Howdy Gang!

Gosh, it's really slowed down around here, hasn't it? I hope everyone is just super duper busy and enjoying the sunshine.

Well, regarding epiphanies(sp?).....
Nothing really stands out in my mind. No health scares or illness in my family which I am SO thankful for. I just know that I HATE being heavy. I HATE not being comfortable in my own skin. I have been big my entire adult life, most of it coming on after each pregnancy and failing to lose the extra baby weight. Since dh & I have been together (16 years almost), I have been actively persuing weight loss without success. What I always didn't know before was that I was doing it all wrong, and most definitely, I was not ready.

I guess you could say that my ephiphany came when I got to see Bob in real life & read his book. For the first time in all my endeavors to do this, I feel at extreme peace. I have always had issues with my self image and self worth, thru his book he has taught me how to like the me now, the one in the mirror with all the bumps & lumps. Granted, it's not been overnight, but a process in the making that I have to work at every single day. I have good days and some bad occasionally, where I forget that it's ok to be who I am NOW. The biggest key for me, and the hardest, was getting totally honest and down & dirty with myself about my past, letting it go and accepting my failures as they were and be done with it. I am completely trusting the process and loving every minute, and for the first time, totally enjoying the ride. I really clicked with what he had to teach and I could not be more grateful. I really believe that because of the positive energy that I am learning to harness, it is coming thru in my relationship with my dh and makes him want to join in on the journey. We have had so much fun working out at the gym together and cooking in the kitchen, and I can really see a transformation coming thru in him. I could not be happier!

♥danielle

Hi red teamies!
How are all of you? Ive had fun reading up on this week, sorry this is the first time all week Ive been near a computer....my sister bought a house, so weve just packed her place and moved her,my aunt and uncle just visited for 3 days... my brothers graduation is tonight and tomorrow, and Im feeling so tired, its been a hard week, and Ive been totally off track. CANT STOP EATING! Arrrgghh
I miss being on here, you guys make it so fun and encouraging to stay on track!
I will be in town again tomorrow, so I will stop in then....

Can i take a freebie week? How does that work?
Have a great weekend!

Since taking on the decision to live a healthier lifestyle...what is something that you discovered (food, exercise, something personal) that you never thought you'd enjoy but now you do?

Yoga. After all, a large, 50+, inflexible person can't do yoga. She couldn't even do much yoga when she was 120 lbs and 26, let alone 215 lbs and 24 years older.

But I was wrong. I enjoy it and it has really helped with my flexibility, developing lean muscles and balance.

Aw, Joyce that is so awesome of your dh! It makes all of this worth it when the people we love most are so appreciative of all our hard work. Wear those new clothes with pride lady, you earned it!

Lonnie, it takes alot to admit that you have a problem. You are doing such wonderful things for your mind & body! Just keep the faith and walk the walk and those pounds will melt before you know it! You rock!!!

Kelly, I really think Jillian enjoys inflicting pain on us unsuspecting souls! LOL I have done that dvd twice and both times my legs end up being SO sore the next day! I don't know about 30 days in a row, if I tried I think I might need a wheelchair!

Andi, you are doing such a fantastic job with everything. I am thrilled to hear that you found your mojo and I can't wait to see what kind of exciting changes your body starts making! I know that you and dh will get thru whatever disagreement you may have had. I know I for sure hate it when mine is right! LOL Keep it up chicky, you're amazing!

Karen, my mom was always struggling with weight while I was growing up. She was actually rail thin up til I was about 10 and then she just ballooned. I remember just wishing that she would just wake up one day and be thin. lol Kid thinkin, ya gotta love it. During the course of my teen years I watched her struggle over and over and alot of time put her issues with food onto me, the closest target. Lots of what I struggled with in my life has alot to do with what I endured watching her. It's good that you can use your mom & her experience to spur yourself into good health for yourself!

Mel, glad you got to enjoy some sleep! Good luck bike hunting, I know how much you really wanna get out there and pedal pedal pedal!


Something I've discovered:
I realize that I LOVE to exercise! I LOVE the gym! Who'da thunk it? I have always had such a deep phobia towards exercise and it was always the beginning of my end everytime I started some weight loss regime. Since learning to "trust the process" I am seeing that I truly enjoy the way working out makes me feel inside & out! Woo hoo for me!

I'm afraid I'm not trying anything new for today - well unless you count the first day of training for the 100 pushup challenge. We (hubby and I) did the initial assessment on Wednesday - I got 15 and he got 21. It's going to be hard. So hard! But I'm really looking forward to it as it's something we can do together and it sounds really impressive to say that "I can do 100 pushups!"

I think after the pushups, I'll be training hard for a 5k and then after that, maybe I'll try pullups!

What I've discovered is that even though I really DON'T like exercise - I LOVE how I feel after I do it. I may never like it - it's hard and especially cardio can be so freaking boring. But man! After a good workout, I LOVE the pull of soreness, the burn in my muscles, the salt on my face...it makes me SO proud!

Tough! Oh man - it's the longest 20 minutes of my day. There's a short warmup followed by three circuits. In each circuit you do 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of ab work. I'm on level 1 and I hurt. My arms aren't TOO bad but my quads are aching as I sit here. The pushups are the hardest part and that's what she starts you off with! However, I don't want to discourage you or anyone else! I have to admit that even after doing it only twice I FEEL like I'm doing something. I am getting good (and fast) workout, it's not complicated to do (I'm seriously incapable of combining foot and hand motions without causing injury to my person) and Jillian is motivating. Mostly, I want to kick her a$$ but that certainly keeps me going!

