Saturday, January 31, 2009
YAY Me!
Today at Weight Watchers, I officially weigh 50 punds less than I did on October 17, 2008! Yay me! My first WW weigh in was actually 2# less than this top number, so for WW, I've only lost 48#, but still - from my scale at home, I am minus 50! YAY ME!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
New Year...New Me
OK - really, just a quick post cuz I'm busy watching TBL Marathon on Bravo, but I wanted a reminder to myself of all that I've accomplished in 2008 and what I want to accomplish in 2009:
2008 was a tough year (hubby gone for much of the first half of the year with his sister), but a great year - A.'s HS graduation, rugby, sending I. to Norway, going to California for a great vacation, working at a job I really like and helping with our plans for a new Wellness and Therapy Department, entertaining company from Norway, sending A. off to college, more rugby, lots and lots and lots of walks with my husband and the pups, catching up with lots of friends on Facebook and rekindling some past relationships. Personally, I feel like I have grown and been more open to change and possibilities. I set some personal goals and am so very proud of myself for reaching those goals. On Oct. 17th, I set a goal to lose 30# by the end of the year. I am happy to report that as of December 31, 2008, I have lost 43#!!! WooHoo! Yay me!! OF course, I've done this before, but this time is different - I am NEVER going to do this again - I am done with my weight struggle, thyroid and brain tumor be damned. I will not do this again - this time is the last time. There is too much I want to do with this life to sit back and watch it all pass by me because I limit myself with my weight - I can't because I'm fat, I can't because I'm embarrassed by my weight, I can't, I can't, I can't. I'm done with ALL of that. FOREVER.
So, in 2009, I have some goals that I want to accomplish that have been rekindled with the shedding of this fat.
1. I will lose 30# by my birthday, March 14 using my current plan (WW points, no desserts/chocolate until my birthday). My overall goal weight loss for the year is to lose between 55-80#. I don't have a goal weight I 'have' to be because I know that at my smallest size, I weighed more than I did in high school (for eg.) because I had more muscle. So, as I get closer, I'll refine that goal.
2. Walk every day - I watch so much tv and we have a treadmill set up with a tv and headphones - there is no reason that I can't walk and watch tv at the same time. So, an hour a day on the treadmill until I can get outside at a steady-state, following Leigh Peele's guidlines for upping my NEAT.
3. Try a new sport/activity each month. This month, I'm hoping for rock wall climbing!
4. Make the Amazing Race Season 15 with Marcy.
5. Write a book - I've got the ideas, the time, the resources and I know this will be a successful venture. From the book - a successful business opprtunity will present itself and I intend to take that all the way.
6. Once I've reached my fat loss goal, I will begin a training program for muscle maintenece and increasing endurance for the ultimate goal of successful ageing in the long-term and in the short-term, to climb Mt. Kilamanjaro for my 40th birthday, complete Disney half-marathons, complete triathalons, 5K's and 10K's and have an active, healthy life.
7. Work on improving myself each and every day - shedding fears, negativity, self-doubt and becoming a positive, self-loving person in all I do.
8. Show more LOVE every day :)
9. And I almost forgot - get some debt paid off (acckkk - no more CC's - they suck)and keep saving money and taking advantage of opportunities to TRAVEL - travelling fills my soul and makes me feel alive like nothing else and it is essential to ME being ME. So, while this year may not see much, I will continue towards expanding my horizons!
I can't wait for 2009! YAY!!!
2008 was a tough year (hubby gone for much of the first half of the year with his sister), but a great year - A.'s HS graduation, rugby, sending I. to Norway, going to California for a great vacation, working at a job I really like and helping with our plans for a new Wellness and Therapy Department, entertaining company from Norway, sending A. off to college, more rugby, lots and lots and lots of walks with my husband and the pups, catching up with lots of friends on Facebook and rekindling some past relationships. Personally, I feel like I have grown and been more open to change and possibilities. I set some personal goals and am so very proud of myself for reaching those goals. On Oct. 17th, I set a goal to lose 30# by the end of the year. I am happy to report that as of December 31, 2008, I have lost 43#!!! WooHoo! Yay me!! OF course, I've done this before, but this time is different - I am NEVER going to do this again - I am done with my weight struggle, thyroid and brain tumor be damned. I will not do this again - this time is the last time. There is too much I want to do with this life to sit back and watch it all pass by me because I limit myself with my weight - I can't because I'm fat, I can't because I'm embarrassed by my weight, I can't, I can't, I can't. I'm done with ALL of that. FOREVER.
