Some perspective for today....

I just read back to when I started this blog, in January 2007. Eliana was just 6 months old! And I was 135 lbs with a BMI of 27. A healthy BMI is 25 or lower, and I was officially overweight.

In a year and a half I have lost about 30 lbs, if you count the last 5 lbs I keep losing and regaining. Right now I am down 17 lbs from where I was when I started the blog, and while I have been recording, I have been as low as 114 lbs, or 21 lbs lower than my starting point.

So on those days when I feel discouraged because I'm not making any progress, I need to remember that I HAVE made progress, and lots of it. I now have a BMI of 23, which is not only in the healthy range, but it's in the middle of the range, not on the "just barely" end! I have learned LOTS of healthy habits, and even if I slip away from them for a period of time it is easier and easier to return to them each time I do. I make better choices now than I did a year and a half ago. I have a better idea of proportion and calorie content in foods. Two years ago there is NO WAY I could have gone to the Bite of Bozeman and limited myself to 100 grams of turkey leg. I wouldn't have even been able to estimate what 100 grams is!

And so, while I have not reached perfection, I have made a lot of progress over the last year and a half. And that's what it's about, right? Progress, not perfection... This is a journey and I am trekking along. No matter what the scale is, I am on my way.

Maybe I SHOULD have joined the challenge!

I didn't want to join the weightloss challenge (you know, against other people, for money) because I just don't lose weight that quickly, and I'm getting down to the part where I have fewer lbs to come off, so they just come off slowly. But this week makes me think that maybe I SHOULD have joined the challenge!!! I weighed in this morning at...

118.4

WOW! I was at 122.0 on Monday, and today is Thursday. That's 3.6 lbs this week so far and I still have until Monday before my next official weigh in! I'm glad to be building in a buffer for the week(s) that I stall, as I inevitably will. But right now I'm high as a kite!!

I survived the Bite!!

And I even survived with calories to spare! Hooray! I was moderate and let Leif eat the larger portion of the turkey leg (though I do love those turkey legs! I'll eat more of one next year now that I know they're not nearly as caloric as I thought they were!) and I just had nibbles and bites of the other things we got. It wasn't nearly as fun this year, and I'm blaming it on the fact that I was keeping track of calories and writing things down. I wish I could have just gone and not worried about it at all, but I am BOUND AND DETERMINED not to fall by the wayside this time around! I have a weight loss schedule and I'm going to stick to it! And that means counting my calories.

I also drank my water today, a full 2 liters. That makes such a difference! As does starting my day in the Word, as I mentioned before. Oh, and Taylor and I went for a walk today, which means my morning walk was about 5 miles! It's better than nothing and I'm pretty sure I burned my 200 calories in that time. I hope I did at least!

Well, it's midnight thirty, so I ought to head to bed. The alarm is set for 7 and Ellie will most likely be up around that time, so I should be too. G'night!

Down again

The encouragement continues today as I weigh... I'm down to 119.4 this morning! I am excited to be .at my goal for Monday already, and I hope I don't have a sudden gain to put a bump in my plans! I really, really, really want to reach my goal this time, and I'm really hoping not to stall around 115 lbs like I always seem to do.

I am getting the rest of my life in order, too, and woke up to a shiny clean kitchen this morning, which was wonderful! That makes Eliana's room and the kitchen that are clean and decluttered. I don't know if I did an hour solid of housework last night or not, but I put effort in at least and am seeing results in both areas that are encouraging! My next room to tackle is the living room, which shouldn't be hard, but there is vacuuming to be done, and then I need to mop the kitchen while I'm doing floors. It helps that I'm starting my days with devotions (and recording them at lou52.blogspot.com, which seems to be helping), and even though I missed them on my way to get out the door yesterday morning (though I did start the morning with fellowship, which was wonderful!) I did them last night before I went to bed. What a difference this is making in my attitude! I hate that I forget how powerful the Word is sometimes.

So tonight is the Bite of Bozeman and I am eating turkey leg for dinner. It's the one time of year that I get it and I'm not giving it up!! But I will be sharing it with Leif (and Ellie, who loves them!) so I should be okay not over eating on it, if I make an effort to be moderate. I'll try to eat lots of fruits and vegetables throughout the rest of the day so that I keep my calories down and nutrition up, since I know dinner won't be that nutritious.

Well, I think I'm going to call Taylor and see if she's interested in taking a walk this morning. We are planning on exercising together anyway, and it looks like it's shaping up to be a beautiful morning, so we might as well go outside!

And now for some math...

