Posting week 1/3!!! Hello 2005!

[JulieL]

Well good morning gals!

I had AN AWESOME WEEK!!! I made myself not procranstinate and get my body a moving! My workouts:

1. 30 mins upper body weight training
2. 40 mins kickboxing
3. 50 mins lower body weight training

-moment of self boosting (if I may) , I have been trying to increase the amount of weights I use for lower body workouts. I have this special program by Cathe called Pyramid Lower Body which you use heavy weights for 30 minutes of MAJOR conditioning and muscle building (step ups, lunges, squats, deadlifts) , followed by 15 mintues of non-weight muscle building. Well I hit a major sucess this week. When I first bought this workout 9 months ago I was doing weights of 20, 25 and 30 lbs. I am now up to 35, 40 and 45 lbs lifting for my lower body!!! It's so hard to
believe I can do this. After I had Anthony even doing lunges
with 10 lbs was very tiring. To all of you, you can reach your
goals and then some if you keep at it!!!

4. 55 minutes of upper body weight training
4. 45 min run (apprx 4 miles - didn't do an exact count)

So far I am off to a wonderful start. Later I'll post a new veggie soup I made this last week that was really good!

[vikivoly]

Julie,
Congratulations on the workout milestone. Thanks for being such an inspiration. What a wonderful feeling when you take control of your body!

Ok, now for my self boosting. I accomplished all of my goals this week. It was my first week of lifestyle retraining and I'm really proud of myself. For me, the first week has always been the hardest. I usually give up before the first day is over! My main goal was to go two weeks without eating anything sweet. Sweets have always been my downfall. I could go the rest of my life without a potato chip, but oooh the sweets are so sweet. Well, I made it through the first week. The cravings have considerably subsided and I don't feel like I'm depriving myself of anything. I also cut out the soda, my next biggest downfall. I only drank water, not a single soda. The other goal I had was no fast food. Well, I mostly accomplished this goal. I was so upset because on Sat. DH brought home LJS for lunch. It really hurt that he would do that because he knows what I'm trying to accomplish. When I complained to him, he said, "just don't eat it". I could've killed him at that point! After he realized I meant business he did apologize. I suppose I can't blame him too much. It's not like this is the first time I attempted to lose weight. I guess he just assumed it would be like the other times. He doesn't realize that I'm ready to do it this time. Back to LJS, I decided to take one of the chicken planks and about 5 FFs and make a salad out of it. I know it's still not the healthiest choice, but that was a still a big step for me and I think it showed DH how serious I am. You first must realize that I would eat fast food 4-5 times per week, if not more. So, even though I didn't truly accomplish my goal of "No Fast Food", I feel good about it. As far as my daily menu, my other goals were to simply include more veggies into my diet and eat smaller portions. I mostly ate what I wanted - pasta, beef, cheese, etc. - just smaller portions. Because I ate so much fast food, just cooking dinner, any dinner, is better.

I didn't exercise, but I also didn't intend on exercising either. I don't want to overload myself and just throw in the towel on everything. I'm going to add exercise soon and am debating on how, when and what I want to do.

I kept wanting to weigh myself all week to confirm I was making progress, but I waited until today (I'm doing it weekly.) I expected to see about a 3 lb difference, but was shocked when I saw that I had lost 7 lbs! I know a lot of that is water and I won't sustain that sort of loss, but it is a big boost to keep me going. It's amazing how just changing a few small things in your life can make such a difference.

One thing that has been different for me thus far is my way of thinking. Even though it's only been a week, my outlook on food has been different. I don't want to put things that are bad for me in my body. I never felt that way before. I always felt I was depriving myself if I passed on the cake and candy and ate a veggie instead. This time I look at it and think, "Oh that looks good, but it's not worth it" and I pass it by without a second thought.

Well, if you're still with me, thanks and if you're not, just typing this has been therapeutic. :)

[egoldber]

Congrats Julie and Vicki on great accomplishments!!!!

I also had a great week! :) I went to the gym 5 times in the first 7 days of the New Year, mostly thanks to DH who is now really motivated to work out.

Here are my workouts:

1) Total body + 20 minutes cardio (treadmill)
2) Lower body + 20 minutes cardio (Precor elliptical)
3) 30 minutes cardio (Stairmaster + Precor elliptical)
4) Total body + 20 minutes cardio (Fitlinxx elliptical)
5) Total body + 25 minutes cardio (Stairmaster + Fitlinxx elliptical)

My goal for this year is to mix up my work outs more. I have found myself getting a little bored with the same stuff I had been doing, so I am making myself try out new weight machines and different ways of doing things. The trainer shows me different stuff, but I have always tended to do the same old, same old.

I am now at the point where I WANT to go to the gym every day and I feel really good when I am there. This is a whole new thing for me and I'm pretty excited about it!

The only downside is, I have found my eating has not so good. Bad eating habits lefotver from the holidays have been hard to break. :( I do fine at meals, but I find myself incredibly hungry between meals, and my snack choices have been sub-par (umm...OK bad...chocolate chip cookies are NOT a good choice!)

[psophia17]

Yay Julie, Vicki, Beth!! But yay for me too :D

I had a really good week. This is week 2 of doing my WW journal, and I managed to stay in my points. Also, as of this morning, I have lost 5 lbs total, and am back to where I was pre-candy cupboard.

Nutrition-wise, I haven't been having as many veggies as I would like, but I've had more than usual, which is good. I had no soda, and now I'm trying to cut out coffee (which I drink with way too much sugar) except for one cup Sunday morning. I know I can do it. I don't want to cut things out, because then the temptation is unbearable, but I am going to be better about reserving them for special occasions. I won't drink soda at home, but I will have one (no refill) in a restaurant. If I really want a sweet snack, I can have 3pts worth, no more. I also think that staying in my points is reminding me that I don't have a reason to feel faint and dizzy when I'm hungry like I did when I was PG. I definitely got into the habit of eating 24/7 to combat that, and I feel like I broke the habit over the week.

Fitness-wise was harder because DS was sick all week, but I did manage to go to 1hr of Power Water, and it was great. We did a lot of interval training to get heart rates up, which I haven't done before (it was a new teacher), and I loved it. I planned to go do total body conditioning on Friday, but that was DS's worst day, so didn't. I haven't had this much energy since March of 2003, pre-PG.

Go us!!!

:D

[npace19147]

I had a great first week too! I'm doing the Body for Life 12-week challenge and I followed all the exercise routines for the first week - 3 days of cardio (20 min. on the treadmill) alternated with 3 days of weights (2 upper body, 1 lower body) and one free day. And I'm making an effort to carry DD as much as possible so that counts as extra cardio! :)

I'm not being as regulated about the eating routines but I am trying to eat smaller portions and have less soda and snacks.

I lost one pound between last week and this week, so I'm psyched - I feel like it's real weight, not just water weight. Let's all keep it up!

[lukkykatt]

Wow, everyone is off to a great start of the year! I am really proud of everyone here. I find that I can't do everything I need to in any one day - something is always slipping through the cracks. But a while back I decided that my health was not going to be the thing that I let slip away - instead it is now my organization - but I am working on that too :)

I got in 4 good workouts this week, and one other day I just did an ab workout. But that is 5 days that I did some form of exercise, so happy about that. My eating is improving, but not quite where I want to be. I am still sometimes snacking on remains of Christmas loot - but everyday weaning away from the chocolate.

My next goal is to start planning meals again. I find that helps alot with having appropriate foods on hand.