Practice what you preach!

I just left that post about all the good stuff I've been doing, but honestly, I haven't been following any rules, doing any weekly challenges and I don't remember the last time I used my callender, other than to log my weight. Ever since I was so sick, I just can't seem to get back into the swing of things. I''m now up 7 pounds this month...why does it pile back on so fast!?! So I'm weighing myself daily until I get down the 7 pounds, this morning I was down 4 of those pounds so I think some of it was TOM and a lot of it was because I wasn't drinking water. My husband and I are going away tomorrow to celebrate our first wedding anniversary but we'll either be in the car or walking around so I doubt I'll get into too much trouble in the eating arena. I wish we were staying for more than the weekend because we have a full kitchen in our hotel room. Now that I'm doing my bike challenge and all of the summer challenges, I am super motivated. I have to wear one of those spandex biking shirts and probably spandex shorts too, and I don't want to look like a sausage....and realistically, I'm not going to be thin by September, but I'm hoping to lose 15 pounds by the race...so what motivates you to practice what you preach?

Things I do that help

These are some of the things I do that make me successful in my journey.

Summer Blog Party

Hi all!!! Just a reminder about my Summer Blog Party Challenge. See my older post for sign up information on America on the Move. Here's the gist - sign up, set your challenge to begin on June 1st and end on July 14th. I choose to do the Oregon Trail this time. Let me know if you're partipating because it doesn't tell me who's in the group. At the end of the challenge, tell me your total. The winner will get new cross training shoes by New Balance....I love the pair I bought and they feel so good when walking. Once I know who's participating, I'll post the list on my blog! Here's the shoes:



Thanks to those who are participating and those who are doing challenges!!

Thank you

Thank you so much to everyone who commented on my blog...it seems like I'm doing the right thing and I just need to be patient...my readership should increase. I'll be posting more tonight about my summer blog party challenge as well as putting up a picture of the prize. If you're planning on participating, please let me know as my challenge starts on Sunday. I also want to post some pitures of things I've found helpful in my quest to loose this weight - maybe it will spark people to share their ideas on what helps them. I'm also going to post goals for June....I'm on a role. I also want to give a HUMONGOUS shout out to Cammy who donated to me on my ride to raise funds and awareness about kidney disease....there might be another post on that in the near future too!! Thanks to everyone!!

What makes a blog a good one?

So I've been blogging pretty consistently since January. And I never really thought I'd be able to keep up with it. I never thought I'd be able to consistently make good decisions for more than 2 months, but here I am in May, and I'm still trying and most of the time, still succeding. But I feel like not many people read my blog. So I wonder, what makes a blog good? I look at some people's blogs and they have tons of comments, even if the topic isn't deep. And I want mine to be good, I want mine to help people. I want mine to help me and part of me feels like, if my blog isn't successful, I'm not successful. So feedback, Please!! And if you're a faithful reader, thank you so much!

Tour DaVita

As part of my bike ride, I need to raise $1000. Here's the website to donate for me...www.tourdavita.org/donate/lovebug6100/index.html. Please donate, it's for a great cause!!! And it's an awesome motivator for me to lose more weight. I feel like I'm failing in that department, despite making good choices, the scale keeps going up and I'm hoping next week it'll be back on track...but it's disappointing to struggle. I definately never struggled to gain weight!

I've Lost IT!!

First off, I want to thank whoever joined my Summer Blog Party Challenge. Unfortunately, it doesn't tell me who signed up...just that there's two of us. So if you're going to participate, I need to know.
So why did I lose it...I work for DaVita - it's the nation's largest dialysis provider. And they do so many neat things to raise awareness about kidney disease, which is the most horrible thing by the way and one of the things they started doing was something called Tour DaVita, like Tour de France. And one of my co-workers wanted someone she knew to do it with her, so I agreed. So now, in September, I'm doing a 240 mile bike ride in Wisconsin over 4 days. So now I have to train my butt off to be able to do this. I'm hoping to lose 15 more pounds before September when I do this...and unfortunately the scale keeps going up, despite my efforts for it to go down...but TOM showed up today so I'm hoping by the end of the weekend, to be back on track and training to ride 80 miles in one day. I'll post more about the Blog Challenge tomorrow!

