Another Pound Bites the Dust

I weighed in at 167 this morning.  The scale is moving!  It is moving down!

How did everyone do last week?  Get me your weight via email if you haven't done so already.  I'm going to tally up and see where we are, contest-wise.

Okay, so let's talk exercise challenges for a minute.  I've been sort of 'off' this last week, with killer allergies.  I'm feeling better now, and I'm looking ahead two weekends to a local charity 3K.  I'm thinking I should at least do the walk, or maybe a walk-jog. 

So, here's your challenge.  Find a local walk or run and sign yourself up.  Then get training.  If I can do it, YOU can do it.

I'm going to post more this afternoon, including revised thoughts on my diet or lack thereof. 

Spontaneous Exercise Challenge!

Okay!  Ready?  Stand up.  Lift your right knee up and touch it with your left elbow (or get close, you know.)  Put your leg down and stand up straight again.  Lift your left knee up and touch it with your right elbow.  Repeat 25 times on each side - 50 total.  Go go go!

Getting to Know Yoooooo, Part 2

Name: Denise - Sazyredneckmama

URL or homepage: Diet Diaries.com (sasyredneckgirl) Extrapounds.com (sassy girl)

Hometown: Southern IL

Turn-ons: Hearing my son laugh in his sleep at night.. Hearing Him tell me He loves me.. Catching my hubby looking at me and knowing he's been caught.

Turn-offs:1. People that won't look you in the eye when they are talking to you cause you are heavy!! 2. Rude people.. 3. People that don't understand that you are still a person even though you are heavy.. 4. People that are not overweight by any strength of measure that can fanagle their way into weight loss surgery.. 5.People that give up .. IF I CAN DO THIS anyoneeeeeeee can!!!!!!
(( Please dont take any of that judgemental because I dont mean this to be aimed to any person on the website.. These are turn off that I have directly been affected by in real life..))

Diet you're following: I see a nutrionist once a month.. have been since July06.. I cut out my white stuff sugar, flour, pasta, rice, and NO SWEETNER!!... Since the beginning of last year I have slowwwly lost 65ish pounds.

Exercise of choice (list as many as you like): Ski Machine.. 2 Mile Walking Dvd ( Leslie Sanson) .. Have a Bangari Dance Vidieo  I LOVE!!!!

Online weight-loss resources you use: Anything I can find...

Your motto for this challenge: I am moving this Mountain with a shovel..... (( I am the mountain and just slowly shoveling away the fat))


Name:  Mel aka ShrinkingMom

URL or homepage:  http://shrinkingmom.clubmom.com

Hometown:   Pacific Northwest

Turn-ons:  Sleeping in, Diet Coke with Lime, a stack of novels, movie theater popcorn, meek children

Turn-offs:  Slamming doors, pee on the toilet seat, raw tomatoes, C-SPAN, taxes

Diet you're following: Low-glycemic index diet (aka no more sugar, white flour, white potatoes or white rice)

Exercise of choice:  Riding recumbent exercise bike at home, walking.

Online weight-loss resources you use:  Nothing in particular other than fellow weight-loss blogs.

Your motto for this challenge:  No cookie is worth being fat forever.

Name (or online nickname): Jaimekristen

URL or homepage: n/a

Hometown (region or state is fine): Milton, NH

Turn-ons: chocolate, a really good book, spring cleaning, 50 dollar gift cards and skinny clothes that fit!

Turn-offs: cold weather, really bad books, waiting in line, traffic, and the last 5 min of a good workout when a crappy song comes on and you can't find a good one!

Diet you're following (be as specific or vague as you like): I'm doing a combo weight watchers and no milk products diet. Not exactly by choice, my son has a milk allergy and I am nursing! So no chocolate or anything with milk in it. I'm doing weight watchers flex points on my own so that way I keep myself in check.

Exercise of choice (list as many as you like): Walking outside in warm weather! But until it's warm, the elliptical machine

Online weight-loss resources you use: sparkpeople.com

Your motto for this challenge: Days go by whether or not I eat right, so why not eat right and be skinny in the end?