So, in 2009, I have some goals that I want to accomplish that have been rekindled with the shedding of this fat.
1. I will lose 30# by my birthday, March 14 using my current plan (WW points, no desserts/chocolate until my birthday). My overall goal weight loss for the year is to lose between 55-80#. I don't have a goal weight I 'have' to be because I know that at my smallest size, I weighed more than I did in high school (for eg.) because I had more muscle. So, as I get closer, I'll refine that goal.
2. Walk every day - I watch so much tv and we have a treadmill set up with a tv and headphones - there is no reason that I can't walk and watch tv at the same time. So, an hour a day on the treadmill until I can get outside at a steady-state, following Leigh Peele's guidlines for upping my NEAT.
3. Try a new sport/activity each month. This month, I'm hoping for rock wall climbing!
4. Make the Amazing Race Season 15 with Marcy.
5. Write a book - I've got the ideas, the time, the resources and I know this will be a successful venture. From the book - a successful business opprtunity will present itself and I intend to take that all the way.
6. Once I've reached my fat loss goal, I will begin a training program for muscle maintenece and increasing endurance for the ultimate goal of successful ageing in the long-term and in the short-term, to climb Mt. Kilamanjaro for my 40th birthday, complete Disney half-marathons, complete triathalons, 5K's and 10K's and have an active, healthy life.
7. Work on improving myself each and every day - shedding fears, negativity, self-doubt and becoming a positive, self-loving person in all I do.
8. Show more LOVE every day :)
9. And I almost forgot - get some debt paid off (acckkk - no more CC's - they suck)and keep saving money and taking advantage of opportunities to TRAVEL - travelling fills my soul and makes me feel alive like nothing else and it is essential to ME being ME. So, while this year may not see much, I will continue towards expanding my horizons!
I can't wait for 2009! YAY!!!
Saturday, December 27, 2008
On Transitioning and Trash-talking by fengshway at JPFitnessForums.com
Sometimes I really identify with transgendered individuals. You know the folks I’m talking about—female brain born in a male body or vice versa. Spending more than a decade in an obese body somehow altered my brain chemistry. I have days where I still have my fat girl brain, even though I am now in a lean girl body. It all started yesterday when I impulsively signed up to do the holiday bridge challenge today-- a 3 mile competitive run or a 1 mile fun walk. I wisely chose the fun walk--the perfect recovery activity to sandwich between my 3 mile tempo run yesterday and my 6 mile long run tomorrow.
Packet pickup was at our local running store yesterday. I was surprised to find out that a Brooks technical running tshirt was part of my entry fee. And even more impressive, they had both women’s sizes and men’s sizes. Now I have been ordering medium race tshirts (men sizes) for the better part of a year now. No shocker there. The true shocker came when I tried on the women’s size large and it was too big. Me? A runners medium? Manufacturers of runners clothing are notorious for reverse vanity sizing. I like to think that it all started with some thin, gangly champion high school runner who always yearned for the body of a football player. As he grew older and more successful, he started his own running clothing company-finally he was able to become that size Large that his brain always knew he was, despite still weighing what he did in high school. But I digress.
Not only did a size medium Brooks running shirt fit. So did my size medium Lucy running shorts that I bought for $11 on sale before I was a size medium. And the Pearl Izumi size medium long sleeved running T’s. and the size medium Brooks running tights in black with neon yellow stripes up the leg. And the matching size medium Brooks long sleeved T with neon yellow strips up the arm. Things I never had the confidence to wear 75 pounds ago.
So off I went to the walk this morning in my size medium Brooks running T and my size medium Lucy running shorts, and placed my medium ass at the back of the pack with the walkers. Two women my age, Wanda and Kat, and Wanda’s parents, befriended me and invited me to walk with them. They planned to do the mile walk, and then if Wanda’s parents (in their 70’s) felt up to it, they were going to walk the entire 3 mile course just for fun. Game on! So we settled into a nice easy pace. At the one mile finish, Wanda’s parents wanted to do the whole enchilada, so off we went. The parents seemed engrossed in their own conversation, so Wanda, Kat and I started swapping fitness stories.
