Fitbreak app mini-review

Recently, I downloaded some apps for my phone with the goal of getting my 4 year old more interested in fitness.  He's a visual guy, so I'm hoping this might entice him more than me just saying "hey, let's do a plank!" ;)  I'm going to post some mini-reviews as we try out these apps.

First, we tried the "FitBreak" app, developed by Weight Watchers.  It's full of one minute exercises.  You watch a quick (15-30 seconds) demo, then a 3 second countdown, and then you watch a timer count down while you do that exercise for one full minute.  My son loves to watch timers and count anything down (who knew microwaves could be so thrilling?), so this appeals to him.   

However, I really didn't like that you only see a big timer for that sixty seconds - you're not watching the actual exercise again.  I used a screenshot they provide on their web site here to show how it look.  It's great for little man who loves to countdown, but not so great when mama is trying to get him to do the movements with her.  

You can filter the exercises by environment (work, outside, home), intensity (low, moderate, high), and target area (arms/shoulder, abs, butt, legs, full body and cardio).  I like that you can do this type of customization, but it's frustrating that you spend so much time in the app without following along with an exercise.  30 seconds of demo, plus 3 seconds countdown - and then you do your movement for 60 seconds with no reference video or images.  Disappointing.

Overall I'm not recommending this as an app to use with young kids, but looks possibly motivating for adults who can only squeeze in a few minutes of activity at one time.

passing along the wrong genetics

I haven't written a lot about my son on my blog here, since I tend to selfishly focus on my weight loss journey.  My son just turned 4, and at his physical last week, the pediatrician gave us a lecture about nutrition because my son is technically obese.  He's 67%ile in height, 92%ile in weight and 96%ile in BMI.  

This breaks my heart.  I don't think he looks "fat" at all - he's got a little belly on him, but that doesn't seem excessive to me.  He seems tall, compared to his friends, but not apparently to the growth charts. ;)  

As you can guess, I've struggled with my weight my entire life - and this is something I've been hyper-aware about with the little guy.  His nutrition is great.  Only drinks water and one glass of milk a day.  Never any juice.  Lots of proteins and veggies and fruits, and whole grain carbs.  Sweets are a rare treat.  He just loves to eat - a lot.  

Lately we've been talking about which foods are good for your body and which foods you need to only have rarely.  It really helps that I don't keep crap food in our house and that we only eat out maybe twice a month.  (When relatives come to visit though, like they did this month, that number unfortunately goes up.)  

He's very much a homebody though - he loves to read and do puzzles and play with magnatiles and his new marble run and such.  He's happiest to be at home.  So we both need to work on incorporating more movement into our time at home - and also get more activity outside as well!  Luckily the weather is improving and hopefully we'll get out to parks more often.  Hopefully he'll also get interested in his bicycle more than just walking it. ;)

If you have kids, how do you show them a healthy lifestyle?

trying new things

I've only had one chance to get back into a pool since my last post, but I did two lengths of the pool that time.  Progress! ;)

Tonight, the gym had a special event thing going on, where you got a passport and had to get it stamped at six stations.  I did this *after* my 60 minute booty-kicking U-Jam Fitness class, when I was already soaked with sweat.  First station: burpees.  Oh hell no, I said.  The perky trainer showed me a couple of lower-impact variations, and I knocked out ten of them to earn my stamp.  I don't know if I can do one proper burpee, but it was pretty motivating to be able to do 10 of the modified version - and quickly, too.  Other stations included a 30 second plank (I do those at home often), 30 seconds of mountain climbers, 5 hands-overhead-squats, and ten TRX-rope pull-ups (I have no clue if I'm calling it anything near what it actually is...).  The trainers were all super-overly-encouraging, which I appreciate and understand since this really is a selling point for getting you to sign up for personal training. ;)

For me though, it was motivating to try things I don't normally do and to have a small bit of success.  I want to make a goal of trying a new workout each month (starting next month) and start to challenge my body in a different way.  My weight loss is slow right now (thanks to kid's birthday and extended houseguest visits), so I need to get back on track.

