HYC Update

OK, make that THREE pounds! This morning's weight, 185.6. Doing the happy feet dance once again! (That's helping me burn off lots of calories!) ;-D

Scroll down for an updated photo and awards for a few folks who visit me!

And if you haven't read this post by Hungry Little Caterpillar on motivation GO DO IT NOW! It's very funny and oh, so true. :-D

Today's weight - 186.4

186.4, down 2.2 since last week's check in with HYC. I've consistently been 188.6 at night for a few days, so I'm very very happy!

Got some bike shorts at Dick's Sporting Goods and if the snow ever gets out of there, I'll get my bike out! We have snow forecast all week. Shouldn't be as big as Thurs/Fri's storm last week. I ordered some t-shirts from Victoria's Secret. Can't wait to get them. A few of them are mock wraps, and I've found that style is very flattering.

Warm fuzzies

Kelly from the Happy Texans blessed me with this award.

The rules to the award: list 7 things that you love and then pass the award on to 7 other bloggers.

7 things I love:

1. ballroom dancing with my hubby
2. laughing with my kids
3. my family
4. watching movies with my hubby and kids
5. chocolate
6. cats (especially the kitty curled up on my lap)
7. scrapbooking

Now to pass on the award. There are so many blogs I just love. If anyone has already been blessed by someone else, no need to do it twice, of course. And I appreciate ALL of my visitors and followers and wish I could nominate all of you!

Diana at Scale Junkie
Heather at FitNewEnglandChick
Chubby Chick at the Triumph of Perseverance
Bonnie at SeriouslyToo-Weight For It!
Jessica at Pudget
Ro at We Could Be More Than Just Amazing
GF at Counting to Infinity

Current photo compared to 2006

I took this photo this morning. My belly definitely has a pooch above and below my waist, but I've come a long way, baby. And look at that BUTT! ;-)

Oh, I hate this photo but thankfully, I don't look like this anymore! This was June 4, 2006.


Check out THIS LINK to see how much weight both my husband & I lost. The slimmed down photo is from Sept 07, when I was 200lbs. (Those jeans no longer fit me!) I was probably over 230 on the photo from 2003.

Some awesome info!

I love the editor of Men's Health ever since reading The Abs Diet for Women book. (I currently can't find my copy and it's bugging me. It has great weight-lifting routines in it. The main one I have memorized and is the one I usually do.) This guy also co-wrote the Eat This, Not That books. Lots of the info can be found on their website, though.


Unhealthiest restaurants

America's healthiest restaurants

20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America

14 Health foods that aren't

8 Worst breakfasts in America

Restaurants' report cards

Worst Mall Food

What is the restaurant industry hiding?

America's Worst and Best Salads
Two in the hall of fame are NO LONGER AVAILABLE. McD's Asian and Arby's Martha's Vineyard. I was not happy when they discontinued those salads. :-(

Updated blogroll

I've added a few people to my blogroll of folks who regularly comment. I'm not completely done yet, so if you don't see yours there and would like it to be, leave me a comment! :-D (Or if you don't like your blog on others' blogrolls, let me know that, too and I'll delete you.) I also deleted a few blogs if they haven't been updated since January or if the blog is no longer weight focused. I appreciate all of you who visit!

In the 80's - AT NIGHT!

No, I'm not talking about the temperature here in Colorado where it's currently 25. For the past couple nights, my weight has been in the 80's even at night, so I'm very psyched and motivated to keep going.

Yesterday the kids went to Denver for a con. They do cos-play. For those of you without young adult children, that's dressing up as anime characters. :-D

Hubby got home from California today and we met good friends for lunch after I picked him up at the airport. Had a salad at Ted's, had never been there before. They serve a lot of bison. No thanks. ;-) Then we went to our friends' house for dessert, I'd brought strawberries and Dove dark chocolate for fondue. I'd made a bunch of chocolate for the kids to take with them for this weekend and gave some of the molded candies and dark chocolate dipped mini pretzels to our friends, too.

Remember - dark chocolate is a MUFA and on the Flat Belly Diet, you need to have a MUFA at every meal! I can handle 4 servings of chocolate every day. ;-)

Today's weight even lower - 186.8

186.8!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!! It totally shocked me because last night the hungries really hit hard. I went over my 400 calories for my 3rd meal, but didn't eat a 4th, so I guess it balanced out. I really need to get an updated photo put up. Will work on that later.

