The Beat Goes On

          This week's meeting topic was about how you stay on your journey when there are so many obstacles.  This is what my lot has been about for weeks. I have been feeling all of this despair, anger, exhaustion and frustration. They have taken their cut out of me. But I have not given up the battle. One of my leader Melanie's quotes was;
"WHY CHOSE FAILURE WHEN SUCCESS IS AN OPTION"
         Why indeed? Letting things go is what got me into this situation to begin with. I literally chose this path. There were no attack snack ninjas forcing me to eat too much. I did it myself. There was no guard forcing me not to exercise. I chose to sit ( and sometimes lay) there and let myself go. The problems of the world and the problems of my life were hard but I did not need to punish my body. Sometimes some of those problems and even some newer problems crop up.  I do admit to occasionally giving in to a binge. But most of the time I try to figure out if too much food is really worth it in the long run.
          And if you've been reading this blog then you know that the scale is not moving quickly for me. Sometimes that can be pretty frustrating but I keep talking to myself; positive self talk. I remind myself that I am not carrying those 44lbs anymore. I also remind myself that if I could lose 44lbs before then I could in fact do it again.
Anchors
      I am always thinking about anchors (sometimes I over think things like that). So I wanted to show you some things the I feel are anchors. The first is a piece of the pad from a long ago meeting when Melanie had us call out what our workouts mean to us. The she tore off pieces and gave them out to us. My piece has been on my fridge ever since. {when my husband saw the words "me time" he got a little worried}. The second anchor is an outfit that I would like to have. Of course the model wearing it in the picture is super thin but I try to think what I will look like when I buy the outfit in the future. The third anchor is WW 3 Month Tracker which I take with me almost anytime I have a bag.

Stir Fry

          I had a little fun this week. I thought about the Points Plus program and how to incorporate more power foods into my family's diet. I like to cook almost every night. Cooking is fun to me and I enjoy my own cooking. But I get stuck in a rut for the usual reasons; budget, time constraint and picky eaters. So this week I decided to make a little beef stir fry. I went to the grocery store and stocked up on green and red peppers, a big vidalia onion and some broccoli. I absolutely love woks because everything gets thrown in and served from there. It also looks so colorful and pleasing to the eye. Even chopping the ingredients and seeing the veggies all chopped and the meat diced just gave me a zen feeling. I served it with brown rice. It was really nice to have something a little different . I've decided that the wok should be used at least once a week from now on.

 Ode To My Track

    I miss the neighborhood track. It has been snowing for weeks. When I think of all the wishes for snow when I was a child and they all seem to be coming true while I really don't need it. I miss you track. I miss all of our weekends together, venting out my frustrations, pushing my body to do more. I cannot wait for you to once again be clean and void of snow.




Keeping Motivated
     Losing weight can be a challenge especially when you are looking for scale victories. Well I gets my kicks with non-scale victories. These are one of the most important tool is a weight loss journey. I must say it again. Non-scale victories are one of the most important tools in a weight loss journey. When it's about the scale, you might lose your resolve. But there are other wonderful things to keep you going until the scale decides to throw you a bone. I just signed up for my first running 5K this April. I have been wanting to do something like this for so long. Sometimes when I am jogging I picture myself thinner and healthy. I do not see the overweight woman running down the track. I see the woman I will become. But it's not just about being skinny, it's about being more.
Stair Climb Challenge
       Last week while I was snowed in with my family, working from home, I observed my son Jake constantly coming into the kitchen to retrieve snacks. I know you're probably wondering why I just didn't say "no". I could if I really wanted to. But I use the same tactics on him that I use for myself now. You know, am I really hungry? Do I really want to eat this? The fact is, today's child really has no concept of consequences. If so, I would not have spent my teen years laying down and eating. So I am trying to teach him to be aware of his snacks, even if he chosses to go ahead and eat them. Just saying no will lead to those "James Bond" type missions to sneak food. But after watching Jake snack all day, I decided to take action. On the days when I work from home, I stop working at 5pm and go do my workout. It's the one day of the week that I don't have to commute. When the weather is good, I hop on my bike and ride for an hour. But since we are knee deep in Winter, I go to my room and workout. Between my sitting at my "desk" all day and Jake noshing, I saw an opportunity and I took it. At 5pm I put on my sneakers and had Jake throw on his sweatpants and sneakers as well. Inspired by the great Ms. Bitchcakes and her bad ass Empire State Building Climb, I told my son we were going to the building stairs to do reps. At first Jake tolerated me and went along with it. I chose the five flights down/ five flights up method. But after the first ten flights he had enough. He started heading for the stairwell door.  I told him that our workout was not complete. He asked me just how long did I think we would keep this up. I replied, until we can't do it anymore. So we went back down five flights and back up five flights. Each time we arrived on our floor Jake put his hand on the doorknob. But I told him, let's just try one more. After the fourth round of ten flights, Jake stopped trying to escape. We walked up and down. Half way through the up climbs( which are hard), we would stop to take a few breaths and get our resolve to keep climbing. During those stops, I would mention to him about the candy bar he ate and how much work has to be done to burn it off. I told him that the food we put in our bodies needs to be burned or they stay on our bodies forever. I also told him that I did not know this when I was younger and that's why I look like I do now and how hard it is for me because I am older and my fat has made itself at home. He had no choice but to listen to me. He was too exhausted to start climbing. In the end, Jake and I climbed 70 flights of stairs. I was in pain for the entire week but you know what? I think I am going to keep that little challenge in my repertoire. Maybe not 70 flights, but just a little motivated challenge.
Me and Richard Simmons

          Richard Simmons has been my friend this last week. I have been doing his workout which lasts 53 minutes a couple of times this week and at the end I found myself spent of calories and frustration. I am going to dig into my crate because he use to be my go to guru for exercise. Some folks might think that he's not hard core enough but you try doing his workouts for 45-60mins and see if you really believe that.



Here was my activity for the week
Tues: all day= 4pts
Wed.all day 4pts + 30 mins walking dvd= 3pts
Thurs. stair climbing 25 mins= 3pts and 30 mins walking dvd= 3pts
Fri. all day= 4pts and Richard Simmons workout= 5pts
Sat. Rest Day
Sun. chores= 1pt
Mon. all day= 3pts and Richard Simmons= 5pts
Total for week = 35pts
          This week my blood pressure was a little lower thanks to knitting most of the weekend and Richard Simmons. So this coming week I plan to do more of the same. I gained .2lbs this week but I had a lot of action and healing muscles so I won't sweat it.