Long time no post

Wow, I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted. Everything is pretty much the same. The excitement around here is that we went to Hawaii last week on a cruise and had a fabulous time visiting Hilo and Kona on the big island, Maui, Kauai, and Honolulu. I ate like a pig, but only gained 5 pounds. I was certainly expecting about a 10 pound gain. I worked out twice in the ship's gym, plus we walked around on tours, took the stairs a lot on the ship, and drank a lot of liquids. So that all helped. Here's a pic of me with the family in Maui.

In spite of the weight gain, everything still fits so I am not stressing. Yesterday while I was trying to kill time before picking up my son at his guitar lesson, I went to Kohls to do one of my favorite activities.... trying on clothes !!! Now never in a million years would I ever think I'd actually enjoy shopping for clothes (i used to DREAD it) ... but I really love it now that I've lost weight.

So, I grabbed a few items and head for the fitting room. Everything fit in my normal size 10. The last thing to try on was a pair of black bermuda shorts. Here in California it's summer practically year round, so a pair black bermudas are a necessity. anyhow, they were a little snug but I thought hmmm, maybe if I just squat down in them a few times they will stretch out a bit. I happened to glance over at the hanger and noticed it said size 8. Hmmmm. So I took the shorts off, looked at the tag inside, and yep, they were an 8. AN EIGHT !!!!!!!!!! Oh wow, I haven't fit into a size 8 since probably 11th grade. Now, I have to admit that this brand probably runs a little large (cuz no other 8's fit), but I don't care. The tag said 8 ... so I'll take it!! hahaha. And you can bet your butt that I bought those shorts!! hahaha.

Besides the cruise, I haven't been very diligent with my eating. If I could just stop being so darn hungry I could lose 20 more pounds and be a very happy person. At least I am practicing maintaining. I usually fluctuate in a 5-6 pound range. Maybe my upcoming root canal on the 17th will keep me from eating so much! LOL. As it is, I'm having pain in that tooth, plus a tooth that I *JUST* had a crown put on. Aah, the joys of dental health.

Workouts this week have consisted of: Legs & Shoulders on Tuesday plus cardio, Chest/Tricep on Wednesday plus an hour of cardio (elliptical and treadmill), lap swim today, and Back/Bicep on the agenda for tomorrow. The kids go back to school next week, so I plan to spend a lot more time at the gym during the day.

Legs & Abs

Today I had an hour workout with my trainer. It was my regular session (30 mins) plus a make-up session from last week. It was scheduled leg day, so we did Legs & Abs.

Here is what I did:

Legs:
Hack Squat 50#/20 x 3 sets
Dead Lifts 50#/15 x 3 sets
Wide Squat 30#/15, 30#/15, 30#/15
Walking Lunges 12#/18 x 6 lengths
Prone Leg Curl 35#/20 x 3 sets
Leg Extension 45#/15 x 3 sets
Standing Calf Raise 30#/15 x 3 sets

Abs:
Ball crunch w/dumbell 15#/20 x 3 sets
Ball Planks 13 seconds, 23 seconds, 21 seconds
Toe Touch crunches w/dumbbell 15#/20 x 3 sets
Scissors/Hold 15 scissors, 15 sec. hold x 3 sets
Leg Lifts/Incline Bench 3 sets of 10

For cardio, I did some lap swim, but was really tired so only did 24 lengths.

OMG, my aching legs!!

Today was leg day at the gym. By this evening, my legs are killing me. Tomorrow I will be in much more pain, but like they say, "no pain, no gain" !!

My workout consisted of:

Walking Lunges - 3 sets of 36 with 20 pounds of dumbell weight
Dead Lifts - 3 sets of 15 with 40 pound barbell
Leg Press/Incline up - 20 reps @ 110 lbs; 20 reps @ 130 lbs.; 20 reps @ 140 lbs.
Prone Leg Curl - 3 sets of 20 @ 50 pounds
wide leg squat - 3 sets of 20 w/30 lb. weight
Glute press - 3 sets of 15 on each leg - 50 pounds (need to verify - can't remember)

Friday will be shoulders & abs. At least it's not legs! hahaha.

A new low

I am a couple weeks late in posting, but a week and a half ago I reached my new low weight. I was now down 48.75 pounds. Only 1.25 to go to 50 pounds. Whoo hoo !!!!!!!!!

Since then, I had some family in unexpectedly and some of my workouts were cancelled so I could be with them, and my eating was out of control. I've had a little set-back and back up a few pounds, but I will be able to get the weight off quickly. When I gain weight fast from eating too much, I am able to drop the pounds fast. I guess it's because in the short time it took, my new fat didn't have time to make friends with the old fat and decide to stick around LOL.

Summer has finally arrived and you know what that means .... FROZEN YOGURT !!! Yummmmy, Golden Spoon is my all-time favorite. You can get a 4oz. mini-cup for only 68 calories. Wow. And fat-free. Click here to check out the Golden Spoon website. My favorite flavor combination is Peanut Butter with Just Chocolate. Theyalso have Peanut Butter Cup flavor, but I don't think the flavor is as intense as getting the 2 flavors side by side. If you've never tried Golden Spoon and are lucky enough to have one in your area, by all means GO !!!! You won't be sorry. It makes a light lunch meal when it's scorching hot outside... and you'll never know it's fat-free !!

