MIA

Missing in action, that's me.  I started this blog to keep me motivated and honest but when things were less than perfect I just ignored the blog.  Not the best strategy.  However in a way the idea was a success because I'm back due to my guilt and the comments from a few people about not seeing an update (thank you to the 2 people who read this blog!).

Jillian on the rings at gymnastics

What happened to me?  Well, we went away for a weekend which got me a off track for eating and exercise.  Then I was sick and had no energy for working out.  I have more excuses but the basic reason is I was being lazy.

my little gymnast

Leah doing her bridge

I haven't fallen completely off the wagon, I still have been exercising moderately (albeit less than before) and I have been eating fairly well, even cutting back significantly on those late night snacks.  My weight has stayed the same.  Okay, it went up a bit then came back down so let's just call it even.

Next up...getting back to my regularly scheduled weekly check-ins!

week 3: Jan 15-21

I know this blog is supposed to be motivational (for me at least) and positive but I'm having trouble with a positive attitude these days.  My knee is bothering me which led to missing my tennis lesson this week.  My weight hasn't budged (better than going up I suppose?).  And mentally I think I'm in the midst of those January blahs with the cold weather and some other things weighing on my mind.

Aren't I motivating and positive?  *shaking my head*

Alrighty, here's my weekly recap including a new category...goals (what I'd like to change/accomplish in the week ahead):

Weight: same (I really, really need to stop snacking!)

Exercise: I'm still keeping up with my treadmill, even did a decent 10 minute run on the weekend.  Tennis had to be cancelled due to screwing up my knee (while walking on the stairs, I'm oh so coordinated).  I'm also getting onto the elliptical once a week right now but trying to talk myself into doing it twice a week.  I really don't enjoy it but I do work up quite a sweat which I've heard is a good thing.

Eating: Still eating lots of good, healthy food.  Also still doing too much snacking.  And I was at a birthday party on the weekend with some ah-mazing homemade food.

Goals: no snacking after 8pm.  I have a few others but I'm sticking with just this one for the week because it's a tough one for me, if I can stick to this then I'll add more in next week!

cardio vs. strength

I've been doing okay with my work-out schedule.  I've been doing a regular routine of tennis, treadmill and elliptical.  All cardio.  Now I need to add in some strength training and I want to figure out the best way to get this going at home.  My plan is to start doing some crunches and small arm weights.  I also have Wii fit (don't laugh, it can be exercise!). 

I'm trying to see if I can fit this in at home before looking at gym options for a couple of reasons.  First of all the cost, I don't want to add a gym membership into the monthly budget.  Time is the second reason...I have 12-18 kid-free hours per week as Leah is at school 2, sometimes 3 days.  I like to use them for tennis and long cardio sessions right now.  Adding a gym for strength training would really cut into my time for errands and other things I like to also do while Leah is at school.

Any good suggestions for strength/weight training at home?

Week 2: Jan 8-14

It was a week of ups and downs with my weight being up and my back getting me down (tweaked something which limited my mobility for a few days). 

This morning I did my weekly weigh-in and I'm happy to report I lost the water weight I had gained plus an extra pound, which puts me down 1 lb overall (so far).  Not huge results in my second week but it's going in the right direction.  Plus I'm certainly not depriving myself foodwise.

Food: I did pretty good, certainly better than before.  I eat lots of veggies, I'm trying to find new sources of protein (I'm not a meat eater), and I tracked everything I ate which is a huge step.  I have cut down on my evening snacking significantly, but haven't cut it out altogether (yet).  I have been snacking smarter eating pretzels instead of chips.  I'm also working on measuring out my food and counting out what I eat rather than just grabbing food out of the bag because when we do that we always eat more than we think we are eating.  Of course there was the one day when I ate a whole bag of pretzels (baby steps, right?).

Exercise: happy to report I am exceeding my goal of 3 times/week.  In the past week I played 45 minutes of tennis, did 20 minutes on my elliptical and walked for 140 minutes on the treadmill.  When I walk on the treadmill I walk on a decent incline and average 3.5-3.8 mph.  The biggest accomplishment this week in terms of exercise was still getting on the treadmill even with my sore back...in the past I definitely would have used that excuse for a few days (or weeks!).