Summer Blog Party

So I've been doing the Healthy You Challege for quite a few weeks and have been striving to lose weight since January and Scale Junkie decided that this summer she wants to do a Summer Blog Party that will consist of many different contests and giveaways. I decided that I wanted to participate and do a contest as part of her summer blog party.
I've been walking and logging in all my steps on the America on the Move Website to try to get myself moving more. I decided that my contest would be a 6 week walking challenge with me on the America on the Move website. I'll be starting a new challenge soon and hopefully everyone will be able to particpate in it with me. Once you're registered for my group - titled the "Summer Blog Party Walkers", all you have to do is log your steps daily. I'm still trying to iron out all the kinks but the group is up. To register:
1. go to www.americaonthemove.org
2. Click on "Get Involved Today"
3. Click on Full Individual Access
4. Answer all questions
5. Enter the registration code - RSU112098

I'm planning on starting the challenge on 6/1/08 and will be ending on 07/13/08. Whoever logs the most steps will get a brand new pair of New Balance Walking Shoes. I'll post a picture of the prize later. When you join the group, you should see my information. I'm currently doing a challenge that lasts until Sunday. It's neat because every day, when I log my steps, it moves me down a trail with all kinds of stops. So, please let me know if you want to participate and please sign up if you want to participate. I'll be posting more information this week!

After a week of eating like crap....I'm up almost 3 pounds...but I'm not fretting and I realized that it's TOM this week and I'm usually a pretty big gainer during the week. I'm going to log in my steps in my America on the Move Challenge and however many I need to meet my goal is going to be my goal for this week. My food goal is to cook every meal from scratch this week. Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Drum roll please

So I've been reading everyone's blogs this week, but I don't have much to say....this weekend, my eating was awful. All I got to eat all day Saturday and Sunday was concession stand food. And it wasn't even very good. I came back Monday not inspired to diet or exercise...so my goal for this week, which I didn't post is to get back in the game for next week. My goals for next week are going to be to only eat foods I prepared myself next week. So I need to be responsible for making breakfast, lunch and dinner for myself and I want to walk at least 40,000 steps next week. I'm kind of in a low place right now....I coach a gymnastics team and for the most part, I love what I do. I've had some issues with some of the parents but it seems that most of that stuff is resolved now. But I found out that one of my girls quit, unexpectedly. I only work with about half the team, usually the girls performing the more difficult tricks and usually the oldest girls on the team. There were two younger girls (10)that I usually worked with too and one them is the one who left. Usually I pick on girls quite a bit, nothing mean but if one says something silly, I pick on them, or if they trip or do something that doesn't look particularly good. The kid who left was particularly sensitive so I think her leaving had something to do with me, although I hadn't worked with her much recently but there was one issue with my teasing that had upset her. Her mother and I always had good repore and whenever there was a problem, she always spoke with me. Now I feel awful and wonder if I should even be working with these girls....I thought I was doing a good job but more of them are leaving and I wonder how much of that has to do with me. I emailed this kids mom so hopefully she'll write back and provide some insight- for now all I can do is wait anxiously for the email that says I suck. I'll be weighing in on Friday or maybe Saturday - I'm around both of those mornings. I know I'll have a gain but I'll be responsible for it and hopefully move on from there. Hope everyone else is well.

