Fatter than ever and still kickin'!

Mornin'!

So we've been having a good laugh all weekend+ at just HOW much weight I've put on. A dinner out with my parents had me perusing the menu chanting onehundred-and-ninety-five-pounds-onehundred-and-ninety-five-pounds-onehundred-and-ninety-five-pounds....  Once I got over the initial SHOCK of seeing just where my destructive tendancies from the past year have gotten me....well, it's kinda' funny! I mean, REALLY! 

Anyway, the Food Addict needed to go shopping for some clothes for work and invited me to come along to give opinions. And after some serious vetting of my clothes and realizing, you know what, NONE of this stuff fits ANYway, I decided to shop, too.

So Saturday was shopping day. I haven't shopped for clothes in about a year. And ohmigoodness the SALES we stumbled upon! Huzzah! So buying myself some awesome fat clothes was a blast. I finally got some pants that are comfortable, don't make my muffin top any WORSE, and then a bunch of shirts and blouses that I'm sure are going to promt a whole new slew of ohmigoodness-are-you-pregnant queries buuuuuuuut the gelatinous belly is contained and well covered.  So I'm a little uber thrilled with my purchases. And even though I'm the heaviest non-pregnant EVER - I never ever ever ever ever ever in a million years thought I'd ever let myself get to 197.8lbs (yesterday's weigh-in - huzzah! Bring it on!) - I'm dressed well and feel a bit better. AND I can give Mr. Man some of his pants back... O:-)

And my mom has decided enough is enough! hahaha SHE'S been talking, honestly, for as long as I can remember, about losing weight and getting on top of her health. Me getting so uber chunky, maybe, was the kick in the pants she needed? So she's asked me to be her "buddy," even though we live over an hour's drive from each other, we are to check in every day and report our activities for that day. Exactly what I used to use this blog for every day, but this way my Mom gets in on it, too! Yesterday she said she wasn't feeling great, but she went to the basement and pounded out a leisurely 20-minute walk because she knew a) she could do that much and b) I would be calling to check up on her. BOOyah! YAY MOM!

And she has outlawed my weighing myself for another month. hahaha 'Cause when I weighed yesterday and had gained 2.9lbs over the weekend I kinda' flipped - WHAT the heck! And she reminded me how much I hate scales, weighing yourself, and that while I've been making some serious efforts to ONLY eat until I'm not hungry anymore (I have a hard time stopping eating....I eat until it hurts and then I keep going for a while. I've been known to collapse on my bedroom floor in agony because I couldn't make it the extra two feet to my bed... seriously. People think I'm kidding about food addiction and all the trouble I have turning down a ginormous bowl of ice cream - those stupid little 100-calorie 'perfect portion' things are a joke; that doesn't fill the enormous void inside! I have to eat 10 of them!) we did eat out Saturday night and I do sometimes REALLY retain water. And maybe I'm just on the upswing of my cycle. Whatever. I did NOT put on 3 pounds of FAT over the weekend I am CERTAIN, and so, I'm not 'allowed' to weigh myself 'till June. hahaha

Love you, Mom!

And that's that for now, I guess.  Yesterday I did my current favourite workout, the Biggest Loser's Last Chance Workout aaaaaaaand this morning I ran for about 20 minutes on my treadmill before breakfast. I'm working through a great article in an old Women's Health magazine on how to get my scrawny little arms able to do pullups so I can finally really take advantage of my pullup bar, so have to hang from that for a while later today - I'll have to see if I can find the article online to post it, but I have laundry and groceries screaming my name today! Oh yes, and yesterday was serious-yard-work-day so I was outside working all day, too. So I moved, huzzah. ;)

I've been thinking in addition to getting back to Thankful Thursdays I may want to add another one or two weekly 'specials' .....I'm just working on corny alliteration and coming up with what I want to do.

And that, I think, is all the disjointed blah blah blah blah blah blaaaaaaaah I have for you lovely folks today. hahaha Gotta' hang my laundry on the line, make the meal plan, get the groceries, have lunch, and then take the kid to the park with her friend.

Loving this insanely beautiful weather.

Cheers!

Wait, What?

Holy cow! I only posted twice in April! Geeze, did THAT get away from me.

April had the last-minute rehearsals leading up to performances of the lovely lovely play, which took me more or less totally out of comission for two weeks, and of COURSE with that lovely stress level I succumbed to yet another illness (it's passed - let's put it behind us and move on!) which accounted for the better part of another week..... aaaaaaaaaaand believe it or not the CLEANING HAS BEGUN!  I've had two, um, "crews" come so far to help, and WHOA what a difference. And you know what? The areas we've done ARE STILL CLEAN AND ORGANIZED! I'm thrilled about this - usually when I clean a space, the next day, you'd never know I'd cleaned it. But Mr. Man and I are making extra special effort (read: nagging the bageezies out of each other) to put things away, hang up coats, throw it out if we're not using it, etc. It's AH-MAZE-ING.  And has been taking a bit of priority, not going to lie.

STILL TONNES AND TONNES OF WORK TO DO, but... five rooms done.  Huzzah!  (Will post pictures....later. hahaha)

No, today, besides being shocked when I saw how little I'd written in April - wait, what? - I needed to confess. I'm in SHOCK. I'm horrified and SO embarassed and just, disgusted with myself. AAaaaaand this is where I come to blab that kinda' stuff to the entire universe (what the heck is WRONG with we people who blog? I don't even know.... oy).

