Here we are!! It took 7 weeks!! Not worth it!!!

Just to re-cap my daughter was married at the end of May and before the wedding I had hit my lowest weight 152. Unfortunately reducing my exercise to mostly just walking and not watching what I was eating I regained 10 pounds. I was shocked when I stepped on the scale. The good part of it was it re-lit the fire for me to get back on track. So after 6 weeks of eating better and exercising I was able to get the 10 pounds back off. Week 7 was a maintain week and that is okay. I just keep thinking 7 weeks to get back where I was, it is a hard pill to swallow. May 28th I weighed my lowest and now here I am August 11th and I am just now getting back to that weight. So I lost. So really I lost like 10 weeks of moving on to a new level to going backwards and then moving back to the same place.

You know as I reflect I realize this was a time of growth for me. A time for me to realize I am not at a place in life where I can back down on exercise, I am not in a place where I can allow my trigger foods in my house, I am not in a place where I can stop growing personally, I am not in a place where I can allow my self to indulge. Will I ever hit this place I really am beginning to wonder. I seem to get off track and roll uncontrollably downhill like small snowball building in size as rolls down the hill. That is me I seem to gain speed and build back bad habits way too quickly.

The question is how do I fix this? That is what I need to figure out. I am refocused now but I need to find what is going to keep me this way. What is going to keep me from snowballing again?

I am not much of a writer but I write this blog to show my struggles and this helps me to be accountable as I know this will be read by others.

Oh I am extremely happy that my husband has joined my journey to get healthy and he has lost 20 pounds since the 1st of the year. 10 before the wedding and 10 over the last 7 weeks. To be an encouragement for him is such a great thing for me. He has been with me through this whole journey. I thank God for him everyday.

Before I close this post let me just encourage you, if you fall off your journey get back on as quickly as you can, do not let your mishaps discourage you and keep you away from your goal.We can do this!! We can do this together!!!

Update: Since the Wedding

Wow! What a journey this last 6 months have been. Preparing for my only daughter to marry while on my own journey to a healthy and fit lifestyle. Life sometimes gets in the way more than we think it should. We sometimes have to take a look back and say I really did the best I could. This does not always mean it brought about the results we wanted but we really did all we could. The build up to the wedding was crazy and I did get down to 152 which I was okay with, not necessarily my goal, but I tried everything I could to go lower and it just did not happen. I am okay with my size I feel okay with the pictures, I really just did not want to be looking at pictures of myself that were not flattering.

The wedding was beautiful and our family had a fantastic time watching my daughter and her wonderful young man join together in the sight of God. They will be a great couple and I look forward to watching them grow up together.

The Wedding was at the end of May. The adjustment to having my daughter gone has been a bit hard. We spent so much time together and I miss her. She is so good to include me in her life and to spend time with me but you know it is just not the same. 

The wonderful thing I do have to mention in this, is the growth of the relationship between my youngest son and me. We are spending more time together walking and talking. We are even going to train for a 5k in Sept.

I have tried to keep this blog real and raw because I know the struggles I have some of you may have as well. I avoided posting this because it was just to humbling to admit my numbers. I decided yesterday that one of the ways I connect with some of you, is indeed that fact that I am a work in progress. I struggle and fall just like some of you. With this in mind I decided I would post the the results of June. 

I am not sure when I weighed before June 21st but I know I was 152 at the last weigh in. In May and June I did exercise fairly well but I did not watch what I ate and most of my exercise was just walking. Walking is a good from of exercise but I was used to doing much more than that.  

My husband and I decided to try weight watchers and we weighed in on 6/21 and much to my horror I weighed 162 :0. I was shocked! I was thinking I had gained maybe like 5 ponds but 10. Oh my goodness! Will I never learn, that was my exact thought. Some day I will beat this yo yo thing and maintain a healthy weight. I am working on it and I do believe I will get there, but just like every other journey we take in life there are ups and downs. We can get discouraged and give up or we can buckle down and start again. I really do not have a choice. I have decided to regain my level of fitness from my youth so I must not give up. I have to get back on the path to a helathy lifestyle. 