Turns out, Wanda is a trainer at a local gym. And Kat is an ex-motorcycle cop, exercise junkie extraordinaire. We had much to talk about, naturally. At one point, Kat had to stop to use the bathroom, and Wanda’s parents elected to continue walking. They were really motoring, and when I commented on how impressed I was, Wanda agreed, that yes, they had definitely improved their fitness—they are newcomers to fitness, after a lifetime of obesity and sedentary behavior. They had built this level of endurance in just a year, at the encouragement of Wanda’s sister, a marathon runner. And certainly, Wanda was very proud of her parents. But then she started trash-talking their eating behaviors. The Junk Food. The Sugar. The Diner Food. Oh MY! And I found myself trash-talking right along with her. I lamented how my own parents were losing the food battle themselves, remaining severely obese despite ever declining levels of mobility and energy as they near their late sixties. And we trashed talked some more about THOSE people who just can’t seem to get their shit together and GET IT DONE. Just stop eating the wrong things. Just start moving more. You too can be a runner size medium just like me.
Somewhere near mile 3, I realized that by trash-talking about THOSE people, I was trash-talking about myself. I felt the need to “come out of the closet” and admit, that yes, despite the convincing runner girl exterior, I too was one of THOSE people. Someone who figured out fitness before food—someone who improved her fitness enough to drag her obese ass across the finish line of her first marathon, only to recover with a 6 course Thai dinner and a large Dairy Queen Cookie Dough Blizzard. Wanda and Kat seemed unaffected by my confession. In fact, they invited me to brunch with them. I declined, not sure that I was ready to eat around new friends who had always been lean. What would they think if I ordered the delectable Harvest Pumpkin Pancake, complete with white chocolate chips, pecans and cranberries? Would that mean that I was switching sides? If walking the bridges and contemplating the merits of fruits and vegetables makes me one of THEM, would choosing the Harvest Pumpkin Pancake over the poached egg and fruit make me one of THOSE people?
And then I realized that most people probably don’t give a rat’s behind what I am or am not eating. Sometimes I will choose the poached egg and fruit. Sometimes I choose the Harvest Pumpkin Pancake. Today, with the safety of my supportive husband who has loved me at all of my various shapes and sizes, I did the unthinkable. I ordered the Ginormous Dinner-Plate sized Harvest Pumpkin Pancake. And a cup of yummy lentil soup. And the large fruit bowl. Because those are the things that I actually wanted to eat at brunch. And I enjoyed the variety. The freshness of the fruit bowl-the crunchy, delicate taste of the honeydew melon, contrasting with the sweeter sweet of the blueberries and strawberries. The ripe banana slices. The salty, earthy broth of the lentil soup. And the Harvest Pumpkin Pancake---well let me just say that syrup would have ruined the absolute perfection of this creation! Moist pumpkin base, almost a custard consistency, dotted with white chocolate chips, pecans, dried cranberries, carmelized sugar. And if enjoying this masterpiece makes me one of THOSE people, well, than I guess I am.
The truth is, for the decade plus of my life that I spent in an obese body, I had a lean, fit athlete brain trapped in an unfit, obese body, which gradually became a fit obese body, and finally a fit, leaner body. But as much as I want to pretend that I have always had my nutritional shit together, the truth is, who I am today required an unbelievable amount of hard work. After many years of daily practice, many stumbles, falls, false starts, and restarts, I really do think I have fully transitioned to a fit, lean person.
People who are making the transition from male to female or female to male have to live a full year as their intended gender before the surgeon will do genital reassignment surgery. I am coming up on a full year of living at a body weight that is normal for my height and weight. I believe that I am fully transitioned. I believe that I am not meant to live in an obese body. I’m ready for my surgery now. But unfortunately, there is no brain surgery that guarantees that I won’t return to that obese woman who didn’t feel full after a 6 course Thai meal and a large cookie dough blizzard. But every day that I practice my lean girl behaviors, it gets easier and easier. And I learn that life in a lean body really isn’t an US versus THEM battle. Some people struggle with food. Some people have never had to struggle with food. But at the end of the day, trash-talking the strugglers really isn’t helpful. Sharing your road map with those who struggle might be.
