Monday 2/28/11

 I had an awesome weekend! I probably ate way too much, but I enjoyed myself. I know that I need to really start working on this, otherwise all of my hard work during the week was for nothing. It was nice to get a break from walking! That being said, we took the family into D.C. on Saturday, so I still managed to get some exercise in there! All was not lost!

Today I did the Classic Walk from the 5 Day Slim Down. It was harder to do today. Apparently a 2 day break isn't as good for me as I thought! Yes, it was harder and I was pretty winded, but I made it through!

For breakfast this morning, I had:

A 2 egg omelet with 2 small slices of reduced fat cheese.

2 pieces of whole wheat toast and a pad of butter.

4 Strawberries.

Today I started the St. Patty's Day Challenge. My stats for the day are...

-White Team -

1) Total Minutes - 28

2) Water in Ounces - 64

3) Mini Food Challenge -

Tues (3 to 5 servings of fruits and veggies)

Thurs ( Snack on wholesome or power foods today)

Workout Challenge -

4) Daily Snacks - Apple sprinkled with cinnamon. Cottage Cheese Doubles with peaches.

I have MORE exciting news to share today.  :)  Over the weekend, I decided to join Weight Watchers. I talked it over with Kevin and I really wanted to give this a shot. I think that going to a weekly meeting and having the support of others who are going down the same road as I am, will be encouraging. I also hope to learn something and change the way that I eat. I can tell you right now that I've been completely AGAINST counting carbs, etc. It just seems to time consuming. However, I know that if I'm really going to lose weight, I'm going to need to manage my intake. This is going to be the HARDEST thing for me to do. I don't want to limit myself to how much or what I eat. That being said, what I've seen so far, doesn't seem so bad... And comparing the sacrifices that I will have to make to living a long, healthy life, living always wins my vote!  I think I'm on the right track.

Friday 2/25/11

It's FRIDAY! I managed to make it ALL week!! Woot! Woot! I'm really looking forward to the next 2 days off.

 

Today I did the Classic Walk from the 5 Day Slim Down. This walk is getting easier for me, so that's a good thing! I started my walk today and was interrupted with a phone call about halfway through. So once I was able to get back at it, I just restarted the entire DVD, so I got a little extra today.

 

For breakfast today, I had:

 

2 Scrambled Eggs with a sprinkle of cheddar cheese.

2 Slices of whole wheat toast with a pad of butter.

4 Strawberries.

 

I always drink water at home, but I'm working on increasing my intake to 8 glasses a day. So that's a goal that I'll work towards until I have built myself up.

 

Next week, I'll start the 5 Day Slim Down from the beginning. 3 days during the week, I plan on also walking in the evening. On Friday, I plan to do the Speed Walk from the DVD, that thus far, I have not attempted.

 

Also next week, I'm going to begin a challenge.  I joined a page on Facebook called 'Nicole's Weight Loss Challenges'. I don't expect to be able to do every challenge to the maximum, but I think giving myself a challenge will only encourage me more. The details of the challenge are as follows:

 

 

We will be doing a St.Patty's Theme Team Challenge for March starting 2/28-3/13! A 14 day challenge as voted by most of you! We will be divided into 2 Team Colors! Green& White! So this challenge will be in 4 components:

1)Total Minutes
2)Water in Ozs
3)Mini Food/Workout Challenges 2x each a week
4)Post It or Daily Plate if you choose!

*Optional to track weight or inches!

So 1st we will be doing minutes this time instead of miles, so if you do 10 or 110 mins it all counts! Water! Ladies we should try to aim for 48-64ozs a day but whatever you can get in, it counts! Mini Food Challenge will be posted on Tues/ Thurs! Mini workout challenge will be posted Wed/Sat! If you can not do the mini challenge on that day but do it on a different day, that's fine! If you complete all of them by the end of the challenge you will receive credit for 4 food/4exercise challenges! Last but not least! If you like you can post your Daily Plate(all meals) OR for the 1st week you can post your daily snack(s) & the 2nd week you can post your daily dessert! If you post your daily plate or snack everyday you will receive credit for 14 days! This Challenge is for ALL LEVELS!!! Any questions feel free to post! Or message me on my Nicole Mason page. So here's the question... Who's Bringing It??? Are you In? Let's Get It!!!

 

If you're interested in joining in, go here....

 

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Nicoles-Weight-Loss-Challenges/126041834088783

 

I'm excited and I feel good about myself.  :)   :)   :)

 

Last night I tried to download stats from the bodybugg, but it didn't work out so well for me. I had to call technical support today. It's all straight now, so hopefully this evening, I'll be able to see how I'm doing!

 

Thanks for following me! And thanks for all the support so far!!!

P.S.

I added a weight loss tracker to my page (see the right side) that I plan on updating once a week. I'm not comfortable putting my current weight out there for everyone to see, so instead I put a goal of losing 20 pounds. Baby steps. First, I'll start with 20 pounds, once I have accomplished that goal, I'll keep going.

I think I can....

Thursday 2/24/11

  No pain, no gain...right?

 

Today I did Trim Your Tummy from the 5 Day Slim Down. Whoever said exercise was fun...was LYING. But I do feel good about myself for keeping my commitment. I will say that I'm SOOOO glad tomorrow is Friday and that I get the weekend OFF.

 

That being said...I'm going to be making a few changes.

