Determined!

Thanks Lindy for getting us going again. I finally gave in to my trainer at Better Bodies. He has been after me to train with him for 2 years! I bit the bullet and took some money out of savings the end of July. I am happy to report that I have lost 12 pounds and 4% body fat! I am at the end of my session so have decided to do another one. I hope by Christmas I can report success. I am still reporting in at Weight Watchers and have gotten back to the 15 pound loss mark with them. I still need another 5 off to hit my 10% of my starting weight.

I am going to the gym every day except some Sundays. I do a 60 minute weight lifting workout 3 days a week and cardio every day. On the days I do weights, I do 30 minutes cardio and on the other days I do 60 minutes cardio. My big goal is to increase my minutes on the stairmaster! I started with 5 and am now at 10! For every minute I add to the stairmaster, I subtract from the arc-trainer. I usually finish my 60 min. cardio with 20 min. on the treadmill. I am not one to like to sweat but have decided that sweating is the only way to melt the pounds off!

My trainer has also asked me to follow a 1200 to 1300 calorie eating plan. I have been journaling my eating and have discovered that when I figure Weight Watcher points it comes out to be the same as I need to be eating for their program. That actually surprised me!

I hope to check in regularly and am anxious to hear from all of you.

It's Working!

Since I last checked in I have really put extra effort into my exercise and have lost two pounds. I am sticking to my morning running outside or running on the treadmill. What's changed is that I have added in evening power walks with a neighbor who is on a quest to get healthier as well. We were able to get in 15 miles of walking accomplished since last Friday. Sometimes evenings didn't always fit into our schedules but we tucked a mile in here or a mile in there and it added up.

In addition, I am doing anything physical with our boys. We went to our park with another family one night to help the boys practice baseball. I did all the base running. I don't know what that added up to mile-wise but every little bit helps! Plus we had so much fun!

LMH

Turning Over a New Leaf

I got back to Curves this week after being away for almost two months. I hurt my rotator cuff back in May, and it really flared out. Finally, I've been released to work in my present range of motion and gradually increase it. The pain is almost gone FINALLY!! Sleeping has been difficult. Finding a comfortable position so that my arm didn't throb was next to impossible. I'm very grateful to be in this healing place.

With the return to Curves, I'm also looking at what I can adjust in my eating. I took the Light Way course last year about this time, and they taught a regime where you eat only when your stomach growls, not necessarily at regular meal times. Living alone, I can actually try this idea out, and I'm doing it right now. When your stomach does growl, you are supposed to eat a small something about the size of your fist. They aren't particular about the content of that food. I'm hoping that I can keep my nutrition good and eat things that are good for me. So far, after a week of doing this, my weight has gone down about a pound. We'll see what's ahead.

The high of this past week has been the fact that all of my family safely came through Hurricane Ike last week. My siblings in Houston were all without power for a substantial time, and some still are, but they had the pioneer spirit about it and survived. The low is about my sister Debbie's house in Seabrook, Texas. It took in 14 inches of water, and they don't know yet whether it's fixable or whether it will have to be razed to be built completely from scratch. Angels have appeared and she and her husband have a lovely place to stay while whatever happens now happens. A contractor is also already involved, so I thank God for watching over us all. Til later, Linda

It's time to make the change

At the prompt of "Aunt Blue Bell" I am ready to get this blog support group going again. It's been a long summer, busy with work, kids activities, our oldest daughters' wedding and spending time at big lake, as much as we can. We entertained friends and family over the long week(end) surrounding the wedding - 8/8/08 - and we let our self control somewhat slip along the way. I shouldn't say "we," as I can only speak for me, and I know that I did well maintaining my own through the late spring and summer.

I have a new doctor treating my diabetes. She has put me on some new medications to help assist with my resistance to insulin and to help control my cholesterol. She is a young doctor from Pakistan, and her gentle, yet knowledgeable and no nonsense nature was just the prescription I needed from my endocrinologist. She asked me, point blank, if I wanted to stay on the insulin pump. Frankly, I hadn 't ever given it much thought, assuming that living with diabetes would mean being on insulin for the rest of my life, and I have the pump, so why wouldn't I just keep using it? But she gave me some food for thought. She's put me on metformin to affect the insulin resistance of my body and told me that since it has only been six years that I have been taking the insulin, my pancreas may still be able to produce enough insulin if I can decrease my resistance. Medication, exercise and weight loss will help . . . hmmm, guess I've always "known" the path. I've been on metformin for one month, and tricor for my cholestorol as well. I go back to see her in early December. I am now starting to see my blood sugars lower in the normal range again. Exercise and weight loss are to follow.

