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Weight today:  237.6       Change since last weigh-in:  +1.4 lbs.
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Yeah, I figured that weigh-in was skewed.  But that’s okay.  It’ll come off.  Again!

Today, Hubby and I are going to a big flea market that’s only about 20 miles away but in all the time we’ve been together we’ve never gone to it before.  Lots and lots of walking!  I am expecting to put in at least two solid hours of walking today - leisurely walking but it’s exercise nevertheless.  It’s also excruciatingly hot outside still.  Does exercise plus heat equal extra calories burned?  If it doesn’t, it damn well should.  It is so much harder to move around when it’s this hot.

I miss Minnesota and Wisconsin!  The weather was so gorgeous while I was there!

Hubby and I went to Sam’s Club yesterday and I bought a membership there.  We weren’t planning to go straight home, so we didn’t buy any frozen or refrigerated foods, but we’re definitely going back there sometime soon.  It was kinda funny, weaving through the aisles, stopping at all the little sample stops to try food.  He’s a picky eater and I’m doing the low-carb-thing, so there weren’t many samples that either one of us was willing to try, but we did manage to find a couple goodies that we’ll be buying simply because we both liked the sample.  Great marketing technique!

One of the goodies was an “pre-seasoned-apple-bacon-wrapped-pork-loin” which was on sale in the meat department at $3.49 a lb.  Almost zero carbs (I’m happy!) and really tasty pork (Hubby’s happy too)!  Oh yeah we’ll definitely be going back for that.  Maybe today. 

Years ago I had a membership at Sam’s through my job, and I actually found myself spending more money than usual instead of less, just because “It’s a great deal!”  That’s okay though, because I love the convenience of not shopping as often, just because you can buy in such large quantities.  I never actually added it up to see if it’s more or less expenditure in the long run.  Maybe it’s less because I have to buy less often but maybe it’s more because I’m buying stuff that I wouldn’t normally buy.  I dunno.

Though I miss the cool weather up north (and seeing my sister), I’m still really happy to be home.

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Weight today:  236.2       Change since last weigh-in:  -4.8 lbs.
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I’m home!!!

Okay that weight up there might be a little skewed because it’s in the middle of the day (a day in which I barely ate) - but I couldn’t wait another moment!!  I knew I’d been SOOOOO good while away on this trip and I knew I was gonna show some poundage lost and so almost the moment I walked in the door from the airport, I stripped my clothes off and hopped on the scale!

WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

**Happy Dance!!!***   ***Happy Dance!!!***   ***Happy Dance!!!***

Awesome, awesome, awesome.  I love it when the scale shows a loss!  LOVE IT!!

Now I just need to be this good while I’m at home!  I will STICK to my low-carb woe and I will get some kind of exercise EVERY single day!  And YEAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!  The pounds will drop off as if by MAGIC!!!

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My sister called me on Tuesday and said, “It’s all your fault.”  Okay what did I do THIS time?!?

She said that her and her husband BOTH weighed in on Monday morning and they BOTH weighed less on Monday than they did the previous Friday — and she said that never happens! — so they’re both convinced it was because of the slight alterations they made to their usual diet (to accommodate me) and so now they’re both giving up carbs!

She took all the bakery-style-bread she bought to work and gave it away!  Ha!

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I’m outta town, have no idea what I weigh.  =D
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Last Thursday I flew to Minneapolis then drove to my sister’s house in Wisconsin for a visit.  So I haven’t weighed myself - but I’ve stayed totally on plan and even managed to get some good exercise in!  Woohooo!!

My sister and her husband are not on Atkins but they do limit their carb intake, so it was really easy for them to modify their meal plans for me while I was there.  It was awesome!  The first night there, they had steaks on the grill, creamed cauliflower, and an awesome caesar salad.  YYYeahhhhh!!  That’s what I call diet food!!!!

As for the exercise, my sister and I played badminton in their back yard and went out on the lake in a paddleboat.  I’d never done the paddleboat thing before and I loved it!  The peace, serenity, and companionship of a two-man boatride combined with a low-impact workout - it was very cool!  I wanna get a paddleboat now!!!

As of last night, I’m back in Minneapolis, I’ll be here until Thursday for a work thing.  There’s a fitness center downstairs and so I’m gonna keep my momentum going!

Happy Monday!

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Weight today:  241.0       Change since last weigh-in:  +0.4 lbs.
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I’m finally finally motivated to exercise again!!  I’ve gone for walks, I’ve worked in the yard, I’ve done time on both the elliptical and the exercise bike, and I’ve worked out with the DDR!  Woohoo!!  I haven’t put in more than an hour of exercise in a day but it’s just wonderful to be back in the groove again, up and moving!

I’ve also been ultra-careful about my food intake and I’m happy to say that I’m back in ketosis.  It’s only a matter of time before I start seeing the numbers drop on the scale.  Am I disheartened that those numbers have - so far - gone up instead of down?  Not a bit!  I know it’s water-weight and I know it’ll come back off.

Last year I started “dieting” in January 2008 but chose to “start over” in July when I began the low-carb WOE.  Because I was starting over, I started counting days in my blog, entitling each entry with the number of days I had been on that plan.  Well now I’d like to start over again.  I took an extended vacation from exercising and a 10-lb. vacation from dieting and now it feel so good to be back on the wagon that I’m gonna mark the days again in celebration!

I started back on September 2nd.  So today is Day #6.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend!!

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Weight today:  240.6       Change since last weigh-in:  +1.4 lbs.
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I kinda figured this would happen so at least I wasn’t totally bummed to see the scale this morning.  I did a full hour of really strenuous DDR last night, complete with jumps and I could feel it in my knees afterward, that I was gonna have some swelling.  So I’m assuming that’s what the weight gain is all about and even though it did put me up in “that” decade, I’m not freakin out about it.