Well, on Friday I weighed in and had a 1.5lb gain. It was no wonder after going out to Chilis on Tuesday night and eating 1/3 of an Awesome Blossom by myself (1/3 might not seem like much, but check out the nutritional stats here, do the math and divide by 3, and see why I nearly had a heart attack when I realized that what I ate in greasy, fried onion was almost 2/3 of my daily caloric allowance!!), then eating my meal, AND all my fries, which I generally try to avoid if at all possible. Of course some/most of my gain might have been water retention because not only did I eat like a cow, but Aunt Flo decided to visit and you know how that can be. Over the weekend I was pretty good with my food intake which made me happy and feel in control again. Usually once I blow it and eat like I did on Tuesday night, it usually avalanches into days and days of bad food choices. Saturday night we went to On The Border mexican restaurant. I only had maybe 6 chips w/salsa while we were waiting ... and I ordered the Fajita Salad as my dinner. The salad was simple, but YUMMY. It had romaine lettuce and sizzling steak & onions on top. Guac and sour cream were on the side and I didn't touch them (I'm such an angel LOL). I had a side of honey-mustard dressing, but barely ate any (couldn't even tell any was gone from the cup) by doing the dip fork method. I asked for no cheese, but they put it on anyway so i just took it off and all was good :-).

This morning I had chest/tricep workout with my trainer, then did lap swim for my cardio. Chest workout consisted of:

D.A. Chest Press 15#/15; 15#/20; 15#/20
D.A. Incline Press 10#/15 x 3 sets
Cable Fly 15#/15 x 3 sets
Seated Dip 50#/20; 55#/20; 55#/20
Hammer Strength Decline Press 10#/20 x 3 sets
Rope Pushdown 20#/20; 20#/15; 20#/15
Overhead Tricep Extension 12#/15 x 3 sets

My cardio was lap swim. I swam 42 lengths in about 25 minutes. The lap pool at the gym is 25 yards long, so 42 lengths made it 1050 yards .... or 960.12 meters ... or .596 miles. I am really loving my swim days (2-3 x a week) except that it's killing my hair. I had to get some weird chelating shampoo (rids hair of mineral deposits like chlorine) but I can only use it once a week or it will strip my hair (what happens when your hair gets stripped anyway???). Before I started swimming, my weight was going nowhere (for MONTHS!!), basically yoyo'ing up and down through the same 5 pounds or so. After starting up with lap swim again my weight finally started to move and dipped below it's previous low point. Whoo hoo !!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow I will do cardio in the evening while Katyis at karate ... and I'll probably do elliptical or maybe stairmaster. Both of those yield high sweat output LOL, which I love. Next training workout is Wednesday and we will do Back/Bicep. Friday is leg day (ugh) and weigh in day. I am hopeful to be rid of the 1.5 gain from last week ... PLUS at least 1 more pound. I'm downing extra water this week and being really careful with food. Yesterday I was way under my calories with 1,258. I aim for 1,500 daily.

In January 2003 my Mom passed away and I gained a lot of weight right afterward. It was the middle of that year that I reached my all-time high (non-pregnant) weight. I was miserable and I was huge (extra weight on a short 5'2" body really shows, too!). I joined Weight Watchers and did a little swiming at the local YMCA and managed to lose a little weight (20 pounds, but not many inches) but it all came back.

In 2004 I joined Curves and while it was good in the beginning, it quickly became a boring workout and was doing nothing for me. When my 1-year membership expired in April 2005, I joined L.A. Fitness gym and hired a personal trainer. I remember the day I signed up for my trainer. I was scared ... what the heck was I getting myself into?? I had never been a lover of exercise. In fact, I had never even LIKED it! haha. In fact, I would do pretty much anything to avoid it. I told the person that was signing me up that I didn't want a trainer that was going to yell at me or make me cry ROFL so she put me with Carlos. Carlos has been so great from Day 1. Even when he makes me to do crunches on the incline bench (my least favorite!) , or running lines on the basketball court, I appreciate everything he does for me.

For that first year I was working out 5-6x a week (3x a week with my trainer), yet my weight was not going down. My food was out of control. In March of 2006 I started calorie counting, eating low-fat and high (lean) protein, and watching carbohyrate intake. I didn't take it to the point of doing Atkins, which I am FIRMLY against, but I did limit my intake of sugar, potatoes, pasta, and bread. I still ate plenty of carbs, but they were the healthy ones ... fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains. What a difference when you combine healthy eating with exercise (who would have thought! hahaha).

I am now 29 pounds less than last year, but 48 pounds lighter than my all-time high weight the year my mom died. I've gone from a size 16/18 to a size 10. I have gained a lot of lean muscle, which has resulted in a lot of inches lost. I am learning not to gauge my success just by what the scale shows. Inches are so much more important. At one point last summer, a 4-pound weight loss yielded a full size down in clothing. I love what strength training does for a body. For the first time in my life, I actually weigh less than what it says on my driver's license!!!!

I would like to lose 17 more pounds to reach my goal, or be a size 6 ... whichever comes first. I feel great and I am so happy. I am in the best shape of my life and I will not go back to the way I was. One of my biggest regrets is that I didn't do this years ago. But, it's never too late to take control.

You can view my progress pictures up until this point by clicking here.