The last few months, in my sporadic posts, I've lamented about how horrendously I've let myself go this year and how sick of feeling fat and blah blah blah blah blaaaaaaaah blah blllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh whatever. I think I'm sicker of writing about it than I am feeling about it, honestly.  I mean, what? Every other post I get around to is about my expandabutt lately? Geeze. Say it with me now: "Get a GRIP, lady, and get it the freak together already!!"

NOTHING fits. Even the pair of Mr. Man's jeans I've been wearing....almost every day for the last few months? O:-) Even THOSE are starting to get tight - they're uncomfortable right out of the wash. What the HECK.

So today, I FINALLY did it. I FINALLY powed up my wii fit balance board - had to change the batteries and everything - and WEIGHED myself.

I've been talking, inwardly, about needing to do this for months. Like, okay, seriously, WHAT is the damage. I know nothing fits, HOW MUCH WEIGHT have I really put on??

But finding out has TERRIFIED me, I think.  'Cause I'm not going to lie, after I weighed myself today and got SLAPPED in the face with THAT reality, I had to sit down on the couch and get my mojo back together to keep the tears back.

What the HELL have I done to myself? And WHY??

Today I weigh 194.9lbs and have a BMI of 31.32.

Wait. WHAT?!?!

Now, you may recall how I feel about the validity of BMI and what garbage it is as a measure of fatness. But.....to the best of my knowledge if I were to go into the doctor's office today with that information she would go by her BMI chart.

And tell me that yes, I am in fact, 100% very well, full on OBESE.

I mean, that is how obesity it defined, by a calculation of height & weight. And while I may not agree with the practice it's how things are done.

I am, currently, textbook obese.

That's a tought one to swallow, not going to lie.

So, I don't know if that's the kick in the pants I need to turn myself around so I can stop feeling humiliated every time I walk out of my house - true story - or if the ridiculous, constant-binge state I've been in for the last year is going to just continue - is it called a binge if it never ends?

I don't know what's wrong with me, but I know I am not this person. I am not obese. I'm active, fun, silly, and run around with all the kids at parties. I don't live off of chocolate or pick movies over workouts. I don't hate running.

I am lost inside a ginormous layer of bubbly, dented, flabby lard and can't get out.

TODAY:
did the Biggest Loser "Last Chance Workout" which I LOVE and highly recommend - constantly changing interval workout. It's HARD by the end, holy crow.  I think it's about 35 minutes.
Next: giving up waiting and getting rid of my clothes that don't fit. If I ever lose the weight again I'll just get to go shopping. I think I'm ready to live with that.

Triglyceride Oxidation

I learned something kinda' cool yesterday in exercise physiology that I thought you lovely folks might find interesting. We've been learning about/reviewing the adaptations the body experiences as a result of different types of training, i.e. strength training (any resistance exercises: weight-training, pilates, calisthenics - the stuff that you do to make you stronger - super-dee-duper important, by the way - we should ALL be doing it) and endurance training (basically aerobic exercise: running, jogging, swimming, cycling - the long drawn-out exercise that makes you want to shoot yourself half-way through). Specifically yesterday we talked about endurance training and I found the most interesting thing about it is that with training your body adapts such that it grows better and more dependent on oxidation of triglycerides to fuel endurance exercise.

Did you catch that?? ;)

BASICALLY the more cardio training you do over time the more your body is going to burn FAT to fuel your cardio session as opposed to carbohydrate. A marathon runner's body uses more fat stores to fuel a run than a (previously) sedentary, fat person.

CRAZY, no?? SO...make sure you have some endurance training in your regime if you're trying to lose some of the jiggle! hahaha

It's been a busy week - it's Friday already. I'm not as far along with my homework as I had hoped, but I'm not behind...yet. I got one assignment handed in yesterday and got started on the next; unfortunately my poor brain is screaming for a break and isn't churning out this 10 page paper on obesity (I may have some more interesting things to write about soon!) very quickly.

BUT, Little Miss is away at daycare today for a field-trip to the Sugar Bush to learn all about Maple Syrup production, so I find myself with a few extra hours than budgeted for - hopefully (once I get the heck off blogger!) I'll get a good amount of work done.

This week, Mi and I tackled a 10K run on the treadmills at school. UNFORTUNATELY I'm a bit of an IDIOT and appear to have not taken the time to really properly tie my shoes so by about 5K my feet were getting really uncomfortable. By 8K I couldn't run properly anymore due to the enormous blisters I'd managed to give myself so had to stop. It was really disappointing not to finish the 10, especially for such a silly reason!! But I did run 8, and then walked the last 2 - walking didn't rub on the feet in the same way, thank goodness!!

That's all of note, really, I think. We played an AWESOME game of soccer last night, which was a blast - kudos to all who came out and played.

OH yeah, and I weighed myself on the WiiFit, finally, this morning:
WEIGHT: 165.3lbs
BMI: 26.57

JUST as a reminder - when we started this thing I was at:
WEIGHT: 179.5lbs
BMI: 28.84
SO it's been slow going, but it's been going. 165.3 is the lowest I've hit so far, so new milestone for me! Hooray!!

Okay, time to write this paper! Wish me luck! :D

The Time Crunch

Only taking a minute tonight - I started the day at 6:30 getting ready for an exercise prescription and functional fitness assessment 8am midterm, then stayed on campus studying for my 4pm kinesiology stats midterm with a break at 12:30 for sport psych AND finished the day off with exercise physiology from 5-6:30pm.

