Hey there! I'm back. My absence can best be explained by a combination of computer problems, being busy preparing for the holiday, ongoing health problems and a bit of a lack of motivation too. Since that last post I've lost and probably gained those same four pounds. I've been up and down, still fighting the good fight overall, but with some struggles. I've decided to change my Weigh Day to Tuesday, which is sort of random, but I feel I just need a fresh start and will make that fresh start tomorrow.
A dear, dear friend asked me to post about what I've learned lately. I have to admit that I had to think about this one because I don't feel like I've had any epiphanies, but rather just some things that I already knew have been reinforced by my recent experiences. 1) There's no way around your goal, you just have to go for it head on. In the context of losing weight, and with many other chanllenges, you just have to be disciplined, remember your plan, and do it, no matter how tough it is. 2) That being said, you have to listen to your body. If you have a problem, pay attention to it before it becomes a bigger problem. 3) Remember to learn from your slip ups. This is a good way to remind yourself of what works for you and what doesn't. Right now, eating chocolate and salted cured meats isn't working for me. Neither is skipping workouts. Fresh start needed. 4) When times are tough, you know who your true friends are. Make sure you thank them and keep them close!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Struggling with Momentum
I'm having a rough time. Yes, I'm counting calories, which I know is a big help but I'm having a hard time burning calories, which means eating much less than I'm accustomed to. I just can't seem to get that momentum moving my way again. I have the drive, the motivation, but my body just won't cooperate. The knee pain has improved greatly, but my physical therapist said to continue to rest it for another week. That means non-impact exercise only, such as the elliptical machine and the bicycle. I know I don't burn a whole lot of calories on the exercise bike, so I hit the two elliptical machines for 30 minutes each yesterday. This was a decent burn, but it aggravated my two neuromas. (A neuroma is a pinched nerve between your toes. When they're really bad they burn and it feels like stepping on a marble everytime you take a step. I already had surgery on the two, but they still bug me.)
My shoulder pain turns out to be the rotator cuff. This is pretty serious if you tear it. Mine isn't torn but it's inflamed and irritated. So when the physical therapist says to rest it, you better believe I have to rest it. I am determined not to let it tear. So that means no upper body workouts whatsoever. I can't even lift my two year old, and I've had to reverse the direction of diaper changing. For those of you who are changing diapers, try it....it's harder than it sounds. The therapist actually said not to use that arm for a week, but, come on...three kids and one arm....you do the math!
In the meantime my house is looking scummier and scummier and I just can't catch up on it. I need to rest that arm. I hate sitting around in a dirty house. I find it depressing. Hubby's schedule is wacky again this week and a half or so, so he isn't able to help out at home much.
I see the deadline for my goal slipping further and further off on the horizon, and I don't see anything I can do about it right now, and this is extremely depressing. Beyond words, really. My overall goal is still to lose 100 pounds. I've been cruising along almost to the halfway point. I wanted to hit my 100 by my birthday at the end of September. Right now, it looks like the earliest would be mid-October, but that's if I were able to hit that 2 pound per week loss every single week, starting this week. I think these injuries will set me back further than that. The alternative is to drastically decrease the calories I eat, but this isn't healthy either because it will result in muscle loss. My plan was to do this in a healthy way, so I guess I'll just be treading water for awhile.
My shoulder pain turns out to be the rotator cuff. This is pretty serious if you tear it. Mine isn't torn but it's inflamed and irritated. So when the physical therapist says to rest it, you better believe I have to rest it. I am determined not to let it tear. So that means no upper body workouts whatsoever. I can't even lift my two year old, and I've had to reverse the direction of diaper changing. For those of you who are changing diapers, try it....it's harder than it sounds. The therapist actually said not to use that arm for a week, but, come on...three kids and one arm....you do the math!
In the meantime my house is looking scummier and scummier and I just can't catch up on it. I need to rest that arm. I hate sitting around in a dirty house. I find it depressing. Hubby's schedule is wacky again this week and a half or so, so he isn't able to help out at home much.
I see the deadline for my goal slipping further and further off on the horizon, and I don't see anything I can do about it right now, and this is extremely depressing. Beyond words, really. My overall goal is still to lose 100 pounds. I've been cruising along almost to the halfway point. I wanted to hit my 100 by my birthday at the end of September. Right now, it looks like the earliest would be mid-October, but that's if I were able to hit that 2 pound per week loss every single week, starting this week. I think these injuries will set me back further than that. The alternative is to drastically decrease the calories I eat, but this isn't healthy either because it will result in muscle loss. My plan was to do this in a healthy way, so I guess I'll just be treading water for awhile.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Weigh Day!
Good morning! I'm pleasantly surprised to discover that I made my weekly goal of -2 pounds. I'm still having problems with knee and shoulder pain, so I haven't made it to the gym. But I have been exercising with my Wii and I've been burning some calories remodeling my bathroom. And I've been counting calories again, which I know makes all the difference. I'm in the process of setting up my next short term goal, with the overall goal still being 100 pounds gone....I'm almost halfway there!!!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Weigh Days, Rollercoasters and Injuries, Oh My!
