Setting new Goals 24/11/2009

For so long my main goal has been to get to 155 as my goal weight.  Then recently I changed it to 165 and now I’ve actually reached that. I have 6 weeks to maintain my weight and then I’m a lifetime member for Weight Watchers.  So now I really need to set new goals.  I wanted to think and set some big new goals and then some little ones.  I’m probably going to be overly ambitious on the big end and probably even on the small end but I like a strong push or shove to do what I know I need to do keep on a healthy lifestyle.

Big Steps!!!!

• I wrote a post (this one) about races I’m going to run.  I’ve put them on my calendar and started to plan for vacation for the Philly Race.  Hunni isn’t going to run the half-marathon with me but he will probably run the 10K.  Either way those are huge fitness goals for me and I’m super excited because I am totally addicted to running.
• I want to be able to practice yoga 3 days a week.  I need to push myself and schedule it but I know that I enjoy and feel better when I do it.  I feel all nice and bendy and twisty.

I'd like to be more Gumbi...

than Jalapeno on a Stick.

Jose Jalapeno

• I want to train my abs.  I would love the washboard look but the loose skin isn’t going to tighten magically.  No elastic left there.  But I do want strong abs that may help me be able to not wear my back brace.
• I want to save enough money that I can purchase some yoga sessions at the studio instead of always in my living room.  Peanut and Leo just don’t know how to help me get proper posture.
• I want to be able to do the dancer pose without holding onto the wall.

I wish I could do this on the beach. But I'll settle for just being able to do it.

It is a huge goal of mine.  I will never dance because this girl has no rhythm but I want to look graceful when I do yoga and the dancer pose says that to me.

Okay now the baby steps:

On of the blogs I’ve just found lately is Kara’s Marathon.  She has lost a great amount of weight and is doing the NYC 2010 Marathon.  I’m super jealous…Enter the green-eyed monster.  But anyway she posts on her blog what her weekly goals are.  I think this is amazing because for some reason I feel more accountable to all you lovely readers than I do just to my own to-do list.  So my baby steps are to post my weekly baby steps here for y’all on Monday.  I want to make them not only fitness goals but healthy eating and life in general goals.  And then the following week I’ll update everyone on how I did.  I think it will push me better to have to own up to it.  So here goes my itty bitty baby steps…

• Gym 3 times. In regular times I go almost every day.  But now with Kettles I think 3 times a week is good.  I went tonight so that’s one down.
• Run 3 times this week. PT Boot camp Steve told me before he will discharge me from PT I have to get in some good runs to make sure I don’t have pain.  So today I ran for 20 minutes and I’m running the Turkey Trot locally on Thanksgiving morning and one other day this week.  I’ll be happy getting high….runner’s high… again.
• Yoga 2 times this week. I downloaded yoga for runners from yogadownload.com and it is really good for my hips and stretching.  So I want to do it at least twice preferably after running.
• Hang at least one set of pictures. I finally bought a lot of frames for pictures to hang up in our apartment and actually make it feel like home.  So I need to sort them and pick places to hang them.  Then I get to take my frustrations out and bang holes nails into the wall.
• Buy last Christmas Presents. I have to be super organized and get presents early.  But now Hunni went and bought me a gift to be all sweet so I need to get him something too.  And I have force myself to not go peeking for mine.  Lucky for me neither of us can keep presents very long since we bug the crap out of each other for them so we’ll have Christmas a little early
• Organize personal finances. I have a mvelopes membership and I haven’t updated it in a long time.  No wonder I don’t have much money in savings right now.  My goal this week is to input all my old bank statements and create a budget for December.  I do much better with a budget and I haven’t been using one all month.  ooops. :-/

So there you have it.  The little and big things I want to do to keep me going.  I’m sure I’ll think of some more as I accomplish these things.  But I needed to get them out there.  If not I’d feel okay to lax up and not work as hard as I have to lose the weight.  I need to keep going because it’s a journey… a long one to get to this weight and to stay healthy and happy

GOAL!! 23/11/2009

It only took 3 years and 8 months but I am finally at a happy healthy weight that I feel comfortable maintaining.  I originally set my Weight Watchers goal at 155 but that was super ambitious and finally settled on 165 to be comfortable.  And on Saturday morning I hit it. I did it!  I reached my goal weight.  I was so happy that I jumped off the scale and did a little dance.  I had to control my excitement but had a huge smile on my face and kept giggling the entire time.  I was so proud of myself and everyone at my meeting was super proud as well.  I’ve lost and entire person…she’d be a skinny B**** but I lost her… good riddance.