Yeah, today SUCKED. I worked longer and harder - OHmigosh. It's so much easier to put in a 12-hour workday, I find, than to put in 10.5 hours of SCHOOL, you know? Just...my HEAD hurts!! I can't THINK that much...gaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh

I should have broken it up with a run, but I was desperately in need of the time (I could focus BEFORE my brain fell apart) to study for the stats test as the oh-so-wonderful Little Miss who I oh-so-very-much adore would NOT sleep yesterday at nap time sooooo I missed my planned study time during the day yesterday, and couldn't get really into it while keeping an eye on her major-destruction activities in our living room.

I felt like hooey until I got to soccer tonight and started running around. BOY did that feel good. And with the exception of my newfound inability to directly pass the ball (what the heck happened to my foot's sense of direction?!) I feel like I PLAYED well. I love it when I play well. It's so much fun when I play well. We can be losing umpteen-thousand to none but if I'm playing well I DON'T care.

Moral of today's story? Play soccer after a crappy day.

OH yeah, and I did WiiFit myself yesterday morning - I don't remember the BMI result, don't want to calculate it myself 'cause I'm feeling quite lazy (did you just READ how insanely productive and taxing my day was already???)BUT the weight, after breakfast ;) was 166.7. WHICH is only .7 off my lowest-since-baby soooo we're doing something at least okay!! I'll check again pre-breakfast if I remember tomorrow as that's how the 166.0 was attained - gotta' keep control in the testing for the tests to be valid!! ;)

Where does the time go?

Okay okay, so the treadmill's up, it's amazing, it's beautiful, it looks like Optimus Prime moved into my office, and I LOVE it.

I've been meaning to take the set-up picture all week and write about my first run and my latest LOWEST WEIGHT ON RECORD ;) BUT where is the TIME?! I can't believe how much time just seems to have FLOWN by this week! WOW!

Anyway, we got the treadmill set up, it's HUGE, but not nearly as huge as the box. It fits in the office, but now the office doesn't fit in the office so well, so we have to work on that. ;) BUT it's fantastic and I love it. It's so pretty!! I ran on it on Friday. Haven't again since 'cause it was a super-super-super busy weekend, BUT hopefully this week will be better.

I just thought I'd let you know that I'm still here and still trying to stay accountable to you.

OH, and that when I weighed myself on WiiFit....the other day.... Thursday, maybe? I forget.... ANYWAY, I was 166.0lbs, which means I'm rid of ALL the Christmas-break weight PLUS an additional .2 lbs, which I will definitely accept. AND 5.5 down since starting ShopGirl's Challenge.

AND on Thursday night at soccer (go CHIMPS!) I ended up playing like, the whole game (at least it felt like it) up in midfield/forward and I scored another goal. Felt good. :)

Okay, that's enough nothing for today. Ciao!

Bring it on, Fates! I'm still here!

So I've decided that when I tempt the fates with one of my posts i.e. my last one, they ALL descend upon me and just have at it! HOLY COW!! WHAT a second week of the semester!! Mr. Man asked me this past week if life is ever going to let up - we could really use a break. Like a real break. Not like Christmas break, which we'd been counting on, with illness and broken-down-vehicles and no time to rest, but a REAL break.

Anyway, if I'd found the time I was desperately searching for during the week to write here I'd have entertained you all with the latest tales of our woes, BUT it's another new week, we're STILL HERE (HA! Take THAT oh-conspiring-ones! That's right, you're going to have to BRING IT ON to beat US!), amazingly, still together, still in love, still enamoured with Little Miss, still in business, still FIGHTING!!

I find myself repeating over and over Blue Belle's mantra: 'I can do hard things!'

SO, HERE, finally are my SMART goals (SMART: Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, with a Time limit) for the semester as completed for my 'Training Principles' class:

Cardiorespiratory Endurance
By the end of the semester I aim to be able to run 5K in 26 minutes. Current time 30-31 minutes. Would also like to train to be able to run 10K in one session. (This is prep for 5K race in Mississauga in May)
Will run more regularly (3-4 times per week) adjusting speed and incline of treadmill accordingly, to increase.

Muscular Strength
By the end of the semester I aim to be able to do one one-armed push-up. Currently not able to fully complete any.
Will work on two-armed pushups working toward single armed push-ups 2-3 times per week including holding myself up with one hand in plank position, working towards ability to flex and extend elbow while holding body in plank position. Will also regularly practice yoga and pilates to aid completion of goal.

Muscular Endurance
By the end of the semester I aim to be able to do (at least) 50 push-ups in a row. Currently able to do: 16
As with Muscular Strength goal will work on push-ups and one-armed push ups, and regularly practice yoga and pilates to help.

Flexibility
By the end of the semester I aim to be able to sit and reach the heel of my hands to my toes. Currently able to reach mid-fingers to toes.
Will 3 times a week practice yoga and pilates to encourage increased mobility and flexibility in joints, including pilates and yoga poses that target reaching hands to & past feet.

Body Composition
By the end of the semester I aim to have lost the rest of my pregnancy “fluff”. Will aim to lose 10 pounds but main measure will be pant-size (may not actually lose weight if muscle mass increases); will fit size 8.
Will accomplish this by working on above-listed goals and adjusting diet to reduce fast-food and dessert intake.

Okay, got it? THOSE are the goals. That's what we're working for this semester. Keep checking - I'll be posting about my progress!!

At SOME point last week...I forget when, I WiiFitted myself for:
Weight: 168lbs
BMI: 27...I think just 27. I'd have to double-check and/or do the math and I don't wanna do the math right now. ;)

Back on TRACK

hahaha I'm all about the puns tonight - I just left the best comment on a blog. ;) hahaha Then with the TITLE.... MAN I'm killer! ;)

Okay, okay. So I'm here to report on the run today and share some fun, um, news, I guess.

