Post Superbowl Hangover

OK, so I am writing this on Saturday. LOL! I know it won't get written on Sunday and frankly once I'm at work it won't happen either. :D The sad reality is, I will probably have a food hangover not one from alcohol. See the DH doesn't understand how not to cook for an army. *rolls eyes* So, I am counting on having over eaten.

On the upside, I will be hitting the gym early Monday morning and pedaling my way to a slimmer trimmer me. Hopefully. I am doing so good with working out about 4 days a week, but I don't feel like I can really see any difference. I'm just gonna keep at it and hope I am on the verge of some big break through.

As for my foot, I am doing very well. I bowled last weekend and even managed to wear a pair of low heels this week. I am struggling with some swelling issues, a common result of the type of break I had. It means that I am back to wearing the evil compression hose I have from my blood clot last year. Sigh. They may be the most unsexy pair of thigh highs anyone has EVER seen. Ha! Ha!

How are you all doing with your workouts? How are you feeling after the big game? Still full? LOL!

Getting On Track...

Well, this will be short cause the muse is riding my ass and there just isn't a whole lot to say. No big sweeping New Year's resolutions or pronouncements. Just a quiet recommitting to loosing weight and being healthier. I am walking on my foot with and without the cast. My knee is hurting from the inactivity of the last 3 months I think, so I get to rehab both foot and knee together. Yay! Not. Anyhoo...like I said. No big pronounceents. I'm just planing on being good to me this year. How about you? Any big resolutions or leaves you're turning over?

Onward and Downward?

Well, as we gear up for the Holidays, I know many of you are staying really focused on your weight loss efforts. I am trying to get refocused as my foot continues to heal. I have another few weeks (about 2.5) until I go back to the doctor and hopefully get told I can walk again. In the mean time I am doing range of motion stuff with the boot off and trying to do some exercises to strengthen my legs without putting weight on my foot. LOL! That gets easier after next week because I start a new job where they have a gym. Yay! I plan on trying to use the machines and getting some muscle tone built up until I can really bust in to some cardio work. We shall see. 

Anyway, I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday and sticking to what ever plan of attack you have devised for surviving. Me, I'm just gonna try and control the impulse to eat EVERYTHING. We'll see how that goes. Merry Christmas all! 

I am writing this the night before heading to Vegas. You will be reading it the day after I get back. All bets are off...or on as the case may be. :D But the diet is off and the eating is on! Later this week I go see the doctor and find out how much longer I will be wearing the "Boot of All Evil" (a.k.a. an AirCast).

I imagine next month will be full of stories about how I drunkenly scootered my way around Vegas, but for now I will suffice to catch you all up on my progress. *cough* Okay, so I attempted to do crunches, leg lifts, and push-ups. Then life and schedule intervened and it all fell by the way side. :P When I get back from Vegas I will try to get on the ball and get up in the mornings to take care of business and get my health back on track. Anyway, I still have not gotten on a scale since I can't bear weight on the foot, but my clothes seem to fit. Heh. Okay, I'll stop here so as not to depress everyone, or myself. Talk to you all later!

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!

Twitloss Needs You!

That's right. We do. See, we started out this blog as a way to share our journey's with you. The reality is, blogging once a week has gotten to be too much for all of us. We love Twitloss, the community we have built, and having the ability to share our struggles and our successes with you all. But, (come on it was hanging there you could all hear it!) we also feel like we are cheating you all by not providing enough content. So, with that said we are interested in bringing on board some additional bloggers. I think some place in the 4-5 range would give us enough content through the month to only have each of us blogging once a month.

If you are interested you can contact us at twitloss (at) gmail (dot) com. Tell us a little about yourself and if you have a sample blog you can paste into the email that would be great. If you have a friend who might be interested please pass this along! Thanks!

Thwarted, Again.

Sigh.

Left ankle is still nagging me. I've been pushing through, but yesterday it called it quits. No more working out for a few days and no more high heels. *sniff* Now I'm hoping with a few days rest I won't completely undo everything I accomplished...except I had a day full of fail yesterday. I gave blood (that's a win) then proceded to sample EVERYTHING in the freaking cantina (post donation snack bar)--at least once, some things twice. Then went home and had a couple beers...did I mention how badly I fell off the wagon? Then I went to Jack In The Box--wait for it--at 10:30pm. Sigh. Today, despite no exercise, I am aiming to keep my food intake healthy. Hopefully I can rein in my stomach. :-/  

Woo! Hoo! 7 Pounds!