So, here I am 2.5 weeks of the new chapter of my life and I am doing well. I am back to doing turbofire for my workouts and I have lost 5 of the 10 pounds I gained. I am encouraged and ready to get things going. It is great to have my husband join in the journey with me. So, together we will just keep trucking along. In the future I look forward to saying "I am here I reached my goal." 

I invite each of you to begin, restart or just keep plugging along on your journey to well being. It will be worth it. For me it has meant less pain. No more pain in my knees, I removed the arch supports from my shoes and me feet are no longer killing me every single day, my back is better, my left hip is now pain free, my right hip has less pain and I can actually sleep on it. I hope some day for that pain to be gone as well, I have increased strength in every part of my body and no longer take my acid reflux medicine and I am no longer a risk for diabetes. All these things took time and I noticed changes slowly on my journey from the beginning weight of 222. I can absolutely tell you it has all been worth it. 

Join me, let's end this trend of obesity together, 1 pound at a time.

One week of low carbs the Dukan diet

Alright maybe I am a little consumed with losing these last 12 ponds. Maybe my focus is on the fact I am not where I want to be rather than how far I have come. I have accomplished a lot. I am down 70 pounds, I am no loner at risk of becoming a diabetic, my hips, knees, and feet no longer kill me all day. I removed the arch supports from my shoes. I am much much stronger. I am indeed happy with my progress but still want more.
One big desire for me was to look fit in my daughter's wedding's pictures. Well the wedding is almost here and I am trying my best to drop more pounds. I decided I would give the Dukan Diet a try.
The Dukan Diet is based around eating high-protein foods while severely limiting all carbohydrates including fruits, starchy vegetables, legumes and whole grains. Unlike the Atkins diet the emphasis is on sources of protein that are low in fat such as fish, poultry and reduced-fat dairy products.

 since it allows low fa dairy I am hoping o fair well with this unlike other low cab diets that reduce your carbs so low that it makes me sick.

Today is day 2 and so far I doing well on this diet. I will do my weigh on Sat after 3 days since the 1st stage is recommended to do 3 - 6 days. Then I can determine if I need to move to the next stage or continue on the active stage.

I have made a deal with myself the first part is if this diet makes me ill in anyway I will quit and just go back to clean eating. Second no matter the results of this diet I will know in my heart that I truly did the most I could to prepare  for this wedding physically just accept my fitness for that day. I will continue this journey and I do know one day I will be fit.

I am so excited for this wedding and the joining of my daughter and her future husband. Unlike the pictures she dug up for her wedding shower in which many I had her cut me out of. I will be proud of how far I have come when I look at the pictures. I will know I did my all.

1 week of modified low carbs

I want to go back and post about my time on low carb for 1 week. The first few days came with a light headache and tiredness. By day 4 the sugar cravings were gone but on day 5 I was craving carbs a lot. I made it through the day and day 6 was much better. Day 7 was a long emotional day I did stay low carb but I did not eat enough which is odd for me since I am an emotional eater.


I weighed in this morning with a 1 pound weight loss. I am happy for 1 but wanted more. I was very active during this week I exercised 6 days and averaged 6758 steps a day. I also drank plenty of water.

So what mods did I make. I drank shakeology everyday which is 15 carbs, I ate some fruits and veggies everyday. I did not eat any starches or breads. I did have a couple of zone bars which varied in carbs with about 15 as average. Okay I know some are thinking this was not a low carb diet at all. However, I cut a lot of my carbs and know this was low for me. In the past I tried Adkins low carb induction phase and I was very sick from it so I know i can not go under 25 carbs a day or I get ill. I did not write down my average carbs but I am guessing 35 - 40.

I did eat some carbs today and plan on going back to low carb for another week tomorrow. I am going to be much stricter this time. I am looking at another low carb way in hopes of getting more pounds off by the wedding.

I spoke to Steve Edwards on a beachbody chat yesterday and he suggested I eat clean and stick with it the last pounds can be difficult to get off but will eventually come off. I found much encouragement in this. I still am a bit frustrated but I will persevere and not give up. 

