FLABULOUS

As I’ve been saying, this exercise thing is pretty tough because of my current state of being; poorly healing sprained ankle and plantar’s fasciitis in both feet (I know, I need to stop complaining about it but it hurts so badly!)

Anyhow, I have found one solution to this problem. Swimming. There are several things about swimming that make it an especially good solution.

1. 1. Swimming is low impact. Even though you have to kick your feet, it’s still easier on my ankle and much easier on my plantar’s than any other exercise. You get to sort of float more and use just the water as resistance. It’s a lot different than pounding your feet on the pavement.
2. 2. Swimming is quite a workout. If you’re actually swimming when you are in a pool (rather than lounging around) it is an incredible workout. I mean, have you seen swimmers bodies? Think Michael Phelps or Dara Torres. Granted they workout like 24/7, but still, when you swim you work pretty much every part of your body.
3. 3. My parents have a pool. I may have mentioned before that my parents have a pool. This is great because since I don’t have a gym pass I really don’t have any place to go swimming. The benefit of swimming there is that it’s private (no bystanders judging me) and I can go whenever I want.

Now for the negatives: I had to try on and buy a swimming suit. I haven’t had a good suit in a while, especially since I gained weight. Sure I got a cute one from Torrid (the big girl store) but it was NOT functional and things wouldn’t stay in place if I actually tried to swim. So I went on JustMySize.com, measured myself for real, and got a cute and functional suite that actually fit me and would stay in place for real swimming. I still look like a beached whale in it but hey, I’m wearing it.

So I went swimming for the first time today. It was GREAT. The water wasn’t too cold and I decided the only way to do it was to just jump off the diving board. It was surprisingly scary to jump, but it felt so great. For 30 minutes I worked on my laps and “stroke right, stroke left, stroke right with a breath” method. I’m really out of practice but it started coming back to me by the end. Between laps I would swim up and down the length of the pool using just my arms on the way up and only my legs on the way down. A good change-up routine so I wouldn’t get board. Like I said, it was great!

Unfortunately with my schedule I only have time to swim on the weekends, that means only once or twice a week. That’s why I say I’ve found one solution. I’m still working on some other cardio solutions to get me movin.

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You know my husband made a suggestion the other day that I should get a personal trainer . The problem is that I no longer belong to a gym and I haven’t really heard of personal trainers that don’t work in gyms. Another problem is that old familiar time problem. I’m working full time and I have night classes on Monday/Wednesday. Also, my sister is having twins and I really need to be there for her when I’m not at work or school. I’d be willing to do it in the mornings, but where would I shower for work?

Lots of questions to ask, but still, I think it’s a good idea. If I could find a trainer outside of a gym that could give me one weekday morning and one weekend hour and find a place to shower, maybe, just maybe I could do this.

It would be really great if I could connect with someone who could give me advice for my body type and needs for my weight and my goals. I wouldn’t need her (yes her) forever, just a few months to teach me what to do and to get me in the groove. Is there a personal trainer out there for me? I’m going to have to do some research on this topic. I’ll get back to you with my finds!

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I gave myself a new plan, a seemingly easy plan. I got over my fear of the scale long enough to hop on and see my weight. So WHY have I failed at it? I haven’t stuck to any of my 3 goals and I haven’t gotten back on the scale since May 1st when I learned I pretty much gained back all the weight.

So what do you do now? How do you move forward? How do you get motivated?

I have so many reasons for wanting to get healthy. As I’ve said before I have planters plantar’s fasciitis and lingering ankle pain both of which would heal faster with less weight. I can hardly fit into my clothes and don’t look professional enough which can’t be great for my career. I have a husband and a good family I want to stick around for. I want to enjoy more in life without having to worry about my weight. I want to have a baby some time in the near future and can’t start out at a 9 month pregnancy weight. And heck, yes I just want to look dang good.

There are so many reasons to get healthy, so why don’t I? Lately it’s just been time. Getting together with friends and family, helping people out, work, school, making dinner . . . it exhausts me just thinking about it.

