Okay,

Long week, and hopefully a restful weekend coming up here. I worked out on Tuesday and ran through a circuit, that is a series of exercises that you perform back to back with no rest in between that is supposed to keep your heart rate up and make you sweat... yeah and kicked my bum... I again am pretty muscular but after having had a baby, and having a fairly stagnate last couple of years without much activity and several medical issues (when they diagnosed the mass in my chest, they caught my lung and I suffered a pneumothorax and was hospitalized), I have not been moving, and certainly have not been pushing my physical limits. The circuit went well, I felt iffy afterward so instead of just allowing myself to settle in and relax I wrapped up my work out with a round in the pool, not just to cool off the aches, but to actually keep up the activity and did some resistance training. I have set the goal to get in and work out every morning this week, and it didn't happen. My son has been waking up at 4 am almost every morning wanting me and no one else. It is humbling, touching and exhausting. So in other words the best I have done since Tuesday was walk, but at least I did that.

I am finding it easier and easier to remind myself that I need to eat healthy and keep my calorie intake down, which is why it was a great idea that Katherine had to keep the food journal. I am not religious with it, by recording everyday, but I have similar foods enough throughout the week that I have trained myself to know what is the right amount, and what foods have higher caloric content. Not an expert by any means, but learning and that is what a lot of this process of losing weight is about, live and learn. I am eager to see the next milestones that I am realizing are within my reach, I just have to reach out and seize them. By milestones I am referencing to getting all of the eating aspects under control, "I don't need the 2nd helping, cause I can eat in two hours." "I don't need the pasta I can substitute with rice"... It's about educating myself with nutrition labels and again writing it down, so that it becomes practiced behavior. I need to figure out a better schedule and stick to it, be in bed by a certain time and get up at a certain time so that I am making time for my workouts. It doesn't have to be strict in regards to you not having fudge it days, but fairly routine so that your body can rev up and boost the metabolism and you make your health a part of your lifestyle and not just a passing fad.

Many people may wonder why I am doing this, why am I blogging my weight loss journey? Well my whole life I have said I would do something about my health, and take care of myself, but it hasn't happened. I put everyone else first and well, that is why I am over 300 pounds, I lucked out and I am almost 6 foot so I hold my weight well, but regardless I am big and always have been. I guess this is a way for me to be accountable not only to myself (per we are our own worst enemy, and let ourselves fudge and have that second piece, or get off easy and not work out) but this way I have to keep it up and make it happen because the world knows. I quite smoking well over a month ago, just cold turkey and I think one of the biggest aides was I just started telling people I quite. Anybody and everybody that would ask why I wasn't going outside anymore, or asked why I seemed to have more time on my breaks and such, and I told them "I quite, and am not starting again". I quite smoking when I was pregnant and didn't smoke the entire time until my son was probably about 3 months old and got back into smoking again when I was at work. I never smoked at home, and it was a rule that no-one smoked around my son. I just decided (after everyone kept asking and bugging too) that it was time to quite, and that went hand in hand with my working with Katherine and her desires to help guide me to a healthier future. So far so good, and hey at least any and every step forward is a step in the right direction.

One piece of advise I can give... is visualization, visualize what you want to look like, what do you want to feel like? Do you want to feel those aches and pains when you walk up and down stairs? Be honest with yourself... it's even hard to roll over in bed... I know it is for me, you haul so much weight around that the simplest tasks are truly arduous. I have lost 23 pounds since January this year and I already feel good, I have more energy since I am eating more nutrient dense foods. Oh... Huge, huge thing that I did that worked instantly is...No More POP! Soda, it is pure sugar, calories and nasty stuff my body doesn't need or want. Our taste buds love it, because that is how it gets marketed and money is made, what tastes good has to keep tasting good as long as it is making money. I stopped drinking soda after having to have one a day, even when I was pregnant... yeah I know bad juju. In February there was my "Golden Week" where I changed my eating habits, stopped drinking soda and wow... I lost 10 pounds that week. Our bodies don't need all the sugar that is in soda, this is coming from someone who loves soda, so don't get me wrong. Yeah after that "Golden Week" I fudged and fudged some more and put 5 pounds back on... and to someone over 300 pounds it may not seem like a lot, but as they say on the biggest loser... "Every pound counts".

I am going to go work out tomorrow, and make another step toward who I really am inside, underneath all the........ "Layers" as Shrek would say...Ha, sorry had to. I have to add one funny, funny quote (and ladies you are not allowed to embody this saying) "There really is a sexy, skinny woman under all this padding..... I just keep her sedated with chocolate."

Until next blog... thank you all. God bless.