Slow and Steady...

SUCKS!!! I am tired of slow and steady! I lost another 0.6 pounds at my Saturday WW weigh-in. This is my seventh straight loss, which is great, but I'm sick of seeing the .6! This week I'm getting back to the basics and will be doing some careful food tracking. That is the area I struggle with the most. I also am going to ramp up my workouts a bit more this week...I've managed to get in at least 30 minutes of exercise in daily for over 3 weeks now, but I haven't done much more like I did at the beginning of the year when the scale showed big losses.

In other news, I turned 29 for the third time on Wednesday. How did I celebrate? I worked. Yay! I guess that is part of being an adult...no treats or cards at work and it was almost like a regular day. My birthday is one of the major times I really miss my grandma. Every year (when I wasn't in class), she would call me on the very minute of my birth and reminisce about the day I was born...streets were flooded on that day, huge blizzard when I was in the hospital, etc. Luckily, I was surprised by my mom who called that morning and did the same thing.

This weekend, we finally did celebrate my 31st birthday. Giggleman and I went to see I Love You, Man on Saturday after my WW meeting (can't beat the first matinee price!) and then went out for dinner later. On Sunday, we went over to my parents house to celebrate with my family. I wish I could say I was shocked that my oldest sister (the one I'm doing the little weight loss challenge with) wasn't there. She had texted me earlier in the week to find out when we were going to celebrate, but when she came over to get addresses for her wedding invitations a bit later, she claimed ignorance. Ignorance, my ass! My mom told her and her fiance to come on in while she rounded up the addresses, but they decided to sit in the car. Then, they left before my mom even gave the address list! She texted mom about 10 minutes later and said they'd be over in a couple hours to celebrate and to have dinner without them. So, the rest of us had fun playing games on the Wii we brought over. Time flew by quickly...I think we played bowling, baseball, tennis, and more for about 5 hours! When mom was cutting the cake at about 10 pm, we heard the door open and my sister quietly crept into her room. Ten minutes later, she sneaked into the kitchen and grabbed a piece of cake and didn't say boo to anyone. I stopped her and said "No cake unless you talk to me!" She said Happy Birthday with such a lack of enthusiasm. I asked her where her fiance was and she said he didn't want to come. Seriously, the whole family is sick of him and the way that Danielle is just a shell of her former self...she just lets him call all the shots...which is soooo not her regular personality at all...which is maybe why she is that much bitchier to us since she acts so godlike and sweet around him. Ha! Well, mom and Danielle got in an argument about her making so much time for his family (they go up there every other weekend) but them not even spending a minute with us, not using the wedding stamps my mom bought, and everything else. My sister stormed back into her room....20 minutes later we saw her leave with some clothes and a pillow. She refused to answer the phone and texted that she was going to spend the night over at her fiance's apartment (where she lived too until the fiance's pastor scared them out of living in sin!) Oh well, I still had fun despite Danielle's stage show.

I scored some great presents that I actually wanted this year!! Giggleman gave me the Wii Fit on Saturday night and I used it right away Sunday morning! I guess I have poor balance because the game asked me if I trip frequently! LOL! Ok, I do trip quite often but I survive. My goal is to get my Wii Fit age at least within 10 years of my real age...it gave me an age of 60 something! WTF!?!? My mom still has another present for me that she didn't get a chance to buy yet due to being busy with baby shower stuff the past week, but she did get me the workout armband for my iPod Touch (my late Christmas present from Giggleman) I desperately wanted and the first season of Pushing Daisies. I can now get serious with my running plans...I already had purchased the Nike+ sensor and a shoe pouch so I could start tracking my progress. The Touch already has the Nike+ running program thingie on it, so I am ready to go!

Unintentional Exercise!!

Time for a quick post before I pass out!!

First off, I lost 2 pounds exactly at my Saturday WW weigh-in. I'm sooo close to 25 pounds lost I can taste it! My birthday goal is going to be a stretch, but I still could pull it off.

I have been kicking arse with my workouts...I have now went 14 days straight of exercise! Yay! After doing it for so long, I just feel off if I don't workout at my usual time. I hope that feeling doesn't pass anytime soon. I've been switching it up...less Jillian and more Fitness Coach and Biggest Loser this week.