So anyway, the bottom line and the point of this post is just to say, you know, it’s hard out there but we have to keep trucking. There are hundreds of reasons to get healthy and not really even one good reason not to do it. *Plans Brewing*

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A while back I had admitted that I’m scared of the scale. Unfortunately, the fear hasn’t gone away and it might even be worse now.

I haven’t been on the scale for a few weeks because the last time I got on it I found out just how bad going off of my health plan was, I had gained about 10 pounds. Now, I know that the only way to be successful on a journey like this is to weigh yourself, but sometimes you really need to mentally prepare yourself for what that might mean. You have to come to terms with the fact that if you’ve been slacking off in a major way, you’re probably going to see the scale number get bigger.

But another thing you have to mentally prepare for is what you’re going to do if that happens. I’m going to weigh myself tomorrow. It’s May 1st, the beginning of the month and I am once again at the beginning of my journey, so there’s no better time than now. I know I have gained a few pounds so I’m already mentally preparing just by reassuring myself that while I may have gained some weight I’m already doing things to get more healthy again and that it IS just a number.

Wish me luck.

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Over the weekend I reevaluated things. Where am I now? What have I stuck with? What should my new goals be? Luckily I’m not starting from scratch. I’m proud to announce I’ve been SODA FREE for 481 days. That’s a big deal. But that’s about t

he only goal I’ve stuck to. I’ve come up with a new short list of goals to get me started.

The New Plan

1. Water. Have 8 glasses of water each day. I did that for a long time and I found it helpful for my skin and my energy level. I’ve got a great Camelback water bottle that I only have to fill up twice to reach my goal.
2. Exercise. Set aside 15 minutes of exercise time each day. 15 minutes doesn’t sound like a lot, but to begin and with my foot ailments, it’s something. Whether it be strength training, stationary bike or a brisk walk, I’ll do it. While the goal is 15 minutes that just means I have to work out for at least 15. If I work out longer it’s just a bonus.
3. Get Organized. Set aside 15 minutes of cleaning time each day. When your life is in shambles how can you expect yourself to be motivated and totally in control of your health? Cleanliness and organization is also part of being healthy. I’ll set a timer for 15 minutes and allow myself to vigorously clean until it buzzes.

So these are my initial goals. They sound really easy but I tell ya, it’s going to be a bit hard at first. Now I just have to figure out how to tackle my scale fear…but that’s a post for a different day.

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So, it’s been almost a year since I last wrote. Talk about a while. “It’s been a while” was the last post I wrote. I honestly don’t know what happened, I can’t remember, I just stopped blogging. Along with that, I just stopped eating healthy and working out. WHY?! I have no idea. That’s the thing about this subject . . . it’s incredibly difficult. For me motivation can be hard to hold on to, even if I just lost 15 pounds like my last post says. I actually ended up losing like 21, but somehow that wasn’t enough to keep me motivated. I stopped blogging, I stopped recording my food intake at SparkPeople.com and that just led to a spiral of stopping other things.

I was fed up with my gym and the trainers there pressuring me and making me feel “less than” so I found another, more expensive gym. KJ and her husband and even my husband joined. Then my other sister and her whole family joined. That was good for a while but it was hard to go to everyday. Eventually it turned into the kind of place where ten 16 year old skinny girls with full make up and jewelry stand around 2 machines not using it for 30 minutes and when you try to use it they give you a collective “look.” Me and KJ couldn’t stand that and we were looked at and uncomfortable…again making us feel “less than.” Plus because of the economy we couldn’t really afford it anymore. So in February we quit that too.

Additionally in December, when I was actually working out, I rolled my ankle at the gym while trying to build my running time on the treadmill. When I went to the doc I found out I also have plantar’s fasciitis which Wiki says is “a painful inflammatory condition of the foot caused by excessive wear to the plantar fascia or plantar aponeurosis that supports the arches of the foot or by biomechanical faults that cause abnormal pronation.” I was in constant foot pain but didn’t know why. Now, in order to remedy all of this I had to wear a stupid boot for my ankle for like 4 months and I had to go to 3 weeks of physical therapy for the plantar’s. I just got the boot off and both the sprain pain and the plantar’s pain is not totally gone so I have to keep working at it and I can only ride the stationary bike. Luckily I have this piece of equipment in my house.

