Regularity

Today was weigh-in day.  Just like 2 weeks ago when I weighed in, I showed no weight loss from the week before.  The difference between then and now is that this time, I gained 2.2 pounds instead of staying at the exact same weight from the previous week.  The same problem is to blame: lack of using the restroom.  There’s no delicate way to put this, but I will routinely go 2-4 days between restroom visits of a certain nature.  So, I took a pill this morning and am hoping something happens so I can weigh myself again tomorrow morning and see if there is any progress.

When I go for my annual physical (which I plan to schedule early this year), I need to try hard and remember to bring up this issue with my doctor.  I have no idea what sort of problems this kind of thing could indicate, but I’m sure it’s potentially serious.

I just don’t understand why I have this problem.  I take a fiber supplement every day and I eat foods high in fiber every day, so you would think I’d be able to function the way I’m naturally intended to function…apparently not.

When I first weighed in this morning and came up with more than last week, I thought about what I could have done wrong, verging on freaking out about it.  I even wrote a note to a friend on Facebook about being somewhat discouraged due to this development in my weight.  Then, a couple minutes later, I realized what the most likely culprit really was and messaged her again to let her know I figured it out.  I was despairing over gaining 2.2 pounds in just one week.  Sure, it could have been muscle gain, but the only strength training I’ve been doing is with weights no heavier than 5 pound dumbbells or a 12 pound kettlebell.  So I’m not doing enough to gain THAT much muscle that rapidly. 

This same friend I messaged on Facebook about my slight gain had messaged me after reading my “Visit” blog.  She commented on what I said about starting to feel like I was slacking a little bit in my daily workouts.  And she made quite a good point too.  She said that since it has been a little over 3 weeks since I started working out again that it had just become a daily habit for me, making it not as exciting anymore.  This makes me feel better about the whole thing.   Making daily exercise a habit is a very good thing to do.  So, she upped my mood with that comment for sure.

Speaking of making things a daily habit, I was talking with a co-worker this morning about my restroom issues.  She told me that she always makes sure to eat a salad everyday and then asked me what veggies was I eating.  I told her that I really wasn’t.  So, we determined that that was part of my problem.  So, when I go shopping for ingredients for cooking tomorrow afternoon, I will pick up some salad mix and a lowfat dressing to go with it.  I will also pick up a couple heads of broccoli and some brussels sprouts.  I need to get these veggies in my system every day and I’m just not doing that.  I think if I can get them added every day that my issue should [hopefully] resolve itself after a couple weeks.  If it doesn’t, then I plan to do the fruit/veggie/juice cleanse that I’ve done before again in March and I KNOW that will make me regular again.  It kind of reboots your digestive system and gets everything “flowing” again like it’s supposed to.

Visit

I can feel myself starting to slide in my determination ever so slightly.  This scares me, but I will head it off.  I will make sure I don’t derail myself.  I remembered yesterday that some of my workout DVDs have multiple workouts on them in a week 1-4 or level 1-3 form.  I had only done the week or level one workouts so far, so I have started with the week or level 2 workouts.  Also, I have a boot camp workout on one disc that I haven’t done at all yet that I can throw in the mix.  I have to mix it up a little.  Besides, it’s been 3 weeks now, I’m starting to get into my groove with it all, so maybe it’s not that I’m losing some determination, but that I’m just getting settled in.

Thinking of it as getting settled in is a lot easier to grasp than thinking I’m losing some of my drive, my focus, my determination and, ultimately, my motivation.  That’s what I’m more afraid of than anything else.  I’m so afraid that I’ll get bored with my workouts and that I will just start skipping them and making excuses for not doing them.

My friend, Jessica, is coming to visit me in May.  We’ve already been hard at work discussing ways to stay active and not slack off on our workouts.  We already plan to cook everything we eat…no eating out for us.  Well, maybe once, for some chicken fajitas, but that’s it.  The grocery store is about a 45 minute walk from my place.  So, I’ll don my backpack and we’ll take the hike to the store and shop for our dinner.  We’ll get an hour and a half worth of walking done.  Also, we’re going to see about scoring 2 free week passes to a gym for the week that she’s here.  Otherwise, we’ll end up having to take turns working out to DVDs in the living room.  There isn’t enough room for 2 people to work out simultaneously in my living room.  But we’re also going to take a trek around the lake (about 10 miles) and go to the botanical gardens and the little local zoo.  We’re going to have a lot of fun while she’s here!

