Week 36 Losing the Thanksgiving weight

Although I liked the time ff...getting thru the holidays was hard eating wise but this week was able to get back to routine. i made a delicious italian wedding soup with mini turkey meatballs and escerole in a soup. DELICIOUS. Ate salmon, no snacking. It paid off.

Tues. Nov. 30 Lower body. Jon was out sick, Jen filled in for him. We did lower body. I was hard and good. I was sore after.

Wed Dec 1 Cardio....very nervous after Sat (holding on to the bars midway thru). I kept my focus and made it all the way til last minute and i think i grabbed the bars last 30 seconds. i now I was going 5.5 mph last minute...may not seem very fast (trust me, to me, it is very). Glad i made it that far. You all know what this means...I have to do it on Friday

Thurs Dec 2 Upper body (new 1 of 6) reverse of the other routine. very tough. static curls. brutal. I can feel it. All day at work my legs were very very sore. Nervous about Fri

Fri Dec 3 Cardio. I was more concerned about weigh in. Lost 3 pounds of the 3.5 i gained over Thanksgiving weekend. I am happy, getting back on track...over 3 week til xmas, must keep going down before xmas and new yrs.

Cardio, I had it in my head "if i make it I make it, if i don't its ok" All the way even in my last 3 minutes I knew I was not going to be doing it, got down to 2 minutes left, I said this is my last minute, anything I can do extra is bonus....and somehow I made it thru the whole last minute, running the fastest I ever have in my life...a minute is a long time when you feel every second and you can't breath and your legs are on fire. Jon got me thru motivating me every second of the way...thanx Jon....jumped my distance 4 tenths of a mile doing 1.35 now in 20 minutes...yeah

Week 35 Thanksgiving (did not handle well)

Having Thanksgiving in the middle of a workout week is difficult. What more difficult is time off from work, getting away from the routine of my week.

Tues: Nov 23 Lower body. New rugs so far in half the gym...looks great. Smelly but that will go away. hard lower body. very sore after workout.

Wed. Nov 24. Cardio. Did it...it was tough but I survived....now if this wasn't last day of work for a long weekend wouldn't be so bad...but we went out with friends Wed night. Ate and drank (NOT a normal Wed night at all) Thursday. Cooked all morning, making the most delicious sweet potato casserole (totally fattening) and string beans and cookies. Went to friends house for 2pm. Ate such delicious food......soooo hard to resist from at least trying a little of everything. Now i would never eat that much in the middle of the week. I became very full....at least felt very full, a feel I haven't had since I started at Horizons. It may have been a tummy ache....but it lasted over 3.5 hours......I hated the feeling. I think it was the combination of so many different foods in one sitting even if was one bite and I got a belly ache. It was a real bummer, but everything was great. The belly ache eventually went away.

Thursday Nov 26th: THANKSGIVING Off from gym

Fri Nov 27 upper body...First thing Jon says is "Get on the scale...you are getting weighed in" I said What are you talking about, I should get weighed in on Saturday a cardio day adn end of my workout week for this week...he said "NO" I was upset.....even more upset to get on the scale the day after Thanksgiving to gain over 3 pounds.....it was upsetting...then to get a lecture from him on top of it. I was ready to cry.

Sat Nov 28 cardio. going on a saturday at 10:30...so not my normal routine....I was ready but when I felt Jon really pushing me into my first set of running, I was dying.....I think by 9 minutes I was holding onto the railing.....very disappointing to me and him. I felt like a failure letting him down and myself...but truly...it wasn't a good day to kick it up a notch with me. I would have had success if I stayed the same from last cardio...still would have been tough, but probably wouldn't have held the railing...Oh well. bad day. Next week have to get recommitted if I plan on ever reaching my goal of 100 pounds by March 29, 2011 (My 1 year anniversary of my commitment to getting my life back)

Week 34.....Tough & Sore Week (Good luck Pam!)

First I want to say Good Luck t0 Pam, my girlfriend, who is doing an Ironman this Sunday in Arizona...she is an inspiration to me and will be wishing her all the luck on Sunday. She is awesome! Go Pam #2642.