Gotta go out and shovel snow. We're getting dumped on and are forecast to get 1-2 FEET through tomorrow. But my daughter will be coming home from work in the next hour or two and I want her to be able to make it into the driveway. She took my awd Journey, so she should be able to get up our hill OK.

I posted a snow photo on my family blog

Healthy You Challenge Check In

WOOHOO!!! Today's weight is 188.6, new all-time low and 2.2 pounds lost since last week. Couldn't be happier! :-D

Measurements 2/9/09 - start of Flat Belly Diet
Upper Abs - 34"
Waist - 34.5"
Lower Abs - 39"
Hips - 40.5"
Upper arms - 13"
Thighs - 24.5"
Bust - 38"

Measurements - today 3/24/09
Upper Abs - 32"
Waist - 32.5"
Lower Abs - 37.5"
Hips - 39.5"
Upper arms - 12.75"
Thighs - 24"
Bust - 38"

Total inches lost - 8 and - NEW BLING! :-D

Don't do TOO much exercise

Very interesting article by Mike O'Donnell. Mike O'Donnell is a professional health & fitness coach, co-editor at The Life Spotlight (formerly the IF Life blog) and author of the new IF/Fat Loss ebook "Break Free". Spotlight on Fitness

"Now before people start assuming I said it’s ok to just sit on a couch and eat chips, that’s not the point of all this. The point being in your battle against weight loss, you need to start where it matters the most…in how and what you eat. From there you compliment your efforts with “effective” exercise…and not “excessive” exercise. Too many people are being excessive in what they do, expecting faster results somehow. Slow and steady (and healthy) should be your mindset…and the results will come soon enough. So if weight loss is the goal….just keep it simple and focused:"
Check out the article to find out specifics on HOW to keep it simple and focused.

What a week!

Weight has been pretty stable this past week. Holding around 190.8-191.6. Hit a low of 190.2 on Saturday morning. Yesterday was range day for the pistol class we help teach and that's always a long, tiring day. I stayed pretty well on track for meals. When we got home last night, I sat in the hot tub for about an hour, then took a hot bath in epsom salts. Made myself eat a fourth meal, but felt totally bloated and nauseous. Won't do that again! I had to get up several times during the night to pee and weighed myself the first time. It said 198.6. WHAT THE......???? Did I absorb all of the liquid in the tub????? This morning, down to a low of 190.0. Whew! That weight last night really scared me. Our bodies do the weirdest things! The way my stomach feels today, I'm going to go with the anti-bloat menu. (I posted the menus for those four days when I started the Flat Belly Diet in Feb.)

One exciting thing this past week was a weight of 191.4 AT NIGHT! I'm usually up by 2 or 3 pounds, sometimes more at night, so I was sure I would be in the 80's the next morning, but not yet. I'm really, really wanting to see the 80's. ;-)

Healthy You - official Tuesday weight - 190.8

190.8 - Make that TWO POUNDS lost this week! WOOHOO! Doing the happy feet dance again.

Healthy You Check in

My weight has continued steady at 191.8 even after a few birthday indulgences. So I'm totally happy with that! One pound loss since last Tuesday. I'll edit the post if my weight goes down in the morning. ;-D Continuing with my activity and following the 3 rules of the Flat Belly Diet - eat four meals a day no more than 4 hours apart, each meal no more than 400 calories, and a MUFA at every meal. So easy. Oh, and an NSV for the week - I took my rings in to get sized down. WOOT! Need to go pick them up tomorrow.