Eating Out

When I weighed in yesterday, I was down another 2.2 pounds from last week. Hooray!  Speaking of last week, I ended up reweighing myself the day after my weigh in because of certain bathroom activities and it turned out I had lost 5 pounds that week.  This brings my grand total up to 12.4 pounds lost in 3 weeks!  That’s incredible!

I wear a uniform to work (I work in law enforcement).  I have noticed that my uniform is no longer tight and is actually starting to fit slightly loose.  My jeans that I wear outside of work are starting to get loose as well.  Another 10 pounds and I’m sure I’ll need to go down a size in jeans.  I’m excited about that.  If I keep up at the 2-ish pounds a week, I should be at that point in about 5 weeks, so the middle of February.

I am happy to report that I am still enjoying working out.  I’m still getting the feeling of being a slacker if I don’t workout like I have planned.  Yesterday, for instance, I did an hour long workout in the morning and then spent the day with friends.  I wasn’t going to work out in the evening because it would have been after 8pm when I had the chance to workout.  During the 7pm hour, I debated on it.  When 8pm came around, I had decided that I would do up to a 30 minute workout with my Your Shape Xbox game. 

Speaking of working out, Saturday morning I did one of my new workout DVDs.  This one is a Bob Harper strength training DVD.  It has a 20 minute and a 60 minute workout on it.  I did the 20 minute one the other evening and it was relatively easy to complete.  So, I figured the hour long one wouldn’t be too bad.  Oh my goodness.  I was mistaken.  It was a very challenging workout.  I had to hit pause multiple times to rest so I could continue to do the exercises as close to properly and with good form as possible.  That was Saturday morning.  Today is Monday.  I am still sore from that workout.  It was definitely a good one.  Worth its cost and then some.  I will be doing that one once a week, pairing it with the upper body DVD I found.  Not on the same day, but each one once a week.

I ate out twice this weekend.  I’m very proud of myself for making smart choices and planning ahead to know what I could calorically afford to eat.  The first time was at Applebee’s.  They have this new section of the menu that has 5 meals under 550 calories.  So I was able to get a big sirloin steak, herbed potato wedges and veggies for only 450 calories!  The second time was at Red Lobster.  I KNOW!  Who would have thought you could be counting calories and actually be able to eat at Red Lobster without drastically exceeding your daily calorie limit?  I was very surprised.  I got the lunch portion of the shrimp linguini alfredo.  I splurged and had 2 of their cheese biscuits, which did make me go about 200 calories over my limit for the day, but I’m fine with that.  Every other day of the week, I’m sticking to my calorie limit like superglue.  So I’m not worried about one day of going over.

I did my cooking for this week on Saturday.  I made some venison chili con carne and some roasted eggplant parmesan with spaghetti squash.  The chili is about 400 calories per serving.  But, let me tell you what I’m most proud of: the eggplant dish.  “Traditional” fried eggplant parmesan with pasta is around 1100 calories.  My roasted variety is only 230 calories!  How awesome is that?!?!  I haven’t tasted it yet, but I’m sure it’s every bit as good as the fried version, but sooooo much better for you!

 

Healthy Habits

The adage “eat to live, don’t live to eat” means a lot to me right now.  As I relearn how to eat for my health instead of to satisfy my out of proportion cravings, urges and compulsions, it really resonates within my soul.  This weight loss journey is about so much more than the numbers on my scale.  I am rediscovering myself along the way.  I’m becoming a healthier version of myself.  I will be a happier version of myself as well. 

I am learning what I am capable of as I go along.  Things that I didn’t think I could do, like stick to a certain way of eating for more than 12 days straight before reverting back to my previous horrible ways of eating, thus completely wrecking what I had accomplished in those 12 days.  This time around, I’m just counting calories.  I’ve been sticking to 1350 calories or less per day.  There have been a couple days that I’ve gone over by about 100 calories.  I can deal with that.  I’m no longer eating around 3000 calories a day just for the sake of stuffing something into my mouth to fill the void within me. 