Now comes the scary part of maintaining my weight for the next 6 weeks so I can hit lifetime.  I know I can do it and I’m not so scared about that part.  I have a great support system and I know how to eat and exercise.  My fear is that I won’t get that high from seeing the scale go down every week.  I don’t want to be unhealthy and keep losing really so I know I need to pick some new goals.  I’m open to suggestions…

Do you have any goals to help you once you stopped losing weight?

I thought it would be a nice trip down memory lane to tell you about how I got as big as I did and how I got to be hot!  No I’m not hot but I feel great…

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I was actually a pretty average kid.  I grew up in the age of no digital cameras and I still don’t own a scanner so no pics for you.  But picture a cute little strawberry blonde girl who liked to climb trees and run with the boys.  I was awesome at playing soccer but looked cute in a little dress too.  Both my parents enjoyed this because my dad could play sports with me and my mom could dress me up.

Fast forward to 5th grade when my family moved back to the USA from being stationed in Germany (my dad was US Army).  My parents fought a lot and eventually got divorced when I was in 7th grade.  I ate my feelings this entire time.  I gained a good bit of weight and started wearing more stretch pants.  Thank God this was the fashion back then.  You know what I mean, something like this…

Except I wasn't slim like K. Stew.

Yeah I was cool but didn’t feel good about my body.  I tried all sorts of diets from slim fast to starvation and none of it worked.  I just kept getting bigger.  Finally after my junior year of college I just resigned myself to being the fat friend.  I wasn’t happy but I felt helpless.  I actually threw out my scale and hated going to the doctor when they would weigh me.

It wasn’t until when I was applying to seminary that it really sunk in that I needed to lose weight.  I had this picture taken with my cousins when they were all visiting and I realized I did not look healthy.

Ack! This was scary to see.

The pants didn’t fit well, the shirt wouldn’t button and I was miserable.  I even had these pics taken for my seminary application and was horrified.

My mom said I looked like a cherub.

I determined that I needed to lose weight because I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to handle all the work in seminary.  I gave all my cookies and candy and high calorie food to a friend with kids.  Yeah it probably wasn’t great for them to be eating it but I didn’t want it to go to waste.  Besides her husband was a stick and he could eat that and still exercise to keep the weight off…darn men.

I spent a ton of money at the grocery store restocking my shelves with healthy staples and got a calorie counting book and journal to keep track.  I didn’t weigh myself at this point because I was horrified at what I might see on the scale.  My friend (the same one I gave the food to) and I started going for walks with her daughter in the stroller.  It was a great time to socialize and I got to push the stroller for extra weight.  Our town was full of hills so I was always huffing and puffing and trying not to swear under my breath.  I bought an iPod to use when she couldn’t go for walks with me.  I started walking the mile to the grocery store with my backpack to carry my groceries home when I could.  I was hard-core.  I never claimed to be normal.  My OCD made feel like I had to go whole hog into this if I was going to succeed.  I even joined the rinky dink gym in town to use the one elliptical they had or take step classes.  I even asked the big body builder owner to teach me how to do some weights so that I could burn calories more efficiently.

I was nuts really.  My schedule had me going from work at 3PM to the church to help out then straight to the gym.  I would pack my gym clothes in my book bag because I knew once I got home I wouldn’t go back out.  I would walk to church on Sunday and back unless it was raining to get in some extra activity.  I started using one of those reusable grocery bags for my lunch bag before it was en vogue to do so.  Yeah I was ahead of my time   Really I just had way to much Tupperware to use a regular lunch bag.  I got strange looks when I would eat snacks on my prep period while grading papers but I was dedicated.  And I enjoyed my salads and healthy lunches even though I drooled over the greasy junk I used to order with the rest of the teachers.  I just knew that it was not good for me so I’d compromise and get a salad with boneless buffalo wings instead of my regular Buffalo Wing Sub with lots of cheese and blue cheese dressing.

Any way by the time I went to seminary I had gone from that pic above to this….

Completely different person.

At the seminary they had placed the pics we submitted with our applications on the bulletin board with our names so the upper classmen and our own session mates could “get to know us” before we arrived.  No one knew who I was because I looked so different.  I was down about 90 pounds at that point.  I was a whole new person.  I don’t know the exact weight loss because I didn’t start weighing myself until I was 265 when I bought a scale.  I had lost about a pant size by then and wanted to see how much I was losing.  I still actually have that scale.  It’s been with me through the entire journey.

