WTF Weigh-In

I normally weigh-in first thing Monday morning after I go to the bathroom and before I eat anything, butt naked of course. Every 4th week I have to weigh-in in the afternoon though when I wake up because I have to work on Sunday night, and I don’t like weighing in after I’ve been up all night eating and drinking at work. I really hate these weeks because I feel like it skews my results and I usually don’t end up losing much when I weigh in the afternoon, then the next week I’ll drop 3 or 4 pounds.

Anyway … I got up this afternooon and stepped on the scale and I lost 6.6 pounds this week! WTF! Other than the afternoon weigh-in I didn’t do anything differently this week. I even gorged on that cake and icecream this past weekend. I’m not complaining though, I’ll definitely take it.

In other news, I met my August goal of earning 130 APs. I just added them all up and I’m at 135.5 for the month and that doesn’t include what I’m going to do today. So, yay!

Family Visit

Daily Activity: Ran 4.4 miles (5 APs)

As I mentioned earlier, we went down to my parent’s farm for my niece’s 5th birthday party this weekend. We drove down last night after Tim got off work and arrived about 9:00 pm. When we got there my niece, nephew, and Dad were all already in bed. Only my sister was awake.

I walked into the house first and my sister looked at me like I was an intruder. When my mom walked in behind me, my sister said “is that Amanda?” When she realized it was indeed me, she started bawling like a baby. I don’t know exactly why she reacted so strongly, but she definitely did. At first she kept saying that she was so proud of me, and that I looked gorgeous, etc. But after a few minutes she kinda started interrogating me. She asked me: how much I weigh, how did I lose weight, how fast did I lose weight, how much I exercise, what exercises I do, what I eat, etc. It was almost like she was berating me. I’m not sure what that was all about.

We ended up having a pretty decent time though. Tim and I got up early this morning and went for a run around the dirt roads near my parent’s house. We intended to come back home and put the kids in my bike trailer and take them for a loop around the 3 mile circle after we ran, but we had bike issues. At first my tire was flat, so we went to Walmart to get the stuff to fix it. Then when we came back Tim tried to fix the gears on my bike and ended up messing them up to where I could barely move the pedals. Then we noticed that his tire had a huge hole in it. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. It pretty much sucks that we made the effort to get a bike rack and haul our stuff all the way down there and then couldn’t even ride.

For lunch my family planned on grilling out hamburgers and hotdogs. I was worried about what I would eat because I knew they didn’t buy lean beef or lean hotdogs. I went to the store and bought all kinds of vegetables to marinate and make skewers to grill. I ate one hotdog, alot of vegetables, a small salad and a couple spoonfuls of baked beans. I felt like I did pretty good …. and then came the cake. I ate waaay more cake (and ice cream) than I needed to. Oh well, you win some you lose some. Although my family is probably wondering why the hell I made such a big deal about making sure I had healthy options to eat for lunch if I was gonna chow down on cake and ice cream for dessert.

Loving my Bike Rack!

I bought a bike rack this week from Amazon, and it came in yesterday. Tim set it up for us this morning. I love it! It seems really sturdy and stable. It will actually hold 4 bikes even though we only have 2 right now. He drove around for a few minutes with our bikes attached and said that the rack didn’t move or sway at all.

We are going out of town this weekend to visit my family in south Alabama. It will be my niece’s 5th birthday, so we are going to celebrate. My family lives way out in the country on a dirt road and there are great places to hike, bike and run. I’m really excited! Usually when we go to visit I get bored very quickly because I’ve always been an indoorsy person. I don’t know too many fat people that like to get outside and do much. But now I’m really looking forward to exploring new things to do on our trip.

We are also planning on taking our bikes when we go to Gatlinburg in 61 days, 19 hours, and 8 minutes … give or take. I think we are really going to get alot of use out of the bike rack and the bike trailer that we bought for Lincoln.

I’ll post some pictures of our trip when we get home tomorrow night. I’m planning on doing some fishing, grilling out, spending time with my niece and nephew, and of course biking and running.

Book Review of Half-Assed: A Weightloss Memoir

Daily Activity: Ran 5 miles (5.5 APs)

So, I read Half-Assed: A Weightloss Memoir by Jennette Fulda a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to share my thoughts on it.

Basically the book is exactly what it describes itself to be, the story of a woman who literally lost half of her body weight through diet and exercise. At first I didn’t really think I was going to like the book. In the beginning Jennette focuses on the ridiculously large amounts of hideously disgusting foods she ate. I don’t know about you, but for me that was never my problem. Yes, of course I ate too much food also, but I couldn’t identify at all with the things she literally gorged herself on. Actually, I didn’t identify with the author much at all. Other than the fact that we are (were … whatever) both fat asses, we are absolutely nothing alike.

I also didn’t find her nearly as funny as I thought that she was going to be from the reviews I read of the book on GoodReads. She had some witty remarks, and some sarcastic humor, but I was expecting some ROFLMAO material and in my opinion that’s not what was delivered.

Once I got into the book and stopped trying to identify with the author and realized that she wrote the book to tell her story and not mine, I actually started enjoying it.

If you read this book to get diet, exercise and weightloss tips you will be sorely disappointed. The author speaks very little about her “regimen”, she refused to even mention which diet plan she followed. Once she explained why she made that choice I completely understood and agreed with her for it.

What I loved about the book was that it helped me to realize that more important than what the scale reads is how your life has changed. Jennette set out to lose a specific number of pounds but before she ever made it to her self-appointed goal weight, she found happiness in not only the way that she looked but more importantly from her new active lifestyle. That really hit home with me for some reason because I have recently been feeling that same way, that maybe there is something out there more important than the number on the scale.