Right now, I’ve been able to stick to my calorie limit for 19 days.  That’s more than I thought was possible without some sort of slip up.  Not only have there been no slip ups, but there have been no real cravings, urges or compulsions to speak of.  I’m so proud of myself.  I have no doubt that I will continue to amaze myself as I make my way in this journey of self discovery and self improvement. 

I have also amazed myself in that I have been able to stick with exercising almost every day.  I find this amazing because last summer, when I had my $50 a month gym membership and I went every day I was off from work (3-4 days a week as I work 12 hour shifts) for about an hour and a half each day.  I absolutely dreaded going to the gym.  I had no motivation.  In the four or five months I had the gym membership, I think I only managed to lose 10 pounds.  And I saw absolutely no visible changes in how my body appeared.  My dread in going eventually took its toll on me and I stopped going and canceled my membership. 

I have found that I feel guilty if I don’t work out…like a slacker.  I guess what it is that drives this feeling of guilt is that I’m afraid what happened last summer will happen again and that I will lose focus and motivation and start coming up with excuses to not work out.  I don’t think that would happen because I completely enjoy my workouts.  But there is a part of me that is afraid that it could happen. 

I managed to hold onto muscle soreness for the first two weeks of working out.  Now my body seems to have gotten used to working all the different muscles and muscle groups so I’m not getting sore anymore.  That’s fine.  But it’s not going to keep me from pushing myself.  I’m already noticing that I’m able to keep up better with the workout videos that I wasn’t able to fully keep up with the first one or two times I did them.  Now I’m almost completing all the circuits without having to stop and rest because the muscle burn is too much and I need to rest the muscle for a couple seconds. 

I love working out.  I look forward to working out.  On the days that I work, I work out when I get home in the evening.  I think about my evening workout all day while I sit at work.  On my days off, while I watch tv, if I get bored with whatever I’m watching or it just doesn’t interest me, I workout instead of watching what’s on tv.  I love it.  It’s a great distraction and a great way to pass the time.  Plus, it’s a healthy habit to get into.  And that’s something I can definitely take more of: healthy habits.

Weighing In

Coming into this week’s weigh-in, I was expecting less of a loss than last week’s 5.4 pounds.  I was expecting a 1-2 pound loss.  I know all about what the Biggest Loser has dubbed the “week 2 curse.”  The first week, you lose some actual weight mixed with some water weight and the second week you level off a little before starting on a [hopefully] steady weekly loss beginning with week 3.  So, I was a little sad when I stepped on the scale this morning and was greeted by the exact same number, down to the 1/10^th of a pound as I received at last week’s weigh-in.

I was sad, yes, but I was not discouraged.  I will not let this derail me or my efforts.  I will continue to workout with the same drive and commitment that I have been.  In fact, it may even spur me to workout with more conviction that I have been…not that I can see how that would actually be possible.  I’ve been pretty well dedicated to this journey of mine so far.  I already workout anywhere from 30 minutes up to an hour and a half a day, every day.  And I’m already doing a great job of sticking to less than 1300 calories a day. 

My new workout DVDs will arrive in the mail later this week.  Once I get those, I’ll be able to add a little more variety to my workouts.  I’m really looking forward to that.  It will help keep the spice in my relationship with exercise.  And that is extremely important to me…as it should be.  I would say it’s almost as important as having a healthy relationship with yourself.  You have to know yourself quite well.  You have to know what you find fun and what exercises work for you so you can have a quality workout. 

If I can keep up the good work I’ve been able to keep up for the past 2 weeks, I know I will see a loss when I weigh in next Sunday.  Sure, it will most likely only be 1 to 2 pounds, but that is perfectly fine with me.  Any loss at all, no matter how small, is still a step in the right direction.