This has been tough and good week at the same time. Between snack cravings and Jon pushing me it's been challenging. Its not over yet. I have cardio tomorrow which I can't stop thinkin about...I am getting my haircut today and all my thoughts are about how hard cardio was on Wednesday......even though I did it successfully....its crazy....I just want tomorrow to come and get it done. On top of cardio, I am so sore, think Jon is kickin up the weights so I am very sore...but its a good sore, feels like I am working hard. May sound like whining or complaining but its not.....I will never complain about being sore...its his job to keep me sore, means I am working harder, getting stronger.

Tues Nov 16 lower body 1 of 6 new lower body routine....TOUGH still feeling it.

Wed. Nov 17 cardio didn't think i was going to get thru it, but I did...I was gonna jump off at least 3 times but stayed on, i don't know how much he kicked it up...he didn't change my distance on the board, and i still cover up all the screens so I can't see, so i have no idea. Maybe once I stop complaining and get thru these numbers easier he will tell me and put it up on the board. I felt good I didn't quit. But i wish i didn't think about it so much....I am blaming PMS.

Thurs. Upper body Nov 18. I needed to get out by 6:15 and Jon, he is so great, got me thru my whole routine and we got everything done. My arms will be sore tomorrow. Finish blog tomorrow.

Fri Cardio Nov 19. Cardio weigh in. Gained 1 pd.....but its debatable....with the scale at the gym, as it has a different reading everytime you get on....we settled on 1 pound. I am fine. It was a tough week all around with food cravings adn PMS.....which makes me just want to be put in a closet and stay. Makes my mind crazy. I survived cardio, even though my mind said I wouldn't...it used to be that my negative side of me that would say I can't do it is being over rided with the mideset I can and will do it.....yeah....failing would have sucked this morning.

Next week Thanxgiving, not expecting any losses but at least it will be the first Thanxgiving I will be working out thru.....unlike all my whole past life of having holidays with not going to any gym....just a food fest. So glad its the weekend :)

Week 33 Staying focused

I knew getting into this week Jon would be changing my cardio distance cause I have been at 1.30 for over 2 weeks. My plan to get thru is get even another shield to not see the screen where it says (.5 miles...1 mile...1.25 miles) because I know where I am at those points...i didn't want to know where I was especially at 1.25 cause its in my fastest minute. I just do not want anything like me seeing crazy speeds or distances getting in the way of my success....makes me a little nutty in thinking that way, but I have more confidence in just trusting him and not looking at the board while working out. It's all a crazy mental game in my head.

Tues Nov. 9 Lower body. 6 of 6...this was the last routine of lower body, we switch to a new one next week. Worked hard

Wed Nov 10 Cardio. New the distance and speed was gonna change and it did and I did it succesfully. The last minutes I always say to myself "i can do anything for 3 minutes...then I can do anything for 2 minutes then I bust my butt to get myself thru the last push in the last minute which is the fastest.....I also count in my head....well I look at the board and there is an arch of numbers 0-9 and I look at each one thruout a minute counting to 20 in my head 3 times for each minute...helps time go by faster and gets me thru the minute.....its what I do keeps me focused and it works. have no idea what runners do to get thru miles and miles running. I should ask Pam.

Thurs. Nov.11 Upper body 4 of 6. Getting harder....Jon always pushin, never in a bad mood, ready to motivate!

Fri Nov 12 Cardio Weigh in. Lost 1/2 pound.....well the scale first said down 1 pd, then nothing lost then 1/2 pd. I really dislike this scale, as it is never consistent. I was happy with half pound...as long as I am losing. Hard cardio, but got thru...ready for the weekend! Suppose to be a beautiful weekend!

Week 32 Getting Back on track, refocused

Back to work on Monday, eating right, healthy, determined to have a good week. Bought salmon at Costco, eating home made soup for lunch, paying attention to good nutrition, and drinking all my water. Didn't eat any candy on Halloween. made a ham for sunday dinner for company, sent most of leftovers home with mom s I wouldn't eat anymore...too much sodium

Tuesday Nov 2 Lower body. Tough, felt good. Good eating day.