Today, I got a bit of unintentional exercise which could have been the death of me! I had to scrape the ice off my windows before work. The ice was quite thick and didn't want to move and I could not get the ice off the passenger side windows. Once I got to the end of my apartment parking lot, I knew I had to scrape off the other side in order to see to turn right. So, I pulled over in a parking space and left the car running while I hacked away at the ice again. I come back to open my door...IT IS LOCKED!!! I don't know if I locked it when I got out as a force of habit or it magically happened. I really have a bad issue with locking keys or losing them somewhere! I didn't have a spare...Giggleman has them and he was at work!! My cell phone was locked in the car so I couldn't call anyone. I couldn't get back in my apartment because my apartment keys are on the same chain as the car keys. My apartment manager wasn't home so I couldn't get let in either! So, my one option was to walk to a phone and hope to reach my mom in order to drive me to get the keys from Giggleman so I could turn off my vehicle and/or get to work!

So, I walk across the street to the gym/doctor's office to use the phone. Snow starts coming down and the wind picked up so navigating the parking lot feels like I walked a mile. I use the phone but had a brain fart and could NOT REMEMBER MY MOM'S PHONE NUMBER!! All my number are stored in my cell phone and I never use my brain anymore. I try every combination I could think of and no number was right. Somehow, I remembered my mom's work number...she wasn't working and the staff member wouldn't give her number out!! ARRRGH!!! I walk back home dejected...my car spazzed out the last time my car ran longer than 45 minutes, my engine is on its last leg already, and time was ticking. So, I get the wonderful idea to walk to my mom's house. It doesn't seem that far away when I drive! OMG, after checking the mileage not long ago, it was over 2 miles away...with cold winds, light snow, and a temp of 7 F. Not my smartest move!

Luckily, I did make it there...wearing my dress shoes and sliding around quite a bit in spots. My legs were freezing but not in pain. My cheeks were quite red and my hair was a completely tangled mess! My mom informed me I was dialing their old number...yep, I'm a genius. By the time I got to the house, it was only 45 minutes before my stepdad had to pick up Giggleman from work...which was what I was trying to avoid by getting the keys before that. So, massive FAIL!

On the plus side...35 minutes of Biggest Loser Yoga, 30 minutes of My Fitness Coach cardio, and a 2+ mile hike...I had an awesome quantity of exercise!

Hiding Out!

I was planning on making this a video post but somebody ate my memory card! I took it out of the computer last week and didn't put it back in the camera...I just left it on the table and thought it would stay there. When will I ever learn?

A little bit of weigh-in catchup: on Saturday, I lost a grand total of 0.6 pounds. I hate being patient with the process...wouldn't it be nice if you could lose 100 pounds overnight? I knew there was trouble when I couldn't pull off my ring on Thursday. Friday marked the arrival of Aunt Flo...without pain for the first time in years. Seriously! Unfortunately, that pain arrived this week. Arrgh! I am trying my best to push the cramping and migraine away from my thoughts this morning.

In exercise news, I am doing two different challenges this month. One of them began Wednesday of last week...40 days straight of exercise to coincide with Lent along with Fat Bridesmaid and her followers. So far, so good! I haven't had a day off since last Monday. The other challenge is the one my sister wanted me to design for us since her wedding is only two months away. She could tell I've been losing and asked me to create a blog challenge a month ago to push her to exercise and lose weight. Saturday will be our third official weigh-in...last week she kicked my butt in weight loss, but I hope to regain my lead this week. I have been kicking her butt in exercise minutes every week, but she has really pushed herself more this week so this week will be a close one.

So here's my question of the day: How much does your family/friends know about your blogging activity? Giggleman knows about this blog but never checks it out, but I'm just not comfortable with the rest of my close family members knowing all my thoughts and activities. Yet, I'm perfectly comfortable sharing it with those I've never met. For the challenge with my sister, I created a completely different Blogger account so that she wouldn't find me here. I post how much I've lost, but not my real number...I'm fine with spewing it here (284.4 as of last Saturday.) Am I odd to be more open with you all than those in my real life?

Time to wrap this baby up, eat breakfast, and fit in a workout before heading out for the day, so I'll post more Saturday!

I Love Stars!

Gosh, I really need to keep up on posting over here! I've been busy working on another project with my sister in the past week or so and I forgot about being here. I'm sorry!

So anyways, since I don't have a new video post ready yet, I'll catch up with how the past two weigh-ins went. I think I'm beginning to get a handle on what my body will do, and know what to do in order to make it function better. First: EAT! Second: Move daily! I've lost 5.4 pounds in the past two weeks....3.6 pounds on Valentine's Day and 1.8 pounds this Saturday. I really expected a small loss based on my track record this week, so I'm happy!