Today I am at 120 lbs. I want to be at 110 by my birthday, September 21. That means I have approximately 8 weeks to lose 10 lbs. Technically, that is a doable number. I need to lose a lb and a quarter each week to reach that goal, so I need to get cracking and work on it.

There it is. A new goal.

Weight loss schedule:
7/29 - 120.8
8/4 - 119.4
8/11 - 118.0
8/18 - 116.6
8/25 - 115.2
9/1 - 113.8
9/8 - 112.4
9/15 - 111.0
9/21 - 110.6

This is what I hope to stick with and use as a guide each week. I would like to be at or lower than these numbers at each weigh in to make my final goal. That's a loss of 1.4 lbs each week. Each lb is 3500 calories, so I need to rid myself of 4900 calories each week. That's 700 calories a day. According to a few basal metabolic rate calculators, I burn about 1320 calories a day, just by being alive. If I intake 1100 calories a day, that means I have a deficit of 220 calories. That takes me to 480 calories that I need to rid myself of. According to a couple other daily calorie expenditure calculators, I burn approximately 1600 calories with a sedentary lifestyle. That means I have about 200** calories each day that I need to burn with exercise if I'm going to lose weight according to the schedule above, and a little more if I eat more during the day.

The following exercises will burn about 200 calories, so I need to make time to fit at least one of them in a day:

• Wii, fitness mode, 200 calorie goal (**255 calorie goal)
  
• Housework, 1 hour (1:15)
  
• Backpacking, 30 minutes (10 lb load)
• Bicycling, 12 mph, 30 minutes
  
• Gardening, 1 hour (1:15)
  
• Hiking, 45 minutes (no load)
  
• Jogging, 5 mph, 30 minutes (adding a 5 minute warm up and cool down should do it.)
  
• Walking, 15 min/mile, 45 minutes (50 minutes)
  
• Weight training, 60 sec. between intervals, 30 minutes (35 minutes)
  

So there are some things I can work toward doing. And really, if I worked at housework for an hour straight each day, my house would look a whole lot better AND I would get exercise!! I guess that means I need to start setting my timer while I work, LOL! The Flylady principles come back again!

**after thinking about it I realized that I really have to burn 200 NET calories. If I burn 200 calories in an hour (such as doing housework) then I really need to burn 255, since I will burn 55 calories just by being alive, and they don't count toward my end goal. So it depends on how long it will take me to burn 200 calories.** (adjusted times are in italics)

Down today...

Well, I'm back down to 120.8 today, so that is a little encouraging. It still means I am 10 lbs from my goal, but I'm hopeful that I can reach that by my birthday (September 21, when your challenge ends, if I remember correctly!) if I keep at it.

This morning we had a big lawn party at the Vidmar's house (SO GOOD to see Jenn again, in her own home!) and I made a point to ONLY eat the fruits and vegetables. I stayed away from doughnuts, muffins, breads, and all the other bad for me things. I had carrots, pineapple, bananas, and grapes. And 2 cups of coffee, but I drank it black so it was calorie free!

Today I am trucking along on the calorie counting. We should be having lasagna for dinner tonight (I should get on that or we'll end up just having spaghetti instead!) so that will be fine. I need to drink more water, and I need to exercise at some point (maybe a family walk is in order this evening?) but I am encouraged by my little bit of weight loss and hope that with more work and moderation I can be down to 119 by Monday.

Disappointment...

July 28, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

Well, as you can see from the picture, I didn't do such a good job with my eating during our campout. There were s'mores and snacks, and I drank very little water. In fact, I drank lots of pop and juice and lemonade, but not much water. That was bad.

The discouraging part came before all of that, though... before we'd even eaten dinner that very first night. I had two people (TWO!) ask me if I was pregnant. And it wasn't just because our daughter is 2 and that's the current society's timeframe for a second child. No, one of the two commenters actually admitted that they thought I LOOKED pregnant. As in baby belly. Yeah... that was really discouraging.

Of course, the second discouraging thing was then after telling them that I was NOT pregnant they started asking when we were going to have more, etc. What am I supposed to say? Does every passing person REALLY want to know that we have been trying for the last year but that I lost a tube along with the baby in May and that makes things a little more complicated?? So I just smiled and said that someday we hoped to have more kids but that Ellie is plenty active enough to keep us busy right now. Of course, then I had looking pregnant and not being pregnant on the brain all night (in addition to trying to keep track of Ellie among the crowd of people) so our camping trip didn't start out so happy for me. But Ellie did fine with the camping and sleeping in the tent and the next day was much better. So much better, in fact, that we decided to stay for a second night. It was good. It was a fun trip and I'm glad we learned that Ellie camps well.