Wed Nov.3 Cardio. Felt better than Friday. Back on track. made sure I ate after teaching.

Thurs Nov 4 Upper body. Feel good. For the first time people are stopping me and noticing the weight loss...has made my mood so good day and night and keeping me focused and motivated. Jon won't be weighing me in, he is taking a short vacation...well deserved! Hope he has a great weekend!

Fri Nov 5 Cardio weigh in LOST 4 pounds...YEAH so happy. Did cardio with Jen It was good. Put me in a great mood. Ready to have a good healthy weekend and another good week.

So with a few weeks of being up and down my total is 56 pounds lost! so close to 60, can't. wait! Haven't been this happy with myself in a longgggggg time!

Took Vacation Combo week 30 & 31

I couldn't wait for vacation...counting the days since August. I planned a kayak trip for 6 of us including my 2 boys, Aj's girlfriend Chantal, AJ roommate Justin, Jeff and myself. I went to Gym the tues and Wed before leaving and changed my time to later for when I came back, since I took the whole week off.

Vacation couldn't be anyore perfect. 86 degrees ad sunny everyday. Jeff and I stocked up the frig with healthy food from my favorite grocery store in Florida, Publix, and planned on eating breakfast and lunch at the condo.

Fri Oct 22 woke up to a beautiful sunrise and put on work out clothes. Made breakfast and headed out to the beach. You can drive on a stretch of the beach so it's easy to walk on the sand in that area. I would jog in intervals to get my heart rate up. Felt good.

Sat Oct 23. Kayaking n St Johns river, over 3 hours of paddling, got a good upper body work out, wildlife was awesome, great thing to do in florida

Sunday. Watched boys surf did more walking on beach....loving the weather

Monday 25th Woke up to do another walk jog on beach. Beached it all day!

Tuesday 26th, missed our connecting flight due to bad weather and extra feuling in Orlando, got stuck in Kentucky for 4 hours...Amazing how when things go wrong I immediately want to eat.....I could have eaten the whole 4 hours....we were pretty good, finally got home by 10:30. Direct flights are always better but had to go with best price.

Wednesday home resting, went and did grocery shopping, made homemade soup. Glad CT is pretty warm, not coming home to cold weather was a plus...tomorrow back to the gym.

Thurs.. Oct 28 upper body, got on scale only gained 2 pounds, a good work out and 2 days of eating right I could lose a pound. Jon was pretty hard on me, pep talk on getting refocused

Fri. Oct 29 Cardio. I didn't think i could do it, but i did, so happy I succeeded. Lost that pound, so I only gained 1 pound on vacation. Goat is to get back on track, eat right, get refocused.

Week 29 food cravings

Last week I made a big batch of turkey chili for the week, this week I went back to the soup.....I made home made chicken soup, but added beans, escerole, and cabbage, chopped tomatoes...By mistake I made it with regular chicken broth instead of the low sodium fat free...I added a lot of water to dilute the sodium. It came out ok. Had salmon and soup for sunday night dinner. Monday night I was hungry after class, I had some soup but I got weak....I gave in to the urge and had 2 tablespoons of cookie dough in front of the tv.....then had like 5 potato chips...what was I thinking.

Tues. Oct 12 Lower body. Tough work out with the new routine

Wed. Oct 13 Cardio...Jon is sick, stood back while I did work out only coming close last few seconds of every minute to change speed...he kicked it up a knotch nad I ended up beating my time...up to 1.28 now in 20 minutes (I remember having anxiety attacks at 1.11)...now I have no fears....which is great

Thurs. Oct 14 New upper body workout, tough......real tough, I can feel it in my arms even as I type today, hurts to dry my hair haha...all good kind of pain. Worked out my schedule for next week since I will be gone thurs and fri, then on vacation at home.

Fri Oct 15th Cardio. Lost 2 pounds happy I lost the pound I gained and lost another pound. Jon distracted me while working out, but knew he was really pushing me cause I got a cramp. Ended up really pushing me and my final distance was 1.30 yeah.....and with no complaints! :)