April

I’ve thought a lot about my weight and weight loss here in the past few weeks.  My body feels healthy right now.  After losing 62 pounds, it is screaming at me that “it’s good.”  And honestly, I’ve needed  a break.

I knew this was coming.  It happens every year around this time.  So, I’ve been thinking…maybe my body is right this time.  Maybe it really is good.

Then I think, HELL NO.  It’s getting healthy, but I WANT to lose the last 14lbs.  And I refuse to accept anything less.

So.  I am joining the Shrink For Good challenge!  And not only am I going to shrink, I’m going to give back to my community…and I may even challenge my friends and family to do the same!

Starting weight: 144.6

Name:  April

Age:  31

Hometown:  Roanoke, VA

Family: ME!  (and two dogs and two birds)

1) Complete the following sentence – “When I look in the mirror I see… someone who has worked her arse off for the past two years.  Literally.  Makes me proud.

2) What exercise do you take? What’s your current level of fitness?  I work out 5 times a week, with a combination of cardio and strength training.  I’d say I’m at an intermediate fitness level.

3) How do you relax?  Read, paint, write, watch TV.

4) Do you watch your weight?  Yep!  62 lbs lighter, baby!

5) What’s your favorite body part?  I have some rock solid calves! (Even if all I hear when people see them is HOLY COW!)

6) What’s your least favorite body part?  My arms.

7) What’s your favorite way to workout?  At home.  Or outside.

Its time to work out, we’re most likely to find you decked out in?  Shorts, t-shirt or tank, sneakers.  Sometimes for kicks, I wear a hat.  I look good in hats.

9) You’re due to workout, but it’s pouring rain. What do you do?  Try to get it in even with the dogs in the house.  Sometimes I have to switch up the work outs, though.  Push-ups with two dogs in your face is NOT FUN.

10) What’s the one item you wouldn’t be without when working out?  Hmm…I guess the TV, since I do mostly work out DVDs.

11) What do you hope to get from the 30 Day Challenge?  A new, fun way to work out!

12) What are you apprehensive about going in?  I may need to use my own resistance bands.  I’m used to lifting free weights.  Sometimes heavy ones.

13) How will you reward yourself after the challenge?  I may buy some new clothes!

14) Complete the following sentence – “I’m Active for …”  ME.

My friend Janet asked me if I wanted to go walking with her again tonight.  (Remember, Janet is TALL.  I am SHORT.  This equals a helluva work out for me.)  Since she’s moving to Boston soon, I told her that I did, and that I would meet her and Titan (her German Shepherd) at 7.

She asked if I was going to bring Kelci (my German Shepherd).  My first thought was NO.  Kelci isn’t always the best of riders, so I usually try avoiding having to clean up dog puke.  But it has been a while since she and I have gone on a walk, and she does love it.  So, I said sure, why not?

So, Janet and Titan and Kelci and I walked around the entire park.  A little over three miles.  What I found as I was trying to keep up walking with Janet, is how much I enjoyed being out and about with Kelci.  She’s a great dog on a leash.  I trained her to stay right by my side, and all I have to do is murmur “no” to her if another dog comes our way.

Then, I decided to try something…I started jogging.  Kelci kept up pace and seemed to enjoy jogging herself.  What a great jogging partner she would be…

I’ve already decided she and I are going to continue walking even after Janet moves.  It’s just as good for her health as it is for mine, and I just love walking with her.  Also, she’s so worn out from the long walk that she’s been too tired to annoy me or the poor bird tonight. (Usually she’s sitting here staring at me with that big goofy grin of hers.  Right now?  She’s passed out a few feet away from me.) It’s been a very peaceful here tonight.

But, what I may start to do is to slowly build up her endurance and make her my jogging buddy.  I usually hate to run, but I think it may almost be fun with her by my side.

I’ll keep you posted…

I love sports.  Love everything about them.  I especially love team sports.  It stinks that here, there aren’t very many adult recreations sports leagues.  If there were, I’d totally sign up.

But there aren’t so, I have to find other ways that will keep my body active.  Which means working out.  And if I’m being honest, I hate to work out.

Yeah, I know that you may be a little surprised to hear me say this.  I mean, I work out A LOT. (Not as much as Christie O., though.  Man.)  If you throw a new work out DVD in front of me, or a sweet game like EA Sports Active, then I will be the first to try it, but man I hate taking time out of my day to get the work out in.

So, why do I do it?  Because I love how I feel after my work out.  I love that by working out, my body is changing and becoming lean and strong.  I love that in doing my work outs, I’m starting to see my muscles develop in my arms.  I love that people are jealous of my calf muscles.  I love that I have dropped 5 jeans sizes.  I love that I can walk 7 flights of steps to my desk at work and not get out of breath.

All of these things plus about 500 things more about this journey are thing that I love.  They keep me motivated to keep going.