Darn tootin! I have tasted success and now I am hungry for more! I lost 7lbs since August 9th! I have REALLY stepped up my exercise and am using MyFitnessPal app to track my daily calories. If I can keep this up I will be down a full ten pounds next week sometime. *fingers crossed* I am so motivated by my actual weight loss that I easily breezed by donuts and full on bagels in the break room today. It just feels to good to have my pants a bit looser and my step a little lighter to mess it up with food. 

In fact, this week I have already worked out 4 times for a total of 140 minutes. :D I plan on hitting it again tomorrow morning for another 40 minutes and then taking Saturday and Sunday off as rest days. Eventually I will work in a weekend workout, but I think I will save that for when I eventually hit a plateau. In the mean time I will be happy dancing all the way home to a healthy dinner!  Oh and be sure to check out my weight loss monitor on my about me page...it automatically updates as I weigh in each time. 

How was your week? Anyone got anything good to share? Come talk to me!

This Week in Twitloss History...

LOL! I got nothing. But hey you're here and reading. ;) This week has been a pretty good week, I have moved away from the diet shakes and integrated actual food into my day to day diet! Yay! This also has led to a reduction in the acid reflux for me. I have had two really good days with no need for Tums. :)  In addition, I have worked out three days so far and intend to work out tomorrow morning again plus one weekend day for a total of five days of exercise totaling about 4hrs this week. That's right people! And am I motivated to do this? Hell yes! I got on the scale today and am down almost 5lbs from the high number I refused to actually record on SparkPeople. (Shame--I had it.) So I am stoked that I am now under 205! Woot! Woot! I am just hoping this isn't one of those wild fluctuations I get. So, I am eating healthy and working out consistently. I feel better when I am working out, I am starting to realize. Duh. And the DH has even commented that he can see a difference. More than that he's been handsy lately...in the good way. ;)  

So come on tell me about one of your successes of late? I love celebrating with others!

An Update and A #Twitloss #Challenge Question

I am walking around in a daze today. Soon I will be passed out on my keyboard (not unlike my little furry friend - no it is not my cat). I am exhausted! I got up this morning and did 43minutes of TaeBo Sculpt with a 5lb weight. That's right I may not be able to lift my arms over my head to undress tonight, but I got down to business this morning. It seems I will be giving up the diet shakes again since they are giving me acid reflux, but I am doing okay. I was down to 205 on Monday when I weighed in and I hope to see that number continue to drop. I have worked out three days this week for a total of 83 minutes and 1294kcals burned. I try to track my calories eaten, but I am not going to lie...it's hard. Breakfast and lunch are easy, it's dinner that is so freaking painful. Well, here's hoping I can keep the forward momentum and see the lbs continue to drop off...at least for a bit before I plateau.

As soon as MamaKitty is back we will be starting a new Twitloss Challenge...how many of you would be interested in joining in the fun? Leave a comment so we can see how much interest there might be.

I dunno...

Well, I'm here and blogging today because I feel like I should even though I don't feel like I wanna. Mostly because I don't want to veer down the pity path I feel myself heading toward. Mostly cause that means I will just get depressed and well, ya know. Eat something I shouldn't.

Anyhoo, I have worked out twice this week and plan to again tomorrow morning. I have been doing okay in the food department, with a slip on Tuesday cause DH wanted hot wings before his procedure on Friday. (Nothing dramatic, just a colonoscopy, heh.) That said I am still tipping in at 210, yeppers. So, I'll keep at it, but I don't see it helping. Sigh. DH was really sweet last night, he claimed he could see a difference already from the workouts. Yeah, thanks for lying sweetness, but I'm not that stupid. The blond hair, it is dyed.

So, I suppose I will stop here before I cause anyone to feel the need to hurl themselves into a fridge full of cupcakes to try and feel better. (Mostly myself.) Hope everyone is doing well, and if you have a success to share please do. Might as well enjoy someone else's if I can't enjoy my own.