I feel good about how things are going, but I also see a lot of room for improvement in my eating habits.  And I'd like to kick the exercise up a notch.  While on the treadmill one day this week I did run for a couple of minutes to see how my knee would hold up.  I find if I do a decent incline walk before starting to run, and wear my knee brace, then I'm able to do a bit of running.  Depending on how my knee does during some test runs in the next few weeks I might sign up for a race this coming summer.  Maybe.

frustration!

For the the past 5 days I've been watching what I eat, increasing my intake of veggies, whole grains & protein while cutting out the snack-y stuff I love so much.  I've also done a decent workout on 4 out of those 5 days.  Why am I frustrated?  Because I just stepped on the scale and my weight has gone UP by 2 lbs.

That's right, gone up.  How.incredibly.frustrating!!

After venting a bit to Jeff (poor guy, he didn't know what hit him), I went online to look around to see if I'm the only poor sucker who's had this happen.  Based on the hits I got on my search it turns out I am not.  I found a great article from Shape Magazine (reputable source of info I believe?).  It lists a few reasons for this lovely phenomenon.  Here is a link if you are interested in reading:

http://www.shape.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-strategies/help-why-does-my-workout-cause-weight-gain

Basically, it talks about water weight which can affect daily weight by up to 10 lbs either way, weighing in just after a workout can change the number due to mass shifting throughout your body, and also reminded me the number on the scale is not the most important thing...being fit and healthy is what I need to focus on rather than the number I see.

I have been increasing my water intake the past few days, and I did weigh myself just after working out on my elliptical.  Which could explain the number jump on the scale (I hope!).  I'll see how things are in a few days when I do my "official" weekly weigh-in on Monday morning.  I'm also reminding myself this is the year I get fit, it's not going to happen overnight.

Exercise & excuses

I am the queen of excuses when it comes to avoiding exercise...I don't have time, I'm not feeling well, my knee hurts, etc.  This is one of the areas where I wanted to make the biggest change.  Not only did I want to exercise, I wanted to do it no matter what. 

I hit my first challenge this week.  Yesterday I did something to my back, I'm not sure exactly what happened but all of a sudden I was in excrutiating pain in my lower back.  I could hardly move, bending down and sitting were so painful I stood for 2 hours during Leah's gymnastics.  I took some advil, iced my back last night, and I managed to get some sleep.  This morning it's definitely better than yesterday but still not pleasant to move around.  Today is Wednesday, one of my kid-free days and I had planned on swimming at the rec centre.  I'm sure the actual swimming would have been fine but getting there, changing in the changeroom, it didn't appeal to me right now.  I was thisclose to doing what I always do, make an excuse.  I can't exercise today, my back hurts. 

But I didn't.  Walking is the one thing that doesn't make my back hurt so I went down to the treadmill and walked uphill at a decent pace (3.5 mph) for 60 minutes.  My confession is I did it while watching The Hunger Games.  I read the book along with Kyle and was curious to see the movie.  Since Kyle's dvd has the digital copy included I put it on my ipad.  Now I know I'll go on the treadmill tomorrow because I need to see the rest of the movie!

First time challenging my usual routine of making excuses instead of exercising went well.  I feel really good knowing I did my workout instead of sitting on the couch for an hour.  Plus now I have more energy and plan to tackle the mountain of laundry in my house and run a few errands before picking Leah up at school in a few hours.

Online & electronic tools

There are a lot of things to help you get fit and lose weight.  Here are the electronic and online tools I'm finding so far are helpful:

1. MyFitnessPal
This free website/app makes it easy to track daily exercise and food intake and provides a visual way to track progress.  I love that I can access it easily on my ipad or on the computer to add my info daily.  I keep using the word easy because that is what I need in an app or online tool.  If I need to type in every single thing I eat each time then I won't keep it up.  In this case it's very easy because the database already has an extensive list.  So far I've only had to type in a few keywords to include the food I've eaten.  I also like that it remembers what I've already put in so when I have the same breakfast I can just click on what I've put in for previous days and bingo, it's there again.  The other thing I love about MFP is it adds extra food calories to your daily amount when you put in exercise.  Definitely a motivator for me to exercise a bit each day.  Oh yeah, and did I mention it's free?