I bought a new digital scale the other day, a Biggest Loser one that not only measures your weight but also your body fat %, muscle mass %, body water %, and bone density %.  It will even tell you how many calories you need to eat to maintain the weight you are currently at…so you just eat less than that amount in order to lose weight.  Anyway, when I weighed myself this morning, I had to do it on both my old digital scale and the new, fancier one.  There was a 6.2 pound difference in what they said I weighed.  The old one always said I weighed about 8 pounds less than what the doctor’s scale said.  The new one basically makes it so I’m within 2 pounds of what the doctor’s scale says.  Sure that upped the total amount of weight I need to lose in order to reach my goal weight, but that’s okay, it’s only another 6 pounds.  I can lose 39 pounds in 6 months.  That comes out to 6.5 pounds per month, which is completely doable.

I’ve decided that I the TV dinners, even though they’re the healthier ones, have too much white carbohydrates in them.  So, my solution is to simply start cooking my dinners as well as my lunches.  I will make something protein heavy and will load up my plate with veggies such as freshly steamed green beans (my favorite!) or roasted brussell sprouts (another favorite!).  I will still eat carbs at dinner, I will just control them more, making sure I’m getting whole grain instead of white ones.  On cooking day, I’ll just make 2 different dishes that will last me 4 days each.

Progress

I am enjoying trying out new recipes.  I just made the beef stroganoff recipe from the Sparkpeople Cookbook yesterday.  It’s not the best stroganoff I’ve ever had (I’m guessing that is due to there only being ¼ cup of reduced fat sour cream for 4 servings instead of a ¼ cup of full fat sour cream for each serving), but it’s still really good.  I would make it again.  The only tweak I did with the recipe is that I used ground venison instead of cut up steak. 

I need to find a new recipe to try out on Monday.  I just bought another cookbook, this one is a Weight Watchers one, so the recipes are healthy and balanced, like the Sparkpeople recipes are.  There was one in there that really caught my eye, spinach and feta triangles.  I love spinach and feta together.  I don’t know if those are an actual meal item, like a healthy hot pocket or whatnot or if they’re a side item that I could eat for a snack.  If they’re something that I can just eat for a snack, then I will have to find something else to cook for my lunches.

It’s just such a great thing that I love to cook.  Makes putting together meals so much easier.  It also helps that I only have myself to worry about.  I don’t have to worry about anyone else’s pickiness or what they may or may not feel like eating.  I don’t know what I’d do if I had a boyfriend or husband who wanted to eat something different than me.  I’d probably have to cook twice as much because I would cook for me and for him separately.  I’m also glad I don’t have children because they eat all sorts of stuff that isn’t good for adults to eat.

I’m getting a good rhythm down as far as my eating, which I’m really happy about.  I have a few different items for me to choose from for breakfast.  There are the Jimmy Dean D’lights turkey sausage and egg whole wheat bagel sandwiches that come in at only 260 calories.  There’s a whole wheat English muffin with dark chocolate almond spread.  And then there’s high fiber, low sugar cereals with 2% milk.  I need to cut the milk back to 1% at the highest, which I will do when I’m done with the milk that’s in my fridge.

I’m getting a good rhythm down with my exercise too.  I’m still enjoying working out.  I’m still not dreading it, even in the smallest amount.  I’m doing a pretty good job of keeping my workouts varied so that I’m not doing the same thing too often.  I bought 2 more workout DVDs over the passed couple of days.  One is a Biggest Loser one that has a great strength training segment.  The other is one that I was hoping to find, but wasn’t sure I would…it’s a strictly upper body workout, uses a resistance band instead of free weights.  And yesterday, I ordered 3 more workout DVDs online.  One is a Jillian Michaels, and the other 2 are Bob Harper, one of which is another kettlebell one.

Speaking of kettlebell…I bought myself a second kettlebell.  I had bought one last week that came with a kettlebell workout DVD by Bob Harper.  That one was 7 pounds.  This new one is 12-pounder.  So that will help me up the level of my kettlebell workouts. 