If you haven't been there yet, Running Through Life is having a giveaway of some yummy health foods. If you've never read her blog before, leave a comment and mention my name so I get another chance to win! ;-)

Activity level

I figured out how much activity I had in Jan & Feb. I recorded only the distance on the treadmill. The time includes treadmill and dancing. I had a while of not being very good at journaling everything and I had some down time from activity. My true determination began on Feb 9 when I started the Flat Belly Diet. My wrist surgery on Feb 24 had me resting for several days. I did start some abs work on the stability ball a few days afterward, but wasn't able to do much else. Started dancing again on March 5 the day my stitches were removed and the splint was off. Started treadmill and weight-lifting again on March 9th

January - 13.74 miles - 414.5 minutes - Weight-lifting - 3 days
February - 17.87 miles - 713.5 minutes - Weight-lifting - 9 days

Dress for dancin

OK, here it is on me. The first one turned out pretty dark, so we took a closer photo. We didn't go dancing tonight, just out to dinner for my birthday. This afternoon Ken and I went to my nail salon and got pedicures. The owner and her hubby fixed us mimosas while our feet soaked. It was quite fun. The kids each got me a Kohl's gift card so I'm going to get some new bedding.

Results of Flat Belly Diet

Thursday was officially my last day of the Flat Belly Diet, using the book to journal everything. Results - 8.4 lbs lost and 5 inches total lost. I'm using today's weight of 191.8 as the final. (Yesterday I only got 6 hours of sleep, so I'm usually up on the scale on those mornings.) I'm totally happy with that, though I bet I could have done even better without the 2 weeks break after surgery from lifting weights or much cardio. :-D I plan to continue with the eating rules of a MUFA at every meal, 400 calorie meals, and no more than 4 hours between meals. I may fudge a LITTLE today since it's my birthday! :-)

Yesterday I went to a business women's lunch at a country club and didn't eat the greasy croutons on the salad, ate very little of the pasta that came with the chicken, but DEVOURED the dessert. It was so yummy and elegant-looking, I couldn't resist. Paid for it later with a bad headache, approaching a migraine, so not sure what was in it. It was kind of a custard on top of a cookie with a thin slice of white chocolate with a gorgeous design on it, looked kind of like stained glass!

New dress!

I ordered a dress from a dance supply place. I loved the look for dancing the waltz. Got it today and I must say, it looks AWESOME! Quite a flattering style and nice and LONG, which isn't always easy to find when you are almost 6ft tall. I'll have to get a photo of me in it soon. I want to order one in every color to have a selection of dresses to wear for the monthly dance at the studio. :-)

Wednesday weigh in

This morning's weight was 191.2, I think. Weighed a second time to get the BF% and it was a little higher. I don't normally weigh more than once, so I'm taking the first one! :-D

BOO YEAH!

Back down to 192.8 this morning. Happy feet dance!!! So a loss of 2.6 from official weigh-in day to official weigh-in day. And I put a ticker at the top of my blog so it's visible and I can stay more accountable. The goal weight is flexible. I may be happy at 175, who knows? Depends on the size I'm wearing at that point and what my thighs look like. :-P

Healthy You Challenge

Saturday night we did quite a bit of ballroom dancing. My wrist really felt it the next day! But what was even worse was some woman came down on top of my ankle with her heel. It still hurts. Stupid cow! She didn't even apologize. Then yesterday we did an hour of practicing the waltz (my absolute favorite dance.) We're doing a routine with 3 other couples at a showcase in April. We're also doing a rumba by ourselves and practiced that for an hour this evening. Still trying to get the routine down.

Today's weight was 193.8, up a pound from Friday, BUT down 1.6 since last week's check in! I started my period this morning, so I'm not fretting about the gain since Friday. I've still been doing pretty good with my eating but I went back to the Anti-Bloat diet today and may stick to that for a couple days. It sure worked last month during TOM!!!!

Today I started my exercise routine again and yes, slowly! :-) I walked for 20 minutes and did weight-lifting with no added weights to the bars, so it is just 2 1/2lbs. (I normally walk for 30 minutes and use 7 1/2lbs per dumbbell.) I'll work my way up to 5. My surgery scar is looking pretty good. The wrist is still a little sore, but seems to get better every day.

WOOT!

This morning the scale said......Drum roll, please! (Oh, I also realized that I'm PMSing and would normally have eaten at least one bag of Cheetos by now, but I have NOT! I've stayed with the plan other than 4 Thin Mints - yes, just 4 cookies over one week. Normally I'd have eaten at least one box all by myself by this time, probably at one sitting!)

192.8!!!!! Loss of 2.2 since last week, some of that was splint weight. But total overall loss in 3 weeks of the Flat Belly Diet, 7.4lbs. SWEET!