The #Twitloss #Challenge is Over...

and it was a dismal failure for me. Sigh. I gained weight and lost a whole 1/2" on my thigh...which Iam pretty sure happened because I fail at anything math related. So...who do I send my $5 GC to? :D I am still plugging away at this effort having worked out for 23min Tues, Wed, and Today. Think I'll sleep in tomorrow and try for a 43min workout on Saturday or Sunday. Hope everyone is doing well.

Around the web:

There is a fun reader/writer weight loss challenge going on right now. It's too late to join...but you can play along or just watch it all go down. Check out the Romance Biggest Winner competition.

Challenge Update...

Today's post is about failing. I, apparently, am an expert in this particular area when it comes to losing weight. In the last (almost) 30 days I have lost a whopping 2 pounds. No people, that was NOT a typo. 2. Whole. Pounds.

Big sigh.

It seems like even when I exercise regularly I don't drop any LBs. So for all my years of dancing, for all the nutrition classes I have sat through, it's not working. I have moments of epic fail...yes beer and dessert are my biggest weaknesses...oh, and blue cheese. But really, it seems like I should have lost a bit more than 2 measly pounds. I dunno. It feels like all I do is expand and honestly I don't know what to do anymore. I try eating healthy, but I always fall off the wagon. I have tried allowing myself what I want in small drips and drabs to stem the tide of WANT!, but no dice. I have tried getting up every day at 4:30am to work out for 43 minutes...and honestly that just leads to exhaustion. I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. So, I will concede my loss, my Epic Failure, in the Twitloss Challenge and keep plugging away at whatever in the hell this is that I am doing. And well, if you all keep reading then awesome. If not, I can't say I blame you much. It's not like I am offering any useful advice.

On a totally different and way awesome note. If you missed it this week on Twitter, I have sold my first book! Pop on over to my personal blog (I promise it is a weight loss-whine free zone) and check out the details.

Fish Burps & A Twitloss Challenge Check-In

Image via WikipediaPart of my attempt to be healthier includes taking more vitamins. Especially those that can do me some good...like fish oil. The problem with fish oil is that when I burp I small and taste fish. GROSS! Now, I know that this is because I am cheaping out on the supplements I buy. I shop at Costco people, I buy in bulk. I will live with the fish burps and my Twitter peeps will learn to live with my whining on occasion. LOL! According to the NIH Fish Oil in the correct doses is (the ones I am interested in are in green):

Effective for...

• High triglycerides. High triglycerides are associated with heart disease and untreated diabetes. To reduce the risk of heart disease, doctors believe it is important to keep triglycerides below a certain level. Doctors usually recommend increasing physical activity and restricting dietary fat to lower triglycerides. Sometimes they also prescribe drugs such as gemfibrozil (Lopid) for use in addition to these lifestyle changes. Now researchers believe that fish oil, though not as effective as gemfibrozil, can reduce triglyceride levels by 20% to 50%. One particular fish oil supplement called Lovaza has been approved by the FDA to lower triglycerides. Lovaza contains 465 milligrams of EP and 375 milligrams of DHA in 1-gram capsules.

Likely effective for...

• Heart disease. Fish oil may be effective in keeping people with healthy hearts free of heart disease. People who already have heart disease may be able to lower their risk of dying from heart disease by taking fish oil. Though not all researchers agree, some investigators believe that fish oil may be even more effective in reducing death from heart attacks than a group of commonly used cholesterol-lowering drugs called “statins.”

Possibly effective for...

