Let's Get Physical

              This week's meeting topic is Finding Your Focus. The word focus means a center of interest or activity and close or narrow attention or concentration. For a weight watcher it has a bigger meaning. When you're on the weight loss journey and you lose your focus, you may wind up going back to the behaviors that helped you gain the weight in the first place. It happens to me. Work, children, parents, mates and friends could get in the way of your path for weight loss. This does not mean that you do not focus on those things; they're important too. One of the things that I did not focus on was me. Once I got that down, I just had to stay on track.And there in lies the rub. Here are some things you can do to regain your focus on your weight loss journey;
Back To Basics: For me, going back to basics means I take out book one again and start with the behaviors I learned when I first joined Weight Watchers. Sometimes you becomes a little lax with your portions. I have definitiely done that. A couple of years ago when I stopped going to my weekly meetings, then I stopped paying attention to my portions, and the weight came back.
Read Your Journal: I totally recommend a journal for at least three months. Even if journaling is not your thing, journaling for about three months will help you with some of your hurdles. Writing down when you went off program or when you scored a big victory is very important. That journal becomes the instruction manuel of YOU.
Read About Other People: When I feel discouraged about my weight loss, I go on line to the Weight Watchers website sight and read the success stories of people who needed to lose 100 pounds or more. These people have been where I am but have come out on the other side to bring others with them. If I read about four or ten of these success stories, I feel a little more empowered.
Go Shopping In Your Own Closet: For most of us, there is a piece of clothing you loved so much that even though you gained too much weight, you could not part with it. I happen to have a few of those things. Go into your closet and try something on. Even it it doesn't fit perfectly, it may inspire you to keep moving forward.
Give Yourself An Active Challenge: You may want to start jogging or run a marathon or join a class. These things give something to CONCENTRATE on. Before you know it, you're feeling really excited about it and your back on track.



This is Cindy, me, Tamra and Sheryl before the 5K

The crew at the end of the 5K

                        This week I got really physical. I think with my recent yo yo weight loss I was becoming discouraged. The excess rain in New York did not help. I was not exercising as much because I could not walk a few miles every morning. In my last blog I had a WHAT IF moment that led me to use the stairs in my building for an exercise on a rainy day. But that was only the beginning. The next day was our monthly 5K where a group of my meeting homies and anyone who wants to join us does a 5K Walk around Manhattan, talking and taking pictures along the way.

                        On Saturday, I told Jake we were taking a little adventure. We took our maiden voyage outside of our neighborhood on our bikes. I was a little terrified because we had to cross parkways and go over highway bridges ( I have a fear of bridges. I close my eyes when we go over them in a car). But you know what.. it was not so bad. Jake felt like it was the adventure of a lifetime. I let him lead the way and watching him navigate pathways, those little legs pumping , let me know that we both did a good thing. We rode our bikes to Pelham Bay Park. There were a lot of hills going up to the bridges and on the path. There was even one hill that I had to hold my head back to look up. I gave it a try, pumping my chubby legs and I made it all the way up that hill without getting off my bike and walking. During the whole ride I stayed on my bike. I didn't think I could do that but I surprised myself. If someone had told me last year that I would ride a bike miles away from home and up big hills, I would have laughed at them. As it turns out I laughed at myself. When I got to the top of each hill I was giddy. Me, my 200lbs+ and Pinky Tuscadero went up hills. I am amazed once more at what I am capable of doing with my body. Jake wanted to do it again the next day. I told him we would definitely do it again next weekend.

                         I told my massage therapist, Roxanne, all the things I did in the past week. She asked me what parts of my body did I need her to work on. To both our surprise, I was not in pain. My thighs did ache the day after the stair climbing but by Saturday, they didn't hurt anymore . If they had, I probably would not go on my bike ride. I would have missed out on an extraordinary experience with my son.Getting myself together was far more important than I realized.
                         This week I lost weight. I lost 4.6lbs. This brings my current weight loss to 42.2lbs. Here is my activity for the week;
Tuesday : 7,352 steps al day
Wednesday: Climb 103 flights of stairs
Thursday: 5K + all day= 14,623 steps
Friday: 7397 steps all day
Saturday: Rode bike for 90 minutes ( we were out for 2 1/2 hours but I'll deduct for down time)
Sunday: Rest day
Monday: three 20 mins dvd workouts
                         
                          This week I am going to try to stay on focus. I will keep up with the activity as best as I can. Jake and I will ride our bikes to Pelham Bay Park again and I am going to join my friend Cindy who will be in the Kidney Foundation Walk in Mahattan.

What If........

           Every once and a while a stupid idea comes along. Today a lightbulb went off in my head. I already stated in my previous blog how the rain is coming between me and a good walk. I was able to work from home today. All day long I was thinking what a beautiful day it was and how I was going to go out at five o'clock on the dot and take a long walk...or maybe even jog before I pick Jake up from his afterschool program. The birds were chirping, the sun was beaming and so was I. It happened around 4:40pm....the clouds came rolling in. With my faced pressed up against the window, I waited for the rain to start. But it didn't.  I was suspicious of the rain. It was trying to lull me into a false sense of security. I would walk all the way out to the track and then it would pour. Well you're not gonna get me rain! You're not gonna take me down! I felt the old me creeping up , saying "you don't really have to workout today. You could just lay around and watch tv". But this is not my usual day of rest. I needed a plan. A new plan to exercise. And then it came to me........the stairs.

           A Weight Watcher must use all of her ingenuity and skills and come up with a way. I figured , I live on the 21st floor of my building. Surely those stairs were put there for a reason (and not just to torture me when the elevator is out of service).

