Week 39 The Holidays

Well I must acknowledge i won't hit the 60pd mark by yr end....but after the new year i MUST kick into high gear and reach my goal....100 pds my March 29....Not going to be that easy as we all read I have been stuck in the 50 's since October like a yoyo. This was a short week....but feeling strong after being sick...so glad my cold didn't turn into a cough.

Tues. Dec 21, lower body. Pushed hard feel strong. Last day of work before long holiday weekend.

AJ came home late tuesday from Daytona...drove straight thru and for the life of me couldn't fall asleep until he came home. I was hoping to get a few hours in before he arrived but I was wide awake & heard him come home 12:15am and it was great to have him home safe. Sat and chatted then tried to get to sleep.

Wed Dec. 22 Cardio...EXHAUSTED...have no idea how much I slept...I feel like the alarm went off as I was just falling sleeping....I was a failure at cardio....not running last week, it felt so hard and between being so tired and it being so hard I grabbed the railings midway......finished but held the railings on the fast runs after the first 10 min....came home showered...and headed out to Christmas shop....got alot done. Lauren still had school....tyler working, came home and AJ and I hung out & talked all afternoon......wonderful quality time, that he has no idea how much it means to me...to just talk, about anything and everything...he is not a phone person, so phone calls to Florida are never long or informative. Cooked dinner for everyone and Jeff my lovey came back over to sleep....which is always a treat mid week as we usually only see each other on weekends.

Thurs. Dec 23, last day of work out week Cardio weigh in day. First got on scale said I lost 1.5 pounds...then I get on again says only half pound...at least i lost....and it's holiday season. So I had a good upper arm work out, gave Jon his Christmas gift...and now after i finish updating my blog and had a glass of 100% Boathouse carrot juice (which I LOVE) i want to sleep a little long if I could. Merry Christmas. Now to survive til next week...another short week. Feel great this Christmas health wise....been a lonnnnnnnng time since I felt this great! And Happy i general

Week 38 Sick again with head cold (but still workin out

I put this picture up cause I wanted to show a top I wore to a party on Saturday. This top is 6 sizes smaller than tops I was wearing last year....not that I am 6 sizes smaller i everything, I am 4 sizes smaller in most, but I finally have a waist back... YEAH....again, still have a long way to go, but I am doing it. Had a great time seeing friends haven't seen in a long time....and always can't get enough of people saying I am looking great....LOL. I had a scratchy throat on Saturday (tried to ignore it), but woke up with a full blown head cold on Sunday.

Monday Had to go to work, it was last day of class at school, so I had to go. Glad semester is over. I had a great group of students, and really enjoyed teaching the class.

Tues. Dec.14 Lower body. Felt like CRAP but still went in and got a work out done, went to work for little while then went to girlie doctor's appt. Glad to get on the scale there and talk about the weight loss. Had to come home and make cookies for the cookie swap. I made over 16 dozen of coconut macrroons...for cookie swap at work. Never did a cookie swap before, I want to give cookies as gifts, a nice easy affordable, great tasting gift.

Wed. Dec. 15 Cardio...felt worse than tuesday. Jon gave me a great workout but just the walking on incline....I couldn't handle running being so congested...but just as sweaty after this workout.

Thurs. Dec 16 Upper body. Feeling just a tad better. Went back to bed til 9:30 after work out. Had full physical at doctor. Blood pressure perfect 108/60 All my blood work came back perfect.....cholesterol was perfect all the numbers perfect. EKG...perfect. Sugar perfect...no sign of even being close to diabetes. Doctor was thrilled and even happier I have been losing weight. My numbers all show I am in perfect health....losing the weight is all bonus....told him i will keep it up

Fri. Dec 17th cardio weigh. Gained 1 pd lean muscle and lost fat...Jon happy! Jon let me walk the incline one last day...and it was harder than wed....wow i was soaked with sweat...and 20 minutes seems so long walking than running...i have said that before. In incline of 12 going 3.0 was tough in my final minute.

Two parties to get thru this weekend...my dept party today at lunch and friends party tomorrow night. Looking forward to seeing if people like my grab bag gift...LOL

Week 37 Stomach Bug (only 2 days at gym)

I was originally going to do an extra cardio at work on Monday, but unfortunately i was unable due to stomach bug i got Saturday night....It came in like a freight train but gone by Wednesday. I was too weak to go to gym on Tues or Wed.

Thurs Upper body. Felt good to get back to gym as well as feeling myself again. Being good with nutrition. I had Jeff make me my escerole soup for the week on Sunday....so have been eating that all week for lunch.

Thurs. night after work went to dress barn to try ad find an outfit for Saturday's party....dress up....nothing fit right...a lady started helping me realizing my sizes were all too big....she got me sizes i havn't been into in 8-9 yrs. It looked good. I felt good.

Friday. Cardio weigh in. Lost 4 pounds. Sooooo close to 60 pds...today 59 total. Now this is no great feat as I have been up and down in the 50's since Oct. i should be in the 70 pd loss area by now. but let me get past 60. All I have to do is alter my eating on weekends and it can happen.

Having one Christmas party after another does not help. I will try and strategize at these parties and write about it, maybe there is a way to get thru them without over doing it :) I had in my head all thru cardio I wasn't going to make it right up to last minute, but I did it somehow....maybe my legs have more will power than my head..LOL, and of course Jon pushed til the last second

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!