Phase Three and the Missouri 60

It's been a rough few days for me. After the joyous two pound loss I recorded Saturday, I kind of fell off the wagon. I went to the movies Saturday evening and ate the giant tub of popcorn. I had ice cream Sunday. Today one of co-workers brought in donuts.

And I honestly don't know whether I took my vitamin yesterday or not. "But that's absurd!" I hear you saying. "Either you took it, or you didn't, and surely you know!" No, I really don't. It was a stressful day (you can read about why in my other blog, if you'd like) and I sat down to eat a bite of supper late. I remember getting my vitamin out of the bottle, but I'm really not sure what happened to it after that. I sometimes set my vitamin on the table while I eat, and at one point, I noticed it was gone, and I couldn't remember if I'd taken it or not. I think Daisy (who is perfect in every way and does not need to lose weight at all) might have taken it. Somebody in my house got 100% of the US RDA for 12 vitamins plus minerals. I'm just not sure whether it was me.

But I did actually walk all of the last four days. Which brings me to Phase Three of my super simple and easy to follow Baby Steps plan. After a couple weeks of the vitamin/water thing, then a couple weeks of adding one piece of fruit every day, I decided there was no way around it. To lose a significant amount of weight, one has to exercise.

Keeping with my theme of making tiny changes, I decided to set a goal of walking at least 20 minutes 5-6 days a week. Surely I can do that, right? It's only 20 minutes, and I didn't set any sort of intensity goal. Just get out and walk for 20 minutes most days. I figured, even 100 minutes of activity a week is better than no activity at all.

Well, the first couple days, I really did only do 20 minutes because I thought I was going to die of a heart attack because I wanted to start slowly. I've found though that once I'm out and about, I end up doing more like 30 or 40 minutes most of the time. It's beautiful weather here in Missouri, and I do like to walk. But I tell myself each time, I only have to do 20 minutes.

I've been doing this now for a couple weeks, and it truly is getting easier. I was going along at a pretty good clip this evening, and it felt good. Not at all heart attack inducing. I did only do 24 minutes though. But hey, at least I did that.

Anyhow, changing subjects...

Now that I'm participating in this weight loss blog, I've been looking up other weight loss blogs for inspiration, and one of my favorites has been Mary from A Merry Life. She recently posted the results of a challenge called "The Missouri 60." See, Missouri is known as the "Show Me State," so the idea is that you show your readers before photos, then stick to your program for 60 days, and post "after" pics. Because we actually live in Missouri, and being the crazy brave woman that I am, I'm going for it (even though the actual challenge Mary participated in has ended). Brace yourself.

















That's me, in all my glory. Check back in with me on October 30 (Wait! No, I hope you check back in with me sooner than that!) and I'll show you what I look like then. Anybody else want to join me in this challenge?

Most awesome song I heard while working out today:
"Does Your Mother Know" by ABBA (I know, I really have no explanation for my musical tastes. ABBA is just fun.