Today I ran wearing THE SHOES! (Angels: aaaaahhhhhhhh!) It was fantastic. Actually, it felt weird, and probably how it should have been feeling all along! hahaha They're SO comfortable!! I was sad to take them off and put my boots back on. It's like running in SOCKS but without the jarring impact of stocking feet on hard ground.... ShopGirl, if these babies fit you as magically as they fit me, they're AMAZING!!

Now, I didn't run ALL Christmas break due to the cold, okay? And though I'm all better there's still like, the post-cold disgustingness goobering around. I actually choked on it today, but that's another, yes, very gag-inducing story. ;) AND Mi, whose excuse I did NOT get (lazy? what? TEASING, darling!) didn't run over her break EITHER, so when we met up today we were quite the pair! hahaha I'm 'running' SUPER slow to ease back in, she's arguing with me that running at that speed is using up more energy than if we were going faster and using momentum and all whatever blah blah blah (I hate it when we use our Kin smarts against each other...)and all the while we're arguing (obviously running our fastest if I have all that excess air to argue with...and actually sing along to Michael Buble, which I also did....). THEN Mi's knee started bugging her with her tight, unused-over-the-break IT band rubbing uncomfortably, so we stopped so she could stretch. Then we kept running. Then we stopped again 'cause I was whining (I'm SO good at whining) and Mi's knee was bugging her again. Then we walked a lap, ran a lap, walked a lap, ran a lap. We finished running the last two laps, did our 5K. And I'm pretty sure we didn't start the walk-run thing 'till after at least the first 3 were done. SOOOOOoo yeah. We're easing back into it. Give my lungs the week to get used to it again. ;)

And FINALLY, today, I've accepted ShopGirl's Challenge to drop that (silly, bad measure) BMI down. Furthest down by March 31 gets sushi lunch. Except ShopGirl etc. lives in Senior's City and, well, I don't. hahaha I'm fighting for bragging rights and smaller pants! SO, I'll keep you updated on my stats, at least, and at the end of March tell you who the big winner is - ShopGirl, Spart, TooKool, or YOURS TRULY!

TODAY: (the challenge starting point - thank goodness I was sick and put weight on over Christmas! hahaha)
Weight: 171.5lbs (that's up 5.3 since last time I weighed myself - yikes!! No WONDER I feel like a whale!!)
BMI: 27.57

Status Report

FINALS: Finished

SEMESTER: Over

WEIGHT: 167.8 lbs

BMI: 26.96

RELAXING: Begins now....

Feeling GOOD

Okay, well, I don't feel great right NOW actually, as it's quarter past midnight and I'm EXHAUSTED.... And everything I have to report relates to previous in the week with the exception of today's (now tomorrow's) exercise. SO...

THURSDAY:
Played an AWESOME game of soccer. SO much fun. Played the full game as we had no subs, and I was a force to be reckoned with, let me tell ya'! The opposing players were getting mad and frustrated at ME! I was awesome. hahaha

FRIDAY:
Wii Fit weighed myself. Are you READY for THESE stats??
Weight: 168.2 lbs
BMI: 27.03
Yes, that's right. I broke outta' the 170's. BOOM baby!! (Seriously, seeing how I was 225 at one point in my pregnancy - darned water retention - 168 is AMAZING. I feel all SORTS of hot!)

SATURDAY (meant to be today, except it's after midnight so it's yesterday...)
Ran the 5K at my parents' on the treadmill and got my time UNDER 32 minutes! hahaha Okay, so I was SO exhausted and feeling like death (Dad thought I was going to die listening to me 'breathing' as I ran) that the instant I hit the 5K mark I screamed for joy at having done it before the clock read 32:00 and I hit the power-off button before I took note of the EXACT time, which I immediately regretted. (Don't worry - I powered back up and did a proper cool-down....) Anyway, it wasn't MUCH under 32 minutes, like, I think we're talking 31:47 or something. ;) It's the number I picture when I close my eyes and relive the awesomeness.

And NOW I'm going to bed! Skinnier, or at least LIGHTER, and FASTER than a week ago! YAY! Ciao!

Free time filler

So I don't know what happened this week, but wonderfully I had three lectures and two labs cancelled due to profs and T.A.s being away at conferences and ONE case of hey-there's-a-test-coming-take-a-break!! SO I've had some "free time" to do things I wouldn't normally do...like finish homework, study, and/or fit in an extra run! It's been absolutely FANTASTIC!!

Oh, totally on another note, I learned what I thought was the coolest horrific thing today in a class I had that WASN'T cancelled. ;) Lemme go find it, hang on.....

OKAY, so I don't know how much sense this is going to make here, but I thought it was incredibly interesting. We were talking about Types I and II diabetes in class and how either the wonder-drug-hormone insulin OR the contraction of muscle (i.e. exercise) amps up the body's response to glycogen blah blah blah...but basically that muscle contraction (say it with me now - EXERCISE) is going to have the same or very very similar effect as an insulin injection to counter-act diabetes. Okay, crazy, eh? WELL, THEN we were told WHY doctors won't tell their patients this - can you BELIEVE your doctor wouldn't tell you that?? BASICALLY in the medical profession there's a push for "evidence-based-treatments", which sounds great to me, 'cause then I know my doctor has something backing up his claim, right? Right?? Well, maybe.... Evidence-based means that there has to have been some peer-reviewed study done and published and all what-not AND studying things costs money, of course. Well, hello, who the heck do you think pays for the studies? DRUG COMPANIES!!! So like, the only "evidence" for treatment your doctor has access to you cure what ails you is what the drug companies have paid for him to be able to tell you. They're obviously not going to pay to find out if exercise is going to cure your diabetes problem after a meal because that's going to put them out of insulin business - I'd DEFINITELY rather run than stick myself with needles. (I'm SO grateful not to have experienced diabetes and pray it stays that way!)