I gained back about 25 pound over the course of the next year and a half because the food was plentiful and the exercise time was limited.  I was not happy so I joined Weight Watchers in January of my second year.  I have been technically counting calories the entire time but had gotten lax about it.  I needed a change.  Weight Watchers and the meetings provided that new structure.  Unfortunately I hate the leader and almost quit because she grated my last nerve.  I finally decided to go to a regular meeting at a center and met the most awesome leader named Kim.  She made each meeting fun and supported us all.  I used that time to work on losing weight for my wedding but mostly for me.  I wanted to be happy but also a beautiful bride.  And I was….

One of my favorite wedding pics.

My dress was too big.  The seamstress never took it in enough and I was so out of it with seminary graduation and ordination, wedding planning and being on mucho pain pills I think it completely slipped my mind to try on my dress the week of the wedding.  Ooops.  Thank God on of my bridesmaids is pretty handy with a needle and thread.  Otherwise you would have seen my nice bride lacy undies… they were my something blue   It was a great feeling to look so good at the wedding.  Too bad I don’t remember much of it due to the tranquilizer and pain pills.  Apparently I told everyone at the reception that I wanted to end early so I could go to the hotel to do you know what with my new husband… I have no recollection of this but Hunni still cracks up and so do some of our friends

That was the lowest I’d been at 163.5  but wasn’t very fit due to the injury.  Through the move and surgery I gained about 7 pounds.  Now I’ve been fighting with those last 7 pounds for about a year.  I finally got to my goal and I’m stronger and faster than I’ve ever been.  I’m happy to have worked so hard and I’m proud that I stuck it out.  I feel like a new person and I really am.  I feel great.

Over the next week or so I’m going to post some ideas for other mini-goals and a large goal I can do to keep myself motivated without the feedback of the scale.  I’d love some feedback from you lovely readers as I plan my next course

Sorry if you read all of this and it was a lot of repeat of the My Journey page.  But I really am an AFTER now and I’m super excited.

Just the other day!

Thanksgiving Update 22/11/2009

I told you all yesterday that I would post the pics of our Community Thanksgiving Dinner but things were super busy and I didn’t get around to it.  Our community was blessed and we were blessed with the helpful out turn.  Thanks North Adams for another success.

 

Thank you to the North Adams Advisory Board and the Kappa Delta Phi Sorority Sisters for helping set up and serve.  It truly made the day a blessing.  And the food was wonderful.

 

Turkey already?! 21/11/2009

Yep!  For me and my job Turkey Day comes early.  Today is our Community Thanksgiving dinner.  We put this on for the community instead of giving out individual Thanksgiving meal baskets.  It saves us some money and allows the community to come together and enjoy the fellowship.

 

Unfortunately this meant I spent yesterday running around like a chicken turkey with my head cut off.  I cooked and carved two turkeys yesterday, baked 12 pumpkin pies, helped peel and quarter 50 lbs of potatoes, purchased tons of stuff and made lists and checked them twice like Santa… oops wrong holiday.   I don’t think I ever want to see another turkey or pie in my entire life after yesterday.

 

Anyways I’ll be back later and post some pictures of the meal and the people to share with y’all about my fun early Turkey Day.  I just wanted to leave you with some fun Thanksgiving tips I heard at my Weight Watchers meeting over the last two weeks.

 

1. Get some activity in.  Go for a family Turkey Trot or sign up for a race the morning of so tat you get activity in early.  Or make a post meal walk a new tradition.  It will signal the end of eating for the day and the fresh air is wonderful.
2. If it is buffet style do a lap first to pick what you want instead of just loading your plate.
3. Instead of big mounds of potatoes, spread them out a bit to fool your mind into thinking you are eating more.
4. Make it a goal to be able to still see part of the plate after you serve yourself in order to not over do it.
5. Make a tasting plate of desserts so you can enjoy them instead of a few full-sized portions.
6. Remember that Holidays are times to see family and friends and not just food.  Talk to people during the appetizer time to avoid overeating.
7. Bring healthier dishes to the meal.  Something you will feel comfortable eating but still enjoy.  Shrimp or fruit are great things.
8. Enjoy the things you normally don’t eat and pass on things you may get on a regular basis.  My grandfather’s stuffing is special but mashed potatoes are kind of boring.
9. Plan for your weekend meals so that you don’t turn the HoliDAY into a HoliWEEK.  It’s easy to see Black Friday and the weekend as part of the holiday and you are way off track.  Preplanning for those days will help you enjoy Thanksgiving without beating yourself up about overdoing the weekend.
10. Just enjoy it!  It’s a holiday and have fun.  One day will not kill your healthy lifestyle.