Name: Missy (Misheru)

URL or homepage: http://www.misheru.com

Hometown: Tucson, Arizona (originally from Idaho)

Turn-ons: massage, a man that cooks and/or does dishes, the smell of rain, running in said rain, and Arizona sunsets

Turn-offs: A man with hair on his neck, beer bellies, bad attitudes and guys who think they are smarter than they are.  Also chauvinists, and I mean that.

Diet you're following: slow-carb

Exercise of choice: running, swimming, biking, occasional aerobics/weight lifting.

Online weight-loss resources you use:  Have given up on all but used to use Selfdietplan.com

Your motto for this challenge:  I have to think about this...I'm coming up blank.

168! Again! Woooooo!

Apparently, I've lost weight.  I'm now at my the weight my evil body double over there in the side bar has been displaying for the last three months, while I've yo-yo'd up and down the 170s. 

Losing my appetite while sick, and exercising anyway has been a Good Thing.

I'm so happy to get so many emails with decreasing numbers, ladies!  You are all kicking my sorry, yet muscular, butt all over the place with the weight loss, but no more.  I'm back in the game, so y'all better watch yourselves.

Man, do I sound all endorphin-crazed or what? 

I'm still groovin' on the Leslie Sansone action, but I've also just tried this gem of a DVD:Bollywood Dance Workout Shaking my head?  Jumping around like a crazy person?  Shaking my butt and hips and then doing lots of random arm movements?  And having the instructor encouraging me to just let myself go and laugh at myself? 

It is like I made an exercise video, except better.  Because I just get to play along.  Also?  No yipping.

Be on the lookout for the rest of the profiles of our participants this week.  Can I just admit that I totally bit off more than I can chew with this whole running a contest thing?  Wow. I may be many things, but a good contest administrator is not one of them.  I apologize.  At least my slow weight loss makes you all look gooooood.

Also, please check out Mommybloggers.com today - we've got a special request up that I could use your help getting out.

Hit with an axe

My head feels like it has been bashed in, due to a horrible cold coming on.  I can't believe it.  Here I am, eating well, exercising daily, drinking lots of water and BAM!  Snot.

It is seriously messing with my will to 'feel the burn' and making me crave warm comfort foods.

I'm allowing myself to indulge - in cups of soup and warm tea.  So, so boring.  But probably exactly what my body needs to heal itself.

I'm going to post the rest of our big slicer profiles today - keep your eyes out.

Getting to Know Yoooooo

Name: Fat Bridesmaid

URL or homepage: www.afatbridesmaid.blogspot.com

Hometown: The Midwest

Turn-ons: Dr. Cox from "Scrubs", any man who can cook, expensive
designer shoes, a quick wit, any combination of chocolate and peanut
butter

Turn-offs: People who think they are always right, Jell-O, possums,
bedding with anything less than 600 thread count, metrosexuals

Diet you're following: Low-carb low-sugar

Exercise of choice: kickboxing, power walking, attacking the uphill
setting on my treadmill during "Grey's Anatomy" "LOST" and "Gilmore
Girls", talking smack

Online weight-loss resources you use: My blog, which I try to update
everyday.  I also use ExtraPounds.com to keep track of my stats.
Plus, I read other weight loss blogs.

Your motto for this challenge: Okay, I don't know why but this never
fails to get me pumped.  Are you ready?  "It's ON bitches!"

Name:  Julie a.k.a. EverydaySuperGoddess a.k.a. TwinsGoddess a.k.a. Meghan's Much Cooler Sister

URL or homepage: www.wanna-cookie.blogspot.com

Hometown: Minneapolis

Turn-ons: Baseball Pants (especially when Johan Santana is in them), Sass, Blogging, Movies, Designer Handbags

Turn-offs: Headlice, Housekeeping, Bikinis, NASCAR, Photographing the Number on the Scale When I'm Standing On It

Diet you're following: The eat less, move more, drink lots of water and get enough sleep diet.