Changing it up

I've been feeling less-than-fabulous lately, which lead to a really unpleasant workout on Friday, and then no workouts at all for the next three days.  Tip from my group exercise instructor friend - if you don't feel well and it's all in your head, go ahead and go to class... but if it's lower, skip it.  Lesson I learned: don't even try a cardio exercise class when you're having gastrointestinal issues.  I nearly threw up when trying to do subtle crunches.  Ugh.

Thankfully, I'm feeling a bit better now, and have worked out this morning and the past two nights too (not back to 100%, but better!).

This morning after my cardio workout, I changed into my swimsuit to jump into the hot tub - one of my favorite "rewards" after workouts when I can fit in the time (maybe once or twice a week if I'm lucky).  Today however, I jumped into the lap pool first (only one lane was occupied - the two empty lanes called to me!).  I haven't swum a lap in years - maybe even decades?  I used to do a lot of water aerobics about 11-13 years ago, but that wasn't laps.

Well, uhm.  I did one length of the pool with the traditional forward crawl.  Felt good while I was doing it, and then I touched the wall and stood up for a moment.  Oh my.  I was so out of breath!  I stood there for a few minutes and just was kinda amazed and a bit disappointed in my body's reaction - I had done a 60 minute dance workout less than an hour prior, and have been doing those an average of 5 or 6 days a week.  But one length of the pool and I was ready to keel over!  UGH!

Quite the reminder that you need to change it up to help keep your body healthy - and hopefully next time, I'll get in that full lap. ;)

Goals - March report

March is done! Let's review the goals:

1. Lose an average of one pound a week - not met.  Doh.  So this is a weird one, and one that really makes me feel like a data geek. ;)  Straight numbers on the scale, I'm down 2.6 pounds.  But the trend is actually just shy of 4 pounds down for the month.  The dots on the graph (provided from the Happy Scale app) are the actual weight each day, the blue line is the overall trend, and the green shading is the trends from 30 days prior.  I'm frustrated that I'm two pounds higher than my lowest weight earlier this month, but I did have a couple of poor food decisions, and that does have an effect!  However, I am still taking this as a WIN for the month because I weighed less at the end of the month than I did at the start of the month. ;)
2. Work out at least 20 times a month - met!  27 workouts this month.  Seven days with no workouts and 3 days with two workouts.  Thankfully, none of the no workout days were back-to-back.  I'm at 82 workouts for the year.  Woo!  I haven't felt 100% fabulous every day this month, and had some outside obligations take away workouts on a couple of days.  I'm trying to make it a big priority to not miss workouts two days in a row - I missed yesterday due to a stomach bug, and really hoping I feel better this evening and make it to a class!
3. Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month - met!  Even posted one of the recipes here on the blog.  I tried two others, one was a hit and one was not.  Need to keep a focus on this and doing more "new" cooking instead of relying on the old basics.  
4. Make an effort to eat clean and healthy the majority of the time - partially met?  I'm trying hard on this - and really, really trying to resist temptation when I can.  Didn't buy any Easter candy before the holiday, and only bought a couple of things afterwards on sale. ;)  I did give in to all-you-can-eat sushi one night, but then we got bad news while we were at dinner so I lost my appetite and didn't end up overeating as much as I used to (but that's the spike you see on the scale near the end of the month).  We used to go to that place once a month or so, but haven't been in at least 9 months so that's an improvement? ;)  

A quarter of the year in, I'm down over 12 pounds and I've got 82 workouts under my belt.  Challenges ahead this month include my son's birthday and having family staying with us for over a week.  Would love to meet all these goals in April! :)

Still going!

Sorry for the radio silence the past few weeks - can you believe there's only one week left in March?  Time is flying.  Things are still going well over here.  I'm still working out 4-6 times a week, and I'm still (slowly) losing weight.  I need to be careful to not overdo with the cardio exercise - I feel my age is catching up with me and I end up sore afterwards some days. ;)

I am struggling with menu planning lately.  I just haven't had a ton of motivation to cook, and I am often going to the gym around dinner time.  This means I either end up cooking something delicious and running out the door while husband and kiddo eat (and having cold leftovers when I get home), or husband has to make something simple for dinner (and I still have cold leftovers when I get home).    So things are a bit blah on that front, but hopefully I can get some motivation on this soon!  Would love to hear any of your favorite recipes! :)

Turkey and Quinoa meatloaf

Yay!  Made a new recipe tonight - Turkey and Quinoa meatloaf!  I forgot to take a photo of the dish, but it's definitely a hit!

