Right now for exercise, I am trying some new stuff.

I’m doing Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred (That’s right, the mean trainer from the Biggest Loser – I had to go look her up on YouTube since I don’t watch TV. She’s tough!) – it’s 20 minutes long and does strength, cardio and abs in a circuit training pattern. I’m supposed to do that every evening (I started Wednesday and have managed to do well so far – we’ll see about tonight!). I’m only doing level 1 of 3 – and it’s pretty well kicking my ass! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00127RAJY

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I will be doing the Hundred Pushup Challenge training. I did the initial assessment on Wednesday and ran through day one of week one on Friday. It’s tough but I’m amazed at how well it’s going. We’ll see if I can do 100 in 6 weeks! I like this challenge because it only takes about 10 minutes to do and you only do it 3 days week – so a total of 30 minutes or less a week and you can do 100 pushups!!! http://hundredpushups.com/

I started today my Couch to 5K challenge with the intent of running (not walking!) a 5K in November. 5K is equivilant of 3.1 miles – which is a crapton more than I have ever run in my life. I barely managed to run the mile in high school! This is yet another training program that’s designed to take about 9 weeks and a whole lot of interval training – but relatively little time. The average workout is 20 to 30 minutes long! Not bad! I will be doing this training on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

I’m also doing two yoga classes a week on Saturdays and Sundays at my gym. Saturdays is Yoga Stretch which is way slower and remarkably, WAY harder. Talk about holding poses for a really long time! And on Sundays, it’s Yoga Pump which is a little faster paced but a bit easier. More cardio work and way less muscle strain. Both of those classes are about 60 minutes each.

So, on Sundays, I do 60 minutes of yoga and 20 minutes of Shredding for a total of 80 minutes. On Monnday, Wednesday and Friday, I do 10 minutes of pushups and 20 minutes of Shredding for a total of 30 minutes a day (90 minutes total). On Tuesday and Thursday, I do 20 minutes of C25K and 20 minutes of Shredding for a total of 40 minutes a day (80 minutes total). Finally, on Saturdays, I do 60 minutes of yoga, 20 minutes of C25K and 20 minutes of Shredding – total of 100 minutes. Total amount of exercise for the week – 700 minutes. Sounds like a lot but – how much time do I spend reading or on the internet a week? Goodness only knows!

And why am I posting this here!? Accountability! Have any spare time? Send me an email or a comment and ASK me how I’m doing. I’ll do the same for you if you want!

First, I gotta brag. 15 man style pushups! That’s my starting number and hopefully in 6 weeks that will be 100 or MORE! YEAH!

And then Ms. Kamera!

You ask a lot of questions!

Let us see…
The wedding was better than expected, especially since one of the other girls was nice enough to help pin me into my dress that was too big. It fit when I bought it, it fit when they sized it the first time but…well, I lost another 15 or 20lbs after the last fitting and I wasn’t going to pay again for a fitting — the pins did their job just fine. I’ll be donating that dress to an internet company I read about that recycles them for prom dresses. I think it would be a cute prom dress. There was minimal drama – excluding the brides’ drunken mama two-fisting beer through the entire reception. The setting was gorgeous – the Botanical Gardens a very good choice. The food was tasty enough and included an Ossian ham – but the cake was to die for. I love good cake! It was a lot of work but the job of the matron of honor is to run interference and try to make the bride enjoy everything – I think that I succeeded admirably. I did get to do a lot of driving in my subcompact minivan (more on that later) which was not bad though I have no idea where anything is anymore!

The trip in general was good. The flights sucked. I left Phoenix at 0500 on Wednesday to fly to Dallas and then from Dallas to Fort Wayne with my arrival being about 1400 what with all the time changes. The flight to Fort Wayne was the roughest I’ve ever encountered and did nothing but make me want to yak. Luckily the seat next to me was empty for that flight! When I arrived in Fort Wayne and went to Budget, I discovered that my subcompact was NOT a subcompact. I had a choice between a Chevy Highlander minivan or a Ford Expedition SUV. I went with the minivan – good thing for transport, sucky for the gas mileage.

I then drove (only getting turned around like 3 or 4 times) to my sister’s house in Huntington where my mom, littlest sister and my niece-phews (thank Joshua for that word, I likes it!) were all hanging out. I delivered my presents (car for the Nolan, socks, horse wall stickers and a dino poster for the girls as well as a wooden sword for each one) – I did not give Foster, the littlest one, a present as he’s only 3 months old and the only present he wants is a boob.

Then after a lot of meet and greets and whatnot, I went with Karen, Kristy, Kimberly, Darcy and Sloane to yoga. Karen’s MIL provides her with a private yoga lesson each Wednesday. At the lesson is usually Karen and her kids, her SIL and her kids and her MIL. Me, Kristy and Kimberly were just bonus this go round. We had a good time but Darcy is a little bossy britches and Aunt Kelly didn’t know what “criss-cross applesauce” was so I got yelled at several times.

Thursday I got up and did some Tae Bo and then cooked/shopped/decorated for the last minute bridal shower my mother was kind enough to host due to medical emergency (thanks mom!). That went way better than I had anticipated thanks to years of experience at hosting high school graduations. It was also aided by my delicious meatballs (mmmm graduation meatballs) and the really tasty jello salad thing we had (mostly sugar free but some extremely good – most people went back for seconds, which, on jello salad is UNHEARD of!).

Friday I hung out with MJ and helped Amy finish her placecards and then went to the rehearsal dinner at Pizza Hut. I LOVE PIZZA HUT! Mmmmmm – I had so much pizza that I shudder to think about it. But man, it was tasty!