 

I'm going to continue with my current DVD until (1) I get the moves down with no huffing and puffing or (2) I just get tired of it. I think changing the routine everyday helps and I have to tell you that I look SO forward to the cool down! As you all know, I've been walking 5 days a week, during the day. Beginning next week, I'm going to try to go to 3 times a week in the evening, as well. Just bump myself up a little. Baby steps.

 

Also while I don't count and measure yet, I am going to start trying to have a better breakfast in the mornings. I bought oatmeal and whole wheat bread. Instead of a big bowl of cereal, I'm going to try to have something sensible and filling. Today I had:

 

 

Breakfast - 1 cup of plain oatmeal (I ate maybe half of it) with brown sugar (sorry, I didn't measure) and dates with soy nuts. I also had 4 fresh strawberries.

 

P.S. I hate plain oatmeal. So nasty!!! Even the brown sugar and dates with nuts didn't help. If you have a suggestion for a better tasting, but still healthy oatmeal, please let me know!

 

Last, my friend Rachel gave me her older model bodybugg to help me keep track. Right now, I'm a newbie to all this, so I don't have anything to say other than I wore this thing today during my walk and I can't wait to see what my stats are... I'll keep you updated!

Wednesday 2/23/11

Let me go on the record by saying, I’m NOT feeling exercise today. BLAH. I’ve been in a weird mood today. I just don’t feel very energetic AT ALL. It probably didn’t help that I went straight to the grocery store after dropping the kids off today, so I didn’t eat breakfast. By the time I got home, unloaded and put everything away, I was starving. I had a piece of chicken, which didn’t cut it. I felt like I was sugar crashing, so I also had a bowl of raisin bran. I know I shouldn’t have, but I assume that was better than candy.  At any rate, today was a hard day. I didn’t want to do my walk and had to force myself. I don’t want to give into taking a break just because I’m having an off day. I’m sure tomorrow will be better. I hope tomorrow is better.

Today I did the Slim Your Legs from the 5 Day Slim Down. I was going to do the Classic Walk that I missed, but I decided to challenge myself.

P.S. I HATE squats!

Tuesday, 2/22/11

 I did the 5 Day Slim Down DVD with Leslie Sansone. I've been doing this same DVD for several days now. I want to continue this DVD until I feel comfortable and familiar with all the moves. When it begins to take less effort, I'll switch up. In the meantime, I've been doing 1 mile a day, because that's about all my body can tolerate.

 

Today I did the Sculpt Your Arms 14 minute mile walk.

 

My stats from previous days are as follows:

 

Monday 2/7/11 - 1 mile walk from Leslie's, Walk Away the Pounds site.

Tuesday 2/8/11 - Same as Above.

Wednesday 2/16/11 - Classic walk from the 5 Day Slim Down. 

Thursday 2 /17/11 - Sculpt Your Arms from the 5 Day Slim Down.

Friday 2/18/11 - Slim Your Legs from the 5 Day Slim Down.

Monday 2/21/11 - Trim Your Tummy from the 5 Day Slim Down.

 

As you can see, when I began I wasn't very consistent. However, I've already made an improvement with that. After the 1st couple of days of walking, my body hurt like I had been beaten up. Now that I'm on a schedule, I can handle a daily walk. For now, I've decided to give myself the weekends off. Also as you may have noticed, I messed up and skipped the Classic Walk this week, but I intend to make that up tomorrow. I've also only done the 4 days on the video. The last day is the Speed Walk. I don't think I'm ready for that just yet. I just need to build my strength and push myself, gradually.

Introduction

I'm excited about starting this blog in order to post my achievements, goals, daily accomplishments and even failures. For too long, I've been saying that I want to lose weight. Let me set the record straight. While I wouldn't mind being thin and in shape (seriously, who wouldn't?), I like being me. I'm comfortable in my skin. Maybe a little too comfortable. So...let me clarify that I want to be HEALTHY. Obviously one of the perks of that is slimming down. I want to eat better, build my lung capacity and endurance up and strengthen my heart. In return I'm hoping for a better quality of life, the ability to fit on ALL roller coasters (!!!!!) and most importantly, living a long, healthy life and being around for my family. I've tried other methods before, nothing has been successful.  I've finally found something that works for me. Being overweight, I find that it's difficult to do a lot of tasks on fitness DVD's. I'm also self conscience about joining a gym and walking in as the fat girl. Obviously I need to be there more than most, but still people make that experience uncomfortable. I've recently found Leslie Sansone, Walk Away the Pounds DVD's... I know that Leslie may be a little too perky or too cheesy for some of you, but she really motivates me. For the first time in a long time, I feel empowered to make a change. I feel confident. I feel like this is going to make a difference. Sure, it's going to take time. Probably a lot of time, because it took me quite a few years to put on the weight that I currently carry around and it's going to take time to "walk" it off. I've already been walking one mile everyday. My amazingly, supportive husband and our friend gave me some good advice. They told me to change one thing at a time, so that I don't get too discouraged or overwhelmed. That's exactly what I'm going to do. That change right now is going to be getting used to EXERCISE! I'm going to use this blog to post updates and daily routines. Like I said, this is something that I need to do to keep myself accountable. If you want to read along, please feel free. I also want to be able to look back on my journey and watch my progress. I'll probably post photos for a timeline and weight loss stats (without my actual weight...eeek). For now, I've decided not to be so hard on myself with weight loss or gain. I want to give myself a little time to work into a routine, before I start weighing in every week. I can tell you that I feel GREAT already. My confidence is higher then it's been in a while and when I feel an ache or my legs feel a little like jello, I feel proud because I know that my hard work will pay off in the end!