I love this recipe - it's a healthy spin on meatloaf, with quinoa replacing the breadcrumbs.  No sugar-laden ketchup either - only some tomato paste.  There is a "paste" of brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce, but it wasn't a paste at all - it was a runny fluid.  Husband said he liked the "paste", but I think it wasn't necessary.  He is curious if we could add diced carrots to the recipe, but we're unsure of how to par-cook them first.  The onions were definitely not cooked enough, even though I cooked them for twice as long.  I will definitely make this recipe again!

Here's the recipe, with my changes and comments in italics:

Turkey and Quinoa Meatloaf
Recipe By: Andrew Benoit 

Ingredients

1/4 cup quinoa
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, chopped (I used 2 teaspoons garlic powder)
1 (20 ounce) package ground turkey (I used 16 ounces)
1 tablespoon tomato paste (I used 2 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce (I omitted)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 egg (I used 2 eggs as suggested in the comments for this recipe)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon water

Directions

1. Bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is tender, and the water has been absorbed, about 15 to 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
2. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute; remove from heat to cool.  (I cooked the onion for 10 minutes, and it wasn't softened enough sadly.  Since I didn't have fresh garlic, I added the garlic powder to the mixture in the next step.)
4. Stir the turkey, cooked quinoa, onions, tomato paste, hot sauce (omitted), 2 tablespoons Worcestershire, egg, salt, and pepper in a large bowl until well combined. The mixture will be very moist. Shape into a loaf on a foil lined baking sheet. Combine the brown sugar, 2 teaspoons Worcestershire, and 1 teaspoon water in a small bowl. Rub the paste over the top of the meatloaf. (this was not a paste - perhaps skip the water?  It ran all over the baking sheet)
5. Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, about 50 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 160 degrees F (70 degrees C). Let the meatloaf cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Goals - February report

February is done! Let's review the goals:

1. Lose an average of one pound a week - met!  Well, technically. ;)  By the scale, yes, I'm down 4.4 pounds for the month (9.6 pounds for the year).  Yippee!  However, February was a very challenging month weight-wise with my birthday, so the scale did not move as much as it should have, given the workouts.  Trend isn't the greatest, but at least now it is trending downward again.  The dots on the graph (provided from the Happy Scale app) are the actual weight each day, the blue line is the overall trend, and the green shading is the trends from 30 days prior.  Yes, that means that one day last week, I weighed in higher than I did 30 days before that.  Ouch.  That lowest weight is so baffling to me - but that was the morning of my birthday!  Thanks for the nice gift, scale! ;)  I'm still using the old school Hacker's Diet web site to analyze the trends, and for the past month, I lost 0.77 pounds per week (as compared to 1.1 pounds in January).  I have again met that big weight loss goal that I had for my birthday. :)
2. Work out at least 20 times a month - met!  25 workouts this month, including two 90 minute classes.  Four days with no workouts and only one day with two workouts.  Thankfully, none of the no workout days were back-to-back.  Intellectually, I know that even though the scale was unkind this month (due to the birthday indulgences), I have to believe that the workouts kept it from being a terrible month weight-wise.  
3. Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month - nope.  I did cook a bunch, and frankly ate out too much due to extended birthdaying, but no brand new recipe this month.  I did print out several that I want to try! ;)
4. Make an effort to eat clean and healthy the majority of the time - nope.  I'm going to give that a honest fail.  I did well when I could, but honestly, I didn't make the best decisions overall.  Hence more than half of those weigh-ins this month dragging the trend upwards.  But honestly, I didn't eat a lot of fast food (I think maybe twice?) but there were more baked goods and more restaurant meals than usual.  I enjoyed it, and won't beat myself up about it, and will move on.  