Exercise of choice:  Stationary Bike, Walking, Running, Workout Videos, Hand Weights

Online weight-loss resources you use: Fitday.com and BigSlice

Your motto for this challenge:  "You have no idea how much I hate you for making me do this."



Name: Kini

URL or homepage: omg! http://quest.kiniwoman.com/ (it's brand new...or really, newly public)

Hometown: Mid-Michigan

Turn-ons: my husband; really good coffee (I mean REALLY good coffee); well behaved children (especially my own); warm, sunny days (like 75-80 and low humidity); polite people

Turn-offs: Rude, obnoxious, snotty people; ill-mannered children (particularly my own); super high humidity (gives me awful sinus headaches); sinus headaches; when they coat the fields in manure and the wind blows it our way (but, the farms were here first and I hope they will stay!); a bonus one: when I feel like I have the memory of a goldfish (which only seems to apply to diet, exercise, and MY health)

Diet you're following: Mostly a Body-For-Life or Zone style thing. Really, it is balanced at every meal (or snack) as to protein, carbs, and fats as well as the timing of the meals (about every 2-3 hours); and tons of water.

Exercise of choice: Again, doing mostly the Body-For-Life workouts. High intensity cardio Tue/Thu/Sat and alternating weight workouts M/W/F between upper and lower body. Sundays I am doing a low intensity cardio-type workout such as longer bike ride or hike. Once the cold, snowy, and icy weather is gone, I'll do more stuff with the kids running around (soccer, softball, volleyball) and lots and lots of garden (our veggie garden is something like 30 feet by 60 feet big....equals LOTS of weeds).

Online weight-loss resources you use: (BigSlice!), www.bodyforlife.com, www.sparkpeople.com , health.discovery.com, www.eatingforlife.com, www.lowcarbluxury.com, www.gidiet.com these are the ones I visit most often....

Your motto for this challenge: Move my feet and Lose my seat!

MORE PROFILES LATER TODAY! 

Welcome to Week 7 of the BigSliceOff

How is everyone doing?  I'm still not losing any weight, according to my scale.  Nope.  Still weighing in at 172 pounds and holding. 

You're not going to find me crying in my ice cream this week, though, because I've lost a full inch off of my waist, and a quarter inch off of all my other measurements as well.  Victory!  Plus my pants are a little bit loose, and that, my friends, is fresh out of the dryer. 

Take that, you piece of (*&(*@(*&*!! scale.  I spit on you and insult your mother.

I've been slacking on my water consumption, and so I'm making that the focus this week.  8 glasses.  Every day.  It shouldn't be so hard to get that much water in, but I find that I'm really having to think about it.  Like, a lot of thinking.  About drinking water.  That is lame.

Lame, but necessary.

Get your scale numbers to me (photos optional)  Click here, my lovelies, and email me.

I wanted to talk about exercise, too.  I've been really groovin' on Leslie Sansone's walk/jog and 4 mile walk DVD.  I alternate, and have done one or the other every day for the last two weeks, in conjunction with my daily yoga.  This routine flies in the face of everything I claim about my personality and exercising goals.

I claim that I am easily bored, and prefer to have a wide variety of activities to choose from. 

I claim that I prefer to exercise outside, and alone.

I claim that jogging gives me shin splints, and I can't possibly even think about trying it again.

You know what?  There is a freedom in just following the leader, knowing what you are doing, and autopiloting through the alloted time.  You don't have to have your head 100% in the exercise to get the benefits.  Something about moving my body in a repetitive, rhythmic way allows me to mentally chew over some of my problem areas, and leaves me feeling able to tackle that backlog of laundry, or catch up on correspondence, or whatever.

While I still do prefer to exercise alone, I like having the 'company' of a DVD telling me what to do.  I like seeing other people doing the same thing I'm doing.  I like to compare their arms and saddlebags to my own, and speculate on when, if ever, I will look like that girl on the left.  As for exercising outside, well, I still like to do that, but I always feel like I'm on display when I'm outside walking.  And I worry that my butt is jiggling or my shorts are riding up, and I feel self-conscious.  At home, I can just dork out with no worries. 