But food... I did not do so hot at being moderate, I fear. And the scale reflected it this morning. But today I stayed on track ALL DAY! I drank 2 liters of water, ended the day within my calorie range, went for a short hike (not much, but better than nothing!) and planned meals for the coming week. It felt good to keep track and stay on target. I'm just hoping I can keep with it.

Oh, and I started my morning with devotions, which always makes a big difference.

off on a camping trip...

I'm hoping there will be a hike or two involved in this little overnight adventure, but I don't know that we have one planned. It sort of depends on cranky pants, who decided to take a nap today (early enough that I let her) and woke up in a grumpy, grumpy mood. I'm hoping she gets over it soon, because camping with a grumpster might not be very fun!

Whew! Busy day...

The last couple days have been pretty busy, with Ellie's doctor appointment yesterday and spending all afternoon in town, then today going into town at 11 for the Children's Museum and staying in town until after dinner (at the RightNow family picnic). I don't know how I did on calories today - ate both lunch and dinner out. But I didn't snack so I'm hoping that will count for me. I didn't get any exercise in either. I really need to sit down and work out a schedule to help me cope with these no-nap days now. I'm pretty sure the exercise and calorie counting will be spotty at best until I get myself back into a routine.

I weighed this morning and the scale read 119.0, so that's down 1.8 lb in the last 2 days. Hooray! I'm sure it's all water weight, but it feels good anyway to see the scale go in the right direction.

That's pretty much my news for today. Tomorrow we're home most of the day and then we're going camping for the first time with Ellie. Not sure how that will go!

July 22

July 22, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

Okay... as much as I REALLY don't want to admit this number, here I am. 2 weeks of eating whatever I wanted and I've gained 4 lbs. Not good. But I'm admitting this number, and next week it WILL be smaller, as will I.

GAME. ON.

Callipygian...

Maybe this should be my next goal, LOL!!

My First 5K!!

Today was the Drop & Trot 5K. I had two goals going into the run...

1. Run the entire 5K, no walking.
2. Complete the 5K in 30 minutes.

The first goal was obviously the more important of the two for me. And guess what? I DID IT!! I ran the ENTIRE 5K, no walking! No stopping to catch my breath or drink water (though I did drink a couple cups of water while running - lots of dribble down the front of my shirt there!), just running! I am proud of myself for that. You see, not only was this my first 5K event to run in, this was the first time I have ever run 5K in one shot. EVER. I'd never even made it past 2.15 miles in my practice runs, so I wasn't sure I could do it. But I can. And I did.

As for my time... I didn't quite make the run in 30 minutes. My final time was 31:52, but I am proud of that! My legs felt pretty much like jelly at the end of the run, so I was just happy that I could push to the end, and even speed up for a good finish! 31:52 is just about a 10 minute mile and I am proud of it!! But my "official" time, after it was adjusted from the "drop" part of the Drop & Trot was 23:42. Sounds a whole lot better, eh?? See, before the run starts the participants have the option of seeing how many push ups they can do in one minute. For every push up you do, they take 10 seconds off your run time. I did 49! I originally wasn't going to do the push up part, because I didn't think I could do very many. But I got to do girl push ups, and I can do more of those for sure! And I did!!

So... Now I have run my 5K. I have made it through the Couch to 5K program, and successfully competed in a 5K run. That was my goal. I don't know if I count myself as a runner yet, but it's a start. And last night Leif and I went on a date downtown for the artwalk and stopped in Chalet Sports to see their 50% off shoe sale. So I got some new running shoes! I think that means it's time to break them in, so I guess I'll keep running! Maybe not 3x a week, and maybe not following the C25K program any longer, but I have a new goal brewing in my mind and my new shoes will help me get there.

I haven't run yet today...

And I really probably should, but it just finally got cool enough to go. And now my parents are out for a walk and Leif is out mowing the lawn, so if I leave the house to run I will leave poor Ellie unattended, and I probably ought not do that, especially if she does what she did last night with getting out of bed a million times declaring she needed to go potty. So I stay home.

But I'm drinking my water.

And I stayed in my calorie range, so that's good. I even have a little extra for a snack tonight.

And I even got to have a Frappuccino today, but I was good and I got the light one with NO whipped cream. It was 130 calories and it was a nice treat!

So... it's getting dark now and I'm not sure that I'll run, but I will do some tomorrow and then Saturday is the big 5K day!!

I bit the bullet...

