Dear Ritas Ass..

Its time for a good kicking.

hahahahaha

Seriously, this is what happens to almost EVERYBODY when they are trying to lose weight. Part of the issue is that they (you) get comfortable, the changes become habits, the body doesn't have to work as hard, you stop trying so hard etc etc etc....

Which is, my dear old friend, why we took the pictures.

That's right! In case the rest of you didn't know, we took some pictures. At my home, on a memory stick, hidden out of site are before pictures of Rita front, side and yes, REAR. And, if I may remind you, our original agreement was that if you fall off the wagon, then I get to POST those pictures on this blog.

Ahem.

So, allow me to play "HardAss Trainer" for a minute please.

I understand you've had a hard time, death in the family, holidays with family, bad work days, what else? Oh yeah, forgetting the sexy trouser socks.... But, what's our new mantra? That's right NO MORE F-ING EXCUSES.

You wanted/want to make these changes. You need to make these changes for your own health. You know what to do, and you know how to do it. You have ALL of the tools at your disposal. So I"m afraid my friend, that the only thing stopping you from achieving YOUR goals, is YOU.

Its time to stand up, put on your big girl panties, stop procrastinating, start moving and DO THIS THING.

We've discussed obstacles, and for some reason you've never really clearly defined what those obstacles are. And that's fine, we'll move on pretending there are none until you get there.

So here's the thing. You're back writing down your food every day. You're moving 20-40 minutes/day at something that elevates your heart rate. You are finding alternatives for exercise when you have to do it on your own. And you are working out what both your motivations and your barriers are. That's it.

Big Girl Panties.

Next week we address this thing, changes are to be made, or by Wednesdays we'll have, hmmmmmm, let's see - the side view pictures posted for all to see!

I love you Rita, I want you to do this.

Backsliding and sadness and other things...

So. It's been a while since I reported regularly in this here blog thing. I have to be honest with you, dear Internet, I've been getting a little slack. Not to the point where I've stopped believing in this whole adventure, but somehow just... slowing... down.... easing back into less than productive habits. I'm still making progress, but it's a pound a week instead of 2 or 3 and the inches are slowing down as well. Again, a little here and there, but not the same as the first couple of months. I have no reason behind this and something happened today that is making me take a really good hard look at some stuff.

One of my cousins was killed in a tragic farm accident. I'm having a hard time with this. He was one of the nicest men to ever grace this earth. He was kind, and happy, and generous, and loving, and wonderful. He's leaving behind a beautiful family and friends and people who loved him. Our whole family is heartbroken.

So what does this have to do with me and this experiment? He lived life to the fullest. This was something that I promised myself when I took this on. That I would stop making excuses as to why I can't be more, be better, do the things that I stopped myself from doing.

So. Now what?

First I have to process today. Then I have to give myself a good talking to. I'll let you know how that goes.

Blocky-mc-blocker pants...

So blocks to my success have been discussed here and there and Tara has given me the task of trying to identify those things that I'm putting in the way of my kicking some serious health ass.

I put it off for a week using being in Kelowna as an excuse. Then I put it off claiming to be very busy.

And then I had that crystal clear flash of insight.

My biggest barrier? Stupid PROCRASTINATION. I am horrible about putting things off that need to be dealt with. It is The Thing that I am least proud of.

I'm going to work on this... tomorrow. ;o)

In all seriousness, it is something that I need to address in a big way because it affects my entire life, not just my health...

The Week of 20

For a "mulligan" week the results are actually impressive.

As of this week Rita has lost 20 pounds and over 20 inches all over.

As mentioned in her previous post, I am asking rita to consider her "obstacles". Each one of us has these obstacles. Little niggly things (self talk/doubt, fears etc etc) that have stopped us from achieving our goals in the past.

Rita and I have had ALOT of discussion about it. I think that there is definately a bit of a wall up there somewhere. She is making changes, for sure, but not as quickly as she might if she were to acknowledge these barriers/obstacles.

Please understand, its not a fault or a criticism of what she is currently doing. I happen to think she's doing fantastic! She's making better choices, feeling better, losing the weight etc etc. Its all good. I just happen to think she could get there faster.

So we'll see how this plays out next week. We spoke about it, and with Ritas permission I think next week we will post her actual numbers?

Mulligan...