Finally, shin splint?  Seem to be shoe-related.  I've been able to jog myself silly (doesn't take much) with my new shoes that work with my high arches, and I'm pain-free.  Go me! 

I'm going to introduce you to some of your fellow BigSlicers this week... we've got a great group, and I apologize for not running these mini-interviews sooner.  Y'all are some funny, funny gals.

Spring Break is almost over

The kids have been home from school all week, and I have to admit that once I stopped pretending that I was going to get anything accomplished, we've been having a ball.  We've spent lazy afternoons at several different parks, eaten almost an entire bag of apples and lots of whole grain toast, and goofed off all day long.

This means that we have almost nothing clean to wear, and I've got major laundry to catch up, but it has been worth it.

I've been squeezing in a decent workout daily, too.  I've discovered that my 'favorite' walking shoes were giving me shin splints because they were not supporting my foot correctly.  I've got weird feet, people, and it took a new pair of shoes and some gel insoles to show me the light. 

The light being that I have no excuses for not trying to jog.  Oh wait!  I can still blame my boobs!  But I won't.  I'm going to give it a try this afternoon at the park. 

All this focus on exercise means that I haven't spent ANY time thinking about food.  Really, I haven't.  And while I planned out my menu before shopping this week, we've been totally off-track with my scheduled meals.  And you know what?  I'm eating well, appropriate portion-sizes, good food choices (because really, we have nothing bad in the house any more) and I'm feeling great.

Who knew the secret to feeling good was total avoidance of all things household cleaning related?  Blowing off my chores for a week in order to play in the sunshine with my kids has been like a weird vacation.  I'll be paying for it all weekend when we are dressed in pillowcases belted with neckties, but hey, the weather is warm enough to get away with it.

I also had the chance this week to meet up with a group of blogging (and non-blogging) friends, and several of them commented on how my body is changing.  I will have to take some additional full-length photos because I'm just not seeing it.  Maybe they were just being polite.  Steph?  Were you blowing sunshine?

I'll be updating both days this weekend, because I've been neglecting you, my BigSlicers!  Have you joined my group over at CafeMom yet?  Click on that thingie in my sidebar, and you can see what the daily exercise is. 

Drink your water! 

What Works for Me: Meet Carmen

I've been friends with Carmen for years.  With her infectious laugh and sparkling smile, Carmen is always a joy to talk to.  She's also the reason that I ended up blogging in the first place.  Her blog, Mom To The Screaming Masses is one of my favorites.

With six kids and a schedule that would stress even the most organized person on the planet, Carmen is constantly on the go, leaving very little time for taking care of herself.  Nonetheless, she makes the time, and has successfully lost over 60 pounds since January 2006. 

With countless readers wanting to know how she did it, Carmen has launched a new site to share what she has learned:  The Elff Diet is a straight-up, no-holds-barred look at how Carmen changed her habits.  You all need to go check it out, and tell her I sent you. 

I asked Carmen to share some of her secrets with us.  Here's what she had to say:

How would you describe your personality?  I am a seriously anal, organized type A.  I am motivated; when I see something that need to be done, I do it.

How about your usual activity level?   Before or after I started my exercise routinue?  A bit over a year ago, I couldn't walk up the stairs without pausing for breath. I did no exercise, and yet, I thought I was in pretty good condition. After all, I was chasing kids around all day - that had to count for something, right? 

Tell us how much weight you've lost.  I've lost 62 pounds, one pound at a time, starting on January 1, 2006.

Do you follow a diet plan?  Tell us how you eat. When I first started, I just decided to eat less. I thought that would be all I had to do. I made a few more changes as the year went on.  I removed all High Fructose Corn Syrup and Trans fats/Hydrogenated oils from my diet.  I also tried, as much as I could, to change over from white wheat products to whole wheat - pastas and flour, especially.  I made a rule that I don't eat candy any more.  I stopped eating dessert nightly, and I dropped from a full fat white chocolate mocha to a non fat sugar free vanilla latte on my daily coffee run.  I eat only fruit between meals, and try to make the balance of my plate at each meal more weighted towards fruits and vegetables.  If I have a sandwich, I usually just have the bottom of the roll, and not the top.  It's too hard to not eat ANY bread, so I feel like that's a pretty good compromise.  I don't drink regular soda, only diet or unsweetened tea. I didn't make these changes all at once, but one at a time, every month or so.  As one became a part of my life I'd add in another change. 