Now, about the exercise. We've as a family joined the YMCA. Marc is taking swimming lessons, and Rachel, Vickie and Micaela are anxious to start using the one by our house, and their cards will also allow them to use one within walking distance of their mom's house. Michael and I are also looking forward to starting a program to tone, tighten and help shed excess pounds. I've had some health issues that have kept me from venturing out in my usual mode of walking through the temperate months. I look forward to feeling better soon, and learning to play racquetball with Vickie. She's promised to teach me. If they have cameras on the courts, it will be one we can sell for cash, as I am sure it will be site to behold. I'll keep you updated as we work out our exercise routines.

Michael's last report at the doc was excellent, he's lost a few more pounds, down one pant size, and his medications are being absorbed. His A1C (test which measures average blood sugar levels over 3 months) was 6.2, the lowest its ever been. 6.0 or lower is where doctors want to see it. Mine was 6.8, so I'm hoping the change in medication helps get mine back to normal.

I am eating healthier, not healthy by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely with a healthier outlook. Our gluten free focus has helped make our meals more nutritional when we eat at home, and limits our family from eating out so often. We have found a few restaurants, whose gluten free menus are good, not just lists of what they serve that is gf. We like Biaggi's, Carraba's, Chili's and a new pizza place that offers a gluten free crust - Pudgy's Pizzeria. We tried it out last Monday, the pizza was awesome, and Michael ate perhaps a bit more than he should have in one sitting, but watching the joy in his face as he devoured his favorite - pepperoni, green olive and extra cheese - was awesome. He hadn't eaten pizza since February. (which could explain his keeping up with weight loss and my stalling!)

I experimented with gluten free bread baking from scratch last week. I made hamburger buns to go with sloppy joes for my brother-in-law's retirement party. They tasted good, but they were so dense you could have used them for hockey pucks. Michael said they were okay hot out of the oven with butter and slathered in saucy sloppy joes. Not sure he'd use it for a hamburger yet. I used a recipe from glutenfreemama.com and her almond blend flour. Our neighbor manages the local Hy-Vee, and he's stocking the shelves with the gluten free mama flours now. I found a cornbread mix that we really like from gluten free kitchens. I've also adapted my chili recipe to use kidney beans in place of chili beans and Tones Southwest Chipotle seasoning to add extra zest.

Other updates: Vickie has passed her driver's test and now has her license. She and I share my car, this week,with Michael away in Vegas, she's getting her first round of independence by driving herself to and from school without a parent in the car. She's itching to go further and we're holding the reins tight to let her get accustomed to driving on her own and paying attention to the road. If the driving age is ever on a ballot to be raised, I think I'd vote for it. It's nerve wracking to think of these young drivers, with no fear of anything, out on the road, "finding their way in the dark." I don't know how my parents got any sleep when I was behind the wheel . . . Marc started Kindergarten and loves it. He misses his old friends but is making new ones. Vickie watches two neighbor kids and Marc after school every day. She's being really responsible, making good money and loves the kids. Marc will take sign classes again along with his swimming lessons, and he signed up for coed basketball for kindergartners at the Y. His games start in Oct. He has his jersey and wants to sleep in it every night. Not sure I am ready for this new stage of his development, but I guarantee you if he has my talent for the hoops, there will be entertaining moments on the gym floor to come!

Once upon a time, some of us set a goal to lose 10% of our body weight by Christmas. I think it is still doable if those of us who sat down and made to goal set our minds to it. My goal, lose 10 lbs by November and the rest before the holidays. Fellow b-hoppers, are you in?

Thanks, Blue Bell, for getting us motivated again. Your prompt was just what I needed to get back on track. And, I need to know - "who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?" Not me, must have been you!

Has it been that long?

I didn't realize it had been since the spring since I have posted!  Our summer was wonderful and I was able to keep on top of my exercise with early morning runs and even added in a day of tennis with a friend at our pool during the week. However, the scale has yet to budge. My current goal is to lose 10 pounds ultimately 13 pounds. I want to lose the weight for no other reason except that I don't think it needs to be there. I feel strong and healthy but I think the weight is there from my food choices and also getting older so I would like to change that. I found that checking in with you guys proved helpful and I felt that I had "company". So I am back and ready to get going and try to set a realistic goal of the holidays.

LMH

Update on my progress

With my oldest in school this fall, I had to move my walking inside to the treadmill. I miss being outside, and I still walk outside on the weekends. However, I'm finding that my treadmill workouts have me working harder and losing weight. I'm within five pounds of my pre-pregnancy weight - woohoo!

Basically, three days a week, I warm up and then do 2 minute fast walking intervals on the treadmill. The other two days, I use the manual incline on the treadmill and do two five minute segments. Depending on the week, I take off one or two days each week.

I picked these ideas up from The Abs Diet book. I also have been doing new versions of situps from the book to strengthen my back and abs.

The last part of my success so far is the vitamin supplements I've been taking. I started taking glucosamine from Walmart over the summer and it's made a big difference in how my body feels in the morning. I went from shuffling out of bed to almost bounding out of bed (note the almost!). My knees aren't healed enough for me to start running, but I'm okay with where I am now.