Baby Steps Backward?

As my ticker shows, technically I did lose .8 lbs. this week. However, it was just a weird week, and I didn't follow "my plan" mostly through no fault of my own. And I don't feel quite right about the whole thing. Plus, as my weight keeps creeping down, my body fat percentage (according to my fancy schmancy new scale) keeps going up, which I don't like at all.

I started out the week recovering from a bad cold, so I didn't have much energy for exercise, didn't eat properly, etc... Then, I actually had to get a colonoscopy Thursday, so I had to do this whole liquid diet "prep" thing the day before (and out of curiosity, I weighed that morning and the following morning, and I'd lost three pounds in 24 hours, but I felt horrible, plus it was completely temporary, so I do not recommend this program for weight loss!) and then couldn't eat much the next day because I just felt so awful.

Turns out, I'm fine, but I still don't feel right from the whole weird diet for two days thing. I didn't work out for those two days, and I've missed my fruit, haven't had enough water, couldn't even take my vitamin, totally off the wagon. Whatever tiny wagon I was on.

But hey, I figure I'm still about four pounds down from when I started, so I'll pick up where I'm at and move forward from this point. I did my water, vitamin, fruit, and my 20 minute walk today. I was kind of thinking about my next "baby step," but I really feel like I'm out of synch with where I'd been before, and I need to get back on that track before adding to it.

Hope everyone else had a great week, and I promise to do better this coming week. For sure, I've got to go back to yoga this week. I feel so much better (in many ways) when I do yoga regularly.

Much Too Young to Feel This Damn Old

That was my Most Awesome Song I Heard While Working Out for today. I know, it's really kind of a downer of a song. But that's the song that came on and made me think, "YES! This is exactly how I feel." And I am too young to feel this old. So, I think it was an appropriate choice.

I'm still fighting a cold (and I'm determined not to let it win!). I think I got it from a co-worker (who insists she just has allergies. Yeah, contagious allergies, that she's given to me, and I've now given to X). I spent most of Labor Day weekend lying on my sofa like a lump. I did go to work today, but I was just going through the motions.

I managed to walk my 20+ minutes the last three days (didn't manage Friday or Saturday). And I've eaten my fruit and taken my vitamin. Oh, and I drank my water. I've had a lot of water. So, theoretically, I'm following "my diet." I can't taste much, so I'm not too tempted to overeat. Well, except ice cream. Because my throat hurts. It's medicinal, so the calories don't count.

I'll spare you the gory details, but I'm having a minor medical procedure this week which requires me to follow a clear liquids diet for two days. I'm not looking forward to it, but I can't taste anything anyway, so whatever. My next weigh-in might be a little skewed because of that, but we'll see.

Anyhow, I certainly hope that the next time I post, I'm feeling more like the 29-year-old I am at heart!

Love 'Em, Hate 'Em...

Holiday weekends that is. I really loved having an extra day off but I did fall off my diet a bit on Friday and Saturday. Traveling is really hard on a diet, espcially when you have a six year old who only wants to eat at McD's. We also had company on Friday so that didn't go too well either. Having Custards at 10pm, probably not a good idea. Anyway having said that. I'm not real sure how much I lost or gained. I bought a new scale that will be much more accurate so I'm keeping my weight the same for this week and seeing how it goes. However, I have a wedding next weekend in Colorado Springs. This means a 10 hour drive in the car with my six year old. So, I'm not holding out much hope for good results. I've been suffering from a torn rotator cuff for the past year and it's been bugging me a lot for the last few days but I am hoping to start on my walking routine this week again.

I Hate Being Sick

I'm fighting a cold, and it's making me a bit less of a warrior in the fight against fat. I know "they" say you can still work out if your symptoms are above the neck, blah blah blah. Whatever. That's the last thing I feel like doing.

Anyway, I did weigh-in, and I'm down one more pound, so that's happy news. I wasn't sure how I'd do this week, because I ate a bit more junk than I had been. But I did walk every day (until I got sick), and I went to yoga once.

I'm really rather annoyed to be spending my Labor Day weekend laying around with a cold. I'm supposed to be out having fun in the sun and enjoying the last weekend of summer. Oh, well. At least I don't have much appetite. Maybe I'll go back to work Tuesday with another pound lost.

Namaste: My First Day Back in Yoga Class

"The light within me honors the light within you."

Well, dear readers, I did in fact make it to yoga class last night. Yay me for even going! I must say, I could tell it had been a while, too long, since I'd done yoga.

I was thrilled to see my teacher, whom I adore. I'm not "friends" with her, I only know her through class, but she's just one of those people who has something special. I love to bask in her energy. She truly has a gift for teaching yoga, and I'm so blessed that she's decided to share it in my little podunk town. She teaches in a way that makes you aware of your own body, your muscles, your breath, your thoughts, and makes you completely oblivious to what anybody else in the room is or is not doing better or worse than you are. It's incredible, and something I've never before experienced in an exercise class.

We started in, and my poor body said, "Oh dear! What is Janet doing to me?! We don't usually do this." Even just breathing deeply at the start, my lungs protested, "Deeper? You want me to breathe deeper? Are you sure?"

But I'll tell you, about halfway through class, my body sighed, "Oh, yes, this is why we do this."

My muscles whispered, "Thank you. I needed that."

My spirit patted me on the back, "There you go. Feel better now."

I found myself even tearing up a little bit with gratitude for my teacher, my body and what it was capable of, my own determination in going back to class after all this time.

I wish she was teaching more often, and that it was on different days. She's only doing Thursday evenings right now, and I have to work a lot of Thursday evenings. I can't go next Thursday because of a doctor thing (more to come in another post), so it will be two weeks before I can go again. I need you all to remind me how good I felt last time, and make me go Thursday after next.