Okay, so you may have already known all that, but it just blew my mind to have it explained so horrifically clearly to me. That's why if you go to the hospital for a pain in your back they give you some pills to pop whereas if you go for a massage or chiropractic treatment you're actually going to have someone pay attention to the PROBLEM. GAH!

TODAY:
Ran with Mi, but I only lasted for 3K - previous to the run I'd been limping around campus with an incredible pain shooting through my back - that evil one that rears its head sometimes and I write about. ANYway, it was acting up and I didn't want to push it too far 'cause I had soccer tonight, so I stopped after 3 so as not to impair my ability to walk/limp back to my car. Did some yoga stretches though, which felt amazing in the painful area, so there we go.
Soccer - lost 2-1. I played like a bum for the first half, but then got my head in the game, I think. Tough team we played. Still fun, but lots of concentration needed, which makes it a slight bit less FUN and more effort, you know? Anyway. That's that.

Wii Fit measures:
Weight 173.1 lbs
BMI: 27.81

Down by threes

So yesterday we officially started the countdown to November 27th. Today is November 4th, so 23 days to go. PHEW.

That's the first decreasing number of the day.

The second was the number of minutes it took to run a particularly grueling 5K with Mi this afternoon sans water break or hyperventilation ;) - Mi's good for me - when I feel too tired to care about breathing (or living, for that matter) any longer and let my breath just GO she says nothing, but makes her breathing LOUD and SLOW to remind me to keep it together. PHEW! Anyway, shaved a minute and ran it in 32 minutes. (ALSO we need to give a great big shout out to Mi for running a 5K race on the weekend, finishing second in her age group and doing the darned thing in 26 minutes! HOLY FREAK! No WONDER she tuckers me out!!)

The THIRD are the numbers on the Wii Fit for my weight and BMI, down today from the last time I managed to get on to measure myself, 8 days ago, by 1.5lbs. Which I'm definitely okay with. :) According to the ease with which my clothes fit (i.e. the Gap 10)and the horribly encouraging comments from my family and friends when they see me it would appear that I lose size much more rapidly than I actually lose mass. I find it a bit weird, because my focus of late has been anything but strength-training, to try and attribute this phenomenon to increased muscle mass but... it is what it is. I don't KNOW what it is, but that's what it is. ;)

TODAY:
You may have guessed, I ran 5K. The WHOLE thing. No breaks, no stopping. I didn't go as fast on my last lap as I usually do but I was feeling pretty darned tuckered out by that point. Mi kept track of time for me, so if there's any discrepancies with it you can blame her. ;) hahaha

45 minutes yogilates - YAY! I went back to the shorter video for today - the full hour sounded daunting and I don't want to be daunted, PLUS it's been SO long I didn't want to push myself too hard with it and end up doing something silly - you can get yourself stuck in some pretty weird positions if you're not careful, so I opted for careful. AND you'll be happy to hear, I think, that it's as wonderful a workout as I remembered. Let's hope I can keep it up!!

Wii Fit measures:
Weight: 173.7 lbs (which makes a whopping total of 5.8 lbs down since we started our little project here, though if you count from my HEAVIEST point since we started I've lost more than that... ;))
BMI: 27.92.

And that, my friends, is that for today! :D It's late and I'm going to go to BED!

Let's get serious

Okay, so I just wanted to address a couple of things.

FIRST off THANKS to everyone for comments both on and off the blog - it really helps with my own motivation. ESPECIALLY people who are setting their own fitness goals - I LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear about them!!

Here's the let's-get-down-to-business part: I hope that you realize that, at least for now, this is a HUGE part of my life - I go to school every day to study the human body and how it works and moves and why things do this and that and the next thing. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE what I do. Granted, cellular physiology can get a bit dry but when you put it in the big picture - HEY COOL! (Did you know you use calcium in your MUSCLES to allow for the use of energy? That's right, it's NOT JUST for your bones!)

For quite literally years now I have been immersed in all things physical/fitness related. I can't get enough.

SO if you're setting your OWN goals and/or plans and think hey-maybe-I'm-NOT-as-up-on-this-stuff-as-my-buddy-Red-because-I'm-a-genius-at-economics (FASCINATING subject, by the way) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE feel free to tap into ME and get some feedback! And no OF COURSE I don't think I'm the be-all-and-end-all of fitness knowledge, obviously. Well, I hope that's obvious. Mi, if you read this post you'll laugh - you KNOW I'm not smart in all things this-related! hahaha BUT hopefully I can help dissuade some of the silliness that a lot of us find so easy to buy into.

TAKE IT SLOW - you don't want to lose weight to fast! Your body likes its weight where it is, even if you're 300lbs! It takes being a weight for about a year for that weight to be your body's new favourite weight SO, SERIOUSLY with weight loss you want to go at the pace of the tortoise. If you take a hare approach to it your body is going to try DESPERATELY to snap itself back to it's favourite weight, wherever you just came from. Don't DO that to yourself - you want the hard work to pay off for good!!

I was asked in the comments on my last post if I'd recommend the Wii Fit - it totally depends on the person. Any training regime is going to depend on the person - do what you love to do! My CONCERN with the Wii Fit is that it's probably not enough for an active person. You have to use it wisely, I'd say, to get a good workout from it. On the OTHER HAND, if you DO weigh 300lbs and live on the couch, the Wii Fit will get your ginormous butt OFF the couch and won't let you push yourself too hard, so it's awesome for that.

