Wednesday Weigh-In (holding) the camera adds how much?!?

When I got up this morning I hopped right on the scale, realized I hadn't peed yet & hopped right back off. After using the bathroom (and washing my hands, I'm very hygienic) I had "forgotten" about weighing myself & started my day. I went to the gym, arriving 10 minutes late for the 30 minute class I've been taking and afterward I decided to get in those 10 minutes on the elliptical. When I got the girls and headed for home I was mentally making myself a "to-do" list to get us ready to leave town. I started right on that after getting lunch for the girls and here it is, 4 hours later, and I have just weighed myself. I was in the bathroom, decided I'd take my trash out but first, I gotta step on that scale. And what do you think it said? 178.4! WooHoo! I was psyched! So I take the trash can, dump it out, re-line it, grab my camera & head BACK to the scale to document my number. And this is what I saw:

 

I'm not sure what exactly happened in the less than 2 minutes it took for me to retrieve my camera but there it is...I even got off, let my scale completely clear & then got back on. Oh well. I'm happy with this I'm feeling more & more confident that I'll be getting my pedi on the 7th! I'm also feeling confident that I'll SMOKE Rachel in our jeans wager. Our official start date is still coming but, since I have permission, I am not above getting a healthy head start! I'll be out of town until late next Wednesday night so I'll weigh in when I get home. I'm bringing workout clothes (I'm planning on wearing them on the plane so I can go for a run as soon as we get settled!) and my sister & I are going to work out together so I'm excited to see where I'm at when I get home. Have a great week everyone!

Maintaining Weight

I've been thinking about this some as I've been working on my overall fitness but I got thinking about it more yesterday. How do I maintain my weight once I reach my goal?
Well, I know that it is suggested to continue working out 45-60 minutes a day to maintain a steady weight. But how do I stay motivated to continue working out 45-60 minutes a day. Right now I can easily see the merit in regularly hitting the gym & staying for an hour or more. But once I'm a super skinny hot mama what's going to keep me going back?
The thought I had was that I get to find a physically demanding activity, that I enjoy, that I will be required to participate in regularly; say once or twice a week. If I have a team sport, that would be even better because I would know that my teammates were counting on me to stay in shape so that I could play to the best of my ability. I've been contemplating what sports appeal to me, and let me tell you, there are few. I played basketball a tiny bit when I was in 5th grade. I was pretty decent at volleyball too, once upon a time. I sort of like the idea of being an ice hockey player but...I live in Arizona! Baseball & softball are okay but not what I'm looking for. The one thing that has come back to me time & time again is how much I would LOVE to join a Roller Derby team. Can you imagine that? I've seen bits of matches and, from what I've seen, a person couldn't play if they aren't in at least decent shape. And besides...ROLLER SKATES!

I'm pretty sure that I am going to look into it. I know I get to find something & this feels like it might work. 

Enough with all that though, have you seen their slogan?

Wednesday Weigh-In (For my Momma)

I'm so much happier to weigh-in today than I have been in a couple weeks. I had a great talk with my mom yesterday & she encouraged me to look at things differently. She encouraged me to remember my success & to continue changing things up & do new things. She even suggested doing things I've done before & dismissed as "not working"! I know I've been given the advice from LOTS of people to keep changing it up but for some reason I heard it best when my momma told me. I love all my friends and family who are supporting me & I posted a little bit ago about my motivation being my beautiful children but my mom is & always has been so special to me. So I am dedicating this weigh-in to her. Love you Mom! Thanks for everything you've done and everything you've been for me throughout my life. You rock!

 

P.S. I think I rock a little bit too! Only 6 pounds away from my next pedicure!

Pure Torture-the scale is my enemy...

I haven't been wanting to update because I'm disgusted with myself. Last Wednesday on my weigh in day I was UP over 4 pounds. So I "cheated" and didn't take a picture of the scale OR post on here (or anywhere else for that matter). On Thursday I was gratified to see that I was back down to:

 

I was down again this morning to 183.0 so I AM progressing in the direction I want to at least. I'm just getting annoyed with myself. I have such wonderful intentions for a day or two & then something happens to throw me off (after the sore neck episode I got a cold that lasted almost a whole week) and I just go with it. I even use it as an excuse to eat like crap & not work out. I keep telling myself it won't happen again & then it does. Did I mention that my sister Rachel (from the famous "wager") had her baby last week? I should be feeling more motivated than ever. Just a few short weeks and she'll be back working out & doing everything she can to win those jeans! And she's already assured me that she isn't going to hold back or take it easy on me AT ALL.

I guess what it boils down to is that I want it to be easier than it has been & I want to reach my goals without making the changes that I KNOW will assist me in doing so. I did do something today...I went to a boot camp style class at my gym! It wasn't quite the same as Jeff's boot camp (how could it be? No Jeff or Robin!) and it is only 30 minutes but they do 2 30 minute classes back to back that you can do both if you want. I'm going to give that a shot tomorrow. We'll see how it works out!

Anyway, that is my whine for the day. I'm feeling more positive now that I put that out there & I'm confident that good changes are happening! I'll be back to weigh in on Wednesday.

