Postive Outlook

Maybe its completely foolish of me, but I have complete confidence right now that I will do this, this time. Maybe its because right now I'm not consumed with every thought and breath of the weight loss journey. Maybe its because this last long weekend, I went completely crazy with calories and yet on Tuesday, I jumped right back on the bandwagon. Maybe its because I'm looking ahead to the future and planning things out. I'm not sure what the difference is, but hopefully whatever it is, it'll stick around and in 3 months time I'll still be here struggling and planning and losing weight.

I've stopped doing the Kettlenetcis work-out, honestly its kinda boring, the 20 minute work-out is fine but the longer 50 minute work-out you do the same swinging motion for what seems like 70% of it. And at my current fitness level I wasn't able to do the work-out all the way through and was feeling like a failure. So I switched to Debbie Rocker's Walking for Weightloss DVD. Now you do basically walk-in place for a good portion of it, but it keeps my interest by changing things up and doing some toning, it has great scenery, and I find her encouragement helpful. Plus I can do the whole work-out without taking a break because after a certain exercise she always does a recovery walk. I'm really enjoying it, I've been doing the 30 minute option on the DVD as I've been short on time, but today I was able to get out of bed earlier and actually do the full version which is 50 minutes. And I was able to do the whole workout without breaking.

I think the more intense workouts I have like Firm work-outs and maybe the Kettlenetics (although seriously not impressed with it) will wait until I've built up more stamina. In the meantime I think I'll purchase some Leslie Sansome Walking DVD's and try those out too. The other benefit of the Debbie Rocker and I hope with the Leslie Sansome is it doesn't use up much floor space and in my living room I have very, very little work-out room because of the furniture.

One day, one step at a time. I have a little encouragement taped on my monitor that says this:

"Success if found in making small lifestyle changes for their own sake rather than for loosing weight. Forever is the key concept, ever mindful of the process you design, and ever learning from your mistakes." Its from a blog post at Calorie Count.com. I find it inspiring.

Seriously, Already?

I can't believe I'm already frustrated. It has only been one week. One week! Well the truth of the matter is I'm obsessing about the numbers. I've been working out like there was no tomorrow, for instance yesterday I worked out in the morning (40 minutes of Kettlenetics), walked at lunch (40 minutes), and went on a 6-mile bike ride (another 40 minutes). So I guess I expected to see me go from fat to thin in one-week flat. Yes, yes, I know that is ridiculous. The last time I went through this process the weight just fell off, I was picking it off the street in clumps! But this time I'm older, and I'm wiser. I know I can't do it the same way - which was healthy but too quick - because it'll just come back again. Boy don't I sound wise, that is the problem its easy to sound wise on the outside, just hard to be wise on the inside.

Today I only worked out for 20 minutes doing Kettlenetics this morning, and I didn't do a very good job at it. But I hope that when the furnace guy gets here and leaves that I can hopefully get another workout in. Maybe its too much, but if I start off gung-ho, maybe the enthusiasm will carry over and I'll last longer on this path then 6 weeks.

It helps that my husband, Nick, is on board. He also needs to lose 50 pounds. I also found a couple of neat online tools to hopefully help out. They are fun for now anyway. They are www.fitday.com and www.caloriecount.about.com. They have tools to track your weight, food journal, excercise journal, charts and graphs, and all sorts of stuff to keep myself interested.

One day at a time. And I must stay away from the scale. I'm weighing myself too much which is why I'm frustrated. So one day a week, Monday. That is the new plan. We'll see how long I stck to it. After all, I'm very good at sticking to things, for a second.

Here I Go Again

I've done this once, I've done it twice, in fact mostly likely this isn't even my third attempt. But I'm going to try and lose wait....AGAIN. I'm hopeful though that this is the time it'll actually work. Several years back, well probably about 8 I was successful at losing weight, a lot of it, over 80 pounds. But slowly at first then rapidly I gained it back. Now I'm at the place where my health is in danger, and I have to do this for me. So my husband and I have tried to start making our lives more active.

So this is where I'm at today, I'm 5'9", female (if you didn't figure that out by the name) and I weighed last Wednesday, May 13, 2009, 236.5 pounds. Today, Monday, May 18, 2009 I weighted 235.5 pounds. In the last week I started doing Kettlenetics, I'm walking during my lunch hour, and Nick (my husband of nearly 13 years) and I purchased bicycles and have started biking. So far on Wednesday and Friday I did about 20 minutes of kettlenetics, and I walked approximately 3 miles each day last week at lunch (besides Monday). Saturday Nick and I biked 6 miles in extremely windy conditions, and on Sunday we biked 11 miles.

So far today I did 40 minutes of Kettlenetics, walked for 40 minutes, and this evening we plan to take at least a 6 mile bike ride.

This blog will be about my accomplishments, my failures, my frustrations, my happiness, all those emotions that go along with losing weight. All the things that frigthen me, annoy me, etc. I also have a knitting blog, but in an effort to keep that strictly knitting I'm starting this blog to help and hopefully motivate myself.

Last Monday when I went to the doctor to get a short, they checked my blood pressure, it was through the roof at 158/98. Two weeks before that when I checked it at Sam's Club it was 148/90. Don't worry though, it doesn't stay that high, Sunday I checked my blood pressure and it was a much healthier 126/70. But still it was a wake-up call that now is the time for me to quit making excuses, get active, and lose this weight.

So that is where I'm at. Hopefully in a couple of years I'll reach my target weight. I'm hoping though the slower I lose the weight, the longer I'll keep it off. But for now, I'll just be happy to see the scale going in the proper direction.