would have to stop but then I remembered I'd done all 20 many times before and I could finish. It hurt, my arms were shaking and afterward I could barely lift them but I felt good that I had done it! I think there is always a point in the workout (if you're doing it right) that you will face the I can't moment. It's then we need to focus on something and just push through it. I'm inspired by my baby sister who is going to run the Calgary marathon this Sunday. I know she's faced many "I can't" moments and yet look at how much she's accomplished. Sarah, you're my hero!

Monday, May 18, 2009

My weight loss buddy


Today we brought home a new member of the family. His name is Jake and he's the cutest weight loss buddy you could ask for. He needed a home because his owners are moving away and I needed someone to go on walks with me. I have had success this past week which is very encouraging. I'm down a total of 27 pounds now so I feel pretty good. Last Friday we walked to the mall and back which was over 2.2 km and more than an hour of walking. Unfortunately I have bad arches and injured my right foot. I bought insoles right afterwards but I'm still recovering. I'm still planning on my wii fit strength training this evening but I'll be very careful when doing so. Thanks for your support yet again.


Monday, May 11, 2009

Disappointment

I wish I could say something inspiring today, I really do. But the truth is, somehow I've put back on 3 pounds and I can't figure out how. Possibly it's just water weight but I don't know. I've been working harder and watching everything I eat with the exception of yesterday as it was mother's day and we went out to dinner. I was still very reasonable with what I ate aside from dinner. I'm disappointed and more than a little discouraged. That doesn't mean I'm giving up though. I just need to re-evaluate things yet again and see what I can change. Today as I sat in my despair I listened to my husband and decided to try his suggestion. We'll go for a walk every day in addition to my regular workout which will double my exercise time to 40 minutes. If I can sustain that for the week I hope I will see some benefit from it. I really wish things were going better though. I really want to lower my blood pressure and weight without weight loss surgery.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Plateau? I don't know...

Well I weighed myself yesterday using Aimie's scale and unfortunately the numbers haven't changed from last time. I didn't gain but I didn't lose either which is somewhat disheartening. I know this will happen from time to time and I won't give up, I just like to see the numbers drop to get me motivated. I did my strength training outside yesterday because the weather is warming up so nicely. The only issue is that the ground is so uneven it's very hard to balance on and I felt some pain in my ankles and knees. Today I took Olivia outside in the morning because we have another gorgeous day out there. She wasn't content to just play in the backyard though. First we walked around the outside of the house and then she pointed to the garage. "Not the dreaded wagon" I thought. I did not feel like pulling her around the neighborhood in that thing. "Do you want to go get the ball?" I asked her.
"Nooooo". It was clear she wanted her wagon and that was all that would make her happy. So I hauled it out and strapped her in and off we went. I just started walking with no set path in mind but at least it was a new one to what I had been doing before. I walked to the Fields store and then down to Citee de Jeunes and then back up Marquette for a grand total of 1.3 km in about 20-30 minutes, I'm not sure how long I was out there. It felt good to go so far but pulling a wagon is hard work. My shoulder is definitely feeling it this afternoon. Please send more encouragement and prayers my way so that I can do more and lose more!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Back after a short trip

I'm baaaaack! We were in Thunder Bay this weekend to take Olivia to see Dorothy the Dinosaur in concert. It was a quick trip and I'm exhausted. I didn't track my meals this weekend but I did try very hard to stick to portion sizes and I only had 1 pop which is all I allow myself each week. I was able to get in a few walks here and there and of course there's the walking I did while shopping. I was able to try Vitamuffins which are spectacular although quite expensive. They are full of protein and fiber and are only 100 calories so I added one to my breakfast each morning. It's too bad they don't sell them around here. I still don't have a working scale so I guess I'll have to borrow one from my neighbour Aimie until we can get it to work or get it replaced. Today I'll be back to my regular schedule starting with strength training. We'll be grocery shopping so I'll also get some cardio in. Today's dinner is turkey soup (thanks mom for the corpse, oh I mean carcass) plus I added in carrots, celery and half a bag of coleslaw. I'm going to puree it before I add the meat back in. We'll also have some dempsters wraps with low fat turkey lunchmeat or Livvy may have peanut butter again, it depends on what she will eat. I've discovered I really like talking to others about what I'm doing and my goals. I really enjoy encouraging other people and I hope this blog will reach more than I can in person. I also discovered my husband didn't know I has started a blog! Well honey, I'm mentioning you so you'd better read it! And maybe we can inspire him to eat fewer chips and try the wii fit with me folks, just make your comments and I'll make sure he reads them. I love you all and your support means more than gold to me. Please keep it coming!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Goals, dreams and aspirations