My FAVOURITE part about the Wii Fit is the charts and graphs so I have a visual of my progress. Even with my weight yo-yoing back and forth each day, as everyone's does (YES that's normal), I can see a general downwards trend in my weight. It's very encouraging. So, take that as you will - Wii Fit is FUN and for some people, the perfect fit to get started exercising. For me...it's just fun and a good way to track myself.

Okay, longest post ever?? Probably. If you ARE working on your own goals and want some input from a way-too-pushy me, please by all means feel free to drop me a line in the comments or e-mail me: redlovestomove@gmail.com. This stuff is WHAT I DO so I'm ALWAYS happy to help. :)

TODAY:
60 minutes yogilates - interrupted by a phone call, which I would have just let ring BUT I forgot to turn the ringers off after putting Little Miss to bed and so DASHED to the phone the instant I heard it. THEN it was about work so I took a breather for a few minutes while that got sorted out. Was actually like, right at the 30-min mark, so broke things right in half.

Wii Fit measures:
Weight: 175.3lbs
BMI: 28.17

And I realize I'm BEYOND due for photos of the jelly doughnut - I'll get on it, eventually. Kinda' hasn't been priority lately. ;) My legs are hard as rock, though, in case you were wondering. muahahaha!

Stolen Time ;)

Ahhhhhhhhh..........

WHAT a great day!!

Besides a little pang of missing the Little Miss, I had a GREAT day.

Midterm wasn't NEARLY as scary as I'd anticipated (let's hope the person marking it feels the same way!), and I was done early, so went running on the track. :) THEN to lab which got out early and then...that was IT! My other lab for the day was cancelled!! So I was ALL done school (and a run) by 10:40 this morning and no Little Miss 'till 2:30pm! WOOHOO!!

Soooooo.....

I came home, had a BATH (I didn't shower after the run before the lab - ICK) read a magazine, got cleaned up and dressed, did laundry, FOLDED laundry and even PUT IT AWAY, oh yeah, there was lunch, a movie with the laundry, ran the dishwasher.... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh what a satisfying day!!

THEN I got Little Miss and we took ME to the doctor. Here's the report, so far:
NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. It's likely that I just had a moment where my blood pressure dropped and left me KATHUMP on the floor, which has some name or other. JUST IN CASE we're running some serious blood tests (I have a history of problems with iron i.e. anemia - hooray) to see if that may be it, AGAIN, but nothing seems so out of the ordinary that anyone needs to be worried. (So STOP WORRYING you darling darling people!! I'm FINE!!)

TODAY:
Ran(ish - more like painfully-slowly-jogged, I will admit) another 5K. It was WAY harder than on Monday with Blue Belle. Huh. BUT I knew I could do it, so I did it. I really wish I had timed us on Monday though so I'd know if today was harder just because I went faster or if it's because I was feeling lazy.... Anyway started at 8:57 and finished at 9:33 sooooo....36 minutes. :) Ran the 5K, walked an additional 400m to try to get my poor racing heart (I full on RAN the last 200m) back to somewhere near normal, before hightailing it to the locker room and then across campus, literally, to lab.
60 minutes yogilates (while and after Mr. Man put Little Miss to bed and then got some work done).

I haven't done a Wii Fit test - let me go do that right now......
Wii Fit Measures :D
Weight: 174.4 lbs
BMI: 28.03
Which is apparently 7.9 lbs less than last time I measured myself, 12 days ago. I'm going to guess that somewhere in that insane flux I've actually lost a little bit of weight!

Sick AGAIN

So, I seem to have more or less completely recovered from my short-lived cold only to have one day symptom-free and land myself feeling like THIS. WHAT the heck?!?! I have too much to DO to feel like this!! You're not supposed to feel like this on the first day of school! :( This is supposed to wait until a big oral presentation or something, so you have a seriously awesome excuse for turfing your cookies in front of the class or completely losing your voice...... GAH!!

Anyway, before I realized, I think, HOW sick I am today I got 30 minutes in on the Wii Fit - hooray!! hahaha I'm literally going to kill myself trying to fit into my not-so-baggy pre-pregnancy jeans. Awesome.

YESTERDAY, besides my weight being through the roof due to a late-at-night body test (Little Miss absolutely SKIPPED her nap yesterday. It was a long day. Maybe I'm sick now because I spent all my everything yesterday....) was awesome - I found the courage and tried the next level up for yogilates HOORAY! I ripped the living room apart so I'd have enough space to do it, which may or may not have been necessary. Anyway, I did it, I rocked it, it was good.

TODAY:
Already reported 30 mins Wii Fit - REALLY low intensity because though I didn't know I was dying I didn't feel near 100% this morning. AND I probably wouldn't have gotten so sweaty and gross if our air conditioner was working today sooo...OH well.
Walked around campus oodles.
Wii Fit Measures:
Weight - 177.9
BMI - 28.59

Previous to last week, though there seemed to be a bit of an all-over-the-place with my weight this super-cool graph did show a downward trend, which was awesome. As of LATE though, it's just all over the place. Downward trend has been completely erased. I'm as heavy as ever! I'm not really sure what I'm doing differently other than I keep getting/feeling deathly ill and have therefore not been running. Maybe once I can swallow again and I work out my scheduling, I can find the time to hit the trails again, and we'll see if that's my secret.

Two more sleeps 'till school starts...