I read alot of the book while I was working out in the gym on the elliptical and it really helped the time pass, and also helped put things into perspective about why I am doing these things and what I hope to accomplish beyond a goal weight.

If you want to read Jennette’s blog, it can be found here.

Weigh-In Day

I had a dream last night that I gained 2 pounds this week. But I was ok with it in my dream because I knew I had done everything I could do as far as being active and eating sensibly.

In actuality, I lost 0.8 pounds, and I’m ok with that too. Of course I would have liked to lose more, but I think I’m getting to the point where my weightloss is really going to slow down and become much more gradual. I’m also to the point in my mind where its not as much about the weightloss anymore for me as it is about the lifestyle changes.

Being able to go out and run, take my son to the park to ride bikes, walk around the zoo, enjoy an active lifestyle with my husband and cook healthy and delicious recipes for my family has become my main focus. Now I’m not dissing my scale, please don’t tell her I’m talking shit about her or she might seek revenge. I think I just have new priorities.

I’m a Former Fat Girl!

Daily Activity: Ran 4.4 miles (5 APs)

I’m very happy to annouce that I have been featured as a “Former Fat Girl of The Week”. Please take a look at Michelle’s website. It is very inspirational!

I’m headed to the zoo with Tim and Lincoln this afternoon for some family fun time, before Tim has to leave us again to go out of town for work. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Getting Ready for That 5K

Daily Activity: Ran 4.4 miles outside (6 APs)

Tim and I got up early this morning to meet my friend Nicole at Fort Toulouse for a run. Fort Toulouse Rd is 4.4 miles down and back. The weather was perfect! Bright and sunny, but low humidity and a slight breeze. We strapped on our Camelbaks and our iPods and went at it.

My goal was to run atleast one direction (2.2 miles). I wasn’t sure what running outside was going to feel like since I haven’t done it in oh …. say … 10 years or so. It was really great though! It help that Ft Toulouse Rd is nice and flat and it has a bike lane on the side so we didn’t have to worry about traffic.

I made it one direction fairly easily. My iPod started acting up halfway through the first part of the run, so all I had to listen to was the sloshing water and ice in my Camelbak, which was pretty annoying. Once I got to the end, I stopped for a couple minutes to fix my iPod and let everyone get back together again. Then we headed off running the other direction.

I ran to about the 1 1/2 mile marker on the way back and I got a terrible stitch in my side. I tried to keep going, but I knew I needed to stop until it went away. I walked for about 1 minute and once the pain let up I started running again and was able to make it the rest of the way back.

Not a bad run at all for my first “real run”! Of course it would have been much more enjoyable if I didn’t have to smell the stench of roadkill every quarter-mile or so, but who cares.

After the run, we came home and I made a huge brunch: eggs, turkey sausage, turkey bacon, hashbrowns, and fresh fruit. I ate a big 10 point serving. It was wonderful!

Jillian is Hardcore!

Daily Activity: 36 mins of Jillian Michaels No More Trouble Zones (2.5 APs)

So today was a strength training day for me. I bought Jillian Michael’s No More Trouble Zones DVD so that I could do it at home instead of going to the gym to do Body Pump. I only made it through 36 minutes of the DVD. I don’t know if it was because it was really that hard, or if its because I suck. We all know how I hate doing weights. But when we get into pushups and planks, I just literally give up. And thats what happened today.

I’m not gonna let this get me down though. I’ll just have to do better. Really the problem isn’t that I couldn’t or didn’t finish the workout, the problem is that I gave up on myself. So my goal is to do that DVD from start to finish on Monday.

Tomorrow I’m not going to exercise, I’m going to take the day off and sleep after I get off work tomorrow morning at 7:00. Then tomorrow night I’m gonna go out to dinner with my hubby and son. Maybe to Bonefish Grill. I realized I’ve worked out almost every single day this month in one form or another and I need a break!

Saturday I will be back at it though. I’m going to take my running outside and see how I do. I need to get ready for that 5K in September. I’m excited but nervous. I haven’t run outside since I started working out. I’m curious to see how its going to be compared to the treadmill. The good news is though that I’m gonna have a super cute Camelbak to wear. I’ll definitely post pictures!

I Run Because …

I read a blog post yesterday where a runner asked people to respond with the reasons why they run. It made me think about why I like to run. So I made my own list:

1. It burns more calories than almost any other cardio activity.
2. It gives me time alone with my thoughts.
3. I love the way I feel after I run.
4. I love to sweat!
5. I can listen to really loud fast music.
6. Its impossible to be angry after a good run.
7. It makes me feel strong and accomplished.
8. Because I can!
9. Because so many others can’t/don’t.
10. It takes me away from the frustration, stress and responsibility of the day.
11. I like to see how far/fast I can push myself.
12. I like seeing how far I’ve come.
13. I like the way it makes my thighs look.
14. To be a role model for my friends and family, but most importantly for my son.

I felt so motivated to run after I made my list that I signed up for my first 5K. It will be on September 19th and will benefit the Big Brother/Big Sister organization. I’m so excited!

Note to Self.

I really want to remember this next week when I have a few days off of work, so I’m writing a reminder to myself, but feel free to take advantage of it as well.

Don’t forget to make Melissa d’Arabians North African Meatballs, Couscous with Dried Dates, and Glazed Carrots.

It looked super yummy and I think it could possibly be fairly low in points too. And if its worse than I think it is, I could probably adjust some things.

I’ll let you guys know how it turns out!