Who would have guessed how motivating stars could be for me? Last week, I got my 5% star at WW, and this week I got my 20 pound star. Also, giving myself stars for exercise and whatnot is really keeping me moving! When I don't exercise for a day, I feel like crap and more exercise makes my body feel better. Weird! Also, I've hit a new milestone: I haven't missed one WW meeting in 11 weeks and have made it through a whole round of books without quitting. When my leader gave me my 5% star last week, she told me I need to decide my next goal. With my success so far this year, I already had one in mind. I want to hit 30 pounds gone and my 10% goal by my birthday! I've averaged about 10 pounds each month since making a commitment to exercise (AGAIN!), so I think I can succeed! My birthday is March 18th and I have 9.2 more pounds to go. I will do it!

I have to scurry off to work, so I'll be back again soon with some more to share...I promise!

Stay Away From the Yogurt Aisle!

As I promised, I am back with a more detailed post!

First off, I had my first gain of the year two weeks ago. I ended up gaining 0.2 pounds due to a late night meal at McDonalds. I didn't make the worst choice...I ended up having chicken nuggets and a handful of fries before I gave them to someone else...but I could tell that I was retaining salt. This meal was only 10 hours away from my WW meeting, so I expected to see a bit of damage. I was over checking out my parents new house and trying to talk some sense into my sister who was stressing out my mom due to her Bridezilla ways when we realized we hadn't had supper yet. McDonalds was about the only thing left open besides IHOP and Perkins...we just wanted to grab something to take home. It is nice to know that one bad choice does not screw up my whole week!

Later that Saturday, Giggleman and I went grocery shopping. We never go to the grocery store on the weekend or during peak hours, but we really needed some stuff. The parking lot was packed, the aisles were crowded, and I just wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. We made it until the dairy aisle. First, the store was out of my Laughing Cow cheese...then the yogurt aisle was filled with four people checking out the same yogurt I wanted to get. I can handle pushing through to get what I want, right? Nope! I had my first panic attack in over THREE YEARS right there! Giggleman had never seen me go through one before so he didn't know what was going on. I couldn't manage to get out words, so I just kept circling and circling like a mad woman. He grabbed my arm and asked what I wanted but all I could do was shake my head. I headed out of the aisle, out the store, and was sobbing uncontrollably by the time I made it to the car. Arrgh! This week, I had almost the same problem in the bottled water section. I thought I had tackled my panic issues...evidently I need to get back to work on it.

I almost didn't make it to my WW meeting on Saturday due to car issues. I started up the car and it would kill every single time I pulled out of park. I guess I need to start paying attention to keeping up with car maintenance...most of it was due to a badly needed oil change. But, I think my thermostat thingy is messed up now too because the temperature gauge likes to go too high after a longer drive and my car heater doesn't seem to be working. Oops! I could really save money if I would just deal with things right away. Luckily, I made my meeting and was down only 0.4 pounds. I keep telling myself a loss is a loss, but I always want more. After tracking all my food for a month or so now, I can tell a pattern in my loss. My big problem is my body just doesn't give hunger signals...I never feel like eating all day...and then have a bigger meal to compensate. When I had great losses, I consciously made myself eat all meals including breakfast even though I didn't "feel" hungry. These last two weeks, I've been quite low on points and was lucky to get two real meals in. So, I'm thinking my body is holding on to the little food I give it in order to make it through my workouts. It has been pounded into me to eat all my points, but it just is difficult. Why can't my body just be happy and let go? So, I'm going to work extremely hard to get back to the breakfast and lunch routine again. I guess science does know best!

I have a fun new item that I've added to my fitness routine in the past week. I am now a proud owner of a Wii! Yay! I do not have the Wii Fit (yet), but I have been using My Fitness Coach. I used to have Yourself Fitness for the computer a few years ago, and I was happy to find Maya again! Her jumping jacks in the fitness test made me beg for mercy (I thought 30 seconds with Jillian was rough with the bouncing....but two minutes with Maya is much worse!), but I found out that I'm much more flexible than before I started the 30 Day Shred. I also rock at crunches. So Maya and Jillian have been kicking my arse this week. Maya does have some big breaks incorporated in her workouts, so I think I'll have to do a longer program to get maximum results.

Wow, I've been rambling on and I haven't even got to the most interesting info! I guess I'll save that for my video post or another regular one this week. See you then!