Looking forward to a March filled with success (and lots of new recipes!), and continued progress on all of these goals!

Happy Scale!

OK, so I'm not happy with my scale at the moment - I'm up a few pounds from the birthday weekend of indulgence, but I trust it will come back down soon.

However, I discovered a new-to-me app for my phone that I'm happy about: Happy Scale.  It's nicely designed (I believe a redesign came out recently, so their web site doesn't have the prettier screen shots) and I love the functionality.

In particular, it allows you to focus on smaller milestones and the overall trends.  From where I started a year ago, I want to lose 100 pounds - and this app nicely breaks it up into 10 milestones for me (I could choose more or less milestones, too) and then helps me see how much until I hit the next milestone.  Lovely motivation!

I also love the focus on trends.  Yep, I've gained 1.2 in the past 7 days when you look at the trend (and not the 5 1/2 pounds if you look at the raw numbers) -- and honestly, I'm still 38.5 pounds down for the past year, so yeah me.  Doesn't look like I'm going to hit 4 pounds for February, but that's another story... ;)

And yes, the free version has a simple banner ad at the bottom that I didn't even notice until I took this screenshot ;)

Here's the report chart for the past 90 days for me -- I LOVE that it has an option to export this chart without the weight values listed!  Y'all don't need to know the exact weights ;)

Again, the focus is on the trend here - the dots are the individual weights for the days, but the smoother blue line is the overall trend.  Creatively, the green area is showing the difference from that date and 30 days prior (which would be red if that trend is higher than it was 30 days ago).

Overall, I love this app.  I think there are some more advanced features that you can unlock if you upgrade to the deluxe version (and it eliminates the ads), but for now, this is working well for me.  Kudos to you, Mr. Happy Scale developer! ;)

Goal smashed and crashed

Last Thursday was my birthday - and I SMASHED MY GOAL!  I was so thrilled!  Couldn't believe it!  Actually re-weighed myself twice. ;)  Beat my goal by over a pound.  Awesomeness!

and then...there have been many baked goods and celebrating and blah blah blah, gained 5 pounds in 4 days.  Ugh.  I'm extra frustrated because I have worked out at least an hour every day in this timespan, yet the weight crept back on.

Naturally, I'm also having various pains from working out perhaps too much (most worrisome is pain in the ball of my left foot, but I've also horked up my left tricep and both shoulders are sore too).  Due to scheduling issues, I won't be able to make it to my usual U-Jam classes tomorrow or Wednesday, but I should be able to get to the gym for an hour in the morning tomorrow and will probably just jump on a bike to keep stress off my foot and shoulders.

So here's to making it back to that big goal weight in the next week or so, and then continuing the downward trend overall! :)

trends and reality

Oy, so the Super Bowl & birthday party combination did me in on Sunday -- gained 2 1/2 pounds, and five days later, I've only lost half of it.  Frustrating!

However, looking at the trends does help keep things in perspective.  Here's the handy graph from the Hacker Diet's site looking at my weight since January 1 this year:

I love this site. ;)  The little tick marks on the left are for each pound, the white dots are the actual weight that day, and the red line is the trend.  You can see how losing weight pulls the trend line down - and for the most part this year, I've been doing that!  But then you see the jump at the end of the graph with the Super Bowl nonsense and too many treats at an event I attended on Tuesday night. However, as dramatic as the weight gain was, it didn't really ruin the trend.  It just put a stop to it for a couple of days, and now we're slowly pulling that line down again.

I must admit my frustration at the timing however.  My birthday is one week away, and if I had kept up that one-pound-a-week weight loss, I would've hit a big goal on my big day.  Now I'm two pounds away.  Ugh.

Watching shows like "Biggest Loser" make it seem like only losing two pounds in a week is a failure, but for real life, it's not like that.  Weight loss is a continuous struggle, and a two pound weight loss in a week is a thing to celebrate!  I've managed to injure my shoulder/tricep with too much dancing (oops!), so I'm also trying to take a step back from that and add in more rest time than I did last month.  Still aiming for those 20 workouts a month though!