I will let you know my plan for the next 7 days as soon as I decide.

Results of May's Cleanse

Shakeoloy

Well I finished the 3 day shakeology cleanse. The instructions for it are under the shakeology folder on the right.

It all went well and really helped cut out my cravings. I felt energized and I really slept well last night. I am now completely off of all artificial sweeteners and it is great, I am happy with the results. I lost 2 pounds but the great part its that it removed the water gain in my abdomen area. I plan on starting turbofire today and counting calories for the next 3 days. 

3 Day Shakeology Cleanse

Today was day 2 and I can already see the water weight gone from my tummy. I can not wait until I see what tomorrow brings. This is my push start to get more pounds off before the wedding. I am taking it easy with exercise these 3 days but plan on crushing it starting Friday.

Healthy lifestyle is the place for me
Clean eating is the life for me


I was trying to write a song to the tune of the song from green acres but I just could not get it. So I left it for a laugh and maybe you can help me finish it.

Goals for May

This is going to be a crazy, busy, insane month. I am determined to have a great month with lots of personal growth, lots of business growth and lots of fitness growth.
My goals are:
Daily devotions
Daily Prayer
Do not let myself be drawn back into eating emotionally
Eat Clean
Exercise 6 days a week
Do 3 days cleanse on Tues May 3rd through Thurs May 5th
Plant my garden
Read 10 mins a day and listen to 15 mins a day of recommended cd's

Results for April, Getting real!!!

     Well here I am at the end of April and I am not at all satisfied with the month. This was a tough month. I ended up sick and not able to exercise for a couple of weeks and I made bad food choices as well. The end result unfortunately is that I am up 3 pounds. This is a bit frustrating. I now have 15 pounds to lose and the wedding is 4 weeks away. I know I will probably drop the first 3 pretty quickly as it is probably mostly water weight from not drinking enough water.
     As I pondered the month I began to think why is it? Why does eating right and exercise go hand in hand. Why is it when I exercise I indeed make better food choices but when I am ill not able to exercise I fall right back into the bad choices again. I return to that road of self destruction. I think it is when I am exercising my self esteem is higher, my self worth is greater, my focus on getting fit is stronger. When I am already feeling down all the negative thoughts come back to my mind. Just so I do not  feed them, I will not try and think of them all and I will not post them on here. you probably know them but do not try and think of then either.
     It is as if the progress I had made with my emotional eating had just completely regressed. It is as if an addiction that I had been fighting to over come had won once again. It is as if I had lost all will power and lost yet another battle with this monster. I wonder will this monster ever be put to sleep? Will it ever move out of my temple to never return? Will I ever be free from this temptation? This temptation to let food pacify me when I am not feeling well or when life is tough.
     I also think why do I do this to myself. Does the food really help me to feel better? Does it help me to heal quicker? Does it make me more content? Does it give me more energy? Does it give me a better attitude? Does it help in anyway whatsoever? The odd thing is the answer to every single question above is a loud and resounding "NO". How strange!! How odd!! Then why do I do this? Why do I fall? You know the hardest thing to admit is that the food makes everything worse. I feel worse when I do not eat right. Here I am again wondering why do I do this?
     Let's take a moment and rephrase the questions above. Does the food really help me to feel worse? Does it slow my to healing process? Does it make me less content? Does it give me less energy? Does it give me a worse attitude? Does it hurt in anyway whatsoever? Now the answers would all be "yes". Here I am again wondering why do I do this? This is the tough question, this is the answer I need to find. Finding this answer will not solve my problem completely but it will help me find a solution. It will set me on the right track to overcome this monster, to overcome this weakness, to overcome this sin. It will help me to keep my mind and body healthy and fit.
     So here I am today with the drive to start again. To refuel my mind and body and to refocus on the end, refocus on my goal. My goal is to improve my life by improving my physical and mental health. Seeking to find something positive in this month I have to remind myself that this restart is at 155 not at 222,199,187,167 but this time it is at 155. This time it is at the lowest ever, this time I stopped the self destruction early on and did not let it defeat me as I have in the past. This is a big accomplishment. This is a positive move for me. This is a sign that I am slowly binding up this monster. I will rejoice in the day this monster is bond and ejected from my life. That day will come. This is process, this is my journey, this is my life.
     This post is for me as well as those of you that chose to read it. It is for me to see my mistakes, yet to see my victory in stopping the process earlier than ever before, it is for me to continue to ponder the shy and to find the answer. It is for you to see your not alone in your battles, it is to reassure  you as well as I that we can overcome this. It is for you and I to encourage and help to keep one another be accountable. It is for us to bond in our similar struggles & to celebrate our accomplishments.
     I am on journey to change my life and to be a healthy woman. Join me and we will overcome our struggles. Even if your struggles are different believe in the most basic way all of our struggles have something in common, we are somehow broken and we need to fix ourselves.