So, on days like today, when I didn’t feel like working out.  When I really wanted to just sit on the couch and do nothing but watch TV, I thought about every one of those things that I love.

And I worked out.

Okay, so I re-posted “Scars” so maybe you could see that there’s no way our bodies are every going to be perfect.  I’ll bet each and every one of the skinniest, beautiful celebrities have at least one dimple on their ass or cellulite SOMEWHERE on their bodies.

But that’s not where I’m going with this.  Sorry.  It sort of relates though.  (I think.)

Where I am going with this is surely something I’ve mentioned over there at my other blog.

I hear a lot of people who lose a lot of weight say, “I want to forget THAT person ever existed.”  They’re talking about the person they were.  The overweight person who was sad and miserable.  Jillian was the first that I heard mention that maybe we shouldn’t forget that person.

I thought about it. I would be nice to just forget she ever existed.  But then I realize I can’t forget she existed.   I don’t want to forget her.  I want to remember the person I was.  206 pounds and in denial.  I was miserable.  I was unhappy.  I felt like a failure at life.

See, I want to hold on to her and keep her in the back of my head so that I never forget the way I felt at 206 pounds.  I want a little part of me to remember how ugly I felt so that I’ll never go back to being 206 pounds.  That is becoming my motivation to stay thin.

Now, you’re saying, but you shouldn’t hold onto the past, right?  Right.  I’m not holding onto life as it was.  I’m holding on to her.  She’s in the back of my mind and I tell her every single day how worth it she is and how great she feels that she is now me.  She is now healthy.  She is now living life the way she was meant to live it.  And she loves it.

So, I beg of you.  If there is a part of you that you just want to throw away and forget about, don’t.  Work on getting healthy, lose the weight that you want to lose, but hold onto the person you were just a tiny bit and let that be motivation to keep healthy and keep the weight off.

Trust me, that person that you’re holding onto way back in the back of your head?  He or she will thank you someday.  I promise.

1. Okay, fine.  I confess.  I ate a Blizzard for lunch on Saturday.  I know it’s terrible to use food to try to make me feel better, and it’s something I NEVER do.  But I did.  It was good, too.  First blizzard in ages!  (I did get a small, though!)

2.  I told you in my last post that I was in a funk.  I planned to do my normal work out today and also go walking with a friend later in the evening.  When I got home, I couldn’t get onto any of the blogs I follow.

3.  Have I ever mentioned that it drives me completely mental when technology does not work?  I cannot let it go and will not give up until I at least have an idea of what’s going on with it.

4.  So, my regular work out didn’t get done today.  But I did meet my friend and walk.

5.  Tomorrow, it’s totally back to my regular routine.  I’m actually looking forward to it. (Well I’m looking forward to how it’ll make me feel.)

Okay, now I want to talk for a bit.  My friend, Janet is going to be moving to Boston soon.  So, when she emailed me and asked did I want to go to this huge park we have and walk, I said yes.  Folks, when I walk with Janet, I WALK.  She’s like 6ft tall to my 5ft 3in.  And she walks fast.  We walked and chatted and laughed for those 40 minutes that she ran my ass off we walked around that park.

I realized right then that that was exactly what I needed.  Janet was what I needed.  I needed an hour of not having to do anything but walk with her, pet her dog, plan what we’re going to do when I visit her in Boston (ahem, visit Sam Adams brewery), and just be.  And I burned a few calories while doing it.

Sometimes friends are the best medicine.  Work out funk is over.  Tomorrow is back to business.

Last week was one of those weeks when life just happened.  I had big plans to have a great week work out wise, and it just didn’t happen.

I got my work out in on Monday.  Felt good about finishing week 2 of Chalean Extreme. Then…

The stomach bug hit.  Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday were spent watching my ceiling fan, emailing people with my laptop on my stomach, and sleeping.

League bowling is going to start soon, so Thursday I had a league meeting (I’m team captain.  Doesn’t that crack you up?!), so Thursday will automatically become an off day.

Then we get to Friday and Saturday.  I just didn’t feel like working out.  I fully admit to being in a funk here.

The good news is that the funk isn’t getting any worse.  After spending the afternoon with my nephew, I do feel a little better.   I even did one of the EA Sports Active work outs this evening.  (Side note: I used the resistance bands for the first time today.  I’m wondering, can I use my own bands?)

I plan on getting back to Chalean Extreme work outs tomorrow.  I will do them.  I promise you that.  I’m going to take the time I spend working out to escape life.

And I may do some painting.  Painting always makes me feel better.

I didn’t plan on taking this week off.  And I probably should have taken this week off, but I did.  There’s no need to dwell on the fact that I did.  Now, I need to focus on trying to get back to it.

So, talk to me.  Did you have an off week?  It’s okay if you did, you know.  But it’s time to get back to it.  So, let’s get back to it together.