Tomorrow morning will be my next weigh in. I'm a little unsure what that will bring. I did manage to walk every single day this week, but I also ate a lot. I was pretty stressed out from various things, and it showed in my eating. Tune in tomorrow and find out.

Oh, and congrats to Regina who has already updated her ticker. What are you doing girlfriend?! We want details!

I'd Like More Quality in My Life Please

I've posted here about my numbers, stats, pics, and so forth. But there's so much more to this project then fitting into my skinny jeans (Okay, that's a big part of it, but still).

I bought a lava lamp last night. It was on sale. It's pink and purple. I don't care if I'm a 37-year-old woman. I needed a lava lamp. I'm sitting here watching the blobs slowly float up then slowly drop back down into a misshapen puddle. That's what I feel like most of the time. Not the going up part, the coming down part.

I don't sleep at night, then I don't want to wake up in the mornings. My feet hurt all the time, I think because of all the extra weight on them. My neck and shoulders hurt all the time, despite massages, stretching, vibrating and heating gizmos, creams designed to bring circulation, blah blah blah. My chest is too heavy, and it pulls on my neck. That's just all there is to it. I have freakin' dents in my shoulders from my bra straps.

My stomach hurts a lot, and I don't know what that's all about. My skin is breaking out like I was 15 again (If only I had the figure to match!). It is nearly impossible for me to lug the boxes of books and supplies that I have to for my work, because I'm just not strong enough. God forbid stairs become involved.

I used to walk about 3 miles a day easily. I even ran a 5K once. ONCE. When I started my walking up again a few weeks ago, I got winded doing 20 minutes at a slow pace.

ENOUGH! Enough of this nonsense! I'm not 80. I don't have an incurable disease. I just eat too much and don't move enough. This is ridiculous.

I'm going to yoga class tomorrow. I haven't done yoga in months. It's not entirely my fault. My instructor (who is AWESOME) had a baby and took some time off. Now, I know, I have six yoga DVDs at home, and I'm perfectly capable of doing yoga without her. But the truth is, I didn't want to. I hadn't been going regularly for months before she had her baby. It was almost a relief when she stopped teaching, because I didn't feel so guilty for missing class.

But she's back tomorrow. And I'm going. And I know I'll feel a lot better afterward. Here's to feeling like the bubbles going UP!

All I Really Needed to Know about Health, I Learned From Dr. Oz

What a genius this man is – and really, why can't other Doctors talk to you like this and make sense like this? But I will say, there is a curse to knowing what Dr. Oz teaches.

For example, have you read a bread label lately? According to what I understand – foods that include enriched flour – of any color or high fructose corn syrup are to be considered “junk”. I challenge you to go to your local bread aisle and look at the labels and count how many – by this definition – are worthy to go into your body. Want to know how many there are at my usual stomping ground? Like 3! And they frequently change labels and products – so it's a HUGE ordeal to find an acceptable bread on EVERY trip.

Almost as irritating – is shopping for yogurt. It should not be this hard to shop. It should not be this hard to find a quality product – want to know how many brands offer yogurt without high fructose corn syrup (I don't care what the commercials say – Dr. Oz said Don't Do It!)? 3 brands. But on one of the brands – you can only buy certain flavors – so it's not like you can just give any yogurt label blanket approval, which makes it an even more taxing chore to choose your options.

And here is something that makes me stone-crazy mad. Half of your “trans-fat free” foods, likely have trans-fats in them. It's just an amount that the FDA considers “insignificant”. Which I think is a load of crap! I mean, if you have to list that a STICK OF GUM has 3 CALORIES!!!!!!! (And that won't KILL ME) How can you possibly accept that there are trace amounts of Trans Fats in my food? How can you think it is OK for me to perhaps eat items all day that are labeled as Trans Fat Free – and that a person could reasonably be consuming more than the “recommended” amount of Trans Fats – without realizing they were ingesting ANY? Mr. FDA, I am here to tell you – it is NOT acceptable. To demonstrate this fact I hope that someone, someday puts “insignificant amounts of poison ivy in your underwear” and let's see if it makes an impact in YOUR health and well-being, maybe then you can understand how passionately I believe you are currently supporting a lie. Shame on You, Mr. FDA!

But let us re-focus on the truth-teller, Dr. Oz.

Dr. Oz, if you are listening – thank you for sharing your knowledge. Thank you for letting me know of the many poisons that I am feeding my family and myself. Thank you for showing me the error of my ways. I'll be sending you my bill for Tylenol – my use has increased tenfold since I learned how “fun” shopping can be with you! It's a gift and a curse – all at the same time.

So for those who care to learn from my lessons learned – I now make a special trip to go to the Bread Store. They carry Pumpernickel bread at ½ the price of the regular store – it has NOTHING evil in it and is more pleasing to my entire family than any “wheat” variety that I have located. They also carry several of the “Natural” labels- but still read the labels. It is a pain to shop a specialty store (and a huge temptation to stock up on Zingers and Ho-Ho's) but when I go – I go BIG and I find it freezes quite well. For some reason, we are happier with the defrosting if you turn the loaf upside down on the counter – superstition? I don't know; it works for us. And when it comes to yogurt, I stick with the large container organic varieties in plain or vanilla, low fat. You can add fresh fruit and a granola bar for a kick-butt breakfast. Or you can eat it plain and add some dry cereal for a little variety (I'm fond of regular Cheerios or Rice Krispies). If you are desperate for a chocolate variety – you can also add a little sugar free chocolate milk powder.

Enjoy the tips and if you hear someone screaming in the bread aisle – it could be me, or someone else that is plagued with the knowledge! Anyone else trying to follow the Dr.Oz suggestions and finding it hard?