Goals for April

I just look at the calendar and realized my daughter's wedding is in 56 days. As of my last weigh in on March 24th I still had 12 pounds to lose. I will weigh in again on Tues April 5th, I am hoping for a loss. I am upping my exercise and getting stricter on my eating until the wedding. I am down 70 pounds and I am proud of that but I really would like to lose 12 more pounds. I am not sure if the 12 will be my final weight but it is my "let's check and see how it is".
These are my goals for April.
Clean eating, journal food on http://www.fitbit.com/foods/log drink shakeology every day, exercise 6 days a week and take at least 6000 steps everyday.
What are yours?

How does one find themselves overweight and unhappy? Part 3

So here I am again posting my story. This is the last installment on how I got to 222. As explained in other parts of this story I am or shall say was an emotional eater. I would turn to food when my emotions were high or low. I have almost overcome this but it creeps in every once and a while and I have to remind myself what the results were in the past. In 2001 I started going through constant pain. It was debilitating at times. In Jan of 2001 I woke up with intense pain in my side I was not sure what it was and the doctors could not figure it out. The pain lasted for about 2 hours then it went away. After this episode things went down hill. By June of that year the pain had started moving up my body and was a constant pain. From my hips up it hurt all the time. My shoulders were the worst. There were even times when I just could not even hold my head up. Lifting my arms much pass my chest was hard and I would have to force myself to  even wash my hair. My energy level had fallen to almost zero. I had to quit just about everything. At times I could not even drive. Showers would wear me out and I would have to nap after any activity including showers. My quality of life was horrible. Migraines were almost a daily occurrence.
I seen lots of doctors and they finally labeled it as fibromyalgia. They tested for lupus and MS. I started taking meds which never really helped. Grape seed extract helped the most as well as bovine colostrum. I started getting shots every month which included 4 days of 14 -20 shots per area. I received shots in were both shoulders as well as both hips.
The lower ab pain continues to get worse. The lower ab pain was so bad and I had no idea the lower ab pain was even related to anything else.  I was seeing doctor after doctor, they tested for everything. This lasted for over 3 years. In July of 2004 I had a complete hysterectomy because of severe endometriosis. After the surgery we found out all my pain was related to the endo.
You might be wondering how this is related. It is related because during this time I turned to food on bad days and we ate out way too much because I just was not up to the task of cooking. Oh I prayed and I trusted God to pull me though this but at night when I was alone and hurting, food would make me feel better, for a little while anyway.
If there is one thing I would like to do is help people who deal with emotional eating. One of the first things I had to do was admit to this problem. This was the hardest step.
Today one of the nest things to help with this is a food journal. who wants to track binges. Not me!!!
So here I am now down to 152. It has been a long road to get here. I am determined to lose the last 12 pounds and to never walk this path again. Come join me!!! I am here to help!! To share the victories and failures of my journey.