Quick update

I'm down another pound. I'm .1 away from having lost 10% of my body weight....wohoo!!! I'm off to Maine for the weekend with my gymnastics team so wish us well!!! Hopefully my eating won't be too funky....hoping to set some new goals on Monday. I'm thinking of training to do some track and field events in our state games as I used to run track in high school....it's motivating to me! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Recap

So I just wanted to post here what my goals were for the month of April so that looking back, I can see what I already did. So here they are:

Diet Goals~
4/7-4/13 No carbs from bread, rice, potatoes, corn or pasta
4/14-4/20 No rice or pasta, cookies or crackers, limit bread
4/21- 4/27 Limit carbs, take more than 15 minutes to eat each meal
4/28 - 5/4 - No fast food (only exception - grocery store run)

Fitness Goals~
4/7-4/13 Go to the Y once this week (Met 4/7)
4/14-4/20 One day at the Y, one day walking (Met 4/18)
4/21- 4/27 Walk 3x this week (Met 4/25)
4/28 - 5/4 Walk 3x this week and go to gym 1x

My goal for this week is not to have a goal. I am going to be away for this weekend and I'm sure my eating will be off. I'm just hoping to be able to make fairly good decisions and not come back 5 pounds heavier. If I plan it right, I can actually bring some healthy snacks so that could be a good thing - something good to snack on while in my hotel room or on the way to the meets. I stepped on the scale yesterday morning and I was down an additional 1.6 pounds. I learned my lesson so I'm not going to count it on my ticker, but it was there....I'll probably weigh in on Friday. Hope everyone's having a good week!

Grr....new scale and other fun things

So....I still feel wretched. I don't know what's wrong with me...I'm not pregnant, I don't have a fever, nothing really hurts, I'm just so totally not hungry which is a good thing, except now I'm not losing weight anymore because my body is freaking out about not eating. And I woke up with the most awful leg cramps today because I'm obviously missing some vital nutrient. I went out and bought a scale yesterday since it really annoyed me that my new scale was broken and this one showed a weight 5 pounds heavier than the other new scale. Why can't I buy a new scale that shows less weight than the last scale? Anyway, I really like my new scale as it has a really wide platform so I shouldn't be misstepping anymore and it's got a blue light background so I can read it easier. I actually think it's the most accurate scale because even after I bought this last scale, the scales at work were still higher....hopefully this scale will survive more than a month...I'm only down half a pound this week, despite my 3 pound loss as of Thursday. I attribute this to the fact that all I ate was a half cup of commercially prepared mashed potatoes for dinner last night that were so salty...hopefully this week, my eating will contain more than a turkey sandwhich for lunch and not much else....

I'm cursed

I've been having one hell of a week and it even started last week with some poison ivy, which I must mention, I was able to get a second time. But at least I'm still on meds for it. On Monday, I went home from work early because I didn't feel right. I'm someone who's totally in tune with my body so I knew something wasn't right. I spent the next 3 hours in a restless sleep, proceeded by spending the rest of the night somewhere between the porcelain throne and the bed....fevers, chills, vomitting....no fun!! So I weighed myself yesterday and I was down a pound and a half....I still didn't have an appetite...I was hoping to see some small change..then last night, until now still, I've had some kind of lower GI bug....it started last night and I spent another night hopping between the bathroom and bedroom. I stepped on the scale last night to see if there was any difference and I accidentally cracked my scale...oh the humiliation....but it wasn't because of my weight and it's still working perfectly fine. It just irks me that there's a crack in it now. I thought....I was feeling better this morning, but nope, not really....my stomach is making all kinds of interesting noises....and I've still been a hostage to the bathroom...and I wanted to see if there was any change on the scale this morning. I was down another pound and a half....so I took my measurements, because it's been a month....no real change, which makes me sad because I've been stepping up the exercise and lost over 10 pounds in the last month. But I tend to alternate between pounds and inches...so I logged my weight and my measurements and changed my ticker. I didn't change my sidebar because I'm afraid by Saturday, I'll be up 3 pounds, no loss....but I too am a scale junkie and couldn't resist weighing myself...so here's to hoping that Saturday will show some kind of loss, but for now I'm celebrating the 3 pounds gone this week which, if they're still gone on Saturday, will mean I've lost over 10% of my body weight!