And one last bit of perspective for me: my weight today, even with that Super Bowl bounce, is still lower than it's been in over 4 1/2 years.  PROGRESS!

Trader Joe's Crunchy Curls

Trader Joe's Crunchy Curls are a delightful and unexpected snack!  I tried these on a whim over a year ago, and these are definitely my go-to snack these days.  They're vegan!  They're gluten-free!  They've got FOUR grams of fiber in a serving!  No sugar!  What else could you want? ;)

The portion size feels generous (I always have to weigh it because I tend to overestimate and not pour a full serving).  These curls are so crunchy, and have a pleasing if a bit bland flavor.  You don't taste lentils per se - it's more of the potato flavor that comes through (reminds me of plain popchips).  I love that there's four grams of fiber in a serving, plus the bonus of 3 grams of protein.  I can't think of many other salty snacks that can provide that.  Bonus points: my kid LOVES these. ;)

Highly recommended!

Nutrition Facts for 1 ounce - approximately 31 curls
Calories 130
Total Fat 4.5 g
Saturated Fat 0.5 g
Trans Fat 0
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 380 mg
Carb 18 g
Fiber 4 g
Sugars 0 g
Protein 3 g

Goals - January report

January is done! Let's review the goals:

1. Lose an average of one pound a week - met!  Down 5.2 pounds for the month according to the scale - and the more important version is the "trend" numbers (averages things out so one spike or drop doesn't throw everything off).  I use the old school Hacker's Diet web site to analyze the trends, and for the past month, I lost 1.1 pounds per week, 4.4 pounds for the month. (For the past year, my trend is 0.5 pounds a week - slow and steady, or something?) ;)
2. Work out at least 20 times a month - met!  29 workouts this month, including two 90 minute classes and two days with two workouts each day.  Of course, that means four days I didn't work out at all, which is fine.  I wish two of those days hadn't been back to back, but husband had to work late and that takes priority!  
3. Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month - met!  I made goat cheese (it was not that great) earlier this month, and on Saturday I made herbed pork tenderloin and roasted balsamic and thyme mushrooms (both tasty and will make again).  Yay!  Not sure what I'm going to make this month yet.
4. Make an effort to eat clean and healthy the majority of the time - met, mostly ;)  An on-going challenge, of course.  I did cave on the french fries, after one of those 90 minute workouts - In-n-Out, and honestly, it wasn't as good as I had hoped.  Otherwise, I feel like I'm eating pretty well overall.  

I'm happy that I'm meeting my goals, but I must admit that I'm frustrated that I'm not smashing the weight loss goal.  With all those workouts, I'd expect the scale to move a little faster in the right direction -- or at least for my clothes to fit better.  Frustratingly, I'm still wearing the same jeans I wore a year ago.  Lame.  I've got some sore muscles today, so maybe that's contributing to the weight side of things, but I'd like to drop into a smaller size soon. ;)

I'm expecting some challenges in February with my birthday celebration and a Super Bowl party and several kids parties and Valentines party and blah blah blah.  Hopefully I can still squeak out a pound a week!

Goals, mid-January progress

Halfway through the first month of the year, let's take a look at those goals! ;)

1. Lose an average of one pound a week - I'm a little ahead of this one (YAY!), and hopefully we'll keep on trucking with this.
2. Work out at least 20 times a month - 14 workouts so far!  I'm terrible at working out at home though, and haven't done that once yet.  But I have had a couple of more active outings with my son, so that's a bonus!
3. Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month - I made goat cheese from scratch today!  Not sure if that's particularly healthy, but it was new to me and it was just three ingredients (goat's milk, citric acid, salt).  Not sure it's worth the effort and expense, but I'll probably do it again. ;)  I've also improvised two dinners this month that turned out pretty good.
4. Make an effort to eat clean and healthy the majority of the time - I'm on track with this one.  I have had a tough time a few days this month, and haven't given into the fast food temptation (even though I've REALLY wanted french fries a couple of times!).  Part of it is because I'm focusing on the clean eating - so even though I want fries, I really don't want McDonald's fries with the "natural beef flavor" and other odd ingredients.  I'd be happy to have In-N-Out or Five Guys, but there aren't any drive-thrus nearby for those, so I haven't had the fries. ;)  

So there we go!  I missed workouts two nights in a row this week due to husband needing to unexpectedly work late a few times, and a couple of nights, I really didn't want to go, but I dragged myself and I'm glad the scale is reflecting it.  I really hate missing workouts two days in a row - today I won't be able to go to a class, but I did yesterday and I am really hoping it works out for me to make it to one tomorrow night.  