• High blood pressure. Fish oil seems to produce modest reductions in blood pressure in people with high blood pressure. The omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil seem to be able to expand blood vessels, and this brings blood pressure down.
• Menstrual pain (dysmenorrhea). Taking fish oil alone or in combination with vitamin B12 seems to improve painful periods and reduce the need for pain medications such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS).
• Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. Taking fish oil seems to improve thinking skills and behavior in 8 to 12 year-old children with ADHD.
• Stroke. Moderate fish consumption (once or twice a week) seems to lower the risk of having a stroke by as much as 27%. However, eating fish doesn’t lower stroke risk in people who are already taking aspirin for prevention. On the other hand, very high fish consumption (more than 46 grams of fish per day) seems to increase stroke risk, perhaps even double it.
• Weak bones (osteoporosis). Taking fish oil alone or in combination with calcium and evening primrose oil seems to slow bone loss rate and increase bone density at the thigh bone (femur) and spine in elderly people with osteoporosis.
• Hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis). Fish oil seems to slow or slightly reverse the progress of atherosclerosis in the arteries serving the heart (coronary arteries), but not in the arteries that bring blood up the neck to the head (carotid arteries).
• Bipolar disorder. Taking fish oil with the usual treatments for bipolar disorder seems to improve symptoms of depression and increase the length of time between episodes of depression. But fish oil doesn’t seem to improve manic symptoms in people with bipolar disorder.
• Weight loss. Some evidence shows that eating fish improves weight loss and decreases blood sugar in overweight people and people with high blood pressure. Preliminary research also shows that taking a specific fish oil supplement 6 grams daily (Hi-DHA, NuMega), providing 260 mg DHA/gram and 60 mg EPA/gram, significantly decreases body fat when combined with exercise.
• Age-related eye disease (age-related macular degeneration, AMD). There is some evidence that people who eat fish more than once per week have a lower risk of developing age-related macular degeneration.
• High cholesterol. There is interest in using fish oil in combination with “statin” drugs for some people with high cholesterol. Doctors were worried at first that taking fish oil might interfere with statin treatment, but early studies show this is not a problem, at least with the statin called simvastatin. Scientists think fish oil may lower cholesterol by keeping it from being absorbed in the intestine. There is some evidence that using vitamin B12 along with fish oil might boost their ability to lower cholesterol.
• Asthma. Some research suggests fish oil may lower the occurrence of asthma in infants and children when taken by women late in pregnancy. Furthermore, fish oil seems to improve airflow, reduce cough, and lower the need for medications in some children with asthma. However, fish oil treatment doesn’t seem to provide the same benefit for adults.

Now, I have shortened up the list from the NIH site, so go check out the link above to see EVERYTHING they list plus some things that Fish Oil won't effect. So...sorry to my Tweeps for the occasional whine. :D

As for the challenge check in...I am back at 204. Sigh. But I have done Tae Bo 4 times for 43min each over the last 4 days. Yay! I think I will sleep in tomorrow. So it looks like my only hope of a win here will be int he inches lost department. Heaven help me I am not loosing any actual pounds. Eh...it is what it is. I think I will be setting a short term goal after this to help me look and feel better before I go to Vegas later this year. So...are you challenging with us? How are you doing? For my fellow Twitloss peeps...how is it going? Any setbacks or hurdles?

Um...it's Thursday?

Image via WikipediaHoly crap! I just realized it was Thursday and I had not posted. *blush* I have been so busy and well so much going on that it totally escaped me. Here is my current status:

Exercise: 23min of Billy Blanks on Tuesday and Wednesday
Food: around 1300-1500 cals per day
Weight: I was at 201 this morning...so I actually lost a little bit. :D

Not much else to share except I woke up with a headache and have so much going on it is freaking crazy...but I can't share the news really yet. Suffice it to say I should have a big announcement this weekend. (I hope...every time I say that the timeline seems to stretch!)

I hope you all have an awesome weekend, and well sorry this is such a sloppy & slapped together post.

Consider It Brought - 2011 Twitloss Challenge

So you may detect a theme here... I'm just sayin' a little smack talk never hurt anyone. ;) By now you are all aware of our 2011 Twitloss Challenge, if not click here. I must say it comes at a seriously inconvenient time for me, what with my annual camp trip coming this weekend; but, I will find a way to prevail. Seriously. So far this week, I did an hour of yoga on Monday and 43 minutes of Billy Blanks on Wednesday, as of this posting I am probably busy sweating my but off to Billy again. Foodwise I am doing okay...there is always room for improvement and I plan to hit the diet part hard next week...right after the camp trip. LOL! Anyhoo! In the mean time I will workout and talk smack as often as possible. I am totally getting one of those cheerleader outfits once I lose all this weight. *snicker* Just for the DH. *Wink*

I started at 204 for the challenge and am hoping to get that down even a little bit. I also took my measures...and well that wasn't pretty either. Like my SparkPeople profile says: I have writers butt and I need to get rid of it.

How about you bee-otches? How's it going so far? Who is dying and who is cruising? Don't be scared to come talk some smack with me. LOL!

