Skinny Girls Need Love Too

The other day I went to the grocery store right after the gym. The grocery store is about a 2 minute drive from the gym and I had been on the treadmill for an hour, so I was still soaking wet while browsing through the produce section. This older lady says to me "You've been exercising haven't you?" I tell her I have and she says she could tell because I was wet and my cheeks were still pink. You're point? I'm sorry to sound mean, but duh. That's ok though, she seemed to mean well. She proceeds to give me the whole good girl encouragement speech. I wouldn't have been entirely shocked if she had patted my head (she probably just didn't want to get her hand sweaty). I do not mind this. I think it is a good thing to encourage people for doing healthy things and I could tell very well that she meant it to be nice, friendly, and helpful. I understand that some people would be annoyed by this and think she had no business getting into something so "personal" with me. I don't feel that way and I don't consider my fitness goals or what I am doing to get there to be all that personal. What irks me though is that she probably would not have said anything to some skinny chick even if the skinny chick had been just as obviously straight out of the gym. Why? Why are so many people like that? It is true of those who mean well and those who don't. I appreciate the encouragement, but just because I'm still chubby doesn't mean I need more encouragement than a skinny person. As for those who don't mean well, just because I'm chubby doesn't give them the right.

I'm going to use my husband as an example here, I love you honey. He is skinny and he looks quite fit. He even is decently fit, but he could do better and he needs to do so for his job. (Just to make it clear, he does not need to do better for me, other than not wanting him to die early, I do not care if he is a couch potato, a gym rat, or anything in between because none of that would change the parts of him that I love.) If my hubby had left the gym and gone grocery shopping all sweaty the lady almost certainly would not have said a word to him. He needs much more encouragement than me. I know that because I know him. I know that he doesn't go to the gym unless either his job forces him to or I go with him. I on the other hand work out 6 days per week with or without encouragement. She would assume that he didn't need the encouragement though, and that I did, because of what we look like. How is that right? People don't even just do this with strangers, they do it with their friends, with their families, with their co-workers. Why? I do appreciate the encouragement, whether it comes from strangers or people I know, but I would like for them to share some of it with the people who may not look so much like they need it. So please, get out their and give the skinny people a pat on their sweaty backs too.

Accomplishments

The other day (October 20) was my one year anniversary of quitting smoking. It got me thinking about what I had accomplished during my last trip around our lovely sun. Here are the major things I could think of:

I quit smoking.
I lost 50 pounds (ok, 49.4).
I kicked diabetes butt.
I went from 6-10 mountain dews a day to maybe1 DIET mountain dew.
I gave up junk food (for the most part).
I have learned a lot about how to become healthy, not just how to lose weight.
I started working out and am now becoming a runner.
I made my first long road trip by myself ever without getting lost once. (GPS is a beautiful thing)
I bought a house, well hubby and I did.

I think I did pretty damn well this last year. I can't wait to see what I can get done during my next trip around. I am betting that list will be even more exciting.

Onederful

So, for the last few days I had been feeling kinda down because I had managed to gain a little bit. I knew it was water, but it was still annoying. Yesterday I got my getting smaller butt onto the scale and look what I saw. The oh so sought after onederland. I was getting on and off the scale like a mad woman. I weighed myself at least 10 times to make sure it was right. I definitely trust it now since this morning I got 198.8. WooHoo! This will definitely make me want to give it my all during my workouts. I am wondering how much I can lose before going to visit my family for the holidays. That is a scary idea too - food! My Dad has a hill behind his house - I'll just run up and down it. I've lost 31.8 pounds since July 3, 46.2 pounds total. Now I have to find somewhere for hubby and I to take dance lessons since that is supposed to be my reward for making it to onederland.

Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2009

The game is mostly a thumbs up. There are a few issues as there are with anything. I will be blogging my thoughts on it as I try the different parts of the game and different workouts it offers.

Pros:

~ Jillian, duh!

~ This would be a good morning workout if you needed to look presentable for the rest of the day. I am normally a profuse sweater and even though I am burning the calories with this, I stay fairly dry.

~ It charts your progress for you (including weight) and keeps records of your best scores.

~ It has a multiplayer mode.

~ Tips - In the "Cafeteria" there are tips on fitness and diet from Jillian. You unlock more tips as you play. Some of the tips are really good.

Cons:

~You can cheat the machine and make it think you are doing more than you are doing. This is cut down some if you are using the balance board, but it is still there. Not sure this is a real con though because if you want to cheat it then you are really only cheating yourself out of a better workout.

~Some glitches - The Boxing exercise freezes up when the balance board is attached (at least on my system). The time keeps counting, but it gives you no directions for when to punch or kick. I just spend the time punching and kicking anyway and am not bothered by it much.

Tips:

~ The exercises are a lot easier to do if you use 2 remotes and not 1 remote and a nunchuck.

Workouts:

Weight Loss (with choice of easy, medium, or hard): As the name makes clear this is a workout to help get rid of extra pounds.