Hope your goals are motivating you, too!

U-Jam Fitness

How have I never posted about this?  U-Jam Fitness is my cardio exercise of choice.  I stumbled upon it in the summer of 2011 and got hooked.  It's a dance workout - "world beats with urban flair" - and one major reason I am addicted to this over Zumba is that the choreography is consistent, regardless of instructor.  If the song is Jennifer Lopez's "Papi", the routine will be the same no matter who is teaching the class.  As a kid, I took lots of dance lessons so I truly appreciate being able to learn and master the choreography for each song.

I had to stop working out about a third of the way into my pregnancy, and it took a long time to recover afterwards... but thankfully, last spring U-Jam came out with a home DVD workout (which I helped back via their kickstarter-style fundraising project).  I love this DVD, and it got me back into the motions.  I rejoined 24 Hour Fitness a few months ago because they have a TON of U-Jam classes, and have been attending a bunch of them. ;)  I've had a streak going of 12 days in a row of attending a U-Jam class at the gym, but alas that streak is coming to an end today because husband has to work late. ;)  Doh!

As with any group exercise class, some instructors are better than others (and I definitely have my favorites!) - but U-Jam consistently is a great workout, especially once you learn the choreography! :)

2016 goals

Yay for a new year and new beginnings, right? :D  I over-indulged last night, but the scale will become my friend again soon, I hope.

Let's look at the goals.  I had set some big goals last year but I think I'm going to scrap them for 2016.  Here are my new and improved goals for 2016:

1. Lose an average of one pound a week.
   I would like this to be more than one pound a week, but I'm trying to be realistic and sustainable, too.  If I end 2016 at 52 pounds lower than I am today, that would be me at my lowest weight since high school.  Mind-boggling!
2. Work out at least 20 times a month.
   This averages out to five times a week, which is ambitious.  I'd love to keep hitting as many of my beloved dance workout classes as I can!  I will also count a workout at home if I do a DVD here.  
3. Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month.
   Before kiddo, a long time ago I did a very ambitious new recipe every week, and that was a blast (though stressful at times to squeeze it in!).  Life with kiddo is different, so let's aim for one new recipe a month.
4. Make an effort to eat clean and healthy the majority of the time.
   I've already scaled back the dining out, and honestly can't remember the last time I've had fast food.  I still rely on a few boxed items in our meals, so hopefully I can find easier ways to keep our cooking at home more healthy and clean.

So there we are.  I want to set up goals that aren't just about the number on the scale, and I also want to have goals that will also benefit the rest of my family.  I'm really going to keep myself accountable and post monthly updates to these goals.

I also still would really love to get away for a few days at a health spa.  I'm continuing to research these places and would like opinions if you've visited any of them!

• Canyon Ranch in Arizona
• Cal-a-Vie in southern California
• The Ranch in Malibu, California - or perhaps their shortened 4 day program?
• Premier Fitness Camp in southern California
• Biggest Loser Resort in southern California
• Miraval in Arizona
• Extreme Weight Loss: Destination Boot Camp in Colorado

Best wishes for a healthy 2016!

