Iron Man Challenge

Someone blogged about doing an Iron Man challenge at the Gym a loooooooooooong time ago and I kept this little idea in the back of my mind with the goal of finishing it while I was on summer break.  I had high hopes for my daily abilities and then reality came crashing in.  My original goal had been to do 3-5 miles on the tread and then10 on the bike until I could get the marathon out of the way and then focus on the swimming.  I had PLANNED on starting the first week of summer...and just started yesterday.  So here are my running tallies:

D1:
Run/Walk: 1.77 miles (24.43 miles to go)
Bike: 6.26 miles (105.74 miles to go)
Swim: 0 (90 laps to go)

D2:
Run/Walk 1.66 miles (22.77 miles to go)
Bike: 5.91 miles (99.83 left to go)
Swim: 0 (90 laps to go)

Boy-O is this going to take a while! I have .... wait I am NOT going to calculate how many days left of summer I have left! I don't wanna know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:)

first week of ReBoot

Down 8.5 pounds! I love the way low carb works for me!  I know a lot of people do well on other diets but the low carb way works for me.  I'm not sure I'm ready to give up cheese and go Paleo but the more I read about it the more I like it! 

So, this week's goals:
Stay on track with induction
Get my exercise in
drink more water
and plan out what the family will eat so that I'm not a crazy person at 4 o'clock trying to figure it out!

:)

Diet Reboot

Ok the last...5 months (yikes) have been horribly stressful.  So stressful that I consciously decided I could not diet and just decided to concentrate on surviving this last half of the school year.  All I can say is it was bad and I'm not working at that school anymore.  So, after all the dust settled down.  Sunday night Gretchen and I had a long discussion about how to reboot our diets.  She had gained weight back and I had but didn't know because I stopped stepping on the scale when I had to pull out my size 16 pants again.

So time for a diet reboot:
1. We will text or morning weigh ins to each other as we are now capable of saying them aloud to each other!
2. We will exercise 4x a week and journal what we eat at least 4x a week (Journaling every day is best we know but we chose to start with 4xs and the rest of the week to be aware of what we were eating)
3. We will not punish ourselves because we realize we are not cured of our food issues...if it were easy no one would be fat!
4. We will make two week goals and if we can't make those two week goals then we put a 20 on the fridge as a reminder to ourselves that we hate loosing but don't want to compete against each other but against ourselves and the fridge money!
5. We will think of a reward that has meaning to us and do it! (Neither of us could come up with something we wanted badly enough as a reward so we're taking the time to figure something out for ourselves.)
6. Daily chats are motivational and when one of us goes down the diet hole of stress/depression/unhappiness the other does too so try to see the triggers and be a good buddy!

That's all I could remember!  My starting weight for the diet reboot was 203....so bad...so bad...but it is onwards and downwards from here!

13 days til this Diet Pact reaches it's 1st birthday!

I was looking at my Google home page and notice I it was only 13 days until the one year mark.  I lost this week's bet by a half a pound and I was discouraged so I looked up my BMI stats to see how close I am from being just over weight as apposed to being obese.  I am only 3.4 pounds away from that milestone.

I sense a personal mini-challenge: to lose that 3.4 pound within the next 13 days and then in the space of a year I will have gone from Morbidly Obese to Obese to just Over Weight!  I think...I know I can do it! he he I'm excited! 

Week 3 observations

Week 3 started out soooo good it has ended this weekend with a 2 pound gain! sigh.  Its not that I'm not motivated I am, kinda, I am just having a sluggish week.  I have exercised my 3 times with my 4th after I finish this blog and Joseph finishes Animal Mechanicals.  It has been dreary here in MD and I just feel like hunkering down with a blanket and hibernating with a good book and oh yeah...lots of sweets.  Maybe I need more Vitamin D or just being outside more! or maybe that special Auntie Flo is going to visit soon and I get such bad sweets cravings when she comes.  Or MAYBE I've just been slacking and not wanting to take responsibility for it, either way...I have 3 pounds to lose next week or I owe $20!  Nothing like a little pressure :)