Everybody dance now!!

Here's a great article by Denise Austin

Simple Steps

Boost Your Exercise Motivation!

Are you having a hard time staying motivated to work out? You're not alone. One of the main reasons many people are not more physically active is that they lack the drive to get up and move each day. But it shouldn't be hard to get yourself off the couch! If you're looking for a simple way to boost your exercise motivation, try keeping a fitness journal!

Just create a simple chart with the days of the week; you can even use a ready-made calendar. Then, as you're following your Fitness Planner, write down in the journal the fitness routine or exercises that you do each day as you complete them. That's all there is to it, but you'll gain plenty of benefits! You will be able to:

• Get a motivational boost! It feels terrific to be able to write down the exercises you completed each day, and it's truly motivating when you look back over a week and see how active you were. All those exercise sessions add up fast!
• Track your progress. Your fitness journal will record how far you've walked or biked, how many minutes or hours you've exercised, and how often you do it. It's hard to remember it all without writing it down!
• Pinpoint trouble spots. You can look at your weekly or monthly journal and evaluate it with an objective eye. Suppose you notice that you are great about working out in the beginning of the week but start to slack off from Wednesday on — you'll know that you need to focus on increasing your activity toward the end of the week.

Get started right now by writing down the exercises you've done today in your online Journal. If you haven't done any yet — get up and get moving! There's no time to waste!

Heavy splint is gone!

And the stitches are out. I do NOT do stitches. After the tech had removed them (and left the room), I got very light-headed and nauseous. I put my head between my legs for a bit, then laid down for a few minutes until the doc came in. Glad I didn't throw up or faint!

With all of the surgeries my sweet son has had to endure, it's almost always steri-strips, not stitches and for that I'm eternally grateful. He's had a stitch or two holding a picc line in, but that's about it. And I can't believe he's been such a great kid during all he's been through. He had a good part of a lung removed when he was 12! (He's 19yo now.) I feel like a total baby! This hurts! Can't bend my wrist forward, but back and side to side is OK. Feels so awesome to be free of the heavy splint. And we got back on the dance floor tonight. I wore a removable brace, which I've been doing for quite a while, actually.

The doctor told me I could lift up to 5lb weights while using the brace, so I'm happy. I didn't want to go another 4 weeks without lifting weights. I'm going to start my exercise schedule on Monday with weights and walking. I've been doing abs stuff on the stability ball the past week.

Today's weight

It's official, I've lost more, even with the extra weight of the splint. WOOT!

Today the scale read 194.6, BF% 39.7
Breakfast - a Cherry Chocolate Waffle (recipe posted previously) Did you know that 1/4c of Dove Chocolate chunks when melted is only 1/8 cup? :-) Chocolatey delicious!

Tomorrow the splint comes off. I can't WAIT! It's driving me crazy. It just takes so long to do most things one handed.

Healthy You Update

I just got home from Arkansas today. I'll weigh in tomorrow morning. (I'm pretty sure my splint adds at least a pound or two.) :-) Tuesday morning weigh in - 195.4. I'm totally happy with that after traveling and five days at Mom's. :-D I've probably lost a little since the splint is pretty heavy. There's a plaster board on the bottom side of my hand and forearm.

My wrist surgery went pretty well last week. I was awake during the whole thing and could hear the surgeon talking saying "I've never seen one like this before." Of course. Our family never does things the "usual" way. :-) I'm unable to lift more than 2 pounds and I can't drive until I get stitches out on Thursday. I was NOT happy when they told me that, but with the occasional pain, I guess it makes sense. I take Percocet only at night now, tylenol the rest of the time. I threw up the day after surgery and discovered that if I took the Percocet, I'd need to be resting and not moving around.

Thursday I flew to Arkansas to spend some time with my mom. Going through security at Denver, they gave me quite the going-over. I had my arm scanned about five different ways. I wasn't much help at Mom's, but it was good to just be there. It was definitely harder to stay on my diet plan, but I did pretty well most of the time. My sister and I made a little shopping trip to the health food store. I bought a stability ball while there, too and did some abs workouts. I've been too lightheaded to walk too far, but I hope to get back into that soon.