2. ipad mini
I was surprised with this fun new toy for Christmas and I'm finding it very useful in my fitness endeavour.  It's easy to use the MyFitnessPal app on here which means I can easily put in my food/exercise throughout the day.   But the best use is I can set it up on the treadmill and watch movies/tv shows on it while I walk.  Hey, if I'm going to be watching an old Columbo episode on youtube (yes, I like Peter Falk) I may as well be walking up an incline at the same time.

3. Online community
This is where the blog, facebook and other online communities come into play.  I know Weight Watchers has an online tool, but my spending money is limited and I decided I'd rather use it to sign up for tennis lessons.  Which is why I'm using this blog.  I remember from my WW days 9 years ago the accountability each week with checking in and talking to everyone was a big motivator.  I'm hoping this blog works just as well to make me accountable each week as I track my progress.

Week 1: Jan 1-7

Okay this week doesn't *really* count because I didn't start this blog and idea until January 6th.  We were still in vacation mode with the kids and Jeff at home and we had several parties. 

Eating: it was terrible for most of the week because it was eat as I go and there were cupcakes involved.

Exercise: not much!  Although on Jan 6 I walked on the treadmill on an incline at a decent pace for 50 minutes.  On Jan 7 I start my tennis lessons which means an hour of playing tennis.

I also got myself mentally started, came up with a gameplan for my exercise routine and I started a food journal online (more on that later because it's a cool online program which I'll post about). 

And that's week 1.

Let the year begin!

This is it.  2013 is the year I finally shed these pounds I've been carrying around for too long.  This is the year I get fit.

A little background, I'm a mom to 3 amazing kids ages 11, 8 & 4.  My husband is a great guy, supportive of any endeavour I take on and also somewhat annoying because he's an early riser who does the treadmill and gym before I even get out of bed.  Don't you just hate people like that? Well, not for long because I'm going to turn into one of them this year!

I haven't always had these extra pounds.  Here's a chonology of my weight and fitness level over the years:

1999 - I weighed a respectable 130lbs on my wedding day (I'm 5'4").  I was a good weight but not very fit, I didn't exercise regularly and only kind of watched what I ate.

2001 - I ballooned out during my pregnancy.  I'm not exaggerating, I got up to a whopping 180lbs before my son was born.  Once he was born some, but not even close to all of the extra weight came off.  I was busy with a newborn, then busy being a working mom and didn't really put much effort into losing the weight.

2003 - This was a great year.  I joined Weight Watchers (great program!) at work.  Between following the program and doing regular cardio and weight training I got myself down to 126lbs.  I even managed to train and complete a triathlon.  A mini one but still quite an accomplishment for someone who hadn't exercised much before starting this program.  I was eating healthy, exercising regularly and felt great.

2004 - Another pregnancy, and while I didn't get quite as high this time I still tipped the scales quite a bit.  My daughter was born at the end of December and to say I somewhat indulged in holiday treats is an understatement.

2006 - I had lost some baby weight, I was down to about 155lbs mainly due to a gluten free diet which limited my food options (my daughter, who was still breastfeeding, was allergic to wheat). 

2008 - Another pregnancy.  Never one to shy away from a challenge I did indeed get back up to 180lbs this time.  Our second daughter was born in April of 2008, we knew our family was now complete and I thought this is now when I can once again get fit.

2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 - My weight fluctuated up and down by a few pounds but I never did have any significant weight loss.  Embarassingly, I even managed to get up to my nine month pregnant weight.  Oh I had a bunch of excuses...I'm a busy mom (true), I don't have a lot of time for exercise (somewhat true), I don't have time to eat healthier (not even a little bit true). 

2013 - This is it, I'm determined this will be the last January I resolve to get fit because I will already be fit.  I have no excuses.  I'm now a full time stay at home mom with kids in grades 6, 3 & JK.  The little one is in school on Mondays and Wednesdays along with some Fridays.  That gives me 12-18 hours of kid-free time each week, plenty of time to get into an exercise routine.