SIDEBAR: about two years ago, I came home to find the elevator was out of service. It was a beautiful day outside but I was done hanging out. I needed to get in my house so that that I could eat a giant plate of food and lay down and watch tv. So I took my 280lbs butt to the stairs with Jake and I found out the hard way that IT WAS HARD!!! Jake had to carry my tote bag and handbag up the last ten flights because I couldn't even hold them and the railing. By the time I got to the top of the stairs, I was speak in tongues- and I don't mean like in church either.
           But today, the exercise gremlin in me said, Ms. Bitchcakes does the stairs every Tuesday for 120 flights last count. Surely I can walk down and up 21 flights of stairs. I grabbed my MP3 and keys and ran down 21 flights of stairs.

 It felt good. Then I turned around to climb back up 21 flights of stairs.

Hey- who's idea was this?

  Around the 4th flight I was out of breath and wondering why I was doing this to myself. But I carried on.

Around the 11th floor I started comtemplating getting on the elevator. How does Sheryl do this to herself every week? What made me think I could to this too? This is the voice of  DOUBT. DOUBT talks to me when I don't feel like doing something. DOUBT tried to talk me out of writing this blog. DOUBT told me to keep my blog a secret because no one would read it. Today I said "SHUT UP DOUBT! I'm doing this"!

I made it. I walked down and up 21 flights of stairs. Me and my 240lbs. Then the exercise gremlin told me to do it again. After some realistic negotiaions, I chose to run down 5 flights and climb back up 5 flights. But that was not enough for me because I was on a sadistic roll. So I ran back down 5 flights of stairs to the 16th floor and back up again. When I got back to my apartment, I asked my son how long did he think I took( no I didn't bring my phone). He said about 15-20 minutes. This is what I looked like.

       It was almost time to pick up Jake from his after school program. And I asked Josh if he thought I could do a little more. He told me not to push my luck. I did it anyway.

         I ran down to the 16th floor and climbed back up two more times. Then I ran down 21 flights one more time and went to pickup Jake. So let's go over the count, shall we?

42 flights + 10 flights + 10 flights + 10 flights + 10 flights + 21 flights = 103 flights of stairs

         The moral of my tale is to push yourself every little once and a while. Will I commit to doing this every week? I don't know. The important thing to know that I at 240lbs actually can do this. The old me could barely do 21 flights. But the me that working hard to get in shape and become healthy can. Now let's not get delusional. I will ache soooooo bad tonight and I will complain all the way through our monthly 5K tomorrow. And I will live to blog about it. Take that DOUBT!

       

Please Sir, May I Have Some More

            Well here I am on another week of my weight loss journey.I have to start off by saying that the weather really sucks these days. Fall is my favorite season. It's just cool enough for a jacket or a sweater and you get to see the leaves turn beautiful colors. Not this week. It has been raining and raining and raining. Although I know that we need rain on this planet, I have seen enough rain to last me a while. I have not walked the two miles to the office in a week and a half. I really miss it. I never realized how much I loved getting that walk in on most mornings until it was cruelly taken away from me. It has made me feel a little depressed. What I  do to make up for the walking has been the exercise dvds. So this is what my workout schedule was this past week;

Tues. 9/28- accumulated 2.86 miles (6726 steps) during the day
Wed. 9/29- rode my bike for an hour (bugs and all)
Thurs. 9/30- 20 minutes lower body strength training &  20 minutes ultimate cardio workout
Fri. 10/1- 20 minutes lower body strength training & 20 minutes ultimate cardio workout
Sat. 10/2- walked 3.55 miles (8335 steps) & rode my bike for 20 minutes
Sun. 10/3 - supposed rest day( if you call cooking, doing laundry & and doing my hair
Mon. 10/4-20 minutes lower body strength training, 20 minutes ultimate cardio workout & 20 minutes core
cardio workout.

     I fufilled my commitment to strength training three days this week but I am longing to feel my feet pounding the pavement. Good grief, I may have to walk in the rain. At this week's weigh in I gained 1.4lbs. No I'm not happy about that. I now weigh 240.0lbs. I am still on the rollercoaster with a long trip ahead of me. I changed up my routine a little to see if I can make it happen. I'll just have to try a little harder.

          This week's meeting topic is about portion control. I really hate this topic because one of my hardest changes in life is portion control. I have good portion control during the day but at night I eat the largest set of points. My dinner plate does not resemble a Weight Watchers entree. The sad part is, I have the points. I get 28 points a day and I rarely dip into my bonus points.One of my fellow meeting attendees said that he likes to have that big plate of food at the end of the day and feel full. I agree with him. Someone else suggested that this full plate of food at the end of the day is like medication. And I am not denying it totally. But I think that it is a good thing to be home in my house with my freshly cooked food that I take the time to balance veggies , lean meats and grains. Although it has packed some weight on my body, food it still my friend. My leader Melanie has issued a challenge to be mindful of portions for two days. I will see what I can do.

           

This weekend I went grocery shopping with my little guy Jake. We had our shopping cart and our reusable grocery bags. 

First we went to have our lunch at Golden Krust. Rule number one, never go shopping hungry.

Jake loves spicy beef patties. I had a veggie pattie.

It was 340 calories. After our lunch we proceed to the grocery store , entering in the produce section. We then shopped the perimeter for our fresh fish and meats. We finished up our shopping in the middle. I think we got enough..........



We also suffered a minor tragedy. 

Our little coffee maker has left the building. Jake picked out the new one. Let's have a moment of silence for the oldie but a goodie.............