Tough Couple of weeks

The last few weeks have been difficult for me. I have fallen off my eating a few times and missed some exercises while I was ill. I really realize how important this mental challenge is for me. I need to exercise if at all possible and make good food choices as well. When I miss exercising my body definitely feels it and when I eat bad I feel that as well. So why do I make such bad choices at times? I am still fighting the emotional battle with food. I am getting stronger and winning more times than failing but my goal is to fail even less. I still lost another pound so I am happy about that. I have 12 pounds to lose before the wedding in May. I need to stay focus and get back on my menu plan.

Shakeology 3 Days cleanse

I weighed in today after my 3 days shakeology cleanse. I was very pleased with the results. I lost 3 pounds and .5 inches around my belly button. I am now down to 30.1% body fat. I still have 13 pounds to lose by May 28th.

I really did not have any problem doing the 3 day cleanse. mentally it was pretty easy since all I had to do is remind myself it was only for 3 days. The shakes are good so that was not a problem. I would drink my last shake about an hour before going to bed so I would not wake up hungry. I walked one day and did yoga one day and except for shopping I did not exercise the third day.

I felt really good on the cleanse. My right eye did twitch a bit on day one. I usually only get eye twitching when I take in too much sugar or caffeine so that was rather odd. I had a slight headache on day 2. Everyday I was ready for my salad by the me dinner rolled around. But after eating the sald it wa easy to finish up the day.

This was is the first time I ever did something like this. I will make this part of my regular routine now. At the end of each 90 day exercise cycle I will do a 3 day cleanse.

After today I have 2 more days before I start back on my exercise routine. I will be doing Chalean extreme with turbjam mixed in. I am excited to mix turbojam in this time as  do love it so much. I also plan on eating cleaner and moving more just in normal daily activites.

90 days of Chalean Extreme

Here are my current numbers. Over the last 2 weeks I gained 1 pound then lost that plus another one. I am now 16 pounds from my goal. :) The last 30 days of Chalean Extreme I lost 3 pounds and 3.5 inches. The total lost for the 90 days is 6 pounds and 7.25 inches. I will now take the next week as my rest week will only be walking or doing yoga. I will start the shakeology cleanse tomorrow.

How does one find themselves overweight and unhappy? Part 2

Well here I am again to tell a bit more of my story. Let me tell you this is so hard for me to post all of this because as a Christian woman I feel it shows lack of trust, Lack of trust in God as I seemed to turn to food more than God. Oh believe me I spent time praying and I believed he would heal me but food still seemed to draw me in. I guess it was my sinful nature taking over.
As I talked in the first post of the Pericarditis and how hard it was on my body to recover I often think if I had not been in pretty good shape how much harder it would of been. Following this condition for years I knew if I got sick it would mean pneumonia. Then all of a sudden I contracted strept, It would not go away for about 2 years Laura and I were on an antibiotic to get rid of this. We would get well and then boom it would be back again finally after being sent to a ears, nose and throat specialist we discovered my tonsils needs removed. The strept was living in craters in my tonsils and the antibiotics were not killing it at all.
At 35 they removed my tonsils and that was not fun but I seem to feel better and I got my sense of smelling back.
I was still not back to exercising or eating better. The stept was gone but again my body was just torn apart from all the antibiotics and it took awhile to regain my immunity. A matter of fact I finally started getting pneumonia shots to try and prevent pneumonia.
This puts in about 1999 and now my weight was hovering around 200 pounds. My feet, hips, and knees hurt all the time. I wish I would started working out then. I wish I would of found Chalene and her workouts. I would diet and lose weight but I just could not stay on it and it would come back. I did Atkins for awhile and got down to 162 but as soon as I stopped it I gained 10 pounds and then eventually I was back hovering around 200 again.
I will do one more part to talk about getting up to 222. 
I want end this post on a positive note. Here I am today at 158 and I am working hard toward 140 and this time it is different because I am losing weight in a healthy manner and plan on sticking to this for the rest of my life. It has been hard to lose this weight I do not want to ever have to do this again. Between clean eating and exercise I will achieve my goals. Thanks to beachbody for Chalean Extreme, turbojam, P90x, power 90 and the diet plans. I also like being able to log my workouts into the WOWY supergym.