Since I'm sharing my journey with you, I figured I should let you know what my goals are in more detail. Of course the ultimate goal is to be healthy and happy. But I'm motivated by a little more than the fear that I won't live long enough to see my daughter grow up. You see, I really want another baby! My husband would agree I'm sure. I know that right now is not a good time after what we went through to have Olivia. I don't want there to be complications that I can have some control over so that's one of the big reasons I'm doing what I'm doing. So here's my first goal; lose 100 pounds and then have my blood pressure evaluated (one of those 24 hour monitor tests) to see if I can get rid of some of my medications and find out what the dr thinks about having another baby. If I get the go ahead, we will try to add to our family at that time. I'm not putting time limits on myself because I feel that will just set me up for failure and disappointment. My smaller goals are to lose 5 pounds at a time again with no specific time limit. So far I've reached that goal almost 5 times!
My second goal after having another baby is to lose at least another 100 pounds if not more. This will no doubt be very difficult but it will bring me closer to a "normal" weight for my height. My bmi is quite high right now and according to a healthy bmi score I'd need to weigh 130 pounds. I don't think I'll ever get to that but even below 200 pounds would be a great start.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to weigh myself yesterday because my scale doesn't work! We just bought it a few weeks ago but it's been faulty. It only worked two or three times and won't turn on now even though we just replaced the batteries. I think we need to email the company and get a replacement. It's too bad I bought the cheaper scale instead of the weight watchers model. It's also too bad I didn't keep the receipt or the packaging.
Today, Shawn had to walk home from work to pick up the car at Canadian Tire so on a whim, I decided to pack Olivia up into the stroller and walk to meet him. I wasn't sure if he'd have the car yet or not. It turned out we got as far as the mall (about 1 km away) and he was just leaving in the car. Luckily he saw us and stopped and we went to the dollar store and then drove home. Tonight's dinner was Low Fat Spaghetti Pie which turned out pretty well and fairly low calorie. We also had the Asian Island Crunch salad which is so yummy! I'm just resting before my strength training workout for the day. Then I have a bunch of crafts to work on for the table I'll have at the Spring Fest in 2 weeks. Thank you for all the supportive comments, you rock!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Things I can do now and other changes I've noticed

Here's a list of changes I've noticed as well as a few things I find much easier to do since losing a little weight.

1. My rings are much looser. I'm now able to wear my promise ring on my right hand and it's actually still loose. I haven't worn it since before I got married 7 years ago.
2. My face actually looks thinner, my chins aren't as large. They're still there but I'm working on it.
3. I can move around much quicker when I'm trying to cook or do other projects.
4. I don't get out of breath as quickly.
5. I can touch my toes.
6. I can balance on my previously broken ankle.
7. I can hold difficult yoga poses such as the palm tree and chair.
8. I can do step aerobics (step up step down) for 20 minutes.
9. I can jog for short periods of time.
10. I have more energy in general.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

What does it mean?

I've decided to start this blog to try to help encourage others to do what I'm doing, lose weight! And the reason for losing weight is to gain my life back. About the start of February 2009, I was afraid. I was terrified of dying. I have a daughter, Olivia and I'm the only one who can do the job of being her mommy. I take my job very seriously and I know she needs me. I hit rock bottom and I knew a change just had to be made and it had to be done right away. I have been overweight my whole life just about but I always shrugged it off and avoided the mirror as much as possible. It wasn't until I truly looked at myself and the way other people see me that I realized I had to do something. After tearfully talking it all out with my husband into the wee hours of the morning, we decided on a strategy. We decided I would start very slowly to get active. I had a bellydancing video that I started to exercise to and although I couldn't do every move, I was able to get in a good 20 minutes of exercise a few days a week. I cut back on my calories very slowly so that I wouldn't send my body into starvation mode and honestly didn't see many results right away. In a month I lost maybe 3 pounds and I was a bit discouraged. My sister sent me her Wii Fit and I decided to try that out. I couldn't even use it when I got it because there is a weight limit and it wouldn't allow me to do any of the exercises. Thanks to this youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-j8tYpZxvY I found a way to trick the system into letting me use it. Again I started out slowly and still didn't see much of a difference on the scale but I did find myself more balanced and I recovered pretty well from the broken ankle I got in late November. After March break, I was devastated to find I had gained back one of the 3 pounds I had lost previously. I decided to change my workout and make it more structured. I now alternate between strength training and aerobic step each day doing 20 minutes of each 5x a week. Two weeks later, I had lost 12 pounds! I couldn't believe it and I know that I had a lot of help from God in order for me to lose that much that quickly. I again decided to change things up and started tracking everything I put into my mouth at sparkpeople.com . I limited my calories to below 1800 and it seems to be working still. Another 2 weeks later (and this brings us up to April 21st) I had lost another 9 pounds. The total now is 23 pounds which is the exact weight of my 21 month old daughter. I kept telling everyone I lost a Livvy. It's now Monday April 27th and I probably won't weigh myself until next Monday unless anyone thinks I should. I hope I can encourage others to either start to live more healthily or continue doing what they're doing or even kick it up a notch. I want to again mention that I in no way can take full credit for this loss and continuing motivation. I give it up to the Lord and the people He has put in my life to love me and help me keep going. Thank you Jesus and thank you friends, I love you all. Oh, here is a before and after photo or should I say before and in the process photos. The first was taken in February and the second was taken a few days ago.