__________________
my training log:
http://forums.jpfitness.com/training...formation.html
Packet pickup was at our local running store yesterday. I was surprised to find out that a Brooks technical running tshirt was part of my entry fee. And even more impressive, they had both women’s sizes and men’s sizes. Now I have been ordering medium race tshirts (men sizes) for the better part of a year now. No shocker there. The true shocker came when I tried on the women’s size large and it was too big. Me? A runners medium? Manufacturers of runners clothing are notorious for reverse vanity sizing. I like to think that it all started with some thin, gangly champion high school runner who always yearned for the body of a football player. As he grew older and more successful, he started his own running clothing company-finally he was able to become that size Large that his brain always knew he was, despite still weighing what he did in high school. But I digress.
Not only did a size medium Brooks running shirt fit. So did my size medium Lucy running shorts that I bought for $11 on sale before I was a size medium. And the Pearl Izumi size medium long sleeved running T’s. and the size medium Brooks running tights in black with neon yellow stripes up the leg. And the matching size medium Brooks long sleeved T with neon yellow strips up the arm. Things I never had the confidence to wear 75 pounds ago.
So off I went to the walk this morning in my size medium Brooks running T and my size medium Lucy running shorts, and placed my medium ass at the back of the pack with the walkers. Two women my age, Wanda and Kat, and Wanda’s parents, befriended me and invited me to walk with them. They planned to do the mile walk, and then if Wanda’s parents (in their 70’s) felt up to it, they were going to walk the entire 3 mile course just for fun. Game on! So we settled into a nice easy pace. At the one mile finish, Wanda’s parents wanted to do the whole enchilada, so off we went. The parents seemed engrossed in their own conversation, so Wanda, Kat and I started swapping fitness stories.
Turns out, Wanda is a trainer at a local gym. And Kat is an ex-motorcycle cop, exercise junkie extraordinaire. We had much to talk about, naturally. At one point, Kat had to stop to use the bathroom, and Wanda’s parents elected to continue walking. They were really motoring, and when I commented on how impressed I was, Wanda agreed, that yes, they had definitely improved their fitness—they are newcomers to fitness, after a lifetime of obesity and sedentary behavior. They had built this level of endurance in just a year, at the encouragement of Wanda’s sister, a marathon runner. And certainly, Wanda was very proud of her parents. But then she started trash-talking their eating behaviors. The Junk Food. The Sugar. The Diner Food. Oh MY! And I found myself trash-talking right along with her. I lamented how my own parents were losing the food battle themselves, remaining severely obese despite ever declining levels of mobility and energy as they near their late sixties. And we trashed talked some more about THOSE people who just can’t seem to get their shit together and GET IT DONE. Just stop eating the wrong things. Just start moving more. You too can be a runner size medium just like me.
Somewhere near mile 3, I realized that by trash-talking about THOSE people, I was trash-talking about myself. I felt the need to “come out of the closet” and admit, that yes, despite the convincing runner girl exterior, I too was one of THOSE people. Someone who figured out fitness before food—someone who improved her fitness enough to drag her obese ass across the finish line of her first marathon, only to recover with a 6 course Thai dinner and a large Dairy Queen Cookie Dough Blizzard. Wanda and Kat seemed unaffected by my confession. In fact, they invited me to brunch with them. I declined, not sure that I was ready to eat around new friends who had always been lean. What would they think if I ordered the delectable Harvest Pumpkin Pancake, complete with white chocolate chips, pecans and cranberries? Would that mean that I was switching sides? If walking the bridges and contemplating the merits of fruits and vegetables makes me one of THEM, would choosing the Harvest Pumpkin Pancake over the poached egg and fruit make me one of THOSE people?
And then I realized that most people probably don’t give a rat’s behind what I am or am not eating. Sometimes I will choose the poached egg and fruit. Sometimes I choose the Harvest Pumpkin Pancake. Today, with the safety of my supportive husband who has loved me at all of my various shapes and sizes, I did the unthinkable. I ordered the Ginormous Dinner-Plate sized Harvest Pumpkin Pancake. And a cup of yummy lentil soup. And the large fruit bowl. Because those are the things that I actually wanted to eat at brunch. And I enjoyed the variety. The freshness of the fruit bowl-the crunchy, delicate taste of the honeydew melon, contrasting with the sweeter sweet of the blueberries and strawberries. The ripe banana slices. The salty, earthy broth of the lentil soup. And the Harvest Pumpkin Pancake---well let me just say that syrup would have ruined the absolute perfection of this creation! Moist pumpkin base, almost a custard consistency, dotted with white chocolate chips, pecans, dried cranberries, carmelized sugar. And if enjoying this masterpiece makes me one of THOSE people, well, than I guess I am.