Yes, I weighed in this morning. Bit the bullet and stepped on the scale. I was afraid I wouldn't see any change from the last time I weighed, but I did! And the good kind of change, too! I've lost 3 lbs from Sunday, so that is encouraging! If I can keep up with the calorie counting, exercise, and pick up on my water drinking (which should be easier now that I don't have any Splenda pop in the house... I just hope I don't fall prey to a sugar filled pop instead!) I think I'll be good to go! Still don't think I can make it to my goal of 110 for Ellie's birthday, but I will be happy with progress. My stalling point seems to be 115, every single time, so I will be very excited to see 113 on the scale, if that ever happens. Just have to keep on trucking.

Cheaper than a gym membership....

So Taylor and I were talking on our walk/run yesterday that we are so much more motivated to work out well when we're at the gym. I find it ridiculous, but true. She has looked in to getting a gym membership, but you have to pay for childcare at all the gyms around here, and with 3 kids now, that gets expensive fast! I told her that before she decides to buy a gym membership, she should head over to my house and we can let the older girls play, the younger girls sleep, and we can workout together! I have 2 steps, 2 DDR mats, a weight bench and free weights, and a few workout video options. She was excited about that idea, so we've made plans to workout together on Tuesday mornings, then have lunch. I think that will be fun and hopefully keep me on the ball so I don't loose motivation and drop out of exercise for a week or two as I am prone to do. I don't know if we'll start this Tuesday since my parents are in town, but we will for sure do it the following week and hopefully every week thereafter! It might not be a full blown gym membership, but it IS a buddy workout, cardio, weights, and free. =D

Chugging along....

Well, I should be chugging along, come to think of it... I'm struggling with my water intake. But everything else is going well. I'm at 1200 calories (1206, actually, I think) for the day, but I might eat just a little snack before bed because my tummy is growling and I'm pretty hungry. Whatever I eat won't be over 100 calories, though, so I'll still end the day under 1300, which is good. I did end up running with Taylor today, though it was much more walking than running, and the running was pretty slow. It was good, though, and it got me out. All told we walked/ran 5 miles, so even if it wasn't a strenuous run it was still decent exercise.

I haven't had the heart to weigh myself after the other day, so we'll have to see if I can do it tomorrow. I will also need to run tomorrow, maybe with Leif in the evening. And I'm hoping to do better on my water.

So far so good...

Well, 2 successful days of tracking my calories and staying at the low end. Actually, at the very low end, as low as I can get and still be within my calorie range! I didn't really mean for it to work that way, but it has.

My parents are here, and I'm going to try to keep tracking and eating well. It's usually not too hard, since I'm spending time with them instead of snacking.

Leif and I ran together for the first time last night, and it was fun! I'm still not sure that I can do the full 5K running on Saturday, but I will try and I will have fun with it!

I was supposed to go for a run with Taylor this morning, but I haven't heard from her yet, and Ellie's already awake, so I don't know if we'll go. Even if we don't run, I'd still like to take Ellie for a good walk this morning so we'll see.

Right now I need to go eat some breakfast.... fried eggwhites and Flax and Fiber toast. Maybe I'll combine them and eat a fried egg sandwich... Mmmm!

I don't think I realized...

Just how caloric almonds are. I recently bought the prepackaged nuts from Costco thinking they'd be a nice way to get some protein and variety in my diet, and give me something salty and crunchy to snack on when I get a bit peckish. They do, but a little bag of 2 oz of nuts is almost 400 calories! not exactly a "little" snack!

Back to recording....

Yesterday we didn't end up swimming in Yellowstone, as all the swimming holes were closed due to high water. But we did get in quite a bit of walking up and down steps at the Mammoth Terraces. I'd never been there before, so it was fun. We always just drive right by it and never stop. Lots of steps, though! We parked at the top and walked down and around to the lower terraces, then all the way back up, down another section, and finally back to the car. Maybe a mile and a half to two miles by the time we were done. My legs were pretty sore from running the night before, so I felt it for sure!!

This morning we "hiked" on the trails around River Rock and Cobblestone subdivision. All told I did a 4 mile walk, since I started from and returned to my house. Not a run (my shin hurts, so I'm going to give it another day before I try to run again - don't want to hurt myself and not be able to go on Saturday!) but it was at least a good walk and I got some exercise in.

Today I've got a ton of things to do in preparation for my parents' arrival tomorrow, but I started recording my food already (recorded yesterday, too) so I'm off to a good start! Recording, exercising... now for the laundry!

Oh man....

I weighed myself this morning. Bad idea. I'm up. Waaaaay up. It doesn't help that I'm bloated and hormonal, so I know that is some of the weight, but probably only a couple lbs.