Hey Teamies! I'm back from the lake. We had a blast, though just about everyone was sick at sometime or other, which made things a bit more exciting than we were anticipating. I meant to stay on my diet, but I thought, what the heck, it is only three days, so I just enjoyed myself. I'm a bit behind, but I'll try to catch-up.

Wacky Wednesday: For my new thing, I rode a SeaDo (personal water craft). It was a total blast. I also tried skiing, but we didn't have enough power to do it properly, so I never got up on top of the water. It was pretty good exercise just giving it a go!

Thirsty Thursday: It was really easy to drink plenty of water while we were out in the sun on the lake all day. I easily drank 100 oz of water.

Freaky Friday: I haven't tried anything new, but I must have managed some kind of unofficial exercise, as I'm totally sore. Surely that counts for somthing?

I work at a University. There's a University Employee that is the main person then he has student workers each semester (unfortunately this kid just started so he could be around a while). When the main guy came to empty the trash I told him that the kitchen trash was full because the kid unplugged the frig and didn't plug it back in. He said he'd talk to the kid. Unfortunately, this and vacuuming aren't the only issues with this kid. He will take FOREVER to clean the bathroom and when he's done, it's still dirty with no/low toilet paper and paper towel levels. Ugh! And he's weird....I just get that uncomfortable feeling around him...can't explain why, it's just there.

I have the 30 day shred but have yet to do it. I tried once, but it was too soon after my weight lifting DVD, and I couldn't do it. I need to pull it out and give it another try.......but I'm scared.....

Still busy busy busy. By Monday morning I will have everything done . Then I will just have normal house cleaning to do, the lawn to mow and weed eat and my hair to do and nails to do. Will have everything done by Friday morning so I can have a great three days off.

Counting
I love to do my walking/aerobic videos. I never thought I would and wasn't thrilled with them when I started them. Now, they are a great part of my day. I do a video while watching something else at the same time. It is a time for me, a time that everyone leaves me alone.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Karen - trust your instincts, if the guy seems weird and gives you the heebies then pay attention to it. On top of it he's just being a slack ***. I could pick every piece of lint off the floor with scotch tape quicker then he vacuums!

Kelly - wow I'm sucking at the pushup challenge, good for you!!

MonteCristo- Seado's are so much fun! Glad you had a good time at the lake.

Danielle - I feel ya. It's such a weird moment when you realize that exercising is um fun and makes you feel good! Now the trick is to keep reminding ourselves that.

CountingDown - I love love love yoga. I'm quite upset I missed my class this AM (sleep won out).

Lonnie – No coffee. I just got scared there for a bit. I’m not a nice person if I don’t get my cup in the AM!

Wkgirl – Yes I think you can take a freebie as long as you still have some left. Now get back on track and forget about the past week. Being in different situations is stressful but get back OP and working out!

Tina – Welcome back! I’m going to Vegas next month for a weekend and I’m sooo excited!

Melissa – Glad things are working out and you got some sleep!

Andi – I’m doing the C25K plan also. It’s really helping with the weight loss. Running seems to be my quickest way to drop weight. TOM is sooo not fair. It’s wreaking havoc with me right now! GRRR!!!

Joyce – Hope you have a great time camping!

Shelby – I’m sorry dear, not something I’m ready to deal with myself. Those poor children.
I’ve had several epitomes in my life about weight loss but they never seem to stick. However in fall of last year (2007) I finally acknowledged to myself that I was a binge eater and that it was symptomatic of something other then food. It took a while to come to terms with it and get some outside help but I did and I’m learning to deal with food in a “normal” healthy manner.

Jen – what an awesome trip. Have a great time and don’t get sick!

Stacy – How are you doing? Have you gotten back on plan? What’s holding you back?

Rosa – Computers are such annoying twits. Glad you popped into say hi!

Diva – I like belly dancing also!! We have a studio here that teaches pole dancing, belly dancing, etc but all for exercise! It’s girls only. I’ve been too scared to go try it but I think I’m going to use it as a reward for 40lb down.

Idealmuse – Stretch marks suck. I don’t think there are more; I just think there’s just less skin so they look more concentrated. The good news is that they do fade overtime. I’ve been big my whole life so never stretch mark free.

Kara – I’ll change my name when I’m no longer a fat chick!

Everybody else – Sorry I missed you I’m just so far behind after a long long week!

LOL picking up lint with scotch tape! That made me laugh this morning!

Ugh I'm so behind with doing personals, and with as slow as our thread has been there is no reason for that...just be being lazy! And I apologize for that.

We are off to the Farmers market now, I'm hoping there are some huckleberries but I doubt it since they typically arent ready till mid july and with our weather it may be longer.

I've suddenly realized that I just want to cook good healthy food, using fresh healthy ingredients...could it be that I've graduated to weight loss just being something that will come with a healthy lifestyle?? Wouldnt that be great!

We are supposed to get up to 100 degrees tomorrow so we most likely will head out to the lake for the day.

I hope everyone has a fantastic day!!

Hey don't laugh about scotch tape lol. You know what works great. Those lint rollers with the masking tape on them. You can run those things over anything. I found some that they have individual pieces of tape. You use it take a piece off, toss it and it is ready to use again. We buy those things by the gross and they are really cheap at the dollar store lol. How come **** tzu's are not suppose to shed but Bella leaves little Bella bombs all over the place lol.