This paragraph is going to sound really strange after the one I just wrote...lol!  I was a work this week when I was asked by someone asked me how I'd lost all of my weight, because, you know, they'd like to lose some weight too.  When people tell me this I get really excited because I love sharing and helping people begin a journey to a better them.  So I say that my sister and friend and I made a bet.  (usually they are intrigued) and I explain how we started with the exercise bet (10 weeks 4X a week or you owe $100).  They are usually nodding and thinking about what they wouldn't want to give $100 bucks to and then I talk about the Diet Pact ($10 buy in and $20 bucks into the pot if you don't make your preplanned weight loss).  Again there will be lots of nodding.  Then they always ask, 'what did you *DO*  to lose the weight?'(like I have a magic pill or something {Gods, wouldn't it be easier if there was a magic pill?}) and I see it coming once the first syllable leaves my lips, "I did Atkins," now they grimace and don't even hear "but my sister did Weight Watchers" They always say, oh I could never give up bread/pasta/potatoes/fill in misc carb!  Obviously they've missed the whole point! Find a diet that you can do and do it with a friend! Plan out your exercise!

I love our little diet pact, I love our exercise bet!  I love doing Atkins! I have never felt bummed I couldn't eat bread/pasta/potatoes/fill in misc carb!  I liked Weight Watchers when I did it years ago...I just like Atkins better.  When I tell my sister this story she says, "Rachel, they aren't ready yet."  Holly says, "Rachel, you are putting on your superman cape and trying to save them all and sometimes they have to save themselves!"  My inevitable response is, "I know but...." sigh. "ok."

Maybe I should practice in the mirror:

Curious Person: I heard that you lost a lot of weight, how did you do it?
Me shrug, "Exercise and watching what I eat."   
Curious Person then what?
Me ...um...shrug, "Exercise and watching what I eat." 
Curious person: really that's all?!?!
Me shrug, "Exercise and watching what I eat."

I'm not sure this'll work, as I am not good at keeping secrets or things I am passionate about close to the vest.

First 2 weeks done and boy was it a ride!

For the first two weeks of our new diet pact I had some very dramatic ups and downs.  Now I'm not sure if it is because I used a lot of Atkins treats (as they are a crutch for me when I start as a gap filler for giving up sweets) or if it is because I started P90X and have been working out at least an hour 4 times a week or some combo of both.  At one point I was certain that I would owe $20 bucks on my first weigh in because I had 4 days to loose 3 pounds or some crazy thing like that.  But in the end I pulled was able to loose my 2 pounds in two weeks.  I think I actually lost (calculating...) 2.8 pounds! Nice job for me!  Here are my numbers for the past two weeks and you can see why I was sweating those last 4 days:

Date	weight
10-Jan	194.2
11-Jan	192.8
12-Jan	191.4
13-Jan	192.4
14-Jan
15-Jan	193.2
16-Jan	194
17-Jan	195
18-Jan	194.6
19-Jan
20-Jan	194.4
21-Jan	193.6
22-Jan	192.6
23-Jan	191.5
24-Jan	191.4

I think for the next 2 weeks I am going to get my journal out and write down what I eat for 2 weeks (bleck! I hate writing it down!).  I think it will a) help me plan out the day a bit more and b) make me accountable to how MANY treats I allow myself.   

My exercise plan is the same: work out 4 times using P90X.  This weekend the hubby and I have been looking at free weights...man are those things EXPENSIVE!  Maybe I'll just plan on purchasing one set at a time.  I went to Target to test out the 10 pound weight and I don't think I'm ready for it, maybe the 8 pound.  We'll see :)  I haven't bought any yet.  I'm going to give myself another week at the 5 pound hand weights. 

My Non-Scale Victory this week; I was able to do 100 girly push ups!  Not all at once but during the Chest and shoulders (?) routine of the P90X.  My goal for this week is to try and do half of those this week as regular manly man push ups (no knees involved!). OH! and I fit into a size 12 from Old Navy! So, in 11 months I've lost 10 dress sizes! :D  Now, they were tight and some of my size 14s from the thrift store are also a smidgen tight, so I'm not giving up all of my 16s but they are certainly getting baggy by the end of the day.  They haven't reached the uncomfortably too big stage but I can see it coming.

I am looking at my numbers and by the end of two more weeks I should be in the 180s! omg!  I haven't been there since....college? So, 15+ years !

I forget how addicting exercise can be!

After taking virtually the ENTIRE month of December off of exercising, this week I exercised 4 times and I forgot how addictive it is and how great I feel afterward.  It amazes me how much better I am able to deal with stress as well this week having an exercise regime to look forwards to after a long day of first-ies!

And the even better news, I was able to do 100 girly push ups this morning! omg! I did it! 1-0-0!

And the EVEN even  better news, I put on my inspiration size 12 jeans this morning and I could zip 'em up! now they are a little snug but they fit!!!! sweet!