Happy Early Thanksgiving!!!

The Aliens Have Landed + Vegan 4 a day 20/11/2009

In preparation for vegan for a day I thought about getting rid of all animal products for the day.  The first thing that jumped into my mind getting rid of that nasty fish smell in our van.  Hunni had a lunch meeting and got his fish and chips to-go which smelled awful.  So on my Target run last night I bought this…

Creepy while driving at night.

It reminded me of an alien spaceship and is really crazy to see in the van while I’m driving.  Hopefully little green men don’t jump out of it.

 

I said yesterday that I was doing the vegan for a day challenge and wanted to eat things I normally would eat so I didn’t feel deprived and my pockets didn’t feel deprived of the money I could have spent on special vegan products.  I want to share a few things with you since they were delicious and fun.

 

Breakfast was boring oats with blueberries and the agave I promised instead of the controversial honey.  I didn’t realize that agave was so thin and sweet.  I had a sugar rush for a good half hour.  No pic since they are boring and nothing out of the ordinary really.

 

Lunch was take-out today since I had a ton on my TO-DO list and was going to have to work through lunch.  The local coffee-house has this amazing salad…

Got in my veggies.

I just asked for no cheese and no bread they normally give you despite the fact that it is one of my favorite parts.  I normally don’t like tofu but this place makes the most amazing grilled tofu on their salads.  I might just have to ask how they prepare it so I can make it at home.  But it was delicious and filling.  Good thing to since my busy day made me not eat a snack and I was starving.

 

I did however make the mistake of ordering my favorite coffee the way I normally do just because I wasn’t thinking.

Almost Vegan Fail.

When Hunni brought it to me it smelled amazing but then I remembered I forgot to ask for it soy.  Good thing I didn’t though because I don’t really like soy and I’m sure they don’t have other alternatives.  So into the fridge it went to be enjoyed tomorrow morning with my oats.

 

Then I was super busy again and quickly made my microwave apple crisp and inhaled it.  I love this almost every day and have a bag of apples in my fruit bowl just for this.

My new favorite.

I might have another one of these tonight since I’m still hungry. This is what happens when I don’t eat on my normal schedule.

 

Dinner was one of my favorites.  Hunni doesn’t like it so I ended up making him pasta and turkey meatballs.  He wrinkled his nose when I told him about the challenge and what I was making for dinner.  He didn’t mind the chili on Monday but he just doesn’t like lime which is one of the key ingredients.  WIthout further ado I present Southwest Black Bean Quinoa Salad.

Look at the colors!

I love my rice cooker because it is useful for many things.  I use it for my quinoa and I made a good bit today.  While it cooked away in my steamy friend (the rice cooker) I steamed some three pepper mix from TJ’s and roasted corn.  Then I added a rinsed can of black beans, a splash of apple cider vinegar, dash of cumin and some salt and pepper to taste.  Gotta love my fancy measuring   Then for the vinaigrette I combined 1/3 cup of lime juice and olive oil.  After my quinoa finished I was classy and threw all the other ingredients into the ricer cooker pot and stirred.  It was divine.  I forgot how much I loved this dish.  And lucky me since Hunni doesn’t like it I have enough for the next few days

 

My thoughts on Vegan for a Day:

• This was pretty easy.  I missed my yogurt in my oats and for my yogurt mess bowls.  But I didn’t miss the cheese on the salad and I might just skip it from now on.  I think sticking to foods I would normally eat helped.

 

• I’m not up for going full vegan or even full vegetarian.  While making Hunni his turkey meatballs for dinner I thought about how nice they would be for Saturday dinner since I have to make it quick.  I do have many full vegetarian days without even trying but I still enjoy the occasional chicken breast or turkey.  However I am pretty confident that from now on our meat will be organic since we don’t eat a ton of it and I was effected by Food Inc.

 

• While this vegan lifestyle isn’t for me I have a new appreciation for how difficult it can be to be vegan.  If it wasn’t for the great places around here that cater to that type of lifestyle I would have had a hard time ordering out.

 

• It was nice to challenge myself and I enjoyed realizing that vegan food doesn’t mean hippy dippy trippy with all veggies.  I enjoyed the food in general and not because it was vegan…it was just good.