Saturday I went to the parade with the entire family and MJ (a whole lot of people!) and then had Dairy Queen for lunch and headed out to the wedding. That was basically from about 1300 to about 2330. There was some nasty storms, lots of chivvying drunk people, chasing things down and getting things set up. It could have been worse and it all came together really, really well. The cake especially. Did I already mention the cake? It had three different flavored layers – chocolate, white and white with raspberry filling. I ate three pieces of the chocolate cake. That sucker was gooooood!

I got up about 0500 on Sunday, drove my hiney to the airport and then flew to Chicago and then back to Arizona.

I think that about sums it up – exhausting! My diet and exercise plan went out the window though I did manage the yoga (60 minutes or so) and the tae bo (about 40 minutes). I managed to come back about 0.6lbs LIGHTER than when I left. I think it’s the airplane ride…it always cleans me out. Must be all those pressure changes or something…

Yay! Vacation pictures – not by me because I forgot my camera but mostly of me.

From the left: Darcy (6), Foster (3mths), Me, Nolan (not yet 2), and Sloane (4)

Me and the dog who lives across the street from my parents.

Me and MJ (she is the one who took the pictures)

Darcy playing peek-a-butt with Nolan

Me with the placecards that MJ, Amy and I wrote on Friday before the rehearsal dinner.

Me (the grump) with Kimberly (who is almost 18 and is a senior in high school).

Man, vacations are exhausting. I need a day off to sleep.

I’m back in the land of the sun – and it is indeed warm.

Still on plan for my “lifestyle” change, though I’m getting my hiney kicked in my family’s weight loss challenge. I can’t compete with my nursing sister or with my brother in law who just has to limit portions to lose a lot of weight. Ah well – time will tell, especially when it comes to the maintenance!

I also want to start a new challenge – I was going to start it this morning as a matter of fact, but I couldn’t get my hiney up and out of bed so maybe this evening. It’s a 6 week training program designed to train you to be able to 100 pushups in a row after you complete it. That would be awesome, don’t you think? I can currently do around 10 or 12 man style pushups with good form, I think so I have a long way to go.

http://www.hundredpushups.com/

That is the link for the challenge website if you’re interested.

Plane leaves at 0500. Have to be at the aiport in about 12 hours.

I’m still at work and have a to-do list that seems forever long.

Indiana here I come….

HOLY CRAP!

I’m less than 20lbs from my goal weight! *falls off chair in surprise*

And from out of nowhere, a Weight Watcher’s entry?!

I’ve had a few poor weeks, some ups, some downs but…overall – acceptable.

Weight loss appeared to have leveled off for a bit, spiked and then it now seems to be falling again.

Hopefully in a regular fashion

According to my Weight Watchers measures – I am down 31.6 pounds in 19 weeks of dieting. Puts me at about 1.66lbs on average. I’ll be taking my tape measurements of my arm, my waist, my hips and my right thigh next week. It should be fun to see how that’s changed. I skipped it last month so it’s been 2 months since I did it last.

Wow.

Wedding emergency that was cleared up (Thanks, Mom!).

10% raise at work.

Halfway working machinery even post technician visit (stupid ICP-MS, why can you NOT have a functional standard curve for Copper or Strontium?).

Down to my lowest weight since who knows when? (158.6 – see my ticker!)

My weight loss forum’s website has been down since 9am (and I don’t know if I used that stupid apostrophe correctly but it didn’t make sense without it – Help me o grammar police!) *thanks ponderous!

Weird day. And it’s only 1500. Still plenty of day left.

Man….serious challenges on day 2!?

The Powers that be bought pizza for everyone for lunch today.

But as the stakes have been raised to $650…I resisted.

So far today:

breakfast – eggy sammich, 2 apricots, sparkling water (3pts)
snack – TLC dark chocolate cherry kashi bar, coke zero (2pts)
lunch- herb chicken breast, 1/2c corn, 3/4lb veggies and hummus, sprite zero (7pts)

I have no clue about dinner -but I’ve plenty o’ snacky foods – apple, oatmeal, small cans of spicy V8 (thanks Colleen!) and popcorn (all that is a grand total of 4pts) and I’ve got 11 pts left for the day. That means I could eat all those snacks and still have 7pts for dinner. Of course, I have NO idea what I will even want….maybe a spicy black bean burger with a english muffin bun, fat free cheddar and some fat free mayo, pickles, ketchup and mustard? That would only be 4pts – or I could make it with a boca burger and it would only be 3pts. Still leaves me 3 or 4 more points to eat – which is good since I plan to go to the dog park with the pupsters tonight since our regular Tuesday morning dog park was LOCKED this morning.

Well, I think I’m better. Which means back on the diet (er, “lifestyle” change) train and hopefully back to the gym.

And posting! Yay posting!

Let’s see.

Today’s food:
Breakfast – eggy sammich, 2 apricots, sparkling water (3 pts)
Snack – Fiber one bar, apple, coke zero (3 pts)
Lunch – chicken breast, corn, veggies & hummus, sprite zero (7 pts)

This leaves me 10 points and I am unsure what I’m going to use them on…

Dinner (maybe) – probably a little english muffin pizza (3 pts) and a skinny dipper (1 pt)

That leaves me with 6 pts – I will likely have another snack of popcorn and/or oatmeal (3 pts for both)

Amy’s wedding is in 19 days. I lost about 30lbs so far – I wanted to lose a bit more than that, but I think even 30lbs is a big improvement. I also just started a weight loss challenge with some family and friends – FOR MONEY. I don’t know about you, but I find money to be a potent motivator, especially when it is to the tune of $585!