Goals

I've been thinking a lot about this lately.  I set goals 11 months ago about where I wanted to be 1 year later.  My goal was simply to lose 70 pounds.  Simple, huh?

Not really.  I mean, it's a simple goal in that it's one thing that I wanted to accomplish.  Suffice it to say that I'm not going to reach the goal.  With 30 days left I'd have to lose about 42 pounds.  Not going to happen.

I'm not willing to call it a failure though. 

I have lost weight.  About 30 pounds worth.  Yes, it's not 70, but it's something.  And when you consider that the bulk of it was lost by May and that I've kept it off since then.  It's a win.  Could I have done more?  yes.

My endurance is up.  When I started 11 months ago I was walking at a 2.5 and fast walking at a 3.  Now I walk at a 3.2, fast walk at a 3.6 (minimum) and jog at a 4.7.  AWESOME if I do say so myself.  I never would have thought that I could jog.  Ever.

My strength is improved, my muscles have tone and my balance is great.  I have my trainer to thank for this.  I could have continued to do the machines how I was doing them and never would have gotten this far.  She works me so that my strength, my balance and my cardio are working all at the same time.  That's huge.

So what does this all mean?  I'm trying to fgiure out monthly goals and yearly goals for next year.  I'm a little wiser about how to set fitness goals for me and I think I'm more prepared about how to set goals that make me stive and still give me successes to spur me on.

Renergized

For some reason I feel renergized or recommitted to working out.  I think Pete getting up with me to go to the gym the last couple of mornings has help me.  I know that he gets bored because he lifts weights for about 20 minutes and is done.  But I am determined this time to do my plan, how I need to, for me. 

I'm not so good about food.  Note that I'm eating everything in sight and loads of it.  I just think back to February of last year and I was so darn committed to eating 1200-1500 calories, balanced, lots of prtein, low carbs and low fat.  Tracking my food helped.  But I think it wasn't s asustainable way for me.  I can't sustain more than about 60 days of eating like that.  More than anything I think part of it is that I was blindly doing things by what I thought was good for me.  Knowing now that I not all fat free/low calorie things are really good for me if they're containing loads of fillers that are bad for me too.

I still eat ok.  I have a certain breakfast every weekday morning because it's comfortable, easy and I know that they fill me up.  I'm ok with lunch, in that I don't overindugle.  My struggle is snacking at work.  If I have it in my office, I eat it.  So I try to have things like cheese, popchips, nuts, fruit/dried fruit on hand to eat and not rely on the South Beach Bars and other things that I was using before.  Dinner is harder.  Things that I would make that would fill me up, Pete doesn't necessarily like.  I try to balance it.  Weekends are also harder and I give myself a little more free reign to eat.

I think I may have a resistance to some food group.  I'm thinking that it may be wheat or something similar.  I get uh, bloated and gassy (sorry!) after eating certains things.  Last night we had a pasta dish and I had what was likely less than one serving and I was uncomfortable the rest of the night.  For lunch today I had a sandwich on french bread and I'm having the same feeling.  I used to think that it was dairy, and while that may be something I have a resistance to, I think there is another group.

Why, you ask, haven't I done more to figure it out?  Couple of reasons.  First, it's incredibly overwhelming to try to rule out a certain food.  You either have to cut everything out and start adding in things one at a time over several weeks or you have to figure out what to cut and try that for a few weeks.  Have you every looked at how many things have wheat in them?  Secondly, I LOVE breads and pastas and things with wheat.  I'm afraid that I'll not be able to eat them again.

So I'm doing great with the exercise, not so great (but not bad) with food.

Randomness

I had weird dreams last night that Willow Palin was chasing me.  Weird huh?  I guess it could relate to me watching Sarah Palin's Alaska show right before bed?  Weird.

Christmas is over.  I indulged.  Appetizers and cookies and good things.  Only I watched portions, taking small amounts of things, rather than just loading up.  And I continued to work out. I made myself sore after my Christmas Eve workout that the trainer put together for me.  So I must be doing something right.

I was talking on the phone with my Dad this weekend.  I had my arm up holding the phone to my ear and I rested my head on my shoulder.  It was then that I noticed that I have shoulder muscles.  I told Pete that it was a good thing there are no cameras around me.  It would show me flexing my muscles for myself to show the muscles that keep popping out at me.  I have muscles!

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the future in realtion to my weight and where I want to be.  I missed my goal of being close to 200 at the first of the year.  But I am proud of what I've accomplished and give myself lots of credit for the 5 am gym workouts and the running/jogging/walking even when I didn't want to do it. 

Me, 239

I hover here, more often than not.  Actually for the last 3 months that's where I've hovered.  I am convinced though that it's less fat and more muscle.  I can actually see my upper arm muscles.  I can feel my cavles when I walk.  And If I put my hand on my tummy I can feel the muscles screaming to come out below the pudgy stomach.

So today, pre-Christmas, I head to the gym.  I am determined to keep plowing through the days of my journey, for some day I will reach it.

Mid Week with Pete

Sorry it's late.  Yesterday seemed like everything thing I did was a struggle.

Pete had his first call from the insurance company yesterday.  He's lost about 16 pounds so far.  They just asked him additional questions about what he's done previously and what he'd done now.  I think this insurance thing so basically to monitor him and find out what he's doing in order to pre-approve the surgery.

Did I tell you about his sleep study?  Bascially they think that he snores about 9 times an hour.  He never stops breathing and his heart isn't stressed.  So he meets with the doctor for that in January, but doens't expect anything to come from it.

He's been really tired lately.  I'm not sure if it's because he's back to exercising 4-6 miles a day or if he's coming down with something.  He's better about his eatinng and his portions because it's fresh in his mind.