Checking In From The Injured Reserves List

Sorry...DH has had football on all day. :D If you follow me on Twitter then you know I broke my foot late last month. As a result I am not allowed to walk. At. All. That also means no exercise of any real value. At. All. Go me. Needless to say that leaves me on the couch and gaining weight. I do not know how much I weigh right now as I have been unable to actually stand on a damn scale to weigh in. Sigh. I am going to attempt to do some crunches and leg lifts on the floor this week...we shall see how this goes. Otherwise I am out of action.

If you have followed this blog this year then you are aware of the various setbacks I have faced all year. So please excuse me while I go have a freaking hissy-fit.

Okay...that's better. I mean honestly, I can't see 2011 end fast enough. Hopefully my health problems will go with it. Anyhoo. I will let you all know how the exercise attempts go while I wear the "Boot of all Evil" also known as the walking cast that I cannot walk in. Enough whining, I have editing to do. Have a great week!

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Hello everyone! I am Trish and thrilled to be part of the Twitloss community! I have been on my weight loss journey forever for 2 years. During that time I have lost 70lbs. This is me, before and after.

 

I still have about 35 more pounds to go before I reach my 1st big goal. This last year has been the hardest. I have been working on loosing the same 5-7lbs. Up & Down. It seems the longer your on this journey the harder it becomes. Or maybe....it's because your tired, or you slip into a little bit of laziness. For me, the excitement of it has dwindled down, our schedule has gotten a little crazier and I suffered a hip injury in July during a run. I love running. I am not that good at it, but I love it. I can't run and some of the higher impact exercises make my hip scream. Instead of doing other things, I have been in maintenance mode. Which is ridiculous, because really why would I want to maintain a weight of 213lbs? So many excuses, blah, blah, blah!

A couple of weeks ago I was reading Dr Seuss to my 6 year old son. As I was reading, I had an AH HA moment. The book brought me back to the beginning of my journey. I know you are thinking, Dr Seuss and weight loss? Dr Seuss is brilliant I tell you. Let me just point out what I mean.

This is the 1st little paragraph from Oh, the Places You'll Go!

"Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

I smiled, Today is MY day (to start again)!

"You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose."

I can steer myself back in the right direction.

"I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you."

Oh I am hung up alright!

"And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun,
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done."

Oh preach it Dr. Seuss, I'm listening!


"NO!
That's not for you!
Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying. 
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing."

This is where I am getting all excited. Boom Bands for me, is that feeling you get inside yourself. That, oh I can do this!

"I'm afraid that sometimes
you'll play lonely games too
Games you can't win
'cause you'll play against you."

I am my own worst enemy. I sabotage myself.

"And will you succeed?
YES! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)
KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting. 
SO..get on your way!"


At the end of the book, my son jumped up and went on his way. Me? I sat there, clinging to the book, a little teary eyed and full of hope. I got up and went to the mirror and said out loud "my weight loss journey is my mountain. I can do this, I have done this, I can continue. I am on my way." 

Dr. Seuss, Freakin' Genius! 


It doesn't matter whether you are like me or just starting, you can do it. You can move mountains, you can have success, just believe in yourself. One small change, day by day and one pound at a time.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" ~Lao-Tzu

I have a plan, I went back to the beginning! I've started journaling what I eat, getting my 64oz of water in each day, and exercising M-F. YES!

I took my first step. What will be yours?

Spinning Wheel, Gotta Go Round

 

Greetings, Kittens!

I’m Xakara, it’s great to meet you! I’m happy to have joined all the lovely ladies here and all of you, on this current leg of my health journey.

I’ve been struggling with repetitive injuries, as well as a downward cycle in my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. There’s more about my CFS and such on my page, so I’ll spare you the repetition. Needless to say, it’s in a bad place right now, but I’m happily in a much better one.

We all obsess on the numbers, usually the ones on the scale or printed on our clothing labels. I don’t know about all of you, but those particular obsessions have yet to actually help me along. No, I do my best when I get to obsess over different numbers, steps, sets, reps, minutes, miles and miles-per-hour are my golden zone. Since this is an energy game, I have to spend what little I may have on a given day, to reach for numbers that remain real and steady in a way the scale never can. This is what gets me going and keeping me doing so. And this is why, at my lowest point of motivation, and one of my highest points of depression, that I set a goal of riding 1000 miles.

 I’ve been riding a stationary bike off and on since June, but chronic knee issues and sudden drops in energy would stall me about three or four days into a new routine. In part, it’s because I’d push too far and too fast, focused only on how soon I could get the weight off and feel more like myself. The other part is that once I find a legitimate reason to skip a day, that day becomes a week, becomes a month, becomes three months with only a handful of workouts. Having to constantly start over and rebuild my endurance meant never really making progress.