How does one find themselves overweight and unhappy? Part 1

I am sure we all have stories to tell and mine is not different from some of yours. I dealt with extreme emotions by eating. Whether I was extremely happy or extremely sad I turned to food.

In 1996 I weighed 138 pounds and was working on getting the last 10 pounds off when my health declined and I had to stop exercising and starting eating without thought as to what I was eating. I was diagnosed with Pericarditis which is a condition in which the sac-like covering around the heart (pericardium) becomes inflamed. This took everything my body had to fight it and about 9 months to recover fully and at least 6 months on steroids. It was so difficult on my body that for years to follow every time I got sick I would get pneumonia my immune system was just shot. I had to stay away from everyone that was sick to protect myself from even most common colds. This is the first health issue I had to deal with. I will post more soon on the next fight against strept.

Let me just close today by saying whatever decisions or actions you have made to get you where you are today it is never too late to change. I started my changes as 46 year old women who was over 200 pounds. Yes, it has been slow but it is so worth it. Just decide, commit and succeed. I am here to help you just let know you need some help.

Back in the Saddle Again

After being sick today is the day to get back on track. I will get back to clean eating and finish the week strong exercising. I will wrap up my Chalean Extreme final push week and start my lean phase on Sunday. I will also be measuring and doing more pictures on Sunday as well. I am excited about the new pictures because I can see changes. If you want to join me on this workout remember beachbody has it on sale for the rest of January for $30 off. Believe me it will definitely change your life. Just checkout my link on the left.

Shakeology

I committed to having a shake a day and it has been great. I seem to have more energy and I am becoming more regular. I love this thickness of the shakes and the recipe options are endless. If you do not know what shakeology is jut click on the link to the left. Or view video at the end of my blog

Today is day 150 on my journey to a healthier me with Chalean

Although my journey began much earlier this entry is all about how 1 suggestion from my husband changed my life and lives of my family and friends. I had started trying to regain my life by eating better and exercising after being obese for many years prior to these 150 days. How you might wonder did I get obese well it was all about bad choices. Yes, I could and have blamed it on health issues but when my head hits my pillow at night I have to face the truth it was about me and "yes" I said me. It was about me making bad choices. One bad choice after another led to a weight gain of 84 pounds.

One night as my husband was watching TV and he saw the Beachbody Turbo Jam commercial. This was August of 2010. He had me watch it and asked if I thought I could do it and if I would like it, Of course I said sure it looked like fun. At this time I had committed to exercise so I could see myself doing this workout.

At 47 and the only exercise I had been doing was my treadclimber and some strength training you can imagine my reaction when I started doing this routine. First of all, I am not the most coordinated person out there and every movement seemed to get me heart rate up. Yet I stuck with it 6 days a week for the 90 days suggested. Each time feeling a little stronger and a little more coordinated. During the 90 days I also used some of the p90x like the ab ripper X and the X stretch. I used Power90 for some of the strength training and quickly moved up from levels 1/2 to 3/4.

I also started eating clean and making better choices. This was the first 90 days to the new life I had chosen. I really did not know how much my life was going to change. There has been so many changes from health issues going away to my self image improving greatly and now here I am venturing on a whole new avenue as I become a beachbody coach. It is not only about building a business it is about helping others find their way back to health. I have been so humbled to be helping friends and family find their way and I am even more excited to help new friends I meet on this path.

Let's move on to how the first 90 days worked out for me. I weighed 165 at the beginning of Turbojam and wore a tight size 12 jeans. I lost 3 pounds but 13.25 inches. My jeans changed to a comfortable size 10. I was very pleased with these changes. 

As I neared the end of the 90 days I was faced with what to do next. I decided to do Chalean Extreme because I love Chalene Johnson!!! So today I am in my last week of the push phase and I will weigh in and measure Monday or Tuesday. I am excited this time to see the measurements since I can see big changes. The first 30 days of Chalean Extreme I lost 2 pounds  and 2.75 inches. 

I am much stronger both physically and cardiovascularly.  This gives you just a small tidbit of my journey. I will be breaking this done into my details as the days come along.