So it's Tuesday, which I think for most of the munchkins around means school started today! And I know a friend of mine in teacher's college who started classes a week ago, if not two by now...I forget! Anyway, last ones to start, as always, are the undergrads!! And that's ME! School starts up on Thursday. CRAZY! WHERE did my summer go?? The summer I was hoping to spend getting all svelte in??

Thursday school starts. Sunday Little Miss turns 1. OHmigosh, it's almost too much for this little brain of mine to get around and deal with.

Little Miss has managed to uber-cute her way into daycare with our backdoor neighbour, which is AWESOME - I can drop her off when I need to leave for classes, and pick her up when I'm done for the day! I'm sad to leave her, but thrilled that I don't have to use the daycare at school where she'd be stuck with them ALL DAY - "no in-and-out program for 'infants'". Shouldn't a parent be allowed to take care of her kid? ANYWAY....

So I'm looking at my schedule, figuring while Little Miss is in the backyard and I'm on campus I'll have to make use of the facilities between classes because it's going to be easier than fitting it in at home....except there's a few days I think I'm gonna' have troubles. I think as the first week goes by that's what I'll focus my blogging energies on - getting my workout schedule figured out; don't you find that writing things down makes it oh-so-much easier to visualize and handle??

Maybe I'll workout in this hour between classes, go to seminar sweaty and smelly, and then shower in the next hour between seminar and lab.... That sounds like a good Wednesday.

When am I going to do homework??

TODAY:
30 minutes Wii Fit "aerobics" - warm up with advanced step, 10 minutes super hoola-hoop, 6 minutes rhythm boxing twice
45 minutes yogilates
I've been having so much fun with the Wii Fit exercises I haven't ventured back outside for a run since my cold took off. I probably should - I'm sure it does more benefit in the amount of time I give it than does my new favourite video games...

Wii Fit measures:
Weight - 178.8 lbs
BMI - 28.73

Catching up

So this post will be all about yesterday, because today hasn't really happened yet. Other than my darling Mr. Man letting me sleep in this morning - he's so wonderful! I was TRYING to rally myself this morning to get Little Miss when she woke up, but the stuffy head just kept taking over and then he got up and I was out of it for another two hours....CRAZY!

YESTERDAY
Little Miss and I went with our buddies Big Momma & Godzilla (Big Momma has two darling little girls and is incubating a third...when the third shows up we'll have to call her something else 'cause she won't be Big anymore...sad for my creativity...AND the two little girls LOVE Little Miss, tending to terrorize the poor darling with their adoration, and I call the couple of them Godzilla. ANYWAY...) to Marineland in the morning and wandered around the whole park looking for the beluga whales. What's that? A MAP?!? TOTALLY overrated! If we'd HAD a map we would have taken the SHORT route and not have found all the other cool hidden rides and things we did that I totally intend to drag Mr. Man back to ride on one day before the season's over. AND would have used up many less calories to boot. ;)

THEN we headed back to town, hit McD's for lunch - Little Miss can totally down a grilled cheese and apple slices happy meal. Okay, okay, so she only ate half the sandwhich, but for being such a tiny tyke that's pretty darn good! - and then home for NAPTIME. I LOVE naptime.

I spent 30 minutes on the Wii Fit, mostly rhythm boxing and super hoola hoop, my two new addictions (I'm not feeling up to an extended run yet - head's too stuffy), and then 45 minutes yogilates.

Soccer last night, too. I played like a BUM. I know I played lousy because there's this wonderful player on our team who can be quite..."encouraging" at times if you're slacking off, and she was HOLLERING at me the whole game!! I'm all GAH! I'm SORRY, I'm TRYING!! Anyway, a stuffy head will do that to you. AND I was trying to supervise the care of Little Miss by a 10 year old on the sidelines from the opposite side of the field - that was a little distracting.

In total I was probably on the field 1 hr 10 mins.

TODAY
Wii Fit Measures
Weight - 177.9
BMI - 28.59

I FINALLY broke the upward trend. SO weird. Maybe it is just a measure of the amount of snot in between my eyes??

Stuffy nose, day two.

Still sick. Lazing on the couch is apparently not fixing me as fast as I had hoped. No matter, I don't really feel all THAT horrid except first thing in the morning and...now, actually. Day's winding down, I'm exhausted! Sinuses feel about a thousand times worse than they have all day... Oh, who doesn't love a good cold???

Maybe my recent weight gain is just pounds of GUNK stuffed up in my head. That's certainly what it feels like.

Anyway, at Little Miss' naptime today I felt pretty good, though hungry, and so:

TODAY
30 minutes Wii Fit "aerobics" - mostly rhythm boxing and super hoola hoop, with some stepping to warm up. I'm addicted to rhythm boxing - SO much fun! Anyway, I worked up such a good sweat today I left footprints on the balance board. hahaha GROSS!
45 minutes yogilates

Wii Fit measures
Weight - 179.0 lbs
BMI - 28.77

Sooooooo...seriously, besides the head cold I don't know what's so different this week that I keep gaining weight. I'm not overly concerned at the moment - weight does fluctuate all over the place day to day, and in women different times of one's cycle have an effect (aren't you boys just all so darned glad you had a chance to read that?? LUCKY!!!). If Auntie Flow comes to visit in the next few days we should have our answer. ;) hahaha OR if the snot-brigade LEAVES and I'm suddenly that-much-closer to a "normal" BMI (GARBAGE!!) then WOW apparently snot has quite the weight to it!!

Regardless of what the measurements are showing let's just all pray for me that I can fit back into a few of my clothes such that I have something to wear to school when it starts up again next week! ;)

Laaaaazy, yet productive.