Bottom line: I’m making a commitment right now to start blogging again as well as re-evaluate my goals and start again. Thanks for all the comments and support that people have given to this blog. The last comment I got from Mayda is what promted me to make this commitment. Thanks!!

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Have you ever heard of the Freshman 15? It’s a “milestone” for kids right out of High School, in their Freshman year of colleger per say. Basically the tradition is, life is so different, so out of whack and we’re on our own for the first time so we eat terribly, drink too much alcohol, stay up too late and party too hard. In our Freshman year we gain the basic 15 pounds. Cute story but hardly realistic. I mean, for me it was the Freshman 30 and it just went up from there.

Well I’ve hit another famous 15, ok it’s not famous, but it’s about to be. This past week I hit the flabulous 15. What does it mean? After years of being flabulously fat, I’ve finally roughed it past the hovering pounds and lost 15, a milestone for me. Actually I skipped right past 15 and went straight to 16 pounds lost, but you get the poin. It’s not even a quarter of where I want to be, but it’s something. It’s going down.

LJ here, keeping on trucking.

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It’s been a while since we’ve written in the blog and we’re sorry!!

Things just get so crazy sometimes with work and school and babies and freelance work and trying to live a healthy lifestyle and still keep up your relationships with your friends and family. Life can get SO busy.

So here’s an update: KJ is doing great. She’s lost over 25 pounds now and has really kicked things into gear while working and taking care of a baby and being an incredible wife. Me? I’m doing okay. Mounds of full time work and freelance while trying to be a home maker have really bogged me down. Sometimes I get so busy in the day I don’t even realize I’ve skipped lunch. It’s not healthy and I love food so much I never thought I’d be that kind of person but work can do strange things to a person.

But I haven’t forgotten my main goals and what I need to do. Hopefully after I put my freelance work to bed this next week I can start to put my focus back on my health, which I never should have lost sight of to begin with!!!

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I love to go on vacations. Driving or flying. Fancy hotel or motel. Sightseeing, walking around, sleeping in and YES the food. Let’s face it, when you go on vacation one of the main planning happens in the “where to eat” category. It’s so fun to try different foods from different places. But do vacations cause “diet” sabotage?

My take is that vacations can either kill a healthy lifestyle or work with one and YOU are the one that makes that choice.

I just got back from a week long vacation in New York City, lucky me! We flew and had to deal with airplane food, we stayed at a nice hotel and we planned a lot of things to see, do and eat. It was a total blast. While I wouldn’t say we ate like health angels, my husband and I both made a conscious effort to scale back on the food portions, eat healthy when we could and the main thing? WALK everywhere.

We really worked hard at this plan and I have to tell you, my feet have never been so tired. But you know what? It totally paid off. I lost 2 pounds on the trip!

The bottom line is that you can’t let vacations sabotage you. They are supposed to be exciting times where you can let your hair down. They can be that and still not crush your healthy lifestyle if you simply make a plan and stick to it the best you can!

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Lately things have been really stressful in life. I’ve been trying to work out and eat right, I’ve had finals, I’ve just had another persons entire job description fall to me and now I have to get everything settled before I go on vacation this week. Something I’ve noticed is, stress makes me fat.

When I get stressed, I guess it manifests itself into hunger because I get so hungry. I mean hungry for anything. I don’t really want a meal, I want snacks. Give me a box of cookies, give me a bag of sugar peas. It doesn’t matter, I’m just hungry. And of course the easier thing to reach for (when you are near coffee houses and gas stations instead of real stores) is the crap food. It’s just a terrible habit or whatever, that helps make me fat. And it’s hard to keep in check, but you just gotta you know?

This pretty much goes hand in hand with emotional eating for me. I’ve pretty much decided that my stupid feelings have way too much control over my diet. It’s really silly isn’t it? But as they say, the first step is admitting that you have a problem!!

By the way, after some light reading about stress in relation to weight gain I’ve found that studies show chronic stress contributes to a slower metabolism, cravings, blood sugar and fat storage. So if you are sick of stressing out and don’t want to gain weight while you do it . . . I dunno, do some yoga and meditation!

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