It took a moment in September, of looking hard and deep while journaling, to realize that I was in a negative push-crash cycle on two levels. I’d push beyond my current energy levels with the CFS, and beyond what my knees can take with the injuries, which halted my efforts. Every time my efforts were thwarted, I’d get depressed and those days off would grow. It’s hard to struggle over simple things, when I was walking 20-30,000 steps a day as recently as February of this year. That’s just before my knee gave out and the CFS bottomed out as well. No energy, and no ability when the energy was there, well, it wasn’t a pretty sight.

 

I had to confront the push part of the cycle and why it so easily self-perpetuated. Flipping through journal entries, it became clear that somewhere along the line, I had come to equate getting my energy back and feeling good, with getting the excess fat off as soon as possible. Of course, that’s not at all how it works. As with anyone, fitness and health comes long before any kind of goal weight/size is reached. Building the fitness builds the energy, and everything stems from that. Going back to the tried and true fitness goals and decoupling it from weight altogether was the only way to build at a pace that wouldn’t cause me to crash later on.

To ensure that, I put a few rules in place for achieving my 1000 Miles in a year or less:

1.) Ride every single day. No exceptions!

This is vital. Daily is necessary for me to see these kinds of goals through, rather than put them off to write or because I'm too tired. I have CFS and I'm in a vicious insomnia cycle, I'm always tired. It can't be a reason to do nothing at all.

2.) Ride only as far and as fast as I can that day.

Some days will be 1 mile, some days will be 5 miles, my most current ride was a surprising 8 miles. Whatever I can do in a given day is a good day because it gets done.

3.) Do Not talk about Fight Club.

3.) Every day is a new day.

A string of 1 mile days has no bearing on how far or fast I ride the next time. It’s all open with the potential to be everything I can put into on a given day.

 The above mindset has been working beautifully and I haven’t crashed since I started October 3^rd. Following the rules, after months of nothing consistent, I’m now fifteen days in with daily rides, and I’m 60 miles into my 1000.

I don’t want to give the impression that the scale is unimportant. I weigh daily and chart the ups and downs to see which foods and activities impact it for good or ill. The scale is a very valuable tool, but it’s not my North Star in any of this. By getting caught up in the miles and my speed and how good I feel from the ride, the excess adipose tissue will come off as a by-product. This happened with walking. I got so focused on my daily steps and dancing in 2007, I actually forgot the goal of shedding weight and looked up to be 60 lbs lighter and then 100 lbs lighter.

Always go with what works, right? :)

Thanks for reading and good luck to us all!

 

60 Miles & Counting...

~X

Dear Diary

Good morning, twitlosers.  Twitloss followers?  You know what I mean!   It's been awhile since my last confession, right?  But, this blog is NEW and IMPROVED with more bloggers, and more fun.
But, like most of my school career, I haven't prepared for class. So this post is mostly going to be things I've been thinking about.  Ready?  Here we go.....

I actually like working out.  Shhhh, don't tell my friend Beth.  She told me this would happen, and I didn't believe her.  So we can NEVER tell her we had this conversation, okay?  I really did think she was full of the crazy when she said it.  After all, I've "worked out" before and never came to the realization that I liked it.  I certainly wasn't any good at it.  I absolutely NEVER looked forward to it.  Now, as I'm typing this, I am thinking about how I can't wait until my afternoon meeting is over, I can go home, put on my new shoes, and hit the gym. This is progress, people. Serious, serious progress.

I'm not gonna lie, seeing results helps. I am wearing a pair of pants that had been slated for goodwill because I couldn't get them buttoned, and a sweater that had been hiding out in the back of my closet because it was too tight.  The pants now are belted, and are still loose in the waist.  The sweater is on the baggy side of fitting. This is definitely motivation. I still have clothes in my closet that I can't wear yet. Those are my next goals.

Did I happen to mention that they've opened a freaking donut shop across the parking lot from me? Um....yeah, I am there almost everyday. The OLD me would be there eating a bunch of stuff without regard to calories. But you know what? It really isn't that hard to keep track of the calories eaten, even when it is donuts. Most of the online calorie trackers have Dunkin Donuts in there, and even though the store isn't a DD, the calorie counts are probably similar for things like glazed, cake, frosted, etc. Once you see how many calories you're eating, that is often good enough to make you turn away from the 2nd or 3rd donut.  I never would have believe that either, but it's true.

I guess all of this is a long winded way of saying.....hang in there. Whatever you're doing, it may not seem like it is working, but it is. It seems like it is taking FREAKING FOREVER, I know. Slow and Steady have never been two words I embraced, especially not in this situation.  But keep at it.  Before you know it, you'll be anxious to get to the gym.

Laugh all you want, it'll happen to you too.....

Happy Monday!

What happened?

Hi everyone. It's been a while. I've got news to share and it's not good news either. :(

For personal as well as financial reasons I had to cancel my gym membership so I'm getting little to no exercise. This is not a good thing. Also I've not been sticking to my healthy eating and my doctor decided it was a good time to adjust my meds so long story short...I've gained all of the weight I have lost this year back except for four pounds.Go Me! Not.

Here's a current pic of me and my oldest son. He attended his first high school homecoming dance on Saturday and we had pictures taken at our local library. He and his date were so cute together.