Day 3 of pact

Good news first: NONE of us have to have a $50 buy in, which means we were all able to keep it under 3 pounds since the beginning of November! Back in November when we ended our first bet we said that we could have the rest of Nov and Dec off because we had to be in reality and we have to learn how to survive holidays without dieting and just focus on maintaining.  So in order to keep ourselves honest we said that when we started our new bet on the 10th of Jan that we had to be under 3 pounds from where we were that day.  Yay us,....now for me that doesn't mean I didn't poke that 3 pound ceiling with my pinky and almost go over because I did...I was sweating that I would owe $50.  In the end I was .6 pounds under what I was the day of the end of our bet!

Now for the eh news...I started Atkins again on Saturday (halfheartedly) and fully on Monday and I am still having cravings for something sweet.  I am trying REALLY hard to determine if I am truly hungry or if I am just craving sugar because I am eating none or am I stressed and want something soothing, (which for me has always been sweets, hense the need for a diet pact...sigh, the vicious cycles we put ourselves through).

The Exercise news - I started PX90 or P90X (what ever it is) and LOVE it.  I totally modify the knee stuff and yup I still hate the yoga because Tom Horton loves those upwards and downwards dogs with a flying knee lift swing through to warrior.  But I still love it and start to get that itchy wanna exercise with the dorky Tom Horton feeling!  I really like the little worksheets he made up! (Why didn't I think of that for the Beach Body Series?) Why do I like Tom Horton instead of Jillian Micheals and her 30 day shred? Well he MODIFIES everything! he gives you a basic way to do an exercise a moderate way to do the exercise and then the hard core way! and he is big on "If you can't do it, hit the pause button, take a quick break, we'll be here when you are ready again!" I love that! instead of "there are no modifications for jumping jacks...I have 400 pound people doing them...so CAN you" blah blah blah Jillian! The other reason I love the Beach Body stuff is that when it is a weight lifting day, I can do the exercises and watch Criminal Minds or what ever I have TIVO'd because I have the worksheets or routine he does!  LOVE IT! 

I was going to try and get up and exercise before I went to school (I used to do this years and years ago, BC = before children) and convinced my husband to set the alarm for 5.  Have I exercised yet at 5? NO! have I woken him and myself up at 5 every morning with the alarm clock? YES! After I had...wait...even before Joseph was born, when I was still pregnant with him I became a very light sleeper bordering on an insomniac and so I do not get a full 7 or 8 hours of sleep ever, EVER! so unless I want to give up my one hour of mommy time after the kids go to bed at 8, then I guess I am not going to be a morning exerciser....sigh.  Something to look forward to when they are both in grade school. :)

It's a new year and a new diet pact!

10 Days and counting til we start.

Why the 10 days? Because I hate new years resolutions that start on the 1st, I always feel like I've set myself up for failure when I have been a total pig from the 24th through the 31st. So, I need a week of back to somewhat normal before I dive into a bet.  So the new and improved (hee hee) diet pact will start on the 10th of January.  Here are the rules:

Diet Pact - 10 weeks on 1 week of rest for a total of 3 sessions

1. If we gained past the 3 pounds we gave ourselves our buy in is $50 if not it is $10 (I'm hoping I don't owe 50!)
2. Each 2 week interval we will set a goal for ourselves weight loss wise, it is what you personally think you can loose.  Some 2 week I intervals I choose a pound a week if it is a difficult time temptation wise (big birthday coming up or a big project is due) I usually say a half a pound a week because life does have to go on around you.
3. If goal is not achieved then $20 is put into the pot to be divided up at the end of the 32 weeks
4. 5K to be run at the Sweet Pea Festival in Montana in August as a celebration of the end of our pact.

• Session 1 - January 10th - March 20th 
• Week of rest - March 21th - March 27th (hmm, some sort of limit of weight gain might have to be imposed, we will see how we feel when we get to the end of March)
• Session 2 - March 28th - June 5th
• Week of rest - June 6th - June 12th
• Session 3 - June 13th - August 21st

Exercise Bet - to coincide with Diet Pact - 10 weeks on with 1 week of rest for 3 sessions

1. Each person determines the number of times they will exercise in a given week, mine is usually 4X a week.
2. If you fail to exercise that many times you have to donate 100 dollars to a something you despise.   Mine would be someone's reelection fund.  Yours might be buy into a dating service or purchasing a nice leather jacket with someone's sports team that you despise and giving it to them.  It is all about finding something that motivates you not to give in to the couch potato in us all!