What about exercise?  I try to exercise 6 days a week.  I've recently been ill, and have had to take some time off, but my goal is to do something every day.

What motivated you to make these changes?   Oh, ugh.  There were so many little things that kind of all came together.  I saw pictures of myself at my son's birthday party, and almost didn't recognzie myself.  I planned an amazing anniversary trip for my husband, and hated all of the pictures that I saw of myself.  One of the girls in my daughter's fifth grade class told my daughter that she had a fat mother.  I hated myself, the way I looked, and the toll that my weight was taking on my self esteem.  I was taking medication for depression, and had to bump up my dose.  I had a sneaking suspicion that if I lost weight, I'd feel better and maybe not need the medicine. 

What other changes have you made?  I began a sculpting program, in order to look better in my clothes.  I think that free weight work is key for women, especially as we get older.  I love the fact that I actually have arm muscles!

If you could offer one piece of advice to others who are seeking to lose weight, what would it be? Don't set your sights too high - you might want to lose 50 or 100 pounds, but the only way to lose it is one pound at a time.  If you have a large goal, break it up into smaller, more manageable goals. When you reach one of those goals, have a huge celebration. 

 

Pound by pound, the weight went on, and it needs to come off the same way.  There are no magic fixes, no quick and easy solutions.  But you can do it.  I know you can, because I did.  In the beginning, it was so hard - the hardest thing I've ever done.  I was discouraged and frustrated, but found support from others to be key.  Tell people that you are trying to lose weight, and ask them to help you.  If you are held accountable to another person, it's harder to trip up.  If you get discouraged, don't give up.  Talk it out with a friend or weight loss buddy.  Above all, don't try to be so hard core that you make it virtually impossible to succeed.  I give myself permission to cheat once in a while - sometimes, a woman really needs a good drink and some pizza. You can always start again tomorrow!

Like a Headless Chicken

...right down to the unattractive white, plucked look of my thighs.  Oh, things have been crazy here at BigSlice Central, but I'm almost caught up with my recordkeeping, and I'm determined that this week is going to be smooth sailing.

It is spring break here, and I'm actually delighted to have all three kids at home.  We've got a lot of fun, outdoor activities planned, and I'm going to make the most of the gorgeous spring weather.

What with the holiday weekend and the kids being at home, I've been surprised that I've still made time for both my yoga and at least 45 minutes of aerobic activity daily.  It is like a switch has been flipped in my head.  I'm going to give credit to all the hypno-subliminal weight loss things I've been listening to - but it could be that I've just gotten to that point.  In any case, I'll draw names from the comments on this post, and send the lucky winner a copy of a really nice weight loss subliminal CD. 

The eating, too... I stepped on the scale, and I was at 173 pounds this morning, (but I finally have my cycle thank GOD) and I expect to see the numbers start dropping again.  But somehow, I'm not having trouble with snacking as much.  The goodies just don't look as good to me as they used to, and I'm much more aware of the food that I am eating.  Could be the CDs.  Could be I'm dialed in from all the friendly competition.  Could be that I'm simply getting it after all this time...

So, as a reminder, no need to send me your scale photos this week - you can simply email me your current weight.

If you aren't mentioned specifically by name in the last post, don't worry, I've still got you in the contest.   I'm just too busy flapping and yapping to get the rest of the list up this morning.

I'm having issues with my spreadsheets over here, so just print out week one again, and pretend all of that is new, inspiring information. ;)  Week one is perfect, actually, because guess what?  It is time to do your measurements again. 

Leave me a comment and let me know how you are doing!