I got a nice compliment today from a co-worker.  He told me that he could see in my love handle/lower back area that I had lost some weight.  He said I looked slimmer.  YAY!  And it was a completely unsolicited compliment too, which made it even better.  He had come by my desk to give me a workout plan that I can add to what I’m already doing with my workouts.  It involves circuit routines with free weights and cardio bursts.  I’m looking forward to adding it into the mix.  I’m looking forward to doing it on Monday for the first time.  I’m going to add it on my days off to my AM workouts.  I was thinking that I would just make it my morning workout, but I want to do more than just that.  Of course, we will see how I feel after doing it Monday morning; I may not feel like doing more in the AM workout.

I bought a new scale last night.  It’s a Biggest Loser scale.  It measures not only your weight, but also your body fat, body water, and bone density.  It also tells you how many calories to consume to maintain those stats.  I will use it for the first time on Sunday when I do my weekly weigh-in.  It’s bound to weigh me a little differently than the scale I have been using, so I’ll weigh myself on the old scale and then weigh myself on the new one and then adjust my previous weigh-ins accordingly.

I find myself feeling guilty if I don't exercise.  I guess you could say that I'm afraid that if I don't exercise for a day, that I will lose my motivation and think, "hey, one day off isn't so bad, what's another day off?"  Sure, I'm afraid of that possibility.  So, anyway, I had completely planned for today to be a day of rest.  But I really wanted to exercise, so I did.  And I feel great.  I did the low intensity cardio segment from my new Biggest Loser workout DVD.

Food

I love that I’m eating better.  I love that I want to cook.  I have always enjoyed cooking; I have just found it depressing to cook for only me lately.  But I’m changing that.  It’s not depressing, it’s good for me!  Now, I’m enjoying it again.  Today, for instance, I cooked some chia seed and cranberry muffins made with sweet potatoes and applesauce.  Seriously, these are the best muffins I’ve ever eaten.  I also made hummus and a chicken & broccoli casserole (which will be my lunch or dinner for the next 3 days). 

I’m not sure what exactly what I will make next week, but it will be quite yummy and healthy.  Probably another casserole.  I’ve found a few great recipes on www.SparkRecipes.com for casseroles.  Making casseroles is a great way to save money and eat for a few days at a time and avoid having to cook every day.  Time is kind of a commodity on the days that I work because I work a 12 hour shift from 6am to 6pm.  I get home at 7pm and go to bed between 8:30 and 9, and I like to get in a 30-45 minute workout and a shower before bed time.  I simply don’t have time to cook on work days.

By choosing my casserole recipes from the Spark Recipes database, I get full nutrition information, so it makes it easier to work into my daily calorie range.  And I can greatly vary what I eat by using Spark Recipes for my meal planning.

Most recently, I checked out a few recipes for dessert items like apple coffee cake and bread pudding and cookies that I plan to try out over the next few weeks.  I have a little bit of a sweet tooth, like most women do, so I have to take care of that so I don’t binge on something less healthy.

Food is a large part of getting in shape and losing weight.  It’s more important than working out, actually.  They say that losing weight is 80% diet and 20% exercise.  That’s pretty important.  That’s why I have to be vigilant with what I put in my body, which is something that I haven’t been too good about over the past 2 years.  Over the past year, I was a little better about it than the previous year, which is when I gained 60 pounds.  I managed to struggle through losing about 35 pounds last year.  I hope to repeat that feat this year, but within 6 months’ time instead of a whole year.

I’ve come up with some rewards for myself.  I will reward myself every 2 months.  The first 2 month mark, I will buy myself a pair of matching tattoos on the backs of my upper arms (wings).  At the 4 month mark, I will have a spa day with a friend that is coming to visit me at the beginning of May.  At the end of my 6 month journey, I will buy myself a $280 handmade crochet and tutu skirt.  My progress will hopefully be at least 11 pounds every 2 months to reach my 33 pound goal within the 6 month timeframe.

Diet & Substitution

I am really looking forward to making healthier choices for myself.  I’m looking forward to working out 4 days a week and eating better foods.  I’m looking forward to making healthier versions of my favorite foods.  Sure, I’m going to miss pizza and hamburgers and cheap Chinese food.  But, you know what, in the long run, it’s completely worth every little sacrifice.