I haven't been tracking my food. I haven't been paying a whole lot of attention to what I'm eating. I have been exercising, which is good, but apparently not enough. And I haven't been drinking any water. And I KNOW that affect my weight, especially since I've indulged in some full calorie soda over the past week. Ack!!

It was nice while I was in denial, but now I'm probably past that. I have GOT to get back on the bandwagon and I am just having a hard time being motivated to do so! My parents are coming into town on Tuesday, so we'll see how that will affect my ability to track calories. It's summer! I want to be free! I don't want to be tied down to calorie counting!!

Ugh. So we're headed to Yellowstone to do a little hiking and maybe some swimming with friends. Yes, that means I'll be in a bathing suit, in public, with other people we know (but who have never seen me in a bathing suit before and who are fitter than I am!)... Kind of a terrifying prospect. But hopefully there will be some hiking so I can get some exercise in.

Still not ready....

... for Saturday's run, that is.

I ran outside tonight (once it cooled down a bit) and ran 2.15 miles in 21 minutes. And that's as far as I could run. Pretty much felt like I was going to pass out or throw up if I went any further, so I walked the rest of the way. Still, it was a 10 minute mile, and it was double the furthest I've ever run outside, so that's improvement! Still, though, I need to be able to run 3 miles by Saturday and I'd like to do it in 30 minutes.

I haven't weighed myself in over a week. I keep meaning to, and manage to get in some breakfast or something to drink first. And I'm not to keen on the idea of weighing after I've consumed anything, so I haven't weighed. No idea where I am in that department. Pretty sure I'm not going to make my July 19 goal of 110. I'll probably be lucky just to be at 115 (no loss, no gain) at that point! My parents will be here Tuesday, so I am not even going to make any promises about this next week. Except that I will be training for Saturday, and that means at least 2 more serious outdoor runs, and maybe even a few endurance (not so much speed/distance) runs in between.

and THIS is me...

after I ran...

(are you ready?)

...30 MINUTES STRAIGHT!!!!

It's true! I started out determined to run 10 minutes, more if I could. But I was going to do week 6 day 2 (run 10 / walk 3 / run 10) and hoped beyond hope in the back of my mind that I could make it to 21.5 minutes, which was my previous record. I got to 10 minutes, then 13, then 15, and I pushed myself to 20. At that point I just kept going and went for another 10 minutes, finding myself at 30 minutes, running 2.5 miles in that time. WOW! I need to step up the speed a little bit to make it to 3 miles in that time, but I'm pretty darn happy with the run tonight!!

I hope I can run outside on Thursday. I could use the outside practice and I need to work on regulating my speed so I can go further and for longer. I'm taking tomorrow off from running, but hope to get in a walk, at least, and hopefully some DDR.

As a sidenote, my run tonight burned 450 calories. Woohoo!

This is me....

... sitting here in front of the computer, not having run yet. I'm dressed for it, I just didn't feel well earlier today. Now that I'm starting to feel up to it, Leif is trying to finish work and I'm watching Ellie. I think I'll see if he's ready to take her now.

Now... do I want to watch a show while I run, or just listen to music? Hmmm....

(picture taken with our brand new webcam!)

Didn't get an official run in yesterday...

But I did get a little running in while we were hiking.

We headed up to Palisade Falls last night to escape the heat, so I thought I could maybe run there. I started running up the trail while Leif and Ellie hiked. I made it about 1/3 of the way up the trail before I felt like my lungs were going to explode! I dropped back to speed-hiking until I caught my breath and then ran a little further, but eventually decided that running uphill 3,000 feet higher than I'm used to isn't such a fun idea. When I hiked to the top, though, I turned around and ran all the way down. Even that got me breathing hard, so I figure it counts for some exercise, even if was downhill, right? When I got to the bottom I turned around and hiked back to the top as fast as I could, then rested a smidge while some thundery clouds rolled in. Leif was taking pictures, so I headed back down with Ellie in the stroller. It looked like it was going to rain any moment, so I ran down with Ellie in the stroller as much as I could without going so fast I thought I was going to lose control! Sure enough, though, we got caught in the rain about half the way down. She was covered with my rain jacket and under the sun shade of the stroller, so she made it without getting wet, but I was soaked!!

The heat has really been throwing me for a loop. It's been hard to run outside with the heat, and we don't have air conditioning, so I haven't wanted to run inside and get all hot and sweaty, either! I really need to, though, because I have a 5K to run in less than 2 weeks!! eek!

So today when Eliana goes down for her nap I'm going to get over it and just run on the treadmill. I might have to take a cold shower afterwards, but I need to run. I've just got to do it.