The truth is, for the decade plus of my life that I spent in an obese body, I had a lean, fit athlete brain trapped in an unfit, obese body, which gradually became a fit obese body, and finally a fit, leaner body. But as much as I want to pretend that I have always had my nutritional shit together, the truth is, who I am today required an unbelievable amount of hard work. After many years of daily practice, many stumbles, falls, false starts, and restarts, I really do think I have fully transitioned to a fit, lean person.
People who are making the transition from male to female or female to male have to live a full year as their intended gender before the surgeon will do genital reassignment surgery. I am coming up on a full year of living at a body weight that is normal for my height and weight. I believe that I am fully transitioned. I believe that I am not meant to live in an obese body. I’m ready for my surgery now. But unfortunately, there is no brain surgery that guarantees that I won’t return to that obese woman who didn’t feel full after a 6 course Thai meal and a large cookie dough blizzard. But every day that I practice my lean girl behaviors, it gets easier and easier. And I learn that life in a lean body really isn’t an US versus THEM battle. Some people struggle with food. Some people have never had to struggle with food. But at the end of the day, trash-talking the strugglers really isn’t helpful. Sharing your road map with those who struggle might be.
__________________
my training log:
http://forums.jpfitness.com/training...formation.html
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
HaHa!
copy of an email making the rounds:
Dear Red States:
We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our
own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with
us. In case you aren't aware, that includes
California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. It may
even include New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Florida and Ohio,
they are seriously considering it. We've given them
until Nov. 4th to decide. We believe this split will be
beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of
the new country. Since we're dropping the middle states
we're calling it United America, or simply the U.A.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the
slave states. We get stem cell research and the best
beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
You can take Ted Nugent. We'r e keeping Bruce Springsteen
and Billy Joel. You get WorldCom. We get Intel and
Microsoft. You get Ole' Miss. We get Harvard and 85
percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get Alabama . We get two-thirds of the tax revenue,
you get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than
the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy
families. You get a bunch of single moms, and the highest
concentration of pregnant unwed teenagers. Please be aware
that the U.A. will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're
going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If
you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have
kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths
for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't
show pictures of their children's caske ts coming home.
We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn
up, really we do, but we're not willing to spend our
resources in Bush's Quagmire. We'd rather spend it
on taking care of sick people, and educating our children.
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of
80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90
percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the
nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's
quality wines, 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the
high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all
living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven
Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. With the Red
States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88
percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health
care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquit oes, nearly 100
percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99
percent of all Southern Baptists,virtually 100 percent of
all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University,
Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and
Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe
Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe
life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the
death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is
only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11
and 61 percent of you crazy Redies believe you are people
with higher morals then we Bluies..
Peace out,
Blue States
Dear Red States:
We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our
own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with
us. In case you aren't aware, that includes
California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. It may
even include New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Florida and Ohio,
they are seriously considering it. We've given them
until Nov. 4th to decide. We believe this split will be
beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of
the new country. Since we're dropping the middle states
we're calling it United America, or simply the U.A.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the
slave states. We get stem cell research and the best
beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
You can take Ted Nugent. We'r e keeping Bruce Springsteen
and Billy Joel. You get WorldCom. We get Intel and
Microsoft. You get Ole' Miss. We get Harvard and 85
percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get Alabama . We get two-thirds of the tax revenue,
you get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than
the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy
families. You get a bunch of single moms, and the highest
concentration of pregnant unwed teenagers. Please be aware
that the U.A. will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're
going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If
you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have
kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths
for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't
show pictures of their children's caske ts coming home.
We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn
up, really we do, but we're not willing to spend our
resources in Bush's Quagmire. We'd rather spend it
on taking care of sick people, and educating our children.
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of
80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90
percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the
nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's
quality wines, 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the
high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all
living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven
Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. With the Red
States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88
percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health
care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquit oes, nearly 100
percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99
percent of all Southern Baptists,virtually 100 percent of
all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University,
Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and
Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe
Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe
life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the
death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is
only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11
and 61 percent of you crazy Redies believe you are people
with higher morals then we Bluies..
Peace out,
Blue States
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