Lame end to my week

As I mentioned in my last update I was experiencing some pain in my neck/shoulder/back area last week and, don't you worry, I milked it for all it was worth! I didn't do anything on Wednesday (I showered when I had SWORN I was going to swim) and a whole lot of the same on Thursday & Friday. My friend joined my gym on Friday night so I scrounged some motivation & we worked out together Saturday morning. It was a good workout. I felt really great after & the rest of the day went pretty good too. Then Sunday morning...UGH! I woke up a little after 7 a.m. with my throat burning and every bit of me aching. I had a cough (that is still lingering) but that was too bad. So I slept and slept and slept, finally getting out of bed at 2 p.m. There's nothing like being sick to make me want to just eat crap all day, so that's what I did. Since we really don't have that bad of food in the house it wasn't as bad as it could've been, I comfort myself with that. My the time I went to bed I felt quite a bit better & this morning I'm feeling almost like myself. I still have a little cough (SOOO ANNOYING!) but I'm in my workout clothes, getting psyched to head to the gym. They have a boot camp style class that I want to check out (if I do it today I'll update about that tomorrow) and I *think* today is the day I'm going to start training for the 10K I plan to run on Thanksgiving day. It's an 8 week training schedule so I can get through it twice before Thanksgiving if I start today. I just looked at the training schedule & I have a 2.5 mile run ahead of me. Better get to it!
P.S. On Saturday, I used one of the body fat calculators they have at my gym. (You know, that thing you put a bunch of stats in & then hold it out at arms length in front of you? Yeah, that thing.) It's not pretty, but when I consider that I was 44% body fat when I last had it checked (when Lizzie was 1 & I joined the gym), I'm not TOO upset that it is 32.9% now. Still, YIKES! My goal for that is 20% so I've got some work to do.

Weigh In

It's not terribly clear & I apologize for that but here it is; my weekly weigh in. In case it is too hard to read, it says; 182.2. I'm pretty happy with that. I weighed 188.8 lbs last Wednesday when I recommitted so 6.6 lbs is a good amount to me.
Now for some not-so-happy news. I don't know what happened (probably just slept wrong or something) but I woke up some time in the night & my neck hurt. As it got on towards morning I noticed the pain is also in my right shoulder & even down my arm & back just a bit. Super-annoying! This pain is enough that I am actually afraid that I would be unsafe if I drove anywhere so I'm not going to get to the gym today (unless it gets 100% better at some point today, then I WILL go this evening). I do think I could probably go in the pool & do a bit of swimming once the girls are napping (in an hour or so) so I'll get in some kind of work out. I'm taking Tylenol for the pain (it feels kind of like a pulled muscle, the Tylenol is working a little bit) and I can function but it is making me kind of sick to my stomach. So far today I've eaten a small bowl of cereal & a handful of microwave popcorn. I'm drinking lots of water though (weird things happen to me when I'm dehydrated so I'm avoiding THAT at all costs!) so I'm pretty confident I'll feel better tomorrow at the latest.
Anyway, I'm happy with the number on the scale & I know that next week I will be too. I'm 8 lbs away from being able to get my next pedicure (notice the totally cute pink on them currently? LOVE IT!) and I know I'll get there!

Motivation

Today, I am tired! I feel like I shouldn't be because I was in bed before 9 last night. I will admit to sitting up & reading for a bit but I KNOW I turned the light off before 10 p.m. and that is plenty early to get enough sleep. I didn't fall asleep very easily though & that is the issue. My mind raced & I could hear my baby playing (instead of sleeping the little monkey!) and I just couldn't fall asleep. Now I don't want to get myself together & off to the gym, even though I've been seeing some good results just since last Wednesday and I want to keep that up. So I'm thinking about motivation. For some reason, this morning, the jeans wager I have with my sister (see here) isn't getting me revved up like it did yesterday when I was feeling less than jazzed to hit the gym. Even seeing the AWESOME on the scale this morning isn't quite enough. (and it IS awesome, tomorrow is my "official" weigh-in and I'll take a picture to post so check back!) I haven't eaten breakfast yet though & I know that will assist in getting my more awake (read: alive) and ready for action. I am committed to getting to the gym today & I'll even put my gym clothes on as soon as I get finished eating breakfast. That will be just the committed action necessary to get me there because Lizzie (my lovely little daughter) will NOT let me rest until she knows "when we're going to the gym" (which she'll ask me 100 + times once she sees me in my gym clothes until we actually head out the door!). Maybe she's all the motivation I need?!?

 My REAL Motivation

As for yesterday, I will admit to taking it semi-easy at the gym. I didn't end up going until 2 in the afternoon (HOT) and so I wasn't really feeling it. I did about 20 minutes of cardio & upper body strength training. I had intended to do ab work too and decided not to since I still had a trip to the grocery store to complete before heading home. I worked HARD though and my arms are feeling it again this morning, nothing like last week (I was seriously concerned about having to carry/pick up the baby!) but a good ache in my muscles. I got pretty much right into the pool with the girls as soon as I got home so I had a little swim too. We have some friends coming over to swim this afternoon so my plan is to do some cardio & lower body strength training today & possibly some abs, if time permits. I'll update again tomorrow, there will be scale pictures--you don't want to miss that! (where's a sarcasm font when I really want one?!?)