But, you know what?  I don’t actually have to do without any of those foods.  I’m going to buy myself a new pizza stone.  I have a great recipe for whole wheat pizza dough and I can load it up with veggies and part skim mozzarella cheese.  I can even learn to make my own pizza sauce instead of using a bottle sauce that’s loaded with sodium.  I can make my own hamburgers with lean beef or even ground turkey on a whole wheat bun.  And healthy Chinese food is easy to find recipes for.

I want to buy a Paleo and a clean eating cookbook.  That way I can vary my foods even more and both are healthy ways of eating without processed junk in them.

I created a recipe I named Pistachio Shrimp.  I look forward to creating more recipes.  It felt good to create.  I love doing that.  The Pistachio Shrimp recipe is great.  It’s only got 325-450 calories per serving depending on how much you want in a serving and 29 or more grams of protein!  The only drawback is that it is a little high in fat, but it’s good fat from the pistachios, so that’s alright.

I love to cook.  I love to bake.  I just don’t do it enough…nowhere near enough.  This resolution to be more active and eat healthier will cause me to pay more attention to myself and to my needs.  I need to take the time to actually take care of myself.

I found some whole grain and healthier cereals at the grocery store.  I haven’t eaten breakfast for a few months and now I want to start eating breakfast because I know it’s important to my ability to lose weight to actually eat breakfast.  Another thing I need to start doing is sitting down to eat at my dining room table instead of noshing on the tv tray while sitting on the couch and watching tv.  I could still leave the tv on while I eat, or I could turn on some music. 

When I make a pasta dish, I want to start using whole wheat pastas.  And, like with the pizza sauce, I want to learn how to make my own pasta sauces so I can cut out a large amount of sodium and processed products that they put in commercial pasta sauces.  I can learn how to make a somewhat healthier version of an alfredo sauce too because I absolutely LOVE fettuccine alfredo with shrimp or chicken.  It’s one of my favorites.  Something else I want to learn how to make is crab cakes.  Or lobster cakes.  Or salmon patties.  Or all three.

Something I used to make many years ago was a salmon quesadilla.  They were really tasty.  And healthy too.  I just found a recipe for it, so I’m going to make them.  I will probably have to tweak the recipe a little bit because as it is it reigns it at 664 calories per serving.  I need to try and cut about 150 calories, if not more, out of it.  I can try to do that by switching the regular flour tortillas for whole wheat ones.  But, if I’m not able to really cut much out, I suppose I can just cut out my snack for the day to allow for the extra calories in the quesadillas.

Another food I love and is easy to make is hummus.  I just have to figure out something other than tortilla or pita chips to eat it with.  Probably carrots and cucumbers would be good.  Or I can wrap it in lettuce and eat it like a taco.

I like to eat a salami and cheese sandwich.  The bread I have is 130 calories per slice.  The cotto salami is 80 and the cheese is also 80.  Then the mayo is another 80 calories.  So, what I’ve decided to do is to cut out the mayo (of course) and replace it with a whole grain mustard.  Then, I’m going to cut out one of the slices of bread.  That’ll bring the sandwich down from 490 calories down to 280 calories!  How great is that?

The Beginning

Yesterday began my new regimen of fitness and health.  I’m not overdoing it.  Some people resolve to workout every day or to regimentally eat only healthy foods all the time or eat only so many calories a day.  Sure, I have a guideline of calories to stay within, but if I go over it’s not the end of the world and I’m not going to stress out over it.

I didn’t workout yesterday because I haven’t vowed to workout every day.  I have only resolved to workout for at least an hour a day on the days that I am off from work or that I only work a half day, which amounts to four days a week.  All I did yesterday was to start logging what I eat on Sparkpeople.com’s nutrition tracker.  I only forgot to save the packaging for one item that I ate while at work so I wasn’t able to enter the dark chocolate covered bits of dried plums in the tracker.  Slip-ups happen and that will just be a slip-up that I won’t stress over. 