Also, it was the end of Week 2 of ChaLEAN Extreme.  Since first starting Chalean Extreme I realized that my posts could all sound the same, so, I’m just going to keep you updated here and there until I move into the next phase.  Here we go with my confessions:

1.  I finished Week 2 of Chalean Extreme today.  I think that I am starting to see a little definition in my arms, but it could be too early to tell.

2.  I drank way too much beer and stayed up way too late on Saturday.

3.  Because I drank too much beer and stayed up way too late on Saturday, I didn’t work out yesterday.

4.  I only feel a little bad about this because I had good time with the best of friends and it rocked.

5.  Today, I did my Chalean work out AND worked out with EA Sports Active.  Loved it!

6.  Bowling is going to start again this week.  Where did my summer off go? Seriously.

7.  I’m going to try to be better at bowling and only have a couple of beers on Thursdays.

8.  It’s really hard to say no to a free beer, though.

9.  I totally took a shot of a guy’s nice ass on Saturday.  Look for it later on my personal blog.

10.  Random:  I once told a guy that I had a black belt in karate when he tried to cut the beer line at a concert.  I don’t have a black belt, but he must have believed me because he apologized and went to the back of the line.

11.  Wow there’s a lot of beer talk in this post.  Um, yeah.  My bad.

That’s all I got this week. )

I took yesterday as a Rest Day from Chalean Extreme.  I did do a little bit of exercise; wanna know what it is???  I can’t tell you what it is yet.  Stay tuned!!!   ;o)

Today, was back to Burn Circuit 2.  In case you’ve forgotten, this is the work out that focuses on biceps and triceps and I LOVE this work out.  I know I said it last week.  I don’t care.  I love it. ;o)

I can already tell that I’m getting stronger, and I totally need to get my ass out and get some heavier weights.  I’m using my 10’s for most of the exercises, and while I reach failure on some of them, I don’t on a lot of them.  My body isn’t going to make the changes that I want it to unless I’m using the right equipment.

Since, I’m getting the hang of the routine now, I find that I concentrate on the exercise and have good form, but I can also allow myself to listen more to Chalene.  I noticed today that she really wants to teach you about each exercise.   To me, this is important.  I like to know what the importance of an exercise is, what muscle groups I’m working (if I don’t already know), and the constant reminder of form.  I find that now that I can listen to her instead of just watching the exercise and trying not to fall over. And by listening to her, I can concetrate more on doing the exercise correctly with good form.

One question I do have though:  All of you exercise DVD people…why are you ALWAYS smiling during these work outs?  I see you smiling on the TV and I think, what the hell is wrong with them? I’m in full concentration mode, breathing hard, and grunting.  I look up and see you smiling like it’s a piece of cake.

Overall, I’m feeling really good.  Stronger.  And I THINK I can already see some changes in my arms!!  I would love to have some really toned arms!  *Fingers crossed!!*

First, let’s talk about ChaLEAN Extreme.  Early this afternoon, I noticed that my hamstrings were SORE.  I was super excited about this.  Why?  I never have been sore in my hamstrings.  They’re already really strong, so the fact that I worked them to the point of soreness is an awesome thing!!  (I know, I’m weird.)  Then right before my work out, I started to get sore in my shoulders.  I’m not sure if the soreness came from Burn It Off or Recharge.  Either way I’ll take it!  Means it’s working!

As far as today’s work out, it was back to Burn Circuit 1.  As far as the Burn Circuits go, this is my least favorite.  But I still like it!  And can I get a “HELL YEAH” for doing all 12 push-ups with leg lifts on my toes?!  I can already feel my body getting stronger, and that just makes me want it more!

Next, I’d like to address a question from yesterday’s post.  Karena asks, “I’ve got problems with my knees, and you’ve mentioned the same problems. How are your knees holding up after a week of this?”

Karena, this is a GREAT question.  Of course, as long as your doctor has cleared you for exercise, you can absolutely do these work outs if you’ve had knee problems. After a week, my knees feel just fine.  Let me tell you what I do to keep them in good shape.  First, I always wear knee braces when I’m strength training and have them close by during cardio.  When it comes to leg work, I mainly focus on form as opposed to how low I can go in squats and lunges.  For example, with squats, I make sure that my knees stay over my ankles and that all of my weight is shifted to my heels.  Form is key, and Chalene does an excellent job on focusing on showing good form with these work outs.  Also, if my knees are tweaky, I don’t use weights.  My body weight is just enough to still give my legs a good work out.

NOW.  Let’s talk about our new challenge!  I’m excited for this one!  We are challenging ourselves for 21 days to create a new healthy habit!  My challenge for myself?  To take my multi-vitamin every day.  I know how important my vitamin is, but I swear to you, the thing is a horse pill and I have to choke it down twice a day.  So, I “forget”, and if I’m being honest, I haven’t taken it in a while.  (Boo!)  So, I’m going to take my vitamin every day for 21 days!!!

So, what are you going to do??