I'm claiming a Mulligan this week.  I've been in Kelowna hanging out with my family and while I haven't been going crazy with the food and whatnot, I haven't been following the meal plans in any way, shape or form.  I've discovered when you are at the mercy of other people, it's harder to stick with the "eat every two to three hours" thing.  I haven't walked to any significant level of intensity at all but I've walked and I've swam... oh my how I've swam.  I've been keeping my portion sizes under control for the most part and have only really caved and nomed  to excess one day.... but it was salmon.  My brother's salmon.  Those of you in the know will testify how you just can't resist.  And can I get a "nice job" on the amount of alcohol I DIDN'T drink?  I was really good.  Even at the wedding I only had about 4 glasses of wine.  But it was realllllyyyyy good wine.

It's been fantastic spending time with my family and we've had a ton of fun.  But today we head back home and I've already booked my walking buddy for tonight.  I'm curious to see how I've done weight wise.

HOWEVER, my job over the last week was to figure out what is stopping me from totally diving into this adventure and I've spent a bit of time pondering it, but I'm still not sure what it is.  Once we are home and back in the groove, I'll work on that a bit more.  Anyone who's spent time with my family, especially en masse, will understand that it's hard to get time alone in your own head.  We are an intense bunch that way.  But I love them.  Oh how I love them.  They are a good bunch of people.

I'm just sayin'...

http://caloriecount.about.com/

There's an app. Easy to use.

Not about the counting of the calories as much as creating a true awareness of what you are eating.

You'll see.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Before you get all uppity...

... lets see if this app actually works for me.  So far, not so much.  I downloaded the MyFitnessPal for Android (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/).  There are a few more out there so I'll try a couple out before I either settle or throw my hands up in frustration.  I am less than thrilled with this app because of the following:

1. I don't like spending too much time futzing about with entries.  This app takes a long time to enter in one meal.  Granted the more you enter, the more options you have for "quick picks" but it's still fussy.
2. With the amount of cooking from scratch that I do, especially without recipes, it's hard to enter in the caloric value of a meal.
3. We will HAVE to sit down and discuss exactly how many calories I should be taking in each day... something tells me that 1500 calories is just not enough for a gal my size and that is what this app is recommending. 

I really really really don't like counting calories. I just don't want to be so mindful of it.  Yes it's a good idea to get a bigger picture look at what I'm taking in, but I just want to LIVE, not always be thinking about how many calories this is or what the fat content of that is... I just want to get into the habit of healthy eating, smaller portions and good clean food.  

HOWEVER, the other app that I downloaded is RUNTASTIC (http://runtastic.com/en/users/Rita-Floor) and although I've only used it twice, it gets a solid TWO THUMBS UP from me.  It tracks your exercise routes via GPS and gives you a summary of where you went, how fast you went and how many calories you ultimately burned.  I foresee this app being used a lot in the coming months.  

So back to the food... Someone asked to see what my daily food is like so here goes: 

Today, June 23:

6:30 AM - Fruit smoothie; 1 cup of 1% milk, 1/2 a banana, 3 good sized strawberries, 1/4 cup of blueberries, 1 scoop of Gensoy Vanilla Protien Powder.

9:30 AM - 1/2 cup fresh pineapple, 2 strawberries, 1/4 blueberries, 1 cup of Kashi cereal, 1 container of blueberry Astro yogurt.

12:30 PM - Turkey sammich on whole wheat with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and a bit of cheese

3:00 PM - Fresh peppers and cucumber, 10 whole wheat pretzels (omg nom nom nom)

4:30 PM - 1/4 cup salsa and a handful of chips

6:00 PM - beef stirfry with a crap-ton of veggies, wild rice

According to this app (it took me at least 10 to 15 minutes to upload everything!) I took in 2178 calories, burned 425 with my uber awesome walk, leaving me 213 calories short for my goal of 1540.  

It's all well and fine, but ultimately I just don't care.  I don't care that I ate exactly 2178 calories.  I just know I had a really tasty sammich for lunch, and was served really delicious beef stir-fry for dinner.  I had enough that I was satisfied but not so much that I felt full.  And that's how it should be.  I don't ever want to be obsessed with each and every morsel of food that passes my lips (ha!  I typo'd lisp instead of lips...).

But I'll try it.  My biggest challenge with this will be to remember to enter everything on the day I eat it... I have a tendency to let slip once in a while, and have to back track one day and remember what I ate.  This app doesn't let you go back.  Kind of like life.... right? ;o)