It's A Good Thing...

This week was a good week! It was a good one for a couple of reasons. The one pertinent to this blog is, I lost weight! :D Having started out post medical issues at 205 (still not a typo), I am happy to report I am down FOUR FREAKING POUNDS!!!!

That's right, I am at 201. How'd I do it? Hard work. No seriously, like jailhouse type stuff. See, we are ripping up our 2200 sq ft pool deck and replacing it with a newly poured deck. DH decided to save a chunk of change by doing it himself. It has been a slow process in need of some help, so first he dragged some buddies over, and then he dragged me out there.

That's right, my job was to fill the wheel barrow with rock and lug it to the driveway where the dumpster was...and then throw each piece of rock into it. I also spent an hour or so swinging a sledgehammer to help break up the deck. The result was good, but hello can you say HURT?
How about y'all? Any progress this week? Come celebrate your triumphs, big or small, with me!

Lost and Maybe Found?

Wow, so I am working on getting up to speed on working out. Last week I did yoga and/or belly danced three times. This week I stepped it up and did 43min of Billy Blanks' Tae Bo on Monday and 30min of yoga yesterday on top of helping DH lug concrete on Saturday for 4 hours.

Where does this leave me? I was doing fine until Tuesday night when I discovered my right ankle had swollen up to twice the normal size. Wednesday i did the yoga as a compromise to try and not push so hard. My ankle was a little swollen last night, so I hope this is just my body's attempt to derail my more healthy life style vs. a re-emergence of the clot issue. We'll see.

Otherwise, I am down a pound and DH and I have been eating home and making healthier choices. Here's hoping this works!

Pass the Velcro Please!

Hi! I'm Dara Young, sometime Twitloss blogger and romance writer. You may remember me because I used to blog here weekly...not so much lately. Someone pass the Velcro please, I need to stick this time. :D So, here is where we stand (in case you missed it) I am 90% clear of the clot. *Happy Dance until overly winded because I am SO out of shape* That means I am off the meds and back to eating healthy.

Now, I will not say all is well, but I will say I am starting to pick up the pieces of the train-wreck that is my health. Here is where I stand:

Weight: 205lbs (no folks, that was not a typo)
Height: 5'9"
Hair: Blonde (that's right...I went blonde cause I can)
Boobs: lumpy (I have cysts, always have always will)
Skin: blotchy and prone to acne (apparently puberty is not over?)
Energy: What's that? Even when I sleep 9 hours I feel tired.
Migraines: Cyclical, but not totally connected to Aunt Flo
Temperament: Bitchy or on the verge of tears

There it is...my health status. I think you get the general gist of things. I have complained about all of this to my doctors, but I am not seeing the response I would like so I am tackling this alone. I will go in to all of this more next time, but needless to say I feel like crap! That said I have not given up...ok, there are moments when I want to, but I talk myself down. Anyhoo, what I am happy to report is that this week I have done pretty well.

Monday I shimmied, belly danced, when I got home from work for about 40min, Wednesday I woke up early and did yoga for an hour, and then this morning I woke up and shimmied for 20min and did yoga for 20min for a total workout of 40min. Yay me! Now, if you subscribe to my husbands line of thinking you might be asking: But did you sweat? Well, no. But I see this weeks victories as being those of combating and winning against being sedentary. I am working up to actual sweat. LOL!

In all seriousness, I am easing in to activities again. I am hoping to start back up slowly with an "easy" Billy Blanks cardio routine once next week and then maybe twice the week after that. See, I don't want to hurt myself because I have never had to exercise with this much weight on me before. It's crazy! So, I feel like I have a plan of action, My eating is better, but not great...there is always room for improvement. In the end, if I can shed a pound (or two) a week for the next month or so, I will feel like I made some progress.

Goal: 1-2lbs of weight loss a week for a total of 5-10lbs lost by June 16th

I am sticking to short term goals for now, I recognize there is a bigger picture, but seriously, I don't have the bandwidth to do more than baby steps right now. As I have been gone, what have you all been up to? Any significant weight losses I should hear about? Got any goals you are working on? Talk to me!

My Not a Post...

Sorry...I should post but I am too tired and can't focus. I'll catch ya'll next week.