2015 year in review

2015 is coming to a close, so let's look at those big goals:

Goal 1: 16 pounds gone - weight 1 week after delivering baby -- DONE!   
Goal 2: 31 pounds gone - weight before getting pregnant -- DONE!!
Goal 3: 40 pounds gone... on my way to this one!
Goal 4: 50 pounds gone
Goal 5: 60 pounds gone 
Goal 6: 70 pounds gone 
Goal 7: 80 pounds gone 
Goal 8: 90 pounds gone 
Goal 9: 100 pounds gone 
Goal 10: 103 pounds gone 

I need to set more non-scale-based goals for 2016, but that's for my next post.  Overall, I'm thrilled to be below my pre-pregnancy weight to close out the year, finally.  I wish I had hit this goal three years ago, but hey, better late than never, right? ;)

Goal #2 Accomplished and pondering a big reward

Goal 1: 16 pounds gone - weight 1 week after delivering baby -- DONE!   
Goal 2: 31 pounds gone - weight before getting pregnant -- DONE!!
Goal 3: 40 pounds gone 
Goal 4: 50 pounds gone
Goal 5: 60 pounds gone 
Goal 6: 70 pounds gone 
Goal 7: 80 pounds gone 
Goal 8: 90 pounds gone 
Goal 9: 100 pounds gone 
Goal 10: 103 pounds gone 

I've been at this second goal - or beyond - for a couple of weeks now, but I've been so nervous that I'm going to slide back over that weight again with the holidays!  Ugh!  I'm trying hard to make sure that I don't fail... ;)

I'm pondering a big reward for hitting this big goal - and a big birthday coming up in two months.  I'm considering going to a destination spa or weight loss resort for a few nights (perhaps up to a week?).  I've been looking into places such as:

• Canyon Ranch in Arizona
• Premier Fitness Camp in southern California
• Biggest Loser Resort in southern California
• Miraval in Arizona
• Cal-a-Vie in souther California
• The Ranch in Malibu, California - or perhaps their shortened 4 day program?

There are other spas and resorts, of course, but I'm looking mostly at places in California and Arizona to cut down on travel time.  Green Mountain at Fox Run in Vermont looks incredible though...

Have any of you ever gone to one of these incredible places, or have a friend who has done so?  I am so curious.  The prices are staggering, so that's holding me back from booking anything.  I would love to hear from anyone who's visited!

Here's to happy and healthy holidays for all! :)

sloooowly but surely

So.  Currently below pre-pregnancy weight by a half pound - I was under it by a pound and a half before this weekend... doh.  I'm not doing the massive "YAY BIG GOAL MET" dance yet with Thanksgiving lurking two nights away.  ;)  But I am trying to be smart about things, and intend to work out extra on the day before and day after.  I also don't intend to take any leftovers home (if offered)!  I wouldn't mind picking up a turkey (either whole or breast) if I find one on a good sale, but I'm not running to multiple grocery stores before Saturday ;)  (I bought enough to get us through until then earlier this week!)

I'm frustrated because even though I'm down almost 30 pounds from a year ago, I'm still wearing the same jeans!  Shouldn't I be down a size or two?  They do loosen up as the day goes on, but they're snug when I put them on so I haven't tried anything smaller yet.  (And as any fat lady can tell you, I have a ton of jeans in many various sizes...)

Hoping to be down a pound perhaps by the end of the month?  Dream big, my friends! :D

working it out

Still moving down the scale, albeit slowly.  I actually saw my pre-pregnancy weight one day last week, but it was fleeting as Halloween festivities added some of that weight back.  I would love be solidly below that weight before Thanksgiving, but frankly... just making it through the next two months without gaining weight would be a big accomplishment.  I need to be realistic!

I haven't felt well yesterday or today, but I still dragged myself to workouts each day.  I just didn't have my heart in them (and it didn't help that this morning's class was oddly filled with elderly women with no rhythm - though I'm happy for them that they're exercising, I wish they would've gotten together in one area so those of us who actually wanted to dance could've had room!  I was so nervous I was going to kick a great-grandma!).

I'm really struggling with emotional eating these days.  Feeling very stressed, and my usual 'release' for that is to eat, especially things that are high in fat.  I don't get that rush of adrenaline after working out, which everyone says is great when you're stressed.  I didn't want to do the classes yesterday or today, but I know it's better to move than to eat. ;)  It's just frustrating that I really still want to eat, and I have to find better ways to cope with this stuff.  Suggestions welcomed. ;)