This is pretty much circuit training. You tell it what level you want to work at and how long and it rotates between jogging in place and other exercises (explanation of these "Events" further down). I am currently doing 30 minutes on medium. It makes me jog for 2 minutes and 34 seconds and then do an exercise for 1 minute 49 seconds - I do that rotation 6 times and then a final jog of 2 minutes 48 seconds. At the end of each jogging interval you are given the choice of doing an exercise/"event" that it shows or doing any exercise except that one. It shows a little symbol for the exercise on the right and a question mark on the left. You push right on the controller to do the known exercise or left to do any other exercise. This is a really great feature if there is an exercise that you really truly hate or that you aren't up to that day due to injury or something. I burn around 320 calories during those 30 minutes. A few of the exercise "events" are kinda silly, but mostly it is a good workout and is actually kind of fun.

Exercises/"Events":

>Paint Grenade Toss: You pick up paint grenades and throw them at a target. This is kind of a squat, side bend cross. I definitely feel it in my obliques (side of my abs).

>Cannon Attack: Load cannon balls into the cannon then aim and shoot at targets. I haven't had this one pop up in a workout yet. Will edit after I have done it.

>Handcar Pump: Keep the rail cart moving by pumping the handle up and down. Squats. This works my thighs, butt, and abs for sure.

>Tire Trail: Run through a trail of tires. This is a video game version of the same training move we have all seen football players, people on Biggest Loser, etc. do countless times. It is a leg and ab workout as well as keeping the cardio going.

>Rowing: Paddle your kayak through the river. For this one you sit down on your balance board and hold the controllers together and do a twisting motion to "row". I felt it in my obliques and a bit in the shoulders.

>Monkey Bars: Climb across the monkey bars. This is a video game version of the playground fav. You hold your hands above your head and make the movements that you would use to cross monkey bars. This is mostly an arm exercise with a bit of abs.

>Log Jump: Jump from log to log in the river. Pretty self explanatory. It is a leg and balance exercise.

>Log Walk: Balance yourself on logs in the water. You hold your arms out at your sides at shoulder height and you bend to the right or left to balance your character on the log. It is a balance and obliques exercise. I don't feel this one much.

>Boxing: Punch and Kick the punching bag. The game gives you instructions to punch right, punch left, kick right, or kick left. You just follow these instructions. This is a good cardio workout and a balance exercise. As I mentioned in the "cons" section my system glitches during this exercise when I use the balance board, but I just do what I know I should be doing for the time and so I still get my workout. It might be more annoying to some people than it is to me though.

>Punching Bag Dodge: Dodge a gauntlet of punching bags. I haven't had this one pop up in a workout yet. Will edit after I have done it.

Intervals: This is a "steady" workout. Will edit and add more detail later.

Strength Training: Increase and maintain muscle tone. Will edit and add more detail later.

Hill Climb: An endurance workout. Will edit and add more detail later.

Custom Workout: You choose the number and type of "events" (see list under weight loss workout - for custom workouts running is also considered an event) that you want to do, choose the duration of your workout, set the intensity and go. Statistics from custom workouts ARE NOT saved to your graph. Will edit and add more detail later.

After each training session you can view:

Graph: It shows your progress for weight loss or calorie loss. You can view a weekly, monthly, or yearly graph.

Workout: This shows the results for each event of the workout you just finished.

Records: You can see your own records and the top record for each event.

Multiplayer Mode: Will edit and add more detail later.

Seriously?

As of this morning I was 203.2 lbs. I have lost 41.8 pounds since February (even though I totally gave up from April to July). Today I did a Jillian Michaels workout and 2 elliptical sessions, one for 30 minutes and one for 31 minutes. I must say I am feeling quite proud of myself. Next week I am planning to start the Couch to 5K program.

What's for Dinner?

I am totally not a grilled chicken salad every freakin night kinda girl. This gorgeous dinner is smoked pork chop (2.7 oz.), mac and cheese (about 3/4 cup), purple cauliflower (162 grams), and grape tomatoes (55 grams). To me this is more like comfort food than diet food, but it was all of 380 calories.

For the mac and cheese I used a half serving (1/4 cup measured dry) of Dreamfields elbow macaroni, 5-8 sprays of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, and 3/8 cup of Sargento low fat shredded cheddar. I steamed my cauliflower with lime juice in the water and some fiesta lime seasoning on the cauliflower. The tomatoes are just raw grape tomatoes. The pork chop is from Smithfields and I just browned it in a skillet with some 0 calorie cooking spray.

Eating healthy and losing weight is not going to make me deprive myself. People should enjoy their food.

The nutritional values for my dinner:

Calories - 379.9

Protein - 32.8g

Carb - 36.4g

Fiber - 6g

Fat - 13.1g

Saturated Fat - 6g

Cholesterol - 71mg

Sodium - 1098mg

Calcium - 434mg

My journey

I intend this blog to mostly be a place for me to journal, but if someone else reads it and gets something out of doing so then, hey, bonus. For now most of my posts will probably be about the weight loss journey that I began in February '09. I have PCOS (Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome). Along with its many other lovely symptoms this makes it very easy for me to get fat and very difficult for me to get unfat. In July '09 I was diagnosed as diabetic, so that makes it even more important for me to lose weight. It is a long road that is in front of me, but I'm getting there and feeling much better already.

My current goal weight is 115. On Feb. 17 I was 245 and right now I am 205.8. I am less than a pound from my next mini-goal of 40 pounds lost.

So far along with losing nearly 40 pounds I have gotten rid of some addictions and replaced them with some healthier addictions. I am no longer controlled by soda, brownies, bagels, and pasta. I now live for zucchini, crystal light, spin class, and good body bugg numbers.