I just re-read the last post to remember where I left off. I was struggling back on March 14th. Since then I got back on track, and back off again. Today, just in the last few hours, I think I'm back on track again. This has been the first true rough patch that I hit. Here's my story since the last post. I did well with diet and exercise, though my shoulder started bugging me and got progressively worse until I had to put upper body workouts on hold. But I hit lower body exercises extra hard. That weigh day, March 17th, I had exceeded the goal I had set for March 24th by 1/2 pound. I was on top of the world and wanted to rush on over here to share it with you but my laptop was down. (I know I can post from my smart phone, but it's a pain and I really kept thinking hubby would get the laptop going.) I had four compliments at the gym, one from someone I don't really know that well. They had said that they see me working out, hauling all three kids along, and it was paying off. Someone said even my face was thinner, which I had noticed but thought it was due to the stomach bug. Nope, bug is gone and face is still thin!
Having the laptop down meant limited access to some of the technology that I rely on heavily for my weight loss....no pun, really. The router and/or our internet provided server kept crashing and it really slowed my down in terms of counting my calories. God forbid I should have to keep track with a pen and paper. I guess it was just me making excuses for exceeding my calorie limits. My shoulder kept getting worse and I missed the gym a bunch of times because of the boys being sick again. Just colds, but its not right to bring them to the gym when they have nasty green boogies running down their faces...or was that just another excuse too? So the next Weigh Day came, March 24th and I had gained 1/2 pound. Huh. I was so devasted and angry with myself at the time that I didn't realize until just now while blogging this, that I still met my goal for March 24th...24 pounds in 12 weeks. Hmm. I'm sitting here honestly shocked. I felt so defeated and crushed and disappointed that I had gone sooooo far off course that I gained. And yet I met my goal. Wow. Sooooo, I've been beating myself up for a week for a relatively minor crime, in the grand scheme of things. I know there's a lesson in there somewhere.
The day after that Weigh Day my knee started to hurt, bad. Possibly the result of all the extra lower body workouts? And hubby brought home a bottle of wine, which we enjoyed over the course of two evenings. Which also included cheese and crackers. Low fat cheese, but, still. And my knee pain brought exercise to a screeching halt over the weekend. And I made pancakes for the fam, but actually ate some with them this time. (Do you know that I've been making pancakes for them, but not eating them myself? Eggs are more filling and fewer calories.) And we went out, all 5 of us, for pizza and beer (only for 2 of us) on Sunday. Guilt guilt guilt guilt. Guilt guilt guilt guilt. So today is Monday and I've been trying to reign myself in. I feel like I lost control a little bit there. After rest, ice and motrin, my knee is almost good enough to go to the gym. I burned 600 calories on Wii Boxing just before I starting writing this. I'm back. My technology is back. I've got to set the next goal. I'll keep you posted.
For any of you out there who struggle with motivation or determination, or whatever, I hope you can see that I lost mine too...for a few weeks. So you're not alone. I beat myself up over it. I regret that. It's not useful, just wasted energy. Some things were out of my control, but I made some weak choices too. It seems to be about momentum. The force that makes a moving body stay in motion. The trick is to get it to swing around and start heading the right direction.
Having the laptop down meant limited access to some of the technology that I rely on heavily for my weight loss....no pun, really. The router and/or our internet provided server kept crashing and it really slowed my down in terms of counting my calories. God forbid I should have to keep track with a pen and paper. I guess it was just me making excuses for exceeding my calorie limits. My shoulder kept getting worse and I missed the gym a bunch of times because of the boys being sick again. Just colds, but its not right to bring them to the gym when they have nasty green boogies running down their faces...or was that just another excuse too? So the next Weigh Day came, March 24th and I had gained 1/2 pound. Huh. I was so devasted and angry with myself at the time that I didn't realize until just now while blogging this, that I still met my goal for March 24th...24 pounds in 12 weeks. Hmm. I'm sitting here honestly shocked. I felt so defeated and crushed and disappointed that I had gone sooooo far off course that I gained. And yet I met my goal. Wow. Sooooo, I've been beating myself up for a week for a relatively minor crime, in the grand scheme of things. I know there's a lesson in there somewhere.
The day after that Weigh Day my knee started to hurt, bad. Possibly the result of all the extra lower body workouts? And hubby brought home a bottle of wine, which we enjoyed over the course of two evenings. Which also included cheese and crackers. Low fat cheese, but, still. And my knee pain brought exercise to a screeching halt over the weekend. And I made pancakes for the fam, but actually ate some with them this time. (Do you know that I've been making pancakes for them, but not eating them myself? Eggs are more filling and fewer calories.) And we went out, all 5 of us, for pizza and beer (only for 2 of us) on Sunday. Guilt guilt guilt guilt. Guilt guilt guilt guilt. So today is Monday and I've been trying to reign myself in. I feel like I lost control a little bit there. After rest, ice and motrin, my knee is almost good enough to go to the gym. I burned 600 calories on Wii Boxing just before I starting writing this. I'm back. My technology is back. I've got to set the next goal. I'll keep you posted.
For any of you out there who struggle with motivation or determination, or whatever, I hope you can see that I lost mine too...for a few weeks. So you're not alone. I beat myself up over it. I regret that. It's not useful, just wasted energy. Some things were out of my control, but I made some weak choices too. It seems to be about momentum. The force that makes a moving body stay in motion. The trick is to get it to swing around and start heading the right direction.
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