His father decided to take this pic of my son and me. I didn't realize how much weight I'd gained back until I saw this picture.   Needless to say I'm very disappointed with myself.

Anyhow I've decided to give it another try. That's basically all I can do at this point. Keep trying! I know it's not going to be easy but I've got to do something.

I'm tired of being overweight and having a lower opinion of myself. I want to be able to wear a swimsuit comfortably next year without being embarrassed. So I'm back on the wagon.

How is your weight loss journey going for you?

Until next time.....


PS: As of today I have been smoke free for over 10 months now. I am thankful each and everyday that I know longer smoke. At least that is a major accomplishment in and of itself that I've been able to stick with this year.  :)

Welcome to fall! How are you going to keep from *falling* off the wagon?

I know, I know, the subject is cheesy. That is what happens when I don't post in forever! I'm out of practice. I really have no excuse other than I've been busy, and overwhelmed with so many things if I listed them all out you would get bored and close the page.

Instead I'll skip to the good stuff.... a personal update. It has been 13 weeks since my last update, I've lost 17 lbs and about 5 inches. Even more important is that I've tried new things and challenged myself to new ways of eating.

As September started, I knew it was going to be a rough month. I needed to find some way to balance full time, in person classes, with my kids' schedule as well as deal with some personal relationship problems. It was hectic to say the least. I figured, it is already nuts, why not add one more thing? hah. I joined in with some friends to take part in a "Whole 30" Challenge.

What is the Whole 30 Challenge? You can read more about it here, but basically it means not eating grain, soy, sugar, dairy, or legume. It was really hard, but also really eye opening. I found new ways to eat things, and enjoyed it. I liked cooking for once! Of course by the end of the challenge I hated food and was tired of it, but.... I learned a lot.

And then I stepped off the wagon. I somehow convinced myself that eating that way was too hard and I was too tired. So I gave up and went back to eating the way I was used to. Here I am two weeks later and I feel absolutely horrible. I had no idea how much unclean food affected my mood and motivation, until now. My skin is horrible, I'm exhausted, I'm bloated, I gained 6 lbs back after losing 13 during the month of September. On top of that I'm moody, emotional, and entirely unmotivated.

So here I am, trying to climb back up on the wagon and not give up. I crossed a pretty big milestone, got a tattoo to celebrate it, and then proceeded to self sabotage and slide back down hill. Why? That is the question I have to step up and answer for myself. Weight loss isn't linear and I can accept that and learn from my mistakes.

So, the question is.... what keeps you from falling off the wagon? Or if you fall, how do you pick yourself back up? The key for me is a plan. I'm going back to eating paleo (similar to the challenge I did, but a little less strict) and I'm upping my weight training, while sneaking in some 5K training in when I can.




It was a bit more but I've had a bit of a

One Step at A Time.

Hi all. I'm Lia. I've been over weight since, well since, forever. If it was only one thing that brought me here, it would be easier to fix. Instead, it comes from a lifetime of decisions and habits, and it will take a lifetime to correct. I could list them...or maybe not. Some things I can change. Some things I just have to accept.

The question is always about motivation. How bad do I want it?

My husband and I adopted three children a couple of years ago. They are a huge motivator for me wanting to lose weight and get fit. I want to be around to see my grandchildren.

Small things can add up to a lifetime of change.

In the last month, these are some of the changes I have made.

I walk down the stairs at work. Elevator to the 5th floor and walk down. I try to walk up sometimes, but my knees don't like that very much. I hope, as the weight comes off, my knees won't protest quite so much.

I make myself drink water. Mountain Dew, not diet, not caffeine free, is my drink of choice. I'm still drinking some Mountain Dew, but not nearly as much as I was a month ago. Every glass of water is basically a -110 calories.

I started walking. For now, just 1.5 miles 3x per week. Now that I can do that without getting winded, I plan to start a Couch to 5k next week.

Some things are easy, and the changes barely noticeable. Sandwich Thins instead of regular bread for sandwiches.

So what are some changes you have made? And how is it working out for you?

Things They Are A Changing....

Okay so we've been MIA for a few weeks. Sorry! We need to fall back, regroup, and well I have more health woes. (I'll save that for another day and another post.) What I want to do right now is welcome two three new bloggers to Twitloss! *throws confetti*

Please welcome Lia, Xakara, and Trish to the site. Like us, they are romance writers or readers (among other things). I will let each of them introduce themselves in their own posts over the next few weeks and on their bio pages, but we are excited to have them join us!

In addition, we want to give everyone a chance to participate in the community more. So if you have the itch to post, please feel free to contact us via our gmail account (see footer for email) or on Twitter and we will set up a date and time. Grab anyone of us you can see, we can all schedule guests.

Thanks for sticking with us through the bumpy ride lately, and we hope things will get back into a nice steady rhythm  You should see posts on M/W/F most weeks with guest posts sandwiched in between or on the 4th week of the month. We look forward to talking health and fitness with you all as we keep on keepin' on!