So today was good. I didn't almost accidentally kill anyone, though I was a wee bit apprehensive about Little Miss eating peanut butter n' jelly JUST IN CASE she's got some hidden peanuts-cause-death thing no one told us about which as she's still alive appears to be a non-issue...AND she didn't eat like, ANY of the sandwich, grrrr, and I dealt with a bunch of laundry and I tidied the kitchen...and I watched a LOT of t.v. I had a very Friday day. Which is fine and dandy, 'cause it's Friday.

Tonight's game was good today, too. We won 4-2 (I would post if we lost, too, but we haven't since I started this thing...I PROMISE we lose sometimes, just not recently!) against the league like, coordinator guy - always satisfying to beat the team of the guy who has all the everything to stack his team. Oh if only he'd taken some of OUR players. At least when he yelled at our players he was just kidding, and we yelled our kiddingnesses back at him, so it was all good. LOTS of fun. And it looks like this year, for a change, we're actually going to get a team together for indoor which is OH so exciting! Usually everyone says they want to and then they all back out - but this time we're taking their money early, threatening not to give it back, and people are STILL chomping at the bit to play wit us, so I'm thinking it's going to work out - YAY!

TODAY:
45 minutes yogilates
1:20 soccer (I was off twice, figure in total that's 10 minutes off two 45 min halves.... I feel like I need to be uber thorough in my reporting to the cyber that is space)
Lots of lounging and T.V., but mixed with folding and putting away laundry, tidying that kitchen of mine, AND hanging out with the one and only Little Miss.
Wii Fit Measures (and NO, I didn't actually get up and weigh myself uber early as I threatened...these are from about 3:30 which is what time I get to it after Little Miss takes a 2pm nap instead of a noon nap):
Weight - 177.0 lbs
BMI - 28.45

BOOYAH!

Okay, just have to warn you, BUSY weekend loaded with family stuff starting tomorrow, so I'm going to do my darndest to be an active cat but I may not get to posting about it. So sad for all you lovely people out there who I know spend your whole days waiting for the evening to come so you can come and see what wonderful tales of my exercise I've written for you...but I think you'll get over it.

MUAH!

OH yeah! And I just remembered, I TOTALLY knocked this chick over on the other team tonight! It was a thing of beauty. She even had the audacity to have the same name as me and she was a super obnoxious player - hey, I'm not usually catty on the field but she was annoying - and then she was wide open with the ball so I ran at her, OBVIOUSLY with the intention to get the ball, and I think she thought she was tougher than me or something so she lost the ball and kinda' jumped at me or into me or whatever and she TOTALLY fell flat on her....yeah that. It was beautiful. The ref called me on it and everything! There's a serious sense of awesomeness and satisfaction after knocking someone over in sports. Why is that???

Yikes - Four Days

So I kinda' dropped off for a few days - Little Miss we think MUST be teething, which of course means I'm not getting any sleep AND it was a busy weekend anyway so regular exercise habits were completely thrown out the window. It was kind of sad. Wii Fit reprimanded me today, so no one else has to :P

Great weekend work-wise, though, in case you were all wondering. And today was on its way back to normal. Little Miss is still sleeping a bit funny, so like, NOT sleeping as much as she should, but Mr. Man and I seem to be working it out okay.

TODAY
Went for a run on the path. It was muddy today - lots of rain last night! But that's okay, just makes it fun to hop over puddles and push the stroller through and splash up my legs.... Yup, that's FUN.... My shoes were stark-white 'till I ran through the mud last week. OH well. Anyway, did THERE the whole path, and BACK...probably 3/4 of the path. I forgot to look at my watch, so can't report on that. Walked whatever I didn't run, and was out a little under an hour.
9 minutes yogilates (Little Miss woke up...didn't get it all done, obviously).
Wii Fit Measures:
Weight - 177.7 lbs
BMI - 28.56

Go CHIMPS

Okay, first off, what the HECK?! The coach for the other team tonight was SUCH a nice guy, then he got frustrated and yelled across the field at our best player, called her an idiot, swore so loud a spectator on the other side yelled back to "watch your language", and yeah, was just being ridiculous. Like, DUDE! It's ladies soccer! This stupid league doesn't even have PLAYOFFS for pity's sake - who CARES if you win or not?? Half the league have never played before and the rest of us have been playing forever! GET A GRIP!!

What a loser.

Now that THAT'S out - too bad he'll probably never read that, eh? GROW UP! - SO much fun tonight! Soccer is fun when we play well and we DO happen to have a team of pretty good players so when we play well we win. I really don't care all that much - as I said, there's no playoffs so it doesn't count for anything other than kicks and giggles - but it's a nice bonus. And tonight we won. We played AWESOME. We played a team of girls younger, thinner, faster, and we beat the PANTS off them! It was awesome. I played SO good...most of the time. hahaha Anyway, final score 6-3. HUZZAH!!

TODAY
45 min yogilates
2 45 min halves of soccer...one five minute rest sooo 1hr25min soccer. (Yeah, my poor old-lady back is KILLING me).
WiiFit Measures:
Weight - 177.7 lbs
BMI - 28.56

Yes, that's right. I weighed myself at the usual time and I magically lost that mysterious 2.6 lbs that was hanging around last night. CRAZY! I've always known my weight fluctuates all over the place, but that seems like a lot in a day. I should take the tests alternating, afternoons and nights, so we can see the progress yo-yo all over the place, eh? Back and forth, back and forth.... Wow, sometimes I think I amuse myself a little too much.

I need to take a shower.