It’ll come back off.  And ya know what?  I’m gonna celebrate when it does!

In fact, from now on I’m gonna go out of my way to celebrate every freakin’ ounce that disappears from my body!  If I have to lose my weight one-tenth-of-a-pound at a time, then SO BE IT!  I will happily say “GOODBYE!” to each and every one-tenth-of-a-pound!!

Well - come to think of it - my scale only does two-tenths (even numbers).  LOL!  But that’s okay, I’m still gonna celebrate!!

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Okay so yesterday I posted that FOR ME, it’s the sustained exercise - the daily (or almost daily) continuation of an exercise REGIMEN that works for me.  And then I thought about it.  And I thought some more.  And mostly what I thought was:  WHY?

I felt like I was onto something.  Some truth that had logic which had been eluding me somehow, but deep in my gut I knew it to be true, with or without supporting logic.

I lose weight when I exercise regularly.  Even if it’s only for a little bit each day.  Say, 30 minutes x 5 days.  That’s 150 minutes, or two-and-a-half-hours.

I don’t lose weight when I sit on my ass all week and then exercise for two-and-a-half hours one day to make up for sitting on my ass all week.

It’s true.  I know it’s true.

WHY?

So I started researching this question, and it wasn’t hard to find.  Just a couple key items of information and the puzzle pieces fell into place.  I even made a little graphic for today’s blog entry.  Yes, I am such a dork.  LOL!

What I found is this:  When you exercise, and I’m talking cardio-vascular, which means moving and using large muscles and raising your heart rate for a significant period of time (20 minutes or more), your body produces elevated levels of testosterone.  Yes, in both men and women too.  Guys, of course, have more of it - and that’s why they can burn fat so much easier than women.  (Grrrrr!!)

Anyway, so if testosterone helps us to burn more fat, then we need as much of it as we can get!  I knew that weight training elevated testosterone levels for men, but I had no idea that exercise did the same for women.  Silly me, not knowing that.

Anyway, exercise of course builds muscle - and muscle mass contributes to metabolism as well.

Exercise also distributes oxygen to your body’s cells.  The word “aerobic” is actually defined as ” pertaining to or caused by the presence of oxygen.”  Something magical happens when your cells “consume” increased levels of oxygen during aerobic exercise, directly related to the body’s metabolic and energy-generating process.  Glycogen is broken down to produce glucose, which is then broken down using oxygen to generate energy and then - fat metabolism is initiated.

If that last sentence was confusing, this is what it said:  Oxygen cranks up the fat-burning process!

Okay, so all this is great, but it doesn’t really explain why it would be different to do a little every day vs. a longer session once a week.

Here’s why…

The effects are sustained beyond the period of exercise.  The increased testosterone and oxygen consumption levels can remain (somewhat) increased for a couple days!!!

The exercise you get today
is going to boost the effectiveness
of the exercise you get tomorrow.

In other words, the effect is cumulative!

I’m probably the last person in the world to discover this particular truth, but I needed to understand it and it really helps me to know that!!!  I’m really thinking it’s going to make a huge difference in my daily motivation!

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Weight today:  239.2       Change since last weigh-in:  -+0.0 lbs.
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Before I begin, I would like to share something random.

I get migraine headaches.  I don’t get them often but this is because I am careful not to eat too many “trigger foods.”  Dark chocolate is one of my trigger foods.  I can have dark chocolate once a week and it won’t cause a migraine.  I can have two pieces of dark chocolate in a week and they won’t cause a migraine.  But - the chemical that is in dark chocolate that causes a migraine - the effects of this chemical are CUMULATIVE.  I never really know when I’m going to surpass my own personal limit on that chemical by eating dark chocolate, but I definitely know it when I do.

Random information-sharing complete.

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I love it, love it, love it, when my scale shows that I’ve lost a pound.
I love it, love it, love it, when I measure and discover that I’ve lost an inch.
I love it, love it, love it, when I put on clothes that used to be too small and find they are too big.

It’s SUCH a gas, that feeling!  That feeling that I DID THIS!  I was careful with what I ate and I worked my butt off and the payoff is so SO incredible and I did it all by myself!!

I really miss that.

I know myself well enough to know that “watching what I eat” is not enough.  I have to do the “work my butt off” part, too, or I won’t lose an ounce.  I know this.  Yet I have such trouble with motivation in the exercise department!!  It’s the reason I started the March Challenge here in my blog way back in March.  It’s the reason I then subsequently went to the trouble of developing a website for other monthly challenges.

Yet here I am, five months later, and I haven’t a single OUNCE of loss to claim.  In fact, I’ve gained weight since March.  How is that possible?

I somehow got myself into this lazy groove that I couldn’t seem to dig my way out of.  “It’s too hot.”  “I’m really tired.”  “My husband works evenings now.”  “I was out of town.”  I have no shortage of excuses, that’s for sure.  But none that are really valid.  None that really justify why I didn’t get off my ass and MOVE.

I want to feel that “I DID IT” feeling again.  Not next month.  Not next week.  NOW.

But that’s part of the problem, too.  I want results and I don’t want to wait for them.  Well, TOUGH, Eileen!  Results are worth the wait AND it takes CUMULATIVE EFFORT to get results.  Not just one hour of exercise here and there, but the cumulative total effort expended regularly over a period of time.  Like the adverse effect that dark chocolate has on my body, exercise works the same way for me (though conversely in a positive effect).

It’s not the first hour of exercise, it may not be the second.  It might just be the eighth or ninth hour that gets that scale to move.  So knowing that, I need to tell myself something.

Woman, get to it.

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