Today, I started the workout portion of my resolutions for this new year.  I popped in my new Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 game into my Xbox and went along with it for about 40 minutes.  I loved it.  I love that you can go to the “My Objectives” option and it will tailor a workout program for you based on your current activity level and your goals.  It will “flag” the activities available that it wants you to do on a specific day so that you know what to do to reach your goal.  For me, it laid out a 30 minutes three times a week plan.  Even though I have decided that I wasn’t going to workout on days that I work, I can make an exception for a session that is only 30 minutes, that way I don’t detract from my fitness dvd workouts.

Last week, I bought Sparkpeople’s new workout dvd, 28-day Boot Camp, led by their professional trainer, Coach Nicole.  I did it for an hour last Thursday afternoon.  There is a total of 84 minutes on the dvd and I was able to complete 54 of those minutes before feeling the need to stop.  Sure, I probably could have pushed myself and finished the dvd, but I probably would have regretted it.  At the 54 minutes, I felt I had done just the right amount without overdoing it.

Today I bought a new workout dvd.  This one is Jillian Michaels’ Ripped in 30.  I will be trying to complete an hour of that dvd this afternoon.  And I’m actually looking forward to doing it.  This is such a wonderful change from last summer, when I had the gym membership and completely dreaded going and working out.  I ended up canceling my gym membership because I just stopped going.  I found an excuse and stopped going.  I had completely lost my motivation and had no inspiration to fuel me.  I didn’t have the extra money to hire a personal trainer, which I know would have made an enormous difference for me.

Through a magazine ad, I became aware of a free workout dvd, also by Jillian Michaels, called 30 Day Shred.  There seems to be a theme going on with the month long program workout dvds.  I like them because you can mix and match different segments of the dvd to create a different workout every time you use the dvd.

I know there’s a chance that I won’t reach my goal of ridding myself of between 33 and 37 pounds by July 1^st, but that won’t keep me from being optimistic.  Not this time.  This time, I will do what needs to be done to stay motivated and keep myself inspired…and to have fun while doing it.  If I don’t reach my weight loss goal by July 1^st, then I will sign myself up for 2 months of CrossFit classes.  I *know* that will kick everything else into gear and will make sure I reach my goal.

I’m going to do the Reboot 15-day cleanse (www.jointhereboot.com) at least once during this weight loss journey.  I’m going to do it this month, starting on the 15^th of this month.  It will help me lose between 5 and 10 pounds, which will be a nice jumpstart my journey.  Why am I not going ahead and doing it now, you ask?  Well, because I want to ease into it.  First, I want to focus on just tracking what I eat and getting used to eating less food than I am used to eating by eating a higher quality of food.  I figure 14 days is a good amount of time to do that and then I can jump to the cleanse and really kick my weight loss into overdrive for 15 days. 

When I’ve done the cleanse in the past, I was only able to stick with it for 12 out of the 15 days before my cravings for fried chicken or whatnot took over and I caved in to them.  See, this cleanse is completely meat free and processed food free.  It is all vegetable.  If you are someone that loves their meat and think you cannot live without partaking of flesh, you will change your tune when you make the recipes involved in the cleanse.  You will not even miss the meat; trust me because I absolutely LOVE eating meat.  But some of my all-time favorite recipes have come from this cleanse.  This cleanse is extremely flavorful and delectable and hearty.

I have yet to think up rewards for myself for sticking to my goals.  I already get my nails done every payday, so that’s out.  I could treat myself to a pedicure, but since it’s winter and no one except me would be seeing my pretty toes, that just doesn’t hold any luster for myself.  So, maybe an article of clothing.  For instance, there is this skirt I saw in a magazine, and another one online, that I really want.  They both cost around $280.  One is made with feathers and the other is made with handmade crochet.  Or, I could reward myself with a new tattoo.  Yes, I think those will do nicely.  I will reward my progress by the end of February, which should be 11 pounds, with a new tattoo (wings on the backs of my arms) and 2 months later, I’ll have to think of something because I don’t want to get one of the skirts until I’ve reached my goal so that I don’t spend almost $300 on something that won’t fit me anymore if I lose another 10 pounds.  So, maybe another tattoo for the 4 month, 22 pound, mark.  What do you think?  Give me your ideas.